Zongyue Liu

My thesis studies the economic factors in the development of localism in Hong Kong from 1950 to 1981. It consists of three parts. The first part takes an economic approach to the educational changes in Hong Kong, as it assumes education is a determinant in identity-formation. The second part investigates how the development of public and private housing affected the education system and formed communities in a physical way. The last part studies external and internal shocks to Hong Kong's economy, which would then affect education and housing.

This thesis builds on one of the three themes of my MPhil thesis (ESH, Oxford), which reviewed the economy of HK from 1982 to 1996. The three themes are: the effects of the Sino-British negotiations on HK’s economy; the efforts made by the HK government to improve the resilience of its financial system; and the response of the HK Chinese population to the city’s political future. Before starting this MPhil in 2018, I completed a MRes in Economics from the University of Essex and a BSc in Mathematics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I have also worked two years as a research assistant at a securities company in Central, Hong Kong after my BSc course.

Besides the economic and social history of HK, I am interested in the economic history of China and Japan from the late Qing dynasty to 1949, the change of Chinese art from the Han dynasty to the Ming dynasty explained by socio-economic factors, and the development of fine art market in the West in the modern period.

Supervisor: Professor Catherine Schenk