Bulletin No. 1, 2010

Humanities · Humanity · Humankind   Knowing Ourselves Through Our Past Centre for Comparative and Public History ‘Y es, I think we read history to contribute to a better life,’ writes Prof. David Faure, director of the Centre for Comparative and Public History. Established in 2002, the centre supports the missions and programmes of the Department of History. Drawing on different expertise through disciplinar y and interdisciplinar y projects, it engages in a wide range of research and educational public outreach services. Many of its projects have been nothing short of high impact and high profile. This is due as much to their excellent quality as to their relevance to the questions of who we are and what made us who we are. ‘The Archives of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGH)’ produced a thousand single pieces of authentic archives on the charity work as well as the bone repatriation and burial services provided by TWGH. An extension of the project focused on the modernization of TWGH’s charity work from 1930 to 1970. ‘Study on Chinese Business History’ explored issues such as the history of banks in China, the relationship between poverty and affluence in the late Ming and early Qing period, and the concept of family and clan in China’s traditional family corporations. The centre also runs workshops and in-service teaching training for the Education and Manpower Bureau of the HKSAR. Professor Faure himself is a Professor of History at the University and an expert in the history of lineage in south China and Chinese business history. His project ‘The Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society’ has recently been made an Areas of Excellence (AoE) project—a first for a humanities project—by the University Grants Committee. Details of the project can be found on pages 30 and 31 of this publication.