REPORT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM FRIENDS OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
It gives me great pleasure to write about and report on the first year's activities of the 'Friends.'
Why has such a society been formed you may ask? There is, as many of you know, a very respectable Royal Asiatic Society already in existence in London, which is the parent body of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, and some of our members are already members of that august body. However, with the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, and the return to the United Kingdom of many members of the Hong Kong Society, there was a general view that a continuous identification of the Hong Kong Society's aims should in some way be perpetuated in the United Kingdom. A loose federation was not considered to be suitable - a more defined affiliation was felt to be desirable and it was therefore decided to sound out those members who had returned to see to what extent they would be interested in joining a Hong Kong Branch in the United Kingdom. In deciding to do this there was great encouragement from the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and from our Royal Asiatic friends in Hong Kong; the latter were particularly helpful in that they very kindly loaned us £250 (now repaid) for initial start-up expenses.
The response to the first circular was very encouraging and over 100 RAS members who were in Hong Kong expressed a strong interest in joining and, importantly, a large majority sent in the first year's subscription (£15 single, £25 joint). Such a response enabled the committee to plan the first year's activities and decide where and when to meet.
Since the first committee meeting in the Oxford/Cambridge Club in London in April, 1998 there have been three well attended functions:
a) An inaugural lecture given by Mr. Keith Stevens on 11th July, 1998 on the subject "The Yang Family of Generals of the Sung Dynasty" at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
b) A lecture by Mrs. Kirsty Norman on 31st October, 1998 on "Drugs, Prisons and Paparazzi,” again at SOAS
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REPORT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM FRIENDS OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE
ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
It gives me great pleasure to write about and report on the first year's activities of the 'Friends.'
Why has such a society been formed you may ask? There is, as many of you know, a very respectable Royal Asiatic Society already in existence in London, which is the parent body of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, and some of our members are already members of that august body. However, with the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, and the return to the United Kingdom of many mem- bers of the Hong Kong Society, there was a general view that a con- tinuous identification of the Hong Kong Society's aims should in some way be perpetuated in the United Kingdom. A loose federation was not considered to be suitable - a more defined affiliation was felt to be desirable and it was therefore decided to sound out those members who had returned to see to what extent they would be interested in joining a Hong Kong Branch in the United Kingdom. In deciding to do this there was great encouragement from the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and from our Royal Asiatic friends in Hong Kong; the latter were particularly helpful in that they very kindly loaned us £250 (now repaid) for initial start-up expenses.
The response to the first circular was very encouraging and over 100 RAS members who were in Hong Kong expressed a strong interest in joining and, importantly, a large majority sent in the first year's sub- scription (£15 single, £25 joint)). Such a response enabled the commit- tee to plan the first year's activities and decide where and when to meet.
Since the first committee meeting in the Oxford/Cambridge Club in London in April, 1998 there have been three well attended functions:
a) An inaugural lecture given by Mr. Keith Stevens on 11th July, 1998 on the subject "The Yang Family of Generals of the Sung Dynasty" at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
b)
A lecture by Mrs. Kirsty Norman on 31st October, 1998 on "Drugs, Prisons and Paparazzi,” again at SOAS
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