Shanghai Daily: Sunflowers illuminate graduation
AN ordinary patch of sunflowers on the Minhang campus of East China Normal University turned out to have special significance. It is a gift from a teacher to his graduates.
On the day of graduation, each student was entitled to pick a sunflower.
The flower field was the brainchild of Wang Ziyu, a teacher in the College of Geographical Science and the College of Urban and Regional Science.
Wang Ziyu tends to the sunflowers in the Minhang campus of East China Normal University.
“I believe the sunflowers will give each graduate a beautiful memory of the campus,” said Wang. “The field was planted by juniors and enables them to study water, air and soil ecology relevant to their majors.”
In March, Wang and the students planted the field in a plot of about 330 square meters.
Although this first planting was experimental, nearly 300 flowers bloomed.
The 130 graduate students from Wang’s classes were taken aback by the surprise floral tribute.
“The field was originally a lawn, and, at first, we didn’t know Mr Wang was doing this for us,” said graduate Qi Fengting. “It’s the best graduation gift anyone could give us.”
The sunflowers were not Wang’s only goodbye present. An amateur photographer, he also set up a studio in his office and shot graduation pictures of the students in their caps and gowns. The photos were of professional quality.
“Mr Wang really gave us many surprises this year,” said a grateful Qi.