[ { "id": 206264, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n75\n\nBy the 1860s a clearly defined élite group had established itself, providing leadership for the Chinese community.\n\nThe purpose of this paper is to document the conditions from which an identifiable élite group arose in Hong Kong and to illustrate this emergence by biographies of some of its members.\n\nSOURCES FOR THE STUDY\n\nWhat sources were used to determine the Chinese élite for the period covered by this study? The most important are the names given on memorials, petitions, and subscription lists. The repetition of a name on subsequent lists, the amount of the contributions, and the position of the name on the document serve to suggest the relative status of an individual. Proprietorship of land also suggests potential élite status.\n\n(1) The earliest such document used is a list of land owners dated 19 February, 1848, in which they petition for the remission of what they considered excessive crown rent charges. There are twenty-seven signatures of the principal Chinese landowners. This document is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO129/23.\n\n(2) In September 1852, The China Mail published the subscription list for the Chinese Hospital proposed by Dr. Hirschberg of the London Missionary Society. This also contains twenty-seven names. Of these, ten were compradores, seven shopkeepers, three merchants, three contractors, and one \"gentleman\". Only three names that were on the 1848 list appear on this list: Loo Aqui, gentleman, Tam Achoy, building contractor, and Chow Aqui, merchant.\n\n(3) On 4 November 1856, a memorial concerning a recent piece of legislation was presented to Government. It contained both European and Chinese names. Nineteen Chinese signed. It is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO131/3.\n\n(4) In 1859 the Government Gazette published a \"List of Chinese Voluntary Contributions to a Fund for purchasing books, etc., for the Government Schools in the Colony\". Most of the contributions were made in the name of business firms, but all of the largest amounts were contributed by individuals. The two largest contributors were both contractors; Tang Luk gave $60,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206274, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n85\n\nsome of his property was sold at Sheriff's sale in 1847. Akow and Company sold its Queen's Road property in 1850, though Kam Cheong remained in Hong Kong. In 1852 he contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. His last recorded activity in Hong Kong is the sale of two lots in 1855. At this time Akow and Company was operating a hotel for foreigners in Canton.\n\nAfter the death of Chinam the government still had hopes of attracting substantial merchants. A group of Fukienese inquired regarding conditions for settlement. For several generations a number of these merchants had operated large Hongs in Macao and the Hong Kong Government would have liked to induce them to move to Hong Kong. The Government therefore welcomed application from Fukien merchants for land grants. In the light of the ancient rivalry between Cantonese and Fukienese, it was felt that the allocation of land to this group needed to be handled with care. The Governor explains in his report to England that,\n\nThese people constitute a very peculiar race, being far more commercial, migratory, and maritime in their habits than any other natives of China. Their spoken language is altogether unintelligible to the people of Canton, between whom and themselves a species of irreconcilable feud has existed from time immemorial. Hence they cannot inhabit the same neighbourhood without quarrels, and occasionally bloody conflicts. If land is put up by auction the Fokien (or Chinchew men) would in competition with the Cantonese either be excluded altogether, or mingled with the Cantonese be to the prejudice of general peace and order. It is important to secure the settlement of this class of people (in the present instance men of substance). The Council agreed with me to grant them a special location... placed much to their satisfaction in the neighbourhood of East Point, and they have commenced building on five contiguous lots,\n\n15\n\nThis report was dated July 1845. However, in the Surveyor General's return of registered allotments as of 24 June 1846 he reports that the lots granted to the Chinchew merchants had been thrown up by them. So again the prospect of the settlement", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206278, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n89\n\nFukienese merchants to settle in Hong Kong. Several other merchants appear on the earliest of the élite lists indicating their presence in the first decade of the Colony's history.\n\nIn 1852 \"Cun-wo A Kwi, merchant\" contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. This is Chow Aki* of the firm Cong-wo, which had been established in the Lower Bazaar in 1842, having a branch at Canton. In 1849 he bought the lease of the Central Market, holding it until 1857. He became a large investor in real estate, but sold out most of his property in 1866 and retired to Macao.\n\nA merchant who survived the pitfalls of commerce in early Hong Kong was Wong Ping1. He is named as a silk merchant on the land-owners' petition of 1848, but he was one of Hong Kong's first industrialists in that he owned a rope walk beyond the western end of the Lower Bazaar. He was one of three trustees to hold Inland Lot 361 in Taipingshan on behalf of the Chinese community. The lot was granted in 1851 and upon it was built a temple \"for the reception of Tablets to the memory of... deceased countrymen\".22 The building was used, however, not only for memorial tablets but also as a depository for those who were about to die, following established Chinese custom. When this use came to the notice of the European community it was shocked. The reaction and public discussion which followed resulted in Government allocating a grant from the revenues of the gambling monopoly to the Chinese community for the erection of a suitable hospital to be known as Tung Wah. Wong Ping was not a member of the Organizing Committee of the Hospital, though he was on the Kai Fong Committee for 1872. He died in 1887. Wong Yue Yee alias Wong Yick Bun, of the Chun Cheong Wing Nam Pak Hong, a Director of the Tung Wah in 1872, may have been a relative as Wong Ping is mentioned in 1881 as a managing partner of the Chun Cheung Hong for some twenty years. He also was associated with the Tsui Shing firm and the Tuck Mee Hong.\n\nIn the 1850s the Taiping Rebellion upset the social and economic structures of China. The changes in China were reflected in changes in Hong Kong. The Taiping threat upon Canton created a refugee group which sought in Hong Kong more stable conditions. Some were wealthy and brought their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206287, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "98\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nHong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company. In addition to his shipping interests he operated a bakery, imported cattle to the Colony and operated as a general merchant under the firm name of Fat Hing. In 1876 he was the third largest rate-payer in Hong Kong, and the first among the Chinese. He died in 1880 leaving an estate valued at $445,000. He was survived by seven sons. Two of them are listed among the twenty largest rate-payers in 1881, Kwok Ying Kai is number 8 and Kwok Ying Shew is number 14. Both of them became involved in the land speculation mania of 1881 and their property became subject to foreclosure.\n\nThe death notice of Kwok Acheong states that he was one of the original directors of Tung Wah Hospital and the year before his death was re-elected to that position. As he died in 1880, he must be the same as the Kwok Siu Chung alias Kwok Ching San of the Fat Hing firm listed as a Director in 1879 and in 1873. He was a member of the Kai Fong Committee in 1872 and signed almost all the lists and subscriptions. Government frequently consulted him regarding affairs which affected the Chinese community. His death warranted an extensive biographical notice in the English language papers. It characterized him as \"a man of remarkable intelligence and keenness in business, and of great cheerfulness and urbanity in his social relations. He was a liberal subscriber to all charities and behaved handsomely to those in his employ. His acquaintance with the English language never rose above respectable 'pidgin'; but he agreed well with and was much respected by foreigners, with whom he had constant intercourse and large transactions\". His funeral cortege was one of the largest Hong Kong had witnessed. It occupied one hour and thirteen minutes to pass one spot. One of its features were four tablets on poles with flowers surrounding the inscriptions of his purchased Chinese ranks.31\n\nThe Chairman of the organizing committee of Tung Wah was the compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company named Leung On alias Leung Wan Hon alias Leung Hok Chau. He would seem to be the same as the Leong Po Wan named as Gibb, Livingston and Company's compradore on the 1852 list of contributions to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207752, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 125\n\nfor the Rev. John Chalmers of the London Missionary Society, but soon he began to be used extensively in the various activities of the mission, preaching in their Lower Bazaar Chapel, visiting prisoners in the Gaol, serving as an evangelist to the sick in the dispensary recently opened by Dr. Julius Hirschberg on Queen's Road West. Legge characterized him as “a man who has won my affection and esteem as few of his countrymen have done\", and he impressed Dr. Wong Foon, who had recently returned from Medical School at Edinburgh and was associated with Dr. Hirschberg in the dispensary, as “a man of great intelligence and considerable fluency of speech.\"5\n\nIn 1858, with the blessings of the Mission, Hung Jen-kan with a companion made another effort to reach Nanking, but this time travelling up through Canton and Kwangsi. In a letter dated 5 June 1858, the Rev. John Chalmers remarks on his and Jen-kan's hopes:\n\n\"He has had a desire for a long time to reach his friends at Nanking and endeavour to impart to them the superior knowledge he has acquired, and I doubt not the fact that the present government is so hardly pressed from without had induced him to adventure upon the long and dangerous journey across the country from Canton in hopes that the Nanking party may be persuaded to seek an alliance with foreigners before it is too late. Of course his religious zeal is associated with patriotic feelings. We have always thought that if he could get among the Taiping people he might be the means of correcting many of their errors with regard to Christianity and to foreigners, from whom they have received it.\"6\n\nThe London Missionary Society at Hong Kong financed the trip and agreed to grant a monthly allowance of seven dollars to his family for ten months or until Jen-kan himself was able to provide for them.\n\nIn the course of his journey Jen-kan wrote five letters to the society at Hong Kong, but only three were received. One written from Hupei states that:\n\nUnexpectantly on 16th October, I was seized and searched by Imperialist guards. They only found some medical books and money. On the 19th I made my escape to Yaou Chow and on the 14th of November eight officers who wished to leave the Imperial service took me to Lung Ping in the province of Hoo", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 } ]