Pacific Crossing: Californian Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments This book has been a long time coming and, in the course of its creation, I have become indebted to many people and institutions. I am grateful to the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for several grants that enabled me to pursue my research. The grant that contributed most directly to this book was for the project “The Impact of Chinese Emigration on Hong Kong’s Economic Development, 1842–1941” (Grant 7047/99H). I owe a huge debt to the late Rev. Carl T Smith. Since the 1970s, I have relied on his amazing collection of materials on Hong Kong history, especially the index cards which contained data on thousands of individuals. I visited his home from time to time to read his materials; he not only put up with this imposition , but even gave me lunch whenever I hung around long enough! When he heard that I was starting a book on the Chinese in California, he showed me the materials he had collected on the subject from newspapers, census records, land records, customs records, city directories and other California sources. I had not even realized that he had done all that work. Imagine how thrilled I was when he said I could have the whole lot, explaining that since he was now focusing on Macao’s history he would not need them any more. Soon afterwards, he gave me several CD-roms crammed with data. The materials, originally copied by hand meticulously and accurately in the unique Carl Smith style, were eye-opening and saved me years of digging. It was very humbling to realize how someone with not a cent of institutional funding could achieve so much. Carl, always kind, generous, and modest, was a terrific role model for scholars. I cannot thank him enough for being a mentor and friend; my only regret is that he is not here to see this book finished. Acknowledgments xii My intellectual development has profited from association with the following scholars through their works, correspondence, and face-to-face discussions: Takeshi Hamashita, James Hayes, Philip Kuhn, Wang Gungwu, and Edgar Wickberg. Patricia Chiu, Madeline Hsu, Diana Lary, Li Minghuan, Adam McKeown, Christopher Munn, Ng Wing Chung, the late Janet Salaff, Helen Siu, Carl Trocki, James Watson, Rubie Watson, and Henry Yu provided inspiration and advice. Stephen Davies at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum read Chapter 3 and offered extremely valuable information on all things related to shipping. It was also he who alerted me to the existence of the print of the steamer Japan in the Hong Kong harbor (which appears on the cover) and the map showing Pacific navigation routes. I treasure the support and friendship of all these scholars and am very much in their debt. Many institutions gave me access to their valuable holdings. I am grateful to Jardine, Matheson & Co. for the use of its magnificent archives, and to Martin Barrow, director of Matheson & Co., for his promptness in approving all my applications over the years. The Heard Family Business Records are used extensively in the book, and I thank the Baker Library of the Harvard Business School for access to this incredibly rich collection. IwasprivilegedtouseawiderangeofmaterialsattheUniversityofCalifornia, Berkeley, including the Him Mark Lai Research Files, the Fiddletown records andoldChinesenewspapersattheEthnicStudiesLibrary;andtheSanFrancisco Custom House Records, Macondray Papers, and rare books and newspapers at the Bancroft Library. To Wang Ling-chi and Poon Wei-chi who facilitated my research at Berkeley, my sincere appreciation. I am grateful too to the California Historical Society for use of the Macondray Papers; the Huntington Library for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. records; the Massachusetts Historical Society for the Russell and Company Letter Book; the Houghton Library, Harvard University, for the T. G. Cary Papers, and the University of Oregon Library for the Ainsworth Papers. Other libraries which have extended their courtesy to me include the Asian Library, University of British Columbia; the British Library; the Cambridge University Library (which houses the Jardine, Matheson and Co. Archives); the San Francisco Public Library; the Widener Library and the Harvard-Yenching Library at Harvard University; and the American Antiquities Society Library in Acknowledgments xiii Massachusetts which pleasantly surprised me with its unique holding of several San Francisco Chinese-language newspapers. I am much indebted to them all. In Hong Kong, I have found exceptionally warm support everywhere. My heartfelt thanks go to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, which has kindly opened its archival...