Dr. James W. Hayes
1930 - 2023
It is with great sadness that we note the recent passing of Dr. James W. Hayes in Australia. May he rest in peace. Our condolences to his wife Mabel and family members.
Member from 1966, Life Member, Honorary Fellow 1997
Honorary Editor of JRASHK 1967-1980
RASHK Vice President 1970
President 1983-1990
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Obituary by Prof. Richard Smith
5 July 2023 Houston, Texas
I write in extreme sadness to mark the passing on July 6, 4:05 a.m. local time in Sydney, Australia, of Dr. James W. Hayes (b. 1930), a true junzi (君子), or, as he would have pronounced the word in Cantonese, gwanzi. I have known James for nearly fifty years, and have admired him immensely as an extraordinary scholar, an excellent administrator, a perfect gentleman, and a kind, loyal, and generous friend. He died peacefully in his sleep at age 92.
Born in Fife, Scotland to an English father and a half-Scot mother, James graduated with a BA (honors) at Queen Mary College, London University, and after two years of National Service in Korea and Gibraltar as part of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, he took an MA in History.
James joined the British Overseas Civil Service in 1956 and was posted to Hong Kong. He retired after 32 years of distinguished service––alternating between the Central Secretariat and local Departments. He spent about half of his career in the New Territories, first as a District Officer (1957-62), then as a District Officer and Town Manager (1975-82), and finally as Regional Secretary (1985-87).
James’s fascination with the New Territories moved him to write about its “centuries-old villages and long-settled people,” and in 1966 he joined the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In the following year he became Honorary Editor of its annual Journal, and edited the next fourteen issues (1967-1980). He became a Vice-President of the Society in 1970 and served as President of the Society from 1983 to 1990.
Meanwhile, he completed a doctorate degree in 1975 at the University of London’s renowned School of African and Asian Studies (SOAS), and began a robust career as a scholar administrator, publishing dozens of articles and several highly regarded monographs, all based on his intimate knowledge of Hong Kong’s village culture and his unparalled acquaintance with various forms of Chinese-language documentation, much of it in manuscript form. In 1977, James produced his first book, The Hong Kong Region, 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside, followed by The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (1983).
I might add that James’s long chapter in David Johnson, Andrew Nathan and Evelyn Rawski, eds, Popular Culture in Late Imperial China (1985), titled “Specialists and Written Materials in the Village World,” remains an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the complex relationship between literate and non-literate culture in late imperial China.
After moving to Sydney, Australia in 1990, James continued to publish numerous articles, book chapters, in addition to four major books: Tsuen Wan: Growth of a 'New Town' and its People (1993), Friends & Teachers: Hong Kong and Its People, 1953-87 (1996), South China Village Culture (2001) and The Great Difference: Hong Kong's New Territories and Its People, 1898- 2004 (2006).
After moving to Sydney, James continued to collect historical documents in Hong Kong, and to patronize China-related institutions abroad, in particular, the Asian Arts Society of Australia. Over time, he donated many of his documents––including printed and handwritten books, manuscripts, calligraphic scrolls and maps––to various organizations, including the University of Hong Kong, the Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, ther Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Stanford University.
I will save for another occasion an appreciation of the profoundly important role James has played in my own scholarly life, and mention here only a few important things about the man himself.
First, he was devoted to his family, including his talented wife Mabel (née 黃超媛) and his three accomplished daughters, Pia, Suzanna (Suki) and Jacquetta, and their families. Late in life, he wrote that he was “always thankful” for the many opportunities that came his way in life, and “most of all for his great good fortune in having a wife like Mabel Wong,” without whom, he said, he “would not have lived so long and happily.
Second, he was by all accounts, an insightful, culturally sensitive, creative and flexible administrator. In 1992, James received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hong Kong, which cited his scholarly and administrative achievements. The citation (https://www4.hku.hk/hongrads/citations/i-s-o-m-a-ph-d-j-p-james-william-hayes) reads in part:
Young James Hayes was a budding scholar when he joined the Hong Kong Government as Cadet Officer Class II in 1956. By the time that he, became a District Officer in the 1970s, James had established for himself an international reputation, having obtained a PhD degree from the University of London. What he had written on Hong Kong's rural communities, its institutions and its leadership in the late Qing Dynasty, were not only significant contributions to scholarship, but also a vital reference point for a colonial government.
And again, in discussing James’s last posting as Regional Secretary of New Territories, from 1985 to 1987 prior to his retirement, the citation reads:
[Dr. Hayes] considers the New Territories his real home. On having served Hong Kong for thirty years, he was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order in 1986. In another century, but in the same place, James Hayes would have made a perfect magistrate for the Xin'an County. He would have been able to speak with authority on the rural society and its leadership, or on temples, fishing, sandalwood and pottery kilns. His sensitivity to the needs of the indigenous people and his thorough knowledge of the local communities set him on the right path.
Third, James was one of the most generous people I have ever encountered––generous not only in sharing his vast knowledge, experience and contacts with others, but also generous with his personal resources (including an astonishing collection of late Qing- and early Republican-era documents that eventually found its way to Stanford University; for an inventory, see
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt1d5nd7s7/entire_text/). Those of us fortunate enough to know James as scholar-friends were often the beneficiaries of his insatiable search for primary sources in the alleyways of Hong Kong. He would often present these items as gifts to us, and when he found something of interest on occasions when we were not around, these materials showed up in our overseas mailboxes.
James was one of the most careful and conscientious scholars I have ever known, in part, no doubt, because of his personal, administrative and intellectual investment in the subject matter. As Hugh D. R. Baker once wrote in a review of James’s book Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and Its People 1953-87 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996):
For nearly four decades the writings of James Hayes have led the way in illuminating the grass-roots history of Hong Kong and in particular of Hong Kong's New Territories. He has achieved an extensive output of high quality academic work all the more remarkable for the fact that his researches were conducted on top of demanding work in the Hong Kong Government, a record of productivity which puts to shame many full-time academics.
A recently published volume edited by Professor Baker and titled A Pattern of Life: Essays on Rural Hong Kong by James Hayes (Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2020) provides a fitting tribute to James. As editor, Professor Baker has done an excellent job of putting together a representative collection of James’s scholarship; Dr. Colin Day has supplied a complete bibliography of his published works; and Mr. Robert Nield provides a highly appreciative biographical essay on James.
And for those who may not have access to this wonderful book, Graham E. Johnson has written an outstanding review of it in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 61 (2021): 245-249.
This brief obituary, written in haste upon receiving news of James’s demise, only touches the surface of this extraordinary man, who will be sorely missed. My hope is to give him his due in a later essay, after my tears have dried.
Richard J. Smith
George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities emeritus, Rice University Research Professor, Chao Center for Asian Studies: https://chaocenter.rice.edu/ in the Department of Transnational Asian Studies: https://asianstudies.rice.edu/
Co-editor, Transnational Asia: An Online Interdisciplinary Journal (https://transnationalasia.rice.edu/)
Website: https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/richard-j-smith
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Then & Now by Jason Wordie
He ‘showed others how to understand what Hong Kong had experienced’: memories of prolific historian and civil servant James Hayes