China Seminar | 13 February 1997

Hong Kong Beyond 1997: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective

Alvin Y. So Alvin Y. So

Will Hong Kong have a bright future after 1997?

Please come for a talk by Alvin Y. So, who will depart from much of the current fixation of the mid-year reversion of Hong Kong to China. His talk argues that we have to take a longer view to trace the development of Hong Kong since 1984 (the signing of the Joint Declaration for reversion of sovereignty to China) in order to understand the 1997 issue. The talk, in particular, will highlight how recent emergent trends in Hong Kong–such as industrial upgrading/relocation, decolonization, democratization, nationalism, and globalization–have affected Hong Kong’s development over the past decade, its passage to Chinese sovereignty in mid-1997, and its future prospect in the 21st century.

Familiar to China Seminar audiences, Dr. Alvin So has spoken on previous updates of Hong Kong. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. So received his Ph.D. from U.C.L.A. in 1982 and joined the University of Hawaii in 1984. Winning the Regents' Medal for Excellence in Teaching, Dr. So received his full professorship in Sociology in 1993. Dr. So is a prolific research scholar of the economic sociology of South China and the surrounding region. His latest publications are two books in 1995: East Asia and the World-Economy (with Stephen Chiu) (Newbury Park: Sage Publications Inc.) and The Hong Kong-Guangdong Link: Partnership in Flux ed. with Reginald Kwok (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe).