Welcome to the Hong Kong History Centre’s quarterly round-up.
We are thrilled to have more colleagues joining our Centre. We’re delighted to be able to welcome Maria Korea to the role of Centre Manager, with a Project Archivist in the Library Special Collections, and Sam Brenton who has joined as Digital Archives Assistant. We’ll be providing a fuller introduction to the archives team in a future issue, together with news about that strand of our work. And more appointments will be being made in the next few months.
On 8 June, we celebrated the launch of our Network of Early Career Scholars on Hong Kong History, with the first meeting held in Bristol. We were well fed with great ideas from inspiring presentations by Patrick Hao (University of Oxford) delving into Sino-British relations and democratization in late colonial Hong Kong; Gary Wong (University of Leeds) introducing how Hong Kong was being exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, London, 1924-1925; and Gray Sergeant (London School of Economics and Political Science) who is investigating the Hong Kong Working Group and the Making of an Anglo-American Misunderstanding, 1957 – 1961. Florence Mok (Nanyang Technological University) zoomed in to share her experiences of developing her doctoral work into a book.
It is always great to meet new friends and exchange ideas. We intend to meet regularly and if you are based in the UK and want to be part of this network, please contact us at hkhistory-centre@bristol.ac.uk. The next meeting will be in October.
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On 1 September, we are honoured to have Japanese scholars visiting our centre. The team, led by Professor Toru Kurata (Rikkyo University), included Masakazu Matsuoka (Ohtsuki City College), Akiko Kurata (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), Shingo Kobori (Nagoya University of Foreign Studies), Kota Sasha Oguri (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), and Airin Yamada (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), and they shared with us the past, present and future of Hong Kong Studies in Japan. We exchanged fruitful thoughts on the current landscape of the subject, and explored the possibility of future collaborations. We hope to meet and learn from colleagues around the world, and together we thrive the research community.
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In the same month our directors have started the trip in Hong Kong. On 16 September, our team organized the first Hong Kong History Day. With the help of Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS), we co-hosted the event, more than 150 participants showed up. It was a day or reconnection, networking, and most importantly having dialogues and discussion on Hong Kong History. The event featured four panels covering various topics of Hong Kong history: archives building, study of history of art and entertainment, history education and Hong Kong in the 1970s. With lots of great and passionate people concerning and being interested on Hong Kong History and Studies in general, there are rich and diverse things we can still do on Hong Kong.
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On 19 September, our directors attended a University of Bristol Hong Kong Alumni reception in the China Club Hong Kong. We were pleased to share the latest exciting updates of the establishment of Bristol’s Hong Kong History Centre, the world’s first research centre focusing on the study of Hong Kong History. This was a great opportunity to catch up with new and old friends in the Bristol family overseas.
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On the next day, 20 September, the Centre’s co-director, Vivian Kong had her first book talk for the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong at Cafe 8, Roof, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, on her upcoming book Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45. Asking what does it mean to be British, Vivian provided some reflections through an under-explored site of Britishness – the former British colony of Hong Kong.
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We concluded our tour in Hong Kong with a full-house community film screening, co-organized with SHKS. On 24 September, 尚未完場 To Be Continued was screened and followed by a Q&A session with the directors. This evocative documentary is a deep dive into the forgotten legend of Harry Odell, Hong Kong’s first impresario.
We hope to see everyone next year!
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We have a lot more happening in this new academic year, so please stay tuned and follow us! If you want to receive information and news from Hong Kong History Centre, please subscribe to our mailing list by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.