澳大新語 • 2023 UMAGAZINE 27 52 人物專訪 • EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW emphasising human relationships and emotional needs is increasingly vital in a rationality-dominant and rule-of-law society. Fostering Interdisciplinary Research at UM Before joining UM, Prof Yu visited the campus twice to speak at seminars, and he has since been impressed by UM’s vision and steps in fostering interdisciplinary research. Now as the director of IAS, he is leading the creation of a university-level research platform that transcends faculty boundaries. This involves establishing an internationally renowned interdisciplinary research team at UM and enables synergistic academic resource deployment. In FLL, he has been contributing to the development of a new English-taught bachelor of law programme in Chinese law and global legal studies. Furthermore, Prof Yu is working on a book that delves into the philosophy of the heart. Through his book, he seeks to provide comprehensive insights into society, law, morality, and human nature in a systematic manner. In doing so, he aims to envision a social framework that recognises and nurtures our emotional needs. ‘I believe in the indomitable power of the human mind, which remains unparalleled by machines. This belief in human values is something everyone should uphold, and it has been the driving force behind my academic pursuits,’ he says. With Edwards’s support, Prof Yu later attended Harvard Law School to study social theory, Chinese law, and Chinese legal history under the guidance of Prof William P. Alford. Prof Alford is a distinguished Chinese law expert at Harvard, where Prof Yu obtained his master’s degree in 1991 and SJD in 1995. After completing his studies, Prof Yu worked as an associate at a law firm in Chicago for three years before embarking on a career in academia. He briefly held teaching positions at Peking University and Harvard, and then spent over a decade teaching and researching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. From 2012 to 2022, he served as the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Professor in Chinese Law at Cornell Law School. In August 2022, Prof Yu joined UM as a chair professor in the Faculty of Law (FLL). He was appointed director of IAS two months later, in October of the same year. His extensive publication record includes several influential works, including Rule of Law and Civil Orders, Legal Pragmatism in the PRC, and Modern and Postmodern in Jurisprudence. The Moral Foundations of Law With experience in jurisdictions following different legal systems, Prof Yu has developed a multifaceted perspective on jurisprudence. ‘Many Western scholars study China as research material, but I see China as an object of study. I believe that China's millennia-long moral-driven civilisation contains elements of thought that have universal significance and could be applied to improve modern society.’ Indeed, for decades Prof Yu worked towards developing an ideal social framework to achieve a harmonious balance between law and morality, as well as intellect and reason. ‘The foundation of law should be moral principles,’ he says. From his observation, modern Western societies and the contemporary world in general are dominated by a culture that prioritises rationality, rules, and individual rights. In contrast, while ancient China also emphasised rules, it placed greater importance on human relationships, or the concept known as ‘guanxi’ in Chinese. ‘Despite negative connotations of unfairness in certain contexts, “guanxi”, in its essence, refers to emotional connections between people, such as those between family members and friends.’ he adds. From his perspective, 於興中教授（右）於2022年在澳大主持一場關於數字素養的講座 Prof Yu Xingzhong (left) hosts a talk about digital literacy in UM in 2022
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ1NDU2Ng==