This image is a pre-war Hong Kong newspaper advertisement for student enrollment at Southwest Girls' Secondary School (西南女子中學).
The advertisement provides specific historical details about the school's structure, admission timeline, and campus locations:
📰 Key Information from the Advertisement
School Name: Southwest Girls' Secondary School (also written as Southwest Middle School).
Grade Levels: It offered senior secondary (high school), junior secondary, upper primary, and lower primary levels. A note indicates that the senior secondary program had already reached its third year (Grade 12 equivalent).
Curriculum Focus: The text highlights a balanced Chinese and Western curriculum ("中西並重") designed to seamlessly articulate with universities both in China and overseas.
Placement Exams: The entrance examination for new students was scheduled for February 6th (the 12th day of the 1st lunar month) at 10:00 AM.
School Opening Date: Classes were set to begin on February 9th (the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, which is the Lantern Festival).
Campus Locations & Contact:
Main Campus: Located on Bonham Road (written in old style as 般含道, now 般咸道) in the Mid-Levels, Hong Kong.
Branch Campuses: Mention of a boys' school branch on Babington Path (巴丙頓道) and a girls' branch at Kwong King Terrace (光景台). Old 4-digit and 5-digit telephone numbers are listed at the bottom.
🏫 About Southwest Middle School
Founded in 1928 by French-educated scholar Zhang Lanzhou (張瀾洲), Southwest Middle School was one of Hong Kong's earliest and most prominent private Chinese-medium secondary schools. Before World War II, the institution expanded into multiple separate campuses for boys and girls across the Mid-Levels and Kowloon. The school temporarily ceased operations during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, reopened after the war as an Anglo-Chinese school, and eventually closed down in the 1970s.
Zhang Lanzhou (張瀾洲, 1896–1981) was a legendary educator, media publisher, and political figure in 20th-century Hong Kong and Taiwan. His career spanned from the "Work-Study Movement" in France to the development of early private education in Hong Kong, and eventually to high-level politics in post-war Taiwan.
🎓 Background and Education
Origins: Born in Xinhui, Guangdong Province.
Studies in France: As a young man, he traveled to Europe and graduated with a degree in Economics from the prestigious University of Paris (Sorbonne).
Return to Asia: He returned to China in 1925, briefly teaching at domestic universities before relocating to Hong Kong to implement modern Western pedagogical ideas into the local Chinese curriculum.
🏫 Founding of Southwest Middle School
The Vision: In 1928, he founded Southwest Middle School (西南中學) in Hong Kong. He championed the motto of "New System, New Science, New Management," aiming to provide a high-quality Chinese education that matched Western standards.
Pre-War Expansion: Under his leadership, the school grew into a massive network of four distinct campuses across Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (including the Bonham Road, Babington Path, and Kwong King Terrace locations mentioned in your newspaper clipping). At its pre-war peak, the institution enrolled nearly 5,000 students.
🤝 Civic Leadership and Media in Hong Kong
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals: In the mid-1930s (1935–1936), Zhang was elected as a Director (總理) of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, Hong Kong's most prominent Chinese charitable organization. He was highly active in local philanthropy and social welfare.
Confucian Education: He held high-ranking administrative and financial roles in Hong Kong's major Confucian educational societies, promoting traditional ethics alongside modern science.
Media Pioneer: Zhang co-founded The Hong Kong Times (香港時報) and the periodical The Searchlight (探海燈) alongside prominent journalist Guan Chupu, establishing himself as a significant voice in local print media.
🗺️ Wartime Resistance and Later Political Career
Refusal to Collaborate: When Hong Kong fell to Japanese forces in 1941, Zhang staunchly refused to collaborate with the occupying regime and fled to Macau. Southwest Middle School was forced to shut down entirely during this period.
Post-War Transition: After the war ended in 1945, he helped resurrect Southwest Middle School in Hong Kong before passing the principalship down to his son, Zhang Haiqing (張海清).
Move to Taiwan: Zhang Lanzhou was recruited into the Nationalist government, serving as the Vice Minister of Economic Affairs and Commerce. In the 1950s, he relocated to Taiwan, where he served as a member of the National Assembly and eventually became the Chairman of the China Youth Party (中國青年黨). He passed away in Taiwan in 1981.
Comments
Southwest Girls' Secondary School (西南女子中學).
Zhang Lanzhou (張瀾洲, 1896–1981)