Vivien Chan is a design historian, educator, writer, and imagemaker based in the UK.
Vivien Chan
Dr., she/they
I am a design historian, educator, writer, and imagemaker based in the UK.I research design history and material culture in Hong Kong with a broad interest in design and the everyday. I teach illustration and design research at Nottingham Trent University and have guest lectured at the Royal College of Art, Kingston School of Art and Academy of Visual Art at Baptist University Hong Kong.I am also a History Workshop Editorial Fellow 2023-2025, and an Honorary Fellow at the Raphael Samuel History Centre, Birkbeck, University of London.
You can find me on the internet
or you can email me at vc[at]vivienchan.co.uk
︎ ︎ ︎ ︎
I am a design historian, educator, writer, and imagemaker based in the UK.I research design history and material culture in Hong Kong with a broad interest in design and the everyday. I teach illustration and design research at Nottingham Trent University and have guest lectured at the Royal College of Art, Kingston School of Art and Academy of Visual Art at Baptist University Hong Kong.I am also a History Workshop Editorial Fellow 2023-2025, and an Honorary Fellow at the Raphael Samuel History Centre, Birkbeck, University of London.
You can find me on the internet
or you can email me at vc[at]vivienchan.co.uk
︎ ︎ ︎ ︎
portrait by
Selected articles I’ve written:
Race & Design, ed. Davinia Gregory-Kameka and Sabrina Rahman, ‘Squatters’ rites: ‘anti-design’ and the body at the dai pai dong in Hong Kong’(forthcoming)
Corridor8, ‘Maia Ruth Lee, Human Life in Motion’, Primary, exhibition review, April 2025
Corridor 8, ‘There is nothing old under the sun: an interview with Steph Huang’(interview), April 2025
Short Eats, ed. Nicole Tan, ‘Catch of the Day’ March 2025
History Workshop, ‘From Place to Place’ series introduction, January 2025 (series editor)
Filler zine #8: Kitchens,’Appliance’, November 2024
Corridor8,‘Steph Huang: there is nothing old under the sun’, esea contemporary, exhibition review, November 2024
Archivio #10: Design, Archiving Archiving (interview), September 2024
Meritalia Magazine, ‘Decomposure’, ed. by Andrea Foffa and Marta Franceschini, April 2024
CONGEE Zine, ‘Ad Hoc Juk’, August 2023, in collaboration with artist Alastair Kwan and F.A.T. Studio
Fortified Gazette, 13th- 17th September 2022, peeling prawns; repetoires and gifts; here, a Nutrigrain bar; gravy; fervour/flavour
Fortified Issue 003, ‘Sweet treats & school puds’, July 2022
Urban History, April 2022,‘Markets made modular:constructing the modern ‘wet’ market in Hong Kong’s public housing estates’︎ Shortlisted on the Hong Kong Studies IBP 2023
Centre for Global Design History,June 2021, Report- Design Archives in Asia Symposium
Geofictions: Work in Progress, ed. Zara Arshad, February 2021,Interviewing Alvin Li and Junyuan Feng, curators of Liquid Ground
You can hear me speak on these podcasts/videos:
The last of Hong Kong’s street food rebels, SCMP
Reverberations by Zara Arshad
Women read
Race & Design, ed. Davinia Gregory-Kameka and Sabrina Rahman, ‘Squatters’ rites: ‘anti-design’ and the body at the dai pai dong in Hong Kong’(forthcoming)
Corridor8, ‘Maia Ruth Lee, Human Life in Motion’, Primary, exhibition review, April 2025
Corridor 8, ‘There is nothing old under the sun: an interview with Steph Huang’(interview), April 2025
Short Eats, ed. Nicole Tan, ‘Catch of the Day’ March 2025
History Workshop, ‘From Place to Place’ series introduction, January 2025 (series editor)
Filler zine #8: Kitchens,’Appliance’, November 2024
Corridor8,‘Steph Huang: there is nothing old under the sun’, esea contemporary, exhibition review, November 2024
Archivio #10: Design, Archiving Archiving (interview), September 2024
Meritalia Magazine, ‘Decomposure’, ed. by Andrea Foffa and Marta Franceschini, April 2024
CONGEE Zine, ‘Ad Hoc Juk’, August 2023, in collaboration with artist Alastair Kwan and F.A.T. Studio
Fortified Gazette, 13th- 17th September 2022, peeling prawns; repetoires and gifts; here, a Nutrigrain bar; gravy; fervour/flavour
Fortified Issue 003, ‘Sweet treats & school puds’, July 2022
Urban History, April 2022,‘Markets made modular:constructing the modern ‘wet’ market in Hong Kong’s public housing estates’︎ Shortlisted on the Hong Kong Studies IBP 2023
Centre for Global Design History,June 2021, Report- Design Archives in Asia Symposium
Geofictions: Work in Progress, ed. Zara Arshad, February 2021,Interviewing Alvin Li and Junyuan Feng, curators of Liquid Ground
You can hear me speak on these podcasts/videos:
The last of Hong Kong’s street food rebels, SCMP
Reverberations by Zara Arshad
Women read
Academic lectures, conferences and workshops:
‘Corridor kitchens, mushroom pavilions: foodscapes of cooked food hawkers in post-war Hong Kong’, Foodscaping Asia II: Metropolis, ICAS 13 Crossways of Knowledge, Surabaya, Indonesia, July 2024
dressing eating living moving workshop (co-convenor), ICAS 13 Crossways of Knowledge, Surabaya, Indonesia, July 2024
‘Exhibiting Spatial Histories: Design History and Cross-cultural Spatial Narratives of Hong Kong' panel (co-convenor), Workshop on Hong Kong Cultures, Arts and Languages in the UK, University of Sheffield, June 2024
HKSA Annual Conference, University of Sheffield, May 2024
‘The Pitch and the Module: hawkers and markets in designing post-war Hong Kong's New Towns public housing estates’, Universität Wien, April 2024
‘Hidden Histories’ workshop, University of Nottingham, March 2024
'Everyday rituals in the British Empire and after' workshop, University of Nottingham, June 2023
Disclosing Architecture, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam,November 2022
‘Archival Interference: Counter-archives and Design History in Asia’, Archival Interactions Symposium, DAS Amsterdam, June 2022
Other speaking events:
(History of) Having -> (Designing) Being, Creative Voice deTour 2024, PMQ Hong Kong, December 2024
Beyond the Egg Tart:Everyday perspectives of Hong Kong visual culture, Romance in the Mundane Roundtable Talks, Gathering Leaves, September 2024
University of Nottingham Humanities delegation, University of Adelaide, November 2023
Introduction to Girl’s School by Lee Mimi, Queer East, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, November 2022
‘Corridor kitchens, mushroom pavilions: foodscapes of cooked food hawkers in post-war Hong Kong’, Foodscaping Asia II: Metropolis, ICAS 13 Crossways of Knowledge, Surabaya, Indonesia, July 2024
dressing eating living moving workshop (co-convenor), ICAS 13 Crossways of Knowledge, Surabaya, Indonesia, July 2024
‘Exhibiting Spatial Histories: Design History and Cross-cultural Spatial Narratives of Hong Kong' panel (co-convenor), Workshop on Hong Kong Cultures, Arts and Languages in the UK, University of Sheffield, June 2024
HKSA Annual Conference, University of Sheffield, May 2024
‘The Pitch and the Module: hawkers and markets in designing post-war Hong Kong's New Towns public housing estates’, Universität Wien, April 2024
‘Hidden Histories’ workshop, University of Nottingham, March 2024
'Everyday rituals in the British Empire and after' workshop, University of Nottingham, June 2023
Disclosing Architecture, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam,November 2022
‘Archival Interference: Counter-archives and Design History in Asia’, Archival Interactions Symposium, DAS Amsterdam, June 2022
Other speaking events:
(History of) Having -> (Designing) Being, Creative Voice deTour 2024, PMQ Hong Kong, December 2024
Beyond the Egg Tart:Everyday perspectives of Hong Kong visual culture, Romance in the Mundane Roundtable Talks, Gathering Leaves, September 2024
University of Nottingham Humanities delegation, University of Adelaide, November 2023
Introduction to Girl’s School by Lee Mimi, Queer East, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, November 2022