Faculty

CHEUNG, Yukman

Specialization/Discipline

Cultural-Historical Sociology, Nationalism, Urban Sociology, Japanese Studies, Japanese subcultures (anime), Hong Kong Studies

Research Topic

My research takes a cultural/historical sociological approach to examine the modern formation of Japan, as a nation, and Hong Kong, as a cosmopolitan city, seeing how Western modernity is perceived and transformed in the East Asian context. I am interested in the history of nation building, as seen from Japanese railway history, anime (Japanese animation) and the cultural economy of Japanese subcultures. My current research interest also includes cosmopolitanism and urban sociology, business history, contemporary culture and its history. My aim is to delineate the institutionalization process of "modernity" and "ordinary people" as seen from literature and art, economy, and politics in Japan, Hong Kong and East Asia. Theoretically, I focus on sociological new-institutionalism and the "World Society" thesis, particularly the formation and the changes of institutions ("ways of thinking and acting").