華洋社群與殖民權力：港英政府對水井的衛生治理（1894－1929）

Chinese-European Rivalry under Colonial Power: The Sanitary Governance of Water Wells in British Hong Kong (1894-1929)

10.29708/JCS.CUHK.202401_(78).0004

利家興(LEE Ka-Hing)

香港 ； 殖民權力 ； 水衛生 ； 水井 ； 在地化 ； Hong Kong ； colonial power ； water sanitation ； water well ； localization

中國文化研究所學報

78期（2024 / 01 / 01）

127 - 177

繁體中文;英文

十九世紀末，英國政府的公共衛生觀念及其制度在香港進行了在地化傳播，是在奧斯伯特．查德威克（Osbert Chadwick, 1844－1913）等技術官僚與歐人社群的努力下推動的。以1894年香港鼠疫為契機，港英政府在缺乏醫學證據的情況下，大規模封禁殖民地中在他們看來不衛生的水井，體現了殖民權力在水衛生領域上的作用。然而，受人口增長、環境災害與華人習俗的制約，華人社群在使用自來水供給的同時，依然強調水井作為生活用水的重要性和必要性，逐漸形成了復開水井的輿論訴求，歐人社群稱之為「開井運動」。儘管華人的開井訴求引起了歐人社群和技術官僚的反對，但該訴求在1928年至1929年水荒期間達到了頂峰，迫使港英政府在供水衛生與供水充足之間作出權衡，致使最终政府有在一定條件下允准了華人的有關訴求。1894年至1929年港英政府與華洋社群在水井衛生治理議題上的博弈演變表明，殖民權力是各種因素和力量不斷相互作用的動態過程，而非簡單的自上而下的單向運作機制。

The spread and localization of the British's sanitary concept and its institutions to Hong Kong in the late nineteenth century was driven by the concerted efforts of Osbert Chadwick (1844-1913), technical bureaucrats, and the European community. Taking the bubonic plague of 1894 as an opportunity, the British Hong Kong government, in the absence of medical evidence, took measures to close the unsanitary wells in the colony, demonstrating the extension of colonial power in the area of water sanitation. However, under the constraints of population growth, environmental disasters, and Chinese customs, the Chinese community still emphasized the importance and necessity of wells as a source of water for domestic use, while using the tap water supply. This gradually gave rise to strong public opinions calling for the reopening of wells, referred to in the European community as the "Well-Opening Movement." Although the Chinese demand had led to opposition from the European community and technical bureaucrats, their demand reached its peak during the water shortage in 1928-1929, forcing the authorities to make a trade-off between water sanitation and sufficiency, and finally to conditionally accede to the Chinese demand. The evolution of the power play between the British Hong Kong government and the Chinese and foreign communities on the issue of well sanitation between 1894 and 1929 shows that colonial governance was a dynamic process in which various factors and forces constantly interacted, rather than a simple top-down unidirectional mechanism.