Colourful old age
Staying young with plants

By Jacqueline Au
Chinese believe that life for the
elderly should be enjoyable
and easy. Nevertheless, some
are still ambitious in their old
age.

Take Prof. Hu Shiu Ying, 93,
for example. She is a world
reknowned botanist and an
honorary professor in the
School of Chinese Medicine
at The Chinese University
of Hong Kong.

In the past, some students
thought she was the
mysterious old lady who
occasionally had
been seen in the hills on
campus collecting wild herbs
and plants.

“People were making a
mistake,” said she.
“I wasn’t going up into
the hills. Other people were collecting them for me.”

Even in her old age, Prof. Hu,a widow, works 10 hours a day doing research.

The reason she became interested in medicinal plants is simple.

“I’m Chinese, and 95 percent of Chinese medicine is made from plants.

“So far I have collected 18,450 plants.”

Trilex tea, her major area of study at the Chinese University, is now commonly sold in herbal tea outlets throughout Hong Kong.

She graduated from the Biology Department at Ginling College in Nanjing and from Lingnan University in Canton before receiving her doctorate degree from Harvard University, where she earned a reputation as an extremely hard working postgraduate student.

She started to teach in Chung Chi College at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1968.
Prof. Hu’s passion for botany has lasted throughout her life.

She still travels back and forth between the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University in the United States, where 4,000 kinds of trees are found, and her office at the Chinese University, where she studies local plants.

Although she is engaged in the study of plants used in Chinese medicine — a central theme in traditional Chinese culture — she regards herself as an American rather than as a Chinese.

Said she: “I have my office in Hong Kong. But my home’s in America. My family lives there.

“I belong to America. And I belong to Harvard.”

Whatever her nationality, she has made significant contributions to the field of botany, recognized by specialists in the field and the general public.

Aside from being a professional botanist, she has published more than 150 research papers, monographs and books.

Her achievements also include a Bronze Bauhinia Star awarded by the government.

“And I was invited by the chief executive, Mr. Tung Chee Hwa, to the National Day Cocktail

Reception to celebrate the 52nd Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China,” said she.

Despite her outstanding achievements, she is not arrogant.

“My successes everybody can see. My failures all my enemies can tell. I don’t know. I just live a simple life. I’m not working for success or failure,” said Prof. Hu.

She is now finalizing work on a 900-page authoritative volume on the food plants of China.