A very good morning to all of you. It's a wonderful day. You can see the sky is blue, the sun is out. I welcome all of you to this wonderful occasion. Before I begin, I'd just like to say a few words. Regrettably, some actions last night and this morning, which were somewhat careless, disrespectful and sometimes hateful, has caused some defacement of university properties and has also compromised the very nature of this ceremony. This is a happy occasion, this is a celebratory occasion. It's particularly for our graduates, their family, and their friends and guests. On behalf of CUHK, I would like to express my deep regret for some of the compromises that we've seen.
Now, in view of some of these things, I will actually forego my prepared speech. It's a long speech - I think you are used to long speeches from me. I will instead post my speech on the website, in Chinese as well as in English. You can take a look at what I have prepared. Instead, I just want to really talk to all of you, directly from my heart. Of course, my audience today is the graduates. I am very proud of all of you. You have worked very very hard for today. Today is a wonderful occasion for you to remember for the rest of your life, that's number one. Number two, it is an occasion that your friends, your family, your teachers - all of us - will remember. It's something that one day when you go through your photo album, you will point to this and tell your children, "See, that's dad, that's mum, we had a wonderful time." I want you to remember that.
My message today will be very succinct and to-the-point. I have three things that I want all of the CUHK graduates to remember today.
1. Community
Human beings, by definition, are community animals. No one lives alone, no one ever lives alone. It's a very terrible life to live alone. We are all part of the community. Today is a transition. Graduation is a transition. You will be changing forever the way you live because you will be moving from one mode of living to another. The mode in the university is, for the large part, a receiving mode. You go to class, you get a grade, you have to hand in your homework, you have to go to the cafeteria at a certain time because otherwise they close. So it is always receiving, a lot of it. But after you graduate, it is a time to share, it is a time to serve. You will be serving your community, whichever community you happen to be in. So what is a community? A community is by definition not a group of clones. A group of clones is not a community. A community is made up of different people. They have different values, they have different lifestyles, they wear different clothes, they have different favourite colours, they like different kinds of music, they wake up at different times of the day. A community is, by definition, a group of different people who live together, who work together, who hang out together, who go to the same things together. You will be a member of that community.
How does a community thrive? How does a community grow? It is built on mutual respect, mutual understanding, that you all start with serving the community as your premise. I think at the end of the day, when we finish our life on Earth... I often compare the Earth to a spaceship, which is flying through time and space. We are all passengers. We have a ticket - we get on and at some point we have to get off. When you get off, what is the meaning of your existence? The meaning is what you have done in terms of serving the community. I urge all of you to remember that. This is an important moment in time. You will be transitioning from the university to the community.
2. Life
The second thing I want you to remember is that life is a continuous one. Every day is not a single day. Today is the tomorrow of yesterday, and it's also the yesterday of tomorrow. It goes on. Life goes on. So never only pay attention to today. Do not be deterred by any failures you have today, and also, importantly, never be content with whatever success you have today because life goes on.
Some of you may know that I am actually sort of a tissue-engineered stem cell guy. What we do in my lab is that we do 3D bioprinting. We take little things, we build them one stack at a time, and we end up with a 3-dimensional object. I often tell the people at my lab, the people I work with, "3D is not enough, it is 4D - life is 4D - because this thing that we've just made which is 3-dimensional actually have another dimension. That dimension is time." Time is about one day following another. So always remember, do not be deterred by whatever you failed today, and never be content with whatever success you may have today.
3. Happiness
The last thing I want to say is about happiness. I am no smart philosopher, so I am going to quote somebody else that I believe is probably one of the most amazing humanitarian that has ever lived, Albert Schweitzer. He was a physician, philosopher and humanitarian. He devoted his whole life to making life better for others. I'll just quote what he said. Some people may say success is the key to happiness. He would say, "Happiness is the key to success." If you are happy doing what you are doing, you will succeed. Always remember that. You start out with happiness, then you will succeed. It doesn't go the other way. Most of the things Albert Schweitzer said is very true. I think this is one of them.
I will stop here and I have to say farewell to all of you. But I have to emphasis the farewell is just for now because I am sure all of you will come back as CUHK alumni and I will see you on campus. Thank you.
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