The Review 2007

42 43 The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival Several key events for the festival were organised at HKU this year, including a conversation between iconic American author Gore Vidal and former New South Wales premier, Bob Carr. Mr Vidal has spent a lifetime near the heart of American politics and told the audience at the Rayson Huang Theatre that the baton of world leadership had passed from the United States to China. “Being in China I’m naturally reminded of Confucius,” he said, “and the Mandate of Heaven fell to us (the USA) in 1945 and we were the masters of the earth, which was far more than any Chinese emperor ever enjoyed. But it was ours, and were not going to let it go. And then we did everything wrong. “And now we are at the end of it, and the Mandate of Heaven has come back here, which was my feeling as I looked out over Shanghai and saw new buildings, so much better than the ones we have in New York. And I thought, ‘Oh it did change, we lost it.’” The 2006 Man Booker Prize winner, Kiran Desai, also spoke on the inequalities of immigration in the globalised world, a theme that runs through her book The Inheritance of Loss . Demoting Pluto Professor David Jewitt, the astronomer responsible for Pluto’s official demotion, spoke about the significant discovery of the first Kuiper Belt Object in 1992, with fellow scientist Jane Luu, which led to the controversy over Pluto’s status as a planet and he explained why Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006. Space Physicist The most renowned space physicist of Chinese origin, Dr Anthony T Y Lui of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, spoke on weather in space at a public lecture in January. Dr Lui, an expert on space disturbances, has been invited by the Chinese Space Agency to join the Steering Committee of the Chinese Double Star Programme – a satellite-based space mission, sponsored by the European Space Agency and the China National Space Administration. He will work on the Kuafu mission satellites for space weather forecast. Zen Master The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, a world-renowned Zen master and peace advocate, led a 10-day mindfulness programme and spoke to thousands of followers in events organised by HKU’s Centre for Buddhist Studies in May. In this, the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s third visit to Hong Kong, he said he had been prompted to come by reports of the stress levels endured by Hong Kong people. “Hong Kong is a city that l ives under constant pressure,” he said, “and its people often experience loneliness and interpersonal alienations. The overwhelming response from the various professionals in participating in the programme is ample proof that there is a great demand for guidance in handling stress and dealing with changes in Hong Kong society.” Gore Vidal David Jewitt Anthony T Y Lui Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh DistinguishedVisitors search for effective methods of automatic machine proofs in geometry. This led, in 1977 to the introduction of a powerful mechanical method that transformed a problem in elemen- tary geometry into an algebraic statement which lends itself to effective computation. Professor Wu’s method revolution- ized the field, effectively provoking a paradigm shift. Poet at the Dance World-renowned poet Rita Dove gave a reading with commentary entitled “Poet at the Dance”, in which she mused on the music of language. Dove, who is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, served as US Poet Laureate and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. During the Edmund Blunden Lecture, at HKU, she recalled how she arrived at the title for the evening. “My husband and I have been ballroom dancing for about eight years, before it became all the rage in the States…so I began to muse about the ways in which music was important, artistically and personally, in my life and as I thought about the poems I realised that it was there all along. “For me poetry has to sing, if the words do not sing then it’s not poetry. Historically poets have always been the celebrants of life. It was really a natural progression for me from music, playing the cello, to writing.” As an international university, we host visits every year from high-profile individuals who make globally-significant contributions in a wide variety of fields. On these pages is a selection of our visitors in 2006-07. Laureates Professor Sir James Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate in Economics 1996, spoke on ending poverty in China. Professor Mirrlees developed an interest in Chinese economic development in the 1980s when he was involved in the establishment of the Chinese Economic Association in Britain. His research interests have involved growth theory and the theory of contracts. More recently his research has focused on welfare economics, contract theory, public finance and development economics. In 1996 Professor Sir James Mirrlees was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics, for contributions to the theory of asymmetric information The Shaw Laureates in Mathematical Sciences lectured at the University in September 2006. Professor David Mumford reflected on pure and applied mathematics. Professor Mumford, of Brown University, a world-renowned researcher in both algebraic geometry and computer vision, is a member of the National Academy of Science (USA), and a recipient of the Fields Medal in Mathematics for 1974. Professor Wu Wentsun, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, spoke on the development of mathemat- ics in China since ancient times. In the 1970s Professor Wu pursued the question of computation and, in particular the Professor Sir James Mirrlees Professor David Mumford Professor Wu Wentsun Rita Dove Sinopix Photo Agency Sinopix Photo Agency