A look at what's new on the Gwulo website...

General

• Exciting news if you're interested in the history of Stanley Internment Camp: Anthony Charter has generously given permission for his father's journal to be shared on Gwulo. John Charter was interned at Stanley and kept a very detailed journal, giving valuable information about many aspects of camp life. A shortage of paper meant that every space in the journal was filled, with pages returned to several times to find space for new writing. That makes the written journal very difficult to read, but Bill Lake has painstakingly typed up the text and reassembled it so we can easily read it in the order it was written. It will be some time before the whole journal is online, but you can already see the first few entries, and if you subscribe to the wartime diaries you'll be sent the rest of the journal in the daily emails. Thank you to Anthony and Bill for making this possible.
   
• Bob has found two mystery objects while out metal detecting, and asks if anyone recognises what they are. Here are the suggestions so far.
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Thanks to Jonathan for posting the last two sections of his grandfather's memoirs of National Service in Hong Kong, 1948-49. Events include nearly being killed (on two occasions!) by faulty orders and / or equipment, and the tense wait for the expected invasion by Chinese troops.
   
• Kowloon memories from the 1950s
   
• Leonard has posted a 1930s home movie showing a selection of Kowloon scenes.
   
• Unhappy memories of flying on BOAC with young children in the 1960s.
   
• Daniel has posted directions to see the re-discovered section of the old Aberdeen-Stanley Road. It has been mentioned several times lately, with special note of a couple of handsome stone bridges.
  
  
   
• Readers are looking for information about:
  • 1950s photographers Jimmy Foo, and Roy Tsang
  • Ships sailing from Hong Kong to Australia in the second half of 1981

Places <Read more ...>

i-Cable invited me on to their Wish TV programme (小事大意義) to talk about old Hong Kong photos, the Gwulo website, and one of the site's most touching stories.

The video starts at the Peak, using old photos to show how the famous view has changed over the years. Then we visit my home to look at how I work with the photos, before heading outdoors again to look at changes in Wanchai.

The second section switches gear to to talk about Gwulo's wartime diaries project, and in particular R. E. Jones's diary. Long-term readers will remember his daughter Rae contacted Gwulo, and read her father's diary here for the first time. Rae joins the video to talk about her experiences, ending by telling us how the diary helped her to understand, and finally to forgive, her father.

The dialogue is mostly in English, but the introduction and several voiceovers are in Cantonese. I've included translations to English below, courtesy of the reporter, Lam Lam Chu (朱琳琳). I've also posted links to the photos and stories mentioned, in case you'd like to take a closer look at anything we covered.

A big thank you to Lam Lam and to the cameraman, Jay (柳志輝), for all their good work:

(e-mail subscribers: if you can't see the video, please click here to view it in your browser)

Translations, and links to further information

• 00:01 [Translation]

  There are many skyscrapers next to Victoria Harbour. But do you believe that <Read more ...>

A look at what's new on the Gwulo website...

General

• The "Free Gwulo books for teachers" offer is now online. If you know anyone teaching Hong Kong history (whether a history teacher, or a teacher who covers Hong Kong history as part of a broader topic), please could you let them know?
   
• Two online talks next week, both free to attend:
  • Wednesday 3 March: Patricia O'Sullivan will give a talk about her new book Women, Crime and the Courts-Hong Kong 1841-1941, telling some of the stories from the book and a few additional ones, plus background and context of women's lives in this period.
     
  • Friday 5 March: Amelia Allsop discusses the creation of one of the largest oral history collections in Hong Kong.
     
• Rob Weir, regular contributor to Gwulo, has written "Researching Hong Kong Pillboxes: The Hard Way", describing his experiences exploring the countryside to learn about Hong Kong's pillboxes.
   
• Video of The last spitfires in Hong Kong
   
• Readers share more memories of Hong Kong in the late 1950s - early 1960s

Places <Read more ...>

A look at what's new on the Gwulo website...

General

• Hong Kong's coastal pillboxes shown in a Pathe newsreel from 1940.
   
• We've finished typing up the 1935 Juror's List, and it is now online. If you had family living in Hong Kong at that time, you can check to see if they're mentioned in the list - it should show where they worked, their business title, and often where they lived too. If you can spare 30 minutes, please help by typing up a page of the 1936 list.
   
• An easily overlooked granite marker on Jat's Incline turns out to be one of the stones erected to mark the boundary of New Kowloon. Thanks to Herman for some clever work with aluminium foil to make the inscription legible, and Chris for details of the ordinance that explain the stone's purpose.
   
• Gerry has been working on the map of milestones, adding milestones along:
  • the old clover-shaped road that circled the New Territories
  • Fanling to Sha Tau Kok
  • Route Twisk
  • and those on Lantau Island
     
• The Royal Army Medical Corps in Hong Kong
   
• Has anyone heard of or seen an old Chinese temple's roof in a 'famous museum' in the USA? IDJ posted a 1937 newspaper clipping telling how the roof started life in Canton, spent several years on a building in Hankow Road, TST, in the 1930s, then was sold to an American museum.
   
• Readers are looking for information about:
  • Brick & cement Manufacturing in HK, circa 1900.
  • Which orphanages were open in Hong Kong in 1900?
  • What was Hong Kong like in the early 1960s and late 1950s?
     
• Updates on recent newsletters, with discussions about:
  • the Royal Garrison Artillery's Junior NCOs,
  • what was in the cow's basket, and
  • the origin of 'fire cow' as the local name for a transformer.

Places <Read more ...>