ABSTRACT
Records of psychiatric care in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1875 when a temporary asylum was opened to admit non-Chinese patients. This temporary asylum was relocated in around 1880 and was finally replaced by the European Lunatic Asylum in 1885 (Medical Department, 1893). Later the Chinese Lunatic Asylum was built next to it and was opened in 1891. Overcrowding was a problem and in 1894 the Hong Kong Government arranged with the authorities in Canton to accept transfers of Chinese patients to the John Kerr Refuge for the Insane in Fong Tsuen, Canton (Medical Department, 1894). Non-Chinese patients were repatriated to their own countries. The European and the Chinese asylums merged in 1895. An Asylum Ordinance was enacted in 1906. In 1928 the term ‘lunatic asylum’ was substituted by ‘mental hospital’ in official reports. The main function of the hospital was to provide custodial care for disturbed mental patients until their transfer to mainland China or repatriation to their own countries. In the 1950s
there was only one old and dilapidated mental hospital with 140 beds and the management of the patients was mainly custodial.
