Recent Lectures

讲座回顾

Review

4/21/24 CEC Oral History Presentation

by Dr. Toh-bin Lim林道明


The animated talk by the 91 year young Dr. Lim on his family story spanning almost a century - from Xiamen Gulangyu 廈門鼓浪嶼 to Burma 緬甸 to America to Africa and the world. He grew up in the idyllic Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿 off Ximen 厦门, where music was always in the air. His family endured Japanese occupation during the war. After the war was over, the Lim family moved to Burma, now-a-days Myanmar 缅甸, due to his father’s job situation. After college and medical school education in the U.S., he and his young family moved to the San Fernando Valley, and had a successful career as a surgeon. Dr. Lim is a renaissance man of a wide spectrum of knowledge and interest. In his retirement, he traveled far and wide, at his own expense, to do volunteer surgical work in Third World countries, and improved lots of lives. He navigated all kinds of cultures with sensitivity. In East African country Kenya, he treated patients from a dark skinned tribe, all descendants of Chinese who came here during the Ming Dynasty. They spoke Chinese in the Taishan 台山 dialect, and had maintained Chinese traditional customs in their lives. 

CEC March Fireside 

三月天健華爐邊座谈 (Review)

“20 years of Revolutionary Changes in China’s Higher Education

中國近20年来高等教育天翻地覆的变革”

Lead speaker:Prof. Chao Chen陳超 (left in photo)

Panel: Prof. Weimin Sun 孙伟民 (right in photo), Prof. Kwang-nan Chow 周廣南 (host)

Prof. Chen gave a comprehensive coverage of the state of higher education in China, past - present - and future. The in-depth presentation was lively and interesting, as well as illuminating. Prof. Sun’s penetrating questions and comments were thought-provoking. Audience reacted enthusiastically with voluminous questions and further comments/opinions.

CEC March Forum 健華三月天爐邊座谈

(in Chinese)

20 years of Revolutionary Changes in China’s Education of Higher Learning

中国近20年来高等教育天翻地覆的变革

Lead speaker:  Chao Chen陳超, 现任上海復旦大学管理学院特聘教授, 香港大学商学院荣誉教授，曾任CSUN经管学院Countrywide Financial 金融学讲座教授。台灣政治大学统计學士、商学碩士, University of Maryland Ph.D. in Finance

Panel: Weimin Sun 孙伟民(Philosophy), CSUN China Institute Director

Meiqin Wang 王美钦(Art), CSUN Professor

Host: Kwang-nan Chow 周廣南(Math), CSUN Professor Emeritus

Time:  3pm, Saturday, March 7 2020

Place: Chow residence, 20301 Bermuda St, Chatsworth

All are welcome. No reservation needed. Audience questions welcome.

健華探索社 CEC Discovery Talk

“Central Coast’s Quadrangle”

Review

Speakers: Helen & Jerry Wu, with Kwang-nan Chow

Self-driving is the most leisurely way of seeing the beautiful California. Don’t rush, take your time, and enjoy the experience. Moreover, the driving between the destinations often turns out to be the most memorable part of the travel. Even for senior citizens, camping is easy, interesting, and well-worth trying. 

December CEC Lecture Review 十二月讲座回顾

透過參與弱勢團體的扶貧及其他社會工作, 創作家文芳, 所展現的當代藝術作品, 其內容和意涵的實力雄厚, 令人驚艷, 不容小覷.

文芳藝術作品的表現方式除了雕塑, 裝置, 攝影等, 尤其擅長將圖像與紙張以外的素材, 諸如石碑, 羊皮等巧妙地結合, 形成奇特的視覺效果, 憾人心弦.

重覆大數量的作品在一件展覽上,令人無法忽視, 也是文芳作品給人的深刻印象. 例如: 上百個來自各地的農民工帶著笑容的大頭照, 被立體打印在個自獨立的厚重石碑上, 排列緊密整齊地安置在地上, 一如文芳所說: "以其笑寫其哀" 以表現民工的無奈；

另有: 數十本厚實的 "第二性" 中譯本（註), 白紙黑字一致從中翻開來, 也是整齊緊密地被裝置在一面牆上. 每本書的頁面上綉滿手工精緻的簡單圖案, 每本書的圖紋各不相同. 其繁複綿密的手工表彰在提倡女權的書籍上, 正如無言而强有力的訴求...

看文芳細膩感性的作品和她對質材展現的嫻熟, 除了能感受到她對苦的體驗, 敏銳的洞察和其深厚的創作底蘊；文芳本人散發出對生命的熱情和自我成長的期許, 也將吸引人們翹首以待.

蘇月梅 記

* 註: "第二性" 一書據文芳所述是西方女性的聖經. 文芳採用此書的中文版, 在每本對開來的頁面上, 以與紙張同色的綉線在左右兩頁綉上不同的小朶花紋, 每本書的花紋圖案都不相同.

December CEC Lecture

Wen Fang on “Her Collaborative Art”

文芳 谈她的 “社会参与艺术” (in Chinese)

Artists who practice collaborative art aim to bring ordinary people into the realm of art and make art relevant to more people not simply as the audience but also creators. 

Abstract: Beijing-based artist Wen Fang has embraced collaboration as the main approach of her practice since 2009 as she engages with marginalized people such as migrant workers, rural women, and underprivileged children in creating artworks. Her socially engaged art not only strives to open up new ways of making art but also demonstrates the potential of art in promoting personal development, alleviating poverty, and fostering intersubjective exchanges. In this talk, Wen will illustrate her innovative approaches and concepts of art making through analyzing several major collaborative art series she has involved.  文芳1976生, 经常和普通民众合作创作艺术作品，如打工者、农村妇女、儿童等，作品形式涉及摄影、装置、雕塑、行为等。（Photo: rural collaborative art in 天水杨家村)

Speaker: Wen Fang (Collaborative Artist), 文芳 (社会参与艺术家)

Hostess: Dr. Meiqin Wang 王美钦, CSUN Professor of Art History

Time: 7:30pm, Saturday, 12/7/2019

Place: Chow Residence, 20301 Bermuda St, Chatsworth

October CEC 健華探索社 Discovery Talk

Speaker:   Kwang-nan Chow周廣南, CSUN Professor Emeritus

Time:  7:30pm, Saturday, 10/19/2019

Place:  Chow Residence, 20301 Bermuda St, Chatsworth

With refreshments, reservation not required, all are welcome.

CEC September Chat Review 回顾

Fireside “On Popular Technology” - 

健華社九月大众科技漫谈 

Panelists: Jerry Wu 吳紹甫, veteran software engineer

           Paul Chow 周傳均, Professor Emeritus of Physics 

Review 回顾: With a full house of enthusiastic audience, the Fireside led by the two engaging panelists was a smashing success. The Fireside Chat was friendly, yet stimulating. In addition to participating in with questions, some audience members contributed their own perspectives of knowhow to supplement. Throughout the Chat session, interactions were free flowing. Audience all got a better understanding of some currently developing technology that will affect our lives for a long time to come. Panelists also showed interesting video clips on the subjects that were very informative on this changing world with new technologies. 







CEC September Conversation on popular technology 

(in English) 

健華社九月大众科技漫谈

(fun, casual, no technical jargons, ask anything, say anything)

Panelists: Jerry Wu, Paul Chow, and everyone (including you)

Time: 7:30pm, Saturday, September 7, 2019

Place: Chow Residence. 20301 Bermuda St, Chatsworth

(with refreshments)

All are invited. No reservation required.

“Assistive Technology and our life” 

(Review)

CEC健華社+健康社 +

Co-sponsors: CSUN China Institute, Northridge Public Library

Speaker:     Dr. Li Liu 刘力, CSUN Professor of Computer Science

Time:          3:30pm, Saturday, June 8

Place:          Northridge Public Library, 9051 Darby Ave (at Nordhoff St), 818-886-3640

All are welcome. No reservation needed.

As empathized in CEC’s lecture announcement, today’s topic, “Assistive Technology and our life”, is about “Assistive technologies are developed to assist people with disabilities in coping up with either activity of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living”.  So, after introducing today’s speaker, Dr. Li Liu 刘力, CSUN Professor of Computer Science, to the audiences, the lecture went into prosthesis - making artificial body part immediately, as we all anticipated and expected. After all, this is a group of very smart audiences; scientists, engineers, medical doctors, you name it!

Unrealized by the audiences, the expected soon turned into a little bit unexpected – the prosthetic processes are very expensive, the extensive fittings required are time consuming, new prosthetic required for growth (like in kids) or physical changes are cost prohibitive. Even with the help of latest technologies – computer aided 3D scanning and 3D printing! By now, the core of today’s lecture jumped before our eyes, the differences between conventional prosthesis and the so called “assistive technologies”.

Simply speaking, “prosthesis” is trying to use argumentations to restore lost functions while “assistive technologies” is to enable people with disabilities to use alternative body parts, like eyes, head, mouth, etc. to interact with assistive, adaptive, rehabilitative devises to regain independent activities in daily life.

Even though the specialized assistive, adaptive, rehabilitative hardware is less expensive compare to the prosthesis approach, it still has it’s own cost barrier and issues.

What we need is an approach that is less specialized – Accessible Technology -  in digit world, allows activities that would be difficult or impossible to achieve. And we already have the tools readily available and waiting for further development – the UI, web cam in every mobile devices and AI. One example is Microsoft Seeing AI app - an app for visually impaired people that narrates the world around them. It also enable people to shrink the world and bring the world closer together.

In conclusions, the speaker further emphasized that, we love new technologies but sometimes technology creates barriers itself. So, we should make technology more human-centered and shifted from disability-oriented to ability based. In other words, improving accessibility to people with disabilities also improves accessibility to people without disabilities.

After the question and answer section, the lecture ended with a round of applause.   - HS

CEC 健華社+健康社 

June Lecture 


(in English)

Co-sponsors

“Assistive Technology and our life”

Abstract: As the population ages, the occurrence of disabilities also increases. In the United States, people with disabilities are the largest minority group. Assistive technologies are developed to assist people with disability in coping up with either activity of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living. As early as 1988, the United States federal government mandated the creation of formal and informal programs to increase acquisition of assistive technology by persons with disabilities, with a special attention to underrepresented groups. This session will bring an overview of assistive technology and discuss the needs with the community. 

Speaker:     Dr. Li Liu 刘力, CSUN Professor of Computer Science

Time:          3:30pm, Saturday, June 8, 2019

Place:          Northridge Public Library

April 27 “Africa Forum”(Review)

Panelists:

Two panelists of diametrically different backgrounds and perspectives - one a science based medical professional, and the other a freewheeling artist and playwright, both with extended stays in different parts of Africa. Together they gave a complementary, as well as comprehensive analysis of Africa’s current state. It included shortcomings, despairs, progresses, and hope. The audience also participated in the discussion enthusiastically. 

CEC 健華社 Forum

Co-sponsor: Northridge Library               Note: New Time!!!

“An Africa Forum”  (in English) 

Panelists:

Into Africa: 

Out of Africa:

From these two drastically different perspectives, effect of China’s “Belt & Road一带一路” push into Africa also emerges in unexpected ways.

Time:    3 - 5 pm, Saturday, April 27, 2019

Place:    Northridge Public Library, 9051 Darby Avenue (at Nordhoff)

All are welcome. No reservation required.

Note:  New Time !!!

CEC March 16, 2019

Discovery Talk

Uncover the fascinating Middle America

From Chicago, IL to Ashville, NC

Speaker: Kwang-nan Chow, CSUN Professor Emeritus

New time: 7:30 pm, Saturday, Marh 16, 2019 

Place: Chow Residence (with refreshments)

20301 Bermuda St, Chatsworth