BOOK REVIEWS
Elizabeth Sinn, Power and Charity: the Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989) East Asian Historical Monographs series. 304pp illus.
The immediate reason for the establishment of the Tung Wah hospital in 1872 was to provide Chinese medical facilities for a badly-served community which was highly sceptical of Western health practices. Despite continuous criticism from colonial officials, who were eventually able to curb its independence and bring its practices into line with Western doctrines, the hospital did play a central role in health care in the late nineteenth century, particularly in the field of vaccination. The importance of the Tung Wah hospital, however, has long been recognized to extend well beyond its purely medical functions. For many years, it was the only major Chinese social and political institution. In consequence, its governing committee became a focal point for the aspirations of emerging local elites and took on functions of colony-wide significance. The committee served, for example, as a conduit through which grievances about laws discriminating against Chinese (particularly prosperous Chinese), registration of companies and the absence of laws against adultery could be channelled to the colonial government. It also acted as an informal court, dispensing justice to those who voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of what was, by mainland Chinese standards, a jumped-up local gentry. In addition, the committee raised funds for welfare and famine relief in China and tried to prevent abuses in Chinese emigration to North America.
Dr. Sinn's considerable achievement is to bring the work of the hospital and its committee into the perspective of the major political and social issues facing Hong Kong at that time. Based on a wide range of primary sources, including the hospital's archives, she provides a meticulously documented and convincing account of the Tung Wah's evolution from an initially largely autonomous status to the point where the committee's relations with China and ultimately criticism of its role in handling the bubonic plague of 1894 led to its closer incorporation within the colonial structure of authority. It has been postulated that the committee was able to act as an agent of social control which in turn helped to contribute to political stability in the colony. Until the publication of this volume, however, it was not well understood how this social control was actually effected. Dr. Sinn is able to show the
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BOOK REVIEWS
Elizabeth Sinn, Power and Charity: the Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989) East Asian Historical Monographs series. 304pp illus.
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The immediate reason for the establishment of the Tung Wah hospital in 1872 was to provide Chinese medical facilities for a badly-served community which was highly sceptical of Western health practices. Despite continuous criticism from colonial officials, who were eventually able to curb its independence and bring its practices into line with Western doctrines, the hospital did play a central role in health care in the late nineteenth century, particularly in the field of vaccination. The importance of the Tung Wah hospital, however, has long been recognized to extend well beyond its purely medical functions. For many years, was the only major Chinese social and political institution. In consequence, its governing committee became a focal point for the aspirations of emerging local elites and took on functions of colony-wide significance. The committee served, for example, as a conduit through which grievances about laws discriminating against Chinese (particularly prosperous Chinese), registration of companies and the absence of laws against adultery could be channelled to the colonial government. It also acted as an informal court, dispensing justice to those who voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of what was, by mainland Chinese standards, a jumped-up local gentry. In addition, the committee raised funds for welfare and famine relief in China and tried to prevent abuses in Chinese emigration to North America.
Dr. Sinn's considerable achievement is to bring the work of the hospital and its committee into the perspective of the major political and social issues facing Hong Kong at that time. Based on a wide range of primary sources, including the hospital's archives, she provides a meticulously documented and convincing account of the Tung Wah's evolution from an initially largely autonomous status to the point where the committee's relations with China and ultimately criticism of its role in handling the bubonic plague of 1894 led to its closer incorporation within the colonial structure of authority. It has been postulated that the committee was able to act as an agent of social control which in turn helped to contribute to political stability in the colony. Until the publication of this volume, however, it was not well understood how this social control was actually effected. Dr. Sinn is able to show the
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