Speaker：Dr. Lo Shuk Ying (CUHK)
Paper Title: From Charity to Tender Love: The Childcare Services of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, 1929-1941

Abstract：

When Hong Kong was ceded by Britain, many Catholic and Protestant churches arrived the Colony, providing various charitable services for orphans, undesired and disable children. Local charitable organizations, such as Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk, were also set up since the 1870s and provided free medical and educational services as well as protested against trafficking of women and children. It was until the establishment of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children in 1929 did Hong Kong get a children-oriented charitable organization. This paper discusses the pre-war childcare services of the HKSPC, showing how the relationships between the Colonial Government and the local Chinese community was changed. It also illustrates that the services of the HKSPC spread out the concepts of Western medicine including idea of nutrition and changed the diets of Chinese infants and children gradually.