Be a Lonely and Open Runner in the Last Miles of the Marathon of Life!

— Speech at the 2023 Graduation Ceremony of EEA

Yu Xinjie, Secretary of Party Committee of EEA

Students, teachers, guests and friends:

First of all I would like to express a warm welcome to your arrival on behalf of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics, to express my sincere appreciation to all alumni and people from all walks of life who have been supporting and caring the development of our department, to express the highest respect to all the faculty members of our department who have contributed a lot to talent cultivation, and more importantly, to congratulate all the students on their graduation!

Today is the first graduation ceremony of the Department of Electrical Engineering after the end of the 3-year pandemic, so it has a particularly important meaning, and can be a lifelong unforgettable moment for the 222 students of the Department of Electrical Engineering graduated in 2023. It is an important ceremony for students to end their studies at Tsinghua, and it also means that all of us should move forward to meet brand new opportunities and challenges in the post-pandemic era.

Let me introduce the destinations of our graduates this year.

In 2023, we have a total of 115 bachelor graduates, 95 of them chose to study in China for master degrees, accounting for 82.6% of the total; 3 chose to further study abroad, 8 chose to work and 9 chose other ways.

Master and doctoral graduates graduated in August and October 2022, January, April and June 2023, respectively.

We have 49 master graduates graduated, 46 of them chose to work, accounting for 93.9% of the total number; 1 chose to further study in China, and 2 chose to study abroad.

We have 58 doctoral graduates graduated, 46 of them chose to work, accounting for 79.3% of the total, 10 chose to further study in domestic postdoctoral stations, 1 chose to go abroad for postdoctoral research, and 1 chose another way.

Of the bachelors, masters and doctors graduated in 2023, 100 were directly employed, and 62 were employed in power and electrician fields, accounting for 62% of the total. Of these 62 graduates, 37 were employed by power grid companies, 7 by power generation companies, 6 by electrician manufacture companies, and 12 by other power industry research institutions. Of the 37 graduates employed by power grid companies, 3 were employed by State Grid and China Southern Power Grid headquarters and directly affiliated companies, 19 by regional and provincial power companies, 9 by district and city power supply bureaus, and 6 by power grid research institutes. In addition to being employed by power and electrician fields, 14 were employed by IT companies, 6 by colleges and universities, 9 by governmental departments, 2 by financial and security companies, 3 by scientific research institutes and 4 by other companies.

Our graduates in 2023 were geographically widely employed in 19 provincial administrative regions, including 48 in Beijing, 9 in Jiangsu, 6 in Hubei, 6 in Shanghai and 5 in Zhejiang. 52% were employed outside Beijing, 41.3% of doctoral graduates were employed outside Beijing, and 58.7% of master graduates were employed outside Beijing. 23 were employed in Central, West and Northeast China, accounting for 23%. From the perspective of industrial distribution, choosing to work in power and electrician industries was still the mainstream, indicating that our graduates are willing to work in the mainstream and big stage of the power and electrician industrial development of China.

Once again, I congratulate you on your graduation!

Four years ago, I said at the 2019 undergraduate entrance ceremony that life is a marathon. Today, you have completed the section of this marathon in Tsinghua, at this moment you are leaving the university or starting your further study, I would like to add a few more words.

As you may know, I received the Distinguished Teaching Award this year. In the CETV program for this, the host asked me what a big master was in my view, and I answered as below.

In my view, a big master is the one who points out the direction when the chaos is not yet opened, and he is only responsible for saying, let's go forward together. For example, Hilbert, who proposed 23 mathematical problems, Maxwell, who proposed the displacement current, and Einstein, who proposed the theory of general relativity, they knew that the destination was there. But no one actually knew how to get to the destination. A big master is the one who pave the way, as they cut off the thorns and opened a path to confirm that the direction is right. Perelman solved the Poincaré conjecture, Zhang Yitang partially solved the 8th mathematical problem of Hilbert, Gao Jingde successfully analyzed the electric machines by using the multi-circuit theory, and Lu Qiang realized the control of the electric power system by using the nonlinear control theory, they are all big masters. They told us that the paths they opened up were right. Of course, big masters only solved the problem of feasibility, and they need to widen and straighten the paths before finding solutions in various scenarios. Thus, we were able to move along the reliable paths to the originally unknown area. It is through the efforts of great masters, big masters and masters that the light of human civilization can become brighter and brighter, and our understanding of nature and society can become clearer and clearer.

I hope that our graduates will strive to become great masters, big masters and masters.

At this moment of separation today, I would like to say to the students that if you want to become great masters, big masters or masters, you will have to choose uphill in this marathon of life, and you will inevitably be a lonely runner for quite a long time. No breakthrough comes easily, and you will face failures and will not be understood by others. Slowly, you will find very few friends keenly appreciative your talents in academy. Students, if you choose to run uphill, you have to get used to, and gradually begin to enjoy such solitude.

Of course, enjoying such inner solitude does not mean that you have to be a nerd, nor does it mean that you have to walk alone, but it does mean that you have to accept that others will temporarily not understand your ideas and behaviors.

At the same time, to become great masters, big masters or masters, on the one hand, you also need to have an open and tolerant mind, tolerate other people’s questioning of your ideas, even if you think that questioning is ridiculous, and you also need to take the initiative to communicate with others, to clear up misunderstandings through communication, to seek common ground while reserving difference

When I was young, I didn't understand the concept of “Gentlemen are harmonious but different”, “Lights are mixed in the nature” and the “Golden mean”, I always thought these were the Thick Face Black Heart theories and social skill. But now I realize more and more that they are the very essence of Chinese traditional culture. Recognizing and learning to appreciate differences, striving to seek common ground while reserving differences, and being able to find common ground in differences in order to make progress are great wisdom and prerequisites for personal and social development.

Students, at the end of the report of the 20th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping said with deep emotion, “The majority of young people should unswervingly listen to and follow the Party, embrace dreams and be practical, dare to think and act, and be good at what they do”. In order to realize this goal, I hope that we will be lonely and open runners in the last miles of the marathon of our lives. Whether we can become great masters, big masters or masters, the value of life is in the experience, in the fact that we have worked hard, struggled and experienced. Learn to appreciate and enjoy this process.

Graduates, adjust your mindset and let’s start again!