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Tag: Hong Kong

HKAPA School of Dance and Akram Khan internship programme

Posted on by Communications Office

As part of the collaboration between The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts‘ School of Dance and the Akram Khan Company in the 2021/22 academic year, eight final year students from the School of Dance were selected after three rounds of rigorous online auditions to participate in a seven-week internship in London. The internship started in late January, as the fifth wave of the pandemic swept through Hong Kong.

Coping with much uncertainty arising from Hong Kong’s Covid restrictions and constant changes in travelling regulations, the students began their internship online before travelling to London for the remaining five weeks. They were assigned to understudy particular roles in one of the Akram Khan Company’s latest productions, Jungle Book Reimagined. Despite the new environment and intense rehearsals posing many challenges to the students, they all engaged fully in a professional company environment, made swift progress and equipped themselves to be ready as professional dance artists.

Two of the students, Yam Wing-nam and Jan Mikaela Bautista Villanueva, were selected to attend the three-week production residency and the world premiere in Leicester. Mikaela’s excellent performance earned her a place as a guest artist at the world premiere and a contract with the Akram Khan Company as a professional dancer.

EdUHK research on vocabulary learning based on learner-generated pictorial annotations

Posted on by eduhk

Many applications of big data in language education are associated with multimedia learning, and a considerable proportion of the practices of integrating multimedia into language learning resources is associated with annotations for vocabulary learning. The literature indicates that multimedia annotations are very effective in promoting vocabulary learning and that pictorial annotations lead to effective vocabulary learning, but their creation is challenging and time-consuming.

A research by Dr Zou Di, Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, investigated the potential for using big data for vocabulary learning by having students search for images on Google and social media to help understand, learn and retain vocabulary. The research examined learners’ perceptions of creating pictorial annotations using Google images and social media images, their evaluation of the learner-generated pictorial annotations, and the effectiveness of Google and social media pictorial annotations in promoting vocabulary learning.

The study included 153 undergraduates learning English as a foreign language, all non-English majors in a local university in Hong Kong, split randomly into five groups. Group 1 created pictorial annotations taken from Google and social media for 10 target words (burglarize, grin, inflammation, ostensible, procrastination, rake, shatter, shiver, tumble, and wrath), and after training, Group 2 evaluated Group 1’s pictorial annotations. Based on the students’ evaluation scores, two experts selected two sets of pictorial animations for each of the 10 target words, and two experiment groups learned the target words with them, Group 3 using the Google pictures and Group 4 using the social media pictures. Group 5 was the control group.

The Group 3 and 4 participants’ prior knowledge of the target words was measured through a pre-test before the intervention, and their initial learning and retention of the words were measured through an immediate post-test right after the intervention and a delayed post-test one week later.

The results indicated positive attitudes towards using Google and social media pictorial annotations for language enhancement and significant effectiveness in both learning and remembering the target words. The study found that Google pictorial annotations were more appropriate and reliable and achieved better results than those from social media. It also found that the participants who created word lists with images were more likely to engage in active learning when they selected and organised the verbal and visual information of target words by themselves and actively integrated this information with their prior knowledge.

Over 90% of the participants found using Google and social media data as resources for language enhancement interesting and creative, and over 80% of them considered it feasible and reliable. The participants generally agreed that it was easy to create pictorial annotations using Google and social media data. Learner-generated annotations for words with concrete meanings were much more highly rated than the annotations for words with abstract meanings.

The research was conducted together with Associate Professor Xie Haoran at the Department of Computing and Decision Science, Lingnan University.

EdUHK research reveals influence of sensory-motor components of handwriting on Chinese character learning

Posted on by eduhk

A large body of research supports the critical role of handwriting in reading, both in alphabetic languages and Chinese. Studies of alphabetic languages found that handwriting practice facilitates early letter categorisation ability.

In the study by Dr Amelia Xu Zhengye, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Special Education and Counselling (SEC), The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), 144 second- and 150 fourth-grade Chinese students were recruited to complete a Chinese character-learning task to explore the specific contributions of sensory-motor components including visual, motor and haptic systems, of handwriting to Chinese character learning. There were three sessions in the study: pretest, training, and posttest. The pretest was performed two weeks before the training and the posttest was conducted immediately after the training session.

After matching for age, nonverbal IQ, and a series of cognitive-linguistic skills, each child was assigned to one of four training conditions (i.e., reading, visual processing, air-writing, or handwriting) to investigate the specific contributions of sensory-motor components of handwriting to Chinese character learning. In the reading condition, the children were shown images of characters. In the other three conditions, they were shown animations of how a given character is written. The participants were asked to view the animations in the visual processing condition, whereas in the air-writing and handwriting conditions they were asked, respectively, to follow the animations and write the Chinese characters with their index fingers in the air or write the Chinese characters with a pen on paper. They were asked to name the learnt characters in the posttest.

Both air-writing and handwriting elicited a larger training effect than reading or visual processing, but there was no difference between the air-writing and handwriting groups. Also, no age differences were found in either the air-writing or handwriting conditions.

Overall, the children in the air-writing and handwriting groups performed better than those in the reading (control) and visual processing groups, but there was no significant difference between air-writing and handwriting, nor between reading and visual processing.

First, the visual-processing condition, displaying characters with their stroke-order information, did not provide any extra benefit over the control condition displaying the overall shape. Second, both the air-writing and handwriting conditions provided greater enhancements than the reading condition, suggesting that participating had a better learning effect than passive viewing. Third, the difference between air-writing and visual processing was significant, implying that the specific movements related to orthographic formation have a unique contribution to the relationship between writing and reading. Finally, the similar training effects of the handwriting and air-writing conditions suggest that the haptic processing of handwriting per se did not lead to any unique reading improvement.

The study provides a direction for researchers and educators to examine how to use the different sensory-motor components of handwriting in learning and teaching practice to enhance the effectiveness of Chinese character learning.

The study was conducted together with Dr Liu Duo, Associate Professor at SEC, EdUHK; and Professor Joshi R. Malatesha at Texas A&M University.

An arts and cultural heritage postgraduate programme spanning East and West

Posted on by Editorial Team

The exponential growth of the art market, and the creation of new cultural assets, such as Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural Center and the M+ Museum, are just some of the factors fueling a huge surge in demand in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the region, for professionals trained in the field of art and cultural heritage management. With Hong Kong already home to what is ranked as the world’s second largest art market, and the Hong Kong Government’s 2022-23 budget statement including further significant financial backing for the SAR’s creative and cultural heritage sectors, this demand only looks set to grow.

This makes the September 2022 launch of the Master of Arts in Arts and Cultural Heritage Management (MA ACHM) programme, run in partnership by the School of Graduate Studies at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University and the Lincoln International Business School at the UK’s University of Lincoln, so timely.

Spanning East and West, the curriculum of this exciting new dual degree will integrate the theories and practices of arts management, cultural heritage policy, curatorial practice, art projects, entrepreneurial initiatives, and professional training. Students on the programme will get the chance to apply their knowledge in tackling real-world problems. They will also be able to experience professional interaction with art historians, collectors and museum professionals, through workshops and an internship.

The structure of the programme

During their first academic semester, students will take four required courses at Lingnan. These courses are: Critical issues for cultural and heritage management; History, heritage and regional perspectives; a cultural policy workshop, and; a workshop for arts administration and programme management.

The rest of the year will be spent at the University of Lincoln, where MA ACHM students will take courses in: Community organisation, sustainability and development; Research methods for tourism; Hospitality, visitor experience, and cultural and heritage attractions, and; Digitising cultural and heritage collections.

To graduate, students will also be required to complete a master’s thesis.

The value of the East-West partnership

Both Lingnan University and University of Lincoln bring first-class faculty, as well as access to important art and cultural heritage resources, to their collaboration.

Lingnan has strong partnerships with a number of local private and public organisations, including the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Furthermore, in his latest budget, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan made clear his desire to promote, and broaden, the development of the SAR’s arts and culture heritage sectors, and earmarked hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars for this purpose.

While Lincoln, and the surrounding area, is home to a number of exceptional heritage sites, including it’s 1000-year-old cathedral and castle. “The University of Lincoln also has established expertise in running taught masters degree programmes in the field of cultural heritage management,” explains the MA ACHM Programme Director at Lingnan, Professor Creighton Connolly.

The programme, therefore, promises to be an ideal foundation for either advanced study in cultural heritage management and conservation, or a professional career centred on museums, or in curatorial and other art-related roles.

HKBU-led research identifies new regulatory mechanism of satiety, therapeutic target for obesity

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

A research team led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has found that a proteolytic enzyme called membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) plays an important role in the regulatory mechanism of fullness, or satiety, and it could serve as a promising potential drug target for the management of obesity.

The research findings were published in the internationally-renowned scientific journal Nature Metabolism. The study has also been featured as a research highlight in multiple high-impact journals, including Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Nature Metabolism and Science Signaling.

Half of Hong Kong’s population obese or overweight

Being overweight, especially to the extent of obesity, exposes people to a higher risk of life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. According to the Population Health Survey conducted in 2014/15 by the Department of Health, about 30% of people in Hong Kong aged 15 to 84 were obese, and another 20% were overweight.

The most effective way to tackle obesity is to reduce food consumption, but obese people often encounter difficulties in regulating their dietary habits as they lose their sense of satiety. Identifying a factor that specifically controls body weight, and investigating how it regulates our sense of satiety, is crucial for the development of therapeutic approaches for obesity.

Identification of new regulator of satiety signals

A research team led by Dr Xavier Wong Hoi-leong, Assistant Professor of the Teaching and Research Division of the School of Chinese Medicine (SCM), and Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Director of the Clinical Division of SCM and Tsang Shiu Tim Endowed Chair of Chinese Medicine Clinical Studies at HKBU, identified a proteolytic enzyme called MT1-MMP which regulates the mechanism of issuing satiety signals in the human brain.

Growth and differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a hormone that sends out satiety signals by binding with the neuron receptor in the hindbrain called GDNF-family receptor α-like (GFRAL). Mediation of GFRAL can therefore affect the ability of GDF15 to send satiety signals, and thus help regulate food intake. From this starting point, the research team conducted a series of experiments to investigate the mediation effects of MT1-MMP on GFRAL.

Depletion of MT1-MMP reduces obesity

The research team generated an obesity mouse model by feeding a fat-rich diet to a group of transgenic mice with a depletion of MT1-MMP in their satiety neurons, as well as a control group of ordinary mice. After 16 weeks, the mice with depleted MT1-MMP ate 10% less food, gained 50% less weight, and exhibited reduced glucose and plasma insulin levels compared to the control group. The results show that depletion of MT1-MMP protects mice from obesity induced by a high-fat diet.

Following analysis with western blots, a widely used analytical technique that can detect specific proteins, the research team also found that the obese mice displayed an increased activity of MT1-MMP in the Area Postrema and Nucleus of the Solitary Tract, the brain regions involved in appetite and weight regulation. The finding suggests that increased MT1-MMP activity in the brain of obese mice could be a risk factor causing sustained weight gain.

To understand the mechanism by which MT1-MMP suppresses GDF15 satiety signalling, the research team conducted a series of molecular biology experiments involving animal models and cell culture. The results show that in cells with active MT1-MMP, a significant reduction of GFRAL and thus GDF15 signalling were observed. It could be explained by MT1-MMP clipping GFRAL from the surface of the brain neurons, which blocks GDF15 from binding to GFRAL and thus reduces the number of satiety signals. This in turn keeps the neurons from transmitting the satiety signals sent by GDF15.

MT1-MMP as a therapeutic target for obesity

The researchers also explored the therapeutic potential of targeting MT1-MMP for obesity management, in particular through pharmacological inhibition of its activity in vivo. With the application of a specific neutralising antibody that inhibits MT1-MMP, significant improvements in metabolic parameters including food intake, glucose tolerance and body weight in obese mice were observed. The results suggest that MT1-MMP is a potential therapeutic target that could be used in the development of innovative drug treatments for obesity.

Dr Wong said: “The research findings have established the role played by MT1-MMP in regulating satiety, and they have provided preliminary indications that the proteolytic enzyme is a promising target for the treatment of obesity. Pharmacological inhibition of MT1-MMP could be a viable strategy for the development of effective pharmacotherapy for the treatment of obesity.”

Apart from researchers from HKBU, the research team included scientists from The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and the University of Helsinki.

HKAPA presents SWEAT Hong Kong International Dance Festival

Posted on by Communications Office

Presented by The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, The 1st SWEAT Hong Kong International Dance Festival, held virtually from June 17 to 25, is specially curated for the international dance community to meet, innovate, research, share and dance.

Join SWEAT to see the work-in-progress presentations from the cross-cultural residency across 4 cities; enter a virtual global stage of dance with screenings from numerous dance academies & selected commissioned dance films; and meet artists, scholars and other practitioners and learn from world-renowned dance artists at the World Dance Alliance (WDA) Global Summit.

Three Programmes with 3 Festival Passes:

ArtsCross Hong Kong 2022

17 June 2022 (Fri)

Encounter creative residents at ArtsCross Hong Kong 2022 for a global digital research project that investigates new possibilities between dance and technology with multicultural perspectives.

Digital International Festival for Dance Academies

18 – 21 June 2022 (Sat – Tue)

Celebrate the connection of 15 international dance academies at the first Digital International Festival for Dance Academies (IFDA) for a thrilling series of staged performances and original film screenings performed and created by the freshest dance talents in the world and student-led forum.

World Dance Alliance Global Summit

22 – 25 June 2022 (Wed – Sat)

Immerse in thought-provoking conversations and presentations of the World Dance Alliance Global Summit 2022 and navigate new pathways for arts, dance and wellness in the post-pandemic world and empower the dance artists of tomorrow in practice and research.

For details & tickets, please visit: https://sweat-festival.hkapa.edu/

Festival Partner: Hong Kong Dance Alliance (HKDA)

Supported by: Hong Kong Arts Development Council(HKADC)

EdUHK’s holistic health programmes contribute to family harmony

Posted on by eduhk

As physical activity (PA) has significant benefits for health and fitness, the WHO recommends that children and adults engage at least 60 minutes and 150 minutes of moderate-intensity PA per week, respectively. However, owing to global urbanisation, technological advances, and increasing convenience in daily activities, inadequate PA in all aspects of life has become a major public health concern. In Hong Kong, 71% of adults do not meet the WHO PA recommendations.

This persistent and growing health-related problem indicates an urgent need to develop an intervention programme that can effectively promote PA at the individual, family, community, and city-wide levels. Therefore, a set of community-based family ‘holistic health’ intervention programmes were developed, implemented, and evaluated in the previous Happy Family Kitchen Movement (HFKM) project to promote well-being and health in Hong Kong.

Dr Henry Ho Chun-yip, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, conducted a study to integrate positive psychology concepts with PA and healthy eating in the programmes. The results of the study provided support for overall intervention effectiveness on well-being outcomes, including family harmony, subjective happiness, and mental quality of life. This article reports findings on the physical health outcomes of the positive physical activity (PPA) intervention from the HFKM to examine its effectiveness for promoting PA and fitness among families.

In the study, a PPA intervention was developed to promote physical activity and fitness among Hong Kong families. PPA utilises positive affective attitudes to circumvent barriers to health behaviour change by helping families associate feelings of enjoyment with physical activity. Zero-Time Exercise (ZTEx) was introduced and promoted as a foot-in-the-door approach.

Using a community-based collaborative approach, the research team worked with social service organisations, a government department, and schools to implement a cluster randomised controlled crossover trial at a citywide scale. A total of 1,983 eligible participants from 1,467 families were recruited from all 18 districts in Hong Kong. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and physical fitness assessments at pre-intervention and one- and three-month follow-up.

PPA was effective in increasing individual ZTEx and ZTEx with family members at one-and three-month follow-up and in improving balance and endurance at three-month follow-up. Within-group improvements were also observed in PPA for ZTEx, ZTEx with family members, balance, and endurance. The qualitative results provided further support for the intervention effectiveness and added in-depth insight into the participants’ motivational, interpersonal, and affective experiences associated with PA after participating in the programme.

The results shed light on the intervention’s effectiveness for PA and fitness, and demonstrated that the community-based collaborative approach is successful in engaging the relevant stakeholders in an active and fruitful partnership with effective capacity building for programme development.

The study was conducted together with Professor Lam Tai-hing at the School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong.

To learn more about the study, please click here.

EdUHK Clinches six awards at International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva

Posted on by eduhk

The Education University of Hong Kong has received four silver medals and two bronze at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in March 2022. The exhibition is a renowned event to showcase innovations and inventions from all over the world. The award-winning inventions cover a variety of areas: behavioural and cognitive therapy, music education, environmental detection, image captioning and product search engines.

Silver Medals

1. A New Generation of Dissolved Oxygen Sensor Using Replaceable Photo-sensing Film

  • Principal investigator: Professor Rudolf Wu Shiu-sun, Advisor (Environmental Science), Department of Science and Environmental Studies
  • A novel device which detects and keeps a permanent record of the dissolved oxygen (DO) level in a medium using replaceable photo-sensing film. It is unaffected by biofouling, thus providing a cost-effective method of DO monitoring over large bodies of water.

2. Integrated Intelligent Intervention (3i)-Learning System

  • Principal investigator: Student Victor Wong Chun-man, Doctor of Education programme
  • A distance-learning system combining AI and Internet of Things, which supports carers to conduct Applied Behaviour Analysis therapies for students with special educational needs.

3. Reimagining Music Learning with e-Orch

  • Principal investigator: Dr Leung Chi-hin, Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural and Creative Arts
  • A system consists of an app and a cloud-based software, which specifically designed for music performance and composition. Integrated with the patented Grid Notation, virtual instruments and AI music generator, the innovation makes music education accessible and inclusive.

4. UNISON: Unpaired Cross-lingual Image Captioning

  • Principal investigator: Professor Philip Yu Leung-ho, Department of Mathematics and Information Technology (MIT)
  • An innovative AI system which generates cross-lingual (English to Chinese) image captions without relying on any paired caption corpus. The system consists of two phases: (i) a cross-lingual auto-encoding process and (ii) a cross-modal unsupervised feature mapping, which can perform real-time image to text conversion.

Bronze Medals

5. Lighten Dementia Game Set (Donut, Tea Bag, Fly)

  • Principal investigator: Alumna Christine Chan Ka-kei, Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Primary) programme
  • A game-based training set specially designed for elderly with dementia in Asian communities. The training set fosters social engagement among elders through Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, which helps slow down the progression of dementia and maintain cognitive functions.

6. Shopgrouper – An Online Product Search Engine that Creates Intelligent Personalised Shopping Experience

  • Principal investigator: Alumni Dicky Kwok Wing-cheung and Lam Yick-sun, Bachelor of Education (Honours) (Secondary) – Information and Communication Technology programme, and Dr Henry So Chi-fuk, Senior Lecturer, MIT
  • An e-commerce product search engine with an AI product categorisation system. It enhances shopping experience by crawling products data from online shops and offering precise recommendations to consumer. The merchant-customer matching feature also makes shopping more convenient.

HKBU joint research reveals gut microbial enzymes reactivate triclosan which induces colitis

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

A Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) collaborative research study has revealed that certain gut microbial enzymes mediate the reactivation of triclosan (TCS) from its inactive glucuronide metabolite. TCS is an antimicrobial agent commonly used in a wide range of consumer products, and it is associated with the development of colitis.

The research results have been published in Nature Communications, an international scientific journal.

Mechanism of TCS exposure leading to colitis previously unclear

TCS is widely used as an antimicrobial agent in consumer products such as toothpaste, mouthwash, hand sanitisers, cosmetics and toys. It is a major environmental contaminant, and it has been shown that TCS exposure increases the risk of colitis.

Once TCS enters the human body, it is rapidly metabolised to form the biologically inactive metabolite TCS-glucuronide (TCS-G), which is easily eliminated from the body. Due to this characteristic, the mechanism of how environmental exposure to TCS leads to gut toxicity in the human body has previously remained unclear.

To answer this question, a research team co-led by Professor Cai Zongwei, Chair Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Environmental and Biological Analysis at HKBU; Professor Matthew R Redinbo from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Professor Zhang Guodong from the University of Massachusetts Amherst conducted a research study based on the hypothesis that certain gut microbial enzymes act on TCS-G in the gut, leading to the reactivation of TCS and the subsequent development of colitis.

TCS concentration uniquely high in the gut

To begin with, the research team sought to determine whether the gut has a different TCS metabolic profile compared to other body tissues. A group of mice were fed food that contained TCS. After four weeks, it was found that the biologically inactive TCS-G was dominant in their liver, bile, heart and small intestine, while the colitis-inducing TCS was dominant in the gut (cecum and colon). The results showed that the gut has a uniquely high concentration of TCS compared to other body tissues.

The research team then analysed the relationship between TCS-containing products and the concentration of TCS in the human body. In a group of human subjects who used TCS-containing personal care products for four months, both TCS and TCS-G were detected in their stool and urine samples, with TCS being dominant in stool and TCS-G being dominant in urine. However, TCS and TCS-G were not detected in the control group who used TCS-free personal care products. The results showed that the use of TCS-containing products leads to a high level of TCS, specifically in the human gut.

Gut microbiota significant in TCS-G conversion

The question remains why the human gut has a uniquely high TCS concentration. To answer this, the research team put forth the hypothesis that gut microbiota participate in the conversion of TCS-G to TCS, leading to the accumulation of TCS in the gut.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers observed that in an in vitro setting, cultured gut bacteria from both mice and humans were able to catalyse the conversion of TCS-G to TCS. To investigate whether the same phenomenon appears in an in vivo setting, the research team found that the inhibition of gut bacteria from mice by applying an antibiotic treatment almost reduced the concentration of TCS in their guts by half, and it increased the concentration of TCS-G by six-fold. The results affirmed that gut microbiota play a significant role in the conversion of TCS-G to TCS in the gut.

Specific enzymes catalyse TCS-G conversion

To investigate the mechanism by which gut microbiota catalyse TCS-G conversion, the research team focused on the intestinal β-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes produced by gut bacteria in both mice and humans, because they have been shown to catalyse a wide range of metabolite conversions. Using a series of screening techniques, two types of GUS, namely “Loop 1” and “flavin mononucleotide (FMN)-binding” GUSs, were found to be most effective at converting TCS-G to TCS in vitro.

The research team then applied a GUS inhibitor, a drug that inhibits the function of Loop 1 and FMN-binding GUSs, to TCS-exposed and TCS-free mice. It was found that the GUS inhibitor could curb the conversion of TCS-G to TCS by the GUS enzymes. Colitis in TCS-exposed mice was also relieved after the application of the GUS inhibitor. The results support the notion that specific microbial GUS enzymes drive the conversion of TCS-G to TCS, and as a result, the chance of developing colitis is increased.

More stringent TCS controls needed

Professor Cai said: “Our research results clearly defined the mechanism by which gut microbiota are involved in the metabolism and toxicology of TCS, and the study offers a way to prevent the development of colitis following environmental exposure to chemicals.

“Regulatory bodies should consider imposing more stringent controls on the use of TCS. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the marketing of TCS in over-the-counter antiseptic products in 2016, the chemical remains approved for use in a wide range of products. Transparency on TCS ingredients in product labelling and illustrations should also be improved so that consumers can be aware of the potential risks and make informed choices.”

EdUHK researcher builds corpus to support learning, teaching of Cantonese

Posted on by eduhk

Hong Kong is a multilingual society, but nearly 90% of the population speak Cantonese as a first language. Cantonese is used in both formal and informal settings. Many non-local people living and working in Hong Kong therefore need to learn Cantonese in order to integrate themselves into the local community.

Despite its dominant status, however, Cantonese has never been formalised and implemented into the school curriculum. Consequently, learning and teaching materials and teaching methods vary considerably.

Dr Andy Chin Chi-on, Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), proposed a research programme adopting a more scientific and objective approach to promote the learning and teaching Cantonese.

Studies in the past five decades have enriched our understanding of the lexicon, phonology and grammar of Cantonese; yet some deeper issues, such as pragmatics, semantics and discourse, remain to be explored. This kind of research requires a significant amount of authentic and natural language data. The research team thus proposed the construction of a Cantonese corpus to expand the scope of Cantonese linguistic research.

One major advantage of using corpus in language studies is the provision of objective, unbiased quantitative and qualitative data for research and other applications, including the compilation of language materials and natural language processing, such as speech-to-text and text-to-speech algorithms.

The research project started in 2011 with the support of an EdUHK internal research grant and the Early Career Scheme of the Research Grants Council. Dr Chin constructed the corpus in two phases with a size of about one million Chinese characters. The corpus data was collected by transcribing the dialogues of 80 black-and-white movies produced between the 1950s and 1970s, and is now available online.

The corpus won the Gold Medal and Special Award at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival in 2019. Dr Chin has also developed mobile apps containing the corpus data.

The CanPro app, which enables learners to practise Cantonese pronunciation through commonly used expressions in the corpus, won a Silver Medal at the 2021 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days.

Another mobile app called ‘Learn Cantonese with Big Data’, supported by the Language Fund of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, was launched in March 2022. One major feature of this app is the provision of linguistic information that Cantonese learners might find relevant and useful, such as the collocation of verb-noun, classifier-noun structures, which cannot be obtained without corpus data.