台灣中心永久會館盛大開幕致詞
范少達

我是范少達，台灣中心主任。我已經找到我要刻在自己墓碑上的字了(希望我不會太快需要用得到)。我的墓誌銘要刻「他是正式在聖地牙哥台灣中心永久會館舞台上致詞的第一位」。雖是玩笑之詞，但是今天能站在此舞台上向大家致歡迎詞，令我覺得非常驕傲。成立「聖地牙哥台灣中心永久會館」的美夢已成真！不用說，本地台灣同鄉們一定都覺得很驕傲，我們應該向自己道賀，該拍拍自己的背，你們也可互相拍背！

希望我們的新家各位都覺得滿意。現在有些工程仍在進行，也還未佈置完工，所以在接下來數月，中心還會一直改善、美化，真是令人不停的有興奮感。

這些年來，各位同鄉不斷的奉獻財力、體力和寶貴意見(喔，也捐了太過多的書)。誠如俗云「聚沙成塔」，我們集體努力所以才有今天這耀人的成果。舉例說，各位皆知我們同鄉有位富范 – 范清亮，也有位窮范 – 范少達，富范寫捐款支票，窮范則寫捐款收據，可說是配合良好的團隊。另外，如果你是退休名譽教授，而且姓陳，那麼你註定要當台美基金會的董事長了，就像過去三年的董事長一樣。

有太多的人要感謝了，無法在此一一列名，只能誠摯的向各位致最大的謝意。不過有一位我需要特別表揚，她是Carol 歐春美，有了她在中心運作上的幫忙，我的擔子是輕多了，日子好過得多了！

一個再堂皇的建築，如果沒有人利用，也只是空有個建築物。所以希望各位能多來參加中心的活動，讓我們把會館充滿活力，充滿歌舞(就是卡拉OK也可)；把會館充滿歡笑與哭聲(當然是小孩子的哭聲)；充滿好食物，精神食糧和祭五臟廟的食物；充滿球聲、鼓聲、等等。我們有志一同，群策群力一定會把會館辦的很好，使它成為我們家外之家。

諸位有幸，我不是位喜歡聽自己講話的人，反而是對自己的英語難為情。(中心有開英語發音改正課，我一定得需花巨款來改，老師可否給我打折？) 最後，我想要用一句令人難忘的句子來結束我的致詞，不幸腦汁絞盡也無法想出首創之句，只好在此改寫一下甘迺迪總統近五十年前的一句名言：「莫問台灣中心能為你做什麼，且問你能為台灣中心做什麼」。嗯，想一想，這句話倒不是太適合我們的情況。其實，我希望你能來告知我該如何為你服務，告知台灣中心如何來為我們社區做最好的服務。我的辦公室的門永遠是開的。謝謝！

My name is Ted Fan and I am the executive Director of this center.
Now, I have found the words to put on my tombstone; well, I hope I do not need it too soon. My epitaph should read “he was officially the first one to talk on the stage of the permanent site of the TACC in San Diego”. Jokes aside, I am really proud to stand on this stage to welcome you all for this momentous event. The dream of having our own center has finally come true. It goes without saying, Taiwanese Americans in San Diego should be very proud, we should all congratulate ourselves. Pat ourselves on the back, or you can pat each other’s backs.

I hope our new home has met your satisfaction. As you can see, there is still construction going on, and the decoration is not done, so the center will be even better in a few months. The excitement never ceases.

Through the years, people like you have contributed money, labor, ideas,-- and oh too many books. It’s the proverbial “It’s the team effort” that we have this tremendous achievement. For example, in our community everybody knows there is a rich Fan, Chris, and there is a poor Fan, Ted. The rich Fan, writing donation checks, and the poor Fan, writing donation receipts. It’s a very good team. And if you are a professor emeritus and your last name is Chen, then you are made to be the president of our foundation, like we have had in the past three straight years. We all have to do our parts. There are so many people to thank; I can not possibly name them all. Please accept my sincere gratitude to you all. Well, please allow me to name one, it’s Carol Lin. With her help in the center’s operation, my life has been so much easier, and she also keeps my male chauvinism at bay.

A building no matter how grand, without people, is just a building. So I hope you can come to participate in our activities as much as you can. Let’s fill this building with energy, fill it with songs and dances, even karaoke is fine. Let’s fill this building with laughter and cries, babies’ cries of course. Let’s fill it with good food, food for thought and food for stomach. Let’s fill it with sound of ball bouncing and drums beating, etc, etc. With our collective effort we will make our center great, make it our home away from home.

Luckily for you I am not the one who likes to hear himself talk. In fact, it’s embarrassing to hear my self talk in English. You probably don’t know we actually have an accent reduction class here. Please sign me up Joann. Anyway, I like to close this speech with something memorable. Unfortunately, I could not come up with anything original, so I would just paraphrase a famous quote uttered almost 50 years ago by JFK, “Ask not what this center can do for you, ask what you can do for this center”. Um, it does not sound quite right in our case does it? In fact, please do come to tell me what I can do for you, and how best this center can serve our community. My door is always open. Thank you.