Director Tao Yitao Wins “Outstanding Social Scientist of Guangdong Award” and First Prize of the 8th Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences”

       
       The ceremony for the Third Outstanding Social Scientist Award and the Eighth Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province was held in Guangzhou on the afternoon of September 10, 2019. Two out of the 10 awardees for the Third Outstanding Social Scientist Award were from Shenzhen, including Prof. Tao Yitao from Shenzhen University and Li Fengliang from the Southern University of Science and Technology, which set a record in the award-winning history of Shenzhen. Nearly 350 people attended the ceremony, including members of the Philosophy and Social Science Planning and Steering Group of Guangdong province, heads of the administrative institutions directly under the People's Government of Guangdong Province, heads of related departments from the Regular Institutions of Higher Learning, the outstanding social scientists of the previous two sessions, and the representatives of the winners for the OutstandingAchievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences.

       The other 8 awardees were Li Zonggui and Wu Chengxue from Zhongshan University, Zhu Guilong from the South China University of Technology, Cheng Guofu from Jinan University, Lu Xiaozhong from the South China Normal University, He Ziran and Sui Guangjun from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Li Qingxin from Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. A total of 230 outstanding achievements were selected in the 8th Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences, and Shenzhen University won 3 out of the 56 first prizes, 4 out of the 119 second prizes, and 4 out of the 55 third prizes. Special Economic Zones and China's Path, completed by Prof. Tao Yitao and her team as the culmination of the key project supported by the National Social Science Fund of China won the first prize.

       
       Prof. Tao, Director of China Center for Special Economic Zone Research (CCSEZR), Shenzhen University is a renowned expert on the research of SEZs. She has long been engaged in the research of Chinese and western economic thoughts, the history of China’s reform and opening-up, the development history of China's SEZs and comparative studies of SEZs, FTAs and Bay Areas in and outside of China. For more than 30 years, she has proposed many valuable and influential viewpoints on SEZs, in particular the internal logical relation between SEZs and China’s Path, and on the theoretical study about the essence and connotation of China's Path. Furthermore, she has also made positive contributions to the emerging economies by offering Chinese solutions to the challenges confronting them. Her representative papers Special Economic Zones and the Path Choice of China’s Institutional Change and From Special Economic Zone to Free Trade Area:  Special Mission of China’s Free Trade Area are reproduced by Xinhua Digest. Her representative work Study on the History of China’s Special Economic Zones was listed by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the General Administration of Press and Publication of China as one of the 35 key books in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of China’s Reform and Opening-up. This book was selected for China Academic Translation Project of the National Social Science Fund and won the first prize of 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province. As the culmination of the key project supported by the National Social Science Fund of China and chaired by Prof. Tao-Study on Special Economic Zones and China’s Path, the book Special Economic Zones and China’s Path was listed in the Frankfurt Book Fair Directory in Germany in 2016 and was published in English by the Springer. It was listed in "China Book International" and "Project for Translation and Publication of Chinese Cultural Works", and was published in Arabic by Sefsafa Publishing House. This book was at the same time listed in the publishing program of Nestor-Istoria Publishing House of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was published overseas in Russian. It was also selected into the “Silk Road Book Project” of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and was published overseas in Mongolian. The book won the first prize of the 8th Outstanding Achievement Award of the Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province in 2019.

       
       When Prof. Tao Yitao gave a speech titled A Scholar’s Responsibility and Mission on the ceremony, she said, I’m very honored to stand here to have a speech as the representative of the outstanding social scientists and a winner of the 8th Outstanding Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province. I would like to thank the opportunity afforded by this great age of China. Along the course of history of China's reform and opening-up that necessitates and sparks creative ideas, the power of social change stimulates the growth of ideas, and the opening-up sparks the collision of ideas. This great age of reform and opening-up when we are experiencing social transformation and emancipation of mind also makes it valuable to study social sciences and gives them possibility to serve the country and peoples.

       I would also like to thank the cities and regions where we live and work, for these lands are full of innovation spirits and reform enthusiasm, and are charged with a mission to serve the nation. The courage to blaze the trail to explore, reform and develop, to lead the reform and to create wonders endows Shenzhen with life and vitality and also undoubtedly gives social scientists endless academic vitality and creativity. A concept cannot directly change society, but it can change people who will eventually change it.
       I appreciate the care and support from the party organizations of all levels and the friendly cooperation of all team members. An inclusive and relaxed environment for academic exploration acts as guarantee for the academic research and is indispensable for sparking ideas. Only with feet on the solid ground can we look at the stars. The academic community serves not only as a platform for the collision of ideas and enlightenment of wisdom but also gives us strength in academic exploration. I believe that my academic colleagues here today will agree with my words below: Among thousands of the hard-working social scientists, we may not be the most outstanding ones, but definitely the luckiest.  When our achievements win recognition from society, we know that many have contributed silently to what we’ve achieved today, and we also know that we are no more than just a star in the bright sky, and it is the countless twinkling stars that light up that beautiful night sky.
       We know that how humanities and social sciences drive social development and progress is, to a large extent, reflected by how it drives the natural science in a manner which is, more often than not, indirect. Though less conspicuous as what the natural science does to social development, yet humanities and social sciences have more profound and far-reaching effect and even create an everlasting spiritual strength as they go straight to the heart. In the early 20th century, Germany gradually became the center of the world science, which is to a large extent due to the enrichment of Germany’s dialectics and materialistic philosophy as well as its long and good national and social tradition to respect knowledge and science. When we reflect on the technical achievements the human society has ever made, what strikes a deep chord in us is the wisdom of the greatest thinkers of that era.
       Guangdong province is home not only to the cities that spearhead reform and opening-up but also to the cities and regions with China’s most developed market economy. The practice of spearheading the reform and opening-up four decades ago historically charges the social scientists who live and strive on this land with a mission to blaze a trail in exploring the theoretical system of the socialist market economy. Today, deepening reform and constructing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area again pose a host of brand-new theoretical challenges,  for example, how to realize regional integration through the institutional innovation within the framework of One Country, Two Systems? how to achieve sustainable and high-quality development? how to establish a modern industrial system with international competitiveness? how to address the imbalance of the regional development while achieving economic boom? And how to ensure that everyone can equally and fairly enjoy the livelihood and happiness during economic growth? Marx and Engels point out in The German Ideology that “life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life”. It is an innate mission for the social scientists to show their concern about the era, and provide prospective thoughts and wisdom to drive the reform, development, and progress of it.
       “Knowledge is the beginning of action and action is the completion of knowledge”. We are forging ahead in this new era of deepening reform at the policy-based growth pole, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that is charged with a unique mission to deepen reform in China. The social scientists not only shoulder the responsibility and mission of theoretical exploration and innovation but also the commitment to think and work hard for the propersity of China while deepening reform, constructing an innovative country, exploring a new pattern for China’s reform and opening-up and implementing the Belt & Road Initiative, especially in the practice of building Shenzhen into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
       Marx says that “Dialectical materialism lets nothing impose upon it. It is in its essence both critical and revolutionary.”Therefore, the social responsibility and academic conscience of a scholar should be like what Kant says: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”