Bulletin Winter 1977

• INTERVIEW • Professor Ma Lin — Vice-Chancellor- Q. Professor Ma, when you become the new Vice- Chancellor o f the University, it w ill be necessary to put aside your teaching and research work, signifying a sharp turning point in your life. What makes you go for this change? A. I started my career o f research and university teaching almost immediately after my doctoral studies at Leeds. Scientists, who tend to bury themselves in study and confine themselves to the laboratory for their whole life, usually lead a comparatively quiet, though ambitious life. I say ambitious because we aspire to solve the amazing riddles o f nature. Vice-Chancellors lead quite a different life. As academic-cum- administrator, they are responsible for the insti tution's overall development, and it is their duty to meet people, make contacts and deal w ith problems beyond their academic pursuit. I am well aware that to take up the Vice-Chancellor- ship, I have to put aside to a large extent my present teaching and research, entailing a com plete change o f my way o f life. Dr. Choh-Ming L i. our Vice-Chancellor, has laid a solid foundation for the Chinese University in the past fourteen years, and formulated a sound policy for its development. The work o f consolidation and continuous development has to be taken up by someone after his retirement, and I am the one they have chosen. Though the nature o f work o f a scientist and a vice- chancellor is different, I am convinced that their work is o f equal importance— to help the society to train its youth is o f no less signifi cance than to contribute to knowledge itself. I am also convinced that my educational ideals, so close to those o f the Chinese University, may be realized through the planned development o f the University. Therefore I decide to accept this new challenge and I hope I shall be able to adjust to this change. Q. Your educational ideals, if I am not mistaken, are the training o f the younger generation and the promotion o f Chinese culture and o f the interflow o f eastern and western cultures. A. Yes, these are my ideals, and also this Univer sity's ideals. A ll institutions o f higher learning have the same dual responsibilities: towards the local society and their country, and towards knowledge and culture. For the latter, our University has taken upon itself in particular the promotion o f Chinese culture and cultural interflow between the East and the West. I believe this is a special mission o f every Chinese to-day; and the Chinese University, w ith its large Chinese community and its resources, is ideal for carrying out such amission. Q. How does the Chinese University go about this task? A. A deep understanding o f one's own cultural heritage is essential for the blending o f two completely different cultures. To ensure that all our students have an adequate knowledge of Chinese culture, only those who pass Chinese at matriculation level are admitted to the Univer sity, and all freshmen are required to take General Chinese in their first year. Our teaching staff w ith their mixed educational background are eminently suited to help the process o f cul tural cross-fertilization. We have also in Hong Kong a great reserve o f data in both Chinese and English, readily available to our bilingual teachers and students. The Chinese University has taken advantage o f this bilingualism and bi-culturalism in de signing the curriculum and formulating research and publication projects. To cite afew examples, we are offering courses in translation and com parative literature; research on Chinese medicinal herbs is being carried out; we have published English translations o f some famous Chinese classics, a Chinese-English translation magazi n e —Renditions— and Renditions Books ， as well as Chinese translations o f western social science readers. Besides, the exchange programmes between our University and various overseas institutions 2