HSBC: The Shanghai Connection - by Kit Villiers

As promised a couple of weeks back, here is a little background on how 'Shanghai' got into the title of what is now Britain's biggest bank.

You'll recall that the full name of HSBC is the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The Hong Kong bit is clear enough: Hong Kong was a British colony from 1841 to 1997, and its main bank, almost a central bank, was (and still is) the Hong Kong Bank, or simply 'The Bank' for those that live there. As Jeremy Paxman pointed out in his 'Empire' series, the Bank's history has not always been totally untainted, the colony's early days being mixed up with the Opium Wars and other dark deals in which the Bank was doubtless inevitably intertwined....

But Shanghai? China was never anybody's colony: but for a large part of the 19th century it got pushed around by the European powers and might as well have been. In particular the Europeans forced concessions on China, the most obvious being the occupation of large parts of two of its main trading cities of Canton (near Hong Kong) and Shanghai, China's largest city. Even today one can see remnants of the old 'French concession', while the waterfront still has the old warehouses and offices of what were chiefly British interests.

In Hong Kong the Bank has rehoused itself in a modern skyscraper, but in Shanghai the buildings on the waterfront, the 'Bund', are in a kind of time warp; when I visited a couple of years back, I was told that the old (joint, with Hong Kong) HSBC head office was an exact replica of the building in Hong Kong. I did eventually find it, but I think it must be several generations older than its counterpart as I didn't recognise it at first at all. It looked pretty forlorn, and in fact the whole of the Bund is now overshadowed by the ultra modern developments in Pudong, on the other side of the river. Perhaps the Chinese want to show how much better they do things than the old European traders did in olden (i.e. pre-Communist) times.

I could well imagine that pre-1949 the Shanghai branch must have been as important as the Hong Kong one, but of course business nose-dived when the Mao regime took power and capitalism was discredited. But the powers that be in the Bank (mostly Scots, I believe) have always hankered after old glories, and hoped that Shanghai would recover its old profitable ways. They decided to try to stick it out, and keep Shanghai open until better times came round again. A skeleton staff was kept on, including one or two expat British officers.

Although quiet, things weren't too bad until the Cultural Revolution. Most foreigners fled China when that began, but the Bank was forced to keep at least one expat there or face being closed down completely. During the height of the Cultural Revolution this man was a friend of mine, one Tim Cotton. I asked him what life was like in those dark days. "Pretty grim", he said. "Mostly it was plain boring. There was no business, your Chinese friends were always in danger of being denounced and food was scarce. It was a strange feeling, being in one of the world's great cities, but being almost the only non-Chinese, and being surrounded (if you went out) by millions of glassy-eyed screaming locals wearing Chairman Mao suits and just staring at you as if you'd come from Mars". Luckily after a bit he discovered that Standard Chartered Bank were in the same position, and he spent the evenings with his opposite number: deadly rivals in Hong Kong, but thrown together by adversity in China. Whether they could get hold of the excellent Tsing Tao beer in those days or just had to content themselves with playing chess I'm not sure.

And how about today? Shanghai is of course thriving, and no doubt HSBC with it. But HSBC is just one of many international banks there, and it's only in Hong Kong and in the UK where it's the biggest kid on the block.

Evensong - By Kit Villiers

Just as in the previous 900 or so Octobers, Oxford University is back for another academic year. Full term (Michaelmas term that is - not Christmas term as everywhere else - Oxford always has to be different) commenced on 12th October, and one of the many activities which has begun again is college chapel. Perhaps surprisingly in this secular age all 38 major colleges are not only nominally still Christian establishments but maintain Anglican (Church of England) chapels, complete with resident chaplain (like a priest or rector in a local church), and, usually, a choir.

 

Finding out which colleges invite the public to Evensong (generally the main church service held in chapel, normally around 6pm) is a subtle ploy not only for those who like to listen to good music but are frustrated that the beautiful ancient colleges are so often closed to the public: at least they can't stop you going in to pray! Seriously though, most of the colleges do welcome visitors to Evensong, whatever your religion or lack of it.

 

Here are a few pointers.

 

The 2014/15 University of Oxford Pocket Diary (a must have for anyone living here I would say) now lists 5 colleges - as well as the University Church - in its 'Times of Services' section. Three of these have always been there, the colleges with the so-called 'professional' choirs. These three, Christ Church, Magdalen and New College differ chiefly from the others in that they still maintain a male only tradition. Boy trebles sing the high bits instead of sopranos, who are usually female undergraduates in the other college choirs. Even these three have developed quite differently over the centuries....

 

Christ Church's chapel doubles up as Oxford's Cathedral; this is a big advantage for OISE as it means our students can listen to Evensong there almost every night of the year, while Magdalen and New College have services only during the University's (extremely short) terms. Careful though! As nobody can sing 365 nights a year, Christ Church runs a 'B' team in the vacations - you might not get the proper choir at all.

 

Magdalen is notable in that all the male voices are so-called 'Academical Clerks', i.e. they are all undergraduates with music scholarships. It's also notable in that the school that provides the choirboys, Magdalen College School, is these days almost as famous as the college. It's a secondary school as well as primary, and, judging by A level results, one of the best in the country.

 

The oldest is New College, founded in 1379. The founder, William of Wykeham, also established New College School in the same year to provide the choristers, and services have been sung - in term time - ever since. Unlike Magdalen the male voices were all professionals, called Lay Clerks, until recent times; now though about half are Academical Clerks. New College probably rates highest in ability - or is it just the wonderful acoustics?  In any event a father of a current chorister told me the other day that the standard of music was so high that he feels he is at a concert rather than a church service. A sort of back-handed compliment, I suppose!

 

The other two colleges are Merton and The Queen's College. The latter has choral evensong at 6.15pm in term time on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, while Merton's evening services are on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I know Merton has been expanding its choir's scope and activities a lot in recent years, and of course they've got a lot going for them with that wonderful chapel which has now held services for almost 750 years. Merton is now the Evensong of choice for my brother when he comes visiting from Devon, even though he went to New College School as a boy.

 

Finally I wouldn't write off the other colleges just because they are not in the diary: Worcester College for example runs two choirs, one with all students and one 'borrowing' the boys from Christ Church Cathedral School, and the public is welcome to all of their services.

HSBC and the Hong Kong Demonstrations: The Perspective of a Former Resident - by Kit Villiers

I used to live in Hong Kong; my final years there coincided with the last Governor, Chris Patten, now the Chancellor of Oxford University, somewhat desperately attempting to introduce a bit of democracy to this British colony before the hand-over to China in 1997.

So naturally I've been following the recent demonstrations in Hong Kong with great interest. I'm not going to comment on the larger political issues, but one thing I've noticed is that whenever the press report on something that one knows a little about, they often get it wrong, at least, irritatingly, on details. The worst example I've heard in the Hong Kong saga so far was one reporter, who sounded Chinese but perhaps wasn't, who said: "and now the demonstrations are spreading to the island of Kowloon!"

Well, Kowloon isn't an island; it's a densely populated peninsula on the mainland. I must admit though, that for your average outsider, the term "Hong Kong" is a bit confusing: "Hong Kong" is the name of the whole territory (former colony), i.e. Kowloon, the New Territories and various islands. But one of these islands, the main one, where most demonstrations have been taking place, is also called Hong Kong. This island contains both the main business area ('Central') and the government offices.

Exactly where on the 'Island' the demonstrators were or are has also been confusingly reported. The reporters often refer to the 'Central Business District' and say the aim is to disrupt HK as a financial centre, but at other times the emphasis seems to be on disrupting the government itself, and getting the Chief Executive to resign (the two areas are different).

To sort out this this conundrum (and to check whether the bank was still operational and my measly savings still in place) I called my friend in HSBC. "Oh, we've hardly been affected - the demonstrators haven't really bothered us at all, and we've all been at our desks as usual all along".

I should explain that HSBC is of course the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and while (after taking over the Midland Bank) its Head Office might technically now be in London, the bank's major operations and profits remain in the Far East. It was to the Hong Kong head office in Central that my call was directed.

I must say I was a bit surprised - as well as personally relieved - to hear my friend's response. If I was a demonstrator and wanted to make a bit of a splash in that money making place (by the way another bit of annoying reporting is to call Hong Kong a 'city'; in neither sense of the word is that true: even HK island is only 26% built on, while you can hike for hours in other parts and never see a soul) I think I would target big business, Hong Kong's raison-d'etre. And you can't get much bigger than HSBC. Not only does it dominate the local banking scene, it even prints the local money - along now with the Bank of China. In a real sense HSBC symbolizes Hong Kong, its right in front of you when you get out of the Star Ferry and tourists are constantly being told by their guides that HSBC's head office in Central is the world's most expensive building.....

And how about the 'Shanghai' part, I hear you ask. Well that of course became a victim of the Communist revolution, but that's another story...