Poon Shuk Wah

Biography

I am interested in the negotiation between tradition and modernity in 20th-century China and colonial Hong Kong, and the conflicts that arose from this negotiation. I pay particular attention to the various ways in which Western ideas were localised in Chinese society; their incompatibility or amalgamation with traditional Chinese cultural practices, for example, and how common people negotiated modernity in their daily lives. With specific reference to oxen in Republican China, my current research project investigates the entry of animals into China’s modernist and nationalist discourses, and their significance to everyday lives, food culture, national politics, as well as China’s trading and diplomatic relations with Japan.

Research Interest

The history of the lineage in south China Chinese business history The history of Hong Kong Local history in China