HONOLULU (October 31, 2018) -- East-West Center Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Hao Ping, who is also leader of the Center’s Beijing alumni chapter, was recently named president of Peking University, China’s premier institution of higher learning. He previously served as party secretary of the university – often referred to as the “Harvard of China” – as well as a national vice minister of education.

As a graduate student at the University of Hawai‘i in the early 1990s, Ping was a popular student leader in EWC’s Hale Mānoa dormitory and helped in the creation of the Center’s Asia Studies Development Program, designed to help enhance teaching about Asia in America’s smaller universities and community colleges. He was honored with the Center’s Distinguished Alumni Award during EWC’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2010.“The East-West Center community congratulates our good friend and Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Hao Ping in this latest of his many accomplishments,” said EWC President Richard R. Vuylsteke. “As with so many of our former participants, his lifelong dedication to cross-cultural learning is an outstanding embodiment of the type of international thinking that the East-West Center experience seeks to impart. That’s why at the Center we believe our greatest success lies in the achievements of our students and participants.”