On March 14 8:00p.m. EDT, Liu Jin, Associate Professor of Department of History of the School visiting Washington and Lee University in Virginia, gave a lecture titled "The God of Nature:Chinese Beliefs about Nature" at Turman Room of Preston Library, VMI, at the invitation of Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

Starting from the current religious situation in China, Mr. Liu Jin pointed out that popular religion and folk belief actually occupy the two most important positions in the Chinese belief world.

Next, Mr. Liu Jin explained in detail to VMI students the worship and belief of ancient China in the God of Nature from natural phenomena such as wind, cloud, thunder and lightning to Five Mountains, Four Rivers and Four Seas. After that, Mr. Liu Jin selected representative animals such as dragon, fox, snake, bear and tiger, pointing out the positions and unique meanings of various animals in China's belief system in different contexts of eastern and western cultures. Mr. Liu focused on the different images of dragon in the East and West, explained the appearance and functions of Chinese dragon to the students, stressed the great differences between Chinese dragon and western dragon, and corrected the misreading of China by many American students.

Mr. Liu's lecture was concise in language and illustrated with pictures and texts, and video materials were used to show Chinese folk beliefs to students intuitively, so that American students could appreciate a strange and interesting Eastern belief world, which was conducive to American students to understand and accept Chinese culture faster. After the lecture, VMI students interacted with Mr. Liu on many questions about Chinese folk beliefs, and Mr. Liu gave detailed answers one by one. The lecture ended with warm applause from VMI teachers and students.