題記：2026年6月28日，北京大學南南合作與發展學院2026屆畢業典禮在北京大學承澤園隆重舉行。本文為南南學院助理教授于航在典禮上的發言。

Editor’s Note: On June 28, 2026, the graduation ceremony for the 2026 Class of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) was held at Chengze Garden, Peking University. The following text is the speech delivered by YU Hang, Assistant Professor of ISSCAD.

ISSCAD 2026

世界因合作而更好

Cooperation Builds a Better World

尊敬的各位來賓，親愛的同事們， 2026屆的全體畢業生：

Distinguished guests, dear colleagues, and — most of all — graduates of the Class of 2026:

今天，是值得慶祝的日子。今天，我們為五十七位來自發展中世界各個角落的學子喝彩——他們遠渡重洋來到北京，肩上擔著家鄉沉甸甸的責任，而今天，他們從北京大學捧起了屬于自己的學位。

Today is a day of celebration. Today we honor fifty-seven men and women who came to Beijing from every corner of the developing world, people who carry real responsibilities back home — and who have now earned a degree from Peking University.

能在這些年里與你們同行，對我們每一位老師而言，都是一段珍貴的旅程。我與你們當中的許多人，在今天之前早已相見。我見過作為申請人的你們——鏡頭另一端的一張面孔，滿懷期待，又帶著一絲緊張，有時還因為信號不好而定格成一個滑稽的表情。我見過課堂上的你們，為一道考題苦苦思索。我見過答辯前的你們，在等候室里演練每一句話、每一次呼吸。我也見過答辯之后的你們，許多人喜極而泣。我得以看著你們以陌生人的身份到來，以學者的身份離開。這，正是在這里教書最大的榮幸。

It's been a rewarding journey for our faculty to accompany you over these years. I first met many of you long before this day. I saw you as applicants — a face on the other side of a camera, hopeful and a little nervous, sometimes frozen into a funny face due to bad connections. I saw you in the classroom, struggling through an exam. I saw you before your defense in the waiting room, rehearsing every single breath. And I saw you afterward, many laughing with tears in your eyes. I have got to watched you arrive as strangers and leave as scholars. That is the privilege of teaching here.

而現在，讓我告訴你們，我看得最多、也將記得最久的是什么。

Now let me tell you what I saw most often, and what I will remember longest.

我看到的，是你們的合作。我知道，在一所以治學嚴謹著稱的學院里求學，從來都不容易。我看到來自緬甸和贊比亞的同學并肩做一個項目，一直忙到深夜；我看到來自加納和肯尼亞的伙伴，彼此交流田野考察中的所見所聞；我看到一堂小小的研討課，把亞洲與非洲、太平洋與安第斯山聚到了同一張桌子旁——到最后，他們甚至能接上彼此沒說完的話。這，是我在所有大學里見過的最美的景象。

I saw you cooperating. I know that studying at an institute known for its demanding scholarly standards is not easy. I saw teammates from Myanmar and from Zambia develop a project together, long past midnight. I saw folks from Ghana and from Kenya exchange what they had seen on their field trips. I saw a single seminar gather Asia and Africa, the Pacific and the Andes around one table — and by the end, they were finishing one another's sentences. This is the most beautiful sight I have witnessed at any university.

我們有時談起“國際合作”，仿佛它只存在于峰會與簽署的宣言之中。但我每天都可以近距離地見到——就在我們的課堂里，在我們的田野考察中。你們攜手走到今天所做的這一切——這，才是國際合作真正的模樣。

We sometimes speak of "international cooperation" as if it lives only in summits and signed declarations. But I have seen it up close, in our classrooms and on field trips. This — what you did, together, to reach this day — this is what international cooperation actually looks like.

在經濟學的課堂上，我們學過一個經典的道理：因為彼此的優勢不同，任何兩方都能通過合作而各得其益。可太多人不能體會到這條原理在課本之外的深意。在我看來，它是經濟學獻給人類的最深刻、也最充滿希望的洞見：我們由此習得，繁榮的創造——不是靠從他人那里掠取，而是靠與他人協作。正是這個思想，給了我們一個嚴肅的理由去相信和平、去相信合作。它告訴我們：各人之間、各國之間的差異，并非恐懼與沖突的根源；它恰恰是彼此獲益的源泉。

In economics, we learn the classic lesson that two parties can both become better off when they cooperate, because they differ in their strengths. Many people do not fully appreciate this principle outside of classroom. To me, it is the most profound and hopeful insight economics offers humanity: prosperity is created not by taking from others, but by working with others. This idea gives us a rigorous reason to believe in peace and cooperation. It tells us that the differences among us and among our nations are not sources of fear or conflict. They are sources of mutual gain.

這個道理，你們不只是在這里學到了，更是把它實踐了出來。當來自不同國家、說著不同語言、懷著不同信仰的同窗，在最艱難的那些日子里彼此扶持時，你們就把它實踐了出來。那是看得見、摸得著的合作。也正是憑著這段攜手同行的旅程，你們挺過了最艱苦的學業，并在今天，以一名自豪的畢業生的身份，綻放光彩。

You did not only study that idea here. You lived it. You lived it when classmates from different countries, speaking different languages and practicing different faiths, carried one another through the hardest weeks. That is cooperation you can see and touch. Through that journey of cooperation, you not only survived a demanding program; you thrived and today graduate with pride.

許多年后，我猜，你們會忘掉我們教過的很多東西。你們也許會忘了 p 值是什么，會忘了雙重差分和面板回歸有什么區別，甚至會忘了生產函數——我保證，老師們都會理解原諒。你們也許會忘掉那些公式和模型，但我希望你們記住它們背后的一種精神：人與人、國與國，之所以能變得更好，靠的不是彼此掠取，而是彼此合作。

Years from now, I suspect you will forget a great deal of what we taught you. You may forget what a p-value is. You may forget the difference between difference-in-differences and panel regression. You may even forget the production function — and I promise you, the faculty will forgive you. You may forget the formulas and the models, but I hope you will remember one spirit behind them: that people and nations can become better off not by taking from one another, but by working with one another.

我們送你們走進的，并不是一個輕松的世界。在我們周圍，有沖突與戰爭，恐懼與仇恨。有時候，合作顯得脆弱，甚至不切實際。但正是在這樣的時刻，世界才更需要那些親眼見過合作的人，挺身而出，為它發聲。

We are not graduating you into an easy world. Around us we see conflicts and wars, fear and hatred. At times, cooperation can look fragile or even unrealistic. But it is precisely at such moments that the world needs people who have seen cooperation with their own eyes to stand up for it.

你們，正是這樣的人。你們曾經爭論、學習、調整，然后依然選擇并肩前行。所以你們憑著自己的親身經歷，懂得了一件太多人早已忘卻的事：合作，才是通向繁榮之路——無論于個人，還是于國家。而當一個個有智慧和尊嚴的聲音挺身守護它時，合作便會愈發堅強。

You are those people. You have disagreed, learned, adjusted, and worked together anyway. So, you know, from your own experience, what too many have forgotten: that cooperation is the way to prosper, as individuals and as nations. And when voices of wisdom and dignity rise to defend cooperation, cooperation grows stronger.

當你們回到各自的國家、回到各自的崗位，這種精神，將活在那些平凡卻重要的工作里：它會出現在終于因太陽能電網而點亮夜晚的偏遠村莊里；出現在終于獲得所需金融服務的小企業中；出現在收到外出務工子女消息的大家庭里；也出現在學會以智慧與真心服務人民的國有企業中。是的，我讀過你們的畢業論文——從咖啡梯田到城郊的棚戶聚居區，從牧場到港口小城——我知道，你們已經準備好了。

As you return to your countries and your posts, this spirit will live in ordinary but important work: in a remote village finally lit up at night by solar grids; in small businesses that receive the banking services they have long needed; in a large family that hears news from children who migrated for work; in a state enterprise that learns to serve its citizens with wisdom and heart. Yes, I have read your dissertations — your work has led me from the coffee terraces to the informal settlements, from the grasslands to the harbor towns — and I know you are ready for it.

把這種精神帶回家去。帶到埃塞俄比亞的高原，帶到尼泊爾的群山，越過遼闊的太平洋帶到巴布亞新幾內亞，帶到秘魯的安第斯，帶到南非的稀樹草原。也請把一個信念珍藏在心，勝過一切：我們之間的差異，不是彼此之間的高墻；它恰恰是合作之所以可能的根本所在。我們的差異，不是分裂的理由；它是我們能夠給予彼此的一切的源泉。

Carry the spirit home. Carry it to the highlands of Ethiopia and the mountains of Nepal, across the wide Pacific to Papua New Guinea, to the Andes of Peru and the savannas of South Africa. And carry with you one conviction above all: that our differences are not walls between us. They are the very reason cooperation works. Our differences are not reasons to divide. They are the source of everything we have to give.

回家吧，我的朋友們——帶著這樣一個堅定的信念：我們所有偉大的國家，能夠攜手一同崛起。請從全球南方，為和平發聲，為合作發聲。也請記得：無論事業把你們帶向何方，這里的老師都會一直注視著你們——滿懷期待，又帶著一絲緊張，正如當年初次相遇時的你們一樣。

Go home, my friends, as a generation that firmly believes great nations can rise together. Speak, from the Global South, for peace and for cooperation. And know that wherever your work takes you, your teachers here will be watching — hopeful, and a little nervous, just as you were the first time we saw each other.

2026屆的同學們，畢業快樂！

Happy graduation, Class of 2026!