Welcome to our quarterly roundup!
Across the summer we paused our public programmes of events, and Centre members focused on their research and writing, and taking a breather on vacation.
But, we never stand still. At the beginning of August, we were delighted to welcome Dr Peter Hamilton, who has joined the Centre as Senior Lecturer in Modern East Asian History. Peter comes to us from Lingnan University, and is the author of Made in Hong Kong: Transpacific Networks and a New History of Globalization (Columbia University Press, 2021), which was translated as 香港製造: 跨太平洋網絡與全球化新史 (季風帶文化有限公司, 2024).
Sadly for us, but positively for him, Dr Kelvin Chan left us in August to take up a new post in Hong Kong at Baptist University. Kelvin has been a wonderful member of the Centre team, and we will miss him. We wish him well, and we will certainly be keeping in touch.
Our summer did of course involve a lot of preparatory work, because on the 6 September 2025 the Centre held its third annual Hong Kong History Day in the Arts Complex at the University of Bristol. We welcomed more than 250 members of the public who enjoyed morning and afternoon talks covering different parts of Hong Kong History.
Prof John Carroll chaired a session by historian Patrick Hase who shared his research and insights on the rural New Territories and historian Chris Munn presented a talk on Capital Punishment in Colonial Hong Kong. There was a panel on writing family history with the Centre’s postgraduate student Ryan Iu presenting on “Archival Research and Family History”, scholar Gail Yuen on the story of her father: ‘Life of a Civil Servant’, and documentary director Dora Choi on why she promotes family history in Hong Kong. To conclude the day’s discussions there was a dialogue between writer Koonchung Chan and scholar Tai-lok Lui on ‘Cultural Hong Kong: City Magazine and 1970s-1980s’.
We were delighted to see so many familiar and new faces, among them from different parts of the UK, some said they drove 7 hours from Glasgow and some even came from as far as Malta! There was real appetite and passion for Hong Kong History, and we hope to be able to welcome you all at the next History Day, very possibly again in Bristol (save the date for Saturday 5th September 2026).
At the end of September, we welcomed our new visiting researcher Dr Melody Yiu from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and visiting student Andrew Bellamy from Rutgers University in the USA.
Building on the success of our 2024 interview series “Hong Kong Documented”, the Hong Kong History Centre proudly presents a new online lecture series — “the Hong Kong History Academy”. We were busy doing the final editing of it during the summer break, by the time you read this the first video should have been released on our YouTube channel.
This series features eight lectures, each comprising three sessions. In every lecture, a distinguished historian explores a significant theme in Hong Kong’s history, covering topics such as British firm, drug control, 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, please stay tuned for our coming video releases!
So, we the quiet summer included significant arrivals and departures, and a packed and lively History Day. September has brought the new university year, and a resumption of our History Salon and Speaker Series programmes.
Please keep in touch, and please share details of our events with your friends and contacts.
Best wishes,
Robert Bickers
