Chinese Business History Conference

Enterprise and Economy in Modern China

2025-08-212025-08-23Asia/Hong_KongEnterprise and Economy in Modern China

Chinese Business History
Enterprise and Economy in Modern China

Content:

Date/Time:
Aug 21-23, 2025

Venue:
Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

Language:
English

Enquiry:
gmoazzin@hku.hk

 

Conference Program

    2025-08-212025-08-23Asia/Hong_KongEnterprise and Economy in Modern China

    Chinese Business History
    Enterprise and Economy in Modern China

    Content:

    Date/Time:
    Aug 21-23, 2025

    Venue:
    Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

    Language:
    English

    Enquiry:
    gmoazzin@hku.hk

     

    Conference Program

      Overview

      Title:

      Enterprise and Economy in Modern China

      Date/Time:

      Aug 21-23, 2025

      Venue:

      Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Language:

      English

      Title:

      Enterprise and Economy in Modern China

      Date/Time:

      Aug 21-23, 2025

      Venue:

      Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Conference Program

      21 August

       

      10.45am-11.15am: Registration

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

       

      11.15am: Welcome

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

       

      Panel 1: 11.30am-1pm:

      Chair: Ghassan Moazzin (The University of Hong Kong)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

       

      Otis Edwards (The University of Hong Kong) – Reconfiguring Trade: London Finance, Lintin Island, and the Transformation of the Opium Economy in Early Nineteenth-Century Canton

      Xiaoyu Gao (University of Chicago) – Empire of Copper: British and American Global Trade, Chilean Copper, and the Transformation of Chinese Monetary System (1800-1862)

      William R. Kelson (The University of Hong Kong) – The ‘Circle of Distress’: Mapping the Spread of the Late-Qing Financial Crisis of the 1880s

       

      Panel 2: 2pm-3.30pm:

      Chair: John D. Wong (The University of Hong Kong)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

      Yuan Weipeng (Shanghai Jiaotong University) – 晚清政府采购制度与汉冶萍公司

      Li Zigui (Sun Yat-sen University) – Reuters and the Evolving News Telegram Distribution System in Late Qing Shanghai

      Wang Zilong (The University of Tokyo) – State Control or Managerial Autonomy? The Long-Term Evolution of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, 1872–2022

       

       

      22 August

       

      Panel 3: 9.30am-11am

      Chair: Li Ji (The University of Hong Kong)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

      Ghassan Moazzin (The University of Hong Kong) – Shenbao, Advertisements and Electrical Modernity in Shanghai, 1912-1937

      Debin Ma (Tsinghua University) – Adjustments and Vicissitudes: The Indirect Issuance of Banknotes in Republican China, 1915–1945

      Shinya Oishida (Rikkyo University) – Postal Savings Bank in Republican China: In Comparison with Commercial Banking Business

       

      Panel 4: 11.30am – 1pm

      Chair: William R. Kelson (The University of Hong Kong)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

      Billy K. L. So (The University of Hong Kong) & Sufumi So (The University of Hong Kong) – Modern Corporation: Conceptual Excursions, and the China Exception?

      Peter E. Hamilton (University of Bristol) – China’s First Management Consultants in the Nanjing Decade

      Ning Jennifer Chang (Academia Sinica) – Managing Volunteer Associations in Modern China: The Case of the Shanghai Race Club, 1850-1950

       

      2.30pm: Transportation to Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Archives

       

      3pm-4.30pm: Visit to Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Archives (registered attendees only)

       

       

      23 August

       

      Panel 5: 9.30am – 11.30am

      Chair: Debin Ma (Tsinghua University)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

      Niu Hao (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) – OEM Collaboration: A Study on the Production and Distribution of Indanthrene Fabric in the Republic of China

      Brett Sheehan (University of Southern California) – Balancing strangers and friends: Curating shareholder composition by the Dongya Corporation, 1932–1950

      Huangfu Qiushi (Fudan University) – Pirnie, Lee & Company and the Post-war Sino-U.S. Economic Cooperation on the Local Level (1946–48)

      Koji Hirata (Monash University) – From Grain Exporter to Importer: Food Crisis, Trade Realignment, and China’s Turn to the Capitalist World, 1960–1965

       

      Panel 6: 1pm – 3pm

      Chair: Brett Sheehan (University of Southern California)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

      Speakers: 

      Elizabeth Sinn (The University of Hong Kong) – Death by American protectionism? The Life and Times of a Hong Kong Chinese Company – the On Tai Marine Insurance Company (1877–1899)

      Sheyla S. Zandonai (University of Macau) – Pledging, Betting, Building: The History of Modern Pawnshops in Macau

      Dong Yan (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) – From Local Currency to Foreign Exchange: Reshaping the Hong Kong Dollar in 1950s Guangdong

       

      Kelvin Chan (University of Bristol) – Made in Hong Kong: Eu Yan Sang and Chinese Medicine in Cold War Southeast Asia

       

      Roundtable: Future Avenues for Research: 3.30pm-4.30pm

      Chair: Ghassan Moazzin (The University of Hong Kong)

      Location: Faculty Board Room (4.36), Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

       

      Takeshi Hamashita (Toyo Bunko), John D. Wong (The University of Hong Kong), Tomoko Shiroyama (The University of Tokyo)

       

      4.30pm-5pm: Closing Discussion (Possible Collaboration and Publications)

      Chairs: John D. Wong (The University of Hong Kong) & Ghassan Moazzin (The University of Hong Kong)

      POSTER