Denise H. Yo (Georgetown University) will present the seventh Bernard H.K. Luk Memorial Lecture in Hong Kong Studies on November 12.
You can register for the talk at this link.
The Hong Kong Studies Group at YCAR organizes the lecture annually in honour of beloved teacher and colleague, Professor Bernard H. K. Luk (1946–2016). He was an internationally recognized authority on the history of Hong Kong and we thank Professor Luk’s friend and former student, the Honourable Dr Vivienne Poy, who endowed the lecture in honour of his work.
In The Oysterman, the Farmer, and the Marine Police: Hong Kong History at Its Borders, Professor Ho will consider what Hong Kong history look like at its borders? Her talk will examine the experiences of three figures whose life and work traversed Hong Kong’s border with China, focusing on the period from the establishment of the People’s Republic to the early years of China’s era of “reform and opening-up.” The Deep Bay oysterman inherited a complex system of ownership and an ecologically sensitive industry; over the years he had to navigate the complexity of the Cold War on the “Bamboo Curtain” as well as the threats of the Cultural Revolution. The New Territories farmer who held land at and across the border with China also had to deal with the political campaigns that collectivized agriculture; local officials on both sides attempted to maintain the status quo despite contested claims exacerbated by refugee flight. Finally, the marine policeman had to patrol the liminal boundaries of Hong Kong’s territorial waters, both agent and witness to the human impact of local and international political events. The collective biographies of these three figures call our attention to the contingency and porosity of the border, to the effect of the global on the local, and to the centrality of the margins.
This year, the lecture will be accompanied by a graduate student workshop—Hong Kong History and Border History—with Professor Ho on November 11.
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 (Cambridge 2018) and a co-editor (with Jennifer Altehenger) of Material Contradictions in Mao’s China (University of Washington 2022). Ho is currently completing a book manuscript entitled The Nation’s Gate: A Cross-Border History of Hong Kong and China. Ho received her PhD from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty of Georgetown, she taught at Yale University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University of Kentucky.
The lecture and workshop are co-sponsored by the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto.
