Friday, May 18 – The Deputy Party Secretary and Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Professor Wei Zhonglin, visited Sias International University on the 16th of May, and delivered a lecture on 'Text Dissemination and Academic Change in Modern Literature'. Member of the Standing Committee of the Henan Provincial Political Consultative Conference, Representative at the 11th National People's Congress, and former Party Secretary of Henan University, Guan Aihe, was at the lecture. Sias President, Dr. Chen Sikun, Executive Vice President, Dong Qiming, Vice President, Liu Shuqin, and Assistant Principal, Sun Rujian, were also in attendance, along with students and teachers from various schools at Sias.

Before the lecture, Vice President Liu Shuqin welcomed Wei Zhonglin and Guan Aihe to Sias, and spoke about their respective achievements and professional backgrounds. Sias President, Dr. Chen Sikun, then presented the two guests with honorary letters of appointment to be Visiting Professors at Sias.

Professor Wei Zhonglin then delivered a lecture entitled 'Text Dissemination and Academic Change in Modern Literature'. He said that transformative change is one of the most important features of modern literature. It was due to the fundamental changes in culture, he said, that the transformation in modern literature is completely different from the linear transformations seen in literary history. He pointed out that changes in modern literature, in addition to the influence of political and cultural factors, had other easily neglected elements, such as the 3 stages in the modes of communication. These are the ancient bamboo or woods slips, and silk; the use of paper and block printing; and the introduction of machine printing and the public dissemination of books, newspapers, and periodicals. He said that in addition to these factors, with the transformation of text tools, literature had undergone some changes. This referred to the popularization and change of Classical Chinese to the vernacular of today, the old style of poetry to the modern style, the subject change from scholars and bureaucrats to the ordinary literati and writers, the change in motive from self-satisfaction to economic benefits, and the changes in the aesthetic psychology of literature. All of this led to a profound change in literary tastes. Professor Wei Zhonglin said that he hoped that through the transformation and dissemination of literature, students would be inspired to study, and explore the changes and innovations behind the knowledge that they acquire.