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Lunch Talk by Ms Mak Chen Wen-ning: 'Healing a Tiny Part of Our Planet: Combating Desertification in Inner Mongolia
Ms Mak Chen Wen-ning, Chairman of Homeland Green, gave a lunch talk entitled 'Healing a Tiny Part of Our Planet: Combating Desertification in Inner Mongolia—A Story of How One Person Can Make a Difference' at CW Chu College on 14 March 2015, sharing her personal experience in re-vegetation and revival of soil in Inner Mongolia. Ms Chen was the former principal of Queen Elizabeth School Old Students' Association Secondary School and now engages in a tree planting project against land degradation in Inner Mongolia. Ms Chen's story in Inner Mongolia has its origin in a mother, who, in memory of her beloved son, had planted over 1 million trees in a remote county in Inner Mongolia. This effort revived degraded land and improved the livelihood of local farmers. Inspired by the mother, a group of volunteers from Hong Kong, including Ms Chen herself, decided to follow in her footsteps to combat desertification. In the talk, Ms Chen played videos that showed the efforts she and her teammates, in cooperation with local government and farmers, made in afforestation on the drylands throughout the years. Now the soil has been reclaimed and the project has begun to benefit local communities, so that they can plant there again. Professor Kenneth Young, College Master, and 12 CW Chu College students joined the talk, including a student from Inner Mongolia and two students majoring in Geography and Resource Management. Ms Chen's story inspired the participants that collective efforts make a huge difference and everyone can do a part to save the Earth.
Night Talk by Mr Leung Cheuk Yan: What I wish I had known (and done) when I was at college
Mr Leung Cheuk Yan, independent non-executive director of Bank of China Limited and MMG Limited, delivered a talk entitled 'What I wish I had known (and done) when I was at college' at CW Chu College on 12 March 2015. Mr Leung was educated at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (where he read mathematics, then sociology and philosophy), Oxford University, and the College of Law in London. He practised law in Hong Kong from the early 1980s until recently, when he retired as a senior partner from international law firm Baker & McKenzie.
Mr Leung shared with the students his reflections about his learning and growth in the universities as well as things he wished he had known and done at that time. The talk took place at CW Chu College after communal dinner. Professor Kenneth Young, College Master, Professor Thomas Au, College Fellow, and 17 students took part in the talk.
'Teachers can tell you things that books can't.' During the talk, Mr Leung emphasised the important role that teachers play in tertiary education, which cannot be replaced by books, not even by classics. When he was an undergraduate at CUHK, after leaving mathematics for sociology and philosophy, Mr Leung thought he only needed to learn from masters like Max Weber and Karl Marx; he had little interest in teachers at CUHK, their lectures and their books. Only later in life did he realise teachers are indispensable. Prominent figures like Professors Ambrose King, Mou Tsung-san, and Yu Ying-shih, then in their late 30s or early 40s and highly productive as academics, brought insights into their subjects where books fall short. He wished he had attended more lectures and learnt from renowned scholars during his study at CUHK.
In addition to acquiring knowledge from teachers, Mr Leung also encouraged students to start doing regular exercises and establishing wealth management strategy.
Popular Science Lecture: The Big Bang by Professor Kenneth Young
Professor Kenneth Young, College Master, gave a science lecture on The Big Bang to College students on 13 April 2015.
Tailored to a lay audience, the talk introduced students to the historical and later developments of the Big Bang model illustrated with observational evidence and step-by-step inference. Students in different disciplines gained basic knowledge of the universe, its accelerating expansion, and some the latest discoveries in the field.
Professor Young encouraged students aspiring to a career in science to persevere, and to remain down-to-earth while going after grand ideas.
He ended with two lines from Ode on a Grecian Urn by the English Romantic poet, John Keats:
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all |
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