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.