A liberal giant (by Ho-fung)

I refer to Giovanni as a 'liberal' giant not in the sense of his political inclination but his approach to engaging with other intellectuals and mentoring students (I think I'm not the first one to discover Giovanni's 'liberal' disposition). Being very confident in his own views, Giovanni never runs out of patience in listening to contrarian views and engaging with such views. Everyone who is fortunate and privileged enough to have the opportunity of debating with Giovanni would find that he or she benefits hugely from his scope of knowledge and rigor of his thoughts. And, as I observe, Giovanni has been actively absorbing diverse views and expanding his paradigm through debating with others. And this cosmopolitanism at the heart of his system of thoughts is well expressed in the increasing breadth and depth of his works from the African labor supplies through the Adam Smith in Beijing. And the most amazing thing about Giovanni is that he is not only generous in offering his precious time to debate with peers, but also with students, whom he always treats as intellectual peers, also as daughters and sons. It is this generosity and love that prevent me, once dubbed as Giovanni's "most disrespectful student," from being expelled from the Arrighi School of Historical Social Sciences, and allow me to mature (both intellectually and personally) over the 10+ years under his enlightenment, critical scrutiny, and protection, despite my own stubborn tendency to impolitely challenge authority and the greatest of minds. Giovanni, what I have to promise you now is that I will keep on paying homage to you in the rest of my life through treating my peers and students like how you love yours -- I'll try my best!