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WALLED CITY OF KOWLOON, // (Claims, Key concepts, Findings, Difficulties,…

- - - - [CLAIM] It has been in some groups 'best interest' to claim that the WCK has a much older history than it does. (For example: Kowloon Walled City Kaifong Welfare Promotion Association - to attempt to stop it being knocked down/evictions)
    - - [FINDING] Jung Joon Lee -'Kowloon Walled City Revisited: Photography and Postcoloniality in the City of Darkness' Here
        cites Julia W. "The origins of the Walled City go back more than a millennium."
        
        [CLAIM] This is so frustrating to find in a article about the postcolonial narratives surrounding the WCK!
- - - - [CLAIM] There is a lack of academic sources/literature due to British colonial neglect in the 20th century (Colonialism).
      - [FINDING] There is a not insignificant amount written about the WCK but the breadth across different fields, and the frequent clashing of narratives makes it a dense subject to engage with effectively (i.e. try engaging with some of the architecture literature and then the social science modelings and then the legal literature and see if you can piece it together easily).
    - - "the Walled City is now not merely a symbol of an era that cannot return, but a contested site of remembrance in which Hong Kong’s postcolonial identity is re-imagined and re-constructed" - from 'Kowloon Walled City Revisited: Photography and Postcoloniality in the City of Darkness' - Jung Joon Lee Here
      - [CLAIM] It also fails to take into account that Hong Kong itself only existed due to Chinese/British political tensions. See: Jung Joon Lee Here
- - - - Primary Sources Ho references a different (?) article by Siu (in Chinese? I can't find it). Siu references a Chinese source, I think it's this primary source which is a recording of all the military information (commander names, troop numbers etc.) for the region. I've gone down this rabbit hole once. We can't access it but Siu does translate the relevant section - I think we have to trust him.
- - - - [CLAIM] Early Colonial British translations for the WCK are, interchangeably, (1) 'City of Kowloon' [Order of Council], and/or (2) 'Kowloon City' // [NB: Both versions are used in the 'Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong'] > but generally 'Kowloon City' is much more prevalent in early sources referring to WCK directly
        
        Cite all relevant sources with source nuance
        
        [FINDING] However, already by 1891, 'Kowloon City' is being used to refer to A BROADER AREA THAT ENCOMPASSES THE AREA IN WHICH WCK IS SITUATED IN THE PENINSULA* instead of WCK
        
        *Whether this 'broader area' means the modern 'District of Kowloon City' or the traditional 'Kowloon Kai' is a matter outside scope of this article. For the purposes of our claims and findings, it's sufficient to note that the term 'Kowloon City' early in the British Colonial processes began to be used interchangeably to refer both to WCK, AND, at times, to this 'BROADER AREA'
        
        [CLAIM] This is particularly important for WCK historians because every time an English-language source from the period 1889-1945* mentions the signifier 'Kowloon City', context must be closely scrutinised in order to understand which signified (location) it actually signifies.
        
        So for example ... if you look at a few key sources from this period-range (1889-1945)
        
        [FINDING] '2,000 People' peer reviewer mentioned
        
        [CLAIM] Glambing 1890 (peer reviewer also mentioned)
        
        This is a particularly important example because though the context when closely scrutinised within its context SEEMS (strongly) to be taking about BROADER AREA instead of WCK, we recognise that the WCK's latter 'anarchism / chaotic / underground' cultural representations can anachronistically taint's a historian's efforts in analysing this accurately. It's easy to see 'gambling THEREFORE > WCK', but that says more about us than WCK
        
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        Jung Joon Lee -'Kowloon Walled City Revisited: Photography and Postcoloniality in the City of Darkness' Here
        "The Walled City’s more recent notoriety traces back to the 1890s, when the area became infamous for its gambling dens."
        
        [FINDING] House of Commons
        
        House of Commons, ‘Colonial Office’, §954; from an unidentified ‘honorable member’
        
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        [FINDING] Hospital > sometimes they will say 'Kowloon City' and it is technically in WCK, but most of the time it's somewhere else in the district
        
        Unusual, and particularly interesting example BECAUSE it refers to WCK as part of THE WIDER DISTRICT not necessarily acknowledging contesting China-British claims to the enclaved territory
        
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        [FINDING] In April 22nd 1899, Hong Kong Newspapers reported ‘BRITISH FLAG HOISTED OUTSIDE KOWLOON CITY’. This was not in reference to the WCK, but it would be less than a month before such a ceremony did take place inside the Walled City. On April 22nd the Union Jack was hoisted opposite the Customs House (which later became the Kowloon City Police Station), only a few yards from the beach. (EWHK0336)
        
        [FINDING] *None of the official post-WWII sources analysed using the signifier 'Kowloon City' have been found in which it is employed to signify WCK
        
        [CLAIM] This lack of clarity over the what the term 'Kowloon City' refers to in any given source has led to a considerable amount of historical misrepresentations and inaccurate claims being purported in the WCK narrative.
        
        [CLAIM] We should use WCK in an attempt to distance ourselves from the term 'Kowloon City' and have our language be as clear as possible.
- - - - "The Kowloon Walled City was situated to the north of the present Kai Tak Airport. It had been the most important military base in Hong Kong during the later Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911)."
        Siu goes on to describe the 1668 'watchpost', 1682 'guardstation', 1810 'Fort', and then the 1847 WCK. He does not explicitly say they are direct redevelopments or occupy the same site. It is very unclear.
        
        Prime example of historians using unclear language and readers then conflating all structures mentioned as direct predecessors of the WCK.
    - - "The City's site at the northeastern corner of Kowloon peninsula was first fortified in 1668 when a signal station was established."
        ('City' here meaning the WCK.)
    - - Lai table - references 'WCK' population figure for 1668
  - - - [FINDING] 1274: The administrative region of Kowloon City was then known as Kuan-Fu Tsai: an administrative centre for the local salt pans. Location of administrative office unknown
        
        [FINDING] 1277-1278: The ‘boy emperor’ Zhao Bing’s (last of the Song Dynasty) fugitive army arrive in Kowloon in retreat from the Mongol invasion. Watchtower and ‘Travelling Palace’ erected. Locations unknown.
        
        [FINDING] Actual historical information:
        1668: Kowloon Beacon Tower, i.e. Jiulong Dun Tai (九墩台) is erected. Also referred to as the ‘Kowloon Mound’. Location uncertain; though it was definitely not a predecessor to the Kowloon Fort. 30 guards supposedly stationed. It is possible it was located on Beacon Hill, in Lion Rock Park, for we know Beacon Hill’s name comes from this period. It is also possible that the Beacon Tower and its garrison’s purpose was to enforce the edicts of the Great Clearance.
        
        [FINDING] 1682: Kowloon Guard Station, i.e. Jiulong Shuen (九汛). Also referred to as the ‘Kowloon Garrison’. Location supposedly in Lion Rock Park, possibly on Beacon Hill. Number of guards supposedly cut down from 30 to 10. With the end of the Great Clearance (1683), the coastal defence of the region was reinforced to combat piracy.
        
        [FINDING] 1810-11: The old ‘Fat Tong Mun Fort’ was deconstructed and moved to Kowloon, becoming known as the ‘Kowloon Fort’, i.e. Jiulong paotai (九龍砲台). Location known (See Map 2); 42 guards supposedly stationed. For protection against piracy. Interestingly, documented ‘local legend’ seems to corroborate this.
        
        [FINDING] 1811: Kowloon Sea Guard Station, i.e. Jiulong Hoi Hau Shuen (九龍海口汛). Located in modern day Kwun Tong. 20 guards supposedly stationed.
        
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        [CLAIM] What happened to the Kowloon Fort after 1847 is not known. It was in a delapidated state by the turn of the century, and vanished from all historical record by the 20s/30s urban boom in Kowloon City district.
        
        [CLAIM] Possibly a redevelopment/upgrade of 1668 Kowloon Beacon Tower, but unable to verify.
        Otherwise, Kowloon Guard Station could have been separate from the Beacon Tower and in 1811 have been redeveloped into the Sea Guard Station.
- - - - [BIG CLAIM] this inaugurated its traditional conceptualisation as a place of charitable and civil institutions.
        
        [CLAIM] Charitable and civil institutions seem to have been the WCK's relatively only constant during its pre-WW2 history. Either managing to resist evictions or re-emerging within its walls after clearances took place.
        
        Example: 1902 - Church and School
        1905 - Hospital
        1906 - School closes, Nursing Home takes its place
        1925 - Hospital reopens with Dispensary
        
        Especially in the early years these charitable institutions were largely organised by locals.
        
        1925: Sir Reginald E. Stubbs, the Hong Kong Governor, wrote that “it would not, on account of its associations, be well to make use of or to sell this site for other than a public purpose such as this,”
        
        1940 demolitions: everything within the Walled City, apart from the old Yamen (where the nursing home resided), the Lung Chun Yeek Hok building (the school) and one residence (the ancestral home of the Zheng family) were demolished.