Launch of EdUHK’s “Jockey Club from Words to Culture Programme: an Animated Way to Learn Chinese” Project

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The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) held a ceremony today (3 November) to launch the “Jockey Club from Words to Culture Programme: an Animated Way to Learn Chinese” project. Targeting lower primary students, the project includes multimedia Chinese language teaching materials with animations featuring Hong Kong’s characteristics in line with the Education Bureau’s curriculum guide regarding pleasurable learning.

Thanks to the generous donation of HK$16.5 million  from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the three-year project commenced in early 2018 with an aim to cultivate junior form students’ interest in Chinese language and culture and develop their moral values through diverse and vivid learning experiences. Training sessions and seminars will be organised on the effective use of the Chinese language animation, multimedia games and teaching kits. The EdUHK expert team is collaborating with famous local artist Chao Yat (Mr Leung Chung-kei) in the production of the animation, which will be available in both Cantonese and Putonghua.

Leading the project is President Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung together with co-leaders Vice President (Academic) Professor John Lee Chi-kin; Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Professor Tong Ho-kin; Associate Head of the Department of Chinese Language Studies Dr Tse Ka-ho; and Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies Dr Fung Chi-wang.

Advocating the importance of pleasurable learning, Professor Cheung said, “It is my hope that students can have fun  learning languages and culture. Language-learning drills can help develop their writing competence, but often at the expense of learning interest. With its intrinsic moral and life education elements, the animation will serve to arouse the interest of lower primary students in Chinese language and culture.”

Ms Winnie Ying, Head of Charities (Grant Making – Youth, Education & Training, Poverty), The Hong Kong Jockey Club, said The Hong Kong Jockey Club is happy to support EdUHK in launching the project. “It will benefit 30 primary schools and some 10,000 teachers and students. We also hope that the achievements and the experience gained from the project can be spread further through different channels to benefit more teachers and students,” she said.

Entitled The Magic of Politeness, A Bamboo Copter, The Mid-Autumn Festival and A Children’s Poem: The Little Frog, the first four episodes of the animation and their corresponding teaching plans have been uploaded to the project website (http://chin.eduhk.mers.hk). A total of 24 episodes will be completed in the coming three years to benefit all primary schools in Hong Kong. A series of promotional activities will be organised to encourage local primary schools to use the resources for teaching and learning purposes.