A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa professor has been awarded China’s highest honor given to foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China’s drive toward modernization. Department of Philosophy Professor Emeritus Roger T. Ames was presented the Chinese Government Friendship Award in Beijing on September 30, by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as part of China’s National Day celebration.
Ames is an expert on Chinese and Western comparative philosophy. He is currently humanities chair professor at Peking University, president of the World Consortium for Research in Confucian Cultures and vice president of the International Federation of Confucian Studies.
“In China, as in our host Hawaiian culture, good friends become part of the family. I have always felt this way at Peking University in my classroom and among my colleagues,” Ames said.
Ames has won several other international awards, including the John Dewey Society Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Huilin Culture Award from Beijing Normal University in 2016 and Confucius Culture Prize in 2013.
He retired from UH Mānoa in 2016 after serving as a faculty member since 1978. His campus awards include a 2012 Regent’s Medal for Excellence in Research, a 2010 College of Arts and Humanities Excellence in Scholarship Award and a 1990 Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. Ames earned his BA from the University of British Columbia, master’s degrees from National Taiwan University and the University of British Columbia, and PhD from the University of London.
This work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
