Two talented PhD candidates, ZHU Qinfeng (Media and Communication) and ZHOU Xiaoyu (Social and Behavioural Sciences), received the Fulbright – Research Grants Council (RGC) Hong Kong Research Scholar Awards from the US government. Mr Kurt W TONG, US Consul General in Hong Kong and Macau, presented the awards to the two winners.

Aiming to build friendships and cross-cultural understanding between scholars in the US and other countries, the awards will sponsor the two recipients’ research in the US.

Currently undertaking her Fulbright fellowship at the University of Michigan, Zhu’s research focuses on the political and civic implications of new media technologies. “While polarisation had been very visible in the US recently, it is very much a global issue and can be seen in Hong Kong, too,” says the young scholar. She examines the effects of social media on the phenomenon of polarisation via selective avoidance behaviours such as “unfriending” and “unfollowing” and how this widens the distance between people from different political camps. Zhu also expresses her gratitude to the department for providing a supportive environment that had enabled her to grow as a scholar.

Another awardee Zhou conducts research into cultural differences in people’s ability to manage and respond to emotional experiences. She plans to compare emotion regulation strategies used by Americans and Chinese when she attends Ball State University in Indiana. “I hope my research can contribute to the field of counselling and health psychology by providing a new and creative angle to explain cultural variations in emotion regulation,” said Zhou. She specially thanked Dr YEUNG Yuen-lan Dannii and Dr HUI Na-na Anna, from the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, for their guidance all along.

“I offer the two award winners my heartfelt congratulations. I think that the awards are recognition of teaching excellence and student quality in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at CityU,” said Dean Professor ZANG Xiaowei.