Hong Kong Studies Hub launch event 

The Hong Kong Studies Hub (HKSH) officially launched on 25 May with an event at the University of Surrey. 

The launch of the Hong Kong Studies Hub at the University of Surrey marked the establishment of Europe’s first dedicated interdisciplinary institution for Hong Kong Studies, combining academic innovation with strong community engagement. The event was very well attended, with more than 90 audience members. 

After opening remarks and the introduction of Associate Fellows, an expert panel explored how Hong Kong-focused research can inform UK and international policy, particularly on rights, the rule of law, and evolving UK-China-Hong Kong relations within government practice.

The keynote conversation between Professor Dibyesh Anand and Dr Siu Ting Kong examined “Hong Kong in International Relations and the agency of local communities.” Professor Anand argued that Hong Kong–China relations should be understood through the lens of coloniality, stressing Beijing’s sovereignty privilege, control of violence and knowledge, and critiquing strands of Western left politics that ignore Chinese imperial practices. Dr Kong highlighted how Hongkongers, especially in the UK diaspora, exercise agency through activism, cultural production and community organising, while also reproducing exclusions linked to gender, sexuality, class and “Chineseness.” Concepts such as “instrumental colonial nostalgia” and diasporic subjectivity as a site of contestation underscored the event’s core theme: rethinking Hong Kong’s place in international politics through a nuanced, anti-oppressive understanding of community and agency.