2026/04/10 by Tracy H. C. Leung · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes
paper · doi:10.1080/03086534.2026.2652025
Using unexamined Girl Guide publications, government papers and oral history testimonies, this article examines how the role of the Girl Guide movement changed throughout late colonial Hong Kong. It highlighted the high adaptivity of a British youth organisation with imperial origins in navigating the shifting political contexts and ultimately repositioning itself to remain relevant in the post-colonial era. Against the backdrop of the global trend of decolonisation and the growing Cold War tension in Asia, this article argues that the Girl Guide movement served as a facilitator for the colonial government in providing youth leisure that kept them away from Chinese communist influence. At the same time, it was also a beneficiary of the American counter-tactics against communism, which sought to strengthen the connection of young people in the free world and counterbalance the Communist youth networks led by the Soviet Union and Communist China. The signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, however, reshaped the political landscape and colonial priorities. With Hong Kong’s return to China scheduled for 1997, the Hong Kong Girl Guides Association reoriented itself to ensure its survival under the post-colonial regime. Through cultivating co-operative relationships with China’s officials and ‘decolonising’ its programme to prepare girls for citizenship in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the movement not only safeguarded its future in Hong Kong but also actively contributed to the colonial government’s interest in securing an honourable retreat. In doing so, this article offers a new perspective on late colonial governance in Hong Kong. It demonstrates the changing political functions of a British-originated youth organisation, which assisted the colonial state in addressing its anxieties about youth in the Cold War context and coping with the end of British rule in 1997.