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2013 marks the 50th anniversary of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). To celebrate this landmark, the University has launched an exciting assortment of programmes on the theme ‘Embrace our Culture. Empower our Future’. Among them is the Anniversary Fair which comprises a roving exhibition around town and a series of public lectures to be held from March to November 2013. The Anniversary Fair will give the public an introduction to CUHK’s history, culture and development. It will also showcase the University’s achievements over the past five decades and present to the public the University’s vision for the future. 

The roving exhibition will be staged in major shopping malls and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Components of the roving exhibition include four key areas: CUHK’s Background, Heritage, Humanities and Innovations. The first roving exhibition will be held at Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui from 14 March to 20 March. The kick-off ceremony of the Anniversary Fair will also be held there on Friday, 15 March. 

The 50th Anniversary Public Lecture Series consists of eight lectures covering a wide range of interesting topics in philosophy, medicine, innovative technology, business, science, education and social science. It aims at the dissemination of knowledge and enlightening thought. All the lectures will be given by CUHK professors. The Anniversary Public Lecture Series is co-organized by CUHK and Hong Kong Public Libraries. All the lectures will be held at the Hong Kong Central Library. Members of the public are welcome and admission is free. 

The First Lecture by Prof. Leo Ou-fan Lee and Prof. Tze-wan Kwan 

The first lecture, entitled ‘The Ideal and Reality of University Education,’ will be presented by Prof. Leo Ou-fan Lee and Prof. Tze-wan Kwan on Saturday, 9 March. Professor Lee will recall the founding ideals of CUHK from his own experience as a young faculty member at CUHK in the early 70s and compare them to the reality of CUHK today. Professor Kwan will briefly introduce the Humboldtian Model of university education, including its historical background, basic tenets and ideals, as well as its influences on the development of university education worldwide. He will also compare this Humboldtian ideal against the reality of contemporary university education with a view of arriving at some critical reflections on the educational practices in universities nowadays. 

Known as a ‘Renaissance Man’, Prof. Leo Ou-fan Lee’s research interests range from modern Chinese literature, history, and cultural studies, to fine arts, classical music, and film. In recent years, he has conducted significant research on Shanghai and Hong Kong cultures. 

Professor Lee is currently Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture, a Fellow of Morningside College at CUHK and a founding Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities. He has received a number of fellowships and prizes, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and an Honorary Doctorate in the Humanities from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Born in China, Professor Lee was brought up in Taiwan and went to the United States for graduate education where he received his PhD degree from Harvard University in 1970. He has taught at Harvard, UCLA, Chicago, Indiana, and Princeton Universities in the United States, as well as the University of Hong Kong (as Distinguished Visiting Professor) and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (as the Y. K. Pao Chair Professor of Cultural Studies). He took early retirement from Harvard in 2004 in order to return to Hong Kong and join the CUHK faculty for a second career as both an academic and a cultural critic at large, writing in both Chinese and English. 

Prof. Tze-wan Kwan is a professor and former chairman of the Department of Philosophy, as well as founding director of the Research Centre for Humanities Computing and of the Archive for Phenomenology and Contemporary Philosophy at CUHK. He received his PhD degree from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. Professor Kwan has authored three books and published in Chinese, English, or German numerous articles and book chapters on various thematic issues. His team for humanities computing has implemented numerous web pages, lexical tools, databases, etc. now widely in use.  

The lecture is open to the public. Please register online at www.50.cuhk.edu.hk/anniversaryfair or call 3943-8893 (CUHK) or 2921-0285 (HKPL) to make a reservation. 

Details of the 50th Anniversary Public Lecture Series 

Time:          7:00 pm
Venue:        Lecture Theatre, Hong Kong Central Library, 
                   Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Language:  Cantonese or Putonghua

For more photos, please visit:
https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/en/events_recap_detail.php?id=110&s=