Tony Chan - New President of HKUST

Prof. Tony Chan, the newly appointed president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology made his debut with students, faculty and staff today. His predecessor, Prof. Paul Chu, who has made tremendous contribution to the development of this university and bringing the reputation to the international level during his terms, will leave office in August and continue to research in USA. To live up to what Paul has founded and take it to another new level, Tony, the third president will face incessant challenges.

point C

professors have ways to confuse his/her students, as in today's Game Theory, Prof. Zamir showed how his professor used to confuse him.
"Given a point A, let's call it B", as he was saying this, he wrote a C next to the point.

Societies' Promotion Week

the first two weeks is societies' promotion week. To recruit new members, each society would have this "roadshow" on campus, where they take every effort to demonstrate that their society is actually the one you should not miss in your entire life, these include handing out posters and gifts, giving performance, shouting out slogans, wearing bizarre costumes, etc. When you walk into them, you feel this passion and confidence.

here's a short video I just recorded:

courses for next semester

Applied Econometrics
Banking and International Finance
Critical Urban Studies
Industrial Organization and Regulations

and FIND A JOB

Hong Kong New Year Fireworks 2009

I wasn't there that night, the fireworks is awesome!

Vincy's birthday cake

ummm, yummy

study break

having a study break this week, it's not break actually, not even close to break, it's like the toughest time of the whole semester, cuz after the break, all final exams swarm in! and after that, there comes a real long long winter break, which is like one and a half months. just hope to survive this fake break so as to enjoy the real one!

color pen

The students' union would distribute welfare products now and then, last time it's notepad, this time colored pens. It's a really nice gesture because at least I know part of the membership fee, which is 100 dollars, goes back to my pocket in the form of these UST specific widgets. The students' union is indeed an independently strong power aside from the university council. They speak for students, protect students' right, and most of the time, fight against unwelcome school policies. Whenever some big shot comes to visit, the president of students' union would always show up as the representative of students, sitting right by the president of the university as if they were in a level play.

two congregations

Congregation at Sun Yat-Sen University

Congregation at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

both times as audience, I've gotta be in one of these next time!

16th Congregation

In Hong Kong, university congregations are usually held in November even though the graduates have long left universities in July, which means many graduates may not present in the event because of immobility of any kind. The 16th HKUST Congregation is to be held in a few days, graduates, all dressed up in robes and accompanied by parents and friends, are coming back to record probably the proudest moments of their lives. Now the stage has all been setup, it's their show time!

To see all this just make me feel a little upset, it has been 4 months. Really that fast? Only four months ago, I was right in it, and now, I'm just a passerby. For some reason, I missed the opportunity to be on SYSU's stage, I don't wanna let my next one, maybe the last one, slip away.

mid-term exams

it's been tough these two weeks. Feel so relieved now it's done!
The Answer Book is pretty professional. Actually, it's not only an answer book, it's as well a scratch book, only your answer is recorded on the left page, and scratches on the right.

so dead

midterm killed me!

typhoon's coming

A signal number 8 typhoon is no kidding!
it's already roaring like crazy outside.
it's like the end of the world has fallen upon us!
RUN! everybody, RUN for your life!

some laughter in class

"Any questions?", Prof. Facchini asked.
"Yes, why does the point not shift along the RS curve, but shifts to RS一丿儿", answered one student.

there was a sudden burst of laughter in the classroom, lasted like one or two minutes. It's so funny when he said it, I almost jumped from the chair! But you could see clearly the stunned expression on the faces of foreign students and Hong Kong students. They starred at each other, totally had no idea what happened.

Well, here's the funny point. When he said RS一丿儿, he actually meant RS' (which is pronounced RS prime in English). But he didn't know how to express the superscript, instinctively used the Chinese version "一丿儿".
so basically: ' = 一丿儿

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Atrium at HKUST

multi-lingual

the exciting also challenging thing about HKUST is that you can virtually speak three languages here. Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Most of the time, you'll find yourself having a hard time communicating with local people in Mandarin, that's when my four years' living experience in Guangdong comes to rescue, because I understand Cantonese and could speak little bit of it. Totally ok to have some basic entry-level Cantonese conversations, but as it moves to advanced-level, English will always be the last resort, because almost everyone on campus speaks more or less some English. Actually when walking through the campus, you hear all kinds of languages. That's what international school is all about!

Signal Coverage

No signal coverage in the lecture halls and elevators!

Multi-Identity

I was born and raised in Chongqing, but somehow I'm bearer of both Guangzhou and Hong Kong Identity Card. The past four years have changed me a lot, my accent, the way of speaking and thinking, and so forth. It's like been "southernized". Many of my current classmates mistakenly think I'm Cantonese by judging my accent. It's a good thing for drifters like me, because it proves I'm adaptive to change, easy to be part of a different group or community, easily assimilated into external environment. No doubt that I'll change somehow here in Hong Kong, a totally different and more challenging community. The problem now is where exactly do I belong? Where I'm going?

BBQ

The best way to get familiarized with somebody you don't quite know of is to have some little gather-together activity, and by that I mean BBQ on the beach! Yeah, we, members of MSc(Econ) totally did that yesterday.

see me at 2‘45“

Wanna see me? Oh, yeah, more specifically, wanna see me with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong? Just drag the timeline of this video to 2'45"(after it's completely loaded). See the one in striped polo with a camera standing right behind Mr. Donal Tsang, that's me!