RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
CHINESE VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITIES AND THE KAIFONGS IN HONG KONG

ALINE K. WONG*

VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS IN OVERSEAS CHINESE COMMUNITIES

There are many kinds of voluntary organizations among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, such as chambers of commerce, clan associations, district and dialect associations, trade unions, religious societies, secret societies, political clubs and recreational clubs. However, in terms of contribution to the public life of the Chinese communities, three types of organizations, viz., the chambers of commerce, the district and dialect associations are more important than the rest. District and dialect groups are always closely connected; it is difficult to speak of one apart from the other. And in some cases, the chambers of commerce are in fact federations of local district associations.

Well-known literature on the Chinese voluntary associations in this part of the world includes such works by William Skinner1 and Richard Coughlin on Thailand, Maurice Freedman3 on Singapore, Victor Purcell on Malaya, Ju-k’ang T’ien5 on Sarawak, Donald Willmott on Semarang and Lea Williams on Indonesia. Examining this wealth of literature, one finds that the chambers of commerce, the district and dialect associations serve three main kinds of functions; namely, economic, social and political. While the chambers of commerce are manifestly merchants’

* Mrs. Wong is head of the Department of Sociology at United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. This paper was contributed to a conference on "The City as a Centre of Change in Asia" organised by the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong in June, 1969.

1 Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, 1958.

2 Double Identity. The Chinese in Modern Thailand, Hong Kong, 1960.

3 Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, 1957.

4 The Chinese in Malaya, London, 1948; The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1965.

5 The Chinese of Sarawak, London, 1953.

6 Chinese of Semarang, Ithaca, 1960.

7 Overseas Chinese Nationalism, Glencoe, 1960; The Future of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, 1966.
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Implicit in the actions of the nationalist group was the desire to prove the superiority of its political stripe by winning greater gains for its constituents. Capital may indeed have been receptive to nationalist attempts to upstage the Communist rival.

Despite its divisions, organized labor had signalled the end of what had been an era of relative industrial peace during the 1950's. Not to be caught unawares in the future, the art carved furniture shop and factory proprietors organized the Art Carved Furniture and Camphorwood Chests Merchants Association as the bargaining agent for capital within the year. When the next strike occurred in the industry in 1964, the merchants were prepared to take full advantage of both the traditional as well as political divisions within the ranks of their workers. As the strike of 1964 dragged into its second month, the Merchants' Association succeeded in wooing a group of painters away from the main body of striking workers and concluded an agreement with them which successfully broke the back of the strike. Next, they were able to isolate the Communist Woodwork Carvers' Union by continuing negotiations with the nationalist unions after their workers had returned to work. The Woodwork Carvers' Union never came to formal terms in 1964, claiming in the local press that it had succeeded in exacting more favorable terms for its members from individual employers.

The center stage of the 1964 dispute was clearly occupied by the Merchants' Association in its manoeuverings and dealings with separate groups of its divided labor force. The merchants were waxing strong as power-driven machinery had by that time been introduced into production, increasing the capital required to operate competitively in the industry, widening the income gulf between worker and boss and increasingly alienating the workers from the tools of their trade. Labor's position was still being undermined by the persistence of a labor force divided along craft occupational lines, although politics had by now been established as the dominant divisive factor.

Another work stoppage occurred in 1967 when communist workers answered the call for a general strike put forward by the communist Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the umbrella labor organization charged with implementing the Maoist political line radiating from Peking at the local Hong Kong level. The call for a general strike and the large-scale rioting which precipitated
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
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it were triggered initially by a lockout at a plastic flowers factory in Kowloon and fanned by some arbitrary police action taken against demonstrating workers and students. Anti-colonial demonstrations occurred and anti-British sentiment ran high, fueled by stepped up anti-imperialist propaganda radiating from the mainland then in the midst of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. While most carved wood furniture factory and shop proprietors were unlikely targets for anti-imperialist attack, the Woodwork Carvers' Union seems to have taken advantage of the widespread unrest to extract a wage increase from the Merchants' Association at the time.

One school of thought (with its locus in the Far Eastern Economic Review) maintains that the Peking government was dissatisfied with its compatriots' handling of the 1967 disturbances and called a halt thereafter to revolutionary activity in the Crown Colony. While these claims are difficult to substantiate with any certainty, it is widely admitted in the Hong Kong pro-communist community that Peking was desirous of a stable situation in post-1967 Hong Kong so that it could actively pursue, from its viewpoint, more pressing diplomatic questions like its entry into the United Nations and the liberation of Taiwan.

"Hong Kong is a historical problem that will be solved at the appropriate time" goes the refrain. The Hong Kong "problem" does not have the status of a "principle contradiction" for the People's Republic. Hong Kong continues to remain valuable to the Communist government in terms of the significant amounts of foreign exchange which China earns by marketing its products in and through the port, and also as a place in which trade and diplomatic contacts are still pursued. While such functions may decline as China continues to open up diplomatically and economically, they are still a factor in Hong Kong's historical viability as a colony.

In any event, in the post-1967 period, industrial peace in Hong Kong was the common desire of the British colonial government and the communist government in Peking. This led to the assumption on the part of the communist Federation of Trade Unions of some rather odd poses in the local adaptation of Mao Tse-tung thought to the Hong Kong scene.

This was particularly so in so far as the implementation of Mao's thought has entailed a disciplined adherence to a policy of delayed
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gratification, in which workers are asked to temper their revolutionary fervor in deference to the policy commitments and requirements of the Peking government, whose immediate goals do not always coincide neatly with Hong Kong workers' needs.

During my stay in Hong Kong* a group of women wig workers walked off their jobs for higher wages and were determined to see their demands met. As the strike dragged on, the Federation of Trade Unions counseled compromise, but the women would have none of it. Nor would they be put off by calls to a greater patriotism. They wanted theirs on the spot, and while the wig industry very soon shut down due to a collapse in the international market, the incident does show how the Federation of Trade Unions sometimes ends up with egg on its face in attempting to adapt the Maoist line to local Hong Kong conditions.

I believe, however, that the Federation's control over its constituent unions tends to be somewhat tighter than in the above case, although it is virtually impossible to ascertain just how much so. It is probable that when an affiliated union decides to make a wage demand, it must be cleared with the Federation; which means the demand is evaluated not only in terms of the workers' immediate needs, such as coping with a rising cost of living, but also in terms of the effects any increase might have on the political situation vis-à-vis the British and vis-à-vis the Peking government and its relations with the British. In the art carved furniture industry these effects are not likely to be as great as they might be in textiles, plastics or electronics which are the mainstays of Hong Kong's prosperity, or in public utilities; but still, all in all, one gets the impression that unions like the Woodwork Carvers' Union must toe the line in their plans for industrial action.

This is not to say that the union is totally paralyzed by or gets no benefit from its affiliation with the Federation. It is a willing partner. During strikes, the Federation comes to the union's aid with strike pay, food, meeting space and resources, the likes of which a small union like the Woodwork Carvers' Union could probably never muster on its own. In addition, the Federation encourages a unity and camaraderie with workers in other affiliated unions that promotes class consciousness among the workers and

* A reference to Dr. Cooper's post-graduate work here in 1972-73.

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also keeps them closely informed of events on the Mainland. Membership in an affiliated union may also facilitate return trips to one's native village in China during New Years and at other times as well, since the Federation provides a link up with Chinese representatives and bureaucracy in Hong Kong.

The contradiction between the interest of the Hong Kong worker in his own material well being, and the requirement that he subordinate his immediate interests to the long run national interests of Peking, has surely not made life easy for the constituent unions of the pro-communist Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions in their organizing efforts in the post-war Hong Kong setting.

Nevertheless, in more recent years, as Peking pursued the resolution of what it took to be "principle contradictions", namely admission to the U.N. and the liberation of Taiwan, developments in Hong Kong tended to bear out the appropriateness of their strategy. In 1971, when the Peking government displaced the Taiwan government as the sole legitimate representative of the Chinese people at the United Nations, the political influence that Peking was able to exercise in the political balance of Hong Kong grew enormously at the expense of the Nationalists. Organs of Peking power like the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions gained an enormous legitimacy in the new aura that came to surround the Peking government. Allegiance to the People's Republic, long an obstacle to effective organizing among Hong Kong's largely political-refugee population, became somewhat more of an asset for groups like the Woodwork Carvers' Union. 1971 marked a turning point in the fortunes of their organizing. Indeed one could argue that the relegation of the "Hong Kong problem" to the status of a secondary contradiction made a great deal of sense, as the political balance tipped noticeably in favor of the Peking government after 1971 with the resolution of a higher order contradiction, i.e. the seating of the Peking government at the U.N.

These developments have helped the Woodwork Carvers' Union immeasurably in its attempt to organize an increasingly proletarianized work force according to principles consistent with Maoist ideology, although the apparent contradiction between genuinely class oriented, as opposed to nation oriented, loyalties and its peculiar configuration in Hong Kong remains.
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instilling old social forms with new revolutionary content, making them serve new purposes.

The current premises of the union are in an apartment block in Tokwawan in Kowloon. They occupy a flat decorated with Communist slogans and a picture of Chairman Mao Tse-tung flanked by two Chinese flags. The Federation of Trade Unions runs a small school for children of "patriotic" workers in the union headquarters, although the children are not generally those of art-carved furniture workers. The union premises are seldom used by the workers before the evening as they are all off working; thus the flat was made available to the Federation for the operation of the school. Curricular and extra-curricular activities are structured around revolutionary and pro-Peking themes with texts and reading materials published in Peking. Shortly before my departure from Hong Kong this school was discontinued and the teacher, a middle school graduate, went to work in a factory.

Other Federation affiliated unions have also used the union's premises for meetings and other activities such as preparing for the celebrations of October 1, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The premises are, however, under the control of the Woodwork Carvers' Union, and it is my impression that any such use of their premises by affiliated Federation unions must be agreed to by them.

The flat serves as a place where workers without means to afford a private apartment in Hong Kong's over-inflated real estate market, and without family in Hong Kong to take care of them, may sleep at night. However, one must be prepared to put up with the regulations, which include lights out and lock up at 11:00 p.m. One worker friend of mine, forced by circumstances to stay temporarily at the union, had a serious falling out with the union because of these regulations. Nevertheless, during the year that I was acquainted with the union, two or three workers made the union premises their more or less permanent dwelling place. There were no bunk beds in the Woodwork Carvers' Union premises, although I observed them built into the walls of other union halls I visited in Hong Kong. Workers just unrolled their bed-rolls across boards which had been laid across the students' desks.

Once every week or two these same desks were pulled together to form a long table and the officers and activists in the union
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593
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would hold a meeting. Attendance usually ran upwards of twenty people and various items of business to which the union had to see were dealt with, such as: a response to a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions of the Hong Kong government; preparations for the October 1st celebration; discussion of the wage raise to be demanded and ultimately attained in 1973, planning of a picnic which was to take place on the birthday of the historic founder of the carpentry and carving trades, Lupan (discussed below), etc.

On occasion a representative from the Federation of Trade Unions would sit in on a meeting to see how the union was doing, bringing with him or her news of significance to the labor movement in general for workers to discuss, and these discussions were usually fairly lively, most participants doing their best to give a favorable impression of the workings of their union.

Once a month the union receives copies of a Federation of Trade Union newspaper entitled Hong Kong Worker (*1st) in which various sorts of articles concerning the working class in Hong Kong appear. There are also articles about China, explanations of current policy initiatives, sports news, a regular women's column and political cartoons as well. On March 29, 1973 I was invited to sit in on a discussion of the articles in the latest issue. The headline article concerned the death of several construction workers who had fallen from scaffolding during the construction of the new Connaught Center Building on Hong Kong island. A free-ranging discussion followed the reading aloud of the article, with those workers who could read with facility taking turns reading successive paragraphs. Industrial safety and industrial accidents in Hong Kong were the main topic of the discussion and the question of how this topic applied to workers in the art carved furniture industry was raised and discussed as well. Lest one think the extrapolation to the furniture industry a bit strained, Labor Department figures for industrial accidents for the first four months of 1973 "were the worst in Hong Kong's history, with an average of one death and 70 injuries every day" (Hong Kong Standard, June 29, 1973).

A high degree of class identity was expressed by the workers during the discussion and the question of industrial safety linked to relations between workers and capitalists, the drive for profit, lack of concern for workers' welfare, etc. The sessions occur on a regular
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
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basis coinciding with the monthly publication of Hong Kong Worker and were known as "discussions of our livelihood”. On June 29, 1973, a similar discussion occurred, this one concerning developments in Shansi province, printed and sent around in a circular by the Federation of Trade Unions. The article was also read aloud paragraph by paragraph, but the discussion was not as lengthy as that which accompanied the reading of Hong Kong Worker. The event seemed designed to promote national consciousness as opposed to class consciousness, and the news did not seem to so directly affect the lives of the art carved furniture workers as the articles in Hong Kong Worker,

On any given weekday evening at union headquarters, there may be three or four Chinese chess games in progress with a number of persons standing around giving advice on which pieces to move. Anyone near enough to give advice to one or another of the players usually does, and any given game serves as a focus for endless voicing and countervoicing of opinion as to what constitutes the right move. There is also a chance that when one enters the union premises there may be a game of bumper checker pool in progress, involving four participants and a great ruckus about the board. One may be teased to within an inch of one's life for a poorly executed shot.

Mah jong is significantly absent as a diversion at Union premises, although it is played regularly at union halls not affiliated with the pro-communist Federation of Trade Unions. It would not, however, be true to say that many pro-communist union members never play the game.

Union representatives come in from time to time with dues they have collected in their particular geographical area, laying the money and receipts before the treasurer who enters the transactions carefully into the books. The representative may also pick up the latest copy of China Pictorial or China Reconstructs to distribute to the union members in his area. He keeps a careful checklist of who's received one every month. Sometimes a union representative will bring an application form from a worker who has just joined the union, together with three pictures, one of which is pasted in a huge membership book along with a great deal of personal data, name, place of origin, age, date of first registration, address, etc., another affixed to a small certificate of membership, and a third
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thoughts of the younger worker actually were on the matter, it was apparent that the older fellow eventually carried the day. His younger colleague eventually joined the union. Nor would he have done so simply on a whim. Association with a communist cause is not something casually assumed in the Hong Kong context. The episode shows clearly how the membership drive in progress was implemented at the factory level.

In the foregoing, one gets a feel for the role of the Woodwork Carvers' Union both as a carrier of a proletarian message and as an agent of Peking policy. Its close association with the Federation of Trade Unions is also highlighted. The union premises are the site of meetings of various kinds, political discussions and planning sessions all of which are oriented in one way or another toward the promotion and consolidation of a unified class conscious labor force, with the Peking government the object of its members' patriotism.

The use of the union premises as a center of recreation, the provision of board to its indigent members, the linkup with Communist Chinese bureaucracies like China Travel Service, are all examples of ways in which the union can cater to its members' needs.

The operation of a school in the union hall is particularly noteworthy. Traditional Chinese guilds often provided charitable services to their members, such as medical care, proper burials and relief to workers during periods of unemployment. It was not unusual for guilds to establish schools for children of their members (Gamble, 1921: 198) so that they might be able to better themselves, or more properly, the fortunes of their families. In this sense, the use of the Woodwork Carvers' Union premises as a site for the operation of a small primary school may be seen as a significant continuity with traditional guild practice. With curriculum updated in political content, and text and reading materials from the Mainland, the small patriotic school in the union premises turns our attention to the ways in which the union has adapted the practices of traditional guilds to the contemporary scene and incorporated them into its organizational repertoire.

There are two other occasions which are of special interest in highlighting this process. The first is the Woodwork Carvers' Union
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annual membership meeting. I had occasion to be present at such a meeting in May 1973, the proceedings of which deserve description.

The program began with an address by the Chairman of the union, a Shanghainese who has been the chairman for many years. He addressed the assembly of 7-800 people, workers, their wives and children, standing before a portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, and his speech stressed the accomplishments of the Chinese nation in the recent past. He also touched on the skyrocketing cost of living in Hong Kong at present, a theme dwelt upon again and again during the evening.

Next on the program occurred the swearing in of new officers, who were called out on stage, one by one, turned to face the portrait of Chairman Mao and the Chinese flags and recited "Serve the People" in union. There are twelve officers and another seven members of the executive committee. Both the Chairman and Vice Chairman have apparently served more than ten years, and the yearly election, which precedes the annual meeting seems to return the same officers year after year with a few jugglings among the less important officers.

An address by an official of the Federation of Trade Unions was next on the program. An elderly man, his voice didn't carry and his words were barely intelligible. Background noise from the huge fans, as well as the constant hum of conversation of friends in the audience didn't help much.

The most important speaker of the evening was the organization secretary, whose speech was clear and concise and who held the audience with his speaking power. He stated that prices, rents and living expenses were so high that an increase in wages was now necessary. Their demand was to be a H.K.$5/day increase in daily wages and a 25% increase in piece wages. Apparently, contacts had been made with the nationalist Camphorwood Trunk Workers Union to inform them of the wage demands so that if they too were going to push for wage increases in 1973, the right hand would know what the left was doing, so to speak.

The organization secretary's speech was followed in the program rather anticlimactically by the poor vice-chairman, who had a hard time following his colleague's act. There was not very much he could add either in content or eloquence of presentation.
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