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'The Right is to be Done', the title of Prof. Ng Yan-yung Edward's Inaugural Lecture of Yao Ling Sun Professorship in Architecture on 21 October, is also his motto, which, as he disclosed at the beginning of the lecture, was borrowed from Sir David Akers-Jones. In the lecture, he took the audience on his journey in the past 15 years, trying to find the answer to the question 'What should be done to improve lives?'

Professor Ng remembered very well how Prof. Peter Tregenza, who taught him lighting design at the University of Nottingham, put forth the question 'What should be done?' when showing the poor living conditions of the British people after the Second World War.

When Professor Ng returned to Hong Kong in 1999, he was surprised to find that many people in this city still lived in poor and overcrowded conditions, without suitable amount of daylight and proper air ventilation. And he remembered his teacher's question: 'What should be done?'

Following in his teacher's footsteps, he established an International Daylight Monitoring Station on the top of the water tower of New Asia College and formulated some guidelines for daylighting design in buildings in Hong Kong.

After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, it was known that the overcrowded urban conditions and the lack of daylight and air ventilation had something to do with the epidemic. As an architect, Professor Ng asked himself again, 'What can be done?' He was invited by the Planning Department of the HKSAR Government to look into the issue and the result was the Air Ventilation Assessment (AVA) methodology that he finished in 2006. His recommendations were adopted by the Government and all governmental projects have to be assessed by the AVA system, including the planning of what used to the Kai Tak Airport and the design of the new Government headquarters.

After the AVA project, Professor Ng was commissioned by the Government to study our city a little more in order to achieve better urban planning. He completed the study in 2012 and produced the urban climatic map. He said, 'I'm confident that we now have a better analytic tool to design our city better and to improve life.' After this research, Professor Ng and his team were invited by various cities in the world, including Singapore, Ho Chi Ming City and Kaohsiung, to conduct studies to improve their cities' urban environments. He said, 'So we're busy. That's why Edward's lab is known infamously as a 7/11 lab.'

Lately Professor Ng traveled again and was saddened by the lives of many wretched kids living in poor and remote villages without electricity, running water, and access to modern amenities. These kids do not have knowledge of the world outside and have no future. 'What should be done?'

The answer is the 'One University, One village' initiative, which is Professor Ng's latest brainchild. He said, 'I firmly believe that if we from the universities cannot change lives for the better, we're not doing the right. I don't believe that with the knowledge, resources, people and talent of a university, we cannot make a difference to the lives of a village.' Together with teachers and students from Peking University, Stanford, Cambridge, and Kunming University of Science and Technology, Professor Ng set out to improve the livelihood of rural villages and bring their villagers a better future.

For some, the holy grail of academia is tenure, a research grant, or a prize. For Professor Ng, it's to do the right thing to improve lives.

Source: Information Services Office, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation (the Foundation) has recently donated HK$1 million in support of the "Public Health Train-the-Trainer Project in China’s Rural Communities" initiated by the Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response (CCOUC) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

Officiated by Mr Peter Cheng, Chairman of the Foundation, Professor Francis Chan, Dean of Faculty of Medicine of CUHK and Professor Emily Chan, Director of CCOUC, a cheque presentation ceremony was held on Friday, 17 October 2014 to commemorate this meaningful collaboration. Mr Koo Tong-fat, Director of the Foundation and Ms Sharon Chow, CEO of Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation, also attended the ceremony.

In his welcoming address, Professor Francis Chan expressed his gratitude to the support and generosity of the Foundation, and their recognition in our disaster and medical humanitarian initiatives. With the donation from the Foundation, the Centre will provide professional and systematic training programmes to participants of the Wu Zhi Qiao project. The Public Health Train-the-Trainer Project, which is expected to last for two years, aims to promote public health and effective disaster prevention measures in remote villages and communities in mainland China.

Mr Peter Cheng gave much valuable advice and encouragement to team members of the Project at the ceremony. "The Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation will continue to collaborate closely with CUHK in bringing love and care to the communities and people in need," said Mr Cheng.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has recently established the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine (HKIIM), the first university-run institute in the city that encompasses research, clinical practice and education in the integration of Chinese and Western medicine. The inauguration ceremony was held on 29 September 2014, officiated by Dr Ko Wing-man, Secretary for Food and Health, HKSAR Government; Prof Joseph JY Sung; Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK; Mr Anthony WK Chow, SBS, JP, Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club; Dr Edgar WK Cheng, Chairman of the Lanson Foundation; Prof Edwin CL Yu of the CUHK InteMed Fund; Prof Francis KL Chan, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK and Prof Justin CY Wu, Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine. In addition, over 200 guests and experts from the field of Integrative Medicine witnessed the establishment of a platform that promotes the integration of Chinese and Western medicine.

The use of both Chinese and Western Medicine in parallel in disease treatment is not uncommon in Hong Kong. Many patients consult both Chinese and Western medical practitioners respectively to get better treatment results. However, a safe and proven treatment model of integrative medicine, as well as a sophisticated and standard communication channel between Western and Chinese medical practitioners, has yet to be developed to achieve synergy. In view of the rising demand for integrative medicine, the Faculty of Medicine of CUHK initiated the idea of setting up an institute that encompasses research, clinical care and education about two years ago, to promote the practice of integrative medicine.

During his welcome speech, Prof. Joseph JY Sung stated, "The fundamental divergence of Chinese and Western medical practitioners’ interpretations of body constitution and of disease management actually creates room for development of integrative medicine. The Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine is established with the purpose of aggregating medical experts from around the world to engage in research, clinical practice and training of integrative medicine; and thereby improving the quality of integrative medicine that will minimize disease induced human suffering."

Through an evidence-based approach, HKIIM aims to understand and assess the effectiveness of integrative medicine in treating individual diseases. In addition, it is dedicated to applying research results in clinical practice in order to construct a safe and effective integrative medical care system that will be an exemplary model for the local and international community. Moreover, the Institute will become an important platform for exchange of integrative medical knowledge and a place of training Integrative Medicine professionals. Prof. Francis KL Chan, Dean of Faculty of Medicine of CUHK said, "As one of the world’s top 50 medical schools, the Faculty of Medicine at CUHK actively engages in various medical research while tirelessly training medical professionals. In our efforts, we incorporate elements of Integrative Medicine in our conventional medical training in order to fully equip new medical practitioners who will be well prepared to face challenges and address the health needs of the society."

To accomplish its three missions of research, clinical services and education, HKIIM is established with two major sections: the East-West Research and Training Centre for Integrative Medicine for research and education purposes; and the Integrative Medical Centre for outpatient services. The former actively collaborates with the School of Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medicine, local and overseas institutions (ex. The University of Maryland which has a long history of over twenty years of collaboration with CUHK) in research projects on integrative medicine. The latter operates as a one-stop integrative medicine outpatient clinic that provides quality service to the general public.

Prof. Justin CY Wu, Director of HKIIM pointed out, "There are past research on Integrative Medicine but the results are scattered among various institutions and universities. Therefore, HKIIM of CUHK aims at building a platform for experienced local and overseas medical experts to engage in exchange of knowledge and ideas that will accelerate the development of medicine." He further elaborated, "The research focus of HKIIM will be chronic diseases such as chronic pain condition, functional gastrointestinal disorder, stroke rehabilitation, etc. whose management by Western medicine alone could be limiting; but for which Chinese medicine could provide alternative treatments. In addition, HKIIM will raise the safety standard of herb-drug interaction in order to set a standard risk management model for interaction between Western and Chinese medicine."

The establishment of HKIIM has been made possible with the generous donation from various parties, including The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for furnishing and equipment installation of the institute; the Lanson Foundation for initial research funding; the CUHK InteMed Fund set up by the donation of Prof Edwin Yu, as well as other financial support from society. Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mr Anthony WK Chow said the Club has funded promotion of Traditional Chinese Medicine since 1998. "We are delighted to support the establishment of the Institute, the Institute is the first of its kind jointly managed by Chinese and Western medical practitioners, offers both Traditional Chinese and integrative medical treatment, education, research and health consultation. It helps meet the needs of different patients and facilitate personnel training," he said.

The integration of Chinese and Western Medicine is a significant milestone in the progression of medical history. Its long-term development relies on active engagement and collaboration within the medical profession to create synergy, thereby benefitting the well-being of society.

Supplementary Information

Source: Communications and Public Relations Office, The Chinese University of Hong Kong