Why Hong Kong Needs and Archives Law

What exactly is an archives law? An archive is an accumulation of historical records of events that took place during the lifetime of an organization, preserved to document the functions of that organization. They are a repository of factual information and are necessary for helping us understand the history and identity as well as functions of that particular organization. According to Simon Chu, Chairman of the Hong Kong Archive Society, “An archives law is actually a very general piece of legislation. Such a law aims to govern the operations and the management of archives in a government, for ensuring that the government officials will have to create records to document their official transactions, as a result of their official duties.” To ensure that a country has a good archives system, many modern jurisdictions have an archives law. In many Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia and Macau, they all have archives legislation. Only Hong Kong is the exception. In the following interview, Simon Chu discusses his past experiences as an archivist for the Hong Kong Government, as well as the mplications and benefits of introducing an archives law to Hong Kong