The CHASS Global Games Fair organised by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences took place on 14 January to foster cross-cultural interaction between local and overseas students through games from various countries.

Activities at the fair were focused on a mixture of games from across the world. By introducing children’s games and toys peculiar to various places, the College aimed to strengthen ties among the exchange students and also to raise both local and exchange students’ awareness of multiculturalism. All kinds of booths were set up in three activity regions for games demanding physical skills, intellectual skills, and both types of skills, respectively. At the fair, both local and overseas students enjoyed themselves playing together such traditional games as hopscotch, chess, Chinese chess, Chinese yoyo, tangram, shuttlecock and Jenga. A six-metre-long hopscotch playing field became one of the main attractions during the day.

Professor Martin Painter, Acting Dean of the College of Humanities and Social

Sciences, said at the opening ceremony, “Carnivals of this kind have been held every year at this college on different themes. This year’s Global Games Fair is intended to promote the understanding of one another’s culture by encouraging our students to participate in games and other activities together. This will provide a good opportunity for local and exchange students to get to know each other and share their experiences.”

Dr Bertha Du-Babcock, Director of International Exchange, College of Humanities and Social Sciences added, “Today’s global Games Fair has a threefold purpose. First, the CHASS would like to say a big “Hello” to all of our exchange students studying in the College; second, it is to provide a platform for all to foster a deeper cross-cultural understanding between local and exchange students; and the third purpose is to promote the International Exchange Programme.”

Wong Wing-yi, group leader of the Professional Communication Project Group of Department of English, who is in charge of organising this fair, said, “Take hopscotch for example. Children in other places of the world love and play this game as well as children do in Hong Kong, though other countries may call it by different names. I hope all the students coming to the games fair will feel free to talk to each other and make new friends. In this way you will get to know more about each other’s life and culture and have a better understanding of the International Exchange Programme.”

At the opening ceremony, the organiser of the Logo Design Contest for International Exchange Programme awarded prizes to the top three winners in the contest. They are BA (Hons) English for Professional Communication students Deng Shanshan, Shi Qing, and Poon Kwok-ming.

Spanish exchange student Soraya Barrera, Master of Ceremonies of the ceremony, said she had a wonderful time at CityU, because the environment and culture were different from her home country and everything was new and interesting to her. “The classroom facilities are excellent and the teachers know how to make lessons easier to understand. The local students are friendly, and they’ve taught me lots of the local language too.”

Luk Kin-on from the Department of Public and Social Administration was another Master of Ceremonies. He studied at the University of Edinburgh in UK early last year as an exchange student. His stay there, though for only a semester, has broadened his horizons. “The learning climate in UK made me concentrate on my studies. I may consider returning there to further my studies later on,” he said.

In addition to the carnival, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences is scheduled to hold an exhibition of International Exchange Programme at the Purple Zone from 13 to 16 January.