World History Seminar (2022-23) - From the Arno to the Pearl River Delta: Renaissance Florentine Merchants and Global Trade
The Florentines merchants and bankers who patronized the Renaissance made their fortunes through the interaction of domestic manufacturing and a Europe-spanning network. With the fall of Florence’s republic in 1530 to the new Medici monarchy, these merchant patricians were traditionally thought to have retired into an inward looking, pseudo–aristocratic irrelevance. While the Florentine patriciate certainly enjoyed their country villas whose beauty still captures the imagination, it is now clear that both the merchant elite and the new Medici monarchy embraced the possibilities of global travel and trade, often working hand-in-hand. This paper pulls on a thread of that thin globe-spanning web to follow the story of Medici Florence’s connection with Ming China by way of Macau. It will consider both the objects, information, people, and financial ties that bound these distant places and some of the ways by which these tenuous connections shaped small elite sections of Florence.
Speaker
Prof. Brian BREGE
Department of History, Syracuse University
Brian Brege is assistant professor of History at Syracuse University. His book, Tuscany in the Age of Empire (Harvard University Press, 2021) won the American Association of Italian Studies Book Prize in History, Society, and Politics. He is currently preparing a new translation of the Florentine merchant traveler Francesco Carletti’s account of his circumnavigation; co-editing with Giorgio Riello, Paula Findlen, and Luca Molà Trading at the Edge of Empire: Francesco Carletti’s World, ca. 1600; and researching a second monograph provisionally entitled The Global Merchants of Florence: Florentine Patrician Families and Early Modern Capitalism.
ZOOM Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183
Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183
Series of lectures on the interaction between Daoism and Buddhism in Dunhuang
敦煌作為歷史上的佛教聖地，近代曾經由道教信眾管理，而且發生了兩件驚天動地的大事：一是在同屬敦煌石窟的瓜州榆林窟，為了保護國寶象牙佛，幾代道長付出了生命和鮮血的代價。二是由守護在敦煌莫高窟的道士開啟莫高窟藏經洞，並對莫高窟進行了一些維修和保護活動。功過得失顯而易見。但從歷史背景考察，這不是單純的信佛還是通道的問題，而應該看成是民族優秀傳統文化的共識和回歸。
Dunhuang, as a sacred place of Buddhism in history, was once managed by Taoist believers in modern times, and two earth-shattering events took place: First, in the Yulin Grottoes in Guazhou, which also belongs to the Dunhuang Grottoes, several generations of Taoists paid their lives and blood in order to protect the national treasure ivory Buddha the price. Second, the Taoist priests guarding the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang opened the Mogao Grottoes’ scripture cave, and carried out some maintenance and protection activities on the Mogao Grottoes. The merits and demerits are obvious. However, looking at the historical background, this is not simply a question of whether to believe in Buddhism or a channel, but should be regarded as the consensus and return of the excellent traditional culture of the nation.
講者
馬德 研究員 （敦煌研究院）
主持人
譚偉倫教授（香港中文大學文化及宗教研究系）、林振源教授（政治大學宗教研究所）
RPCAA Lecture Series 2023 (1): Ryukyu Kingdom and Asian Ceramic Trade
琉球王國從14世紀末到19世紀末存在於日本西南部的沖繩群島。琉球自1372年開始向明朝朝貢，直到清末的1874年。明代前期實行海禁之時，琉球王國通朝貢貿易和中續貿易，輸送大量中國瓷器到琉球、日本和東南亞一帶。1420年代，首裡城成為王國的首都、琉球王宮殿的所在，繁榮昌盛，直到1879年，日本吞併琉球，國王離開首裡城，琉球王國滅亡。1945年，首裡城被美軍破壞。其後20世紀80年代開始重建，同時進行首裡城遺址考古發掘，出土大量中國陶瓷、越南陶瓷、泰國陶瓷、日本陶瓷和琉球陶器等。
是次講座將介紹首裡城、今歸仁城、久米島宇江城等遺址出土的中國瓷器，說明琉球王國的陶瓷貿易情況。
講者
森達也 教授（日本沖繩縣立藝術大學教授）
森達也，1961年生，金澤大學博士，早稻田大學碩士和学士。現任日本沖縄縣立藝術大學教授。歷任愛知縣陶磁資料館（今愛知縣陶磁美術館）學藝員、主任學藝員、學藝課長。策劃重要展覽如「唐三彩展 洛陽の夢」、「海のシルクロードの出発点『福建』－沈没船、貿易都市、陶磁器、茶文化－」、「日本人の愛した中国陶磁 龍泉窯青磁展」等。研究領域為中國陶瓷史及其考古、日本陶瓷史、古代陶瓷貿易，研究涉及中國古代青釉瓷器的發展，汝窯、官窯、定窯、龍泉窯等窯場的生産、流通、生產特點，中國古代陶瓷外銷，伊斯蘭世界與中國陶瓷的關係等。2013年獲「小山冨士夫紀念褒賞」。著有《中國青瓷の研究：編年と流通》。
MOViE MOViE Extra Festival Community Screening CUHK Section: The Handmaiden
當韓國影視文化帶領國際風潮，身處香港，我們如何理解韓流？這次Movie Movie Extra Festival聯乘香港中文大學文化研究中心及跨文化研究碩士課程，為同學帶來韓國導演朴贊郁的電影。自如跳躍於不同類型、鍾情B片風味的朴贊郁是不能錯過的名字，更是重新理解韓國電影的有趣的切入點。這次在香港中文大學的社群放映，特別挑選了朴贊郁近年來頗具爭議的三級電影《下女誘罪》，電影在上映期間以大膽的性愛鏡頭與同性情欲作賣點，引起不少關注。電影改編自Sarah Waters以維多利亞時期為背景的蕾絲小說Fingersmith，朴贊郁把背景轉移至日治朝鮮，聚焦一場針對上流社會的老千騙局。電影內充滿階級與階級的計算，性別分工與情慾橫流的表演。在大時代的重門深鎖下，高貴的小姐也面對家族壓力，來自底下階層的法外之民又能如何偷生？當千里而來的男騙徒以為自己這場一波三折的天仙局終於袋袋平安，局中局卻早已在眼皮底下發生。
《下女誘罪》電影播放
145分鐘 | 級別 III** | 韓語及日語 | 中英文字幕
導演：朴贊郁
映後座談
主持：李薇婷博士（文化及宗教研究系講師）及黃鈺螢博士（性別研究課程講師）
語言：粵語
合辦：
MOViE MOViE，香港中文大學 跨文化研究碩士課程，文化研究中心，邵逸夫堂
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**此片經已被列為三級影片。根據電檢條例，此片只准18歲或以上人士觀看。入場人士可能需要出示年齡證明文件。**
備註：
以上放映皆開放予香港中文大學學生、教職員、校友及公眾人士登記參加。
所有場次費用全免。
放映前 30 分鐘開始入場，請預留充足時間於校園入口處登記（如需要）。
座位先到先得、不設劃位。
即場登記人士（如有）於放映前 5 分鐘方可入場。
場內不得進行任何形式的拍攝或錄影。
Academic Entrepreneurship: Lessons from History
Most people don't associate entrepreneurs with historians. This talk will explore how historical scholarship can be a fruitful springboard for startup ideas in tech. Using his personal example of starting two successful companies in the last five years, Dr. Tworek will discuss how his own research and teaching in the history of education and Renaissance humanism informed his journey to becoming a CEO and startup founder.
Speaker
Dr. Michael Tworek
CEO & Co-Founder, Polis Educational Solutions
Associate, Department of History, Harvard University
Michael T. Tworek is an associate at the department of history at Harvard University. At CES he coordinates the Thesis Workshop for Juniors with William Whitham.
Tworek’s research and teaching focus on the intellectual and cultural life of early modern Europe, especially central and eastern Europe, from a transcontinental and global perspective. He has held visiting fellowships at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). He earned his AM and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 2014 and his BA and MAT from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
He has received research fellowships and grants from Fulbright (IIE/U.S. State Department), Villa I Tatti, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays (U.S. Department of Education), and has been awarded the Carl S. Meyer Prize for Best Paper by a Young Scholar at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Fort Worth, TX in 2012 and the Best Paper at the Boston Area Study Abroad Association (BASAA) in 2015.
Georges Florovsky (1893-1979): The Contemporary Theological Relevance of His Patristic Synthesis
Georges Florovsky was the most influential Orthodox theologian and historian of the twentieth century. He was also a leading ecumenist and is regarded as one of the founding spirits of the World Council of Churches. And yet today, forty years after his death, he has been all but forgotten in Protestant and Roman Catholic circles. In this lecture, I will attempt to show the continuing importance of the neo-patristic synthesis of George Florovsky for Christians in Hong Kong today. Florovsky himself distained the idea theological “relevance” and preferred to speak of the “breaks and links” (or “breaches and bonds”) in the tradition of the Church. But, I argue that by grounding himself in the teachings of the church fathers and mothers he offers a unique and irreplaceable approach to Christian thinking in our post-Christian world.
Speaker
The Rev. Prof. Philip L. Wickeri
Advisor to the Archbishop on Theological and Historical Studies
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican)
Co-organizers:
Divinity School of Chung Chi College, CUHK
Centre for Christian Studies, CUHK
Enquiry
Email: centre-cs@cuhk.edu.hk │Tel/Signal: 3943 8155
Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997)
Prof. Michael Ng (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong) will give a book talk at 14:30 on Jan 16 (Monday). This presentation, based on the speaker’s monograph Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997) complicates our understanding of how Hong Kong came to be a city that championed free speech by the late 1990s through demonstrating the media and schools were pervasively censored for much of the colonial period and only liberated at a very late stage of British rule. The seminar will be conducted in English.
Speaker
Prof. Michael Ng (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong)
Dr Michael Ng is a legal historian focusing on the legal history of modern China and Hong Kong. Dr Ng authored Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997) (Cambridge University Press), Legal Transplantation in Early 20th Century China: Practicing Law in Republican Beijing (1910s-1930s) (Routledge), and co-edited Chinese Legal Reform and the Global Legal Order: Adoption and Adaptation (Cambridge University Press) and Constitutional Foundings in Northeast Asia (Hart). His works have appeared in leading journals such as Law and History Review, Law and Literature, Business History, International Journal of Asian Studies, among others. He has been appointed as visiting fellow of the University of Cambridge, visiting scholar of the University of Melbourne and the National University of Singapore, and visiting Associate Professor of National Taiwan University.
Art Branding: The Making of Chocolate Rain
How to create and manage a local art brand? What kind of challenges will occur and how to overcome them? "Chocolate Rain" is one of the most successful local art brands in Hong Kong in the last decade. As a remarkable case, CUMT programme invited Ms. Prudence Mak, the founder of Chocolate Rain, to share the story of "Chocolate Rain". From her experience, participants will understand how "Chocolate Rain" is created, the notion of design, the ways of management and the road to the world.
Speaker
Prudence Mak, founder of Chocolate Rain
Prudence is the founder and designer and graduated in Fine Art. In 2008, Prudence was granted the Design Smart scholarship to Central Saint Martin’ s London for MA Degree in Design Studies. Prudence received the 2010 Ten Outstanding Designers Award and is honored as one of Hong Kong’ s Ten Outstanding Young Persons in 2012. She is Executive Committee members of the Hong Kong Designers Association from 2004 to 2016.
RIH Digital Humanities Initiatives Info Session
The application of digital methods to the humanities has accelerated significantly in the last decade. To support CUHK students to be at the forefront of digital humanities, at the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) in collaboration with the University Library, various steps have been made in this direction, including the RIH Digital Humanities Initiative Talk Series, Oxford DH Summer School Scholarship program (3 -7 July 2023) and the Student DH Seed Grants program 2023.
Building on these, the initiative aims to create a mixture of incentives and opportunities for students in the Faculty of Arts to learn and collaborate in the digital humanities. Therefore, an Info Session will be held on Zoom to introduce the Oxford DH Summer School Scholarship program (3 -7 July 2023) and the Student DH Seed Grants program 2023.
Target audience: CUHK Faculty of Arts Undergraduate senior years students and Postgraduate students who are intended using digital technologies in their final year projects and theses.
Speaker
Professor Stuart McManus
Acting Director, Digital Humanities Initiatives
Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH)