A Partnership with the People:
KAAA and Post-war Agricultural Hong Kong

13 April - 20 June 2011

1/F Lobby, Hong Kong Museum of History

Presented by the Hong Kong Heritage Project
In association with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department


Political instability in the Mainland since the late 1940s triggered an influx of immigrants into a war-ravaged Hong Kong. In 1951, Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie established the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA), with the aim of giving those who were willing to work a chance to help themselves.

The KAAA was no ordinary charity. Launching what was to become a long-lasting ¡§partnership with the people¡¨, the brothers introduced pig raising schemes, distributed livestock, gave low interest or interest-free loans and established an experimental and extension farm (now the Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden) in line with government policy, to create a unique Association described as ¡§one of the most effective privately-sponsored onslaughts on human need anywhere in the world¡¨.

Through photos and historical information from the Hong Kong Heritage Project¡¦s Archive, the exhibition told the story of how, through hard work, tenacity, and the assistance of the KAAA, the agrarian community of the New Territories became self-supporting after World War II.

The Hong Kong Heritage Project was commissioned by Sir Michael Kadoorie in 2007. It is an initiative of the Kadoorie Family, Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels and China Light and Power. Please visit its website at www.hongkongheritage.org for more information.