Professor Tony Sweeting BA MA, Oxford; PhD, HK

In memory of Professor Anthony Edward Sweeting, a thanksgiving service and celebration were held at St. John’s College, University of Hong Kong 82, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.

Acknowledgement -- family

We, Sansan, Jonathan, Juliette, Janine, Justin and Jacinta wish to relay our deeply felt thanks to Dr. Peter Cunich and Professor Lee Ngok for organizing the Memorial Thanksgiving Service on behalf of the Sweeting family. We gratefully acknowledge our friends and relatives for the flowers, donations, and most of all for your loving thoughts shown to us during our bereavement.

Welcome remarks -- Dr. Peter Cunich Associate Professor, Department of History, HKU

On behalf of Sansan, Justin and Jacinta, I’d like to welcome you all to this service of thanksgiving for the life and work of our friend and colleague, Tony Sweeting. As we all know, Tony had been fighting cancer for some years, but his death came as a shock because he had been looking so well shortly before he returned to England last summer. His final illness took him away swiftly, and he accepted the approached to death with peace and happiness. “I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said to his family.

Tony asked only that he be remembered with dignity and celebrations, so today’s memorial service has been arranged in accordance with those wishes.

Tony loved music, and we have just listened to one of his favourite pieces: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Two more of his favourites from Henry Purcell and Ella Fitzgerald will feature later in the service, as will hymns from his native Wales, led by members of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir, whom we thank for being here today. Tony was also a great fan of Dylan Thomas, as those of you who were at the performance of ‘Under Milk Wood’ at University Hall several years ago will remember. Today, we will hear Tony’s favourite Dylan Thomas poem, ‘Fern Hill’; and his colleagues will read to us from the New Testament. To tell us more about Tony’s life, Lee Ngok and Randy Woo have agreed to speak this afternoon.

It is difficult for a short service such as this to summarise the whole of Tony’s vibrant and full life here in Hong Kong. He joined the University in 1969 and continued to serve it with distinction after his retirement in 1998: nearly forty years of devoted service to HKU. These years were not all easy for Tony, and each of us will remember, with affection, some of Tony’s shortcomings. He was, as Paul Morris has said, “a very memorable character … He lived his life with an enthusiasm and honesty that was very distinctive. His views were not influenced by expediency or self-interest, and he detested anything that smacked of humbug or pretentiousness. He expressed himself robustly, leaving no-one in any doubt as to what he believed.”

What a wonderful accolade for an academic, and this is certainly the way in which I will remember Tony. Of course we all come to this service today to remember and give thanks for Tony’s life in our own way, for Tony was a man of many parts: a keen sportsman in his younger years, a bon vivant and talented raconteur, a Welshmen through and through, a family man, an inspiring teacher, a hard working faculty member, a distinguished scholar and writer, but most importantly – a loyal friend. Let us remember his many achievements in life, the love he showed us, and the rich legacy he leaves behind.

Once again, on behalf of the family, I thank you for being here today, and I also wish to thank the Reverend Paul Tong who has so kindly agreed to lead the service this afternoon.

Before we all stand, I would like to ask Justin and Jactina to come forward and light the candles.

Eulogy - Lee Ngok Senior Consultant, Hong Kong City University Community College.

To-day’s gathering is precisely what Tony would have wanted. This is an occasion for friends, colleagues and family to reminisce and share all the experiences and joy that he had treasured so much. Through Sansan, Tony had a hand in choreographing to-day’s proceedings, making sure that this is a celebration.

Oxford, East Africa and Hong Kong were the three cornerstones for Anthony Edward Sweeting on which were built an illustrious career. Most of us had a part to play in the past four decades as Tony began his career in teacher education. In his early days when he arrived in Hong Kong in the winter, he was always seen walking around the Main Building in his light blue Norwegian sweater.

Having anchored himself in teacher education, he realized that there was a need to research into the history of education in Hong Kong as part of British Imperial History and took the bold step to register himself as a Ph. D. student in the early 1980s and never looked back. To his supervisor, he was the meticulous researcher able to comb through dusty archives at the Kew and attempt to solve the mysteries of colonial policy. He believed in oral history and built up a rich data bank that reveals both successes and failures in education policy. Tony was always keen to share with researchers what he discovered and uncovered, be it over a drink in the Senior Common Room or in seminars.

Tony’s “Education in Hong Kong pre-1841 to 1941”, “ A Phoenix Transformed” and “ Education in Hong Kong, 1941 to 2001” are the definitive sequel for future reference. His unfinished research on the History of the University, the Grants Schools Council and the Eurasians will be taken up by collaborators who will need to demonstrate the same doggedness and research tenacity to bring these projects to fruition.

Tony would want us to remember him as the Welshman who could not speak Welsh too well, but he could sing well, and was able to bring together expatriates and locals in the University and in Hong Kong. Many principals and teachers became his close friends because of his willingness to build a strong network for the University and schools. He was sensitive to the needs of practising teachers of Chinese history. Not being a speaker of Chinese, he solicited the help of Chinese colleagues in the University to co-teach in order to lend support to these teachers. Researching into the development of education in Hong Kong made him realize the need for education reforms, and he did what he could to bring about improvements.

Bringing together expatriates and locals is not confined to academic pursuits. He helped re-build the University hockey team comprising staff and graduates with the help of the godfather of the “Chinese mafia” in the early 1970s, and was hence made a life member of that organization. He managed to field three University teams for the rugby sevens before the tournament went international. He was able to recruit the Governor’s aide-de-camp into the first team. He coxed for the University rowing team and introduced this Oxbridge tradition to Chinese colleagues. However, at one time, the boat he coxed was swamped after a heavy alcoholic meal at the Jumbo.

We admired Tony for his courage and his ability to be at peace with himself in the last two to three years. In the Senior Common Room in between research sessions, he took great pains to relate to colleagues his medical condition as if he was explaining the problems of the education system. Sansan, Justin and Jacinta would be able to tell us how he was at peace with himself in his last days at Oxford.

Tony and Sansan were the perfect couple. Many of us would miss seeing a caring and rather worried Sansan, who unfailingly would drive up the curb side of China Town just before midnight to pick up Tony, and all of us would sigh with relief as Tony’s guardian angel took charge.

“Tony was pure happiness and he left a profoundly peaceful man”, wrote Sansan.

We should all learn from Tony and treasure what we have and care for all those around us.

Recollection - Randy Woo Former Head of History Department, La Salle College, Kowloon.

I am much honoured and privileged to be invited to speak at Tony’s memorial celebration service. I first met Tony in the late 1970’s when we were on the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and the Hong Kong A-Level history committee. He was the shepherd and I was just a VIP – very insignificant person. I recollect that once we had a discussion about the exact meaning of democratization in post-war Japan. All members except me agreed that the word meant the political system of a government. But I disagreed and averred that democratization should include social, religious, economic and educational aspects. After a couple of minutes of deliberation, I advised them to refer to an article by Hugh Patrick of Yale University on which I based my argument to support my viewpoint. At last, Tony and the other members were brought over to my suggestion. What this anecdote reflects is that Tony was a patient, liberal and unquestioned leader, who was most willing to accept others’ opinions (constructive ones, of course). For that reason, he was affectionately accepted as a persona grata. I salute you, Tony. After working with him for some years, I began to realize that Tony was an honest man of letters, a gentleman of intellectual acumen, a renowned scholar, a remarkable educator, and above all, an egalitarian.

Just in passing, Tony and I were always two big chimneys at every meeting, and so far, luckily we had never set the building on fire! When the meetings were over, Tony usually took me to the Old China Hand, a bar in Wan Chai district, for a couple of beers. Mind you, it was not a girly bar for monkey business as some of you may imagine.

In hindsight Tony and I had three things in common: smoking, drinking and worst of all GOUT. I very much envied Tony when he told me he kicked the bad habit of smoking with strong will power, which I regrettably lack.

Many a time I have consulted Tony about my English usage such as the right choice of words, felicitous phrases in certain contexts and even origins of some of the English aphoristic expressions. He never let me down by promptly quenching my thirst for enlightenment. A friend in need is a friend indeed! I recall once I typed ‘send my regards to ‘San San’; ‘San San’ in two words. Tony chided me and remarked that ‘San San ‘in two separate words belonged to the name of a panda. Only then did I realize that his loving and caring wife’s name is spelt in one word.

Life is transient. Tony’s death was and still is a tremendous loss not only to the local educational community but the international academic circles. I have lost a learned maharishi, or wise man and an honorary guru. ‘Honorary’ because he never asked me for tuitions fees; nor did I pay him anything.

It is ineffably comforting that Tony passed away in peace, with grace and dignity with his family around. May he rest in peace!

Toast - Dan Waters

Professor Anthony Sweeting

We can shed tears that he has gone, Or we can smile because he has lived.

I had the privilege of knowing Tony for just about the entire 39 years he lived and worked in Hong Kong.

In the 1970s a series of articles criticizing Hong Kong’s education system appeared in the South China Morning Post. Hard hitting, yes, but it was constructive. The articles were written by a young man named Anthony Sweeting. They really caused a stir in the Education Department Headquarters where I worked at the time. ‘Who was this young chap named Sweeting?’ Tony was determined to make a difference – and he did!

In those early days Sansan, later his wife, was a member of the ‘Education Action Group’. Tony joined too. Not just to take part in the ‘action’ but to be close to Sansan!

They were very much in love and they wed in 1975. It’s been a wonderful example of a successful European--Chinese marriage.

If Tony thought something was not right he jolly well did something about it. Tony’s mix of romantic and poetic charisma varied depending on the person he was dealing with and the occasion. I will always remember him for his many kindnesses and his social graces.

Casting my mind back to the 1970s and the series of articles Tony wrote for the Post: it was nice that the late KY Yeung, a government administrative officer, invited Tony in 1995, to write an official report on Education Policy for the Education and Manpower Branch of Government.

Tony was a valued Council member of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. He sat on the Editorial Board and worked to the very end. There are several of us members attending this ceremony today.

I had an email from Tony, in Oxford, three days before he passed across. ‘He was’, he said, ‘in the best of spirits. He would use all his inner resources to combat and defeat the cancer.’ Amazing courage!

Winston Churchill said, shortly before he died in 1965, ‘It’s been a grand journey, well worth making once’. Tony Sweeting would have endorsed those words. We all admire you Tony, and we drink to you. May you rest in Peace.

I now request you to raise your glasses to toast Tony.

The Toast, my friends, is: ‘We smile because you have lived!’

God bless you all and thank you.

Professor Mark Bray Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), Paris

I thank you sincerely for the privilege of being able to say a few words. I do so as a longstanding colleague of Tony, and as a former Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong in which Tony spent so many years.

Tony was indeed a marvellous colleague, and as we hear and read his biography we note so many facets. One was that he completed his PhD in 1989 at age 51, which is a strong example of persistence and lifelong learning. His PhD supervisors are in the room, and will have their own memories. When it finally emerged, the thesis had four volumes. Such scale was characteristic of much of Tony’s work – and was one reason why the thesis took a long time.

Tony’s legacy is very clear within the education system. We have heard mention today of Tony contributions to the Hong Kong Examinations Authority, and of his curriculum work. Also to be highlighted are his students who became teachers and researchers. Some of them are in this room. And mostly beyond this room are his students’ students, who are teaching and undertaking other educational work in Hong Kong and beyond. They are very clear and strong symbols of Tony’s lasting impact on future generations.

Tony is of course also famous for his writing. Today I met one of the younger colleagues of the Faculty of Education and I asked whether he would attend the Memorial Thanksgiving. He replied, “Well, I didn’t actually know Professor Sweeting; but of course his books are on my shelf.” And so he pointed to the books which many of you know. Several are especially visible because they are thick, like the telephone directory! Most date from the 1990s onwards, and some appeared after Tony’s retirement. At that period, Tony was no longer training teachers but was still contributing vigorously to the intellectual side: the history of education and the field of comparative education.

Concerning the latter, Tony played a major role in the Faculty’s Comparative Education Research Centre after it was founded in 1994. Especially valuable was Tony’s editorial work. Mark Mason and I co-edited the book series in which Tony was the Associate Editor. Mark Mason has described Tony as “our strongest line of defence”. Tony would look with great care at each manuscript. Sometimes he appropriately wielded the hatchet, which saved a lot of subsequent negotiation and other labour. But the robust authors would come back, and the end result was a series of carefully-selected and excellent products.

Thus, after Tony formally retired from the Faculty in 1998 he remained very much within our community and especially in the Department of History and the Comparative of Education Research Centre. He and I have shared many conferences around the world, and I know that others in this room have similar memories. We feel that it is a marvellous occasion to remember, rejoice, and give thanks.

So I echo the toast, to say thanks to Tony for his enduring contributions to education in Hong Kong and around the world.

Respondent - Flora Cheong-leen Representing the Chou Fu Chuan family, Tony’s extended Chinese family

I will never forget my Cousin Tony Sweeting, whom the family calls “Hob”.

He was always a perfect gentleman, soft-spoken, warm-hearted and most kind. He was my mentor and coach for several years when I was struggling between work, travel and study. Throughout that period Cousin Hob was unfailingly patient – and tolerant – with my often wayward study periods.

Yet what I learned under Cousin Hob's tutelage were things which cannot be found in the text-books. He helped me to identify my own strengths and weaknesses, and to build my internal fortitude.

Through both Hob and San, I saw their unconditional commitments to others. Tony, a distinguished professor from Oxford, not only helped me but so many students as well. He never gave up on me in helping me to get back my academic perspective and preparing me for the real world. Supported me through thick and thin in getting my academic degree and knowledge in life.

I remember I went to see him every week at his Pokfulam home and was lucky enough to be coached personally by him.

What he taught me was about life, about connecting with people, about looking beyond the horizon, and above all about being myself as an individual and as a human being.

Both Hob and San helped me build my philanthropic awareness…to help others who are in need. He represents a role model for our large and spread out family, and also for the communities in which he served.

Hob accomplished a great mission in his lifetime with everything done and said, and nothing was left unresolved at the end of his full life.

And for that I shall always hold my dearest Cousin Hob deep in my heart. I am sure his legacy and works will carry on to be a shining light to his former students like myself, as well as to future generations of young people.