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Hong Kong scene in ca. 1960 (Lawrence purchased from Government Information Services Hong Kong).


These descriptions did not make him a typical colonialist: he once commented on colonialism with elegant simplicity, saying ‘Funny thing, colonialism. One lot of people ruling another lot without asking their permission.’ 6


Lawrence cared about ordinary people and reflected on them with humour and sensitivity. On 11 March 1988 he criticised the press in his Letter from Hong Kong:


“The word Hong Kong means a hundred different things to different people – hope, opportunity, stress, and mental strain, despair, luxury… in fact the Hong Kong press is falling down on its job. Instead of carrying on this ridiculous campaign of classified advertisements, which presumably brings them in millions every week, the English-language papers ought to be hiring more reporters and covering important aspects of Hong Kong life which at present are simply ignored… every kind of human story is waiting to be gathered from the streets and offices and housing estates and squatter areas, when every community is adapting as best it can be to a new and more uncer- tain world… it’s difficult to find good journalists, it seems easier at times to find good cartoonists.”


Of course, Lawrence was not all pessimism but also an optimist. On 8 November, 1996, he recorded the fol- lowing for his radio show Viewpoint:


“Don’t let’s forget one astounding June 2023


success the human race has achieved. I’m thinking of the so-called cold war, the east-west confrontation that lasted so long. By a miracle it never turned into a hot fighting war costing untold millions of lives, what an escape!”


Departing from formality Personal archives almost always depart from the collective formality and systemic organisation found in other types of records. There is an intimacy in the per- sonal archives not present in the collec- tive, corporate, formalised record-keeping system. These intimate elements are reflected not only in the content and organisation of personal records, but come into play in the archivists’ direct interaction with the creators and donors during appraisal, acquisition, and subse- quent management of personal archives. In Lawrence’s case, the experiences recorded in his archival materials include not only acts and facts about his journal- istic output but also his views, opinions, prejudices, and emotional reactions con- cerning other people, politics, cultures, publishing, literary works, and the whole experience of writing itself.


Lawrence’s character, his legacy, and his professionalism emerge from the handwriting, annotations, sketches and photographs in his personal archives. From his papers we feel the care he felt for his profession, the world, and his home in Hong Kong, and his emotional connections with a group of people based on shared stories, interests and concerns.


As readers, our reading evolves in tandem with humanity’s deeper understanding of the written word’s latent capabilities, and reading history involves successive stages of social maturation. While writing is expression, public, limited and freezes the moment, reading is impression, personal, open-ended, and forever.


“We only look forward, not back, as the aircraft cleared Heathrow and turned East. It was a time for taking up work again; a further penetration of those remote cities and forest, dreaming under the haze.” – Anthony Lawrence, Foreign Correspondent, 1972


The Anthony Lawrence’s Papers were gifted to the Special Collections of The University of Hong Kong Libraries.


Acknowledgements


Thanks to my friends who helped me with the editing and commenting on my drafts including William Buchanan, Diana Rose, Vaudine England, John Dolan OBE and Dr Christopher Munn. IP


References


1 Catherine Hobbs, The Character of Personal Archives: Reflections on the Value of Records of Individuals, Archiv- arvia, 2001, pp.126-35


2 The Telegraph Obituaries 26 September 2013. 3 The Times UK Obituaries, 2 October 2013.


4 https://www.fcchk.org/obituary-ian-stewart-foreign-correspond- ent-and-ex-fcc-president/4_ianstwewart-benardkalb-and-anthony-law- rence-with-president-sukarno-1955/?mode=grid


5 Terry Cook, Evidence, Memory, Identity, and Commu- nity: Four Shifting Archival paradigms, Archival Science, Springer, 2013, 95-120


6 Bob Chaundy, Obituary: Anthony Lawrence: Veteran BBC Foreign Correspondent and Radio Broadcaster who Reported on the Far East, The Guardian, 27 September 2013.


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 47


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