HK315(G/M) The Chinese Classroom”

     This little scene depicts one of the many private schools established during the latter part of the 19th Century for the sons of gentle folk in Colonial Hong Kong.
     As the elderly teacher examines the work of one pupil other pupils are variously occupied being mischievous, paying attention or, in one case, enojoying a nap on his desk!
      In addition to the 7 figures there are 6 desks and bench-seats for the pupils as well as a teacher’s table and chair, a jarfull of scrolls and a large wooden map board depicting Hong Kong Island.
      All of the figures and accessories fit perfectly into a 2-dimensional, full colour representation of a typical Chinese Classroom of the 1890s.

The history of education in China can be traced back more than sixteen hundred years before the birth of Christ!
Education was seen as the most efficient way to achieve higher social status for ordinary people.Scholars had to study hard to prepare for government tests which, if successful, would lead to obtaining an important position.
This ambition and veneration of the importance of education still persists to the present day and was seen as equally important during the long period of British Colonial Hong Kong (1841-1997).
Here is a little window into the past through the portals of “Streets of Old Hong Kong”…