The Golden Needle: The Biography of Frederick Stewart (1836-1889 [Paperback]

Gillian Bickley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9628027085 | ISBN-13: 978-9628027088 | Publication Date: January 1998 | Edition: 1st Ed.

The biography of the Scottish Founder of Hong Kong Government Education and first headmaster of Queen's College (then the Central School), with archival photographs. 

Frederick Stewart was born in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland into a humble but upwardly mobile family. He distinguished himself at Aberdeen Grammar School and then at King's College, University of Aberdeen. The school he founded in Hong Kong, still a leading school under its third name, Queen's College, 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.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr Bickley's life of Frederick Stewart is beautifully written, eminently readable, and at times moving." -- Lady Saltoun.

"To all intents and purposes, Stewart's life and work was lost to posterity until the publication of this biography -- the product of some eight years of devoted research which spanned the globe.  The end product is certainly worth the effort. . . .We need more studies of this type if we are to understand fully the complexities of colonial rule. . . .  The life stories of men like Stewart highlight both the high and low points of colonial service, the personal sacrifices that were often made and the legacies left behind. . . [I] thoroughly enjoyed this book . . .." -- Clive Whitehead, University of Western Australia, in Int. J. of Lifelong Education.

"Bickley tells the story with unswerving admiration and many vivid touches." -- Douglas Hurd, in The Scotsman.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hong Kong Baptist Univ; 1st Ed. edition (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9628027085
• ISBN-13: 978-9628027088
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,939,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gillian Bickley (née Workman), born and educated in the United Kingdom, has lived mostly in Hong Kong since 1970. Her books include "China Suite and other Poems" (2009), "Sightings: a collection of Poetry" (2007), "Moving House and other Poems from Hong Kong" (2005) and "For the Record and other Poems of Hong Kong" (2003), the latter two now translated into Chinese. She is the Author of "The Stewarts of Bourtreebush" (2003) and "The Golden Needle: The Biography of Frederick Stewart (1836-1889)" (1997), and Editor of "The Complete Court Cases of Magistrate Frederick Stewart" (2008), "A Magistrate's Court in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong: Court in Time" (2005; 2nd edition, 2009), "The Development of Education in Hong Kong, 1841-1897" (2002) and "Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare" (2001). Her poetry has been anthologised in Hong Kong, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. Individual poems have been translated into several languages. She was Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the Hong Kong Baptist University for twenty-two years. She has also held academic positions at the University of Lagos (Nigeria), Auckland (New Zealand) and the University of Hong Kong. She is now an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. With her husband, Verner Bickley, with whom she travels widely, she is co-founder of The Proverse Prize for unpublished non-fiction, fiction or poetry.
Gillian believes that writers need to go out to meet their readers and has given many talks and readings in academic institutions, to community groups and societies. Once or twice a year, basing her narrative on her work on nineteenth-century Hong Kong, she gives a Hong Kong Heritage Walk to a small group.