As home to Harvard's largest international-student population, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has an indisputably global reach. That was amply evident on September 7, when the Graduate School Alumni Association, along with GSAS Dean Allan Brandt and Administrative Dean Margot Gill, hosted two collegial and intellectually nourishing gatherings in Hong Kong for the GSAS and broader Harvard communities. Exploring the rise of China, the role of Hong Kong, and the impact of both on higher education, the Graduate School warmly welcomed its regional alumni, sharing news from the US and reconnecting with old friends.
The first event, held at the Conrad Hotel, was an exclusive luncheon and panel discussion for GSAS alumni, on the topic of "China Competitiveness and the Role of Hong Kong." The panel was moderated by John Fan, PhD '72, chairman and founder of Kopin Corporation. It featured Victor K. Fung, PhD '71, group chairman of Li and Fung Group; Shing-Tung Yau, the William Casper Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard and director of the Tsinghua Mathematical Sciences Center; and Michael Enright, AB ’80, MBA ’86, PhD ’91, the Sun Hung Kai Professor at the School of Business of the University of Hong Kong and the director of the Asia-Pacific Competitiveness Program at the Hong Kong Institute of Economics and Business Strategy. (Read complete bios of the panelists here.) The discussion was high-level, energetic, and provocative, and alumni seemed eager to network and exchange ideas.
The luncheon was hosted by Dean Brandt and by Lee Zhang, AM ’01, the chairman and CEO of iKang Guobin Healthcare Group.
In the evening, GSAS partnered with the Harvard Club of Hong Kong to host a dinner at the Hong Kong Club with a talk by William C. Kirby, PhD '81, the T.M. Chang Professor of China Studies; Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration; director of the Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies; and the chairman of the Harvard China Fund. Kirby, the former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, was introduced by Victor Fung. More than 100 people attended — it was the largest event in the history of the Harvard Club of Hong Kong.
