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Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 13th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2010> A Gem in the Medical Circle-Dr. Chou Ju-Chuan
Eternal Educational Prophet, Contended Healthy Elite
      With his enormously strong and self-sacrificing determination, Dr. Chou Ju-Chuan has thrown in his half-century long efforts and contributed most of his land and wealth to build the Chung Shan Medical University and Chung Shan Medical University Hospital being erected from the first piece of brick and clay. Today, the campus flourishes with trees and flowers. Numerous talents graduated from the school dedicate themselves to helping people and saving people's lives. Dr. Chou's legendary stories are like those recorded in an encyclopedia of the medical field. Every page is stunning. He is well suited to be dubbed the “Gem in the Medical Circle ”.
 
Young lad nurtured in wealth
      Chou Ju-Chuan's grandfather was a landlord in Taichung . When his parents got married, his grandfather gave his mother more than ten hectares of land as dowry with a maid. Later this maid became family's unofficial mother, called “little mother”. Mother and little mother raised a total of 11 children. They got along very well and both their children lived harmoniously together without any ill feeling.
      His father passed away at the age of 49, therefore, he didn't have much impression on his father. Originally his father taught Japanese in an elementary school. After marriage, he no longer taught at school and worked with his mother in the house rental business. His father's physical condition was poor. When Ju-Chuan was studying in the Affiliated Elementary School of Taichung Teachers College (today's Chung-Hsiao Elementary School ), his father had to move to a hospital in Taipei for his heart disease. Since then, his mother lived in Taipei to take care of his father. Without proper supervision, Ju-Chuan's grades became worse and worse, and eventually he failed to pass the exam to study in Taichung First Senior High School . Finally, he chose to study in Tainan Presbyterian Middle School (the former school of current Tainan Private Chang Jung High School ).
 
Studying abroad in Japan to pave the way for his lifelong career
      When Taiwan was in the Japanese colonial period, the Japanese government didn't recognize the academic record of Tainan Presbyterian Middle School . His mother worried that after his graduation from the school, he won't be qualified to apply for the entrance exam for colleges in Tainan . Therefore, at the age of 16, he was sent to Japan to study. After his graduation from high school, he passed exam successfully and was admitted to The Nippon Dental University among eight hundred others qualified.
      After graduated from The Nippon Dental University, he worked as an intern in Japanese dental clinic for nine months. Before Japan 's attack on the Pearl Harbor broke out, he returned to Taiwan and luckily escaped the peril. In the Japanese colonial period, a dentist had great income. After he returned to Taiwan , at the age of 26, he set up the “ Ju-Chuan Dental Hospital ”, but the business wasn't as good as expected. After Taiwan was restored, he changed the facility's name to “Central Dental Clinic” and the business gradually turned around.
 
The origin of Chung Shan Medical University
      In 1955 when he was 38 years old, he founded the “Chung Shan Dental Junior College” after going through a great deal of hardship and difficulties. The school was originated from the founder Hsu Kuo-hsiung of “ Tung Fang Technical College ”. That year founder Hsu represented Taiwan to attend the “Far East Dentistry Conference” held in the Philippines . After he returned, he gathered many good friends of his in the dentistry circle and shared them with some key contents in the conference.
      That day after hearing so much news about the dentistry development in foreign countries, Dr. Chou proposed right in the gathering to “found a school specialized in dentistry” and immediately received support from the attendees. They named the school, “ Chung Shan Dental Junior College ”.
 
School under preparation with thrown in land, money and labor
      Next year, they had the first “Founder's Meeting” and he was nominated the founder to take care of school preparation affairs. When they were in the middle of an intense preparation, unexpectedly, they heard from the Ministry of Education that Chung Shan Dental Junior College must participate in the “joint college entrance examination”. Hearing this, many backed out from their promise to contribute money and land.
      Dr. Chou Ju-Chuan had no intention to give up his long-kept dream, but he really had a headache about the land and money needed for the school. Therefore, he went to talk to his brother Chou Ju-Nan, hoping his brother would donate the land given by their mother to build the school (the current Da Ching Campus of Chung Shan Medical University ). In order to have the land use purpose changed from the original agricultural use to school land, he visited the authorities between the Taichung City Government and Taiwan Provincial Government for dozens of times before the matter could be settled. In 1957, the Medical Education Committee of the Ministry of Education finally approved the “Preparation Plan of Chung Shan Dental Junior College”.
      Since the school was short of funds, he had to go about everywhere and raise money only having numerous teases in return. As he couldn't find friends to lend a hand, he had to sell his stocks invested in lumber business and used this 540,000 dividend to build five one-story classrooms. (At that time, the money could buy more than two hectares of land.) A total of six years, not until 1960 could Chung Shan Dental Junior College start to enroll students publicly.
 
Difficult enrollment, insufficient resources
In the first year of their public enrollment, when many students came to register after being admitted, they only saw the school located among paddy fields. Many thought the school was too remote and they just walked away with their registration money in hand. At last only 88 students enrolled while many of them aimed for a second try at the joint entrance exam, so they were still holding a high school text during class lectures. They were simply not coming for the school.
      At that time Chung Shan Dental Junior College didn't have a strong faculty. Most teachers they hired were Japanese and they had to have interpreters to delivery their lectures. When teachers were really in short, in addition to asking help from military doctors, he had to teach in person. In the first year-end dinner of the school, there were only 10 people in total including the janitor. Even though he was the president of the school, he had to paste the stamps on the envelopes of registration notice by himself and delivered by himself. Despite this, he still felt that running a school was a very meaningful career and this way he would be able to give back to the society.
      In 1962, Dr. Chou considered that medical education was becoming more and more complicated, so he applied for renaming the school to “ Chung Shan Medical College ” from the Ministry of Education by adding a medical program at the same time and extending the year of study to 7 years. Due to protest from other technical schools, in the end, the application was only approved with an addition of one class of medical science and the school was renamed to Private Chung Shan Medical Junior College ”.
 
The origin of Chung Shan Medical University Hospital
      As students must undergo practice before graduation and there weren't any appropriate hospitals to go to, he set up a dental clinic first for students studying dentistry. In 1963, in order for medical students to have a place to practice, he decided to establish a 7-story Chung Kang Campus located at Chung Kang Road of Taichung City as the school's hospital and all the income would be used to continue to support the hospital's costs. In 1966, the affiliated hospital formally opened. It's named “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital”, and Dr. Sun's grandson Mr. Sun Ke was even invited to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony that added historical significance to the hospital.
 
A hard time to go on, ordered to stop enrollment without warning
      In 1972 Chung Shan Medical Junior College was still having a hard time with too few student enrollment and too little funds. It's not easy to invite good teachers to come and the academic system was in a mess. That was the time when the expansion construction of the affiliated hospital was completed and started to serve. Sick bed was increased to 100 beds - a new start for the hospital. As the school and the hospital became better and better, they were ordered to stop enrollment from the Ministry of Education without receiving any reason and warning in advance. This was really a shock to Dr. Chou.
      He immediately headed north to the Ministry of Education to understand the situation and to protest. That was the time still under Martial Law and many friends advised him not to go on with the protest and leave Taiwan temporarily in fear of his being framed. Seeing there's no hope in petition, he was forced to move his whole family to Japan to practice. Though he wasn't in Taiwan , he was still watching Chung Shan Medical Junior College very closely and cared about it very much. He would return to Taiwan three or four times a year.
 
Do things others don't, turn unpopular program into hot program
      The Chung Shan Medical College was allowed to restore enrollment by the Ministry of Education in 1974. Dr. Chou returned to Taiwan after three years of practice in Japan . In 1977, Chung Shan Medical College was successfully promoted to become “ Chung Shan Medical College ”. After 15 years of effort, the school had finally changed its system successfully and renamed to “ Private Chung Shan Medical College ” and the affiliated hospital was also renamed to “Affiliated Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital of the Private Chung Shan Medical College ”. Dr. Chou was elected as the first chairman of the board.
      The footprint of Chung Shan's affiliated hospital was not only in Taichung but as far as in Penghu where resources were very limited. Dr. Chou Ju-Chuan even assigned his son to check out the place and take over Huei Min Hospital . He led doctors to come to Penghu with the spirit of helping people. He said that a doctor shouldn't just think of making money. A doctor must treat this occupation as a mission. “Morality” and “obtainment” is not only pronounced the same in Chinese, but also means to perform “morality” in order to “obtain”. Therefore, he also established the “ College of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences” of Chung Shan Medical University in particular, expecting that students in CSMU must pay much attention to medical ethics. They are not only to “treat people”, but also to “treat mind”.
 
Eternal educational prophet, contended healthy elite
      In spite of his age, he would still arrange to meet with students in each semester. He encouraged them to have the international sense in this global era. So he asked students to hone their English skills as well as to build a strong body because “our bodies were given by our parents”. In addition to acquiring knowledge, he urged them to become a better person and not to be greedy for money. He expects that Chung Shan Medical University will cultivate more doctors with both medical skills and ethics.
      He considers that there is nothing more important than a healthy condition regardless of how successful a career one may carry. At the end of 2006, he was trapped in own elevator for as long as 18 hours. Luckily, it's only a false alarm and he wasn't really hurt, but this event let him realize even more deeply that exercise can truly help people a lot.
      Many people are curious about his long life secret. Actually, just do exercise diligently. Every morning after he gets up, he will jump 100 times at the same place with his heel raised and do some Wai Tan Kung exercise. He also walks about five to six thousand steps each day. Every day he still goes to work at school on time, treats some old patients in the hospital, and carry out his ideology of “to live is to move”.
      Chou Ju-Chuan, now 93 years old, still appears in the campus every day with high spirit. He is like a gardener to take care of every tree that he has planted; like a volunteer to care for every student who studies hard. He is forever a man of wisdom to continue staying by the side of Chung Shan and watch it grow strong.