After a British education in his hometown, Ho completed his studies in Oxford and Long before returning to Hong Kong to practice law.
Ho was soon promoted to consulate general, with the goal increasing trade relations between the United States and China, serving to the prosperity of Chinatown merchants.
Despite his youth, Ho's mandarin persona impressed members of San Francisco's elite holding membership in the Bohemian Club.
As a consul general, Ho Yow had many goals including building new trade relations between the United States and China by opposing the Exclusion Act and recasting Chinatown's image.
Merchants also joined Consul Ho in complaining to city officials that professional guides had begun to establish fake opium dens and hire Chinese men and women to engage in "immoral exhibitions" for tourists.
[3] The murder of Fung Jin Toy lead to a tong boycott of the See Yup Company goods, hindering the economy of Chinatown.
Chinatown's merchants feared a devastating loss in income from tourists, and they joined Ho in publicly denying the existence of plague.
[4] In an attempt to conciliate non-Chinese authorities, Ho advised Chinese who were sick to seek a "white physician", and if one could not afford that, an Oriental Dispensary doctor would be provided to them free of cost.
[1] Later, an autopsy of a monkey confirming findings of plague diagnosis made federal officials, the Chinese leadership, and press representatives consider another quarantine.
Their thesis was that the current American legal approach toward Chinese immigration remained an obstacle to expanded and preferential trade, sustaining resentment and hostility between people of both nations.
The consul declared the current lack of assimilation an asset rather than a deficiency: living in separate colonies, the Chinese were not interested in intruding into American domestic life.
In a further attempt to reduce anti-Chinese sentiment, Ho along with all the presidents of Chinatown associations along with 200 Chinese merchants, provided an official statement denouncing the Boxers.