José Pedro Braga

His father was Chief Accountant at the Imperial Japanese Mint at Osaka, Japan, from 1871 to 1875 and then Instructor of Book Keeping in the Okurasho, the Finance Ministry in Tokyo until 1878.

In 1889 he sat for the Calcutta University Entrance Examination, was awarded a First Class pass, and won the only scholarship available to a European in the Province of Bengal.

However, he was unable to take up this opportunity as three of his elder brothers died in a smallpox epidemic in Hong Kong and he had to return to help his grandfather in his printing business.

In the next 20 years he built up a prominent career as a journalist and printer and became a well-recognized leader of the Portuguese community in Hong Kong.

After the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong in 1941, Braga went to Macau in 1942, where he spent his last two years writing the book he had long planned, The Portuguese in Hongkong and China.