There are all sorts of oddities and coincidences in life. One of the most striking to me was learning that there were two Joseph Boscos who were both American authors and taught at Chinese universities. This phenomenon has resulted in misdirected e-mails and even occasioned a bit of Blog chatter over the past few years. [I should also mention some small political controversy since amazingly enough there is a third Joseph Bosco with connections to China, who occasionally teaches in America. However, I have written about that person elsewhere and wish not to give him and his far-right ideology any further exposure than that which you can discover through some of the links herein.]
Joe (as CUHK Professor Joseph Bosco prefers to be called in casual circumstances) and I had a most delightful chat--that was all too brief due to schedules--over lunch in one of CUHK's many canteens. We mostly talked about our shared Italian heritage; he is quite knowledgeable on Italian immigration to America during the early decades of the 20th Century.
We also talked about education in China, both in Hong Kong and the mainland. CUHK Professor Joseph Bosco further informed me on the somewhat touchy matter of the growing number of mainland students choosing to attend CUHK over the top schools on the mainland. It is easy to understand why when one tours CUHK's campus and its facilities and meets some of its professors--it is a world class university. This cannot yet be generally said of even the very best universities on the mainland.
In the photo above, Joe is not the old man with a Shakespeare Festival badge around his neck. If all goes well for BFSU in the two semester-long festival competition, the two Boscos will have more time to visit come May 2007.
