Exploring Blog

Visits to Hoshi University, Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, and Tohoku University

2012-01-04T11:37:00.002+08:00

The CNU's visits to Hoshi University (HU), Tohoku Pharmaceutical University (TPU), and Tohoku University (TU), Japan were arranged on December 17-23, 2011.

The CNU's delegates include Professor Chih-Hsiang Liao, R&D Office Head, Professor Kuan-Han Lee, Dean of College of Pharmacy and Science, and Associate Professor Tzu-Chueh Wang, Department of Pharmacy. The purpose of this trip to Japan was to strengthen bilateral relationship between CNU and HU, to revitalize partnership and renew the MOU between CNU and TPU, and to greet to Professor Yoshiteru Oshima, Dean of Pharmaceutical Sciences at TU.

The report on this trip Japan can be browsed here, and the short video clip is presented below. After this trip, there will be international conference to be co-hosted by CNU and HU this year. And the TPU's President and Chair of Board of Trustees, Dr. Katanagagi Motoaki, is planning to visit CNU in March 2012. So, good things are in store for this new year of 2012.

Board Chair Masato Murasaki's visit to CNU

2011-10-22T16:16:00.001+08:00

After the visit of Dean Yoshiyasu Fukuyama of Tokushima Bunri University (TBU) in August, here was another visit of TBU's Board Chair Masato Murasaki with his other delegates on October 18, 2011: Professor Tateo Goto (Head of Office of Admissions), Professor Osamu Doi (Head of International Office), and Professor Kojun Setsu (Pharmaceutical faculty). The MOU between TBU and CNU was endorsed at TBU early this year in February 2011. So the visit of Board Chair Murasaki himself to CNU sends a strong message of the strengthening of bilateral relationship between both the parties.

During the reception meeting, the issues of future exchange discussed include short- and long-term visit of students, transferable course credits, Chinese course offering and joint research projects. As Board Chair Murasaki pointed out in the meeting, both the parties did not only sign a pieces of paper, but also we need to go further and deeper for the real and solid collaboration. In responding to this, I am sure there will be fruitful achievements in the near future because of bilateral efforts made by students and faculty of both sides.

Following the meeting, there're campus tour through Herbal Research Center, Taiwan Hot Spring Research Center, and Health Promotion Center. Due to his great personal affinity and humorous talk, we all had wonderful time touring around our campus.

The visit of Board Chair Murasaki and his accompanying delegates was concluded by the CNU-hosted dinner banquet and a brief historic tour of Chi-Kan Lou (赤崁樓).

Joint tour by the members of the CNU, USU, TBU and MetroBank

2011-08-29T12:17:00.010+08:00

Note:

- For the technical activities in the morning, click here (TaiSugar Corp. visit) to see video clip in detail.

- For the cultural activities in the afternoon and evening, click here (Historic sites visit), here (Tea times), and here (Meal times) to see video clips in detail.

- Click the photo album to see all the photos taken in the past few days.

有朋自遠方來不亦樂乎

As I mentioned in my previous two blog articles, the CNU was visited by the delegates of (1) MetroCorp Bancshares, Inc. (Mrs. and Chairman Don J. Wang), and Utah State University (Dean Noelle E. Cockett, Prof. Ron Munger, and Director Brandon Monson); and (2) Tokushima Bunri University (Dean Yoshiyasu Fukuyama). Since these two events happened to be in the same week. So, we decided to arrange a joint tour on August 27 to get more acquainted with one another. And it turned out to be a wonderful and enjoyable Saturday.

In the morning time, we visited Taiwan Sugar Research Institute, which is under Taiwan Sugar Corporation. We were warmly received by Deputy Director Jeremy Ming-Hong Jean and his colleagues when we arrived at TSRI. There we had panel discussion and walked through fermenting lab, sugar production museum, greenhouse for orchid, cucumber, and tomato cultivation. The final stop was the research lab for orchid cultivation.

In the afternoon and evening time, first Miss Fanni Wang toured us around Taiwan Literature Museum and Confucius Temple. As a citizen of this oldie city, I would say these two historic sites are the ones all visitors have to go and see. Also, you may stop by the Lily's Ice&Fruit House, and cool down a little bit after a long walk under the strong sunshine, and hot and humid weather. Then, Miss Wang brought us to another private garden house, where we all really enjoyed a very relaxing tea time and beautiful garden of dwarf potted plants. At the close of this day, we had "National" banquet dinner at Chou's Shrimp House. There you may taste all dishes of very traditional meals of this oldie city. After the dinner, we went to another tea house to experience and taste the real tea especially prepared by the tea master.

So, that's the day we had, technically and culturally.

Distinguished guest from Tokushima Bunri University

2011-08-26T17:48:00.002+08:00

After the endorsement of MOU between Tokushima Bunri University and Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science on February 21, 2011, frequent mutual exchanges are undergoing. First, the 22 students and 2 faculty paid a one-week visit to TBU on August 1-6, 2011. As described in the visiting reports written by the visiting students, the visit was exciting, impressive and unforgettable experiences in their life of study.

Now, we have another visit by our partner university. Professor Yoshiyasu Fukuyama, TBU's Dean of College of Pharmacy arrived at Taoyuan International Airport yesterday and was warmly received by Professor S.C. Wang of Pharmacy Dept. of the CNU.

Today, Dean Yoshiyasu Fukuyama gave a special talk to the faculty and students of College of Pharmacy and Science, after greeting to President Li-Jen Hsu of the CNU. The speech conference was hosted by Dean KH Lee of Pharmaceutical College. The talk was about plant-extracted natural products. I am sure there will be further joint research between both the parties because of Prof. Fukuyama's speech. For some reason, Professor Yoshinori Asakawa, the worldwide and well-known scholar form the TBU, could not make this trip. It's hoped that he will be here at CNU some day in the very near future. Maybe we can invite those who google-search "Yoshinori Asakawa" of different countries to come over and enjoy his talk on natural products.

Distinguished guests from Utah State University and Bank MetroCorp Bancshares Inc.

2011-08-25T17:52:00.004+08:00

Through Chairman Don J. Wang, Bank MetroCorp Bancshares Inc., the Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (CNU) has such a great honor to receive our distinguished guests from Utah State University (USU). This visiting team includes Prof. Noelle E. Cockett, Dean of College of Agriculture (CoA), USU, Professor Ron Monger, Nutrition Dept., and Brandon Monson, CoA Development Director.

Reception lunch banquet was hosted by Board Chair Chao-Hsiung Wang and President Li-Jen Hsu of CNU on August 25, 2011. Following this, there's MOU endorsement between College of Agriculture-USU and College of Human Ecology-CNU. Both Deans Professor Noelle Cockett and Professor Pin-Der Duh endorsed the official document and thus initiate the new beginning of bilateral collaboration between the USU and CNU. The singing ceremony was organized by Research and Development Office and presided by both President Li-Jen Hsu and Chairman Don J. Wang, along with the witnesses of all department chairs of CoHE of CNU. After a brief break, the campus tour was offered to our distinguished guests, including constructed wet land and health promotion center.

As discussed in our panel discussion, future cooperation between the USU and CNU may begin with the short term training workshop during the period of summertime. In addition, joint research proposal may be proposed, seeking the possibilities of acquiring the grant from Taiwan National Science Council and US agent, respectively. In the long run, we need to raise the collaborative level from the college to university. Through the MOU endorsement at university level, we both the parties may further establish the dual degree program or mutual recognition of course credits. This can promote greatly mutual exchange of faculty and students.

So, let's see and think about how we the USU and the CNU can work together in a solid way. It's hoped that we may extend the multi-lateral relationship and connect to those prestigious universities in Southeast Asian countries.

Workshop on Taiwanese Architecture at National Cheng Kung University

2011-08-06T12:42:00.007+08:00

台灣傳統大木丈篙傳習

Before I promote this workshop in this blog article, I wish Dr. Carpenter my father a very Happy Papa's Day. In Taiwan, the day of August 8 is commonly called Papa's Day because of the pronunciation of "88" in mandarin.

Starting from July 30 until November 19, 2011, the Dept. of Architecture, National Cheng Kung University is organizing a traditional workshop on Taiwanese Architecture every weekend of this period. This workshop is supported by Headquarters Administration of Cultural Heritage, Council for Cultural Affairs (行政院文化建設委員會文化資產總管理處籌備處). The invited instructors include Master Zhi-Der Liao (廖枝德大木師阜; I call him Dr. Carpenter) for traditional Taiwanese house construction and Master Han-Tsen Hsu (許漢珍大木師阜) for Taiwanese temple construction. 25 workshop members involve those from Historic Sites and Architecture Professionals Association (古蹟暨歷史建築匠師協會), construction engineering Inc., architect office, indoor maintenance individual, design workroom, and universities. The workshop opening was held on July 30, 2011 in Taichung, and will be closed with participants' achievement exhibition on November 19, 2011 in Tainan.

Inquire the details of this workshop to Professor Ming-Fu Hsu's office (成功大學建築學系徐明福教授研究室) with the phone of 06-2757575 ext. 54131.

Mission for MOUs endorsement at Ho Chi Minh and Danang, Vietnam

2011-08-01T11:25:00.005+08:00

In November 2004, we, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (CNU), first endorsed MOU with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST). After almost 7 years, the mission for our Vietnam trip will be MOUs endorsement with Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) and The University of Danang (UD), with Danang University of Technology (DUT) being a member of UD.

We made this trip on July 27, 2011. The CNU's delegates include:

- Professor Dr. Suen-Zone Lee, Vice President (李孫榮副校長);

- Professor Dr. Chih-Hsiang Liao, Chief Officer, Research and Development Office (廖志祥研發長);

- Associate Professor Dr. I-Ming Chen, Chair, Dept of Environ. Resources Manag’t (陳意銘主任);

- Chair Professor Chung-Cheng Chang, Dept. of Environ. Resources Manag’t (張宗仁講座教授);

- Associate Professor Dr. Meng-Wei Wang, Dept. of Environ. Eng. and Sci. (萬孟瑋副教授).

After arriving at Ho Chi Minh City the first day, we made our way to HCMUT. We were received warmly by Rector Vu Dinh Thanh, External Relation Office Head Nguyen Danh Thao and its staff Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Tam, and Dean of College of Environment Nguyen Phuoc Dan. There're some talks and discussions before the MOU was signed officially. This MOU endorsement marks the endeavoring fruit of the past 2-year contact and collaboration, plus the upcoming forum to be organized by Dean Dan next year there at HCMUT.

The next day, we first attended the opening of "2011 International Forum on Green Technology and Management (IFGTM)" at Bamboo Green Hotel. This forum was organized by HUST, DUT, HCMUT, and CNU, with the Chairmen including Assoc. Prof. Huynh Trung Hai (Director of INEST, HUST), Assoc. Prof. I-Ming Chen (Chair of ERM, CNU), and Dr. Tran Van Quang (Dean of Faculty of Environment, DUT). Following the welcome speech by President Tran Van Nam of UD, opening remark by Dean Huynh Trung Hai, and IFGTM profile introduction by Chair I-Ming Chen, the official MOU endorsement between UD and CNU was witnessed by all participants. Right

after this, the MOU for the Environmental College Consortium was also endorsed by the four Deans from HUST, DUT, HCMUT, and CNU, respectively. This endorsement serves to pave the way for the future internationally inter-college collaboration focusing on green technology and management. More members will be invited to join such college consortium, in addition to the four core members of HUST, DUT, HCMUT, and CNU. Furthermore, it is aimed to invite the governmental agents and industrial sector as well to participate in the future activities. In other

words, the platform for the industry, government and university has been officially and strongly set up for the international cooperation.

Following the MOUs endorsement, VP Lee and I took a brief tour at DUT's campus. We were received by Rector Le Kim Hung. Through the casual talk and campus tour, we understood each other more and more. This should help in our further binding between the DUT and CNU.

The dinner banquet marked the end of our mission for this Vietnam trip. Yet, it also means the beginning of challenging and adventuring works ahead in years to come.

Demo on building a wood-fueled cooking stove

2011-07-25T15:13:00.001+08:00

Si-luo Bridge Art Camp (西螺大橋藝術兵營) hosted a field activity on how to build a wood-fueled cooking stove at Hsin-Kan-Dang, Tainan on July 23, 2011.

Again, Dr. Carpenter was invited by the Artist Chao-Cang Lee (李朝倉) for this special event. More than 20 participants of different cities really enjoyed this technical tour as they observed and leaned to build a small-scale cooking stove. As you can see from the video clip, the building materials required only the reclaimed bricks, and clay soil which was taken nearby at the site. In addition, you need a pan or frying pot to shape the opening of this cooking stove while you wall up the bricks with the slimy soil plaster.

Enjoy the video and learn how to make a Taiwanese style and biomass-fueled cooking stove.

ICONT 2011

2011-06-11T15:52:00.006+08:00

I am doing something related to nanotech. So, I decided to attend this International Conference on Nanotechnology- Research and Commercialization at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, June 6-9, 2011. It was organized by SIRIM Berhad and supported by Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) of Malaysia.

After a brief opening speech by the Conference Chair Dr. Abdul Kadir Masrom, all participants stood up to pay respect to Malaysian national and local anthems. Then, there's a religious man praying for the successful conference. The special guest's speech was given by Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Minister of MOSTI, who was born in Sabah. Following his speech, MOU endorsement ceremony was held between SIRIM/AJou U., SIRIM/UST-Iran, and SIRIM/U. Malaysia Pahang.

In general, the conference themes cover nano issues related to quantum, synthesis/structure, characterization and technology. There were plenary session and parallel session in each day. The plenary session was delivered by prestigious keynote and invited speakers in the early morning time and the parallel session by oral presenters in the late morning and afternoon time. With the program schedule arranged like this, you may access knowledge of various nano issues in both depth and breadth from different speakers. This is the nice part of this conference.

The keynote and invited speakers involve those from Korea (Prof. Jae-Ho Kim, Ajou U.; Prof. Hanjo Lim, Ajou U.; Prof. Namkyoo Park, Seoul Nat'l U.; Prof. Takhee Lee, Gwangju Inst. of Sci. and Tech.; Prof. Yong-Hoon Cho, KAIST; Prof. Kihong Kim, Ajou U.), Japan (Prof. Koichi Sasaki, Hokkaido U.), Lithuania (Prof. Valentinas Snitka, Kaunas U. of Tech.), Iran (Prof. Ali Beitollahi, U. of Sci. and Tech.), and Malaysia (Prof. Ng Kwan Hoong, U. Malaya; Prof. Jose Rajan, U. Malaysia Pahang; Associate Prof. Mohamad Rusop Mahmood, U. Tech. Mara; Prof. Uda Hashim, U. Malaysia Perlis).

The conference was climaxed by banquet dinner with very colorful and cultural amusement. That was always the touching moment to bring participants of different nations and very diversified culture together. In brief, the ICONT was worthy of participation if there's the next one. Note that according to my conversation with Dr. AK Masrom, the ICONT 2013 may be held in Sarawak.

Congratulations to Eric

2011-05-29T18:39:00.003+08:00

I flied to Manila on May 25, 2011 for Eric's oral defense.

The next day, Eric gave his oral defense of dissertation. After almost one hour of his presentation, Eric was fed a bunch of questions from Professor M.C. Lu of Chia Nan University. In spite of Prof. Lu's questions, in general, I would say that Eirc had conveyed solid explanations on his research outcomes. He knew what and where he was in. At last, all the panel agreed that Eric passed his oral exam only to reorganize his dissertation according to its standard format.

So, congratulations to Eric for his doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering, University of the Philippines, Diliman.

Hydrated lime preparation and paving

2011-05-17T21:32:00.008+08:00

On May 14, 2011, Hsi-Luo Bridge Art Camp hosted a workshop on hydrated lime preparation and paving, Traditional Way of Lime Cultivating.

A short video clip for the whole process is presented below. In the morning, this workshop began with the introduction to the basic knowledge of limestone (CaCO3), lime powder (CaO), and hemp fabric (麻絨) by Chao-Cang Lee (李朝倉), a life artist. In the afternoon, Dr. Carpenter was invited as technical instructor for field practice.

The basic chemistry of hydrated lime can be simply understood as follows:

(1) CaCO3(s) --> CaO(s) + CO2(g)

At temperature as high as 500-600 degree celsius, the CO2 was driven off limestone to form lime. In theory, lime can react with CO2 to regenerate calcium carbonate, however, it's a very slow reaction. To speed up its formation, lime is hydrated to form calcium hydroxide, which will then proceed a faster reaction with CO2 to form mortar (calcium carbonate), according to the following reactions:

(2) CaO(s) + H2O(l) --> Ca(OH)2(l) + heat

(3) Ca(OH)2(l) + CO2(g) --> CaCO3(s) + H2O(l)

That's the reason, when you see the video clip, there're four persons doing the hard work of hammering the mixture after mixing lime powder with water, plus hemp fabric. In spite

of much faster reaction, Reaction (3) takes many years to have a complete formation of mortar. With this mortar or stiff paster, you may apply it on the wall of bricks, blocks or stones, cementing them quickly and securely.

It's a very traditional and time-consuming way of preparing hydrated lime, yet it's fun and revealing to people of this modern society. I think there must have a calling of back-to-the-nature in CC Lee's heart.

Exhibition on historical documents of Taiwan Provincial Assembly

2011-05-06T23:02:00.000+08:00

台灣省議會史料展在藥大

Historical documents of Taiwan Provincial Assembly (TPA) will be exhibited from May 5, 2011 until June 24, 2011. Yesterday, a grand opening was hosted by Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council (TPCC) Speaker Yuan-Chuan Lee (李源泉諮議長), Board Chair Chao-Hsiung Wang of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (CNU), and President Li-Jen Hsu of CNU. After the gavel was knocked three times, the exhibition of around 7 weeks was officially initiated.

During the opening ceremony, the speech was first led by President LJ Hsu. Following Hsu's talk, TPCC Speaker YC Lee emphasized the importance of preserving and understanding the historical documents of Taiwan Provincial Assembly. After this, Board Chair CH Wang gave a brief and casual talk. The last three speakers were TPCC Consultant Ming-Tong Lee, Tainan City government Secretary, and Dean Rong-Kuey Tsai of Humanities and Social Sciences College, CNU, respectively.

Because of the consensus of reinventing Taiwan Provincial Government (TPG) after direct Presidential election, TPG was no longer with the status of communalistic body corporate since December 20, 1998. The TPA then walked into history and became one appointed institution of Executive Yuan. Later on, the TPA was further renamed as TPCC, which has no communalistic power for policy decision and supervision.

The past history in detail can be accessed by visiting this exhibition organized by Center for Arts and Culture. Totally, there're 31 copies of historical documents displayed in the Chia Nan Arts Gallery, located at International Conference Building of CNU. The main themes of exhibition include organization transformation, Assembly power expansion, Assembly function strengthening, public hearing, and united interrogation system establishment.

Drs. David Schlyer and Gene-Jack Wang

2011-04-16T15:16:00.001+08:00

Dr. David Schyler, Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), New York was invited to deliver a speech "Imaging and nanopartilces" by Board Chair Chao-Hsiung Wang, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (CNU), Taiwan.

Dr. Schlyer's speech was arranged at CNU's international auditorium on April 14, 2011, 3:20 pm. After the facilitator Dr. Gene-Jack Wang, Chair of Medical Department, BNL, finished his introductory part "Overview of Brookhaven Center for Translational Imaging", Dr. Schlyer continued his part and delivered around one hour speech on his well-known PET (positron emission tomography). Following their talks, Q&A was conducted between the speakers and the audience. The talk was concluded with a group photo around 5:30 pm. See the video clip below to grasp some idea about their talks.

Dr. David Schyler focuses his research interests on cyclotron targetry development, nuclear cross-section measurement, and biomedical imaging technology. Dr. Gene-Jack Wang has his interests on the application of PET and functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to the study of various brains disorders, for example, the neuro-psychiatric mechanisms and manifestations of alcoholism, drug addiction, obesity and eating disorder in humans and in animal models.

Professor Yoshinori Asakawa

2011-02-27T17:33:00.018+08:00

Professor Kuan-Han Lee, Dean of College of Pharmacy and Science and I were appointed to endorse Memorandum of Understanding with Tokushima Bunri University on behalf of the President and Board Chair of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.

While we visited Tokushima campus, we happened to meet with top researcher Professor Yoshinori Asakawa, who was bringing his favorite lichen in his hand. For the first time we met together, I could tell that he was so engrossed in his research because of the way and his eyes he talked to me at that time. And if possible, I would really like to have a longer stay to talk with this respectful, senior, and lovely scholar in the field of lichen research.

Later on, we did get another opportunity to visit and meet him at Professor Yoshiyasu Fukuyama's office, where we took a group photo, including Professor Kojun Setsu as well. Since Dean KH Lee has similar research to Professor Asakawa's, both of them appeared to have a nice talk. In the meantime, I tried to grasp the very precious moments when Professor Asakawa talked to Dean Lee by taking photos and filming. In the end, I, like a fan, asked Professor Asakawa for a photo together. I promised him that I will write a blog article with him as the man of this special column.

To know more about Professor Asakawa, in the following is his profile:

1941 born at Tokushima, Japan

1960 Biology student at Tokushima Bunri University (TBU)

1969 Research Assistant at Hiroshima University (HU)

1972 Ph.D. in Organic chemistry at HU (MS also earned at HU)

1976 Associate Professor at TBU
1981 Professor at TBU

1983 Awarded the 1st Hedwig medal

1986-1988; 2000-2003 Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, TBU

1986 Director, Institute of Pharmacology, TBU

1997 Awarded the Pergamon Phytochemistry Prize and Certificate

1997 Awarded the Tokushima Newspaper Prize

2004 Awarded the ISEO prize

2007 President of Phytochemical Society of Asia

His academic achievements feature as follows:

- Coeditor of Phytomedicine;

- Serving in the editorial boards of Phytochemistry, Phytochemistry Letters, Planta Medica, Fitoterapia, Flavor and Fragrance Journal, Natural Product Communication, Natural Product Research, Spectroscopy, Arkivoc, Current Chemical Biology, Malaysian Journal of Sciences;

- Publishing more than 600 original journal papers, 20 reviews, 27 books and monograph;

- Advising more than 37 postdoctoral researchers of different countries

LR Kuo's art show at Kaohsiung

2011-02-08T15:47:00.004+08:00

After recent exhibition of Li-Rong Kuo's (郭麗容) life story "Her periods and commas" at Tainan National University of the Art, she is now presenting another retrospective art show at a restaurant gallery "I am in the Space 349", Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

This art show started on February 4 and will end on February 28, 2011. Her artworks include sketch, oil paint, watercolor, paper clay, and box art. Behind all these artworks are reflections of her soul, her dwelling place, her family life, her environmental and political consciousness, and her self-awareness.

She is seventy-seven and is full of passion for art. In the art she finds herself.

Rick Warren speaking about 3 I's in TED

2011-02-07T10:49:00.004+08:00

Recently I read a message from a Chinese magazine Common Wealth about Rick Warren's talk in TED. His talk was about 3 I's. Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose-driven Life, which has been sold out for 30 million copies worldwide. I got its Chinese version and read it a few years ago.

I was especially impressed by the story he cited from the Old Testament. He introduced it with this vivid question, "Moses, what is in your hand?" "It's a staff," Moses answered. When Moses, following what God has commanded, threw it down, the staff became a snake. And it became back to a staff when he held the tail of the snake. Here, Pastor Rick Warren pointed out the symbol of this staff. It represents Moses' identity, income and influence. If we hold this staff in our hand, it's only a lifeless staff. Yet, when we do as God has commanded, this staff can be full of life. So, this is the theme. Do we use things, talents, or ability being given to us for the need, the poor, the sick, the afflicted, or the weak?

Pastor Warren concluded his talk with this, "It's not about me, it's about making the world a better place!"

Her periods and commas

2010-12-20T22:34:00.014+08:00

It's about the life story of Mrs. Li-Rong Kuo (郭麗容), 77 years old now. The author, Wei-Su Chien (簡偉斯) of Tainan National University of the Arts (NUTA), exhibits her story with the title "Her periods and commas". This title reminds me of another mandarin idiom "periods and drops". The title "ups and downs" is also in my mind when I get to know more about Mrs Chen. Either title can express vividly how we live our life under the sun.

Chien's work "Her periods and commas" is currently exhibited in an oldie house at a nearby village of NUTA. This house used to be a rice milling factory, called Miga in Taiwanese. It's specially renovated for such a special event of art exhibition. After a briefing inside Miga, you will be entering the secret garden of Mrs. Chen, with a film of 77 photos plus narratives posted along the walls. As the author has noted, it seems to Mrs. Chen that artistic creation itself is not a purpose, rather it's like a harbor where a drifting boat is desperately seeking to be sheltered.

Before you visit Miga and find out what's in the heart house of Mrs. Chen, browse the following two blog articles about her:

- What a Wonderful Chair!

- Chair of Majesty?!

And see some video clips here to grasp some idea about Mrs. Chen's periods and commas in her past 77 years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBA4xuFhDsU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCj9qhpQHCc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcr8dx1cWa0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBG0qbhQb94

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipC1fDGuSJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5C9vgEMa7E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPwC14kmVkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T36qRSXdNZw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYUVUz12K0A

Finally, it's announced here that Mrs. Chen will soon exhibit all her real artwork (not in photos) in a restaurant gallery in February 2011 at Kaohsiung.

Searching for the light

2010-12-20T20:31:00.004+08:00

In the photo, Michelle found in the hallway of our house this herbaceous plant very special. It has long, soft and curly stem. It is not supposed to grow like that when compared to those growing outside at the balcony, where the same plants have shorter and stronger stems supporting the leaves. I think the reason for the difference is because of sunlight. In the hallway, this indoor plant was striving for the dim light. The green clover-like leaves you are watching face exactly the incoming light direction.

Like the nature of the plant searching for the light, we humans too are yearning to see the light. No one wants to walk in the darkness. In the Bible, it says "God is light". In a similar sense, we desire to have God's presence deep in our heart.

APO-organized eco-design workshop in Taipei

2010-11-06T15:38:00.008+08:00

The APO-organized eco-design workshop was held on November 1-5, 2010 in Taipei. It was sponsored by APO (Asian Productivity Organization) and implemented by Industrial Development Bureau/Ministry of Economic Affairs, China Productivity Center, and Taiwan Environmental Management Association here in Taiwan.

In addition to those from the organizing country Japan and implementing organizations of Taiwan, totally there're 22 participants from 10 different countries in this workshop, including India, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The workshop program consists of (1) lectures by eco-design professionals and field entrepreneurs of Japan and Taiwan, and academic scholars of Chung Yuan and Cheng Kung Universities; (2) field site visits of Cheng Loong Corp. (paper manufacturing,

processing and packaging) and PEGA Design and Engineering; (3) country paper presentation; and (4) group discussions and presentations.

It's a very intensive workshop, yet full of dynamic learning atmosphere. I would say this workshop has achieved fruitful results in many aspects, not just eco-knowledge dissemination but also the cross-culture understanding as well as buildup of international friendship.

Up the Grand Champion!

2010-10-27T15:42:00.006+08:00

The contest of health innovation was held at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science on October 15, 2010.

In the award presenting ceremony today, the Grand Champion of NT$50,000, out of 29 nominated pieces of work, went to Wei-Ying Lin (林韋吟), Department of Cultural Business Development, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science. Her awarded work, As-you-desire-to-bend sofa bed, is about Sofa bed design (see the photo). This work was advised by Assistant Prof. Pei-chun Kuo (郭珮君) of the same Department.

Congratulations to WY Lin!!

Gifts I received recently!

2010-10-26T20:59:00.012+08:00

We met Mrs. Chen at Herbal breakfast shop this morning and she shared the very tasty and sweet dessert.

After coming into my office, I met my new Ph.D. student Thanatorn of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, who was just here in Taiwan for 3 days. She presented me two special clothing with pink color. In the afternoon, I got another two pieces of souvenir from Sonia, the former visiting Master student of UPD, Philippines. She is attending a conference to be held at Taipei, and finds some time to visit us.

Also, a few days ago I got a whole set of teapot from Dr. Nurak of Thammasat University, Thailand, and the cute lady bag and cell phone bag from his student Piyanate, who is now under my supervision here at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.

I am loaded with all kinds of gifts of different culture. Some are given to Michelle and Grace. I am sure they will love to have them, with great appreciation.

2010 Health Innovation Contest at CNU today

2010-10-15T13:33:00.013+08:00

2010大台南地區健康創意競賽

After preliminary contest, today is the finals to select the grand champion for the highest award of NT$50,000 here at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.

This Contest is hosted by the Innovation and Incubation Center of CNU. The theme is all about health-related products. Totally, there're 33 teams entering the finals. The 88 students are from 6 universities of the greater Tainan region, including CNU (嘉南大學), Kun-Shan University (崑山科大),

Far East University(

遠東科大), National Cheng Kung University (成功大學), Aletheia University (真理大學), and Southern Taiwan University (南台科大). Totally, there are 19 team advisors of the above universities involved in this event.

The total prize of NT$205,000 for the contest is offered by 8 small & medium enterprises, which are Affinity Food Co. (艾芬迪食品股份有限公司), Photoply (斌視企業股份有限公司)、Pao Lai Lo (寶來樂企業有限公司)、Chang Chiang Hsing Yeh (長江欣業有限公司)、Fu Pei (福培實業有限公司)、Ching Yu Biotech (青玉生物科技股份有限公司)、Bing Pao Food Co. (賓寶食品企業有限公司、Chi Cheng (琦程實業有限公司).

Some other spendings are covered from the budgets of CNU's Teaching Excellence Project (granted by Ministry of Education) and S&M Enterprises Incubated Project (granted by Ministry of Economic Affairs).

Who will be the winners selected by the 8 appointed judges? Let's wait until October 22, 2010, the date for the awarding ceremony.

Link to news reports: 1, 2

The farmer's wisdom

2010-10-09T21:36:00.004+08:00

It's autumn and it's almost harvest season here in Southern Taiwan.

If you look carefully the two photos posted here, you will be surprised at what's going on here. From the first one, you'll see a farmer standing at the paddy field. In his left hand, he held a plate with a shooting gun on it (see the video clip). He would fire the gun with his lit cigarette from time to time. But why was he doing this? Was it for fun? Well, it's a way to scare away the whole flock of birds. They were like a bomber attacking his paddy field. But, isn't it tiresome if he has to stand and guard his paddy the whole daytime?

Now, let's see another smart way to get the job done in the second photo.

Look closely to the horizontal stick. It's actually a lit incense stick with a lined-up fireworks hung on it. The fireworks were hooked with detonator-like thread. Periodically, each firework would take turns and be blown up because the detonator was lit up. The incense stick was always lit up because of the natural breeze. So, the job was all done automatically, without bothering any farmer to stay at his paddy field.

Which one is better? There're pros and cons. You have your own choice if you are the farmer.

"iic" Logo

2010-09-29T20:09:00.004+08:00

"What should we put on one of the walls of IIC's conference room?" This was the question I asked my Secretary Eling a few weeks ago.

Finally, the wall paper design was received from the Design Company this afternoon. It looks just what you have seen here. We provided the company around 2000 photos taken from our past five-year activities. I don't know how and how long the company put them together, with "iic" logo floating on the sea of photos. It's good to see that many participants of IIC-hosted events can see themselves recorded in this wall paper.

The idea of this design came from a Google video clip. Occasionally I came across this video clip and thought it would be meaningful if there's a wall paper like that in our conference room. So, thank you, Google, my favorite!

Note: IIC-Innovation and Incubation Center at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science.

Research group dinner

2010-09-04T15:04:00.007+08:00

Summer break is almost over. Nanotech research group dinner was arranged to welcome the upcoming new semester of Fall 2010.

In addition to my three Ph.D. students (Eric, Visanu, Piyanate), 3 Master students (Tom, Jason, SP), and 1 full-time research student (Allen), I also invited my family (Michelle and Grace), secretary of my Center (Eling), and Eling's brother. After the dinner, we enjoyed a summertime musical concert at Evangelical Formosan Church_Tainan. There're performances there including flute, piano, violin, and cello.

Hope this gathering provides my foreign students with cross-culture experience here in Taiwan.

English summer camp at Ansi Elementary School

2010-07-16T15:41:00.006+08:00

It's great to know that there's English Summer Camp hosted at Ansi Elementary School. After all, I am very senior alumnus from this Elementary school. How senior? Well, in 2008 we had a reunion of class of 1972. It means 38 years have passed after graduating from Ansi. In our times, we just could not imagine there're US teens coming to teach kids English.

According to Principal Li-Hua Chang, this year is the third one offered to teach English to village kids. Teachers, mostly teens, were from Senior High School, US (Oregon, northern California, and ...). They speak a little bit of Mandarin. So, communication between teachers and kids is no problem at all.

Yesterday, they had a field activity, learning English from the nature and culture. They visited office of Village Head. Most interestingly teachers performed a musical concert at Village Activity Center. Senior villagers were invited to join and enjoy this concert.

I wish teachers and kids will really enjoy the learning and the time being together.

Dragon boat festival

2010-06-16T21:55:00.015+08:00

Wichidtra of Chulalongkorn University (CU) is going back to Thailand on Friday, and Luzvisminda Bellotindos of University of Zamboanga back to Philippines on Sunday. Whereas Rose and Fabby of University of the Philippines, Diliman just came to my University, Chia Nan University (CNU), this week. In addition, Piyanate of CU was here at CNU on May 1 and she is still new to this city of Tainan.

So, taking this great opportunity of dragon boat festival (Rice dumpling festival) today, we, ten of us, had a one-day city tour of Tainan. Michelle and I picked up my students at Tainan train station at 11: 30. First we had a lunch of traditional rice dumpling (Bah-Tsang) with Misou soup. After finishing our lunch, we stopped by Wu's garden, taking some photos there. We also had a brief stay at my church, Evangelical Formosan Church-Tainan.

Then, we went to Taiwan Literature Museum, where we stayed for quite a while. The next tour spots were tree house and seashore area at Anping.

In addition to Bah-Tsang, what else did we eat? We had almond jelly-red bean-taro ice to cool down our heated body because of very hot weather. For the dinner, Chou's Shrimp House always my choice to treat my friends here and abroad.

At the end of today's tour-from the downtown to the seashore, we bought a few bags of candy, Niou-Ga-Tang as gifts for Wichidtra and Bellotindos.

Some little bugs in the backyard at Ansiliao

2010-06-05T22:27:00.010+08:00

In my previous blog article, I took a butterfly photo, which was quite satisfactory in my eyes.

This time I got some more bugs snapshotted in my backyard at Ansiliao. I took so many snapshots of butterfly because of windy swinging and its flying around, and finally I chose the most satisfactory ones posted here in this article.

For some other bugs, they moved slowly and remained still most of times. So, it's easy to shoot a good photo.

Enlarge the posted photos of this butterfly, look closely, and you'll see how God clothes this beautiful butterfly.

Have a drink of nectar

2010-05-03T18:15:00.003+08:00

Like we drink fruit juice with a straw, this butterfly got its own straw and enjoyed sucking nectar under the sunshine.

I took this fantastic photo in January this year at Ansiliao. For some reason I came back to check the whole album I took then. And I found this butterfly photo was just too good to believe what I have taken with my so-called "fool" camera. It's just too perfect!

Take a closer look. This butterfly has a small head with big eyeball, two long, long antennae, and a straw sucking the nectar. Also, there're six long and skinny feet. Its wings are white with spotted gray dots, and it is contrasted by this field white flower with yellow pistil.

I was lucky enough to grasp such a short moment.

Applying for EQC3 member

2010-04-14T19:33:00.003+08:00

Dear Prof. M.C. Lu, Head of EQC3 Int.,

Enclosed pls find the two files (the two photos presented here) for applying membership of EQC3 International.

As a senior member of EQC3 Int., I would strongly recommend Miss M.M. Liao to be our new member. She is elegant and brilliant, yet a little shy sometimes. Most of times, she remains pretty calm. But she can fight back if rudely offended. For the EQC3 conference, she may be in place of Prof. C.H. Liao’s role from time to time if Prof. Liao is too busy to show up.

Your kind consideration is greatly appreciated.

Regards
C.H. Liao

Happy Birthday of 20, Grace!

2010-04-14T04:14:00.005+08:00

It demands a great deal of God's grace from the birth to the age of 20.

On the day of Grace's birthday of 20, like the verse of the Philippians 1:9-11, "May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blamless until the day of Christ, filled with fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God."

Wood chair project

2010-04-05T04:37:00.007+08:00

After finishing projects of model house and chopsticks, Dr. Carpenter is doing wood chair project out of the reclaimed pieces of wood.

The chair is a mini one. Although it is not big, it sits really strong and solid. The joints are strongly fastened together, without using any iron nails but the bamboo-made nails. Oftentimes, the iron nails become corroded and the whole structure will be disrupted as time goes on. But, with the bamboo-made mails, such chair will last much, much longer.

See the video clip and know how the mini wood chair is completed. It really takes professional skills.

Red shirt rally in Bangkok

2010-03-29T19:57:00.003+08:00

Saturday was the last day of our trip in Thailand. We happened to come across the red shirt rally on the main street of Bangkok. It looks like they were heading toward somewhere in the city. As shown in the video clip, I was impressed by all kinds of vehicles they have driven along the street.

As a foreign tourist, it seems to me that this international city of Bangkok shows another aspect of political culture, which is how a country's citizens express their political appeal in a peaceful way, instead of violent protest. Though the red shirt rally did not gather to grow into a big one, they may impose great threat to the social and economic security when the rally lasts for too long a period.

Will the rally end soon? This will depend on the political wisdom and judgement of the leaders from the rival sides.

Taiwan Blackfoot Disease Memorial Museum

2010-02-13T07:53:00.006+08:00

This museum is about the story of Dr. King-Ho Wang, who had great passion and love for those afflicted deeply with blackfoot disease in the earlier times of Taiwan at Pak Mng, Tainan, Taiwan. Dr. KH Wang is 95 years old (born in 1916) and lives in Taipei now.

As a clinic doctor, Dr. Wang truly felt the pain of the patient with the disease of "black and dry snakes". The patients painfully suffered the pain like needle-piercing at the wound. They could not lay down and sleep for three to four months. They had to crouch and hold their knees to feel better. Dr. Wang remembered and said, "there was an adult patient. Because of his unbearable pain, he seemed to lose his mind and hit his old mother with his fist violently. Yet this mother, who was taking care of his son at the sickbed, did not resist such raindrop-like fist attack. To me, it's an unforgettable family tragedy such wicked disease had caused."

It's a love story and needs to be passed on and on. So, I tried to shoot some photos and video and edit them into a video clip to grasp some idea about Dr. KH Wang and blackfoot disease. Currently, this museum is operated through the Wang King-Ho Culture and Art Foundation (財團法人王金河文化藝術基金會), and Mr. Cheng-Mei Chen, serving as chief executive officer, is now in charge. Those who are interested in this museum or Foundation may contact him at 06-786-2012 or 0937-649-037. Or you may browse this website for information in more detail: http://www.blackfoot.org/.

"Blessed is he who considers the poor (Psalm 41: 1a)." This is what I feel after I browsed over Dr. KH Wang's autobiography.

Hand-made hinoki chopsticks

2010-01-16T21:34:00.005+08:00

As you can see from the video clip, Dr. Carpenter

was demonstrating how to make the

chopsticks. The wood material for the chopsticks is hinoki, and was reclaimed from the wasted wood pieces. The finished products were highly valued because they were completely hand-made and were of hinoki wood material.

It's not difficult to make chopsticks, yet it's time-consuming. First, you have to think how to make the most use of a piece of wood. In other words, out of this piece of wood you want as many pairs of chopsticks as possible after careful three-dimension calculation. With the saw, you saw the wood one slice by one slice. Then, these slices were further polished on their surfaces by hand-pushing polisher. Finally, the chopsticks were formed by rounding those rectangular slices.

It sounds easy. But it really needs carpentry skill to make a good pair of chopsticks.

Renewable energy topic presentation

2010-01-12T20:24:00.015+08:00

This semester I offered one undergraduate course, Environmental Technology. There're two major parts covered in this course, including (1) environmental remediation technologies (ERT) and (2) renewable energy technologies (RET). In the first part, technologies lectured include in situ bio-remediation, bio-venting, bio-pile, in situ phytoremediation, chemical oxidation, in situ vitrification, soil vapor extraction, soil washing, and etc. In part II, several sources of renewable energy-biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, hydrogen-were introduced. Students' performance were evaluated according to one written exam on ERT, one written report on ERT, and one oral group presentation on RET.

After a few weeks of preparation for oral presentation, each group had their show on the selected topic in the last few weeks of this semester. Some groups featured their presentation by showing video clips from Youtube. Indeed, this would greatly help impress audience about their topic. We had some dialogue after each presentation. Also, thanks to my teaching assistant Allen, the class dynamics became more vivid since he represents the young generation and I am the old one.

As they took turn to present their material, I took each group one photo and they seemed to become more concentrated in listening. Well, this was what I did not expected. Always, photos can link people together and help build up good friendship or relationship. Time was frozen as the photo was shot, leaving good memory behind.

Happy "cat" year!

2010-01-01T21:56:00.012+08:00

It's the first day of 2010.

I got a call from Seattle early in the morning, and chatted with Grace and Michelle for a while. Then, the second call from Ansiliao. So together with my niece and her friend, we, plus Hitoli the little kitty, drove back our hometown, Ansiliao.

Again, it's quite a leisure and enjoyable to stay in the countryside. Here are some photos telling how I have spent the first afternoon of the new year of 2010. Also, it's relaxing to see Pan and Hitoli playing together, as shown in the video clip. They seemed to have so much fun, chasing each other back and forth.

According to the lunar calendar, the year of 2010 will be a tiger year. I am glad to see so many tiger-like cats today.

Good morning, the new year of 2010!

2010-01-01T08:41:00.004+08:00

Instead of staying late on the last day of 2009, I'd rather get up earlier on the first day of 2010.

The old has gone and the new has come. How do we face the future positively? Here is what we can learn from Paul: "But, one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Think about your goal and pursue it with all your efforts.

What did Dr. Carpenter do recently?

2009-12-30T23:02:00.009+08:00

I did not write anything about Dr. Carpenter. What did he do recently?

After having done all his model houses, including traditional Taiwanese architecture, bamboo-like house, and God's temple, basically he was just doing something easier since he needed to recover from surgery as I said it before in my previous article.

Recently, he was making chopsticks out of hinoki wood, which was in small pieces and could not be used for big work. So, one pairs after another pairs of hinoki chopsticks were coming out. They are now sent as gifts to Liao's family, friends, and colleagues here and abroad.

Though it's not quite delicate but it's hand-made. You will not find it in the market.

The longest day

2009-12-17T20:20:00.009+08:00

The flight departs at 9:45 am at Taoyuan International Airport, and you live in Tainan. As a rule, you have to get there 2-3 hours before flight departure. The distance between Tainan and TIA is around 270 km. If you take the earliest Taiwan High Speed Rail at Tainan in the morning, you will get to Taoyuan Station at 8:16 am. It takes another 30-minute transfer to TIA. So, it will be around 9 am by the time you have your check-in. I would say such arrangement would be too risky. Unless you want to stay at Taoyuan one day before the departure, the only choice seems to be by public bus transportation or by private car very early in the morning. And our choice was by car.

It will take around 3 hours (plus 30 minutes for the local) to get to TIA if the average driving speed is 90 km per hour. You want to follow the rule, arriving the airport 2 hours before the departure. So, you have to hit the road not later than 4: 15 am. This means that you'd better get up at around 3:45 am. And this is what we planed for today's schedule.

What about the cost for the scenario of choice? Give you a brief quiz.

Before heading out, I filled up the fuel. On the highway to TIA, I bought a toll booklet (10 tickets) for NT$400. Note that I got two tickets left in my car before I got on the highway. Now, as we had planned, we arrived at TIA around 7:30 am. I helped Michelle check in at the service counter, saw her off, and drove back home again. As I checked my fuel meter, I thought I'd better refill the fuel before heading back home. I did refill up and the receipt shows NT$749 for the fuel. When I got exit at Tainan, I found I run out all my toll tickets. Calculate the overall cost of fuel and tickets for this mission.

What's your number? You should come up with a number, NT$1978.

When I drove on the highway, I figured out this number around NT$2000 for sending Michelle from Tainan to TIA by car. Since I already paid for this amount of money, why not paying a surprise visit at any famous scenic spot along the highway? So, I stopped by at San-yi, a town of sculpture, where I had my brief lunch (NT$90), talked to a sculptor and visited the sculpture museum (NT$80). I made another stop-by at my hometown, Ansiliao, where I greeted to my parents and took some photos as well.

It looks like I have made the best use of today.

Secret garden

2009-12-06T16:38:00.002+08:00

For those who are visiting Tainan City Park, I would

suggest to see this nearby secret garden at National Cheng Kung University. There're some big pieces of wood artwork exhibited there. These artwork look like aboriginal style. I was told that the logs were transported all the way far from the eastern coast. During the disastrous event of typhoon Morako on August 8, 2009, tons and tons of logs were washed down from the mountain into the river and the ocean. To make the best use of those floating logs, some are now transformed into aboriginal style artwork here in this secret garden, where you may spend some leisure time enjoying another surprise of this city of Tainan.

In addition to those shown in this blog photo, come and see more artwork there.

Honorary doctorate degree presented to Prof. Chao-Hsiung Wang by Thai Crown Princess

2009-11-18T14:50:00.002+08:00

On November 10, 2009, the former President Chao-Hsiung Wang of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science (CNU) received a certificate of honorary doctorate degree from Thai HRH Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. This honorary degree was conferred by King Mongkut's University of Technology Thornburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand. Based on their significant contributions to Thai society, there're four scholars together receiving such prestigious honor in the areas of business management, sustainable environment, metal molding technology, and biotechnology. Because of his having rooted deeply at KMUTT in the past few years, Prof. Wang was awarded with this honorary degree of sustainable environment. Following the royal ceremony of certificate presentation, the next day, President Kraiwood Kiattikomol of KMUTT hosted a dinner banquet to acknowledge their contributions to both KMUTT and the whole Thai society. See the video clip in detail at the bottom.

President Chao-Hsiung Wang (now University Board Chair of CNU) earned his Master degree from Akron University, US in December 1968, and his doctoral degree from Tohoku University of Pharmacy, Japan in March 1973. Since 1974, he has been serving as the President of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan. Under his outstanding leadership, the CNU is ranked as one of top universities among private technological and vocational universities in Taiwan. Currently, the CNU consists of four colleges, including Pharmacy and Science, Human Ecology, Social Science and Management, and Environment. The student enrollment is maintained around 18,000 in the past few years. With his insightful vision, the CNU is growing into a university of caring, health, excellence, and fineness.

To emerge as one of prestigious universities in Taiwan, the international academic collaboration is of crucial importance, in view of globalization trend and governmental policy. Therefore, in December 2001, President Wang acted on such demand by first sending his international delegates to KMUTT for the possible academic collaboration. In April 2003, further attempt was made by sending his international team with expertise in environment for the first CNU-KMUTT bilateral seminar hosted by KMUTT at its main campus. These activities led to the KMUTT-hosted regional conference on environmental and hazardous waste treatment technologies, and the MOU endorsement between KMUTT and CNU in December 2002. Thereafter, a series ofconferences were hosted annually by CNU and KMUTT up to the present time.

In addition to conference activities, President Wang also paid a few more visits to KMUTT in order to strengthen bilateral relation. For example, in the event of Thai University Education Fair, a big Taiwan teams of 27 technological and vocational universities received a great and warmwelcome by KMUTT's faculty in December 2005. This visit was led by Dr. Kuo-Pao Chang, ChiefDirector, Department of Technological and Vocational Education, Ministry of Education, andPresident Chao-Hsiung Wang. Through CNU's mediation, many of those universities signed MOU'swith KMUTT, opening a broad way for KMUTT's networking in Taiwan. In another event in June2006, President Wang was invited by KMUTT to participate in the trilateral collaboration development project among KMUTT, RUTL, and CNU. During this visit, broader and deeperdiscussions were dialogued among different research teams of different universities.

To name a few more contributions by President Wang, here are the two ones: CNU'sinternational policy for visiting Thai students, and course offering program. To promote mutualvisits, especially for the students, President Wang offered monthly stipend (6000 NT$ for Masterstudent and 8000$ for Ph.D. student) and free dormitory service for those who visit CNU inconducting their master or doctoral researches. Because of such policy, many KMUTT's studentsbenefited a great deal in their visiting life at CNU in the past few years. To deepen bilateralenvironmental project, the CNU's faculty were sent annually to offer courses such as advancedoxidation processes, and environmental bioremediation.

As mentioned by some others, CNU endorsed MOU with KMUTT, not just for a piece of written paper but for a strong foundation which was laid down for the future ahead. Achievements have been demonstrated, and future harvests are anticipated when both parties place high value onsuch partnership relation.

KMUTT visits initiated by President Chao-Hsiung Wang

December 20-22, 2001. "Ice-breaking Visiting" at KMUTT, Bangkok, Thailand." (CNU'sinternational team sent by President Chao-Hsiung Wang)

April 21-25, 2002. "1st CNU-KMUTT Bilateral Seminar" hosted by KMUTT. (CNU's internationalteam sent by President Chao-Hsiung Wang)

December 18-22, 2002. "Regional Conference on Environmental and Hazardous Waste TreatmentTechnologies " hosted by KMUTT at Bangkok, Thailand. (Opening speakers: Drs. KraiwoodKiattikomol and Chao-Hsiung Wang)

December 18-22, 2002. Endorsement of MOU between KMUTT and CNU. (Endorsers:Drs. Krissanapong Kirtikara and Chao-Hsiung Wang)

December 18-21, 2003. "2003 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies” hosted by CNU at Tainan, Taiwan. (KMUTT's group headed byDrs. KrissanapongKirtikara)

August 11-15, 2005. "Taiwan's 27 technological universities visiting KMUTT's main campusand Bangkhuntian Campus." Grand outdoor dinner was hosted by KMUTT at Suan Pakkad Palace.(Taiwan's administrative teams of different universities headed by Kuo-Pao Chang, Chief Director, Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education, Taiwan and President Chao-Hsiung Wang of CNU)

June 1-2, 2006. "Trilateral Collaboration Development Project:The Collaborative Workshopbetween CNU-KMUTT-RMUTL” hosted by KMUTT at KMUTT's campus. (CNU's group headedby President Chao-Hsiung Wang and Vice President Li-Jen Hsu)

List of international conferences organized by CNU and KMUTTDecember 18-22, 2002.

"Regional Conference on Environmental and Hazardous Waste TreatmentTechnologies ", Bangkok, Thailand.

December 18-21, 2003. "2003 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Tainan, Taiwan.

August 16, 2004. "2004 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Tainan, Taiwan.

April 14, 2005. "The First International Students Workshop On Environmental Quality Concern,Control and Conservation”, Tainan, Taiwan.

August 2, 2006. "2006 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Manila, Philippines.

June 29-July 2, 2006. "2006 International Conference on Environmental Quality Concern, Controland Conservation”, Tainan, Taiwan.

August 1-2, 2007. "2007 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Khon Kaen, Thailand.

July 2-3, 2007. "2007 International Conference on Environmental Quality Concern, Control andConservation”, Tainan, Taiwan.

June 30-July 1, 2008. "2008 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Manila, Philippines.

May 23, 2008. "2008 International Conference on Environmental Quality Concern, Control andConservation”, Tainan, Taiwan.

August 7, 2009. "2009 Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Practical EnvironmentalTechnologies”, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Half-day trip to Kaohsiung for a glove puppet show

2009-11-14T22:30:00.009+08:00

It's Saturday, November 14, 2009.

About noon time, we left home and took a train from Tainan station to Qiao-tou. From Qiao-tou, we switched to take Kaohsiung Transit System and got off at Yan-cheng station. The round-trip ticket fare cost about NT$200 each. Spend anther NT$150 for a brief late lunch at MacDonald.

Then, we walked to Kaohsiung Museum of History, where we scheduled to see glove puppet show at 3:00 pm. The ticket fare was NT$100 each. It's been quite a long time that we did not have chance to revisit kids' favorite puppet show. Nowadays, the puppet's pattern and style are quite different from those of old times; they are more fashionable and much bigger. In addition, the way they perform their show was kind of hitech-oriented by creating sound and light effect. You'll feel it if you got the time to see the show there (Another two shows on December 5-6, 2009). After the show was over, the producer and puppet player tried to demonstrate its delicate gesture right before us.

By the way, the show we saw was performed by Golden Eagle TV Glove Puppet Troupe (金鷹閣電視木偶劇團), the producer and narrator used to be a baseball player.

Before heading back to Kaohsiung, we had a Hun-Dun soup, which cost us NT$150. It's about 8 pm when we arrived home. The overall spending was about NT$900 for this half-day trip. Isn't it a cheap and enjoyable trip?

PEACE and development education

2009-11-03T23:32:00.009+08:00

It's a book for college students and authored by Dr. Bienvenido L. Gregorio of Universidad de Zamboanga (UZ), Philippines. I met Dr. Gregorio on November 19, 2008 at Innovation and Incubation Center of my university when he accompanied his President, Dr. Arturo F. Eustaquio III, for the international academic visit. This October, I was supposed to meet him at a UZ-hosted conference, "Peace, Environment and Economy", in which I was invited to give a keynote speech. But, because of typhoon there at Manila and Taiwan, my flight was cancelled and I could not make this trip to the city of Zamboanga, located at the southwest tip of Philippines.

From the conference schedule, I knew that Dr. Gregorio would launch his new book on the second day of this conference. So I emailed and asked for it as a gift although I could not show up in person at this conference. I did receive from him this book gift recently, and I promised to make some feedback. I know I am not qualified to say anything in the topic like politics since it's not my expertise. As a reader and beginner, I only want to express my thoughts and impression on this book.

As I closed the final page of this book, these were the two verses coming up in my mind: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (Matthew 5: 9)", and "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness (James 3: 18)." Also, I understood finally that why Dr. Gregorio organized a conference with a title of "Peace, Environment and Economy". At the first glance, this title looks strange to me. But, as I read through this book, I found that those three issues are always interwoven together. I even think about a possible conference of this kind to be organized here in Taiwan in the future. As scholars, we should broaden our vision wide enough to see and resolve those three issues altogether. In doing so, we may achieve and enjoy a truly peaceful life in this planet. After all, we humankind are entrusted to manage this earth well and wisely.

It looks to me there's a strong message being delivered from this book, which is dissemination of passion for peace. Like it said in this book, "there's no way to the peace, but peace is the way". I would say, since humans are so uniquely and nobly created, "Without mutual respect and honoring, there're conflicts, strife and violence." The great effort made to write up this book demonstrates the author's passion to promote a peaceful society. On top of this, through education many will be nurtured with mind of peace. Many things can be worked out with lesser violence and more goodwill.

Like a hardworking student, I spent a few days to finish reading this book almost day and night. I think the author has written this book in a successful way to get even a layman like me being so absorbed in it. To me, there're lots and lots of new vocabularies and terminologies as I read one chapter by one chapter, and I did have hard time to keep looking into either on-line or hard-copy dictionary to grasp and understand the meaning of context. Yet I found it fascinating because those concepts and knowledge are so real in our daily life, including physical/structural violence; conflict; issues of poverty, rights equality, and gender; sustainable environmental ecosystem; cultural difference; and religion. With this knowledge base, I think I could see things much better, for example, sharp conflicts between ruling and opposing parties here in Taiwan on the issues of ECFA, cross-strait talk, lifted ban on American beef import (with great fear of mad cow disease), and so on. I was also especially impressed by the concept of structural violence, which I did not perceive in such a way addressed in this book. When talking about threat or promise, there're deterrent threat/promise vs. compellent threat/promise. Surprisingly, it looks like that threat, instead of promise, is more effective in securing compliance. In other words, men would rather not lose than gain a reward. Is that the nature of human being? As for the education part of this book, the dynamic and reciprocal interaction between education and society is vividly exemplified by addressing education as mirror of society, agent of society change, and knowledge dissemination.

Finally, it's most appreciated that at the end of each chapter the author provides the readers/teachers/students with review guide questions, suggested activities, and important glossary or key concepts. I apply one of class activities mentioned in this book, poster presentation, into my current course teaching, Environmental Technology. Poster presentation is mostly exhibited in a big conference. It sounds a creative way to give it a try if applied in a class.

One last point. This book will also lead you to understand more about this country of Philippine, which consists of Christians, Muslims, and the lumads (indigenous people). It's crucial to have tri-people dialogue in resolving conflicts or preventing violence in this country.

May this book written by Dr. Bienvenido L. Gregorio be a tool catalyzing positive transformation of whatever conflicts may exist between persons, groups, societies, or nations.

Post remark:

I think the design of cover page of this book was inspired from the story of Noah (Genesis 8: 11):

"When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth."

See more information in my blog article in Chinese here:

http://u-voice.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-post_26.html

Meow's new hiding spot

2009-10-26T20:14:00.011+08:00

First, I have to declare that Meow was not shut in a cage intentionally as you see those photos.That's the shelf where Michelle stores her food stuff. At dinner time, Meow would stay beside and sometimes see and smell around in the kitchen room.

One day, we happened to

find her inside this shelf. Where she stayed looks like a perfect spot because

there's no way to attack her from all sides except the front side. According to my observation, she always finds a resting place like that; inherently, Meow knows where is the safe place for a rest. She is on alert.

I am sure Ivy and Steven would love to see these photos!

The whole compound of God's temple

2009-10-04T20:13:00.012+08:00

Dr. Carpenter finished the rear part of God's temple on April 5, 2009, while the front part of God's temple was completed on September 5, 2009. Yesterday, on the day of Moon Festival, he demonstrated the whole compound of God's temple, with the rear and front part combined together. As you can see from the photos, there's an open square in between the rear and front parts, plus the two hallways on both sides of right and left wings.

It's not an easy job to finish the whole set of this God's temple. Recently he got a surgery on prostate-specific antigen (PSA). However, because of great passion on his woodwork, he started to finish the final part of God's temple in just a few days after his surgery. So, again the PSA doctor had to conduct the second-time surgery due to the serious blooding found in his urine. Now, we strongly ask him to stop all woodwork, without doing any work but taking a longer break.

Upcoming press conference

2009-10-03T18:21:00.021+08:00

This summer we,
Innovation and Incubation Center, just moved into the new building, with new facilities and more space to serve our campus-incubated companies. The first event of moving-in opening will be a press conference on November 13, 2009 for the promotion of incubated companies' products, including cosmetic and nutritious products. There will be three companies to present their products for marketing on that day. All IIC-connected companies are to be invited, plus their CNU's consulting faculty. Of course, all media reporters are sure to come for this grand opening event of IIC.

To warm up this press conference, a very classic music concert performed by Ansiliao Nan-Kuan Music Band (安溪寮南管樂團) will be arranged. The leader of this Band is Mr. Yan-Deng Lin (林炎燈). I visited him at his home this afternoon on the day of Moon Festival. We talked about how to arrange his program on that big day.

And he invited his wife to have a preview for the show.

So, there they are in the video clip.

Back-to-school gathering

2009-09-21T20:05:00.004+08:00

During the summertime, Visanu flied back to

Thailand, and both Eric and

Cybelle were back to

Philippines for a while. Allen got his MS degree from CNU in July and, after a few days of

break, is now hired as a full-time research assistant for my NSC project. After summer, Tom is moving into the second year of his Master program at CNU. Right after Typhoon Morako, everyone seemed kind of losing contact from one another for a few weeks because of power outage and ruined telecommunication in the CNU campus. But, it's now back to normal, and it's a good timing for getting together before new semester begins.

Conversation on housetop

2009-09-13T17:52:00.005+08:00

There seems some message being delivered

on the rooftop as I took a photo from Confucius

Temple Compound yesterday. It looks like two horses' talk, telling a historical story from generation to generation. Together with some other photos taken before I try to collage them to make sense out of such combination.

Everything is subject to the trial of time. It will become desolate or ruined without continuous renovation of human effort.

Tree varieties of city park of Tainan

2009-09-12T12:04:00.015+08:00

After walking around the Tainan city park so many times, I found there're several special clusters of plants in this park.

Here are some photos you may take a look and find some leisure time to visit this park. You would find this park the most comfortable place as you visit the city of Tainan.

By the way, there're also quite a few of golden beetle trees in this park. Please refer here for information more in detail.

Meow's football game show

2009-09-08T21:04:00.009+08:00

Meow was supposed to

go to US with Steven and Ivy. Yet, for some reason, she had to stayed with us here in Tainan. In the first few days, she was very defensive. She would bite you even though I showed my goodwill and tried to pat and please her. Indeed, we had a little bit hard time to get along with each other in the first few days.

Since Steven and Ivy left for US, it becomes my job to take care of her food and water every morning, and her poo as well. I guess she seemed to feel touched and became less arrogant as she observed what I have done for her. Or, I was having more and more the smell of her kind. We now become good friend to each other. She would wait on the door quietly when, after I was off the school, I walked into my house. Even, she has become like sticky rice because she would follow me to wherever I was in my house: bed room, kitchen, computer room, upstairs porch, and...

This morning she pleased us by having a football game show.

Bamboo cage house

2009-09-05T10:57:00.013+08:00

In my previous blog article, I wrote about a bamboo-like model house, which was made by Dr. Carpenter. Instead of using bamboo material, he tried the Longan tree wood material for his work. Yesterday, he told me there's a real

bamboo cage house in the nearby place within our village. And this one was made by Dr. Carpenter 50 years ago.

So, I went there and took a few photoshots.

Done on the front part of God's temple!

2009-09-05T10:22:00.009+08:00

I posted the rear part of God's temple on April 5, 2009. Now, the front part is also completed by Dr. Carpenter. The next thing he will do is to put these two parts together. The whole set of God's temple will occupy pretty large space, a headache problem for him to find a place.

Let's wait and see how this God's temple looks like when both parts are assembled together.

Reflection on the issue of Truth

2009-09-01T14:56:00.000+08:00

Recently, one of my friends mentioned the religion of Hinduism. This brought me to pay closer attention to this religion. In the August 24-31 issue of Newsweek, there's a topic, "We are all Hindus Now" by Lisa Miller (p. 58). I was surprised to see some statistical data about this religion. There's only one million-plus Hindus live in the US, only a tiny fraction of the billion who live on earth, yet people in US are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways Americans think about God, selves, each other, and eternity, according to recent poll data.

The Hindus think this way, "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." On the other way around, Christians are convinced firmly that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; there's no other way except through Jesus that one will come to God the Father (the truth). In other words, there exists conflict between both beliefs. It seems easier to accept the former religion: we have being paradigmed that there're many ways to the Rome. The latter one is harder to buy it because people would think Christians are too proud and arrogant when they claim that theirs is the only way to God.

Why do more and more people believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"? If we reflect on what we have been educated, we tend to think this way: there's always alternative way to solve the problem; be flexible to avoid further conflict; length measurement by different methods will lead more closely to the true value. I think this might be one of the reasons that the survey in favor of the former religion got higher score.

Ironically, can the Truth be discovered through the general public survey? It seems to be scientific to find out the truth by using questionnaires. However, when talking about spiritual things, it would be rough to jump into conclusion with those poll data.

After reading Lisa's article, the article by Sharon Begley becomes an interesting contrast, "(Un)wired for God: Religious beliefs may not be innate (in the same Issue, page 26)". Are men born to be religious? According to Romans 1: 20, this verse says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

I do believe we are wired for God.

Typhoon Morako at CNU

2009-08-31T21:10:00.013+08:00

On August 8, 2009,

the typhoon Morako

brought a very severe

damage to

Southern Taiwan, especially in

the mountain

areas. A couple of hundreds of

people died because of

muddy slide, flooding, and

crushed bridges. A lot of reports have been broadcast intensively in the past three weeks. It's now in the stage of recovery for those suffered families in the aftermath of this super disaster.

Because of this typhoon, many of my friends sent me their regards and concerns, inquiring the situation of the area where we live. Unfortunately, the CNU also suffered a great loss of facilities and equipments which sat in the basement floor. You don't feel its severity until you see the photos taken in those flooding days. To show my friends here and abroad, I arranged those photos in a way you may sense a little bit of the power of this Morako even in the plain area. See the Ppt file here(嘉南藥理科技大學莫拉克風災相片記錄).

The CNU locates within the two basins of Er-Jen river and Shan-Ye-Gon river. Because of super strong rainstorm, on that very day the upstream Zen-wen reservoir had to release a great deal of floodwater in a very short time. Otherwise, this reservoir may collapse any time. As you can see from the aerial map, the CNU sits in between the two rivers, and soon suffered the flooding when the sea tide happened to be in the high, allowing no chance of release of floodwater into the Taiwan Strait.

It's a day to be remembered, double eight flooding of 2009!

Father's 80th birthday

2009-08-29T13:49:00.010+08:00

In Psalm 90:10a, Moses prayerfully pointed out, "The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty, if we have the strength..."

Indeed, it's a big day of the 80th birthday and worthy of celebration. Father had stomach lymphoma about 10 years ago. After partial stomach cutting surgery and several painful cycles of chemotherapy, and follow-up interferon treatment, he was in good condition in the past few years. He is still doing regular checkup.

To this big day, we children and grand children altogether decided to have a thanksgiving birthday party in the backyard of our oldie house at Ansiliao. We designed an afternoon program with different events including: warm-up talk, hymns, God's blessing words, video clip ("my granpa's story阿公的故事" by Grace), love feast, gifts presentation, encouraging words, and birthday cake.

Here are the list of gifts presented to father:
1. a craft work of family tree (a meaningful gift reminding us where we are from and how we descendants are linked together);
2. a book of grandpa's architecture work (阿公作品集 cover page here, context here, and bottom page here);
3. electric shaver;
4. Amway's nutritious products (high protein of good quality)

This birthday party ended with the song of God's abundant blessing!

Chair of majesty?!

2009-08-07T15:04:00.012+08:00

After Mrs. Chen (郭麗容) illustrated her previous artwork, a chair of family story, she presented another kind of chair this morning.

"Why did you create this chair? it looks very luxurious and splendid." I asked.

"The former President A-Bien got scolded from the media almost every day as I read the newspaper or watched TV. Being elected as a President seemed to be supremely honorable, however, it's also extremely difficult to sit on that seat. This seat can be dangling and even overturned if care has not been taken. He was like sitting on the thorn bush, very suffering and uncomfortable. Could he lay down and relax a little bit? No way! There're so many iron nails on the back of the chair. Keep on alert always! As a President, he was so busy that there's not much time for lunch or not even a few minutes going to the restroom. That's why the stool has to be installed right beneath the seat. Though he had suffered and sacrificed himself a lot for this nation, he was scoffed with no reason."

"Of what material was this chair made?"

"It was made mainly by using scrape cloth, styrofoam, and animal feather. In addition, the sword, a symbol of authority, was purchased from abroad during one of my foreign trips. Thorn-like seeds (台語/洽雜某的種子刺刺的) were from the field, and iron nails from hardware store."

A chair can be a suffering story of a

President in the Red House in Taipei.

What a wonderful chair!

2009-08-05T19:58:00.024+08:00

Chair can be very, very big!

Chair can simply mean a seat where you can sit on and take a good rest. Also, chair can stand for an important position title like department chairperson, conference chairman, or committee chairwoman.

What else can chair mean?

Here I want to introduce a very special chair, which, artistically, symbolically, and environmentally speaking, is meaningful. This artwork was created by Mrs. Chen (郭麗容), whom we met at a Herbal-related healthy breakfast shop next to Tainan city park.

Environmentally speaking, this artwork was made of reclaimable PET water bottles (see the close-up photos at the necks of husband and wife), marbles (inlaid at chair base), sands (paved at chair base), paper clay (heads, hands, and feet) and etc., and color paint as well. These are materials readily available from our daily life environment.

Artistically speaking, it's smart and creative that Mrs. Chen put those reclaimed things together and formed a chair, with a couple of husband and wife (with necklace), hand in hand in the back and arms lifted in the front. Within these two arms, there're three kids, hand in hand, under the housetop.

Symbolically speaking, according to Mrs. Chen, these three kids are older sister and younger brothers. They were well-protected by father and mother in a different way. It's quite clear to see that father is in black face and mother in white face. And what does this mean? Obviously, the father took the role of discipline performer whenever kids go wild, and the mother the role of comforter. If you look closely at the two arms in the front, father's bigger arm is in falling gesture, while mother's thinner arm is in lifted position. To this, Mrs. Chen said, "it's because father became exhausted

after disciplining kids and mother had to hold the tearing kids gently."

What about the big and small hearts? Some may be curious to ask, "Why father's red heart is smaller and mother's bigger?" "Well, most of times, mother suffered more when kids were punished severely, and she needed more heart capacity to endure. So, that's why mother has a bigger heart.", Mrs. Chen explained.

Mrs. Chen asked us, "Do you know why the thenar looks like a hoe?" she herself answered,"We all know the hoe is used in gardening or in the field for soil loosening. Soil loosening is a hard and tough work before seeds spreading. With this hoe-like thenar, this means these three kids were supported firmly and strongly by hard and diligent work of father and mother." Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

Let's come back to the two pairs of hands of father and mother. There's one more meaning I think I have left out. I remember Mrs. Chen said, "in the front, one father's disciplining hand and one mother's comforting hand seem to be in different state of mind, knowing the meaning of face color; yet in the back, still they are mind of one accord."

Children discipline is always an issue of great concern. No matter what opposite opinions may exist among parents, children are the most precious diamond in the eye of parents and they are provided with the best. Like the sparkling diamond-like marbles inlaid on this chair base, these three children were surrounded by those precious beads. Such essence is what Mrs. Chen has tried to demonstrate.

Well, chair can be a heart-touched and heart-beaten story about a family under the housetop.

Tree house at Anping

2009-07-22T20:35:00.015+08:00

As my friend, Gene Peralta who works with WHO, said, "you've never been to Tainan if you did not visit tree house (yellow color building)." Why is that? Here are some photos which will give you some idea why it is so special. It's an old house "invaded" by Banyan trees.

Next to this tree house is Taiwan's pioneers wax sculpture museum (white color building). In addition, there's another exhibition house built in memory of a famous local calligrapher, which is next to wax museum. So, if you visit tree house at Anping, you will pretty much have the whole idea about old capital Tainan and Taiwan as well.

Looking outside from tree house, you'll see the nearby Anping castle, another historic site. If you want, you may drive around the coastal area, enjoying the seashore breeze.

That's a short, afternoon tour around Anping.

"The nightfall hometown"

2009-06-29T20:50:00.005+08:00

Here is another Taiwanese folk song "The nightfall hometown" by Wen Hsia, the songwriter, and Heng Chieng Horn, the composer. The composer's name sounds like a Japanese. The lyrics is listed here with English translation as well:

黃昏的故鄉 (listen to this song here)
The nightfall hometown

作詞：愁人/文夏　作曲：橫井弘
Songwriter: Wen Hsia
Composer: Heng Chieng Horn

叫著我　叫著我　黃昏的故鄉不時地叫我
叫我這個苦命的身軀　流浪的人無厝的渡鳥
孤單若來到異鄉　不時也會念家鄉
今日又是來聽見著喔～　親像塊叫我～
Calling me, calling me, the nightfall keeps calling me.
Calling me, a hard-working body, a wanderer, and a houseless migratory bird.
With loneliness, I came to the foreign country. Without cease, I miss my hometown.
Today, again I heard the calling, Ah~; it’s seemingly calling me~

叫著我　叫著我　黃昏的故鄉不時地叫我
懷念彼時故鄉的形影　月光不時照落的山河
彼邊山　彼條溪水　永遠抱著咱的夢
今夜又是來夢著伊喔～　親像塊等我～
Calling me, calling me, the nightfall hometown keeps calling me.
I yearn for the hometown’s shadow then. Moonlight keeps shining on mountain and river.
The other side of mountain and that creek forever embrace our dreams.
Tonight, again I dreamed of it, Ah~; it’s seemingly waiting for me~

叫著我　叫著我　黃昏的故鄉不時地叫我
含著悲哀也有帶目屎　盼我轉去的聲叫無停
白雲啊～你若嘜去　請你帶著阮心情
送去乎伊我的阿母喔～　不倘來忘記～
Calling me, calling me, the nightfall hometown keeps calling me.
Filled with sadness and also tears, the calling voice expecting my homecoming is ceaseless.
White snow, Ah~, if you are going there, please bring my feeling of heart.
Send it to her, my mother, Ah~; don’t forget that~

"Mountain full of spring color"

2009-06-29T16:06:00.003+08:00

This Taiwanese folk song, "Mountain full of spring color (滿山春色)", was written and composed by Da-Ru Chen and Chiu-Lin Chen, respectively, in 1930, the late period of Japanese occupying Taiwan. This song is richly characterized with the homeland smell. It's also infused with the "crying tune" of Taiwanese folk opera (koa-á-hì; 歌仔戲). On top of these two, because of repressive atmosphere in Japanese colonization, this song is also full of sorrows and sadness.

Here is the lyrics and its translation:

滿山春色　美麗好遊賞　第一相好水邊的鴛鴦
你咱可比彼款的模樣　青春快樂這時上自由
Mountain full of spring color; how beautiful of it for touring around!
The most loving are the mandarin ducks on the riverside;
You and I are like that kind of picture: youthful, joyful and the most freedom at the presence.

滿山春色　逍遙好自在　半山鳥隻自由排歸排
阮的心肝永遠為你愛　萬紫千紅祝賀咱將來
Mountain full of spring color; what a free and easy tour!
Halfway up the mountain are birds freely lining up.
My heart is forever love for you.
Dazzling colors of purple and red congratulate our future.

滿山春色　歡迎咱逍遙　沿路相牽爽快唱山歌
心心相印青春上界好　咱的親密實在世間無
Mountain full of spring color, welcoming our easy tour.
Along the footpath is our holding hand in hand, joyfully singing mountain folk song.
Imprinting heart with heart for the youthful is the best.
Our intimacy really is none in this world.

Let's talk in Thai

2009-06-25T10:05:00.008+08:00

Visanu of Thammasat University offers a lunch-time program here at CNU, "let's talk in Thai". There're freshmen from Environmental Resources Management Department joining this language program. The main purpose is for CNU's students to explore different culture through language learning and to open up their international vision. In addition, it's also a good teaching training for Visanu who is now conducting his Ph.D. research at CNU.

It's scheduled to have another round of Thai language for the new semester after summer break. Those who are interested in this lunch-time program sign up at department office of ERM.

"Jasmine"

2009-06-18T11:01:00.000+08:00

In addition to the previous one, "Hug you closely and tightly", here is another song to be presented in the upcoming Concert Conference in July 2009 here at CNU:

茉莉花 Jasmine

好一朵美麗的茉莉花
What a beautiful Jasmine!
好一朵美麗的茉莉花
what a beautiful Jasmine!
芬芳美麗滿枝椏
Fragnant, beautiful and full of branches;
又白又香人人誇
white and fragnant, and praised by everyone!
讓我來把你摘下
Let me pluck you down,
送給別人家
and present to others.
啊　茉莉花呀　茉莉花
Ah, Jasmine, Jasmine!

"Hug you closely and tightly"

2009-06-17T22:26:00.013+08:00

The Concert conference is upcoming soon in July 2009 here at CNU.

In this conference, one of our international team members was assigned to perform a song by Chiang Hui, a very famous Taiwanese singing star. The song is called "Hug you closely and tightly" (Listen this song sung by Chiang Hui here.) Again, I have to take care of the job of translation. Here is the lyrics in Taiwanese, plus the translation:

甲你攬牢牢
作詞：江蕙作曲：江蕙

我欲甲你攬牢牢因為驚你半暝啊爬起來哭