Golden Needle

Frederick Stewart, born in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was known by his contemporaries as the 'founder of Hong Kong Government education'. He was the first headmaster of the Central School, now Queen's College, which led Hong Kong English education from 1862 until 1911 when the first university in Hong Kong was established. Stewart became Registrar General, then Colonial Secretary, acting as Governor of Hong Kong on several occasions. He was keenly aware of his historical context at the meeting of the two cultures of East and West, and of his role as a facilitator in the modernisation of Chinese thought. His consistent policy was to educate pupils in Western knowledge, while preserving their Chinese identity, and he insisted on equal time for Chinese and English studies. Although retiring, unassuming and modest, Stewart was highly popular among the Chinese, foreign and Portuguese communities. By the end of his life, Stewart's intimate knowledge of Hong Kong was considered unequalled among non-Chinese in Hong Kong at the time.The change in Hong Kong, effected in 1997, makes this an appropriate time to reassess the purposes of the continued meeting of East and West, and the educational and cultural means by which co-opoeration is promoted.