British Studies Seminar, University of Texas at Austin with live oaks and the scattered ashes of one of the founding members of the seminar. On arrival at the seminar, the participants help themselves to a glass of Tio Pepe or Dry Sack sherry, though teetotalers prefer cranberry juice. Sherry has come to symbolize the attitude. The seminar meets to examine in a civilized way whatever happens to be on the agenda, Scottish or Indian, Canadian or Jamaican, English or Australian. The discussion is civil, but sometimes grows a bit heated. What makes the debate engrossing is the clash of different perspectives—including those of lawyers, physicians, retired ambassadors, and
Tio Tek Ho (the young Chinese party). This tension was managed by one of the progressive leaders, Phoa Keng Hek, who tactfully requested Majoor Tio Tek Ho in 1900 to act as the ex-officio "Beschermheer" (or Patron) of the new modernising organisation Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan (THHK). The organisation sought to purify the practice of Confucianism in the Dutch East Indies, and to provide modern schools for the Chinese community. Majoor Tio Tek Ho accepted the position of Beschermheer of THHK, thus beginning the long association between the Chinese Mayoralty and the new organisation. The writer Kwee Tek Hoay highlights, however, that the