Xiamen University was founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, the well known patriotic overseas Chinese leader. It was the first university in China founded by an overseas Chinese. At present it is the only key comprehensive university directly affiliated with the Education Ministry in any of the five special economic zones and is one of China's higher-level universities designated for the state key construction of the "211 Project" and the "985 Project." When the university was first founded, Tan Kah Kee chose the following for its motto: "Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection." Over the past eighty-two years, as the result of painstaking efforts by several generations of faculty and graduates, Xiamen University has accumulated rich experience in offering its educational programs.