It all started when I shared a photo of one of our college classmates celebrating his grand kid's one-year anniversary at our chat group:
"Why did you wear a hat," some asked,
"Well, to cover up my graying hair, to be honest," said the new grandpa.
Some others chimed in: "Yeah, I have a similar issue, my head is getting bald, so I wear a hat most of the time..."
An idea clicked in my mind, and after tweaking and twisting some text and graphics I grabbed online, I came up with the following announcement:
"In line with our long held commitment to the upkeep of our fellow classmates' health and good looks, we at Hui-Chun-Yuan* have decided to provide "Hui-Chun Hats" that shall protect and prohibit all you guys' precious heads from age distorted look..."
"The following are two design concepts we have, one American, the other Chinese style, let us know which one you prefer:"
https://cdwong.blogspot.com/search?q=summer+fun
and this one
https://cdwong.blogspot.com/2017/11/autumn-fun.html
Wisely, most people picked the Chinese version, with the character 春 right underneath a small circle inside a big circle, together forming the phrase 回春, the exact same name as the Hui-Chun ("Spring Again" meaning "Youth Reviving") Club. I concurred and explained:
回春院 =》回春園 =》回春圓，大圓包小圓，圓圓滿滿，源源不斷，淵源久遠，源遠流長 ...
I could well keep this Hui-Chun hat fictitious, as a butt of jokes, like what we've been doing with its namesake club. For example, the following "special edition" hat was awarded to people who were supposedly given the wrong "youth reviving pills" (回春藥) by the club as a token of apology and good wishes: 
Or used as a scare tactic tool to urge people to pay the fictitious membership fees when some mentioned there were coyotes rampaging through their neighborhood:
But wouldn't it be even more fun if I made the hat a real thing?
So I started looking for some custom hat makers online, and was pleasantly surprised there were quite a few of them right in the US (they get their hats from overseas, then make the embroidering in the US). After some Q&A back and forth, I picked one company in Wisconsin, uploaded my design and placed order for 48 hats and got them in a couple of weeks:
*The "NTUEE80" in the back designates our university/departmental names and year of the class
I made the announcement to the group and started distributing the hats. The original idea was to give them away to people who had become grand parents, as congratulation gifts for having accomplished a milestone in life (做人成公), but soon I changed my mind and gave them away to all who came to any reunion party, assuming and encouraging all to become grandparents one day:
Then I arrived in Taiwan a couple months ago, bringing all the remaining hats I have with me, to give away to classmates in Taiwan. The idea was to distribute them at reunion gatherings like I did in the States, but some local classmates suggested I held some outdoor activities–such as hiking to some urban hills in Taipei–for distribution.
I thought that was a great idea. After all, the real purpose of the fictitious Hui-Chun Club is to encourage guys to do real "youth reviving" activities, and hiking is definitely one of them. So I made an announcement at the group, asking people to meet me at a landmark hill top of the city on two consecutive Saturday mornings to receive the hats:
My hat and I made it to the hill top on the first Saturday:
And the second:
My local classmates' attendance was less than spectacular, though, only two came to meet me at the hill top. Obviously, giving away free hats at feasting parties like we did in the States is much easier than asking people to climb up hill for an hour and a half on wintry days (though the first two Saturdays were of gorgeous weather)!
Undeterred, and for my own pumped-up curiosity to check out the many different trails to this famous landmark hill top of the city, I extended my "Self-Rejuvenating Excursion Series" to a third Saturday:
And a fourth, last Saturday of December, which also fell on the Christmas Day of the year:
It was a fun project all along!
Happy Hui-Chun Days to All!
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