Newsletter No. 41

CUHK Newsletter No.41 April 1993 THEYCHOSETO STAY AT A TIME Of TURMOIL AND IT'S HOW 25 YEARS 1967 was a turbulent year. There were riots in the streets and plastic bombs on street corners. Horrors ofthe Cultural Revolution in the mainland and rumours of a communist takeover ofHongKong scared many into fleeing the territory. A special group of people were not among the exodus. In 1967 they all made a decision to stay, and coincidentally found new employment in the sameplace: The ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong. They are still here on the campus quarter of a century later in 1993, and last month in the University Guest House they were honoured by the University with long-service awards. They number 24, and have given the University the prime of their working lives, 600 service years ill the aggregate. Find their names in the table on page 9. Officiating at the award presentation ceremony on 13 th March, the vice-chancellor thanked them for their loyal and dedicated service and expressed admiration for their unflinching confidence in the future of Hong Kong. Such dedication and confidence, according toProf. Charles K. Kao, are what is needed to build a better university and a better Hong Kong, and are attributes that he looks for in all newcomers. What in the last 25 years has given them the greatest satisfaction and sense of achievement? What has kept them on the campus for so long? Gail Schaefer Fu and David A. Gilkes gave their answers in writing. Others did it by word of mouth. Some went an extra mile to dig out old photographs for the Newsletter to use in this report. To these 'contributors' we wish to extend our sincere thanks, and to all award recipients we extend our congratulations. Now let us share some of their comments and reminiscences. Gail Schaefer Fu ELT Unit In a very real sense, Chun Chi College and The Chinese University have been a central focus in my adult life. I first came to Chung Chi in 1964 as the Wellasley-Yenching Fellow and at the opening Chung Chi assembly for that year first saw the man whom I would later marry, Philip Fu. The Wellesley-Yenching Fellow whocame in the following year was Nancy Dana Gold who remains today my very dear and close friend, Philip and I lived for many years on the Chung Chi campus and both our daughters, Laura and Erica, spent their growing up years there, 'graduating from the Chung Chi Kindergarten, playing with other Chung Chi children and participating in many Chung Chi and University events. I have always been very grateful for this wonderful coherence between my own professional life, my personal life and my family life. It has allowed me tofeel a sense of integration as I have tried to weave the various aspects of my life together, inviting students to my home, inviting family members to various school functions, and allowing my roles as teacher, wife, mother and member of the community to each enrich and strengthen the others. There is no denying that themoment sof greatest satisfaction in my work have invariably been in the classroom, moments of pleasure and accomplishment in knowing that a class activity or discussion has been really successful, that students have been stimulated to think or to observe in new ways and to use English, their second language, to express those thoughts. It has givenme great pleasure too to work with students in general but particular students in particular and I have considered it a privilege to have such able and c o u r t e o us youngpeople in my classes. Other moments of satisfaction have come from working with the written word, but even then the writing that has given me most pleasure has been about my students and their language use or about helping my childrendevelopbilinguallanguageabilities. 6