The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today (18 August) warmly congratulated two distinguished alumni, namely Mr Raman Hui and Miss Vivienne Tam, for being honoured by Forbes magazine as one of the “25 Top Chinese-Americans in Business”.
This year four out of 25 personalities named for the prestigious honour are affiliated with Hong Kong, and PolyU alumni accounted for half of them. The roll of honour has gone to print in the latest edition (August 2010 issue) of Forbes Asia.
Both Raman Hui and Vivienne Tam are design graduates of the University in the polytechnic era. They are also recipients of University Fellowship in recognition of their distinguished accomplishment in their professions. Their bio-data are as follows:
Mr Raman Hui is a graduate from the then Hong Kong Polytechnic with a Higher Diploma in Design (Graphic Communication). His talent in animation was recognized as early as in 1984, when he won the Best Animation Award in the Hong Kong Independent Film Festival, shortly after graduation. He set off for the US and started his legendary career into Hollywood in 1989. Mr Hui’s dedication and professional capabilities have won him opportunities to show his talents. He was Lead Character Designer/ Supervising Animator on PDI/Dreamworks’ first full-length computer-animated feature film, Antz, in 1998. He was Supervising Animator of Shrek I, the Oscar-winning Best Animated Feature in 2002. He became co-director of Shrek III in 2008 and Shrek IV in 2010. He also directed the Secrets of the Furious Five, a short animation based on another Hollywood hit, Kung Fu Panda.
Mr Hui is currently Film Director and Animator of PDI/Dreamworks, a renowned animation film production company in the US. He has made valuable contributions to PolyU’s School of Design by sharing his experience with students and teaching at classes. He has given extensive talks on the art of animation and the computer animation industry not only in Hong Kong, but also Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Ottawa. Mr Hui was awarded the University Fellowship in 2005, conferred the ShoWest Best Animation Director Award in the US in 2007, and named the World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer by the Hong Kong Design Centre in 2008.
Ms Vivienne Tam is a graduate from the then Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1978 with a Higher Diploma in Design. After graduation she moved to New York, where she thrived on the excitement and energy of the fashion world. She founded her own fashion house East Wind Code Ltd in 1983, and in 1994 established the “Vivienne Tam” brand. Ms Vivienne Tam is internationally recognised for her innovative and unique East-meets-West designs. All of her collections are prominently labelled “Made in Hong Kong” or “Made in China”, and she continually promotes the use of Asian women as models in her promotional campaigns.
In 1995, Ms Tam introduced the influential “Mao” collection, which triumphantly crossed over from the fashion world into the art world. Two years later she launched the venerable Buddha collection, which once again stimulated the interest of celebrities and the fashion conscious. Such has been her influence that some of her works have been incorporated into the permanent archives of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, The Museum at FIT, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She is Adjunct Professor of PolyU’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing and was honoured with the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award in its first selection in 1997. Despite her busy schedule, she still maintains close links with her alma mater.
The article is also published under the headline of “25 Notable Chinese-Americans” in the US edition of Forbes magazine. URL: http://www.forbes.com/global/2010/0809/notable-chinese-americans-weili-dai-john-chen-mobile-connector_4.html
