THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by William MEACHAM
40 Years of Archaeology in Hong Kong
Friday 3 October 2025, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Archaeologist William Meacham will describe his involvement in the important formative period of modern archaeology in Hong Kong. His discovery of the site at Sham Wan on Lamma in 1971 provided the impetus to a multi-disciplinary approach. As luck would have it, due to its deep stratigraphy, the site turned out to be most important in constructing a prehistoric chronology for the territory. Several other major sites that he excavated will be discussed, including Chek Lap Kok, Sha Po Tsuen on Lamma, and Yung Long at Deep Bay. His talk will also describe how the "missing link" of 700 years in local history between the Han and Sung eras was revealed.
William Meacham has lived in Hong Kong since 1970, serving as Chairman of the HK Archaeological Society (1985-96) and Hon. Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, HKU (1986-2012). Among his publications are several site monographs, Rock Carvings in Hong Kong and The Archaeology of Hong Kong (HKU Press, 2009).
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Andrew B. KIPNIS and Yuki WOO
Yin and Yang Residences in Hong Kong
Friday 7 November 2025, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
This paper examines the ways in which Cantonese speaking people in Hong Kong metaphorically compare residences for the living (Yang residences, 阳宅) and residences for the dead (Yin residences, 阴宅). We focus on domains as varied as real estate markets; shelter, comfort and safety; familial sentiments; and invocations of ancestral homes. We depict the ways in which the metaphorical comparison has held despite rapid shifts in the forms of housing for the living and bodily disposal for the dead. We further consider the possibilities for the future evolution or even complete disappearance of this form of metaphorical comparison. This form of metaphorical comparison and the practices associated with it are continually evolving and the causes of this evolution have more to do with the emotional dynamics of family relationships than "belief" and "tradition."
This work was supported by a General Research Fund grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, GRF14601022.
Andrew B. Kipnis is a Research Professor of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His latest book, The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China, is open access and available for free download at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-funeral-of-mr-wang/paper
Yuki Woo is a Research Assistant at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
THE HONG KONG ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY
AND THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
PRESENT
An Anthropological Talk by Benjamin K. TSOU
Seeking the Origins of the Chinese Writing System: A Sociolinguistic Perspective
Friday 12 December 2025, 7:00pm
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
This talk will explore the development of the Chinese writing system. Chinese civilization is recognized as five thousand years old but the Chinese writing system appeared only three millennia ago as serial symbols inscribed on oracle bones. Recently, significantly earlier dating has been suggested. This has been based on: (1) evidence of extensive urban development and hierarchical complexity, making serious record keeping essential, and (2) the encoding of matriarchy, cowry shells, and perhaps extinct elephantine mammals within the logographic radical framework of the Chinese writing system. These provide factors for comparison with languages which evolved as phonological writing systems, as this talk will explicate.
Benjamin K. Tsou is Emeritus Professor in Language Information Sciences at City University of Hong Kong. He works primarily on Chinese language and cultural changes.