PEOPLE

Flora is currently pursuing an MA in Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong after completing her BA in English at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). Her research interests centre broadly on pragmatics, specifically cross-cultural communication and discourse analysis. Her master’s dissertation is a comparative study of face and politeness strategies in social media request responses between China and US. Before joining the RIICH project, she held research assistant positions at CityU, exploring culture-language links to mental health perceptions, AI applications in education and sustainability in luxury brands. Her cross-disciplinary experience in linguistics helped her develop insights to bridge theoretical frameworks with diverse contexts and domains.

Farrukh is a current student at The University of Hong Kong, majoring in Business Analytics. His academic interests lie between finance, economics, and data analytics, where he focuses on applying quantitative methods to real-world problems. Outside of his research, he balances his academic rigor with a disciplined athletic lifestyle, regularly engaging in team-based and individual sports such as football and tennis. He also has a strong interest in 20th-century history, reflecting a broader curiosity about global events and their long-term economic and societal impacts.