Experience, Imagination, and the Body of the Ghost in Ancient China
Speaker: Prof. Mu-chou Poo

Date: 18 October 2019 (Fri)

Time: 4:00pm

Venue: G24, Arts and Humanities Hub, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK

Language: English

Abstract:
One of the interesting and challenging aspects of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary study is to try to find appropriate terms to express some fundamental conceptions or phenomena to be compared. In the study of death, netherworld, and concepts related to the idea of an afterlife, the term ghost is probably the most important key to all discussions. But what is a ghost, and whether every cultural or religious system would have the same concept, is a complicated question that defies a simple answer. This talk tries to analyze the records about ghosts in early China and discuss how people perceived the presence of ghosts, whether real or imagined, and why.

Poster

Lecture Series on "Why do the Liberal Arts Matter?"
Speaker: Prof. Ho Pui Yin

Date: 22 September 2019 (Sunday)

Time: 3:00pm-5:00pm

Venue: Lecture Hall, G/F, Hong Kong Museum of History

Language: Cantonese

Hong Kong is an organic city. Our present-day living style inherits our ancestors’ goals and experiences. Through the construction, functions, development and continuation of historical buildings related to daily life, this talk analyses the origins of Hong Kong's culture and the evolution characteristics of its humanistic values so as to find the key to the city’s sustainable development.

Professor Ho, a social and economic historian who previously worked as a research consultant at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, now teaches in the History Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is Director of the Research Institute for the Humanities. She has published numerous books and articles on Hong Kong and social and economic history of modern Chinese society, with a focus on the urbanisation of modern day Hong Kong. Her books have focused on aspects of city development such as land use, colonial government history, public housing and urban planning. She is also interested in urban space and social development, power and governance, environment, tradition versus modernity and globalisation. She firmly believes that interaction between academia and society can facilitate integration of theory into society for the betterment of people’s daily lives.

Poster

The Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has approved the appointment of Professor Max Xiaobing Tang as Dean of the Faculty of Arts with effect from 2 September 2019. He will serve for a term of five years.

Professor Max Xiaobing Tang obtained his B.A. degree in English from Peking University in 1984, and received his Ph.D. degree in Literature in 1991 from Duke University. Before joining CUHK, he taught at the University of Michigan for 10 years and was the Helmut F. Stern Professor of Modern Chinese Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and Professor of Comparative Literature. He also held various leadership roles, including Associate Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, Associate Chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures as well as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department. He was the inaugural Director of the newly established Transcultural Studies MA Programme.

Professor Tang’s research expertise covers contemporary Chinese visual culture, theories of art and literature, and changes and developments in the mode of cultural production in modern China. His scholarly work has contributed to the understanding of the complexity as well as vitality of Chinese culture in the 20th century. Professor Tang has published many books and a series of academic journal articles. He was also a member of the External Programme Review Committee of a number of prestigious tertiary institutions such as Columbia University, Boston University and the University of Iowa. In addition, he was the external reviewer for the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong in 2011 and 2014-19, which demonstrates that his academic and professional achievements have been recognised in many sectors of society.

Professor Tang remarked, “I am greatly honoured to be appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at CUHK. CUHK is renowned for its excellence in teaching and research, and the Faculty of Arts has gathered an outstanding group of teachers, scholars and researchers, many of them world-class scholars. I look forward to working with this excellent team and together contributing to the exchange and development of inter-disciplinary research in humanities subjects in Hong Kong, Asia and the world.”

The Faculty of Arts offers the following elective courses in 2019-20:

• The Beauty of Kunqu Opera (ARTS1001 / UGED1061)
• From Tradition to Modernity: Selected Readings of 20th Century Chinese Culture (ARTS1002)
• Introduction to Chinese Classics (ARTS1003)
  
  Please click here for poster (Chinese version only).

Faculty Office of Arts
Enquiries: 3943 1571