Nineteenth-century colonial Hong Kong (HIST2209)

University of Hong Kong, Department of History

Thursday, 16:30 to 18:20

CPD-LG.63

Dr. Bobby Tam

([email protected]) ([email protected])

Introduction

Hong Kong in the mid- and late nineteenth century as a small but dynamic colony witnessed
modernising impulses, urbanisation, racial tension, and cultural exchanges that were unique but also
relevant to other British colonies and Chinese cities. Beyond the simplified narrative of a ‘barren rock’
transformed into a vibrant port city, this course explores the complex co-existence of different
communities, the challenges in governing a diverse transient population, the preoccupation with
health and diseases, and the constant transnational interactions during the first six decades of British
colonial rule in Hong Kong. By focusing on primary source materials in tutorials and assignments, this
course provides an opportunity for students to familiarise themselves with sets of source materials
useful for Hong Kong history, laying foundations for them to develop research projects on Hong Kong
history in the future.

Requirement and Assessment

Participation 20%

Primary sources analysis essay (600 to 800 words) 20%

Fieldtrip report (600 to 800 words) 20%

Final research essay (2000 to 2500 words) 40%

Please notify the course instructor about your absence and reason of absence for both lectures and
tutorials. Unexcused absence will lead to deduction of your participation points.

Course-related announcements will be sent only to your HKU email address, so please make sure to
check your HKU email regularly.

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 Schedule

*This schedule is tentative and may subject to changes

Week 1 - 5th September

• Course introduction
• British presence in China before 1841

Suggested further readings and resources:

Carroll, John. Canton Days: British Life and Death in China. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.

Chen, Song-Chuan. Merchants of War and Peace: British Knowledge of China in the Making of the
Opium War. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2017.

‘Jardine-Matheson: How Opium Wars Founded Hong Kong’, Kings and Generals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHu-msqcrnk&t=367s&ab_channel=KingsandGenerals

Week 2 - 12th September

• Founding years of the colony – expectations, challenges and disillusionment

Suggested further readings:

Munn, Christopher. Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880. Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. (Chapter 1 and 2).

Week 3 – 19th September

• Law and justice

Suggested further readings:

Munn, Christopher. Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880. Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. (Chapter 3 and 6).

Week 4 – 26th September

• Early urban construction and the ‘Hong Kong Fever’

Suggested further readings and resources:

‘Form Follows Fever: Malaria and the Construction of Hong Kong, 1841–1849’, Center for the Study
of Globalization and Cultures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGm6Ej5UBv4

Ko, Tim-Keung. ‘A Review of Development of Cemeteries in Hong Kong: 1841-1950.’ Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 41 (2001), 241 - 280.

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Week 5 – 3rd October

• Organisations and philanthropy within the Chinese community

Suggested further readings:

Sinn, Elizabeth. Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2003. (Chapter 1 and 2).

Hamilton, Sheilah. Watching Over Hong Kong: Private Policing 1841–1941. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2008). (Chapter 3).

Week 6 – 10th October

• Other foreign communities, the Eurasians and racial dynamics

Suggested further readings:

Lee, Vicky. Being Eurasian: memories across racial divides. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
2004. (Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2).

Ting, Joseph 丁新豹 and Lu Shuying 盧淑櫻. Fei wo zu yi: zhan qian Xianggang de wai ji zu qun 非我
族裔:戰前香港的外籍族群. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2014.

Week 7 – 24th October

• Development in the 1880s

Suggested further readings and resources:

‘Mr. Chadwick's reports on the sanitary condition of Hong Kong’, Colonial Office, 1882. Wellcome
Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/mpnmmdbz

Pryor, E.G. "The Great Plague of Hong Kong." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch,
Vol. 41 (1975), 61 – 70.

Sinn, Elizabeth. Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2003. (Chapter 6 and 7).

Week 8 – 31st October

• Missionaries, education and intellectual exchanges

Suggested further readings and resources:

Smith, Carl T. Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen and the Church in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 2005. (Chapter 1, 2 and 7)

Yung Wing. My Life In China And America. Henry Holt And Company, 1909
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54635/54635-h/54635-h.htm

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Week 9 – 7th November

• Colonial expansion to the New Territories

Suggested further readings and resources:

Hase, Patrick. The Six-Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the age of imperialism. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2008.

Week 10 – 14th November

• Hong Kong as a migration transitory hub and political refuge

Suggested further readings:

Sinn, Elizabeth. ‘Xin Xi Guxiang: A Study of Regional Associations as a Bonding Mechanism in the
Chinese Diaspora. The Hong Kong Experience’. Modern Asian Studies, May, 1997, Vol. 31, No. 2 (May,
1997), pp. 375-397

Week 11 – 21st November

• Situating nineteenth-century colonial Hong Kong in global transnational history

Suggested further readings:

Sinn, Elizabeth and Christopher Munn (eds). Meeting place: encounters across cultures in Hong Kong,
1841-1984. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2017. (Introduction).

Week 12 – 28th November

• Quiz game!

Tutorials

Tutorials are on Thursday evening and Friday

Available slots: Thurs (18:30 – 19:20), Fri (10:30 – 11:20), Fri (11:30 – 12:20), Fri (13:30 – 14:20)

Tutorial One (Week 3) – Government documents

Tutorial Two (Week 4) – Newspapers

Tutorial Three (Week 5) – Photographs and maps, guidance on primary sources analysis essay

Tutorial Four (Week 7) – Guidance on fieldtrips

Tutorial Five (Week 9) – Travel writing and literature

(Week 11) – Consultation for final research essay

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 Assignments

Primary sources analysis essay (600 to 800 words)

A short essay based on finding and analysing primary sources by yourself

Further guidelines are on separate document on Moodle and guidance will be given during tutorials

Due on 16th October (Wednesday)

Fieldtrip report (600 to 800 words)

A report on a fieldtrip visit related to nineteenth-century colonial Hong Kong history. Please choose
one or two of the following sites for your fieldtrip:

1) Man Mo Temple
2) Hong Kong Maritime Museum
3) Tai Kwun
4) Hong Kong Medical Museum

Due on 13th November (Wednesday)

Final research essay (2000 to 2500 words)

A list of essay questions is on separate document on Moodle and guidance will be given during
lecture and tutorial consultation sessions

Due on 11th December (Wednesday)

Bibliography

**Cowell, Christopher. Form Follows Fever: Malaria and the Construction of Hong Kong, 1841 –
1849. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2024.

**Munn, Christopher. Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880. Hong
Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009.

**Sinn, Elizabeth. Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2003.

**Smith, Carl T. Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen and the Church in Hong Kong. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2005.

Endacott, George B. A History of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1973.

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Hase, Patrick. The Six-Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the age of imperialism. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2008.

Hayes, James. The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and
Countryside. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012

Holdsworth, May and Christopher Munn. Crime, justice and punishment in colonial Hong Kong:
Central police station, Central magistracy and Victoria gaol. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press,
2020.

Holdsworth, May and Christopher Munn. Edited. Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2012.

Kwong, Chi Man and Tsoi Yiu Lun. Eastern Fortress: A Military History of Hong Kong. 1840-1970.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2014.

Lim, Patricia. Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press, 2011.

Sinn, Elizabeth. Pacific Crossing: California Gold, Chinese Migration and the Making of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013.

Sinn, Elizabeth and Christopher Munn (eds). Meeting place: encounters across cultures in Hong Kong,
1841-1984. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2017.

Sweeting, Anthony. Education in Hong Kong, Pre-1841 to 1941: Fact and Opinion. Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 1990

Ting, Joseph 丁新豹 and Lu Shuying 盧淑櫻. Fei wo zu yi: zhan qian Xianggang de wai ji zu qun 非我
族裔:戰前香港的外籍族群. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2014.

Yao, Yingjia 姚穎嘉. Qun li sheng tian : zhan qian Xianggang ma tou ku li yu Hua ren she qu de guan
zhi 群力勝天 : 戰前香港碼頭苦力與華人社區的管治. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2015

** are the core books that are highly recommended for students to choose to read in this course.