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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
483
Kong Museum of History, this historical episode should be interpreted from the viewpoint of the Chinese. The fact that such a view was brought up at this particular moment calls for our careful consideration and vigilance. We feel that the Hong Kong Museum of History set up by the Council should look at the historical development of Hong Kong from the viewpoint and values of the local people, and this viewpoint must be in line with the characteristics of the Hong Kong society. It should be based on a pluralistic and humanistic perspective instead of a single and specific political conception being used to make political evaluation of the past history.
In his newly published 'Hong Kong History: New Perspectives', Professor WANG Gungwu points out that a unique Hong Kong mentality deriving from the values of China emerged in Hong Kong in the 1970s. This Hong Kong mentality is different from the mainstream interpretation of Britain and Mainland China. To the historians of the new generation, the greatest concerns are the following questions: how did the people of Hong Kong come to their present state of mind? What are the forces that drive them forward? What can wake up the response from their inner beings? And what are the things that they want to tell themselves? The studies of these historians make us understand the origin of the concept of Hong Kong people and its evolution to our present views about the position of Hong Kong people. The historical presentation presently adopted by the Hong Kong Museum of History is based on the stories about Hong Kong, which reflects exactly such a viewpoint. Of course, we are not saying that this viewpoint is absolutely correct, and instead, improvement can be made after gathering different kinds of views. However, we feel that after the reunification, we should uphold such a humanistic viewpoint to look at the development of Hong Kong from a macroscopic perspective so that we can make the public understand how Hong Kong developed into such a unique city today with its own culture that reflects the uniqueness of Hong Kong as one of the 'two systems' under the 'one country, two systems' concept.
I must point out that during the colonial era, some historical events such as the Opium War and the riots of 1967 have really been played down. What we should do today is simply to re-state these historical events and interpret them from a pluralistic viewpoint, instead of reversing the original account wantonly. According to a so-called mainstream view, the history of Hong Kong and even the Hong Kong stories presented by the Council's Hong Kong Museum of History are largely based on the so-called Western conception of history developed by the British. It follows that since the sovereignty has changed today, we should scrap the old version and start afresh. Such a suggestion is in fact a serious insult to the local historians. In particular, we disagree with the so-called 'leftist' way of thinking that the Hong Kong Museum of History should be an education base for promoting the patriotic sentiment of 'loving your country and loving Hong Kong', which tries to package a single and the so-called officially accepted conception of history as
Page 488 of 654
Page 488 of 654
Page 488 of 654
Page 488 of 654
HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
483
Kong Museum of History, this historical episode should be interpreted from the viewpoint of the Chinese. The fact that such a view was brought up at this particular moment calls for our careful consideration and vigilance. We feel that the Hong Kong Museum of History set up by the Council should look at tihe historical development of Hong Kong from the viewpoint and values of the Ilocal people, and this viewpoint must be in line with the characteristics of the Hong Kong society. It should be based on a pluralistic and humanistic perspective instead of a single and specific political conception being used to make political evaluation of the past history.
In his newly published 'Hong Kong History: New Perspectives', Professor 'WANG Gungwu points out that a unique Hong Kong mentality deriving from the values of China emerged in Hong Kong in the 1970s. This Hong Kong imentality is different from the mainstream interpretation of Britain and Mainland China. To the historians of the new generation, the greatest concerns are the following questions: how did the people of Hong Kong come to their present state of mind? What are the forces that drive them forward? What can wake up the response from their inner beings? And what are the things that they want to tell themselves? The studies of these historians make us understand the origin of the concept of Hong Kong people and its evolution to our present views about the position of Hong Kong people. The historical presentation presently adopted by the Hong Kong Museum of History is based on the stories about Hong Kong, which reflects exactly such a viewpoint. Of course, we are not saying that this viewpoint is absolutely correct, and instead, improvement can be made after gathering different kinds of views. However, we feel that after the reunification, we should uphold such a humanistic viewpoint to look at the development of Hong Kong from a macroscopic perspective so that we can make the public understand how does Hong Kong develop into such a unique city today with its own culture that reflects the uniqueness of Hong Kong as one of the 'two systems' under the 'one country, two systems' concept.
I must point out that during the colonial era, some historical events such as the Opium War and the riots of 1967 have really been played down. What we should do today is simply to re-state these historical events and interpret them from a pluralistic viewpoint. instead of reversing the original account wantonly. According to a so-called mainstream view, the history of Hong Kong and even the Hong Kong stories presented by the Council's Hong Kong Museum of History are largely based on the so-called Western conception of history developed by the British. It follows that since the sovereignty has changed today, we should scrap the old version and start afresh. Such a suggestion is in fact a serious insult to the local historians. In particular, we disagree with the so-called 'leftist' way of thinking that the Hong Kong Museum of History should be an education base for promoting the patriotic sentiment of 'loving your country and loving Hong Kong', which tries to package a single and the so-called officially accepted conception of history as
Page 488 of 654
Page 488 of 654
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