The Stanford trees take root in Hong Kong

Prof. Rocky S. Tuan (4th right), Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, welcomes the BOSP students to CUHK.

CUHK welcomed the first cohort of students from Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) from September to December. Seven Stanford students from a wide variety of academic disciplines spent the last few months studying and living at CUHK, experiencing the local culture, and understanding the city and its society.

A tailor-made international study programme jointly developed by Stanford and CUHK, BOSP students took academic courses curated by academics from both institutions, with a major focus on China Studies. They also took a BOSP-exclusive course ‘Investigating Hong Kong Through Multidisciplinary Lens’, a survey course investigating the social, political, economic and cultural facets of Hong Kong, taught by Prof. Suk-ying Wong, CUHK Associate Vice-President and also an alumna of Stanford. Chinese-language courses were available so that the students could learn the language, or refine their established skills.

Prof. Josh Yiu (1st right), Director of CUHK Art Museum, gives students a guided tour of the museum.

To further enrich the students’ experience on and off campus, a series of activities, including field trips and experiential learning sessions to local temples, the Tsz Shan Monastery, a traditional soy sauce factory and the Ping Shan heritage village were organised as part of the curriculum. A number of activities and events were also organised by the Office of Academic Links, other CUHK units and the Stanford alumni association in Hong Kong to broaden their understanding of the city.

BOSP students at the Wun Chuen Sin Kwoon Taoist temple in Fanling.

BOSP allows Stanford’s students to experience international learning at one of its 13 programme centres worldwide. Its partnership with CUHK is the only one in Greater China. The BOSP Hong Kong programme was originally scheduled to begin in 2019 but was suspended until this year.