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News in BriefContentsHKU chosen to set uptwo more State Key LaboratoriesNEWS IN BRIEF1 HKU Chosen to Set up Two More State KeyLaboratories2 Upholding Research Integrity3 A Bald Move for Charity20 Families in Crisis22 From Killing to Curing24 Taking the Rap25 New Technology to Help Fight CrimeThe Ministry of Science and Technologyof the Central Government has givenapproval to HKU to establish a State KeyLaboratory (SKL) of Liver Diseases. A StateKey Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry willalso be established in collaboration with theChinese University of Hong Kong.The decision was made by the Ministry inrecognition of HKU’s excellence in researchin the two areas, citing its outstandingresearch team and advanced laboratoryfacilities. The move represents anothersignificant step in the collaboration betweenHong Kong and the Mainland in frontierresearch that will ultimately benefit thecountry’s technological advancement.HKU Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-CheeTsui expressed delight at the decision of theMinistry. He believes the setting up of the twoSKLs will provide good opportunities for HKUto further its academic and technologicalcollaboration with the Mainland.The two SKLs are the newest additions tothose already at the University, following theSKL of Brain and Cognitive Sciences andthe SKL of Emerging Infectious Diseasesestablished in 2005 at HKU, which were thenthe first and only SKLs in their respectivefields located outside of the Mainland.The HKU SKL of Liver Diseases will be ledby Professor Irene Ng Oi-lin, Loke YewProfessor in Pathology, Faculty of Medicine.It will partner with the SKL of Oncogenesand Related Genes of the Shanghai CancerInstitute, while operating independently.The SKL of Synthetic Chemistry will bedirected by the HKU Dr Hui Wai Haan Chairof Chemistry, Professor Che Chi-ming.Professor Henry N.C. Wong, Professorof Chemistry of the Chinese University ofHong Kong, will act as Deputy Director.The SKL will partner with the SKLof Organometallic Chemistry ofthe Shanghai Institute of OrganicChemistry.SKLs are regarded as keycomponents of China’s science andtechnology research system. Theyserve as hubs for top-level basic researchand applied basic research development,the assembling and nurturing of outstandingresearchers, and for scholarly exchangesthroughout the country.4 Outstanding HKU Members Named Modelsof HumanityTeaching AND LearningWriters Reveal their Secrets26 Launching the Common Core5 95 Years Young! CelebratingProfessor Jao Tsung-I’s Birthday at Dunhuang28 The Holy Grail of TeachingCOVER STORY6 The Brave New (and Old) World of Stem CellsPEOPLE30 Hong Kong: Centre of Trade –and History?10 Save Your Wisdom Teeth11 Helping Ailing Hearts to Beat32 Honours for First-in-the-FamilyEducation Fund12 Restoring Movement14 Stem Cells in CancerBOOKS15 Secrets of Ageing33 Celebrity in China34 The Religious Question in Modern ChinaRESEARCH16 In the Line of Fire – Chinese Peasants on theWestern Front18 Disasters and OpportunitiesARTS and CULTURE36 Adventures in PoetryProfessor Che Chi-mingProfessor Irene NgAugust 20101

News in BriefProfessor Lap-Chee TsuiA BALD MOVE FOR CHARITYUPHOLDING RESEARCH INTEGRITYAs one of the leading research institutionsin Asia and the world, HKU upholds thehighest standards of professional conductin research and is well in step with theglobal trend to encourage discussion andawareness of research integrity.Recently seminars were organized fornew and existing staff, and young andexperienced researchers, to reinforceawareness and ensure everyone is on thesame page when it comes to the responsibleconduct of research.The three seminars were tailored to differentdiscipline-based research cultures andattended by the Vice-Chancellor, DeputyVice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellors.Presentations covered such topics as theresponsible conduct of research, conflictsof interest, and ethical clearance for humanparticipants in research.“Through these seminars, we want to raiseawareness and let colleagues and thecommunity within and beyond HKU knowhow much value we place on researchintegrity and proper research conduct,”Professor Paul Tam, Pro-Vice-Chancellor forResearch, said.groups. Some of the issues raised includedpublication authorship, copyright, patents,data ownership, PhD theses, hiring andappointments, peer review, participantconsent, and the ethical review process.“The seminars provided an interdisciplinaryperspective. We learned what othersexperience and think and we could shareinformation, for example on research designand data collection,” Dr Anatoly Oleksiyenkoof the Faculty of Education said.They also were a good refresher course forexperienced hands. “We are already awareof the standards and good practice to follow,but seminars such as this are beneficial inreminding us, and they’re a good chanceto potentially improve what we are doing,”Dr Chan Kwok-ping of the Department ofComputer Science said.A fourth seminar is planned for later in theyear. In the meantime, participants wereintroduced to CITI – the CollaborativeInstitutional Training Institute, a worldwideonline training programme for humanparticipants and scientific research ethics.HKU is now a CITI member and moduleswill be adapted to suit the Hong Kongand Mainland China research context. Ourresearch students are required to undertakeCITI modules, and staff are encouraged toaccess the programme because it providesresearch integrity training and certificationrecognized by some US funding bodies.Professor Paul Tam Kwong-hang andProfessor Godfrey Chan Chi-fung each took abig gulp this spring and said goodbye to theirhair to promote a good cause and achieveempathy with young cancer patients.The two academics participated in ahead-shaving event to raise money forchildren’s cancer research, organized by theChildren’s Cancer Foundation (CCF) and theSt. Baldrick’s Foundation, an internationalgroup. Professor Tam’s wife, Amy Chum,who is a council member of the CCF, wasthe driving force behind the shave-in andalso went under the razor.Professor Tam, Pro-Vice-Chancellor ofResearch, paediatric surgeon and ChairProfessor in the Department of Surgery, saidthe event had value for him both personallyand as a teacher.“As a doctor, you always feel for yourpatients and this is a meaningful way torelate to them and show solidarity withthem. As a teacher, I would like to think ourstudents are inspired by this act and will dosomething even more worthwhile to helpsociety,” he said.The event was held before a packedaudience and raised some $1.3 million indonations on the day. Staff, students, friendsand members of the CCF and St. Baldrick’sall came to watch, along with a largecontingent of media.Some in the audience took turns shavingthe heads of the three volunteers, includingpaediatric patients. Professor Chan, from theDepartment of Paediatrics and AdolescentMedicine, was happy to let them have a go.“I said to them, I give you chemotherapy andI inflict pain and hair loss on you, now it’s yourchance to do it back to me,” he said, smiling.“I’m a paediatric oncologist and this eventis very much in my heart. Over the yearsI’ve seen a lot of children receive treatmentand lose their hair. Some doctors andadults may not realize that this has a majorpsychological impact on them.”The St. Baldrick’s event makes them sit upand notice. It was begun in 2000 in the USand has raised more than US$87 millionaround the world. This is the first time thehead-shaving event was held at a HongKong tertiary institution.The Dean of Medicine, Professor Lee Sumping,said he was deeply inspired by theactions of Professor Tam, Professor Chanand Ms Chum.“This is a true expression of one’s generosityand selflessness and love and concernfor people who are less lucky than us. Itinvolves not only these three who are beingshaved, but those who have so generouslygiven support.“The important thing is to raise theawareness of the public and for those ofus in healthcare to focus on our childrenand their well-being. I hope this meaningfulaction will serve as a reminder to us all aboutthe kinder side of human nature.”Participants were encouraged to sharetheir experiences and views, and casestudies were discussed in break-offFrom left: Professor Godfrey Chan,Ms Amy Chum and Professor Paul Tam.2 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 3

News in BriefOutstanding HKU MEMBERS NAMED MODELS of HumanityHKU alumni Dr Margaret Chung Wailing(BSc 1980; PhD 1987), Dr Albert KoWing-yin (MPhil 2004; PhD 2006) and DrPoon Tak-lun (MBBS 1982) have beenchosen to receive this year’s Hong KongHumanity Awards, for their exceptional spiritof humanity, community involvement andvolunteerism.The Hong Kong Humanity Award,co-organized by the Hong Kong Red Crossand Radio Television Hong Kong, is the firstof its kind in Hong Kong and was launched in2007. It honours those live up to and put intopractice the spirit of humanity. The awardeesstand as examples of how individuals canspread the spirit of humanity by caring aboutothers through volunteer work.Three of the five award winners are HKUalumni. Dr Margaret Chung suffered fromSystemic Lupus Erythematosus, buthas kept on influencing other patientsWRITERS REVEAL THEIR SECRETS‘Who’ trumped all other questions at apublic forum titled ‘How and What and WhyDo Writers Write?’ held as part of the Facultyof Arts’ Summer Institute in July.Three renowned writers gave answers thatsaid at least as much about themselves asabout writing. On why they write, FrederickForsyth, the blunt and practical author bestknown for thrillers like The Day of the Jackal,said money was the motivator. AndrewRoberts, who writes acclaimed books onmilitary history, said writing should be aboutanything but money – inspiration, avoidingboredom, and learning were all betterreasons, but the quality had better be good.with her positive attitude. Dr Albert Kois a mechanical engineer who activelyparticipates in disaster relief projects andfacilitates emergency engineering activities,and is currently also a Senior StudentAdvisor at HKU. Dr Poon Tak-lun has beenparticipating in medical relief missions andproviding clinical and surgical services forover three decades.From left: Mr Stephen Fry, Mr Frederick Forsyth, Sir David Tang and Mr Andrew Roberts.Dr Albert Ko (left), Dr Poon Tak-lun and Dr Margaret Chung.Stephen Fry, raconteur, actor and writer ofa diverse range of texts for television, film,radio and books, skirted around the questionaltogether. “Anybody can write if they speak.It’s just very odd having pegged writing asan incredibly separate and incredibly differentengagement or pursuit as that of every-dayconversation,” he said, although he spokerepeatedly of the hard work involved in writing.The three authors appeared with acerbicmoderator Sir David Tang before a full houseof about 1,000 people at Loke Yew Hall, wherethey offered similarly revealing responses toaudience questions over two hours.On social media, for instance, Mr Fry wasWhether in Hong Kong, mainland China orother places around the world, the awardeeshave shown their dedication to helpingthose in need, and have tried to prevent andalleviate human suffering, regardless of thebackground and social status of those theyare helping. Their work shows the public thatone can truly live a life of humanitarian servicebased on a belief in ‘the spirit of humanity’.excited about its potential and Mr Robertsabout the impact on English-languageuse, while Mr Forsyth said he still used atypewriter. On autobiographies, Mr Fry hascompleted two and did not rule out more,Mr Roberts plans to release his diaries whenhe is 60, while Mr Forsyth, who has spent acolourful life in the company of spies, armsdealers and renegades, refuses to write one.When asked if great skill was necessaryto become a great writer, Mr Fry and MrRoberts both said skill and hard work werepart of the equation. Mr Forsyth, referring tohimself, said, “Obviously no is the answer,”but he admitted that he did “look at thosewho are [great writers] and say, wow.”95 years young!Celebrating Professor Jao Tsung-I’s birthday at DunhuangOver 500 celebrities from the Mainland,Hong Kong and overseas gathered atDunhuang, Gansu Province, to celebrate the95th birthday of renowned contemporarysinologist and world-acclaimed artistProfessor Jao Tsung-I.A banquet was held at the scenic MogaoGrottoes in southeast Dunhuang. Thefrescoes in the caves, painted from the fifththrough the 13th centuries, feature someof the finest examples of Buddhist art.Professor Jao started his Dunhuang studiesin the early 1950s. Inspired by Dunhuangart, he later created his own style of paintingand calligraphy.At Dunhuang, HKU Vice-ChancellorProfessor Lap-Chee Tsui said: “We arehere today not only to celebrate the birthof a great scholar, but also to expressour heartfelt gratitude to his significantcontributions in enriching Chinese culture.”Professor Tsui also thanked Professor Jaofor teaching at the Chinese Department ofthe University in the 1950s and 60s. In 2003,the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole was establishedat HKU. Professor Jao generously donatedmany of his valuable books, paintings,calligraphy and ceramics to the PetiteEcole, and the collection now contains30,000 items.Professor Jao in turn thanked his guests,many of whom had travelled from abroadto see him. He wanted in particular tothank those who had made donations inhis name for the protection of Dunhuang’scultural relics, and called for thecontinued protection and preservationof Dunhuang art.Professor Jao has spent more than70 years in academic researchand artistic creation. He has beenProfessor Jao Tsung-I (right) and Ms Fan Jinshi,Director of the Dunhuang Academy.widely acknowledged as an historian,sinologist, archaeologist, translator,painter and calligrapher. He is also a highlyregarded poet and an expert on Chinesemusical instruments.4 The University of Hong Kong BulletinAugust 2010 5

Cover StoryTHE BRAVE NEW(AND OLD)world ofstem cellsThe University is stepping up its profilein a field that promises to revolutionizemedical care.Professor Ronald LiStem cell research has a futuristic aura to it,a promise of the incurable being cured andbad health being relegated to the past. Itexcites scientists and the public, and at HKUacademics are galvanising their expertise totap into this rapidly evolving field.The University’s Li Ka Shing Faculty ofMedicine recently established the Stem Celland Regenerative Medicine Consortium(SCRMC) on the back of a new donationand several years’ experience with stemcells. The Faculty of Engineering and theFaculty of Dentistry are also applying theirown expertise to investigate stem cells andtheir applications.“The stem cell field is going to change howmedicine is being practiced,” says Ronald Li,who was appointed Professor of Stem Celland Regenerative Medicine and Director ofSCRMC earlier this year and has a strongtrack record in stem cell research in the US.“I’m optimistic that in the lifetime of thecurrent generation, we will see therapies forsome diseases that are currently incurable.We’re making rapid progress, but no singleinstitution can do it alone, not even onesingle country. There is room for everyuniversity to develop its own niche.”HKU has started carving out its cornerin such areas as cardiac regeneration,colorectal cancer stem cell research, andother areas, some examples of which areon these pages. The University has alsodeveloped support systems for stem cellresearch by providing training programmesfor researchers and investing in tailoredresearch facilities, from the laboratory to theclinical setting.“The time is now to have this consortium,”Professor Li says. “I really think there is a lotthat we can potentially discover. We haveexpertise, we just have to find a way to injecta stem cell component into many of ourexisting directions.”What are stem cells?That injection is admittedly a tricky one.Stem cells are a collective term and thereare billions of them. Indeed, scientists arejust beginning to better understand thedefinition of ‘stemness’. Only two types,human embryonic stem cells (hESCs),isolated from embryos that are a fewdays old, and induced pluripotent stemcells (iPSCs), derived from adult somatic(i.e. the body) cells by a process called“reprogramming”, have the potential todevelop into any cell type. Scientists want tomanipulate that potential to develop cell linesthat can repair or replace damaged bodyparts and fight disease.However, there are many hurdles toovercome. For one, it is not easy to find thesuitable stem cell types among the manybillion others. Some of these cells also havemore potency to develop a certain way thanothers, and extensive tests and experimentsare needed to induce, or differentiate,them into a desired new type of cell. Theirgrowth also needs to be controlled becauseotherwise they may form tumours. Andnumerous tests and studies are needed tosee if they behave the same way in a test tubeas they do in animals and eventually humans.HKU scientists are tackling many of theseproblems. And while their studies onmice or larger animals are starting to offerhopeful results, Professor Li supports acautious approach, of taking time to doextra tests on animals. He cites the exampleof an overseas study where stem cellswere transplanted into cardiac patients.23 pairs of chromosomes of the pluripotent humanstem cell colony shown after culturing for ~3 years.The sex chromosomes (XY) show that the cell line hasa male origin.6 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 20107

Cover StorySome of the survivors showed significantimprovement, but others experiencedgreater arrhythmia and died.“This is not about saying, what doesn’t killyou makes you stronger. We want to avoidthat. Before we think of clinical efficacy, let’smake sure that what we’re developing issafe,” he says.Having said that, there is good reason foroptimism. Stem cell research has actuallybeen around for about 50 years, and bonemarrow transplants, which resulted fromearly research, have been helping patientsfor three decades. HKU haematologistsconducted Hong Kong’s first bone marrowtransplants in 1990.The stem cell field really shot to prominence,though, in 1998 with the discovery of thefirst hESCs, followed by iPSCs in 2007.Professor Li cites a comparison of stemcell research to the state of electronics inthe 1960s to suggest how quickly and howfar things could advance. But given thesensitive nature of the source of stem cells,the way may not be all smooth sailing.Ethical considerationsStem cells entail ethical considerations thatcame under the spotlight under former USPresident George W. Bush. hESCs werediscovered in the US and subsequentlysourced from the unused embryos ofin vitro fertility treatments, which wouldotherwise be destroyed. Nonetheless, thepro-life movement objected that usinghESCs in research violated the sanctity oflife, and Bush banned federal funding forall forms of hESC research other than linesderived before 9:00pm EDT on August 9,2001. This ban was lifted by US PresidentBarack Obama.Professor Li says HKU is mindful ofthe concerns and sources hESCs fromrecognized laboratories in the US andSingapore. Hong Kong allows unusedembryos from fertility treatments to be usedin stem cell research, although the relatedlaw, the Human Reproductive TechnologyOrdinance, is concerned mostly withreproduction. Dr Athena Liu of the Facultyof Law helped to draft the ordinance, whichwas enacted in 2000 when hESC use was inits infancy.The law and its code of practice addresssome of the key ethical points, such assecuring donor consent and prohibitingdonors from profiting so they will not createembryos specifically for research. Still, thereare lingering issues that apply to donors ofboth embryonic stem cells and adult stemcells, she says.“How is informed consent possible if thedonor has no idea how it will be used?” sheasks. “There is also the issue of whether thedonor of adult stem cells should have theright to participate in some of the windfall,although since the law says you can’t profitfrom embryonic research, I don’t see why itshould be different for other stem cells.“The thing is, science is always racing aheadand the law is trying to keep up desperately.”That situation is behind efforts by the Facultyof Medicine to draft standard operatingand guidelines for clinical trials with stemcells. Professor Li says he would also liketo see the Hong Kong government getmore actively involved in the field. He pointsout that while HKU is making advances instem cell research, government interest andcommitment lags behind other places.Government investmentis needed“The challenge is to keep our researchprogramme sustainable. I haven’t seena single successful stem cell researchcentre that hasn’t been backed by theirgovernment. These include Harvard, JohnsHopkins, University of Wisconsin (wherehuman ESCs were first isolated) and othersin Europe, Japan and Singapore,” he says.Government support accords attention andpriority – and most importantly, funding.While stem cell research at HKU has had agood start, with funding from the Universityand donors and international experts linedup to assess projects and collaboratewith researchers, this is not sufficient onits own to carry things forward, ProfessorLi says. A specially-earmarked fundingcommitment is needed to support stem cellresearch across Hong Kong.“You might argue there are already existingfunds for medical research, why haveanother? The reason is that stem cellresearch is a new field and it is very difficultto compete with existing fields that havea lot more mature findings to report. It’sa young field and still in its infancy, and itneeds room and resources to grow. Thisis usually the case with major scientificadvances. That’s why different countries andgovernments are coming up with initiativesto support it,” he says.Like the stem cells themselves, the HKUresearchers hope that Hong Kong, too, willreceive enough government stimulation andsupport so they can differentiate themselvesand become an international hub foracademic stem cell research.Real-time imaging of the chromosome of anactively dividing human pluripotent stem cell.Examination of over 35,000 human genes expressedin human pluripotent stem cells.Human embryoid bodies (roundedstructures) that contain ALL cell typesof the body, including even the mostspecialized ones such as brain, heart,pancreatic, liver, blood cells, etc. Thesespecialized cells can serve as the‘building blocks’ for curing untreatablediseases. Our scientists have geneticallyengineered them to express the socalledgreen fluorescent protein fortracking their origin as donors aftertransplantation.Human pluripotent stem cell-derived ‘cardiacpacemaker’ (green), transplanted to recipient heartmuscle cells, can potentially replace conventionalelectronic pacemakers for treating certain heartrhythm disturbances (i.e. arrhythmias).Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived heart musclecells, stained green for the cardiac-restricted proteintropomyosin, before (A) and after (B) engineering witha ‘microgroove’ technology. The latter display a moreorganized structure and better resemble what areseen in the adult heart. Scale bars = 10 μm8 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 9

Cover StoryThe new medical possibilities promised bystem cells are flagged with two importantconsiderations: where should the stem cellscome from, and what is the most efficientway to put them to work in patients? TheFaculty of Dentistry may have some answers.Researchers there are extracting stem cellsfrom teeth to grow jawbone, which couldeventually help patients whose healing iscompromised by radiation therapy, diabetesor heavy smoking.They are also collaborating with theUniversity of Freiburg in Germany to developone-step dental stem cell transplantation,which would reduce contamination risks bydoing all the extraction and transplantationin the operating theatre.Professor Herman Cheung (left) and Professor Cheung Lim-kwong.“Every person has baby teeth and permanentteeth and sometimes young patients needto extract their wisdom teeth or other teeth,”says Cheung Lim-kwong, Chair Professorof Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. “It’s morecomfortable for patients to get stem cellsfrom their teeth than from bone marrow.”The stem cells come from inside the pulpof the tooth and in the membrane of theligament around the teeth. Although thevolume of dental stem cells is not as great asthat from bone marrow, the researchers haveshown that they are at least as effective.They manipulated dental stem cells togrow into jawbone and transplanted theminto rabbits with jawbone defects. Theresult was a regeneration of bone, offeringSAVE YOURwisdomteethThe Faculty of Dentistry istesting teeth as a source ofstem cells and investigatinga faster, more efficient wayto transplant these cells.hope to those who are disfigured due tojawbone loss.The researchers are also keen to explorethe possibilities of one-step stem celltransplantation. Everything from stemcell extraction to stem cell differentiationinto the desired type of bone or tissue totransplantation into the patient, is donewithin the operating theatre.“The University of Freiburg started doingthis three years ago and we’re collaboratingwith them and getting advice. We’re tryingto learn from them and build on theirfindings. We want to do a basic scienceapproach to confirm it’s working so we’vestarted some animal studies with this,”Professor Cheung said.A further boost to the Faculty’s stem cellresearch is coming from Visiting ResearchProfessor Herman Cheung from theUniversity of Miami, who has successfullytested dental stem cells in cardiac repair.Professor Cheung visits the Faculty thissummer and will return several times overthe next couple of years to collaborate withour researchers.HELPING AILINGhearts to beatOur researchers have been at the forefront in usingstem cells to repair sick and damaged hearts.Stem cell therapies are old hat to ProfessorTse Hung-fat, William M.W. Mong Professorin Cardiology of the Department of Medicine.He led a team that conducted the firsthuman trial of bone marrow stem cells totreat patients with severe coronary heartdisease in 2001, and has been focused eversince on finding the best stem cell therapiesfor patients.“Despite advances in medical and surgicaltherapies, a large number of patients withcardiovascular disease remain severelysymptomatic and have poor clinicaloutcomes,” he says. “Regenerativemedicines are going to play an ever moreprominent role in these cases, but wedo have some significant challenges toovercome first.”The bone marrow trial showed that stem celltherapy could be effective in patients whootherwise had irreversible damage to theirhearts. The cells were injected into the heartthrough a catheter and more than half of thepatients showed clinical improvement, suchas better cardiac function and enhanceddevelopment of new blood vessels. Thetreatment was also shown to be safe. Initialtrials involved 36 patients in total and alarger-scale study is now underway withabout 100 patients.However, bone marrow-derived stem cellsare not a perfect solution because theyare limited in their ability to generate newcells in the heart muscle. This is whererecent developments in stem cell researchshow promise.Professor Tse and his team havedemonstrated in laboratory testing thatinduced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) –derived from adult cells – could moreeffectively develop into cardiac cells thanbone marrow stem cells. Tests haveProfessor Tse Hung-fatsupported this using small animals andthe scientists are now investigating theresponse in pigs.“We want to make sure it works and thatwe don’t get any harmful effects before wemove to human trials,” he says. “It’s stilla long road and also expensive, becauseevery patient would have to generate theirown iPSCs” to avoid problems of rejection.But the researchers are also looking into analternative stem cell source that could beapplied to all patients and would not have arejection risk.Another stream of research has used stemcell and gene therapies to develop abioartificial pacemaker. This involves injectingcells into the heart, rather than implanting anelectronic pacemaker as is done at present.Tests on pigs with arrhythmia have so farshown good results and the scientists aremonitoring them to see if the bioartificialpacemaker can work well over the long term.Professor Tse says HKU is unique in enablingits scientists to follow through their researchfrom laboratory bench to hospital bedside.“A lot of other institutions around the worldhave good people doing basic research andgood people doing clinical research, but thetwo aren’t linked as such. We’ve streamlinedthe whole process so we can actually gothrough from basic research to human trial,”he says.That capability has been supported bythe University’s investments in stem cellresearch, including a $10 million allocationfor the cardiac repair programme andfunding for core facilities that enableresearch on human stem cells.10 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 11

Cover StoryRestoring MovementThe loss of movement is a frightful prospect, especially when there is scarce hope ofrecovery. Here, too, stem cell research offers much promise. Two lines of research at theUniversity are exploring how to restore mobility, one focusing on the mechanics of rebuildingdamaged tissue such as cartilage, the other on regenerating damaged nerves.Turning StemCells IntoschwanncellsDamage to the neurons, or nerves, thatcarry signals to and from the brain can leadto the loss of sensation and paralysis. Whilethe nerves can self-repair from minor injury,the ability to restore this signal-carryingability after major damage has thus fareluded scientists.Professor Chan Ying-shing of Physiologyand Professor Daisy Shum of Biochemistryare among those who think stem cells mayhold the answer to this problem. They areinvestigating neural regeneration in injuredperipheral nerves and the spinal cord, andhave had encouraging early results.Their focus is Schwann cells, the principalsupport cells in peripheral nerves. Schwanncells form insulating sheaths around theaxons along which nerve signals areconducted. Earlier experiments have shownthat transplanting Scwhann cells into theinjured spinal cords of rats could clear upthe debris caused by injury and make aroute for nerve fibres to grow and transmitnew signals. The problem is, sourcingScwhann cells has meant harvesting themfrom healthy peripheral nerves, causing newdamage there.Professor Chan and Professor Shumhave managed to address this problemby deriving Schwann cells from stem cellsand using them to bridge nerve defects inexperimental animals.They sourced the stem, or progenitor,cells from bone marrow and differentiatedthem into ‘fate-committed’ Schwann cells,meaning they will remain as Schwann cellsand not undergo further change. They thentransplanted the stem cell-derived Schwanncells into injured animals and looked forevidence that the axons were re-growingand associating with the Schwann cells. Ifthis does not happen, the axons die and theanimal may lose digits and have a contractedpaw on the affected limb. In Professor Chanand Professor Shum’s experiments, though,the Schwann cells did indeed bridge the gapin the injured nerve sites, resulting in a betterrecovery of nerve function for the animals.“There was a great improvement,” ProfessorChan says. “The transplantation helped toimprove their gait, which would otherwise bevery distorted.”A key question is whether this approach canbe used in humans. There is still some wayProfessor Daisy Shum and Professor Chan Ying-shing.to go in this, but the two professors havemade important progress.For one thing, they solved the problem ofstem cell differentiation by ensuring thestem cells were irreversibly ‘committed’to becoming Schwann cells. If the cellswere transplanted before they were fatecommitted,they could develop into a tumour.Understanding the signalling process alsomeans the professors and their team canstart to address the crucial issue of timing.It takes about six weeks to direct thedifferentiation of stem cells into Schwanncells, which may be too long to repair theeffects of some injuries. They are nowtrying to find a more expeditious way ofdifferentiating stem cells, and they arethinking long-term about how to apply theirfindings to humans.“We have to test if the human equivalentcan be similarly directed to differentiate intoSchwann cells,” Professor Shum says. “Ifso, the derived Schwann cells will be testedfirst in animal models of nerve injury. If thatworks, then there is hope that we will beable to use the injured person’s own bonemarrow cells to derive Schwann cells fortransplantation therapy. That’s our goal.”Dr Barbara Chan, Associate Professorof Mechanical Engineering and her teamare developing stem cells into tissues fortransplant, such as cartilage, bone and intervertebraldiscs. They wrap the stem cells intiny collagen micro-spheres, which providea structure for the cells to develop in, andsubject them to biological and mechanicalsignals to encourage them to differentiate, orgrow, into the desired cell type.“Stem cells are naïve cells,” she says. “Theydon’t perform any specialized function.You have to give them the appropriate‘educational programme’ so they can beinduced to differentiate into a particularfunctioning cell, such as a cartilage cell.”The ‘programme’ in this case involvesintroducing growth factors into the threedimensionalmicro-sphere environment andsubjecting it to mechanical loading througha bioreactor. The bioreactor is a specializedequipment that uses physical forces suchas tension, torsion and compression totrain stem cells to differentiate into tendons,ligaments or inter-vertebral disc cells.In the example of cartilage cells, Dr Chanand her team were able to show that thestem cells entrapped in the microsphereunderwent biological changes anddeveloped the function, shape and structureof cartilage cells. The cartilage cellsdeposited new matrices in the microspheres,leading to significant mechanical changessuch as increased stiffness, so that theycame to resemble native cartilage tissue.Dr Barbara Chan and a bioreactor.To test whether the cartilage-like tissue helpedin cartilage repair, the scientists transplantedthousands of the tiny microspheres intocartilage defects in rabbits, to make up onemass of tissue. While the study is not yetcomplete, the rabbits receiving the transplantshave shown encouraging signs of repairto their cartilage, bone and the interfacein between, unlike those left to self-heal.The stem cells had come from the rabbitsthemselves so there is no chance of rejection.An EngineeringsolutionApplying engineering principlesto medical problems has led tobioengineering, a field that is playinga central role in stem cell research.Dr Chan is now trying to secure fundingto continue her studies with larger animalson the way to hopefully developing anapplication for humans.“Our ultimate goal is to understand allthe factors that can influence stem celldifferentiation,” she says.12 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 13

Cover StorySTEM CELLSin cancerA breakthrough study shedslight on the spread andrecurrence of cancer.Dr Roberta PangSECRETS OFageingHKU researchers are the first to identifycancer stem cells that are responsible formetastasis – the spread of cancer to otherparts of the body.Their work focuses on colorectal cancer,the second most common cancer in theworld and in Hong Kong. More than 50per cent of patients develop metastasiseven after adequate surgical removal of theprimary tumour, and aggressive treatmentof the metastasis usually fails: fewer than10 per cent of patients with metastasis ofcolorectal cancer survive for more than fiveyears. Researchers from the Departmentsof Medicine and Surgery have shownthat cancer cells endowed with stem cellproperties are the likely cause.‘Cancer stem cells’ are like all other stemcells in that they can produce further cellslike themselves (self-renewal) and alsodifferentiate to provide more mature celltypes. They are largely dormant and divideinfrequently within the tumour, while themature cells usually divide rapidly and makeup most of the tumour bulk.“What happens with current therapies suchas chemotherapy and radiotherapy is thatthey target and kill all the rapidly dividingcells, leaving behind the cancer stem cells,”says Dr Roberta Pang, Research AssistantProfessor of Medicine.“Moreover, these cancer stem cells cannotbe killed because like other stem cells, theyare equipped with an intrinsic detoxifyingcapacity. Cancer stem cells that have notbeen eradicated can lead to a recurrenceof the cancer because they are able toreplenish the tumour mass through selfrenewaland differentiation.“The re-established tumours are moreenriched by cancer stem cells and becomemore resistant to conventional therapies,which accounts for the more aggressive andresistant nature of recurrent tumours.”This pattern parallels what’s often seenin clinical settings. “When patients aretreated with chemotherapy, you mayobserve tumour shrinkage initially and thedisease will seem to resolve. However, in asubstantial number of patients, recurrenceor a distant metastasis will then developand the recurrent tumour usually becomesmuch more aggressive and resistant toconventional chemotherapeutic agents. Webelieve the reason for this recurrence andmetastasis is the failure to effectively targetthe cancer stem cells,” Dr Pang says.Alarming as that may sound to patients, theresearch offers hope of detecting the risk ofmetastasis at an early stage.A new marker was found that detectscancer stem cells in the blood even whenCHEMOTHERAPYLEADS TOREDUCTION INTUMOUR SIZE, BUTENRICHMENT OFCD26+ POPULATIONthe disease is at an early stage, whichcan accurately predict the likelihood ofmetastasis. (Current monitoring consists ofa blood test that is not accurate in detectingcancer recurrence and cannot detectmetastasis.) This will alert doctors to beextra vigilant in monitoring.“Patient compliance is also an issue. Somepatients may attend follow-up for only oneor two years and think the disease is cured.So it’s important to have a marker thatcan accurately predict their likelihood ofmetastasis,” Dr Pang says.The HKU team has begun testing differentmolecular targeting drugs that canspecifically target these cancer stem cells,and is conducting similar studies of cancerstem cells in gastric and liver cancer.The findings on colorectal cancer werefeatured on the cover of the June issue ofCell Stem Cell, the leading publication onstem cell research.Stem cells are the origins of all the thingsthat bring us to life – our organs, bones,skin, hair and other features. They may alsohold clues to ageing.Zhou Zhongjun, Associate Professor ofBiochemistry, has shown that stem cellnumbers decline rapidly in mice withprogeria, an accelerated ageing disease,unlike normal mice. Moreover, he identifiedoxidative stress as the cause for this andused that knowledge to extend the lifespans of the mutant mice by rescuing theirstem cells.“We can’t say for sure that stem cells arethe reason for ageing, but they definitelyhave an important role to play in the processbecause when you rescue stem cells, youcan rescue or extend the life span of theanimals,” he says.Mutant and normal mice have almost thesame number of stem cells at birth butthis quickly declines in the mutant miceafter a few weeks. Dr Zhou and his teamfound that left untreated, half of the mutantmice they tested died within 20 weeks.However, those treated with anti-oxidantssuch as resveratrol – a constituent of redwine, among other things – lived to 28 or 29weeks. In addition, the bone density of thetreated mice was much greater so they hadless osteoporosis, which is related to ageing.The best results occurred when the micewere treated at one to two months old,but improvements were also achieved inolder mice.Unfortunately, that result does not yetextend to somatic cells – the cells that havedifferentiated from stem cells into organs,tissues and other body parts. It may also bedifficult to test the results in humans.“Our results give an impression of therelationship between stem cell declineand ageing. So far there is little evidenceto show a direct link because technicallythis is difficult to achieve unless you couldphysically eliminate stem cells after buildingup tissues,” Dr Zhou says.“One could imagine, though, that becausestem cells are an important resource forreplenishment of all these somatic cells inour tissues, that there is some correlationbetween stem cells and ageing. Whether it’sa consequence or cause of ageing is hardto say.Premature ageing may be linked tostem cell decline. One researcherhas shown it can be halted.“This area of study could have practicalapplications in future to improve the healthstandards of ageing populations and findways for them to live longer and healthier.If we could improve osteoporosis undernormal circumstances, it would mean peoplesuffer few fractures. So the results from theanimal experiments should hopefully applyto human situations in future.”14 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 15

Research“But, on the other hand, the people wholived in the city didn’t embrace whatplanners had put forward. They foughtagainst a total makeover of ‘their city’.The average landowner didn’t want to giveup 20 to 30 per cent of his land to widenstreets, build community centres, socialinfrastructure projects, or add green spaceto the capital. This was particularly truebecause so many landholders had lost somuch and insurance failed to cover damagecaused by earthquakes. People wanted toreturn to their normal lives, they didn’t wantto sacrifice and then wait ten years for a citythat would be totally foreign to them.”Disasters andopportunitiesThe response to the Great Kantoearthquake of 1923 is a recurringtheme throughout history.Acts of God, or revealers exposing socialproblems real or imagined, natural disastershave been interpreted and explored invarious ways throughout history. Frequently,they have provided fertile ground for religiouszealots, politicians and social commentatorsintent on peddling their individual ideologies.The Great Kanto Earthquake that reducedTokyo to a smouldering wreck in September1923, leaving more than 110,000 dead, wasno exception.“It caused people to think about the stateof the nation and on the nature of the city inprofound ways. It was modern Japan’s firstnational trauma. People compared it to theFirst World War in Europe,” says CharlesSchencking, Associate Professor andChairperson of the Department of History.“It was described as Tokyo’s baptism byfire and Japan’s unprecedented nationaltragedy.” It compelled people to reflect onall aspects of life – religion, science, politics,urban planning, death and mourning.Sin citiesIn looking at major natural disasters aroundthe world, the reaction – an act of Godbrought on by a society’s love of luxury,materialism, decadence, and hedonism – isnot unusual. After Katrina hit Louisiana in2005, people claimed that New Orleans wasa sinful city replete with gambling, socialdegeneracy, crime, and debauchery. Selectcommentators suggested that Katrina wasan act of divine intervention, brought aboutby a desire to clean up the city.“In terms of New Orleans those voicesemanated from the margins and weredistinctly religious, but in Tokyo in 1923they came from individuals across thespectrum,” says Dr Schencking, who is inthe final stages of completing a book entitledJapan’s Earthquake Calamity.“In Japan, people without strong religiousconvictions argued that society had becometoo materialistic, too hedonistic, too luxuryminded following the First World War.” Morethan a few commentators claimed thatthe people had brought the calamity uponthemselves through their decadent, selfish,and spendthrift practices. Elites used theearthquake to admonish the people andto compel them to become more frugal,serious, diligent, and sincere.Over the long run, it didn’t change peoples’behaviours much. The consumption of itemsdeemed luxuries by the government fell in1925 due in large part to the introduction of asteep tariff (up to 1,000% in some cases) onitems such as jewellery, perfume, cosmetics,cameras, and phonographic records. Butby 1927, people were buying more luxuriesthan ever before, even with the tariffs. Ifpeople can afford luxuries they will buy themdespite government proscriptions.”Earthquake nationJapan is often referred to as the ‘earthquakenation’ as it experiences 20 per cent of theworld’s earthquakes of 6.0 magnitude andover each year. But the 7.9 magnitude GreatKanto Earthquake resulted in unprecedenteddeath and destruction. Most of this wascaused by firestorms that broke out acrossthe city.One response was to try and turn a tragedyinto an opportunity by constructing amodern, disaster resistant city from theashes. Almost immediately, however,plans for a grandiose reconstruction werechallenged. Rather than bonding thefragments of Tokyo, reconstruction plansopened new fissures throughout the cityand within the political establishment:with opportunity came contestation.“When people developed large, expensiveplans, many financial commentatorsclaimed the nation could not afford such areconstruction. Some suggested, in fact,that developing a great new city wouldultimately be futile as it would only bedestroyed again by a future calamity: Tokyohad been devastated by earthquakes andfire before in 1855 and 1703.”Shelving the grand plansFor all intents and purposes, the grand planswere shelved and the city was rebuilt alongprevious lines. “Although a few structuressuch as schools, hospitals, and bridgesbecame showcases of modernity, mostof what was included in the grand plansnever materialized.”“There is logic to the idea of an easilyreplaceable city and rebuilding the cityas it stood prior to the disaster, but I’mof two minds about whether the failure ofthe grandiose reconstruction dreams werea good thing or a shame. Looking at itfrom the perspective of 80 years I think ifthe grand reconstruction plans had beenfollowed, Tokyo would have looked and feltvery modern, impressive, and in a sense,awe inspiring. In a way, I really feel for the bigdreamers who were left disillusioned.”Dr Schencking credits this project withmaking him a different historian. “WhenI began this book, I focused on thereconstruction of Tokyo from a political andurban planning perspective. As I delved intothe archives, I realized that this calamitycut across science, religion, economics,trauma, commemoration, and memory. Itwas a totalizing event for interwar Japan andits people. I started this book as a politicaland institutional historian but as I read moreand more survivor accounts, I really foundmyself focusing on the human side of thiscalamity and what it, and the subsequentreconstruction meant for average Tokyoites.As I drew myself into the human side Irealized I had to bring out the stories ofordinary people. It is a history from the topdown and the bottom up.Dr Charles Schencking18 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 19

ResearchFamilies in CrisisSuicide, abuse, delinquency and other problems plague Hong Kong families, but oftenget scant attention or are misunderstood. Two HKU studies shed light on family-relatedproblems. One identifies a simple way to reduce suicides that is still not being adoptedacross Hong Kong. The other reflects on media coverage of families in Hong Kong thatoften dwells on conflict and violence but may be missing the bigger picture.“It’s not to say every case of spousalor elderly abuse is newsworthy, but it isindicative that public recognition of theseproblems appears to be quite low,” he said.“If you don’t talk about the issues, the largersocietal problems often get buried. Whatgood journalism and good news organizationscan do is select issues and find ways topromote discussion about them.”controlCHARCOAL SALES ANDsave livesSuicide by charcoal burning is the majorreason for fluctuations in Hong Kong’ssuicide rate and the leading cause ofsuicide in Taiwan. It needn’t be so,according to a HKU study.A SAD STORYto tellMedia coverage offamilies in Hong Kongdwells, unsurprisingly,on conflict and violence.But it may be missingthe bigger picture,a study finds.Many families in Hong Kong live withfinancial pressures, lack of space and a hostof other social problems. But when theseproblems explode into conflict and violence,it’s the act, not the underlying cause, thatthe media zoom in on.And when the act involves spousal orelderly abuse, they almost ignore thestory altogether.The Journalism and Media StudiesCentre (JMSC) reported these findingsafter studying 2,430 news reports andcommentaries over six months in four majorHong Kong newspapers and the ATV andTVB newscasts.Family-related stories made up less thanthree per cent of all stories covered andmore than half of the stories concernedviolence, such as murder, suicide andassault, or juvenile delinquency.“We were surprised at how limited theoverall coverage was, only three per cent. Alarge part of our lives revolves around family,so some of our biggest problems will befamily-related,” Thomas Abraham, AssistantProfessor of the JMSC, said.Curiously, only certain kinds of violencetended to be covered. A comparison ofstories with cases reported to the SocialWelfare Department showed 71 per centof child abuse cases were covered in themedia, but only five per cent of spousalabuse cases and two per cent of elderlyabuse cases.Most of the stories in the study, though,focused solely on the individuals involvedand treated the situations as isolated events.The striking exception was the Tin Shui Waitragedy in which a woman killed herself andher two children in October 2007. Becausethere had been other unhappy incidents inthe area, the media questioned the socialfactors behind the murder-suicide – anindication that, with sufficient motivation,news organizations in Hong Kong are willingto look at the bigger picture.“They asked, why this housing estate?Why were there so many problems there?What were the underlying social issues?”Mr Abraham said. “Quality journalismcan ask these deeper questions and in asense help society to reflect on itself andunderstand itself.”It can also help to convey solutions.However, only 1.9 per cent of the storiesfocused on advice, help or solutionsto family-related problems, althoughsome of this information was containedin other stories, such as surveys andgovernment policies.The study has provided input to a larger ongoingproject on family problems and familyhealth, happiness and harmony in HongKong, conducted by The Hong Kong JockeyClub Charities Trust and the School of PublicHealth. The “FAMILY: A Jockey Club Initiativefor a Harmonious Society” and the JMSCstudy are funded by the Jockey Club.The findings of a pilot study on restrictingof sales of charcoal in Hong Kong wereeverything Professor Paul Yip could hopefor: they pointed to a way to reducesuicides, they were evidence-based, theyreceived international recognition. Theonly problem is, the results have yet to beput into action to help Hong Kong peopleterritory-wide.Professor Yip and his team conducted aone-year study comparing suicides in TuenMun, where charcoal packs were removedfrom the open shelves of major retail outlets,to those in Yuen Long, where charcoal wassold openly as usual. Charcoal burningrelatedsuicides fell sharply in Tuen Mun, by31.8 per cent, but similar results were notseen in Yuen Long. Apparently, the lack ofeasy access to charcoal frustrated potentialsuicides or made them think twice, and theydidn’t follow through. The results comparedto an overall drop in Hong Kong’s suiciderate of 5.7 per cent during the same period.Encouraging as the results were, though,they have not yet had much impact oncharcoal access in Hong Kong. WellcomeSupermarket dropped the system ofrestricted access after the study periodand Park’N’Shop has yet to extend it to itsother stores.Professor Yip, who is Director of theHong Kong Jockey Club Centre forSuicide Research and Prevention, hasbeen negotiating with these two majorsupermarket chains and others for well overa year to lock up all of their charcoal.“We are grateful for their participation in thestudy, however, we are frustrated that theydon’t want to continue. It is not that difficultfor them and we are helping vulnerablemembers of the community,” he says.“People say, why control charcoal? Theycan still jump off buildings. Yes, they can dothat, but the point is that those who attemptsuicide are usually not good at problemsolving. Their cognitive thinking is differentfrom us. So if you take away a means ofsuicide that is very appealing to them, theywill have problems finding another means.“The whole rationale is to make it moredifficult and buy time. Once we havebought time, we have an opportunity. Theirfamily members and friends can intervenebefore they do anything, and they can alsoseek help.”Burning charcoal, which can lead to carbonmonoxide poisoning, is appealing topotential suicides because it is consideredeasy and clean and it can be done at home.Eighty per cent of charcoal suicides arecommitted at home, which adds to theimperative to control sales.“Charcoal burning started with one personin Hong Kong in 1998 and by 2003, 320people committed suicide this way. All othercauses had very little change, only charcoalburning went up. By 2009 the numberhad come down to about 120. I would say60-70 per cent of the rise and fall in HongKong’s suicide rate has been exacerbatedby charcoal burning. The situation is evenworse in Taiwan,” he says.There is a precedent that product restrictioncan reduce suicides. Suicides in the UKfell after sales of paracetamol were limitedto packets of at most 24 tablets in the late1990s, making it difficult to overdose on theproduct without making multiple purchases.“Evidence-based research has shown thatrestriction of means is one of the mosteffective measures to reduce suicides,”Professor Yip says.“We can’t prevent all suicides but at leastwe can make a difference. We can help toreduce the number.”The results of Professor Yip’s study have beenpublished in the British Journal of Psychiatryand reported in the British Medical Journaland the publication of the InternationalAssociation for Suicide Prevention.20 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 21

ResearchFrom Killingto curingProfessor Kwong Yok-lamWorking together with Professor CyrusKumana, Emeritus Professor and Chief ofthe Division of Clinical Pharmacology andTherapeutics, his persistence paid off withan almost 100 per cent cure rate.So far, more than a hundred leukaemiapatients in Hong Kong have been treated,the majority of whom have been cured.Professor Kwong places the success rate at98.2 per cent.Despite its reputation as a deadly poisonthe team has shown oral arsenic to be asafe and effective compound, far safer thanthe currently-used alternative, intravenousarsenic, the toxicity of which can causeabnormal heart rhythms and even death.Indeed, oral arsenic is so effective that inHong Kong it has replaced bone marrowtransplantation as the standard treatmentof patients suffering acute promyelocyticleukaemia, and is also being used in thetreatment of other blood cancers, includinglymphomas and myeloma.Professor Kwong explains how he stumbledupon the cure. “It has been used for manyhundreds of years in Traditional ChineseMedicine,” he says. “There are many entriesin medical texts about arsenic being used.Even western medicine started using itabout 200 years ago, and we utilized itat Queen Mary Hospital until the 1950s,when it fell out of favour as alternativedrugs were developed. Doctors who havebeen educated in the last 20 years, or so,may have been completely unaware of itsmedical uses.“Then, a team in Harbin, in China discoveredthat intravenous arsenic trioxide was veryeffective in the treatment of this type ofleukaemia.”That set Dr Kwong off on his mission todevelop an oral alternative, and he spentmany hours ploughing through the archivalrecords at the Hong Kong Medical Museumto determine a safe dosage. After two yearsof research – without any funding - the teamsuccessfully prepared an oral formulationthat proved effective in clinical studies. Allthat remained was to secure the US patent,which took another seven years.The reason? A US team had alreadydeveloped its own version of the intravenoustreatment. However, at a cost of aroundUS$2,000 a day, or US$50,000 a month,the intravenous treatment is beyond thebudget of most patients, particularly those indeveloping countries.“Our treatment is a fraction of the cost, andhas virtually no side effects.” Which meansthat when it becomes widely available it islikely to become the sole treatment for acutepromyelocytic leukaemia.The University is now investigating thefeasibility of making oral arsenic availableon compassionate grounds to patients indeveloping countries. As it is proven to besafe, and can be conveniently prescribed in anoutpatient setting, such a programme wouldpotentially save thousands of lives, particularlyin Third World countries. In Hong Kong it islikely to be administered free of charge.Professor Kwong says, “Hong Kong hasnever invented a drug before, this is the firsttime and we did it without a grant. I didn’teven apply for a grant, because I didn’tthink I would be able to secure one. At thetime I was only a young academic with littletrack record in research. Also, in applyingfor a grant I would have had to explain mymethodology and I didn’t want to risk doingthat and losing the chance of securinga patent.“But I want people to know that if you wantto be innovative you do not necessarily needhuge funding. We have made a contributionto medicine without funding and havecome up with a drug that can be takenconveniently and economically.”No longer the preserveof homicidal maniacs,the development of oralarsenic as Hong Kong’sfirst ever patenteddrug reveals a story ofingenuity, innovationand perseverance.Arsenic may have a reputation as thewronged wife’s preferred poison but thisancient compound is proving a lifesaver forpatients of acute promyelocytic leukaemia.A decade in development the drug is thefirst, created entirely in Hong Kong, tosecure a US patent and is poised to attainglobal status as a hospital prescriptionmedication making it affordable andaccessible to patients.Created by a small team in the Departmentof Medicine, the ingenious development isbased on meticulous and diligent research.Professor Kwong Yok-lam, of the Division ofHaematology/Oncology and Bone MarrowTransplantation, says he was inspired tocontinue the work, despite many setbacks,by his patients.“Perhaps if I had been working in a lab Imight have given up,” he explains. “But Icarried on for the sake of the patients, theyneeded a cure and that inspired me.”Left : Intravenous arsenic trioxide used about15 years ago.Middle : Current oral arsenic trioxide used atQueen Mary Hospital.Right : GMP standard oral arsenic trioxideproduced by HKU.22 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 23

ResearchTakingthe rapHip hoppers are takingChina by storm.In most people’s minds rap music isassociated with voices from the marginsof society and with black ghetto angst inparticular. So the notion of Chinese hiphoppers may seem rather absurd.Yet, the rap music scene in China is thriving.Since its emergence in Beijing in the 1980sit has spread to all major cities includingShanghai, Kunming, Tsingdao, Shenzhen,and even far-flung Urumchi.Of course, as with Communism, theMainland’s take on rap is uniquely Chinese.“It’s fashionable because it’s a western artmusic form,” says Dr Lee Watkins, whostudied rap in South Africa, before taking uphis position as a Post-doctoral Fellow in theDepartment of Music, last year.“Hip hop is a fashion, it’s ‘cool’ to be a hiphopper and learn a few dance tricks. AfricanAmerican rap is quite in your face, it has alot of anger, but the Chinese hip hoppersare saying they are not experiencinggangsterism, or drive-by’s, so there’s noneed for them to sing about that.”Indeed, it seems rap is hot in China simplyby dint of being a western art form. “Ifit’s western it’s considered fashionable”explains Professor Watkins. “Even westernclassical music is; there’s a strong drive toplay western instruments, partly becausethey appear to be new but also becausethey allow a certain freedom that is notexperienced so much in Chinese education,for example. Chinese culture has so manyrestraints to work through.“Rock music in China in the early 1980swas also embracing this newfound freedomin China after the Cultural Revolution, andallowing young people to express viewsthat may not have been consonant with theinterests of the rulers.”Today, the another youth-dominated musicgenre – punk – is still fashionable amongstChinese high school students. “It’s usually ateenage phase and a way of expressing theirfrustrations with entrance examinations.”Government censorship relieves Chinese rapof the sting of its western counterpart, so norailing against the state here. “There’s a lot ofcensorship,” says Dr Watkins. “So languageis used to suggest things, because if theysay things in an outright manner it couldelicit censorship.”“Censorship means they won’t make asmuch of an impact on the music scene ordevelop a fan base. Early on rappers had touse record producers approved by the stateand of course they would not produce musicwith confrontational messages.”Having grown up in Cape Town, whereSouth Africa’s first rap music sceneflourished, Dr Watkins developed a naturalinterest in hip hop. “As an area of researchit appeals to me because these are voicesfrom the margins. It challenges one tothink critically but also, musically, I find itfascinating the level of musical knowledgeand creativity that these people have.”“Rap music actually brings together manydifferent musical forms into a four minutepiece of music. I find it fascinating how musicfrom all these different locations work theirway into one song. And I realized also thatChinese rap music is under-researched.”He’s now combining anthropology with themusicological aspects of rap music. “A lotof aspects of hip hop are underground,”he says, “and the opening up of theInternet has provided another avenue forexpressing opinions.“As far as the government in China isconcerned as long as it stays underground,if it doesn’t take to the street to mobilizethe masses, then it’s okay. At the momentit happens in nightclubs, it’s seen asentertainment. In China, many of the symbolicassociations of hip hop and rap music do notapply; they are only interested in one aspectof it, and turning it into a commodity.“If they sing about political or social issues atall they tend to concentrate on the growingdivide between rich and poor, the difficulty infinding employment for young people. Theydon’t address state policies as such, there’sno direct confrontation with the state, it’srather about issues affecting youth and so on.“It’s not like African American rap and Frenchrap music where it’s very direct. In South Africaand the United States people have realized thepotential of rap as a money-making activity,with clothing lines and production companies.But the Chinese may not be looking towardsmaking fortunes from it.”New Technologyto help fight crimeA unique innovation from the Department ofComputer Science is turning heads.Crime conscious scholars have developeda state-of-the-art facial recognition systemthat could help law enforcement officerscorrectly identify suspects partially caughton surveillance video.The technology, developed by a five-manteam in the Centre for Information Securityand Cryptography, can detect and extractthe features of a partial face caught on videoand reconstruct a three dimensional modelof the face, eliminating hours of manuallabour and potential human error.Associate Director of the Centre, Dr ChowKam-pui who led the team with fundingof $1 million from the Innovation andTechnology Fund, said, “In normal cases offacial recognition we usually have a frontalview of the face, like when you go throughImmigration, but in this case the face hasto be in the right position for the computerto recognize it. If not, it will tell you it doesnot correspond to the full frontal image onthe database and therefore is not the sameperson. This is problematic.“Again, many surveillance videos of peopleoften do not capture full frontal images and,in terms of law enforcement, this meanstrawling through hours of footage manually,which is time consuming and the quality maynot be good so the recognition rate is low.What we are suggesting is automating thesystem so that if law enforcement officershave to go through surveillance videosearching for a suspect they do not have todo it manually. It can be automated and thussave time and eliminate human error.“The idea we are using is quite interesting.The basis is a generic three-dimensionalimage of the head which can bemanipulated to produce a full-frontal 3Dimage from the available photograph, givingus a very good match. This is new to thecommercial market. We can reconstruct thehidden part of the face to create a full face,and this gives a 90 per cent match.At the current stage, the system is usedon digital CCTV cameras, rather than theanalogue ones which are still the norm.However, the team’s demonstrationprototype has attracted much attention,including a visit from a team of Hong KongImmigration officers.Dr Chow and his colleagues are now in talkswith manufacturers to integrate the softwareinto existing face-recognition systems.24 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 25

Teaching and LearningProfessor Amy TsuiDerek Kenneth KoLAUNCHING THEcommon coreA curriculum innovation at HKU willequip students with global perspectivesand increase their understanding of theirplace and responsibilities in the world.The Common Core is an innovative newprogramme introduced from this Septemberto achieve two aims: phase in changes inpreparation for the launch of the four-yearcurriculum in 2012, and prepare studentsto deal with the complex issues faced byhumanity in the 21st century.All new undergraduate students will berequired to take courses outside their majorselected from four Areas of Inquiry: scientificand technological literacy, humanities,global issues, and China: culture, stateand society. The Common Core is unusualin that it focuses on issues, rather thanstrictly knowledge, and aims to show theinterconnectedness of human experiences.“A university education today needs toequip students with the ability to copewith an increasingly complex world wherethere are fewer moral certainties and moremoral dilemmas,” says Professor Amy Tsui,the Pro-Vice-Chancellor overseeing thecurriculum reform and a keen advocate ofthe Common Core.Eight courses were tested out in 2009-10and their subjects give a flavour of the issuesbeing addressed. One course, for example,was titled Feeding the World and looked atthe economic, technological and politicalissues involved in getting food to tables.Another was Sexuality and Gender Diversity:Diversity in Society, which looked at thelegal, social and identity implications ofsexuality and gender. Student feedback onthe courses was highly positive.Derek Kenneth Ko, a third-year studentdoing a BSc in Exercise and Health, took theSexual and Gender Diversity course.“The things you learn in this course areapplicable to your daily life and you seethings in a new light. It’s a knock on the doorto stop judging people. Being homosexualor transgender or into BDSM [bondagedomination-sado-masochism]doesn’t definewho a person is, it’s just part of who theyare. You learn to look at the whole personrather than one aspect of them,” he says.The Common Core courses are to replacethe more general broadening courses thathave been offered to students to date.They have a much higher intellectual andworkload demand as reflected in the creditsassigned – six for Common Core, three forbroadening courses.From this September, all new undergraduatestudents have to take two Common Corecourses from a choice of 67, while currentstudents can continue to take broadeningcourses or, if they wish, take CommonCore courses in lieu to fulfil universityrequirements. When the four-year curriculumrolls out in September 2012, new studentswill take six Common Core courses froma choice of 150, with at least one fromeach of the four Areas of Inquiry. This is toensure students get the broadest possibleeducation beyond their subject majors.“We want our students to be global citizenswho are capable of dealing with ill-definedproblems, and who are able to be leadersand advocates in improving the humancondition,” says Professor Tsui.These are lofty goals indeed, but theexpectation is that HKU will be a leader,globally, in establishing a modern curriculumto meet today’s challenges.26 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 27

Teaching and LearningTHE HOLY GRAILof teachingStudents participating in the Faculty of SocialSciences’ Migrant Outreach Education Initiative (MOEI)teach English to people in need in Asia and invariablyemerge inspired to do more. For the Faculty’s Dean,that is proof that the lessons are being learned.Professor Ian Holliday has long beenenchanted by the Burmese people, bothacademically and personally. Now they arecasting a similar spell over his students.As Dean of Social Sciences, he set up theMOEI programme in 2008 to help Karenmigrants on the Thai-Myanmar border andto provide students with a social innovationand global citizenship opportunity, asrequired for new graduates. The rewardshave far exceeded expectations.Students spend six to eight weeks teachingEnglish to Karen adults and children, andmany of them come back determined tosee the programme help more people. TheMOEI alumni have convinced the Facultyto establish similar programmes in China,Cambodia and Hong Kong.“When you have students coming back toyou and saying, why don’t we take it here,can we try this – that’s the holy grail ofteaching, really. That’s exactly what you arelooking for,” Professor Holliday says.“Institutions like HKU shouldn’t be just anivory tower. Even though we’re researchintensive, we have a responsibility tohumanity. We need to reach out tocommunities in need of education, andI’m thrilled and delighted to extendthe programme to new places. Theseprogrammes may not all take flight but wetry our best to make them work.”The MOEI programme benefits not only thecommunities, but also the students. VaniaHo, a Year 2 Psychology student, neverthought she could teach before signing up(training is provided). Nor was she muchinterested in learning about other countries.But during her time in Thailand, she gainedconfidence as a teacher and learned thepredicament of Karen families who hadbeen separated. People yearned to return toMyanmar, but were unable to do so.“These are the hardest-working andsweetest people I have ever met. They arevery proud of their nation and their ethnicgroup, and they always talk about howbeautiful their country is and how they misstheir families,” she says.“After this trip I started looking more atproblems that other countries are facing.I treasure my relationships with my familymore and the education opportunities I have.I changed my mind on how I should treatmy parents, and I value family life and myfriends more.”Following the internship, Vania went onexchange to Singapore and told people inher church there about her experiences inThailand. This prompted them to arrange afollow-up trip to the region this summer.This desire to go back or extend theexperience has also been seen in theMOEI alumni who helped to set upprogrammes for disadvantaged people inChina, Cambodia and Hong Kong. Theydo all the coordination and training of newparticipants, and help to sort out logisticssuch as accommodation.Many of the participants are selectedfrom overseas universities, adding to theinternational flavour of the programme.“The aim is to make learning English as funas possible,” Professor Holliday says. “Wetrain our students in interactive languageteaching methods that build confidence andenthusiasm. They tend to come back muchmore worldly and committed and focusedand interested. It lights a fire inside them andopens a passion that they then build on theirown once they finish teaching.”Further information on the MOEI programmecan be found at http://www.hku.hk/socsc/moei/2010/.28 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 29

PeopleHONG KONG:centre oftrade – andhistory?Hong Kong has uniqueadvantages for scholars ofinternational history.Professor Chen JianHong Kong is a city that has been andcontinues to be shaped by internationalforces. Fittingly, the Department of History isdrawing on this background to position itselfas a global centre of international history,which is concerned with relations betweennations and groups of nations.“Hong Kong is distinctive not just because ofits geographical position, but also because itis a mixture of all kinds of historical forces,”says Visiting Research Professor Chen Jian,a distinguished scholar in the field.“Its position leading up to 1997 and afterare closely related to the transformation ofthe field of international history. We saw thede-emphasising of the American-centricperspective and an understanding of internalfactors in East Asia and China. Hong Kongtoday is a product of these internationalfactors. It is a focal point of international,inter-societal and intercultural studies.”And HKU has the potential to be the focalpoint in Hong Kong of these studies, hesays. It has a strong group of scholarsin the field and two relevant strategicresearch themes: China and the West, andContemporary China.“The great challenge facing the universityis to make these two themes not justHKU’s themes, but to link them to thelarger academic world. Hong Kong islocated between the most rapidly emergingeconomy in the world and the larger world,and it is a window and a bridge for them.How can we develop the potential of HongKong into a reality? Through strengtheninginternational study. We can’t make it a centreof international history overnight but we cangreatly enhance Hong Kong’s position.”Professor Chen represents one of theefforts to enhance that position. He is oneof the leading lights in international historyand holds a chair professorship at CornellUniversity, as well as academic posts atEast China Normal University in Shanghaiand the Woodrow Wilson InternationalCentre for Scholars. As a Visiting ResearchProfessor, he is spending six to eight weekshere each year over four years meetingwith students and researchers, makingspeeches and presentations, and helpingto organize workshops. The Departmentis also developing academic exchangesin international history and organizingconferences on the subject.Professor Chen’s area of specialty is ColdWar-era international history, includingChina’s development and its relationswith the world. He has a foot, and deepexperience, in both places: apart from hisacademic ties, he is a former Red Guardwho spent two short stints in prison, andhe is based in the US and shared in a2005 Emmy Award for the documentaryDeclassified: Nixon in China.“People have two tendencies about China.One, they think its rise is irreversible, thatwe’ve already reached a stage where it’s anestablished fact, which I don’t think is thecase. China’s age of revolution has createda huge legacy that still needs to be digestedand understood. There are factors that couldaffect its position. Corruption and the onepartydictatorship are really big challengesfor China.“The other tendency is that people thinkChina’s rise will present a huge threat to therest of the world. But China’s challenge isnot to challenge other parts of the world, itschallenge is to meet its internal challenges.”Professor Chen’s role is to bring a historian’sperspective to bear, so people can considerthe forces that shape today’s world.“I’m not a big theory person. I think ourtask is just to tell a good story and makesense of it. People who have lived throughsome interesting recent past are interestedin knowing how and why things havehappened. Mao, China and the Cold Warbooks sell. It’s academically meaningful andsound, and it’s also interesting.”The Visiting Research Professor Programmewas started in 2009 to attract leadingscholars from overseas whose areas ofspecialty can benefit research at HKU andwho can nurture young scholars. Sixteenacademics have been appointed so far andthey will visit regularly over three to fouryears for six to eight weeks each time. “Bybringing in senior, active and well-knownresearchers for substantial periods, it ishoped that a deep and lasting partnershipcould develop,” Professor Paul Tam, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, said.30 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 31

PeopleBooksHONOURS FORfirst-in- the-familyeducation fundA fund that helps students from low-income familiesto participate in exchanges and other learningactivities outside the classroom has receivedinternational recognition.The University’s First-in-the-Family EducationFund (FIFE Fund) has won top honours inthe Council for Advancement and Support ofEducation (CASE) Awards, an internationalcompetition that attracted more than2,800 entries.The FIFE Fund provides grants of upto $10,000 to students who are in thefirst generation of their families to attenduniversity and who come from low-incomefamilies (less than $12,000 per month),so they can take part in enriched learningactivities. It has benefited more than 450students since its launch in 2008.The fund received the Overall Grand GoldMedal and the Gold Medal in Fundraisingat the 2009 CASE awards, which wereannounced earlier this year.One FIFE Fund beneficiary, electricalengineering student Cindy Cheung Tszkwai,has stretched her grant over fourtrips. She has gone to Sichuan to helpre-build an earthquake-damaged school,to Japan to learn about new electronictechnology, to Beijing to represent HKUin the National Challenge Cup for studentprojects, and to France to learn more aboutrenewable energy.Cindy’s mother is the sole breadwinnerin the family and works as a cleaner onconstruction sites.“Without this fund, I wouldn’t have beenable to join these activities because I haveto consider my family’s financial situation,”Cindy says. “My mother works hard tosupport me and my brother, who is also inuniversity, and I don’t want to increase thefinancial burden on my family.”She managed to get so much out of thegrant by combining it with other funds wherepossible and watching her pennies.For the Sichuan trip, for example, theflights and hotel were covered as part ofthe project but she needed money for foodand local transportation. The trip broughttogether students from several faculties tore-build a primary school and equip it withadvanced technologies, and her contributionwas to help build a solar power system.The success of that trip resulted in theBeijing competition, where her team won theSupreme Award. They presented a papershowing the technologies they installed inSichuan could be used to bring Internetaccess to schools in remote regions.FIFE Fund applicants have to providedetailed calculations of their expenses andshow how they will use the money. Theyare also required to share their experienceswith other recipients and provide themwith leadership.“The program is good for students becauseit also teaches us to pay forward. Hopefullysome day we could also create opportunitiesfor others,” Cindy says.Stardom,chinesestyleA new book from HKUPress investigates theMainland’s unique takeon superstar culture.Perhaps one of the most striking featuresof 20th century popular culture was theemergence of the global celebrity. The newmediums of television and film fuelled ahunger for glamour beyond the reaches ofthe ordinary citizen, and the emergence ofthe Internet has taken that preoccupation toa new level.Celebrity culture, once restricted to royaltyand biblical or mythical figures, is now apervasive aspect of everyday life, and fewcountries have been left untouched. ThePeople’s Republic of China is no exception.Surprisingly, however, although a substantialbody of academic literature exists on celebrityculture in Australia, Europe and the Americas,in China the phenomenon has been largelyoverlooked. Or, at least it had been untilearlier this year when the HKU Presspublished Celebrity in China, a collectionof eleven essays exploring the varioustypes of fame from popular culture – film,music, dance, literature, and the Internet –official culture – military, political, and moralexemplars – and business celebrities.The book’s co-editor Louise Edwards,of the School of Modern Languages andCultures, explains: “One of the reasons wewrote the book was because we figuredcelebrity in China is not the same as it isin the west. It does operate with some ofthe same mechanisms, and some of thesame patterns and, externally, it looks quitesimilar – people are marketed in a similarway – but there are aspects that are quiteunique to China, and that are a result of asocialist system and a one party state whichtries to control popular culture products.”“The other thing that celebrities in Chinahave to do, which is common in the westbut not as prescriptive, is be a philanthropist.They are expected to give back. So youhave Jet Li’s One Foundation and the JackieChan Foundation.”The attitude, she says, reflects a mixtureof Confucianism and Buddhism. “Becausethere’s been a long tradition in China ofthe big people in town being asked fordonations. There is a sense that if you haveachieved great things then you do have aduty to look after the less fortunate. Yoursuccess is a community success, and youhave a duty to put some of it back.”One other unique aspect is the extentto which the state tries to manufacturecelebrities. “Since the 1930s, theCommunist Party has been reallyenthusiastic about creating exemplarsfor people to live up to – model workers,peasants, soldiers. They are still doing this,but they are trying to adapt techniquesfrom the celebrity sphere and put it intothe political celebrity mould, like militarycelebrities, Glorious Mothers and chastitymartyrs, who have become famous asa result of party organs like the All ChinaWomen’s Federation and the People’sLiberation Army. To a certain degree thisis successful and these are positive rolemodels. In China, there is less of negativecelebrities and the government is very keento promote positive exemplars for the newmarket economy.”One chapter focuses on billionaires who aremaking money from sharing their knowledgeon how they became rich through the saleof videos and television appearances.“This is the entrepreneur giving back bytelling other people how they can becomepersonally wealthy as well; rather ironic ina Communist state, but the government isright behind them.”In China, celebrities are also expected to beexemplars of good behaviour “and peopleget cross if they are not. This attitude isnot just derived from the Soviet model, itcomes from a combination of the interactionbetween a socialist system and a Confuciansystem which had many exemplars as well.”Celebrity, Professor Edwards explains,grew partly out of the need for heroes, forsomeone who could be something theordinary person could not, someone tolook up to. “But also an important senseof patriotism in contemporary Chineseconcepts of celebrity. These heroes areglobally circulating icons that representChina’s international rise to many ordinarypeople. So, if you have an internationallyfamous pianist, like Lang Lang, then youcelebrate his international fame, and you feelproud as a Chinese person because he’sdone well. Yao Ming is another example –one who’s made it big in basketball in theplace that matters – the USA – makes us allhappy to be Chinese.”“These celebrities represent the hopes anddreams of the nation so the reaction tocelebrity is somewhat more positive in Chinathan it is in the west,” she says.As the first book on celebrity in ChinaProfessor Edwards and her co-editor,Elaine Jeffreys, Associate Professor atthe University of Technology in Sydney,deliberately chose a spread of differenttypes of celebrity. Now they’re hoping theirbook will encourage further research in thisfascinating area.Celebrity in China edited by Louise Edwardsand Elaine Jeffreys, published by Hong KongUniversity Press.Cindy Cheung (back fourth from right), together with other HKU students, helped to re-build an earthquakedamagedschool in Sichuan.32 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 33

BooksTHE EFFERVESCENTSTATE OFreligion in chinaMacau: Channeling the god Jigong through spiritwriting,to commemorate his official canonization as‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ by the PRC Ministryof Culture.was that it was because of their Christianreligion, which has institutions, churches thatare distinct from other aspects of society,and which makes quite a strong distinctionbetween the religious and the secular.The other was secularism, that the reasonwhy the West was strong was becauseit had done away with superstition andadopted science.”“These are two very opposite presentationsof the West but the one thing they havein common is they posit this distinctionbetween the religious and the secular,”he says.Attempts were made to apply theseapproaches within China. Some tried tore-invent Confucianism as a church, someto secularize it. Some created new religionsand others, like Mao, sought to ban religion.“Historically the three major religioustraditions of Buddhism, Daoism andConfucianism were weak institutionallyand the modern period further weakenedthem, but it did not destroy the religiosity ofthe people.“Now it’s a wide open field, everything ispossible in China. Whereas in North Americayou have the dominance of the Christianchurches, and in post-communist Russiathe Russian Orthodox church, in Chinathere’s no dominant religion and so anythinggoes. The only dominant thing is the state,but even the state is very confused abouthow to deal with religion. There are somany bureaucracies and agencies dealingwith it. Consciously or not, it’s a laboratoryfor religion.”The revival of religion has been uneven,though. In some places local religioustraditions are thriving because they werehanded down orally during the Mao era;in other places they have disappearedaltogether. Most interestingly, the function ofreligion is changing.“The global trend is a privatization of religion,where religion is no longer the centre ofsocial organization, and in that sense Chinais secularized. Both through deliberatepolicy and general social changes, religionhas moved into the private sphere. Peopleliving in the cities, for example, are no longerattached to a clan or lineage or community,and they seek to find their private self, whothey are as an individual. That question of‘who am I’ didn’t really arise in traditionallife where people’s roles were defined forthem from the moment they were born,”Dr Palmer says.“As China has more prosperity, a lot ofpeople are also asking, what’s the point of allthis? They are looking for a moral foundationfor life and for society that has been lost.The critical discourse on superstition andreligion has faded and you have educated,urbanized people looking into more modernforms of religion.”That impulse for meaning may be findingan additional outlet. Dr Palmer has startedinvestigating volunteerism, which is thrivingin China in the wake of the 2008 Sichuanearthquake and the Olympic Games. Theterm ‘doing good deeds’, which is groundedin traditional Chinese religious culture, isnow finding expression in modern forms ofsocial service. The atheist Communist YouthLeague is actively promoting voluntarism –although when Dr Palmer recently went tointerview volunteers providing social servicesat a temporary settlement for earthquakerefugees in Sichuan, he found that all of thevolunteer groups active in the camp wereChristian and Buddhist.Dr Palmer is co-author of The ReligiousQuestion in Modern China, which will bepublished in early 2011. He is also co-editorof a forthcoming textbook on Chinesereligion and a volume on Daoism.Religion in almost every form imaginable isblossoming in China as practitioners find ingeniousways around restrictions, according to HKUanthropologist Dr David Palmer.Other groups have played down their religiousstatus to secure official blessing. Communalfolk religions, for example, increasingly arebeing revived and securing official designationand protection as ‘intangible cultural heritage’from the Chinese government. “Veryoften what gets designated are the ritualtraditions and even the local gods. It’s a kindof canonization of the gods as intangibleheritage,” Dr Palmer says.“China is a laboratory for religion” is not astatement you would imagine applying to acountry where religion was banned underMao Tse-tung and still operates on shakylegal ground. But Dr David Palmer, AssistantProfessor of Sociology, who has a new bookon religion in China coming out, contendsthat a remarkable transformation has takenplace there over the past 30 years.“In China you now have every kind ofreligion you can imagine and all this growthand effervescence is occurring where, onthe outside, it appears religion is highlycontrolled and restricted. That’s notnecessarily the case, and of course it’s notnecessarily not the case,” he says. “Partlybecause of these limits, groups have beenforced to find creative ways to do things.”Behind this revival of religion is a changein the role of religion in Chinese society.Traditionally it provided social cohesionthrough such things as ritual and festivals. Itstraddled and connected the spiritual, moraland material in ways that were not familiar inthe West. But that function began to changeabout 120 years ago, when China cameunder attack from the West.Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, localreligions, new religions and re-invented onesare all operating and thriving in China today,in some cases with official blessing.The qigong movement, for example, startedout as a form of exercise then took onreligious overtones as seen in the forcefulexample of the Falun Gong.“People were trying to figure out howWestern countries had become so strongand they came up with two responses. OneXi’an: Worshippers at the Baxian Daoist templeDr David Palmer34 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin August 2010 35

Arts and CultureAdventuresin poetryBest-selling author, Louisde Bernieres, spoke at theUniversity recently as partof the Hong Kong LiteraryFestival.The author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolinspoke to a packed Convocation Roomabout his love of poetry and how it hasinfluenced his writing.“I think one’s relationship with poetry isalmost like a love affair,” he confessed. “It isa passion, and poetry has been a part of mylife since I was very young.”As his father too is a poet, de Bernieres saidhe had the good fortune of being raised in ahouse where an ambition to be a poet or awriter was not frowned upon.“It was considered normal. Nobody toldme that I should do something sensible.My mother, rather charmingly, advised merecently to get a PhD in case my career fails.I said ‘Ma, I’ve got four and I didn’t do anywork for any of them.’”Speaking of his evolution as a poet he said,“If you think back to the way people wrotepoetry in the 19th century it was often quitestilted and full of archaic speech, such as‘thee’s’ and ‘thou’s’ and you could still saythings like ‘Oh wild west wind’, which youcan’t anymore.”“At around the turn of the 20th centurya lot of the poets began to rebel againstthis old fashioned way of doing thingsand they started to write poetry in a muchmore natural English. I’m referring topeople like Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen,Siegfried Sassoon.“For a while these people becamecollectively known as the Georgian Poetsbecause King George V had come to thethrone. What’s interesting about them is thatthey were writing in recognizably naturalEnglish without strange word orders, butthey were still writing poetry which wasrecognizably continuous of what had beenbefore. This is the kind of poetry I wasinitially brought up in.”He was lucky, he said, to have been taughtby a teacher who was passionately in lovewith language. “He made us learn proverbs.We had to write story a week and a lettera week and, most importantly, we had tomemorize a poem a week. I doubt this isdone anymore anywhere.”And he joked, “When I grew older I realized itwas a really good move to learn love poetryby heart. It’s almost foolproof. But when Icome across a poem that I really love I still,to this day, memorize it. The thing about thekind of poetry I was memorizing is that it wasto do so because it was formal, it had rhymeschemes. It was also easy to recognize thedistinction between prose and verse.”After the Georgians came the Modernists,amongst them, T.S. Eliot, who was literate atdoing things in the old way “which made himthat much better at doing it in a new way.”However, the drawback of abandoningthe old way of doing things is a loss ofconfidence in the art of poetic writing. “Youbegin to wonder if you are really writingpoetry at all. This happened to me. WhenT.S. Eliot took over form Walter de la Mare inmy imagination I found myself trying to writelike T.S. Eliot and failing completely, becauseI didn’t know what the rules were.“It was, as they say, prose cut up. And Ifound that this made me very uneasy aboutwriting poetry at all. I had written a lot ofpoetry from about the age of 12 onwardsbut it was almost always about being in lovewith some unattainable girl.“Then, in my 20s most of my poetic workwent into writing song lyrics. I was in a punkband called Irreparable Brain Damage.Then I was in a band named Isis, after theEgyptian goddess. Of course everybodythought we were called ‘Is is’.“But I grew up thinking poetry was myvocation. One reason I, to my own surprise,turned into a novelist is that I found thatjust about everything you can do in poetryyou can do prose as long as you avoidovert rhymes.”The University of Hong Kong Bulletinwww.hku.hk/publications/bulletin.htmlPublished by the University of Hong KongThe Bulletin is the University magazine that features our latest activities, events and plans. It aims tokeep the local and international community informed of new breakthroughs in a wide range of disciplinesinitiated by members of the University.Editorial TeamChief Editor:Managing Editor:Writers:Design and production:Photographer:Katherine Ma, Director of CommunicationsShirley Yeung, Publications ManagerKelvin Au, Kathy Griffin, Allison JonesThe Graphis Company Ltd.Eric Lee & Co.Contribution and FeedbackWith special thanks to staff and students who kindly contributed their time and their photographs tothe Bulletin. We welcome contributions of content for publication. Items should include the author’sname and University contact details. Please direct contributions, comments or suggestions to theCommunications and Public Affairs Office at bulletin@hku.hk for consideration.Care for the EnvironmentWhile our publication is printed on environmentally friendly paper, we urge you to share your copywith friends and colleagues, and help reduce our carbon footprint. Alternatively, you may choose tounsubscribe at bulletin@hku.hk, and read the Bulletin online at www.hku.hk/publications/bulletin.html.36 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin