HIS385 Final Essay
Daniel Endale
1005047058
December 18, 2020
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It is already widely understood that British governance and economy is the reason Hong
Kong is the way it is today, however the context of the colony’s birth holds a multitude of
interrelationships, conflicts, and collective social discourse that has taken generations of
literature to shed light on. This paper will discuss the societal and administrative context of Hong
Kong, and relationship between the former and latter. Hong Kong Island and the New Territories
will be the main focus of analysis here. My question is the following, how did Hong Kong’s
physical stigma of being a ‘transient zone’ change over time as the 20th century introduced
agendas urban development, and how did the connection between proponents of development
and the Hong Kong community change as the colony grew economically for the British? While
an argument can be made on behave of many elements of colonial Hong Kong’s transformation,
this paper delineates only a few components; Hong Kong owes its change in disposition to the
entrance of merchant wealth and economy, the intervention and advancement of public health/
housing, and the decentralizing of land-use and fiscal rights.
To begin, it is worth noting that during the time of colonial transfer in the possession of
Hong Kong, by no means was a colonial regime welcomed with open arms by original
inhabitants and those already living before British intervention. Struggles for power between
indigenous Hong Kong and colonials will be discussed further in this paper, for now the analysis
will be on administrative decisions of the British governor Henry Pottinger, and later John
Francis Davis. Chinese settlements were built for the seclusion between the two races of people
(European and Chinese) and allow for Chinese law in their reserves, and everywhere else that
was not considered privately owned land was ceded to the Crown and under British law. The
trend of colonial rule that played out in this context was segregated space, between the Chinese
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upper, middle and lower Bazaars, and emerging European towns. The theme of segregation is
comparable to the Western discourse of segregated America between blacks and whites, however
many unquestionable differences, the most significant would be the separation of law for the
Chinese and the British. This administrative difference would eventually hold benefits for the
Chinese, but the process of establishing settlements did incorporate the displacement of Chinese
communities from the middle bazaar region as explained by Governor Pottinger to “[prevent]
mix up with the Europeans” (Chan 1991, 69). A new reserve that the Chinese were sent to was
called Tai Ping Shan, what this did was supplement the segregation efforts between the two
groups and enable a leadership process to begin. This did not mean the explicit administrative
leaders for the Chinese, but rather a group of economic leaders on the local level were able to
emerge within Chinese reserves. Having property/land owners, Chinese owners, is important for
Hong Kong because unlike their European neighbours who will most likely reside in their
respective towns temporarily, the Chinese are there to stay and benefit from the stability of
economic activity. As contract building and property ownership was on the rise, Hong Kong was
also receiving Chinese merchants from mainland China due to the Tai Ping Rebellion, so Hong
Kong is experiencing the effects of agglomerating merchants and economic activity between
China’s southern coast, to the southeast Asian countries, to Australia and the coast of California.
But 1868 is when the first coalition of Chinese merchants called the Nam Pak Hong Association,
that was built for the purpose of promoting market prosperity, and aid the maintenance of order
in Tai Ping Shan. Having associations based in the welfare of economy is how this region sets a
foundation of its residents, and also allows for a new form of economic activity in the realm of
charity work (1991). This included the establishment of Tung Wah Hospital, and acts as an
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example of fundamental change in the discourse of Chinese Hong Kong where significant
investment is being put into Chinese neighbourhoods in Hong Kong.
The establishment on part of the British of administrative presence through government
offices and commissions brought a sense of stability to the region, which was experiencing rapid
population growth. Between the years 1900-1930 general commerce and merchant economy was
expected to introduce Hong Kong to international trade, for this to happen there needed to be a
mixture of banking/finance and practice of law all present in the colony. These things did exist,
and there was a positive relationship between barristers and the commerce industry, particularly
in the Victoria Harbour (Chow et al. 2019, 16).
In and around the same years the colony of Hong Kong would see newly vested interest
in public health for its residents. Beyond the foundation of economy, health for a community is
essential for there to be any sense of stability and safety for one to develop a livelihood in area.
In 1881, Osbert Chadwick was appointed the royal sanitary engineer of Hong Kong and focused
on the conditions of buildings as it relates to health. There was a great amount of room for
improvement from Chadwick’s perspective after conducting his report and calling for strong
intervention, although many Chinese were opposed to this course of action. Unfortunately, two
years later a Cholera epidemic broke out and provided a greater push for health intervention,
however these initiatives included the removal of overcrowded buildings and counters the
previously established narrative of successful property ownership. These initiatives were
objectively necessary in the sense of prioritizing public welfare, it pushed for infrastructural
considerations about how places in Hong Kong could be made more livable. The first legislative
controls on ventilation and building density were passed on 1887, however implementation was
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not quick enough to stop another outbreak in which the Tai Ping Shan area was the worst
impacted by the disease outbreak, taking over 2500 lives (Xue et al 559, 2012). Since then the
colony had received more government funding and more legislative action towards public health
regulation, and overall the colony has seen much more active town planning. Town planning is
as much a key role in the context of Hong Kong growth because basic necessities that Chinese
residents need, like sanitary homes.
The next aspect of town planning to be discussed is the issue of housing investment. The
shortage of urban land always posed a problem for the colonial government, but real investment
wasn’t seen until the aftermath of World War 1 was acknowledged in Britain, and soon after in
Hong Kong. In 1923, the colony established its first Housing commission was devised to consult
about possible local measures, 12 years later a new commission was opened with Wilfred
Herbert Owen as Secretary of commission. The Chinese people were accustomed to living in
compact conditions, similar to rural mainland China, however as we’ve seen in the public health
discourse overcrowding is counterproductive. Urban renewal projects at the time focused on the
clearance of slums, dispossessing residents in the process however. Owen introduced many
planning practices and theories to the colony while completing a report in 1940, what he
predicted was that these necessary changes like social welfare, and public housing would change
the nature of economy from home-industry based to factory based (Xue et al 2012, 562-563).
The New Territories provided a solution to the volume of dispossessed residents of Hong Kong,
but the unfortunate timing brought Japanese occupation to the colony. Once the war ended there
was a swift recovery plan to be implemented, even after Owen was no longer a local official he
was still consulted about legislation and again, reasserted his belief in public housing for the
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town. These incremental steps towards urbanism are the signs that Hong Kong is moving away
from its original disposition of just a few agricultural households, to a place where more Chinese
can call home. This would of course overlap with counter narratives of Chinese nationalism and
distain for colonial presence on Chinese land from older Chinese folk, bringing latent distrust
towards Hong Kong in the process.
Looking at the New Territories more closely, government relationship with community
leaders were much more tight knit. While colonial penetration was apart of the Hong Kong
process, the coexistence between formal colonial structures and informal village leadership was
mainly seen in this context, through the indirect rule framework. Village leaders conducted
themselves as middlemen between British government and Chinese villagers, however by the
1950s Hong Kong was seeing massive urban development and this strategy was no longer
plausible without changes. Giving village leaders official government status in order to further
support government authority to initiate more progressive changes to the New Territories. To
understand the process of gaining colonial authority more deeply, it must begin with the
understanding of Crown land. Between the years 1900 and 1903 the British conducted an
extensive land survey of the New Territories to determine what land was private or vacant.
Following the land survey, the British made serious changes to fiscal land-rights and the way
they are distributed to private owners and clans. Originally the land was divided into top-soil and
bottom-soil land rights, but the British decided to grant private ownership to top-soil holders
exclusively, thereby stripping most major clans of there land and redistributing it to the Hakka
community of small-scale farmers (Chui and Hung 1997, 71). The British orchestrated a “land
revolution” and essentially decentralized landownership in the New Territories, but structural
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changes were not limited to land-rights regimes, the British also changed how taxing was carried
out in the region. Rather than great clans acting on behalf of the government as tax collectors, a
direct taxation system was implemented after the extensive land survey. This erased the privilege
of clans collecting commission off of taxes and since colonial government collected in cash, it
forced villagers to enter the cash-economy (1997, 71). These were fundamental steps toward the
Hong Kong of today, because of the colonial tactics and authority much of the previous
leadership roles of clans had to be dissolved, this was a distinctive trait of colonialism
inseparable from the British rule in Hong Kong. Urbanist initiatives through housing and public
health, fixed taxation and decentralized land-rights are all Western forms of governance
introduced in Hong Kong, and the formation of merchant and agricultural associations were seen
in the area not long after, giving rise sense of individual agency and stability in Hong Kong that
overlaps with Western capitalist discourse.
After the Second World War, the New Territories were receiving an influx of immigrants,
and growing industrialization that prompted more state intervention, this meant land
appropriation, and state control over agricultural production (1997, 73). Given the initial changes
in fiscal distribution farming land in the region, agri-production was much more accessible to the
individual, and of greater interest for the government. Its shown through a new governing
institution being placed within the New Territories, Heung Yee Kuk (HYK), establishing local
cooperatives and Vegetable Market Organization (VMO) (1997, 73). Japanese occupation in the
region introduced a new representative framework that divided the New Territories into 28
subsections, each with chosen representatives for their respective Rural Committee, this
framework was actually adopted by the returning British government after the War. Through the
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1956 VMO Ordinance, the organization was then allowed to collect all vegetable produce
growing in the New Territories or imported to Hong Kong, and transport it to wholesale markets
in urban districts. This created a supply chain of reliable food source and distribution evenly
throughout the colony, complementing the accessibility of farming land rights for Hakka
communities particular, since they are detached from clan hood. By 1962, over 76% of locally
grown produce was handled and transported through this cooperative, while simultaneously
capping the import produce from China to supplement demand within the colony (1997, 80). The
support shown here for small agri-business may have seemed redundant at the time since farmers
had already been organizing markets with each other, having a central organized body to
purchase and transport goods would secure farmers through relief funds for bad harvests; loan
provisions for new farming and access to new technology and training. These benefits would
trickle down to other sectors such as livestock, irrigation, building etc. and the underlying effect
of this chain reaction is enhanced urbanizing of Hong Kong (1997, 81).
Government intervention into the New Territories picked up towards the 1970s, with
regards to land resumption and development, which inevitably caused a lot of friction between
government and original inhabitants of the peninsula. Of the entire area two divisions of
residents are acknowledged, original inhabitants and outsiders (Hakka peoples) who came
following the China handover in 1898. In a specific case within the village of So Kun Wat, the
Hakka significantly outnumbered the population of original inhabitants, though what the
government aims to mediate during this time are the great inequities of access to information;
representation; and compensation that are not presented to the Hakka people (Chau and Lau
1982, 139). With regards to original inhabitants, of whom majority owned private land were
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entitled to more compensation from the government, and have the ability to negotiate these
terms. However for the Hakka, whom technically occupy Crown land, have been given a very
different set of terms, are at risk of land resumption projects. They cannot rely on village leaders
because most are in favour these initiatives and the returns received for their private land (1982,
144-145,). These contexts of conflict leave open ended questions about the local administrative
process, and ultimately the framework of representation and the gaps that are all to present. This
case study may interestingly act as a counter narrative to the usually discourses of colonial
regimes in relation to indigenous communities, that being said the innate problem remains
inequity.
In conversation with 20th century development, particularly the postwar era, Hong
Kong’s muslim presence is worth noting as it ties back to Britain’s Indian Muslim army. The first
Indian muslim soldiers arrived in the colony in 1842, and this incentivized the government to
allocate land for the sole purpose of mosque building during late 19th/early 20th century Hong
Kong (Ho 2010, 64-65). The Jamia Mosque is the oldest in Hong Kong (built in 1890), however
all documents and records of it were destroyed through the Japanese occupation (1939-1945).
Kowloon mosque was built for the service of Indian Muslim troops, but suffered structural
damage during the underground construction of the Mass Transit Railway in 1978, and was
eventually relocated and reopened in 1984 (2010, 66). Further construction of major Hong Kong
mosques today were not fully developed until late 20th century, however Hong Kong’s ability to
adapt its development process for its muslim presence shows furthermore how the colony and
soon to be global city was rapidly changing its disposition.
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Many things contributed to the social and physical make up of Hong Kong during this
time, most factors initiated by a proliferating population. As the inward flow of people to Hong
Kong grew greater than the colony’s outward flow, the need for law enforcement; resettlement;
and community representation also grew. Places in Hong Kong were becoming safer, more
hygienic, organized and overall more livable, this can be attributed to all the points provided
above. Hong Kong as a site of settlement must have attained all these characteristics to move
away from a site of transition, and the underlying difference that must also be called upon is that
British residents and sojourners had a considerably more favourable position within a static
Hong Kong, as oppose to Chinese residents, labourers and governing officials who had much to
gain from the drastic transformation within the colony.
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Annotated Bibliography
Chow, T.E., Ng, M., Wong, D.W.S. et al. Exploratory multivariate space–time analysis of
colonial justice in Hong Kong during 1900–1930. GeoJournal (2019). https://doi.org/
10.1007/s10708-019-10066-6
By examining the archived company directories of Hong Kong during the period of 1900–
1930, this study reconstructed its historical geography of legal functional units and
explored their spatiotemporal relationships with social, economic and political functional
units. The study found that in the early 1900s, legal practitioners scattered around
nowadays Central and began more clustered over time. Moreover, the cluster of legal units
moved from western Central to eastern Central with a transition splitting into two smaller
clusters between 1910 and 1920. The results from regression analysis and local entropy
mapping suggest that the spatial associations between legal and social, economic and
political functional units changed over time, reflecting the evolving emphases of the legal
professionals in serving the economic sectors in this commercial-based city. This work also
demonstrates, methodologically, a space–time frame- work of parametric and nonparametric analyses appropriate to study historical geography.
Chiu, Stephen W. K. The Paradox of Stability Revisited: Colonial Development and State
Building in Rural Hong Kong.
In this article, the “paradox of stability” is under examination along with the basis for the
political stability in the rural areas of the Hong Kong Colony. Thus contributing to the
understanding of broader issues of colonial governance in Hong Kong and the relationship
between state and society under British colonialism. First reviewing past attempts to
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answer the question of rural stability in the existing literature and pinpoint some of their
shortcomings. Then describing the development of colonial rule in the new territory of
Hong Kong since the late 19th century. Then the changing contours of rural conflicts will
be summarized, and a case of rural mobilization in the 1980’s will be used to illustrate how
changes in the political opportunities and organizational structures in the New Territories
led to the intensification of rural protests.
Lam-Yan, Chua, and Lau Siu-Kai. "Development, Colonial Rule, and Intergroup Conflict in a
Chinese Village in Hong Kong." Human Organization 41, no. 2 (1982): 139-46. Accessed
October 17, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44125891.
The following case study will describe the interplay between development, intergroup
conflict, and conflict resolution by the colonial administration in a village in the New
Territories. The village of So Kun Wat was chosen for this study because it has the
attributes that enable us to analyze the issues mentioned above in a delimited geographical
setting. In general, So Kun Wat Village offers an ideal opportunity to examine the interplay
between planned development, inter- group conflict, and conflict resolution by the
government.
Wai-Yip Ho (2001) Historical Analysis of Islamic Community Development in Hong Kong:
Struggle for Recognition in the Post-colonial Era, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs,
21:1, 63-77, DOI: 10.1080/13602000120050631
In this paper, discussion will be about the specific strategies adopted by the local Muslim
community when facing the transition of sovereignty from British colonial rule to the rule
of the socialist regime of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Delineating the recent
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struggle of Hong Kong Muslim ethnic minority in developing ethnic minority education,
the vision of setting up elderly services and building a new mosque following the handover, marking the end of British colonial rule and the reunification of Hong Kong with
Mainland China. Using information from ethnic Muslim respondents, it is conclude that
Muslims in Hong Kong are facing different kinds of difficulties. This paper will therefore
trace a brief history of two established projects, namely, the Elderly Home and Islamic
International School, and review the ongoing negotiations for building a new mosque. By
situating the recent projects in a historical perspective, the argument targets recent struggles
of ethnic Islamic community demonstrate the implicit structural changes of Hong Kong
society and the hierarchy within which Islamic community locates.
Xue, Charlie Q.L., Han Zou, Baihao Li, and Ka Chuen Hui. “The Shaping of Early Hong Kong:
Transplantation and Adaptation by the British Professionals, 1841–1941.” Taylor &
Francis, July 27, 2017. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/
10.1080/02665433.2012.705124.
This paper reviews the urban history of Hong Kong over the 100- year period from 1841
and explores the development motives of the colonial administration. The colonial
government appointed British professionals for specialized roles and their services were
apparent in significant milestones in the city’s town planning and construction. The paper
highlights the contributions of a few significant personnel: A.T. Gordon, C.G. Cleverly,
Osbert Chadwick, David J. Owen and Wilfred H. Owen. By describing the works of these
British colonial professionals, the authors hope to illustrate their impact on the
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development of Hong Kong, linking history to the present and filling gaps in the study of
Hong Kong’s early town planning. Both archive research and on-site study were employed
in the preparation of this paper.