As a oversea Chinese writer, the book author Lam Wai Tsang (Lin Hue-Zeng) observes a lot of historical document from China. He is not just stay watching, but also visiting China and gives us indepth of thoughts and recommendations.
This book reports on a research project conducted in multilingual Hong Kong, where Cantonese is the mother tongue (L1) of the majority of the population and learning different foreign languages is commonplace. In addition to English, which is usually the second language (L2), more and more people learn other languages, such as French (L3). Drawing on the notions of ‘interface’ and ‘reverse transfer’ in second language acquisition, this book addresses the possible role of L3 French in the acquisition of English as an L2 with two major concerns: firstly, the degree to which L3 acquisition will bring about a positive or negative transfer effect on L2 acquisition and secondly, the way in which an L3 interacts with an L2 and/or even an L1 on different interfaces as identified in second language acquisition. The study will appeal to researchers interested in second and third language acquisition, bi- and multilingualism and crosslinguistic influence.
This book is about a 21st Century mythic adventure and spiritual odyssey. A real life Dan Brown novel where science meets reality, the mystical meets the mundane and the esoteric or hidden is made manifest. More mind bending than the Matrix movie and as strange as any Philip K. Dick take. This is a true story of one man's quest to understand the nature of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, during the course of which he discovers the nature of the universe and the divine. It is contemporary mythology involving the quest for the modern Holy Grail of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which would lead to the Holy Grail of the common understanding that is found at the heart of all the world religions, i.e. Gnosticism in Christianity, Kabbalah in Judaism, Sufism in Islam, Tantra and Advaita Vedanta in Hinduism, Vajrayana Buddhism and Taoism; also the secret behind Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Templars and the Ancient Mysteries of Greece of Egypt.
In this timely and insightful book, Yiu-Wai Chu takes stock of Hong Kong's culture since its transition to a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China in 1997. Hong Kong had long functioned as the capitalist and democratic stepping stone to China for much of the world. Its highly original popular culture was well known in Chinese communities, and its renowned film industry enjoyed worldwide audiences and far-reaching artistic influence. Chu argues that Hong Kong's culture was "lost in transition" when it tried to affirm its international visibility and retain the status quo after 1997. In an era when China welcomed outsiders and became the world's most rapidly developing economy, Hong Kong's special position as a capitalist outpost was no longer a privilege. By drawing on various cultural discourses, such as film, popular music, and politics of everyday life, Chu provides an informative and critical analysis of the impact of China's ascendency on the notion of "One Country, Two Cultures." Hong Kong can no longer function as a bridge between China and the world, writes Chu, and must now define itself from global, local, and national perspectives.
This book is a revised version of the doctoral thesis I presented to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1977. It is basically an attempt to study the religious, cultural and political significance of Buddhism in late Ch'ing intellectual thought through an examination of the writings of a few influential figures like liang Ch'i-ch'ao, K'ang Yu-wei, Chang Ping-lin, and particularly T'an Ssu-t'ung. My findings reveal that Buddhism came to play a part in these reformers' thought as a result of several factors: the rekindled interest in Buddhism brought about through the efforts of laymen such as Yang Wen-hui, the need to find a counter-balance to Christianity, the search for a new unifying ideology for China as Confucianism crumbled before the challenge from the West, and the immense potentiality of Buddhism to cater for the intellectuals' diverse cultural and political purposes. The masterpiece of T'an Ssu-t'ung, entitled An Exposition of Benevolence (Jen-hsiieh), is chosen here to exemplify the use of Buddhism in late Ch'ing political thought. Buddhism not only served as the all-embracing school of his eclectic synthesis, it also formed the foundation of the major concepts in the treatise, and was closely related to his radical thinking.
This book features five theme-based units on cross-disciplinary academic English skills, focusing on the needs of first-year undergraduate students. Each unit covers academic writing, reading and speaking skills. The units progressively take students through the steps needed to complete three common academic assignments: the essay, report and tutorial discussion. These steps include searching for sources, note-taking, establishing personal stance, synthesizing information from multiple sources and structuring academic texts. Each unit also includes opportunities for students to analyze texts, apply their critical thinking skills, try out what they have learnt in productive tasks, as well as reflect upon their progress. It is aimed at first-time university students. Many of the readings in the book are related to China and the broader Asian context. As such, this textbook might appeal to first-year university students in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan.
In Found in Transition, Yiu-Wai Chu examines the fate of Hong Kong's unique cultural identity in the contexts of both global capitalism and the increasing influence of China. Drawing on recent developments, especially with respect to language, movies, and popular songs as modes of resistance to "Mainlandization" and different forms of censorship, Chu explores the challenges facing Hong Kong twenty years after its reversion to China as a Special Administrative Region. Highlighting locality and hybridity along postcolonial lines of interpretation, he also attempts to imagine the future of Hong Kong by utilizing Hong Kong studies as a method. Chu argues that the study of Hong Kong—the place where the impact of the rise of China is most intensely felt—can shed light on emergent crises in different areas of the world. As such, this book represents a consequential follow-up to the author's Lost in Transition and a valuable contribution to international, area, and cultural studies.
This book’s discussion is based on Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action. Jürgen Habermas, is known for his work on the concept of modernity, particularly with respect to the discussions of rationalization originally set forth by Max Weber; arguing it has a limited view of human action. By using and to extend the concept of Habermas’s Theory, Chan handles this book by focusing how social reproduction was possible in school education, how school education was worked in general, and how school education was developed. In this book, Chan states that, “(i)n my personal experience as a secondary school teacher in Hong Kong, I observed that many of my students with little family support were not admitted into higher education. They entered into the job world after completing their secondary studies. I wondered whether, in my own professional work, I had helped, to some extent, to perform such social reproduction.” Moreover, he tries to seek for an answer, “I began to study Habermas’s theory of communicative action, and studied how it could be applied to study the relation between school education and society in Hong Kong, especially in explaining how social reproduction was achieved.” Furthermore, in this book, he attempts to understand the phenomenon of social reproduction through school education, and contributes to the current discussion on how school education could be developed in Hong Kong.
This book compares, from a historical and sociopolitical perspective, the respective systems and contents of music education in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in response to globalization, localization and Sinificiation, with particular reference to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei.
Hong Kong is a global city-state under the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China, and is home to around 250,000 Muslims practicing Islam. However existing studies of the Muslim-majority communities in Asia and the Northwest China largely ignore the Muslim community in Hong Kong. Islam and China’s Hong Kong skillfully fills this gap, and investigates how ethnic and Chinese-speaking Muslims negotiate their identities and the increasing public attention to Islam in Hong Kong. Examining a range of issues and challenges facing Muslims in Hong Kong, this book focuses on the three different diasporic Muslim communities and reveals the city-state’s triple Islamic heritage and distinctive Islamic culture. It begins with the transition from the colonial to the post-colonial era, and explores how this has impacted on the experiences of the Muslim diaspora, and the ways this shift has compelled the community to adapt to Chinese nationalism whilst forging greater links with the Gulf. Then with reference to the rise of new media and technology, the book examines the heightened presence of Islam in the Chinese public sphere, alongside the emergence of Chinese Islamic websites which have sought to balance transnational Muslim solidarity and sensitivity towards Chinese government’s concern of external extremism. Finally, it concludes by investigating Hong Kong’s growing awareness of the Muslim minorities’ demands for Islamic religious education, and how this links with the city-state’s aspiration to become the new gateway for Islamic finance. Indeed, Wai Yip Ho posits that Hong Kong is now shifting from its role as the broker that bridged East and West during the Cold War, to that of a new meditator between China and the Middle East. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this book thoughtfully charts a new area of inquiry, and as such will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese studies, Islamic studies, Asian studies and ethnicity studies.
The introduction of elections to district advisory bodies during the early 1980s was expected to improve the public delivery of services. However, as time passed, electoral politics led to party politics, elite fragmentation and political struggles. Politicization and hyper-politicization in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has brought about a fluctuating pattern between administrative recentralization, the Tsang administration’s attempts at decentralization, and the post-2019 administrative recentralization. The purpose of this book is to study the intertwining relationship between district administration and electoral politics. It also examines the political transformation of District Councils after the promulgation of the National Security Law in late June 2020. Written by experts in the field, this book is a good reference source for readers interested in district elections, politics, and administration in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's Watershed: The 1967 Riots is the first English book that provides an account and critical analysis of the disturbances based on declassified files from the British government and recollection by key players during the events. The interviews with the participants, including Jack Cater, Liang Shangyuan, George Walden, Tsang Tak-sing, Tsang Yok-sing, and Hong Kong government officials, left irreplaceable records of oral history on the political upheaval. --The book analyses the causes and repercussions of the 1967 riots which are widely seen as a watershed of postwar history of Hong Kong. It depicts the prelude to the 1967 riots, including the Star Ferry riots in 1966, the leftist-instigated riots in Macau in 1966, and the major events leading to the disturbances, including the labour dispute at a plastic flower factory, the border conflict in Sha Tau Kok, bomb attacks and arson attacks on the office of British charge d'affaires in Beijing. --Gary Ka-wai Cheung has been a journalist since 1991. He worked as a reporter at Sing Tao Daily, Overseas Chinese Daily, Yazhou Zhoukan and South China Morning Post, covering fields ranging from politics, education and integration between Hong Kong and the mainland. He is currently an associate news editor at the South China Morning Post. --
This book challenges the widely held belief that Hong Kong's political culture is one of indifference. The term "political indifference" is used to suggest the apathy, naivete, passivity, and utilitarianism of Hong Kong's people toward political life. Taking a broad historical look at political participation in the former colony, Wai-man Lam argues that this is not a valid view and demonstrates Hong Kong's significant political activism in thirteen selected case studies covering 1949 through the present. Through in-depth analysis of these cases she provides a new understanding of the nature of Hong Kong politics, which can be described as a combination of political activism and a culture of depoliticization.
While attention has been paid to various aspects of music education in China, to date no single publication has systematically addressed the complex interplay of sociopolitical transformations underlying the development of popular music and music education in the multilevel culture of China. Before the implementation of the new curriculum reforms in China at the beginning of the twenty-first century, there was neither Chinese nor Western popular music in textbook materials. Popular culture had long been prohibited in school music education by China’s strong revolutionary orientation, which feared ‘spiritual pollution’ by Western cultures. However, since the early twenty-first century, education reform has attempted to help students deal with experiences in their daily lives and has officially included learning the canon of popular music in the music curriculum. In relation to this topic, this book analyses how social transformation and cultural politics have affected community relations and the transmission of popular music through school music education. Ho presents music and music education as sociopolitical constructions of nationalism and globalization. Moreover, how popular music is received in national and global contexts and how it affects the construction of social and musical meanings in school music education, as well as the reformation of music education in mainland China, is discussed. Based on the perspectives of school music teachers and students, the findings of the empirical studies in this book address the power and potential use of popular music in school music education as a producer and reproducer of cultural politics in the music curriculum in the mainland.
In the third edition of Contemporary Hong Kong Government and Politics, Lam Wai-man, Percy Luen-tim Lui, Wilson Wong, and various contributors provide the latest analyses in many aspects of Hong Kong’s government and politics, such as political institutions, mediating institutions, and political actors. They also discuss specific policy areas such as political parties and elections, civil society, political identity and political culture, the mass media, and public opinions after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. The book also evaluates the latest developments in Hong Kong’s relationship with Mainland China and the international community. This new edition offers an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the main continuities and changes in the above aspects since 2014. This volume will help its readers grasp a basic understanding of Hong Kong’s political developments in the last ten years.
Cantopop was once the leading pop genre of pan-Chinese popular music around the world. In this pioneering study of Cantopop in English, Yiu-Wai Chu shows how the rise of Cantopop is related to the emergence of a Hong Kong identity and consciousness. Chu charts the fortune of this important genre of twentieth-century Chinese music from its humble, lower-class origins in the 1950s to its rise to a multimillion-dollar business in the mid-1990s. As the voice of Hong Kong, Cantopop has given generations of people born in the city a sense of belonging. It was only in the late 1990s, when transformations in the music industry, and more importantly, changes in the geopolitical situation of Hong Kong, that Cantopop showed signs of decline. As such, Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History is not only a brief history of Cantonese pop songs, but also of Hong Kong culture. The book concludes with a chapter on the eclipse of Cantopop by Mandapop (Mandarin popular music), and an analysis of the relevance of Cantopop to Hong Kong people in the age of a dominant China. Drawing extensively from Chinese-language sources, this work is a most informative introduction to Hong Kong popular music studies. “Few scholars I know of have as thorough a knowledge of Cantopop as Yiu-Wai Chu. The account he provides here—of pop music as a nexus of creative talent, commoditized culture, and geopolitical change—is not only a story about postwar Hong Kong; it is also a resource for understanding the term ‘localism’ in the era of globalization.” —Rey Chow, Duke University “Yiu-Wai Chu’s book presents a remarkable accomplishment: it is not only the first history of Cantopop published in English; it also manages to interweave the sound of Cantopop with the geopolitical changes taking place in East Asia. Combining a lucid theoretical approach with rich empirical insights, this book will be a milestone in the study of East Asian popular cultures.” —Jeroen de Kloet, University of Amsterdam
A thought-provoking resource detailing why causal theory is useful in geographical enquiry and how it can be developed through mechanism-based thinking. Includes a multitude of approaches and concepts in human geography today, covering important caveats, key considerations, and a synthetic approach Details contemporary geographical thought, covering theory in Marxism, poststructuralism and post-phenomenology/posthumanism, and feminism and postcolonialism Explores relationality and relational thought in contemporary human geography, plus moving towards a relational theory for the 2020s and beyond Discusses mechanism and process in causal explanation, covering causal theory and actors, neoliberalization, and the process-mechanism distinction of neoliberalism Essential reading for academics, geographers, and scholars seeking unique perspective on an important facet of the field
This book adopts a qualitative case study approach to provide the readers with a systematic delineation and interpretation of the implications of the university ranking phenomenon for Taiwan’s higher education system. It reviews the literature on different theories concerning the global transformation of higher education and presents basic information on higher education in Taiwan. The author develops a four-dimensional framework for the analysis of the ranking phenomenon in the island-state. First, the technological/ecological dimension aims to look into how the rankings have impacted Taiwan’s higher education based on empirical findings from five Taiwanese public universities. Next, the technological/geographical dimension examines how Taiwan can use rankings to promote its interests in global higher education. The two conceptual dimensions focus on the relationship between the rankings and power in higher education. They show how the phenomenon can be read and explained through theoretical lenses from ecological and geographical perspectives. From an ecological perspective, the empirical evidence suggests that the influence of rankings varies throughout the academic hierarchy in Taiwan. The theoretical analysis then illustrates the relationship between the ranking phenomenon and the power structure in academic hierarchy. Geographically, while the empirical analysis is based on data from Taiwan, the theoretical analysis offers essential insights that help readers to understand the changing global landscape of higher education and its implications in East Asia.
Hong Kong has been one of the fastest growing East Asian economies since the end of the Second World War. The adoption and practice of economic freedom have been major pillars in its economic success. Indeed, the experience of Hong Kong has served as a reference for other emerging economies in the region. The scope of the book elaborates the context and ingredients of economic freedom that have brought success and prosperity to Hong Kong. With sovereignty reversion to China in 1997, it is even more relevant to see how economic freedom is shaping and adapting to the new environment.There exist a number of economic indices based on economic freedom. Hong Kong has been ranked as the freest economy in the world for a number of consecutive years. While the economic freedom indices compare the performance of a large number of word economies, there is a lack of economic literature that studies the absolute level of economic freedom of a single economy. This book boldly serves the purpose of elaborating on the absolute performance of economic freedom in the world's freest economy. It is, therefore, the first of its kind and unique in its field. Numerous areas of studies related to economic freedom are examined, studied and elaborated so that readers can have a full and comprehensive understanding of the content of economic freedom in Hong Kong.
An open railway access market usually consists of an infrastructure provider (IP) and a group of train service providers (TSPs). Through disintegration and distribution, the managerial responsibilities on railway resources are allocated to these stakeholders. To harmonise the interrelated resource allocation processes, negotiation among the stakeholders is an important and inevitable process to resolve the operational conflicts. This study aims to develop a software platform to enable such negotiations and investigate the behaviour of the stakeholders in negotiations.
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