THE PAPER CHASE—ARCHIVES AND
THE PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE OF HONG KONG
[“It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it”— The Tatler]
A. I. DIAMOND *
This evening I propose to tell you something about the development of the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, and about the role which it can or should play in the conservation and use of Hong Kong’s archival resources. But before doing this I think that it may be worthwhile to spend some time talking about archives as such—about what archives are and how modern archive institutions operate.
Many of you may be quite knowledgeable on this subject already, and if you are I apologise for seeming to assume otherwise. But some quite astonishing misconceptions exist about archivists and their profession, as all archivists know, and when we are asked to address a general audience few of us can quell the thought that at least some present may be harbouring what we have come to recognise as the classic delusions about us. And what are these:
Well, the other evening, for example, my hostess at a dinner party said to me “What a wonderful job you must have. Fancy being able to sit all day reading through all those fascinating old papers”. There it is, you see, one of the archivist’s main preoccupations, apparently, is reading through all the documents in his care—and mark you, they’re bound to be old and fascinating. She was just being polite of course, but I realised at once that here was someone with a full quiver of misconceptions about us. I could guess that in a moment she would tell me that I do not really look like her idea of an archivist. She would not have had to explain what she meant by that. I know already. I should be old and leathery looking with a beard and long grey hair and wearing steel-rimmed bi-focals. In fact I should look like a cross between Charles Darwin and Karl Marx in their old age. And what else do I do? Well, when I am not poring over fascinating old documents in my
* Mr. Diamond is Government Archivist, Hong Kong. He is also the Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong Branch, R.A.S. This paper was delivered to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society on Monday, 7th January, 1974,