Event Details

WHAT: Author Vaudine England discusses her new book "Fortune's Bazaar โ€“ The making of Hong Kong" with moderator Melinda Liu (online)


WHEN: Wednesday, May 31, from 7:00-8:00 PM Beijing Time


MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: "Fortune's Bazaar โ€“ The Making of Hong Kong" is a re-drawing of the history of Hong Kong which takes it far beyond being a British colony, or just another Chinese city. Instead, this history connects Hong Kong into a network of Asian port cities, directly through the people who first settled around the deep-sea harbour and made a cosmopolitan community. These are the in-between people, those of mixed origins, mixed motives and mixed relationships. What started as a history of the Eurasians of Hong Kong grew into new definitions of human categories as well as new levels of crossover between diverse diasporic networks.

After years of research โ€” in archives, attics, and interviews with descendants of some of Hong Kong's first families โ€” an inescapable conclusion is that without the Armenians, Parsis, Jews, Portuguese and above all the Eurasians, this place would not have worked. So real was this community of people from around the world that it was their sacrifice โ€“ of Eurasian soldiers during World War Two, of Portuguese, Chinese and other agents behind the lines, of Bohra traders protecting western bankers, Parsi women feeding all comers โ€“ that laid the groundwork for post-war Hong Kong.


HOW MUCH: Free forRASBJ members, RMB 50 for members of partner RAS branches, and RMB 100 for non-members. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please go to https://rasbj.org/membership/​


HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Click "Register" or "I will Attend" and follow the instructions. After successful registration and payment, you'll receive a confirmation email. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder. If you encounter difficulties paying via WeChat Pay, you may wish to try Alipay instead. Members of partner RAS branches: Please register at least 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You will receive several emails from RASBJ: one confirming receipt of your registration request, another requesting payment, and a third confirming your registration and payment, with a link to join the event. In cases of non-payment, you will not receive login information. If you have questions please contact communications@rasbj.org

Speakers

  • Vaudine England (Speaker)

    Vaudine England

    Speaker

    Vaudine England was a journalist for three decades in South East Asia and Hong Kong for the BBC, Reuters, the Far Eastern Economic Review and several London newspapers. Born in New Zealand, she has lived and worked in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Britain and Hong Kong. Then she discovered the joys of history, and has made a specialty of investigative work into the past with the help of archives, oral history and a nose for a good story.

    She has authored several books about individuals, institutions and family companies in Hong Kong. These include “The Quest of Noel Croucher - Hong Kong’s Quiet Philanthropist”, “Kindred Spirits - a History of The Hong Kong Club”, “Arnholds - China Trader”, “Empire’s Children - A Hong Kong Family", and “Hari Harilela - Made in Hong Kong”. Her history of Hong Kong’s formative first century, focused on the multiple peoples who came to build Asia’s last port city — “Fortune’s Bazaar, The Making of Hong Kong” — is published by Scribner and Hachette and available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Bazaar-Making-Hong-Kong-ebook/dp/B09842G17C

    Now based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, she is completing a PhD in Asian history at Leiden University, is a research associate with the Hong Kong History Project at Bristol University, and a co-founding director of the archives and history-making consultancy, History Ink Limited. She brings her journalistic skills of investigative reporting and interviewing to delve deeply into the hidden stories of the past.

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  • Melinda Liu (Moderator)

    Melinda Liu

    Moderator

    Melinda Liu is a U.S. foreign correspondent in Beijing and RASBJ Vice President.

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