ENG-1958 — Page 322

Chapter 18: Research

THE University of Hong Kong continued its research programmes during 1958.

Current research projects in the Department of History include work on the history of Hong Kong with special reference to social and constitutional developments; on the beginnings of modern industry in China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; on the history of the ethnic minorities in south-west China; on problems of communication between the English East India Company and Chinese officials at Canton in the early nine- teenth century; and on aspects of the political and social history of South-East Asia since 1870. A new History of Hong Kong, which is also mentioned in Chapter 27, was published in 1958.

The Department of Geography and Geology has continued throughout the year to investigate the occurrence of tungsten_ores, the physical characteristics of local clays, the geological bound- aries and the geomorphology of the coast line. The Land Use Survey of Hong Kong was finished and a gazetteer of place names in English and Chinese for the 1:80,000 map was published. Archaeological excavations at Shek Pik and Man Kok Tsui on Lantau Island have been conducted, with financial assistance from the Government, by the University Archaeological Team which works under the direction of the Department.

In the Department of Education research projects have included the problems of higher education in Hong Kong; the employment of, and the needs of the community for, university graduates; and various aspects of mental health, in particular the psychological problems of children and young persons and the factors that may have either adverse or beneficial effect upon the mental health of children in a mixed society. Pilot psychometric studies of selected groups of school children have been started.

New research undertakings in the Department of Economics and Political Science include China's industrial growth under Communist planning; the population problem of mainland China;