Abstract
We have so far dealt with the ethnic integration of Chinese into the colonial society through the spatial policies and production of the built environment. Nevertheless, development of the consciousness of the Hong Kong Chinese to conform to the colonial system must also be cultivated through teaching of ideologies. This is particularly important for the middle-class Hong Kong Chinese who had the opportunity to receive secondary and higher education and assume substantial positions after graduation. The contrived laissez-faireism through creation of scarcity, the common tactic that colonial government adopted for space, is quite visible here as well. It is to this topic that now we turn.
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Notes
- 1.
Harvey, D., Limits to Capital, University of Chicago Press, 1982, p. 399.
- 2.
Eitel, E. J., Europe in China, 1895 (reprinted by Cheng-Wen Publishing Company, 1968) p. 186.
- 3.
In colonial British context, ‘college’ does not mean the institution of higher education (university level), but offers secondary education. In Chinese, it was translated as 書院 (shu yuan), not 大學 (da xue, university).
- 4.
Eitel, op. cit., pp. 190–191.
- 5.
Eitel, op. cit., p. 280.
- 6.
‘Report of the Morrison Education Society’, Chinese Repository XIII, December 1844, p. 633.
- 7.
Sweeting, A., Education in Hong Kong Pre-1841 to 1941: Fact and Opinion, HKU Press, 1990, p. 206.
- 8.
Dates and Events Connected with the History of Education in Hong Kong (an anonymous pamphlet), St. Lewis Reformatory, 1877, pp. 11.
- 9.
Dates and Events…, op. cit., pp. 31.
- 10.
Director of Education, Annual Departmental Reports 1952–3, p. 3.
- 11.
This school is currently Diocesan Girls’ School (抜萃女書院).
- 12.
Sweeting, op. cit., p. 152.
- 13.
Letter No. 41 from Dr. E. J. Eitel to the Colonial Secretary, 5 July 1889 < CO129/942>, pp. 80ff (in Sweeting, op. cit., p. 248).
- 14.
This school is currently Queen’s College (皇仁書院).
- 15.
Hong Kong Blue Book, 1865, pp. 277ff.
- 16.
Annual Report for 1886 (in Sweeting, op. cit., pp. 212–213).
- 17.
Pennycook, A., English and the Discourses of Colonialism, Routledge, 1998, p. 95.
- 18.
‘Dispatch from John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hong Kong, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Earl of Carnarvon, 27 January 1878’, quoted in Sweeting, op. cit., p. 232.
- 19.
Hong Kong Government Gazette, 9 March 1878, p. 90.
- 20.
‘An Imperial University for Hong Kong’ China Mail, 15 December 1905.
- 21.
Mellor, B., The University of Hong Kong: an Informal History, HKU Press, 1980, p. 16.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Mellor, op. cit., pp. 36–37.
- 24.
‘The Grant Code’, revised and approved in December, 1955; and ‘Regulations for the Conduct of Grant-in-Aid Schools’ (mimeo). Education Department.
- 25.
Supplement No. 1 to the Hong Kong Government Gazette, 19 December 1952, p. 183.
- 26.
An order in writing from L. G. Morgan to Parker To, Dated 14 May 1958, in Enclosure A5 of Memorandum for Executive Council, 1957–58, X. C. S. 10/58.
- 27.
Memorandum for Executive Council, 1957–58, X. C. S. 10/58, for discussion on 22 July 1958.
- 28.
- 29.
Southern Daily, 6 June 1958.
- 30.
The six ‘patriotic schools’ of Pui Kiu, Heung To, Hon Wah, Fukien, Mong Kok Labour School and Rebirth all filed applications in 1986 to transition to subsidised secondary schools after the conclusion of the handover agreement. South China Morning Post, 22 November 1986; Wen Wei Po, 22 November 1986.
- 31.
Memorandum for Executive Council, X. C. C. 47, for discussion on 5 July 1955.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Report of the Fulton Commission, Hong Kong: Government Printer, 1963, pp. 2–3.
- 34.
Mellor, op. cit., p. 132.
- 35.
It was not until a decade after handover when Law School of CUHK opened for students.
- 36.
Final Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Precious Blood Golden Jubilee Secondary School, <FCO40/1003> (available in the National Archives, UK), para. 10.
- 37.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 13.
- 38.
Report of Faculty Investigation, 25 February 1977, in: 16 Teachers of Golden Jubilee Secondary School, Jinxi shijian: congchuang xiao dao fengxiao [The Golden Jubilee Secondary School Incident: From the Founding to the School Closure], (Unpublished materials), 1978, p. 56.
- 39.
16 Teachers…, op. cit., p. 60.
- 40.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 23.
- 41.
16 Teachers…, op. cit., p. 12.
- 42.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 33(c).
- 43.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 33.
- 44.
16 Teachers…, op. cit., p. 72.
- 45.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 34.
- 46.
See Jinxi Shijian Fazhan Liankan [Joint Publication on the Events of the Golden Jubilee Secondary School Incident], 6 December 1977.
- 47.
<FCO40/1003>, para. 45.
- 48.
Foucault, M., ‘Sexualité et pouvoir’, in Dits et Écrits, II, Gallimard, [1994 edn] pp. 561–564.
- 49.
16 Teachers…, op. cit., p. 126.
- 50.
To Sir with Love: of “Naughty” Teachers and “Subversive” Students Who Rock the Boat’, Hong Kong Standard, 26 June 1977. The author notes sarcastically that if the teachers of Golden Jubilee Secondary School had to accept the warning, then the Department of Education should also have had to warn Rousseau, Dewey, and Bertrand Russell, etc.
- 51.
Siu, P.K. et al., The Effect of the Medium of Instruction on Student Cognitive Development and Academic Achievement, Research Report, School of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1979.
- 52.
Siu, op. cit., p. 133.
- 53.
From ‘Bi “tian ya” hai yao canren’ [‘More “cramming”, but it’s also cruel’], a lead article in Ming Pao (In op. cit., Haizimen de kunan [The Plight of the Children], p. 49). In order to give Peking Duck meat its delicious flavour, ducks are fattened by forcing feed into their mouths.
- 54.
Walker, J., Under the Whitewash, 70s Biweekly, 1972, pp. 31.
- 55.
Zhong Yun Bao, dated 20 June 1980.
- 56.
Government Secretariat, The Hong Kong Education System, Hong Kong: HK Government. 1981, p. 17.
- 57.
Mitchell, R. E., Pupil, Parent and School: A Hong Kong Study, Taipei: The Orient Cultural Service, 1969, p. 194.
- 58.
Ibid., pp. 85 and 100.
- 59.
Government Secretariat, The Hong Kong Education System, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government, 1981, p. 111.
- 60.
Annual Summary 1958–59, Hong Kong Educational Department, Section IV, Table la.
- 61.
Among these were a number of kindergartens operated as non-profit enterprises, and in these cases rental and property tax reductions and rebates could be received from the government.
- 62.
Ming Pao, 6 March 1981. Nevertheless, the education department officially opposed to English-language education in kindergartens (The Hong Kong Education System, Government Secretariat, 1981, p. 16).
- 63.
Ming Pao, 23 April 1981.
- 64.
Ming Pao, 23 April 1981.
- 65.
Hong Kong Times 16 March 1980.
- 66.
Education Department, Annual Summary, 1964–65, op. cit., p. 16.
- 67.
Table 14.3, Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, 1978 edition.
- 68.
Cheng, K. M., ‘Education’, The Other Hong Kong Report, 1991, p. 284.
- 69.
EPA Resources, 4(20), 1983.
- 70.
Hong Kong 1991, op. cit.
- 71.
Cheng, op. cit., p. 288
- 72.
Annual Summary, Hong Kong Educational Department, 1959–60, p. 1 and Table VIIf.
- 73.
Annual Summary, Hong Kong Educational Department, 1962–63, p. 1 and Table VIIf.
- 74.
The Hong Kong Education System, op. cit., p. 179.
- 75.
Ibid. This was a systematic examination in which the higher a school’s overall points, the higher the evaluation for that elementary school, thereby increasing opportunities for all students to gain admission to more prestigious secondary schools. Needless to say, this resulted in even further inciting examination-based instruction at a school-wide level.
- 76.
This is because some students were held back in Form 1. Conversely, it also means that the secondary enrolment rate had been inflated by only about this amount prior to the establishment of the compulsory system.
- 77.
Mitchell, op. cit., p. 19.
- 78.
The Hong Kong Education System, op. cit., p. 183. Recently, measures have been taken to mitigate this situation; in 1990, 83.4% of Form-4 students across Hong Kong were able to continue attending the same secondary school that they had attended until Form 3.
- 79.
Education Policy, Hong Kong: the Government Press, 1965.
- 80.
Walker, op. cit., p. 28.
- 81.
Mellor, op. cit., p. 131.
- 82.
Hong Kong 1991, op. cit., p. 134.
- 83.
More recently, it has become possible through CUHK’s Provisional Acceptance Scheme for students with good HKCEE scores to secure admission to the university without taking another matriculation level examination, as described below.
- 84.
All universities and polytechnics, and some post-secondary colleges, were independent agencies operated by and largely subsidised with funds from an advisory body to the Governor called the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee. During the colonial period, the British Governor served nominally as Chancellor of the university, whereas administrative and teaching faculty, including the Vice-chancellor, were not civil servants. However, similar to the grant criteria for secondary schools, subsidies from the Grants Committee served as an important strategic variable within education policy, and the Government was variously involved in the long-term policies of each school.
- 85.
Hong Kong 1980, op. cit., pp. 67–68.
- 86.
‘History’, https://www.polyu.edu.hk/web/en/about_polyu/facts_figures_development/history/index.html (accessed on 17 January 2018).
- 87.
While course graduates traditionally received only a certificate of completion, from the end of 1980, here, too, they began to be awarded the degree of ‘Bachelor’. However, the official bachelor degree was limited to graduates of the applied programmes of textile studies, graphic design, hospital management, interior design, languages, construction technology and management, architectural surveying, land management, child care, and surveying. Just before the handover, the school was promoted to the full university status.
- 88.
Hisako Satō, Beichu Kyoiku Koryu Shi Kenkyu Josetsu: Chugoku Misshon Sukuru No Kenkyu [Introduction to the Research on History of Educational Exchange between the US and China: A Research on the Missionary Schools in China],1990, Ryukei Shosha, pp. 142–149.
- 89.
Er, C., Xiang Gang Ming Xiao Xun Li [Pilgrimage to Prestigious Schools of Hong Kong], 1986, Xiang Gang Zhou Kan Chubanshe, gave mention to a total of 27 institutions as ‘prestige schools’ (名校mingxiao) in Hong Kong.
- 90.
Ye Huo, Haizimen de kunan [The Plight of the Children], Modeng Wenwu Gongsi, 1977, p. 35. English original.
- 91.
Wen Wei Po, 27 October 1967 (edited and translated by the author).
- 92.
Class president. In every school in Hong Kong, prefects were asked to wear special ‘PREFECT’ badge on the uniform all the time, which made his/her superiority and closer position to the authority always visible.
- 93.
Girl’s Schools in Hong Kong, Including: Diocesan Girls’ School, True Light Girls’ College, St. Stephen’s Girls’ College, Ying Wa Girls’ School, St. Paul’s Convent School, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Siu Ming Catholic Secondary School, Hephaestus Books, p. 13 (emphasis mine).
- 94.
Kwong Yee Shun, ‘Blissful Memories of Ying Wa’, Ying Wa Girls’ School 95th Anniversary Issue, Ying Wa Girls’ School, 1995, pp. 82–83.
- 95.
Mitchell, op. cit., p. 361.
- 96.
The Hong Kong Education System, op. cit., p. 111.
- 97.
J. Walker, op. cit., pp. 29–30.
- 98.
SCMP, 23 June 1977.
- 99.
Census and Statistics Dept., Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, 1978 edition, p. 202. Notably, the population of children between the ages of 5 and 14 was also considerably higher in 1968 (1022,300) than in 1977 (916,200).
- 100.
Sheng Z., Xianggang Heishehui Huodong Zhenxiang [The Truth about Triad Activities in Hong Kong], Cosmos Books, 1980, p. 208.
- 101.
‘Doupizi ruci jiaru heishehui’ [‘Beanie thus Joined the Triads’], Ta Kung Pao, 27 April 1981 (edited and translated by the author).
- 102.
Harvey, D., Urbanization of Capital, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, pp. 131–132.
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Mizuoka, F. (2018). Production of Colonial Consciousness Among Middle-Class Chinese: Legitimisation of British Rule Through Education. In: Contrived Laissez-Faireism. The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69793-2_7
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