Kenny Ng

In this Hong Kong name, the surname is Ng. In accordance with Hong Kong custom, the Western-style name is Kenny Ng and the Chinese-style name is Ng Kwok-kwan.

Kenny Ng
吳國坤
Born
Ng Kwok-kwan

Hong Kong
Alma mater
OccupationFilm scholar
Years active2004–present

Kenny Ng Kwok-kwan (Chinese: 吳國坤) is a Hong Kong film scholar specializing in film censorship. He is currently an associate professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University.

Early life and education

Ng obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1991 and a Master of Philosophy in humanities from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1996.[1] During his studies in Hong Kong, he was mentored by literary scholar William Tay.[2] He then pursued doctoral studies in the United States,[2] enrolling in the University of Washington from 1997 to 1999, but did not complete his degree.[1] He then studied modern Chinese literature at Harvard University, earning a Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian studies in 2004.[1][3] His dissertation focused on Chinese novelist Li Jieren, whose works were marginalized in the 1930s but gained recognition from the Chinese Communist Party in the 1950s.[3]

Career

Ng served as an assistant professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 2004 to 2014.[1] After completing his PhD, he dedicated several years to expanding his dissertation into a book, collecting additional material on Li Jieren's life through field research in his hometown.[2] The reworked book was published in 2015 as The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China.[2] Sinologist Sebastien Veg praised the book as "the most engaging kind of doctoral research" and "persuasively argues that the main reason why Li has been ignored by the mainstream";[4] while historian Yuehtsen Juliette Chung noted that the book "makes a significant contribution" to the study of politics and culture in the People's Republic of China.[5] Ng briefly taught at the Open University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong before joining the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University as an associate professor in 2017.[1] His research primarily focuses on film censorship, including censorship during the British colonial period and after the Handover.[3][6] In 2018, he co-edited Indiescape Hong Kong: Critical Interviews and Essays, a collection on Hong Kong cinema, with academics Enoch Tam and Vivian Lee.[7]

In 2021, he published Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Hong Kong Cinema with Sino-links in Politics, Art, and Tradition, a book examining Hong Kong's film censorship.[8] Scholar Leo Ou-fan Lee, who wrote the preface, commended the book for "covering a wide range of topics" and for "demonstrating Ng's extensive research efforts".[2] Qin Xue from City University of Hong Kong described the book as "an invaluable academic resource" on the film history of mainland China and Hong Kong and suggested that it could "serve as a reference for future scholars";[9] while researcher Kuan Chee Wah lauded the book's scope as "rich" and viewed as "'history lesson' for contemporary filmmakers who are faced with a different censorship atmosphere from that of their predecessors".[10] In 2022, Ng criticized Hong Kong's film censorship following the implementation of the 2020 Hong Kong national security law in an interview with BBC, where he likened the censorship to "a return to the 1950s" and expressed concern that it would "significantly impact independent films, documentaries, and short films".[11]

Bibliography

Year Title Original title Publisher Ref.
2015 The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China N/a Brill Publishers [2]
2018 Indiescape Hong Kong: Critical Interviews and Essays 香港獨立電影圖景: 訪問評論集 Typesetter Publishing [7]
2021 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Hong Kong Cinema with Sino-links in Politics, Art, and Tradition 昨天今天明天：內地與香港電影的政治、藝術與傳統 Chung Hwa Book Company [8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Kenny K.K. NG - Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Film" (PDF). Hong Kong Baptist University. 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Leo Ou-fan (26 April 2023). "【新書】《昨天今天明天：內地與香港電影的政治、藝術與傳統》序". P-articles (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 31 January 2026. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  3. ^ a b c 曾曉玲 (21 June 2020). "{電影審查研究達人}吳國坤 禁忌愈多，壓抑愈深，愈能刺激創作". Ming Pao (in Chinese). Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  4. ^ Veg, Sebastian (13 July 2017). "[Book review of] Kristin Stapleton, Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2016) ; Kenny Kwok-Kwan Ng, The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China (Leiden, Brill, 2015)". The China Quarterly (230). Cambridge University Press: 550–553. Archived from the original on 11 October 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  5. ^ Chung, Yuehtsen Juliette (15 June 2016). "The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China". Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. Oklahoma State University. Archived from the original on 11 January 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  6. ^ 陳淑霞 (12 August 2021). "不日禁映？｜電影政治禁區非新事 學者：港產片有生命力未需悲觀". HK01 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  7. ^ a b Tang, Siu-wa (29 December 2018). "【2018・回顧】少量星辰也成星座——2018香港文化出版現象概述". P-articles (in Chinese). Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b "電影如何背叛電檢？粵語片受政策影響而興旺？". HK01 (in Chinese). 9 January 2022. Archived from the original on 2 December 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  9. ^ Qin, Xue (June 2022). "以影言志 ——評吳國坤《昨天今天明天：內地 與香港電影的政治、藝術與傳統》" (PDF). Twenty-First Century (in Chinese). 191. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong: 150–158. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  10. ^ Kuan, Chee Wah (December 2021). "Censorship and Creativity: The Offense of Hong Kong Cinema" (PDF). Ex-position. 46. Taipei: National Taiwan University: 45–54. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 July 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  11. ^ 曹宇帆; 唐佩君 (31 October 2022). "BBC：香港國安法箝制 台灣3部影片沒通過電檢". Central News Agency (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 11 December 2025. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
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