Research summary
Historically, Canada and Hong Kong have enjoyed a long-standing and close relationship. In fact, Hong Kong is home to one of the largest Canadian diasporas abroad, with an estimated 300,000 Canadian citizens and some 200 Canadian companies. As Canada Research Chair in Hong Kong Studies, Dr. Helena Wu aims to foster productive engagement between Canada and Hong Kong culture and society.
She and her research team are pursuing two interlocking projects. In one, they are exploring how creative expression and audience activities affect cultural (industry) practices, the construction of identity and the relationships between content producers, distributors and spectators (and vice versa) in post-millennial Hong Kong. In the other, they are conducting a knowledge exchange project to collect, preserve and revisualize place-based, community-bonding experiences and memories in post-millennial Hong Kong. They are using digital cartography, online collections and a community-academic partnership to accomplish this. Ultimately, their research will bridge the exploration of diaspora, identity and belonging in different fields and across diverse communities.