Can Hong Kong Ever be Allowed to be Itself?

This is a past event. Registration is closed. View other Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria events.

Save the date

Save the dateNovember 16, 20226:00 PM - 7:00 PMGMT+11

Organizer

Organizer: Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria

Phone: +61 396547271

Contact Person: AIIA VIC

Email: admin.vic@internationalaffairs.org.au

Event Details

Hong Kong has been the crucible of many hopes – of becoming Asia's leading international city; of maintaining uniquely, openness, personal freedoms and the rule of law within the People's Republic of China; of attracting China to change subtly, of providing a credible "one country, two systems" model that Taiwanese people would wish to follow.

Now, and especially since the introduction by Beijing of the all-encompassing National Security Law in mid-2020, all those hopes are dashed, and discourse is severely curtailed – with silence, exile or prison the grim alternatives facing the city's independently-spirited folk, although ideas of liberty and autonomy still live on within Hong Kong's myriad nooks and crannies.

In a new book Two Systems, Two Countries: A Nationalist Guide to Hong Kong(University of California Press, 2022), Monash University Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies Kevin Carrico traces the origins of Hong Kong nationalism, and notes that ever fewer Hong Kong citizens now identify as "Chinese." Seeking to understand this contradiction through years of research and conversations in Hong Kong, he traces the origins of HK nationalism, its diverse schools and proposals for the city's future, and its implications for relations with Beijing.

Kevin Carrico will launch his book in conversation with Louisa Lim, Senior Lecturer at Melbourne University's Centre for Advancing Journalism.

Lim, who co-hosts the award-winning Little Red Podcast, grew up in Hong Kong. Her own book, Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong(Penguin Random House, 2022), interweaves personal narrative with that of the city's two colonisers, Britain and China, and injects the insightful story of famed street calligrapher the 'King of Kowloon.' Her previous book, The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited(Oxford University Press, 2014), explored the lives of people affected by the protests of 1989 in China.

AIIA Victoria invites you to an engaging discussion on a timely topic, to be introduced by Rowan Callick OBE FAIIA.

We gratefully acknowledge the Walter Mangold Trust Fund for its ongoing support of our young members.

This event will be held both in person at Dyason House, and online. To download the pdf flyer please click here.

Speakers

Dr. Kevin Carrico

Monash University

Dr. Kevin Carrico

Monash University

Dr. Kevin Carrico is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at Monash University in Melbourne and currently an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow. Kevin’s research focus includes ethnic relations, nationalism, and political culture in China, Tibet, and Hong Kong. His research has been funded by the United States' Department of Education, the Australian Research Council, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. Apart from his new book, Dr. Carrico is the author of "The Great Han: Race, Nationalism, and Tradition in China Today" (University of California Press, 2017). He also translated Tsering Woeser’s "Tibet on Fire: Self-Immolations against Chinese Rule" (Verso Press, 2016) and Guan Jun’s "Silencing Chinese Media: The Southern Weekly Protests and the Fate of Civil Society in China" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). Kevin previously worked as a columnist at Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper, which was closed in June of 2021 amidst a crack-down on press freedom, and his works have been featured in Foreign Policy, the Age, Hong Kong Free Press, Taipei Times, Voice of Tibet, China Brief, and Anthropology News.

Dr. Louisa Lim

Melbourne University

Dr. Louisa Lim

Melbourne University

Dr. Louisa Lim is a Senior Lecturer in Audio-Visual Journalism at Melbourne University’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Lim’s recent scholarly work includes research on communication and media studies and journalism studies, much of which concerning China. She has made contributions to a series of reports commissioned by the International Federation of Journalists which investigate China’s influence on world media, and provided insight to the Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Media Diversity in Australia. Apart from Lim’s own books, of which her 2014 work was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, she has contributed chapters to books such as Jane Golley, Linda Jaivin, Ben Hillman and Sharon Strange’s "China Dreams" (ANU Press, 2020), and Tina Burrett and Jeffrey Kingston’s "Press Freedom in Contemporary Asia" (Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2019). Louisa was previously a correspondent on China and Hong Kong for the BBC and NPR, and has also written for the New York Times and the Guardian.

Rowan Callick OBE FAIIA

Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

Rowan Callick OBE FAIIA

Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

Rowan Callick OBE FAIIA is an Industry Fellow at Griffith University’s Asia Institute. He was Beijing-based China Correspondent of The Australian for two terms, following 20 years with The Australian Financial Review including as China Correspondent based in Hong Kong. He was also Asia-Pacific Editor for both newspapers. He has won a Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year and two Walkley Awards. He has written three books published in both English and Chinese - Comrades & Capitalists: Hong Kong Since the Handover (UNSW Press, 1998); Channar: A landmark venture in iron ore (Hardie Grant, 2012); and Party Time: Who Runs China and How (Black Inc., 2013). He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations, La Trobe University’s Asia Institute and China Studies Department, and the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia China Relations Institute.

Documents

2022 11 16 Hong Kong Flyer Final.pdf

Tickets

In-person: AIIA VIC Premium Member $0

Member Price Complimentary

In-person: AIIA VIC Member $20

Member Price A$20

In-person: AIIA VIC Young Professionals Member $0

Member Price Complimentary

In-person: Non-member $30

A$30

In-person: Student Non-member $10

A$10

Webinar: AIIA VIC Member $0

Member Price Complimentary

Webinar: AIIA VIC Young Professionals Member $0

Member Price Complimentary

Webinar: AIIA Member (other Branches)

Complimentary

Webinar: Student Non-Member $5

A$5

Webinar: Non-Member $10

A$10

Sponsors and Partners

Dr. Kevin Carrico, Monash University in conversation with Dr. Louisa Lim, University of Melbourne

Dr. Kevin Carrico

Monash University

Dr. Louisa Lim

Melbourne University

Rowan Callick OBE FAIIA

Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

In-person: AIIA VIC Premium Member $0

In-person: AIIA VIC Member $20

In-person: AIIA VIC Young Professionals Member $0

In-person: Non-member $30

In-person: Student Non-member $10

Webinar: AIIA VIC Member $0

Webinar: AIIA VIC Young Professionals Member $0

Webinar: AIIA Member (other Branches)

Webinar: Student Non-Member $5

Webinar: Non-Member $10

Organizer