International Conference: Port Cities in Comparative Global History: Potentials and Issues Date: 15-16 June 2023 Venue: Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation via the University of Portsmouth and the History Department and Modern History Research Centre at the Hong Kong Baptist University The University of Portsmouth’s ‘Port Towns […]
Working in unprepossessing paint-stained overalls and traditional conical hats Chinese female contractors serviced British Commonwealth and US ships anchored off Hong Kong. A South China Morning Post outlined the civilian women’s formal role when ships arrived. These ‘side parties were groups of women who would clean the vessels, chip off rust and repaint their sides, […]
By the Qing (1644-1912 CE) dynasty, the term ‘Tanka’ (pinyin: Danjia) became a common designation for people who lived on boats in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian. Throughout the development of the term ‘Tanka’, its various usages and iterations were always denigrating and alienating. Considered a base people, the Tanka were largely excluded […]
Review: Daniel Owen Spence, Colonial Naval Culture and British Imperialism, 1922-67. Manchester University Press, Studies in Imperialism, 2015 – full details here. This is not your traditional naval history. Aligning himself with those whom he describes as ‘cultural-naval historians’ (2), Spence aims – as he puts it in the book’s final sentence – to understand […]
