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A Walking Encyclopedia on Botany
~ Professor Hu Shiu Ying ~
Professor Hu Shiu Ying is a world-renowned botanist and is currently Honorary Fellow, Honorary Professor of Chinese Medicine, Senior Researcher in the Department of Biology, Senior College Tutor of Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as the Emeritus Senior Researcher of Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in the US.
Collecting over 24,000 sets of plant specimens
Known as a “Living Encyclopedia on Botany” in the biology field, Professor Hu Shiu Ying has also been known by the media as “Grandma of Hundred Herbs”. With a mushroom hair style, a pair of circular spectacles, a green long gown with red cotton vest, the tiny Professor Hu looks like a lovely grandma next door, but as soon as she speaks, she immediately takes up the look of a strict and highly reverend professor. Being the world’s authoritative scholar in plants like aquifoliaceae, malvaceae, asteraceae, orchidaceae, etc, Professor Hu proudly showed me the database with more than 40,000 plant specimens, and said while stroking them like treasure, “I have classified all these specimens found in different regions with files of different colours. This makes searching easier.” When I pointed to her specimens and said “these are your treasures”, Professor Hu corrected me playfully and said, “These are the treasures for botanical studies”.
Since the beginning of the 1960’s, Professor Hu has made great contribution in enhancing the scientific research on botany and Chinese medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Professor Hu has almost tramped all the mountain ridges and sea shores in Hong Kong, collecting over 24,000 items of plant specimens (5-7 sets for each item). She has also established a specimen room in the Department of Biology in CUHK, benefiting the universities and scientific research institutions in both Hong Kong and Mainland China. She said with a smile, “all plants in Hong Kong can be found here as I have tramped the mountains in Hong Kong for so many times. Of course, there are also many specimens that I got from foreign countries. Most of the plant specimens I collected are in 5 to 7 sets for each item. If I can only collect one set, I will put it in the CUHK; any extra sets will be sent to and kept by the Royal Botanic Garden, Harvard University Herbaria and the plant research centers in China.”
God’s grace is sufficient
A scholar coming from Mainland China, Professor Hu told me that she could receive good education from schools established by foreign missionaries in China. Ginling Women’s College that she studied in was a university established by the American Presbyterians Mission (North), Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church (South), American Baptist Missionary Union, and the Disciples of Christ in the old site of Lihungchang Park at the Southeast Xiu Hua Lane of Nanjing in 1915. Having believed in God since she was small, Hu Shiu Ying said that her success came from God’s grace and it happened that Christianity matched her work perfectly. She said, “Plants are from the nature and God is the ruler of all nature. When exploring in the nature, I become part of the nature and fall in the arms of God. How happy it is!” At this point, she wrote down the following paragraph of a Christian song in my note book:
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
Professor Hu then sang this song in a touching tone. And I also caught sight of a board written “Love People and Glorify God” hanging on the wall in her office. This board matches his personality and behaviour perfectly.
Now living in the CUHK, she expressed that she enjoyed the late years of her life in Hong Kong very much. She said, “My family is in the US and I went there once a year in the past. However, I haven’t gone back since last year, because my family went to work right after breakfast and I was left alone with nothing to do! I prefer living in Hong Kong.”
The Secret of Good Health
Being 99 years old (or one saying 100 years old), Hu Shiu Ying always wears a smile on her face, is full of spirit and can walk fast and vigorously. Talking about how to keep good health, Hu said that it was critical to have a relaxed state of mind. According to this 100 year old scholar, drinking three cups of “health tea” developed by her daily and having regular rest and work are the ways of keeping good health. The ingredients of her “health tea” include a pinch of tea leaves, four to five Florist’s daisies, a few pieces of Lingzhi, occasionally adding some other ingredients like cornsilks, rosebuds, safflowers, rosa iaevigate, etc. The tea is served with honey and Professor Hu drinks three times daily, a habit she has kept for twenty to thirty years.
Professor Hu also plays an active role in promoting the research and development of Chinese medicine in the CUHK. She has made enormous contribution to CUHK’s efforts in setting up the School of Chinese Medicine. In addition, Professor Hu participated in the “Trilex Tea” research project conducted by the teaching staff of the School of Medicine, CUHK, a funded project from Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department. The end product of the research is now available for sale to the public. Professor Hu was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 2001 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the research on botany and Chinese medicine all through her life.
The first mainland girl student granted with Harvard scholarship to work for a doctorate
Professor Hu Shiu Ying was born in a village in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1908. It seems that she has been bounded with soil and plants since birth; and she was once saved by a dose of prescribed Chinese medicine. Professor Hu graduated from Ginling Women’s College in Nanjing in 1933 and received her Master of Science degree from Lingnan University in 1937. In 1946, she became the first Chinese female to pursue doctoral education in Harvard University under a scholarship from Radcliffe College. Since obtaining her doctoral degree in 1949, Professor Hu has devoted over half a century to the research of plants in Harvard. In 1968, Professor Hu took up the position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biology of Chung Chi College, CUHK and continued her research work on botany in Hong Kong. In addition to Chinese and English, Professor Hu is also well-versed in Latin and is a world authority on plants such as hollies, mallows, chrysanthemums, orchids etc. Professor Hu has been known respectfully as “Holly Hu” in recognition of her devotion on the research of hollies. She has published over 150 papers. (Interviewed by Belinda Hui)
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