David Kwok Kwan Tsoi

Choreographing Good Lives: Hong Kong Migrant Families and Housing Investment in the UK

David adopts an interdisciplinary approach that bridges human geography, anthropology and migration studies. From sex work to migrants’ housing investment, David’s research has been buoyed by a sustained interest in the synergy between money and morality, and how their boundaries are produced and negotiated by ordinary people, businesses, governments and scholars in an increasingly digital age.

Fully funded by Hong Kong Jockey Club Graduate Scholarship, David’s doctoral research focuses on the relationship between housing economy, cultural citizenship, and sociospatial dynamics in the context of the post-2019 migration wave from Hong Kong to the UK. He is interested in how familial aspirations and responsibilities structure migrants’ housing investment, and how, in turn, these middle-class migrant families deploy real-estate investment to make claims about citizenship, belonging and rights in the host country. This project also received generous funding from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

His previous work foregrounds an insider perspective of morality among sex workers in Hong Kong. He observed that, for middle-class gay sex workers, morality and respectability about sex/love/intimacy lie not in bodily or emotional purity but in the prospect of successful self-making. He also writes about collective memories, alternative politics and affective experience of political transformation. His publications and public writings are seen on Men and Masculinities, Sexualities, and FOCAAL Blog. His has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Hong Kong, Peru and Korea. He is currently serving as the Student Councilor at the Society for East Asian Anthropology (2025–2027).

Education

• M.A. in Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• M.Phil. in Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• B.A. in Anthropology (First Class Honours), The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Awards and Fundings (Selected)

• 2025 RGS-IBG Hong Kong Research Grant, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
• 2025 RGS-IBG Postgraduate Research Award, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
• 2025 AAS Annual Conference Grant, Association for Asian Studies
• 2025 Antonian Travel & Research Grant, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
• 2024–2027 Hong Kong Jockey Club Graduate Scholarship
• 2023 Best Graduate Paper, Southwest Conference, Association for Asian Studies

Referred journal articles

• Tsoi, D.K.K. (2025) Sisters, Bottoms, and “Exotic Combo”: Homonormative Misogyny and Respectable Masculinity of Middle-Class Gay Sex Workers in Hong Kong. Men and Masculinities, 28(2): 115-134. (Early View 2024)
• Tsoi, D.K.K. (2023) Ethical Intimacy: Relational Work of Male Sex Workers in Hong Kong. Sexualities, 28(3): 877-896. (Early View 2023)

Public writing

• Tsoi, D.K.K. (2024) ‘Lifeboat’ Campaign for Hong Kongers: Why is Capitalistic Agenda a Mandate for Democratic Intervention? Focaalblog, 6 November.