Here's a lovely surprise to start my year - I've been awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2025 New Year's Honours List, 'For services to Heritage Preservation in Hong Kong':

I first heard about it in early December, when I received an email saying I'd receive good news if I called a certain Hong Kong mobile number. It looked to have come from the British Consulate in Hong Kong, but I just thought 'The spammers are getting really sophisticated these days', and deleted it! The next day I was contacted with similar messages via Facebook and Gwulo.com, and luckily I did call, and it was good news!

The UK Government website gives this explanation of the BEM:

British Empire Medal (BEM)

Achievement or contribution of a very “hands-on” service to the community in a local geographical area.

This might take the form of sustained commitment in support of very local charitable and/or voluntary activity; or innovative work that has delivered real impact but that is relatively short (three to four years) in duration. 

Presentations of BEMs are made locally.

Thank you to all the contributors who have given their time and research to Gwulo. This award recognises all our work that has gone into building Gwulo into the resource that it has become.

Wishing you all the best for the new year ahead,

David

P.S. I was asked who nominated me for this. I don't know, but a very big thank you to them. (I like to think the nomination happened after King Charles was reminiscing about visiting Hong Kong, and found us after googling for family photos ...)

Take a trip around the harbour via this set of colour slides from 1970. It’ll be two more years before the first cross-harbour tunnel opens, so we’ll be travelling by sampan and ferry.

(Please click here to watch the video on Youtube if it isn't shown above.)

Here are links if you'd like more information about the topics in this video:

December, 1941.

83 years ago, tensions were high as war with Japan grew ever more likely. On December 8th, Hong Kong's fears were confirmed when Japanese planes attacked Kai Tak, and Japanese soldiers crossed the border into the New Territories. The fighting continued until the British surrendered on Christmas Day.

The end of the fighting marked the beginning of the Japanese occupation, a time of great hardship for Hong Kong's residents. They would have to endure for three years and eight months, until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945 and Hong Kong was liberated shortly afterwards.

What was it like?

Let the people who lived through those times tell you themselves: A new cycle of Hong Kong's wartime diaries has just begun, where a daily email message from Gwulo shows you a selection of diary entries written on the same date, 83 years ago.

If you look at the diary entries from 7 Dec 1941, you'll see that on the eve of war there were still conflicting opinions: Hong Kong's soldiers were being mobilised, but Major Monro had strong doubts, "I don’t really believe that anyone thinks that it will come to anything".

To read the diary entries from December 1941 and beyond, please click here to sign up and receive them by e-mail each morning. It's free of charge, your details stay private, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Sample extracts from the daily messages

• 8 Dec 1941: "I started my birthday with a war. Kowloon bombed about 8AM."
• 10 Dec 1941: "Sid has been wounded. Bullet through shoulder. He told Hospital to phone Mum at the Jockey Club and she went to see him."
• 13 Dec 1941: "We hear rumours that