139
THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
(HONG KONG BRANCH):
THE FACES, THE STORIES AND THE MEMORIES
Eve Lam
The hall in the Hong Kong Museum of History, is dark. The room seats about 200, but it's not even half full. Those in attendance are mostly gweilos and gweipos, and with his silver-blond hair and fair skin that looks a bit flushed under the spotlight, the man giving the opening remarks on stage is indeed a gweilo. But this foreigner knows more about the place than most born and bred Hong Kongers.
His name is Dan Waters; he's president of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) — and he's giving the opening address at the Society's 40th anniversary conference, "Hong Kong: Forty Years of a Growing City.”
"If I had been born in the computer age, the chances are I would be reading this address from a portable ‘electric brain,' as a computer is termed in Cantonese," Waters said. "But several of us taking part in this conference were born many years earlier. Indeed some of us have lived in Hong Kong for longer than the 40-year period (1960 to 2000) which we are reviewing here today..."
The conference is free for all RAS members. They are a dedicated lot who have come in early on a Saturday morning to listen to these scholars and celebrate the accomplishments of the society to which they proudly belong.
A glance around the hall and everyone is concentrating their attention on Waters, the longest active member of the Society.
"...An RAS member who lived in Hong Kong for approaching 30 years wrote a couple of years or so ago from his home in England: 'No, I do not miss the present-day Hong Kong one little bit. But I do miss the Hong Kong of the 1950s and '60s.' To what degree does nostalgia creep in? Let us take a wander down memory lane. What was the Colony really like when our Branch was re-constituted in 1960?..."
139
THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
(HONG KONG BRANCH):
THE FACES, THE STORIES AND THE MEMORIES
Eve Lam
The hall in the Hong Kong Museum of History, is dark. The room seats about 200, but it's not even half full. Those in attendance are mostly gweilos and gweipos, and with his silver-blond hair and fair skin that looks a bit flushed under the spotlight, the man giving the opening remarks on stage is indeed a gweilo. But this foreigner knows more about the place than most born and bred Hong Kongers.
His name is Dan Waters he's president of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) — and he's giving the opening address at the Society's 40th anniversary conference, "Hong Kong: Forty Years of a Growing City.”
"If I had been born in the computer age, the chances are I would be reading this address from a portable ‘electric brain,' as a computer is termed in Cantonese," Waters said. "But several of us taking part in this conference were born many years earlier. Indeed some of us have lived in Hong Kong for longer than the 40-year period (1960 to 2000) which we are reviewing here today..."
The conference is free for all RAS members. They are a dedicated lot who have come in early on a Saturday morning to listen to these scholars and celebrate the accomplishments of the society to which they proudly belong.
A glance around the hall and everyone is concentrating their attention on Waters the longest active member of the Society.
"...An RAS member who lived in Hong Kong for approaching 30 years wrote a couple of years or so ago from his home in England: 'No, I do not miss the present-day Hong Kong one little bit. But I do miss the Hong Kong of the 1950s and '60s.' To what degree does nostalgia creep in? Let us take a wander down memory lane. What was the Colony really like when our Branch was re-constituted in 1960?...”
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