CUHK launches the “CU50‧Care” programme which encourages all members of the University, including students, staff, alumni and friends, to 50 hours of community service commitments within the jubilee year, assembling their power to contribute to our society.

An exclusive Tree Planting Day for members of CUHK will be organized under the “CU50‧Care” programme on May 11 at Luk Chau Shan, Ma On Shan Country Park. Students, staff and alumni of CUHK are welcome to join with their family and friends.

Please click on the link next to the title for programme details and online registration.

Gold has been a symbol of wealth and power since time immemorial, and it has a special commemorative meaning attached to the Golden Jubilee. The Art Museum and the Department of Fine Arts jointly present an exhibition entitled ‘Radiant Legacy: Ancient Chinese Gold from the Mengdiexuan Collection’ from May 5 to October 27, 2013. The exhibition showcases some 300 Eurasian and Chinese gold artefacts selected from the Mengdiexuan Collection, Hong Kong. The exhibits span a period of over 3,000 years, dating from ca. 1500 BCE to 1700 CE. This ancient Chinese gold exhibition is the first comprehensive, systematic presentation of gold in ancient China held in a Hong Kong museum.

Members of the public are welcome and admission is free. Details are as follows:

Two brand new items have been added to the 50th anniversary souvenir collection. They are the anniversary tie and scarf. Decorated with the unique 50th anniversary logo in the University’s signature purple color, these two items are definitely going to be a hit. Both are now available at the souvenir counter at John Fulton Centre. Act fast while stock last!

The second 50th Anniversary Fair Public Lecture, entitled 'Evidence-based health & medical intervention: How do we do our work in rural ethnic minority communities in China?', presented by Prof. Emily Chan of the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK was held at the Hong Kong Central Library on April 19.

Being an expert in medical humanitarian aid, Prof. Emily Chan is deeply concerned about disaster and health problem at regions with scare resources. In China, non-Han Chinese constitute up to 8% of the population and disproportionally settle in disaster- prone areas or terrains with extreme climate conditions. With limited community resources, these population subgroups do not always perceive the importance of disaster preparedness and are often left vulnerable to fend for their own survival.

Prof. Emily Chan launched an 'Ethnic Minority Health Project' together with her colleagues and students in CUHK to empower the most marginalized section of the Chinese society with evidence-based public health interventions. In the past few years they have been trailing the rugged landscapes of Gansu, Sichuan, Hainan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces to build disaster and health resilience in local communities. In the lecture, Prof. Chan shared her experience of knowledge transfer, the passion and challenge of working in these neglected pockets in China.

Prof. Pai Hsien-yung Kenneth, Wei Lun Professor of Humanities, CUHK was invited as the guest speaker for one of the University’s 50th Anniversary Distinguished Lectures.

Professor Pai presented a lecture on ‘New Aesthetics of Kunqu: Tradition in the Modern Era’ on April 18. He used his production experiences and the aesthetic approach he used in producing the ‘The Young Lovers’ Edition of The Peony Pavilion’ and ‘The Story of the Jade Hairpin’ to illustrate the ‘New Aesthetics of Kunqu’.

Prof. Pai is Wei Lun Professor of Humanities and initiated the ‘The Beauty of Kunqu Opera’ course for the Faculty of Arts. He personally taught two sessions, namely ‘Artistic Perspectives of Kunqu Poems: from 2-dimension (text) to 3-dimension (performance)’ and ‘New Aesthetics of Kunqu: Tradition in the Modern Era’. He was appointed as the Honorary Director of the ‘Kunqu Research Promotion Project’ in 2012 and has devoted himself wholeheartedly in the promotion of his beloved Kunqu.

An award ceremony was held on April 20 to honour individual and group winners of the CUHK Golden Jubilee Marathon Team.

42 winners, joined by their friends and families, received their trophies at the ceremony. Among them, two winners Daniel Lee and Alison Chow who were CUHK Team champions of the 10km (Staff Category, Men Division) and Full Marathon (Alumni Category, Women Division) respectively, shared their running experience with the audiences.

Besides individual awards, group awards were given to Colleges and Faculties with the most number of participants. Winners of the “Most Supportive College/Faculty Award” included New Asia, Shaw and United Colleges, and the Faculties of Business Administration, Engineering and Science.

The international conference ‘The Future of English in Asia: Perspectives on Language and Literature’ was held from April 19-21 at CUHK. The conference was organized by the Department of English and attracted leading international experts on English.

World-renowned writers, academics, and researchers on English were joined by poets, teachers, publishers, Education Bureau representatives, and members of the public in discussing the future of English in Hong Kong and across Asia. Speakers included Nicholas Ostler (author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World and The Last Lingua Franca: English Until The Return to Babel), Prof. Bill Ashcroft (Professor and ARC Fellow, University of New South Wales, Australia), Prof. Andy Kirkpatrick (Professor in Linguistics, Griffith University, Australia), President. Prof. Way Kuo (President, City University of Hong Kong), Prof. Longxi Zhang (Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation, City University of Hong Kong), Prof. Bob Adamson (Head of International Education and Lifelong Learning Department at HKIEd), and Louise Ho (leading Hong Kong English-language poet). There were panels and talks on ‘Language through Literature’, ‘World Englishes’, ‘English past and future - just one more Asian lingua franca’, ‘Models of trilingual education in China’ and many more topics.

The conference also attracted speakers from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, the UK, Australia, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Korea and many other countries and it covered a wide variety of topics related to English literature, English linguistics, and English education.

The winners, as chosen by a panel of judges including professional artistic photographer Simon Wan Chi-chung were as follows:

The competition was also held in coordination with James College, University of York, which is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.