This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Peking University Development Institute (formerly known as the China Center for Economic Research, CCER). Today, the Institute has been able to make achievements in teaching, scientific research, think tanks and other fields, and contribute to social progress, which is inseparable from the relay development of teachers, students and alumni, as well as the care and support of all walks of life. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary, we have launched a special call for essays on the theme of "I and the Peking University Development Institute" (or CCER and I), and welcome teachers, students, alumni and partners from all walks of life to contribute to the unfading years through your words, and to inspire more people to forge ahead. The author of this article is a 2000 undergraduate economics alumnus of Peking University Development Institute, and is currently the general manager of the aviation leasing department of Tibet Financial Leasing Company.
Last weekend, I attended the 30th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the National Academy of Development, and when I met Mr. Lin Yifu and Mr. Haiwen again after many years, I took out my mobile phone to take a selfie with them in the same frame, and they smiled happily and agreed. Then I sent the photo on WeChat to Zhao Pusheng, the teacher in charge of teaching affairs, the parent of the double degree in economics at that time, and I waited for her reply at 7 o'clock in the evening: "I have grown up, I am middle-aged, and I am very handsome." I'm abroad, and I'll see you in Beijing in October. "Seeing this message from the other side of the world in the time zone, I was filled with emotion, and all the memories of the "Jingshuang" suddenly flooded through my mind.
First encounter with "Jingshuang"
Our 1999 liberal arts department was the last undergraduate student in our freshman year on the Changpingyuan campus, and it was this experience that was nicknamed the "senior year of high school" for a year, which made us feel extremely new about many things when we returned to Yanyuan at the beginning of our sophomore year, including the "Jingshuang" that was praised by our brothers and sisters. In particular, the China Economic Research Center, which opened this project, is actually a department that cannot be voluntarily entered through the college entrance examination, which makes the "Jingshuang" put on a mysterious coat.
As I rode north along the eastern shore of Weiming Lake across the "One Body" and continued on the grassy path on both sides, I wondered if I had just broken through the dimensional wall. It wasn't until I crossed a white marble bridge and met Mr. Zhao smiling with brown-rimmed glasses in the courtyard of Langrun Garden, and listened to her patient introduction full of magnetic voice, that I was convinced of the authenticity of the rumor of "double degree in economics". Different from the mode of paying fees by academic year, "Jingshuang" charges by credit, 80 yuan per credit, and many students, including me, invariably took out about 320 yuan for a month's meal and applied for a novice tutorial - four credits of "Principles of Economics".
To be honest, due to the separation of the teaching system of high schools and universities in the mainland, and the fact that there were neither college counselors nor volunteer instructors in China more than 20 years ago, students who choose liberal arts are more inclined to apply for popular majors such as economics and management, law, etc., and some of them are transferred to relatively unpopular majors, because of the lack of basic understanding, it is difficult to establish interest in this discipline in a short period of time. The students of a certain college are even more enthusiastic, coming early and leaving late, firmly occupying the C position in the first two rows of the economic principles class. However, one day the battle for occupying the seat came to an abrupt end, and it turned out that the college saw that many students of the college were "in Cao Ying's heart in Han", so they actually stopped their minor.
In contrast, my School of Government has always been encouraging towards double degrees. Facts have proved that many of the analytical ideas and quantitative tools in the "Economic and Double" course are of great benefit to understanding public policy and public finance, while regional economics and industrial economics are interdisciplinary disciplines of economics and politics, and it is easier for us to integrate them. Therefore, looking back, I would like to thank CCER, which is now the "Economic and Double" curriculum of the National Development Institute, for its richness and rigor, and at the same time, I would like to thank our School of Government and Management for its openness and tolerance.
Classroom
With the continuous deepening of the "Jingshuang" course, the students gradually appreciated the demeanor of the teachers. I once took economics for granted as a liberal arts subject with perceptual content, but I didn't know that "Principles of Economics" came to the forefront, and Mr. Lu Feng is an expert in agricultural economics, but almost all of the classes are full of formulas and symbols, which is full of industrialized temperament. The compulsory high mathematics three musketeers "Calculus", "Probability Theory" and "Linear Algebra" are invited by teachers from the School of Mathematics to talk about it, which makes people feel a sense of tension of "bending down to pick up the eraser, and then looking up and not understanding". I asked him how he spent a year of military training at that time, and he said, "It's okay, it's not all outdoors, I study more politics in the house, and I have a relaxed time in politics when I go to graduate school." ”
When it came to "Intermediate Macroeconomics" and "Intermediate Microeconomics", my ambition to get high grades had long since disappeared, especially in the middle and micro, at the beginning of the semester, there were rumors that the 500 people in the big class, Mr. Ping Xinqiao was going to kill the killer and catch 100 failing ones, so that everyone was silent, and I didn't dare to get angry in class. And it is such a difficult course, and Chen, who is also from the School of Political Science and Management, actually got a full score, which can't help but make people sigh that our school is really handsome. In retrospect, the difficulty of the dual curriculum reflects the painstaking efforts of the teachers, who require undergraduate students to follow the academic research norms of foreign economics - without a solid mathematical foundation, let alone model deduction. And it is precisely such strict requirements that ensure the gold content of the double degree in economics.
In my junior year, I took "New Institutional Economics" by Mr. Zhou Qiren. This course is easy to say, because Mr. Zhou often says, "You must see, to observe", he gave examples, close to the ground, and spoke smoothly, and the students listened to it like drinking nectar, which is much easier to understand than the micro, macro, and ordinary differential equations. This course is difficult to say, because Mr. Zhou often says, "You must be willing to be tough, don't be afraid", and printed a large number of original English handouts for everyone to study, such a high standard is not achieved by all students. Another unique course "Regional Economics", the speaker is not a famous teacher, but just graduated from Berkeley, California and was hired as an assistant professor of Mr. Bai Lanzhi, this home in Taipei, all the way to study in a famous school of the top students speak softly, the course is rich in content, especially the observation of industrial agglomeration in Jiangsu and Zhejiang region is quite insightful, let us benefit a lot, I applied for graduate school in my senior year of recommendation letter is also thanks to her writing.
Of course, the star courses of "Jingshuang" are "Special Topics on China's Economy" by Mr. Lin Yifu and "International Trade" by Mr. Haiwen, and I took the former because of the course arrangement. The course, which was supposed to provide 200 places, and with more than 500 students attending each class, the 117 rooms of science and education, which had a maximum capacity of 480 students at that time, were completely impossible. Mr. Lin talked about how the spirit of the contract of the transaction came about, "Because the ancient people would really chase (chase) and scatter (kill) thousands of miles because you did not leave the goods that should be exchanged!" ——His Taiwan Mandarin added a witty, which made everyone's memory of the knowledge points deeper. Again, Mr. Lin talked about the prosperity of the ancient Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and suddenly took out a reward of 100 yuan from his pocket: "Who will recite Liu Yong's "Wanghai Tide" in this class? There was really a classmate who walked to the podium and recited under the gaze of everyone, "The southeast shape wins, the three Wu will be the capital, and Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times." It attracted full applause and won a reward of 100 yuan from Mr. Lin.
CCER's teachers are all stunning, some are witty, some are rigorous and meticulous; Some of them are well-informed, and some are good at it. What they brought to us was not only the refreshing European wind and rain, but also the scientific and rational spirit of refining and explaining the phenomena.
Reunion
The "Jingshuang" program initially had a limited number of places, and it was said that the final list of candidates would be determined only in the second year based on comprehensive performance, so we were quite apprehensive when we registered: "What if we can't be selected at that time?" One day, when I was browsing the CCER website, I suddenly found a small line: "CCER students will recruit new students, if you are interested, please contact ###室张心松 on the 38th floor." "Isn't this exactly what I'm in? So I went to the past that night to find out, and wondered if joining this alumni association would help me be selected for the "Jingshuang" project.
Zhang Xinsong was the senior of the Class of 97 Outer Academy, and served as the president of the CCER Alumni Association at that time. This alumni association was established under the personal care of Mr. Haiwen, following the friendship organization founded by Mr. Hai in the United States, and is also different from the student unions of various faculties. I didn't participate in many social activities at that time, so I joined the alumni association as an officer, usually organized some lectures, and helped Mr. Zhao do some teaching work. After graduating from Senior Zhang, I was elected as the president of the alumni association. If there was a hint of utilitarian consideration when I joined the alumni association, later with the lifting of the quota limit of the "Jingshuang" program, I worked more with the purpose of serving my classmates.
The biggest advantage of the alumni association is that we can invite CCER teachers, so we take giving lectures as the focus of our daily work. The most memorable thing is that on the night of China's accession to the WTO at the end of 2001, we invited Mr. Haiwen to give a lecture on the prospects of China's accession to the WTO. Our original plan was to wait for Mr. Hai to switch the big screen to the TV broadcast after he finished speaking, and wait for a ceremony like ringing the bell for an IPO, but who knew that the WTO director general would only tap a small hammer, and China's accession to the WTO would be passed, in less than 10 seconds. So Mr. Hai continued to speak until late at night, and the audience was still unsatisfied. Looking back now, we realize how extraordinary that night was -- it was China's accession to the WTO that started the magnificent economic development process of more than 20 years and completely changed the face of the entire country.
Frankly speaking, I have been exploring how to carry out the activities of the alumni association with active members, and later even held an online forum together. Some other activities we organized, such as inviting graduate seniors and senior HR from large companies to talk about future career planning for students, have also received good responses. For this experience of the alumni association, my self-evaluation is "decent", and I really failed to reach the height expected by Mr. Haiwen, but I realized the original intention of serving the "Jingshuang" project and serving the students, which can be regarded as qualified.
Wanzhong Garden
By the time we started the Classics program, CCER's office had moved to Longrun Garden, a very tasteful name that I have always admired. The office area is an antique Chinese-style courtyard, and the core is a five-room Zhifu Xuan on the first floor, and the construction site next to it has been under construction until October 2001.
At the inauguration ceremony of Wanzhong Garden, there were many guests, and the most senior was undoubtedly Mr. Ji Xianlin, an old resident of Long Run Garden. As the president of the CCER Alumni Association, I had the honor to support Mr. Ji to take a seat. I whispered in his ear, "I have read your Essays on Lang Runyuan." He looked happy and softly echoed "oh". At that time, Mr. Wan Zhong, the patron of the courtyard, also attended, and Mr. Lin Yifu praised this fellow villager: "During the construction of Wan Zhong Yuan, NT$ fell from 1:3 to 1:4, but he supported the project as always!" ”
The two-storey Wanzhong Building, which has more than a dozen rooms, has since become the main venue for CCER's conferences, and I was most impressed by the visit of Zhang Wuchang, a white-haired and artistic economist. Due to the large number of visitors, the conference room could not sit down, so Professor Zhang simply leaned on the railing on the second floor and gave a lecture to the crowd in the small square. He is from Hong Kong but does not speak Mandarin, so he asked his wife to act as the "translator" on his behalf, and the two sang and harmonized, vividly interpreting the idiom "husband sings and women follow".
Graduated
If you want to get a double degree in economics, you need to complete 48 credits, generally 13-14 courses, and because the courses start from the sophomore year, the second semester of the senior year is mainly used for internships, graduate school entrance examinations, job hunting, and applying for going abroad, so everyone strives to complete the courses in the sophomore and junior years, and at most choose 1-2 courses in the first semester of the senior year. It just so happens that the sophomore and junior years are also the heaviest and more difficult periods of the department's courses, so the pressure for students to study for a double degree is not small. Fortunately, "Jingshuang" does not need to write a graduation thesis, otherwise everyone will really collapse.
At the beginning of 2003, Hainan Airlines came to our school in the name of its subsidiary "China Xinhua Airlines" to recruit reserve cadres, and the docking unit in the school happened to be CCER. My initial plan in my junior year was to apply for a graduate program abroad, but I didn't get a scholarship for various reasons, so I decided to just go to work first - this experience of 100% job search hit rate made me secretly happy for a long time. At that time, I had no idea that aviation, which had nothing to do with my undergraduate major, would become my career to this day.
In February 2003, most of our Class of '99 students had completed their elective courses and were ready to graduate and prepare for their future life. But at this time, "SARS" came, and many students who had gone out for internships could not return to school. Fortunately, the school took timely measures to vacate the three buildings next to the south gate in mid-May, recalled the fresh graduates who were scattered outside the school, and after half a month of centralized quarantine, everyone could move around the school to complete the graduation procedures.
In June, the economics degree conferment ceremony was held in Wanzhongyuan, and more than 300 qualified graduates of this year's "Jingshuang" program were passed, far more than the previous two years. Therefore, CCER is not only the smallest college of Peking University, but also the largest college.
Every time I fill out my resume, I solemnly write down both degrees I earned at university, because I feel that they are equally important and complementary. There was even a time when my file was transferred from CIIC to a foreign enterprise service company due to a job transfer, the human resources teacher of the receiving party reviewed it very strictly in accordance with the rules of the government agency and asked, "It takes one year for your undergraduate student to become a regular student, why did you transfer it in half a year?" And the senior teacher of CIIC came directly and said: "You see that he is a double degree, he should be compared to a master's student, and it is no problem to become a regular in half a year!" The gold content of "Jingshuang" turned out to be so high.
The tools I have left to observe society and the world will never go out of style. I now maintain the habit of writing articles on civil aviation professional websites, and I am also very comfortable applying the ideas of the year. It is precisely because of my gratitude to Jingshuang that I have always kept in touch with CCER. Later, I was very pleased to see that the "Jingshuang" program was expanded beyond the school and CCER was upgraded to the National Development Institute.
I have experienced the "Economic Double" project with many students for 3 years, and even if I write more, it will be a failure. I hope this little article can lead to more memories for everyone.