About this Event
The Hong Kong Studies Group Fall 2026 Meet & Greet starts at 12:30 PM on November 17, 2026. Connect with fellow researchers, faculty, and students interested in Hong Kong Studies before our main circle launch session.
Building on this community connection, we are launching York-HKSG-Grad-Circle (the Circle) with its inaugural talk. The Circle is a graduate student initiative of the (HKSG). It gives graduate students working on Hong Kong-related topics a peer space to share research, test ideas, and build networks. It follows HKSG’s view of Hong Kong Studies as interdisciplinary, transnational, and diasporic.
Inaugural Talk | Time: 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM (In-person, Rm 857, Kaneff Tower; Hybrid)
Title
Saam Kap Dai 三及第: The Politics of Sound, Script, and Belonging in Cold War Hong Kong
Synopsis
Why can a text with relatively few distinctly Cantonese expressions still sound unmistakably Cantonese? This talk starts from that discrepancy to revisit saam kap dai 三及第, a distinctive mode of writing that brings together classical Chinese, standard written Chinese and colloquial Cantonese, each with its own historical trajectory. Its genealogy predates the twentieth century, but it gained particular prominence amid the shifting cultural conditions of Cold War Hong Kong, where it created a textual space in which the three languages could converge and be renegotiated.
Through close readings of selected primary literary materials, I examine how the uneven distribution of these linguistic resources shapes narrative voice, reading experiences and cultural identification. I do not treat multilingual writing simply as an expression of linguistic hybridity. I ask instead how historically conditioned relationships between sound and script complicate the seemingly shared experience of reading Chinese.
Although grounded in the particular circumstances of Cold War Hong Kong, this inquiry opens onto broader questions about multilingual literary practices across Chinese-speaking communities, such as those in Southeast Asia. It also invites us to reconsider the relationships among language, cultural belonging and diaspora.
Biobibliography
Bauhinia Hill-tone Ho is a PhD candidate in the Department of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore and is currently a visiting graduate researcher at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on Cold War Hong Kong literature and culture, with broader interests in Sinophone studies, diaspora studies, affect theory, transregional cultural connections, and vernacular Cantonese writing. Her doctoral project explores the intersections of affect, diaspora, and cultural production in Cold War Hong Kong and its connections to the wider Sinophone world.
This inaugural talk is open to the public. All are welcome!
Graduate students from York and other institutions are warmly invited to join the Circle. Please register here.
Don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or join our mailing list. Help us shape the future of Hong Kong Studies at York University.
This event is organized by the Hong Kong Studies Group at the York Centre for Asian Research, York University.
Event venue & nearby stays
Kaneff Tower, Room 857, Ian Macdonald Boulevard, Toronto, Canada
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