FASS Brown Bag Seminar by A/P Zhou Taomo | Re-bordering for Reform: Neoliberal Hong Kong and the Internationalization of Infrastructure in Shenzhen, China
Dear all,
You are cordially invited to the third session of the FASS Brown Bag Seminar Series in Semester 1 of AY25/26. A/P Zhou Taomo (NUS Chinese Studies) will be presenting a talk titled "Re-bordering for Reform: Neoliberal Hong Kong and the Internationalization of Infrastructure in Shenzhen, China."
Date: 9 Oct, 12pm-1pm
Venue: Zoom and in-person (FASS Research Division Seminar Room AS7 06-42)
Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
Re-bordering for Reform: Neoliberal Hong Kong and the Internationalization of Infrastructure in Shenzhen, China
Many academic discussions of economic globalization focus on the reconfiguration of borders in Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall. This paper, however, shifts the focus to the Pearl River Delta in Southern China, arguing that the re-bordering between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a crucial precondition for the expansion of international trade and the emergence of global supply chains. It shows that the increased mobility of capital under neoliberalism transformed Hong Kong into a financial hub in Asia, thus funneling international capital to infrastructure projects in Shenzhen.
Taomo Zhou is the author of Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia and the Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2019), which won a Foreign Affairs “Best Books of 2020” award and an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies.