On November 11, amid the country’s Singles Day online shopping bonanza, 103 freshmen from Tianjin University with financial disadvantages each received a free package from the university, containing either a coat, or a scarf or a pair of long johns to help them cope with the coming winter. It is one of the university’s long-standing practices to provide students with financial aids and humanitarian cares.
Like shopping online, the students were able to choose their favorite “goods” out of 10 kinds of coats, 15 scarf categories and two brands of long Johns and applied for them through an online questionnaire. The university, recording each individual wish, prepared the goods accordingly, packed them and handed the packages out for free on Double 11 purposefully, “to double students’ joy as everyone is enjoying the shopping spree,” one of the organizers introduced.
A specially designed waybill was attached to each and every package with the identical number of189510022020111129, indicating that until Nov. 11, 2020, Tianjin University which was founded on Oct.2, 1895 has been distributing winter clothes to freshmen with financial difficulties for 29 years in a row. The school motto “seeking truth from facts” was also printed on the waybill.
It is reported that since 1992, Tianjin University has insisted on purchasing and distributing cold resistant clothes for freshmen with financial difficulties at the beginning of the winter every year. From the military coat at the very beginning, then the thermal underwear, to the heartwarming gift bag this year, the university tries to welcome each freshman with sincere care in their first winter away from home.
By Cheng Sheng
Editor: Eva Yin
