HC Gathering In A Beautiful Afternoon

It is a beautiful day today, because it is a holiday for Buddha's Birthday, because it turns shiny after several days' of rain, and because it is going to witness a wonderful HC gathering lunch.

Gathering in a lunch buffet is totally different from when we are in class. It is such a cosy, releaxed and joyful environment, accompanied with delicate food, that we could eat, talk, laugh, play the Pit Pad Boom game and begdin to konw each other more and more.

There was a time during the lunch where I felt so strongly that we have been much much closer to each other. I remmeber what it was like when we were in the retreat in Westin Resort. I was trying my best to put each one's name and the matched face into my mind. I smiled to each one, but talked careully. Now, at the table, when I saw someone, I could immediately think of his or her general personality type, strenths, skills, interests, and what he or she needs help with.

This camaraderie is one of those treasures that I have gained from HC. We all have a firm common goal and we sincerely hope every one in this class can reach it. We help each one to succeed at the same time backed up by each one. These are not just what we wish, but really what we did and experienced in the past semester. And I do feel so so fortunate that I can be in such a family.

We together still have a long way to go. But I believe we can all someday arrived at our desired destinations, as we are growing fast, learning from each other, caring and supporting each other.

I love HC.

Beautiful afternoon, beautiful HC people!!

Visit to Liu Si Fen Art Exhibition

I had a woderful visit today to Liu Si Fen Art Exhibition, since I enjoyed a lot from apprehension and appreciation of the art works and also learned a lot from the amazing artist Mr. Liu.

First of all, Mr. Liu told us that every one should find out what he or she has talents in which means to find out what you most like to do and can do with least efforts but best outcomes. Then you should stick with that and work your best in this field. In this regard, your talents are best utilized and you are most likely to succeed. I think it is an easy point to understand and everyone has idea of that. But difference lies in whether everyone has the courage to insist on his or her interest, regardign little of the influence of the social trends, especially in China, where articians are considers to be a "risky" position. Few parents will feel safe if their children develop profection in arts, like dancing, singing, paiting and handwrting.

Thus, for Mr Liu, I admire much his determinace and confidence. He considered less about whether his interests can bring him a brighter future than beign a financialist or a doctor. Once he finded his interests and talents in art, he persisited on pursuing it. He spent 16 years in his nicest age on writnig the novel "White Door Willow" (白门柳)

To myself, i remembered that when i was young, i was also fasiniated in Chiese calligraphy. Every evening, before starting doing my homework, i will first spend some time on handwriting. It was the most happy time of the day, where I stayed in front of the desk, writing and appreciating my work. Sometimes, I even could not stop myself and left no time for my homework.

But i just considered it as an interest and never thought of developing it into a career. I did not know why I would thought like that. It seemed very natural and normal for me at that time. Now i major in Finance, inspired by some legendary figures and stories and scenes in Wall Street and some stock exchanges. But is it what I have most of my talents in? I am not sure and I simply believe that I can learn everything, so i can do everything.

Second, Mr. Liu also inspired me a lot by his creativity and endless passion. He said that for every piece of art work, he would try to pursue something new, someting creative and something he wanted to achieve. If an artist only repeats a single way of thnking, designing and painting, then each of his masterpiece will be more or less the same and has not much value.

Looking around the exhibition hall, every work has its unique beauty and unique perceived feelings, with different kinds of elements. Creativity is a very important quality that makes an artist succedd. And it is also extremely improtant in every fild. No matter what you do, you should never get stuck and keep repeating what you do, but should try new ways, creat new things and pursue higher levels of achievement.

Third, Mr. Liu is a multi-talented artist. He produces novels and poems, paints pictures and write Chinese calligraphy. At the same time, he is the head of Culture and Promotion Department of the Guangdong Provicial Government.

He gave himself an alias as Bat. A bat is neither considered as murine, nor as birds. It just describes the situation he is in as he ends up being a novelist, poet, painter, calligrapher and official.

He said, "Industrial production requires specification. But for cultural creation, a person needs to be generalist and has sense and taste in different forms of art."

Fourth, even though considered as a chinese of the earlier generation, Mr. Liu is more open-minded than I think. Even though he draws Chinese paintings, he also included western art elements in his paintings. He thinks that western painting has its strengths and advantages. We need to identify them, learn them and try to absore them and combine Chinese paintings with them to create some brilliant results.

This is an attitude that today's chinese generation should also hold. We are Chinese, but we should not zelously adore everything in our culture and reject everything western. On the other hand, it is not wise to blindly believe that western moon is brighter than Chienes moon. Try to identify each one's strengths and weaknesses. And learn from the good.

I really appreciate Mr. Liu, not for his wonderful art work, but also his outstanding views and thoughts

Success!!!

Exciting! Happy! Proud! Proud of all the team members! Proud of CAN! Proud of HC students!!

I think our “CAN” leadership workshop was fairly successful today, because I myself was enjoying and learning from it. And I could see the participants were also enjoying and learning, with everyone going home with CAN.

It is successful also because every one of us learned and gained from organizing this wonderful workshop and witnessing the wonder of team spirits and team work.


HC people know not only how to lead, but also how to cooperate. And cooperation itself is a fundamental and essential element of leadership, because leading actually can be interpreted as cooperating with the subordinates. The seamless and smooth cooperation and communication among everyone of us make this successful workshop possible.

The whole workshop was realized by individual task groups accomplishing their assigned parts tasks effectively and trusting other groups for accomplishing other parts. Even for members who were in charge of the overall frame, they might not know how each part was actually being done and could only trust each task group to produce good outcome.

Nevertheless, division of tasks never means separation. Constant encouragements, suggestions, help and support were supplied between all task groups. When Helen tried to formulate a tentative outline, our group also joined to brain storm for ideas. When Vicky wrote the proposal and handout and would like to ask for opinions, I spent hours to read and think and gave my suggestions for revisions. When our group got stuck in coming up with discussion topics, Vicky showed us her useful materials and suggested potential topics. And there were countless other such examples.

Our group was assigned the task of introduction and in-group discussion. After we planned the content and methods of delivery and made the ppt slides and materials, I proposed that we divide the presentation evenly. And I tried to encourage them to take roles at the same time providing guidance and suggesting ideas for them. Leadership is not about taking everything done, but about to trust and give others chances to experience and explore themselves and to help and give support for them to succeed. After their performances, I went to each one of them and gave my comments. It is an effective way for them to release worries on their performance and have gain encouragement and self-confidence. I think all our group members realize themselves and achieve great progress.

Finally, I think we deserve this success, this happiness and this proud sense of accomplishment, as I can see everyone’s efforts in it. Everyone had its important role in this workshop, which once lacked, the workshop could not move on. So when Laymond expressed his gratitude, I was thinking that actually all other team members should also thank him. Without his collecting video clips and loading them and the software to each laptop, the drama part would fail. Actually, everyone relies on each other for success. And everyone needs to be thanked by everyone. And that is what was happening!

There were a lot stories to tell about preparing and organizing this workshop, like those warm moments where we encouraged and helped each other online in wee hours. I think it will be one of my most unforgettable experiences in future years.

Thanks for this opportunity and thanks to everyone.

HC Talk with Dr. WONG King Keung

First of all, GREAT THANKS to HC for all the valuable chances to meet and have a talk with those great leaders in our community.

It is alwayse enjoyable and gainful to listen to those who are smart and wise and conserning big issues with a broad horizon.

And Dr. WONG King Keung is another amazing leader.

"In the university, it is the most important that you learn how to learn."
You need to know what you can learn from, how you can learn the best and how to integrate what you have learned as part of yourself.

Leaders are of course those people, because in order to lead, you need to learn faster and master faster than others, so that you can guide them, explain to them and set a model for them.

For me, I think i have learned in an effective way to acquire knowledge from books and handle my exames well. But when it comes to learning from people around us, I still do not have many ideas and even consciousness.

I think it is because that I used to place my whole focus on learning from books and do not realize that every one around me actually can be my teacher. I am virtually surrounded with resources of value. The question lies in whether I will be more consciouse to observe and ask.

Knowing how to fish is a lot more crucial than simply getting fish. Being equiped with the skills of learning, we do not fear any tasks. We can accomplish anything and solve any problem if we have strong ability and strong will to leran.

In addition, Mr Wong has also inspired me by his story of meeting China's chief officers in 1978. It is called by Mr. Wong a milestone in his life. After that experience, he felt that he had beared a greater mission about what he could do for his country and how he could help China to open, rather than just about how to lead a rich life and achieve a bright future.

"If i did not go to the state banquet in that year, I would be still earning money and might become richer than now. But I surely will not be such a happy person as now and my life will be less meaningful."

Those words did leave me many thougts. I think Mr. Wong is a true leader. We talk a lot about realizing dreams. Some of my classmates said they came to university for realiziing dream in the future. But a ture leader in not just about realizing his or her dreams, but about how to help others, a country or even the globe to realize dreams. That reminds me of sentences I recently read:

"If you are NOT a true servant with a true passion for helping people you will not be a true leader in the real sense of the word. People are not numbers you can just add on your email list, downline or your company. They are people with dreams and goals like yours. As a true leader, it should be your goal to lead people to where they want to be."

What I want to add is: When you lead people to where they want to be, you have got there as well. When you realize those bigger dreams, your dreams are automatically realized.

Impact your world!!

Finally, I have survived from three evil mid-terms and a four-day English debate workshop. It was not surprised that I needed to thought for some time to response to the question:
"Hi, how is your holiday?"

"......"
"......" "I am tired but happy debating!"

Good enough! I finally came up with that. Actually, it expressed all my feelings. I was worn out as i had to leave at 8:30am and come back at 10:00pm for four consecutive days. But i should say i was enjoying that.

Debate is charming. Like what our coach said, "Debate is not about to win, but about to cultivate an intellectual mind to challenge the world." I love debate and I will try to know more about the world and think more analytically about the world.


I had a peaceful evening yesterday, just staying in front of my laptop and reading whatever i like. Occasionally I found some special reports from CNN.com under the title "Impact your world". It was about the people all over the world who are in dire need of help, covering refugees, poverty, health, natural disasters, children and environment.I read a report of an Afghanistan woman who was abused by her Arabic husband and another one about the World Water Day.

The reports did bring me a lot of thoughts, especially when the idea of a caring and serving leader is gradually consolidated through our HC classes. I realized that there are a large number of people in this world who are still suffering and in dying need of care and help. And leadership is not only about how you lead other to perform work but also about how your actions impact those who need help.


I remember Albert said in our coaching session that his mission of life is to make a difference in the world and to have a meaning towards the rest of the world. That is really inspirational, because if life is only about how you live and how you enjoy your life, it losses its meanings. And life gains its meaning by considering how your life brings value to others and what you can do for others to live better.

I feel quite happy that I am in a group where a culture of serving is developed. I think, in the future, no matter what positions we will hold and how big our power will be, at least we will devote ourselves to helping and serving others.

Life is tough!!

I do have a lot to share after this Wednesday's exciting class. I think it is the same with most of my classmates. I have also taken down what was happening and some of my thoughts bumping up during the class. The problem is that I just could not allow time to open my blog and write a post.

How come??

You may ask me. I am also asking myself.

One point on Udani's slides this Wednesday had striken me a lot. It is the Law of Prioritize, which says that activities don't necessarily mean accomplishment.

I came to think about how many of the activities I have done can be counted as accomplishment.

I am attending meetings of Toastmasters on Tuesdays and of English Debate on Thursdays.

I am one of the members responsible for organizing a Toastmasters joint meeting on 1st May, where TM clubs from mainland and HK will come to our University.

I am the treasurer in English Debate Team and am preparing the applicaiton forms for subsidies, which should be sbumitted before the end of this month and the financial statements which are due 1st April.

I am working two group projects. One is for a business project in my Business Communication course and the othere for the Video Interview Project in Leadership Skill Development course.

I have to review after classes to ensure I can get satisfactiry grades.

I have to guarantee my reading time everyday, because I need to keep myself informed of what are happening in the world as a debator.

I have just finished one exam and need to stay up again for the Economics Mid-term tomorrow.

And I am supposed to at least sleep for 6 hours a day and eat when I am hungry.

So...how to prioritize? Or maybe I need to give up some? It is hard decision, but it is time to make a decision, as I feel I can no longer handle all of them and this blog.

But what I prioritize now is to prepare for my exam tomorrow. I have to start right from now. Otherwise, I don't know how I will suffer tomororw. But I promise to turn to this post and make the decision as soon as I finish it.

A visit to Yan Ci Children's Home

This was the first time I visited a children's home.

The children there we in Yan Ci Children's Home are mostly addmitted because of domestic problems. And the home is aimed at providing them caring and helping them grow until their independence.

What we wanted to bring them by our visit were a happy weekend afternoon, some simple gifts, concern and love from university students and hopefully some encouragement that could inspire them.

These were all our beautiful wishes. But we did not expect was an experience where we were kept being challenged by mischief, rebellion and frankness of those children.

There was a session during which we were divided into groups of HC students and children to have some talks together.

I asked the three girls grouped with me, "What do you think about today's games? Intersting?"
"Can we first of all give some comments?" Asked by one of the three and, before my saying anything, continued," Could you add more entertainment and creativity to your design of games. I have been playing these games for three years. They can just bore me."

I did not know how to response for a while, because I was totally astonished by her words.

It was already hard to organize the whole activity, design all the games and play with handful children.

But in the end, what we got were not their favor and joy, but dislike.

Thanks to the frankness of these children, I was challenged again but also learned that we could not design something for them just from our understandings of them and without practically knowing them more.

Fortunately, they are children. After all, games, no matter how boring, are children's favorite and can alwayse make them relaxed and happy.

At a moment, I felt a sense of gratification. I saw that these children in front of me are all smart, active, happy and having their own thoughts and the confidence to express their thoughts. They may somewhere in their lives encounter some adversities, but they are now living lives meaningfully.

There was a girl named Ceci in my group surprising me a lot. During the talk, she suddenly asked me for a peice of paper and a pen and said, "What about we playing some mathematical games?"

"What? What does it mean by mathematical games?"

"Some calculation."

"Calculation? So is it really counted as a game?"

"You first give me a problem." She did not even take my question.

I figured out one for her. She solved with apparent ease. When I was about to give a harder one, she grabbed the paper and said,
"Well, it is my turn!"
She then wrote down a problem without any thinking. It was at least ten times harder than the one I gave and took me minutes to work out the answer.

She could not wait to ask me how to get it. But before any of my explanation, she asked,"Is it that you...." She described what exactly i did.

It was amazing, wasn't it? This primary grade-5 girl liked calculation more than games and showed a great talent. It seemed that I could see her bright future after she left this children's home.

It was a great visit, even though we should have designed something more entertaining and more creative to bring them more joy.

I really hope that someday I can do more for them.

First Treasurer Experience

Early this month, I went with UM English Debate Team to Maylasia for a debate tournament. Actually I went not only as a debator, but also the treasurer of this trip. I was assigned the responsibility to keep the budget balance and collect all the receipts and prepare a statement of expenditure after the trip. It sounds an easy task.

First of all, I had to take care of the money around the clock and make sure it is still there, but not elsewhere.

We had meals in food courts where everyone ordered the food they wanted. And I was
the one who paid for each and received receipts from every single vendar.

In the evening, beofore bath and rest, I had to chec the balance both on book and in amount to make sure that no errors existing.

When the budget became tight, I had to estimate now and then whether we could afford something.

Upon return, I sorted out all the receipts and make a statement recording date by date and item by item all our expenses.

And...that's the end.

Having a title bestowed means gaining others' trust, but also means taking on responsibility and paying extra time and efforts.

In fact, I did appreciate a lot this experience. It was never easy. But it was what we should prepare ourselves for, was'n it?

Honours Forum - Lecture Series hosted by Dr. Chui Sai Peng

Speaker's CV and Lecture Series info: http://www.umac.mo/hc/honours_forum/lecture_series/HC_2009_2010_L3.pdf

Chui is really charming!! That is the only thing I can conclude.

First of all, Dr. Chui is really an outstanding city planner. I got the conclusion not because others say so, nor because his resume told so, but because I could see his creativity he exhibited and felt his passion and devotion towards city planning during his talk.

For example, he talked about some interesting and creative city transportations which could potentially implemented in Macau. The one that attracted me the most is the automatic car parking system. It actually has already existed in some Europe countries but has never be seen in mainland China, HK or Macau.
I think it is a good idea for Macau, because there is very limited parking space here and citizens have to queue and waste large amount of their time in daily parking. Moreover, if there is such a system implemented, Macau is added a new and splendid feature and wins itself a desirable reputation of a creative city.
However, Chui told us that the plan was stopped by the government. He just stopped there, explaining no why.

After his talk, I raised a question, saying "What do you think led to the failure of the automatic car parking plan?"

He gave a quick answer: It is not a failure. It just takes time. When people do not trust you and do not accept something new. It does not mean that you should give it up. Instead, you need to have patience and persistence and keep pushing it. Someday, people will understand you and have faith in you.

I got the answer, even though I have not addressed my question correctly, because the plan was just rejected, and never fell!


Following the Macau city planning, he also provided some advices to us HC students.

One of the topics is the university and the society. I have heard a lot about differences between schools and the society, like the society involves more competition and is more unpredictable and complex. But what Dr. Chui told us was really fresh. He said that in universities, when you pay, you will gain, while in society, when you pay, you may not necessarily gain.
It sounded cruel. So what can I do? One of "The Paradoxical Commandments" written by Kent M. Keith in 1968 provides the answer: Give the world the best of you and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

What Chui ended this topic with is that even though you may not gain from your pay, if you want to gain, you must pay. That's quite true, isn't it? I think when I begin the world, I will have a mindset prepared for some harvestless pay. What I will then tell myself is continuing doing my best.

In fact, there are a lot more I want to talk about Chui's talk. I hope I can record all I have been taught and inspired. Unfortunately I lost my notes taken during his talk. I can only record more if anything pops up.

Something about Agreeableness from the Class before New Year

I did not expect that Blogger cannot be logged in mainland. I had planned to write something about our last class before the lunar calendar new year. But I could just save it for later when I realized this block.

Anyway, it is great that I can open this B now and recall what had inspired me a lot during that class.

I remember one sentence given by Udani, "Be agreeable when you disgree with others." Upon hearing that, I thought, "When I diagree with others, how can I still be agreeable?"



Later I wikied the word"agreeableness" and got:

"Agreeableness is one of the five major dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in concern for cooperation and social harmony. People who score high on this dimension are empathetic, considerate, friendly, generous, and helpful."
"A central feature of agreeableness is its positive association with altruism and helping behavior."

That did help me understand Udani's words better. Even if you disagree with other, which can happen now and then in our lives, you should still show respects to the perspectives and needs of others and be friendly.

You should not become dicruptive and agressive and even lose your temper just because other people hold different views from yours. Instead, if you can use more constructive tactics and try to give ground to others, you may gain more acceptance by your peers. And that acceptance means an asset in many socail situations, does'n it?

That is my understanding of agreeableness. I don't know whether this is all agreeableness and Udani's words about. If someone read this post and have something to add or have different opinions, comments welcome!

As for my scroe in agreeableness, I personally rank myself the average. If someone comes to me for aid, I will alwayse consent and try my best to help. But I do not often initiate providng help. That it what I have to improve later in my life in order to become more agreeable. I need to start practice being more sensitive to other people's needs.

Hope someday I can gain more points in agreeableness!

My AMAZING Retreat at Macau Tower!!

It is really great to have this semester's leadership journey started with this fantastic retreat!

I headed for Macau Tower this morning, just expecting that we are going to have sky walk today, but came back with lots of unexpected gains.

Before the sky walk, we had some warm-up games, and to me, also some buffers.

In one of them, we were groupe and asked to build a tower with a stack of newspapers. Our gruop ended ranking the third, even though we thought ours was the most "good looking". Haha.. Later, I thought we could have done better if we had more planning and distribution of tasks instead of setting out right away due to the time limit. Actually We started with everyone making tubes, without using the tubes to build the tower. So we did not know whether the tubes are enough or not and actually how the tower should be buile. The result was that when we built the tower in the last minute, the tower could not stand. If we had someone make tubes and someone think about the structure and build the tower with the tubes already made, we could have time to revise the structure to make it stand. Even though there was a time limit, planing and distribution of tasks could facilitate work and make advantages of cooperation. That is a lesson for future group work.

After that, there came the main dish: sky walk. Actually I was quite scared. At the beginning, I could move only very slowly and in very short steps. And I did not dare to look down, because I tried once and I found that my heart beat faster and my legs feel like jelly. When I was asked to wear the blinder, I became even afraid. I kept my hand on the shoulder of the person ahead and trid to feel the voices around me. I comforted myself and started to chat with others. When I heard James sing, I laughed and felt better and more relaxed. After I took of the blinder, I surprisingly found that I was not that afraid anymore.
I began to look down and saw the cars parked on the ground, the buildings, and the boats. Quite interesiting! They were all just like my toys. When I looked straight down, my heartbeat accelerated again, but this time I forced myself to keep looking for longer time and...I felt better! I found myself even enjoy this fear and thrill. Later, I even stood at the very edge, stretched my hands to reach out and troted on the outer rim. I had encountered the fear and thus enjoyed the excitment and the unique and wonderful views. I will tell myself to have a try when I meet something afraid of in the future, because I have once walked 233 meters above the ground!!

After the wonderful lunch in the revolving restaurant, we went for the wall-climbing. I did not volunteer to have a try because I was still not that confident about my sports genes and I was afraid that I would waste the valualbe chance of our group. I thought the chances should be given to someone more capable at climbing so that we can win more points as a group. But later I felt somewhat regretful. I thought that even though I was not good at sports, how could I be certain that I could not do climbing well. People who are not good at sports may also climb well! Anyway I lost the chance to have a try and see how far I can go. However, though I was not the one who tried and received the encouragements, I was the one who constantly gave encouragements and cheers to all the climbers. I think it was also very impotant to our group's performance. Vicky said, "When I heard people cheering at me on the ground, I felt more fighting will and thougth that I had to ring the bell!" In a gruop, there will often be some people who shine and some people who work behind the scenes and help others to shine. You cannot alwayse be the one shining and you need to learn to help and support others to shine so as to achieve the group's overall maximized outcome.

I would like to say something about Steve, even though he was not the one ringing the bell. Actually he did not even climb, but he kept giving instructions in a very loud voice to all climbers. When Udani asked, "who want to climb in your group?" He stood out. But when Udani asked again, "Because of time limit, we cannot have so many climbers now. Among you, who really want to have a try?", he steped back, giving opportunities to others and continue to instruct other climbers. That did move me a lot.

Ivy, who was the first one to ring the bell, said, "Actually I wanted to give up after I climbed to the third ring as I thought it was good enough and I was tired out. But when I saw the bell right there and the victory just ahead of me, I decided to go for it." I had the same experience in the life. When I have run out of energy, but perceived that the success was within my reach, I will be caused to bring out the best in me.

James fell three times and trid three times. Even though he did not climb that well, like what he said, " I am already tried my best", he's already won, because his will has been tested and this is what this sport means to ordinary climbers.


This retreat did enrich my life experiences. I will talk with many people these experiences, especially as part of leadership training, because I am not a tourist, nor a sportsman, but a leadership pursuer. When I first talked with my parents my experiences, thoughts, enjoyment and growth gained from today's retreat, they felt happy and proud. And I feel happy and proud as well when I can make them happy and proud.