Nordic Centre, Fudan University

While the Fudan campus has quieted down for the winter break, we have still had the pleasure of hosting two groups of students at the Nordic Centre: earlier this month, students of Asian studies from Lund University on a fieldwork course at Fudan, and yesterday, Norwegian law students from UiT- The Arctic University of Norway on a study trip organized by ELSA Tromsø.

Yesterday's visit by the students from UiT included an introduction to the Nordic Centre followed by lively discussion and a campus tour, while the fieldwork course - organized in collaboration with Fudan's School of International Relations and Public Affairs - featured lectures by Ben Cavender, Managing Director of China Market Research Group, Annina Lattu, Postdoctoral Researcher at Tampere University and a visiting scholar at the Nordic Centre, as well as Prof. Zhu Jianxin from Fudan's College of Foreign Language and Literature.

The Nordic Centre wishes everyone a wonderful New Year!

We thank everyone for the great collaboration in 2025, and look forward to many new initiatives in the coming year!

The best way to learn about the many activities that took place in 2025 - the year of our 30th Anniversary - is to read our latest newsletter published earlier this month. And, if you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to keep up to date with our future events as well.

Nordic Centre Newsletter published on December 9, 2025.

This year’s events came to a wonderful conclusion last Friday, December 12, when students from all around came together for the Nordic Centre’s traditional Winter Party. The NC building’s lobby was full of lively chatter and laughter, while Fudan students enjoyed Nordic Christmas snacks, fun activities, and each other’s company.

The evening started with welcome words from our PM Veli-Matti, followed by a quiz on Chinese and Nordic winter traditions. After the quiz, students competed in a fun game of accuracy. All of our quiz and game winners received Nordic Centre tote bags with our NC 30th Anniversary tumbler mugs inside them - congratulations!

The quiz was followed by some live music by our PM and our student assistant Yishu, both of whom performed Christmas songs for our students. The evening’s grand finale came after the music session when Santa Claus himself came to visit us, and helped deliver gifts to students who had participated in a gift exchange. Thank you, Santa, for traveling such a long way to join us!

With this event, the Nordic Centre has concluded its Fall semester activities, and will soon take a few days worth of a break to celebrate Christmas. We want to thank everyone who has joined us and our events during these months, and look forward to seeing you again, come Spring term!

On Friday December 5, the Nordic Centre organized a cozy, intimate seminar event, and invited Professor Zhu Jianxin from Fudan’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literature to speak. Professor Zhu gave our students a presentation titled “Exploring Nordic Cinema”.

This event served two purposes: firstly, it celebrated the re-opening of the Nordic Centre library, which has been recently reorganized to serve students and scholars even better. Secondly, the lecture served to launch a new event series, titled “Nordic Stories”. Nordic Stories will be a seminar series, focusing thematically on – you guessed it – stories from the Nordics, including, but not limited to, literature, cinema, and theatre. The first session of Nordic Stories saw many interested students and a very insightful presentation. We look forward to the next event, and wish to thank Professor Zhu for giving students such a comprehensive introduction to Nordic cinema!

On Monday (November 10), Nordic Centre Programme Manager Veli-Matti Palomäki joined a panel discussion during the "Global Youth Innovation Entrepreneurship and High-Quality Incubation Forum", organized by World Association of Young Scientists (WAYS) and Venture Cup China, and held at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE).

The panel discussion was joined by Morten Ugelvig Andersen, Director of Venture Cup China and Vice President at World Association of Young Scientists, Zhao Hong, Professor at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, José Tomás Corthorn, Managing Director of CMPC Asia, and Wen Chen, Incubation Director at ZIATS Research Institute, and moderated by long-time Nordic Centre collaborator Jane Wu, Executive Director of Venture Cup China.

Over the past 8 years, CIIE has evolved beyond a window for economic and trade cooperation to become a core hub connecting global innovation resources and empowering future development. The aim of Monday's forum was to bridge national and industrial gaps and bring together young innovators and high-quality incubation resources.

We look forward to deepening collaboration in the near future!

Nordic Centre 30th Anniversary Film now online!

Nordic Centre 30th Anniversary Film Video and photo credits: Nordic Centre at Fudan University, Fudan University, Royal Norwegian Consulate General in ShanghaiUsed with permission

Last week, the Nordic Centre celebrated its 30th Anniversary. The three-day programme took place from Wednesday to Friday, October 22–24, bringing together nearly 70 representatives from our Nordic member universities. The delegation included university leaders as well as academic and administrative staff, who had the opportunity to build new ties while renewing old friendships with Fudan University, our Chinese affiliated members, and other collaborators of the Nordic Centre.

On Wednesday, before the anniversary celebrations began with the first session on Sino-Nordic academic cooperation, the Nordic Centre Council held its biannual meeting — the first in Shanghai since 2023.

Thursday, October 23, marked the main day of the anniversary celebrations. The day began with our Anniversary Forum featuring opening speeches by Fudan University President Jin Li and University of Helsinki Chancellor Kaarle Hämeri. It was followed by a symposium titled "Bridging Academia and Industry", with opening remarks from Finnish Consul General Anu Vuori. During the two events, guests heard presentations from several leading experts, representing our member institutions as well as the industry and government.

Thursday’s programme continued with a Nordic Career Fair, which brought together several Nordic universities, companies, and Nordic Centre collaborators. The day also included two academic workshops and a Rectors’ Roundtable, where university leaders discussed the role and the importance of the Nordic Centre in the changing academic landscape.

The centerpiece of the three-day celebrations was Thursday evening’s dinner reception at the Crowne Plaza, which brought together more than 150 guests. The event was made all the more special by speeches from friends of the Nordic Centre, including a rare moment when three of the Centre’s original founding members, Kjell Eliassen, Stein Kuhnle and Chen Yinzhang took the stage together. Guests were also treated to a performance by renowned Icelandic violinist Rannveig Marta Sarc, who played pieces of both Nordic and Chinese origin.

The final day began with one more seminar, with another distinguished lineup of speakers. The afternoon offered a lighter conclusion to the celebrations, as guests joined a tour of Shanghai’s cultural heritage sites in the Former French Concession.

We at the Nordic Centre warmly thank all our member universities and guests for joining us in celebrating this milestone and for making these three days unforgettable. We look forward to continuing and deepening our Sino-Nordic academic collaboration for many more years to come.

On Friday, October 17th, the Nordic Centre had the honor of hosting a visit of the highest level, as Her Excellency Ms. Halla Tómasdóttir, the President of Iceland, visited us as a part of her state visit to China. President Tómasdóttir arrived at the Fudan University campus in the evening accompanied by the Icelandic Ambassador to Beijing, Mr. Thórir Ibsen, and was welcomed at the Nordic Centre by Fudan University President Mr. Jin Li and Vice President Mr. Chen Zhimin, as well as the Nordic Centre staff and our visiting scholars.

The visit included a meeting between the President and Fudan University leadership, after which our Programme Manager introduced the Nordic Centre’s mission and history. This was followed by a quick tour around the building. While visiting the Nordic Centre library, President Tómasdóttir paid special attention to the novel “Independent People”, written by Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, and said: “to really understand Icelandic people, one should read this book”.

The evening was concluded in a very special manner, as the delegation proceeded to Fudan’s Xianghui Hall to enjoy a concert by the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, titled ”Chill Music: Chilled Sounds from Iceland”.

President Tómasdóttir made a lasting impression on all of us with her warm personality and genuine interest in research and fostering Sino-Icelandic and more broadly Sino-Nordic cooperation. Before the concert, she personally signed a note congratulating Fudan University on its 120th Anniversary and the Nordic Centre on its 30th Anniversary, followed by words echoing our shared aspiration:

“May we continue to advance mutual respect and understanding between our regions”.

Pictures: Fudan University, Nordic Centre

On Monday October 13th we had the joy of facilitating an alumni event co-organized by two of our Swedish member universities, Stockholm University and Gothenburg University, hosted in our very own Nordic Centre building’s lobby. Alumni and current students of the two universities, from both Sweden and China, met on a cool Shanghai evening to mingle and connect while enjoying glasses of sparkling and wonderful food. As bringing Chinese and Nordics academics and scholars closer together is one of the Nordic Centre’s key missions, we were glad to witness such a warm-spirited event filled with lively conversation and new meetings. The event was also joined by the Swedish Consulate General in Shanghai and the Swedish Chamber of Commerce who delivered welcoming remarks at the start of the event.

We would like to thank the Stockholm and Gothenburg Universities for choosing us to host this event for them, and wish them well on their on-going China tour. However the hour of reunion is not far for us, as we will meet other representatives from the two universities as soon as next week for the Nordic Centre’s 30th Anniversary celebrations! The Centre is busy preparing for all the fantastic events, and we can’t wait to see our guests here in Shanghai.

While the Nordic Centre is hard at work preparing for our 30th Anniversary celebrations in October, we still had the time to host two different events on one busy Friday last week.

In the morning, we received a group of curious young minds from Rysensteen Gymnasium, Denmark. The day began with a presentation about the Nordic Centre and our mission from our Programme Manager Veli-Matti Palomäki, followed by a short, relaxed Q&A session with our intern Ada and one of our student assistants, Kelly (Jingxiang). After a break to stretch their legs, the students enjoyed short presentations by two of our visiting scholars, Marius Korsnes from NTNU and Mathias Karlsmose from Stockholm University, as well as our teaching assistant, PhD candidate Dongning, about their current research topics.

The visit concluded with a discussion on the concept of ’cultural confidence’, led by our student assistant Yishu, and of course, a group photo in front of the Nordic Centre building. We were very glad to host the Rysensteen students and teachers, and wish them a fun and insightful time in China.

In the evening we kicked off the new Fall semester properly with our traditional Welcome Party. Thunderous and rainy weather did not stop our Fudan students from coming to have fun, and we had an amazing turnout – maybe the best ever for this event! Students from all over the world made new friends by participating in a social game of bingo, and then playfully competed in a trivia game consisting of Chinese and Nordic proverbs and fun facts.

The highlight of the evening was our open mic session, where talented singers left everyone with their phones up and jaws on the floor. We hope to see these young stars again in our future events.

Despite the cramped space – we had to make a very quick relocation from the originally planned outdoor venue – the evening was full of lively conversation and warm feelings. We thank everyone for a successful kick off to the new season!

On August 27 & 28, the Nordic Centre had the pleasure of visiting Denmark, with our Programme Manager being invited by the Innovation Centre Denmark to take part in the TechBBQ event. TechBBQ is a large innovation, tech and startup summit held in Copenhagen, and it is Denmark’s quintessential event on these topics. This time was filled with exciting interactions with spectacular people, and thought-provoking and timely conversations.

On the first day, Innovation Centre Denmark kindly co-hosted an intimate Nordic Centre 30th Anniversary reception - almost exactly two months prior to the main celebration in Shanghai - attended by representatives from several Danish universities. On the second day of the event, a fantastic Grill Session panel explored the theme ‘China: The World’s Largest Circular Economy in the Making?’. Our Programme Manager joined the stage alongside experts from industry and academia to discuss this timely issue.

We sincerely thank Innovation Centre Denmark, Shanghai for the invitation, and look forward to fruitful future collaborations.

Introducting the Nordic Centre 30th Anniversary partnership programme:

In October this year, the Nordic Centre at Fudan University will celebrate its 30th Anniversary. For three decades, the Nordic Centre has served as a unique platform for Sino-Nordic collaboration in research and education, connecting more than 20 Nordic universities with Fudan and other Chinese universities.

We now have the honour to reach out to Nordic companies and other organisations promoting Sino-Nordic collaboration and extend both an invitation to join our 30th Anniversary, and an opportunity to be our partner and make the celebration of this important milestone even greater.

You can learn more about the partnership programme by clicking the link below.

Apart from the partnership programme, we are also offering your company, university or organisation a chance to join a Nordic Career Fair on October 23 at Fudan University's Student Activity Centre, a busy student pass-through point.

You can find the three-day anniversary programme with links to registration forms here: https://www.nordiccentre.net/anniversary

Thank you for considering a partnership!

Nordic Centre Nordic Centre 30th Anniversary partnership programme We are currently looking for China-based Nordic businesses to join us as partners and make the celebration of this important milestone even better. We would like to introduce three levels of partnership packages for the Nordic Centre 30th Anniv