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Professor Lung Yingtai shares on self-cultivation at HKBU distinguished lecture

HKBU's School of Communication invited Professor Lung Yingtai, Hung Leung Hau Ling Distinguished Fellow in Humanities of the University of Hong Kong, as the guest speaker of the 60th Anniversary Shun Hing Distinguished Lecture series on 19 January.

In the lecture “From Mark Twain to Confucius: the modern sense of self-cultivation in the ‘chaotic world’”, Professor Lung defined self-cultivation as developing one’s own ability and morality, then learning how to engage with other people and the community. In addition, she said people should understand the relations between the place they belong to and themselves, and know how to live in the world.

Professor Lung explained that everyone has his own growth path and education background which leads to a different self-cultivation mode that is not limited to time and place. To elaborate, she mentioned sayings by Confucius and her own experience, including how her father educated her with Zhu Zhi Family Instructions when she was a child; how her son used Mark Twain’s aphorisms to communicate with her; how the Taiwan government uses channels such as Chinese language lessons and assemblies to nurture youngsters’ civic consciousness; “Courtesy, Righteousness, Integrity, Sense of Shame”, and the situation of the moral characteristics which were emphasised by Mr Chiang Kai-shek, which formed the basis of Taiwan’s education and politics.

Professor Lung said that 2016 was regarded as a chaotic year because of numerous terror attacks as well as Brexit, Donald Trump being elected as US President, and so on. However the challenges that come with globalisation and technological development are not unique issues of Hong Kong or the present day. She used a famous article “Variation” of Li Hongzhang, one of the principal officials in the Qing dynasty, to illustrate that 200 years ago, society also faced challenges stemming from information dissemination and rapid development of weaponry. She encouraged the participants of the Lecture by saying that “the more chaotic the world is, the more important self-cultivation is” and that people will all find a way out of a chaotic world and a sense of loss if they are well-equipped with knowledge and able to learn from history.

This is the final distinguished lecture in the series supported by Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund to celebrate the University’s 60th Anniversary.

	Professor Lung Yingtai elaborates on self-cultivation

	More than 1,300 people including HKBU friends, students, staff and secondary school students attend the lecture