Application for the Leung Hung Kee Scholarships for Distinguished History Undergraduate Students to Undertake Research Work

Leung Hung Kee Scholarships for Distinguished History Undergraduate Students to Undertake Research Work are now open for applications. The application deadline is 15 March 2018. Late or incomplete applications will NOT be considered. For details of the Scholarships and the application form, please download at: https://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/internal/ug/Leung_Hung_Kee_Scholarships_for_Hist_Ugs_to_Undertake_Research_Work_1718.pdf

Should you have any questions, please call at 3943 7117 or email to vickitsang@cuhk.edu.hk.

Recapping the Public Lectures on History and Business in China 2017–18 delivered by Prof. Geoffrey G. JONES on 1 March and 2 March 2018

Thanks to the support of the Eminence History Department Fund of New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Geoffrey G. JONES, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at Harvard Business School, was invited by the Department as the keynote speaker of “The Public Lectures on History and Business in China 2017–18”. Prof. David FAURE, Wei Lun Research Professor of History, served as the moderator. The lectures attracted CUHK teachers, students, and members of the education, business, legal and public sectors.

The first lecture, entitled “The Evolution of Green Business in a Historical Perspective” was held on 1 March 2018 at the Cho Yiu Conference Hall of CUHK. In this lecture, Prof. JONES pointed out that since the 19th century, a handful of entrepreneurs, who were motivated by their religious beliefs or experience that they or their close relatives suffered from health problems, sought to create for-profit businesses which could make the world more sustainable. However, their start-ups were constrained by a number of factors, e.g., the fact that the production of renewable energy was too expensive because of the cheap prices of coal and oil. Existing business incumbent also sought to block the green entrepreneurs from entering the market. It was only from the 1960s that green businesses began to increase their impact, as environmental awareness grew and the counterculture movement took hold. Owing to advances in technology and the growing awareness of the impact of global warming, claims of sustainability have become the norm among businesses, but the term is often used too vaguely and sometimes for the purposes of greenwashing.

The second lecture entitled “What Can Business History Tell Us about the Future of Globalization?” was successfully concluded on 2 March 2018 at the Lecture Theatre in the Hong Kong Central Library. He pointed out that the rise and fall of globalization did exist in the business history over the past 100 years. After the First Global Economy between 1850 and 1929, the world witnessed two world wars and the Great Depression which happened between 1929 and 1979. ‘After the two world wars, tariff, foreign exchange control, the requisition and implementation of communism of most countries had changed the global investment sentiment, leading to the era of de-globalization’. Looking at the Second Global Economy between 1979 and 2008, he felt that whether globalization from 2008 till the present day had put the global economy forward or backward was still an unknown.

Prof. JONES used the case of a well-known sewing machine company to illustrate how the economy was affected by globalization, and the fact that history would tell people about the pattern of how things happened rather than what would happen in the future. He pointed out that economic crises over the past 300 years originated from hype, greed of mankind and people’s neglect of risk. He concluded his talk by reminding the audience that business history and globalization had given warning signals to people. ‘There is nothing inevitable about globalization, but what happens next is up to us’.

Recapping the Academic Seminar “Commercial Partnerships in Late Imperial China” Delivered by Dr. Joseph MCDERMOTT of the University of Cambridge on 2 March 2018

Dr. Joseph MCDERMOTT of the University of Cambridge, was invited by the Centre for Chinese History, Department of History; and the Research Centre for Ming-Qing Studies of the Research Institute for the Humanities, to present a lecture to faculty members and students.

Dr. MCDERMOTT discussed commercial partnerships in late imperial China based on Huizhou merchants’ experiences and other Chinese cases. Compared with the West, commercial partnerships in China could be divided into three types: commenda, agency and joint-share. Dr. MCDERMOTT pointed out that although we did not know the origins of Chinese commenda, partnerships in China had become more complex over time.

Academic Seminar

Academic Seminar

Organiser: Centre for Chinese History, Department of History, CUHK
Co-organiser: Research Centre for Ming-Qing Studies, Research Institute for the Humanities, CUHK

Academic Seminar

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 Tuesday.