“In-between place” Reconstructed in Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong
On May 17, Prof. Elizabeth Sinn, Honorary Professor of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, presented a lecture on “Emigration from/through Hong Kong 1850 – 1950” to the ISF community. It was also the first hybrid talk of the “2023 Qilin Lecture Series on Chinese Culture”, expanding the audience to external participants and engaging them online.
Dr. Heidi Huang from the Advanced Institute for Global Chinese Studies, Lingnan University, was one of the guest speakers at the post-lecture forum, and she kindly shared some of her thoughts with us in this newsletter:
What does Hong Kong signify to us? Is it our origin? Starting point? Transit hub? Or home? In this lecture, Prof. Elizabeth Sinn took the audience on a journey through time and space, starting from pre-gold rush Hong Kong and traveling to California where gold was first discovered, exploring the gold trade network, and the different organizations involved in the process of repatriating the remains of Chinese migrants who died abroad.
Prof. Sinn pointed out that Hong Kong was an “in-between place”. On the one hand, this in-between place differed from the concept of “liminality” in anthropology and migration studies, emphasizing a kind of fluidity. On the other hand, this notion expanded the unidimensional concept of “diaspora”, making it more multifaceted and inclusive of different forms and shapes. Throughout her book, Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Emigration, and the Making of Hong Kong, Prof. Sinn used interesting metaphors such as corridor, river, and middle room to illuminate the characteristics of the “in-between place”. The allure of Hong Kong lies in its openness and inclusiveness, for it is at the heart of thousands of intersecting corridors leading in different directions, shaped by the converging life experiences of countless individual immigrants and the histories. It is also a spiritual home that fulfills our heart’s deepest desire.
About the Speaker：
Prof. Elizabeth Sinn was born and raised in Hong Kong. She has written widely on Hong Kong history. Before her retirement she was Deputy Director of the Centre of Asian Studies (HKU) and is today an Honorary Professor at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. She is currently an Expert Advisor to the Hong Kong Museum of History and works closely with the Hong Kong Chronicles project. Having served on the Antiquities Advisory Board and the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust, she was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star in 2004 for her contribution to heritage conservation. She led the “Hong Kong Memory Project” (2006-2013) to create a multi-media website for materials on Hong Kong’s history, culture, and heritage. Her own favorite book is Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong (2013) and her latest publication, “(Almost) Making Money in South China: Ho Amei and his Silver Mountain Dream”, (Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 62 (2022), pp. 7-35), tells the history of the silver mine in Silver Mine Bay.
Reading List：
“Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong”
Publisher : Hong Kong University Press; Reprint edition
ISBN：9789888139729
