The 2020 Graduation Ceremonies of Huaqiao University (HQU) were held at both Quanzhou and Xiamen campuses respectively on June 20^th and 21^st, with over 7,000 students at home and abroad participating online and offline. The university made overall plans and all units cooperated with each other to ensure the smooth going and warm atmosphere of the events. At the ceremonies, the "last lessons" given by HQU's Party Secretary Guan Yifan and President Xu Xipeng, the online connection with graduates overseas, and the other parts have all caught the attention of media.

On June 23^rd, the LIVE NEWS of CCTV-13 gave a 105 seconds report titled Quanzhou, Fujian: 2,780 Graduates Participated in Graduation Ceremonies Online.

Report on CCTV-13

Apart from the CCTV report, various media also reported or reposted the relevant news of HQU's online graduation, including XINHUANET, HAIWAINET, CHINANEWS, CHINAQW, Fujian Television Station, FJSEN, Quanzhou TV, Quanzhou Evening News, OUSHINET, and Sing Sian Yer Pao Daily News of Thailand. The online graduation ceremony of the Foreign Government Officials’ Chinese Class of HQU held at the same time also attracted many media’s attention, and was also published on the Overseas Chinese Affairs' webpage of the United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee.

CHINANEWS' Report on Foreign Government Officials' Online Graduation in HQU

To prepare for this Graduation, the university paid much attention to the publicity and planning prior to, the groundwork and build-up during, and the persistent reports after the events. Newspaper of Huaqiao University launched a special edition, and the front page of campus network, RMH, Watermelon video and toutiao all gave graphic and video reports, finally realizing a multi-platform publicity. The new media platforms of HQU coordinated with each other to provide Weibo live broadcast, Danmu (literally means "bullet-captions") interaction, and aerial video, which also become the highlights of the publicity methods.

Affected by the pandemic this year, many graduates domestic and overseas cannot return to school for the ceremony. New media accounts of government affairs of the Ministry of Education of the PRC, including @weiyan education, @People’s Daily, and @weibo campus, and over one hundred universities in China jointly initiate the "HELLO FUTURE GRADUATION CEREMONY" live activity to present an online graduation gala for college students nation-wide. HQU is one of the 100 participating universities. The number of online viewers of Weibo live broadcast of the Graduation of both campuses reaches 101,000, and the number of participants of Sina News app live broadcast reaches 660,000. Netizens participated in the interaction by means of danmu and send good wishes to the graduates.  

Screenshots of Live Broadcast in Weibo and Sina News

Since May of this year, the official microblog of HQU has launched the topic of "2020 HQU Graduation Season", with @HQU Youth League and @HQU Student Union assisting the popularization. Up to now, the topic enjoys more than 700 discussions and over 3.3 million clicks. On the days of Graduation, the topic "HQU President’s Wishes to Graduate Students" topped the regional searches and the aerial video of graduation ceremony and the poster of graduation messages made by the student union were recommended as hot information by Weibo. Official Wechat accounts of HQU, Newspaper of Huaqiao University, HQU Student Union, Youth HQU and various colleges and schools resonate with each other in Wechat publicity. Combined with the different features of the platform, these accounts use graphic, video and other forms to create and send specific tweets on the graduation season, and share on Wechat Moments to create a warm-hearted graduating atmosphere.

Serial Tweets on the Graduation Season by Various Official HQU Wechat Accounts

In the omnimedia era, higher requirements and challenges have been imposed on college news publicity. In recent years, HQU has promoted the integration of traditional media and new media, forming up a comprehensive, multi-level and multi-voice publicity matrix. By strengthening the contact and cooperation with news media at all levels, making joint efforts in internal and external news publicity, highlighting features and building the university image, the matrix plays a crucial role in news publicity for HQU to "polish the golden signboard" of being a university orienting and serving overseas Chinese.