Fonds 09 - Bernard Luk Archives 陸鴻基檔案

Bernard Luk (陸鴻基) was born and raised in Hong Kong. He earned a BA in the Department of History in The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1969 and a PhD in History from Indiana University in 1977. He took on multiple public and educational roles. He taught at the Faculty of Education of The Chinese University of Hong Kong before immigrating to Canada in 1990. In 1990, he initiated and co-directed the Canada-Hong Kong Project (加港研究計劃) with Diana Lary in 1990. The project studied impact of Hong Kong migration to Canada and the process of acculturation of Hong Kong immigrants, which later led to the birth of the Canada-Hong Kong Resource Centre (加港文獻館) that provided access to reference materials collected by the project. The Resource Centre eventually became the RIchard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto. In 1991, Luk joined the History Department at York University.

On leave from York between 2003 and 2007, he servced as the vice-president of Hong Kong Institute of Education (香港教育學院). During a dispute against then Education Minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung over government interventions, Luk stood firm defending of the soverignty and academic freedom of the Institute. Luk was widely praised for his devotion to justice and social principles. After the incident, Luk returned to York University as professor in History.Luk was an internationally recognized authority on the history of Hong Kong. He authored and co-edited 14 books and numerous articles on Hong Kong.

Luk passed away in Sunnybrook Hospital, North York, Ontario after suffering a stroke on March 23, 2016.