Post-event update

Venera KHALIKOVA, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, led a seminar in hybrid mode (face-to-face and Zoom) on her work with Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in Hong Kong. Venera is building on a programme of research with Indians in Hong Kong, and has drawn on her extensive interviews with a large number of her research participants to examine the role of minority religions in the 2019 Hong Kong protests.  

This was our first hybrid seminar, and around 30 people in total joined us. The presentation was – as I said in my own comments at the event – compelling from start to finish. Venera presented a fascinating and little-studied set of issues, which she discussed in depth and from a position of great knowledge. The discussion that followed was equally engaging, with some stimulating questions and comments from those in person and online.  

Link to seminar recording (tentative): https://hkust.zoom.us/rec/share/wQzTv67Bc5YwpXm8OerSXnI03mvclmnZkIqIYE-13rPg7qAHnLADkVX17iDHAO6J.X7EGFpXmSZHHshax 

Based on a broader ethnographic study with Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh residents of Hong Kong, this talk examines the role of minority religions in the 2019 Hong Kong protests. While the protests were dominated by the debates over the identities of Hongkongers versus mainland Chinese, they also produced discussions over the positions and experiences of Hong Kong's "ethnic minorities," many of whom are religious minorities. Often racialized and seen as outsiders by Han Hongkongers, ethnoreligious minorities were reluctant to take sides, worried for their livelihoods and fearing further marginalization. This sharply contrasts with the visibility of Christian communities in the protests: Christian leaders were publicly involved in prayer meetings and other forms of support for the protests, while the followers of minority religions either stayed away or organized prayer sessions in private, small settings.

However, around October 2019, after a series of unprecedented events, minorities either found themselves drawn into or took an opportunity to participate in the protests to claim their Hongkonger identity. This was a potential for expanding the political discourse and creating a unified multicultural, multiracial identity for Hongkongers. However, such aspirations got crushed against the walls of cultural-religious representation, and minorities felt that they remained misunderstood and unacknowledged as fellow citizens.

Note: This is a hybrid event.

Join us in person at the Academic Building Room 3301, HKUST (through Lifts 17-18 to 3/F)

Can't make it in person? Register here and join us on Zoom!
https://hkust.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwlc-qurz0qGNQIKPb93UkW2S225aJAzUvv 

Venera Khalikova is Assistant Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a cultural anthropologist whose research explores the acts and articulation of identity, nationalism, and citizenship in two distinct contexts: alternative medicine and transnational migration. Khalikova holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh, USA. Her work has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and appeared in Medical Anthropology, Journal of Asian Studies, and Food, Culture, and Society, among others.