Dear Friends of HKSI,
As you will see below, much is going on in Hong Kong Studies, here at the University of British Columbia as well as in other parts of the world. Do join us or our colleagues for the conversations if you are interested.
With best wishes for the Year of the Tiger!
Leo K. Shin 單國鉞
Associate Professor, History and Asian Studies
Convenor, Hong Kong Studies Initiative 共研香江
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
|
|
|
Webinar
Friday, 18 February 2022, 17:00–18:30 PST
What is Diaspora? A Possible Dialogue with Hong Kong Studies
Dr. Shelly Chan, University of California, Santa Cruz
via Zoom
A City Reassembled event
Registration: hksi.ubc.ca/events/event/webinar-what-is-diaspora/
Recent discussions about a “Hong Kong diaspora” point to a new way to understand the city at a significant moment of transition—one that brings together diaspora studies and Hong Kong studies. What does “diaspora” describe and conceptualize? As a global field of Hong Kong studies begins to coalesce in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., what can “diaspora” teach us about Hong Kong, and what can Hong Kong teach us about “diaspora”?
This talk will be suggestive. It will outline how diaspora has served as a mode of social, cultural, and historical analysis about movements, and how a dialogue may benefit both diaspora studies and Hong Kong studies. From the early associations with forced exile and long-distance trade, diaspora studies have provided us with a distinct vocabulary—displacement, hybridity, roots, and routes—to describe movement as “dispersion,” and that the sense of being “outside” of a real or imagined homeland can be a powerful basis for culture and identity. In global history and culture, diasporas have also been a force no less important than nations and empires, transforming not only individuals and families, but also broader politics, economics, and societies. Yet, in many state-centered narratives, the Chinese diaspora, for instance, remains monolithic and derivative, its status subordinated to that of locals, natives, and citizens. Restoring agency to diasporas, without sacrificing their diversity and complexity, is the foundation for building meaningful conversations about a Hong Kong diaspora. There are now many well documented signs of Hong Kong’s specificity and ambiguity, from being on the verge of “disappearance” (Abbas) to being on the “edge of empires” (Carroll) and to being an “in-between place” (Sinn). For diaspora studies, an attention to Hong Kong calls for a deep engagement with positionality (being “outside”) rather than ethnicity (being “Chinese”). For Hong Kong studies, thinking through diaspora helps re-imagine the city as a point of departure and re-entry, a site of integration and fragmentation, and a perspective on reality from the inside out and the outside in.
Shelly Chan is Associate Professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her current research focuses on the rise and disappearance of Nanyang the “South Seas,” a migrant and oceanic geography connecting China and Southeast Asia from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Her recent book, Diaspora’s Homeland: Modern China in the Age of Global Migration, was published by Duke University Press in 2018 and shortlisted for the International Convention for Asian Studies (ICAS) Humanities Book Prize in 2019. Chan has previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011–2020) and the University of Victoria (2009–2011). She received her Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz and her M.A. and B.A. from UBC.
This webinar is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Centre for Migration Studies, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Public Humanities Hub, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.
|
|
CANTONESE LANGAUGE PROGRAM |
|
|
|
The UBC Cantonese Language Program is hosting a series of master classes on alternate Fridays this semester. Be sure to check out the upcoming talks this month!
|
|
|
|
Conversation
3 February 2022, 18:30–21:00 PST
“Lunar” or “Chinese”: Whose New Year? Cultural Identity and Sovereignty
via Zoom
// Culture has always evolved and blended throughout history and continues to do so in modern times. As the world becomes globalized, we ordinary humans also experience the impacts of cultural “import” and “export”, provoking discussion on the concepts of cultural identity and sovereignty. Should a culture belong exclusively to its nation of origin, or can we share it with others? What is your perception of this issue? Please join us for the first Dialogue event this semester if you have something to share on any of the above topics. We look forward to hearing from you! //
This event is organized by the UBC Hua Dialogue and sponsored by the Centre for Chinese Research.
Details: eventbrite.ca/e/lunar-or-chinese-whose-new-year-cultural-identity-and-sovereignty-tickets-251038201017
|
|
|
|
Check out these upcoming webinars hosted by the Hong Kong Research Hub at the Nanyang Technological University at Singapore:
4 February 2022, 16:00–18:00 SGT
From Extraterritoriality to Extratemporality: Digital Ecology and Independent Cinema
Victor Fan, King’s College London
Details: ntu.edu.sg/soh/news-events/events/detail/2022/02/04/research-events/from-extraterritoriality-to-extratemporality-digital-ecology-and-independent-cinema
10 February 2022, 16:30–18:00 SGT
“The Metropolis of the Far East”: Tourism and Recovery in Postwar Hong Kong
John Carroll, University of Hong Kong
Details: ntu.edu.sg/soh/news-events/events/detail/2022/02/10/research-events/the-metropolis-of-the-far-east-tourism-and-recovery-in-postwar-hong-kong
25 February 2022, 10:00–12:00 SGT
From Endangerment to Ferality: Revisiting the Cultural Imagination of Hong Kong via Animal Tropes
Winnie L. M. Yee, University of Hong Kong
Details: ntu.edu.sg/soh/news-events/events/detail/2022/02/25/research-events/from-endangerment-to-ferality-revisiting-the-cultural-imagination-of-hong-kong-via-animal-tropes
|
|
Webinar
15 February 2022, 18:00–19:30 PST
The Arab Spring Abroad: Implications for Hong Kong
Dana Moss, University of Notre Dame
Commentator: Kennedy Wong, University of South California
// Dana Moss (Notre Dame) has proposed the idea of “transnational repression” to rethink how authoritarian states could threaten dissidents in exile and suppress their “voice after exit” in the democratic first world. In this seminar, we will read two chapters of her recent book, The Arab Spring Abroad: Diaspora Activism against Authoritarian Regimes, and discuss its implications for studying Hong Kong diasporas. //
This webinar is organized by the Global Hong Kong Studies @ University of California.
Details:
globalhks-uc.org/seminar-the-arab-spring-abroad
|
|
Webinar
16 February 2022, 15:00–17:00 EST
Academics Online: Digital Harassment Across Asias
Speakers: Michael Berry, Paula R. Curtis, Mary Gallagher, Jeffrey J. Hall, Nitasha Kaul, Lillian Ngan, Audrey Truschke, Helena Wu, and Tomomi Yamaguchi
// This webinar, the first in the three-part series of Academics Online events, will offer lightning talks by scholars of China, Japan, India, and Hong Kong, with the aim of building knowledge and awareness of critical issues surrounding public-facing scholarship, activism, and online harassment in Asian Studies. //
Details:
asianstudies.org/jobs-professional-resources/aas-digital-dialogues/academics-online-digital-harassment-across-asias/
|
|
|
|
Annual Conference 2022—Hong Kong Studies as Praxis
Society for Hong Kong Studies
// This year’s theme is “Hong Kong Studies as Praxis” which we hope will stimulate collective and multi-disciplinary reflections on Hong Kong Studies as a process in the making during a time of uncertainty. We welcome submissions from all disciplines.
Scholars and graduate students at any stage of their professional careers and at any local or overseas university are welcome to submit paper abstracts (max. 250 words each) or panel abstracts (max. 350 words each). The submitted abstracts will then be reviewed and review decisions will be made in March-April 2022. //
Deadline: 28 February 2022
Details: hkstudies.org/shknews/call-for-submissions-annual-meeting-2022/
|
|
|
|
January 28: Director Alvin Tsang joined host Dr. Helena Wu for a public yet intimate conversation on the journey of making his award-winning documentary on migration and family reconciliation (webcast forthcoming | photos | new project).
For a complete list of our video recordings, please visit our YouTube channel or the “Video Library” section of our website.
|
|
Please kindly consider a tax-deductible donation to HKSI (hksi.ubc.ca/support-us). Thank you, as always, for your support of the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative.
|
|