Biography

Professor Hang Kei Ho (PhD, MBA, MSc, MA, MEng (Hons)) is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR. Additionally, he holds the position of Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of Cultures at the Faculty of Arts, and Associate Professor of Sociology (Title of Docent), both at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

His research interests include capital flows within global property markets, shifting paradigms in the drinks and fashion industries, the globalisation of wine, housing policy and urban segregation, inequality and the super-rich, luxury brand consumption and management, and pandemic management strategies.

He has held academic positions in Finland, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, lecturing in multiple disciplines such as anthropology, Asian studies, business management, development studies, economic geography, geopolitics, public health, sociology, and urban studies. Moreover, he holds a PhD, an MBA, and three master’s degrees in diverse academic fields, including electronic engineering, digital humanities, geography, and luxury brand management.

Professor Ho has been featured as an expert in various global media outlets such as The Conversation (UK), Die Welt (Germany), The Guardian (UK), Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), The Local (Sweden), Luxemburger Wort (Luxembourg), and YLE (Finland). Furthermore, the peer-reviewed article authored by Professor Ho and Professor Rowland Atkinson, titled Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors, has won the Academy of Hong Kong Studies 2018/2019 Outstanding Paper Award.

Recently, Professor Ho, in collaboration with Professor David Inglis, has completed Drinks in Vogue: Exploring the Changing Worlds of Fashions and Beverages (Routledge, 2024), an edited book that examines the changing paradigms within the global fashion and beverage industries.

Prior to entering academia, Professor Ho worked in education outreach, engineering, IT, marketing, and real estate consultancy.

Academic experience         

Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies, Department of Cultures, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2023-present

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC, 2023-present

Associate Professor of Sociology (Title of Docent), University of Helsinki, Finland, since 2023

Researcher, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2019-2022

Lecturer in Communications, Department of Oriental Languages and Communication, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, 2019

Lecturer in Globalisation and Development, Department of Society Studies, Maastricht University, Netherlands, 2017-2019

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden, 2015-2017

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of York, United Kingdom, 2014-2015

Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, Goldsmith, University of London, United Kingdom, 2014-2015

Interests

Capital flows from South East Asia to global property markets

Cultural consumption and changing societal trends

Development studies and South-South corporations, geopolitics, and Africa-East-West relations

East Asian business management and intercultural communications

Globalisation of the wine industry

Housing policy, inequality, geographies of the super-rich, and urban segregation

Investment patterns of the middle-class and super-rich

Luxury brand consumption, management, and marketing

Public health and COVID-19 pandemic management strategies

Selected publications

Ho, H. K. (2024). Illegal luxuritecture: How the super-rich in Hong Kong land grab and unlawfully expand their luxury living spaces. Human Geography, 17(3), 339-346. https://doi.org/10.1177/19427786241269437

Ho, H. K. (2024). Haute Couture and Fashionable Beverages: Dark History, Changing Trends and Luxury Consumption in East Asia. In D. Inglis, & H. K. Ho (eds), Drinks in Vogue: Exploring the Changing Worlds of Fashions and Beverages. London: Routledge, pp. 174-194. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184836-10

Inglis, D. and Ho, H. K. (2024). Fashion and Drinks – A Research Agenda: Listen When the Angel Whispers. In D. Inglis, & H. K. Ho (eds), Drinks in Vogue: Exploring the Changing Worlds of Fashions and Beverages. London: Routledge, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184836-1

Inglis, D. and Ho, H. K. (2024). Drinks in Vogue: Exploring the Changing Worlds of Fashions and Beverages. (eds). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184836

Ho, H. K. and Yip, M. (2024). From micro- to nano-segregation: Policy-led vertical urbanism in Hong Kong. The International Journal of Housing Policy, 24(1), 142-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2022.2148339

Ho, H. K. and Yip, M. (2022). ‘Wealth-based micro-segregation in Hong Kong: Social distance within spatial proximity’ in Maloutas, T. and Karadimitriou, N. (eds), Vertical Cities: Micro-segregation, Social Mix and Urban Housing Markets, pp. 299-312. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800886391.00032

Inglis, D. and Ho, H. K. (2022). Beyond White: On Wine and Ethnicity. in Charters, S. et al. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Wine and Culture, pp. 415-423. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003034711

Ho, H. K. (2021). Twenty-first Century Wine Consumption Trends in East Asia: History, Luxury and Transformation. Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change, 6(2), 12. https://doi.org/10.20897/jcasc/11450

Ho, H. K. (2021). Why has wine consumption become popular in Hong Kong? Introducing a sociocultural paradigm of traditional, aspiring and creative drinkers, 20(4), 248-268, Asian Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1936731

Inglis, D., Almila, A.-M. and Ho, H. K. (2021). Is Fashion Universal? Towards a Sociology of Proto-fashion. In J. A. Jaworski (ed.), Advances in Sociology Research, vol. 34, pp. 1-46. New York: Nova Science Publishers. https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/files/172861981/Inglis_Almila_HO_final.pdf

Ho, H. K. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic Management Strategies and Outcomes in East Asia and the Western World: The Scientific State, Democratic Ideology, and Social Behavior. Frontiers in Sociology, 5:575588. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2020.575588

Atkinson, R. and Ho, H. K. (2020). ‘Segregation and the urban rich: Enclaves, networks and mobilities’ in Musterd, S. (ed.), Handbook on Urban Segregation, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, pp. 289-305. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788115605.00025

Ho, H. K. (2020). ‘5980 miles to my second home’: Inside the world of middle-class Hong Kong transnational property investors. The International Journal of Housing Policy, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2019.1611364

Tan, L., Pham, T., Ho, H. K., and Kok, T. S. (2020). Discovering relational intelligence in online social networks. In Database and Expert Systems Applications: 31st International Conference, DEXA 2020, Bratislava, Slovakia, September 14–17, 2020, Proceedings, Part I 31 (pp. 339-353). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59003-1_22 

Ho, H. K. (2019). ‘The Globalization of the Wine Industry in Hong Kong: a Local and Global Perspective’ in Inglis, D. and Almila, A-M. (eds), The globalization of wine. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 133-150. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474265027.ch-008

Ho, H. K. and Atkinson, R. (2018) Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors. Urban Studies, 55(9), 2040-2056. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017702826

Ho, H. K. and Aggeklint, E. (2017) Art, politics and museum spaces: Constructing a colonial and postcolonial identity through the planning of the M+ modern art museum in Hong Kong. European Colloquium on Culture, Creativity and Economy (CCE) Working Paper Compendium. Lillehammer: Knowledge Works, pp. 12-20.

Atkinson, R., Burrows, R., Glucksberg, L., Ho, H. K., Knowles, C. and Rhodes, D. (2017) Minimum city? The deeper impacts of the ‘super-rich’ on urban life, in: Forrest, R., Wissink, B. and Koh, S. Y. (eds.) Cities and the super-rich: Real estate, elite practices and urban political economies, London: Palgrave, pp. 253-272. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54834-4_13

Atkinson, R., Burrows, R., Glucksberg, L., Ho, H. K., Knowles, C., Rhodes, D., and Webber, R. (2016). International capital flows into London property. Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute Global Political Economy Brief No. 2. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/media/36643/download

Atkinson, R. and Ho, H. K. (2015). Hong Kong-based property buyers look to northern England as London overheats. The Conversation UK. 20 April 2015. http://theconversation.com/hong-kong-based-property-buyers-look-to-northern-england-as-london-overheats-39471

Ho, H. K. (2015). ‘Mer rött vin, tack!’ [More red wine, please!] in Kinarapport, 4, 2015, pp. 40–41. http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A911061&dswid=4594

Ho, H. K. (2015). ‘Hong Kong’ in Martin, S. C. (ed.) The SAGE encyclopedia of alcohol: Social, cultural, and historical perspectives, vol. 8, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 701-3. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483331096.n258

Ho, H. K. (2015). Christine Yano, Pink globalization: Hello Kitty’s trek across the Pacific, Journal of Consumer Culture, 15 (3) pp. 425-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540515574217

Ho, H. K. (2014). Consumption in China: how China’s new consumer ideology is shaping the nation’. LSE Review of Books. 14 October 2014. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2014/10/14/book-review-consumption-in-china-how-chinas-new-consumer-ideology-by-lianne-yu/

Selected academic conference presentations

The globalisation of wine in Hong Kong and Finland: Consumption practices, social change and taste. En-Compassing culture(s): Beyond East/West and South/North, European Sociological Association’s Research Network, University of Helsinki, Finland, March 2021.

Looking for big fry: the motives and methods of middle-class international property investors. The Academy of Hong Kong Studies Award Ceremony (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield) at the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC, December 2019.

The globalisation of wine in Hong Kong: Consumption practices, social change and taste. Peaks and Troughs: New research on elites, wealth, inequality and exclusion by emerging researchers conference. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, June 2018.

Transforming Hong Kong into a global wine hub: Government strategies, economic history and wine education. The fifth European colloquium on culture, creativity and economy at Seville, Spain, October 2016.

From Hong Kong to London, and the northern England: Middle-class securing a financial future through international property investment in an insecure world. Financial elites, governance, and (connecting) financial spaces (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield) at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, United Kingdom, August-September 2016.

A China dream or Hongkongers’ nightmare? Identifying opportunities and uncertainties in the postcolonial Hong Kong. Exploring the China Dream: Trajectories and articulations of soft power in the Sinophone world at Stockholm University, Sweden, August 2016.

Looking for big fry: middle-class international property investment in an uncertain world. Housing wealth and welfare (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield), University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 2016.

Hong Kong as a successful wine trading hub: Business practices, government policies and drinking cultures at the worlds in a wine glass conference, King’s College London, United Kingdom, May 2016.

Introducing M+ as capital for a Hong Kong specific cultural identity (with Eva Aggeklint, Stockholm University) at the fourth European colloquium on culture, creativity and economy, Florence, Italy, October 2015.

The flow of capital from Hong Kong to UK’s property market. Elites and urban dynamics: New perspectives (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield and Roger Burrows, Newcastle University), London School of Economics, United Kingdom, July 2015.

Hong Kong at a crossroad: Exploring its changing relationship with China and the West through foreign real estate investment, education and consumption practice at China in the world and the world in China, Nordic Association for China Studies (NACS) 12^th biennial conference, Uppsala University, Sweden, June 2015.

Minimum city: an overview of the geography and impacts of the super-rich on London (with Rowland Atkinson, Roger Burrows, Caroline Knowles and David Rhodes) at Cities and the super-rich, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC, January 2015.

Locating the Hong Kong super-rich in London: Real estate investment strategies, social geographies and local communities at The City Futures III conference: Cities as strategic places and players in a globalized world, Paris, France, June 2014.

How is the West viewed and consumed through wine appreciation and drinking places in Hong Kong? at Intercultural communication between China and the rest of the world: Beyond (reverse) essentialism and culturalism? University of Helsinki, Finland, June 2014.

Why do people drink wine in Hong Kong? Traditional, aspirational and unorthodox drinkers at Drinking dilemmas: Space, culture and identity at British Sociological Association Alcohol Study Group Annual Conference, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, United Kingdom, December 2013.

The emergence of Hong Kong’s wine industry since the tax withdrawal in 2008 at Foodscapes: Access to food – excess of food conference, University of Graz, Austria, September 2013.

Public engagement and guest lectures

Haute couture and fashionable beverages: Dark history, re-(emerging) economies, and luxury consumption in East Asia. Department of Arts, Helsinki University, Finland, February 2024.

Haute couture and fashionable beverages: Dark History, changing trends and luxury consumption in East Asia. Department of Anthropology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC, October 2023.

The urban sociology of residential real estate investment: Methodological approach towards tracing the capital flow from Hong Kong to the UK. Guest Speaker. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, October 2022.

Wine consumption in Hong Kong: Culture, luxury and taste. Guest speaker. School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC. March 2022.

Inside the world of middle-class Hong Kong transnational property investors: ‘5980 miles to my second home. Guest speaker. School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC. February 2021.

Luxury consumption in East Asia. Guest Speaker. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Finland. November 2020.

China’s new minority: Africans in China, their identities and well-being. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. November 2020.

Globalisation and inequality in the 21st century: East and West. Keynote speaker, invited by M:OED and the Mandril Cultural and Political Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands, April 2018.

Consuming contemporary Hong Kong: Art, properties and wine. Department of Technology and Society Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, January 2018.

Life after the PhD workshop. Panellist, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden, March 2017.

Understanding the Uppsala housing market. Keynote speaker, Uppsala Innovation Centre, Uppsala, Sweden, December 2016.

Looking for big ‘fry’: the motives and methods of middle-class international property investors. Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, October 2016.

China in the world: a shifting economic paradigm. Swedish-Chinese business perspectives (speaker and panellist), Uppsala China Forum, Uppsala University, Sweden, May 2016.

Exploring a new Hong Kong identity: the geographies of global finance, overseas education and popular consumption, Uppsala University. National PhD course: Economic geography in Göteborg University, Uppsala University and Lund University, Sweden, October 2015.

Introducing a ‘new’ Hong Kong: the geographies of wine, residential property investment and international education, research seminar in the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden, September 2015.

The Umbrella Movement: Uncertainty, democracy and plutocracy. Hong Kong Film Festival, Uppsala Association of Foreign Affairs (Utrikespolitiska föreningen), Uppsala University, Sweden, May 2015.

Looking for familiarity in an unfamiliar place: Exploring the expatriate experience in Hong Kong through drinking places, Migration Research Unit, Department of Geography, University College London, United Kingdom, October 2013.

Drinking cultures: Wine and the mind, UCL Mind Society and UCL Wine Society, University College London, United Kingdom, October 2013.

Additional research profile

University of Helsinki, Finland

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/hang-kei-ho