This event is open to the public. Please email chk.library@utoronto.ca to register.
JOINT SYMPOSIUM DEDICATED TO THE LATEST RESEARCH IN HONG KONG HISTORY
Once treated as a minor footnote to Chinese and British imperial histories, the history of Hong Kong has gained tremendous new interest in recent years as itself a key node in global history. This symposium will bring together world-leading experts, archivists, and junior scholars to discuss the latest research, expanding archival collections, and the path forward.
10AM | WELCOMING ADDRESS
- Marla Lau (Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto)
- Yuk-Lin Renita Wong (York University)
- Ray Yep (University of Bristol)
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM | GRADUATE STUDENT COLLOQUIUM
- "A Vexed Question": Limiting Dual British-Chinese Nationality Through Renunciation, 1927-1940s | Phyllis Chan
- Imperial Graduates: Elite Hong Kong's Networks across the British Empire | Ryan Iu
- "Making the Most of Your Spare Time": Global Investment in Youth Leisure in Post-WWII Hong Kong | Tracy Leung Hoi Ching
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM | ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS
- Archiving the Locked Web: Challenges and Alternatives | Ken Lui (University of Toronto Libraries)
- Memory Keeping or Memory Making? Probing the Limits of Archival Intervention | Jason Kahel Wong, Archivist (Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library)
- Why collect Hong Kong history in Bristol? | Robert Bickers (University of Bristol)
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM | ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
SHELLY CHAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ
Shelly Chan is an Associate Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz. She is a historian of modern China and the Chinese diaspora and the author of Diaspora’s Homeland: Modern China in the Age of Global Migration (Duke 2018). Her current project, “Disappearance of the Nanyang: A Forgotten History of a Diasporic Region,” examines a diasporic region between China and Southeast Asia known as the “Nanyang” or the “South Seas” from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries and its impact on the global restructuring of Asia.
DENISE HO, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Denise Y. Ho is an Associate Professor in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she teaches modern Chinese history. She is the author of Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao’s China, published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. She has served as a co-editor on a special issue and an edited volume, titled Transformation of Shen Kong Borderlands (Made in China Journal, 2020), and Material Contradictions in Mao’s China (The University of Washington Press, 2022). Ho is currently completing a book manuscript entitled: The Nation’s Gate: A Cross-Border History of Hong Kong and China.
PHILIP THAI, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Philip Thai is an Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies. He is a historian of Modern China and East Asia with research and teaching interests that include legal history, economic history, and diplomatic history. He is currently working on his new book tentatively titled, "Front Companies and Red Capitalists: How China Circumvented Economic Containment in the Cold War." He is the author of China’s War on Smuggling: Law, Economic Life, and the Making of the Modern State, 1842-1965 and articles in Diplomatic History, Enterprise and Society, Modern Asian Studies, and Law and History Review.