RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v SO KON PO (M): NOTES FOR THE VISIT MADE BY MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, 26TH NOVEMBER 1983 The Hong Kong Government's Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (1960) describes the area as follows: "This locality is centred around the Government Stadium (KV101659) with a disused cemetery and a cottage resettlement area, known as Ching Man Tsuen or So Kon Po Resettlement Area (ER***H) on the slopes around that stadium. An adjoining locality, which includes several sports grounds and a large Government garage north of So Kon Po, is known as Caroline Hill." As will be seen from Revd. Carl Smith's notes (which follow), this notice gives no idea of the interesting history and development of So Kon Po. A small traditional rice-growing Chinese hamlet in 1841 its main livelihood extinguished by early British expropriation of its paddy fields, along with those of Wong Nai Chung village in the adjoining Happy Valley, to prevent sickness among the new settlers it later saw other farming ventures under different owners, and industrial ventures connected with Jardine Matheson's activities at East Point, close by. After a second take-over of private land by Government in the 1920s it experienced conversion to large scale recreational use, with the Government Stadium and several other recreational grounds and facilities. This covering note is, however, more concerned with other aspects of human activity in this still picturesque valley, for it contains a number of, by now, well established institutions. These exemplify the varied strands of Hong Kong's life, and the influences which have been brought to bear on our community over the years. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v The area is bounded to the east by King's Road, to the west by Leighton Road, to the north by Tung Lo Wan Road, and to the south by Caroline Hill Road and Cotton Path. A prospectus for the new company was issued in August 1897, with J. J. Bell-Irving of Jardines as Chairman of the Board and a capital of $1,200,000. The mill began operation on 1 June 1899 with 12,000 spindles, with an anticipated full capacity of about 50,000 spindles. The company, however, was plagued by set-backs. It closed at the end of 1910. After a time, it was revived only to be forced to close again permanently in 1914, when its machinery was removed to Shanghai and the land and buildings sold for $400,000. The purchasers were the French Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. The Order had come to Hong Kong in 1848 and located in Wanchai, where they opened the "Asile de Sainte Enfance" to receive abandoned children. As the years passed, the Wanchai location became increasingly undesirable. In 1908 the Sisters opened a Hospital in Wong Nei Chung valley. In 1914, when they bought the cotton mill premises, they converted some of the mill buildings for their own purposes and later built new and more adequate accommodation for a convent, St. Paul's Convent School, an orphanage, a hospital, and a church. The same year that Keswick transferred IL 1018 to the cotton mill, he conveyed the remaining part of the valley to Sir Robert Jardine. In time, the land came into the possession of the Government, which used it as sites for the Hong Kong Stadium, the South China Stadium, and a recreation ground. On the Caroline Hill side of the valley was a large Chinese cemetery. Gravestones and other reminders of the cemetery can still be found among the trees and underbrush. Five trustees for the Japanese Community acquired a site in So Kon Po Valley in 1911 (Inland Lot 1879). The trustees transferred the site to the Japanese Benevolent Society in 1918. In 1920, the Benevolent Society was merged with the Japanese Education Society to form the Japanese Residents Association. A plot plan of the lot shows buildings that appear to be a temple. The lot is probably the same as that now occupied by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association School. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 219 and not the mists rising from the swampy areas. Though the cause of the fever had not been identified properly, the drainage of the valley was a way to remove it. If the valley was to be drained it meant that the rice growing must stop. For generations the valley had been cultivated by the Ng and Yip families. They lived in the village at the head of the valley. Their village and that of the Chau family at Little Hongkong near Aberdeen were the oldest agricultural settlements on the Island. Over the years the villagers had built up some resistance to malaria, but the newly-arrived Europeans were easy victims. To safeguard the health of the foreigner the villagers were told they must give up their ancestral fields. The Government notified them of this in March 1844. To justify this expenditure when the British Government was begrudging every penny spent on Hongkong unless it was for military purposes, the Governor informed the Secretary of State for the Colonies that it was expedient to drain the valley, "as its vicinity to the town, and the natural advantage of this spot make it not only desirable as a residence, but likewise as a place of recreation for the inhabitants." Its use for recreation is still of great importance. The air of death still lingers, however. The hillsides to the west of the valley were laid out as cemeteries for the Moslem, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Parsee communities. Behind the village of Wongneichong, near the present stables of the Jockey Club, was the Jewish Cemetery, and on Caroline Hill to the east was a very large Chinese cemetery. In 1844, the major improvements proposed were the raising of the level of the lower portions of the valley which were covered with water at high tide, enlarging the course of the stream which flowed through the valley and digging suitable ditches to facilitate drainage. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 250 burial ground. Inland Lot 899, on the east by the Pokfulam Road, and West by Cliff facing the Sea, measuring on the North, 4,800 feet, South-West, 3,500 feet, West, 5,100 feet. 69 CAROLINE HILL. Situated on the South side of the Caroline Hill Road and to the South of Caroline Hill, bordered on the North by a Public Road, 400 feet, South, 612 feet, East, 1,275 feet, West, 1,100 feet. In the 1890s, a Eurasian cemetery, generally known as Ho Tung Cemetery before the Second World War and later renamed 'Chiu Yuen Cemetery,' was erected in Mount Davis, with the first grave dated to December 1892.70 The Plague Cemeteries and Trenches The first outbreak of bubonic plague in Hong Kong occurred in May 1894. In less than a month, more than two thousand persons had died. On 6 June, Father Piazzoli, the pro-vicar, wrote: The plague is spreading rapidly with 100 dead each day, though only a section of the Chinese city is infected. The tragedy is terrible. There are streets completely empty: it is estimated that about 40 thousand Chinese have left the island. The harbour too is deserted, the large ships sail at large; the trade is dead and the most horrible misery is growing..." From 1896 on, the plague became almost an annual recurrence. Over the period 1894-1901, about 8,600 people succumbed to the disease.72 Two plague cemeteries were designated at Kennedy Town and Cheung Sha Wan in 1901.74 In addition, a section of ‘Kau Pui Loong Cemetery' (see below) was also referred to as 'Plague Trench'75 (疫症); which was also the case of 'Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery' (also see below).76 Indian / Hindu Cemeteries in Kowloon In 1900, a Hindu Cemetery was authorized in Kowloon, this might have been the result of the plague, as many Indian troops were among the victims of this epidemic disease. This Hindu Cemetery was described as: Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 261 Chinese Christian Cemetery Pokfulam 1882 Kaulung Cemetery Ma Tau Wai 1885 Later renamed Ma Tau Wai Cemetery, removal of graves ordered 1925. Shaukiwan Cemetery Chai Wan 1885 Sheko Cemetery Shek O 1885 Closed 1926. Stanley Cemetery Stanley 1885 Removal of graves ordered 1933. Aberdeen Cemetery Hindu Cemetery Aberdeen 1885 Happy Valley First graves: 1888 Mount Davis Chinese Cemetery Mount Davis 1891 Removal of all graves and urns ordered 1949. Caroline Hill Cemetery *Chiu Yuen Cemetery Caroline Hill 1891 Pokfulam Earliest graves: 1892. Plague Cemetery Town 1901 Plague Cemetery Cheung Sha Wan 1901 Hindu Cemetery King's Park 1900 Indian Cemetery Ho Man Tin Closed 1927. Details not known. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam 1903 Renamed New Kowloon Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery Po Kong Po Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam Po Kong *Chinese Christian Cemetery (New Kowloon Cemetery No.1) Sham Shui Po Cemetery Kowloon City 1904 Cemetery No.4 1930. Details not known. Closed in 1903. Details not known. Sham Shui Po 1904 Kowloon Tong Cemetery Tai Hang Tung Christian Chinese Cemetery, Kowloon Tong Tai Hang Tung Kai Lung Wan Cemetery Pokfulam 1907 Tseung Loong Tin Removal of graves ordered 1923. In existence 1920. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1949. Early history not known. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1950. Early history not known. A plot of land had been in use as cemetery prior to 1907. Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery Fukienese Cemetery Cha Kwo Ling 1907 Pokfulam 1907 Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Lo Fu Ngam 1912 Adjacent to Sai Yu Shek ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 275 11-4 THE CHINESE CEMETERIES QUESTION, The China Mail, 12th July 1901. Lau was listed after Ho Kai and Wei Yuk in the Board, see Arnold Wright (ed) (1990), 20TH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF HONG KONG, Singapore: Graham Brash, p. 174. (The book was first published in 1908.) us The Hongkong Weekly Press and China Overland Trade Report, 17 April 1909. 116 HKGG Notice 229 of 25 July 1913. The rules and regulations of the cemetery are given in the same notice. This may partly be due to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. 18 Davis, S.G. (1949). HONG KONG IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING. London: Collins, p. 96. 119 HKGG Notification 12 of 20th January 1911. 120 The first Japanese burial in the Colonial Cemetery was a young second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army who died in Hong Kong in 1878 while on the way back to Japan. His grave lies in §27 section in the cemetery. 121 A small number of Japanese were buried at Caroline Hill Cemetery, whose remains were later reinterred in the Colonial Cemetery, when former was cleared. 122 Between 1878-1945, there were about 465 Japanese buried in the Colonial Cemetery. For details of the Japanese burials, see £#✯ (1988), #* • * 人基地一船員墓碑中心,港日關係之回顧與前瞻,香港日本文化協會二十五週年紀念特集,香港:香港日本文化協會,pp.132-141.(The article was originally written in 1973 when the author was posted to the Japanese Consulate General in Hong Kong.) Also see a local Japanese newspaper, WEEKLY HONG KONG, 5 October 2000, p. 7. 123 A highly interesting article on the subject, titled THE EXHILARATING TOPIC OF GRAVES', can be found in The Hongkong Telegraph, 10th November 1909, p. 4. It was also reported and discussed in The Hongkong Weekly Press and China Overland Trade Report, 20th February 1909, p. 142 and 17th April 1909, pp. 311-312. 124 Hong Kong Hansard 1909, pp. 168-169. ================================================================================