Week 3: Colonialism at Work

I. Colonial Designs

1. Basic considerations—free trade (e.g. Jardine and Matheson; Dent; Butterfield and Swire; Russell; Siemssen; J. J. dos Remedios; Sassoon) . . . small government (subvention until mid-1850s; 33+ administrative officers before WWII)
2. Governor (see list; assisted by lieutenant governor, colonial secretary)
3. Executive Council (Chow Shouson 周壽臣 [1861–1959], 1926)
4. Legislative Council (first Chinese; Ng Choy [Wu Tingfang 伍廷芳, 1842–1922], 1880)
5. Registrar General (est. 1845; renamed Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 1913; Secretary for Home Affairs, 1969)
6. Cadet Officers (1861; renamed Administrative Officers, 1950s)
7. Supreme Court (1844)
8. Colonial Governance
   • The bread-poisoning case of Cheong Ah Lum (15 January 1857; biography)

II. Floating Population

1. Chinese — Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) . . . 60–70% male
2. British/Europeans
3. Eurasians (e.g. Robert Ho Tung)
4. South Asians — esp. Parsees/Muslims/Sikhs; traders/soldiers/police . . .  (1877) 43% of goods imported were from India; 18% of exports to India . . . (1888) Star Ferry founded by Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala

III. Collaborative Rule

1. Middlemen/Collaborators
   • Loo Aqui 盧亞貴 — Tanka . . . piracy and provisioning
   • Kwok Acheong 郭亞祥 — Tanka . . . comprador (buyer) . . . founded steamship company
   • Tam Achoy 譚亞財 — Kaiping via Singapore . . . contractor
2. Civic Institutions
   • Man Mo Temple (1847; founded by Loo Aqui and Tam Achoy)
   • District Watch Force (1866)
   • Nam Pak Hong Association (1868)
   • Tung Wah Hospitals (1869)
   • Po Leung Kuk (Society for the Protection of Women and Children; 1878)

Discussion

1. What did Wang Tao find particularly noteworthy about colonial Hong Kong?
2. How would you describe the tones of the colonial reports you read this week?
3. You've been commissioned by a studio to sketch out an authentic character for a game/drama on the transformations of nineteenth-century Hong Kong. So, sketch one out on the basis of what you have read this week. Give your character a background (gender, age, place of origins, level of education, occupation, etc.) and briefly explain how this character is linked to the central theme of the game/drama.

Maps

External Links to Maps:

Early Maps | Hong Kong (1860)

 

Images

External Links to Images:

John Thomson

References

• Abe, Kaori. Chinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830–1890 . Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2017.
• Carroll, John M. Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005.
• Hayes, James. The Hong Kong Region, 1850–1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside . Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012.
• Munn, Christopher. Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841–1880. Richmond: Curzon, 2001.
• Platt, Stephen R. Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018.
• Sinn, Elizabeth. Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong . Hong Kong and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Sinn, Elizabeth. Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong . Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013.