Fan Hung-hau, the graduate student of the Department of Creative Design has been disable in his right hand since he was a child, having only an arm there. However, he is not defeated by his disability and continues striving forward. This year he was the winner of the 2016 President Educational Award. The purpose of the President Educational Award is to honor flagship students who live in difficulties but still strive in breaking through their limitations. By awarding students like him, it is believed that the awarded students can be models for all students in Taiwan.

An important experience affected Fan, changing him into a different person. When Fan Hung-hau was nearly 5 or 6 years old, he visited a doctor because he had a cold. While he was in the clinic, he said to his mom that he was ashamed of himself being disabled. His mom tried to ask for help from the doctor. At the same time, the TV was playing a criminal wearing a helmet under the arrest of police officers. The doctor then said, “Compared with the ones who committed crimes, you shall not be ashamed of yourself. They are the ones who shall be ashamed of themselves instead.” After listening to these words, Fan finally understood everything and started to look on the bright side of everything.

When he was an elementary school student, Fan was a member of the track and field team. At the time, he was affected by the famous Japanese comic book “Slam Dunk” and started to play basketball. His school started to plan and organize a basketball team. Fan recommended himself to be a team member of the school’s team later but was refused by the team leader. He said, “I was very upset at that time and he also didn’t tell me why he refused me. I know that it was probably due to my disability.”

When he was a junior high school student, he finally became a member of the basketball team. However, he still cared about what others thought about him. Although he had chances to play games, his performances were bad because of his nervousness. Therefore, he was a benchwarmer for most of his junior high school time. When he entered senior high school, he started to change his thoughts. He made his decision not to care about what others thought about him and accepted his imperfect body. He then became the leader of the school team and led the team to win several important games.

For Fan who plays with one hand, the biggest difficulty is that he cannot take offensive moves from the right side, do crossovers or change to offensive directions. Therefore, he tries to make up for these flaws by putting more speed. He used what he had learned in the track and field team. Explosiveness was the method. With his quick movements, he won the name “Single-handed Sharp Shooter” in the end.

He applied for the “Rise” activity held by the famous sports brand NIKE Inc., because he wanted to create and leave some wonderful memories of himself in college. It was so lucky that he was chosen as one among thousands of applicants and became an inspirational role model in their commercial advertisement. When he showed up for the press in Shanghai, he met superstar Kobe Bryant and was advised by him in person. Fan asked Bryant, “For someone who is imperfect like me, how can I conquer my disability with specific skills?” Bryant did not answer him with anything related to skills, but only told Fan that “You should not think that you have any difference with others. People don’t assume there is any difference at all.” These words made Fan reflect about his entire past. He now thinks, “There is nothing you cannot do, but only something you want to do or not.”

Currently studying at YunTech, Fan’s design field is in creativity. He always designs something based on his own need. For example, the two inventions which are an equipment for unscrewing a bottle cap with one hand and an alert equipment when opening car doors won a silver award at the 2015 International Warsaw Invention Show, a silver award at the 2015 International Exhibition of Inventions of Ukraine and a gold award in the category of iVAN at the 2015 Taiwan International Invention and Design Fair. The outstanding performances have made him one of the honors of YunTech. Although he is working hard on his studies, he does not stop chasing his basketball dream and tries to make a balance between studies and basketball. He thinks of basketball as his power to work hard on studies. He said, “Basketball is my love. For love, I will insist on it.”