Happy New Year!

The Department of Anthropology wishes everybody a Happy New Year and a good year in the field!

Source: Anthropologist About Town

Information Session for MA Programme

The department is going to hold a MA Information Session on 12 Jan 2013. Do not miss the opportunity to communicate with our professors face to face if you are interested in studying in the department.

Time: 2:00pm start
Venue: Room 505, Yasumoto International Academic Park, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin (near the University MTR Station Northern exit)
Registration: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/infosession.htm

Programme Overview

From this programme,students acquire systematic training in anthropological theory and methodology. Th department welcomes students who are interested in societies and cultures of Hong kong, China, Asia, and of all the world. (Three courses have been included in the list of reimbursable course for the Continuing Education Fund (CEF)).

Degree requirements can be completed in one year of full-time or two years of part-time study. The programme is taught, and no dissertations is required for graduation.

Click here to learn more about the MA Programme and application information.

To Apply

Online application is available at the website of the Graduate Shool.
Deaadline of application: 31 March 2013.

Invited Seminar: 朝鮮族跨國移工婦女的性別角色與認同

LI Nan
PhD Candidate, Anthropology Department, CUHK 
"流動中的邊界:朝鮮族跨國移工婦女的性別角色與認同"
7 Dec 2012
  
 

李楠在其演讲“流动中的边界：朝鲜族跨国移工妇女的性别角色与认同”中，对“跨国母职的具体操作”进行了深入的探讨。

李楠05年、09年两次赴延边地区及韩国首尔进行田野调查。改革开放以来，跨国人口流动控制放松。92年中韩建交后，边境人口流动大幅度增加。而在延边的朝鲜族，以韩国为目的地的跨国人口流动具有显著的特征。首先，女性人数远远超过男性，并且持续增加。其次，男女的性别角色发生变化。跨国工作使得朝鲜族女性脱离了以往的家庭工作，而承担起了以往父职领域内的责任：养家。李楠由此发问：当父职、母职在家庭分工的具体实践上开始发生转变的时候，在意识形态的层面上，性别角色是否也发生了实质的转变？在本次演讲中，她集中在母职方面展开论述，作为回答这一核心问题的一个路径。具体说来，她考察了朝鲜族女性在跨国工作的过程中，她们的母职是如何具体操作的；当母职的实践遭遇困难的时候，她们是如何在社会、精神、物质等不同层面一一应对的。

李楠首先定义了“母职”（motherhood）与“跨国母职”（transnational motherhood）的概念。后一概念由Hondagneu-Sotelo与Avilia在1997年提出，用以理解拉丁美洲的女性移民的相关情况。他们在研究中指出“跨国母职”拓展了传统“母职”的空间，用新的母职来替代旧有的必须“母亲必须与孩子生活在一起”的信念。李楠的研究借鉴了这一概念，用以讨论朝鲜族女性移工是否也拓展了类似的“跨国母职”。

以下，李楠从三个方面探讨了她们的母职实践。第一，照料的外判（outsourcing of caregiving）。跨国母亲无法履行传统“母职”范畴中的亲身照料子女的内容，故此导致将照料外判给其他人。李楠介绍了四种主要的外判对象：父亲、祖母或外祖母、已婚的其他女性亲属、学校的女性教师，并指出，任何一种外判对象，都会在照料孩子的时候带来不可避免的问题，从而使得母亲对其“照料外判”行为产生更多焦虑，并导致她们更加希望以其他的方式作出补偿。

因此，在第二部分“爱的补偿”中，李楠便详细介绍了跨国母亲们是如何尽可能地对子女作出补偿的。她提到了三个主要方面。１）通过通讯联络加强和子女的交流，并提供必要的感情支持。但是，这种方式的有效程度，受到女性移工的年龄、社会阶层等多种变量的影响。例如，一些年龄较大的女性，无法掌握电子通讯的技术。每个人在社会坐标上的位置影响了远距离沟通的有效性，而工人阶层的家庭相对而言容易因为远距离通讯的缺席而导致沟通的缺失。２）“爱的商品化”。李楠指出，母亲们无法面对面照料孩子，因此尽可能以物质、商品的方式填补缺失。“用商品化的形式表达对孩子的爱，建立和孩子的纽带”。但是，李楠认为这样的行为的效果有限，并可能造成“过度的补偿”。学生间很多攀比、乃至偷盗的行为由此产生。但是，毕竟“这些独一无二的商品成为他们仍然被母亲爱的象征，也是他们一个独特性的象征。为他们提供了某种程度的优越感。”３）通过生活费实现爱与管控。李楠认为，生活费是母亲可表达、以及孩子可接受的爱的“阈限所在”。

虽然有以上种种手段，但母亲们内心的焦虑并未因此而减轻。她们仍然相信，很多职责应该由她们来履行。李楠接下来便展开了第三部分：“情绪困扰”。她指出，和子女情感上的疏离给母亲们带来了巨大的痛苦。这一点尤其体现在早期非法移工身上，因为她们缺乏合法的途径回国探望。痛苦中的母亲容易陷入过度的自责，并将自己失去的一切归咎到来韩国这件事上。

最后，李楠进入了总结部分：“性别界限的跨越与维系”。她指出，这些跨国移工母亲离家的初衷，是为了给孩子的幸福（提供更好的教育、准备嫁妆等）。换言之，是为了更好地实现传统意义的母职。但是，当她们真的做出了这样的选择之后，却发现传统的母职无法被很好地实践，因而面临很多困扰。对很多母亲来说，虽然她们看似在承担父职的范畴：养家。但是，养家对与她们来说，并非终极目的，而只是更好地实现传统母职的手段。因此，她总结道，朝鲜族女性移工人的跨国经济行为，看似是转变了“母职”（从“照料”到“养家”）。但事实上，却只是拓展了“母职”，亦即，将“养家”也纳入了“母职”的范畴。立足于此，李楠进一步推进了她的研究的理论意义，即“非对立的公私领域：连接并游走在公私领域边界上的跨国母职”。她认为，朝鲜族女性移工的“跨国母职”实践，事实上模糊了公私领域之间的界限。

Xiangjun FENG
M.Phil Candidate
yangdaguo[AT]gmail.com

Invited Seminar: Culture as the Most Important Influence on Human Development

Dr. Thomas S. WEISNER

Professor, Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychitry & Biobehavioral Sciences (NPI Semel Institute), UCLA

"Culture as the Most Important Influence on Human Development"

9 Nov 2012

Professor Thomas Weisner, a psychiatrist and anthropologist from UCLA, gave an interesting talk on “Culture as the Most Important Influence on Human Development”. Drawing from examples of child-rearing practices from places including Kenya and the United States, he argued that the cultural place where a child grows up is “the most important single predictor of a child's developmental pathway”.

One example caught my attention. Prof. Weisner shared a real-life example of how an eight-year-old American boy negotiated with his father while getting ready to leave for school. The father reasoned with him about the urgency to tide his shoes and get his coat by himself. After rounds of negotiation, the boy conformed with reluctance. Middle-class American kids, Prof. Weisner jokingly remarked, were raised to be like lawyers. Were the same situation happen in a strict Chinese family, I am guessing the kid would probably ended up getting a slap in his face!

Prof. Weisner pointed out that while communal child-rearing is still common in some parts of the world, nucleus family is increasing assuming the primary care-providing responsibility, especially in the developed world. As family size is getting smaller and child-rearing duty increasingly being “outsourced” to social institution like day-care centers and schools, what will the kids be like when they grow up? For instance, will they become more egocentric because they have less experience taking care of a younger sibling? Or will they become more sociable because they must socialize with other kids since a young age? Lots of interesting questions remain to be answered.

Alan TSE

M. Phil Candidate

hinhin100[AT]hotmail.com

Upcoming Conference: Foodways and Heritage

"International Conference on Foodways and Heritage: A Perspective of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage"

Organizer: Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a delegation from the UNESCO Chair Project on Safeguarding and Promoting Cultural Food Heritage of the University of Tours, France

Time: 3rd-5th January, 2013

Venue: 1/F Theatre, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, 1 Man Lam Road, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR

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Foodways is considered an important cultural marker of identity in societies, and it has provided a medium for the understanding of social relations, family and kinship, class and consumption, gender ideology, cultural symbolism, etc. Nowadays, much scholarly attention has been on the socio-political construction of foodways; in particular, there is a growing interest in considering foodways an intangible heritage reflecting the significance of being part of people’s life in the era of globalization. With the understanding that some ingredients and culinary skills became more difficult to be inherited and sustained, the possibility of losing them should not be overlooked. Traditional cuisine has been mostly changed or even disappeared, and some culinary skills are known among a handful of people. So, are we going to witness the dying of traditional foodways? Or, are we going to keep it documented in the last minute because this is part of our general support of cultural diversity? This conference looks at the politics of foodways and heritage, and investigates how different kinds of food are produced, sustained and inherited while at the same time how they are preserved as intangible heritage for various reasons. We seek papers that examine what foodways is considered a kind of local/national heritage, why people think foodways can be heritage for preservation, and how it has been culturally invented, conceptualized, and marketed in various societies. We have presenters researching foodways in the context of heritage politics on local/regional levels, looking into issues such as transnational relations, globalization and localization, ecology and natural resources management, transformation of traditions and technical interventions etc. Lastly, this conference is interdisciplinary and we have scholars from different disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, history, and gender studies.

Upcoming Conference: Gastronomy, Communication, and Heritage in the Diaspora

Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Global Food Cultures program of New York University jointly present a special symposium on

Gastronomy, Communication, and Heritage in the Diaspora: The Hong Kong Experience

Time : 9:30-12:00 p.m., Tuesday, 8th January, 2013
Venue: LT5, Cheng Yu Tung Building, CUHK(next to the University Station and Hyatt Shatin Hotel)

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This symposium explores the foodways in the lives of people in the global context of diaspora. Speakers include Casey Lum, Professor of Communication at William Paterson University (USA ) and Board of Directors of the Urban Communication Foundation, who has been researching in media ecology and urban food cultures as forms of communication; Sidney Cheung, Professor and anthropologist, who has recently finished a food-related knowledge transfer project on developing touristic resources from within (and for) the local neighborhood in Sheung Wan; Peter Cuong Franklin, a consultant chef and the chef-owner of the Vietnamese restaurant ChomChom and a graduate from Le Cordon Bleu with a Grand Diplôme de Cuisine and Patisserie, who has trained and worked at the like of the Michelin-starred Caprice in Hong Kong, Alinea in Chicago, and La Verticale in Hanoi; and Annabel Jackson, a food and wine expert and consultant, who is head of the Hong Kong Slow Food convivium and the author of Macau on a Plate (1994), Street Café Vietnam (1999), World Food China (2003), Taste of Macau: Portuguese Cuisine on the China Coast (2004) and Modern Indian Cooking (2004).

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME

Event: Japanese Kodo (Incense Ceremony) Workshop

The Department of Anthropology, CUHK held a workshop on kodo, the Japanese incense ceremony on 23 Nov 2012. This workshop is a part of the Kodo Series organized by the department. Souhitsu HACHIYA, the designated Head Master of the 21st generation of Shinoryu kodo-- one of the two leading kodo schools in Japan, was invited to lead the workshop. 

Mr. Hachiya introduces kodo history.

As the first part of the workshop, Mr. Hachiya gave a talk on the history as well as the inheritance and contemporary development of kodo. Together with sado (tea ceremony) and kado (flower arrangement), kodo is one of the three “geido” (the classical arts of refinement) in Japan. Kodo has a history of about 800 years, the longest among the three. The use of incense first came to Japan from China as a part of Buddhist rituals in the Tumulus Period (approximately 300 CE-552 CE). It gradually developed into etiquette of the upper classes, combining waka (short poem) with artistic properties, environmental arrangements and incense practices, stimulating participants’ imagination and artistic creation. As its formalities came to be developed and shaped, Kodo finally established itself as a unique art in Muromachi Period (approximately 1337CE to 1573CE). There are two main schools remaining in Japan: the Shino School and the Oie School. The Shino School is in the tradition of the samurai, putting more emphasis on crafting the inner self, while the Oie School is in the tradition of aristocracy, putting more emphasis on manners, formality and literal aspects of kodo.  

Kodo performance

Mr. Hachiya stressed that the appreciation of incense is not done by nose but by heart. In fact, it is called “listening to incense” in Japanese. Through the fragrance of incense, people listen to the voice of nature, communicate with it, and achieve harmony. “Forget your existence as human being and the incense’s existence as a piece of wood. Feel the connection with it equally as parts of nature,” said Mr. Hachiya. And it is through this way that one learns and improves the inner self. However, the development of kodo is now facing huge challenges as wild agargwood is becoming rare due to the environmental deterioration and unsustainable consumption of agarwood. The Shino School has been experimenting in increasing the amount of agargwood tree in a natural way.

Photo: Fred Choi

 After the talk, Mr. Hachiya demonstrated the performance of kodo in the main hall of Cham Shan Monastery, where participants learned to listen to incense and nature. 
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Mr. Hachiya shows kodo instruments.

受香港中文大學人類學系邀請，日本志野流香道流派第二十一代傳人蜂谷宗苾先生于11月23日再次莅临香港，舉行了日本香道文化一日工作坊。此次工作坊是兩依藏博物館贊助的香道文化系列活動之一，不少校內外嘉賓都出席了本次活動，包括香港文化博物館館長鄒興華先生、助理館長林錦源先生、中文大學藝術系系主任莫家良教授、中文大學學生事務助理主任霍偉基先生、玄陵基金會行政主任梁小姐、日本友人Maeda Megumi小姐等 。  

Charts of Genjiko (源氏香)

上午蜂谷宗苾先生在本系介紹了香道的歷史演變及現今的傳承和發展。香道與花道、茶道並稱日本的三大“雅道”，而其歷史又是三者中最悠久的，從室町時代香道最終確立至今已長達八百多年。 源氏物語一書就描寫了當時的熏香盛會，其中記載的五十二種組香，漸漸發展為現在的源氏香。

日本香道的雛型源自中國，最初只是佛教儀式的一部分，後來逐漸在貴族和武士階層中流行，並發展出兩大流派。志野流為武家流派，形式較為簡樸，注重精神的修煉；而另一流派御家流則為貴族流派，更注重儀式和古典文學修養。日本香道因此和禪、武士道及古典文學不可分離。但由於其特點，香道較之花道、茶道並不普及，即使在日本也不為很多人所了解。隨著近十年來日本傳統文化重新受到重視，越來越多的日本年輕人開始對香道產生興趣。但由於日本香道所用的天然沈香十分稀有、形成過程漫長，再加上現今環境的惡化，其今後的存續面臨巨大的挑戰。其實香道之意並不在香氣，而是透過香氣感知自然進而達到到個人的修煉。聞香的聞，實則為聆聽的意思，通過香氣傾聽大自然的聲音，不僅需要鼻子，更需要心。

由於湛山寺的慷慨支持，下午的工作坊得以在其禪靜的大雄寶殿進行。大家體驗聞香，學習聆聽自然的聲音。

Mr. Hachiya demonstrated how to hold the kodo cup firmly.

Listening to  incense

Breath out to the left

香港文化博物館館長鄒興華先生

玄陵基金會行政主任梁小姐體驗聞香

Q&A Section

Cham Shan Monastery

了解更多有關香道與志野流的信息，请訪問志野流香道的網站。
To know more about Shinoryu Kodo, please visit their website.

Invited Seminar: Teenage Immigrant Students in Hong Kong

Dr. Wai-chi CHEE
Part-time Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
"Optimism Misguided? Teenage Immigrant Students in Hong Kong" 
26 Oct 2012


In recent years, due to the sharp decrease in student enrolments in the mainstream schools in Hong Kong, immigrant students from Mainland China and South Asia have become an important source of student intake. Dr. Chee showed how the demographic landscape of Hong Kong contributes to the phenomenon: low birth rate, high net migration rate and aging population led to the decrease of student enrolment in the education sector. As a result, the schools need immigrant students to fill up the vacancies in order to survive. At the same time, more and more students came to Hong Kong for education for better futures.

In order to understand the lives of these immigrant students in Hong Kong, Dr. Chee conducted fieldwork in two schools which provided an integrated programme to low-income immigrant students between 12 and 18 years old, preparing students to adapt to the Hong Kong environment and the mainstream secondary school system. One of the schools was attended by Mainland Chinese students and the other was attended half by people from South Asia and half from the Mainland. Both schools have small class sizes and are funded by the government.

Dr. Chee argued that optimism is reinforced when the new comers participated in the Integrated Programme. They do a lot of extra-curricular activities with their teachers and have the chance to visit some of the famous tourist destinations in Hong Kong. As the mode of teaching is relatively less rigid and both teachers and students are so devoted to the programme, many students have a good impression of Hong Kong and the education system. They think schools in Hong Kong are better than those they attended in Mainland. Most students praise for the safety, laws and infrastructure of Hong Kong. Many think their dreams can be realized and their futures will be rosy.

Nonetheless, there is a huge gap between the Integrated Programme and the mainstream schooling. School policies do not favor immigrant students and the language requirements in the mainstream schools are very rigid. Mismatched placement is very common, i.e. the placement of the school is seldom given to students who have the corresponding educational level. The students who cannot get a placement two months after finishing the Integrated Programme, would most likely give up. Those who are lucky to get a placement also have a hard time in catching up. The new mainland students find it hard to catch up with the English level of local students, whereas the South Asian students have difficulty in learning Chinese. All these issues create the problem of “misguided optimism” as the new students finally realize that their academic future is not as promising as it seemed in the Intergrated Programme. However, neither teachers nor students see the poor performance as a direct consequence of structural problems, instead it is linked to a lack of discipline Students are usually blamed for not working hard enough.

As a local student who was born and raised in Hong Kong, I can see there are indeed some structural problems that our education sector is facing. The recent policy of “killing school” when the school cannot recruit sufficient students worsens the situation. Together with the general atmosphere among young adults who do not want to devote themselves to being teachers, which used to be considered as a highly noble and respectful job, we have every reason to be concerned about the future of Hong Kong. In recent years, more and more South Asian young adults who failed to make a living in legal ways have turned to the gangs in Hong Kong. Their appearance and related criminal activities on local newspapers reinforce the stereotype that most Hong Kong people have towards immigrants - they are dangerous and the destroyers of social order. However, many of us fail to see how our education and employment systems discriminate against the immigrants.

Candy Hiu-yan YU
M.Phil Candidate
candy4inlove[AT]gmail.com

Upcoming Seminar: 朝鮮族跨國移工婦女的性別角色與認同

"流動中的邊界:朝鮮族跨國移工婦女的性別角色與認同"

 
Speaker : LI Nan
PhD Candidate, Anthropology Department, CUHK
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 7 December 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
Language: Mandarin

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近二十年來中國延邊朝鮮族婦女大批進入韓國打工，並成為家庭的主要經濟來源提供者。然
而在同子女隔著國境邊界遙遙相望的境況下，她們的母職實作經歷了巨大的挑戰。我將通過
分析這些朝鮮族移工母親如何跨越地理空間的限制，擴展或重構自己對母職的定義和實踐，
以及她們的母職實作受到其他哪些個體或因素的影響，來審視跨國母職這一實踐過程中家庭
親密關係的變化、以及性別意識形態邊界的流動。

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME
Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Upcoming Seminar: Military Confucianism in a Wall Street Law Firm

"Military Confucianism in a Wall Street Law Firm"

 
Speaker :Yeon Jin SEONG
J.D., Columbia University
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 30 November 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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U.S. law firms, including Wall Street firms, are managed by strict ethics and practice guidelines from the headquarters. Korea practice groups of these firms were located in Hong Kong before a recent opening of the Korean legal market to U.S. and European firms. The Korea practice group of one of the Wall Street law firms at issue is operated by a mode of behavior and implicit rules that are quite different from, and in certain cases in direct breach of, the firm's general policy. The Korea practice group's modus operandi and discursive space are expressed and practiced in terms of military experience and Confucianist tenets. Everyday practice of hierarchy-bearing terms and culture-specific modes of interaction and behavior leads to the creation of an overdetermined meaning of being a Korean-speaking lawyer in the Korea practice group.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME
Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Anthropologists in the NGO World

Source: Anthropology Works, American Anthropological Association
by Jean J Schensul

I am a medical/educational anthropologist who has spent almost all of my professional life in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) world in the United States and globally. NGOs are situated at the interface between government, the private sector and people. They have the capacity to reach people when governmental or private agencies cannot. Because they are flexible in administration and staffing, NGOs are positioned to identify new problems in the field and to shift their programs quickly. They are uniquely able to react rapidly to emerging health problems, natural and human created disasters, and other situations that require immediate response.

In my own work, I have been committed to the development and growth of a particular form of NGO, the Community Based Research Organization (CBRO). CBROs conduct collaborative or participatory action research usually with social action or social justice purposes. My reasons for building CBROs lie in my desire as a methodologist and activist scholar to democratize science – to make the theories, methods and results of social science research available to communities that have been excluded from the creation and dissemination of science-based knowledge so that they, together with social scientists, can create their own knowledge base and speak to power from a position of strength.

In 1978, I moved to Hartford, and joined the fledgling Hispanic Health Council, a CBRO, as a co-founder along with founders Maria Borrero, a community activist, and Stephen Schensul, a medical anthropologist. The Hispanic Health Council was then dedicated to research training and advocacy to reverse inequities, and to improve the health of Latinos in Connecticut. At the Hispanic Health Council I learned to write many National Institutes of Health (NIH) and local/national foundation grants, and, working with Maria, developed its strategic plan and research program. As an increasingly competent and creative technical writer, I could draw on and integrate cultural and structural factors, community voices and ethnographic methods into successful grants. My knowledge of Spanish and field experiences in Cuban Miami and in central Mexico helped, although I had to work at a proper Puerto Rican pronunciation.

After ten years, the “adolescent phase” of growth at the Hispanic Health Council was complete, and in 1987 I was invited to re-invent another CBRO, the Institute for Community Research. I was given a small amount of money and the support to create an organization dedicated to collaborative research for social justice. My prior experience at the “Council” gave me the authenticity and knowledge that enabled me to work with many marginalized communities, to link them around common development agendas and to engage them with national funders, researchers, and activist collaborators around the country and the globe. I was able to bring my considerable administrative experience as a research director to the directorship of an organization with a broader vision, mandate and reach. With board support, we revised the mission statement, replaced and diversified the board and staff, and began to hire anthropologists as researchers. We quickly put into place a broad ranging interdisciplinary program of participatory action research with our community partners in HIV, aging, youth development, substance and substance abuse. This program continues to this day in the greater Hartford area, and has extended to sites in China and India thanks to strong support by NIH, other federal funders, and national and local foundations and the capacities and connections of our research team. Over 40 anthropologists have contributed to the ICR mission since 1988.

For anthropologists interested in innovative ways of conducting research for social change, CBROs in the U. S. and elsewhere are ideal environments. The advantages of working in an NGO are many including proximity to communities, opportunities to innovate, and ways of maximizing the uses of anthropology in field settings. CBROs are in high demand as partners to university faculty that want to conduct community based research and need the leadership of community based scientists and community advocates. Despite the constraints of unstable funding, limited upward mobility and shifting funder priorities, I have found the creation and management of CBROs, calling for passionate entrepreneurship, collaboration, imagination, political analysis, and methodological sophistication, to be highly rewarding.


Jean J Schensul is Senior Scientist & Founding Director at the Institute for Community Research in Hartford, CT.   www.incommunityresearch.org

We've Started Accepting Applications for Postgraduate Programmes!

Here is some brief application information of the 2013 postgraduate programmes of the Department of Anthropology at CUHK. For more details please visit the department's website.

PhD Programme

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The goals of the Ph.D. programme are (1) to teach students the latest theories and methods of anthropology, covering the full range of areas addressed by social and cultural anthropology in the past and at present, and (2) to provide students with the anthropological training and guidance to carry out their own extended ethnographic research projects from start (proposal), to fieldwork and write-up, to finish (publication). The goal is to produce a publishable book that demonstrates the graduate's ability to meet international professional standards of research and analysis.

Application Deadline: 31 January 2013

MPhil Programme

 

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The goals of the MPhil programme at CUHK are (1) to teach students the fundamental theories and methods of anthropology, covering the full range of areas addressed by social and cultural anthropology in the past and at present, and (2) to provide students with the anthropological training and guidance to carry out their own extended ethnographic research projects from start (proposal), to fieldwork and write-up, to finish (publication).

 Application Deadline: 31 January 2013

MA Postgraduate Programme

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The goal of the programme is to teach students the basic theories and methods of social and cultural anthropology and to give them a broad understanding of anthropology's different topics. Students will learn to develop their abilities of critical, independent and creative thinking in analyzing contemporary social and political issues, and understanding the diversity of human cultures and societies.

A key feature and major advantage of the Programme is that students are able to take courses that fit their background and interest. For example, foreign students can concentrate on Chinese society and culture, while students working in museums can concentrate on the anthropology of tourism, museums, archaeology, and other areas relevant to their work.

WHO SHOULD APPLY
The M.A. Programme is designed for people who have not majored in anthropology but wish to receive a formal education in the discipline. Work experience is desirable, so that students can better relate coursework to their profession. Candidates with a strong background in social sciences may wish to concentrate on one of the Department's specializations such as the Anthropology of East Asia or Ethnicity and Identity.

For September 2013 admission, application deadline: 31 March 2013.
For January 2014 admission, application deadline: 30 September 2013.
To facilitate the application process, applicants should apply as soon as possible.

Publication: Walking through Sheung Wan

Are you wondering what to do in Hong Kong other than shopping and having dim sum? What about  an anthropological adventure?

In the past year, the Department of Anthropology at CUHK has worked on the “Walking through Sheung Wan Series” project, with the support from the Knowledge Transfer project entitled “Learning from Neighbourhood Tourism in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong” and HK Discover. Led by Professor Sidney C.H. Cheung, the team did one-year ethnographic field research in the community. Based on the findings, we established a user-friendly website, which walks visitors through the Nam Pak Hong area with a history of more than one century, flashing back the trade-development relationships of dried seafood, traditional Chinese medicines and groceries like salted fish over the past century. Through this project, we explore, from an anthropological angle, the possibility of knowledge transfer from local communities to visitors, and a mutual interaction between community and tourism. With  the holistic approach of anthropology, we hope to bring an in-depth understanding of a local neighbourhood undergoing modernization and globalization.

We also published what we have learned from the community as a book called Sheung Wan. Put it into your backpack and take an anthropological adventure! We are looking forward to your experience and feedback.

Why Sheung Wan? (Excerpt from the book Sheung Wan)

 

Sheung Wan is the one neighbourhood that made Hong Kong a successful and important trading hub over the last century, in which the traditional features of trading are still visible today. Since the mid-19th century, via the overseas Chinese network in Thailand, Nam Pak Hong was established to facilitate the import of various dried products into Hong Kong for trading with other Chinese societies throughout Asia. When Hong Kong was still a fishing village, Sheung Wan was already made a very active trade centre by its geographical location, and the traditional business practices there has somehow preserved and remained this way since.… This creates an exotic and unique impression for anyone who visits there for the first time. Again these traders handle dried food commodities from all over the world, e.g. Abalones from Japan, sea cucumbers from Indonesia, salted fish from Bangladesh, herbal medicines from mainland China, local shrimp pastes, aged tangerine peels, fish maws, ginseng, birds’ nests, etc. Those traders have stories to share as part of the oral history of the community. As these food items are part of the Chinese cuisine, we consider this a unique experience for inbound tourists and foreign visitors interested in the culture and history of Hong Kong.

Upcoming Seminar: Milk and Modernity in South China

"The Globalization of Milk: Milk and Modernity in South China"

Speaker: Veronica MAK
Part-time Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 23 November 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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This presentation is based on an ethnographic study of the production and consumption of cow’s milk in Shunde, where traditional buffalo milk culture existed until recently but imported milk has become dominant. Contrary to the popular view that cow milk consumption in China is a result of the influence of a modern “western” diet, milk production and consumption in South China is actually a continuation and reinvention of a Chinese tradition. The popularity of milk consumption in Shunde is driven by the forces of globalization, capitalism, and modern state-building. The different values associated with milk consumption, including health claims, notions of culinary heritage, and government promoted national pride, show that milk is a contested ground for the reconfiguration of modern identity

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME
Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Invited Seminar: Nepalese Drug Users in Hong Kong

Mr. Wyman TANG
PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, CUHK
"Nepalese Drug Users in Hong Kong: Ethnicity, Transnationalism, and Marginalization"
19 Oct 2012

Mr. Tang provided a rich ethnographic picture of Nepalese young immigrants’ lives in Hong Kong, and tried to explain their drug use.

The young Nepalese came to Hong Kong as immigrants in search of better living conditions. Tang called the immigrants’ goal the “Lahure project”, referring to the image of a successful returnee, and indicating immigration was a farsighted decision. A significant proportion of the GDP of Nepal comes from immigrants who have provided labor globally since 1990. Migrants themselves are respected and have high social status.

Tang pointed out, however, that due to a number of social and cultural reasons, in Nepal public attitudes towards the Lahure migrants have changed in recent years. Children of Lahure families are often viewed as spoiled. In 2005, the Nepalese government even banned Lahure from joining the army.

Only a small percentage of Nepalese could afford to come to Hong Kong, which was considered a desirable place to live, creating high expectations in immigrants. The barriers for Nepalese coming to Hong Kong have increased since the 1997 handover (some even later said the Nepalese were “cockroaches” left by British on purpose). At the same time, the Nepalese also could not entirely assimilate into the Hong Kong society. Like in Nepal, structural barriers in Hong Kong also emerged in the public discourses, which accused Nepalese of being destructive to the social order of Hong Kong. 

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This awkward identity of being accepted neither by Nepal nor Hong Kong made their life contradictory as a result. Tang raised an example of a Nepalese student, Rahm, who was studying in an immigrant school in Hong Kong. Rahm on one hand was excluded from Hong Kong mainstream society, but on the other hand he still held the idea of freedom and human rights and enjoyed his freedom in the school in Hong Kong. Tang argued that drug use became a way Rahm and his classmates gained social respect and self-esteem.

XUE Cheng

M.Phil Candidate

calvinxue[AT]gmail.com

Invited Seminar: Rumors about Chinese Convict Laborers in Developing Countries

Dr. YAN Hairong
Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
"A New Metaphor of China? Rumors about Chinese Convict Laborers in Developing Countries" 
2 Nov 2012 

Dr. YAN Hairong of the Dept. of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Politechnic University, presented a talk entitled “A New Metaphor of China? Rumors about Chinese Convict Laborers in Developing Countries.” She examined a rumor that has become especially virulent since 2010, one that says Chinese workers in the large construction and infrastructure projects in Africa are prison laborers. She showed that these rumors are false, and are in part the result of misperceptions of Chinese workers’ uniforms, discipline, long work hours, rapid work pace, and the fact that they often go out in groups. The talk showed that many of those spreading the rumors have political motives and use the rumor to criticize China. She concluded by suggesting that the rumor was a metaphor for China’s authoritarianism, abundance of prisoners (although the US has a higher percentage of its population incarcerated), “slave labor”, hazardous exports (with criminals as a new kind of export), and colonialism.

Interested readers can read her China Quarterly article, written jointly with Barry Sautman. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305741012000422

Upcoming Seminar: Culture as the Most Important Influence on Human Development

"Culture as the Most Important Influence on Human Development"

Speaker: Thomas S. WEISNER
Professor, Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences (NPI Semel Institute), UCLA
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 9 November 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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If we could know just one fact about a young child that would be the single most important influence on that child's life, the cultural place on earth where that child is going to grow up is, even today, arguably the most important single predictor of a child's developmental pathway, though of course not the only one. Multiple and sibling caretaking of children remains widespread and influences responsibility, nurturance, and social intelligence; co-sleeping with infants and young children is a phyletic universal and widely considered normative; early attachment processes are variable, and influenced by both cultural and biosocial mechanisms starting in infancy. Along with resources, family structure differences, and other institutional and religious systems, these practices all challenge assumptions in much of current Western developmental psychology and encourage anthropological studies of children that incorporate the moral direction and cultural meaning of development into studies of the well-being of children and families.


ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME

Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Invited Seminar: Cultural Transmission- The Rules of the Game

Dr. Alex DE VOOGT
Assistant Curator of African Ethnology, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History
"Cultural Transmission- The Rules of the Game"
5 Oct 2012

Dr. De Voogt gave a presentation on board games and how their study can advance our understanding of cultural transmission theory. Board games require that players have a consensus on rules, so tend to change relatively slowly.

He illustrated the transmission of games with two examples from the archaeology of the Middle East. The distribution and dating of excavated examples show that the game of twenty squares spread through conquest, while the game of fifty-eight holes spread along trade routes. Much can be learned about cultural transmission even though we do not know how the games were played.

He also discussed the case of the Maldives, which unusually has a Mancala board game that is not played in other nearby cultures in the Indian Ocean, but follows the rules very much like Malaysia. He used an interdisciplinary methodology, including collecting data from archaeological artifacts, local rules of the game, and even DNA analysis to see if the Maldive Islanders were genetically related to Malays. The case is still a mystery; solving this mystery may not only tell us about Maldive culture, but about cultural transmission more generally.

 During the course of the talk, Dr. De Voogt proposed several hypotheses about the transmission of board games. He noted that the larger the regional scale, the smaller the changes across generations. He also said that the more complex the board game is, the less likely it is to change as it spreads. Board games spreading across socio-cultural boundaries are more likely to have innovations. He also noted that games can change gender, going from a men’s game to women’s game or vice versa.

Upcoming Seminar: Rumors about Chinese Convict Laborers in Developing Countries

"A New Metaphor of China? Rumors about Chinese Convict Laborers in Developing Countries"

Speaker: YAN Hairong
Department of Applied Social Sciences
Hong Kong Polytechnic University 
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 2 November 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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With Chinese and Chinese companies venturing into developing countries in the recent decades, there has been a global expansion in the discourse about China. There are thus new participants in the making of the discourse, connecting approaches that are vernacular and academic, as well as those of organized institutions, such as political parties and corporate media. Tracking the recent addition to the global discourse of China, this paper studies a globally circulated claim (rumor) that the Chinese government exports prison labour to other developing countries. Based on our fieldwork in a number of countries in Africa, this article examines the origins of the rumour, the mechanisms of its transmission at local, translocal and global levels, and the intersection of the agendas of its promoters. We analyse the rumour’s circulation in light of the larger discourse on China and developing countries and argue that China is conceived with this rumor functioning as its new metaphor. We will examine the politics of this rumor in the specific context of the present. The talk is based on, and expands upon, a recent China Quarterly article jointly authored with Barry Sautman.


ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME

Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Upcoming Seminar: Optimism Misguided? Teenage Immigrant Students in Hong Kong

"Optimism Misguided? Teenage Immigrant Students in Hong Kong" 

Speaker: CHEE Wai-chi
Part-time Lecturer
Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 26 October 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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The social integration and educational prospects of school-age immigrants have been a major issue roiling the education systems of an ever-growing list of receiving societies around the world. In Hong Kong, the largest two incoming groups are from Mainland China and from South Asia. A vast majority of them have a working class background and arrive with the hope of becoming middle class through a good education. However, this hope seems misplaced given that most of them, at least upon arrival, go to low rank schools in Hong Kong. The hope seems even more unrealistic for South Asian students given that very few non-Chinese students manage to enrol in university degree programs in Hong Kong. This talk discusses the institutional forces and the discursive and symbolic structures that circumscribe the schooling experiences of these recently arrived immigrant students.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME

Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk

Upcoming Seminar: Nepalese Drug Users in Hong Kong

"Nepalese Drug Users in Hong Kong: Ethnicity, Transnationalism, and Marginalization" 

Speaker: Wyman TANG
PhD Candidate
Department of Anthropology, CUHK
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 19 October 2012
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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This research studies two groups of Nepalese drug users in Hong Kong: drug users at ethnic minority schools and drug users on the street. Due to their ethnicity, individuals in both groups felt marginalized by society and resorted to drug use. But they have gone through very different drug careers. Most of the members in the former group have successfully quit drugs, whereas members in the latter group have largely remained on the street taking drugs. The comparison of these two groups of drug users sheds light on the relationship between transnational experiences and drug careers as well as ways of exercising agency among marginal groups.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME

Feel free to bring your box lunch or sandwich to eat during the talk.