CBS Joined the Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit 2022 (GIES 2022)

Following the success last year, the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) was invited to participate in the Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit (GIES), the largest gerontechnology public education event in Hong Kong, again on 2-5 November 2022. During the 4-day exhibition, the Speech Therapy team illustrated the application of the ultrasound imaging technology in the assessment and treatment of dysphagia to policymakers, stakeholders of rehabilitation service sector and the general public. A total of 23,000 visits was recorded in GIES this year.

CBS Undergraduate Student Won the Outstanding Service Award for Tertiary Students

Miss Kitty Law Lai Ping, a CBS student, was selected for the Outstanding Service Award for Tertiary Students 2021/22! With a strong commitment to the society, Kitty organised nine activities during 2021-22 to raise the public awareness of various social issues such as ocean environment preservation and stray animals. Her dedication to the community makes her become one of the two PolyU students receiving the award this year. The Outstanding Service Award for Tertiary Students is granted by the Hong Kong Student Services Association and the Hong Kong Outstanding Tertiary Students’ Services Association. The prestigious award was introduced in 1991 to recognise tertiary students with outstanding leadership and significant contribution to the community.

CBS Postgraduate Student Has Been Awarded the 2022 LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award

Dr Feng Yan, the PhD graduate of CBS in 2022, has been awarded the 2022 LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award under the category of PhD thesis. The award was offered by LSHK 香港語言學學會 The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong to encourage young scholars at local tertiary education institutions to conduct linguistics research. The LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award recognises the outstanding theses which contribute to any area in linguistics, including MA thesis, MPhil thesis, PhD thesis and Doctorate thesis. Entitled “Categorical Speech Perception Across the Lifespan”, Dr Feng’s thesis presents a comprehensive research work on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese speech sounds for native speakers at different ages from toddlers, teenagers, young adults, to elderlies with normal cognitive function and mild cognitive impairment. Here is the link for review Dr Feng's thesis.

FH Launched an XSeries Program in Chinese Culture: Tradition, Transformation and Interaction

The vibrant program is composed of three MOOC courses with 15 fascinating topics delivered by FH experts. The topics touch on Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Sunzi, food and cuisine, politics, strategic thinking, literature, paintings, operas, education, and the history of China’s cultural exchanges with other countries and regions.

PolyU 85th Anniversary Performance cum Putonghua Recitation and Demonstration Workshop Successfully Held

“PolyU 85th Anniversary Performance cum Putonghua Recitation and Demonstration Workshop”, jointly organised by the Chinese Language Centre of PolyU and the Tertiary Putonghua Recitation Society, was successfully held on 19 November 2022, in Chiang Chen Studio Theatre, PolyU. Participants from PolyU Putonghua recitation and demonstration workshop collaborated with members of the Tertiary Putonghua Recitation Society to give 13 recitation performances as a celebratory event for the 85th anniversary of PolyU. The event also served as a successful promotion of the art of recitation. More than 100 guests from PolyU, other tertiary institutions as well as the community enjoyed the afternoon and showed great appreciation for the performances.

PolyU Undergraduate Info Day 2022

The annual PolyU Education Info Day was held on 8 October. It is one of the best opportunities for visitors to learn about FH’s undergraduate programmes and plan for their future study. All FH Departments introduced their programmes and facilities on the occasion. Information seminars, guided visits and many more activities were also arranged for visitors. The exhibitions and information seminars can be viewed at https://www.polyuinfoday.online/

The 28th Congregation of Faculty of Humanities

The 28th Congregation (Faculty of Humanities) was held successfully on 5 November 2022 in a hybrid mode. The Congregation was live broadcast via online platforms. It was kicked off with opening remarks from the Faculty Dean Prof. Li Ping. This year, we were honoured to have two Guests of Honour, Ir Dr Chan Fuk Cheung, BBS, Former General Manager of CLP Engineering Limited and Outstanding PolyU Alumni 2013 in the First Session and Mr Kwan Chuk-fai, MH, JP, Professor of Practice of Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies and Chairman of The Community Investment and Inclusion Fund, Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Second Session, to give the Congratulatory Address. A total of 909 students graduated this year, including 736 students receiving postgraduate degrees and 173 students receiving bachelor’s degrees. Congratulations to the class of 2022!

PolyU Arts and Humanities Scales to New Heights in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023

PolyU’s Arts and Humanities is ranked 73rd globally in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by subject, leaping over 20 spots from last year and breaking into top 100 for the first time. The Faculty will continue to strive for excellence and to fulfil our core missions of nurturing talents, discovering knowledge, and impacting the society. THE uses 13 performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance which are grouped into the areas of teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income. The relative weightings of these criteria vary slightly from discipline to discipline.

Dr Renia Lopez Awarded Research-Stay at the University of Alcala

Dr Renia Lopez, Associate Professor of ENGL, has been awarded a one-month study-stay at the University of Alcalá (Spain) under their prestigious programme Giner de los Ríos, established in 2015. Under this programme, renowned scholars are invited to work with Alcalá’s researchers to explore new topics and develop international co-operations. Dr Lopez has been working on with scholars and students at the University of Alcalá for a few years now and is currently working on a second project which evaluates the benefits of online teaching when the teacher's grammatical explanations are presented with or without gestures. Among the new co-operations she will explore is a study on the affective elements of the foreign language teaching and learning process. Dr Lopez will also be giving talks to students and staff at Alcalá as well as exploring the opportunities for further collaborations and possible exchanges between the University of Alcalá and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

EAC Team Wins 2022 UGC Teaching Award

The English Across the Curriculum (EAC) Team led by Dr Julia Chen(EDC), with Dr Grace Lim(ELC) and collaborative members from CityU, HKBU and HKUST has received the UGC Teaching Award (Collaborative Teams) this year. EAC initiatives over the past few years include workshops for discipline teachers on students’ writing problems, briefings for students to guide them on writing and speaking assignments, organising and co-organising conferences, publishing papers with discipline teachers and the development of a mobile app (Capstone Ninja) with language/writing/speaking resources for students.