Sir Charles Kao GBM
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Nov 4, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 5, 2021
FADE IN.
Act 1
INT. STUDY - 09:45
Smartphone in hand, PETER checks the Hang Seng index.
PETER (V.O.): Today's stock trading has begun.
Peter taps an icon.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): While "real-time" quotes are timely, the delay for the App to process and communicate a vast amount of data is slight.
EXT. ROADS - 11: 30
Driving, Peter listens to the radio. We hear: Today's Google Doodle marks Charles Kao's 88th birthday.
PETER (V.O.): He's about 20 years older than me.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): As the father of fiber optics, he and his colleague proposed in 1966 to use thin glass fibres to replace copper wires in transmitting data across long distances.
Act 2
FLASHBACK
INT. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT - AFTERNOON (2000)
Open day. Touring booths, Peter (44) chats with Sir CHARLES KAO (65).
PETER: If I may ask you what tangible reward did you get as the father of optic fibres?
CHARLES (Smiling): I got the Vice-chancellorship of CUHK!
PETER (V.O.): He's so frank.
PETER: Upon retirement, why did you co-found the Independent Schools Foundation Academy?
CHARLES (Solemnly): Oh, all students should receive the best knowledge transfer.
PETER: For professors to teach kindergarten pupils?
CHARLES: Why not, if there're resources.
PETER: How to learn well, after all?
CHARLES: Learning about learning is fundamental.
Peter is enlightened.
RETURN TO PRESENT
PETER (V.O.): After his retirement from CUHK, he'd join my Department's functions.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): On one occasion, the media came too. I shared a little of his limelight.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Earlier, in 1999, I invited him to make a keynote speech in a conference.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I got one feedback that his messages weren't clear.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I thought we're just on different wavelengths.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): After our exchanges in 2000, I continued to get in touch with him via my X'mas greetings.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He'd reciprocate with his greetings to me for a year or two.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Subsequently, my communications to him seemed to have gone to the black hole.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He only shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. He got a GBM in 2010.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I don't know if he appreciated the significance of the delayed recognitions as he had been suffering from Alzhemer's disease since 2004.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's hard for me not to remember him whenever I take part in activities in the Charles Kao Auditorium in the Hong Kong Science Park.
Sighing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He died in Sept 2018. When I attended my elder daughter's graduation ceremony in CUHK in Nov that year, I saw a statue of him and captured an artistic expression of him.
Act 3
INT. STUDY - 20:30
Smartphone in hand, Peter remembers something.
PETER (V.O.): Let me check how does today's Google Doodle look like.
We see on screen a character using a green fibre laser to transmit data from one end of the Doodle to the other.
PETER (V.O.)(Cont'd): Do internet users know who was Charles Kao? The Nobel laureate led to the rapid growth of the internet.
Peter reads a related story.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Charles Kao is described as "a Chinese-born British-American physicist".
Peter then checks Charles K Kao - Wikipdia.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In his 2010 open letter, it was stated that he was "a Hong Kong belonger."
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Our roots are the foundation of our lives.
FADE OUT
THE END
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