CWU Holds Symposium on Ideological Work

China Women's University (CWU) held a seminar on its ideological work recently in order to strengthen the construction of party organizations and improve teachers and students' abilities in ideological and political publicity. 

Zhou Yi, a student reporter, interviewed Yu Guangjun, a professor from CWU's Women's Studies Faculty, on how to integrate ideological and political work into teaching practice.

Zhou: University is an important place for spreading advanced culture and knowledge. As a professor, what do you think of the relationship between teaching practice and education theory?

Yu: The classroom is the main position for training and developing students' good qualities. To cultivate more talents, teachers should make efforts to educate students to become people with noble virtues and a firm political stance. 

Students should be educated to be aware of the developmental trends of China and the world at large, Yu said, adding that they should develop firm beliefs and confidence in lofty communist ideals and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

"Students should also be encouraged to gain national culture self-confidence and a sense of historical mission, as well as, integrate their own ideals and pursuits into the cause of the nation and strive for the great rejuvenation of China", Yu added.

Teachers should try to cultivate students' socialist core values, combine specialized course teaching with ideological and political education, and integrate professional and scientific knowledge into political education, Yu said.

Zhou: How do you instill the sense of historical mission in students? And how do you define female students' history tasks?

Yu: College students should always be conscious of their major responsibility and take the initiative to realize the Chinese Dream. At the same time, teachers should educate their students to be bold trailblazers and translate their ideals into concrete actions.

CWU is the first and only women's university in China which is affiliated to the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF). CWU is committed to promoting gender equality and women's development, practicing the "Four-Self" spirits (Self-esteem, Self-confidence, Self-support and Self-improvement) and leading the development of Chinese advanced socialist gender culture.

The Basis of Women's Studies is a special course of the university, the university should highlight its academic features and cultivate more female talents.

Zhou: During the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed Chinese traditional culture on various occasions and highlighted the importance of the traditional ideological value system. How do you bring cultural heritage into the classroom?

Yu: In modern times, traditional Chinese culture has been diluted by western culture. It is an important task for higher institutes to enhance college students' cultural confidence and consciousness.

Traditional culture should be a nation's engine in influencing the ways of thinking and behaving in its citizens. As a women's university, CWU shoulders the responsibility of promoting gender equality and carrying forward fine traditions. 

It has long been believed that traditional Chinese culture constrains women's liberty. As well as this, China lacks cultural resources in promoting gender equality. Only under the theoretical framework of western countries, could gender equality be achieved in China.

How to correct these biases against the human rights and gender equality situation in China? Yu said traditional Nüshu culture fully embodies women's self-awareness and feminist consciousness. It will help overturn the view of western feminists on traditional Chinese women. 

Nüshu is a writing style invented and used exclusively by women to convey their thoughts and emotions. It has been passed down through generations of families, via private schools, getang singing sessions, or self-learning. It is usually written on paper or stitched onto clothes. 

It is necessary to integrate the colorful Nüshu culture into higher education, change students' existing ideas, broaden students' theoretical horizons and enhance their national cultural confidence.

Zhou: What is your opinion on teaching innovation?

Yu: College teachers should keep pace with the times and renew traditional concepts and methods of lesson preparation. According to the characteristics of the disciplines, teachers should combine on-site investigations with classroom teaching, in addition, absorb the essence of traditional culture into academic research.

During the last summer vacation, teachers and students from the CWU's Women Studies Faculty went to central China's Hunan Province and visited cultural sites in Jiangyong County. Under the guidance of Hunan Women's Federation, students interviewed a successor of Nüshu culture and the party branch secretary of Pumei Village and communicated with the staff in the park, inquiring about Chinese women's script literature.

They have some first-hand materials and have collected a quantity of pictures, primitive sound materials and literal data of 40,000 words. In this semester, relevant teachers will integrate these materials into the curriculum, Yu said.

Yu concluded that teachers should make full use of classroom teaching, strengthening teaching on ideological and political theory through reforms to make ideological and political education more appealing.

Improving the ability to cultivate talent is the core work of higher education and must be the focus. Yu called for greater efforts to teach Marxist theory to help students lay an ideological foundation for their lives and improve their ideological quality, political awareness, moral characteristics and humanistic quality.

(Source: China Women's University/Translated and edited by Gender Study Network)