On Thursday 22 September, alumni Kelvin Choy (Sociology, 2016), Jun Li (Journalism, 2014), and Joshua Ngai (Sociology, 2014) returned to Morningside to introduce books that had shaped their thinking on social or professional issues.

Joshua (a barrister) introduced Maurice Leblanc’s The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (1907), and spoke of his fascination with the art of the gentleman-thief, as well as his views on crime. Jun is a film director who has won the Golden Horse Award for best adapted screenplay for his film Drifting (2021). He picked Nigel Collett’s A Death in Hong Kong: the MacLennan Case of 1980 and the Suppression of a Scandal (2018). Jun aims to explore social issues and power inequities. The book he picked recounts Hong Kong's judicial and social dynamics in the 1980s and 1990s. Kelvin is the business development manager of a film company and has a keen interest in the social sciences. He recommended One World (1943) by Wendell Wilkie, a former American politician, for its prescient descriptions of globalization.

Students quizzed the alumni on their book choices, and shared their own interests in books on politics, the social sciences, history, and some novels. Speaking of careers was off the day’s agenda but Kelvin and Jun spoke of how they participated in a drama festival together as students and continue to meet professionally for their work in the film industry; Jun and Joshua first met as roommates at Morningside.