Media

HKU weekly notice

26 Jan 2018

 

Are the Socially Deprived Exposed to More Air Pollution in Hong Kong?
HKU-Cambridge CEERP reveals air pollution-induced environmental injustice
Are the socially deprived exposed to a higher level of air pollution in Hong Kong? Can this exposure to air pollution therefore be seen as environmental injustice? Existing research on air pollution-induced environmental injustice in Hong Kong was based on sparse air pollution data due to the limited number of government pollution monitoring stations in the territory.

Recently, an interdisciplinary, breakthrough research was conducted by the HKU-Cambridge Clean Energy and Environment Research Platform (HKU-Cambridge CEERP). The research led by Professor Victor Li On-kwok and Dr Jacqueline Lam Chi-kei at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), was conducted through the development of a Granger Causality Model. This model utilised readily available urban dynamics data closely related with air pollution as proxy data to provide a fine-grained (100m X 100m) estimation of air pollution in Hong Kong, transforming the measurements of 16 government monitoring stations to 110,000 virtual stations.

This study revealed that the higher the Social Deprivation Index, the higher the mean PM_2.5 (Particulate Matter of width 2.5 microns or less) exposure. The postulation of air pollution-induced environmental injustice at the constituency area level in Hong Kong is justified. The paper was recently published in the journal Environmental Science and Policy.

The research team will meet the media to share the research findings and to highlight an emerging need for Hong Kong to develop more integrated, human-centric, location- and justice-based environmental policies to properly address air pollution-induced environmental injustice.

Details of the media briefing are as follows:
Date: January 29, 2018 (next Monday)
Time: 11:00 to 12:30
Venue: Conference Room, Room 515, 5/F, Haking Wong Building, HKU, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (MTR HKU Station Exit A2)

Spokespersons:
Professor Victor Li On-kwok 
Director, HKU-Cambridge Clean Energy and Environment Research Platform (CEERP)
Head, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, HKU
Chair of Information Engineering
Cheng Yu-Tung Professor in Sustainable Development

Dr Jacqueline Lam Chi-kei
Co-Director, HKU-Cambridge Clean Energy and Environment Research Platform (CEERP)
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, HKU
Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Judge Business School, Cambridge University

Media contact:
Communications and Public Affairs Office Ms Rhea Leung (Tel: +852 2857 8555/ +852 9022 7446; Email: rhea.leung@hku.hk)
Faculty of Engineering Ms Bonnie Tsang (Tel: 3917 1924; Email: bonniepy@hku.hk)

Asia Global Institute forum at HKU "Addressing Inequality Through Asian and Global Perspectives"
Globalisation might have lifted millions out of poverty in Asia – but did this happen at the expense of the middle class in the West?

The Asia Global Institute marks the launch of the AsiaGlobal Online Journal with talks and discussions on findings from the World Inequality Report 2018. This global study takes an in-depth look at inequality and proposes possible solutions for a sustainable future. The Report is the work of five authors including Chancel and Thomas Piketty, writer of Capital in the Twenty-first Century. 

Speakers include:

• Lucas Chancel, Co-director, World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics
• Zhiwu Chen, Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics, HKU Faculty of Business and Economics and Director, Asia Global Institute
• K C Kwok, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, HKU Faculty of Business and Economics
• Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, HKSAR Government
• Li Yang, Research Fellow, World Bank and Researcher, Paris School of Economics

Details are as follows:
Date: February 1, 2018 (Thursday)
Time: 12 noon to 2pm
Venue: Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House, HKU​

World Inequality Report 2018: http://wir2018.wid.world/

AsiaGlobal Online website: http://www.asiaglobalonline.hku.hk/

For enquiries, please contact Kelly Yuen at kyuen2@hku.hk; +852 3917 6021.

UMAG exhibitions
1. Objectifying China: Ming and Qing Dynasty Ceramics and Their Stylistic Influences Abroad Exploring five centuries of exchange between East and West

Period: Now till February 27, 2018 (Tuesday)

A Global Industry
For thousands of years, China has provided the world with porcelain of the highest quality. Elegant and resistant to heat and moisture, Chinese porcelain of various shapes and colours was eagerly sought—and just as eagerly imitated—by craftsmen across the globe. From the sixth to twentieth centuries, Chinese kilns produced everything from magnificent display pieces for the imperial court to vast quantities of bowls and dishes intended for everyday use, as well as for export to Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world.

The first Chinese porcelains did not arrive in Europe until the fourteenth century, when small numbers were presented to the ruling houses of Europe via intermediaries in the Middle East. Technologically superior to low-fired European ceramics, they were regarded as objects of rarity and luxury, and were sometimes mounted with silver or gold to emphasise their preciousness. By the early sixteenth century—after Portugal had established trade routes to China—Chinese potters began to produce large amounts of porcelain specifically for export to Europe as part of a larger trade in silk, spices, tea and lacquer.

Like all successful inventions, porcelain inspired competition. Kilns in Asia had been producing a wide variety of ceramics in imitation of Chinese wares for centuries, but European attempts to imitate porcelain were unsuccessful until Johann Böttger unlocked the process in Meissen, Germany in 1709. By the end of the century, factories across Europe were producing hybrid works that combined the best features of European and Asian design.

Venue: 1/F T.T. Tsui Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam

2. Ifugao Sculpture: Expressions in Philippine Cordillera Art showcasing the powerful simplicity of the rice terraces

Period: Now till February 4, 2018 (Sunday)

The works displayed in the show range from sculptural objects, including ‘bulul’ statues, deities associated with the production of bountiful harvests; ‘hipag’ (or ‘hapag’) figures, war deities used as vehicles through which divine help can be summoned; sculptural boxes used in ceremonies, the ‘punamhan’; and various boxes for the storage of food—sometimes called ‘tangongo’ or ‘tanoh’—along with other functional items such as ‘kinahu’, food bowls, and toys.

Fascinated with the modern abstract style of these carved 19th- and 20th-century sculptures, the exhibition takes an artistic rather than an anthropological approach, highlighting the aesthetics of the displayed artworks rather than signifying them as ethnic markers or religious tools. For instance, both the bulul figures and boxes are deeply connected to cultural rituals, while they present abstract expressions of a group of talented rural artists.

Together, these selected pieces showcase the aesthetic and artistic side of a wide range of Cordillera sculptural art from the 18th through the 20th centuries. The pieces are arranged in line with various centres of artistic gravity—‘archaic’, ‘minimalist’, ‘transition’—although the lines are sometimes blurred, and most of the ‘archaic’ material also shows ‘minimalist’ elements.

One of the essays in the exhibition catalogue draws comparisons with other tribal arts and describes their influence over modern Western artists, such as the Russian Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), the Romanian Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) and the French artist George Braque (1882–1963). This claim is based on visual comparisons and it is each object’s physical structure, design value and international character that is highlighted in the current exhibition.

Venue: 1/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam

3. First display of North Korea’s 20th Century Propaganda Posters in HK

Period: Now till January 28, 2018 (Sunday)

Rice is Socialism!
Stylistically influenced by communist brutalist propaganda and ideologically informed by the core work on North Korean art—Kim Jong Il’s 1992 publication Treatise on Art (Misullon)—all of these state-commissioned posters promote ‘correct’ forms of socialist realism, thereby documenting the socio-political and economic policies communicated from the Leader to the North Korean people. In so doing, daily activities are aligned with political beliefs. For example, the metaphorical configuration of rice farming with the cultivation of socialism.

Beyond their overtly ideological character, the posters also confer messages related to practical agricultural technology, industrial and social developments, while portraying a distinctly human picture of the varied urban and rural communities. Altogether, the imagery displayed offers insights into a country that few have visited and from which first-hand information remains sporadic and inconsistent at best.

Venue: 2/F Fung Ping Shan 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
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free
Website: www.umag.hku.hk/en/

Media enquiries:
UMAG Programme Assistant Miss Chelsea Choi, Tel: (852) 2241 5509, Email: cchelsea@hku.hk