THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Jeffrey SHAW
CITY IN TIME: Immersive Urban Heritage and Augmented Reality
Friday 17 July 2026, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
CITY IN TIME is a cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) urban heritage project created by City University of Hong Kong for the Tourism Commission. Currently deployed at 44 locations across Hong Kong, the project utilizes photogrammetry and AR technology to transform smartphones into "magic windows" that reveal 360-degree historical panoramas perfectly aligned with modern-day surroundings. By blending archival research with digital visualization, it offers an immersive smart tourism experience that allows the public to explore the city's historical transformation in an interactive and engaging manner.
The Artistic Director, Professor Jeffrey Shaw will share the creative and technical processes behind the project and its application in cultural heritage preservation.
Professor Jeffrey Shaw is internationally renowned for his pioneering activities as an artist and researcher. His numerous internationally exhibited and extensively cited works are milestones of technological and cultural innovation that have had a seminal impact on the theory, design and application of digital media in art, society and industry. Currently he is Chair Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU)'s Academy of Visual Art and Founding Director of the HKBU Visualization Research Centre.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Miaomiao QI
Horticulture Boom in a Hot Valley: Gendered Labor and Migration in China's Southwest Frontier
Friday 28 August 2026, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
In recent years, thousands of migrants from inland and coastal provinces have moved to rural Yunnan, a province in China's southwest frontier, to lease land and grow high value horticulture crops. Facilitated by the state's financial and institutional support for an agenda of agriculture modernization, their arrival has triggered a widespread land rush that is reshaping local agrarian livelihoods and landscapes. In this talk, I will examine how this internal land rush is transforming smallholder open-air horticulture into highly specialized and concentrated greenhouse production. As the industry expands, the remaining local smallholders, who are mostly middle-aged and elderly women, are increasingly drawn into seasonal agriculture labor. By tracing the flows of rural capital and labor, I highlight a profound reconfiguration of agriculture, rural livelihood, and everyday life-making.
Miaomiao (Mira) Qi is a recent Ph.D. graduate in the department of Global Development at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the process of agrarian transformation in China, specifically on the issues of rural labor and gender justice. She previously completed a master's degree in community development at the University of California, Davis.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Tobias BRANDNER
Hidden Worlds Behind Bars: Prison Culture in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Friday 11 September 2026, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Prisons constitute a fascinating yet largely inaccessible field of anthropological inquiry. As closed societies, they generate distinctive penal cultures shaped by informal economies, social hierarchies, moral codes, and everyday routines through which inmates navigate isolation, scarcity, and the coercive nature of confinement. This lecture introduces key dimensions of prison life, including the informal governance of inmate societies, the circulation of power and violence, the influence of organized crime networks, and the ongoing negotiation between conflict, cooperation, and accommodation that structures daily life behind bars.
Drawing on cross-cultural observations from Hong Kong and the Philippines, and supplemented by insights from Cambodia and Indonesia, the lecture explores how differing penal policies, colonial legacies, and social histories give rise to distinct prison cultures. By contrasting regimes of discipline, overcrowding, and institutional control, it sheds light on how prisoners organize social life, mitigate the pain of prison life, and maintain order under conditions of constraint. The lecture invites us to rethink what prisons are, how they function in practice, and what they reveal about the societies that sustain them.
Tobias Brandner is Professor of Theology at the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK. He has been an honorary prison chaplain for more than 30 years, serving in local prisons and visiting prisons overseas. His prison-related publications include the monograph Beyond the Walls of Separation: Christian Faith and Ministry in Prison (Cascade 2014) and the article "'The room is small, but the heart is big' - Religion and community life in prison: a case study from the Philippines," Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Vol. 21/4, August 2020, 1-20.