上海纽约大学2021届本科生毕业典礼致辞 校长 | 童世骏

Distinguished guests, dear friends, dear students, dear parents, dear colleagues,

尊贵的宾客们、朋友们，亲爱的同学们、家长们、同事们，

It is a great honor and pleasure for me to stand here to express my warmest congratulations to you, the Class of 2021, for the achievements you have made in the past four years and for the preparations you have made for the next stage of your life. I also want to express my most sincere gratitude to the parents of the graduating students, to my NYU Shanghai colleagues, and to all of NYU Shanghai’s sponsors, supporters, and partners, for the love, care, and support you have provided for the graduates of NYU as a whole and NYU Shanghai in particular, especially this fifth group of graduates from NYU Shanghai, including those who are now together with us online.

非常荣幸站在这里，向2021届的同学们致以最热烈的祝贺，祝贺你们过去四年取得的成就，祝贺你们为未来人生所做的准备；同时我也想向毕业生的家长们，向我的上纽大同事们，向上纽大的创办者、支持者和合作者等所有朋友们，致以最诚挚的感谢，感谢你们为身在上海的纽约大学毕业生们，尤其是第五届上纽大毕业生，包括今天只能在线参加毕业典礼的同学们，所付出的关爱、支持与鼓励。

Since 2017, I have attended all the commencements held here, but this year is different. It is of course the first time for me to stand here as the Chancellor of NYU Shanghai. But more important is the fact that today’s heroes and heroines have arrived on this stage after standing exceptionally tougher tests than students of many other classes. If you choose to be more optimistic than perhaps Dr. Zhang Wenhong would advise you to be, you can call yourself the first group of “post-pandemic” college graduates; or, at least you can call yourself the first group of college graduates after the outbreak of the current pandemic of whom many can attend their commencement ceremony in person.

自2017年以来，这里的每一次毕业典礼我都参加了，但今年与往年有所不同。当然这是我第一次作为上纽大校长站在这里；但更重要的是，今天盛典的主角们，是经历了比往届学生更艰巨的考验之后，才在这里相聚的。如果你们想比张文宏医生给你们的建议更加乐观一点的话，你们可以称自己为首批“后疫情时代”大学毕业生；或至少可以称自己是疫情暴发后首届多数人可以在线下欢庆毕业的大学毕业生。

Frankly speaking, we were not sure whether a ceremony like this was possible until two months ago. Thanks to the heroic efforts made by so many people in this part of the world, especially those medical and public health professionals like Dr. Zhang Wenhong, we have happily ended up being able to experience this extremely exciting and special moment together in person, though, unfortunately, not for every single one of you. Those of you who are abroad and unable to join us in person know, I hope, that you are in our hearts today.

坦白地说，两个月前我们还无法确定举办这样的毕业盛典是否可能。多亏了这片土地上那么多人英雄般的努力，尤其是像张文宏医生这样的医学和公共卫生专业人士的杰出工作，我们终于能一起在线下体验这个极其激动人心的重要时刻，但遗憾的是，还有一部分同学不能亲临现场。所有在国外的、无法来到现场的同学们，相信你们都知道，我们的心与你们同在。

For this moment, I know you all have spent tremendous efforts. In addition to what you are conventionally required to accomplish as undergraduate students, one particularly important lesson you have learned in the past four years, I guess, is how important it is in our times for society and its individual members to be served and protected by people like Dr. Zhang Wenhong, who are both professionally and morally well-prepared for their mission, a mission to address uncertainties that sometimes have life-or-death effects on members of the species called humanity.

我知道为了今天这个重要时刻，每位同学都付出了巨大的努力。除了作为高校本科生需要达到的常规要求，我猜想你们在过去四年中得到的一个特别收获，是意识到在我们这个充满着有时是生死攸关的不确定性的时代，有一批像张医生这样的人，他们在专业上和道德上都做好了充分准备来履行其服务和保护整个社会及其每个个体成员的使命，这是多么重要。

Even though we have often been told that nothing is as certain as uncertainty in our world, before the Covid-19 pandemic, few of us knew the possibility that so many possibilities could disappear. So, I guess another great gain for you as graduates this year is a perhaps deeper understanding of possibilities in this world full of uncertainties. We should be prepared as sufficiently as possible for so many possibilities, including the possibility of the unexpected disappearance of some of our favorite possibilities.

虽然我们常听大家说，在这世界上，唯一能确定的是它的不可确定性，但在新冠疫情暴发之前我们当中很少有人知道，原来那么多可能性都是有可能消失的。所以，作为今年的毕业生，我猜想你们的另一个收获是对这个充满不确定性的世界上的可能性有了更深的理解。面对那么多可能性，包括那些我们最珍视的可能性意外消失的可能性，我们要做好尽可能充分的准备。

“Possibilities” is a concept many philosophers like to elaborate on, including the one I want to mention today, an American philosopher who spent two years in China one century ago. I am referring to John Dewey. Those of you who have been to my office would have seen a Chinese language set of 《杜威全集 》or The Collected Works of John Dewey on my bookshelf. Altogether 39 volumes, this is the only non-English version of the Collected Works by John Dewey in the world, co-edited by me, and published by East China Normal University Press. Partly in order to impress my American colleagues who know so much about my country – from how to make Chinese tea properly to the history, literature, poetry of many many years back in the history of China,and food and drink of course, I have tried quite hard to know more about American philosophy, particularly John Dewey. 

“可能性”是一个许多哲学家喜欢谈论的概念。今天我想和大家着重聊聊其中一位哲学家，他是一位美国学者，百年之前曾在中国生活过两年。你们可能已经猜到我要说的是约翰·杜威。你们当中到过我办公室的，可能看到我书架上有一套《杜威全集》。这套书整整39卷，是迄今为止唯一的非英语版本的《杜威全集》，由华东师大出版社出版，我是全集的副主编。我的美国同事们已对中国相当了解，他们知道怎么正确地泡制中国茶，跟我探讨中国古代的历史、文学和诗歌，以及当然还有中国饮食。为了让他们对一些中国同仁也留下一点类似印象，我努力多读了一点美国哲学，尤其是杜威的著作。

“Possibilities,” according to Dewey, “are more important than what already exists, and knowledge of the latter counts only in its bearing upon possibilities.”

杜威认为，“可能性比已经存在的东西更加重要，了解现存事物的意义仅在于其对可能性会产生影响。”

Why are possibilities more important than what already exists? Dewey’s explanations can be very abstract and very philosophical. But his main idea is quite simple in my view: possibilities are important because ideals are important, because ideals are based on possibilities, and none of us can live as human beings without at least some ideals in our life.

为什么可能性比现实性更加重要呢？杜威的解释往往会很抽象很哲学；但他的意思我觉得其实很简单：可能性之所以重要，是因为理想很重要，而理想是建立在可能性的基础上的，而我们要作为人类生存在世上，在生活中是不能没有一点点理想成分的。

All I want to share with you here is the idea that, in this world full of uncertainties, the best mentality is to see uncertainties as possibilities, to look for ideals in possibilities, and to work for our ideals – including our ideals of personal excellence and communal well-being – with creativity and perseverance.

我今天想在这里跟大家分享的观点是：在这个充满不确定性的世界上，最好的心态是把不确定性看做可能性，从可能性中寻找理想，为实现我们的理想——包括关于个人卓越和社会福祉的理想，发挥好我们的创造力和坚韧力。

NYU Shanghai was established as a joint venture by East China Normal University of China and New York University of the USA, and we are lucky to be able to benefit from the great traditions both of ECNU, whose founding ideas are “Creativity, Character and Community,” and of NYU, whose motto is “To Persevere and to Excel.”

上海纽约大学是由中国的华东师范大学和美国的纽约大学合作创办的学校，所以我们有幸既得益于华东师大的优良传统，其建校理念是“智慧的创获，品性的陶熔，民族和社会的发展”；也得益于纽约大学的优秀传统，其校训是“坚持不懈，超越群伦”。

In the process of benefiting from our inherited traditions, we are accumulating our own learning achievements and are creating a tradition of our own. To this dynamically growing tradition, dear Class of 2021, you have made great contributions with your unique efforts, unique experiences and unique achievements. For this, I cannot thank you more. But from now on, I will count on you for new contributions to this tradition, to the glory of our tiny but great university, by your efforts to turn those possibilities that are regarded as ideals into those realities that will pave roads for realizing more ideals, especially those ideals shared by all human beings across the world.

在汲取母体学校前辈传统的过程中，我们作为一所年轻的学府，也在积累我们自己的学习成果，进而创造我们自己的传统。对这个生气勃勃成长中的传统，同学们你们每个人都以自己出色的努力、出色的经历和出色的成绩，做出了了不起的独特贡献。为此我对大家有道不尽的感谢。但从今天开始，我希望你们对这个传统做出新的贡献，以你们的努力把可能转变为现实，把那些具有理想价值的可能性转变为能为实现更多理想铺路的现实，尤其是那些全人类共有的美好理想，为我们这个虽小却大的学校增光添彩。

All ideals can possibly be realized in the future only on the basis of efforts made now and from now on, or as John Dewey said, “the present activity is the only one really under control”. In this sense I would like to conclude my speech with a quote from one of your GPS (Global Perspectives on Society) textbook:

所有在未来可能得以实现的，都是以从此刻开始的努力为基础；或用杜威的话来说，“当前的活动是唯一真正处于控制中的活动”。从这个角度而言，我想用你们GPS（“全球视野下的社会”）课本中的一段话来结束我的演讲：

“A young person’s aim should be to advance from the present. Our life is an eternity within Time, an eternity expressed in the present moment, not in the past or the future. A person who grasps the present grasps eternity.”

“夫青年安心立命之所，乃在循今日主义以进，……无限现而为我，乃为现在，非过去与将来也。苟了现在，即了无限矣。”

Thank you all!

谢谢各位！

本文来源：上海纽约大学NYUShanghai

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