Bulletin No. 1, 2010

Humanities · Humanity · Humankind   Humanities Humanity Humankind W hat are the humanities? At the risk of over-simplification, they are disciplines that occupy the vast territory between the creative arts—that which Oscar Wilde famously believed should be ‘useless,’ as a flower is useless—and science with its steely functionality. The responsibility of the humanities is to shed light on the human condition and what it means to be human—all the struggles and aspirations, achievements and failures, values and visions that help us make sense of our lives and our world. They exist to inspire admiration and contemplation on the one hand, and to instruct and influence action on the other, and perhaps, even to help us to become truly human in the most positive sense of the word. Among universities in Hong Kong, the Chinese University is best known for its strong humanistic tradition. In the last issue of the Bulletin , we profiled some of the celebrated humanities scholars in our midst. We will continue with the humanities focus in this issue by introducing some highlights in humanities teaching and research at CUHK.

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