The Arches of the Years by Brian Yu HONG KONG LIFE STORIES NO. 1 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from IVIulticultural Canada; University of Toronto Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/archesofyearsOOyubr The Arches of the Years •' ^' Vi A, The Arches of the Years by Brian Yu Canada-Hong Kong Resource Centre 1 Spadina Crescent, Rm. Ill Toronto, Canada • M5S lAl Hong Kong Life Stories No.l Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies Toronto, 1999 Canada and Hong Kong Research Project University of Toronto - York University Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies York Lanes, Suite 270 York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario CANADA M3J1P3 Copyright © 1999 by the Governing Council of the University of Toronto and the Board of Governors of York University. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-895296-32-3 Printed in Canada at the Coach House P*rinting Company. Co-Directors, Canada and Hong Kong Project: Diana Lary and Bernard Luk Copy Editor: Janet A. Rubinoff Calligraphy for cover design by Jerome Ch'en, York University Hong Kong Life Stories: Series Editors' Preface Hong Kong has evolved from a colonial port on the China coast to a major centre of the global economy and a metropolis with a distinct way of life, over the half century since the Second World War. It is undoubtedly a Chinese society; it is also an open, pluralistic and civil societ>'. Social and cultural development has gone hand in hand with the economic, but has been much less well documented in the scholarly literature or the popular press. Many men and women contributed to the making of Hong Kong society. Some were rich and famous, or did great deeds which were recorded in print or on stone. Most just struggled quietly to sundve in difficuU conditions, to maintain their self-respect, and to raise their children. The life stories of these men and women give us a deeper, fuller understanding of the evolution of Hong Kong. In this series, we plan to publish Hong Kong life stories from diverse perspectives. There will be books in a variet}' of genres, such as autobiographies, biographies, oral histories and collections of representative works. With these publications, we hope to further the aims of the Canada and Hong Kong Project, viz., to chronicle the development of Hong Kong and to make Hong Kong better understood in Canada. The authors are responsible for their own opinions, which do not necessarily represent those of the Project or the editors. Mr. Brian Yu. the author of The Arches of the Years, is the youngest son of nine siblings. Their father had a Classical Chinese education, graduated from Oxford, and served as a \'emacular school inspector in the Hong Kong Government. Brian was educated by the Jesuits before the war. After the fall of Hong Kong, the family fled to Free China. Early in the postwar years, he won a scholarship to attend Cambridge where he became the first Chinese graduate to be recruited by Shell International Petroleum for service in Hong Kong. He had a successful career with Shell, while his siblings pursued theirs in law, in education and in scholarship. He was a pioneer in the early stages of Hong Kong's process of de-colonization and made many contributions to society. He immigrated to Canada in 1968. After working in turn for the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada and the Treasur\- Board, he rejoined Shell in Toronto. He is fully integrated into Canadian societ>', and remains close to his far-flung family. December 1998 Diana Lary Bernard Luk Series Editors For Christine and Catherine . 1 1 Contents Foreword 9 Introduction 1 1. Fountainhead, 1839-42 13 2. The Bonds of Tradition, 1908 15 3 The Beginning of Change, 1 909- 11 18 4. Oxford, 1912-16 20 5. Homecoming, 1916 24 6. The Inspector of Vernacular Schools 27 7. My Mother 30 8. The House on Shelley Street 32 9. Childhood Memories, 1930s 37 10. The Seeds of Learning, 1930s 46 11. The Fall of Hong Kong, December 1 94 63 12. The Perilous Years, 1942-45 70 13. Cambridge, 1946-49 95 14. My Father and His Protege, 1946-51 1 14 15. Hong Kong, 1949-57 120 16. Ipoh, 1957-59 126 17. London, 1959-60 131 18. Kuala Lumpur, 1961 134 19. Scaling the Heights, 1962-66 136 20. 'Goodbye, Father', 1966 142 21. Watershed, 1967-68 150 22. Ottawa, 1968-72 156 23. Toronto, 1972-84 165 24. The Golden Arch 177 Glossary 185 Foreword Walt Whitman wrote 'This is no book, who touches this, touches a man'. This may indeed be said of Brian's book, but perhaps it would be even better to say that one touches a family. The title is full of symbolism. Arches are often bridges and bridges often link very different places. A bridge can link two contrasting sides of a river or, as in a Roman aqueduct striding across Europe, bring water from mountains to plains. So it is with Brian's story. It links the ancient culture of China with the hectic life of a western city and the learning of the East with the mechanization of the West. Half a century has passed since Brian and I were fortunate enough to find ourselves in one of the world's great universities. Cambridge is, in itself, a bridge which spans the learning of the ages, which embraces the genius of Keynes and Newton, Rutherford and Milton. Doubtless this helped Brian to build his bridges. As we walked together in the meadows of Grantchester those many years ago little did I think that, one day, he would join me in the fascinating project of getting a brand new system of industrial relations to work for the professionals of the Public Service of Canada. Now we are both happily retired in a great country far from the lands that nurtured our roots. This little book lets us touch Brian and his family as they travelled over the many arches which have marked their journey. Leslie W.C.S. Barnes 4> Introduction In the preface to All Our Yesterdays: A Song of My Parents, which appeared as a private publication in 1992, I wrote as follows: I first gave serious thought to writing a short story of my parents in December 1989, something like a song of praise rather than a biography. I informed my brothers and sisters early in 1990 of my intention and asked for their help in the writing of the story, to be called A Song ofMy Parents. Later Father Albert Cooney S.J., my former French teacher, suggested an alternative title. All Our Yesterdays. The idea appealed to me and I subsequently decided on the present title. All Our Yesterdays: A Song of My Parents, with a view to broadening the scope for my reminiscences without losing sight of the main theme. My story is based on facts, on my memories and perceptions of the past and on the recollections of m.y brothers and sisters. I have attempted to place many of the events taking place in my story in the context of history. In this regard I have drawn freely from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Churchill's memoirs of The Second World War, Barbara Tuchman's Stih'ell and the American Experience in China, and Major Oliver Stanley's The Lasting Honour: The Fall of Hong Kong. In the years that followed, I have revised All Our Yesterdays in accordance with the dictates of mind and the whims of memory, and added the story of my chequered career in some detail. Hence, 77?^ Arches of the Years, the memoirs of a Chinese Canadian with a family history going all the way back to the Opium War. My sincere thanks are due to Leslie Barnes, past President and former Executive Director of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, former Senior Research Fellow of Queen's University, Kingston, and currently First National Vice-President, Federal Superannuates National Association, for the foreword; Wilfred Saunders C.B.E., Emeritus Professor of the University of Sheffield and Professor Anthony Hudson of the University of 11 12 The Arches of the Years Liverpool for their helpfijl comments on some of the chapters; my nephew Professor Anthony Yu of the University of Chicago for the account of his unique relationship with my father in the early postwar years; my sister Margaret for permission to quote from her poem in memory of my mother, and my sister Mrs. Winnie Wong for the translation of one of my father's Oxford poems. I am indeed grateful to my friend Eleanor DeWolf who proofread the constantly evolving manuscript, to my son Peter who undertook the formatting of the final manuscript, and to my wife Mamie who prepared the glossary of Chinese names. I am greatly indebted to Professor Bernard Luk of York University who so kindly accepted my memoirs for publication by the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies and also contributed to a number of key improvements in the manuscript. I wish to thank Peter Yeung of the Canada-Hong Kong Resource Centre for putting me in touch with the Joint Centre in the first place, and Janet RubinoflF, Editor for the Canada and Hong Kong Project, for proofreading the final manuscript. I must gratefiilly acknowledge that some of my comments on Cambridge are taken from Cambridge, A Living Tradition by Michael Grant, and Cambridge Colleges by Janet Jeacock. Chapter 1 Fountainhead, 1839-42 'Happy is he who has three wives and four concubines.