On the afternoon of December 12, 2025, the "Grand Lecture Series on Reform and Opening Up and the Practice of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone," hosted by the School of Marxism and the Research Center for the History of Reform and Opening Up, Shenzhen University, was successfully held in Meeting Room 1600, Huiwen Building, Shenzhen University. Zhou Weimin, former Deputy General Manager of the Shekou Industrial Zone of China Merchants Group and head of the "Yuan Geng Memorial Special Fund" of the Shekou Community Foundation, delivered a brilliant lecture titled "'Reform Test Tube': The Conflict and Change of Ideas" to the faculty and students of Shenzhen University. The lecture was chaired by Prof. Xu Jianhua of the Research Center for the History of Reform and Opening Up, Shenzhen University, and was attended by faculty members and students of the School.

At the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Zhou Weimin pointed out that the Shekou Industrial Zone was a "reform test tube" approved for establishment by the Party Central Committee in the early days of reform and opening up. The bold exploration undertaken by the pioneers represented by Yuan Geng concerned not only the economic system but also reached more deeply into changes in social ideas and governance models, providing a valuable historical sample for understanding the complexity and forward-looking character of China's reform.

Mr. Zhou Weimin systematically explained Shekou's overall positioning, core experiments and value goals as a "reform test tube." Drawing on Yuan Geng's description of the Shekou experiment as "Edison's light bulb," he stressed that its exploratory significance lay in lighting the way and inspiring the future. Yuan Geng explicitly put forward the development vision of building Shekou into "the place most suitable for human habitation," a vision that went beyond purely economic growth goals and embodied a profound concern for all-round social progress and human development, forming the core value of the Shekou reform experiment. Combining the detailed archives of the Party Committee and the Administrative Committee of the Shekou Industrial Zone, Mr. Zhou Weimin reconstructed in detail the renewal of everyday ideas, the reform of the press and public opinion, and experimentation with the election of officials in Shekou, and systematically reviewed and reflected on the results of Shekou's ten years of reform experimentation together with their contemporary implications. He pointed out that Shekou's experiments achieved notable results in making officials younger and better educated and in energizing society at large. The persistent pursuit of the emancipation of ideas, institutional innovation and the modernization of the people embodied in Shekou's practice still holds profound inspirational value for comprehensively deepening reform today and advancing the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance. In the interactive session of the lecture, faculty members and students exchanged views with Mr. Zhou Weimin on questions such as "the historical conditions and universal significance of the Shekou experiment" and "how to resolve conflicts of ideas in the course of reform," and Mr. Zhou, drawing on his own research and his accumulation of historical materials, offered vivid and detailed answers to each of their questions.

At the end of the lecture, the moderator, Prof. Xu Jianhua, thanked Mr. Zhou Weimin for his brilliant presentation and delivered concluding remarks, noting that the lecture was solid in historical materials, vivid in narrative and profound in thinking, and that it not only recreated the magnificent historical panorama of Shekou as a "reform test tube" but also inspired the audience to draw courage and wisdom for continued reform from looking back at the past. The lecture drew to a successful close amid warm applause from the faculty and students.