2024
HKHC Speaker's Series & History Department Seminar, Dr. Christopher Cowell , London South Bank University, United Kingdom
From Fever to Form: Malaria and the First Construction of Hong Kong
Speaker: Dr. Christopher Cowell , London South Bank University, United Kingdom
Date and Time: 12 November 2024, 3:30 – 5pm (UKT)
Venue: Lecture Room 8 (LT8), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: English
In-person only event. To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
During the first half of the 1840s, the earliest decade of Hong Kong’s colonisation, the island gained a terrible reputation as a diseased and deadly location. Settlers re-evaluated the topography, geology, society, and buildings of the early city settlement along the northern shoreline of Hong Kong Island in a desperate attempt to understand the nature and causes of a sickness that was killing them. This leveller was called ‘malaria’, as in ‘bad air’, believed to be a gaseous emanation from the land. Since malaria was considered a low-lying gas, it soon compelled the young city to be conceived of in ‘section’ as a divided community living at differing heights and (perceptually) different atmospheres, a stubborn morphology of status that has continued to the present day.
This well-known but barely researched history lies at the core of a new book by the speaker. Form Follows Fever: Malaria and the Construction of Hong Kong, 1841–1849 (Chinese University of Hong Kong Press), is the first in-depth historical account of the beginnings of the city. Early Hong Kong society and its urban form were hurriedly assembled—through borrowing, inventing, copying, and adapting from local and transnational sources—all manifested in its physical and cultural construction. This talk, drawing from the book, uses a wide range of visual evidence—from land cartography and hydrographic charts to architects’ studies and China trade paintings—demonstrating the complexity of this ‘construction’, in which the technologies of the image reveal both the anxieties of precarity and the technologies of recuperation.
Christopher Cowell is lecturer in architectural history and theory at London South Bank University. He studied architectural history at Columbia University. He has taught worldwide, including in Hong Kong, New York, and Dublin, where he was assistant professor of modern and contemporary architectural history at Trinity College. His longstanding historical research focuses on both southern China and northern India, exploring the entanglement of modernity within European imperialism and its participation in architecture and urbanism. Cowell’s writing examines the relationship between the practice and theory of architecture against the cultural complexity of colonialism. This intersection draws upon the study of urban militarism, spatial security, hinterland ecologies, cartography, property, climate, disease, and race, among others.
HKHC Speaker's Series, Nadine Attewell, Simon Fraser University, Canada 
A Matter of Life and Death: Relation Work in Wartime Hong Kong
Speaker: Prof. Nadine Attewell, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Date and Time: 28 October 2024, 4 – 5:30pm (UKT)
Venue: Zoom (Online)
Language: English
Online event, to attend, please register on Ticketpass.
On December 25 1941, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong became a temporary possession of the Japanese empire. The experiences of the thousands of white British and other Allied soldiers and civilians who were imprisoned in urban camps for the duration of the war have been extensively plumbed by memoirists and scholars alike. In this talk, in contrast, I reflect on the complicated affordances of the colonial archive as a starting point from which to map the cross-class and multiracial networks of relation through which mixed-race and other Chinese women from lower-class (including sex-working) backgrounds struggled to survive the occupation, both within and across the lines dividing the camps from the city.
Given the complicated gender, sexual, racial, and labour politics of care, how might we make sense of women’s practices of relation-making in a wartime context where the uneven distribution of precarity not only intensified, but itself became an object of interimperial contestation? To British and Japanese observers, colonized people’s practices of relation-making mattered principally insofar as they hindered or furthered the reproduction of imperial life. Mobilizing the insights of queer of colour and leftist feminists, I think with women’s efforts to elaborate other orders of value through acts of relation, improvising new supports for life in the face of colonial state abandonment and mass death.
Prof Nadine Attewell is Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University, where she also directs the undergraduate program in Global Asia. She is the author of Better Britons: Reproduction, National Identity, and the Afterlife of Empire (University of Toronto Press, 2014) and has published articles in Postcolonial Text, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures of the Americas, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and Trans Asia Photography. She is currently at work on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded book entitled Archives of Intimacy: Racial Mixing and Chinese Lives in the Global Port City.
【歷史沙龍】 華僑商人：胡文虎的香港足跡與虎豹別墅的光與影
陳雋琦 x 郭浩忠
日期：2024年10月26日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4:30
地點：Auditorium, Royal Photographic Society, 337 Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 實體活動。
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EGZERU
----
香港一直是連結東南亞華人與中國的重要樞紐，本次歷史沙龍聚焦於虎標萬金油和星島日報的創辦人胡文虎。胡文虎在新加坡開展醫藥事業，並於1930年代將總部遷至香港，通過對慈善、建築和媒體的投資，他成為歷史上最成功的海外華商之一。那麼，他為什麼來到香港？海外投資如何影響香港和近代中國的歷史？陳雋琦將探索華人移民的歷史，深入探討中國、香港與東南亞之間的聯繫，並通過虎豹別墅感受胡文虎留下的文化遺產。同場，攝影師郭浩忠將分享如何利用AI生成軟件擴展對虎豹別墅的記憶與想像，同時質疑這些受指令操控的生成影像及其衍生的記憶，如何在真實與虛妄間穿梭。
----
【同場加映】
展覽導賞｜Realms of Memory：郭浩忠、劉家俊、劉衛 (2-2:30pm | Optional)
歷史沙龍舉行前將備有「Realms of Memory」的廣東話展覽導賞。展覽位於英國皇家攝影學會（Royal Photographic Society）二樓，為布里斯托攝影節的節目之一，邀請藝術家重新詮釋與香港相關的歷史檔案，包括來自布里斯托大學的中國歷史相片計劃及香港大學圖書館的Frank Fischbeck珍藏集。
導賞將由香港非牟利藝術機構WMA帶領。WMA為是次香港歷史沙龍及布里斯托攝影節的合作夥伴。
----
【History Salon】 Overseas Chinese Merchants: Aw Boon Haw and the Tiger Balm Mansion
Kelvin Chan x Billy H.C. Kwok
Date: 26 October 2024
Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm (UKT)
Venue: Auditorium, Royal Photographic Society, 337 Paintworks, Bristol, BS4 3AR
Language: Cantonese
----
Note:
- In-person only.
- Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EGZERU
----
Hong Kong has been a crucial site for connecting overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia with China. This History Salon focuses on the story of Aw Boon Haw, the founder of Tiger Balm and Singdao Daily. He began his medical business in Singapore and shifted the headquarter to Hong Kong in the 1930s. He became one of the most successful overseas Chinese merchants by investing in philanthropy, architecture, and media. So, why did he come to Hong Kong? How did overseas investment shape the history of Hong Kong and modern China? Kelvin Chan will discuss the patterns of Chinese migration, explore the connections between China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, and highlight the lasting legacies of Aw through the Tiger-Balm Mansion. In addition, photographer Billy H.C. Kwok will share the ways he employs AI generation software to contest the memories and imaginations of the Tiger Balm Mansion, and how the derivative memories from these AI-generated images traverse between reality and illusion.
----
【Additional Tour】
Pre-Salon Exhibition Guided Tour | Realms of Memory: Billy H.C. Kwok, Jay Lau, Lau Wai (2-2:30pm | Optional)
Join the Cantonese tour of “Realms of Memory”, an exhibition on view at the Royal Photographic Society which is part of this year’s Bristol Photo Festival. “Realms of Memory” invites artistic re-interpretations of historical photo archives surrounding Hong Kong, including the Historical Photographs of China project (University of Bristol), as well as the Frank Fischbeck Archive (University of Hong Kong Libraries Special Collections).
The tour will be led by WMA, a Hong Kong-based art organisation. WMA is the programme partner of this Hong Kong History Salon, as well as a cultural partner of the Bristol Photo Festival 2024.
Building Collections: Pasts, Presents and Futures | A Hong Kong History Centre Panel Discussion 
Date: 22 October 2024
Time: 3:30 – 5pm (UKT)
Venue: Lecture Room 8 (LT8), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: English
In-person only event. To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
----
The Hong Kong History Centre at the University of Bristol is starting to build up a new set of Hong Kong Collections within the University Library’s Special Collections, which will focus on encouraging donations of privately-held archives. We encourage people and organisations with historic ties to Hong Kong to consider donating privately-held records for long term preservation in the collection. The aim is to provide different perspectives to those found in government records. This is a pioneering initiative in the UK: no other British institution prioritises the collection of records like this relating to Hong Kong’s history.
The initial focus is on visual material, to support the development of a new online ‘Historical Photographs of Hong Kong’ open access platform which will launch in late 2025. Ahead of that, in collaboration with WMA, the Royal Photographic Society and the Bristol Photo Festival, we are already showcasing how such collections can support new creative responses with the exhibition ‘Realms of Memory’, showcasing new work by contemporary artists Billy H.C Kwok, Jay Lau, and Lau Wai, which is being held at the RPS as part of the 2024 Bristol Photo Festival.
But why build an archive? What are the challenges? Recent years have seen a number of focused initiatives to encourage public participation in building up collections about a specific community, or place, or period, and in engaging with them once established. This panel provides an opportunity for those interested in learning more about such projects, and their methods, challenges, responsibilities and ethics, to discuss this topic with a team experienced in these issues from the heritage, museum, university and creative sectors.
----
Panel
Alejandro Acín, Director, Bristol Photo Festival, Chair
Robert Bickers, Co-Director, Hong Kong History Centre
Lisa Graves, Curator World Cultures, Bristol City Council
Pete Insole, Head of Urban Design and Principal Historic Environment Officer, Bristol City Council
----
Alejandro Acín is founder-director of IC Visual Lab (ICVL), an independent photography platform. In 2023, he was appointed Bristol Photo Festival Director, and its second edition is produced and managed by IC Visual Lab. Beyond ICVL, Alex has a track record of activating historic archives, including Historical Photographs of China 1850-1950 (University of Bristol), the Nepal Picture Library and the British Empire & Commonwealth Collection, and of managing the Martin Parr Foundation library. Acín has produced personal projects exploring ideas around collective memory and politics and his work has been exhibited in Colombia, France, the UK and Spain.
Robert Bickers is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol, and a Co-Director of the Hong Kong History Project. Since 2006 he has worked on collections initiatives, including ‘Historical Photographs of China’, and a series of collaborations with ‘Know Your Place’.
Lisa Graves is Curator of World Cultures at Bristol Culture, with over 25 years of experience working in museums across the UK. She has worked in areas of decolonial practice for many years and has undertaken several repatriation projects. After project managing the ‘Colston Statute: What Next?’ display in 2021, being part of the project team for the installation of the statue in a display around protest against racial injustice in 2024, she is now working with communities in Bristol to develop new ways of responding to TTEA (Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans) and legacies of colonialism in our service.
Pete Insole is the Urban Design Team Manager in the Planning Department at Bristol City Council and has nearly 30 years’ experience of working in heritage and place practices in Bristol. During 2010-11 Pete managed the English Heritage funded project to create Know Your Place, an online resource that won the ESRI UK Local Government Vision Award, 2011, the Urban Design Group Francis Tibbalds Award in 2014 and Heritage Angel Award in 2018. For the last 12 years, Pete has been using Know Your Place to develop a story of place concept that provides a platform for multiple voices to collectively share and define Bristol’s heritage through historic photos, oral histories, postcards and other formal and informal archives.
【歷史沙龍】衝出香港的粵語流行曲 
日期：2024年9月28日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4:30
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 實體活動。
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EYBKIY
----
香港樂壇近年再次「焫著」聽眾。有人認為「樂壇已死」，亦有人要帶廣東歌「衝出香港」。港式流行曲響遍全球，卻不是近年獨有現象。五六十年代的粵語電影歌曲、七八十年代的「煇黃盛世」、九十年代的「四大天王」等浪潮亦曾帶着香港流行文化跨越國界，為各地華人所熟悉。是次沙龍將率領聽眾進入歷史舞台，重溫廣東歌的「溫度、速度、溫柔和憤怒」，並探討流行音樂如何將香港的不同面貌呈現給世界各地華人社區。
----
彭得豐博士，香港史研究中心博士後研究員，研究範圍包括香港史、海外華人史及東南亞史。其劍橋大學博士論文研究香港、馬來西亞及新加坡二十世紀下半葉的華人歷史教育。著作見於《Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History》、《Historical Journal》及《粵語流行曲七十年》（合著）。
----
【History Salon】 Cantopop in Hong Kong and beyond
Date: 28 September 2024
Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: Cantonese
----
Additional Information:
- In-person only.
- Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EYBKIY
----
Hong Kong’s pop music scene has recently ‘ignited’ the interest of its audience. Some believe that Hong Kong’s music scene has ‘died’, while others hope to bring Cantopop beyond the city. Hong Kong’s popular music has resounded all over the world, but this is not unique to the present day. Cantonese film songs of the 1950s-60s, the ‘golden age’ of composer Joseph Koo and lyricist James Wong of the 1970s-80s, the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of the 1990s and so on have all enabled Hong Kong’s popular music to go beyond borders and touch Chinese communities overseas. This History Salon will invite our audience to partake in the historical stage, revisit emotions embedded in Cantopop, and investigate how the songs presented different facades of Hong Kong to Chinese communities around the world.
----
Dr Allan Pang is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Hong Kong History Centre, University of Bristol. His research interests include the history of Hong Kong, Chinese overseas, and Southeast Asia. His PhD dissertation at the University of Cambridge examines Chinese history education in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore in the second half of the twentieth century. His works have appeared in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, the Historical Journal, and Seventy Years of Cantopop (edited volume in Chinese).
【HKHC & HKIHSS Conference: Journeys】
20-21st June 2024, University of Hong Kong
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
‘Little Gidding’, T.S. Eliot
What can we learn about Hong Kong’s history from thinking about journeys? Hong Kong was a point of arrival, and a point of departure; it was a waypoint, and a port of call; it was a place of entrapment, and a place of release. Journeys were made around and through Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories and islands, on land, on water, and in the air. We can think of journeys as a metaphor, as well as thinking about them literally; we can consider individual journeys, and the movement of families and groups; we can think about people, and we can think about non-human journeys, as well as modes of travel. There is scope to consider the restriction, and the facilitation and encouragement of mobility, and of the journey as a means to an end and as an end in itself, and of risk, and of opportunity.
This conference, co-organised by the Hong Kong History Centre at the University of Bristol, and the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, takes the theme of journeys and journeying as its topic, and we take this as point of departure for new discussions of the history of Hong Kong in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This is an in-person conference. Please be reminded that registration is required for attendance - we do no accept walk-ins. There is limited availability, and you can register on TicketPass.
Programme - HKHC & HKIHSS Conference: Journeys
【歷史沙龍】在1924至25年的英京賽會展示香港
日期：2024年6月8日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4:30
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 實體活動。
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EVKPJF
----
1924及1925年，英國政府於倫敦舉辦大英帝國博覽會（時稱「英京賽會」），藉以推動大英帝國內的合作。香港於專屬的「香港展區」參展，向英國公眾展示這個細小的殖民地。在舉辦博覽會前後，香港發生兩場牽涉中國主要政黨的大罷工，但香港展區並未激起反殖情緒，反而成功展示香港新貌。講者將於講座勾勒香港展區的籌辦過程、探討展區如何展示香港，以及反思英國近期就去殖民化的討論。
----
黃培烽現任列斯大學社會及社會政策學院講師。他博士畢業於伯明翰大學，著作《兩次大罷工之間的兩次博覽會》獲選及入圍Creative Communication Awards、英國書本及設計獎及國際書獎。他現正進行香港廣播劇及華富邨的研究。
----
【History Salon】 Exhibiting Hong Kong at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924-25
Date: 8 June 2024
Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: Cantonese
----
Additional Information:
- In-person only.
- Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EVKPJF
----
In 1924 and 1925, the British government organised the British Empire Exhibition in London to promote cooperation within the British Empire. Hong Kong took part, with its own exhibition area - the Hong Kong Section – to show this small colony to the British public. Two major general strikes, both of which involved major political parties from China, took place in Hong Kong before and during the exhibition. Yet, the Hong Kong Section did not provoke anticolonial sentiments but presented new images of Hong Kong rather successfully. During the talk, the speaker outlines the organising process of the Hong Kong Section, examines how the Section exhibited Hong Kong, as well as reflects on the recent discussion about decolonisation in Britain.
----
Gary Wong is a lecturer in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham. His book Two Exhibitions between Two Strikes was awarded and shortlisted for the Creative Communication Awards, the British Book and Design Awards, and the International Book Awards. He is currently researching on Hong Kong’s radio drama and Wah Fu Estate.
【歷史沙龍】誰的古蹟？九廣鐵路總站與尖沙咀鐘樓
日期：2024年5月18日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4:30
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 實體活動。
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/ETHGCW
----
位於尖沙咀的九廣鐵路總站在1978年被拆除。如今，城市中僅存兩處舊車站的痕跡：六根矗立於市政局百週年紀念花園的柱子 ，和仍然矗立於九龍半島尖端的「前九廣鐵路鐘樓」。李明揚博士將探討那些保留火車站的嘗試，在其中一個新興的公民社會尋求來自地方政府、倫敦官員，甚至英女王的幫助。同時，他也會探討香港人，以及倫敦和香港的官員如何思考地方與人民之間的關係。
----
李明揚博士，香港大學歷史系博士。現任林肯大學東亞史講師。研究範圍包括香港史、城市史、中英關係史，著作見於 The International History Review 及 Urban History。其博士論文研究九廣鐵路在香港的歷史。
----
【History Salon】 Whose monument? The Kowloon railway terminus and Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower
Date: 18 May 2024
Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: Cantonese
----
Additional Information:
- In-person only.
- Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/ETHGCW
----
The Kowloon railway terminus in Tsim Sha Tsui was demolished in 1978. Today, only two traces of the old station remain in the city: six columns standing at the Urban Council Centenary Garden, and the now ‘Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower’, still on the tip of the Kowloon peninsula. Adonis M. Y. Li explores attempts to preserve the station, in which a nascent civil society searched for help from local government, London officials, and even the Queen. He explores how Hong Kong people and officials in both London and Hong Kong thought about the relationship between place and people.
----
Adonis M. Y. Li, Lecturer in East Asian History, University of Lincoln.
His research interests include Hong Kong history, urban history, and the history of Sino-British relations. His research has appeared in The International History Review and Urban History. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Hong Kong, explored the history of the Kowloon-Canton Railway.
HKHC Speaker's Series, Dr. Adonis M. Y. Li, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Place, People, and Preservation: the old Kowloon railway terminus in Hong Kong
Speaker: Dr. Adonis M. Y. Li, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Date and Time: 17 May 2024, 2:30 – 4pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: English
To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
The Kowloon railway terminus in Tsim Sha Tsui was demolished in 1978. Today, only two traces of the old station remain in the city: six columns standing at the Urban Council Centenary Garden, and the now ‘Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower’, still on the tip of the Kowloon peninsula. Adonis M. Y. Li explores attempts to preserve the station, in which a nascent civil society searched for help from local government, London officials, and even the Queen. He explores how Hong Kong people and officials in both London and Hong Kong thought about the relationship between place and people.
Adonis M. Y. Li is Lecturer in East Asian History at the University of Lincoln. His research interests include Hong Kong history, urban history, and the history of Sino-British relations. His research has appeared in The International History Review and Urban History. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Hong Kong, explored the history of the Kowloon-Canton Railway.
HKHC Speaker's Series, Dr. Thomas M. Larkin, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada 
The China Firm: American Elites and the Making of British Colonial Society
Speaker: Dr. Thomas M. Larkin, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
Date and Time: 3 May 2024, 3:30 – 5pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Language: English
To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
What roles did Americans play in the expanding global empires of the nineteenth century? Thomas M. Larkin examines the Hong Kong–based Augustine Heard & Company, the most prominent American trading firm in treaty-port China, to explore the ways American elites at once made and were made by British colonial society. Following the Heard brothers throughout their firm’s rise and decline, The China Firm reveals how nineteenth-century China’s American elite adapted to colonial culture, helped entrench social and racial hierarchies, and exploited the British imperial project for their own profit as they became increasingly invested in its political affairs and commercial networks.
Through the central narrative of Augustine Heard & Co., Larkin disentangles the ties that bound the United States to China and the British Empire in the nineteenth century. Drawing on a vast range of archival material from Hong Kong, China, Boston, and London, he weaves the local and the global together to trace how Americans gained acceptance into and contributed to the making of colonial societies and world-spanning empires. Uncovering the transimperial lives of these American traders and the complex ways extraimperial communities interacted with British colonialism, The China Firm makes a vital contribution to global histories of nineteenth-century Asia and provides an alternative narrative of British empire.
Thomas M. Larkin is Assistant Professor of Department of History at University of Prince Edward Island.
【歷史沙龍】太古集團與香港
日期：2024年4月20日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4:30
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：英文
----
備註：
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EUNIFW
----
太古集團於2020年慶祝在香港營運第一百五十年，但當年這個始創於利物浦、專營歐美貿易的小公司，何以會千里迢迢跑到香港，並且在此大展拳腳落地生根？畢可思教授會透過介紹他的新作，為我們解答以上問題。
----
畢可思教授，香港史研究中心聯合總監。
----
【History Salon】 Swire and Hong Kong
Date: 20 April 2024 (Saturday)
Time: 2:30 – 4:30pm
Venue: Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
Language: English
----
Additional Information:
Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EUNIFW
----
In 2020 the Swire Group marked its 150th anniversary of operating in Hong Kong. But why did this small company, originally established in Liverpool, and involved in the trade between Britain and North America, come to Hong Kong, and how did it grow and stay there. Robert Bickers will introduce his book about the company's history and discuss these questions.
----
Prof. Robert Bickers, Co-Director, Hong Kong History Centre
【歷史沙龍】香港與英聯邦，1949-1997
日期：2024年3月23日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4點
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
—-
備註：
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EDFXPP
—-
香港在1997年前是英國殖民地，也因此曾是英聯邦的一部份。現代的英聯邦組織始自1949年，成員國除英國外，還有加拿大、澳洲、新加坡、印度等。但如果英聯邦不僅是一個組織，而是一個世界，這個看似陌生的名字，其實離香港不遠。
羅銳潛博士在三月份的香港歷史沙龍，將與我們剖析香港與英聯邦世界被忽略的關係。英聯邦如何塑造香港教育？誰在兩處之間旅居、遷移？香港經濟發展和英聯邦有何關係？香港歷史與世界之間千絲萬縷，英聯邦是不顯眼但重要的一環。
—-
羅銳潛博士，牛津大學現代中國及東亞史講師。
—-
【History Salon】Hong Kong and the Commonwealth, 1949-1997
Date: 23 March 2024 (Saturday)
Time: 2:30 – 4pm
Venue: Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
Language: Cantonese
—-
Additional Information:
Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EDFXPP
—-
Hong Kong, as a British colony until 1997, was part of the Commonwealth. The modern Commonwealth organisation began in 1949. Besides Britain, its member countries include Canada, Australia, Singapore and India, among others. But if the Commonwealth was not just an organisation but a world, this seemingly unfamiliar name might have been closer to Hong Kong than once thought.
In the third Hong Kong History Salon, Dr Tommy Lo will discuss with us the overlooked links between Hong Kong and the Commonwealth world. How did it shape Hong Kong education? Who were sojourning and migrating between Hong Kong and the Commonwealth? And what did the Commonwealth have to do with the city’s remarkable economic growth? Numerous ties connected Hong Kong history with the world; those with the Commonwealth were unobvious but important.
—-
Dr Tommy Lo, Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese and East Asian History, University of Oxford
HKHC Speaker’s Series, Dr. Catherine S. Chan, Lingnan University
Remembering the Canine Bloodbath: The Dark Side of Hong Kong’s Progressive Seventies
Speaker: Dr. Catherine S. Chan, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Date and Time: 7 March 2024, 9 - 10:30am (UKT) / 5 - 6:30 (HKT)
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Language: English
To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
1970s Hong Kong is usually remembered as a period of optimism, progress, and constructive reinvention. The MacLehose administration, the longest in the history of British Hong Kong, introduced a series of social reforms—free education, more housing projects, better social welfare, etc.—to regain local confidence following the social disturbances of 1966 and 1967. There was, however, a dark side to this narrative of ‘progress.’ The well-publicised ‘Hongkong Clean Campaign,’ which ran for years in hopes of improving the city’s sanitation, was more than a call to sweep the city’s streets and housing estates clean. It resulted in the irrational mass slaughter of thousands of dogs and the restructuring of human-canine relations, particularly with the lumping of domesticated, stray, and feral dogs under the shared categories of ‘nuisance’ and ‘undesirable.’ Delving into the anti-dog movement that emerged in the early twentieth century yet climaxed during the ‘Hongkong Clean Campaign,’ my study will uncover, from a more-than-human perspective, narratives of cruelty that helped underpin Hong Kong’s progressive seventies.
Catherine Chan is Research Assistant Professor of History at Lingnan University. She is a social and urban historian of diaspora, heritage preservation issues, and human-animal relations in colonial and postcolonial Hong Kong, Macau, and Philippines. Chan has published extensively on the Macanese diaspora and is currently working on a book project concerning the more-than-human history of dogs in twentieth-century British Hong Kong.
【歷史沙龍】麥理浩與廉政公署 
日期：2024年2月24日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4點
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/EIYDXV
----
亷署在政府内部爭論數十年後終於在1974年成立，為什麼要討論那麽久才下定決心？亷署又如何渡過1977年的警廉衝突和種種風波？麥理浩又是否真的是廉政先鋒英雄人物？葉健民教授在二月份的《香港歷史沙龍》，將與我們一一探討這些問題。
----
葉健民教授，香港史研究中心研究總監。
****
【History Salon】 MacLehose and ICAC
Date: 24 February 2024 (Saturday)
Time: 2:30 - 4pm
Venue: Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
Language: Cantonese
----
Additional Information:
Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
https://tktp.as/EIYDXV
----
ICAC was created in 1974 after decades of debates and deliberation inside the government. Why did it take so long? How could it survive the police mutiny in 1977? Is MacLehose a hero? Prof. Ray Yep will share with us his research on these matters in the second Hong Kong History Salon.
----
Prof Ray Yep, Research Director, Hong Kong History Centre
【歷史沙龍】多種族的英國身份及香港身份認同，1910-45 
日期：2024年1月27日 （星期六）
時間：下午2:30至4點
地點：布里斯托大學 | Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
語言：廣東話
----
備註：
– 請於Ticketpass報名，屆時會有少量港式茶點提供。
https://tktp.as/ELKERY
----
香港曾為英國殖民地多年，在英殖統治下出生的居民大多擁有英籍身份。但在法律條文以外，英國身份到底對香港的居民有何意義？港英政府及英國官員又如何看待擁有英籍身份的香港居民？
在1月份的歷史沙龍，江偉欣博士將帶領我們探索兩次世界大戰期間的香港居民如何在種族主義及民族主義高漲之時，把英國身份定義為一種超越種族界限的國民身份及文化認同。我們亦會探討這些意識，如何影響現今香港居民對英國身份的理解，及香港多元文化社會的發展。
----
江偉欣博士，布里斯托大學歷史系講師，香港史研究中心聯合總監。
****
【History Salon】Multiracial Britishness in 1910-45
Date: 27 January 2024
Time: 2:30 - 4pm
Venue: Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, University of Bristol, BS8 1TB
Language: Cantonese
---
Additional Information:
Please register on Ticketpass. A small amount of Hong Kong-style refreshments will be provided.
----
Multiracial Britishness in 1910-45: Hong Kong and its contemporary implications
What does it mean to be British? In the Hong Kong History Centre’s first History Salon, Dr. Vivian Kong offers some answers to this question by sharing with us the findings of her recently published book, Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910-45. She will take us to an under explored site of Britishness - the former British colony of Hong Kong, where all those born and naturalised there had access to a British nationality status. Amidst rising nationalism and stark racism in the interwar years, residents of Hong Kong in fact understood Britishness not only as a racial category, but also as a means of social advancement, and a form of cultural and national belonging. We will also explore how these diverse notions of Britishness shaped Hong Kongers’ continued engagements with Britishness, and the development of Hong Kong’s multicultural society.
----
Dr Vivian Kong, Lecturer in Modern Chinese History, University of Bristol; Co-Director, Hong Kong History Centre
2023
HKHC Speaker’s Series, Dr Helena F. S. Lopes, Cardiff University
Book Talk: Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War
Speaker: Dr Helena F. S. Lopes, Cardiff University
Date and Time: 6 December 2023, 3:30 – 5pm (GMT)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
To attend, please register on Ticketpass.
This talk introduces the recently published book Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War (Cambridge University Press, 2023). The South China enclave of Macau was the first and last European colonial settlement in East Asia and a territory at the crossroads of different empires. Exploring the intersections of local, regional and global dynamics, the book analyses the layers of collaboration that developed from neutrality in Macau during the Second World War.
Drawing on extensive research from multilingual archival material from Asia, Europe, Australasia and America, Lopes explores connections between a variety of multinational actors with competing and collaborative interests, including Chinese Nationalists, Communists and collaborators with Japan, Portuguese colonial authorities and British and Japanese representatives. Lopes argues that neutrality eased the movement of refugees of different nationalities who sought shelter in Macau during the war and that it helped to guarantee the maintenance of colonial rule in Macau and Hong Kong in the post-war period. Following refugees, diplomats, colonial officials, intermediaries, philanthropists, and spies, this book rethinks Asia-Europe connections in the 1930s and 1940s, the uses and abuses of neutrality in East Asia, and the interplay of imperialism and anti-imperialism in a global Second World War. The presentation will give particular emphasis to Hong Kong-Macau connections during the war.
Dr Helena F. S. Lopes is Lecturer in Modern Asian History at Cardiff University.
香港史研究中心 /《尚未完場》/ 私人放映 Hong Kong History Centre / “TO BE CONTINUED” / Private Screening
We are excited to invite you to a private screening of ‘To Be Continued’ in Bristol, organised and brought to you by Hong Kong History Centre.
We will also be providing a sneak preview of episode one of: ‘Hong Kong Documented’ (12 mins), co-produced by Hong Kong History Centre and Society for Hong Kong Studies.
Please register on Ticketpass:
https://tinyurl.com/HKHCscreening
我們誠邀你參與由香港史研究中心於布里斯托舉辦的《尚未完場》私人放映。
同場加映：香港史研究中心 暨 香港學會 共同製作——《香港史. 記》第一輯（12分鐘）
請於Ticketpass登記：
https://tinyurl.com/HKHCscreening
----
Screening Details
‘To Be Continued’
* Includes Post Screening Online Sharing with Directors
* Additional Screening: ‘Hong Kong Documented’ Episode 1 (12 mins)
Date and Time: 3 December 2023 (Sun), 10:30am-1pm (Entry opens at 10:15am)
Venue: Watershed Cinema 3 (1 Canons Road, Bristol BS1 5TX)
Language: Cantonese & English (with Chinese and English subtitles)
Entry fee: Free of charge (registration required, open seating)
Additional Information:
– This is a private screening. Tickets are only available from the Hong Kong History Centre.
– One ticket per registration; no entry to the venue without a ticket.
– Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the screening for registration. The film will start promptly.
----
放映詳情
《尚未完場》
* 設有映後導演線上分享環節
* 同場加映：《香港史. 記》第一輯（12分鐘）
日期及時間：2023年12月03日（星期日）上午10:30-1pm （10:15am開放入場）
地點： Watershed Cinema 3 (1 Canons Road, Bristol BS1 5TX)
語言： 廣東話、英語（輔以中文及英文字幕）
票價： 免費（須事先登記，不設劃位）
備註：
– 私人放映，門票經香港史研究中心免費派發
– 每個名字只能登記一張門票，只允許事先登記者入場
– 請提早15分鐘到場，登記後方可入座，逾時不候
----
相關連結:
“To Be Continued” Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/docu.tobecontinued
收看預告 Click here for trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6GICy7Nmpc
聯絡 Contact: hkhistory-centre@bristol.ac.uk
----
Synopsis of <To be Continued>
Convenient, tired and vapid, ‘East-meets-West’ is a cliché that has for decades been used to sell the ‘Hong Kong story’ to the world. Yet in the forgotten legend of Harry Odell, Hong Kong’s first impresario, a rediscovery of the city’s soul awaits.
Flamboyant and cigar-chomping, Odell was a Cairo-born, Shanghai-bred Russian Jew who stamped his mark on the cultural life of post-war Hong Kong. His hopeful, if chronically loss-making adventures pushed the cultural frontiers of his adopted home, capturing the open, dynamic and inclusive spirit of a bygone era to leave a legacy that resonates to this day. What began as a conservation campaign to save the iconic State Theatre in Hong Kong morphed into five years of research and interviews with those who witnessed Odell in action. The result: a film that is as much a study of one indomitable pioneer as it is a soul-searching journey of what defines Hong Kong.
----
紀錄⽚簡介
歐德禮是⼀個時代，代表⼀個被遺忘的美麗舊香港。
他是叱吒⼀時的娛樂⼤亨，是皇都戲院前⾝ - 璇宮戲院的創辦⼈，五⼗年代戰後蕭條，他已⼀⼿引入多位國際知名⾳樂家，永遠叼着⼀⼝雪茄⾒報寫專欄，演藝事業虧損慘重，卻為香港⽂化開闢了新天地，被稱為「香港⽂化史前⼈物」。
但他的傳奇今天卻無⼈知曉。
有⼈不⽢⼼，五年來鍥⽽不捨去翻查資料，上⼭下海⽤盡古怪⽅法尋覓歐德禮的後⼈，赫然發現跨時空的連繫。
在那個⽩天上映⿈⾶鴻和林黛電影的⼤戲院，晚上有名家如 Isaac Stern、Fournier坐鎮，華洋雜處，雅俗共賞，只此⼀家。標誌香港新時代的⼤會堂開幕，第⼀場演奏正是由歐德禮承辦。
五、六⼗年代那個消失的香港⼜再被看⾒：曾經如此兼容並包、不問⾝世、各種⽂化互相碰撞，那是香港和世界的初戀。
讓我們記得這個故事。歐德禮和香港的傳奇，尚未完場。
HKHC Speaker's Series, Prof Philip Thai, Northeastern University
Topic: A Hole in the Bamboo Curtain: Hong Kong in the Cold War
Speaker: Prof. Philip Thai, Northeastern University
Date and Time: 28 November 2023, 3:30 - 5pm (GMT)
Venue: Online (Zoom)
To attend, please register on this form.
During the Cold War, Hong Kong played a crucial role supporting the economic and foreign policies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The British colonial enclave helped the PRC circumvent an array of embargos and trade restrictions imposed by a hostile international community. This paper examines the histories of “red capitalists” and Chinese Communist front companies who operated within the interstices of Cold War rivalries and fractured jurisdictions. The former were shadowy middlemen who brokered connections between the PRC and the global economy, while the latter were businesses that served the geopolitical aims of the PRC by promoting Chinese exports, earning foreign exchange, cultivating overseas ties, and collecting outside information. Though they remain relatively understudied, red capitalists have amassed vast fortunes while front companies rank among the largest firms in China and the world today. This talk will consider how the history of both red capitalists and front companies could address critical questions in the history of Hong Kong and the Cold War more generally.
Philip Thai is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies and Director of the Global Asian Studies Program at Northeastern University.
HKHC Speaker’s Series: Prof. Angelina Y. Chin, Pomona College
Book Talk: Unsettling Exiles: Chinese Migrants in Hong Kong and the Southern Periphery During the Cold War
Speaker: Prof. Angelina Y. Chin, Pomona College
Date and Time: 17 November 2023, 9 - 10:30am (GMT)
Venue: Online (Zoom)
To attend, please register in Eventbrite.
The conventional story of Hong Kong celebrates the people who fled the mainland in the wake of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In this telling, migrants thrived under British colonial rule, transforming Hong Kong into a cosmopolitan city and an industrial and financial hub. Unsettling Exiles recasts identity formation in Hong Kong, demonstrating that the complexities of crossing borders shaped the city’s uneasy place in the Sinophone world.
Angelina Y. Chin foregrounds the experiences of the many people who passed through Hong Kong without settling down or finding a sense of belonging, including refugees, deportees, “undesirable” residents, and members of sea communities. She emphasizes that flows of people did not stop at Hong Kong’s borders but also bled into neighboring territories such as Taiwan and Macau. Chin develops the concept of the “Southern Periphery”—the region along the southern frontier of the PRC, outside its administrative control yet closely tied to its political space. Both the PRC and governments in the Southern Periphery implemented strict migration and deportation policies in pursuit of border control, with profound consequences for people in transit. Chin argues that Hong Kong identity emerged from the collective trauma of exile and dislocation, as well as a sense of being on the margins of both the Communist and Nationalist Chinese regimes during the Cold War. Drawing on wide-ranging research, Unsettling Exiles sheds new light on Hong Kong’s ambivalent relationship to the mainland, its role in the global Cold War, and the origins of today’s political currents.
Angelina Y. Chin is associate professor of history at Pomona College.
HKHC Speaker's Series: Prof. Cecilia L. Chu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Book Talk: 'Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City'
Date and Time: 24 October 2023, 3:30 - 5pm (BST)
Venue: Lecture Room 8 (LT8), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
To attend, please register in Eventbrite.
In Building Colonial Hong Kong, Chu traces what she calls “speculative urbanism” where different constituencies–British developers, colonial officials, as well as property-owning and working-class Chinese–struggled over the politics of colonial difference and property rights in shaping the built environment. These struggles helped to determine racial and class segregation, the provision of urban services, and practices of cultural representation and identity formation. While the examples of opportunism and speculation chronicled in Building Colonial Hong Kong will resonate with those familiar with Hong Kong’s property market today, her exploration of the interplay between British colonial governance and the political practices of native propertied classes offer new insights into Hong Kong’s development. Engaging a broad, interdisciplinary, and geographically comparative body of literature, Chu moves beyond her case study to make bigger claims about the relationships and tensions among liberal property markets, racist exclusion, cultural representations, and various "improvement" schemes within urban colonial contexts.
This book has just received the 2023 Best Book in Non-North American Urban History Award by the Urban History Association.
HKHC X SHKS《尚未完場》社區放映 “TO BE CONTINUED” COMMUNITY SCREENING
Screening Details
Date & Time: September 24, 2023 (Sun) 3:15pm @Screening Room
Venue: Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity
Address: 135 Junction Road, Kowloon (10-minute walk from Lok Fu MTR station)
Film duration: 80 minutes, followed by a Q&A session with the directors
Language: Cantonese & English (with Chinese and English subtitles)
Entry fee: Free of charge (open seating)
Additional Information:
– Confirmation of ticket registration will be sent via email by the Society for Hong Kong Studies (info@hkstudies.org)
– Please arrive 15 minutes prior to the screening for registration. The film will start promptly.
放映詳情
日期及時間：2023年9月24日（星期日）下午3:15 @放映室
地點： 香港兆基創意書院文化藝術中心（香港九龍聯合道135號 – 樂富地鐵站步行約10分鐘）
語言： 廣東話、英語（輔以中文及英文字幕）
片長： 80分鐘（放映後設導演分享會）
票價： 免費（不設劃位）
備註：
– 以由香港學會發出的電郵確認為成功登記門票。
– 請提早15分鐘到場，登記後方可入座，逾時不候。
Relevant Links:
“To Be Continued” Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/docu.tobecontinued
Click here for trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6GICy7Nmpc
Contact: info@hkstudies.org
HKHC Speaker's Series: Dr. Florence Mok, Nanyang Technological University
Book Talk: 'Covert Colonialism: Governance, Surveillance and Political Culture in British Hong Kong, c. 1966-97'
Date and Time: 5 October 2023, 3:30 - 5pm (BST)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
To attend, please register in advance via this link.
Covert Colonialism fills the long-standing void in the existing scholarship by constructing an empirical study of colonial governance and political culture in Hong Kong from 1966 to 1997.Using under-exploited archival and unofficial data in London and Hong Kong, it overcomes the limitations in the existing literature which has been written mainly by political scientists and sociologists, and has been primarily theoretically driven. It addresses a highly contested and timely agenda, one in which colonial historians have made major interventions: the nature of colonial governance and autonomy of the colonial polity. This book focusing on colonialism and the Chinese society in Hong Kong in a pivotal period will generate meaningful discussions and heated debates on comparisons between 'colonialism' in different space and time: between Hong Kong and other former British colonies; and between colonial and post-colonial Hong Kong.
Hong Kong History Day
Date and Time: 16 Sep 2023 (Saturday), 10:15am -5:40pm (HKT)
Venue: The University of Hong Kong Campus (Exact location TBC)
Organizer: Society for Hong Kong Studies & Hong Kong History Centre, University of Bristol
Language: English and Cantonese
Format: In-person only
To attend, please register in advance via this link.
You may find the rundown here: Programme_HK History Day 2023
The upcoming “Hong Kong History Day” on September 16, co-organized by the Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS) and the Hong Kong History Centre (HKHC), will feature four academic panels. These panels will cover topics such as the challenges and achievements of archiving Hong Kong’s history, the study of music, cinema, and entertainment in Hong Kong’s past, the sharing of teaching experiences in Hong Kong history education, and a revisiting of the “Golden Era” of the 1970s through scholarly writing. The event aims to provide a platform for academic discussions and insights into various aspects of Hong Kong’s history.
1st Workshop of Early Career Scholars on Hong Kong History
Date and Time: 8 June 2023 (Thursday), 12-6pm (BST)
Venue: Research Space (1.H020), Arts Complex, University of Bristol
Global Histories of (Anti-)Colonialism with colleagues from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Date and Time: 17-18 May 2023 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room G50, Arts Complex, University of Bristol
HKHC Speaker's Series: Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, University of California, Irvine (in-person only)
Conversations on Hong Kong History with Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, hosted by Dr. Vivian Kong
Date and Time: 17 May 2023 (Wednesday), 10-11:30am (BST)
Venue: B.H05 LT, Arts Complex, University of Bristol
To attend, please register in advance via this link.
HKHC Speaker's Series: Dr. John D Wong, University of Hong Kong (in-person only) 
Book Talk: Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub
Date and Time: 3 May 2023 (Wednesday), 4-5:30pm (BST)
Venue: Room 4F2, Priory Road Complex, University of Bristol
Please register for the event in advance via this link.
HKHC Speaker's Series
: Dr. Gina Anne Tam, Trinity University (online only)
'Gender and Agency in Hong Kong's History of Activism: The Case of the 1978 Golden Jubilee Secondary School Protest'
Date and Time: 27 April 2023 (Thursday), 4-5:30pm (BST)
Please register for the event in advance via this link.
