May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn
A new hardcover tome, the “Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography,” summarizes several hundred of the city’s most significant historical figures, from governors to brothel owners and scoundrels. Editors May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn reminisce about their favorites with Hana R. Alberts.
HK Magazine: How did the idea for the book come about? What did people use before?
Christopher Munn: There are about 140,000 index cards that were gathered by this historian, Carl Smith, an American historian who lived in Hong Kong for many decades. He spent all of his spare time going through newspapers, colonial records, wills and land office records, taking notes on tens of thousands of people. May Holdsworth: We also checked information with descendants of people who are in the dictionary. For the entry on the Tang family, Tang Chi-ngong and Tang Shiu-kin, I actually sent the entry to David Tang, and he replied and said, “You seem to know more about them than I do.”
HK: How did you pick who to include?
CM: The main precondition was that the person should have been in Hong Kong at some point in his or her life. So we wouldn’t include Queen Victoria or Deng Xiaoping.
HK: Who was the biggest oddball included in the book?
CM: I’d like to nominate Karl Gützlaff. He was a German missionary who was involved in the colony of Hong Kong at a very early date. His idea of spreading the gospel was to employ many Chinese people who would carry the Bible and religious tracts into China. In the end there was a big scandal, and it was discovered that these men were simply selling off the Bibles as scrap paper and spending the money on opium.
HK: Who’s one figure from Hong Kong’s history that everybody should know about?
CM: Bruce Lee, I would think. There are a number of pop and film stars in there. One of the great tragedies is that some of them are in there because they died very young, like Leslie Cheung, and Anita Mui and Roman Tam and this whole generation of stars.
MH: Hong Kong local historians like to make a great deal about [Sir Robert Ho Tung]. There are certain things about him that are always bandied about. “He was the first Chinese to go and live on the Peak,” for instance. He wasn’t totally Chinese, but he is held up as probably the most distinguished and prominent and richest and most philanthropic Chinese [person] in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
CM: Would you agree with that assessment, May? You put it forward as if you don’t agree.
MH: Well, he didn’t do anything. He made a lot of money and gave a lot away.
HK: We didn’t know Ho Chi Minh spent time in Hong Kong.
CM: In prison in Hong Kong. In detention. José Rizal was also in Hong Kong, the Philippine revolutionary. This was a big base for revolution in those times.
HK: Did you hav time to fit in Szeto Wah (the beloved pro-democracy icon who recently passed away)?
CM: We squeezed him in just as the book was going into production. So he’s the most recent, and the earliest one is from the 5th century, 1,500 years ago.
MH: A monk, the founder of what became the Castle Peak Monastery.