LEIZ Transcultural Research Group: Field Trip to Hong Kong
The Transcultural Research Group on "Transculturality or Hybridity? The Case of Hong Kong" went on a week-long field trip to Hong Kong. This project had been launched by the Transcultural Caravan, a global research and exchange hub run by the Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin | LEIZ, aiming at tackling questions of transcultural cooperation and the relating determinants and processes in Hong Kong through field study and observation.
The format of the Transcultural Research Groups offers a learning arena to young researchers from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, each of them making a particular contribution to the overall research question. By using field study and observation, the students aim to describe and analyse features and determinants of transculturality in the contexts of politics, arts, communication, migration, behavioural ethics, as well as business and entrepreneurship in today’s Hong Kong.
The travel itinerary therefore included a wide range of range of activities, meetings and venues to be visited:
On their first day, our Transcultural Research Group was joined by local students and project advisor Dr Vivien Chan to visit the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). They were excited to learn about the practices and structures of the LegCo in a private tour through the institution. This was especially interesting for collaborator Max Röcker, who is researching the aspect of policy within the group and wrote his Bachelor thesis on "The Transculturality of Hong Kong’s Ruling Elite".
Two days afterwards, the research group had the chance to visit the German Consulate General Hong Kong. With the German Deputy Consul General, Mr. Karsten Tietz they discussed German foreign policy towards Hong Kong, the Belt and Road Initiative, the education system, the expat community and the future of Hong Kong. The group also visited the Goethe Institute in Hong Kong where director Dr. Almuth Meyer-Zollitsch was presenting the Institute’s cultural and language-teaching activities.
The group also had the chance to discuss their research questions with other local and foreign experts and scholars, for example during a workshop in the CEFC (French Centre for Research on Contemporary China) where they were talking about China, gender, banking, and the role of the media. They also received an overview of the work of the CEFC in Taipei, Beijing, and Hong Kong (http://www.cefc.com.hk).
One further highlight of the field trip was a workshop with Prof Chu, Program Director of Hong Kong Studies at the Hong Kong University, and Prof Tam, Associate Director of the Institute of Future Cities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. For more information on this workshop, please click here.
The Transcultural Research group will present their findings at a Symposium held by LEIZ at Zeppelin University later this year.
Contact: julika.montecinos@zu.de