Leo Tung-hai Lee, member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, donated, on behalf of the CPPCC, a collection of books documenting contemporary history of China to the Hong Kong Central Library (HKCL) and the Public Records Office Wednesday.
In receiving the donation of the books, Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho said that the collection was one of the most important documentation on modern Chinese history and would be a great help for public's reference and research.
He thanked the CPPCC for the donation and the Lee's arrangement. Lee is also the deputy director of the CPPCC's Committee of Historical Materials.
The collection, which is in Chinese, consists of 26 volumes and 35 million characters and is published recently after four years of massive research and editorial work.
It covers contemporary history from the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to modern China.
The collection will be kept at the Reference Library of the HKCL and the Public Records Office located at the Hong Kong Public Records Building. It will be available for public reference from next Wednesday after completion on classification.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2003)
