In Search of Chineseness: The Choice of the Ho Sisters

Abstract

Identifying the family of Sir Robert Ho Tung (1862-1956) as a distinct entrepreneurial family in Hong Kong, this paper explores how the articulations of Chineseness by his two daughters - Irene and Florence -are related both to British colonial ideology and the emergence of different Chinese nationalistic discourses. Separated by an age difference of 11 years, Irene (1904-2007) and Florence (1915- ) received similar educations in their early years, but the two sisters followed very different life paths. Irene became an outstanding career woman and married late. Florence was married at the age of 17 and confined her role to the family setting. The life-stories of Florence Yeo and Irene Cheng question the meaning of Chineseness--both from the perspective of the Eurasians themselves and from the various perspectives found within the Chinese community. The social experience of the Ho daughters explains to what extent Eurasians were accepted by other Chinese as truly Chinese, and to what extent they were considered foreign. Why did the Chinese part of the Ho family traditions appear to be the more dominant influence in shaping their members' personal identities? This paper suggests that the problem of identification reveals a local pattern that is often ideological and political. This paper relates the question of social identity to the notion of modernity and nationalism through a review of liminality in the socio-political and cultural identification in the Hong Kong community. Firstly, it investigates the social drives and the cultural-historical currents which induced Eurasian women to identify themselves as Chinese. Secondly, it examines to what extent the Chineseness revealed in this social identity was characterised by modern ideology and the particular socio-historical landscape?