Talk
Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub
Tuesday, 21 March 2023, 17:00-18:00 PDT
Dr. John D. Wong (The University of Hong Kong)
Place of Many Trees or xʷθəθiqətəm
Liu Institute for Global Issues, 6476 NW Marine Drive, UBC
This is an in person event.
A City Rebegins Event
Registration required.
About the talk:
Commercial aviation took shape in Hong Kong as the city developed into a powerful economy. Rather than understanding air travel as an inevitable outcome of Hong Kong’s arrival in the era of global mobility, John Wong argues that Hong Kong’s development into a regional and global hub was not preordained. By underscoring the shifting process that produced the hub of Hong Kong, his recently published monograph Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub aims to describe globalization and global networks in the making. Viewing the globalization of Hong Kong through the prism of its airline industry, this talk examines how policymakers and businesses in Hong Kong asserted themselves alongside their international partners and competitors in a bid to accrue socioeconomic benefits, negotiated their interests in the city’s economic success, and articulated their expressions of modernity.
About the speaker:
John D. Wong is associate professor at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong. Wong’s research focuses on the flow of people, goods, capital and ideas. With a particular interest in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta/Greater Bay Area, he explores how such flows connected the region to the Chinese political center in the north as well as to maritime partners in the South China Sea and beyond. He received his BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Chicago, MBA from Stanford University, and PhD in History from Harvard University. He worked for a number of years in finance and holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
This talk is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative; and is generously co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Department of Theatre and Film, Public Humanities Hub, and the School of Social Work.