For specific information related to your program or area of interest

Including how to apply, please visit the following pages:

Undergraduate Programs Information

Major or minor in Asian Studies.

Graduate Programs Information

Including: Master of Arts in Asian Studies, Master’s in Asian International Affairs, and Graduate Certificates in Asian Studies.

Courses in Asian Studies Information

Important Forms for Students (Links and Downloads)

Student Testimonials

Christina Geisse

The Asian Studies Program was incredible because most professors were undertaking their own research, passionate about their subject of study, and enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge with students. It felt fresh and profound at the same time. Inspiring! 

Christina Geisse
Kim Sluchansky

I was able to delve deep and focus on the areas of Asian Studies that truly interested me, and therefore gained a much more thorough and developed understanding of my fields of interest, which are applicable to my current career path. Also, the professors are extremely helpful and want their students to succeed. They were very supportive both while I was at UH and after I graduated.

Reginald KWOK, Ph.D.

Headshot Of Dr. Reginald Kwok

Contact Information

Tel: (808) 956-9196 (Center for Chinese Studies)

Tel: (808) 956-6867 (Urban and Regional Planning)

Email: rkwok@hawaii.edu

Educational Background

  • PhD 1973, Columbia University
  • MS Arch and MSUP 1969, Columbia University
  • Dip Trop. Studies 1967, Architectural Association, London
  • Dip Arch 1963, The Polytechnic, London

Prof. Kwok holds joint status as Professor in Asian Studies (Center for Chinese Studies), and Urban & Regional Planning.

Book cover of "The Hong Kong-Guangdong Link: Partnership in Flux"

Specializations

Professor Kwok has been a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Zhongshan University and Wuhan Academy of Urban Construction. Before joining the University of Hawai’i, he was the founding Director of the Center of Urban Planning and Urban Studies (now the Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management) in the University of Hong Kong. He is a member of the editorial boards for the academic journals Built Environment (UK), and China ReviewInternational (US).

Professionally, he has served as a consultant to professional firms, local governments and international organizations in Asia and the United States, including New York Chinatown Planning Council, Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Town Planning Board, Shenzhen Planning Committee, Zhuhai Municipality, Taipei City Council, East-West Center and the World Bank. The areas of his teaching and research are the political economy of Chinese development and urbanization, globalization in East Asia, urban economic and spatial planning, and cultural impact on urban design. His current research is within the South China Triangle Region (Coastal China, Taiwan, Hong Kong). He is presently studying regional re-structuring in Taiwan, Taipei landmarks, and the desocialization process of the Chinese urban land market.

Courses

  • ASAN 484 Society and Politics in China
  • ASAN 497/ FIN 470 Sustainable Development in East Asia
  • ASAN 485 Contemporary China: Industrialization and Reform
  • ASAN 491C Urbanization in Contemporary China
  • ASAN 497/ FIN 470 Sustainable Development in East Asia
  • ASAN 608 Contemporary China: Development and Politics
  • ASAN/PLAN 635 East Asian Development: Policy and Planning Issues
  • ASAN/PLAN 638 China’s Economic and Regional Development
  • ASAN/PLAN 636/Arch 687 Culture and Urban Form in Asia
  • ASAN 750C Seminar in Asian Studies: China

Selected Publications

  • The Second Great Transformation: Taiwanese Industrialization in the 1980s-2000s, Taipei: Chengchi University Press. 2011. (editor)
  • “Taipei’s Metropolitan Development: Dynamics of Cross-Strait Political Economy, Globalization and National Identity” (with Liling Huang), in Stephen Hamnett and Dean Forbes (editors), Planning Asian Cities: Risks and Resilience, London: Routledge. 2011.
  • “Introduction: Globalization, Cross-Strait Political Economy and Post-Developmental State Intervention in Taiwan’s Industrial Regionalization,” and “Postscript: Recent Regional strategies and future Prospect”, in Reginald Yin-Wang Kwok (editor), The Second Great Transformation: Taiwanese Industrialization in the 1980s-2000s, Taipei: Chengchi University Press. April 2011.
  • “Export Processing Zones,” in Encyclopedia of Geography, Sage Publications. September 2010.
  • Globalizing Taipei: The Political Economy of Spatial Development,London: Routledge. 2005. (editor)
  • “Asian Dragons, South China Growth Triangle, Developmental Governance and Globalizing
  • China’s Contending Metropolitan Regions: Hong Kong & Shanghai – Reader, Honolulu: East-West Center, Asian Studies Development Program. 2004. (editor)
  • “A Paradigm for Asian Pacific Urban Form: Cultural Contention of Globalization and Vernacularization”, in Jin-Ho Park (editor),Creating Livable Communities in Asia Pacific: Value, Relevance and Connectivity, Honolulu: Proceeding of the Fifth International Symposium on Asian Pacific Architecture. 2003.
  • “Chinese Urbanization in the Last Half Century: A Hesitant Shift from Restraint to Inevitability,” Asian Geographer, Vol. 21, No. 1-2. 2002.
  • China’s Southern Gateway: The Pearl River Delta – Reader,Honolulu: East-West Center, Asian Studies Development Program. 2001. (editor)
  • “Space, Region and the Study of Contemporary China,” (with Wing-Shing Tang and Si-Ming Li) in Si-Ming Li and Wing-Shing Teng (editors), China’s Regions, Polity and Economy: A Study of Spatial Transformation in the Post-Reform Era, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. 2000.
Back To Top