Page 14 - 01/2022 PULSE@FASS e-Bulletin

Some of our graduates Issue no. 1 | 2022

Dr Manaf with his grandchildren on Graduation day

The 80 year old graduate

Haji Abdul Manaf Saad, 80 years old, received a PhD in
History under the supervision of Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr
Abdullah Zakaria bin Ghazali dan Associate Professor Dr
Zulkanain Abdul Rahman. Prior to his life in academia,
where he has lectured at Universiti Malaysia Sabah and
Universiti Malaya, Dr Manaf served as a journalist for the
New Straits Times. His thesis is titled" The Participation
of Islamic Clerics and the Kedah Ulama Association in
the Struggle for Independence and the Development of
Syiar Islam in Kedah 1360-1376H/1941-1957AD". His
research was completed in four and a half years and he
is currently in the midst of turning the thesis into a
Prof. Danny Wong, the Dean of FASS and Dr. Manaf publication.

Husband and Wife PhDs

A couple from China, Wang Zhaoyuan and Hong Shanshan,
were also among the 28 PhD graduates to also receive their
Doctoral degree from Universiti Malaya at the 61st
Convocation. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, both Dr
Wang and Dr Hong were unable to travel back to Malaysia to
attend their convocation.

Dr Wang and Dr Hong came to Malaysia in 2016 when Wang
was posted as a staff to the newly-established Xiamen
University in Malaysia and eventually enrolled into the
Department of Anthropology and Sociology later that year. His
The couple with their sons, Hongyou and Hongyu, back in
thesis is entitled, “The Datuk Gong worship among Malaysian
China
Chinese: Transethnic religious continuation and change”, and
was supervised by Dr Welyne Jehom and Professor Danny
Wong.

His wife, Hong also signed up with the same department,
defended her thesis titled “NGOs’ social capital development
initiatives towards social welfare among peasant workers in
China”, under the supervision of Dr Rosilabee Hussein and
Professor Danny Wong. While Wang’s work focused on
Anthropology, Hong’s was on Social Work. The couple have
returned to China where Dr Wang now works as an
administrator in Xiamen University and Dr Hong is now a
Visiting supervisor and Dean Wong, with Dr Hong carrying
lecturer in Jimei University in Xiamen. Hongyou
14 | Pulse @ FASS