Date: Tuesday November 5, 2024

Time: 1:00-2:30 PM

Location: WDR 3002

Speaker: Shan Huang, PhD in Anthropology, Stanford University

Abstract

In this talk, I discuss the role of oral history in Hong Kong’s urban movements. These movements seek to democratize urban planning and cultivate new forms of life via place-making projects in urban peripherals. They have sparked reflections on urban development models and fostered emotional attachment to the city and its environment, drawing from and redefining “social movements” as a form of liberal politics. I illustrate these dynamics through an ethnographic study of how a grassroots oral history initiative, first organized in Mui Wo, a suburban seaside town, during an anti-land reclamation campaign nearby, gradually evolved into several community-supported agriculture projects participated by a mixture of locals and outsiders. While highlighting oral history’s unique potential to enable new social relationships and articulate environmental affordance in social activism, I also reflect on the broader relevance—and legacy—of Hong Kong’s urban movements.

Bio

Shan Huang (PhD in Anthropology, Stanford 2024) is an anthropologist, independent scholar, and convener of several social and intellectual projects. His scholarly interests are urban-environmental politics, social activism, and affect studies in sub/urban Hong Kong and mainland China. His dissertation, The Affective Spatialization of Politics, is an ethnography of post-Handover Hong Kong’s political culture through the lens of its urban/environmental movements. His co-authored book, Reappearing Mui Wo (in Chinese, Typesetter 2024), offers a socio-agricultural historiography of a seaside town on Lantau Island, advocating for future-oriented place-making in Hong Kong by reimagining what counts as prosperity and decline.