Summer Issue, 2013

16 *The Summing Up, by Somerset Maugham, 1938. Maugham (1874 – 1965) was a qualified doctor but gave up his medical career for writing. Towards the end of his career, he reflected on his ideas and his craft. A piece of work that is partly confessional and partly autobiographical. Prologue The concept of time A day can be long and agonising and never ending. Or it can be short and exciting and in a blink of an eye, five years have gone by, and we ponder upon the words of the Book of Psalms: “A thousand ages in Thy sight Are like an evening gone.” Every story has an end. There are no exceptions. On Campus Professor Lee Sum-ping 李心平 (MBBS 1970; MD 1982) Dean of Medicine (2008-2013) Dexter H C Man Family Professor in Medical Science The Summing Up “In this summing up*, I have two objectives. The first is to give a highly condensed commentary on the Faculty of what has come to pass, is passing, and what is to come. The second is to say goodbye to my students, some of whom will graduate with me as the class of 2013.” Excerpt of Farewell Lecture on June 7, 2013 The Odyssey I returned back to Hong Kong in 2008. I set out to seek truth. At the end of my exploration, I found the original place. I rediscovered the Faculty. I learned all the lessons anew. For five years I had enjoyed my education and this year I will graduate, but I still feel like a wild-eyed youth, full of bewilderment, full of naivety. Who would believe the story?! Let us talk about teaching. If we do a good job, then you, the students, should not know that I had often lost sleep, thinking about the curriculum; that we the teachers had argued till our faces were red about what to teach you, how to teach you, and how we could be better teachers.