Saturday, March 28, 2009

3/21/2009 NTUEE64 重聚 台大校園

Please click at the picture to enlarge it.



「別夢依稀咒逝川,故人三十二年前。」 這次相聚,是我與洪俊雄1966年分別之後四十二年第一次見面。他第一句就說,「你在 Florida,我要去找你。」 非常歡迎。 有朋自遠方來。不亦樂乎。我們多少年才能相聚一次?下次再見又是何時?

我們八個班友加上五位夫人,中午在「傅鐘」集合。 是洪敏弘在校園的一個新餐廳為我們安排了午餐。洪董是我們八位中唯一與台大常有接觸的人。他送給每個人一本叫「挑戰創新-台大創業家」的書。 洪敏弘是書中創業家當中唯一從電機系大學部畢業的的學生。 是我們64級的光榮。他也給大家一片「台灣生態探索」的DVD。 我從頭看到尾。 非常美麗感人。使我知道台灣每年仍然提升几個mm。每天都有地震,而且五年一大震。吃飯的時候我坐在陳正一夫婦旁邊,與他們交談最久。陳總從台灣衛星第一把手退休後,並沒有閒下來。夫人吳紀珠在中國,越南和台灣全島部有業務。陳說他是她提箱子的祕書。行影不離 席上幾乎都是以台語交談。我的台語本來就不太靈光。這次回台任教,在很多場合裡,我都是「聽無」。 但在這個餐桌上不同。 我完全可以聽懂。原因可能是班友們仍然講的是古典台語。與我在童年時聽到的相同。現下年輕教授的台語已有相當的改變。我聽起來非常吃力。

相聚的目的之一是確定下次 REUNION 的時間地點。 陳哲俊一直都為這些事情費心。基本上,我們決定在明年農曆新年左右見面。這是台灣方面同學的最佳時段。

午餐之後,我們跟隨洪敏弘在校園散步,想看看見新建的几棟電機大樓。他仍然是電機工程系的教授,有大門的鑰匙。現在電機系(包括資訊系)有100多位教授。我們的老師白光弘以九十的高齡,仍然在這裡作研究。還記得在我們新生訓練的時候,有師長以「台大之大」為題教訓我們?我現在更能體會它。以前台大的後院已建設得與我們在時的前院差不多大小,有新式的大樓,有林蔭的大道,也有佈滿野薑花的池塘。當年嶄新的化學館已顯得非常渺小。特別是我們每天上課的工程館。現在是全屬土木系。看起來是那樣的破爛老舊。土木工程系真該加油。

從椰林道路出來,已是四點多鐘。有人建議我們去新生南路吃紅豆冰。他們說我們當年這家店已經存在,但是我無法記起。當我們坐在店裡品嚐紅豆冰時,有一個年輕人很有禮貌的對我們「笑問客從何處來?」 我們據實以告。我們是台大電機64校友,回母校參觀。想不到這個年輕人也是台大電機的畢業生。他比我們晚了20屆,現在是交通大學教授。當我為他介紹我們的同班同學時。有台灣電信局的大老陳呈祿,有台灣衛星太斗陳正一,台灣遙測先驅陳哲俊。他不得不對我們這一群另眼相看。後來,他說他研究的領域是光電。我告訴他我們正好有這行的專家吳振和。就坐在他面前。他不但有創新理論,而且建立一家世界級的 LED 公司。當我們離開時,他對我們一一握手道別。其實,我發現台大電機系的都非常和曖可親。幾周前,我與小慈逛台大校園,請一位面善的同學為我們拍照片。一問,他竟然也是電機系的學生。

回程,阿博(孫芳德)同我一起搭乘台北捷運。我要去火車站搭高鐵回台中,他要回他母親的家,在天母。他說他在士林下車之後,再乘公共汽車到天母。我非常驚奇。以阿博之富,竟然還等公共汽車。更令我驚奇的是,他建議我如果乘高鐵到台南,不如學他,乾脆坐到高雄,然後回頭搭區間車到台南,因為高鐵台南站離台南市區太遠,要300新台幣的計程車費。如此勤儉起家,一輩子改不過來。「一憚食,一瓢飲。人不堪其憂,回也不改樂其,賢哉回也。」

昨天我與阿牟通電話,他要看照片。一看,他說「你看起來比真人年輕,是因為你臉上的皺紋在照片上顯示不出來。」好個阿牟,實事求是,一針見血。附上兩張在校園拍的照片。

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Character Writing

Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group. In elementary school, we learned that 文化是血統,語言,宗教,和生活習慣的綜合体. Here language plays an important part. Why are there so many dialects in China? Because there are many mountains & rivers that tend to isolate people from contacting each other. When time goes by, each region develops its own language. Language also shapes the way you think, you behave & forges a set of values in daily life. Minority people in China usually live in a remote or isolate area. When time goes by, it develops its own language. Say it in a reverse way, if you want to separate people, let them speak different kind of languages & soon they will drift apart. Babel towers in ancient Babylon is an excellent example.

Whenever I visit Taiwan, I hang around book stores & end up buying a lot of books. When I visit mainland China, I also go to bookstores. The BookCity in Shanghai (福州路), seven-story building, filled with thousands of books. I spent a lot of time inside but I didn't buy anything. I try to explain my behavior. I found that I didn't have any incentive or interest to buy them. The main reason is that the printed words look so alien to me & sometime they look even worse than Japanese. Either 白字連連 or 錯字連篇. The culprit is the simplified characters. If I have to read the translated "Pride & Prejudice" in simplified characters, I rather read it in English directly. 文章帶感情, 文字亦然. There are two camps when it comes to writing, Traditional & Simplified. The former is called 简体字, the latter has several names: 正体字, 原体字, 傳統字, 繁体字 etc. I have no idea why some people go along with 繁体字. It is derogatory, misleading & bad. How could it be so complicate for several hundred years & people don’t feel it. I think the English translation says it better, Traditional or 傳統字. Our ancestors used traditional writing for so long & also used brush pen (毛筆). They didn't have any complains. They simply grew with it. Nowadays we don't use brush pens & we write without any problems in schools. As a matter of fact, with the help of computer technology, the input of Chinese characters is via keyboard (most kids do) & bypass the handwriting. The side effect of this is that we are having a new generation of people that can only read but can not write. In other words, people can't write without a computer. It is scary if you can't count or calculate without a calculator.

In fact, 傳統字 already has a set of characters simplified & should be adopted & included in 簡体字. The current 簡体字 is way over the reasonable limit. It is a bad idea to get rid of 同音字. We already have a lot of confusion in speech. We should use the writing to reduce it instead of aggravating it. For example, most people seem to agree in keeping 後 & 遊.

If Chinese people have the wisdom, they should sit down & really think hard for the issue of the character writing. This is important & it will have enormous influence to the future generations. Both camps should recognize the pros & cons of 簡体字 & 傳統字. Just sit down & iron out a compromise version of writing, called it 進化字. Without it, we will see Chinese people drift apart when time goes by. In fact, it already causes a lot of confusion outside China as to which is the right way to teach our kids Mandarin.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Faith in Spring

The spring is coming, a time for renewal and awakening. Poets throughout history have penned many a wonderful expression of man's sentiments relating to the seasons, to nature and the world in which we inhabit however briefly. German Lied or art song has many fine examples of such expression. With the current market so depressed, we need some faith in our future and our society. I do find one lied that expresses the faith in spring, the upcoming spring. It is Fruhlingsglaube (Spring Faith) by Franz Schubert, a very lovely song, the more you listen to it, the more you will like it. The text was written by Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862):

Die linden Lüfte sind erwacht,
Sie säuseln und wehen Tag und Nacht,
Sie schaffen an allen Enden.
O frischer Duft, o neuer Klang!
Nun, armes Herze, sei nicht bang!
Nun muß sich alles, alles wenden.

Die Welt wird schöner mit jedem Tag,
Man weiß nicht, was noch werden mag,
Das Blühen will nicht enden;
Es blüht das fernste, tiefste Tal:
Nun, armes Herz, vergiß der Qual!
Nun muß sich alles, alles wenden.

The English Translation:

The mild breezes are awakened,
They whisper and move day and night,
And are at work everywhere.
O fresh scent, o new sound!
Now, poor heart, don't be afraid.
Now all, all must change.

The world is more beautiful with every day,
One knows not what yet may be,
The flowering will not end.
Even the deepest, most distant valley blooms.
Now, poor heart, forget your torment.
Now all, all must change.

You can listen to the lied sung by Christa Ludwig (born in 1928) in the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0sRELvcdmM

Christa Ludwig is a German retired mezzo-soprano, famous for her performances of opera & Lieder.

PS: 春天 has many names: Spring in English, Fruhling in German, Printemps in French, Primavera in Italian & Spanish.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Red Clay Field

I came across this from Yahoo Taiwan. Please take a look.

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/crystal54321/22390093

It's amazing, and I can't detect any digital manipulation. Yet it seems someone has designed this scene for show much like those grandiose Chinese movie scenes. Can an ordinary routine farming turn out such spectacles unintentionally by the farmers? If it was orchestrated, then what was the the purpose other than the obvious?