Kai Yiu Chan's Books

Business Expansion and Structural Change in Pre-War China

Liu Hongsheng and His Enterprises, 1920-1937

By: Kai Yiu Chan

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Business Expansion and Structural Change in Pre-War China

Liu Hongsheng and His Enterprises, 1920-1937

By: Kai Yiu Chan

This book examines the relationship between business expansion and the structure of business in pre-war China through a careful and pioneering study of the enterprises of Liu Hongsheng during the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike previous studies that have concentrated on such conceptual discussions as ‘networks’ and the role of the state in Chinese economic and business history, this present work focuses on the institutional changes within Chinese business to critically delineate the major institutions in the working of Chinese-owned enterprises. Not only does it explore those institutions of Western origin, such as the company and modern banking, but also those of native tradition. Liu Hongsheng was one of the leaders of the Chinese business community in Shanghai from the 1910s to the early 1950s. Through the examination, utilizing a large number of previous unused archival materials, of the major lines of his businesses including coal-distribution, wharf operations, cement making, match-manufacturing, banking, and real estate, this study identifies the major institutional changes involved in the course of the expansion of the whole business before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. In particular, the author argues that the ‘accounts office’ or ‘zhangfang’ was the core of the organization. This book will be of great interest to specialists and students of Chinese business and economic history. It also provides a base for comparative business and economic history, especially for those who are interested in comparing European and American businesses with the Chinese ones. Lastly, this book serves the interest of scholars and students of East Asian history, who will find in Liu’s story a substantial example of the creative institutional dimension of business in the Chinese diaspora. “Professor Chan has richly documented the fascinating business practices used by the Chinese capitalist Liu Hongsheng: his devious maneuvers as a comprador taking actions contrary to the wishes of his foreign employer; his jousting as chairman of the board with unruly Chinese shareholders in a limited liability company; his inventive accounting as a venture capitalist financing industrial enterprises. With a firm command of archival materials, Chan is able to reveal seldom seen inner workings of Chinese business.” —Sherman Cochran, Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History, Cornell University

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

334

Publisher

Hong Kong University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9622097642

ISBN 13

9789622097643

The Dynamics of Social Movements in Hong Kong

Real and Financial Linkages and the Prospects for Currency Union

By: Stephen Wing Kai Chiu,Tai Lok Lui

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Dynamics of Social Movements in Hong Kong

Real and Financial Linkages and the Prospects for Currency Union

By: Stephen Wing Kai Chiu,Tai Lok Lui

Studies of Hong Kong society have long focused one-sidedly upon economic prosperity and political stability. Contributors to this volume redress this imbalance by taking a critical view of Hong Kong's political development from the perspectives of social conflict and collective action. Instead of looking at Hong Kong from the top, this volume documents the active role played by local actors from below (political groups, student activists, trade unions, women groups, environmentalists, and community organizers) and their impact on social and political development in Hong Kong society in the context of political transition and democratization, economic restructuring, and an emergent local identity.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

346

Publisher

Hong Kong University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

962209497X

ISBN 13

9789622094970

Five Decades as a Mathematician and Educator

On the 80th Birthday of Professor Yung-Chow Wong

By: Yung-Chow Wong,Kai-Yuen Chan,Ming-Chit Liu

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Five Decades as a Mathematician and Educator

On the 80th Birthday of Professor Yung-Chow Wong

By: Yung-Chow Wong,Kai-Yuen Chan,Ming-Chit Liu

This volume includes topics such as: invariants of strongly pseudoconvex CR manifolds; the integral formulas of the Pontrjagin characteristic forms on an oriented differentiable manifold; the construction of tensor fields and connections on the frame bundle; and cellular manufacturing systems.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

634

Publisher

World Scientific

Published Date

ISBN 10

9810223439

ISBN 13

9789810223434

The History of the Adventures of Vivi and Vera

Written by Dung Kai-cheung under the Inspiration of the Ancient Chinese Treatise Celestial Creations and the Works of Man

By: Dung Kai-cheung (董啟章)

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The History of the Adventures of Vivi and Vera

Written by Dung Kai-cheung under the Inspiration of the Ancient Chinese Treatise Celestial Creations and the Works of Man

By: Dung Kai-cheung (董啟章)

Award-winning author Dung Kai-cheung weaves together two inventive narratives in this remarkable book. One is the story of a novelist who recounts his family’s history against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s development from the 1930s to the 1990s. Dung builds this story through vignettes about the protagonist’s relationship with technological inventions that shaped his life, as glimpsed through his uncertain memory and family myths. Running parallel to this is a rebellion by the novelist’s oppressed fictional characters, who attempt to break the yoke of servile obedience laid upon them by the conventions of novel-writing. The central character, Vivi, has been written into being by the author and, once created, she seems to take on a life of her own and moves from being fabricated to being real, even bravely undertaking the journey to meet her creator—the novelist—in the real world. Fantasy and realism combine to suggest that crossing boundaries is inherent part of our nature. “Dung Kai-cheung is the most important writer of contemporary Hong Kong. Since the end of the last century, his work has constituted an alternative history of Hong Kong: the city’s splendor and dilemma, its fantastic metamorphoses and uncanny fate. The History of the Adventures of Vivi and Vera represents Dung at his best. The novel chronicles the changes and continuities of Hong Kong in the final decades of colonial rule, and projects a futuristic vision in which postcolonial nostalgia meets postmodernist fantasia, and family romance begets science fantasy. Above all, Dung seeks to inscribe Hong Kong as fiction, and celebrate the power of creativity that is Hong Kong.” —David Der-wei Wang, Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University “Dung Kai-cheung is Hong Kong’s most prolific and innovative contemporary novelist. His work is at once playful and challenging, brilliant and imaginative, and filled with a sense of mystery and discovery. The first volume in Dung’s acclaimed ‘Natural History’ trilogy, The History of the Adventures of Vivi and Vera is nothing short of a qishu, or ‘book of wonder.’ Freely navigating different times and spaces, people and objects, autobiographies and fictions, Dung Kai-cheung has written a new allegory for our troubled times.” —Michael Berry, Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies at UCLA, author of Speaking in Images and A History of Pain

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

563

Publisher

Hong Kong University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9881604761

ISBN 13

9789881604767

Tertiary Education at a Glance: China

By: Kai Yu,Andrea Lynn Stith,Li Liu,Huizhong Chen

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Tertiary Education at a Glance: China

By: Kai Yu,Andrea Lynn Stith,Li Liu,Huizhong Chen

This publication aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of tertiary education in China. It is the result of a partnership established between the World Bank and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Graduate School of Education to collect and disseminate information on higher education in the China. Inspired by the OECD’s annual “Education at a Glance” publication, it presents data collected from several sources, including statistical publications such as the National Statistics on Education Yearbook and other statistical yearbooks, government authorities such as the Chinese Ministry of Education, and other sources, and is a significant and timely contribution to the literature and data on global tertiary education. As such, it should constitute a valuable resource for students, scholars, and policy makers interested in understanding tertiary education in the world’s most populous country.

Average ratings

N/A