Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Discusses Why Global Language Rights Matter

17 December 2016 (Saturday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses the importance of language rights in a world where transnational migration is ever more prevalent in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

 “The provision of opportunities to acquire a host country’s language or languages enhances access and prospects for migrants. However, a comprehensive strategy for culturally and linguistically diverse societies should be based on the recognition of these (usually minority, often disempowered) language communities, and provision of services in their community languages. This represents action towards uphold­ing human rights, and to achieving social inclusion of all groups in societies, and ultimately to fulfilling our global goals for sustainable development.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2054869/migration-why-global-language-rights-matter

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Explores How Lewd Military Slang Gave Rise to ‘Chitty Bang Bangs’

4 December 2016 (Sunday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, explains how lewd military slang gave rise to ‘chitty bang bangs’ in her Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

 “Ian Fleming’s flying car came later. The original phrase referred to the permission slip soldiers needed to leave the barracks to visit local brothels.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2050777/how-lewd-military-slang-gave-rise-chitty-bang

Source: SCMP

Professor Frank Dikötter Discovers New Insights into the Cultural Revolution and Modern China

Chair Professor of Humanities Frank Dikötter in an interview with the Bulletin discusses his latest book The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History 1962-1976, in which he has drawn on archival work on the period of the Cultural Revolution to pull the roots of modern China into the light.

“The punchline is, the people are as usual far ahead of their own government. The people are the true architects of economic reforms, not Deng Xiaoping.”

See the full article on Bulletin October 2016 (Vol. 18 No. 1) here:
http://www4.hku.hk/pubunit/Bulletin/ebook_2016Oct(18.1)/#25-26

Dr James Fichter Examines the Myth of Tea as a Symbol of Protest in the American Revolution

Dr James Fichter, Associate Professor from the European Studies Programme of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, has done an interview with The University of Hong Kong Bulletin on his research in the symbolic value of tea in the history of American independence for a book in progress Tea’s Party: The Politics of Tea in the American Revolution, 1773–1776.

“The tea boycott was symbolic but stupid. They were just depriving themselves of the tea that they owned. People moved to more satisfying symbols of protest, but the idea of tea as a symbol has endured.”

See the full article on Bulletin October 2016 (Vol. 18 No. 1) here:
http://www4.hku.hk/pubunit/Bulletin/ebook_2016Oct(18.1)/#49-50

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Investigates the Etymology of ‘Tea’

18 November 2016 (Friday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses the origins of the various names people use to refer to tea in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“Walk into a branch of a global coffee-house chain and order a chai tea. Wait – you’re actually saying ‘tea tea’. The origins of these two words for the same drink reflect diverse trade routes and the transmission of tea-drinking culture.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2046896/tea-and-etymology-where-your-cuppa-char-came

Source: SCMP

Faculty of Arts in the Media: SCMP Interview with Professor Chan Hing-yan

Professor Chan Hing-yan from the Department of Music was interviewed by the South China Morning Post in relation to his new work for huqin and orchestra – the centrepiece of a Hong Kong Sinfonietta concert in Taiwan – that mixes poetic Chinese themes with Western techniques.

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2046545/hong-kong-composer-chan-hing-yan-multiple-strings-his-bow

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Reveals the True Origin of the Old Word for Maidservant ‘amah’

4 November 2016 (Friday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses where Hong Kong got ‘amah’, an old word for maidservant, from in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

The term used to mean a Chinese domestic helper, and the Indian variant, ‘ayah’, entered the English language at the height of the British empire, but their roots lie in another former colonial superpower.

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2042648/where-hong-kong-got-amah-old-word-maidservant

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Discusses the Common Hong Kong Greeting ‘Have you eaten rice yet?’

23 October 2016 (Sunday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, explains why ‘have you eaten’ means ‘how are you’ in Hong Kong in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“It is not exclusive to Hong Kong Cantonese. Across Asia, where food – in particular, rice – is central to the culture, and where one’s well-being is traditionally contingent on the community’s sustenance, one finds the same traditional “have you eaten (rice) yet/already?” greeting: in Burmese (sa: pi: bi: la:?), Chiuchow (jia bung meh ?), Khmer (nham bay howie nov ?), Korean (bap meogeosseoyo ?), Malay (sudah makan ?), Malayalam (cho¯rrun . t. o¯?), Putonghua (ch I ¯ fàn le ma?), Sinhalese (bath kavatha?), Tagalog (kumain ka na ba?), Taiwanese (jia˘ bà bua¯i?), Thai (thaan khâo láew re¯u yang?), Vietnamese (a˘n co ’ m chu ’ a?).”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2038651/why-have-you-eaten-means-how-are-you-hong-kong

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Lisa Lim Asks if the Word "Kiasu" Applies to You?

6 October 2016 (Thursday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses how the Hokkien Chinese slang expression kiasu, meaning being afraid to lose out, slipped into Singapore English and went round the world in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“Do you know the word kiasu? If not, then be kiasu and google it. You’ll get more than a million hits and learn that, usually associated with Singaporeans, it means “to be afraid of losing out”. You’ll come across refer­ences to kiasu parents, kiasu companies and even kiasuapps.

Just four decades ago, the Hokkien term kian su was confined to Singapore army slang. As the dominant lingua franca of Chinese Singaporeans, Hokkien terms first spread among males performing compulsory national service. But before long, this one had entered everyday, albeit colloquial, Singapore English.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2025374/where-word-kiasu-came

Source: SCMP

HKU Research Indicates Children Learn Quantifiers in the Same Order Across Languages 港大研究新發現：語言未影響兒童學習量詞的次序

We can all imagine how children learn to count: They start with 'one' and proceed in order of increasing cardinality ("one, two, three…"). But what about other words of quantity such as 'all', 'some', 'most', or 'none'? No-one teaches young children explicitly what these words mean or how they are used. And yet recent research involving 50 academics from around the world, including Dr Peter Crosthwaite from the University of Hong Kong, has found that children speaking one of 31 different languages master these words in the same order. Their findings bring a new perspective into the debate on the universality of language and point to universals in the process of how we learn language, as contrasted to universal properties of language itself. This research also opens the door to creating language assessment tests that are applicable to every language.

Dr Crosthwaite, who is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Applied English Studies, joined Dr Napoleon Katsos from the University of Cambridge and over 50 colleagues from around the world in the study, which was published in the August 16 issue of the highly prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Dr Crosthwaite was responsible for testing Koreans in the experimental phase, alongside other scholars also contributing to Cantonese and Mandarin data collection.

The study attempted to determine how children acquire other kinds of quantifier words, such as 'some', 'all', 'most', 'none', and 'some are not', for which there is no natural order. The study included 768 five-year-old children and 536 adults who spoke one of 31 languages representing 11 language groups. The authors showed participants five objects and five boxes with zero to five of the objects placed inside the boxes. Participants listened to sentences containing one of the quantifiers (e.g., "All of the objects are in the boxes."), and judged whether the sentences correctly or incorrectly described the visual display. Children across languages acquired quantifiers in a similar order based on factors related to the words' meanings and uses. For example, children more successfully understood quantifiers such as 'all' or 'none' than quantifiers such as 'some' and 'most', suggesting that children acquire words that encompass totality at an earlier stage of development than words that denote a portion of a group.

For further details on the study, please visit: http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9244.short

For media enquiries or individual interview requests, please contact Mr Cyrus Chan, Events Coordinator, Faculty of Arts (tel: 3917 4984 email: cyrusc@hku.hk).

For the online press release and photos, please visit:
http://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_15327.html

港大研究新發現：語言未影響兒童學習量詞的次序

我們都能想像兒童是如何學習數數目的，由一開始數下去，一、二、三…。但是那些用來表示數量的詞語，例如 "all", "some", "most" 和 "none" 呢？沒有人能夠具體地向幼童說明這些抽象字詞的意義和用法。然而，根據50名來自世界各地的學術專家，包括來自香港大學的Dr Peter Crosthwaite，近期對此進行的一項研究就發現，全球上31種不同語言的兒童用相同的次序來學習這些詞語。這項結果對語言的全球性和全球語言學習過程的討論帶來了全新的視野，突破了以往只討論語言特性全球化的局限。這項研究亦開啟了適用於各種語言的統一評估測試之門。

這項研究由香港大學應用英語中心助理教授Dr Crosthwaite，聯同劍橋大學的Dr Napoleon Katsos以及超過50位世界各地的學術人員共同參與，並刊登於學術界享負盛名的雜誌Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)。Dr Crosthwaite負責對韓國籍人士進行實驗測試，並與其他學者收集粵語和普通話的數據。

研究目的是了解兒童如何學習和掌握沒有自然順序的量詞，如"all", "some", "most", "none" 和 "some are not"。而當中參與研究測試的768名五歲兒童和536名成人，能說31種語言的其中一種，並代表11個不同的語言組合。研究人員向參與者展示五件物件，以及五個放了零至五件物件的箱子。參與者聆聽每句包含一個抽象量詞的句子，例如 "全部物件都在箱子裡面"，然後分辨句子是否正確描述眼前展示的情況。運用不同語言的兒童在認知這些量詞時，根據詞語的意思和用法會有相似的次序。舉個例子，兒童較能夠掌握 "all" 和 "none"，相對難以掌握 "some" 和 "most"，顯示出兒童在較早發展時期掌握具整體性的字詞，而在較晚期才會掌握部分性字詞。

如欲深入了解這項研究，歡迎瀏覽 http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9244.short。

傳謀查詢或採訪，請聯絡文學院活動統籌陳卓鈞先生 (電話: 3917 4984; 電郵: cyrusc@hku.hk)。

新聞稿網上版及照片，請瀏覽:
http://www.hku.hk/press/c_news_detail_15327.html

Language Matters: Lisa Lim Believes There Is Hope for the Indigenous Tanka and Hakka Languages and Cultures in Hong Kong

23 September 2016 (Friday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses her hopes for the preservation of the indigenous cultures and languages of the Tanka and Hakka people in Hong Kong in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“The relocation of [Hakka and Tanka] communities to post-war new towns and urban centres – coupled with the decline of small-scale rural econ­omies, and language policy and attitudes – contributed to reduced heritage language use.

However, the value of indigenous cultures and languages has been recognised of late and, in 2011, the Tai Hang fire-dragon dance joined the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Although none of Hong Kong’s 10 ICH entries on the national list comprise languages, in the first ICH Inventory of Hong Kong, in 2014, 21 of 480 items are oral traditions and expressions, including Hakka, fishermen’s dialect and other language varieties. There is hope yet for tangible outcomes.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2021675/new-hope-disappearing-languages-and-cultures

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Lisa Lim Explains How Hong Kong's 2014 Pro-Democracy Protests Popularised the Phrase ‘Add Oil’

11 September 2016 (Sunday) - Online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, explains how Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protests popularised the phrase 'add oil' in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

"At the height of Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protests, media artists launched a website for world-wide messages of support to be sent to protesters, displayed in real-time online, and projected onto buildings at protest sites. That they named the initiative the "Add Oil Machine for OCLP [Occupy Central with Love and Peace]" marked a significant step in the evolution of English in Cantonese-dominant Hong Kong.

An expression of exhortation in Cantonese, 加油 (ga1yau4; "add/increase fuel") is well known to Hongkongers, originating as a Macau Grand Prix chant during the 1960s and now used to cheer a team on or as encouragement in challenging times - exams, physical exertion, boyfriend trouble. In the past decade, the English phrase "add oil", a word-for-word translation from Cantonese - just as "Devil's advocate" and "by heart" are Latin and French calques - has gained prominence among young bilingual Hongkongers, but solely in computer-mediated communications (CMC), such as SMS, online chat or on social media."

Please click on the following link for the complete article: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2017763/how-2014-hong-kong-protests-popularised-phrase

Oil being added during the 1968 Macau Grand Prix. Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Reveals Nuanced Story of the Word “Junk”

28 August 2016 (Sunday) – online

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, reveals the nuanced story of the word “junk” in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“Long before summer junk parties became trendy, the trad­itional boat – efficient, sturdy, multi-masted vessels, with fully battened sails, compartmentalised hull, stabilising lee- and centreboards, stern-mounted rudder – had been a Hong Kong icon, featured in the logo of the old Tourist Association.

It would be easy to assume, as many do, that the English word “junk” comes from Chinese – chuán in Putonghua or Southern Min chûn.

The story of the word junk is far more nuanced, though, involving two oft-overlooked actors…”

Please click on the following link for the complete article: 

http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2008869/where-did-word-junk-come

Source: SCMP

文學院傳媒報道：現代語言及文化學院助理講師王志恒探討Pokemon Go旋風熱潮

【明報專訊】要數近日的城中熱話，一定是《Pokemon Go》，沒有之一。

《Pokemon Go》是已故任天堂社長岩田聰的遺作，亦是任天堂創辦127年來的首個手機遊戲。在它面世之前，其實任天堂早已陷入銷售的低潮，在2010年起，就出現了過去30年來的首次虧損。

最大的原因，一方面在於日本的遊戲廠商面臨一個很大的挑戰。相對歐美的廠商，無論技術、資金和人手也明顯被比下去。

另一方面，在於任天堂一直不太願意進入近年大熱的手機遊戲市場。因為任天堂除了是一家遊戲製作公司，更是一家硬體製造和銷售商，假如它將旗下遊戲打進手機市場，顯然會影響自家的掌上型遊戲機硬體銷售量，形成自己打自己的情况，最後未必帶來可觀的利潤。因此，在任天堂2014的原定計劃中，只是希望利用現有的iOS和Android設備宣傳品牌，推出旗下經典遊戲的試玩版，而非正式版，假定當玩家被試玩版吸引後，自然會花錢買主機和遊戲。

可是，任天堂大概沒有想過，自從《Pokemon Go》推出後，迅速成為美國、澳洲和新西蘭三大測試地連續三天App Store收入冠軍，連帶製作該遊戲的遊戲公司任天堂亦因此股價急升，數天內獲得90億美元的增值。除此之外，這遊戲更吸引了大量社交媒體關注，在遊戲推出後，Twitter的話題也在短短兩天內激增一倍。

那麼，《Pokemon Go》的魔力何在，使之成為全球各地的追捧遊戲？

閱讀全文 : http://news.mingpao.com/pns/dailynews/web_tc/article/20160717/s00005/1468692074263

Source: www.pokemongo.com

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Discusses How Singapore Is Embracing Multilingualism Five Decades After Independence

11 August 2016 (Thursday) – online         14 August 2016 (Sunday) - hardcopy

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, congratulates Singaporean politicians for embracing multilingualism and diversity as part of their culture five decades after independence in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“Early policies, initiated by Lee Kuan Yew, took a hard line: supporting ‘standard’, official languages and suppressing all others. From 1979, the annual Speak Mandarin Campaign promoted the use of Singapore’s official Chinese language and discouraged all other Chinese varieties. This led to a significant shift in Chinese households from mother tongues such as Hokkien and Teochew, to Mandarin. Similarly, from 2000, the Speak Good English Movement discouraged the burgeoning use of Singapore English.

Fast-forward to 2015 and a more compromising, inclusive attitude prevails. The lead-up to Singapore’s 50th National Day, and Lee’s death earlier that year, prompted a rise in sentimentality and attention to heritage – including a sea change in official attitudes towards non-official languages.”

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2002360/singapore-embraces-multilingualism-five-decades-after

Source: SCMP

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Explores the Origins and Multiple Meanings of the Culturally Evocative Word 'Chop'

29 July 2016 (Friday) – online          31 July 2016 (Sunday) - hardcopy

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, explores the origins and multiple meanings of the culturally evocative word ‘chop’ in her Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“The word is wonderfully evocative of the passage and contact of peoples and cultures in earlier times. From the Hindi chaap, meaning stamp, imprint, seal or brand, or instrument for stamping (used already in 17th-century colonial Indian English), the word entered English in the early 19th-century as chop, referring to a trademark – a consequence of trade of the linguistic kind during the British empire’s expansion into the Indian subcontinent. Merchants and civil servants travelling from British India to other outposts of the empire spread the word.

In Hong Kong English “chop” refers to a seal or a stamp. Many of us will be familiar with the need to place a company chop on an official document. And personal name chops – traditional seals carved with names in Chinese characters, used typically with red ink – are made, along with more modern rubber stamps, throughout the territory, most famously in Sheung Wan’s “Chop Alley”, with its lines of chopmakers’ stalls.”

Source: SCMP

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1996080/where-does-word-chop-come

PhD Candidate Gordon Fung Dic-lun Takes 2nd Prize in Compositions for Ensemble of Traditional Chinese and Western Instruments at Leibniz’s Harmonies 2016

Gordon Fung Dic-Lun, a PhD candidate in Composition in the Department of Music, was awarded 2^nd Prize in the category of “Compositions for Ensemble of Traditional Chinese and Western Instruments” with his piece “Rivière sans Retour” at the International Composition Competition, Leibniz’s Harmonies 2016.

The award presentation took place on June 30, 2016, in the Orangerie Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany. The ceremony included performances by musicians of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Con Tempo Ensemble Beijing, and Das Neue Ensemble. Subsequent prizewinner concerts will be held in Leibniz’s birthplace of Leipzig and in Beijing.

The Competition is held in honour of German rationalist philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) under the auspices of the German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Berlin. The winners were selected from among 100 entries by an international jury.

For further details, please visit: http://www.leibnizharmonien.de/en.html.

Arts Faculty Newsletter Issue 13

Dear Colleagues and Students,

Greetings from the Faculty of Arts!

It is with great pleasure that I share with you the thirteenth issue of the biannual Arts Faculty Newsletter which showcases the most recent achievements of our staff and students, and keeps you informed of Arts events.

The contents of the current issue include:
P.2-4: Faculty News
P.5-7: Research
P.8-10: Teaching and Learning
P.11-16: Knowledge Exchange and Alumni Sharing


Simply click on the link below to access the online version of our Summer 2016 Newsletter:
<http://arts.hku.hk/summer2016.pdf>

If you would like a hard copy, please send your request to cyrusc@hku.hk. We also welcome your comments and suggestions.

We plan to publish our next issue in Winter 2016. If you have news items that you would like to share with our colleagues, students, alumni, and friends, please contact Professor John Carroll, Associate Dean in charge of Outreach (jcarroll@hku.hk).

I hope you enjoy our thirteenth issue!

Professor Derek Collins
Dean
Faculty of Arts

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim Discusses the Inclusion of ‘guanxi’ and ‘Chinese Helicopter’ in the Oxford English Dictionary

15 July 2016 (Friday) – online      17 July 2016 (Sunday) – hardcopy

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor in the School of English, discusses the inclusion of Asian English words in the Oxford English Dictionary in her fortnightly Post Magazine column: Language Matters.

“The March update of the Oxford English Dictionary included some 500 new entries, many from Asian varieties of English. For Filipinos this was a ‘kilig’ moment. Singaporeans, on the other hand, engaged in heated debate as to whether certain words and terms were worthy (‘chilli crab’), spelt correctly (‘ang moh’), really Singapore English (‘lepak’), or exist at all (‘Chinese helicopter’).”

Source: SCMP

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://m.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1989807/war-words-erupts-guanxi-chinese-helicopter-enter-oxford

Language Matters: Dr Lisa Lim’s New Fortnightly Column in the Post Magazine

1 July 2016 (Friday) – online         3 July 2016 (Sunday) - hardcopy

Dr Lisa Lim, Associate Professor the School of English, is contributing a new, fortnightly column in the Post Magazine. In each column, she takes on a word or phrase used in Hong Kong or the region and explores its origins, and its significance in issues of society, policy, identity and power.

 “As a Singaporean sociolinguist based in Hong Kong, working in multilingualism, language contact, minority languages and forms of world English, I have found Hong Kong’s linguistic minorities striking, comprising a precious and often overlooked part of the social fabric. I have also relished ever-evolving Hong Kong English.”

Hakka people attend a ceremony at a temple in Lai Chi Wo, in the New Territories, in May 1972 (Source: SCMP)

Please click on the following link to read her first column in full:
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1983590/cantonese-dominates-hongkongers-speak-myriad-languages-old

文學院傳媒報道：真實奈良美智：一位對世界充滿期許的藝術家 - 官綺雲副教授談奈良美智

奈良美智＜生命樂章；聆聽今天＞。圖／亞洲協會香港中心 提供

（節錄自亞洲協會香港中心出版《一期一會.奈良美智》）


鏡頭背後的藝術家：奈良美智

／官綺雲（香港大學藝術系副教授）


奈良美智最具代表性的畫作就是他筆下看似憤世的女孩，但他的攝影作品也提供了另一個渠道讓我們認識他的藝術創作、個人反思和風格、甚至他的為人。

奈良對攝影一直很感興趣，早在2002年3月於日版《君子》雜誌的特《Photography Talks》中，首次以「攝影師」的身份示人。奈良在十三歲那年收到父母送給他的第一部相機，從此攝影便成為能夠觸發情感和回憶，為他帶來創作靈感的工具。在求學時期，他視攝影為創作過程中的一部分，那時到處遊歷增廣見聞和藝術訓練同等重要。

奈良渴望遊歷世界，從來不是為了到達目的地，而是在旅途中不斷尋找新的發現，那顆好奇心就是他創作的原動力。1980年，當奈良還是二十歲的學生時，他背著背包展開他第一次重要的旅程，經巴基斯坦到歐洲，並在歐洲各個城市眾多的博物館裏，欣賞到許多的真跡名
畫，讓他有一種「行萬里路勝過讀萬卷書」的領悟，為他帶來了深刻的影響。

閱讀全文：http://udn.com/news/story/7071/1784568

Generation Mao: Historian Frank Dikötter’s Take on Modern China

23 June 2016 (Thursday) – online              26 June 2016 (Sunday) – hardcopy

Professor Frank Dikötter from the Department of History spoke to Fionnuala McHugh of the South China Morning Post about his recently published book, The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History 1962-1976. His latest publication is the third in a trilogy on modern China, which also includes, Mao’s Great Famine, winner of the 2011 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, and The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957.

Source: SCMP

Please click on the following link for the complete article: 

http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/1979870/what-drives-frank-dikotter-chronicler-chinas 

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Dr Yeewan Koon Discusses the Question of Gender in the Hong Kong Arts Scene

Dr Yeewan Koon from the Department of Fine Arts was interviewed in the 9^th issue of the magazine Design Anthology for an article focusing on the question of gender in Hong Kong’s art scene.

 “There are plenty of women in the arts and in some places, entire teams. But the question is: has that had an impact on the arts? Are more women artists being shown in exhibitions? Are there new ways in thinking about women in the arts beyond the question of visibility?”

Please click HERE to read the complete article.

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Professor Xu Guoqi Discusses China’s Humanitarian Activities Overseas

Professor Xu Guoqi from the Department of History was interviewed by Irin News for an article about China’s humanitarian activities overseas.


"China might be a great power now, but it has to learn how to behave like one, especially in the area of humanitarian aid.”


“China has very few NGOs relative to its population, and they are still figuring out how to function within China as well as abroad."

Workers and residents watch as a bulldozer demolishes an earthquake-damaged building in the city center in Chautara, Nepal, on 8 July 2015  © Juliette Rousselot/IRIN

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2016/06/08/when-disaster-strikes-should-china-do-more

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Professor Stephen Matthews Discusses Why the Plan to Rename Pikachu has Made Hong Kong Angry

Source: BBC

Professor Stephen Matthews from the Department of Linguistics was interviewed by BBC on the decision of Japanese game-maker Nintendo to use only Mandarin Chinese names for the characters in the two new games in its hugely popular Pokemon series.

The BBC's Juliana Liu in Hong Kong says the dispute taps into growing local fears that Cantonese - along with local culture and tradition - is being supplanted by Mandarin.

Prof Stephen Matthews of the School of Humanities, University of Hong Kong, agrees.

"It's seen in the current climate as creeping 'mainlandisation'," he said.

"In the last few years people have felt that what makes Hong Kong special is disappearing bit by bit and what is an issue of Pokemon which is fairly trivial, becomes a big one because it's very sensitive."

Please click on the following link for the complete article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36414978

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Professor Charles Schencking Discusses the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Professor Charles Schencking from the Department of History was interviewed by RTHK3 Backchat on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki following President Obama's visit to Hiroshima.

Please click on the following link for the podcast of the programme:

http://podcast.rthk.hk/podcast/item_epi.php?pid=177&lang=en-US&id=70442

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Rewriting Black American History in HKU Exhibition and Research

Source: SCMP

Hong Kong will be the first international stop of an ambitious exhibition aimed at revising 400 years of American history, and the African American couple behind the show expect its focus on the historic misrepresentation of the black community will resonate with Chinese audiences.

The Kinsey Collection will be exhibited from December 9 at the University of Hong Kong’s museum...

Among the stories made up, according to Mr Kinsey, is the common belief that all African Americans were slaves in the early days.

“We have paintings from 1865 by professional African American artists. We have a document from the late 16th century showing that descendants from the Moors in Spain were among the first settlers, years before the English settled in Jamestown. They were not slaves,” he said.

The exhibition has been seen by five million people in 21 cities within the US, including Washington, where it was shown at the Smithsonian Institution. With the country’s first African American president soon to step down, the Kinseys feel there remains much work to be done to address racial stereotypes...

HKU’s American studies and African studies programmes would tailor-make courses based on the exhibits and conduct academic research, said Derek Collins, dean of the faculty of arts at HKU.

Please click on the following link to access the original article on South China Morning Post: http://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/1941712/hong-kong-outing-exhibition-aims-rewrite-black-american

Frank Dikötter Launches Final Installment in the People's Trilogy

The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962–1976

Frank Dikötter

May 2016, Bloomsbury, 432 pp

After the economic disaster of the Great Leap Forward that claimed tens of millions of lives from 1958–1962, an aging Mao Zedong launched an ambitious scheme to shore up his reputation and eliminate those he viewed as a threat to his legacy. The stated goal of the Cultural Revolution was to purge the country of bourgeois, capitalistic elements he claimed were threatening genuine communist ideology. Young students formed the Red Guards, vowing to defend the Chairman to the death, but soon rival factions started fighting each other in the streets with semiautomatic weapons in the name of revolutionary purity. As the country descended into chaos, the military intervened, turning China into a garrison state marked by bloody purges that crushed as many as one in fifty people.

The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, 1962–1976 draws for the first time on hundreds of previously classified party documents, from secret police reports to unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches. Frank Dikötter uses this wealth of material to undermine the picture of complete conformity that is often supposed to have characterized the last years of the Mao era. After the army itself fell victim to the Cultural Revolution, ordinary people used the political chaos to resurrect the market and hollow out the party's ideology. In short, they buried Maoism. By showing how economic reform from below was an unintended consequence of a decade of violent purges and entrenched fear, The Cultural Revolution casts China's most tumultuous era in a wholly new light.

For the publisher's page: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-cultural-revolution-9781632864215/

See more reviews on:

The Economist: http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21698632-how-maos-call-disorder-under-heaven-tore-china-asunder-heat-sun
Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8b2cb53e-0d32-11e6-b41f-0beb7e589515.html
The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/09/cultural-revolution-peoples-history-frank-dikotter-review

The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/book-of-the-week-the-cultural-revolution-by-frank-dikotter-h0gr3bcn5
WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-scars-of-maos-cultural-revolution-1462294170

Robert Peckham Publishes Epidemics in Modern Asia

Epidemics in Modern Asia
Robert Peckham
Apr 2016, Cambridge University Press, 374 pp.

Epidemics have played a critical role in shaping modern Asia. Encompassing two centuries of Asian history, Robert Peckham explores the profound impact that infectious disease has had on societies across the region: from India to China and the Russian Far East. The book tracks the links between biology, history, and geopolitics, highlighting infectious disease's interdependencies with empire, modernization, revolution, nationalism, migration, and transnational patterns of trade. By examining the history of Asia through the lens of epidemics, Peckham vividly illustrates how society's material conditions are entangled with social and political processes, offering an entirely fresh perspective on Asia's transformation.

Please click on the following link to access the publisher's page: http://www.cambridge.org/fr/academic/subjects/history/global-history/epidemics-modern-asia?format=PB

For author's homepage:
http://www.soh.hku.hk/peckham/home/home.php

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Xu Guoqi Discusses Politics behind Chinese Football Leagues

Professor Xu Guoqi from the department of History was interviewed by The Straits Times on the politics behind the high-profile signing of footballer Alex Teixeira by the Chinese football league's Jiangsu Suning. Backed by tycoons or corporate giants, Chinese clubs have been splurging on big-name players in their prime.

"Whether you are (Alibaba's billionaire founder) Jack Ma or (Evergrande's billionaire chairman) Xu Jiayin, no matter how rich you are, you still have to play the game within the system," historian Xu Guoqi from the University of Hong Kong told The Straits Times. "So political capital is one reason for their involvement. Furthermore it makes sense from an investment perspective. The companies make money, and it's also a good public relations exercise for the companies, because the Chinese are very interested in football."

Please click on the following link for the complete article: http://www.straitstimes.com/sport/football/football-chinese-football-enters-big-league

Faculty of Arts in the Media: Lisa Lim Discusses ‘Kongish’

Dr Lisa Lim from the School of English was recently interviewed by the South China Morning Post for an article about how Hongkongers have mixed English and Cantonese into a new language, Kongish.

Born as a language of protest, Kongish – a humorous mix of Cantonese and literal English translations from the local tongue – is gaining currency among bilingual young Hongkongers as a badge of identity. An example is the recently established Kongish Daily, which was set up by three friends, including Arts alumnus Nick Wong, and Pedro Lok who has applied to begin his PhD studies in the School of English under Dr Lim’s supervision in 2016.

Please click on the following link for the complete article:
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1903452/hongkongers-mix-english-and-cantonese-new-language-kongish

詹杭倫《澳門媽閣廟題壁詩賞析》於《澳門人文學刋》出版

Source: Macao Daily

港大中文學院副教授詹杭倫博士的論文《澳門媽閣廟題壁詩賞析》被《澳門人文學刋》（二○一五年）收錄。

該刋創刋於二○○八年，力圖以深厚的人文關懷為基礎，以文學、史學、哲學等各人文領域學者的專業視野為觸角，推動人文學科全方位的發展與對話。

本期分設“比較文學與哲學”、“文藝前沿”、“嶺南文史”、“中國現代學人研究”、“文論研究”、“國學新證”及“書評”等欄目，涵蓋比較文學、比較哲學、現當代文學、文藝理論、國學、嶺南文化等不同學科的研究，視野新穎，內容豐富，不僅融匯了澳門本地學者和各地區人文學者的才思，且融合澳門本地的人文現象和其他地區的人文特色。

《澳門人文學刋》立足澳門，放眼大中華地區，立刋求文，致力於加強海內外交流互通，既開拓澳門人文研究的空間，也進一步挖掘澳門的人文印跡。龔剛在前言中概述人文研究的意義說，“人文研究者，名山事業也，性靈之學也，有化成天下之功，薪傳文明之效，亦有益人神智之用，引領時代之力。” 由連家生等題寫書法。

新一期學刊收錄十餘篇論文，作者來源廣泛，除澳大、城大學者，分別為美國加州大學、香港大學、北京大學、復旦大學、上海外國語大學、北京師範大學、上海師範大學、深圳大學等海內外高校教授、博士。其中……詹杭倫的《澳門媽閣廟題壁詩賞析》以澳門媽閣廟之中的題壁詞為研究中心，發掘澳門的人文情懷和深厚的人文底蘊。

瀏覽全文：http://www.macaodaily.com/html/2016-01/06/content_1058244.htm

文學院傳媒報道：傅榮朗博士評希特拉《我的奮鬥》 認為有助了解納粹興亡

蘋果日報就希特拉《我的奮鬥》的解禁採訪港大文學院歐洲研究助理教授傅榮朗博士（Roland Vogt）。

傅榮朗認為，新版本加入海量註釋，將有助了解希魔以至納粹興亡。

傅榮朗形容《我的奮鬥》是意識形態與政治行為密不可分的「慘痛例子」，書本放大了一戰後德國人的憤恨、偏見與恐懼，啟發納粹主義並成為基石，但與其說是極權統治模板，倒不如說是希特拉政見、意識形態與世界觀的聲明及辯解，是有助了解納粹興亡，以及解釋大屠殺何以發生的「必要基本史料」。

瀏覽全文1: http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/realtime/international/20151230/54591319

瀏覽全文2: http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/international/art/20151231/19433191

Lisa Lim and Umberto Ansaldo Publish Languages in Contact

Languages in Contact
Lisa Lim and Umberto Ansaldo
Sep 2015, Cambridge University Press, 251 pp

Introducing new findings from popular culture, the globalised new economy and computer-mediated communication, this is a fascinating study of contact between languages in modern societies. Ansaldo and Lim bring together research on multilingualism, code-switching, language endangerment, and globalisation, into a comprehensive overview of world Englishes and creoles. Illustrated with a wide range of original examples from typologically diverse languages, including Sinitic, Autronesian, Dravidian and other non-Indo-European varieties, the book focuses on structural analyses of Asian ecologies and their relevance for current theories of contact phenomena. Full of new insights, it is essential reading for students and researchers across linguistics, culture and communication.

Dr. Lisa Lim is an Associate Professor in the School of English at HKU. Her current research interests centre around: New Englishes, especially postcolonial Asian varieties in multilingual ecologies; phonetics/ phonology/ prosody; language documentation; and issues of language shift, endangerment, revitalisation, and post-vernacular linguistic and cultural vitality; and the sociolinguistics of globalisation.

Dr. Umberto Ansaldo is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics of School of Humanities at HKU. His interests include language contact, sociolinguistics, typology and endangered languages. He works on languages of the Sinitic group, Malay varieties, languages of Sri Lanka and Pidgins and Creoles.

Please click on the following link to access the publisher's page: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/languages-contact?format=PB

Paul Smethurst's on Cross-cultural History of the Bicycle

The Bicycle - Towards a Global History

Paul Smethurst

2015, Palgrave Macmillan, 194 pp

This is the first history of the bicycle to trace not only the technical background to its invention, but also to contrast its social and cultural impact in different parts of the world, and assess its future as a continuing global phenomenon.

Dr. Paul Smethurst is an Associate Professor in the School of English at HKU. His particular teaching and research interests are in place-writing, literature and the environment and the geocritical imagination (a term he has coined) in contemporary fiction and travel writing.

Please click on the following link to access the publisher's page: http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137499493