This thesis examines the history of English education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) from 1913 to 1964. English literary studies, as a nationalistic academic discourse in England, was an iconic subject in particular for introducing English values and traditions at this colonial "British" university. A critical study of its disciplinary history at HKU raises questions about the impact of colonialism, imperialism and nationalism on the subject and the University at large.
This study employs a mixture of thematic exposition and historical narrative. Thematically, a macroscopic approach was adopted to contextualize the thesis within a broader framework of the history of English literary studies in Britain. University archival materials, staff and student publications and public records were consulted for an overview of the teaching and learning of English in this English-medium university.
Chapter 1 gives an overview of the national significance of the discipline in Britain and its expected roles in the Commonwealth, in relation to the objectives of the English Association founded in 1907. In Chapter 2, the distinctive nature of HKU as a British secular colonial institution is highlighted through a brief set of comparative studies with other western colleges and universities in China. Chapter 3 reconstructs aspects of the first fifty years of the English Department, particularly the period (1920-1951) when it was headed by R. K. M. Simpson. Simpson stressed the interdisciplinarity of English literary studies, and emphasized that English was a gateway to western civilization and culture or "general knowledge". This undercut the general belief that English literary studies merely expounded "Britishness" or "Englishness", and widened its appeal to students in Hong Kong by presenting it as an aid to the acquisition of western knowledge. Chapter 4 is concerned with the practicality and ideology of English Studies as a branch of Arts education. While humanities