An illuminating life – a tribute to Qiguang Zhao

File photo of Qiguang Zhao. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The death of the philosopher, writer, teacher and TV presenter Professor Qiguang Zhao in a swimming accident at Miami Beach in Florida on March 14, his 67th birthday, was particularly tragic given his love of the sport and his prowess as a swimmer.

He had considerable success in swimming competitions, and such was the drawing power for him of water that the mere sight of a river, a lake or the ocean often proved irresistible to him.

The nature of his death, after being caught in a riptide, was even more poignant when one recalls that he once jumped into a river in a vain attempt to rescue a boy who had fallen in.

I was honored to have had several opportunities to help Zhao with little of his work, although his schedule was always extremely tight whenever he came back to China.

In 2010 the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs designated Zhao as one of several "key recommended experts". He was also a Lifetime Professor and Chair Professor at Carleton College in Minnesota.

He founded, directed and chaired the college's Department of Chinese as well as Chinese language and culture centers in US universities.

Zhao was invited to be the Distinguished Professor of Tongji University in 2009. Previously he had been invited to take up similar posts at Nankai University, East China Normal University and Tibet University.

He was well known in China and elsewhere, reflected in the attendance at a memorial service for him at Carleton College on March 30.

Once when I went to develop some photos of him a man enthusiastically said he recognised Zhao, having often seen him on TV, either giving lectures, or as a TV presenter in documentaries that were shown worldwide.

Once when I went to the US embassy in Beijing to apply for a visa, an official said Zhao had been one of his university teachers. There is no doubt that such people, academic products of the seeds of knowledge that Zhao lovingly sowed, are scattered throughout the world.

For Zhao, a particular focus of those labors was bringing together the cultures of China and the US. As part of that mission he devoted many years trying to explain the Tao Te Ching in English in US universities, a challenging task for even the most gifted of teachers.

Eventually he would be using cartoons he created to illustrate various philosophical elements, and he even resorted to PowerPoint presentations in classes.

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