Many people in modern Hong Kong are unfamiliar with the term 'comprador'. Derived from the Portuguese word compra - 'to buy' - the comprador was a commercial middleman.
For more than a century, virtually all foreign firms in China used the services of a comprador. They were not employees and were not paid a salary, but received commissions for goods supplied and services rendered, frequently getting a percentage of profits as well. They supplied or recommended Chinese employees and guaranteed their good behaviour. An ability to shrug off the difficulties of dealing daily with an alien culture was crucial. Successful compradors cultivated a facade of smooth indifference to irritation; the pidgin word maskee ('it doesn't matter') was never far from their lips.
Many compradors in Hong Kong were Eurasians. An ability to speak English - or at least superior-quality pidgin - as well as Cantonese was essential to the role. In the colony's formative years it was the Eurasians - not the Chinese - who possessed this skill.
Most prominent 'old money' Hong Kong Chinese families have at least one ancestor who helped establish the family fortune as a comprador, either here or elsewhere in China. One of the city's best known was Sir Robert Hotung, comprador of Jardine, Matheson and Co; his brother Ho Fook - casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's grandfather - was also a Jardine comprador for a while.
Nationalistic Chinese historians tend to deride the comprador class as little more than parasitic stooges and agents of foreign imperialists, who enriched themselves at China's expense. Some truth resides in the assertion. But compradors were also important agents of cultural and technical change who introduced new ideas to the country. Few, however, consciously set out to do so; they simply saw opportunities for economic advancement for themselves and acted accordingly.
Many compradors, thanks to being shrewd problem solvers, found their way onto various consultative bodies such as the Tung Wah Hospital, the District Watch and the Po Leung Kuk; their descendants became legislative and executive councillors and National People's Congress delegates.