by Samuel Ling - June, 2000

At 8:45 a.m., we were ready to say good-bye. It was time for Mr. Hinton to set out to visit Mission San Juan Capistrano (Daniel and Beverly Tam would host him). He took a picture of Daniel (QES '65) and myself, and gave me a hug. He protested ever so humbly that he is so well fed and taken care of by old students wherever he went, and thought that the gratitude to and accolades about him were undeserved: "I was just doing my job!" "Just doing my job…" Today is my mother's 80th birthday, and I began this day by having breakfast with Mr. Arthur Hinton, principal of Queen Elizabeth School, Hong Kong, where I attended 1962-65. Dr. Daniel Tam (QES '65) hosted Mr. Hinton in his home in Irvine, California. What a job Mr. Hinton did, to his staff, his students, and to me, one of his many, many old students. He looked exactly the same as 35 years ago when I left Hong Kong in 1965, as he quietly smiled and talked, occasionally looking very deep in thought.

Daniel tells me that he swims regularly. At eighty, he is in excellent health. We talked about so many things … about old teachers, and about the accomplishments of many old students, about ourselves. And I shared what QES did for me.

I was born into a Christian home, and lived on the campus of a Christian school: very strict, very godly, and quiet Americanized in lifestyle. I attended Pui To Primary School: a Chinese-speaking school (connected with the Baptist churches) with excellent English teachers. Then I took the secondary schools entrance exams, and QES was my first choice. Diocesan Boys' School (DBS), a prestigious Anglican institution, was my second choice. When the results came out, I got my first choice! Thus began my three happy years at Queen Elizabeth School: 1962-65. QES was an English school, or "Anglo-Chinese" in technical terms. It taught all subjects in English, except Chinese and Chinese history. But the Chinese teachers were also very good. Of course I had the influence of music since age 4 or 5, so music continued to be a part of my life at QES. I took part in the Inter-School Music Festival during all three years at QES, and learned to play the violin under Miss Margaret Money.

If there was one outstanding imprint that QES had on my life, it was this: a wholesome outlook on life. There were about 40 extracurricular activities which the students could choose from. That was far above average, compared with other schools in Hong Kong. I remember the week-long flurry of activities after the final examinations: teachers were grading our exams, and we would participate in ball games, play rehearsals, and activities in small groups of all sorts. Somehow, above all that activity, was Mr. Hinton. I had never gotten so close (and close up) to Mr. Hinton as today. Back in those days, he was the principal who spoke, quietly, thoughtfully, profoundly (though I remembered practical nothing of what he said)! on Tuesday mornings at Assembly. He would take a small group of students to a leper's community regularly - although I never went, that thought really stuck in my mind, for all these years. Combined with the fact that the Senior Mistress, Madam Mok, would lead in voluntary work with the Red Cross, this spoke to me of the "civic spirit." As a Christian I learned to love God from a young age. With a father who loved life, I knew that all God's gifts were good. But QE's civic spirit spoke to me about being part of a community, and serving others out of a glad heart.

Mr. Hinton explained that one day he received a letter from the leper's school, asking if QES had some old textbooks no longer needed. Mr. Hinton thought, "We could do more than that." With Miss Ruth Wong (my Form 3 biology teacher) he visited the community, and later took students there. He would go on Saturday afternoons, but would not want to himself recruit students to go along, for fear that, if the principal asked, the students would feel obligated. So Miss Wong did the recruiting. I still remember that Mr. Hinton would talk about the trips to the lepers during announcements in Assembly. Some students are afraid of lepers; they get nervous if they get close to a leper. But it was Mr. Hinton's natural way of talking about the lepers which, 35 years later, still stick in my mind. QES was not a "rich boys'/rich girls' school." I remember that I was one of the very few students, in Form 1A, who took all thirty-two Hong Kong dollars(from my parents' limited income: my father was making $600 a month, my mother, perhaps $500) to pay for tuition each month. The vast majority of Form 1A paid either sixteen dollars (on half scholarship) or nothing at all (on full scholarship). They came from working families, with parents in factories or farms. They would take the Kowloon-Canton Railway to school, coming from Sheung Shui, Fanling, and Taipo; or they would come in on bus numbers 15 or 16, because they lived in Tsuen Wan or Yuen Long. But I had a rather comfortable (though by no means affluent) life, being the son of a Bible school teacher. Since QES students did not have an affluent profile, there were many stories of the person who made the best of his/her opportunities in life. One "old student" who came from very difficult circumstances is a very successful lawyer now, and helps those in need without charging them. At QES we worked together: the prefects in Forms Upper 6 and Lower 6 would act as older brothers and sisters. I could feel it regularly as I went about my business, every day, at QES. The vast majority of teachers were dedicated, energetic, and encouraging. My Form teacher for Form 1 (I think) was Miss Sit Ying: short in her cheung-sam and high heels, energetic, always systematically, meticulously teaching grammar from English Explained (the name of the textbook), Miss Sit taught us to be engaged in life and in studies. There was Miss Ruth Wong, the committed Christian (who went with Mr. Hinton to visit the lepers), advisor to the Christian Fellowship. There was Mr. Liu King Man, Mr. Lee Yuet-Tang (my form teacher for form 2, and algebra teacher), a very dedicated geography teacher (Mr. Tam? he taught me in Form 2, and I still remember the maps of Australia and New Zealand), and many others.

This community spirit of dedication has been multiplied by the old students (alumni): QES old students have started a kindergarten, a primary school and a secondary school in the New Territories, in Tin Shui Wai (north of Yuen Long). Mr. Hinton had done volunteer work, teaching there, when he re-visited Hong Kong! What a tradition to carry on: to serve those in need, through education.

I told Mr. Hinton that, every time I visited Mission San Juan Capistrano (the Spanish mission Mr. Hinton was to visit late that morning), I would meditate on the fact that the Catholics left their marks through the missions, as an institution, a monument to what they tried to do in transforming the culture of California. What do we, Protestants, have to show history? Is it our schools and books? Mr. Hinton said, yes, schools and books, and also medical work. It is in the "institutionalization of good works" (a term borrowed from the history of missions in China), that Christians show the world that we care enough to make a difference in and for society. Mr. Hinton told me that, as the principal of a government school, he had no say in selecting his staff. That was one of the disadvantages; another was that the financial supply was fixed (extra funds for school affairs would come from the very cooperative Parent Teachers Association). So he took what he had, and forged everyone into a community. There were remarkable characters like Mr. Chu Ka-fei (I don't think he ever taught me), chemistry teacher and erstwhile Senior Master. Students remembered his fierceness, but all knew that behind that façade, there was the best of intentions for the students. Mr. Hinton told of a recent re-union, where Mr. Chu sat in his wheelchair (he had a stroke), and students just constantly surrounded him in small groups, talking with him.

Community. Gratitude. That's vintage QES.

As a theologian, I could not resist, half way through the breakfast, asking Mr. Hinton about his church affiliation. To my great surprise, he told me that he was a Quaker, belonging to a meeting which is part of the Britain yearly meeting. Mr. Hinton was a conscientious objector; when World War II broke out, he was eventually assigned to work with a Quaker unit. Later on in life, he felt he needed some "support," so he joined the Quakers. The Quaker movement believed in a quiet spirit; members gathered for "meetings" on Sundays. There is no preaching, but each person can speak from his/her heart. "There is no disputing," Mr. Hinton said. After someone spoke, someone else can speak in relation to the last person's remarks. I told Mr. Hinton that I knew of a Taiwanese Quaker meeting where there was preaching. Mr. Hinton explained that there are two Quaker movements; his movement, the "Britain yearly meeting," maintained the tradition of quiet meetings with no preaching.

A person tried to speak what he heard from God, and not what is merely from himself. Of course, Mr. Hinton, explained, one needed to be able to distinguish between the two. God has a way to "speak to our condition," a 17th century phrase. This quiet spirit, I believe, translates itself into sensitivity to other people's feelings. Mr. Hinton explained that this was carried over to his work as QES's principal.

Not all teachers at QES wanted to publicly voice their opinions at teachers' meeting. A physics teacher, for example, would come to Mr. Hinton before staff meetings to voice his perspective on an issue or two. And those who were more vocal at staff meetings did not necessarily represent the whole group's viewpoint. Thus Mr. Hinton had to "get the feel" (another Quaker expression), and go on the "feel" of an issue.

Mr. Hinton explained that the whole concept of extra-curricular activities, and the "community spirit" at QES, are all related to his belief that "there is something of God in each person," and that we are to bring out the good, that from God, from inside each person. We do this without ignoring the fact that there is a lot of evil in the world, also. This helped me put together the puzzle: Why did Mr. Hinton go to visit the lepers? Why did Mrs. Mok volunteer for the Red Cross? Why were we, the students, allowed to participate in such a variety of activities? Why the House system, where we were encouraged to build a community spirit? Why the remarks from Mr. Hinton on the virtues of life (I was not listening carefully in those days, but it seemed to me that "courage" was a word Mr. Hinton used from time to time - a word which I very, very seldom hear anywhere else, at any other time in my 49 years!)? To bring out the good in each person. So, despite the administrative work load (part of which Mr. Hinton was able to assign to his clerk), Mr. Hinton carried on, a quiet spirit inside, a smiling face, a thoughtful soul, working at his office, meeting with those who would come to see him, walking in the hallway, inspecting the campus … And also staying into the evening at times, when we would put on plays and concerts. I told Mr. Hinton that I remember him sitting in the front row! What dedication, to be there for the young people (a concept I learned later through American Christians, 1965-67 and 1972-75). I asked Mr. Hinton what are the advantages of being a principal. He told me that of course there was administrative work, but there was a certain kind of prestige that came with the job. People would pay attention to what he said: not only what one said, but how one lived. A principal, in other words, is a moral example to all. Daniel gave me a copy of the QES Association of USA Directory (first edition, July 1999). As I leaved through all the names and pictures, I was disappointed that no one from my class (who would have graduated in 1967) was in the book. But there were familiar faces: Yeung Me (nickname) living in Missouri; Susan Wong and her husband Wilson Wong (San Jose, California), Annie Owyang (we sailed on the same ship, the President Cleveland, out of Hong Kong on September 17, 1965). I played the School Song again on Daniel's piano - composed by a music teacher, Mr. Parker. The first verse went like this (in E major):

Bring to our song the thankful soul,
The loving thought, the shining dream;
And let us all as one extol
Our general and our several theme,
Our School of royal title,
Bring great gladness to her honouring.

Indeed, a grateful and loving heart I bring to the celebration of the years spent at QES, and to the memory of an example, an elder "statesman" of education, a believer, Mr. Arthur Hinton. Though he might be embarrassed by the honor we bring him, the impact of his ministry among us left deep impressions and deep influence. To love life (and love the world enough to go all the way to Malaya and Hong Kong to work!), to celebrate the community, to serve others, and to bring out the good in others. Virtues not often taught today!

So I left this 75-minute breakfast richer: having learned something about the soul's quiet listening, having heard a voice speaking from decades of experience as an educator, and coming to know that, as a principal, being a moral example is by far the most important thing.