Events

26 Mar 2014

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Lecture TheatreG/F, Hong Kong Central Library66 Causeway RoadCauseway Bay, Hong Kong

Prof. John FITZGERALDDirector, Asia-Pacific Research Centre for Social Investment and PhilanthropySwinburne University of Technology

John Fitzgerald joined Swinburne University in 2013 as Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy after serving for five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing. Before that he was Head of the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University and, before that again, Director of the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University. In Canberra he served for as Chair of the Education Committee of the Australia-China Council of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as chair of the Committee for National and International Cooperation of the Australian Research Council, and as International Secretary of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His book, Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia (UNSW 2007) was a finalist in the Prime Minister’s History Prize in 2008 and awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association for the most distinguished book on Australian History published that year. His publications have also won international recognition, including the leading China prize of the American Association for Asian Studies, the Joseph Levenson Prize. John Fitzgerald has a Ph.D. from ANU and held a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate of Sydney University.

Admission is free. Seat reservation is required. To reserve a seat, please
– register online at http://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/Event/2014_HBC/
– call at (852) 3943 7119 / (852) 3943 8541

(852) 3943 7119 / (852) 3943 8541

With the exception of certain notable Southeast Asian magnates, chiefly from Fujian, surprisingly little is known about the role of Chinese diaspora communities in the development of charity and philanthropy in late Qing and Republican China. This presentation sheds light on a significant part of the diaspora legacy: the role of Cantonese communities around the Pacific Rim in mediating the emergence of modern philanthropy alongside customary forms of charity in China and Hong Kong and among Chinese communities abroad over the first half of the 20th century. The talk explores the emergence in the early 20th century of new styles of philanthropic practice alongside earlier forms of charity among Chinese communities of the Pacific, paying particular attention to the connections tying diaspora communities in Australia and Oceania with partners in Hong Kong and Shanghai whose stories have rarely been told.

For more information, please visit http://www.history.cuhk.edu.hk/Event/2014_HBC/
http://hkpl.gov.hk