07/08/2026
Welcome to our quarterly round up!
This summer, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom have experienced the opposite weather extremes – record rainfall across south China and record drought in Britain. We at Bristol’s Hong Kong History Centre have not deciphered how to connect and balance out these two climates, but we have continued to use our historical research to connect our universities and academic conversations!
Perhaps the highlight of our summer has been our very first ‘Hong Kong History Summer School.’ This three-week programme of lectures, discussions, field trips, film screenings, and research in our own Hong Kong Collections provided undergraduate, postgraduate, and mature students from around the world with an exciting deep dive into Hong Kong history. We were honored to host outside speakers for this programme such as Madeline Y. Hsu (University of Maryland), while each student developed their own research interests through archival research here at Bristol. We can’t wait to offer it again next year, so stay tuned!
Since our last Quarterly Round-up, we have indeed been very busy! On 11 April, former professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Dr Shuk-wah P**n gave a Cantonese History Salon talk on ‘The Sea Bathing Culture and Politics in Hong Kong Before the Second World War’. Tracing the historical development of bathing beaches before the Second World War, she examined how the colonial government and local Chinese sports associations promoted sea bathing activities as a means to stabilize Chinese society.
On 13 April, our visiting postgraduate researcher Ka Shing So (Binghamton University, State University of New York) shared his research on the ‘Shadow Economy: Smuggling, the Gold Trade, and the Everyday Life of Cold War Hong Kong.’ He revealed how bullion trafficking spanned colonial, communist, and capitalist jurisdictions during the peak of the Cold War, operating across the blurred boundaries of the licit and illicit economies. By tracing the physical circulation of gold, he uncovered the intermediaries and networks that transformed contraband into liquid capital.
On 15 April, we hosted an online Speaker’s Series talk ‘Echoes of the Cold War and Heritage Making: Commemorating Sun Yat-sen at the Red House in Hong Kong.’ Dr Lok-yin Law (The Education University of Hong Kong) used archival records and media discourse to examine the Red House in Hong Kong as a contested arena between pro-KMT Chinese nationalism and British colonial governance, illustrating the infiltration and retreat of ‘Free China’ within Hong Kong’s heritage politics.
On 2 May, our own postdoctoral researcher Dr Doris Chan presented one of her projects, entitled ‘Influx of Mainlanders and British response in post-war Hong Kong’. She discussed how the declining British Empire responded to the ‘problem of people’ by introducing lesser-known emigration schemes. By tracing the policy-making process, she demonstrated how post-war Hong Kong became entangled in broader discussions of colonial problems and how intra-imperial relationships were reconfigured during decolonisation as a result.
On 20 May, we hosted our visiting scholar Dr Nadine Attewell (Simon Fraser University) in a hybrid Speaker’s Series talk. Joined by Bristol’s Dr Saima Nasar and Dr Vivian Kong, Dr Attewell shared with us her new book Archives of Intimacy: Racial Mixing and Chinese Lives in the Colonial Port City, 1905–1949 (Stanford University Press). Her book is a rich and innovative study of multiracial social worlds across early-twentieth-century London, Liverpool, and Hong Kong—three port cities linked by their importance to global British shipping networks and circuits of Chinese migration.
On 30 May, we had our first History Salon talk given by our own PhD student, Tracy Leung. Tracy’s talk explored how youth organisations like the Boy Scouts or Girl Guide adapted to Hong Kong’s changing political landscape across the Cold War and handover. She uncovered that scouting was not just about camping or drills but also played a meaningful role in Hong Kong’s political and social transformations. We were also thrilled to have many Hong Kong scouts who travelled from around the UK to join Tracy and share their experiences during the Q&A.
Alongside all these in-person and online events, our Hong Kong History Academy lecture series continues to be released on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/
This series features eight lectures, each with three sessions. In every lecture, a distinguished historian explores a significant theme in Hong Kong history, covering topics such as British trading firms, local drug control efforts, ideas of nationality, refugees, popular culture, land use, aviation, and animal rights. These monthly lectures aim to deepen our understanding of Hong Kong’s rich and complex past, so do follow along to enjoy a regular dose of history learning!
Finally, if you have not yet reserved your tickets for our annual ‘Hong Kong History Day’ on Saturday, 5 September, there is still time! (https://tinyurl.com/hkhchistday2026-ticket)
We have planned another exciting day of English- and Cantonese-language talks and workshops, while there will also be a catered lunch and both books and tote bags for sale! We love connecting with all of you on this annual tradition, so please do join us in a month’s time!
