CHARLES K. KAO - A MEMOIR
The life of Charles Kao is one for celebration
5 stars out of 5 stars
I was aware of Sir Charles Kao’s accomplishments in his varied career, as a renowned researcher and top executive at ITT, founder of the Department of Electronics and later Vice Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2009 and was regarded as “the father of optical fiber communication”. I was, however, not aware that he had an excellent writing style, until I read “A time and a Tide”, a memoir consisting of 16 chapters. It is unclear whether the memoir was a joint effort with his wife, Gwen. I venture to guess that the first fourteen chapters, narrated in first person, were primarily written by Charles, with revisions by Gwen. The last two were clearly written by Gwen.
The beginning parts of the book were concerned with Charles’ growing up in Shanghai and Hong Kong. It is interesting that he was able to relate his early learning experience to several famous sayings of Confucius:
“To learn and on occasion to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure.”
“Search and search again, as a way to discover new facts.”
“When three people approach you, one must be your teacher.”
They were translated into English in the memoir, but it is easy to identify the original quotes in Chinese. Charles believed that the second quote points to Confucius being the first to arrive at the modern concept of research. What a keen observation!
Besides Confucius, it appears that Charles was well versed in the poems of the Tang Dynasty. In describing his leaving Hong Kong for London to attend University, he quoted a famous Tang poem that expresses a mother’s concern about her departing son:
“She knitted the sweater with care, stitch by stitch, till it was well made and complete. For the son who is departing for long.”
In the chapter entitled “The Great, the Rich, and the Powerful”, the author told of his encounters with such people. Among them Prince Philip, Princess Anne, Yo-Yo Ma, Shirley McClaine, Milton Friedman, C. N. Yang (misspelled as Young in the book). Somewhat unexpectedly, but a clear sign of his compassion for all humanity, Charles also devoted sections in this chapter to several folks who worked for his family: au-pairs, maids, chauffeurs. Several of them became his friends and Charles remained in touch with them long after their services.
Charles and his wife Gwen were world travelers. The chapter “Wedding Anniversaries” is very interesting. It began with the observation “Today we constantly hear about short term relationships and divorce and very little about long lasting marriages.” It then told the different places in the globe that Charles and Gwen celebrated their anniversaries – each year a different place. Besides traveling, they had lived in several continents: Asia (Shanghai, Hong Kong), Europe (London), and America (Virginia, Connecticut, California). The book contains brief introductions to the cultures of various places, including racial discrimination they experienced. As someone who grew up in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, served as a faculty member in the Department of Electronics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong for 11 years in the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties, travelled to Europe several times for meetings or sighteseeing, and have lived in various places in the U.S., I find much resonance in Charles’ reminisces.
The second last chapter is entitled “The slow death”, obviously written by Gwen. It is a poignant description of their lives when Charles was afflicted with Alzheimer. The last chapter, written by Gwen in the first person, contains a detailed and informative account of what took place in a Nobel Prize ceremony. The book ends with not a bang but a whimper: “We flew from Stockholm early that Saturday morning, after an exciting week of Nobel celebrations as the first flakes of snow were beginning to fall. The depths of winter were about to begin.”
I do not detect a trace of sadness in the ending. The life of Charles Kao was one for celebration, not for sadness.
Link to Amazon Review:
Comments