Early psychiatric services in Hong Kong from 1841 to 1947

During 1841-1875, Hong Kong, as a Crown colony, was still a small fishing port where British, American, and other expatriates engaged in commercial and trade activities, its population was small and social facilities were under-developed. In old Hong Kong Chinese society, mental patients were considered a disgrace to the family. Relatives would tolerate the burden of looking after a mentally disturbed member and would try to keep the patient inside the family [1]. Under these conditions, the Hong Kong Government had no intention of building any asylum for mental patients [2]. So, before 1875, there was no government institution existed in Hong Kong for the lunatics. In 1873, the European lunatics were sent to Central Police Station Victoria Gaol (Figure 1) in Old Baily Street until they were repatriated to their own countries while the Chinese lunatics were sent to Tung Wah Hospital (Figure 2), the first charity hospital for Chinese in Hong Kong, opened in 1872. Tung Wah hospital had special insanity ward with special restraining clothes, where they were "confined in dark and dreary cell under Chinese native doctor’s supervision and those who were violent were chained like wild beasts " [3,4]. AbstrAct