Department News
Welcome Back!
Hope you all had a wonderful summer and wish you a successful academic year ahead!
Our warmest welcome to all new students of the Department of History!
Course Enrolments
Students who wish to change their 2024-25 First Term course enrolments are reminded to do so via the CUSIS during the following specified add/drop periods:
Undergraduate programme: Between 8:30pm on 9 September 2024 and 8:30pm on 15 September 2024
Postgraduate programmes: Between 10am on 2 September 2024 and 5:30pm on 16 September 2024
Awards & Achievements
Heartfelt Congratulations to Prof. LEUNG Yuen Sang on his Honorary Fellowship at CUHK
The Department extends its heartfelt congratulations to Prof. LEUNG Yuen Sang, Emeritus Professor of History, on being appointed an Honorary Fellow by the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the 22nd Honorary Fellowship Presentation Ceremony held on 20 May 2024. This honor recognises his exceptional achievements and contributions to the University and the community.
Congratulations to Prof. Stuart MCMANUS Won the Dan David Prize
Prof. Stuart MCMANUS won the Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world. The prestigious award recognises outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history. Prof. MCMANUS is the first scholar from an Asian university to win the prize since it was established in 2001.
The Dan David Prize’s committee praised Prof. MCMANUS as “a historian of the Renaissance writ large”. Prof. MCMANUS’s scholarship addresses the spread of Renaissance Culture from a global perspective, and the links between regions that are generally studied separately, such as the Americas, West Africa and South China. Nine scholars, including Professor McManus, were awarded the prize and US$300,000 each in recognition of their achievements and to support their future endeavours.
Congratulations to Prof. Ian MORLEY on Receiving the CUHK Research Excellence Awards 2023-24
Prof. Ian MORLEY received the CUHK Research Excellence Awards 2023-24 in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments in research. Prof. MORLEY’s research focuses on American colonialism in the Philippines, which has opened new ways of understanding the design and meaning of colonial buildings. We congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.
Congratulations to Prof. LUK Chi Hung for Securing the RGC General Research Fund 2024-25
We would like to extend our congratulations to Prof. LUK Chi Hung secured a grant from the RGC General Research Fund 2024-25 for his research on “Integrating the Sea, Littorals, and Land: Hong Kong as a Piratical Nexus in South China, 1861–1898“. [Details …]
Postgraduate Students Won Prizes at the “Hong Kong in the 60s & 70s – 3D Printed Museum Competition”
Five postgraduate students from our department recently won prizes at the “Hong Kong in the 60s & 70s – 3D Printed Museum Competition” hosted by the Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH), Faculty of Arts, CUHK. The results were announced on the Day of Digital Humanities, 20 May 2024, an annual event by RIH. The first group, “Epoch Chronicles”, consisting of Ms. Mar Lorence TICAO and Ms. WANG Shu, won the First Runner-up award for their vivid 3D depictions of Hong Kong’s domestic daily life and transportation in the 1970s. Another team of our students, “Neon Cfu”, comprising Ms. LIU Jiayan, Ms. HO Wing Yan, and Mr. HUANG Xiadong, claimed the Second Runner-up for their project in rendering neon signages and the entertainment industry in Hong Kong.
This fully funded competition, supported by the University Library’s learning support team, aims to promote 3D printing techniques among humanities students. Congratulations to all the prize winners!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Best Teaching Assistant Award 2023-24
To encourage quality teaching and recognize outstanding research postgraduate students serving as teaching assistant, the Department launched the Best Teaching Assistant Award in 2023-24. Students below received the award:
2023-24 Term 1 CHEN Mengjia (PhD)
2023-24 Term 2 YANG Zhishui (PhD)
Congratulations to all the prize winners!
Personalia
Academic Activities
Recapping the Academic Seminar “Political Tourism in the Early People’s Republic of China – The Case of Hewlett Johnson” on 9 April 2024
Prof. TSUI Kai Hin Brian from the Department of Chinese History and Culture, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University delivered a talk on 9 April 2024, exploring the Political Tourism in the Early People’s Republic of China (PRC). Prof. TSUI’s research is about a British cleric, Hewlett Johnson, who known as the Red Dean of Canterbury due to his leftist sympathies and belief that communism and Christianity are compatible. He was invited to visit RPC twice, but he advocated the United States to conduct a germ war against China after the visits in 1952. The interesting thing is that Foreigners who visited the PRC were showcased aspects of life in the country that the government wished to display. Johnson’s travels thus illustrate how the PRC state engaged with and cultivated goodwill among visitors.
Recapping the Academic Seminar “CAO Shuji’s Experience in Studying History” on 10 April 2024
On 10 April 2024, Prof. CAO Shuji from the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong was invited by the Centre for Chinese History to give a seminar on the topic of “CAO Shuji’s Experience in studying History”. The speaker firstly shared his experience and insights of studying history over the decades. His research journey began with discovering materials of immigration history from archives, and then started to conduct historical research by analyzing data. His research focus then shifted to the history of population in the period of Great Leap, discussing the problems of famine and bubonic plague behind the population. The speaker also shared his recent research and presented the databases of rice and population in the Ming and Qing periods created by his research team and emphasized the importance of data analysis in historical research. During the seminar, Prof. CAO had an in-depth discussion on the demographic data of the early Ming Dynasty with the participants and encouraged scholars to pay more attention to historical data in their research.
Recapping the New Book Talk “Imperial Military Examinations in the Qing Dynasty” on 10 April 2024
At the invitation of Centre for Chinese History, Prof. LI Lin from the East China Normal University gave a wonderful lecture titled “Imperial Military Examinations in the Qing Dynasty” on 10 April 2024, attracting nearly 65 participants. With reference to his book, Prof. LI introduced the operation of Imperial Military Examinations in the Qing Dynasty with the perspective between civil and military examinations.
Recapping the Academic Seminar “An ‘Open’ Empire? Law, Travel Bans, and Subjecthood in Tang China (618-907)” on 11 April 2024
On 11 April 2024, Dr. FONG Victor Kam Ping from the Yale University delivered a lecture entitled “An ‘Open’ Empire? Law, Travel Bans, and Subjecthood in Tang China (618-907)”. The lecture was divided into three parts: Tang subjecthood in legal terms, absorption of non-Chinese, and travel bans in Tang China. Dr. FONG challenged the mainstream view that Tang China was an “open” (kaifang 開放) empire, in which he believed there was a tendency to overlook the restrictive aspects of the empire. By reappraising the nature of Tang China, the speaker presented evidence from historical texts, such as law codes and Turfan manuscripts, that the empire attempted to seal its borders against outbound travel to confine its subjects within its territory. At the end of the lecture, Dr. FONG concluded that the Tang court designed its empire not as an open territorial space that supported cross-border movements, but rather as one that was absorptive and retentive.
Recapping the World History Seminar “Myth America: Tea, Boycotts, and the American Revolution” on 11 April 2024
Prof. James FICHTER, from School of Modern Languages and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong, was invited by the Centre for Comparative and Public History to deliver a lecture entitled “Myth America: Tea, Boycotts, and the American Revolution” on 11 April 2024. The speaker explored the complex role of tea as a political symbol and economic commodity in the 1773-1776 period, highlighting how boycotts underscored the tension between public political resistance and private consumption. The talk revealed that while the colonists publicly renounced the consumption of taxed tea, evidence suggests a significant volume of tea was still being bought and consumed, legally or through smuggling. Furthermore, Prof. FICHTER emphasized that despite the ostensible unity during events like the Boston Tea Party, significant internal divisions persisted among the colonists. To manifest their opposition to the Tea Act 1773 and Coercive Acts 1774, destroying tea became a symbolic act whose implementation was far from thorough. In conclusion, this talk positioned the tea boycotts as a crucial but paradoxical element of the American Revolution. They were simultaneously effective in galvanizing collective action and illustrative of the contradictions within the colonial resistance movement.
Recapping the Academic Seminar “Making Obeisance to Mothers: Gender, Networking, and Quasi-kinship Bonds in Tang China” on 18 April 2024
Dr. HUANG Chih-yan from the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, delivered a talk titled “Making Obeisance to Mothers: Gender, Networking, and Quasi-kinship Bonds in Tang China” on 18 April 2024. The speaker introduced the practice of making obeisance to others’ mothers (baiqin) during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and illustrated how this ritual allowed medieval Chinese intellectuals and military elites to establish intimate relationships and quasi-kinship bonds that were politically and economically advantageous. Dr. HUANG’s thorough research highlights the pivotal role mothers played in fostering male binding, thereby revealing the politicization of domestic spaces and the redefinition of gender dynamics within elite social interactions in Tang China.
Recapping the World History Seminar “In search of ‘Western Civ’” on 18 April 2024
Prof. Thomas KEELINE, associate professor of classics at Washington University in St. Louis, was invited by the Centre for Comparative and Public History to deliver a lecture entitled “In search of ‘Western Civ’” on 18 April 2024. In this talk, he challenged the conventional view of the “classical tradition” as a stable and unchanging set of ideas and text handed down linearly from the Greco-Roman period. Instead, he highlighted the “non-Western” elements in it and demonstrated a global, diverse, commingled, and ever-changing classical tradition. The argument was illustrated by three examples from perspectives of etymology, religion, and intellectual history. In the first example, he retraced how “orange”, fruit from South China, entered into European languages and traditions as a word of color. In the second case, he introduced the tale of Barlaam and Josaphat, a widespread saint story in Medieval Christendom. The prototype of this tale is Buddha’s life, which was initially written in Sanskrit and subsequently translated into Greek and Latin via Asian languages. In the third example, he revealed how a twelfth-century Arabian specialist in Aristotle’s work contributed to the rediscovery of Aristotelian thoughts in Medieval scholasticism and the Renaissance. The lecture closed with his emphasis on the role of cultural contact in the classical tradition.
Recapping the “Oral History Training Seminar” on 27 April 2024
On 27 April 2024, the Department of History and Education Bureau co-organized a training seminar for students participating in the Oral History Research Competition. It introduced the research methodology and knowledge related to oral history, attracting nearly 100 secondary school teachers and students. Prof. PUK Wing Kin and Dr. CHEN Wenyan were invited to share their research insights and experiences, and to encourage students to seize more opportunities to try their hand at oral history interviews. During the seminar, students were eager to ask questions on interviewing techniques and selection of interview subjects.
Recapping “Different Stages of Learning” by Prof. WANG Fan-sen on 3 May 2024
On 3 May 2024, the Department was honored to invite Prof. WANG Fan-sen, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, to give a talk entitled “Different Stages of Learning.” Prof. WANG shared his observations and insights in academic research by combining the experience of well-known scholars such as Henri Poincaré, Wang Guowei (王國維), Lin Yu-sheng (林毓生) and Ch’ien Mu (錢穆) with his own study in the past 30 years.
Recapping the Academic Seminar “Voting with Your Hooves: The Flight of Mongol Herdsmen from Inner Mongolia to the Mongolian People’s Republic, 1962-1977” on 6 May 2024
On May 6, 2024, Dr. WANG An-Ran from the Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK gave a lecture entitled “Voting with Your Hooves: The Flight of Inner Mongolians from the Mongolian People’s Republic, 1962-1977”. Using archival data, Dr. WANG combined the geopolitics, ethnic relations, and livelihood patterns of the region to answer three research questions: Why did the waves of flight happen? Why did the authorities make so much effort trying to stop them? Why did all those efforts fail?
Dr. WANG argued that the unique geographical and sociohistorical features of Hulun Buir led to a strong cross-border link and weak sense of belonging to China among local residents. Once combined with either domestic “push” factors or international “pull” factors, a strong intention of escaping would appear and persist. The desire of Maoist China to thoroughly transform its people, unique not in itself but in its degree, meant that Beijing could not tolerate the flight of its subjects, even in small numbers. The unique ethnopolitical dynamics in Inner Mongolia meant its leadership could not exclude Mongols at the edge of the party-state from the scope of Beijing’s “subjects” the same way authorities of other borderlands did. With all three dimensions of uniqueness combined, Inner Mongolia had no choice but to desperately try to stop the unstoppable flights. This case provides a glimpse into the political and social atmosphere of China in the 1960s and responds to the general theories of war since the 20th century.
For teachers and students who have information to share with the Department, please email your articles in both Chinese and English to chanfiona@cuhk.edu.hk by 4:00pm every Monday.
