From his school years in wartime China to post-war Japan and college in the US, Alec Chiu's physical and educational journey was
a remarkable one. Alec's reflections on how he survived those years eventually led him to the study of philosophy, to perpetually questioning, "What is the meaning of life in the Eastern and the Western imagination?" As a scholar and a professor, he wove
abstract philosophical concepts into his life story, holding his students' eager attention. Alec and Ursula were an unlikely couple-one born in Hong Kong and the other in Germany-who met while studying in the U.S. in the early 1960s and forged a connection beyond
national, cultural, and familial differences. Alec shared his childhood memories and stories with Ursula many times, and later with their children and friends. Memories of Alec is a memoir of resilience, about the power of education to change the circumstances of one's birth, and the unique companionship of a couple steeped in both Eastern and Western traditions.