On the afternoon of April 2, 2018, Siti Nugraha Mauludiah, Consul General of the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Shanghai, led a group of officials and visited our university. Professor FEI Junqing had a cordial meeting with the Indonesian guests.

Professor FEI called for joint efforts in promoting a deeper, and broader collaborations and exchanges between Indonesian universities and our university. To this end, FEI proposed four pathways: 1) Universities in Indonesia and our university will both send exchange students to visit each other’s campuses so as to strengthen the collaborative relationships between us; 2) Our university welcomes more faculty from Indonesia to teach on our campuses, while Yuexiu will also send faculty to further study in Indonesian universities; 3) Both parties will further develop and broaden the exchange programs between us in the areas of Chinese and Indonesian cultures, and academic researches; and 4) The Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia could provide assistance and support to Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages in its effort to establish new courses, and majors so that our university and Indonesian universities will develop a comprehensive and collaborative relationships. Ms. Mauludiah thanked us for the warm welcome they received. She then elaborated on possible strategies and means of broadening exchange programs between our university and those in Indonesia in cross-cultural understandings. In addition, she expressed their willingness to provide instructional materials, both visual and audio, and other relevant resources to Yuexiu. Situ expressed strong support to our efforts in establishing the Indonesia Salon on campus, hoped to foster students’ better understanding and experiencing of Indonesian culture and expressed her strong support for such activities. She spoke of her willingness to come to our campus to lecture on all aspects of Indonesia, and suggested that any exchange programs between the two parties should be mutually beneficial and bidirectional. Specifically, while students at Yuexiu are studying about the Indonesia language and culture, she wanted to take measures to help Indonesian students learn about the Chinese language and culture. She emphasized, again and again, that Indonesian majors at Yuexiu should develop competences beyond language per se, to include knowledge and perspectives in politics, sociology and cultures so that they could become the bridge between China and Indonesia. Finally, Consul General sincerely hoped that Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, as the only college outside of Shanghai in the East China region offering a bachelor’s degree program in Indonesian Language and Culture, will continue to grow, prosper, and thrive.

After the meeting, Ms. Mauludiah gave a special lecture to Indonesian Majors on campus, which helped those students better understand various aspects about Indonesia and to learn beyond linguistics of the Indonesian Language.