Long before he stepped onto PKU’s campus in 1978, Chen Xingliang was drawn to philosophy. He could not have foreseen that law would become his lifelong academic calling. He arrived at Peking University as part of the first cohort of college students after the college entrance examination was restored. Back then, legal education was still being rebuilt and attracted relatively few students. What began as an uncertain start grew into decades of teaching. After 28 years in the classroom, Chen Xingliang was awarded the 2026 Peking University Teaching Achievement Award. For Chen, teaching means passing down rigorous legal thinking, one generation to the next. “I hope to help students build solid academic foundations and independent minds,” he says — guiding young legal scholars to explore the boundaries of law at Peking University. Read more: #PKUScholars#