Membership
Rules of membership were strict: Membership was restricted to British merchants and civil servants, women and people of unsuitable background being banned.
Membership remained exclusive to white British subjects until membership rules were eased in the late 1970s. Some parts of the club premises were off-limits to females. One former member is quoted as saying ""there was nothing in the rules to say that Chinese couldn't join. It had simply been understood that you didn't put a Chinese up for membership". There were reportedly few Chinese members as recently as in the early 1980s. The Sex Discrimination Ordinance, which came into force in 1996, eventually forced its doors open to women.
The club reportedly had 1,218 members on its membership register in 1981. In 2007, the club has some 1,400 members, of which 70% are expatriates.
Read more about this topic: Hong Kong Club
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
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—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)