CHAPTER FIVE
Hong Kong Macaenses
– from the Opium War to the Cold War (1842 – 1952)
Hong Kong Macaenses – British – and best?
In 1930 an American abroad wrote an article in the South China Morning Post declaring Hong Kong as not only beautiful, but also “British and best”.5_1 It was along similar veins that Macaenses in Hong Kong and Shanghai engaged in friendly banter concerning which was the better place to live. Mickey Sousa recalled with great fondness his visit to Shanghai in the late 1920s. Despite the bustling entertainment and other attractions of cosmopolitan Shanghai during its treaty port heyday, he considered Hong Kong as the better place to be in.5_2
It was not due to partiality that this chapter focused for the most part on Hong Kong; in fact it had been unplaitted from the previous chapter for several reasons. Firstly, it was desirable to break down the Macaense story into manageable chapter lengths. Secondly, outside of Macau, the Hong Kong community was the largest, with the longest history and the deepest roots. Furthermore, they encountered familiar issues of political patronage, multiple identities and the struggle for localisation of the civil service. These would be dealt with in the final chapter. Importantly, the Hong Kong Macaense story represented the whole gamut of the Macaense experience in China with more source materials available for research. In this chapter we traced the history and achievements of the Hong Kong Macaenses from its foundation to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War which rapidly evolved into World War II. In the process, we compared the various places during the first half of the twentieth century.
Hong Kong, as stated previously, was the single largest beneficiary of Macaense emigration from Macau during the treaty century. British traders and their Macanese helpers had set up shop in Hong Kong even before it was officially declared a colony.5_3 At the time, Hong Kong was just a barren rock with a few fishermen’s shacks along the shores. Because Hong Kong was still undeveloped and Chinese hostilities continued against the British, doubts were cast over its future with many traders opting to relocate to the newly opened ports such as Shanghai or to remain behind in Macau. Amongst those who remained in Macau were Captain Elliot, the Superintendent of British Trade, and his office staff.
From Macau came Chinese tradesmen and labourers, and Macaenses to set up businesses and offices for themselves and their employers. By 1842, there were already twenty-eight merchants in Hong Kong with an estimated 12,000 Chinese workers and tradesmen.5_4 The number had already doubled since the census some six months ago.5_5
Born out of the conflict between the two major powers, the beginning for Hong Kong was inauspicious on other accounts. In addition to typhoons, the early settlers succumbed to malaria and dysentery. A Macau journal suggested that if things worsened, Hong Kong would be known as “the Island of the Dead”.5_6 Even after the Treaty of Nanjing had been ratified, there were serious doubts about its prospects for trade with few out-bound cargoes to satisfy the opium ships that frequented its harbour. Referring to those tough pioneer days, J.P. Braga wrote that his Macaense compatriots “endured with the British pioneers the trials, hardships, and horrors of those early years of Hongkong’s history, and shared with them the labours which resulted in the building up of Hongkong.”5_7
In the years 1845 and 1846, the Colony encountered budget deficits that caused many to speculate about its economic viability.5_8 British merchants complained to the Colonial Office in August 1845 about Hong Kong’s lack of competitiveness, pointing out that some Americans and other foreigners had chosen to remain in Canton and Macau, “notwithstanding all the boasted advantages of Hongkong as a free port”.5_9
Against the odds, Hong Kong continued to grow so that by 1860 the Chinese population had reached 92,441 Chinese while the British and other foreigners numbered only 2,476.5_10 The cause of this rapid growth was attributed to the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) that caused an influx of people into Hong Kong stretching its meagre resources. Another factor was the annexation of the Kowloon peninsula and the legalising of opium imports following the Treaty of Tianjin that concluded what some called the Second Opium War (1856 – 1858).
According to a contemporary observer, among those Chinese who flocked to Hong Kong during 1852 to 1853 were wealthy families escaping from the fighting and upheaval in China. They started new commercial firms and became increasingly prominent in trade, property and shipping.5_11 These Chinese firms prospered under the protection of the British government and were a factor in the fast changing economic conditions that threatened to overwhelm the old British firms from Canton. It became increasingly apparent that the opening of the treaty ports broke not only the monopoly of Canton as the centre for foreign trade but also the cartel of the old foreign firms that had operated out of there; in order to survive they needed to diversify.
During the first few decades, the incoming cargoes of opium and salt and the outgoing human cargo of coolies to Southeast Asia, the Americas and Australia dominated Hong Kong’s trade. The trade in opium was becoming less profitable owing to competition from other countries and the increased costs from India.5_12 Indeed the opium business could not prevent the once mighty merchant firm of Dent & Co. from going bankrupt in 1867 together with eleven banks. Even the Government of Hong Kong had to borrow money from the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to help meet its immediate financial needs during this period of economic stringency.5_13 Jardine, Matheson & Co, the big opium trading house, increasingly diversified its business. By the late 1880s its interests extended to land reclamation, textiles, railways, sugar refinery, ice works, shipping and stevedoring.5_14
The history books that had been written about Hong Kong had not dealt adequately with the role of the Macaenses and their significant contribution to its early development.5_15 In the decade leading up to the handover, the plethora of coffee table style publications about Hong Kong and its history bore scant reference to the Macaenses community.5_16 In my view, this was a gross oversight. Far from being insignificant, it had been the central argument of this thesis that as a group their contribution was significant, perhaps immeasurable. However, due either to indifference and the commercial and political realities of the day, their contributions had not been adequately recognised. As early as 1924, concerns were already raised about such an eventuality. An article in a Hong Kong newspaper stated that “[although] newcomers to Hong Kong noticed the large number of Portuguese [it is] doubtful whether they, or even the permanent residents, appreciate fully what the Portuguese, past and present, have done for places like Hong Kong.”5_17
J.P. Braga provided an account of the Hong Kong Macaenses during the early period before 1900.5_18 We owed much of our knowledge about the early history of the community to him. As the entreport trade of Hong Kong grew and Macau’s declined, more and more Macaenses left to find work in Hong Kong. Their salaries were low and meagre, the housing accommodation was crowded and “seemed always insufficient”, made worse by the influx of Chinese refugees escaping from the Taiping Rebellion and other unrest in China. Braga wrote that the Macaense migrants from Macau “must have led drab lives [with] little outside entertainment to be had after the day’s work. … Within their family circles and in the company of congenial friends they spent their leisure hours, and enjoyed their simple pleasures. They had little in common with the British community, and lived very much among themselves. A hard working and law abiding community.”5_19
Braga recorded that several did very well. By 1860 nearly forty Macaenses were employed by the Hong Kong government and upwards of one hundred and fifty were working for foreign firms. This was part of an estimated eight hundred Macaense men, women and children who had set up residences in Hong Kong.5_20
The Macaenses distinguished themselves in government service and the commercial firms. In the early decades of Hong Kong, they dominated the pharmacies as owners and employees. In 1849 they owned the Victoria Dispensary and the Medical Hall. By 1861 they started additional ones such as the Queen’s Road Dispensary owned by A. de Sousa, and two other pharmacies owned by RD Silva and C.J. & V.E. Braga. 5_21
There were also a large number of printers and compositors. Until the 1870s, all the compositors were Macaenses. There were thirty-six compositors in Hong Kong working in the printing firms and the European newspaper offices. They had learnt the art of modern printing in Macau and brought it with them to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shameen and other ports. It was J.P. Braga‘s maternal grandfather, Delfino Noronha, who started the first printing business in Hong Kong with a small printing press, arriving there in the early 1840s. In 1861, he was listed as the largest employer among the Macaense firms in Hong Kong. By the end of that decade, Noronha’s company became the de facto government printer and continued to be so until it was sold by his successors to the Hong Kong Government in the 1960s, a hundred years later.5_22
Although the Macaenses were known for their role as interpreters, it was merely “a common-place smattering of colloquial Cantonese” acquired not through formal training but through exposure and natural ability.5_23 One could only guess at the amount of errors involved as there was little incentive for formal language training because the remuneration was low for the efforts required.5_24 Nevertheless, many made a career out of it such as Carlos Augusto Rocha D’Assumpção, who died at Homantin, Kowloon, in 1932, aged 69. Born in Macao, he spent all his life until his retirement in the service of the Portugese Government, first as chief interpreter in the Department of the Chinese Secretariat, then as the Chinese interpreter accompanying various political missions to Beijing. In the course of his career, D’Assumpção held important positions as Secretary to the Portuguese Legation at Peking in 1902, as a member of the Portuguese Commission at the Opium Conference of 1908-1909 and as Consul for Portugal in Shameen in those momentous years of 1910-1911. At the end of his appointment he retired with his family to Kowloon. In the course of his career, he had received honours from the Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese governments.5_25
The early Macaense pioneers excelled in government service. Perhaps the most outstanding were 3Leonardo d’Almada e Castro and his younger brother, José Maria. In 1842, when the British authorities decided to move the office of the Chief Superintendent of the China trade to Hong Kong, the move was accompanied by the Macaense staff which included the two d’Almada brothers. Leonardo entered the service of the British Government in 1836 at Macau. At the time of his death at the age of 61 (1875), he was the Clerk of the Legislative and Executive Councils and First Clerk in the office of the Colonial Secretary, a very senior position in the Colonial bureaucracy. At his passing, the Legislative Council moved a motion of condolence and awarded life pensions to his widow and daughter.5_26
In those pioneering days, Hong Kong was not a hospitable place. The British suffered from pestilence and disease as well as disunity and quarrels amongst themselves. As willing helpers of the British from their days in Canton and Macau, the Macaenses were made welcome. Due to their diligence and capability, they gained acceptance so much so that the Secretary of State for the Colonies published a circular in 1862 giving them and others like them, the rights and privileges of British subjects. The extent of their presence could be seen from the British firms and Colonial Government directories of 1849-1861 which showed that Macaense employees outnumbered other races by two to one.5_27
Being a British subject did not make acceptance by the British any easier. There were opposition from British vested interests when non-British persons were considered for top positions such as the proposed appointment of Leonardo d’Almada as Colonial Secretary under Governor Bowring (1854-59) or the appointment by Governor Hennessy of the first Chinese, Ng Choy, to Hong Kong’s Legislative Assembly in 1880.5_28
It was a period when the boundaries of race, class and culture appeared more pronounced and rigid than today and racial discrimination was widely practiced and institutionalised. According to Braga, a Macaense named Alexandre Grande-Pré, “appears to have become one of the earliest victims in Hongkong of that unfair racial discrimination so wrongly practised in … British Colonial administration.”5_29 During much of the twentieth century, racial discrimination became subtler and was often described as colonial snobbery. It was put forward as one of many reasons why Macaenses from Hong Kong decided to emigrate. An interviewee said: “We Macaenses were only cannon fodder, they [British] realised we were loyal. We were paid just enough to keep you but not enough to send your son to university. You may make a good living but if you want promotion you would have to be born overseas if working for British firms. For local Chinese firms, you had to be a member of the family.”5_30
The Macaenses were indeed loyal and hard workers. Dr Cantlie alluded to this in 1896. Cantlie spoke to a group of British employers in Hong Kong about the importance of granting annual leave to their employees. He said:
Do not forget the Portuguese. Many of these men have been employed by European firms for ten, twenty or even twenty-five years, and have never been absent from the office unless with a medical certificate. Gentlemen, remember of what blood you are – the sons of men who abolished slavery. Do not allow this form of modern slavery to creep into our daily life unchallenged.
While one could not know the impact of Cantlie’s speech on the Macaenses and their employers, it did indicate that the Macaenses’ intense devotion to their work had not gone unnoticed by at least one outsider.5_31
The Hong Kong Macaenses were known not only as hard-working but also law abiding but some did ran foul of the law such as the two instances reported in 1936. The first was known as “the Portuguese kidnapping case” in which Frederic Barretto, aged thirty-one, pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the kidnapping of Luigi José Ribeiro, the six-year-old son of L.G. Ribeiro of No 7 Hanoi Road, Kowloon on 10 December 1935. In January 1936, Barretto was sentenced to twelve months hard labour while the second defendant, Luiz António da Rocha, aged twenty-seven, escaped with a warning from the magistrate.5_32
The second instance occurred in April 1936 when Anthony Rangel, aged forty-three, appeared before Magistrate Balfour and pleaded guilty to possession of seventy-two taels of raw opium. Formerly of Shanghai, Rangel was arrested at the Western Market with the opium concealed round his waist. The arresting officer said that Rangel was one of the subordinate couriers, that he was an addict, and that “at one time he was very wealthy but has fallen on evil circumstances. … He is an educated man and is no fool.” When asked whether the drug was for his own consumption, Rangel replied that as he was unemployed, he became a courier to earn a little money. The opium was confiscated and a fine or ten months’ imprisonment was imposed.5_33
Recognition and Imperial awards
The loyalty and dedication of the Hong Kong Macaenses had been acknowledged by way of imperial awards and appointments to important civic posts. Awards were presented with fair regularity in the early 1900s. The first Macaense to receive an imperial award was Eusebio Honorato d’Aquino. On 28 October 1911 d’Aquino was awarded the Imperial Service Order upon his retirement after 50 years of service in the Stamp Duties Office.5_34
On 4 June 1935, the King’s Birthday Honours List contained two awards to members of the Macaense community. J.P. Braga was awarded an O.B.E. while H was awarded the Companion of the Imperial Service Order. A Hong Kong paper commented that the awards were in recognition of the Macaense community, “a tribute to the loyalty and worthiness of that large section of the population.”5_35
On 15 April 1937, J.A. d’Almeida was reported as retiring after thirty years of service as First Grade Clerk of the General Post Office. Although he served for nearly thirty years, the British colonial government did not recommend him for an award. Instead, it was the Portuguese Government who presented him twice with awards for his services to the community.5_36
On 31 May 1937, it was reported that John Reis Castilho, Second Bailiff of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, was awarded the Imperial Service Medal upon his retirement after forty years of service.5_37
When J.P. Braga was awarded the O.B.E. in 1935, his citation revealed that it was recognition for the Macaense community as much as it was for him. It read, in part:
Your family has been connected with Hongkong from its foundations in 1841 and your interests are intimately bound up with the Colony whose prosperity you have laboured to promote. … Yourself a British subject you have worthily represented the interests of the large body of Portuguese who have made Hongkong their permanent home and the honour which has now been conferred on you will rightly be regarded as a mark of appreciation of the steady and consistent loyalty of the Portuguese community.5_38
At the news of his award, one of his sons thought it should have been a higher award, perhaps a knighthood.5_39 Judging by the picture gained of Braga through the newspapers, his letters, the public and private acts of service and the condolences received at his passing, one could sympathise with the sentiment that he deserved greater recognition for the services rendered not only to his Macaense community but also to Hong Kong at large.5_40
By the time he was awarded the O.B.E. in 1935, Braga had already achieved significant recognition for the Hong Kong Macaense community. Born in Hong Kong on 3 August 1871 his biographical details had been noted elsewhere.5_41 He came to prominence in Hong Kong through his journalistic career serving as the managing editor of The Hongkong Telegraph from 1902 to 1909 and as the Reuters’ correspondent for Hong Kong from 1906 to 1931.5_42 The high point of his career was undoubtedly his appointment as an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council representing Kowloon on 17 January 1929. It was the first time that someone had been appointed to represent Kowloon and also the first time that someone from the Macaense community had been appointed to the Legislative Council. He held this post for eight years until 1937 when he retired due to ill-health. At the news of his retirement from the Council, the South China Morning Post declared that:
Mr Braga’s contribution to the acceptable administration of the Colony has been equally appreciable; his public service based upon his long residence, familiarity with workaday problems and an indefatigable enthusiasm for development. Probably more than any other member of Council, he is in contact with the Colony’s industries and with those therein engaged. His utterances are marked by concern for Hongkong as Hongkong – a territory with its own economic and social problems, the permanent home of thousands whose domestic interests are so easily overlooked in the consideration of matters of high finance and politics. A man of high moral courage, Mr Braga’s complete retirement from public life would be an irreparable loss to the community.5_43
Besides J.P. Braga, the other Macaense that appeared fairly regularly in the news were Dr Filomeno Maria de Graça Ozorio and Dr R.A. de Castro Basto; both were members of the Sanitary Board.5_44 Together with Leo d’Almada who succeeded Braga in the Legislative Council, they paved the way for a long line of Macaense appointees to important civic positions.5_45 Those who followed in their footsteps included Sir Albert M. Rodrigues,5_46 Sir Roger Lobo,5_47 and Arnaldo de Oliveira Sales.5_48
Career mobility
The career of many Macaenses resembled some of today’s business executives who travelled extensively in the course of their careers. A survey of the genealogies of the Macaense families indicated that many went to Japan,5_49 the Philippines5_50 and Singapore.5_51 The 1896 Macau census showed that they also went to Indonesia and Thailand.5_52 Most of them moved up and down the China coast to places such as Shantou, Foochow, Tianjin, Canton and Shanghai. The career of Henrique Hyndman illustrated this. Born in Macau, Hyndman followed his brother to Hong Kong to work as bookkeeper for M.C. Rozario & Co. Later he joined the China Sugar Refining Co. and was sent to the company’s office in Shantou for a period. He then went to Shanghai where he was put in charge of a printing business that had been purchased by Delfino Noronha of Hong Kong. He returned to Hong Kong where he worked for Noronha before retiring to Macau where he continued to teach English at different institutions. As a teacher, he was well regarded by his students.5_53
Other examples might be gleaned from the family experience of J.B. Correa, a prominent member of the Macaense diaspora.5_54 Before World War II, his father was an accountant with an American brokerage firm in Hong Kong. He was transferred to Shanghai when the company decided to relocate their operations there believing that Hong Kong, being a British colony, would be attacked by the Japanese soon. So as not to disrupt their schooling, the family was left behind in Hong Kong. When war broke out, his father was stranded in Shanghai. Meanwhile his paternal uncle was stranded in the Philippines, having been transferred there to work for the American company, General Motors. Throughout his uncle’s career, he was transferred from one place to another, to Shanghai, Japan, Hong Kong and Philippines.
The geographic mobility of members of the community could also be gleaned from the memoirs of C.E. de Lopes Osorio. He wrote about his circle of friends during his school days at St Joseph’s College, Hong Kong in the late 1880s:
Before I completed my school days, the circle of friendship I formed was dispersed and wandered. The late J.A. Remedios left for Singapore, Mr J.P. Braga went to Calcutta to complete his study, the late Mr J.W. Loureiro joined the Chinese Maritime Customs in which he rose to be a Commissioner of Customs, Mr Frank S. Souza migrated to Japan where today he is the Portuguese Consul, the late Mr. C.A. Montalto de Jesus, the author of Historic Macao and Historic Shanghai, went to London and Lisbon where he served as one of the Secretaries, assisting in the League of Nations Conference, and Mr. F.P. Vasconcello Soares who acted for a short period as Portuguese Consul, in Hongkong. I hold these friends in pious memory.5_55
Land and housing schemes
Some members of the Hong Kong Macaense community were active in property development, a pre-occupation that was to contribute much to Hong Kong’s wealth in the latter decades of the twentieth century. J.P. Braga claimed that members of the Macaense community were the pioneers in the development of Kowloon and Yaumati in the later half of the nineteenth century. He specifically highlighted the efforts of Mathias Azevedo and Delfino Noronha.5_56 Between 1900 and the onset of World War II, there appeared to have been four ambitious housing projects promoted by prominent Macaenses of the period.
C.M. Ede promoted the first housing scheme early in the twentieth century. He aimed to create a “Portuguese reservation” at Wong-nei-cheong (Happy Valley) to provide suitable housing for the “middle classes” in Hong Kong. As its name suggested, this scheme was aimed exclusively for members of the Macaense community who were clerks employed in Government service, banks, insurance offices and business establishments. The area contemplated was 871,200 square feet including land to be set aside for school and playground. It was envisaged that different housing types would be offered in the form of terraces, bungalows, and semi-detached houses to suit the different levels of income.5_57
F.P.V. Soares promoted the second scheme for a “garden city” in Kowloon. As reported in 1912 by the Hongkong Telegraph, Soares’ idea was to provide houses with grounds sufficient to enable residents to grow their own vegetables, fruits and poultry and to supplement their incomes by the sale of the surplus produce.5_58 It was proposed to let the houses at a cheap rate and to allow those with small incomes to purchase their homes on an instalment basis. The report supported the scheme describing the economic benefits to the community and the government. Specifically they would benefit through “an increase in Crown rents by the development of a region which is now mostly barren; by increased revenue from the railway, and by the creation of a new centre of population between Yaumati and Kowloon City.” The developers proposed to lease from the Government 24,000,000 square feet of land. Within this area provisions would be set aside for educational and religious purposes. Unlike Ede’s scheme this was open to all Europeans. This became the suburb known today as Homantin and F.P. de Vasconcellos Soares was known as the “father of Homantin”.5_59
The third scheme was the development of Kowloon Tong. Soares and Ede teamed up for this project which had been acclaimed as “one of the show places of the colony, a garden city in itself, an asset for civic pride.”5_60
The fourth scheme was initiated in 1932. Headed by J.P. Braga and backed by financial support from the Kadoorie family and the Eurasian businessman Sir Robert Ho Tung, the Hongkong Engineering and Construction Company promoted another ambitious housing scheme. According to the newspaper report it was one of the biggest property developments undertaken in the history of the colony comprising 1,330,000 sq. feet of land.5_61 A subsequent editorial in the South China Morning Post congratulated the Macaense community for their contribution and faith in Kowloon. The project was not as successful as originally envisaged due to the onset of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and World War II.5_62
The newspaper reports in the 1920s and 1930s alluded to the rationale for these housing schemes. Beside the motivation of profits, the developers were also driven by concerns that the constant influx of Chinese refugees to Hong Kong tended to aggravate the shortage of affordable housing for the Macaense community. Rents were increasing at an alarming rate and the richer refugees from Mainland China were buying up properties closer to the central business district forcing many Macaense tenants to move further away from their places of work. Others were attracted to the idea of living in close proximity to members of their own community and the educational, religious and social facilities. With Macaenses in senior administrative positions in the colonial government, it was not difficult for these Macaense entrepreneurs to receive sympathetic considerations for their schemes and government assistance such as the provision of new railway stations for these developments.
Active in commerce
Investment in real estate was not the only avenue for the Macaenses in Hong Kong to prosper. Since the beginning of the Stock Exchange for publicly listed companies, the community was already investing in them. When the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was first incorporated, many Macaenses invested their savings in its shares. Braga thought that this type of investment suited the community because it allowed them to participate in major commercial undertakings without the need of too much capital.5_63 The community could be said to have preferred such investments for often they were privy to much of the sensitive financial information of many of these firms, being clerks and bookkeepers in many of them. Unfortunately despite the access to inside information, stock markets rose and fell and many members of the community lost a lot of money as a result.
Not only as silent investors, some Macaenses were also active as directors, especially in the early years when the Chinese had not yet begun to take great interest in British companies as a form of investment.5_64 In 1931, Braga became the chairman of Hongkong Engineering and Construction Company.5_65 Many Macaenses were listed as shareholders. In November of that year, the Company announced it had purchased land for a “new garden suburb”.5_66 Braga was also recorded as a director of China Light and Power Company, a company controlled by the Kadoorie family. His son, Noel Braga was listed as the Company Secretary.5_67 When the Japanese invaded Hong Kong, Noel, as Secretary of the company, took the share register and other important documents with him for safe keeping in Macau.5_68
In 1934 the Hongkong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company had J.P.Braga and C.A. da Roza as directors when it reported losses of $54,055.50. These losses were reportedly due to the heavy depreciation of the Canton currency, the keen competition from the Kowloon-Canton Railway, the enforcement of restrictive regulations in Canton with regard to the shipment of fish and vegetables, and the general trade depression.5_69 Other Macaenses who served on its board at various times included J.J. dos Remedios, Baron de Cercal, F. d’A. Gomes, J.A. Gomes and J.M. Alves.5_70
Among the Macaenses, C.A. da Roza was particularly prominent as a director of public companies. He was Chairman of China Provident, Loan and Mortgage Co. Ltd, Green Island Cement Co. Ltd, China Phonograph and Radio Ltd, Vibro Piling Co. Ltd. He was also a director of Asia Coal and Bricqueting Co.Ltd; Hongkong, Canton and Macau Steamboat Co.Ltd; Sandakan Light and Power Co. Ltd; and China Underwriters Ltd.5_71 Unfortunately da Roza died in August 1936 at the age of fifty two. At his funeral at Happy Valley, there were a large number of mourners. According to a newspaper report, the entire staff and coolies of the China Provident, Loan and Mortgage Co.Ltd. joined the funeral procession. Another company, China Light and Power was represented by its management. Other unspecified business houses had also sent representatives.5_72
The most prominent Macaense private business in Hong Kong was the government printer and publisher, Noronha and Company founded by Delfino Noronha and acquired by J.M de Castro Basto upon Noronha’s death. Born in Macau in 1854, Basto went to Shanghai with his parents where his father established a business. In 1867, along with his brothers, he was sent to study in Macau following which he was employed in a clerical capacity by a large insurance company in Hong Kong. After a while, he went to Shanghai and to Hankou before returning to Macau where he was married in 1883. Bored with working for his father-in-law’s firm and finding “Macau life too inactive”, he returned to Hong Kong in the 1880s and became a share and general broker. At the death of Delfino Noronha, Basto acquired the firm Noronha and Company from the estate. Later on, he even dabbled in oil exploration in Portuguese Timor, but this proved unsuccessful. Known for his wanderlust, he travelled around the world on three separate ocassions. All his sons were educated in Hong Kong then sent abroad to study at Lisbon or England. He died in Hong Kong aged eighty and his family continued the printing business until it was sold to the Hong Kong government in the 1960s.5_73
Perhaps the most colourful Macaense businessman was A.H. Tavares who died in Hong Kong in 1935, aged sixty, from a heart attack. He was born in Macau and had intended to follow a military career but left the army in 1897 following an injury. The South China Morning Post reported that:
Even in those pioneer days (1897) when equal opportunities were considered open to all who had the courage and the ability to translate them into terms of material wealth, Mr Tavares was regarded as a phenomenon. So big did his reputation grow, that as a prophet he was credited by his countrymen with clairvoyant powers in business, and he loomed as the richest man of his community. He bought extensive property at Hongkong, Macao and Singapore. With Chinese acquaintances and associates amongst whom he was a good ‘mixer’, this reputation of a ‘wizard’ was also strongly maintained, and the name of Saiyeung Yee [i.e. Portuguese Yee], by which he was known amongst them, was one to expect wonders.5_74
Macaense institutions in Hong Kong
Portuguese newspapers in Hong Kong
- O Echo da China (China Echo) – 1844.
- A Voz de Macaísta (The Voice of the Macaense) – 1846. A political journal published weekly, it commenced under M.M. Dias Pegado.
- Amigo do Progresso (The Friend of Progress) – 1850, a literary journal.
- Verdade e Liberdade (Truth and Liberty) – 1852, a political paper edited by José Maria da Silva e Souza and printed at Noronha’s.
- Echo do Povo ( Voice of the People) – early 1860s. In 1862 it had three compositors. Published every second day, it served political as well as general news and lasted a few years.
- O Impulso das Letras (The Advancement of Letters). Mainly literary in nature, it had a short life – 1 October 1865 to 1 September 1866.
- O Noticiario Macaense (Macaense News) 1869 – political news.
- O Independente (The Independent). It appeared by 1870. It lasted for about 10 years and disappeared due to the publisher being sued for libel.
- Catholic – 1873. It contained political and religious news and comments
- O Extreme Oriente (The Far East) and O Hongkong Alegre (Merry Hongkong) -founded around 1880.
- O Echo da China (China Echo) – 1844, giving way by 1900 to O Porvir (The Future).
- 1900 to 1914 O Patriota (The Patriot).
- O Petardo (The Firecracker) – 1929.
The points worth noting about these papers were that three quarters of them were established in Hong Kong in the first three decades following the Opium War and that they did not last for long. This might reflect the increasing assimilation of the Macaenses from Macau into Hong Kong society resulting in a declining interest in Portuguese affairs and a general decline in the ability, especially among the younger generation, to read and write Portuguese. The decline in Portuguese language proficiency was borne out by the eventual fate of the Portuguese library and the apparent lack of enthusiasm for Portuguese language education among the younger generation.
Bibliotheca Portuguesa (Portuguese Library)
The Bibliotheca Portuguesa, founded on 27 June 1857, was the earliest of the Macaense institutions in Hong Kong. The establishment of this library reflected the desire to maintain and promote knowledge of the Portuguese language, its history and literature. Another library was established soon after called Bibliotheca Lusitana but both were later amalgamated. The catalogue of the two collections published in 1887 was said to consist of “not less than 3,859 volumes”. It was claimed that no such library existed in Macau in those days, although St Joseph’s Seminary College Macau was known to have a small selection.5_76 After the founding of the Lusitano Club, the Bibliotheca was housed there though not without contention between opposing factions in the community.5_77
The newspapers, library and language schools were seen as attempts to popularise the Portuguese language among the Hong Kong Macaense community. J.P.Braga wrote in the early 1940s:
It is almost pathetic, at the present day, to look back and observe the attempts made by [the early community elders] to preserve Portuguese influences among their children. … Most of them knew little enough of the Portuguese language themselves – excepting for those among them who had had the good fortune to attend St Joseph’s Royal College in Macao. … In spite of efforts to get the younger Portuguese in Hongkong interested in the tongue of their forefathers … every attempt ended in failure [because] there were other forces exerting contrary influences among the young Portuguese.5_78
Club Lusitano
Hong Kong’s Club Lusitano, formed in 1865, remained the oldest Portuguese institution in a non-Portuguese territory in the Far East. The idea grew out of a need for a common meeting place for social gatherings and recreation. It was decided that a club house needed to be built. A site at Shelley Street was selected and community contributions were solicited. The foundation stone was laid on 26 December 1865. A year later, on 17 December 1866, the club building was officially opened by the Macau Governor, Brigadier José Rodrigues Coelho do Amaral. In time, the Shelley Street premises become crowded in by tall residential buildings leading to a decision to relocate. In 1919 A.M.L. Soares purchased a property in Ice House Street, in the heart of the commercial district. He offered it to the Club for the same price he paid for it, which was later accepted.
There was dissension over whether such an expensive property would be appropriate because it would tie up too much funds. It was debated whether it should be in Hong Kong, close to where most members were employed, or in Kowloon where most families were living. In the end, the majority were swayed by the argument that since the capital of Hong Kong was on the island, the community’s club house had to be there also.
The Club building was completed in 1922. The old premises were sold but it did not raised sufficient funds so a loan was obtained from the bank. The servicing of the debt became such a burden that it was decided to approach the Macau Government for a loan. The then Governor Artur Tamagnini de Sousa Barbosa was sympathetic and upon his recommendation, the Minister for the Colonies in Lisbon gave his consent.4_79@79
For the Macaense community, the Club was more than just a meeting place. Over the years it hosted many distinguished Portuguese visitors from around the world such as His Grace Mateus de Oliveira Xavier, Archbishop of Goa in November 1924, the first visit by such an ecclesiastical dignitary.4_80 In September 1927, a lavish reception was held for Macau’s Governor Barbosa when he visited Hong Kong with his wife and daughter.4_81 It was the venue for celebrating Portugal’s National Day. On important occasions such as in January 1937 almost the entire community attended a reception in honour of J.P.Braga upon his retirement from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and his replacement by fellow Macaense, Leo d’Almada.4_82 Later in May 1937, it was elaborately decorated by the Macaense artist M.F. Baptista as part of the Hong Kong festivities marking the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.4_83 During World War II, the Club became a refuge, an oasis of neutrality as members of the community flocked to it for safety and to receive their share of the meagre rations that had been sent from Macau.4_84 J.P. Braga wrote that Club Lusitano had an imperial role to play:
History records that nearly every Portuguese official of note passing through Hongkong was given a reception at the Club Lusitano by the members of the community in Hongkong. The elders were keen that the younger generation might thereby be brought into closer contact with members of their race from Portugal [and ] made to feel that they were part and parcel of Portugal in the Far East.4_85
Club de Recreio and sports
According to the Braga Manuscripts, the idea for Club de Recreio had its origins on the ground floor of a private residence in Granville Road, Kowloon when a group of close friends sought a convenient place to meet each night to play cards and other forms of recreation. The room was provided rent-free by João Gomes, a clerk employed by the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company. As more and more Macaenses came to enjoy “the club”, there was a need for bigger premises.5_86
Prior to forming a properly constituted club, a co-operative savings society was started in 1905 with nineteen members. The co-operative did so well that after fifteen months, it was wound up and the profits as well as the furniture were donated towards the formation of the club. Edward J. Noronha located premises owned by the Spanish Dominican religious order at the corner of Kimberley and Nathan Roads, Kowloon. As the Procurator and Noronha were friends, a lease was concluded on the condition that the club built its own premises which would revert to the landlord upon expiry of the lease.
A single storey building was constructed with a small bar, card room, billiard room and two outside tennis courts. For his efforts, Noronha was installed as the first president. The tennis courts encouraged members to participate in League competitions in Hong Kong and soon teams were formed for other sports such as soccer, then hockey and soft ball.
To accommodate the growing needs of the club, land was leased from the government at the King’s Park Reservation, Kowloon in 1925. A bigger clubhouse was built in 1927 and it was officially opened by Governor Clementi on 4 February 1928.5_87
Sports had been an area where virtually all generations of Macaenses excelled and the dedication of arguably one of the best sports ground in Hong Kong for the exclusive use of the Macaense community provided a boost in sporting achievements. Many stories and memoirs referred to the community’s impact on the Hong Kong sports scene in team events and in individual pursuits.
The Macaenses’ contribution to participatory sports in Hong Kong was not confined to the Club de Recreio. Many were also active through the Victoria Recreation Club (VRC) which was considered the leading sports club at the time. Its membership was basically made up of British and Macaense residents keen on aquatics and rowing. On behalf of the VRC, two attempts were made in 1930 to set a rowing record from Hong Kong to Macau. The first attempt took place on 8 June when a group of four Macaenses rowed for eleven hours, ending just short of their final destination due to equipment failure and had to be towed in. The rowers were: H.R. Pinna, R.Silva Netto, C. Roza Pereira and J.M. das Neves. Nevertheless, they received a rousing welcome and a civic reception.5_88 The following month, a second rowing team undertook the same journey. This time they completed the course without assistance although it took them about fifteen hours. The rowers were: Luiz Soares, B. Gosano, H. Remedios.
Inter-port sports tournaments bonded the young Macaenses. In the 1920s inter-port soccer games were conducted between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Games with Macau had begun much earlier (before World War I ) due to the close proximity. Starting with tennis tournaments, it soon included other games such as hockey and bridge. The significance of these tournaments was more than sportmanship. To young Macaenses from Hong Kong, such as J.M. Basto, the visits to Macau brought them in touch with their Portuguese heritage.5_90
Over the years, there had been suggestions that Club de Recreio and Club Lusitano should be amalgamated. Macau’s Governor Barbosa raised this matter during his visit to Hong Kong in September 1927 at the reception given in his honour at Club Lusitano.5_91 The reasons why it never eventuated were uncovered in the Braga Manuscripts. One had to do with the divergent aims and objectives of both institutions; the other was over the control of Club Lusitano and its valuable real estate. Club Lusitano owned its land and premises whereas Club de Recreio’s grounds were on short-term lease from the government. Generational differences also made their mark. J.P. Braga believed that only the older members of Club Lusitano “could be trusted to conduct its affairs and its external policies with riper judgement and better knowledge which junior men must be given time to acquire by experience.”5_92
In the 1970s, in response to declining membership due to migration, Club de Recreio was thrown open to all community groups.5_93 Three years after the handover of Hong Kong, the board of directors of Club Lusitano embarked on a rebuilding program to modernize it for the twenty-first century. In so doing, it demonstrated its confidence in the future of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Associação Portuguesa de Socorros Mutuos
The driving force for the formation of this co-operative to help needy members was F.P. de Vasconcellos Soares. Funded through monthly subscriptions, the idea emulated the successful experiment amongst the Portuguese sugar cane plantation workers in Hawaii. An important element was an Education Fund to provide scholarships to children of members. It was boosted in the early period by a big endowment from A.M.L. Soares and the inception of the Ignez Soares Scholarship named after his wife Editorial note. Unfortunately, its early years were marred by competing rivalries resulting in Soares being forced out from its administration when he had put in so much effort to get it going.94
Visiting dignitaries such as Macau’s Governor Barbosa acknowledged it as an important institution.5_95@95 On 12 May 1930, the Hongkong Daily Press reported that the Society celebrated its fifteenth anniversary.4_96@96 Today, it future appeared uncertain due to dwindling membership.
Civil defence volunteers
The Macaenses in Hong Kong served as members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVdC) from the outset. In 1920s, there was a pressing need to bolster Hong Kong’s civil defence through the recruitment of more volunteers due to the escalating tensions between Chinese nationalists and British interests in Shanghai and elsewhere in the mainland. The latest round of tension was precipitated by the calamitous 1925 May Thirtieth incident in Shanghai during which Chinese demonstrators were shot by the Municipal police, triggering labour strikes and riots in the various foreign settlements. In early 1927, anti-British riots in Hankou resulted in Chinese troops taking over the British Concession there.5_96 The Hankou seizure was viewed by the Shanghai paper, North China Herald, as the beginning of a deliberate campaign to eliminate foreign rights and privileges in China.5_98 It was this broader China scenario and the large number of recruits in 1927 that enabled the Portuguese Company of the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps to come into existence, organised along similar lines to Shanghai’s.
When the Portuguese Company of the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps gathered at Club Lusitano for their annual dinner to commemorate their tenth anniversary in 1937, it boasted over two hundred men and officers. At the dinner, its British commanding officer, Major Jarvis proudly reported that the attendance at parade was good with an average of ninety-two percent, while its attendance at camp was perfect at one hundred percent.5_99 The annual camps were occasions when the volunteers would go away for two weeks for training and military exercises. At the outbreak of World War II in Hong Kong, the men were mobilised and many were subsequently interned by the Japanese following Hong Kong’s surrender.
Another area in which the community served with distinction was in the Police and Police Auxiliary. M.A.F.M. de Sousa (“Mickey”) was one of many Macaenses who served in the Police Auxiliary. Now retired to a coastal community south of Sydney Australia, Mickey Sousa emigrated with his family following the disturbances of the Cultural Revolution in Hong Kong.5_100 Born in 1909, Mickey joined the police when he was a young man following in his father’s footsteps. He did street patrol as a young constable and recalled that opium was a big problem in Hong Kong in those days, especially in the alleyways of Yaumati and Shamshuipo. Having served in various capacities with the Hong Kong Police from 3 March 1930 to 12 February 1965, he retired having reached the age limit. His final post was as Commanding Officer of the Auxiliary Police Emergency Units. Upon his retirement, he received a commendation from the Police Commissioner for outstanding service stating that “there are few persons who can claim such a long association with the Auxiliary Police, or indeed the Regular Force.” 5_101
When World War II came and Japanese forces invaded Kowloon, the Police Auxiliary served alongside regular soldiers patrolling the waterfront at night, in case the Japanese troops attempted to land. Following the surrender to the Japanese, the Macaense members of the Police Auxiliary were interned but Mickey Sousa managed to escape. Eventually he made his way to Macau where he worked as Paymaster and First Assistant Accountant at the British consulate as well as gathering intelligence for the British. In Macau, under cover of darkness, he was responsible for the daring rescue of the American naval pilot Lt. George W. Clark and two of his crewmen from Japanese controlled waters. At the end of the war, he was selected as part of the Hong Kong contingent to march in the Victory Parade in London and was awarded service and meritorious medals on several occasions.
The service contribution of Macaenses like Mickey Sousa was all the more remarkable when one considered that these volunteer services were carried out whilst performig their obligations to their employers in order to support their growing families. Clearly the leaders of the Macaense community felt it had to do its part in meeting the recruitment targets set down for them. Many of them felt that in times of war and other emergencies, it was their duty to respond such as the time when Mickey Sousa was approached to rescue the American airmen knowing full well it could be a trap. He expressed it thus in the interview I had with him:
I never dreamt they [American consulate in London] would write, thanking me for rescuing Lt. George W. Clark and two of his crewmen. That day, it could have been a set up. I was young but I had to go. The mere fact that they rang me up at 2.30am and asked me to come proved that the British Consulate, the Portuguese Police Commissioner [in Macau], even the Governor of Macau at that time, felt I was okay. I could say, ‘I won’t go’, but how could I refuse? I could never live it down. I’m lucky I went and did save their lives.
The interaction of various demands such as business, work, sports and obligations to Hong Kong and their Macaense community could be seen through the family of José Luiz de Selasia Alves who passed away in 1927 aged seventy-nine.5_102 Described as the “grand old man” of the Macaense community in Hong Kong, Alves was amongst the earliest settlers in the Colony who came from Macau as a very young man. With a knowledge of the English language, he found employment at the Harbour Office, rising to the position of Chief Clerk from which he retired. He was very interested in outdoor sports and was a prominent member of the Victoria Recreation Club. A keen advocate of the teaching of the Portuguese language, he was one of several founders of Club Lusitano in 1866. In his long career, he had been honoured by the Portuguese government.
His older brother, João Miguel Alves, was also in government service having retired as the Chief Clerk in the Colonial Secretary’s office. He was described as intensely patriotic and meticulous about speaking grammatically-correct Portuguese.5_103 An original shareholder of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, J.M. Alves continued to showed great interest in investing in the public companies, including being a director on the board of the Hongkong, Canton and Macau Steamboat Company.5_104
José L. Alves set an example in loyalty to Hong Kong. During World War I when Police Auxilliary Reserve was formed, he supported it by enlisting his two sons. His youngest son, ELS Alves, joined up and fought in Europe. All the Alves boys had been members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps from young. His eldest son, ‘Jack’ Alves, was a founding member of the International Race Club in Shanghai. Jack was said to race his own ponies and participated in cross country hunts.5_105
Another son, Alvaro Alvares Alves was a well-known Macaense business member. He was a member of the Hong Kong contingent that participated in the coronation parade of King Edward VII in London in 1902. He commenced his career with a German bank, the Deutsche-Asiatische Bank until it was closed as a result of World War I. Later he became a stock broker, eventually gaining membership to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. For a long time, he was a committee member of Victoria Recreation Club where he was a keen rower and participated in water polo, gymnastics and weightlifting. The Club honoured him by electing him to life membership before he passed away in June 1937 at age sixty.5_106
Comparisons between the various places
The survey of the Macaense communities in China during the period between the Opium War and the Cold War invited comparison between the various locales. From the time when Shanghai and Hong Kong were open to foreign settlement, there had been a kind of friendly rivalry between these two places and Macau. As time went on, it became increasingly clear that Macau lagged behind while the other two surged ahead.
Today, older members of the Macaense diaspora reminisced excitedly about the friendly rivalry between these centres of Western influences in the Far East. With the arrival of the flying boats and modern aviation, it seemed that Macau might steal a march against Hong Kong when Pan-American Airways chose it for their regional hub following the collapse of talks with the British Government.107 However, Macau was to be disappointed when Pan-American changed its mind following a British change of heart for fear that Hong Kong would left behind in the new technological age. In August 1936, it was reported that Hong Kong, not Macau, would be its base on the China coast.108
Before the advent of commercial flight, the sea journey to Shanghai from Hong Kong took several days and risked being attacked by pirates. Even the relatively short trip from Macau to Hong Kong was not free of the menace. It was not unusual for guns to be carried and ships compartmentalised as a security precaution.109 The arrival of the first flying boat in Hong Kong on 24 March 1936 changed the situation dramatically.110 By the end of the year, if one dared to fly, the China National Aviation Corporation had an air service that departed from Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 7:30AM. Powered by four propeller engines, the flying boat promised a speedy trip of only seven hours.111
Hong Kong was separated from Shanghai not only by distance but by a different mindset, governance and security. This was evident from the many articles published in the Hong Kong papers in the 1930s. An American who had visited both places many times over a period of twenty years considered Hong Kong as “the best governed spot in this part of the world”. He did not want to live in Shanghai because of the kidnappings, robberies and frequent murders in broad daylight. Shanghai seemed to be a place where compradors and other wealthy men needed to have two or three armed Russian guards with them in their motor cars, offices and at home.112 In Shanghai, personal security was at such risk that people hesitated to travel on outside roads after dusk for fear of robbery and kidnapping.113
The physical attributes of both places were also compared. Some visitors to Hong Kong were enchanted by the surrounding hills whereas Shanghai was flat. Another person who had lived in Shanghai for ten years enjoyed Hong Kong’s many beautiful beaches and idyllic spots. However, he hankered after the entertainments available in Shanghai by night. The city had “… a nightlife second to none and comparable with anything encountered in the world. One, if one so desires, need never go to bed for the customary period. There is always somewhere to go.”114
An editorial in the South China Morning Post 12 August 1935 alluded to different preoccupations: the Shanghai mindset was “more materialistic and domineering” while the “Hong Kong mind [was] principally obsessed with the safety and welfare of Hong Kong”. Moreover, there were different approaches towards China.115
Residents who had lived for long periods in both places observed a difference in cosmopolitism between the two. Despite the strength of the British settler mentality in Shanghai and the fact that British interests dominated its Municipal Council, Shanghai was acknowledged as more cosmopolitan than Hong Kong. It had none of Hong Kong’s perceived British colonial snoberry, frequently alluded to by former members of the Hong Kong Macaense community.116 Speaking to a British journalist, Lord Kadoorie, whose family fortune was established in Shanghai and a prominent business identity in Hong Kong, put the difference in a nutshell:
Shanghai was international with people who had an international outlook. Hong Kong was very British. Who were the British? They were small shopkeepers in their mentality. It was a nice quiet little place. … If Shanghai was London then Hong Kong was Hastings.”117
Kadoorie’s view was echoed by John Luff, the headmaster of the British School in Shanghai in the late 1940s who later settled in Hong Kong. Luff made a veiled attack on the British in Hong Kong when he wrote: “The [foreign] community in Shanghai mixed better, there was a better feeling of comradeship, and there was nothing stuffy about the majority of the people.118
The preoccupation with making comparisons highlighted the reality that Macau was out of contention economically and in international standing. For Macau, the 1920s and 1930s were difficult times when the gambling industry that provided the bulk of the government’s revenue underwent massive restructuring – affected by the prolonged world economic depression, too many gaming products and political pressures exerted by the New Life Movement spreading through southern China.119 Modern games such as roulette had arrived in Macau to challenge the traditional game of fan tan. In September 1931, horse racing was inaugurated by the Macau Jockey Club. And there were plans to introduce greyhound racing. By 1934, horse racing was blamed for the failure of the once popular Santa Casa lottery to attract any bids to operate it. That same year, the fan tan monopoly collapsed with fifteen months of its five-year term remaining. The reasons given for the collapse were economic depression and competition from Shenzhen.124 In the same year, the government granted monopoly rights to modern casino gambling to Tai Xing Company whose first casinos were located inside the Central Hotel.125 In 1936-37, the gaming industry in Macau experienced a revival as more operators and gamblers came to Macau due to the suppression of gambling in surrounding districts such as Canton, Shameen, Shantou and Shenzhen. The suppression was a direct result of the activities of the New Life Movement and the Guangdong Provincial Gambling Suppression Commission.126 The gambling business continued unabated in Macau right through the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. During World War II, the casinos supplied the cash when the banks did not have sufficient to service the needs of the British consulate in Macau.127
However, for the Macaense communities, Macau remained a very important part of their world. When war engulfed the cities of China in the decade following 1937, many Macaenses and other nationals looked to Macau as a place of refuge. How Macau opened its doors to them and helped them in their period of need formed the subject of the next chapter.
Conclusion
The ceding of Hong Kong to Britain in the wake of the Opium War was to have a profound effect on the Macaenses who went over to Hong Kong in droves. In the process, they established a Macaense community that became the largest, the most British and, some claimed, the most vibrant community outside of Macau. Like their compatriots in Shanghai and elsewhere, the Hong Kong Macaenses were prominent as clerks, administrators, book-keepers and accountants for the government departments, the banks, insurance companies and virtually all the major firms. Before the Chinese and Westerners could understand each other’s language or respect the differences in culture, the Macaenses were the mediators, transcending the cultural and linguistic barriers on both sides. Their sporting achievements and their eagerness to volunteer for the community and civil defence services were one of the many visible features of the community. Many succeeded in business and the professions while not a few sought out careers in the field of education, the religious orders and other charity organisations. Their leaders were selected to participate in all the important institutions of the British colony; their services recognised by the British government in the form of honours and awards. Above all, they were loyal to Hong Kong, a feature that was clearly demonstrated in the private papers of the Braga Manuscripts and pointed out in secret government dispatches.128 In the post-1949 period, the Hong Kong Macaense community became the crucible in which Macaenses from the various communities blended to lay the foundations for a stronger more unified community.