Research

Research Overview


Principles

In the Faculty of Arts we are committed to knowledge creation, academic freedom, intellectual openness, and individual scholarly responsibility.

Nature

All over the world, the best arts research is usually the work of individual scholars, sometimes of small teams. Single-authored publications are the norm. Our colleagues work on diverse topics ranging from Mozart and the Cultural Revolution to Hong Kong cinema and the anthropology of Japanese businesses. We are the most multidisciplinary faculty in the University. But we are also the most interdisciplinary. Our intellectual work is characterized by many common interests, shared principles and endeavours. We present it here as a whole.

Directions

In recent years the Faculty has taken advantage of HK's geographical position and developed strengths in China-West Studies and in Language and Communication. We now have a critical mass of expertise in these areas. We intend to use that expertise to serve the needs of students and community in Hong Kong and the region.

Every academic unit in the Faculty has some expertise to contribute to China-West Studies. These units are now coordinated to work in collaboration. We believe we are in a position to make a credible claim for world leadership in this important and fast-growing area.

Orientation

Scholars in the Faculty publish research work in many different areas, and on some topics that might be studied in Arts faculties anywhere in the world. But much of our intellectual activity has a distinctive modality deriving from our orientation to China and to the English language.

A good deal of what we do takes the form of comparative and cross-cultural studies. This may take the form of bringing Western scholarly traditions, practices and idioms to bear (and to be tested) on Chinese material. More specifically, we have for example published a great deal on Anglophone literature in and about Asia, on historical cultural and intellectual interactions in China, the Chinese global diaspora, Chinese writing abroad etc. This essentially dialogical perspective informs most of the humanities research we do, in philosophy, history, linguistics, fine arts, etc.

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