Fri. June 24, 15.30-17.30.

Ethnic minorities in different locales have been struggling with ethnic/racial tensions or even discrimination, reflecting a deep seated ‘othering’ encountered on both the policy and day to day levels. Minority groups have had to resort to alternative or even imaginative forms of trade for survival, engaging in creative co-ethnic economies. The rise of social movements in recent years has seen ethnic minority communities become increasingly active in the public domain, organizing and participating in social actions as they struggle for more rights and recognition as ‘Hong Kongers’ in civil society, especially during the Umbrella Movement. This salon discusses the multi-faceted challenges and struggles that ethnic minorities face, and their tactics as they engage in (even para-legal) forms of economy and social activism. We will invite ethnic minority activists, NGO workers and scholars to speak about research and advocacy work as critical intervention on and for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

Lisa Yuk-Ming LEUNG (Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University) is an associate professor at Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University. She researches the global circulation of East Asian popular culture, and ethnic minority discourses and multiculturalism. She has recently co-authored a book on south Asian minorities in Hong Kong (Understanding South Asians in Hong Kong (with Prof John Nguyet Erni). She is currently focusing on the role of social media in social movements, establishing relationships between affordances, affect and media spatiality.

Roberto CASTILLO is a lecturer at the African Studies Programme at the University of Hong Kong. His academic training is in Cultural Studies, International Relations, History and journalism. He holds a PhD from the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Previously, Roberto completed a Masters in Cultural Studies at The University of Sydney, and lived and worked in Beijing and Hong Kong for eight years. His research interests are: transnationality, migration and mobility; the critique of nationalism & globalisation; China’s changing ethnoscapes with a focus on foreign presence in the country; Africa-China relations; (cultural) research methodologies; globalisation of social movements; digital cultures; ethnographic-based knowledge production; and the cultural politics of media representations of race/ethnicity. Roberto administers the website www.africansinchina.net

Jeffrey ANDREWS is Social Worker in Christian Action Refugees Services, Chungking Mansion. Raised in Hong Kong as an ethnic Indian, Mr Andrews decided to work on advocacy for ethnic minority rights in Hong Kong, actively collaborating with NGOs such as UNISON and Christian Action. During the Umbrella Movement, he led a group of likeminded south Asian youths patrolling the protest sites every night for solidarity.