Connor AU YEUNG

I have always remembered my time at Lingnan as one of the exceptional opportunities, development, and surprises. From faculty to OSA members, it was the people of Lingnan who gave me support and mentorship to realize the plans that I and fellow students built; it was through their training that I was able to step forth into academic historical research. As a growing historical researcher motivated by people’s motives, decisions, and justifications, Lingnan ignited my passion for history and gave me the impetus from which I grew forth.

Any institution must count on its people for its success. The excellent faculty of the Department of History opened new vistas, provided rigorous training, and facilitated insightful discussions for me during my undergraduate studies, thereby inspiring my ideal to serve as an academic in Hong Kong in the future. Notably, their support of my application for numerous scholarships, such as the HSBC Overseas Scholarship 2019, allowed me access to exchange at UC Berkeley for an academic year, thus building my entry into postgraduate historical research concerning modern East Asia.

Beyond intellectual rigor, Lingnan gave me room to grow in other areas. I enjoyed leading club activities such as Toastmasters as the external vice president, though my tenure was prematurely ended by my spinal surgery. After my recovery, I endeavored with a foreign student on campus to create a cooking workshop for students, gaining the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative excellent prize, as well as being one of the most sought-after students ILP events between the academic years 2018–2019.

Lingnan left a longstanding impact on me by definitively shaping my passion for humanities. From an outsider to the monumental discipline, we call “History,” I became an active participant pursuing issues within extant historiography, particularly concerning material cultures, education, and technology in modern East Asia. Lingnan’s training stayed with me as I studied for a postgraduate degree at UC Berkeley, and through the experience with people that I gained at Lingnan, I became a rather keen graduate instructor among my students. The humanistic mindset I gained from Lingnan, it seems, has never really left me, despite my graduation some time ago.

What next? The praxis of liberal arts in modern China underpinned Lingnan’s history, and it was this tradition that nurtured me. As I gain new methodology, develop new research plans, and move towards further academic exploration throughout and beyond my time here, I shall always remember that the people of Lingnan have always been its strength, its core, and its ever-vital essence. I shall strive towards excellence, in anticipation of contributing to the school that shaped me in the future.