Xi Nan Lian Da 西南聯大

I was in Kunming to run two workshops.  When that was done, there was really one place at the top of the places that I would love to visit, even though Kunming is a beautiful, historical city, with very rich ethnic diversity.  

That is 國立西南聯合大學 (National South West Associated University).  This was that university created in Kunming when Japan invaded China. The site is now part of the campus of Yunnan Normal University 雲南師範大學. 

By 1937, Japan had overrun northern China and was rapidly moving south.  Three of the top universities in China relocated to the south west, and settled in Kunming from 1938 to 1946.  The three were National Peking University 國立北京大學, National Tsinghua University 國立清華大學 and Nankai University 南開大學.  Xi Nan Lian Da was arguably where the brightest minds  in China were most concentrated at the time.  

Some of the classrooms were preserved, furnished in the same way.  I can picture in my mind’s eye how these scholars studied in the middle of the war.  Hoping that the war would be over eventually, but preparing for a long fight.

 

They must have believed that the intellectual pursue of knowledge and the preservation of culture is just as important as physically defending the territory of the country.  Many went on to fight physically and died during the war.  Many continued to study and achieved great things.  Two of the students subsequently were awarded the Nobel prize.  All deserve the greatest respect. 

Jiang Menglin 蔣夢麟 was president of Peking University earlier and became one of the leaders of Xi Nan Lian Da.  One of his books, Tides from the West 西潮, was one of my favourites.  It is his biography.  Through which we learn of the modernisation of China - how western civilisation wash over China like relentless tides.  It is part of my own enlightenment.  If I have any idols, he would be one of them.  The modernisation of China is still continuing, and far from finishing, of course.  Hence what he wrote is still relevant.  Just like the way history is never out of date

This visit was thought provoking, to say the least.  I am very grateful to my friends who brought me there. 

 

SL Workshops in Yunnan

Went to Kunming for the first time about a week ago.  This was my first trip to the Mainland since Covid, and my first trip to Yunnan province.  PolyU has been building up an offshore base for Service-Learning in Wenshan 文山 in southern Yunnan in the past several years., near the border with Vietnam and Laos  This is an area with many minority groups such as Zhuang 壯族 and Miao 苗族, and many others.  We have been partnering with Yunnan University and Yunnan Minzu University who are sending their students to work with ours, and are also developing their own SL program.  

On this very short trip, we ran a half-day workshop for the staff at Yunnan Minzu University 雲南民族大學 and another at Yunnan University 雲南大學.  On a Friday, I spoke for 3 hours in the morning and another 3 hours in the afternoon.  In Putonghua!  

It was very tiring but also exciting.  It is gratifying to speak with people who share the same vision, who are eager to understand and discuss.  The focus this time is not so much to persuade people of the merits of SL, but to explain how to do it academically, with real impact and great learning outcomes. Many in the audience seemed genuinely impressed with the vision and our experiences. 

Three hours is enough just to provide a general idea of what it is about.  But far from enough to actually prepare the teachers to teach.  So we will have to come back, perhaps not to a brief visit to the campus, but to take the teachers to the project sites to observe, and to run a week-long teacher development course.  Something that we have been doing in Hong Kong and several countries already, often with some targeted adaptations, including Cambodia, Philippines and Malaysia.  

To run such courses, away from Hong Kong, is rather challenging, time consuming and exhausting.  But nevertheless gratifying.  We feel being part of a great movement which brings real benefits to the students, teachers, universities and the communities.  

Survived the Half Marathon

The first time I ran in the Standard Hong Kong Marathon was in 2002, as far as I can remember.  For the first 2 years I ran the 10K.  The comfort felt motivated the move up to the half marathon.  Then a challenge to run the full marathon.  The first time, I couldn’t finish within the time limit.  Since then, I had been able to finish within 6 hours, every time I ran.  Each time, my legs would start to cramp after roughly 30 km.  Each time, I told myself it would be the last time that I torture myself that way. After recovering from the ordeal, however, I would be tempted to try again.  

Covid stopped everything.  For a long time, it was hard to run properly, with all the bizarre requirements on masks.  Then I broke a metatarsal (a “long” bone) in the right foot in late 2020, which took half a year to recover from.  Pulled something in the left knee in 2022, which took another half year.  Then fell and cut open my forehead, which took 16 stitches to close the wound, in early 2024.  Another half year.  In the mean time, I had had grown older, much older.  

Late in 2024, I tried the 10K in the Three-Runway Race at the HK Airport, my first “race” since 2019. Surprisingly, I did OK.    

In early 2025, 3 family members came back to HK to run in the half marathon in the HK Marathon.  I decided to join them, even though I wasn’t very confident I could do it.  In the end, I was much slower than they were, but I was able to finish within the time limit. 

Hence this year, I decided to run again, alone.  I had trained as hard as I could, without endangering myself with a fall.  Often 3 times a week, each at least 10 km.  

The first 10 km felt pretty good.  I was running faster than my normal training pace.  

Just before entering the Western Cross-Harbour Tunnel, I had a feeling I might not be able to sustain the pace.  It felt ominous when we enter the dark, gaping mouth of the monster that was the tunnel. 

When we exited the tunnel, it felt like escaping the gloom into the bright sun.  But the climb up to the elevated highway was tough. I willed myself to not stop.  While the legs start to threaten to cramp.  

The cheering crowds from Central, to Wanchai, to Causeway Bay was a big encouragement.  It sustained so many of us.  I was grateful and I told some of them.  

At the end, I found myself finishing with almost exactly the same time as last year.  What does that mean?  I had trained as hard as I could.  I had hoped to make a small improvement.  In the end, no.  Should I be disappointed that this is probably my limit?  That at almost 70, I would not get any better, no matter how hard I tried?

Should I feel good that, at least, I can still run the half marathon?  I cannot decide now.  Perhaps later, when I had some time to reflect on it.  

All in all, I thank God that I survived.  

 

Trees of Manila

The big, majestic trees of Manila are a really enjoyable sight.

Some of them easily reach up to 7, 8 floors. 

The crown can reach 100 feet across. 

The root system underneath is probably equally gigantic. 

They are one of the biggest organisms in the world.

They provide shade, protect schools, cool the environment, house birds, make us happier, 

and so much more. 

People everywhere really should treat them better. 

Here in Manila they are doing a better job than many other cities, including the one I am currently living in.

Teacher Development Course Manila 2026

We kick off 2026 running a week-long Teacher Development Course in Manila.  Participants come from Hong Kong, Philippines, Australia and South Africa. 

We took the participants to the Welcoming Ceremony for the PolyU teams at University of Philippines Diliman.  During this same week, 3 teams of 200+ students from PolyU are doing their projects in Manila.  They are joined by 100+ students from UP.   

One team inspects eyes and at two primary schools.  A second teaches primary school students Artificial Intelligence, using AI to develop applications to help the blind. A third provides training for children with special needs.  

UP welcomes the 300+ students with indigenous music and food.  The TDC participants gets to experience the atmosphere of camaraderie.

The TDC consists of lectures, workshops, proposal writing, as well as visits to the projects.

The eye inspection project is highly organised.  Many stations are set up, manned by PolyU and UP students working side by side.  

Some of PolyU students study optometry.  But the vast majority major in other disciplines.  They take this eye inspection SL course as broadening general education. So they have to undergo intensive training before they can work on the project. 

The TDC participants gets to talk to the PolyU teachers, the primary school headmistress, the UP professor, the students (all sorts).  When we return to our classroom, we discuss what was observed and learn from it. It is a lot of fun and a lot of learning.  Very tiring and also very fulfilling.

SL 2010-25

n 2010, we did a self-examination (reflection) in all-rounded (whole-person) education at PolyU and found something missing.  We had always put a lot of effort in academic learning, problem solving, professional discipline expertise, and languages.  Yet there wasn’t much in terms of values, ethical thinking, and social responsibility.  We really could not claim to be educating the whole person when such an important chunk was missing. 

Some of us felt service-learning would be an effective pedagogy to begin to fill that gap.  And that gap existed in all undergraduate programs.  We therefore decided to make service-learning a critical component in all undergraduate programs - compulsory and credit-bearing.  

At that point, the challenge was daunting.  We had nothing.  Zero SL courses, and few people who knew anything about SL.  Not to mention how to teach SL.  How do we find projects?  Partners? Fund the projects?  Teach reflection?  When the teachers didn’t know how to do reflection ourselves?  What we had was plenty of doubters.  We had to bootstrap ourselves in everything. Amid all the challenges, step-by-step we learned.  

In 15 years, we have worked very hard, and come a long way.  Today 70+ SL courses are offered to 4,500 undergraduate students each year.  SL has been entrenched as a distinguishing hallmark of a PolyU education.  Close to half of that 4,500 serve outside Hong Kong, in Mainland China and foreign countries. Thus helping PolyU internationalise -  achieving another important objective.  We are conducting research to inform our teaching of SL, to continuously improve ourselves, and to contribute to the global community.  

But we are far from finished.  We want more students to acquire a global mindset, hence more non-local SL.  We are developing a minor in SL, so that students can learn SL to a greater depth.  We are planning to expand SL to the graduate school.  

We have benefited so much from SL we want to promote SL so that more can benefit.  We are training teachers from other universities, in other countries, to teach SL.  We are training K-12 teachers to teach SL.  We are designing a course to train researchers in SL.  We are learning to bring more technology into SL to create more impact.  …

Feathers

Learned a thing or two about feathers while researching for a new piece. 

Feathers on a wing tend to be pointed at the tip. While the barbs on the two sides of the central shaft are asymmetric - barbs on one side are longer than those on the other. 

Feathers on the tail tend to be rounded at the tip.  The barbs tend to be symmetric. 

So I made a wing feather and a tail feather.  And gave them to two of our best friends. They seem to like them. 

#SChanPalmArt