Backreading Hong Kong Symposium: Diaspora and Adaptation

Join us for the Backreading Hong Kong Symposium: Diaspora and Adaptation on November 18-19, 2024, at the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto. This public event will explore Hong Kong diasporic identities, adaptation, and cultural retention through panels on literature, film, and the arts. Highlights include keynote speaker Tammy Lai-Ming Ho and a graduate student colloquium featuring discussions on Hong Kong-Canada migration, identity negotiation, and cinematic adaptations. To register, please email chk.library@utoronto.ca. Organized by U of T’s Department of Language Studies and supported by the Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group on Hong Kong-Canada Connections at U of T.

The symposium is open to the public.

November 18, 2024 (Monday)

10:20–10:30
Welcoming Address
Maria Lau (Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto)
Chris Song (University of Toronto)

10:30–12:00 | Keynote
Moderator: Chris Song (University of Toronto)

Hong Kong Diasporic Writing’s Real and Hallucinated Geographies
Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (Cha | Saarland University)

2:00–3:00 | Diaspora and the Arts
Moderator: Wayne C.F. Yeung (University of Denver)

Tiffany Sia’s Wet Ontology: Of Dampness, Tears, and Liquidity
Abel Song Han (Cornell University)

Dragon Boys and the Tail of “Hongcouver”: Tracing Hong Kong-Canada Migration, Community Connection and Cultural Co-production
Winnie Yanjing Wu (Hong Kong Metropolitan University)

3:30–5:30 | Graduate Students Colloquium

3:30–4:30 | First Half
Discussion: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (Cha | Saarland University)

Protean Temporality in a Hong Kong Science Fiction Adaptation: From Ni Kuang’s 1000 Years Cat to Massified Slime Peril
Tif Fan (University of Toronto)

The Complexities of Adaptation: A Study on Christ of Nanjing
Allison Feng (University of Toronto)

Celluloid Spectres in Rouge: Adapting Cinematic Haunting, from Lilian Lee’s Phantom Stardom to Stanley Kwan’s Theatrical Ghosts
Wenying Wu (University of Toronto)

4:30–5:30 | Second Half
Discussion: Cameron L. White (University of Michigan)

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon: Historical Texts, Transcultural Games Content and Exotic Spaces
Guanxi Wu (University of Toronto)

Identity, Technology, Imagination: Revisiting Tsui Hark’s Multigenre Animated film, A Chinese Ghost Story
Tingying Li (University of Toronto)

The Ashes of Jianghu: Reimagining Jin Yong’s Legend of the Condor Heroes in Wong Kar-Wai’s The Ashes of Time
Samuel Minden (University of Toronto)

November 19, 2024 (Tuesday)

10:00–12:00 | Identity and Diaspora
Moderator: Mitchell Ma (University of Toronto)

Cultural Retention and Identity Negotiation through Systematic Cantonese Language
Education in the Diasporas
Zoe Lam and Raymond Pai (University of British Columbia)

Here/ There and No-where: Three Cases of Identity Disjuncture
Ellie Au (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Rick Sin (York University), and Miu Chung Yan (University of British Columbia)

Estrangement, Resettlement & Community: A Qualitative Study of Post-2019 Hong Kong Young
Adults Diaspora at a Chinese Canadian Church
Christie Chan (Independent scholar)

From Democracy Wall to Lennon Wall: A Global Symbol of Resistance in the Hong Kong Diaspora
Derek Liu (Toronto Metropolitan University)

2:00–3:30 | Film Adaptation
Moderator: Bernice Cheung (University of Toronto)

Hear What We Saw, Feel What We Sing: Lyrical Explorations of Hong Kong Cinema in The State and Denki 皇都電姬
Cameron L. White (University of Michigan)

Illicit Love and Spaces of Adaptation in Comrades: Almost a Love Story and In the Mood for Love
Chak-kwan Ng (Hong Kong Metropolitan University)

The Precarious Diaspora: From Song of the Exile to Fly Me to the Moon
Hong Zou (University of Hong Kong)

4:00–5:30 | Diaspora in and out
Moderator: Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (Saarland University)

Nativity Without Nativism: Towards a Discourse on Hong Kong’s Imagined Indigeneity (1980s-2010s)
Wayne C.F. Yeung (University of Denver)

Being Otherwise: Diasporic Figurations of Hong Kong in Xu Xi’s This Fish is Fowl
Christopher N. Payne (University of Toronto)

Joy is Here: Romancing the “New” Overseas Filipino Worker in Hello, Love, Goodbye (2019)
Miguel Antonio N. Lizada (The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong)

Organizers:
Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough
Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Support provided by the Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group on Hong Kong-Canada Connections at the University of Toronto