This book is one outcome of a programme of research that began in 2007. The research was funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and took the shape of four consecutive research projects, of which I was principal investigator. The research covered areas such as Hong Kong independent documentary film, the colonial film units of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaya, and the influence of the British official film; and all of these areas are also covered in this book to one extent or another. The research programme is also still ongoing, developing pace and changing direction, and, as I write now, in May 2013, it is outspreading to cover South-East and South Asia. An extensive set of research associations is being nurtured, and a major new website covering these areas has also been put into operation. A dedicated conference on these areas will also be held in Hong Kong in September 2013. This will also be the third conference to be associated with this research programme. In many ways, therefore, the work that is represented by this book, though itself the product of considerable research activity covering a number of years, is about to reach a new level of extension and involvement.

I began to explore the documentary film in Hong Kong shortly after my arrival in the city from the UK in 2003. In order to commence, I first carried out preliminary research intended to clarify whether sufficient information and data existed to justify launching a later, large-scale research project on the subject.