The Place Of Honor

Some of you may remember, I support the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and last year I recognized my father in the "Place of Honor" at the museum. As part of that tribute, I was asked to supply some information about my father for the museum. As he was still living, I asked my father to write his own tribute. It's below:

In Chinese culture there is no greater honor than to be called "teacher". David J. Chiu is a great teacher, who has always been admired by his university students throughout a long lifetime of teaching. By knocking at China's door he lead the first group of U.S. university students, who came from across all the United States. These American youth (some of Chinese ancestry) were the first foreigners in modern China to study the Chinese language and culture in the summer of 1980 at East China University in Shanghai. (This program continues to flourish and is the model for many widely available similar programs existing today.) In his efforts at promotoing cross-cultural ties, Professor Chiu was a leader in arranging exchanges of Sino-American professors and students, a major accomplishement of his education programs during the 1980s and 199s. Chiu also garnered respect as a key contributor in arranging the first business contracts signed between the U.S. and Chinese organizations, the Hofstra Corporation (a conglomerate of Long Island area leading technology companies) and the China Association of Science and Technology in 1985, a time when China had just begun to welcome in the Western world.

During 1936, Professor David J. Chiu was born in Gulangyu, a westernized Island-city in southern China. At the time, Gulangyu was the location of the consulate offices of the Western countries in China. Soon after Chiu's birth, the family moved to Qinhuangdao in northern China, the starting point of the Great Wall of China. In 1947 at the age of eleven, Chiu's family moved to Taiwan, because Professor Chiu's father, Mingxian Chiu, a commissioner of the Chinese Marine Customs, was sent to Taiwan to recover the Taizhong Marine Customs office from Japanese occupation. Chiu went on to earn his B.A. and M.A. in the island of beauty.

Professor Chiu was valedictorian of his graduating class at National Chengchi University, an honor which led to a research-assistantship at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. At the university, Chiu completed work towards a Ph.D. In 1970 he started teaching at Hofstra University, located on Long Island, New York. During his tenure at Hofstra, Chiu held the positions of Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages, Dean of University Advisement, and Director of Asian Studies. He retired in the summer of 2001 after thirty-one years of contribution to the university and the Long Island community, in addition to his significant contributions to the educational and business relations between the U.S. and China. Professor Chiu received a citation and the University Distinguished Service Medal in May 2001 from Hofstra. Here is a quotation from his citation:

With deep appreciation for more than a quarter of a century of inspirational service to Hofstra University. Your devotion to the progress of Hofstra contributed substantially to its development from a small liberal arts college to a major regional and national institution of higher learning. (Signed by President James M. Shuart, May 2001)