Virtual Hong Kong cultural excursions
Prof. Josh Yiu (1st left) hosts the programme on ‘Writing of the Ultimate CV: A Death Ritual in Medieval China’.
International travels have been heavily restricted for almost a year, greatly hindering the global exposure of students. To overcome the challenges in international student exchange, CUHK has taken the lead to develop a Virtual Student Exchange (VSE) programme within the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) to provide courses by member universities.
To complete the virtual student exchange experience, the VSE also provides a platform for participating universities to offer co-curricular programmes that aim to create encounters with new ideas, cultures, experts and academics with students around the world. CUHK has been offering a number of co-curricular programmes for the VSE. In collaboration with the CUHK Art Museum, the Office of Academic Links organised two programmes, ‘Writing of the Ultimate CV: A Death Ritual in Medieval China’ and ‘Picturing Hong Kong through Historical Paintings & Photos’ during October and November. During the sessions, Prof. Josh Yiu, Director of the Art Museum, led the participants to journeys from traditional Chinese death rituals to nostalgic Hong Kong through the premier collection of tombstones and paintings of the Art Museum. Participants were also introduced to a local tombstone craftsman and renowned academics in Hong Kong studies to discover new perspectives in the Chinese culture and the history of Hong Kong.
In times of the pandemic, even the thought of traveling abroad has become far-fetched. Thanks to the adoption of the latest virtual meeting technologies, CUHK organised a live guided tour ‘A Walk in Kennedy Town: Discover Authentic Hong Kong in Real Time’ in November as a VSE co-curricular programme. Participants of the tour visited virtually the historic Kennedy Town and discovered the vibrant neighbourhood, admire the allure of its instagrammable spots, as well as the town’s historical relics that carry stories of the lost City of Victoria and the spooky past of the plagues in the early colonial days. These three co-curricular programmes offered by CUHK attracted some 100 participants from universities around the Pacific Rim.
Following a successful first semester, the VSE programme has just launched applications for its academic courses offered between January to August 2021. With 25 APRU member universities participating in the upcoming semester, the programme is expected to expand its reach to many more students across the APRU network. Please invite students to visit the APRU VSE website to learn more about the virtual exchange opportunity.
The VSE programme offers students the opportunity to learn Chinese culture through the collection of tombstones of the Art Museum at CUHK.