Wednesday, April 29, 2015

[Publication] The Social Life of American Crayfish in Asia (Book Chapter)


Re-orienting cuisine: East Asian foodways in the twenty-first century

Professor Sidney Cheung’s article, entitled “The Social Life of American Crayfish in Asia”, has been published as a chapter of the book Re-orienting cuisine: East Asian foodways in the twenty-first century, edited by Kwang Ok Kim:
Sidney Cheung (chapter 12) shows how crayfish harvested in the United States were imported into China via Japan and have been reinvented and transformed into a new local specialty food of the Nanjing area, now serving as a critical source of income for the local residents. What is particularly emphasized in this process is the fact that the reinvention of crayfish into an economically profitable crop in the fish farms of Nanjing and its restaurants involves serious ecological destruction, but such consequences do not draw the slightest attention of the local authorities, the farmers, and the consumers (Kim 2015: 8).
The book consists of 14 chapters, which expand the discussion of food to include its social and cultural meanings and functions. Details of the book can be found at http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=KimRe-Orienting.


Contents of the book

Reference: 
Kim, Kwang Ok ed. 2015. Re-orienting cuisine: East Asian foodways in the twenty-first century. New York: Berghahn Books.

Friday, April 24, 2015

[Publication] 飄泊中的永恆:一個人類學家的理想國 (Drifting Eternity: the Utopia for an Anthropologist—Dedicated to Mr. Chiao Chien’s 80th Birthday)


不少人類學學生都應該聽過喬健(Chiao Chien)這個名字。香港中文大學人類學系在1980年正式設立,而喬健正是當年學系的系主任。為了紀念喬先生的八十壽辰,本系的舊生張小軍(現為清華大學社會學系教授)於廣西民族大學學報(哲學社會科學版)撰寫了一篇文章總結喬先生對人類及文化的關懷。

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作者:張小軍
題目:飄泊中的永恆:一個人類學家的理想國
出版資料:載於《廣西民族大學學報》 (哲學社會科學版),第37卷第1期,4548

文章導讀

內容撮要:

儘管喬健自幼離開大陸,他對家鄉的情結卻十分深厚。人類、中國、民眾乃是他幾十年的學術研究和教學工作當中的三個核心概念。喬健先後撰寫及編輯過三十多本論著,並發表過約百篇的學術論文。他的研究涉及多個領域,包括大陸及台灣的少數族群、中國家庭、底邊社會、香港文化、及人類學在中國的發展。談到人類學的本土化,喬健認為所謂的本土化並非要建構出另一套封閉的學術體系。要對世界學術有理論貢獻,中國學者應要有立足本土的深入研究,由本土概念及案例建立理論。

亞洲及美洲的文化關聯亦是喬健長期的學術關注之一,研究背後的關注是世界文化的形態及其變化。喬健相信理解人類之永恆才是真正的人類學視野――無論研究是有關中國或是其他地方的文化,永恆的追求並不應限於一國、一族、一鄉、一地的研究,而是探索人類思想與行為的基本規律與結構。

隨著社會的變遷,人類學家需要不斷調整及適應自己的研究方向。現代社會的失調、複雜及紛亂,已打破了規律、保守、穩定的固有文化形式。喬健曾提到機械、形式、單純的理論與方法再不足以圓滿地研討及表達社會現象;現代的社會科學家需探索一種更細微、貼切的方法和觀念來涵概複雜多變的社會。喬健對人類文化的尊重、珍惜及關懷,反映了人類學家的特有情懷,並讓人反思如何理解及保護文化。

(全文載於《廣西民族大學學報》 (哲學社會科學版),第37卷第1期,45–48)

Thursday, April 23, 2015

[Publication] Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China


Paperback cover

Prof. Teresa Kuan's new book on the politics and ethics of child rearing in contemporary China has been published. The book can be purchased from Amazon.com and will soon be available at CUHK's bookstore (stay tuned to our Facebook and Weibo for latest updates).

Book Description:
Love’s Uncertainty explores the hopes and anxieties of urban, middle-class parents in contemporary China. Combining long-term ethnographic research with analyses of popular child-rearing manuals, television dramas, and government documents, Teresa Kuan bears witness to the dilemmas of ordinary Chinese parents, who struggle to reconcile new definitions of good parenting with the reality of limited resources. Situating these parents’ experiences in the historical context of state efforts to improve "population quality," Love’s Uncertainty reveals how global transformations are expressed in the most intimate of human experiences. Ultimately, the book offers a meditation on the nature of moral agency, examining how people discern, amid the myriad contingencies of life, the boundary between what can and cannot be controlled.

Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Politics of Childhood
2. The Horrific and the Exemplary
3. “The Heart Says One Thing but the Hand Does Another”
4. Creating Tiaojian, or, The Art of Disposition
5. The Defeat of Maternal Logic in Televisual Space
6. Investing in Human Capital, Conserving Life Energies
7. Banking in Affects
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index


Details of the book can be found here.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

[In the press] 污名與衝突:時代夾縫中的廣場舞


本系哲學碩士生王芊霓根據她的廣場舞研究而寫成的文章「污名與衝突:時代夾縫中的廣場舞」,最近於《文化縱橫》(2015年4月號)刊載,文章內容摘要如下:
對廣場舞者來說,跳舞是一種重要的生活情趣,大大小小的舞隊已然成為現代中國中老年女性排遣孤獨、溝通情感的團體。但對大多數人來說,廣場舞大媽的形象卻是一種約定俗成的笑料,而污名(stigma)背後,正折射出現代中國女性身份認同的危機與焦慮,公共空間中的矛盾和碰撞,暗含著變革時代的隱喻與諷刺。當我們回顧歷史變遷,可能會把這一切衝突歸於它的戲劇性,但在當下,審慎辨析的思考視角將決定未來的發展道路。

北京修遠經濟與社會研究基金會網頁截圖

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文章內容選段:

「我的研究發現,參與廣場舞的許多女性都可以被稱作是中國歷史上“第一代孤獨母親”。因為計劃生育政策,她們可能剛剛步入中年,就要開始面臨獨自一人在家的境況,她們的丈夫許多都去了收入更高的外地工作,孩子也從高中甚至初中起就到“教育更發達”的地區就讀,更不用提年長的已經上大學和遷居外地成家立業的情況。現有家庭關係中這些變化造成的孤獨,都促成了她們對一種替代性的社會關係的訴求。女人們因為被廣場舞這樣新的團體接納而獲得情感支援,她們也可以更積極的面對家人孩子的遷居、老齡化、還有問題婚姻等造成的種種挑戰。促使女性去參加廣場舞的具體原因總是五花八門的,但總體而言,孤獨是非常重要的因素。廣場舞正是一種療愈孤獨的方式,滿足了這些女人對人際溝通和情感共鳴的強烈願望,正如一種 “心靈按摩”。

與廣場舞對於其參與者的正能量相對比的,則是這一群體所蒙受的社會污名。人們把參加“廣場舞”的這些並不年輕的女性稱為“大媽”,這個詞在北方方言中帶有貶義,而現如今它儼然成為了大嗓門兒、有些發福、不再性感的中老年女性形象的代名詞。不僅如此,“廣場舞”和“廣場舞大媽”已經成為不少脫口秀和笑話節目的固定“包袱”和笑料,日常中人們談論大媽和引用廣場舞的方式,也都說明了廣場舞大媽蒙受污名之實。除了被污名,被忽視也是司空見慣。筆者在田野調查時遇到一個以廣場舞為名的比賽,冠名單位因為擔心單獨的廣場舞表演吸引力不夠,同時聘請了一些年輕舞者,其中還包括幾個孕婦進行肚皮舞表演。而隨後的媒體報導和人們談論中,年輕女性的表演成為了焦點,大媽們則成了零星點綴。比賽結束後,其中一支廣場舞的領隊不無傷感的說:“最讓我傷心的是,我們以為這次比賽是真正為我們設計的,但是結果,我們卻還是為別人做嫁衣裳。” 這句有些苦澀的話其實正是廣場舞大媽在社會中邊緣地位的真實寫照。」

按此閱讀全文。

Monday, April 20, 2015

[HKAS Seminar] The Awareness of Technological Choices: Chinese Elements Adopted by Khmer Ceramic Craftsmen in Angkor, Cambodia


Title: The Awareness of Technological Choices: Chinese Elements Adopted by Khmer Ceramic Craftsmen in Angkor, Cambodia
Speaker: Sharon Wong Wai-yee
Date and time: 23 April 2015, 7:00 p.m. 
Venue: Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui 

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Khmer ceramics unearthed in Angkor can be traced as cultural roots to provoke local awareness of local identities and traditions. However, Chinese influence is usually portrayed as a straightforward case of one-way cultural diffusion, especially how Chinese ceramic craftsmanship influenced the Khmers during the ninth to fourteenth centuries. In this talk, a concept of technological choices on the study of Chinese elements adopted by Khmer ceramic craftsmen in Angkor will shed light on our imagery of cross-cultural exchange in the past.

Sharon Wong Wai-yee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include historical archaeology, and China-Southeast Asian cultural interaction in pre-modern period. She was trained in archaeology and gained her PhD at the National University of Singapore and M.A. from the School of Archaeology and Museology in Peking University.


The event is jointly presented by the Hong Kong Anthropological Society and the Hong Kong Museum of History. All interested are welcome. For more information, please contact Stan Dyer on 9746 9537 or anthrohk@gmail.com.


Flyer of the seminar

Thursday, April 16, 2015

[Event] Final Year Project (FYP) Forum 2015




The FYP Forum is a platform for undergraduate students to present their final year research projects on a topic of their choice. In the project, students would demonstrate their ability in applying concepts, theories and skills they have learnt in their years of anthropology study. This year, the forum will be held on Apr 20, 2015 (Monday) at 14:0017:30 at NAH 213

There will be 27 presentations on diverse topics, including "Consumption and Identity", "Heritage and Conservation", "Art and Popular Culture", "Understanding Body", "Discipline and Work", "Life Course and Community", and "Activism and Altruism".

All interested are welcome. Undergraduate students of other years are recommended to attend the forum since it can give them better understanding of their capstone course and inspire them of more anthropological research topics.

(Refreshments will be provided.)

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

[Event] Academic Planning Day 2015


The Academic Planning Day for Secondary Five students was successfully held on 28th March 2015. This year, a lot of students had demonstrated interest in the subject and attended our programme talk.

Prof. Teresa Kuan started the briefing session with an article written by Marc Brightman “Anthropology is so important, all childrenshould learn it”. She continued by introducing the major study areas of Anthropology and the distinctive differences between Anthropology and Cultural Studies. Undergraduates and graduates of our Department also shared their experience of doing fieldwork with the students.

The briefing session

Students then had chance to visit our department exhibitions on teachers’ publications and ethnological collections to have a better overview of our programme. Some students also took the opportunity to ask our undergraduates and graduates questions about Anthropology.

Students reading the publications of our teachers

It is encouraging when some students expressed very strong interest in studying the subject. Anthropology is important because it helps us to understand, respect and sustain the different ways of being in the physical world. As Brightman writes, “Moves to downgrade it [Anthropology] in the education system by those who know the price of everything, and the value of nothing, must be fought off.”

Prof. Tracey Lu had once joked in one of her lectures, “Anthropologists are also minorities in Hong Kong.” But culture is dynamic and subject to change. So keep explaining to your friends and children what anthropology is and why it is important. Maybe ten years later the number of people asking “What is anthropology?” could be halved! ;-)

Monday, April 13, 2015

[Nepali Culture Workshop 2014-2015] Buddy Program Kick-Off Party and Visit to the Good Lab (Cheung Sha Wan Centre)


Buddy Program Kick-Off Party
Date: 24 January, 2015


Kick-off party at a Nepali restaurant in Jordan

Participants of the Nepali Culture Workshop and 20 Nepali teenagers and teachers attended the kick-off party of our Buddy Program. In the party, university students presented their proposed projects to try to attract Nepali buddies to join their team! Topics of projects were diverse, including drama, sports and well being, exhibition on the forgotten history of the Gurkhas in Hong Kong, and Nepali-Chinese festival exchange. These projects would be showcased in a cultural program in April 2015. Our Nepali buddies had a hard time deciding which group to join, but in the end all groups were able to take-off. The groups will have two or three internal meetings, and then to come up with a project to be presented to local secondary schools.


Visit to the Good Lab (Cheung Sha Wan Centre)
Date: 28 February, 2015


During the presentation

A visit to The Good Lab (Cheung Sha Wan) was organized for our Workshop participants and project buddies. The groups presented their projects to Ms. Ada Wong, the founder of The Good Lab, a social enterprise that facilitates young people’s business projects by providing work space and resources such as funding and networking opportunities. Ms. Wong and her staff were impressed with the ideas of our participants, and gave very constructive comments and suggestions on how to refine the projects. Participants also got information on possible funding resources.  

Following the group presentations, Eppie conducted a tour of The Good Lab for us. We saw the CODE4HK in action a competition in which teams worked out ways to generate analysis on statistics from government reports for public and research use. Ms. Wong told us that that this project showed that social enterprises could take many different forms.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

[Friday Seminar Recap] Disjunctive Harmony: Life and Work of Foreign Spouses Engaging in Sex Work in Taiwan


Disjunctive Harmony: Life and Work of Foreign Spouses Engaging in Sex Work in Taiwan

Speaker: TSENG Hsunhui (Assistant Professor, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., 27 March, 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK
                                              
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The influx of marriage migrants in the early 2000s had contributed to the increase of low-budget massage parlors and Karaoke clubs with hostesses in Taiwan. Growing media attention on the issue has called on police enforcement on sex work in these establishments. Foreign-born  mostly Southeast Asian  female spouses engaging in sex work have either been viewed as perpetrators of fraudulent marriage, or victims of trafficking in women.

Prof. Tseng Hsunhui, in the seminar, shared the preliminary finding of her recent fieldwork in a karaoke snack restaurant (xiaochibu), featuring Vietnamese hostesses (yuenan dian, Vietnamese store) in Douliu City, Taiwan. Her research focuses on the life of these women and the ways they interpret and negotiate their multiple identities as mothers, wives, daughters, sex workers and citizens.

Prof. Tseng Hsunhui

Tseng pointed out that the hostesses in this xiaochibu, though migrated from a foreign country, had all obtained their citizenship and therefore were eligible to work in Taiwan. They earned escorting fee (zuotaifei) for serving customers. Divorced mothers constituted the majority of hostesses, and the remaining were married women and student.

These women, being stigmatized as irresponsible mothers, promiscuous wives and shameful daughters, had to negotiate their familial relationship as a wife, mother or daughter, their employment relationship as a sex worker and their citizenship as a moral person in the country. They coped with the conflicts between motherhood and work by telephoning their children, visiting homes regularly and hiring babysitters. They dealt with the discrepant expectation between their role as a citizen and the reality of being a sex worker by holding the perception that the job was not shameful and they were preparing for their dreams.

Attendees of the seminar

Tseng also highlighted the blurred boundaries existed in xiaochibu. She mentioned that services to customers are provided in both the forestage and the backstage of xiaochibu. Workplace had also become a place similar to home, providing hostesses social and economic supports.

In short, Tseng’s research, by looking into the life and work of foreign spouses engaging in sex work in Taiwan, shed light on issues like the crash of migrants’ dream, sex workers’ negotiation of multiple identities and the productivity of hidden space.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

[Upcoming Seminar] Locally Risked Biologies: Heart Disease Epidemiology and the Politics of Representation in Transnational Medical Research


Locally Risked Biologies: Heart Disease Epidemiology and the Politics of Representation in Transnational Medical Research

Speaker: Lindsey ALEXANDER (Doctoral Candidate Department of Anthropology, Harvard University and Visiting Student in the International Asian Studies Programme and Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Time: 12:30 p.m., 10 April 2015 (Friday)
Venue: Room 401, Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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This talk examines how chronic disease epidemiologists account for differences in heart disease patterns observed in Western and Chinese populations. It argues that recent attempts to include non-Western populations in chronic disease research, in combination with an emerging understanding of such diseases as variable across time and place, are challenging traditional biomedical perspectives on human biological difference and the universality of scientific knowledge.

Drawing from Margaret Lock's work on "local biologies," it envisions chronic disease researchers as engaged in an effort to localize both bodies and science in time and space.


ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME.



Thursday, April 2, 2015

[Announcement] Department E-Newsletter (Spring 2015)


The E-Newsletter (Spring 2015) of Department of Anthropology has been published. Click here to catch up with us on our latest news, new publications, and past and upcoming events. In this issue we have invited a fresh graduate of our Department to share with us her first job experience as a research assistant at the Hong Kong Museum of History. FINAL YEAR STUDENTS SHALL NOT MISS THIS!

If you have any suggestions, comments or news to share with our subscribers, please feel free to contact Ms. Esther Chok at wschok@cuhk.edu.hk. We want to hear from you!

Department's E-Newsletter (Spring 2015)

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Contents of the E-Newsletter (Spring 2015)

Special feature Demystifying the job of research assistant at local museum
“It is the season of graduation and job-hunting, and final year students are ready to land their first job. Working in the museum maybe a dream career for students majoring in anthropology, but the question is: Are there any positions in local museums that are open to fresh graduates?”
Honors and Appointments
  • Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award 2014
  • Appointment as the Associate Dean (Education) of the Faculty of Arts
  • Appointment to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Advisory Committee
  • Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education 2014
  • Appointment to the Antiquities Advisory Board

Latest Publications
  • Rethinking Asian Food Heritage
  • Love's Uncertainty: The Politics and Ethics of Child Rearing in Contemporary China

Knowledge Transfer
  • Multiculturalism In Action: Nepali Culture Workshop
  • “Multicultural Hong Kong in Celebration” Series

Conferences and Seminars
  • The 7th Anthropology Postgraduate Student Forum
  • Undergraduate Student Forum
  • Friday Seminars (Spring 2015)

Undergraduate Activities
  • Lunar New Year Dinner
  • New Asia College Graduation Photo Day
  • Academic Planning Day for Secondary Five students
  • Farewell Party
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Wednesday, April 1, 2015

[Publication] Report on Current Researches on Islam in Hong Kong (Book Chapter)


Localization of Islam in China (book cover)

The paper of Professor Paul James O’Connor, entitled “Report on Current Researches on Islam in Hong Kong”, has been published as a book chapter in the book Localization of Islam in China, edited by Li Chang-kuan. The book is a collection of 11 papers written by different scholars. It explores the history, development and other issues related to Islamic communities in China. 

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Report on Current Researches on Islam in Hong Kong 
Author: Paul James O’Connor 

Abstract:
By the end of 2013 Hong Kong’s Muslim population had grown to over 270,000. It has become increasingly evident that large numbers of Muslims live and work in Hong Kong and in many ways the city is a hospitable place for them. Islam in Hong Kong has for a long time been overlooked and little understood by the Hong Kong Chinese majority. However, the situation is changing. The conference on Islamic Civilizations in Multiple Perspectives held on 13 September 2013 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong highlighted the growing interest and recognition of Islam in Hong Kong. This paper surveys the history of Muslims in Hong Kong and provides an overview of recent and emerging research on Islam in the territory. It highlights an array of issues pertinent to Muslims in Hong Kong such as mosque development, education, pilgrimage, food, and media representations. It concludes by addressing the position of Islam in Hong Kong and the question of who speaks for and represents Muslim communities in Hong Kong. 

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Details and contents of the book could be found at the website of The Chinese University Press.