On October 31, the awarding ceremony of the Five-star Cards to Hwa Nan foreign teachers Gordon Trimble and Sonia Trimble was held in the academic lecture hall of Hwa Nan. Pan Zhenying, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Deputy Director of Fuzhou Public Security Bureau, and Ren Jianhong, President of Hwa Nan attended the ceremony and delivered speeches. Wu Xiaojie, Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Fuzhou City, and the responsible comrades of the municipal Public Security Bureau and the relevant departments of the Municipal Foreign Affairs Office attended the ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by Vice President Zhang Qiuping.
At the ceremony, Executive Deputy Director Pan Zhenying presented Five-star Cards and flowers to Gordon and Sonia. The Five-star Card is issued by the State Administration of Immigration for qualified foreigners after they have been authorized to reside permanently in the territory of the People's Republic of China. Holders of the “Five-star Card” can use it alone when they need to prove their identity in financial, education, medical, transportation, accommodation, communication, and other matters. The issuance of Five-star Cards to Gordon and Sonia is the first case in Fuzhou city to offer permanent residence status in China to foreigners who have made contributions to the country, which was applied by municipal government of Fuzhou and reviewed by the provincial government and the Ministry of Public Security.
President Ren said in her speech, In the past 40 years after the reestablishment of Hwa Nan, more than 100 foreign experts from all over the world worked at Hwa Nan, making great efforts to teach. Professor Gordon Trimble is the most prominent representative. As the fourth generation of the Trimble family, Mr. And Mrs. Trimble adhere to the original aspiration and mission of the century-old family heritage, spare no effort to contribute to the education cause of Fujian and China, and do their best to tell Chinese stories and spread Chinese culture. Up to now, in the more than 30 years since setting foot on Chinese soil, Gordon Trimble and his wife have continued to enhance Sino-American educational exchanges through front-line teaching, donation to students, and promoting friendly inter-school exchanges between China and the United States. They are witnesses and promoters of the friendly relations between the two peoples, and typical representatives of the friendship between the two peoples.
The successful handling and issuance of the Five-star Card not only provides convenience for Professor Gordon Trimble and his wife to work and live in China for a long time, but also injects new vitality and motivation into the international exchange work of Hwa Nan. In the future, Hwa Nan will provide more standardized and considerate services for foreign teachers, and make greater contributions to the development of sino-foreign cultural exchanges and education.
