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

The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, fires and colonial rule in Hong Kong, 1950-1963

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]

Do Flush Toilets Have Politics?

“Without really thinking about it, we have come to assume that a flushing toilet is one of the basic requirements of an urban setting and one of the symbols of an advanced society.” argues Gonçalo Santos who also points out that “It is not clear that dumping excreta into any convenient body of water is the best way to handle local and global sanitation problems. We assume that flushing and forgetting rid us of the problem, when we have only compounded it by moving it to another place.”

In a talk co-presented by The Hong Kong Anthropological Society and The Hong Kong Museum of History and drawing on historical and anthropological research on the origins and the spread of the flush toilet globally, Gonçalo Santos talks about the rise of modern sewerage systems and their impact on society.

Do Flush Toilets Have Politics? Anthropocenic Reflections
When: 7pm, 15 January 2014
Where: Lecture Hall, G/F, Hong Kong Museum of History, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
How Much: Free
More info: the talk is in English, more from [email protected]