A group of scholars specialised in Hong Kong history and culture have recently made their "final appeal" regarding the compilation and publication of Comprehensive Records of Hong Kong [Annals of Hong Kong]: a big plan for the compilation was in place in 2004, yet 13 years later it still remains at the stage of "all talk and no action" and publication is even not within the foreseeable future. The project has also fallen into a big financial predicament.
Hearing of this, one cannot help but heave a sigh of regret for these scholars who "continue to study even in old age". They have collected a great amount of data and done a lot of analysis and study for compiling Hong Kong's local annals for over a decade, but in the end are given the cold shoulder in return and become helpless as the project becomes hardly unsustainable.
The compilation is set to be operated with "support from the government, compilation mainly by scholars and participation by society". But over 10 years have passed, only one third of this has been in operation. There has been no positive action and concrete measure from the side of "support by the government".
As a matter of fact, compiling local annals of Hong Kong could be said the largest and most important historical and cultural project Hong Kong has ever had. There is no need to repeat the importance and role of compiling local annals in Chinese history and culture. Every dynasty had an "official of annals" dedicated to the task. Records of Hong Kong are first seen in the Annals of Dongguan County in the Ming Dynasty, and later moved to be included in the Annals of Xin'an County in the Qing Dynasty. Territorial boundaries, names of local places, systems, laws and rules, and even known figures, local products and folk customs are recorded in detail in local annals. Today, skimming through the Annals of Xin'an County, one can see vivid description of some interesting place names in Hong Kong including Lo Fu Ngam (Tiger Rock), Sau Mou (tomb-sweeping) Ping and Kwun Tong, old-generation citizens know these are the original names of today's Lok Fo, Sau Mau Ping and Kwun Tong. Local annals not only objectively record a region's cultural and geographical origin and changes and its known figures, but also provide historical, bloodline and sentimental links that can never be cut off, and also powerful evidence for these.
Attaching great importance to the nation's history and culture, our country started again the compilation of local annals right at the beginning of reform and opening-up. Compilation of the first batch of local annals was completed in 1999. Media reports at that time pointed out that apart from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, annals-compilation institutions had already been set up at three levels - provincial, municipal and county – across the country. In 2015, a nation seminar for local annals compilers was held in Beijing. In his speech at the seminar, Premier Li Keqiang called governments at all levels to care about and support the compilation of local annals. He also hoped that local annals compilers would continue to carry on the spirit of their predecessors and, "with lofty aspiration and dedication, to truthfully and objectively record history, glorify the good and guide social tendencies, so as to provide references for contemporary governance and keep records for later generations."
The significance of compiling annals already speaks for itself, but for Hong Kong the compilation and publication of its local annals also has an incomparable effect of "linking to the roots". Hong Kong had experienced 150 years of colonial rule and among the current-generation youngsters there are some who have gone so far as to believe that Hong Kong did not exist until British occupation. So much so that there is a market for fallacies about "independence for Hong Kong" such as "Hong Kong nation" or "local self-determination". Such fallacies do not have a leg to stand on before the Annals of Xin'an County 300 years ago. If there is the Comprehensive Records of Hong Kong to more comprehensively and accurately present and explain genuine data and materials of Hong Kong's indigenous history and culture, then there would be no place to hide for activists advocating "independence for Hong Kong", like reptiles under the sun.
Now, our "god of fortune" Paul Chan Mo-po has already forecast that the amount of this year's fiscal surplus would be "very considerable", so over $100 seems to be well within expectation. Since the government coffers are "flooded with money", please turn on the tap for the project of compiling Comprehensive Records of Hong Kong!
22 January 2018
