[ { "id": 205711, "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-1969", "page_number": 17, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n11\n\nfor nomination by the Governor. The new Council met on 28th February, 1884, and consisted of 6 officials excluding the Governor: the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Surveyor General, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Registrar General. There were also 5 unofficials: Mr. T. Jackson (elected by the Chamber of Commerce), Mr. F. D. Sassoon (elected by the Justices of the Peace), Messrs. P. Ryrie, F. B. Johnson and Wong Shing, appointed by the Governor.\n\nThus in 1884 Wong Shing became the second Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council as an unofficial member. He too was a Cantonese from Chung Shan District. In 1841 he entered, with two other Chinese boys, Yung Wing and Wong Foon, the Morrison School in Macao which was later transferred to Hong Kong. In January 1847, Dr. Robbins Brown, an American teacher in the Morrison School, had to leave China on account of ill health. He offered to take a few of his old pupils back to America for further education. Yung Wing, Wong Foon and Wong Shing signified their desire to go and, through Dr. Brown and the Morrison Education Society, expenses for two years for the three boys were arranged. They embarked at Whampoa on the ship \"Huntress\" and proceeded via the Cape of Good Hope, the journey taking more than three months. Upon arrival in the U.S.A. the three boys were admitted to the Monson Academy at Monson, Massachusetts.\n\nAs a result of ill health, Wong Shing did not manage to acquire any academic honours during his sojourn in the United States. On his return to China he was offered an appointment in the Foreign Ministry. He served with Viceroy Li Hung-chang and Marquis Tseng Chi-tze and was a member of the Chinese legation staff in Washington. He resigned later from the Chinese diplomatic service and came to Hong Kong as a merchant. He was also associated with the Anglo-Chinese College and with the London Missionary Society for which he directed its printing establishment under Dr. James Legge. When the Tung Wah Hospital was founded in 1870, he was a founder director. He was naturalized in December 1883 and was appointed to the Legislative Council in February 1884. He was described as a man of property, much-travelled, speaking good English and fully qualified to “look at Chinese affairs with English eyes and at English affairs with Chinese eyes\". His career as a Legislative Councillor was an", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205729, "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-1969", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\nJI13 G. B. Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, p. 205.\n\n29\n\n12 Now known as the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital. Its subsequent history is described in a brochure privately published by the Hospital in 1957, enlarged and re-issued for the eightieth anniversary in 1967.\n\n13 區德,又名區仰德,列字澤民,\n\n14 The Government took over the project in 1927 and turned it into the Kai Tak airfield which came into being in 1928.\n\n15 G. B. Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, p. 200.\n\n16 Ho Kai's sister was married to Wu Ting-fang, i.e. Ng Choy.\n\n17 韋寶珊\n\n18 G. B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong, pp. 120-124.\n\n19 Chinese members of the Legislative Council were ex-officio members; the other members were elected by the Chinese Justices of the Peace,\n\n20 Li Shu-fan, Hong Kong Surgeon, p. 39. Wei Yuk is, however, wrongly described as a member also of the Executive Council.\n\n21 The Hong Kong Government later built the Kowloon Canton Railway which was started in 1906 and completed in 1910. It may be of interest here to mention that the Beacon Hill Tunnel was designed and constructed by Mr. F. Southey, a former student of Diocesan Boys School who won a Hong Kong Government Scholarship in 1890 to study in England.\n\n22 Named after the first and outstanding headmaster of the Central School, Dr. Frederick Stewart who later became Colonial Secretary in the years 1887 and 1888, under the Governor Sir George William Des Voeux.\n\n23 G. Stokes, Queen's College, 1862-1962, Hong Kong, p. 221.\n\n24 Among his grandchildren whom I know personally are the following distinguished officers in the Hong Kong Government Service: Dr. Ho Hung-chiu, O.B.E., Senior Specialist in Radiology, Mr. Eric Ho, Staff-grade Administrative Officer, Miss Daphne Ho, M.B.E., Principal Social Welfare Officer and Miss Helen He, O.B.E., Senior Medical Social Worker, Mr. Stanley Ho, a prominent businessman in Hong Kong and Macao, is also his grandson,\n\n25 The ages of the boys ranged from 10 to 16. It is said that because of their pig-tails, they were often mistaken to be girls and had often times to fight very hard to repel the advances made to them by the American boys!\n\n26 On p. 294 of Endacott's A History of Hong Kong, it is stated that \"a Chinese member was added to the Executive Council in 1921\". This is presumably a typographic error,\n\n27 Sir Robert Kotewall left eight daughters and one son. His son, Cyril, is now practising as a solicitor in Hong Kong and one daughter, Bobbie, is the principal of the well-known St. Paul's Co-educational College.\n\n28 Sir Alexander Grantham, Via Ports, p. 110.\n\n29 Li Shu-fan, Hong Kong Surgeon, London, Victor Gollancz, 1964.\n\n30 At one time, a director of the Bank of East Asia. Educated at Queen's College, Mr. Chan was a generous benefactor of education. In 1917 he donated HK$50,000 to the University of Hong Kong for the erection and equipment of the School of Pathology. He also endowed prizes in all the faculties of the University.\n\n31 Father of Sir Tsun-nin Chau,\n\n32 Father of Mr. Li Fook-wo, O.B.E., Deputy Chief Manager of The Bank of East Asia, and Mr. F. K. Li, Staff-grade Administrative Officer in the Hong Kong Government.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206290, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\nTHE GOVERNMENT SERVANTS GROUP\n\n101\n\nA life-long career by a Chinese in Government service usually would not have provided opportunity for the accumulation of sufficient capital to enable one to enter the élite group. The highest paid positions were the interpreterships, but a Chinese who had sufficient competency in English to be appointed to this position could earn more in the employment of the foreign firms. However, many of the young men who received an English language education, at first in the Mission schools or the Morrison Education Society School and after 1860 at the Government Central School (now Queens College), upon leaving school became interpreters and clerks in Government for several years. But normally they did not make a life career of Government service.\n\nThere were, however, two individuals who appear on our lists who had been employed by the British Government even before its removal to Hong Kong and who continued as Government employees until their retirement. These were Tso Aon and Cheong Assow.\n\nWhen the British established their Government offices in Hong Kong the man who became responsible for all the Chinese staff in Government offices, as well as serving as compradore to the Treasury, was Tso Aon alias Cho Yune Choong alias Cho Wing Chow. His family had lived in Macao for several generations, and in 1834 he entered the service of the British in the office of the Superintendent of Trade. By the time of his removal to Hong Kong he had accumulated enough capital to invest in real estate. When he retired from Government service in 1857 without pension, he lived off the income from real estate, pawn shops and other business ventures. He died in 1874 at Macao, survived by several sons. One of his grandsons was the Rev. Tso See Kai (**) 曹思楷) Vicar of St. Paul's (born 1895, died 1928). Tso Aon's brother, Chow Yik Chong (5) alias Chow Yin Yin alias Chow Yau () alias Chow Kam Ming (alias Chow Wai Chun (R), was a large land owner and capitalist in Macao. He was knighted by the Portuguese Government, made a member of the Macao Legislative Council, and was a leader of the Chinese community in Macao. He died in 1896. His son Tso Seen Wan came", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206291, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "102\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nto Hong Kong, practiced law, was a member of the Legislative Council from 1929 to 1937.\n\nAnother Government employee—although his family was not as distinguished as that of Tso Aon, but who does appear on a number of our elite lists was the Overseer of Coolies in the Surveyor General's Department. Cheong Assow\n\nwas appointed to this office in September, 1844. He also invested in real estate, which upon his death in 1897 was divided among his seven sons. In 1848 the Surveyor General suggested that Assow was underpaid, as he found him an invaluable man in his department:\n\n+\n\nThe headman Assow I cannot speak too highly of, he is intelligent, honest, and careful, and displays great zeal for the Department. He understands English perfectly, and I can trust him to make measurements for me upon lines that are clearly defined, which he performs with great accuracy. His wages are very small for a man of his usefulness, and I should wish much that they were raised as he is one of the most deserving Chinamen I ever met. His education under me (for he has now been in the Department nearly five years) has progressed so satisfactorily that he is of more service than many of the English overseers I have employed, whose wages are never less than $30 per mensem.36\n\nTHE GROUP EMPLOYED BY MISSIONS\n\nAnother group which identified itself with Hong Kong was a small number of Christians who came here from Malacca, Singapore and Macao under the patronage of missionaries. As Christian converts they had renounced the traditional practices connected with the veneration of ancestors and thus had cut themselves off from participation in the ritual observances which bound the Chinese family together. There seemed little chance that they could expect to be welcomed back to their home villages. In a sense they were as marginal to the social structure of China as were those who had had to flee China because of criminal activities. Unlike the tradesmen and small merchants they did not view Hong Kong as an opportunity to make a quick fortune which they could take back to their home village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206298, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n109\n\nWhile abroad he had been baptized and on his return he became a member of the Chinese congregation of the London Missionary Society. One of his benefactors had been Andrew Shortrede, owner and publisher of the China Mail, and for about two years after his return from America he worked for the China Mail. In 1864 mention is made of a Chinese publication known as Assing's Daily General Price Current. This was probably a journalistic venture of Wong Shing. He also served as an interpreter for the Government. In 1853 he was placed in charge of the printing establishment of the Anglo-Chinese College operated by the London Mission. He continued as manager for some ten years, when he left to join the staff of the Chinese Government School being established at Shanghai to teach foreign languages to Chinese students. However, he did not find the work there satisfactory, and after a short time returned to Hong Kong and resumed management of the Mission press. In 1872 he went to Peking to set up a printing office with moveable type for the Tsung Li Yamen. From there he went to the United States with the second group of students in Yung Wing's Educational Mission scheme. In 1858 his was the first Chinese name to appear on the roll of Jurors in Hong Kong. He was a member of the organizing Committee for Tung Wah Hospital. In 1884 he was the second Chinese to be appointed to the Legislative Council, serving until 1890. He died in 1902. His obituary mentioned his frugality and his lack of parsimony: \"His family was poor and he was taught to be frugal. He could save about $1,000 and bought land in Hong Kong... before Hong Kong business flourished....It increased ten times in value. He had the opportunity to raise rent, but he did not do so. Those who had property and could earn more ridiculed him. He had a family of children, and his expenditures increased, so that his income did not take care of his expenditures, but he still held to his idea.\"48 Realizing the advantages he had derived from a foreign education, he was among the first Chinese to privately finance the education of his children abroad.\n\nWhen the Rev. Elijah Bridgman, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, moved to Hong Kong from Macao in 1842, he had under his patronage two young men who had been his students. They had also been sponsored by the Morrison Education Society as students at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206299, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "110\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nBoarding School at Singapore of the American Board. One was Leung Tsun Tak (梁遵德) who was employed as an interpreter at the Hong Kong Magistracy. He was a son of Leung Afat (梁亞佛) an ordained evangelist of the London Missionary Society,49 The other lad was Wei Akwong (韋阿光) whom Bridgman had picked up sick and starving on the streets of Macao some years previous. Akwong, unlike the other Chinese we have been mentioning, never received baptism. At first he assisted Bridgman in his missionary work in Hong Kong, but when Bridgman moved to Canton in 1845 Akwong remained in Hong Kong. He became compradore for the ship chandlers and storekeepers Bowra and Company, but in 1855 was appointed Supreme Court Interpreter in Chinese and Malay. In 1857 when the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China opened its Hong Kong office, Wei Akwong became the bank's compradore. He retained this office until his death in 1878 and was succeeded by his son Wei Ayuk (韋亞玉) alias Wei Bo Shan (韋寶臣). Wei Akwong was a recognized leader of the Chinese community, and his name appears on numerous petitions and memorials. Like Wong Shing he sent his sons abroad to study. His eldest son Wei Yuk married a daughter of Wong Shing, and followed in the footsteps of his father-in-law by serving on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1917.50 He was knighted in 1919 and died in 1922.\n\nThe Bishop of Victoria had under his patronage upon his arrival in Hong Kong in 1850, a young Chinese whom he had met in England. Chan Tai Kwong (陳大光) was a native of Pun Yu District of Kwang Tung, but he turned up in England in 1845 as a young man aged eighteen. How he got to England and what he was doing there, I have not been able to determine, but in 1849 the newly appointed Bishop of Victoria met him and took him under his patronage, with the hope that he could be trained as an evangelist among the Chinese. Soon after coming to Hong Kong, Tai Kwong was sent to Singapore to marry Gay Eng, also known as Sarah Hughes, a pupil in the school for Chinese girls conducted by Miss Grant. Upon his return to Hong Kong he was placed on three years' probation before ordination, but the Bishop did license him to preach to the prisoners in the Victoria Gaol. Chan Tai Kwong, however, had difficulties in adjusting to his new position. His experience in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210689, "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-1986", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "23\n\nobserved that he was not often late.\n\nIt would not be appropriate to the scale of this essay to give an account of his practice, cases or clients. For anyone who is interested the details are to be found in the local newspapers. I propose only to mention a few selected matters. His first reported case was in April 1877 when he appeared for a man charged with possessing and uttering counterfeit coins and made a successful submission of no case to go to the jury. In the following July he called E.J. Eitel, referred to above, to give evidence of local custom in a case relating to the false imprisonment of a woman. His first notable case was in January 1878 when he defended one of two ship's engineers charged with manslaughter following the explosion of a boiler on a ship in Victoria Harbour which caused the deaths of over seventy people. Later in 1878 he defended F.S. Huffham, the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, on charges of fraud and misappropriation of fees. His clients included banks, shipping companies, and many other businesses, the Opium Farmer, the Emperor of China and other Chinese authorities and a host of individuals including the Baroness DoCercal and a member of the Korean Royal Family. He appeared in cases in which the Hong Kong Club and the Jockey Club were parties and many of the libel cases which were a feature of life in Hong Kong. His practice took him not only into the courts of Hong Kong but also before the Legislative Council and to Macao, Canton and Shanghai. In a case of his in 1884 two of the jurors gave evidence, which must be unusual. Also in that year he was in a case concerning a contract to supply Chinese emigrants to Jamaica. In 1886 he appeared for forty-two Chinese Police Constables charged with corruption. In 1893 he was involved in the first case in Hong Kong relating to Ancient Lights. In 1897 he acted for the Jewish Community which sued in respect of land alleged to be held in trust for it. Following the acquittal of Fraser Smith referred to above he joined others in offering to pay the plaintiff's costs, an uncommon gesture for a lawyer (the verdict of the jury was not guilty but the verdict of the colony was guilty). His persistence as an advocate lasted to the end. In June 1901 the trial Judge in his summing up referred to \"his very able speech for the defence which occupied two hours and in which every point in the evidence was thoroughly gone into\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211696, "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-1989", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "86\n\nwiring and piping ripped out. The ravage was so extensive that many people in the camp thought it must be part of a deliberate policy on the part of the Japanese. This I doubt: whatever pickings there were to be had the Japanese wanted for themselves, and I think the true explanation is simply that they could not at first spare enough men for effective policing. The looters were dangerous, and a party of five Swedes who were foolhardy enough to remain on the Peak were murdered.\n\nIt was not long before the Japanese themselves entered into competition with the Chinese looters, but on an official basis. Foodstuffs were their first objective, followed by metals of all kinds and medical stores. Hongkong had been stocked with supplies for 6 months: it held out for only 18 days, so enormous stocks fell into Japanese hands and these were shipped off to Japan as fast as they could be loaded. Of the Hongkong Dairy Farm's herd of 1500 cattle, over 1000 had been shipped away by the end of March.\n\nAll the European members of the Police Force were interned at Stanley. The Sikhs and Chinese accepted service under the Japanese. The guards round the internment camp and the gaol warders were principally Sikhs. If drawn into conversation, they would say they must work for the Japanese or starve; but Pennyfeather-Evans, the Chief of Police, told me that the Sikhs had been practically in a state of mutiny during the last days of the fighting.\n\nAs regards the Chinese or semi-Chinese members of the Legislative Council, Sir Robert Hotung was, I think, in Macao when the war broke out. He subsequently returned to Hongkong, but I do not know what line he took or what became of him. Sir Shouson Chow, Mr. Kotewall, and Mr. M.K. Lo joined the \"Rehabilitation Committee\" set up by the Japanese and had to attend official ceremonies such as receptions for the Japanese Governor. Lo, who met A.J. Evans on the street one day shortly after the Japanese occupation, told him that he had at first refused, and that he had then been imprisoned without food till he gave way. I have no doubt similar measures were taken with the others.\n\nI have already referred to the eviction of the staff and patients from Queen Mary Hospital and the War Memorial Nursing Home. The Matilda Hospital was cleared at the same time. Japanese wounded were pouring into Hongkong from other places, and it is clear the Japanese needed all the accommodation and the medical supplies they could get for their own.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213762, "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-1996", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "85\n\nX\n\n\"J\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1913, pages N13-17, 1914, pages N12-N13, 1915, pages O18-O19, 1916, pages 15-06-1917 page 07-1918, page 09, 1919, page O10, 1920, pages O15, O21, O29-O30, 1927, pages O17-4, O16, O22-O23, O33-O34. Scholarships were offered from these aided village schools to the Government schools in the New Territories, and from the Government schools in the New Territories to those in the City, although very few were taken up in the first few years.\n\nSee RJ Phillips, Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). A History, (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990), and Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, page R6, 1911, page R1. In 1911, the Sha Tau Kok light railway was opened only as far as Shek Chung Au. The extension of the light railway to Sha Tau Kok came in 1912.\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1910, pages P34-35, 1911, pages P40-41, 1912, page P51, 1913, pages 186-88, 1914, page P85-86, 1915, pages Q94-96, 1916, pages Q77-78, 1917, pages Q88-90, 1918, pages Q81-85, 1919, pages Q53-55, 1920, pages Q64-65, and 1927, pages Q77-78. A programme to build 6 to 8 feet wide footpaths/bridle paths had been begun in the New Territories in 1899. The footpath from Kowloon to Tai Po was completed in 1902, and that from Castle Peak Bay to Au Tau in 1911. The section from Au Tau to Fanling was completed (except for the bridge at Au Tau) by the end of 1914. No path was built between Castle Peak Bay and Sham Shui Po, or between Tai Po and Fanling in this period.\n\nThis footpath construction programme does not seem to have affected traditional village life significantly, although the District Officer felt the new footpaths had made the work of patrolling and administering the New Territories easier. However, the only specific use the District Office noted for the new footpaths, other than by Government officials, was by cattle drivers sending animals to the City for slaughter. The footpaths were \"justified by administrative and military needs” (the Orme Report, pages 30, 32-33, 36). The New Territories circular road was an upgrading of these earlier footpaths, where they existed, but included new construction where the earlier footpaths were lacking.\n\nPapers Land Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co., Government Printers, Hong Kong, No. 9, \"Extracts From Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor. Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong,\" p. 187, remarks that, in 1899, the steamers from Hong Kong to Macao called intermittently at Cheung Chau. The Orme Report, op. cit., mentions that steam ferries from Cheung Chau used to carry the fish catch to Hong Kong early in the morning (para 65). See also Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, page J12, 1915, page J9, 1916, page J12, 1919, page J12, 1922, page J12.\n\n1 Including the choice of Cheung Chau as a place to spend weekends and the summer by numbers of European families, mostly missionaries from Canton. This began in a very small way in 1912, but only became a major feature from 1918. In 1919, a “European reservation” was formed, and a small year-round resident European community with an Assembly Hall and a 10-hole golf-course had become established by 1921. Administrative Reports for the Year 1912, page J13, 1914, page J11, 1915, page J10, 1917, page J11, 1918, page J11, 1920, page J12, 1921, page J13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213879, "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-1996", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "205\n\ndifferent parts of China As the Manchu government was drumming up a \"commercial war\" between Chinese and foreign enterprises, overseas Chinese merchants were targeted by Beijing as a source of wealth for new industries.\n\nIn Hong Kong, the first groups of Hong Kong Chinese to respond to this reform were a group of newly returned migrants of Siyi and Xiangshan origins. They returned from America and Australia, where exclusion policies against Chinese immigrants had been implemented during the 1890s. Once settled in Hong Kong, they found themselves left outside the established leadership hierarchy in the colony (the Legislative Council-Tung Wah circle). They had to vest their interests in other institutions They looked northward and, immediately, they saw hope in China, where the late Qing reforms offered them ample chances for political and economic advancement. The Governor recalled with contempt the composition of the Siyi Chamber.\n\n[It is] composed of Californian and Australian coolies, artisans who though [they] could often talk fair English, could not write their names in any language\n\nThanks to this rhetoric of \"commercial war\", these overseas returned migrants penetrated into south China. They formed themselves into regional chambers of commerce and through which they raised capital for such large-scale investments as railways, public utilities and land reclamation in Guangdong. Among others, these enterprises included a Siyi Steamship Company, a Sunning (of Siyi) Railway Company and two companies, with respectively 500,000 and 580,000 silver taels in capital, for “port-building” against Portuguese Macao and British Hong Kong. With the approval of the Qing government, these two port-building companies initiated two large-scale port and market development schemes in Siyi and Xiangshan which were intended to recover benefits lost to Hong Kong and Macau. The channel that these merchants went through was the following, the chambers of commerce submitted petitions to the Commissioner of Industrial Promotion and thence to the Bureau of Commerce in Beijing\n\nConservative in design, this late Qing reform led to revolutionary consequences. Among these policies of centralization was Beijing's attempt to nationalize economic resources in the provinces. It was the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 } ]