Toilet as Business for the Hygiene of the Chinese Community in Colonial Hong Kong

This book analyses how public toilets were provided by the government and local business in Hong Kong between the 1860s and 1930s through a process that was embedded in class and racial politics. Addressing public toilet provision from a political economy perspective, it focuses on the interplay of the cross-border night soil business between Hong Kong and China’s silk producing area; the silk market between China and Colonial powers; the Hong Kong land market between the colonial government and Chinese business; and how these factors jointly produced a network of toilets in the colony. As the book shows, the commercial viability of toilets created multiple logics and a new moral geography; further, exploring the topic can help us gain a better understanding of how urban governance functioned in colonies and how it intertwined with economic contingencies within a global economic system. The intended readership includes academics and members of the general public with an interest in colonialism, public infrastructures, public health, government–business relations, and urban governance. Acknowledgements Note on Romanization Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction: A Mix of Profit Accumulation and Regulation of Urban Space in Toilets 1.1 Overview 1.2 World-System and Colonial Urban Governance 1.2.1 The Linkage of Silk, Night Soil, and Public Toilets 1.2.2 Urban Governance Between Government and Chinese Business 1.3 The Formation of a New Moral Geography 1.3.1 Dirt and Disorder 1.3.2 The Morality of Public Toilets 1.3.3 Land Capitalism and Public Toilets 1.3.4 Public Toilet: A Place of Hybridity 1.4 Land Resources: Interplay of Constraint and Facilitation 1.4.1 Urban Contestation 1.4.2 Public Function of Chinese Landowners 1.5 The Development of Colonial Urban Hygiene 2 Political-Economic Conditions for Chinese Business Elites Taking a Role in Governance 2.1 Overview 2.2 Economic Restructuring: The Rise of Chinese Economic Capital and Land Resources 2.2.1 Chinese Heavy Land Investment and Increasing Tax Contribution 2.2.2 Chinese Land Ownership and Elite Status 2.3 Chinese Elites Intervening in Colonial Governance 2.3.1 Securing Revenue and Colonial Operation with the Help of Chinese Elites 2.3.2 Involvement in Colonial Governance Through Institutions 2.4 An Entry into Political Circles 2.4.1 A Recognition of Chinese Economic Contributions 2.4.2 Political Appointments: Chinese Enter the Political Circle 2.5 Concluding Remarks 3 Governing Urban Space: Racial and Class Politics 3.1 Overview 3.2 Construction of Urban Hygiene Moral Discourse 3.2.1 The Health Connection Between Chinese, Disease and Urban Space 3.2.2 Indecent Living Styles 3.2.3 Public Defecation 3.3 Moral Geography: Colonial Public Toilets 3.3.1 Managing Chinese Bodily Behaviors 3.3.2 The Introduction of Government Public Toilets 3.4 Competing Moral Discourses of Urban Hygiene 3.4.1 Amongst Chinese: Landed and Elite Classes Against Lower Class Chinese 3.4.2 Amongst Europeans: Landed Class and Elite Classes Against the Bureaucratic Class 3.4.3 Amongst the Government: Military and Sanitarians Against Governors, Officials, and Chinese Politicians 3.5 Conclusion 4 Toilet Economies: Night Soil Profit, Entrance Fees and Rent 4.1 Overview 4.2 China’s Silk Industry and the World Silk Market 4.2.1 New Silk Production Hub in the Pearl River Delta 4.2.2 Silk, Night Soil and Public Toilet 4.3 Involvement of Government in Night Soil Business 4.3.1 Night Soil Tendering System and Night Soil Revenue 4.3.2 Cross-Border Night Soil Business Operation 4.4 Marketing Moral Space: The Profit of Urban Land 4.4.1 Toilet-Landowners and “Toilet Economies” 4.4.2 The Entanglement of Land Interests and Public Health 4.4.3 Higher Rental Return 4.5 The Vibrant Night Soil Market and Public Toilets 4.6 Conclusion 5 A Blending of Moral and Capitalist Logics in Public Toilets 5.1 Overview 5.2 Government: Surveillance and Regulation 5.2.1 Compromise of Odor and Profit 5.2.2 Close Surveillance: European Inspectors with the Help of Chinese Elites 5.2.3 A Self-Regulating System of Facility Management 5.2.4 Intervention in Disease Outbreaks 5.2.5 Effectiveness of Regulations 5.3 Chinese Business: Land Resources and Social Networks 5.3.1 The Spheres of Influence 5.3.2 Web of Relationships and Reciprocal Obligations 5.4 Conclusion 6 Concluding Remarks: A Moral-Capitalist Mode of Urban Governance of Public Toilets 6.1 Overview 6.2 Dynamics of Resource Exchange Between Government and Business 6.3 Tying Colonial Sanitation to the Global Consumer Silk Market 6.4 A New Moral Geography: Sanitary Infrastructure and Business Venture References