Title of Project:

When the Psycho-Boom Meets the Startup Frenzy: An Ethnographic Study of the Psy-Startups in China

Principal Investigator:

HUANG Hsuan Ying

Funding Source:

RGC Early Career Scheme (2019-2021)
RGC Early Career Scheme Grant/Award (2019-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 495,084
HKD 50,000

Abstract:

This study focuses on the psy-startups—new companies that offer services and “content” related to psychotherapy—in China that are sprouting at the intersection of the country’s psycho-boom and startup frenzy. It combines ethnographic methods with textual analysis and quantitative data analysis, and has three distinct yet interrelated aims: (1) to explore how these companies have come into being and the lived experiences of psy-startup entrepreneurship. (2) to examine the services offered by the psy-startups—usually through digital platforms—and how these companies are affecting the development of psychotherapy as a mental health services sector and a profession. (3) to analyze the information produced and disseminated by the psy-startups—typically via social media—and how these companies are shaping the understanding of psychology and mental health among the general population.

Title of Project:

From Formation to Transformation: Early Khmer Ceramic Production in Angkor, Cambodia and its Relationship with China

Principal Investigator:

Sharon WONG

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2021-2024)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 666,506

Abstract:

The aim of this project is to conduct research on Khmer ceramic production from its beginning in the 9th century formation to its 12th century transformation, when it shifted from green glazed ceramic to brown glazed ceramic techniques. This period was when Chinese ceramic production techniques appear to have been introduced to the Khmer Empire. However, existing scholarship does not explain the historical processes behind this introduction. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire in mainland Southeast Asia during A.D. 802-1431. The Khmer Empire covered modern Cambodia, Northeast Thailand, Southern Vietnam, Laos and Tenasserim of Myanmar. This research will conduct systematic and integrated analyses on the technological, social and geopolitical aspects of Khmer ceramic production and its interactive relationship with China. It will no longer be mainly concerned with China’s impact on the outside world but will use Khmer ceramic studies to scrutinize China as a “foreign source” and bring out new details about the social life of the local inhabitants and how it changed over time. It will provide a new placing of Angkor into the interregional trading networks of medieval Asia in world archaeological context.

Title of Project:

A Qualitative Study of Mobility-related HIV Behavioral Risk Factors and Sexual Healthcare Needs of African Populations in Hong Kong

Principal Investigator:

Gordon MATHEWS

Funding Source:

Council for the AIDS Trust Fund AIDS Trust Fund (2020-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 185,601

Title of Project:

Multiple Belonging and Acts of Citizenship among Indians in Hong Kong

Principal Investigator:

Venera KHALIKOVA

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2020-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 81,224

Abstract:

Among 36,462 Indians in Hong Kong (2016), about 10% hold citizenship, while the rest are the nationals of India, the U.K., and other countries. This diversity is further complicated by the intersectionality of class, religion, and language, making Indians a highly heterogenous group (White 1994; Pluss 2005; Lock and Detaramani 2006). My work examines the intersected experiences of belonging and citizenship by conducting participant observation and interviews. I document how different dimensions of belonging (i.e., being Indian, Hindu, Indian, Punjabi, etc, being a Hongkonger, or being an “expat”) translate into the “acts of citizenship” (Isin and Nielsen 2008), such as the participation in civic life that includes community-building, public health, arts, food culture, leisure, work, business, protests, and activism in Hong Kong.

In contrast to legalistic formulations of citizenship as a system of rights and obligations, novel theoretical conceptualizations approach citizenship as a cultural practice that draws attention to subjectivities, aesthetics, and emotions that emerge in the interactions of co-residents (Gaudio 2009; Fumanti 2017; Werbner 2008). I explore how Indians view their place in Hong Kong and, irrespective of their documented status, how their sense of belonging motivates them to act as responsible citizens, for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic. From this perspective, citizenship is not about a legal document but an affective mode of affiliation stemming from people’s quotidian practices and participation in social life. This project will also demonstrate how different groups of Indians understand, experience, and act on their commitment to Hong Kong, India, or both.

Title of Project:

Exploring the Intercultural Impact of Teaching South Asian Sport for Students of Physical Education in Hong Kong

Principal Investigator:

Wyman TANG

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2020-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 90,000

Title of Project:

Market System at the Conjunction of the Imperial Interregional Network: An Archaeological Study of Metal Objects in the Jingnan Region of the Han Empire

Principal Investigator:

LAM Weng Cheong

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2019-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 565,710

Title of Project:

Experimentation or a Skillful Act? The Early Bronze Technology in Northern Vietnam and the Technological Transmission between East Asia and Southeast Asia

Principal Investigator:

LAM Weng Cheong

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2019-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 52,550

Title of Project:

Weaving Networks: Ethnoarchaeological Research on Ceramic Jar Production and Inheritance in South China and Vietnam

Principal Investigator:

Sharon WONG

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2019-2021)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 94,959

Abstract:

This project is to investigate the utilitarian ceramic jar production and inheritance of three pottery villages in South China and Vietnam through collecting the potters’ behavioral data, archaeological new findings and historical accounts so as to examine how jar production techniques can transfer by generations and distribute by interregional maritime economic networks. Ethnoarchaeology is the interdisciplinary approach by integrating archaeology and cultural anthropology through conducting ethnographic study of a craft or technology for an archaeological purpose. This project aims to establish a new research model on ceramic jar production, distribution and consumption networks that fueled these interregional interactions between South China and Southeast Asia in such production sequences in South China and Vietnam with reference to the ceramic jar archaeological remains from production, shipwrecks and inhabited sites so as to translate the meanings of such static jar artifacts into a new insight of material culture and their dynamic interactions with the daily life of people across the regions.

Title of Project:

The Politics and Economics of Funerals and Memorialization in Urban South China

Principal Investigator:

Andrew KIPNIS

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2018-2022)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 547,500

Abstract:

By comparing mortuary ritual and patterns of memorialization in cemeteries in five southern Chinese cities, this research will underpin a book on urbanization and socio-economic transformation during the reform era.  Three lenses on socioeconomic transformation will be utilized.  The first is economic.  Funerary ritual involves considerable economic expenditure as well as the settling of the economic accounts of the deceased.  At funerals, gifts are exchanged between friends and families, battles emerge over inheritance, government offices make payouts to families of pensioners, stigmatized forms of small businesses provide short-term cash services to grieving families, and large state-capitalist corporations sell long-term forms of memorialization.  The evolution of these forms of economic transaction will be compared and contrasted among the five cities and across class lines.  The second is familial.  On tombstones and in funerary ritual familial relationships are staged for public display.  The evolution of these displays will likewise be compared and contrasted among the five cities and along class lines.  Finally, acts of memorialization are forms of remembrance and memory is a highly political arena in the People’s Republic of China.  What about the deceased is memorialized and how this varies across class lines, among different cities, and over time will be analyzed to illuminate both the politics of memorialization and the cultural dynamics of urbanization in China.

Title of Project:

Brining Therapy across the Taiwan Strait: A Preliminary Study of the Cross-Strait Transfer of Psychotherapy

Principal Investigator:

HUANG Hsuan Ying

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2018-2019)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 64,000

Title of Project:

The ICONIC Mums Kitchen: Tastes of Intercultural Hong Kong

Principal Investigator:

Maria TAM

Funding Source:

Equal Opportunities Commission (2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 45,000

Title of Project:

Dawn of the Han Empire: Social Network of Early Yue People and the Distributional System of Yue-Style (Double-F) Pottery

Principal Investigator:

LAM Weng Cheong

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2017-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 70,000

Title of Project:

Questioning Patent Values: An Ethnography of Emerging Debates on the Valuation of Intangibles in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China

Principal Investigator:

Matthew WEST

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2017-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 70,000

Title of Project:

Archaeological Studies on Storage Jars found in South China and Southeast Asia during the 15th to 17th Centuries

Principal Investigator:

Sharon WONG

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2017-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 70,000

Abstract:

The aim of this project is to investigate the glazed ceramic storage jars found in South China and Southeast Asia archaeological sites so as to examine the possible production centres, trading patterns and functions of these crucial, durable and popular utilitarian ceramic objects in interregional maritime trade during the 15th to 17th Centuries. The proposed project aims to connect the archaeological evidences within these two regions, and to establish a research framework for analyzing the relationships between the production centres, trading patterns and the possible functions of these glazed ceramic storage jars found in South China and Southeast Asia.

Title of Project:

Love’s Refuge: The Meanings of Intimacy for African Asylum-seekers and Refugees in Hong Kong

Principal Investigator:

CHENG Sea Ling

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2016-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 445,080

Title of Project:

The archaeology of iron technology and the sovereignty of the Han dynasty in its southern periphery

Principal Investigator:

LAM Weng Cheong

Funding Source:

RGC Early Career Scheme (2016-2018)
RGC Early Career Scheme Grant/Award (2016-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 520,215
HKD 100,000

Title of Project:

Observing Infants, Observing Our Selves: A Preliminary Study of Infant Observation in Urban China

Principal Investigator:

HUANG Hsuan Ying

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2016-2017)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 95,440

Title of Project:

The Archaeology of iron and the Han Sovereignty in the Guangzhou Region

Principal Investigator:

LAM Weng Cheong

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2016-2017)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 99,890

Title of Project:

FUN with Interculturalsim

Principal Investigator:

Maria TAM

Funding Source:

Equal Opportunities Commission (2016-17)
Equal Opportunities Commission (2015-16)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 45,050
HKD 45,535

Title of Project:

On In-depth Cross-cultural Exchange: Chinese Elements in the Early Ceramic Production Centre of Angkor, Cambodia

Principal Investigator:

Sharon WONG

Funding Source:

RGC Early Career Scheme (2016-2017)
RGC Early Career Scheme Grant/Award (2016-2017)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 530,860
HKD 50,000

Abstract:

The aim of the project is to investigate the early Khmer ceramic production centre of Angkor and its relation to Chinese ceramic production industries so as to assess to what extent Chinese elements were adopted by Khmer craftsmen during the ninth to fourteenth centuries. Previous studies have focused mostly on Khmer ceramic stylistic variations and kiln technology illustrations that early Khmer ceramic production centre was primary initial innovated without any in-depth level cultural exchange with China. this conventional assumption has lately been challenged, new archaeological evidence and chronometric data shed light on the changes in conception between cross-cultural exchange between China and Southeast Asia in pre-modern period. The proposed project aims to undertake an integrated study on Khmer ceramic production and establish a framework for analyzing the patterns and correlation between Chinese ceramic consumption in inhabited sites and Khmer ceramic production sites in Angkor.

Title of Project:

Repairing Relationships: An Ethnographic Study of the Development of Family Therapy in China

Principal Investigator:

Teresa KUAN

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2015-2018)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 320,300

Title of Project:

Archaeological Study on Khmer Ceramic Industries in Angkor, Cambodia

Principal Investigator:

Sharon WONG

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2015-2016)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 80,000

Abstract:

The aim of the project is to investigate Khmer Ceramic Industries in Angkor, Cambodia during the ninth to fourteenth centuries in archaeological perspective so as to assess to what extent Chinese elements were adopted by Khmers through cultural exchange. The proposed project aims to undertake an archaeological study on Khmer ceramic industries to establish a framework for analyzing the ceramic production patterns and its relation to Chinese ceramic industries. Focusing on new archaeological evidence and ancient Chinese chronicles, the study will examine the extent to which Chinese elements were adopted by Khmer craftsmen.

Title of Project:

The Mirage of Homes: A Photo-ethnographic Study of Migrant Workers’ “Abandoned” Homes in China’s Villages and Third Tier Cities

Principal Investigator:

CHEN Ju Chen

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2014-2015)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 57,620

Abstract:

This research project employs photo-ethnographic method to study the predicament of Chinese migrant laborers concerning their home-building dream. Based on research conducted in summer 2011 supported by a Direct Grant project (code: 2010360), I found that although my migrant informants had realized their dreams of rebuilding or acquiring new family homes, none of them lived in these residences since they continued to work in cities. These vacant future homes therefore sometimes acquired the look of a haunted house covered by weeds, cobwebs and dead bugs. Considering that these homes are what many migrant workers invested with almost all of their savings over a long period of suffering in cities, this project aims at using images of these places as ethnographic material to analyze the meaning of urbanization, modernization and commoditization of China since the 1990s from the perspectives of migrant workers in their late 30s and early 40s. The age group is emphasized because I argue that the building and subsequently anticipated abandoning of these homes is a generational phenomenon. I will conduct a 2-week fieldwork in Beijing and Anhui in summer 2014 to first document images of their various residences in host cities as well as “homes” and then conducted interview to collect interpretations regarding these images. The project will contribute to our knowledge regarding not only structural changes of economic and political system in China but also the changing cultural values witnessed since the Reform period.

Title of Project:

Love’s Refuge: Intimate Relationships between African Asylum-seekers and Hong Kong Chinese

Principal Investigator:

CHENG Sea Ling

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2014-2015)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 49,000

Title of Project:

Pesticides and Pollution: Sustainable Agriculture and the Risks of Development in Taiwan

Principal Investigator:

Joseph BOSCO

Funding Source:

RGC General Research Fund (2014-2016)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 382,830

Title of Project:

(Subaward Project) Integrating Humanities across National Boundaries: A Continued Exploration of the Promise of CHCI

Principal Investigator:

Gordon MATHEWS

Funding Source:

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Duke University (2014-2016)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 581,250

Title of Project:

Temporary Communities of Care: The Culture of Family Therapy in Urban China

Principal Investigator:

Teresa KUAN

Funding Source:

Direct Grant for Research (2013-2015)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 77,746

Title of Project:

How African and Middle Eastern Traders Make Their Livings and Lives in Guangzhou, As Examined from Economic, Social, and Cultural perspectives

Principal Investigator:

Gordon MATHEWS

Funding Source:

RGC Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (2013-2015)

Total Fund Awarded:

HKD 770,925