On October 8-9, 2018, Professor Ante Simonic, former Ambassador of Croatia to China, and his wife Dr. Rita Zhao came to our university for a two-day academic exchange lecture and discussion on cooperation in scientific research projects.

At 17-19 p.m. on October 8, 2018, Dr. Rita Zhao held an excellent lecture on the theme of “China sports diplomacy” with the “one belt one road initiative”. By introducing the concept, history and examples of sports diplomacy, taking “soft power” as the main topic, the lecture pointed out the importance of sports diplomacy in the historical period, and analyzed the opportunities brought about by sports diplomacy combined with the major sports events. Professor Du Caiqin and all the staff and faculty of the International Exchange Center, all the staff and faculty of the League Committee, some representatives of the teacher, and more than 400 students attended the lecture.

From 9:30 am to 12 am on October 9, 2018, Professor Ante Simonic, and his wife Dr. Rita Zhao held a cooperation meeting with our university on the international scientific research cooperation project of sports diplomacy and Chinese traditional sports culture, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and related matters. Party Secretary Wang Ying, President Du Caiqin and Vice-President Ke Shaoying attended the meeting.

Leaderships of Tangshan Normal University, Dr. Ante Simonic, and Dr. Rita Zhao

Professor Du Caiqin gave a welcome speech in the conference room. And she also gave an introduction to Professor Ante Simonic and Dr. Rita Zhao on the construction and development of physical education, the combination of traditional sports and rehabilitation sports, tourism sports, sports diplomacy and international scientific research cooperation and exchange of traditional Chinese sports culture. Professor Ante Simonic introduced the sports resources in Croatia, the transformation of sports concepts, the nature of the organization of the Croatian-Chinese Friendship Association and the running of the University of Rijka. At the same time, he emphasized that “China is the leading force of the new world’s order”, “the combination of traditional sports, rehabilitation sports and tourism sports is a very good scientific research cooperation project, and it has strong practicality”. Professor Ante Simonic highly endorsed the initiative of President Du Caiqin, and hoped to further implement the contents of the symposium in future cooperation and exchanges, and achieve substantive cooperation results. Dr. Wang Gang of the Department of Physical Education reached a consensus with Professor Ante Simonic on the integration of traditional Chinese sports culture with traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese sports, Chinese Wushu, Chinese philosophy and other fields, which can be organically integrated with sports rehabilitation and sports tourism in international exchanges and cooperation and can be implemented and popularized. Ren Haisheng, director of editorial department introduced the development history and achievements of the editorial department, and made a successful contract with Dr. Rita Zhao, who was the first internationally renowned expert to write for our university.

Dr.Ante Simonic and Dr. Rita Zhao at the Meeting

President Du Caiqin giving the welcome lecture

At 15-17 p.m. on October 9, 2018, Professor Ante Simonic gave a lecture on the topic of “the Power of Knowledge” at the conference room. Professor Ante Simonic elaborated on the tremendous power of knowledge to the development of human society through a large number of macro-data analysis. His lecture was widely cited and inspired young students to think deeply about the power of knowledge and the power of learning to change themselves and the world. President Du Caiqin hosted the lecture. All the staff of the International Exchange Center, all the staff of the League Committee, some representatives of the teachers and more than 400 students attended the lecture.

Prof. Ante Simonic taking picture with students