Support and Opportunities

“Some people speak without communicating.” Tan Lee is a Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering at CUHK with over 30 years of research experience in speech technology, including “Speech-to-Text” and “Text-to-Speech” technologies that we use on a daily basis. Au fait with abstruse computerese, Prof Lee is, however, mindful of making himself understood.

”Good voice” of CUHK

“Long-serving academic staff are sometimes so absorbed in their own lectures and tend to talk non-stop. I often remind myself not to do so, albeit rather unsuccessfully.” His text message before the interview seemed to imply that it would be a lengthy conversation. It turned out to be a very lively 2-hour chat, during which he shared and explicated his experience as the vice-leader of CUHK Choir as a student, on researches and interdisciplinary and knowledge transfer projects, as well as designing an individualized “phonograph”for a patient with laryngeal cancer recently.

“I’m very conscious of what and how I speak in class, especially in the past decade.” Tan Lee is careful of not only what he says, but also whether students understand. The 12 exemplary teaching awards he has received in the past 20 years — including 9 that were awarded in a row — are testimonies to his repute.

Despite his eloquence in Cantonese romanisation system and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), trained as an electronic engineer, Tan Lee only began his interest in linguistics 30 years ago during his doctoral studies at CUHK. “My first doctoral research was on Cantonese speech recognition.”

From mathematics to Cantonese linguistics

Having spent the majority of his life at Ma Liu Shui where CUHK situates, Tan Lee was admitted to CUHK in 1984 to study mathematics after one-year High Level matriculation, and transferred to electronic engineering in Year 2. “I believe that if you excel in mathematics, you excel in anything. I think highly of mathematicians, such as Prof Conan Leung. He was so brilliant that he studied mathematics with Prof Yau Shing Tung even before he completed his undergraduate degree.” Notwithstanding his love in mathematics, having one less year in high school spelled “disastrous” grades in his first year in university. He persuaded the department head to let him transfer to the more “pragmatic” study of electronic engineering.

“I continued on an MPhil at CUHK and worked as a teaching assistant at CityU (then City Polytechnic) afterwards.” As he pondered whether to study PhD at the end of the work contract, he bumped into Prof Ching Pak Chung and Prof Chan Lai Wan at the train station. He was told of their prospective research project on Cantonese speech recognition. He seized the chance to join their research team, “I hence began my doctoral study at CUHK in 1992.” Tan Lee quotes all names and timings from his commendable memory.

Although much of speech recognition is computer-processed, research in this field cannot do without basic knowledge in linguistics. “I was clueless about Cantonese linguistics, so I sought help from Prof Eric Zee, an anthropologist who was also proficient in phonetics. I attended his seminars at CityU to learn as much as I could, albeit unsystematically.”

“As I started learning Cantonese romanisation, there was no standardised system. Jyutping was adopted in the academia, but it was not used by laymen at all.” He illustrates with the miscellany of romanisation of Chinese surnames. “The surname ‘Zee’ of Prof Eric Zee is more commonly spelled ‘Tsui’; ‘Choi’, ‘Tsoi’ and ‘Choy’ refer to the same Chinese surname; so as ‘Cheung’ and ‘Chiang’.” This is a legacy of colonial administration.

“In the past, officers at Birth Registries wrote down names that were best possibly pronounced accordingly to the romanisation system that they had learnt. But there were no standardised system, hence the variations.” He then learnt IPA too. “I had to grasp it as it is applicable to all languages.”

Learning IPA, then Cantonese , helps to minimise embarrassment.

“There is a big difference between the long ‘aa’ and the short ‘a’, such as in ‘lau’ (a surname) and ‘laau’ ( to scoop), and ‘faai’ (quick) and ‘fai’ (lame). Have you heard the joke about a washing machine? A person goes into a laundry and tells the shop assistant, ‘This piece of clothing can die this way or die the other way.’ There is a slight difference between ‘sei’ (to die) and ‘sai’ (to wash) in Cantonese.”

Constructing speech

Tan Lee has been researching in speech for over 30 years. “I study mainly the technologies of ‘Speech-to-Text’ and ‘Text-to-Speech’.” He points out that the former is trickier. Accent is one of the determining factors for the success of Speech-to-Text technology. “Context, accent, language, audio equipment and so on are some of the elements that may affect speech. Why does a mother talk to her young child slowly and repetitively? There is no single speech technology that can decipher all these issues.”

He emphasises the marvels of the human brain, “Understanding a speech may seem easy-peasy. Yet the human brain is in fact busy with a vast array of assumptions and settings. For instance, since I already know what you will ask me in this interview, I can understand you even if you stutter.”

“But you do not have these assumptions and settings to what I may say, then I have to speak very clearly. This is how the brain leads us to recognise speech. It is a very complicated technology. Can a computer programme recognise it? If it can this time, how about the next? A tremendous amount of training data are thus required.” He expounds perspicuously in just a few sentences.

Crossing the line for good

Although there is no single speech technology that covers all areas of communication, Lee Tan is good at liaising with scholars in various disciplines to take on all kinds of challenges with his expertise in engineering. These include improvement on speech processing of cochlear implant with audiologists, assessment for children with speech disorder with speech processing, identifying communication characteristics of exemplary counsellors with educational psychologists and so on.

“I suppose I am the most diverse researcher in terms of interdisciplinary projects. I have worked with all academic departments of CUHK except BA and Law.” He chuckles.

His recent project on retaining the voice of Jody, who was suffering from laryngeal cancer, has gained much public attention. The surgical treatment that Jody received involved the removal of the larynx, which meant she would lose her voice. Her son’s girlfriend sought help on the internet and it caught the attention of Matthew, a student of Tan Lee and led to this project. The team made over 10 hours of recordings of Jody’s voice before the surgery, and reconstructed her voice digitally with AI and speech synthesis so that she might “talk” in her own voice with others using “Text-to-Speech” application (see news coverage on Cable TV).

Once world’s largest Cantonese speech database

How did Tan Lee’s team manage to compile all the scripts for Jody in less than 24 hours? “We have already had these materials in hand including written language, conversational and story-telling speeches, as well as all the newspaper clippings in 1999-2000.”

He points out that CUHK is the first university to have received Hong Kong government’s Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), and this very first funding has supported the building of a Cantonese speech database. The database, once the world’s largest of its kind, engaged over 1000 persons to create more than 400 hours of voice recordings.

“Apple acquired our database for its first-generation speech recognition application, though I have no idea how much information they have actually made used of.”

There is enormous potential for speech and deep learning technology. In spite of the possible appropriation for Deepfake, such as faking the voice of the president of a bank for financial fraud, the technology can help desperate patients like Jody and their families as well as people suffering from Parkinson’s disease and Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) with degenerate speech capacities.

“Imagine the elderly being able to hear the voice of their grandchildren who live abroad, or listen to them reading the newspaper… this technology will be helpful but there can be ethical issues too.”

He believes technology is to do good to those in need. “And not to those who chat with Siri when they are bored.” He does not like to use Siri but avails himself of the Speech-to-Text function in the mobile phone, “It generates very colloquial Cantonese phrases.”

It is not uncommon for scholars to change tracks from the academia to business. Having a wide range of avocations such as singing and playing basketball, Tan Lee still has great relish in his position in the university. “I can learn a lot here.” He shares another recent collaboration with Prof Harold Chui of Department of Educational Psychology that is “fun and novel”.

“They had collected multitudinous hours of recordings from counselling sessions. We analysed the speech, intonation and other characteristics of the counsellors. We found that the key to effective counselling was not what advice the counsellor gave but how the counsellor guided the recipients to express themselves. These included intervals between responses, repeating the wordings used by the recipient and the frequency of such, and more so the use of function words. We even had a special meeting on function words — this was definitely new for me. By this I became more cautious when talking to my children.”

Apart from inter-departmental collaboration, he was awarded funding from CUHK KPF to create a personalised storytelling system in 2020 with speech technology. The mobile application allows children and parents to listen to 100 children’s stories, and enables children to change contents of the stories, such as colours and places to enhance interaction between children and parents. “Daddy can assume the role of the big bad wolf,” Tan Lee grins.

Is it possible to synthesise the voices of parents who are away or too busy to read stories to their kids? The father of two disapproves in no time, “It will be best for parents themselves to read to their children. I do not wish the technology to deviate from its good intentions. I am therefore very alert about this.” A good technology is not only effective but also ethical — surely this will be well-discussed in his general education course “Demystifying AI”. 

【Scholarly keyword】Speech technology research

“The difference between ‘Building’ and ‘Architecture’ lies in the human touch of the latter,” chuckles Mo Kar Him, Assistant Professor of the School of Architecture, CUHK. Mo, in a chic navy blue Tang shirt jacket, quotes Le Corbusier, the pioneer and maestro of modernist architecture, to explicate his “way of architecture”.

He further highlights, “Architecture is not only a physical environment. It is an arena for ‘the interwork of souls between people and space’.”

Before moving on to discuss different levels of architecture, let’s get to know the affable duo — Mo and Rina. Both architects graduated from CUHK. Mo is now teaching at the School of Architecture of CUHK. Rina is an accountant-cum-architect who left a famous Swiss architectural firm in 2018 to join the CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, despite a hefty axe on the salary.

Why did the two young executives leap from their professions into research, especially in gerontology? They had even secured funding from CUHK Sustainable Knowledge Transfer Project Fund (S-KPF) to set up the social enterprise Happy Ageing Lab. How does architecture affect the health of the elderly? Can we age discerningly? What changes do Mo and Rina want to make?

Start: Walkable Hong Kong

The idea of a social enterprise was conceived when Mo and Rina worked together at “Nutcrackers”. Nutcrackers advocates healthy ageing in Hong Kong. They recruit a group of elderly to learn about urban planning, architectural design, universal design and so on, then conduct place audits and share their end-user experience.

“The two-year project gathered a group of enthusiastic and knowledgeable senior citizens. So how can their voices be heeded to promote social change? This is what Happy Ageing Lab aims to do.” Mo points out the philosophy of the company.

Apart from philosophy, a social enterprise is also required of a business model. “We provide assessment on elderly-friendliness of architectural environments, for instance, whether the washrooms of a shopping mall are safe and easy to find. The accessibility of toilets can be a determining factor for elderly people to step outside their home.”

One Step at a Time

In the theory of startups, minimum viable product (MVP) refers to the basic version of a product with just sufficient features to launch to the market in order to collect user feedbacks. Mo’s team begins with “toilet” with a similar objective in mind.

“Toilet is small and manageable for measuring and comparing its performance. It is easier to bring about change and is actionable as it is small enough.” They plan to kick off the project in Tsuen Wan. “Tsuen Wan is an ideal trial area with a good mix of new and old communities. It is also conveniently connected and walkable, which is important for the elderly.”

The team hopes to share the assessment results with developers and property management companies, and that they will consider and follow up with the findings. “Sometimes I am wary that my wife would slip in a shopping mall washroom, not to mention the elderly. Designers and property management companies have to work hand in hand to solve the problem.” A caring guy indeed.

How are they going to disseminate opinions of the elderly participants? There are quite a number of social media channels that are popular with young people. KOLs can make significant noise. They plan to set up a KOL platform for golden-agers, and are now busy producing video clips for them to pass on their voices, opinions and insights.

The Mature Student Way

There are three co-founders of Happy Ageing Lab, including William Sin, an expert in community development. The team has been in close partnership with a group of senior citizens. Rina, before joining CUHK, had been quite detached with users during her academic and career pursuits. She decided to quit and “do something meaningful that engage users.” What made her left the reputable Swiss architectural firm to join the Institute of Ageing?

“Upon completing the Tai Kwun project, I realised that I like preliminary research and design more. So I quitted my job and completed the professional exam. And started thinking why I was doing all this.” Rina, with a small strand of brightly-highlighted forelock, has a first undergraduate degree in Accounting. For the love of architecture, she spent another year in the UK studying architecture, and returned to Hong Kong as a mature student to complete her undergraduate degree in architecture at CUHK, and then a master of architecture.

“As a mature student, I was 10-plus years older than my peers. I hence often pondered about meaning.” And why did she chew over gerontology? This had to do with her personal experience.

As Rina was exploring what life had for her after her “naked” resignation, “My mom fell down the stairs and was admitted to the geriatrics ward of Ruttonjee Hospital. I was dismayed by the scene at the ward. Some patients were so skinny that their eyes bulged. Some could not close their jaws, lost all their teeth or muscle. Others whimpered all night due to all kinds of ailments.” Rina recounts in great length.

As such she realised perhaps her professional knowledge might be useful for the ageing population, which was receiving increasing attention as a social problem. After some diligent research, Rina knocked repeatedly on the door of CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing to persuade Prof Jean Woo, the then Director of the Institute, to hire her. Prof Woo was at first hesitant about having Rina for the new post as its responsibilities were largely administrative. She was afraid that this would be a talent mismatch.

Rina’s persistence paid off and she got into the Institute. As soon as she was on board she did more than what was required, and hunted resources everywhere to create favourable conditions towards her goal. Rina made a significant contribution to the setting up of Nutcrackers — a cross-disciplinary project that connects the expertise of CUHK scholars in urban planning, architecture and medicine to promote Hong Kong as a “happy-ageing” society. Her longtime friend Mo was invited to join the team.

Back to the Academia

“When I started studying architecture, I wanted to change the world with architecture. This could be a reflection of my class monitor or teacher’s helper complex,” Mo chuckles again.

With a passion for design and art, and the dream to change the world, Mo had worked in policy research related positions after completing his PhD in architecture at CUHK. But things did not turn out as he expected. “I was very much disconnected from the community and people. At the same time there was certain kind of estrangement with different parties. It was quite depressing…haha.”

He hence decided to return to research and teaching. “I hope to pass on some good values to the next generation.” As a co-founder of Happy Ageing Lab, he often joins working groups on-site to listen to the opinions of the elderly on communal facilities.

What Makes a Happy Ageing Society?

“There is a certain level of objectivity in considering whether a society is a happy ageing society, such as walkability and green space. But it takes another level for golden agers to lead an active and enriching social life. Loneliness of the elderly is a serious social problem in Hong Kong. Many of them are reluctant to step outside their home, especially those who are chronically ill. Designing community environment is thus very important. For instance, will a carefully designed corridor encourage the elderly to stay outside longer?” Mo reckons that sociability has greater impact on the health of the elderly than tangible conditions.

Enhancing social interaction via built environment design is one of the key objectives in Community Development. User participation is salient in the design process. “Participatory design and co-design, which emphasise engaging end-users, are catching on big in recent years. Such engagement was absent during my study or at my previous jobs,” says Mo.

Human Touching Journey

Mo continues to point out how good architecture enables the interwork of souls between people and space. As a Christian, he shares a touching experience in Korea. “Rocks and forests were configured as a prayer garden of natural environment. It was the first time that I cried for visiting a place. There was an open space in the garden, where people played volleyball, worshipped or prayed. It was such a beautiful vista. You don’t cry when you see people play volleyball in Victoria park, do you?”

Rina the contemplator jokes that she only cries when she meets Crowd Lu, a Taiwanese signer-songwriter. She has similar experience at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery to share too. “In front of the Wo Hop Shek Architectural Services Building, there was a coffin in the front, behind which were glass panes and then bamboo trees. As sunlight sifts down, for the first time I was in awe how great architectural design creates an ambience that comforts and soothes when you need it,” applauds Rina, who seems to be stirred particularly by life and death matters.

“It was not an ambience that can be easily created. This is what makes a maestro. Architects have to be observant. Participatory design is important in a way that it delivers user opinions to the industry, “ Rina accentuates.

“Architecture is not only a photo by the architect. It is the vessel that carries feelings of the people at any particular moment. Whether sad, happy or celebrating, the experience belongs to the users. In the past, architectural design process tend to exclude users. What can the outcome possibly carry?” Mo concurs that user participation is indispensable in the early stage of a good architectural design.

Happy Ageing Lab envisions a beautiful, generational-inclusive city. Towards the end of the interview, we notice the fashionable and niftily tailored masks that Mo and Rina are wearing. “It’s handmade by an elderly in Nutcrackers, with the cloth that I bought from Japan,” says Rina jovially. Will this be the prototype of a new product of Happy Ageing Lab?

“I would say that these experiences make me mentally stronger with greater empathy for others. When people share their difficulties with you, do not criticise why they don’t solve their own problems — there might be predicaments that you’d never be able to comprehend,” says Prof Felix Yim Binh Sze, reflecting on her unusual upbringing and hence her enthusiasm in improving the mental well-being of the underprivileged, especially the deaf.

We arrived at Felix’s office at the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies in CUHK University Academy Building No. 2 on a Thursday afternoon. The chalky white building near Science Park shimmered amidst swaying palm trees and open lawns.

From English Literature to Deaf Studies

Felix is an Associate Professor of the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, and the co-director of the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies. Last year, together with Prof Winnie Mak of the Department of Psychology, she launched the project “Enhancing Mental Health of the Deaf Community in Hong Kong” supported by CUHK Knowledge Transfer Project Fund (KPF). The project builds a Sign Language-Chinese bilingual database on mental well-being for deaf individuals to understand mental health issues such as “depression” and “anxiety”, and raises awareness on deaf identity and mental health through storytelling training sessions.

As a hearing person without deaf friends or relatives, how did Felix start her academic research on the deaf and sign language in the first place? This all began with her undergraduate studies.

Felix studied English at CUHK in 1990s through the “Provisional Acceptance Scheme”. But Felix soon reconciled that she was not that into English Literature and found her interest in linguistics instead.“As I learnt more and more about linguistics, I realised that I was not meant for a particular subject if I dozed off when studying. Yet linguistics keeps me on the ball.”

Upon graduation, she turned down the invitation to teach English at her alma mater and moved on to MPhil in linguistics. At first she studied the acquisition of Cantonese of young children, but the departure of her thesis supervisor from CUHK opened up a new pathway.

“I was a teaching assistant of Prof Gladys Tang. She asked if I wanted to study sign language and I just hopped on the opportunity.” Felix admits that, most of the time, her direction in life is to go with the flow. “I never say I have to do this or that. Instead I keep doing what I’m interested in, and seize the opportunity.”

It was then that she first got in touch with the deaf community, not because of any noble mission, but out of sheer attractiveness of sign language.

“I read about brain science and grammatical analysis of sign language. It was serendipity. The language system of sign language is totally different from Cantonese or English. I picked up basic sign language in 1998, starting from numbers, alphabets and simple vocabularies like father and mother.”

We had heard from Prof Gladys Tang the very interesting story on how Felix came on a “maestro” on sign language. Kenny, the first deaf researcher at the Centre, is a native signer. Felix literally found him on the street.

Finding Teacher on the Street

“I only started learning sign language during my MPhil studies. My first sign language teacher was hard-of-hearing. His was fluent in sign language though a late learner. As I read more research papers I realised that it would be better to learn from native signers, just as learning any language from native speakers. So I began looking for a native signer. Yet fewer than 5% of deaf people are native signers as most are born to hearing non-signing parents. One night, after visiting my boyfriend (now my husband), I met a couple at the bus stop. They were signing to each other. I ignored the arriving bus, went up to them instead and asked if they could teach me sign language.”

They exchanged contacts. It turned out that the girl was from a deaf family and was genuine native signer. Felix would visit the girl’s home to learn sign language, and got to know the girl’s deaf brother Kenny, who is now a staff at the Centre. Kenny was then a construction worker. He studied very hard to complete his undergraduate studies at CUHK. It took him 5 years of sub-degree training before he got into the BA in Linguistics (senior year entry). Today Kenny is studying masters and is a sign language instructor at CUHK. It was a thorough transformation for him.

“There were several big jumps in my sign language proficiency. Learning from Kenny was certainly one of those. We often had lunch together — I taught him English and he would correct my signs. That’s how language is learnt. You’ll make significant improvements by having deaf friends.”

For Felix, studying an MPhil was a random decision, but it was with much determination that she went for a doctorate. During the three years of her masters studies, she saw how difficult it was to rid the misconceptions of officials in the Education Bureau on sign language. (Sign language was often disregarded. Deaf students could only wear hearing aids or read lips in class.) “Sign language can assist deaf children’s learning and development tremendously, but the officials do not understand this. Yet they are the ones who formulate the policies. I have to be well-equipped academically to change the institution.”

After thorough consideration, she began her doctorate in Deaf Studies in 2000 at the University of Bristol. She resolved to take Deaf Studies and declined the offer from University of Cambridge on a postgraduate research program on Second Language Acquisition of English.

Others might not be able to understand why Felix turned down an offer from a top university of the world. Did her family doubt her decision?

“No. Throughout my childhood my parents were busy making ends meet. So I was pretty free to do what I liked. They never questioned my decisions at all, and supported me always.” Felix goes on to elaborate on how she becomes mentally strong due to her unusual upbringing.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

“You can tell that the spelling of my name in English is a bit strange. I am Vietnamese Chinese. I was born in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and my family fled to Hong Kong in 1976 when I was two. My grandfather, dubbed “the Banana King”, used to run a successful fruit business in the Chinatown of Ho Chi Minh City. As soon as the troops of North Vietnam took over South Vietnam in 1975, they began purging Chinese. They voided the local currency, and confiscated the properties of Chinese and restricted their freedom of movement. Like all other wealthy Chinese, my grandfather lost his fortune overnight.”

Hong Kong saw the influx of Vietnamese refugees since mid-1970. Luckily, Felix’s father had studied in Hong Kong when he was young, and he had a Hong Kong ID card. Her family was retreated to Hong Kong by the British Hong Kong government chartered flight. “Most of other Chinese fled as stowaways by boat. That was extremely risky. My aunt and her boyfriend’s family of a dozen drowned in the sea.” It was a tragic period of oppression and narrow escape.

“Many Chinese families lost everything overnight. They could not withstand the persecution and the whole family committed suicide, like adding raticide in their last dinner. I felt very shocked hearing these true stories.” Felix does not remember much about the days in Vietnam, but she has heard loads of these agonising stories from her parents.

Vietnamese refugee crisis had troubled Hong Kong for nearly a quarter of a century. Many of the refugees faced discrimination. As Vietnamese Chinese, Felix was sometimes verbally abused by her schoolmates in her senior primary and junior secondary school years. “The harassment had lasted for some time, but stopped when they probably realised I was a pretty bright student. This somehow made me mentally stronger, and not to take ridicules seriously. My background as a refugee enables me to empathise more easily with the underprivileged.”

Psychological well-being of the deaf neglected

Empathy is the key to the creation of the project on mental health for deaf individuals. “When I was pursuing my doctorate degree in the UK, a fellow student with a background in psychology shared that what is stressless for the hearing can be distressing for the deaf. Their needs are easily neglected if we do not pay attention.”

“For instance, in many parts of UK, passengers have to tell the bus driver their destinations when boarding so that the bus driver can let the passenger know how much the bus fare is. This is no easy task for the deaf. When there are other passengers queuing to get on the bus, the bus driver can get impatient. This will make deaf passengers stressful. The design of some mental health questionnaires may not reflect the reasons for deaf individuals to be stressful in a bus ride. They are misunderstood as having serious anxiety and misdiagnosed for being mentally ill, and the situation evolves into a vicious cycle.” 

Felix points out that without proper training, psychologists may fail to see such double-misinterpretation. They may resort to drugs or refer them to psychiatrists instead of understanding and solving their actual needs.

Another incident that upsets Felix is the suicide of Li Ching in 2008. Li Ching passed public examination with flying colours, yet she had great difficulty in finding a job upon graduation. She was then referred to work at the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies. “She grew up in mainstream schools with spoken languages only. It had been very stressful to her, and her mental health was not very well when she joined us at the Centre. She had then made effort in assimilating into the signing deaf community but could not help feeling defeated,” Felix chokes back her tears.

“Her death was a huge blow to everyone at the Centre. It however strengthened my belief in the importance of mental well-being for the deaf. We would never wish to see another similar incident.” Her calling is backed by several young colleagues including Kloris Lau who is about to take a masters course in counselling, and Ham Chu who is currently studying masters in clinical psychology.

Project members of “Enhancing mental health of the Deaf community in Hong Kong” (from left to right): Kloris Lau, Prof Felix Sze, Prof Winnie Mak and Ham Chu. (ORKTS/CUHK)

This project also embodies the transfer of knowledge among several “generations” of tutors and students.

Ham, 28 years of age and hearing, came across Kenny’s sign language class when she was an undergraduate student in Psychology at CUHK. She was fascinated by the world of sign language, and has since then kept learning sign language and becomes a sign language interpreter. She aims to be a clinical psychologist who can provide therapy in Hong Kong Sign Language for deaf individuals. Her enthusiasm in this fortuitous journey is impressive.

The project integrates academic knowledge and experience of both departments of Linguistics and Psychology at CUHK. Felix and Kloris are building a sign language database by scrutinising concepts in psychology in sign language. Winnie and Ham provide storytelling training sessions to enhance community engagement of deaf individuals, and raise awareness of the general public by having the deaf to sign their own stories.

It is time for Felix to leave after an enjoyable sharing on Hong Kong Sign Language and Deaf culture. Felix hastily picks up her backpack, “Gotta go and fetch my guinea pig from the pet clinic!”

The book Fashioning the Male Professors co-written by Prof Anthony Fung, Dr Louis Ho, Dr Chow Yiu-fai and Prof John Erni, gives a glimpse of Prof Fung’s assiduity on grooming, fashion and scent. The lines are peppered with his honest and humorous remarks.

Anthony has been with the School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK since 2001. He champions styling even before the bloom of the Korean drama “Boys Over Flowers” — wearing make-up, going to beauty salon, getting immaculate facial treatment, and even choosing fabrics and making patterns by himself to get his outfits tailored. “I tailored these by myself,” he said proudly, pointing at the light-coloured checkered cropped pants he was wearing.

From wardrobe to community

“Others may just sit back when taking a break from writing paper. I seize the time to trim my eyebrows,” Anthony spoke jovially on tips to utilise every tick of the clock. He could go on for a whole day on grooming as an integral part of life, but he was more than happy to share instead on a collaborative knowledge transfer project about Shek O, and his previous initiative with the School of Architecture on documentary and cultural promotion in Sai Ying Pun.

On a breezy morning a few days after this interview at the end of January, Anthony and his crew strolled in the sleepy and sultry village of Shek O to film various cultural and historic spots with the assistance of local villagers. These footage would be archived in a VR database for promoting culture and life of the century-old village of Shek O.

Video-documenting is only part of what the project “Visualizing the past, connecting to the present” involves. Before applying for the CUHK Knowledge Transfer Project Fundlast year, Anthony recruited two teammates — Dr Sally Lo and Prof Johnson Chan, who specialise in oral history and sustainable tourism respectively. They hope to preserve the cultural heritage of this typhoon-prone village of more than two thousand residents.

Last year the project team touched base with volunteers of Shek O Heritage Society and Shek O Residents Association, and got to hear interesting stories from the villagers — working at Shek O Golf & Country Club during the colonial years, organising festivities with adjacent villages and so on. Nowadays Shek O is packed with beach-goers and visitors taking IG-able photos at European-like houses and alleys every weekend, but few really pay attention to the people and history here. This kind of tourism is probably not desired by the local villagers.

Shek O was severely damaged by Super Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018. Anthony met a villager from Shek O at an event and ideas of a project sparkled. “The typhoon was devastating to them. He suggested that I study what can be studied. I have always had an interest in communities and documenting their stories. Many communities will vanish lest proper preservation is done.”

“The project will record stories from the local elders’ point of view. I hope to organise educational events at schools around Shau Kei Wan to promote the historic values of Shek O. It has so much more to offer than a tourist spot.” Notwithstanding the cancellation of an assortment of celebrations such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Tin Hau’s Birthday and Halloween (Shek O has a significant non-Chinese population) as well as oral history interviews, video documenting could still carry on.

Develop and document

The sights of Shek O were reminiscent of his first research project upon joining CUHK in the beginning of 2000s, which took place in Mui Wo. When MTR Tung Chung Line opened, the town quiet down as people no longer took ferry to Lantau via Mui Wo. Anthony wanted to know how this might impact the youths in Mui Wo and its community development on the whole.

“I began anyways without any success on funding, and visited Mui Wo twice every week for six months. Random chats at cha chaan teng are good starting points. Making friends is important. Otherwise why on earth would the villagers trust you?” Integration is the prerequisite for community projects. He went from door to door at Mui Wo with a historian friend, and visited schools and youth centres to complete the research.

Apart from the projects at Shek O and Mui Wo, Anthony teamed up with Prof Hendrik Tieben of School of Architecture, CUHK in 2013 with the support of CUHK’s Knowledge Transfer Fund to launch the whimsical community project Magic Carpet. Again this project had something to do with the MTR. How did the opening of MTR Sai Ying Pun Station affect the rather run-down community?

The team trained over twenty students from St Paul’s College who interviewed a good number of residents in the neighbourhood. On a mid-autumn night, the simple set-up of an artificial grass carpet, a projector and a screen transformed the steep, underused public space in Centre Street into an outdoor cinema, where residents of the area came to watch the video interviews, and reflected on the relationship between cultural conservation and urban development. Great response received in Sai Ying Pun allowed the project to be subsequently brought to Tin Shui Wai and To Kwa Wan.

Proficient in pop culture, youth culture and gaming industry, Anthony’s interest in community issues might have sprung from his social service experiences when he was in secondary school. In the 1980s, Anthony and his schoolmates often volunteered at elderly homes and youth centres.

“One of the most memorable occasions happened at a fishermen children’s school in Shau Kei Wan. It was not uncommon back then for fishermen to forbid their children from attending school. The school teachers would have to visit and persuade these parents to let their kids receive education. I volunteered at the school by organising extra-curricular activities for the children.”

These experiences inspired him to study journalism and communications at CUHK through the Early Admission Scheme upon completing sixth-form at Wah Yan College, Hong Kong. It was quite an unusual choice as most elite students would take medicine, electrical engineering or business and administration.

“Many of my classmates had become doctors. My mother was very liberal but she could not help from berating me for my decision.” Anthony and his mother were very close, as revealed in Fashioning the Male Professors.

Upon graduating from CUHK, Anthony was awarded a scholarship for postgraduate studies at University of Minnesota. He completed Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication and PhD in Communication within 6 years, and returned to Hong Kong just in time to witness the city’s handover to China. Was “study hard” his mantra?

Work hard, play harder

Quite the contrary. Anthony has his own theory on time management. He took to American college life like a duck to water. “I never missed any party or thanks-giving gathering. I had to understand the community and society（quite a good excuse）.” He totally embodies the catchphrase “it requires effort to look effortless”.

“Later I found myself roistering over the line as I had beg my landlord pardon for returning late almost every night. So I restrict myself for partying two nights per week at most. It helped a lot to focus on writing papers from then on.” Efficiency comes from self-discipline. His motto to students: work hard, play hard.

Anthony’s remarkable academic achievement and career is not without real work experience in the media. In 1991, he took advantage of the less busy final year term and took on a full-time job at Oriental Daily for HK$10,000 per month (still the same salary for this post 20 years after). He was assigned to the complaint column. It was the golden age of media workers.

“It was also the time when complaints were not properly handled. Lack of community facilities, public toilets weren’t taken care of… I remember going all the way to Chung Hom Kok to take photos of a public toilet there. It was hilarious. But there were lots of opportunities to reach out to different groups and issues of the society.” It was definitely an unforgettable “working holiday” for Anthony before going to US for postgraduate studies.

Apart from flipping government telephone directories to air grievances, Anthony also wrote extensively on environment, adventure, alternative medicine and so on. “Reporters were given proper respect and freedom. Everything we wrote would be published without political concerns.” Job satisfaction aside, he quitted after a bit more than a year when the Rotary scholarship was secured.

Setting trend senses

While in US, Anthony realised that news is only a fraction of applied communication studies. Television, film and music are also significant research topics. “What really matters is how communication takes place in daily life. News only constitutes a small part of that.” Pop culture became his research interest as soon as he returned to Hong Kong. He started with comparative studies on Asian TV dramas, and gaming industry since 2000s.

In 2015, Anthony was appointed professor at Beijing Normal University where he would spend three months in a year with access to the big data of China’s Tech Giants for his research on gaming industry. He recommends closer collaboration between CUHK and private companies, and that between the academia and business on the whole. “The multitudinous terms and conditions make it extremely difficult for the university to work with the private sector,” Anthony understands the risks of conflict of interest though, “So it has to be win-win.”

He wishes that the pandemic will be over soon so that he can carry out his plans, one of which is buying fabrics in Shenzhen to replenish his wardrobe.

“It’s increasingly evident that the social impact created by social-minded corporates can be as powerful as that by the NGOs.” In her neat executive outfit, Dr Elsie Tsui details her days traversing the commercial, social welfare and academic fields at the freshly open-for-business CUHK InnoPort.

She toiled considerable years in the business world – shortly after graduating from CUHK Sociology, she studied MBA at the University of Cambridge, then spearheaded the Public Affairs and Communications function at Greater China division of The Coca-Cola Company for eight years, before working at the Europe and Asia offices of innovation consultancy ?What If! Innovation Partner (now under Accenture). Having joined the academia for half a decade, she’s keen on introducing good business practices to students, while calling for companies to attach greater importance to social values.

Embrace multi-cultures

With copious experiences diagnosing enterprises at her past jobs, she is well-versed with many brand stories, especially those in her beloved fashion industry. Intriguingly, what got her talking today turn out to be two other buzzwords with which she has become fascinated for the past ten years – innovation and social impact.

Elsie even did research on local social enterprises for her doctoral thesis. Currently one of CUHK’s advocates for “business for good”, she has been the Project Director of Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge (HKSEC) for five years, teaches social entrepreneurship at CUHK Business School, and in this September, joined the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services (ORKTS) as Head of Social Innovation, working towards a systematic channelling of university knowledge outputs to the society to create social impact.

 

Born in Thailand, Elsie spent a few years of her childhood in Taiwan and Singapore before settling in Hong Kong at the age of five. Since finishing her studies, she has worked in Shanghai and London. “I moved from one country to another many times, and had to attune to varying languages and cultures in the process. It could possibly be the reason for my resilience to culture shock!” Her unique upbringing contributed to her poise within a bustling, multinational corporate environment. “Cultural differences mean fun! I’d like to know why others think in certain ways.”

Going in for social enterprises

Her eyes gleam with satisfaction as she shares her days in the private sector. What then piqued her interest towards social enterprises, that she even did a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) on the topic?

She confesses to having been interested in the subject matter back when she took care of corporate social responsibility at Coca-Cola China, though the moment of “enlightenment” dawned on her when she became a Consultant for ?What If! Innovation.

“I was based in London back then, and a few colleagues took up a pro bono project in collaboration with an NGO. They were tasked with – via innovative means – calling for a ban of a malign practice, female circumcision in Africa.” Using design thinking, the team put forward proposals that, on the one hand, win over the tribal chief and preserve their culture, and on the other, fulfil the needs of modern development. One of the ideas involved airing the voices of victims through pop songs, “playing them day and night, prompting public discourse.”

“We had to be cautious though – not to approach it entirely from a western perspective, and neglect their cultural heritage. So, we discussed with the chief (the “empathise” phase in design thinking) to understand the values behind this custom, and the possibility of replacing circumcision with other practices.” Despite her confident demeanour, Elsie highlights the reality of personal blind spots, “don’t get convinced that others are utterly wrong and you are perfectly right.”

 

Pioneering education on social innovation

Roaming across the planet for years, she started paving the way home in 2012 for “work and life balance”. Besides doing a DBA at Grenoble School of Management, France, she took the helm of the HKSEC project at CUHK Center for Entrepreneurship (CfE) in 2015. Renowned names as Green Price, WEDO GLOBAL, Kaifong Tour and lensational have all undergone the Challenge and its training.

“Discussion surrounding the concept of social enterprise heated up in around 2000, when the government released funding to NGOs, mainly for the purpose of promoting work integration social enterprises. CfE believes that any genre of entrepreneurship is worth supporting. Entrepreneurial education not only nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit, but also instils a sense of empathy to fathom the society’s wants, especially those with special needs.” Elsie describes the competition as a cradle to new-born social enterprises.

CfE launched the intercollegiate competition back in 2007, receiving funding support from the Home Affairs Bureau starting the following year. It has already evolved into an accelerator for social start-ups. Though starting businesses may not be for everyone, developing an entrepreneurial mindset is of benefit to all.

Elsie recounts running into an HKSEC “alumnus” at an event hosted by a multinational bank, “He didn’t win the Challenge; neither did he reckon he’s suited to the life of an entrepreneur. But going through the whole process, he recognised that even if he’s working for a corporate, he would opt for one that creates social value. Eventually, he joined the CSR department of that bank.” She lists a few more youth leaders invited by the government to join advisory committees, substantiating the “impact” of education on social entrepreneurship.

 

As a new term kicks off this September, in addition to HKSEC and teaching, has Elsie set any targets in her new role (as Head of Social Innovation at ORKTS)?

One of her goals is to deepen the impact of the existing schemes, KPF and S-KPF, two funding schemes that support CUHK scholars to transform their academic knowledge into tangible impact in the community. Professors may put their applied research to the test for market potential with the former, whereas the latter entitles them to set up social enterprises that further the impact of academic outputs in a broader setting.

“Knowledge transfer as a way to create social values is a global trend – many universities are deliberating about ways to transform research into tangible impact.” Over the past weeks, she and her team kept meeting up with funded professor teams, practising the first step of design thinking – empathise (deep, understanding of the users).

“I’m also eager to invite internationally eminent social innovators as entrepreneurs-in-residence to inspire CUHK members, while facilitating cross-sector collaboration to co-create social impact. I would like to document the best practices of successful knowledge transfer activities too.”

 

Experiences and findings

Towards the end of our chat, Elsie shares her observations on the local and global social entrepreneurial ecosystems.

“In the past, close to 80% of social enterprises in Hong Kong are operated by NGOs. Recently, we are seeing in the playing field more individuals without prior experience in social welfare, both young and retired persons. Nonetheless, social enterprises here are often focused only on the local market with limited scalability. On the contrary, take the French Groupe SOS as an example, they are huge in scale with a variety of diverse businesses, even got their own social enterprise accelerator, and with branches in other countries.”

She advises Hongkongers to broaden their horizon and get to know social issues elsewhere; this could contribute to both personal growth and starting up. “Hong Kong is relatively monocultural. The less youngsters go beyond the territory, the more they are reluctant to step out of their comfort zones; the less they understand other cultures, the less interested they end up being. That’s potentially a vicious cycle.”

Define innovation!

“While many relate innovation to technology, that’s not always the case. It could be a business model or management model innovation.” How would she suggest putting innovation into practice? She recommends the ?What If! equation, “insight + idea + impact. Insight means knowing the needs of your users inside out and pinning their pain points down. The proposed idea should precisely answer the issue and generate actual impact.”

Boosting our innovative capacities – the dos and don’ts

“Avoid being negative and constantly kill others’ ideas, such as by saying ‘don’t do this and that’… unduly cynical people are hardly innovative. It’s not only about competence, but also perspective and attitude. Perspective takes time to groom though.” She encourages the younger generation to increase their exposure to foreign media and culture, starting from topics that appeal to them. “For example, I’m interested in the fashion industry and watch loads of relevant videos online. Besides discovering more about the subject, you also come to know more about the KOLs’ cultural backgrounds – and learn something unexpected!”