Notes
Notes INTRODUCTION 1 'Eurasian ' i s originally a term for a person of mixed European and Indian blood , first used in the mid-1800s I t was adopted as being more euphemistic than 'halfcaste ' an d mor e precis e tha n 'East-Indian ' (Hobson-Jobson The Anglo-Indian Dictionary, 344) 2 Thes e early colonial fears and worries are reflected i n the works of race theorists such a s Edward Long, Louis Agassis, and Coun t Gobmea u Edwar d Long wrote Candid Reflections Upon the Judgement Lately Awarded by the Court of King's Bench, in Westminster-Hall, on What Is Commonly Called the Negro Cause, by a Planter (London Lowndes , 1772) Lon g describes interracial mixing as a 'venomous and dangerous ulcer' Agassi s sees race mixing as a 'sin against nature' and 'an incest in a civilized community' Gobinea u in his Essay on the Inequality of Race argues race mixture as a phenomenon that mingles growth with decay, life with death, desire with repulsion A s discussed in Young's Colonial Desire, Gobineau explains racial mixing as both a regeneration as well as degeneration (130) CHAPTER 1 1 Memoir s had never been a very popular mode of writing in Hong Kong for political and cultural reasons Th e popularity of memoirs only gathered pace in the 1990s, when Hon g Kon g experience d a kin d o f 'memoi r boom ' tha t resulte d i n a proliferation of memoirs in bookstores 2 V R Gaikwad , The Anglo-Indians A Study m the Problems and Processes Involved in Emotional and CulturalIntegration (London Asi a Publishing House, 1967), Elizabeth P Wittermans, 'The Eurasians of Indonesia,' The Blending of Races Marginality and Identity in World Perspective, ed N P Gist and A G Dworki n (New York & London Notes to Pages 10-22 John Wile y & Sons , 1972) , C H Crabb , Malaya's Eurasians — An Opinion (Singapore Easter n Universities Press Ltd 1960 ) 3 Gusdorf , 36 CHAPTER 1 1 Th e Oral History Project on Reminiscences of the War Experience in Hong Kong (Phase 2 ) wa s conducted b y the Hon g Kon g Museum o f History Th e projec t collected personal accounts of war experience m Hong Kong during the Second World War 2 E J Eitel , m the late 1890s, claims that the 'half-caste population m Hong Kong' were from th e earliest days of the settlement almos t exclusively the offspring o f liaisons between European men and women of outcaste ethnic groups such as Tanka (Europe in China, 169) Lethbridg e refutes the theory saying it was based on a 'myth' propagated by xenophobic Cantonese to account for the establishment of the Hong Kong Eurasian community Carl Smith's study in late 1960s on the protected women seems, to some degree, support Eitel's theory Smith says that the Tankas experienced certain restriction s withi n th e traditiona l Chines e socia l structur e Custo m precluded their intermarriage with the Cantonese and Hakka-speakmg populations The Tanka women did not have bound feet Thei r opportunities for settlement on shore were limite d The y were hence not a s closely tie d t o Confucian ethic s as other Chinese ethnic groups Bein g a group marginal to the traditional Chines e society of the Puntis (Cantonese), they did not have the same social pressure in dealing with Europeans (C T Smith , Chung Chi Bulletin, 27) 'Livin g under the protection of a foreigner,' says Smith, 'could be a ladder to financial security, if not respectability, for some of the Tanka boat girls' (13) 3 Evidenc e from the Jardme's records shows that such 'irregularities' as cohabitating with these protected women or mistresses were indeed the norm A notebook of Donald Matheson contains records of payments to mistresses of Jardme's employees and friends ( W K Chan , 34) 4 Th e Diocesan Female Training School was the first school in Hong Kong to offer English education to Chinese and Eurasian girls (Sweeting, 248) 5 Eite l mentioned in 1889 how an important change had taken place among Eurasian girls, the offsprin g o f illicit connections instea d o f becoming concubines, the y were commonly brough t u p respectabl y an d marrie d t o Chinese husband s wh o themselves had received an English education in the local boys' schools (Sweeting, 248) 6 Ther e were regulations...
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