Success Comes from Solving Problems: 20 Taiwan Elites Tell Their Stories (English Edition)

By David Hanson Liu and 劉雲适

Learn from other people's successes in problem solving? You can really do so by studying the fascinating and inspiring stories of how Fai-Nan Perng overcame growing up in poverty to become the world's only "10A" top central banker; how Master Sheng Yen, Taiwan's first monk with a doctorate obtained from abroad, faced his problems; how Jason Chen

• Language: English
• Publisher: EHGBooks
• Release date: Sep 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781647849214

Book preview

Book Introduction

Learn from other people’s successes in problem solving? You can really do so by studying the fascinating and inspiring stories of how Fai-Nan Perng overcame growing up in poverty to become the world’s only 10A top central banker; how Master Sheng Yen, Taiwan’s first monk with a doctorate obtained from abroad, faced his problems; how Jason Chen made coffee wearable; how Youn-Jan Lin, who always wore second-hand clothes in his impoverished youth, earned induction into the International Inventors Hall of Fame; how Eric Li-luan Chu fell ill due to overseeing an engineering project for long hours but refused to return home; why William Lai Ching-te is referred to as a benevolent physician and a virtue fanatic; and many more! The articles that David Hanson has written in Success Comes from Solving Problems: 20 Taiwan Elites Tell Their Stories describe the problem-solving experiences of famous leaders in a way that is worth reading and instructive for everyone — especially now that problem-solving capabilities have become a prerequisite for career success in virtually any area.

About the author

David Hanson (劉雲适), a bilingual lexicographer and a leading authority on Chinese-English translation, was once the only Taiwanese member of the American Translators Association, back in the 1970s. The electronic version of his Chuan-shi Chinese-English and English-Chinese Thesaurus was adopted by the National Taiwan University for students to practice English. Besides Success Comes from Solving Problems: 20 Taiwan Elites Tell Their Stories, he is also author of English Writing and Reporting (1976).

Contents

Book Introduction

About the author

Contents

Introduction

A Story of Love for Two Hometowns

S.Café® Developed by Jason Chen Becoming a Global Miracle and Taiwan’s Glory

That Star Glittering over Taiwan: Eric Li-luan Chu’s Story

The Disadvantaged Are Helped through Ms. Pauline Fu’s Services

Professor Zhao-Ming Gao Persists in Solving Problems

Face It, Accept It, Deal with It, Then Let It Go

Professor Bin-Juine Huang, a Problem-solving Genius

Dr. Ke-Yin Yen Kilburn Acts as A Modern Goddess of Music Therapy

Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te Ardently Serves His People and Promotes Orchid

Qigong Master Lee Feng-San Promotes World Peace via Health-Consciousness

Professor Ying Jong Leu, a Master of Integrated Creation

King of Inventors Youn-Jan Lin Tries to Make a More Beautiful World by Teaching Creativity

Dr. Yuan-Tsun Liu, Passionate about Serving his Country and Society

World’s Best Central Banker, Fai-Nan Perng, Esteemed as Taiwan’s Superhero?!

Dr. Marshall Shen Honored for His Contributions to Education and Service

President Shih Po-jen, a Famous Problem Solver

Educator Yu-hwei Shih Helping You Study English Better

Professor Julia J. Tsuei, an Albert Schweitzer with a Buddha Nature

TVGH’s Sagacious Physicians Making Chinese Medicine More Scientific

President Se-hwa Wu, a Master Solver of Big Problems

Professor Juei-Low Sung, Taiwan Medical Paragon

Appendix: Fancy Dreams Cherished

Introduction

You Will Be Smarter in Dealing with Problems

After you have finished reading this book, I am sure that you will be smarter in dealing with problems in your life and in securing your success than I was in my youth. Through my whole life I made many stupid mistakes. For example, I got an admission letter from a US university just before my graduation from National Chengchi University in Taipei, but I gave up that promising opportunity to go abroad for advanced studies simply because I had no money to buy an airline ticket. If I had known some skills of problem solving and creative thinking, I wouldn’t have been so stupid.

It appears now that the stupid are not only me. The news media often report on people committing suicide, being addicted to drugs, acting criminally, or becoming abandoned to vice. In the overwhelming majority of such cases, the people involved did not know how to properly tackle their problems. Their wrongdoings have harmed themselves and others, made their parents, relatives, and friends worry about them, and caused them to lose their dignity and happiness. Accordingly, I wrote this book covering the stories of 20 great people in Taiwan, focusing mainly on their achievements and their approaches to solving problems, in the hope that it would be useful to many readers and also helpful in promoting my two hometowns, Shanghe and Taipei, Taiwan, to the world as described in the chapter entitled A Story of Love for Two Hometowns.

What is the definition of success?

The Oxford Dictionary calls it the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, or the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.

What is the definition of problem solving?

The Psychology Dictionary says that problem solving is a process for individuals to overcome a specific problem. That process, simply, begins at a starting point and continues until a conclusion is reached. The process includes the higher mental functions of creative thinking. Dr. Craig Rusbult, a problem solving educator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said: A problem is any situation where you have an opportunity to make a difference, to make things better; and problem solving is converting an actual current situation (the NOW-state) into a desired future situation (the GOAL-state). Whenever you are thinking creatively and critically about ways to increase the quality of life (or avoid a decrease in quality) you are actively involved in problem solving.

Humans have been solving problems from the beginning of their existence, usually by trial and error, said Mr. Norman W. Edmund (1916-2012), who focused much of his later years on researching and publishing books about the scientific method. However, effective and reliable problem origination, prevention, solution, and challenge of solution did not begin until our scientists recognized and developed the experimental method … commonly called the scientific method … actually a general method. Since the scientific method is definitely a universal general method, it should also be called the complete method of creative problem solving and decision making for all fields, including our personal lives.

The definition of the scientific method

, according to the Oxford Dictionaries Online, is a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.

Various problem-solving techniques have been devised in recent decades. In the 1950s the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process was developed, and in the early 1970s the SCAMPER approach (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Rearrange or Reverse) was created by Bob Eberle. Since the publication of The IDEAL Problem Solver by Dr. John D. Bransford and Dr. Barry S. Stein in 1984, the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, Stanford University in the United States, and many other universities have studied and promoted various problem-solving models and skills, in the hope of helping students to solve their study-related and life-related problems. IDEAL is an acronym for a five-step approach:

· Identify the problem and explain how it can be an opportunity.

· Define the problem through thinking about it and sorting out the relevant information.

· Explore solutions through looking at alternatives, brainstorming, and checking out different points of view.

· Act on a chosen solution.

· Look back and evaluate the effects of your activity.

In the Unites States, all of the top 10 high schools as selected in 2013 by US News & World Report, including the School for the Talented and Gifted, offer problem-solving courses. US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, when highlighting President Obama’s High School Redesign initiative in a speech on June 7, 2013, stated, Today's global economy requires new approaches to teaching and learning in America's high schools to foster problem solving and analysis, to support creativity and collaboration, and to connect student learning directly to the real world. Similarly, a Gallup Poll reported on May 30, 2013 that young US adults who say they ‘often’ developed 21st century skills -- such as real-world problem-solving and global awareness -- in their last year of school are more likely to self-report higher work quality. The Gallup Poll report also said that although problem solving is closely related to work success, many young adults reported not developing real-world problem-solving skills in school.

Assessment of Creative Problem Solving

The 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report on problem-solving capabilities among 15-year-old students in 44 countries and economies showed that Asian countries, led by Singapore, took the top seven spots in the assessment. Students from Singapore and South Korea performed best in the first Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) PISA assessment of creative problem solving. Japan placed third, followed by Macao, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan. England’s students took the 11th place and the United States was 18th. No wonder that Mr. Paul Lutus, who is a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space shuttle engineer and who created Apple Writer, says in his article Creative Problem Solving that the vast majority of Americans cannot think for themselves. Today’s 15-year-olds with poor problem-solving skills will become tomorrow’s adults struggling to find or keep a good job, an OECD official was quoted as saying.

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education has heeded the importance of cultivating students’ problem-solving capabilities. The government agency that most emphasizes problem solving is the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 1996 it established the Center for Solving Problems Immediately, to provide swift and effective services to small and medium enterprises in the hope of finding timely solutions to various difficulties that such enterprises face in their operations, so as to enhance their adaptability to environmental changes and other problems and thus improve their competitiveness.

In the private sector, some institutions, especially management consulting companies, have been following the world trend toward offering problem-solving training courses in addition to solving problems for their own clients. There are also several related publications including Human Life Begins with Problem Solving by Professor Chih-Hao TSAI, Enhancing Problem Solving Capabilities by Dr. C. H. Hsieh, and Problem Solving by Mr. C. M. Chang. Taiwan educators identified through an online search in January 2014 as emphasizing problem solving included Professor C. L. Wang, Professor Youn-Jan LIN, Professor Wen-Tung HONG, Professor Mao-Tsai HUANG, Professor Wen-Den CHEN, and Master Teacher C. C. Chu.

An Excellent Gift

This book could make an excellent gift from older family members and teachers to their juniors or students. It can help them solve problems, get inspiration, and learn English (as well as studying translation from Chinese into English, since the book is bilingual). It should retain young readers’ interest because its contents are almost entirely things Taiwanese and Chinese. The book may further help readers like you to view and emulate or even surpass what these 20 elites have achieved in solving problems and pursuing success. Actually, some of their words and acts are truly worthy of acclaim and emulation.

Why did Professor Juei-Low SUNG, a physician-scientist, squeeze himself under a table and apologize to his youngest daughter? Why does President Se-hwa WU, a leading Taiwanese pioneer in developing and executing ways to educate for creativity and imagination, industry strategies, venture capital, innovation, and overseas study tours, advise young people to take the long view? How did Dr. Maw-Shiou JONG, a sagacious physician at Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH), put one of his patients, paralyzed by his second stroke, on a path to full recovery? How did Dr. Julia J. Tsuei, a pioneer in Taiwan’s alternative medicine field, make the impossible possible? How could Educator Yu-hwei Shih obtain her doctorate from Cornell University while it was all Greek to her in her classrooms at the beginning? Why was President SHIH Po-jen selected as a famous management consultant by Management Magazine for 11 years in succession? Why does Dr. Marshall Shen, an expert in early childhood education and parent education, say that He profits most who serves the best? How did Governor Fai-Nan PERNG come from a poor background to become the world’s only 10A top central banker? Why did Dr. Yuan-Tsun LIU, a mainstay of the Movement for Guarding the Diao-Yu-Tai Isles, not pursue a fashionable interest or get into the mainstream of society? How did Dr. Youn-Jan LIN, who always wore second-hand clothes during his impoverished youth, earn induction in 2013 into International Inventors Hall of Fame?

Why did Professor Ying Jong LEU, a scientific maverick, imagine himself in outer space to overlook the earth and Taiwan? How does Gongfu and Qigong Master LEE Feng-San, who was inducted into the World Wide Martial Arts Hall of Fame, advocate health consciousness? Why is Mayor William LAI Ching-te referred to as a benevolent physician and a virtue fanatic? How did Dr. Ke-Yin YEN KILBURN’s near-death experience help her to become a modern goddess of music therapy? Why does Professor Bin-Juine HUANG, who has integrated academic research swiftly with product development, wish to make his life coefficient greater than zero? When two of Master Sheng Yen’s visiting friends snored like thunder shaking or a typhoon storming, how did he manage to fall asleep, according to Venerable Guo Hsiang? How has Professor Zhao-Ming GAO, who specializes in Chinese-English bilingual corpus (which means a collection of linguistic data), achieved self-actualization? How did Ms. Pauline Fu’s Easy Life Trust Service move an elderly client to tears? Why did Dr. Eric Li-luan CHU, though he fell ill due to overseeing an engineering project for long hours, refuse to return home? How has Chairman Jason Chen made coffee wearable?

What will be the effect on you after you have read this book and assimilated these elites’ merits and their ways of solving problems? I would love to have you tell me via my website (http://english-flow.myweb.hinet.net). If you find any slips or mistakes in the book, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you very much. I hope you will develop the habit, when you encounter any problem, of searching the Internet to see whether someone else has already solved it. If not, maybe you will be the one to do so!

Words Cannot Adequately Express My Gratitude

Words cannot adequately express my gratitude to those who helped me to prepare this book over the past three years. First of all, I sincerely thank each and every elite person about whom I have written in the book, because without their gracious help this book would not have been possible. The English in this book would not have been so fluent without the editing assistance of Professor Marc D. Baldwin, founder and president of Edit911.com, and Dr. Bruce Barron, author of three books and a member of the Edit911 editorial staff. Bruce is the best editor I have ever met! I would especially like to appreciatively thank my wife Angela for letting me do what I want to do without financial worries, and also my son Max for helping me in conducting interviews for and writing this book. Last but not least, I want to thank you for reading it!

A Story of Love for Two Hometowns

Kneel down and bow to the God of Heaven for your return, my mother told me with tears of joy. That was in early 1988 when I arrived at her home in Shanghe County which is under the jurisdiction of Jinan, (the capital of Shandong Province in eastern China), after 40 years of separation. Her home was an adobe house with dirt floors. In it there were two kangs, raised platforms heated by flues running underneath, which northern Chinese use for sitting on during the day and sleeping on at night to keep warm.

No. Should I bow to anyone for my return, it must be CHIANG Ching-kuo and DENG Xiaoping, I declared, kneeling before her. That was because Chiang, as Taiwan’s Kuomintang leader, and Deng, as leader of the Communist Party of China, had made it possible for Taiwanese military veterans to visit their family members in mainland China.

That was my first real-life family reunion. Until then my family in the mainland had existed only in my dreams. My father had already passed away. I have two younger brothers, one baby sister, and about ten nephews and nieces. My brothers are farmers who also lived in adobe houses with their families, while my sister and her family lived in a brick home. When I visited them again a few years later, all of them lived in brick homes and their life conditions had improved, due largely to Deng’s reforms that had moved the country toward a market economy.

Traditional Chinese Virtues

Recently when visiting my family I flew direct from Taipei to Jinan’s international airport, only 35 kilometers away from Shanghe. I then reached my sister’s apartment with about a 30-minute ride in the car of her son and my nephew, ZHANG Hong-zhong. My wife loves Hong-zhong the most among my family members because he enthusiastically accompanied her and her sisters to nearby tourist spots when they visited Shanghe in 2008. When I came to Shanghe in 2009,