• Sunday, November 8th, 2020
• Registration 18:45, Conversation 19:00, Close 20:00
• ASHK Members $120; Non-members $150
• Online Registration Required; Asia Society Hong Kong Center
• Conducted in English

“All history begins in the present.” Robert Bickers’ history of the Swire Group opens with a flight from London to Hong Kong, and the observation that one company was involved to a greater or lesser extent with everything seen, travelled in or consumed on the journey. This fascinating exploration of Britain in Asia, and Asia in Britain, is not just a business history, but an extended case study in the history of globalization. Professor Bickers will be in conversation with Hong Kong historian, Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, former Deputy Director of the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Robert Bickers will join virtually.

Born and educated in Hong Kong, Elizabeth Sinn has published on many aspects of its history, including the media, migration, prostitution and charity. Among her works are Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong (1989, 2003), two histories of the Bank of East Asia (1994, 2018), The Last Half Century of Chinese Overseas (1998), Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong (2013), Meeting Place: Encounters Across Cultures in Hong Kong (2017), and Index to CO (Colonial Office Series) 129. She led the production of the Hong Kong Memory Project (http://hkmemory.hk)

Robert Bickers is a writer and historian. His books include the prize-winning Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai; The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914; and Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Foreign Domination, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Wolfson Prize for History. Born in Britain, he has lived in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Germany, and is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol, and directs the ‘Historical Photographs of China Project’