Hello,
In front of the Bank of China in Hong Kong there are two bronze tigers, one of them named Stephen, the other name I cannot remember.
According to the lower plate, both tigers were taken to Japan during the occupation, and later one they were returned.
Does anyone know how Hong Kong managed to get those tigers back?
Thanks,
Julián
Bronze tigers taken from Hong Kong by the Japanese
Bronze tigers taken from Hong Kong by the Japanese
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Probably they were returned by Japan because of this article of the Treaty of Peace of San Francisco, 8 September 1951:
Article 15
(a) Upon application made within nine months of the coming into force of the present Treaty between Japan and the Allied Power concerned, Japan will, within six months of the date of such application, return the property, tangible and intangible, and all rights or interests of any kind in Japan of each Allied Power and its nationals which was within Japan at any time between 7 December 1941 and 2 September 1945, unless the owner has freely disposed thereof without duress or fraud. Such property shall be returned free of all encumbrances and charges to which it may have become subject because of the war, and without any charges for its return. Property whose return is not applied for by or on behalf of the owner or by his Government within the prescribed period may be disposed of by the Japanese Government as it may determine. In cases where such property was within Japan on 7 December 1941, and cannot be returned or has suffered injury or damage as a result of the war, compensation will be made on terms not less favorable than the terms provided in the draft Allied Powers Property Compensation Law approved by the Japanese Cabinet on 13 July 1951.
The name of another bronze lion (not tiger) was Stitt, named after the general manager of HSBC Shanghai branch G. H. Stitt. Stephen (the one with openning mouth) was named after A. G. Stephen, the general manager of Hong Kong branch from 1920 to 1924, who decided to found two bronze lions in 1921.
In fact the two bronze lions at the gate of HSBC headquarters in Shanghai were the first pair founded, in 1923, and the pair at the gate of Hongkong HSBC building were founded in 1935. The two lions in Shanghai remained there during WWII (japs tried to took this pair too, and sawed them on the back), and were removed and stored in a depository during the Culture Revolution (HSBC sold the Shanghai headquarter building to China in 1954 and it was used as Shanghai's city hall), then donated to Shanghai History Museum in the 1980s. SPDB (Shanghai Pudong Development Bank) bought the building in 1996 and founded these pair, which were modeled and cast from the original pair.
new "Stephen" at the gate of Shanghai HSBC building
"Stitt" on the HSBC HK$ banknote
regards
In fact the two bronze lions at the gate of HSBC headquarters in Shanghai were the first pair founded, in 1923, and the pair at the gate of Hongkong HSBC building were founded in 1935. The two lions in Shanghai remained there during WWII (japs tried to took this pair too, and sawed them on the back), and were removed and stored in a depository during the Culture Revolution (HSBC sold the Shanghai headquarter building to China in 1954 and it was used as Shanghai's city hall), then donated to Shanghai History Museum in the 1980s. SPDB (Shanghai Pudong Development Bank) bought the building in 1996 and founded these pair, which were modeled and cast from the original pair.
new "Stephen" at the gate of Shanghai HSBC building
"Stitt" on the HSBC HK$ banknote
regards
Hi mejulian, I found this:
http://ustation.sd.polyu.edu.hk/old/sd251/hsbc.html
http://ustation.sd.polyu.edu.hk/old/sd251/hsbc.html
regardsTHE NEW HEAQUARTERS BUILDING
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, now known simply as HSBC, officially celebrated the opening of its HK$5,000million new headquarters building, on the 7th of April 1986. Occupation of the building has been achieved in a series of planned phases. The first of which was completed on July 30th 1985, when the basement and the 12 floors of the main banking hall opened for business, exactly on schedule, four years after demolition work had begun to clear the site. Since that date, more than 3500 people have moved into the 47 storey, 180m high building, which forms a major landmark in the heart of Hong Kong’s rapidly growing business district.
THE SITE
The building is located between Queen’s Road and Des Voeux Road which originally fronted the harbor, on a site that has been occupied by the bank ever since the middle of the 19th century. The previous structure, completed in 1935, was in its days the tallest and most sophisticated building in Asia. The new bank, like its predecessor faces directly towards Hong Kong’s waterfront, and across the harbor toward mainland Kowloon. In front of it is Statue Square, one of central Hong Kong’s few remaining public open spaces, an attractive, and very popular pedestrian area. It provides the bank with an unsurpassed setting, flanked on one side by the old Supreme Court building, now converted to form the seat of Hong Kong’s new legislative assembly, and overlooking the Star Ferry terminal. It is almost the only site in Hong Kong with the space for pedestrians to appreciate uninterrupted views of the full height of a major building, as well as one of the very few based on a formal piece of traditional axial town planning.
DESIGN
The conventional podium plus central-core tower approach for high-rise buildings was rejected. Instead, the layered space is suspended from structural and service cores on the edge. This liberation of floors makes the realization of a double-aspect space with generous and dramatic views towards the city possible. Such an arrangement also enables the creation of a 14-storey high void for the banking hall. Even with the freeing of 3000 square meters of ground space to the public, the bank still enjoys a large proportion of usable floor space (70%) for the offices above.
The Bank’s overall shape and form is made up of three visually distinct bays. The setback requirements of Hong Kong’s Building regulations, aimed at preventing the overshadowing of the streets, have made these bays rise to three different heights. The building is limited to 35 storeys on Des Voeux Road and 28 on Queen’s Road, with only the central rising to the full 47 floors. The two narrower sides have a very different character to the more main front and rear elevations. These are almost entirely glazed with floor to ceiling window walls maximizing the views out to the sea, and up to Hong Kong’s Peak. The Bank tells you inch-by-inch how it was built. The exterior and all interiors are the dramatic proof of the worldwide network of manufacturing and technical facilities that have been drawn upon to make the hundreds of thousands of component parts of the building. It is a record of its own creation.
THE LIONS
The two large bronze lions which traditionally guard the Des Voeux Road entrance to the Bank’s headquarters are perhaps its most visible and best loved symbols. Many people believe that touching the lions or stroking their prawns will bring good fortune and that they are linked to the continuing prosperity of the Bank and Hong Kong. The Bank’s association with sculptured lions goes back over 70 years to 1921 when the Chief Manager, Mr. A.G. Stephen, thought a pair of lions symbolizing protection and security would look impressive outside the new Shanghai branch which was being built at that time.
The two lions were named Stephen and Stitt, after two managers of the Bank. By the time the new headquarters building for Hong Kong was being designed ten years later, the lions had become symbolically associated with the Bank, not surprisingly as both Britain and China had a long traditional attachment to symbolic lions, as seen in British Coats of Arms and the Peking lion. it was decided that the new Hong Kong headquarters should also have a pair of lions and these were modeled in Shanghai by Mr.W.W. Wagstaff and cast in bronze by Chou Yin Hsing.
The Hong Kong lions were also christened Stephen and Stitt and soon proved to be just as popular as their Shanghai brothers. Since 1935 they have guarded the Des Voeux Road entrance to the Bank except for two periods of absence. The first was during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong when the Lions, along with the statues of Queen Victoria and Sir Thomas Jackson, were removed to Japan to be melted down. Their fate was unknown until just after the liberation in 1945 a American sailor found the two lions in the Kawasaki Dockyard. The lions, along with the statues of Queen Victoria and Sir Thomas Jackson, were shipped back to Hong Kong under an order from General MacArthur.
Their return was greeted with great interest. The lions continued their guard until the building was demolished when they were moved to a temporary home in Statue Square. For four years they waited while a new and much larger Bank headquarters rose in its place. Then on June 1, 1985, under the watchful eye of the Bank’s fung shui expert, the lions were lifted simultaneously by two cranes to avoid giving one precedence over the other, carried to the building and lowered into position. A week later the Chairman and other senior Bank executives held an official ceremony to welcome the lions home.
