Renowned author and scientist Chen Chih-fan (陳之藩) died on Saturday in Hong Kong at the age of 86, with people from both the academic and literary world praising his many achievements.
Born in Hebei Province, China, on June 19, 1925, Chen trained as an electronic engineer and left Taiwan in 1955 to study in the US. He received a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1971.
He taught at Princeton University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Boston University and at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU).
“He was one of the main people behind the establishment of CUHK’s electronics department,” former CUHK vice chancellor Ambrose King said.
Tang Ming-jer (湯銘哲), a professor at NCKU’s department of physiology, called Chen a national treasure and a rare talent who was able to seamlessly fuse technology and literature.
Tang said Chen had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2008.
Chen is also widely known in the Chinese-speaking world for his essays, several of which are published in school textbooks used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
“Chen’s death is a loss to the literary world,” said Chang Man-chuan (張曼娟), director of the Kwang Hwa Information and Cultural Center in Hong Kong.
Chang, a writer herself, said she had read Chen’s writings since she was a young woman.
Chen is survived by his wife.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS