Entrepreneurial philanthropy in Cold War Hong Kong's New Territories : the history of the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (1951-1967)

Abstract

Drawing materials from archives in Hong Kong and online databases, this thesis offers the first academic inquiry into the philanthropic Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA) in its dramatic early development in 1951-1967. Defining KAAA as an entrepreneurial philanthropy that serves the Kadoories’ broader interest who owned China Light & Power (CLP), a crucial public utility that monopolized electricity supply in Kowloon and the New Territories, this thesis situates KAAA’s early history in Hong Kong’s precarious Cold War circumstances and the Kadoories’ efforts to expand their influence over the colony as leading entrepreneurs. It argues that through bettering the living and working conditions of the New Territories to stabilize the colony at a Cold War frontier, the philanthropic KAAA promoted the Kadoories’ reputation as leading entrepreneurs in the early Cold War and effectively served as a useful tool to further demonstrate their public contribution in later periods. This thesis serves as a lens to observe how the Cold War took place in the rural New Territories of Hong Kong, and how the global confrontation in the early Cold War was exploited by the entrepreneurial Kadoories to enlarge their reputation through philanthropy and further involve themselves in the colony’s future development. Also, this thesis underscores the importance of the New Territories as a Cold War frontier zone in Hong Kong’s history. Chapter 1 (1947-1954) discusses KAAA’s foundation and its early operations in the context of the Kadoories’ successful experience as influential entrepreneurs and their promising business interests in early Cold War Hong Kong. It situates KAAA’s early operation in Hong Kong’s precarious Cold War circumstances and the government’s inadequate efforts in administrating the New Territories. Chapter 2 (1954-1959) describes the Kadoories’ enhanced influence in stabilizing and developing the New Territories in the Cold War crises through KAAA’s business-like methods, including providing agricultural production materials and loans. Leading their cooperation with the government, the Kadoories oversaw good outcomes in improving rural welfare through KAAA by the end of the 1950s. Chapter 3 (1959-1967) focuses on challenges from the public and the government on the entrepreneurial Kadoories in the late 1950s and KAAA’s responsive calibration. To salvage the entrepreneurs’ declining leadership in the colony’s development, the Kadoories shifted their focus from solving the colony’s Cold War crisis to demonstrating their social commitment more purposefully through KAAA to regain a reputation as entrepreneurial philanthropists in the colony. The Conclusion underscores how the Kadoories regarded the Cold War both as a crisis and an opportunity from leading entrepreneurs’ perspective to exert their influence in promoting the living and working conditions of the colony to effectively stabilize the colony. It also touches on KAAA’s future development after the 1967 riots and emphasizes the flexibility of philanthropy in responding to entrepreneurs’ evolving interests to enhance their reputations under changing circumstances.