Chang Jung Christian University President Chen Chin-seng and Council on Agriculture Forestry Experimental Institute vice-director Hsiao Jung-tai go way back to the days when they were students in the Department of Entomology at Chunghsing University.

A few years ago, they both lost their spouses due to illness. The remarkable thing is, without any coordination at all between them, both found love late in life this past year, and got married this month. However, when they finally got around to trading e-mails, both had to ask in astonishment: "You married who?"

Chen, born in 1950, specialized in mosquitoes, particularly females. He laughingly calls himself a "communications specialist", because the Chinese words for "by means of a ditch" sound like the word for "communication”, and ditches played a major role in his studies, since they are important mosquito habitat. He fell in love with a professor of piano at Chang Jung University, Wang Hsueh-ping, who had done her graduate studies at the University of Maryland. At their "secret marriage", the groom played the harmonica while the bride played the piano, so that they could fulfill the Chinese proverb about married harmony.

Hsiao holds a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Georgia. Twenty years ago, he was sent to accompany an expert from the US Zoology Association on a visit to Taiwan. At the time, Li Ling-ling, now a professor at National Taiwan University, was given the same detail. The two hit it off way back when, and four years ago, when Hsiao lost his wife and Li her parents, they got together for mutual support. They found that their interests spread from shared scientific research to animal preserves and even to dance, wine, and music, and each soon became the others truest support.

Chen and Hsiao had a friendship of nearly four decades duration. Five years ago, Chens wife died, and a year later, Hsiaos succumbed to a brain tumor. Chen and Wang had met 16 years ago at Tunghai University, while Hsiao and Li had met two decades earlier. Moreover, the second wives of both were good friends of the first wives.

The two couples had over a century of friendship between them, and both men saw new friendships fanned into love last year. The younger was married on August 1, while his "elder", Chen, took the plunge on August 21. The four are all ardent Christians, and swore to love and honor each other before minister and congregation.

Both marriages are very low-key, with the couples having only close friends in their homes for dinner. The means of announcing their new marriages were equally creative. Chen and Wang had kept everything a secret and sent an e-mail to the entire faculty of the university after coming home. Hsiao and Li used a pseudonym made up of both their names to submit an article, saying that "some old friends had joined hands in love."

Chen says that Hsiao is currently the director of the ROC Entomology Association, where Chen serves on the board of governors. He had originally been ready to email an announcement to the associations bulletin saying that "Ive gotten married, stop fixing me up already!" but he was shocked to find that his old friend had "scooped" him in this regard.

So when did love begin? Chen says shyly that “At our age, a lot of things happen when you’re not looking. We didn’t get engaged, there wasn’t time! Now, she still calls me President and I call her Profesor Wang. None of this honey and darling stuff! Our love is classical, like the music we like so much."

Chang Ying-chao, a professor at Chang Jung, says that the president is an interesting person with a great sense of humor and very discriminating, one who treasures rare things. The schools anniversary falls on the anniversary of the death of his former spouse, and five years ago, he came to Chang Jung still mourning her death. Each year, he brought his only daughter to the school to honor his former wifes spirit on the day before the anniversary, then showed up at the schools anniversary celebration smiling, hiding the depth of feeling within himself. Today, he is in love once more, with someone to care for him and be with him, and everyone is delighted at his good fortune.