The Faculty takes pride in announcing the latest additions to the important prizes awarded to our teachers and graduates:
Research Excellence Award 2013
Professor Tracey Lu, Department of Anthropology, has been awarded the Research Excellence Award 2013. The objectives of the Award are to encourage outstanding research performance and to provide a long-term, overall positive effect on promoting research excellence at the University and further improving the success rate of all major research grant applications.
Professor Lu's research interests include archaeology, museology and cultural heritage management. Professor Lu studies the origin and development of rice farming in the Yangzi River Valley and adjacent areas, particularly on how rice farming has impacted prehistoric human beings' settlement patterns, economic activities, labor division, professionalization and social segmentation and conflicts, as well as on natural resources. Her recent monograph on rice and prehistoric cultural changes was awarded "One of the Ten Best Books on Cultural Heritage in China in 2013".
In the study of museums in Mainland China, Professor Lu focuses on how museums have been used by various stakeholders ranging from European missionaries to the states and social elites from the 1920s to the 21st century. She argues that museums are not just institutes for leisure and heritage management, but also organizations serving economic, political, social and ideological needs of the powerful.
Professor Lu opines that heritage conservation is a field full of politics and conflicts of interests. "Heritage conservation" in Hong Kong after 1997 is in fact a social movement initiated and pushed by certain social segments to maximize their own economic and/or political interests, and to enhance Hong Kong identity as a way to distinguish Hong Kong from other cities of mainland China.
The Research Award is a great honour to Professor Lu and she wishes to use the grant to continue her research on heritage and museums in mainland China.
Professor Tracey Lu's monograph on "Rice and Prehistoric Cultural Change", published in 2013, was awarded "One of the Ten Best Books on Cultural Heritage in China in 2013".
Professor Hua Wei, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, is another awardee of the Research Excellence Award.
Professor Hua's main field of study is early modern Chinese drama. The book she published last year,《明清戲曲中的女性聲音與歷史記憶》(Women's voices and historical memories in Ming-Qing drama) looks into Chinese drama of the Ming-Qing period from two unique perspectives: women's voices and historical memories in order to uncover its significance to the culture and society of late imperial China. She considers Ming-Qing drama as part and parcel of late imperial China's "emotional history", hence an important "document of culture". For example, the chapter entitled, "Who is the Main Character? Who is the Viewer?—A Discussion of the Death of Chongzhen (the last Ming emperor) in Qing Dynasty Drama" explores the political implications of dramatic representation of history, as well as the limitations and influence of the times on historical representation.
Her book is an output of the RGC funded project, "The Representations of Ming History in the Classical Drama of the Qing". She is very grateful to the Faculty of Arts for recognizing her efforts and offering her the Research Excellence Award 2013-14.
She plans to advance her study of Qing dynasty drama by conducting research on "Ritual, Performance, and Politics: An Investigation of Yingluan drama of the Qing" in the years ahead.
Professor Hua Wei in California, summer of 2014
The Young Researcher Award 2013
Professor Puk Wing Kin, Department of History, was awarded the Young Researcher Award 2013. This Award is offered by the University annually to recognize research accomplishments of young faculty members.
His paper about the salt certificate system in the Ming dynasty, published in Lishi yanjiu, is a step forward from his PhD thesis. He argues that the Ming salt certificate system is a form of public debt, and discusses its role in Ming governmental finance and its significance in modern Chinese socio-economic history.
He was extremely honoured for being granted this award. He was deeply grateful for the support and criticism from his teachers and colleagues and friends within and outside CUHK. Recently, Professor Puk has been working hard on his RGC research project on Huizhou history.
Professor Puk (1st right) visited the Yanzhong Village in Yanyang Town of Meizhou, northeastern Guangdong on 8 June, 2014.
Postgraduate Research Award 2013
Mr Li Lin, a Ph.D. student of History, has been awarded the Postgraduate Research Award 2013 which is offered by the University annually in recognition of research postgraduate students of their commendable research achievements.
As an extract from the core chapter of his M.Phil. thesis, the awarded paper studies the elite group of China's last generation of the imperial presented scholars (jinshi), with foci on how the traditional literati reacted to and influenced the tremendous transformation of Chinese society in its modern transition. He will continue to devote himself to serious academic exploration of the political, cultural and social history of late imperial China, as well as issues pertaining to China's modern transformation. What drives him to this endeavour is a deep concern about the historical origins and the contemporary fate of China today.
He was proud to be a member of the University and thanked all who have helped, encouraged and spurred him on. Among them, he was most indebted to his supervisor, Professor Yip Hon Ming for her tireless mentorship, encouragement, and academic counsel.
First Visit to the Campus on 22 August 2008
Awards Granted by External Organisations
Mr Wong Sau Ping, fine arts graduate, was awarded the Best New Director in the 33rd Hong Kong Film Awards, for his remarkable achievement in his film The Way We Dance.
He was also honoured as the Best Artist (Film) in the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2013. Other fine arts graduates Mr. Lam Tung-pang won the Best Artist (Visual Arts) and Ms. Au Hoi Lam was presented the Award for Young Artist (Visual Arts). Organized by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Awards are offered to local artists, art organizations, schools and business organizations in recognition of unstinting support and contribution to the arts development in Hong Kong.
Mr Siu Wai Hang, MFA Graduate, was awarded WYNG Masters Award Winner in recognition of his photo series "The Roadsider" in raising public awareness of social issues through photography.
Wong Sau Ping, BA graduate in Fine Arts in 1998, being awarded "Best New Director" and "Best Artist (Film)"
