Peking University, May 26, 2016: At 10:30 p.m. May 19th (Beijing Time), a grand ceremony was held at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium to award ‘Honorary Doctorate’ titles to six people from various fields. President Didier Verveer put the cappa that represents the honorary doctorate on professor Dong Qiang, Chair of the Department of French Language and Literature at Peking University, who is also a well-known translator. The Academic Dean and two former presidents granted a silver medal and a certificate printed in Latin to professor Dong Qiang.
Award Ceremony
Traditionally, ‘Honorary Doctorate’ is the highest honor given by key universities to award people around the world who have made great contributions in different fields, encompassing prominent figures in the fields of politics, economy, culture and academics. Past nominees of this honor include Nelson Mandela, a famous politician and former president of South Africa; Salvador Allende, former president of Chile; Paul Delvaux, well-known surrealist painter; Maurice Bejart,a master choreographer of ballet, as well as some Nobel laureates.
Professor Dong Qiang apprenticed under Milan Kundera, the internationally renowned literature master. He came back to Peking University in February 2001, and has remained here ever since. He currently wearing the hat of the director of French Department. In 2009, Professor Dong was awarded “Insignes de Chevalier des Academiques” by the French Government. In the same year, cooperating with the French Embassy in China, he set up the prestigious “Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award”. In 2013, He received the most important award from the Institut de France: La Grande medaille de la Francophonie. In Jan, 2015, Professor Dong received the “French Legion of Honor ” from French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who was on a visit to China.
This is the first time that a scholar in the fields of translation and French literature in China received the ‘Honorary Doctorate’ given by a world renowned foreign university.
Before the start of the ceremony, with the company of Bernard Pierre, Belgium’s former ambassador to China, Professor Dong Qiang visited the Institut Belge des Hautes Etudes Chinoises in Belgium and its library. Then he communicated with professors and PhD students from literature, translation, and media departments in the Free University of Brussels, and gave a lecture titled ‘The Uniqueness and Importance of Literary Translation’.
Peking University and the Free University of Brussels have always sustained close academic cooperation and strong bonds of companionship.
Written by: Zhong Yaoqiong
Edited by: Xu Liangdi
