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Memories of teachers in other departments remain with me. Dr. Douglas Scott, whom I had for English, extended himself to get me oriented in my first few weeks at the university and several years later, gave Bung Fong a free ride to the West Coast. I enjoyed Dr. Lawrence Fossler, a tall and large-framed German, for his great sense of humour and his ability to make German classes interesting. Pharmacology under Dr. Lyman was my most relaxing course because he had an easy manner in teaching. Although Physics is generally difficult for some, I surprised myself by doing well in it. My Waterloo was Organic Chemistry, which I eventually passed by the skin of my teeth. Because I had little social life, except on rare occasions when friends of Mrs. Johnson included me at their gatherings, my contacts in school fulfilled most of my need for companionship.
The depression which began in 1929 was still on in 1932, and jobs were hard to find. I accepted a position to teach senior biology under a three-year contract with the True Light Middle School at Paak Hok Tung in Canton. This was a prestigious high school supported by the Presbyterian Mission. Its principal, the Rev. Stephen G. Mark, had known me when he was pastor of the Beretania Chinese Church in Honolulu, where I had done some volunteer work and where I had taught English at night to Chinese male immigrants. On my way to China I stopped over in Honolulu for about two months as the guest of the Tong Phongs, who had welcomed Mother and Dora into their home following Ruth's death. Helen and her husband were also living in her in-laws' home at that time.
Mother, Dora and I obtained third-class special passage on the Empress of Japan, sharing a room with Pyun Kyau Zane Minn and her mother. There were many Chinese young men and women on board, some returning to their native land and some going to China for the first time to study at Lingnan University or Yenching University. Among the Hawaiian passengers were Hung Wo Ching, Irma Tam, Deborah and Joseph Kau, Bunny and Ethel Au, Sing Chang, Kim Tet Lee, Emma Tenn, and Ellen Lo. A favourable exchange rate, a sense of identity with their roots and a desire to contribute to the progress of China motivated many American-born Chinese to go to China.
My three years in China were interesting and enlightening, but one...