In the Greek and Roman worlds, temples were often gods’ houses, and their statues were somehow more than just representations; deities were imagined in sacred (and not-so-sacred) narratives, and seen as receiving offerings and prayers, or appearing in dreams and visions. All that is well known. Less familiar is the fact that Romans, in their most important sanctuary, on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, went much further in these directions than most others. The religion which did most for the Roman community at home and abroad, in peace and war, involved statements - in many media - about the literal presence of the gods in this place, and some of what was said and done is very unusual. I hope to present some of the evidence for how all this worked in the period from around 200 BCE to 200 CE, and invite the audience to help me make sense of some of what may be going on.

Speaker 
Prof. Nicholas PURCELL
Camden Professor of Ancient History
University of Oxford

Conducted online via ZOOM (Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183) https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183

The Research Centre for Chinese Philosophy and Culture (RCCPC) will organize an online bilingual (Chinese and English) workshop on the Interaction between Buddhism and Chinese Philosophy on March 4–5 (Friday to Saturday), 2022. The Workshop is designed to facilitate an in-depth discussion (each paper will have 30-min for presentation and 15-min for discussion) among a small group of young and seasoned experts in the field, aiming to bring insights into the studies of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy.

與會者名單：

加拿大
Prof. Chan Wing-Cheuk (Brock University, Canada)

中國大陸
李承貴教授（南京大學）
哈 磊教授（四川大學道教與宗教文化研究所）
聖 凱教授（清華大學）
龔 隽教授（廣州中山大學）

臺灣
尤惠貞教授（南華大學）
林鎮國教授（政治大學）
耿 晴教授（臺灣大學）
楊祖漢教授（中央大學哲研所 / 東吳大學）

澳門
賈晉華教授（澳門大學）

香港
姚治華教授（香港中文大學）
洪真如教授（香港科技大學）
張壽安教授（香港中文大學）
黃 勇教授（香港中文大學）
楊昌傑先生（香港中文大學）
鄭宗義教授（香港中文大學）
鄭澤綿教授（香港中文大學）

With the Faculty of Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as one of its sponsors, the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation (HKPFF) has launched Season 2 of Break Out: IPNHK Reading & Dialogue Series in November 2021.

In the latest event of the series, Rita Dove (America) and Cheng Jia (China) will engage to explore American poetry and share their insights via the internet from their respective locations. The program will be broadcast on 12 February 2022 at 8:00pm via Ifeng, Facebook and YouTube.

This talk is about:
· Introducing computational literary studies
· Outlining popular scripting languages & environments
· Assessing how using corpora changes traditional approaches to literature
· Using an example from research on African literature in English
· Suggesting how to use this approach in other fields

Speaker
Professor Grant HAMILTON
Associate Professor, Department of English, CUHK

World maps are the symbol of globalization, but how did they come to be? What are the cultural and scientific processes that generated them? Renaissance scholars have long held that world maps were the result of the work of heroic explorers, who ventured out, observed and gathered data on new lands, a myth fundamental to the scientific revolution. This talk aims to show that in the early modern period there was another much-neglected process for gathering cartographic knowledge that did not involve exploration but the work of translation. This process applied to the case of China, a region known to Europeans but inaccessible for exploration. To know China European cartographers translated Chinese maps, a unique case of reliance on the scientistic work of another culture. This process of translation in Europe was moreover deeply connected to another mirror process of the translation of European cartography in China. Translation mattered for the formation of the image of the world we all share and is as much as exploration at the origin of the modern world map.

Speaker
Dr. Florin-Stefan MORAR
Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong

Conducted online via ZOOM (Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183) https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183

The characteristics of second language (L2) speech are an important source of evidence for how language perception and production work in general. Several potential factors are at play in creating the particular features of L2 speech, including first-language (L1) transfer, language universals, phonetic cues, and cross-linguistic perceptual biases. To investigate the mechanisms governing cross-linguistic perceptual biases in L2 speech, this study investigates the perception of L2 English /z/ under the influence of two L1s, dominant L1 Mandarin and non-dominant L1 Taiwan Southern Min (S. Min). This study argues that a single dominant L1 within a language community may give rise to different biases in L2 perception with different frequency of usage of non-dominant L1 with phonemic features that differ from the dominant L1. This study aims to offer cross-linguistic empirical evidence for second language theories of speech perception such as Flege's (1995) Speech Learning Model.

Speaker:
Professor Yu-leng LIN (Feng Chia University)
Yu-Leng Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the Feng Chia University. She received her PhD degree from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto in 2016. Before joining the Feng Chia University, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies. Her research interests include psycholinguistics, Chinese linguistics, laboratory phonology, and sociophonetics. Her publications include a monograph, book chapters and conference proceedings, and she has presented her work – ranging from learning bias, speech perception and production, tonal studies, and comparative studies among Mandarin, Taiwan Southern Min, Cantonese, and English – at several international conferences.

A professional talk will be held in late February by Mr. Chen JI. The topic is “Interpreting the Security Council”. 

Speaker
Mr. Chen Ji
Staff interpreter of the United Nations in New York. Fellow, Chartered Institute of Linguists, UK Member, AIIC
 

2:30—3:40PM
Lecture 1: Reiterative Rhetoric, Royal Ideology and the Historicity of Samuel‒Kings

3:50—4:50PM
Lecture 2: Prophets and Their Tall Tales: Miracle Stories in the Bible

5:00—6:15PM
Summary, Response and Q&A 
Respondents: Professor Ingrid HJELM (Associate Professor Emerita, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen) and Professor Sonia WONG (Assistant Professor, Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Speaker
Professor Thomas L. THOMPSON (Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen)

Languages: English and Cantonese (Chinese subtitle or Cantonese simulation interpretation will be provided for English lectures)
Format of lectures: Online (Meeting link and ID will be sent by email about 3 days prior to the lectures)
Fee: Free of charge (In celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Chung Chi College and the 10th anniversary of Divinity School Chapel)

廣州地處中國三大水系之一的珠江入海口，南鄰大海、北通中原。先秦時期，環珠江口地區已有密集的人類活動，並與周鄰地區開展密切交往。

公元前214年，秦平嶺南，建蕃禺城，是廣州建城之始。自此以後2000多年，廣州城市中心未改，並不斷拓展，同時通過海路與世界各國開展持續的經濟貿易、技術傳播、人員往來和文明交流互鑒，形成了依山面水的地理格局、清晰延綿的發展軌跡、持續不斷的海外交往、多元包容的文化特質。

本報告以考古成果為主，結合歷史文獻和文物史蹟，闡述廣州城的發展變遷，並論及環珠江口地區的人類歷史文化演進。

 

Speaker
Mr. Yi Xibing (Dean of the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
2001年畢業於中山大學人類學系，進入廣州市文物考古研究所（院）工作至今。長期致力於廣州城市考古發掘和研究、城市考古遺產保護，主持了廣州地區數十項古遺址、古墓葬群的發掘，參與了廣州地區一批重要考古遺址的保護展示。積極參與海上絲綢之路廣州文化遺產的價值研究、保護規劃和宣傳展示，策劃了多個海絲主題展覽活動。近年統籌策劃了南漢二陵博物館的多個陳列展覽和社會教育活動。主編或編著《廣州考古六十年》、《西樵山遺址考古研究》、《海上絲綢之路廣州史蹟》等。

This talk analyzes belief in ghosts as a facet of modern, urban living. It suggests that traditional Chinese beliefs about ghosts have transformed rather than diminished as China has urbanized and that modern urbanites may harbor more fear of ghosts than anyone did in the past.

Speaker
Prof. Andrew KIPNIS
Andrew B. Kipnis is a professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and coeditor of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. In 2016 he published From Village to City: Social Transformation in a Chinese County Seat (U. of California Press, 2016, translated as 从乡到城 with 台大出版中心). His talk draws from his 2021 book: The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China (U. of California Press, 2021). He has published seven other books and from 2006-2015 he was editor of The China Journal.