Welcome back!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday!

Term 2, 2018-19 commences today. Students who wish to change their course enrolment for Term 2 are reminded to do so via the CUSIS during the following specified add/drop periods:

Undergraduate programme: Between 8:30pm on 14 January 2019 and 8:30pm on 20 January 2019
Postgraduate programmes: Between 10am on 7 January 2019 and 5:30pm on 21 January 2019

“Scholarship for History Undergraduate Students to Undertake Research Work” and “Study Abroad at the Universities in Europe and America” were established with a generous support of the Eminence History Department Fund, CUHK to be awarded to students, aiming at encouraging and supporting History major students to conduct overseas academic research, and History undergraduates and local MPhil graduates for further studies abroad at universities in Europe and America.

Both scholarships are now open for applications.

• Scholarship for History Undergraduate Students to Undertake Research Work
   Application deadline: 15 June 2019

• Study Abroad at the Universities in Europe and America
   Application deadlines: 1st round — 31 January 2019; 2nd round — 31 May 2019

For more information, please visit
Undergraduate students: https://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/ug_scholarships.html
Postgraduate students: https://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/pg_scholarships.html

We extend our welcome to Prof. James MORTON, who has joined the Department of History as Assistant Professor with effect from 2 January 2019.

Prof. James MORTON, gained his BA degree from the University of Oxford (St John’s College) and his MA degree from Queen’s University (Canada). He received his PhD in Byzantine and Medieval History from the University of California, Berkeley. Prof. MORTON teaches HIST 1002 Tradition and Transformation in Western History in Term 2.

Acting Appointment

Prof. LAI Ming Chiu, Chairman, is on academic leave from 4 to 10 January 2019. During his absence, Prof. CHEUNG Sui Wai serves as the Acting Chairman.

Recapping the “Sheng Xuanhuai Archive: A Digital Collection for Research and Experiment” on 27 November 2018

Dr. Maria L. C. LAU (Deputy University Librarian) and Mr. Jeff LIU (Digital Services Librarian) from CUHK Library were invited by Department to introduce the new Library’s Digital Collection about Sheng Xuanhuai Archive on 27 November 2018. After a four-year transcription work by an expert team, the archive was released on CUHK Digital Repository on 7 December 2018.

Mr. Jeff LIU provided the background on the digitisation of Sheng Xuanhuai collection. This archive of over 13,000 pieces of valuable correspondences of Sheng Xuanhuai was acquired from Japan by the Art Museum of CUHK in 1985. During the 1980s and 1990s, Prof. WANG Erh-min, Prof. CHAN Sin-wai and Prof. NG Lun Ngai Ha made enormous progress in publishing the archive. From 2014 to 2018, a team of experts was assembled to transcribe, punctuate, paginate, and digitise the archive. The transcription work was completed in the summer of 2018 and the CUHK Library has managed to ingest all images and full text on to the Library’s Digital Repository.

The CUHK Library Digital Repository greatly facilitates researchers to discover new research perspectives by using key discovery features for searching. The participants shared their insights about the potential of the Sheng Xuanhuai digital archive for research and teaching, particularly the enhancement of modern China history research and collaborations between Mainland and Hong Kong institutions and archives.

Sheng XuanHuai Digital Archive can be viewed at
http://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/collection/shengxuanhuai.

Recapping the Academic Writing Workshop “撰稿基本功：如何運用自心？” conducted by Ms. CHEUNG Man Yan on 29 November 2018

Ms. CHEUNG Man Yan, an experienced newspaper editor and media personality, was invited by the Department to present a lecture to the Department’s students on 29 November 2018. Ms. CHEUNG, with over 15 years’ experience in the Hong Kong media sector, shared her writing and editing skills. She pointed out that taking readers as the centre was the key to create content that resonates with readers when writing news report, literary works and academic papers. She also introduced a common writing structure, the “inverted pyramid”, as a way to communicate the basics about a news report in the initial sentences. According to this writing structure, it is better to arrange the widest part at the top to represent the most substantial, interesting and important information, while the tapering lower portion that illustrates the remaining material should follow in order of diminishing importance. Finally, Ms. CHEUNG provided several interesting cases to explain the reader-centered point, which raised heated discussions. She stressed that an article with bullet points and clear segmentation was easier to attract readers to the story.

Recapping the Whitehead BBQ Activity of MA Programme in Comparative and Public History held on 8 December 2018

The MA Programme in Comparative and Public History held a BBQ activity in Whitehead on 8 December 2018. More than 30 teachers, students and family members joined the activity. All participants enjoyed the food and the relaxing environment of the Tolo Harbour in the afternoon.

Recapping the academic seminar “從學以為己到事事關心” conducted by Prof. Thomas LEE on 10 December 2018

Prof. Thomas H. C. LEE, a world-renowned scholar and Chair Professor Emeritus of National Tsing-hua University, was invited by the Department to deliver a lecture entitled “從學以為己到事事關心” on 10 December 2018.

Using two key concepts “learning for one’s own self” and “caring about everything” as clues for observation, Prof. LEE outlined the development of Chinese traditional education up to the modern period. He believed that the main spirit concerning pre-modern Chinese education used to be an inclination of “learning for one’s own self”, which was based on a very strong premise of personal pursuit of morality. However, the extremely close connection between this sort of learning and the national examination (keju) that would determine one’s personal political career had made this concept of studying appear to be utilitarian, which of cause violated the initial ideal of intellectuals. After the Song dynasty, some changes occurred with regard to the educational purpose. Non-official academies (shuyuan) and private schools were established, and some scholars advocated that for everything under the heaven there should be responsibilities shared by the all members of society, which would undoubtedly lead to the focus on mass education. New development was further highlighted by the works of intellectuals of later generations, such as Wang Yangming and Donglin scholars. In the 19th century, the Western tradition of knowledge and education also provided China with a new approach of re-thinking its own educational ideal, and the need of national salvation and public enlightenment eventually formed a perceptional foundation of “caring about everything” for education.

Academic Seminar

Academic Seminar

For teachers and students who have information to share with the Department,
please email your articles in both Chinese and English to chanfiona@cuhk.edu.hk by 4:00pm every Tuesday.