Dr Emmanuele Chersoni and a CBS Graduate Received Honourable Mention to Best Paper Award at BlackboxNLP 2023

Dr Emmanuele Chersoni, Assistant Professor of the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS), and CBS graduate Ms Chenxin Liu, received an honourable mention to Best Paper Award at the BlackboxNLP 2023 which was held in Singapore on 7 December 2023. The Blackbox NLP is an important international workshop on analysing and interpreting neural networks for natural language processing. The paper "On Quick Kisses and How to Make Them Count: A Study on Event Construal in Light Verb Constructions with BERT" was co-authored by Dr Chersoni and Chenxin. It is noteworthy that the materials of the paper came from the Capstone Project that Chenxin did with Dr Chersoni during the final year of her undergraduate studies at CBS. Click HERE to read the paper.

Faculty Member Dr Hang Xing on the Belt and Road Initiative’s Influence on Laos

Dr Hang Xing, Associate Professor of the Department of Chinese History and Culture, expounded upon China’s influence on Laos and adjacent countries such as Thailand and Myanmar through the Belt and Road Initiative in an interview with a local tv station. Click here to watch the interview.

Faculty Members Participate in 15th East Asia Humanities Forum

Members of the Faculty joined the 15th East Asia Humanities Forum held between 3 and 6 November 2023. The Forum, themed “East Asian Humanistic Studies in The Digital Age”, provided a platform for our Faculty members to showcase their research findings and exchange views with notable scholars in the fields. Other participating partner universities included Hanyang University, Nankai University, National Taiwan University, Tsinghua University, and Waseda University. The Forum will be organised by the Faculty next year and Prof. Han Xiaorong, Head of Department of Chinese History and Culture, announced on the occasion that its theme would be “The Formation of East Asian Academic Communities: Histories, Discourses and Practices”.

Prof. William Shi-Yuan Wang Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of Macau

Prof. William Shi-Yuan Wang, Chair Professor of Language and Cognitive Sciences, was awarded a Doctor of Humanities honoris causa by the University of Macau (UM) on 2 December 2023 in recognition of his outstanding achievements and significant contributions to society. Prof. Wang, as noted by Prof. Xu Jie, Dean of UM’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities, is a “world-renowned linguist who has made world-class contributions to the fields of linguistic theory, language engineering, evolutionary linguistics, among others. His research has long pioneered the development of linguistics in many areas, making landmark contributions to Chinese and world linguistics.”

CBS MATI Student Clinches Silver Prize at National Interpreting Competition

Our CBS MATI student, Ms Zhao Yamei, won Silver Prize at the national final of the 2023 “FLTRP·ETIC Cup National University Foreign Language Competition (English Interpreting) – Understanding Contemporary China" held on 5 December. Organised by the Beijing Foreign Studies University, the FLTRP ETIC Cup Competition has been the only foreign language competition selected to the list of National University Discipline Competition Ranking since 2021. This prestigious competition puts participants' interpreting skills to the test in diverse realms of contemporary China, spanning politics, economics, society, and culture.

Faculty Dean Prof. Li Ping on Cooperation between PolyU and Hangzhou

Faculty Dean Prof. Li Ping introduced the industry-academia-research cooperation between PolyU and the city of Hangzhou at the 2nd Global Digital Trade Expo. PolyU has recently signed an agreement for the establishment of the PolyU-Hangzhou Technology and Innovation Research Institute, which will focus on areas like digital cultural tourism, intelligent operation of rail transport and AI-powered aesthetic medicine.

FH PhD Student Wins PolyU Best Research Student Award 2023

Mr Eddy Wong Chun Ho, a PhD student of our Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, has won the PolyU Best Research Postgraduate Student Award 2023. The award, established by the Graduate School earlier this year, recognises and rewards outstanding RPg students for their excellence in research, academic achievement and personal growth. It also intends to promote a sense of belonging among our RPg students and motivate them to actively participate in research-related activities.  

CBS PhD Graduate Awarded 2023 LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award

Dr Nga-Yan Hui, a 2023 PhD graduate of CBS, has been awarded the 2023 LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award under the category of PhD thesis. The award was offered by The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (香港語言學學會) to encourage young scholars at local tertiary education institutions to conduct linguistics research. The LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award acknowledges exceptional theses that make significant contributions to any field within linguistics, including MA, MPhil, PhD, and Doctorate theses. Dr Hui’s thesis, titled “Experience and Bilingual Advantage: An Exploration of Individual Variation”, delves into how individual variances such as the age of acquisition, proficiency in a second language, and code-switching habits, influence the organisation of the bilingual mental lexicon and the retrieval of concepts from it. She introduces the Experience-based Bilingual Mental Lexicon Model, which highlights the dynamic change of language. The thesis will be presented at the LSHK’s 2023 Annual Research Forum on December 2 2023. Click here to read Dr Hui's wining thesis.

29th Congregation of Faculty of Humanities

Congratulations to the Class of 2023! The 29th Congregation (FH) has been successfully concluded on 11 November 2023. It was kicked off with opening remarks from the Faculty Dean Prof. Li Ping. This year, we were honoured to have three Guests of Honour, Mr Zhang Quan, Founder and CEO of Twelves Flavors Group, and Recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Entrepreneurial Achievement of PolyU Faculty of Humanities 2023, in the first session; Mr Niu Yi, Founder of Unicow Education and Technology (International) Holdings Limited, Chinese IB/MYP Language Teacher/Advisor, Chinese International School and Recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Professional Achievement of PolyU Faculty of Humanities 2023, in the second session; and Ms Doris Leung Shuk Yi, Founder of Diamond Tech (Hong Kong) Limited, Founder and CEO of Diamond Cab (Hong Kong) Limited and Recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award in Community Service Achievement of PolyU Faculty of Humanities 2023, in the third session, to give the congratulatory address. A total number of 755 students graduated this year, including 571 students receiving postgraduate degrees and awards and 184 students receiving bachelor’s degrees. Awards and certificates were presented to students and Faculty members for their outstanding achievements and services. Once again, we wish all graduates a bright future ahead and every success in future endeavours!

Chinese Classics Recital Show Jointly Hosted by PolyU and Universities in Jiangsu and Macau

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), in collaboration with Jiangsu Normal University and the University of Macau, jointly hosted the “Mainland-Hong Kong-Macau University Students’ Chinese Classics Recital Show 2023” in Hong Kong on 13 November 2023. It was fully supported by the Ten Thousand People’s Scheme coordinated by the Ministry of Education. Following the inaugural “Suzhou-Hong Kong-Macau University Students’ Chinese Classics Recitation Exchange Competition” in 2021, the three universities once again joined hands to host this large-scale cultural exchange event. The aim is to provide a platform for young university students who love recitation and Chinese culture to exchange and showcase their talents and to further promote Chinese culture. The event began with a welcome speech by Professor Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, followed by speeches by Professor Qian Jin, former Vice President of Jiangsu Normal University, Prof. Victoria Lei, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, and Prof. Li Ping, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at PolyU. The theme of the competition was “Reciting Ancient and Modern Classics, Inheriting Chinese Culture, and Glorifying the Spirit of Our Epoch”. The event received nearly a thousand video submissions, with participants from various universities from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, including but not limited to Jiangsu Normal University, University of Macau, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Education University, Communication University of China, Hohai University and others. After rigorous assessment, 25 outstanding works were selected for the Recital Show. In addition, students from the University of Macau and Jiangsu Normal University also presented singing and dancing performances on the occasion. A teacher from the Jiangsu Normal University demonstrated a recitation, followed by a dancing performance presented by the PolyU Hall Dance Team and recital of a famous article of Prof. Yuen Ren Chao by PolyU Faculty of Humanities students. PolyU also held a forum mainly for students from the three places to exchange their ideas, covering topics such as the inheritance and development of traditional Chinese culture, the exchange mechanism of young people in the three places, and sharing of student experiences in learning and research at each university. It aimed to allow more interaction and to have a more profound understanding among students from the three places.