UM student, then a minister and now Chan is back as a professor

Proud moment: Chan (second from left) receiving the certificate of appointment from Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin. Looking on are (from left) Department of South-East Asian Studies Assoc Prof Dr Hanafi Hussin, Malaysia-China Friendship Association president Datuk Abdul Majid Ahmad Khan and Prof Dr Danny Wong Tze Ken from the university’s Malaysian Chinese Research Centre.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy will resume lecturing, this time at his alma mater, Universiti Malaya.

Chan, who studied Chinese Studies at the university, was appointed an adjunct professor last week and will be imparting his knowledge of Chinese classics to his former faculty.

“My main aim to serve my alma mater is to work together with the Chinese Studies department to promote research on Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber,” Chan told reporters after attending the appointment ceremony at the university last Thursday.

The novel is regarded as one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels and sparked a field of study exclusively on this literature called Hong Xue – commonly translated as “Redology”.

Chan will be donating his collection of more than 6,000 books on Hong Xue, which he collected in the last 40 years, to the UM library.

He said he planned to use the materials as a foundation to turn Universiti Malaya into a research centre for Hong Xue.

Chan, who was formerly MCA deputy pre­sident, added that he would work closely with the Chinese Studies department by giving lectures, writing opinion pieces and taking responsibility for the study of the novel.

He is expected to start lecturing at the end of the year.

Chan was a lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia in the 1980s.