Yin and Yang Residences in Hong Kong: An anthropological lecture by Andrew B. Kipnis and Yuki Woo

Name: Yin and Yang Residences in Hong Kong: An anthropological lecture by Andrew B. Kipnis and Yuki Woo
Start: 2025-11-07T19:00:00+08:00
Location: Hong Kong Museum of History 香港歷史博物館

Schedule

Fri, 07 Nov, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC+08:00

Location

Hong Kong Museum of History 香港歷史博物館 | Hong Kong, HK

The Hong Kong Anthropological Society in association with The Hong Kong Museum of History* presents:
Yin and Yang Residences in Hong Kong: An anthropological lecture by Andrew B. Kipnis and Yuki Woo
Friday, 7 November at 7:00 p.m.
Hong Kong Museum of History
Lecture Hall, Ground Floor, 100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui
All are welcome! Space, however, is limited to 139 seats.
The lecture is conducted in English.
This paper examines the ways in which Cantonese-speaking people in Hong Kong metaphorically compare residences for the living (Yang residences, 阳宅) and residences for the dead (Yin
residences, 阴宅). We focus on domains as varied as real estate markets; shelter, comfort and safety; familial sentiments; and invocations of ancestral homes. We depict the ways in which the
metaphorical comparison has held despite rapid shifts in the forms of housing for the living and bodily disposal for the dead. We further consider the possibilities for the future evolution or even complete disappearance of this form of metaphorical comparison. This form of metaphorical comparison and the practices associated with it are continually evolving and the causes of this evolution have more to do with the emotional dynamics of family relationships than “belief” and “tradition.”
This work was supported by a General Research Fund grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, GRF14601022.
Andrew B. Kipnis is a Research Professor of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His latest book, The Funeral of Mr. Wang: Life, Death, and Ghosts in Urbanizing China, is open access and available for free download at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-funeral-of-mr-wang/paper
Yuki Woo is a Research Assistant at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
For more information, please contact [email protected], www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/hkas, www.facebook.com/hkanthro,@HKASTalks
* The Museum makes no representations on the content of this lecture.