The 2024 Ceremony of the Chinese Government Friendship Award was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 30. Chinese State Councilor Shen Yiqin presented the Friendship Award to the honorees.
Prof. Peter Brian Ditmanson from Yuelu Academy was among the 100 winners of the 2024 Chinese Government Friendship Award. He is the second foreign expert of HNU to receive such an honor.
A reception to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on September 30. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, gave an address at the reception. Li Qiang presided over the reception. Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang, Li Xi and Han Zheng attended the event together with around 3,000 Chinese and foreign guests.
Prof. Peter Brian Ditmanson attended the reception as one of the foreign expert representatives.
The Chinese Government Friendship Award is an award to commend foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's reform and development. One hundred foreign experts received the 2024 Chinese Government Friendship Award.
Prof. Peter Brian Ditmanson, currently a professor and doctoral supervisor at Yuelu Academy, is an expert in the history of the Ming Dynasty. He was awarded the Hunan Xiaoxiang Friendship Award in 2023. He once served as secretary of the Society forMing Studies in North America and as a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. His ancestors participated in disaster relief in the five provinces in the northern region of China under the Republic of China, and were presented with a gift by Zhao Erxun, the then Governor of the Huguang Region. His father received a handwritten license from Ye Jianying to Nie Rongzhen for his visit to Zhangjiakou.
Prof. Peter Brian Ditmanson has long been committed to the creative transformation and innovative development of China's fine traditional culture and its practice in higher education, and has made prominent contributions to the process of Chinese culture "going global", probing into the valuable resources of China's fine traditional culture. He initiated the“Oral History of Yuelu Academy”project, and led the team members to interview working staff of Yuelu Academy and has compiled oral history records of nearly 200,000 words, covering the modern renaissance of Yuelu Academy. He also led the team to undertake the translation work of the "Regulations of Yuelu Academy" and "Yuelu Academy Gazetteer", presenting the essence of the ancient Chinese educational thought. His efforts have opened a new window for the world to better understand fine traditional Chinese culture.
Prof. Peter Brian Ditmansonhas been engaged in talent cultivation. He has offered several courses with rich content, giving lessons in both Chinese and English fluently, which are popular among the students. He has launched after-class salons of English speaking, translation, and English reading, benefiting hundreds of students. He has also actively promoted international academic exchanges and cooperation. He has built a high-level dialogue platform, and facilitated organization of high-level seminars such as the "Materiality of Knowledge in Chinese Thought: Past and Present," which was co-organized by Yuelu Academy andthe Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures of Queen's College, Oxford University.
He is a disseminator of fine traditional Chinese culture. He has been interviewed by the China Global Television Network (CGTN) for three times. In 2023, he joined the CGTN special program "Civilization and Imagination: A Glimpse of China's Path", discussing with international dignitaries and renowned scholars about President Xi Jinping's five characteristics of Chinese civilization. He also works for the English web portal of the Hunan Provincial People's Government as a foreign language consultant, helping promote Hunan's voice to the world with his expertise and strength.
