Bank of Taiwan - Hankow - 1915
Tai Ping Rd, British Concession.
The island of Formosa had been administered as a Japanese colony since 1895, following the Sino-Japanese War of 1892-1895. Established in 1899, the Bank of Taiwan was very much a Japanese bank albeit based in Taipei, and together with the de facto Japanese Government bank, the Yokohama Specie Bank and another Japanese colonial bank based in Korea, the Bank of Chosen, adopted a very aggressive expansion into the China markets in the early 1900s, mirroring official Japanese policy.
Hankow had a Japanese Concession area, established in 1898 after the Sino-Japanese War. At the time, the Japanese had ambitions as a world power and aligned itself in the early years of the 20th century with the European powers in China.
Neither Japan nor its bankers were popular in China in the early 20th century; anti-Japanese feeling being almost a national characteristic of the Chinese. There were frequent boycotts of Japanese businesses and banks and to overcome this anti-Japanese sentiment, the Yokohama Specie Bank conducted much of its business through its colonial banks.
There is nothing remotely Japanese about the design of this building - all rustication, columns and balustraded parapets; this is a building which would not look out of place in London or Manchester. Given the anti-Japanese feeling of the time, it is almost as if the brief to the architects was to avoid any reference or motif to Japan. Unsurprisingly perhaps given its very British appearance, the architects were the locally based British firm of Messrs Hemmings & Berkley.
Bank of Taiwan - Hankow - 1915
Tai Ping Rd, British Concession.
The island of Formosa had been administered as a Japanese colony since 1895, following the Sino-Japanese War of 1892-1895. Established in 1899, the Bank of Taiwan was very much a Japanese bank albeit based in Taipei, and together with the de facto Japanese Government bank, the Yokohama Specie Bank and another Japanese colonial bank based in Korea, the Bank of Chosen, adopted a very aggressive expansion into the China markets in the early 1900s, mirroring official Japanese policy.
Hankow had a Japanese Concession area, established in 1898 after the Sino-Japanese War. At the time, the Japanese had ambitions as a world power and aligned itself in the early years of the 20th century with the European powers in China.
Neither Japan nor its bankers were popular in China in the early 20th century; anti-Japanese feeling being almost a national characteristic of the Chinese. There were frequent boycotts of Japanese businesses and banks and to overcome this anti-Japanese sentiment, the Yokohama Specie Bank conducted much of its business through its colonial banks.
There is nothing remotely Japanese about the design of this building - all rustication, columns and balustraded parapets; this is a building which would not look out of place in London or Manchester. Given the anti-Japanese feeling of the time, it is almost as if the brief to the architects was to avoid any reference or motif to Japan. Unsurprisingly perhaps given its very British appearance, the architects were the locally based British firm of Messrs Hemmings & Berkley.