 Good afternoon, Mrs. Anson Chan, distinguished guests, teachers, and fellow students. Welcome to the reading sharing session organized by the Reading Group English Language Center. Today's talk should be perceived as a highlight event of the English Festival this week. We are much honored to have Mrs. Chan to share her reading experiences here with us. Before I leave the stage to her, please allow me to introduce Mrs. Chan to you. Mrs. Chan has been the first in many aspects in Hong Kong history. To name a few, she was the first female director of social welfare in 1984, the first Chinese and the first female chief secretary in Hong Kong during the pre-1997 period, and the first chief secretary of Hong Kong SAR. During her year of service at the Hong Kong government, Mrs. Chan made groundbreaking initiatives in many areas including finance, commerce, as well as social welfare. In recognition of her outstanding contribution, Mrs. Chan was granted the highest honor of the Grand Bohemia Medal by the Hong Kong SAR in 1999. Mrs. Chan has long been perceived as an icon of Hong Kong's freedom, equality, and justice. Besides involving herself in politics, Mrs. Chan also cares about education, and especially language education in Hong Kong. Mrs. Chan has been actively involved in many community services by sharing her experiences with students and the community at large. Quite of interest for those who might not know. When Mrs. Chan was at university, her major was English and English Literature. She's definitely the right speaker for today's topic, Reading and My Life. I hope you look forward to hearing about Mrs. Chan's lifelong experiences and her love of reading and how it has influenced her life and career. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you Mrs. Anson Chan. Good afternoon everyone. I'm not sure whether I'm the right speaker for this event this evening. What I can say is from my point of view, it's a very, very welcome contrast from the topic of One Country Two Systems' Rights and Freedoms that I have been engaged in since January of this year. So I thank you for inviting me to come and share with you something about my experiences of reading, how I picked it up and why I think reading is very important. I was born in the 1940s and for many years after that my favorite pastime actually was reading. I suppose it was because of the fact that in my days, certainly when I was going to secondary school television wasn't invented, certainly not the internet. I grew up in a family where this thing was very straight. In my days, good girls were never allowed to stray from the home and I was brought up by very strict uncles and aunts. My mother wasn't very strict and a pretty little bit of strict maternal grandmother. And so my sister and I, as some of you know, I have a twin sister. We're only five minutes apart. So my sister and I used to spend all our summer holidays meeting. And that was how I think I cultivated a habit of reading. In those days I have to say that I read everything that I could lay my hands on. Some suitable, some not very suitable. And I remember there was one particular session with my uncles and aunts when all the unsuitable books that my sister and I were reading were weeded out and we were told why it wasn't a good thing to be reading these sort of books. But my own experience is that certainly in the early days of your reading habit I don't see anything particularly wrong with reading everything in anything that comes your way. Because it is by doing that, that over time, and particularly as you live as long as I have lived. And I certainly hope that you will live longer than I have lived. It is through living, it is through life's experiences that you begin to appreciate what is good writing and what is bad writing. And good writing I think is not just about words, it's not just about the turn of phrases. It is about emotions, it is about values. And I think today if you ask me what is a good piece of writing it is a piece, whether it is a book, a poem or a speech that touches on human emotions and values. Of course it is also about whether you have an ability to use words. And good writing doesn't have to consist of using very long, complicated words. Sometimes I think some of the best writing that I will find illustrating are written in very, very simple language. But it is that appeal to your emotion, that particular turn of phrase. Whether it is conveying a sense of humor, of sadness or anything else that appeals to you. And sometimes I find that a particular piece of work can appeal to you at different points in your life depending on what sort of experiences you've gone through and what emotions you have experienced. So if you like, reading was something that was forced upon us. But over the years I've learned to appreciate more and more the value of reading. And in the passage of my life, in my journey through life sometimes you read and I think the best form of reading is when you read for pure pleasure. But sometimes you read because you have to read to know about certain things. And certainly in the 39 years of my public service career I did a lot of reading. You can say that my life and my work consisted of reading things about what's up to you by your subordinates. Recitation, arguments and analysis and research that you have to wait through in order to weigh up the pros and cons of policy combination. Because all good policies must be formulated on the basis of the best evidence, the best facts. Because if you don't have a grasp of the facts and the research results then it is actually very difficult to make good sound policy. So in those days, particularly in the last seven or eight years of my career it was all I could do just to read every day the stuff that was put to me. And one of the things that I think I learned about reading is you learn to, as a word, skim through things. You learn to do quick reading because the stuff that crosses your desk when you are a senior official is just too much for you to read every single word, every single page. And I used to tell my subordinates that you want me to read a particular piece of writing. Then they'll make it longer than four pages. Because it is longer than four pages. I'm going to have to say to you I'll have to read one side and read through it and I'll have time. So as a part of being an administrative officer you actually learn to write concisely, succinctly. You learn to sort out your thinking in your mind and you learn to organize your words so that you can fit into a two page minute or two page letter or anything like that. So I think both during my school days and during my working career reading became very much a part of my daily life. As you all know and as you remarked during your introduction I read English and English literature in Hong Kong University. And that certainly came in very, very handy when I joined the Hong Kong government as an administrative officer. Because the ability to communicate and to communicate effectively is a very essential part of being a good administrative officer. Ultimately, if you look at what is the purpose of communication I think all human relationship is based on communication. Communication can be through body language. Communication can be through writing. And I think from that point of view it is a great pity that today you see less and less people writing a really good letter. Because unfortunately modern technology has resulted in people dashing off things at the top of their heads through on the internet. And you don't really think about college and free country. You don't think about it. When I read English and English literature I picked the subject. First of all, because I have a good ear for language and I love the English language. And I did well in the subject. And I think that was at least part of the reason why I picked English. And we read 18th century Old English Trosser. We read 18th century Literature, 19th century Literature. And a bit of 20th century Literature. And I was very, very lucky because one of the most imminent professors in fact a poet laureate of Great Britain, Professor Edmund London, was actually my teacher. And he was a wonderful, wonderful teacher. Apart from being a wonderful human being. Very humble, very gentle, but extremely alphabetical. But if I look back on my three words, reading English and English Literature and Harvard University, I think I derived less enjoyment from reading the set texts. Then years later, for example, I read Pride on Projects. But it wasn't until about 10 years ago, looking through Pride and Projects again, that I really began to appreciate one thing about this Jane Austen novel that appeals to me. I think Pride and Projects is one of my favorite books. I draw your attention to that because I think reading and writing on my Bible can change your emotions at any particular point in time. It changes as you mature and develop. It changes with your emotions. And it is looking back on both side things that you begin to appreciate and really look lighter. And of course it's not a novel like Pride and Projects, it's not just the way it is written. Today we would say that Jane Austen's style is probably very quaint in the use of language and whatnot. But the emotions and the commentary on idiosyncrasies, the prejudices of men and women are in fact very various. It's a novel that was written in the 19th century that will be local today. I think it is just the commentary on human foibles, on human weaknesses, but also on human strength. I said just now that good reading and good writing can be very simple in English. And one of my other favorite books, and I would just like to talk to you about it, is Anu Pham. Anu Pham is acknowledged to be an all-time favorite in terms of the language. Because the language is so simple, and yet the feelings and the commentary about how power corrupts so well with it. And if you look at the conclusion of this last sentence in Anu Pham, I don't know whether all of you have read it. It's such a busy summary of what it's probably all about. And the concluding paragraph is very short, I'll just read it again. 12 voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alarmed. No question now, what happened to the faces of the pigs? The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man to pig. But already it was impossible to say, which you've never read the book. I'm sure some of you have come across some of the rather more famous quotations from this book, and the most famous of it is, or animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others. I don't know whether you've ever heard of Anu Pham. She was, I don't know whether she still is, she was a columnist in this book, and she gave it to me as a gift from a very good friend. It is the collection of the daily columns that she wrote for the New York Times. And you can say it's about very mundane everyday things, ranging from her views about what it is to be a woman, the views about pregnancy and having children, having stretch marks after your given birth to a baby, very, very ordinary day-to-day things. But it is, I think, in the subjects that she chooses, which can appeal to men and women of different ages and different political nations, and in fact different habits, because they are everyday occurrences that we all experience at one stage or another in our life. And I recommend this book to you. It's a very easy read. They're very, very short. Most of them are no longer than about no two pages. And it's about most of the subjects, about cats, about being out on the beach, about how she thinks women are just better than men. So read this book. It's a very, very good read. And I find sometimes when you are feeling particularly down and out, I like to pick up this book, because, you know, it's sort of the, who's soft your spirit? It's nothing very deep or, you know, but it just appeals to your ordinary senses. Mostly when I was young, I read novels. I read detective stories. And if you've ever read a good detective story, almost from the time you pick up this book, you can't wait to get through the whole book in order to find out how the plot actually develops. And sometimes you feel with some girls that you just can't put it down until you finish reading it. And I think one such book, I read it, I think, in two hours, is The Bridges of Madison County. I picked up this book because I saw the film first. And I thought it was a wonderful film, beautifully acted, both by Meryl Streep, and by Tim Smith, for instance. And I decided that I should go and buy this book and read it for myself. Again, it's a very, very easy read. The language is very, very simple. But it somehow, you know, it just touches a nerve in you. And it's a beautiful, beautiful lost story. I think one of the best lost stories that I've read. And there are phrases in it that I particularly like. And I'd like to read to you one phrase. I don't know what emotion involves in you, but just think about it. And then, still, take out the book and read it for yourself. There is in this, in the letter that this late Manchester led to her two children, a boy and a girl, describing this mother there that she has had with this man. And there's a particular phrase that was used by this man, which describes the sort of pre-spirit he is. And it reads something like this. I am a highway and a paragon, and all the sails that I've been waiting to see. Two very short and tricky sentences. But to a large extent, it tells you what this book and this lost story between this man and the woman who spent four days together is all about. Now, I'd like to, this book was sent to me. I have a very good friend who is a writer. He's a very good inspirational writer. But every Christmas, he would send me a book. Usually. And this Christmas, he sent me this complete point that people might have never heard before. And her life was actually very tragic. She committed suicide and lived only for about 40 odd years. And in this collection of this particular poem, I would like to read to you. And I read this book about a month ago after the financial shutdown had hit us. And I thought to myself, this particular book, in a way, you know, summarizes the things I have in the weight of the financial scenario and how it brought home very costly something to me, and I hope to some of you, that it is a simple pleasure in life that really matters. It's not about money. It's not about power. It's not about interests. And in a way, you know, this poem has nothing to do with the financial scenario. And I'd like to read it to you and you can tell me whether you share my feelings. Okay? This poem is entitled, Welcome Morning, and it reads like this. There was joy in all. In the hair I brush each morning. In the cannon towel newly washed that I rock my body with each morning. In the chapel of eggs I cook each morning. In the outcry of the cattle that eats my coffee each morning. In the spoon and the chair that cried, hello there to them. Each morning, in the guard-head of the table, that I set my silver trade cup upon each morning. All this is thought right here in my peeping house. Enjoying it. And I mean, though often forget, to give thanks to face down by the kitchen table in the prayer of rejoicing. As the holy birds at the kitchen window pack into their marriage her seeds. So then I think of it. Let me pay a thank you on my palm for this God, this laughter of the morning nested though, unspoken. The joy that isn't shared dies young. It's a very, very simple point, but it just reminded me that in the wake of this financial synonym that has shaken the whole world and how many people have lost their fortunes, it reminds you that birds singing in the morning among day things that you do every morning going through your breakfast and whatnot, these are the things that really happen. In addition to novels and I have three books that inform to me about what's happening in this world, because in the course of my work and as part of my responsibilities, one of the important aspects of my work when I was Chief Secretary, particularly in the run-up to the handover in 1997, was to go overseas to promote Hong Kong, to set the mindset at ease about whether Hong Kong was going to maintain its capitalist system, its rights and freedoms once it becomes a part of China. And so I have to read a lot of books to inform myself about prevailing views, political views, social views, economic views in our main trading partners. And I have to, you know, digest this and arrive at my own conclusions. And this brings up a very important point about me. Reading, I think, is ultimately only beneficial. If you don't accept the task of truth, everything that you read about, reading is valuable to all of us, not only because it makes us good. It makes us look at subjects from different points of view. Yes, it entertains, it informs, but it's not there just to tell you to go out and accept everything that you read about. Ultimately, what you really should cause you to think for yourself, whether you agree with that or don't agree with that. So reading, for example, essays about the relationship between America and Europe as this book, I don't know whether you've ever read this book. It's a very short book by Robert Caden. It's a very recent writing. And this book called Paradise and Power is actually about the relationship between America and Europe and how the dynamics have changed since the phone call when Europe and America may be by force of circumstances and need held together. But how, in today's world, the views of the Europeans seem to be diverging more and more from the American. And what is behind all this, again, is a very, very good reading, but maybe for the likes of some of you, let it dry. But these are some of the books that I have to read. Then I like reading speeches. Why? Because over the ages, some wonderful speeches have been written on all sorts of subjects. And I recommend to you a particular book. Again, it was a gift, but I have found it so extremely useful, particularly when you're trying to craft speeches of your own. And you look at some of the great speeches that have been written over the decades. This book is a collection of some 200-odd speeches throughout the ages, compiled by a very influential columnist, political columnist called William Safar. William Safar is still living. He was at one time a speechwriter for American presidents. And he put together a very big book, a collection of these 200-odd speeches. If you ever want inspiration about political quotations, you want to read what a great speech is all about, read through William Safar's book. There's one book that I think should be a live-on companion. I think this is one of those books. And one of my favorites in these historical speeches is a very short, and I hope it's familiar to, some if not all of it. And that is the It is Birth address. In the dedication of the National Seminary in now, This is Birth has a radio delivered and written by Abraham Lincoln. I think Abraham Lincoln has written some of the most memorable words about values, about patriotism, about freedom. And the It is Birth address, as some of you may know, must be one of the most often quoted of all speeches. It is just all of 266 words. And yet, from the first word till the last word, It is an extremely unforgettable address about freedom, about patriotism. And some of you will be familiar with the first sentence, which is, four score and seven years ago, our father's got four points. Immunisation. Conceived in liberty and complicated to the proposition that all men are created. How people can write such beautiful English and such beautiful words. I have to confess, I can't. But I also consider myself with the fact that sometimes good writing is about whether you believe in what you write. Whether you feel passionate about a certain issue and some of the great stirring speeches that you hear. It's not just about words. It is because the person standing in front of you, delivering that speech, gives you the feeling that he is passionate about what he is saying. That he believes in it and it is this belief that impresses you when you listen to that person. And I have found, through my own experience, in my 39 years, I think I have literally delivered thousands of speeches to small audiences of ten people and large audiences over two thousand people. And the most effective speaking is when you truly believe what you are saying. I said to you earlier that one of my favourite books is Pride and Prejudice. I don't know whether any of you have read it, but there is one sentence I remember from all of what I have read. It is the beginning first sentence of Pride and Prejudice. I don't know whether any of you can recollect it, but let me just quote it to you. I think it says, run something like this. It is the truth that I have previously acknowledged that when a single man is in possession of a good fortune, he is in want of a wife. Let me sum up. Reading is a wonderful pastime and a lifetime. You enjoy it when you are up. You enjoy it when you are down. It informs you closer, I think, to part of the world that maybe you will never visit although today with the ease of travel and the internet and everything, the whole world is getting smaller and we do it in a globalized way. But the written word, I think, whatever modern technology will bring, will always have and a good fortune and you can always fit through it when you feel like you need somebody else's word. That is still a very good writer yourself. You should write yourself and writing, I think also improves as you do more writing. I have certainly found that if I recollect in 1962, when I first joined the Hong Kong government, I used to have my written word by my boss. Either it was not constantly argued or it was badly written and by rambling and not concise enough. But I tell you, after 10, 15 years of doing this, you soon learn the ropes and then, of course, you are in the good fortune of teaching your subordinates how to do good writing, what is bad writing and how you want your work to be and to be understood. You have to master your thoughts. You have to master your arguments and set them up in size. I think in today's world in Hong Kong and Hong Kong is not really it is a pity that so many other things, there are so many other distractions that a lot of people simply have not articulated a habit. But reading and literacy are essential if you want to grasp if you want to improve yourself if you want to make the use of opportunities that will come forward. And donation can be truly great unless its citizens are literate. So literacy, reading and writing. I think we will all be more important. If today we are going to have no book. The users, to entertain us to be as it were a comfort to us in sorrow and joy and to be alive on any. So perhaps I could stop there and we can discuss reading and I'll be very happy to take questions from the talk. Thank you. Thank you Mrs. Chen for giving us an interesting talk. I believe the audience may have questions. Ok. Ladies. I feel that reading books I just have a question about your recommendations for our students. Often bad books make you seem too late for our students especially when they start on their own. Would you recommend for them to start by reading strong stories when they get it? I think it's actually very difficult to generalize. One of the two things I think might help. The first is don't feel that you have to read, if you start a book that you have to read it from the first page to the last page. I sometimes start out reading books by skipping through it and jumping four pages when it becomes too boring. And then sometimes I'll take them at the end and I'll put it aside and then maybe a few weeks afterwards I'll go back to it and then I might go over the pages at the time. So there is no set pattern for reading and remember it's not supposed to be a drudgery. Okay, sometimes you have to read set text, particularly before you prepare for an examination, but mostly when you're out of school when you're out of university you read for pleasure or you read because you need certain information. So don't follow a set pattern. What may be right for Mr. X or Mr. X may not be right for Mr. Y and Mr. Y. So just follow whatever comes naturally whatever you're comfortable with you want to skip pages, find. You want to read big books, find. I always find that actually I hate reading things on the internet particularly long things. I just like the feel of a book I like to hold a book in my hand I like to be able to flip through pages and of course from the point of view of holding a book a very thick book makes you very tired. So a thick book is better but it depends on the subject matter particularly that you hardly notice the pages that you're flipping through and some very very good books like this one or Animal Farm can be written in it's a very very thin book so I wouldn't set down rigid rules. I think each leader should develop a pattern of reading that he or she is most comfortable with. Yes? Question about how do you find time to read? Ah Do you actually have the time which makes it like a tour or do you pick up a book whenever you want or do you really like the tour? Well I found that yes at different stages in my life I read more or I read less I certainly read much more when I was a young girl but in the 39 years that I spent in the Hong Kong government in the early days when the work was not under such a great deal of pressure you could still find time to read particularly non-essential everyday reading you have to read certain stuff you have to read all the papers that come across you certainly have to read briefs because if you don't read briefs then tomorrow if some media person asks you something you know nothing about it say well there are so many papers on my on my desk I can't possibly be expected to read every single one of them well the problem is you are expected to read every single one of them hence the mutual gravity and the last 7 years of my career as a chief secretary I found that I really had very little time to read because by the time you get home and my day doesn't end until nearly midnight because even if I go out to entertain and frequently you have to go out and entertain when I get back whether it is 10.30 or 11.00 I still have two boxes of papers that I must read out in order to be able to chair effectively meetings the next day so at the end of the day your books actually very tired and other than reading anything very very like you really don't feel like you certainly don't feel like reading very very heavy stuff but sometimes I find it good to read magazines like Time Magazine or The Covenants because short pretty subjects that you must read out so I have to compare that in the last few years of my career I didn't do a lot of reading I've had more time to do a bit of reading and some newspapers are very very good if you read the Financial Times I know that newspapers today find it very difficult actually to remain financially viable because there are so many alternatives the internet and whatnot but people like the Financial Times is a good read because first of all some of the articles are extremely incisive perceptive well written, well researched it has a variety of articles ranging from serious issues like what's happening without the causes of the financial tsunami to very light subjects like leisure like fashion, like cooking so read a variety of stuff sometimes simply because if you're short of time a short pretty article can be very very informative so it tends to vary depending on your work pressure but when I have time I like to read a light book just for pleasure this is Trion I also read in some time some Chinese and English personally I feel that many great works both in Chinese and English just help people to have a very gradual part to have very to be to have a very higher part I just mean that these great works make you a little bit far from the crowd far from the many crowd heartings but these works make Tom and other Chinese however I don't think one of my friends involved in such political anything I don't find it strange at all because in my earlier presentation I said to you that I thought some of the best works, some of the best are fundamentally about human relationships about emotions and about values about values and my passion about politics about universal suffrage and democracy ultimately has to do with values about what you believe to be important things in your life and what is more important than to try and do what you can to create a just compassionate society where every person is equal before the ball where every person has the right to vote for this leader whether it is the chief executive or the members of the legislature so I don't find it I don't think they're at the opposite end of the spectrum they're very much more than the same thing and if you look at I read out the beginning of what is it about it's about freedom it's about any general truth that it is the freest people that can most contribute to the country and make the country a thriving entity without freedom you can't have sustained economic growth so the truth is that economic growth goes hand in hand with political liberalization even for our country now okay I accept that China at the moment is at a stage of its development when it still has some very fundamental social problems to resolve and so I have some sympathy with the view that perhaps democracy at this stage is a luxury that China cannot afford but at least until such time as you've met the basic needs of the population you'd encourage people to participate in the political process you make people realize that with political power with rights and freedoms there are also responsibilities but I'm very confused myself that our country cannot have sustained economic growth when the people are not free to speak their minds when people are not free to worship as they wish when they're not free to assemble and to utter their views and when there is little toleration from different point of view we know from our own experience in Hong Kong that it is diversity that gives Hong Kong the edge that it has it is the freedoms and rights that we enjoy that makes Hong Kong an entity that it is so I think it's entirely compatible Thank you Miss Chen and thank you for sharing your experience actually with all your students are on your deep hands very much thank you another question I know that your initial concentration is the English literature I found that the field that you engage is expanding and expanding like ranging from economics to finance and social welfare or something like that so I just wonder how do you achieve this kind of cross-biscipline knowledge from reading or from other channels or kind of share or some experience I say just now that reading, literacy is all about communication and human relationship is based on communication and bearing in mind that today in this world I think over 2 billion people actually speak English English no longer just belongs to people in the United Kingdom it belongs to people who are in America in Europe even in China because more and more people feel that as part of their everyday life in their work, in their play English is an indispensable language it is a language that unifies people where people can use a common language to communicate with each other and no country the relationship between countries also depends on understanding each other and on communicating effectively with each other people often ask me why is it that you read English in the University in the Institute of Service and I said that actually it is because I read English that I think and as the medium of the work language in the Hong Kong government in those days and still today largely is English so it actually helped improve my communication and you get better at it as you get more practice and as you learn from your senior officers how they write, how they master their thoughts how they are able to write on one page very succinctly whereas it takes you four or five pages to express exactly the same emotions and the same views so practice makes perfect now when you are a generalist which is generally what an administrative officer is known as you are expected to be one of all traits although I don't particularly subscribe to the letter part of this which is a master of none when you are an administrative officer particularly when you go overseas you have to my briefs on 101 topics ranging from security to telecommunications to human rights to social welfare to school program religiously read every single one of this to see myself informed because when you are overseas and you are speaking in front of a very intelligent erudite audience whether it's 100 or 1000 you can't in answer to some questions say ah but I don't know anything about that because it doesn't fall within my portfolio particularly when you are a chief secretary you are actually expected to know every single subject which is the essence of Hong Kong and this relationship with its trading partners and so you need to do your homework I have to say today I noticed a lot of people don't do their homework they don't bother to read police so they stand up showing their total ignorance and what are the aspects you learn with this sometimes when you really don't know too much about it you still have to somehow be able to convince people I know what I am talking about I think that is enough that you develop so because you actually learn on the job and one of the first things you learn is you don't want to be shown how to be a fool and the way not to be a fool is do your homework read your briefs and then it actually gives you confidence when you are speaking because I don't know whether you have ever experienced this for yourself when you make a speech hmm for that speech to be appealing and to touch the audience that you are addressing hmm the best way to give yourself confidence that is if you have done your homework is to tell yourself I know more about this subject than any single person man or woman sitting down there it's like giving yourself confidence when you are doing an interview particularly when you have the television screen and in front of you you do your homework and then you are able to say to yourself I know more about this subject than the person who is interviewing you and it is true 9 times out of 10 it is true of course if you don't bother to do your homework then I am sorry if you are not going to be more knowledgeable that the person who is interviewing you and particularly if you are up against he can make an insult from you if you don't do your homework so you learn to read into the subject that is of course you don't know it down to the last detail but you know the broad policy you know the thrust you know the arguments behind a particular policy you know you should also have some idea about the audiences what are their pet hobby houses what are their pet concerns and you need of those so that you are prepared to answer them and also one of the good things about being an administrative officer is you are a journalist only in the sense that every 3 or 4 years in your career you have moved to a new job but fundamentally administration the management of departments looking at a particular issue the pros and cons and formulating a policy fundamentally administration is the same whether you happen to be in the social welfare department or you happen to be in the commerce and industry department and in my career I have served in at least a dozen departments so you learn the rules very quickly once you master what administration is all about you have to know the subject matter now to the people you have to listen to your subordinates because they are closest to the people on the ground that's how you learn so it's very much I think on the job training a little boring for us I can understand that it's a kind of teaching so maybe just to keep our patience you need to learn something that will not be like a pet robot I have to say I don't have a solution to that I find sometimes why don't you try telling yourself I'm not reading this because my teacher says I must read this I'm reading it because it happens to be an interesting subject or I may be able to learn something from it and I'm going to talk about it with you sometimes it's just the street in us to repent it's just the street in us to rebel against things that we are compelled to do it's like a child being told you cannot do A, B, C and D and the child will test you and will deliberately go work and do will A, B, C and D and C whether the adult is consistent in matting out punishment or in matting out reward it's just a way of tempting you so if you put yourself in the frame of mind you know I'm reading this for my own but I'm not reading it because I must read this of course sometimes when you prepare for examinations you have to read it but the best is not to tell yourself I'm reading it because somebody else is forcing me to do it it's always better and it always comes more naturally and therefore you're always more receptive if you feel you take ownership of that you're doing it out of your own ownership and not because there's somebody standing over you with a big stick and saying if you don't do it then you're going to get a candy it's human nature I think actually and it's a little funny and I wonder how can you balance the love imagination which comes from the novel as a loving relationship in reality will you really transfer love in normal or will you search that is humanity as in reality yep thank you I think the best writing is because it literally reflects human nature human emotions it portrays sometimes very mundane everyday experiences it doesn't mean that everything you read you necessarily must have experienced yourself but in the gamut of human emotions I think if we look back on our own and I say actually the longer you have learned the more life experiences you have had the better is your appreciation of good writing and what actually touches you so it's about the sum total of your life experiences and I think most books that I read today since I'm nearly 70 I'll be 70 next year so I reckon that in those 70 years I've probably run the whole gamut of human emotions I've known success not failures I've had ups and downs in my career I've had ups and downs in my human relationship fortunately not too often so I don't think I have actually come across a particular emotion described in a book that I have and experienced to a greater or lesser extent and I think the reason why some books appeal to you is maybe because it touches around it evokes memories of certain things that may have been tucked away in the depths of your mind and you really don't think about it until you come across a passage and you say hi you know that is how true that is that is what I call appealing writing and sometimes people use the most simple of words and yet can convey such very very deep it's that empathy that connects you to the right time you like watching movies yes I like watching movies I tell you one thing you can make time for whatever appeals to you I never believe people who say oh I can't find time for this I can't find time for that they say they can't do that it's because they don't really care very much about that or they're making excuses something that matters to you you can always find time you just have to organize your time a bit better to fit into the sort of things that matters to you in life so I like movies and I actually like going to a movie house to see a movie it's not quite the same as watching it on this 24 inch order you are inch television screen my question is actually many great literary church in the current time or in history were put on to are made to movies so many times we just don't want to read the literature just because we request a movie true but do you ever find that I sometimes dig up a book on medicine county I saw the movie and the movie was very moving but sometimes you find that the movie version can be better than the actual writing or vice versa sometimes when you read the book you find that the movie isn't really very true to the original novel or the original book because I think when you make a movie you get a great view of what you call the cinematic license and you are always very true to the book and in particular you don't always use the language that is in the original book so I have found both but sometimes also a movie appeals to you simply because it's done on such a grand scale let's say if you make a movie about a war epic war in peace it's just a sheer spectacle of it the way that costumes are made and put together in the spectacle that's what appeals to you but I think we are very lucky to be able to read the book and to see good movies and sometimes good movies I find that sometimes it applies both to a book and a movie sometimes something strikes you even more perfectly when it is underplay and understated and in terms of the success for our children I think would you like to share with us your experience how to find your children and I how to find my children the first thing I have learned as a parent is that what is right for my generation is not necessarily right for my children's generation and you have to adjust your thinking a very good example is I said to you I was brought up very very strictly my not so much my mother my mother was extremely enlightened I am a woman way up ahead of her generation but my paternal grandmother was very very strict I am so we were brought up very strictly there were all sorts of things there were no go if I try and apply that same set of criteria and discipline to my children I think they will rebel so you have to adjust accordingly and also because you have to take into account the peer pressure I think in my days certainly I myself was less conscious of peer pressure and you didn't feel that you had such a great pressure on you to conform to do what your classmate is doing but today I find that young people first of all young people today your generation you live in an extremely competitive world very competitive yes you have more choices but you also have more competition and that competition exerts extremely strong pressure on each and every young person then there is the desire to conform I am sure you notice from your own children some of you who are married that all children want to do exactly what the well or the winning store is doing they hate to stand out as being different and it is a very very strong person and I think part of a parent's duty is to give that child the confidence in himself to be different and not to say I have to conform I have to do what my classmate sitting next to me is doing and if you can start him out on that basis you would have given him a very good start at night the other thing I find very important is and you need to start this very young but you also need to do it through example through personal example and that is that you have to at a very early age in the offsprings life instill in them a set of families I find that frequently today when you see broken families when you see children going to Australia it is because parents don't somehow some people say it is by force of circumstances they both have to go out on work but I always feel parents understood what parenting is all about and how important it is in the primitive years of the offsprings life to spend as much time with them as possible rather than to go out and earn and just give them the material things that they cover to the mind that's not the most important but you also need to teach by example does nothing work for a parent to tell the child don't do something and then immediately he or she goes and does exactly that thing so where is the child going to learn you need the child being perplexed what exactly is the value so the values and this the Chinese would say this is gagao this is family upbringing the values start with you as a parent it begins and it is instilled in children in the family parents make the mistake sometimes of believing oh I sent my child to an extremely expensive school so it is the principal and the teacher's responsibility to instill these values and educate my child not so not so a teacher can only do so much but most children spend most of their waking moments actually in one way or another in the family so it's very much up to the parent so I view it as very important and I look back on my own the first important thing is to teach you something about violence is to teach you about duty I'm a strong believer that each and every one of us has a duty we have a duty to our family we have a duty to our friends we have a duty to the community in which we live none of us can say it doesn't matter what other people do I can make a success of this or nobody can because all human beings are interdependent on this and you have a duty to do your bit to make your society a fair and just society so parenting is extremely important and you need to instill the sense of value there's nothing worse than for a child to grow up without a moral compass because life is not fair there's one thing I have learned it is that there is nothing fair or unfair under the sun and if you expect to go through life always being cheated fairly then you will be extremely busy okay so don't ask people to treat you fairly but you must require yourself to treat other people fairly and to have a standard of behavior I know it's not easy but you learn this also by trial and tribulation and if you can accept that there are a lot of things that you won't take so much too hard but it's when you feel a strong sense of unfairness then you begin to feel well I need to give as good as I can and that's not the way to the day so the moral compass is something that will stick with you through life that will see you through the low apps in your life and all of us will go through highs and lows and it is when you are experiencing a low point in your life when you're not quite sure how to behave how to deal with a particular situation that moral compass will be the thing that will see you through it you know whether you have any plans and if you have a plan if you have a plan to write about what would you write about a lot of people have urged me to write about my public service period because and yes they write it is such a historical period struggling as it was the years before the handover and for my years I take a view that if you write a book like that it is only worth writing if you write a very honest present and you cannot write I think a historical record an honest historical record without hurting some people who are still alive and I just don't have the urge to do that but that's another important consideration and that is to write a true record you need to have kept detailed notes and diary your emotions and your reflections of past incidents and past events can play tricks on you you think you remember something very very accurately but 10 years down the road, 15 years down the road your memory can play tricks on you so it is not an accurate record and I certainly did not keep a detailed record if I have to write a book I think I will write something about how growing up in Hong Kong about what impact and what affects my parents my uncles and aunts and my grandmother has had on me what impacts my friends have had on me and what I have learned serving 39 years to be in Hong Kong thank you very much for your questions unfortunately we've got a very tight schedule today so I'm afraid we cannot take any more questions once again let's give Mrs. Chen a big hand and my presentation is that the only impression on you I think if you do not already have a habit of reading then develop a habit and read anything that comes your way and very soon you will learn to distinguish between good writing that appeals to you and writing that doesn't appeal to you so happy reading thank you