A screencap of Hiu Ling's publication on the website of Brill Online Books and Journals |
Friday, December 4, 2015
[Publication] Book Review on Chinese Migration to Europe: Prato, Italy, and Beyond
Hiu Ling, our MPhil graduate, has her first book review being published on the Journal of Chinese Overseas (Volume 11, Issue 2, pages 220 – 223). She reviewed the book Chinese Migration to Europe: Prato, Italy, and Beyond, written by Loretta Baldassar, Graeme Johanson, Narelle McAuliffe, and Massimo Bressan.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
[FUN with Interculturalism] Recruiting Helpers
Multiculturalism
in Action Project is going to organize a new event, FUN with Interculturalism,
to promote cultural diversity and equal opportunity in the community!! The
project includes an exhibition on South Asians in Hong Kong and a kabaddi
hands-on program.
We
are now looking for helpers to be docents of the exhibition and teach kabaddi
during the events.
To
be our helpers, you need to:
1)
Attend a compulsory training session to learn South Asian culture and kabaddi:
Date:
12/12/2015 (Saturday)
Time:
12:30 - 16:30
Venue:
Rm 401, Humanities Building
2)
Attend at least 3 sessions in January / February held in local community
centers / secondary schools.
Allowance
will be provided during the training session and each event you attend.
All
are welcome! Please register on or before 10/12/2015 at lee-connie@cuhk.edu.hk
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
[Pakistani Culture Workshop] Personal Narratives: Minority Women in a Multicultural Environment
Multiculturalism in
Action 2015-16
Pakistani Culture
Workshop: Making a Change for the Better
Session 5:
Personal Narratives: Minority Women in a Multicultural Environment
Speakers: Multicultural Team, YMCA Cheung
Sha Wan Centre, and Pakistani ladies from Sham Shui Po
On 21
November, 2015, participants of the Pakistani Culture Workshop visited YMCA
Cheung Sha Wan Centre to learn about the everyday experiences of Pakistanis in
Sham Shui Po, in relation to aspects such as gender, family, marriage, and
migrant experiences. Participants also had the chance to practice interview
skills as a preparation for their community-based projects.
Ms. Law
Lap Man, Principal Program Officer of the YMCA Multicultural Team, first gave
us an introduction to their work in bridging the South Asian and Chinese
communities in Sham Shui Po. Pakistanis and Nepalis were the main service users
and sometimes there were also Indians and Filipinos joining their programs.
Apart from providing services to the South Asian residents in Sham Shui Po, the
Team also managed a community shop selling handicrafts made by South Asian
women as a way to supplement their family income.
During the
presentation, Ms. Law highlighted the point that it was usually the mothers who
came to the Center to join the programs. Even though the Center aimed at
serving “parents”, the fathers seldom attended their activities. One possible
reason was the gender division of labor in the family, as mothers were
considered homemakers and therefore responsible for childcaring. She also
mentioned that some years ago the fathers would come too, when there was a
Pakistani colleague in their Team. Thus it may be that the gender concept among
the fathers had discouraged their attendance.
Ms. Law
then briefly outlined the history of South Asians in Hong Kong. The first
generation had come with the British Army in 1848, but the term “Pakistanis”
only appeared after the independence of Pakistan in 1947. More than 99% of
Pakistanis in Hong Kong were Muslims. Ms. Saleena, a Pakistani colleague,
reminded us that there were also some Pakistani Christians in Hong Kong, and we
should not generalize the Pakistani community as a homogeneous group.
Friday, November 27, 2015
[Event] Orientation Day for Undergraduate Admissions 2015
The CUHK Orientation Day for Undergraduate
Admissions 2015 was successfully held on 24th October. The
Orientation Day is an annual event, serving as a good opportunity for secondary
school students, teachers and parents to know more about CUHK and the
undergraduate programmes it offers.
Undergraduate students answering visitors' enquiries at the Information Booth |
During the Orientation Day, students of the department
helped to introduce anthropology and explain our programme requirements to
secondary school students and other visitors. Prof. Gordon Mathews, Prof.
Teresa Kuan, Prof. Sealing Cheng, and Prof. Sharon Wong also helped to deliver
admission talks to visitors in English and Cantonese respectively.
Prof. Cheng's talk had attracted over 90 visitors! |
In addition to the information booth and admission talks, we had also set up an exhibition of ethnic clothing in Room 205 of Esther Lee Building. Our department was also opened for students’ visit,
with teachers’ publications and thematic ethnographic collections being displayed.
The exhibition of ethnic clothing prepared by our department |
This year, Prof. Sharon Wong and Prof.
Wengcheong Lam, together with our postgraduate and undergraduate students, also
organized an archaeology demonstration session at the Archaeology Lab
in Tsang Shiu Tim Building.
Prof. Sharon Wong leading the archaeology demonstration session |
Thanks to the efforts of our teachers and
students, this year’s Orientation Day was a great success! Hopefully, the secondary
school students could know more about anthropology and our undergraduate
programme after the event.
Prof. Teresa Kuan (first row, second from left) and some of the postgraduate and undergraduate students that helped in the event |
Thursday, November 26, 2015
We've Started Accepting Applications for MA Programme 2016-17!
Postgraduate programmes offered by the Department of Anthropology, CUHK |
Here is some brief application information of the MA programmes of the Department of Anthropology at CUHK. For more details please visit the Department's homepage.
Programme 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 or have not majored in anthropology but wish to receive a formal education in the discipline. Work experience is desirable which allows students to 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.
Information Session
Date: 5 December 2015 (Sat)
Time: 2:00pm
Venue: Room 205, Esther Lee Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Registration: Please click here
Application Information
Application method: Graduate School Online Application
Application deadline: 15 January 2016 (1st round); 29 February 2016 (2nd round)
Tuition Fee
HK$95,000 per annum (full-time);
HK$47,500 per annum (part-time)
Inquiry
Telephone: (852) 3943-7670 / 3943-7677
Email: anthropology@cuhk.edu.hk.
For the Mphil / PhD programmes 2016-2017, please refer to our earlier blog post.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
[Upcoming Seminar] Aging Across Borders: How Older Taiwanese Immigrants and Returnees Manage Care In Daily Lives
Aging Across Borders: How Older Taiwanese Immigrants and Returnees Manage Care In Daily Lives
Speaker: Ken Chih-Yan SUN (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 27 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
*******************************************************
Speaker: Ken Chih-Yan SUN (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 27 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
*******************************************************
Dr. Sun's research examines aging in Asia and Asian America by comparing the lived experiences of older Taiwanese immigrants with those of aging returnees to Taiwan. He argues that the changing contextual forces involved in the process of international migration and aging inspire, push, and even require older immigrants and returnees to reconstruct their understandings of race, ethnicity, gender, and social membership when managing various forms of care in their later lives. Sun highlights a variety of ways in which older Taiwanese Americans—including both immigrants and returnees—critically interpret and creatively apply concepts of tradition, assimilation, and modernization in order to address life transitions and to respond to socio-cultural and generational changes in both a national and transnational context.
Ken Chih-Yan Sun received his Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hong Kong Baptist University. Before arriving to Hong Kong, he taught at the College of William and Mary, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Nanyang Technological University and Academia Sinica. Dr. Sun published his works in Journal of Marriage and Family, Global Networks, Sociological Forum, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Sociology Compass, Norwegian American Studies, Mass Communication Research, and Chinese Journal of Communication Research. His research areas include migration, families, race/ethnicity, gender, and aging and life course studies. He is currently writing a book on aging and transnationalism.
ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
[In the Press] Enriching our Education with Anthropology
Prof. Gordon Mathews together with two students and an alumna of our department have been featured in the article "Enriching our Education with Anthropology" on the website of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. They talk about how anthropology shows the complexity of culture, and how it provides them a holistic perspective in viewing things and the surrounding environment.
Screenshot of the article |
Extract of the article
'The role of anthropology is to show the complexity of culture; culture interweaves with biology, environment, economics, religion, political structures and so on.’ Commenting on the characteristics of anthropology, Professor Mathews stressed the pivotal role played by ethnography and participant observation, a research method commonly employed by anthropologists and ethnographers.'
'Anthropology provides a vehicle for examining the many facets of life, which range from gender, religion, language, politics, economics, food, medicine, and material culture to rituals and symbols. For that reason, anthropology has much to offer to a broad education.'
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
[Friday Seminar Recap] Sunday Catwalks: Aspirations of Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong
Sunday
Catwalks: Aspirations of Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong
Speaker: Dr. Ju-chen Chen (Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 6 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
**********************************************************
Speaker: Dr. Ju-chen Chen (Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 6 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
**********************************************************
Domestic
helpers in Hong Kong are often homogenized, exoticized, and stigmatized as
people who live without purpose beyond remitting money home. Their lives are
often not visible and understandable to the mainstream society. Dr. Ju-chen
Chen, in the seminar, shared with us the aspirations of migrant domestic workers
in Hong Kong and gave us a better understanding of their lives.
Dr. Ju-chen Chen |
Foreign domestic
workers in Hong Kong participate in various activities during their leisure
time, among all, Chen drew the audience to the focus of the talk —“Sunday catwalks”.
Chen showed the audience video clips of two beauty pageants: Miss Pinoyshot
Princess and Miss Barkadahan. In the videos, the domestic workers show their
confidence on the stage and demonstrate themselves as desiring subjects. Dr
Chen quoted how her informants describe themselves—“I want something greater for myself”,
and “I have talent. I know I can do it.”
Currently,
there are about 0.33 million foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, and 50% of
them are Filipinos. Chen noted that the majority of these Filipino workers have
some college education. Their college degree, rather than bringing upward
mobility, is only the entrance ticket for them to get a job; and taking up an
overseas career as a domestic worker is one of the “choices” of an aspiring
subject.
The
active participation of domestic workers in the beauty pageants reveals their
aspirations in creating personal achievement. The organization of beauty
pageants involves an event making process, from forming a working committee to
rehearsing. This process has outlined some important qualities an aspiring
foreign domestic worker looked for: being talented, confident and self-enterprising.
These events, in addition to be key components of a strong ethnic economy, are
sites for isolated (alone in an employer's home) domestic workers to garner
"corporeal" friendship and community within the ethnic group.
The audience |
Lastly, Chen
talked about the trouble of aspirations: the pursuits of a “valuable life” can
be actualized only in markets, and its actualization through, for example, an
objectified gendered body and hierarchical categories of jobs are framed by
specific regulations of the global political economy. She hoped that her
research can make the life and aspirations of foreign domestic workers in Hong
Kong visible and understandable to the mainstream society.
Monday, November 16, 2015
[Pakistani Culture Workshop] Health and the Pakistani Community
Multiculturalism in
Action 2015-16
Pakistani Culture
Workshop: Making a Change for the Better
Session 4: Health and
the Pakistani Community
Speakers: Dr. Nazia
Shahid and Ms. Asma Batool
The Multiculturalism
in Action Project organized a public seminar entitled Health and the Pakistani Community on 7 November, 2015 at The
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Prof. Siumi
Maria Tam, Director of the Project, gave an introduction to issues related to healthcare
among the Pakistanis in Hong Kong. Cultural and social factors, such as
language barrier and lack of information, affected the quality and frequency of
healthcare seeking. Many Pakistani patients found it difficult to communicate with
Cantonese-speaking clinic staff, including the doctors and nurses. Some did not
know there were free interpretation services provided in government hospitals
and clinics. On the other hand, the lifestyle and occupations of Pakistanis in
Hong Kong triggered specific health problems. Obesity, for example, was common
among Pakistanis because their diet contained high fat and sugar content.
Prof. Tam giving an introduction |
The
Hospital Authority and some non-government organizations have started special
service programs to meet these needs. For example, ethnic minority languages
were used in response cue cards, disease information sheets, and patient
consent forms in public hospitals and clinics. The United Christian Nethersole
Community Health Service and HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre have been providing
outreach and public education for the general public. Prof. Tam encouraged the
audience to think whether these services were accessible to those in need, and
to what extent these services were effective and helpful.
Our guest
speaker, Dr. Nazia Shahid delivered an informative presentation on the general
medical issues among the Pakistanis. She highlighted the fact that 37.6% of
Pakistanis were born in Hong Kong, which was a relatively high ratio when
compared with other ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong. First, Dr. Nazia explained
some basic concepts on how Islam understood “health” and “disease”. Islam perceived
health and illness as balance and imbalance of a body respectively. The Quran
has provided guidelines to Muslims to stay healthy, such as one should maintain
good personal hygiene, avoid drinking alcohol, and eating halal food. She also
explained the concept of “life” in Islam, and the belief in afterlife - death
was a transition for the soul to depart the body and enter another realm. Islam
helped to comfort Muslim patients and their families who perceived illness as a
test or punishment from God, and provided a spiritual healing power through
prayers and meditation to ask forgiveness from God.
Dr. Nazia giving a presentation |
Dr. Nazia
explained that it was mainly non-communicable diseases such as obesity, heart
attack, and high blood pressure that affected Pakistanis in Hong Kong. Females
were more vulnerable to these diseases because they were not encouraged to go
outside so they rarely had physical activities. Limited information on healthcare,
and an oily diet, led to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and obesity. Compared
to their counterparts in Pakistan, those in Hong Kong had better health in
general, as they had adjusted to a steamed cuisine and more attention on their
body shape. Pregnancy was another factor affecting the health of women. As each
pregnancy made it harder to get back to pre-pregnant physical conditions, when
Pakistani women needed to bear more children according to the cultural concept
that children were a symbol of fortune, Pakistani women were more at risk due
to childbearing. Dr. Nazia believed it was essential to educate fellow
Pakistanis on dietary hazards and raise awareness on leading an active and
healthy life, especially among the women.
According
to Dr. Nazia, Pakistani men suffered more from occupation-related accidents,
such as in construction sites, as little attention had been paid to safety in
the workplace. Moreover, Pakistani children in Hong Kong were often obese
because they consumed lots of junk food and frequented fast food shops.
Dr. Nazia
continued her presentation by discussing the socio-economic factors affecting
the Pakistanis’ healthcare seeking behavior. Language was a big problem, as not
all Pakistanis in Hong Kong could speak and understand Cantonese and English.
Even if they know these languages, it may not be good enough to communicate in
medical terms. Dr. Nazia mentioned that the interpretation services for ethnic
minorities were not always satisfactory as some interpreters were not well
trained. This topic was further discussed during the panel session, which will
be mentioned below.
Gender was
another factor especially affecting the healthcare seeking behavior of
Pakistani women in Hong Kong. Muslim women preferred to have female doctors or
nurses in order to follow modesty requirements in regard to opposite sex.
However, in Hong Kong, doctors and nurses were often males. Muslim women would
feel very uncomfortable if a male doctor conducted prenatal
checkup on them. Dr. Nazia advised the government should pay more efforts in
training female doctors and to create a user-friendly environment to help all patients with
their needs. On the other hand, it was a tradition for Muslim baby boys to be
circumcised at the earliest. However, most doctors in Hong Kong had little awareness
of this and were not trained about circumcision. It usually took a long time to
wait for circumcision in public hospitals, while the fee in private hospitals
was high. Compared to the United States, where circumcision was routinely done
to meet the religious need of the Jewish faith, Dr. Nazia suggested that the
Hong Kong government could pay more attention to the special needs of ethnic
minorities.
Following
a short break, a panel discussion was carried out. Dr. Nazia was joined by Ms.
Asma Batool, a Community Health Officer in South Asian Health Support Program United
Christian Nethersole Community Health Service, who gave us some ideas on the
limitations of clinics in Hong Kong, for example, the lack of prayer rooms, and
lack of nursing facilities. Ms. Batool believed that there should be more
cultural sensitivity training for frontline doctors and nurses.
Panel discussion |
The focus
of discussion then turned to interpretation services for ethnic minorities, and
everyone actively expressed their opinions. Some in the audience questioned the
effectiveness of interpretation services as these were seen to be passive
action as patients needed to get approval from the hospitals in advance. Clinic
staff often asked out-patients to bring family members or friends who know Cantonese
to translate for them. Moreover, interpretation in the emergency room was not
available. Some patients even did not know how to apply for the service.
Pakistani guests expressing their opinions during the panel discussion |
Representatives
from Hong Kong TransLingual Services (HKTS), Mr. Ryan Choi and Ms. Candy Hui,
opined that the culture in public hospitals, which emphasized time and cost
efficiency, has restricted the effectiveness of interpretation services. Some
of the reasons why hospitals discouraged the use of interpreters were cost
minimization, and limited consultation time. Mr. Choi said that as service
provider, they were trying hard to monitor and improve the quality of staff. The
latest statistics showed that there were 800-900 interpretation cases per month
last year, and the number was increasing as more patients knew about the
services. HKTS also organized talks and sharing sessions in public hospitals to
promote their services and to heighten the cultural awareness of hospital
staff. Lastly, Mr. Choi reminded service users to be punctual to make sure the
services were properly used.
After
the fruitful discussion, Prof. Tam concluded that although there were
structural and other factors affecting the healthcare seeking experiences of
ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, many efforts had been done to improve the
situation. Both healthcare service users and providers needed to know their
rights and responsibilities to make the healthcare system in Hong Kong a more
user-friendly and effective one.(First Row, from left) Dr. Nazia, Ms. Batool and Prof. Tam, together with guests and participants of the Workshop |
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
[Upcoming Seminar] The Role and Works of Community Artists in Hong Kong: A Global Perspective
The Role and Works of Community Artists in Hong Kong: A Global Perspective
Speaker: Samson Wong (PhD Candidate, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 13 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
*******************************************************
Speaker: Samson Wong (PhD Candidate, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University)
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm, 13 Nov 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
*******************************************************
Participation plays a central role in ‘community arts’. Research into ‘community arts’ has developed over the past decade towards the expansive view of arts and cultural development, but neglected the interpersonal nature of this work and muddles artistic social engagement with other cultural activities. In this talk, Samson Wong will present the practices and views of three renowned artists specialized in facilitating participation in art making. It is proposed as a revision of basic concepts in the context of community arts, including the nature of art, community, the place of art in community and the role of the artist in community art.
Samson’s research in art in communities focuses on the community arts. He studied Arts Management and Music History & Culture at the University of Toronto. Prior to his doctoral studies, he was active as a freelancer and as a coordinator in local organization Art for All. In addition to being a saxophonist, guitarist and choir bassist throughout high school and university, his exposure in community theatre, stage and exhibition production enables him to bring together artists of different media in collaborative community art programs.
ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
[Friday Seminar Recap] Fashion and Magical Capitalism
Fashion and Magical Capitalism
Speaker: Prof. Brian MOERAN (Visiting Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong, and Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Copenhagen Business School)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm, 20 Oct 2015 (Tuesday)
Venue: LT9 Yasumoto International Academic Park Chung Chi College, CUHK
************************************************************
Speaker: Prof. Brian MOERAN (Visiting Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Hong Kong, and Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Copenhagen Business School)
Time: 4:30 – 6:00 pm, 20 Oct 2015 (Tuesday)
Venue: LT9 Yasumoto International Academic Park Chung Chi College, CUHK
************************************************************
Our department was grateful to have Professor Brian Moeran, the Professor
of Business Anthropology at the Copenhagen Business School and currently a Visiting
Professor at the University of Hong Kong, to deliver a seminar on “Fashion and
Magical Capitalism” on 20 October 2015. Professor Moeran is a social anthropologist
and has written widely on advertising, art and aesthetics, ceramics, fashion
magazines and other media forms.
Prof. Brian Moeran |
Professor Moeran started the seminar by elaborating on some of the
key terms, such as “fashion” and the set of terms like “magic”, “charm” and “glamour”.
He mentioned that fashion is about seeing and being seen, and people nowadays
are paying more and more attention to the way of being represented and
representing themselves. The language of “magic” is frequently used by
magazines and people in the industry, which helps to construct a reality that
invites consumption. Other common practices in the industry, like finding
famous stars to wear designers’ clothes, also help to enchant the way we dress.
Professor Moeran emphasized that fashion focuses more on “becoming” rather than
“actual being”, and he assimilated the symbolic process and the “magic” of
fashion industry to Shamanism, which attempts to change states of consciousness
for communication with another world.
The seminar |
Professor Moeran also talked about the technologies of enchantment. For
instance, advertisements in magazines use the same structure and the content always
consists of “meaning of meaningless words”. With the use of “verbal spells”,
the production and distribution of fashion products appear to have the power of
transforming people into a new personality. People in the industry make use of
skilled revelation of skilled concealment to create a magical arena, and believe
that they possess the power to affect even though they are also uncertain about
the mechanism. Professor Moeran emphasized that the magicians, magical
representations and magical rites interact as a system, and the uncertainty
principle of “magic” is real to the natives and can affect their behaviors. Professor
Moeran concluded his talk by noting several economic properties of creative
industries—uncertain demand, art for art’s sake,
motley crew, infinite variety, and preference of one practice over another.
The attendees |
More than forty people attended, and the attendees showed great
interest in the seminar and asked a lot of questions. For instance, some asked
how the fashion world can turn “non-believers” to “believers” of this “magical
industry”. Professor Moeran raised the importance of socialization in shaping
the aesthetic senses of people and making them see things in particular ways.
An attendee also shared some of the similar charactistics such as the
uncertainty encountered in the fashion industry in Hong Kong, and suggested
that this sense of uncertainty has positive effects like enhancing the
solidarity of the team.
Once again, we would like to thank Professor Moeran for delivering
this inspiring seminar which gave audience anthropological insights to the
fashion industry.
Monday, November 9, 2015
[Pakistani Culture Workshop] Everyday Life Challenges and Opportunities in the Neighborhood
Multiculturalism in
Action 2015-16
Pakistani Culture
Workshop: Making a Change for the Better
Session 3: Everyday
Life Challenges and Opportunities in the Neighborhood
Speakers:
Mr. Minhas Rashad and
Ms. Cecilia Tsui
(Services for Ethnic
Minorities, HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre)
On 24 October, 2015,
participants of Pakistani Culture Workshop visited Kung Yung Koon – The Dost, and Ping Lai Path to explore the history and daily experiences of
the Pakistani community in Kwai Chung.
Presentations in Kung Yung Koon – The Dost (From left) Mr. Minhas Rashad, Ms. Cecilia Tsui and Prof. Tam |
Ms. Cecilia Tsui introduced the work of HKSKH Lady MacLehose Centre on cultural integration in the neighborhood around Ping Lai Path. One of the most important initiatives of the Centre was the opening of Kung Yung Koon – The Dost two years ago. Designed to be a community centre to bridge local Chinese and South Asian cultures, the Dost has organized exhibitions, guided tours, workshops, and music shows etc., and allowed the public to explore the uniqueness of different cultures.
Kung Yung Koon – The Dost |
Ms. Tsui also explained the revitalization project in Ping Lai Path that the Centre was responsible for. The project has aimed to improve the sitting-out area and to increase cross-cultural elements in the neighborhood. For instance, blessings in different languages would be used as decorations, emphasizing the importance of balancing the needs and interests of both Chinese and South Asian residents, as the community and its resources should be shared by all. It was hoped that this new public space could be enjoyed and shared by people from all cultural backgrounds, and would be a way to promote cultural integration.
Mr. Minhas Rashad continued the presentation with an introduction to the Indian, Nepali and Pakistani communities in Hong Kong, explaining to our participants the different religions and habits among different South Asian groups. Geographically speaking, the Pakistani population concentrated mostly in Yuen Long, Yau-Tsim-Mong, and Kwai Tsing districts. These districts provided less expensive housing and more job opportunities. The rapid industrial development in Kwai Chung in the 1970s attracted many Pakistani migrants to settle here for employment opportunities. Many Pakistani households have lived in Kwai Chung for more than 30 years.
The pressure of the Pakistanis in Hong Kong did not only come from learning Cantonese, Mr. Rashad said, as they usually needed to learn six to seven languages. Apart from English and Cantonese for basic communication, a Pakistani need to learn Arabic for reading Quran, and Urdu or a local dialect such as Punjabi for communication within the ethnic group. Some kids also learned French or Spanish in school as a second language to meet school requirements.
Learning to say hello with Pakistanis |
Mr. Rashad then showed us some Pakistani clothes and our participants had a chance to try wearing them. One characteristic feature of Pakistani clothing was not to show one’s body shape and not to expose too much of one’s body.
Our participant wearing hijab |
In everyday life, Mr. Rashad told us, it has been a challenge for Muslims to identify halal food and products in non-Islamic states. However, with more than ¼ of the world population being Muslims, more companies had applied for their products to be halal certified. “Halal” did not only apply to fresh meat or restaurants, as we would find lots of daily necessities and food, such as toothpastes and potato chips, sold with halal certification. The Ng Fung Hong Limited as the largest supplier of fresh meat in Hong Kong, for instance, had an employee specialized in slaughtering halal meat for Muslims in Hong Kong.
Pakistanis
loved cricket, said Mr. Rashad. Yet cricket in Hong Kong had remained an
elite sport and many Pakistani cricket lovers could not afford to rent cricket
fields or become members of the Hong Kong Cricket Club. The most common way for
Pakistani youth to enjoy cricket was to find a playground in their neighborhood
and play with simple kits.
Mr. Rashad showing the cricket bat |
In the guided tour, we visited a Pakistani grocery and learned about some products such as biscuits, mango juice, spices and henna, which were very popular among Pakistani as well as Chinese customers. We also learned that the mode of business in which these ethnic stores operated was quite different from Chinese stores, as Pakistani families would buy in bulk so home delivery service was essential. Monthly credit was also an important feature in the business.
Shopping in a Pakistani grocery |
We then enjoyed masala tea and some snacks in a restaurant owned by a Pakistani man and his Chinese wife. Our participants continued the discussion about religion and marriage actively while enjoying afternoon tea.
Discussion in the halal restaurant |
One important point we discussed was the small-scale mosque located in a flat in Ping Lai Path. As Mr. Rashad explained, the mosque was supported by the Pakistani community nearby, whose donations helped to pay the rent and the salary of the Imam. As bigger mosques in Hong Kong were located in Kowloon, Wan Chai, Central, Stanley, and Chai Wan, Mr. Rashad said these were too far away for the Muslim children here, as they had to travel after school to learn the Quran. That was the reason why the Pakistanis in Kwai Chung decided to run a mosque as a way to meet the needs of the Muslims in this district.
Pakistani children in the neighborhood, after their Quran lesson in the mosque |
Participants had a lot
to take home after this seminar – not only information and insiders’
perspectives on life as an ethnic minority here, but also fond memories of the
great-tasting snacks: pakora, aloo naan, chicken masala, and milk tea. Yum!
Pakora, chicken masala, and aloo naan |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)