On June 11, 2021, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) held a ceremony to accept a donated fund to establish a scholarship named after the retired professor TONG Yunhuan. Forty Tsinghua SEM alumni donated the money in the name of Professor TONG to support young students to do research on environmental protection, inclusiveness and social responsibility, and to encourage them to make a positive contribution to sustainable, healthy development of the economy, society, and environment.

HUANG Ping, Professor TONG’s wife, YANG Bin, Vice President of Tsinghua University and Chairman of Tsinghua University Education Foundation (TUEF), CHEN Yubo, Party Secretary of Tsinghua SEM CPC Committee and Senior Associate Dean, and LI Jizhen, Tsinghua SEM’s Associate Dean participated in the ceremony. Among those who also took part were Professor CHEN Guoqing from the Department of Management Science and Engineering of Tsinghua SEM; Professor CHENG Yuan, GAO Xudong, LI Donghong, LI Xibao, YANG Delin and ZHU Hengyuan from the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy of Tsinghua SEM; Professor QIAN Xiaojun from the Department of Leadership and Organization of Tsinghua SEM; LEI Jiasu, a retired professor; WANG Yong, Assistant Dean of Tsinghua SEM, and Director of the Entrepreneur Fellows Program and Resource Development Office; QU Weijing, Director of the CPC Committee Office and the Graduate Student Task Force; and Professor TONG’s former students: CHEN Xiaopeng, CHEN Yibin, FAN Bin, HAO Xiuqing, LIU Hongcheng, LIU Jianping, PENG Ruimei, SHAO Xi, WANG Qiang, XIAO Weijia, XING Xiaoqiang, ZHOU Jianghua, and ZHU Jinpu. Altogether nearly 30 people took part in the event emceed by ZHAO Dongqing, Deputy Party Secretary of Tsinghua SEM CPC Committee.

XING Xiaoqiang speaks at the ceremony.

XING Xiaoqiang, a donor representative and former doctoral student of Professor TONG, made a speech. He said that Professor TONG was a role model for him and other students in terms of academic studies and moral principles. Professor TONG firmly believed that management studies should be rooted in practices, knowledge and common sense needed to be treated equally, and common sense shouldn’t be abandoned for the sake of knowledge. XING talked about his Tsinghua experience as a student and emphasized that he and many of his former classmates still found the teachings of Professor TONG very helpful. Then he briefed those present on the purpose and process of establishing the scholarship, and said their donations were the first batch of the scholarship funds and would encourage more students of Professor TONG to donate.

CHENG Yuan speaks at the ceremony.

On behalf of the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Professor CHENG Yuan welcomed Professor TONG’s former students back to Tsinghua for a visit and thanked them for still remembering their professor and contributing to the cause of their alma mater. CHENG told his audience what working with Professor TONG was like. He said that Professor TONG had made a significant contribution to talent education and the development of the Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy.

CHEN Guoqing speaks at the ceremony.

CHEN Guoqing talked about his colleague Professor TONG. He said that Professor TONG was an honest, kind, warm-hearted and highly responsible colleague. Professor TONG started to offer a course on research methodology in the early 1990s. And his pioneering effort made profound influence on several generations of Tsinghua SEM students. In addition, Professor TONG visited colleges and universities all over China to promote MBA education. This was considered as another great contribution of his.

CHEN Yubo speaks at the ceremony.

CHEN Yubo expressed his gratitude to Professor TONG’s students. He pointed out that establishing a scholarship named after their teacher by donating funds demonstrated these Tsinghua alumni held Professor TONG in great respect and would encourage younger generations to follow in Professor TONG’s footsteps by becoming academically rigorous and honest scholars. CHEN said that the scholarship would help Tsinghua SEM to improve research on sustainable development, inclusiveness and innovation, and education about these disciplines, and to cultivate a new generation of leaders.

YANG Bin speaks at the ceremony.

In closing remarks, YANG Bin emotionally recalled his experience of working with Professor TONG, and praised Professor TONG’s positive contribution and quiet dedication to Tsinghua SEM’s development and discipline construction, and also to the development of China’s overall MBA education. YANG pointed out that middle-aged teachers like Professor TONG, with a great sense of responsibility and effort, helped Tsinghua SEM transition to a new era. Professor TONG was a pillar of China’s MBA education drive and invested a great amount of time and energy in advancing the cause. He kept trying to help every college or university which offered MBA courses to raise its MBA education quality and standards. Professor TONG was a man of integrity, felt deeply attached to Tsinghua, took his teaching job very seriously, and played the role of mentor to many students and younger teachers. During his visit to Tsinghua, Chinese President XI Jinping said every university teacher should aspire to a broad vision. YANG Bin said that a broad vision required not only remarkable intellectual achievements, but also high moral standards and a great sense of responsibility. He said the TONG Yunhuan Scholarships would encourage students to explore the disciplines of environmental protection, inclusiveness and social responsibility, to learn more about Professor TONG, and to follow his example as a first-rate scholar.

LI Jizhen, QIAN Xiaojun, LEI Jiasu, ZHU Hengyuan, YANG Delin, LI Donghong, LI Xibao and GAO Xudong also spoke at the ceremony and talked about their experiences of working with Professor TONG.

ZHAO Dongqing emcees the ceremony.

SHAO Xi and CHENG Yuan sign a donation agreement.

YANG Bin presents a donation certificate to XING Xiaoqiang.

CHEN Yubo presents a donor appreciation plaque to SHAO Xi.

In the final stage of the ceremony, CHENG Yuan signed a donation agreement with the donor representative SHAO Xi, YANG Bin presented a donation certificate to XING Xiaoqiang, and CHEN Yubo presented a donor appreciation plaque to SHAO Xi.

All the participants in the ceremony

TONG Yunhuan was a professor at Tsinghua SEM. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1982, and a master’s degree from Tsinghua SEM in 1986. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo, Canada from 1992 to 1993. In 2006, he became an International Faculty Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Professor TONG’s research work focused on the development of high-tech industry, theory and methods of technology evaluation, and sustainable innovation, among others. He took charge of seven major projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and multiple government or company-sponsored research projects, including a study of the theory and methods of application technology evaluation, a key NSFC project, and a study of technological and commercial innovation models for low-income markets, a major NSFC international cooperation project. He published more than 100 treatises in academic journals in China and other countries.

Professor TONG used to serve as Associate Dean of Tsinghua SEM and Secretary-General of the second, third and fourth National MBA Education Supervisory Committees.