RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d
CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS

11

for 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.

Thus 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.

As 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
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g
CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG

109

While 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.

When 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
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h
82

HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE

It is an interesting comment on Johnston that he visited England only twice in twenty-eight years of residence in China. See Johnston's obituary in the Times of 8 March, 1938.

37 R. F. Johnston's, Twilight in the Forbidden City, London, 1934, describes his experiences as an Imperial tutor.

38 Much information on Johnston's experiences as District Officer and Magistrate are given in his book, Lion and Dragon in Northern China.

39 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1921, p. 3.

40 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1903, p. 5. From time to time the Magistrate's office issued proclamations in Chinese, notifying the people of the wishes of the Government. All the villages of the Territory were provided with large notice boards on which such proclamations were posted. The style of governing in Weihaiwei owed much to Chinese example.

41 Annual Report on Weihaiwei for 1904, p. 26. The statement is taken from Johnston's 'Report of the Secretary to Government for the Year 1904'. This is a most interesting report on Chinese society in Weihaiwei,

42 The China Review was founded in 1872 by N. B. Dennys. The publication terminated with vol. xxv, 1901. It was published bi-monthly.

43 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1937, pp. 391-3.

44 In his obituary notice of E. H. Parker, E. T. C. Werner wrote: "The editor's request to write this notice puts me in a rather awkward position, for I cannot but refer to the very great amount of valuable sinological work which has been done by members of the British Consular Service in China. Considering its relatively small size, the Service has produced proportionately more brilliant sinologists than any body connected with the Far East.” See Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (henceforth cited as JNCBRAS), vol. lvii, 1926, p. vi.

45 Sir Cecil Clementi (1875-1947). Educated at Oxford. Hong Kong cadet in 1899. Governor of Hong Kong 1925-30. He published, among other books, The Chinese in British Guiana, Georgetown, 1915, Cantonese Love-Songs, Oxford, 1904, and Summary of Geographical Observations taken during a Journey from Kashgar to Kowloon, 1907-8, Hong Kong, 1911.

46 Lockhart's interest in the Chinese language is recognised in the dedication to him of Mok Man-cheung's Tah Tsz Anglo-Chinese Dictionary, 2nd edition (Chinese foreword dated 9th October, 1914). Mok had served in the Registrar-General's department with Lockhart, and moved to the Supreme Court as an interpreter in 1891. See also note 71 below.

47 China Review, vol. xxi, 1892/93, p. 405.

48 Vols. xx to xxii. The disputants included E. J. Eitel, E. H. Parker, E. D. H. Fraser, H. A. Giles, and Lockhart. The first edition of Lockhart's book was dedicated to Dr. John Chalmers, the distinguished sinologue, and the second to Dr. James Legge as well. Lockhart spoke of them as 'two famous Aberdonians'.

49 China Review, vol. xxi, 1892/93, p. 412.

50 China Review, vol. xxii, 1893/94, p. 547,

51 T'oung Pao, vol. viii, 1897, pp. 412-430.

52 Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. 6, 1930-32, p. 812.

53 Chinese Recorder, Sept. 1903, p. 464.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
NOTES AND QUERIES 

229 

the building was blessed. There were then 540 pupils in fourteen classes. The first matriculation class was formed in 1933.

With the beginning of the European War in 1939, the Government interned enemy aliens on the College premises. The Japanese used it as a hospital. The Brothers re-occupied the buildings after the liberation of Hong Kong, but from 1949 the British Army took it over for use as a hospital. During these periods the College was housed in temporary quarters.

Today the school is under the direction of Brother Raphael Egan. There is a student body of some 1,500, the greater majority being Chinese, though there is still in the student body a number of Portuguese boys. They continue the contribution this part of Hong Kong's population has made to the history of the school.

Other Schools in the Area

North of Boundary Street between Waterloo Road and La Salle Road is Oxford Road. In one block there are six Middle Schools: Pui Shing Middle School, Tung Wah Hospital No. 1 College, Ying Wa College, Moral Training English School, Jockey Club Government Technical School, and Bishop Hall Jubilee School. Maryknoll Convent School opened in 1936 is nearby at the corner of Boundary Street and Waterloo Road.

Of these schools, three have roots in Hong Kong's early history. While the association of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club with education through financial support is of recent origin, the Race Meets were a prominent feature of Hong Kong life from early days.

Ying Wa College continues the tradition of the Anglo-Chinese College established by the missionaries Robert Morrison and William Milne at Malacca in 1819. In 1843 it was moved to Hong Kong by the Rev. James Legge. The school was closed in 1856. It had been organised and conducted by representatives of the London Missionary Society. In 1914 the Society opened a school in Kowloon bearing the Chinese version of the English name, of their former school: Ying Wah, that is 'Anglo-Chinese'.

The Tung Wah No. 1 College opened in 1962 is a part of Tung Wah Hospital efforts to provide education for under-privileged children. This programme began in 1880 when a Free Primary School was opened in the Chung Wah College premises adjoining the Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road. A school under the direction of the Temple Committee had been operated on these premises for many years previous. A lot had been granted by
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q
268

NOTES AND QUERIES

in its power to promote harmony and to co-operate cordially with him.

The result of the Governor's notice was a general meeting called by the Tung Wah Committee to sanction appointment of a Chinese trained in western medicine. The representatives of the Kaifong had been invited to the meeting but none attended. The Committee felt it should not make a final decision until there was some agreement from the Kaifong, they therefore adjourned the meeting for a week. This did not please the Governor who wanted immediate action. He was in no mood to countenance stalling tactics. Fortunately there was a representation from the Kaifong at the next general meeting to consider the question. It was agreed that Dr. Chung King-u, a graduate of Viceroy Li's Imperial Medical College at Tientsin be appointed as a resident doctor, thus meeting the requirement of the Governor that there be a medical officer trained in western practice on duty for those who wished to avail themselves of his services. The Hospital Committee anticipated a reaction from the Kaifong to this appointment, hence one of the Directors moved that the proceedings be entered into the record "so Kaifong people could not complain afterward". Then on behalf of the Kaifong people Mr. Fung Wa-chuen thanked the Directors. All seemingly ended in peace.

Gradually through the succeeding years more and more Western medical practices were introduced into the hospital routine. The transition has not been without tension and controversy but today, in every respect, Tung Wah is recognized as a modern, well-equipped medical institution.

The series of traditional Chinese medical books on display in the Museum are reminders of the many years when patients were treated according to methods stemming from centuries of medical tradition in China. The facilities and equipment of the Hospital today represent the latest advances in modern medical science.

Tung Wah and Education

Tung Wah's direct interest in education began in 1880 when the Hospital Committee assumed responsibility for the management of the Chung Wah school which was attached to the Man Mo Temple. This appears to have been a natural result of the Hospital Committee's gradual assumption of the affairs of the Temple. This informal amalgamation of Temple and Hospital affairs was due to
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q
NOTES AND QUERIES 

269 

the overlapping of Committee members for the two institutions. By 1908 eight such schools attached to temples were managed by the Hospital Committee. When in that year the Ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council vesting the property of the Man Mo Temple in the Tung Wah Hospital, the schools became a legally recognized part of the Hospital's activity and responsibility. 

After the establishment of Kwong Wah Hospital it likewise assumed charge of the school attached to the Tin Hau Temple on the Public Square at Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. 

All of these schools were free schools for the poor. They provided a traditional Chinese basic primary education. With the gradual introduction of modern educational methods and text books into China, the schools operated by Tung Wah also changed, and eventually middle school education was offered. Tung Wah's contribution to education merits detailed study since it will shed useful light on the general history of education in Hong Kong. 

Religious aspects of Tung Wah 

From its foundation Tung Wah explicitly stated that it was not a religious institution, but on the other hand it had its religious aspect. This is in keeping with the fact that most areas of Chinese life are reinforced by some kind of transcendent authority. Or as it is expressed in the General Rules of the Hospital, "Chinese in their custom generally respect spirits". The Rules then proceed to state that patients expect the protection of spirits, and that hospital servants are made dutiful through fear of the spirits. 

Most trade and business guilds have a patron deity. As a medical institution Tung Wah gave place of honour to the patron of medicine. To honour him the Regulations of the Hospital contained the following provision: 

+ 

No image 

All members of all ranks in the Hospital shall be present in the Grand Hall between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. on the 1st and 15th day of each month to worship the Patron Saint (Shen Nung), so as to show that they are pure, upright and honest. An image of him will be kept, and we shall only write and post up his title to show that we respect him as if he were there.* The meeting Hall of the Hospital was built along the traditional lines of a Chinese Temple, as witness the building we are visiting today. There was a central hall containing an altar table with 

* One Hundred Years of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals 1870-1970, Vol. 1, p.12, Rules 11 and 12.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
68

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS

only the masonry shell of a building stood, mute witness to the horrors of war. Whenever a building was left untenanted, it suffered this same fate. The area around St. Paul's Hospital was pretty badly scarred, and the Hospital itself received many direct shell hits. A few Jesuits and some Salesians were kept prisoners for a while close to the Hospital, but were released after a few days. While engaged in driving an ambulance in the city, one of the Christian Brothers, Brother Peter, was killed; otherwise, the clergy and religious of Hong Kong were uninjured, though I believe Father Tournier, Assistant French Procurator, was slightly wounded. One shell hit the Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon, and though the Sisters had a trying time, they were unmolested.

After the armistice, the Japanese began immediately collecting all vehicles, cars and trucks. Along the road at Stanley, on our return from the garage, we saw a number of trucks and cars on the road, either having been damaged by machine-gun fire, or abandoned by their drivers. These were all towed into town, in many cases by British army trucks which had been captured, and hundreds and perhaps thousands of cars, trucks and buses were corraled on the Happy Valley and Deep Water Bay recreation grounds. It is also thought that the Japanese took many of these vehicles to Japan, as it is reported that they took food supplies out of the Colony to Japan.

Gradually, a few bus lines were started up, as was a ferry or two to Kowloon, but the only cars on the road were Japanese trucks and official cars. All business was at a standstill; shops and department stores were closed and boarded up; what business there was, was done by hawkers on the streets. All foreign enemy property was promptly taken over by the Japanese and strips of wood with Chinese characters painted or stenciled on them bore the motto: "Imperial Japanese Government Property." Our house at Stanley was likewise placarded and Father Troesch was appointed guardian for the Japanese Government.

The French Fathers at Pokfulam were treated rather roughly, and were kept in a small room for several days, while their buildings were ransacked and looted. The Christian Brothers' College suffered the same fate, even though they were of mixed nationality and their head an Irishman. The Jesuits lost Ricci Hall but managed to keep Wah Yan College and the Seminary at Aberdeen. The beautiful French Procure was finally confiscated and the Fathers had to move
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
The Tung Chung Fort

NOTES AND QUERIES

Tung Chung15 is a valley which lies on the north coast of Lantau Island. It is surrounded by hills on three sides,16 facing the sea on the north. The valley is well-drained by streams, giving fertile farmlands to the people. A century or so ago, there was a walled area, called the Tung Chung Walled City; and a fort which guarded the coast, the Shek She Fort A6.

The Tung Chung Walled City was erected between the Sheung Ling Pei village #17 and the Ha Ling Pei village 下嶺皮村 T## 18. During the early years of K'ang Hsi period, there was only the Tung Chung Shuen (post)✯✯ under a Tsin Tsung +(or lieutenant) of the Tai Pang Battalion 19. However, the post was quite isolated, and it was far from Tai O where there was the Tai Yue Shan Shuen 大嶼山汎20.

After the surrender of Cheung Po-tsai in the 15th year of the Chia Ch'ing reign2, foreign intercourse and influence increased; and fortifications along the coast were strengthened. In the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign (1817), the Tung Chung Walled City and the Shek She Fort were erected 22.

The Walled City and the Fort remained strongholds on the island until 1898, when the New Territories were leased to the British. Then the Walled City was used as the Police Station and later as the Wah Ying School **** during the Second World War.23 It is now the site of the Tung Chung Rural Committee's office and the Tung Chung Public Primary School.

The Walled City measures 225 feet by 265 feet. It is backed by the Tai Tung Shan. It has three rubble walls: its front wall is about 15 feet thick. The building stone of the walls came from Chik Lap Kok Island.24

The Walled City has three gateways: The East Gate was called Chip Sau ✩✩, the West Gate was called Luen Kun, and the Main Gate, Kung Sun. The East and West Gates are now blocked by bricks, and the main gate is used as the entrance to the Rural Committee and the Public School.

Inside the Walled City, there is a playground. Behind the playground, there are two old houses, which are the remains of the guardhouses built during the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign.25 These houses are now used as the office of the Tung Chung Rural Committee.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v
of the charitable work done by the Kadoorie family in this field. A cheque for $500 was sent in appreciation to Mr. Horace Kadoorie on behalf of the Society.

K

26th November 1983 about 35 members took part in a visit to the Soo Kon Poo district of Hong Kong Island where we visited the Buddhist Memorial to victims of the Race Course fire in 1918, the Tung Wah Eastern Hospital and the Confucian Middle School.

December 1983 and March 1984 - two separate groups of members visited the Narcotics Museum of the Narcotics Bureau, RHKP, in Police Headquarters, Arsenal Street, under the kind arrangements of Mr. K. W. J. Lloyd, Chief Inspector of Police.

28th January 1984 about 70 members went by boat to the Ch'ing Dynasty fort on Tung Lung Island, and passed by the Tin Hau Temple at Fat Tong Mun and the former Chinese customs station at Junk Island on the return journey.

Lectures

29th March 1983 Mr. Nigel Cameron, the author and art critic, gave an interesting illustrated talk on "Hong Kong Art: the Quiet Revolution".

14th April 1983 — Ms Elizabeth Sinn of the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong spoke about "The Strike and Riot, Hong Kong 1884", an interesting local side effect of the Sino-French war over Vietnam.

25th April 1983 Professor Daffyd Evans, Head of the Department of Law, University of Hong Kong, spoke about the wills made by some Chinese in early British Hong Kong in an interesting talk entitled "Fearing Verbal Words, or Chinese Testaments in British Hong Kong".

25th May 1983 Professor Daniel Kwok, professor of History at the University of Hawaii and visiting professor, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, gave a stimulating talk entitled "Confucianism and Modernization: Reflections of Antipathies and Sympathies". This dealt with

ix
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x
117

expectations, non-Chinese women also menstruated they were usually eager to enquire about different practical techniques. My notebooks and diaries indicate that this was the topic raised much the most frequently by the fisherwomen I talked with, particularly on a first meeting. Questions about child bearing and rearing, and about kinship relationships in general were some way behind. Sex relations as such were never mentioned. It may be relevant to point out that on my first and longest stay in Kau Sai I was known to be unmarried, but I do not recall that there were differences on subsequent occasions after my marriage and the birth of my children.

65 Other aspects of this topic are discussed in the chapters on family relationships, and ritual below. [Not included in manuscript.]

66 Unless stated otherwise ages are given according to the traditional Chinese methods of reckoning which were in exclusive use in Kau Sai. In that system a new born baby is said to have one year of life. After birth an additional year-of-life (sui) is added at each Chinese New Year. Ages reckoned in this way are thus always one or two years in advance of western reckoning. A child aged ten by Chinese reckoning would be 8 or 9 by Western reckoning, a man of 60 would be 58 or 59, and so on.

67 See preceding note on age reckoning.

68 Interestingly enough, the number of girls staying on at school to the age of 15 or 16 has remained high. This may be connected with the move ashore, which probably allows young people of both sexes from the purse-seiners more free time. A few girls from other fishing centres (but none from Kau Sai) have successfully passed the examinations for Coxswains' & Engineers' Certificates.

Glossary of Chinese characters

boon-loi **

boon waan taipus

100

المباراة

البرار

boon wan ge jan APBA ch'eah fong chow shan foki kit fung shui

K

gaay siew yan IMA

ghaah cheung (chia chang) K gok tsai 181

ho gan-iu

f

Hung Shing Kung

kam shing teng kau tu

Kau Sai

4

ku tsai

laau

A

THE

唔乾淨

喺度

MST

WAT

m gon ching

mm gung doe

mm gung ping

naau 1561

p'a l'eng isai PABETE

p'a tsai

扒你
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
251

Shan. Po Shan Road is named after him.

Leung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.

Wong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.

In January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.

When he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not doubt that such a man would be sympathetic to their views about the Chinese and Chinese matters.

Ho A-mei was of a different sort altogether. He had served the Kwangtung Government for a number of years in an official capacity.

Page 26.8

Page 26.8

Page 26.8
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
57

At least partial substantiation of these claims can be found in a Who's Who in the Far East entry under his name in June 1906. Presumably, the details of his entry were provided by Mok Man Cheung himself. A full quotation of the short passage may, therefore, tell something of how he viewed his own achievements. It reads:

MOK, MAN CHEUNG (HONG KONG), Commission Agent, Translator of Legal documents and Arbitrator; b. Dec. 4, 1865. Educ. Government Central School (now Queen's College), Hong Kong. Monitor in Government Central School, 1884; Pupil Teacher, 1885; assistant teacher, 1888-92; Translator in Registrar General's Office, Hong Kong, 1893-94; Translator for the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, 1895-1900; assistant Compradore in Butterfield and Swire's service, 1901. Publications: “Tah Tsz English and Chinese Dictionary”; “English Made Easy". Address: 267, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong."

23

Snapshot 2: Mok Man Cheung in the mid-1880s

It is interesting that, over twenty years after the appointment, Mok Man Cheung chose to include "Monitor in Government Central School, 1884" as a mark of distinction. The prefect system was not established in Queen's College until 1911,24 and, therefore, Mok Man Cheung had no opportunity to add such an honour to his resume. Even though in general it remains true that absence of evidence cannot provide solid evidence of absence, in his particular case, one may assume that the fact that he did not quote scholarship successes, coupled with the fact that he is not mentioned in this respect in any of the Government sources or in Stokes' Queen's College 1862-1962, indicates that he did not win one of the prestigious scholarship awards25 during his time at the Central School. On the other hand, Carl Smith possesses evidence that Mok Man Cheung won the Mathematics prize for Class 1 (i.e., the senior class in the school) on 23rd January, 1884.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
from the List of Common Jurors (in the Hong Kong Sessional Papers), where most recently it had been associated with his long-standing address at 267, Queen's Road East and with the occupation of Compradore for Holt's Wharf, the Hong Kong home of the Blue Funnel Line. An examination of his will and the certificate of probate shows that he died on Sunday, 30th December, 1917. On Tuesday, 1st January, 1918, the following brief news item appeared in the “Local and General” column of the South China Morning Post:43

A well-known Chinese resident, Mr. Mok Man Cheung, compradore at Holt's Wharf, died at the week end. Mr. Mok passed away on Sunday morning at his residence, 267, Queen's Road East. He was an old QC44 student and very well known in the Colony. He was on the Committee of the Tung Wah Hospital, the Po Leung Kuk, the Hongkong Public Dispensary and many other prominent institutions.” He was only 53 years of age at the time of his death.

Questions which remain for consideration and which possibly taxed him at the time of his death concern the inaccuracies in the career summary which he permitted to be published in 1906. Why did he claim to be a pupil-teacher in 1884, when in fact he was already a fully-fledged assistant Chinese master? Why did he post-date his teaching career at the Central School? Why did he post-date and abbreviate his career at the Registrar General's Office? Why did he post-date his time at the Supreme Court? The simplest answer is to place the responsibility either on faulty copy-editing on the part of the editors of Who's Who in the Far East or upon faulty memory on his own part. These answers do not ring true, partly because the editors have received no similar criticisms relating to the numerous other entries, and partly because the errors are too consistent to be simply the result of an oversight. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a person in 1906, then aged 41, would forget the dates of employment only fifteen to seven years before. Another possibility, already mentioned, was that Mok Man Cheung felt that he gained face from association with the pupil teacher scheme, and that all consequent post-dating was caused by
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
68

Office Records, Series 129 (“Hong Kong: Original Correspondence"), File 404, pp. 359-397. Such references will hereafter appear in the style, CO129/404, pp. 395-397.

12 Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper, 1944), p. xlviii, 20-42.

13 The expression "country youths" is broad enough to include the Chinese further up-country in Guangdong Province. It is likely, however, that Mok Man Cheung had his eye on the chance of catering to the population of the area then known as "the New Territory", leased from China in 1898.

14 "Feng Shui" is the traditional Chinese concern for geomancy, or the most favourable conjunction of winds and waters which would be taken into consideration when, for example, a tomb or a residence was being sited. See Maurice Freedman, 'Chinese Geomancy: Some Observations in Hong Kong', in The Study of Chinese Society: Essays by Maurice Freedman, selected and introduced by G. William Skinner (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1979), pp. 189-211.

15 In the Cantonese vernacular, "horse-boy" also means “minion”.

14 The various page numbers included in parentheses refer, of course, to the original 1904 edition of English Made Easy.

17 Other examples of simple errors, which have little to do with local knowledge, include "grosery", "Bigonia", "Spinage", "Carret", "Pumpkin", "Thrimp fritters", “Calway seeds”, “Pate foi gras", "Sarsaparilla", “Cut dough or spargetty", etc.

18 A common expression, especially in business circles, for present, treat, "sweetener", close to the conceptual borders of bribe.

19 Anthony Sweeting, 'Hong Kong', in R. Murray Thomas & T. Neville Postlethwaite (eds.) Schooling in East Asia: Forces of Change (Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1983), p. 275.

20 Smith (1985) p. 103f.

21 An expression used by Carl Smith to mean educated through the medium of the English language in one of the leading “Anglo-Chinese" schools in Hong Kong at the time, e.g., the Morrison Education Society School, St. Paul's College, Ying Wah College, the Diocesan Home and Orphanage, the Central School (renamed Victoria College in 1887 and Queen's College in 1894), and St. Saviour's College (renamed St. Joseph's College in 1875).

22 Smith (1985) pp. 143-171.

24 Who's Who in the Far East, (Hong Kong, China Mail, 1906), p. 233. The first Prefects were appointed on Empire Day, 1911, received gilt badges to denote the importance of their office, and were known ironically as "Mr. Ralph's peerage", presumably to signify that this new pupil aristocracy was the brainchild of Mr. Edwin Ralphs, the popular Second Master. See Gwenneth Stokes, Queen's College 1862-1962 (Hong Kong: Queen's College, 1962), p. 282.

25 These included the Morrison Scholarship, donated by the Morrison Education Society in 1873; the Government Scholarship, instituted for pupils at the Central School in 1874; several Belilios Scholarships established by E.R. Belilios in 1882 when his offer to erect a statue in honour of Viscount Beaconsfield, recently Prime Minister of Great Britain, was politely declined; the Stewart Scholarship, estab-
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
71

1901 (see below).

36

Brewin, who was promoted to Registrar General in 1901, had also served briefly, from 1897 to 1901, as Inspector of Schools in succession to E.J. Eitel. His endorsement was, therefore, particularly valuable. He had been appointed, together with his successor as Inspector of Schools, E.A. Irving, and the Chinese member of the Legislative Council, Ho Kai, to the 1901-1902 Education Committee, the report of which contains blatant calls for the separate educational treatment of the different races and a clear recommendation, compatible with the extremes of colonialistic paternalism, that, as far as Chinese education was concerned, the Government should concentrate its efforts and finances on the education, in English, of the few who could be regarded as potential leaders. Interestingly, the Secretary of State for the Colonies at this time, Joseph Chamberlain, totally rejected this recommendation (Chamberlain to Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Hong Kong, 12th September, 1902, in CO129/311, p. 481).

"For certain individuals, this explanation is something of a euphemism since the “medical and sanitary precautions" involved burning down their homes.

The Plague first broke out in Hong Kong in the Spring of 1894. The death rate for the first five or six months was over 2,500, and, though, it was the Chinese population which was most affected, the Europeans were not untouched. Lady Robinson, the wife of the Governor of Hong Kong, was, for example, a victim. Dr. E.J. Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, provided details of the rumours circulating among the less educated Chinese, and their effects, in a memorandum to the Colonial Secretary on 22nd May 1894. Eitel wrote to report and explain "the panic which has suddenly decimated the attendance in the local Chinese Schools" and noted that the rumours began to spread in districts affected by the Plague on Sunday, 20th May and reached other districts the next day. The principal rumours were (a) that "the Government intended to select a few young Children from each School to subject them to a surgical incision of the liver in order to obtain bile, this being the only known remedy for curing the plague”; and, (b) that "every School would be visited by officers who would examine every child and send to the "Hygeia" anyone having the least boil or pimple on its body". Eitel speculated about the origin of the panic, attributing it to "the malicious distortion of the native medical fraternity" and concluded: “I do not think anything very effectual can be done to remove the suggestions of native malice to native ignorance and suspiciousness. Distrust of the Government is still rampant among the lower classes of Chinese. Education will remove it in time. (Memorandum No. 38 of 22nd May, 1894, by Dr. E.J. Eitel, Inspector of Schools; in CO129/263, p. 190-193). 39 In Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and the Other Treaty Ports of China: Their History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908), p. 182, for example, Mok Tso Chun, “a native of the Heungshan district" and formerly one of the directors of the Tung Wah Hospital, is described as the Chief Compradore of Butterfield and Swire. In the Anglo-Chinese Commercial Directory of circa 1915 (Chief Editor, Jan George Chance), a Mok Jao Chuen, clearly the same person as Mok Tso Chun, appears as Compradore for Butterfield and Swire, while a Choi Kung Po and a Mok Kon Sang appear as Assistant Compradores. Mok Man Cheung acted as witness to the will of Mok Tso [or Jao] Chun and the will, itself, makes it clear that Mok Kon Sang was Mok Tso Chun's eldest son. It was certainly not unusual for Compradores at this time to find positions for younger relatives.
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
72

40

Hong Kong Government Gazette, 6th May, 1899, p. 701. Mok Man Cheung's book, retailing at $8, was unusually expensive. There clearly was a market for books attempting to bridge the social and linguistic gap between the Chinese and British communities. Also in 1899, for instance, a Lo Sing-lau published his English Self Taught for Chinese at $1 per copy and this went into a second edition in 1904 and a third in 1905, 1904, the year in which Mok Man Cheung produced his English Made Easy, also witnessed the publication of Tang Chi Kun's A Step in English Tongue ($0.80),

41 Letter to the Editor, signed by "X", Hong Kong Daily Press, Thursday, 17th January, 1901, p. 2.

42 This assumption is further strengthened by the fact that he made out his will on 28th December, 1917, and that its Probate Number is No. 68 of 1918. I owe this information to Professor Dafydd Evans who also points out the relatively high proportion of "death bed” wills among the Chinese in Hong Kong at this time. The will itself is serial no. 3135, deposit no. 4, in series 144. It confirms that one of Mok Man Cheung's aliases was Mok Cheuk Lim. An examination of the actual will shows that it was, indeed, a deathbed will and that Mok Man Cheung actually died on 30th December, 1917. The Declaration by Executor before Probate, dated 13th March, 1918, indicates that "the whole of the personal estate of the said testator amounts in value to the sum of $21,075.53”, certainly no mean sum at the time.

43

There appear to be no locally-published Chinese language newspapers extant for this period of time. Although the Wah Tsz Yat Po was certainly in operation, unfortunately there is a break in the surviving copies from 18th January, 1917 to 16th February, 1918.

44 The acronym for Queen's College, which was (and is) the current name for the school Mok Man Cheung had attended as "the Central School".

45 These are very clear and characteristic indications of his prominence in Hong Kong Chinese society. See, for example, H.J. Lethbridge, Hong Kong: Stability and Change, (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1978), especially pp. 52-102, and Carl T. Smith (1985), especially pp. 139-171. Confirmatory evidence that he was a member of the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk, elected on 20th March, 1909, using his alias, Mok Yeuk Lim, is found in the Hong Kong Government's Administrative Reports for that year, p. C39. If one can assume that another of his aliases was Mok Yuk-chi, confirmatory evidence about his membership of the Committee of the Tung Wah Hospitals can be found in the Administrative Reports for 1913.

46 Even though Mok Man Cheung was certainly successful in a material sense, his name appears neither in Arnold Wright's Twentieth Century Impressions nor in S.L. Woo, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, (Hong Kong, The Five Continents Book Company, 1937) which, though written long after Mok Man Cheung's death, contained reference to several deceased merchants who had been born before 1865. Moreover, he does not appear to have been a member of the District Watch Committee, posited by Lethbridge as the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong (Lethbridge 1978, pp. 104-129). On the other hand, Carl Smith's justly-famed index cards reveal that he was involved in many property deals and was, for example, co-proprietor, with Tang Lap Ting and Mok Kun Hiu, of the Wanchai Godown.

47

In London, a Colonial Office minute in 1907, for example, declared that “I don't think that the fact that Mr. Hee has found an Englishwoman foolish enough to marry a Chinaman is an argument for increasing his salary [as Headmaster of Wanchai District School] (CO129/341, p. 342). In Hong Kong, the official defini-
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
119

Governor Hennessy had made him a Justice of the Peace in one of his bids to tie the Chinese more closely to the Government. The editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph described Wei Yuk as “a gentleman of great intelligence besides his wealth and position, exercising vast influence in all local matters appertaining to the Chinese." He served on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1914 and became known after receiving a knighthood as Sir Wei Po-shan. Po Shan Road is named after him.

Leung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.

Wong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the Society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.

In January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.

When he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
124

It was these events that caused Dr. James Legge to close his school and dismiss his pupils. Although he had complete confidence his students would behave in a proper manner during a crisis, he thought it not fair to them to have them under the patronage of foreigners at a time when all Chinese in Hongkong were being urged by the Canton officials to break off all relations with “the barbarians.” Thus after some thirty-seven years, the existence of the Anglo-Chinese College, founded at Malacca and transferred to Hongkong, was ended. It was revived in 1914 as Ying Wah College for Boys.

The fear that Chinese would come to Hongkong and try to burn the city was soon overshadowed by the threat of sudden death by poisoning or murder. The new terror arose from an attempt to poison the European population by putting arsenic into their bread. When the man who supplied your daily bread could not be trusted, one might well begin to have questions about those who served you daily at home and in the office.

All foreigners agreed vigilance and strength were needed, “particularly,” as Lieutenant Colonel Lugard of the Royal Engineers put it, “when the overwhelming proportion of Chinese to European population in Victoria is considered; and that they are a low class of people that will ever look upon the Europeans as intruders whom they are pleased to tolerate so long as profitable — or more properly speaking, so long only as they are kept under control by a military and naval power superior to their own.”

Such a statement was the product of colonial mentality. An inferior, potentially rebellious population must be kept in their place by force,

The unquestioned right to trade, to subject, to rule accompanied superior military strength. A corollary was that dominance in military might was the product of a superior civilisation created by a superior people.

The ordinance passed in January 1857 also contained a clause which empowered a sentry or patrol “to shoot with intent to kill”
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
231

if the jubilee was to have the support of the whole community.

From the practical standpoint, as a journalist pointed out, their financial backing was necessary if a sufficient sum was to be raised for a memorial “that should be worthy of the Colony and that would do honour to the illustrious Sovereign whose long glorious reign it was to commemorate.”

The Chinese were ready to be included in the community planning. They did not wish to ignore the jubilee. They were, however, dissatisfied with the project selected by a general meeting at City Hall on March 2, 1887. They therefore decided to hold their own meeting at Tung Wah Hospital on March 28.

The meeting was attended by all the Chinese leaders in the community, including Dr. Ho Kai, who had been the Chinese spokesman at the City Hall meeting. The Honourable Wong Shing, the Chinese representative on the Legislative Council at that time (there was only one representative), presided over the meeting. Mr. Ho A-mei, however, was the moving force behind it.

At

Opening the meeting, the chairman reviewed the situation. The Europeans had decided upon the formation of a Victoria Park. He noted, however, that "this proposal was objected to by a portion of the European population and by most of the Chinese.”

He suggested that a proposal which had found favour with a larger number of Chinese was that of a school for Chinese females. It was likely this would have been his choice, and his remarks were an indirect introduction of the idea. He did not mention the plan that was about to be presented for consideration.

He ended his remarks with the rather weak comment that, if "the majority of the meeting was in favour of the Victoria Park scheme, he should be very pleased to support it." A strange statement in view of his mentioning only moments before that most of the Chinese were against it.

Though a man of high principle and greatly respected by his fellow countrymen, Wong Shing was of a somewhat retiring
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q
169

Before I started to go to school, we spoke Chinese exclusively at home, using the Heong Shan dialect, but I was able to understand much of the Nam Long subdialect (derived from Fukien Province) spoken in Father's village, and to speak it through the process of osmosis. Since my parents seemed concerned that their children become proficient in Western studies, my attempts to learn Chinese have been erratic and comparatively brief. Ching I Sun, a scholarly gentleman, conducted a small one-room neighbourhood school on Vineyard School and to him Father sent Ruth and me to study Chinese. It was learning chiefly by rote. When we were not memorizing aloud, we were practising calligraphy, something I did quite well. We did not attend school very long. Ruth went on to study under another teacher, Chang Garm Bo, but I did not resume studying Chinese until I was in my early teens when I went to Wah Mun School for a short time before transferring to Mun Lun School, where classes were held in the afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Our programme here also included history, geography, composition, calligraphy and the classics. Once a week one of the teachers would entertain us with stories from the historical romances, the most famous of which was the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I was very happy and proud to use the set of Ancient Classics that Father had used when a student in China, and he was pleased and patient in explaining the difficult passages.

The principal of Mun Lun School and some of the younger teachers were staunch supporters of the Loyalist Bow Wong Party, which supported the preservation of the imperial regime, and was opposed to the Revolutionary Party led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, whose supporters favoured Wah Mun School for their children. The teachers were also anti-Christian and were always making derogatory remarks about Christians, referring to them as "pigs, dogs and robbers", and being immature and sensitive, I took it as a personal affront. One day when I was late arriving from high school, the principal humiliated me by stopping his teaching to write on the blackboard that I was late. Having been conditioned not to fight for my rights, I decided to quit Chinese school in order that I could continue my afternoon typing class without further anxiety. This was the extent, about four years altogether, of my formal education in Chinese. The kindly and benign attitude of some of the other teachers, such as Tsze, Yee and Seto, elderly and scholarly...
================================================================================
RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
300

Recreation

Certainly man cannot live by rice alone and provision had to be made for recreation and welfare. What facilities were there? One imagines in the early 20th century a limited amount. But in the years leading up to Waglan becoming automated, in the 1980s, colour television, stereo music, radio, a small library, darts, ping-pong and mah-jong, all accommodated in the air-conditioned recreation room, were available (Port Services Division; 1987).

Let us now turn to the actual men who manned the lighthouses.

Lighthouse personalities

In 1838, Grace Horsley Darling (1815-1842) became the heroine of Britain when she and her lighthouse keeper father rescued nine of the crew of the good ship Forfarshire. It was wrecked near the Longstone Lighthouse on one of the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, England. It is fitting that Darling's name is still recorded in English dictionaries and encyclopaedias although today people are more likely to hero-worship figures like astronauts, film stars and footballers.

What about Hong Kong's keepers and others associated with lighthouses? What sort of men were they? Let us look at some of them.

James Arthur William Deakin's father was a British soldier who married his Chinese wife in 1935.42 He served as a gunner on Mount Davis when the Japanese attacked in December 1941. Later, as a child, James was called upon by his mother to put food parcels through the wire fence of the Shum Shui Po Prison Camp where his father was incarcerated.

When he grew up, after attending the then Government King George the Fifth Secondary School, Jimmy Deakin went into government service. In the late 1950s he was posted to the Marine Department from the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Division of the Public Works Department.

Allen Lack informed the author that he had known Deakin earlier, as
================================================================================