Enrooting an Emerging Diasporic Identity: The Legacies of Hong Kong Immigrants in Canada’s Migration History Dr. Miu Chung Yan, School of Social Work, UBC

[ABSTRACT]

Recent political developments have, without doubt, fostered an unusually strong sense of local identity among Hong Kongers. This is so even among many who have chosen to migrate elsewhere. In this talk, Dr. Miu Chung Yan will examine the history, uniqueness, and legacies of the immigration of Hong Kongers to Canada, and he will explore how recent developments have shaped the formation of a new identity. But this new diasporic identity, Dr. Yan argues, cannot be sustained by simply appealing to transnational politics. As members of a diasporic community located in Canada, Hong Kong immigrants should also (re)claim their own legacies in their host country.

[BIO]

Dr. Miu Chung YAN is a professor at the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Born and raised in the former British colony, Dr. Yan has long been interested in the development of the social welfare system in Hong Kong. And as a scholar of migration studies, he has also conducted research on the evolution and transformation of the Hong Kong diasporic communities. Dr. Yan’s latest commentary on Hong Kong Canadians, “Return of the Returnees? Dual Citizenship and Hong Kong’s Global Talent Base,” can be found on AsiaGlobal Online.

This webinar is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative and co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Centre for Migration Studies, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Public Humanities Hub, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.

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