Marketing
Gendered Crafts

營銷性別化工藝

World Fairs were never exclusively male and involved the participation of women. In the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, women helped to raise funds to create the first women’s pavilion in exposition history.

In the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, England, in 1924 and 1925, Hong Kong women shared the global stage with male businessmen.

The Hong Kong Section included the Hong Kong Pavilion (a Chinese restaurant) with a traditional Chinese architectural design. There was also a 300-feet-long reproduction of a local street scene from Queen’s Road. Women were represented by the products that they helped to manufacture. Among a wide range of exhibits were gendered crafts intended for female clientele. Chinese women workers demonstrated the manufacture process – the most notable being the exhibit of “silk from the farm of Sir Robert and Lady Ho Tung.”

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Victorian Fashion

Women of the Ho family dressing in Victorian outfits, c. 1924. Standing from right: Robert Ho Tung’s two wives Margaret and Clara; Ho Fook’s wife Lucy; sitting: Ho Kom-tong’s wife Edith.

Economic power and cultural affluence enabled women from Eurasian families to transcend social-cultural barriers and navigate cultural differences in a global world. Some joined their husbands in commercial endeavours and social life in England. These Victorian outfits communicate the cross-cultural capability of the comprador’s family and their achieved social positions through organising economic activities.

Courtesy of the Andrew Tse Family Archives

Exhibiting
Silk Making

In the Hong Kong Section of the British Empire Exhibition, there was a demonstration of the silk making process. Postcards showing silkworm rearing and silk reeling were sold as souvenirs. Silk, in every shape, from the cocoons to lovely embroideries, was presented as exhibits.

Demonstrating the silk production process in the World Fair certainly made women’s achievements more visible. It was not known if the exhibition ever emphasised the women’s role in Chinese sericulture and the silk industry, or if they simply presented it as ‘exotic’ in the exposition.

Courtesy of Dr. Gary Pui-fung Wong