CUSSW’s Ada Mui Named First Senior Specialist Fulbright Fellow

CUSSW’s Associate Professor Ada Mui has been selected as one of the first Fulbright Senior Specialists. The award entitles Professor Mui to a social work grant at the Sau Po Centre on Ageing within the University of Hong Kong. Mui will spend five weeks this summer traveling, teaching and researching in Hong Kong, the city where she grew up and once worked as a social worker. Mui, who was the recipient of a previous Fulbright Fellowship in the spring of 2001, feels she has an unorthodox approach that incorporates Eastern and Western elements. “I know the (Hong Kong social work) system very well and have a unique perspective on integrating American knowledge, research and practice and then applying it in a Chinese cultural context.”

Mui’s research will focus on one of the most urgent issues facing Hong Kong today: the clash between tradition and practicality that a rapidly aging Chinese population is bringing to a head. “Traditionally in Chinese culture the family is supposed to care for their own elders,” explains Mui, “but now, given the modern two-career families, there’s a new paradigm. Families are forced to rely on government system programs to share the burden.”