[GDUFS Stories series] Studying at GDUFS， With ZHONG Nanshan as My Neighbor

March 30th · Spring Equinox · Nanjing

A man and a few alumni of his have climbed up to Mount Zijing in this ancient city. They fully relaxed themselves in the pleasant spring, their memories flying back to their university times, like a kite moving freely with the wind, through the clouds, and up towards the sky of the southern world.

Morning songs of GDUFS“Go along the familiar lane, and you can stop as you like to read aloud under the trees in the morning, the rising sun shining on me as well as the little tree beside me…”

In the middle of October in 1978 when the university life of the freshmen of that year began, what woke us up was the relaxing and fresh duet, Campus’ Morning. After hurriedly getting up, washing myself, I picked up my Russian textbook and reached one side of the Xiangsi River in the southern part of the campus, reading words and beautiful passages aloud. Gradually, more sunshine was shed on lanes and teaching buildings, and more and more students were joining the “morning reading” Group. As a result, English, Russian, German, French, Japanese, Spanish and other foreign languages; nine in total, jointly composed the multi-voice “GDUFS Morning Songs”. It was these easy-to-read, beautifully sounded Russian words, the sunshine of Mount Baiyun, and GDUFS’ “morning songs” that concentrated to a pearl of memory, buried in my mind forever.

ZHONG Nanshan as my neighborGDUFS is a training base for overseas personnel appointed by the Ministry of Education. Therefore, from the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s, people from many universities and science and research institutes, nationwide, who prepared to study, deliver lectures and conduct scientific research abroad came to GDUFS to be trained and further their studies. When I was a sophomore, one day, I heard a deep baritone song entitled, A Three-Horse Coach, from the bathroom of the first-floor student dormitory. That was my favorite Russian folksong! It was through this song that offered me a chance to make friends with ZHONG Nanshan, a new student from one of the overseas personnel training classes. At that time, ZHONG just moved in and was living next door to me. He was a chief physician and much older than me, and he was also monitor of his class. Generous and modest, active and masculine, ZHONG was more than easygoing. He often communicated and got along well with his classmates and us, his younger friends. I also visited him sometimes, and he talked about his studies in Beijing and his work in Guangzhou, as well as his plan to study medicine in Britain. What impressed me most, however was that he was quite into Russian literature and music; his deep voice was very suitable for Russian songs. In addition to working hard on his English studies, ZHONG was very fond of sports. You might often catch sight of a figure, 1.8meters tall in a vest and shorts, running on the lanes and the playground, and that was him.

Months later, ZHONG’s training course ended. He passed the final exam and was about to leave school to study in England. When we were parting with him, I asked ZHONG for his signature and cellphone number, which I have carefully stored ‘till now.

ZHONG became an academician and, later, an outstanding person that moved the whole country. He was walking towards the world from GDUFS!

The first touch of simultaneous interpretation.In the early 1980’s, simultaneous interpretation was virtually unknown, and talents in this field were very limited. However, GDUFS already had an electrical education building at that time, and owned related equipment offered by the United Nations, whose ability to teach electrically and interpret simultaneously gave our university great advantages over others. As a result, GDUFS was elected Vice President of the Council of the National University Electrical Education Association. When I became a junior, GDUFS got a Russian copy of a movie, Гита и Зита, shot in India, which was offered to the Russian class of 1978 as simultaneous interpretation training material.

The movie’s theme was two twin sisters, who were made fun of by fate and were separated, being in different places;one extremely rich, while the other quite the opposite. The stories between them were full of will and woe, laughter and tears; whoever watched the movie would be moved completely. According to the requirements of the leaders of our department and the Russian teaching institute, it was also to be used as an attempt to train us in simultaneous interpretation. This movie was used as training material in large-scale lectures in our major, under the guidance of highly professional teachers, ZHANG Meili and ZHAN Dehua.

After a great deal of deskwork and days of attempted training, a vivid and wonderful Russian simultaneous interpretation lecture was held by our department in the big lecture hall. It was a meeting which caused a sensation in the whole school, during which the Russian movie, Гита и Зита, was shown in public. Teachers and students of different languages in our department attended the lecture, which encouraged us a lot. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to undertake the chief role in dubbing the movie. Despite the fact that the whole of my body was covered in sweat, due to nervousness, I was able to accomplish the initial part of this simultaneous interpretation training. What’s more, the recognition from the leaders, teachers and students made all of the hard work meaningful.

Thinking carefully, you might notice that the simultaneous interpretation of a Russian movie could be the pioneer element of the teaching of simultaneous interpretation in GDUFS! The moment I thought about it, I would feel nothing but pride.

4、Electrical Education Film-Making

Russian language teaching methods at GDUFS in those days were creative and vigorous, and professional teachers in the department were trying their best to offer students an interesting, positive, and active environment, so that they could better master the Russian language. During the four years of learning Russian at GDUFS, the most unforgettable thing must have been the experience of playing a role in the electrical education film, Случай в Тайге, when I was a junior.

Group photo of the cast and crew of Случай в Тайге

To guarantee the success of GDUFS’ first electrical film, the Vice President of the National University Electrical Education Association and head of GDUFS’ electrical education office, HU Dongli, served as the chief director and producer of the film, and professor ZHANG Limei of the Russian language major served as the chief editor and language guide. We also invited the excellent actor, ZHONG Guoren, from the Zhu Jiang movie producer, as executive director and another couple, also from that company, as a dresser and makeup artist. What’s more, two profession cameramen from the electrical education office in our department were appointed to undertake the shooting job.

Actors of the movie were selected through competition among many groups. Finally, my group was fortunate enough to be cast the roles in the movie. I (Максим) characterized the hero, Алексей; REN Huimin (Катя) the heroine, Таня; and LI Yanfen (Зина) and HU Junjia (Саша) as a couple of old hunters. In addition, (LUO Baihuan) Надя, WANG Jianping (Серёжа), ZHU Jianxin (Алёша) and other students also took part in this film.

Preparation work for this film began. We rehearsed in a small building provided by professor ZHANG. After a few days of reciting and rehearsal, we made the movie on a nice day. The outer scene was set in the small woods of Mount Baiyun to the east of the campus. As we were all amateur actors and actresses, and it was the first time that we had been shown in movies; excited and innocent, we were able to be recognized by the director only through a thousand practice sessions. And, the interior sets were set in the decorated school hall. The whole shooting process employed the simultaneous recording method, not only ensuring the accuracy of the Russian language in the specific situation of each scene, but also saving a lot of time. Far from perfect, we would practice again and again. Finally, we successfully made the movie.

With the supervision of director and professors, and also the dedicated editing and make-up by cameramen and editor teachers, our Russian electrical movie, Случай в Тайге, outperformed many others, and won the second prize in the first national university foreign language electrical education movie assessment hosted by the Ministry of Education.

Clouds wandering in our mind, GDUFS is the most beautiful hometown for me of all time. The feeling of “coming back home” is often around me: my heart will go on, and my love never changes. Faced with my beloved campus, teachers and schoolmates, I could not help sharing with you my stories while travelling around.

My dear friends, do you still remember the student majoring in Russian language in 1978, named Максим?