Ni Zhengzhu devoted his entire life to grafting native kiwifruit

To promote Taiwan, China's agricultural products far and wide, the late Ni Cheng-chu, a professor in the Department of Horticulture at National Chung Hsing University, applied his lifetime of academic research on high-graft pears to native kiwifruit, making it possible to grow fresh, juicy high-graft kiwifruit even on flat land. Despite these remarkable achievements, Ni Cheng-chu received neither the recognition nor the resources he deserved during his lifetime, and he insisted on continuing his research even if it meant paying out of his own pocket. Wu Tien-yu, regarded as Ni Cheng-chu's "last disciple"

Leading by Example: Students Remember Ni Cheng-chu

Hung Hsuan-en, who also used the word "perseverance" to describe Ni Cheng-chu, said that he placed great importance on practical horticultural experience and led by example, going out to the greenhouse and garden plots no matter the wind or sun. "Around the time of Typhoon Morakot, Teacher once fell from a tree, but the very next day he still insisted on going out to the fields and working in the orchard."

His research dedication during his lifetime left a deep impression on teachers and students alike, but Ni Cheng-chu's kiwifruit work came to an abrupt halt after his death in a car accident 7 years ago, and his original collaborators also stopped because there was no one to carry on, prompting many students to lament, "If Teacher were still here, maybe the native kiwifruit industry would have taken some shape by now."

Currently, the only student carrying on Ni Cheng-chu's research on flat-land high-graft kiwifruit is roughly Wu Tien-yu alone