Hong Kong Nostalgia: Narrating Childhood and Collective Memories in Graphic Memoirs

With Kin Wai Chu, Ghent University

In this presentation, Dr. Chu will delve into the theme of nostalgia for 1980s and 1990s Hong Kong in three graphic novels: How Blue Was My Valley (2006) by Hok-tak Yeung, Sheung Ha Wo Che (2009) by Rainbow Leung and Fu Chong Chok Lok (2011) by Ko Sing. Through her analysis, she will illustrate how these works evoke emotions tied to childhood and cityscapes of Hong Kong, effectively intertwining personal narratives and identity with collective memories.

Kin-Wai Chu is a FWO postdoctoral fellow on Comics Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. Kin-wai Chu received a PhD in Literature from KU Leuven in 2022, and her thesis focuses on Hong Kong comics of the twenty-first century from a transmedia and nostalgic perspective. Her publications can be found in anthologies and journals such as The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, and Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics.

All are welcome.

In-person participants can register at this link.

Virtual participants can register at this link.

This is the event of the YCAR Hong Kong Studies Group Lecture Series 2023–24. The primary objectives of the series are to review, highlight and acknowledge the new knowledge that emerging scholars are contributing to the field of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Diaspora Studies, thereby shaping its future. The series is organized by the Hong Kong Studies Group.

For more information about the Hong Kong Studies Group, click this link.