Thomas Larkin
@thomaslarkin.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. Historian of China and the U.S., specializing in global historical and digital methods.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
'We understand Hong Kong as a subject providing a wide range of opportunities, as a city and a territory with a distinctive past that has never been more alive.'
Excellent write up on the @hongkonghistory.bsky.social in the latest @iias.bsky.social newsletter
For more pp.38-40 👉 brnw.ch/21wZEyV
Excellent write up on the @hongkonghistory.bsky.social in the latest @iias.bsky.social newsletter
For more pp.38-40 👉 brnw.ch/21wZEyV
February 4, 2026 at 3:02 PM
'We understand Hong Kong as a subject providing a wide range of opportunities, as a city and a territory with a distinctive past that has never been more alive.'
Excellent write up on the @hongkonghistory.bsky.social in the latest @iias.bsky.social newsletter
For more pp.38-40 👉 brnw.ch/21wZEyV
Excellent write up on the @hongkonghistory.bsky.social in the latest @iias.bsky.social newsletter
For more pp.38-40 👉 brnw.ch/21wZEyV
Hoping we remain consistent in our plans and don’t capitulate. At its base, such a threat vindicates Carney’s Davos speech.
Trump threatens 100 percent tariff on Canada over China deal
Donald Trump's threat comes after Canada reached deal with China last week on trade of agriproducts, electric vehicles.
www.aljazeera.com
January 24, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Hoping we remain consistent in our plans and don’t capitulate. At its base, such a threat vindicates Carney’s Davos speech.
Trying to get my students to read as many different news sources about current events as possible, but I have to admit that the @theguardian.com has struck just the most satisfying chord of sassy.
January 20, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Trying to get my students to read as many different news sources about current events as possible, but I have to admit that the @theguardian.com has struck just the most satisfying chord of sassy.
I don't think I've ever heard anything more moronic and dangerous - and I used to have a day calendar of Bush-isms. Are the Americans that voted for this still proud of what they've done?
‘I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace,’ says Trump amid Greenland threats | First Thing
Donald Trump links Greenland seizure threats to Nobel snub in letter to Norway’s prime minister. Plus, unseen home video of Martin Luther King Jr
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:31 PM
I don't think I've ever heard anything more moronic and dangerous - and I used to have a day calendar of Bush-isms. Are the Americans that voted for this still proud of what they've done?
For Trump to presume that this will be remembered as anything other than deeply pathetic within the historical record is a masterclass in delusion.
What kind of man do you have to be to beam with pleasure and pride at taking someone else’s award? And what kind of woman do you have to be to sacrifice your award for the sake of your country?
www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...
Venezuelan opposition leader hands Nobel medal to Trump
María Corina Machado, the Nobel peace prize winner snubbed by Trump in favour of Nicolás Maduro’s deputy Delcy Rodríguez, had a private White House meeting
www.thetimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:36 AM
For Trump to presume that this will be remembered as anything other than deeply pathetic within the historical record is a masterclass in delusion.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Some important new government policy that Native Americans might be interested in:
Trump talks about Denmark and Greenland just now: "The fact that they landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."
January 9, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Some important new government policy that Native Americans might be interested in:
Some Mapping Historical Hong Kong updates: we've been continuing to share data with the HK Spatial History team at HKBU. Good level of fidelity between the two databases, which bodes well for future data sharing. Their extensive roadmap is also going to greatly speed up our work on earlier decades.
January 9, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Some Mapping Historical Hong Kong updates: we've been continuing to share data with the HK Spatial History team at HKBU. Good level of fidelity between the two databases, which bodes well for future data sharing. Their extensive roadmap is also going to greatly speed up our work on earlier decades.
One of my favourite outputs so far from the Hong Kong Spatial History Project. The product of a partnership between Kwong Chi Man's team at HK Baptist University and the archivists at the Hong Kong Public Records Office.
Hong Kong Historical Address Database
hkhistaddress.hkspatialhist.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:29 PM
One of my favourite outputs so far from the Hong Kong Spatial History Project. The product of a partnership between Kwong Chi Man's team at HK Baptist University and the archivists at the Hong Kong Public Records Office.
Having been reading quite a bit on the topic for an article I'm writing on amateurs in the U.S. consular and diplomatic branches... No. It's not a good thing.
This is a real headline on the New York Times website.
Support independent media.
Support independent media.
December 15, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Having been reading quite a bit on the topic for an article I'm writing on amateurs in the U.S. consular and diplomatic branches... No. It's not a good thing.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Not sure which is more inconceivable: that Salem's city seal is what it is even today or that the historian defending it (or the article in fact) fails to mention the word "opium" even once, even as the family who traded it (Peabodys) commissioned the seal!
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/27/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/27/m...
Cultural tribute or Asian stereotype? Salem roiled by dispute over city seal. - The Boston Globe
To one side, the seal contains an anachronistic, racial caricature of a 19th-century Asian merchant. To the other, it honors a progressive, cross-cultural commerce that benefited peoples a world apart...
www.bostonglobe.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Not sure which is more inconceivable: that Salem's city seal is what it is even today or that the historian defending it (or the article in fact) fails to mention the word "opium" even once, even as the family who traded it (Peabodys) commissioned the seal!
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/27/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/27/m...
The articles for "Who Belongs in the Empire" have now been published together as a special issue in Itinerario alongside the highly relevant special issue "Hidden Economies of Slavery." Check out both open-access collections now!
Introduction: Who Belongs in the Empire? Culture, Race, and Malleable Identities in (semi)Colonial Port Cities, 1840–1960 | Itinerario | Cambridge Core
Introduction: Who Belongs in the Empire? Culture, Race, and Malleable Identities in (semi)Colonial Port Cities, 1840–1960 - Volume 49 Issue 2
www.cambridge.org
November 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
The articles for "Who Belongs in the Empire" have now been published together as a special issue in Itinerario alongside the highly relevant special issue "Hidden Economies of Slavery." Check out both open-access collections now!
The studentship I did with the then HKHP was one of the most generous and supportive pathways through a PhD I could have imagined. Can't recommend this opportunity enough.
Hong Kong History Centre Studentship
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Dept of Hist, University of Bristol
𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: UK and International (including EU)
𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Tuition Fees and stipend
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Sep 26 – Sep 30 (full-time)
Details:
www.hkhistory.net/2025/11/17/h...
𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Dept of Hist, University of Bristol
𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: UK and International (including EU)
𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: Tuition Fees and stipend
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Sep 26 – Sep 30 (full-time)
Details:
www.hkhistory.net/2025/11/17/h...
November 18, 2025 at 11:55 AM
The studentship I did with the then HKHP was one of the most generous and supportive pathways through a PhD I could have imagined. Can't recommend this opportunity enough.
Legally speaking, if the US signs a treaty with another country, and then, during a conflict in which they aren’t belligerents, steals said treaty from said country. Is said country still required to honour the terms of it?
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Legally speaking, if the US signs a treaty with another country, and then, during a conflict in which they aren’t belligerents, steals said treaty from said country. Is said country still required to honour the terms of it?
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Nathan Cardon, Matthew Brown & Martin Hurcombe @fhmjh.bsky.social trace the flow of people/products/ideas concerning the bicycle's sports culture in a transatlantic triangle in the Journal of Sport History
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
Project MUSE - At the Bicycle Races: Global Sporting Culture and National Belonging at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, 1899–1913
muse.jhu.edu
November 14, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Nathan Cardon, Matthew Brown & Martin Hurcombe @fhmjh.bsky.social trace the flow of people/products/ideas concerning the bicycle's sports culture in a transatlantic triangle in the Journal of Sport History
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...
It's interesting that this article almost entirely elides - as was the historical tendency - American traders' explicit and significant hand in the opium trade. If we want to use the Opium War to understand this clash then we need to recognize that Americans were barely neutral and hardly blameless.
How the 19th-Century Opium War Shapes Xi’s Trade Clash With Trump
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
It's interesting that this article almost entirely elides - as was the historical tendency - American traders' explicit and significant hand in the opium trade. If we want to use the Opium War to understand this clash then we need to recognize that Americans were barely neutral and hardly blameless.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Our first video of the new series "Hong Kong History Academy" is out!
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
October 10, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Our first video of the new series "Hong Kong History Academy" is out!
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
8 lectures, each comprising 3 sessions.
Lecture 1: Swire and Hong Kong
Prof. Robert Bickers
Session one: Why did the British go to China?
youtu.be/1gl_ecm9Tz0
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."
September 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Dr Sijie Ren, who was supervised by @robertbickers and Adrian Howkins, was awarded the British Association for Chinese Studies 'Best Doctoral Thesis Prize' for their PhD “Science and Politics in Maoist China: The Synthetic Insulin Project and its Legacy."
🧵1/3
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
August 29, 2025 at 5:34 PM
🧵1/3
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Exciting (for me) progress for this Friday's MHHK update. We've begun to experiment with integrating the Carl Smith Index Card collection for HK history. My colleague Eric Chow has been tokenizing the cards and appending GPS coordinates to recorded locations using the Google Maps API.
Reposted by Thomas Larkin
We are recruiting a Postdoc Research Associate (Oral History) at the Hong Kong History Centre at Bristol! Please feel free to circulate to any friends and colleagues, and/or get in touch if you're interested.
𝐉𝐨𝐛 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
Closing Date: 24 Sep 2025
The postholder will be a core member of this exciting initiative and will bring oral history experience and skills to the Centre.
Details:
tinyurl.com/HKHCRA
Closing Date: 24 Sep 2025
The postholder will be a core member of this exciting initiative and will bring oral history experience and skills to the Centre.
Details:
tinyurl.com/HKHCRA
August 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM
We are recruiting a Postdoc Research Associate (Oral History) at the Hong Kong History Centre at Bristol! Please feel free to circulate to any friends and colleagues, and/or get in touch if you're interested.
Wasn't totally satisfied with last week's map transformations, so I've been playing around with Thin Plate Spline transformations on the larger maps this week using the same reference points. Instantly better look, with much more accurate coastlines for Hong Kong and Kowloon.
August 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Wasn't totally satisfied with last week's map transformations, so I've been playing around with Thin Plate Spline transformations on the larger maps this week using the same reference points. Instantly better look, with much more accurate coastlines for Hong Kong and Kowloon.
Applications are open for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship, and we're looking for two undergraduate students to participate in the MHHK project next summer at UPEI. Internships are fully funded. Deadline closes 17 September.
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Embark on a Global Research Journey with Globalink Internship
Join Mitacs Globalink Research Internship for Students. Expand your academic horizons with international research experiences.
www.mitacs.ca
August 12, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Applications are open for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship, and we're looking for two undergraduate students to participate in the MHHK project next summer at UPEI. Internships are fully funded. Deadline closes 17 September.
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Project ID is 49248
www.mitacs.ca/our-programs...
Spent bits of the last week correcting new maps pulled from the HKPRO. Some truly interesting ones of the development of The Peak and Cheung Chau. I've pulled a series that I'm excited about as well that surveys Kowloon, NT, and Sai Wan village lots (still to be processed).
August 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Spent bits of the last week correcting new maps pulled from the HKPRO. Some truly interesting ones of the development of The Peak and Cheung Chau. I've pulled a series that I'm excited about as well that surveys Kowloon, NT, and Sai Wan village lots (still to be processed).
Academic hack: if I split my time between PEI in the winter and HK in the summer, I can gain almost another month of forced vacation on account of weather.
August 5, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Academic hack: if I split my time between PEI in the winter and HK in the summer, I can gain almost another month of forced vacation on account of weather.
This week's MHHK update. Stonecutter's Island, reclamation projects, and the villages to the west of Kowloon (1964). Not sure how accurate the source map was on rural lots and buildings, so will have to check these against the far more detailed large-scale surveys from the following decades.
July 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
This week's MHHK update. Stonecutter's Island, reclamation projects, and the villages to the west of Kowloon (1964). Not sure how accurate the source map was on rural lots and buildings, so will have to check these against the far more detailed large-scale surveys from the following decades.
Today’s best archival find is Caleb Cushing trying to figure out a suitable Chinese name. He eventually settled on 顧聖, but I think 鼓聲 (drumbeat) should have stuck. Would have looked better on the Treaty of Wangxia and the dozens of red calling cards he had written up.
June 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Today’s best archival find is Caleb Cushing trying to figure out a suitable Chinese name. He eventually settled on 顧聖, but I think 鼓聲 (drumbeat) should have stuck. Would have looked better on the Treaty of Wangxia and the dozens of red calling cards he had written up.