Open Collections

UBC Theses and Dissertations

UBC Theses Logo
Featured Collection

UBC Theses and Dissertations

Everyday colonialism : the 1906 typhoon and governance in early twentieth-century Hong Kong Cheng, Justin Chun-Yin

Abstract

As a Crown Colony, the Hong Kong government held particularly strong executive power—the Governor’s position afforded him seemingly unrestrained formal and informal powers. His power did have limits at times, however. This thesis shows how bureaucratic practices amongst the Governor, Colonial Office and Legislative Council and interactions with the mercantile elites demonstrated the delicate nature of Hong Kong’s colonial governance. Through examining the materials in connection to an everyday natural disaster like typhoon, this thesis offers a more nuanced and subtle picture of Hong Kong’s colonial governance at an everyday level, one in which the Governor’s power was constrained by the bureaucratic practices of both the Colonial Office and the Legislative Council, without being determined by the whims of European and Chinese mercantile elites. As a result, this thesis will serve as a case study into the workings of British colonialism on a day-to-day level. Colonial governance needs to be contextualized in its own time, place and form. The case of Hong Kong provides an example for comparative analysis in which colonial governance was conditioned by local context, especially within the Crown Colony system. This thesis will also show that, given the discrepancy of power between regulations and reality, the shared goal of stabilizing society and minimizing losses after typhoons further motivated all of the actors to fulfill their roles in the best light. Furthermore, as a devastating natural disaster, the 1906 typhoon also offers an entry point to look into how the unpredictability and uncontrolled nature of crises—or natural disasters in particular—mediated the governance and relations among actors. The role of natural disaster in governance has been largely ignored in the scholarship of Hong Kong history. Neither the 1906 typhoon nor the government’s response has been the subject of extensive research before. My thesis will fill both gaps: the government’s response will be evaluated at a structural level, and hence the response to the 1906 typhoon will be laid out more comprehensively, with the ultimate aim of achieving a fuller understanding of Hong Kong’s everyday colonial governance.

Item Metadata

Title
Everyday colonialism : the 1906 typhoon and governance in early twentieth-century Hong Kong
Creator
Cheng, Justin Chun-Yin
Supervisor
Shin, Leo K.
Publisher
University of British Columbia
Date Issued
2021
Description
As a Crown Colony, the Hong Kong government held particularly strong executive power—the Governor’s position afforded him seemingly unrestrained formal and informal powers. His power did have limits at times, however. This thesis shows how bureaucratic practices amongst the Governor, Colonial Office and Legislative Council and interactions with the mercantile elites demonstrated the delicate nature of Hong Kong’s colonial governance. Through examining the materials in connection to an everyday natural disaster like typhoon, this thesis offers a more nuanced and subtle picture of Hong Kong’s colonial governance at an everyday level, one in which the Governor’s power was constrained by the bureaucratic practices of both the Colonial Office and the Legislative Council, without being determined by the whims of European and Chinese mercantile elites. As a result, this thesis will serve as a case study into the workings of British colonialism on a day-to-day level. Colonial governance needs to be contextualized in its own time, place and form. The case of Hong Kong provides an example for comparative analysis in which colonial governance was conditioned by local context, especially within the Crown Colony system. This thesis will also show that, given the discrepancy of power between regulations and reality, the shared goal of stabilizing society and minimizing losses after typhoons further motivated all of the actors to fulfill their roles in the best light. Furthermore, as a devastating natural disaster, the 1906 typhoon also offers an entry point to look into how the unpredictability and uncontrolled nature of crises—or natural disasters in particular—mediated the governance and relations among actors. The role of natural disaster in governance has been largely ignored in the scholarship of Hong Kong history. Neither the 1906 typhoon nor the government’s response has been the subject of extensive research before. My thesis will fill both gaps: the government’s response will be evaluated at a structural level, and hence the response to the 1906 typhoon will be laid out more comprehensively, with the ultimate aim of achieving a fuller understanding of Hong Kong’s everyday colonial governance.
Genre
Thesis/Dissertation
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2021-05-26
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0398183
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78452
Degree
Master of Arts - MA
Program
History
Affiliation
Arts, Faculty of; History, Department of
Degree Grantor
University of British Columbia
Graduation Date
2021-11
Campus
UBCV
Scholarly Level
Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

Item Media

Loading media...

Item Citations and Data

Permanent URL (DOI):
Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International