Professor Tony Sweeting BA MA, Oxford; PhD, HK

As said by one of Tony's children, "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely, in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up. totally worn out and screaming, 'Whoo Hoo what a ride!' ".

"Brief biography taken from the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal:"

Dr. Anthony (Tony) Sweeting
To paraphrase and slightly extend the profile that appeared on the back-cover of one of my first books, I am a Welshman by birth, a teacher by training, an historian by conviction, and a Hong Kong belonger by inclination. Having graduated ten years earlier from Jesus College, Oxford, I arrived in Hong Kong in 1969 to take up a post as Lecturer in Education at the University of Hong Kong, but, for some unaccountable reason, did not join the Royal Asiatic Society until the late 1980s, when I also produced my first article for the Society’s Journal.

In the interim and since then, I have enjoyed Hong Kong, especially my courtship of Sansan Ching, who, amongst her many accomplishments, had the advantage of being member of a fascinating family. We were married in July 1975. Consequently, I gained (and, at least in one sense, helped to enlarge) the same advantage. This certainly contributed to my decision to become more involved in the history of Hong Kong, especially its history of education and educational policy.

I retired from the University of Hong Kong in 1998 as a Professor in the Faculty of Education, but have, since then, continued to teach, as an Honorary Professor in the History Department, to conduct research, as an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre of Asian Studies, and to become quite active as Associate Editor of the Comparative Education Research Centre and member of the editorial board of the international journal, Research in Comparative and International Education. My latest book was Education in Hong Kong, 1941 to 2001: Visions and Revisions – a sequel to the one in which the earlier profile appeared. Current research projects include the Centenary History of the University of Hong Kong (with Peter Cunich, another member of the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society), a history of the Grant Schools Council in Hong Kong, an analysis of Teacher Professionalization, and a study of Hong Kong Eurasians. I am also interested in music (both classical and jazz), literature (particularly novels), computers (as an Apple Mac-convert), and sports (especially rugby).

(1938 - 2008.)