REFLECTIONS ON LIFE

Hung, a retired doctor, ruminates on the myriad issues that have fascinated him since he was a young boy.

The author takes readers on a well-researched journey that explores 10 different aspects of the human experience, as well as his personal musings about each topic. He begins with the origins of Homo erectus and moves on to the connection between the mind and brain, the emotions that define us (happiness, suffering, pain, love, etc.), the concept of free will, and more. Hung tackles the issues that he believes define the “human experience” by balancing broad swaths of scientific or philosophical movements, like Confucianism, with examples of specific cases, among them psychologist Josef Gerstmann’s observations of visual agnosia in patients who, for example, are unable to recognize their own fingers. Woven throughout his findings are the author’s personal stories about the issues at hand, including his family’s harrowing escape from China to Hong Kong in 1949 to flee Mao Zedong’s authoritarian rule. Most topics are approached with a certain degree of scientific detachment, even the subject of love: “Fossils tell us that love evolved hundreds of millions of years ago, helping our mammalian ancestors survive in the time of the dinosaurs….Romantic love, the long-term bonding between males and females, is unusual among other mammals.” This clash of subject and tone can sometimes prove a bit jarring, but the text’s directness proves helpful when breaking down more complex ideas—like those of individual perception and determinism. While each individual topic questions the different qualities that make us human, Hung ultimately doesn’t offer any definitive answers. His unassuming style, however, ultimately contributes to the delightful feeling that one is simply listening to a friend discuss the confounding, revelatory, and joyous experiences (and sometimes winding digressions) that make up a life. Occasional photos and graphics augment the text.

A conversational, well-researched, and thought-provoking meditation on the human condition.