Knowledge Exchange

2008-10 University Artists

2008-10 University Artists

Vickiooi peter chan ann hui yao jue Dr Lung
Vicki Ooi   
Drama Educator
Peter Ho-sun Chan
Filmmaker
 
Ann Hui 
Filmmaker

Yao Jue 
Violinist

Lung Heung-wing
Percussionist
Vickiooi

Vicki Ooi
Drama Educator
Theatre Director


Vicki Ooi began teaching Theatre and English in the English Department of the University of Hong Kong in 1971 and retired after almost 30 years there. She was responsible for curriculum development in theatre studies at HKU and at SPACE. She supervised PhD students in drama and was also instrumental in founding the Drama Lab at HKU where many generations of Hong Kong directors and actors were nurtured.

A well-known theatre director in Hong Kong for over 20 years, Vicki was one of the earliest directors to introduce western plays in translation to the Hong Kong stage. She has directed many plays for her own company, Seals Players Foundation, as well as guest directing for theatre companies in and outside of Hong Kong, Her wide repertoire includes small original plays, large productions such as Shakespeare’s King Lear musicals and Brecht’s Happy End, and plays by Albee, Miller, Pinter, Tennessee Williams, and Stoppard, to name a few. Vicki’s theatre work has been recognized in the USA, the UK, Australia and Germany. She has won many theatre awards, served on the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and published widely on theatre and cultural policy research.

After retirement, Vicki has found a second vocation in teaching primary school students, working with them on multiple intelligences and creativity. She also teaches gifted children in the arts and humanities at Eduarts.

In 2003, Vicki established Shakespeare4All, a non-profit making educational organisation. Since then, she has directed its annual Gala productions, which have included Shakespeare’s Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Romeo & Juliet.

In 2006, Vicki directed Seals Players Foundation in the Cantonese version of Chekov’s Three Sisters, and then in 2008 Shakespeare’s Othello.

She writes Eduarts Shorts, a daily fiction column in Sing Tao newspaper, a leading publication in Hong Kong. A longer and more education-oriented version also appears in the Student Standard.


 

peter chan

Peter Ho-sun Chan
Filmmaker


Peter Ho-Sun Chan is an acclaimed film director who plays a preeminent role in global cinema. He was a co-founder of United Filmmakers Organization (UFO) in the early 1990s and of the production company Applause Pictures in 2000. His first film “Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye” (1991) was awarded Best Film of the Year by the Directors’ Guild of Hong Kong, as was “He’s a Woman, She’s a Man” (1994) for which Chan also won Best Director. “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” (1996) won a record nine Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) and was voted one of the Ten Best Movies of 1997 by “Time” magazine. Subsequently, Chan moved to Hollywood and directed “The Love Letter” (1999) for Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks SKG. His groundbreaking musical, “Perhaps, Love” (2005), was one of the year’s top-grossing films in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and was honored with a record twenty-nine awards, including Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards. “Warlords” (2008), swept the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards, winning eight prizes, most notably Best Film
                                                     and Best Director. His latest film “Wu Xia” premiered at the 64th annual Cannes Film Festival
                                                     in May 2011.




 

ann hui

Ann Hui 
Filmmaker


Ann Hui is an internationally renowned film director who occupies a paramount position in the history of Hong Kong cinema. She is an alumna of the Faculty of Arts, graduating in English and Comparative Literature. In her prolific film career from the late 1970s to the present, Ann Hui has written, directed, produced, and appeared in an impressive array of over 25 feature films, television drama series, and documentaries. A leading figure of Hong Kong’s New Wave cinema, Hui’s films exemplify contemporary inquiry into the complex experiences of modernity, expressing a strong sense of humanistic concern. Her films include The Secret (1979), Boat People (1982), Love in a Fallen City (1984), Song of the Exile (1990), Summer Snow (1995), Ordinary Heroes (1999), July Rhapsody (2002), the award-winning work The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (2007), The Way We Are (2008), Night and Fog (2009), as well as her latest film All About Love (2010).


 

yao jue

Yao Jue 
Violinist


The highlight of Yao Jue's many achievements was becoming the first Chinese musician ever to own a Stradivarius violin, dating back to 1713.

Born in Shanghai, China, virtuoso Yao Jue is the only violinist to be included in the 1995 book China's Famous Females, published by the International Women's Congress in Beijing. Her photo graces the cover with the caption “Jue Yao's playing shows that the Chinese have reached a world class level in music making.”

In 1982, she was awarded a full scholarship by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to continue her violin studies with Zaven Melikian. Later she graduated from the Juilliard School of New York where she studied under Dorothy DeLay.

Ms Yao founded the Yao Jue Music Academy and the Hong Kong Children's Chamber Orchestra in Hong Kong. She is also the first Chinese musician to be received by President Castro of Cuba. Ms Yao was awarded the Outstanding Violinist Rado Timeless Award in 2002. She also served on the International Jury Panel for the Montblanc Arts Patronage Award in 2003.

In November 2004, Ms Yao was declared one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong. Recently, she was invited by Opera Hong Kong to be their Artistic Advisor and was appointed by the Hong Kong Government to be a Member of the Arts Development Council. Ms Yao now holds a number of important seats on various committees and organizations and is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and one of the members of the Programme Committee of the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund. In 2005, Ms Yao achieved the status of being recognized as one of Hong Kong's Ten Most Successful Women and in 2008 was recognized by the Hong Kong Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association as one of The Outstanding Women Professional in Hong Kong.



 

Dr Lung

Lung Heung-wing
Percussionist


Lung Heung-wing received his Doctoral degree in Music from West Virginia University, his Master’s degree in Music from the University of Reading, and diplomas and licentiates from the Juilliard School and the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the UK.

Dr Lung was the Principal Percussionist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for 19 years, and has given performances on five continents. He was presented with the "1988 Outstanding Young Persons Award" by Commercial Radio Hong Kong, and the "1991 Instrumentalist of the Year" by the Hong Kong Artists Guild. He was selected as one of Hong Kong’s "Ten Most Outstanding Young Persons" by the Hong Kong Junior Chamber in 1999. In 2007, he was awarded the "Secretary for Home Affair’s Commendation" for his efforts in promoting the art of percussion music.

In 1997, Dr Lung formed the "Father and Son Percussion Duo" with his son Mark, and performed in Hong Kong, China, Italy, and Canada. In 2002 and 2007, he made musical arrangements for and conducted a congregation of over 10,000 performers playing percussion music in celebration of the 5th and 10th anniversaries of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The performances set two new records in the Guinness Book of Records.

In 2003, after thirty years as a performing artist and teacher, Dr Lung founded The Hong Kong Percussion Centre, the first of its kind in Hong Kong. Dr Lung often coaches students personally, bringing them to the highest standard, and a drumming group he created at the Centre has put on numerous performances in both Hong Kong and Guangzhou. He believes that the strong and powerful rhythm of percussion music can galvanize lethargic citizens, awakening them to an art form which he sees as a musical incarnation of the driving force of life.

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