Nick Mulé, Ching Pong’s course director for SOWK 7000/Social Justice within a Social Work Context, nominated his paper. He notes that Ching Pong carefully contextualizes identity negotiation from socio-political-cultural perspectives, and makes a clear link between this topic and social justice for the course and the discipline of social work.

Through critical analysis, Ching Pong argues in the paper that the pursuit of social justice by these immigrants for Hong Kong and its citizens continues, which in turn shapes the former's identities here in Canada.

“The passion brought to this subject by this student is subjective, yet they effectively and successfully translate it into an important ongoing social justice issue not only for the democracy of Hong Kong but the concept of democracy internationally,” said Mulé.

Due to the political turmoil in his hometown, Ching Pong moved to Canada in 2022. As a new immigrant to Canada, he is interested in areas such as identities negotiation of migrants, transnational social movements, Hong Kong diaspora studies, etc.

Before moving to Canada, he had experiences working as a research assistant for the social work department in the Chinese University of Hong Kong for a project examining youth’s mental distress derived from the social movement in 2019.

He is a registered social worker both in Ontario and Hong Kong and has over 10 years of expertise working with mainly children and youths in non-profit organizations.  

The York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) invites York course directors or teaching assistants to nominate exceptional (undergraduate or graduate) student papers or creative projects for the Global Hong Kong Essay and Creative Project Award is offered annually to celebrate exceptional (undergraduate or graduate) student papers or creative projects that focus on Hong Kong and its Diaspora. Submissions are accepted throughout the year and the next deadline for papers/projects is Friday, 26 April 2024.