Delta on the Move Lecture Series

Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

2024-01-25 17:002024-01-25 18:00Asia/Hong_KongMultiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

Delta on the Move Lecture Series
Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

Dr. Vivian Kong (University of Bristol)

Date/Time: January 25, 2024 (5:00 pm HKT) / (10:00 am CET)
Venue: via Zoom
Language: English
Enquiry: (Email) ihss@hku.hk

    2024-01-25 17:002024-01-25 18:00Asia/Hong_KongMultiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

    Delta on the Move Lecture Series
    Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

    Dr. Vivian Kong (University of Bristol)

    Date/Time: January 25, 2024 (5:00 pm HKT) / (10:00 am CET)
    Venue: via Zoom
    Language: English
    Enquiry: (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Overview

      Title:

      Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

      Speaker:

      Dr. Vivian Kong (University of Bristol)

      Date/Time:

      January 25, 2024 (5:00 pm HKT) / (10:00 am CET)

      Venue:

      Via Zoom

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Title:

      Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45

      Speaker:

      Dr. Vivian Kong (University of Bristol)

      Date/Time:

      January 25, 2024 (5:00 pm HKT) / (10:00 am CET)

      Venue:

      Via Zoom

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Abstract

      What does it mean to be British? To answer this, Multiracial Britishness takes us to an underexplored site of Britishness – the former British colony of Hong Kong. Vivian Kong asks how colonial hierarchies, the racial and cultural diversity of the British Empire, and global ideologies complicate the meaning of being British. Using multi-lingual sources and oral history, Kong traces the experiences of multiracial residents in 1910-45 Hong Kong. Guiding us through Hong Kong’s global networks, and the colony’s co-existing exclusive and cosmopolitan social spaces, this book uncovers the long history of multiracial Britishness. Kong argues that Britishness existed in the colony in multiple, hyphenated forms – as a racial category, but also as privileges, a means of survival, and a form of cultural and national belonging. This book offers us an important reminder that multiracial inhabitants of the British Empire were just as active in the making of Britishness as the British state and white Britons.

       

      ABOUT THE SPEAKER

      Born and raised in Hong Kong, Vivian Kong is Lecturer in Modern Chinese History and Founding Co-Director of the Hong Kong History Centre at the University of Bristol. She has published on diasporas, civil society, and press debates in interwar Hong Kong.

       

      About the Series

      This is an event jointly organized by the “Delta on the Move: The Becoming of the Greater Bay Region, 1700 – 2000” Research Cluster and the Chinese Business History Webinar Series.

      POSTER