Land Deeds and Family Papers

Land deeds are primary sources for inheritance and trading systems of real estates, legal system existing at a particular point of time, history of public administration, and many more topics of interest. As another digital humanities initiative, the CityU Library is exploring the opportunities to collaborate with academic departments concerned to unlock the wealth of economic and legal data in its land deed collections which the Library received through generous donations.

In 2013, the Library received a remarkable donation of some 360 Chinese land deeds and 1,500 family documents from the late Mr Tin-Pong Chow (鄒殿邦先生), the then Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Guangzhou in the 19th to early 20th Century. (more)

Research Value: These land deeds and documents, dated mainly from 1900 to late 1940 from an influential family, are very unique primary research materials. They provide important data on the economic and legal activities of China, particularly in Guangdong and Hong Kong, reflecting:

• Inheritance and trading systems of real estates
• Evolving economic and financial systems, e.g. banking system, corporate ownership
• Monetary and fiscal policies in Early Republican China
• Changes of land laws over a period of time
• History of public administration
• Socio-economic conditions of the past, e.g. inflation

By means of digital technologies and in collaboration with researchers, the Library envisions to unleashing the scholarly evidence of these documents for the discovery of the social-economic and legal environments in China during the 19th to early 20th Century.