|
|
39 years ago, Dr. Noumoff began teaching at 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 for many times and has done a lot of things which has benefited for 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 Canada, with Dr. Lin Da-Guang, a world famous Chinese Canadian scholar at McGill, co-created the Research Center of East Asian Studies of McGill University. Dr. Noumoff became the director of the center after Lin Da-Guang retired from this position. Dr. Noumoff also was the director of the Center of Developing Areas of McGill University, the director of Undergraduate of Political Science Department, senior Senator of Standing Committees of Senate of McGill University and the member of the Board of Governance of McGill University. He was the member of 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 Third-world countries such as North Korea, Cuba, Cambodia, 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 C 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 house of Fei Xiaotong, one Chinese national leader and also well-known scholar of social science. In the early 1980s, Dr. Noumoff invited a delegation of economic & trade of 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 desired 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. 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 recommended the results of researches, suggestions, American or Canadian entrepreneurs』 investment plans to Chinese leaders when he had any chance to meet Chinese leaders at all kinds of occasions 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 get more opportunities in China after they finished their studies and went back to China.
Beside 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 aids. I clearly remembered the day when I came to Montreal as an international student. It was a very cold snowy day in Canadian history. The flight was delayed for hours and arrived at the airport 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 led me by himself or arranged his other students to help me handle some issues such as registration, campus visiting, international student affairs, medical cards, and etc.
He always loved to help Chinese students. I companied 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 his house and have dinner with them. He encouraged his students to go back to China and serve for their own countries. For example, one visiting scholar became an official in central government after he finished his study at McGill and backed 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 site interview to Dr. Noumoff and hoped he could give me some advices. 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. It was contributed by his help when I found 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 in massive during the Second World War by Japanese soldiers when Japan invaded China. When he was the director of the Center of East Asian Studies, he refused million dollars donation just because the donator was the active participant of Japanese militarist expansionism. 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 probably was the only one foreigner who had the possibility to teach a class for party and government leaders at the three levels of central, provincial, and municipal party schools. At his office, Lu Xun』 s portrait was hanged up 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 the field of Chinese studies. It is not exaggerated at all 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 advice of such a knowledgeable great scholar at McGill University. It was the most important and wonderful period of my whole life. |
|
狗仔卡
提升卡
置頂卡
沉默卡
喧囂卡
變色卡
搶沙發
樓主
