Blog

By Brent Hoffmann, Class of 2005

“Originally, I thought I was the only nerd who loves tall buildings. I watched the construction of Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building in 2004,” says Chyi Hau, who grew up in a suburb of Taipei in Taiwan. Fellow docents know Mr. Chyi as “How” because in Chinese the personal name follows the family surname.

Hau is proficient in English and Mandarin, as well as in Taiwanese and Cantonese, two dialects spoken in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He learned English in Taiwan from grades six through the first two years of college. At age 22 he graduated with a masters degree in economics from National Taiwan University. He then was conscripted for a mandatory, two-year stint in the Republic of China Army (Taiwan), in which he served as a lieutenant.

He came to the U.S. in 2001, and earned a PhD in economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2006. From 2006 and 2012 he was a tenure-track professor teaching economics at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Winter and summer breaks were spent with his partner in Chicago. Hau, who relocated to Chicago in 2012, is an instructor in economics at Loyola University of Chicago. Now married, he and his spouse live in Bucktown.

Encourages Feedback
Hau became a docent in 2015. He leads the Chicago Masterworks, Connecting Old and New, and River Cruise tours. Hau learned the river tour in 2016 and won a “kudo” on his first cruise in July. “The touree was from Tucson, Arizona,” explains Hau. “I know this because I check social media after my tours to see if I’ve been mentioned. And I found his compliment recorded on Yelp. As an economist, I’m trained to find and analyze data.

“I enjoy being the only Taiwanese docent at CAF. I tell tourees that it’s OK if they forget my name while mentioning me on social media. And I appreciate getting feedback on how I’m doing.” To view a short video of how he encourages feedback, click here to download: Chyi Hau Video.

Hau collects data on the characteristics of buildings on his tours. He runs, too. “I began in Madison, running three marathons. Since I’ve been in Chicago, I’ve run seven. In February 2017, I’ll run in my first Asian marathon, in Tokyo.”

When in Rome and Taipei
Like most docents, Hau loves to travel. In May 2016 he visited Rome and toured the scavi (excavation) below St. Peter’s Basilica. “It’s a fascinating place, an underground necropolis, about 100- meters long, directly under the Basilica,” he explains. “It dates back to pre-Jesus times and is where Apostle Peter was supposedly buried. You can still see family burial compounds that look like ancient Greek villas, but were underground and untouched for almost two thousand years.

“If you travel to Taiwan, be sure to see Taipei 101 in Taipei. It looks like a 101-story bamboo shoot,” he continues. “As well as its height, it’s significant because the building was designed to withstand conditions we don’t see in Chicago — typhoon winds and earthquakes.” It’s also the tallest green building in the world: LEED Platinum certified in the category of operation and maintenance of an existing building.

Hau recommends a visit to Taipei’s National Palace Museum. “It has the world’s best collection of ancient Chinese artworks and artifacts,” Hau says. Facing defeat in the Chinese civil war, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek moved the best collections of Chinese museums to Taiwan in 1948. “So you have to go to Taiwan to see the best collection of Chinese arts.”