On 31 October, the “50th Birthday Party” of the School of Journalism and Communication was held in New Asia College, drawing close to 1,000 alumni, staff, students and guests to attend. Packed with brilliant performances by alumni, students and teachers, the evening show was a heartwarming memory for all. A video was made to record the highlights of the event.

Opened as Department of Journalism, a two-year programme with only two lecturers and six students 50 years ago, it has grown into the School of Journalism and Communication with nearly 100 full-time and part-time teachers and over 800 students at present.

The School provides courses of both theoretical and practical value, and it is keen on innovation. In 1977, the Chinese newspaper The New Shatin was launched as a practicum publication for the students. In 1995, The New Shatin was developed into the U-Beat Magazine, which allows students to go beyond Shatin district for important news. The magazine was the first of its kind among tertiary institutions in Hong Kong at that time. Varsity, another English practicum magazine, was started in 1993.

Free from circulation and commercial pressures, students are able to explore any newsworthy topic, of which many stories have been picked up by other news media in Hong Kong. To bring out future leaders with social responsibility, two new practicums, Pinpoint and Creative Media Laboratory, have been added to the curriculum recently to encourage students to look into social issues with their knowledge of advertising, public relations, creative and new media. At the moment, the School has over 5,400 graduates and many of them are professionals in the local and overseas’ communication industry. The School has also set up research centres, such as the Centre for Chinese Media and Comparative Communication Research, and the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey, to enhance academic research as well as provide in-depth analysis on a wide variety of communication and social issues.

To recognize the contributions of distinguished journalists, and promote professional practices in journalism in Hong Kong, the CUHK Journalism and Communication Alumni Association launched the Chinese University Journalism Award in 2003. On 11 December, the 7th Chinese University Journalism Award Presentation cum 50th Anniversary Celebration Banquet will be held, closing the School's golden jubilee with recognition and honor.

CUHK has recently received a donation from the Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation to establish the Brain and Mind Institute (BMI) in order to facilitate interdisciplinary research on the causes and therapeutic strategies for different developmental disorders.

Developmental disorders, including speech and language impairment, autism, dyslexia and other conditions affect an estimate of 15% of children from 3 to 17 years old in the United States. Most previous research either focused on molecular biology or patients’ behaviours to understand the mechanisms of these conditions and to develop diagnostic tools and therapies. The new BMI is the first research institute in Hong Kong to consolidate the expertise of cognitive neuroscience, biomedical sciences, psychology, linguistics, otolaryngology, pediatrics, public health and other academic and clinical disciplines to conduct inter-disciplinary research to investigate these conditions. From molecule to behavior, BMI will focus efforts on examining the causes and therapeutic strategies for different developmental disorders.

In the first phase of the research, BMI will target developmental cognitive neuroscience as the initial strategic focus and address four strategic areas: 1) optimizing language learning in early childhood, 2) defining the broad autism phenotype in Chinese societies, 3) enhancing treatments for dyslexia, and 4) identifying molecular mechanisms of neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. BMI also plans to strengthen strategic partnership with key universities worldwide.

On November 5, Prof. Donna Chu from the School of Journalism and Communication gave a talk, titled “On Mediated Love”, as the third session of the talk series “Ten Theses on Freedom”. Facilitated by Dr. Lau Po-hei from CUHK’s General Education Foundation Programme, the talk drew a full house of nearly 200.

From the perspective of the media, Prof. Chu talked on the “true love” portrayed by mass media in the 1980s, to the mainstream conception of love interpreted through social media nowadays. She also discussed whether the fast developing communication technology would bring a new meaning to “love”. By the end of the talk,Prof. Chu had posed a question to the audience. Does the development of communication give more freedom to “love” or is it setting more obstacles to it? She also encouraged the audience to have their own interpretation of the stories portrayed by various media.

In the talk, Prof. Chu used movies, celebrity affairs and the latest hot topics as examples to vividly explain public interpretations of “love”. Let’s watch the interesting and insightful talk through the video. Video link: http://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/cutv/detail/650?lang=en

"Ten Theses on Freedom" organized by GE Salon has invited 10 speakers to share their insights on the topic of freedom from different perspectives, such as politics, science, religion, philosophy, education, economy and the arts. The first three talks have been completed. Members of the public are welcome to attend the other talks. Details and registration: http://www5.cuhk.edu.hk/oge/index.php/en/activities/ge-salon