#09: 核能工程師談教育傳承 / Nuclear Engineer on Teaching Kids About Their Family Heritage

Taiwanese Diaspora 台灣人 Podcast

(Episode is in Chinese. 這集用國語聊。)

We talk with Dr. Peng (彭博士) today about his career as a nuclear engineer (核能工程師). A native of Taiwan, he completed his elementary through Master’s studies in Taiwan, and considers himself really lucky throughout his education endeavors to have had really great teachers who recognized his strengths and encouraged him to pursue his dreams. He then came to update New York for his PhD in nuclear engineering, because there weren’t programs offered in Taiwan at the time. He ended up raising his family in the US and having a career that took him to commercial power plants in several states around the US: Louisiana (路易斯安那州) to Michigan (密歇根州) to Illinois (伊利諾伊州) to Delaware (特拉華州) to Maryland (馬里蘭州).

On the personal front, he shares about how his family plugged into the Taiwanese communities everywhere they lived, so that his kids would have the opportunity to learn about their heritage. I personally like his philosophy about passing on cultural heritage: it’s up to the parents to find ways to expose their kids to different things, and up to the children to pursue learning about things that spark an interest. 父母親必須要給機會讓小孩認識中國文化，小孩必須要有興趣保留中國人的一些傳統。

More details in the show notes on the website.
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Dr. Peng's book recommendation: Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists.

Cynthia's recommendation: HBO miniseries Chernobyl (切爾諾貝利), created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck.

This is such an incredibly well-made 5-part miniseries on HBO. Historically accurate portrayal of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of April 1986, the human lives involved in cleaning up the aftermath, the promulgation of information out of the Soviet Union at the time.

If you want to hear a bit more about the creation of the miniseries, listen to The Chernobyl Podcast, hosted by Peter Sagal (NPR’s “Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!”) and series creator, writer and executive producer Craig Mazin.

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