From the beginning of the year to its end

從歲首到年終
In the today's sermon, Preacher Lan （藍毅里傳道） delivered a message with this title "From the beginning of the year to its end". It's about a land the Lord God has long before promised for the Israelite to inherit.

Back to the times of the Israelite in Egypt, they were serving as slaves for a long time there. God remembered what he had promised, and he sent Moses to bring his people up out of Egypt. With column of clouds and fire day and night, God led his people toward the promised land, Canaan (迦南；現在的以色列、巴勒斯坦). And what does this promised land look like? The Bible says, the land the Israelite were entering to take over is NOT LIKE the land of Egypt, from which they have come, where they planted their seed and irrigated it by foot [foot-empowering water pumping device] as in a vegetable garden. In contrast, the land they were crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rains from heaven. See the difference? This promised land is a place, where the water came for crop irrigation not by food stepping pump, but from the pouring rains of the sky; this land is not a small piece of garden for flower or vegetable plants only, but it is a land with huge mountains and valleys, where trees can grow up high into the sky. Moreover, it is a land flowing with honey and milk [imagine there're crop flowers, lambs, and goats all over the foothills and mountaintops]. Most importantly, it is a land that the Lord God cares for; the eyes of the Lord God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

But, how could the Israelite inherit this promised land? It's not just sitting there and waiting for a gift falling down from the sky. Here is the God's recipe given to the Israelites. In Deuteronomy 11: 8-9, it said "Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing...[you name it]" God promised to give the Israelite this land and also provided the Israelite the strength needed to take over it only that the Israelite follow God's commandment.

Listening to Lan's message, I think the audience may ask themselves this seriously: where is this promised land given to me? I would say, it may be in your family, at your school, or in the land far beyond your own country. The year of 2007 is almost over. Let's leave things, good or bad, of 2007 behind and press on toward the land of your heart in the new year of 2008.

Discovering Chia Nan University Series (1): Lohas CNU

I intend to use "Lohas" as a verb. So, it comes to have the meaning of revitalizing CNU when I put this: "Lohas CNU", where Lohas stands for "lifestyle of health and sustainability," a popular term nowadays. In Chinese, "Lohas CNU" can be said as "樂活嘉南藥裡科技大學". I don't know how my colleagues or students here at CNU would think about this Chinese term. I myself do have some expectation when we advocate this banner message.

If you browse CNU's website , you'll see that CNU was, is and will be playing a great role of health industries pushing hands. This university started its health mission with the establishment of pharmacy school in 1966. It then expanded further to involve itself in the health-related disciplines of human ecology, environment, and social science and management. From the standpoint of Innovation and Incubation Center, we see the urgent need to integrate our core capacities, which serve to realize its health mission more effectively and competitively. So, first we spun the first wheel by hosting a forum on the trend analysis of health tourism industry on December 26, 2007. This forum was followed by a panel discussion among the participants, including deans, department chairs, and chair professor. The invited speakers were Dr. G.L. Chen, President of Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center, and Dr. Y.F. Chang, Chair of Tourism Department of CNU.

This forum was kicked off by the opening speech of Vice President L.R Hsu, who emphasized the importance of this gathering and extended its thankfulness to both speakers. After a brief leading talk by Dr. C.H. Liao, Director of Innovation and Incubation Center, Dr. G.L. Chen made a 50 minutes presentation, which covers drugs development, medical equipment manufacturing, medical cosmetic business, and senior citizens caring business, and so on. The follow-up talk of Dr. Y.F. Chang was about the trend of tourism population and what the CNU can do to provide those health service products such as the CNU tours of SPA, cuisine, cosmetic beauty, and etc. Note that the presented material of Drs. Chen and Chang is available only by requesting.

Well, after this forum, what's the next and where does the CNU go from here? Let's see and stay tuned.

Christmas is here at Chia Nan University

Christmas is here at Chia Nan University. It is a perfect timing to get our foreign students and their advisers together during this joyful season.

So, Mullika of Khon Kaen University, Thailand was assigned to coordinate the whole lunch party program, including alien cuisines, musical performance, Thai songs, Christmas game, and gifts exchange. Pao-pao of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand helped out with the very traditional Thai food, Tomyamkun (See the video clip. This one smelled and tasted just perfectly Thai style; you felt like you are in Bangkok's restaurant.) and Ma-Ma brand fried noodles. In addition, Buenda and Ana of University of Philippines, Diliman prepared and cooked a two-thumbs-up dish (scallop with cheese and special Filipino sauces; I think it's a little bit salty. We should ask Prof. Gene Peralta of UPD to improve this one.) plus another dish of corn/carrot, the material of which was shopped from a Filipino shop near Tainan train station. On top of these, Dr. Lin's wife prepared a dish of famous Tainanese milk fish belly soup. Thanks to them, we enjoyed all these dishes very much.

What else did I left out, guys? If there're any, just browse the photo album and video clips (more coming up), use a little ingredient of imagination, and you'll catch most of the Christmas spirit, joyful and unforgettable.

Annual Convention of CNU Alumni Association of Taipei County

台北縣嘉南藥理科技大學校友會
Following the convention of CNU Alumni Association of Taipei city on Dec. 16, 2007, today, on Dec. 23, 2007, another alumni gathering was hosted at Universal Shopping Mall, Pan-Qiao (Click here for the location) by the CNU Alumni association based at Taipei county district.

The convention was opened with the Chair P.R. Gu's introduction of all special guests, including those alumni association chairs of different districts and CNU's delegates, Secretary General Dr. Y.J. Yu; Dr. J. S. Chang, Chief Officer of R&D; Dr. C.H. Liao, Director of Innovation and Incubation Center; Director T.P. Wu, Alumni Center; Dr. S. Tzch Wang, Department of Pharmacy. After several speeches, the convention was run through successfully according to the preset agenda. As you can see from the photo and a short video clip below, the alumni within the greater Taipei county district were greatly mobilized to participate this annual convention. Such mobilizing capacity seems to gain attention even from Mr. Xi-Wei Chou, the Magistrate of Taipei County. During the lunch time period, County Magistrate Chou gave a short speech and presented his own artwork as a gift to Chair Gu. His presence obviously brought great honor to the host and all others.

As usual, the joyful mood pervaded the gathering when the delegate, one after another, stepped on the stage and sang along with the karaoke. For those who like to see the photos taken in the convention, please click and see this album (大會活動照片).

Discovering Taiwan High Speed Rail

As stated by Taiwan High Speed Rail Company in 2005, the time has come for Taiwan people to live in a one-day peripheral circle. This is to say that I may be leaving for Taipei in the morning, tour around Taipei city and come back home in the evening on the same day. Note that it's about 400 km from my place to capital Taipei city (see the map here).

On Dec. 16, 2007, I took this bullet train (See how cool it is!) at 08: 17 at Gui-ren station and arrived Taipei station at 10:00 am, taking me 103 minutes on the train. After having a cup of coffee at Starbucks right in the station area, I walked around the street and took some photos (see the photo of grand building of Taipei station with a posted label "UN for TAIWAN, peace forever). Then, I went to Jin-Hua Restaurant for the CNU Alumni Convention (see my previous blog article) by taxi. I stayed in this convention until 3 pm. Right after this, Steven came to meet me for a casual street talk. Steven suggested to have a drink plus "Mr. Donut" at Breezing Square, a place where the young generation seems to like to go. So, there we enjoyed our afternoon conversation until around 5: 00 pm. I then took the 18: 06 train and came back to Gui-ren at 19: 49, another 103 minutes on the train.

So, that's my one-day trip to and from Taipe.

The 8th Convention of CNU Alumni Association of Taipei City

台北市嘉南藥裡科技大學校友會
The 8th convention of CNU Alumni Association of Taipei City was held yesterday, Dec. 16, 2007 at Jin-Hua Restaurant (see the map here), Taipei. The CNU's delegates were Secretary General Dr. Yuan-Jay Yu; Chair Professor J.L Chen, Graduate Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology; Dr. Chih-Hsiang Liao, Director of Innovation and Incubation Center; Director Tung-Po Wu, Alumni Center; Dr. S. Tzch Wang, Department of Pharmacy. More than one hundred of CNU Alumni participated in this convention, including those who chair CNU Alumni Association at different geographical districts. The convention started first with chair position transfer from Mr. H.C. Chang to Mr. H. J. Yo, and the newly elected Chair General of CNU Alumni Association, Mr. C.L. Chen was there to oversee the transfer ceremony. During the lunch time, the convention was further mobilized by the Tainan-based chorus led by Dr. N.H. Huang, Chief Chorus Officer. This chorus was specially established for those disabled minority. And they did have a wonderful performance. This convention was concluded at around 3: 00 pm with karaoke singing by alumni.
See the album here for some more photos taken at the convention.

Innovative Calligraphy Exhibition at Culture and Art Center, CNU.

Another exhibition is on the show again at Culture and Art Center (CAC), Chia Nan University, running from Dec. 12, 2007 through Jan. 30, 2008. It's about calligraphy which features the reversion of modern Chinese character back into its ancient pictograph. In a sense, you may catch the spirit of how the Chinese character was developed over the times. For example, the picture embedded in this plaque shows a running horse and the horse in Chinese character runs like this "馬". Did you catch the idea how they relate to each other? So, this is how the author Mr. Hong-Tien Chen presents all his calligraphy work.

Right on the opening ceremony, Mr. Chen himself demonstrated how the picture, or rather you may see it as a Chinese Character, was painted/written about a pig "zhu(豬)" (not quite related closely to the character, but just using your imagination). Let's see another example, guess what kind of animal this is in the picture. Well, it's a goose and it is "e(鵝)" in Chinese (the second photo from the bottom). Look this final one; it's "ru-yi (如意)", which means "as you wish" (photo of the bottom one)

In brief, Mr. Chen's work is like painting and like Chinese Character as well. Want to see more of these? Call CAC at 06-266-9760 for exhibition information. Catch some fresh idea from this slide show at this album before you get there. Also see the map here for the location of CNU.

Can the oldest children of families have the better chance to be somebody?

In the issue of No. 1045 (Dec. 3-9, 2007), Business Weekly has this report, "They are the oldest children of families for the following statistics: 43% of American entrepreneurial leaders, 91% of the first group of NASA astronauts, 53% of American Presidents, 75% of cross strait leaders, and 40% of Nobel prize winners." This report may mislead you to infer that the oldest children of families can have the better chance to be somebody. However, the inferred argument can be totally different if you see those statistics from the other way around. For example, 57% of American entrepreneurial leaders and 60% of Nobel prize winners are not the oldest children in their families. It seems to say implicitly that the oldest might be inferior to the younger ones. Again, this is misleading as well. Unless we provide each of family rank with its statistical values of investigated categories, we may jump into ambiguous conclusion. Nonetheless, I tend to buy the conclusion that the oldest one can have the better chance to be a VIP, based on the above data, which are close to or larger than 50%. Usually, the oldest are more disciplined, more responsible and more hardworking. These personalities are important factors to be successful in the job marketplace.

Sometimes, serving well the role of being the eldest in a family can be hard; there's psychological complex to be addressed there. In Luke 15 of the Bible, there's a story of the lost son (NLT version). A father had two sons. One day, the younger son came to his father and said, "I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die." What would you do if you are this father? This may be our common response, "what a son!" Well, the story went on like this: his father agreed to divide his wealth between his two sons. Make long story short. After several months, this younger son run out of all his money and was dying of hunger in the city. And he decided to go home and ask for his father's forgiveness. To his surprise, his father welcome him home with the finest robe put on him, a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. In addition, a great feast was prepared for celebration of his safe return. What do you think the older son would respond to this? He was angry and wouldn't go into the house as he returned home from the fields working. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, "All these years I've worked hard for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the finest calf we have." All long hidden grievances gushed out of this older son's heart. To this, here came father's reply, "Hey, Sony! you and I are close, and all I have is yours. we had to celebrate this happy day because your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!" Well, what can you say about this? He is the Father!

There's more about this. Jacob and Esau were brothers to each other, Esau the older son of Isaac and Jacob the younger one. Before they were born, Isaac pleaded with the LORD to give Rebekah his wife a child because she was childless. So, the LORD answered Isaac's prayer, and his wife became pregnant with twins. But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. "Why is this happening to me?" she asked. And the LORD told her, "The sons in your womb will become two rival nations. One nation will be stronger than the other; the descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son." See, they were so destined, and the older will serve the younger. What can you say about this? He is the LORD.

Another one is this. Jacob got 12 sons. Joseph was the younger one among them. Yet, one night Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers like this, "We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. My bundle stood up, and then your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before it!" His brother taunted Joseph with this, "So you are going to be our king, are you?" This dreamer had another dream, "The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed before me!" His father rebuked him by this, "Will your mother, your brothers, and I actually come and bow before you?" Because of these two dreams, Joseph was sold by his brothers to the place of Egypt. If we go through the whole Genesis, Jacob's family history run just exactly what Joseph had dreamed. It is God, who had brought the younger Joseph to Egypt and promoted him to the high position, next to the Pharaoh, so he could save the lives of many people, including his father and his brothers. What can you say about this? He is the God who led the path of human history at his sovereign will.

Here is the last part related to the struggle between the older and the younger brother. Jacob became quite old and he was half blind because of his age and could hardly see. One day, Joseph came to ask for his father Jacob's blessing on his two boys, the older Manasseh and the younger Ephraim. Joseph positioned the boys so Ephraim was at Jacob's left hand and Manasseh was at his right hand. I suppose that the older should be blessed by the right hand and the younger by the left hand. But what upset Joseph was that Jacob crossed his arms as he reached out to lay his hands on his two grandsons' heads. So, his right hand was on the head of Ephraim, the younger boy, and his left hand was on the head of Manasseh, the older. Joseph did try to lift the right hand of his father to place it on Manasseh's head, and said to his father, "No, Fatehr, this one over here is older. Put your right hand on his head." But his father refused. "I know what I'm doing, Sony," he said. "Manasseh, too, will become a great people, but his younger brother will become even greater. His descendants will become a multitude of nations!" So, in this way, Jacob put Ephraim the younger ahead of Manasseh the older. What can you say about this? He is the Father!

It looks to me that the younger brother can outperform the older brother because of the mercy and favor of the Father.