Bulletin Number Four 1984

Q: What is the function o f oral history? Ng: First o f all, oral history is useful for filling in the blanks in written records. For example, it is hard to find formal sources for documenting history o f small localities, ethnic groups or individuals or on the actual operation o f certain professions. So, if we want to study these topics, we have to resort to oral history. Secondly, oral history is supplementary as well as complementary to the written records. We may be able to find some written materials on certain topics but if we want to have a fu ll picture o f them, we still have to rely on oral history. Take for example the study o f the development o f higher education in Hong Kong. It is possible for us to find the record for the exact year when female students were admitted to the University o f Hong Kong, the names o f the students, and even minutes o f the meeting where the proposal for their admission was approved. However, there is hardly any information on how these early students felt when they first entered the University, and how they coped w ith various problems in their daily life and studies, etc. That is why we have to interview some o f the female graduates o f the time to get the necessary information. So far, we have interviewed Dr. Irene Cheng and Dr. Catherine Whitaker. Of course, if the scope o f our research is much wider, we may have to interview more people or even conduct some unconstructed interviews. Take for instance our research on the history o f the New Territories. Here, our focus is on the common people who have first-hand experience or knowledge o f the changes in the New Territories and we are trying to gather a much wider range o f information from people o f all walks o flife . Information gathered in the field and from oral sources not only tell us more about the 'facts' themselves, but also the opinions, attitudes and feelings o f those who witnessed the events. Such details are often absent in the written documents. Q: What are the limitations o f oral history? Ng: Personally, I think reliability may be a problem. Confusion o f time, events and people resulting from bias or failing memory o f the interviewees may affect the accuracy o f oral history. There­ fore we should be all the more cautious in quoting materials from the oral source. Q: When and how did your research on oral history start at The Chinese University? Luk: We (mainly Dr. Ng, Dr. David Faure andmyself) started an inscription collection project in 1978 in a bid to salvage or copy the inscriptions in the temples and ancestral halls before their disappearance as a result o f the rapid urbani zation o f the New Territories. During our field trips, we met some village elders, who told us very interesting things on the local history and gave us some documents o f great historical value, such as land deeds. Subsequent ly our interest was broadened to include the collection o f rural documents and oral data, and a series o f research projects was initiated under the sponsorship o f the Institute o f Chinese Studies and the Centre o f East Asian Stuides o f the University. Q: What is the focus o f these projects? Ng: Broadly speaking, they can be divided into three major categories: (1) biographical studies; (2) topic studies; (3) rural studies o f the New Territories. Q: What biographical studies have you carried out and whom have you interviewed fo r your oral history research? Ng: Our first attempt is the biography o f Dr. Choh-Ming Li, w ith whom we have already conducted several interviews. We have also interviewed other well-known persons but we only concentrated on certain aspects o f their life . For example, I am most interested in education, my interviews w ith Dr. Irene Cheng and Dr. Catherine Whitaker naturally centred round education. Such studies may very well be called topic studies, too. Dr. Luk's interview w ith Mr. Authur Hinton is quite on the same line. Huang-Fu: We have interviewed three veteran Hong Kong journalists. They are Mr. Shum Wai-yau, founder o f Wah Kiu Ya tPo, Mr. Poon Yan-cheong, former Director o f Kung Sheung Daily, and Mr. Jia Na-fu, who was among the founders o f Sing Tao Daily. In our study o f the development o f journalism and mass communi cation in Hong Kong, the greatest d ifficu lty we have encountered is the lack o f documentary data. It is hard to expect busy journalists to leave any written records o f their daily work. Fortunately we are still able to dig out some valuable historical data from their somewhat incomplete memories. For example, Mr. Shum 15 ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS