Bulletin Autumn 1989

Cultural Events * The Art Gallery mounted an 'Exhibition of Chinese Ceramic Pillows from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Yeung Wing Tak' from 1st July to 24th September. The 130 exhibits, selected from the collection of Mr. andMrs. Yeung Wing Tak, were of a great variety of forms and decorative techniques. Most of themwere Cizhou type wares dating from the Tang to the Yuan period. Bean-shaped p illo w with inscriptions incised against a ring- matted ground, N orthern Song, 11-12 century, length: 26.6 cm * The Department of English organized an inter national conference on 'Syntactic Acquisition in the Chinese Context' from 4th to 7th July. Scholars from Australia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States presented a total of about 30 papers on the following topics: first language acquisition of Chinese, second language acquisition of English by Chinese learners, and second language acquisition of Chinese by speakers of English or other languages. * The Department of Chemistry organized the following seminars: — Dr. Dawning Fung of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club spoke on 'Homogeneous Hydrogenation Studies of Di-tertiary Phosphine - Rhodium (I) Complexes' on 7th July. — Professor C.T. Chang, Institute of Atomic and Molecular Science, Academia Sinica, and Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, spoke on 'Preparation and Characterization of High Tc Superconductors' on 12th July. —Dr. C.W. Yip, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic, spoke on 'Phase- separatedPolymer Systems' on 28th July. — Professor K. Hafner, Institute of Organic Chemistry, Darmstadt Polytechnic, West Germany, spoke on ‘Novel Cyclic Con jugated 71 - electron Systems - Theoretical Predictions andExperimental Results' on 6th September. - Professor M. Rabinovitz, Department of Organic Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, spoke on ‘NMR Spectroscopy of Polyheterocyclic Dianions - Preparation andRing Closure Process’ on 8th September. - Professor R.A. Raphael, emeritus professor of the University of Cambridge, the United Kingdom and Royal Society Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor, University of Hong Kong, spoke on 'Synthetic Approaches to the Antileukaemic Rocaglamide' on 22nd September. * The Department of Physics organized a seminar on 22nd August on 'Landau Theory of Blue Phases'. The speaker was Professor Shmuel Shtrikman from Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. * The Universities Service Centre organized a 'Workshop on Political Order in Changing Societies: The Chinese Case', on 1st September. * The University and the Society of Hong Kong Scholars jointly organized a seminar on engineering on 6th September. Professor Chang-lin Tien, Execu tive Vice-Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of the University of California at Irvine, spoke on 'Developing Trends in Industrial Technology and Engineering Education'. * The University Health Service organized the following seminars: — Dr. Andrew C.H. Tseung, vice-president of the New Zealand Medical Acupuncture 18