CHAT 2025 Research Grant
We are pleased to announce that Junko Asano and Nick Yu are the recipient of the CHAT 2025 Research Grant. Their proposed research will uncover the hidden history and experiences of Sindhi tailors in Hong Kong.
Jury’s Comments
Applications to CHAT’s 2025 Research Grant have been reviewed by a panel of esteemed judges, including Takahashi Mizuki, Executive Director and Chief Curator of CHAT; Janis Jefferies, Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK; Edith Cheung, Advisor to CHAT as well as Founder and Textile Catalyst of The Costume Squad Ltd, Hong Kong; Dr Johanna von Pezold, Postdoctoral Researcher of the ERC-funded project China Africa Fashion Power, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Bruce Li, Associate Curator of CHAT. We are pleased to share the following comment from the jury:
‘We are delighted to have received many applications from around the world this year, including Hong Kong, mainland China, Thailand, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Uganda. The diversity of submissions shows that CHAT’s Research Grant is becoming a highly regarded international award. The grant also provides a fantastic opportunity for researchers to investigate the complex textile histories of Hong Kong, the Asia Pacific region and beyond. All of the applications are well conceived and discuss the wide influences of Hong Kong’s textile industry from unique angles, such as education and fabric design. The overall quality of submissions was impressive, making the final decision not easy.
Among the applications received, the research proposal from Junko Asano and Nick Yu is particularly compelling in that it attempts to add a new colour to the story of Hong Kong from a textile angle. Their research will shed light on the often overlooked stories of Sindhi tailors in the city. Although a testament to the cosmopolitanism of Hong Kong, these tailors’ business and culture are still under-represented. We believe the research of Asano and Yu will give voice to the Sindhi tailors, all while offering a new window into the multicultural and international character of Hong Kong’s textile industry and its inseparability with the city’s development.
CHAT is a platform for academics to connect with the public and make their studies known to and appreciated by a wider audience. We look forward to learning from Asano and Yu’s discoveries and the visual materials they will collect!’
Recipient statement
We are so thrilled and honoured to be the recipient of the CHAT Research Grant. Growing up in Hong Kong, we were always fascinated by the Sindhi tailoring shops dotting Tsim Sha Tsui with their brightly lit 90s store signs and large glass windows displaying rows of suited mannequins. During the partition of India in 1947, many Hindu Sindhis left for fear of religious persecution as their home province of Sindh became a part of Muslim majority Pakistan. Setting up tailoring shops in Hong Kong, these Sindhi newcomers quickly became crucial players in establishing the city as a major centre for custom-made suits. Despite the Sindhi diaspora’s tremendous contributions to the textile history and visual culture of Hong Kong from the 1950s to the present, their story is not well known in Hong Kong. In a time of epochal change in the city’s identity and representation of itself, we find it crucial to document and reflect on Hong Kong’s culturally diverse roots through the multi-generational story of Sindhi suit makers. They are our neighbours, classmates and friends; we are so grateful for this opportunity to shine a spotlight on the Sindhi community.