Dr NG, Fung Sheung Isabella   伍鳳嫦
Associate Head / Assistant Professor
Department of Asian and Policy Studies
Phone No: (852) 2948 6343
Email: ifsng@eduhk.hk
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0002-1666-8422
Phone
(852) 2948 6343
Email
ifsng@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Website
https://pappl.eduhk.hk/rich/web/person.xhtml?pid=143974&name=NG, Fung Sheung Isabella
Scopus ID
57203234023
Research Interest

Anthropology of Migration

Feminist research methodology

Feminist Geography

Gender

Media studies

Public Anthropology

Teaching Interest

Cross cultural Communication

International Communication

Introduction to Communication

Introduction to Social Theories and Concepts

Sociology of Bodies

Gender and Development

Personal Profile

Isabella NG is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Policy Studies. She receives her PhD in Gender Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. She obtained her MPhil in Journalism and BA in English Literature in Hong Kong Baptist University and MA in Comparative Literature in the University College London. She focuses her research on Gender and Development in Asia, Feminist Geography, Feminist Research methods, anthropology of migration; migrants and diaspora, rural villages in Hong Kong and China and media studies, by drawing mainly on her training in anthropological research methods.

Prior to joining HKIED, she has taught in the University of Macau and the Community College, City University of Hong Kong. She also worked as a reporter for Time magazine, covering Greater China region. She has covered stories ranging from the Indonesian pogrom and Bali bombings, Hong Kong and Macau Handovers, Shanghai's makeover, the notorious New York snakehead Sister Ping and got the exclusive feature of the Macau Dragonhead Broken Tooth.

She is also a founder of the society Hong Kong Society for Asylum-Seekers and refugees, which fights for the rights of the asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong and support their need. She has provided expert input on asylum-seekers and refugees issues to EU and OHCHR.

Research Interest

Anthropology of Migration

Feminist research methodology

Feminist Geography

Gender

Media studies

Public Anthropology

Teaching Interest

Cross cultural Communication

International Communication

Introduction to Communication

Introduction to Social Theories and Concepts

Sociology of Bodies

Gender and Development

Selected Output
Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters
Research book or monograph (author)
Ng, I (2019)。 《與難民同行：港人與難民的故事》。紅出版 https://julac.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,991017716917003410&vid=EDUHKFind@EdUHK Library
Ng, Isabella (2019). Hong Kong Rural Women under Chinese Rule – Gender Politics, Reunification and Globalization in Post-Colonial Hong Kong. Abingdon, Oxon; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Taylor and Francis
Chapter in an edited book (author)
Isabella F.S Ng., Kee Lee Chou and Winky K.F. Wong (2016). Perceived Discrimination and Integration Among New Arrivals from Mainland China: Implications for Higher Education Development for Hong Kong. Ka Ho Mok, Managing International Connectivity - Diversity of Learning and Changing Labour Markets -East Asian Perspectives (169-188). Singapore: Springer
Ng, Isabella (2016). Love Knows No Bounds: (Re)Defining Ambivalent Physical Boundaries and Kinship in the World of ICTs. M.Friedman & S. Schultermandl, Click and Kin: Transnational Identity and Quick Media (197-213). Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press
伍鳳嫦 (2014)。 拜祭儀式與世代變遷：新界圍村研究。輯於張少強、梁啟智和陳嘉銘編， 《香港 . 城市 . 想像》 (94-108)。香港: 匯智出版社

Journal Publications
Publication in refereed journal
Ng, I., Chung, J.W.Y., Choi, S.F.Y., Yan, V.C.M. (2023). Self-perceived mental health and factors associated with the mental health of Hong Kong's asylum-seekers and refugees: A mixed methods study. Heliyon, 9(2) Doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13481.
Ng, I (2023). An unusual refuge: A case study of a South Asian and African multi-ethnic cluster in a Hong Kong rural walled village. Journal of Rural Studies, 98, 1-10 Doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.01.019.
Ng, I., Choi, S.F.Y., Chan, A.L.S. (2021). Resistance to ‘framing’? The portrayal of asylum seekers and refugees in Hong Kong's online media. Journalism Practice Doi:10.1080/17512786.2021.2000477.
Ng, I., & Zhang, H. (2021). Navigating the Ethnic Boundary: From ‘in-between’ to Plural Ethnicities among Thai Middle-class Migrant Women in Hong Kong (do: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1440783321998756). Journal of Sociology, retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1440783321998756, Online Publication, 1-17
Ng, I. (2019). Criminalizing the Innocents: Social Exclusion of Asylum-seekers and Refugees in Hong Kong (doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2019.1630790). Journal of Asian Public Policy, Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17516234.2019.1630790, online, 1-14
Ng, I., Choi, F.Y., & Chan, L.S. (2019). Framing the Issue of Asylum Seekers and Refugees for Tougher Refugee Policy — A Study of the Media’s Portrayal in Post-colonial Hong Kong. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 20(2), 593-617
Ng, I (2017). When [inter]personal becomes transformational: [Re]examining life-course related emotion in PhD research. DOI: 10.1111/area.12325.. Area, online, 1-6
Lee, S.Y., Ng, F.S.I., Chou, K.L. (2016). Exclusionary Attitudes towards Allocation of Welfare Benefits to New Immigrants in Hong Kong. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 25 (1), 41-61
Wong, W.K.F., Ng, I.F.S., Chou,K.L. (2015). Factors contributing to scoial support among female marriage migrants in Hong Kong: A Longitudinal study (DOI: 10.1177/0020872815607955). International Social Work, xxx, 1-15
Ng, F. S. I., Lee. S.Y., Wong, K. F. W. & Chou, K. L. (2015). Effects of perceived discrimination on the quality of life among new mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong – a longitudinal study. Social Indicators Research, 120(3), 817-834
Chou, K.L., Ng, I. F.S & Yu, K.M. (2014). Lifetime Abstention of Sexual Intercourse and Health in Middle-aged and Older Adults: Results from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Archives of Sexual Behavior Tonite, 43, 891-900
Ng, I.F.S., Cheung, K.C.H., & Chou, K.L. (2013). Correlates of eating disorder in middle-aged and older adults: Evidence from 2007 British National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey.. Journal of Aging and Health,, 25(7), 1106-1120
Chou, K.L., Yu, K.M., & Ng, I. (2013). Exclusionary Attitudes towards Allocation of Welfare Benefits to New immigrants in Hong Kong. Social Policy and Administration / International Journal of Social Welfare, submitted, **-**
Ng, I (2011). To Whom Does My Voice Belong? (Re)Negotiating Multiple Identities as a Female Ethnographer in Two Hong Kong Rural Villages. Gender, Technology and Development, 15(3), 437-456
Fung, T.K.F., Brossard, D. Ng, I. (2011). There is Water Everywhere: How news Framing Amplifies the Effect of Ecological Worldviews on Preference for Flooding Policy. Mass Communication and Society, 14(5), 553-577

Project
To Move or Not to Move - Individual’s Decision-Making Process of Foreign Labour Migrants in Hong Kong

Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
Cultivating Students’ Global Perspectives through Course Design with an Emphasis on the Affective Aspect of Learning
The global challenges of our century underscore the need for students to be able to value diverse cultures and perspectives, empathise and work with others dramatically different from themselves and solve problems that transcend national borders. While the academic departments at EdUHK are being strongly encouraged to enhance their courses to cultivate students’ global perspectives, some lecturers remain uncertain about how to achieve this goal meaningfully. This TDG addresses an urgent need of empowering lecturers to improve their understanding of global perspectives and facilitate their reflection on appropriate course design and successful delivery. Over the past decade, the "affective turn" (Clough, 2007) in social sciences and the humanities has resulted in educational applications that show how emotional responses and sensory perceptions can maximize affective engagement in the classroom (e.g. Cavanagh, 2016). This project proposes that the integration of such an approach with internationalisation of the curriculum can effectively cultivate students' global perspectives, which includes not only knowledge of different cultures, societies and global issues but also affective attributes conducive to intercultural empathy, efficacy, and tolerance. The project will develop an instructional framework for cultivating students’ global perspectives. It will demonstrate the impact that a due emphasis on the affective aspect of learning has on students' development of intercultural competence (including knowledge and attitudes). Finally, the project will develop case studies and other resources highlighting the participating lecturers’ best pedagogical practices. This cross-disciplinary project will include team members from nine departments across all three faculties, including five Teaching Award recipients, together with two external Co-Ss from North America specialising in cultural psychology and global citizenship education.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): BUCHTEL, Emma Ellen Kathrina 蒲安梅, CHATELIER STEPHEN ERIC , YU, Kwan Wai Eric 余君偉 (NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦 as Co-Investigator)
 
Investigating Hong Kong Students' Aspirations for the Future
In recent months, school students have organized school strikes, class boycotts, human protest
chains, joined front-line protests, been arrested (30% under 18 years) and shot (2 students; 14
& 18 years), with more than 300 school students involved in the PolyU siege. For other students, the protests disrupted their schooling and their relationships with family, peers and teachers. The longer-term impact on their aspirations, futures and sense of belonging/connectedness to Hong Kong is unknown.This project seeks to map Hong Kong adolescents’ (15-18 years) aspirations and views on the resources/capital needed to achieve their aspirations for the future, and how Hong Kong schools and society can help.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): HALSE CHRISTINE MARGARET (NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦 as Co-Investigator)
 
Enhancement of Programme Innovation through Interdisciplinary Blended Learning Approach: Innovative Use of Visual Methods in Social Policy Research
From the curriculum design perspective, inquiry-oriented learning through the completion of a research project/capstone project could help students consolidate both generic skills and interdisciplinary knowledge and come up with innovative solutions for problem solving. In response to the call of promoting PEER & I in EdUHK, there is a need to introduce new initiative for strengthening students’ ability of generating innovative ideas into courses on research methods. Since the digital turn in the 1980s, the production and transmission of knowledge in contemporary culture relies on new media technologies as well as archive research focusing on images, film, video, found objects and sound. This project aims to introduce non-written scholarship forms and modalities to enable innovative research projects among students. An online learning kit of visual anthropological inquiries for innovative social research will be developed. Physical and digital platforms such as seminar/conference and online repository are also developed for students to show and share their multimedia research output to a wider community. It is hoped that this enhancement of programme innovation through interdisciplinary blended learning approach could help nurturing students to become innovative change makers, who could appreciate the innovative use of visual methods in problem solving and conducting research.
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): HUANG KAI WAI 黃佳威, KWAN, Chung Yin, Tommy 關仲然 (NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦 as Co-Investigator)
 
Diversity, Equity and Social Inclusion Research Group
This proposal builds on and extends the achievements over the last two years by the Intercultural Studies Strategic Research Group in establishing a culture of collaborative research and high quality research outcomes:
i) Successful grant applications on diversity: 5 of 6 GRF/ECS applications since 2017 successful (83% success rate);
ii) Quality outputs: 1 co-edited book (Springer), 9 A*, 6 A journal articles by members on diversity (2 co-authored; three won awards)
iii) Research collaboration: multi-method, collaborative research project involving all members on ‘Belonging of Diverse Youth in Hong Kong’
iv) International conferences: AERA Symposium (2019); presentations at Korean Association for Multicultural Education (KAME) (2019);
v) RPG support: Monthly Theory Reading group.
vi) Community engagement: Symposium with the Equal Opportunity Commission, NGOs, schools practitioners and community members on ‘Minorities and Education: Future directions?’, https://sites.google.com/friends.eduhk.hk/intercultural-res/events/symposium
vii) Internationalization: i) established APIRN (Asia Pacific Intercultural Research Network) to connect regional diversity scholars. Includes members from Korean Educational Development Institute, Gyeongin National University of Education (South Korea), Osaka University (Japan), University of Canberra (Australia), Chiang Mai University (Thailand), National Institute of Education (Singapore).
Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): HALSE CHRISTINE MARGARET , JACKSON, Liz null (NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦 as Co-Investigator)
 
Framing Consent/Dissent: A Comparison between the Media Portrayal of the Rohingya Crisis between the Local Burmese Media and the International Media
The project intends to examine how the local Burmese media depict the Rohingya crisis; and look into how the international media depict the Rohingya criss and to compare how they differ in framing the issue
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
The Mental Gealth and QOL of Asylum-seekers and Refugees and Factors Affecting their Current Health Status
The project attmepts to examine the current mental health status and the quality of life of the asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong. It also seeks to understand factors that affect their current mental state and the quality of life in the host country, a currently understudied topic. The project is a pilot study to look into how forced migration could affect the health problems of a displaced population and how policy could facilitate an improvement in such aspect.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
In Local Exclusivity Lies Global Inclusion – The Relational Ontology of Asylum-Seekers and Refugees and Local Community in a Post-Colonial Hong Kong Village
The project examines the relationship between the local community and the asylumseekers and refugees in post colonial Hong Kong, in particular how the local community receives and interacts with this marginalized group, a currently understudied topic. With the backdrop of the negative news coverage in 2016 on the marginalized group and a polling that contradicts the media as over 60% of Hong Kong people are “neutral” towards the existence of the asylum-seekers and refugees, the reality in Hong Kong regarding this issue needs to be addressed. Drawing on relational ontology, I examine how the lives between the asylum-seekers and refugees and locals could relate to and affect each other’s lives throughout their life course. The crux of relation ontology is that everything is connected, dynamic and interactive. The framework shed light on the understanding of interplay among stakeholders, with relational ontology focuses on the lives as an ongoing process of the actors and how they influence each other, amidst social, structural and historical changes.

A 1 ½ year ethnographic research in the ethnic cluster of rural Hong Kong and in-depth interviews and focus groups with 100 villagers who live with the asylum-seekers and refugees in the walled village and the 100 asylum-seekers who reside there., together with local human rights group, government officials and legislators will be conducted in this study. This research will provide invaluable insight on the practical policy and theoretical aspect of local’s interaction with the vulnerable group. On the practical level, understanding the lives of asylum-seekers and refugees and how local people interact with this group will advance the knowledge among the public to dispel misunderstandings about this marginalized group. On the theoretical level, adopting relational ontology in examining the locals and asylum-seekers opens a different level of application in a distinct spatial cluster. It allows the locals to be the core subject in the understanding of the refugees’ lives and they are linked together. The study also advances the knowledge on studying asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong, a population as a result of the increasing connectedness due to globalization situated in a rural locale well-known for its exclusivity, a topic which is currently overlooked as studies on this group mostly focus on urban area. Being a female ethnographer studying male asylum-seekers from patriarchal communities could contribute to the understanding of positionality and power dynamics in ethnographic fieldwork.
Project Start Year: 2019, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking and Creativity through Web-based and Classroom-based Inquiry
Critical thinking and creativity are long-standing objectives in EdUHK strategic plans and within her generic intended learning outcomes (GILOs). Given considerable uncertainty existing in the process of conducting inquiry, students are required to make their own decisions in every stage of doing it, which intrinsically involves the application and development of both creative and critical thinking that are described as the “heartbeat” of inquiry. Inquiry learning was originally adopted in the school classrooms, and recent years witness increasing advocation of it at the university level. This project intends to make use of both Web-based and classroom-based inquiry to facilitate EdUHK students’ development in high-order thinking. 9 sets of Web-based or classroom-based inquiry activities will be developed, with each for an experimental course. The project will follow the paradigm of practitioner research, including two cycles of implementation. The development of students’ critical thinking and creativity will be assessed through matured instruments in the pre and post-tests, interviews with students, and process data generated in the learning process. This project will be a pioneering effort to systematically implement inquiry learning at the university level in the Eastern world. Its innovation is also reflected in the inclusion of both Web-based and classroom-based inquiry.
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): WAN, Zhihong 萬志宏, LEE, Chi Kin John 李子建 (NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦 as Co-Investigator)
 
Surviving as Stateless When the Global Local Collide- Space, Place, the Locals, the Asylum-seekers and Refugees in Postcolonial Hong Kong - A Livelihood Perspective
..
Project Start Year: 2018, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
Framing consent? – An investigation of Hong Kong news media’ framing effect on Hong Kong people about Ethnic minority illegal migrants
In this project, we will analyze the way that local media present the question, of why illegal immigrants like the asylum seekers and refugees as a problem, and how to fix it.
Project Start Year: 2016, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
Integration of Female Mainland Migrants in Hong Kong: Wise Intervention and Peer Support Group
The project investigates how Peer Support Group could help the female mainland migrant integrate and how news media portray the female mainland migrant.
Project Start Year: 2015, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦
 
New Media for an active, engaging, reflective and experoental learning;

This project aims to adopt new media in the curriculum for experiential and reflective learning in the context of understanding the political, social, economic and cultural dynamics in Hong Kong. By asking students to apply different forms of new media such as face timing, Skype, blogging, video-recording on their projects, students will be able to understand the process of civic engagement in a pro-active and engaging manner. Students will put their projects on the department website and can also go live on the department portal for their projects. The proposed project will also provide a template to demonstrate how to use new media to promote independent self-learning and problem-solving technique. Through this project, we attempt to raise students’ awareness towards their surrounding and knowing that they are part of this society and they should care because they can.
Project Start Year: 2013, Principal Investigator(s): NG, Fung Sheung Isabella 伍鳳嫦