We've Started Accepting Applications for MPhil/PhD Programmes 2014-15!

Here is some brief application information of the MPhil/PhD programmes of the Department of Anthropology at CUHK. For more details please visit the Department's homepage.

Programme

MPhil in Anthropology

It normally takes two years (full-time) to complete 28 units. Students must also pass a General Anthropology Examination based on a department reading list.

PhD in Anthropology

The programme is research-oriented. A student may be asked to take additional courses or tutorials, and will be required to present an annual written progress report to his/her supervisor. After passing Qualifying Exams, the student advances to PhD Candidate. Within six months of candidature, the PhD Candidate must submit a Research Proposal for a project requiring nine to twelve months of fieldwork. On return from fieldwork, the student will prepare a thesis based on fieldwork research.

Fields of Specialization

The Division focuses geographically on Chinese culture and society (especially South China) and on East and Southeast Asian Studies. Research topics include nationalism, ethnicity, religion, gender, development and social change, urban and youth cultures, heritage management, archaeology and museology.

Admission Requirements

In addition to the general requirements of the Graduate School,

MPhil in Anthropology

Applicants should have majored in anthropology or related fields.

PhD in Anthropology

Applicants should possess a master's degree in anthropology from CUHK or other recognized universities. Applicants with a background in fields other than anthropology may be considered for conditional admission.

Additional Application Information

Applicants are required to furnish proof of their research capability by submitting academic references, transcripts, samples of writings or publications such as thesis or project reports, and a statement of purpose (2-3 pages) describing why the applicant wants to study anthropology at CUHK and what research project the applicant proposes to carry out. If relevant for research, some evidence of Chinese proficiency is also required for non-native speakers.

Admission Advisor: Prof. Joseph BOSCO

Application Deadline:

2 December 2013

For applicants who apply for PhD programme through the Hong Kong PhD FellowshipScheme (HKPFS)

31 January 2014

For applicants who apply for MPhil/PhD programme directly with CUHK (i.e. non-HKPFS applicants)

[Upcoming Seminar] Goodbye iSlave: Foxconn Labor and Networked Resistance

Goodbye iSlave: Foxconn Labor and Networked Resistance

Speaker: Jack Linchuan QIU
(Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time:  12:30 p.m. , Friday, 27 September 2013
Venue: Room 11 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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Focusing on the case of Foxconn, this talk discusses 21st-century slavery in an era of information echnology, global connectivity, and local disconnect. It proposes the heuristic notion of "iSlavery", while examining networked activism against labor abuse at the world’s largest electronics factory. Drawing from three years of fieldwork and multimedia action research, this talk will be a provocative intervention to help rethink issues of labor and technology, network and resistance, class formation and cultural transformation, including the possibilities for a post-capitalist world system that is, at last, slave-free. 

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

[Event] Field Study Tour Exhibition 2013: Inheritors

Opening Ceremony: 12:00 p.m., 23 September 2013 (Change of date to 24 Sept. in case of Typhoon)

Exhibition Date: 2013.09.23 - 10.04

Venue: Hui Gallery, New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Opening hours of Hui Gallery: 

9:30am-4:30pm (Monday to Friday); 9:30am-12:00noon (Saturdays); Closed (Sundays and Public Holidays).

Based on the Spring Field Trip led by Prof. Sidney Cheung in Nagoya, Japan, students of Anthropology Department further conducted their research this summer on the subject of "Inheritors", to explore the preservation and transmission of traditional culture in Hong Kong. 

This exhibition displays their Summer Field Study, which covers 19 different projects vary from food to traditional art and handicrafts. All interested are welcome!

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香港中文大學人類學系2013年田野考察成果展覽——『知識傳承』

开幕时间：2013年9月23日中午12:00 （如遇八號颱風則改期為24日）

展覽日期：2013年9月23日~10月4日

展覽地點：香港中文大學 新亞書院 許氏文化館

許氏文化館開放時間：星期一至五，上午9:30至下午4:30，星期六上午9:30至12:00，星期日及公眾假期休息

二零一三年三月二十九日至四月五日，二十位人類學本科同學跟隨張展鴻教授到日本名古屋進行了主題爲『傳承人』的田野考察。在日本之行的啟迪下，同學們又進一步於暑假期間對香港的文化傳承進行了更深入、多角度的考察與探討。

本期名為『知識傳承』的展覽即是對人類學系本科同學2013年度春季和暑期田野考察的總結及成果展示。展覽涉及的主題十分豐富，從涼茶舖到手打魚蛋，從粵劇到傳統花牌，從面線師到東陽木雕等等，遍及飲食、傳統藝術和手工藝等19個主題。歡迎感興趣的同學前來參觀！

[Invited Seminar] “City Cowherds”: Migrant Youth Coming of Age on China’s Peri-Urban Edge

Dr. LING Minhua 
Assistant Professor, Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
“City Cowherds”: Migrant Youth Coming of Age on China’s Peri-Urban Edge
13 September 2013

In 2010, there were more than 21 million second-generation internal migrants in China. One out of three children in Shanghai does not have a city hukou (household registration). Based on 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork, Dr. Ling’s vivid presentation explores how school-age migrant youth in Shanghai oscillate between the “rural” and the “urban”—hence the title “city cowherds”. Ling’s research paints a nuanced picture of these city cowherds—that are not merely victims of the discriminatory social structure, but persons in a state of “in-betweenness” with aspiration.

The migrant youth in Ling’s study cluster in the peri-urban edge of Shanghai where living condition is poor; the more well-to-do ones often rent an apartment together with other migrant families in sub-urban gated neighborhoods. Typically, they came with their parents from their rural hometown to Shanghai since a young age, and have never gone back. Growing up in Shanghai, they all speak fluent Putonghua in public places. Most of them understand some Shanghai dialect, though few can speak it well; most of them cannot speak their hometown dialect very well either. Their parents are generally self-employed small entrepreneurs who, unlike migrants working as wage laborers, have more flexibility in their work and living condition. This enables them to bring their children to the city.

Without a city hukou, these migrant youth are denied access to many public provisions in the city. Some public schools segregate migrants and natives into separate teaching buildings. The Shanghai city government is clear about its intention to channel these migrant youth into the low-end manufacturing or service industry, thus reproducing the existing urban vs. rural social hierarchy. For example, the native-place-based college entrance exam (gaokao) rule forbids migrant students from taking the exam in Shanghai. This in effect creates a glass ceiling, as they cannot continue formal education in the city beyond grade nine. Therefore, many of them go for a three-year vocational schooling in Shanghai. Those studying in vocational schools are stigmatized as “bad students” and are routinely discriminated against in job placement.

In response to the larger structure set against them, these migrant youth resisted passively. Some simply slack off in school. Many find a part time job after school.  With the money they earned, they—just like other youth growing up in the city—pursue youthful lifestyle through consumption activities, like dining out, window shopping, and wearing trendy clothes. These leisure activities may seem trivial, but Ling argues that through these activities the migrant youth learn the urban knowledge necessary to thrive in the city. They make friendship across the rural-urban boundary, which is uncommon for their first-generation migrant parents. Therefore, the migrant youth embody the “peri-urban edge”. Despite the stigma against them, they are not marginalized victims of the larger structure, but “city cowherds” falling in between the “edge” of the rural-urban categories who are able to act flexibly on “malleable socio-cultural meanings in different contexts to maximize access to material and symbolic resources”.

With great ethnographic depth, Ling’s research tells a vivid story of who the city cowherds are, what challenges they face, and how they respond to such challenges. It deepens our understanding of internal migrants in China and the problems of the hukou system.

Reviewed by
Alan TSE
M.Phil. Candidate

Welcome to the Friday Seminars of Fall 2013

Welcome back for a new academic year! You are cordially invited to attend the seminars presented by the Department of Anthropology. All interested are welcome. Bring your sack lunch and join the talk with us!

*Seminars take place 12:30-2:00 p.m. in Room NAH401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK.
(Note that venue for seminars on 13 Sept and 27 Sept will be changed to Room NAH 11, Humanities Building)


【13 Sept】 LING Minhua (Assistant Professor, Centre for China Studies, CUHK)
"“City Cowherds”: Migrant Youth Coming of Age on China’s Peri-Urban Edge." (Venue: NAH 11)

【27 Sept】 Jack Linchuan QIU (Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK)
"Goodbye iSlave: Foxconn Labor and Networked Resistance." (Venue: NAH 11)

【18 Oct】 Hanna MANTILA (PhD Candidate, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, and Honorary Research Assistant, Department of Anthropology, CUHK)
"Treating Crazy: Becoming a Hong Kong Psychiatrist."

【25 Oct】 PUN Ngai (Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
"Desiring the iPhone and Worker Suicide."

【8 Nov】 Gonçalo SANTOS (Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong)
"Material Civilization and Hygienic Modernity: Reflections on Toilet Practices in Rural South China."

【29 Nov】 LAN Shanshan (Research Assistant Professor, David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University)
"Transnational Business Networks and Circumscribed Mobility Among Undocumented African Migrants in Guangzhou."

[Upcoming Seminar] “City Cowherds”: Migrant Youth Coming of Age on China’s Peri-Urban Edge

Welcome to the new academic year! The Department of Anthropology has organized a new series of Friday Seminar for this semester. Come and join us!

“City Cowherds”: Migrant Youth Coming of Age on China’s Peri-Urban Edge 

Speaker: LING Minhua
(Assistant Professor, Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 13 September 2013
Venue: Room 401 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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After three decades of massive internal migration, an increasing number of second-generation migrants come of age in their parents’ adopted cities and become a key source of urban China’s labor pool. However, they still face widespread discrimination and are denied proper residential status and public provisions in cities. This talk probes into their unique but understudied adolescent experiences and argues that migrant youth living on the urban fringe in Shanghai embody the emerging social space of in-betweenness that is neither fully rural nor urban during China’s rapid urbanization and social transformation. It demonstrates in ethnographic details how the enforced status of in-betweenness that results from rigid administrative categories and discursive binaries can be both alienating and empowering to migrant youth.

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