Last month, the South China Morning Post reported that the 60 years’ Universities Service Centre for China Studies (USC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is going to shut down in 18 months.
This was a very disappointed news indeed since I have been to the place for a few times.
My USC experiences
My first visit at the USC was in January 2017. First impression? resourceful. Although I was born and raised in Hong Kong, I haven’t heard about the USC until I started doing my PhD research project. It was still the early stage of my data collection. I only stayed in the library for a few days, reading books that were related to my topic. Later, I realised these resources were not even 1/10 of data in the USC.
The next visit, as I recalled, should be in March 2018. After spending and wasting a year looking for sources for my research, I found that USC had the data that I wanted: journal articles, newspapers, magazines, and almanacs. They are dated in the 1990s. Most of them did not have electronic copies. While some national libraries may have these collections, I can freely accessed most of these sources in the USC. I did not have to register or pay any fee to access these resources. This is what makes the USC the heaven to many researcher in China Studies.
Since then, I visited the USC once or twice when I was back to Hong Kong. To me, the place does not only consist of a personal memory of my PhD journey, it is one of the most resourceful and open archives I have been. It is my research corner in Hong Kong.
The loss for China Studies research
Technically speaking, the USC is not “shutting” down. It is being “restructured”. However, the moment when people lose public access, the USC has lost its independence. There are no place like the USC. It has such a research-friendly environment (correct me if I am wrong) for people like me who does not have adequate resources and funding to conduct their research. I still remembered the time spending the whole day in a national public library. I needed to ask the staffs to bring me overdue newspapers and magazines for more than 10 times. Not to mention the pain of my wallet when I have to scan more than hundred pages for archival research.
Indeed, there must be multiple reasons that lead to the University’s decision. For example, there is a valid reason of why data in the USC needs to be digitalised. Its catalogue is also not so user friendly. I never accessed those sensitive data stored in the USC (you need permission to do it), so I cannot comment on whether the decision is politically-driven. However, regardless the motivation behind, the resturcture of the USC will still be a tremendous loss for the field of China Studies. Perhaps, it is time for me to search for a new place to do research when I am back to Hong Kong after COVID.
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