Austin Coates (1922–1997) was a British
civil servant, writer and traveller. He was the son of noted English composer
Eric Coates
Eric Francis Harrison Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading viola, violist.
Coates was born into a musical family, but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, ...
.
Austin Coates wrote extensively on topics related to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
. He was first connected to the East through his service for the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
intelligence in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
and
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
in the Second World War. After the war, he worked for the Hong Kong government as Assistant Colonial Secretary and Magistrate in the
New Territories
The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...
from 1949 to 1956. As a magistrate, he gained insight on the Chinese customs and character, and he applied Chinese laws to solve many of his cases.
After Hong Kong, he was the Chinese Affairs Officer in
Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...
from 1957 to 1959; First Secretary of the British High Commission,
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, sub ...
and
Penang from 1959 to 1962. In 1962, he left the British civil service to concentrate on writing. In 1965, he settled in Hong Kong and continued travelling and writing extensively. In 1968, he published ''
Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr'', a biography of the
Philippine
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
national hero
José Rizal which serves as the second biographical account of the life and career of Rizal authored by a non-Filipino.
Coates was the guest of many prominent Asians, among them the
Tagore family
The Tagore family (also spelled as ''Thakur''), with over three hundred years of history,Deb, Chitra, pp 64–65. has been one of the leading families of Calcutta, India, and is regarded as one of the key influencers during the Bengali Renaissa ...
, the Indian painter
Jamini Roy
Jamini Roy ( Bengali: যামিনী রায়) (11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954. He remains one of the most famous pupils of Aban ...
and
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
. After his visit with Gandhi, he decided that understanding between East and West was one of the most important goals in the world.
His book, ''City of Broken Promises'' was made into an extremely successful musical for the Hong Kong Art Festival in 1978. The show was also staged in
San Jose in 1979, starring
Teresa Carpio
Teresa Carpio (born 30 September 1956) is a Hong Kong English- and Cantonese-language pop singer, actress, and singing teacher. Carpio was popular in Hong Kong during the 1970s and 1980s. She is the paternal cousin of actress and singer Rita Ca ...
.
![Eric Coates - Golders Green Crematorium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Eric_Coates_-_Golders_Green_Crematorium.jpg)
Coates was cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...
.
Bibliography
Travel and history
* ''Invitation to an Eastern Feast'' (1953)
* ''Personal and Oriental'' (1957)
* ''Basutoland'' (Corona Library, 1966)
* ''Western Pacific Islands'' (The Corona Library, 1970)
* ''Islands of the South'' (1974)
History
* ''Portuguese Roots in Africa'' (1965) Johannesburg: Frier & Munro
* ''Prelude to Hong Kong'' (1966) London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; second edition as ''Macao and the British, 1637–1842'' Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1988, 234 pp;
* ''
Rizal, Philippine Nationalist and Martyr'' (1968), Oxford University Press.
José Rizal is the national hero of the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
* '' China, India and the Ruins of Washington'' (1972) New York: John Day, discusses the longevity of the Chinese and Indian civilisations in contrast to the Western civilisation.
* ''A Mountain of Light: The Story of the Hongkong Electric Company'' (1977)
* ''A Macao Narrative'' (1978) Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 1999, 146 pp., preface by Cesar Guillen-Nunez
* ''Whampoa: Ships on the Shore'' (Hong Kong: SCMP. 1980), about the founding of the
Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Company and the transformation of Hong Kong from a sleepy little village to the seventh biggest port of the world.
* ''China Races'' (1984) Oxford University Press (China), a history of racing on the China Coast commissioned by the
Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, having been founded in 1884. In 1959, it was granted a Royal Charter and renamed The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (). The institution reverted to its original name ...
.
* ''Quick Tidings of Hong Kong'' (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. 1990 A History of telecommunications in Hong Kong.
* ''The Commerce in Rubber: The First 250 Years'' (1987) Singapore: Oxford University Press
*
Other non-fiction
* ''Report on the Southern District'' (195?) Rural development, Village communities, Southern District New Territories
* ''Myself a Mandarin'' (1968) London: Frederick Muller, describes the author's experience as a special magistrate in the New Territories.
* ''Numerology'' (1975) Coates explains his system of reading people's characters and predicting their fortunes based on their names and birth dates.
Novels
* ''The Road'' (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1957), novel about Hong Kong's Lantau Island during 20th century.
* ''City of Broken Promises'' (1959, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 1987, 314 pp. A novel based on the life of Martha Merop, a Chinese orphan in Macao who rose to great success in business and on her liaison with Thomas Kuyck van Mierop, a principal of the British East India Company.)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Austin
20th-century British writers
1922 births
1997 deaths
British diplomats in East Asia
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II