Institute -Transnational History

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Category: Past

Lecture Series by Professor Ma Min

Lecture Series by Professor Ma Min 馬敏教授講座系列   The lecture series will be conducted in Putonghua. The following details are only available in Chinese:   主講: 馬敏教授華中師範大學中國近代史研究所資深教授   活動將以普通話進行   第一場講座: 馬士曼的聖經翻譯及其中文事業——與馬禮遜之比較日期: 2026年3月20日時間: 下午4:00 – 5:30地點: 香港大學百周年校園逸夫教學樓4.36室請按此處網上報名   第二場講座: 晚清商會與中國早期市民社會的形成——比較歷史視角日期: 2026年3月23日時間: 下午4:00 – 5:30地點: 香港大學梅堂地下演講廳 (May Hall G.01)請按此處網上報名   第三場講座: 博覽會與中國近代物質文化變遷——以南洋勸業會與西湖博覽會為中心日期: 2026年3月27日時間: 下午2:30 – 4:00地點: 香港大學百周年校園逸夫教學樓4.30室請按此處網上報名

Book Launch “The Idea of China: A Contested History”

Click here for online registration Date: March 30, 2026Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU SpeakerProfessor Xu GuoqiDavid H Y Chang Professor in Chinese History, Department of HistoryFounding Director, Institute of Transnational History of China The University of Hong Kong DiscussantProfessor Chen ZhiwuChair and Cheng Yu-Tung Professor in FinanceDirector of Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social SciencesDirector of Centre for Quantitative History, HKU Business School HKU Business SchoolThe University of Hong Kong ModeratorProfessor Shen HaipengAssociate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning – TPG)Associate Dean (EMBA / IMBA), HKU Business SchoolPatrick S C Poon Professor in Analytics and InnovationChair of Business Analytics and Innovation The University of Hong Kong Brief Introduction An acclaimed historian’s bold response to two simple, yet vexed, questions: What counts as China, and who counts as Chinese? China became a capitalist superpower by investing in globalization. Now that it has established its credentials—and emerged as a major US competitor—its leaders are looking within, focused on suppressing dissent and fostering cohesion. The result has been an increasingly nationalist cultural agenda, celebrating a Chinese identity steeped in the mystique of the Middle Kingdom and nostalgia for heroic twentieth-century resistance. Yet Chinese nationalism, like nationalism everywhere, is fraught. Few Westerners, and even fewer Chinese, recognize that the very idea of China is up for grabs. In this sweeping history, Xu Guoqi explores the transnational construction of Chineseness. The Idea of China describes an identity constantly under renovation. Through dialogue and confrontation with neighbors, more distant outsiders, and Chinese speakers and writers within the state, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the diaspora, the idea of China has been reshaped repeatedly across time. Even bedrock cultural formations like Confucianism have been reimported to China after their translation in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere. The idea of China has always been and remains a continuing process, invented, subverted, and reinvented to serve the shifting needs of kings and bureaucrats, industrialists and intellectuals, allies and adversaries. Xu’s chronicle is as provocative as it is rigorous, and his conclusion could hardly be starker: China, fundamentally, is constituted by a shared history. To accept this is to begin moving past the heated great-power rivalries that threaten international peace and stability today.

Book Launch “Sports as Method: An Alternative Approach to Study Chinese Tradition and Civilization”

Date: January 30, 2026 Time: 14:30 Venue: MH G.01, May Hall SpeakerProfessor Xu GuoqiDavid H Y Chang Professor in Chinese History, Department of History, HKUFounding Director, Institute of Transnational History of China DiscussantProfessor Chen ZhiwuDirector, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social SciencesDirector, Centre for Quantitative History ModeratorProfessor Li JiAssociate Professor,Department of History, HKU Speakers may present in Putonghua or English, as deemed appropriate. Brief Introduction (Chinese only)這並不是一本就體育談體育的書，而是體育的文化史、文明史和文化交流史。它意欲借助體育來解讀中國文明特性，揭示中外文明互鑒、交流，彰顯中國與其他文明「共有」的歷史、共同的旅程。   See Event Photos

International Symposium on Transnational History of China

International Symposium on Transnational History of China Date: 29 – 31 Aug 2025 Venue: Room 4.36, 4/F Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Day 1 – 29 August 2025 (Friday)   Morning Session   9:30 – 10:00 Registration   10:00 – 10:15 Opening Remarks by David Pomfret   10:30 – 11:40 Keynote Session 1 China’s Partners: Alliances, Alignments and Influence in China’s Transnational History William C. Kirby (Harvard University)     Afternoon Session   13:50 – 15:10 Panel 1   Seeking Justice for All Sentient Beings: Lü Bicheng’s Feminist Vegetarianism Du Chunmei (Lingnan University)   The Last Boat back to China: Xiao Qian and the Transnational Biography Fan Xin (University of Cambridge / ShanghaiTech University)   15:20 – 17:20 Panel 2   Beyond the Perspectives of National and Transnational Histories: A Coevolutionary Approach to Researching and Writing History in the Age of  Post-Globalisation Billy K. L. So (University of Hong Kong) Sufumi So (University of Hong Kong)   Fairbank and the Making of an International History of China Paul Evans (University of British Columbia)   Cloud Computing 1.0 Shellen X. Wu (Lehigh University)       Day 2 – 30 August 2025 (Saturday)   Morning Session   9:30 – 10:00 Registration   10:00 – 11:10 Keynote Session 2 Hiatus of Power: The End of Empire and the Rise of the Nation State in Asia, 1945-1949 Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge & Peking University)   11:10 – 13:10 Panel 3   Takasaki Tatsunosuke and the Politics of Early PRC-Japan Trade, 1949–1964 Koji Hirata (Monash University)   Legal Codes in Chosŏn, Qing, and Nguyễn States: A Preliminary Analysis of Early Modern Sinitic Law Jaymin Kim (Rice University)   The Rise of Andong in the Political and Trade Networks in Northeast Asia, 1630s-1930s Wang Yuanchong (University of Delaware)       Afternoon Session   14:15 – 15:25 Keynote Session 3 China as a Contested Object of Thought: European Vantage Points Dominic Sachsenmaier (University of Göttingen)   15:40 – 17:40 Panel 4 Electrifying Consumers: Advertisements and the Promotion of Electricity in Republican Shanghai, 1912-1937 Ghassan Moazzin (University of Hong Kong)   Hong Kong Dollar: Mediating China’s Participation in Global Capitalism since the Nineteenth Century John D. Wong (University of Hong Kong)   From Military-Industrial Complex to Global Supply Chain: A History of the Electronics Industry in Shenzhen, China Zhou Taomo (National University of Singapore)       Day 3 – 31 August 2025 (Sunday)   Morning Session   9:30 – 10:00 Registration   10:00 – 11:20 Panel 5   Constructing a Heavenly Realm: State, Buddhism, and Sino-Japanese Relations in the Yuan-Ming Transition Li Yiwen (City University of Hong Kong)   Hakka Chinese in the Caribbean: Race, Religion, and Identity from the 1850s to 1940s Li Ji (University of Hong Kong) Qiu Zichan (University of Illinois Chicago)   11:20 – 12:40 Panel 6   An Early-Modern Broadcast: News of the Manchu Conquest of China in the Jesuit Annual Letters, 1644–1649 Yuval Givon (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)   Ming Loyalists in Southern Vietnam: New Evidence and Interpretations Hang Xing (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)   12:40 – 13:00 Closing Remarks by Xu Guoqi   The Symposium is funded by the Faculty Conference Support Scheme, Faculty of Arts. See Event Photos