In Memory of Prof. Gwendolyn Gong
In memory of Gwen Gong
We are extremely sad to announce the death of our friend Gwendolyn (Gwen) Gong. Gwen passed away following a brief illness on 7 August 2025.
Gwen was a wonderful colleague at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She came to the city in 1993, originally intending to complete two books during research leave, as well as getting to explore Asia with her family, but she stayed for more than two decades. Gwen started work at CUHK in 1994, initially in the English Language Teaching Unit, but for most of her time she was a professor in the Department of English. She was also a dedicated member of Shaw College, which she continued to serve after her retirement.
Gwen began her life as an educator in the U.S., following her PhD studies in composition and rhetoric at Purdue University. She was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University before she moved to Hong Kong. At CUHK she was a founding editor of the Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, and a founding member of the Leung Po Chuen Research Centre for Hong Kong History and Humanities. She taught and researched second language acquisition, gender studies, medical communication, and many other topics. She also supervised numerous research students, passing on a love for the discipline and helping to shape the next generation of scholars. At Shaw she was made a Senior College Tutor and awarded the Shaw Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016.
As a researcher and teacher, Gwen was central to the work of the Department of English at CUHK. Gwen was also a dedicated administrator, and, as someone with a strong commitment to the city’s community, her experience was something she wished to employ outside the institution. Her commitment to service extended to the Hans Andersen Club (HAC), a Hong Kong non-profit charity supporting underprivileged children and families, where she served on the Board of Directors and was chair for nine years. Named for Hans Christian Andersen, the charity highlights the importance of performance, stories, and education for the people it serves, and this focus on culture was very important for Gwen’s own work upon retirement.
Together with her husband, John Powers, and their daughter, Devereux Gong Powers, Gwen wrote Mississippi Delta Chinese Veterans: A Delta Tribute (2018). This important work identified 182 Chinese veterans of World War II from the Mississippi Delta and included interviews with surviving servicemen, highlighting their honourable service to the U.S. The book, published during the 70th anniversary of end of the war, showed the vital contributions of these veterans to their community and future generations.
Following the success of their research, Gwen and her family went from writing to filmmaking, producing Honor and Duty: The Mississippi Delta Chinese, a three-part documentary series. This ambitious project premiered on PBS in Jackson, Mississippi, in May 2016, and had many more screenings across various venues, including museums, universities, and cultural centres. Book and documentary have shed light on what to many viewers will have been an unknown community.
Gwen’s legacy of advocacy, education, and engagement with different communities will be recognized by all who knew her personally, and also by many others. She will continue to have a profound impact on the many people she touched throughout her journey.
You are invited to share a memory or tribute by visiting the memorial page.
