Event: A Conversation with Pulitzer Winner Liu Heung Shing

Infrastructure is often viewed through the lens of engineering — concrete, steel, and timelines. But what happens when we look at roads and railways as living networks that reshape how people live, work, and connect?

The University of Hong Kong’s Communications and Public Affairs Office invites you to a public dialogue on this very question. Titled “Walls and Roads: Openness, Creativity, the Belt and Road in Image & Thought,” the event explores the human landscape behind global connectivity.

Featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Mr Heung Shing Liu, the discussion aims to move beyond the mere physical side of infrastructure to look at how these projects are changing our lives.

Mr Liu’s new work, recently collected into the book “Old Road New Connections”, engages closely with this idea, as he turns his lens onto the human landscape of connection, offering a visual counterpoint to traditional narratives of development.

Dialogue participants – including Mr Liu, Professor Alain JF Chiaradia, Dr Joseba Estévez, as well as Professor David A Palmer as moderator and featuring opening remarks from Professor Yang Wang, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Institutional Advancement) at HKU – will explore how images, maps, fieldwork, and public narratives reveal or conceal stories about mobility, access, openness, and cross-cultural encounters.

This in-person event is open to students, alumni, and members of the general public interested in understanding the human side of globalisation. Audience members will also have the chance to take part in a book signing after the discussion.

The dialogue will take place on Thursday, September 17, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM at the Convocation Room (MB218), 2/F, Main Building, HKU.

Find out more and RSVP via the event page.