LEK Research Collective
Mission
The LEK Research Collective is led by historian Dr. Loretta Kim and currently based at the University of Hong Kong. This group aims to analyze diverse questions about the history and contemporary society and culture of Greater China, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities throughout the world, using relevant methodologies, including approaches based in comparative Regional and Area Studies. Members collaborate on projects and also produce solo-authored outputs that influence paradigms about ethnicity, race, nationality, gender, and linguistic identity with broad significance for fellow scholars in China Studies and for stakeholders who may apply the findings to their daily lives.
Team
Dr. Loretta E. Kim 金由美
AB (Bachelor of Arts), AM (Master of Arts), PhD Harvard University
Associate Professor of China Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, University of Hong Kong (HKU)
Previously assistant professor in the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU, 2010–2014) and the Department of History at the State University of New York (SUNY)-Albany (2008–2010)
Dr. Kim's publications include:
* (co-authored with Chengyi Zhou). The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong: Religion, Ethnicity, and Intercultural Relations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (imprint of Rowman and Littlefield), 2021.
* “Recovering Translation Lost: Symbiosis and Ambilingual Design in Chinese/Manchu Language Reference Manuals of the Qing Dynasty.” In Impagination–Layout and Materiality of Writing and Publication, eds. Ku-ming (Kevin) Chang, Anthony Grafton, and Glenn W. Most. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, 323–50.
* “Remembered by More Than One Name: Transcription, Multiscriptualism, and Ethnic Heritage in the Case of the Dedule Clan Genealogy.” Studia Orientalia Slovaca 20.1 (2021): 47–83.
* Ethnic Chrysalis: China’s Orochen People and the Legacy of Qing Borderland Administration. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 119. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2019.
Dr. Chengyi Zhou 周乘怡
AB (Bachelor of Arts), PhilM (Master of Philosophy), PhD University of Hong Kong (HKU)
Teaching assistant and research assistant, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, HKU
Dr. Zhou’s publications and conference presentations include:
* “Onomastics and Gender: The Making of Manchu Women through Chinese Language in Official and Private,” in the Panel “Becoming and Unbecoming Manchu: Revisiting the Role of the State in Manchu Identity Formation During and After the Qing,” In Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Hawaii, March 24-27, 2022.
* (co-authored with Loretta E. Kim). The Russian Orthodox Community in Hong Kong: Religion, Ethnicity, and Intercultural Relations. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (imprint of Rowman and Littlefield), 2021.
* “A Study of the Standardization of Manchu-Han Transcription: Based on the Onomastic Index of the Old Manchu Archives (The Ninth Year of Tian Cong) and the Three Editions of Veritable Records of the Emperor Taizong,” in the “Manchu Language and Research on Qing History” Workshop, History Department, Sun Yat Sun University, Zhuhai, China, November 2-4, 2019.
* (co-presented with Loretta E. Kim). “Names and Identities in the ‘Funnel of History’: Onomastic Data in the Records of Taiwan Regional Officials and the Qing Central Government,” in the International Conference on the Qing Empire, Its Borders and Demographic Flows: Social Orders Along the Borderlands in Taiwan, 1700–1800, Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, December 14, 2018.
Monica Chang Kin-ian 曾健欣
AB (Bachelor of Arts), AM (Master of Arts), University of Macau, PhD candidate, University of Hong Kong
Chang’s conference presentations include:
* “Phoenix from the Ashes: Trauma during the 1911Revolution and Transformation of Manchus in the Twentieth Century,” in the Panel “Memory, Law, and Trauma of Life and Death,” In HSTCC 2022 Annual conference, Zoom, Aug 12, 2022.
* “Massacres of the Manchus in 1911: Ethno-racialization of Manchu Identity by Late Qing Revolutionaries,” in the Panel “Becoming and Unbecoming Manchu: Revisiting the Role of the State in Manchu Identity Formation During and After the Qing,” In Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Hawaii (Zoom), March 24-27, 2022.
* (co-presented with Loretta E. Kim). “Materialising the Intangible: Building and Analyzing a Digital Lexicon of Non-Han Names from Records of Northeast China,” in the 36th annual meeting of the Manchu History Society, hosted by Manchu History Society and co-hosted by the Institute for Central Eurasian History and Culture of Waseda University, Zoom, December 18, 2021.
* “Looking at the Manchu-Han relation during 1911 Revolution through the death of Duanfang,” in the First Northeast Asia Social and Cultural Forum, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China, December 21, 2019.
Rhonda Ran Huo 霍然
AB Tunghai University, Taiwan, AM University of California, Los Angeles, PhD student, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (2022-)
Huo’s presentations include:
* Organized panel “Borderland, Ethnicity, and Migration from Early to High Qing,” and presented “Manchuria – Royal Hometown or Exiled Place: Identity of Criminals in Manchu Society,” Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC), Moraga CA, June 9, 2019
* Presented “From Self-Sufficient to Market-Based: Horse Policy and its Relation with Mongols in the Ming dynasty,” Colorado University Boulder Asian Studies Graduate Association (CUBASGA), Boulder CO, February 16, 2019.
Du Shichen Allison 杜适辰
BSS (Bachelor of Social Sciences), MPhil Candidate at the University of Hong Kong
Du’s previous conference presentations include:
* The Hometown of “Qipao” (Manchu robes) in the 12th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 12)
* (co-authored with SUN Yuqi) A Small Discussion on the Cult of the Sacred Tree in Early Buddhist Statues in the 2021 Tsinghua International Conference on Art & Design Education, the ASK: OUR DIVERSE WORLD – International Art & Design Student Forum
Timothy S. Yeung 楊燮
Bachelor of Arts, Master of Christian Studies
Formerly project administrator (2018 - 2021) and library assistant (2016 - 2018) at the Hong Kong Baptist University Library, research assistant at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2008 - 2014)
Yeung instructed undergraduate and postgraduate students data analysis and visualization, highlights of which include:
Presenter of Data Software Training Videos - SPSS filmed by HKBU Library
Instructor of the Data Days for Beginners 2020 organized by HKBU Library
Instructor of the Hong Kong Data Journalism Bootcamp 2018 co-organized by CUHK and HKBU