122
BARBARA E. WARD
traditional past, and at the same time we can watch the details of the processes of rapid social, economic, and cultural change that come with commercialization, emigration, immigration, and urbanization. All these things and many more are still here, alive, going on all round us, new. Thus social anthropology, like social history, has opportunities here which do not exist anywhere else. Here it is not yet quite too late.
But—and this is the final reason why the New Territories are so important to-day—even here it very soon will be too late. Even if the year 1997 was not looming so close, the New Towns are; and older people are dying, and younger people are emigrating (as they always have, but now because their wives and children go with them, usually with a greater desire to stay away). I guess we have about five more years—perhaps ten. That perhaps ten. That is why I am so excited when I hear of donations of money for New Territories research, why I am so thankful that Tam Yue-him and David Faure have launched their oral history project, and so delighted that administrators like James Hayes, and Chan Sui-jeung and Patrick Hase who are here to-night are in the positions they are in, and are not only willing but exceptionally able to advise and guide and take part—the British have a long tradition of scholar officials too!
So now I come to my fifth and final point, and back to our cultural heritage and the opportunities we still have to record it, and, if you will allow me, my own part in the enterprise. I said earlier that so much study has been done that we probably already know a great deal more than we know. In other words, one of the things that is most badly needed at this stage is for someone to go right through all the already existing material and try to put it together. The job is not a small one, for it must cover the whole mass of unpublished and documentary material as well as the published books and articles in several languages, but it would be immensely worthwhile.
It would have two main aims. The first, which might be called the academic aim, would be to discover exactly what our existing historical and sociological knowledge really is in order both to locate the gaps and to prevent overlapping wasteful reduplication of effort. Talks are already in progress on this important matter: you have heard about the oral history project; in my turn I am in touch with several established scholars both here and overseas, one
122
BARBARA E. WARD
traditional past, and at the same time we can watch the details of the processes of rapid social, economic, and cultural change that come with commercialization, emigration, immigration, and urbani- zation. All these things and many more are still here, alive, going on all round us, new Thus social anthropology, like social history, has opportunities here which do not exist anywhere else, Here it is not yet qui'e too late.
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But- and this is the final reason why the New Territories are so important to-day - even here it very soon will be too late. Even if the year 1997 was not looming so close, the New Towns are; and older people are dying, and younger people are emigrating (as they always have, but now because their wives and children go with them, usually with a greater desire to stay away.) I guess we have about five more years — perhaps ten. That
perhaps ten. That is why I am so excited when I hear of donations of money for New Territories research, why I am so thankful that Tam Yue-him and David Faure have launched their oral history project, and so delighted that adminis- trators like James Hayes, and Chan Sui-jeung and Patrick Hase who are here to-night are in the positions they are in, and are not only willing but exceptionally able to advise and guide and take part the British have a long tradition of scholar officials too!
So now I come to my fifth and final point, and back to our cultural heritage and the opportunities we still have to record it, and, if you will allow me, my own part in the enterprise. I said earlier that so much study has been done that we probably already know a great deal more than we know. In other words, one of the things that is most badly needed at this stage is for someone to go right through all the already existing material and try to put it together. The job is not a small one, for it must cover the whole mass of unpublished and documentary material as well as the published books and articles in several languages, but it would be immensely worthwhile.
It would have two main aims. The first, which might be called the academic aim, would be to discover exactly what our existing historical and sociological knowledge really is in order both to locate the gaps and to prevent overlapping wasteful reduplication of effort. Talks are already in progress on this important matter: you have heard about the oral history project; in my turn I am in touch with several established scholars both here and overseas, one
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