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judging a Chinaman's respectability. Hence it regards the Committee as a mouth piece of the people". However, rabid critics of the Committee in the foreign population claimed membership on the Committee did not necessarily confer respectability or responsibility. It was claimed that "it is undignified on the part of the Government to treat with the often illiterate managers of a Hospital fund as if they possessed official powers over their fellow countrymen". (C.M. Dec. 3, 1875). The Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy was charged with extending to "men whose positions were of the humblest nature, a sort of patronage which vastly inflated their self-conceit." (C.M. Nov. 8, 1875).
These criticisms, however, in no way affected the prestige status given to the Tung Wah Directors by the Chinese community. It recognized the men it elected as those who had fulfilled the achievement standards accepted by the community,
In time the exclusive prestige value of the Committee was diminished by Government appointment of Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council and the reorganization of the District Watchmen's Committee into a status group. See H.J. Lethbridge, "The District Watch Committee: "The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'", JHKBRAS 11 (1971), pp. 116-141.
The Tung Wah Committee became responsible on behalf of the Chinese Community for being host to visiting Chinese high officials. A number of the Directors had themselves acquired an imperial degree and hence were of a sufficiently elevated rank to mix socially with their guests. Several of the Directors later entered Chinese government service holding office in the diplomatic corps.
You will note in some of the museum's old photographs of the Tung Wah functions and in the reproduction of the pictures of the first Committee members that some are dressed in Mandarin costume, wearing the feathers and buttons of the appropriate degree. These they had purchased rather than earned through the literary examination system. Sometime the degree was awarded in recognition of some particularly generous contribution for the welfare of the people of China. Whatever the reason for the degree its recipient was given social deference. Those who had acquired such honours conferred status upon the Tung Wah Committee as a group.
Though in Hong Kong today the Tung Wah Hospital Directorship is not so exclusively the status group of the Chinese community, it is still recognized as a mark of achievement to be sought after.
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judging a Chinaman's respectability. Hence it regards the Com- mittee as a mouth piece of the people". However, rabid critics of the Committee in the foreign population claimed membership on the Committee did not necessarily confer respectability or respon- sibility. It was claimed that "it is undignified on the part of the Government to treat with the often illiterate managers of a Hospital fund as if they possessed official powers over their fellow country- men". (C.M. Dec. 3, 1875). The Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy was charged with extending to "men whose positions were of the humblest nature, a sort of patronage which vastly inflated their self-conceit." (C.M. Nov. 8, 1875).
These criticisms, however, in no way affected the prestige status given to the Tung Wah Directors by the Chinese community. It recognized the men it elected as those who had fulfilled the achieve- ment standards accepted by the community,
In time the exclusive prestige value of the Committee was diminished by Government appointment of Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council and the reorganization of the District Watchmen's Committee into a status group. See H.J. Lethbridge, "The District Watch Committee: "The Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong'", JHKBRAS 11 (1971), pp. 116-141.
The Tung Wah Committee became responsible on behalf of the Chinese Community for being host to visiting Chinese high officials. A number of the Directors had themselves acquired an imperial degree and hence were of a sufficiently elevated rank to mix socially with their guests. Several of the Directors later entered Chinese government service holding office in the diplomatic corps.
You will note in some of the museum's old photographs of the Tung Wah functions and in the reproduction of the pictures of the first Committee members that some are dressed in Mandarin cos- tume, wearing the feathers and buttons of the appropriate degree. These they had purchased rather than earned through the literary examination system. Sometime the degree was awarded in recogni- tion of some particularly generous contribution for the welfare of the people of China. Whatever the reason for the degree its recipient was given social deference. Those who had acquired such honours conferred status upon the Tung Wah Committee as a group.
Though in Hong Kong today the Tung Wah Hospital Director- ship is not so exclusively the status group of the Chinese community, it is still recognized as a mark of achievement to be sought after.
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