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officials and gentry-merchants (shen-shang) are [agents]. There is no need for [professional] agents.
We have no means to prove or disprove Chang's somewhat extravagant claim, but we can be certain that there was at least some truth in it.
In Ho Amei, we have an example of Chang's "Man in Hong Kong". Ho is one of the most colourful personalities in 19th Century Hong Kong, and, as such, was one of those whom the Rev. Carl Smith has chosen to write about in several of his works on the Chinese in Hong Kong. Ho Amei had worked in Australia and New Zealand, in mining and emigration; for a while he worked at the Registrar-General's office in Hong Kong. He also worked in the Chinese Customs Service for a time. In 1882, he started the Telegraph Company in Hong Kong which the Chinese Government took over 2 years later. Then and after, he had many business connections with the Chinese Government, in emigration, mining, railways and telegraphy. In 1884, he was secretary of the On Tai Insurance Company, a position which entitled him to sit at the meetings of the predominantly European Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
Throughout the Sino-French War, he regularly sent telegrams to the Canton authorities reporting on French movements around Hong Kong. As we have seen, at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, he condemned the French for searching junks. At the same meeting, he spoke out for China's right to block the river entrance in Shanghai in case of a French attack, an opinion which found no sympathy in the Chamber. Indeed, he was voted down as "an interested party".01
Interested party he certainly was, but what we must not overlook amid the complexity of his material interests was his courage in speaking up for China, knowing full well his lone opinion would not reverse the resolutions reached by the predominantly European members of the Chamber. There was no need for him to please the Canton Government with a declaration of allegiance at a Chamber of Commerce meeting; it demanded loyalty of him in other ways. The public stand he made, and it was well publicised in the papers, was made out of his own convictions on the question of China's sovereign rights. He protested against the French not as a Chinese agent, but as a
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officials and gentry-merchants (shen-shang ) are [agents]. There is no need for [professional] agents."
We have no means to prove or disprove Chang's somewhat extravagant claim, but we can be certain that there was at least some truth in it.
In Ho Amei, we have an example of Chang's "Man in Hong Kong". Ho is one of the most colourful personalities in 19th Century Hong Kong, and, as such, was one of those whom the Rev. Carl Smith has chosen to write about in several of his works on the Chinese in Hong Kong. Ho Amei had worked in Australia and New Zealand, in mining and emigration; for a while he worked at the Registrar-General's office in Hong Kong. He also worked in the Chinese Customs Service for a time. In 1882, he started the Telegraph Company in Hong Kong which the Chinese Government took over 2 years later. Then and after, he had many business connections with the Chinese Government, in emigration, mining, railways and telegraphy. In 1884, he was secretary of the On Tai Insurance Company, a position which entitled him to sit at the meetings of the predominantly European Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
Throughout the Sino-French War, he regularly sent telegrams to the Canton authorities reporting on French movements around Hong Kong As we have seen, at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, he condemned the French for searching junks. At the same meeting, he spoke out for China's right to block the river entrance in Shanghai in case of a French attack, an opinion which found no sympathy in the Chamber. Indeed, he was voted down as "an interested party".01
Interested party he certainly was, but what we must not over- look amid the complexity of his material interests was his courage in speaking up for China, knowing full well his lone opinion would not reverse the resolutions reached by the predominantly European members of the Chamber. There was
no need for him to please the Canton Government with a declaration of allegiance at a Chamber of Commerce meeting; it demanded loyalty of him in other ways. The public stand he made and it was well publicised in the papers was made out of his own convictions on the question of China's sovereign rights. He protested against the French not as a Chinese agent, but as a
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