首先，祝贺组合数学中心十周年生日快乐！并祝贺所有参与这个十周年的人和事！每个周年都是一个回顾历史，展望未来很好的时刻。
早在80年代末90年代初我与中国及中国学术有了第一次亲密接触。那个时候李学良教授在荷兰访问了我所在的大学，并在那里取得了博士学位，然后回到新疆大学执教；两年后，他又再次到我们学校访问。我和学良（都是属狗的，1958年出生）成了非常亲密的朋友，也正因为这样，我们多次在学术上有很深的交流：合作写文章，交换学生，相互访问（各自所在的学校）；当然我们也因此获得了更深厚的友谊。从他以及多次亲身经历，我学到了很多，了解了中国，这个与欧洲国家有着很大不同的国度，拥有非常悠久的文化和厚重的历史。我相信他对文化间的差异以及我们如何从差异中相互学习也有相同的体验。我们一起见证了中国的巨大变化。在六次访问中心期间，我亲身体会到了中国的飞速发展。同时，我也看到了我的中国朋友（及其家庭）的发展：学良从西安的西北工业大学调至天津南开大学工作。无论是中国的发展还是我的中国朋友和家人的发展都让我觉得无比的快乐与幸福。因此，我非常高兴地接受了南开大学访问教授这一荣誉称号。
因为是访问教授，所以我可以定期的访问李学良教授、他所在组合数学中心以及中心的同事和学生。我认为中心是一个非常伟大的研究机构，是一个值得大家去工作和深造的地方。在我看来，陈永川教授创办的中心为大家创造了一个优越的组合数学学术研究和教学环境；而组合数学也因其令人惊讶的飞速发展在现代数字世界变得越来越重要。我有幸成为这样一个硕果累累的环境中的一员。同时，我也觉得能够为那些聪明和积极思考的学生上课是一种莫大的鼓励。另外，在中心组织的春季运动会中，我参加了拔河比赛的教师队，打败了学生队，我觉得非常棒！
展望未来，我看到了中国的伟大前景，也看到了中心及其师生的美好未来。回首过去十年，中心取得了很多成就，现在它已成为世界上组合数学领域最大、最强的研究机构之一；伴随着中国的不断发展和改革开发的深入，将会有更多的外国学者访问中心，中心的老师和学生出国学习也会变得越来越容易。这一切都将提升中心的国际形象。中心将声名远播，在国际学术领域将赢得越来越多的名望。我觉得自己也应该致力推动这方面的发展。我坚信这对我们大家，包括中心的所有老师和同学，来说都受益非浅。新的一代将受益于我们目前所学到的，而我们之间的不断增进的学术交流也将促进他们的发展。
根据多次到中国访问的亲身经历，我可以预测，许多年轻人将达到并担任高级学术职务，并把他们的知识与经验传递出去，使其他人受益。再过10或20年，这些年轻的一代又会回想起他们在中心的点点滴滴，这些点点滴滴将成为他们心中最美好、最温暖的回忆：因为中心是他们在学术界迈出第一步的地方，是他们梦想起飞的地方。
对于我们所以参与的人来说，能够参与这个庆祝活动是一种巨大的喜悦。我祝贺中心十周年庆祝活动能取得圆满成功！祝贺中心及所有参与这次庆祝活动的师生都有一个美好的未来！
【英文原稿】
My Colorful Life in CFC
First of all let me congratulate the Center and all those involved with this tenth anniversary. An anniversary is a good moment for looking back and looking ahead.
Personally, when I look back, my first contacts with China and Chinese academics go back to the late eighties and early nineties, when Xueliang Li visited my university in The Netherlands, got his PhD from our department, and returned to Xinjiang University in Urumchi, where we visited him two years later. Xueliang and I - both "dogs" with birth year 1958 - became very close friends, and this friendship has resulted in deep academic contacts with several joint papers, exchanges of students and mutual visits, and a warm personal relationship. I have learned a lot from him and the many experiences in this different world called China with such a rich culture and history which is so different from Europe. I am sure he has similar experiences with the differences in culture and background, and how much we can learn from them and from each other. We also witnessed a period with many changes in China. During my six visits I noticed the rapid development with my own eyes. I also witnessed the personal development of my Chinese friend when I followed Xueliang when he moved to Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an and later to Nankai University in Tianjin. Both the development of China and of my Chinese friend and his family give me a great feeling of joy and happiness. Therefore it was a great pleasure for me to accept a visiting professorship at Nankai University.
Since I obtained this visiting professorship I can visit him, and his colleagues and students at the Center for Combinatorics on a regular basis. I think this is a great institute, and a very good place to be. In my opinion, with the Center Bill Chen created an excellent environment for academic research and teaching in an area of mathematics that is becoming more and more important in our digital world with its amazing and rapidly developing technology. I find myself very lucky to be able to participate in this fruitful environment, and I find it very rewarding to give lectures for such talented and motivated students. (And beating the students with "tug of war" was of course a great feeling!!)
Looking ahead I see a great future for China and for the Center and its staff and students. Building on the achievements of the last ten years, the Center is one of the largest of its kind in the world, and also one of the strongest. With the continuing development and opening up of China it will become easier and easier for guests to visit the Center and for its staff and students to go abroad. This will raise the international profile of the Center, and it will become more and more known in the academic world and get the reputation it earns. I feel committed to stimulate this development. I am sure this will benefit all of us: the permanent staff of the Center, the temporary staff, but also the students. New generations will benefit from all we have learned so far, and the increasing interaction will boost their development.
If I look ahead with the learning experiences from my visits to China in the back of my mind, I foresee that many of the young generation will reach and occupy high academic positions, and spread their knowledge and join their experiences to benefit others. Thinking back after a decade or two, they will have good memories of their first steps in the academic world and warm feelings about the Center, the place where it all began!
To be part of this celebration is a great joy for all of us involved! I wish the Center and all of those involved a very nice celebration and a great great future!!
（May 22, 2007）
