Dr Victor Fong

Dr Victor Fong is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at Hong Kong Metropolitan University and Programme Leader for the Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage and Tourism. Trained as a historian of premodern China, he received his BA and MPhil in History from Hong Kong Baptist University and his PhD in Culture, History, and Language from the Australian National University. He later held a postdoctoral appointment at Yale University, where he also taught in the Department of History.

Dr Fong's research examines law, sovereignty, and cross-border mobility in premodern China, with a particular focus on how legal regimes shaped subjecthood, identity, and travel. As a modern scholar engaging with the premodern past, he extends his interests to cultural heritage and tourism, exploring how historical legacies are interpreted, represented, and mobilized in contemporary society through teaching, research, and community partnerships.

Teaching Areas & Research Interests

• Law, sovereignty, and mobility

• Historical memories and legacies

• Cultural heritage and tourism

Selected Publications

Books

• Tiandao tingshen: Ming Qing sifa shiye xia de tianzhujiao chuanxing yu xianzhi 天道廷審: 明清司法視野下的天主教傳行與限制 [The Heavenly Way in Trial: The Transmission and Restrictions of Catholicism in China under the Ming and Qing Law']
  Hong Kong: The City University of Hong Kong Press, 2021, co-authored with Ka-chai Tam.

• Dushi shenyu: Xianggangren de shengdian yu miaoyu 都市神域：香港人的聖殿與廟宇 [Sanctuary as Oasis: The Temples and Shrines of Hong Kongers]
  Taipei: Showwe Information Co., Ltd., 2024, co-edited with Lam Ho-yin, Han Lok-han and Hung Tak-wai.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• 'On the Generic Usage of Yi夷in Literary Sinitic,' Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 145, no. 3 (2025): 491-498

• 'Jimi he yi? Qiantang jimi zhoujun shuxing yu difang zhili moshi zaitan' 羈縻何義？前唐羈縻州郡屬性與地方治理模式再探 [Reconsidering 'Jimi': Revisiting the Nature of Subordinate Prefectures and Local Governance Models in Early Tang]
  Zhongguo gudai falüwenxian yanjiu中國古代法律文獻研究 ['Studies of Ancient Chinese Legal Documents'], vol.17 (2023), 41-54.

• 'Zhanhou Aozhou de Tang Song shi yanjiu: Yi Aozhou guoli da xue wei shujie zhongxin' 戰後澳洲的唐宋史研究: 以澳洲國立大學為述介中心 [ 'The Studies of Tang and Song History in Post-War Australia: Focus on the Australian National University']
  Zhongguo Tangdai xuehui huikan ['The Bulletin of the Tang Society of China'] (Taipei), vol. 26 (2023): 81-94.

• 'Imagining Future from History: The Tang Empire and the “China Dream”,' in Chan Ying-Kit (eds.), Historical Strategies of Transnational China: Legacies, Memories, and Narrative. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 149-171.

• 'The Changing 'Dream' in the Classroom: Literary Chinese Textbooks in the PRC', in China Story Yearbook: China Dreams (Canberra: The Australian National University Press, 2020), 44-50, co-authored with Esther Sunkyung Klein.