“Nationalism, sex work and migration in the neoliberal age” with Sealing Cheng

In today’s episode of the CUHK Anthropology podcast, we talk to Sealing Cheng, Associate Professor of the department, about her career in anthropology. Sealing speaks about how she discovered anthropology as an undergraduate student and how her research shifted from food, to herbal teas, before she eventually settled on the topic of sexuality, sex-workers in U.S. military camp towns in Korea, and migration. In this conversation, Sealing highlights the value of the ethnographic method in helping us understand those who are radically different from us. She also discusses the complexities surrounding the criminalization of sex-work and sex-workers especially in our neoliberal age.

（This episode is conducted in English.）

01’33 Introduction to anthropology and research on food and herbal tea shop in Hong Kong

12’00 From Chinese medicine  to nationalism and sexuality in South Korea

18’08 Sex-workers in U.S. military camp towns in Korea

31’12 Neo-liberalism and sex work

41’53 Asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong, as social beings