Academics

CityU organises Chinese Week to promote Chinese language and literature

Michelle Leung

11 Mar 2008

The Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics (CTL) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is holding “Chinese Week 2008” from 11 March to 14 March with seminars, performances and game booths to promote Chinese language and literature.

Chinese Week is co-organised by teachers and students at CTL to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Bachelor of Arts in Chinese programme. A competition was held late last year inviting students to contribute their ideas for Chinese Week with the winning team’s suggestions adopted.

In her remarks at the opening ceremony on 11 March, Professor Lilian Vrijmoed Kwan Lee-ping, Dean of Student Learning, said Chinese Week was a very good example of how the University provided out-of-classroom education for its students.

“Through the organisation of these activities, students can improve their interpersonal, organisational and teamwork skills, as well as their creativity,” she said. “So the University needs your input to create a vibrant and effective learning environment for all.”

Other officiating guests at the ceremony were: Professor Martin Painter, Acting Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Professor Jonathan Webster, Head of Department of CTL; Professor Zhang Longxi, Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation; Mr Stephen Hui Chin-yim and Mr Chan Che-shing, Chairman and Member of the Departmental Advisory Committee respectively.

To show his support for Chinese Week, Professor Webster presented his speech in Putonghua. “Chinese is one of the most popular languages in the world. As China is experiencing an economic boom, Chinese becomes more and more popular,” said Professor Webster. “Many foreigners have started learning Chinese in order to understand the country. Chinese Week covers a wide variety of activities that allows our friends from different countries to learn the language.”

Programmes include seminars on modern Chinese literature, Chinese calligraphy, wuxia fiction, modern literature and cinema and canto-pop lyrics; performances in calligraphy, recitation and Tai Chi; and game booths on various Chinese cultural elements. Most of the ideas originated from the winning team of the Chinese Week Proposal Competition.

Chan Wing-yan, a member of the winning team and a Year 3 CTL student, said they aimed to arouse fellow students’ interest in Chinese language. “Chinese is our mother-tongue and we may not be fully informed about the language. So our team would like to help students learn more about Chinese language and literature through some interesting games and activities,” she said.

For details of Chinese Week 2008, please visit: http://ctl.cityu.edu.hk/ChineseWeek08

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