HKAS: Hong Kong Anthropological Society






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				THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY David Wong and Stefan White Postcolonial "Imagined Communities" The Curiously Divergent Stories Of Hong Kong and Singapore 14 December 2006 Thursday 7:00pm Hong Kong Museum of History Both Singapore and Hong Kong were British colonial entrepot ports started in the first half of the 19th century, with many similarities in their history and governance. Both were made colonies of Britain in a contested manner and inherited positive and negative legacies of colonialism. But while Singapore has recreated an "imagined community," based on the founding myth of Sir Stamford Raffles over the last four decades, Hong Kong has yet to create a compelling historical narrative that serves as a unifying mythology for its citizens. In the talk, the speakers will explore the creation process and the realities of these two historical narratives, and how their existence impacts on each city's ability to attract cultural or heritage tourists. David Wong and Stefan White operate Walk the Talk, an interpretive heritage service, in Hong Kong and Singapore. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Village Middle School A documentary film by Tammy Cheung 29 November 2006 Wednesday 6: 30pm Hong Kong Museum of History The documentary takes places in a over-crowded and under-funded middle school in a poor rural area of Yunnan. The film records the daily school life, showing the difficulties and conflicts the teachers and students face every day. The documentary employs the observational approach; there is no voiceover or interview. The filmmaker will discuss her work and take questions after the film. Tammy Cheung's works as a filmmaker include Invisible Women (1999), Secondary School (2002), Rice Distribution (2002), Moving (2003), War (2003), July (2004) & Speaking Up (2005). Her work has been presented in film festivals in Amsterdam, Rome, Seoul, Toronto, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and major cities in China . THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Dr. Lynne Nakano Japanese Fashion and Hong Kong Youth 18 October 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History Japanese popular culture dominates youth trends and styles in Hong Kong. Japanese magazines are widely circulated in Hong Kong although the Hong Kong young people consuming these magazines do not read Japanese. Fashion styles are regularly advertised as being Japanese by companies that have no connection to Japan. Why are Hong Kong youth fascinated by Japanese popular trends? Is this fascination a product of Japanese corporate sponsorship or does it spring from a grass-roots enthusiasm? What does this enthusiasm say about Hong Kong youth, Japanese cultural products, and the changing face of global capitalism? Lynne Nakano teaches in the Department of Japanese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She was Chairof the Hong Kong Anthropological Society 2004-2006. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Paul Festa The Politics and Poetics of Spearfishing in Taiwan 20 September 2006 Thursday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History During three years of fieldwork on male friendship in urban Taiwan, I encountered cohorts of working and middle-class men who devote countless hours to deep-sea spearfishing. From hunting together with these men, I learned that spearfishing is a dangerous passion of considerable disrepute for being unproductive, environmentally incorrect, reactionary in reifying gender stereotypes, and, in this restricted locale, illegal. At the same time, I also found that spearfishing was a "game against nature" with far-reaching political, social, and cultural implications. Why are some urban Taiwanese men so obsessed with the risks and derring-do of spearfishing? How is spearfishing's disrepute integral to its social efficacy? And what can spearfishing tell us about globalization and transnational flows, the cross-strait military conflict, Buddhism and environmental ethics, banqueting, and "the culture of ghosts"? In this talk, I explore all these questions. Dr. Paul Festa is assistant professor of anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He earned his doctorate in cultural anthropology from Cornell University in April 2005, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in 2005-2006. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Liu Huwy-min Being a Real Man in Taiwan: Masculinity and the Chewing of Betel Nut 29 June 2006 Thursday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History Betel nut is a popular and legal drug in Taiwan. It is often sold by scantily-clad young women on the side of the road. There are about 3 million Taiwanese who consume it and more than 90% of them are men. In this talk, I will introduce what betel nut is and analyze why Taiwanese men love it so much. The talk will also discuss the relationship between chewing betel nut and "being a man" in Taiwanese society. Liu Huwy-min, an M.Phil. student in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is originally from Taiwan. The Hong Kong Anthropologicial Society Annual General Meeting Wednesday, 21 June 2006 At The Hong Kong Museum of History, Lecture Theatre, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui Reports for 2005-6 will be delivered by Society Chairperson, Lynne Nakano, the Treasurer, Stan Dyer and the Editor of Asian Anthropology, Gordon Mathews. Questions and discussion are encouraged. A new slate of officers will be offered for members' approval. With all business accomplished, the anthropological talk will begin at 7:00 pm. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Laurens Bakker The Mystic Forest: Shamans and Tourists in Siberut, Indonesia 21 June 2006 Wednesday after the Annual General Meeting Hong Kong Museum of History A place of residence to some may be a holiday destination for others. To the inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Siberut in the Mentawai archipelago, the rain forest is their daily environment which they attempt to control physically and spiritually. These people do not necessarily welcome inexplicable and mystical occurrences. Foreign tourists on the other hand are attracted to Siberut and its population precisely because of the forest and its rumored natural mystic powers, and hope to experience some of these and the way in which the "noble savages of the rain forest" deal with them during a short stay. How do these two groups relate to each other, each other's desires and needs, and to the forest? Laurens Bakker is a Dutch anthropologist and Ph.D. candidate at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Mr. Bakker has extensive fieldwork experience in the Mentawai islands in Indonesia. He is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation on land tenure and laws/traditions regulating the East Kalimantan districts of Pasir and Nunukan. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY William Meacham The Turin Shroud: Continuing Mystery Despite A Century of Research 17 May 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History The Shroud is said to be the most intensely studied object in the world, and yet how its image was formed remains a mystery. One writer observed: "The Shroud of Turin is either the most awesome and instructive relic of Jesus Christ in existence, or it is one of the most ingenious, most unbelievably clever, products of the human mind and hand on record." This lecture which includes over 100 slides plus several video clips explains the development of scientific studies of the Turin Shroud conducted since 1898 and discusses problems with the C-14 dating of 1988 and the "restoration" of 2002. William Meacham is affiliated with the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong and was Chairman of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society from 1985 to 1996. He was also involved in the initial planning of the C-14 dating of the Shroud, and was one of 15 foreign scholars invited to the unveiling of the relic after its "restoration." He has recently published a book, Rape of the Turin Shroud (2005), highly critical of both the dating and the restoration. The Barbara E. Ward Memorial Lecture THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Prof. Hugh Baker Local Ginger 19 April 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History This talk offers some reflections on Chinese language, dialect and the role of speech in tying speakers into their local community and in defining identities. Language can be a harmonious force for unity: it can also be a divisive anti-social factor fuelling disruption and enmity. It is a positive means of communication but if it fails to communicate it has negative value. Must it always be either "Jekyll or Hyde" Hugh Baker is Emeritus Professor of Chinese in London University and Professor of Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He taught Mandarin and Cantonese and social institutions of China at SOAS and is currently Director of the Centre for East Asian Studies at CUHK. His research work has mainly been conducted in Hong Kong where in the late 1960s he lived in a village for eighteen months studying the history and organisation of a long-established clan. Professor Baker has published widely on Chinese culture, history, society and language, and his radio and television work includes the much acclaimed twelve-part Heart of the Dragon series for which he was Chief Editorial Consultant. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Ms. Yip Ping Who Owns Cultural Heritage? The Tulou of Fujian between Residents and Government 22 March 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History Fujianese tulou (earth buildings) are located in remote villages of southeast mainland China. As rural dwellings, tulou face the possibility of being made obsolete by modernization. On the other hand, they are being preserved by local governments as cultural heritage; the latter have been working to establish tulou as World Cultural Heritage Sites through UNESCO. Based on three months of fieldwork in a remote tulou, I examine in this talk essential issues of cultural heritage management, including the cultural significance of tulou to their residents, conflicts over ownership and management in terms of preserving tulou as cultural heritage, and examination of how the users/owners of tulou negotiate with the local and national government over how this kind of cultural property should be preserved and what it should become. Yip Ping, Apple, is an M.Phil Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include preservation and management of China's cultural heritage. She is also a black belt in Taekwando. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Dr. Bill Guthrie Blessing the Last Ship from Macau 15 Feb 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History One of the ancient names for a Chinese seagoing vessel is "the ship from Macau." But that run of perhaps three thousand years is suddenly almost over. Because of rising fuel prices and the destruction of fish stocks in the South China Sea, wooden fishing boats are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The lecture will show what is left of the shipbuilding industry, recap the reliance on traditional techniques using modern tools, survey the arsenal of skills each individual craftsman masters, and sketch the left-hand-right-hand combination of mechanical and spiritual techniques the last Macau ship builders and ship owners still regard as necessary to float a boat. Bill Guthrie is an Assistant Professor at the University of Macau. Before he washed up on the beach in Macau, Guthrie worked as an educational consultant and entrepreneur, and ran an archaeological field school; he edited Soldier of Fortune magazine, and consulted for Sea Kayaker magazine; he has a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, and may have been the last person ever to teach the course "The Bible as Literature" at the University of Colorado. At present, he coordinates with the Macau Maritime Museum to document the last wooden fishing boat ever built in Macau. THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY Prof. Robert Dentan "When the Fox Guards the Chickens": Protection (Rackets) and Ethnic Differences in West Malaysia, the US and China 18 Jan 2006 Wednesday 7: 00pm Hong Kong Museum of History Ethnicity is not primordial but stems from the struggle for control of natural resources. Therefore any social arrangement in which members of one ethnic group take responsibility for the welfare of another is almost bound to fail, no matter how beneficent the intentions of the former. In this talk, Professor Dentan draws examples from the U.S. and Malaysia, as well as China, in an attempt to show that historical idiosyncrasies have resulted in different ways of treating indigenous minorities. Nevertheless, the upshot in all cases is the same. The problem is not just that "power corrupts," but that ethnic division of social power between rivals almost guarantees oppression, corruption and injustice. Robert K. Dentan is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His fieldwork in Malaysia spans a thirty-year period, beginning in 1961 and has principally involved work with the Semai. His specializations include ethnography, cultural ecology, hierarchical and egalitarian forms of social organization, ideology, cognition and worldview, deviance and labeling, ethnicity, nonviolence, altered states of consciousness and economic development. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, and several books and monographs including the very well-known text, The Semai: a Nonviolent People of Malaysia.