Year: 2009
Author & Donor: Professor Richard M. W. Ho

DETAILS

Professor Richard M. W. Ho, Honorary Professor of Department of Chinese Language and Literature and Honorary Fellow of New Asia College, composed and wrote in his own calligraphy this antithetical couplet as a gift to New Asia College, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2009.

The opening line lauds the ever-fresh thinking and knowledge of New Asianites, whose daily act of studying and learning benefits humanity, referring to the meaning of “business of life” in The Book of Changes. The capping line draws on the College’s anthem and traces the etymology of the College’s motto in The Book of Rites and subsequent literary works, suggesting that New Asianites has overcome difficult and austere circumstances through “Sincerity and Intelligence,” and how such a state of mind harmonizes with the Heaven.