The Future of Postcolonial Studies in Hong Kong?

Dr Jason Lee
Lecturer, Department of English and Literature
Hong Kong Baptist University

Abstract:
In this talk, I pose the following question: how might anglophone postcolonial studies, a popular and so far unconstrained multidisciplinary field in post-handover Hong Kong, operate in future under the banner of national hegemony? Given today’s emergent geopolitical struggle between China and a weakening but still dominant Western-hegemonic world order, Hong Kong’s representation as a postcolonial anomaly and its contested epistemologies have become increasingly politically-mediated. In this talk, I will map out some of the ongoing discursive challenges surrounding postcolonial studies in Hong Kong. I will consider whether future sinocentric influences on knowledge production in Hong Kong might counter or redirect a historically Eurocentric focus on postcoloniality, and explore what productive (or discrepant) forces might emerge in the encounter between postcolonial theories as currently practiced in the West and the neo-Marxist theories favoured by Chinese universities. Finally, I will speculate on a number of directions that the field might take, and whether current predicaments regarding Hong Kong’s own tenuous postcoloniality might yet find critical purchase and a creative outlet across a number of related discursive fields, such as critical area studies, Sinophone studies, and world literature.

Bio:
Jason Eng Hun Lee is Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research and practice interests include global anglophone literatures, postcolonial and diasporic Asian writing, and global Shakespeares. He is a Literary Editor for Postcolonial Text and chief organizer for OutLoud HK. His debut poetry collection Beds in the East (Eyewear Press, 2019) was a finalist for the Melita Hume Prize and HKU Poetry Prize.