(Editor's note: Top microbiologist Prof. Yuen Kwok-yung made the following address at Queen's College's annual speech day on December 4. This is first published by Queen's College Old Boys' Association. The Chinese translation, prepared by QCOBA, is also enclosed towards the end.)
Principal Yvetta Ruth LEUNG, respected teachers, graduates, parents and the alumni of our Queen's College (QC),
Many thanks for inviting me to your Speech Day. Let me first offer my very sincere congratulations to the graduating Class of 2020. This is one of the most memorable days for yourself and your family, and I wish you all the very best for the future. Being a QC Form Seven graduate of 1976, I am particularly grateful that you have given me this great opportunity to recollect many memorable experiences at QC, and how much our alma mater changed my life and equipped me to become a doctor, a scientist and a teacher.
Life in Hong Kong was quite difficult in the 1960s to 1970s. My family was living in a subdivided flat of about 60 square feet with an attic in Sai Ying Pun. I slept in the attic with my parents and three other brothers. My father worked below this subdivided flat as a dental technician making dentures 16 hours a day. Our family shared a kitchen which had running tap water and kerosene or coal stoves with four other families. The hygiene was very poor as there were no toilet facilities. We simply urinated into the floor drain of the kitchen and collected our night soil in a pan. The pan was emptied into a common sewage barrel for collection by the government's mobile sewage tank at midnight. I can still remember that a 30-year-old lady in one of the families died after three days of fever, and one of my classmates in Primary Two died of fever one week after absence from class. Life was very fragile in those days!
I was fortunate to have a very caring mother who kept her children fed and safe from fatal infections. Though parts of my lungs were damaged by bronchiectasis and tuberculosis, I did not have much disability except for some occasional cough with blood streaks. Poverty was not just associated with the filthiness of littering and spitting, malnutrition and sickness, but also with foul language, superstitions and idol worship, gambling, heroin addiction, and physical violence. My mother was not formally educated but very strict. When I came 15th out of 40 in the half-yearly examination in Primary One, she hit my palm 14 times with a wooden ruler. When I came second in the final examination of Primary One, she still hit my palm one time. Her unorthodox perseverance on my school performance paid off when my marks at the secondary school entrance examination qualified me to study at QC in 1969.
The Form One year at QC was a really painful experience because I could not comprehend the speech of the British Principal and many teachers speaking in English. While in despair, it was by serendipity that I bumped into Dr HO Chun-por (QC alumnus 1973) at the roof top of the Astronomers' Club on a Friday evening. He reassured me that there was nothing to fear, and advised me to read up everything step by step. Besides teaching me the basics of astronomy, he gave me my first taste of auditory bliss in the form of Dvořák's New World symphony and Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra at the City Hall. This eye-opening concert experience amidst tranquility, cleanliness and punctuality enlightened me to pursue another way of living. My English slowly improved with more practice after overcoming my shyness through participating in English dramas and singing English songs at QC.
Knowing how to borrow books from libraries of the City Hall and QC, I learnt about the unassuming attitude and meticulousness of Sherlock Holmes, the limitless space adventures of Star Trek, the complicated internal struggles of Hamlet, and the intense emotions of Romeo and Juliet. At the roof top of QC, I learnt from the great storyteller, Mr POON Chiu-keung (QC alumnus 1974), about black holes, quasars, neutron stars, red shift and the expanding universe. My classmate, Mr SO Siu-hei, showed me how to read the star atlas, use steel grit to grind the concave mirror, plate silver on the mirror to make a Newtonian reflector telescope and then measure the focal length. Others taught me how to use the telescope to take photos of moon eclipse, count sunspots, and develop photographic films in the dark room. These experiences aroused my interest to study physics and chemistry.
Dr KO Wing-man, an excellent organiser, led us in making visits to the huge observatory and telescope of our Assistant Principal, Mr LIU Hing-chai, and taught us how to take care of the daily needs of almost 100 people joining the astronomical observation camp in the Yuen Long Plain. Through these enjoyable experiences, I started to know about team spirit and leadership. The late Dr CHAN Chee-hung, who became a psychiatrist, encouraged me to think about the importance of moral values as exemplified by the ultimate reality of truth and love in the biblical context. He told me that any change for the better starts with acknowledging our shortcomings and followed by targeted actions.
I was also inspired by teachers to help the less fortunate by joining flag-selling days on Saturday mornings. It was quite an experience for an intrinsically shy, short and skinny boy to solicit donations from strangers while walking from Sai Ying Pun to Wan Chai Violet Peel Clinic, or from Shau Kei Wan to QC. My heart almost jumped out when I beseeched pedestrians to give coins for flags. I was deeply relieved when teachers at the destinations encouraged and told me that my weighty donation box was almost full of coins.
Extra-curricular activities would arouse our interest to overcome the mundaneness of our studies, but might not directly help us in passing examinations. Our seniors always tell us not to depend on others but have to find our own way out through diligence and adaptability. Others can only give you hints and some short-term guidance. Besides reading books, we dissected rats, dog fish, earthworms and cockroaches on the roof top together, drew and labeled the internal organs, and tried to learn the skills from each other after school. Our caring teachers such as Mr HO Kwok-kuen often sympathised with our examination pressure. I was late one morning and should normally have received some punishment, but he just gave me a pat on the shoulder and told me to have more rest.
This was how I graduated from QC and entered the medical school of HKU, but what I learnt most from QC is the importance of truth and love in building our core values. By upholding fairness, compassion, humility and pursuit of excellence, QC boys are able to convert our differences of opinion, ability and values, through peaceful and open-minded interactions, into new insights, innovations and strength that sustain us through life's challenges.
Looking back at the age of 64, my childhood poverty and personal sickness have bestowed me with empathy to care for the poor and needy as a medical doctor. QC has provided me the environment to acquire the core values, knowledge, logic, skills and passion to become a scientist and teacher at HKU. As an infectious disease microbiologist, finding new pathogenic viruses or bacteria amidst trillions of other microbes is like finding a star amidst trillions of other celestial objects.
Our alumni have not forgotten to give back to our alma mater. When the roof top of our Astronomers' Club could no longer serve its purpose due to the severe light pollution of Causeway Bay, the family of Dr Stanley HO (Honorary Permanent President, QCOBA) and the members of QCOBA donated to convert the Tai Tam Canoe Pavilion into the Stanley Ho Astronomical Observatory equipped with state-of-the-art optical and radio telescopes for amateur astronomers.
The standards of living and education in Hong Kong and Mainland China have markedly improved in the last 40 years. Information is overwhelming in the Internet while geopolitical and socio-economic situations are changing rapidly within a day. Every field and sector is full of cut-throat competition. Our survival depends on rapid adaptation to changes by innovation and global coopetition. But only truth and love will set us free from these suffocating worries and chaos, because "in repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength".
Let us always remember that "Curiosity breeds innovation; logic sets pathways; perseverance brings fruition; but only love endures." Thank you again for inviting me to join your Speech Day, and I wish all of you the very best in your future endeavours. Keep safe and healthy!
皇仁舊生會名譽顧問、香港大學微生物學系傳染病學講座教授袁國勇教授今日（12月4日）下午於網上為2020年周年頒獎禮主禮，並以「皇仁與我，愛與真理」為題，分享他的童年經歷和皇仁同儕互助的美好時光，藉以勉勵同學在憂患中仍要懷着一顆真誠、友愛、好奇和堅毅的心。
袁國勇教授先祝賀應屆畢業同學前程錦繡，並感謝母校邀請，分享他學生時代的青蔥歲月。他說：「母校改變我一生，並孕育我成為一名醫生、科學家和教師。」
六、七十年代的香港，生活艱苦，他與父母和3兄弟住在西營盤一個面積只約60平方呎附有閣樓的板間房，與另外4個家庭共用一個廚房，廚房有自來水，用火水爐和炭爐煮食。當時衞生環境非常差，又沒有廁所，他們只能在廚房的排水口小便，用馬桶收集大便，午夜才有政府安排的流動污水箱收集清理，俗稱「倒夜香」。他憶述：「其中一個家庭一位30多歲女士發燒3日後便去世。讀小二時，一位同學因發燒而缺課，一星期後病逝，舊日的生命真的十分脆弱！」
袁國勇教授的父親是牙科技術員，每日工作16小時製作假牙托；母親十分悉心照顧孩子成長。他曾患肺炎、支氣管擴張和肺結核，有賴母親無微不至的調理，除了偶爾出現咳嗽伴有血絲外，亦沒有嚴重後遺症。昔日生活的貧窮所伴隨的不只是亂拋垃圾、隨地吐痰、營養不良和疾病，更有左鄰右里的粗言穢語、暴力、賭博、吸毒等不當行為。
雖然母親沒有受過正規教育，但對孩子管教甚嚴。他回想：「小一中期試我在40人中考第15名，媽媽用木尺打了我的手掌14下；到了年終試我考第2名，媽媽也打了我1下手掌。然而，這種嚴厲的督促終有回報，因我於1969年以優秀的成績考入皇仁書院。」
袁國勇教授其後逐一感謝照顧他的皇仁老師和同學。他中一不諳英文，難以掌握英籍校長和老師的講話，全靠天文學會師兄何振波醫生（1973）鼓勵他一步步學習。「他除了教授天文學的基礎知識外，亦介紹我欣賞德伏扎克的《新世界交響曲》至柴可夫斯基的《第一鋼琴協奏曲》，在大會堂由香港管弦樂團演出，更讓我大開眼界，亦讓我認識到另一種安靜、整潔和守時的生活模式。」拋開害羞的阻礙，他開始參與英文話劇和唱英文歌曲，英文也漸漸進步。
他說：「知道如何在大會堂和皇仁圖書館借書後，我透過閱讀了解福爾摩斯做事精密冷靜及客觀和謙卑的態度、《星空奇遇記》的無極限太空歷險、《王子復仇記》的複雜內心掙扎、《羅密歐與朱麗葉》的濃情蜜意。我從一位愛說故事的同學潘昭強（1974）身上學會黑洞、類星體、中子星、紅移等宇宙概念。我的同學蘇紹熙教我如何讀星圖、磨鏡、自製牛頓望遠鏡、量焦距、影月食、數太陽黑子及在黑房曬相等，統統是天文學會天台這個活動課室教曉我的事，更培養我讀物理和化學的興趣。」
袁國勇教授形容，朋輩最有組織天份的高永文醫生，帶領近百同學到訪創辦天文學會的時任副校長廖慶齊老師的家，觀賞和讚嘆他設計的巨型望遠鏡，並於元朗平原舉辦天文觀賞營，讓他從中學習團隊精神和領導才能。已故的同班同學陳熾鴻醫生以聖經故事為例，鼓勵他思考道德價值的重要，從中追求愛和真理。「只有承認自我不足，針對改正，才可變得更好。我也受到老師的啟發，透過參加賣旗日來幫助有需要的人。」
學生時代在周末早上賣旗，是他扶弱助人的起點。「從西營盤步行到灣仔貝夫人診所，有時由筲箕灣走到皇仁，要我這個害羞、矮小又瘦削的男生向途人募捐，殊不容易。每當要開口請途人捐錢，我心也跳了出來；當老師在終點發覺我的捐獻箱滿載硬幣，我才放下心頭大石。」
「勤有功」，戲也有益；活動啟迪課外興趣，但學業始終不可荒廢。袁國勇教授回憶：「當年師兄和老師告訴我們不要依靠別人，因其他人只能給我們一些短暫提示和指導，長遠而言，我們必須通過勤奮和適應找到自己的出路。因此，除了廣泛閱讀吸收知識外，我們還會在天台解剖老鼠、狗魚、蚯蚓、蟑螂等，認識和標註內臟器官，放學後這些互助互學的時光令人嚮往。」另外，老師同樣關愛學生，「考試前夕，我曾遲到回校，本應受到懲罰，但何國權老師只輕拍我的肩膀，告訴我要多加休息。」
總結他的皇仁歲月，關愛求真，對建立自己的價值觀至為重要。「我就是這樣在皇仁書院成長，學到愛和真理對建立核心價值觀的重要，憑着公義、關愛、謙卑和追求卓越的信念，即使與他人意見、能力和價值觀各有不同，皇仁仔仍可和平開放地溝通，將所有『不同』轉化為新見解、新意念和新力量，以應對生活的種種挑戰。」
64歲的袁國勇教授說：「貧病交迫的童年啟發我從醫和關心弱勢社群。皇仁是孕育我的核心價值、知識、邏輯、技能和熱枕的地方，我亦因此立志成為科學家和教師。作為傳染病微生物學者，在萬億微生物中發現新發病的病毒或細菌，就如在萬億天體中探索一顆新星；皇仁所學，畢生受用。」
學有所成，更要回饋母校。他以皇仁舊生會何鴻燊天文觀測站為例，感謝永遠名譽會長何鴻燊博士和其他舊生捐助興建和活化大潭獨木舟營地，讓天文學會可遠離光污染嚴重的銅鑼灣，在這個配備先進的光學和射電望遠鏡的觀測站，與皇仁師弟和校友繼續聚首一堂，探索宇宙奧秘。
袁國勇教授認為，中國內地和香港過去40年的生活和教育水平顯著改善，互聯網資訊頻繁，地緣政治和社會經濟發展一日千里，各行各業均面對激烈競爭。「適者生存，視乎大家能否以創新和在全球競爭和合作中適應新變化。」真假資訊混雜難辨，令人心煩意亂，他引用《聖經．以賽亞書》「你們得救在乎歸回安息，得力在乎平靜安穩」，藉以勉勵同學在憂患中要追求愛和真理。
他最後寄語同學，「好奇孕育創新，邏輯指引道路，毅力帶來成果，但唯有愛是永不止息！」
