Schools were for sons. A daughter needed only to learn to be a resourceful and charming wife. That was Chinese tradition.
And in families not rich enough to send all of their children to school, sons became the priority.
Such was the atmosphere when Hong Kong's first schools for girls started.
The beginning of British rule in the late 19th century brought traders and businessmen, but also enthusiastic Christian missionaries who were intent on converting the Chinese. These missionaries believed in education for girls. Running counter to tradition, their schools provided opportunities for girls to learn to read and write, and perhaps gain a better future.
Their foresight created schools that became pioneering models and forerunners in modern education.
The first girls' school, the Diocesan Native Female Training School, was founded in 1860 to educate Chinese girls. The school - which later became the city's top girls' institution, Diocesan Girls' School - was affiliated with an orphanage that took in unwanted Eurasian babies.
