Dr Esther M. K. Cheung, one of Hong Kong University’s most beloved teachers and scholars, passed away yesterday, 9th February, after a long illness.

Esther completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Hong Kong in 1981 and returned to HKU as a Faculty member in 1999. She chaired the Department of Comparative Literature, now in the School of Humanities, from 2003 to 2014. She was a leading figure in Hong Kong cultural studies, and was also a scholar of contemporary Chinese fiction and film, critiques of modernity and postmodernity, and visual and urban culture in the context of globalization. Esther was widely published as an author, editor and creative writer in English and Chinese. In 2011 she won a HKU Outstanding Teaching Award.

Esther will be fondly remembered by countless students and alumni of Comparative Literature, as well as by her colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and her many friends in the University and the community.

We send our deepest condolences to Esther’s family. Our thoughts are with them.

Douglas Kerr
Dean, Faculty of Arts