THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Lam Wengcheong
The History without the Indigenous People: Recent Archaeological Discoveries in the Far South of the Han Empire and their Implications
Friday 17 December 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Assimilation and sinicization are probably the two main topics in the study of the Far South (i.e., present-day Lingnan) of the Han empire (202BC-220AD). This presentation will introduce the latest archaeological discoveries related to the Han period in the Far South and discuss how the new evidence can shed light on the two essential issues in the writing of history of the Han empire. In particular, this talk will introduce one critical challenge that has been overlooked for a long time; namely, the sparse presence of confirmed indigenous burials in the region. Also, this talk will discuss how this challenge can, in fact, help situate archaeological records in broader anthropological discourses.
LAM Wengcheong is an assistant professor of anthropological archaeology working in mainland China. His research currently focuses on the economic system and social development during the Bronze Age and Han Empire. His research incorporates interests in various archaeological techniques including metallurgy, zooarchaeology, and GIS (Geographic Information System) to study the craft production and exchange network during one of the most critical periods in Chinese history. He has also conducted archaeological research in Shaanxi to investigate the ancient iron economy in the Han capital area since 2011.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Siu-hei Lai
Schooling as Networking: Chinese Education of Yunnanese in the Thai-Burmese Borderland
Friday 10 December 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
This talk discusses the Chinese transnational network ethnographic explorations of Chinese education of Yunnanese youth in the Thai-Burmese borderland. It suggests that Chinese schooling is about Chinese transnational social networking, a tradition that goes back to the 15 th century. For Yunnanese youth in Northern Thailand, attending Chinese schools is an essential part of their educational experience supplementing Thai public education in light of the historical contingencies of Yunnanese migrations. Before the 1980s, the Chinese school was the only educational institute in Ban Pucha Thai (pseudonym).
Since the school's establishment in 1975, it has relied on donations and various kinds of assistance to sustain its educational provision for the Yunnanese villagers. There are numerous events and activities on campus for fundraising and networking with patrons from different parts of the world in addition to pedagogical routines. The teenagers are asked by their Chinese schools to take part in these events and engage with the global patrons. While they acknowledge the importance of and opportunities brought by these activities, they feel overwhelmed and try to avoid being dragged into them.
Siu-hei Lai is a PhD candidate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He specializes in the anthropologies of youth, aspiration, and migration with a regional focus on Southeast Asia.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Tim Gurung
The History of the Gurkhas
Friday 15 October 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
The term 'Gurkha' derives from Gorkha, the home of the dynasty, which established the modern Nepali state in the 18th century and refers to Nepalese citizens who have fought for Britain with great distinction since the conclusion of the 1814-1816 war between Nepal and the British East India Company. Gurkhas began serving in Hong Kong in the 1940s and the Brigade of Gurkhas' headquarters was moved there from Malaysia in 1971, remaining until the return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Hong Kong's present-day Nepali community consists principally of the children and grandchildren of Gurkha soldiers, but many of the ex-servicemen themselves have moved to the UK following the grant of right of settlement there in 2009. The community in Hong Kong faces the challenge of integrating with mainstream society whilst preserving their own culture and maintaining unity despite internal ethnic and caste divisions. Gurkhas in the UK are continuing to struggle for full parity of benefits with their British-born former comrades-in-arms.
Tim GURUNG served in the Brigade of Gurkhas from 1980 to 1993 and then set up his own company in Hong Kong to do business there and in mainland China. At the age of 50, he switched to full-time writing and his history of the Gurkhas, Ayo Gorkhali, has been published by four different publishers around the world.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Anna Iskra
Feeling Social Change: The Chinese Body-Mind- Spirit Milieu and the Production of Emotion
Friday 24 September 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
This talk is an anthropological journey through the growing Body-Mind-Spirit (shen xin ling) networks in urban China. The shen xin ling milieu is a product of the history of transnational circulations into the Sinosphere of Euro-American pop-psychology and New Age spirituality that began in the late 1970s.
Central to this milieu are collective practices of emotional release that consist in dramatic expressions of anger, sadness, and anxiety, tied to personal problems such as professional advancement, or marital discord. Focusing on the case study of Shenzhen, this research weaves the popularization of such emotional management practices into the fabric of accelerating economic and social developments in the city, showcasing how they produce both apprehension and hope.
Anna Iskra is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. She is an anthropologist researching the intersections between the state, spiritual movements, and self-formation processes in China.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Wai-man Tang
Teaching Kabaddi for Understanding: Intercultural Education in Hong Kong
Friday 20 August 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) is a pedagogical model with the objective of promoting learning in sport, including the development of social values. This study discusses the impact of a sports program that involves a South Asian sport, kabaddi, on intercultural competence. The program adopted the approach of TGfU and was conducted in a multicultural setting in secondary schools and social communities with participants of different ethnic backgrounds. These participants include students, school teachers, and kabaddi coaches. The findings of the study reveal that the program can enhance the intercultural competence of both Chinese and South Asian students. They gain new knowledge about heritage/minority cultures and learn to appreciate them and develop bonding and bridging social capital, which is across gender and ethnicity. The implications of this study validate the feasibility and merit of integrating intercultural education into physical education. However, it is important to identify the ethnic composition and relations of the participants and devise a suitable pedagogy and curriculum when implementing the program for optimal results.
Wai-man Tang is a lecturer in Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include migration, sports, and South Asian cultures. He is currently researching a South Asian sport, kabaddi with a focus on its educative value for intercultural education in Hong Kong.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Reijiro Aoyama
Silent Conversation: Writing as a mode of face-to-face interaction in early modern East Asia
Friday 23 July 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Sharing no spoken language, diplomats and educated individuals from China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam often resorted to 'brush talk' - written exchanges in literary Chinese - in transnational encounters throughout history. Utilizing brush talk as a lingua franca, East Asian literati synchronously yet 'silently' negotiated conflicts, exchanged inner thoughts and created a convivial atmosphere, all of which were essential ingredients of the region's cross-border interactions that transcended the purely linguistic functions of Chinese. Aoyama uses silent conversations conducted by Sun Yat-sen, Liang Qichao, Ōkuma Shigenobu and Phan Bội Châu to explore socio-cultural functions of Chinese writing in order to analyze this (unique) cultural practice from an anthropological perspective. He problematizes the meaning of literacy in translinguistic settings and questions Lévi-Strauss's proposition that the primary function of written communication is to facilitate slavery.
Reijiro Aoyama is a Research Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research has focused on transnationalism and migrant communities in East Asia.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Lynn Sun
The Happiness Impasse: Exploring Middle-class Women's Pursuits of Marital Happiness in Urban China and Japan
Friday 25 June 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
"Why on earth do we marry nowadays if not for a happier life?" Many "middle-class" young women living in Tokyo and Shanghai today, whom this talk is centered, entered marriage expecting that there exists something called "marital happiness". However, what does this "marital happiness" actually mean? More curiously, in the two years of fieldwork to find the answer to this question, what was heard and observed the most was marital unhappiness. Then why did most informants enter wedlock expecting happiness, yet their narratives often reveal quite the opposite? This talk thus seeks, through an ethnographic lens, to capture the simultaneous aspiration and anxiety "marital happiness" casts upon its pursuers in Shanghai and Tokyo. Instead of asking what marital happiness is and offering yet another fixed definition or code of it as many other works have done, the primary question this talk addresses is: What does "marital happiness" do?
Lynn Sun received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2021. Her research interests include psychological anthropology, anthropology of ethics, happiness, and intimate relationships in China and Japan. She is currently teaching courses on gender, intimacy, marriage, and family at the Centre for China Studies and the Department of Anthropology at CUHK.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by David Palmer and Martin Tse
Guanyin's Limbo: Personhood, Magic and Deity Statues in Hong Kong
Friday 21 May 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
How do objects and humans relationally constitute one another? In this talk, we will examine statues of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion, in Hong Kong to illuminate the forms of personhood and agency that arise through human-icon relations in a modern metropolis. We follow the life course of Guanyin statues, investigating their production, circulation, animation, and disposal - teasing out worshippers' contradictory discourses on whether the deity is present in the statue or in the mind of the worshipper. These ethnographic observations lead us to consider how anthropological debates about the nature of cultural objects as representations or as agents, parallel Guanyin practices and discourses in Hong Kong. We will consider what insights this case can bring to the application of anthropological theories of personhood and magic to icons.
David A. Palmer (Ph.D, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris) is a Professor of anthropology jointly appointed by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology of the University of Hong Kong.
Martin M.H. Tse is a Ph.D. candidate recently admitted by the Hong Kong Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences at HKU. He is co-author with Chip Colwell and David A. Palmer of the article "Guanyin's Limbo: Icons as Demi-Persons and Dividuating Objects," American Anthropologist 121:4 (2019).
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Andrew Kipnis
Ghosts, Urbanization, and Strangers in China & Hong Kong
Friday 23 April 2021, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Belief in ghosts is often thought of as a thing of the past - an outmoded belief linked to the traditional cultures of rural China. But ghost stories are commonplace in Hong Kong and other large Chinese cities and evidence of the fear of ghosts can be found in the ways that modern urban people treat death, funeral homes, and cemeteries. This talk analyzes belief in ghosts as a facet of modern, urban living. Kipnes suggests that traditional Chinese beliefs about ghosts have transformed rather than diminished as China has urbanized, and modern urbanites may harbor more fear of ghosts than anyone did in the past.
Andrew B. Kipnis is a professor of anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and co-editor of Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. His last book is From Village to City: Social Transformation in a Chinese County Seat (U. of California Press, 2016). His talk draws from his forthcoming book, The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China (U. of California Press, 2021).