Throughout the 20th Century

8/2/2019 Throughout the 20th Century

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Throughout the 20th century, the trend of local Chinese participating in the

administration of HK has been increasingly significant. In the early 20th century, local

Chinese were trivial in HK administration. However, local Chinese participation began

to take over local admin in the mid-20

th

century. And, by the end of the 20

th

century,local Chinese became dominant in HK admin. In this essay, I will look into the local

Chinese participation in the Legislative Council (LC), Executive Council (EC) and

other civil service posts in HK throughout the 20th century.

By 1940s, local Chinese were not welcomed in HK administration and there were

extremely small amount of local Chinese serving the government. Since British ceded

HK in 1840s, all the L.C. and E.C. seats were occupied by foreigners even though

British were the minority while Chinese were the majority. It was not only until 1880

did the first local Chinese LC members were appointed. And for the EC, the first local

Chinese member, Chow Shouson, was only appointed in 1926. From the little number

of HK members in the LC and EC, we can see that Chinese played an extremely trivial

role in the administration of HK. Moreover, Chinese policemen in the early 20th century

were not allowed to carry guns and Chinese who were working in the government were

given little salary and low ranking. Therefore, local Chinese were insignificant and of

an inferior rank to the foreign officers.

There are several factors in explaining these phenomena: the British did not trust the

HK people and HK people were indifferent to participate in local administration.

First, the Britoin, a foreign ruler, was not familiar with HK costume, tradition and the

people. They had little faith in the HK people; hence, not allowing them to join local

administration. Also, the educational level of the majority of the HK people was very

low in the early 20th century given that education was expensive and not compulsory.

Therefore, with low educational background, it was very hard for the British to find

capable men to serve the government. Therefore, Chinese were not welcomed in the

HK government. Secondly, local Chinese in early 20th

century were mostly fishers andfarmers, they were not knowledgeable enough to know what administration really

meant. Besides, all they ever wanted was a peaceful life, therefore, they were not

interested in governing HK. Given all these conditions, local Chinese were insignificant

in the administration of HK.

In the mid 20-century (1940s-1970s), local Chinese participation in HK admin had

increased markedly. Name a few, the number of Chinese members of the LC and EC

had increased a lot compared to the previous phase. For example, the number of

Chinese members in LC and EC in 1970s has more than doubled that of 1930s. Besides,


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the number of Chinese administrative officers (AO) had increased significantly as well.

For example, only 2.3% of the AO in the early 20th century were Chinese, but by the

end of 1970s, the figure rose to above 40%.

The factors that can explain the increasing number of Chinese in local admin include:

the increasing sense of belonging of HK people; too expensive to hire foreign officers.

In the mid-20th century, the educational level of HK people started to climb, literacy rate

further increased after the colonial govt implemented compulsory education in 1971.

Born, bred and educated in HK, many youngsters began to feel obligated to be a part in

running HK, therefore, in the mid-1970s, there were more and more voices in letting the

Chinese to participate in local administration. So, to satisfy such a demand, colonial

government decided to open up more posts for Chinese. For example, in 1970s,

advisory bodies were set up and most members in those bodies were Chinese. And the

committees helped in the admin in HK. Also, the Districts Boards were set up in 1980s

and local Chinese dominated the District Council. Therefore, Chinese started to become

more important in running HK. Moreover, in 1950s, the financial secretary complained

that 1.5% of HK tax revenue was wasted on buying air tickets for foreign officials.

Therefore, to cut this unnecessary expenditure, the colonial government increased the

trend of localization of civil service: hire Chinese as much as possible. So, local

Chinese participation in HK admin has become more significant in the mid-20th century.

In the late 20th century (1980-1999), local Chinese become dominant in civil service

and administration level. Both LC and EC were soon monopolized by local Chinese

instead of foreigners by 1990. Besides, secretary posts began to localize as well, for

example Donald Tsang was the first ethic Chinese appointed as Financial Secretary in

1995. Also, Anson Chan became the first Chinese lady to climb to the 2 nd highest

position in HK administration. Previously, secretary posts were all occupied by

Britoins, Chinese were not possible to climb up to the secretary post before. After thehandover in 1997, HK admin was dominated only by local Chinese, foreigners became

sorely trivial. For example, according to the Basic Law, Chief Executive and other

principal officers must be Chinese citizens and permanent resident of HKSAR.

Therefore, only local Chinese could be a part in running HK after 1997. Moreover,

100% of LC members after 1997 were local Chinese. So it is easy to notice that local

Chinese were the dominant power in HK admin.

The basic reason for the full localization of civil service after 1997 was that Hong Kong

would ruled under the principal of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong. After the


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Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984, colonial government had been trying

its utmost to help HK to actualize the principal of Hong Kong people ruling Hong

Kong so as to pave way for the handover. The colonial government tried to train a

group of local Chinese so that the trained Chinese could continue the administration of

HK after the handover. So, HK could still be run efficiently after the colonial

government was gone. This act was to give confidence to the HK public and to prevent

the Central China government to get control of HK administration. Therefore, in hope

of training Chinese in administering HK, more and more Chinese were recruited to join

the local administration in the 1980s. Therefore, local Chinese started to become the

only member in HK admin after 1980s.

After the handover, HK has been upholding its ideal of HK people ruling HK,

therefore, civil service, LC, EC, District Board, AO, principal officials are nearly all

dominated by Chinese. So, by the end of the 20th century, HK has changed from a

foreigners-dominated administration to a local Chinese -dominated one.

To conclude, HK administration has been increasingly dominated by local Chinese

throughout the 20th century.

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Throughout the 20th Century