Backreading Hong Kong

NOVEMBER 17, 2025 (MONDAY)

Welcoming Address (10:30 a.m.–10:45 a.m.)
Maria Lau (Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto)
Chris Song (University of Toronto)

Panel A (10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.) | Chair: Bernice Hoi Ching Cheung (University of Toronto)

Culinary Translation in Hong Kong
Gilbert Fong and Shelby Chan (Hang Seng University of Hong Kong)

Marked Timbres, Evolving Meanings: Anglophone and Sinophone Soundscapes in Cantopop
Jason Lee (McGill University)

Intersectioning the Anglophone/Sinophone in Fungal Hong Kong
Christopher Payne (University of Toronto)

Panel B (2:15 p.m.–3:15 p.m.) | Chair: Christopher Payne (University of Toronto)

On the Transcultural Practice of Hsu Ti-shan in Hong Kong: Focusing on the English Short Story “Wuu Shiunn”
Carole H.F. Hoyan (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

When Victor Hugo Met Jyu Yu Jai 朱愚齋: Translating Love and Literature in 1950s Hong Kong Romance Fiction
Cleo Sau-ming Lai (Independent scholar)

Graduate Student Colloquium A (3:45 p.m.–5:15 p.m.)

Chair and Discussant: Chair: Christopher Payne (University of Toronto)

Diaspora and the Female Body: Female Displacement and Queer Resistance in Wong Bik-wan’s Fiction
Jessica Song (University of Toronto)

Incarnated History: Translation of Won Bik-wan’s “Veronica the Twice Reincarnated Woman”
Yuxi Tong (University of Toronto)

Tasting Diaspora: Food, Memory, and the Imagination of Hong Kong in Leung Ping-kwan’s Postcolonial Affairs of Food and the Heart
Ellie Liu (University of Toronto)

Singing in the Diaspora: The Affects of Traditional Cantonese Song in Dung Kai-cheung and Yeng Pway Ngon’s Fiction
Alexis Lai (University of Toronto)

Body, Language, Voice: Possible Area between Diaspora and Sinophone Theory
Tingying Li (University of Toronto)

NOVEMBER 18, 2025 (TUESDAY)

Panel C (11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) | Bernice Hoi Ching Cheung (University of Toronto)

What is Hong Kong’s Postcolonial Literature?: A Comparative Reading of Ye Si’s Papercuts and Larissa Lai’s The Lost Century
Yiwen Liu (University of Toronto)

Translation as Multiplication: Dung Kai-cheung and the Translation of Hong Kong Sinophone Literature
Gavin Tse (Hong Kong Metropolitan University)

Unsayable Grief: The Limits of Anglophone and Sinophone Words in Derek Chung’s A Cha Chaan Teng That Does Not Exist
Justin K.H. Tse (Singapore Management University) and Xenia L.Y. Chan (Augustana University) 

Panel D (2:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m.) | Mitchell Ma (University of Toronto)

Home-Making and Home-Escaping: Interrogating the Politics of Mother Tongue and the Representation of Translingual Childhood in Chinglish and Uprooted
Lanlan Cheng (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Tongueless in Hong Kong and Singapore: The Cruel Optimisation of Language in Satjyu and Jen Mu Chih
Alexis Lai (University of Toronto)

Graduate Student Colloquium B (4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.)

Chair and Discussant: Yiwen Liu (University of Toronto)

Legends of the Diasporic Heroes: History, Diaspora, and Nationalism in Jin Yong’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes
Sam Minden (University of Toronto)

Yi Shu and Her Transpacific Practice in Popular Literature: A Case Study of “Huangshigu”
Leslie Shi (University of Toronto)

Ghostly Identities, Ethereal Belonging: Exploring the Role of the Spectre in Leung Ping-kwan’s Poetry
Brigid Macaoud (University of Toronto)

Staging The Third Space: Intergenerational Diaspora and Wai-Sum Poon’s Family Plays in Post-1997 Hong Kong
Shiu Hei Larry Ng (University of Toronto)

NOVEMBER 19, 2025 (WEDNESDAY)

Book Talk (1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.)

Chair: Christopher Payne (University of Toronto)

Religion, Secularism, and Love as a Political Discourse in Modern China (Amterdam University Press, 2025)
Ting Guo (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Organizers:

Department of Language Studies,University of Toronto Scarborough

Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Support provided by the Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group on Hong Kong-Canada Connections

acknowledgement

The symposium is supported by the Jackman Humanities Institute Working Group on Hong Kong-Canada Connections.

thank you.