Dr LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence    劉亮國 博士
Associate Professor
Department of Cultural and Creative Arts
Assistant Dean (US)
Faculty of Humanities
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0003-4988-6714
Phone
(852) 2948 7889
Email
plklau@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Website
https://pappl.eduhk.hk/rich/web/person.xhtml?pid=167928&name=LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence
Scopus ID
56435540500
SDGs
4 - Quality Education
11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
15 - Life on Land
Research Interests
  • Cultural heritage
  • Modern Hong Kong
  • History of art and architecture
  • Modernism and modernity
  • Postcolonial studies
External Appointments

Founding Member, Hong Kong Chapter of DOCOMOMO (Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement)

Associate Editor, The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies

Associate Editor, Journal of Technologies in Society

Invited Examiner, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Guest Speaker, Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage Management, HKU Space

Invited Speaker, Maritime Museum, by Hong Kong Heritage Project (collaborating with HKU Space) to speak in a workshop for the public program entitled “Footprints in Hong Kong”, at the Maritime Museum, Pier 8 Central

Invited Guest Speaker, Cheung Kong CentreLecture. Title: Hong Kong: Disappearing Heritage, or Heritage of Discovery? Hong Kong Future Pioneers (HKFP), theme: "How to Shape Our Future Hong Kong? Cultural Conservation in Hong Kong". Organised by the Hong Kong Outstanding Students' Union. Lecture given to 100 senior secondary school students in Hong Kong

Personal Profile

Dr. Prudence Lau received her PhD in Architecture from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was founding member of the Hong Kong Chapter of DOCOMOMO (Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement), and has co-curated the first DOCOMOMO Hong Kong exhibition in 2013. In the same year, she joined The Hong Kong Institute of Education (now The Education University of Hong Kong). She collaborates with professionals and local organisations with the aim of raising awareness in the arts, cultural and urban heritage of Hong Kong and Asia in the modern period. Her teaching expertise includes subjects on cultural heritage and Hong Kong architectural history. Dr. Lau previously received the Early Career Scheme (ECS) grant for 2016-2018, and a General Research Fund (GRF) in 2020-2022 from the University Grants Committee Research Grants Council. She was awarded the President's Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching (Individual Award- Early Career Faculty Member) at The Education University of Hong Kong in 2018. Recently, Dr. Lau received a PGDE in Early Childhood Education in 2020 to further explore creativity and art education at a younger age, and has completed a Diploma in Cultural Resource Management in 2023 from the University of Victoria, Canada to enrich her expertise in cultural heritage. She has published in journals including International Journal of Heritage Studies, Cities, Land Use Policy, and Sustainability, etc.

Research Interests
  • Cultural heritage
  • Modern Hong Kong
  • History of art and architecture
  • Modernism and modernity
  • Postcolonial studies
External Appointments

Founding Member, Hong Kong Chapter of DOCOMOMO (Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement)

Associate Editor, The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies

Associate Editor, Journal of Technologies in Society

Invited Examiner, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Guest Speaker, Postgraduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage Management, HKU Space

Invited Speaker, Maritime Museum, by Hong Kong Heritage Project (collaborating with HKU Space) to speak in a workshop for the public program entitled “Footprints in Hong Kong”, at the Maritime Museum, Pier 8 Central

Invited Guest Speaker, Cheung Kong CentreLecture. Title: Hong Kong: Disappearing Heritage, or Heritage of Discovery? Hong Kong Future Pioneers (HKFP), theme: "How to Shape Our Future Hong Kong? Cultural Conservation in Hong Kong". Organised by the Hong Kong Outstanding Students' Union. Lecture given to 100 senior secondary school students in Hong Kong

Research Outputs
Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters
Chapter in an edited book (author)
Wong, T.C.R., Lau, L.K.P., Lee, C.K.J. (eds.) (2020)。 《搖籃地：中西區教育今昔》。Lee, C.K.J., Cheng, P.Y.S., Deng, Y.Y.K. (eds.)， 香港教育大學。Hong Kong: 中華書局 (香港) 有限公司。 https://julac.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,991017728316903410&vid=EDUHKFind@EdUHK Library

Journal Publications
Publication in refereed journal
Lau, L.K.P. & Chen, Z.Y. (2024). Adaptations in early 20th-century modern Chinese architecture: The pursuit of a “new architectural style” in Art Deco. Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, X, 1-9, Article 3710. https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3710
Cheng, L., Lau, L. K. P., & Pang, W. Y. J. (2024). Augmented reality book design for teaching and learning architectural heritage: Educational heritage in Hong Kong Central and Western District.. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, -, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3655628
Lau, L.K.P. (2023). Hong Kong Art Deco: Theatre Buildings and a Hybridised Design Approach during the Interwar Years. Surveying & Built Environment, 32(2), 7-24. https://www.hkis.org.hk/archive/materials/category/SEB-vol.32_2_A5_R20_Med.pdf
Lau, L.K.P., & Chow, O.P.Y. (2023). Theatre Heritage in Pre-WWII Hong Kong: A Postcolonial Reading. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 29(11), 1141-1157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2023.2243450
Lai, W.C.L., Davies, S.N.G., Lau, L.K.P., Leung, N.T.H., Chan, V.N.H. & Chua, M.H.Y. (2023). “Ring up for an appointment”: Empirical & oral evidence of commercial & other freedoms in the heyday of the City. Cities, 135, Article 104232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104232
Lai, L.W.C., Lau, L.K.P. & Chua, M.H. (2020). An empirical Coasian study on the socio-economic profiles of two politically sensitive informal settlements: Kowloon Walled City and Rennie’s Mill. Land Use Policy, 97, 1-10.
Lau, L.K.P. & Chow, P.Y.O. (2019). The Right to Landscape: Social Sustainability and the Conservation of the State Theatre, Hong Kong. Sustainability, 11(15), 4033.
Lau, L.K.P., Lai, L.W.C. & Ho, C.W. (2018). Quality of life in a “high-rise lawless slum”: a study of the “Kowloon Walled City". Land Use Policy, 76, 157-165.
Lau, L.K.P. (2017). Building a modern city: Legacies of residential development and architectural adaptation in colonial Hong Kong. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3, 1-15.
Lau, L.K.P. (2016). Self-fashioned Identities: Art Deco Architecture in Hong Kong as Resistance and Empowerment. Postcolonial Text, 11(3), 1-20.
Lau, L. K. P. (2014). Traces of a Modern Hong Kong Architectural Practice: Chau & Lee Architects, 1933-1991. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, 54, 59-80.
Lau, L.K.P. (2014). Repositioning Chau & Lee Architects in Hong Kong in the late colonial period, 1930s-50s. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 26(1), 22-24.
Coomans, T., & Lau, L. K. P. (2012). “Les tribulations d’un architecte belge en Chine: Gustave Volckaert, au service du Crédit Foncier d’Extrême-Orient, 1914-1954”. Revue Belge d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, 61, 129-153.
Lau, L. K. P. (2011). "Contesting Imperialism in Modern Architecture: British India 1920s-1940s”. The International Journal of the Humanities, 9, 73-80.

Conference Papers
Invited conference paper
Lau, L.K.P. (2018, January). Sustainable Development of Cultural Heritage: Community Participation in Conserving Historic Buildings in Hong Kong. Fourteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability, Cairns.
Lau, L.K.P. (2017, October). Heritage Conservation and Policy in Hong Kong: The Case of the State Theatre. East Asian Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Hong Kong.
Lau, L.K.P. (2017, August). Heritage Education and Public Participation in Conserving Cultural Heritage in Hong Kong. International Conference on Education and Learning, Tokyo, Japan.
Lau, L.K.P. (2016, January). Resistance and Empowerment: A Postcolonial Reading of Early Twentieth Century Hong Kong Architecture. 3rd Annual International Conference on Humanities & Arts in a Global World, Athens, Greece.
Lau, L.K.P. (2015, April). Building modern Hong Kong: Repositioning first-generation Chinese architects, 1930s-50s. International Conference on The History of Hong Kong﹕ Interpreting History through Culture and Literature, Hong Kong.
Lau, L.K.P. (2014, December). The Way Forward: Reviewing Conservation Policies and the Roles of Government, Individuals and Groups in Conserving Heritage in Hong Kong. The 16th Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Sociological Association, Hong Kong.
Lau, L. K. P. (2013, May). In Search of Modernism in China: Architectural and Urban Development of the Crédit Foncier d’Extrême-Orient (C.F.E.O.) in Hong Kong and China’s Treaty Ports, 1907-1959. Paper presented at Research Postgraduate Student Conference, Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Lau, L. K. P. (2013, March). Importation vs Adaptation of Practice: Modern Architectural Construction Companies in Hong Kong, 1920-40s. Paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, San Diego.
Lau, L. K. P. (2012, December). Western Architects and Modernity in the Urban and Social Landscape of Hong Kong. Paper presented at Convergence in Divergence: International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture (EAAC), School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Lau, L. K. P., & Coomans, T. (2012, October). Modern Architectural Influences of Western Construction Companies in China. Paper presented at Masterplanning the Future/ Modernism: East, West and across the World, Xi’an Jiaotong- Liverpool University, Suzhou.
Lau, L. K. P. (2011, June). Contesting Imperialism in Modern Architecture: British India 1920s-1940s. Paper presented at the Eighth Conference of the New Directions in the Humanities, Universidad de Granada, Spain.
Lau, L. K. P. (2011, April). Contesting and Encountering Colonialism: Dynamics of Foreign Architectural Firms in the ‘Far East’ in 1920s-1940s.. Paper presented at the Third Interdisciplinary Architectural Postgraduate Workshop, School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Lau, L. K. P. (2010, November). Contesting Imperialism in Modern Architecture of Colonial Southeast Asia, 1920s-1940s. Paper presented at the International Conference on Preservation and Promotion of Heritage, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Lau, L. K. P. (2010, March). Desire for Decoration: The Legacy of Modern Architecture in Hong Kong and Shanghai, 1920s-40s. Paper presented at the 10th annual EAS Graduate Student Conference at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Refereed conference paper
Lau, L.K.P. (2014, December). Between Tradition, Reinterpretation And Mediation of Power: Repositioning Chau & Lee Architects in Hong Kong in the Late Colonial Period, 1930s-50s. Biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Creative and Literary Works, Consulting Reports and Case Studies
Performance and participation in exhibits
Lau, L.K.P. (2019). Art Deco Architecture in Hong Kong. Art Deco: The France-China Connection Exhibition. Hong Kong: City University Exhibition Gallery..
Lau, L.K.P. (2014). Beyond The Urban Edge: The Ideal City?. Collaborative event with architectural firm of LWK & Partners, the CUHK School of Architecture and Oi!. Hong Kong: The Fourth Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale exhibition (UABB).

Projects
Hong Kong Art Deco: Theatre buildings and the rise of modern cinema in transforming the city's socio-cultural landscape
This research argues that Art Deco, a modern architectural style, can be understood as a form of entertainment and demonstration of resistance of the colonized in early twentieth century Hong Kong. The project ultimately aims at examining the reach of Art Deco into everyday life of Hong Kong in the form of architecture and cinema, critique the dynamics between the dominated-subjugated in colonial Hong Kong, and offer a new way to conserve architectural heritage through emphasizing its aesthetic and sociocultural implications.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence 劉亮國

 
Enhancing Learner Autonomy through Teacher Curatorship on an Online Learning Platform in Appreciating Hong Kong’s Cultural Heritage
The project primarily aims at enhancing learner autonomy in utilizing technology, media, and telecommunications while enhancing better interaction between student and teacher in higher education settings. Through teacher curatorship in managing digital resources with a focus on cultural heritage, this project aims at creating a unique learning space outside the classroom with the aid of an online learning web platform that is publicly accessible.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence 劉亮國

 
Building a Modern City: First-generation Chinese Architects in colonial Hong Kong, 1920s - 1950s
With the first group of overseas-educated Chinese architects returning to colonial Hong Kong in the 1920s-30s and establishing themselves as the pioneers of designing the modern city, this period witnessed the first signs of urban modernisation in Hong Kong. However, compared to Shanghai, Hong Kong was often deemed as the lesser “other”. A decade and a half has passed since this statement, and renewed research and discoveries in academic circles, including this research, will place a new dimension and perspective in the previously underrated and neglected architectural and urban landscape of Hong Kong. This research documents demolished buildings and preserves surviving works of Hong Kong and Chinese architects, effectively repositioning local architectural history and modern cultural heritage abroad and in Hong Kong. It will lay the foundations for public heritage educational work, delineate how the architecture reacted to Western colonial prototypes while adapting to Chinese traditions in the early twentieth century, and improve the current heritage policy to preserve the unique cultural heritage landscape in Hong Kong and Chinese architecture.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence 劉亮國

 
Promoting Cantonese Opera to the International Level: Developing a Website
This project aims to develop a permanent website for Hong Kong Cantonese opera with learning materials in both Chinese and English for promoting learning and appreciation of the genre by different sectors including local school sectors, international schools, and international music and creative arts scholars. In addition, a brochure will be generated and published to document some Chinese and English learning materials of Cantonese opera in linking with a granted project from the Cantonese Opera Development Fund.
Project Start Year: 2015, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence 劉亮國

 
Early Modern Architecture and Hong Kong's Cultural Heritage
The research will focus on modern Hong Kong architects and their architectural designs that have not been addressed in prevailing scholarship in Hong Kong and Chinese architecture. These designs are arguably the pioneering efforts in modern Hong Kong architecture but have been neglected and forgotten in history, and only some of these works have survived due to rapid urban redevelopment in the city. The research will document both the demolished and surviving works in Hong Kong (and China) and delineate how the architects’ designs reacted to prevailing colonial prototypes and fused modern elements. This research will add new dimensions in the history of Hong Kong and Chinese architectural and cultural heritage.
Project Start Year: 2014, Principal Investigator(s): LAU, Leung Kwok Prudence 劉亮國