to survive over the years, and they are therefore easier for institutions to obtain and preserve at a later date.


Signatures of the Congregation, 5 January 1938.


Services on 20 January 19388 19419


and 9 May respectively. According to the South


China Morning Post, he was the recipient of the Ng Li-hing, Ho Fook and Chan Kai- ming 1st Medical Scholarship in 1935.10 On 7 July 1957, the Sit Chew Jit Poh (Sin Chew Daily) in Malaya reported that Dr Yeang was awarded a charitable plaque at the Penang Chinese Chin Woo Athletic Association in recognition of his substantial medical works.11


Another


news item in 1961, inNanyang Siang Pau in Malaysia, reported that he left Penang on 25 February that year with his wife for world travel, and that he shared his experience in South America with the press upon their return, especially the difficulties in communicating using the English language there.12


However, Dr Yeang’s life in Malaysia is still remembered and shared by some communities on social media and personal blogs. For example, a personal blog intro- duces China Street in Penang and men- tions him together with a photograph: his former clinic in China Street was an important part of the neighbourhood. The blog entry reads:


“Yeang Cheng-hin or C.H. Yeang (1908-1983) – Dr. Yeoh (sic) [Yeoh is the Hokkien version of Yeang] was born in Penang in 1908, eldest of two sons from the family of a merchant. He was edu- cated in Penang Free School, a premier school in Penang. He worked with Guthrie for a while, then entered Hong Kong University to study medicine. He graduated as a doctor at the age of 29.


“After six months apprenticeship in a hospital in Hong Kong, he returned to Penang and opened a clinic…he is a doctor whom I will never forget, and he was the only doctor that I visited whenever I was sick. Dr. Yeoh (sic) was a good doctor in the old Chinese Community or Georgetown, he opened a clinic in 1937 at


44 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


Conversely, memories of everyday and ordinary items lacking in monetary value and beauty tend to be overlooked by the institutions and historians, and they are consequently forgotten, discarded, and even disposed of rather than preserved.14 The letters that I purchased online were discarded, bought, sold and perhaps resold numerous times. This experience shows how personal or family papers were unintentionally neglected and disposed of, and how accidental and serendipitous discoveries can help fill the gaps of institutional memories with per- sonal stories, in an international context through collecting. Archivists ‘have an important role to play to keep serendipity alive’15


as serendipitous discoveries are the ‘lifeblood of intellectual activity’.16


Acknowledgement


Thanks to my friends who helped me with the editing and commenting on my drafts including Professor Franco Bis- ceglie, William Buchanan, John Dolan OBE, and Dr Christopher Munn. IP


Dr Yeang Cheng-hin.


88, China Street, just opposite the Kuan Yin Teng Temple. He named the clinic ‘Yeang Cheng Hin Clinic’. The clinic was a popular, as it charged low consultation fee specially for the poor, at times it was free on case-by-case basis.


“I still remember that he was not only a good doctor; he also gave encouragement to the young patients from the poor com- munity, motivated them to work hard, and do well in their study. He collected stamps for his little patients. If you were lucky, some time you got a foreign stamp and sweets… he charged less or even provided free medical services for the hardcore poor. I always remember him…a good doctor. He was also known as ‘Doctor of the Trishawmen’ – the doctor who helped the poor communities in Penang, the trishaw men, and he was panel doctor of their association. He later sold the clinic to Dr. Ting Hock Nan, who became a popular politician in Penang.”13


Primary source materials such as diaries, photographs, and letters are not created retroactively, and archivists and historians often wish they had more of such primary source information for a particular era, event, or person. Whenever archivists work to record or preserve daily records of business, they should also simultaneously and actively engage in collecting other personal records for filling the time capsule. Unique, attractive, and valuable records, regardless of format, tend


References


1 Wendy M. Duff, Catherine A. Johnson, Accidentally Found on Purpose: Information-Seeking Behaviour of Historians in Archives, The Library Quarterly: Informa- tion, Community, Policy, 72 (2002), pp.472-496.


2 Gregory Rolan, Agency in the Archive: A Model for Participatory Recordkeeping, Archival Science, 17 (2017), pp.195-225.


3 Ana Rosechley, Jeonghyun Kim, something that Feels Like a Community: The Role of Personal Stories in Building Community-based Participatory Archives, Archival Science, 19 (2019), pp.27-49.


4 Jessica Wagner Webster, Filling the Gaps: Oral Histo- ries and Underdocumented Populations in the American Archivist, 1938-2011, The American Archivist, 79 (2016). Pp.254-282.


5 The University of Hong Kong, Senate Minutes, 20 December, 1934, University Archives, The University of Hong Kong.


6 The University of Hong Kong, Senate Minutes 27 January, 1938, University Archives, The University of Hong Kong.


7 Jane Mace, ‘Signatures and the Lettered World’, in Lyn Tett, Mary Hamilton, Jim Crowther, ed., More Powerful Literacies (Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continu- ing Education, 2012), pp.61-74 (p.69).


8 Hong Kong Government Gazette, 21 January 1938, Government Printer https://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/ g1938/475140.pdf [accessed 4 February 2024]


9 Hong Kong Government Gazette, 9 May 1941, Govern- ment Printer https://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1941/303770.pdf [accessed 4 March 2024]


10 South China Moring Post, ‘Honorary Degrees, Hong Kong University Congregation, Opening of New Build- ing for a School of Surgery’, 8 January 1935.


11 Sit Chew Jit Poh, 7 July 1959, Singapore National Library, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/page/ scjp19590707-1.1.12, [accessed 4 March 2024]


12 Nangyang Siang Pau, 23 June 1961, Singapore National Library, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/page/ nysp19610623-1.1.12, [accessed 4 March 2024.


13 Raymond Boon, ‘China Street, Penang’, 5 January 2010 < https://teochiewkia2010.blogspot.com/2010/01/china-street- penang.html [accessed 4 March 2024]


14 Elizabeth Mariano Mubarek, The End of Passive Collecting: The Role and Responsibility of Archivists in the Covid-19 Era, Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, 17 (2021), pp.186-196.


15 Patrick L. Carr, Serendipity in the Stacks: Libraries, Information Architecture, and the Problems of Accidental Discovery, College & Research Libraries, 76 (2015), pp.831-842.


16 Michael H. Hoeflich, Serendipity in the Stacks, Fortuity in the Archives, Law Library Journal, 99 (2007), pp.813-827.


June 2024


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