163
Problems
So far I have been dwelling mostly on the progress of the study of local history, but that is not to imply that there are no problems.
The truth is, there is still a lot of local history waiting to be done urgently. There are villages, streets, institutions, trades, interesting and significant personalities that are hardly documented. There are archives to be discovered, records to be catalogued and indexed, folk tales and personal accounts to be recorded. There are myths to be debunked. In face of rapid urbanization and large-scale emigration — and always, old people dying — we are losing materials at an alarming rate.
Unlike most other places, Hong Kong's problem is not money. In fact, there is now ready money offered to fund research. The budget for the new Museum of History is HK$580 million (approx. US$74m) and for the Heritage Museum, HK$772 million (approx. US$98m), so there will be plenty to pay for research. Academics can, moreover, apply for funds from the University Grants Committee which seems to favour projects related to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Jockey Club has been a consistent donor to projects related to heritage, and other local bodies such as District Boards have funded publications. In addition, there is the Wilson Heritage Trust Fund, named after the former governor Lord Wilson of Tillyorn and set up in 1992 to promote the preservation and conservation of Hong Kong's human heritage. To date, it has funded television programmes, conferences, student projects and a wide range of other activities.
The problem is not so much money as manpower. Some of the pioneers of local history such as Barbara Ward and Lo Hsiang-lin have passed away. A number of experienced scholars have retired and emigrated, or have left Hong Kong universities to teach elsewhere. In a way, this is not a total loss, for David Faure and Bernard Luk are actually taking Hong Kong studies to Oxford and Toronto where they now teach. But the fact is that they are not here and can no longer supervise the kind of fieldwork they did in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The sudden surge in demand for researchers created by the rapid expansion of the Museums and the Antiquities and Monuments Office both highlights and aggravates the problem of manpower shortage. One obvious example is while the AMO has been granted a donation of
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163
Problems
So far I have been dwelling mostly on the progress of the study of local history, but that is not to imply that there are no problems.
The truth is, there is sull a lot of local history waiting to be done urgently There are villages, streets, institutions, trades, interesting and significant personalities that are hardly documented. There are archives to be discovered, records to be catalogues and indexed, folk tales and personal accounts to be recorded There are myths to be debunked' In face of rapid urbanization and large-scale emigration - and always, old people dying we are losing materials at an alarming rate.
-
Unlike most other places, Hong Kong's problem is not money. In fact, there is now ready money offered to fund research. The budget for the new Muscum of History is HK$580 million (approx. US$74m) and for the Heritage Museum, HK$772 milion (approx. US$98m), so there will be plenty to pay for research Academics can, moreover, apply for funds from the University Grants Committee which seems to favour projects related to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Jockey Club has been a consistent donor to projects related to heritage, and other local bodies such as District Boards have funded publications. In addition, there is the Wilson Heritage Trust Fund, named after the former governor Lord Wilson of Tillyomn and set up in 1992 to promote the preservation and conservation of Hong Kong's human heritage. To date, it has funded television programmes, conferences, student projects and a wide range of other activities.
The problem is not so much money as manpower. Some of the pioneers of local history such as Barbara Ward and Lo Hsiang-lin have passed away. A number of experienced scholars have retired and emigrated, or have left Hong Kong universities to teach elsewhere. In a way, this is not a total loss, for David Faure and Bernard Luk are actually taking Hong Kong studies to Oxford and Toronto where they now teach. But the fact is that they are not here and can no longer supervise the kind of fieldwork they did in the late 1970s and early 1980s
The sudden surge in demand for researchers created by the rapid expansion of the Museums and the Antiquities and Monuments Office both highlights and that aggravates the problem of manpower shortage. One obvious example is while the AMO has been granted a donation of
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