Space and Everyday Lives of Children in Hong Kong: The Interwar Period (Global Histories of Education)

Deploying a spatial approach towards children’s everyday life in interwar Hong Kong, this book considers the context-specific development of five transnational movements: the garden city movement; imperial hygiene movement; nationalist sentiments; the Young Women's Christian Association; and the Girl Guide. Locating these transnational cultural movements in four layers of context, from the most immediate to the most global, including the context of Hong Kong, Republican China, the British empire, and global influences, this book shows Hong Kong as a distinctive colonial domain where the imperatives around race, gender and class produced new products of empire where the child, the garden, the school and sport turned out to be the main dynamics in play in the interwar period. A Note on Romanisation Acknowledgements Abstract Contents About the Author List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Histories of Childhood in the British Empire 1.2 Hong Kong: A Colonial City in the Everyday, 1841–1941 1.2.1 English Schooling for the Children of the Urban Bourgeoisie: Early Developments, 1841–1901 1.2.2 Expansion and Diversification of English Education 1901–1941 1.2.3 Higher Education 1.3 Methods and Sources 1.3.1 State Reports and Sites of Colonial Intervention 1.3.2 Newspapers and Everyday Life 1.3.3 Oral History and Lived Spaces 1.3.4 Siting the Visual 1.4 Chapter Outline Chapter 2: Garden City: Urban Form, Colonial Domesticity, and Spaces of Play in Childhood, 1921–1941 2.1 Garden City Movement and Colonial Domesticity in Hong Kong: A Background 2.2 Home with a Garden: Domestic Architecture and Play Space for Children 2.2.1 New House-Forms for the Middle-Class: Garden Cities in the 1920s and 1930s 2.3 Garden City and Urban Form: Neighbourhood Playground for Children 2.3.1 A New Architecture of Play 2.3.2 Involvement of Chinese Elites 2.3.3 Subversive Acts of Play 2.4 Conclusion Chapter 3: Architecture of Health: Hygiene and Schooling in Hong Kong, 1901–1941 3.1 Hygiene, Health, Eugenics, and Schooling 3.2 School Architecture and Sanitary Reform: A Background, 1890–1913 3.3 Building Healthy Schools: Curriculum of Hygiene, Architecture, and Medical Inspection, 1913–1921 3.3.1 Hygiene Education School Curriculum 3.3.2 New Building Design 3.3.3 A System of Medical Inspection 3.4 Health, Progressive Education, and School Architecture, 1921–1931 3.4.1 Progressive Ideas Informed Schooling Practices 3.4.2 Physical Education 3.4.3 Founding of the School Hygiene Branch 3.5 Timetable and Engineering of Bodily Movement, 1931–1941 3.6 Conclusion Chapter 4: Treading a Different Path: Gender and the Literary Space at St. Stephen’s Girls’ College, 1921–1941 4.1 Gender as Perspective 4.2 English Education for Elite Chinese Girls in Hong Kong: Founding of St. Stephen’s Girls’ College 4.3 Chinese Women in Higher Education: Debates and Experiences, 1921–1941 4.3.1 St. Stephen’s School Curriculum and Higher Education 4.3.2 Life in University and Profession 4.4 Chinese Women in Public Affairs: Philanthropic Activities at St. Stephen’s, 1921–1941 4.4.1 Educational Work: The Free School for Domestic Servants and Street Children 4.4.2 Charitable Work: Fundraising Bazaars and Concerts 4.4.3 War Relief and Medical Work in Connection with Women’s Clubs 4.5 Conclusion Chapter 5: Lifting Girls: Chinese Women, Vocational Education, and the YWCA in Hong Kong, 1921–1941 5.1 The Founding of HKYWCA 5.2 Vocational Education for Chinese Girls in the Formal Schooling System, 1921–1941 5.2.1 Educating a Class of Chinese Female Professionals: Foundational Phase in the 1910s 5.2.2 New Patterns in the 1920s 5.2.3 Industrial, Trade, and Technical Schools for Chinese Boys in the 1930s 5.3 The HKYWCA and the Public Engagement of Female Professionals, 1921–1941 5.3.1 Vocational Education and Literacy Classes 5.3.2 Health Education for Mothers and Medical Care for Children 5.4 Conclusion Chapter 6: Reimaging the Colonial Space: Femininity and Everyday Life of Girl Guides in Hong Kong, 1921–1941 6.1 Theorising Femininity 6.2 English Girls’ Schools for Middle-Class Chinese Girls, 1890–1921 6.2.1 State and Voluntary Efforts 6.2.2 The Multiracial Makeup of Urban English Girls’ Schools 6.3 The Origin and Growth of Guiding in Hong Kong, 1921–1941 6.3.1 An Urban Middle-Class Phenomenon in the 1920s 6.3.2 Expanding Geography and Membership to Rural and Working-Class Girls in the 1930s 6.4 Usefulness in the Domestic and Public Sphere: A New Spatiality for the ‘Feminine Instinct of Service’ 6.4.1 The Shifting Frame of Femininity and Schooling Practice in Hong Kong, 1921–1941 6.4.2 Usefulness and the Affective Interior of Guides: Social Work in the Public Sphere 6.5 Feminine Physique in the Sporting and Outdoor Scene 6.5.1 Feminine Physique and the Sporting Scene in English Girls’ Schools, 1901–1941 6.5.2 Fit Feminine Physique as an Imperial Spectacle, 1921–1941 6.6 Conclusion Chapter 7: Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources Government Documents Life Histories Newspapers School Publications Secondary Sources Articles Books Dissertations Index