PolyU recently received a donation of JPY 600,000 from the One Asia Foundation to set up a scholarship for students with outstanding performance in the newly-launched subject “East Asia: Towards a Global Community with Cultural Diversity”. Mr Nishizuka and Mr.Katsuta from the Foundation presented the certificates and scholarship to the ten best students at a ceremony held on 20 December 2012.

Earlier this year, the Foundation had also donated HKD 500,000 to PolyU in support of the subject, which is a new course offered by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies as an elective, Minor in Japanese, and Minor in Korean programmes. This course aims at enhancing students’ understanding towards East Asian culture and society, and the cultural diversity of China, Japan, and Korea. The subject takes a thematic approach by discussing one specific topic each week.

This semester, 19 local and overseas guest speakers from US, Japan, and Korea were invited to give lectures on society, history, language, education, religion, politics, and traditional and popular culture of China, Japan, or Korea. In addition to the lectures, five hands-on culture activities were held, including Japanese Tea Ceremony, Japanese Traditional Dance, Japanese Musical Drama, Korean Music Festival, and Taste of Japan and Korea, so that students could not only have the knowledge, but also experience what they have learned from the lecture.