Speaker: Gary Ka-wai Cheung (South China Morning Post)

Discussant: Ching Cheong (Strait Times)

Reservation & Contact: Heipo Leung

cefc@cefc.com.hk / tel: 2876 6910

 Speaker:

Gary Ka-wai Cheung has been a journalist since 1991. He worked as a reporter at Sing Tao Daily, Overseas Chinese Daily, Yazhou Zhoukan and South China Morning Post, covering fields ranging from politics, education and integration between Hong Kong and the mainland. He is currently a political editor at the South China Morning Post. His interests in the 1967 riots began in 1996 and he published Inside Story of the 1967 Riots in 2000 (in Chinese). He won the Human Rights Press Award (Magazine Division) presented by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Amnesty International in 1998.

Discussant:

Ching Cheong, a veteran journalist, has analysed and commented extensively on Chinese politics for The Straits Times and periodicals in China. His area of expertise is in political, military and diplomatic news in the Greater China area, built up over the years in postings in Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei. He has witnessed and reported on major milestones, including the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, the opening up of China and the democratisation process in Taiwan.

Abstract:

The 1967 riots in Hong Kong, often mentioned in Hong Kong’s political political debates, but seldom analyzed in detail, remain a contentious episode in recent history, viewed by some as an outgrowth of the Cultural Revolution in China, by others as the expression of deep-running conflicts in colonial society.

Hong Kong’s Watershed: The 1967 Riots, published in 2009, was the first English book to provide an account and critical analysis of the disturbances based on declassified files from the British government and recollection by key players during the events. The interviews with the participants, including Jack Cater, Liang Shangyuan, George Walden, Tsang Tak-sing, Tsang Yok-sing, and Hong Kong government officials, left irreplaceable records of oral history on the political upheaval.

The book analyses the causes and repercussions of the 1967 riots which are widely seen as a watershed of postwar history of Hong Kong. It depicts the prelude to the 1967 riots, including the Star Ferry riots in 1966, the leftist-instigated riots in Macau in 1966, and the major events leading to the disturbances, including the labour dispute at a plastic flower factory, the border conflict in Sha Tau Kok, bomb attacks and arson attacks on the office of British charge d’affaires in Beijing.

The Chinese edition of this book has been shortlisted as one of the 20 finalists of the2013 Hong Kong Book Prize, organised by RTHK. The final results will be announced in June.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME!

This seminar will be held in English.
Sebastian Veg, Director of the CEFC, will chair the session.
Snacks and drinks will be served after the seminar.
Seats are limited. Please confirm your attendance.