Lingnan Culture and the World: Waterways, Watermanship and Public Energies

Theme

Focusing on watercourses as vectors of exchange and transformation, the symposium examines both wellknown elites such as Cantonese officials, literati, and merchants, as well as the often-overlooked actors who sustained and remade littoral life, including sailors, pirates, sea nomads, boat people, and others whose daily practice of navigation constituted a distinctive maritime knowledge. These communities' multilingual competencies, mobile capital, specialized crafts, and artistic endeavors enabled them to navigate and transform South China land-water interfaces.

Date: 26 - 27 February 2026 (Thu-Fri, UTC+8)

Venue:

Day 1 - C-LP-02, Tai Po Campus, EdUHK
Day 2 - Ma Wan (Invited Scholars Only)

Language: Chinese, English

Symposium Panel

Panel 1. Water-borne Agency and Institutionalization

水生的動能與建制

9:30-10:45

Gliding Beneath the Waves: A Study of Water Scouts (shuimo) in Qing China

Ronald C. Po

Abstracts

“Island within Island”: Shipbuilding, Spatial Displacement, and the Cultural Landscape of North Tsing Yi

Leung Po Shan Anthony

Abstracts

Metamorphosis of the Immortal Bird:
The Oyster from Mythology to Mundanity and Modernity

Chan Timothy Wai Keung

Abstracts

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Paola Calanca

Panel 2. Sensation and Sensibility of Seascapes

海岸景觀的感知系譜

11:10-12:25

The Depiction of the Sea in Hong Kong Literature

Li Yuen Mei Fanny

Abstracts

Lost Horizons: The Interplay of Art and Iconic Venues in Colonial Hong Kong

Chen Fong Fong

Abstracts

Mapping in a Muddle: Zou Boqi, William Mayers, Wilhelm Lobscheid and the Guangdong Provincial Cartography Project (1860s)

Puk Wing Kin

Abstracts

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Lai Chi Tim

Panel 3. Tactic Societies across Waterways

因水制宜的結社組織

14:00–15:15

Operations and Transformations in the Early Years of The North China Herald

Li Zigui

Abstracts

From Market to Xiang (鄉): The Establishment of Gangkou Xiang (港口鄉) and Postwar Social Order in Zhongshan (中山) (1945-195?)

Yang Zhishui

Abstracts

Deviation or Indispensable Connection? Guangzhouwan and the Maritime Networks between Hong Kong and Haiphong, 1900-1940s

Wu Ziqi

Abstracts

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Yim Lawrence Chi Hung

Panel 4. Mobile People at Land-water Interfaces

海陸交界的漂移群體

15:40–16:55

The British Colonial Making of Tanka Boat-Dwellers as an Ethnic Group in Hong Kong

Luk Chi Hung Gary

Abstracts

Across the Waters: Lexical Diffusion in Cantonese-Tanka Contact

Wang Cong

Abstracts

Pressmen, Steamers and Chinese Settlers: From Hong Kong to British North Borneo in the 1880s

Ye Jia Michelle

Abstracts

Lingnan Culture and the World:

Waterways, Watermanship and Public Energies

Panel 1. Water-borne Agency and Institutionalization

水生的動能與建制

9:30-10:45

9:30–9:50

9:50–10:10

10:10–10:30

10:30–10:45

Gliding Beneath the Waves: A Study of Water Scouts (shuimo) in Qing China

Ronald C. Po

“Island within Island”: Shipbuilding, Spatial Displacement, and the Cultural Landscape of North Tsing Yi

Leung Po Shan Anthony

Metamorphosis of the Immortal Bird:The Oyster from Mythology to Mundanity and Modernity

Chan Timothy Wai Keung

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Paola Calanca

Panel 2. Sensation and Sensibility of Seascapes

海岸景觀的感知系譜

11:10-12:25

11:10–11:30

11:30–11:50

11:50–12:10

12:10–12:25

The Depiction of the Sea in Hong Kong Literature

Li Yuen Mei Fanny

Lost Horizons: The Interplay of Art and Iconic Venues in Colonial Hong Kong

Chen Fong Fong

Mapping in a Muddle: Zou Boqi, William Mayers, Wilhelm Lobscheid and the Guangdong Provincial Cartography Project (1860s)

Puk Wing Kin

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Lai Chi Tim

Panel 3. Tactic Societies across Waterways

因水制宜的結社組織

14:00–15:15

14:00–14:20

14:20–14:40

14:40–15:00

15:00–15:15

Operations and Transformations in the Early Years of The North China Herald

Li Zigui

From Market to Xiang (鄉): The Establishment of Gangkou Xiang (港口鄉) and Postwar Social Order in Zhongshan (中山) (1945-195?)

Yang Zhishui

Deviation or Indispensable Connection? Guangzhouwan and the Maritime Networks between Hong Kong and Haiphong, 1900-1940s

Wu Ziqi

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Yim Lawrence Chi Hung

Panel 4. Mobile People at Land-water Interfaces

海陸交界的漂移群體

15:40–16:55

15:40–16:00

16:00–16:20

16:20–16:40

16:40–16:55

The British Colonial Making of Tanka Boat-Dwellers as an Ethnic Group in Hong Kong

Luk Chi Hung Gary

Across the Waters: Lexical Diffusion in Cantonese-Tanka Contact

Wang Cong

Pressmen, Steamers and Chinese Settlers: From Hong Kong to British North Borneo in the 1880s

Ye Jia Michelle

Discussant's comments and Q&A

Discussant: Prof Chan Timothy Wai Keung

Metamorphosis of the Immortal Bird:
The Oyster from Mythology to Mundanity and Modernity