Wing Lam Michelle Chan

Research Topic

Consumer Culture and Work in Industrial Hong Kong, c. 1950s-1970s

Supervisor: Jennifer Altehenger

I am interested in consumer culture, print media, industrialisation and work in Hong Kong. My DPhil project focuses on the post-war decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, using consumer culture to probe social-cultural change amidst domestic industrial transitions and the internationalised Cold War. By centring the work of producing consumer culture — the white collar work of editors and journalists, the technical work of printing, formal and informal light industrial labour, and the creative profession of design — I examine how industrial capitalism and consumerism were made material in and through Hong Kong. To these ends, I use oral histories, industry files, business archives, newspapers and design ephemera. 

My DPhil study is funded by the Clarendon Scholarship and the Magdalen College Graduate Scholarship in History, and my work is supervised by Dr Jennifer Altehenger. Also at Oxford, I developed my interest in print culture beyond its textual dimension during my MSt in Global and Imperial History and my BA in History and Economics. My masters work explored cultural production by Hong Kong Chinese businessmen during the Interwar, and my undergraduate research investigated diglossia and political journalism in 1905 Hong Kong amidst a transnational boycott movement. My research thus adopts an integrated lens on production and consumption, highlighting everyday voices within Hong Kong's local and transborder contexts.

我的研究關注近現代香港的消費文化、印刷媒體、工業化及職業發展議題。本人的博士研究項目聚焦於1950至1970年代，旨在探討香港在工業轉型背景下的社會文化變遷。本研究以消費文化的生產工作為核心對象，並涵蓋報業出版社內的編輯與新聞工作、印刷行業的技術與科技發展、設計和廣告業、以及輕工業勞動。為此，我運用的史料包括口述歷史、政府檔案、企業文獻、報紙及各類短期印刷品。

我的博士研究由牛津克拉倫登獎學金及麥達倫學院歷史學研究生獎學金資助，導師為Jennifer Altehenger副教授。此前，我在牛津大學獲得了全球與帝國歷史碩士學位以及歷史與經濟學學士學位。我的碩士論文研究了戰前香港華商的文化生產，而本科論文則探討了清末香港的語言語境與革命報業。本人對香港社會及文化歷史的興趣萌生於此。也正因此，我在博士研究中結合消費與生產的雙重視角，突顯香港本土及跨地域語境下的社會日常。