How many wives can a man have in Hong Kong? Why are there four gambling kings, Eric?

Before 1972, men in Hong Kong and Macao practiced polygamy. This is due to special historical reasons.

1842, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by the Qing government. When considering what kind of laws will be implemented in Hong Kong, the British formulated "one port, two laws", that is, China people in Hong Kong's laws are still governed according to the customs of Qing laws.

After the founding of the Republic of China, the laws of the Qing Dynasty were abolished and the Civil Code of the Republic of China was promulgated, but the laws of the Qing Dynasty still apply to Hong Kong. It was not until 197 1 that the laws of the Qing Dynasty were completely abolished!

1972, Hong Kong promulgated the Marriage Reform Ordinance, which made polygamy illegal, ending the legality that men in Hong Kong could jointly own polygamy. Subsequently, Macao also abolished the laws of the Qing Dynasty, and polygamy was curbed in Hong Kong and Macao.

So this can explain why we can still see some people in Hong Kong who are polygamous without breaking the law. Because when these people marry several wives, the laws of the Qing Dynasty still have a role, and it is normal for men to have "multiple wives" in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, it is normal for some elderly people in Hong Kong to have several legal wives and concubines.

Extended data

After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China began to practice monogamy in 19 12. If you want to marry the next wife, you must first divorce the original one. However, judging from Mr. Ho's four wives, his first two wives were legal, because when the Qing Dynasty perished and became a colony, the then Qing decree was used, so the two wives were in one place.

197 1 year, the Qing law was abolished and monogamy began. However, due to the great influence of Stanley Ho in Macao, he married the third and fourth wives at that time, which was not stopped.

In everyone's view, this obviously violates the law of monogamy. However, because there is no law on bigamy in Macao, several wives have not prosecuted him, and naturally, Mr. Stanley Ho has not been punished.

On the whole, Mr. Stanley Ho still insists that polygamy is a personal reason and the law does not allow it. Moreover, this phenomenon did not only occur in Macao at that time. In the early days, some rich people in Hong Kong were also polygamous before the abolition of the Qing Law. However, after Hong Kong enacted the law on bigamy, polygamy was illegal, and the maximum sentence for bigamy was seven years' imprisonment.