ISSUE 10 | JUN 2020
How Social Science is Helping Us in the Time of COVID-19 Perseverance and Passion Never Fail
City Literature: Thoughts and Ideas About Hong Kong
Rediscovering Hong Kong by Surveying its Linguistic Landscape
Why the City’s “Hidden Youth” should be Lauded
Top 50 in the world and Top 3 at CityU
Social Policy & Administration Communication & Media Studies Linguistics
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2020
ISSUE 10 | JUN 2020 Department of Asian and International Studies
Department of Media and Communication
Department of Chinese and History
Department of Public Policy
Department of English
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Department of Linguistics and Translation Chan Feng Men-ling Chan Shuk-lin English Language Centre Center for Communication Research Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy Southeast Asia Research Centre The Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies
FEATURE 04 The Social Scientists Fighting Back against COVID-19 PEOPLE
10 Perseverance and Passion Never Fail 14 Can Confucianism Help Rebuild Hong Kong?
RESEARCH
20 Perspectives in Chinese-English Translation of Gay Literature
18 The Enduring Global Appeal of Charles Dickens 19 Damning Link between a Bangkok Mall and Injustice in Laos
21 Process-based Model in Digital Multimodal Composing Assessment EVENTS 22 Academics Share Computational Communication Research Methods
24 City Literature: Thoughts and Ideas about Hong Kong
SOCIAL IMPACT 26 “Hidden Youth� should be Lauded for Their Contributions to Society TEACHING AND LEARNING
29 Hung Hom Community Comes Alive for Students
30 Rediscovering Hong Kong by Surveying its Linguistic Landscape
NEWS
32 Secrets to Juggling Academic Work and Sport
33 Department of English Celebrates Milestone
34 Guidance Helps Remove IES Obstacles
35 CLASS Granted Funding to Examine Social Issues
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FEATURE
The Social Scientists Fighting Back against COVID-19 Dr Nicholas THOMAS examines the different ways Asia’s health systems have reacted to the problems posed by COVID-19, while Professor Samuel HO looks at how individuals can handle the stress brought on by the pandemic
T
he COVID-19 outbreak has filled the world with uncertainty. Thankfully, faculty members at CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) are using their expertise to answer the world’s most pressing questions about the virus. First, and most importantly, how to bring an end to the pandemic. Dr Nicholas THOMAS, Associate Professor of the Department of Asian and International Studies, has been doing research on infectious diseases since the SARS pandemic, focusing in particular on the responses made by different Asian health care systems. He believes East Asian countries have, on the whole, tackled the problem very well, in part thanks to their recent experience with other infectious diseases. “There are certainly some similarities [between SARS and COVID-19], but a key difference is that with COVID-19 there are more asymptomatic cases in circulation,” Thomas says. “This presents a degree of magnitude larger challenge for health care professionals and policy makers everywhere.” Thomas believes that the governments in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and even mainland China deserve credit for doing a better job than those in the US and Europe. “I do think that here in Asia the communities are more sensitised to infectious diseases, so we have seen quite a few regional countries’ populations take preventive measures ahead of any announcement from the government,” he says. “In addition, a place like Hong Kong has huge advantages over the US thanks to its great public health care. Here, you can go
to a hospital and receive world-class testing and treatment for next to nothing. In the US, if you get sick, it could bankrupt you.” Moreover, Thomas believes that the US and European governments “dropped the ball” when it came to taking any proactive safety measures and are now resorting to taking “reactive and poorly done” decisions. “They had over a month, easily, to get ready for this, and they didn’t do anything about it,” he says. “There’s plenty of data that shows they were privy and sensitive to the outbreak in China and its effects, but this didn’t translate into any concrete action.” Thomas believes that one key issue with Europe and the US is that, unlike many Southeast Asian nations, they were not hit nearly as badly by the major viruses of the past two decades, including SARS. Another fact worth noting is that casualties from season flu have been known to be particularly bad in the US in recent years—between 2017-2019 in excess of 80 million people fell ill with the flu, including over 95,000 deaths. “The seasonal flu has been so bad in the US for the past three or four years yet it barely makes the news. They’ve become desensitised without realising the implications,” he says. “At the same time, governments weren’t willing to implement early preventive measures against COVID-19. The UK had an opportunity to go into a joint buy of medical equipment with other European nations and decided not to. It’s a classic case of the wrong priorities at the wrong time.”
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FEATURE
People in the US and many of the European countries stayed at home of their own accord—there was no central or national-level legal mechanism in place to ask them to do so.
With regard to China’s response to the outbreak, Thomas called it “unprecedented in its scale but ultimately very effective.” “China actually went against major debates in the field which said large-scale quarantines don’t work, but they went ahead and said ‘hold on, yes they do’,” he says. Thomas notes one huge advantage China has over the US and EU when it comes to implementing a nationwide lockdown—the fact that every state in the US and nation in the EU has its own public health care system. According to him, another advantage in China’s response is its government’s ability to impose a centrally coordinated response; even though this necessitates a trade-off between individual rights and the rights of the community. “It’s a significant weakness,” he states. “There’s no central or national-level legal mechanism in place [in America] to get people to stay at home. You’re seeing the same thing in Europe from nation to nation. You’ve got countries like France which will remain quarantined until mid-May, but other countries like Spain and Greece who want to resume their economies as soon as possible.” What is especially fascinating about the major nations’ responses to the outbreak are the possible economic ramifications—and how these may affect future outbreaks. “For countries that did not have strong economies before the crisis—such as Spain—the disease has caused an economic shock they are ill-equipped to cope with long term. So there will be social and political pressures to prioritise the economy over public health in order to avoid near-term threats such as mass unemployment and social unrest. But the problem is people can cross [EU] borders quite easily and as people become more mobile you’re looking at another possible wave.” Furthermore, with China having nearly eradicated the disease
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within its borders, they are in a relatively safe position to resume economic activity compared to places like the US. “China now has ‘first mover advantage’ which is a huge bonus in any economic situation,” Thomas says. “That is putting pressure on the US to open its economy back up too early in order to compete with China, and I absolutely believe they are planning to open things up too early.” Unfortunately, the US and Europe resuming normal activities too soon may have consequences for Asia as well. “The challenge that successful countries in the region are facing is that we are all repatriating a lot of people from around the world
People and the health care system must be prepared for the reality that COVID-19 is not going to disappear.
FEATURE
There’s plenty of data that shows the US and Europe were privy to the outbreak in China and its effects, but this didn’t translate into any concrete action Dr Nicholas Thomas
Dr Nicholas Thomas believes East Asian countries have tackled the COVID-19 pandemic rather well because they have had experience with other infectious diseases.
who have been caught up in Europe or North America who are carrying the virus, and we are seeing to a certain extent a new wave of transmissions coming through here,” Thomas says. With regard to what Hong Kong and the rest of Asia must do to stay safe, Thomas’ advice is to “stay vigilant”. “The reality is that COVID-19 is not going to go away any time soon. This is largely due to the presence of asymptomatic cases and also the uneven global response. The only way to mitigate the severity of future outbreaks is to embed the basics of good hygiene and social distancing as everyday norms in society. It is not hard to do and many people here in Hong Kong were already practising these safer behaviours,” Thomas says, “but diseases don’t stop at borders.” Although stopping the virus is priority number one, followed closely by restarting national economies, ensuring citizens’ mental
wellbeing recovers is equally important. Professor Samuel HO, CLASS Associate Dean (Faculty and Research) and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, says that COVID-19 could have a devastating effect on the mental health of Hong Kong citizens—especially for those who have been infected. His research examined the SARS outbreak of 2003 and its aftermath, and found that over 40 per cent of recovered SARS patients experienced chronic anxiety and depression, likely because of some form of post-traumatic stress. “For most people that get infected, they are in the hospital for two to four weeks and they make a full recovery, so the physical damage is actually rather short-term,” says Ho, although treatment medication can also result in serious side effects. “On the mental side, it can be chronic. In fact, for many people, this virus outbreak will be considered a traumatic event, and we
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FEATURE
Professor Samuel Ho advises people to look ahead to the future and to be flexible about changing their goals according to the situation at different moments.
For many people, this virus will be considered a traumatic event, and we are seeing the negative psychological effects it is having on people right now Professor Samuel Ho
are seeing the negative psychological effects it is having on people right now. Hong Kong was already going through something of a mental health crisis before the outbreak, with 11 per cent of citizens showing depressive symptoms compared to the usual six to seven per cent. This means the population is even more at risk.” According to Ho, becoming ill during a large-scale pandemic can be more traumatic than catching the seasonal flu, even if the patient makes a full recovery. “This is partially because of the stigmatisation and labelling of the disease,” he explains. “With both SARS and COVID-19, you might be labelled as a carrier of the disease even after recovery.” Specific mental health symptoms include intrusive thoughts and nightmares regarding the disease, avoidant and antisocial behaviour, and increased sensitivity towards anything to do with COVID-19. Unfortunately, psychological damage caused by the disease is not solely reserved for the infected. The entire population is at risk of increased depression and anxiety because of factors including fear of contracting the disease and/or infecting loved ones, unemployment and uncertainty about financial security, and social isolation greatly disrupting regular routines.
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Ho says that citizens may find themselves feeling differently at different stages during a pandemic. “There is the pre-contemplation stage where people lack information about the disease and are largely ignorant of the consequences. During the contemplation stage, people are aware of the disease and may experience anxiety because they don’t know what they need to do to stay safe.” “Next is the action stage, where people know what they must do to stay safe but may lack the skills and resources to execute them. For example, some people may not have enough money to afford face masks, particularly when there is a shortage. Last is the maintenance stage, in which people have the knowledge and the skills to take necessary safety measures.” Ho points out that it may be difficult for a lot of Hongkongers to stay in the maintenance stage because a lot of people live in cramped conditions. “Their homes are so small, it’d be a bit difficult to ask them to stay at home all day and maintain social distancing for a long period of time,” he says.
FEATURE
People now have the knowledge and the skills to take the necessary safety measures. However, it is also important to tackle any psychological consequences arising from the pandemic.
Ironically, it would seem that people with what Ho calls “blind confidence” may be better off, at least from a psychological standpoint, even though not heeding the government’s warnings puts themselves and others at risk. “You see this phenomenon in smokers as well—they know that smoking causes cancer, but they don’t believe it will happen to them,” he says. Those who believe COVID-19 to be a “conspiracy theory” may suffer psychological consequences too, as a result of being heavily criticised and ostracised by their communities. This is especially true in places like Hong Kong and other Asian countries where preventive measures like face masks have become the social norms. Ho has provided a series of science-based tips to anyone whose mental health has suffered as a result of the disease. “Understand what is controllable and what is not. For example, don’t blame yourself if you lose your job or are working less shifts because of the disease,” he says. “Furthermore, don’t let this spill over into other areas of your life. Just because you don’t have a job doesn’t mean you aren’t a good father or a good mother.” Ho says it is important for everyone to re-establish some type of routine in which they make time for hobbies that they enjoy and are adept at. Furthermore, it is vital that they look ahead to the future in which the virus will inevitably pass and maintain a “hopeful style of thinking and cognition”. “According to my research, people with this ‘hopeful’ style of thinking will be much more resilient, not just during a pandemic but in any sort of crisis situation,” he says. “Hopeful people are also able to disengage with old goals that are unrealistic during the pandemic and re-engage with new ones. Keep setting new, realistic goals and
set smaller sub-goals along the way and get ready to change your goals again once the crisis is over.” Lastly, while Ho acknowledges that there is often a genetic component as to whether someone will naturally be a hopeful thinker, “Fortunately, all of this is coachable behaviour. We just need to spread the message as effectively as possible.”
Experts say it is important for everyone to re-establish a routine in which they make time for hobbies that they enjoy and are adept at.
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PEOPLE
I have always made it a point to do more than what I expect of myself, and as a result, I exceed other people’s expectations as well Professor Liu Yu-li
Perseverance and Passion Never Fail CityU’s new Head of the Department of Media and Communication, Professor LIU Yu-li, has got ahead by consistently going beyond expectations
T
he new Head of the Department of Media and Communication of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Professor LIU Yu-li, arrived in Hong Kong last August—just in time for one of the most turbulent periods in the city’s history. Undaunted, she is more than ready for the challenge. Liu is a veteran of the media industry, with a long and accomplished career as both a practitioner and an academic. She started as a radio announcer and later became an English-language radio reporter for the Overseas Department of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) from 1983 to 1985, and was executive producer, editor and reporter for the Chinese Television System (CTS) in Taiwan from 1985 to 1989.
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“I think my personality is suited for a career in media and communications,” explains Liu, who initially studied English literature at university. “I love to communicate with people, and I also work very hard.” The major reasons for her success are hard work and perseverance. She completed her PhD in Telecommunications at Indiana University in the US in 1992, and then taught at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan for 27 years. A Fulbright scholar, she has worked as Visiting Professor in prestigious universities around the world including CityU, Oxford, George Washington, Fudan, Renmin, Keio, Waseda, Boston and Nanyang Technological University.
PEOPLE
“Never give up” is Professor Liu Yu-li’s motto in life.
During this time, Liu developed a career in government and certain academic associations—all while maintaining her standing in academia. She served as the first-term Commissioner of Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (equivalent to the Federal Communications Commission of the US) for two years, President of the Chinese Communication Association (an international academic organisation) for two years, and President of the Taiwan Communication Society (a Taiwanese non-profit organisation) for four years. She is a board member of the International Telecommunication Society and also serves as a member of the editorial board at four Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals: Telecommunications
Policy, Asian Journal of Communication, Chinese Journal of Communications, and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. She says she was only able to receive all these opportunities through sheer hard work and determination. “When I first started working in the media [in Taiwan], there were very few job opportunities back then; it’s not like today where you have so many media outlets,” Liu says. “So when I got my first job in radio, I would stay extra hours at the station without being asked. Soon, word started spreading about my work attitude and I received more opportunities.” You would not know it meeting her now but Liu used to be quite a shy person. “Working in radio as an announcer was already a big
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Professor Liu Yu-li stresses that news media practitioners should ensure everything they report is accurate and fair.
deal for me, but my boss at the time felt I had the potential to work as a reporter. Then, I found out my first interview was going to be with two US congressmen, so you can imagine how nervous I was.” Liu says she overcame her shyness and various other career obstacles with a “just do it” attitude, which accompanied her notable work ethic. “Throughout my career I’ve worked pretty much every day of the week,” she says. “When I worked in radio and television, I would use my day off to teach at some universities as a Part-time Lecturer.” “So many people fail to meet their own expectations,” she explains. “For me, I have always made it a point to do more than what I expect of myself, and as a result, I exceed other people’s expectations as well. When I was a student, I would always do more than what my teachers expected. Once I became a professor, I’ve tried to do more than what my students and administrators expect of me. I’ve always encouraged myself and my students to think this way.” Liu says she wants to find time to write a self-help book based on the theme “never give up”. Research indicates that perseverance is one of the most important personality traits that leads to career success, personal fulfillment and the ability to maintain happiness and focus during times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 outbreak. “My aim isn’t to encourage people to be stupid and try to do things that are impossible, but as long as something is possible, and you want it, you should never give up,” she says. Liu tells the story of how she got her PhD to exemplify this belief. When she arrived in the US for an interview at Indiana
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University, her connecting flight from Chicago was cancelled due to snow storms, leaving her stranded. “The graduate program director was flying to a conference the following day, so I had to be there on time. But nobody [at the department] expected me to make it.” Eventually, Liu started approaching strangers at the airport to find out who else was going to Bloomington, where the university is located. She managed to carpool with four other people, driving through the night, arriving just in time for the interview. “They were so amazed that I made it that they decided to give me a full scholarship in order to persuade me to accept their offer, because I had two other offers at the same time,” she says. “This is an example of how if you don’t give up, you can turn a bad situation into a good one.” Liu also faced severe adversity during her journey to CityU. Right before her interview in June of last year, she developed an unknown and intense pain in her left foot. “I had just attended a conference in Washington DC and had a layover in San Francisco. The pain was so unbearable that the flight attendants had to give me medicine and told me I should go to the hospital. So I had to make a decision— delay the interview or risk something happening during the flight.” “It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was risky. I had no idea if my condition would get worse and I had to endure a lot of pain during that flight. But in the end sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, and sacrifices, if you want to progress in your career.” Once again, Liu’s determination paid off, as she ended up getting the job and moved to Hong Kong in August 2019. She had been reading about Hong Kong’s increasing political turmoil and disruption at the city’s airport and understood the possible safety hazards of her new position. But these are the kinds of risks and new challenges that she is ready to face head-on. Now, she is determined to take the University’s already top-tier Department of Media and Communication to new heights.
As the new COM Head, Professor Liu Yu-li sets a high bar for herself and all members of the Department.
PEOPLE
If you work in the news media, you have a certain social responsibility... I believe everything that you report should be accurate and fair Professor Liu Yu-li
Established in 2008, COM is the youngest media department in Hong Kong. It has quickly risen to prominence thanks in large part to its computational and interdisciplinary approaches, which are supported by the Web Mining Lab and Centre for Communication Research, respectively. As of 2020, it ranks 38th among communication and media studies department worldwide, according to QS World University Rankings by Subject. Liu’s vision as the new COM Head is to propel the Department to the top in the Asia-Pacific region, and to make it one of the leading departments in the world during her tenure. She also hopes to instill a message of positivity and hard work into Hong Kong’s future media workers, which in turn, should help make the city a more harmonious one. “If you work in the news media, you have a certain social responsibility. People nowadays are smart, and they are skeptical of traditional media outlets and their bosses. Therefore, I believe everything that you report should be accurate and fair. As long as you report the truth, whether you work in traditional or new media outlets, people will start to trust the media again.” It will certainly be a long and difficult path to re-establish a trusting relationship between the media, government and citizens in Hong Kong. But knowing Liu, she would not be giving up anytime soon.
COM students can learn from dedicated faculty members and put classroom knowledge into practice in well-equipped laboratories. Ultimately, perseverance and hard work should enable them to succeed in the future.
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Can Confucianism Help Rebuild Hong Kong? Award-winning professor argues that strong humanities programmes at universities can promote citizenship and combat generational conflict
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rofessor KIM Sung-moon, Associate Dean (Postgraduate Studies) of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) and Professor of the Department of Public Policy, has received one of the University’s Outstanding Research Awards, and he could not be happier. Not because of any thirst for personal glory, but because he believes it will help inspire his fellow CLASS colleagues. “I feel this award is extremely important, not just because of the recognition of my research, but for my colleagues’ morale, motivation and spirit,” says Kim, who is also Director of CityU’s Center for East Asian and Comparative Philosophy. “It is no secret that my university is known for its strong sciences, and at times it feels like those of us in the humanities and liberal arts sectors are a little bit overshadowed. But I believe I am part of an institution with great professors, teachers and students, and this award vindicates our hard work.” Kim was recognised for his leading research on Confucian democratic theory—a subject on which he has published three books. Growing up in South Korea, which laboured under a military dictatorship for much of the Cold War, and spending a significant amount of time studying and working in prestigious American universities have made Kim a strong champion for democracy. However, he believes that many East Asian democracies have lost sight of certain
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important cultural values that distinguish them from Western democracies. “Democracy is a Western creation, but we see different kinds of democracies in the West with the Americans, British, Germans all boasting their own unique form of democracy,” Kim explains. “Democracy is still relatively new in East Asia, which is why I’m asking the question: ‘What kind of democracy do we want to have?’” “Right now it feels like Taiwan, South Korea and even Hong Kong are kind of just trying to replicate Western democracies. But we are seeing democracies everywhere, including in the West, suffer. That is why I advocate for Confucian democracy, which moves away from the rights-based combative democracy that pits individuals against society and focuses more on finding a common goal, a brotherhood.” So, what makes Confucian principles compatible with democracy? According to Kim, while some consider Confucianism to be a religion, many scholars argue that it is not religious at all. He believes that it is first and
At the heart of Confucianism are qualities such as honesty, chivalry and benevolence, some principles that make it compatible with democracy.
PEOPLE
Professor Kim Sung-moon believes that many East Asian democracies have lost sight of certain important cultural values that distinguish them from Western democracies.
Democracy is still relatively new in East Asia, which is why I’m asking the question: “What kind of democracy do we want to have?” Professor Kim Sung-moon
foremost a “constellation of values” that encourages qualities such as honesty, chivalry and benevolence. Phrases such as “respect your elders”, immediately come to mind. “It is impossible to be a Muslim-Christian or Christian-Muslim. That is an oxymoron,” Kim explains. “But what’s great about Confucianism is that it has a capacious ability to be accommodated and harmonised with other religious doctrines and value systems. For example, it is completely possible to have Confucian-Christians or Confucian-Muslims. You can raise your children in a Christian household while also instilling Confucian principles.” The professor believes that because many modern democracies have become extremely rights-based, individuals are increasingly pitted against society, and one another. “I am in no way dismissing the importance of rights, but having it be the primary and sometimes sole-focus of certain political candidates has made modern democracy so polarising and individualised,” Kim says. “Confucian democracy can recreate the system to better serve our common bond and purpose.” Kim points out that the cut-throat nature of many democratic systems has political parties locked in adversarial contests rather than negotiating and communicating with one another.
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The wisdom of Confucianism may help build the democratic system that provides a better fit in East Asian contexts.
“Bipartisanship and party alignment is fine—you may choose a certain party based on your personality, beliefs and ideologies, and I think that’s a good thing,” he says, “but the problem with existing democracies in the East and the West is we don’t have this middle ground where we can communicate, where our differences can be bridged and we exchange ideas; that place is massively disappearing.” “Confucians often talk about the importance of enriching the greater good. Even if we are competing against each other for power, at the end of the day we all belong to one political community. It’s not a republican constitution or democratic constitution, we all belong to one shared political community. So it is important to have that common tongue that can allow us all to have some sort of mutual frame of reference. And I believe that Confucian democracy can better provide us with that shared horizon which is rapidly vanishing in democracies everywhere.” It is for these reasons that Kim believes now more than ever, universities in Hong Kong and around the world need strong humanities programmes to promote decent citizenship. He believes
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that he and his colleagues play a role not as politicians or political activists, but rather, as political theorists. “I try to encourage my students and colleagues not to think of themselves as victims or participants amid political turmoil and chaos,” Kim reveals. “We don’t use hard, persuasive language like some local and world leaders do. Rather, I teach them to use abstract language and to look at the situation from a slightly more abstract perspective, which allows them to be more objective and less emotionally involved. Asking important questions like ‘what kind of leaders do we need?’ and ‘what kind of political system do we need to build to achieve this?’ We don’t need to praise or vilify any particular political party or figure in order to do this.” In regards to Hong Kong, Kim believes that a Confucian democracy could help bridge the gap and quell the rift between young political activists and the government. Based on his research, he has proposed reinventing and modernising ancient Confucian practices and recruiting young “remonstrators” into the government in order to achieve this.
PEOPLE
“Young people are fresh-minded [sic] and not so socially conservative,” Kim says. “They keep closer tabs on evolving public sentiment. Recruiting them not only helps them understand the complexity of public decision-making, but it also makes the government more accountable.” He explains how during the protests that erupted in Hong Kong in 2019, civilised communication and negotiation between the government and the protestors was severely lacking. “The government was often critical of young political activists, speaking as if they were a detriment to effective governance. At the same time, many young people criticised the government as being just pure evil. So the question is how do we find this balance? How do we achieve both viable civic activism and effective governance?” Kim notes that from an institutional perspective, political discourse in Hong Kong is sorely lacking when compared with East Asian counterparts like South Korea and Taiwan.
“It is our jobs as political theorists and academics to help citizens develop this language and common tongue to communicate with each other, regardless of political differences,” he says. “It will help them better understand the struggle and ask themselves ‘what are we fighting for?’ because fighting itself doesn’t make Hong Kong society any better.” The scope and complexity of these issues, Kim says, means it is not something that can be tackled using hard-science methodology. “There is no clear-cut cause and effect relationship; this is not something where you can just look at some facts and defer to the experts,” he says. “We are talking about people’s opinions, convictions, inspirations, conflicts and moralities so it is a very difficult case to tackle. And it becomes necessary for scholars like myself to create that shared language, that common ground, in order to truly improve Hong Kong society.”
A strong humanities education is important to reduce conflicts and promote decent citizenship.
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RESEARCH
The Enduring Global Appeal of Charles Dickens T
he recent surge of interest in academia in literary texts and practices that go beyond Anglo-American critical contexts has led to the increasing use of terms such as “global” or “worldwide” to describe particular authors or bodies of work. This trend has raised questions about the criteria with which we define a particular writer or work as pertaining to the world rather than a specific culture. As a popular Victorian writer who has enjoyed various afterlives in contemporary culture, Charles DICKENS (1812-70) has likewise been attached to the “global” signifier during and after the bicentenary of his birth in 2012. This chapter in A Companion to World Literature by Dr Klaudia LEE, Associate Professor at the Department of English of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, is a response to the debates and considerations in relation to the idea of world literature, as well as a critical engagement with Dickens’ writings, in particular the urban realism that he practises and one which has generated diverse creative responses across space and time. The chapter starts with a short review of, as well as a critical reflection on, the major criticisms that have recently been published that seek to consider the implications of the attention to the “global” on Dickens scholarship and Victorian Studies more broadly. Using circulation of Dickens’ works in countries such as Japan, Italy, Poland and India as examples, it argues that the international appeal of Dickens’ works since their initial publication has been closely related to the various versions or forms of Dickensian texts that are in
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circulation, and most importantly, the diverse ways in which they have been used to engage with particular concerns of the recipient cultures. To further illustrate the intimate relationship between literary production and sociocultural contexts, this chapter also compares and contrasts two case studies: the publication of the translated Oliver Twist , a major novel by Dickens, in China in 1908, and a front-page publication of a Christmas sketch by Dickens in an English literary journal in Hong Kong in 1903. The variety of versions and forms of Dickensian texts that this chapter considers demonstrate that the associations between Dickens and “world literature” should probably be best understood as the ability of the texts to generate diverse artistic practices and cultural re-envisioning in particular sociocultural contexts at specific moments of history.
Publications and achievements Lee, K.H.Y. (2019). Charles Dickens: Transnational Responses and Cultural Imaginaries. In K.Seigneurie (ed.), A Companion to World Literature (Vol. 4). Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781118635193.ctwl0196
RESEARCH
Damning Link between a Bangkok Mall and Injustice in Laos S
ix years ago, Central Embassy, Bangkok’s newest shopping mall, celebrated its opening with aplomb, attracting several thousand local celebrities to a glitzy affair. This luxurious and futuristic-looking mall was described by Travel & Leisure as a “monster of a shopping complex”. During the same month, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned that the construction of the Don Sahong Dam in southern Laos would endanger the survival of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins and called for a suspension of the project. These two events, occurring 870km apart and in different countries, might appear to be unrelated at first glance. However, our article shows that they are linked because they form part of the complex web that is Bangkok’s electricity consumption. To partially sate Thailand’s ever-increasing thirst for energy, Thai companies and state-owned enterprises collaborate with the Lao government to build more hydropower dams in Laos and import the electricity into Thailand. Much of this electricity is used in Bangkok. Middle-class and upper-class residents of the Thai capital enjoy cheap (and the ever-increasing consumption of) power while company executives and major shareholders of Thai companies in the energy, real estate, construction and finance sectors reap large profits – as do Lao government leaders. Simultaneously, local rural communities and wildlife in Laos bear the brunt of the environmental and social damage caused by these dams. Some communities are forced to resettle and are often worse off afterwards. However, few Bangkok residents are aware of the injustices they are helping to perpetuate, and rarely do they question the sources of their electricity. While they have protested against dams planned for Thailand, Thais have, mostly, been silent when it comes to dambuilding in Laos. Some Thai villagers sued their government for signing an agreement to purchase power from a new hydroelectric dam under construction on the Lower Mekong River at Xayaburi in northern Laos, but all of them lived outside of Bangkok in northeast Thailand. Given how little opportunity exists for dissent in Laos, Dr Danny MARKS and Dr Jun ZHANG, Assistant Professors at the Department of Asian and International Studies of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts
and Social Sciences, suggest in this article that fomenting further dissent in Bangkok by exposing the perverse logic and injustices behind the construction of dams in Laos, and the purchase of power from them, could be one avenue to begin addressing these inequalities.
Publications and achievements Marks, D., & Zhang, J. (2019). Circuits of Power: Environmental Injustice from Bangkok’s Shopping Malls to Laos’ Hydropower Dams. Asia Pacific Viewpoint , 60(3), 296-309. DOI: 10.1111/apv.12242
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RESEARCH
Perspectives in Chinese-English Translation of Gay Literature D
r LI Bo, Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Translation of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, recently published an article entitled “(Re)Framing gay literature in translations: a study on the English translation of Nie Zi by Pai Hsien-yung” in Sino-Humanitas (Issue 29, pp.277-295). Homosexuality has long been a sensitive topic and even a social taboo in many parts of the world. Translation studies in the West have witnessed burgeoning interest in the translation of gay literature in the past few decades. It has remained largely unheeded in the Chinese scholarly world, where the writing and translation of gay literature has always been closely associated with cultural and ideological conflicts. In Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account, Mona BAKER proposes four major strategies, namely “temporal and spatial framing”, “selective appropriation of textual material”, “framing by labelling”, and “repositioning of participants” (2006:112-140). The current paper is a study of the English translation of the Chinese founding work of gay literature, Nie Zi 《 ( 》) by PAI Hsien-yung ( ). This novel was translated into English in 1990 as Crystal Boys by Howard GOLDBLATT and published by the American Gay Sunshine Press, a publisher exclusively designated for gay-themed literature. The second edition was printed by the same publisher in 1995 and a more recent edition was published by the Chinese University Press in Hong Kong in 2017. This paper looks at the translation of the
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title, which turns it from a negative one into a more positive image of homosexuals — a major framing strategy of labelling. The cover designs for the English renditions in America highlights the gay theme of the novel with the picture of a half-naked male model. The change of blurbs on the back covers delineates the evolving sociocultural background for the publication. Through non-linguistic resources of visual images and labelling strategies, the first modern Asian gay novel was reframed to meet the targeted readership in the Englishspeaking world. The English translation of Nie Zi proves to be a supporting example of what Harvey (2003) calls “gayed translation”.
Publications and achievements
李波 (Accepted/In press). 同志文學翻譯之敘事建構：以 白先勇作品《孽子》的英譯為例. 人文中國學報.
RESEARCH
Process-based Model in Digital Multimodal Composing Assessment P
rofessionals need the ability to write effectively, and for many, they will need to do so in English. However, writing, in the digital age is so much more than combining words and sentences in a meaningful way. For example, communicating on social media frequently involves combining images, videos, text, speech, gestures and other such forms of representation or “modes”. In recent years, scholars in language education and second language writing studies have focused on how teachers could account for these kinds of digital communication forms. One possible approach is known as Digital Multimodal Composing (DMC). In this approach, as well as working on traditional writing skills, students also work on their digital writing skills. They use digital tools to create “multimodal” products like videos, which combine multiple modes of expression such as writing, images and sounds. One challenge for English teachers is how to assess these multimodal compositions, which go beyond expression through language alone. Dr Christoph HAFNER and Dr Jenifer HO, both from the Department of English of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, investigated this issue by interviewing teachers on a CityU course in English for science, about how they assess students’ digital video scientific documentaries. The study found that, as well as evaluating criteria like organisation and language, teachers also focused on creativity and originality, students’ delivery or on-screen performance, and students’ ability to combine different modes in the video to coherently express their ideas. The analysis also suggested that DMC assessment should be process-oriented, with a mix of formative and summative assessment strategies to support students in different stages of the writing process: pre-design, design, sharing and reflecting. The study has implications for language and literacy educators who want to use a multimodal approach to prepare students for the more complex worlds of digital writing that often await them in the workplace.
View a sample scientific documentary by students.
Publications and achievements • Hafner, C. A., & Ho, W.Y.J. (2020). Assessing Digital Multimodal Composing in Second Language Writing: Towards a Process-based Model. Journal of Second Language Writing , 47. DOI: 10.1016/j.jslw.2020.100710 • Hafner, C. A., & Miller, L. (2018). English in the Disciplines: A Multidimensional Model for ESP Course Design . (Routledge Research in English for Specific Purposes). London: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780429452437
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EVENTS
Academics Share Computational Communication Research Methods Computational methods help data retrieving and analysis in research, experts in communication studies shared
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ost research processes involve retrieving, organising and interpreting a massive amount of data. These procedures are important but usually painstaking to conduct manually. Making use of computational methods, such as deep learning, might be a way out. A branch of artificial intelligence, deep learning has trended in the past decade and has been applied in aspects such as academic research. In January 2020, Professor Jonathan ZHU, Dr Tetsuro KOBAYASHI, and Dr LIU Xiaofan of the Department of Media and Communication of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences participated in the First International Workshop on Computational Humanities and Social Science at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. Let us take the works they presented as examples to see how
computational methods help in humanities and social sciences research and lead to insightful findings. Zhu and his team have been working to develop methods to measure mobile use “sessions”. The team opined that while the time users spend on mobile devices is widely studied, it does not capture the frequency, timing and other temporal patterns of mobile use. Imagine that users A, B and C each use their devices for 120 minutes on a given day, but A uses it mainly in the morning, B in the afternoon and C throughout the day. The typical duration measurement can capture the data as “120 minutes”, but is unable to tell A and B have different timing and C has a high frequency of use. The researchers, therefore, introduced sessions as a complementary measurement of mobile phone use.
Professor Jonathan Zhu’s study covers the mobile use of over 4,000 users.
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Experts from Hong Kong, Japan and the Netherlands attended the workshop.
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A session is constructed based on the activation and deactivation of the device. It excludes all machine-activated tasks and considers only the users’ activities. Through analysing a set of open source mobile phone logs collected from thousands of users by the Device Analyzer Project at University of Cambridge, the team showed how to quantify mobile use sessions to uncover temporal patterns within and across users. The team believes session-based measures can be applied to research in, and beyond, mobile phone use. It also invites new analytical frameworks or tools, such as deep learning methods, to dig out information embedded in sessions. Kobayashi and his team used deep learning algorithms to detect politicians’ faces in television news. According to the team, news is the major source of political information for most people. Television news can lower barriers for people to learn about politics as it comes with visual illustrations. It exerts a strong influence on how people understand politics. Therefore, tracking the appearance of politicians on television news is important from the perspectives of political neutrality, comparing public and commercial broadcasting, and so-called presidentialisation (which means political leaders gain more power and public attention than political parties and other institutions). However, using human effort alone for such tracking is tedious and can undermine precision, especially if the news archive covers more than a decade. Hence, the team proposed the Deep Neural Network-based method (DNN method) to complete the task computationally rather than manually. To test the DNN method, the team identified 22 key Japanese politicians who represent the main political actors and the opposition during the observation period. Then, the method was run to detect the appearance of these politicians against sample clips from NHK News 7, a Japanese evening news programme broadcast domestically and internationally. As a comparison, an existing tracking method (the VJ method) and a text-based method (which detects the politicians based on the caption given along
with the video) were also evaluated with the same sample set. The performance of their new method was promising. It outperformed the other two methods with a tripled true positive rate and a lower false positive rate, and it succeeded in capturing the change of the ruling party in 2009. The team believes the analysis on public and commercial networks would bring deep insight that helps people understand the effect of visual stimuli on public opinion, and endeavours to improve the new method further. Next up was research by Liu and his fellow researchers, which investigated the long precepted “fragmentation” problem of the communication research field. They conducted a scientometric study, which analyses the importance of scientists and their works, the construct and trend of research realms and the relationships between different research realms, on articles published from 1970 until the first half of 2019. Similar studies exist, but the team was trying to expand the breadth and depth of data investigated by using deep learning and cluster analysis techniques. The number of articles analysed was well over 50,000. Though the study worked just on authors’ names and affiliations, article title, abstract, publishing venue, cited references and publication year, it resulted in a sizable amount of information. The result showed that these social sciences realms are probably integrated rather than fragmented in terms of their research topics and methods but fragmented from a scientific collaboration perspective. The team suggested that a knowledge graph is essential to delineate the ecology of the communication field’s development. Appreciating the diversity of communication studies and embracing more fresh ideas from other disciplines, instead of thinking about how to unify the field, is also a future focus. The three faculty members showed that the use of computational methods in humanities and social sciences have been making progress, but it has a long way to go. They also met with Dr Hiroki TAKIKAWA of Tohoku University to forge further collaboration, making the trip more rewarding.
(From left) Dr Liu Xiaofan, Professor Jonathan Zhu, Dr Hiroki Takikawa, and Dr Tetsuro Kobayashi met to discuss future collaboration opportunities.
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EVENTS
City Literature: Thoughts and Ideas about Hong Kong Educators are determined to promote city literature, a genre of literature which depicts the culture, people, and happenings of where we live
(From right) Dr Chan Hok-yin, and local writers and secondary school teachers Yan Pui-kei and Chan Chi-kian, are nurturing students’ interest in literature and writing by organising workshops, seminars and competitions.
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he Department of Chinese and History (CAH) of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences recently organised the “City Literary Awards 2020” to develop the standard of Chinese creative writing among Hong Kong’s younger generation. It is intriguing to explore the topic of “city literature”. There are many genres of literature. Genres can be defined according to different attributes, such as the period in which the works were composed, and their tone, style, form or content. Usually, there are subgenres within a major genre. For example, Chinese works are often categorised by dynasty, like the pre-Qin, Wei and Jin, Ming and Qing dynasties. In each period, different subgenres were derived. Examples include temple literature, aristocratic literature and feminist literature. In short, a new genre is born when we add an attribute before the word “literature”. So is city literature—it evolved from adding “city” before “literature”. But the addition has its point. Dr CHAN Hok-yin, Associate Head and Associate Professor of CAH and the chairperson of the organising committee of the “City Literary Awards 2020”, explains what makes city literature unique.
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“The world is becoming more globalised. People travel more frequently than ever before. With various forms of literature such as poems, prose, novels and drama, we can record the cultural activities and human interaction, and depict the lives of different people within a city.” As a place where East meets West and modern blends with traditional, Hong Kong has a distinct literature which does not resemble that of other Chinese cities. “It has its very own social properties, collective memory, cultural dimensions and wisdom,” Chan adds. Hong Kong has rich literary resources and works. The history and development of Hong Kong literature are well documented in Compendium of Hong Kong Literature, a 12-volume series edited by Professor CHAN Kwok-kou, a literary critic, comparative literature and Hong Kong literature expert. Hong Kong writers DUNG Kai-cheung, LEUNG Ping-kwan (whose pen name was Ye-si) and David WONG Derwei have also evoked the vibrant local literary scene in their works. In his school days, Chan was not an enthusiast of literature, which he now teaches and promotes. “I studied science subjects in secondary
EVENTS
school and rarely read literary works. Probably the only piece of Hong Kong literature I read before the university was an article in the curriculum written by Xi-xi, which portrays the wide variety of shops on the streets and the people who shop there.” It was only after he enrolled at university that he gained more exposure to Hong Kong literature. He read a lot of works composed by local writers and poets including WU Yin-ching, LIU Yichang, WONG Bik-wan and CHEN Zhide, and learnt to appreciate the finesse in these works. For Chan, local literature reflects social issues in our society. “These works represent the thoughts and ideas of many Hongkongers. By reading these works, the younger generation can rethink the many facets of Hong Kong and develop a deeper insight into this metropolis, which grew out of a small fishing village,” he says. Literature does not excite young people in Hong Kong the same way it did a decade ago. “Eight or 10 years ago, I met groups of students who were really passionate about literature. They wrote articles, ran reading groups, and even printed their own literary magazines. These days, students seldom read literary works, and few join our literature talks or workshops out of interest. They usually attend because they are required [to do so] by their teachers or parents,” Chan says. “There are very few research studies in Hong Kong or city literature within academia, too. Few journals publish relevant papers. It hinders research in this field.” Fortunately, many passionate writers and educators are
determined to promote literature in Hong Kong. Platforms for exchanging and showcasing creative works are well established. “Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature” is one of these platforms. It was conceived in 1991 by Hong Kong Public Libraries, and many local authors have started their writing career after receiving an award in this competition. Literary magazines such as the bi-monthly Fleurs des Lettres , the three magazines under the Hong Kong Pupil Literature Monthly Magazine series edited by Hong Kong writer KWUN Moon-nam, and the 35-year-old Hong Kong Literary magazine help tremendously in nurturing young writers, elevating students’ writing skills and bringing Hong Kong literature to the world. Chan has played a major role in promoting Hong Kong literature. In university, he was a production team member for CityU’s literary magazine, and was also a judge for competitions in the “City Literary Festival”. In recent years, he has hosted seminars and workshops on novel and prose writing together with CHAN Chi-kian and YAN Puikei, both local writers and teachers in secondary schools. They were also members of the organising committee for a micro-novel writing competition in 2017 and the “City Literary Awards” this year. For those aspiring to write about Hong Kong, Chan has some practical advice: “Not only is this an international financial hub, it is a lively and ever-changing metropolis. By observing the people and what’s happening around us, and experiencing the city’s culture, history and daily living, one may get inspired.”
As a place where East meets West, Hong Kong has a distinct literature which does not resemble that of other Chinese cities.
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SOCIAL IMPACT
“Hidden Youth” should be Lauded for Their Contributions to Society Hikikomori cases range from adults going years or decades without leaving their homes and rarely leaving their rooms, to introverted youth who learn to live fruitful, productive lives online
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OVID-19 has forced many people to live in social isolation for the first time. For some young people, however, it has been a way of life for some time. Hikikomori, a term which originated in Japan, refers to a condition where the youth withdraw into their homes and does not participate in society for an extended period of time, usually six months or longer. Research indicates that hikikomori—also known as “socially withdrawn youth” or “hidden youth”—is not only a phenomenon in Japan now, but has become more prevalent in Hong Kong. “Hikikomori is especially prominent in Asia because of dominant, mainstream discourses in society,” explains Dr Gloria CHAN, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, who has conducted extensive research on the topic with Professor Wing T LO, Head of the Department. “In Hong Kong, the dominant expectation of the youth is that they should enter the university and pursue a prestigious career. Thus, any behaviour deviating from this perceived norm is viewed as undesirable.” She says society, family, media and school life are among the factors that can lead to young people retreating from society in favour of an almost exclusively Internet-based lifestyle. “A mismatch between individual expectations and societal expectations causes the youth to withdraw from society rather than engage with it,” Chan says. “Meanwhile, the media plays a part in enunciating and portraying the negative side of hikikomori by, for example, reporting on the violent cases.” “Family is another reason hikikomori is more common in Asia than in the West. In Asian society, there is less focus on individualism and it is more common for the youth to stay at home. Therefore, it is more likely to be a co-dependency between parents and youth, and the family is viewed as a ‘safe haven’.” Research conducted by Chan and her colleagues in Hong Kong and Japan found the phenomenon had a higher occurrence among
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Dr Gloria Chan and her colleagues view Hikikomori as a phenomenon rather than an illness.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Many young people opt to be hikikomori and engage in a hidden lifestyle out of their own choice, but the general public often labels them as having low skill levels and timewasters.
When youth find themselves without a real social position, or way to stand in society, they will choose being hidden as the ultimate coping strategy Dr Gloria Chan
upper-middle class families. This is most likely because there was more pressure to live up to the families’ expectations, as well the families’ ability to support their children’s living expenses. Ultimately, however, Chan believes it is the negative labelling imposed by conventional society that plays the biggest role. “We do not view being hidden as an individual problem; instead, we believe societal problems to be the most important factor among all of the aforementioned factors,” she says. “We find that negatively labelling youth’s deviant behaviour is a very significant cause of hikikomori. Being hidden is not caused by separate, clear-cut factors; rather, being hidden involves a complicated, stage-like development process, involving interplay of the aforementioned factors, which has an impact on individuals’ sense of well-being and identity.” “When youth find themselves without a real social position, or way to stand in society, they will choose being hidden as the ultimate coping strategy.” It can be difficult to appropriately label hikikomori cases as it is a relatively new phenomenon. They can range from adults going years or decades without leaving their homes and rarely leaving their rooms, to introverted youth who learn to live fruitful, productive lives online. Chan emphasises that hikikomori is very much a chosen lifestyle, and is not deserving of its negative stigma. She believes that the negative label society has placed on the phenomenon exacerbates
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SOCIAL IMPACT
Though many of the young people who are retreating from society prefer an Internet-based lifestyle, being hidden is not the same as being addicted to the Internet.
the issue. She also thinks that, contrary to popular belief, socially withdrawn individuals are not a hindrance to society. “Hidden youth do not cause problems to society—rather, they show concern about social issues and make contributions to society in their own ways,” Chan says. “Also, thanks to the advancement of technology, the Internet not only provides space for entertainment and subculture, but also provides opportunities for teaching, learning and work. The Internet has brought about changes in the mode of work and hikikomori have made use of this opportunity to engage in Internetbased work and earn a living while staying at home.” Chan says the COVID-19 outbreak has raised many questions about hikikomori. The general public is experiencing the hikikomori lifestyle for the first time and, while some people may be struggling, others may find that they enjoy spending more time at home. Will this cause more people to empathise with, or possibly adopt the hikikomori lifestyle? However, many socially withdrawn youth’s lives have not been disturbed during the outbreak, because their work was already strictly online. This begs the question: Does hikikomori have its benefits over a traditional lifestyle? “As hidden youth can earn a living by performing Internetbased work, the epidemic comparatively imposes less impact in their employment or means of living during the COVID-19 outbreak, while some of their parents have been fired during this period,” Chan says. “It is possible the living experience during the COVID-19 outbreak can help people rethink the nature of ‘employment’ and ‘lifestyle’, and whether we should still view staying at home as ‘non-productive’, a problem that needs to be corrected.” Many young people opt to be hikikomori as it allows them to
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go about their business without the fear of being judged by society. Often, they display confident, high status identities online. It is not that they are unable to form high-quality social relationships, just that their relationships are formed online rather than in face-toface contexts. “This is about the dominant ideology in society, which highly values meritocracy and equates personal achievement with self-identity,” Chan says. “Why should someone unable to get into university be seen as a failure? It is not for everyone. But society labels people who spend a lot of time gaming or online as failures, timewasters and as such, they become outcasts and withdraw from mainstream society completely.” Chan and her colleagues describe hikikomori as a “multi-faceted issue” whose origins are difficult to pinpoint. Some cases may be due to family and school issues. In many cases, socially withdrawn youth act this way out of choice and are leading a self-preferred lifestyle rather than forcing themselves to re-engage into a society that does not align with their values. Two things have been made clear by Chan and her colleagues. More research needs to be done on this growing phenomenon so that clearer distinctions, treatments and interventions can be made. The second is that it is time to do away with the negative stigma society has placed on hikikomori. “The general public often views [hidden youth] as having a low skill level, but we do not agree. They engage in a hidden lifestyle because their interests, wishes and expectations do not match societal standards and expectations. In fact, we view many hikikomori as pioneers who advocate a new lifestyle in the contemporary technological era.”
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Hung Hom Community Comes Alive for Students
A team of students designed and led a guided tour to introduce the rich local culture of the Hung Hom community.
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owloon City is one of the most vibrant districts in Hong Kong. Encompassing a wide area, the locale is home to neighbourhoods such as the bustling Hung Hom and Kowloon Tong to the more secluded—at least until the Sha Tin to Central Link opens—Ma Tau Wai and To Kwa Wan. In the middle of this sits Kai Tak, the site of Hong Kong’s old international airport, now in the process of redevelopment. Dr Vivian LEE, Associate Professor of CityU’s Department of Chinese and History, has been working on a Kowloon City-themed walking trail in collaboration with the Social Welfare Association of the Hong Kong Anglican Church (Sheng Kung Hui) that seeks to introduce the district, specifically Hung Hom, to students who might otherwise have little notion of the rich local culture to be found in this area. “[The project] was intended to give cultural and heritage management undergraduates an opportunity to apply their knowledge about local history and heritage in a community project,” explains Lee. “Through guest lectures, training workshops, field work and archival research, students worked in teams to develop themed guided tours to introduce the history of the Hung Hom district to the general public. Each guided tour design had to tell a story about different aspects of the local community, including traditional customs, religious practices, and social and economic development.” Developed as part of the government’s urban renewal project in the district, discussions about the walking tours began back in 2017. The Social Welfare Association approached Lee when she was
working on a related local history project. One of the aims was to expose students to a series of immersive and experiential learning activities that included the implementation of educational games and a walking trail. “Students did a lot of preparation through guest lectures and workshops that gave them a foundation in the historical development of the Hung Hom district and basic techniques in designing guided tours and public engagement activities,” says Lee. “In February 2018, they went on a field trip with HKAC staff and were introduced to the social workers, shop owners and ‘kaifongs’ in Hung Hom, some of whom they interviewed at a later stage. These training and out-of-classroom activities were indispensable to the development of their guided tour projects.” A team of students was selected to further develop their project into a guided tour. Their hard work was rewarded when the tour was fully booked within 24 hours of the announcement on Facebook. Wendy CHEUNG Shuk-kwan, a student who helped design the tour, described the experience as unforgettable, and was grateful to have had such a good learning opportunity. Cheung was tasked with working on the theme “Hung Hom religion”, and was in charge of the section about the Kwun Yum Temple built in 1873. She was surprised to learn the significant relationship between religion and the local community, and discovered that “Chinese and Western religions have played an important role in the Hung Hom community, [both] spiritually and corporeally”.
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TEACHING AND LEARNING
Dr Li Bin brought students out from the classroom to observe Hong Kong’s unique linguistic landscape.
Rediscovering Hong Kong by Surveying its Linguistic Landscape A new teaching method proposed in a funded project motivated students to identify and analyse interesting linguistic phenomenon in the city
“L
inguistic diversity is a key feature of Hong Kong’s society.” So says Dr LI Bin, Associate Professor of Department of Linguistics and Translation of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, who has completed a project to implement an innovative teaching method that helps students relate classroom knowledge to everyday situations, and sensitise them to language phenomenon in Hong Kong. Entitled “(Re)discovering Hong Kong through surveying its linguistic landscape”, the project saw students discover the diverse local linguistic and social characteristics through collaborated survey of the city’s unique linguistic landscape. They had to take photos of textual signs and write a short report to describe and analyse the linguistic and sociocultural issues reflected in the signage. An annotated digital photo album and an interactive map were then created by the teachers to integrate the photos and to highlight discoveries. Language is a hugely important facet of any society, explains Li. She states, “Majority and minority languages in official and
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informal texts show a myriad of patterns of language use. They are a reflection and result of historical, ideological, social, ethnic considerations via language choices.” Li describes Hong Kong’s language system as “concordance and heterogeneity under trilingualism and biliteracy with the mainstream use of bilingual or monolingual signs in Chinese/English, and a myriad use of minority languages in diverse contexts for official and commercial purposes.” According to Li, language has a dramatic effect on the socioeconomic and cultural elements of the city. “Language is an inherent means to individual and group identities,” she says. “Impacts of intrinsic and extrinsic choices of a language or accent are observable and experienced in all aspects of life from kindergarten admission and professional communication to even visibility of a commercial sign. So, awareness of linguistic diversity, including language choices and speech accents, contributes to a proper understanding of Hong Kong and its people in the past
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Majority and minority languages in official and informal texts show a myriad of patterns of language use. They are a reflection and result of historical, ideological, social, ethnic considerations via language choices Dr Li Bin
and at present, which benefits social inclusiveness and cultural accommodation.” Hong Kong is a particularly rich melting pot of languages. Although Cantonese is dominant, many of the city’s Chinese residents also speak other Chinese dialects such as Hakka, Fukien and Tewchau (Chiuchau), as well as Putonghua, the dominant language in mainland China. Furthermore, Hong Kong’s South Asian communities continue to speak their heritage languages such as Hindi or Urdu, while English, one of Hong Kong’s official languages, remains an essential language for many. Although some predicted a less international Hong Kong following the handover in 1997, Li believes the city is as rich linguistically as it was over 20 years ago. “In my understanding, the language landscape has not changed dramatically over the decades,” says Li, who based her assessment off her research projects and by researching public media and scholarly works. “Bilingual signs and monolingual ones in standard Chinese/ English still account for the majority of publicly displayed textual signs, which is similar to the description of the 1990s.” Li credits her students and collaborating course leaders for helping to make her project such a success. She says they went to great lengths to look at Hong Kong from a unique linguistic lens. “We set out to experiment with a teaching method that fosters discovery and critical thinking,” she explains. “Students formed groups and brainstormed for topics and analysis, before stepping outside the classroom to explore their hometowns from a different perspective. The collaboration not only offered opportunities for self-learning of linguistic concepts, but also fostered a greater appreciation of their own heritage and others.” Li says students browsed the Central Library to find old maps and public documents to research the history of street names. Some interviewed restaurant owners and customers to understand the
meanings behind shop signs and “funky menus” in restaurants. Some reached out to ethnic minority groups to verify translations of flyers in minority languages. These field trips and searching for textual signs were designed to help motivate students into the self-initiated inquiry of information and post-task reading. The students’ projects had studied many issues in linguistics and sociolinguistics. For example, one group of students did a sociolinguistic discussion on a government notice. They examined the use of English as a lingua franca for inferential purposes and the use of colloquial Cantonese for affective purposes like cultural solidarity. They also looked at the linguistic features including phonological borrowing and morphological and semantic processes on the notice. In another example, the students took a photo of a signage of a foreign exchange shop with the business nature of the shop in Chinese, English, French and other languages used by ethnic minorities. They discussed issues such as translation strategy, business translation, and multilingualism in their report. The aim of the project was to help students discover the diverse local linguistic and social characteristics of Hong Kong’s unique linguistic landscape. The sharing of their discoveries with overseas students then enabled them to understand the perspectives of others towards their home languages and cultural heritages. This exploration and discussion of the city’s linguistic landscape provided hands-on experience for students studying abstract and theoretical concepts in humanities and social sciences. Perhaps most importantly, the exercise aimed to help Hong Kong students appreciate their own heritage and bolster their local pride and global awareness by exploring the contextual and social use of languages as reflected in the cityscape. “Through it all,” concludes Li, “students from diverse disciplines and cultural backgrounds gained a better understanding of themselves and the city through exploration of languages in the society. Their commitment and coursework make this project possible and a sustainable success.”
One of the project groups used this photo, taken at Ngong Ping 360, to discuss the dominant language, language attitude and language choice.
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NEWS
Secrets to Juggling Academic Work and Sport A
university student uses his or her four or five years of studies to build expertise and acquire soft skills for lifelong success. An athlete devotes his or her time to practise sport. What about a student who juggles both roles? Let Matthew LAI Cheuk-nam, a year 3 student in the Department of Chinese and History of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), share his experience. He and Lincoln CHAN Wui-ki, a year 4 student in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of CLASS, represent the University and the Hong Kong squash teams. In December 2019, they represented the University in the elite group at the 3rd All China University Squash Competition in Shanghai, and returned as the overall men’s champion, as well as the champion and runner-up in the men’s singles. Lai recalls how he started playing squash. “I was introduced to mini squash at Primary One. I hardly recall anything really amusing about playing the sport, but I do treasure the friendship with Chan. We have known each other since childhood, studied at the same secondary school and trained under the same coach. At Secondary Three or Four, we were both selected for the Hong Kong squash team.” The duo trained together each day and took part in major competitions like the World Junior Championships. By coincidence, they enrolled in the same university and played for the squash team. The biggest challenge for a student-athlete is how to balance academics and sport. “Usually, I do training in the morning, attend lectures at around noon, and complete another practice session in the afternoon,” Lai says. “I am grateful to have supportive classmates and lecturers who are willing to lend me the lecture notes and explain everything from the beginning when I am late for the classes. When I have to compete in overseas tournaments, not only do the lecturers accept my leave applications, they also express their encouragement. This way, I can manage both the academic work and sport well.” Their support again helped Lai succeed in the competition in Shanghai, but the intense competition schedule and an incident in the final against Chan tested Lai’s resolve. “I played six matches
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With the support of the University, his lecturers and classmates, Matthew Lai finds a successful balance between academic work and sport.
before the final, during which the edge of my eye was injured. I wanted to end the match quickly, but my impatience drove me to distraction and cost me that set. Fortunately, I bounced back and won the match.” The spirit of brotherhood is something Lai cherishes. “As Chan will graduate soon, it was the last time we represented CityU as teammates on the field. After all, we grow up and strive for a common goal together.” Lai is targeting a medal at the next Universiade. Regardless of the outcome, he will do his best and leave with no regrets about his student-athlete life.
NEWS
Gala attendees shared lots of touching moments, laughter and joy.
Department of English Celebrates Milestone T
he Department of English (EN) of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences celebrated its 30th anniversary with two insightful seminars and a gala in September and October 2019. EN was founded at the then City Polytechnic in 1989, five years before the university title was granted. Since its inception, not only has the Department established itself as a global leader in English applied linguistics, it has also provided excellence in areas such as English for specific purposes, literary studies and intercultural communication. According to Professor Diane PECORARI, Head of EN, having a broad teaching and research agenda allows the Department to offer students a full English studies curriculum. This has borne fruit. “Our graduates are highly employable, and are increasingly using the bachelor of arts as a stepping stone to postgraduate studies,” she says. What could be more wonderful than having former faculty members who are renowned scholars return to campus for the anniversary? On 16 September 2019, Professor Vijay BHATIA, a long-serving faculty of EN until his retirement, was invited to speak at the first of the Gold Leaf Seminar Series. As the title “Fake News’ as Interdiscursive Illusion: A Challenge to Law, Social Media, and
Free Speech” implies, he brought the key challenges to law and free speech in today’s digitally mediated world to the audience’s attention. Then on 21 October 2019, Professor Jack RICHARDS, the founding Department Head, hosted the second seminar of the series and discussed aspects of language teachers’ skills and expertise. Other former faculty members, current staff and students, and some alumni joined the celebration on 25 October 2019, when the anniversary gala was held. Apart from a time for members of the family to reunite, it was a valuable opportunity for the Department to show gratitude to its supporters and community partners, and draw attention to its strengths. The evening started with a piano performance by acclaimed pianists Tony LEE and ZHANG Lixin, followed by a cosy reception. Professor Pecorari, Professor Richards and Professor Bhatia also gave speeches and toasted the future of the Department. Moving into its fourth decade, the Department is putting its focus on responding with agility to the changing needs of the students, notably helping them acquire important transferable skills. “The professional communication skills we cultivate in our students, the creativity, the invaluable research and critical thinking skills they gain from their education all equip them for the flexible working practices of the future,” Professor Pecorari believes.
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NEWS
Secondary school students are taught how to conduct research at the start of the workshops.
Guidance Helps Remove IES Obstacles T
he Department of Public Policy (POL) of CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has been running the “Hong Kong School-Based Research Project Program for Senior Secondary School Students”. It introduces secondary students to the skills required for Independent Enquiry Study (IES), a part of the core liberal studies subject under the New Senior Secondary Curriculum in Hong Kong. But how does it help? To answer this question, one needs to know the challenges posed by IES. First, the process to complete the project spans the whole three years of their high school study, but this component comprises just 20 per cent of the final result. Students find it time-consuming and think the weighing or requirements should be lowered. It also requires students to complete a sound enquiry from scratch. They need to choose a topic that is specific and feasible to study, collect and analyse primary data and secondary resources, and present their findings in written or non-written format in their final products. It tests higher-order thinking, communication and presentation skills. Many students find themselves unable to grasp the required skills, let alone benefit from this journey of exploration
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and discovery. With a demanding syllabus for the public written examination of the subject, which contributes to the remaining 80 per cent of the final grade, many teachers lack time to provide students with comprehensive research training. This is where support from POL’s initiative comes in. For each participating school, three workshops are conducted by undergraduates of the Department. The coaches, who are familiar with DSE requirements and have experience in completing IES themselves, introduce practical research techniques to the students. These include setting topics and focus questions, applying different research methodologies like secondary data analysis, observation, interview and survey, as well as analysing data and drawing conclusions. Apart from helping students tackle the examination and relieve stress, the aim of the workshops is to cultivate their interest in evidence-based research and enhance their generic skills that can be applied to different situations. Participating schools and students are not the only ones to be rewarded. POL students who take up a coaching role can enhance their research and presentation skills through preparing for and conducting the workshops, and showcase what they have learnt at the Department.
NEWS
CLASS Granted Funding to Examine Social Issues F
unding of HK$6.07 million has been granted to 16 projects proposed by CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) under the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (Special Round), launched by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the HKSAR Government. The special round of funding was launched to support research studies in topics related to the underlying causes of recent social incidents, as well as important political, economic, cultural and societal issues relating to deep-seated
problems in society. The research projects started in March 2020 and are expected to be completed in six months. Among all the institutions and think tanks that have made applications for the funding, CityU has the highest number of projects awarded (18 out of 79), and all but two of the projects are from CLASS faculty members. Details of the granted projects are shown in the table below. CLASS will continue its efforts in achieving excellence in research and encourage its faculty members to contribute their knowledge for the betterment of the society.
Department
Principal Investigator
Project Title
Chinese and History
Dr CHAN Hok-yin
The Making of “Hongkongers”: A Study of Post-Secondary Students’ Collective Identity
Media and Communication
Dr Stella CHIA
Use Fact Checking to Reduce Misinformation, Misperception and Rebuild Social Trust
Media and Communication
Dr Tetsuro KOBAYASHI
Where is Halfway? Identifying the Common Policy Ground and its Effects on Attitudinal Change among Hong Kong Citizens
Media and Communication
Dr SHEN Fei
How to Reduce Political Polarization in Hong Kong? A Pilot Experiment of Deliberation
Public Policy
Dr Edmund CHENG Wai
The Socioeconomic and Political Origins of the Hong Kong Protests
Public Policy
Dr Bill TAYLOR
New Unions as Old Binaries or New Directions
Public Policy
Professor Ray YEP Kin-man
Radicalization of the Educated: Moving Towards Extremism?
Public Policy
Professor Richard M WALKER
Knowledge Illusion, Community of Knowledge and Citizens’ Extreme Attitudes in Politics and Public Policy
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr Oliver CHAN Heng-choon
Exploratory Study of Attitudes toward Violence among Hong Kong People
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr Jacky CHEUNG Chau-kiu
Removing Radicalism through Deradicalization Engagements among Youth
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Professor CHUI Wing-hong
(Non-)Violence in the Name of …? Exploring Protester-Police Conflicts during the 2019 Anti-Extradition Movement with the Elaborated Social Identity Model
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr Annis FUNG Lai-chu
The Underlying Causes and Characteristics of Aggression and Victimisation among Participants in the Recent Social Incidents
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr KWAN Chi-kin
Psychosocial Investigation of Youth Unrest in Hong Kong
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr Eileen TSANG Yuk-ha
The Home as a Barometer of Society: “Practices of Intimacy” to Moderate Family Intergenerational Conflict in Anti-Extradition Law Protests in Hong Kong
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr YUE Xiaodong
Enhancing Compatibility between National and Local Identities for Hong Kong Youth: Survey Studies and Policy Recommendations for Social Reconciliation Strategies
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Dr Andrew LOW Yiu-tsang
Adolescents’ Voices are Heard: Conflict Resolution Strategies and Preferred Parenting Style of Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents to Resolve Parent-Adolescent Conflicts in the Current Social Situation
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Dean: Director of Administration: Production:
Professor Richard M WALKER Dr Hermia CHIU Po-hing College Publicity Team
CITY CLASS connects the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) with our stakeholders. The magazine offers a snapshot of CLASS events and achievements in areas such as teaching, research, knowledge transfer, student activities, learning experiences, and university life. It aims at providing readers with insights into the College’s commitment to quality education and research.
Online version is available on www.cityu.edu.hk/class/magazine
To subscribe to the magazine, please send an email to: ch.publicity@cityu.edu.hk Š2020 College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong Facebook: www.facebook.com/CLASS.CityU