Dr. Chi-Kwan Mark

Senior Lecturer in International History

About Dr. Mark...

Diplomatic/international historian with a focus on Britain, China, America, and Hong Kong in the Cold War period.

Dr. Mark studied at the University of Hong Kong and received his doctorate from the University of Oxford. He is the author of Hong Kong and the Cold War: Anglo-American Relations 1949-57 (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Everyday Cold War: Britain and China 1950-72 (Bloomsbury, 2017). The former, written in the tradition of diplomatic history, examines how the British and American governments discussed, debated and disagreed over Hong Kong’s role in the Cold War, and reveals the dynamics of the Anglo-American alliance and the dilemmas of a vulnerable ally in the conflict with China. By embracing the ‘cultural turn’ in the study of diplomatic history and drawing upon the concept of ‘the everyday’, the second book argues that during the 1950s and 1960s Britain and China were engaged in an ‘everyday Cold War’, characterised by diplomatic ritual, propaganda rhetoric and symbolic retaliation. Whatever the approach, Dr. Mark sees Hong Kong as an important lens through which to study a range of topics and themes. As such, the Hong Kong case helps illuminate British imperial history (defence, decolonisation, nationality law, etc), diplomatic history (Sino-British, Sino-American and Anglo-American), and global history (economic globalisation and flows of refugees and tourists, for example).

Recent Publications

Decolonising Britishness? The 1981 British Nationality Act and the Identity Crisis of Hong Kong Elites
Mark, C-K., 2020, In: The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 48, 3, p. 565-590Article › peer-review

Everyday Propaganda: The Leftist Press and Sino-British Relations in Hong Kong, 1952-1967
Mark, C-K., 2019, Europe and China in the Cold War: Exchanges Beyond the Bloc Logic and the Sino-Soviet Split. Schaufelbuehl, J. M., Wyss, M. & Zanier, V. (eds.). Leiden: Brill, p. 151-171Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

The Everyday Cold War: Britain and China, 1950-1972
Mark, C-K., 5 Oct 2017, 1 ed. London: Bloomsbury.Book

Crisis or Opportunity? Britain, China, and the Decolonization of Hong Kong in the Long 1970s
Mark, C-K., 2017, China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series).Roberts, P. & Westad, O. A. (eds.). London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 257-277Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

From Vietnam to Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Everyday Cold War, 1965-7
Mark, C-K., 2017, Britain’s Retreat from Empire in East Asia, 1905-1980. Best, A. (ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, p. 171-189Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review