Making Impressions the Adaptation of a Portuguese Family to Hong Kong
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Making Impressions The adaptation of a Portuguese family to Hong Kong, 1700-1950 Stuart Braga A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University October 2012 i ii I certify that this thesis is entirely my own original work …………………… Stuart Braga iii iv Dedication This thesis looks forward as well as backwards. It looks backwards with appreciation and admiration to those who made their way, often through very hard circumstances and in times of tribulation. It looks forward to succeeding generations, who have great shoulders upon which to stand. Therefore I dedicate it with my fondest love to my dear grandchildren: Emily Georgina Braga, Rose Elizabeth Braga, Sarah Elise Braga, Rachael Holly Braga, Peter Jonathan Braga, Abby Grace Braga, Jack Stuart Braga, Timothy Hugh Braga, Matthew Frederick Braga, Alice Patricia Braga, to those who follow, and in loving memory of Jonathan Christopher Braga. v vi Making impressions A Portuguese family in Macau and Hong Kong, 1700-1945 Acknowledgements i Abstract v Maps vii Tables xi A note on sources xiii A note on nomenclature xvii Timeline of events xix Introduction xxix PART I A community takes shape 1. ‘Stubborn endurance’ – Macau: the Portuguese and the Chinese, 1557-1839 1 2. ‘Their ancient ally’ – Macau and the British, 1637-1839 31 3. The Portuguese community in Hong Kong, 1844-1900 69 PART II A leap in the dark – eighteenth and nineteenth century emigrants 4. Men of Mark – the Rosa and Braga families in Goa and Macau 107 5. Looking elsewhere – the Rosa Braga family in Hong Kong 137 6. Delfino Noronha, and the Portuguese community, 1844-1900 165 7. Printer’s devil – J.P. Braga, 1871-1900 197 PART III 1900-1945: fulfilment and failure 8. Making his mark – J.P. Braga, 1900-1928 journalist, printer, leader of the Portuguese community 231 9. ‘Son of Hong Kong’ – J.P. Braga’s public career and its impact on Hong Kong, 1929-1937 271 10. ‘The honourable tribe’. The Braga family in Hong Kong, 1900-1925 311 11. Divergent paths. The Braga family in Kowloon, 1926-1941 343 12. ‘This terrible nightmare’. The Japanese Occupation, 1941-1945 365 vii viii PART IV ‘A community apart’. 13. The Portuguese in Hong Kong in the twentieth century 403 Conclusion 443 Bibliography 447 APPENDICES Population 1. Population of Macau, 1557-1960 485 2. The Portuguese Population of Hong Kong 491 Three significant books 3. Anders Ljungstedt, An historical sketch of the Portuguese settlements in China: and of the Roman Catholic Church, 1836 499 4. A book burning in Macau: the suppression of Historic Macao, 1929 513 5. J.P. Braga, The Portuguese in Hongkong and China, 1944 525 J.P. Braga – facets of his life 6. Part 1 – Olive Braga – ‘The peace of Christ garrisoning her heart’ 539 Part 2 – José Pedro Braga – ‘Apologia pro vita sua’ 541 7. J.P. Braga, Record of public service and directorships 545 8. Hong Kong Legislative Council: growth in unofficial membership 551 9. J.P. Braga and the Imperial Honours system 553 Miscellaneous 10. Malacca and Macau 559 11. Noronha & Co’s finest book 565 12. Functus Officio – a questionable decision, 1919 567 13. Anarchy in Kowloon, 11-12 December 1941 571 14. Sir Robert Ho Tung and the Braga family 583 15. The Braga family leave Hong Kong, 1946-1998 591 16. Fr Joaquim Gonçalves and printing in Macau 623 17. Glossary of Chinese names 633 ix Acknowledgments I have been aware since childhood of the fine library created by my uncle, J.M. ‘Jack’ Braga, but a vague awareness became a keen interest when in 1969 Jack Braga, then a consultant at the National Library of Australia showed us proudly around his collection, then in the course of being processed by several different branches of the library. In 1972, Jack and his wife, Augusta, visited us in Sydney. I took the opportunity of taping his recollections of family history going back to 1712 and was amazed at his acute memory. He wrote in our visitors’ book on that occasion, ‘You don’t know what this means to us’. At last he had found a member of the family who shared his interest. In the fullness of time, his fine collection spawned this thesis. My interest became more focussed in 1990 when another uncle, Tony Braga, gave me a copy of the recently reprinted Historic Macao by C.A. Montalto de Jesus. He followed this with the gift of several more books touching on the role played in the history of Hong Kong by his family, a role of which he was enormously proud. He was sure that this would eventually lead to some written project, though it has taken twenty years for this to eventuate. Several family members have made available documents, letters and photographs and have assisted with memoirs of the children of José Pedro Braga and Olive Pauline Braga. These are: Angela Ablong, J. David Braga, Maria Braga, Maurice Braga, Janyce Luff, Sheila Potter and Frances Rufener. Janyce’s gift of the diary from 1924 to 1929 of her father Noel Braga was of particular importance. John and Paul Braga, descendants of João Joaquim Braga, shared important information on their side of the family. I am grateful to my cousin, Dr António M. Braga, the eldest son of J.M. Braga, who in the early 1990s invited me to join the Casa de Macau, Australia, the local Macanese community association. Over the years it has proved to be a most profitable connection, with several trips to Hong Kong and Macau to participate in the Encontros splendidly arranged and supported by the Government of Macau. Marie Imelda McLeod, former Director of the Arquivo Histórico of Macau assisted my access to that important collection. The Special Collections Library of the University of Hong Kong contained much useful material on the history of Hong Kong. This thesis could not have been undertaken without the co-operation of the staff of the National Library of Australia, which houses the J.M. Braga collection of books, pictures, maps and manuscripts on the history of the Portuguese presence in the Far East. That collection, and the librarians who administer it, are the sine qua non of this enterprise. I acknowledge with gratitude successive Directors-General Warren Horton AM, Jan Fullerton AO, Ann-Marie Schwirtlich and Assistant Director- i General Margy Burn, all of whom have been supportive and encouraging of my interest in the J.M. Braga collection. Successive Heads of Manuscript Branch, Graeme Powell PSM, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres and Robyn Holmes have done much to facilitate my access to materials held in the Manuscripts Branch. It was a privilege to be accorded the opportunity of working for an extended period of time in April 2007 reorganising MS 4300, the most important group of manuscripts in that collection. The assistance of other section heads has been no less vital. They include the former Chief Librarian, Asian Collections, Dr Andrew Gosling and Amelia McKenzie, Director of Overseas Collections, the Curator of Maps, Dr Martin Woods and former Curator of the Pictures Collection, Linda Groom. Throughout the library, many members of staff have gone out of their way to assist. Andrew Sergeant, Reference Librarian in charge of the Petherick Room, and Mary Gosling, Manager, Reading Room Services, have made working in the Library a real pleasure. Intensive work in the Manuscripts Branch in 2007 brought me into close contact with people whose professionalism and dedication have been most praiseworthy. They include Susan Thomas, under whose direction I worked for several weeks. Special mention should be made of Megan Williams, who has created an excellent finding guide for MS 4300, based on my reorganisation and background notes. The team in what became the Manuscripts and Pictures Branch includes Emma Jolley, Curator of Manuscripts, Catriona Anderson, Matthew Cole, Karen Johnson, Beth Lonergan and Donna Vaughan. Likewise, during an intensive period working on augmenting the description of maps in the Braga Special Maps Collection under Dr Martin Woods, I came to appreciate the excellent team in that department: Dr Brendan Whyte and Quentin Slade. In the Pictures Collection prior to its amalgamation with Manuscripts, the vast knowledge and expertise of Sylvia Carr and Wendy Morrow were most important. In that very attractive area, the Asian Collections Reading Room, the expertise of the librarians, including Anya Dettman and Di Pin Ouyang, who have long been familiar with the Braga Collection, has been of considerable assistance. It is uncommon to include such a large number of librarians from one institution in a list of acknowledgments; it is indicative of the high calibre of the Library and its staff that such detailed and appreciative acknowledgment is made. Other libraries and research institutions have been unfailingly helpful. These are: the Australian National University Library, particularly Darrell Dorrington in the Menzies Building. In Hong Kong, Bernard Hui of the Public Record Office and Amelia Allsop of the Hong Kong Heritage Project provided access to their important collections. The Macau Public Library gave access to microfilm of newspapers in their collection. Many individuals have assisted in a wide variety of ways. António Jorge da Silva’s excellent maps of the Portuguese residential areas of Hong Kong in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were willingly made available. Others are: John Allen, a former senior executive of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, ii Emeritus Professor Henrique A. d’Assumpção AO, Tony Banham, Philomeno (‘Meno’) Baptista, Dr Solomon Bard, Sally Burdon, Dienecke Carruthers, Justina Cheang, Nicholas Colfer, who kindly showed me round the Kadoorie Avenue Estate and made available the Minute Books of the Hongkong Engineering & Construction Co., J.