Guests of Honour's Speeches Library

Hon President Mr WONG Yan-lung, SC's address at Speech Day 2023

 

The Honorary President of Queen's College Old Boys' Association (QCOBA) and inaugural Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, Mr WONG Yan-lung, SC, officiated at the Annual Speech Day 2023 this afternoon (December 8) and delivered his address on "Pursue excellence with panorama and physical and mental well-being". He also took the lead to join QCOBA's fund-raising exercise by "Labor omnia vincit" calligraphy works of Chinese paintings and calligraphy specialist Dr CHUI Pui-chee (1997) for a new education foundation, dedicating it to the alma mater as an appeal to QC boys for continued and comprehensive pursuit of excellence. Following is his address:

 

Pursue excellence with panorama and physical and mental well-being

Principal Ms LEUNG (Ms Yvetta Ruth LEUNG), Chairperson Ms SHAM (Chairperson of Queen's College School Management Committee, Ms SHAM Sui-mei), fellow Old Boys, teachers, parents, graduates, students, ladies and gentlemen,

 

It is wonderful to be back in this School Hall today. Many congratulations to all of you graduates, and to the proud parents as well as teachers.

 

On the Speech Day invitation card, the first title ascribed to me is "Honorary President of Queen's College Old Boys' Association". As I have said many times, I don't deserve this honour. I humbly agreed to take on the role because I hope to be able to help with the new initiative of the charitable foundation to promote the well-being of QC boys.

 

Concerns have been expressed to me about QC's competitiveness. Private and direct-subsidy schools are well endowed financially and their students are groomed with many additional resources. QC is a government school, but it is a 161-year-old government school. We hope to build a support platform to enable the tremendous potential of our huge alumni community to be unleashed to provide support and empowerment, which might not be readily available from within the government school structure. So, Old QCs here and scattered asunder, time to get our acts together. Now, in this connection, I must acknowledge Dr CHUI Pui-chee, our Old Boy, for the wonderful 160 masterpieces of calligraphy.

 

How do we measure competitiveness? What is excellence? DSE (Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination) results? Scholarships? Admissions into Ivy League universities? Prestigious and lucrative careers? Fame and recognition? Is that all the golden paint we have to brush up our signboard (金漆招牌)?

 

I have no doubt most of you will go on and achieve excellence in your academic and future career. I hope the new charitable foundation can provide some help.

 

This evening, allow me to share with you a few items you may consider putting into your rucksack, as you set out on your journey to pursue excellence.

 

Pursue excellence with panorama

On the Speech Day invitation card, my second title is "Chairman of Advisory Committee on Mental Health". My chairmanship in fact ceased one week ago. However, my concern for the mental health of Hong Kong has not.

 

Many of you will become medical doctors. My first official visit as Chairman of the Committee was to Kwai Chung Hospital in 2018.

 

There I first saw an old lady in her 80s feeding her patient daughter in her 50s, spoon-by-spoon from the thermos. Apparently, the old lady had been doing that for many years. The patient daughter stared at me with empty eyes, but the old lady smiled at me broadly, as if she was telling me this was just what every mother would do to her child. My heart wrenched.

 

Then, I was led into a special room inside the children and adolescent ward, the force-feeding room. The hospital has to force-feed young anorexic patients through plastic tube in order to keep them alive. I have seen a badly anorexic young man reduced into skeleton, and yet still imprisoned by a falsity in the mind that he was overweight. My heart wrenched.

 

These are defining moments in my work with the Advisory Committee on Mental Health. We are talking about individuals who are extremely vulnerable but unable to ask for help. It behoves the Government to gear up to providing more timely and effective help.

 

You all know some sort of community service is indispensable for your CV (curriculum vitae). However, hands on our heart, how much of it is just for the show? How much of it is truly relevant in defining your goals or the person you want to become?

 

I started full practice as a barrister back in 1988. I was then working seven days a week as a junior, next door to former Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal, Mr Andrew LI Kwok-nang, who was always exhorting me to excel.

 

I felt embarrassed wearing a three-piece suit queuing up for a bus from Wah Fu Estate to Admiralty, so I worked even harder to save up enough money to pay for the 10 per cent deposit for a flat, 10 per cent in those days. I was pretty miserable.

 

The fear that I might grow to become a successful yet utterly selfish lawyer drove me to look for anchor points in the other direction. I have started to visit the homeless in inner Kowloon since 1990. I befriended drug addicts, some very young just like you who are graduating.

 

I remember there was one 19-year-old addict who liked talking to me. Three times he missed the appointments to attend drug rehabilitation centre and made me wait for him at the Kwun Tong MTR for hours. He ended up committing arson in Tsim Sha Tsui to pay for his drug and was given a long prison term. I never got to play badminton with him as I had promised.

 

Sad stories among the homeless are too many to recount. I still recall the faces of the elderly, the disabled, the mentally disturbed, the illegal immigrants, and many more. Coming face-to-face with human misfortune and suffering does cause one to rethink or to moderate one's pursuits.

 

These are significant experiences that prepared me to join the Government legal service in 2005. They also challenged me to lead the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse during my tenure as justice minister.

 

I like the Chinese saying "大丈夫當朝碧海而暮蒼梧". A man should sail the blue seas at sunrise and scale the grey hills at sunset. Don't just stay comfortably where you are. As you venture out, get a full panorama of the world surrounding you, starting with Hong Kong here and now. Travel the places, not just for leisure but also for exposure. Get to know the people who are different from you, their strengths, their weaknesses and their needs. Journeys need not be exclusively horizontal. They can be vertical, across the diverse social and economic hierarchy. You will get a more complete and balanced perspective as to what really matters, on your journey to excellence.

 

Pursue excellence with happiness

Next, you don't have to tell a QC boy to work hard. You all do. However, having chaired the Advisory Committee on Mental Health for six years, and being a workaholic myself at times, I am acutely aware of possible pitfalls of "Labor omnia vincit" or "勤有功". The motto on our school badge is great but can be an overkill, if not worn properly.

 

By "hard work" you can conquer all – such a conviction is liable to feed insecurity and anxiety. For what is hard enough? Hard to tell, and objectively some goals just cannot be reached no matter how hard you try.

 

A belief that "winning" is the only finishing line in self-realisation – may add depression to anxiety, as any "losing" will chip off a large chunk of self-worth.

 

I was interviewed by TVB on Sunday regarding the recent spike of student suicides. Depression is prevalent among secondary school students sadly. It is aggravated by prolonged COVID-19 and the difficulty to adjust to normality when one is so used to abnormality. Experts call for the instillation of more happiness at schools (增加幸福感). One example given was to drive in an ice-cream van into school and treat all with free ice-cream. That might not work with you.

 

How do we get more "happiness"?

 

Do you know there is an 85-year-old study on human happiness? This is Harvard University's study on adult development. Dr Robert WALDINGER is the current overseer of the study. The TED Talk he gave, entitled "What makes a good life?", has been viewed more than 42 million times.

 

According to the Harvard study, the key to happiness, as a matter of the most consistent finding, is positive relationship with other people. It keeps us happier, healthier, and helps us live longer.

 

Asked what "achievement" meant to them, almost all participants in their twilight years concluded simply: "I have been a good son, a good brother, a good husband, a good dad, a good friend to many, or a person who has added value to other people's lives."

 

This finding is consistent with CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong)'s recent mental health survey on persons over 60. About 22 per cent of people over 60 started to develop mild dementia, horrifying because I am already above 60. However, positive lifestyle can delay deterioration or even bring improvement. Among the components of the positive lifestyle are: good social interaction with others, and taking up volunteer work to serve others.

 

According to the Harvard study, positive relationships, i.e. good and close connections with others, are "stress regulators" which could lead to decrease of chronic stress. Such relationships are multi-faceted: man and woman, parents and children, siblings, friends, and even between strangers.

 

So on your path to excellence, I encourage you also to invest in improving relationship with other people. Cultivate them because there is no quick fix. Do more "social fitness" exercise. Be the first person to take the initiative; be the first person to ask "Shall we talk?". Go home tonight and practise that on your mom and dad.

 

Also, practise putting your phone down. Pay more attention to people around you. Even if you cannot leave the phone, try this exercise: when you feel miserable, or especially when you feel miserable, go down your WhatsApp list, type in "How are you?" or send a word of cheer. I can assure you just by doing that you already feel better. Even more elated when the replies come in. Even better, of course, is to get together physically for some fun. Reduce screen time and replace it with people time.

 

Pursue excellence with flexibility

Next, older folks like me will be familiar with the lyric "Changes is eternity" (變幻原是永恆). A Greek philosopher called Heraclitus said something to the same effect: "You cannot step into the same river twice. Because you aren't the same person at each visit, and the water is ever flowing."

 

Hong Kong and the world today will be very different by the time you leave university. The talk about AI (artificial intelligence) replacing human being is already getting boring, and the latest is AI being used to "deepfake" generating false videos on YouTube.

 

Apart from equipping yourself to brace for the changes, it is also important to fortify your mentality toward changes. When a new current of life thrusts upon you, you can resist full frontal, but you can also choose to avoid or adapt, or rise above to surf on the waves. Not getting something that you have worked hard to attain will hurt, but one closed door does not necessarily mean the end. It could be a road sign directing you to the promising pathway which is truly meant for you.

 

Pursue excellence with good sleep

One last thing, which is the common finding in all three mental health prevalence surveys of different age groups commissioned by the Advisory Committee, and that is the important and yet often neglected risk factor to mental health, namely poor sleep.

 

It is not rocket science. You know how grumpy you are when you had a bad night's sleep or you have stayed up all night for whatever reason, but the scientific proof is ample.

 

It is well documented that good sleep or REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep) is important for mood, memory and learning. According to Dr Matthew WALKER, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, REM sleep is "like a form of overnight therapy", during such sleep your brain divorces memories from their emotional charges, thus removing the "sharp, painful edges" from life's difficulties.

 

The research also found that subjects awakened from REM sleep solved 32 per cent more anagrams than subjects who were interrupted during non-REM sleep. So, if you are smart or if you want to get smarter, find ways to sleep really well.

 

On that note, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you "good night". Thank you again. May the Lord bless you all.

 

Queen's College Old Boys' Association
December 8, 2023

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Hon Adviser Dr CHENG Chi-man's address at Speech Day 2022

Following is the Guest of Honour's Address by the Honorary Adviser of Queen's College Old Boys' Association and President of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Dr CHENG Chi-man, at the 160th Anniversary Speech Day 2022 this afternoon (December 2):

 

Self-learning and evidence-based medicine

Ms SHAM (Chairperson of Queen's College School Management Committee, Ms SHAM Sui-mei), Mr WONG (Assistant Principal, Mr WONG Kwok-keung), fellow guests, parents, teachers, graduates and students,

Thank you for inviting me to the Speech Day. It is always my pleasure to share my experience with our fellow students.

Today, I would like to talk about self-learning. Most of you should be familiar with self-learning. As self-learning is practised by QC boys most of the days. I am not going into the reasons behind. Rather, in the following 15 minutes, I shall introduce to you one of the greatest inventions in modern medicine that would change your lives. This is a technique you must equip yourselves with. It is evidence-based medicine, and sometimes referred to as evidence-based practice.

What is evidence? There is a saying "有圖有真相", meaning a photo can speak for itself and the fact is there. But in the realm of science, I would say that the value of this photo as evidence, in a scale of one to 10, would be 0. Well, may be 0.1. For good evidence, it should be consistent and repeatable. For example, one of your friends claimed that she got COVID-19 virus and she took medication A and recovered uneventfully. She showed you photos of the RAT (Rapid Antigen Test), medication A, and most importantly, how bad she looked before she took medication A. The next photo showed her smiling and looking healthily after taking medication A.

Let's leave alone detective works and assume that your friend was telling the truth. Before jumping to the conclusion that medication A works, the first thing to rule out is that your friend recovered by chance. So, we ask 100 people who got COVID-19 and have also taken medication A. They all recovered uneventfully. That looks better. However, we then ask another 100 COVID-19 patients who did not take medication A, or any other medication. They too recovered uneventfully. Then, is medication A useless?

Of course, we have the benefit of knowing that most COVID-19 patients recover uneventfully. We need to know if medication A can help those patients who would have been seriously ill if they haven't taken such medication. We need a bigger sample size. We might need to ask 10 000 COVID-19 patients instead of 100 and compare the results of the two groups.

But your friend stressed that she really felt better immediately after taking medication A. Isn't it important to make patients feel better? Yes, of course, but I think some of you got the answer. We need to rule out or consider the placebo effect. Patients usually feel better with any treatment against no treatment. So, we need to recruit another group of COVID-19 patients and give them an inert pill that looks exactly the same as medication A and compare the results with the group that takes medication A.

To eliminate placebo effect further, we do not tell the two groups whether they are taking the inert pills or medication A. This is called "blinding". Just in case the investigators might be biased in the measurements of results, they are also blind to the allocation of placebos. This is called "double-blinding". Moreover, to make the comparison more meaningful, the two groups should be chosen randomly and be as similar as possible in other parameters such as sex, age, with or without chronic illnesses, etc. Putting all these together, we have the gold standard of evidence, i.e. the double-blinded randomised control trials. The results are further processed statistically to study the relation among the subject matters.

It doesn't mean that we only take results of randomised control trials as evidence. There are other types of studies that add valuable information to our understanding of different factors in play. For example, consider medication A again, we can dig out medical records of COVID-19 patients and find out who have taken medication A and who have not. We group them in two groups, the case group and the control group, and compare their outcomes. This is called a case-controlled study. All evidence are useful. Even the experience sharing of your friend adds information to the big picture of medication A. What is important is that you should know the limitations of each piece of evidence and put appropriate weight on it before you make your decision.

The above deals with different levels of evidence. Your friend comes again. She insists that medication A is terrific and many of her friends benefit from it. It turns out that your friend can get commission on selling medication A. It doesn't automatically mean that your friend is not trustworthy. But at least we should know that there might be an extra source of bias. So, declaration of interest is important.

Before the inventions of the Internet and social media, it was not easy to have your experimental findings published. But now, everyone can easily put up anything on Instagram, on different WhatsApp groups, or in discussion forums. There are KOLs (key opinion leaders) to give opinions on virtually every subject. There is a saying: "識睇睇comments", meaning it is more meaningful and important to read comments and responses to the publication. This also applies to scientific publications.

I think many of you might be aware of the importance of different levels of evidence. But publication of the evidence for peer review is equally important in evidence-based medicine. For renounced journals, there are panels of experienced editors to screen the validity and impact of the studies submitted for publication. Most importantly, the published studies will be scrutinised thoroughly, including repeating the examination and experiments in the same and in different settings, making calculations again from the data provided, and repeating the experiments in their own environment. These are mostly done by readers, who are usually peers in the same fields.

So far, we have covered evidence. Evidence-based practice is to put good evidence into practice. Let's do some mental exercise. If I contracted COVID-19, should I take medication A? There is no need to ask your friend again. With the powerful search engines, we can try to work out an answer through the Internet. So, we type "COVID", "medication A" and "treatment". Nineteen of the 20 top search results are in favour of taking medication A. Those included recommendations from professors without quoting any study, experience sharing of users, and surveys from pharmaceutical companies on how users felt better after taking medication A. There is only one result, which is a double-blinded randomised control trial involving 3 000 patients, showing that medication A was no better than placebo. In fact, side-effects were more.

Critically appraised the evidence, we should come to the conclusion that taking medication A is unlikely to help. For other scenarios with positive results saying the medication works, we still need to weigh the effect size, i.e. how significant the results are in real lives. For example, there might be a statistically significant difference in the outcomes, but the actual difference is so small that it is not worthwhile to adopt the intervention. Furthermore, we have to balance between the risks and benefits of the intervention before we make the final decision.

I am not trying to tell you how to treat yourselves. The above is used as an example to illustrate how to work out an answer based on evidence. It is not limited to medical practice. It is applicable to every piece of information you encounter. Self-learning is important. It should be continuous and lifelong. But how you conduct self-learning is equally important.

In summary, I have introduced to you the concept of evidence-based practice. There are different levels of evidence, each with its merits and limitations. Declaration of interest is important as it might be a source of bias. Publication of evidence with peer review serves to scrutinise the quality of the evidence. To solve a problem or to make a decision, you have to seek evidence on the issue, critically appraise the available evidence, and weigh the effect size with risks and benefits consideration.

I hope I have made you a bit smarter in these 15 minutes. But if you have really become smarter, you should have noticed that what I just said was of low level of evidence. Please go home and do an Internet search. Read on the subject of evidence-based practice and put it into practice. Thank you.

 

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Hon Adviser Mr KWOK Kwok-chuen's address at Speech Day 2021

Following is the written version of the Guest of Honour's Address by the Honorary Adviser of Queen's College Old Boys' Association and Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance, Mr KWOK Kwok-chuen, at the Annual Speech Day 2021 this afternoon (December 3, 2021):

Green careers amid ticking climate clock

Ms SHAM (Chairperson of Queen's College School Management Committee, Ms SHAM Sui-mei), Ms LEUNG (Principal, Ms Yvetta Ruth LEUNG), honoured guests, parents, teachers, graduates and students,

I am very honoured to be invited by my alma mater to speak to you today.

It was very gratifying to see so many of you having your recognition of the hard work and dedication you have devoted during the past year. Also, congratulations to the parents who are now probably online sharing your joy. It is great to hear that so many of you are having all kinds of prizes and I am very glad to hear some of the names of those prizes. For example, some of you got John Stokes History Prize. John Stokes was actually the Principal when I was in the junior forms in QC. There are few other familiar names but I am not so sure whether they are really the persons I know, so I'd better not mention those names. It reflects the very rich tradition of QC. When you are in the middle of it, you may not feel it; but when you look back and look at the bigger picture and other schools in Hong Kong as a whole, it is really something you should treasure because you are in QC.

It was Year 1971 when I took what was called the HKCEE (Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination). It was therefore half a century ago when I was a young QC boy sitting in this same School Hall, going through all the proceedings of the Annual Speech Day like what you are doing today, just without webcasting. It was totally out of my imagination then, that 50 years later, I shall be standing and speaking on the stage. Let me ask all our QC collegians to imagine, to visualise, that there is an invisible angel whispering to you now, "Young man, one day, you will be standing up there speaking to future QC boys."

Our School Hall has not changed much since the days when I was a student. The school uniform has not changed very much. There are some minor changes here and there in your school badge as compared with mine. I am wearing a white shirt and a red tie today, because I was an active scout in QC and the scouts are still wearing the red and white scarves. The balcony at the back is still the same except there is a new control room over there, but the world out there has become a totally different place. Hong Kong has changed dramatically, so has Mainland China. The Annual Speech Day is a time for us to celebrate, take stock of what happened and reflect on our future paths. I am an economist by background and has worked in the financial industry for many years. So, let me give you a very brief idea of what has happened in the past and some ideas of what the future will hold from my perspective.

The past few decades were a very exceptional period in human history. The world has gone through a rapid process of economic development. Billions of people were lifted out of poverty. Basic living conditions and education opportunities, including those for girls, improved significantly. Much of this was driven by a very important policy shift – from central planning and too much government intervention to market discipline and competition. Technological breakthroughs in areas such as IT (information technology) and medicine have also obviously contributed.

China is a major beneficiary of this process, declaring its success in eliminating extreme poverty last year. Many other developing countries in Southeast and South Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa have also achieved significant progress. At the same time, many in the developed world have also enjoyed a surge in their standards of living, against a background of an abundance of cheap consumer goods and low inflation, thanks to increasingly rapid technological innovation and the significant rise in world trade. A generally peaceful world with no major wars has resulted in a rapid increase in wealth and in the number of millionaires and billionaires around the world.

However, in the midst of all these positive developments, little did the world understand fully the problems that were building up. Going forward, the world must work together to sort out a range of major and serious challenges before it can continue to sustain human progress, for you and your children. Let me focus today on ONE of these serious challenges – climate risks.

We have heard from time to time news about serious hill fires in Australia and California, melting ice at the North Pole, or much stronger typhoons and floods in various places, all attributable to the increasing incidences of extreme weather.

The significant progress in global economic development has resulted in much more consumption of fossil fuels. As you have learnt in your science lessons, this releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has led to a gradual rise in average temperatures, leading to warmer seas and melting ice caps, resulting in more extreme climates and rising sea levels, heat waves and drought here, heavy rain and floods there, and so on.

To arrest climate change and avoid disasters, all countries must work together to engineer an overhaul to our energy system, switching to renewable energies such as solar, wind and hydro power. However, such an overhaul takes a long time and requires massive investments. The problem is how to and who should pay for it. For example, the shift to renewable energies will result in higher electricity charges that many people will not be able to afford them. How can governments convince their citizens that this is the right thing to do? Many developing countries do not have enough resources to invest in renewable energy systems. How could developed countries be persuaded to pay more since they have much higher per capita emissions than the less developed? The world needs to phase out probably around 80 per cent of its coal and half of its oil reserves. How can this be done fairly and responsibly? Imagine how you could convince those developing countries that have rich coal or oil reserves and are planning to mobilise those natural resources to support their development, and yet are now asked not to extract them.

Asking all countries to contribute to a smooth yet quick transition to renewables is therefore a very difficult political negotiation process. Early last month, many leaders from different countries gathered in Glasgow for the COP26, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, to seek commitments by countries to do more to cut carbon emissions. 192 governments around the world have agreed to support the objective of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialisation levels. But based on what governments have committed to do during COP26, the world is on track to an increase of more than two degrees. This means serious troubles lie ahead for the world as a whole.

You have probably learnt something about climate risk in your general education programme and have seen some publicity materials about carbon neutrality, but I guess most people in Hong Kong regard this subject as too abstract and irrelevant to their daily life. But the reality is that this is actually happening much faster and closer to all of us. There are more and more hot nights and very hot days in Hong Kong in recent years. September 2021 was the hottest September on record. Because of a gradual rise in average temperatures and in the mean sea level, the Hong Kong Observatory has warned of rising risks of exceptionally strong typhoons, heavy rains and typhoon-generated storm surges. The impact of a storm surge will be more significant when it happens during high tides. The flooding of an underground carpark in Heng Fa Chuen in 2017 was an example of the impact of storm surges and I'm sure many families could recall that nightmare. Imagine how many more places in Hong Kong would come under the threat of storm surges if the sea level rises by 0.5 or 1 metres.

In the business world, green and sustainable development is gathering momentum at an unprecedented pace. More and more financial institutions have stated clearly that they will stop financing projects that are not green and will phase out their support to companies that are not committed to a green economy. Many companies are required to report publicly their sustainability status and plans for the future, in what is called their ESG (environmental, social and governance) disclosure, not only by regulatory authorities, but also by their customers, business partners and shareholders. All these are leading to a rapid increase in jobs that require knowledge and expertise in green and sustainable development, bringing opportunities to future talents like you. "Net-zero" is going to be a paradigm change that will open up a new world for you to come up with innovative ways of doing things in whatever you do in your future career.

There are things all of you could do to help mitigate climate risk. Raising awareness is certainly a useful first step. Building a habit of a green lifestyle such as reducing energy use and cutting down wastes is also important, not only in terms of your contribution to a greener world and reducing your carbon footprint, but also in developing an awareness and sensitivity to climate issues, as well as empathy towards the underprivileged. When things don't go well, it is the poor and deprived who often suffer the most.

Boys of Queen's College, while you enjoy the lawn and many green features in our school, it is time to think about climate and sustainability no matter what career path you may take in the future. If you are going to be a medical doctor, bear in mind that climate change will affect the biological ecosystem and hence the nature and frequency of diseases, not to mention that poor air quality is one of the main killers of many people around the world. If you are going to be an engineer, pay attention to the need for many buildings and infrastructure to have different design standards to cope with higher probabilities of severe typhoons or heavy rains. Many existing structures may also need to be reinforced to cope with climate risks. Designing and constructing green buildings from a life cycle perspective will be given much more emphasis, so is the building of green urban transport systems.

The past 200 years or so of human civilisation and progress were characterised by the extraction and use of fossil fuels. I believe the next stage of human progress shall be characterised by an emphasis on ecology and sustainability. The difficulties I mentioned earlier on, either in terms of persuading the local community or having all the governments to agree on the things we should do, all call for leadership, not just political leadership, but everything we do in whatever capacity you are going to be. QC produces a lot of leaders in various sectors of our society. You will all excel in your own ways. Some of you will do great things; my philosophy is even if I could not do great things, I could do small things in a great way. So, all of us can participate in the process and take leadership. I hope my message today will help you think more about what you could do when you become leaders and shoulder more responsibilities.

Serving QC and the community has always been our duty, and the Speech Day every year brings you one step closer. I hope you will deliver good news and encouraging messages about how you have contributed to making the world a better place when it is your turn to speak to future QC boys.

 

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Honorary Adviser Professor YUEN Kwok-yung's address at Speech Day 2020

Following is the Guest of Honour's Address by the Honorary Adviser of Queen's College Old Boys' Association (QCOBA) and Chair of Infectious Diseases of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Professor YUEN Kwok-yung, at the Annual Speech Day 2020 online this afternoon (December 4, 2020):

Breaking new ground in hardship

Principal Yvetta Ruth LEUNG, respected teachers, graduates, parents and the alumni of our Queen's College (QC),

Many thanks for inviting me to your Speech Day. Let me first offer my very sincere congratulations to the graduating Class of 2020. This is one of the most memorable days for yourself and your family, and I wish you all the very best for the future. Being a QC Form Seven graduate of 1976, I am particularly grateful that you have given me this great opportunity to recollect many memorable experiences at QC, and how much our alma mater changed my life and equipped me to become a doctor, a scientist and a teacher.

Life in Hong Kong was quite difficult in the 1960s to 1970s. My family was living in a subdivided flat of about 60 square feet with an attic in Sai Ying Pun. I slept in the attic with my parents and three other brothers. My father worked below this subdivided flat as a dental technician making dentures 16 hours a day. Our family shared a kitchen which had running tap water and kerosene or coal stoves with four other families. The hygiene was very poor as there were no toilet facilities. We simply urinated into the floor drain of the kitchen and collected our night soil in a pan. The pan was emptied into a common sewage barrel for collection by the government's mobile sewage tank at midnight. I can still remember that a 30-year-old lady in one of the families died after three days of fever, and one of my classmates in Primary Two died of fever one week after absence from class. Life was very fragile in those days!

I was fortunate to have a very caring mother who kept her children fed and safe from fatal infections. Though parts of my lungs were damaged by bronchiectasis and tuberculosis, I did not have much disability except for some occasional cough with blood streaks. Poverty was not just associated with the filthiness of littering and spitting, malnutrition and sickness, but also with foul language, superstitions and idol worship, gambling, heroin addiction, and physical violence. My mother was not formally educated but very strict. When I came 15th out of 40 in the half-yearly examination in Primary One, she hit my palm 14 times with a wooden ruler. When I came second in the final examination of Primary One, she still hit my palm one time. Her unorthodox perseverance on my school performance paid off when my marks at the secondary school entrance examination qualified me to study at QC in 1969.

The Form One year at QC was a really painful experience because I could not comprehend the speech of the British Principal and many teachers speaking in English. While in despair, it was by serendipity that I bumped into Dr HO Chunpor (QC alumnus 1973) at the roof top of the Astronomers' Club on a Friday evening. He reassured me that there was nothing to fear, and advised me to read up everything step by step. Besides teaching me the basics of astronomy, he gave me my first taste of auditory bliss in the form of Dvořák's New World symphony and Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at the City Hall. This eye-opening concert experience amidst tranquility, cleanliness and punctuality enlightened me to pursue another way of living. My English slowly improved with more practice after overcoming my shyness through participating in English dramas and singing English songs at QC.

Knowing how to borrow books from libraries of the City Hall and QC, I learnt about the unassuming attitude and meticulousness of Sherlock Holmes, the limitless space adventures of Star Trek, the complicated internal struggles of Hamlet, and the intense emotions of Romeo and Juliet. At the roof top of QC, I learnt from the great storyteller, Mr POON Chiu-keung (QC alumnus 1974), about black holes, quasars, neutron stars, red shift and the expanding universe. My classmate, Mr SO Siu-hei, showed me how to read the star atlas, use steel grit to grind the concave mirror, plate silver on the mirror to make a Newtonian reflector telescope and then measure the focal length. Others taught me how to use the telescope to take photos of moon eclipse, count sunspots, and develop photographic films in the dark room. These experiences aroused my interest to study physics and chemistry.

Dr KO Wing-man, an excellent organiser, led us in making visits to the huge dome and telescope of our Assistant Principal, Mr LIU Hing-chai, and taught us how to take care of the daily needs of almost 100 people joining the astronomical observation camp in the Yuen Long Plain. Through these enjoyable experiences, I started to know about team spirit and leadership. The late Dr CHAN Chee-hung, who became a psychiatrist, encouraged me to think about the importance of moral values as exemplified by the ultimate reality of truth and love in the biblical context. He told me that any change for the better starts with acknowledging our shortcomings and followed by targeted actions.

I was also inspired by teachers to help the less fortunate by joining flag-selling days on Saturday mornings. It was quite an experience for an intrinsically shy, short and skinny boy to solicit donations from strangers while walking from Sai Ying Pun to Wan Chai Violet Peel Clinic, or from Shau Kei Wan to QC. My heart almost jumped out when I beseeched pedestrians to give coins for flags. I was deeply relieved when teachers at the destinations encouraged and told me that my weighty donation box was almost full of coins.

Extra-curricular activities would arouse our interest to overcome the mundaneness of our studies, but might not directly help us in passing examinations. Our seniors always tell us not to depend on others but have to find our own way out through diligence and adaptability. Others can only give you hints and some short-term guidance. Besides reading books, we dissected rats, dog fish, earthworms and cockroaches on the roof top together, drew and labeled the internal organs, and tried to learn the skills from each other after school. Our caring teachers such as Mr HO Kwok-kuen often sympathised with our examination pressure. I was late one morning and should normally have received some punishment, but he just gave me a pat on the shoulder and told me to have more rest.

This was how I graduated from QC and entered the medical school of HKU, but what I learnt most from QC is the importance of truth and love in building our core values. By upholding fairness, compassion, humility and pursuit of excellence, QC boys are able to convert our differences of opinion, ability and values, through peaceful and open-minded interactions, into new insights, innovations and strength that sustain us through life's challenges.

Looking back at the age of 64, my childhood poverty and personal sickness have bestowed me with empathy to care for the poor and needy as a medical doctor. QC has provided me the environment to acquire the core values, knowledge, logic, skills and passion to become a scientist and teacher at HKU. As an infectious disease microbiologist, finding new pathogenic viruses or bacteria amidst trillions of other microbes is like finding a star amidst trillions of other celestial objects.

Our alumni have not forgotten to give back to our alma mater. When the roof top of our Astronomers' Club could no longer serve its purpose due to the severe light pollution of Causeway Bay, the family of Dr Stanley HO (Honorary Permanent President, QCOBA) and the members of QCOBA donated to convert the Tai Tam Canoe Pavilion into the Stanley Ho Astronomical Observatory equipped with state-of-the-art optical and radio telescopes for amateur astronomers.

The standards of living and education in Hong Kong and Mainland China have markedly improved in the last 40 years. Information is overwhelming in the Internet while geopolitical and socio-economic situations are changing rapidly within a day. Every field and sector is full of cut-throat competition. Our survival depends on rapid adaptation to changes by innovation and global coopetition. But only truth and love will set us free from these suffocating worries and chaos, because "in repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength".

Let us always remember that "Curiosity breeds innovation; logic sets pathways; perseverance brings fruition; but only love endures." Thank you again for inviting me to join your Speech Day, and I wish all of you the very best in your future endeavours.

 

*** End ***

 

Speech by
Mr. Alvin Kwock
for the
Annual Speech Day 2019

(Although our Annual Speech Day has been cancelled, Mr. Alvin Kwock, our guest-of-honour has been so generous that he agrees to share the speech he has prepared with us.)

The Adviser on Start-ups of the Student Affairs Sub-committee of Queen's College Old Boys' Association (QCOBA) and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OneDegree, Mr Alvin KWOCK Yin-lun, was scheduled to officiate and speak at the Annual Speech Day 2019 this afternoon (December 6), which has been cancelled due to uncertain social situation.

Mr KWOCK founded OneDegree, an InsurTech (insurance technology) start-up, in 2016 and has been an active player in the innovation and technology industry. He was appointed the Adviser on Start-ups in the 2019/20 academic year to provide experience to students on start-up matters, particularly to Secondary Three who now have basic entrepreneurship learning in their Life and Society curriculum. Following is his Guest of Honour's Address scheduled to be delivered today:

The QC courage

Madam Chairperson (Chairperson, School Management Committee, Ms LEE Wai-ping), Principal (Ms Yvetta Ruth LEUNG), my respected teachers, graduates and members of the Queen's College (QC) community,

Thank you all for having me here today and it always feels great to be back in QC.

My humble upbringing

I'm Alvin KWOCK, Class of 1999. When I received the call from Principal LEUNG inviting me to give the Guest of Honour's Address, I was humbled and a little nervous. That was the second time I got a call from QC Principal; the first was back in Form Six and I wasn't really considered a model student. I was going to the United States (US) for university and spent a lot of time on community work in the then Wan Chai District Board and skipped classes a lot. Principal LEE (former Principal, Mr LEE Kar-hung) called me and said "I know you are leaving soon, but please make sure you don't drop the ball in school work". QC is a very warm family which never leaves anyone behind. It doesn't matter whether you're a good or bad student, current student or alumnus – they care about you all the same.

I've thought a lot about what to share with you today. Our school is well-known for producing many prestigious and successful alums, particularly in business and government. Many students continue their studies at top medical and law school programmes. What insight or inspiration would I be able to offer you, my fellow QC boys?

It's not easy being a fresh graduate today, compared with my generation or my parents'. The world is changing at a much faster pace. New and emerging technologies are creating jobs which didn't exist a decade ago. It's also making a lot of jobs considered great in the past obsolete and, to a certain extent, it even impacts the career of doctors, accountants and lawyers. I want to share with you some thoughts as a technology start-up founder about what this means for young people today.

First of all, let me tell you briefly about myself. After I graduated in 1999, I went to the US to attend the University of Chicago. But in fact, I came from a very humble family. I took up tutoring jobs while I was still at QC because my family depended on me. What did Morrison scholarships mean to me? The honest answer is: it meant bread and butter for my family. I was able to attend the second most expensive university in the US because I was fortunate enough to receive three scholarships. One of these was from QC alumni. Our school has this very tradition of QC boys helping each other. With those scholarships, the education at the University of Chicago changed my life.

Because of financial constraints at home, I pushed myself to finish my studies in the shortest time possible. I graduated from the University of Chicago in three years with both my bachelor's and master's degrees in economics.

My challenges

My first job out of college was with JPMorgan as a research analyst. Investment banking may seem like a glamorous job, frequent traveling and making big bucks, but it's also very tough work in a highly competitive environment. I was on the verge of getting fired after the first year, being ranked among the bottom 10% performers. In the second year, I worked 363 days and climbed up to become the top performer in Asia Pacific. I was made Vice President at the age of 25.

My job was to produce timely reports and analyses to our clients. We were at the beck and call of the markets and my team often pulled all-nighters rushing to get a report ready for the morning. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and tune into Apple's announcement of its latest iPhone product. After listening to Steve Jobs (Founder, Apple) speaking for an hour, it would already be 3am and I had only five to six hours to send out a good piece of analysis to clients before the market opened at 9am. This is the typical investment banking life.

But now, robots can finish a 20-page report within 10 minutes of iPhone launch event or earnings announcement. Technology can put so many brains or CPUs (central processing units) together and complete tasks much faster.

I was 34 when I went through a soul-searching exercise. My mom was diagnosed with late-stage cancer and was in and out of hospital a lot for six months. During that time, I witnessed a lot of pain points in medical and insurance services. I remember hearing a broadcast one night at 10pm in the Emergency Room: "People who have been waiting since 3.30pm, please be patient." I also knew one patient who ended up going to a loan shark because insurance claims took too long.

I saw how unfair it was and it all frustrated me. Isn't insurance supposed to help you, to give you some peace of mind when something bad happens? Why people can't completely trust insurance companies to come to their aid when they need it the most? To me, the last thing you have to worry when you're sick should be whether you have enough money to see the doctor. My mother eventually lost the battle to cancer. I came away with a firm determination to change how insurance works, to make it works for people, rather than the other way around.

Facing difficulties

Does anyone know the success rate of start-ups? It's about 1%.

All the well-known technology companies - Google, Facebook, YouTube - are all part of that 1% while you probably never heard of the remaining 99% that never made it. Starting your own business is scary and hard, and you could fail, but QC taught us that when something is difficult, it doesn't mean we should shy away from it. Instead, we should have the courage and determination to make those hard decisions and not just take the easy way out.

Next time when you see your classmates, I want you to shake hands and remember each other. When you graduate from QC, you'll come to appreciate the relationships you built here. The QC alumni network will become an invaluable resource in the future, I can guarantee. I am always excited when I find out my client or business contact a QC graduate.

We actually have five QC alums at OneDegree, including myself. Danny was my classmate and also my violin teacher in high school, and now he's our internal auditor. I only met Stephen, KK and Rex when they joined OneDegree, but our shared QC experiences are an instant bond and we clicked very quickly. Honorary Advisers of QCOBA like LAW Wing-chung and Simon SHEN and many others have also lent us support along the way.

Be nice to each other, help each other out, as we're all brothers who learnt the same lesson, Labor Omnia Vincit.

Braving the future

It was my choice to leave a stable career and start from scratch. Life is making a series of calls. Some calls require more courage and conviction than others. Some may ask you to make bigger sacrifices. Some could be irreversible, but we cannot shy away from decisions.

In the past, you could stick with one job and do pretty much the same thing for your entire professional life. That was fine. But we are in a much more capricious environment today. If we aren't sensitive and attuned to the changes in our world, we may very well be left behind.

QC has been one of the most elite schools in Hong Kong for the last 157 years and pursuing excellence is always our top mission. Our school is the alma mater of some of the brightest minds in our society. On some level, we owe it to QC and we owe it to Hong Kong to help our home thrive on amid the challenging times.

Class of 2019, although we are two decades apart, let's brave the challenges ahead with the same QC courage. We are not alone. Our teachers and parents are with us, and Old Boys are also doing what they can for our city with leadership and passion, particularly in the past six months. It's our responsibility to enable you to have the tools and support to maintain our liberal campus for the generations to come.

This is probably the first time I'm meeting many of you, but hopefully not the last. Let's help each other as QC brothers in the future. Thanks again for having me. It's been an honour.

 

*** End ***

 

A Summary of Professor Rocky S. Tuan’s Speech on the Annual Speech Day 2018 of Queen’s College


Professor Rocky S. Tuan, the Vice Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an Old Boy of Queen’s College, was invited as the Guest of Honour on the Annual Speech Day of Queen’s College on 7th December, 2018 and delivered a speech to the audience.

Professor Tuan began his speech by expressing his deep appreciation for being invited by Queen’s College, his alma mater, as the Guest of Honour of the Annual Speech Day 2018. He described that was one of the greatest honours he had ever received. He then delivered congratulations to all the S6 graduates and shared his personal experience in making choices in life, and provided some enlightening rules-of-life recommendations.

“Life is all about choices”, stated Professor Tuan, and proceeded to describe the three significant choices he had made in his early days. The first choice was his decision to enroll in Queen’s College for his matriculation years, a choice being described by him as one of the wisest choices he had ever made. The second choice was his decision to leave Hong Kong and study in the United States. Looking for adventure and something different, Professor Tuan had made a choice which was not common for students in Queen’s College at that time. The third choice was the decision to be himself. Following his inner voice, Professor Tuan decided to pursue life science in his graduate studies at the Rockefeller University, New York, and was attracted to the field of musculoskeletal biology, a research path that has brought him a very rewarding career. Based on lessons learned through his own experience, Professor Tuan reminded graduates to follow the inner voice in their heart, first and foremost, instead of just following the words of others when making a career decision.

As a professor and the current Vice Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Tuan said his was a knowledge business. In his opinion, the mission of a university was the preservation, generation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. Knowledge, if diversified and shared with the next generation, would become more accessible to the general public, and could lead to improved quality of life for the public. He implored the graduates to be always engaged in the global business of knowledge and motivated to pass on their knowledge to others.

Professor Tuan then shared with the graduates his personal six rules of success. (1) Setting priorities. By setting priorities, one would be able to see the big picture in life. He stressed the importance of good time management, and explained how it would help setting better priorities and putting things in order. (2) Use resources wisely. Professor Tuan reminded graduates to make wise use of their resources, especially money, and be guided by their own needs. (3) Stay focused. Professor Tuan encouraged graduates to be persistent, and use fully their abilities to stay focused on the above-mentioned rules. (4) Develop the right relationships in life. Professor Tuan encouraged graduates to make fast friends in school and out-of-school. He stressed the importance of establishing different relationships in real life, instead of solely in the virtual world, because only friends and family would share their happiness or give them moral and emotional support in their ups or downs. (5) Don’t be greedy. Professor Tuan defined greed as an intense and selfish desire for something that could allow people to achieve a certain status. He reminded graduates to set their own goals instead of showing off what they owned or being greedy for money, power, or status, because that would be a never-ending road. (6) Don’t be complacent. Professor Tuan concluded the six rules of success by reminding graduates not to be complacent with their achievement, because success was not an entitlement and could never be taken for granted. He stressed that good times did not last forever, especially in a rapidly changing world. People who were complacent with their accomplishment would fail to catch up with the rest of the world and be left behind.

In the last part of his speech, Professor Tuan shared with graduates three rules to achieve happiness, which in his opinion were much harder to achieve than the six rules of success. (1) Embrace the unpredictable nature of life. Professor Tuan stated that life was actually a mystery. That explained why things would not last forever and we could never expect or predict what would happen next in our lives. Plans had a tendency to go sideways. Professor Tuan reminded graduates not to waste their time figuring out the reasons for the bad things that happened in life. Instead, it would be better to accept and embrace the paradoxical nature of life. (2) Keep a sense of humor. Professor Tuan pointed out that there might just be too many serious people in the world (!), and that a good sense of humor was therefore essential to a happy life. He explained that a sense of humor was not just laughing at some jokes or watching funny videos, but a way to make things funny. In fact, one could even go ahead make fun of oneself. (3) Don't fight changes. The last rule to achieve happiness, according to Professor Tuan, was not to fight changes. Again, he stated that nothing would stay forever, especially in the rapidly changing world of today. Instead of resisting the changes, graduates should embrace changes and make use of the opportunities brought by them.

Professor Tuan concluded his speech by thanking Queen's College again for inviting him as the Guest of Honour of the Annual Speech Day, and the opportunity for him to visit his alma mater and reminisce. He sincerely wished all the graduates a bright future in their lives.

 

*** End ***

 

The speech (abridged) of
Professor Peter Mathieson
President and Vice-Chancellor
The University of Hong Kong
at
Queens College Annual Speech Day
on 8 December 2017

 

I want to start by thanking you for inviting my wife, Dr Tina Mathieson and me to join you on this special day in the school’s calendar. We are delighted to be here, and first and foremost I want to offer on behalf of both of us our very sincere congratulations to the graduating class of 2017. You have done very well to get this far, to complete your school education and we wish you all the very best for the future.

Congratulations also to all the teachers that have supported you and helped you over the years. I am always very conscious that for every student there are other people that should also be congratulated: parents, family, friends or other loved ones, people that have often made sacrifices to support your education. All of these groups will share your joys and your successes and all should feel very proud on this special graduation day. I understand how they feel because in addition to being the President and Vice-Chancellor of HKU, I have also been a doctor, a researcher, a teacher, and most significantly, a parent. From my first meeting with the members of the University, I pointed out that I would always regard my students as a father would: so now I am father to almost 29,000 “children” (although some of the postgraduates can be as old as I am), it is indeed a big family!

None of us ever stops learning: your education does not stop here, it continues, no matter what you do next, whether you go to university or enter employment, vocational training or further study. Education is not only about schools and universities, it is about life. When I was at school trying to decide what subjects to focus on, I recognise now that I was very naive and didn’t have access to much advice. Schools these days are much better at providing careers advice to students than they were in my day. I knew that I had the ability to go to university but I was not sure what subject or subjects to study. I was good at languages but I thought (wrongly, I now realise) that my career options would be limited if I focused on a single language such as French or German. Now in many schools in the UK, languages are rightly seen as gateways to many careers, with Mandarin or Spanish being particularly powerful options. As an aside, let me make a comment here on Hong Kong and on typical Hong Kong students. You probably all think is it quite normal to speak three languages fluently: most of the young people that I meet in Hong Kong, and even some of the older ones, can speak fluent English, Cantonese and Putonghua. Don’t ever under-estimate the significance of this: if you have those language skills, you are equipped to work in many exciting parts of the world, including of course Mainland China where there are so many exciting opportunities as the Chinese economy continues to grow and as China’s influence in the world continues to expand.

Anyway, I decided not to focus on languages and the only other subjects that I was any good at were sciences, so I started to think, “What can I do with science A-levels?” Medicine was the obvious target and although my school’s initial advice was to consider other options because entry to Medicine was so competitive and I risked disappointment, the more I read about Medicine and thought about it, the more convinced I became that this was the career for me. I remember making an appointment to go and see my family doctor when I was about sixteen because I wanted his advice on a medical career. He said to me, “What’s wrong?”I said, “Oh, nothing’s wrong, I just want your advice about applying to medical school.”

He seemed very relieved and proceeded to give me some very good advice. In fact I ended up studying at the same medical school that he had himself attended some 40 years before. Looking back, I think what appealed to me about Medicine was that there was a well-defined career structure and a profession in which I would have many opportunities for life-long learning. And so it proved: the great thing about Medicine is that you can never know it all. Knowledge advances very fast, particularly about diagnostics and about treatments, but also about disease pathogenesis. To give you just one example, when I was doing my fourth year pathology exams in 1982, a new syndrome had been recently described, particularly in San Francisco in homosexual men: this is what we later recognised as AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. I scored a lot of points in my viva exam because I had read about this and the examiner even commented that I knew more about it than he did, so they gave me Honours! Since then, our understanding of AIDS, its causation by different variants of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus HIV, and most recently its effective treatment with combinations of anti-retroviral drugs have developed very rapidly. From a mysterious and devastating uniformly fatal syndrome in 1982, it has evolved to a much more manageable condition in 2017, at least in the developed world where access to diagnosis and treatment is much better now.

This brings me to another point: one of the most incredible aspects of my medical career has been the opportunity to travel to interesting parts of the world and to teach, do research and/or practice medicine in very varied places. I have worked in Australia, Germany and of course Hong Kong but in many ways it is my experience in Africa that has taught me the most. When I first went to Uganda in 1999, HIV/AIDS was totally out of control there. Around 20% of the population was affected, and in hospital in-patients it was as high as 40 or 50%. This was in a country where malaria was already a very serious endemic problem, especially for the very young, as well as diarrhoeal disease, nutritional deficiencies, poor ante-natal care, etc. I could stand at the door of the medical ward in Uganda and look at the patients and be able to tell just by their appearance who was likely to be infected by HIV and who wasn’t. Now the situation is totally transformed: better access to anti-retroviral drugs combined with better public education and access to diagnostic testing has made HIV much more manageable: now patients with HIV can live almost normal lives and they no longer look different from anyone else.

Having studied Medicine, I then needed to choose which branch of the profession to focus upon. Another great advantage of medicine as a degree is its versatility: there are many and varied types of career available. I knew that I wanted to work in hospitals rather than in the community and I knew that I wanted to be a physician rather than a surgeon, but that still left me with a wide range of choices of different medical specialties. So, why did I choose nephrology, the study of kidney disease and its treatments including dialysis and kidney transplantation? Again, I recognise now that I was rather naive and superficial in my thinking. I enjoyed my nephrology attachment as a student and I was particularly impressed with the wide knowledge of the consultants that I worked with and their ability to make their patients better. This is one of many examples in my experience where role models were very important in life decisions. Dialysis and transplants can be very dramatic treatments, restoring patients from being very sick and sometimes at death’s door, rapidly back to full health. At that time, nephrology was quite a new specialty and it was rather focused on young patients. This made me believe, wrongly, that my career in nephrology would be predominantly with young patients and that I would be able to make most of them better. Again this turned out to be wrong: as my career progressed it was becoming clear that kidney disease is much more common than we had previously believed and that it particularly affects elderly patients. Some of these patients have multiple diseases including the ravages of ageing, so that dialysis and transplantation are not always possible or as effective as in younger patients. Nevertheless, nephrology remains an exciting specialty characterised by working in a multi-disciplinary team, which I always enjoyed, with ever-improving possibilities for diagnosis and treatment, and I have absolutely no regrets about my choice of specialty.

The next question is, “How did a kidney doctor end up being the President of the University of Hong Kong?” Before I answer that, let me just point out that the Presidency of the National University of Singapore, one of the top universities in Asia, was until very recently also held by a kidney doctor; the current President of the University of Bristol, a very good university in the UK where I worked before I came to Hong Kong, is a kidney doctor; the current president of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is also a physician (albeit a gastroenterologist) and there are medically qualified Presidents at many top universities all over the world. So why do doctors make good university presidents? Why are they prepared to give up their medical practice and move into university leadership? I think it is because running a university is basically a people-management job and a doctor’s job is also usually about people management. It is also about communications, including sometimes giving bad news, and doctors should be well-equipped with suitable communications skills to enable them to handle complex and sometimes difficult conversations. This is especially true of the specialties of internal medicine including nephrology and gastroenterology. We get to know our patients well and we often look after them for many years, through episodes of good health and also some bad times. We work in multi-disciplinary teams where everyone is appreciated for their contribution. We have to be aware of the cost of our diagnostics and treatments and we have to manage limited resources, so we become skilled at financial matters and managing budgets. We become experienced at prioritisation: of our time, of money and of effort. These are useful preparatory skills for leading a university. Above all, I hope and believe that we continue to care about people and their welfare. At HKU, the people are excellent: we have wonderful students, staff, alumni and friends and it has been my privilege to lead them for the last almost four years.

So how did I get here? How did I get involved in university leadership? It started for me in Bristol. Before that, in London and in Cambridge, I had been solely concerned with medical practice, teaching and research, and I had tried very hard to keep away from administration and management, preferring to leave that to others. The same was true when I first went to Bristol, but after a few years there I became more concerned about the way the department, the Faculty and the wider University were being run. I also wanted to help to promote and support the careers of others, not just in my research group or in my own specialty but on a wider basis. I felt that I had been given wonderful opportunities myself and that I wanted to help others to have similar opportunities and to capitalise upon them. So I became a Head of Department and I enjoyed it, or at least I enjoyed some of it, and I derived some satisfaction from leading a group of people from various areas outside my own. Then when the role of Dean became available, in which the Dean is in charge of a much bigger section of the university called a Faculty, I eventually agreed to take it on. Again I enjoyed some aspects of the role and got satisfaction from improving the Faculty in terms of its finances, its morale, its relationship with the National Health Service and its teaching and research standards. Moving to a leadership role of a comprehensive university was a natural progression for me after six years of being Dean of a large Faculty in my own subject area. I never expected it to be in Hong Kong but when the opportunity to lead HKU came my way, I was thrilled to seize it and it has been a pleasure to be here. Again I can’t say that all aspects of the job have been enjoyable or necessarily easy, but I certainly derive great satisfaction from the current status of the University, rising in all the major international rankings, in good financial shape and with superb recent recruits amongst the students and staff.

My main message to the students today is one that I made when I spoke here before: I firmly believe that everything good that has happened to me in my life has been the result of education. I was able to get into a university to study medicine, I met my lovely wife there and we had our two children, I have enjoyed medical practice, teaching and medical research and now I have ended up as a university leader. I have travelled to many fascinating parts of the world and met thousands of interesting people. None of it would have happened if I hadn’t seized the opportunities that came my way. Being able to see opportunities when they arise and then seize them before it is too late are very important life skills. Medicine is one of those subjects where you never stop learning, you can never know everything. But this is not only true of Medicine. I feel the same about life in general: there is always something new to learn. Learn something from every place that you go and every person that you meet.

The other advice I was given during my education was to turn every negative into a positive, turn every threat into an opportunity. The past few years in Hong Kong have been difficult and complicated but I firmly believe that we can find positives, turn threats into opportunities and move forward as a society. Learning to accept that other people have different opinions from your own, and that their opinions are just as important as yours, is a very good lesson for life in general. You can learn from your friends and even from your enemies if you have any. You can learn from bad experiences as well as from good ones. Life does not always run smoothly, but if you treat every day as a learning opportunity you will get stronger and more knowledgeable with every passing day.

I envy the students of today: I wish I was still young like you. The world is so full of opportunities today for talented hard-working people like you. I feel very optimistic about your futures. You have the potential to build on the superb basic education that you have had here and go on to become leaders locally, regionally or even globally. Everyone is good at something, many of you are good at many things. You might not yet have found the area or subject that suits you most, but you will. Be proud of yourselves, aim high, don’t be deterred by setbacks or disappointments, but try to learn from them and get stronger and wiser every day. My second reason for optimism comes from taking a look at the world you are entering: instantaneous global flows of information, incredible opportunities for international travel, technologies that make everything easier and quicker. Yes, of course there are major challenges for your generation: climate change, air quality, water and energy shortages, population growth and ageing, threats of terrorism and war etc but I have great confidence in human ingenuity to successfully tackle these issues in the same way that previous generations have overcome other seemingly insurmountable challenges. Let’s take a look at Hong Kong, this amazing city in which you have grown up and studied, and which has just this past summer marked 20 years since the return to China. Hong Kong sits in one of the most exciting regions of the world and remains a place where hard work gets rewarded, where talent rises to the top, where unrivalled opportunities exist for the next generation. You, with your education, your skills, your values and your capacity for hard work, are very well-placed to seize those opportunities and really make a difference in the world.

Education is the key to making yourself the best you can be. Well done on all your progress so far and very good luck for the future. Work hard, play hard, respect others, and always try to improve yourself as a person: enjoy your lives and treat every day as a learning opportunity. Thank you again for inviting Tina and me to join you today. We wish you all the best in your academic pursuits here at Queen's College, and for those of you graduating this year: the very best to you in all your future endeavours.

 

*** End ***

 

Speech by

Professor Tsui Lap-chee

at the

  Queen’s College Annual Speech Day

  (2 December 2016)

 

Principal Li (Sui-Wah), members of the platform party, students and parents, ladies & gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank Principal Li for inviting me to this happy occasion in your school this afternoon. At the same time, I would like to congratulate you, and all your colleagues in Queen’s College, for another fine year of excellence –all your truly outstanding achievements, academically and in extracurricular activities.

Today’s ceremony is an important occasion for your school and a joyful event for the young men who have demonstrated academic achievements and who are capable, responsible and committed to excellence.

Therefore, let me now congratulate all the students who are being honoured today, and, especially to the graduates.

You are not any graduates — you are graduates of QC! You have received a broad and balanced education from an institution where excellence is in its tradition; one that has prepared you well for the future, as it has prepared for all its graduates in the past 150 years. Many of them are famous people, not just locally, but nationally and internationally.

On this special occasion today, however, I have been asked by Principal Li to talk about STEM education in Hong Kong.

What is STEM?
STEM is the acronym for for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The teaching of STEM is a concept rather than a single subject matter. The idea came from the liberal education culture in the US. According to the US Department of Education, STEM is part of Education for Global Leadership.
President Barack Obama once said, “Science is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world …”

Let me now further elaborate the importance of STEM education.
While many governments promote STEM education under the premise of shortages of innovative human capital for sustaining productivity and growth, the argument for universal STEM education should be based on the fact that STEM literacy is important for everyone working and living in an increasing technology-centric and a globalized world.

Having said that, I should note that a study done by British Council 2015 showd that: “Almost half of world’s professional leaders study STEM”; this is based on a survey of 30 countries on 1,700 professional leaders in both government and non-government corporations.

In another report, it showed that, of the top 20 wealthiest persons in the world, 11 studied STEM.
I am sure you all know Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook, Larry Page of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Ellison of Google, and Jeff Bezos of Amason.com, just to name a few.
There is, however, a shortage of supply of skilled individuals in STEM worldwide. On the demand side, it has been estimated that there would be a 14% increase of jobs that require STEM skills in the US labour market for the next 5-10 years. The highest is in the area of biomedical engineers at 62%; medical scientists – 36%; systems software developers – 32%; computer system analysts – 22%.
Besides the utilitarian consideration, there are other good reasons why STEM education is important for a society.

First, technology is now made available and assessable to individuals to not only enjoy but also to harness as tools in ways that contribute to the good of one-self and of all beings. A society needs to equip its people with more STEM knowledge and skill in order to understand and embrace the technologies around us and to utilize them for the good of humankind.

Second, STEM literacy is important to allow citizens to participate in the debates of many global issues that require good understanding of how science works. Issues such as global warming and environmental protection vs. economic growth; genetically-modified food vs. food safety; the ethical debate behind the use of embryotic stem cell as well as cybersecurity vs. privacy, etc.

Third, a STEM-literate society will enable its citizen to make good personalized decisions about their own lives, which will in turn benefit the society as a whole.

Therfore, a STEM-knowledgeable person does not have to be a scientist but he/she should be able to understand, evaluate and take advantage of the vast amount of science and technology information available to further their personal goals and improve their well-beings. He/she should be able to participate and contribute to debates and public discussions of various social issues involving science and technology. This requires an understanding of how scientific knowledge is generated and validated and the pros and cons in the applications resulting from using the knowledge.

The above are all very nobel reasons to promote STEM education, but how can the education system respond to the rapid technological changes in the society in designing the best programmes for the next generation of the 21st Century?
How can the education systems in the world, especially at the secondary school level, satisfy these very contrasting agenda? The two being the supply of talented STEM individuals and raising the STEM literacy of the region. However, they are not mutually exclusive. Most countries agree that engaging all students with STEM and enhancing high performing STEM cohorts in the secondary school level are important, even though their focus and strategies may differ.
 

How about Hong Kong?
As you all know, Hong Kong replies heavily on financial and service industry, Together with the lack of a strong manufacturing base and the weak R&D spending by government and corporate are generally believed to have dampened students’ enthusiasm towards STEM in Hong Kong. Consequently, many high performing students opt to study medicine, business and law at universities. (I bet many of them are sitting in this hall.) Unfortunately, Faculties of Science and Engineering are facing increasing difficulties in attracting students with high academic achievements. This self-perpetuating cycle further weakens the region’s STEM-readiness to “re-industrialise”.

University admission policies also play a pivotal role in shaping student behaviour. Currently, strong emphasis is being placed on the examination results, especially those of the four Core Subjects, namely, Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and Liberal Studies.

Thus, the examination-oriented culture among students in Hong Kong compounds with the limited supply of government-funded university places, poor prospects in studying science and engineering, and unfavourable social attitude towards diploma programmes and vocational education as alternative pathways are all contributing factors, leading to narrowing of studies and general risk-aversion among students and, ultimately, impeding their holistic development.

Compare to other countries and regions, Hong Kong has top achievement and positive student attitude towards STEM, as measured by global assessment tests of PISA and TIMSS, as well as in various science and math Olympiads. Such attainment, however, are not being translated into high enrolment in scinece, technology and advanced mathematics subjects at the senior secondary education level. The lack of next generation STEM experts is obviously alarming.

This is the subject of a study being conducted under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, Our research attempts to look at the status of Science, Technology and Mathematics education in Hong Kong at the senior secondary level and its transition into tertiary eduction, with an aim to identifying ways to enhance it.
The study is of course about STEM education at a region-wide level; how about you, students in this hall?
I would like to share with you some advice which I hope you find useful in the remaining time.

1. Choose your own path and enjoy what you do
You might have discussed with your parents, teachers, friends, and school counselors about your future. Many of you might have already chosen your degree major in universities. But then, I would advise you to listen to your own heart, and ask yourself what you really love doing. You should not let concerns about career prospects or getting the right job affect your choice.

The reason is simple. The world is changing and it is full of unknowns. Many of the jobs now people hold did not exist before – definitely not in my days, not even 10 years ago! Nowadays, many people change careers a few times in their lives (careers, not jobs!), moving from profession to profession. More and more young people are starting their own business. Entrepreneurship is becoming a career. It is something that was rare in my days.

Even using myself as an example, I had no idea that I would be a scientist when I entered university, let alone becoming the head of a university. I definitely did not study for that.

So if you allow your choice in life to be dictated by temporary fashion or what you think may bring the most money, you will regret. It is more important that you enjoy what you do.  If you like what you do, you will be better at it, and if you are better at it, you will have greater success with it.

2. Lifelong learning
After setting out in the directions you have decided, you should not forget about learning new things. The world needs technologists and scientists, and it equally needs arts graduates and many other forms of expertise. This intellectual cross-fertilization is important not only at the society level but also at the personal level. Under globalization, there are greater demands for individuals with multiple skills and the abilities to innovate and lead.

Going to college or universities is only one of the many ways to learn more. Lifelong learning does not have to start after higher education either. The heart to learn is more important.

3. Be a good person
Dear Queenians, as I indicated earlier, science and technology are advancing at an unprecedented pace. Developments in transportation and communication have shortened the distance between places. The world is really getting smaller and smaller, whereas issues and problems are getting bigger, and more intricate. Everyday we are confronted with novel situations and ill-defined problems. Meanwhile, society is seeing fewer moral certainties but more moral dilemmas. These are just some of the major issues confronting us since the arrival of the 21st century.

Please remember what your Principal always says, “The successful development of a person lies in a good character.” Building a personal character on integrity, respect, care and self-reflection will go along with you. I do not have time to expand on these subjects this afternoon but I am sure you know that high moral value is key to success.

4. Hard work and positive thinking
Although you might have heard me said in other occasions that “right time, right place and right people” got me to where I am today. But, deep down, I believe in hard work. I always put in my best effort, work hard, and, at the same time, have my eye open for new opportunities.

As a scientist, I can vouch that discoveries are often made at the most unexpected of times. Day in and day out, we do experiments. We look at matters from different angles. Daily hard work prepares us for the one or two big breakthroughs in our lives.

As Louis Pasteur put it: “Chance favours only the prepared mind”.  Opportunities only happen to those who have prepared themselves for it. Luck goes to people who feel lucky. Those who think positive will get opportunities. Those who see things gloomily will fail to see the chances even if they are right in front of them.

However, I don’t think I need to belabour this point too much, because you know your school motto very well: “Labor Omnia Vincit” which means "hard work brings merit" or in Chinese "勤有功". Indeed, many of the Queenians and old boys live on these spirits and have contributed to the Hong Kong and the Chinese society. On top of the list of your famous and great old boys is, of course, Dr Sun Yat-sen, who studied in the Central School, which was the name used for this school until 1894.

5. Wide vision but focus on strength
Dear graduates, as you go on to the next stage in life, I advise you to cast your vision as wide as possible. Hong Kong is an international city. Hong Kong people have a global outlook. You should use your advantage of living in Hong Kong, and never be afraid to meet new people and break new ground. It is this that gives Hong Kong, and Hong Kong people, the edge over our competitors.  While you keep your eyes open to new matters, focus on your own inner strengths and build on them. However, while developing your strengths, please also recognize your weaknesses and constantly work on them. This is what my mother always taught me.

Celebration

To conclude, therefore, please remember to:

  1. Choose your own path and enjoy what you do
  2. Practise lifelong learning
  3. Be a good person
  4. Work hard and think positive; and
  5. Keep a wide vision but focus on strength

Now, before I end, let me read you two famous quotes from the great Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky:
“Hockey is a unique sport in the sense that you need each and every guy helping each other and pulling in the same direction to be successful.”
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is; a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
To close, please allow me to congratulate all the award and prize winners, and wish you all best of luck to your future endeavours, whatever they may be!
Thank you for giving the chance to share my thoughts with you.

 

*** End ***

 

Speech by

Professor Fok Tai-fai

at the

  Queen’s College Annual Speech Day

  (11 December 2015)

 

Losing at the Starting Line

by Tai-Fai FOK

 

Miss Li, the Principal, Teachers and Students of Queen’s College, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First I would like to thank Miss Li and Queen’s College for giving me this opportunity to meet with you and to speak to you on this auspicious day of my Alma Mater. A moment ago when I walked through the main door into the entrance hall of Queen’s College, it was like going down memory lane to more than half a century ago, back to my early days on joining this great school. The year was 1963; my class was Form 1C; the Headmaster was Mr. Cheung King Pak; the form-master was Mr. George Law. Despite the long lapse of time, I still have very vivid memory of my early experience in QC, which regrettably was not exactly “pleasant”. Please do not get me wrong – I do not hold any grudges against my School or any of my teachers for whom I have the highest respect. It was the challenges I had to face in my first 2 years adjusting to the new environment in QC that had caused me a great deal of anxiety and distress. In those days, as it is now, only the top tier of primary school leavers who did very well in the Secondary School Entrance Examination would have a chance to study in QC. Naturally I was overwhelmed with joy when I read the announcement in newspaper that I was among the fortunate 160 students who got admitted into this prestigious School. However this feeling of jubilance was quickly taken over by a feeling of defeat and frustrations right at the beginning of my first school term. For a student coming from a government primary school where the medium of instruction was Chinese (Cantonese) with minimal teaching in English, the need to handle the all-English teaching at Queen’s was a most daunting and onerous task. I found it particularly difficult to cope with subjects that required analytical reasoning and logical deduction such as general science and mathematics. To get through the examination I simply memorized the textbook word by word without much understanding of what those words meant. The only comforting thought was that I was not the only one who had to do that. Many of my classmates with a background similar to mine all faced the same difficulties. Fortunately most of us managed to survive our first year and were promoted to Form 2. However I got a “fail” in mathematics, and came last in the end-of-year examination in that subject. This was my first and only “last-in-the-class” examination result in my whole life.

I also remember that QC boys, at least those in my class, were rather withdrawn and timid during lessons. I do not know how much of this was due to our lack of English proficiency or to our lack of self-confidence aggravated by our shy and timid character. We rarely responded to the teachers’ questions and almost never asked any question in class. When I was in Form 3, our Headmaster Mr. John Stokes who conducted a teaching session with us once every week commented in dismay that our class was “as quiet as closed oysters”. By the time we reached Form 4, our taciturnity worried Mr. Stokes so much so that he made an unprecedented decision of sending the whole class to a training camp at Tai Mong Chai for one whole week, hoping that this would help to ply open the oysters’ shells.

Besides our inadequacy in linguistic ability, many QC boys of my time also suffered from lack of resources that could be deemed unbearable by today’s standard. Although the era of 1960’s and 70’s was considered the turning point of Hong Kong’s economy, the early 1960’s still saw Hong Kong as a developing region with low GPD and low wages. The majority of the population was living in squatter huts and subdivided apartments. A small apartment could easily be the home of several families. Some of my classmates lived in flimsy wooden huts with leaky roofs, having to find shelter whenever there was heavy rain or typhoon. Many came from big families with many siblings, which were common in those days as people in Hong Kong were still ignorant about birth control and family planning. Their parents had to work very hard, only barely able to feed the family and to make ends meet. Giving pocket money to the kids was unheard of in those days. In order to save money, instead of taking the bus, some classmates had to spend up to 3 to 4 hours everyday walking to and back from school. Some regularly skipped lunch. In one of our recent old boys’ gatherings, one of my good friends told us a secret that he had never told anybody before: he came from a single-parent family. Despite working double shift, his mother was still unable to make enough money to buy sufficient food for her children. Very often he and his siblings had no evening meal when their mother had to work. As the eldest son, my friend would go to a neighboring bakery just before closing time to beg for some unsold bread to feed his hungry younger brothers and sisters.

Dear Students, such was the situation among some of our QC boys 50 years ago. I told you these real stories because I am very concerned about a prevalent saying among young people today: “winning at the starting line” (贏在起跑線). Possibly because of the highly competitive environment in Hong Kong, people seem to think that those who are privileged and more fortunate at an early age would outrun and eventually beat the others regarding career pursuit and achievements. Hence parents push their children very hard from a very early age to try to ensure that they are better prepared than the others for future competitions. Many young children are forced to attend not one but two kindergartens, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon so that they could acquire twice the amount of knowledge and skills. As a Paediatrician, I am of course opposed to this practice of putting excessive pressure on young children. It would only suffocate their childhood innocence and vitality, and impede their growth and development.

For young people like you, I am also concerned about the possible negative effects of the idea of “winning at the starting line” in our society. Like those QC boys 50 years ago, some students might come from less well-off families. Some might be new immigrants and are still trying hard to adapt to the new environment. Some might not have as much family support either financially or otherwise as their friends. Some might be slow starters and therefore appear to be not as smart as their peers. Some might be suffering from physical or psychological handicaps that might impair their studies and other activities. If you believe in “winning at the starting line”, you are admitting that those who lose at the starting line are doomed to failure right from the start. Admission of defeat even before the race starts would most certainly make you a loser at the end. I am here to tell you that you do not have to win at the starting line in order to win in the long run. The QC boys in my class I quoted earlier are very good examples to illustrate my point. Despite our disadvantages at the start, we never admitted defeat. We worked very hard to make up for our deficiencies. We also strategically focused our efforts on improving our weaknesses. For example, although I was rather shy and suffered from stage fright as a young child, I still gathered enough courage and joined the English debate team and English Drama Club in order to improve my language skill. My friends engaged themselves in different activities all for the purpose of self-improvement. Our alma mater of course offered great help through our most supportive Headmaster and teachers. The liberal environment was also most conducive to character and academic training. The result was very impressive. In the year 1970, among all the secondary schools in Hong Kong, the largest cohort of students gaining admission to University was from QC. In those days, university places were shamefully scanty with only 1.8% of secondary school leavers being able to enter university. It was therefore understandable that a number of us were not able to receive university education locally. Nonetheless their training in QC had prepared them well to take an alternative route in their career pursuit, and many did extremely well in their respective chosen fields. My good friend who lived on leftover bread got a scholarship that enabled him to go to university overseas, and had been extremely successful in his career.

So my dear Students, the saying “winning at the starting line” might have some truth only when we were talking about short distance run like 60-meters sprint. For 100-meters race, if you were good like Usain Bolt of Jamaica, you would still be able to catch up even if you did not start too well at the beginning. In real life, the journey from cradle to grave is a long one, more like a marathon than a short-distance sprint. Winning at the starting line in a Marathon race has no bearing on the final outcome. The more important elements contributing to our final victory are, amongst others, our training and preparedness, our stamina, and our will power. You also need a good coach, which you already have, and this is QC, your school and my Alma Mater. The rest will depend on you yourself. I hope and I trust that you would not let us down.

 

*** End ***

 

Speech by

Professor Chung-mau LO

at the

Queen’s College Annual Speech Day

(12 December 2014)

 

Principal Li Sui-Wah, Members of the School Management Committee, teachers, parents, distinguished guests and fellow QC boys,

I am grateful for being here today, not only as a guest of honor, but as a QC old boy returning home. QC was my home where I grew up and spent the most crucial 7 years of my youthful life.

QC boys, you are like my brothers, though you are younger than my son; and QC teachers, you are like my parents though most of you are much younger than me; because when I first entered this school hall 41 years ago, I was small and I shall remain forever small in this school hall.

QC is the place where we acquire knowledge, where we learn skills and where we develop our character. In this era of e- learning, I am sure QC boys regularly visit the QC website on the internet and have read the Principal’s message in the home page. In this message, the Principal highlights four basic character traits that a QC boy needs to build up in school in order to become a successful leader in the future: to care, to respect, to self-reflect and to embrace integrity. I cannot agree more that these traits are the key elements of success, especially in this distraught world.

Principal Li, allow me to echo what you wrote by telling the QC boys four true stories how these four traits work, based on my personal experience as a liver transplant surgeon. These stories are related to living donor liver transplant in which part of the liver from a healthy person is removed and transplanted to a patient with serious liver disease.

My first story happened 20 years ago when a 26 year-old woman had acute liver failure and her husband wanted to donate part of his liver to save her life. At that time we had not done this operation before and we estimated a success rate of 60% only. His answer: “60% I care so much about her that I would do it even if it is 20%”. He and his wife became the donor and recipient of the first successful adult living donor liver transplant in the world.

Indeed, to care is a privilege. To be cared is a misfortune.

My second story involved also a couple, but this time, the man was sick and he claimed that his wife wanted to be the donor. His wife, however, seemed to be reluctant. We interviewed his wife in private and it turned out that the couple’s relationship was not good. The husband was a truck driver who returned home infrequently, always drunk, and only to abuse their 7-year old daughter. When challenged with the question, “How would you feel if your husband cannot get a liver transplant and die”, the wife said “I would be more peaceful”.

Her decision was clear. The transplant team respected her decision and provided a medical excuse that she was not a suitable living donor. The man soon passed away without a liver transplant.

Be ready to understand and be ready to respect the choice of others.

My third story was related to a near-miss event in recent years when our liver transplant program has already been well established. A young living donor developed fever and organ failure for unknown reason after the donor operation. It was my most stressful days as a living donor is a perfectly healthy individual who takes the risks of a major operation for other’s benefit. The death of a living donor is totally unacceptable.

As I saw that the donor was rapidly deteriorating, I swore to myself that I would never perform this operation again if she died. Perhaps my pledge was heard. It turned out that she had an unusually serious allergic drug reaction and she recovered quickly with steroid treatment.

We need to be ready to self-reflect; to revisit our goal; to reexamine our means; and to reassess the end-results. There is no best person but always a better person.

My final story started with a woman with liver cancer. An early liver transplant was her only hope for cure. A young man who claimed to be her “friend” turned up and volunteered to be a living donor. Yet it was clear that his intention was not for altruistic but for financial reason. Saving life is an honorable goal but organ trading is an illegal means that must always be prohibited.

No matter how noble my mission is, I will not use my integrity to pay for it.

To those of you who may think that my stories and messages are unappealing because you and I are different in age and in position, let me show you we are not. I am old and you are young today but I was young yesterday and you will be old tomorrow. I am a professor and you are a student today; but I was a student yesterday and you may be a professor tomorrow. There are more things we have in common that will never change: that you and I are QC boys; that you and I grow up in HK, that you and I are born Chinese.

So, my fellow QC boys, learn these traits and develop yourself further in the years to come even after you leave QC, because in your hands, will rest the future of our alma mater, our city and our country.

Thank you for having me home.

 

*** End ***

 

Speech by

Mr. Norman Chan

Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority

at the

Queen’s College Annual Speech Day

(13 December 2013)

 

Principal Li Sui-wah, Mr. Lai, Mr. Kan, Mr. Yu, Teachers, Parents, Distinguished Guests and my fellow QC Boys,

First time I set foot in this hall was 1966, almost half a century ago.  Last time was 1972, when I left after Lower Six to pursue my undergraduate study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

             Like you sitting in front of me, I can recall that I attended a couple of Speech Day gatherings at which some prominent Old Boys or reputable members of the community came to deliver talks, just like what I am doing now.  But no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot remember what were said in these speeches, not because my memories are fading but because the speeches were normally too boring for a youth of my age.  These speeches seemed to be repeating the same messages, which are high sounding but abstract moral principles, such as need to work hard and excel, never give up, and be honest and kind to other people and contribute to the society etc, etc.

             So if you don't remember anything that I say this afternoon, don't worry and I'll understand.  But I'll try to avoid talking too much about high sounding moral principles.            

             I propose to talk about “What has changed” vs “What has not changed”.

             What has changed since my time at the Queen’s College  There must be quite a long list.  Let me cite a few examples of what it was like 40 to 50 years ago and you can judge for yourselves what has changed.

             In 1966 when I started my first year at Queen’s, it wasn’t an easy time to attend school.  Why  There was an extended period of time in 1966-67 in which bombs (nicknamed locally made Pineapples) were everywhere and streets became highly dangerous for obvious reasons.  When a bomb was found, the street would be blocked off by the Police so that the explosive disposal experts could deal with the bomb.  So many students had to take a long detour in order to walk to school (bus and tram services of course were stopped at the time).  In a way we were risking our lives by coming to school everyday.  But nobody seemed to be too bothered and very few students and, for that matter, teachers missed classes as a result.

             In addition to bombs and riots on the streets, there was a time in the 1960s when Hong Kong suffered water shortage.  This was the era before we built the pipes to pump almost unlimited supply of fresh water from the East River.  Many students had to run back home to help store up water when the Government turned on the tap for only four hours in every four days.  If you didn't store up enough water during this 4-hour period, you were doomed in the next four days.

             In my first three years at Queen's, I had to come into the school through the side and back entrances only.  The only time I could come in through the Main Entrance was when I was late for school in the morning.  At the Main Entrance a group of Prefects were eagerly waiting for the late arrivals and marked down their names for the usual punishment.  I did not like this arrangement at all as it was discriminating against the juniors, but interestingly enough I had begun to like it from Form IV onwards when I was allowed to use the Main Entrance all the time.

             In my time at Queen's, my parents gave me one dollar and thirty cents every morning.  The 30 cents was to buy snacks at the morning break, 20 cents for a Vitasoy and 10 cents for a bun.  A plate of rice for lunch was 1 dollar.  To save money to buy anything else, including sharing the cost of a leather football amongst classmates, we had to skip snacks and lunch once in a while.

             I don't know you still have annual school excursions and where you would go nowadays.  In my time, my first school excursion, at my Form One year, was somewhat disappointing as the destination, you won't believe it, was next door at the Victoria Park!  So you can imagine how “excited” I felt a few years later, the excursion took us to the Victoria Peak!  I gather from my friends that nowadays some secondary schools in Hong Kong organised trips for students to far away places, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Japan and even Europe and the USA.  I hope that Queen's does a better job today than excursions to Victoria Park and the Peak.

             Quite apart from school excursions, I am sure things are very different now compared to my days at Queen's.  At least you don't have to risk your lives coming to school or get water supply only 4 hours in every 4 days.  These difficult if not unfortunate times have long gone and we all hope that they will never come back again.  While Hong Kong has become much more prosperous in the last three decades, things are becoming much more expensive and I doubt if you can survive with one dollar and thirty cents a day as we did.

             Despite the considerable changes that have occurred since I left Queen's, there is one thing that has not changed.  That is the enormous pride I take in telling people which high school I came from.  Of course, I also went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong and attended graduate programmes in Oxford and Harvard and am occupying a senior position in the Government.  However, I simply cannot hide my sense of pride when it comes to my Alma Mater.  One may ask: is it not the common feeling most people harbour about their high schools at which they spent their youthful years  I would say this: our feeling towards Queen's is not the same because Queen's is very, very special and different.

             Queen's is special not only because of its long history, which dated back to 1862, which was only 20 years after Hong Kong was ceded to Britain after the Opium War.  Queen's is special not only because it was the first public school in Hong Kong, but because alumni of Queen's had become important part of the history of Hong Kong and China throughout the last 150 years.  I need not remind you that amongst the first students of Queen's College, which was known as the Central School then, was Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of Modern China.

                When I say "Modern China", China was not "modern" at all.  In 1911, just over 100 years ago, Dr Sun overthrew the weak, decadent and corrupt Imperial Qing Dynasty, but China was then ripped apart by seemingly endless civil wars between the warlords, which were followed by invasion by the Japanese.  Hong Kong, and Queen's College, had had its dark days during the three years and eight months of occupation by the Japanese during the World War II.  Even as recent as 1979, when Deng Xiaoping launched the reform and opening programme, China was very poor with its population earning on average less than US$1 a day.  Now China has emerged as the second largest economy in the world, overtaking Japan a few years ago.  At the same time, Hong Kong has transformed itself from a refugee centre in the 1950s into a vibrant international financial centre as we know today.  Looking back, alumni of Queen's College features prominently in each and every crucial stage of Hong Kong's history.  There is no need for me to mention the key personalities in Hong Kong who were QC Old Boys as they can be easily found on the internet.  Even today, Queen's continues to shine with outstanding colours, as we did in the past.

             In my class, the Year of 1966-73, I have 23 classmates who have become medical doctors.  So when I fall ill my problem is not whether I can find a doctor to help me but who among my classmates to turn to.  I believe the same is still true today.  Apart from supplying the universities in Hong Kong with the best of students for the medical schools and other faculties, Queen’s is the source of talents for the community as a whole.  There are numerous QC Boys who have become government officials at the top level, Executive Council Members and Legislative Councillors, who together help shape and move Hong Kong into a place as we know it today.  In the academic field, two out of the 8 universities in Hong Kong are currently headed by QC Boys.  There are many, many QC Boys who have excelled in other fields, such as academia, commerce, finance, art, professional and community services. 

                You may ask: these are truly interesting success stories, but what have they got to do with someone like me who have no way of knowing what fortunes or misfortunes would lie ahead  I have no secret recipe for success.  In general, I would say follow your heart and you won’t be far wrong.  That said, there is no guarantee that all of you will become as successful as the prominent alumni before you.  However, you should never forget that there is one thing in common between you and them.  All QC Boys share the same identity, sense of pride and responsibility for being the cream of the cream in our society for the past 160 years.  This proud tradition has become the heritage that is passed down from one generation to the next.  It is this tradition or heritage that binds QC Boys together regardless of age and differentiates us from all other schools in Hong Kong.  It is this sense of pride that propels QC Boys to excel in all fronts.  However, it is also this sense of pride that helps lift QC Boys’ fighting spirit when we are feeling down and low.

                QC Boys have all learnt the truth, enshrined in our School Motto, that success can only come from hard work as QC Boys, mostly coming from humble family background, know full well there is no shortcut or easy way out.  To be successful we will be judged on the basis of whether we have lived full and meaningful lives, not just in material sense but also in spiritual sense.  You don't have to be the richest or most powerful man in town to have a truly meaningful and colourful life.  You are not measured according to what you have but what you are.  In this context, the judges who will make the judgements would be our families, our friends, colleagues and society as a whole.

                Fellow QC Boys, it's a great privilege to me to be given the opportunity here to speak.  As with any great tradition, the old generation must pass on its accomplishments and legacy, no matter how great they may be, to the younger generation.  It is not possible for the old people to hold anything back because no one can defy the natural law governing life and death.  And you, as the youngest generation of Queen’s, must do your utmost to hold tight and treasure the baton that has been handed down to you.  It will be you who can preserve the proud QC tradition and pass it on to the next generation when you have reached my age.  Some of you may feel worried about whether and how you can accomplish this  Don't worry, the QC spirit already runs in your blood by the time you graduate and I can assure you that such spirit will stay with you for your entire life.

Thank you for having me and for your kind attention.

 

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