The Mystery of Capital: Eurasian Entrepreneurs' Socio-Cultural Strategies for Commercial Success in Early 20th-Century Hong Kong

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Zheng ◽  
Siu-Lun Wong
Author(s):  
David M. Pomfret

The Ministering Children’s League was founded in Britain in 1885 with the aim of cultivating among children of the rich a desire to feel empathy with the poor and suffering. Examining the work of the league’s branch in Hong Kong in the early 20th century, this chapter argues that the decision by Flora Shaw, the activist wife of the Governor, Sir Frederick Lugard, to include Chinese girls as members broke down the race-bound relations between ‘benevolents’ and ‘beneficiaries’ and, in providing opportunities for Chinese and European children to work together and mingle socially, led to unintended consequences, and complicated the idea that ‘Empire’ was a straightforward story of social division and ethnic segregation. Under the aegis of empire-sponsored philanthropy, children in Hong Kong assumed the spirit of public service while learning to see themselves as part of a multicultural, international fellowship of childhood.


Author(s):  
Aleksey A. Soloviev

On the history of the first public libraries in the province towns of Vladimirskaya and Kostromskaya provinces in the second half of the 17th century - early 20th century. The author considers main statistical data of libraries and analyses necessity and influence of these libraries and reading rooms on the native population.


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