“Yinglish/Englishized Cantonese” and Cultural Identities in Hong Kong
Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | 2:00PM - 3:30PM | External Event, Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library 8th floor Robarts Library 130 St. George Street University of Toronto |
Description
In Hong Kong, most people speak a hybrid language, which is a mixture of Cantonese and English and is a marker of the local identity. The changes in education policy and the growing presence of Chinese mainlanders in Hong Kong make many Hongkongers feel being marginalized. In this talk, Professor Kwok-kan Tam will take examples from poetry and the theatre to illustrate “the anxiety of identity” among the Hongkongers who feel their identity being threatened.
Kwok-kan Tam is Chair Professor and Dean of Arts and Social Sciences at the Open University of Hong Kong. He obtained his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was Reader-Professor in English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and taught English and Comparative Literature there for more than 20 years before he joined the Open University in 2007. His research covers Ibsen studies, Gao Xingjian studies, theatre studies, literature and gender/identity/the self, and Asian Englishes. He is currently Head of the International Ibsen Committee at the University of Oslo, and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities.
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