November 25, 2019 Hosted by the Department of Asian Studies, the Hong Kong Studies Initiative (HKSI) at the University of British Columbia is devoted to promoting the teaching and research of this most-improbable metropolis, both as an extraordinary Chinese city and as a spectacular international and transnational hub. |
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Dear Friends of HKSI, Even as the semester is winding down here at the University, there’s still much going on both on and off campus. Please join us for continual conversations and reflections. Leo K. Shin 單國鉞 |
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Screening+Dialogue Cantonese with English Subtitles (120 mins.) RSVP: Umbrella Diaries: The First Umbrella charts the origins of Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement through the eyes of the activists and ordinary people who made it happen. From the June 4 Candlelit Vigil until September 28, 2014, when tens of thousands of protestors occupied the streets outside Government Headquarters, this documentary puts us at the heart of the action, allowing viewers to experience the highs and lows of that remarkable summer, when Hong Kong witnessed a “blossoming of democracy.” RSVP: https://hksi.ubc.ca/events/event/screening-umbrella-diaries/ James Leong's documentaries have screened at festivals such as Hotdocs, IDFA and Yamagata. Passabe (2004), about truth and reconciliation in East Timor, received a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Homeless FC (2006) won the top prize at the Chinese Documentary Festival in Hong Kong. Wukan (2015) was awarded Best Feature at the Freedom Film Festival and the Chinese Documentary Festival and received a special mention at the Dubai International Film Festival. Umbrella Diaries: The First Umbrella has been nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 55th Golden Horse Awards. Together with Lynn Lee, James also directed the two-part documentary film Hong Kong’s Summer of Defiance (2019) for Al Jazeera English about the on-going anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. This screening is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-presented by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Department of Theatre and Film, Centre for Chinese Research, and Vancouver Hong Kong Forum Society. |
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Public Seminar Free and open to the public The current crisis in Hong Kong is characterized by a level of social unrest the city has not seen since the riots of 1967. In the aftermath of the previous round of turmoil, the British colonial regime regained legitimacy of its rule largely through the socioeconomic improvement of Hong Kong. “Prosperity and Stability” became the hallmark of Hong Kong’s success that extended beyond the 1970s into the period of political uncertainty in the 1980s. Socioeconomic development in the post-handover era stands in sharp contrast to the economic miracle of post-riot Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s. Post-handover Hong Kong has registered lackluster economic growth in most years, and growing income inequality is only exacerbating the situation for the average Hongkonger. Examining the current crisis beyond the protestors’ political demands, this talk explores how socioeconomic forces might have animated differently the various demographic groups in Hong Kong and questions whether political reforms alone could put an end to the conflicts in the city. Dr. John D. Wong received his BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Chicago, MBA from Stanford University, and PhD in History from Harvard University. He has taught at the University of Hong Kong since 2012. His research focuses on the flow of people, goods, capital, and ideas. With a particular interest in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta area, Dr. Wong explores how such flow connected the region and its residents to the Chinese political center in the north as well as their maritime partners in the South China Sea and beyond. Studying the China trade in the context of early-nineteenth-century global exchange, his first monograph, Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System (Cambridge University Press, 2016), demonstrates how China trade partners sustained their economic exchange on a global scale long before Western imperialism ushered in the era of globalization in a Eurocentric modern world. He has published in various academic journals including Business History Review, Law & Literature, and Asia Major. This seminar is organized by the Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, and St. John's College. |
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The Hong Kong Studies Initiative invites you to this special two-part event to mark the public presentation of “After the Protest: A Vancouver Archive of the Umbrella Movement.” Archive Launch Free and open to the public The 79-day Umbrella Movement of 2014—which in many ways foreshadowed the current struggles of Hong Kong—was a watershed moment in the history of the city. Not only has the protest movement transformed the political and social dynamics of this former British colony, it has also deeply affected overseas Hong Kong/Chinese communities. Our goal for this project is to create a publicly accessible oral history archive, both as a means to learn about the impacts of the Umbrella Movement in general but also as a way to better understand the Hong Kong community in Vancouver in particular. Join our interviewees and artist Tammy Flynn Seybold for some personal reflections on the Umbrella Movement of 2014 and its implications/lessons for the current crisis in Hong Kong. |
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Exhibition Free and open to the public (registration not required for the exhibition) During the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, many creatives put forth their art to document and support the movement. Near the “Lennon Wall” in Admiralty, sculpture, paintings, video art installations and more grew organically into a large and inclusive exhibition of protest art. Tammy Flynn Seybold was an artist living and working in Hong Kong during this time, and she began creating a documentary artwork for each day the streets were occupied. Her artwork was informed by the local media reports and her photography, taken at the Central, Admiralty and Wan Chai protest sites. Copies of the paintings and illustrations hung at the Admiralty protest site, but the originals travelled with Flynn Seybold when she moved to Vancouver in 2015. These are being exhibited for the first time, alongside the more recent work of UBC student Aaron Tong, whose piece also addresses this critical time in the history of Hong Kong. Since her undergraduate studies of Art, History of Art, and Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Tammy Flynn Seybold (and her work) has been influenced by her belief in the power of art to inspire and influence change. Her graduate work at Queen’s University, where she received her Masters in Art Conservation, cemented her conviction to preserve cultural works and heritage. The paintings, illustrations, and photography she created in the autumn of 2014 were an effort to document, highlight, and propagate the truth of what was occurring in the streets of Hong Kong during this critical time. Flynn Seybold’s artwork has been exhibited in Toronto, Hong Kong, and Vancouver. Her latest exhibition, “Of Time and Tides,” recently held at the Silk Purse Art Centre in West Vancouver, documented what is gifted to us by the Pacific Ocean, both in Hong Kong and here in Vancouver. This special two-part event is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and is generously supported by: Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster, Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, Asian Canadian Asian Migration Program, and Centre for Chinese Research. |
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29 November 2019, 7:00 pm Details: https://cantonese.arts.ubc.ca/chapmanto/ Renowned actor, director and host Mr. Chapman To will share his experience in the entertainment industry. (With apologies, event is at capacity) |
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Sunday, 1 December 2019, 2 pm Details: http://www.sfu.ca/itcr/events/chapmanto.html Chapman To Man-chak 杜汶澤 is a Hong Kong actor best known for his roles in films such as Infernal Affairs and Initial D. In addition to appearing in over a hundred films as an actor, he has also had success as a radio personality, director, producer, and amateur photographer. He has been an outspoken pro-democracy supporter of Taiwan's Sunflower Student Movement and Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement. He currently hosts an on-line Youtube show Chapman To's Late Show. (With apologies, event is at capacity) |
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Tuesday, 3 December 2019, 2:00–3:00 pm As a politically diverse and economically active region, Asia has become a central concern for world politics and global economic development since the 1990s. Asia also continues to take the lead in generating international migrations. Many Asians are active movers and are making multiple times of migration during one’s life time. In the 1980s and 1990s, out of fear of Hong Kong’s pending return to China, a large number of middle class families immigrated to western countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia, and were described as “reluctant exiles.” Migrations from Hong Kong have picked up momentum again since the 2010s due to Hong Kong’s rapidly changing social and political environment. Rather than describing them as reluctant migrants, this paper will examine how Hong Kong migrants have gradually formed a voluntary and fluid diaspora around the world. It attempts to use Hong Kong as a typical case of migration studies to look into the pattern of outmigration, return migration, and double reverse migration. Yuk Wah Chan is Associate Professor of the Department of Asian and International Studies at City University of Hong Kong. She is an editor of the Routledge Series on Asian Migration and has published widely on Asian migration, Asian borderlands, food and identity. This seminar is organized by the Department of Anthropology and co-sponsored by the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. |
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2020 Summer GoGlobal Seminar This unique field study in Vancouver, Hong Kong, Kaiping, Singapore, and Malaysia will allow students to explore multi-disciplinary perspectives on the histories, cultures, and geographies of Cantonese migration. These migration networks primarily stemmed from the “Szeyup,” or “Four Counties,” area of the province of Guangdong (Canton), the home region of many overseas Chinese who went to Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries. Led by Professor Henry Yu (History), this is an ideal opportunity for students looking for a short yet rewarding exchange experience. Graduating students and/or non-Arts students are also encouraged to apply. Application deadline: 5 December 2019 Program details: https://students.ubc.ca/career/international-experiences/global-seminars/kaiping-heritage-chinese-migration |
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Associates of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative respond to the protests in Hong Kong. |
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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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