The Run Run Shaw Library at the City University of Hong Kong has always strived to build up collections that best fit the teaching, learning and research needs of our university community. As a young institution, we see the need to fill the gap of materials authored and published before our inception in 1984. Besides formal acquisitions, one way of enriching our collection is through soliciting donations and forming collaboration with partners. In recent years, we have been fortunate to receive several great donations, thanks to the kind support of our donors. These materials range from books, magazines, photographs, manuscripts, letters, correspondences, posters and legal documents such as land deeds.
These precious items are generally fragile but could be preserved for future research use through digitization. As such, the Library launched the Pilot Digitization Project in 2012 and digitized 300,000 pages of documents. Staff from various sections of the Library worked together on this project, which included content assessment, selection of scanning contractor, equipment preparation, quality control, archiving, delivery of digital products and, finally promotion. The aim of our concerted efforts is to enhance the discoverability of rare materials.
Old land deeds are one kind of important documents included in our Pilot Digitization Project. Land deeds are legal documents concerning the ownership of and tenure of property. They contain a wealth of information such as: date of execution, parties involved, recitals, witnesses, official stamp, property price, etc. The research potential of old land deeds is wide and varied as they are good primary sources of economic information from which one could derive the inheritance and trading systems of real estates, legal system existing at a particular point of time, history of public administration, and many more topics of interest.
The Library first received the donation of around 400 Qing Dynasty land deed receipts from Mr. Gabriel Yu and Mrs. Teresa Yu in 2011. In the year that follows, Professor Richard Ho donated two pieces of land deed, one from each of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. These materials have strengthened our collection and become valuable treasures for researchers. The current donation by Professor Gregory Chow includes over 300 family papers. It is made up of land deeds, autobiography, letters and correspondence of Mr Tin-Pong Chow, father of Professor Chow. Mr Chow served as the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Guangzhou for many years. Those papers, dated from 1920 to late 1940, provides important data on the economic development of China, particularly Guangdong and Hong Kong. The generous donation has not only significantly expanded our library’s existing land deed collection; it also greatly enhanced our service in supporting teaching, learning, and research at the City University of Hong Kong as well as in the broader community.
Professor Chow is a celebrated political economist. He has been our Library’s honorary adviser for the past few years. He gave us insightful ideas on how to develop the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta (PRD & YRD) Collection. He also delivered several speeches for the PRD &YRD Distinguished Lecture series. We would like to express our sincerest appreciation and thanks to Professor Chow for his wonderful help all along.
We are also in debt to the Hong Kong community. Without their generous support our special collections could not have been built up so smoothly. The Library will continue to identify relevant and quality research and archival materials. And we do invite your participation so that resources that have lasting value and significance can be preserved for and accessed by current and future generations.
Once again, on behalf of the City University of Hong Kong, we thank Professor Chow for passing on to us the incredible collection of over 300 papers from his family.
香港城市大學圖書館成立於 1984 年，為滿足師生教學、研究與學習的需求，近年持續致力於館藏內容的充實、累積，但由於本館歷史尚屬年經、經費規模有限，對於重要學術作品、珍貴歷史文獻的回溯取得經常力有不逮，因此，需透過捐贈、交換、及與其他機構、組織合作等方式，以獲取寶貴文獻作為特藏，期許早日具備與百年知名大學相同層級的豐厚、完善館藏。
由於這些特藏大都頗具歷史、易受損壞，為長期保存，並方便後續教學與研究使用，本館啟動了「數字典藏先導計劃」，持續動員館內不同各組別的同仁，從文獻現況的評估、版權的分析、載體的整理與修復、釋文的解讀與記錄、平台軟件的選擇與建構、元數據的研議與建置、檢索方式的設計、可供網上閱讀的電子版本的製作等方面，精心規劃，通力合作，務求能夠提高文獻的可發現性（Discoverability），以方便未來讀者、研究者有效運用這些珍貴文獻。
2011 年由余志明伉儷首次捐贈四百餘幅地契存根，隔年，又蒙何炘基教授捐贈明朝與清朝地契，讓古地契得以成為「數字典藏先導計劃」的重要發展目標。土地是重要資產的象徵，地契代表土地所有權、合法性的依據，古地契更保存當時經濟活動的一手記錄，其中蘊含著豐富的訊息，諸如：轉讓日期，交易方式、物業價格、見證人、契約宣讀、官方印花等等，具有相當高的研究價值。未來研究者更結合本館相關館藏，如法律文件，土地管理，公共行政管理，經濟歷史數據、歷史、文化等進行深入研究。
鄒教授是國際知名政治經濟學家，擔任我館「珠三角長三角特藏」的榮譽顧問，今年又承蒙厚愛，捐贈 300 餘件珍貴文獻，包括家族檔案、鄒殿邦先生自傳，書信，帳簿和地契等等。其中地契部分，主要涉及 1920 至 1940 年前後中國廣東地區的土地轉讓。這些珍貴的資料不僅擴展了本館目前的館藏內容，更提供了寶貴的中國經濟研究材料、數據，特別是有關廣東與香港地區。
香港城市大學圖書館的特藏能不斷擴展，實有賴於關心教育事業發展、支持文化傳承、重視學術研究的社會人士大力捐輸。未來我們將繼續努力訪求具有教學、研究價值的文獻、檔案，亦歡迎各界共同參與，支持教育廣才、文化傳承的大業。
再次感謝普林斯頓大學鄒至莊教授慷慨捐贈，謝忱永銘!
Gregory C. Chow is Professor of Economics and Class of 1913 Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He attended Cornell University (BA, 1951) and the University of Chicago (MA, 1952, and Ph.D., 1955). He was Assistant Professor at MIT, 1955-1959, Associate Professor at Cornell University, 1952-1962, a Research Staff member and Manager of Economic Research at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 1962-1970, and Professor of Economics and Director of the Econometric Research Program at Princeton University, 1970-1997. In 2001, the Program was renamed the Gregory C. Chow Econometric Research Program in his honor. He was Visiting Professor at Cornell University in 1964, at Harvard University in 1967, and at Rutgers University in 1969, and from 1965 to 1971 he served as Adjunct Professor of Economics at Columbia University. Professor Chow is a member of the American Philosophical Society and of Academia Sinica and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Econometric Society. He has served as Associate Editor or Co-editor of the Academia Economic Journal, American Economic Review, China Economic Review, Economic Modeling, Economics and Finance Computing, International Economic Review, Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. His publications include fourteen books and over 200 articles.
Gregory Chow served as Chairman of the American Economic Association’s Committee on Exchanges in Economics with the People’s Republic of China from 1981 to 1994 and as Co-chairman of the U.S. Committee on Economics Education and Research in China with support from the Ford Foundation from 1985 to 1994. In 1979 he was elected the first president of the Society for Economic Dynamics and Control. From 1989 to 1992 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association. He was a member of the U.S.-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Committee in 1987-91. He advised former Prime Ministers and Chairmen of the Economic Planning and Development Council of the Executive Yuan in Taiwan on economic policy from the mid 1960’s to the early 1980’s. He has advised the Chinese State Education Commission on economics education in China, the Prime Minister and the State Commission for Restructuring the Economic System on economic reform in China.He was responsible for a three-year program (1984-1986) to teach modern economics in China under the sponsorship of the Chinese State Education Commission (formerly Ministry of Education).
He has been appointed Honorary Professor of Fudan University, Hainan University, Nankai University, Shandong University, The People’s University, Zhongshan University, the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and of the City University of Hong Kong. He is Honorary President of Lingnan (University) College. He received a Honorary Doctor’s Degree from Zhongshan University in 1986, an LL.D. from Lingnan University in Hong Kong in 1994 and an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2009. He has advised the Chinese State Education Commission on economics education in China, the Prime Minister and the State Commission for Restructuring the Economic System on economic reform in China.
Professor Chow’s contributions to economics cover three main areas:
Contributions to econometrics and dynamic economics include
Professor Way Kuo, President of City University of Hong Kong
Professor Gregory Chow, Emeritus Professor of Princeton University & Honorary Professor of City University of Hong Kong
Professor Pei-kai Cheng, Director of Chinese Civilisation Centre of City University of Hong Kong
Professor Dai Longji, University Librarian of Macau University of Science & Technology
Professor Steve Ching, University Librarian of City University of Hong Kong
To honor Professor Gregory Chow’s continual support to the CityU community, the following calligraphy work by CityU student, Richard Wong Wai Lok, is presented to Prof. Chow.
The mountain stands tall,
The river reaches far.
Sir your sublime virtue,
Stands just as tall and reaches just as far.
As a major figure in econometrics and applied economics, Professor Gregory Chow has been a major adviser on economic policy, economic reform, and economic education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. He has contributed in many other ways to support the development of CityU in the past years. Professor Chow is a well-merited role model for students. He has supported the full range of scholarly pursuits. His generous donation of those priceless documents to CityU library will have far reaching impact on enhancing CityU library’s resources in learning, teaching and research and contribute to the culture of discovery and innovation at CityU.
The library is not only a repository to store collections, but a knowledge hub to facilitate scholars and professionals of the world. Those land deeds provides tremendous value for the historical research. The collection will broaden the horizon of the users in their learning journey and provide valuable perspectives, as well as advance their commitment to the whole person development.
The poem in the calligraphy highlights knowledge transfer via those land deeds. The donations’ impact and potential will be grand and will stand as tall as a mountain and reach as far as a river. The poem is selected by Professor Cheng Hsiao, Professor of Economics, University of South California, and Calligraphy by Richard Wong Wai Lok, current student at College of Business of CityU.
釋義：
序：
癸巳夏，計量經濟學泰斗鄒至莊教授再次造訪香港城市大學圖書館，慷慨捐贈二百餘幅家族珍貴檔案，如書信，帳簿和地契等，心繫薪火相傳，藏往知來，並嘉惠莘莘學子，隆情高誼，令人感佩，謹以此軸表達由衷謝忱。
雲山蒼蒼，江水泱泱。先生之風，山高水長。
跋：
從來君子交如水，自古書墨情以寄。鄒至莊教授長期關注兩岸三地經濟發展，經常熱心提供精闢見解，展現經世濟民、利用厚生的胸懷，洵為當代知識分子楷模。近期更於百忙中多次蒞臨香港城市大學，擔任香港城市大學圖書館榮譽顧問，對珠三角及長三角特藏發展策略提出寶貴意見，並受邀專題演講，諄諄啓發，藹然可親，城大師生受益良多。此次慷慨捐贈珍貴家族檔案，彌足珍貴，不勝銘感。適逢蕭政院士於香港講學，親選北宋范仲淹「嚴先生祠堂記」佳句，而王偉樂同學刻正於城大圖書館見習，性近翰墨丹青，習字臨帖有年，均受館長景祥祜教授請托，用以答謝鄒至莊教授盛情高誼。
鄒至莊教授雅正，蕭政院士選錄，王瑋樂題字。
Land Deeds 賣買地契約
Land Deed Demarcation Plan 賣買地契分割圖
Land Records 土地管理登記文書
Letters & Correspondences 來往信件
Records of Meetings 會議文件
