Impact
9 September 2022
To dissect the language-related experiences and beliefs of international students, Dr Matthew SUNG of CityU’s Department of English launched a research project at an EMI university in Hong Kong. From the perspectives of language policy and critical sociolinguistics, he zoomed in on their ideologies about the roles, the varieties, and the monolingual and multilingual uses of English in the EMI university context.23 September 2022
Professor Christine HUANG Yi-hui, Chair Professor of CityU’s Department of Media and Communication, conducted a survey along with her research team in August 2022, asking 1,042 local citizens aged above 20, about their opinions on the existing “3+4” quarantine policy.21 October 2022
People often feel helpless and depressed when facing life-altering situations such as a terminal diagnosis, incarceration and even a global pandemic. While many clinical psychologists mainly provide their patients with symptom treatments that focuses on “now”, Prof Samuel HO Mun-yin, Head of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, has dedicated over two decades to his hope-based treatments that focus on the future.18 November 2022
Dr WANG Xijing of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences and her research team launched a series of five studies to identify whether physical attractiveness can predict self-interested behaviours and the mechanism behind it.16 December 2022
When people encounter dissonant speech on social media, functions such as hiding comments, unfriending and unfollowing friends may reinforce the behaviour of selective avoidance in order to re-establish more homophilous environments online. Dr Marko SKORIC of CityU’s Department of Media and Communication conducted a comparative study with his team on the selective avoidance behaviour of social media users in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.27 January 2023
Studying global cases of immobility governance strategies in different stages of the pandemic, Dr CHAN Yuk-wah of CityU's Department of Public and International Affairs has published a research article with her research partner on examining how the COVID-inflected diseasescape has impacted the dynamic between mobility and immobility, and how the diseasescape continued to evolve with the disease and the policies.23 February 2023
Social entrepreneurship has arisen as a new business model to achieve specific social objectives through entrepreneurial strategies and self-sustaining operations. Dr Yanto CHANDRA of CityU’s Department of Public and International Affairs has conducted a research project to assess the efficacy of applying a multimedia perspective as a complementary approach to the current pedagogy of the topic.13 March 2023
Dr CHAN Siu-ming of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences conducted a large territory-wide homeless survey in Hong Kong with his research team, aiming to examine the mental health conditions of homeless people and the determinants of mental health problems.Interviewers talked to 1,103 homeless people and successfully collected 711 valid questionnaires for analysis.20 April 2023
“Smart city” is the new buzzword aiming for sustainable development among nations. Dr HU Wanyang of CityU’s Department of Public and International Affairs and her research team studied the SMC policies in 341 Chinese prefectural cities to examine how the concept plays out in reality.15 May 2023
As the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in integrated treatment is gaining increasing recognition and popularity amongst the general public, there is a need to investigate the role of effective clinical communication in TCM context, particularly for communicating with patients who seek both TCM and Western Medical care. Dr Jack PUN, Assistant Professor from the Department of English at CityU, and his team designed a communication intervention based on the Calgary-Cambridge guides for teaching effective doctor-patient communication skills and modified it for TCM context, in collaboration with TCM professors/researchers from School of TCM at HKBU and CUHK.15 June 2023
The partnership between Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (CSD) and Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences (SS), City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has been working to bring solace and healing to those in custody. On 30 May 2023, they co-organised a sharing forum titled “Gripping Insights: Recent psychological research on Hong Kong corrections”; over 250 scholars, students, and professionals in correctional services joined the event.20 June 2023
Storytelling brings various psychological and educational benefits to young children. Children learn valuable life lessons through listening to an adventure story or a fairy tale. Instead of giving lectures to children to teach them good behaviour and morals, storytelling is a more effective way to instill good deeds in children. Dr Annis FUNG Lai-chu, Associate Professor of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Science, has conducted a first-ever study to investigate the positive impacts of a storytelling intervention based on the social information processing (SIP) model in reducing reactive and proactive aggression among schoolchildren.15 July 2023
Hong Kong is grappling with the issue of an ageing population, as there is no universal pension system, and retirement protection is primarily dependent on the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme. To shed light on this daunting issue, Professor Dannii YEUNG of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences has conducted a study aimed at identifying the psychosocial factors that impact working adults’ readiness to financially prepare for retirement.15 August 2023
Public housing is a major component of the housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing. Prof Derrick HO Hung-chak, Assistant Professor of CityU’s Department of Public and International Affairs, has recently published a research article in Public Health journal with Prof Tracy LU Shiyu, Assistant Professor of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences and other researchers to evaluate how form/characteristics in public housing neighbourhoods may be associated with dementia among seniors in Hong Kong. 15 September 2023
Learning ‘legal English’, the specialised language that students encounter in law school, is particularly challenging. Law students must learn to use English forms and structures in such a way as to meet the expectations of members of the legal academic community, consistent with the conventions of the legal discipline. Professor Christoph Hafner, Associate Professor of CityU’s Department of English, formed an interdisciplinary project team with legal and language experts in local and overseas universities, in order to develop a digital multimedia resource for legal English based on an analysis of the language needs of Hong Kong law students.20 September 2023
Since the World Health Organization declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, Hong Kong citizens’ lives have gradually resumed normal. Professor Christine HUANG Yi-hui, Chair Professor of CityU’s Department of Media and Communication (COM), and her research team* conducted online surveys with 1,913 Hong Kong citizens aged 20+ from April to July 2023. The objective is to understand their perceptions of psychological, living and interpersonal well-being. 15 November 2023
The circular economy (CE) is seen as more environmentally-friendly and in some ways better fits the imperatives of the United Nations Sustainable Goals. Professor Kris HARTLEY, Assistant Professor in CityU’s Department of Public and International Affairs, conducted a study to fill a CE research gap by introducing a policy framework for CE that includes over 100 policy instruments. The article is part of Kris’s broader research agenda to understand new public policy models for 21st century challenges.16 November 2023
Prof Jack PUN of CityU’s Department of English is an expert in health communication and has extensive experience in conducting qualitative research in medicine. Invited by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, he organised a workshop at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Innovative Centre for Medicine to share his expertise and provide research training to its faculty members and related clinicians in Hong Kong.24 November 2023
To provide affordable housing to people in need, the government implemented a policy of transitional social housing in 2018 to enhance the livelihood of low-income families. Prof CHAN Siu-ming of CityU’s Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, published his research findings about Hong Kong’s first TSH project Nam Cheong 220 and evaluated the social impact and effectiveness of the project.22 December 2023
Textbooks serve as a vital language input for language acquisition, as indicated by usage-based accounts of language acquisition. Prof LIU Meichun and Prof John LEE Sie-yuen from CityU’s Department of Linguistics and Translation conducted a research project analysing verb-frame diversity and distribution trends by difficulty levels based on a corpus of primary school Chinese textbooks.