Newsletter No. 231

Seven Distinguished Persons to Be Honoured by C U HK T he University will confer honorary doctorates on seven distinguished persons at its 60th Congregation on Thursday, 4th December 2003. Dr. Edger W.K. Cheng, chairman of the University Council, will preside at the congregation. The seven honorary graduands are Dr. Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, distinguished entrepreneur, a leader in Hong Kong's property sector, and vice-chairman of the Univeristy Council; Prof. Arthur K.C. L i, Secretary for Education and Manpower, and former vice- chancellor of CUHK; Mr. Anthony Neoh, senior counsel and chief adviser to the China Securities Regulatory Commission; Prof. Jao Tsung-I, world- renowned scholar in Chinese and oriental studies, Wei Lun Honorary Professor of Fine Arts and Emeritus Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at CUHK; Prof. Yu Kwang Chung, famous Chinese scholar, poet, and a former teacher of the University; Prof. Lu Yongxiang, vice- chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, PRC, and president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Prof. Reinhard Selten, Nobel laureate in economic sciences 1994 and Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Bonn, Germany. Dr. Kwok, Prof. Li and Mr. Neoh will each be conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. Prof. Jao and Prof. Yu will each be conferred the degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa. Prof. Lu w i l l receive the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, while Prof. Selten will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa. Profiles of the graduands can be found on Pages five and six. Qu a l i f y o f L i f e in the L i me l i g ht Quality of Life in a Global World International Conference Fourteen distinguished overseas and local scholars from various disciplines shared their views on quality of life at the International Conference on 'Quality of Life in a Global World', held on 14th and 15th November at Cho Yiu Conference Hall. They included Dr. G.E. Alan Dever, a health care policy specialist, Prof. Richard J. Estes, social work specialist, Prof. Alex C. Michalos, renowned social scientist, Prof. Bruce Mitchell, resource and environmental management specialist, and Prof. Ruut Veenhoven, social psychologist. Held by the Faculty of Social Science to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the University, the aim of the conference was to investigate a global solution to enhancing quality of life and drawing public attention to five important aspects of the issue, namely quality measurement, health care, income inequality, psychological health, and the environment. Prof. Ambrose King, vice-chancellor of the University, and Prof. Leung Yee, dean of social science, officiated at the opening and closing ceremonies respectively. Quality of Life Index for Hong Kong The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index showed that quality of life in Hong Kong has improved in 2003 compared with the year before, although the city still has a budget deficit, high unemployment rate, and other socio-economic and political problems to grapple with. The index was launched by the Faculty of Social Science to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the University. Starting from this year, the index will be released annually at year-end. Using the index as a composite indicator, the faculty intends to measure and keep track of Hong Kong's quality of life in the 21st century, and provide policy-makers and the community with useful statistics. It also aims at drawing public attention to the issue of quality of life. The CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life Index consists of 21 indicators that are grouped into three sub-indices: socio-cultural, economic, and environmental. The year 2002 is used as the base year of the study, and the CUHK Hong Kong Quality of Life of that year is 100. I f the index of a year is above 100, it means that the quality of life in Hong Kong of that year is better than that in 2002. The preliminary score of the Index of 2003 is 102.32. A l l the three sub-indices are slightly higher than in 2002, indicating that the quality of life in Hong Kong has slightly improved as compared with last year. Thirteen of the 21 indicators registered an improvement in 2003. They were expectation of life at birth, notification rate of notified infectious diseases, stress index, general life satisfaction index, press freedom index, press criticism index, government performance index, affordability index (annual average of affordable property price), rental indices, index of current economic conditions, age participation rate for first-degree programmes and postgraduate programmes in local universities, air index and recycle rate of municipal solid waste. Seven indicators were worse compared with last year: public expenditure on health as a proportion to GDP, overall crime rate, unemployment rate, real wage indices, public expenditure on education as a proportion to GDP, water index, and noise index. The only indicator that remained unchanged was the standardized mortality rate. Upcoming Anniversary Celebrations 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture Speaker Prof. Wise Young, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Topic: The Bases for Hope in Spinal Cord Injury Research Time: 5.30 p.m. Date: 5th December 2003 Venue: Kai Chong Tong, Postgraduate Education Centre, Faculty of Medicine Enquiries: 2609 8893 Global Youth Chinese Literary Award: Literary Translation and Creative Writing Workshops Speakers: Prof. Ching-hsi Perng, Mr. Li Jingduan, Prof. Serena Jin, Prof. Lin Wen-yueh, Mr. Tung Chiao, Prof. Yu Kwang-chung, Mr. Liu Yichang, Prof. Kenneth H. Pai, Mr. Wang Meng, and Prof. Chi Pang-yuan Date: 5th December 2003 Venue: Shaw College Lecture Theatre Enquiries: 2609 7107 CUHK 40th Anniversary Banquet Date: 6th December 2003 Venue: Grand Hall, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Enquiries: 2609 8893 Award Presentation Ceremony of the Second Global Youth Chinese Literary Award for the New Century Date: 7th December 2003 Venue: Hong Kong Central Library, Causeway Bay Cheng Ming in All Directions: 40 Years of Art at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Date: 8th-30th December 2003 Venue: Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre Website: http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~fadept/jndex.html The 2003 Intelligent Automation Conference Date: 15th-17th December 2003 Venue: Grand Stand 1, Sha Tin Racecourse and CUHK Website: http://www.acae.cuhk.edu.hk/~ciac2003 Renditions 30th Anniversary Book Exhibition Date: 15th—18th December Venue: Joint Publishing (HK) Co. Ltd., 9 Queen Victoria Street, Central Strategic Management Society Mini Conference Theme: Strategic Management in Emerging Economies: Challenging Conventional Wisdom Date: 18th- 19th December Venue: Hotel Nikko, 72 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East Website: http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~b100030/conference.htm Please visit http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/40thanniversary f or the latest information. 1 No. 231 4th December 2003