New on Gwulo: 2024, week 19

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:
 

General

• Thank you to everyone who helped type up the 1891 Jurors List. It is now available to view online. If you can spare 30 minutes to type up another page, please click here for instructions.

• Readers are looking for any information about:

  • Kam Fung LAU [????-????], who bought 20 Broadwood Road during WW2

  • Tanka People of Hong Kong

  • Does anyone recognise these buildings, and could they have been used as Army quarters in the 1950s?

    

  • If you lived near Ping Shan in the 1950s, do you recognise Mr Chan and his son?

    

Gwulo's Farewell - illustrated talk

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Science Museum's Lecture Hall on Wednesday evening for my talk. It's a great venue for showing old photos, with a large screen and excellent projector giving a very clear view (to take a look, please see these short videos of the talk on Facebook).

With over 200 guests it was the largest audience I've ever had at a Gwulo talk:

And after the talk it was a pleasure to sign their copies of my books.

Definitely a night I'll remember!

There were some interesting questions in the Q&A. I'd like to revisit a few of them to give a clearer answer:

• Q: Long-term residents from the local Indian community are getting older. How can we get them to share their memories with us so we can record them before it is too late?
  • Start by asking for old photos, and scan or photograph them then upload them to Gwulo. (I'd love to see these photos on the Gwulo website, but of course there are other options too.)
  • Show the photos to your elders, and ask them what they can tell you about who and what we're looking at, when and where the photos were taken. Add notes to the photos' pages.
  • You'll start noticing certain topics are repeated - a person who gets mentioned a lot, a popular restaurant, a sports team, a school, etc. Make a new page on Gwulo for each topic, with notes of what you know about them, and any questions you'd like to ask readers to help answer. Also add the topics to the questions you ask the elders, 'What do you remember about XYZ?'
  • Ask them who else might have good answers, and either contact them in person or send them links to the pages.
  • Then do this cycle over and over. You're trying to start a snowball effect, and photos are often the easiest way to begin.
     
• Q: If you had unlimited resources to do another project like the Jurors Lists, what would you choose?
  • I'd love to see the Hong Kong Public Library's collection of online newspapers updated, as although it is still a useful resource it is showing its age.
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has improved, so an updated round of OCR would make the text search work a lot better. I'd also like to have the option to copy the OCR'd text, to download the scanned pages, to make corrections to the online text, and to have the newspaper adverts OCR'ed as well as the main text on a page.
     
• Q: What advice would you give to a young person just beginning a project like Gwulo?
  • Start! Don't wait for 'perfect' - get going with 'good enough', then make it better over time.
  • Share. Don't keep it hidden away, get it out in the open for everyone to benefit from, and for you to benefit from others' help.
  • Learn. Not just about whatever topic it is you're interested in, but learn how to do stuff (code, write, take photos, use Photoshop, give talks, publish books, run an event, run an online community, run a newsletter, etc., etc.) At some point your interests will very likely change, but the skills you've learned will help you with whatever comes next.

I'm looking forward to presenting at the second venue on 22nd May, and to hearing your questions!
 

Organisations & People

• A partial list of Authorised Architects in Hong Kong
   
• Hugh BRAGA [1905-1987], engineer and leader of youth work
   
• Samuel Macomber CHURN [1887-1959]
   
• Francisco Maria SOARES (aka Frank) [1892-1915], volunteered to fight in WW1 and was killed at Ypres
   
• The Victoria Dispensary [c.1868-1919]
  

  

Places & Streets

• Hong Kong Island
  • Wang Tak College [????-????], English-language school on Robinson Road in the 1950s
     
• Kowloon
  • Argyle Street Camp for Chinese Interned Soldiers / POW Camp [1939-????], which grew into Argyle Street Camp Nos. 3 & 4 / Argyle Street Detention Centre (Vietnamese refugee camp) [c.1950-????]
     
  • Ma Tau Chung Refugee then POW Camp / Ma Tau Wai internment camp [1938-????]
     
  • Queen's Hotel / Occidental Hotel / Royal George Hotel / Palace Hotel [1901-c.1945]
     
  • Ying Wah College / Church of Christ in China, Bute Street [1928-1994]
     
• New Territories & Outlying Islands
  • Lobster Bay [????- ], a popular landing site for smugglers in the 70s and 80s
     
  • Village house, Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island [1955- ]
     

Photos
 

Click to see all recently added photos.