The Science, Technology and Medicine Seminar (STMS) series, co-hosted by the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit and the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, promotes cutting edge cross-disciplinary research that straddles the arts, sciences, and medicine. The aim is to provide a friendly forum to debate and test new ideas, papers, chapters, book projects and grant proposals, as well as topical issues and individual research.
If you are interested in joining, or participating in future seminars, please let us know. We welcome suggestions for future presentations and discussion topics.
For further information about STMS activities,
please contact Dr Ria Sinha at riasinha@hku.hk, or Dr Carol Tsang at cctsang1@hku.hk.
Upcoming seminar:
3 April 2025 (Thursday) | 1:00 pm | Room RRST-7.58 (7/F Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU Centennial Campus)
Title: Happy Valley’s Forgotten Meiji-era Japanese Graves and the Stories They Tell
Speaker: Ms Georgina Challen, co-author (with Professor Yoshiko Nakano) of Meiji Graves in Happy Valley: Stories of Early Japanese Residents in Hong Kong
Abstract:
The Hong Kong Cemetery in Happy Valley is home to over 470 graves connected to the city’s Japanese population, most of which belong to individuals who died during the Meiji era (1868-1912). Who were these people? What were they doing in Hong Kong? And why were unbaptised Japanese buried in what was called at one time the ‘Protestant Cemetery’?
These are the questions that Yoshiko Nakano and Georgina Challen address in Meiji Graves in Happy Valley (2024, HKU Press). Using the graves as a starting point, they examine the make-up of the Japanese community in late nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Hong Kong. This talk discusses how the project originated and the difficulties of researching these mostly forgotten Japanese.
Bio:
Ms Georgina Challen holds an MA in literary and cultural studies from the University of Hong Kong. She joined HKU in 2007 and was the Faculty of Arts’ Public Affairs Manager from 2010 to 2017. She is currently a Research Assistant in the Department of Comparative Literature’s Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures. She is the co-author of Meiji Graves in Happy Valley: Stories of Early Japanese Residents in Hong Kong (跑馬地日本墳墓：明治時期香港日本人的故事) (2024, HKU Press).