The GRF aims to supplement the eight UGC-funded universities’ own research support to researchers who have achieved or have the potential to achieve research excellence, while the ECS is intended to nurture junior academics and to prepare them for a career in education and research.

This year, a total of HK$ 9.5 million is awarded to 23 projects under the Faculty of Arts. Besides the 16 GRF projects from various disciplines, the Faculty is pleased to note a record breaking 80% success rate in our ECS applications, which reflects the remarkable academic and research potentials of junior colleagues. Professor Gladys Tang, Associate Dean of Arts (Research), congratulated all awardees for their success in grant application. She looks forward to hearing about the fascinating research outcomes. As she says, “Research enables the pushing of frontiers of knowledge, with new findings to advance our understanding of arts and humanities, and ultimately to benefit society.”

Professor Ron Darvin from the Department of English is the principal investigator of one of the 23 funded projects. He received an ECS award for his project titled Language and e-learning: Investigating the digital literacies of Hong Kong youth with unequal access to resources. The process of conceptualizing and designing the project shows, commented Professor Darvin, “getting a grant like the ECS is not just about the originality of a single idea, but also the power of collective insight, the generosity of others, and the support and encouragement of the CUHK community.”

The Faculty pledges to continue facilitating the development of individual and collaborative research projects as well as programmes in order to extend their broad impact beyond academia.

The Yakamochi Medal was founded in 2017, on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the birth of the 8th century Japanese poet Otomo no Yakamochi, to recognise the achievements of the world’s greatest poets. The selection committee consisted of six literary experts, and Professor Zhao was selected as the winner from 109 candidates recommended by national literary scholars, poetry experts and poets across 24 countries and regions.

Susumu Nakanishi, the Chairperson of the Yakamochi Medal Selection Committee, wrote, “Bei Dao is an expert user of metaphors and an expert at commanding language on a large scale. In his poems, there are often two "I"s in dialogue. One is the "I" that exists as a flesh body, which is expressed as a "melody" composed of history, background, and landscape; one is the "I" that exists as the soul of poetry called "My love". Bei Dao has been majestically performing poems weaving the melody over time as his flesh and blood with the progress of the other soul - the very entity he calls his love.”

Bei Dao, whose real name is Zhao Zhenkai, was born in Beijing in 1949. He co-founded the literary magazine Today (Jin Tian) in 1978. Since 1987, he has been teaching in universities in Europe, America, and Hong Kong. In addition to teaching, he is committed to poetry education. He founded the International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong, currently the most influential international poetry festival in Asia, in 2009 and the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation in 2018. His work has been translated into 30 languages. He has received many awards, among them were the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, the Swedish PEN Literature Award, the American Guggenheim Prize, and the Golden Wreath Prize of the Macedonian Struga International Poetry Festival. He is an Honorary Doctorate at Brown University and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Since its establishment in 1925, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has granted Fellowships to over 18,000 individuals, among whom are more than 125 Nobel laureates, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Turing Award and other internationally recognised honours.

Extending research on Genetic-Biasing Hypothesis of Language Evolution to Dong (Kam) language

As a linguist and cognitive neuroscientist, and also Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at CUHK, Professor Wong conducts a broad range of studies which examine cultural and biological factors leading to differences in language and cognition across individuals, and the relationship between the evolution of language and genes.

A question central to the discipline of linguistics is how language evolves. There are currently more than 7,000 living languages, and they continue to evolve into varieties with different features. The Genetic-Biasing Hypothesis of Language Evolution postulates that a linguistic feature emerges or is retained in a language because the population of individuals who speak the language are genetically predisposed to process or produce that feature. In a study published in May 2020 (Refer to CUHK press release and Scientific American article for details), Professor Wong’s research team provided the first direct, experimental evidence to demonstrate an association between the linguistic feature of lexical tone and the ASPM gene.

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Professor Wong will extend his work on the Genetic-Biasing Hypothesis of Language Evolution to the Dong (Kam) language and will conduct field research in Dimen, Guizhou. Dong is a tone language in the Tai family that is spoken primarily in the southwestern part of China by the Dong ethnic minority group. Dong has one of the most complex tonal systems yet encountered among the world’s many languages, comprising nine tones of multiple levels and contours.

“This tonal complexity may exert an evolutionary pressure that strengthens the association between lexical tone and gene,” Professor Wong explained. “I am most honored to be among the scholars to have received this year’s Guggenheim Fellowship and to have the opportunity to conduct this research.”

“This is well-deserved recognition for Professor Patrick Wong. I am delighted that the impact of his pioneering research in linguistics and neuroscience will be further extended by this prestigious fellowship,” said Professor Max Tang, Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

About Professor Patrick Wong

Professor Wong received his undergraduate and graduate training in linguistics and cognitive psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, US. He later completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medical School. Professor Wong is a recipient of the Independent Scientist Award of the US National Institutes of Health, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship by the Research Grants Committee in Hong Kong. He is a three-time recipient of the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award at CUHK.

Press Releases by CPR

Dr Cai is deeply honoured to receive the award. She said, “We teachers should treat our students like our own children. Our job is to serve as a stepping stone to help our students’ development, leading them the way for a bright future.”

Dr Cai shares her teaching philosophy. “I always apply different instructional strategies to promote deeper learning,” said Dr Cai. “When I teach the development of Chinese literature, I use literature as the starting point to encourage students to rethink social developments. Reading articles from different perspectives can also facilitate students’ understanding of the diversity of thoughts,” said Dr Cai. “Young people with broad knowledge base and positive attitude will adapt well in the ever changing world.”

The Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award Scheme was launched in 1999 to give recognition to outstanding teachers. 22 teachers from 10 Departments and Teaching Units in the Faculty of Arts have received the Award to date.