PhD defence

Hong Kong's Place in South East Asia

• V.M. England

Date

Thursday 7 November 2024

Time

13:00 - 14:00 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• Prof. dr. H. Schulte Nordholt
• dr. Pui Chi Lai

Summary

The Chinese government claims that Hong Kong has ‘always been a Chinese city’ but this thesis shows that the people who made Hong Kong into a thriving port city came from all over the world, bringing their diverse faiths, lifestyles and trading networks with them. Through archival research and oral history interviews, I show how women from China and across Asia birthed the mixed race children who would later lead Hong Kong society. I trace the outsized influence of the Parsi community, of Baghdadi Jews, of Armenians and many others who have sojourned through India, alongside men and women from pre-existing Southeast Asian trading communities. These people and the mixing of their varied networks made Hong Kong not Chinese, but Eurasian.

Official Chinese or British versions histories of Hong Kong have failed to take this diversity into account and thus ignore the extent of difference between Hong Kong and mainland China. I look closely at exactly who came to Hong Kong, from where, with whom, how they lived with others in Hong Kong, how they reacted to the shock and stresses of Japanese occupation in World War Two and the British return. I conclude that the visions of multiple generations of Hong Kongers of their own futures remain unheard as ruling powers fail to acknowledge Hong Kong’s character as neither solely Chinese city, nor British colony, but a Eurasian Port City.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

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