Dr Jay Parker gave a talk, “From Page to Screen: How English Literature Shapes Modern Entertainment”, at Kiangsu-Chekiang College in Sha Tin on 19 September.
The talk described how Mary Shelley’s critical engagement with science through the lens of tragic tropes has evolved in modern cinematic adaptation. It focused on the ways in which the critique of science has changed from one of individual tragic over-reaching, into an engagement with the conflict between the popular and elite. Dr Parker explored how cinema, as a mass-media contrasted with the gothic novel, which emerged as a form of entertainment for the affluent and educated.
What do we carry with us? And what do we leave behind?
The English Language Centre at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong is honoured to host acclaimed Asian-Australian author Olivia De Zilva for a special talk on her poignant and darkly comic debut novel, Plastic Budgie (Pink Shorts Press, 2025).
Date: 9 October 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Venue: Lecture Hall CR002, Creative Humanities Hub
Registration: Complete this online form to reserve a seat. Available on a first-come-first-served basis
Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the author talk
Author Talk
Plastic Budgie questions how our memories and families form us in a way that is both unapologetically sentimental and eternally surprising.
Olivia was named after a lycra-clad singer her parents saw on Rage. As a child, she lost the ability to speak and spent a year barking like a dog. Her Gong Gong bought her a yellow bird in a shoebox from the Adelaide Central Markets. Her heart was broken by a guitar teacher after a school disco. She started university and learnt to run and travelled to Guangzhou for her cousin’s wedding.
In her brutally funny, genre-defying debut, Olivia De Zilva collects stories on shelves: neat coming-of-age anecdotes and sitcom characters trapped behind glass. Then she breaks it all apart.
Join us for an afternoon conversation led by Dr. Belle Ling from the Department of English to hear De Zilva’s delving into the interplay between memory and identity, in particular, themes on itching Y2K nostalgia, curses, glimpses of birds, diaspora, and the concept of “home.”
This event is a must for anyone interested in contemporary fiction, cross-cultural narratives, and the stories that shape who we are.
Bio:
Olivia De Zilva is a writer based in Kaurna Yerta (Adelaide). Her novel Plastic Budgie was released in July 2025 by Pink Shorts Press. Her novella Eggshell will be released by Spineless Wonders in November 2025. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Guardian, SBS, The Saturday Paper, Mascara Literary Review and many other publications. Olivia’s writing has been shortlisted by the Richell Prize, The Kat Muscat Fellowship, The Deborah Cass award and recently, was the inaugural winner of the AAWP Novella Prize.
The Department of English cordially invites you to join the upcoming workshop, A Date with the Moon in Me: 我和我的月亮有個約會 organized by the English Language Centre, on 2 October 2025 (Thursday).
Date: 2 October 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Venue: CR219, Creative Humanities Hub
Registration: Fill in this form to reserve a place
Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the workshop
“The moon weeping says
I want to be an orange”
Federico García Lorca
We live under the same moon, but does the moon see us the same?
More than 1200 years ago, Li Po imagined the moon and his shadow as his drinking companions. In Hong Kong, Lin Xi responds to the lyrics of Teresa Teng’s legendary love song, “The Moon Represents my Heart” (1977), by rewriting how the moon though “once represented somebody’s heart, the end was the same . . . the moon in the past was transformed overnight into the sun today” —this is sung by Faye Wong in “Once in a Blue Moon” (1999). While Lin Xi’s rendering sounds more sentimental, the “moon” in the poem of Wallace Stevens, an American poet in the 20th century, is more philosophical, that Stevens sees the moon as “a dream of pre-history” which leads to a paralinguistic state.
What is your moon like? What face do you think it wears?
Join Hong Kong illustrator Little Half to rediscover the moon within you, while Dr. Belle Ling from HSUHK’s Department of English will illuminate how literary art shapes our inner moon. In this workshop, you will be guided using water colouring and literary appreciation skills to explore the texture, temperament, and tonality of your unique moon.
Quota: 20 places, first-come-first-served
Workshop Fee: HKD20 (Payment method details will be provided in the confirmation email.)
*This workshop will be conducted in both English and Cantonese.
About Little Half:
Kathy Chan is a local HK illustrator who founded the Little Half Studio in 2016. In 2021, she was selected as one of the 2021 Finalist Illustrators at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. Kathy’s creative works often revolve around the protagonist “Little Half” — a round-faced, slightly chubby girl transitioning from shyness to courage (Website: https://www.instagram.com/littlehalf602/)
Professor Kwok-kan Tam, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Science (SHSS) and Chair Professor of English, recently co-published an edited volume titled Chinese Diasporic Writers and Artists: Reimagining Identity and the Self Beyond and Without China with Lily Li.
This book presents new and original essays that capture the enigmatic and intriguing personal and imagined worlds of Chinese writers and artists in diaspora in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Including chapters on artist-writers such as Gao Xingjian, Dai Sijie, Ha Jin and Hong Ying, Tyrus Wong, and Shen Wei, the book explores personal cross-cultural experiences through their literary and other artistic works, reflecting on their cultural identity, their native home, and their new home, the past and the present. By writing, filming, and painting about their diaspora/diasporic experience, they are writing about their selves and the traumatic experience many of them have gone through in forgetting the past, forgiving the damage, and foreshadowing a future by re-visioning their selves. Their experience represents a generation’s quest for an identity of being Chinese but culturally distanced from China.
As a study of cross-cultural human experience through the lens of literature, film, and other arts, this book will not only appeal to students and scholars of Chinese diaspora studies, it will also appeal to those with an interest in Chinese literature, film, and culture.
The Department of English cordially invited to join our departmental seminar, Teaching English with Drama Conventions for School Students, to be organized by the Department of English on 18 September 2025 (Thursday).
Date: 18 September 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Martin Ka Shing Lee Innovation Lab (XR Lab), G/F, Creative Humanities Hub (CR)
Guest Speaker: Professor Barry Bai, Associate Professor, the Department of Curriculum, CUHK
Registration: Complete this online form to reserve a seat. 35 quotas only, available on a first-come-first-served basis. A confirmation email will be sent to you upon successful registration.
Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the seminar
Abstract
Drama is not merely a performing art but also a powerful pedagogical tool for language teaching. It ignites students’ interest while enhancing their linguistic expressions and intercultural communication skills. This workshop, designed for English teachers in the K–12 context and training institutions, explores how to effectively integrate drama-based methods into English instruction. Through immersive demonstrations and hands-on activities, participants will learn practical drama conventions, such as short scene, role play, teacher narration, teacher-in-role and gossip mill to help students use English in authentic contexts, thereby boosting their speaking proficiency, self-confidence, and creativity.
Bio
Barry Bai is an associate professor at the Department of Curriculum and the director of Centre for Language Education and Multiliteracies Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2023 and 2024, he was recognized as a top 2% most cited researcher in languages and linguistics worldwide by Stanford University. Additionally, he was named a Highly Ranked Scholar (Lifetime – top 0.05%, #20 and Prior 5 Years – top 0.05%, #3) in the specialty of primary school in 2024 by ScholarGPS. Currently, he serves as the president of Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL) and is an associate editor of European Journal of Education and Asia Pacific Journal of Education. He is a recipient of 2014/2015 Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award and has secured highly competitive research funds, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Competitive Research Funding Schemes (GRF/ECS) for 2018/2019 and 2022/2023. He has conducted multiple projects on English teachers’ continuing professional development funded by Quality Education Fund (QEF) and Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) of the Hong Kong Education Bureau and the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a total funding amount of over HK$ 35 million. Professor Barry has provided training and professional development support to approximately 646 primary and secondary schools, 4,300 English teachers and 50,000 students (alongside 12,880 parents). Through his projects (e.g., GRF, QEF, and SCOLAR), the participants developed and adopted school-based teaching and learning materials. His work appears in leading education journals, including Computers & Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Social Psychology of Education, Research Papers in Education, Cambridge Journal of Education, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Quarterly and System.
Please register early to secure your spot. For enquiries, please feel free to contact us at eng@hsu.edu.hk.
The Department of English is pleased to share an upcoming event featuring our Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Dr. Paul Fung, in conversation with Edward Lam, Artistic Director of Edward Lam Dance Theatre and director of The Yi Yi Trilogy.
Following the screening of Edward Yang’s acclaimed film Yi Yi, Dr. Fung—who has published research on the film—will offer his insights into its themes of childhood, imitation, and emotional purity, focusing on the character Yang Yang. What does it mean to love purely? How does a child’s way of seeing the world contrast with the adult experience?
Whether you’re a longtime fan of Yi Yi or discovering it for the first time, this conversation promises to spark meaningful reflections and new perspectives.
Dr. Anna Tso, Head and Associate Professor of the Department of English, recently co-published an edited volume titled Transcending Boundaries in the Digital Age with Steven Ng, Tiffany Bai, Noble Lo, and Wendy Chan. This book volume explores educational technology in the digital era, covering hybrid and online learning, equity, emerging technologies, assessment, collaboration, and skills development. It offers research, strategies, and ethical considerations, guiding educators toward inclusive empowerment.
The chapter “Questioning the Quality of AI-Assisted Academic Essays: From the Perspectives of English Teachers and Postgraduate Students” by Dr. Anna Tso explores postgraduate students’ perceptions and experiences of employing AI in academic writing. The findings highlight that generative AI can only generate academic writing of limited quality. Users of AI are recommended to focus on translating proper names accurately and verifying the credibility of content, in-text citations, and references provided by AI. For details, please visit: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-96-2921-3
The Department of English at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK) is pleased to share that Dr Holly Chung, Senior Lecturer, has been recognised at the 5th Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Awards, receiving a Publishing Award in the “Language Learning” category for her co-authored book Learning Phrasal Verbs through Comics: An Adventure in the Village of Shapes. The book was published by Crown Publishing (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd, with illustrations by a local cartoonist.
This award celebrates excellence in publishing across the region, and Dr Chung’s book was selected as one of only ten winners in its category. The title stands out for its creative approach to language education, combining engaging comic-style visuals with practical learning of English phrasal verbs—an area often challenging for learners. The result is a highly accessible and enjoyable resource for students and educators alike.
The Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Awards have become a hallmark of quality in the Chinese-language book industry. Organised by the Hong Kong Publishing Professionals Society and funded by the CreateSmart Initiative under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the Awards are regarded as one of the most authoritative accolades in the Chinese-language publishing world.
The judging process is both rigorous and transparent, conducted over three stages between February and May 2025. The selection begins with a qualification review, followed by initial judging by a representative panel of local publishers, veteran editors, and academic experts. The final stage is conducted by a jury of publishing and cultural professionals from across Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.
Dr Chung’s recognition in this year’s awards not only highlights her academic commitment to language learning and pedagogy but also affirms the Department of English’s efforts in promoting creative and impactful educational materials.
As part of the government’s initiative to promote reading, the awarded books will be featured in public library exhibitions, local and cross-border bookstores, and highlighted during “Hong Kong Reading for All Day” held annually on 23 April, in conjunction with World Book Day.
The Department of English sends its warmest congratulations to Dr Chung on this well-deserved honour. Her work is an example of our Department’s commitment to inspirational, effective education and to making learning English more enjoyable and accessible to everyone.
To recognize academic excellence and support outstanding new students, the Department of English is pleased to announce the launch of the Entrance Scholarship for BA-ENG Year 1 Local Students for the 2025/26 academic year.
This scholarship is open to newly admitted local students of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English (BA-ENG) programme. Students who have achieved excellent academic results in the 2025 senior secondary public examinations will be considered for this prestigious award.
Each selected student will receive a scholarship valued at HK$30,000.
For further details, please contact the Department of English.
Eligibility & Criteria
For Year 1 entry undergraduate local student newly admitted to the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English programme in the academic year 2025/26;
Attained 332A2 in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, or equivalent, meeting the minimum admission requirement in 2025;
Only students admitted to the University, in Semester 1 with current year admission results are eligible;
Academic results of combined HKDSE certificates will not be considered;
Students will be considered for any entrance scholarship only once during their study at the University. Any student who is transferred/re-admitted to the same or another programme for whatever reasons will not be considered for any entrance scholarship;
Selected applicants will be invited to an interview and a written test conducted by the BA-ENG Programme Team;
Priority consideration will be given to eligible students who have achieved Level 4 or above in English Language;
Special cases will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the BA-ENG Programme Team.
Application/ Nomination Procedure
Eligible students will be selected and nominated by the programme office of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English for endorsement by the Department Head and School Dean, and approval by the University’s Scholarship and Financial Assistance Committee.
Applicants should make themselves aware of the “ Guiding Principles for Scholarship/ Award and Financial Assistance Schemes” as stipulated by the Scholarship and Financial Assistance Committee.
Please visit https://www.hsu.edu.hk/hk/admissions/ to learn more about the application procedures for the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English programme.
The Department of English at the School of Humanities and Social Science, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, and International TESOL Union (ITU) are pleased to announce that the International TESOL Union Conference on Trailblazing Advances in Applied Linguistics (TAAL) will be held on August 15-16, 2025 at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
The ITU 2025 conference welcomes proposals in all areas of applied linguistics and TESOL. We are particularly interested in innovative and rigorous topics that demonstrate strong methodological and/or theoretical approaches to understand applied linguistics and TESOL. Additionally, we encourage postgraduate students who are nearing completion of their theses to submit proposals as well. Frontline TESOL teachers are equally welcome to participate.
Keynote Speakers
Gavin Bui, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
Lixian Jin, City University of Macau
Luxin Yang, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Marina Dodigovic, University of Slavonski Brod
Mark Teng Feng, Macau Polytechnic University
Yuen Yi Lo, The University of Hong Kong
Abstract/Paper Submissions
An abstract needs to be about 300 words and clearly indicates the objectives, methods, and (preliminary) results where appropriate. Format the email subject line as “ITU2025+Author Name” and send the abstracts/full papers to info@tesolunion.org.
Important Dates
Abstract submission due: July 5, 2025
Notification of abstract acceptance: July 8, 2025
This conference is free to staff members and students from the HSUHK. They are welcome to attend the conference.
Sponsor
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Victoria (HK) Consultancy Ltd for their kind support and sponsorship.
