1. Perseverance（堅持到底—有「氣」竟成）
TsingHua Swim Test: Don’t give up easily. Hold one more breadth (not skilled enough to take a fresh breadth), persevere, and you will get to the finish line.
2. Tolerance and Forgiveness（忍辱負重—「鼾」容乃大）
Not until I became married, I did not know that I snore loudly while at sleep. Thanks for the roommates that tolerated my snore and remained silent about it for four years.
3. Austerity and Frugality（清修苦行—勤儉致富）
To say that the taste of the free soup from the TsingHua campus restaurant was light is an understatement. It’s evidenced from the only ingredient in the soup: a few floating yellowish vegetable leaves. For four years in college, we were well trained with food austerity and money-saving skill.
4. There is a will, there is a way（有志竟成—挑燈夜戰）
Some of us were so much consumed by the Kung-Fu fictions that we were on them 24x7 for a while. The dorm exacted the strict light-out hour. People managed to continue the “study” past midnight at the dorm’s bathroom after the light-out hour.
5. You never know which skill will be most useful（「藝」到用時方恨少）
A friend’s (also a TsingHua alumnus) daughter was married to a Jew in US. The wedding was held in the five-star hotel Ritz-Carlton in New York City. The wedding followed the Jewish tradition. The number of Chinese guests could fill only one table, while the bridegroom’s guests filled more than 10 tables. At the dance party, I and my wife’s (also a TsingHua graduate) swinging jitterbug dance that we learned at TsingHua drew most attention on the dance floor. It was the pride of the bride’s family at that night. This is probably the most “notable” skill I learned at TsingHua.
6. Be adaptive to change（適應變化─多思無益）I tried to deploy the standard layout and foundation in the go game when I played with the TsingHua student activity center cleaning staff Lee, a military veteran. While I always did mental calculations for the next few moves, Lee took only a split second to place his next move. He never needed any layout, foundation or calculation, and he always beat me handsomely. Plan and planning go only so far. Being adaptive to change is more important.
7. Be grounded（自信不能與現實脫節─「Hard Landing」經驗）I earned the nickname Flying (Hot) Bird from a bike accident on TsingHua campus. Many of us used bikes to go from the dorm to the class. After a while, the comfort turned into hubris. I constantly rode a bike hand-free going downhill from the dorm. Until one day, the front wheel kicked up a tree brunch in the way, which got stuck in the wheel, and brought the bike to a halt. Unfortunately the momentum kept going and pushed my body out of the bike, flying high, and landed on my chin against the gravel. Seven stitches and a month not going home to avoid seen by my mother. Success requires an element of optimism and self-confidence. But confidence must be grounded on reality.
8. Teamwork（團隊精神─湖心競舟）IE79ers had a boat race one year on the campus Chung-Kung Lake (really just a pond?) The race route was to get to the far-away little island and circle back. One of the boat carrying one of the precious few female IE79ers lost its oars and, worse, the boat began to leak and sink into water. The IE79er boatman scrambled like hell and row the boat with bare hands. Some schoolmates ashore rushed out and wade into the water to help drag the boat to the shore.
9. Foes can be friends（沒有永遠的敵人─梅竹精神）The annual Mei-Chu Contest between TsingHua and ChaoTung always stirred great excitement and fanfare between the two universities. I remembered one year an explosive news that ChaoTung wore cleats to compete in the Tug of War while TsingHua, unawarely, wore regular sneakers generated much hostility between TsingHu and ChoTung undergraduate students. TsingHua students were screaming bloody at ChaoTung that it cheated the game. Now running into ChaoTung graduates, the contest became a common bond and we laughed off the tension. Today some of those TsingHua and ChaoTung participants are professors in ChaoTung and TsingHua, exchanging their places. I wonder which side they root for today.
10. Camaraderie（友情無價─成就財富有時盡、親情友情無絕時）Four years of the college, especially residing in the same dorms for four years, left indelible imprint in life. In the end, it’s never how big the house you live, what kind of car you drive, or how much money you make in life that really matter. It’s the connection and relationship you have with your friends, family, and community that give you the greatest satisfaction in life.
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