Bulletin No. 1, 2015

16   Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2015 College in a Living Room: Lidian Reading Group M any people have heard of the Lidian Reading Group organized by Prof. Chow Po-chung of the Department of Government and Public Administration. But not many people know the origin of the name. ‘I returned to CUHK to teach in 2002 and started the reading group in the summer of 2003 to read with my students. At first the reading group took place at the Multi-purpose Room at the New Asia College Ch’ien Mu Library. The Chinese name of the room is the “Lidian Room”, which literally means the Room of Beautiful Classics. We borrowed the word lidian as the name of our reading group but changed the character “li” for beautiful to a homophone for ploughing. So, it means ploughing through classics,’ says Professor Chow. The Lidian Reading Group has been in existence for more than a dozen years. Professor Chow moved to a residence on campus in 2006. Since then the reading group has taken place at his home, meeting once every three weeks. Its members choose a piece of essay to read together each time. And one of them would give a presentation on that essay, which is followed by open and intense discussions. The reading group consists of teachers, postgraduate and undergraduate students of CUHK, friends outside the University community, and Professor Chow’s former students. About 15 to 20 members gather to read in each session. Professor Chow organized reading groups when