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for the grant of a site on Possession Point on which they might build a meeting hall.
On the occasion of the annual official visit to the Governor by the newly elected Tung Wah Committee, they were told that the matter of a meeting place was under consideration. However, no definite action was taken.
The same meeting that had discussed the need of a kung soh or town hall also considered related questions, such as: “Should the hospital committee in the future participate in anything which affected the interest of the Chinese community at large; had the committee usurped the authority of local officials; and was the hospital a guild detrimental to the interest of the community?”
No.
The answer to the first question was yes. To the last two it was no.
These questions reflected charges frequently made in the English language press against the manner in which the directors of the hospital had conducted their business.
These charges were an expression of the sense of insecurity underlying the foreign presence in China.
The colonials were a handful in the midst of a surging, vital and ever growing Chinese population. For all the efforts of the expatriates to recreate the social and political structures of the homeland, Hongkong was at heart Chinese. They had yet to discover and employ adequate ways of relating to this fact.
They projected their insecurity on the prestige of the Tung Wah Committee within the Chinese community. It was the centre for the self-identity of the Chinese in Hongkong and, as such, it was regarded as a threat to the power and position of the expatriate community.
This same attitude was expressed at the time of the opening of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1896.
195
for the grant of a site on Possession Point on which they might build a meeting hall.
On the occasion of the annual official visit to the Governor by the newly elected Tung Wah Committee, they were told that the matter of a meeting place was under consideration. However, no definite action was taken.
The same meeting that had discussed the need of a kung soh or town hall also considered related questions, such as: “Should the hospital committee in the future participate in anything which affected the interest of the Chinese community at large; had the committee usurped the authority of local officials; and was the hospital a guild detrimental to the interest of the community?”
no.
The answer to the first question was yes. To the last two it was
These questions reflected charges frequently made in the English language press against the manner in which the directors of the hospital had conducted their business.
These charges were an expression of the sense of insecurity underlying the foreign presence in China.
The colonials were a handful in the midst of a surging, vital and ever growing Chinese population. For all the efforts of the expatri- ates to recreate the social and political structures of the homeland, Hongkong was at heart Chinese. They had yet to discover and employ adequate ways of relating to this fact.
They projected their insecurity on the prestige of the Tung Wah Committee within the Chinese community. It was the centre for the self-identity of the Chinese in Hongkong and, as such, it was regarded as a threat to the power and position of the expatriate community.
This same attitude was expressed at the time of the opening of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1896.
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