Newsletter No. 336

No. 336, 19.4.2009 NEWS & EVENTS 劉遵義校長獲授中國農業大學榮譽教授銜 Vice-Chancellor Appointed Honorary Professor by China Agriculture University • 校 長劉遵義教授（ 中 ）獲中國農 業大學（農大）頒授榮譽教 授榮銜，以表彰他在經濟學方面的卓 越成就。 頒授儀式於3月11日在農大舉行，由農 大黨委書記瞿振元教授（ 右 ）、校長柯 炳生教授（ 左 ）授予劉校長榮譽教授 證書。隨後劉校長以「天塌不下來」 為題主講，分析全球金融危機及對中 國的影響。講座吸引數百名農大師生 出席，開講前兩小時已座無虛設。 此外，農大的農業生物技術國家重點 實驗室（香港中文大學）於翌日舉行揭 幕典禮，由劉校長及農業生物技術國 家重點實驗室（香港中文大學）主任辛世文教授，與農大代 表柯炳生教授、副校長孫其信教授、副校長張林逸教授， 農業生物技術國家重點實驗室主任李寧教授及校長助理 龔元石等一同主持。 P rof. Lawrence J. Lau (centre), Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, was appointed as honorary professor by China Agriculture University (CAU) in recognition of his achievements in the field of economics. The conferment ceremony was held in CAU on 11 March. Prof. Qu Zhenyuan (right), Party Secretary of CAU, and Prof. Ke Bingsheng (left), President of CAU, presented the appointment certificate to Prof. Lau. After the ceremony, Prof. Lau delivered a talk entitled ‘The Sky Is Not Falling’, analysing the global financial crisis and its impact on China. The lecture was a great success and was received by hundreds of CAU professors and students who arrived at the hall two hours before the lecture. The plaque unveiling ceremony of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK) at CAU was held on 12 March. Prof. Lau and Prof. Sun Sai- ming Samuel, director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK), together with CAU representatives including Prof. Ke Bingsheng, Prof. Sun Qixin, Vice President, Prof. Zhang Yilin, Vice President, Prof. Li Ning, director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, and Prof. Gong Yuanshi, assistant to President, officiated at the ceremony. Prof. Mathews travelled to a neighbourhood in Kolkata— where many temporary workers come from—with one of them, a friend. ‘These guys get about $3,000 a month, washing dishes 18 hours a day in Hong Kong. They’re greatly exploited. But back home, they’re stars. In Kolkata, this guy has a big shiny motorcycle. He’s married off his two sisters and 2,000 people came to each wedding. He is rebuilding his family home. Neighbourhood boys followed him around with admiring looks in their eyes,’ he observed. Prof. Mathews teaches a weekly class on current events to asylum seekers at Christian Action, a non-government organization located inside CKM. These are people— mostly Africans—who have fled their countries because of fear of political persecution. He brings copies of the International Herald Tribune to class and his students have long and vociferous discussions, saying things like, ‘My friend, there are five things wrong with your argument…’ He says of his students, ‘These guys are amazingly knowledgeable. But they often have fairly miserable lives because they can’t work here in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government pays them under $2,000 a month for rent and groceries. And they have a bad reputation here, because people think they come here to work. Some do but many don’t.’ Building Rapport Though he’s in it for research, it’s not all cold data collecting and analysis for Gordon Mathews. He’s friends with many of the people he deals with, and they trust him. For example, he’d be chatting with a journalist over a plate of lamb biryani in CKM, and the Pakistani operator would come up to him, gesturing that he’d like to have his finger pricked, because he knows that the professor, being diabetic, always carries a diabetic test kit with him. But it hasn’t always been this way. It’s taken Prof. Mathews a long time to build up trust with his friends at CKM. ‘I’m a diabetic and I take insulin injections several times a day. Several years ago, I had a very serious insulin reaction and an ambulance came. My Islamic friends all heard about it and assumed I was drunk. For them, if I was drunk, I must be a fake rather than a professor. So I had to go to them and carefully explain my medical situation; fortunately they believed me. These cultural misunderstandings are fascinating.’ Dilemmas Fascinating and challenging too, especially when a Cornell-educated anthropologist studies a population much poorer than himself. Do his own emotions take him down pathways he hadn’t expected? ‘I can’t forget that I’m much richer than many of the people I deal with. That’s very tough. I do give money to asylum seekers. I pay their rent on occasion, I do what I can to help out. But I realize there is this great injustice and there’s nothing I can ultimately do about it. On the other hand, if I’m constantly giving out money, that’s a problem too.’ Prof. Mathews’ personal experience of CKM is that it is generally home to ‘a very law-abiding population’. He’d like to see Hong Kong Chinese appreciate the building for what it is. And now that more than 200 closed-circuit televisions have been installed in elevators and over stairways, he believes it’s pretty safe. What about the Triads? ‘The Triads have never been able to go into CKM because they don’t speak English!’ 不過，事情並不盡如人意。Prof. Mathews花了不少時間才 與重慶大廈裏的朋友建立起互信。「我每天都要注射數次 胰島素。數年前，我曾因對胰島素的反應過強而要召救護 車。我的伊斯蘭教朋友知道後，都認定我是喝醉了。在他 們眼中，醉酒漢定是騙子，而不是教授。所以，我要向他們 詳細解釋病況，幸好他們最終亦相信我。這些文化差異引 起的誤會實在有趣。」 若即若隔 一位在美國康乃爾大學接受教育的人類學者，要研究一 個比他窮困得多的社群，會感到格外有趣，也特別艱巨。 Prof. Mathews本身的情緒可曾令他陷入意想不到的困 擾？「我比大部分我遇到的人都富有，這念頭總是揮之不 去，也很難受。我的確有給錢那些尋求庇護的人，有時也 會替他們付租金，盡我所能幫助他們。不過，我亦明白面 對極端的不公義，我是無能為力的。另方面，要是我長期 拿錢出來，也是一個問題。」 根據Prof. Mathews對重慶大廈的親身體會，這是一群大 體上「高度守法」的人的家。他希望香港的華人能認識這 幢大廈的真象。現在重慶大廈的升降機和梯間已裝設了二 百多部閉路監察電視，是挺安全的。那黑社會呢？「黑社會 分子從未曾涉足重慶大廈，因為他們不講英文！」 ( Continued ) （接上頁）