HONG KONG DOLLAR: MEDIATING CHINA’S PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL CAPITALISM SINCE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- Starting Time 活動開始時間
February 3, 2026 at 4:30 AM UTC
(In your time zone. 閣下所在時區）
February 3, 2026 at 12:30 PM GMT+8
(In the event local time zone. 活動所在時區)
- Participants 嘉賓
Professor John D. Wong (The University of Hong Kong)
John D. Wong is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at The University of Hong Kong. John D. 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 their maritime partners in the South China Sea and beyond.Studying the China trade in the context of early-nineteenth-century global exchange, his first monograph— Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System (Cambridge University Press, 2016; Chinese edition, HKU Press, 2025)—demonstrates how China trade partners sustained their economic exchange on a global scale long before Western imperialism ushered in the era of globalization in a Eurocentric modern world. In Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub (Harvard, 2022; Chinese edition, HKU Press, 2023), John explores the development of commercial aviation in Hong Kong as the city grew into a powerful economy after WWII. By not accepting Hong Kong’s development into a regional and global hub as preordained, this study aims to describe globalization and global networks in the making.
- Organizers 主協辦機構
Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong
- Mode 活動形式
- Hybrid
- Venue 地點
- Rm 201, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong or Via Zoom
- Languages 語言
- English
- Description 詳情
As a Western foothold at the southern tip of China, Hong Kong has played a crucial role as China’s interface with the rest of the world since the nineteenth century. The appeal of Hong Kong must be understood within a broader regional and national context. While a jurisdictional boundary separates Hong Kong from mainland China, its currency highlights the city’s unique status while simultaneously linking China to the global economy.
Originally a “local currency” authorized by the colonial regime, the Hong Kong dollar has seen its circulation expand beyond the city’s borders, first into the neighboring region and then deeper into Chinese territories. Central to the circulation of the Hong Kong dollar is its role in mediating China’s exchanges with capital markets worldwide against a shifting geopolitical backdrop.
Geopolitical dynamics and economic forces have shifted the linkage of Hong Kong’s currency from silver to the pound sterling, and then to the US dollar. Despite these challenges, the creditworthiness of the Hong Kong dollar and its relative appeal in China have persisted. The role of the Hong Kong dollar as a mediator for China in global capitalism underscores Hong Kong’s evolution into a cosmopolitan nexus and its enduring significance in the face of new geopolitical configurations.
- Registration & Video Recording 登記與錄影
Registration is required. 活動需要登記。
The event is not recorded. 活動過程不會錄影。