• PhD, Geography, University College London
• MBA, Luxury Brand Management, Sup de Luxe / EDC Paris Business School
• MSc, Geography, University College London
• MA, Digital Humanities, King’s College London
• MEng (Hons), Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London

• Visiting Professor, University of Helsinki Chinese Studies, Department of Cultures, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, 2023-present
• Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PRC, 2023-present
• Associate Professor of Sociology (Title of Docent), University of Helsinki, since 2023
• Lecturer and Researcher, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2019-2022
• Lecturer in Globalisation and Development, Department of Society Studies, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, 2017-2019
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden, 2015-2017
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of York, United Kingdom, 2014-2015
• Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, Goldsmith, University of London, United Kingdom, 2014-2015

Prior to entering academia, Dr Ho worked in real estate consultancy, IT and engineering.

Dr Hang Kei Ho is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of Cultures at the Faculty of Arts, and Associate Professor of Sociology (Title of Docent) at the University of Helsinki.

Previously, he worked in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) where he conducted research and taught in the fields of globalisation studies. He also taught on the MA programme in Intercultural Encounters at the Faculty of Arts.

Dr Ho has worked in academic positions in Finland, Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK lecturing across the fields of Anthropology, Asian Studies, Business Management, Development Studies, Economic Geography, Public Health, Sociology, and Urban Studies.

His research themes include luxury consumption and brand management, the globalisation of the wine industry, housing segregation and housing policy, inequality and the super-rich, and the flow of capital from Asia to global property markets.

Dr Ho has been featured as an expert across various global media outlets such as The Conversation (UK), Die Welt (Germany), The Guardian (UK), Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), The Local (Sweden), Luxemburger Wort (Luxembourg), and YLE (Finland). Furthermore, the peer-reviewed article authored by Dr Ho and Prof Rowland Atkinson, titled Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors, has won the Academy of Hong Kong Studies 2018/2019 Outstanding Paper Award.

Most recently, Dr Ho, in collaboration with Prof David Inglis, has completed Drinks in Vogue: Exploring the Changing Worlds of Fashions and Beverages (Routledge, 2024), an edited book that explores the changing paradigms within the global fashion and beverage industries.

• Capital flows from South East Asia to global property markets
• Cultural consumption and changing societal trends
• Development studies, East-West and China-Africa relations, and south-south corporations
• East Asian business management and intercultural communications
• Housing policy, inequality, geographies of the super-rich and urban segregation
• Investment patterns of the middle-class and super-rich
• Globalisation of the wine industry
• Luxury consumption (fashion and beverages) and brand management
• Public health and COVID-19 pandemic management strategies

Selected academic conference presentations

The globalisation of wine in Hong Kong and Finland: consumption practices, social change and taste. En-Compass-ing Culture(s): Beyond East/West and South/North, European Sociological Association’s Research Network, University of Helsinki, March 2021.

Looking for big fry: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors. The Academy of Hong Kong Studies Award Ceremony (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield) at the Education University of Hong Kong, December 2019.

The globalisation of wine in Hong Kong: consumption practices, social change and taste. Peaks and Troughs: New research on elites, wealth, inequality and exclusion by emerging researchers conference. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, June 2018.

Transforming Hong Kong into a global wine hub: government strategies, economic history and wine education. The fifth European colloquium on culture, creativity and economy at Seville, Spain, October 2016.

From Hong Kong to London, and the northern England: middle-class securing a financial future through international property investment in an insecure world. Financial elites, governance, and (connecting) financial spaces (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield) at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, United Kingdom, August-September 2016.

A China dream or Hongkongers’ nightmare? Identifying opportunities and uncertainties in the postcolonial Hong Kong. Exploring the China Dream: trajectories and articulations of soft power in the Sinophone world at Stockholm University, Sweden, August 2016.

Looking for big fry: middle-class international property investment in an uncertain world. Housing wealth and welfare (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield) at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 2016.

Hong Kong as a successful wine trading hub: business practices, government policies and drinking cultures at the worlds in a wine glass conference, King's College London, United Kingdom, May 2016.

Introducing M+ as capital for a Hong Kong specific cultural identity (with Eva Aggeklint, Stockholm University) at the fourth European colloquium on culture, creativity and economy, Florence, Italy, October 2015.

The flow of capital from Hong Kong to UK's property market. Elites and urban dynamics: new perspectives (with Rowland Atkinson at the University of Sheffield and Roger Burrows, Newcastle University), London School of Economics, United Kingdom, July 2015.

Hong Kong at a crossroad: exploring its changing relationship with China and the West through foreign real estate investment, education and consumption practice at China in the world and the world in China, Nordic Association for China Studies (NACS) 12^th biennial conference, Uppsala University, June 2015.

Minimum city: an overview of the geography and impacts of the super-rich on London (with Rowland Atkinson, Roger Burrows, Caroline Knowles and David Rhodes) at Cities and the super-rich, City University of Hong Kong, January 2015.

Locating the Hong Kong super-rich in London: real estate investment strategies, social geographies and local communities at The City Futures III conference: cities as strategic places and players in a globalized world, Paris, June 2014.

How is the West viewed and consumed through wine appreciation and drinking places in Hong Kong? at Intercultural communication between China and the rest of the world: beyond (reverse) essentialism and culturalism?, University of Helsinki, June 2014.

Why do people drink wine in Hong Kong? Traditional, aspirational and unorthodox drinkers at Drinking dilemmas: space, culture and identity at British Sociological Association Alcohol Study Group Annual Conference, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, December 2013.

The emergence of Hong Kong's wine industry since the tax withdrawal in 2008 at Foodscapes: access to food – excess of food conference, University of Graz, Austria, September 2013.

Public engagement and guest lectures

The Urban sociology of residential real estate investment: Methodological approach towards tracing the capital flow from Hong Kong to the UK. Guest Speaker. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. October 2022.

Wine consumption in Hong Kong: Culture, luxury and taste. Guest speaker. School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. March 2022.

Inside the world of middle-class Hong Kong transnational property investors: ‘5980 miles to my second home. Guest speaker. School of Graduate Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Feb 2021.

Luxury consumption in East Asia. Guest Speaker. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Finland. November 2020.

China’s New Minority: Africans in China, Their Identities and Well-Being. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen. November 2020.

Globalisation and inequality in the 21st century: East and West. Keynote speaker, invited by M:OED and the Mandril Cultural and Political Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands, April 2018.

Consuming contemporary Hong Kong: art, properties and wine. Department of Technology and Society Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Maastricht University, The Netherlands, January 2018.

Life after the PhD Workshop. Panellist, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, March 2017.

Understanding the Uppsala housing market. Keynote speaker, Uppsala Innovation Centre, Uppsala, Sweden, Dec 2016.

Looking for big 'fry': the motives and methods of middle-class international property investors (with Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield). Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, October 2016.

China in the world: a shifting economic paradigm. Swedish-Chinese business perspectives (speaker and panellist), Uppsala China Forum, Uppsala University, May 2016.

Exploring a new Hong Kong identity: the geographies of global finance, overseas education and popular consumption, Uppsala University. National PhD course: economic geography in Göteborg University, Uppsala University and Lund University, Sweden, October 2015.

Introducing a ‘new’ Hong Kong: the geographies of wine, residential property investment and international education, research seminar in the Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Sweden, September 2015.

The Umbrella Movement: uncertainty, democracy and plutocracy. Hong Kong Film Festival, Uppsala Association of Foreign Affairs (Utrikespolitiska föreningen), Uppsala University, May 2015.

Looking for familiarity in an unfamiliar place: exploring the expatriate experience in Hong Kong through drinking places, Migration Research Unit, Department of Geography, University College London, October 2013.

Drinking cultures: wine and the mind, UCL Mind Society and UCL Wine Society, University College London, October 2013.