Dear friends of Our Hong Kong Foundation,

Why compile the Hong Kong Chronicles?

Our Hong Kong Foundation celebrated our 10th Anniversary late last month. We were overwhelmed by the friendship and support we received. Words defy how grateful we were to you and all our friends and supporters.

Since taking over as OHKF President, I have been asked quite a few times: why should the Foundation compile the Hong Kong Chronicles? This is a big question that begs a long answer spanning 2000 years! But I’ll try to answer it using only five minutes of your time.

Compiling local chronicles is a Chinese tradition dating back to more than 2000 years ago. It is ancient, and yet timelessly modern. Because it is an organic and inexhaustible treasure. When I was a history major at the University of Hong Kong, I once read about a Ming Dynasty governor of Shanxi Province who famously said: "To govern the world, study history. To govern a state or province, study the local chronicles.”

Why are local chronicles so important? Because local chronicles are history but more than history. What has happened under the sun in China over the last five thousand years is boundless, its civilization and folk wisdom are infinite. But most of these happenings did not fall into the conventional definition of "historical events", so history books can’t capture them all. It was reported that during China’s revolution, as the revolutionary leaders led the masses swept across the country, whenever they arrived at a new locality among the first thing they did was to get the local chronicles and study them. In these old books are the profound local wisdom of the masses from ancient to modern.

In 2019, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, with the support of the Central Government and the HKSAR Government, established the "Hong Kong Chronicles Institute " to compile the Hong Kong Chronicles. It stands for Hong Kong's cultural return to the motherland. Perhaps it is because of my sense of history, I always feel a special affinity to HKCI colleagues and their work.

Local chronicles were compiled because the governments wanted to know the situation of the governed. China is a vast country but even in ancient times there were efficient systems for the sentiment of the grassroots to reach the top of the governments. Unlike history books, local chronicles not only record the progress, population, economy, and important socio-political matters of a place, but also record a large amount of information about climate, natural disasters, water resources, vegetation, and folk customs. Reading through them always turns up new treasures.

So, in today's digital age of information explosion, do we still need to compile Hong Kong chronicles like our ancestors did? What is its meaning?

First, we need to comprehensively and systematically compile accurate records. Annual reports published by government departments, major corporations and memoirs written by individuals are not enough as all these are not as comprehensive, objective and systematic as local chronicles are. For example, due to insufficient physical space, even newspapers often lost their body of information after they ceased operations. A few years ago, when Hong Kong planned to build a museum for the legendary martial arts novelist Jin Yong (alias Louis Cha), it was found that many of his manuscripts and editorials written by him in Ming Pao had been lost. If even an iconic figure like him had suffered such an information loss, it is easy to imagine the extent of the problem. The solution lies in compiling the Hong Kong Chronicles.

Second, chronicles help good governance. A case in point was that during the early days of the founding of PRC, the Central Government decided to build hundreds of big factories and mines. The search for suitable sites required comprehensive earthquake data, which did not exit. A geologist then turned to local chronicles, delved into 5,600 volumes of chronicles books and used the information to construct a longitudinally tracked national seismic activities map. Mission accomplished. |

The third reason is about local chronicles and academic research. The tale of China’s two cities - Shanghai and Hong Kong – began with both cities opening up to the West at about the same time. Both played a key roles in China’s modernization. However, in academic circles both at home and abroad, research studies on Shanghai is way ahead of research studies on Hong Kong. This is partly due to the outstanding quality of the Shanghai Chronicles which have facilitated academic research and discourse on Shanghai's development.

In stark contrast, Hong Kong is lagging behind. We hope that the HKCI project would facilitate more in-depth research on Hong Kong in the academic world. In this regard, we are delighted to have two prominent Hong Kong historians, Professor Chi-pang Lau and Professor Liu Shuyong, joining us as the Chief Editor and Deputy Chief Editor of this important project.

So far HKCI has published "Overview" and "The Built Environment and Districts”, "Population", "Natural Environment", "Natural Resources and Ecology", and "Environmental Protection and Ecological Conservation". I was in Beijing on September 20 for meetings with the Chinese Local Chronicles Leading Group. They spoke highly of our work. But the important thing is that our achievement is possible only because of the support from all sectors of the community. I am most grateful for that.

Looking ahead, HKCI is all set for a publication peak next year, with multiple volumes of HKCI on the pipelines, including 17 books on Economy and 13 books on Culture. All were written by leading authorities on the subject.

On closing, I remember that on September 25, Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council Mr Xia Baolong said in his congratulatory message, which he tasked our Chairman Bernard Chan to read out, that President Xi Jinping had called on Hong Kong’s enterprises to further the fine tradition of patriotism of Ningbo businessmen in Hong Kong. So what exactly did Ningbo businessmen do to contribute to the motherland?  To get the answer, look no further than the HKCI Books on Economy when they roll off the press next year.

The above sharing is based on my personal experience, and I welcome feedback from all of you. 

Jane Lee
OHKF President