JOHN D. WONG 王迪安
- Associate Dean (Undergraduate), Faculty of Arts
- Professor
- Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts
- The University of Hong Kong
John D. Wong
Overview
John D. Wong’s research focuses on the flow of people, goods, capital and ideas. With a particular interest in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta/Greater Bay Area, he explores how such flows connected the region to the Chinese political center in the north as well as their maritime partners in the South China Sea and beyond.
Studying the China trade in the context of early-nineteenth-century global exchange, his first monograph—Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System (Cambridge University Press, 2016)—demonstrates how China trade partners sustained their economic exchange on a global scale long before Western imperialism ushered in the era of globalization in a Eurocentric modern world. In his recently published Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub (Harvard, 2022; Chinese edition, HKU Press, 2023), John explores the development of commercial aviation in Hong Kong as the city grew into a powerful economy after WWII. By not accepting Hong Kong’s development into a regional and global hub as preordained, this study aims to describe globalization and global networks in the making.
His recent publications have appeared in business history journals such as Business History Review and Enterprise & Society, as well as area studies journals such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Modern Asian Studies, and Modern China. John’s research has received funding support, which to date has included Mellon, Luce, Fulbright awards as well as GRF grants and the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.
John serves on the editorial board of Business History and is an editor of the Asian Business Histories series at the Hong Kong University Press.
John received his BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Chicago, MBA from Stanford University, and PhD in History from Harvard University. He worked for a number of years in finance and holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Selected Publications
Books

《香港振翅:民航業與全球樞紐的發展,1933 – 1998》
2023 | 香港大學出版社,276 頁

Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Global Hub, 1930s – 1998
2022 | Harvard University Asia Center, 350 pages.

《香港動盪: 法與治的歷史與文化解讀》
2020 | 香港大學出版社 (吳海傑、王迪安編),208 頁

Civil Unrest and Governance in Hong Kong: Law and Order from Historical and Cultural Perspectives
2017 | (co-edited with Michael H.K. Ng), London and New York: Routledge, 230 pages.

Global Trade in the Nineteenth Century: The House of Houqua and the Canton System
2016 | Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 256 pages. (Paperback 2017)
Articles and Book Chapters
“‘Made in Hong Kong’: Deriving value from the place-of-origin label, 1950s and now,” Modern Asian Studies 57:3 (2023): 895–917. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X22000269.
“The Ongoing Business of Chinese Language Reform: A View from the Periphery of Hong Kong in the Last Half Century,” Modern China 49:4 (2023): 448–479 (with co-author Andrew D. Wong). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004221137535.
“Hong Kong Breaking into the International League: Cathay Pacific’s Extension to Long-Haul Routes,” International Journal of Asian Studies 20:1 (2023): 137–156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591421000103.
“Constructing the Legitimacy of Governance in Hong Kong: ‘Prosperity and Stability’ Meets ‘Democracy and Freedom,’” The Journal of Asian Studies 81:1 (2022):43–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911821002230.
“Flexible Corporate Nationality: Transforming Cathay Pacific for the Shifting Geopolitics of Hong Kong in the Closing Decades of British Colonial Rule,” Enterprise & Society 23:2 (2022):445–77. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2020.54.
“Making Vitasoy ‘Local’ in Post-WWII Hong Kong: Traditionalizing Modernity, Engineering Progress, Nurturing Aspirations,” Business History Review 95:2 (2021): 275–300. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007680521000210.
“Fidelity and Sacrifice: The Gender Discourse of Traders in Pre- and Post-Opium War Canton,” Frontiers of History in China 14:4 (2019):473–507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3868/s020-008-019-0024-4.
“Improvising Protocols: Two Enterprising Chinese Migrant Families and the Resourceful Nguyễn Court,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 50:2 (2019): 246–262. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463419000249.
“豉油小碟裏的香港:從生曬醬油到港製頭抽” “Soy Sauce in Hong Kong: From Sun-Dried Sauce to First-Brewed Premium” (co-authored with Sidney Cheung), 中國飲食文化 Journal of Chinese Dietary Culture 14:2 (2018): 215–238.
“From the Treaty of Nanking to the Joint Declaration: The Struggle for Equality through State Documents,” Law & Literature 30:2 (2018): 309–329. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2018.1423759.
“Negotiating the Legitimacy of Governance,” in Civil Unrest and Governance in Hong Kong: Law and Order from Historical and Cultural Perspectives, edited by Michael H.K. Ng and John D. Wong, 1–7, New York, London: Routledge, 2017 (co-authored with Michael H.K. Ng).
“Between Two Episodes of Social Unrest Below the Lion Rock: From the 1967 Riots to the 2014 Umbrella Movement,” in Civil Unrest and Governance in Hong Kong: Law and Order from Historical and Cultural Perspectives, edited by Michael H.K. Ng and John D. Wong, 97–113. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
Research Projects
“Hong Kong Takes Flight: Commercial Aviation and the Making of Hong Kong, 1930s-1998,” 2020-2024.
“Bottling Goodness: Culture and Commerce in Layered Identities of Dairy and Soy Beverages along the Periphery of China under Western Influence,” 2017-19.
Teaching
HKGS1001. Hong Kong’s Long Twentieth Century.
HKGS2001. Speaking of Hong Kong: Global Voices.
HKGS2009. We are What We Eat: Hong Kong Cuisine in here and Abroad.
HKGS2013/LALS3008/LLAW3233. Law, History and Culture.
HKGS3001. Hong Kong Studies Research Project (Capstone Experience).