On the occasion of the Arts Faculty centenary celebration, Professor Wang Gungwu (王賡武教授), former Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong and an internationally renowned historian, generously established the “Wang Gungwu Prizes for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students in History” to recognise students with excellent academic and research achievements.
Professor Wang also decided to re-designate the balance of a loan fund he set up in 1992 while he was in office to these prizes. More than 200 students have benefitted from the loan fund since its inception.
“There is great importance in studying History because, as its core, History covers all knowledge of the past and tells the present what could happen in the future. It is an opportune time to put History back in its rightful position,” Professor Wang said at the prize presentation.
Carol Lau, Angharad Fletcher and Henry Choi are the first recipients of the Prizes. Ms Lau just graduated with First Class Honours and conducted research with the support of University Undergraduate Research Fellowship on the Cultural Revolution and Child Labour in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ms Fletcher was awarded the Prize for her MPhil thesis on the Australian military nursing and internment during World War II. She is currently undertaking the Joint PhD Programme of HKU and London King’s College.
Since receiving his doctoral degree, Dr Henry Choi has taught at the HKU School of Chinese. He has released numerous publications and spoke at international conferences about his reasearch. Dr Choi is also committed to promoting the education of Chinese history and culture to general public.
December 2013
