Media

HKUL Book Talk: Going against the stream and counteracting mainstream culture

28 Apr 2014

 

Speaker:  Dr Ho Sik Ying, Petula

Date:  29 April, 2014
Time:  7:00– 9:00pm
Venue:  Special Collections, 1/F Main Library

Language:  Cantonese

Registration: http://lib.hku.hk/friends/reading_club/bt2014_03.html

About the Talk

Going against the stream and counteracting mainstream culture

Special guests:

1. Chan King Fai (Commentator/Social Critic, Activist, the Author of the book “草木皆兵”)
2. Wong Kin Wai, Anthony (Business Director, Policy Research and Advocacy, Hong Kong Council of Social Sciences)

About the Author

Dr. Petula, Sik Ying HO is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong. Her main research and teaching interests are in the area of homosexuality, gender and sexuality issues. She has made important contributions to the development of a dynamic theory of gender and sexuality in the international arena that will help problematize feminist theories and resist Western hegemonies through empirical case studies that make connections between discourses, cultural practices, political economy, and social change.

Dr. Ho’s current projects also include using documentary films to explore the integration of arts and scholarship. She has produced 48 documentary films based on various research projects. They include: 22 Springs: The Invincible; Whatever Will Be Will Be; Hong Kong Calling Tokyo and The “Kong-lo” Chronicles. They represent new ways of collecting data, producing new knowledge and disseminating findings. 

Her new book, co-edited with Ka Tat Tsang is entitled Love and Desire in Hong Kong. It is published in English and Chinese by Hong Kong University Press and China Social Science Press in 2012.

Website: http://sikyingho.socialwork.hku.hk/

About the book

This is a story of cruelty, cruelty to oneself and onto others. This is also a story of love, as love and cruelty manifested towards each other. Ho Sik Ying’s story as a female scholar and her past 55 years of life – love for a gay man, and then a married man, her experience of colonial education and her struggles in a lower-middle class family openly demonstrates how painful, but also, how joyous, her life-long project has been, despite of all the difficulties, social pressures and expectation. Every one of us, in our own ways, tries to forge a level of being that is honest with ourselves as well as coherent with our conception of good. Some of us are more successful, more diligent, or vigilant than others. The alternative is to live according to the rules and boundaries laid down for us in our society that is heavily conditioned by capitalist values, equivalent to a loss of self-dignity. Ho’s writing is an affirmation and encouragement for us to lead our own lives rigorously, thoughtfully, to the fullest, and the best of our ability. You will also find a voice which you may or may not resonate with, but of which you will most certainly be shocked, provoked, and moved.