RUNDOWN:
17:45     Registration
18:00     Opening Remarks
18:05     Presentation
18:15     Fireside Chat
18:45     Q&A
19:05     Closing Remarks
19:10     Book Signing
19:20     End

ASHK Members Ticket: HKD 100
Non-Member Ticket: HKD 150

Asia Society Hong Kong Center (ASHK) is proud to present a discussion between Enze Han, author and University of Hong Kong Assistant Professor and Alejandro Reyes, ASHK Scholar-in-Residence, about Professor Han’s latest book, The Ripple Effect: China’s Complex Presence in Southeast Asia.

To say that China has a complex presence in Southeast Asia seems an understatement: millennia of Chinese migration and commercial, personal, political, and military interactions has woven a deep and intricate web of relations between China and throughout all of its neighbors in the region.  How should we consider China’s presence in the region today, and how should we distinguish between the objectives of the Chinese state and the ongoing private business and personal ties of the people of China in the region? Join ASHK to discuss these questions and to pose your own questions of our distinguished speakers.

Enze Han is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration, The University of Hong Kong. His recent publications include Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press, 2019), Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China (Oxford University Press, 2013), and various articles appearing in International Affairs, World Development, The China Quarterly, Security Studies, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies among many others. During 2015-2016, he was a Friends Founders Circle Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, United States. Dr. Han received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the George Washington University, and he was also a postdoctoral research fellow in the China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Born in Manila, educated in the US and UK, and a Canadian, Professor Alejandro Reyes is Senior Fellow at the Centre on Contemporary China and the World (CCCW), The University of Hong Kong. He was previously adjunct professor and director of knowledge dissemination at the Asia Global Institute, the think tank on global issues at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), where he managed the digital journal AsiaGlobal Online. Prior to joining the Institute, he was the senior policy adviser to the assistant deputy minister for Asia Pacific and set up and led the Asia-Pacific policy planning unit at Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry. He had previously served in the department in 2002 as a senior policy adviser to the Canadian foreign minister, working on the G8 and a review of Canadian foreign policy. From 2007 to 2017, he was an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at HKU.

About The Ripple Effect: China’s Complex Presence in Southeast Asia:

Many studies of China's relations with and influence on Southeast Asia tend to focus on how Beijing has used its power asymmetry to achieve regional influence. Yet, scholars and pundits often fail to appreciate the complexity of the contemporary Chinese state and society, and just how fragmented, decentralized, and internationalized China is today. In The Ripple Effect, Enze Han argues that a focus on the Chinese state alone is not sufficient for a comprehensive understanding of China's influence in Southeast Asia. Instead, we must look beyond the Chinese state, to non-state actors from China, such as private businesses and Chinese migrants. These actors affect people's perception of China in a variety of ways, and they often have wide-ranging as well as long-lasting effects on bilateral relations. Looking beyond the Chinese state's intentional influence reveals many situations that result in unanticipated changes in Southeast Asia.

Buy a copy of The Ripple Effect from our store.

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.