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HKU weekly notice (from September 13 to September 20, 2014)

12 Sep 2014

HKU Centre for Public and Comparative Law to hold political reform debate
Design Democracy Hong Kong of the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Public and Comparative Law will collaborate with HKUSU to hold a political reform debate on September 15, 2014 (Monday). Participants include Occupy Central Movement Mr Benny Tai, Hong Kong Association of Young Commentators Vice President Mr. Victor Chan, Legislative Council Member Mr Raymond Wong and Professor Ho Lok Sang. CUHKSU President Mr Tommy Cheung will be the guest host of the debtate.

Design Democracy Hong Kong (www.designdemocracy.hk) is an online platform sponsored by the Centre for Public and Comparative Law to promote constructive dialogue on the future of Hong Kong’s political system. It includes an innovative decision tree that allows citizens to build their own proposal for universal suffrage. It also hosts a public forum for users to share their views and interact. The website will be re-launched on September 15, 2014 (Monday). The updated website contains the unrevealed Legislative Council decision tree. This decision tree, together with the pre-existing one for the reform on Chief Executive Election, simulate the kinds of questions the government will need to address in designing democracy for Hong Kong, so that the public can build their own proposal for universal suffrage and share views with others. Further information can be found on www.facebook.com/designdemocracyhk.

Details of the political reform debate:
Date: September 15, 2014 (Monday)
Time: 3 to 5pm
Venue: 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong

For media enquiries, please contact Design Democracy HK Ms Gardenia Kwok, tel: 9041 9529 or email: gardenia@hku.hk.

HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law to collaborate with University of Cambridge on emerging issues in medical ethics, law and policy
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the University of Cambridge will hold a signing ceremony on September 16 (Tuesday) to mark the collaboration of the two leading universities in research on emerging issues in medical ethics, law and policy.

Professor Emeritus Dr John Spencer of Cambridge University and Mr Terry Kaan, Co-Director of the HKU Centre for Medical Ethics and Law will officiate at the ceremony. Other attendees include HKU Dean of Law Professor Michael Hor, Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law Dr Philip Beh, HKU Department of Pathology Chair Professor L C Chan, and representatives from WYNG Foundation and PHG Foundation.

In the evening, Professor John Spencer, professor in the Cambridge University Law Faculty from 1995 until 2013, will hold a public lecture on “Criminalising sickness? Liability for the transmission of disease”.

Details are as follows:

Date: September 16, 2014 (Tuesday)

Signing ceremony
Time: 11:00am to 12:00pm
Venue: Alumni Reading Room (A0901), 9/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
(Note: Professor John Spencer will stay to answer media queries after the ceremony)

WYNG-Hatton Public Lecture
Time: 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Large Moot Court, 2/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Abstract of WYNG-Hatton Public Lecture
In the WYNG-Hatton Lecture Professor Spencer will explore the moral, legal and logistical dimensions of imposing civil or criminal liability for transmitting illness to another person. Professor Spencer’s talk will focus on a UK ruling that an HIV-positive person may be found to have maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm for knowingly having unprotected sexual intercourse with and infecting an unaware partner. These developments have been the subject of heated debate, as researchers and advocacy groups have pointed out the additional stigma and burden potentially imposed upon the sick by such legal consequences. The wider relevance of the topic and the future of legislation around the transmission of illness is of considerable interest in Hong Kong, where emerging infectious diseases are of constant concern and high in public awareness.

Biography of Professor John Spencer
Professor Spencer’s wide expertise includes criminal law and the law of tort, and through these, medical law. He served as a professor in the Cambridge University Law Faculty from 1995 until 2013 and will be one of Cambridge’s team of Deputy Vice-Chancellors for the 2014-2015 academic year. In the context of the WYNG Foundation and the Hatton Trust’s recent gift to the Cambridge Law Faculty, Professor Spencer will be the Hatton-WYNG Medical Law, Ethics and Policy Programme Distinguished Adviser, and Chair of the Faculty Medical Law, Ethics and Policy Committee.

Please contact Ms Rachel Li (tel: 3917 2919 / Email: lirachel@hku.hk) for reservation of seat or for queries.

Contemporary China Studies Public Lecture
The Jade Emperor: Sovereign Power, Celestial Bureaucracy, and the Political Theology of the Masses in China
Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent, confront, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms, and say about them, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive, even suicidal destructiveness, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm.

Date: September 18, 2014 (Thursday)
Time: 6:30pm
Venue: Social Sciences Chamber, 11/F, the Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Speaker: Professor Mayfair Yang, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Website: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/ccspl/myang
Enquiries: Ms. Nikki Wong (Email:nhywong@hku.hk)

University Museum and Art Gallery exhibitions: “Picasso Ceramics”
The University Museum and Art Gallery is holding an exhibition of “Picasso Ceramics” from the Nina Miller Collection, which provides a unique opportunity to study the sculptural qualities and three-dimensional aspect of Pablo Picasso's work, never before seen in Hong Kong. From World War II to the end of Picasso's life in 1973, the Spanish artist created thousands of carefully sculpted and, often, colourfully glazed, objects that give testimony to his artistic diversity, ingenuity and enormous creative powers.

The exhibition includes more than 100 ceramic works, both Picasso's Madoura editions and unique individual pieces, as well as lithographs and posters designed by the artist, and images by renowned photographers depicting Picasso in his studio and home. Coming from one of the largest collection of the artist's ceramic ware in the world, this is the first time that the London-based Nina Miller Collection is ever seen publicly.

Details of the exhibition
Period: September 3, 2014 (Wednesday) to November 2, 2014 (Sunday)
Opening Hours: 9:30am to 6:30pm (Monday to Saturday);
1:00 to 6:00pm (Sunday).
Closed on University and Public Holidays

For details of the exhibition, please visit the museum’s homepage at:www.hkumag.hku.hk
Venue: 1/F, T.T. Tsui Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Hong Kong
For location of the museum, please visit: http://www.hkumag.hku.hk/location.html
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Fees: Free Admission

Media enquiries:
UMAG Communication Officer Miss Elena Cheung, Tel: (852) 2241 5512, Email: elenac@hku.hk

Exhibition – “Career Discovery in Landscape Architecture” Workshop 2014
Since 2009, HKU Faculty of Architecture has been organizing the “Career Discovery in Landscape Architecture” (CDLA) - an exploration program for high school students who are interested in bringing a more sustainable living environment to our city. CDLA offers a 3-week program each summer to young people to experience what it is like to be in the profession of landscape architecture.

This year, CDLA is taking students to install a 1:1 scale “Playscape” installation at HKU Campus, hoping to bring active participation to public spaces, and to induce new ways of interpreting landscape architecture by using Chinese steamers and plant materials. Through the themes of “Sit”, “Lie”, “Step”, “Cave”, “Reach”, and “Pass Through”, students will create play spaces that require visitors to perform the themed action in order to interact with plants selected.

Date: Aug 15, 2014 (Friday) to Sept 19, 2014 (Friday)
Venue: Top of Sun Yat Sen Steps at HKU Campus (Run Run Shaw Podium)

For more information, please visit:
http://fac.arch.hku.hk/summer/hk/cdla/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-University-of-Hong-Kong-Career-Discovery-in-Landscape-Architecture/419307761513300

For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Vincci Mak, Program Director of CDLA (Tel: 3917 5654 / wsvmak@hku.hk)

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