Literary Exchanges on the Periphery of the Motherland

Edited by Kwok W.T. and Chau Y. W.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, 2023

University Library Series No.10

Description:

 Literary Exchanges on the Periphery of the Motherland: The Correspondence of So Man-jock to Ho Shok-wai Collected by the Art Museum of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, compiles, transcribes and annotates Professor So Man Jock’s letters which were mostly written in the 1950s to the 1980s.  This collection is in six volumes and was previously owned by Mr Ho Shok-wai.  The letters were donated to the Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1997.

Professor So Man-jock(1921-1997)and Mr Ho Shok-wai (1919–2012)were both natives of Shunde in Guangdong province. Born into families of well-known Confucian scholars in the Lingnan region with close, cross-generational friendships, both men were well-versed in Chinese classics, poetry and prose and both excelled in calligraphy. They moved to Hong Kong in 1950. Facing various hardships in their early years in Hong Kong, they still maintained frequent literary exchanges in letters and gatherings, leaving behind a valuable collection of manuscripts, poetry and calligraphy –  a treasured record of the thoughts of the literati of Southern China. From the 1960s onwards, Professor So taught in United College, the CUHK School of Education and Chu Hai College.  Mr. Ho taught in secondary schools while also offering regular classes on classics and calligraphy in the Hok Hoi Library and Fung Shan Study.  Thus, both men nurtured the minds of decades of students and enjoyed a high reputation during their lives for their rich writings on the classics.  This book will be added to the CUHK Library Series as University Library Series, No. 10.  The volume offers glimpses of the life of the early intellectuals and the historic heritage of Lingnan culture in Hong Kong through the study of the two scholars’ friendship and livelihood, and of Hong Kong’s social environment at large.

Library call number: PL2903.O35 Z48 2023