New Asia College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

The "Ch'ien Mu Lecture in History and Culture" aims to promote academic and cultural exchanges. Ever since its first appearance, the Lecture has been hosted each year by scholars with significant contributions and outstanding achievements in the various fields of Chinese cultural studies within and without the country. The lecture series has been receiving permanent endowment of the Mr. Chan Chi-sun Chinese Culture Fund since 2013.

To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the College, we are honored to have invited Professor of Chinese Literature of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilisations of Harvard University Li Wai-yee to host the 70th Anniversary Lecture of New Asia College cum the 32nd Ch'ien Mu Lecture Series in History and Culture in mid-March 2019. Professor Li delivered three public lectures during this period. A banquet of two tables was specially held on the evening of 15 March at Yun Chi Hsien in honour of Professor Li, and the College extended its warmest welcome to the speaker on this occasion.

The first lecture "Objectifying People and Humanizing Things in the Chinese Tradition" was held on 15 March at Sir Run Run Shaw Hall, CUHK, and was moderated by Head of College Professor Henry Wong Nai-ching. Professor Li argued that the relationship between people and things promised mastery and transcendence while warning of dangers and corrosion, and at the same time negotiated the possibilities between these two poles. To establish the connection between things on one side and moral self-cultivation and aesthetic creation on the other, men had to animate the world of things, thereby humanising things. Conversely, men's losing themselves in the pursuit of material gains aroused a fear of objectification of human beings.

The second lecture "Elegance and Vulgarity: Ming Qing Literature and Material Culture" was held on 16 March at the Lecture Theatre of the Hong Kong Central Library, with Professor Hua Wei of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of the CUHK as the moderator. Professor Li remarked that the boundary between elegance and vulgarity was a major object of discussion in the appreciation of and discourse on things in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Professor Li endeavoured to explore how The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin Ping Mei), Li Yu's stories, and Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou Meng) depicted and reflected on the boundaries between elegance and vulgarity through studying various questions regarding art connoisseurship raised in the late Ming Dynasty.

The third lecture "Inconvenient or Unnecessary Details in Zuozhuan" was held on 20 March at Swire Hall 2 of CUHK, and was moderated by Professor Cheung Kam-siu of the Department of Chinese Language of the CUHK. Professor Li sought to define and interpret irrelevant details or inconvenient details that contravened the "purpose" of a piece of writing, and this issue inevitably led to the debate over the presumption and definition of "purpose". Professor Li illustrated that most Zuozhuan stories carried covert or overt moral messages.

The three lectures received an enthusiastic response from teaching staff and students within and without the university, and inspired fruitful discussion between the speaker and the audience during the Q&A session.