About

The Multicultural and Global Diversity project is funded by the Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (TDLEG) 2022-2025. The project aims to foster multicultural understanding and enhance linguistic diversity within HKU campus by organizing and conducting in-person (f2f) and interactive intercultural workshops and activities, based on language exchange. This initiative is led by Dr Loretta Kim, Dr Li Chong and Dr Mercedes Vázquez. These events promoting intercultural understanding and exchange not just between English and Chinese-speakers but also with speakers of all the languages taught in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures including Korean, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic, and providing students with a platform to share across cultures and languages will include:

Lectures/performances about significant attributes of

societies around the world delivered by guest speakers

These interactive and broadly appealing events will pique students’ curiosity and raising their awareness of the culturally-specific dimensions and demonstrate respect for cultural differences within the HKU community, within Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, and in the global context.

Sharing sessions

Students and other speakers will give multimedia presentations about their experiences participating in language and cultural exchange programmes overseas and inspire students to pursue experiential learning opportunities outside of Hong Kong.

Festival of Languages and Cultures

This annual event will feature locally based visual and performing artists from various countries and cultures, and will also expose HKU students to forms of intangible cultural heritage similar to the Hong Kong Culture Festival.

Meet the Team

The Multicultural and Global Diversity Project is led by three faculty members from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, HKU and supported by various alumni, students, and research staff on a rotating basis.

Dr. Li Chong

Li Chong is Senior Lecturer and Director of German Programme at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong. She obtained her PhD in Psycholinguistics and Teaching German as a Foreign Language at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. As one of Hong Kong's foremost Chinese-German-English academics, she has published research on German language education, multilingual language acquisition and intercultural studies by leading international and peer-reviewed journals and reputable publishers. She leads the Knowledge Exchange & Outreach Subcommittee of the Committee on Gender Equality and Diversity at HKU. She has also been appointed a specialist panel member of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications and committed herself to serve the education community.

Dr. Loretta Kim

Loretta Kim is Associate Professor and Director of the China Studies programme at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong. She is a historian of late imperial and modern China. Her primary research areas include the comparative history of borderlands and frontiers, Sino-Russian cultural relations, and Chinese ethnic minority languages and literatures. She is the author of Ethnic Chrysalis: China’s Orochen People and the Legacy of Qing Borderland Administration (2019) and The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong: Religion, Ethnicity, and Intercultural Relations (2021). Loretta also works on the preservation of languages with relatively small user populations and support for ethnic and other social identities that reflect the internal diversity of these groups and organic changes to “tradition” that occur in response to political and economic factors through her research.

Dr. Mercedes Vázquez

Mercedes Vázquez teaches Spanish language and Film and Cultural Studies at The School of Modern Languages and Cultures of The University of Hong Kong. Her long-standing interest in promoting intercultural communication and developing students’ global competence crystallized in numerous cultural projects such as film screenings and discussions with filmmakers from different regions of the world, talks, seminars, and courses involving virtual collaboration with overseas students. This TDLEG project constitutes a new stage in the promotion of understanding between people from both different and similar cultures across the world, and the celebration of diversity at multiple levels.

Mr. Patrick Suen

Patrick Suen has been a media veteran for over 20 years as a film critic, journalist and columnist on film-related topics, Korean society and culture for newspapers and magazines. He graduated with an Master of Philosophy degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Hong Kong. With a profound interest in languages and cultures, he completed the degree course in French and the certificate program in Spanish at the University of Hong Kong. In recent years, he expanded his skills as a polyglot with German, Japanese and Thai courses. Suen speaks Korean and has been working with many Korean filmmakers and actors/actresses. He also serves as moderator and interpreter for major events including the Asian Film Awards (AFA), Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival and Hong Kong Arts Centre activities. His articles have appeared in Ming Pao Weekly, Esquire, Art and Piece, Sky Post and Headline Daily. Suen also served as a nomination advisor for the Asian Film Awards and jury member for the 22nd and 23rd ifva Awards.