Society for Hong Kong Studies to disband after 9 years citing lack of funding

The Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS), a locally based academic community providing a global platform for the study of Hong Kong, has announced it will dissolve after nine years.

A talk hosted by the Society for Hong Kong Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: Society for Hong Kong Studies.

In an email sent to members on Wednesday, the SHKS said it will cease operations on October 31. The group, founded by 250 scholars in 21 countries, cited a “lack of funding” for the closure.

An official affiliate of the Association for Asian Studies, the SHKS has since 2017 hosted an annual conference, workshops and seminars for academics, and public lectures on the city’s history, literature, films, media, pop culture, and politics. The non-profit also published research and collaborated with other Hong Kong studies initiatives around the world.

The Society said it was grateful to “have advanced Hong Kong studies for the past decade.”

SHKS executive board members include chair John Carroll, a renowned scholar of Hong Kong history at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) professor Francis Lee, former director of CUHK’s School of Journalism and Communication.

‘Purely due to funding’ Historian John Carroll. Photo: HKU Research Blog.

Local newspaper Ming Pao said in its regular political column on Thursday that the SHKS was adversely affected by local universities’ caution around hosting events in recent years – particularly those involving participants from outside their campuses.

“This has made renting venues increasingly difficult,” the Ming Pao column read, “leaving less space for the survival of societies and NGOs that should otherwise hold a place in civil society.”

In response to Ming Pao, HKU’s John Carroll said the closure is “purely due to funding.”

Carroll added that the SHKS does not receive any financial support from universities, and it lacks the fundraising capacity to continue operating on its own.

As of February this year, over 60 organisations – including unions, churches, media groups, and political parties – have disbanded in Hong Kong following the imposition of Beijing’s national security law in 2020. The trend accelerated in the second half of 2021, with many historic bastions of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement crumbling within months.