The graduating class of the Academy for Performing Arts was joined at their ceremony last Thursday by several prominent local personalities being conferred honorary degrees and doctorates as well.

Acting Chief Secretary Michael Suen Ming-yeung officiated over the ceremony, and the recipients were certainly a diverse group. Those bestowed with an honorary fellowship included dance teacher Christine Liao (also known as Mao Mei), founder of her eponymous local ballet school, which has been training young students for 45 years.

Entertainment industry queen and Chinese opera promoter Liza Wang Ming-chun (left) was also awarded a fellowship. The other Asian in the group to be recognised with a degree was conductor Yan Huichang, the artistic director of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a frequent visiting lecturer at the academy. In the more prestigious doctorate rank, three individuals were named. With the two overseas recipients - conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and performing arts scholar Richard Schechner - absent, the lone attending honorary doctorate candidate was Stanley Ho Hung-sun (right).