The Faculty of Arts at CUHK warmly congratulates four outstanding students on being awarded the 2025-2026 Zhilan Scholarship for the Study of Chinese Culture (Zhilan Scholarship): Zhuang Shentao (Chinese Studies, Year 4), Chan Yuk-hei (Department of History, Year 4), Rachel Leung (Chinese Art-Art History, PhD Year 2) and Wu Qihui (Cultural Studies, PhD Year 2). The scholarship recognises their remarkable achievements in the study of Chinese culture.

This year’s awardees pursue a diverse range of research topics that engage with history, urban culture, and the environment, reflecting the close connection between the study of Chinese culture and the Faculty’s strong humanistic spirit.

Zhuang Shentao examines Eileen Chang’s strategies of retention, creation, and abridgment in her Mandarin translation of Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, a novel written in Wu Chinese. His research repositions adaptation as literary creation and aims to advance the transmission of regional urban culture within Sinophone contexts. Chan Yuk-hei views the study of modern Chinese history as a way to cultivate empathy for those around us; through understanding the past, she believes we can better care for others and for society.

Rachel Leung aspires to provide new perspectives on the vibrant political culture surrounding calligraphy in imperial China, with a focus on the Kangxi emperor of the Qing dynasty. Wu Qihui’s ethnographic fieldwork studies ethnic minority ecocinema. She hopes her project will enrich the discourse on China’s vision of ecological civilisation and critique on anthropocentric environmental paradigms.

With the generous support of the Zhilan Scholarship, students are empowered to pursue their research aspirations and contribute to the study of Chinese culture and related humanities topics.

About the Zhilan Scholarship

Established by the Faculty of Arts at CUHK in 2023 – 2024 with the generous support of the Zhilan Foundation for the Study of Chinese Culture, the Zhilan Scholarship awards a total of HKD 160,000 annually to four outstanding students. The scholarship recognises excellent academic and research achievements in Chinese culture studies and aims to promote the study and preservation of Chinese culture while upholding humanistic values.