The Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of History Department of History
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POON Shuk Wah
POON Shuk Wah

BA, M.Phil. (Hong Kong Baptist University); Ph.D. (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Professor, Department of History, CUHK

 

** On Sabbatical leave in Term 1 of 2024-25. **

ADDRESS
Room 114, 1/F, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong
PHONE
(852) 3943 1757

I earned my doctorate degree in humanities in the field of history from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2001. Before joining the History Department of Chinese University in 2017, I was Associate Professor of History at Lingnan University of Hong Kong.

I am interested in the negotiation between tradition and modernity in 20th-century China and colonial Hong Kong, and the conflicts that arose from this negotiation. I pay particular attention to the various ways in which Western ideas were localised in Chinese society and how common people negotiated modernity in their daily lives. My work has been published in journals such as Modern China, Modern Asian Studies, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica and Journal of Chinese Religions, among others.

My first book, entitled Negotiating Religion in Modern China: State and Common People in Guangzhou, 1900-1937 (2011), investigates the religious changes stimulated by China’s quest for modernity, especially the attempts made by the Republican government to eradicate the ‘superstitious’ beliefs and behavior of common people according to the modern imperative of ‘anti-superstition’.

With specific reference to oxen in Republican China, my current research project explores the entry of animals into China’s modernist and nationalist discourses, and their significance to everyday lives, food culture, national politics, as well as China’s trading and diplomatic relations with Japan.

Research Interests
  • Modern Chinese History
  • Hong Kong History
  • Public History
  • History of Chinese Religions
  • History of the Body
  • Animal Studies
Selected Publications

Books Authored

  •  閒暇、身體與政治:近代中國游泳文化 (Leisure, Body and Politics: A History of Swimming in Modern China) ,台大哈佛燕京叢書 10 (台北:台大出版社,2021)
  • Negotiating Religion in Modern China: State and Common People in Guangzhou, 1900-1937 (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2011).

 

Books Co-authored and Co-Edited

  • 「牠」者再定義:人與動物關係的轉變(香港:三聯,2018)[與陳燕遐博士合編]
  • 閒暇、海濱與海浴:香江游泳史(香港:三聯,2014) [與黃永豪博士合著]
  • 迷信話語:報章與清末民初的移風易俗(香港:香港科技大學華南研究中心,2013)[與蔡志祥教授、韋錦新博士合編]

 

Journal Articles

  • “Embodying Maoism: The Swimming Craze, the Mao Cult and Body Politics in Communist China, 1950s-1970s,” Modern Asian Studies 5 (Sept. 2019), pp. 1450-1485.
  • 〈城市、避暑與海濱休旅:晚清至1930年代的北戴河〉(The City and the Seaside: Constructing Leisure Culture and Space at Beidaihe, 1890s-1930s), 《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》(Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica), 95 (Mar. 2017), pp. 39-75. (Reprinted in巫仁恕編:《城市指南與近代中國城市研究》(台北:民國歷史文化學社,2019),頁163-209)
  • “Thriving under an Anti-superstition Regime: The Dragon Mother Cult in Yuecheng, Guangdong during the 1930s.” Journal of Chinese Religions, 43.1 (May 2015), pp. 34-58.
  • 〈國葬:民國初年的政治角力與國家死亡儀式的建構〉(State Funerals: Politics and Death Ritual in Early Republican China),《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》, 83 (Mar. 2014),頁47-87。
  • “Dogs and British Colonialism: The Contested Ban on Eating Dogs in Colonial Hong Kong.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 42 (Mar. 2014), pp. 308-328.
  • “Cholera, Public Health, and the Politics of Water in Republican Guangzhou.” Modern Asian Studies, 47.2 (Mar. 2013), pp 436-466.
  • “Between Religion and Superstition: Buddhism and Daoism in Guangzhou, China, 1900-1937.” Journal of Religious History, vol. 33, no. 4 (Dec. 2009), pp. 452-471.
  • “Religion, Modernity and Urban Space: The City God Temple in Republican Guangzhou.” Modern China, vol. 34, no. 2 (Apr. 2008), 247-275.
  • 〈民國時期廣州的糞穢處理與城市生活〉 (Human Waste Management and Urban Life in Republican Guangzhou),《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》, 59 (Mar. 2008),頁67-95。
  • “Refashioning Festivals in Republican Guangzhou.” Modern China, vol. 30, no. 2 (Apr. 2004), 199-227.

 

Book Chapters

  • “Buddhist Activism and Animal Protection in Republican China.” In Paul Katz and Stefania Travagnin, eds., Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions III: Key Concepts in Practice (Belin: de Gruyter, 2019), pp. 91-111.
  • 〈從防止虐畜到禁吃狗肉:二十世紀上半葉香港華人與動物關係的變化〉,陳燕遐、潘淑華編,《「牠」者再定義:人與動物關係的轉變》,(香港:三聯書店(香港)有限公司,2018),頁135-156。
  • 〈凝視動物:香港荔園動物園〉,陳燕遐、潘淑華編,《「牠」者再定義:人與動物關係的轉變》,(香港:三聯書店(香港)有限公司,2018),頁112-134。
  • 〈亡者的告退:民國時期廣州喪葬儀式與空間的重構〉,蕭國健、游子安編,《鑪峰古今香港歷史文化論集2017》,(香港:珠海學院香港歷史文化研究中心,2017),214-233。
  • 〈城隍重臨:廣州城隍廟的歷史演變及近年的重修與保育〉,蕭國健、游子安編,《鑪峰古今香港歷史文化論集2015》,(香港:珠海學院香港歷史文化研究中心,2016),頁10-25。
  • 〈「護生」與「禁屠」: 1930年代上海的動物保護與佛教運動〉,康豹、 高萬桑編,《改變中國宗教的五十年,1898-1948》(台北:中央研究院近代史研究所,2015),頁399-426。
  • 〈淺水灣:海濱、海浴與香港殖民地的空間政治〉,劉石吉、張錦忠、王儀君、楊雅惠、陳美淑編,《旅遊文學與地景書寫》(高雄:國立中山大學人文中心,2013),頁115-141。
  • 〈英靈與餓鬼:民國時期廣東地區的盂蘭節與萬緣會〉,《迷信話語:報章與清末民初的移風易俗》 ,(香港:香港科技大學華南研究中心,2013年) (與蔡志祥教授、韋錦新博士合編)
  • 〈文化遺產的保存與傳統的再造: 廣州珠村『乞巧文化節』〉(Heritage Preservation and the Re-creation of Traditions: Double Seventh Festival at Zhu Village in Guangzhou). In Tik-sang Liu (ed.) Intangible Cultural Heritage and Local Communities in East Asia (Hong Kong: South China Research Center, HKUST, 2011), pp. 237-255. (co-authored with Dr. Wing-ho Wong)
  • 〈廟宇、城市空間與國民改造:民國時期廣州城隍廟的變化〉,《嶺南近代史論》,陳明銶、饒美蛟主編 (香港: 商務印書館,2010),頁294-304。
  • 〈從「送子觀音」到「送錢觀音」:民國時期珠江三角洲一帶的「生菜會」和「觀音開庫」〉《問俗觀風: 香港及華南歷史與文化》,游子安、卜永堅編, (香港:華南研究會,2009),頁37-46。
  • 〈「建構」政權,「解構」迷信?—廣州市風俗改革委員會的個案研究,1929-1930〉,載於陳春聲、鄭振滿編,《民間宗教與社會空間》(福州:福建人民出版社,2003),頁108-122。
Research Projects
Year Research Project
2020-2022 Colonizers and the Beasts: The Place of Animals in British Colonial Governance in Hong Kong, 1842-1941 (HK$150,600)
Project Investigator, General Research Fund, 2019/20
2016-2019 Animals, Modernity and Nation-building: Oxen in Republican China (HK$454,000)
Project Investigator, General Research Fund, 2015/16
2012-2015 Modern Body, Modern State: A History of Swimming in 20th Century China ($296,686)
Project Investigator, General Research Fund, 2011/12
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