Gifts to a Former Mentor: Hong Kong’s contribution to the rise of China and the consequences of that rise for the current relationship

An Anthropological Talk by Alan Smart – Gifts to a Former Mentor: Hong Kong’s Contribution to the Rise of China and the Consequences of That Rise for the Current Relationship

Hong Kong made a crucial contribution to China’s rise, but in the last fifteen years the balance of influence has shifted. China’s rise has changed the relationship between China and Hong Kong since 1997. Rather than Hong Kong offering important mentorship, increasingly its economy is dependent on Beijing’s goodwill, a wealthy supplicant whose economic importance is hostage to political considerations that make preserving the SAR’s economic vitality desirable to China’s leadership. A series of “gifts” from Beijing to Hong Kong have made the SAR increasingly dependent on Beijing’s goodwill.

Alan Smart (PhD, U of Toronto, 1986) is Professor, Department of Anthropology, U of Calgary. Research in Hong Kong, China and Canada, on housing, cities, borders, agriculture and transnationalism. Author of “The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, fires and colonial rule in Hong Kong, 1950-1963” (Hong Kong U Press, 2006), and numerous articles.

Following the talk, you are invited to a self-paying dinner with the speaker.

An Anthropological Talk by Alan Smart – Gifts to a Former Mentor: Hong Kong’s Contribution to the Rise of China and the Consequences of That Rise for the Current Relationship
When: 7pm, 4 March 2015
Where: Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, Hong Kong Museum of History, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Ticket: Free
More info: All are welcome! Space, however, is limited to 139 seats. The lecture is conducted in English.
For more information please contact Stan Dyer on 9746 9537 or [email protected]