the University of Hong Kong

Neoliberal economists, notably Milton Friedman and Friedrich A. Hayek, frequently lauded Hong Kong as a model of a free market society, where individuals could pursue their economic ambitions untrammeled by government restrictions or directives. In September 1978, Hayek’s Mont Pèlerin Society of likeminded economists and businessmen even met in Hong Kong to honour their founder’s eightieth birthday. One journalist covering this gathering rather hyperbolically described the territory as “the most libertarian major civilized community in the world today.” For decades, Hong Kong was the much admired poster child for neoliberals, who viewed its lack of democratic institutions as the epitome of a system that maximized profits while minimizing political pressures for social welfare provisions. Yet this arrangement was the product of very specific circumstances, the result of effective cooperation among the British colonial authorities, business interests within Hong Kong, and not least, if at first tacitly, the Beijing government. It also rested on the capacity of the system to function at a level that permitted the delivery of tangible if modest prosperity and the promise of additional future incremental improvements to the majority of the population. Postwar Hong Kong was never a worker’s paradise, but it offered its largely immigrant labour force stability, a certain level of security, and hope of a better tomorrow. The fundamentals of that implicit bargain have now dissolved, leaving Hong Kong polarized and bitter, with many of its once famously pragmatic residents harboring sullen resentment toward the status quo. Winning hearts and minds and attracting instilling enthusiastic loyalty are tasks that seem beyond the capabilities of Hong Kong’s current rulers, be they homegrown or from over the border. Present-day Hong Kong seems trapped in a blind alley. One is left wondering whether its state foreshadows the ultimate outcome of the free-market, anti-regulatory paradigm of globalization that around the world for several decades became a virtual economic mantra.

Hong Kong University Press 14/F Hing Wai Centre 7 Tin Wan Praya Road Aberdeen Hong Kong © Hong Kong University Press 2009 ISBN 978-962-209-978-4 All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, ...

As Director of the Centre of American Studies of the University of Hong Kong, 1995-2016. In this capacity I raised approximately US$1,240,000 in research grants from the Starr and Ford Foundations and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia to provide research fellowships and scholarships to bring to HK mainland Chinese scholars and students in various areas of American studies. Approximately 120 mainland scholars and students spent extended periods of time, from two months to one year, at HKU under these programmes, 1995-2010. These activities were a significant factor in helping to develop American Studies in mainland China. The University of Hong Kong lacked the interest to continue these programmes, so they have been terminated, as, I believe, has the Centre of American Studies.

Examining the 1959 film Five Golden Flowers (Wuduo jinhua), this chapter claims that eulogistic comedy propagates the principle of national unity in ethnic diversity by rallying popular passion and joy, and that a new comic aesthetic arose in Mao’s era from an understanding of the dignity of labor.  The new comedy challenges the shopworn dichotomy between the official and unofficial, the ethnic and the national, the lighthearted and the serious. In the 1950s through 1960s, far from being in opposition to the official, the comic is to bridge the gap between ethnic diversity and the emergent nation-state in search of socialist identity in the international arena. Rather than defined by ethnicity and culture, film comedy encourages men and women’s equal participation in socialist labor and the fun-filled ordinary life of love and work. The socialist concept of the Chinese people offers the image of an inclusive world where different ethnic groups can live together and mingle without do...

In the last few years alone there has been a flood of critical reflection questioning prevailing notions of masculinity in general and Chinese manhood in particular (Braudy 2003; Anderson 2009; Marcell et al. 2011; Schrock and Schwalbe 2009; Barker 2010; Boretz 2011; Liong and Chan 2012; Pascoe 2012; Zhu 2013). Rather than engaging in a comprehensive review of this literature, we wish to focus on several major points in the study of Chinese manhood, mostly in support of our central argument that Chinese manhood has to be studied in its abstract idea of manhood even within the Chinese societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan. The nature and character of manhood in these two Chinese societies hinges upon three contexts: geopolitics, the family system, and the relationship between womanhood and manhood. It follows that Chinese manhood cannot be studied in isolation but must be considered in its relation with womanhood

Objectives: The present work describes the status and contents of The Human Bone Collection of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Hong Kong. Materials and methods: The Collection originates from the 1980s and became officially established in 2017 for teaching and research purposes. Most of the Collection

OBJECTIVES The present work describes the status and contents of The Human Bone Collection of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Hong Kong. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Collection originates from the 1980s and became officially established in 2017 for teaching and research purposes. Most of the Collection consists of unclaimed human remains of southern Chinese individuals exhumed from local cemeteries and donated to the Faculty in the last few decades. The demographic information was provided largely from burial records and forensic estimations. Since 2016, the Collection has undergone a process of reorganization into cranial and postcranial remains, followed by preservation procedures that included cleaning and classification. RESULTS The Collection currently consists of remains belonging to about 368 individuals (243 males, 54 females, 71 unknown), with ages ranging from 0.8 to 90 years (mean 57.4 years). It comprises cranial remains belonging to 260 individuals (169 males...