Distinguished professors, dear classmates, members of the Peking University Law School community, relatives and friends of the students graduating today, ladies and gentleman, good morning.

My name is Hander Leal, from Brazil, and I’m very honored to deliver this graduation speech on behalf of the 2018 class of the LL.M. in Chinese Law at PKU Law School.

First of all, we have no words to say thank you to all our professors who guided us along this one year of intensive learning and sharing. Special thanks to Professor Guo Li, and Professor Yang Ming.

Thanks also to the Peking University Law School community, specially to Abby and Elsa for organizing all the field works and helping us dealing with all the deadlines.

Thanks also to the Chinese Scholarship Council who made this experience possible to some of us graduating here today, including me.

The class graduating today is diverse. Diverse not only in our nationalities, but also in our professional backgrounds and aspirations. Lex from the US, Jan from Germany, Kosol from Cambodia, Frank from Korea, Maria from Russia, Cheggy from Mongolia, Malika from Tajikistan, and Suray from Turkmenistan, you are all amazing and inspiring people. We have learned from each other during the last year, and we are part of an international family now. An international family united here in China. From the PKU Law School to the world. This graduation is not an end, but a great new start.

We are diverse but we all came to China with a common aspiration. To understand more about China from a legal perspective. And this was quite a challenge for most of us. Even for those who came from civil law countries, such as in my case. For most of us this was also our first venture into the Chinese language.

This was a very intensive learning not only about Chinese law, but also about its culture and people. As the Chinese proverb says, 百闻不如一见. It is only by experiencing China IN China that one can grab the full picture of this marvelous and fast-paced country.

We might as well had opted for learning Chinese law back home instead of coming to China. So why did we come here in the first place? Because back home we could understand Chinese law, but not the Chinese people and the Chinese mindset. We would not have become this sort of cultural bridges, linking China and our home countries. This is an intangible asset we couldn't get anywhere else but here.

And we are honored for having had the privilege of experiencing China at its best, here at PKU Law school. School that no matter where we lead to now, we will forever call it home.

If multicultural communication is an intangible asset, deep understanding of Chinese law is a quite tangible one, and one that we will make good use of. The world is eager to understand China, and thanks to the PKU Law School, we now know where to find the answers to the puzzling questions our clients, partners and employers will ask us back home. So what are our takeaways from this full year of intensive learning and sharing here at PKU Law school? What are the lessons we will take for life?

Studying at the best Law school in the country the world wishes to understand the most is an asset we will take for life. And I am sure each and every one of us here have the answers clear in our hearts.  

All in all, it all comes down to the following question: What China means to us and what it took us to get here today? In my case, first time I arrived to China, quite a few years ago, I could only say 你好, and it took me three whole days to realize the meaning of 中国, these two words. First it came the communication struggle, for no matter how hard I studied Chinese, I couldn’t pronounce the tones properly, and I’m still learning today. In the second stage of my Chinese journey, I could speak some Chinese, but then struggled to understand why Chinese and Western mindsets are so different.  It was not before I came in 2016 that I could finally enter e deeper level of first-hand understanding of China: the institutional level. First researching innovation and entrepreneurship in China at the university across the street, and this last year, studying Chinese law as a LL.M. student here at PKU. China is such an interesting but also complex country, that it is only now, and to a great extent thanks to this school, that I feel ready to call it home. Home away from home.

So what comes next? Well, the future is next. Since for all of us China will continue to be part of our personal and professional journey, we must seize the moment and try to predict what is the future of China now. There is a revolution around the corner, and I want to make part of it. In the next decade, biotech and information technology combined will allows us to decipher our genes, upgrade ourselves at the genetic level, and live longer and better lives. And China is bound to be the center of this revolution. To better understand this revolution, I wrote my thesis on biotechnology and law, applied for a job in a few companies in this area, and was fortunate enough to be given an offer at one of the leading biotech companies in China. I’m very excited about starting my career there.

And there is a revolution also in our understanding about China, and it is happening right now in the minds and hearts of each and every one of us graduating here today. No matter where we follow our careers, here in China or back in our home countries, we can now read this country, understand its law, and bridge China and our home countries. And the degree we are receiving today comes at a perfect timing, because the world has never been so eager to understand China.

One year ago, we chose the PKU Law School to be our home, and you, our professors, to be our masters, our mentors, our friends. And of course, we are very delighted to be here completing this journey today. My classmates, this graduation is not an end, but a great new start. And I wish you all the best of luck wherever your choices may lead you to.

On behalf of the 2018 class of the LL.M. in Chinese Law,

Thank you very much