The Hong Kong Heritage Project

The Hong Kong Heritage Project (HKHP) was established in 2007 by Sir Michael Kadoorie with the mandate of safe-guarding the history of Kadoorie businesses, both past and present. Since then, HKHP has developed into a serious archive facility used by both students and researchers alike, with thousands of original papers, films and photos chronicling Hong Kong’s twentieth century narrative. Collections include: the history of Hong Kong’s Jewish community, Second World War history, public and political affairs and rural development, amongst others. The archive also charts the history of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited and China Light amongst other Kadoorie business interests. The archive has since expanded to include select private donations of intrinsic value; the most recent acquisition being papers donated by Elizabeth Ride (depicting the work of the British Army Aid Group). Over the past five years, HKHP has collected 440 oral history interviews with individuals from all walks of life – including those who witnessed the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, the 1967 riots, or changes in communities such as Sham Shui Po and Tsim Sha Tsui. The original scope of the project has expanded to include heritage education programmes that have so far welcomed 600 primary, secondary and tertiary level students. HKHP continues to give heritage based workshops to youth groups. 

Our four public exhibitions in the past two years attracted some 180,000 visitors and HKHP’s award winning website is visited for oral history clips, old photos and access to the online catalogue. We’ve also made it our mission to help preserve local history. In 2009, we acted to “save now for the future” in Sham Shui Po by recording oral history interviews with residents and photographing changing street scenes. If you are interested in using HKHP’s collections or want to get in touch with our team, please leave us a message using the “contact us” tab at our website or go to our Facebook page.

Links:

• Main website
• List of main collections
• List of Oral History interviews
• Address and Contact details