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BOOK REVIEWS
CHINESE HISTORY: INDEX TO LEARNED ARTICLES 1902 - 1962. Compiled in the Fung Ping Shan Library, University of Hong Kong, by Ping-kuen Yu. XXXI 573 pp. Hong Kong: East Asia Institute, 1963. Paper, HK$70. Distributed by Universal Book Company, Hong Kong.
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Hong Kong, though boasting archeological remains of Chinese culture going back more than 2,000 years, has only recently come of age in the field of Chinese studies. This has resulted from the pressures of the extraordinary events of the past twenty years. No better corroboration of these two statements could be found than that provided by the appearance of this volume, and the circumstances surrounding its production. Mr. P. K. Yu, its compiler, was trained in Chinese studies first at New Asia College, now a component of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. New Asia College, like the other components of the Chinese University, was founded by intellectuals who had left the Mainland but who wanted to continue the scholarly traditions of the Mainland in Hong Kong. Professor Emeritus Frederick S. Drake, to whom this volume is dedicated and who contributes a graceful preface to it, headed the Department of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong until his retirement in 1964; he brought to that post a vast fund of Chinese learning garnered during his many years in China, as well as the high standards of modern scholarship. It was Professor Drake who called Mr. Yu to Hong Kong University, and who encouraged the present project with the double aim of making Hong Kong's resources for Chinese studies more accessible to scholars, and of training advanced students in methods of scholarly research. Mr. Yu himself represents one Hong Kong individual who has made one kind of response to the changing life of the Colony since World War II, that of becoming a first-rate sinologist and historian, first as a student at New Asia, then as a teacher and director of research at the University.
None of these things would or could have happened in Hong Kong before World War II. They are evidence that not only have the pressures of the post-war years created strains and problems for Hong Kong, they also have brought about growth