I was born and bred in Penang Island,

an island with beautiful sunshine throughout the year,

and is located on the West Coast of northern peninsula Malaysia.

My love for my homeland is not only because of its

attractive scenery and artlessness folkway,

but it is mainly due to

my beloved papa, mama and sisters,

who are over there,

and of course,

my invaluable memories too.

I studied at Hu Yew Seah Primary School,

which was within walking distance of just 10 minutes from my home.

After graduating from primary school,

I was admitted to Penang Chinese Girls' High School

which was about 15 to 25 minutes drive.

St. George's Girls' School was next in line,

and immediately after that,

I was off to the Science University of Malaysia

(Universiti Sains Malaysia, USM).

And now,

I am at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,

which is approximately 10 hours by coach from my hometown.

I consider myself rather fortunate because

I have the chance to enjoy my stress-free life in the campus for more than 20 years.

On this occasion,

I am thankful to my family

for their constant encouragement and blessings for me

Besides my folks,

there are two more people who are always on my mind, i.e.,

my primary one form teacher, Mdm. Zhang Meiqian and

my high school Chinese teacher, Mdm. Chen Qiuting.

I will never forget Mdm Zhang's kindliness and warm heartedness.

I can still remember that one particular day,

when some doctors and nurses came to our school to give us an injection,

most of the children from other classes were so scared and were crying, except ours.

This was because of she embraced each and every one of us and said:

"It's OK, don't be scared, no pain at all......".

Yes, because of her soft and loving tenderness,

we had all forgotten about the painful injection.

Mdm. Chen, who speaks fluent and standard Chinese,

not only made Chinese become the language that I like the most,

but she also shared a lot of her knowledge and experiences with us,

something that we could not learn from textbooks.

I would like to take this opportunity

to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to both of them,

and hence,

my corner only consists of Chinese characters that I love.

Others who have lighted up my life were my best friends,

whom we have known each other for more than 20 years,

and also those within a year.

They are none other than

Kah Wei,

Lay Hong,

Mee Gan,

Lee Ying,

Siew Ping,

Chee Keong,

Lay Poh,

Yingjue, ...

and also my net friends..... .

Special thanks for their invaluable support and encouragement

May be,

I should also appreciate the net

which have made possible the distance between

my folks, friends and myself,

no longer a barrier.

Last but not least,

from the bottom of my heart,

thank you very much to all of you,

my beloved folks, teachers and friends.

Without you all,

I think I will not be here for today or in the future.

Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?

People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart

The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane

This has been going on since the beginning of time

May we all be blessed with longevity

Though far apart, we are still able to

share the beauty

of the moon

together.

Tang Lanwei

NTU, Singapore

19th Mac 1999