View the original, larger copy of this image at the UWM website: http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/agsphoto/id/16225
The basketball court was located at the current site of 2 Hospital Road. It can also be viewed here
Date picture taken
1941
Gallery
Shows place(s)
Comments
美華中學女校 *Mei Wah Middle School for Girls ?
I guess the students may come from 美華中學女校 *Mei Wah Middle School for Girls at Ladder Street. My hypothesis is based on the following reasons.
1. most private schools in Hong Kong before the war did not place much emphasis on physical education. Even for a few private secondary schools that did, most of them had their own playgrounds. This school had an advanced educational mind but they did not have the ability to establish their own playground.
2. at that time, the curriculum in mainland China was more advanced than the one in Hong Kong. Physcial education was compulsory for schools in mainland China, at least among the schools in Guangzhou.
3. After the Japanese started regular air raid on Guangzhou in the late 1937, a number of schools in Guangzhou moved to Hong Kong.
4. The local Hong Kong schools that adopted the mainland curriculum might emphasis on physcial edcation as well. The most famous school in the vicinity of this location that adopted the mainland curriculum was 仿林中學 Fong Lam Middle School at Po Hing Fong. However, the girl's school of Fong Lam Middle School was not located at Po Hing Fong but at Fung Fai Terrace in Causeway Bay. Therefore, Fong Lam Middle School can be ruled out.
5. The other private secondary school nearby was 美華中學 *Mei Wah Middle School. Mei Wah was a famous school in Guangzhou (and they took sports seriously). They moved to Hong Kong in 1938 and resumed the school in the Church of Christ in China China Congregational Church at Bridges Street. The girls' school was set up nearby at Ladder Street, and Ladder Street was just a few minutes walk from this playground.
Therefore, I guess the students in this photo may come from Mei Wah Middle School for Girls. Other suggestions are also welcome.
Ellis Kadoorie School, Belilios Public School
The building with two "towers" was Ellis Kadoorie School 育才書社. During the Japanese occupation it was used as the training school for seamen. After the war it became the site of Belilios Public School, as the original site of Belilios Public School was destroyed probably in the January 1945 air raid at Central. Belilios Public School used this site until they moved to Causeway Bay in 1965. Today this is the site of Lok SIn Tong Leung Kau Kui College.