Computer

2017 - 2019 REPORT

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Signature Research Clusters
Overview
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STMS
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HMAU
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ARC

Hubs, Mobilities and the Asian Urban (HMAU)

I. Research Projects and Project-based Events

Led by Prof. Helen F. Siu, the HMAU cluster tracks the “art of hubbing” — local, regional and global positioning by Asian cities — and captures the lived experiences of their populations as they engage in the tumultuous modern transformations of Asia in the past century and the urban renaissance of the new century. In the past three years, the cluster focused on research and organization of research-based events and knowledge transfer activities. The pictures below capture some of these academic and knowledge transfer events, organized in collaboration with local intellectuals and overseas partners.

Scholars at workshop “Asia Inside Out: Mobile Peoples” in Vietnam, January 2017, leading to Itinerant People, third volume of Asia Inside Out (Harvard University Press)Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan at the “Urban Ecologies in Asia III” workshop, HKIHSS, June 2018. After the three-day workshop and fieldwork, the team began working on the third volume of the Ecologies and Urbanism Series
Project Citizens Forum “What Makes Hong Kong Special?,” held in collaboration with the Project Citizens Foundation, June 2018. A second forum entitled “Voice of Hong Kong” was held in May 2019At “Forum on the Political Economy of China-Hong Kong Relations during the Trade War,” January 2019, co-organized with Society for Hong Kong Studies
At “Forum on the Political Economy of China-Hong Kong Relations during the Trade War,” January 2019, co-organized with Society for Hong Kong StudiesProject Citizens Forum “What Makes Hong Kong Special?,” held in collaboration with the Project Citizens Foundation, June 2018. A second forum entitled “Voice of Hong Kong” was held in May 2019

Clockwise from top left are:
  • Scholars at workshop “Asia Inside Out: Mobile Peoples” in Vietnam, January 2017, leading to Itinerant People, third volume of Asia Inside Out (Harvard University Press)
  • Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan at the “Urban Ecologies in Asia III” workshop, HKIHSS, June 2018. After the three-day workshop and fieldwork, the team began working on the third volume of the Ecologies and Urbanism Series
  • At “Forum on the Political Economy of China-Hong Kong Relations during the Trade War,” January 2019, co-organized with Society for Hong Kong Studies
  • Project Citizens Forum “What Makes Hong Kong Special?,” held in collaboration with the Project Citizens Foundation, June 2018. A second forum entitled “Voice of Hong Kong” was held in May 2019
Scholars at workshop “Asia Inside Out: Mobile Peoples” in Vietnam, January 2017, leading to Itinerant People, third volume of Asia Inside Out (Harvard University Press)
Scholars at workshop “Asia Inside Out: Mobile Peoples” in Vietnam, January 2017, leading to Itinerant People, third volume of Asia Inside Out (Harvard University Press)
Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan at the “Urban Ecologies in Asia III” workshop, HKIHSS, June 2018. After the three-day workshop and fieldwork, the team began working on the third volume of the Ecologies and Urbanism Series
Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan at the “Urban Ecologies in Asia III” workshop, HKIHSS, June 2018. After the three-day workshop and fieldwork, the team began working on the third volume of the Ecologies and Urbanism Series
At “Forum on the Political Economy of China-Hong Kong Relations during the Trade War,” January 2019, co-organized with Society for Hong Kong Studies
At “Forum on the Political Economy of China-Hong Kong Relations during the Trade War,” January 2019, co-organized with Society for Hong Kong Studies
Project Citizens Forum “What Makes Hong Kong Special?,” held in collaboration with the Project Citizens Foundation, June 2018. A second forum entitled “Voice of Hong Kong” was held in May 2019
Project Citizens Forum “What Makes Hong Kong Special?,” held in collaboration with the Project Citizens Foundation, June 2018. A second forum entitled “Voice of Hong Kong” was held in May 2019
China Made: Asia Infrastructure and the ‘China Model’ of Development.
Internationally, the cluster also formed in 2018 a partnership with the University of Colorado Center for Asian Studies, led by Prof. Timothy Oakes, and successfully obtained a research grant of US $390,000 from the New York–based Henry Luce Foundation, for a three-year interdisciplinary research collaboration called “China Made: Asia Infrastructure and the ‘China Model’ of Development.” The first China Made workshop, “Conceiving Infrastructures in a Chinese Register,” was held at the University of Colorado in October 2018 (see Partnerships – Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado Boulder).
II. Hong Kong Documentary Film Project

In 2017, the cluster embarked on a major documentary film project Denise Ho: Becoming the Song. The project is jointly supported by HKIHSS, the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University and numerous individual donors. An award-winning team — Sue Williams (Director/Producer), Emma Morris (Editor), Jerry Risius (Director of Photography), and Nancy Tong (Co-producer) — worked with students and colleagues from Yale and Hong Kong who provided the needed background research.

The film focuses on the life and career of Cantopop singer Denise Ho to reflect the rapid transformations of Hong Kong/Lingnan culture and society in the past decades. The talented and determined young singer/song-writer grew up with an elite English education in Hong Kong and came of age in Montreal after her family emigrated to Canada. She represents a generation of HongKongers whose identities and values straddle cultures and continental divides. A longtime advocate for an encompassing society who has chosen to speak truth to power, Ho is seen by many as a voice of hope for a young generation of HongKongers striving to uphold Hong Kong’s institutional integrity, cosmopolitan styles, and humanist values.

Most of the filming was done in Hong Kong and North America in 2018 and in the summer and fall of 2019. The editing process took over a year in 2019. A final cut of the film will be produced in early 2020 for submission to several documentary film festivals in North America and Europe.

III. Publications

Most of the Institute’s research-based workshops have resulted in top-quality publications, published by leading presses including Harvard University Press and Hong Kong University Press, to promote the fundamental rethinking of conventional analytical categories. Some examples are shown below:

  • The Asia Inside Out series, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, published by Harvard University Press. The first volume of the series, Changing Times, was published in 2015. The second and third volumes, Connected Place and Itinerant People, were published in 2015 and 2019, respectively.
  • Places of Nature in Ecologies of Urbanism, edited by Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan and Prof. Anne M. Rademacher. It was the second volume of a series published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017. The first volume, Ecologies of Urbanism in India: Metropolitan Civility and Sustainability, was published in 2013.
  • Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984, edited by Prof. Elizabeth Sinn and Dr. Christopher Munn, was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017.
Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984, edited by Prof. Elizabeth Sinn and Dr. Christopher Munn, was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017. Asia Inside Out: Changing Times, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2015. Asia Inside Out: Connected Place, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2015. Asia Inside Out: Itinerant People, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2019. Places of Nature in Ecologies of Urbanism, edited by Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan and Prof. Anne M. Rademacher. It was the second volume of a series published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017. The first volume, Ecologies of Urbanism in India: Metropolitan Civility and Sustainability, was published in 2013.
Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984, edited by Prof. Elizabeth Sinn and Dr. Christopher Munn, was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017. Asia Inside Out: Changing Times, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2015. Asia Inside Out: Connected Place, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2015. Asia Inside Out: Itinerant People, edited by Prof. Helen F. Siu, Prof. Eric Tagliacozzo and Prof. Peter Perdue, was published by Harvard University Press in 2019. Places of Nature in Ecologies of Urbanism, edited by Prof. K. Sivaramakrishnan and Prof. Anne M. Rademacher. It was the second volume of a series published by Hong Kong University Press in 2017. The first volume, Ecologies of Urbanism in India: Metropolitan Civility and Sustainability, was published in 2013.