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.