A ‘Medieval Menagerie’ in a Progressive Era: Captive Animal Welfare and Minimal British Interventionism in Hong Kong, 1950s–1970s

Abstract

Using the urban encounter with wild animals as a point of entry, this study sheds light on the feature of minimal interventionism in British colonial governance through the miserable conditions of captive animals in British Hong Kong. It aims to reveal, behind the general image of a progressive and well-ordered colonial city in the post-war decades, oft-neglected segments construed through decades of British support towards an amusement facility deemed as highly modern and educational on the surface yet cruel and destructive towards wildlife animals from within. Through understanding what the poorly-managed zoo meant to Hong Kong citizens and the British colonial administration, this study not only restores the social positioning and sufferings of animals in post-war narratives of urban modernising and progress, but also sheds light on the practice of minimal intervention in colonial administration as reflected in British refusal to actively commit to and invest in improving the wellbeing of non-human animals.

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