Beyond the “Great Man” narrative: scandals, cumulative reforms and the trajectory of anti-corruption efforts in colonial Hong Kong before MacLehose years

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Yep
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Path Creation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Colonial Governance ◽  
Post War ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Colonial Government

Purpose This paper aims to uncover the trajectory of the anti-corruption effort of the Hong Kong colonial Government by identifying its general approach of denial in the pre-War years. It highlights the path-dependence nature, as well as the path-creation logic of the policy process of anti-corruption reform and the anxiety of the colonial administration in maintaining trust of the local population in the post-War years. These insights should enhance the general understanding of the nature of colonial governance. Design/methodology/approach This paper is primarily based on archival materials available at the British National Archives and Hong Kong Public Records Office. Findings The paper intends to go before the “Great Man narrative” in explaining the success of the anti-corruption effort in colonial Hong Kong. Whilst the colonial government was fully aware of the endemic of corruption and the substantial involvement of European officers, she was still cocooned with the misguided belief that the core of the administration was mostly “incorruptible”. The Air Raid Precaution Department scandal in 1941 was, however, a powerful wake-up that rendered the denial and self-illusion no longer defensible. The policy ideas of the 1940s did shape the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance 1948 and other related reforms, yet they were not immediately translated into fundamental changes in the institutional set-up of the anti-graft campaign. The limitations of these half-hearted measures were fully exposed in the coming decades. The cumulative effects of the piecemeal anti-graft efforts of the colonial government over the first century of rule, however, did path the way for the “revolutionary” changes in the 1970s under Murray MacLehose. Originality/value This is a highly original piece based on under-explored archival materials. The findings should have a major contribution to the scholarship on the nature of colonial governance and the history of anti-corruption efforts of Hong Kong.

Navigating Christian and Chaozhou identities: the life and career of Lin Zifeng (1892-1971)

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Wing-hin Kam
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
Great Achievement ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
British Colonies ◽  
Public Career

Purpose This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most significant. Design/methodology/approach Archival research is the main method used in this paper. The most important archives drawn from are the Daniel Tse Collection in the Special Collection and Archives of the Hong Kong Baptist University Library. Oral history has also been used in this paper to uncover more material that has not yet been discussed in existing scholarly works. Findings This paper argues that although Lin’s birthplace identity and social networks helped him to start his business career in Nam Pak Hong and develop into a leader in the local Chaozhou communities, these factors were insufficient to his becoming a respectable member of the Chinese elite in post-war Hong Kong. He became well known not because of his leading position in local Chaozhou communities or any great achievement he had obtained in business but because of his contribution to the development of Christian education. These achievements earned him a reputation as a “Christian educator”. Thus Lin’s Christian identity became more important than his birthplace identity in contributing to his successful public career. Originality/value This paper has value in showing how Christian influences interacted with various cultural factors in early Hong Kong. It also offers insights into Lin’s life and motivations as well as the history of the institutions he contributed to/founded. It not only furthers our understanding of the Chinese Christian business elite in early Hong Kong but also provides us with insights when further studying this group of people in other British colonies in Asia.

Political radicalization and fragmentation of the democratic blocs and the legislative council elections in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-384
Author(s):  
Chung Fun Steven Hung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legislative Council ◽  
Administrative Region ◽  
Two Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
Historical Comparative

Purpose After direct elections were instituted in Hong Kong and the sovereignty was transferred from Britain to China, politicization inevitably followed democratization. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the pro-democratic political parties’ politics in Hong Kong in recent history. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted through a historical comparative analysis, within the context of Hong Kong after the sovereignty handover and the interim period of crucial democratization. Findings With the implementation of “One country, Two systems,” political democratization was hindered in Hong Kong’s transformation. The democratic forces have no alternative but to seek more radicalized politics, which has caused a decisive and ineluctable fragmentation of the local political parties. Originality/value This paper explores and evaluates the political history of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under “One country, Two systems” and the ways in which the limited democratization hinders the progress of Hong Kong’s transformation.

scholarly journals The Invisible Institution? Reconstructing the History of BAFTA and the 1958 Merger of the British Film Academy with the Guild of Television Producers and Directors

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-472
Author(s):  
Emma Pett ◽  
Helen Warner
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
British Society ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
Post War ◽  
Training Schemes ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Television Producers

As a cultural institution of national and global significance, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is notably absent from existing scholarship on the media industries. More importantly, BAFTA's role as an independent arts charity set up by the industry to support and develop new talent is often overlooked. Instead, references to BAFTA made by media and film scholars most frequently take the form of footnotes or digressions that detail particular awards or nominations. Drawing on a range of archival sources, including BAFTA's own records, we address this significant omission within existing scholarship on the British cultural and creative industries. In particular, we examine the period 1947–68, focusing on the 1958 merger of the British Film Academy with the Guild of Television Producers and Directors to form a new institution, known as the Society of Film and Television Arts (SFTA, later renamed BAFTA). This was achieved despite the well-documented tensions existing between the two industries throughout the period, which we identify and analyse within this historical context. We argue that a crucial factor driving the 1958 merger was the desire to develop quality training schemes across both industries. This, in turn, was partly enabled by an egalitarian turn in post-war British society towards the development of greater social equality and mobility. In reconstructing these events, we therefore interrogate and reassess the role played by this key national institution on the development of the creative and cultural industries, offering an expansion and revision of scholarship on media histories of post-war Britain.

scholarly journals Bandwidth lost: family planners and post-war television

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 655-668
Author(s):  
Jessica Borge
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Birth Control ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Broadcast Media ◽  
Archival Document ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Post War ◽  
Television Coverage

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how early planned PR efforts at the British Family Planning Association [FPA] resulted in an epoch-making television appearance in November 1955, tessellating with current methodological debates in the history of PR.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a qualitative, micro-history approach and original archival document research conducted at Wellcome Collection, London and the BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham, to reconstruct early PR activity at the FPA. It intercedes in debates on historiography, the diversification of the history of PR and the concepts of mediatization and advocacy in historical contexts.FindingsAttaining broadcast coverage for birth control issues was historically difficult and was made more so by Marie Stopes. The subject was commonly packaged into the less problematic issues of population and infertility. The FPA achieved explicit television coverage in 1955 after establishing a focussed PR plan to stage and exploit a silver jubilee event. This vindicated the FPA's mission, validated service users and created broadcast opportunities.Research limitations/implicationsResearch is limited by temporal scope (1870s–1950s), and reliance on document sources, footage of television programmes being unavailable. This paper has implications for the history of PR, contributing to the diversification of the field by suggesting an original approach to the intersection of public relations and social change.Originality/valueThis paper surfaces overlooked primary sources and is the first account of how birth control appeared as a topic on early British broadcast media.

scholarly journals Complaints on abortuses handling: policy recommendations for Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
Celine S.M. Cheng ◽  
Amanda P.Y. Lau
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Ethical Concern ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hong Kong Sar ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Clinical Wastes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review cases about complaints of abortuses handling in Hong Kong, and to further propose policy recommendations to help comfort parents with respect and dignity toward abortuses. Design/methodology/approach There is a systematic review of articles/newspapers related to the practice and regulation of abortuses handling in Hong Kong and overseas countries. Also, point of views among stakeholders are selected from: newspapers, patients’ groups, Hong Kong SAR Government’s websites, radio programmes’ interviews, related organizations’ websites, blogs from legislative councilors and lawyers. Findings Since parents suffered from miscarriage before 24 weeks’ pregnancy are increasingly willing to share their experiences and struggled for arranging a legal funeral for their children, Hong Kong SAR Government is able to understand these parents’ needs and hence set up more “Angel Garden” in both the public and the private cemeteries. Yet, the provision of funeral and cremation services are still not comprehensive. Existing measures from Mainland China and overseas countries to handle abortuses and to provide support for parents are analyzed. More critically, ethical concern on handling abortuses as one of the clinical wastes is further included in the discussion. Originality/value Although all less than 24 weeks’ fetuses cannot be given any Certificate of Stillbirth, respect and dignity can still be presented toward their parents by flexible regulation. After discussing the related measures on handling abortuses from other countries, some of their humane regulations are feasible to be applied to Hong Kong.

scholarly journals Hong Kong as a property jurisdiction

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice K.-C. Yip
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
Land System ◽  
Legal Geography ◽  
One Country Two Systems ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This study aims to explore how urban governance of Hong Kong is impacted by the formulation and implementation of the new constitutional order of “one country, two systems” that distinguishes between the British colonial government and the current government under Chinese sovereignty. Design/methodology/approach While the literature recognises the society of Hong Kong has been heavily relying on land and property activities, few attempts notice the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s sequential constitutional orders and its relations to those activities. This study presents a geographical enquiry and an archival study to illustrate the spatiality of the new constitutional order and its implications on land injustice. Drawing from the works of legal geography and urban studies, this study extends and clarifies Anne Haila’s conception of Hong Kong as “property state” to “property jurisdiction”. Findings Though common law and leasehold land system were perpetuated from the colonial period, the new constitutional order changed their practices and the underlying logic and ideology. The urban governance order of this property jurisdiction is intended for prosperity and stability of the society, and for the economic benefit and territorial integrity claim of the Chinese sovereignty. Originality/value This study enriches the literature of Hong Kong studies in three major areas, namely, the relationship with China, urban governance and land injustice. It offers a conceptual discussion, which contributes to comparative territorial autonomies studies. It also contributes to legal geography by providing insights beyond the western liberal democracy model.

A light burden: cultural discourse of light in Japan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-134
Author(s):  
Lok Hang Hui
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Post War

PurposeThis paper explores the sensory experiences and cultural meanings of light in Japan in relation to Japanese changing lighting practices. It demonstrates that these sensory experiences and cultural meanings form an integral part of social life in Japan.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a blended approach that combines historical research and ethnographic data in the research on the meanings of light. The findings are presented in three parts. Two of them describe the social history of light, and the third draws on ethnographic data collected in suburban Japan.FindingsThe findings suggest that light in Japan has maintained a close symbolic connection with certain positive values despite the changing lighting practices. For example, light is related to cleanliness in early historical records on candle-making. In post-war Japan, new light metaphors such as “bright family” were invented to accommodate new aspirations for modernity and progress. In the latest development, the moral dimension of light is emphasised. This is evident in the concerns on being seen as a “bright person”, a person with a cheerful personality. Light in this way is related to the sensory experience of feeling a “social weight”, the pressure for one to act according to social norms.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to our anthropological understandings of light. It also provides a local case study of Japan, supported by original ethnographic research conducted by the author.

Irresistible empire or innocents abroad? American advertising agencies in post-war Italy, 1950s-1970s

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinando Fasce ◽  
Elisabetta Bini
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Advertising Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Findings – The paper argues that there is a need to further qualify and deconstruct the notion of “Americanization” by integrating the now well-established notions of “hybridization” and “mediation” with more specific attention to the competing “hearts and souls”, the different strategies and discursive practices that different individual actors (American, British and Italian) operating within the Italian advertising business tried to instil into goods and consumers and the economic and cultural results that they achieved. Originality/value – This is the first research on the history of Italian advertising that fully places it within a transnational and comparative perspective using so far unpublished records, aiming at moving beyond traditional, eastbound Americanization frameworks through a detailed empirical investigation.

scholarly journals ЄВРЕЙСЬКІ ОСЕРЕДКИ ТЕКСТИЛЬНОГО ВИРОБНИЦТВА В ГАЛИЧИНІ КІНЦЯ ХІХ – ПЕРШОЇ ТРЕТИНИ ХХ СТ.: ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ, АСОРТИМЕНТ

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-57
Author(s):  
О. Р. Козакевич
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Textile Manufacturing ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
History Of ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Object Of Study

Textile manufacturing owned by the Jews in Galicia at the end of ХІХ – the first third of XX century is studied in the article. On the basis of archive documents and author’s field materials, preconditions for establishing relevant centers are determined; the main factors that influenced the textile industry development are highlighted. The attention is focused on knitted and lace goods manufacturing of both new and fancy assortment of the period under the study. The principle of a systematic approach and complex study constitutes the methodological basis. In order to investigate the selected object of study, historical and art studies methods are applied. During the scientific expeditions while collecting materials from the old inhabitants the interview method was used. Textile manufacturing in Galicia is divided into two main directions: according to the manufacturing principle: folk textile, where centuries-old traditions prevail, and professional textile, where specialists and special-purpose equipment are involved and fashionable trends are considered. It was found that at the end of ХІХ – the first third of XX century a considerable part of local textile industry was owned by the Jews. To some extent, this was due to the fact that they received proper education, set up own businesses, produced assortment that met the demands of consumers of various strata of society. Knitted and lace goods manufacturing, which became fashionable both in urban and rural areas, was productive. It was ascertained that apart from fancy goods, traditional woven Hutsul «zapaska», carpets and «kraikas» involving local population were manufactured. The scientific novelty consists in the study of one more aspect of textile industry in Galicia where the attention is focused on the peculiarities of manufacturing the textile assortment in the centers belonging to the Jews. The study allows expanding knowledge of textile industry in Galicia, clothes assortment and interior fabrics manufacturing centers, which favours involving the received data to learn the history of textile in Galicia.

Guanfu Salt Farm and Hong Kong in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecile Kung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Systematic Compilation ◽  
Different Sources

Purpose This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct its history for the reflection of Hong Kong society of the time. Design/methodology/approach This paper is largely based on identification and analysis of historical documents, including keyword search on electronic databases and verification with the original sources, with reference to archaeological findings when necessary. Findings This paper reconstructs the history of Guanfu Salt Farm based on documentary sources with reference to archaeological findings. English translation of Chinese sources is also provided when necessary. Originality/value There has been an absence of systematic compilation of historical data of Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty, which are limited in quantity and scattered across different sources. This paper seeks to fill the vacuum of knowledge about pre-colonial Hong Kong, with a more comprehensive reconstruction of the history of Guanfu Salt Farm.

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