Newsletter No. 251

Expert on Academic Accounting Literature P rof. Gordon Richardson, KPMG Professor of Accounting, the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, delivered a public lecture in his capacity as Wei Lun Visiting Professor to the University, on 7th December in the Mong Man Wai Building. The title of the lecture was 'Review of the Academic Accounting L i t e r a t u r e L i n k i n g C o r p o r a te Governance to Aggressive External Reporting Behaviour'. P r o f . R i c h a r s on b e g an by establishing the strong pressures for earnings management g i v en the predominance o f executive stock options in management compensation plans and the high earnings growth expectations reflected in stock price during the last stock market bubble. He then talked about the link between earnings manipulation and stock price, wh i ch is now being accepted by academics as of first order importance given their loss of confidence in the efficient markets hypothesis. Next he discussed the opportunity for earnings management given weak corporate governance systems. Prof. Richardson closed his lecture by mentioning some of the corporate governance reforms contained in the US Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and the importance of restoring investor faith in the quality of financial reporting. Currently editor of Contemporary Accounting Research, the fourth ranked academic accounting journal in the world, Prof. Richardson has over 20 refereed publications to his name and has published in a number of leading journals in accounting and finance. His r e s e a r c h i n t e r e s t s i n c l u d e environmental accounting, the role of information in the pricing of equity securities, voluntary disclosure and the quality of disclosure in annual reports, and ac coun t i ng - based v a l u a t i on models. CU Press Publishes Books on C.Y. Tung T he books C. Y. Tung Diary and The World of C.Y. Tung were launched at a ceremony jointly hosted by The Chinese University Press and the Tung Foundation on 30th November at Exchange Square, Central. Guests officiating at the ceremony included the Honourable Tung Chee Hwa, Chief Executive of the HKSAR and the eldest son of Mr. C.Y. Tung, Prof. Lawrence J. Lau, vice-chancellor of the University, Prof. Rayson Huang, close friend of Mr. C.Y. Tung and former vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong. Friends of the Tung f am i l y f r om p o l i t i c a l, commercial, academic, publishing and media sectors were in attendance. The four-volume set comprising C. Y. Tung Diary and The World of C.Y. Tung is published in Chinese by The Chinese University Press and edited by Dr. Cheng Hwei Shing. An exhibition entitled 'C.Y. Tung: Larger Than Life' was staged from 22nd November to 4th December at Exchange Square. Named by Forbes as one of the top shipping tycoons in the world, C.Y. Tung (1912-1982) devoted his whole life to the modernization of Chinese shipping. His diary, containing over one million Chinese characters, reveals his idealism, professionalism, and dedication to the realization of his dream of putting Chinese merchant ships in international waters and to restore China's maritime greatness to the era of Admiral Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty. Since C.Y. Tung's death t wo decades, much has been written about his legendary life: the shipping magnate who owned 150 ships totalling over 11 million tons, his role in and advocacy of shipboard education, and the building of the world's largest ship, the Seawise Giant, in 1979. Interest in the man was again aroused when his eldest son, Tung Chee Hwa, became the Chief Executive of the HKSAR in 1997. The family decided it was time to do a proper biography of C.Y. Tung. Prof. Lawrence J. Lau speaking at the book launch New Hope for Advanced NPC Patients Targetting advanced nasopharynx cancer ( NPC) pa t i en t s, the Department of Clinical Oncology of the Faculty of Medicine has pioneered i n t e n s i t y - mo d u l a t ed radiotherapy (IMRT) to increase local control rate, and applied the novel approach of molecular targetting to the clinical setting. The findings of these studies were recently published in two major international journals. Conventional radiotherapy has a local control rate of around 60 per cent in NPC patients with locally advanced disease. For the past five years, the radiation oncology team at the Prince of Wales Hospital has developed the use of IMRT to improve local control in patients with advanced disease. The application of the technique on the largest cohort of advanced NPC patients in Asia achieved a three-year local control rate of 88 per cent. The results are reported in the December issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics by Dr. Michael Kam, honorary clinical assistant professor of the Department of Clinical Oncology, who spear-headed the development of IMRT. S imi l a r ly Prof. An t hony Chan, director of the Hong Kong Cancer I n s t i t u t e and c h a i r man o f the Department of Clinical Oncology, and Prof. Qian Tao, head of the Cancer Epigenetics and Tumour V i r o l ogy Labo r a t o r y, Sir Y . K. Pao Centre f o r Can c e r, have s u c c e s s f u l ly demonstrated for the first time in a group of NPC patients who have failed standard therapies, that demethylation of the EBV genome can be achieved using azacytidine. The study was p u b l i s h ed i n the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Groundbreaking studies such as these ones conducted by the Faculty of Medicine have significantly improved the survival rates of advanced NPC patients. From left: Prof. Qian Tao, Prof. Anthony Chan, Dr. W.H. Kwan, and Dr. Michael Kam Funding Support for CUHK Projects T he following three research projects undertaken by faculty members of the University have attracted funding support from various quarters: • Ion Beam Synthesis and Modification of Metal Nanoclusters in Dielectric Substrates (HK$26,600) Sponsor: Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme Principal investigator: Prof. Wong Sai-peng (Department of Electronic Engineering) • To Establish a Functional Enhancement Programme for the Improvement of Emotional and Functional Well-being of Demented Elders (HK$682,950) Sponsor. S.K. Yee Medical Foundation Principal investigator: Prof. Linda Lam Chiu-wa (Department of Psychiatry) • Study on Improving Hong Kong's Business Environment (HK$230,000) Sponsor: Central Policy Unit, HKSAR Principal investigator. Prof. Tuan Chyau (Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics) Co-investigators: Prof. Stella So and Prof. Linda Ng C o n f e r e n c e s T he following academic activities were organized by University units in October and November: • Third Asia Pacific Conference on Evidence-based Medicine Date: 26th to 28th November 2004 Venue: Postgraduate Education Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital Organizers: Chinese Cochrane Centre (Hong Kong branch), The Chinese University of Hong Kong Clinical Effectiveness Unit, Hospital Authority Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, University of Oxford Peking University Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Peking University • Eighth Executive Development Programme: International Capital Market and Its Development Date: 26th October to 3rd November 2004 Venue: Wen Lan Tang, Shaw College Organizers'. Asia-Pacific Institute of Business China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. 2 No. 251 19th December 2004