CityUHK Visiting Scholar Lecture Series 2025–26 by Prof. He Guimei successfully held on 14 January 2026

The Department of Chinese and History held a public lecture on 14 January 2026, featuring professor He Guimei from Peking University as part of the CAH Visiting Scholar Lecture Series 2025–26. Chaired by Prof. Liu Dong, the talk was titled “The "1990s" In Contemporary China: Critical Studies of a Decade.” In the lecture, Prof. He Guimei first highlighted a notable trend in Chinese television over the past five years: the emergence of numerous popular TV dramas set in the 1990s, such as "Blossoms," "The Long Season," "The Knockout," "Ordinary World," "River of Time," and "Wind Blows in Half Summer." Prof. He categorizes these dramas into three narrative strategies: epic, comedy, and tragedy. Each storytelling method reflects a different understanding of the 1990s, revealing the complexity of interest groups during that era. Despite their differences, these texts share a commonality: they successfully narrate the 1990s as a natural segment of Chinese history, serving as a testament to China's current legitimacy. In essence, this trend embodies a specific historical consciousness, where recounting the 1990s helps affirm a new era and validate the present as a starting point. The backdrop to this narrative is China's rise on the global stage. The lecture attracted an enthusiastic audience of CityUHK students and staff, along with scholars from other institutions. Prof. Lin Peiyin from HKU and Prof. Zhang Yu from PolyU joined the lecture and also shared their ideas on this topic.

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