Hosted by Xiao Xianghong, party secretary of the College of Wildlife Resources, academician Ma Jianzhang attended the 17th “NEFU Teacher Says”to share his life stories about teaching and researching with more than 300 teachers and students on May, 20.Jian Zhang Lectureswas also launched before the meeting. Academician Ma shared his life experience and understanding with the audience with the theme “As pressure as sunset, even a buffalo works without whipping, my life as a teacher and a researcher”.

Fly with dreams, pursuit with insistence

Academician Ma was born in 1937, the year of the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Therefore, his Chinese dream from his childhood was to change China into a world power since his childhood. Even though Ma’s family lived in poverty when he was young, his parents insisted on his study, so being grateful and missing parents is an important emotional topic for Ma. Ma Jianzhang accepted good Sinology as a child, which laid a solid foundation for him to writeChina's natural conservation history.The interest in his childhood also encouraged him to work further in forestry in the further. In 1956, academician Ma graduated from Zha lan tun school, and was recommended to Northeast Forestry College or Beijing Forestry College. Ma finally chose Northeast Forestry College because of the mountains, water, forests, and wild animals in the northeast and the five-years’ learning period. The poem “I want to spread my wings to fly to where my country needs” he wrote in college became the real image of academician Ma’s life as a researcher.

Ma Jianzhang became a teacher in Northeast Forestry College in 1960 and founded the department of forest animal breeding and utilization under arduous circumstances, which is the first equivalent department in China.  In order to develop this department, Academician Ma studied zoology and ecology with professor Zhang Mengwen. During the process of learning, Aldo Leopold’s Hunting Animal Management changed Ma’s view on wildlife protection. The balance between utilization and preservation of wild animals has become a lifelong research topic for academician Ma.

Open, Share, and Concentrate on Research

With the development of his experience, academician Ma clearly realized that culture is ethnical, but science is universal. Anyself-insolation will ultimately lead to degeneration. Therefore, Ma caught every chance to take his students to discuss and learn advanced technology with experts throughout the world. Academician Ma founded China’s first endangered animals rescue and preservation center “Hengdaohezi Cat Animal Breeding Center”, which created a precedent for domestic tiger protection and research. Even during the Cultural Revolution, Ma did not stop researching.  After that, academician Ma undertook the project of “Three North Shelter-belt Region” for wildlife resources and nature reserves and presided over the China-US cooperation project: study of the ferret ecology

Love and Respect Occupation, Achieve Abundance Excellent Students

Academician Ma carried out much basic research on gazelles and bear ecology. Research methods of large mammal traces in winter and reverse lines method, pointed out by Ma, are still widely adopted. Even though academician Ma’s research methods achieved many prizes and he also worked in many academic institutions, the honor that he values most is the national famous teacher. Academician Ma attaches great importance to the cultivation of students, emphasizing the practice of students training. He guided students’ experiments and practices by himself, which achieved good results. Academician Ma even works during the spring festival, but his hard working is reciprocated by thousands of excellent graduates. Our university has cultivated more than 6,000 talents majoring in various departments at present, who have become the backbone of China’s wildlife protection. They are called Ma’s army in the research field.

Finally, academician Ma encouraged students to develop good habits in living and studying, and to organize their life paths. He shares his motto “endeavor, perseverance, indomitability, and aspiration”. During the interaction, academician Ma Jianzhang patiently answered students’ questions. Ping Jinkun, 2016 Logistics engineering class one, said “We should learn from Mr. Ma’s spirit that he insisted on giving us lectures at this advanced age. In addition, Mr. Ma’s rich experience also brought inspirations. We must study hard.”

A Chinese saying goes: “Old buffalos know the value of sunset, therefore, they work without whipping”. Academican Ma explicitly interprets this as the “buffalo spirit”. During the speech, Academician Ma Jianzhang inspired and illuminated students’ mind in a knowledgeable, humorous, and dignified style.