Today CUHK celebrates its 53rd anniversary. Founded on 17 October 1963, with three Colleges and three Faculties, CUHK is the only university in Hong Kong that offers a collegiate experience. For over half a century, generations of CUHK members have worked for the progress of the University. Today, the once barren hillside by the Tolo Harbour has been turned into a stunning campus covered in greenery, and CUHK has grown into a comprehensive research university with nine Colleges and eight Faculties.

A university with 53 years’ history may be regarded as a young one, but CUHK’s progress is impressive. With a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West, CUHK has nurtured over 190,000 graduates to meet the needs of society locally and globally. Its commitment to the highest standards of research has also made significant contributions to the community.

CUHK’s picturesque campus has given precious moments to many members of the University. To celebrate the University’s 53rd anniversary, a short video was made to capture the beauty of the campus. Let’s follow the camera and start a wonderful tour around the campus.

Prof. James J. Heckman, 2000 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, delivered a lecture entitled ‘Life-Relevant Skills’ at CUHK on 6 October. The lecture attracted over 300 CUHK staff, students, alumni and members of the public.

In Asian societies, schools and parents always place great value on the various achievement tests. However, from frontier research in psychology and economics, Prof. Heckman, in the lecture, argued that the standard tests such as the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test and achievement tests have very limited value in predicting a variety of life-relevant outcomes. He believes that “soft skills”, such as character and social-emotional skills are important but often neglected. He also discussed more predictive measures of life-relevant skills in the lecture and argued that frontier methods challenge and enhance traditional approaches to evaluating students, schools and entire societies.

Prof. Heckman is a leading authority on microeconometrics. His researches lay a foundation for evaluating the effectiveness of public policies. He is currently the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. Prof. Heckman has devoted himself to researches on the origins of major social and economic questions related to inequality, social mobility, discrimination, and the formation of skills and regulation in the labour market, and he has devised and applied economically interpretable empirical strategies for understanding and addressing these questions.

The video of the lecture has been uploaded to CUTV for public view.

The exhibition ‘Double Beauty III: Qing Dynasty Couplets from the Lechangzai Xuan Collection’ has been opened at the Art Museum of CUHK. It showcases 71 couplets, while a total number of 150 works by 134 masters are published in the exhibition catalogue. Members of the public are welcome to visit the exhibition. Admission is free.

The prevalence of couplet calligraphy in the Qing dynasty is a striking phenomenon in the history of Chinese calligraphy. Whether as a unique calligraphic genre or as tasteful objects to be given away in literati circles, couplets were of great significance both aesthetically and socially. An immense number of specimens have survived and are now in the collection of either public museums or private collectors, among which the Lechangzai Xuan collection is certainly one of the most important in terms of quantity and quality.

The exhibition is presented by the Art Museum and co-curated with the Department of Fine Arts, whose faculty members and students have also compiled the exhibition catalogue which is graced by scholarly contributions. A lecture series has also been arranged for the public to learn more about couplets and calligraphy. Please click here for lecture registration.