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History
Our Home, Our History – The Hong Kong Heritage Project” (HKHP) was commissioned in May 2007 by Sir Michael Kadoorie. The scope of the project was to create an Archive made up of materials relating to the Kadoorie Family, their business interests and Hong Kong’s history and open this to the general public. It is the only history project of its kind in Hong Kong.

The project aims to preserve Hong Kong’s heritage, provide original research material for scholars and students and promote an understanding and enthusiasm for Hong Kong’s history. The project website and the Archive have been open to the public since March 2009.

Archive
Collection for the HKHP Archive began in June 2007 and was finalised in March 2009. The majority of the records have been collected from the Kadoorie office on Hong Kong Island, but records were also collected from China Light’s head office in Kowloon and the Kadoorie Farm in the New Territories.

The collection is mostly made up of photographs (1,000,000) and paper records (1,400) but film, audio material, ledgers and reference materials (mostly books) also feature. The oldest record dates back to 1902, which is a pamphlet of rules and regulations for the Ohel Leah synagogue. The project has preserved the records in acid free folders and Type 1 180 Archival boxes from Albox. There are ten archival series.

Series – Fonds level:

The Kadoories, China Light, Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels group, Public Services, Jewish Collection, Kadoorie investments, Philanthropy, Miscellaneous, Secondary sources.

Oral History
HKHP collects oral history interviews relating to Hong Kong’s social, economic and political history as well as the Kadoorie Family business interests and their charitable endeavours. The purpose of the interviews is to place the paper records in the HKHP Archive into the wider historical context of Hong Kong and to make history more accessible by giving it a “human face”.

Interviews usually last from around one to three hours and are biographical in nature, focusing on the interviewee’s life history. There is usually only one interviewer present who also mans the camera. Interviews are captured on film using high definition camcorders and digital video tapes which are transferred onto DVD then indexed and stored in the Archive along with their transcript and synopsis. Each interview is catalogued under a set theme. There are 16 themes, each relating to Hong Kong’s history. Interviewees are either referred to the project by a third party or chosen by the project’s team in accordance with their relevance to at least one of these themes.

Themes are divided into two categories: those related to the Kadoories and those related to Hong Kong’s social and economic history. However, themes cross this divide and are often interconnected.

Themes were chosen by the project to reflect the records in the Archive, for their human interest and their relationship to the Kadoorie Family. Over 290 interviews have been collected since May 2007. Interviews are divided between the English and Chinese language (mostly Cantonese but some are recorded in Putonghua). Interviews are predominantly captured in Hong Kong, but interviewees have been filmed in Australia, Mainland China, Thailand, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

Themes: Kadoorie related: The Kadoories, China Light, Daya Bay, The Peninsula, Peak Tramways, Kadoorie Farm, Tai Ping Carpets, Jewish Immigrants.

Hong Kong social, political and economic history related: Public Housing, New Territories Development, Manufacturing, Life History, Hong Kong Society, Groups and Minorities, Shipping, Aviation.

Website
The HKHP website was launched in March 2009. The website is dedicated to Hong Kong history and explores the 16 themes using film, oral history interviews, documents and photographs. The website currently includes the oral history catalogue and will also include the archival catalogue, once completed.