The First University of Hong Kong Museum Society Asian Art Essay Prize

Dear members and friends of the Department of Fine Arts,

The Department of Fine Arts at the University of Hong Kong is pleased to announce that the winner of the first University of Hong Kong Museum Society Asian Art Essay Prize is  Ms. Estella Hu Yue (BA 2009) for an essay entitled “The Political Import of the ‘Buddha’ and the ‘Foreign Kings’ in ‘Barbarian Royalty Worshipping Buddha.’” Please join us in congratulating Hu Yue! The winning essay can be viewed here.

The jury for this year’s prize has also awarded a special mention to Jennifer Chiang for her essay “Crossing Culture in the Blue-and-White with Arabic or Persian Inscriptions under Emperor Zhengde (r. 1506-21).”

We also wish to express our special gratitude to the University of Hong Kong Museum Society for their generosity in sponsoring this annual prize and funding the cash award of $2,000. The prize is open to all undergraduate majors in Fine Arts and we received nine excellent submissions from students who studied Asian art in 2008-09. The jury consisted of Professor David Clarke (undergraduate coordinator, 2008-09), Dr. Roz Hammers (specialist in Chinese and Indian art and architecture), and Dr. Yeewan Koon (specialist in Chinese and Japanese art).

Special thanks are due, finally, to all the students who made the extra effort to revise and submit essays originally written for their Art History courses. Such efforts help the entire department raise our level of excellence in both teaching and learning.

Sincerely yours,

Greg Thomas, chairman
Department of Fine Arts
The University of Hong Kong
13 October 2009