Tai Kwun Conversations: Death at Tai Kwun - Murders, Hangings, Inquests

General

How many hangings took place in Hong Kong? Where exactly were they carried out? And who were the executioners?  The speaker addresses these questions in a conversation about the history of capital punishment in Hong Kong, with special reference to Tai Kwun.

This session of Tai Kwun Conversations examines the process of capital justice – from the preliminary hearings of murder cases by magistrates to the inquests into the bodies of executed criminals, which were also held before magistrates. It explores how executions were carried out and some of the people involved. The session will draw on Christopher Munn’s new book, Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong.

The conversation will be conducted in English with English-Cantonese simultaneous interpretation.

Speaker:
Dr Christopher Munn | Historian

Moderator:
Prof John Carroll | Principal Lecturer, Department of History, The University of Hong Kong

7:00pm – 8:00pm

Talk

8:00pm – 8:30pm

Q&A

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Speaker/ Moderator Bio

Christopher Munn
John Carroll

Christopher Munn’s books include Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880 and, with May Holdsworth, Crime, Justice and Punishment in Colonial Hong Kong: Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Gaol.

Prof. John Carroll is Principal Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, where he directs the MA programme in Hong Kong history and teaches courses on Hong Kong and the British Empire, and on museums and tourism. He is the author of several books on Hong Kong history and on encounters between China and the West, including Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong, A Concise History of Hong Kong, and Canton Days: British Life and Death in China. Carroll is the chair of the Society for Hong Kong Studies.