FROM THE HON EDITOR
The annual Journal is, or should be, published a year in arrear and a few months before the following AGM. Volume 42 for the year 2002, therefore, should have appeared towards the end of 2003. For various reasons unfortunately, publication was delayed until July 2004.
Volume 43 has been similarly delayed for which I tender my regrets. This is my 13th Journal and as always I have striven for freshness and diversity - within the ejusdem generis of the Society's objectives - and "value for money." Whilst I enjoy the duties of Hon Editor however, I never forget that, sooner or later, we all reach the end of our shelf life. I have seen too many people hang on to the bitter end with their zest, creativity and energy inexorably declining in the process. I shall not be one of their number as it would be neither fair to the readership that I serve, nor to me.
End of personal lucubration.
There are a total of seven Articles, six items under Notes and Queries, two Book Reviews and on this occasion, sadly, an Obituary.
Sidney Cheung, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong discusses the history of three Hakka villages in the Sai Kung area of Hong Kong, namely Tai Long Wan, Pak Lap and Chek Keng and the competing demands of conservation and progress. Contrary to the sanctimonious sermonizing of so many (and on so many issues) these days, there are no easy answers.
The essay by Eric Danielson on Shanghai's Longhua Temple is delightful. Eric has studied his subject for many years and has lived in Shanghai for the last five, and thus writes with authority. Equally erudite is James Hayes' sojourn into the world of the Old China Trade. James has dug up some fantastic sources for his article and reading it one can almost feel the wind on one's cheeks and sense the excitement of the foreign barbarian seamen gazing upon fabled Cathay for the first time.
Lan Li and Deidre Wildy of Queen's University Belfast have unearthed two statutory declarations made by Sir Robert Hart, the distinguished Anglo-Chinese statesman at the turn of the 20th century
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