Phillips Fellow to discuss research into Chinese subgroup

Lina Kong, a sophomore from Rose Hill, Mauritius, presents her Phillips Fellowship-funded research in a talk titled, Crosscultural Study of Mauritian and Chinese Cultures through the Hakka Linkage at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 29, in Bates College’s Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave.

The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-753-6952.

Kong wanted to learn more about the Hakka culture, a subgroup of China’s dominant Han people, and compare the influence of that culture in a city of the new China and in Mauritius, with the ultimate goal of better understanding her own identity as a Hakka. She wants to raise awareness about the danger of culture loss due to acculturalism, where new immigrants tend to integrate the surrounding culture as quickly as possible.

The Phillips Student Fellowships were begun in 1999 by Charles F. Phillips, the fourth president of Bates, and his wife Evelyn Minard Phillips, with a $9 million endowment gift. These fellowships are granted to students who create exceptionally good international or cross-cultural projects that focus on research, service-learning or career exploration.