Dr Joseph Sun Pao Ting was born in Guangzhou and raised in Hong Kong. He majored in Chinese Literature and Chinese History at HKU and graduated with a BA degree in 1974. He was conferred an MPhil in 1979 and a PhD in 1989, also from HKU.
Dr Ting joined the Hong Kong Museum of Art as an Assistant Curator in 1979 and appointed Chief Curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History in 1995. He retired in 2007 after serving for 28 years, during which he was instrumental in the planning and implementation of the new Hong Kong Museum of History, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence and the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum.
He is currently an Honorary Assistant Professor in the HKU School of Chinese, an Honorary Advisor to the Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, and was an Honorary Research Fellow at the former Centre of Asian Studies.
Dr Ting is a respected scholar of the history of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta area, and is the author of award winning books on the cultural heritage of Hong Kong.
He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chairman of the Chinese Modern History Society of Hong Kong, and a Member, inter alia, of the Antiquities Advisory Board, the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust and the Education Bureau of Hong Kong.
Dr Ting is an Honorary Advisor to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Museum of History, the Shenzhen Museum and the Guangdong Provincial Museum.
Citation delivered by Professor Kam LOUIE, Dean of Arts
To introduce Dr Joseph Ting Sun Pao as Hong Kong’s leading expert on graveyards might not sound very encouraging, and indeed a little macabre, but as you will see, Dr Ting’s work is both celebratory and life-affirming.
Dr Ting is a well-known expert in Hong Kong history. He was born in Guangzhou, and studied at HKU, majoring in Chinese Literature and History. He graduated with a BA degree in 1974, and earned an MPhil in 1979, and a PhD in 1989.
Dr Ting joined the Hong Kong Museum of Art as an Assistant Curator in 1979 and was appointed Chief Curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History in 1995. He retired in 2007 after serving for 28 years, during which he was instrumental in the planning and implementation of the new Hong Kong Museum of History, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence and the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum.
Other positions held by Dr Ting include Museum Expert Adviser with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and Deputy Director of the Local Records Office.
A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, UK, Dr Ting was a Council Member of its Hong Kong Branch from 1991 to 2003, and was made an Honorary Fellow by the Society.
He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chairman of the Chinese Modern History Society of Hong Kong, and a Member, inter alia, of the Antiquities Advisory Board, the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust and the Education Bureau of Hong Kong.
Dr Ting is an Honorary Advisor to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Museum of History, the Shenzhen Museum and the Guangdong Provincial Museum.
Dr Ting remains strongly connected to HKU, and here at his alma mater, he is an Honorary Assistant Professor at the School of Chinese, an Honorary Adviser with the University Museum and Art Gallery, and was an Honorary Research Fellow at the former Centre of Asian Studies. He is also a Committee Member of the Hong Kong Memory Project undertaken by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Science at HKU.
Dr Ting is a respected scholar of the history of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta area, and is the author of award-winning books on the cultural heritage of Hong Kong.
His recent publications include Forgotten Heroes: People Related to Xinhai Revolution Buried in Hong Kong (香江有幸埋忠骨), 2011; The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and the Chinese Community in Hong Kong (1870-1997) (善與人同), 2010; Historical Wandering in Hong Kong (香港歷史散步), 2008; and A Preliminary Study: Prominent Figures in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley (人物與歷史： 跑馬地香港墳場初探), 2008.
In the foreword to this last text, we are reminded that graveyards are great levellers of society: “…good, evil, wealthy or poor, no difference is made between them now.”1
And also that they are chronicles of both individual and collective histories: “The inscriptions on the graves are records of the roads on which they had led our city to move along.”2
Dr Ting gives guided tours to this cemetery. These have proved very popular, which may or may not surprise you.
But what is certain is that, by leading these tours, he is ensuring that these past lives – these founders of Hong Kong, and the way they shaped the city – continue to be shared, celebrated and respected.
Closer to home, Dr Ting’s research works and tours on the founding years of HKU provide a sociological perspective of higher education in what is both a Chinese society and a British Colony.
His talks and guided tours are always welcomed with great enthusiasm, and this itself is testimony to the wonderful spell that historical scholarship can weave when delivered by a skilled and passionate storyteller.
It gives me great pleasure, Mr Pro-Chancellor, to present Dr Joseph Ting Sun Pao for the Honorary University Fellowship, in recognition of his contributions to Hong Kong and academia.
Notes
1. Ting, Joseph SP. A preliminary study: prominent figures in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley (人物與歷史：跑馬地香港墳場初探). (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture: 2008.) 3.
2. Ibid.
