Long-Hwa Chen - School of Business and Social Sciences

 In memoriam:
Long-Hwa Chen
March 12, 1969 - January 30, 2010
On January 30, just before the beginning of the Chinese New Year, Long‐Hwa Chen passed away as a consequence of an unexpected heart attack. As the sad and shocking news about his unexpected and untimely death (he turned 40 last year) arrived at the ASB’s Department of Economics a couple of days later, staff members and his many friends here were deeply saddened. Long‐Hwa spent the period 2007‐8 as a visiting scholar at the department, he was a research associate at Center for Corporate Performance, and he kept contact with many department members after his return to Taiwan. Long‐Hwa always talked highly of his stay in Aarhus and he greatly appreciated the friendships he made here. With this memorial page we want to create a lasting memory of the ways in which Long‐Hwa affected us. --- ¤ --Long‐Hwa’s first contact with Aarhus was made at LOWER conference in Sandbjerg in 2006. At that time he was working at DGBAS (Statistical Agency in Taiwan) and was at the same time a doctoral student at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan. At the conference, the idea that he would visit Aarhus came up, and it was further developed during a visit by Jingkun, Niels and me to a number of Taiwanese universities. Long‐Hwa organised much of the tour across the island, demonstrating his excellent hosting skills. When he arrived in Aarhus in spring 2007, he first came alone; his family joined him a few months later. I picked him up at the train station, took him to Vestervang and Storcenter Nord to buy groceries for the evening and next morning. I noticed little evidence of earlier experience of cooking. But he practised, and with help of a huge box containing a rice cooker plus Taiwanese delicacies, his sister sent him, he learned fast and started to invite colleagues to share the fruits of his newly acquired skills. He was a great host equipped with a warm smile, a friendly manner and willingness to discuss almost any topic (and especially the complicated history of Taiwan). The same qualities also made him very much liked at the department. He also had a special talent for figuring out what to buy as gifts to people ‐‐ and he brought many ‐‐ when he came back from travels from Taiwan, something Liming and I also benefitted from (cans with a mix of three different chillies, small but big‐eyed fish and other seafood from some islands outside Taiwan, a spoonful of which makes many dishes taste wonderful). Together with professor T‐C Hwang in Taichung, I acted as his supervisor for his thesis work which he finished during his visit in Aarhus. During the end of his studies, we started to work together. I enjoyed his optimistic, cheerful attitude to research work and we also became good friends. We had written one paper, had almost finished another, and were working on a field experiment we were both very excited about. We were planning to visit each other and were exploring possibilities for Long‐Hwa to come, together with his family, to Aarhus in the summer. Everything was going so well for him; I talked with him frequently and he was very happy for his new job in Taipei and the opportunities it gave him. When we said goodbye at the CAED in Tokyo in October, I could never imagine that his time on earth would be cut so short. I will miss him greatly. I will remember his warmth, friendliness, hospitality, energy and optimistic approach to research as well as to life itself. Tor Eriksson --- ¤ -- At EALE in Tallinn 2009 For those of us who met him, Long Hwa came across as the soft‐spoken, thoughtful Taiwanese; curious, but sceptical, about all‐things Western. He brought with him his Asian wisdom, and enriched everybody's horizon in a world where we care too much about details, and often ignore the essence. That doesn't mean he did not care about those details that, at times, sweeten our lives. Among other things, he taught some of us how to do proper dumplings‐‐ operation where his two lovely teenage daughters showed us what comparative advantage in the dumpling‐making art really means. (He also 'smuggled' a bottle of Taiwanese hard liquor in a top lounge/bar in Aarhus, just to prove to me, live, that their liquor is better than any European hard liquors; I still have the bottle, full‐‐ I like that drink as much as I like palinka: it burns! :‐) ). Next to being a perfect host in Aarhus several times, he was a great companion in several conferences and workshops attended together, among which memorable ones in Oslo, Tallinn, Tokyo, and several places in Denmark. Long‐Hwa wrote to me the following, after joining me and several colleagues to a dinner in a, as he called it, "burning‐money restaurant", in Tallinn, Estonia, September last year: Thank you for the burning‐money restaurant. That is not a bad idea, to burn some money when we are alive. I mean that it is better than getting money in the underworld, when we pass away. He always knew better. I will greatly miss Long‐Hwa: the student, the teacher, the colleague, the Friend. Sebi (Sebastian Buhai) --- ¤ ---
Long‐Hwa was a person who made an impact! When he first visited ASB he was a PhD‐student just like me. He was a very friendly and warm guy and interested in my research and in sharing his ideas. He was eager to learn and to improve his English skills. He also shared many interesting stories about life in Taiwan. The last time I met Long‐Hwa was at the EALE conference in Tallinn in September 2009. We actually ran into each other in a kiosk at the airport in Copenhagen. I came from the US and he had just arrived from Taiwan. Long‐Hwa was so cheerful. He was happy about his new job in Taiwan, but also clearly enjoyed coming to the conference and meeting all the ‘old’ colleagues. In particular, I remember a funny story from the conference: Long‐Hwa and Tor had a joint paper accepted for the conference and Tor was supposed to present it. Unfortunately, the day of the presentation Tor did not hear his alarm clock and thus did not show up in time for the session. Sitting there at the session Long‐Hwa started getting nervous. If Tor did not show up he would probably be expected to do the presentation, but he had not prepared anything. Long‐
Hwa therefore started the impossible task of making a presentation in 15 minutes so he would have something to say in case Tor did not show up in time. Luckily their paper was one of the last of the session so Tor made it and (a very relieved) Long‐Hwa had a good story to tell…. A cheerful colleague will be missed, Astrid Würtz Rasmussen
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Like everybody at our department I was so shocked by the horrible news about Long‐Hwa Chen passing. I knew Long‐Hwa from the time he spent at out department in Aarhus. He would often stop by my office and we would chat about different research‐ and life‐related topics, exchange ideas and views on this world. Long‐Hwa was always full of energy, curiosity, humour and kindness, he would always remember to ask about my family and bring along a small gift for my son. Long‐Hwa was one of those people contributing not only to the research environment, but also to the good social atmosphere at our department with his warmth, smile and humour. I will miss him greatly. My deepest sympathies are with his family – especially with his wife and his daughters. Mariola Pytlikova
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To Long‐Hwa, whom I was fortunate to have met: We will always remember you, your resolve, your sense of dignity and your positive outlook on life. At the EALE meetings at Tallinn, we walked on the city tour together and you told me all about your new job and your life in Taiwan. Your career and your future held such promise. We are all terribly shocked and saddened by this devastating loss. My thoughts go out to your family and I hope that they may find some comfort in these words penned by your colleagues at ASB who have been so impressed by your achievements and who have always had such deep regard for you. Nabanita Datta Gupta
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Long‐Hwa had many memorable qualities. The first one I experienced was as our host on a week‐long tour in Taiwan. He was great and had planned things very well. The next thing was his good sense of humor that I really appreciated in Aarhus. I appreciated his curiosity and his ability to explain economic and other phenomena. This exchange often led to interesting discussions. You were never bored in the company of Long‐Hwa. He will be missed and also remembered. My thoughts go to his family. Niels Westergaard‐Nielsen --- ¤ -- I’m always happy when I come to work in the morning and usually my good mood is with me all day, but not on this particular day. My colleague Tor Eriksson changed my mood very rapidly. He told me that Longhwa had passed away. Suddenly and very unreal. I was very moved and my first thoughts embraced his wife and his two daughters. They meant the world to him. My next reaction was thankfulness – deep and profound. I am very thankful that I have been so fortunate to have met Longhwa. I got to know him during his first long stay in 2007 at our Department at the Aarhus School of Business in Denmark – a country that differs very much from Taiwan in any possible way. It was funny to watch Long‐Hwa’s reaction to all those differences. He was always open to everything new and strange, but at the same time he was sceptical. Cracking a funny remark when Longhwa stood there with his walking stick while holding his hand around his chin and looking very sceptical, could always make him burst out laughing. I will never forget this warm laughter – so whole‐hearted that he could not speak. To come up with another funny remark before he had stopped laughing, would cause an even bigger laughter and he would even have to take off his glasses. I’ll really miss that. Long‐Hwa wanted nothing but the best for his family. During the planning of his first stay in 2007 the whole family came to Denmark for 10 months. It was essential to him that the stay should be as pleasant as possible for his wife and daughters. Longhwa wanted everything planned in details in advance so thinking back on that period it seems to me that we had a direct e‐mail‐line for months so that Long‐Hwa could be really well‐prepared prior to their arrival. I don’t think that there is one single question that was not asked when one wants to know how to live as a family in Denmark ☺. This long‐standing and long distance communication made me very curious to actually meet Long‐Hwa in person. And I was indeed not disappointed. A good sense of humour, a caring nature, very sociable, or simply a person “you just like to be together with” are some of the characteristics linked with Long‐Hwa. He was also very generous and loved to share Taiwanese specialities with us. One day at lunch I asked him what that brown stuff he was eating was. He immediately gave me some of it to taste and it tasted wonderful. On several occasions he has given me bags with that brown stuff but I will never learn what is called. I have now received my last bag of brown snack stuff from Long‐Hwa– I have to realize that! Lego and Long‐Hwa belonged together. When he heard that my husband works at Lego, he was one big smile and reacted with his typical voice and with his head held sideways: “really!”. I can almost hear him say it right now. He got so excited that he could barely speak. During Long‐Hwa’s last visit in 2009 – this time without his family – my husband bought quite a lot of Lego on behalf of Long‐Hwa at a very, very special price. His daughters had made a wish list in a prioritized order. My husband managed to fullfill all wishes of the daughters. But one wish could not be fulfilled, and that was old steel train tracks for Long‐
Hwa’s old Lego model railroad because their production has been discontinued. Since then my husband has tried to locate some old ones at the Lego factory hoping that there could be found a small stock somewhere so that Long‐Hwa could have even more fun playing with his Lego trains. I would have loved to see his face if we had managed to locate those tracks. My husband can stop looking now – I have to realize that! I feel warm inside but at the same time very sad thinking of Long‐Hwa now that he has passed away far too soon. It must be extremely difficult for his wife and his two daughters who now have to continue their lives without a caring and loving husband and father. The loss among his friends in Denmark is peripheral compared to their loss and grief. Long‐Hwa was highly treasured at the Department of Economics at ASB and by me indeed, and he will be greatly missed. With all my warmest thoughts to Long‐Hwa’s dear family, Lene Bavnbek Enevoldsen --- ¤ ---
Yingqiang Zhang
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It was with a great sense of loss when I heard of Long Hwa’s death. When I think of Long Hwa, I remember his kindness, his generosity and his curiosity. He was my office buddy during my first period at the department and he helped me settle in at the department. He was always willing to share his culture with us and wanted to learn about ours. I mostly remember the small episodes from the daily life in the office. I remember one time he brought some small white candy which he wanted to share it with us; I thought that it was something he had brought back from Taiwan and tried it curiously. When I asked what it was. He looked at me puzzled and said that he thought that it was a Danish specialty. Apparently he had been to a grocery store and wanted to try some Danish candy. In the store he had found these strange white candies and wanted to try them. When we examined the bag we found that is came from the Mediterranean area. So we both tried something new that day. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a spouse, a father and friend much more at the peak of his career. He will definitely be missed. With deepest sympathy, Louise Brix --- ¤ --- I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Long‐Hwa, whom I first met in Denmark and got to know better during the visit in Taiwan in 2006 and his staying in Århus in 2008. Although he is away from us, his personality and charm are with us. I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to Long‐Hwa’s wife and two daughters. Many thoughts from Jingkun Some pictures
Long-Hwa with his family, Jingkun and Niels outside K101 (in Taipei), November 2006
Dinner at Chung Hsing University
Skagen, Eastern 2007 ← Enjoying somebody else’s cooking From Long‐Hwa’s PhD defense In Frederic’s office during visit in August 2009 In thinking mode