The Picture of Dorian Gray / Oscar Wilde

 

About the book

Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray's moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde's homosexual liaisons, trials that resulted in his imprisonment. Of the book's value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, "Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps."

 

 

Speaker:

Mrs Joy Shan Lam-Kung 林在山

 

Language: English
Date: Thursday, 12 December 2002
Time: 7:15 - 9:00 pm
Venue: Main Library

 

About the Speaker

Mrs. Joy Shan Lam-Kung is currently managing director of the Hong Kong Economic Journal. She first joined the paper in 1994 as a political reporter and later became a columnist. Her column and commentary articles covered education, culture and the economy. In 1996, she began to take on managerial duties and was made managing director in 1998.

Before joining the newspaper, she was a television journalist with Radio Television Hong Kong, writing and presenting television documentaries on social welfare and culture. In 1997, she freelanced as a reporter for the BBC.

She serves on various voluntary bodies and is an appointed member of the first Cultural and Heritage Commission in Hong Kong and a member of the international committee of the Olympiad of the Mind. She was named Global Leader for Tomorrow 2001 by World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mrs. Kung was born in Hong Kong in 1971 and educated in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. She holds a BA/MA in English from Cambridge University, MA in Social Sciences from University of Chicago and a professional diploma in journalism from Thomson Foundation, Cardiff.