About Hong Kong Chronicles Institute

Hong Kong Chronicles Institute

The Hong Kong Chronicles Institute (HKCI) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation in Hong Kong established by Our Hong Kong Foundation on 27 August 2019 and officially opened on 6 September 2019. Its single, historic mission is to compile the first-ever Hong Kong Chronicles: a comprehensive, systematic and objective series of local chronicles covering about 7,000 years of Hong Kong's history, from the ancient era to the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 1 July 2017. The Chinese edition is scheduled for completion by 2027, the 30th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China, and an English edition of the entire series is scheduled for completion by 2032. The Institute publishes through Chung Hwa Book Company (Hong Kong) Limited, and makes the e-books of published titles available free of charge on its website, hkchronicles.org.hk.

A 200-Year Gap: Why Hong Kong Needed Chronicles

The compilation of local chronicles — fangzhi — is a time-honoured and distinctive cultural tradition of the Chinese people with more than 2,000 years of history. Local chronicles record a place comprehensively: its geography and nature, its economy, society, politics and culture, and its notable people. They serve three classic functions: preserving history, providing reference for policymaking, and educating the people. Yet Hong Kong, as the Institute points out, never had its own local chronicles. For over 200 years since the compilation of the Chronicles of Xin'an County in 1819 — the county chronicle that last covered the Hong Kong area within a Chinese local-chronicle framework — no other Chinese local chronicle with reference to Hong Kong had been published.

HKCI was created to close that gap. By tracing, transcribing and preserving historical information, the Hong Kong Chronicles series serves as a record of progress over thousands of years and promotes a better understanding of Hong Kong's history and culture, and of the shared background and long-standing ties between Hong Kong and the Mainland. The Institute describes the finished series as a treasure of cultural significance, compiled through the community's collective wisdom and efforts. Hong Kong Chronicles is the first series of local chronicles to officially adopt the name "Hong Kong" in its title, and the largest of its kind in Hong Kong.

Founding and Governance

HKCI was established by Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF), the think tank founded by Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's first Chief Executive, and was officially opened on 6 September 2019. The project was initiated by OHKF with government support and community participation, under the editorship of scholars. Tung Chee-hwa serves as the Institute's Honorary Chairman. The Institute is governed by a Council composed of academic, business and community leaders, sector professionals and government representatives, under the chairmanship of Bernard Charnwut Chan, who also chairs the Institute's Executive Committee.

Operational functions are supported by three committees under the Executive Committee. The Academic Review Committee, chaired by Professor Lee Chack-fan, safeguards scholarly quality; Lee has described the project as a community-wide academic undertaking involving nearly 370 scholars, historians and experts, under the guiding principle of recounting historical facts without interpretation. The Promotion Committee is chaired by Professor Wong Yuk-shan, and the Audit Committee by Leo Kung Lin-cheng. The Institute also enjoys the patronage of the HKSAR Chief Executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, and receives support from Chinese institutions and HKSAR government bureaux, including the China Local Chronicles Work Office and provincial and municipal local-chronicles offices across the Mainland, through exchanges and access to historical information and photographs. Successive chief executives have publicly backed the work: Carrie Lam, chairing the Institute's annual meeting at Government House in September 2021, pledged that the HKSAR Government would fully support the publication and that relevant bureaux and departments would render assistance.

The Editorial Plan: Ten Categories, More Than 20 Million Words

The scale of the undertaking is exceptional. According to the Institute's Master Project Plan (2019–2027), Hong Kong Chronicles consists of ten content categories: Overview, Chronology, Nature, Economy, Culture, Society, Politics, Notable People, Special Themes, and Appendices. It comprises 62 books with over 20 million words, plus one additional special-topic chronicle, Hong Kong Jockey Club and Social Development. Later descriptions of the series, reflecting its evolving publication plan, speak of 54 volumes with 25 million words. The editorial guidelines draw on the local-chronicle practice of the Mainland while being adapted to the unique characteristics of Hong Kong.

The category contents show the breadth intended. The Nature section covers administrative establishment and districts, population, the natural environment, natural resources and ecology, and environmental protection. The Economy section ranges across traditional industries, manufacturing, foreign trade, commerce, two books on finance, land policy and planning, land reclamation and public works, real estate and construction, maritime industry, aviation, urban transportation, postal services and telecommunications, professional services, tourism and conglomerates. Culture covers languages, religions, folklore, archaeology and cultural relics, architecture, literature, the visual arts, film, performing arts, broadcasting, newspapers and magazines, and book publishing. Society spans food culture, sports, leisure, ethnicity and family, healthcare, education, charity, social welfare, public order and social groups. Politics covers the British occupation of Hong Kong, the return of Hong Kong, policymaking and legislation, administration and public finance, anti-corruption work, law, the judiciary, the disciplined services, military affairs, Hong Kong-Mainland historical events, political organisations and social movements, and Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao relations.

Method: Recounting Facts Without Interpretation

The Institute's editorial philosophy distinguishes chronicles from history books: chronicles only "recount" — they do not "interpret" — historical information. HKCI has adopted "recounting of historical facts without interpretation" as its guiding principle, requiring editors to screen and verify information diligently and to describe historical details objectively and comprehensively, so that, in the Institute's phrase, history speaks for itself.

That principle is enforced through an elaborate process. Source materials — archives, newspapers, historical records, inscriptions, private writings, industrial and commercial materials, original images and photographs, oral history and field inspections — are carefully examined and verified for truthfulness, accuracy and completeness before use. Each volume is supervised and edited by one or more scholars and experts and is subject to third-party review; over 500 professors and experts have taken part in the editorial and review process. The Institute's seven-step editorial procedure runs from collecting reliable sources, through drafting, editing for structure and accuracy, unifying style and word usage, reviewing overall content and cross-checking for inconsistencies, to finalising drafts. Final drafts then pass through internal review by in-house duty editors, external review by experts, three rounds of editing and proofreading by the publisher, and final review and endorsement by the Academic Review Committee and the Council before publication.

Published Volumes: Overview & Chronology and Nature

The first volume, Overview & Chronology, was launched in Chinese in December 2020, comprising 520,000 words. It presents a detailed overview of Hong Kong's local history together with a chronology of more than 6,500 major historical events between ancient times and 2017. The volume was well received: it was picked as a best book of the year by a publisher and won two prizes at the Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Awards 2021, for marketing strategy and in the social-science publications category. The second book of the series was devoted to Hong Kong's participation in the reform and opening up of the country, a theme announced in 2021 for publication later that year.

The English edition of Overview and Chronology was launched on 27 July 2022 at a ceremony at Government House in Hong Kong, attended by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the HKSAR, Liu Guangyuan, central-government officials based in Hong Kong, more than 40 consuls general and deputy consuls general, and representatives of international chambers of commerce and global institutions. The launch presented the English volume as the first in what the Institute calls the largest translation project of any Chinese local chronicles in history, under the theme "Chronicling the Ages, Connecting with the World". In 2023 the Institute published Hong Kong Chronicles: Nature, comprising five books in four volumes totalling 1.4 million words.

Funding and Publishing

HKCI is non-profit-making, and the Chronicles are funded by private donations from more than 50 corporations, charitable foundations and non-governmental organisations, with the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust as the principal benefactor, alongside business enterprises, community organisations and sponsorship from Chinese companies. Publishing, distribution and marketing are handled by Chung Hwa Book Company (Hong Kong) Limited, under Sino United Publishing Holdings. Published titles are sold in bookstores under Sino United Publishing and online through the My Book One portal and Chung Hwa's own website, with global distribution. Unusually for a commercial book series, the e-books of published titles are uploaded to the Institute's website for the public to view free of charge, and participating history research institutions, students, teachers and researchers may obtain e-books for research and teaching purposes.

Education and Community Engagement

Consistent with the traditional functions of local chronicles, HKCI treats education as part of its mission, alongside preserving history and providing reference for policymaking. The Institute says it is committed to bringing history to life, promoting the significance of Chinese culture and fostering a greater sense of cultural pride and identity through community engagement. Its communications and external-relations work is organised around four channels — advocacy, community engagement, digital outreach and promotional activities — supported by a dedicated team for public and media relations, external affairs and digital communications. The Institute maintains an active public presence through its website and social media, presenting the Chronicles not only as a scholarly reference but as a recovery of the collective memories shared by the people of Hong Kong.

Role and Significance

The Hong Kong Chronicles Institute is a young institution with an old task. Founded only in 2019, it has taken on the compilation that Hong Kong had lacked for two centuries: a complete local chronicle of its own, prepared to the standards of a 2,000-year-old Chinese documentary tradition but by a non-governmental body — a challenge the Institute itself describes as unprecedented in scale. Its method, its seven-step verification process, its hundreds of participating scholars, and its commitment to free public access to the finished e-books all aim at a single goal: a comprehensive, systematic and objective record in which Hong Kong's 7,000 years, from Neolithic settlement to the fifth-term HKSAR government inaugurated in 2017, are preserved for reference, policymaking and education. When the Chinese edition is completed by 2027 and the English edition by 2032, the Hong Kong Chronicles will stand as the definitive chronicle of the city — and the Institute that compiled it will have created, in less than a decade and a half, the reference work against which future histories of Hong Kong will be checked.