On the evening of April 10th, 2022, Prof. Mao Haoran, dean of the School of Foreign Studies(SFS) of UPC, organized an open group meeting on Discourse of Comforting Lovelorn College Students, of which the 77 attendees were teachers inside and outside the campus, doctoral and postgraduate students.
During the whole process, Prof. Mao gave guidance and comments on the keynote speeches of six teachers. In her speech under the theme Discourse Research on the Online Psychological Counseling of Lovelorn College Students, Mao Xiaolin, an Arabic teacher, proceeded from the problems of the lovelorn students' disappointment and the targeted solutions. In her view, the lovelorn students tend to attribute their failure to self-denial, self-doubt, habitual emotional dependence, suspicion of the other part in the relationship, and the lack of deep connection. Therefore, facing those lovelorn people, the counselor should accept and understand their problems, recognize their needs and render them accompany and encouragement to relieve their negative feelings. Zhang Juan, a teacher from the administration office of the laboratory, made a speech entitled Each Failure in Love Is a Trial to explain the meaning of a break-up in both narrow and broad senses by introducing the film 50 First Dates at the beginning. Besides, she proposed establishing a psychological support system and shared her personal experiences. Mei Lin, director of the Student Affairs Office and postgraduate counselor of SFS, further sorted out the characteristics, types, and stages of failure in love. She noted that failure in love was, for counselors, first of all, a mental crisis, and counselors should deal with it by taking different measures at different stages. Failure in love can positively or negatively impact cognitive behavior, emotion, and mentality. However, proper guidance can convert its negative impact into positive feedback. Associate Professor Liu Yanqin analyzed the depression of lovelorn people in terms of its causes, manifestations, and solutions. Through typical case studies, she explored ways of helping people shake off the shadow of failure in love and restore their everyday lives from aspects of physiology, psychology, and society. Xiang Xinyu, secretary of the Youth League Committee of SFS, demonstrated with a mindmap of “six feelings,” i.e., pain, disillusion, and anger of the passive lovelorn as well as regret, misunderstanding, and vacancy of the active lovelorn. Associate Professor Liu Yuanyuan offered insights into the root causes of depression of those lovelorn students from the perspective of sudden physical and psychological crises. According to the statistics and conclusions of relevant break-up reports, she pointed out that a break-up crisis response calls for the differentiation of gender, characters’ mentality, and stages, which means we need to identify viable solutions from physical and psychological perspectives.
The teachers and students, including Prof. Zhang Yan, doctoral supervisor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Dr. Xu Yufeng of Qingdao Agricultural University, doctor candidate Jiang Hong of Shandong University, doctor candidate Zhang Li of Jeonju University, as well as Prof. Cheng Lulu, Prof. Sun Daman, Associate Prof. Zhang Jianke, Associate Prof. and doctor candidate Han Hui, doctor candidate Gao Sijia, master candidates Wang Lixin, Lin Xing, and Guo Yue of UPC School of Foreign Studies held heated discussions centering around the keynote speech. They then shared their opinions about it and recent experiences with research projects.
As the meeting was drawing to a close, Prof. Mao Haoran said it was great to see faculty members and students actively engage in this meeting inside and outside the campus, “Our faculty colleagues and students are buzzing with fresh ideas. Although unprepared, they still managed to talk about entering an uncharted academic territory, categorizing and classifying methods, thinking in terms of essentials, establishing analytical frameworks and introducing novel ideas from other disciplines. It is a real eye-opener for all of us.” On top of that, Prof. Mao also put forward six suggestions and requirements, namely: (1) pursuing healthy friendships to cushion the blow of failed relationships; (2) sorting literature reviews to improve reading efficiency; (3) adopting a practical and targeted approach; (4) differentiating academic achievements by clear structures; (5) embracing an analytical mind; and (6) being well-versed in academic discourse for scientific research is a fact of life.
This focus group meeting is informative, entertaining, and, more importantly, thought-provoking in nature. During the two-and-a-half-hour period, wide-ranging and in-depth discussions were held where the complexity was well-explained in simple terms, and everyone shared their opinions with zest and gusto. Although small in scale, it opened up new horizons for all participants. The open group meeting proves a great success, and as such, it merits further implementation down the road.
