Ni Jian, Director of the International Department of the All-China Youth Federation
Member of the 11th graduating class of the Japanese course given at Soka University

On April 8, 1986, Ni Jian, an exchange student from the All-China Youth Federation, attended the entrance ceremony sitting in a front-row seat at the central gymnasium of Soka University. Mr Ni felt the weight of pressure that he, as a representative of the federation, should learn for the sake of the young people in China.

After the ceremony, founder Daisaku Ikeda stepped off the platform and shook hands with foreign exchange students one after another. This encouragement transformed the feeling of pressure into a sense of mission. There is a Chinese saying that truth can be grasped from small things. Through the founder’s concern for their food, study and physical well-being, Mr Ni sensed Mr Ikeda’s sincerity as a founder who prays for the growth of the students. His attitude coincided with Premier Zhou Enlai’s, who paid attention to details and dedicated his life to the people. Mr Ni said that he admired Mr Ikeda as a great social activist, philosopher and writer, though he is an atheist.

His favourite memory of school life is the Zhou Enlai tree at the university where he used to stroll, recalling Premier Zhou.

After returning to China, he went back to the International Department of the All-China Youth Federation where he originally worked, and was appointed director of the department. Mr Ni, in his new capacity as director of the International Department of the federation, dispatched Chinese exchange students to Soka University. He expressed his wish for exchange students that Soka University’s philosophy of peace might inspire their thoughts because the purpose of studying abroad is to cultivate one’s own thinking. (2002)