Chow Shouson

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhou. (周)

Sir Shouson Chow (Chinese: 周壽臣爵士, 1861 - 1959) was a Hong Kong-born businessman. He had been a Qing official and also a notable figure in the Government of Hong Kong.

Family

Shouson was born in "Little Hong Kong", a Cantonese village in north of present-day Shouson Hill. Little Hong Kong was a walled village with surname Chow (周). His father was compradore of the Canton-based Canton and Hong Kong Steamship Company. His grandfather was the head of Little Hong Kong, who helped Charles Elliott posting first official proclamation of Hong Kong Island in 1841.

He had a son, named Chow Yat-Kwong.

Career

Among the third group of Chinese overseas students in United States from Qing in 1870s, Shouson studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, & Columbia University. After his graduation he worked in the Qing government.

In 1881 he joined the Korean Customs Service under Yuan Shikai in Korea. Later he was the president of Tientsin China Merchant Steam Navigation Company, Tientsin from 1897 to 1903, and the managing director of Peking-Mukden Railway in Imperial Chinese Railways of North China between 1903 and 1907.

He was the Customs and Trade Superintendent and Counselor for Foreign Affairs in Newchwang between 1907 to 1910. During this period he was promoted Mandarin of the Second Rank. He left government after the 1911 Revolution and became directors of various companies.

Services in Hong Kong

He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in Hong Kong in 1907. In 1918, he founded Bank of East Asia with 3 Chinese partners where he was the Chairman of director board from 1925 to 1929. In 1922 he was appointed the member of Sanitary Board, the precursor of Urban Council, and Legislative Council, where he served until 1931. In 1926, he became the first Chinese member of Executive Council and was knighted. In 1933 he earned an honorary Doctorate of Laws.

During Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, Shouson and other Chinese leading figures joined a Chinese association founded by Japanese military to manage the order of Chinese population. They did not suffer from punishment after the return of British rule.^{[citation needed]}

Place named after him

Shouson Hill, in the south of Hong Kong Island, is named after him.