Newsletter No. 157

CUHK Newsletter No. 157 4th January 2000 3 International Conference on Gendered Mobilities in Asia A bout 100 participants from the world over attended the International Conference on Gendered Mobilities in Asia held on 26th and 27th November 1999 at Cho Yiu Conference Hall. The conference was jointly organized by the Gender Research Programme of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, and the International Geographical Union o f the Gender and Geography Commission, Australia. About 60 papers were presented focussing on seven themes, namely institutional constraints, policy settings and gendered responses; gender, economic and occupational mobility; transmigration, gendered identities and global labour markets; social and political mobilities; gender in national internal and rural-urban migration; gendered mobilities and domestic workers; and space, place, and gendered identities and mobilities. A field trip to Guangzhou and Shunde was organized on 27th and 28th November after the two-day conference to study the working and residing condition of migrant factory workers there. A seminar was also held w i th The Guangzhou and Shunde Women's Federations. Conference Examines Love and Sexuality in Art and Literature T he past century witnessed great changes in the ideas of love and sexuality in both China and the Western world. The Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies, in collaboration with the Office of General Education, conducted a two-day conference to review and reflect on these two issues. The conference, entitled 'Love, Sexuality, Culture', was held at Cho Yiu Conference Hall on 1 st and 2nd December. A total of 22 speakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the ma i n l a nd were gathered and 19 presentations were made focussing on the concepts of love and sexuality in l i t e r a ry and artistic expression, c u l t u r al representation, and p h i l o s o p h i c a l discussions. New Books CU Press Politics and Religion in Ancient and Medieval Europe and China Co-edited by Frederick Cheung Hok-ming and Lai Ming- chiu, the publication consists of seven papers from the proceedings of the conference 'Politics and Religion in Ancient and Medieval Europe and Asia' which took place in 1996. Each paper has its own focus and varies widely in the region and time-span of coverage 一 from ancient Egypt, the early Roman Empire, Norman England, to medieval China. Nonetheless they are linked together by their common concern about the relationship between politics and r e l i g i ons — Ch r i s t i an i t y, Buddhism, Daoism, and others — in different parts of Europe and Asia during ancient and medieval times as well as their intellectual and cultural interactions. Included among them is apaper by the late r e n own ed medievalist Prof. C. Warren Hollister. The book will furnish a basis for further investigation into politics and religion in the ancient and medieval world, and inspire scholarly inquiries into the comparative dimensions of these important historical phenomena. ISBN 962-201-850-5, paperback, 180 pages, HK$230 HKIAPS Occasional Paper No. 99 Private Practice and Gendered Power: Women Doctors in Hong Kong Written by Siumi Maria Tam, this paper examines the dilemma faced by female doctors as members of a highly regarded profession and, at the same time, members of an underprivileged social category: women. It was part of a pioneer study of gender and the professions in Hong Kong, using in-depth interviews of female professionals and a questionnaire survey of both sexes from five professions. This paper presents preliminary findings on the medical profession. It reveals the paradoxical subjectivities of female doctors who, on the one hand, experience high self-esteem due to their social status derived from financial rewards, social prestige, and, collective power as members of a highly autonomous and defensive profession, and who, on the other, find themselves suffering from low self-esteem as they struggle to reconcile a double burden constructed from afull-time professional job and the social expectation to perform according to the perfect motherhood norms. Female doctors resort to private practice to achieve abalance between public and domestic responsibilities, and in so doing, structurally reinforce the asymmetrical gender power relations of the medical institution. ISBN 962-441-099-2, paperback, 16 pages, HK$10 Occasional Paper No. 100 Health Care Reform in Hong Kong: A Discussion of the Harvard Report Written by Michael C.M. Leung, this paper reviews the recently released Harvard Report on the evaluation of the health care system in Hong Kong. It investigates the status quo from an industrial organizational point of view in contrast to the approach of the Harvard Report, projecting a possible future direction for the health care industry. Both this paper and the Harvard Report, with different reasoning, reach the same conclusion that the proliferation of managed care is unwelcome by the health care profession. Finally, the paper discusses the virtues of the Competitive Integrated System Option in the Harvard Report, providing arguments about how it may be the optimal candidate in any health care system in the long run, although it may only be a second-best solution. ISBN 962-441-100-X, paperback, 24 pages, HK$15 Occasional Paper No. 102 Shanghai and Hong Kong as Service Hubs Written by Sung Yun-wing, this paper compares the role of Shanghai and Hong Kong in shipping, international trade, and finance. Since the modernization of its container facilities in 1993, Shanghai has been transformed from a feeder port of Hong Kong to a container port in its own right. However, its lack of adeep-water port is a long- term problem. Even with expensive dredging, Shanghai will not be able to handle modern third- and fourth- generation ships. The share of Shanghai's transshipment in national exports has risen due to its success in containerization. However, the share of its re-exports in national exports has fallen sharply in contrast to the rising share of Hong Kong's. Provincial rivalry and the inefficiency of Shanghai's state-owned trading companies have hampered the growth of Shanghai's re-exports. Shanghai has developed rapidly as a domestic financial centre. However, the specialized banks of China have refused to move their headquarters from Beijing to Shanghai, as the decisions to allocate loans are still made administratively in Beijing. Unlike Hong Kong, Shanghai is not yet an international financial centre. The gaps between Hong Kong and Shanghai in international financial activities are very large largely because the renminbi is not convertible. Despite its rapid development as a service hub, Shanghai still has a long way to go. The growth of high- end services requires an efficient regulatory regime and a clean and transparent administration. Shanghai not only needs economic reforms, but also the reform of its bureaucracy and government. ISBN 962-441-102-6, paperback, 32 pages, HK$30 Occasional Paper No. 103 Globalization and Regional Transformation in Pacific Asia Globalization and regionalization are two sides of the same coin. They are major processes affecting the global economy since the early 1980s. Spearheading a globalizing economy has been a series of technological innovations, including information technologies. Written by Yeung Yue-man, this paper describes the globalization process of the Pacific-Asia region. Various forms of spatial structures have evolved to take advantage of opportunities in flexible cooperation. Global cities, growth triangles, extended metropolitan regions and urban corridors are briefly described. The paper also reviews some of the region-wide efforts at regional integration. ISBN 962-441-103-4, paperback, 22 pages, HK$15