RESEARCH
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various Asian areas, with particular reference to Hong Kong, are being sponsored by the Council.
The Department of Geography and Geology conducted research into the industrial development and patterns of Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong in particular and the whole Colony in general. Further studies in rural settlement and land-use patterns particularly in the Tung Chung and Tai O regions of Lantau were undertaken. The investigation of the structural relationships of the Lion Rock tunnel was the subject of special study. Work was also carried out on the nature of the rich soils of south-east Asia and field work was done in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, India and Pakistan. In the realm of pure geology, work began on the detailed re-mapping of certain areas between Tai Lam Chung and Castle Peak with a view to elucidating the nature of certain abnormal occurrences of metamorphic rocks within the area formerly thought to consist solely of Hong Kong granite.
Projects in the Department of History included work in the fields of Chinese, Japanese and south-east Asian history. The main sub- jects of research were the history of Chinese relations with Yunnan during the T'ang period and the ethnic problems connected with the State of Nanchao; Chinese and Indian influences on early south-east Asia government systems; relations between Ch'ing officials and western entrepreneurs in the first half of the nineteenth century; British policy in Borneo in the late nineteenth century; documentary sources illustrating China's external relations in the late Ch'ing period; activities of Chinese revolutionaries in Hong Kong between 1895 and 1911;' British policy in China between 1894 and 1902; the role of the dominions in Anglo-Japanese relations; the early history of the Communist movement in China; modern Sino-Japanese relations and aspects of south-east Asian history since 1870.
The Department of Modern Languages carried out research and published books and articles in two main fields: dialectology and 'creolization' in Asia; and the modern French novel, with special reference to novels with an Asian setting. In the Department of Philosophy research was continued into the psychological problem of bilingualism and reading habits; and theoretical study of the foundations of the social science was also pursued. A monograph on the historiography of science was published and a study of
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