二十世紀前期澳門童子軍活動述略

In this paper, the author intends to trace the historical development of scouting activities in Macau before 1950. As early as 1926, the Nationalist Party (KMT) started centralizing the management and training of scouting activities, aiming at strengthening young children’s physique, discipline and service spirit. The ultimate purpose was to nurture all students and develop them into “junior soldiers of the Three Basic Principles”. Scouting in Macau began in 1911. During the early years of its development when Macau was still under the Portuguese rule, there were records documenting that boy scouts from Chinese schools participated in patriotic movements while those from Portuguese schools participated in fund-raising activities. The Camões Day in 1933 is of significance as the event engaged by both Chinese and Portuguese boy scouts on this day was interpreted as symbolizing friendship between the two ethnic groups. However, scouting activities might not have been that popular in most Chinese schools at that time. It was not until the 1940s that there was a rapid growth of scouting activities in Chinese schools. It was partly due to the inclusion of scouting education into the national curricula for primary and secondary schools and partly due to the surging number of students resulting from schools relocated to Macau during the War of Resistance against Japan. The development of scouting activities in the post-war period was even more prominent and this should be attributed to the active promotion by the Macau branch of KMT.