The Review 2002

hol idays, to relate air pol lution to medical stat ist ics. Thei r resul ts were val idated by St George’s Hospi tal Medical School in Britain, which was looking at similar issues in London. The Hong Kong team in turn validated the London research. The f indings were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in January 2002. EXPLAINING CHURCH ORIENTATION European church-building traditions are far removed from the concrete landscapes of Hong Kong, but they held sufficient interest for Universi ty researchers who set out to answer a riddle: why were many churches positioned in the same direction? The riddle proved to be a fruitful sideline for researchers in the Depar tment of Ear th Sciences and the Department of History, who carried out their investigations without funding. They discovered many churches were probably or ientated on Easter Sunday, the most The Review 2002 Research 20 important date in the Christian calendar. Their findings were published in Antiquaries Journal in late 2001 and they now want to look at other church-building traditions to understand how ideas are passed on, lost or ignored. BRIDGING CULTURES WITH GAMELAN The resonant percussion of gamelan music has been ringing in the halls of the University’s Department of Music, in a project that aims to enhance the knowledge and use of the music outside Indonesia. Gamelan music has been researched, transcribed and analysed in the Department, and a gamelan websi te has been set up at which v isi tors can learn the music. Performances have been organised, including a tour of Mainland China. New pieces for the gamelan, which aim to fuse eastern and western inf luences, have also been commissioned under a related project entitled International Creativity in the Asia-Pacific Rim. Peter Cunich (left) and Jason Ali answered the riddle of church orientation. Manolete Mora (right) promoted greater appreciation of gamelan music. The University attracts the highest competitive grants from the major Hong Kong research funding bodies.