Bulletin Number Four 1984

figures ， we normally draft an outline o f inter view, based on the background material we have gathered, and send it to them for their reference. The outline w ill help them sort out their memory and when we conduct the tape- recording interviews, we w ill then be able to secure more systematic and valuable data. Ng: Although most o f our village interviews are unconstructed, we still prepare a list o f questions beforehand. However, what questions are to be asked depend very much on the interviewees, as there may sometimes be a cultural gap between us. Q: How would you verify the data obtained through interviews? Ng: The more conservative way is to use written documents and artefacts to verify them. For example, for my research on Sheung Shui's education, I used the gazetteers, early docu ments o f the Hong Kong Government and information on literacy contained in the government's earliest census as cross-references. Some, however, base their studies more exclusively on oral sources and pay less attention to the need for verification against the written documents. Luk: In fact, documents are not all that reliable either becasue all o f them have gone through editing. Take for example, The Veritable Records o f Emperors o f the Qing Dynasty, the most important document o f the dynasty, is the major reference for the study o f Qing history, but it is well known that many information contained there is unreliable. Huang-fu: Journalistic writings are the same as far as editing is concerned. A journalist may be very subjective in his choice o f interviewee and what the interviewee told him is open to his subjective interpretation. He, like everybody else, has a selective memory, remembering and taking down what he agrees and leaving out what he disagrees. Such journalistic reports are likely to become the raw data for future history. Q: Does this imply that in data collection you have to consult as many sources as possible? Ng: Yes. I f we have any doubts about the data used, we w ill have to consult other sources and try to get some side references. Luk: In determining what is nearest to the truth, the method used by historians is similar to that used by detectives. A detective has to ask many people many questions and from their answers he has to reconstruct the original scene. As to who has told the truth, it is not easy to decide, and he has to detect the loopholes in each o f their stories. Q: How many types o f data and materials have you collected fo r your oral history research? Ng: Roughly they can be divided into three types: (1) Interviews recorded on tapes and inter viewing notes. The interviewees include retired local educators, journalists, administrators and scholars. As for the studies on the New Territories, most o f our interviews are w ith village leaders and elders, retired traditional school teachers and resident villagers aged roughly between fo rty and ninety. (2) Photo- slides and prints o f historical relics and tradi­ tional village buildings and reprints o f photos taken on some village occasions. (3) Photocopies o f hand-written or printed materials, such as genealogies, handbooks on village affairs, account books, prescriptions and medical books o f Chinese herbalists, land deeds, fortune- telling, feng shui and religious texts, teachers' manuals on forms o f formal invitations, announcements and ceremories, literary works by local xiucai, village teachers and elders, hand-copied texts for the Chinese civil examinations and other educational materials used between late Qing and 1941. Q: You really have achieved much in your research. I am sure our readers w ill agree with you that oral history has much to contribute to local historical studies. I t is hoped that your worth while projects w ill continue to have the strong support o f the University and the Government. Research on the tra d itio n a l village education o f the New T e rrito rie s As official data or historical literature on education are mostly concerned w ith the elaborate system o f government education or the civil examinations, very little is mentioned about the education in the provinces. Therefore, to study the conditions o f village education in the New Territories, we have to depend on local materials such as oral records and recollections o f village elders who have received traditional village education or taught in the private schools (sishu). We have conducted many 17 ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS