SAMANTHA BLONS
Assistant A&E Editor
He survived the WWII bombings in the Pacific during the Japanese-American combat. He traveled the globe behind the lens of his camera, filming documentaries and news stories for television. He graced the stage at the Emmy Awards, where he won a coveted gold statuette.
Today, however, Mr. Tuhuei Su can be found at his corner desk in the adjunct office in the Seaver Academic Complex, preparing for the Japanese courses he teaches.
In the small Japanese program on campus, Su and his students bond quickly over the semester. The atmosphere of his nine-student, second-year Japanese class is friendly and casual, with Su chuckling lightheartedly at the class jokester’s comments and often inserting his own dry humor into the lecture.
However, aside from bits of scattered information Su has mentioned throughout the semester, his students in first- and second-year Japanese know little about his remarkable career path.
Born a Japanese citizen in Taiwan in 1931, Su grew up speaking both Japanese and Taiwanese. After Pearl Harbor, when Japanese-occupied Taiwan became a target for American bombings, Su’s hometown was completely burned, he said, but his family escaped the combat.
Su discovered his interests in foreign languages, literature and film while studying at National Taiwan University. After graduating from NTU, Su migrated to the United States to study at Western State College of Colorado, where he received his first masters’ degree. But this devoted lifelong student never tired of learning new skills and was not ready to end his pursuits of higher education.
“I was very interested in making movies. I thought I should go to Hollywood,” he said.
He moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the department of cinema at the University of Southern California in 1959. Though he spent only a year at USC, he made an impact, because an acquaintance in the department recommended him for a life-changing job with a documentary film making company – one that would show him the world through the lens of his video camera.
Su joined Vi-Way Productions as a cameraman, embarking on a tour of Asia and Africa filming documentaries for television. He recorded the stories of the people and animals in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Kenya and other nations.
Dr. Robert Lloyd, chair of the International Studies and Languages Division, said he enjoys listening to Su’s stories of filming documentaries across the world.
“Every time I talk to him I learn new things,” Lloyd said.
Su spent four years with Vi-Way Productions on two separate film expeditions. He took a short hiatus between projects, when he married wife Huei-Mei in 1964 and had a daughter, Amanda, the next year. His wife and daughter accompanied Su when he joined the company again abroad.
When Su and his family returned to the Los Angeles in 1968, he went to work for NBC as a film editor, primarily for the network’s “Nightly News.” However, he did not stay in town for long.
“After I joined NBC, I was assigned to news work, so you are sent out quite often either on domestic stories or to foreign countries,” Su said. “My life may be destined to travel.”
Su covered events ranging from the fall of Saigon to President Carter’s world tour.
The stressful environment of the news business paid off one September night in 1973, when Su won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing. He was nominated again for the category the following year.
Su continued to work for NBC as an editor until 1997, simultaneously balancing his professional career with a return to college to obtain a second masters’ degree and later with teaching at Pepperdine.
Proving that it is never too late to go to a university, Su enrolled at UCLA at age 56, studying Japanese literature and language. Su began working as a UCLA teaching assistant the following year, lecturing students in first-year Japanese. He earned his M.A. in Japanese in 1990, and joined the Pepperdine community as an adjunct professor in 1991.
“I like to teach, because I come into contact with young students. If I can give them something, this is worthwhile,” Su said.
03-29-2007