Atlas by Kai-cheung Dung

Author:Kai-cheung Dung
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000, Fiction/Literary, FIC040000, Fiction/Alternative History
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2012-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

23

SCANDAL POINT AND THE MILITARY CANTONMENT

The intentions of the military authorities become quite clear in an 1880 map showing Victoria’s military installations. The map represents the district later called Admiralty. Murray Battery is to the left, on a hillside below Government House, and Murray Parade Ground is on a low slope northeast of the battery. Murray Barracks is to the east of the parade ground, on the other side of a road. On a knoll farther east from Murray Barracks stands the building known as Flagstaff House, which was the residence of the general officer commanding. The Naval Yard occupies the central portion of the waterfront and farther east are the Military Hospital and Wellington Battery. Victoria Barracks and the Arsenal are on the hillside south of the hospital, to the right on the map.

We can see that the garrison in Victoria was of a respectable size just from the overall positioning of the military installations. Historical records show that there was a dispute between Pottinger, the first governor, and the military in the early days of the city’s construction. Pottinger had originally intended to set aside Western District for military use (i.e., the area to the west of what was later named Possession Point, where British forces first landed on Hong Kong Island), but the military insisted on being stationed in the heart of the city and demanded the use of the hillside in the center (i.e., the area afterward used for the Botanic Gardens and Government House). The dispute eventually had to be taken to London. The result was that the military cantonment was established to the east of the central area, on a portion of land commanding strategic control over the key east-west main thoroughfare along the northern shore.

These are the facts that we learn from historical and anecdotal sources. Later map researchers arrived at an entirely different conclusion by studying this map. They argued that the layout of military installations in early Victoria had come about as an encirclement of Scandal Point. This map has the place known as Scandal Point right in the middle, south of the naval dockyard, on the low hill between the residence of the general officer commanding and Victoria Barracks. The military installations in this area surrounded Scandal Point to the east, west, and north, as if Scandal Point was the center that the cantonment was designed to protect.

The name Scandal Point was given to the place by the British, although, strictly speaking, “scandal” here should be understood as referring only to malicious gossip. While it is impossible to trace the actual origin of this name, Ye Lingfeng points out in his book Momentous Changes in Hong Kong History that Scandal Point was adjacent to St John’s Cathedral in Garden Road and the foreign believers who worshipped there on Sundays walked along the short road at Scandal Point on their way back to their Mid-Levels homes. While walking it was natural for them to exchange news and gossip, spreading stories of adultery and scandalous behavior or telling jokes about social events.

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