Promoting All-Round Education for Girls

Promoting All-Round Education for Girls presents the history of Heep Yunn School, one of the oldest girls’ schools in Hong Kong. Amalgamated from two British mission schools founded in the 1880s for destitute girls and daughters of Christian parents, and renamed Heep Yunn School in 1936, the institution has witnessed and responded to the dramatic changes of Hong Kong over the years. By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, Heep Yunn had expanded to offer a full Chinese middle school course for girls based upon Christian principles of all-round education.

The school expanded rapidly after the war and became a bilingual institution to meet the demand for English language education. Eventually English would become the primary medium of instruction soon after the introduction of nine-year universal education in 1978. Heep Yunn strives to provide a full-fledged all-round education in the midst of political and education reforms. The school opted to switch its status from a government-aided school to a direct subsidy scheme school in the early 2010s so as to retain a larger degree of autonomy. This history of Heep Yunn School documents the concerted efforts of the school council, staff, students, alumnae, and parents to achieve the evolving visions of Christian education for girls as Hong Kong grew from a colonial trading port to a global financial centre in the twenty-first century.

Patricia P. K. Chiu is honorary assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong.

‘Promoting All-Round Education for Girls convincingly charts the shifting purposes and practices of girls’ education in Hong Kong. The text moves seamlessly between the history of the school and the wider context of Hong Kong’s history. Patricia P. K. Chiu illustrates how the school’s educational policy evolved according to the wider strategies and shifts that relate models of femininity and nation-building.’ —Joyce Goodman, University of Winchester

‘This solidly-referenced work provides a balanced and detailed outlook on the unique, evolving features of education in Hong Kong. It shows the effects on Heep Yunn School of major historical changes in education policy and how the school has contributed to the education of girls in Hong Kong in periods of dramatic challenge like the Sino-Japanese War and the disturbances of the late 1960s.’ —Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto