When Jia Tong Li, or R.C.T. Lee, was at Rice University in Texas, USA in 2000, to deliver a talk titled “The Serious Problems Facing Mankind”, he was introduced first as an accomplished scientist and researcher, and then as an educator and university administrator, a writer, and finally a humanitarian. Given more than two decades ago, Li’s speech seemed prescient with its discussions on climate change, racism, the poverty gap, the technological gap, and the failures of capitalism—all the major issues society is currently confronting.

After receiving his Ph.D in electrical engineering and computer science from Berkeley, he stayed in the United States for another ten years, working as a researcher at government agencies. He returned to Taiwan in 1975 and started his teaching and administrative career spanning three different universities. Currently, he holds the position of emeritus professor at the Department of Computer Science at Chi Nan University.

Although he has published more than 80 papers in prestigious academic journals, he is perhaps more popularly known in Taiwan for his novels and short stories such as Let the Walls Come Down, Strangers, The Curtain Never Falls, and The Bell Rings Again.