Honorary University Fellows
Citation for Professor Lo Hong Lit delivered by Dr Manolete Mora, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Honorary University Fellowships Presentation Ceremony on December 16, 2004:
Professor Lo Hong-lit is one of the most revered Chinese classical scholars of today, held in high esteem both for his scholarship and for his skills as a practitioner of the art of ci poetry.
A native of Hepu County in Guangxi province, Professor Lo was born in 1918. He graduated from the Chinese Department of Zhongshan University in Guangzhou and chose teaching as his profession. Teaching was to become his life-long career.
After settling in Hong Kong he taught at Pui Ching Middle School, then became a lecturer in Northcote College of Education, where he taught until 1966 when he joined the Department of Chinese in this University. He taught here until his retirement in 1983. He has not been idle in his retirement, but has held Visiting Professorships in the School of Education of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Department of Chinese of East Asia University in Macau.
His contributions to HKU's Department of Chinese are substantial. He developed and taught undergraduate courses, notably in great shi and ci masters and gu poetry, which are regarded as anchors of classical literature teaching in the Department. During his years with the University he supervised well over forty postgraduate students pursuing higher studies in classical Chinese literature, including scholars from Japan and South Korea.
Professor Lo is held in high esteem in Chinese academia first of all for his achievements in classical Chinese poetry, but his expertise extends beyond the scope of classical poetry into many other important areas of Chinese classical literature, such as the Confucian classics and Chinese history and historiography.
As a scholar dedicated to lifelong research, Professor Lo has produced work of exceptional depth and magnitude. The list of his publications is most impressive. His scholarly commentaries reveal his penetrating insight into many much-debated intellectual issues, often throwing new light on issues discussed before.
Professor Lo has also established a reputation as one of the finest ci poets in contemporary China, winning admiration for his originality and poetic skill. His poetic works are collected under the title Musical Poetry from 'Two Xiaoshan' Studio. The collection was published in 1971 and in a new edition in 2002. These poetic works, written according to classical rhyme-schemes, are marked by quiet elegance and soothing musicality.
Mr Pro-Chancellor, it gives me great pleasure to present Professor Lo Hong-lit for the award of an Honorary University Fellowship in recognition of his contributions to classical Chinese scholarship, to the University and to the cultural life of the community.