Cartoon Paper And The Chinese Cartoonist

Updated (partial) on October 6, 2010
Part IV of Newsies in the Nineteenth Century

China Punch of May 28, 1867

1867-1876 China Punch - Hong Kong's First Cartoon Paper
In April 1867, China Punch, a fortnightly illustrated paper, was published by the China Mail, and conducted by editor W.N. Middleton and others (unfortunately, I do not know who the cartoonists were). China Punch ran on lines quite similar to its London prototype - the Punch, which was created by wood engraver Ebenezer Landells and writer Henry Mayhew in 1841. The dual got the idea for the paper from a satirical French paper, Charivari, and in fact the first issued (July 17, 1841) was subtitled 'The London Charivri'.

The China Punch featured local topics and men in a humorous and effective manner, coded, however with heavy colonial flavor making fun of local Chinese customs and assuming the superiority of British values. Such were met with almost instant popularity among the Western residents and visitors alike in Hong Kong. The paper ceased publication between May 28, 1868 and November 5, 1872, and was permanently closed on November 22, 1876 when Middleton left Hong Kong. The "Twentieth Century Impression of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China" said that since that time no paper of the kind has managed to rival its humorous and its witty caricatures and cartoons. A company named "W.N. Middleton and Co." existed in Hong Kong in the 1910s. I have no idea what the firm did for business and whether it was related to our Middleton.

This is a photo of the original print of the Shi Guk To,

a later version became full-colored.

Tse Tsan-tai - Hong Kong’s First Cartoonist
Republic revolutionist and South China Morning Post co-founder, Tse Tsan-tai 謝纘泰 was Hong Kong’s (as well as China’s) first cartoonist. The cartoon he created, "Shi Guk To" 時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East), was printed in Japan in 1899. In Tse’s cartoon, the map of China was infested by different animals and symbols that represented foreign powers that occupied territories in Qing China - Britain the dog, France the frog, Japan the sunray, German the sausage, and Russia the bear. United States the eagle was included as a potential threat. The Shi Guk To was reprinted and republished after the original publication both in China and overseas without citation of the original.

Tse Tsan-tai

Tse Tsan-tai, alias Tse Juan-tai, James See, was born on May 16, 1872 in Sydney. He was the son of Chinese immigrant small-business-owner Tse Yat-cheong 謝日昌, alias John See, who hailed from Kaiping 開平 in Guangdong. Tse, the father, went to Sydney in late 1850s or early 1860s where he opened a general store. Tse’s mother, Kwok Shi 郭氏 was said to be Australia’s first woman immigrant from China. The family later moved to Grafton and finally to a tin-mining town named Tingha, not far from Inverell. The family was generally known under the surname of Ah See. Tse was baptized James See in 1879 in Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Grafton. In 1888, the whole family (Tse had two brothers and three sisters) moved to Hong Kong and there Tse attended and graduated from the Queen’s College 皇仁書院.

- TO BE COMPLETED -

Newspaper Founded By Drug Barons

Updated (partial) on October 24, 2010

Part III of Newsies in the Nineteenth Century
1843-1863 Hong Kong Register 香港紀錄報

The Hong Kong Register was the successor of Canton Register, China’s first English newspaper and was headed by Philadelphian merchant W.W. Wood. But Wood was only the frontman; the newspaper was in fact founded and funded by James Matheson, partner of William Jardine in the opium firm of Jardine, Matheson and Co., with the help of his nephew Alexander Matheson. The princely opium house wanted a trade newspaper they can control but  want to be hush-hush about their involvement, to the extent that Matheson, the uncle, purposely moved to Macau during the time when the Canton Register was launched [1]. The first issue of Canton Register was printed in 1827 and was printed every two weeks. The newspaper moved to Macau along with the exodus of British merchants in May 1839 and from Macau to Hong Kong in June 1843. It was then renamed Hong Kong Register and continued to publish until its closure in 1863. As the trade paper for the foreign mercantile community in China, the Hong Kong Register contained information such as two pages of Price Current and carried stories / editorials that tend to serve the interest of foreign traders at the risk of being incitant.

[1] This is an extract of a letter sent from Alexander Matheson in Canton to James Matheson in Macau on November 16, 1827 in which the nephew explained measures being taken to conseal the connection between the paper and the Mathesons.

“... I mean to disavow any connection with the paper, further than my having hitherto assisted Wood from motives of friendship. With regard to the Press, it will be proper to state to them (Rudi Butt notes: some people began to question if the paper was in any way connected to the Mathesons), that you made an arrangement with Wood, before the paper was established, that if he chose he might take the Press at prime cost, and that as the paper has been successful beyond our expectation, Wood has availed himself of this arrangement, so that the Press is no longer your property. This will screen you from all responsibility. I should also think it prudent to remove the press to some other place, to make it appear more evident that you are entirely unconnected with the business…”

The Hong Kong Register was published weekly and only became a journal in 1859; meanwhile, it published eight other newspapers / supplements at different time period. They were: General Price Current, Mercantle Register, and Shipping List (1843-1845); Hong Kong Register and Government Gazette (April - September 1844, 1853-1855); Overland Register and Price Current (1845-1859, July 1860 - 1861);  The Register’s Advertiser (1853-1854); Hong Kong Register Daily Supplement (1859); China Chronicle, Hong Kong Register and Eastern Advertiser (January - June 1860); Overland China Chronicle (January - June 1860); and Hongkong Register Daily Advertiser (June 1860 - 1861).

The first publisher and editor of the Register William Whitman Wood (b.ca.1804-d.unk.) arrived in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1825 from Philadelphia. Son of celebrated actors Burke and Juliana Westray Wood, he was said to be a person of great versatility, mentally and materially. After heading and editing the Canton Register for a number of years, he worked for the American opium firm of Russell and Co. in Guangzhou. He left Canton in 1833 and settled in Manila where he managed a coffee and sugar plantation in Jala-Jala and coincidentally became the first person to introduce photograph to the the Philippines. He later joined Russell, Sturgis and Co. in Manila and there he died. Wood is remembered by his book - Sketches of China.

John Slade succeeded Wood as the Newspaper’s publisher and editor in 1831. I don’t have much information on Slade except that he was said to be a gentleman of good classic attainments and a Chinese scholar, he is well-remembered by his book - Narrative of the late proceedings and events in China published in 1839 (check my Google Library). He was one of the first land buyers in Hong Kong in 1842. A year later he moved with the newspaper and settled here, but not for long, he died from fever in August 1843, about two months after moving from Macau. Slade, essentially Hong Kong Register's first editor and publisher, was succeeded by John Cairns.

In 1847, a Lieutenant Sergeant of the 95th Royal Irish Regiment objected to a comment appeared in the Register in which he was quoted as an “informer” and assaulted and battered the editor John Cairns. Cairns brought charges against the Lieutenant and was awarded $1,000 damages. Another entry in the history I could find on Cairns was that he, together with Robert Strachan, a small business owner who later became the editor and proprietor of the Register, and Edward Farncomb, Hong Kong’s first enrolled solicitor, who styled themselves as the Trustees of the Hong Kong Theatrical Company, bought a plot of land from crooked government auctioneer and Hong Kong’s first licensee of Opium monopoly George Duddell. The land lot was situated around Wyndham Street and Wellington Street behind the old Hong Kong Club whereupon the theatrical group had erected the Victoria Theatre. The first performance in the new theatre was on November 1, 1848 under the patronage of the third governor George Bonham. The Trustee conveyed the lot back to Duddell because of financial difficulties, and the theatre then used for a mixed of performances, balls and assemblies by short-term lease. The theatre faced its final curtain in 1859 where it was up for auction. I know not who bought it and what had the new owner done with it. I could find out, but that would be material for another story. An unusual observation on Cairns as made in some material I read described him as “too kind hearted for a journalist”, that to me is surely a compliment.

The ownership of the Register changed hands in 1849. The new proprietor was originally a Scottish merchant captain, Robert Strachan, of the merchantman Scotland, who arrived in China in 1838. He worked for the opium firm of W.T. Gemmell and Co. in Canton (Guangzhou) and was one of the few Briton who stayed behind in Canton after the second exodus of British merchant in 1843. After befriended by Andrew Jardine, nephew of William Jardine, whilst in Canton he became an agent of Jardine Matheson and Co. This was what he said of Hong Kong then, "The Island of Hongkong will be one of the most considerable marts for trade in British possession in the course of a few years," He bought the Register in 1949 and became its proprietor until 1860. There was a conflicting entry in the “Hong Kong Directory 1859” that said Richard A. Long Philips was proprietor of the Hong Kong Register in 1859. Strachan edited the Register for a brief while in 1860. There was a not so flattering entry of Strachan in history - On August 19, 1851, he was fined $15 by the Chief Magistrate for thrashing (I do not know if this was only an expression of the one who wrote this, or Strachan physically beat the man with a whip) a neighboring Chinese silversmith who had disturbed him in the middle of the night on a Sunday.

William Henry Mitchell succeeded Cairns as editor in 1849. Mitchell came to China as a colonial officer. He was a clerk in the British consular office in Amoy (Xiamen) and in 1844 became a Consular Assistant. He ran a small mercantile firm in Hong Kong, the Mitchell and Co. between 1846 and 1847. After leaving the Register in early 1850, he was appointed Assistant Police Magistrate, Sheriff, Provost Marshal, Coroner, and Marshal of the Vice-admiralty Court. He was already a Justice of the Peace (official) on March 28, 1850. He was accused by the first Attorney General Thomas Chisholm Anstey QC in June 1856 of extorting money from prisoners while in the office of Sheriff and Acting Chief Magistrate.

Thurston Dale (b.1819-d.1850) was appointed editor after Mitchell left in 1850, but died a few months later. He was succeeded by William F. Bevan (b.1819-d.1858) who kept the job until his death eight years later. Bevan was responsible for the printing in 1852 of a catalog of books kept in the Victoria Library & Reading Room, essentially Hong Kong's first library, which was established in c.1848 in the form of a club. Bevan was assisted by Andrew Dixson, who was the Secretary of the Library in 1852, and again for 1852-53. Richard A. Long Philips took over as editor in 1859 but for one year; he was also the publisher for the same period. A number of editors had come and gone in 1960. Canadian Malcolm Macleod succeeded Philips, who in turn was succeeded by Register owner Robert Strachan, and then during the second half of the year there was James C. Beecher, an American missionary hailed from Hanover, New Hampshire. Two James were appointed editors in 1861, James Jeffrey and James L. Brown. The last publisher of the newspaper, who succeeded Malcolm Macleod in 1861, was Henry M. Levy. I found no information about Levy.

James C. Beecher

James C. Beecher (b.1828-d.1886) was the youngest child of Rev. Dr. Lyman and Harriet Porter Beecher []. After graduation from the Dartmouth University, the young Beecher became a sailor and ventured to the Far East, arriving in China for the first time in 1849. He then served five years as a ship’s officer in the East India trade. Beecher returned from the sea and attended Andover Theological Seminary, and there he married Ann Morse, a widow with a young child. The couple left for Canton (Guangzhou) where they served as missionaries, and there Beecher was appointed Seaman’s Chaplain for Whampoa. He left China in 1861 to go home and fight in the American Civil War. I do not know when he came to Hong Kong and why he was appointed editor of the Register. His wife, Ann Morse, returned to the States two years earlier suffered from drug and alcohol addiction and died in 1863. During the Civil War, Beecher served in the First Long Island Regiment as chaplain, and then the 141st New York Volunteers as a lieutenant colonial. In 1863 he was appointed to recruit an African regiment, the First North Carolina Colored Volunteers. The regiment was reorganized in 1864 as the 35th United States Colored Troops and was under the command of Beecher, who was now a full colonel. After the Civil War, Beecher served as pastor at different churches in New York. In 1881, he suffered from a nervous breakdown and was admitted to Dr. Gleason's water cure sanitarium in Elmira, New York - the same institution Ann Morse spent her final years. Beecher took his own life while in Elmira. James C. was a half brother of famous abolitionist and novelist, Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896), and Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887), a prominent Congregationalist minister, social reformer, abolitionist, and public speaker.

I found no information on the Register for the period between 1861 and 1863. When I do I will write more on this topic, until then, this is all I can tell you about Hong Kong's first trade paper.

- END -

Newsies In The Nineteenth Century

Updated (partial) on July 30, 2012

Hong Kong Gazette 香港公報 or 香港鈔報 (May 1, 1841 - )

The Friend of China 中國之友 (March 17, 1842 - )

Free Correspondent (1842- unknown)

A weekly newspaper established by some eminent Chinese scholars.

References:
- Friend of China, November 10, 1842

Eastern Globe (1842- )

Weekly Criminal Calendar (1842- )

Hong Kong Chronicle (1842- )

Hong Kong Register 香港紀錄報 (1843-1863)

The Hong Kong Register was the successor of Canton Register, China’s first English newspaper headed by Philadelphian merchant William Whiteman Wood (b. c.1804), but was in fact founded and funded by James Matheson, partner of William Jardine in the opium firm of Jardine, Matheson and Co., with the help of his nephew Alexander. The first issue of Canton Register was printed in 1827 and was printed every two weeks. The newspaper moved to Macau along with the exodus of British merchants in May 1839 and from Macau to Hong Kong in June 1843. It was then renamed Hong Kong Register and continued to publish until its closure in 1863. As the trade paper for the foreign mercantile community in China, the Hong Kong Register contained information such as two pages of Price Current and carried stories / editorials that tend to serve the interest of foreign traders at the risk of being incitant.

The first publisher and editor of the Register W.W. Wood arrived in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1825 from Philadelphia. Son of celebrated actors Burke and Juliana Westray Wood, he was said to be a person of great versatility, mentally and materially. After heading and editing the Canton Register for a number of years, he worked for the American opium firm of Russell and Co. in Guangzhou. He left Canton in 1833 and settled in Manila where he managed a coffee and sugar plantation in Jala-Jala and coincidentally became the first person to introduce photograph to the the Philippines. He later joined Russell, Sturgis and Co. in Manila and there he died. Wood is remembered by his book - Sketches of China.

John Slade succeeded Wood as the Newspaper’s publisher and editor. I don’t have much information on Slade except that he was said to be a gentleman of good classic attainments and a Chinese scholar, he is well-remembered by his book - Narrative of the late proceedings and events in China published in 1839 (check my Google Library). He was one of the first land buyers in Hong Kong in 1842. A year later he moved with the newspaper and settled here, but not for long, he died from fever in August 1843, about two months after moving from Macau. Slade was succeeded by John Cairns.

The China Mail 德臣西報 (1845-1974)

First issue printed on February 20, 1845. The China Mail was founded by Scotsman Andrew Shortrede 蕭德銳, a prominent printer in Edinburgh, who learnt the printing craft as an apprentice in 1920s. He was the proprietor of the publishing house East Thistle Lane between 1830 and 1840. Judging from the large number of titles printed by Thistle Lance, Shortrede ought to be a very successful publisher. From 1841 to 1843 he owned and managed another publishing house in Edinburgh, George IV Bridge. It was said in the Scottish Book Trade Index (SBTI) that he fell into bad health in around 1843-44 and went to China although I do not know at what time he arrived in Hong Kong and whether the China Mail was the first venture he embarked on here. Being a learned but humble person, Shortrede soon became a well respected member of the community. In 1846, he drafted the by-laws of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch [1], which was then founded in February the following year. He had a keen interest in education and was one of the financiers who support the schooling of three young Hong Kong men in the United States and Britain [2]. He was a keen promoter for the establishment of the St. Andrew School, a public school opened in 1855, which was the first school in Hong Kong not run by missionaries. It was also the first school to be funded by public subscription.

Shortrede established the publishing house A. Shortrede and Co. in Hong Kong in the 1850s, which continued to publish books well after his death and into the twentieth century. A. Shortrede was famous for publishing the Hong Kong Directory, which also came with a list of foreign residents in China. The earliest edition I have read was for 1859.

[1] The first office-bearers of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch included Shortrede, second Colonial Governor John Francis Davis (as President), Lieutenant Governor Major-General George Charles D’Aguilar, Colonial Surgeon Peter Young, Colonial Treasurer William Thomas Mercer, John Charles Bowring, partner of Jardine, Matheson and Co. (1858-1864); and Thomas Francis Wade, British Envoy to China and later inventor of the Wade System of Romanization of Chinese 韋氏拼音.

[2] All three were alumni of the Morrison Education Society School in Hong Kong and native of Xiangshan (Chungshan), Guangdong (Kwangtung) and were sent to the Monson Academy in Massachusetts. Kuan Huang 黃寬 went on to study medicine and surgery at University of Edinburgh and became the first Chinese to practice Western medicine in China. Yung Wing 容閎 went on to Yale and became its first Chinese graduate. He later became a diplomat and an educator. Wong Shing 黃勝 only spent a year in Monson and returned to Hong Kong due to poor health. After a stint working for the China Mail, he went on to established two Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong. He was appointed the first Chinese juror and the second Chinese member of the Legislative Council.

These were the key people working at the China Mail in 1859: Andrew Scott Dixson, Proprietor; Andrew Wilson, Editor; and James Jeffrey, Robert Low, N.B. Bonney, Francisco C. Barradas, J.J. da Silva e Souza, A.J. da Silva e Souza.

The May 1, 1855 issue of Chinese Serial carried a story
about Joan of Arc written in Chinese.

遐邇貫珍 Chinese Serial (1853- )

The Hong Kong Daily Press, or simply known as the Daily Press 香港孖剌西報 (October 1, 1857 - )

The Hong Kong Mercury and Shipping Gazette (1866- )

The Daily Advertiser (1871- )

The Hong Kong Times: Daily Advertiser, and Shipping Gazette (1873)

循環日報 Tsun-wan Yat-po or Universal Circulating Herald (1874-1947)

The Hongkong Telegraph 士蔑報 (1881-1951)

First issue appeared on June 15, 1881. The Telegraph was founded by Robert Fraser-Smith (d. February 9, 1895 Hong Kong) to whom the newspaper owed its Chinese name, 士蔑 simply Smith. I was unable to trace Fraser-Smith’s background before he became the proprietor, publisher and editor of the Telegraph. Fraser-Smith was often referred to as atrabilious and scandalous and had been jailed several times for libel. When Fraser-Smith died in 1895, his interest in the Hong Kong Telegraph was acquired by John Joseph Francis Q.C. [3] (b. 1839, Dublin - d. September 22, 1901, Hong Kong) his more than once prosecutor in the court-of-law. Francis was said to be a sparring partner of Fraser-Smith, in-and-outside of the court-of-law. Francis retained the controlling interest of the newspaper until 1900, whereupon the newspaper company was formed into a limited liability company by Francis, the company was registered on February 22, 1900. Robert Ho-tung and several of his Chinese associates became the principal shareholders of the newspaper company, which they felt would serve as an organ in which to give expression of their views. The shares were held under the name of the Chinese Syndicate 香港華商公局, predecessor of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

In 1916 or 1917, American dentist Joseph W. Noble acquired a majority interest in the newspaper company and took on the role as publisher. Noble was the second dentist to practice in Hong Kong and one of the keen supporters for the establishment of the Hong Kong’s medical school. He was also the Chairman of the South China Morning Post (1907-1911). For a period of time, SCMP and the Telegraph jointly published an evening paper, named Evening Edition South China Morning Post and The Hongkong Telegraph. The Hong Kong Telegraph merged with the South China Morning Post in the beginning of 1941. The two were split after the Pacific War and five years later in 1951 the Hong Kong Telegraph closed.

[3] J.J. Francis was a leading legal professional at his time and was the third barrister in Hong Kong to become a Queen’s Council.

Chesney Duncan 鄧肯 was the second editor of the Telegraph, who succeeded Fraser-Smith in 1895 and continued until 1899. Duncan was an active republican revolution sympathizer, who had met Sun Yat-sen on several occasions and was listed as a supporting member of the Hsing Chung Hui 興中會. In fact, the English version of the declaration and mission statement of Hsing Chung Hui was drafted by Duncan and Thomas Reid of China Mail. The Telegraph and the China Mail were the first newspapers to openly champion the republic movement in China. On one occasion, Duncan was called before the Colonial Secretary James Lockhart, who reprimanded him for what the paper published, claiming it amounted to incitement of the Chinese to revolt against a government with which Britain was on friendly terms. Despite the warning, the newspaper's pro-revolutionists attitude has not swerved.

E.F. Skertchly replaced Duncan as editor in 1899 and left in 1901. He moved to Penang and later became the editor of the Penang Gazette and then chief editor of the Straits Echo, and there he died, the year unknown to me. His wife remarried a Samuel Bonnett Darby of Rugby and Brighton.

E.A. Snewin became the editor in 1901 at a time when Robert Ho-tung and his colleagues at the Chinese Syndicate became principal shareholders of the Telegraph. Snewin sat in the inaugural committee of the first Journalistic Association in Hong Kong. He left the newspaper in 1906.

A.W. Brebner was appointed editor in January in 1906 and continued until 1910. Brebner hailed from Aberdeen, Scotland and received education at the Robert Gordon’s College. After graduation he joined the Aberdeen Free Press at a editorial staff. In 1895, he went to Jamaica and became the sub-editor of the Daily Time, and from there he proceeded to Hong Kong in 1906.

Three more names appeared as editors of the Telegraph but no information on the time period in which they held the position can be found. They are: E.B. Helme, F.L. Pratt and A. Hick. I found nothing about Helem and Hicks.

Frederick Lionel Pratt (b.1872-d.1940s) was an Australian who was famous as co-owner-publisher of the Who’s Who in the Far East.  The other owner was another Australian William Henry Donald (b.1875-d.1946), the managing director of the China Mail. The book (1906, 1907 editions are known to me) was printed by the China Mail.

J.P. Braga

Jose Pedro Braga 布力架 (b. 1871 Hong Kong - D. 1944 Macau) was the manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph between 1902 and 1910 who also succeeded Francis as the publisher. Braga came from a Portuguese family with long standing in Macau. His maternal grandfather Delfino Noronha ran a printing press in Hong Kong since 1844, Noronha and Co., a quasi-government printer, which eventually became the Hong Kong Government Printer. Braga studied at the Italian Convent School (predecessor of the Sacred Heart Canossian College) and St. Joseph’s College in Hong Kong and went to India afterward, and there he graduated from the University of Calcutta. On his returned to Hong Kong in 1899, Brada worked for his grandfather until Noronha’s death in July 1902. Thereafter Braga joined the Telegraph at the invitation of Robert Ho-tung. After having spent eight years (1902-1910) with the Telegraph, Braga went on to become the Hong Kong correspondent for Reuters. He was succeeded as publisher by the new proprietor Joseph Noble. In c.1920, he gave up journalism and ventured into the business domain. He was appointed Chairman of China Light and Power Company in 1934 (and again in 1938) after the founding chairman Robert Gordon Shewan was oust by the principal shareholders the Kadoorie family. Braga also sat on the board of several prominent companies which were managed by Shewan, Tomes and Co., a firm controlled by Shewan.

Braga was a member of the Sanitary Board between 1927 and 1930. He was appointed the first Portuguese member of the Legislative Council in 1929, he continued to serve in the council until 1937. He was created an OBE in 1935 and was honored with the naming of Braga Circuit 布力架街. Braga married Olive Pauline Pollard (b. January 16, 1870 Launceston, Tasmania, Australia - d. February 13, 1952) 1884 in Calcutta. She was the pianist and violinist with the Pollards Lilliputian Opera Copmany, her father James Joseph Pollard was the founder. Jose and Pauline Brada had five children. One of their sons, Jose Maria (Jack) Braga (b.1897-d.1988) was a famous writer.

香港華字日報 The Chinese Mail (1895- )

The Hong Kong Weekly Press (1895- )

Tse Tsan-tai

Epilog

At the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

None of these newspapers and periodicals remains today. The oldest surviving newspaper is the South China Morning Post, which was founded on February 6, 1903 by republican revolutionist and collaborator-turned-rival of Sun Yat-sen, Tse Tsan-tai 謝纘泰, and Briton Alfred Cunningham. A republican revolution sympathizer who had become an active participant, Cunningham was an editor for China Mail and Hong Kong Daily Express as well as a correspondence for New York Sun prior to joining SCMP. The newspaper, which was named South Qing Morning Post 南清早報 rather than SCMP before the establishment of the China Republic, had its first issued printed on November 6, 1903. Cunningham assumed the post of Editor-in-Chief.

Hong Kong's First Press Association

The first journalistic association in Hong Kong, and in the East, was formed on December 16, 1903 and inaugurated on January 6, 1904. These were the first office-bearers: President, Thomas H. Reid of China Mail; Chairman of Committee, P.W. Sergeant of Daily Press; Committee, Douglas Story of South China Morning Post, W.H. Donald of China Mail, and E.A. Snewin of the Telegraph. The object, as shown in the constitution of the association was "the elevation and improvement of the status of journalists in the Far East." It was said that the association did not last long but I have no information when the association was dissolved.

The modern day journalist association, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club was formed in Shanghai during the 1940s. The FCC moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and has resided at its current quarters of the historic ice house since 1982. The club, as its name suggests, functions more as a social club than a press association. The Hong Kong Journalist Association, which comprises mainly local journalists, was established in 1968.

- TO BE COMPLETED -

King Of Libel Suits

Updated (partial) on October 18, 2010

Part II of Newsies in the Nineteenth Century
1881-1951 The Hongkong Telegraph 士蔑報

First issue appeared on June 15, 1881. The Hongkong Telegraph was founded by Robert Fraser-Smith (d. February 9, 1895 Hong Kong) to whom the newspaper owed its Chinese name, 士蔑 which was simply "Smith". I was unable to trace Fraser-Smith’s background before he became the proprietor, publisher and editor of the Telegraph. Fraser-Smith was often referred to as atrabilious and scandalous and had been jailed several times for libel. When Fraser-Smith died in 1895, his interest in the Hong Kong Telegraph was acquired by John Joseph Francis Q.C. [1] his more than once prosecutor in the court-of-law. Francis was said to be a sparring partner of Fraser-Smith, in-and-outside of the court-of-law. Francis retained the controlling interest of the newspaper until 1900, whereupon he reorganized the newspaper company into a limited liability company and had it registered on February 22, 1900. Robert Ho-tung and several of his Chinese associates became the principal shareholders of the newspaper company, which they felt would serve as an organ in which to give expression of their views. The shares were held under the name of the Chinese Syndicate 香港華商公局, predecessor of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

[1] J.J. Francis was a leading legal professional at his time and was the third barrister in Hong Kong to become a Queen’s Council.

Surely Fraser-Smith ought to be crowned the king of libel suits in the nineteenth century Hong Kong, taking into consideration the number of lawsuits brought against him as well as the diversity in backgrounds of the people he attacked. That I know of, he defended himself without counsel in all cases and he was very good in it, unlike the Tarrant Caine Libel Case in 1859 in which the defendant - William Tarrant, proprietor and editor of The Friend of China, had to defend himself without counsel since the plaintiff - William Caine, Hong Kong’s first Magistrate and later Lieutenant-Governor, hired all the barristers in town before the lawsuit was served. Tarrant lost the case and was sent to jail where he spent the next twelve months. Incidentally, Fraser-Smith also logged nearly a year’s jail time, in total, serving sentences from libel suits brought against him. Here is an account of some of the more famous cases.

1863 photo of Bandmann in the role
of Shylock in Merchant of Venice

- July 1882: sentenced to two months’ imprisonment for libeling the German tragedian, Daniel Edward Bandmann.
Bandmann (b. November 1, 1839 - d. 1905), son of a Hess-Cassel Jewish factory owner, made his name known in the operatic world not in Germany but in New York as a promising young actor in the Altes Stadt Theatre in 1857. His first English-language performance was also in New York in the Niblo’s Garden on January 15, 1863. The Bandmann Opera Company he later established became a prominent establishment and many famous American artists were at one time or another members of the company. A Shakespearean actor, Bandmann’s most popular roles included Hamlet, Shylock, and Richard III. Bandmann gave up acting in 1884 and settled in Missoula, Montana and became a rancher. The libel suit took place when the troupe was performing in Hong Kong during its Far East and Australia tour that started in 1879.

The Hongkong Daily Press followed the pre-trial hearing and the trial of the Smith and Bandmann Libel Case that started on July 18, 1881 quite diligently. To view these reports, go to this Hong Kong Public Libraries Page; check 'Old HK Newspaper; in the text box, type 'bandmann' 'libel', then check 'Keyword' and in the following box select 'Content'; and press Search. Enjoy, if you are people of the "lower class" as I am as described by the Singapore Straits Intelligence. A brief and clear report can be found in the October 5, 1882 edition of The Wanganui Herald (of New Zealand) entitled The Bandmann Libel Case.

- June 25 1883: sentenced to pay $100 and costs to James Bulgin, publisher and editor of China Mail, whom he attacked in the Telegraph on June 5; Bulgin sued for $1,000. Bulgin had been in the Far East for a long period time; in addition to Hong Kong, he had stationed in Yokohama and Shanghai.

- November 1883: sued by John Macneile Price, Surveyor-General, who was accused by Fraser-Smith of jobbery and corruption; the case was won by Fraser-Smith. J.M. Price, FGS, FRGS [2], Surveyor-General from 1873 to 1889, was also remembered by the schematic design of the Hong Kong Observatory that he proposed to the home government in London in 1882. The plan was approved in May and construction started the followoing year in 1883.

[2] FGS - Fellow of the Geographical Society; FRGS - Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

- February 1890: sentenced to pay $250 and costs to Oscar Grant; I was unable to find out who Grant was.

- December 1890: convicted of criminally conspiring with a Telegraph reporter George William Ward to bring a charge of rape against John Minhinnett, a foreman of the Public Works Department. The two were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with damages to Minhinnett of $3,000. The case showed that Fraser-Smith and a man called Webber; I have no idea who he was, borrowed $7,000 from Minhinnett for some time and had not returned the money. Minhinnett had, therefore, initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the two. Fraser-Smith intended to force Minhinnett out of Hong Kong or put him under a circumstance he could no longer be in a position to press forward the bankruptcy proceedings. Ward, as instructed by his boss, met Minhinnett and threatened him to give up the proceeding. When Minhinnett did not respond to the threat, Fraser-Smith and Ward then accused him of rapes. The alleged victims were two young girls: the Eurasian (half-German) daughter of the Chinese woman Minhinnett lived with, and a Chinese girl the couple adopted. J.J. Francis QC, appeared for the prosecution. Unbeknown to both at that time, I suspect, Francis would one day take over from Fraser-Smith as owner of the Telegraph.

The China Mail gave the trial proceedings two third of a page coverage in its October 10, 1890 edition. The report can be viewed at the Hong Kong Public Library Page, simply follow the instructions written above, but type ‘minhinnett’ in the search text box.

- 1892: sued by John Mitchell of Butterfield & Swire for libel, who obtained $250 damages from Fraser-Smith.

The Singapore Straits Intelligence gave these harsh comments about Fraser-Smith in its August 8, 1882 edition following the sentencing of the the Smith and Bandmann Libel Case

"… This has been done in Hong Kong, where Press privileges have been rankly abused by a person named Fraser Smith, and he has suffered one of the consequences - legal punishment. This person having a printing office at his disposal, started a newspaper, called the Hong Kong Telegraph, and commenced operation by abusing all who differed from him. His hand was against everyone, and every man’s hand was against him, though many were frightened to repel his attacks. In the coarsest of language he assaulted individuals and institutions alike, and when argument failed he had recourse to the last resource of lampoonists - that of raking up unpleasant incidents of a private nature, and throwing them in the face of the party he attacked with unblushing effrontery. The man was a perfect nuisance. He was like a mad dog, snarling and frothing at everyone, and running “amok” through the place, and biting the first man he met, and by some he was held to be a perfect terror. By the lower class he was admired. There is always a class who mistake Billingagatism for fine writing, and continual journalist swearing as exhibition of talent, and such people were supporters of the Telegraph …"

Editorial office of the Hongkong Telegraph

In 1916 or 1917, American dentist Joseph W. Noble (b. 1839, Dublin - d. September 22, 1901, Hong Kong) acquired a majority interest in the newspaper company and took on the role as publisher. Noble graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1883 with a dentistry degree, and joined alumnus Herbert Poate in Hong Kong in 1887. Poate and Noble were the first two dentists to practice in Hong Kong. Their firm, Poate and Noble, provided free dental service at the Alice Memorial Hospital. Noble was one of the keen supporters for the establishment of Hong Kong’s first medical school and was involved in realizing the plan to incorporate the Hong Kong College of Medicine into the University of Hong Kong. He was the college’s lecturer in Dental Surgery from 1896 to 1912. His interest in newspaper began at the turn of the century (but I don’t know what were the reasons) with the establishment of the South China Morning Post. Nobel became a member of SCMP’s board of directors in 1904 and steered the newspaper company through a number of financial crises in 1905-06. He was elected chairman of the board in 1907 and held on to the chair until 1911. Noble, however, kept quite a low profile; he was listed in the Who’s Who in the Far East for that period of time simply as a dental surgeon, and there was no mention of his name at all in the "Twentieth Century Impression of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China".

For a period of time, SCMP and the Telegraph jointly published an evening paper, named Evening Edition South China Morning Post and The Hongkong Telegraph. The Hongkong Telegraph merged with the South China Morning Post in the beginning of 1941. The two were split after the Pacific War and five years later in 1951 the Hongkong Telegraph closed.

I was able to find the following personalities who worked for the Telegraph either as editors or managers.

Chesney Duncan 鄧肯 was the second editor of the Telegraph, who succeeded Fraser-Smith in 1895 and continued until 1899. Duncan was an active republican revolution sympathizer, who had met Sun Yat-sen on several occasions and was listed as a supporting member of the Hsing Chung Hui 興中會. In fact, the English version of the declaration and mission statement of Hsing Chung Hui was drafted by Duncan and Thomas Reid of China Mail. The Telegraph and the China Mail were the first newspapers to openly champion the republic movement in China. On one occasion, Duncan was called before the Colonial Secretary James Lockhart, who reprimanded him for what the paper published, claiming it amounted to incitement of the Chinese to revolt against a government with which Britain was on friendly terms. Despite the warning, the newspaper's pro-revolutionists attitude has not swerved.

E.F. Skertchly replaced Duncan as editor in 1899 and left in 1901. He moved to Penang and later became the editor of the Penang Gazette and then chief editor of the Straits Echo, and there he died, the year unknown to me. His wife remarried a Samuel Bonnett Darby of Rugby and Brighton.

E.A. Snewin became the editor in 1901 at a time when Robert Ho-tung and his colleagues at the Chinese Syndicate were principal shareholders of the Telegraph. Snewin sat in the inaugural committee of the first Journalistic Association in Hong Kong. He left the newspaper in 1906.

A.W. Brebner

A.W. Brebner was appointed editor in January in 1906 and continued until 1910. Brebner hailed from Aberdeen, Scotland and received education at the Robert Gordon’s College. After graduation he joined the Aberdeen Free Press at a editorial staff. In 1895, he went to Jamaica and became the sub-editor of the Daily Time, and from there he proceeded to Hong Kong in 1906.
Three more names appeared as editors of the Telegraph but there is no information on the time period in which they held the position. They are E.B. Helme, F.L. Pratt and A. Hicks. I found no information relating to Helme and Hicks.

Frederick Lionel Pratt (b.1872-d.1940s) was an Australian who was famous as co-owner-publisher of the "Who’s Who in the Far East".  The co-owner was another Australian William Henry Donald (b.1875-d.1946), the managing director of the China Mail. The directory (1906-07, 1907-08 editions are known to me) was printed by the China Mail. Donald moved to Shanghai in 1911 and became the editor of the Far Eastern Review from 1911 to 1920. Additionally, he was an adviser to Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek.

J.P. Braga

Jose Pedro Braga 布力架 (b. 1871 Hong Kong - d. 1944 Macau) was the manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph between 1902 and 1910 who also succeeded Francis as the publisher. Braga came from a Portuguese family with long standing in Macau. His maternal grandfather Delfino Noronha ran a printing press in Hong Kong since 1844, Noronha and Co., a quasi-government printer, which eventually became the Hong Kong Government Printer. Braga studied at the Italian Convent School (predecessor of the Sacred Heart Canossian College) and St. Joseph’s College in Hong Kong and went to India afterward, and there he graduated from the University of Calcutta. On his returned to Hong Kong in 1899, Brada worked for his grandfather until Noronha’s death in July 1902. Thereafter Braga joined the Telegraph at the invitation of Robert Ho-tung. After having spent eight years (1902-1910) with the Telegraph, Braga went on to become the Hong Kong correspondent for Reuters. He was succeeded as publisher by the new owner of the newspaper Joseph Noble. In c.1920, Braga gave up journalism and ventured into the business domain and there he attained a much higher station in life. Among other achievements, he was appointed Chairman of China Light and Power Company in 1934 (and again in 1938) after CLP's founding chairman Robert Gordon Shewan was oust by the principal shareholders - the Kadoorie family. Braga also sat on the board of several prominent companies which were managed by Shewan, Tomes and Co., a firm controlled by Shewan. I found no personal relations between Braga and Shewan, or any between he and the Kadoories.

Braga was a member of the Sanitary Board between 1927 and 1930. He was appointed the first Portuguese member of the Legislative Council in 1929, he continued to serve in the council until 1937. He was created an OBE in 1935 and was honored with the naming of Braga Circuit 布力架街. Braga married Olive Pauline Pollard (b. January 16, 1870 Launceston, Tasmania, Australia - d. February 13, 1952) 1884 in Calcutta. She was the pianist and violinist with the Pollards Lilliputian Opera Copmany, her father James Joseph Pollard was the founder. Jose and Pauline Brada had five children. One of their sons, Jose Maria (Jack) Braga (b.1897-d.1988) was a famous writer.

- TO BE COMPLETED -

The Famous And Infamous Freemasons

Updated (partial) on September 29, 2010

What makes secret societies so attractive is that they are not completely secretive. If they were, you and I won’t know about them and therefore they cannot exist as secret societies. Catch-22. Anyways, we know the Freemasonry exists and has been in Hong Kong as early as the beginning of the British reign. I might try and explore the trail of the Masonic Order in Hong Kong, but not right now. Here I wish only to highlight some of the early Freemasons who were prominent citizens in Hong Kong, meanwhile not letting up on the infamous ones. I probably will never find out what were the admissions policies for membership, as obviously, it ought to be secretive. The membership roster certainly contained people highly incompatible.

Chan Tai-kwong 陳大光 - b.1827-d.1882; a protégé of the first Bishop of Victoria, George Smith; trained to be an evangelist (1850); while placed under probation before being ordained as a priest, licensed by the Bishop to peach to prisoners in the Victoria Goal; appointed assistant tutor in the St. Paul’s College where the Bishop served as the warden, despite the fact that Chan was deficient in both Chinese and English languages; quitted working for the church and took a job as a government interpreter (1856); became an Opium Farmer, a term used at the time to refer to the holder of the Opium Monopoly of the right to prepare and sell opium (1858); implicated in the corruption investigation of Acting Colonial Secretary William Thomas Bridges; caught in financial problems and disappeared from Hong Kong (1858); reappeared in 1867 and took over from Ng Choy 伍才as the Chinese Clerk and Shroff to the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, a position he held until his death in 1882; member, General Committee of the Tung Wah Hospital; Chan Tai-Kwong would very likely be the first Hong Kong Chinese to be initiated a Freemason

P.H. Holyoak - Chairman, HSBC (1918/19); merchant, head of Reiss and Co. and later Holyoak, Massey and Co., Ltd.; Chairman (1917/18, 1920/21, 1925), Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce; Member, Legislative Council (1915-1926); Captain, Royal Hong Kong Golf Club (1921); President, Royal Society of St. George Hong Kong Branch (1918/19); President, Aero Club (1920)

Daniel Richard Caldwell 高和爾
Dr. Philip Bernard Chenery Ayres
Dr. Gregory Paul Jordan
Dr. David Hunter Ainslie
Dr. Ma Luk 馬祿臣
Dr. Ho Kai
Wei Yuk
Paul Chater
Hormusjee Mody
Dr. Francis Clark
Charles Cleverly - Surveyor-General
William Thomas Bridges
Richard Charles Lee 利銘澤

As you can see there are more doctors listed here than people of other professions; the reason being I recently gave a report about doctors in Hong Kong and in the process gathered plenty of information on them including who were Freemasons. What is shown here may or may not be the true composition of the membership in terms of members’ occupations.

The Not-so-Famous Ones

Sandwith B. Drinker- b. November 19, 1808, Baltimore; ship's captain; settled with wife Susanna in Macau since 1837; moved to Hong Kong in 1845 and started agency trading firms in Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong; Worshipful Master of Zetland Lodge, Hong Kong (1850/51); appointed United States Consul in Hong Kong (years unclear); reportedly killed on January 15, 1858 eating poisoned bread from the E-sing Bakery [1], but nobody actually died from that incident; buried at the (Old) Protestant Cemetery in Macau, the date of death written in the memorial was January 18, 1858

[1] E-sing was the bread supplier to all army barracks and almost all European households in Hong Kong. The incident happened amidst the Second Opium War and caused a panic in the city as rumors spread of a plot to kill the entire Westerner population. Nobody actually died from eating the poisoned bread. The owner of the bakery, Cheong Ah-lum, was charged with administrating poison but was eventually acquitted due to lack of evident. Cheong was defended by a Freemason - William Thomas Bridges!

Not Resident, but Connected to Hong Kong

John Jacob Astor - b.1763-d.1884; a Jewish butcher from Waldorf, Germany who went to the United States penniless in 1784; miraculously became a member of the prestigious Holland Lodge No.8 of the Freemasonry in New York soon after arriving in the city, rising to become the Worshipful Master in 1788; engaged in fur trade and then moved up to international mercantile, financing and real property businesses; rumored to be a member of an even more secret society- the Illuminati (yes, the same Illuminati that Dan Brown and Tom Hanks were theatricalizing in their two movies); secured rights to cargo shipping under questionable circumstances during a time when the U.S. government had placed an embargo on all U.S. ships; became the first American, as well as Westerner, to ship opium to China as a free trader, off-loading in Hong Kong; Astor’s opium business stopped abruptly in 1819 in the same fashion as it began three years before (as if he were given a 3-years license to handle the opium trade); he was, according to Forbes Magazine’s study in 2006, the fourth all-time wealthiest American; his great-grand daughter married James Roosevelt, the half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt [2]

[2] The middle name of President Roosevelt came from his maternal grandfather, Warren Delano, Jr., who was the United States Consul to Hong Kong and a prosperous opium trader (1830s and again in 1860s). The President was initiated into Freemasonry on October 11, 1911 at none other than Holland Lodge No.8 in New York. Am I to believe all these were nothing more than co-incidents?

- TO BE COMPLETED -

Ho Fuk-tong, Father Of All Doctors

Updated (partial) on October 6, 2010

Ho Fuk-tong

When Ho Tsun-shin 何進善 (alias Ho Fuk-tong 何福堂, Ho Yun-yeung 何潤養) was ordained a London Missionary Society [1] priest in 1864, he knew he had just become the first Chinese Protestant minister in Hong Kong [2]; what he didn’t know was that his name would one day be placed atop (on the Chinese side) a family tree, one that depicts the origin and the early evolution of the Chinese medical community in Hong Kong.

[1] (LMS) 倫敦宣道會

[2] Ho was the second ordained minister in China after Liang Fa 梁發 (b.1789-d.1855) who was ordained by Robert Morrison of LMS in 1823. Ho and Liang were colleagues at the Anglo-Chinese College printing press in Malacca; both of them were woodblock cutters

The Father

Son of a second generation immigrant worker in Malacca, the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong was born in Xiqiaoshan, Nanhai, Guangdong 廣東省南海縣西樵山 in 1817. In his teens, Ho was sent to Malacca to join his father and grandfather who worked at the Anglo-Chinese College, later to be known as the Yang Wah College 英華書院, both as woodblock cutters (one who carves woodblocks for use in printing) in the school printing press.When Ho turned twenty years of age, he was admitted to the College, which was established and run by LMS for the purpose to scout bright ethnic Chinese as missionary candidates and prepare them for evangelistic works. Ho was baptized the following year. Always an eager and quick learner, Ho was well liked by the school headmaster Scottish missionary James Legge 理雅各 (b.1815-d.1897) who went on to teach Ho theology and the languages of Hebrew and Greek. At times, Ho would assist Legge in teaching as well as preaching at the College. Following the British occupation of Hong Kong in 1841, the College was moved from Malacca to Hong Kong in 1843. Ho moved with Legge and there he continued to study theology while working for the college and preaching. In 1864, he was ordained and in stages was put in charge of the Union Church 香港愉寧堂 [3]. Meanwhile, the Rev. Ho traveled quite extensively to Guangzhou (Canton), Dongguan and Foshan doing missionary work and building new churches. Ho narrowly escaped death when an anti-Christianity riot broke out in front of the new LMS church in Foshan on the very day it was scheduled to open in 1870. Survived but a broken man – both physically as he was quite badly beaten and mentally, he suffered a stroke upon arriving back in Hong Kong and died on February 15, 1871 in Guongzhou, at the age of 53.

[3] Established by the Rev. Legge in 1844, the church was physically situated on Hollywood Road and was opened in 1845. The church was moved to its present address at  No. 22A, Kennedy Road in 1889 and is known today as the Union Church Hong Kong 香港佑寧堂

The Rev. Ho’s was not only a fast leaner when coming to gospel and ancient languages, evidently, in wealth management as well. He started buying and selling properties as early as in 1846 – three years after he landed in Hong Kong, at which time he purchased a lot in the Lower Bazaar [4], for HK$150. Two years later, he included money lending in his earthly extracurricular activities. In such first transaction he lent HK$400 on a security of a Lower Bazaar lot charging an interest of five per cent per month. His business appetite, which grew as successful deals replicated themselves, reached yet another benchmark when in 1862 – two years before he was ordained - he paid LMS a sum of HK$26,325 for a portion of the Society's original properties. By then, his business dealings went beyond Hong Kong and became well-rooted in his native county of Nanhai. When he died in 1871, his estate was sworn at over HK$100,000, which amounted to about a quarter of the annual profit of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for the same year. This wealth afforded his children a good education and further enabled them to move in the right circle in the society.

[4] area in present day Sheung Wan around Jervois Street 蘇杭街 (previously 乍畏街) and Bonham Strand 文咸街

Ho Fuk-tong had five sons and six daughters.

The sons were:
Shan-chee 神賜 - died in Ho's native village in 1890
Shan-tim 神添 - Hong Kong Government interpreter (1873-1875); independent real estate broker (1875); became a big-time speculator (1881); went bankrupt when the property market collapse and moved to Guangzhou; returned to Hong Kong where he died in c.1907
Shan-po 神保 - alias Wyson Ho 何衛臣; read law and was called to the bar in the U.K.; admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong (August 23, 1887) and became Hong Kong’s first Chinese solicitor; died in 1891
Shan-kai 神啟 – alias Ho Kai 何啟
Shan-yau 神佑 - worked for Wyson as an article clerk; accompanied his brother-in-law Ng Choy 伍才, alias Wu Tingfang 伍廷芳, to the U.S. - Ng was the Qing Minister (head of the legation) to U.S.; appointed Qing Consul-General in San Francisco (1900)

No information was found on the daughter’s of the Rev. Ho, except Ho Miu-ling 何妙齡 who married Ng Choy, and after whom the Ho Miu Lin Hospital was named. Another daughter, name unknown, married Dr. Kuan Huang 黃寬 who was the first Chinese to have studied abroad and qualified as a physician

The Son-in-Law

Sculpture of Huang Kuan
Abden House
University of Edinburgh

Dr. Kuan Huang - first Chinese to study abroad in a University; the first Chinese to qualify as a doctor of medicine
Kuan Huang 黃寬, alias Wong Fun, Wong Foon, Huang Jiechen 黃傑臣, Huang Chuoqing 黃綽卿, was born in 1829 and hailed from the same county as Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Xiangshan in Guangdong 廣東香山縣 (Sun would be born, however, 37 years later than Huang). Having both parents died when he was very young, Dr. Huang was raised by his paternal grandmother until he left for Macau in 1941, at the age of twelve, and there he attended the Morrison Education Society School. When the Yale-trained school headmaster Samual Robbins Brown decided to move the School to Hong Kong, Huang along with ten other students moved with the Brown on November 1, 1842 to the newly established British colony. Five years later in January 1847 the Rev. Brown and his wife returned to the United States and along they brought three students. The purpose was to expose them to Western education and ways of living [5]. They were Kuan Huang; Yung Wing [6] and Wong Shing [7], all of them were from the Xiangshan County - as were most of students in the School. Huang, as were the other two, was placed at the Monson Academy [8] in Massachusetts where he graduated in 1849 with a degree in literature. From Monson he went to read medicine at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with the M.B. qualification in 1855. He continued with postgraduate work in pathology and anatomy and obtained M.D. in 1857. Dr. Huang set the records as the first Chinese to study abroad in a university, to qualify as a physician and to attain the M.D. qualification.

[5] The education of the boys in the West were sponsored by several foreign residents in Hong Kong including Andrew Shortrede, a Scot and founder / publisher of the newspaper China Mail; A. Campbell, another Scot and a merchant; and American businessman A.A. Ritchie. Free passage from Hong Kong to New York (via Shanghai) was offered by David, Talbot and Robert Olyphant, the three brothers who owned the New York based The Olyphant Brothers, a mercantile and shipping operator that also had offices in Hong Kong and Guangzhou (Canton). I take my hat off to these warm-hearted persons. They did make something out of these young men who in turn inspired so many others in Hong Kong and China.

Yung Wing

[6] Yung Wing 容閎 - b.1828-d.1912; graduated from the Yale College (1854) (the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887) and became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university; worked as an interpreter for missionaries in Hong Kong and Guangzhou (Canton); held positions in the opposite camps of Qing government and the court of the Taiping rebels; naturalized as an U.S. citizen (October 30, 1852), citizenship revoked in 1898 in response to the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882; married Mary Kellogg of Avon, Connecticut, a school teacher and daughter of a Yale professor (February 24, 1875); LL.D., Yale College (June 29, 1876); publications: My Life in China and America

Wong Shing

[7] Wong Shing 黃勝, alias Wong A-shing, Wong Tak-kuen 黃達權 – b. 1827 – d. August 5, 1902; attended Monson Academy for only one year (1847-48) and returned to China (Hong Kong) because he had been ill since arriving in America; learned printing and editing at China Mail in Hong Kong; Superintendent, Printing Press of Ying Wah College (1853); appointed a juror (1858) and became the first Chinese juror in Hong Kong; partnered with Ng Choy and established Hong Kong's first newspaper published solely in the Chinese language - Chung Ngoi San Po 中外新報 (1858); established The Chinese Mail 香港華字日報 (1872), the second Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong; naturalized as a British subject (within the limits of Hong Kong) (December 28, 1883); succeeded Ng Choy as the second Senior Chinese Member of the Legislative Council (1884-1890)

[8] Monson Academy in Monson was established in 1804 and in 1847 it became the first American school to enroll Chinese students. Monson Academy and Wilbraham Academy merged in 1971 and became Wilbraham & Monson Academy, which is still running today.

It was said in some sources that Dr. Huang came to Hong Kong and worked for a LMS hospital after finishing school in Edinburgh but according to my notes, there wasn’t any LMS hospital operating at that time – the Hospital of the Medical Missionary Society 傳道會醫院 was closed in c.1853 and the Alice Memorial Hospital would not open until some 30 years later. He did however open a dispensary in Hong Kong, possibly connected with LMS, which he closed after one year. This was, probably, how he met and later married the Rev. Ho's daughter. Anyways, Dr. Huang moved on to Canton (Guangzhou) to work at the Kam-li-fau Hospital 惠愛醫館 in 1858. The hospital was founded by medical missionary Benjamin Hobson who opened the Medical Missionary Society Hospital in Hong Kong. After a two-year stint at Kam-li-fau, Dr. Huang left and started his own practice, while providing pro bono service to the Canton Hospital, also known as the Pok Tsai Hospital 博濟醫局. In the same year, 1860, Dr. Huang conducted an embryotomy in 1860, the first in China. He left behind his private practice in 1862 for Beijing to become Li Hongzhang’s medical advisor – Li would became the patron of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (HKCMC) from 1889 until de died in 1901. Dr. Huang found himself not suitable being surrounded by bureaucrat day in, day out and quitted his commission only after six months and returned to Canton to resume private practice. He continued to render assistance to the Canton Hospital where in 1867 he was appointed acting Superintendent of the Hospital when John Kerr went on furlough, during which time he conducted the Hospital’s first autopsy. He also taught Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry and Practical Medicine at its medical school. In 1863, Dr. Huang became the only Chinese doctor, among seventeen doctors, appointed to the Canton Customs Medical Service which was organized by Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (1863-1907). When the Cholera epidemic broke out in Canton in 1873, he made important contributions to the diagnosis of the disease. Dr. Huang became a Joint Chairman of the West-South Medical Bureau 西南施醫局主任 in 1875, the last official position he held before he died on October 12, 1878 from brain necrosis. The marriage between Dr. Huang and the daughter of the Rev. Ho didn’t work out; they divorced soon after the passing on of Ho. Dr. Huang never married again.

The Son

Ho Kai - the greatest of doctors who had never practiced

Ho Kai had sixteen children with second wife Lily Lai Yuk-hing, nine sons and seven daughters. None of them were doctors.

The Daughter-in-Law

Alice Walkden Ho

Little was known about Alice Walkden, the English woman Ho Kai married in London in 1881, ten years after the passing on of the Rev. Ho. Alice Walkden, born February 3, 1852 at Blackheath, south-east suburb of London, near Greenwich, was the eldest daughter of John Walkden, a member of the Lower House. Ho Kai began his clinical studies at St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1879 and lived in Wimbledon and must have met her around that time. She was seven years older than Ho Kai. I have no idea how they met, but suspect that they might go to the same church or had common friends in the church-going circle. For Victorians, the Walkdens were extremely liberal-minded to allow a cross cultural marriage. In fact, theirs was the first Anglo-Chinese marriage ever to take place. Being liberal alone was not sufficient, in my view, to seal the marriage. There ought to be a high-placed patron who was guiding and helping Ho Kai along the way. Has the Freemasonry had something to do with it, very likely, although I do not know when Ho Kai was raised as a Freemason.

One year after the marriage, the couple returned to Hong Kong, joined with them were siblings of Alice Walkden. Alice Ho Kai died on June 8, 1884 from typhoid shortly after given birth to a daughter, whose name was not known to me. Alice Ho Kai had a considerable fortune but after her death Ho Kai gave most of it to her siblings so that they could return to England. They brought with them the infant daughter of Alice and Kai Ho. She died young without having been married. Ho Kai later remarried American Chinese Lily Lai Yuk-hing 黎玉卿.

Alice Memorial Hospital and Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital

Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese
The First Borns

These were the first batch of made-in-Hong Kong doctors; all with relations or backgrounds that traced back to the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong. They were among the first batch of students admitted to the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (HKCMC) in 1887, and were the diligent ones who graduated with the qualifications of Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery, Hong Kong (L.M.S.H.).

Dr. Sun Yat-sen 孫中山, enrolled 1887, graduated 1882
Dr. Kong Ying-wah 江英華, enrolled 1887, graduated 1882
Dr. Kuan Sum-yin 關心焉, enrolled 1887, graduated 1883
Dr. Wong Sai-yan 王世恩, enrolled 1887, graduated 1895
Dr. Wong I-ek 黃怡益, enrolled 1887, graduated 1895
Dr. Lau Sei-fuk 劉四福, enrolled 1887, graduated 1895
Dr. U I-kai 胡爾楷, enrolled 1887, graduated 1895

Nethersole Hospital

The Daughter

Rose Ho Mui-ling

Rose Ho Mui-ling 何妙齡, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong, was not a doctor, but had a hospital named after her - the Ho Mui Ling Hospital. Born in 1847, twelve years ahead of Ho Kai, she was described as intelligent, well-educated and a devout Christian. I have yet found information on school(s) she went to other than that she finished schooling (high school level, I presume) early and married, at the age of seventeen, Ng Choy 伍才 – a twenty-two-years-old Magistrate's Court interpreter who hailed from Malacca [] and was educated in Hong Kong. At the time of their marriage, Ho Kai was six years old and his father forty six. In 1874, Ng, now thirty two years old and having worked at the Magistrate's Court for thirteen years, wanted to go to England to study law. The plan was supported by wife, Ho Miu-ling, who not only met all the expenses but also accompanied Ng to London where he enrolled at the University College London. This happened three years after the death of the Rev. Ho; Ho Kai was now fifteen. Three years later, he was called to the bar at the Lincoln’s Inn and became the first Chinese to qualify as a barrister. In May the same year, Ng was admitted at the Supreme Court to practice in Hong Kong. He went on to becoming a prominent member of the society including appointments as the first Chinese Justice of the Peace in 1878 and the first Senior Chinese Member of the Legislative Council in 1880 [9].

[9] Representation of the Chinese contingent, which made up of 98% of the population of Hong Kong, in the Legislative Council in the nineteenth century and at the dawn of the twentieth century came almost solely from a single Christian family – that of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong. Son-in-law Ng Choy was appointed the first Senior Chinese Member (1880-1882). He was succeeded by family friend Wong Shing (1884-1889). Wong was a business partner of Ng Choy as well as a classmate and life-long friend of Dr. Kuan Huang, another son-in-law of Ho. The Rev.'s fourth son Ho Kai succeeded Wong in 1890 and continued to hold office until 1914. Dr. Ho Kai was succeeded by Wei Yuk 韋玉 (1914-1917) who was the son-in-law of Wong Shing. Wei Yuk’s father Wei Kwong 韋光, the head comprador of the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China 有利銀行, bankrolled some of the property transactions of the Rev. Ho. They went on to become close friend.

His life took a sharp turn when he left Hong Kong in 1882 with almost no fuss, and reappeared under the alias of Wu Tingfang 伍廷芳 in Tientsin (Tianjin) assuming the all important post of the secretary of Li Hongzhang []. For two periods of time from 1896 to 1902 and from 1907 to 1909, Wu was the Qing Minister to USA, Spain and Peru. Following the collapse of the Qing Empire, Wu became the Minister of Justice of the Nanjing Provisional Government of the Republic of China in 1912. He held the two most important portfolios – Foreign Affairs and Finance – as a Minister in Sun Yat-sen’s military government in Canton in 1917; for a short while later in the year he became the acting Premier. His last official position was the Governor of Guangdong which he assumed in 1922; he died in office in the same year. After Wu’s death, Ho Miu-ling returned to Hong Kong and here she lived until she died in 1937.

The Successor

The Rev. Wang Yuchu of the Daoji Church and his collection of Professors

In 1862, two years before the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong was ordained, the Chinese congregation had formed a new society within the Union Church 愉寧堂 and called themselves the Chinese Independent Society (or Chinese Independent Church, still unable to find the exact English name of the Society if there was one) 華人自理會. The Society handled all its affairs independent of the Western missionaries although it was still physically located within the Union Church property. The Rev. Ho was in the center of a substantial property transaction involving the property holdings of the Union Church in this very year, paying the church a sum exceeding HK$25,000. How were these two events linked together, if they were at all linked, I do not know at this point of time. When the Rev. Ho was put in charge of the Union Church, he also took care of the Chinese Independent Society. After his death in 1871, a decade-long standoff between the society and LMS took place over who was to replace him; each was to refute candidates fielded by the other. It wasn’t until 1884, that the Rev. Wang Yuchu 王煜初 was appointed and the society finally had its own pastor for the first time. The appointment was keenly supported by the children of the Rev. Ho, particularly, Ho Kai and his sister Ho Miu-ling. Two years after the Rev. Wang’s appointment, the Society moved out from the Union Church and settled into the new church house named Daoji Mission House 道濟會堂. The church house occupied a part of the land that previously housed the Caldwell residence (at present, No.75, Hollywood Road); while the remaining part (at present, No.77 to 81, Hollywood Road) would be occupied a year later in 1887 by the Alice Memorial Hospital. The land was own by a member of the congregation, Mary Ayow Caldwell, nee Chan Ayow, also known as 高三桂夫人 [10]. The two land lots were valued at over HK$75,000; Mrs. Caldwell took only HK$14,000 from the church. The Society, now known as the Daoji Church (also known as To Tsi Church), would made further substantial contributions towards building schools and hospitals including the Ying Wah Girls’ School 英華女校 (1888) and the Nethersole Hospital (1893). In 1921, the Daoji Church became a member of the Church of Christ in China 中華基督教會; in 1926, it was moved to No.2 Bonham Road and was renamed Hop Yat Church 中華基督教會合一堂.

[10] Chan Ayow was the widow of corrupted civil servant, Daniel Richard Caldwell 高和爾 who was a Justice of the Peace, Police Detective, Magistrate, Registrar General & Protector of Chinese, member of the Masonic Order of Hong Kong and, scandalously, protector of pirates and partner of notorious Hong Kong-based pirate Wong Ma-chow 黃墨洲, alias Wong Akee. Caldwell was eventually kicked out of government service in 1861 but remained in the colony offering his service to Chinese operators of gaming and brothel houses. He died in 1879. Chan Ayow was baptized in 1850 as it was required in order for her marriage to Caldwell to be sanctified by the Anglican Church. They married in 1845 following traditional Chinese custom and the marriage was sanctified one year after she was baptized and six years after they were actually married. She became a pious Christian before long.

Rev. Wang Yuchu

Born in 1843 in Dongguan, Guangdong, Wang Yuchu was son of the first Chinese evangelist of the Rhenish Mission, Wang Yuan-shen 王元深. Wang Yuchu went to the Rhenish evangelist school in Huizhou 惠州 and studied under the guidance of its founder, the Rev. Ferdinand Genähr 葉納清 [11]. Wang Yuchu graduated from the evangelist school in 1866 and was then appointed as a preacher of the Rhenish church in China. In 1874 while being treated for a repeated case of lung disease in Hong Kong under the care of doctors of the Berlin Missionary Society 巴陵信義會, he was offered a teaching job at the orphanage run by the Society which he took and kept for ten years. He was ordained a Rhenish Church minister in 1884 and towards the end of year was seconded to the Daoji Church as its first pastor. He was well liked by the church’s congregation, amongst them Ho Kai, Ho Miu-ling and Sun Yat-sen.

[11] The Rev. Genähr was a Prussia missionary of the Barmen Mission (later known as the Rhenish Mission Society), who was sent to China in response to Karl Gützlaff’s appeal to the Prussia missionary societies for more evangelist to work in China. After arriving in China in 1847, he initially worked under the guidance of Gützlaff, who was the mentor and baptizer of Wang Yuan-shen. Karl Gützlaff, a Prussian missionary worked independently in China, was a controversial character at his time who aided the proliferation of opium in China as well as spying for the British Forces during the First Opium War.

With the 1887 opening of the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (HKCMC), which was funded largely by the Daoji Church congregation (Mrs. Caldwell for the land, Ho Kai and others for the construction and fitting out), the Rev. Wang took charge of all the religious affairs in these institutions. He was quite involved in the running of HKCMC despite the fact that Dr. J. Chalmers [12] of the Union Church was appointed Chairman of the College’s Senate. This involvement might have inspired his sons and nephews in taking up medicine studies; there were five of them:

[12] Chalmers took charge of the LMS mission in Hong Kong in 1880. A linguist and a prolific writer about China, its culture and language, Chalmers learnt the Chinese language from a young Chinese Christian named Hung Jen-kan, Hong Rengan (pinyin) 洪仁玕 (b.1822-d.1864), alias Hong Rengan, who would later become Prince-Gan 干王, generalissimo, and premier of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 太平天囯.

Prof. Wong Sai-yan* 王世恩; nephew; admitted (1887), classmate of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and close friend of Dr. Kwan Sun-yin;; graduated with L.M.S.H. (1895); practiced in Hong Kong, Selangor and later in Guangzhou; founded the Guangzhou Guonghua Medical College 廣東光華醫學院, which was the first medical college in China independent of any support from the West. A cradle of medical professionals in South China, the medical college turned out 658 graduates during its existence between 1908 and 1953.

Wang Chung-hing 王寵慶; son; admitted (1901), went to University of Edinburgh to read medicine (1902)

Prof. C.Y. Wang* 王寵益; son; admitted (1903); L.M.S.H. (1908); B.Sc., M.D., University of Edinburgh; Professor of Pathology, HKU (1920-1930), Hong Kong’s first Chinese professor

Wong Gat-man

Prof. Wong Gat-man 王吉民

Alias Wang Jimin; b.1889-d.1972; nephew; admitted (1905); L.M.S.H. (1910); ship’s surgeon for a foreign ocean carrier; moved to Shanghai and was appointed Chief Medical Officer, Shanghai Hangzhou Ningbo Railways Administration 滬杭甬鐵路管理局; Medical Officer, Zhejiang Postal Administration (1931); Vice President, China Medical Association (1937); Lecturer of Medicine, National Central University; Professor of Medical History, Shanghai Medical College; Member, Committee of Medical Terminology under the Education Department, China; prominent medical historian in China; Chairman, Committee of Medical History (1935); President, Institute of Medical History in China (1937); Curator, Museum of Medical History in China 中華醫學會醫史博物館 (1938), located in Shanghai, the museum was reorganized as the Shanghai Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine 上海中醫學院醫史博物館 (1958), Dr. Wong continued to be its curator; died in Shanghai

Wan Ho-lok 溫可樂; nephew; admitted (1905)

The Student

The Thirty Doctors of Kwan Yuen-cheong and Lai A-mui

Among the most pious members of the congregation of the Union Church and later of the Daoji Church were elder Kwan Yuen-cheong 關元昌 (originally Kwan Jang-yung 關振容, b.1832-d.1912), and his wife Lai A-mui 黎亞妹. Kwan’s father, Kwan Yat 關日, was one of the very first batch of ten converts baptized by Robert Morrison in Guangzhou (Canton). Kwan Yat later moved to Malacca and worked for the LMS mission there. Ho-Fuk-tong’s father and Liang Fa would follow his footsteps. Nothing much was written about the childhood of Kwan Yuen-cheong except that he and his brother Kwan Yuet-fat were students of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. When the college moved to Hong Kong in 1843, they came along (naturally together with James Legge and Ho Fuk-tong). Kwan Yuen-cheong was eleven years old. In Hong Kong, the brothers studied under the tutorship of, among others, Ho Fuk-tong. After graduated from the college, Kwan stayed on and worked briefly at the college press. He then met an American dentist named Collins who practiced in Hong Kong. Kwan left the college press and learnt dentistry from Collins as an apprentice. Kwan became the first Chinese dentistry practitioner in Hong Kong [13] and in 1874 he moved his practice to Guangzhou (Canton) but returned to Hong Kong only after a few years. He continued to practice in Hong Kong until his retirement.

[13] Kwan Yuen-cheong was best known as the first Chinese dentistry practitioner in China and Hong Kong. The first university-trained Chinese dentist would not appear until the next century. He was Hong Kong-born Chaun Moon-hung, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1901.

There was a small ring of people in the Daoji Church who regularly met and discussed current topics -- mostly relating to the appalling state of the nation and ideas for remedial actions. They included Kwan Yuen-cheong, deacon Au Fung-chi 區鳳墀, the Rev. Wang Yuchu, his first son Wang Chung-hui 王寵惠 [], Dr. Wan Man-kai 尹文楷* (son-in-law of Au Fung-chi; inaugural Chairman of the Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association 1920-1922), Wong Wing-seung 黃詠商 (second son of Wong Shing; active revolutionary; founded Hsing Chun Hui - the Revive China Society - 興中會 in 1894), property developer Lee Gei-tong 李紀堂, Dr. Ho Kai and his favorite student Sun Yat-sen.

Lai A-mui, b.1839-d.1902, was born into a wealthy family in Xiqiaoshan, Nanhai, which was also the birthplace of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong. The family took refuge away from Nanhai at a time when heavy fighting occurred between the Qing army and the Taiping rebels. Her mother died while on route to Guangzhou (Canton). She was abandoned by her father once they arrived in Guangzhou. Lai was found wondering the streets by Mary Ayow Caldwell (yes, small world!) who took her in and raised her like a daughter. Lai attended the Daoji Church’s Ying Wah Grils’ School and was well versed in the English language. She took up a teaching job at her alma mater - teaching Chinese language - after her graduation. She was at one time hired as a court interpreter and would therefore be Hong Kong’s first woman interpreter. When the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Medical College opened, she was appointed an interpreter, later worked as a nurse or even headed a team of nurses. I have no information on where and by whom she was trained, but her existence at the hospital was confirmed in a report made by Helen Stevens, the matron appointed by LMS to the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1891. She said that when she arrived at the hospital, there was already a Chinese matron by the name of Kwan Lai-si 關黎氏 (this wasn’t her alias; the name can be best translated as Mrs. Kwan, nee Lai, which was a very common way a married woman was addressed at those days), who although knew not much about nursing had even trained another woman as her assistant. Lai A-mui impressed Stevens as a very intelligent person. This would place Lai A-mui as Hong Kong’s first nurse or even matron.

This amazing photo of Kwan Yuen-Cheong and his family was taken on his 80th birthday
on December 30, 1911

Kwan and Lai had fifteen children. Four out of the ten boys became doctors, while three of the girls became nurses or midwives. No less than thirty doctors would emerge from this family in the following four generations. The most famous son and doctor surely was Kwan Sun-yin 關心焉*. A far more famous one was quasi-godson Sun Yat-sen. Kwan junior and Sun enrolled at the Hong Kong Medical College for Chinese (HKCMC) together, they were roommates throughout Sun’s tenure at the HKCMC. Sun introduced to Kwan the latter’s future wife and performed as a witness at their marriage ceremony. The wedding was held at the Daoji Church, and the other witness to the marriage ceremony was Dr. Wong Sai-yan, nephew of the Rev. Wong Yuchu. Kwan, although graduated one year after Sun in 1893, became the first HKCMC licentiate to practice in Hong Kong. He was appointed a house surgeon at the Nethersole Hospital following his graduation.

* Read post “Notable Doctors from the First 100 years” for further descriptions

- TO BE COMPLETED -