Hong Kong University Press and Its Flagship Publications

This article belongs to the "Miscellany" module of the HKU Wild History project. It focuses on Hong Kong University Press (HKU Press): its origins, publishing scale, areas of strength, peer-review practices, flagship series, and overseas distribution. Information current as of June 2026. Founding year and publication counts reflect the press's own official primary sources; divergent figures from other sources are presented side by side.

Academic publishing at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is undertaken primarily by its own imprint, Hong Kong University Press. This entry surveys the press's institutional facts and representative publishing directions. For academic journals edited or hosted by HKU, see academic-journals.md; for the library system and special collections, see libraries-and-museums.md.

# 1. At a Glance

A note on conflicting figures: the press's own website states 「每年最多約 50 種新書、累計逾 1,000 種」("up to around 50 new books a year" and a cumulative total of "over 1,000"). The Wikipedia entry separately cites figures of 「每年逾 50 種」("over 50 a year"), 「30–60 種」("30–60"), and even 「逾 70 種」("over 70") — reflecting different years and counting methodologies. This site presents both sets of data without conflating them; for citation, always defer to the press's official figure for the relevant year.

# 2. Origins and History

# 2.1 Founding and First Director

According to the press's official "History and Mission" page^※, Hong Kong University Press was founded in 1956. A South China Morning Post report^※ records that the publisher Henri Vetch (亨利·韋石諦) arrived in 1954 to become its first director (or head), a post he held until 1968.

Two timelines, side by side: the two-year gap between Vetch's arrival in 1954 and the press's formal establishment in 1956 reflects a distinction between the "arrival of the inaugural director" and the "founding of the institutional entity." We present both without adjudicating a contradiction: the press officially marks its founding year as 1956; the biographical record marks Vetch's commencement in the role as 1954. Each date refers to a separate milestone.

# 2.1.1 The Director's Extraordinary Backstory: Accused of Plotting to Assassinate Mao Zedong

Before Henri Vetch became the founding director of HKU Press, he lived through a chapter stranger than most fiction. According to biographical accounts compiled by the South China Morning Post and The World of Chinese^※, Vetch was a French national who had made his home in Beijing for nearly three decades starting in 1920. After the First World War, he joined his father's publishing enterprise, running a French-language bookshop — the Librairie Française — inside the Grand Hôtel de Pékin. He published widely on China-related subjects, his best-known title being a 1936 work, Annual Customs and Festivals in Peking（《燕京歲時記》）. Contemporaries described him as a man of 「精力過人、健談非凡」(boundless energy and extraordinary gregariousness), a prominent figure in Beijing's European expatriate circles between the wars.

After the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, Vetch chose to remain in Beijing. In 1951, he was implicated in an outlandish assassination plot: according to the accusations, he and his friends had conspired to kill Mao Zedong using mortar shells during the National Day celebrations in Tiananmen Square. Later historians judge the charge to have been 「純屬捏造、荒謬可笑」(entirely fabricated and patently absurd), but the consequences were devastating. Vetch, then 53, was sentenced to ten years in prison. His two friends — Italian businessman Antonio Riva and a Japanese bookseller named Ruichi Yamaguchi — were executed by firing squad. After serving three years, Vetch was expelled from China, resettled in Hong Kong, and took up the directorship of HKU Press in 1954, a position he held until his retirement in 1968. This vertiginous trajectory — from "convicted would-be assassin of a national leader in Beijing" to "founding helmsman of Hong Kong University Press" — is a little-known but well-documented biographical footnote to the press's formative years. It also offers an oblique glimpse into the impact of China's early-1950s political upheavals on the lives of foreign nationals who had long called the country home.

# 2.2 From a Parochial Imprint to a Global Publisher

The press's own website describes its evolution from a small operation that 「僅出版少量、以本校教員研究為主」("published only a few works, principally by its own faculty"), into a university press of international standing. It now attracts authors from North America, Europe, and across Asia, and characterises its publishing outlook as 「全球化」(global in its outlook), releasing up to roughly 50 new titles annually and boasting a backlist exceeding 1,000 works.

# 3. Areas of Strength

According to the press website^※ and its Wikipedia entry^※, Hong Kong University Press enjoys a particularly strong reputation in the following fields:

• Cultural studies
• Film and media studies
• Chinese history and culture

Beyond these internationally recognised strengths, the press also serves the local market, publishing works in law, education, social work, medicine, real estate and construction, linguistics, and language studies.

# 4. Peer-Review System

According to the press's own website, all publications must pass through a rigorous peer-review process before being accepted. The Wikipedia entry notes that publication decisions are made by a committee of HKU faculty and staff, based on the outcomes of this review. This system is the cornerstone of the press's quality assurance as an academic publisher.

# 5. Flagship Series and Representative Works

# 5.1 The New Hong Kong Cinema Series

HKU Press has a signature series in Hong Kong film studies: New Hong Kong Cinema. According to public scholarly records, the series comprises multiple volumes, each dedicated to a close, in-depth analysis of a single Hong Kong film (with occasional exceptions, such as a single volume covering the entire Infernal Affairs trilogy). The series was established under the general editorship of Ackbar Abbas and Wimal Dissanayake, later joined by film scholars Mette Hjort, Gina Marchetti, and Stephen Teo.

# 5.2 A Landmark Cross-Press Collaboration

Public academic records identify Hong Kong Connections: Transnational Imagination in Action Cinema（香港連接：動作電影中的跨國想像） as a defining edited collection in this field. The volume was co-published by Duke University Press and Hong Kong University Press.

A caveat on "flagship" claims: this site treats the designation conservatively. We only list works whose status can be traced through academic databases or series landing pages and that are unambiguously tied to HKU Press. We do not reproduce vague marketing claims of "best-seller" or "award-winning" status. For specific prize records, consult the press's official announcements.

# 6. Overseas Distribution

A page on the University of Chicago Press website^※ indicates that a portion of HKU Press's catalogue is distributed by the University of Chicago Press. The Wikipedia entry separately notes that the press also uses various regional distributors (for instance, Columbia University Press is reported to have previously handled distribution in the Americas and EMEA regions).

Discrepancy acknowledged: different sources name different distribution partners (Chicago vs. Columbia), likely reflecting shifting distribution arrangements across different regions and different time periods. This site presents both accounts without declaring one erroneous; for the most current distribution details, consult the press's own official disclosures.

# 7. See Also

• Academic journals edited or hosted by HKU → academic-journals.md
• The library system, special collections, and museums → libraries-and-museums.md
• Digital learning and MOOCs → digital-learning-and-it.md