When new Hong Kong Country Club welcomed women and men, unlike male-only London establishments

“H.K. Country Club Opened”, ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on January 30, 1962. The opening of the club the day before had been “the happy fulfilment of a 15-year-old dream come true”, the article continued, the political turmoil of the 1949 Chinese revolution and economic stresses of the Korean war (1950-53) having seen the project put on hold throughout the 1950s.

In his speech at the inauguration cere­mony, Hong Kong chief justice Sir Michael Hogan said: “This club will be a place where all nationalities and communities can meet. Ideas can be interchanged, views expressed and arguments deployed in an atmosphere conducive to goodwill.”

The event included a tour of the facilities of the club overlooking Deep Water Bay, where “Hongkong-made carpets and luxurious furniture bought economically catch the eye almost as effectively as the priceless view from the verandah”, the Post reported.

Preparations had begun in 1947, when land that had once been used for a brick kiln was allocated by the Colonial Office, London, for Hong Kong’s first inter­national country club. The project was taken up again in the late 50s, when fundraising for the HK$2.5 million project began in earnest, even though the original three hectares of bayside land had been reduced to two, the Post reported.

The club did include many of the trap­pings originally envisioned in the late 40s, such as “tennis and badminton courts, bowl­ing alley and swimming pools” along with designated mahjong and poker rooms. The facilities also ran to “exclusive rooms” for men and women, the Post’s opening day coverage noted.

The inclusion of women was praised by Hogan, who contrasted the move with London newspaper reports of men “‘fighting a very fierce rear-guard action’” against opening British-club doors to women.