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The University Lectures on Civility, a major component of The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) I‧CARE Programme, commenced last October with Mr. Lin Hwai-min, founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, as the first guest speaker. All tickets were gone in no time and fans spilt out onto the corridors of the lecture hall to hear him speak about his life and dance career in the past 38 years. In March, the I‧CARE Programme will present a floral festival when colourful blooms flourish all over the campus. The highlights of the festival are three eminent figures in arts and culture, namely, Prof. Lee Ou-fan, Ms. Ann Hui and Prof. Pai Hsien-yung. They will give addresses at three separate sessions of the University Lectures on Civility series, and share with students their views and opinions on their respective subjects of the nobility of failure, the humility of success, and the resilience of youth. 

CUHK’s first-ever cultural gala, titled ‘Blossoms of Life Floral Festival’, featuring music, poetry and Chinese calligraphy, will be held in late March at the Weiyuan Lake in Chung Chi College. Renowned singers Ms. Rebecca Pan and Mr. Chet Lam will give performances in celebration of youth and university life at the conclusion of the lecture series. 

The Nobility of Failure – Prof. Lee Ou-fan  

Prof. Lee Ou-fan has a very impressive CV: going to renowned universities, producing works in all styles and genres, and professing an ocean of interests encompassing films, music, and the visual arts. He also writes critiques which are effortlessly convincing. Who would have thought that the first half of life of this perfect scholar was plagued with adversities? In the coming University Lecture on Civility, Professor Lee will revisit his days of ill fortune and reveal to us the ‘nobility of failure’. 

Prof. Lee Ou-fan is an internationally-renowned scholar in cultural studies, currently Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture at CUHK. He has taught at Harvard University, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of Chicago, University of California at Los Angeles, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong. 

The Humility of Success – Ms. Ann Hui 

In 1972, Ms. Ann Hui obtained her Master’s degree in Arts from the University of Hong Kong. She set off for Britain to study films, while her contemporaries were busy becoming government officials and lawyers. Having worked in the male-dominated film industry for several decades, from the Vietnam Triology to the Tin, Shui Wai Series, her films do not show a particularly acute business sense, but all are closely related to the joys and sorrows of life in our times. To her, a life in films has always been about financing the next project, as well as leading a simple life with her Japanese mother when she is taking a moment of rest. Has the hard-earned international recognition of A Simple Life led her closer to the ideal world of film, or the best is still yet to come? Ms. Hui will share the bitter days behind her success and the lessons learnt in the coming University Lecture on Civility. 

Ms. Ann Hui is a renowned director of Hong Kong, one of the representative directors of the New Wave. Her works are closely linked to social issues. Award-winning works include the recent A Simple Life which swept the Venice Film Festival. In January this year, Ms. Hui was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sixth Asian Film Awards. 

The Resilience of Youth – Prof. Pai Hsien-yung

Prof. Pai Hsien-yung’s father was General Pai Chongxi, a military leader of China in Republican days. Professor Pai was diagnosed with lung disease when he was young, and as a result he lived a segregated early life, made complicated by frequent relocations. ‘I write to transform the unspeakable pain of the human soul into words’, he says. His works, Crystal Boys and Lonely Seventeen, give us a better understanding of the eternity and resilience of youth. What is a youth? The dream of the Peony Pavilion? The lonely 17-year-old revisited? 

Prof. Pai Hsien-yung is an acclaimed Taiwan-American writer. He has lived in Chongqing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan. After graduating from the Department of Foreign Languages at Taiwan University in 1961, he went to the United States for further studies. Upon completion of his education he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Retired in 1994, Professor Pai has been actively promoting Kunqu culture in recent years.

Details of the three University Lectures on Civility: 

Prof. Lee Ou-fan ‘The Nobility of Failure’

Ms. Ann Hui ‘The Humility of Success’

Prof. Pai Hsien-yung ‘The Resilience of Youth’

Details of the ‘Blossoms of Life Floral Festival’: 

About I‧CARE Programme

With the slogan ‘Aspiration through reflection; Renewal through civility’, the I‧CARE Programme aims to encourage students to actively serve the community under the guidance of teachers to explore, understand and discuss social problems of different parts of the world, and to develop solutions to the problems. The University Lectures on Civility form a major component of the programme which helps promote students’ holistic development and civic engagement through illuminating presentations given by eminent scholars and public figures.