"Guiding the youth of the colony" : the girl guide movement in Hong Kong, 1916-1997

Abstract

The Hong Kong Girl Guide movement has been an important provider of youth leisure activities intended to shape dutiful female subjects since its establishment in 1916. This thesis examines how the Girl Guide movement developed in colonial Hong Kong from 1916 to 1997. It discusses how the Girl Guide movement in Hong Kong grew from its origins as a form of middle-class youth leisure provision for British girls to become a popular youth movement engaging Chinese girls from diverse social backgrounds. Using underexamined official Girl Guide publications and government documents, this thesis also shows the relationship between the colonial government and the Girl Guide movement, and highlights the value and importance of the Girl Guide movement to colonial governance.

This thesis argues that the Girl Guide movement in Hong Kong provided a site for colonial collaboration across generations and racial divides. The perceived gender role of girls under the traditional Chinese and colonial contexts made the Girl Guides more suitable to serve an intermediary role, facilitating the transition between colonial and post-colonial regimes. This thesis therefore argues that the Hong Kong Girl Guide movement contributed indirectly to the colonial government’s aims of overseeing a smooth handover of power and an honorable retreat from Hong Kong in the last decade of British rule. Throughout the period studied, the Girl Guide movement demonstrated its flexibility in response to the specific political situations and the cultural norms of Hong Kong. Between 1916 and 1997, it developed unique characteristics that could not be found in Girl Guide movements in other colonies. This thesis also looks into the historical experience of women and girls, which have been rather underrepresented in previous scholarship on Hong Kong. It breaks with a top-down approach in imperial and colonial history that often ignores girls’ perspectives. By examining memoirs, and collecting and conducting oral history interviews, it seeks to address girls’ motivations in becoming Girl Guides and the impact of Girl Guiding on girls’ lives. It argues that girls were able to gain a sense of achievement from participating in the Girl Guide movement and that this motivated them to organize Girl Guide training for girls of younger generations after they grew up.

Whereas existing scholarship of Hong Kong has paid little attention to the impact of youth leisure upon colonial governance, this thesis aims to provide a new perspective on colonialism by focusing upon the Girl Guide movement. This case study situates Hong Kong in relation to other colonies and former colonies, and thereby adds greater comparative depth to historical studies of Girl Guide movements within the British Empire.