HKIHSS

Hang Seng Bank Golden Jubilee Education Fund for Research
　

To commemorate its Golden Jubilee in 1983, Hang Seng Bank generously donated a fund which has been used as an endowment to support the activities of the Centre of Asian Studies (now under HKIHSS). The interest income derived from the capital sum each year is used for the following purposes:

1)	awards to staff members and Centre Fellows of the Centre for research in the areas of Hong Kong Studies, Traditional Chinese Studies, Contemporary Chinese Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, and Japanese and Korean Studies;
2)	the holding of seminars and conferences organised by the Centre in connection with research projects supported by the Fund;
3)	Centre publications arising from research supported by the Fund; and
4)	meeting expenditure required in the maintenance or development of research materials and library holdings in the Centre.

Details of the funded projects for 2010-2011 are as follows:

The Great Depression and the Chinese Capital Market in the 1930s: An Analysis of the Role Played by City Bank, HSBC and Yokohama Specie Bank

by Dr. Lee Pui Tak

This project is a pilot study of a book-length project of the capital market of Shanghai in the 1930s. It aims to document the development of the Shanghai capital market and analyze how the Republican government successfully worked with the foreign banks in regulating the market.

Polyglot Scholarship in the Intellectual Life of Qing China, 1700-1800: A Study of Knowledge Transfer Based on Cross-Cultural Historiographies of the Yuan Dynasty

by Dr. Matthew W. Mosca

This project intends to study translation and cross-cultural intellectual exchange in the Qianlong reign (1735-1796) of the Qing dynasty. It is designed to be an exploratory first step toward a more comprehensive study with three primary aims: to examine (1) how and why Qing officials and scholars studied foreign languages and the mechanics of their translation efforts: (2) how and why the Qing state produced official translations of materials related to Mongol History; and (3) how new linguistic competence in non-native languages and access to previously unknown materials influenced existing scholarly traditions beyond the reach of the state.

Details of the funded projects for 2009-2010 are as follows:

A Study of the Survival of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy in Mainland China

by Dr. Cheris Shun-ching Chan

This project has two major objectives. First, it seeks to understand how indigenous Chinese industries and companies survive and evolve in the face of an influx of multinational industries and corporations. Second, it examines the fundamental characteristics of Chinese business organisational practices, and their differences from those of foreign corporations. The surge in foreign pharmaceutical enterprises and the survival of the traditional Chinese drug companies in mainland China will be used as a case study to serve these objectives.

Burmese-Indians in Yunnan: A Study of the Background, Role, and Networks of Burmese Muslim Communities of Indian Origin along the China-Burma Borders

by Dr. Renaud Egreteau

This project intends to explore the historical, political and commercial trajectories of a visible, wealthy, yet understudied, small migrant community dwelling China’s Yunnanese outer edges, the Burmese Indians. It seeks to study the contemporary significance and influence of the Burmese Muslim minority — largely being of Indian origin — that has settled since the 19th century the borders of Yunnan and upper Burma. It proposes to survey the importance, the role and the networking capacities these Burmese Indian communities have developed in past decades in few Chinese borders towns such as Ruili and Jinghong (Yunnan), in order to understand the impact they have on contemporary China-Burma cross-border interactions.