I shall first address the problem of membership and promotion of the Society and its publications, with their importance for healthy growth and a steady recurrent income. When so many of our members moved to life membership some years ago, albeit showing their strong support for the Society thereby, there was resultant loss of recurrent income. New members are important to keep up annual income. Thus, promotion and publicity of our work and activities to increase membership and boost income are pretty vital.
The big question has always been, who will do the work? Hong Kong has always been a very busy place. Unless retired, and sometimes not even then, most Councillors have full-time, demanding jobs which leave little time or energy for other pursuits. Whilst we have never found it difficult to recruit council members, there has always been a limit to the amount each of us can do for the Society. Councillors are either librarians, editors, secretaries and the like, but no-one yet has been able to combine several posts or take up additional duties. This has hit us particularly hard with regard to promotion and publicity. We find it very difficult to deal with this kind of situation, which nevertheless results in a fundamental dilemma; for until we do more promotion and publicity, our membership will remain low and our publications will not sell as well as they ought to reach their potential public. We have addressed these problems again recently and are trying to improve the position, short of using the services of public relations firms.
Turning to our future, now is also the time for the Society to look ahead, especially in anticipation of severing the link Hong Kong has with Britain and the establishment of a highly autonomous Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. There are those who conclude that the Royal Asiatic Society has no place in the new situation. Its name alone, they say, however honourable in itself, is sufficient indication that we cannot expect to continue after 1997 when Hong Kong is no longer a colonial appendage of Great Britain and the whole emphasis and outlook of the territory will have changed and, in the words of Chairman Deng Xiao-ping, "Hong Kong people will govern Hong Kong".
I shall first address the problem of membership and promotion of the Society and its publications, with their importance for healthy growth and a steady recurrent income. When so many of our members moved to life membership some years ago, albeit showing their strong support for the Society thereby, there was resultant loss of recurrent income. New members are important to keep up annual income. Thus, promotion and publicity of our work and activities to increase membership and boost income are pretty vital.
The big question has always been, who will do the work? Hong Kong has always been a very busy place. Unless retired, and some- times not even then, most Councillors have full time, demanding jobs which leave little time or energy for other pursuits. Whilst we have never found it difficult to recruit council members, there has always been a limit to the amount each of us can do for the Society. Councillors are either librarians, editors, secretaries and the like, but no-one yet has been able to combine several posts or take up additional duties. This has hit us particularly hard with regard to promotion and publicity. We find it very difficult to deal with this kind of situation, which nevertheless results in a fundamental dilemma; for until we do more promotion and publicity, our membership will remain low and our publications will not sell as well as they ought to reach their potential public. We have ad- dressed these problems again recently and are trying to improve the position, short of using the services of public relations firms.
Turning to our future, now is also the time for the Society to look ahead, especially in anticipation of severing the link Hong Kong has with Britain and the establishment of a highly autono- mous Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. There are those who conclude that the Royal Asiatic Soci- ety has no place in the new situation. Its name alone, they say, however honourable in itself, is sufficient indication that we can- not expect to continue after 1997 when Hong Kong is no longer a colonial appendage of Great Britain and the whole emphasis and outlook of the territory will have changed and, in the words of Chairman Deng Xiao-ping, "Hong Kong people will govern Hong Kong".
Xili
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