Brian Chun Kit TSE

Dedicated Assistant Curator II at HKGOV's Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, adept in office management and public relations, significantly contributed to safeguarding Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Excelled in research, project management, and fostering community relationships, showcasing unparalleled adaptability and oral communication skills.

My research interests are police studies, transport history, and the currency history of Hong Kong. In the past, I published one journal and two books related to Hong Kong currency in Chinese. Besides, I have also written several newspaper articles about currency history and news. For police studies and transport history, I have written my master's essays and theses on these topics. 

I can better understand the mindset and attitude of Britain through Police studies because the police related to many aspects of ruling and it was the force that maintained the law and order of colonial Hong Kong.  For instance, in the early years of colonial Hong Kong, the Police Force was not too willing to employ or even wanted to kick out all serving Chinese policemen. This reveals that Briton in that era did not trust and discriminated against local Chinese a lot. It was because the ethics and behavior of local Chinese were not ideal and they always related to many criminal cases. Without a doubt, it was also because of racial discrimination by the British.

For the transport history and currency history of Hong Kong, I discover the urbanization of the railway, through the renewal of KCR trains and the merge of KCR and MTR. This process indirectly shows the city development of Hong Kong. The currency study lets me discover the decolonization of coins and banknotes, through their design.

In the future, I hope to widen my research range to comparative study between Hong Kong and Singapore, Malaysia; also, the British Concessions in China. Through conducting comparative research, I can build a big picture of British colonial history, which increases the value of Hong Kong history study. It can especially let us see the correlation and similarity of Hong Kong's history, compared with other places. For example, the Bukit Ho Swee Fire in Singapore and the Shek Kip Mei Fire in Hong Kong completely influenced the housing policy development of these two places. Thus, it shows the similarity of Hong Kong and Singapore's history. This reveals history carries out many patterns and it will let us more understand the world.