English Version: Biography and Blessings

Our father, Charles Chiu-lang Chi (紀秋郎), was born in Wuqi, Taiwan (台灣梧棲), on July 28, 1933. He received early Japanese education during the Japanese occupation period in Chiayi, in Southern Taiwan. Losing his mother at the tender age of 13, he continued studying hard and eventually became a raising student in the field of architecture --- for a total of eight years, he followed the paths of Chiayi Junior High School, Tainan Institute of Technology, and finally at National Cheng Kung University. He was one of the student representatives to receive the famous architect I.M. Pei (貝聿銘) when he came to Taiwan for a historic visit.

However, our father loved literature. To fulfill his dream to study the beauty of literature, under the academic system at that time, he had to retake the college entrance exam and was first admitted to the Department of Mathematics at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), and he then eventually transferred to the English Department after one year. After graduation, he was admitted for graduate studies at NTNU, which had the only English Graduate Program in Taiwan at the time. He studied English and American literature under the guidance of many scholars. For example, he received guidance on English composition by Prof. Chen Chin-Jen (陳欽仁), Editor-in-chief of China Post. As Prof. Liang Shih-ch'iu (梁實秋)’s student and mentee, our father also participated in the lexicographic work of Prof. Liang and editing the well-known "Far East English-Chinese Dictionary" and completed a Master’s thesis in 1965 on D.H. Lawrence’s work under his direction. Much later, our father continued this lexicography work by compiling two other dictionaries: the "Eurasia’s Concise English Dictionary" and "New Approach English-Chinese Dictionary", both of which were widely sold and had been important tools for many English learners.

In 1966, our father received a full scholarship to study at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii as part of a US Congressional program. A victim and a recent political prisoner of the White Terror political persecution in Taiwan at the time, through the generosity of many warrantors he was finally permitted to accept the scholarship and eventually made the trip, and leaving my mother behind as a guarantee that he would return. During spring 1968, he went to Columbia University in New York for additional studies, eventually receiving his second Master of Arts degree that summer under this program.

After returning in 1968, our father devoted himself to education, and served for many years in Tamkang University, first serving as Director of General Administration, then later as Head of the English Department, Director of Western Language Graduate Institute, Director of American Institute, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, as well as the Editor-in-chief of Tamkang Review. In 1971, he started his own graduate studies again in Comparative Literature at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University. Finally, in 1978, he obtained his Ph.D. with the thesis subject on Liu Xie's (劉勰) The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons ("Wen Xin Diao Long", 文心雕龍), which became his lifelong research direction. Our father believed that "Wen Xin Diao Long" belongs at the top of the literary theory pyramid, and has the most brilliant and complete structure in Chinese literary theory.

During his service at Tamkang University, our father and friends of Tamkang English Department, Mr. Hou Dengjian (侯登見), Mr. Wang Guohua (汪國華) and Prof. Lin Lianxiang (林連祥) established Yingcai (英萃) Scholarship, which benefited many special-needs students with a merit-based scholarship. In 1981, appointed as an International Scholar by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto American Embassy, he visited various universities in the United States, and during this trip, he and Mr. David Dean (丁大衞), later the Chairman of AIT, discussed many issues in Washington D.C. In 1984, he represented Tamkang University as an exchange professor at Mankato State University in Minnesota for a whole year, contributing to both educational and cultural exchange. Also by bringing the whole family to the US, he opened a new chapter for us children as immigrants.

After returning to Taiwan and then later retiring from Tamkang University in July 1993, he was invited by the President of National Chung Cheng University, Lin Ching-Chiang (林清江), to serve as the head of the English Department. Lured by proximity to his hometown, Chiayi, he served for 5 years and established the Institute for Comparative Literature there. After retiring a second time, in 1998, he was appointed as a visiting professor in the Department of English at Soochow University near Taipei, and he again established an Institute for Comparative Literature there. These efforts created many outstanding students and served as the germination and development of Comparative Literature research programs in Taiwan. Our father’s warm heart for literature and scholarly style is well-known, and while we were impressed by our father's enthusiasm for teaching, he never mentioned his honors and awards. These include receiving the honors of Special Lecturer at the Sun Yat Sen Academic and Cultural Foundation (中山學術文化基金), China-US Regional Postdoctoral Research Award (中美區域研究獎金), and being included in the 1997 Who's Who in the Republic of China. The discovery of these awards recently in his papers commemorates our father as our real-life role model.

Our father had a wide range of interests and hobbies. In addition to Taiwanese, Chinese, and English, others often forget that he also spoke fluent Japanese as his mother tongue, and even learned French in his spare time. He also studied violin, piano, and trumpet, and often sung English poetry while teaching in class. He encouraged us to tinker with anything we were interested in, sharing an interest in computers with us.. Importantly, his love for classical music had a big influence in the family, and is reflected in the enormous amount of time he spent in building a huge record catalog of hundreds of classical vinyl records, and we’re still listening to this treasure trove. This love inspired our interest in the beauty of music since childhood and became the driving force behind two of our careers.

In addition, our father liked tennis, ping pong, swimming, gardening, carpentry, computer, photography, and traveling. He made many friends with his enthusiasm, resourcefulness, professionalism, and humor. After returning home from school, we often discovered that he had invited foreign guests for dinner, which formed a warm and unforgettable imprint in our childhood memories.

Amidst the backdrop of World War II, his personal experience of Taiwan’s February 28 Incident and White Terror, as well as the struggle for rights in Taiwan and the US, our father has always been interested in both the humanities and human rights, as well as the overall progress of humankind. This humanism means that his practice and words often reminded us of the meaning of a fulfilling virtuous life. Our father’s gentle ways and manners exude a kind of scholarly honesty. As a man of few words, he always chose his words wisely, which were often full of wisdom, making people reflect over them over and over. Regardless of the situation, our father would often only say, "Everything goes with nature, so just let it go". In his work and his approach to life, he deeply appreciated the beauty of nature, and encouraged everyone to reflect and cherish this beauty. We’ve inherited his passion for nature, but we can only claim to have been in the presence of his intellect and wisdom, and are still learning from his lessons to this day.

Friends and relatives, we’re grateful for your sincere thoughts and blessings. It is our firm belief that this is not the end of a life, but a complete and unlimited extension of life. We will transform a thousand blessings into infinite gratefulness, as our father follows Buddha toward a bright, beautiful, and pure nirvana, free of mind and body. Of course, at the same time, we will always miss his kind smile and warm embrace, and will always love him and miss him.

With sincere and deep gratefulness, Amitabha.