Media

HKU weekly notice (from April 9 to April 16, 2016)

08 Apr 2016

 

HKUL Book Talk: When True Love Came to China
Speaker:   Ms Lynn Pan
Moderator:  Dr Binbin Yang, Ph. D. Assistant Professor, School of Chinese, University of Hong Kong
Date: 14 April 2016 (Thursday)
Time: 6:30 to 8:00pm
Venue:  Special Collections, 1/F, Main Library, The University of Hong Kong
Language:  English
Registration: http://lib.hku.hk/friends/reading_club/bt2016_03.html

About the author:
Lynn Pan was born in Shanghai and educated in London and Cambridge, England. She is the author of more than a dozen books on China and the Chinese diaspora, including Shanghai Style; Tracing It Home; and Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize

About the book:
Most people suppose that the whole world knows what it is to love; that romantic love is universal, quintessentially human. Such a supposition has to be able to meet three challenges. It has to justify its underlying assumption that all cultures mean the same thing by the word ‘love’ regardless of language. It has to engage with the scholarly debate on whether or not romantic love was invented in Europe and is uniquely Western. And it must be able to explain why early twentieth-century Chinese writers claimed that they had never known true love, or love by modern Western standards. By addressing these three challenges through a literary, historical, philosophical, biographical and above all comparative approach, this highly original work shows how love’s profile in China shifted with the rejection of arranged marriages and concubinage in favour of free individual choice, monogamy and a Western model of romantic love.

Media Contact:  Mr. Gary Chin, Tel: 2859 2211 / Ms. Marina Yeung, Tel: 2859 8903

Celebrating 30 Years of Criminology at HKU-Through the Years Exhibition opens in April
The exhibition looks at the history of the Master of Social Sciences in Criminology programme, our links with criminal justice institutions and community partners, and showcases research work by staff and students on major topics of crime, deviance and justice in Hong Kong and beyond in the past three decades.

About the Exhibition
Our Master of Social Sciences in Criminology programme has been running for 30 years and remains the only taught postgraduate programme specializing in criminology in Hong Kong. The programme is distinctive in that it has nurtured the development of culturally relevant research on the problem of crime through student dissertation projects. Between 1988 and 2015, we have collected a repository of over 200 dissertations. In looking at this repository of knowledge, we take stock of how criminology started at HKU, how it has progressed, and new possibilities.

The exhibition in divided into 5 zones. The Alumni Zone showcases alumni research work on five key themes - juvenile delinquency and youth justice; correctional settings and services; police and policing; the cultural landscape of Hong Kong crime; women and gender. Visitors can trace how social and economic changes have shaped the problem of crime and crime control and the development of criminology in Hong Kong over the past three decades. The Reading Corner and Historical Artifacts Zone offer visitors a chance to read the collection of research work and to look at some of the archives about the origins of the Master of Social Sciences in Criminology programme at HKU. The Local, Regional, Global and Future Zone exhibits faculty research and community collaborations. Finally, the Photo Slideshow zone presents some of the precious memories of faculty and alumni throughout the past three decades.

Date: 5 April – 30 April, 2016
Venue: MC³@702 Creative Space, 7/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU
Opening Hours: 10:30am – 6:15pm (Closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays)
Language: English

Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Executive Assistant Connie Ko by email at connieko@hku.hk or by phone at 39172309.

Two HKU students win “Equal Opportunities and Inclusivity” photo competition
Two students of the University of Hong Kong Ms Chan Lai Fong and Mr. Duraisamy Karthi won the first prize and a merit prize in a photo competition with the theme “Equal Opportunities and Inclusivity”. The competition was co-organised by the Equal Opportunities Commission and 10 higher education institutes in January 2016 with an objective to encourage photo enthusiasts to show different aspects of inclusion and diversity in promoting equal opportunities.

An exhibition “Equal Opportunities and Inclusivity” will be held from April 18 to 24, 2016 on HKU campus to display the photos of the final round entries.

Details of the exhibition:
Date: April 18, 2016 (Monday) to April 24, 2016 (Sunday)
Time: 9am – 6pm
Venue: G/F, Chi Wah Learning Commons, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Admission: Free
Enquiry Tel: (852) 3917 5171

UMAG exhibitions
1. UMAG receives two limited-edition prints from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation: Ghada and Sayed from the series Our House is on Fire An exploration of humanity through conflict

Period: March 23, 2016 (Wednesday)

The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been selected by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RRF) to receive a donation of two photographic prints by distinguished Iranian artist Shirin Neshat.

Ghada and Sayed, portraits of an Egyptian woman and man, are from Neshat’s Our House is on Fire series, which was commissioned by the RRF in 2012 as part of their One-to-One initiative, in which contemporary artists create work in the service of human rights. In the series, Neshat investigates the universal experience of pain and mourning on national and personal levels as part of her exploration of Egypt’s Arab Spring. In Egypt, the artist invited people to sit down in front of her camera and share their individual stories of loss. By photographing her subjects at such close range, Neshat creates a poignant connection between subject and viewer. She overlays the images with a nearly indecipherable veil of text, generated from poems written during the Iranian Revolution. The Persian calligraphy inscribed across the folds of each face mirrors the way in which a national calamity has become embedded in the personal history of each individual, while bringing into conversation the Arabic speaking Egyptian world and Neshat’s Persian roots.

UMAG Director Florian Knothe notes that “HKU has an international cohort of teaching staff and affiliated students who will be able to study the context of the artworks and their significance. These powerful images will generate discussions on political, religious and social topics. Likewise, we will be able to explore the artist’s meaning and modes of engagement through the images.”

Other institutions receiving the prints include: American University of Beirut, Brandeis University, Columbia University, Dartmouth University, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Rhode Island School of Design, Stanford University, Tufts University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, University of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Wesleyan University, and Yale University. 

Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 daily
Closed on University and Public Holidays
Venue: 1/F, Chi Wah Learning Commons, Centennial Campus, HKU
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free

About the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation fosters the legacy of the life, artistic practice, and activist philosophy of one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Through exhibitions, scholarship, grants, and a residency program, the Foundation furthers Rauschenberg’s belief that art can change the world. For more information, please click here.

2. When classic meets modern The Art of Takashi Wakamiya: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Showcasing the meticulous process of craftsmanship

Period: March 18, 2016 (Friday) to June 19, 2016 (Sunday)

The Art of Takashi Wakamiya: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer exhibition is held in collaboration with Takashi Wakamiya’s studio Hikoju Makie, and with the support of the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong and Macau. A selection of finely executed contemporary objects in Japanese lacquer will be displayed at the exhibition.

Steeped in history, Japan has a highly developed tradition of creating exquisite objects from lacquer, both for decorative and domestic use. Over the years, Hikoju Makie has grown into a respected workshop that brings together celebrated traditions, innovations, impeccable quality and detail-oriented craftsmanship.

An acclaimed artist for 30 years, Wakamiya excels in the practice and teaching of traditional lacquer techniques with a high level of precision and has developed an interest in executing, in lacquer, East Asian objects historically made from unrelated materials, such as bronze or ceramic. His studio creates these imitations with such remarkable exactness that onlookers are fooled by the medium. The finely applied lacquer is, when held, much lighter than the metal or clay that it reproduces. A master of deception, Wakamiya and Hikoju Makie also specialise in the creation of life-like animals (beetles, grasshoppers), vegetables and fruits (corn, pumpkins).

Public guided tour
Cantonese: March 19 (Saturday, 14:00); April 9 & April 30 (Saturday, 15:30); May 7, May 28 & June 18 (Saturday, 15:00)
English: April 7 (Thursday, 13:30); April 16 & May 7 (Saturday, 15:30); June 18 (Saturday, 16:00)
Putonghua: March 24 & April 28 (Thursday, 13:30); May 28 & June 18 (Saturday, 15:30)

Lecture & Workshop
HIKOJU MAKIE Japanese Lacquer Art with Takashi Wakamiya
Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU
Speaker: Takashi Wakamiya
Language: Japanese (simultaneously translated to English)
Date: March 19, 2016 (Saturday)
Time:
11:00 Talk – All are welcome. Free admission. First-come, first-served.
15:00 Workshop – Cost: HK$100.
Date: March 20, 2016 (Sunday)
Time:
15:00 Workshop – Cost: HK$100.

3. Major global events retold through multimedia exhibition “Chen Xi: So We Remember” Renowned Chinese artist to exhibit for first time in Hong Kong

Period: March 2, 2016 (Wednesday) to May 15, 2016 (Sunday)

Artist Chen Xi created this series of contemporary images to commemorate, to document and to provoke thought. The paintings illustrate important events that have shaped our modern world. In the current show, we present her preliminary pen and watercolour drawings along with the finished oil paintings.

Meticulous in her research and true to both the documented incident and the domestic details, Chen Xi creates historical paintings for our present and future generations. Her method directly relates to contemporary life and to a society that is informed and influenced by modern-day media. Interestingly, the artist does not simply depict a historic event, but frames within a TV screen each episode of her sequential and international narrative. By presenting the paintings within the TV's glass, they become screen shots linked to a specific moment in time and space, as well as to the living room setting where the news would have been seen. In addition, the exhibition includes four early paintings that relate to the TV series and Chen Xi's development as an artist.

All exhibition-related activities will be held at 1/F, T.T. Tsui Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam.

Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 (Monday to Saturday)
13:00 – 18:00 (Sunday)
Closed on University and Public Holidays
Venue: 1/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free
Website: www.umag.hku.hk/en/

Connect with UMAG on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umag.hku
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UMAG_HKU
Instagram: #WakamiyaLacquer, #JapaneseLacquer
Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/5411839295/profile?topnav=1&wvr=6

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