Text and images by NCKU News Center

National Cheng Kung University held The Phoenix Lecture on September 29, inviting Wei-Fuu Yang—Former Director-General of the Water Resources Agency, Administrative Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs, Acting Chairman of CPC Corporation, Chairman of Taiwan Power Company, and Chairman of Taoyuan International Airport Corporation, chairman of Taiwan Power Company, and Former Chairman of Taoyuan International Airport—to speak on “Cross Boundaries, Live Undefined.” According to his own career, he encouraged students to embrace new challenges, even in difficult circumstances.His candid reflections and career insights drew an enthusiastic response from the audience.

NCKU Executive Vice President Ｗei-Shiun Chang

NCKU Executive Vice President Ｗei-Shiun Chang noted growing global concern over disasters such as landslides in Nepal, involving glacier melt and debris flows. Last year the university also visited an avalanche disaster-prevention center in France. Facing compound natural hazards, he said, interdisciplinary research is essential. After hearing Chairman Yang, students should see that the country needs versatile talent—and that those who prepare across fields can still make their own way.

Yang opened with humor: he had not been admitted to NCKU and studied at National Chung Hsing University instead, but later worked with many outstanding NCKU graduates and was grateful to speak on campus. Entering the workforce in the 1960s, he was fortunate to take part in the Ten Major Construction Projects, in which water infrastructure was central. He worked on flood control, disaster prevention, and reservoirs, and stressed that every job required teamwork across nationality, status, and background: “teamwork is the real power.”

NCKU held The Phoenix Lecture on September 29, inviting Wei-Fuu Yang to speak on “Cross Boundaries, Live Undefined.”

Among those projects, he most remembered Shigang Dam and Ronghua Dam while in the Water Conservancy Bureau’s mechanical engineering team. He started from the basics—learning to operate excavators and trucks, watching senior workers, and learning by doing across three generations. He urged students not to fear asking questions and said, half-jokingly, that “A strict boss makes a sharp employee” That sense of team mission stayed with him.

He also worked on Nanhua Reservoir and Mudan Reservoir, projects closely tied to Tainan. Collaboration with engineers from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was his first international partnership. The work was cross-disciplinary; later, Taiwan’s engineering progress drew foreign specialists here to learn—so language ability matters. Building the Second Baoshan Reservoir was another hard case: relations with nearby communities and temples taught him communication skills, above all empathy.

Yang used his years with Taiwan Power Company to talk about key choices

Moving from engineering into public policy, then from the civil service into state-owned enterprises and large-organization management, Yang used his years with Taiwan Power Company to talk about key choices, hard tests, and lessons worth passing on. A leader with public responsibility needs both cross-field integration and decision-making—values that match NCKU’s emphasis on interdisciplinary work and social practice. He hoped NCKU graduates would answer society’s needs with professional skill and become irreplaceable.

In the state-owned sector he lived through many typhoons, including Morakot in 2009. Compound disasters were diverse, large-scale, and hit farming, fisheries, livestock, and livelihoods. Cross-domain communication became even more vital—from the Executive Yuan’s 921 earthquake reconstruction to the recent Mataian Creek landslide-dam disaster. Facing extreme climate change, he said, the answer is still “cross-domain communication and teamwork.”

More than 200 faculty and students attended.

“Cross Boundaries, Live Undefined” Yang traced a path from hydraulic engineering through the Water Resources Agency, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, CPC, Taiwan Power Company, and Taoyuan Airport. In retirement he remains active as an advisor to the Water Resources Agency, standing supervisor of the Taiwan Water Industry Development Association, and standing director of the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering.

More than 200 faculty and students attended. In the Q&A, students form NCKU CE asked about career paths. “Stay curious, keep learning, and have the courage to step beyond what is familiar,” Yang told the students. “Every experience, even one that seems unrelated at the time, can become an asset for the next stage of your journey.”