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39 years ago, Dr. Noumoff began teaching in the
Department of Political Science at McGill University,
now it is the time he will be retiring. As a world
well-known scholar on the issues of China's Studies,
Dr. Noumoff has developed a wide deep friendship with
both Chinese leaders and ordinary Chinese people. He
has been to China many times and has done a lot of
things which has benefited bilateral relations
between Canada and China in the past decades. He has been
regarded as a "people ambassador" of Canada-China
friendship.
As soon as he received his Doctorate Degree in
Political Science from New York University, he came to New Brunswick
Canada and after one year there, together with Dr. Lin Da-Guang, a
world
famous Chinese
Canadian scholar at McGill, co-created the Center for East Asian
Studies
of McGill University. Dr. Noumoff served also as
the director of the Center of Developing Areas of
McGill University, the director of Undergraduate Studies of the
Political Science Department, senior Senator of Senate of McGill
University and
a member of the Board of Governance of McGill
University. He served on the faculty of both the Department
of Political Science and the Department of East Asian
Studies. As a specialist among a very few scholars in
western countries on the Studies of Communist parties,
he became the old friend of several developing
countries such as North Korea, Cuba, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam
and China.
He loves China. As the member of first Canada-China
Friendship Delegation, he visited China in the early
1970s including his first trip to Yan'an - the symbol
of the Chinese Revolution. Later, he visited China
almost each year and had a number of meetings with
Chinese leaders. For example, he was invited as the
guest to have a personal visit to the home of Fei
Xiaotong, one Chinese national leader who was President of the
Democratic League and the father of modern Anthropology. In the early
1980s, Dr. Noumoff invited a delegation of economic &
trade officials of the Chinese government to Canada as a business
visit after the delegation finished its official visit
in the USA. He made a series of arrangements for the
delegation to visit Canadian enterprises and hold
meetings with Canadian entrepreneurs. This was a
welcome opportunity for Chinese officials to learn
something from western countries while China was at
the early stage of the Economic Reform and Opening to
the Outside World. The leader of the delegation became the
Prime Minister of China in the late 1990s and has been
esteemed as China's leading economic reformer. Dr.
Noumoff met the leader several times later both in
China and in Canada when the Prime Minister paid a
national official visit to Canada.
Dr. Noumoff always brought to the attention the results of his
research, to Chinese leaders
when he had any chance to meet them as long as he thought the
information could benefit China. He also took those
opportunities to recommend his students or visiting
scholars to Chinese leaders so that these Chinese
students could have more opportunities in China after
they finished their studies and returned home.
Beside being the friend of leaders, Dr. Noumoff is the
excellent teacher and friend of ordinary Chinese
people. Many Chinese students were benefited from his
warm-hearted aid. I clearly remembered the day when I
came to Montreal as an international student. It was a
very cold snowy day in Montreal. My plane was
delayed for hours and arrived at the airport late at night.
Dr. Noumoff had been waiting for me for several hours.
He picked me up like a friend while he was such a
famous scholar. I was quite moved by his warm heart
that he already found an apartment for me and took me there
by himself and arranged for his other students to help me
handle some practical issues such as registration, campus
visiting, international student affairs, medical
cards, etc.
He always loved to help Chinese students. I accompanied
him to the airport a couple of times to pick up other
Chinese students in the later years. He and his wife
always invited Chinese students to visit their home and
have dinner with them. He encouraged his students to
go back to China and serve their own country.
For example, one visiting scholar became an official
in the central government after he finished his study at
McGill and went back to China. Through this student, Dr.
Noumoff became the consultant of a few provincial and
municipal governments, which these governments
outsourced from Dr. Noumoff and imported foreign
investment and commercial technology.
He also did his best to provide helps for Chinese
students who wanted to stay in Canada. For example, I
received a job interview when I finished my library
degree. I forwarded my preparations for a site interview
to Dr. Noumoff and hoped he could give me some
advice. I was surprised when I got his feedbacks so
fast. In his email, he corrected all my spelling
errors and added a lot tips for me. His encouragement
increased my confidence. This help contributed to my success in finding
a professional job as soon as I
finished my studies.
Dr. Noumoff has always been full of righteousness and
morality. He brought back the CDs from China and
showed the students in his class about the historical
facts of Chinese victims of Nanjing who were killed during the Second
World War by Japanese
soldiers when Japan invaded China. He also led the fight resulting in
the University refusing
a million dollar donation from a Japanese war criminal. He was happy
with the
achievements of Chinese economic reform, however, at
the same time, he was caring about the living
conditions of Chinese ordinary people, especially
workers and farmers.
At the early years of Chinese Reform and Opening to
the Outside, he was the only foreigner
who had the possibility to teach a class for party and
government leaders in the four levels of central,
provincial, and municipal and county party schools. At his
office, Lu Xun' s portrait hung on the wall.
You can easily find all collections written both in
English and in Chinese by Chairman Mao and Deng
Xiaoping. He is a real knowledgeable great scholar in
Chinese studies. It is no any extraordinary if we call
him the "people ambassador".
Everyone might have some precious memories for some
things in his whole life. For me, I was lucky to have
such a wonderful opportunity to complete my MA degree
under the mentorship of such a knowledgeable great scholar
at McGill University. It was the most important and
wonderful period of my whole life. |
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狗仔卡
发表于 2006-3-7 20:10:21
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