42
HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE THE FRAME, THE PUZZLE AND THE MISSING PIECES
A lecture delivered on 18th November 1963
Introduction
K. M. A. Barnett
Hong Kong and the Chinese. The speakers who address this society usually do so to communicate a small part of what they know. My purpose is the reverse of this: to deal with many aspects of a subject about which much should be, and little is, known. Certain evidence which I have gathered in the course of the past few years, at first quite accidentally, clearly presents a picture and poses a problem. This problem can perhaps be solved and the picture completed if all the sources of knowledge to which the learned members of this learned society have access can be brought together.
There is also a personal consideration. Over the past eighteen years, I have collected a mountain of what I am tempted to call “field notes”, all in an untidy mess and accessible largely by the use of memory. But my opportunities for gathering information are getting less, and the time is approaching when I shall have to arrange the notes, edit them, and write up what is worth writing up: all of which means that I shall have to stop collecting fresh data. This then is my reason for doing what goes against all my instincts, and exposing to the critical gaze of an audience what are but half-digested or undigested facts, half-proven or unproven hypotheses, and one or two conjectures. I hope to suggest to you that the solution of the problem "Who was here before the Chinese arrived?" is one that demands team work, that demands the collaboration of different disciplines and the exchange of specialised knowledge. Unfortunately this is a field in which the amateur, being free from preconceived ideas, may be more successful than the professional in gathering raw data: if he perseveres, which as an amateur he is unlikely to do. Yet for the interpretation of the data he requires the assistance of the professional's accumulated knowledge and skill, which the professional will be reluctant to place at the disposal of the amateur. Today
42
HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE THE FRAME, THE PUZZLE AND THE MISSING PIECES
A lecture delivered on 18th November 1963
Introduction
K. M. A. Barnett
Hong Kong and the Chinese. The speakers who address this society usually do so to communicate a small part of what they know. My purpose is the reverse of this: to deal with many aspects of a subject about which much should be, and little is, known. Certain evidence which I have gathered in the course of the past few years, at first quite accidentally, clearly presents a picture and poses a problem. This problem can perhaps be solved and the picture completed if all the sources of knowledge to which the learned members of this learned society have access can be brought together.
There is also a personal consideration. Over the past eighteen years, I have collected a mountain of what I am tempted to call “field notes”, all in an untidy mess and accessible largely by the use of memory. But my opportunities for gathering information are getting less, and the time is approaching when I shall have to arrange the notes, edit them, and write up what is worth writing up: all of which means that I shall have to stop collecting fresh data. This then is my reason for doing what goes against all my instincts, and exposing to the critical gaze of an audience what are but half-digested or undigested facts, half-proven or unproven hypotheses, and one or two conjectures. I hope to suggest to you that the solution of the problem "Who was here before the Chinese arrived?" is one that demands team work, that demands the collaboration of different disciplines and the exchange of specialised knowledge. Unfortunately this is a field in which the amateur, being free from preconceived ideas, may be more successful than the professional in gathering raw data: if he perseveres, which as an amateur he is unlikely to do. Yet for the interpretation of the data he requires the assistance of the pro- fessional's accumulated knowledge and skill, which the professional will be reluctant to place at the disposal of the amateur. Today
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