Allan Pang
Allan Pang is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr Rachel Leow. His dissertation, titled ‘Didactic Histories and Chinese Communities in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore, c. 1950s-90s’, examines the transmission of historical knowledge within and without classrooms. It analyses history education at schools and informal pedagogical platforms such as monuments, theatres, and children’s magazines. This project analyses how the Cold War, decolonisation, and Chinese politics connected and disconnected historical narratives among Chinese overseas. By exploring the transregional flows of textbooks, intellectuals, and culture, it challenges the regional divide between East and Southeast Asia. This study also dissects the long-term process of how historical actors, such as intellectuals, officials, and students, sought to shape the meanings of being 'Chinese' under diverse colonial legacies in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. This PhD study is funded by the Hughes Hall Cambridge International Scholarship.
Allan completed his BA and MPhil in History at the University of Hong Kong. His former research investigated cultural policies in late colonial Hong Kong. It examined how colonial officials attempted to preserve, promote, and shape Chinese culture through language policies, entertainment, and postage stamps. In his spare time, Allan enjoys studying the transregional history of Hong Kong's popular music since the 1950s (when he is not addicted to the songs).
In 2023-24, Allan is one of the convenors of the World History Workshop.
- Hong Kong history
- Transnational Chinese history
- Southeast Asian history
- British imperialism in Asia
- History education
- Transregional history of East and Southeast Asia
Supervisions:
- Part IB Paper T13 'Empires in World History: Regions and Themes' (second year; 2023-2024)
- Part I Paper 23 'World History since 1914' (second year; 2022-2023)
Seminars/workshops/classes:
- Part IA Historical Skills (first year; 2022-2023)
- Part IB Historical Thinking (second year; Michaelmas 2023)
- Part II Historical Argument and Practice (third year; 2023 & 2024)
- Sutton Trust Summer School (2021)
Guest lectures:
- Part II Special Subject 'Sources of East Asian Modernity: China and Chinese Overseas, c.1890s-1930s' (third year; Michaelmas 2022 & 2023)
Seminars and invited talks:
- ‘Networks of Chinese History Education: Circulating Children’s Magazines in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, c. 1960s-70s’, Centre for Chinese Language and Culture and Division of Chinese, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (13 May 2022).
- ‘Origins of History Curricula in Hong Kong’, Departmental Seminar Series (History Seminars), Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (14 January 2022).
- ‘Rocking a City’s Past: Doing Hong Kong History in Cambridge and the World’, Cambridge University History Society (CLIO), Cambridge (23 November 2021).
Conference and workshop presentations:
- ‘Intellectuals, State Formation, and Historical Narratives in Malaysia and Singapore, 1950s-1970s’, Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies 2024 (14-17 March 2024), Seattle.
- ‘The Transregional Politics of History Education in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, c. 1950s-60s’, The History of Hong Kong and the History of Emotions: A Dialogue with Hong Kong Studies in the UK, Rikkyo University (22-23 February 2024), Tokyo.
- ‘Transnational History Textbooks and Intra-colonial Control in Hong Kong, Malaya, and Singapore, c. 1950s’, Second Workshop of Early Career Scholars, Hong Kong History Centre, University of Bristol (26 October 2023), Bristol.
- ‘Hong Kong-Southeast Asia Nexus: Transregional Approaches to Hong Kong History’, Association for Asian Studies in Asia 2023 (24-27 June 2023), Daegu.
- ‘Children’s Magazines and Chinese Historical Narratives in Cold War Hong Kong and Southeast Asia’, Annual Conference of the Society for Hong Kong Studies 2023 (16-17 June 2023), Hong Kong.
- ‘Writing and Rewriting a City’s Past: History Education and Decolonisation in Hong Kong’, Becoming Independent: Institutions and Epistemologies of Knowledge Production in the Age of Decolonisation (5-6 June 2023), Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
- ‘Networks of History Textbooks and Intra-Colonial Control in Singapore, Malaya, and Hong Kong, c. 1950s’, Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies 2023 (16-19 March 2023), Boston.
- ‘Entertainment, Chinese Culture, and Late Colonialism in Hong Kong’, Graduate Workshop, Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge (30 January 2023), Cambridge.
- ‘Researching the History of Chinese Communities in Malaysia and Singapore’, World History Workshop, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge (27 October 2022), Cambridge.
- ‘Early Transnational Networks of Hong Kong’s Popular Music: A Case Study of Chinese Communities in 1960s Singapore and Malaysia’, Hong Kong Cantopop 70 Years, Hong Kong Studies Programme, University of Hong Kong (in Cantonese; 26-27 August 2022), Hong Kong.
- ‘Writing and Rewriting Hong Kong’s Past: History Education for a Decolonising Society’, Marking 1997 – Reflections 25 Years On, University of Chicago (Yuen Campus) (30 June 2022), Hong Kong.
- ‘Entertainment, Chinese Culture, and Late Colonialism in Hong Kong’, Annual Conference of the Society for Hong Kong Studies 2022 (24-25 June 2022), Hong Kong.
- ‘Archives and Special Collections in Hong Kong’, World History Workshop, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge(17 March 2022), Cambridge.
- ‘The Politics of Postage Stamps and Coins in Late Colonial Hong Kong’, World History Workshop, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge (18 February 2021), Cambridge.
- ‘Revisiting Hong Kong Pop: The Political and Global Nature of Local Popular Music Since the 1970s’, Hong Kong History Project Conference, Departments of History, University of Bristol and University of Hong Kong (6-7 June 2019), Hong Kong
- ‘Language Politics in Hong Kong, 1967-1982’, Spring History Symposium 2019, Department of History, University of Hong Kong (2-3 May 2019), Hong Kong.
Contact
Tags & Themes
Hughes Hall, Cambridge, CB1 2EW
Key publications
Journal articles:
'Contesting Epistemological Territory: History Education and Decolonisation in Hong Kong’, under review.
'Entertainment, Chinese Culture, and Late Colonialism in Hong Kong’, Historical Journal 67, no. 1 (2024), 124-47.
‘Stamping “Imagination and Sensibility”: Objects, Culture, and Governance in Late Colonial Hong Kong’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 50, no. 4 (2022), 789-816.
- Shortlisted for the Best Article on Global Hong Kong Studies 2023, ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) Book Prize
Book chapters:
‘Education’, in A New Documentary History of Hong Kong, c. 1945–1997, ed. Florence Mok and Chi Keung Charles Fung (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, forthcoming).
‘Cultural Policies’, in A New Documentary History of Hong Kong, c. 1945–1997, ed. Florence Mok and Chi Keung Charles Fung (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, forthcoming).
盛世前奏：六十年代香港流行曲的星馬跨國網絡 [A Prelude to Prosperity: Transnational Networks of Hong Kong’s Popular Music in Singapore and Malaysia, c. 1960s], in 粵語流行曲七十年 [Seventy Years of Cantopop], ed. Chu Yiu-Wai 朱耀偉 (Hong Kong: Enlighten & Fish 亮光文化, 2024), 35-57 (in Chinese).