“The morning sun brings brightness, so that you can see everything all over the world.” It is midsummer and suddenly the ground is covered with many watermelons. The sunlight in the morning was warmly shining into the central square of the campus of CAFA where there was a watermelon field in the place that was originally a lawn, the new seedlings with dewdrops and lovely round watermelons revealed a summer harvest scene in the morning. In the midsummer, watermelons ripen during the CAFA Graduation Season that “Promises” a harvest and happiness. The harvested watermelon field and the joyful harvest season are our promises for this summer. “Are you serious? People found that CAFA had turned into a watermelon field when they woke up on the morning!”

On the morning of June 1, when the teachers and students who had not yet woken picked up their phones and viewed the news from their circle of friends on Wechat, they were shocked that “CAFA has been turned into a watermelon field over night”, which was like a spam within the circle of friends.

“CAFA Graduation Season made a promise about June 1, which is to embrace the harvest (represented by watermelons)!” “Who says that it will not cause trouble during this graduation?” “How good is the harvest? CAFA invites you to come to CAFA and eat watermelons”; “Watermelons arrive in CAFA, you can’t guess the routine at CAFA”; “The Graduation season means there are pupils everywhere, and CAFA is filled with the fragrance of melons and fruit”; It is a new species of watermelon, which has been cultivated over a few hours, this has been fruitful and a variety of dreams can be true” ... Teachers, classmates, alumni, CAFA’s people and friends who love CAFA are excitedly spamming, gathering to enjoy this happy holiday on June 1.

At 4:00 pm, 10 SF Express tricycles which were fully loaded express cartons entered the gate of the campus. Two hours later, SF Express boxes were piled to make a hill on the steps next to the “watermelon field”. Was this another surprise? The teachers and students, who were in the watermelon field, curiously came to the scene to explore what was happening.

“Dear graduates, hello! Your alma mater prepares a graduation gift for you, please go to the watermelon field to sign up, avoiding the loss.” The 10 couriers were sweating and busy to quickly send messages to the graduates according to the “promise”. Yes, it is an unexpected surprise, and also the alma mater’s promise, preparing a gift for each person of the 1214 graduates.

“It is too surprising, I didn’t expect to receive a gift so I was surprised by the watermelon field in the morning!” The graduates who received the gifts, were delighted and moved, taking the express boxes from the couriers, with the expectation of demystifying everything, can’t wait to enjoy the process of opening the “surprise”.

“Oh, it is a sketch with a signature of Sun Jingbo” “I received a paper used to wipe brushes by Prof. Su Xinping, this is too precious,” “My gift is the commemorative doorplate of No. 5 Xiaowei Alley”, “I received a gray brick engraved with the name of CAFA”, it is so great that I would like to set it in the wall”, “I receive the words written by Ma Lu,” “I receive ‘A Brief History of Mankind’ by Yu Hong”, “I receive a VIP card for a theater performance by Chen Zhuo”, “I am so surprised to receive Bob Dylan’s vinyl record with the signature of Song Xiewei, which is inscribed with the words: The answer is floating in the wind!” “I am so excited to receive this written by President Fan Di’an” “I am so lucky to receive a mysterious prize, which is to be announced at the graduation ceremony ... the surprises and unexpected things continuously happen in the express sites in front of Building 7, the library, CAFA Art Museum, the grove, the gate of North Area, Building 14 …

The warmer plots occurred in the Houshayu campus and Yanjiao campus, “Hi, you are not in the campus? It doesn’t matter, I will ask my colleague to send it to you, no matter where you are.” When the students from the School of Urban Design who were arranging the exhibition received a courier’s phone call, they were so moved that the fatigue of arranging the exhibition subsided.

A brick, a doorplate, a sentence, a book, a sketch, from the leaders of the school to the teachers, from the careful organization of the school to the graduation season design group’s elaborate creativity, these surprises and unexpected things are the promise of the alma mater for the graduates, who have always been cared for by the alma mater.

At 8:00 pm, 10 students using a speaker, standing up in the crowd on a small yellow bicycle then shouted that “The exhibition starts! The exhibition starts! Come on! Let’s go to see the graduation exhibition.” In the twilight, the lights were lit on the campus and the colorful light beamed to light up the campus, while the external walls of the Museum of School History, CAFA Art Museum and Building 5 projected the laser subtitles of “The exhibition starts”, 2017 undergraduates’ graduation exhibition starts with a happy atmosphere.

Text by the Propaganda Department, CAFA and CAFA ART INFO, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Yang Yanyuan and Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO