On Wednesday, February 16, 2022, YNU Shanghai Alumni New Year Reunion was conducted online and offline. The offline meeting was held in Shanghai, China, with 25 YNU alumni, guests, faculty and staff members including Shanghai Alumni Chairman TANGO Eisuke. In the online meeting, President UMEHARA Izuru, Vice President KABASHIMA Hiromi, Advisor to the President TANABU Motonari, International Strategy Organization and Head of International Section of International Strategy Organization XU Haoyuan, and International Office Manager NITTA Tomoki attended. Also, Councilor MIYATA Yoshifumi, President SAKURAGI Seijiro, Vice President UEKUSA Keiichiro from Fukyukai as well as other 65 YNU alumni participated in the online reunion. YNU held the second annual online and offline reunion just like last year and a total of 90 people joined in.

The event started with a toast speech by Professor XU Haoyuan, and it followed by an inspiring presentation by President UMEHARA about the latest progress and prospects of YNU titled “Aiming to be a World-Class Research University Centered on Knowledge Integration.” After that,
Councilor MIYATA and President SAKURAGI from Fukyukai greeted, and Shanghai Alumni Chairman TANGO gave YNU alumni a word of greeting. And then ZHAO Yi from Beijing, TANAKA Yoshiyuki from Guangzhou, YANG Qian’e from Chengdu and LIU Na from Dalian delivered a complimentary address.

At the end of the first session, Vice President KABASHIMA made a closing remark, saying that she hoped to continue to support not only international students but also all YNU students through international networks in the future too. The first session closed with taking a group photo as a memento.

Session II was divided into offline and online. The online started with ex-President HASEBE Yuichi’s speech, followed by Vice President UEKUSA from Fukyukai, Professor CHEN Hui from Tongji University and Professor Wang Shixue from Tianjin University expressed their gratitude. 60 people gathered at the online session and enjoyed talking to each other in 10 breakout rooms. In each group, people talked how things were going and exchanged ideas of views such as a suggestion to Alumni Activities. At the end of the session, they shared what they were talking about in the breakout rooms.

The reunion this year lasted more than two and a half hours and ended on a high note. The participants gave feedbacks to YNU, saying “Wish I could have more time to talk,” and “It was such a fun reunion.” The event made us feel that we should continue to cherish the friendships and love for YNU among our alumni. YNU hopes to connect YNU Global Alumni Associations around the world with new styles of alumni reunions such as this, combining local and online!