A farewell gathering

Two former students, Allen Ho and Meedy Nugraha, organized a farewell lunch for me on May 29. This was essentially a Chinese University gathering and about 25 guests turned-up. Some were current students, some were my theses supervisees, there were two former colleagues from the ELT Unit, and other friends.

We ran a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program at the Chinese University, supported by a HK$4 million grant from the University Grants Commission. Over a 4-year period, we were affiliated with about 100 courses and served 5,000+ students.

In this photo, from left, are Ada, Kasina, Wience, Allen, Jane, and Paulina.


These are some of my theses supervisees and former students. From left, Josephine, Sabina, Kate, Kasina, Iris, Meedy, Emily, and Dora. Christie, Allen, and Paulina are in the front row.


Iris Lin, on my left, is the first MPhil student I supervised. I am supervising Dora Huang now, and she'll be my last MPhil.

A rose between two thorns! (?) Ada Young on my right, and Janet Ho on my left. Ada worked on the WAC team for a number of while finishing her PhD. I used Janet's photo on a brochure advertising the MA in Applied Linguistics which I directed. Soon, we saw a dramatic rise in the number of applicants! Hardly a surprise.

The pleasure of being an English professor is the opportunity to work with so many lovely ladies, a chance denied to professors in engineering or medicine, disciplines where male students dominate. I've been blessed.

With Kate Lee

Nellie Chan, on my left, was a secretary at the English Department and was my best friend in the department. She now works at Shue Yan University, along with Fawzia & Josephine.

Reading my list of retirement "benefits". The last item read "I won't have to buy you'll lunch anymore".