Bulletin No. 1, 2013

News in Brief   63  Prof. Tu Weiming on Cultural Identity in Chinese Community The first lecture of the Shun Hing Lecture Series in Arts and Humanities was held on 7 March on CUHK campus with Prof. Tu Weiming, director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University and Research Professor at Harvard University, speaking on ‘A Truly Meaningful "We" in Cultural China: How Is It Possible?’ Professor Tu shared his views on the sense of cultural identity in the global Chinese community. The Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and in the global community have endeavoured to embrace and advocate Chinese culture, while building a strong sense of cultural identity. He hoped such a cultural identity could be established in a humanistic spirit of freedom, diversity, inclusiveness and self- reflection, and most important, incorporating a vision of communal, critical, rational and benevolent self- consciousness. Prof. Richard J. Davidson on Changing the Brain Prof. Richard J. Davidson, Sir Run Run Shaw Distinguished Visiting Scholar 2012– 13, from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, spoke on ‘Change the Brain by Transforming the Mind’ in March. Professor Davidson discussed how one can transform the mind through meditation and thereby alter the brain and the periphery in ways that may be beneficial for mental and physical health. He also shared with the audience some of his interesting findings, such as the voluntary cultivation of compassion, practitioners’ efficient neural processing following a retreat and the effect of compassion training on the brain. Justin Yifu Lin on China’s Economy Prof. Justin Yifu Lin, former senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank, and honorary dean of National School of Development at Peking University, presented a public lecture on ‘Demystifying the Chinese Economy’ in November 2012. Professor Lin reflected on China’s unprecedented growth in the past 32 years, examined the reasons behind it, and discussed the challenges faced by China against maintaining an eight per cent annual growth rate in the coming decades. Prof. Justin Yifu Lin (left) and Prof. Zhang Junsen, chairman of Department of Economics, in the Q&A session