A letter to the reader

Dear Reader,

You are holding in your hand a selection of articles that, if you care to look closely, will reveal a kaleidoscope of cultural facets. Culture, like a kaleidoscope, mirrors reality, rearranges it and even fragments it, but it simultaneously creates ever changing patterns of stunning color.

Rather than only reading, we invite you to experiment with this kaleidoscope and reflect on how you relate to culture—not academically but personally.

Living here in Hong Kong, Asia’s world city, cultural diversity is a fact of life. That fact has very different consequences depending on how we interpret it. Does culture shape you? Does it exist inside you? Outside you? Is culture the sum of artifacts and history? Is culture unseen? Does it bring people together? Does it separate people? Can culture be created? Is culture a two-way road?

The answers you have to these questions are much more important than how you define culture.

In this publication you will encounter culture as media, legend, and place. You will find stories articulating how deeply culture shapes us, and how sometimes it seems to divide us. But we hope that this publication would inspire you to see culture not merely as an outside force acting upon us but as an environment that you interact with.

Best Regards, The English Editorial Team of the CUHK Student Press

-Encountering culture-