China.org.cn , December 6, 2021
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A book titled "Towards Infinite Beauty: The Journey of Aesthetic Education at Tsinghua University" was published Dec. 2. It highlights how this esteemed institution has committed to aesthetic education since its founding 11 decades ago, offering some 200 courses to more than 14,000 students each year.
A launch ceremony for the book was presided over by Peng Gang, vice president of Tsinghua University.
During the ceremony, Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong told attendees: "We educators hope our students can have an all-round moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding to not only improve their academic qualifications but also cultivate an integral personality."
Lu Xiaobo, dean of Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design, said that aesthetic education plays a prominent role in academic and design innovation, allowing students to express themselves and manifest their unique ideas and emotions.
In 2020, a team at Tsinghua University was established to review the thoughts and practices that underpin aesthetic education. The team, headed by Liu Jude, a senior professor with Tsinghua, compiled and edited the book, which collects opinions from Tsinghua's staff and students on the principles of aesthetic education, while also tracing its academic thinking and achievements across diverse fields such as architecture, literature, archaeology, fine arts, music and philosophy.
A seminar following the ceremony brought together more than 10 experts and scholars from China's prominent institutions such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Beijing Normal University to share their latest academic accomplishments and discuss the role and potential of aesthetic education in personal development and social progress.
Zhao Hong, director of the Aesthetic Education Center of Tsinghua University, highlighted during her speech that in the new media era, academic aesthetic education encounters new challenges and that teachers at universities and colleges, while imparting knowledge and answering questions from students, should also facilitates students' comprehensive capabilities, creative thinking and aesthetic taste.