South China Research
Resource Station Newsletter
Inauguration of the South China Research Center
Karl Kao
Humanities Division, HKUST
The South China Research Center at HKUST is set up for the purpose of promoting research on South China. It aims at facilitating studies on the region by organizing conferences, disseminating research results, and sharing archival documents. Included in its plan, particularly, is the growth of the Center into a center of collection of the kinds of anthropological documents which are not only related to the region but specifically to common folks--the documents that are
usually not available from the Government bureaus and departments or conventional museums and archives.
Among its various goals, this endeavor of collecting regional archival and folk documents, it seems to me, is of particular significance for its uniqueness and also its urgency. As an international finance center, Hong Kong is undergoing a very rapid change these days in many ways-- both cultural and physical. The City's population is constantly flowing in and out,
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2$5+H 1998.1.15
with many of the Hong Kongers having business activities conducted through family or clan connections all over the world, while, on the other hand, the city's surrounding villages or rural suburbs are disappearing quickly, yielding to continuous demands of land development. Both the city itself and its surrounding areas are changing their landscape and culture- scape almost daily. What is happening to the greater Hong Kong area is, to an extent, also happening to Southern China, and in fact to China as a whole. Many of the documents of sociological and anthropological nature tend to get lost, disappear in this rapid change, despite of or because of the fact that the change means precisely we are in a computer age where electronic record keeping has become the norm and old documents are easily discarded, disposed of. The Center's work of collecting the archival and folk documents, such as business ledgers, land deeds, and village handbooks, is an important effort in preserving and recording the hstory in the local, urban, and folk settings. The Center will be an important place where records of common people's life are kept. It will be an important, unique source of information for both contemporary and future historians and anthropologists.
The actual activities of the Center was started before the Center was established; the first conference "Folk Document and local society in South China", was organized in 1993 by more or less the same group of scholars who still constitute the main talents of the Center. The 1993 conference has since then become the first of a series of annual events and, along with the conferences, this research group has also put out Documentary Series, working papers and Newsletters, and acquired some
significant, rare collections. Although the collection is small, it is growing. With the establishment of the Center now, research can be expected to be facilitated as it continues in an institutionally reinforced manner.
I should mention that
Dr.
Chi-cheung Choi's devotion and leadership has much to do with turning the idea of the center into a reality. BesidesDr.
Choi, who is now also the Director of the Center, other active members of the research group based in HKUST who have contributed much to the establishment of the Center and its research activities include Dr. Siu-woo Cheung, Dr. Tik-sang Liu, Dr. May-bo Ching, Mr Muk- chi Ma, Mr. Wing-ho Wong and Mr. Sui-wai Cheung.
Without the supports of various funding agencies and the Administration at the University, the group and the Center would not have been able to do what they have done so successfully. Dr. Choi has already mentioned those individuals and organizations that have helped the Center at its various stage of development. On behalf of the Division, I'd like to also express my gratitude to them.
Besides providing financial support for the Center's activities, the Dean of our School, Prof. Ting Pang-hsin, has also graced the Center with a personal touch of his for this ceremony. He has written the name of the Center in an elegant calligraphy which has then been carved on a beautiful piece of red wood. Professor Ting will officially inaugurate the Center for business, by following a custom that people in South China follow in celebrating a happy occasion such as a wedding. This is called
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--or "Adoring the Plaque withGolden Flowers and Red Ribbon." Thank you
1997-1 1-21
