Menu
Angela Ki Che Leung is Professor Emerita at the University of Hong Kong, elected Academician of the Academia Sinica in 2010, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques (French Ministry of National Education) in 2015. She is a historian and researcher who has dedicated her career to exploring the intriguing intersections of culture, health, food, and society in East Asia, particularly China. With a long academic career and insatiable curiosity, Angela has been a leading authority in her field.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Angela’s educational journey began at the University of Hong Kong, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in history. Driven by her youthful appetite for learning, she embarked on a doctoral program at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, specializing in history. This international exposure broadened her perspective and fueled her desire to delve deeper into the complexities of East Asian, particularly Chinese, history.
Angela’s research journey led her to various academic institutions. As a research fellow at the Academia Sinica in Taipei since 1982, she honed her expertise in Chinese philanthropy and medical culture in the late imperial and modern periods. She also taught at UCLA and spent extended research stays at Harvard, Princeton and Paris. She returned to Hong Kong in 2008 and taught history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and later at the University of Hong Kong, where she became the Director of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Chair Professor of History, Joseph Needham – Philip Mao Professor in Chinese History, Science and Civilization until July 2023 when she retired.
Angela has published extensively in English, Chinese, and French, making her research accessible to diverse audiences. Her works explore a wide range of topics, from the history of charitable organizations in imperial China to the impact of diseases on society in the late imperial and modern periods and in modern times. Notable publications in English include Leprosy in China: A History (Columbia University Press, 2009) and Health and Hygiene in East Asia: Policies and Publics in the Long 20th Century, co-edited with Charlotte Furth (Duke University Press, 2010), Gender, Health, and History in Modern East Asia, co-edited with Izumi Nakayama (Hong Kong University Press, 2017), and Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia, co-edited with Melissa L. Caldwell (University of Hawai’i Press, 2019).
Beyond her individual research endeavors, Angela has also led collaborative projects that examine the history of health and diseases in modern East Asia, and the role of everyday technologies in the making of modern East Asia. She has notably led a successful collaborative project generously funded by the Hong Kong Government 2017-2021) — Making Modernity in East Asia: Technologies of Everyday Life, 19th-21st Centuries with a team of international scholars that looks at the ways different kinds of everyday technology re-conceptualize East Asian societies as system where the technological and social processes intertwine. Her innovative approach and dedication to interdisciplinary exploration have garnered recognition within the academic community. Her current project on the history of Chinese soy sauce has inspired her to take a closer look at the importance of agriculture and the current global rural revitalization movements, which are crucial to our food security crisis and deteriorating ecology.
梁其姿是香港大學榮休教授, 2010當選台灣中央研究院院士, 2015年獲法國教育部頒發高等教育與研究騎士勳章。她的主要研究領域包括中國與東亞社會歷史裡的醫療文化、衛生與健康、食物、慈善等問題。自1980年代開始, 她以中、英、法文發表相關專書與論文多篇, 成為這些領域的著名學者。
梁其姿生於香港, 香港大學歷史系畢業, 法國巴黎高等社會科學研究所博士。1982-2008年任職於台灣中央研究院, 曾任社科所所長。 並在台灣大學歷史系兼任教。曾訪問多所歐美與中國大陸著名大學與研究機構。2008年她回到家鄉香港, 在香港中文大學歷史系任講座教授, 後轉到香港大學, 任香港人文社會研究所所長與歷史講座教授。她於2023年7月榮休。
除了個人研究, 梁其姿亦多次組織國際跨領域團隊進行合作研究。在中研院她領導團隊研究近世東亞華人社會的醫療衛生組織。在港大她主持了一個多年期的大型國際跨領域合作研究計畫, 探討日常生活的技術發展如何建構東亞社會的現代性, 此計畫整合了中、日、韓、台、與歐美的學術機構與學者的合作研究成果, 發表論著多種。
她目前正在完成一本有關醬油歷史的專書, 從這個日常食物的工藝技術轉變分析中國社會從傳統走向近現代所面臨的挑戰與所作的抉擇。這個研究讓她開始注意到目前東亞社會面臨的農業與農村文化的危機, 亦是全球食物安全與生態變化中的重要環節。她希望可以透過網站認識更多同路人共同關注這個攸關地球未來的重要變化。
