Peter Cunich
Hong Kong received visits from several members of the British royal family at different times in its history, starting with Queen Victoria’s second son Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1869, on a world tour as commander of HMS Galatea. During his visit the Duke laid the foundation stone to the chancel of St John’s Cathedral. Victoria’s third son, Arthur, Duke of Connaught, made his first visit to Hong Kong in 1890, when he laid the foundation stone for the Central Reclamation, and again in 1906 and 1907 when he was able to see the nearly completed project. This parade shows King George V’s third son, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, inspecting the 2nd Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry at his formal welcome to Hong Kong on 25 April 1929. The royal visitor is being followed by the governor, Sir Cecil Clementi, whose plumed hat is visible behind the duke’s pith helmet. Beyond the General Post Office building in the distance can be seen one of the modern eight-storey high-rise buildings that were constructed from the late 1920s.
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
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THE LEGACY OF THE FALLEN
THE LEGACY OF THE FALLEN
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A decade later, cars are more in evidence and the rickshaws have all but disappeared. Streets are still surprisingly free of vehicular traffic and jaywalkers head purposefully along and across the roadways. With so little open space available, the colony’s streets were often the only escape from cramped living quarters. Street life was therefore colourful and vibrant from the earliest days. Local denizens are adapting to Western styles, yet a number of traditionalists continue to wear gowns and loose-fitting qi pao.
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PRINCIPAL ROADS
PRINCIPAL ROADS
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THE NEED OF LAND
(previous page) The original Praya, just before the commencement of the Central Reclamation in the early 1890s. It was this view that prompted some visitors to compare Hong Kong with Venice or Genoa. The four-storey Hongkong Bank building of 1886 set the trend for a new era of urban development that would transform Hong Kong into a city of neoclassical elegance. At the other end of the Praya, the foundations for the new Hong Kong Hotel (1892) are being prepared. By the mid-1890s (left) the Central Reclamation was well advanced. The buildings along the old Praya, now renamed Des Voeux Road, included the Cricket Club pavilion, City Hall (1869), the Hongkong Bank, and the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India. The towers of St John’s Cathedral (1849) and the Union Church (1891) can be seen above City Hall, with Government House (1858) and its new ballroom (1891) on Government Hill to the right of the Hongkong Bank.
THE NEED OF LAND
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Hong Kong was not particularly prone to religion, but most expatriate residents at least made a show of attending church from time to time. Society weddings such as that between Commander John Pearson RN and Molly Byron in July 1928 (above), providing an opportunity for women to dress in the latest imported fashions, with low brimmed hats, silk stockings and ankle-strap shoes, while uniformed naval and military men added panache to any matrimonial celebration. Churches frequented by the expatriate community were generally in the leafy oasis of the Mid-Levels, but attending church in earlier days had been a more urban experience. The Union Church started its existence in Wellington Street in 1845 as a small chapel erected for the use of the non-conformist Protestant community by Dr James Legge, an early Sinologist. The chapel moved up the hill into a larger building on Staunton Street in 1865, but even this quarter of the Mid-Levels had become overcrowded and noisy by the late 1880s, precipitating a relocation of the Union Church to Kennedy Road in 1891, where it remains to this day (right). Much of the old fabric was reused, however, an early example of architectural preservation in Hong Kong. At the end of the war returning worshippers found their church partially demolished, with some claiming that these materials were reused a second time in the reconstruction of Government House. 174
THE DIVERSITY OF FAITHS
THE DIVERSITY OF FAITHS
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(left) Middle-class Chinese educated abroad were more likely to adopt Westernstyle dress. Werner Lu (Lu Wenbin), who was educated and worked in Germany from 1892, went a step further and married a German, Ingrid Stolz, in 1906 before returning to China after the 1911 Revolution. Lu and his Berlin bride dressed in the fashions of the day and had the self-assured air of those born to achieve great things. Western fashions were closely followed by the expatriate women of colonial Hong Kong, despite the fact that heavy fabrics and billowing Edwardian skirts were incompatible with the tropical climate. Mrs Getti Forbes (right), seen here in a suitably feminine reflective pose on her cool, plant-lined verandah, was typical of her contemporaries at the end of the 1910s. The trappings of middle-class domestic life in Hong Kong included both modern Western comforts and traditional Chinese furnishings. 186
THE EMERGING MIDDLE CLASS
THE EMERGING MIDDLE CLASS
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CITY OF CLASSICAL ELEGANCE
CITY OF CLASSICAL ELEGANCE
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CITY OF CLASSICAL ELEGANCE
CITY OF CLASSICAL ELEGANCE
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From its very beginnings Hong Kong was a port – with the ocean at the centre of daily life. For western entrepreneurs, the harbour meant maritime trade and commerce, while for many Chinese the sea represented a way of life that had been lived by generations of fisher-folk. Whether toiling against biting winds, rain and the currents on board the small sampans and wallahwallahs that plied their way around Victoria Harbour (previous page) or manning the broad-sailed junks that carried most of the river trade around the ports of the Pearl River delta (right), Hong Kong’s indigenous population included a large number of citizens who not only worked on their boats, but often lived their entire lives on them too. These “boat people” were known as the Tanka and Hoklo, who together with the Hakka were often treated as despised outcasts by the landlubber Punti majority. In 1850, one-third of Hong Kong’s 32,000 Chinese lived on 1,361 boats; by 1919, the “floating” population had risen to 64,250 out of a total of 584,500. Their workhorse houseboats (following pages) could be seen everywhere around the harbour. These floating homes provided only the most basic amenities and few comforts, but tethered together they formed wooden island communities that teemed with life. 300
ICONS NO MORE
ICONS NO MORE
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The first colony to be acquired during Queen Victoria’s long reign, Hong Kong not only possessed a spectacular and commodious harbour, it also sustained a unique blend of East and West that evolved into Asia’s most exciting and entrepreneurial adventure. The entrepôt quickly spun itself a web of trade and a deserving reputation for innovation and survival to become Britain’s last colony of any significance. The early decades of the twentieth century, the focus of this book, marked the heyday of colonial Hong Kong, when the curious eye of the camera focused on elegant neoclassical architecture and the ceaseless enterprise of the local population in colourfully crowded bazaars and bustling wharves. Hong Kong was more than just an economic miracle; it stood as a far-eastern cynosure of empire that continues to inspire to this day. This is the story…
ISBN 978-988-15562-7-1