Restricted Records: How Hong Kong Communities Lose Out When Archives Stay Closed
Britain colonised Hong Kong in the 19th century through two treaties, which lasted in perpetuity, and a lease, set to expire in 1997. Much research into Hong Kong’s colonial history relies upon records held at The National Archives in London. With the expiry of the lease on the horizon, in 1983 and 1984, British and mainland Chinese officials negotiated the future of Hong Kong. Negotiations concluded that Britain would hand Hong Kong to China in 1997. Much research into Hong Kong’s colonial history relies upon records held at The National Archives in London. There is another cache of Hong Kong records in the UK but it remains unavailable to researchers and the wider public. In 2011, the British Government admitted it was holding tens of thousands of files created by colonial governments and shipped to the UK on the eve of decolonisation. It subsequently committed to releasing all of these files (save for those exempted on legal grounds). Over the course of a few years, some 20,000 records originating in 40 former colonies were made available at The National Archives as series FCO 141, known as the ‘migrated archives’. Yet files from Hong Kong were not amongst those opened.