The Mystery of Capital: Eurasian Entrepreneurs' Socio-Cultural Strategies for Commercial Success in Early 20th-Century Hong Kong

• Published in: Asian studies review Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 467 - 487
• Main Authors: Zheng, Victor, Wong, Siu-Lun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nathan Routledge 01.12.2010; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 'Half-caste bastards' (Eurasians); Asian history; Asian studies; Business; business and politics; Capital; Capitalism; China; China: History; Chinese family business; Entrepreneurs; Eurasians; Family Businesses; Hong Kong commercial history; network capital; Networks; Politics; Social capital; Social classes; Hong Kong
• ISSN: 1035-7823; 1467-8403
• DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2010.527919

Unlike economic capital, which is visible and easy to calculate, social capital is intangible and difficult to assess. Although both types of capital are crucial in determining social relations and social behaviour, little solid research has been done on the latter. This paper attempts to use the rags-to-riches story of Sir Robert Ho Tung, a first-generation Hong Kong Eurasian entrepreneur who commenced life without traditional social/cultural capital as the illegitimate son of a Chinese woman and a Dutchman, to illustrate the processes involved in cultivating and accumulating social capital. With special reference to economic development in early colonial Hong Kong and major social transformations in the Chinese mainland, this paper also demonstrates how a group of so-called social/racial "half-caste bastards" (Eurasians) were able to form their own social networks of mutual help and protection. It also considers how they worked to consolidate, mobilise, aggrandise and transmit their social capital. In conclusion, it is argued that Eurasians in early twentieth-century Hong Kong constructed their personal networks like a web, with different interconnecting layers that functioned at different socio-economic-political levels to serve different purposes.