Imperial Botanical Gardens Versus Local Colonial Parks: British Botanical Imperialism and Colonial Greening Policies in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Botanical Gardens are generally perceived as an ‘imperial project’ to affirm the potency of British botanical imperialism in East Asia. Correspondence between the administrators in Britain and Hong Kong suggests that there was tension between the two because of different aspirations related to the operation of this ‘imperial project’. Even though both parties—the representatives of Britain’s imperial interests and the representatives of local interests—understood that the project’s ultimate goal was to benefit the mother country, they had different opinions on the management of the garden. Those who represented Britain’s imperial interests believed the botanical garden’s objective should be to serve as a centre for distributing economic and scientifically interesting cultivation practices in China to other parts of the empire. For the local representatives,the garden was no more than a local park to promote the health of the small colony. The garden’s first superintendent, Charles Ford, successfully balanced the needs of both sides and expanded the botanical gardens’ aspirations.