Research Projects

In March 1854, as the US Navy’s “Perry Expedition” to Japan anchored in Yokohama waters, White crew members staged a blackface minstrel show for Japanese officials to celebrate their new friendship. A Japanese artist sketched vivid images of the blackface performers and their instruments, which were copied and circulated around Japan. Historians have since used these images and other sources to tell a story of White race-making by the US for Japanese audiences. How does the history of the US Expedition to Japan change if we focus on the Expedition’s Black sailors instead of the White sailors’ depiction of an imagined “Blackness”? By centering Black musicians and their instruments, this project analyzes how the Perry Expedition brought Black performance to Asia; and suggests that as Black sailors performed in oceans, littorals, and ports across Asia, they helped construct a Black Pacific, connecting a global African diaspora. Moreover, the project argues that Black shipboard performances preceded, transformed, and recast the Expedition’s better-known (White-performed) blackface minstrel shows, which the project resituates as direct appropriations of Black shipboard performance for imperial ends. Thus, while this project will examine how Commodore Matthew Perry instrumentalized performances of Blackness and “Blackness” to create a diplomatic lingua Americana, it will also analyze how Black sailors used many of these same performances to create timespaces of joy, resistance, liberation, and community. This 36-month GRF will fund 1) Japan research trips to view key documents and art (National Diet Library, Yokohama Archives of History, Meisei University, Sanada Treasure Museum, Ryoma Memorial Museum, Fukuyama Castle Museum), 2) US research trips to consult unpublished diaries and documents (Harvard, Peabody Essex Museum, Yale, Gilder Lehrman Institute, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Huntington Library), 3) translation assistance for Japanese documents, 4) image/reproduction costs, and 5) conference travel. By the end of the GRF term, this grant will yield two articles and a draft monograph. I can complete this work in 36 months because this project builds on preliminary research (including two published articles) and participation in a collaborative on the Expedition based in Japan.

Imperial edicts, which were regarded as the emperors’ words and writings, were usually issued in the form of chilling 敕令. According to Su Shi, edicts resembled a role model for people to learn from. This indicates a certain degree of authoritativeness and recognition of being the paradigm. Nevertheless, most of the edicts were, in fact, drafted by court officials. This resulted in the complex relations involving the emperor’s powers, ancestral rules, the genre of the emperor’s words, and the drafters’ mindsets. Discussions on the Wen-Tao relationship and development of the history of thought are usually based on the four principles of governance (Si Tong四統), which concern Tao, politics, academic education, and Wen. There have surely been some meaningful discussions in this regard, but in terms of the genre of edicts, court officials evidently could not regard the emperor merely as a governor and take the emperor’s words as an exception from Wen and Tao. In this case, this project is particularly interested in addressing these questions, i) what kind of history of thought could be perceived from the imperial edicts? What are the features of intellectual history presented through the authority of the emperor? What were the relations of the court-recognized Tian Zi (Heaven’s son) to Shangdi, Confucius and various gods? ii) How did the emperor’s words relate to the concept of “three religions三教” and religious developments? Or in other words, how did the emperor’s words influence Song people’s interpretation of the concept of three religions? iii) The most renowned literary figures of the Song Dynasty were also thought leaders. They called themselves Shi士, and amongst them were Ouyang Xu, Wang Anshi, Zhou Bida, and Liu Kezhuang, who served as zhi zhi gao 知制誥 (edict drafter). How did they understand the emperor’s words’ relations to Siwen斯文? To respond to the questions, this study, based on the applicant’s UGC-funded projects focusing on two topics of Northern Song (i.e., Guwen writers’ concept of deities and ritual writing; etiquette writing), aims to expand the area of study to touch upon the history of thought in Song imperial edicts. Case studies will be conducted to analyse Shangdi (and the related concepts), Confucius, Buddhism, and Taoism as depicted in the imperial edicts, in order to further the study of Song emperors’ relations to the history of thought.

This project critically examines the figuration of oceans, seas, rivers, and bodies of water in contemporary Asian literary and cultural narratives in English and vernacular languages. While liquid and watery forms have garnered considerable attention in the emergent field of the blue humanities or the oceanic humanities, they have not attained systematic analyses within Asian literary and cultural studies. Adopting an inter-Asian framework, this project probes how Asian writers and cultural producers animate oceanic genres, forms, and images in order to articulate modes of affiliation that exceed imperial and national structures of power. In so doing, the project traces how aesthetic forms of inter-Asia incorporate culturally specific and socially situated oceanic thoughts as part of their efforts to repair and restore fractured human-ocean ties. Foregrounding the watery as material and symbolic spaces, this project addresses a series of interrelated questions: How does oceanic thinking contest aerial and terrestrial modes of knowing Asia? How do Asian artisans and cultural workers register aquatic imaginaries in their formal and rhetorical designs? To what extent have indigenous sea cosmologies inflected artistic expressions of human-marine relationships? My wager is that aesthetic objects from Asia offer rich thematic and formal resources that unsettle imperial and instrumental regimes of knowledge production and return us to sustainable forms of co-habitation amidst ongoing marine crises in the age of the Anthropocene.

Perfect Enlightenment, also known as the state of complete enlightenment. From the 11th to the 15th century, the ideology and belief in Perfect Enlightenment nourished numerous artistic and literary canons in East Asia. In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the Zen master Xuedou infused the concept of Perfect Enlightenment into the imagery of a bright moon, using his hundred poems about the moon to dissolve the solitude of wandering monks and creating new literary imagery and functions. In the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, Yang Jie was the first to incorporate the bright moon into his “Ode to Herding Bulls,” depicting the state of Perfect Enlightenment through painting. In the 10th year of the Chunxi era in the Southern Song Dynasty (1083), Emperor Xiaozong annotated the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment from a pure Zen perspective, named the Jing Mountain Xingsheng Wanshou Temple, and built the Perfect Enlightenment Pavilion, establishing belief in Perfect Enlightenment as a state religion. Subsequently, the four major Perfect Enlightenment grotto temples emerged one after another in the Tongchuan Prefecture. Among them, the Sacred Site of Perfect Enlightenment at the Dazu Mount Baoding has two reliefs of the bright moon, and the inscription “Storehouse of Brilliance.” In the mid-Kamakura period, the Regent Hojo Tokimune built the Perfect Enlightenment Zen Temple and the Brilliance Hall in Kamakura, Japan. In the early Joseon Dynasty, King Sejo built the Perfect Enlightenment Zen Temple, the Brilliance Hall, and the Perfect Enlightenment Pagoda in Hanseong. In the early period of the Second Shō Dynasty of the Ryukyu Kingdom, King Shō Shin built the Perfect Enlightenment Zen Temple and the Perfect Enlightenment Pond in Shuri. Similar to the mindset of Emperor Xiaozong, whenever the country is in decline and in need of rebuilding its national faith, East Asian monarchies often choose the belief of Perfect Enlightenment. As a result, there are four major Perfect Enlightenment temples established as national religious spaces. These artistic and literary paradigms practice and convey the belief of Perfect Enlightenment through imagination, visual representation, and spatial experiences. This project aims to conduct a comprehensive study of the phenomenon group mentioned above for the first time using the approach of “History of East Asian Artistic and Literary Thought Originating from Religion.”

In March 1854, as the US Navy’s “Perry Expedition” to Japan anchored in Yokohama waters, White crew members staged a blackface minstrel show for Japanese officials to celebrate their new friendship. A Japanese artist sketched vivid images of the blackface performers and their instruments, which were copied and circulated around Japan. Historians have since used these images and other sources to tell a story of White race-making by the US for Japanese audiences.

Health concepts have gained global importance, especially highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with distinct perspectives across age groups significantly impacting public health strategies. In Hong Kong, traditional Chinese medicine popular among the elderly emphasizes natural remedies and a balanced lifestyle, whereas the youth are more inclined towards Western practices that advocate for active living and regular medical check-ups.

In Hong Kong, the ordinary citizens’ approach to managing their health through community engagement has been a salient social fact, long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Arising from the crisis, health information and discourses have indeed exploded in everyday life and across social media, reshaping the cultural meanings of “good health,” physical and mental vigour and resilience, health competency, and community wellbeing. The vibrant discussions about health issues on- and offline, in the workplace, and among family/friends/social media acquaintances, have created a unique de facto public health culture that, while functioning alongside the medical establishments, often turning on word-of-mouth information and knowledge. 

Tanka is a critically endangered language spoken by the boat people of Hong Kong, a group whose linguistic diversity has been largely understudied. Rapid urbanization has led many boat people to transition from sea to shore, accelerating the decline of Tanka due to increased contact with shore-based languages such as Cantonese, Min, and Hakka. Despite its endangered status, research on the influence of Cantonese and, particularly, Hakka on Tanka has been limited, which this study aims to explore.

Teachers in Hong Kong mainstream schools often view students as a homogeneous group, overlooking ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity. This unawareness leaves many teachers in Hong Kong and elsewhere unprepared for the growing diversity in classrooms. To address this gap, teacher educators must equip pre-service teachers (PSTs) with essential intercultural skills to enhance intercultural awareness, foster open-mindedness and compassion, and adapt to diverse student needs.

詔令即王言之體，其典範及權威性不言而喻。詔令雖以天子名義發出，實際上絕大部分內容由人臣代擬，由此形成了天子權力、祖宗家法、王言文體、代擬者個人思想觀念等交錯交鋒的複雜關係。學界常以道統、政統、學統、文統分論文道關係與思想史發展，但就詔令文體言之，宋朝人臣不可能只視天子為政統人物，而把王言訓誥排除在道和文之外。

This research project aims to lead the way in establishing and promoting environmental sustainability practices in Hong Kong's art and heritage sector, or GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums). While different GLAM institutions have their ways of operation and environmental impact, information sharing on points of effect and overlap is currently absent across this sector. This project will provide a much-needed template that identifies key points of practice that can be shared across the sector. Given the looming climate crisis, environmental sustainability has become a critical concern for many industries globally and in Hong Kong.

The structure of the Ming chuanqi drama carries significant importance in its composition. During the late Ming Dynasty, these dramas often comprised thirty or even sixty acts. The organisation and structuring of such lengthy chuanqi drama became a concern for literati playwrights of the time. Previous studies have indicated that the structure of the eight-legged essay affected the construction of literati chuanqi dramas. For instance, the drama criticism of Jin Shengtan and the drama theory of Li Yu, which emerged in the early Qing Dynasty, drew inspiration from the structure of the eight-legged essay. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether the composition of chuanqi dramas during the late Ming Dynasty, before the emergence of Jin’s criticism and Li’s theory, was also inspired by the structure of the eight-legged essay. Furthermore, previous discussions on the relationship between the eight-legged essay and the chuanqi drama structure often highlighted that the four-fold structure, i.e. introduction (qi), elucidation (cheng), transition (zhuan), and conclusion (he), as well as the symmetrical structures presented in chuanqi dramas, were influenced by the eight-legged essay. However, such structural features can be found in various classical Chinese literary genres, indicating that these observations are one-sided and lack scientific grounding. Since the eight-legged essay originates from the exegesis of Confucian classics, the Principal Investigator of this project believes that the structure of the genre is not solely inherited from the “acquired structure” of other literary genres but also constrained by the “innate structure” tailored for “speaking on behalf of the sages.” Considering the historical and cultural context of the late Ming Dynasty, this project selects masterpieces of chuanqi drama composed by twenty representative playwrights of the time as examples. It examines the “innate structure” and “acquired structure” of the eight-legged essay as double filters, aiming to explore whether the intervention of the structure of the eight-legged essay breaks the inherent limitations of the chuanqi drama’s construction. In addition, it seeks to re-examine the cultural significance of the intervention of the eight-legged essay in the development of the chuanqi drama’s structure.

Texts and images are commonly found on ancient ritual objects. These ritual objects, whether made of bronze, jade, lacquer, ceramic, or textile, frequently bear decorative motifs or pictorial images on the surface. Inscriptions or texts are somewhat less prevalent. Apart from the inscriptions on bronzes of the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods, texts or words on ancient ritual objects tend to be subordinate to the images, or are there to provide information related to their manufacture. Interestingly though, during the Eastern Han period, some inscriptions or texts on a wide range of ritual objects appeared as separate motifs, or took on a more important role by being placed in a central position on the objects. The project aims to look into the under-researched aspect of these changes of function of texts on ritual objects during the Han times. An extensive survey of archaeological reports, collections and archives in different museums and institutes will develop a comprehensive database of the relevant objects and text records to lay a foundation for the study. In addition, this research will also carefully study the content and the way the texts are displayed on different types of ritual object of the Han period. It will also investigate the provenance of the texts by comparing them with different common textual materials of the same period. By studying archaeological material and historical texts, and adopting the interdisciplinary approach of art historical stylistic analyses and contextual material studies, this research will examine how the role of texts on ritual objects developed, and the changes in the relationship between texts and images on these objects during the Han era, particularly in the burial context. Furthermore, the factors driving the changes will be explored. This may provide insight into the contemporaneous belief in the afterlife, as well as perceptions of immortality.

The Pearl River is the second-largest river system in China after the Yangtze River. Its three major tributaries (West River, North River, and East River) and vast river networks connecting with the South China Sea shape and nourish the Pearl River Delta (PRD), making it one of the most populous urban clusters and creative hubs in the world. However, cultural and artistic impressions regarding the Pearl River are much impaired compared with the Yellow River and Yangtze River, which are often intricately associated with the Chinese national ethos and central plains landscape. This research aims to address this by tracing the existing artistic narrative of the Pearl River using contemporary art practices, as well as to enlarge our conception of a river from a linear water body to a vast water system with a co-constituting hydrosocial relationship with human society and the more-than-human world. The Pearl River, apart from providing natural water resources and a habitat for the delta’s biodiverse communities, is also one of the most human-engineered rivers to further develop a water-centric and amphibious economy and culture. As the PRD region undergoes rapid urbanisation and development, particularly with construction of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), it has become a contact zone for constant negotiations between land and water, anthropocentric development, and the more-than-human world, amidst increasing environmental hazards (Wang and Rainbow, 2020). The role of the Pearl River and its cultural and aesthetic agencies has become more crucial for researchers and the general public to understand the shifting ecological and cultural landscape of the region, as well as its translocal impact. Departing from the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities, blue humanities, and creative arts, this research aims to explore the complex nature of human–river relations through the vernacular ecological art practices of the PRD region. Taking a different stance to the existing scholarship, which primarily focuses on the metropolitan characteristics of the region, this research aims to shift the focus to the water-centric environment of the area. It will further analyse art work through ecocritical theorisation and contextualisation in the PRD and coastal environment to further activate the artworks’ ecological messages, aesthetic richness, and social impact.

近年來，寫作過程與寫作作品之間的關係備受關注。然而，對於非字母系統書寫者的寫作行為和文本質量的研究卻寥寥無幾。在香港，中學生的寫作能力是中文語文教育的重要課題，提升他們的寫作能力至關重要。本研究旨在以Kellogg（1996）的寫作模型作為理論基礎，探討中文母語者寫作過程中的停頓與修訂行為與文本質量之間的關聯，以及他們一年的寫作能力變化。本研究採用混合方法的縱向設計。來自香港三所中學的六十名中一學生在三個時間點完成兩篇作文，而研究結果會為寫作理論模型和寫作教學提供重要啟示。

The Pearl River is the second-largest river system in China after the Yangtze River. Its three major tributaries (West River, North River, and East River) and vast river networks connecting with the South China Sea shape and nourish the Pearl River Delta (PRD), making it one of the most populous urban clusters and creative hubs in the world.

Given the escalating effects of climate change, intense urbanisation and population growth, there is a rising concern about sustainable food provisioning. Amidst overlapping uncertainties and challenges, high-technological, vertical and controlled farming in the urban area is increasingly positioned as a future-proof, and local food source untethered by the climate. High-technological farming often includes hydroponic or aquaponic practices, the use of LED light as sunlight, enclosed controlled growing environment and various automation measures. While these farming methods start to receive attention as a possible mode of climate adaptation, research surrounding the area in Hong Kong and around the world is still limited by an agrotechnological perspective. Framed in an interdisciplinary Environmental Humanities, this project brings the insights and approaches of the humanities into productive dialogue with agrotechnology and environmental science to examine this emerging and important farming landscape, with a specific focus on Hong Kong. Situating Care in Sustainable High-technological Urban Farming will deploy interwoven qualitative methods, specifically site visits, interviews, focus groups and comprehensive textual analysis. Grounded in rich empirical materials, the project will draw on and refigure the concepts of critical care, future, and more-than-human to develop an innovative conceptual approach through a care-based approach—care ecology—to account for, assess, and intervene in the contested narratives and practices of care and future in the making of urban farming. The central questions that guide this project include: What are the issues and limitations of the current narratives of care and technocratic mode of futuring that are mobilised in some urban farming practices? What are the multifaceted futures and relations enacted through, or impeded by the current and emerging technological, controlled urban farming practices, and their multispecies consequences? How might approaching urban farming through a critical lens of care along with the additional temporal and more-than-human dimensions open up spaces for more sustainable technological mode of agri-food production? The findings of the project will offer a critical social and cultural understanding of the subject that promises to enhance Hong Kong’s readiness for a wider seeding of urban farming practices and provide a solid basis for building towards sustainable food future. More broadly, the empirical and conceptual development will advance understandings in entangled human-environment-technology relations, serving as a test case for urban technological innovations in the time of climate crisis.