Public Lecture – Eileen Chang in Hong Kong (1939-42): Literature as History and History as Literature (Dr. Peter Cunich, Vice-Rector, St John’s College, University of Sydney)

Eileen Chang spent less than three years living in Hong Kong, but her student days at the University of Hong Kong proved to be a formative experience that would help launch her literary career in Shanghai during the harsh days of Japanese occupation. Life-changing events during the brief Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941 were particularly influential in shaping Chang’s literary style. She repeatedly returned to these Hong Kong experiences throughout her career as a writer, and included a strongly autobiographical element in several of her works. What were those experiences that she endured in the darkest days of Hong Kong’s history and to what extent can we rely on her fictional work as historical text? Does her fiction tell us more about Hong Kong in the early 1940s, or Eileen Chang’s struggle with her own identity? What is the enduring value of her work for assessing the history of Hong Kong during the Second World War?

Speaker: Dr. Peter Cunich, Vice-Rector, St John’s College, University of Sydney *This is a hybrid session with Dr. Cunich presenting via zoom.

Attending in Person: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=105378

Attending via Zoom: https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/Ar0A7KGNRGeF0NNFIEl27w