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Dear Friends of HKSI,
Thank you very much for your continual support of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative. May the new year bring all of us health and peace.
With very best wishes,
Leo K. Shin 單國鉞
Associate Professor, History and Asian Studies
Convenor, Hong Kong Studies Initiative 共研香江 |
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Seminar
Friday, 24 January 2020, 12 pm
British Dominance in the Canton Trade and Its Consequences, 1784–1833
Prof. Paul A. Van Dyke (Sun Yat-sen University)
Place of Many Trees
Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver
Details:
https://hksi.ubc.ca/events/event/seminar-british-dominance-in-the-canton-trade/
As is well-known, Great Britain played a prominent role in the Canton trade from its beginnings in the early eighteenth century to the end of the British East India Company’s (EIC) voyages to China in 1833. Other Europeans and private traders from India, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and elsewhere played significant roles as well, but in the late eighteenth century some of those players began to withdraw from the trade. New data shows that 1784 was a watershed year when foreign competition within the trade began to decline. This was not the outcome that Qing officials expected or wanted, but it was the reality they had to deal with. There was enormous pressure on Customs Superintendents (Hoppos) and governor generals to maintain trade revenues, which meant they needed to accommodate their number one player, the EIC, while at the same time, keep the British from controlling the commerce. They were only partially successful. Hong merchants rose and fell according to British desires; British captains attacked enemy ships and showed aggression towards their adversaries in China despite Qing officials’ protests; and British warships attempted to annex Macao. Several Hong merchants tried to retire from the trade from 1804 to 1808, to escape becoming puppets of the EIC and new restrictive measures were introduced to limit the company’s influence. It is well-known that corruption and mismanagement weakened the Canton system from within, but less understood how British dominance and the inability of the Qing administration to maintain a competitive environment, contributed to its demise.
Paul A. Van Dyke is professor of history at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou. He has authored several books on the history of the foreign trade in Guangzhou, including The Canton Trade (2005), two volumes of Merchants of Canton and Macao (2011 and 2016), and is co-author of Images of the Canton Factories (2015). He is co-translator and annotator of three volumes of The Canton-Macao Dagregisters 1762, 1763, 1764 (published in 2006, 2008, and 2009, respectfully) and has published numerous articles about the China trade, maritime exchanges in Asia, and East-West interactions. This present study introduces arguments from his new book entitled Whampoa and the Canton Trade: Life and Death in a Chinese Port, which will be published by Hong Kong University Press in April 2020.
This seminar is co-sponsored by: Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Hong Kong Studies Initiative, Department of Asian Studies, and St. John's College.
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Wednesday, 22 January 2020, 5:30 pm
The Greatest Wedding on Earth 南北一家親 (1962)
Director: Tian-Lin Wang
Screenplay: Eileen Chang and Yuen Chor
120, C. K. Choi,
UBC 1855 West Mall, Vancouver
In Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles
Introduction by Prof. Christopher Rea
Refreshments provided. All are welcome.
RSVP:
https://hksi.ubc.ca/events/event/screening-greatest-wedding-on-earth/
Laugh in the Year of the Rat with a hilarious bilingual “North-South comedy” from the golden age of Hong Kong filmmaking.
Culture clash abounds after the Chinese Civil War when a Mandarin-speaking restauranteur moves to Hong Kong with his family and sets up shop right next to an established Cantonese restaurant. The two proprietors hate each other’s guts. So what are they going to do when their children fall in love? Disown their children? Force their business rival into bankruptcy? Or find a way to become one big happy family?
Starring a pair of roly-poly comedians and a glamorous cast of young stars, and with a screenplay by the famous writing Eileen Chang, this comedy was designed to ease tensions during an earlier volatile period in Hong Kong history. Don’t miss the double daddy kung fu restaurant smash-up!
This communal screening is organized by the Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-hosted by: Cantonese Language Program, Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research.
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MUSC 327/ASIA 335
Cantonese Music
Instructor: Prof. Hedy Law
This course explains tonal and melodic correlations between Cantonese language and Cantonese music and accounts for their socio-cultural and political meanings. Using these correlations as a methodological basis, the course provides an historical overview of Cantonese music, from early nineteenth-century Canton to early twentieth-first century Cantonese regions (including Hong Kong, Guangdong, and parts of San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York). The course ends with positioning the broadly defined Cantonese music in the twenty-first century global context.
Details: https://hksi.ubc.ca/musc-327/
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Exhibition
14–26 January 2020
Revolution of Our Times
The Polygon Gallery
101 Carrie Cates Court
North Vancouver
Details: https://facebook.com/events/781804845618892/
Despite the distance, cultural divide, and differing histories, there are a set of human values for which we all yearn, and a brave and desperate few are willing to fight for.
The Revolution of Our Times exhibition endeavours to share the important body of work created by photojournalists who were on the ground covering the 2019 Anti-Extradition Treaty Protests in Hong Kong.
In its first stop on a worldwide tour, the exhibit brings photos, artifacts, artwork, and human stories to major world cities with the goal of making the struggle of the citizens of Hong Kong real, and to put their fight into context.
All are invited to hear stories and see work from photojournalist Aaron Guy Leroux and designer Adam Alamis who curated the exhibit and spent time on the ground during the protests.
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Friday, 24 January 2020
Lunar New Year Celebration
Come celebrate the lunar new year with students, staff, faculty members, and honored guests of the UBC Chinese, Korean, and Cantonese language programs!
Details: asia.ubc.ca
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November 27: Dr. John Wong (University of Hong Kong) offered a thoughtful reflection on the social and economic transformations of Hong Kong since the 1960s. ( photos)
Nov. 29/Dec. 1: Popular actor, director, and host Chapman To spoke about his experiences as an entertainer in Hong Kong to packed crowds at UBC and SFU. ( video for SFU event)
November 30: Artist Tammy Flynn Seybold and participants of the oral history project After the Protest reflected on the Umbrella Movement of 2014 in a special exhibition/archive launch. ( photos)
December 3: Dr. Yuk Wah Chan (City University of Hong Kong) provided a highly informative overview of the transformations of migration from Hong Kong.
December 7: Award-winning director James Leong responded to questions from the audience (via skype) following a special screening of Umbrella Diaries: The First Umbrella. ( photos)
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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.
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