[ { "id": 204240, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n5\n\n## PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nIt is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.\n\nThe original Branch which was founded in 1847 in the early days of the Colony and which included some of the most eminent oriental scholars of the time as well as the leaders of the Church, Government, the Armed Services and of the merchant houses, came to an abrupt end in 1859. After the lapse of a century a movement started in the Colony among those who had been members of branches of the Society elsewhere, in Malaya and in Shanghai where the Society had been compelled by force of circumstances to close down in 1950, to revive the Society in Hong Kong. As Sir Richard Winstedt, the Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, wrote:\n\n\"Circumstances had placed the port in a very favourable position for the study of one of the most important cultures of the world\"\n\nand Hong Kong had now the opportunity of filling a void and fulfilling its natural role as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge and culture of Asia and of China in particular.\n\nIt is barely over a year since a meeting was held attended by more than thirty interested members when a resolution was passed for the revival of this Branch. More than twice that number had pledged their support, including persons prominent in academic, professional, commercial and financial circles. The meeting adopted the constitution which had been approved by the parent Society and elected officers and a Council to hold office until this General Meeting. (The names of those elected have already been given in the brief history of the Branch at the beginning of this volume.)\n\nThe success of the founding meeting was crowned when His Excellency Sir Robert Black set the seal of his approbation by consenting to become the patron of the new Branch and when he presided over a meeting of the Society on January 23 of this year. It was the first time that a Governor of the Colony had presided at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch since the days of Sir John Bowring, a hundred years ago. Thus he closed the gap of a century.\n\nWe are, I feel, justified in considering the result of the first year's work as very gratifying and the second year has already started in a way that is highly encouraging. Within a month of the founding meeting we had 72 members. At the end of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204242, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n7\n\nwho stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany as well as to literary pursuits. It may not be generally known that it was as the result of the efforts of the Royal Asiatic Society that Government was persuaded to grant a piece of ground for a Botanical Garden which was projected in the time of Sir John Davis and carried into effect when Sir John Bowring was President. Following this precedent we had three excellent lectures illustrated with a wealth of coloured slides by the following:\n\nCaptain A. M. Macfarlane on \"Birds of Hong Kong\" illustrated by coloured slides and a tape record of bird songs and calls. Miss B. T. Chiu on \"Flowers of Hong Kong\" illustrated Mr. P. A. Nixon's coloured slides, and\n\nMr. J. D. Bromhall on \"The Marine Fauna of Hong Kong\" illustrated by coloured slides.\n\nThese lectures were in part designed to appeal to the educational circles and it is hoped that with wider publicity we may have the benefit of more members from the schools and colleges of the Colony.\n\nIn concluding my reference to the lectures and addresses I wish to record our deep gratitude to those who have contributed so richly and so readily to the success of our first year's record.\n\nAll except two of the meetings held last year were held in the rooms of the British Council and the Branch owes a debt of gratitude to the generous assistance of the British Council and of its Representative, Mr. R. E. Lawry, for affording us, free of charge, the use of these rooms as well as of the projector and operator for the slides in illustration of the lectures. Without this assistance it would have been difficult for the Branch to carry on as the moderate yearly subscription of $20.00 per member would not otherwise go far towards paying our expenses, including the hire of rooms and the issue to every member of a free copy of the Journal of the Branch.\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch has no home of its own. It is indicative of the importance which Governments attached to the Royal Asiatic Society 100 years ago that the Government of Hong Kong granted to the Hong Kong Branch a room in the Supreme Court, where it could hold its meetings and house the valuable library which it built up and which it had eventually to hand over to the Morrison Education Society.\n\nIn Shanghai the Government granted to the North China Branch a parcel of land on which, with the aid of generous grants from The Shanghai Municipal Council and the French Council", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204284, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n48\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nand makes a kind of extract of tea. They put that into another mixer, added a good chunk of butter, some soda, and some salt, and go on pounding until they get a well-mixed soup. It is excellent provided that the butter was good to begin with.\n\nQ: Is it true that some monks can move objects by sheer thought?\n\nA: Marco Polo described a contest between various religious personages at the court of the Great Khan at which they were put through their paces to see who would be the best chaplain to the Crown. He chose the Tibetans because their representative could make a cup rise from the table to his mouth. That was quite a long time ago and I haven't seen it done myself, but that's the story.\n\nQ: Is there any truth in the story of an operation to open the \"third eye\"?\n\nA: None whatsoever. The book which describes it is an utter fraud. It was written by somebody who had never been out of England.\n\nQ: Are the roofs of the Kumbum Monastery really gold?\n\nA: Unfortunately I have never been there but I have read accounts of it, and quite obviously it is a little bit too modern. You can have dances put on for a sum of money. But I assure you that the golden roofs in Tibet proper, although they are not pure gold, are well-coated in the stuff.\n\nQ: Is it true that Tibetans place no importance on gold and jewels, despite an abundance of them underground?\n\nA: There are certainly some gold mines in Tibet, but nobody knows whether the resources are very great. It isn't quite true to say that they don't place any importance on gold and precious stones—they like them very much. They use them as the principal offerings in religious places. All the butter-lamps are made of gold in the holy places; the scene in the holy of holies, the cathedral in Lhasa, is quite fabulous. The main image, behind large iron-mesh curtains, is surrounded by huge gold butter lamps, all blazing with butter—a wonderful sight.\n\nAlthough Tibetans used to dig for gold, it became rather an imposition, because the peasant would dig it out and then the landlord would come and say \"This is my gold\", so in general they stopped digging. Tibetans did not use much money of any sort—it was mostly barter.\n\nQ: Is there capital punishment in Tibet?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204285, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n49\n\nA: No—it was abolished by the thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1886. The right of imposing it existed before that, but as long ago as at the time of Ippolito Desideri in the eighteenth century, he recorded that it was very rarely done. It is one of those things that you hear about and imagine to be common, but in fact it was very rare.\n\nQ: What was the maximum punishment meted to a murderer?\n\nA: He would probably be handcuffed, hand and foot, and put into some sort of dungeon, and kept there for an indefinite period and then perhaps allowed to go about still in his handcuffs. It was not very pleasant, but at least it was rare, for murder was very rare, and no very large expenditure was needed on prison administration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204353, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n117\n\nin favour of allowing the body to be removed in a coffin past their particular floor in a two or three-storeyed tenement building. Chinese coffins usually consist lengthwise of four sections of tree trunk and are therefore bulky, irrespective of whether the coffin is cheap or one of the expensive polished varieties. Manoeuvring these coffins up and down narrow tenement staircases, with inevitable banging against walls, might be likened to death tapping at the door: a harbinger of bad luck.\n\nTo meet this problem of removal from upper floors in the urban areas, it used to be the custom up till five or six years ago to construct a bamboo staging outside the building, so that the coffin could be taken out of the window and be brought down the staging to the hearse in the roadway. The custom has now almost entirely disappeared for a number of reasons, largely economic: new buildings have grown too high for stagings to reach most upper storeys; the cost of long bamboo from China has risen enormously as a result of its use for scaffolding in the current building boom; the practice of glassing-in verandahs and balconies has made windows too small for coffins to fit through; traffic congestion in the streets makes the authorities chary of allowing even more obstruction in the form of these stagings on roads and pavements. To take their place as a means of removing the body from the private premises, basket-woven containers or stretchers have come to be used, and they are far less expensive.\n\nIf an undertaker is engaged, he will prepare the body in the deceased's home, encoffin and remove it either direct to the cemetery or to a Government cemetery depot in Hong Kong or Kowloon, where it can be held overnight pending Government conveyance to a public cemetery. A farewell pavilion at each depot provides free facilities for the relatives to hold services of any denomination or to perform other last rites.\n\nIf a funeral parlour is engaged, the body is conveyed in the basket-woven container or stretcher to the parlour for preparation, encoffining and almost invariably a service. In a few cases, embalming is carried out but this is a refinement that seems to hold no particular significance, since burial takes place normally within the forty-eight hours allowed by law for the body to remain on the premises. In parts of China, it apparently used to be the custom to delay burial for periods of up to seven weeks. But the more tropical climate of Hong Kong and the ever-present risk of disease has made it necessary to insist on a forty-eight hours limit in funeral parlours.\n\nWhen encoffined in a funeral parlour, the body is placed in a farewell room where it is customary for the immediate relatives to maintain a vigil (overnight, if necessary) until the time comes for conveyance to a cemetery or crematorium. During the vigil and funeral, the close relatives (i.e. widow and widower, sons and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "# PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1961\n\nA little over two years ago, in December 1959, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was revived after the lapse of a century. This, then, is its second Annual General Meeting. We can confidently say that the initial success of the first year has during the year that is past been well sustained and that the Society has been placed on a solid foundation for the future.\n\nAt the end of the first year—1960—we had 182 members. Of these 20 were life members, and their number included several eminent scholars from overseas. By the end of the second year—1961—a total of 278 members had been enrolled. Of these one died, four resigned, and seven left Hong Kong. There were left 25 life members and 241 ordinary members, making a total of 266 and an increase of 84 during the year. I hope, however, that this gain in membership will not be affected by the delay on the part of 59 members in paying their subscription of $20 for 1962, and a note has been sent out to remind those who have overlooked this modest contribution due three months ago. It would greatly help the Society if members would be good enough to give a banker's order for their subscriptions. It would not commit any member to continuing the subscription longer than he wishes but it would save members themselves the trouble of writing cheques or paying cash each year, and save the Hon. Treasurer and the Hon. Secretary, who are very busy people, the burden of much correspondence which should be unnecessary.\n\nIt would also be a matter of satisfaction and encouragement if more members would evince their interest and support of this Royal Society by becoming life members. At present there are only 25. There must be many more than 25 in this prosperous Colony who would, I am sure, be prepared to pay $250 for a life membership and, as His Excellency Sir Robert Black, our patron, said a year ago when he presided over one of our meetings, \"there are many times 200 people who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world, which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research or in studying and enquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CURRENCY PROBLEMS\n\n31\n\nlifted. This issue was forced upon an unwilling community at the dollar-copper exchange rate, i.e., fifteen hundred cash for one silver dollar. A little more than a year later the issue was redeemed at the rate of one million for one silver dollar. Up to the time of my last visit to that district some twenty years ago, the issue was still referred to as the \"sand plate currency\".\n\nBut as with the brass cash so the copper cash content value soon rose above the market rate and the good old suction pump once again went to work directing the flow of China's coinage into the mills of Nippon. Just at this time, one worthy old ship master, commanding a ship on the berth from Tientsin to Hong Kong and calling at way ports, made a reputation for himself. On the occasion under reference he was seen to be experiencing difficulty on clearing Chefoo harbour. His ship was riding well down by the head and considerable trouble was experienced in heaving the anchor. When the harbour authorities came to the assistance of the ship it was found that the anchor chain locker was so full of copper coins that the anchor chain could not be stowed. To the present day, in certain local circles, the old sea-dog is affectionately referred to as the master of the floating copper mine.\n\n++\n\n+\n\n44\n\n44\n\nAs already stated, the baser currencies of brass and copper were related to the value of silver. Silver bullion circulated in the form of slabs, ingots and \"shoes\". The latter ranged from the one tael shoe especially cast for the distribution of the Imperial bounty (similar to the Maundy Thursday distribution of Royal charity) up to the fifty ounce Hunan Yuan Pao. Banks' bullion storage was usually cast in bars. Not only did the fineness of the silver vary from province to province but there was also a variation in the tael so that inter-provincial accounts required cross-rate computations. Thus the traveller on an extended journey had to carry with him a supply of silver which could be changed along the way to replenish his subsidiary currency for daily expenditure. Here again a problem presented itself for such exchanges could only be effected in quantities and weights for which he had transport facilities. For instance a traveller on horseback could only change a very small piece of silver at a time otherwise the deadweight of the cash would be beyond his means of transport. I remember once being on a horseback journey in the company of a Scot. We had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "32\n\nG. FINDLAY ANDREW\n\ntravelling for some days over the broad plains of the Kokonor and the first trade centre we reached was the small market town of Tangar. We both had to replenish our cash supply but unfortunately the smallest piece of silver the Scot had was an ingot of some ten taels weight. I took the problem along to the blacksmith smithy in the east gate of the small city. The smith took the ingot and nonchalantly tossed it on to the fire. When sufficiently heated he took it from the fire and laid it on the anvil and commenced to chisel off the required piece of about three taels weight. When old Jock saw the sparks begin to fly he got very excited and jumped in all directions trying to catch them under the firm impression that his precious silver was being dissipated before his very eyes. Of course in the large cities the cash shops had their own silver shears and it was only in the smaller centres that the blacksmith was called upon to act as the travellers' friend in such exchange transactions.\n\nIn the former Tibetan province of Amdo, on the Kansu Tibetan border lies the large lamasery of Labrang. In the days of which I write, the Living Buddha who presided over the destinies of this very large lamasery was Kia Muh Yang. He was reputed to be the owner of a mountain of silver which had been created by the molten silver offerings of the faithful being poured into one solid lump. Thus when the Buddha set off on one of his periodic journeys, all he had to do was to load pack animals with pieces hacked out from the side of his mountain and his finance problems were solved! In another connection, the same practice obtained in the neighbouring lamasery of Kumbum where the gold offerings were melted and poured down the roof of the temple that housed the sacred figure of Tsong Kaaba, the reformer of Lamaism whose birth-place the shrine marks. I wonder whether either the Silver Mountain or the Golden Roof exist to-day?\n\nThe handling of sycee had its own particular problems, perhaps the main one being the assessment of the standard of purity on which subsidiary currency exchange rates were fixed. I shall never forget my feelings when on a certain occasion I opened the boxes of a large consignment of silver which I had received from a Moslem war-lord. Inside was the queerest mixture imaginable of everything approximating to silver either in the form of ornaments or coins. There were bracelets, rings,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204414, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "37\n\nTHE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\nA lecture delivered on October 30, 1961\n\nHOLMES WELCH, M.A.\n\nFirst I think I should tell you a little bit about what I have been doing. Last spring I was awarded a grant by the Social Science Research Council to find out how Buddhist monasteries in China used to operate before 1950, what the monks did from day to day, and why. This is a subject on which almost nothing has been published: the best sources of information are the monks themselves. There are about 200 of them in Hong Kong, most of whom are not natives of the Colony, but come from all parts of China: from the northeast, northwest, the central provinces, and the south. Unfortunately all but a few left the mainland ten years ago or more, and their memories are beginning to fade. Furthermore, some are in their seventies or eighties and not only have fading memories, but it is a question how much longer they will be here to talk to. Their knowledge, unless it is recorded now, will be lost to all future students of China. That is one of the reasons I am doing what I am.\n\nIt is not an easy job to interview these monks. First, they speak in a baffling variety of dialects and accents. Second, they find it hard to understand why I should be asking them so many questions. Furthermore, they are not accustomed to answering questions about the practical side of monastic life. They are accustomed to expounding the sutras and the dharma, or Buddhist law. I have done only six months of interviewing so far and many points are still obscure.\n\nMany points are still obscure. What I am giving you today, therefore, is not in the nature of conclusions, but a kind of interim field report.\n\nThe subject of my talk is the Buddhist career. By that I mean the stages that a Buddhist went through in following his religion. Not everyone went through all these stages; in fact, almost no one did. But I shall describe them all, one by one, so that you can see what the possibilities were. I shall disregard the great majority of Chinese, for whom Buddhism was just one\n\nAL.\n\nMr. Holmes Welch is currently engaged in a study of Buddhist organisations in modern China. He is author of a book on the history of the Taoist movement, The Parting of the Way.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204424, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n47\n\n(in the big monasteries one had to get permission every time he left the premises). Talking was permitted during meals and people could go to bed when they felt like it. Some small temples were centers of institutionalized laziness--and worse.\n\nBut small temples were very necessary, not only to provide a break from the rigor of life in the big monasteries, but also as a link between the clergy and the laity. The big monasteries were often remote in the mountains, whereas in most Chinese cities there was a small temple “just around the corner.\" More important than this, however, was the fact that a monk could not accept tonsure disciples \"in his capacity as officer or resident of a big monastery, but only in his capacity as officer or resident of a small temple. The novice during most of his training prior to ordination could not live in a big monastery, but only in a small temple. Thus small temples were the channel through which all new recruits had to enter the Sangha.\n\n55\n\n**\n\nThe crowning stage of a monk's career was being the old monk lao ho-shang, a term usually applied to an ex-abbot. He lived either in his own small temple or in special quarters of the big monastery that he had headed. He had no obligations, although he probably still carried on with his work of teaching. In fact, this might be the most productive part of his life, when he had the widest following and exerted the greatest influence, particularly on the laymen who came in great numbers to listen to him expound sutras and to take the Refuges with him. It is extraordinary how old some old monks got to be. The most famous case of recent times is Hsü-yün, who died at the age of a hundred and twenty in 1959. Now we have T'an-hsü, who is eighty-eight and still preaches on the Surangama Sutra every Sunday evening at nine o'clock. I recommend that you go to the Buddhist Library, 144 Boundary Street, and listen to him some Sunday, for he is a wonderful person.\n\n77\n\nHere in Hong Kong, I have often wondered why certain monks lived to be so old. They would attribute it, perhaps, to the peace that comes with enlightenment. A more prosaic explanation might be that they have a low cholesterol count. Dr. C. A. Wang, who will return to Hong Kong in 1962, tested a number of monks two years ago and found that, presumably because they ate vegetarian food, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204434, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CHIN-SHA R.\n\nMEKONG R.\n\nSALWEEN\n\n104\n\nCHIA\n\n708\n\nZI\n\nTANG TZE\n\nYAO\n\n21:20\n\nYAC\n\nSPOL\n\nPAI\n\n...\n\nTA\n\nY\n\nTA/LARVA\n\nYI\n\nVUA TÂY HÀNH TÀI\n\nAN\n\n#\n\n#.\n\nMUL\n\nMIA\n\nTA\n\nMIAO\n\nY:\n\n...\n\nMIAO\n\nMITAC\n\nMIAO\n\nYIMIAO\n\nMIA\n\nHUL KELAQS\n\nPUAY!\n\nMIAO\n\nSHAMMAD Y40\n\nAMA\n\nMIAO\n\nZKK\n\nTUACHIA\n\nTUNG'AQ\n\n...\n\nYAO\n\nTUNG\n\nMIAO\n\nCHUANG\n\nYAO\n\nHUANG\n\nCHUANO\n\nBURMA\n\n**1\n\nWe are Man barbarians and have nothing to do with Chinese titles\". Actually, these \"barbarians\" were proud enough to bear Chinese titles later, but this statement in the Eighth Century B.C. showed what manner of people occupied the Yangtze valley at this date.\n\n1 Friedrich Hirth, The ancient history of China to the end of the Chou dynasty, New York, 1908, 120-123.\n\nBURMA\n\nTHAILAND\n\n\"NAM\n\nSHANGHAI\n\nSHA\n\n971\n\nSHONGKONG\n\nCHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE\n\nTAIWAN\n\nISLAND\n\nKAO-3\n\nNYNHVH)\n\n...\n\nI\n\nISLAND\n\nDISTRIBUTION OF NON-HAN ETHNIC GROUPS\n\nIN SOUTH CHINA\n\n500\n\n17\n\nKMS.\n\nK. WIENS\n\n55", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204454, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "75\n\nTHE PATTERN OF LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES IN 1898\n\nJ. W. HAYES, M.A.*\n\nIn 1898 Great Britain signed the Peking Convention which gave her the lease of the New Territories for 99 years. The world has made such material progress since that time and urban Hong Kong has itself seen so many changes that it is difficult for us to-day to imagine the rural part of the Colony as it then was, without roads or wheeled transport other than the wheel-barrow, with inhabitants who knew nothing of cars, aeroplanes, or weapons of mass destruction. But having made this effort, we must think back further still if we wish to obtain a proper appreciation of the situation, as James Stewart Lockhart told the Hong Kong Government in 1898. At the end of his report on the New Territory, as he styled it, he said \"Under Chinese rule enterprise has been at a discount, and progress has been at a standstill for centuries. The San On district of to-day must be much the same as it was four or five hundred years ago\".\n\nThe report is a valuable first-hand account of the area as it was in the year of its acquisition and covers the points in which Government would be most interested such as topography, communications, trade and natural products, population, industries and the existing civil government. It also gave its author's recommendations as to how the New Territory should be governed and looked after in future. This article, whilst making use of Lockhart's report, tries to give the background which he, of course, would take for granted. It does not pretend to deal with every part of the backcloth but only touches on those parts which seem worth mentioning for their share in fixing life in its accustomed mould: the village, the people themselves and their history, the clan system, ancestral worship, education, the district government, the background of affairs elsewhere in the province, the prevalence of disturbance and epidemic, popular religion: all factors which made for integration or disruption in a life that could never have been easy.\n\n* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204455, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "76\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nThe New Territory comprised an estimated 376 square miles of hill and plain situated on the mainland of China and a number of offshore islands, large and small, some of which were inhabited and some were not. For the purpose of this article it is sufficient to say here that in 1898 it was primarily an agricultural district consisting of a few broad valleys and many pockets of farm land among the hills or at their foot, both on the mainland and on some of the larger islands, with a few market towns here and there. The emphasis was on agriculture, though there were a few small industries in operation. Village life was bounded by the two rice crops in summer and autumn and the winter season, when most land lay fallow; and by the occasional visit to the market town, often two or three hours away and over the hills, always on foot, and frequently laden with produce and livestock to sell or exchange.\n\n3\n\nIt goes almost without saying that this small slice of territory, only half the size of San On District which was one of the smaller administrative districts of the Kwangtung Province, and 1,500 miles from Peking, was an insignificant part of the Chinese Empire. However, despite its minute size and remoteness from the central provinces and the seat of government it was fundamentally Chinese and essentially Confucian in its component parts, two features which are worth emphasising. One of its former District Magistrates made an observation covering both these points in a Confucian discourse which he contributed to mark the restoration of a school at Kam Tin in 1744 when he wrote \"In this era of prosperity culture has spread to even this remote place near the sea. Here the Book of Poetry is read as early as sunrise\".4\n\nThe integrated life in which everything under Heaven has its place and plan is a recognisable feature of the Confucian code which was evolved and formulated in an agricultural society ever 2,500 years ago. A study of the daily life and background of New Territory people in 1898, which was also placed in an agricultural setting, though one based on the cultivation of rice and not of wheat, leaves me with the impression that the high degree of mental and environmental integration attainable within a Confucian framework had certainly been attained here. Life was lived generation after generation according to a set pattern. The disciplined life imposed upon an agricultural community", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204456, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES \n\n77\n\nby the seasons was reinforced and coloured by the Confucian system of ethical behaviour which included filial piety and ancestor worship, two fundamentals which were re-expressed every New Year and at the two grave festivals. Both operated through the closely knit organisation of the clan, a group of families of the same name linked by descent from a common ancestor. This internal bond was further tightened by the restrictions of thought and movement imposed by poverty and poor communications.\n\nI have always felt that this essential unity of life and thought is reflected in the traditional village scene, whose component parts are laid out in accordance with a general pattern whose essential beauty and simplicity leave an impression on the mind. Most of the present villages in the New Territory existed in 1898 and it is only mainly in the last ten or fifteen years that their original outline has been cluttered up with additional buildings in a semi-European style and their surrounding fields covered with wooden shacks put up by immigrant vegetable farmers. Clear all this away and in a good many cases you can still see what Stewart Lockhart and the gentlemen of his party saw as they travelled through the Territory in the month of August some sixty years ago. You will see a village whose houses are laid out in close rows on the higher ground. Behind them will be a thick grove of fung shui trees and to their front will extend terrace after terrace of rice fields, the one sliding almost imperceptibly into the other, the whole layout shaped for the purpose of seeing that a water supply can be led to each field for the planting periods of the year. On the slopes of the hills there may be pine trees and, occasionally, crops like pine-apples and peanuts. You will also notice a few prominent horseshoe-shaped graves, some green or brown burial urns glistening in the sun, and areas on the higher slopes which look as though they have been shaved recently; as they virtually have by the women of the village who cut grass to sell for boat breaming and brushwood to burn in their own stoves. Entering one of these larger villages you will still see what Lockhart had to report.\n\nThe houses in these villages are, as a rule, well and solidly built. The foundations and lower courses of their walls are, in many cases, of granite masonry, the upper courses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204481, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "102\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nthere are sometimes several. As a general rule they are small buildings, but the major clans have constructed large high spacious buildings with several courtyards and side rooms. Among the largest in the New Territories are the ancestral temples of branches of the TANG clan at Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen near Yuen Long. These are fine and impressive buildings but are not, unfortunately, kept in good repair. Much of the opposition to the British troops in 1898 was planned in the ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Beside the Ping Shan hall there is a school/library building, now used as a private residence.\n\n53 The reason is always said to be lack of funds though I suspect a lack of leadership is also a prime factor. The clan usually waits until something is seriously wrong, by which time it is often too late; a storm completes the ruination. There seems to be some truth in this as I have found newly built ancestral halls in several villages, e.g. the CHEUNG ancestral hall at Lo Wai, Pui O which was rebuilt in 1960 on a new site, the old one having been in ruins for twenty years.\n\n54 Clan worship at the graves still goes on, but is much more informal than in 1898. Mr. TANG Kiu-fong of Fui Sha Wai, a retired schoolmaster, previously quoted, who was born in 1894, tells me that when he was a boy the ceremony was taken very seriously. Everyone wore the long robe, elders were carried to the graves in sedan chairs, and male members of the clan were drawn up in ranks by generations and worshipped in strict seniority, under the direction of a master of ceremonies.\n\n55 These ancestral obligations often imposed considerable inconvenience and up to several days' travel for the whole family. Mr. CHEUNG Yau of Tai Ping village, North Lamma, (b. 1883) tells me that his grandfather settled on Lamma Island from his native village of Wai Tau in the Lam Tsuen valley in the present Tai Po district. Ever since he can remember, and until old age interfered with visits a few years ago, he has gone back to his ancestral village at least three times a year, as dictated by custom. For the first twenty-five years there was no railway and his family used to go by junk to Kowloon and walk the rest of the way, children included. Others went further afield. Mr. LAM Shue Chun, Chairman of the Peng Chau Rural Committee, told me that his family went regularly to their ancestral village of Nam Leng Wai in Po On, north of the border, and were interrupted in their journeys first by the Japanese and latterly by the Communists. He has been twice since 1942 and an uncle has been visiting fairly regularly up to last year. The family travelled to Kowloon by junk, then used the railway and had a long walk from Sham Chon Market. Sometimes there was no need to go from home as contact had been lost with the ancestral village which was too far away.\n\n56 They were full at any time. There is an interesting count of travel on the Colony's border roads and the Shum Chun ferries taken 11th and 12th December 1905 in Enclosure E to Despatch No. 59 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway already quoted. The first was a market day, when the count of persons, with and without goods, roughly doubled the figures for the second, or ordinary day. On the two main ferries, for instance, the count on December 11 was with goods 1126, without goods 1379 and on the Shum Chun-Sha Tau Kok road 521 and 1302. On the day following the figures were 468 and 1124, and 158 and 550 respectively. At New Year and the two grave festivals the number must have been very much increased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204526, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "# PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1962\n\nThis is the third Annual General Meeting of the Society since its revival in December 1959. During 1962 the work of the Society, judging by the popularity of the lectures and the success of the Journal, has shown a vitality which has justified the initial promise of the first two years, and has established its position as a permanent factor in the intellectual life of the community in Hong Kong.\n\nThe ten public meetings at which lectures were delivered were again all consistently well attended. The first two in January and February were held at the premises of the British Council, through the good offices of the Representative Mr. R. E. Lawry, who is also our Honorary Secretary. By the beginning of our third year the audiences had outgrown the normal capacity of the British Council Room and it was opportune that just then the City Hall with its admirable facilities became available for our subsequent meetings. The term \"lecture\" has now become inappropriate and somewhat of an anachronism in connection with meetings such as those of the Society. I recall an Annual General Meeting of the North China Branch held in Shanghai about twenty-five years ago when the late Mr. A. de C. Sowerby, the well-known naturalist and curator of the Society's museum, in his Annual Report referred to the \"lectures\" which had been given during the year. \"Of these,\" he said, \"two were illustrated with both motion pictures and ordinary lantern slides, seven were illustrated with lantern slides only, the remainder being without illustrations. It is evident that lantern slides form an added attraction, since it was noticeable that, regardless of the subject, lectures so illustrated were markedly better attended than those that were not.\" To some extent the same may be said of the more sophisticated audiences of Hong Kong today. However, the lectures that were not illustrated were of such interest that they brought excellent audiences, while those which were illustrated had the advantage of brilliant colours, such as Mr. Nixon's slides of flowers and Mr. Hugh Gibb's documentary films, and this added greatly to their popularity. The fantastic\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204527, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "2\n\nmarvels of the life under the waters around us in the brilliant colours of Mr. Bromhall's underwater photography could not have been revealed to us a quarter of a century ago.\n\nThe lectures last year covered a wide variety of subjects, following the policy advised by the first President of this Society in Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, who stressed the importance of directing the attention of the Society to practical projects and to natural history, ethnology and botany as well as to linguistic and literary pursuits. The wealth of our local talent was strikingly shown by the fact that half of the lectures were given by scholars and experts from amongst our own members. The lectures given during the year were:\n\nJanuary 15th\nFebruary 26th\nDr. Herold J. Wiens* \"Some of China's 35 Million Non-Chinese\"\nMr. J. D. Pearson \"Recent Development in Oriental Studies in Great Britain\"\n\"Buddhism in Modern Life\"\nSir Lindsay Ride \"The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao\"\nMr. Ma Meng \"Recent Changes in the Chinese Language\"\nApril 2nd\nVen. Khema \"Hong Kong Flowers\"\nMay 7th\nMiss B. T. Chiu\nJune 18th\nMr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng \"The Old British Legation at Peking 1860-1959\"\nJuly 16th\nProfessor L. C. Goodrich \"The Development of Printing in China and Its Effect on the Renaissance under the Sung (960-1279)\"\nAugust 20th\nSeptember 3rd\n\n* Printed in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 2, 1962,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204530, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "The Honorary Treasurer has submitted a statement of accounts which appears eminently satisfactory. It shows an excess of income over expenditure of $1,708.18. I wish, however, to stress the point that the income from the annual membership fees is $4,779.55 from 240 members but the expenses of the Society amount to $6,605.15. The deficit is made good partly by the receipts from the sale of journals but mainly by the income from capital investments derived from the gift of $10,000 made by a generous and anonymous donor in memory of the late Arthur de Carl Sowerby on the re-establishment of the Society. It is the Council's aim to reserve the income from investments, to build up a fund for a library and for the permanent interests of the Society, and to increase the income from annual subscriptions to meet our annual expenses. For the present annual subscription of $20 members receive all the benefit of the lectures during the year and a free copy of the Journal, which together cost the Society nearly 40 per cent over the amount of their subscriptions. In order to enable the Society to work on a steady basis we need an addition of another 100 members. At the end of 1962 we had on our books 33 life members and 247 ordinary members including 8 overseas members. There has been a gratifying and steady increase each year, but each year many resign on their departure from the Colony, while too many go away on leave and forget to pay their subscriptions. The Treasurer and the Secretary are both busy people who have neither the time nor the staff to collect past dues, and it would greatly lessen their burden if members would make their subscriptions payable by Banker's Orders or become life members.\n\nThe present membership of somewhat over 240 members represents a permanent nucleus of those who are interested in our cultural heritage in the Colony; but as H.E. Sir Robert Black, our patron, said two years ago: \"There are many times this number who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world, which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research, or in studying and inquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here.\" Hong Kong provides the greatest opportunity in the world today for a meeting of minds between East and West. East may remain East and West, West, but here, more than anywhere else, if the world is to be one, they must meet.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204539, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO\n\n15\n\ncemetery. Membership of the Board is open to the Consular Authorities in Macao of certain European Protestant nations, plus Protestant residents in Macao. In 1924 the Rev. John Galloway, a Canadian missionary, was appointed a Trustee; he still lives in Macao and it is to him that we are indebted for much of our information concerning the later history of these two cemeteries in Macao, the Old and the New. When the East India Company ceased operating in China in 1834, its property in Macao reverted to His Majesty's Government in England. But in 1870, it was thought wiser that the two cemetery properties in Macao should come under the ownership of one body, and the Old Cemetery property was transferred to the New Cemetery Trustees, under whose control it rests to this day.\n\nEntrance to the Old Cemetery. The door in the wall already mentioned gives entrance to the property which is on three levels; the highest or first level is a courtyard in which a simple chapel stands; the burial plots are on the two lower levels which we refer to as the Upper and Lower Terraces. A wide cement path leads down from the Chapel level to the Lower Terrace and a break in the left-hand wall on the way down gives access to the Upper Terrace. In the chapel are two wall memorials of interest; one is to a British merchant named Margesson who originally came from Surrey, and who was drowned on 17 June 1869 when the ship in which he was travelling struck a rock just a mile or two off the coast of Japan; the disaster occurred on a clear evening and in a perfectly calm sea, but the ship sank almost immediately with a big loss of life.\n\nThe other chapel memorial is to James B. Endicott who died of typhoid in 1870 after living for 35 years in Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton. He is actually buried in the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, but he has two daughters, an uncle, and many friends in the churchyard in Macao. Endicott was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, U.S.A. in 1814, and is a direct lineal descendant of John Endicott who sailed from the harbour of Weymouth, England, in 1628 in the ship Abigail on an adventurous voyage to the New World where he became the founder and first governor of the State of Massachusetts. James B. Endicott introduces us to the important American section of the foreigners who lived in Macao more than one hundred years ago, over fifty of whom rest in this cemetery.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204622, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "90\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\n(1878-9 and 1906-7), stands in the street outside the Fong Pin hospital12 telling how it came to be established; and the third, in an old house in Tai Shan Street, commemorates the establishment and repair of a defence office in the 2nd and 10th years of T'ung-chih (1863-4 and 1871-2).\n\nThe three tablets give information about the island population towards the end of the Ch'ing dynasty and, for instance, tell something of the various sections of the community, especially those where local leadership and authority rested; their links with other parts of the San On district and the Kwangtung province; their relations with the district government and other officials, civil and military; and the way in which such local communal needs as a hospital, schools, and a defence corps or local militia were met.\n\nThe nucleus of Cheung Chau society seems always to have been the community of fishermen and shopkeepers, the two being interdependent to a great extent though separated by many basic differences. There has, in addition, always been a farming community, but it has ever taken a third place. A hundred years ago it is likely that the majority of the land dwellers were connected with the island's shops, as proprietors or fokis, and in subsidiary trades and occupations associated with the three main sections of the community. Cheung Chau also served as the market town for over a dozen villages on the central and southwest coast of Lantau, the largest of which was Shek Pik with a population of 363 in 1911, and for the inhabitants of the outer islands. The Fong Pin tablet states that there were two hundred shops in the 1870's, from which it can be deduced that Cheung Chau was a flourishing commercial centre at that time. This is borne out by the house in which the defence association tablet was found, which is long, narrow and surprisingly large, with a small open courtyard in the middle. It has changed very little in the last hundred years, like many other houses in the town which date from this period and before.\n\nIn this urbanized community local power lay with two groups: the members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong*** of Nam Tau and Cheung Chau; and the larger traders and shopkeepers. The two were probably intermingled to some extent, in that some Tong members would be business men, but more investigation", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204627, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU \n\n95 \n\nthe tablets state that upon its establishment the Po On study was endowed with a shop and a house, both with their title deeds; and the Fong Pin hospital with two shops. \n\nThis abstention from many of the basic duties of local government on the part of the district authorities could lead to abuses when a powerful group of local leaders became unscrupulous through continued exercise of power, and lack of control and supervision from above. On Cheung Chau, as I have said, this group was represented by the WONG Wai Chak Tong, with whom the larger shopkeepers and important individuals were probably prepared to make common cause. The Tong owned all the land; its parent branch at Nam Tau must undoubtedly have included senior graduates and possibly retired officials; and the tablets show that some members of the Cheung Chau branch were junior graduates by examination or purchase.**\n\nThis group must have been able to exert a considerable pressure on the district magistrate and his secretaries regarding Cheung Chau affairs, and during their short three-year tour most magistrates must have felt that the Tong and the Cheung Chau people were capable of looking after themselves on what was, after all, a small and remote island, with a population less than that of many of the larger villages in the district. In short, Cheung Chau interests were well represented if the Tong was honest and well-meaning, but not if its members were corrupt and ill-intentioned. \n\nTurning again to the tablets, that relating to the Po On study is of great interest because of its connection with a prominent feature of Cheung Chau society which has so far only been mentioned in passing: the district association.**\n\n25 \n\nThe district association is a social and charitable organisation organised on the basis of mutual assistance from among natives of the same district when living in another place. In a mixed settlement like Cheung Chau, where Hoklo and Tanka rubbed shoulders with Hakka, Chiu Chau, and Punti from various districts of Kwangtung province, it was a distinct advantage to be part of a community which had troubled to organise itself for welfare purposes, as had several district groups on this small island a hundred years ago. These traditional media of mutual assistance warrant a closer look, especially as their existence is proof of the diversity of persons settling on Cheung Chau, its", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204628, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "96 \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\npopularity with businessmen and others, and of the degree of wealth and general prosperity there in the middle of the last century: since district associations, like present day Kaifong in the urban area, can only operate effectively (and, indeed, come into existence) inside a community which possesses prosperous elements. The district associations must also have been a useful counterpoise to the political dominance of the WONG Wai Chak Tong. \n\nThe association for natives of Tung Kwun is the largest, richest and probably the oldest of the Cheung Chau societies. It seems to have been established in the fifth year of Chia-ch'ing (1800-01) and in 1898 owned five shops, office premises and an ancestral hall which had been in existence for at least forty years, judging by an incense holder dated the ninth year of Hsien-feng (1859-60). Members and destitute persons of Tung Kwun origin could receive relief assistance from its funds and contributions, with which the Po On study, the ancestral temple, and later three large communal urn graves were also managed. Practically all the way from the cradle to the grave the member and his children could benefit from the operation of his association.26 \n\nThe association laid emphasis on social cohesion and the observance by its members of the customary proprieties. There was the traditional feast for all members every year at the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the first moon, on which day the managers for the new year were elected, and the yearly worship of Kwan Tai, the god of war and patron god of the association, on his birthday on the thirteenth day of the fifth moon, when each subscribing member received a share of roast pork. Confucius' birthday and the two grave sweeping festivals were also celebrated by members gathering together. \n\nOther commemorative tablets existed until only a few years ago which would have provided useful information about two other similar associations of long standing; those of people from Wai Chau and Chiu Chau (combined) and from 惠州及潮州 Sei Yap. One in the Wai Chiu clansmen's office was turned out 27 during repairs after Typhoon Mary in 1960 and not replaced; and what was probably the foundation stone of the Yik Sin Tong, an association for Sei Yap natives, was taken down and \n\nT \n\nJ \n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204629, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\nnot put back when the house next door, wall, was renovated about ten years ago. of these tablets.\n\n97\n\nwhich shared a party There is now no trace\n\nHowever, two inscriptions still remain from these institutions. One, removed to the Wai Chiu section of the Kwok Man School in 1952, is dated the wu-shen year of Kuang-hsü (1908-9) and is an ornamental granite head-slab with two side pieces, all with carved and painted characters upon them, the gift of wealthy members or else a sign of general prosperity in the Wai Chiu community. The present leaders of the association say that the date refers only to the handsome inscriptions and not to the establishment of their school, which is believed to have been in operation for many years before. This is likely as the office building is an old one and was already registered at the time of the lease of the New Territories as the Wai Chau and Chiu Chau Club, and the association has a reputed existence of over two hundred years.\n\n24\n\nSimilarly a head stone is still in position inside an old building on the Praya belonging to the Sei Yap Yik Sin Tong, which records its repair in the 23rd year of Kuang-hsü (1897-8), the inscription being the work of WONG Wai Sum ✯✯✯, said to be a teacher in the Tong's school. This Tong has an interesting origin, if the tale told by its present managers is reliable, in that it arose from a shipwreck which washed up a body carrying money on one of the Cheung Chau beaches. The ship was supposed to have been carrying emigrants back to China from San Francisco. The body was given decent burial by some Sei Yap persons who hit upon the idea of forming a Tong for the unity and betterment of their fellow countrymen on the island, and with additional subscriptions the initial windfall was used to build or purchase the present building, which was the only property owned by the Tong in 1898. A feature of the building was the establishment of an altar on the ground floor on which were placed the tablets of the original organisers and principal subscribers, but these have now all gone, though a shrine remains.29\n\nThe fourth of these district associations of long-standing is the Po On which has no connection with the old Po On study run by the Tung Kwun association. Its leadership in 1898\n\n!\n\n1+L\n\nF", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "100\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nNOTES\n\nThe notes are intended to amplify the text. The subjects of the longer notes are chosen rather arbitrarily and represent my particular interests,\n\nJ. W. H.\n\n1 A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories. (Hong Kong Government Printer, 1960) p. 88.\n\n2 Crown Rent Rolls, District Office Islands, New Territories Administration.\n\n* Under the Convention of Peking signed on 9th June, 1898,\n\n*Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, hereafter styled Sessional Papers. (Hong Kong, Noronha & Co., 1911) p. 103 (22) and (26). This article is mainly concerned with the land population, but for a good short description of the life, work and general background of the boat people, see G. N. Orme \"Report on the New Territories 1899-1912\" in Sessional Papers 1912, pp. 53-55.\n\n5 The help of the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen and members of the Cheung Chau Rural Committee in tracing and gaining access to these tablets is gratefully acknowledged, and the great assistance given with transcription and translation by Messrs. LO Chi-chung, LEUNG Kun-siu and LEW Pang-fei, my former colleagues in the District Office.\n\n* I have translated shue-shat as study, rather than school, since it was intended for the private use of members and their children and not for outsiders. The association became known as the Tung Kwun Wui So on 16th September, 1926 (see Land Registers), previous to which it had been registered as the Po On Shue Shat. I have presumed that with such a name, a school was operated as well as the office and ancestral temple. (See note 26 and text to which it refers.) For the distinction between the names Po On and San On see Notes and Queries, p. 146 below. The character inscribed on this tablet is a simplified form of the character.\n\nLocal trades included shipbuilding: see Orme's report in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 55.\n\n—\n\n* The number of Cheung Chau shops subscribing to the various schemes recorded on the tablets is as follows: Po On study (1866) 38; Defence Office (1863-70) 66; Fong Pin hospital (1878) 98, and Tin Hau temple (1879) 125, from the 200 odd mentioned in the Fong Pin preamble.\n\n* Many shops are mentioned on the tablets, but they are all listed by their business names and not by the names of the owners, in which custom the Chinese does not follow the English.\n\n10 The Tong has a substantial genealogical record, last produced between eighty and a hundred years ago and printed from stone blocks on hand-made bamboo paper. I am indebted to Mr. WONG Shing Yip of Cheung Chau who very kindly let me see his copy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204633, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n101\n\n11 \"The whole of the island (Cheung Chau) was adjudged to belong to the WONG family and it is let out to various tenants on leases renewable every five years. All these leases were registered in 1906\". Administra-tive Report for 1909, District Officer, New Territories. But see also G. N. Orme's unfavourable opinion of the initial survey and Crown rent roll in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46.\n\n12 For example, before its tax-lord rights were extinguished (along with others') by the Hong Kong Government after 1898 as \"not compatible with the principles of British administration\" (Orme, Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46), the LI Kau Yuen Tong of Sha Wan appears to have owned a considerable proportion of all the cultivated land on Lantau island under an imperial grant made in the Sung dynasty (see LO Hsiang-lin \"The Sung Wang T'ai and the location of the Travelling Courts by the sea-shore in the Last Days of the Sung\", Journal of Oriental Studies III No. 2 (July 1956) p. 217, note 29). Nineteenth Century land deeds from the village of Shek Pik show that much of the village land paid tax to the LI family, a burden which was passed on to the purchaser when a \"sale\" took place. It is not known whether this Tong owned land elsewhere in the present New Territories but its main estates lay elsewhere. It is curious how the WONG Wai Chak Tong maintained its tax-lord position whilst the LI family's was extinguished.\n\nIt is a pointer to the island's increasing prosperity, as well as to its favoured geographical situation, that when the Chinese Maritime Customs first began to operate in the Hong Kong region in 1887 they set up a post on Cheung Chau. This had previously been operated by the Canton authorities as part of the \"blockade\" system set up in 1868-71. See Stanley F. Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast, William Mullan & Son, 1950) pp. 385-6, 584-6 and 708, and his earlier Hong Kong and the Chinese Customs (Shanghai 1930) which I have not yet seen. See also note 15. Old villagers on the Lantau coast opposite Cheung Chau can remember having to pass through the customs every time they came to the island to buy daily necessaries and sell their produce in the market.\n\nIt is not the place to discuss whether Cheung Chau's expansion was due to the rise of Hong Kong, or whether it was already in a flourishing condition by the time Hong Kong's expansion began in the 1840's, but available information points to a community which was already well-established and prosperous by the Hsien-feng period (1851-61), which would be rather early for Cheung Chau to owe its rise mainly to Hong Kong. The preamble to the tablet in the defence bureau mentions that \"our forefathers came and lived in Cheung Chau several hundred years ago\"; whilst the attention of pirates in the early years of Hsien-feng, also mentioned in the same tablet, seems more conclusive proof of the island's established prosperity than any other. A spate of repairs and expansion seems to have been going on apace in the T'ung-chih period (1862-75) when most of the island's temples were repaired, the CHU family ancestral hall enlarged, many old houses were built or reconstructed, and the public buildings erected which these tablets commemorate.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204634, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "102\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\n36 shops from Hong Kong, 28 from Peng Chau and 15 from Tai O contributed to the Po On study (presumably all or mainly of Tung Kwun origin); a few outside shops sent donations to repair the Tin Hau temple; hardly surprisingly no outside shops contributed to the Defence Bureau; but the subscriptions for the Fong Pin hospital came from a wide area and the list included over 20 shops and 40 individual persons (including 2 tongs from Tung Kwun and Hok Shan), from Canton, Pun Yue, Tung Kwun, Nam Hoi, Shun Tak, Macau, and other areas of the province,\n\nMost of the temples still contain tablets and other dated items which record their repair from time to time. However, the series is far from complete and many tablets have been lost. A typical instance is the loss of commemorative tablets from the Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shek Hau (the local place name). A prominent citizen remembers seeing a whole row of them fronting an outside wall when he was a young man, about thirty years ago, but they have now all vanished without trace.\n\n15 For mention of these Cheung Chau posts see the following tablets: salt (Tin Hau and Fong Pin), stamp (Tin Hau and Fong Pin), customs, e.g. tax on kerosene (Fong Pin). There was also a customs post on Lamma (Fong Pin), and there were various patrol boats (both tablets). The officer in charge of the military post on Cheung Chau is mentioned on the Tin Hau tablet, whilst the Fong Pin tablet lists eight officers of the Tai Pang battalion.\n\n16 Only the defence bureau tablet gives donors their official ranks, though comparison with others shows that some of the graduates are mentioned there without their titles, i.e., persons mentioned in these tablets may also have been graduates. A comparison of the Tong's genealogical record with the names on the tablets is at first sight disappointing. The genealogical record does not record titles for the later generations, i.e. those of the generation whose names appear on the tablets. An additional confusion is that the clan generation names may not have been used on the tablets where business or personal names may have been recorded instead. However, I think we can be fairly certain that most of the WONGS on the tablets belonged to the Tong.\n\n17 I have translated \"WU\" as \"petitioned the district magistrate\".\n\n18 See Kung-Chuan HSIAO Rural China; Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, (Seattle, University of Washington Press 1960), pp. 294-306 for defence organisations in this period.\n\n19 His precise title was described on the Cheung Chau tablet as 城鎮 *which was probably the equivalent of colonel. A few years later he presented a large painted wooden commemorative tablet to the Hau Wong temple outside Kowloon City, on which his rank is described as tsung-ping or brigadier-general (see Ralph L. Powell The Rise of Chinese Military Power 1859-1912 (Princeton University Press, 1955) pp. 15 and 367). \"The brigadier-generals were semi-independent, yet their units were scattered and practically sedentary,\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204659, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "126\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nCompany's second steamer Shu-hun, a larger and more powerful steamer than their Shuting, which was built by Yarrow's in 1913. It was not until the 1930's, however, that the majority of Upper River steamers were able to do the whole trip unaided.\n\nA unique feature of the Upper Yangtse was the trackers' paths cut in the hillside above the rapids, at some places as high as 30 or 40 feet above the river level. At the most dangerous rapids the junks were lightened of their passengers and most of their cargo, only a few men staying on board with the pilot to work the bow sweep and pole. The negotiation of the rapids required great skill on the part of the pilots, and instant obedience and co-operation from the junkmen and trackers, and it might take an hour or more of unremitting exertion to pull a junk up the worst 200 or 300 feet of one of those rapids. The trackers and junkmen would be encouraged and stimulated by drumming, and by the antics of the headman, to which they replied by a low, monotonous chanting. Some of the gorges were too precipitous for trackers' paths, and at such places junks had to wait for a strong, favourable wind.\n\nThere were frequent accidents, many of them fatal, at the more dangerous rapids, and special large-sized sampans were stationed at such places to rescue those who came to grief. These were called \"red boats\", and it was in a sampan of this kind that Sir Reginald Johnston travelled from Ichang to Chungking in 1906. One of the most dangerous rapids was the Hsin Tan, or New Rapid, 135 miles above Ichang, which was formed by a landslide some 300 years ago. It was here that the China Navigation Company's first Upper River steamer, the Shuting, was lost in 1937. The Hsin Tan was most dangerous in the low water season; other rapids were most dangerous in the high water season.\n\nThe Yangtse Gorges provide some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Windbox Gorge and Witches' Mountain Gorge are the most famous of the Gorges. The latter is also the longest, being 20 miles long, with the river only 150 yards wide at some places. It is also probably the most beautiful and mysterious, in an awe-inspiring manner. As in Windbox Gorge, there are places where the passenger on a river steamer has the distinct impression that the mighty and almost sheer precipices actually overhang the river in places. There are caves high up in the cliffs, and villages over 1,000 years old clinging to ledges more", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204682, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\ncome right out in favour of a Portuguese source. It is indeed very likely that this is a spelling etymology which might never have arisen if the modern Portuguese orthography lingua (with u = English w) had been used in Johnson's day. It is fairly certain that the o in the earlier spelling, lingoa, had the value of English w in eighteenth century Portuguese.\n\nOn the other hand, it may be that we should still look to a Portuguese etymology for lingo, but not an etymology drawn from the written standard language of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries but rather to the oversea Portuguese creole (and pidgin) dialects as recorded over the centuries. I have consulted the studies on the Indo-Portuguese dialects by Dalgado available in Hong Kong, including his valuable Glossário Luso-Asiático and find lingo as the form given for tongue, language, in the parts of India and Ceylon where varieties of Portuguese were and still are spoken. Elsewhere I find the form linga reported from the Cape Verde Islands.\n\nIn most cases this lingo should probably be pronounced lingu, more or less as in educated metropolitan Portuguese where the final may be voiced, unvoiced or even silent. The form used in Macao in the nineteenth century has been recorded as lingu and the pronunciation of this word by some of the older Portuguese people in Hong Kong at the present time could be so represented. Parallel development may be seen in the Cochinese, Javan, Malaccan, Cape Verdean and Macanese forms agoļagu vis à vis standard written água, and lego and tabu for légua and tábua respectively registered in several Luso-Asiatic dialects.\n\nThe earliest reference to lingo recorded in the OED is for 1660 in New Haven Col. Rec. (1858) II, 337: \"To wch the plant [= plaintiff] answered that he was not acquainted with the Dutch lingo.\" Various dictionaries note later references in Congreve and Sheridan: “Well, well, I shall understand your lingo one of these days, cousin; in the mean time I must answer in plain English.\" (Congreve, Way of the World, A. IV, sc. I); \"I have thoughts to learn something of your lingo before I cross the seas.\" (Congreve); \"He is a gentleman of words; he understands your foreign lingo.\" (Sheridan, St. Patrick's Day, I).\n\nWIRI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204735, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n27\n\ncalled Chang Ta-Laou-Yay3, the first word being his name and the three last an appellation of respect. He was from Pekin. has been here three years on service and has served in various parts of the Empire. He was very tall and thin, thick heavy moustache, red nose and altogether a very forbidding aspect. Vain and ignorant he behaved with a deal of hauteur and stiffness, all of which was entirely thrown away so far as I was concerned. but it looked well probably to his servants who crowded into the room where we were sitting. The other Kiang Tsung-Yay was a northerner also, but quite a different man from his friend. He wore an opaque white button, a rank lower than Chang Ta-Laou-Yay, [was] talkative, cheerful, and of an exceedingly good address, no pretensions, though apparently far better informed than the crystal button man.\n\nThey both came on horseback attended by a large quantity of lantern bearers, and servants, sword bearers, pipe carriers etc. etc. It was their night on guard at the Consoo House behind the Factories but were on a social visit to Hwang Ta-Yay, the Custom-House officer, for a few hours.\n\nWe talked about a great many things relative to China, America, England and so on and parted the best of friends.\n\nSunday, 14 April, 1839\n\nIt is twenty-four days since all communication with Whampoa, Macao and the shipping outside was cut off. Three weeks ago over 400 Chinese compradores, servants, coolies, cooks, porters and others were driven from the foreign Factories, and all our intercourse with the natives no matter in what business has entirely ceased since that time. We are allowed to communicate what we want to the linguists39 who are all viz Old Tom, Young Tom, Ahtore, Alanci and Ahi, stationed on board a large boat opposite the Factories and alongside the small Hoppo House from where foreigners go, passing through the Hoppo House to see and make known to them their wants.\n\nIt is quite laughable to sit there a few hours daily as I do to observe the scenes that pass between the Fan Kwais40 and interpreters. They come to them in all and every business. One wants his clothes sent to wash, another his trousers or coat procured from the tailor, in comes another who blows them up sky high41 because he has not had his daily supply of spring water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204740, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "32\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nOur confinement to the Factories and Square and the guard the same as before.\n\nSunday, 21 April\n\nLetters were received today from the Bogue stating that 8,500 chests of opium had been delivered to the Chinese. Servants all off again.\n\nTuesday, 23 April\n\nWe supposed the demand for the bond would not have been persevered in by the Commissioner, but yesterday the 10,000 chests of opium (we hear) having been delivered into his hands, before he permits the communication to be opened by passage boats as was to have been the case on the receipt of the 10,000 chests, he now says, No, it cannot be, it is true I have half the opium but before I fulfil my promise I must have the bond. This is a direct violation of his agreement, the communication is not open, no boats are permitted to go up or down. We are consequently still prisoners and this act of treachery has exasperated the foreigners very much. Half the community at least looked forward to a release at this time and to go to Whampoa and Macao to wait the result of the completion of the delivery but are disappointed. Captain Elliot's orders to Johnston were not to deliver more than the stipulated number of chests till the passage boats were allowed to run, and we hear today that he has stopped delivery.\n\nThe foreigners are so idle that we meet in the Square every afternoon and have all sorts of games; ball, leapfrog etc., much to the amusement of the Chinese. The sailors, of whom there are 38 here, afford us the most fun by their queer games.\n\nFriday, 26 April\n\nUp to yesterday evening we had various rumours from Chumpee where the opium ships are discharging. One report was that the deliveries had been temporarily stopped by Johnston which was confirmed by letters received by the Hong merchants, and the cause of his doing so explained by the passage boats not running. Captain Elliot, however, notwithstanding this breach of promise by the Commissioner wrote three days ago to Johnston to go on with the deliveries as fast as possible without regard to the Commissioner's word being kept or not. The object now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204744, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "36\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nmorning their rudders which were unshipped and their sails which were unbent and brought on shore six weeks ago were taken off and replaced.\n\nAt 6 p.m. intelligence was received from the Bogue of 16,702 chests of opium having been delivered.\n\nThe coolies dispersed, as they have behaved since placed to guard us, with good order and cheerfulness. They have conducted themselves remarkably well and proper. Hog Lane and the street in front of Cox's are to remain blocked up with bricks which is a good thing. Old and New China Streets are to be opened.\n\nWe are now to wait and see what takes place on the final delivery of the opium.\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nJournal will be continued and forwarded as vessels sail.\n\nCanton 5 May, 1839\n\nSunday night after 11\n\nI forgot to mention that just before the coolies and guard left the Kwang Hup and Nam Hoy came out and set carpenters to work to break up the ... Snipe49 who was taken prisoner by the Government for smuggling.\n\n* Word illegible.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204756, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "48\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\n17\n\nstrong corroboration of traditions, which might otherwise be thought apocryphal, of the disappearance of other villages, including the large village of Lik Yuen,84 half way down what is now Tide Cove.16 For all that, one cannot be absolutely sure. An old Hoklo155 boatman at Tai Po, who fortunately spoke reasonable Cantonese (for I cannot manage the Hoklo language) told me that \"fifty years before he was born, Hong Kong Island was joined to the mainland. It obviously was not. But remembering what has been observed by other field workers, that \"fifty years\" is commonly used to mean any time too long to be remembered, what the old man was passing on was clearly a tradition among the Hoklo that Tuk Ngo Kong45 a name for Victoria Harbour which apparently only the Hoklo language now preserves was long ago interrupted by a strip of land. It may well have been so, and I have provisionally marked it so. For if it were, it would tend to explain the curious demarcation of responsibility between the military commanders of Nam Tau and Tai Pang40 and the apparent fact that ships went through Sheung Sz Mun127 rather than through the present Hong Kong Harbour. It might also explain why Kwun Fu Cheung was more important for the collection of salt than for defence.\n\nThere is also some slight reason to believe that Ma Wan and Tsing Yi,13 which are now islands, were 1,000 years ago connected to the mainland and to one another, and that the channel between Chep Lap Kok1 and Tung Chung was considerably deeper than it now is.\n\nBut I must emphasize that the picture on the south and east side is still sketchy. It would greatly facilitate the work of the historian if his geological colleagues could be persuaded to take their eyes off remote aeons and fix them on to this comparatively recent period so as to obtain some degree of certainty regarding the position of the shore-line at the time of the first Chinese settlement.\n\nThe Missing Pieces. To move away from the shore up to the hills, the first thing that would strike the eye of any us, if he could be transported by time machine into the tenth century, would be the profusion of trees. A former Director of Agriculture told me that the remains of huge trees had been discovered some distance below ground during preparatory work for one of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204759, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE \n\n51 \n\nI will here jump ahead and say that one study which is urgently needed to restore one of the missing pieces in our puzzle before it melts away, is the collection preferably on tape recordings, of local stories, legends and above all, songs and rhymes. These were formerly widely heard, especially among the Tanka43 and Hokloss boat people and among the Hakka149 villagers of the high plateaux where they are called shan-ko.117 When I was District Commissioner, New Territories, I attempted to arrange a performance of some of these shan-ko for the then Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, but the star performer, who was a very old man, was afflicted by stage-fright and would not sing a note until after the Governor had left; nor would he allow the songs which he afterwards rendered to be recorded. However, I am sure this kind of reluctance could be overcome, perhaps by a little alcoholic inducement, but the point I really wish to emphasize is that now everybody has a transistor radio, no one wants to listen to the old songs and they are remembered only by the ancient. The evidence which they enshrine of the origin of our local people may be of high importance, quite aside from the artistic and musical merits of the songs and stories, and I think a determined effort should be made to ensure that this evidence, which we have so outrageously neglected while it was plentiful, should be put on record before it is too late.\n\nTwo non-Chinese words are the word yong for a village and the word kan53 for a water channel; if only more studies of the Yao languages were available, the list could be much longer. The late S. L. Wong of Hong Kong University, previously of Lingnam University, who had done original research among the Yao of two districts of Kwangtung Province, including his own native district of Tsang Shing,159 told me many years ago that one thing to look for when testing whether a \"Chinese\" village was of Yao origin was to keep a watchful eye and ear for traces of the cult of Pan-ku.112 At the same time he warned me that where the memory of tribal origin still lived among village traditions they were careful to conceal the fact from strangers, so that any direct question would almost certainly meet flat denial. This, I need hardly say, is characteristic of rural communities the world over and I have encountered similar difficulties even in recording the local names of mountains and streams, including one instance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204763, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE\n\n55\n\nof these sites in this territory and three have been expertly excavated with results which are well known to many of my hearers this evening. There can be no doubt that the people who left those deposits were a fishing community and the direct ancestors of our present boat population, either the Tanka13 or the Hoklo155 or, as I believe more likely, of both. At the same time, the patterns on the pottery excavated from these sites clearly connect the culture both with other sites excavated elsewhere on the coast of China and those excavated further south, much further south; and the shape of the stone adzes connects them, I am told, with other boat-making cultures in the Pacific. These sites therefore are an important link between a people who are now culturally and sentimentally Chinese but were not so as recently as 200 years ago; and who earlier still formed part of a wide-flung and comparatively advanced culture. Boat people by various names, but answering the same description, are mentioned frequently in the literature of the Tang,139 Wu-tai105 and early Sung132 periods. They are described as numerous, which they still are, bellicose, which they certainly are not, and dangerously hostile to the Chinese settlers, which brings to my mind the couplet: Cet animal est très méchant; quand on l'attaque, il se défend. Later on, in the Tsing12 Dynasty, we find a change of tone; and official documents both from the local officials to Peking, and from the Manchu Emperor himself to the inhabitants of Kwangtung63 and Fukien,49 speak of the boat people as a hard-pressed community to whom their landward neighbours are called upon to stop being beastly. I think the latter assessment might be somewhat nearer to the truth if it could be applied not only to the Tsing period but to the whole of the last 1,000 years, and not only to the boat people but to the tribes of the hills.\n\nA practical suggestion which I should like to make regarding the excavations of the former coastal sites, having regard to their number and to the meagreness of the resources, both pecuniary and human, available for this work, is that some archaeologists who are familiar with this type of site should conduct a search north of the axis of tilt of the New Territories. All the sites so far excavated have been on the side which is going down, that of Hung Shing Yel56 having first come to light as a result of the sea cutting into a sandbank. But on the other side of the territory,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204764, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "56 \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT \n\nwhere the sea has been receding, it should be possible to find sites for excavation which are further away from the sea than they were when occupied. If one such can be found, it might be possible to uncover the whole settlement (whereas hitherto we have had to be content with the inland fringe of it) and thus to learn more of how these people lived before their way of life was disturbed. The area between the present Castle Peak Bay and Lau Fau Shan,79 particularly the re-entrants (which 1,000 years ago were bays) on the eastern side of Castle Peak and Tai Tau Shan,42 seems to afford the greatest promise. \n\nAssociated with the seashore sites, but also to be found on all the hills, are curious inverted conical pits variously described as kilns and vats. Their use has never been satisfactorily explained. These also should be plotted. I would be surprised if the plotting of all these objects: pits, stone walls, graves, standing stones, shore-side occupied sites and pre-Chinese irrigation channels, did not indicate that the inhabitants whom I have described throughout, in deference to tradition and to Chinese records, as of four kinds did not prove to have been after all one people. The fact that a people who grew cereals and roots on the hills and hunted wild game in the forests did not possess a technique for draining and cultivating mangrove swamps is no proof that they did not know how to catch fish; and the fact that our present boat people grow no crops and have for some centuries specialised in fishing and manufacturing salt does not mean that their earlier ancestors could not have hunted on the hills as well as in the sea, and there grown the cereals they needed to supplement a fish diet, and the roots from which they produced the preservative dye which they still use for their nets and sails. They must have had access to the forest to obtain the wood from which they built their boats, the skins from which they made their sails, and the gut from which, I suppose, they made their bowstrings and other fastenings. They may have done all this by friendly barter (I have suggested elsewhere that a group of place names including Yau Ma Tei,65 Ma Yau Tong90 and Ma Liu Shui could have been places where by convention the people of the shore and the people of the hills met to exchange their necessities), but the possibility that they were all one people", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204767, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE\n\n59\n\non the land with indigenous wives, probably seized from the boat people; a process of assimilation which was repeated all over South China and accelerated by the disorder of the times which prevented their embarking on the precarious journey to their ancestral homes, which their own tradition places in the province Kiangsi,58\n\nThis then is the picture, or the jigsaw puzzle. Subsequent work by those more qualified than I may show that I have put some of the pieces in the wrong place; may show indeed that some of the pieces are in the wrong puzzle, since I have indicated that there is yet no certainty whether we have one jigsaw puzzle or four. There are many Chinese sources into which I have dipped but which I have not thoroughly sifted. There are other Chinese sources to which I have not been able to obtain access: most important of these are the earlier editions of the San On Yuen Chi,123 to which the 1819 edition makes several tantalizing references, but reproduces only their prefaces. I have suggested how the geologists can contribute to this study. The botanists and agronomists should be able to reconstruct a general picture of the local flora a thousand years ago before removal of the forest cover started the rapid erosion which has defaced these hills. The archaeologists should do some really intensive work between Castle Peak and Mong Tseng. The Arabists and Indologists should contribute accounts of the voyages made by traders during the Tang139 and Sung132 dynasties. And the book collectors should hunt for the previous editions of the San On122 and Tung Kwun31 gazetteers.124 The first edition of the San On Yuen Chi123 was that of Chan Kwols of which the preface was written by Yau Tai-kin64 the sixth holder of the office of chi yuen.161 He wrote it in 1587 at which time there must have been several villages which preserved their former language, dress and customs which could not have failed to be noted. Even the list of Hakka149 and Cantonese villages in this and the intervening editions would teach us something about the subsequent pattern of occupation and agriculture and thereby give us some clues to other problems, such as the origin of the Hakka, which may have a bearing on the subject with which I have dealt today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204769, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE \n\n61 \n\nD \n\n27 Now known as Daar-gwuur-Irerng, , an odd name for a valley. \n\n28 dheng, $7. \n\n29 dheonn, *. \n\n30 Dhung-chung, kia. \n\n31 Dhung-gwuurn, **, previously Dhung-gwhuunn, ★T. + \n\n32 Discovery Bay is the bay NW of Peng Chau109 on which stand the villages of Tai Pak, Yi Pak, Sam Pak and Sz Pak,35 \n\n33 Draai-bou or Draai-brou, \n\nthat the latter pronunciation is \n\nthe original is shown by the Hakka Thay-puuh, not -bhuuh. \n\n34 Draaibou-traw, \n\n. \n\n35 Draai-braak, ē, Jri-braak, \n\nSei-braak, N‘. \n\n36 Draai-brou-xoe, ★#* - \n\n, \n\nShaamm-braak, and \n\nDraai-durng-shaann, AB4 or Draai-dungv-shaann, tu see 37. \n\n37 Draai-jryr-shaann, ★★λ, formerly Draai-xray-shaann, ★★; the name Lantao appears to be of Portuguese rather than Chinese origin, like Lamma, Lema etc. The two peaks are Frungwrong-shaann, ABEL and Draai-durng-shaann, AB or Draai-dungv-shaann. ★ikus, . \n\n38 Draai-laarm, £. \n\n39 Draai-mrou-shaann, ★Ḭu, or ★# + \n\n40 Draal-prang, see the section on sea defence in the San On Yuen Chi,123 The fort so named was originally on the Saikung126 Peninsula, then shifted to its present location N.E. of Mirs Bay, \n\n41 Draaiprang-whaann, ★★. The English name is a corruption of Ma Shi Wan,92 \n\n42 Draaltraw-shaann, AML, formerly Sreoi-jran **. Draai-xray. shaann, i see 37. \n\n— \n\n43 Draan-ghaah, . There have been many attempts to prove that these people are anything but what they clearly are the original inhabitants of the South China coast. \n\n44 Drang, B. \n\n45 Druk-ngrow-gorng, H¶4. \n\n46 drungv,, a word repeatedly used in the Histories to denote different Man88 tribes. \n\n47 Dryn . \n\nF \n\n48 Farn-Irearng, \n\nFhann-Irearng, \n\n(formerly Fhann-Irearng, $4). \n\nsee 48. \n\n49 Fhukgin-saarng, No★★. \n\n50 Fhukzhaw, 15M -", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204798, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "PENG CHAU\n\n89\n\ncoastal and riverine areas of Kwangtung were always receiving the unwelcome attention of pirates and robber gangs, right up to the end of the nineteenth century and well into the present one. The Taiping rebellion occupied the middle years of the century and, though it does not seem to have caused much bloodshed in the San On district, the large-scale struggle between Hakkas and Puntis in the parts of the province west of the Delta must have increased mutual antipathy between the two groups elsewhere. The Opium War and the War of 1857-60 saw increased foreign activity in Hong Kong waters. There were therefore both internal and external dangers to be expected on a small island settlement like Peng Chau at this time.\n\nInternally there was probably less trouble than there was potential. There are no recollections of fighting between the various groups of settlers on the island, though the Hoklos, who are generally credited with a more turbulent disposition than the Cantonese and Hakkas, perhaps in most cases having fewer possessions to make them cautious, sometimes fought among themselves.51 The Cantonese shops in the main street were ever fearful of robbery and violence and until ten years ago one could see the last of the protective gates known as ... There were three of them, barred every night, one at each end of Wing On Street and a third at the entrance to a large lane which left the main street at right angles and led to the Hakka settlement. Within living memory one or more watchmen were employed at night by the Kaifong and collected contributions from shops according to their size. These night defences were erected as much to keep out bandits and robbers coming from the sea as thieves or dissatisfied elements from within the island. There was, as Mr. CHUNG recalls, a small military post on the island in the late nineteenth century, but this would scarcely deter would-be assailants, especially if they were numerous and well-armed, and there can be little doubt that the first farmers and shopkeepers lived in genuine fear of such assaults. There are sufficient instances of violence from neighbouring places at various times to show that such fears were fully justified3½ and an isolated town like Peng Chau would have offered better prospects for pillage than a lonely village of farmers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204800, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "PENG CHAU\n\n91\n\nThere are said to be over 230 islands within the Crown Colony of Hong Kong. See Hong Kong Annual Report for 1962 (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1963) p. 319.\n\n? I am not well acquainted with the Chinese records, but there seems to be little information on Peng Chau available in the San On Gazetteer, or Gazetteer of the San On District, last edition 1819, but reprinted by Kwangtung Printers, Canton, 1933.\n\n10 A lucky day of a winter month of the third year of Chia Ching.\n\n11 A lucky day of the third winter month of the 57th year of Chien Lung.\n\n12 It is customary to do so: in fact the 1878 tablet states whether subscribers are local or from various other places. I base this statement on experience of many such tablets, but there are always exceptions to disprove the general rule. Tablets may be considered generally to be reliable, but are subject to occasional errors and omissions.\n\n13 A lucky day of the third winter month of the year, third year of Kuang Hsü (January/February 1878).\n\n14 The nineteenth day of the seventh Moon of the fifteenth year of Tao Kwang. There is nothing on the tablet to indicate that it was the only one erected. If it was, it confirms the island's importance as a fishing centre,\n\n15 This date and the number of boats stated cannot be confirmed. It is given in a short manuscript account of Peng Chau in Chinese, available locally, compiled anonymously a few years ago,\n\n16 On Cheung Chau a Peng On Tong existed in 1898 when, together with two other Tongs, it held a lease of land for a boatshed. These appear to have been organisations of Tanka fishermen. The Peng On Tong and its boatshed still exist, though its affairs have been managed by several generations of a prominent Punti family since at least 1910 (BCL and Land Registers).\n\n17 For some information on the origins of the Tanka see K. M. A. Barnett \"The Peoples of the New Territories\" in Hong Kong Business Symposium (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, 1957) p. 261 and his Introduction, pp. 2-3 to T. R. Tregear's Hong Kong Gazetteer (Hong Kong University Press, 1958).\n\n18 The local name for trawlers is ... The smaller types of Tanka fishing craft using the anchorage in 1898 are described as * and *. Then there are Hoklo boats of a similar type: one usually equipped with cars and styled #, and a variant called, literally \"chicken hair claw\", which was the type of boat used by Mr. CHUNG and his fellow Hakka fishermen. I am told that the first are principally shrimp boats and the latter mainly used for catching fish. There is a good description of such craft on p. 53 of Orme's Report in Sessional Papers 1912 quoted above, which is also useful for a contemporary account of the boat people. A list of the various types of local fishing craft (modern) is given in Table I, pp. 45-51 of Stanley S. S. Yuan's paper on Fishing Junks, which was read to the Engineering Society of Hong Kong in the 1955-56 session and published in January 1956 in volume IX no. 2 of their Proceedings. A diagram showing six local types is on p. 55. For an interesting account of the Hong Kong fishing fleet before the Japanese War, see Reports on the Fisheries Industries of Hong Kong by S. Y. Lin, apparently written between 1938-48, of which there is a typescript copy in the Library, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204819, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "102\n\nV. R. BURKHARDT\n\nyellow in the wet season, whilst in the dry the yellow is darker with numerous white and reddish-brown markings. The upperside of the male in the wet form has a broad black border to the hind wing, the dry form has none or very little rim. The upperside of the female varies much, but in the wet forms the ground colour is generally white, with a broad and suffused dark brown border to the hind wings; occasionally almost the whole upperside is dark brown, except the diagonal white marking across the fore wing and a slight whitish patch on the anterior margin of the hind wing towards the base. In the dry form the ground colour of the upperside inclines to yellow, and there is little, if any, dark border to the hind wings.\n\nThere are two \"Whites\" corresponding to their counterparts in England, Pieris rapae, and Pieris nerissa. The former is a recent introduction, not recorded till 1952 when it must have been introduced in the larval form in cargoes of Shantung cabbages from the north. In the wet season form the spots on the fore wing are deep black, whilst they are grey in the winter weather. The insect is practically identical with the Small Cabbage White in England and only differs in that the grey scaling at the base of the wings is more pronounced. As a sub-species of P. rapae it is named crucivora from its partiality to cabbages.\n\nAbout ten years ago it swarmed in market gardens and practically displaced the indigenous Pieris canidia, which became very scarce. The use of insecticide spraying has, however, greatly reduced the numbers of both species.\n\nPieris nerissa, which corresponds to the Green-veined White in England, is most abundant in the months of June and July, when the wet season form exhibits the veining deeply marked with brown, and the anal margin of the hind wing is often suffused with yellow. The dry forms are much paler than the wet, both on the upper and undersides.\n\nCertain of the Lycaenidae (the Blues) also show seasonal variation on the underside. Probably the commonest Zizeeria maha, which is ubiquitous and never rises above knee height, is chalky white in the wet season, with strongly marked black spotting. In the winter the underside is ochre, and the spots merely darker in shade than the ground colour. In Chilades laius the spotting is black in the wet season and coral pink in the dry.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204876, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nheard in Hong Kong also before the Chinese, and the Chinese form in which they have come down to us is merely a disguise, just as the common modern Arabic effendi, borrowed from Turkish, conceals quite effectively the high Byzantine military title of Avthentis which is itself the same word as the English authentic; and just as the modern Cantonese abusive expression for an Indian Mo-lo-cha10 disguises the honourable title of Maharaja. And who, for another example, would identify the Malay title dato in its Cantonese form na-tuk? The task of a student of comparative language in identifying words borrowed from tangential cultures is often far from easy.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 'ama, (Arabic); 'âmâh, (Hebrew).\n\n2 a-mraah, §, meaning father's mother,\n\n3 Draaibhaano, A#, the head of a foreign business house,\n\n4 Fhaabwronq, #£. That this was once used only of foreigners' gardeners is hinted by the fact that the old term frynn-dheng HT was never so used. Nowadays all gardeners are called fhaahwrong.\n\n5 fhaann, ⭑.\n\n6 Fhukgin-saarng, #44.\n\n7 Gwuuradim,\n\nA.\n\n8 jribmroo-gwor, I#4. The San On Yuen Chi lists this as a native fruit and says it is so named because it is used by women in difficult pregnancies (anti-scorbutic?). But see note 12,\n\n+\n\n9 Irok-fhaah-sbaanq, ✯✯✯. The author of the San On Yuen Chi seems unaware that this plant was an importation, a fact he notes in several other cases.\n\n10 Mho-lho-chaa, 44%, originally Я% ·\n\n11 Nraabdhuk, **\n\n12 nrenqmbung, #. However there are some facts about the lemon which are not easy to reconcile. The Britannica says it is a hybrid one of whose parents is probably a lime; and the Sanskrit for a lime is nimbu which looks a nearer relative of the modern than the ancient Chinese form. The commonest pronunciation in Cantonese is Irammbung. Also see 8.\n\n13 sayyid, (Arabic).\n\n14 shihnhaai, # like Madame, strictly correct only for the wives of foreigners, but in Hong Kong used now for any married woman.\n\n15 sritrawy, $# \"Boss\", now used for all employers,\n\n16 srizae, # a \"house-boy\" in a foreign family, Often mistakenly written 事仔,\n\n17 Thih-thiw, NE.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204899, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1964\n\nThis report covers the activities of the Society during the year 1964, the fifth year since the reconstruction of the Society in Hong Kong. A year ago, H.E. Sir Robert Black, who not only was our Patron but who had followed with great personal interest the growth of the Society, declared, before he left the Colony, that the Society in the four years of its restored existence had fully justified the faith of those who were responsible for bringing it back to life and that it had become established firmly as an important activity in the cultural life of the community in Hong Kong. During 1964 it continued to develop both in numbers and in the range of its interests and activities.\n\nMembership has grown from 160 at the end of the first year, 1960, to 386, including 46 life members at the end of 1964. Although during the year 87 new members, including 5 life members, were enrolled, we lost 64 members, most of whom resigned on leaving the Colony or were deemed to have resigned in default of the payment of their subscription, so that the net gain was only 23. In a changing community like Hong Kong it is inevitable that membership should fluctuate.\n\nEach year, however, has shown an increased membership which is now approaching the 400 mark.\n\nThe ten meetings held during the year show that we have a very keen and zealous membership and audiences have uniformly taxed the capacity of the City Hall lecture room. For the lectures, we have been fortunate in enlisting the services of eminent scholars, experts in their respective subjects, including three distinguished scholars from abroad, all of whom we warmly thank.\n\nThe arrangement of lectures is always subject to the availability of suitable speakers but your Council has endeavoured to cover a wide field within the scope of the objects of the Parent Society and of this Branch, namely, the investigation of subjects connected with and the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia. The lectures given were:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204917, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NIAH CAVE, 1947 - 1964\n\nA lecture delivered on 2nd September, 1964\n\nTOM HARRISSON\n\nArchaeology, the past, is everywhere. There is a lot more of it than of the present, of course. But it takes observation and experience to find and analyse it! Once the methods are learned, there is archaeological work to be done everywhere in the Far East. Hong Kong is alive with it. Studies so far have only scraped, no, only touched the surface of Hong Kong's prehistory. But a lot of hard thinking and training (and financing) will have to be done before much can be expected in the way of major results. Major results are there to be won, I feel sure.\n\nPerhaps I can best illustrate what is involved by a case history from quite another place, Borneo, where I have lived since early 1945. In Borneo no serious archaeological work had been done and there was no idea of doing any when I started serious work there after the war years, in 1947. In this short article, I will stick to one of the main sites we have developed - one of many, but currently the best-known and, indeed, one that is becoming famous. Twenty years ago, however, no one outside a small district in Borneo had ever heard of Niah in Sarawak,\n\nBorneo is far from Hong Kong and the madding crowd. But all our recent work has shown that great streams of influence had emanated from or passed through Hong Kong and down to Borneo for centuries and even millennia in the past. Indeed, it was one major source of cultural influence among several.\n\nThe great cave assemblage in the Subis Mountain limestone massif at Niah, Sarawak, the west side of Borneo, has been a local focus of human activity, for many thousands of years. But it was unknown to non-Asians until only recently. In 1947 - 48 it was the subject of initial archaeological reconnaissance when I made a long overland tour of West Borneo caves, coastal and inland.\n\nMr. Harrisson was in Hong Kong attending the Second Conference of Asian Historians, 31st August - 5th September, 1964. His talk was illustrated with two new films taken by his wife on Borneo's \"living past\". His Niah and related work has recently been recognized by the award of the Founder's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society and a Prince Philip Medal from the Royal Society of Arts.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204926, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "27\n\nTHE POPULATION OF CHINA\n\nA LETTER ON THE POPULATION OF CHINA,\n\naddressed to the Registrar General, London:\n\nBy SIR JOHN BOWRING. Read to the Society, 8th August, 1855.\n\n(Editor's Note:-Beginning with the present volume the Society will reprint a selected article from the Transactions of the old China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society whenever it is convenient to do so. There were published in Hong Kong six Transactions of the China Branch between the years 1847 and 1859. The only known complete extant sets of the Transactions in the Colony are the microfilmed sets recently acquired by the Library of the University of Hong Kong and by the Society. The present selection is taken from Transactions, Part V, 1855, pp. 1-16. The author was Governor of Hong Kong, 1854 to 1859, and an able early President of the Society. The subject is one of continuing, intriguing interest. The article is reprinted here in its original, unrevised form.)\n\nGovernment House, Hong Kong, 13th July, 1855.\n\nSir, I wish it were possible to give a satisfactory reply to your inquiries as to the real Population of China.\n\nThere has been no official census taken since the time of Kia King, 43 years ago. Much doubt has been thrown upon the accuracy of these returns, which give 362,447,183 as the total number of the inhabitants of China. I think our greater knowledge of the country increases the evidence in favour of the approximative correctness of the official document, and that we may with tolerable safety estimate the present population of the Chinese Empire as between 350,000,000 and 400,000,000 of human beings. The penal Laws of China make provision for a general system of registration; and corporal punishments, generally amounting to 100 blows of the bamboo, are to be inflicted on those who neglect to make the proper returns. The machinery is confided to the Elders of the district, and the census is required to be annually taken; but I have no reason to believe the law is obeyed, or the neglect of it punished,\n\nIn the English translation of Father Alvares Semedo's history of China published in London A.D. 1655, is the following passage\n\n\"This kingdom is so exceedingly populous, that having lived there two-and-twenty years, I was in no less amazement at my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204928, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "THE POPULATION OF CHINA \n\n29 \n\nSome years ago I had an opportunity of discussing the subject of Chinese population with the Mandarin at Ningpo who was charged with making the returns for that district. Ningpo can scarcely be called a progressive place; it is decidedly the least so of the Five Treaty Ports; but I found, generally speaking, that the real returns were considerably in excess of the official estimates. \n\nAnd I would remark, that, in taking the area of the Eighteen Provinces of China at 1,348,870 square miles, the census of 1812 would give 268 persons to a square mile, which is considerably less than the population of the densely peopled countries of Europe. \n\nAccording to ancient usage, the population in China is grouped under four heads, 1, Scholars; 2, Husbandmen; 3, Mechanics; 4, Merchants. There is a numerous class who are considered almost as social outcasts, such as Stage-players, professional Gamblers, Beggars, Convicts, Outlaws, and others; and these probably form no part of the population returns. In the more remote rural districts, on the other hand, the returning officer most probably contents himself with giving the average of more accessible and better-peopled localities. \n\nI have no means of obtaining any satisfactory tables to show the proportions which different ages bear to one another in China, or the average mortality at different periods of human life; yet to every decade of life the Chinese apply some special designation:- The age of 10, is called \"the Opening Degree\"; 20, “Youth expired\"; 30, \"Strength and Marriage”; 40, “Officially Apt\"; 50, \"Error knowing\"; 60, “Cycle Closing\"; 70, \"Rare Bird of Age\"; 80, \"Rusty visaged\"; 90, \"Delayed\"; 100, \"Age's Extremity.” Among the Chinese the amount of reverence grows with the number of years. I made, some years ago, the acquaintance of a Buddhist priest living in the convent of Tien Tung near Ningpo, who was more than a century old, and whom people of rank were in the habit of visiting in order to show their respect and to obtain his autograph. He had the civility to give me a very fair specimen of his handwriting. There are not only many establishments for the reception of the aged, but the Penal Code provides severe punishments for those who refuse to relieve the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204969, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "68 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\nas stated above, left Kuan-fu-ch'iang on the way to Ch'uan-wan (Ch'uen-wan) on the western shore of Kowloon in the year A.D. 1277, they stopped over at a place by the name of Ku-t'a (Ku-t'ab), or \"Ancient Pagoda.\" This fact had been recorded in some historical books, but where and what this place is has never been known, Now, with the revelation from this stone-inscription plus certain statements in the Genealogical Record of the Lin clan definitely referring to the Stone Pagoda, a sound conclusion can be drawn to the effect that Ku-t'a is identical to the present-day South Fu-t'ang, the northern shore of Tung-lung Islet. It is further reinforced by the fact that, according to tradition, local people used to call the said Pagoda by the name of Ku-shih-t'a (Ku-shek-t'ab) or “Ancient Stone Pagoda\" which was later abbreviated to Ku-t'a. With the discovery of the missing link a very knotty problem in the study of the itinerary of the last two emperors of the Southern Sung is rationally solved at long last, For this the value of this stone-engraving to historical scholarship is most pronounced. \n\nSecondly, from the standpoint of archaeology, this stone-engraving, done 690 years ago (1274-1965), is the oldest historic relic with a definite date in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (The history of Sung Wong Toi began three years later than this and the three characters were not engraved there until the Yuan Dynasty. The ancient tomb in Li-cheng-wu (Lee-chang-uk) appears to have a longer history, but the date is uncertain.) \n\nThirdly, from the standpoint of literature, its diction and sentences are excellent and the narration of no less than eight events in only 108 characters is terse and elegant. As a stone inscription, it should be ranked as an exemplary piece of literature of its kind. Moreover, the calligraphy possesses beauty, gracefulness and strength, being typical of the Sung style and akin to the penmanship of the celebrated poet, Su Tung-p'o. \n\nLast of all, considered as a work of art, the craftsmanship of the engraving is highly commendable. The cutting is deep and sharp, and even after having been exposed to the elements for nearly 700 years, almost all of the engraved characters remain intact. \n\nIn conclusion, this historic relic should by all means be regarded as a distinctive feature in the cultural history of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204970, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "69\n\nPIRACY ON THE CHINA COAST\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nFor most of recorded history piracy has been a menace to sea-borne trade, and there have been times when it has been difficult to distinguish between pirates and honest or should one say legitimate traders. Nationality has often been the only mark of distinction, as Spanish and English views of Drake, Hawkins, and the like illustrate.\n\nThe Chinese were pioneers in piracy, as in so many other things, and a history of piracy in China would begin many thousands of years ago. The Chinese were probably skilled practitioners of the art before history began to be recorded. The earliest accounts are in the records of the Chou Dynasty in the fourth century B.C., and piracy continued in China long after it had been suppressed in other parts of the world.\n\nWhen the first Europeans arrived in the China Seas in the sixteenth century, many of the pirates on the coast were Japanese. For three centuries after the defeat of Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan in 1281, Japanese pirates mainly from Kyushu were active along the whole coast, from the Liaotung Peninsula in the north to Hainan Island and the Straits of Malacca in the south. The famous Arctic explorer, John Davis, met his death at their hands in 1604. Davis was serving on an East India Company ship which was anchored off the island of Bintang, east of Singapore, when it was attacked by Japanese pirates.\n\nThis was at the end of the Japanese era, which came about as the result of several different factors. One was the establishment of a strong central government in Japan by Iyeyasu, the first of the Tokugawa Shoguns at the beginning of the seventeenth century; and another was the increasing superiority of Chinese over Japanese junks.\n\nThe depredations of these Japanese pirates often extended far inland, and they were accompanied by atrocities reminiscent of the Japanese Rape of Nanking in 1937. Because of this the Ming Emperors banned all intercourse between the two countries, and this afforded the Portuguese the opportunity to act as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204992, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1965", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "The Chinese University of Hong Kong\n\n91\n\nA Selection Committee to find a suitable candidate for the post of Vice-Chancellor was appointed. Meanwhile the executive affairs of the University were entrusted to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Dr. C. T. Yung, with the Acting Registrar, Mr. H. T. Wu (now Registrar), assisting him.\n\nThus, a university was finally born.\n\nThe Chinese University, by its very name, was established primarily for Chinese youths in Hong Kong. The enrolment in 1964/65 was about 1,700, almost the same as the undergraduate enrolment at the University of Hong Kong, thus doubling the opportunities for secondary school graduates to enter a university in Hong Kong.\n\nThe Chinese University gives its entrance examinations mainly in Chinese and the principal medium of instruction is the Chinese language, but by an intensive programme students are expected to become bilingual during their four years of training at the University.\n\nThe subjects offered at the University do not differ from those offered in universities in other parts of the world, although courses in Chinese Language, Literature, Philosophy and History occupy an important place in the curriculum. The University has three faculties, namely the Faculty of Science, of Arts and of Social Science and Commerce. It has a total of fifteen departments, namely Chinese Language and Literature, English Language and Literature, Fine Arts, Geography, History, Philosophy and Religious Education, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Commerce, Business Administration, Sociology and Social Work. Two new departments will be established in the academic year of 1965/66: Journalism and Music.\n\nThe establishment of the Chinese University at this time in a place like Hong Kong offers unique challenges. It represents the first attempt in Chinese history to integrate three separate, distinct streams of development in Chinese higher education developed some 50 years ago, composing three Foundation Colleges, each being organized by groups of scholars from the Mainland but each with quite a different background of its own. New Asia has its tradition from the national universities on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205071, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "22\n\nJOHN J. NOLDE\n\npolitical chaos. Surely this was the major concern of the peasant, merchant, or fisherman who found himself and his property at the mercy of marauding bands of lawless men. And surely this was the main concern of officials at all levels, especially the high authorities in the city, who were faced with demotion, exile, or worse, if this trend should continue.\n\nNow, I would be the first to admit that this thesis is hard to prove. The official documents are not of much help, for no bureaucrat wants to bring matters of this kind to the attention of his superiors. Even the local gazetteers are not as helpful as one would think, for, after all, they were the work of a scholar-gentry class which had close ties to officialdom. Western accounts are unreliable for obvious reasons. Yet if this material is pieced together carefully and with imagination, I think it is possible to create a fairly accurate picture of what really happened.\n\nUltimately, this kind of history requires a certain intuitive sense, and this can come only from a personal awareness of the land and sea, the winds and tides, the people and their characteristics and peculiarities. This is why, as I have suggested in the first part of this article, a regional approach to Chinese history might be fruitful. All China is simply too big and variegated to lend itself easily, if at all, to this kind of awareness. But a smaller unit, with geographical, social, linguistic, and economic limits does so lend itself, if for no other reason than that the historian can bring all of it within his comprehension. Eventually we may acquire a greater insight into China's past by trying to construct total pictures of a series of small areas rather than a series of unconnected vignettes of a big area, simply because we can grasp all aspects of the former but only unrelated bits and pieces of the latter.\n\nHong Kong, especially, lends itself to this kind of approach. The land and its people are here to be studied. The Cantonese reaction to a certain type of situation is probably much the same as it would have been a hundred years ago. There exist scores of villages which have changed little since the 1830's and 1840's. Cooperative research by experts in several disciplines, using the pooled resources of the two universities, and with the help of Government, especially the Office of Chinese Affairs, could go far in the direction of creating a picture of the past which would be in many ways more accurate than the one now existing.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205072, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "REGIONAL APPROACH TO CHINESE HISTORY\n\n23\n\nThis may violate some of the basic principles of the historian's craft. It means going beyond the documents, or at least reading into them interpretations which the documents per se may not warrant. It means reading between the lines. It may even mean attributing significance to the fact that a document does not exist. It means applying the principles of anthropology, sociology, agricultural economics, even psychology to events which occurred many years ago.\n\n....a tricky procedure at best.\n\nBut it may, in the end, bring us closer to what \"really happened\" than has heretofore been the case.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Ch'ü Tung-tsu, Local Government under the Ch'ing, Cambridge, 1962.\n\n2 Hsiao Kung-chuan, Rural China: Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, Seattle, 1960.\n\n3 These are the districts (hsien) of Nan-hai, P'an-yü #, Hsun-teh 顺德, Tung-kuan 东莞, Hsin-an 新安, and Hsiang-shan 香山,\n\n4 Cf. M. Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China, London, 1951; P. C. Kuo, A Critical Study of the Opium War, New York, 1935; H. P. Chang, Commissioner Lin and the Opium War, Cambridge, 1964; etc.\n\n5 For account of this pirate's exploits see C. F. Neumann, History of the Pirates Who Infested the South China Sea from 1807 to 1810, London, 1831. This is a translation of a Chinese work entitled Ching-hai fen-chih 靖海氛志 by Yuan Yung-lun 阮永纶\n\n6 The Indo-Chinese Gleaner, July, 1821,\n\n7 The Canton Register, July 26, 1828.\n\n8 The Chinese Repository, June, 1834, p. 83.\n\n9 The Canton Register, February 18, 1828,\n\n10 Ibid., October 3, 1829.\n\n11 Ibid., December 12, 1829 and September 6, 1830.\n\n12 The Chinese Repository, June, 1832, p. 80.\n\n13 The Canton Register, March 8, 1828.\n\n14 The Chinese Repository, April, 1836, p. 566.\n\n15 Ibid.\n\n16 Ibid.\n\n17 Kwang-chou fu chih (广州府志), Canton, 1879 ed., chuan 81, p. 286.\n\n18 The Canton Register, June 18, 1829,\n\n19 For details see pertinent issues of The Chinese Repository, The Chinese Courier; The Canton Register; Kwang-chou fu chih, p. 306.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205081, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "32\n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER\n\nable foodstuffs. On a more speculative level, however, it is worthy of note that relics of an old market called Kak Chun Hui7% are still turned up by the plough near Hang Tau Tsuen.\" Apparently this market disappeared some 300 years ago, possibly with the original rise of Shek Wu Hui. It is close to the Hau villages of Ho Sheung Heung and Yin Kong, and may have been controlled by them, in which case its demise may have been the result of rivalry between the Haus and the Lius. Obviously, with high rents coming in from markets, the two clans would have had reason to try to monopolise local buying and selling.\n\nIn general, land-holdings may be equated with wealth. The possession of wealth meant changes in the life of a lineage. The leadership based on the age-hierarchy tended to lose its importance when there were wealthy men in the village, and this seems to have been the case in the five clans. With unequal wealth in a lineage, one or two men must be thrown up who are clearly richer than the rest, and it was these men who assumed unofficial leadership in the group. This situation has been dealt with at some length before and need not be gone into here:78 but it is worth stating that at the present time the leadership in lineage villages is of exactly the same kind. The age-hierarchy leadership still exists formally, but the actual leadership rests with men who are educated, and wealthy and powerful in their own right—though now they are dignified with an official title, 'Village Representative',79 by the British Government.\n\nA wealthy lineage could afford to educate its sons, and in nearly all of the villages of the five clans tutorial schools were run. Frequently these would be held in the ancestral halls, but some villages had special school-rooms-cum-libraries built, and these survive to the present day in Fan Ling, Kam Tin, Tai Po Tau, Lung Kwat Tau and several other places. Education was a means to consolidate wealth, for it was through education that men could enter official life up the steep path of the examination system. A scholar-official was in a position not only to make money, but also to advance the interests of his kin through his contacts with other officials. All the five clans have produced scholars, some of whom became officials, the Tangs being particularly noteworthy in this respect—a fact which accords well with their having superior wealth. During recent years the clans have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205085, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "36 \n\nHUGH D. R. BAKER \n\none's own lineage or clan, nor indeed from any of the other four clans, I think. Descendants of these people still live amongst the master clans, though their servitude ended in most places shortly before the Second World War.89 Thus, single-lineage settlements often contained more than one surname due to this system, the Sai Man sometimes now constituting quite a high proportion of the total as is the case in the Hau village of Ping Kong, for instance, but politically the Sai Man were not to be reckoned with, and I was told, “As with women, we don't count them.\" \n\nNowadays, however, they tend to be treated as near-equals by members of the master-lineages, certainly as superior to other outsiders. For instance, Sai Man descendants surnamed Lam still live in Sheung Shui, and their children attend a private kindergarten run by the Lius at the same reduced fees which Liu children pay; in fact, they do not count as 'outsiders', who have to pay the full fee. In the Mung Yeung School at Kam Tin, the list of subscribers to the fund raised to found the school includes one man of the surname Sham,92 a descendant of a Sai Man family of Kam Tin, who has become wealthy.93 In Ping Kong, as noted above, many Sai Man descendants are still living; but yet other descendants of these people in the various villages have removed out of the villages of their ancestors' degradation now that they are free to do so. Near the town of Shek Wu Hui there is a small village started some years ago by such Sai Man descendants of the surname Chiu.94 \n\nFinally, in our discussion of the effects of landed wealth, we may point out that it has made a difference to the adaptability of the five clans to recently developed ways of acquiring money. For several generations now, smaller lineages and mixed-lineage villages have been sending men overseas on a large scale, and amassing a great deal of money, which is invested in better housing and sometimes in urban business ventures. Already wealthy, the five clans did not feel the need to indulge in this kind of enterprise on a large scale, and only since the 1950's have they succumbed to the lure of the easy money to be earned in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other overseas territories. Particularly since the Communist victory on the Mainland, agriculture has been hard hit in the New Territories. Pigs and chickens cannot be raised to sell at a competitive price with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205094, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "THE FIVE GREAT CLANS\n\n45\n\n63 Ibid., In fact there was a second geomancer (of the eighth generation) cooperating in this plan,\n\n64 松柏朗\n\n65 Grant, op. cit., figs. VI(e) and (f). These figures also point to one of the mysteries of the New Territories—the settlement of the very rich upper half of the Lam Tsuen Valley by Hakka lineages, a phenomenon which denies the usual pattern of Punti monopoly of first-class land.\n\n66 Ibid., fig. IV(a).\n\n67 Ibid., fig. I(c), and p. 2. For a map see K.M.A. Barnett, \"Hong Kong before the Chinese” in JHKBRAS, Vol. 4, 1964.\n\n68. This moribund market was revived in 1925, and has thriven since 1949.\n\n69 元朗儅爐.\n\n70 大埔舊墟\n\n71 See Robert G. Groves, “The Origins of Two Market Towns in the New Territories\" in Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories, HKBRAS, Hong Kong, 1965, p. 17.\n\n72 Ibid., p. 18.\n\n73 For a brilliantly worked out study of marketing systems of this sort see G. William Skinner, “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1-3, 1964-5.\n\n74 For some other ways in which they made the markets pay, see Groves, op. cit., page 18.\n\n75 See J. W. Hayes, \"The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898\", JHKBRAS, Vol. 2, 1962, for an incomplete list of markets operative at the time. Sha Tau Kok and Shek Wu Hui are notable omissions.\n\n76.\n\n77 坑頭村-\n\n78 See, for example, Freedman, op. cit., pp. 66ff,\n\n79***. But they are often more in the nature of 'leaders' than 'representatives', a fact which is recognised in the title by which the villagers more commonly address them HE.\n\n80 The festival of Chung Yeung.\n\n81 Called ch'i l'ong.\n\n82 荃灣.\n\n83 See J. M. Potter, Ping Shan: the Changing Economy of a Chinese Village in Hong Kong, micro-filmed thesis for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1964.\n\n84 or T.\n\n85 As witness an incident a few years ago in San Tin, where, in an adultery case, a man was condemned by the villagers to drowning in a pig-basket in the pond. Timely intervention by the police was all that saved him,\n\n86 Rightly or wrongly the view persists in the rural areas that no contact with authority is good contact.\n\n87 A.\n\n88 FA. They are mentioned under the name of Sia-wu in Chen Han-seng, Agrarian Problems in Southernmost China, 1936.\n\n89 Quite what brought about the disappearance of this institution is not clear to me. Certainly it was not interference from the Government of Hong Kong, as witness the report by J. Russell dated 18th July 1886 and appended", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205106, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "SINO-WESTERN CONTACTS\n\n57\n\nwith Chinese technique and art forms. This stone is so far the \"sole material monument\" of the Franciscan mission in medieval China. It has been suggested that there might exist another one. Christian tombstones from Ch'üan-chou were published some years ago, and it has been thought that the language on one of them is Latin. It must be Christian because the inscription begins with the sign of the Cross, but the attempt to read it as Latin and to regard it as the tomb inscription for Andrew of Perugia, the third suffragan bishop of Zayton — modern Ch'üan-chou — does not seem convincing. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that the inscription is not in Syriac script.5\n\nThere is, however, another mission from the West that reached China and where even the dynastic history of the Yuan has recorded their arrival. It is that of the papal envoy Giovanni da Marignolli, Bishop of Bisignano. A medieval manuscript in Prague has recorded the Western part of the story. This embassy, if we may call it that, was occasioned by a letter from some Alan Christians in China dated 11th July 1336. Some of the senders can be identified with persons mentioned in Chinese sources of the period. The Pope, Benedict XII, answered with a letter dated 13th June 1338, and Giovanni da Marignolli left Avignon — the papal see in those years — in December 1338. He travelled first to Constantinople and proceeded from there to the Crimea and the court of Uzbeg, Khan of the Golden Horde. Another station was Almaliq in Central Asia. Finally the papal envoy reached Khanbaliq (Peking) and was presented to the Emperor, Shun-ti. Giovanni presented the emperor with gifts, among them a Western horse. After a few years in China the envoy went back to Europe via India and reached Avignon in 1353. The Chinese annals have recorded the exact date of the audience when Giovanni met Shun-ti, or, to call him by his Mongol name, Togon Temur; it was August 19, 1342. The Chinese dynastic history calls the country Fu-lang, another way of transcribing the name of the Franks, that is, the Europeans. However, Giovanni's name and that of the Pope, are not mentioned by the Yuan-shih. In any case, this embassy seemed so important to the compilers of the dynastic history that they recorded it, and this means something because the basic documents for Togon Temur's reign were already lost at the time of the compilation of the Yuan-shih so that the annals for his reign are notoriously incomplete. But even so it does not seem", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205113, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "64\n\nHERBERT FRANKE\n\nas in this case, fictional material to real persons. Their original personality image as given in the texts is therefore often obscured by a veil of conventional and sometimes even interchangeable topoi.17\n\nThe second example concerns a Yüan Dynasty play, the Sha-kou ch'üan-fu “To Kill a Dog in order to Admonish the Husband”. It could be shown that the plot of this play goes back to Near Eastern folk tale motif, that of the two brothers and the testing of their friendship. Also in this play the whole background is entirely Chinese, and at least one of the persons on the stage was a historical figure, a famous judge of the Sung Dynasty. But the similarity between the plot of the play and the Near Eastern folk tale (which also spread to Europe) is so close that allogeny, to use this term here, is ruled out. We may therefore assume that the story itself somehow found its way to China in Sung or Yüan times, and was adapted to a play.18 It is not impossible that other plays of the Yüan period will show similar influences in subject matter, but it would be premature to say anything definite because the study of Yüan plays has hardly begun in the West.\n\nTurning away from the more popular literature written in colloquial language to the traditional literary genres in the written language, we can be very brief. The literary activities of non-Chinese under the Yüan have long ago been studied by Ch'en Yüan who published his researches in 1923 and 1927, and Professor L. C. Goodrich has recently dealt with this problem, taking into account the pioneer work by Ch'en Yüan.19 Under the Yüan many writers of non-Chinese origin distinguished themselves as poets in Chinese and authors of Chinese works in general. This applies not only to Mongols, Uighurs and other Central Asians but also to Near Eastern Mohammedans and Christians. We have, under the Yüan, authors by the name of Sa’d-ad-daula, of Ya-ku (Jacob), of Shams, of Sadr and many others. In other cases the foreign names had been replaced by Chinese family names. One example is the case of Ting Hao-nien (1335-1424), who adopted the Chinese clan name Ting which sounded similar to the frequent Islamic appellation ad-Dīn “of the Faith” (e.g., Saif ad-Din, “Sword of the Faith”). One Nestorian Christian family called itself Ma which might be an approximate rendering of Syriac Mar, Master. They were of Turkish origin, coming from the Önggüt tribe that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205175, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "126\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nin Chinese territory. The village elders retained much of their authority, though I am not yet in a position to assess the degree to which they were recognised, and to that extent supported, by the British administration.27 Two of my informants recall that stealing crops in their villages was a matter for the village elders. If the offender was an outsider the elders would take him back to his own village and expect his own leaders to deal with him. Failing an agreeable settlement the offender would be taken to the nearest police station. For a long time, it seems, the realities of local power lay with the elders. It is significant that as late as 1895 Eitel was able to write:28\n\n\"The Chinese people in town are at the present day under the sway of their own head men (the Tungwa), and the people in the villages are ruled by their elders as much as ever\".\n\nThe same degree of local autonomy existed above the village level where the village organisation was augmented by small regional groupings which were usually based on a temple.29 For example, Mong Kok, Ho Man Tin and adjoining smaller settlements patronised the Kwun Yam [Kuan Yin] Temple (†) at Tai Shek Kwu near Ho Man Tin village. Their fore-bears had apparently built this temple soon after their arrival in the area. It was removed to make way for development in 1926,30 and as the preamble to the commemoration tablet in the new building has it:31\n\n44\n\n\"The Shui Yuet Kung Temple was first built at Tai Shek Kwu over a hundred years ago. It was famed for the exact prophesy of its gods and had many worshippers\". My informants confirm that it was a very popular temple and consequently well-supported. It was given a major repair about 1908 when all the local villagers and the Yau Ma Ti shop-keepers contributed money towards the project.\n\nThe temple building stood on top of a rocky feature to which access and egress was by two flights of granite steps each with thirty steps. Local people referred to it as the Tai Shek Kwu Miu (★☎★A). At the beginning of the 20th century the temple was looked after by four managers, (f) as they were styled. One of them was a prosperous villager called WONG Lan-sang (*) a self-made man from Mong Kok village of whom more", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205184, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "134\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n11 See, for instance, Rev. R. Lechler's article \"The Hakka Chinese\" in the Chinese Recorder for September-October 1878 in which he writes (p. 355), \"Three thousands (sic) of them came to Hong Kong in 1863, having been taken on board by some foreign vessels, which happened to do business with rice etc., in Tai-foo-san. They were kindly taken care of by the English government and the merchants who collected money, and had mat sheds built for the fugitives until they were able to provide for themselves. I was then intrusted with the funds collected and used to buy rice for daily distribution to these wretched people.\"\n\nIt is recorded that 189 families — it is not stated how many were Hakkas and how many Cantonese — came to settle in Hong Kong in 1867. (See the Registrar General's Report in the Government Gazette 14 March 1868). Kowloon seems to have attracted Hakka newcomers from Hong Kong. In his Education Report for 1865 Mr. F. Stewart noted with reference to the Tang Lung Chau district of Hong Kong that \"nearly all the Hakka families that used to live here have removed to the Kowloon side of the harbour\". (See Hong Kong Government Gazette for 24th March 1866).\n\n12 S. Wells Williams The Middle Kingdom, revised edition, London; W. H. Allen & Co., 1883, Vol. 1, p. 486.\n\n13 See D. Maciver in p.v. of the Introduction to his Hakka Dictionary, Shanghai; American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1905.\n\n14 Report of the Proceedings of the Morrison Education Society March 1863 - March 1864, Hong Kong; London Missionary Society Press, 1864, p. 11. I suspect that the 10,000 is an under-estimate of the number of Hakkas living in the San On District at this time.\n\n15 The names may be translated as \"Vantage Point\" and \"Fields of the Ho and Man families\". Ho Man Tin was removed to make way for the Kowloon-Canton railway in 1906 (see Sessional Papers 1907, p. 687) and Mong Kok was submerged by urban Kowloon in the 1920s (see Chapter 5 of The Development of Hong Kong and Kowloon as Told in Maps by T. R. Tregear and L. Berry, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1959).\n\n16 I am indebted to the following persons for information: Mr. NG Kau (b. 1888); Mr. TANG Yuen-li (b. 1897) and Madam SOLI Lin (b. 1888).\n\n17 In 1897 the population of Ho Man Tin was 297 (180 males and 117 females) and of Mong Kok 218 persons (102 males, 116 females). See Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers for 1897, p. 485.\n\n18 Rev. James Johnston, China & Formosa, The Story of the Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England, London; Hazel, Watson and Viney, 1897, p. 266.\n\n19 In this connection it should be noted that until the census returns of 1897 (see Sessional Papers 1897, p. 485), the population of British Kowloon was given as a whole and not split into individual village populations as was always done for the Hong Kong villages.\n\n20 See Orme, p. 44.\n\n21 \"Live stock paid but badly\" in 1867. See the Registrar-General's report in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 14 March 1868.\n\n22 Then, as twenty years ago, the same. See The Hong Kong Annual Report 1947, Hong Kong, Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., March 1948, p. 50.\n\n23 S. Wells Williams, Vol. I, p. 172. Twenty years later one of the illustrations in Sir Henry Blake and Mortimer Menpes' China, London; A and C Black, 1909, pp. 119-120 shows the vegetable boats arriving from the Kowloon side.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205214, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "164\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nand transcribed in a variety of ways by native-speakers of Cantonese.\n\nThe origins of words such as amah are hidden in the obscure labyrinths of time but are still as fresh as a new-born babe. Such words contain the elements of English mammy, ma, French maman, Latin mater and so on, for they represent the infant mouth opening to bawl and sometimes the closing of the tiny lips over the mother's teat. Such words exist in all languages even as a rejecting, spitting series for the father: pater (in Latin), English daddy, Cantonese papa mimic the child's rejection of his father's milkless breasts.\n\nIt is unnecessary to derive Cantonese amah from an Arab source. Similar forms, demonstrably not of Semitic origin, occur in many languages; in those of the Iberian peninsula, ama may or may not be an Arabism. In India, it was one of the common Indo-Portuguese words for a children's nurse. It is this word which came to Canton either in the Portuguese lingua franca which preceded pidgin English as the jargon of the China coast or in pidgin English itself. The documents of the nineteenth century are rich in derivatives of this word and even today wash-amah and baby-amah are widely used expressions in Hong Kong. Chow-amah (wet-nurse) disappeared at the introduction of patent infant formulae.\n\nThe only problem is whether amah, which sounds as exotic in Cantonese as kowtowing once did in English, entered the dialect directly from a Portuguese dialect or was introduced by way of English. My understanding is that amah is seldom used by the Hong Kong Portuguese in the sense of servant and that the word, though Portuguese in origin, is an early English loan to Cantonese, the forerunner of pa-si (bus), mhodhang nreoezir (modern girl), bheazao (beer) and the hundred and one other loans found in the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong today.\n\nUntil more evidence is forthcoming, the derivation of sz tsai and sz tau will seem far-fetched. Nor is there enough proof to convince that fa wong is a calque (translation) of Urdu malik, even though the semantic extensions of wong and malik appear to coincide. I cannot tell which are the foreign words from which we are supposed to derive kwuntim, sz-naai and tai pan and have yet to be convinced that Cantonese natuk is in fact the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205248, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "and in the Colonial Office in London. Mr. Endacott's History of Hong Kong (1958) has already indicated what sort of material is available to form the necessary background to new studies in urban history and sociology.\n\nWe hope, then, that this Journal will receive contributions in this neglected field and that, in particular, it will benefit from the new project in urban studies, now being initiated by Dr. Alan Birch of the History Department at the University of Hong Kong. We hope, too, that some of the material being obtained from the Urban Family Life Study commissioned by the Hong Kong Government and now in progress under the direction of Dr. Robert Mitchell from the University of California, Berkeley, may appear in its pages. As a Hong Kong publication the Journal must play its part in encouraging and making available some of this basic information.\n\nMeantime we have not made much progress with the ethnographic aspects stressed by the Hon. Editor in 1962. Unfortunately, pure ethnography is rather neglected by scholars nowadays and, probably for this reason, less progress has been made in this field, though the curator of the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery, with the help of the New Territories Administration and others, has begun collecting items of interest, with a view to forming a local collection. Members were fortunate recently in hearing a lecture from Mr. Alan L. Kagan on the Cantonese Puppet Theatre in Hong Kong. It is hoped to include this article in the 1968 Journal. Mr. Kagan's assessment has reinforced Mr. Cranmer-Byng's remark five years ago that time is indeed short. Whereas there are only two part-time puppet troupes operating in present-day Hong Kong, there were more full-time operators twenty years ago, when a smaller, poorer, less-sophisticated and less westernised population supported this type of entertainment enthusiastically and business was good, their services being in demand all over the territory. The Editorial Committee welcomes articles of this sort and would be glad to have more of them from interested persons.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205254, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "# 9\n\n# HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1966\n\nThe Accounts for 1966 have been audited by Mr. O. P. Edwards of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. I assumed office as Hon. Treasurer only a month ago following Mr. W. S. Addis and Mr. Michael Morgan who acted temporarily after Mr. T. J. Lindsay's retirement.\n\nOn the income side, there is a gratifying increase in Life Membership subscriptions, now $2,750 against $650 last year. The annual subscriptions amounted to $10,177, a little over $2,000 short of our total expenditure. The shortage was covered by income from investments amounting to $2,054.69 (against $1,742.54 last year) and from the sale of copies of the Journal. The total amount of annual subscriptions at the increased rate of $30 a year would have been higher had all members paid their subscriptions by the end of the year, and if all members had given instructions to their banks to increase their annual subscriptions from $20 to $30. Members are strongly urged to pay by means of Banker's Orders in order to ease the arduous work of the Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer.\n\nOur investments show an increase in market value of over $4,000 in spite of the depressed market.\n\nThe amount of $13,000 cash deposit is rather illusory. A sum of $2,500 represents a donation from the Asia Foundation and is earmarked to pay for books which have already been ordered. About $7,000 to $8,000 will be required to pay for the next issue of the Journal and off-prints. Provision has also to be made for the printing of the brochure on the 1966 Symposium and for the reprinting of the paper by Sir Lindsay Ride on \"The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao\". We hope to recoup the cost of these publications by their sale, but we shall need more money to reprint Volume 1 of the Journal which has now been sold out and to build up our library and to provide for its accommodation. There is no likelihood of any real excess of income over expenditure.\n\n3 April, 1967.\n\nG. W. LANCHESTER", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205277, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "32 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\nComparing this map with two others (Military Survey Map 1902-03, GS3749, and Map of Kowloon, 1960, Sheet 2) and checking it with my personal observation in the old and new roads around that area, I found that the original site of the village was directly west of the southern foot of the former Sacred Hill, about 1,200 ft. distant from it (see map). The northern tip of the Two Emperors' Palace Hill has been levelled leaving a high cliff there.16 As to the precise boundaries, population and number of houses in the former village, there is no way to ascertain this, although the military map of 1902-03 shows only a very small number of houses in comparison with other villages in Kowloon.\n\nVII, THE MA-TAU-WEI TEMPLE \n\nWe should note one more, the last, historical site in this area. It is the Ancient Temple of Shang-ti (Shang-ti Ku-miao1) situated on the western side of the present Lomond Road, behind the St. Theresa Hospital (see map). The original temple was near the former Ma-tau-wei Village directly east of the present site. When the villagers were evacuated by the government and the whole village was levelled to construct new roads and buildings in 1927-28, the temple was destroyed and a new temple was constructed at the present site.17 Later on, the new temple was also demolished but the stone gate was preserved, the name of the temple remaining.\n\nThe idol worshipped there represents the God of the Black (Northern) Heaven (Hsuan-t'ien Shang-ti✯AL) which is identical with the Northern God (Pei-ti). According to Chinese ancient mythology, North has been considered as the centre of water, symbolized by the colour black. Hence, it became the patron deity of the people living along the seacoast, and almost every coastal village had such a temple wherever there were fishermen or seafarers. There are still some temples of the Northern God in Kowloon and elsewhere. Some years ago the Hong Kong Government accepted my suggestion and preserved this stone gate. Moreover, the piece of ground was converted into a small garden. Mr. Jao Tsung-i of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong was asked to prepare the Chinese text which is engraved on a tablet erected by the side of the gate. Work was completed in 1962.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205310, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY\n\nmember of the third minor lineage.\n\n65\n\nHe returned from the United States in 1941. After the Japanese Occupation, he took a job as a foreman in the nearby Ma On Shan Mining Company, from which he is now obtaining a pension. He still spends most of his time on the Company grounds playing mahjong and gossiping with his friends there. On his arrival from America, he constructed a large and spacious house on two floors and with a balcony.35 Rumour had it that he had lost some 10,000 dollars in the Canton Trust Bank crash in February 1965, but when I left the valley, there was no visible sign that his economic position had been altered or that his social prestige was affected thereby. He has one son on the island of Aruba, who is doing well. His brother, 75 years old, is the man who returned from Canada. His house is also good but is somewhat smaller than that of his younger brother. He is expressly of a conservative disposition; he clings to old ways and believes firmly in Fêng-shui. His economy is apparently very good. The son of this man is working in England.\n\nThe other New York man is 70 years old and belongs to the second minor lineage in the village. He possesses the biggest house in the valley and the surrounding areas. It was built forty years ago. He returned from America in 1959, but preferred then to reside in town. Later on, he moved back to his native village, the main reason being that all his friends in town went back to America. He is a sceptic, distrusts geomancy, and is passively in favour of modernization. He is supposed to have a considerable fortune by village standards. One of his two sons, also a former American resident, is now staying with his family in Tai Po Market. The younger son is working in England, and his family stays in the father's house.36\n\nThree other old men do not take part in the informal village council. One is the very old uncle of the Village Representative, whose affairs seem to be handled by the nephew. He is suspicious and successfully avoids anthropologists. Another is a man about 70 who is strikingly poor. He is an old emigrant too, but his country of destination was Singapore, and like many other sojourners in Singapore, he returned home as poor as when he went off. He is now trying to make a living by operating a traditional rowing ferry, taking villagers across Tide Cove in competition with the family who run the two mechanised boats.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205345, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "100 \n\nJAMES HAYES \n\nFifthly, land was indirectly of the greatest importance for a man's emergence as an area leader. Through acquiring land other than in one's native village a man became known outside it. If he was a landowner renting out the land and clearly a person of ability and presence the way was paved to an extension of his sphere of influence because the local people would, in time, call on him to assist in solving disputes in which no decision could be reached. In a mountainous island where bad communications resulted in the growth of isolated communities the purchase of land or operation as a money lender was almost the only way in which personal influence could be extended without a charge of unwarranted “interference\" being made. This much is obvious on a moment's reflection, but it is not always apparent without personal knowledge of an area and its geographical characteristics.\n\nSixth and last, it is probable that the rural gentry of Lantau Island in the earlier part of the Ching dynasty were similar in origins and career to these men.\n\nThis closes the main part of the article, but I would like, as a postscript, to mention the external and more formal side of their activities; that is, their relations with other gentry of the whole administrative district and with its civil and military officers. There is a distinct lack of definite information with a local content. One imagines, however, that they would have been on good terms with the officers of the military garrison and the naval patrol vessels that called at the island from time to time, combining with the village leaders and the shopkeepers of the market town to entertain them on certain festivals and on public occasions. By way of a return, the officers contributed to local repair projects such as the reconstruction of village temples and gave something towards the cost of local opera shows and festivals. This much is certain because many repair tablets and commemoration boards show this pattern. Besides, the basic nature of government in rural areas has changed very little to this day, being founded on the creation and retention of goodwill wherever and however possible as true for the Hong Kong government today as for the Chinese district government 70 years ago.\n\nThe position is much less clear on the civil side. There were usually four councils of local gentry in any administrative district, for the East, South, West and South sections or Tung (M), as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205351, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "106\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nTo the North of Deep Bay is Chik-wan Bay, on the shore of which is situated the renowned temple of Tien-hau. To the South is the Bay of Toon-mun-wan, near Castle-peak. The open sea forms the Southern and Eastern boundary of the district.\n\nMirs Bay, the most remarkable of those which indent the Eastern shore of Sanon, is called by the Chinese \"Ti-po Hoi\" 大步海.\n\nIt is worthy of notice, that when the question of ceding Hong-kong to the British crown was brought before the Emperor Tau-kwang, it was asserted that the island had never really belonged to China; and it appears remarkable that, in an official geographical and statistical account of Sanon, in 8 volumes, published about 40 years ago, no mention of Hongkong is made, although islands much more insignificant are accurately included. However, in the list of villages of the Sanon District, the names of Shek-pai-wan (Aberdeen) and Check-chu (Stanley), are found. Among the numerous Straits between the different islands the most worthy of notice are:--\n\n1. The Cap-sui-mûn between Lantao and the two small Islands of Tsing-yeu and Ma-wan; Kai-check-mûn, between the two last mentioned islands and the mainland itself, and Ly-yue-mûn and East-tong-mûn, which constitute the Eastern passage from Hongkong harbour. According to Chinese authorities, the greater diameter of the district, from North to South, measures 380 le, and the lesser, from East to West, 270 le. But it must be remembered that the measurement from North to South extends to the southermost of the small islands which are reckoned as belonging to the district. The district is generally mountainous, and the mountain ridges extend nearly to the shore, leaving only small plains at their feet, which are occupied by villages and hamlets. These mountains have usually a dreary and barren aspect, and resemble those of Hong-kong and the opposite mainland. The granite rocks are scantily covered with soil, and are overgrown with grass. A luxuriant underwood is found in the ravines, but trees are seldom met with, though groves of them, evidently planted, are generally found in the neighbourhood of villages, Buddhist monasteries, and temples. The Chinese are accustomed to burn down the grass on the tops.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205353, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "108\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\n4,000 feet in height. It is a steep mountain, and its ascent in some parts is dangerous, - even in the commonly-used track, the coolies take off their sandals, and travel barefooted. Some hundred years ago, some rich people caused paved ways to be made to various parts of the mountain, but these paths are now in ruins. The mountain and its neighbourhood afford many plants esteemed by the Chinese which are not found in other parts of the districts, and particularly medicinal herbs, which are sought after by the Chinese doctors and apothecaries.\n\nYeong-toi-shan is reckoned the second mountain by the Chinese, and lies 30 le north of the district town; and, according to Chinese geomancy, its peculiar conformation shows that it exercises a beneficial influence over the district city. The ascent is neither steep nor difficult; the eastern side is almost entirely over-grown with underwood, and the rest of the mountain is covered with grass, among which thickets are interspersed. Regular employment is afforded to a number of Hakka people in collecting this grass and underwood, by which, with hard toil, they earn a scanty livelihood. From the summit of Yeong-toi one has an extended view, nearly the whole district of Sanon is seen, and one is astonished at the barren masses of hills, constituting a veritable sea of mountains, which covers nearly the whole district. In clear weather, Canton itself and Victoria Peak are visible. On the summit of the mountain there is an altar erected, and here the people are accustomed to congregate and offer up petitions for rain when they have been afflicted with an unusual drought.\n\nAbout four years ago I wished to ascend this mountain, but the Hakka people opposed my doing so, because they thought I must be seeking for precious stones; but at last I accomplished my object in the company of a collector of herbs, who interceded for me. Among the plants we gathered were the following,---\n\nUraria crinita, D. C.\n\nRosa nivea, D. C.\n\nQuamoclit vulgaris, Choisy.\n\nDicerma elegans, D. C. Ixora stricta, Roxb.\n\nClerodendron fragrans, Vent. Mussaenda pubescens, Aiton. Platanthera Susanna, Lindl. Osbeckia chinensis, Linn, Baeckia frutescens, L.\n\nRhodomyrtus tomentosa, Wight. Uvaria badiiflora, Hance. Clerodendron pentagonum, Hance. Melastoma candidum, D. Don. Melanthesa chinensis, Blume.\n\nHabenaria linguella, Lindl,\n\nBuchnera stricta, Ham,\n\nPteroloma triquetrum, Bth.\n\nStriga hirsuta, Bth. Vernonia congesta, Bth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205354, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n109\n\nThe third remarkable mountain lies a few miles south of the district town, and is called \"Nam-shan\" — 南山 the Southern mountain. In a bay at the foot of this mountain is the famous temple of \"Teen-h'aou” — the Queen of Heaven at Chek-wan; and to the right and left of the entrance to this bay are two forts, now in ruins and unoccupied. A tolerably broad highway leads from the district town to this temple, and four or five rest-houses are erected along the road for the convenience of its devotees. Several altars exist on different parts of the mountain, and to these the Mandarins resort, to worship in times of scarcity or danger,\n\nLastly, is mentioned the mountain of Castlepeak, called by the Chinese \"Poe-lou-shan\" ✯✯J, on the western borders of the province, near the bay of Tun-wan. This mountain, remarkable for the fine view it affords, has near its summit a monastery occupied by Tauist priests. The mountain is reckoned one of the eight wonders of the Canton province. Some of its large granite boulders are said by the priests to represent various mythological monsters; and several springs well-up near the top, which are also esteemed supernatural wonders by the Chinese. The mountain is often visited by students and literati, and its wonders and beauties have been celebrated by them in many verses. The legends connected with the mountain seem not to be very clearly understood. The most remarkable of them is the following, which gave it the name it now bears: Hundreds of years ago there lived a renowned Buddhist priest who went by the name of \"Poi-tow,\" the Tea-cup Navigator. One night he took up his quarters in a certain house, and went away the next morning carrying with him the golden idol belonging to his host. This man started out in pursuit; but though he could see the priest before him, travelling on foot, apparently very leisurely, he could not, though he was on horseback, overtake him; and presently he saw the holy man carried over a river in a Tea-cup, and so gave up the pursuit as useless.\n\nSome time afterwards this priest effected the cure of a woman of rank, merely by writing a charm; often she had applied in vain to many doctors and sorcerers. Gratitude attached the whole family of the patient to him. Not long after this he died on his travels. Five years after his death he again appeared, and declared that he should now go into the Canton province, and accordingly he took up his residence on Castlepeak mountain; and being seen", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205356, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n111\n\nthe flesh of this, which is coarse, and contains much rancid oil, is also sold in the markets.\n\nThe Rivers, The district of Sanon is generally well irrigated, but the streams are of small size. Three of them, perhaps, may merit the name of rivers; in the southern and eastern part of the district there are only small mountain streams, which pour down over the precipices, sometimes forming picturesque waterfalls.\n\nDeep Bay terminates, as already stated, in a considerable creek; and into this several large streams, coming particularly from that part of the district which was first occupied by the Hakka population, pour their waters. These are too shallow and irregular even for the navigation of small craft.\n\nNot far from the village Tai-chung ★, east of the district town, another river, Ti-sha-ho ★, discharges its waters into the bay. It has its source in the Yeong-toi mountains, and after a long serpentine course, at last reaches the bay. Its bed is broad, but often shallow, and its embouchure is very sandy. On account of its breadth and the sudden floods to which it is subject, no bridges are built across this river, and as, after long continued rain, it swells to a great height, it frequently becomes quite impassable, and travellers are put to much delay and inconvenience in consequence.\n\nThe Sai-heong river, also takes its rise in the Yeong-toi mountain, and empties itself into Nam-tow bay, at the market town of Sai-heong. It is only navigable for a short distance at high water, when many trading junks and fishing-boats make their way up to the town, where they remain high and dry. If the exact time of high tide be not chosen, these boats can neither make their way outwards nor inwards. Sai-heong is divided by this river into two parts, which are called the eastern and western villages. These are united by an awkward wooden bridge about 200 yards in length. This bridge is of a peculiar construction, the planks being nailed underneath, instead of upon the cross-beams, so that it is somewhat awkward walking over it. The intervals between the cross-beams are about two yards. It is asserted that the bridge (erected about the time of the first war) was thus built, in order to prevent the British being able to transport their cannon over this river, if they should venture to make their appearance in the neighbourhood. A few years ago, a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205358, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n113\n\nThe temperature of the water varies at different times, and the several springs also differ in their temperature. The hottest of them is always of too high a temperature to allow of the hand being immersed in it, and at the time the traveller visited it, a thermometer immersed in it registered 108° Fahr. About twenty yards from its source is an artificial tank, which is used as a bath by people who are suffering from cutaneous diseases, who often return home cured.\n\nWhere the water is stagnant, deposits of sulphur are observed. The Chinese fancy that great treasures are concealed around these springs, and requested me to show them to them, they being of opinion that a foreigner is able to see several feet deep into the earth.\n\nThe inhabitants of the Sanon district are divided into the Pun-ti and Hak-ka; only a few speak the Mandarin or Hak-lo dialects. Some Hak-lo families are, however, employed in the imperial salt fields.\n\nA list of the Sanon villages was made about 40 years ago, and they then numbered 854; of these 279 were inhabited by the Pun-tis, and 275 by the Hak-kas. Many of the villages mentioned in this list are now deserted or destroyed, but many new ones have also appeared, and we may fairly say that their numbers have rather increased than diminished.\n\nThe Hak-ka villages are in many instances small clusters of houses, whilst the Pun-ti villages sometimes number from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. The Hak-kas dwell in the mountainous region of the eastern and more interior parts of the district, and are hence nick-named by the Pun-tis “Ngai-lu” ✯, or mountain-fellows; Pu-kakis the most important Hak-ka settlement; and in the western Hak-ka territory, U-shek-ngam #· a market-place at the foot of the Yeong-toi mountain, is of chief note.\n\nThe large plains previously noticed, are exclusively possessed by the Pun-tis. There are in the district forty places where markets are held; one-fifth of these only are possessed by the Hak-kas. Populous towns, such as Nam-tow, Sai-heong, and San-keaou, have spacious streets, where, every day, besides market days, large quantities of goods are exposed to sale.\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205363, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "REV. MR. KRONE\n\n―\n\noccupied by soldiers. At Tai-pung, the force consists of a \"Tsam-tseang\" - Colonel; one \"Shau-pe\" two \"Tsin-tsung\"; four \"Patsung\", and seven \"Ngai-wei\" with 800 soldiers, 190 of which are infantry, and 610 garrison soldiers. The annual pay of the whole of the officers amounts to 574 taels, that of the soldiers to 10,866 taels, with an allowance of 3,100 piculs of rice, and 8,640 bundles of straw, besides the income derived from the cultivation of the Imperial paddy-fields.\n\nThese troops have to garrison Tai-pung, Kowloong, Tung-chung on Lantao, and a fort on one of the Ladrone Islands; these four places are supposed to mount 168 guns. There are besides nine guard stations. One of these on the mountain pass behind Kowloong is really occupied by four soldiers, who carry on a profitable trade in selling tea and refreshments. Their duty is to keep the road clear of robbers; but the only object for which they employ the arms they wear is the protection of their own store of cash.\n\nSince the first war with England, a \"Hip-toi\", or Commodore, has been ordered to reside at Kowloong, and to keep a watchful eye on the barbarians at Hongkong. I have not been able to ascertain how many war-junks the Hip-toi has under his command at the various stations of the district. The record of Sanon, “Sanon-che”, only says they are of the utmost importance to guard against the French and other barbarians. Several of the war-junks usually anchor at Namtow, others a little to the N.W. of Ku-shu. The Mandarin at Fuk-wing has one war-junk at his disposal, but his revenue not being enough to support the expense, he was in the habit of letting out the vessel for hire for mercantile purposes. The hirers however converted it into a pirate boat, and it was seized by the Chi-yuen, and the Fukwing mandarin had to bribe his superior officer to avoid further punishment and degradation.\n\nThe amount of taxes and other duties I have not been able to ascertain. They are, however, with few exceptions, regularly paid. One instance occurred a few years ago, when a village, for what reason I do not remember, refused to pay the amount due to government. The Mandarin however had sufficient force to compel them to comply with their demands, and in order to teach them a lesson for the future, he closed and partially defaced their ancestral hall.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205368, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n123\n\nalong the banks of rivers or of ponds, you have an opportunity\n\n水牛,\n\nof observing how appropriately the Chinese name \"Shui-ngau” ★ †‚— water ox, has been applied to them, for you will see the beasts with their huge carcases entirely submerged in the water and mud, their heads only to be seen, and they will lie thus contentedly for hours. There are large numbers of pigs, which, as in Ireland, form an integral part of the family, and are admitted to the domestic hearth. Goats are scarce, and are found chiefly in the mountainous parts. Ducks are seen in immense flocks, and are generally hatched in heated ovens. Fowls are kept by people of all conditions. The poor generally keep them, not for their own consumption, but to make a few cash by selling the eggs or the chickens, which are consumed in great numbers at marriage festivals and other popular entertainments.\n\nThe principal Trading-places of the district are, Nam-tow 南頭, Sai-heong 西鄉, Wong-kong 黄崗, Sham-tsuen 深圳, San-keaou 新橋, Tai-pung 大鹏, Fuk-wing 福永, Ku-shu 固戌, and Sha-tsing. These places are here mentioned according to the extent of their trade. From each of these places, passage-boats ply regularly to Hongkong, Canton, Tai-ping (at the Bogue), and Shek-lung. From Namtow only a boat is occasionally despatched to Macao.\n\nThe trade between these towns and Hongkong has of late years become of great importance. For instance, six years ago, only one passage-boat started from Sai-heong for Hongkong, every third or fourth day. Before the commencement of the present hostilities, the number of these boats had increased to five, and they were of a much larger size, and started from Sai-heong in company every third or fourth day. Other boats were projected when the present difficulties interfered with the enterprise. In Sai-heong alone there were more than 400 traders who frequented Hongkong. The exports consisted chiefly of fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry, cattle, oil, sugar, charcoal, fish, and dried ducks, and they imported in return rice, salt, calico, and other European manufactures, besides articles which came from the northern ports of China. Timber, silk, and paper, are imported from Canton, Shek-tung, Tai-ping, and other parts of the province. The trade with the interior of the country is unimportant, for there are no highways along which goods can be conveyed into the interior. All goods are conveyed either by coolies or in awk.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205374, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n129\n\nIn the superior grades of the military, the natives of this district did not show at all well during the first two centuries of this dynasty, for during this time they could boast of only two military Tsin-tze, and twenty-four military Keu-jins. Forty years ago a more military spirit seems to have arisen amongst them, and the examinations for military degrees have been better attended.\n\nAt each military examination at Canton, the same number, ten, of military as of civil Seu-tsai, are chosen from the students of Sanon, and in the same proportion from the two races, viz., eight Puntis to two Hak-kas. At present there is in the district only one man holding the degree of \"Mo-tsin-tze\", Military Tsin-tze, and about twelve of the degree of \"Mo-keu-jin\". The first is an octogenarian, and lives in his native place, Kap-shui-hou. He has never held any office, and has been chiefly engaged in training pupils for the examination; he is a good-natured man, and is amicably disposed towards foreigners; one of his sons has the degree of Mo-keu-jin.\n\nThe village of Sheang-tsun, between Namtow and Sai-heong, is particularly noted for producing military graduates.\n\nThe highest military mandarin which Sanon can at present boast, is a Chau-toi, or Brigadier; he is a native of Kap-shui-hau, and serves against the rebels. Inferior ranks up to that of Colonel are held by some natives of the district, who have attained these distinctions by meritorious service, and not by examination. A native of San-keaou was stationed in one of the Bogue forts during the first war with the English; he distinguished himself much by his bravery, and was in consequence rapidly promoted to the rank of Colonel. Three years ago he fell at Canton in an engagement with the rebels. Through this officer many natives of San-keaou were induced to enter the service at Foo-mun, and some of them were promoted to inferior ranks.\n\nWe proceed to notice some of the most important Places and Edifices of the district. It is to be remarked, that the district of Sanon, like the empire of China in general, cannot boast much of its architecture. Mention has already been made of the four walled cities, and of the small insignificant forts. The most important place in the district is the city of Sanon. It is built on a hill about eighty feet high, is of a quadrangular form, and contains about 8,000 inhabitants within its walls. The walls are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205375, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "130\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\ntwenty-five feet in height, twenty feet thick at the base, and ten feet at the top, but they are in many places in a dilapidated condition. There are four gates, but one of these is built up with bricks, and its opening would be regarded as of calamitous import to the mandarin; for the story goes, that about 200 years ago, a party of rebels entered by that gate and put the mandarin to death; it has been closed up ever since, and the magistrate is very careful not to have it opened lest a similar misfortune should befall himself. On the sea face there is a deep moat, and this front is farther protected by an embankment close to the shore. It is to the suburbs of this city that the name of Nam-taou is more properly applied; they stretch along the sea shore and are much more populous than the city itself, containing nearly 20,000 inhabitants. Within the city walls are the dwellings and offices of the civil and military mandarins, the magazines, the temple of the tutelary deities of the city, the hall in commemoration of chaste women and dutiful children, and other temples of less importance and pretence.\n\nThe most spacious, best preserved, and most remarkable for architectural beauty, is the temple of the tutelary deities; opposite the eastern gate is the temple dedicated to Confucius, the dignity of which is shown by the yellow colour of the tiles; this is a notable and spacious building, and connected with it are several halls, in which the names of the ancestors of Confucius, the ancient sages, celebrated mandarins of the district, with other officers who have distinguished themselves, and the good and wise people of the district, are worshipped.\n\nIn the hall where the names of those mandarins who have distinguished themselves are worshipped, there are two tablets commemorating their names; their virtuous deeds are recorded in the Sanon-che, the work to which I have so often referred. We give some instances: Wong-fan was Tou-tai in the year 1520, when there arrived certain lawless FrenchmenM, who, under pretence of bringing tribute, committed depredations and plundered the district. Tun-mun, near Castlepeak, and Macao, are said to have been particularly infested by them. They are accused of having butchered and devoured young children. Wong-fan gathered together a force of braves, and, regardless of wind and weather, made his wise plans and vanquished them. He did not appropriate the spoil to himself, but distributed it among the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n163 \n\nter. \"The inhabitants, from our knowledge of their character”, wrote another, \"appeared to be industrious and obliging.. They seemed in general to have been very peaceably disposed, nor did they exhibit any marked approbation, or disapprobation, on their transfer to the British sway\".8 \n\nThe Villages To-day. There are two villages, Kau Wai and San Wai—the Old Walled Village and the New Walled Village (though only the first has traces of an enclosing wall). Both have seen better days. The inhabitants no longer own the fields (they were resumed in connection with anti-malarial schemes in 1934–36) and the villages are now places where people live and go out to work. Most of the present vegetable growers live in huts beside their plots and not in the old settlements. In the Old Village most of the old houses have gone and many of to-day's dwellings are temporary structures put up on the site of old houses that have fallen into a ruinous state and thereafter have been cleared away. There used to be a temple to Pak Tai, the God of the North, but this became ruined and fell down about 50 years ago.10 The New Village, on the other hand, still retains some of its old houses which, in their present form and decoration are upwards of 60 years old. Their tiled roofs, ornamented ends, moulded plaster friezes, decorated eave-boards and granite lintels are worth a glance, as being some of the few surviving examples of this type of village architecture left on Hong Kong Island. They are typical of the better class of village dwellings of South China, many other examples of which can be found in the New Territories. Also in the New Village is the former house of Sir Shou-son CHOW's family (see below), but this was rebuilt about 1930 and it is of interest only for the photographs and paintings it contains of the CHOW family. \n\nThe Villages Yesterday. The date of settlement is not certain, though Lobscheid, the German missionary who was also an Inspector of Schools for the Colonial Government, was told by the village head in the 1850s that the first ancestor had taken a lease from \"Tang the acknowledged owner of the soil\" in 1668.1 \n\nIn 1893 a group of villagers had to appear before the Squatter Board to help determine and register legitimate holdings. From the information then recorded, and happily preserved, the following facts emerge:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "164\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n(a) the New Village was built entirely by inhabitants of the old village;\n\n(b) two of the houses in the New Village were built 1860-70 and some earlier, some later;\n\n(c) many families owned houses in each village;\n\n(d) many families owned 2 or 3 houses;\n\n(e) none of the cultivated land in the valley was (1893) owned by outsiders:\n\n(f) one of the villagers had been away in Singapore for over 10 years, another (most likely the future Sir Shou-son CHOW) was in Shanghai and one was “a cook for an Englishman”.12\n\nThe People of the Villages. The inhabitants of the two villages were all Cantonese, as opposed to Hakka etc.13 There were five clans in 1893. The CHOW family accounted for most of the Old Village and part of the New Village. This clan is of particular interest to us because Sir Shou-son CHOW, the well-known leader of the Chinese community before the war, was one of its members (see below). This lineage has other branches in several villages on Lamma Island, to which they seem to have migrated from Hong Kong. The other old families in the two villages came from clans whose main settlements are to-day still in Pokfulam on Hong Kong Island and other villages on Lamma. The marriages of those surviving old people in the village born in the decades 1880-1900 still reflect the close ties of family and village which bound together the scattered settlements of old Hong Kong. Enquiry showed another aspect of this unity, i.e. the participation of the two villages and the old village of Wong Nei Chung - with whose people they were related by marriage - in the series of ten yearly Ta Chiu or Pacification of Spirits ceremonies which appear to have been held regularly up to 50 or 60 years ago and in which my informants participated on several occasions in their youth.\n\nOrigin of the Name Hong Kong. According to Prof. LO Hsiang-lin of Hong Kong University, the name Hong Kong means \"incense port\" and the village along the northern shore of the present Aberdeen, \"extending as far as the present settlement of Little Hong Kong\", once acted (in Ming and early Manchu ...)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205410, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n165 \n\ntimes) as the sole export agent for producers of a special kind of incense which, then as now, was widely used for ritual worship in temples and in the home. Incense is said to have been shipped to Aberdeen by sea from Kowloon Point, to which it had been brought from various parts of the San On and Tung Kwun districts. It was then re-shipped in large trading vessels to Canton, from which it was carried overland to the north to such cities as Soochow. (It is not entirely clear to me why such a round-about route was taken to bring incense to Canton.) The cultivation and trade in this specially-favoured type of incense is said to have received a fatal blow in the early Ching period when the government evacuated the coastal areas to deny the aid and collaboration of their inhabitants to the anti-Manchu ruler of Formosa and his sympathisers.14\n\nSir Show-son CHOW (1861 - 1959). Sir Show-son CHOW who died only a few years ago, at a great age, was one of the most famous members of the Hong Kong community. He was truly a local man as his ancestors had lived in Little Hong Kong for several hundred years. His successful career, though the result of his own merits, was made possible through his father, whose abilities removed him from a farming village to the business centre of Canton and the position of compradore to the Hong Kong and Canton Steamship Company. He was in business in Canton and it was there that his son, the future Sir Show-son, was educated. By reason of this opportunity, and his own undoubted capacity, the son was selected as a free scholar by the Chinese Government as one of the first batch of Chinese youths to be sent to America for a Western education. This was in 1874, when the boy was only 13 years old. He returned to China in 1881 and for the next 16 years held important posts in Korea in the Korean Customs Service and the Chinese consular service in that country. He was President of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company at Tientsin, 1897-1903 and was managing director, Imperial Chinese Railways of North China, Peking-Mukden line, 1903 - 1907. From then until 1910, he was Customs Superintendent of Trade and Counsellor for Foreign Affairs at Newchwang, North China. On his return to Hong Kong after the 1911 Revolution his wide experience, undoubted ability and excellent reputation led to his being appointed to directorships in many firms and public utility concerns. He was appointed a member of the Legislative and Executive Councils and was knighted in 1926. He also", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n175 \n\nbeliefs and practices still occupied an important role in the lives of the people (we have so little information on the contemporary position of the popular cults), it is doubtful whether we could ever cover the immense range of variation in the material. \n\nGods worshipped by the ordinary folk, the celebration of their festivals, stories about them, and what they were believed able to do for the people in a community, differed not only from region to region, as we know from the literature on the subject, but even between different localities within a region. \n\nBut immigrants from various parts of the homeland have taken many of their local beliefs and practices with them (although they have sometimes come to occupy a different role in their societies). And it is still possible, therefore, to enlarge our knowledge of such things from study of the Chinese overseas. \n\nThis short handbook by Father Saso, a Jesuit living in Taiwan, provides us with some welcome new material on some of the beliefs and practices of the region as followed by the Taiwanese, a people originating from round the Amoy area in Fukien province. \n\nThe author takes us through the lunar year discussing gods of local popularity and their festivals, and the social customs associated with them. He also discusses some local customs associated with festivals which enjoyed a wider popularity in China, and some of their possible origins. Discussion is based on written sources, including some in Taiwanese and Japanese, on information from a temple to the city god in Hsinchu, which helped him track down stories and identify the many temple \"patrons\", and on his own observations particularly of the celebrations and customs of one family. \n\nThe reader not approaching Chinese religious phenomena from a Christian angle might be disconcerted to read that divinities in the temples can hardly be called gods because they are spirits of human beings who lived long ago, and the student of religion will recognise some of the pitfalls of trying to disentangle the various elements which go to make up this typically syncretic Chinese folk-type religious material. Nevertheless, points such as these are not unduly distracting. There is much of interest in the book. \n\nThose working on problems of comparative religion might have welcomed more information on who, more precisely, in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205473, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "10\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\ncertain groups with different secular or even religious goals? And could religion ever provide a rallying point for a total community or set of neighbouring communities under what conditions would this be possible? In this paper I want to see how far data available to me in the literature and sometimes my own research notes, enables examination of such questions for rural society a century ago.1\n\nRural China was by no means homogeneous in the nineteenth century. It was dotted with villages of different size and composition: some, particularly in the southeast, consisted of single lineages or \"clans” — units with members tracing descent to a common ancestor; others comprised two or more lineages or branches of lineages perhaps being linked with similar units elsewhere. There were communities which were scarcely “villages\" in the physical sense in mountainous areas particularly, there were groups of scattered farmsteads and there were some communities on the flatter plains which consisted of villages which had expanded and grown into each other forming large units of population. In many areas there were, also, numbers of dislocated peasants living outside villages and difficult to organize and control from village centres.\n\nReligion entered into the organization of such communities everywhere to some extent. The nineteenth century was a time when villages had to provide a great deal in the way of their own control and often appealed to religious ideas to do so. The central administration was functioning less and less efficiently and itself used religious ideas in order to foster solidarities with the rural units.\n\nSpace does not permit me to deal with all known forms of religious and semi-religious association in rural life which are relevant to problems of cohesion. I will discuss four kinds here. Organized on a local basis were: cults operated by kin-groups and connecting individuals to their ancestors by virtue of their position in such groups; cults fostered by the State and connecting individuals to other kinds of dead, seeking thereby to inspire feelings of loyalty to its cause; and cults dedicated to popular gods of concern to man as member of a local community or of a grouping found at the local level. Cutting across local territorial units to some extent and connecting man to spiritual\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205499, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "36\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\ncentury ago, used for the purpose of making rebellion into a sacred task.\n\nSecret societies have not had independent and systematic ideologies or any system of religious qualifications for membership, or priestly hierarchy for leading them in their tasks. Their ritual brotherhood among members has often involved exacting obligations but they have had no extensive \"kinship\" system as have many of the sects.\n\nMore is known about the rituals and organization of the Triad societies than the majority of sects in the nineteenth century and I do not propose to deal with such matters in detail here.50 It should be pointed out however that they also organised themselves under lodges in different areas (often symbolised by different colours) and appear also to have had difficulties in maintaining integration of their organization in various parts of the country. The evidence suggests that, on the whole, secret societies cut across the organization of lineages and also drew in mainly the poor and weak members of lineages which were differentiated.51 They did not offer salvation in the next world and do not appear to have looked forward to a millennium in this and they did not offer residence for the unattached, at least in village life in China. They drew in more men than women. Membership not only offered an opportunity to participate in a movement for changing the dynasty but the societies also, when not rebelling, often offered facilities for mutual aid in ordinary life.\n\nOne might imagine that even these groupings would need leaders with some education when organizing rebellion, however, and it may be that their more successful efforts involved some pooling of efforts with sects; sects perhaps providing leaders of education and with \"magical\" powers, and societies, leaders with more practical skills and with a larger contingent of ordinary peasants.52\n\nInter-village Defence against Societies and Sects\n\nIt is said that creating conditions of poverty and disruption in rural life was one of the methods used by militant groups to get members. At any rate a form of inter-village organization to resist sects and societies has been noted in the literature. Hsiao", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205514, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "THE HANKOW STEAMER TEA RACES\n\n51\n\nsay with any degree of accuracy, although probably one-third of this consumption would drive her about 12 knots an hour. On the principle that, while 100 horse-power would drive a steamship ten knots an hour, it would require 1,000 horse-power to propel her at the rate of twenty knots (all other conditions being in proportion), it will be seen that Mr. Macgregor's grounds and conditions for accelerated speed are not only reasonable but indispensable: the few last knots always the most expensive, and apparently almost prohibitive.\n\n\"Indeed, the present tendency seems to be towards a falling-off in the inclination to pay for such acceleration, so far as Tea freights are concerned: but time will show. Last year [1881] the slowing down of the three Glens was positive proof that the desire for fast passages had declined; and the projected telegraph to Hankow may possibly materially interfere with high freights for the future. In face of these facts, it appears clear that the large capacity of the Glenogle is a decided advantage. The Glenogle took Home this year 5,206 tons of Tea and 185 tons of miscellaneous cargo; and when she left London a few weeks ago she carried 4,022 tons of general merchandise to China; that is, she has taken into London and brought back to the East the largest cargoes that have been carried in one bottom since the opening of the China trade.\"\n\nJ\n\nEvents soon proved the soundness of the view taken by the China Mail's contributor.\n\n[Plates 1 and 2 illustrate this article].\n\nNOTES\n\nThe material has been obtained from articles in contemporary newspapers in the library of the Supreme Court, Hong Kong mainly the Hong Kong Telegraph and the China Mail, which also quoted from many other newspapers in the area. Grateful thanks are given to Messrs. Alfred Holt & Co. for their permission to use this material which was sent to them and formed the basis of an article in their House Magazine. The contemporary account has a vividness which is often lacking in the more formal history. Quotation is therefore used to give light to the story. No attempt is made to deal more than superficially with the events and there are gaps in the information provided.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205519, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "56\n\nNOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY\n\nH. A. RYDINGS*\n\nThose of us who have watched the rapid development of libraries of all kinds in Hong Kong since the new University Library building was opened in 1961 may sometimes think that there is no library history worth considering for the first hundred years of the existence of the Colony. Certainly an appeal to members of the Hong Kong Library Association, made some two years ago, for any information on the early history of Hong Kong libraries met with no immediate response. Later, however, my colleague Mr. G. W. Bonsall, in searching through local newspapers and other sources for information on other subjects, came across a number of items about libraries, which he kindly brought to my notice. The present article is based upon this, slightly augmented from other materials, and in no way purports to be a comprehensive history of Hong Kong libraries up to 1900. It is evident that much more remains to be found by the diligent searcher before such a history can be written. For the moment, however, this brief sketch based on what has so far come to light may be of interest as an introduction to Hong Kong's library history.\n\nForemost of the early libraries in the Colony is undoubtedly the Victoria Library and Reading Rooms. 'Colonial', writing in 1933, stated: “A privately organised library was established in Hong Kong as far back as 1848. A small library with attached reading rooms was run by this organisation for some years, and really formed the basis on which the City Hall library was subsequently established.\" Although 'Colonial' does not name the library, he goes on to say: “In 1871, probably in view of the coming into being of the public library, the original institution, retaining its more or less private character, was organised into a club, which was known as the Victoria Club.\" As will be seen later, this makes it certain that the reference is to the Victoria Library.\n\nThe next reference2 found to the Victoria Library & Reading Rooms is a report of the Annual General Meeting held on June\n\n* Mr. Rydings has been University Librarian at the University of Hong Kong since 1961. He is a member of Council of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society and is currently its Hon. Librarian.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205528, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\n65\n\nbe removed for use within the Court, in Chambers, or the Registry, but were not to be taken further: whether this applied only to barristers and solicitors, who were privileged to use the Library subject to the rules, or also to the Judiciary and Law Officers who were entitled to use it, is not clear.\n\nMr. J. W. Norton-Kyshe, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, whose useful history of the laws of Hong Kong is the source of the information on its Library, managed to persuade the Government in 1896 that an annual grant should be made for the purchase of books. In 1897 this amounted to $500, and in the following year it was doubled,12\n\nCertainly the history of Hong Kong libraries in the nineteenth century is by no means restricted to those which have been considered in this article, although they are probably the most important. There must, for example, have been libraries in the various schools, both Government sponsored and others, though the condition of school libraries in the Colony even today suggests that they would not have been particularly well organised fifty or more years ago. Government departments other than the Supreme Court must also have had collections of books. All these possibilities, quite apart from the existence of private libraries, both Chinese and English, need to be investigated. What has been discovered so far, however, contributes to refute the common notion of Hong Kong as a cultural desert, and to indicate that library history in Hong Kong goes back almost as far as the history of the Colony itself.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 V. H. G. Jarrett, under the pseudonym of 'Colonial' contributed a series of articles to the South China Morning Post between 17th June, 1933 and 13th April, 1935 on \"Old Hong Kong\". Typescripts of these articles were rearranged alphabetically by subject and bound in four volumes (unpaginated) in the S. C. M. P. Office. By kind permission of the Managing Director, a Xerox copy of this set is available in the University of Hong Kong Library. This extract is from the article headed \"Public Library.\"\n\n2 Hongkong Register, vol. 25, 1852, pp. 94-5.\n\n3 At this date (1852) prices were normally quoted in Spanish or Mexican dollars, equivalent to about 4/2d sterling.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205540, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "ON FENGSHUI IN SOUTHEASTERN CHINA\n\n77\n\navailable in Plum Grove Village. In Big Stream Village rice land occupied 16.8 acres and dry cultivation 8.6 acres. The total was then 25.4 acres. The corresponding figures for Plum Grove Village are 17.9 and 6.5 giving a total of 24.4 acres. The ratio between Plum Grove land and Big Stream land is then 6.9, 1.3, and 1.0 respectively.\n\nThere is yet a complication to be taken into account. Plum Grove villagers were not the sole occupants of land around their own village. Three other settlements further up in the mountains own a considerable amount of paddy fields and dry cultivation land there. A very old lady in one of these other villages thought she had heard that these fields were bought ‘a very long time ago' and that they were then very expensive. The land around Plum Grove Village is generally considered the best in this mountain area. It is not possible to establish how outsiders were vested with rights in this land. My guess is that this small village could not supply labour enough to make full use of what was at least potentially arable land, and outsiders were let in. There may also have been an earlier decrease in population. Out of the 24.4 acres registered soon after 1899 only 15.5 were controlled by local villagers. The outsiders from the other three villages had together 8.6 acres of rice fields and 0.3 acres of dry land. Thus only 64% of the local arable area were in the hands of Plum Grove people at the turn of the century. If we then compare the actual land-holdings of the two villages at this period we still find that the 2.9 times larger population of Big Stream Village had access to arable land that was only 1.5 times as large as that of Plum Grove Village; which means roughly that five persons in the former village had to live on what three persons were dependent on in the latter. As to the more vital rice land the proportions are the same.\n\nTo this basic situation could be added some other factors that were to the advantage of Plum Grove Village. They had a better supply of water for irrigation, they had better-quality soil, and they had better conditions for the formerly important complementary tea plantations. Their situation up in the mountains offered more security than could be obtained on the coast in a pirate-haunted strip of land. Plum Grove people will also have had better marketing conditions in that their traditional market town Xigong (Sai Kung) was situated in a predominantly Hakka-speaking and small-scale lineage area, while Big Stream people were dependent", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205546, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "FAN LAU AND ITS FORT\n\n83\n\noverlooking various approaches in connection with the maritime defence of the Chu Kong estuary.2\n\nIn the past vessels proceeding towards Canton from northerly points used two main routes. The first was an inner route through Fat Tong Mun1 into Kowloon Bay by way of Lei Yu Mun, after which a stop was made near the present day Kowloon City. Vessels then proceeded through what is today's Hongkong harbour towards Kap Shui Mun. Continuing northwestwards, they negotiated the inner Tai Yu Shan passage towards Lung Kwu island, using for their landmark Castle Peak (1, Shing Shan) the same landmark that Sung sailors used centuries ago to pinpoint the then bustling emporium of Tuen Mun, located near its base. From then on, ships continued towards their destination, stopping either at Lin Tin or at Nam Tau with a final clearance at Fu Mun.\n\nA second approach used by vessels was to raise their landfall at Pak Tsim, Yung Hai, or at Tam Kong (see page 87 for these places), and thence to proceed through the Sam Chau Mun picking up the twin-peaked heights of Fung Wong Shan, the highest point in the Tai Yu Shan, as a navigational landmark. On this bearing, ships entered the estuary of the Chu Kong at a point below Fan Lau fort. From Fan Lau they set course for Lung Kwu, before continuing up the estuary to Fu Mun and then to Canton.\n\nThe importance of Fan Lau to the Chinese coastal defence system lies in its location athwart the entrance of the Chu Kong estuary. The headland of Fan Lau too, made an excellent navigational landmark for ships approaching the estuary.\n\nFan Lau fort\n\nThe fort is sited on high ground about 235 feet above sea level. The exterior dimensions are 155 feet by 70 feet. The stone walls vary from 3 to 7 feet in width depending on the extent to which the existing walls have crumbled (plate 7). The height of the walls also varies, being higher at the southern end facing the sea than at the northern end. The area inside the fort covers no more than 7,380 square feet (123 feet by 60 feet). The smallness of this area suggests that the structure was a small outpost fitting the description of “guard-station\" rather than \"fort\", although it appears on a map in the Kwong Tung Tung Chi as the Tai Yu Shan pao tai (*: literally \"Tai Yu Shan gun terrace\").", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205591, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "128\n\n# CHINESE STREET-CRIES IN HONGKONG\n\nBy J. NACKEN*\n\nEditor's note. Dr. Alan Birch, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hong Kong, came across this article in the China Review, Volume II, 1873, pp. 51-55. This publication was made available to him from U.S. National Archives Microfilm, Gp. 108, Roll 9 by courtesy of the United States Consulate General, Hong Kong. The Branch is grateful to Dr. Birch for bringing this interesting article to our notice. It is reproduced here exactly as in the original, though a different format has been adopted to suit the Journal's printing style.\n\nMy friend was sitting at his desk, busy, no doubt, in framing the best-worded sentence ever penned in the East, when a howl from the street rang through the lofty verandah, and rebounded, as it were, from the high ceilings of the room. \"That's one of those ubiquitous hawkers,\" said my friend angrily, springing to his feet and rushing to the verandah to have a look at the back of the disturber. I joined my friend quietly and was just in time to see a pair of broad shoulders raising themselves, and a pig-tailed head bending backwards; and then came a second edition of the howl we had heard before. I myself, being of an asthmatic nature, rather envied the sturdy fellow who could carry so much on his shoulders and walk a brisk pace, and yet have breath enough left to utter such stentorian sounds.\n\n\"What does that fellow call out?\" my friend asked. I could not say, though I had been in China for some years, and, as my friend remarked, ought to know, if I pretended to know Chinese at all.\n\nThat was some years ago. In the mean-time others like my friend must have suffered from the annoyance which led to the framing of Ordinance No. 8 of 1872, which says that:\n\n\"Every person is liable to a Penalty who shall use or utter Cries for Purpose of buying or selling any articles whatever,... within any District or Place not permitted by some Regulation of the Governor in Council.'\n\nFor the hawkers of Hongkong wooden tickets are provided which must be renewed every quarter at a cost of 50 cents. These\n\n* Mr. Nacken was a member of the Rhenish Mission, Mr. H. A. Rydings has located a brief reference to his work in South China in the account of the Rhenish Mission given at pp. 272-276 of The China Mission Hand-Book (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1896). Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205604, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n141 \n\nbe noted below that one of the halls visited was established in the period 1912-13 (No. 3) and another about 1910 (see under No. 2).\n\nThe expansion of vegetarian halls in the second decade of this century is referred to, though with specific reference to the New Territories, in the Administrative Report for 1920 of the District Officer, North. He wrote:\n\nOne of the most remarkable features of the year has been the rapid growth of \"chai t'ong\"* or “vegetarian halls\". Five years ago these religious or quasi-religious establishments had practically no foothold in this district: now they are everywhere in parts within reasonable reach of the railway and main roads, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fan Ling and Pat Heung, each have several and are asking for more. Their promoters or managers are extremely secretive as to the objects of these enterprises, but it is sufficiently clear that they are designed chiefly to attract the well-to-do of Hongkong, particularly the womenfolk and that the believer is not expected to come empty-handed. Pending a straightforward explanation of the sudden \"boom\" in these \"halls\" permission is being refused for all new establishments as well as for extensions to existing ones.\n\nThere is another entry in his 1921 Report:\n\nThe embargo on “chai t'ong\" continues in force. The revelations in a \"fung shui” case coupled with certain vague statements from the \"T'ongs\" regarding funerals of members seem to indicate that one of the objects of these institutions is to find good \"fung shui's\" for their supporters.\n\nThe same District Officer commented to his superiors:\n\nNominally they are places of retreat where the earnest-minded withdraw from their fellowmen and living on the simplest of food can meditate upon ‘the most Excellent “Way”.' But in practice they come nearer to a Thames-side hotel.\n\nAn unfavourable opinion was also expressed by the District Watch Committee, a statutory body of leading Chinese citizens in Hong Kong to whom the matter was referred for advice. It was also asserted that the then Government of Kwangtung had an equally unfavourable opinion and had in fact expelled them from its territory \"which, if true, would at once account for their phenomenal growth in ours\" he wrote.\n\n* Cantonese romanisation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205610, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\nIt is in connexion with worship of “Mother” that the lay-out of the shrine rooms in vegetarian halls of the sect is important. Mother must be placed higher than any other deity and should occupy a room to herself (or occasionally shared with Kuan-yin with whom, as we have said, she is sometimes identified). This means that halls of the sect should whenever possible be built on two storeys, with \"Mother's\" room on the upper storey. This was so in the case of all the halls visited. Usually, one of the popular triads is housed in the main downstairs shrine-room (occasionally one finds an image downstairs of the many-armed Chun-t'i: “Goddess of Dawn\" supposedly of Buddhist origin, but she was not present in the halls visited).\n\nUpstairs besides the room dedicated to “Mother\" there is often a shrine also for the soul-tablets of past members.\n\nMembers of the Society were fortunately permitted to visit all shrine rooms (some halls do not permit outsiders to enter the \"Mother\" room).\n\nRelations between the Halls and the Ngau Chi Wan Village\n\nThere is a certain amount of inter-action between the halls at Ngau Chi Wan and the village of this name which, though on the fringe of urban Kowloon and augmented by neighbouring squatter huts and factions, is still largely inhabited by the descendants of founding Hakka families who came to this spot in the mid-eighteenth century and after. The annual festival of the god of the main village temple (said to be a Ch'iu Ch'au deity whose image was brought up from the sea off Ngau Chi Wan by village fishermen a long time ago) occurs on the 25th of the 2nd lunar month. At this time the inmates of the halls visit the opera performance that is held in a matshed on open ground in front of the KAM HA CHING SHE and worship at the portable shrine that is brought on these occasions from the temple half a mile away. Our visit took place just before this festival and already the bamboo structure on which the matshed for the opera was to be built, was being erected. A large temporary cooking stove had also been constructed for the occasion for serving vegetarian food (which Marjorie Topley gathered in conversation with some of the inmates was contracted for by the village temple association from the vegetarian halls).\n\nAgain, at the Festival of Hungry Ghosts on the 7th of the 7th moon, it is “traditional” practice for about 100 students from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205624, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nA REAPING KNIFE FROM LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG\n\n161\n\nPlate 21 shows a locally-made agricultural tool from Pui O Lo Wai, a three hundred year old mixed settlement of Hakka and Cantonese on Lantau Island.* It is said to have been made about thirty years ago.\n\nIt is very simply made from the fork of one of the lesser branches of a common local tree, the China Fir. A slender blade has been added that could have been made by one of the itinerant blacksmiths who visited Lantau each winter until recent years, or else have been purchased in the shops of the nearby market centre of Cheung Chau.\n\nThe size of the handle of such a knife could obviously vary from branch to branch though there were obvious minimum and maximum limits dictated by usability. In our example the handle measures approximately 13″ and the blade is 4″ long. Despite appearances the blade is not broken off at the tip but was made with the squared-off end.\n\nThis knife, together with the more usual type shown at Plate 22, was used to cut the rice stalks in the paddy fields. The first type was — and is generally used for the first crop which is harvested in June and July. This is a wet crop because the fields are not dried out at reaping time as in the case of the second crop (October-November) when the second knife is normally favoured.\n\nThe construction of the first knife enables the user to gather four or five stalks between the arms of the handle and draw them together, after which a deft flick of the wrist turns them over to be dealt with by the cutting edge of the blade. In cases where the stalks are lying flat or at an angle and may be tough through being wet the advantages of using such a knife are obvious.\n\nI do not know if it is in general use on Lantau, or elsewhere in the New Territories.\n\nHong Kong 1968.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n* See my article \"A Mixed Community of Cantonese and Hakka on Lantau Island\" in Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories (ed. Marjorie Topley) published by the Hong Kong Branch, R.A.S. in 1965, pp. 21-26.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205633, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "170\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nCHINESE BUDDHIST MONASTERIES: THEIR PLAN AND ITS FUNCTION AS A SETTING FOR BUDDHIST MONASTIC LIFE, J. Prip-Møller, Architect, F.R.I.D.A., Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 1967, pp vii, 300. HK$250.\n\nAccording to my encyclopaedia, architecture is concerned with finding practical and aesthetic solutions to the problem of enclosing spaces for living, worship and work. But what sort of limitations are imposed on plans by the needs of the particular activity enclosed; and conversely too, one supposes, what sort of limitations are imposed on the activity itself by the building techniques developed by a culture? Mr. Prip-Møller is a scholar who attempts to answer such questions in perhaps one of the most difficult fields: an oriental, monastically based, religion which although not changing over much during the centuries it has been established in China, makes all sorts of complex demands on the designers of buildings to house its celibate communities.\n\nThe knowledge necessary for a study of this kind is of course very special: not only architectural, but cultural and religious as well. The author of this book, first published in Denmark thirty years ago and now here in reprint in Hong Kong, was well-qualified however for the task he set himself. In setting out to see how the plans of Chinese Buddhist monasteries have related to the needs of Buddhism and the way of life, training and spiritual goals of its monks, he was already armed with extensive architectural knowledge and professional experience in China, and a great deal of knowledge also of the Buddhist religion (a study of meditation ritual is among his other publications). He already spoke the language, and travelled extensively, mainly in central China and the Yangtze valley where Buddhism was still in a flourishing condition, in search of his data, and architectural sketches and plans.\n\nThe result of this painstaking and lengthy research is a book of considerable value and interest to many kinds of reader. Although personally, I would have liked to see a chapter at the end drawing together the more fundamental points about functional relationships, everything of significance appears to have been covered. There is much information on Buddhist monasticism itself, including the training of novices, descriptions of ordinations, monastic rules and monastic punishments. There are also very plentiful and interesting illustrative materials relating to monasteries and the Chinese monastic way of life.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205731, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "31\n\nMILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE:\n\nCHINESE RESISTANCE TO THE OCCUPATION OF HONG KONG'S NEW TERRITORIES IN 18991\n\nR. G. GROVES*\n\nIntroduction\n\nViolence, or the very real possibility of violence, was endemic in southeastern China during the nineteenth century. The provinces of Kwangsi, Kwangtung, and Fukien were notorious to imperial official and foreign observer alike for their varieties of armed conflict. Brine, a British naval officer with contemporary experience of the coastal provinces, described the mid-nineteenth century situation as follows: \"the whole history of the period is little else than a continual series of local insurrections, bursting out in all directions. The coast was infested with pirates, who not only caused great injury to the coasting trade, but frequently landed and sacked the villages lying adjacent to the sea. In the two Kwang provinces armed bodies of men moved from town to town, and committed large robberies in open day... the Pekin Gazettes were full of reports from the provincial governors acquainting the emperor with the disorganized state of the country, and complaining of the inadequacy of their troops to quell the interminable revolts.\" To this catalogue of ills may be added the Opium and Arrow Wars, inter-lineage and clan warfare, ethnic conflict, and major and minor rebellions.\n\nThe prevalence of violence was by no means new. Writing of the Hsin-an District of Kwangtung Province, just over a century ago, the German missionary Krone noted: \"Hung-mo the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1399 A.D.), found it necessary... to appoint an officer with the title ‘Shou-yu-sho'... Protector of the region, in order to protect the population, which was rapidly increasing, against the bands of robbers and vagabonds which infested the district.\"3 More recently Professor Maurice Freedman, surveying a mass of evidence and arguing that organized violence\n\n* Mr. Groves is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of East Anglia. He conducted field research in the New Territories between 1963-65. His article \"The Origins of Two Market Towns in the New Territories\" appeared in Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories (ed. M. Topley) published by the Hong Kong Branch, R.A.S. in 1965.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205752, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "52\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\nthe configuration of the country favoured cover and our casualties were few.\" But, \"had this advance not been conducted with great care the loss to our troops must have been heavy.\"69 After fierce fighting the militia withdrew from the valley, leaving it by way of the saddle which gives access to the Pat Heung district. The soldiers followed and, having lost touch with the Chinese, bivouacked for the night at Sheung Tsuen, on the foothills overlooking the Pat Heung valley.\n\nThe next afternoon a large force (subsequently estimated at 2,600 men), was seen approaching from a distance. It consisted of men from Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Castle Peak and from four villages in adjacent Chinese territory, including Pan Tin. The British force took up positions and stood watching the militia, deployed in three lines, \"advance across the open in excellent skirmishing order.70 The British Officer Commanding later conceded that it was \"distinctly a determined advance for Chinamen.”71 The militia began firing at long range and their rifle and jingal fire shortly became almost continuous. When the distance had been reduced to 500 yards the British tried a few ranging shots, moved forward under cover of a dry water course, and advanced into the open toward the on-coming militia. In the face of such a determined response, which now became a general advance accompanied by heavy fire, the militia broke and ran.\n\nThis battle marked the end of organized resistance within the New Territory. The next weeks were spent in establishing the civil administration and in persuading villagers to return to their normal occupations. The Governor, in attempting to explain what had happened to a remote Colonial Office, drew upon another Celtic parallel. The resistance, he said, revealed \"a state of clan feeling and power of combination not unlike that of the Scottish Highlands two centuries ago . . .\"72\n\nThe Occupation of Sham Chun and its Aftermath-- May to September, 1899.\n\nThus far, operations had been confined to the newly leased territory. Early in May, however, reports reached the Hong Kong Government of an impending attack from across the Sham Chun river. Police informers said that 140 ‘bare-sticks' from Tung-kuan Hsien had assembled in secrecy at Sha Tau, on Deep Bay. They were to form the nucleus of a force which was to be augmented by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205766, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "66\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nsmall plateau averaging some 10 to 12 metres above sea level. This is a plane of marine denudation dating from a time when the sea level stood 12 metres higher than now, perhaps during the last great inter-glacial period (Riss-Würm), some 100,000 years ago. From this lower area much less clay could be washed than from the higher and steeper hill to the north; and the gentler wave-action on the west beach, normally on the lee of the island, made it about five times as long as that on the east of the isthmus, with very few large boulders. Somewhere on the west side of the 12 metres terrace, between about 1100 and 1500 A.D., there was at one or more times a small settlement, perhaps no more than one or two fishermen's huts; for at this point on the west beach are found pieces of Sung and even Ming pottery lying on the beach and in the cliff, which here is largely built up of coarse rainwash from the hill behind. There is, however, no modern settlement and no cultivation, and the island appears to be used only by boat-people, either for fishing or for burial of their dead; for on one visit Prof. Shellshear, who was with me, discovered a human skeleton of recent date two feet below the top of the sand cliff.\n\nMETHOD OF INVESTIGATION\n\nThe site was first discovered and investigated by Dr. Heanley and Prof. Shellshear, who worked together from about 1925 in looking for sites showing early human occupation. Much of what they found lay on the surface of the beaches, but wherever possible they noted the depth from the soil surface of objects found in the sand cliffs. Part of their material was presented later to the British Museum, and some to Mr. Eumorfopoulos and others, but the rest seems to have disappeared during the war in 1941 when the Hong Kong University was wrecked. Their code number for the site was 123, which points to a comparatively later discovery: the Tai Wan site on Lamma, for example, is numbered 83.\n\nThe technique employed by the writer at Tung Kwu was as follows. Objects not found in situ were collected and the initials of the site were painted on them in Chinese ink. If a single object was found in situ, its depth from the surface was measured in inches or centimetres; it was extracted; the depth and initials of the site were written on it or its wrapping paper, and later were recorded in Chinese ink on the specimen. In 1935, by which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205774, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "74 \n\nW. SCHOFIELD \n\nAgain, at Sai A Chau site opposite Shek Pik, one group of coarse pottery at a considerable depth from the surface, consisting of a cup and a pot 1 cm. from each other, in good preservation, suggested that they and the three or four soft pottery pieces by them with a net pattern were a tomb deposit. The bones, if any, must have been dissolved long ago by the acid soil and heavy rains: other pottery lay at just over 100 cm., more than 40 cm. above the supposed grave group, and these may have been part of a habitation layer. \n\nSix pieces which obviously formed part of very large store jars, all of coarse pottery, are known from this site,* and seem to indicate a small settlement of this pre-historic period rather than a place used only occasionally, such as a burial ground. \n\nPottery classed as 'plain' or unornamented is not recorded on the site as lying lower than 140 cm., nor higher than 60 cm. Most of it was from 100 to 140 cm., but it was much scantier than the cord-marked. \n\nStamped coarse pottery found in situ consisted of three pieces only, two at 107 and one at 114 cm. This latter had an ornament of parallel single and double raised lines across it, connected by numerous lines at right angles to them. These lines were raised, and strongly reminded me of a pattern found east of Kowloon Bay, on a hill site at Ngau Chi Wan, whence it may have been imported. The levels indicate that this pottery type is a late development at this site. \n\n2. Soft Pottery: (See Plate 7) \n\nThis class is represented by numerous fragments from all parts of the site, both loose and in situ. Most of it bears ornament impressed on the outside with what were probably carved wooden stamps which left a raised pattern on the soft clay, and these patterns were very varied, the majority being of a net type, with studs in the meshes differing in shape in each pot. The softness is caused by low firing, generally so low that the pots tend to disintegrate when wetted. Sometimes the surface is coloured with a slip, often of a grey-green colour. This softness makes it pretty clear that the pots and other vessels were either used for holding \n\n*It appears that Tung Kwu is intended, though I was not able to check this with the writer. His paragraphing is retained throughout the article. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205781, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "TUNG KWU ISLAND\n\n81\n\ninfluence is provided by the recent discovery (in 1968) of a Shang-style stone ko (dagger-axe) on Sha Chau in association with the same soft pottery. The affinity between the decoration on the pottery of Sha Chau and Tung Kwu and Shang pottery is therefore rather stronger than Mr. Schofield's last sentence in the present article suggests. Perhaps his statement made thirty years ago in his classic report on the Shek Pik site remains true: \"From the earliest period to which the Hong Kong culture can be dated a trace of Chinese influence is present.\"\n\n++\n\nPre-war writings on Hong Kong Archaeology include:\n\n(1) J. G. Andersson — “Topography of the Hongkong Sites\" in Bulletin No. 11, Topographical and Archaeological Studies in the Far East, of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 1939.\n\n(2) S. F. Balfour Section II, \"Archaeological Evidence\" at pp. 336-341 of his article \"Hong Kong Before The British” between pp. 330-352 and 440-464 of T'ien Hsia Monthly, Shanghai, 1941.\n\n(3) Fr. D. J. Finn — various articles in The Hong Kong Naturalist between 1933-36. These are now reprinted in (ed. T. F. Ryan, S.J.) Archaeological Finds On Lamma Island (Akhio) Near Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Ricci publications, Ricci Hall, University of Hong Kong, 1958.\n\n(4) C. M. Heanley and J. L. Shellshear \"A Contribution To The Prehistory Of Hongkong And The New Territories”, Praehistoria Asia Orientalis, I, Premier Congrès des Pré-historiens d'Extrême-Orient, Hanoi, 1932.\n\n(5) W. Schofield — \"Implements Of Palaeolithic Type In Hong Kong\" at pp. 272-275, The Hong Kong Naturalist, December, 1935.\n\n(6) W. Schofield — \"The Proto-Historic Site Of The Hong Kong Culture At Shek Pik, Lantau, Hong Kong\" at pp. 235-305 of Proceedings of the Third Congress of Pre-historians of the Far East, Singapore, Government Printing House, 1940.\n\nA photograph of Mr. Schofield taken at Tung Kwu by Professor Shellshear on 9 December, 1931 is at Plate 9. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205821, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE DESCENT SYSTEM\n\n121\n\nof the two should in fact have proportionately more empty houses than its poorer neighbour22; it is not impossible that the sort of inefficiencies in the descent system that I have described whereby the swelling of a descent line in one generation may leave the next with more house-property than it needs or can redistribute — may account for this anomaly.*\n\nH. G. H. NELSON.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. Göran Aijmer, \"Being Caught by a Fishnet: On Fengshui in South-eastern China\", J.H.K.B.R.A.S., Vol. 8, 1968, pp. 74-81.\n\n2. Field data drawn on in this paper are derived from a period of work in Sheung Tsuen, Pat Heung, from June 1967 to October 1968. I was employed as a Research Officer of the London School of Economics, on a project financed by a grant made to Professor Maurice Freedman by the Social Science Research Council. Much of the information from the Hong Kong Government's land records was collected by my wife, whose fare to Hong Kong was provided by the London-Cornell Project for East and South-East Asian Studies, financed jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Nuffield Foundation. I am very glad to acknowledge their generosity.\n\n3. See for example J. E. Spenser, \"The Houses of the Chinese\", Geographical Review, Vol. XXXVII, 1947, pp. 254-273.\n\n4. Cf. J. W. Hayes, ‘A Chinese Village on Hong Kong Island Fifty Years Ago Tai Tam Tuk, Village Under the Water', in I.C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, eds., Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, London, 1969, p. 33.\n\n5. Block Crown Lease, Demarcation Districts Nos. 112 and 114, 1905; various Memorials in Yuen Long District Office; and ‘A-Roll' volume X.14. I am most grateful to the New Territories Administration for their courtesy in allowing me access to the invaluable information contained in their Land Records.\n\n6. The current records conceal the difference between inhabited structures and \"house-lots' (Crown Rent being assessed on the site rather than the structure) - a difference of which the villagers are aware. Many of them, when asked how many houses they own, will say, \"so many houses and so many lots \"(uk-tel_£)\". It seems to me possible that some villagers may, in 1905, have been far-sighted ---or fortunate enough to register both their houses and their ruined lots, thereby avoiding the expense and complication of obtaining a New Grant Lot when they wanted to rebuild on an old site.\n\n* Groups of houses, bigger and more durable than usual, have also been built as a form of long-term investment (and prestige expenditure) by particularly wealthy men; but their hopes of producing enough sons and grandsons to justify this deliberate over-production of houses are often sadly unfulfilled.\n\n* On the subject of this article see also Mr. Hayes' note at pp. 158-160.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205881, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "THE LIBRARY\n\nTaipei, Literature House, 1964.\n\nHENSMAN, Bertha, and MACK, Kwok-ping (AMA)\n\n181\n\nH52\n\nHong Kong tale-spinners; a collection of tales and ballads transcribed and translated from story-tellers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong, 1968.\n\nHILL, Dennis S.\n\nH645\n\nFigs (Ficus spp.) of Hong Kong. [Hong Kong] Hong Kong University Press, 1967.\n\n*KOLLARD, J. A.\n\nPAM K81\n\nEarly medical practice in Macao. Macao, Inspecção dos Serviços Economicos, Agencia de Turismo, 1935.\n\nMARTIN, W. A. P.\n\nM383\n\nA cycle of Cathay; or, China, South and North, with personal reminiscences. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966.\n\nMAYERS, William Frederick,\n\nM46\n\nThe Chinese reader's manual: a handbook of biographical, historical, mythological and general literary reference, Taipei, Literature House, 1964.\n\nMAYERS, William Frederick, ed.\n\nM46 t\n\nTreaties between the Empire of China and foreign powers; together with regulations for the conduct of foreign trade, etc. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966.\n\nMICHIE, Alexander.\n\nM624\n\nThe Englishman in China during the Victorian era, as illustrated in the career of Sir Rutherford Alcock many years consul and minister in China and Japan, Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966.\n\nMORSE, Hosea Ballou.\n\nM88 t\n\nThe trade and administration of the Chinese Empire. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1966.\n\nREMER, C. F.\n\nR38 f\n\nThe foreign trade of China. Taipei, Ch'eng-wen Publ. Co., 1967.\n\nWHISSON, Michael G.\n\nW576\n\nUnder the rug: the drug problem in Hong Kong. A study in applied sociology. [Hong Kong] Hong Kong Council of Social Service, 1965.\n\nWILLIAMS, S. Wells.\n\nW727\n\nThe Chinese commercial guide, containing treaties, tariffs, regulations, tables, etc., useful in the trade to China & Eastern", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205942, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 22, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "MORE ON THE YUNG-LO TA-TIEN\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nHalf a century ago Dr. Lionel Giles wrote an informative article in the New China Review (vol. II, April 1920) on the Yung-lo ta-tien (hereafter abbreviated as YLTT). Others too, both before and since, have contributed something to our knowledge about this great compilation. It appears time, however, for another sketch and assessment, now that the Veritable Records of the Ming dynasty (Ming shih-lu) and other original sources have been made available.\n\nThe YLTT was unquestionably the major collective literary enterprise of the Ming period (1368 - 1644). The proposal for the undertaking was officially made by the Grand Secretary Hsieh Chin (1369 - 1415) and others on July 19, 1403. Essentially the purpose was to try to make one complete thesaurus of existing literature. At this point in history the Chinese were just beginning to recover from not one but several devastating conflicts. In the tenth century part of north China had been lost to the Khitan, and both Chinese and non-Chinese peoples had warred over the rest. After the Sung (960+) had come into control of the south and central areas, the Jurchen in the twelfth century drove out the Khitan and bit off part of the Sung domain, to be followed in the thirteenth by the Mongols who conquered all of China in over half a century of campaigning. For seventy years there was peace, and then the Chinese began to throw off the Mongol yoke as well as struggle amongst themselves for mastery. From 1350 to 1380 war raged again, and many a center of culture suffered. It is a wonder that there was anything of value left. But this was not all. The prince of Yen (Chu Ti) at the turn of the century made two attempts to seize the throne from his nephew, and this too resulted in destruction, particularly in the north. He finally achieved success on the second, entering the capital, Nanking, in July 1402, and proclaimed himself emperor, with his reign title as Yung-lo, in January 1403. One may perhaps assign to the invention of printing, both by woodblock and (to a less extent) by movable type, the merit of preserving, through all these centuries from A.D. 900 on, at least part of the literary heritage of the Chinese people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205946, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 26, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "MORE ON THE YUNG-LO TA-TIEN\n\n21\n\nserved in the Legation Guard in Peking in 1900. The Chester Beatty Library (Dublin) has three volumes not otherwise accounted for (chüan 803/4, 805/6, and 10,110/1). The Wason Collection of Cornell University has chüan 13,853, and the National Central Library, Taipei, has chüan 7527, which Yang Chia-lo failed to reproduce. The number at present count then is 809 chüan out of the original total of 22,877 chüan (not counting the table of contents which has been separately published).\n\nWhat subjects are covered in the volumes that have been saved? Practically everything that concerned the Chinese around the year 1400, but in fragmentary fashion. Thought, morals, poetry of several kinds, frontier people (the Hsiung-nu and Hu, for example), geography, surnames, government, law, the spirits, biography, divination, architecture (gates, bridges, halls, storehouses, walls, offices), villages, capital cities, history, burial customs, astronomy, botany, grain, military matters, Buddhism, Taoism, travels, bronzes, food and drink, caves, dreams, scholars, drama, sacrifices, clothing, mathematics, images, carpentry, post stations, shamans, literary collections. Dr. Walter Swingle, writing on the YLTT in the Report of the Library of Congress (1922-23), asserted: \"It combined all existing Chinese books that were available to Yung-lo, excepting novels and possibly some plays.\" Fortunately, his remark was found to be in error when the Library of Congress acquired (1935) from the collection of Dr. H. A. Giles, professor of Chinese at Cambridge University, a copy of a \"short historical novel, Ch'ieh-fên-lu and a hsü-lu, purporting to describe the experiences of Sung Hui-tsung, made captive by the Chin in 1127.\" (The son of Dr. Giles, Lancelot, was in the British Legation during the siege in 1900, and doubtless picked it up then.) The first notice of the famous play P'i-pa chi (The Lute Song) also appears in a volume of the YLTT. Professor Pelliot has characterized as one of the most important volumes saved the sections from a great Yuan dynasty encyclopaedia (Ching-shih ta-tien, published 1331), including a part on courier stations (jamči), now in the Toyo Bunko. Among other interesting works saved, generally fragmentary, are geographical. Francis D. M. Dow of Australian National University has recently drawn attention to certain gazetteers preserved: one of the prefecture of Soochow, published in 1379, for example; and years ago (1929) the Metropolitan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205992, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY\n\n67\n\nThe female has two indistinct dull red lunules above the anal angle.\n\nBody: Back black, upper part of the sides yellow, abdomen white with two lateral rows of black spots.\n\nUnderside: Forewings as in upperside. The white streak on the hindwings forms a 'V' and there are two short white bars above the anal angle. The hind wings are extremely hard to set, as they are not all in the same plane and the white fringes overlap.\n\nThe underside of the female differs in having buff instead of white hairs protruding from the body, and ochre markings instead of white on the anal angle.\n\nPostscript\n\nSince the above observations were recorded by Colonel Burkhardt some thirteen years ago, this insect has been observed throughout its entire life cycle. The species is still quite abundant in three widely separated locations in the New Territories and it is almost certainly also established in an inaccessible location on Hong Kong Island.\n\nL. curius has been bred through from the egg on a number of occasions since 1967 by both Carey-Hughes and Pickford, all stages having been photographically recorded.*\n\nThe eggs which are 0.75-0.8 mm in diameter are smooth, white and translucent in colour and are found on either side of mature leaves. During observations the eggs hatched early in the morning and the larvae on emergence were greyish green in colour with a pale yellow translucent head, hairy, with the single hairs divided at the tip.\n\nTwo days later the larvae entered the second instar and were now 4 mm in length, the head became a definite yellow and the back a much darker greenish grey, flecked with tiny black spots. At this stage the body still has tiny hairs, as can be seen in the photograph.\n\nThree days later the larvae were observed to be 9 mm in length and much blacker in colour, and the underside still a pale lime green.\n\n* See the coloured plates 7-14 at the end of this volume.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206019, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "REMOVING SOME BARRIERS \n\nTO COMPREHENSION: \n\nA NEW LOOK AT CANTONESE EXPLETIVES \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT, O.B.E., E.D., M.A.(CANTAB.)* \n\n(A lecture delivered to the Branch on 8 April, 1969) \n\nSUMMARY: \n\nBetween languages of the Indo-European family and those of the Chinese family the differences in organisation, not only of sentences and phrases but of words themselves are so wide that before anyone familiar only with the former can acquire a competent knowledge of the latter, or vice versa, he must learn to rearrange his thoughts into a new set of patterns. \n\nMr. Barnett examines some of these patterns and suggests new methods of analysis which may help speakers of English or Cantonese to attain better comprehension of each other's languages. \n\n\"Pray, my masters, defer that angry argument which I see you are about to commence.\" \n\nLREORNGWRAIV CEARNG ZRAAMSRIH MRHCROW-ZRY.1 \n\nBefore I explain these two appeals for temporary peace I had better make clear what I am not intending to cover in this talk, so that any who were expecting something different may leave, and not remain out of politeness to sit through something they do not want to hear. \n\nI do not intend, except in one respect because it has escaped notice in other people's work, to deal with matters of pronunciation. \n\nI do not have anything polite to say to those who regard \"Europeans\" and \"Asians\" as separate species, like the witnesses in a case I heard 32 years ago almost to the day, in which the ten passengers in a New Territories bus were described by \n\n* Mr. Barnett is well known to readers of this Journal. Various contributions from his pen have appeared in earlier numbers. He retired recently from the Hong Kong Civil Service after 37 years' service in the Administrative (Cadet) Grade, his last post being Commissioner of Census and Statistics. ...†. In this paper the SOAS romanization is used, except where noted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206033, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "108\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\nAnother common word is ZHEONQ53 which besides being a surname was the word for to stretch or spring a bow from the character, the basic meaning. But another ancient usage is still current to unfold or stretch out other things that can't be used until so unfolded, such as fishing nets and traps. But the commonest use is as a \"classifier\" for articles of furniture, indicating (I suppose) that such articles were thought of as being folded away when not in use, unfolded when required,\n\nThe number of such verbs, pressed into use for the ever more graphical refinement of congruence-classes, is great; furthermore a vast number of nouns, used for objects such as cups, plates, boxes and anything in which anything else can be carried or contained, are regularly used as measure-words without further ado, just as English speaks of a cup of tea, a plate of meat, a bowl of rice where other languages of the Indo-European family insist on a separate word like cupful, plateful, bowlful; but Chinese goes further. English has to expand into a trainload of passengers, a busful of people, where Chinese is content with JHATCHEAHX XAAK. In this direction the scope for expansion is endless.\n\nCongruence-words are used to distinguish between the number-groups, which (as I said about personal pronouns) in Chinese are not really \"singular\" and \"plural\" but rather \"particular\" and \"general\".\n\nIn English, the basic form of most words indicates a single example of the class: this house, my house, one house, a house, the house. More than one example, or a class or sub-class, requires a separate form: houses (in general), new houses, these houses, some houses, two houses. English is not consistent in this regard. Some words are used in their singular form, written with a capital letter, for the whole class; Man, Woman, without the definite article. Or with a lower-case initial, with the definite article: the horse is a domestic animal. Other words have only one form for singular and plural, particular and general, e.g. sheep. Others again reserve the plural form for some special sense, e.g. water (but, to take the waters), fish one fish, three fish, but Ye Gods and little fishes. Quite a study.\n\n53張\n\n54 一乘客", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206073, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "148\n\nS. F. BALFOUR\n\nthey made the primitive links in the chain of commerce before the foreign traders from India and Persia arrived about the 4th century A.D. In the present state of archaeological knowledge we do not know how far east this early trade route spread. It may have linked up Japan and Korea for instance. It seems certain that it spread to the Tonkin delta, down the coast of Annam and possibly to Malaya, Java and Sumatra. Very likely, also, is the existence of the trade routes inland by the great rivers throughout South China and Tonkin. There is unfortunately no Chinese historical record of this trade.\n\nThe Chinese accounts of aboriginal life in South China are very indefinite and unsatisfactory. In very early times (in the book of Chuang Tzŭ and the Book of Rites) the South of China was called Nan Yüeh or South of the Mountain Barrier. Texts of the Han dynasty give in greater detail the geographical divisions of the coast. The South of Fukien was called Ou, Fukien Min Yüeh, Kwangtung and Kwangsi South Yüeh and the western part of Kwangsi with the Tonkin delta Lo Yüeh or Ou Lo. These divisions cannot be taken as based on any real knowledge of racial distinctions. A few texts give us a meagre description of the natives. The Han history describes the inhabitants of Min Yüeh as \"cutting the hair short, tattooing the body, possessing neither towns nor villages but living in valleys of bamboo, expert at fighting on the water but of no use on land, having neither chariots nor horses nor bows and arrows.\" We also know that in 180 B.C. Chinese traders were forbidden to sell iron to the natives of South Yüeh which indicates that they were using stone weapons. Another text of the Han history connects the people of South Yüeh with those of Lo Yüeh or Tonkin by saying that \"they are both of the Mi tribe\". It is tantalising that in spite of much account of battles and biographies of chieftains the Chinese historians have left no real description of aboriginal life. Such was their dislike of barbarians that they either ignored them completely or wrote about them as if they were pure Chinese.\n\nAccording to the San On topography the tribe of Yao, a people of Sino-Tibetan stock affiliated to the Miao, existed to the north of our region some 200 years ago. They live now in Kwangtung and Kwangsi besides other places such as Hainan Island. They tattoo their bodies and use stone implements. They", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206085, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "S. F. BALFOUR\n\nto be found. In the pearl sea the local Tan and Man14 live near the oyster beds but they are more wretched and starved than the poorest people and are not allowed to get pearls for themselves.\n\nIt is not possible to locate the parts of the Taipo Sea where this fishing was done. No doubt the appellation Taipo Sea was used, just as T'un Mun, to denote a large indefinite area possibly including most of Mirs Bay. There are, nowadays, oysters on the Canton estuary side only, and these do not give pearls. This text, which can be found in the Topography, gives a picture of the conditions existing when the population of our region was composed mainly of soldiers and aborigines.\n\nNo doubt cultivation was practised in the neighbourhood of these garrisons by the soldiers themselves or by a few families of Chinese peasants, but rice cultivation on a large scale, such as exists now on all the plains, cannot have existed a thousand years ago. Much of the country must have been jungle. The presence of elephants is shewn by an inscription dated A.D. 962 at a Buddhist temple not far from the present frontier. The inscription describes the erection of a pagoda on a site where elephant bones were collected and buried in order to pacify herds of elephants which were doing great damage in the neighbourhood. A description15 of the event runs as follows:\n\nIn Ts'ư Fu Shih, a Buddhist temple in Tung Kun district, a stone pagoda was built in the 5th year of the reign of Ta Pao of the Southern Han dynasty with the intention of pacifying the elephants which at that time were doing much damage to the crops. Elephant bones were collected in a heap, and the pagoda raised over them so as to keep the elephants in control.\n\nWe have already seen that crocodiles were common in South China during the T'ang dynasty, but the presence of elephants as late as the tenth century is a remarkable testimony of the change that the region underwent during less than a thousand years. It seems likely that the nature of the region changed after a process of deforestation.\n\n14 i.e. Tanka and Hoklo.\n\n15 BRÂES, Volume I, page 12.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206108, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n183\n\n24TH MAY, 1969\n\nVISIT TO OLD SHAU KEI WAN\n\nThe programme notes prepared for the visit are reproduced below.\n\nEd.\n\nThis visit is to an area soon to experience redevelopment. Within a few years, extensive reclamation and clearance of squatter structures will transform the district. Dirty and non-descript, nonetheless it has interesting relics and associations that are worthy of attention.\n\nShau Kei Wan, the name means \"Rice Basket Bay\", clearly so named because of its shape, is an old settlement probably dating back to centuries before the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841. Its population was given as 1,200 persons in the first Hong Kong census of May, 1841. Then as now, the population were farmers, shopkeepers, and fishermen, scattered in various settlements round the shores of the bay, named by the British \"Aldrich Bay\" after a military engineer officer who served in Hong Kong in those first years.\n\nShau Kei Wan has for long been known locally as the 'Bay of Hungry Men'. Writing as long ago as 1858, the Rev. W. Lobscheid noted:\n\n\"This village is called by the natives Ngo-yan-wan (the harbour of the starving men). They relate that, about 150 years ago, a few junks were driven into this harbour by a hurricane. The weather continuing very rough for several days, and being in want of provisions, they went on shore in order to purchase some rice and other necessaries. But nothing could be obtained, and the unfortunate men had to leave almost in a starving condition. From that time, they called the place the harbour of the starving men', which appellation it bears up to this moment.\"\n\n[From A Few Notices on the Extent of Chinese Education and the Government Schools of Hong Kong, etc. Hong Kong, Printed at the \"China Mail\" Office, MDCCCLIX p. 38.]\n\nIn another version of the same story, given in a Chinese publication in 1947, the name is ascribed to the fact that Shau Kei Wan was a base for lawless pirates, the \"hungry people\". This account said that because of the geographical advantages", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206111, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "186\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthe small pre-war Yuk Wong (or Jade King) Temple, recently reconstructed, and to some open ground now occupied by a theatrical matshed erected for the Tam Kung festival where Wai Chau and Cantonese opera will be performed for the traditional five nights and four days. This is organised by the people of Ah Kung Ngam, and a small booth on the left-hand side of the road (going in) is plastered with large sheets of orange paper on which the names of all subscribers to this free opera have been written. Up to the war of 1941 and again after the Liberation, up to 13 years ago, my local informants say that puppet plays were held here, but the greater resources of a larger population have now enabled the local people to have opera troupes instead. Both Wai Chau and Cantonese opera are performed, and I was promised the former for the day of our visit.* Among the principal organisers are an old Hoklo fisherman of 75 who has lived at Ah Kung Ngam for nearly sixty years and two middle-aged Hakka men whose families have been settled there for 3-4 generations.\n\nAccording to the old Hoklo fisherman who first came to Ah Kung Ngam about 1911-1912, the Yuk Wong Temple was then 'a broken house with an incense burner'. He goes on to say that it was restored pre-war by a big subscriber.\n\nWalking back from Ah Kung Ngam (and later on, in passing by bus through Shau Kei Wan) the visitor will notice the abandoned quarry sites on the hillsides. The official yearly reports of the Hong Kong Government in the later 19th century (styled Blue Books) show that the Shau Kei Wan quarries were then much more important than any elsewhere on the Island and rivalled those in Old British Kowloon. We note, for instance, that there were 72 quarries operating there in 1872, 49 in 1881, and 51 in 1891.\n\n*The subject of the Wai Chau opera was taken from the San Kuo or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the most famous novels in Chinese literary history. The episode which was the subject for this particular play, entitled \"An Expedition for Revenge\", can be read in English between pages 597-607 of volume 1 of C. H. Brewitt-Taylor's translation of the novel in two volumes published by Kelly & Walsh, Limited, Shanghai: Hong Kong: Singapore, 1925.\n\n†The old man is right in thinking it was before his time. A list of temples in CSO No. 296/95, an old Secretariat file now kept in the Registrar General's Department, lists three trustees, all named Cheung, for the Yuk Wong temple at \"A Kung Ngam\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206113, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "188\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nBut luckily for them and for me, the prophet's prediction proved to be an invention of his own, and nobody was injured but his own reputation.\n\nHong Kong, May 1969.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHEMP\n\nA few years ago, I wrote about itinerant Hakka craftsmen who came regularly to some of the New Territories villages to weave locally grown hemp-flax into cloth for making clothes (see the 1968 Journal, pp. 162-165). In the course of reading and making further enquiries, more information has become available that may interest readers of my earlier note on this now relatively obscure subject.\n\nA few words of background may serve to show that the disappearance of this crop and this craft from Hong Kong in comparatively recent times signals the end of a practice that must have been followed from time immemorial in this region and elsewhere. Hemp constituted the main source of textiles in China until the introduction of cotton from the tenth or eleventh centuries A.D. According to M. Loewe's Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (London, B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1968), the planting of hemp for the coarse raiment in which most of the population was clothed was already one of the farmer's main occupations in the Han time (202 B.C.-A.D. 200) along with another prime necessity, grain for food. Fragments of a short text on husbandry ascribed to Ts'ui Shih (c. 100-170) set out a yearly programme of activities for the farmer and his household and include instructions on the cultivation and use of hemp. Unfortunately, however, despite the use of hemp clothing by the bulk of the Han population, it is of silk fabrics that most is known today. By the late Sung period in the mid-13th century, ordinary people still wore clothes made of hempen cloth since cotton, too, was a luxury, though its use had begun to spread (see Jacques Gernet Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1962, p. 130).\n\nThe description of the planting, preparation, and processing of hemp that follows is taken from pp. 205-208 of Samuel...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206114, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "188\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nBut luckily for them and for me, the prophet's prediction proved to be an invention of his own, and nobody was injured but his own reputation.\n\nHong Kong, May 1969.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHEMP\n\nA few years ago, I wrote about itinerant Hakka craftsmen who came regularly to some of the New Territories villages to weave locally grown hemp-flax into cloth for making clothes (see the 1968 Journal, pp. 162-165). In the course of reading and making further enquiries, more information has become available that may interest readers of my earlier note on this now relatively obscure subject.\n\nA few words of background may serve to show that the disappearance of this crop and this craft from Hong Kong in comparatively recent times signals the end of a practice that must have been followed from time immemorial in this region and elsewhere. Hemp constituted the main source of textiles in China until the introduction of cotton from the tenth or eleventh centuries A.D. According to M. Loewe's Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (London, B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1968), the planting of hemp for the coarse raiment in which most of the population was clothed was already one of the farmer's main occupations in the Han time (202 B.C.-A.D. 200) along with another prime necessity, grain for food. Fragments of a short text on husbandry ascribed to Ts'ui Shih (c. 100-170) set out a yearly programme of activities for the farmer and his household and include instructions on the cultivation and use of hemp. Unfortunately, however, despite the use of hemp clothing by the bulk of the Han population, it is of silk fabrics that most is known today. By the late Sung period in the mid-13th century, ordinary people still wore clothes made of hempen cloth since cotton, too, was a luxury, though its use had begun to spread (see Jacques Gernet Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1962, p. 130).\n\nThe description of the planting, preparation, and processing of hemp that follows is taken from pp. 205-208 of Samuel", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206132, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n205 \n\nThe stated goals of these projects are \"to determine the nature and extent of religious practices in Hong Kong\" and to “understand the meaning of these practices for the people.\" A third, unstated, purpose is obviously to communicate this knowledge both to interested laymen and to specialists in sociology and religion. The actual research was conducted, and the book written, by three social scientists, but they endeavor to make the book meaningful to those without sociological training as well.\n\nThe population studied was a group of Hakka villagers from Plover Cove, who were removed by the government from a rural setting several years ago to make way for the construction of a reservoir, and resettled in the market town of Tai Po.2 Their way of life has changed drastically, and it is the general aim of the study to discover how the move from a rural to an urban environment has affected their religious practices. Unfortunately, the authors never explain why this particular population was chosen for study (except that Dr. Berkowitz and others were already conducting a larger research project there), nor do they attempt to relate the experience of the Plover Cove people to that of the general population of Hong Kong, which is also experiencing rapid urbanization. The Plover Cove situation is a highly unusual one in the context of Hong Kong. While most of Hong Kong's population is urban, or rapidly becoming so, the people have for the most part experienced these changes as individuals or families who have migrated to the city, not as whole villages suddenly removed. In order for this study to have been more generally useful in increasing our understanding of the impact of urbanization upon religious practices in Hong Kong, the authors might have explained the theoretical value of studying the Plover Cove situation and attempted to briefly compare the experience of those people with the experiences of other segments of Hong Kong's population.\n\nThe book is introduced by a chapter on the theoretical background of the study. This is followed by a brief history of the six villages and a very interesting description and comparison of the villagers' rural environment and the urban environment into which they were removed (one hopes that more research will be published in the future on such topics as the effects of the physical layout of the new apartment buildings in Tai Po on the villagers'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206138, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n211\n\nto a local princess. Fifteen years later he hears that his mother and several members of his family are guarding the Chinese border very close to where he is. When the play starts, he is longing to see his own people again, and his wife, the princess, makes him admit the reason for his sadness to her and also his identity. She agrees to help him to get out of the barbarian camp on condition that he comes back the next day. The most dramatic moment of the play is the brief encounter between Ssu Lang and his mother and his first Chinese wife. However, he keeps his word and returns.\n\nThe second play is a farce. The philosopher Chuang Tzu tests his wife. He pretends to be dead and reappears under the form of a young handsome scholar. He seduces his wife and even persuades her to break open the coffin in which her husband lies to remove his heart to make a medicine for him. However, when the wife opens the coffin, the philosopher reappears and confounds her. She commits suicide from shame.\n\nBesides the translations, the book also includes a general introduction to Chinese opera, some photographs of scenes from the two plays, detailed explanations of extracts from Ssu Lang visits his mother (the latter have been recorded on tape and are available from the publisher), a glossary of Chinese theatre terms and an index.\n\nBy choosing these two plays, the author has presented nearly all the different kinds of Chinese opera characters (only the painted faces are not represented). Both plays are very well known and often played; for example here in Hong Kong, by the Chun Chau Peking Opera School in Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. Ssu Lang visits his mother was, moreover, played two months ago in the City Hall by a group of amateurs; and famous airs from this opera are as well known to the Chinese as are the famous airs of Verdi to Italians. The background explanation is an excellent summing-up of what must be known in order to enjoy a Chinese opera; and if one wants to know more, one can read the Chinese Classical Theatre by the same author. This earlier book speaks in generalities, but here A. C. Scott gives two precise examples and shows how the principles of Chinese operas work in a given play.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206196, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "TEXT OF A LETTER SENT TO THE HON. THE COLONIAL SECRETARY ON THE SUBJECT OF A NEW CITY MUSEUM FOR HONG KONG.\n\n24th May, 1971.\n\nDear Sir,\n\nA NEW CITY MUSEUM\n\nAt a meeting of the Council of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society held earlier this year, the question was raised as to whether we, as the executive committee of a Hong Kong learned society, could, with advantage to all concerned, formulate our views on the above-mentioned subject which is exercising the minds of many residents of this Colony at the present moment.\n\nThe members of the committee were unanimously of the opinion that we should do this, firstly because the main purpose in founding our Society as long ago as 1847 was to foster the preservation, and to encourage the study, of all matters concerning the history of this part of Asia; and secondly and more specifically because in the inaugural address of our first President, Governor Sir John Davis, he urged the adoption by the young Society of two practical aims in addition to the lecture and discussion programmes usually adopted by learned societies. His suggested aims were the establishment in Hong Kong (a) of Botanic Gardens, and (b) of a City Museum. A brief statement concerning what was accomplished towards achieving these aims about a century and a quarter ago was recently made by Dr. J. R. Jones, the past President of this Branch of the Society, in his letter published in the South China Morning Post on Friday, 18th December, 1970, under the title of \"Sir John Davis, and Hong Kong's First Museum\".\n\nAfter some discussion which was purposely confined to generalities, and did not extend to the consideration of details, it was unanimously decided that we should support the proposal that the present museum should be re-organized and that the opportunity should then be taken of re-housing it in a new and specially designed building situated on a site chosen for its suitability and adaptability rather than for reasons of expediency.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206198, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "# HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1970\n\nThe Accounts now before you have again been kindly audited by Messrs. Wong, Tan & Co.\n\nIn my report last year I predicted that the Society would make a deficit due to forthcoming printing charges. As you can see from the Income and Expenditure Account this has been the case where a surplus of $5,691 in 1969 has been turned into a deficit of $6,529 in the current year. This is entirely due to the increased expenditure, the heaviest since the Society was revived eleven years ago. This increase can be seen in the expenditure incurred in the very successful Peking Opera, which the Society sponsored, and in the amount spent on printing Journals. The latter falls into three categories, the reprinting of Volume I, the printing of the symposium \"The Changing Face of Hong Kong\" and the 1970 Journal. The 1970 volume which you are just about to receive if you have not already done so, is a splendid work, but it has cost almost 50% more to print, due to rising costs, the increased size and not least the reproduction of coloured photographs. Members will recall that they receive this free and there is no doubt that it is exceptionally good value for money. However your Council has recently endorsed the proposal that in view of the exceptional expense, the price of this particular Journal to non-members and to members, should they wish for more than one copy, should be raised to $18 from the present $12.\n\nOn the Income side you will notice that this is more or less the same as in the previous year. Annual Memberships do not cover, and never have covered, the expenditure. It is of course important that the Society should increase its membership, not only to enable it to become wider known, but also to increase its income: this is the one positive way in which all members can contribute, by asking their friends to become members. At present, income from this source is fairly static (in 1968 it was $11,380; in 1969, $10,559; in 1970, $10,853 and in 1971 it looks as if the amount will still be under $11,000). I would therefore urge you to help in increasing our membership so that the Society can afford to produce more publications like the 1970 Journal and sponsor other activities such as the Peking Opera.\n\nPage 15\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206224, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION \n\n35 \n\ntreaty of Nanking, in 1842, which was the result of these troubles, opened four more doors in the wall of exclusiveness with which China had surrounded herself. Amoy, Foochow, Ning Po and Shanghai were added to Canton, thus making five points of touch between China and the West. This did something to rouse China from the Saturnian dreams in which she had been so long indulging; but more was wanting to make her wide awake. It required the fire of the Summer Palace to singe her eyebrows, the advance of the Russian in Kuldja and the Frenchman in Tong-King, to enable her to realise the situation in which she was being placed by the ever-contracting circle that was being drawn around her by the Europeans. By the light of the burning palace which had been the pride and the delight of her Emperors she commenced to see that she had been asleep whilst all the world was up and doing; that she had been sleeping in the vacuous vortex of the storm of forces wildly whirling around her. \n\nIn such moment China might have been excused had she done something desperate, for there is apt to be a good deal of beating about and wild floundering on such a sudden awakening; but there was none in the case of China. A wise and prudent prince counselled China to pay the price of her mistakes, whilst the great Chinese statesman who is now in power, and who, since 1860, has rendered such incalculable services to his country, began that series of preparations which would now make it difficult to repeat the history of that, for China, eventful year. It is not a moribund nation that can so quietly accept its reverses, and gather in courage from them, set about throwing overboard the wreckage and make a fair wind of the retiring cyclone. The Summer Palace, with all its wealth of art, was a high price to pay for the lesson we there received, but not too high if it has taught us how to repair and triple fortify our battered armour; and it has done this. China is no longer what she was even five years ago. Each encounter and especially the last has, in teaching China her weakness, also discovered to her her strength.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206233, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "44\n\nCHIU LING-YEONG\n\nuseless against a foe unless they are worked and guarded with intelligence, precision and judgment. Fast sailing cruisers, powerful ironclads and swift torpedo-boats are excellent weapons of defence as well as offence, but they are only tools and demand much skill, bravery, knowledge and experience in their handling. In the hands of the uninitiated and ignorant, they are clumsy and expensive toys fit only to be sunk or captured by an enemy after a brief resistance. Where will China find all the hands for her navy without going abroad for them? I am aware that the present order of things is to hire foreign instructors and establish naval schools. Indeed, the Naval College at Foochow was established many years ago, and has from time to time turned out a large number of students, and, I will add, some promising ones too. But were all the students treated properly and all promises made them kept? Were their salaries liberal, and were they punctually paid; and did their salaries suffer much diminution or become beautifully less ere they reached the several recipients' pockets? When the students were qualified, did they get all they deserved, or what had been promised to them? Were they not put under the same official despotism as the other ordinary officers? Have they not been placed absolutely at the command of and obliged to take directions from ignorant officers who have never been to sea and whose only merit consists in being high mandarins or the relations of such? Have there not been cases of desertion on account of bad treatment received, and have there been no frequent and loud complaints? Here more than anywhere internal reforms are required to induce promising young men to devote their time to necessary courses of study and training, and, when qualified, to risk their lives and all in the loyal defence of their dear country upon the raging billows. Get an efficient navy by all means, but before all get reform. Take timely warning by the naval encounter at Foochow, where so many of China's ships of war, though outnumbering the French fleet and carrying heavy ordinance, were sunk within the space of barely half an hour. Such a record should make a nation weep and repent in sackcloth and ashes.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206236, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION\n\n47\n\nreadily lend except on condition that they should have some voice in the control or management of the enterprise for which the money was to be loaned. Ho Kai was of the opinion that China would scarcely relish such a condition. China would prefer to raise a loan among her own people. This was indeed a better way. He suggested:\n\nNearly every European nation has a national debt in which her people freely invest in spite of the low rate of interest. Why should China not have a national debt also in which her own people can also invest? No reason at all except that before borrowing from her subjects she has first to establish her credit with them, and win their confidence and trust. But does China possess the confidence of her people regarding money matters? I am afraid not. Witness the recent failure in the attempt to raise a small loan by the Canton authorities. One can hardly wonder at this, seeing the great reputation Chinese mandarins have acquired of knowing too well the value of money, and therefore hard to be made to part with any when once placed in their possession. Some Chinese go so far as to fear that if once they deposit their hard-earned capital with the Government, they will never see it again, much less the interest. This is a pity, for I believe there are many wealthy Chinese who could afford to leave with the Government handsome sums on loan at moderate interest.\n\nShould the Government have much difficulty in securing sufficient funds to carry out all the contemplated improvements, they might be forced to leave much to be done by private enterprise. This after all is the best way, as has long ago been found out in other countries. But private enterprise will not be undertaken without much encouragement from and confidence in the Government. The least suspicion of injustice, the remotest fear of underhand dealings and undue interference on the part of the Government, such as the levying of blackmail, the imposition of heavy taxes and the assumption of certain injurious prerogatives, would prove fatal to such undertakings. Will the Chinese Government give us some assurance beforehand?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206401, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "192\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nI had intended to say something on the coolie traffic, though Great Britain happily is not chargeable with its enormities, as another thing which is disgraceful to the Christianity of the West, and happily has not extended to Japan;-forming another great element of difference in our relations with it and with China, and going far to account for the different way in which foreigners are regarded by the people of the two countries. I have trespassed, however, so long on your time, that I content myself with this brief reference to it.\n\nAnd there is only one other subject which I shall mention. A little ago I quoted from Sir Rutherford Alcock the words of Prince Kung, asking that we should take away from China our opium and our Christian Missions. Are these two things then to be placed in the same category? It is enough to say that Missions are expressly commanded by God, and that it is not in the province of human governments to interfere with them. If there be abuses indeed in the conduct of any religious missions in China, let them be proved, punished, and forbidden. The one thing that in the circle of my experience has been a great blessing to China has been the missionary enterprise. Our Protestant missions may not have come anywhere in it with much observation, but in the little more than five and twenty years that they have been at work, they have made constant progress, and have on the whole been greatly successful. There is much misconception on this subject,—misconception in some to be pitied, in some to be blamed. I would gladly say more upon it, and I think I could prove more than what I have affirmed to the satisfaction of you all. But I must have done; I could not, having been for the best part of my life a missionary, have satisfied my conscience if I had not said thus much on this occasion.\n\nWell; what is to be the future of Hongkong? \"Things are on the turn,\" one and another have said to me, \"and we shall soon be having as good times as in the best days of Sir Hercules Robinson.\" Not so soon, say I, unless we have war again, which may God forbid! The first thing must be to get back and foster the junk trade. Then when I try to pierce into the future, I see a railway from Kowloong to Canton. I see a trunk line from Han-k'ow to Canton, and branch lines connecting with it from the great provinces of the west, and from Cheh-këang and Fuh-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206403, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nVISIT TO THE TUNG LIN KOK YUEN, TAM KUNG TEMPLE, HAPPY VALLEY, AND TIN HAU TEMPLE, CAUSEWAY BAY, SATURDAY, 7TH NOVEMBER 1970\n\nTung Lin Kok Yuen\n\nThe Tung Lin Kok Yuen(t) is a Buddhist nunnery situated at Shan Kwong Road, Happy Valley, not far from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club stables. It was founded by the late Lady Hotung (1878-1938), wife of that well-known Hong Kong figure, Sir Robert Hotung. The Yuen comprises a Buddhist temple and the Po Kok Vocational Middle School. The main building was completed in mid-1935 when two other institutions founded by Lady Hotung, the Po Kok Free School in Percival Street and a Buddhist seminary in Castle Peak were moved to it. The Yuen is said to be the only place in the Colony which provides a seminary for Buddhist nuns, and the study of Buddhism forms a major part of the curriculum. A new school building was opened in November, 1951 and an extension for teachers' quarters in 1954.\n\nAlthough the Yuen is not very old, it is of special interest in that the religious images, furniture and other fittings survived the Japanese occupation when so much else in the Colony was dispersed or destroyed, so that we can see today, more or less, how the Yuen looked when it was completed in 1935. Readers of Mrs. Jean Gittins' recently published book Eastern Windows Western Skies (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Ltd., 1969) pp. 106-7, will recall how many of the internal fittings for the Yuen were carried out by Shanghainese craftsmen in Sir Robert Hotung's house on the Peak.\n\nOf particular interest are two halls devoted to the maintenance of memorial tablets for the dead. One of these, named after one of Sir Robert Hotung's sons who died early, there is a painting of him in the hall is part of the original building, whilst an extension was added about 10 years ago. The persons depositing memorial tablets in these halls are said to pay a once-for-all donation to the Yuen. Besides memorial tablets kept under glass-fronted altars, there are also lists of names written on pink paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "bination with rattan\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n199\n\n() for net frames only. The ropes were usually up to 20-28 in length and could be even 30+ ★, in which case the rope was turned round and carried part of the way back the rope road. Mr. Yue recalled that the first type of rope had been used by trawlers up to and through the Japanese Occupation but had stopped shortly after the Liberation. The second type had been made and used in local fishing craft up to his brother's death some 7-8 years ago.\n\nThe ropes were twisted from three strands, so that there were three stands with handles at one end of the rope road and a single one at the other. Up to ten persons were employed in the work. Unlike dyeing, this business had been in the Yue family for several generations as both Yue's father and grandfather are reported to have engaged in this work.\n\nThere were several pools at Ta Lam Lo filled with sea water and lime in which the ... was soaked for 10 days to soften it and preserve it. If fresh water was used salt had to be added.\n\nThere is still some rope-making on Ap Lei Chau at a place beyond the Kwun Yum temple but the material used is nylon and wire. This place had also been used to manufacture the other kinds of rope in the earlier period and was known locally as Lam Lo Mei (44), being subsidiary to the main area.\n\nA short description of the calendering process is given at p. 190 of the 1970 Journal. This dates from the 1860s, and probably relates to Central China,\n\nHong Kong, April 1971.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nCHARCOAL BURNING IN HONG KONG\n\nIn his compendious work on China published in 1878 Archdeacon Gray of Canton wrote:\n\n\"As coal is not used for domestic purposes, charcoal is in great demand, and charcoal-burners are to be seen daily on the hills. The hillsides of Pun-yu, Fa-yune, and Tsung-fa -districts of Kwun Tung- are studded with their fires; and on the slopes of the Lew-Shan range of mount-\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206410, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n+ + +\n\n201\n\nSha Wan villages about also remembers them. When I asked these ladies whether the charcoal burners were village people or outsiders, their reply was typical, and to the effect 'they weren't from our villages and probably not from adjacent ones either, but we didn't go near them to ask.'\n\nI have seen the Lantau and Lamma pits only, all linked with charcoal burning by the local people. The kilns, or rather the pits that remain, vary in size. Most are circular and fairly small, about 7 to 8 feet in diameter and a few feet deep at the present time. One of the Lamma pits, near Mau Tat, styled as ‘a big kiln' by the old village person mentioned above, is larger, being 15 feet across. Its earth walls are smooth and impregnated with tell-tale carbon. All these pits are cut into low banks or into the ground.\n\nPerhaps the last kilns to be operated in the Hong Kong area are some near the Shek O Road. According to Hok Tsui and Lan Nai Wan villagers living nearby, these were opened and operated by the Japanese during the war-time occupation of the Colony between 1941-45. They recall passing them and seeing them in operation when on their way to market in Shau Kei Wan, though giving them a wide berth for fear of trouble. Shau Kei Wan people say that the kilns were used to provide fuel for the electric plant at North Point, to which the charcoal was transported on little wooden trucks hauled by local men and women workers engaged by the Japanese.\n\nThese pits differ from the others in that they are domed, being cut into a high bank. They are apparently very similar, though newer, to those north of the Kowloon hills described over twenty years ago by G. A. C. Herklots in The Hong Kong Countryside (Hong Kong, S.C.M.P. Ltd. 1947). His description is worth quoting in full, though he was not clear whether or not the pits were used for charcoal burning and he had not sought to ask in the villages of the area.\n\n\"There are some curious dome-shaped holes by the path, one is actually immediately under the path. They are roughly six feet high in the centre and nine feet across. The sides are vertical, the roof domed and the floor space circular. The holes are holes in the ground and their roofs are level with the surface of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206427, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 244, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "218\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nIn answer to the review in the Journal of the previous book, one of the authors wrote \"I am impelled to emphasize that we wrote avowedly as dealers. Our objective has been achieved and the work has brought us a substantial volume of business\". Where desire for success prevails over truth, accuracy and scholarship, one gets only gallery patter. The present volume has all the bad points of its predecessor.\n\nPeabody Museum\n\nSalem, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1971.\n\nF. B. LOTHROP\n\nJ\n\nFAMILY AND KINSHIP IN CHINESE SOCIETY, edited by Maurice Freedman. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1970., pp. XV, 269.\n\nStudents of Chinese society are not able at present to undertake field studies in the Chinese homeland, the People's Republic of China. The last major social investigation was carried out in the vicinity of Canton by Professor C.K. Yang over twenty years ago. Despite this formidable obstacle - the fact that China is closed to direct sociological observation - the study of Chinese domestic institutions by Western and other scholars has quickened rather than slackened. A small group of dedicated social scientists have been active since 1949 in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other areas of Overseas Chinese settlement. Paradoxically, since 1949 much data have been collected, some important hypotheses formulated, and some parts of theory tested. As this volume makes clear, we have learned much about Chinese society since 1949 - at least about the older China now being transformed by political, social and economic developments.\n\nIt is natural, I feel, that the editor of this volume should be Professor Maurice Freedman, whose two major studies of this area - Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (1958) and Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (1966) — have deeply influenced many other researchers in the same field. Professor Freedman, as the bibliographies appended to his works amply\n\n* A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition and The Chinese Family in the Communist Revolution (both M.LT., 1959),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206428, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n219\n\ntestify, long ago revealed the theoretical relevance of much of the earlier literature on China: it is pleasing to note, therefore, that some of the contributors to this volume are now combining field research with an extensive use of the available documentation on China. This has led to a much more sophisticated treatment of theoretical problems and has, I feel, made such works much more interesting to read and more intellectually attractive for people in other disciplines.\n\nThe essays in this volume, apart from one by Professor Arthur P. Wolf, were in their original form papers written for, and discussed at, a conference on Kinship in Chinese society, held in New York in 1966 and sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council (New York). As it is not possible for a workaday sociologist to discuss every paper meaningfully and in detail in a short review, I shall comment on only a few of the papers, not because they are necessarily the best or the more significant but simply because I have some comments on them.\n\nThe first essay is by Professor Myron L. Cohen, who discusses a key problem: the structure of the Chinese family. Professor Cohen argues that the relevant components of the chia (family) can be reduced to three: the chia estate, the chia group, and the chia economy, and that the connection between the three components can assume a variety of forms or types. As he writes, 'the Chinese family has by and large been described in terms involving or assuming the existence of a chia in which the estate is concentrated, the group is concentrated, and the economy is inclusive'. Much of his essay is taken up by a rigorous discussion of chia variations, such as that an inclusive economy can be found in association with a dispersed estate and, of necessity, a dispersed group. Professor Cohen concludes that 'the possibility arises that a good deal of the movement of persons in Chinese society, movement connected with \"horizontal\" or \"vertical\" social and economic mobility, or with efforts to achieve such mobility, in fact occurred within a chia framework'. The points he makes are important and crucial: they illuminate basic concepts used to understand Chinese society; and I am persuaded by his claim 'that there may be more to domestic units than meets the demographer's eye'. There is certainly some evidence from nineteenth century Hong Kong to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206462, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "The other accommodation problem that required for our meetings you will remember I touched upon briefly in my report last year. The problem still exists but in a more intensified form, and there is no doubt in my own mind that Dr. Jones's oft-reiterated solution-premises of our own — is the ideal one.\n\nBut the cost of that is, at the present moment and in the near foreseeable future, far beyond our financial means.\n\nBut the recent proposal concerning a HONG KONG ARTS CENTRE may well be a practicable solution, and your Council has already taken steps to associate itself actively with this well worth-while proposal. In my view it will be one of the most important subjects on the agendas of Council meetings during the forthcoming year.\n\nCommunity Problems. It is a very controversial point as to how well advised the executive committee of an organization such as ours would be in becoming actively or even theoretically involved in general matters of community interest.\n\nThere is one field however in which your Council felt no doubt about the direction in which its duty lay, and that was in the consideration of the problem of a CITY MUSEUM which was exercising the minds of many resident members of our community earlier last year.\n\nThe members of your Council present at the meeting when this subject was discussed, were unanimously of the opinion that we could and should discuss the subject in council. For this decision there were two main reasons.\n\nPage 44\n\nFirst, because the main purpose in founding our Society as long ago as 1847 was \"to foster the preservation, and to encourage the study, of all matters concerning the history of this part of Asia; and second, and more specifically because in the inaugural address of our first President, Governor Sir John Davis, he urged the adoption by the young Society of two practical aims in addition to the lecture and discussion programmes usually adopted by learned societies. His suggested aims were the establishment in Hong Kong (a) of Botanic Gardens, and (b) of a City Museum.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206463, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "The Council therefore unanimously decided that we should emulate the example set by our first President in 1847, by affording our moral support to the modern proposals of 1971 concerning a New City Museum. It was therefore further decided that letters should be sent to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary and to the Chairman of the Select Committee of the Urban Council on Museum and Art Galleries, pledging our support to\n\n\"the proposal that the present museum should be re-organized and that the opportunity should then be taken of re-housing it in a new and specially designed building situated on a site chosen for its suitability and adaptability rather than for reasons of expediency.\"\n\nIn these letters, we were careful to point out that this expression of opinion was that of the Council and not necessarily that of the Society as a whole, but I suggest that if you see fit to accept this Report at this meeting, your incoming Council will be justified in assuming that the general line of action taken last year has your approval.\n\nIf any member should wish to have further information about the achievements of the Society concerning the original aims of a century and a quarter ago, they will find a brief statement of these from the pen of Dr. J. R. Jones, the past-President of this Branch of the Society, in his letter published in the South China Morning Post on Friday, 18th December, 1970, under the title \"Sir John Davis, and Hong Kong's First Museum\".\n\nThanks:\n\nIt now remains for me but to put on record my thanks to the members of the Society in general for their generous support of the Society's activities during the year under review, and my hope that you will continue to afford the same measure of support to the Council you are about to elect to look after your affairs throughout the forthcoming year. In one respect, however, I must particularise, and that is to thank the British Council and its staff members who continue so willingly to render us invaluable service and assistance.\n\n27th March, 1972.\n\nL. T. RIDE", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206475, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "CHINESE MEDICINE\n\n17\n\nEuropean notice in the last century through the publications of the Jesuit fathers.\n\nPreventive medicine was only stressed in recent years by scientific medical men, but in China the idea that \"Prevention is better than cure\" has been advocated long ago. I quote the following passages from different writers in support:\n\nIn the Su Wen (†), The Basis of Chinese Medicine, supposed to be edited by Emperor Huang Ti (†), it is said: “The sage does not treat those who are ill but those who are well.\" Huai Nan-tzu (††) said: \"The good doctor pays constant attention to keeping people well so that there will be no sickness.” In the Difficult Classic (##) (Nan Ching), it is said: \"The skilful doctor treats those who are well but the inferior doctor treats those who are ill.\" In the Nei Ching (#) Canon of Medicine, it is said: \"The good physician first cures the disease of the nation, then human ailments.\"\n\nHygiene and Public Health were also in an advanced state during the Chou (B) dynasty. The writings of Confucius (R), Huai Nan-tzu (†), Kuan Chung (4) and others contain numerous references to them. Thus, as regards food and drink, Confucius advised one to abstain from rice which had been injured by heat, moisture and turned sour; fish and meat that was stale; what was discoloured; what was of bad flavour; anything that was not in season, etc. The relation between contaminated food and disease was recognized. The Confucian Analects (3) said: “Diseases enter by the mouth.\" \"Eat nothing that is improperly cooked.\" \"Meat and wine bought from the street stands must not be taken.”\n\nMany of the so-called \"new\" methods can be traced back to China. Take for instance Fletcherism; that is, thorough mastication of food. It was first advocated by an American, named Fletcher; hence the term. Mr. Gladstone, the Grand Old Man of England, who lived to be 85, was so convinced of its benefits that he chewed every mouthful of food 36 times before swallowing it. Strange to say, Ho Yang-heng long ago described: \"Rice (i.e. food) should be chewed into pulp before swallowing. It nourishes the heart and abdomen. It tastes better and is more nutritious.\n\nAgain, health advocators teach that the teeth should be brushed twice a day. It is interesting to note that Sun Szu-mo (R) of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206487, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 35, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "RAJA JAMES BROOKE AND SARAWAK: AN ANOMALY IN THE 19TH CENTURY BRITISH COLONIAL SCENE\n\nLEIGH R. WRIGHT*\n\n(The text of a lecture given to the Branch on 18th January 1972)\n\nTo the reading public a hundred years ago the name of Raja James Brooke and his oriental kingdom of Sarawak, then a medium-sized principality on the northwest coast of Borneo, conjured up visions of dark impenetrable jungles; tropical rivers and mangrove coasts infested with the fiercest and most barbaric of pirates; and a pagan headhunting primitive people, ruled over by a Malay sultan and a court of Malay chiefs who had over long years of decline and corruption been reduced to only slightly more respectable status than the pirates. Brooke was usually presented in a highly romantic light—the best type of British export, the humanitarian colonial who helped penetrate the barbaric darkness of remote Borneo and who was holding the thin precarious line of civilization. Joseph Conrad and later, Somerset Maugham, added to the romance and colour surrounding the Borneo and Malay world of which Brooke was an important part.\n\nMuch that went to make up this mental picture of Borneo in the English reading world was fact. There were pirates aplenty. The Sultanate of Brunei had declined to a low state of impotence and corruption, Brunei was by the nineteenth century one of those decaying Moslem states of the Malay world about which the historian Lennox Mills wrote,\n\n+\n\nThe rule of the Malays was as weak as it was cruel and oppressive; individually brave, they were unable to prevent their state from crumbling to pieces before their eyes. The Malay nobles appear to have divided their time between intrigue and dissipation at Brunei Town, and the oppression of their Dayak subjects.\n\n+\n\nMany of the Dayaks were indeed the fierce headhunters that were depicted in the nineteenth century accounts. And James Brooke\n\n* Dr. Wright is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of The Origins of British Borneo, Hong Kong University Press, 1970.\n\n1 L. A. Mills, British Malaya 1824-67, (Singapore 1925), p. 284.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206526, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "68\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nLondon. His official rank corresponded with that of a Lieutenant-Governor, so that he received a salute of only fifteen guns compared with the seventeen of first-class Crown-Colony Governors, such as that of Hong Kong. But, as R.F. Johnston pointed out: 'his actual powers, though exercised in a more limited sphere, are greater than those of most Crown-Colony Governors, for he is not controlled by a (Legislative) Council.'33 Lockhart's official duties, which of course kept him extremely busy, were nevertheless limited in nature, and the tempo of life in the Territory did not change dramatically during his tenure of office, for after the lease was signed, little was done with the Territory. At first, it was thought that the port could be transformed into a fortified naval base like Hong Kong, but to do so would have been extremely costly and would have involved the construction of a long breakwater and extensive dredging work in the harbour. In fact, the port was never utilised as a strategic naval base; it became merely a naval rest centre and a place where the British China Squadron lay at anchor when it paid its annual summer visit to North China. A few visitors also arrived from time to time and stayed at its European-style hotel, and an English school34 attracted boys from China, Japan, and Hong Kong.\n\nLockhart was administering a mainly agricultural region, equivalent in area to a small-sized Chinese district magistracy (hsien). The leased Territory, with its population composed principally of fairly well-to-do peasant farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and artisans, was in composition like that of the New Territories which he had left. Lockhart did not feel called upon to alter drastically the life of this old, settled community, nor indeed was it the intention of the Colonial Office that he should. The Order-in-Council under which British rule in Weihaiwei was inaugurated stated: 'In civil cases between natives, the Court should be guided by Chinese or other native law and custom, so far as any such law or custom is not repugnant to justice and morality.'\n\nLockhart attempted, then, to preserve as much of the fabric of Chinese society as was possible. In his report for 1902, he wrote: \"With the policing of the territory at Hong Kong as a guide, it might have been thought that this question (the maintenance of peace and good order) was one easy of solution; but it required no long residence here to reveal that the conditions existing in the new territory of Hong Kong and those of Wei-Hai-Wei are widely different. In the former case, the natives had lived for about half a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206619, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "ARCHAEOLOGY IN HONG KONG AND SOUTH CHINA (1938)\n\nW. SCHOFIELD*\n\nOf all the ancient and famous seats of early civilisation, China is the one where the smallest amount of scientific investigation has hitherto been done. Years of excavation and research have revealed to us many of the details of the life and history of Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Palestine, Minoan Crete, the Hittite confederacy, and prehistoric India; but of China all that was known came partly from the chance finds of curio-hunters, about which their finders carefully suppressed all information of scientific value such as provenance, depth of burial, and context of other finds; and partly from the literature of the Chou and Han dynasties, which, valuable as it is, is a distorting medium for historians.\n\nIn the last ten years, however, scientific investigation has been started. The Chinese National Research Institute has excavated several important dwelling sites in North China, including that of the capital of the Shang dynasty. Several distinguished foreign scholars, mostly Swedes, have conducted explorations and excavations in the service of the National Government, and various provincial societies of scholars and archaeologists have worked in their own areas. A few years ago the Research Institute discovered and excavated untouched graves of the great Shang civilisation; the report on their work is eagerly awaited.\n\nAll this activity, however, relates to the area of North China traditionally known as the centre of ancient Chinese civilisation. From China south of the Yangtse and especially from its coast provinces, hardly any object had been known to come that was\n\n* Mr. Schofield (1888-1968) was a Cadet Officer in the Hong Kong Civil Service 1911-1938. Previous contributions will be found in the 1968 and 1969 Journals, (Vols 8 and 9).\n\nThe first of these, Ch'eng-tsu-yai (*‡A), a Report of Excavations of the Proto-historic Site at Cheng-tzu-yai, Li-ch'eng Hsien, Shantung was published as Archaeologia Sinica Number One by Academica Sinica Nanking 1934. A translation into English by K. Starr has been published by the Yale University Press, Yale Publications in Anthropology, No. $2, under the title Ch'eng-tzu-yai: The Black Pottery Culture Site at Lung-shan-chen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206649, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n191\n\nChu Kung with his feet stretched out under the pan and flames leaping up from them boiling the rice and, being frightened, she screamed. Fa Chu Kung transformed himself into a god, flew up the chimney and thus became black on the way.\n\ne. In the An Chi area of Fukien province there was a very large snake which required one youth or maiden to be fed to it annually. Chang (3), a common straw sandal maker, and two men who had been chased from the An Chi area to a cave in Ying Ch'üen, fought and killed the snake after a battle lasting three days. Chang was so exhausted that he turned black. He was deified Fa Chu Kung and the two men who had helped him were deified with him as his foster brothers, for ridding the place of the nightmare.\n\nf. In a Singapore Hainanese temple a variation of e. above tells that Fa Chu Kung met an old man weeping. He told Fa Chu Kung that his grandchild had to be sacrificed to the big snake. Fa Chu Kung told the old man not to worry and went out and strangled the big snake; but, because he was bitten so badly, he turned black, his eyes became staring and he died.\n\ng. Fa Chu Kung was originally called Chang Kung (2) but later, after he had cured the Empress's boils which had been pronounced incurable by all the other physicians and magicians, he was given the title of Shen Chün (#).\n\nh. Fa Chu Kung was an Indian sailor or trader who settled in Fukien and helped the poor and the sick.\n\nThese various tales tell of Fa Chu Kung's ability to do magic, give a reason for his blackness and several explain why he has a snake wrapped round his arm. The snake is reminiscent of other sacrificial stories and may well be a story dating back to one of the early local cultures in Fukien. There is no indication of what era Fa Chu Kung is supposed to have lived—if, of course, he ever did. Temple dates in South East Asia and Taiwan are of little assistance here and the only dating the temple keepers suggested was the usual \"several hundreds of years ago\" or \"during the T'ang or Sung Dynasties\" (650-1100 A.D.).\n\nThere are at least two other major legends of people who use their legs as fuel for the stove. The first, in Ch'üan Chow, is the monk I Po who gave great assistance during the construction of the famous bridge there. He caused great astonishment when, because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206656, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 204, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "198\n\nChinese Woodcuts\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nby Max Loehr (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), p. 1.\n\nColumbia University, 1971.\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nUNUSUAL TREES IN HONG KONG: THE CANTON WATER PINE\n\nIf you leave Kowloon and proceed along the Tai Po Road, shortly after passing the Hong Lok Yuen orchard, you will come to an open area with villages and flower farms by the roadside and with hills in the background bounding the valley.\n\nNear milestone 184 on your left is a large Cantonese village, Tai Hang, and in this village at the back of Fei Sha Wai, there are two fascinating but often overlooked trees standing at no great distance from the road. These are Chinese Deciduous Cypress, or Canton Water Pine as it is sometimes known. The scientific name is Glyptostrobus pensilis. Belonging to the family Taxodiaceae, Glyptostrobus is a genus which contains only the single species pensilis. Its distribution is confined to the Provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung in South China, and mature specimens are very uncommon in Hong Kong.\n\nThe tree may be recognised by its light-brown, fibrous bark, and its foliage which demonstrates two types of leaves: overlapping scales on fruiting twigs and thin needles on the sterile twigs, both of which are a delicate green in spring, turning brown and falling in autumn. The long-stalked cones are pear-shaped and about one and a half inches long.\n\nThese two old specimens are said to have been planted by one of the ancestors of the village. On asking about the possible age of these two trees, the Village Representative Mr. Man Tse-leung said that they had been planted by one of his ancestors in the Ming Dynasty with seedlings from Law Fu Shan, Canton from where the Man family came some 400 years ago. The Village Representative's account of the origin and age of these two ancients is not without precedent. It is a world-wide practice for an emigrant to take something representative of his old country with him to his new home, in order to give later generations something from his country of origin. Mr. Man's ancestor apparently did just such a thing.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206657, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n199 \n\nDating ancient trees is difficult because recorded dates of planting of trees before this century are very rare. The precise age of the biggest conifers may be ascertained, within reasonable limits by counting the annual rings. However, there are limitations on the application of this method when applied to ancient trees. In their later years, ancient trees maintain their viability with only a few leaves and they scarcely grow at all. During this period, increases in girth are extremely small, and are of no value in assessing age for these two trees: Mr. Man's account is the best guide to their growth.\n\nObservations show that both trees have lost their crowns and survive only on a few green branches, giving the appearance of aged trees, and it is certainly possible that they may be as old as the Village Representative claims. One tree is now 50 feet tall and 6 feet 9 inches in girth. From 30 feet up it has few limbs which still leaf out to the tip. The other is now 61 feet tall and 5 feet 5 inches in girth. From 30 feet up, it has a few limbs but two of these have died back. These data represent trees of considerable size. Thus it appears that the Chinese Deciduous Cypress can grow to a considerable stature, despite the fact that Dallimore and Jackson in their Handbook of Coniferae (1954) described the species as \"a small tree\". It could be that the information given by Dallimore and Jackson quoted a description from Canton where, I have been told by my colleagues, no trees as big as these two remain living and only small ones exist. The form of these two trees is good, with a single bole, round and straight. They are also in reasonably healthy condition; one bole has no hole in it, and the second has a shallow cavity which is healing well and shows strong callus formation around the edge of the wound. There is no sign of fungal decay or pest attack anywhere. Because of their rarity, they are in fact registered seed trees of the Conservation and Forests Division, Agriculture and Fisheries Department.* The wood of this species is said to be very durable, light and fragrant, and to be used for making boats and life rafts. Boat people in the Pearl River Delta traditionally tie a piece of this wood on their children's backs for safety.\n\nThe Village Representative recollected an interesting point concerning these two trees. Some 20 years ago, the then Forestry Department distributed seedlings raised from the seed of these trees to\n\n* See Plate 30.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206658, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "200\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nU.S.A. and Britain. One day, his uncle, an expatriate Chinese in New York, noticed a Water Pine in a garden bearing the Village Representative's name as donor. Mr. Man was obviously very proud of this. He also recalled that some 15 years ago the Director of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries had given him ten seedlings to plant in the village, but unfortunately none had survived.\n\nMany prominent persons have come, paused to admire the longevity of these two trees and heard of the interesting story about them. They are probably the oldest living trees of this species in the New Territories. They are valued not only for their longevity but also for their capacity as producers of viable seed. In 1969, germination tests were carried out with this seed and results showed 60% germinative capacity. Requests for the supply of seed have frequently been received from overseas by the Conservation and Forests Division of the Agricultural and Fisheries Department.\n\nThe condition of these two remarkable trees remains reasonably healthy but they will undoubtedly lose vigour with advancing age. How to perpetuate them is a matter of concern. The best way of achieving this would be to propagate seedlings and to plant them out in localities similar to their natural habitat. In the last two decades seedlings of Water Pine were planted in the Royal Hong Kong Golf Course at Fanling and at Tai Po Kau and Tai Lam Chung forest reserves, but only a few have survived. The largest surviving group is on the Golf Course where 10 trees are growing. The biggest of these is now 18 feet tall and 15 inches in girth, with an average growth rate of 0.2 inches per year over the last 10 years. In view of the rarity of the species, it is advisable to plant more of them in suitable localities throughout the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island. The species has not yet been included in the collections in the Botanic Gardens but planting stock is being made available and this omission will be rectified in the next planting season.\n\nEditor's Note. This article is reproduced with kind permission of the Director, Agricultural and Fisheries Department, Hong Kong, from the department's publication Wildlife Conservation, Newsletter No. 12, April 1971. The bulletin is prepared for game wardens, and is in English and Chinese. Persons who are interested may be provided with copies, if available, on application to the Department. The author, Mr. Shen Dze-chia, Assistant Forestry Officer until his recent retirement, is a graduate of the University of Nanking.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206675, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n217 \n\nfourteen centuries (i.e. from the 7th century, the period of the beginning of the grand romance of the Lan-t'ing Preface, to less than ten years ago?) evaporates in the presence of the magical magnificence of the calligraphy. By religiously translating every single word of the miscellaneous writing on the Lan-t'ing as collected in the KKYL by Wang Tso, Sir Percival David became the first Englishman to dive into the dark waters of the mystery of the cult of Lan-t'ing. The translation reads well, even if no attempt is made to ease the task for the English reader of identifying personages referred to by multifarious names and titles. A great deal of patience and labour must have gone into the translation of this long section which can only have minimum appeal to the general reader but will be useful to the specialist student who wishes to explore the more esoteric subjects of Chinese art—although the student must also expect to do some homework before he or she can achieve full understanding of the stories told in this section. Similar criticism can be applied to other sections of the book which are mainly Wang Tso's additions. They deal with such subjects as imperial patents, imperial seals, and wandering spirits.\n\nThe reviewer must not give the impression that there are no notes at all; but that many more notes are required to make such a strange (in the sense of being foreign) book intelligible to the English reading public which, though large in numbers, is not and cannot be generally familiar with China of the 14th century and before. Of the notes which are given, some are useful, such as that on \"hsi-p'i\" lacquer on pp. 145-6.\n\nAll in all, the most accomplished production of the book contrasts sharply with the unfinished nature of its contents. And this brings us back to the cautionary remark made earlier, that the book must be judged as an unfinished work. With this work, Sir Percival David has taken English scholarship in Chinese art history to the verge of a new level of understanding. It is hoped that a new generation of scholars will follow the path that he has shown.\n\nAs a postscript, it may be mentioned that the plates, chosen by Mr. Basil Gray who has otherwise done excellent work in preparing the book for printing, do not relate too well to the subject matters dealt with in the book. Again, to perform this task satisfactorily, it would have been necessary to do a great deal of research into the kind of objects which would go into the collection of a Ming scholar.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206693, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n235\n\nThe volume as a whole marks the beginning of an effort started some four years ago to bring the local university into greater contact with key problems of life in Hongkong. Academic commitment to Hongkong inevitably fluctuates. This volume is proof that the effort to get \"town and gown\" working together is worthwhile.\n\nHong Kong, 1972.\n\nLEO GOODSTADT\n\nThis review first appeared in the Far East Economic Review for 18 March 1972, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the author and the F.E.E.R. Ed.\n\nPREMODERN CHINA, A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, Chu-shu Chang, Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, No. 11, 1971, pp. iii, 183.\n\nDr. Chang provides an introductory bibliography of Western-language works on premodern China from prehistoric times to the early nineteenth century,\n\nIn the preface he describes his purposes as follows:\n\nIt is designed primarily to introduce graduate students of premodern Chinese studies to all basic research tools and the current state of research in their field. It is hoped that the use of this bibliography will familiarize students with the major achievements and the most significant issues raised in Western-language sources (primarily English) before they undertake their research into Chinese and Japanese materials. A few standard references to and bibliographies of Chinese and Japanese sources, mostly with excellent comments in English, have also been included as a guide for advanced students who have acquired some reading knowledge of Chinese and/or Japanese and who desire to read works in these languages.\n\nVarious limiting considerations are listed in the rest of the preface. However, Dr. Chang need not have too many misgivings about his work which is a most useful basic guide and, within the limits of a relatively short book, provides much valuable bibliographical assistance over a wide field. The book is well-produced and carefully edited, is convenient to carry about and handle, and reasonably priced. This makes it thoroughly practical: not every", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206810, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\n81\n\ndrama. This is a process which reminds of Java where the drama performed by actors Wayang Orang mimics the much earlier leather-shadow-play Wayang Kulit.\n\nHsiao Nan-ying\n\na famous hua-tan of Ch'aochow opera, who came to Hong Kong a year ago, complains that the Ch'aochow opera here is still using the stiff movements which were influenced by the shadow-puppet movements. She also tells of a typical Ch'aochow opera in which the peculiarities of the shadow-puppet-theatre are used to great effect. A movement can suddenly stop and the moment can be endlessly prolonged. For example: a boy and a girl move independently in a festival-crowd and when they by chance look at each other, they instantly fall in love and remain motionless in the position in which they caught each other's eye. And the Old Man of the Moon appears, takes imaginary strings from their eyes and binds them together. They remain like statues looking at each other until somebody cuts the imaginary strings, the spell is broken and they regain their liveliness. This technique is believed to be derived from the shadow-play.\n\nThe Wang Family\n\nThe most important puppeteer-family in Hong Kong is the family Wang who have been puppeteers for at least three generations. At the end of the Imperial era the grandfather Wang Pao-yuan was active as a puppeteer and opera-actor, and his son who accompanied him became the famous Wang Chiao-tsou, also called Wang Chiao Y. The name Chiao-tsou meaning “itinerant teacher\" was given to him, because he was a well-known itinerant teacher and opera-actor and also a puppeteer. Weary of the Sino-Japanese war he took his family to Hong Kong in 1938, together with a trunk of puppets. He immediately started to teach Ch'aochow opera and founded the Hsin-shun-hsiang puppet-troupe (The title means 'to prosper anew in Hong Kong'). His own family being very large, it was easy for him to give puppet-performances. Having for long performed himself in the leading role of hua-tan (character of a high-class beauty) he was a major force in the upsurge of Ch'aochow opera in Hong Kong in the last thirty years.\n\nWhen Wang Chiao-tsou arrived here he found three established Ch'aochow puppet-groups. Hsin-t'ien-ts'ai gave up its puppets to become an opera troupe in 1962. Lao-yuan-cheng", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206812, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\nCh'aochow Puppets in contemporary China and overseas\n\n83\n\nLiu Fu-kuang §✯ an educated person of about 40, who is the most outstanding Ch'aochow orchestra-leader here, is closely connected with the Hsin-shun-hsiang puppet-troupe. He came to Hong Kong in 1959. According to him, puppet-troupes completely disappeared in Ch'aochow after the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. This is probably because their performances were intimately connected with the festivals of the myriads of local deities, the worship of which was strongly discouraged by the Communists. In 1957, Liu Fu-kuang saw the last troupe, called Shant'ou Ying-hsi-t'uan 4⇓✯D (Shadow-play-troupe of Shant'ou) perform in Swatow. He believes that not even one troupe is now left in Ch'aochow, after a history of about one thousand years and a hundred active troupes fifty years ago.\n\nPeople from Ch'aochow make up a large percentage of the Overseas Chinese population of South East Asia and Ch'aochow opera flourishes there; but there is said not to be one single \"paper-shadow-play\" troupe overseas. This shows that from the great tradition of puppet-theatre, only the two troupes in Hong Kong are left. It is therefore the last chance to savour and study this tradition before its extinction which, at least at the moment, appears to be inevitable.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nBatchelder, Marjorie H.: Rod-puppets and the Human Theatre, Columbus, The Ohio State University Press, 1947.\n\nHuang Chun-ming: The Forbidden Puppets' in Echo of Things Chinese, Taiwan, October 1972, pp. 24-34.\n\nJacob & Jensen: Das Chinesische Schattentheater, Stuttgart, 1933.\n\nMargareta Niculescu: The Puppet Theatre in the Modern World compiled by Union Internationale des Marionettes under Margareta Niculescu, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London, Toronto, Wellington, Sidney, 1967.\n\nTsim Tak-lung (compiler): Puppet-demonstration on pages 45-47 of ‘Chinese Theatre in Hong Kong', Proceedings of a Symposium, Nov. 22-23, 1968, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1968.\n\nBurger, Helga: 'The Cantonese Stick-puppets', in Kaleidoscope, Hong Kong, March/April 1973.\n\n\"The Far Eastern Puppet Theatre' in Souvenir Book of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, 1974.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206835, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "106\n\nCHUANG SHEN\n\nBesides, in the table of contents of chüan 4 of T’êng-hua-t'ing shu-hua-pa, the 126th item is recorded as a landscape executed by Fang Hsün-yüan. Although there were quite a large number of artists in the Ch'ing dynasty, there was no one whose surname was Fang19. However, during the period between the Yung Chêng era and the beginning of the Chien Lung era, there was an artist by the name of Fang Shih-shu ✯±✯ (1692-1751) who was a native of An Hui and yet lived in Yang Chou. The literary name of Fang Shih-shu is Hsün-yüan20 #✡. Since in T'êng-hua-t'ing shu-hua-pa, it was Liang T'ing-nan's practice to designate all artists by their literary names and not their real names, therefore this unidentifiable Fang Hsün-yüan is very likely a name mistaken for Fang Hsün-yüan. If this assumption is correct, then Liang T'ing-nan had not only recorded incorrectly the literary name of this An Hui artist, but also mistaken his real name. Such an inexcusable mistake is again due to carelessness in proof-reading.\n\nC. Chronological Mistakes\n\nI have not thoroughly investigated the number of chronological mistakes in the art catalogues of the Kwangtung collectors. However, this kind of error can at least be discovered in Wu Yung-kuang's Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi. It should be noted here that Wu Yung-kuang had left two most important documentary records. One was the Li-tai ming-jen nien-p'u in 10 chuan, compiled in the 23rd year of the Tao Kuang era (1843) which was the year of his death. The other was Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi in 5 chuan, which, though printed a little earlier than the Li-tai ming-jen nien-p'u (in the 21st year of the Tao Kuang era, 1841), was in fact completed two years before his death. In other words, the two most important works of Wu Yung-kuang were both completed during the last three years of his life. Unfortunately, there are certain mistakes in both works. As early as ten years ago, the chronological mistakes in the Li-tai ming-jen nien-p'u have already been pointed out by experts21. It is also regrettable that in his Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi, he had committed some other curious chronological mistakes. On page 4 of chüan 4, there is recorded Wu Yung-kuang's own colophon inscribed on Ch'ien Hsüan's Li-hua-chüan #4, which reads,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206859, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "130\n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG\n\nSUNG HOK-PANG (宋學鵬) (1880-1962)\n\nA MEMOIR\n\nFifty to sixty years ago, there were in Hong Kong some Chinese scholars who could impart to Westerners knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. Among those who were able to write in both English and Chinese methodical and systematic text-books on the Chinese language, especially on the Cantonese dialect, the name of Sung Hok-pang was prominent. Likewise, fifty to sixty years ago, quite a number of Chinese literary men in Hong Kong depicted the scenery and historic sites there in poetry or prose for pleasure or for commemoration. Among the few who took pains to go and investigate the customs of the people and the historic remains of the New Territories, again Sung Hok-pang was scarcely rivalled in eminence.\n\nFor us who live in Hong Kong and wish to discuss the study and transmission of the Chinese language or the geography and history of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, it is essential that we understand Mr. Sung's contributions in these areas.\n\nMr. Sung's original name was Sung Yick-lam (宋錫林). His other name was Sung Pao-lam (宋寶林) but he was generally known as Sung Hok-pang. He was born in 1880 in Fa Yuen of Kwangtung, but from childhood he was reared in Hong Kong. Since he became well versed in both Chinese and English literature and was very enthusiastic about education, he was highly esteemed. In 1905 he was appointed Headmaster of the Belilios Girls' School. Later, in 1911, he also conducted Cantonese classes in the Government Technical Institute for cadet officers and for foreigners comprising merchants, scholars and officers. In 1913, besides being Headmaster, Mr. Sung was also appointed Inspector of Schools in the New Territories. As a result of his inspection and investigation, the Hong Kong Government followed his suggestions, and subsequently many of the schools in the New Territories received subsidy. Also, a new post of Chinese Inspector was established and Mr. Sung was appointed to this. In 1914 he helped organise the Government Evening School of Education and was head of this institution. In 1916 he was appointed Senior Vernacular Master attached to Queen's College, as well as adviser in matters pertaining to the teaching of Chinese in all government schools. In 1925 Sir Cecil", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206867, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "138 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nThe question then arose as to what party had legal title to the land. Had the Government acquired title to the land by terms of the Cession of the Island of Hong Kong, or was the Government bound to recognize the title of the original Chinese owners? The island of Hong Kong had belonged to the Tang family, but the small island belonged to the Wong clan who gave it to the Chan clan and allowed them to erect the temple. Unfortunately all the ancient records and title deeds held by the Chan clan had been destroyed in the typhoon of 1874. \n\nApparently the temple had been repaired in 1877, for in that year the Public Works Department had given the caretaker permission to erect a temporary structure near the present temple to store images while repairs were going on. The Land Office had granted a squatter's license to the Worship Committee to occupy the site. \n\nOwing to the dispute which arose in 1893 between the Chan clan and the residents of Ap Lei Chau, the Worship Committee and the Kai Fong of Ap Lei Chau petitioned the Government for a grant of a Crown Lease for the site of the temple. The petition states, \n\nThat the Temple was established almost a hundred years ago and has conferred many benefits on the surrounding inhabitants... \n\nThat after restoration, the Temple was entrusted to the care of Chan Kwai [Chan A-kwai] by general consent. \n\nThat unwittingly this man turned out to be of a bad heart, unboundedly avaricious. \n\nThat he frequently exhorted [sic] the people who went to Worship, and for this he was expelled by consensus of the people at a Public Meeting. \n\nThat first before he was expelled he being aware of the attitude of the populace towards him, purloined goods belonging to the Temple, and took with him all the Squatter Licenses and went to live on Chinese soil. \n\nThat as the Temple was erected by the populace, Your Honour's humble petitioners venture to think that it should be managed by the voice of the populace..", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206876, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\nThe Note was written to accompany a reproduction of Monsignor Volontieri's map of Hong Kong: see Plate IX of this issue of the Journal. This map appears to be an individual production additional to the map of San On noticed in the Journal several years ago: see Journal Vols 9(1969) and 10(1970) pp 141-148 and 193-196 respectively.\n\nThe right hand bottom corner of the map bears the legend 'Milano Stab. Flli Tensi'. The legend and placenames are given in French, mostly with Chinese characters in addition, making it a bi-lingual map, like the main production on which it is probably based.\n\nThe Note itself is of some interest, giving a brief contemporary account of Hong Kong, as seen through foreign eyes. It is not accurate in all particulars. I have drawn attention to some misprints and strange renderings of names and placenames; but have otherwise reproduced it as in the original. Ed.\n\nNOTES GEOGRAPHIQUES\n\nCHINE\n\nL'ILE DE HONG-KONG\n\nNous publions aujourd'hui une carte de l'île de Hong-Kong. Elle a été dressée par Mgr Volontieri, de la Congrégation des Missions Étrangères de Milan, vicaire apostolique du Ho-nan.\n\nL'île de Hong-Kong est située au sud de l'empire chinois, entre 22° 9' et 22° 1' de latitude nord, et 114° 5' et 114° 18' de longitude est (méridien de Greenwich), vis-à-vis des bouches du fleuve de Canton, le Tchong-kiang ou Tigre chinois, dont elle domine l'embouchure principale. Elle est séparée de la grande île de Lan-tao, à l'ouest, par le canal Lamma, et isolée de la terre ferme par la rade qui la baigne au nord, et le petit détroit de Ly-ce-moon, qui n'a qu'un demi-mille de largeur. La plus grande longueur de l'île de Hong-kong ne dépasse pas onze milles géographiques; elle en a cinq dans sa plus grande largeur; la superficie totale est d'environ vingt-neuf milles carrés.\n\nFormée de roches granitiques presque nues et qui s'élévent en cimes escarpées, sans passage praticable de l'une à l'autre, dont la plus basse, le Pic de Pottinger, a 1,020 pieds d'élévation, et la plus...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206883, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nMCMULLEN COLLECTION OF BILLS OF LADING\n\nAs stated in the Hon. Librarian's report, printed on page 11 of this issue, the most important accession during the year was the collection of nineteenth century bills of lading formed by Rear-Admiral M.A. McMullen, C.B., O.B.E., R.N. (Rtd.),* The bills are for various consignments to and from China ports, and there is a brief description of the collection on p. 37 of the printed catalogue of the Library of the Branch. A calendar with index has been prepared by the Hon. Librarian.\n\n*This was obtained as a gift for the Branch through the offices of Dr. J. R. Jones, Past President of the Branch. The following text of his letter to Mr. Rydings, our Hon. Librarian, explains how this came about:\n\nH. A. Rydings Esq.,\n\nThe Librarian,\n\nThe University of Hong Kong.\n\nHONG KONG.\n\nDear Rydings,\n\nOld Bills of Lading\n\n3 Abermor Court, 15 May Road, HONG KONG.\n\n25th April, 1972.\n\nTwo years ago I had some discussions with Mr. J. G. Young of Messrs. Andrew Weir and Company Limited of Baltic Exchange Buildings, 21 Bury Street, of London E.C.3. concerning a number of bills of lading dating from the time of the Canton Regime. They include Bills of Lading from Jardine Matheson and Company Limited and their predecessors, Magniac and Company and Augustine Heard and Company and others trading in Canton and later in Hong Kong.\n\nThey were owned by Admiral McMullen who wished to find a suitable home for them and I considered that they were of great interest historically and otherwise, and of special interest to Hong Kong, and I have accepted them in the name of the Royal Asiatic Society. I enclose a package concerning these documents and hope that the Society will accept them.\n\nYours sincerely,\n\nJ. R. JONES.\n\nP.S. The owner of the collection of the old bills of lading was Rear Admiral M. A. McMullen who entrusted them to Mr. J. G. Young of Messrs. Andrew Weir and Co. Ltd. with whom I was put in touch by Mr. H. B. Neve, formally of the Bank Line (China) Limited of Hong Kong. Amongst the collection Jardine Matheson and Company appears twice, once as receivers of 10 chests of Opium, whilst Gilmans are also mentioned as shippers of 100 half chests of tea from Shanghai to Hong Kong. There is also reference to Macondray & Co. who are presumably related to the Arm of that name now operating in the Philippines.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206902, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n173\n\na fish-scale design all over the dress. But neither points out that the shiny most bluish satin simulates the metal of the armour and the scales simulate the plates of the armour. The back-flap is cut into strips and they obviously look and are arranged like tail feathers; feather-strips are hanging down from various parts of the costume. The generals bristle and ruffle their feathers with every movement, and while fighting they look like an enormous flustered phoenix in attack.\n\nMost opera costumes have so-called water-sleeves of white thin silk attached to the actual sleeve. They are like cuffs, open at the seam, and when they hang down, they almost reach the floor. These sleeves play a very important part in the technique of acting. Miss Halson only describes a few sleeve-movements like: using the sleeves to hide in embarrassment, or thrown up in bewilderment, that they are used as a muff in winter and as a fan in summer. Scott explains 100 different sleeve-movements and tells by which character they are used: e.g. in T'ou hsiu the two sleeves are flung out together, to the right, whilst the face looks left, which symbolizes making a decision or anger and is only performed by the Ching I or demure young woman. I would like to add that these sleeves are found in Chinese costumes already as far back as the Han dynasty about 2,000 years ago. The cuff was not added to the sleeve, but the sleeve itself was very long. It can still be seen in the blouses worn by Tibetans. In the art of Chinese dancing, the flowing of the sleeves are such an important part, that movements are often only directed to produce the desired flow. It expresses the Chinese love for flowing lines, very well known from their brush-strokes. Actually in both books I feel the absence of linking the descriptions of the appearance with its cultural background.\n\nAll faces are made up in Peking Opera. Older people and middle-aged ones have a natural make up, young men and women have the middle of their face powdered white, cheeks and eye-lids are deep magenta. But the most striking are the multi-coloured painted faces. They are only for male parts: warriors, generals, ministers and officials. Miss Halson suggests an origin for these: branded criminals tattooed their scars to disguise the marks. This is very far fetched. Her second explanation is that the actors wanted their faces to stand out. Any make up is of course to this end; but she did not hit the simple truth. Masks were used before the great step forward was taken when, recognizing the disadvantages", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206903, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "174\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nof a mask, they painted the features of the masks right on the face. The mask cannot change its expression, it lacks the spirit of the eyes and is lifeless, it hinders the speech and even more the singing, as is the case in the stagnant Japanese Noh-play. Mr. Scott does not give any background at all, but names the 15th century as the beginning of painted faces and gives them as the origin of the Japanese Kabuki make-up. He also says that their design is according to the Chinese rules of physiognomy.\n\nThe subject of painted faces is very extensive: a book published in Tai-wan a few years ago contains a thousand varieties of painted faces*.\n\nTurning to other aspects, the Peking Opera stage is empty except for a table and 2 chairs. If a chair is placed on a table, it means a mountain, and can be used to indicate, for example, a general addressing his army. Rain, wind and storms are indicated by black or blue flags of thin silk, which are carried over the stage. Carrying a horsewhip means that this person is riding, a military order is indicated by a small triangular flag, 2 square flags with a wheel-design indicate a carriage and so on.\n\nBoth authors describe in more or less detail the system of the Peking Opera schools. It is surprising how few people know that we have such a school here in Hong Kong. 40 children are trained in this school, some as young as 6 years old. They get up early to train their voices, then comes the teacher for acrobatics, then opera parts are rehearsed. In the afternoon, they study general subjects, and in the evening they go to the Lai Chi Kok amusement park to give their daily performance.\n\nIf you want to take the chance, which is so easily available, to see this intriguing type of opera, you should also spend a few hours with Elizabeth Halson's short guide. This book really does fill the newcomer's need for a comprehensive, well-ordered, introduction enabling him to enjoy and appreciate what he sees in the opera; though not yet what he hears, like Chinese enthusiasts who go to the opera in order to hear it.\n\nHong Kong, 1973.\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nChang Pe-chin: Chinese Opera and Painted Face, Taiwan, Mei Ya Publications, Inc. 1969.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206907, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "178\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nEnglish published in Shanghai), had interpreted the same term as \"eight emancipated\". It is obvious that T. K. Chuan's translation may not be the only fixed one, yet, on the other hand, it does seem that it is at least a good reference for Zürcher to cite. Furthermore, T. K. Chuan's Kao Seng Chuan or Biographies of Eminent Monks is once again a useful reference in Zürcher's field of study that has been neglected entirely. In another example, the term “Ke-i\" is interpreted as \"elucidating Buddhist terms” (p. 12 Vol. I). However, it is differently rendered as \"matching meanings” on p. 184 of the same volume. Such interpretational discrepancy together with the misprints seem to show that Mr. Zürcher must have worked on the revision of his book over a considerable period of time, but may have neglected to make a final check of his manuscript.\n\nThese points deal with minor details which can be considered when the third impression of this book is prepared. They detract little from the outstanding scholarship of Mr. Zürcher and his important contribution to the history of Buddhism in Medieval China.\n\nCHUANG SHEN\n\nUniversity of Hong Kong, 1973.\n\nA CONCORDANCE TO FIVE SYSTEMS OF TRANSCRIPTION FOR STANDARD CHINESE. Compiled by Olov Bertil Anderson, Studentlitteratur, Lund, 1970, pp. 228.\n\nI assume that differences of opinion over transcription systems for Chinese will always be with us. For many decades now we have seen a stream of alternatives to Wade-Giles and have heard the discussions over the relative merits of favorite systems. Each time the shade seems laid to rest it pops up very much alive in some new stronghold of sinology. For some reason this problem plagues mostly the English-speaking segment of the field while those who publish in French, German, and Russian have long ago reached reasonable agreement on transcription and have gone on to other often more productive fields of study. But unfortunately the rest of us cannot agree, and nothing is more hopelessly visionary at this point than the dream of some grand concourse of sinologists all accepting a single system which all will use to the exclusion of any other.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206948, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE PAPER CHASE\n\n13\n\nstudy I am down in cellars or up in attics ransacking their contents for yet more documents. And when I light upon them—especially on the choicer specimens—I probably make delighted chuckling sounds in my throat like Ben Gunn discovering a cheese.\n\nAnd what is an archives repository like? Well, externally, to fit the popular conception of things archival, it ought to be neo-gothic in style, rather like a 19th century English provincial railway station. Internally, though, and my hostess would be much certain of this, it would look more like a derelict warehouse, its floors piled with books and papers, evidently in the utmost confusion and, of course, covered with a thick mantle of dust (Dust is always an important feature in the myths about us). And, strangely enough, considering the archivist's obsessive love for fascinating old documents, they would be swarming with vermin.\n\nGrotesque as it is, this image of the archivist and his work is all too common. In this regard we carry a burden not unlike the one which archaeologists once laboured under. Was it so long ago that the archaeologist was invariably depicted, and thought of, as a spindly, eccentric looking apparition, clad in a solar topee, bush jacket and Bombay bloomers, devoted to all things arcane, and eternally and promiscuously ferreting in the sand for relics of the past—any relics? Old films of the “Mummy's Curse” variety usually reflected this impression of him perfectly.\n\nBut thanks initially to the unwitting cooperation of Tut Ankh Amen and to the literary efforts of people like Leonard Wooley and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, the archaeologist has sloughed off most of his comic attributes these days and emerged as a familiar and even heroic figure, just as anthropologists are doing through the influence of writers like Thor Heyerdahl.\n\nShall archivists produce their Wooleys and Wheelers to introduce the real archivist and his profession to the public? I fear not. Our profession is eminently free from danger—unless being caught between two stacks of mobile shelving can be thought of as dangerous—and however fascinating archival work may be for archivists themselves one has to admit that it is singularly lacking in the sort of features which make exciting reading for the man in the street.\n\nThere will never be a best-seller about archivology, and if popular misconceptions about us are ever to be dispelled it will probably come about only through archivists persistently reading papers like this one to captive audiences.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206949, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "14\n\nA. I. DIAMOND\n\nSo much for the sorry image of the archivist. Now what are the realities. What are archives and what do archivists do? Most people, if asked what archives are, will say that they are old documents of historical interest, or the records of some person or institution which have value for research purposes.\n\nThis is true enough as far as it goes. Many archives, of course, are old and historically interesting, but neither of these attributes is necessary for documents to qualify as archives. For example, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, the original instrument, bearing the seal and sign manual of the Sovereign is undoubtedly an archive, and it is so whether it was passed yesterday or five hundred years ago. Its age has nothing to do with its archival quality. And since, as soon as it receives the Royal assent, copies of it are generally published and distributed in their thousands, one could hardly claim that the original itself was of much interest to the historian. It has value, of course. An authenticated Act of Parliament is the final source of Government's authority for certain of its actions; but it is not this either which makes it an archive.\n\nDocuments acquire archival quality from the manner in which they have been created and kept. The eminent English authority on archives, Sir Hilary Jenkinson, defines them as follows: \"A document which may be said to belong to the class of Archives is one which was drawn up or used in the course of an administrative or executive transaction (whether public or private) of which itself formed a part; and subsequently preserved in their own custody for their own information by the person or persons responsible for that transaction and their legitimate successors”.*\n\nArchives, then, are the totality of the documents produced or received by an office or other agency in the course of its business and which have been retained for action or reference.\n\nIt is sometimes supposed that the term \"archives\" applies specifically, or at any rate more properly, to government records; but this is not the case. The term is equally applicable to the records of banks, insurance houses, churches, clubs and any other forms of association or enterprise. And if it comes to that even families or private individuals may accumulate them. What makes a body of documents archives is not who accumulated it but how it was done.\n\n* Jenkinson, Sir Hilary. \"A Manual of Archive Administration.\" (Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd., London), p. 11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206960, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Paper Chase\n\n25\n\nSo far, we have received transfers of records from 27 different government offices, the whole now occupying nearly 6,000 feet of shelving. We have therefore passed the storage capacity of our present premises and have had to resort to additional temporary accommodation on the old naval dockyard site.\n\nWhen I came to Hong Kong I was told that practically all of the government's pre-war records had perished during the Japanese occupation. It is true that pitifully little remains of the very large accumulations which must have been in government offices in 1941, and what records did survive, with a few notable exceptions, tend to be fragmentary and unrelated to one another in time or content.\n\nNevertheless the dearth is not as great as is sometimes supposed. The Rating and Valuation Department's Rates Collection Book series, which we now hold, is practically complete from 1858 to 1952, and several large and exceedingly valuable series of 19th and pre-war 20th century Land Office records have been transferred to us from the Registrar-General's Department. These include series of correspondence files dating from 1866 to 1940, Crown and Village Rent Rolls from 1843 to 1958 and 1856 to 1960 respectively and some 90-100,000 Surrendered Title Deeds, many of which date from the middle of the 19th century, and possibly earlier.\n\nOther pre-war records have reached us from the Prisons Department, Audit, the Supreme Court, the Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers), and the Official Receiver's Office and they are still coming. Only a few days ago some twelve volumes of Judicial Department correspondence dating from 1844 to 1903 were unearthed from a great pile of lumber and rubbish in a government record store and as my staff are still quarrying in it I have no doubt that more of them will come to light.\n\nThere is no knowing what treasures may lie in the many dungeons of government's archival limbo. Some of them are so cluttered as to be virtually inaccessible, except by emptying them, and it will be years before we have prospected them all—that is, if we succeed in finding them all. Twelve years ago a very large crate of mid-19th century records was discovered quite by accident in the roof of the Supreme Court.\n\nThe loss of Hong Kong's pre-war records is regrettable but the situation is not entirely irretrievable. As many of you know, a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206975, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "40 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nMayréna's reputation was totally destroyed: \"The \"King of the Sedangs\", in truth, seems to have followed the example of a brother \"King\" of French origin, who after establishing a Kingdom in a district on the borders of French Guiana, ended an illustrious career in the inside of a French prison. Of course we do not say that the denouement will be the same in this case.' But it was clear to the readers of the Mail that the editor thought that Mayréna was jail material. \n\nBy the beginning of the year 1889 it became clear to Mayréna that nothing more was to be gained by staying in Hong Kong. His overtures to the German Consul in Hong Kong and to his colleague at Canton had borne no fruit. Although he offered to put his kingdom under the protection of the German Emperor, his offer was rejected. He decided—there was no other option—to return to Europe and seek support from financial circles there. On 20 January 1889 the King of the Sedangs left Hong Kong for Genoa by the German steamer Bayern, travelling as a second-class passenger and under the pseudonym of ‘le comte de Drey'.36 \n\nMayréna's exit from Hong Kong was in sharp contrast to his triumphal embarkation at Haiphong in November 1888. Then the royal standard of the King of the Sedangs fluttered above the Frejr and the deferential Captain Lund had greeted him as 'Votre Majesté' and all had been bowing and scraping by a perspiring crew. Nevertheless, Mayréna left Hong Kong in 1889 with some panache. Many friends and well-wishers were at the waterfront to see the popular King go, although no band played, no royal standard adorned the Bayern, and no representative of Sir William Des Voeux was present. Mayréna looked very much a king in exile; among the throng many, like Fraser-Smith and J.J. Francis, were truly sorry to see their old drinking companion go. \n\nMayréna's departure from Hong Kong was greeted by a jubilant article in the Mail, which began: 'Another King has gone into exile. M. de Mayréna, a Frenchman who arrived here about two months ago with a flourish of trumpets, telling a story of adventures worthy of ranking with 1001 in the Arabian Nights, quietly left Hong Kong, we believe, by the Bayern, for Genoa, on Sunday morning'. The writer continued: 'We need scarcely say that in publishing the revelations which put an end to his schemes in Hong Kong we were actuated solely by a desire for the public interest \n\nAs,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207005, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "70\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nand Kwangtung, the Southern maritime coastal boat people's stylized wooden images and the stone, porcelain and hard stone household images of the wealthy. However, it is the Fukienese style I am about to describe, although the carving styles of the Teochew and Hokkien in Singapore do not differ all that markedly (Plates 6 and 7).\n\nThe Singaporean god carvers were well versed in recognizing the mode and marks of craftsmen from the other Southern Chinese maritime provinces, particularly the handiwork of their forefathers, and each master carver has a widely recognized style of his own. One carver spent considerable time showing me the variations which principally occur in the decoration on the front face of the base of the image. A hundred years ago special artists were employed to paint this \"front face trade mark”, one of the more exquisite being a rose on a long stem adopted by a Foochow city carver of note,\n\nThe carvers did not work from plans or sketches, having a clear idea of the image in their mind; but it took all my powers of persuasion to make one of the carvers sit down and sketch the main features of as many gods as possible, as he knew them (Plate 8).\n\nWhen questioned about how specific were the individual gods' features and markings, it was soon apparent that each carver had his own ideas about head-dresses, robes, beards and also, rather surprisingly, over posture. An example was the carving of Lu F'ung P'in (Plate 7), a famous doctor, the patron of barbers and one of the Eight Immortals. There were many variations, the carvers agreed, and each carver knew he wore a flat “tile” hat, carried a fly whisk, an umbrella or a gourd and was robed in blue; and when I produced an image of him wearing green robes, they fell over themselves claiming the decorator had been either ignorant or colour blind. Having been unanimous about this, however, they promptly disagreed over the Northern Emperor (✯✯✯) whose recognition features are a snake and tortoise, bare feet, unkempt hair and a fore finger of the left hand pointing vertically at waist height. Quite a riotous scene ensued during which snippets from various books such as the Ming dynasty novel \"The Deification of the Gods\" (###), and quotes from great carvers, together with recollections of their handiworks, were voiced to prove a point.\n\nIt was quite obvious that the carvers were far from unanimous about details of the Northern Emperor figure. The tortoise could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207008, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "CRAFT OF GOD CARVING IN SINGAPORE\n\n73\n\n15). This is sand-papered to produce a finish but not to eliminate all the cut marks of the blades which will be obliterated by the next process.\n\nA bowl of rich golden yellow paste is prepared from a small quantity of powder from a crumbling block bought many years ago from China which the carvers call \"yellow mud\" (huang ni) and an oily substance which presumably is casein based. One coat of this mud bonded with tiny strips of rice paper is brushed over the image patch by patch, the small two-inch squares of rice paper being placed over the bare wood to fill in gaps and cover knots (Plate 16), and allowed to dry overnight before being rubbed down again with sandpaper (Plate 17). This primer of \"yellow mud\" and rice paper dries hard and unglossy, and even fifty to a hundred years later, images accidentally chipped will reveal the hard dull yellow without revealing the bare wood.\n\nThe next stage is the administration of the raised decoration. The most delicate part of the god-making operation is the decoration, the fine definition of armour, the head-dress, the shoulder epaulettes, and the badges of rank worn across the chest by the civil and military mandarins. A mixture of a strong-smelling viscous black-blue wax (tang shan chi), incense ash, and ground charcoal is prepared by rubbing and rolling until it is sufficiently malleable. The god carvers said that the wax was obtained from the sap of an unnamed tree in Fukien and in its raw state will burn the flesh on contact. The mixture is placed, squeezed, or pressed onto the image very carefully and gently. Long threads of rolled wax (Plate 18) are guided into position by the deft fingers of one craftsman who holds a spatula in his left hand; where the threads cross, they are carefully pressed into each other to avoid bumps. Other fine lines are squeezed from a bag, like icing (Plate 19), and pellets of wax are precisely placed in their correct positions (Plates 20, 21, and 22) to depict buttons or parts of the decoration. The wax sticks to the mud-covered image without further adhesive. Once the wax is thoroughly dry, usually after forty-eight hours, it is painted with a white primer.\n\nThe colouring stage is now ready to begin. An entirely different team is employed here, usually the females of the family. The colouring nowadays consists either of modern commercially produced paints or the application of gold leaf. The paints are applied with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207009, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "74\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nChinese writing brushes, the predominant colour used being gold. The gold leaf, bought from China or Europe in packs of one hundred two inch squares, is more expensive than gold paint, but more commonly used as it wears better. These tiny squares of pure gold leaf are applied after gold size has been painted on to the appropriate parts of the image (Plates 23 and 24). The gold size is a highly viscous mixture of varnish and other oils which after about two hours, becomes tacky; the gold leaf is then applied. The gold leaf is removed from its waxed paper with an ordinary camel hair artist's brush and placed on to the treated part of the image. The tiny slivers of gold which fall to one side are collected on to pieces of waxed paper and carefully used to fill in gaps on the less exposed parts of the image and between the two inch sheets. A softer brush is then used to rub down the gilded parts to burnish them (Plate 25).\n\nSome images are decorated with a combination of gold leaf and paint. When particularly ordered, old fashioned colouring may be used. This consists of a home-made mixture of water, a gum medium and crumbly coloured powder brought from China many years ago (Plate 26).\n\nPainted images are varnished with a commercial varnish and allowed to dry. Finally, the bits and bobs are added. Usually this is a woman's task, although the more particular master carvers insert the beard made of horsehair or imported theatrical wig hair themselves (Plate 27). The hair is tightly bunched and inserted into five holes bored into the cheeks and chin of the image and trimmed, the instrument most frequently used for this task being a dentist's probe! The flywhisks, hat-bobbles, swords, rings, sceptres, spears, staffs and maces are carved or made separately and inserted into the image, usually only in the presence of the customer. Many of the smaller protruding parts of the head-dress, flags and weapons are cut from old tin cans. These final operations are carried out with tremendous flourish and panache, and the handing over ceremony is preceded by more tea drinking and conversation.\n\nThe consecration of the image in the temple, monastery or home is carried out by a Taoist or Buddhist priest. If Taoist he may, in a trance, invite the spirit to enter the image or may in a simple ceremony \"open the god's eyes\" by painting in the pupils. In the North and Central China, most commonly at a Buddhist ritual, it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207010, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "CRAFT OF GOD CARVING IN SINGAPORE\n\n75\n\nwas usual for silver or golden entrails, a religious tract, or a live insect to be placed ceremonially in a cavity in the image's back and sealed there providing the image with life. Another and more usually a Taoist ceremony, used particularly by the Fukienese, is for blood from a freshly killed cock to be smeared over the breast of the image.\n\nThe carving of an average image takes about twenty working days which necessitates the whole team cooperating and working to a schedule. But as would be expected when order books are full, the actual time from the taking of the order to the handing over of the finished image can be as long as two and a half months. God shops are open most days from 9 am-8 pm, although of late Sunday has tended to be a day off. They may have some half dozen gods on the production line at one time.\n\nGod carvers spend a considerable portion of their time repairing damaged or renovating old images. I have often felt considerable dismay seeing an old image having its handsome gold leaf patina stripped, to be re-painted with the most vivid of modern commercial lacquers.\n\nNew ideas are incorporated into the process. The use of western commercial paints, or the appearance of a spirit astride a bicycle when formerly he only rode a horse, shows originality but most changes have been slow, and as I see it, have been due in the main to misunderstanding.\n\nThe god carvers are teaching their children the craft, but confided that all were at school and should they show promise will be encouraged to enter one of the academic professions. They also feared that at the present rate of change very few Chinese will require the services of god carvers and the craft will disappear; just as surely as the story tellers who, less than ten years ago, gathered their audience about them not more than one hundred yards from the god carvers' shops have been overwhelmed by television.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207015, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "80 \n\nROBIN MCLACHLAN \n\nin this horrid place. I am therefore leading a most regular life. I get up at 6 a.m. and walk for two hours before breakfast. I remain in my room all day during the heat of the sun and walk again in the evening, and go to bed early. I live on fish, fruit and curry and drink but little wine. But I smoke a great deal; in fact it is necessary in India. I cannot get on without it. The whole fleet expect to sail in a few days. They go back to India. This place, which is now a perfect bear garden, will once more be quiet. There is only one spot on the whole island that has a tree on it. It is called Happy Valley, and is certainly a pretty spot. The rest of the island is one barren rock and perfectly devoid of all vegetation, although there are springs innumerable. ... Now I have told you everything about this delightful spot. It is inferior to Sierra Leone from the fact of its being less healthy, less amusing and less near England.\n\n10 \n\nAn important social activity for the infant colony was the rounds of dinner parties held by the senior military and colonial officers. Bridgeman seems to have regarded these events as at least tolerable social functions, but was very critical of the more rowdy partying that went on in the officers' barracks. While writing to his sister, he commented on one such party going on in the next room. This was a farewell party by the Madras Artillery for one of their officers, Captain Balfour. Bridgeman considered it a very noisy party with far too much drinking and feared that it would go on far into the night. \n\nMen of this sort never sit down to a large party without drinking to such an excess that they lose their senses and are put to bed more like beasts than Christians. God forgive me, but I hate them all. Give me women's society! Without it we are beasts.\n\n11 \n\nAnother form of entertainment that attracted Bridgeman's critical comment was the amateur theatre established in Hong Kong in late 1842. The actors were largely drawn from among the soldiers and sailors stationed at Hong Kong. \n\nI regret to say it was a complete failure. The first and only performance was about a week ago. The pieces they chose were stupid and not one of them knew their parts. However, the house was filled; for in a stupid place like this everybody caught willingly at anything in the way of amusement. The house is now being...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207027, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF DE MAILLA, HISTOIRE GENERALE DE LA CHINE\n\nRICHARD Gregg Irwin\n\nIntroduction\n\nMany years ago a student of mine, then in Peking, named Richard Gregg Irwin, sent me a draft of a paper he had written on the sources of the well-known Histoire générale de la Chine by Père de Mailla. I thought it worthy of publication and promised to help him in the revision. In the meantime he was caught in the war with Japan and imprisoned in Weihsien; by the time he returned to the United States he was wholly absorbed in completing his dissertation, which eventually was published in the Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies as The Evolution of a Chinese Novel: Shui-hu-chuan. Duties of an exacting sort at the East Asiatic Library of the University of California followed in Berkeley, and he died prematurely in 1968 without finding the leisure to turn again to his initial study of de Mailla's magnum opus, still the longest history of China in a western language.\n\nNow that the undersigned has completed his work on Ming biographies it has occurred to him to make the necessary revisions, so that Mr. Irwin's essay may see the light of day. This seems all the more timely as de Mailla's history has recently (1967) been reprinted by the Ch'eng-wen Publishing Company, Taipei.\n\nColumbia University,\n\n21st May, 1974.\n\nTHE NOTES\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nA false impression is given by the full title of de Mailla's Histoire générale de la Chine, ou annales de cet empire; traduites du Tong-Kien-Kang-Mou, par le feu Père Joseph-Anne-Marie de Mailla, Jésuite français, missionaire à Pekin; publiées par M. l'Abbé Grosier\n\nParis, 1777-1783. - 12v., which describes it as translated from the T'ung-chien kang-mu.\n\nThis work, in 104 chüan, comprising the main body of the history, written about 1190 under the supervision of the celebrated Chu Hsi (1130-1200), together with its commentaries, an introductory section based on the writings", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207044, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG REGION\n\n109\n\nplexities of local settlement and the absorption of the aboriginal dwellers of the area in the past thousand years. For a general account, readers are referred to the works by Lo Hsiang-lin (1959, 1963), K.M.A. Barnett, (1957, 1967) and the earlier writings of Krone (1859), G.N. Orme (1912) and S.F. Balfour (1941) cited in the references to this article.\n\nIntroduction*\n\nFor present purposes the Hong Kong region is defined as the present British Crown Colony of Hong Kong (403.7 square miles)1 and the immediately adjoining parts of Kwangtung province with which there has been intermittent official concern following the establishment of Hong Kong 134 years ago. This takes in the districts round the market town of Sham Chun north of the present Sino-British frontier, occupied by British troops between 16th May and 13th September 18992, and the areas of Mirs and Bias Bays to the east of the Colony that were often visited by British naval forces in their suppression of piracy in local waters during much of the 19th century and well into the 20th3. (See map).\n\nAt the time the British occupied Hong Kong island in 1841, the whole of this area, less Bias Bay, formed part of the Hsin-an district of the Kuang-chou prefecture of Kwangtung province. The place names and geographical features of the region are shown in many contemporary and earlier Chinese sources, whilst the large scale European map produced in 1866 by Msgr. Volontieri, an Italian missionary of the Propaganda, provides rather more local detail4.\n\nIn time the British came to occupy a greater part of Hsin-an district. Their occupation of Hong Kong island in January 1841 was converted into possession by the Treaty of Nanking in August 1842. British territory was extended by the lease in perpetuity of Kowloon under a deed dated 20th March 1860 and the cession of the same area by article VI of the Convention of Peking 24th\n\n1 CR1971, p. 204; this figure includes recent reclamations.\n\n2 See Groves, pp. 52-55.\n\n3 For the early period see Fox and Dalrymple Hay. Two expeditions to Bias Bay in March and September 1927 were noted in AR1927, K16: and as late as 1947 piracy in Mirs Bay kept Hong Kong fishermen in port; CR1947, p. 46.\n\n4 The KTTS of 1865 provides more detailed maps of Hsin-an and its adjoining areas than are given in the district and prefectural histories (HNHC and KCFC); see the general chart at pp. 1-2 of the opening volume. For the Volontieri map, which includes Chinese characters, see Ronald C. Y. Ng (1969) pp. 141-148 and Hayes (1970) pp. 193-196.\n\n* For the place names of Hong Kong see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, Hong Kong Government Printer, 1960: hereafter styled Gazetteer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207059, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "124\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nLocal people were placed in a difficult position when pirates or, in periods when China was at war with Britain and her allies, imperial war junks occupied their anchorages. At least two such instances occurred in the 1850s. In February 1857 two British vessels attacked war junks at the Chinese naval anchorage of Tung Chung on Lantau where there was also a fort and permanent garrison. The local population which had probably taken no part in the fighting had to make its peace with the squadron the day after it had burned the junks and dismantled some of the batteries on shore. An offering of two bullocks and some pigs, was sent with a letter from the elders begging the commander to spare their settlement.1 The same thing happened at Tai O, also on Lantau, in November 1854, when an expedition was sent to deal with pirate junks that had fired on the chartered steamer Queen, an American naval vessel. After shelling and an attack by the boats of the squadron, the pirate junks and storehouses were destroyed. An American naval officer, Lieutenant G. H. Preble, captured a pirate flag, inscribed with characters which, he wrote, 'state it is the flag of Lue-ming-suy-ming of the Hong Shing-tong Company, Chief of the Sea Squadron, and that he takes from the rich and not from the poor, and his flag can fly anywhere'. Local people did not see him in quite this light, for Preble records that ‘no sooner had we destroyed the piratical vessels, than a large fleet of fishing junks came into the Bay rejoicing and anchored'. These persons had to drive off a pirate attempt to take and make off in their boats during the night. The next morning a deputation of the chief men of the village came on board his steamer 'with a present of chickens, pork, fish, etc.'2\n\nIn this period, as at an earlier time, villagers took what measures they could to protect themselves from such villains. In the larger places like Cheung Chau, it was apparently possible for local people to prevent their being taken over by pirates as had happened at Tai O. As I have described in another place, their leaders established a Security Bureau in the early 1850s and repaired it when trouble again threatened some years later. In the villages\n\n1 Illustrated London News, 9th and 16th May 1857, pp. 463, 473-474. 2 Szczesniak, pp. 262-266. Another account of this expedition is given in Tronson, pp. 61-62. He calls the place 'Tyhoo', and Preble, 'Tyho'.\n\n3 Hayes 1963. Cheung Chau itself had previously been thought to harbour pirates; see CO129/6, No. 26 of 21 June 1844, in PRO London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207066, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Hong Kong Region\n\n131\n\nsteps taken to correct a decline of population that had seemingly begun several decades before.\n\nThere is other evidence in support of a large population in, say, mid century. My close knowledge of the hills and valleys of the Southern district of the New Territories suggests that practically every piece of land, high or low, that could be planted with rice had been opened for that purpose at one time or another. This presumes a large and settled population, since the opening of paddy fields and their irrigation dams and channels involves considerable labour, and once rice is cultivated there is continuous farming unless the number of cultivators available in a family or village drops to the point where fields go out of use. There was dry and shifting cultivation in addition, for ancillary crops such as peanuts and sweet potato that, old villagers say, were more extensively cultivated in the past.\n\nA second factor that points to a larger population is the widespread and intense fishing of local waters that was such a marked feature of village life seventy and more years ago, as revealed by my enquiries all over the New Territories. If fishing at its most intensive coincided with farming at its most widespread, one may conclude that, subsidiary reasons and incentive factors apart, all this activity was mainly required to provide for the existence of a large population in the villages.\n\nTo conclude, I have here mentioned village tradition and the evidence of the countryside in support of my belief that depopulation was an event in the later history of the Hong Kong region. Using available demographic and economic materials, much work can yet be done to show that Professor Ping-ti Ho's postulation of a 'declining rate of growth' in the population of Kwangtung, 1850-1953, covers reductions as well as increases at the local level.1\n\n1 Ho 1959: 270, 277-278. In the light of my surmises it is interesting to find that Perkins (212-214) notes a sharp reduction in the population figures for Kwangtung between 1851-1873, not fully recovered by 1893. This would, of course, take in the ravages of the Tai Ping time and the Hakka-Punti wars; but there is more to it than these, I suspect.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207071, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "DO WORDS FROM EXTINCT PRE-CHINESE LANGUAGES SURVIVE IN HONG KONG PLACE-NAMES ?*\n\nBy K. M. A. BARNETT\n\nIntroduction\n\nAnybody whose work takes him into the rural parts of Hong Kong will soon be made aware of the badness of the maps. The errors in topographical detail I must leave to the cartographer to explain. The errors which concern me are those in the nomenclature. It is apparent after the most cursory check that a large proportion of the place-names are incorrect — either the wrong name, or the right name wrongly spelt, or the right name in the wrong place.\n\nPutting the right name in the wrong place is presumably due to the misreading of field notes. Wrong spellings are always to be excused in the absence of a generally accepted, scientific method of transliteration. And even the registration of a wrong name is not so easy to avoid as might be thought.\n\nIn the past, many field workers were entirely ignorant of the local languages and had to rely on interpreters. There are good interpreters in Hong Kong — in 24 years' service I have met four... but they are not available to accompany field survey parties. Field survey parties have to rely on less than the best interpreters, or even on pidgin English, with some amusing results in the early days. It was for this reason that the island of Ma Shi Chau1 is still marked on some maps as No Kot Choi — i.e. No got choy, pidgin English for 'No food to be had'.\n\nLater, the field workers themselves had some knowledge of Chinese, but even that had its pitfalls. For the Chinese they would know is Cantonese, either the Sai Kwan162 or the Pun Yue161 dialect. But the languages of the New Territories are Nam Tau156 Cantonese,\n\n*This article is reprinted, with some revisions and additions by the author, from pp. 1-13 of T. R. Tregear's Hong Kong Gazetteer (Hong Kong University Press, 1958). Mr. Barnett is well known to readers of this Journal. He served for 37 years in the Administrative Branch of the Hong Kong Civil Service from which he retired some years ago, his last post being Commissioner of Census and Statistics.\n\nSuperior figures refer to characters which can be found in the Notes and Character Index at pp. 157-159.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207073, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "138 \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT \n\never attempted to solve... who lived in what is now the Colony and Leased Territory of Hong Kong 600 years ago and what language did they speak?' \n\nI had then just written an article for Mr. J. M. Braga's Hong Kong Symposium in which I summarized evidence from various historical sources. A little new evidence has come to light since that article was written in 1956, and it will not be amiss to mention the chief facts. \n\nThree of the existing Punti160 clans, and one Hakka137, claim continuous residence since the eleventh century A.D. The Punti clans appear to have been connected with the military posts set up in the Southern Han135 dynasty (A.D. 917-971) and wherever Punti160 and Hakka11 are found in the same area the Hakkas always have the inferior foot-hill land--the typical pattern of a partial conquest by later arrivals, pushing the earlier inhabitants up into the hills. \n\nAt this time Lantao141 and other islands, Hong Kong harbour itself and the peninsulas that jut into Mirs Bay153 were controlled by boat-people. It can be shown that both of the present kinds of boat-people (Tanka175 and Hoklo138) were represented. They were still unassimilated, and independent enough to require strong garrisons to keep them quiet, at the beginning of the Yüan182 dynasty. The suppression of the pearl fishing A.D. 1319-(the late Mr. Sung Hok Pang169 said 1324) was intended to conciliate them. \n\nThe assimilation of the hill-tribes was not begun till the Yuan dynasty at the earliest. The petition of Chang Wei-yen134 of Taipo170 in 1318 mentions two tribes, named Yao179 and Shan-lao-165. The 1819 edition of the Hsin-an-chih139 mentions only Yao. All the present hill cultivators claim Chinese descent and all speak Hakka137. Some, however, claim continuous occupation since the Ming152 dynasty, so that if they are really of Chinese descent they must have lived side by side with aboriginal tribes for two centuries. Again, some of those who claim to be Chinese claim also to have been there from time immemorial, and some still preserve the cult of the creator-god P'an-ku159, which is said to indicate a Yao origin. The truth is probably that in some places the aborigines were killed off or driven away, in a few others they adopted the Chinese language and 'passed' as Chinese, while in others there was intermarriage and the offspring were accepted as Chinese. \n\nIn circumstances such as these it is usual for something of the original languages to survive: in the everyday terms used in fishing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207097, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "162 \n\nSUNG HOK-PANG \n\nbeam into a new dragon boat. When it was launched into the water, a strange thing happened. The boat flew up into the air, and immediately a great quantity of treasure, gold, silver and precious stones fell into the boat from the sky. When it was full the boat came down to the water, and the people were able to empty it. Then it flew into the air again, and came down again with fresh supplies of treasure. This happened many times until there were untold riches for the Tangs. A few years later, they chose another lucky day and erected a new beam and the hall was completed and given the name Loi Shing Tong1. It still exists in Shui T'au Village2, on the left-hand side of Hung Shing Kung (plate 20, figure I. H.K.N., VI, Nos. 3 and 4. “Hung Shing Kung,—the oldest temple in old Ch'an T'in.\") under the name of Ts'z T'ong Tsai (small ancestral hall).3 \n\nThen followed many years of prosperity for Kam T'in until times of trouble came to all the countryside and the family had to abandon the village temporarily on account of bandits. Before leaving Kam T'in, however, they buried there what remained of the treasure. This story was handed down from generation to generation more as legend than true fact. During the Ham Fung4 (咸豐) years, 1851-1861, of Ts'ing dynasty, a man called Tang Paak Luk (鄧伯祿) of Kam Hing Wai (錦慶圍) farmed the land where the treasure was supposed to be buried. One day he sent a labourer, Ch'an A Faat (陳亞發) to work in the particular field, and in the evening Ch'an returned to the farmer's house with a gold rope which he declared he had dug up. Everyone was very pleased at first, but gradually it appeared that bad luck had come with the rope. The farm beasts began to sicken, many died and then the farmer's family became ill. So the rope was re-buried without more ado, and prosperity was at once restored to Tang Paak Luk. \n\nAnother story is of a very poor farmer who at a different time rented the same ground. One day he dug up a brick that shone brightly in the sun. As he examined it, thinking it must be silver, he carelessly dropped it on his foot, and broke his big toe. Being too poor to pay for a doctor or even to buy curatives, the farmer gave the brick to his wife to break up, and they found that it was without doubt real silver. So the wife was able to buy medicine and consult a doctor with the aid of the brick, but it was not until all the brick \n\n1 Plate 31 at rear of this Volume.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207120, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n185\n\nLei King T'ong (A) is another ancestral hall, and can be found by the side of the main road through Kam T'in. It was built for Tang Ng Shaang (£) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 36).\n\nI Tai Shue Yuen (**) is the new school building built instead of the Man Ch'eung Kok (M) (see H.K.N. VII, p. 256) and is situated in Shui T'au village.\n\nChau Wong Yee Kung Ts'z (M), (=214) (plate 20) is a hall that was built to record the merit of Viceroy Châu Yau Tak (♬) and Governor Wong Loi Yam (*). After the Ming emperors were expelled from China, an officer of the Ming army named Cheng Shing Kung (4) attacked the coast of South China, using Formosa as his base. All the people in sympathy with the Ming dynasty, along the coast helped him, so as the Manchu government had no navy to send against him, an order was made that all the inhabitants of the coast were to be moved inland for 50 Chinese miles. Later they were moved again for another 30 miles and for seven years, A.D. 1661-1668, the New Territories were deserted. The fields were unattended and allowed to lie fallow, and the buildings fell into disrepair. At the end of that time the people made representations to the Governor and Viceroy, and it was through the mediation of these two men, with the Emperor that the people were allowed to go back to their own land. The full account of this story is very long, but it is hoped to devote an article to it later on.\n\nI have to thank Mr. Tang Paak K'au (1) and Mr. Tang Wai T'ong (**), both elders of Kam T'in, for their co-operation and help in obtaining access to the numerous documents that it has been necessary to consult before this series of articles could be attempted. Also Mr. Tang Ch'ong Yip (##) a teacher in Kam T'in, who gave invaluable assistance in searching out references, copying out paragraphs from books in the possession of various villagers, and deciphering inscriptions from stone tablets. Unfortunately Mr. Tang Wai Man (✯) another elder who showed great interest in these articles and helped considerably, died a few months ago, and is unable to see them completed. Lastly, I am much indebted to Mrs. Herklots for her help in writing these articles in readable English.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207125, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "190\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nUNUSUAL TREES IN HONG KONG\n\nCinnamomum cassia Blume: Cassia-Bark Tree (Chinese Cassia)\n\nThis tree is a South China species, but does not occur naturally in Hong Kong, nor commonly anywhere in Kwangtung Province with which the New Territories adjoin. Its distribution is confined to Kwangsi Province and the west of Kwangtung Province, where it is grown commercially on a considerable scale, providing the raw material for the well-known commercial product “cassia bark”.\n\nBefore 1952, no cultivated C. cassia had been recorded in Hong Kong; however, in 1952 it was found that three cassia-bark trees were growing at three hermitages near Castle Peak Temple - one tree at each hermitage. These three trees, together with nursery stock derived from them, are the only living specimens so far known in Hong Kong.\n\nSince C. cassia is such a rare and unusual tree in Hong Kong, it is intriguing to note its significance in the gardens of the hermitages. How old are these trees and why were they brought to these hermitages? It was learned that they were grown from young seedlings brought from Kwangsi about twenty years ago, and that they were planted, not for commercial purposes but because of the cassia tree/hermit connection.\n\nHermits often consider themselves to be on a different plane from ordinary men and they like to keep something as a symbol of dignity in their company as a means of emphasising this. C. cassia is associated with the qualities of gentleness and sacredness, in the Chinese view, and these qualities form a source of inspiration and delight to the hermits. The presence of a cassia-bark tree in such a place is believed not only to enrich its grounds, but also to be symbolic of spiritual purification for those staying there. This is the reason why the cassia-bark tree has made such a dramatic entry into Hong Kong and why it is considered to be of such importance by the hermits.\n\nThe tree is easily confused with its two allied species, namely C. camphora and particularly C. burmanni both of which are found in Hong Kong. However, one can easily separate the camphor tree C. camphora from C. cassia by the bark which is rough on the former while that on C. cassia is smooth. The leaf shape is used to distinguish C. burmanni from C. cassia; on C. burmanni the leaf is pointed, while that on C. cassia is truncate.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207138, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n203\n\nAt this time the population of Ha Wan was 4861 (G.N. 21 of the Government gazette for 5th March 1859).\n\nObservation Point must be the Observation Place shown on the Map accompanying Mr. Chadwick's Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, published by the Colonial Office in 1882. The map shows Ha Wan as District No. 6 and Wanchai as District No. 7. This indicates that Wanchai was taken from it at some date between 1857 and 1882. Observation Place is shown at p. 46 of the Index to the Streets, House Nos., and Lots in the Colony of Hong Kong, 1903, and may be identified with the lower end of the present Tin Lok Lane, near its junction with Hennessy Road, then seashore.\n\nWanchai was one of the first districts to be developed after the British Occupation of the Island in 1841. The Reverend Carl T. Smith has kindly provided an account of this development, based on his original researches into Hong Kong records. This is attached as a separate Note.\n\nThe Itinerary and Places of Interest\n\nThe party will follow a circuitous route among the back streets, steps and terraces of old Wanchai between Monmouth Path in the west and Stone Nullah Lane on the east.\n\nAmong the places of interest to be visited are several Chinese temples and shrines as follows:\n\n1) The Pak Kung Shrine at the side of No. 7, Star Street. This was established before the War, probably upwards of 70 years ago. The shrine is a To Tei Miu (±普普) or altar to the earth god. The main festival of the year falls on the 2nd day of the second lunar month when the management committee of local residents organises a religious and social celebration.\n\n2) Hung Shing Temple, Queen's Road East. This temple is one of the oldest of the area and may even have existed as a shrine before the British Occupation of the Island. According to Carl Smith there was a small settlement nearby which may have provided the body of regular worshippers, along with visiting boat people.\n\nThe present structure dates from Hsien Feng 10th year (1860-61), repaired in T’ung Chih 6th year (1867-68) when the persons responsible are listed as 'the whole body of devout Hong Kong believers'. These dates point to an earlier origin, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207146, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n211\n\nNote the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok.\n\nDuring this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment.\n\nFootnote:\n\n1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building.\n\n2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong.\n\n3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office.\n\nAdditional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith\n\n(a) The Development of West Point\n\nThe area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach.\n\nDr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name:\n\nOn January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207153, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "218 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\ncame about at the time of the building of the Ko Shing Theatre in 1870. The theatre gave its name to the old Praya when the sea was reclaimed near the turn of the century. Today a new building is being built on the site of the theatre. Two lanes were left on either side. The western one was called Kom Yu and the eastern Wo Fung. A short lane, Pan Kwai, ran off Wo Fung. It contained five family houses on each side. It no longer exists, as the Ko Shing Telephone Exchange has been built over it. Tsung Sau Lanes East and West were developed between 1877 and 1879, as was also In Ku Lane and Sutherland Street with its godowns. Li Sing Street was opened later.\n\nAs an illustration of the diversity of shops conducted on Queen's Road, the 1885 Rate and Valuation Table lists the following between Queen's Street and Wilmer Street: four each of chandlers, druggists and barbers; three each of tin smiths, merchants and tea dealers; two each of coopers, shoes, scales, lamps, lumber and tobacco; and one each of iron, cotton, silk, joss paper, pickles, rice, pawnshop, mason, carpenter, eating house, marine store, copper smith and gun smith.\n\nCurrently much redevelopment is taking place, but some of the old alleys, particularly In Ku, still retain buildings erected when they were first opened a hundred years ago. Queen's Road still has the same variety of shops and Ko Shing Street is still lined with Nam-pak business hongs.\n\n(b) Chinese Tea Houses\n\n(1) A Chinese friend has supplied the following Note:\n\nCha Kui (**茶居**) is the old, local name for a Chinese Tea House. It is a special type of Chinese restaurant catering exclusively for tea-lovers. Tea drinking or Yum Cha (**飲茶**) has been a long-standing pastime with the people of the Kwangtung Province to which Hong Kong once belonged. It is popular with poor and rich alike. A tea house is sometimes looked upon as a gathering place for meeting people, talking with friends or for taking leisure in a friendly atmosphere. Most tea-house goers used to go to the same tea house everyday and also at almost the same time of the day and it is also customary that they ask for the same kind of tea each time they go. In a sense, a tea house for Cantonese people is much like and comparable to a 'pub' for English people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207155, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "220 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nlarge paper bag. This cost 10 cents and the number of dim sum was 18 pieces, usually sufficient for 8-9 persons. The article made picturesque comparisons between the sizes of different foods, then and now, with much larger pieces being supplied in the past. Prices too came in for odious comparison. \"The difference in price in the old days and now is too great: people have said that it may be compared to the difference between the legs of mosquitoes and cows”. \n\nTea house business begins at dawn. Those in Western open between 5-6 a.m, and close about 9 p.m. nowadays. According to the article, the tea houses of 50 and more years ago started business before dawn and closed at 10 a.m., and opened again between 11-12 to 3 without doing business at night time. The interior of tea houses was very colourful. The waiters used slang to report, usually in a loud voice, the consumption of patrons for making up their bills. The customers lolled about and took things at their ease, putting their legs on their own or another stool, often dressed only in a singlet and shorts in the summer months. This sort of thing can still be seen in one of the tea houses that we will visit (the Foo Lung Tea-house, 382-386, Queen's Road, Central) and at lunch time many of the patrons bring their singbirds in cages which they hang around the walls. 50 years ago and more no women were present in the tea houses because at that time it was not the practice for them to appear in public places; and no doubt this added to the informality noted above. \n\nTea houses were also the scene of musical entertainment of a special Cantonese type known generally by the name of nam yam (✯✯) or \"Southern tunes\". Like Cantonese opera, the themes were often concerned with historical stories, handed down from one generation of entertainers to another. Blind musicians and singers often performed these roles. Until this year, this type of entertainment was given in the Tim Nam Tea House in Wing Lok Street, now under demolition. According to the former manager, the majority of the audience were boat people from the cargo boats plying in the harbour. In recent years this traditional type of entertainment has declined in popularity and both singers and audience were confined to a small group of devotees.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207165, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "230\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nGovernment to the representatives of the community for a Chinese school in 1847. (See \"Notes on Chinese Temples\" in the 1973 Journal of Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society). Thus the roots of the College goes back to the first community-organised effort of the Chinese in urban Hong Kong to provide education.\n\n(5) VISIT TO CERAMIC FACTORY AND SAM TUNG UK (NEW TERRITORIES)\n\nOn 16th November 1974, members of the Oriental Ceramics Society and of the Royal Asiatic Society visited the ceramic factory, Cerrarts, at Hung Shui Kiu in the New Territories and the village of Sam Tung Uk at Tsuen Wan.\n\nCerrarts\n\nMr. Lam, the owner, possibly one of the most experienced ceramists in Hong Kong, was a former student of St. John's University, Shanghai studying civil engineering. He was the first ceramist in Hong Kong to produce ceramics for the local and overseas market. He learnt his basic skill more than 30 years ago in China, continued making ceramics as a hobby, becoming more and more involved and eventually turned professional about 12 years ago. His interest has also influenced his son and daughter, who are now lecturers in ceramic and pottery in overseas universities.\n\n44\n\n'Any clay can be made into a fine piece of ceramic, given the correct treatment,” he said as he gently put down a freshly-painted Tang horse. He gets his clay from the hillsides around Hong Kong and adds chemicals to them e.g. refined powder cement. Through the addition of chemicals to the clay, the properties of the clay are changed. The type of chemical added also depends on the form required; e.g. for a Tang horse, dark clay and sand are used.\n\nFirstly, a mould is made. The form is shaped from clay and covered with plaster. When the plaster dries, it is removed from the form. It then gives an excellent imprint of the form and is used as the mould. An opening is produced on the mould and water-diluted clay is poured into it. The mould is then left to stand, with the opening at the lowest position. Any clay not sticking to the side of the mould is then drained through the opening. When the clay is dried, the mould is opened, and the bare body is taken out of the mould. Pieces are then pasted to the body to produce the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207250, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "regularly it is important that the income from these two sources be preserved.\n\nSundry creditors for printing charges need to be explained. They cover the printing charges for the 1973 and 1974 journals together with two symposium brochures.\n\nLooking to the future I am grateful to those who have responded to the call to pay an additional $20 by way of increased subscription, agreed upon 2 years ago. Several of you have decided to become Life Members. Looking further ahead, however, there is no doubt that expenditure will increase because the Society has now undertaken to pay for secretarial assistance, and also there will be certain financial obligations towards the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Looking further ahead the Society hopes to rent premises in the Hong Kong Arts Centre but this will depend on the financial conditions. This, to my mind, will benefit the Society enormously and one cannot rule out the possibility of further subscription increases or alternatively an appeal to all current annual and life members for the initial capital outlay.\n\n24th March, 1975\n\nD. A. Gilkes\n\nHon. Treasurer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207263, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A HONG KONG SPIRIT-MEDIUM TEMPLE\n\n23\n\nweekday. His possessing spirit is the saintly monk Buddha Sha僧。\n\nThe third medium is also a Chiu-chow in his early 30's. He is employed as a performer in a Chiu-chow opera troupe and seldom appears at the temple except on major feast days, e.g. Chinese New Year. His possessing deity is the Supreme Buddha.\n\nThe medium \"in training” is a Chiu-chow in his early 20's who was until recently employed as a security guard at a local transportation facility. He now supports himself by odd jobs such as take-home piece work from local factories. His possessing deity is the mythical Monkey of Chinese legend.13\n\nIt is obvious that an individual kei tung's rank within the cult is not based on the relative position of their possessing deities within the Chinese pantheon. Rank is predicated on the kei tung's experience as a medium and degree of involvement in the affairs of the temple association. The mere fact that the cult master's possessing deities would be judged as relatively minor personages in the Chinese pantheon in no way affects his recognized position of dominance among the ritual specialists. His over twenty years of experience as a kei tung, and his role as one of the founding “19 Brothers\" of the temple association, render his position unassailable.\n\nMany elaborate ceremonies are conducted by Tai Wong Ye kei tung, the most ostentatious being those held during Chinese New Year and the Yu Laan or Hungry Ghost Festival. It is our contention, however, that the keystone of the cult's appeal as a religious centre lies in the simpler ritual held each evening at 10 p.m. It is that ritual which we will now discuss.\n\nTai Wong Ye Temple: The Possession Ritual\n\nEighty-seven years ago a Christian missionary in Amoy described a spirit possession ritual as follows:\n\n\"The graven idol can be seen sitting in the shrine, with its attendant figures by its side. The group of men that are chanting in a steady, monotonous voice charms that are supposed to bring the spirit are usually men of no reputation in the village. There is no scholar in his long role present, and no man of influence standing by to do honor to the idol. The men seem fit for scenes of darkness and remind one of Macbeth's witches making their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207382, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "BRIAN MORTON & P. S. WONG\n\npower. There is thus an advantage for an oyster farmer to possess a large family. Usually every member of the family participates in the work. Male members usually handle the more laborious procedures such as the laying of the cultch, the transfer of the oysters from one bed to the other and the harvesting of the oysters for resale. Female members may also participate in this work especially those young and strong enough--but more often they are in charge of separating the oysters from the cultch and the shucking and selling of the oysters. Younger members of the family assist with domestic chores.\n\nIn Deep Bay, the oysters are cultivated in the traditional manner i.e. by bottom-laying (*). This method involves the laying of cultch (*) on the muddy bottom to collect the oyster spat (#). The set oysters are then left to grow for one or two years in the breeding ground (*) before being transferred to the deeper fattening ground (†) for an additional period of one or more years prior to harvesting (#).\n\nElsewhere in the world various materials are used as cultch for the collection of spat. These include stones, shells, bamboo sticks (Cahn, 1950), lime coated roofing tiles or egg-crate fillers, cement dipped wood veneer rings or old fish nets (Needler, 1941; Quayle, 1969) and even sticks of the mangrove, Aegiceras majus (Roughley, 1922). In Hong Kong some ten years ago, rocks and shells (Plate 14; A, B) were most commonly used as cultch. The supply of rock from nearby shores has, however, been virtually exhausted. Consequently stones are now being replaced by concrete tiles (*) (Plate 14; C, D) or concrete posts (Plate 14; E, F). Stones and oyster shells of appropriate size and thickness are still collected and reserved as cultch whenever available. The oyster shells are first cleaned and placed in the sun for weathering prior to being used. Concrete slabs are made artificially at a cost of HK$500/10,000 (in 1974). Old concrete slabs or posts which remain unbroken after the oysters have been detached can be reused. They are cleaned to remove all fouling organisms and then dried in the sun.\n\nThe most important and labour intensive stage in the bottom-laying method of oyster culture is the collection of the spat (**). In Deep Bay oysters spawn from March to September when temperatures are high and salinities are low (Mok, 1973). As a consequence the cultch has to be laid within this period. However,\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n169\n\nrelease. His nerve was not shaken by his experience, and it was a privilege to have him on the staff.\n\nMajor Charles Boxer had studied the Japanese language in Japan and when hostilities broke out was a staff officer in China Command. Towards the end of the battle on the Island he went out to help the defence in the field and was very seriously wounded. He was taken first to the Queen Mary Hospital and thence to Bowen Road in early January 1942. The Japanese of course knew that he was in Hong Kong and sought him out after our surrender. After the immediate danger of his wound had passed his services as an interpreter were much in demand both by Shackleton and by the Japanese. The surgical problems of our wounded were being brought under better control when on 7 August 1942 Boxer gave me a message from the Japanese that on the following day Simson the A.D.M.S., Shackleton the commanding officer, a named number of officers and other ranks of the staff and 40 patients were to leave Bowen Road and that all women staff were to be transferred away from the hospital 48 hours later. At the time we considered that only twelve patients were fit to go to P.O.W. camp. All except two of the women staff were to be transferred to the Civil Internment Camp on the Stanley Peninsula. The two exceptions, as noted earlier, were released, in Hong Kong. I was promised 30 “first aiders” to replace our nurses but it was much later before 10 Canadian volunteers arrived to help us. The Japanese instruction to me was to take charge of the hospital with Major Gerald Harrison as my deputy. My own position was secure enough for I was much senior to my medical colleagues in the hospital, but Harrison was not the next in seniority in the British army. Before his departure Colonel Simson was good enough to give me a letter in which he “promoted” me to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and to take charge of the hospital. As an interpolation this development did not forward my career in any way and it was not till 16 January 1946 that I was promoted to the substantive rank of Lieutenant Colonel. My pay in this rank began only upon this date though my seniority was slightly ante-dated. By 1946 I had nearly 28 years service, so my forebodings of 1939 and 1940 about my career were justified. This little story shows that it is always unwise to be captured in war; the effect on the career of a regular soldier can be calamitous. It also illustrates the slow rate of promotion thirty years ago. I was however grateful for Colonel Simson’s", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207513, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 281, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n273\n\noccupied and privacy was non-existent. Privacy during sexual play was essential thirty years ago except in certain centres which were catering for unusual tastes; my observations suggest that privacy seems to be not essential at the present time.\n\nAfter the sisters and auxiliary nurses left I wondered if we might discover some homosexual manifestations. The sexual instinct is one of the last to be submerged by physical deterioration due to hunger and this is shown by the reproduction rate remaining high in countries where the population is often on the verge of starvation and is always undernourished. In my many conversations throughout the hospital I never heard any talk of homosexual practices going on.\n\nI set out to confine this account to events in the Military Hospital but I must include a short tale about the Civil Internment Camp in Stanley where both men and women were held. I understood that the Japanese authorities there issued an order which ran in the following terms. \"Sexual intercourse is prohibited except between husband and wife or close friends\". This story may be apocryphal but the language in which the order was supposed to be couched is typical of the rendering of our language by many, perhaps most of the Japanese interpreters I met and could well be true. Anyway it is a good story and perhaps worth telling.\n\nTHE ATOMIC BOMB\n\nIn Kowloon we had no idea that two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan and had provided the final weighty argument which forced the Emperor to assume responsibility on 15 August 1945 for ordering his forces to surrender. I have recalled earlier that I had no doubt even in the early days that the power of the Allies would eventually overcome the Japanese, but the only picture I could conjure up to myself was that of a long slogging series of attacks up the coast of Asia and against the multitudes of islands in Japanese hands, all fiercely defended. I thought that this process would take many years and would certainly be reinforced by a tight blockade by the Allies. Huge tracts of Chinese territory round Hong Kong were in Japanese hands and as the situation for the Japanese deteriorated, such was their reputation that I could not imagine them allowing a large number of prisoners to consume valuable food. I thought the outlook was dismal in the extreme", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207531, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE POTTERY KILNS AT WUN YIU, TAI PO\n\nSo far as I know, the printed official papers of the Hong Kong Government contain only a few references to these local kilns. They all relate to the period 1899-1912 and in chronological order are as follows:\n\n(a) \"One village we visited was engaged entirely in the manufacture of pottery, the clay for which is found in the mountain immediately above the village. The villagers are said to have learned the art of manufacturing pottery from an Italian missionary who formerly resided among them.\" J. H. Stewart Lockhart's Report on the New Territory, Hongkong Government Gazette, 8 April 1899 P. 544.*\n\n(b) \"The pottery works at Un Yiu near Tai Po manufacture very coarse ware for export to Kong Mun and local use. The trade done is quite small.” Eastern No, 88, Correspondence relating to the Kowloon-Canton Railway (London Colonial Office, 1907) Enclosure B to No. 59 to Lyttelton, 11 January 1905.\n\n(c) \"The only Potteries are at Wun Yiu near Taipo, about 400,000 pots, rice bowls and plates are here turned out every year, of an average value of 6 cash each; most of them are exported to Tam Shui in Chinese Territory, Some also to Hongkong.\" G. N. Orme. \"Report on the New Territories 1899-1912\" Sessional Papers 1912, para. 83, p. 55.\n\nThere were at least two kilns. One of these was built over some years ago for a school extension. The other, or part of it, is still to be seen. There are said to be others in the area.\n\nA temple dedicated to Fan Sin Kung (#) stands near the site of the kilns. It is in good repair and contains commemorative\n\n* Appendix No. 2 to the Report, which deals with the geology of the New Territory, adds 'Some excellent pottery clay exists on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan, of which we saw specimens in the village of Wun Yiu, of a light brown colour and extremely fine texture'.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207540, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "300\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nJ. A. Prescott\n\nH. A. Rydings\n\nC. T. Smith\n\nPhotographers\n\nSouth China Athletic Association, Photographic Group:\n\nButt Chak-yu 畢澤宇\n\nHoh Wing-chan 何永燦\n\nJimmy Kwok 郭天志\n\nLai Yat-fung 賴一峰\n\nLau Cho-chak\n\nTam Yee-yin 譚以仁\n\nTong Wai-hang\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society:\n\nH.A. and J.W. Rydings\n\nH. Werle\n\nHong Kong, 1975.\n\nH. A. RYDINGS\n\nBOAT PEOPLE'S CEREMONIES OBSERVED AT ISLAND HOUSE ON 5TH AND 31ST JANUARY, AND 16TH NOVEMBER, 1975*\n\nThe following notes were provided by Mr. David Akers-Jones, Secretary for the New Territories and a member of this Society, whose residence is at Island House, Tai Po. The island Yuen Chau Tsai (AMA), connected by causeway to the main road, has long been a centre of the boat population. Ed.\n\n(I) 5th January, 1975\n\nA motorized sampan motored slowly round Island House from the bridge to the shelter used by the small in-shore fishing boats on the other side of the Island House causeway. On board a group of six young women were pretending to pole the boat along, wearing plaited red wheel-hats. Another girl was beating a gong, creating a tremendous noise, another standing in the bow facing aft was beating a drum in a frenzied manner, and on the roof of the\n\nPlate 18 illustrates these notes.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 333, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "324\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsite to which it was removed in 1929. The first, and larger, of these was the Kwun Yam Temple already noted, with its associated public buildings. The bell and the earliest presentation boards (*) are dated 1873-74. The main entrance of the temple was rebuilt in 1889-90, and the undated Kung Sor (公所) or public office built onto one side of the central structure may also be attributed to this time. A separate clinic or public dispensary building was added in 1910, according to a memorial tablet of that year, which bears the names of very many subscribers.\n\nThe second of the Hung Hom temples is almost as old as the first. According to a plaque recently placed inside the building by the Chinese Temples Committee, this Pak Tai temple dates from the 2nd year of Kuang Hsü (1876-77) when it was built at the eastern end of Ching Chau Street, Hung Hom, but as stated above, was later removed for development. The oldest dated items in the present building are a bell dated 1893 presented by a Wo Hing Tong (*) and a set of incense burners dated 1901-02 presented by 'the whole community of Hung Hom Dockyard Village (紅磡澳通圍).\n\nThis temple development, and the basis it provided for local community effort, is reminiscent of the similar developments in Yau Ma Tei reported in this Journal some time ago.† The Kaifong (街坊) or neighbourhood organisation centering as in Yau Ma Tei on a local temple is credited with these community services; references to a Kaifong school and a volunteer fire brigade are also available. This self-help and enterprise of the local community, was, however, not a new phenomenon but one created to a pattern long familiar in Chinese urban communities. Hong Kong, 1976.\n\nCARL T. SMITH\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHONG KONG: TYPHOON PREPARATIONS IN 1903\n\nReaders will recall Mr. A. J. S. Lack's article 'Yaumatei Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong, 1903-1915' in the 1973 Journal. The following description is of interest in this connection. It is taken from the Memoirs of Robert Dollar, pp. 55-56 published privately in America in 1927, and describes a visit to Hong Kong in 1903. Ed.\n\nCommonly styled in Cantonese,\n+ JHKBRAS, 6, 1966: pp. 129-131.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207585, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 353, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "344\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nStates. After thirty years in the insurance business, rising to be president of Continental Insurance Agency, he retired six years ago to devote himself to research on the Chinese in Hawaii.\n\nHe has put into this book, not a compendium of dry historical facts, but readable stories of the Chinese pioneers, their livelihood, their customs, and the help they received from the missionaries. Many of these stories are told interestingly as excerpts from biographies and autobiographies.\n\nAs we enjoy the blessings of multi-racial Hawaii with its richness of economic plenty and social well-being, let us remember the gnarled old men among us and their forebears who made this possible. As the Chinese say, \"When drinking water, think of the source.\"\n\n15 July 1975\n\nWILLIAM C. W. LEE\n\nFootnote: Mr. Lee was former editor of the Hawaii Chinese Journal. He is a journalism graduate of University of Missouri, had done newspaper work in Shanghai, and is now retired in Los Angeles.\n\nTHE TAIPING REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT, by JEN YU-WEN, New Haven & London, Harvard University Press, 1973, xxiii, 616, ill., US$19.50.\n\nWriting nearly 30 years ago in his biography of Tso Tsung-t'ang, a leading protagonist in the last campaigns against the Taipings, W. L. Bales commented on this period as follows:-\n\nA complete and impartial study of this great uprising and its many ramifications has not yet been made, either in a foreign language or in the Chinese. The extraordinary amount of material in Chinese that is available for such a study has doubtless been the main reason why no foreigner has attempted or is likely to attempt the sifting of such a mass for a comprehensive and critical study. As for the Chinese, they probably will make such a study in time and have in fact already done a great deal in that direction.\n\nMuch has been written on this great subject in the intervening period, but without doubt, Mr. Jen is the first scholar to produce the comprehensive and critical study mentioned in the above paragraph. He has in fact devoted a lifetime of study to the Taiping", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207666, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Teochiu: Ethnicity in Urban Hong Kong\n\nTeochiu Associational Structure\n\n39\n\nTeochiu are reputed to be highly organized, much more so than other ethnic groups. The proliferation of Teochiu associations in Hong Kong must certainly give the impression to outsiders that the Teochiu community is a hierarchically organized, monolithic structure. Teochiu themselves, however, are well aware of internal divisions and the lack of communication between different \"levels\" within the formal organizational structure.\n\nThere are a number of different kinds of formal and informal Teochiu organizations in Hong Kong. A preliminary distinction can be made between what will be called \"higher level\" and \"lower level\" associations. This distinction is based partially on the primary functions or activities of particular associations and partially on the influence of an association as a group and the influence of individual leaders and members. \"Higher level\" associations include commercial organizations of various kinds ranging from the most influential and powerful Chiu-Chow Chamber of Commerce to associations whose membership is limited to certain occupations such as the wholesale rice trade or ownership of plastic factories. \"Lower level\" associations include surname, district, and Hungry Ghost Festival organizations.\n\nThere are probably at least 150 Teochiu organizations in Hong Kong, including 58 Hungry Ghost Festival organizations, a number of other religious organizations, and numerous Teochiu Christian organizations. These organizations are not tightly interconnected through formal communication channels, nor are the \"lower level\" associations controlled by \"higher level\" associations. Many organizations are fairly autonomous, with few formal links to other organizations, and are largely concerned with activities pertinent to their own sphere of interest. This is reflected in the failure of an attempt by some Teochiu leaders several years ago to establish a general Teochiu association to be composed of representatives of all Teochiu organizations. This kind of association would presumably have been a very potent special interest group. The attempt failed because of an apparent lack of interest on the part of many elite Teochiu, the feeling that \"higher level\" Teochiu associations already sufficiently fulfilled the functions of such an association, and, according to one informant, the dominant concern of some leaders with their own limited sphere of interest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207667, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "40\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\nAnother example was an attempt, again several years ago, initially promoted by several very prominent Teochiu elites, to use some of the money donated for the three-day Hungry Ghost Festival for charitable purposes. Total expenditures on each of these 58 festivals range from HK$150,000 to more than HK$200,000. The minimum total annual expenditure is at least HK$9,000,000. The attempt was unsuccessful in that the organizers were unable to convince local-level leaders to set aside part of the collected funds for a general fund for certain charitable purposes.\n\nThere is considerable diversity among Teochiu leaders in attitudes toward this particular festival which, as a three-day public ritual, is largely performed by Teochiu (though many non-Teochiu families also make individual offerings to the hungry ghosts on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month). Some leaders regard the festival as a “superstitious” waste of money, and this attitude was one of the motivations behind the attempt to siphon donated funds into charitable purposes. This example illustrates the lack of agreement among Teochiu organizations and leaders at different levels concerning attitudes toward religious beliefs and ritual in general and this important Teochiu festival in particular. It is important in that it is the ritual focus of a number of locally organized informal groups and is considered by many Teochiu and non-Teochiu as the cultural symbol par excellence of Teochiu ethnic viability. Although it is possible to argue that this huge expenditure is a waste of money and effort, it is my belief that local-level leaders would not be able to generate sufficient enthusiasm for the donation of money and physical labor for purposes other than those which non-elite would choose to participate in. The festival organizations are largely autonomous and locally organized informal groups which would not exert such effort for goals originating at higher levels within the Teochiu community.\n\nIf Teochiu organizations are not tightly inter-linked by formal mechanisms, they are of course interconnected by personal networks. These are the threads tying together the Teochiu community and literally run up and down socio-economic levels and have contact points with the formal organizations. Ego-centric networks also cross-cut ethnic boundaries, a reflection of numerous friendship, commercial, and political ties across ethnic categories. There is of course considerable variation in the extent to which ego-centric networks include non-Teochiu linkages.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207668, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Teochiu; Ethnicity in Urban Hong Kong\n\nVariation and Solidarity within Teochiu Population1\n\n41\n\nAs noted above, there were sufficiently large numbers of Teochiu immigrants coming to Hong Kong after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to enable Teochiu to reside and work together in fairly large concentrations. The initial contact period between non-Teochiu and the new immigrants was generally marked by ethnic hostility, at times erupting into physical violence between individuals or groups at places of work. Interethnic rivalry and violence was particularly common among coolies. Recently arrived Teochiu could not, of course, speak or understand Cantonese and were often forced to work in the most physically demanding and lowest paid occupations. Informants have indicated that it required a period of up to one year in some cases for Teochiu to learn sufficient Cantonese to enable limited communication with non-Teochiu. Communication difficulties and concomitant mis-understandings were undoubtedly one cause of inter-ethnic hostility and have contributed to the widely held belief among non-Teochiu that Teochiu are loud spoken and quarrelsome. Teochiu who were born in China and learned Cantonese after immigrating to Hong Kong speak Cantonese with a distinct accent and can be easily identified as Teochiu by others. The fact that many Teochiu could initially find work only in low status occupations reinforced the opinions of others that Teochiu were rough and coarse menial laborers. Teochiu were widely discriminated against and treated with fear and disrespect in this early period. They found it difficult to obtain jobs from non-Teochiu and were considered by many to be too violent and aggressive to function well in some jobs. The belief that Teochiu are violent in nature is largely derived from the very real tendency for Teochiu to go to the aid of other Teochiu in a fight, even if they are complete strangers. This norm, involving mutual assistance on the street, was a reflection of the struggles involved in survival and adaptation. It is thus not surprising that most initially relied on Teochiu sources of assistance and that many remained heavily involved in primarily Teochiu networks and committed to a Teochiu identity as they grew older.\n\nThe greater part of my research was concerned with an intensive analysis of Teochiu social networks and several formal and informal religious organizations in one resettlement estate. The Teochiu\n\n1 The discussion that follows, unless stated otherwise, refers to Teochiu living in urban areas of the Colony.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207685, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "58\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\nThe study of relationships between Teochiu and other ethnic groups within the estate was obviously of relevance to my research. I became particularly interested in relationships between the Teochiu and Hoi Luk Fung, that is, people from two districts in Kwangtung directly south of Teochiu along the coast (海豐 and 陸豐). Hoi Luk Fung persons are the most similar to Teochiu among Chinese ethnic groups in Hong Kong in language, culture, and historical origins. It was initially perplexing that Teochiu in the housing estate disliked Hoi Luk Fung more intensely than any other ethnic group, and I very quickly became aware of sharp cognitive and interactional boundaries between the two groups. With increasing knowledge of northeastern Kwangtung, the area from which these people migrated, and of cognitive and social divisions within the estate, people from the border area between Hoi Luk Fung and Teochiu became an enigmatic social puzzle to me. These people are from an area called Kap Jih (P7), and there exists among Teochiu within the estate considerable variation and confusion as to the ethnic identity of these people. The confusion, of course, fuelled my interest and led to more questions and my eventual ability to view the categorization of Kap Jih in a more fluid and flexible manner, as did the Teochiu themselves.\n\nThe resettlement estate is composed of about 67,000 residents, all of whom were resettled from squatter settlements into densely populated 16-storey blocks. Most of the residents have lived in this estate since it was constructed ten years ago, and many of them had lived in squatter settlements for many years prior to resettlement. Thus, my research did not focus upon problems of resettlement nor upon the adaptation of recent immigrants to an urban, industrial social setting. People living in the estate function within dense social networks which include relatives and friends within the estate, work colleagues, and friends and relatives living in other areas of Hong Kong. This is particularly true among the Teochiu segment of the housing estate population.\n\nMany Chinese ethnic groups are found within the estate. Housing Authority officials managing the estate do not have figures categorizing residents of this estate by ethnic group, but according to information from residents themselves, Cantonese are the largest and Teochiu the second largest ethnic group. According to Teochiu\n\n1 A more detailed description of the ecology of the housing estate appears in my dissertation,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207696, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG\n\n69\n\nwere firmly established as having the best festival, and that this has helped to elevate the general prestige of Teochiu and their leaders.\n\nAlthough there has never been any cooperation between the two organizations, relations between them deteriorated several years ago as a result of an incident which involved police and local government officials. Many of the Hungry Ghost Festivals in Hong Kong are held in playgrounds within housing estates and are widely considered nuisances by non-participants in that the operas perform until late at night, loudspeakers shriek out auction proceedings, etc. The Hoi Luk Fung festival had for several years been performed at a certain playground within the housing estate, while the Teochiu had held their festival at a more remote site outside the estate. One year the Teochiu decided that they would use the more centrally located playground in the estate since they were the larger and stronger of the two groups. Hoi Luk Fung learned of the Teochiu plan, and overnight they quickly began building their opera matshed in order to forestall the Teochiu strategy. The next day both groups applied to the government for use of the playground and both were refused. During this period someone tried to burn the Hoi Luk Fung structures on the playground. The Teochiu claimed that the Hoi Luk Fung started the fire themselves in order to blame the Teochiu, and the Hoi Luk Fung of course blamed the Teochiu. In any case, the Teochiu then decided to follow the government's ruling and commenced planning to use the acceptable but more remote site. The Hoi Luk Fung persisted, however, in their plans to use the now restricted playground as their festival site and continued to build their structures. This led to a series of confrontations with police and several injuries to both sides were incurred. Although the Hoi Luk Fung rebuilt structures several times after police destroyed them, they were eventually forced permanently out of the playground. In succeeding years, Hoi Luk Fung used the more remote site with government permission. Although there was no organized fighting between Teochiu and Hoi Luk Fung, the incident severely strained relationships between individuals and the organizations.\n\nAs stated above, Hoi Luk Fung are the most similar to Teochiu among Chinese ethnic groups in language, culture and historical origins. Yet they view each other with great hostility and distrust. These feelings and perceptions were evidently developed in Hong Kong in that I have been told that Hoi Luk Fung and Teochiu", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207699, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "72\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\ndo not visit one another's homes in the estate nor did I ever see (D) accompanying the old man to any Teochiu rituals. Although their interaction is limited to the store front, it is more than an acquaintance relationship. The old man personally knows more Hoi Luk Fung than do most Teochiu in the housing estate, largely because of his friendly personality and the location of his shop.\n\nAs I got to know (D) I learned that he had lived prior to resettlement in a squatter settlement in which many Teochiu in the housing estate had also resided. He thus knows many of the people in the local Teochiu associations and had, in fact, opened a business in the estate with one of the local Teochiu leaders. The business went bankrupt about 8 years ago, and since then the two have not been involved in any kind of business relationship and do not visit one another. This was the only business partnership between Teochiu and Hoi Luk Fung in the housing estate that I learned about.\n\n(D) once visited the office of one of the Teochiu associations. He knew 5 or 6 of the 15 people present and was very friendly in greeting those he knew as well as the others. The ex-business partner was present and entered into the usual greeting ritual for someone one has not recently seen but did not initiate any extended conversation. (D) busily took interest in the on-going mahjong game, asked about people, etc. Two Teochiu who had known (D) in the squatter settlement were particularly friendly at his arrival and made an effort to act the role of friend seeing friend after a long period by enthusiastically greeting him, seating him, asking about his current situation, asking him to drink beer, etc. This clearly indicated the unusualness of the visit; a frequent visitor is not likely to be publicly treated as a guest. (D) spoke briefly to these two individuals and to several others, walked around and tried to take part in several conversations, and shortly made parting statements and left. My impression, confirmed by talking to some of the Teochiu afterwards, was that he was not particularly close to any of the Teochiu and was unable to enter into conversation or initiate his own simply because he was not involved in that network of individuals and, as in any culture, knew when to end the interaction at an appropriate time. The interaction was interesting in that it was the only case of a Hoi Luk Fung visiting the association office, and because that morning (D) had taken me to visit the Hoi Luk Fung temple and his visit was evidently prompted by our own prior interaction.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207708, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "\"PATTERNED BANDS” IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG\n\nIntroduction\n\nELIZABETH L. JOHNSON*\n\nThese notes on a form of peasant textiles are based on research conducted in Kwan Mun Hau (关门口), one of the old villages of Tsuen Wan District, in the New Territories of Hong Kong.1 Tsuen Wan, now an industrial city with a population of nearly 600,000 with a small rural hinterland,2 consisted until after World War II of a group of about twenty Hakka villages, with a central market area. The villages remain, (some have had to be resited) but most are now surrounded by the city. The area's rapid urban development has meant that traditional forms of dress and adornment have virtually disappeared, to be replaced by western-influenced styles of clothing. Despite this, women of Kwan Mun Hau village were able to describe the use and significance of these textiles, and to demonstrate the technique of weaving them.3 The information reported here, which refers to Tsuen Wan of about thirty years ago but is applicable to the more rural areas of the New Territories even today, is derived from interviews with informants in Kwan Mun Hau Village, as well as from observations elsewhere in the New Territories. The findings are only preliminary; additional research must be done elsewhere in the New Territories to supplement this report.\n\nDefinition\n\nThe fa tai (花带) or \"patterned band” is worn by Hakka women in the New Territories of Hong Kong as an article of personal adornment. Patterned bands are hand woven, intricately patterned ribbons about 1 CM wide, and ranging in length from about 65-145 CM. They are most commonly flat, with tassels of varying length and thickness at either end, and are either multicoloured, or white with coloured or black patterns. If multicoloured, they are made of silk (now often synthetic) threads with silk tassels; if white, they are of cotton with the patterns in silk or cotton and the tassels of white cotton cord.\n\n* Dr. Johnson is on the staff of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia.\n\nThe plates illustrating this article are at the back of this volume.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207711, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "84\n\nELIZABETH L. JOHNSON\n\nor keening done at weddings and funerals. They did little, if any, embroidery, home weaving of fabrics, or sewing: this work was generally done by specialists. The main reason for this very limited development of textile arts was, in addition to the prevailing poverty of the area, the fact that all younger women were engaged in heavy labour outside the home. While most of the housework and child-care was managed by elderly women, the younger women did most, if not all, of the agricultural work, and in addition often did heavy carrying work for wages. Many of the men were away for extended periods of time, working either in the urban areas of Hong Kong or abroad; some had local businesses, and others did not work at all. As a result, in many families, women had primary responsibility for subsistence agriculture, bearing an extremely heavy burden of work. The following is the daily work schedule 25 years ago of a woman now 55 years old, a schedule which was repeated in basic outline by many other informants.\n\n“I got up at 5:00 and fed the baby\n\nthen I made a fire and boiled water and put rice porridge on to cook\n\nthen at 6:00 I went to carry water, making four trips to the well\n\nthen I went to the fields to water the vegetables\n\nI cut the vegetables and took them to market\n\nI used the money to buy food and returned home\n\nat 8:30 we had breakfast of rice porridge\n\nthen I went to the Texaco oil company to carry kerosene\n\nat 12:30 I came home for lunch\n\nI worked again from 1:00 to 5:00 carrying kerosene\n\nwhen I got home I cleaned the pig pen\n\nthen I went to work again in the fields\n\nin winter I returned home at 7:00, in summer at 8:00\n\nafter dinner I bathed the children\n\nthen I carried several loads of firewood\n\nthen I prepared food for the pigs\n\nI fed the baby and went to sleep at 11:00”\n\nThis woman had eight children. Such a daily schedule left her little time for any other pursuits. According to another woman, now 80 years old:\n\n“When I was eight or ten years old I began to cut grass and carry firewood. I went with a group of girls, never alone. I was married when I was sixteen. After my marriage I had to work.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207716, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "\"PATTERNED BANDS\" IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG\n\n89\n\ntinued to wear the style of dress and patterned bands of their own native areas.\n\nMore broadly speaking, these aspects of women's dress and adornment serve as an assertion of Hakka identity. It is primarily Hakka women in the New Territories who wear patterned bands, the black-fringed hat, and small ornamental aprons. They also use distinctive forms of jewellery. There may be some use of these forms by other groups and individuals, including speakers of some variants of Cantonese, but they are most generally characteristic of the Hakka.\n\nWith the modern development of Hong Kong and heavy immigration, regional and ethnic distinctions are breaking down, so that these differences in dress are now less significant, and indeed are unrecognized by many people. In Tsuen Wan, only the most elderly of the indigenous Hakka people still wear traditional clothing. Virtually all can speak Cantonese, and intermarriage with Cantonese people is common. Patterned bands are rarely worn, and many of the young people know nothing about their existence, much less the technique of their manufacture. They are astonished to find that their mothers have this skill. The middle-aged and elderly women still have some treasured bands secreted away in their dowry chests, however, and the way in which they show them and talk about them demonstrates the significance they had until two or three decades ago.\n\nThis is not yet true of the more rural areas of the New Territories. A visit to the market towns of Tai Po, Yuen Long, or Sai Kung will show these traditional forms to be still in use among older women, with some available for sale, although it is unlikely that they will remain as these areas develop into urban centres like Tsuen Wan. Patterned bands are also still being made and worn in Tung-kuan County, Kwangtung, not very far from Hong Kong, according to visitors to a Hakka brigade of a commune there.12 Another visitor saw a different variety still in use in T'ai-shan county, in another part of Kwangtung.13\n\nA large collection of these bands exists at the National Minorities Institute in Peking, according to the anthropologist Fei Hsiao-t'ung.14 However, they are kept there as examples of minority handicrafts, specifically from the Yao, Miao, and Tung peoples. Dr. Fei said that they are also known in Tibet. As the backstrap", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207722, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A HAWAHAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881\n\n95\n\naccomplished linguist, went as personal attendant, to make up the Royal Suite of four.*\n\nIn personal appearance, the King was a thick-set man with dark curly hair, long sideburns, and a drooping mustache. He had a striking appearance and a warm outgoing personality. His social ease and scholarly intellect brought dignity and prestige to the Hawaiian throne. To some people, however, the \"Merry Monarch” was looked upon as a spendthrift who loved card games, feasting, dancing, and horse and yacht racing,\n\n5\n\nArmstrong had the exceptional opportunity to gather information, and he recorded his observations in a book, Around the World with a King. In the Hawaii State Archives are three folders containing correspondence and reports of Armstrong and Kalakaua about this long trip. For easier reading of the King's holograph, the Hawaiian Journal of History has published \"The Royal Tourist-Kalakaua's Letters Home from Tokio to London.”7\n\nAs a farewell to the King, a Sunday morning service was held on January 16, 1881 at the Catholic Cathedral with over 1,000 people attending. The January 22nd issue of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser also reported a Sunday evening service at the Protestant Kawaihao Church which was filled to capacity. The Honorable J. N. Kapena took the occasion to note that His Majesty spoke at the church six years ago on the eve of his visit to Washington where he was successful in making the country richer and in the betterment of his people, as evidenced by new houses, ships, railways, and other improvements. This time the King was taking a Royal Commissioner of Immigration with him to look for people of brown skins to repeople these isles. Also, the King was going to observe other governments. \"The great nations now look with respect on this little Kingdom and will have still more, when they see our King travelling among them for information to benefit his people.\" With this Aloha send-off, the Royal party started their nine-month tour.\n\nHawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, W. L. Green, had already written ahead on January 15, 1881 to R. W. Irwin, Hawaiian Consul General in Japan, to anticipate the King's visit. Minister Green had also sent out a circular letter on January 17, 1881 to Hawaiian consular officials abroad about the Royal tour that \"one of the objects is to obtain the best possible information in the different", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207760, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS\n\n133\n\nGützlaff ever met each other in 1848 when Feng returned from Kwangsi and stayed in his native place for a short period to wait for the return of Hung Hsiu-ch'üan. I cannot see how the fable started. It may be that some members of the Union did join the Taiping army and recognized superficially the similarity of the organizations of Feng and Gützlaff with practically the same contents in their teachings, thus misunderstanding the identity of the two groups; and thus, Feng was mistaken for a fellow-member of the Union. All in all, this problem needs further study and intensive research before a conclusive answer can be obtained.\n\n(2) Li Tsin-kau ($£$)\n\nAccording to Hamberg's account, Li Ching-fang (***) was Hung Hsiu-ch'üan's cousin who lived in Lien Hua Tang (##) in Hua-hsien where Hung taught. The Tai P'ing pamphlet T'ai Ping T'ien Jih (***ŋ) identifies him. Hung first studied Liang Fa's pamphlets seriously with him.\n\nW. Oehler, Die Taiping-Bewegung (1923), asserts that Ching-fang was the grandfather of Li Tsin-kau. For certain reasons I believe Ching-fang was more likely the father, as Tsin-kau was seemingly too young to befriend and discuss such serious matters with Hung.\n\nThe late Rev. Chang Chu-ling (✯✯✯) told me a very amusing anecdote about Li Tsin-kau. After establishing his capital in Nanking, Hung Hsiu-ch'üan ordered Tsin-kau to recruit followers in Kwangtung. Tsin-kau failed in this mission but went north personally. When he arrived at Shanghai on the way to Nanking, he heard that the God whom Hung saw in his visions years ago wore a black robe. He thought that God, the True God, should be dressed in white, and therefore what Hung had seen was really the Devil. The result was that he turned back to Hong Kong immediately without attempting to see Hung again. (See my Taiping Tienkuo Chuan-shih, pp54-55, notes pp58-59) This story corroborates with the account Carl Smith found (p. 124), but the call to come to Nanking might be from Hung Jen-kau rather than from Hung Hsiu-ch'üan.\n\n(3) Hung Jen-kau (Shield King †1##)\n\nAt last, the question 'who financed Hung Jen-kau's trip to Nanking?' is solved with Carl Smith's finding that the London", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207761, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "134\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nMissionary Society did it. In one of Jen-kau's confessional statements, Chalmers was named the donor. Now it is clear that the money was given him only through Chalmers. Jen-kau probably did not know that Legge and Chalmers continued to support his family till the end of 1859.\n\nWith reference to Legge's belief in Jen-kau's compromising practice of polygamy, my view is that Legge was induced to such opinion by the allegation of Joseph Edkins, another missionary who had visited Jen-kau in Soochow and started to make such charge upon his return to Shanghai. R. J. Forrest, a British vice-consul and a close associate of Jen-kau whose private life was well-known to him, made an emphatic refutation on this charge. (This apologia is quoted in my book The Taiping Revolutionary Movement, p358). Jen-kau was fully exonerated.\n\n(4) Hung Kuei-yüan (洪貴元) (alias K'uei-hsiu 魁秀)\n\nI am personally grateful to Carl Smith who had finally found out, with documentary evidence, the whereabouts of Hung K’uei-hsiu, the eldest son of Jen-kau. Years ago I was told that he had migrated to America (U.S.A.). I did not stop my long search for his descendants even as late as 1964-65 when I made my last trip to the U.S. Of course, I failed in my efforts because he and his family settled down in Demerara, British Guiana instead of North America, as ascertained by Mr. Smith. I wish someone would be interested enough to pick up the thread and look up his descendants there.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207763, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 151, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "136\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nport for the work came from American United China Relief (UCR) funds through the American Friends Service Council (AFSC); there were members from Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand, as well as China itself; and the self-sufficiency required was much greater than that of other FAU groups.\n\nThe original plan, worked out in late 1940 and early 1941, was for a group of forty men, equipped with 20 trucks, a mobile operating theatre and mobile workshop, to undertake two tasks. The first was the transport of medical supplies into China from Burma and the second provision of medical teams to work with civilian and military hospitals. The proposals had the support of the British Fund for the Relief of Distress in China under Dr. H. Gordon Thompson, the Foreign Office, the U.C.R. and the AFSC. The trucks and equipment were purchased in the US and shipped to Rangoon where they were assembled and driven up to China. Dr. R. B. McClure, a Canadian medical missionary born in China, was appointed to lead the Unit.\n\nIt will be remembered that in 1941 Japan occupied all the coast of China, transport up the railway to Kunming from Hanoi had ceased and the only land routes into the western provinces still held by the Government of the Republic of China under Marshal Chiang Kai Shek were the Burma Road and the road from the USSR via Sinkiang. When the Sino-Japanese war widened into the Pacific War on December 8, 1941, about half of the FAU group had arrived in Burma and China, the first trucks were being assembled in Rangoon and the rest of the party and equipment were on the high seas. All arrived safely and the Unit undertook a number of interesting tasks during the Burma fighting of 1942.1\n\nMedical Services and Supplies in China\n\nDespite the diversion of manpower and loss of trucks and fuel in Burma the work of transporting medical supplies in China got underway in 1942. In 1941 there were four organizations concerned with military and civilian medical services:—\n\n1) the Army Medical Administration (AMA)\n\n2) the Chinese Red Cross (CRC)\n\n3) National Health Administration (NHA) Weishengshu (衛 生 署) with its civilian hospitals and clinics.\n\n4) Over 100 mission hospitals, responsible to their own Mission Boards.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207808, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & NAKORN PATHOM 181\n\nof the earliest is also one of the most unusual; the Nanpaya has beneath the spire four square pillars of stone each of which on two sides has a figure of Brahma holding lotus flowers in both hands. This is reputed to have been the residence of the captive Mon king Manuha, but this seems unlikely; it could have been his particular temple. The figure of Brahma in what was almost certainly a Buddhist temple is not impossible to explain away; the Brahma carvings face towards the central square pedestal which, originally, would have had a statue of the Buddha, possibly one looking in four directions; Brahma, a representative of Hinduism would be looking towards, and lower than, the Buddha. The temple is exceptionally faced with stone throughout, and the quality of the window pediments very fine.\n\nThe Abeyadana temple, not far away, is attributed to King Kyanzittha but an inscription determines his chief queen as the founder. It has a prominent harmika or bulge on the spire above the central core and a large seated brick Buddha in a recess in the core to the north (the whole temple is oriented to the north). The temple's great importance is in the quality of the paintings it still possesses, with Hindu gods and deities of Mahayanist Buddhism round the core and some excellent Jataka scenes with Mon inscriptions in the walls of the front projecting nave.\n\nAlmost opposite this temple is the Nagayon. It has good proportion and a very dark corridor pierced with five windows running round the central core. The quality of the paintings illustrating Jataka tales with Mon and Pali inscriptions is good.\n\nThe two Seinnyet temples are a little further south; the Ama is a square temple with four main porches, and the Nyima a solid stupa on three terraces. Lastly in this group is the Lawkanada stupa, built in 1059 by Anawratha beside the Irrawaddi, over which a magnificent view is obtained at sunset.\n\nOf the temples in the central area, nothing remains of the bulbous Bupaya stupa which fell into the river in pieces in the earthquake. The Gawdawpalin of the later period suffered severely and its tall finial is no more. In style, however, it resembles the Thatbinnyu which was built in the middle of the twelfth century. Only the eastern porch projects from the main plan, and the first floor where the main Buddha is located is reached by two narrow passage stairways built into the walls. The effect is of considerably greater height than the earlier buildings. As it is still in use it is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207830, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 203\n\nsuggest that the fight over the market was a quarrel between Hakka and Punti as such, and I incline to the view that, whatever may have been in earlier decades the state of feeling between communities speaking the different dialects, by the 1890s local alignments did not depend on ‘ethnic' solidarity. (Indeed, I think too much should not be made today of the cultural differences between Punti and Hakka in the New Territories and of the social cleavages which are presumed to rest on these differences).\n\n22. The first British administrators seem not to have appreciated the local significance of the term yeuk, for when the New Territories were arranged in districts and sub-districts in accordance with the Local Communities Ordinance, 1899, boundaries were drawn round units (themselves labelled with the word yeuk) bringing enemy villages together. Since, however, the ordinance was never fully brought into force no harm was done. The Ts'at Yeuk continued under British rule to be masters of the new market and to dominate local affairs, and it has been only in recent years that a Tai Po Rural Committee has emerged, under government encouragement, to provide a strictly territorial form of local council. The Rural Committee is made up of seven units: six of the Ts'at Yeuk (Fan Leng being excluded because of its remoteness) and a new unit composed of all the scattered villages which are not members of the Ts'at Yeuk. The Ts'at Yeuk and the Rural Committee share the same offices (they were built by the former) and the same officers (the chairman of the one being a vice-chairman of the other and a second vice-chairman being common). In local eyes the Ts'at Yeuk remains dominant, not least because only it has access to the revenue brought in by the public weighing scales.\n\n23. It is possible to piece together sketchy accounts of yeuk-complexes in other areas of the New Territories. One of them operated in the area now covered by the Ta Kwu Ling Rural Committee. This was the Luk Yeuk (the six Yeuk), a union which was cut in two by the new international frontier created in 1898. It appears to have been flourishing a hundred years ago when the father of my sole informant on it (I stress the fact that in this case I was unable to cross-check the assertions made) took part in a battle between it and a village in Chinese territory. Each of the six yeuk had an average of three villages, taking its name from the largest village. The Luk Yeuk had a common estate, most of it now inaccessible in China, which was managed in turn by each yeuk.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207837, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "210\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nof a pauper, an idiot, or a rogue, so that they could not be relied upon to be elders in the final sense; effective and reliable community leaders. In fact, the affairs of the clan and its segments were not left in the hands of men selected solely for their genealogical status. Clan and segment elites developed which were composed of men whose riches, connexions in the world outside, and individual qualities endowed them with the qualifications to be leaders. Politically, and in some contexts ritually, they displaced genealogical elders whose only claim to status was their seniority. In some clans, of course, the effective leaders were also gentry.\n\n33. In the course of British rule gentry-elders have disappeared, or virtually so. Elders as routine points of contact between state and people have been converted from despised underlings to political persons of high status (the present-day Village Representatives) Elders as genealogical superiors have faded further into the background as clan organisation in general and the segmentary system in particular have waned in importance. They are still to be seen, especially on the occasions of ancestor worship, but they appear to have even less influence than their predecessors had two generations ago. But elders as effective leaders of their clans and villages are still very much to the fore. The idiom in which they express themselves may have changed in the course of sixty years, but these men continue to be definable in terms of their wealth, their contacts with the outside world, and their personal qualities.\n\n34. The question is mooted in the New Territories today whether it is the Village Representatives or the elders who have the greater influence. If 'elders' means what I have put into the fourth group then the question is of course largely meaningless because the Village Representative is the same kind of person as an elder. Naturally, the Village Representatives as a collection differ very much from one another: they are thrown up by differently structured village communities, so that, for example, the Village Representative of a rich community which has for long produced educated men will not resemble very closely his counterpart from a village both poor and largely illiterate. But each Village Representative is likely to be drawn from a group of men in his community who share many characteristics. In many cases, the Village Representative is a kind of primus inter pares, working with his equals to produce what, if the language be not too inappropriate, is a local power elite.\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207841, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "214\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\ning, for they are now cut off from the intensive study of a period in which British administration and Chinese law and society were mutually adjusting themselves). Many disputes must have been dealt with in the communities within which they arose, and the remoter villages may in fact have had little to do with the Administration directly; but over a large area of the New Territories it came to be accepted that the administrator was a sure and final arbiter of major differences. In his report on the Northern District for 1913 Ross wrote: 'Some years ago by tacit consent parties did not bring forward cases relating to the \"tso\" and the settlement of ancestral property. Now a large number of cases heard are applications for a declaration as to the parties entitled to share in the property of a common ancestor...\n\n39. The powerful role of the pre-war administrator in social control has left a legacy which weakens the effectiveness of modern attempts to divert the settlement of disputes to other channels. The Rural Committees are now expected to take over a large share of the burden of mediation. In fact, the tendency still seems to be that differences which cannot be composed within a village (where the Village Representative and the other elders are often incapable of exerting the authority to settle the matter) pass first to the District Officer whence they may be referred to the Rural Committee, sometimes returning to the District Officer when the Rural Committee finds itself unable to produce a settlement. And in some cases a settlement is never reached, because as matters have stood in the last couple of years, the District Officers no longer exercise many of the judicial functions with which they were formerly endowed. Land and small debts cases now fall within the competence of the new District Court.\n\n40. Two questions are raised about the operation of the new court. First, is it so court-like in comparison with the informality of the old system practised by administrators that it attracts to itself the unfavourable attitudes which Chinese traditionally displayed towards the yamen? As well enter the jaws of hell as pass through the gates of the yamen.\n\nSecond, are the subtleties of Chinese custom likely to be taken account of in the new court as they were in the days when justice was administered by officers trained to study and respect these niceties? It is of course too soon to say anything definite about the first question; the reactions of people to the court will need to be watched over a period of years; but as\n\n+ + + + +", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207862, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963\n\n235\n\nwho have been held to have spoilt a fung shui may be asked to pay for a tun fu. Some people suspect that the sums of money handed over in payment cover more than the fees of the ritual expert, but I doubt whether any great fraudulent profits are made. The victory scored over the 'intruders' by the very fact that they have been forced to acknowledge their 'trespass' and make it ritually good is a big enough compensation. A vital claim has been vindicated.\n\n70. Will fung shui last? I suspect that from the very beginning officers of the Administration have detected signs of growing scepticism and confidently awaited the spread of modern enlightenment. Contemporary administrators are probably less tempted to the facile optimism of their predecessors of a generation or so ago, but one can hear it asserted that the young people of the New Territories today no longer believe in fung shui. If this were so the Administration could look forward to an imminent surcease of its anxiety. But I am not convinced that modern education by itself deals fung shui a deadly blow. Metaphysical beliefs supported by social props are not easily wafted away by the book learning of schools. There are unbelievers in the New Territories, but I suspect that scepticism, if it is at all thorough, stems from their having been prised loose from the grip of their society. Urban Chinese can easily stop paying attention to fung shui if they choose because they are free from the social pressures which, in a rural community, they would be forced to take into account. Living in the city they are not so closely dependent on one another that the actions of one can be held to affect the lives of the others, and they can more easily escape the consequences of neighbourly disapproval. In a village which is still a self-contained community people are tied to one another in a complex web of relationships. Conformity is produced as a response to a multitude of obligations and sanctions; it is not the result of a mere mechanical uniformity. One has to live fully within a village or get out. If, therefore, I am accused of harming my neighbour's fung shui and he is supported by others in his contention I must give way. If my village thinks generally that some outsiders have encroached upon its geomantic privileges, I must join in the reaction. And every response of this kind reinforces my neighbours and me in our faith. (I may believe that in my own case I have been hard done by, but this does not undermine my belief in the assumptions from which my neighbours are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207866, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 239\n\na travel agency with its main office in Tai Po which, since 1960, has arranged loans for the bulk of the fare, the travellers being required to pay a small deposit and discharge the balance of the sum out of their earnings abroad over a period of one or two years. (There is a close relationship, evidently, between migration to the United Kingdom and the rise of banking in the New Territories. Banks are now to be seen everywhere, but the first to open began business in 1960). To incur an expense of about $1,500 and pay off the bulk of this sum at interest in the course of working in Britain has not, in general, been a heavy burden, since earnings in the restaurants have been fairly high, even for the lowly dishwasher. But the initial capital outlay, amounting perhaps to only a few hundred dollars, has represented a barrier to many would-be emigrants, and it is clear that there have been many men who wanted to go\n\nbut who could not, either in the form of cash or security, put down the starting sum. Naturally, before 1960 the problem of raising the fare was even more difficult. It follows from this that the poorest layer of the population has not been very much affected by the movement to Britain. True, some poor men have managed to get away, but they have done so because they were members of families or communities in which men of means were willing to stand behind them. In one of the villages I got to know, the Village Representative some years ago put up a sum of money ($7,000) to encourage workless men of his community to emigrate. Repayments of loans were made to a revolving fund from which further emigrants were financed.\n\n76. Earlier forms of emigration, because they were largely bound up with sea-going (a man might make one trip and then jump ship), seem to have drawn on the poorest areas and communities of the New Territories. The modern movement to the United Kingdom, while certainly being general and in many cases recruiting in the communities from which men used in the old days to go as seamen, seems to have been biased in favour of the better-off settlements, pumping money back into communities which, to begin with, were the ones suffering the least economic hardship. Traditionally the large and powerful Punti settlements were not emigrant areas; now their men play an important role in the restaurant trade in Britain. It may seem to us that to be a waiter or dishwasher in a restaurant is no advance in social status on being a small farmer, but in fact the incentive to undertake strange and menial tasks has lain in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207874, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 262, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "85. It is obvious that the Administration has given much thought to the technical problems of land tenure, and there is probably little that I could contribute to the discussion of them. On the other hand, there are certain kinds of facts that the Administration would presumably like to know and some sociological analysis that would be of service to it which the field worker would be in a position to supply. Let me take an example from land in relation to clan structure. There was a time when wealth was regularly invested in the establishment of estates attached to ancestral halls in such a way that new branches (fong) of the clan came into being; and these estates were added to on occasion. The system of founding new estates-cum-ancestral halls is now generally (perhaps completely) dead, for segmentation (see paras. 31-3 above) is no longer an important feature of the clan; but the existing estates have waxed and waned in modern times and accordingly affected the areas of land to which members of the relevant clan units have had access for cultivation. These estates have grown by bequests and purchase, and they have diminished by being divided up among constituent members, but in this latter regard the powers given to the District Officer* may well have slowed down in the New Territories a process of disintegration which was much commented on elsewhere in southeastern China in the present century. That is to say, the District Officer, by taking general opinion into account instead of giving a free hand to managers, has made the system more democratic and the estates more difficult to break up; in China itself the managers wielded greater independent authority. (Although the estates continue to exist the halls associated with them are often no longer kept in repair. I stood in the ruins of one of them one day to hear a villager comment: 'In the old days when there was no emigration our ancestors could manage to put up a fine hall. Now, when the men go overseas and to town and make money, they can't repair what was built long ago.' But there are some interesting exceptions. An ancestral hall was recently rebuilt in San Tin in a modern style; most of the money for the work seems to have come from emigrants in the United Kingdom). The estates associated with ancestral halls are one kind of tso; other kinds of tso have been created and dissolved, as when small groups of kinsmen have for a time held property in common. In many settlements there appears to be a constantly shifting patchwork of\n\n* Under Section 27 of the New Territories Regulation Ordinance, No. 34 of 1910—Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207882, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 270, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "95. I have referred to legal matters in an earlier context (see paras. 39-42, 46) where I was concerned with some of the mechanisms of social control. There is another way of approaching law: through the description and analysis of its rules. In a stable society (which is a useful fiction) it is not unrealistic to think that one may systematically collect all the rules relating to important institutions and activities (family, inheritance, marriage, land tenure, hire of labour, apprenticeship, credit, burial, ritual, and so on), codify them, and use them in the settling of differences. Lockhart and his colleagues and the first generations of administrators to follow them could reasonably aim at formulating rules in this manner. The situation has changed. It is true that in a sense the Administration is committed to the laws and customs of the local Chinese as they were at the time of the treaty which made the New Territories British; but, quite apart from the difficulty in establishing what these laws and customs were, nobody can now realistically assert that the norms which do in fact or should in theory govern the behaviour of the New Territories Chinese are those which regulated the conduct of the people inhabiting the area two generations ago. More than two generations of 'normal' social change have passed. (Some of what Lockhart and his contemporaries described is now so remote from present-day Chinese that the early official documents may seem to them rather like a scriptural code — exotic and only 'ideally' authoritative. I once thought myself to be on the track of some historical material on the early New Territories only to realise that what I was being tempted by were simply the Lockhart reports which were being surreptitiously circulated to give local men a notion of what the Administration took to be their customs). From the point of view of the research worker two questions have to be kept carefully distinct: the description of how norms are variously formulated or implied in different relationships, and the description of how people would like to change these norms if they were able. The distinction is most clearly applicable to the discussion of possible reforms in the law of marriage. What that law is can, with some difficulty it is true, be stated; what it ought to be, in the light of modern conditions, is a question compounded again of certain facts (what people think it ought to be) and judgments made as to the wisdom of these opinions. The rules governing various spheres of New Territories life will emerge from the study of particular themes: land tenure, family, village organisation, etc. But the field\n\nPage 270\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207989, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "BRUNEI: AN HISTORICAL RELIC\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT*\n\nI\n\nVery little is known about Brunei before 1500. Place names identified with locations in western Borneo and which were connected with Indonesia in trade in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. are mentioned in some recent research. The same sources suggest a considerable \"political, economic and cultural development” in northwestern Borneo as early as the 7th century. The existence of a \"state\" in the area of Brunei Bay first appears in the Chinese records of the early Sung dynasty when a kingdom called Po-ni sent tributary missions to the court of China in 977 and in 1082. By the 14th century Po-ni was also tributary to the Javanese empire of Majapahit while continuing to send trade/tribute missions to the Ming court. The Ming court entertained such missions in 1371, 1405 and 1408. The ruler of Po-ni visited China on the latter date and died while there. He was buried \"with honour\". From 1408 to 1425 missions went to China at three-year intervals bearing trading goods and tribute gifts. After that date the Ming restrictions on foreign trade discouraged any further intercourse,\n\nHistorians generally identify ancient Po-ni with modern Brunei. There is no hard evidence of a continuity, nor is there hard evidence to indicate otherwise. The position of Brunei Bay in the trading system of Nan Yang at an earlier time and in the 16th century, and the descriptive similarity would seem to lend credence to the theory.\n\nThere is in Brunei tradition a legend about the origin of Brunei.2 The legend is related in Malay folklore common to much of northern Borneo and is contained in a long epic called Sha'er Awang Semaun. Legendary Brunei was founded “29 reigns ago by fourteen brothers of heroic stature and semi-divine descent\". The brothers were sired by a father who descended in an egg from the heaven of the ancient pre-Muslim Malay gods. The father, called\n\n* Lecture given before the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) on Monday, December 6, 1976.\n\nDr. Wright is Reader in History at the University of Hong Kong. He is also a Councillor of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207998, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "BRUNEI A HISTORICAL RELIC\n\n21\n\nvery small, and rises but some fifteen to twenty miles inland. Where the town is, the river is very broad, forming a large lake. The town is commanded by hills once under cultivation; on an island at the mouth of the entrance are the shattered remains of an old Portuguese fort, which was still standing, though ruinous, when Hunt visited the place in 1809. The town itself has been designated the \"Venice of Borneo\" by old writers, a description to which the Italian Beccari rightly objected,* and is mainly built on piles driven into the mud on a shallow in the middle of the lake, the houses occupying wooden platforms elevated some ten feet above the reach of the tide. Communication between them is effected by canoes, in which the women daily go through the town selling provisions. It is, in a word, similar to the palafitte villages found in prehistoric times in the lakes of Switzerland and Lombardy. A part of the town, including the houses of the Sultan and the wazirs, is situated on the left bank of the river. It is the Brunei of Pigafetta's time, though sadly reduced in size and importance. Then the Sultan's palace was enclosed by a strong brick wall,† with barbicans mounting fifty-six cannon, now it is but a roughly built barn-like shed. Gone are the richly caparisoned elephants, and gone too is all the old pride, pomp, and panoply, including the spoons of gold, which particularly struck the old voyager.§ Brunei has no defences now, but, at the period of which we are writing, there were batteries planted on each side of the inlet commanding the approach, also two forts on the heights, and one battery on a\n\n* \"I admit that Bruni has its points, but what irony to compare for a moment the city of marble palaces with the mass of miserable huts which a single match could easily reduce to ashes.\" The Rajah called the place a \"Venice of hovels.\" Mercator in his Atlas describes it as \"being situated on a salt-water lagoon like Venice,\" hence probably it became known as the Venice of Borneo.\n\n† Kota batu, stone fort. The name still remains. It was built towards the close of the fifteen century by Sherip Ali, the first Arab Sultan, with the aid of the Chinese subjects his wife's mother had brought to Bruni. The city was then nearer the mouth of the river. It was moved to its present position by Sultan Muadin about 200 years ago.\n\n§ The Portuguese Jorge de Menezes, who visited Bruni five years after Pigafetta, notices that the city was surrounded with a wall of brick, and possessed some noble edifices. Other early voyagers describe the sultans and rulers of Malayan States as maintaining great style, and their equipments, such as swords of state, saddles, chairs, eating and drinking utensils as being of pure gold. Allowing for some exaggeration, this would still point to a former condition of prosperity which enabled rulers and nobles to keep up a pageantry which has long since vanished.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208003, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "26\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT\n\nin the last century. Modern highways and new buildings, and a jumbo-size airport are the most obvious indications of the 20th century windfall from oil. But all may not be well in Brunei's economic future. One observer writing some time ago suggested that the current well-being has an \"air of impermanence\" about it.19\n\nEveryone knows that the supply of oil which provides Brunei's wealth will not last forever. There seems little attempt at a serious answer to the question, 'What then?'.\n\nIn form, society exists in much the same way as in ancient times. The persistence of traditional ways and social ranks is marked. Following the establishment of the British residency in 1906, some re-articulation of ruling practices took place. A more centralized system with a growing bureaucracy in Brunei Town emerged, away from the traditional rights of individual district chiefs and rajas. Nevertheless, the traditional despotic nature of government persists. A British High Commissioner replaced the resident as the leading British official of the protectorate in 1959 when internal self-government was proclaimed. Much of the old power of the Sultan, which was taken over and \"modernized\" by residents between 1906 and 1959, now reverted to the Sultan. He directs government through a council of appointed ministers led by the traditional Mentri Besar.\n\nA minority of members of a legislative council, which has primarily advisory powers, were elected under the reforms of 1959. But in December 1962, an insurrection occurred led by Sheikh A.M. Azahari, and when it was suppressed, the 1959 constitution was set aside and replaced by emergency powers.\n\nAll important posts in this Sultan's government are appointive and held at the pleasure of the Sultan. \"The Sultan has sponsored studies and measures to revive the traditional political system\" to a greater degree than has existed in the recent past.20 And although the legislative council and the elective principle have re-emerged, official positions remain the monopoly of the Malay aristocracy in Brunei.\n\nAs in the Malay states, in Brunei too, the decline and extinction of the political power of the traditional Malay elite was aborted by the establishment of a British residency and by the continuing patronage of the Malay aristocrat by colonial policy. But unlike", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208045, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "68\n\nJ. T. KAMM\n\nsystem of land distribution had its origins several centuries ago. At the time when the land was distributed, the tenant paid the landlord a certain sum; this sum represented the rent which the tenant thereafter handed over each year. The landlord could not increase the rent, nor could the tenant refuse to pay it. Furthermore, the landlord could not investigate his tenants in order to take back the land.” (G236).\n\n28 Data from the land memorials, which register sales of subsurface values, indicate that a one-mow plot of land seldom exceeded 6 taels during the late 18th century. As we shall see later in the text, these prices necessarily remained constant into the 19th century. In the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, we learn that the tenants valued each mow of rice paddy at $40.00 (1 tael = 1.11 Mexican dollars in 1846). Granted that tenants made good profits from the sale of land, still this example tends to illustrate the great potential disparity between the two values. (Hong Kong Almanack and Directory for 1846, Note on the Island of Hong Kong by A. R. Johnston; written in 1843).\n\n29 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 7.\n\n30 CSO306/1899 Extension; \"With reference to the petition of Tang Yung Ping and others they naturally, at present, prefer the old feudal system of payment of rent in kind.\"\n\n31 HKTCSMTC: Hong Kong Almanack, “Note on the Island of HK”.\n\n32 CSO150/1901 gives a detailed account of these negotiations.\n\n33 In general, the maintenance of perpetual tenancy systems presupposes the existence of communal landownership. The British found over 25% of all lots held in clan names in 1898; later Chinese sources place the estimate at 30%. These figures are probably not reliable for the earlier part of the century. The Tangs, as we have seen, held landlord rights over all of Hong Kong Island. They similarly held over 60% of the territory in Kowloon ceded to Britain in 1860, Land in North Kowloon was lost by \"fraudulent sale” in 1898 (CSO2982/1898). Other clans, besides the Tangs, apparently lost sizable tracts as “individual initiative” replaced clan solidarity throughout the period,\n\n34 CSO150/1901.\n\n35 CSO109/1902.\n\n36 Nan Yang Tang Shih Tsu P'u, \"Notes on Land Tax.\"\n\n37 Correspondence Respecting Affairs in China, ibid., p 18.\n\nESSAY II: TAXLORDISM\n\nThe peasants and gentry of Hsin-An witnessed two concrete manifestations of the growing power of foreign countries in China during the waning years of the nineteenth century. In April 1887, the Kowloon Customs House of the Imperial Maritime Customs was established under provisions of the Anglo-Chinese Opium Agreement of September 1886. As was the case with all customs houses established during the era, supervision of the revenue stations was entrusted to a European career officer in Sir Robert Hart's service, J. McLeavy Brown. A great expansion in customs activity", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208078, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND CEREMONIAL LIFE OF TWO MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES IN HOI-PING COUNTY, SOUTH CHINA, 1911-1949\n\nYUEN-FONG WOON*\n\nThe two villages to be discussed in this paper are: Na-loh Ts'uen (###) of Lo-yeung Heung (✯✯) and Lung-tsai She (** #) of Tsung-long Heung () both in Hoi-p'ing County (BI *) of Kwangtung Province in South China.1†\n\nNa-loh Ts'uen was a richer village and had a longer history of settlement. It was founded about 1350. This village was on the outskirt of the general area known as T'oh-fuk (4) which included four Heung—Lo-yeung, Chung-miu († $), Ling-uen (✯) and Ng-wing (). These four Heung were dominated numerically as well as economically by the Kwaan (§§) lineage,2 with its ritual centre at Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall (***) in the intermediate market-town of Che-hom (). Na-loh Tsuen itself was multi-surname: there were one hundred Kwaan families and sixty Oo (*) families in the village.\n\nLung-tsai She was separated from T’oh-fuk by six li (two miles) and was part of Ts'ung-long Heung. Between T’oh-fuk and this village were the Oo lineage of Ue-leung Heung (f), the Chau () lineage of Hin-kong Heung (L) and the Wong () lineage of Paak-hop Heung (). The village was founded about 1500. There were about 200 inhabitants: eighteen Kwaan families, twenty Wong families and four Tang (4) families. It was not known when the Tang and the Wong came, but the Kwaan founder was Yan-waang Kung (#) who came from Na-loh some 160-170 years ago when the latter village had become over-populated.\n\nBoth villages had ritual ties with the Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall at Che-hom. The Kwaan at Na-loh had an ancestral hall of its own, but the elder members went to Kwong-ue Ancestral Hall to take part in the annual rites there. The Kwaan in Lung-tsai She did not have an ancestral hall of its own, but the elders also attended rites\n\n* Dr. Woon is on the faculty of the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C.\n\n† The residents of both villages were Punti speakers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208090, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "\"LITTLE FUJIAN (FUKIEN)”\n\n113\n\nlocal communities. \"Ethnic neighborhood\" can potentially refer to either or both concepts. If this were not so, if we could not separate neighborhood from sub-neighborhood or neighborhood from community, how else could we explain the appellation of North Point, a neighborhood over 2/3 Guangdongese,2 not only as \"Little Fujian\" but as \"Little Shanghai\" as well?\n\nFrom \"Little Shanghai\"\n\nAlthough it is hard to imagine now, North Point 50 years ago was a semi-rural area. Extensive landfill projects, however, soon led to North Point's emergence by the end of the 1930s as a center of light industry and commerce as well as of entertainment. The population remained small, however, and prior to the Second World War North Point was the least crowded spot on the northern side of Hong Kong Island (Wai 1957: 2-5).\n\nMuch of the area was destroyed during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Post-war reconstruction coincided with the late 1940s arrival of the first wave of Central Chinese to North Point: those who had the means to flee the Civil War raging in the north of China and had chosen to come to Hong Kong for a \"temporary\" stay while they waited for the fighting to cease. As a newly developing, uncrowded and semi-exclusive area, North Point appealed to these relatively affluent immigrants.\n\nWhen Shanghai and the surrounding provinces of Zhejiang (Chekiang) and Jiangsu (Kiangsu) were overrun by Chinese Communist forces in 1949, a new wave of \"Shanghaiese\" descended upon Hong Kong although even at this early date North Point was not the destination of all Shanghaiese; the wealthiest went to the most exclusive areas of the colony while the bulk of the predominantly middle-class Shanghaiese proceeded to North Point and lent a decidedly bourgeois flavor to the area.\n\nBy 1950 \"Little Shanghai\" was well established. Restaurants, tailor shops, beauty parlors and other businesses were all set up by Shanghaiese to serve the area's essentially Shanghaiese population. Even today on a walk around North Point one can spot many old and fading signboards of a \"Shanghai Tailor,\" a \"Shanghai Beautiful Woman\" Beauty Parlor, a \"Shanghai Peacock Laundry Service\" as well as a couple of well-known and well-frequented Shanghai restaurants. The Shanghai population clustered within a block or so of King's Road, North Point's main thoroughfare, both Fort Street", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208098, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "\"LITTLE FUJIAN (Fukien)\"\n\n121\n\nindirect though that power may be. In general, though, and especially when compared to other Chinese \"overseas\" communities, neither the Commercial nor the Province Association dominates the Fujianese community.\n\nLittle Fujian as Community: The Social Networks\n\nEthnicity and community are also expressed in less formally structured ways than associations and organizations. Informal patterns of economic, religious and social behavior have arisen and guide life in Little Fujian to a significant degree. Of these three areas perhaps it is the economic and business aspects of Little Fujian that are most visible to outsiders, more visible because they are public.\n\nIn the retail \"Fujianese markets\" of Chun Yeung and Mercury Streets, Little Fujian as a sub-neighborhood intersects with Little Fujian as social community. Each market street is located along an artery of the Fujianese sub-neighborhood and caters to Fujianese tastes in everything from food to jewellery to clothes. Non-Fujianese (Guangdongese, Chau Zhou and/or Shanghaiese) markets adjoin these Fujianese business areas but are socially as well as physically distinct; most Fujianese women prefer to shop on Chun Yeung or Mercury Street where they can be sure of finding people who sell Fujianese specialties prepared in the right manner and who will bargain with them in a familiar tongue. To younger Fujianese, though, language is not so great a barrier and they will often just as comfortably shop on the adjoining but “Fujianese-less” markets of Marble Road or elsewhere in search of a bargain. Yet even for these frugal shoppers the buying habits of childhood and the chance to meet Fujianese friends pulls them repeatedly back to Chun Yeung and Mercury Streets to buy things Fujianese style.\n\nAs with business, so too has religion developed along ethnic lines in North Point.12 Twenty years ago there were no specifically Fujianese Buddhist temples in North Point and early arrivals frequented the one convenient temple in the area: the predominantly Guangdongese Yuet Fei temple on Electric Road.* During the first decade of Fujianese settlement in North Point the percentage\n\n* The origins of this temple are given in a Hong Kong Government file (Secretariat for Chinese Affairs 1/631/1948) which contains a minute dated 3rd April 1948 by the then Secretary for Chinese Affairs, Mr. R. R. Todd:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208099, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "122\n\nGREGORY E. GULDIN\n\nof Fujianese attending the Yueh Fei temple gradually rose until today perhaps 70-80% of the worshippers there are Fujianese. Even so, the temple is not a Fujianese temple; both the people who run the temple and the deity itself are Guangdongese.\n\nThis arrangement was less than satisfactory to the Fujianese. Since Fujianese and Guangdongese ritual practices and religious concepts are not always isomorphic, arguments over what food was properly offered to Guan Yin (Kuan Yin) or what was expected of a medium, etc., frequently erupted. Such disputes, complicated by the language barrier, made many Fujianese feel uncomfortable about worshipping in a \"barbarian\"-run temple.\n\nTen years ago this situation began to change as the Cultural Revolution in China increased attacks on the old religious organizations back in Fujian. Temple personnel such as Buddhist monks and nuns began to arrive legally and illegally in Hong Kong and served to staff a new type of temple, a form particularly suited to Hong Kong's crowded situation. Apartments were rented to serve as temples in many of the apartment buildings which contained a heavy Fujianese population. North Point branches of Sai Ying Poon temples were likewise also begun in this manner.\n\nEach apartment-temple is dedicated to a particular god; sometimes it is a pan-Chinese spirit such as Guan Yin but it can also be a specifically local one such as Sheng Gung of Fujian Province's Nan An county. Sheng Gung's original temple is now in disrepair back in Nan An but the god's statue and objects were brought to Hong Kong a few years back. Hong Kong may thus have the only Sheng Gung temple left functioning in the world.\n\n\"I have visited this little Temple, or joss-house, and have discussed its history with one of the local Kaifong, Mr. Lo Ho Ching, of 129 Electric Road, Ground Floor.\n\n\"The little Temple is dedicated to the God of Warriors, Ngok Fei, and has been in existence about 40 years. According to Mr. Lo it was built by the late Kwok Shut Ting, Compradore of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (A.P.C.), at the time when the A.P.C.'s installation at North Point was built. At present the little Temple is looked after by an old woman appointed by the Kaifong.\n\n\"The little Temple is a picturesque little structure, half embedded in a large boulder and covered by a tree. The Kaifong and I too would be reluctant to see it removed, but if it has to be removed I do not think the Kaifong will object provided that an alternative site for it can be found in the vicinity and if it is re-erected by Government at the time when the new Police Station at Bay View is built.\"\n\nThis information was provided by the Hon. Editor of this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208148, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n171 \n\nHigher up the mountain, there were those who were content with more modest quarters. Pre-war, Heywood found such a retreat beside some large rocks high on the mountain. \n\nKeeping always to the west of the stream, you will reach a secluded upper valley where there is a Buddhist settlement. Two of the charming and courteous people of this place once showed me round their home, which consisted of a cave under a huge overhanging boulder. A thatched porch shaded the wayfarer as he sat drank tea (and how very refreshing Chinese tea can be when you are out walking). Inside was the living room with beds and a table and a little shrine, all kept spotlessly clean, and down below was an underground kitchen, supplied with a clear trickle of water through a chink in the rocks.\" \n\nIn contrast to these newer institutions there is at least one very old Buddhist nunnery, the Ling Wan Chi (†). This is stated to be a fifteen-century foundation, associated with the powerful family of Tang of Kam Tin in the New Territories (JHKBRAS 13 (1973): 128-9). \n\n10. On all sides of the mountain, these earlier institutions have now been joined by a large number of smaller, more modest foundations, some in their own houses, others in rented accommodation. These, on the Tsuen Wan side, are largely Buddhist and most of them are intended for women, many of whom are retired domestic servants ending their lives in quiet. The outside and refugee origin of some of these persons is reflected in the names of their halls. A modest temporary structure in Lo Wai is named for the famous old Wing Ning hall (永寧堂) in Toi Shan city (台山城), in existence long before it became a county seat, as the owner told me proudly, whilst a larger pre-war hall is named Tung Po To, the 'Po To isle in the East' (=Kwangtung) after its founder's home monastery in Po To Island in the Yangtse, one of the homes of Chinese Buddhism.* \n\nMyths and Legends \n\n11. An account of this region written nearly 120 years ago by Rudolf Krone, a German protestant missionary of the Rhenish Mission, states, \n\n* For a more famous sister, the 'Po To in the South' situated at Amoy in the Fukien province see Pitcher: 78 and illustration at 161.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208150, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n173\n\nfamous mountains from Tung Koon, Sun On and to the east of Kwangtung' (JHKBRAS13(1973): 115.) Indeed, one of Po's poems appears on the tomb inscription of one of the first ancestors of the Tang clan who is buried on a little hill opposite my office in Tsuen Wan.\n\n14. In the case of our Tai Mo Shan, it is, I believe, far from being the case that its history, legend and mythology are fully known, either as recorded or oral history. An enquiry into this subject among the older residents of the hill villages and the larger settlements beneath its slopes would be a worthy subject, before what is still remembered in a long unbroken verbal tradition is lost amidst the disruptions of removal and the distractions of modernisation.\n\n15. I have come across several examples of its legends, one old and one new in the making. The older is a story of locomotive rocks, of the kind mentioned by Krone. It comes from Chuen Lung village on the west of the mountain, and is as follows:\n\nHeung Shek had already been in existence over three hundred years ago, before Chuen Lung Village came into being. The story goes that Heung Shek was a group of rocks lying on top of Tai Mo Shan. They gradually moved towards the fung shui \"mouth\" of Tsuen Wan (near the present Tsing Yi Bridge) intending to improve the Tsuen Wan fung shui as a whole. But then, seen by an expectant mother, they could move no more and stayed at their present location.\n\nNow Heung Shek is divided into two parts: the first being the 'gong' rock weighing approximately 20 tons and lying next to the 'drum' rock, the second being the drum rock weighing approximately 30 tons. Also, lying aslant the top of the second is a long flat boulder. If one picks up a stone and knocks against it, a hollow echo sound is produced. Amongst the rocks, there is a fissure wide enough to allow a man to go through. Inside there exists something like a stone chamber. Such things are really fantastic and too mystic to understand.\n\n16. The second, which I found in a 1951 Guide Book to Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, published by the well-known newspaper, the Wah Kiu Yat Pao, is about a rock called 'Hero's Rock'. I was, as you might expect, all set to expect a stirring tale of battles long ago, but when I came to track down the history, local worthies said that the name was given by the pre-war", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208154, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n177 \n\n26. Water was, of course, Tai Mo Shan's greatest natural resource. Before the construction of the Shing Mun catchwaters pre-war, and those for the Tai Lam Chung reservoir post-war, a tremendous flow of water ran down the mountain. It assisted in the gradual formation of land for houses and cultivation at its two main stream mouths in Tsuen Wan,* and was also used for industrial purposes. Water power drove the 24 incense mills located on the various streams of Tsuen Wan between 1900-1910 and before. (JHKBRAS 16 (1976):282-283). Stream water was also essential to the manufacture of bean curd and bean stick, another very old Tsuen Wan local industry, in which the quality of the product was directly related to the availability of a continually available pure water supply (see pp. 216-218 of this Journal). \n\nPublic Works \n\n27. In any hill area in which streams abound and become fast-flowing torrents in wet weather, there is a need for bridges across which travellers and villagers carrying heavy loads can proceed in safety. Tai Mo Shan has its share of such streams, and there are surviving bridges here and there in the hills and on its lower slopes. Among those known to me the largest is the Po Chai Bridge at Chung Hang, a few minutes' walk from my office in Tsuen Wan. Beside it is a battered slate-like tablet commemorating its repair in the 4609th year of the Yellow Emperor, a curious titling which owes its inspiration to the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in the same year as its reconstruction (see Dingle: 89 for a similar dating that gave me the clue to this one and illustrates the wave of Chinese feeling that linked places as far apart in these two cases as Hankow and Tsuen Wan). The subscribers were the leading villagers and shopkeepers of Tsuen Wan and places linked to it by social and business ties. \n\n28. Another bridge, further up the same valley at a place called Ngo Tei (#) or Goose Land—probably its geomantic name—has no tablet. However it is also an old bridge, and an elderly villager of Pak Shek Kiu, an abandoned hill village higher up, credits its repair fifty years ago by a city merchant from Hong Kong as the 'price' paid to the villages to allow burial of one of his relatives there. \n\n* The old name for Tsuen Wan was Chin Wan (**) or Shallow Bay which directly reflects the effect of the mountain on the bay. It was in use until the late 19th century, being replaced first by Tsuen Wan and then...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208161, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "184\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n\"The burial ground is situated near Chai Wan Kok, Tsun Wan. Some time ago, about ten years after the Territory was leased to Great Britain, some natives of Tsun Wan village applied to the H.K. Govt. for a piece of land near the grave to erect some houses, but the proposed area affected the Fung Shui of the said grave. The village Elders of the various branches of the Tang family assembled, and a joint petition was submitted to the District Officer in the names of the descendants. Thanks to this Official the proposed sale was withdrawn. It was afterwards put on record that the site of the grave was to be preserved for ever. Subsequently new roads were constructed by the P.W.D. and the line of one proposed road was across the grave site. The Elders of the Tang family, fearing that this might affect the \"force of the movement of the green dragon,” again assembled and petitioned H.E. the Governor, praying that the line be moved to the foreshore of the site. This was done. In the 6th moon of the 12th year of the Chinese Republic, (1923) a villager of Tsun Wan dug earth on the right side of the ancestral grave, that is, in Chai Wan Kok village, thereby affecting the \"force of the movement of the coming dragon.\" Another petition was sent to the District Officer, who inspected the grave personally. After that earth cutting was prohibited, and the ancestral grave preserved.\"\n\nWe then proceeded to Kam Tin itself where, in front of the Kam Tin Rural Committee Office, we were greeted by an impressive body of lineage elders, treated to a dim sum (*) repast and shown a number of interesting relics handed down through the centuries. These included a painting with imperial calligraphy stated to date from Sung times, and a number of other paintings.*\n\nOur next stop was at Au Tau cross roads to see grave No. 5, that of TANG Wai-kap, the husband of the Sung refugee princess referred to in the Notes.\n\nFrom Au Tau cross roads we went on to the Pok Oi Hospital near Yuen Long and walked into an area of low hills, across a stream, where we inspected grave No. 2. This is located in what is obviously considered to be a very favourable fung shui area because the adjoining ground is thickly covered with graves.\n\nAfter returning to Pok Oi Hospital, we went by bus to Wang Chau behind Yuen Long where we walked through the village and across the fields to the foothills of an adjacent hill area. We went first to grave No. 1 and from there along a winding path to grave No. 4 which is located some 500 yards to the south. Both graves are in excellent positions, and like No. 3 have granite pillars with lion\n\n* These have been reproduced at pp. 112-115 of the Inauguration Publication of the Tang Clansmen Association (Inc. 1965), in Chinese, of which there is a copy in the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208163, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 202, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "186 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nrelating to it. The tour will include a visit to the Tin Hau Temple at Miu Kong, Tsuen Wan, where there is a memorial to the war and a tablet to the Tsuen Wan villagers who were killed. Also to the Kwan Tei Temple at Kam Tin, where part of the Shing Mun villagers were resettled in 1928, which contains a tablet to the Shing Mun villagers killed in the struggle. \n\nFrom the Tsuen Wan ferry pier, the party went first by coach to the Shing Mun reservoir, sometimes called the Jubilee Reservoir because of its completion at the time of King George V's jubilee year (1935). A picnic lunch on one of the vantage points with barbecue and sitting out facilities was followed by a talk by Dr. James Hayes, Tour Leader, on the history and livelihood of the former villagers who lived in the valley for nearly 300 years before their removal in 1928 for the reservoir project. \n\nAfter lunch, the party moved to Kam Tin where the main body of the Shing Mun people moved in 1928. Here our intrepid and helpful bus driver got into difficulties in a confined space between a USD refuse trailer and the gate to the school compound. He was rescued by the action of a group of Members who dismantled a tied up, projecting hawker cart whilst, with characteristic energy and flair, Professor Tony Reynolds directed the driver, conjuring up visions of problems expertly handled many years ago in far Yenan!* \n\nAfter this episode, we were welcomed by the village representative Mr. Cheng Siu-fong (*) and the Headmaster of the Shing Mun New Village School, Mr. Cheung Sze-man (X). We were entertained to tea in the school which has an interesting history. It bears the same name as the old school at Shing Mun Tai Wai built for the villagers by their leaders very many years before their removal in 1928. After the move to Kam Tin it was reprovisioned in the ancestral halls and in 1958, under a subsidized village school building programme supported by the Education Department and New Territories Administration, it transferred to the present six classroomed school building. \n\nOver tea our hosts told us something of the village history after the move to Kam Tin. The main difference was in livelihood, because their agricultural holdings by purchase and rent were only a fraction of those held at Shing Mun, inevitably since Kam Tin had been long densely settled by the Tang clan and later inhabitants. \n\n* See his article at pp 43-54 of this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208166, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n189 \n\nyoung people from Shing Mun planned to take property from Shek Lei Pui and they sent a note saying when they would come and what they wanted. Shek Lei Pui was very frightened. So some went to Tsuen Wan and told them. Sixty or 80 young men got together and hid around Shek Lei Pui and waited for the robbers. More than ten robbers came and were caught. The people took them to Tsuen Wan but didn't want to kill them. Finally, they put them in a big boat and took them to Nam Tau. But at Kap Shui Mun, one prisoner stabbed a Tsuen Wan man in the leg and escaped, and then swam to shore. They took the rest to Nam Tau. The escaped man went back to Shing Mun and said all the prisoners had been killed except himself. The people of Shing Mun were very angry and attacked Shek Lei Pui with weapons. They beat them because they gave no warning, and took all their property. But some Shek Lei Pui people escaped to Tsuen Wan and said the rest were all killed. Then more than 200 Tsuen Wan natives got together and marched to Shing Mun and fought there.\n\nThe Shing Mun story, on the other hand, is quite different. It blames the war on the jealousy of the Tsuen Wan villages, especially Lo Wai, whose people tried to levy charges on Shing Mun persons passing through their territory to sell pineapples in Tsuen Wan Market. Pineapples were a prominent local product and said to be quite lucrative.\n\nThere may well be something in the Tsuen Wan version, however, because a local lineage now living in Middle Kwai Chung had formerly lived in the hills to the north east in a place called Lan Nai Tong (MW). An 80-year-old man told me that they left there because of attacks from Shing Mun ‘about a hundred years ago' and settled in a less remote and exposed position, near existing villages in Kwai Chung. He also took me to the site of the old settlement, though it is overgrown with tree plantations and there is nothing to see there other than some old graves of his lineage and some of their abandoned paddy fields. The \"Shek Lei Pui” of the story may well relate to their long-deserted and now little-known settlement, since it is the area place name as well as that of another village.\n\n* I have since received the written account reproduced below at Pp 197-198.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208174, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 213, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\nThe total cost is therefore: \n\nResumptions for sites \n\n$ 3,839.31 \n\nSite-preparation \n\n31,500.00 \n\nWells \n\n2,400.00 \n\n170,148.00 \n\nHouses \n\n8,346.00 \n\nAgricultural Resumptions \n\n54,122.47 \n\nForestry resumptions \n\n15,250.00 \n\nPineapple resumptions \n\n8,428.00 \n\nFung Shui or fruit trees \n\n2,165.00 \n\nIncidental expenses \n\n700.00 \n\n$296,898.78 \n\n197 \n\nJ. A. FRASER, \n\nDistrict Officer, North \n\n9th January, 1928. \n\nD. AU-YEUNG OF LAN NAI TONG'S ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN \n\nOF THE WAR \n\nRound about a century ago, there were a number of small villages in Tsuen Wan. They were the CHENGs and CHEUNGS of Shing Mun Village, the AU-YEUNGs of Lan Nai Tong, the LAWs of Shek Lei Pui Village, the HUIs, TSANGs, WONGS, LAUS of Lo Wai, the YAUs of Kwan Mun Hau and others. The villagers, totalling over one thousand people, made their livelihood out of farming. Although life was hard, they were sufficiently fed and clad. As the villages were connected by intermarriages, feasts and gatherings in which every member participated were held during festive occasions. \n\nOne day, two brothers of the AU-YEUNG clan returned from abroad,* bringing with them a lot of luggage and gifts. On their way to the village, they met some Shing Mun villagers who happened to be carrying brushwood to Shamshuipo (Kowloon) for sale. \n\n*'abroad' could mean anything, including Hong Kong! See District Commissioner New Territories Annual Departmental Report 1956-57, para. 3.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208194, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n217 \n\nis formed on top. Then pick out the thin layer with a bamboo stick, upon which it is allowed to dry. The end-product will be the delicious and nourishing bean skim. Being performed entirely by hand in the past, the whole process was not so simple as this brief description suggests.\n\nOver eighty years ago, my great-grandfather with his two sons and their wives fled from famine-stricken Chi Kam hsien in Wai Chau prefecture, Kwangtung, and reached Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan where they started their occupation of bean skim making. At that time, there was no highway linking Tsuen Wan with Kowloon. In order to sell the bean skim and buy more yellow beans, my ancestors had to climb over rugged hills every day.\n\nIn those days, the yellow beans were first exposed under hot sun (or heated in a pot in case of dull weather). The impurities such as sand and stalks were carefully picked out from the beans, then the beans were crushed by manual labour until the husks were separated from the beans. Beans and husks were then poured into a bamboo container which was tossed up and down with both hands so as to cast out the husks. The pure beans were then put into a tank and soaked in water for four hours (six hours in winter). Then the beans were ground into a paste by pushing hard at the stone-grinder. The amount of beans could not be in excess of forty catties if the whole process was to be finished within one day, and one had to rise about 2 a.m. to start grinding. This paste was then wrapped inside a cloth bag and the fluid squeezed out. The refuse was then filtered off, while the pasty fluid was poured into twelve flat-bottomed metal pans and boiled, using grass as fuel. (The smoke as emitted from the fluid and the burning grass is not unlike tear gas, giving one a suffocating feeling.) The surface foam was removed, and the fluid kept at a temperature that kept it near boiling. A thin layer of membrane formed on the surface, which was taken off with a bamboo stick and allowed to dry. This process of heating, layer-forming and taking off was repeated again and again, until the paste in all the twelve pans became membrane i.e. bean skim. This process must have required the longest working-hours of the world, for one had to work at it twenty-one hours on end every day, from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208196, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n219 \n\nBeyond the traditional image of most Washington banks closely regulated, largely impersonal entities insured by the federal government lie some lending institutions whose existence rests solely on trust between the people who use them. \n\nThe participants call them \"banks\" but there are no passbooks, no withdrawals, no Christmas clubs and no drive-in windows. There are only deposits, periodic loans and a final payoff of principal plus interest to all members. \n\nIt is a system created long ago in this country by enterprising Chinese immigrants unable to obtain conventional financing for business ventures or personal needs from established American banks. Instead they created their own institutions, informal, unregulated, relying on handshakes in place of written contracts. It is a matter of pride among Chinese Americans that over the years such arrangements have rarely failed. \n\nShattering that tradition, four Chinese banks here have quietly gone broke, leaving their 100 or so depositors more than $130,000 in the hole and with uncertain prospects of ever seeing their savings again. \n\n\"The Chinese community usually helps each other,\" said Bob Lee, a Boston restaurateur and national president of the Chinese Free Masons, whose D.C. branch sponsored the failed banks. \"If everyone was doing the job right, the money should be there.\" \n\nBut everyone, it is apparent, didn't do his job right. For reasons that are still only alleged and unproved, the honor system failed. The pivotal figure, by all accounts, is a longtime Washington restaurateur [name]. \n\nWithin the closely knit Chinese-American community, numbering about 600 downtown and 15,000 in the entire Washington area, such scandals normally are handled discreetly and seldom emerge into public view. This time, however, a civil lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court by the depositors offers a rare glimpse at a side of Washington life foreign to most residents. \n\nThe Chinese \"banks\" operate for a limited time, usually about three years and have only deposits and no ordinary withdrawals. Members deposit $10 per share weekly. Once a week, on Sundays in this case, those wanting to borrow money bid an amount they are willing to pay for the loan, in effect how much \"interest\" they will pay above principal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208197, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "220\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe borrower then pays that amount weekly until his loan is paid off, while the other depositors reduce their weekly payments by the amount of interest. However, their share value remains.\n\nThe bidding occurs at a meeting to which all depositors are invited. If no one bids, the banker finds a single borrower from the list of depositors and the funds are thus dispersed. Borrowers must have another person vouch for their integrity and be considered solvent themselves, but no loans are secured by property or recorded in courthouse files as liens.\n\nAfter the loan is made, regular deposits resume until a new round of bidding occurs. After a period of time agreed to by the group, the \"bank\" stops making loans. After all loans are paid back, the depositors receive their money, and the bank is closed. Then a new one is formed and the process begins again.\n\nIn this system there is no policing as such. The operation is run by a \"banker\" chosen by the organizers. The banker accepts deposits, keeps the books (usually handwritten in Chinese characters), keeps the money in a safe place (invariably cash, never in a regular bank account), dispenses the loans and ultimately pays the depositors.\n\nWhen it came time to close the four banks in late 1976, the money was not there to pay the depositors. The lack of that money, according to those involved, is related to the financial difficulties of [name] one of the bankers and head of the local Chinese Free Masons.....\n\nThis interesting piece was supplied by one of our Members, Captain Charles S. Mill, United States Marine Corps. The account by Eugene Meyer, Washington Post Staff Writer, clearly relates to the traditional Chinese money loan association, not something \"created long ago in this country by enterprising Chinese immigrants\" as Mr. Meyer supposed. Accounts of it as practised in China may be found in J. Dyer Ball's Things Chinese, 4th edition, Kelly and Walsh, Hong Kong 1903: 632-645 and as Appendix E to G. N. Orme's Report on the New Territories [of Hong Kong] for the years 1899 to 1912 in Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers, 1912.\n\nTWO LETTERS FROM WARTIME CHINA\n\nThe two letters which follow were passed to me by the late Walter Schofield (Hong Kong Civil Service 1911-1938) They are from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208208, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "# NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n231\n\nNeumann who was supervising the Union after Gützlaff's death. Eventually, Neumann made a statement that there was no doubt that Feng had been in Hong Kong with Gützlaff in 1848 (by letter dated May 1854) but without mentioning baptism. These two instances only prove the strong influence of the false report.\n\nEven if Feng had paid a brief visit to Gützlaff in Hong Kong in 1848, after failing to see Hung at home, it is difficult to believe that he was baptized by Gützlaff; in as much as he could not afford to stay long enough for the necessary schooling under Gützlaff, whilst on Gützlaff's part he could not baptize a stranger after one or two interviews with him. Moreover, Feng had by then founded the Society of God-Worshippers for over two years with a membership of about 3000 whom he himself had baptized and it seems unlikely that he would condescend to be baptized by Gützlaff and join his Union which had less members than his own Society. Absolutely there was no need for the baptism by Gützlaff. Moreover, Gützlaff was usually very methodical in keeping a record of the name, address, etc of every person whom he had baptized. A double checking on the list that Carl T. Smith found in the detailed reports that Gützlaff sent back to Germany showed that Feng Yun-shan's name was not there. This list consists of all the persons he had baptized from 1840 through 1848 to 1850. Even Clarke stated in a seminar held in the University of Hong Kong some years ago that all he could find in Gützlaff's private archive was the baptism of a school teacher on a certain date. It cannot be taken for granted that this teacher, without his name being mentioned, was Feng.\n\nLast but not least, the silence of Hung Jen-kan and Hamberg on Feng's having visited Gützlaff should not be passed over lightly. Jen-kan, so closely associated with Feng, must have known such an important event had Feng made the visit. Hamberg, being an assistant of Gützlaff in the Union must also have known of the event. Yet, Gützlaff's name was not mentioned in Hamberg's book The Visions of Hung-Siu-tshuen and Origin of the Kwang-Si Insurrections (1854) which was based on Jen-kan's information. It simply narrates that Feng waited in the village for Hung Hsiu-ch'üan's eventual return. This silence should not be interpreted as an intentional negligence of something to Gützlaff's credit, but should be highly and appropriately regarded as strong negative evidence.\n\nHong Kong, 1978.\n\nJEN YU-WEN", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208209, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "232\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nREPTILES NEW TO HONG KONG\n\nThe purpose of these notes is to record the occurrence of one species of gecko (Reptilia: Sauria: Gekkonidae) and three species of snakes (Reptilia: Serpentes: Colubridae) not hitherto known as part of the fauna of Hong Kong.\n\nHemidactylus brookii Gray\n\nDuring the first six months of 1978 three live adult specimens of these geckos were sent to me by Father Anthony Bogadek for identification. All three had been caught in the same locality in the Sai Ying Pun district on Hong Kong Island. The first two, both males, had been found outdoors behind a piece of building material lying against a brick wall, one in late September or early October 1977 and the other on 1 March 1978. The third specimen, a female, was found inside a school on 3 June 1978. There is no doubt that at least a localized population of Hemidactylus brookii is now established in Hong Kong.\n\nThe known geographical range of this species includes ‘India' [and therefore Pakistan and probably Bangladesh], Sri Lanka, and parts of Burma, extending southeastward into the East Indian Archipelago and Singapore; it is also widely distributed in the northern half of Africa, and has been introduced into the West Indies (Smith, 1935, p.91). Its occurrence in Thailand and the Malay Peninsula is not clear as, while Boulenger (1912, p.43) records it from the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago', Smith (loc. cit.) states that it is: ‘not yet known from Siam, French Indo-China, or the Malay Peninsula except Singapore. . . .’ As regards its occurrence in China, Smith (loc. cit.) remarks:\n\nthere are two specimens in the British Museum said to have come from China, both were obtained more than 80 years ago.... Recently (Anon., 1977), this gecko has been listed for Fukien and Chekiang provinces, but without other details.\n\nIn its habits, Hemidactylus brookii is equally at home inside buildings as it is out of doors. It is due to their close association with man that the geographical ranges of several species of house-geckos have been artificially extended very widely in warmer parts of the world.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208213, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "236\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE BIRDS OF TAI MO SHAN*\n\nBare hillsides are not the best places to find a wide diversity of birds, and Tai Mo Shan is no exception, though it does harbour a number of species rare or absent elsewhere in the territory. The Upland Pipit, apparently a montane derivative of the common Richard's Pipit, is resident there, and may be seen with one form of Richard's in summer, and a paler form of the same species in winter. The Crested Bunting breeds there, though it goes down to the valleys for the winter. Francolins are abundant throughout the year.\n\nThe most notable species is David's Hill-Warbler, which has recently been rediscovered after a lapse of fifteen years. This species certainly breeds, but has not been seen in winter. Its close relative, the Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler, is certainly present all the year round. Twenty years ago, the Chinese Babax used to breed on Tai Mo Shan, but in spite of rumours to the contrary, there has been no definite record of this species since.\n\nIn winter there is always the chance of a Kestrel, or even an eagle, but in general the terrain is even more barren than in summer. Only where gullies encourage thicker vegetation will you find a sprinkling of the commoner birds, bulbuls, coucals, Violet Whistling Thrushes, and others; most of the other records from the area are of transients which do not really belong there.\n\n \n Upland Pipit\n Anthus sylvanus\n \n \n Richard's Pipit\n Anthus novaeseelandiae\n \n \n Crested Bunting\n Melophus lathami\n \n \n Francolin\n Francolinus pintadeanus\n \n \n David's Hill-Warbler\n Prinia polychroa\n \n \n Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler\n Prinia flaviventris\n \n \n Chinese Babax\n Babax lanceolatus\n \n \n Kestrel\n Falco tinnunculus\n \n \n Eagle\n aquila sp.\n \n \n Violet Whistling Thrush\n Myiophoneus caeruleus\n \n \n Bulbul\n pycnonotus sp.\n \n \n Coucal\n centropus sp.\n \n\nHong Kong, 1978\n\nMICHAEL WEBSTER\n\n* Mr. Webster gave a talk on this topic to Members who joined the visit to Tai Mo Shan, 3rd April 1976, the other notes for which are given at pp. 157 seq above.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208215, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "238\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nI wish to express my thanks to Dr. Robert F. Inger (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) for kindly confirming my identifications of specimens of both R. paraspinosa and R. spinosa from Hong Kong, and to Dr. Frank F. Reitinger and Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee for their generous gift of all of the above-mentioned specimens from Tai Mo Shan.\n\nREFERENCE\n\nDubois, A.\n\n1975 Un nouveau sous-genre (Paa) et trois nouvelles espèces du genre Rana. Remarques sur la phylogénie des Ranidés (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Mus. natn. Hist. nat., Paris, 3rd series, No. 324, Zoology 231, pp. 1093-1115.\n\nHong Kong, 20 September 1978\n\nJ. D. ROMER\n\nA VILLAGE WAR (Postscript)\n\nA very similar incident is reported by E. J. Dukes in his late 19th century work Everyday Life in China, pp. 106-107:\n\n\"Several years ago, in a village near Amoy, rival idols were being carried in procession. The paths converged to a point a little way out of the village. The persons forming the procession caught sight of one another, and ran towards the junction of the paths, to see which could get the precedence. They came into collision, indulged in a little fighting, and began a quarrel which lasted fourteen months. Thirty-two villages became involved. A tax was levied upon them by the elders of the villages for the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Sentries were placed at the top of square towers, to shoot at any of the hostile party that might venture into the fields. The seeds could not be sown. The standing crops could not be reaped. Two small cannon were bought in Amoy, and with these they amused themselves occasionally in battering a wall or a roof. Great damage was done. The whole neighbourhood was reduced to distress. Where were the mandarins? Calmly waiting till some one was killed. When that event occurred, and was multiplied by twenty-two, the district mandarin became indignant, sent three thousand troops to take possession, levied black-mail on all the villages involved, and retreated with the spoil.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208333, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "ALTAR IMAGES FROM HUNAN AND KIANGSI\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nA recent shipment of a score or so grimy and battered altar images were offered on sale at a curio shop in Hong Kong. With China endeavouring to obtain as much foreign currency as she can, the prices of images such as these have increased to some five times what was being asked two years ago. None of the images is perfect. Many bear signs of the ravages of time, with wormholes and limbs broken off. One or two have their original colours but all were covered in a thick, black greasy film acquired over unattended years on altars. The rarity of such images on the market and the poor state of condition they were in suggests that the Chinese are perhaps scraping the bottom of the barrel and that even fewer will emerge in future. One or two were immediately obviously from Hunan province with characteristics which are difficult to describe in words. Seven of them still had the bung in the centre of the back untouched, which is very unusual.\n\nIn some parts of China it was the custom when a deity was \"endowed with life\" at the ceremony at which it is placed on the altar, to put a few objects into a specially hollowed out cavity in the middle of the back and seal it with a tight fitting wooden bung. The contents vary but, in general terms, they symbolise the inner organs of a human. Sometimes they consist of cut-out paper or tin foil, sometimes of small tubes of lead attached to a tiny cotton sac, wrapped in multi-coloured cotton threads. Very frequently a live insect and one or two grains of rice or other seeds were also placed into the cavity, for the life to be transferred to the deity from the creature or seed. Occasionally prayers too were placed there, written on silk or rice paper and folded carefully, and the whole contents folded into a small piece of red paper. (Plate 1)\n\nInside the cavities of the seven images which still had their bungs in place were found short strips of rice paper bearing descriptions of where, when and why the image had been placed on the altar.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208354, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "62\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\nactivities Qingming is well correlated in time with the important phase of sowing in the annual agricultural cycle.\n\nThe Dongting basin in Hubei and Hunan is regarded as a single crop area. Only one gazetteer mentions a different arrangement; this is the 1872 edition of Baling xian zhi which states:\n\nthe first crop of paddy is sown at the second halfmoon. In the third moon it is transplanted. In the sixth moon it is reaped. The late crop of paddy is sown in the middle of the third moon. In the fourth moon it is transplanted. In the seventh moon it is reaped.7\n\nIn this case the two crops were not successive ones. Apparently the same seedbeds were used. The two rounds of seedlings were transplanted to two different sets of fields, or otherwise the peasants must have practiced a scheme of intercropping. There is a possibility that either arrangement was a response to a situation characterized by a lack of labour at peak seasons; to spread the sowing in time would ease the 'bottlenecks' in rice production, the intensive work periods at transplantation and harvest. In this Baling case the late crop seems to correspond to the main rice production cycle of the Dongting area. To the extent that double cropping existed in the middle Yangzi basin, it was a late introduction, probably not earlier than the Sung dynasty.8\n\nBefore the sowing, the seedbeds are carefully cleaned and fertilized; water is conducted to flood the beds and the grain grows in mud. The earlier shoots are protected from low night temperatures by the cover of water. In sunny weather the beds are drained to allow the grain to root and grow faster. Qingming falls into this first phase of the rice cycle. On the basis of this circumstance we may take it as a part of our hypothesis that there is a positive semantic relationship between Qingming and sowing.\n\nThe essay elaborates further some very general propositions on the Chinese calendrical system I offered some years ago.9 I suggested that one dominant principle in the structure regulating the annual events embedded a notion of social exchange. Visits and return visits are important acts of social ceremonialism all over China. This is especially so during the lunar New Year. Again, the New Year rites told about the visit of the dead ancestors to their living progeny. The ancestors made a similar visit during the Duanwu festival in the fifth moon. Their appearance on this occasion", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208457, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n165\n\nany contingency of administration which faced the small and self-contained villages of the rural districts in which the great mass of the Chinese people dwelt.\n\nAuthor's note: On rereading this effort of an aspiring young Sinologue in Peking some 45 years ago, the author realizes how quaint it must seem today for the \"state of the art\" is far advanced since then, with a proliferation of on-the-ground studies of Chinese rural life done by sociologists and social anthropologists in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They provide concrete information on village governance richer than all one could find in 1933, C.M.W., 15 October 1979.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nI. WORKS CITED IN THIS PAPER.\n\nAddison, James T.; Chinese Ancestor Worship: a Study of its Meaning and its Relations with Christianity. No place, Chung Hua Shen Kung Hui, 1925.\n\nAlabaster, Ernest; Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law and Cognate Topics, London, Luzac, 1899,\n\nBazin; \"Recherches sur les Institutions Administratives et Municipales de la Chine\" (Journal Asiatique. 5th Series, vol. 3, 1854, p. 6-66; vol. 4, 1854, p. 249-348), (The two papers are differentiated by the Roman numerals I and II.)\n\nBishop, Carl W. Man from the Farthest Past. New York Smithsonian Institution, 1930. (Smithsonian Scientific Series, vol. 7.)\n\nBishop, C. W.; \"Prefatory Note on the Worship of Earth in Ancient China.\" (Excavation of a West Han Site. Shanghai, no pub., 1932, p. 1-20.)\n\nBishop, Carl W.; \"The Rise of Civilization in China with Reference to its Geographical Aspects\" (Geographical Review, Oct. 1932, p. 617-631.)\n\nBoulais, Guy; Manuel du Code Chinois. Shanghai, Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, 1924. (Variétés Sinologiques 55.)\n\nBuck, John L.; Chinese Farm Economy; a Study of 2866 Farms in Seventeen Localities and Seven Provinces in China. Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1930.\n\nChen Huan-chang; The Economic Principles of Confucius and His School, 2 vols. New York, Columbia, 1911.\n\nChina National Government. The Civil Code of the Republic of China. Translated into English by Hsia, Ching-lin: Chow, James L. E.; Chang, Yukon, 2 vols. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1930-31. vol. 2.\n\nChina Year Book 1932. (Woodhead, H. G. W. Ed.) Shanghai, North-China, 1932.\n\nChinese Repository. See: \"Clanship Among the Chinese.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208458, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "166\n\nC. MARTIN WILBUR\n\nChing Ho; A Sociological Analysis. The Report of a Preliminary Survey of the Town of Ching Ho, Hopei, North China. (Hsu, Leonard, S., Editor.) Peiping, Yenching, 1930.\n\n\"Clanship Among the Chinese\". (Chinese Repository, vol. 4, 1836, p. 411-415).\n\nCreel, Herrlee G.; Sinism; a Study of the Evolution of the Chinese World View. Chicago, Open Court, 1929.\n\nDe Groot, J. J. M.; Les Fêtes Annuellement Célébrées à Emoui (Amoy); Étude Concernant la Religion Populaire des Chinois. 2 vols. Paris, Leroux, 1886.\n\nDe Groot, J. J. M.; The Religious System of China. 6 vols. Leyden, Brill, 1892-1910.\n\nDemiéville, P.; \"Hou Che Wen Ts'ouen (MILŻ#)\" (Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, vol. 23, 1923, p. 489-499).\n\nDes Routours, Robert; \"Les Grands Fonctionnaires des Provinces en Chine sous la Dynastie des T'ang.\" (T'oung Pao, vol. 25, 1928, p. 219-330).\n\nDuyvendak, J. J. L. (translator); The Book of Lord Shang, a Classic of the Chinese School of Law, London, Probsthain, 1928.\n\nFerguson, John C., \"Political Parties of the Northern Sung Dynasty\" (Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 58, 1927, p. 36-56).\n\nFerguson, John C.; \"Southern Migration of the Sung Dynasty\" (Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 55, 1924, p. 14-27).\n\nFerguson, John C.; \"Wang An-shih\" (Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 35, 1903-04, p. 65-75).\n\nGiles, Herbert A.; A Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1898.\n\nGiles, Herbert A.; A Chinese English Dictionary. 2nd ed., 2 vols.; Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1912.\n\nGranet, Marcel; Chinese Civilization, London, Kegan Paul, 1930.\n\nHirth, Friedrich; The Ancient History of China to the End of the Chou Dynasty, New York, Columbia, 1911.\n\nHsieh, Pao Chao; The Government of China (1644-1911). Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 1925.\n\nHu, Shih; \"The Establishment of Confucianism as a State Religion During the Han Dynasty” (Journal of the North China Branch of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 60, 1929, p. 20-41).\n\nHu, Shih: \"Religion and Philosophy in Chinese History\" (in Symposium on Chinese Culture. (Zen, Sophia H. Chen, Editor). Shanghai, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1931, p. 24-58).\n\nHu, Shih; \"Wang Mang, the Socialist Emperor of Nineteen Centuries Ago” (Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 59, 1928. p. 218-230).\n\nHuang, Han Liang; The Land Tax in China. New York, Columbia, 1918.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208474, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "182\n\nDAVID H. S. CHAU\n\nin print making for generations since Late Ming. To Hua Wu is a district in the city of Soochow. Fatshan is a town near Canton, also noted for its many temples, beautiful scenery and many other crafts. Prints made from these centers varied in style and printing technique, but only the prints made from Fatshan retain the ancient traditional forms, as Fatshan has been the supply center of folk prints for the Chinese overseas who have emigrated and settled down in South Asian countries for many generations. The folk prints used by Chinese people in Hong Kong were also supplied from Fatshan. There had been several woodblock printers in Hong Kong producing religious folk prints by using blocks supplied from Fatshan until fifteen years ago. Then, for economic reasons, some local printers closed down their business and the remaining ones turned to modern printing techniques by using machines.\n\nIn the nineteenth century modern printing techniques were introduced to China from Western countries, and eventually the use of woodblock for printing started to decline and began to vanish. The remaining woodblock printers only engaged in the printing of religious matter. When the Communists took over the government of China in 1949, almost all these printers closed down their trade. Those still in existence are mainly engaged in reproducing paintings of old masters. One is Wing Po Chai in Peking, another in Shanghai is styled To Wan Huen. There is also one left in Hangchow of Chekiang Province.\n\nThe usages of woodblock printing\n\nWoodblock printing had a wide range of usage in Chinese daily life. Besides printed books, calendars, folk prints and religious matter, woodblocks were used for printing stationery, account sheets, letter heads, calligraphic copy books, trade labels, posters, circular notices, playing cards, etc. The government's official documents, orders, legal contracts, etc. were also printed by using woodblocks. Decorated letter sheets had been in fashion in high society in the old days. High-ranking officials, noted families, wealthy merchants and literary scholars and artists had, for their own exclusive use, beautiful specially illustrated and coloured woodblock printed personal letter sheets for writing letters or poems. Card games were also popular in the feast gatherings of scholars, poets or artists. Monochrome, illustrated, woodblock-printed, paper playing cards", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208475, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 199, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "WOODBLOCK PRINTING\n\n183\n\ndesigned by famous artists, together with game rules, would be used by the participants at the feasts. The drawer would have to make a poem right away or drink up his cup of wine, according to the rules stated on the card.\n\nThere is evidence that the Hong Kong Government had used woodblock printed matter as official documents in some of its offices in the early twentieth century, whilst the old-fashioned Chinese trade communities in Hong Kong and Taiwan are still using traditional woodblock chops in general trading practice. Even now in Taiwan, only personal chops are officially recognized in most of the trade transactions instead of handwritten signatures. And the banks in Taiwan will only pay out cheques when you bring your registered chops along. It has long been the custom that chops made of woodblock are for commercial usages, while chops made of stones or metal are mostly used for personal or painting marks.\n\nThe Chinese were polytheists and believed in rebirth after death. Valuables were usually buried with the dead for their disposal in their future lives. Few years ago, in one of the tomb excavations in China, a two-thousand-year-old tomb was found still well preserved. A female body was wearing more than twenty pieces of clothing enough for the four seasons, and a large quantity of treasures were also located inside the grave. Human sacrifices had been practised at burials of the ruling classes since Shang Dynasty. This was replaced by life-sized ceramic figurines during the Chin (#) 246-209 BC. In their turn, ceramic figurines had gradually been replaced by paper effigies when the use of paper and woodblock printing became popular after Tang Dynasty. Up to now, printed fancy paper made imitation clothes, effigies, houses or daily utensils are still in common use in ritual practices among overseas Chinese societies.\n\nReligious and ritualistic prints not only represent one aspect of the folk art of wood-carving but also provide valuable information on folk beliefs. These beliefs are deep-rooted and they have become the greatest moving force behind Chinese daily activities and customs. Almost all the religious prints were associated with occupational activities, with daily events and household needs, with seasonal festivals and with private and communal pilgrimages to temples. These prints were made not for decoration but to assist the user to share any power the supernatural spirit depicted on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208491, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n199 \n\nPopularly known as FAN Yi-lang (-), his full title is 'The Great Immortal Master FAN' (FAN Ta Hsien Shih) (#14 BF). His birthday is celebrated in the village from the 12th to the 17th of the fifth lunar month, with his birthday proper falling on the 16th day. \n\nLegend claims that he was one of three brothers, believed to have lived near the county capital at Pao An (7) formerly Hsin An (†✯) (just north of the present Sino-Hong Kong border), where he and his brothers were bowl makers. FAN Yi-lang however, through his diligent cultivation of the Tao, achieved immortality. \n\nAbout 200 years ago the people of Mui Lung near Pao An (then Hsin An) moved to what became known as Wun Yiu in Hong Kong, where they continued their trade of bowl making. Most villagers bear the surname MA, and at that time they brought FAN's image with them because, as a bowl maker and an Immortal, who but he could look better after their interests? Although bowl making is no longer carried on in the village, evidence of it remains in a pile of shards and moulds lying just outside the temple. (For a note on the Wun Yiu Kilns see JHKBRAS15(1975):291). \n\nFAN continues to serve the villagers well and is consulted on a variety of topics, notably on auspicious dates for commencement of local building projects. The original image was destroyed some years ago, and the present one is a copy carved in Kowloon. \n\nIt has been said that FAN is the patron of bowl makers and by extension, of potters. This is not so. FAN is simply the local deity of a village which used to be involved in bowl making, and was a bowl maker himself. The general patrons of potters, in eastern China at least, were the twin Immortals of Fortune, Ho Ho Erh Hsien (和合二仙). \n\n(An extract from a work at present in hand, The Gods on the Altars of Hong Kong and Macau by Keith G. Stevens). \n\nHong Kong 1979 \n\nKEITH STEVENS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208492, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "200\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nANCESTRAL IMAGES*\n\nI have been fortunate enough to come across a most interesting book, \"Religious Art in Taiwan\" (in Chinese) by LIU Wen-san.† In it, amongst many other things, LIU describes several 17th Century wooden figures, some 18\" high, which he discovered on the Pescadores. His photographs show images of elderly people, devoid of any colour and ravaged by time. I have translated part of his short article on them as it amplifies my Note on ancestral images.\n\nThe Contemplative CHANG Pai-wan (張百萬)\n\nIn Taiwan, not only temples but also homes have gods and ancestral tablets. Ancestral worship, a major characteristic of Chinese culture, is to show gratitude to the ancestors for bringing us up, and to mould us so that we do not shame them. Some people even have images made of their ancestors. The writer visited the old home of the legendary CHANG Pai-wan, a poor fisherman who lived over 300 years ago, in Pai Sha on the Pescadores.\n\nOne day in a cave CHANG saw large numbers of black bricks and took a few home, only to discover that they were black gold bars. To prevent others from finding out, he took only a few bars home each day until after a month he had moved the lot into his small home.\n\nNow a wealthy man, he bought several hundred acres of land and the long string of bullock carts he owned filed past his home before dawn each day. Unfortunately they also had to pass the home of another rich man, a Mr. WU, who took CHANG to court for disturbing peace. The court case, a stalemate, led WU to suggest to CHANG that they see who was the richer of the two, the richer being the winner. The arrangement was for both WU and CHANG to take their gold to a nearby bay and one by one cast their bars of gold into the sea. Whoever was first to have no more bars left was the loser. CHANG emerged the winner.\n\n* To be read in conjunction with the article at pp. 47-54\n†台灣宗教藝術, 劉文三 (雄獅圖書股份有限公司) 台北 1976", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208493, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n201 \n\nCHANG'S descendants did not know his name, and so he was simply called by them Millionaire CHANG (...). When the writer first saw the images of CHANG and his family they were covered with dust and cobwebs. There was also a wooden carving of an award from the Emperor of that time. CHANG'S images in the bedroom, and parts of the other images, reflect the mood prevailing at that time. CHANG'S image in particular depicts him as a contemplative but determined old man.\n\nHis image depicts him seated, his forehead is high and long, his face too is longish; he has a slightly protruding jaw and thick lips which appear to be smiling. His head is inclined slightly to the left; his shoulders are level and his arms lowered with his left hand on the arm rest of the chair while his right hand rests on his lap. He wears the everyday robes of the man in the street, and despite the age of the image the carving is still well defined.\n\nThere was also an image of a female, probably his daughter-in-law, and another of a younger man dressed in official robes, perhaps CHANG'S son. Both these latter two have been carved by the same craftsman and probably at the same time. However, the image of CHANG is older. All in all, the three are rare works of art.\n\nThere are no descendants left of the CHANG family in the old house, and the images are worshipped by people in the neighbourhood. The writer found a woman of about 30 who claimed that she was one of CHANG'S descendants but she knew nothing about the legendary figure. Whether she was or not, the images are of great significance in Taiwanese folk art.\n\nA large number of people on the Pescadores 300 years ago were of Fukienese origin and whilst we do not know the ethnic origins of CHANG Pai-wan, it is probable that he was either of Fukienese or Ch'ao-chow origins.\n\nIn addition to the discovery of these 300 year old ancestral images, I have also seen a couple, husband and wife, carved in wood, seated on the front of the ancestral shelves in the Hall of Remembrance at the side of the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple in Malacca (See Plate 23). There is no identifying detail and the temple keeper was unable to say who they were.\n\nThe man, sitting together with and on the right of the woman on a high-backed bench with sides, is dressed in blue robes bearing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208496, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "204\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nlict until demolition commenced in November 1953 and a block of government flats was erected. This more modern and far less attractive building was originally to be known as \"Marble Hall Flats\" but is now called Chater Hall. What seems to be some of the brickwork associated with Sir Paul Chater's home can still be seen near the site.\n\nHong Kong, June 1979\n\nA Note on Sources\n\nPETER WESLEY-SMITH\n\nThe photographs were contained in the Governor's despatch to the Colonial Office written when the gift of Marble Hall to the Hong Kong Government seemed to be about to take effect. See Clementi to Amery, No. 475, 23 Nov. 1926: C.O.129/498. Also included with the despatch were extensive plans of the house and a description provided by the Public Works Department, Hong Kong. Short biographical notices of Sir Paul Chater appear in Arnold Wright (ed.), Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai etc. (London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., Ltd., 1908), pp. 107-8 (there is a photograph of Marble Hall at p. 156) and W. Feldwick (ed.), Present Day Impressions of the Far East etc. (London: The Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917), pp. 518-20. See also Nigel Cameron's brief history of The Hong Kong Land Company Ltd., published in 1979. Further (though scanty) information can be discovered in the various reported cases on Chater's much-litigated will; see (1927) 22 H.K.L.R. 80; (1927) 22 H.K.L.R. 89; (1930) 24 H.K.L.R. 43; (1936) 28 H.K.L.R. 1; (1937) 157 T.L.R. 376 (on appeal to the Privy Council); (1949) 33 H.K.L.R. 283. Chater was authorised to embark on pier and wharf schemes by ordinances Nos. 4 and 19 of 1884. After his death, the Chater Masonic Scholarship Fund Ordinance (No. 25 of 1929, now cap. 1007, L.H.K. 1975 ed.) was passed. His collection of pictures is catalogued in James Orange, The Chater Collection: Pictures Relating to China, Hong Kong, Macao, 1655-1860 (London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1924).\n\nI am much indebted to Mr. J. F. G. Marshall, of the Public Works Department, Hong Kong, for information he painstakingly gathered several years ago on the postwar history of Marble Hall. Hong Kong, September, 1979\n\nPETER WESLEY-SMITH", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208583, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE U.S. AND THE QUESTION OF HONG KONG 1941-45\n\n13\n\nTaking advantage of the changed American sentiments regarding China and the allied victory in Europe, Britain began an active propaganda programme to influence American public opinion concerning Britain's imperial and colonial attitudes and policies and the British Empire's contribution to the allied war effort. The British Information Services, an agency of the British government in New York, published numerous booklets for the purpose.$7\n\nHong Kong naturally figured prominently in these publications. In the booklet entitled \"Britain and Japan\", for instance, it is thus stated: \"When the Island of Hong Kong was ceded to Britain one hundred years ago, it was almost uninhabited. Since then Britain has built on that island the beautiful city of Victoria. By 1941 Hong Kong had a population of 1,650,000, mostly Chinese; it was a trading center and a port for commercial shipping which had enriched the communities all around it. Students from China came to the University of Hong Kong to get degrees in Medicine, Engineering, Science and Arts, which were recognized in Britain as fully reaching British standards. During the long troubles of China, the island of Hong Kong, and the city of Victoria, became a refuge for hundreds of thousands of distressed Chinese.\" The message was clear: if the British colony of Hong Kong had been beneficial to Britain, it also had been as much so, if not more, to China.\n\nMeanwhile, events were leading to the last stages of the Pacific War. In September 1944 the Americans and the British reached a clear understanding which laid down the general principle that in the British Far Eastern territories which were in the American command, the policies to be followed on the liberation of those territories should be laid down by the British government and accepted by the American force commander.58 Late in February 1945 the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee, instituted in December the previous year for the purpose of coordinating the Department of State and the War and Navy Departments, directed that its Subcommittee for the Far East maintain, as a general guide for its activities, a master list of Pacific-Far Eastern problems, arranged in appropriate order of priority. Also, before initiating action on any one of such problems the subcommittee should submit in each case to the main committee a detailed recommendation showing “(1) a statement of the problem (2) the agency or agencies to be charged with initiation of the basic documents involved, and (3) the method of processing and coordination thereof, including", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208641, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n71\n\nOn the eighteenth, two Japanese officers called and we entertained them with tea. They were pleasant enough, but had little to say. Soldiers and officers have come almost every day, either for a courtesy call or out of mere curiosity. One officer especially has been very friendly with Father Toomey, and has brought him cigarettes and milk. Others seem rather arrogant and haughty. Of course, we in turn are mild and meek for we don't like bayonets. Today, finally, our Ford V-8 was towed away down the hill.\n\nShortly after our return from the garage, we witnessed a rather sorrowful scene and one which will long remain in our memories. It was when, a few days after the signing of the armistice, the British and Indian soldiers marched out of the fort on the hill and took the winding road down through Stanley and to Hong Kong and to internment in Kowloon. There must have been at least a thousand, if not more men, disarmed and dejected, and passing just below our hill we watched them as they went by under the victorious Japanese flag hung across the road. As we stood on our hilltop and saw that mournful column passing along silently, we thought of the glories and peace of Hong Kong which had been and now everywhere is desolation and despair. The victors are despoiling the city; they have ruthlessly dethroned the foreigner and humiliated him in the eyes of the Chinese; they have destroyed overnight, as it were, the work of decades; they have completely disrupted the organization of a huge modern city, and starvation faces the populace. The Japanese have learned their lessons well from the West, and the West is now reaping the harvest of what it has sown. Poor Hong Kong! which had to be one of the first victims.\n\nAfter tiffin on the 20th, we received final word to leave Maryknoll House, now His Imperial Majesty's property, for our new home in the Prison Warders' Apartments attached to the Prison at Stanley. We are to be interned, not as the Italian Fathers were, in the Prison itself, but in modern apartments, these having been built only a few years ago. We hastily summoned our coolies, and the vanguard soon got under way. We walked in advance, each with a suitcase or bag in each hand and a bundle of bedding on his back, the coolies bringing up the rear with the heavier and more awkward bundles. Twenty-four priests and Brothers, and as many more coolies made quite a cavalcade, and looking back, it seems that we have been able to move all that Father Troesch and Father Meyer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208660, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "90 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\ncomes from we do not know, unless it be from the American club stores). To meet such an emergency as this, Father Meyer, with his usual resourcefulness, had been saving bits of leftover rice and browning it, so while we have had no rice from the Community kitchen, we fell back on Father Meyer's providence. Meeting of the American community at 2 p.m., at which we are promised better food for the future. \n\n28-Father Tackney ill-fainted at night; stomach trouble and low blood pressure. He has found it pretty hard to eat the rice rations. Father Hessler may have dysentery. No rice from the community kitchen yet. Two baking powder biscuits and soup for tiffin. Some rice at night and a very small piece of poor bread. \n\n29-Palm Sunday. Father Tackney better. Fathers Moore and Gaiero back from the Hospital. Songfest. \n\n30-Father Siebert likewise returns from the Hospital, cured. Rain and cold. Shoes and clothing of internees showing signs of wear. Seen about the Camp: food being served in large erstwhile garbage cans and wash basins. Meat and vegetables transported in wheelbarrows. \n\nAPRIL \n\n1- There is a mystery in the air. Last night, a meeting took place on \"The Hill\" with the heads of the various Camp communities, at the request of the Japanese authorities. Today, the results were announced: all the American Consular officials and staff, the government officials, Red Cross, and newspaper men interned at Stanley are to be in Shanghai by the 20th of the month, whence they will be repatriated, via Mozambique, Portuguese East Africa. Some days ago, some of the American Consular officials made signs to us from their room, holding up their fingers and counting eleven. Immediately, all sorts of guesses were in the air. We were to be repatriated on the eleventh, or we were to be freed on that date, or any number of other possibilities were mooted. But today, we note that eleven of our Americans are to go to Shanghai. These eleven are two government officials, three Red Cross, and six newspaper men, the latter group including one lady, a Miss Dew. His Excellency, Bishop O'Gara, has also made representations to the Japanese authorities on behalf of the many sick in the Camp and also present-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208685, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n115\n\n21-Report has it that some 52 internees may be allowed to go to Shanghai on Wednesday. No electricity due to overloading of circuits. As a result, we have to get our \"chow\" cooked in the British kitchen for a couple of meals. The Shanghai baggage goes to town in the food truck.\n\n22--The Shanghai trip delayed and the baggage returns from the city.\n\n23-We understood a few days ago that the Japanese had rounded up several hundred very destitute Chinese in the city with the intention of deporting them somewhere along the South China coast. They were first brought out to Stanley and placed in the Prison for a day or so. Next they were herded onto several large junks in Stanley Bay. The junks were towed out to sea but meeting heavy weather, the tugs had to put back into quieter waters and anchored again in Stanley Bay just off the western side of our Camp. As we walked along the top of St. Stephen's Hill, we could see the unfortunates very plainly crowded on the junks, and standing up, with no covering over their heads. Thus they remained for at least two days and nights, exposed to the sun and rain. No doubt their food was but a trifle, for while anchored off the Camp, a number of bodies were seen by the internees to be thrown overboard, and later these bodies were washed up on the beach, where they remained unburied. I believe the Camp officials requested permission to bury them but the beach being outside our barbed wire enclosure, the permission was refused. The junks finally sailed away with their human freight. Earlier in the Camp, a similar permission was asked to bury a few bodies of soldiers which had been washed up on the beaches, but again the permission was not granted. July so far has given us 22 days of rain which, like California, is most unusual for this month, and as a result the reservoirs are filled up and overflowing.\n\n25-The Shanghai repatriates are told to be ready to leave at any time, but there is still a further delay. No doubt it is a question of shipping. Among them are two Dutch Salesian Fathers. The British put on a good show at 7 p.m., \"The Optimists,” on the bowling green outside our former American Club A-4 Block. Swimming restrictions lightened; we may now go and return at any time within the prescribed hours. Mixed marriage in our private Maryknoll Chapel at 9 a.m. Father Hessler officiated.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208686, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "116\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n26-Sunday. Another Gingles meal of a real slice of meat, fried sweet potatoes, spinach and rice, with some Philadelphia rice scrapple for breakfast. Our rations seem to be getting less and the rice poorer, and we have to spend quite a little time in picking the worms out of the rice and the weevils out of the flour. The Shanghai groups finally get away at 2:00 p.m.\n\n28--A softball league starts up, as the British are getting quite enthusiastic about the game, but they lose the first game to the Americans, now mostly Maryknollers. At present there are some six teams lined up; i.e., The Police, St. Stephen's, The College, the Indian Quarters, the Married Quarters, and the Americans. We have two grounds, one in the back of the American blocks on a large tennis court space, and the other down at the Indian quarters, and the games are played after supper.\n\n30-Father Tackney develops an ear infection, apparently from swimming, and Dr. Talbot is treating him. A Miss Rose died today.\n\n31-No softball, as the rain continues. Many of the British have not yet received their parcel of food, arrangements for which were begun some three months ago. Today we received as rations 9 pounds of meat, of which about 6 pounds were fat. The fat, of course, will come in handy for frying things, but the lean meat will not go far among 41 people.\n\nAUGUST\n\n1-The Hong Kong dollar was further devalued today at a rate of four to one military yen. Canteen prices further increased.\n\n2-Sunday. Mrs. Williamson, Catholic, dies. Monday, Father Hessler sang a High Mass for the repose of her soul. Mr. and Mrs. Nance, American missionaries, who did not want to be repatriated, and who live in our Block, next to the Sisters, announce the birth of a baby boy, Jonathan Goforth Nance, in Tweed Bay Hospital. They already have two small children. After some delay incident to moving our quarters, language classes start again, but only one hour a day, just to keep in trim.\n\n4- St. Dominic's Day. Good news—for some: the four Americans, Mr. Gingles, Dr. Molthen, Mr. Salmon and Miss Dorrer, are to leave Camp tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Also some Britishers,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208706, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "136\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nFathers Downs and Madison, with Sister Paul and four of her Sisters, journeyed on by bus to Liuchow, then by train to Kweilin.\n\nAt Kweilin, we met the members of the first group and here left Sister Paul and her Sisters. As it was the time of the Chinese New Year, we had to remain in Kweilin for about a week, then Fathers Downs, Siebert, Gaiero and Madison set out by train and bus on the long hike to Kaying. We reached Kaying on the 19th of February, just one month to the day after stepping aboard the steamer at Hong Kong, and just in time to attend Kaying's First Synod. From Kaying, a few hours by bus brought us to Siaoloc, where the Language School once more resumed its oft-interrupted classes, and here at Siaoloc this chronicle of the wanderings of the Stanley Maryknollers comes to a glorious end! Laus Deo!\n\n(By Father William J. Downs)\n\nPART III: FATHER MEYER ON INTERNMENT: JANUARY 12, 1942 - AUGUST 15, 1945\n\nNearly sixty priests, Brothers and Sisters were interned at Stanley in January, 1942. Within a year, all but three priests and four Sisters had left on exchange repatriation or been released into Hong Kong and gone back to their Missions. In September, 1943, occurred the last repatriation, when Father Murphy, a Canadian missioner who was ill, and the four remaining Sisters left for Canada.\n\nA special cable had come through the Swiss Consul in Tokyo, \"All Maryknollers are to leave occupied areas.\" When Father Hessler and I told Mr. Maejima, the Camp Superintendent, that we chose to stay, he seemed nonplussed. Weren't we ordered by the cable to return? We explained that in the Catholic Church such an order was always contingent on providing for the needs of souls, and that since the Italian Fathers of Hong Kong were not permitted to come into the Camp, we had volunteered already a year ago to remain.\n\nNothing more was said, but our names did not appear on the repatriation lists, and we learned later that Mr. Maejima and his colleagues of the Hong Kong Foreign Affairs Office had been impressed by the Catholic position.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208720, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "150\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nficant scale (17th century) till the period of Japanese control (1895-1945), one can see three successive waves of temple-building, each characterized by its own cult-symbols or deities. This phenomenon is in fact a manifestation of the relationships between the groups of settlers: competition between various groups of immigrants is reflected in the competition of their gods.\n\nDuring the first period of temple-building, the choice of universalistic gods, worshipped by various groups of settlers, points to a spirit of cooperation between them. This was a time of external pressures necessitating cooperation in order to face common threats. Examples given are the Matsu temple in Kuantu (1661), the Shennung temple near Feit'ou (1669) and the Kuan-yin temple whose location is not identified (1660-70).\n\nDuring the second period of temple building, there was a shift in cult-symbols: the choice of more particularistic deities goes hand in hand with strife and competition, or even hostility between groups of settlers of different geographical origins. Examples of such gods with a narrower appeal are K'ai-chang sheng-wang, Ch'ing-shui tsu-shih, Ting-kuang Fo, and the so-called Wang-yeh gods.\n\nThe third period of temple-development was occasioned by new political changes in Taiwan: the threat of foreign invasion (Sino-French war in 1885), and the Japanese occupation (1895-1945). A new consciousness unites the Taiwan population against these foreign threats. While some of the old universalistic gods regain popularity, new cult-symbols arise, such as the Taipei city god cult, \"emerging as the center of a consciousness that transcends particularistic interests\" (p. 40). During the Japanese occupation, great changes take place in the pattern of religious activity. Cut off from its roots on the Chinese mainland, and pressured by the Japanese rulers to undergo a process of acculturation, Taiwan religion follows a development of its own. Local cults and practices are often discouraged (e.g., second burial, spirit medium cults) and Buddhism enjoys a privileged position. Out of twelve temples built in the Peit'ou-Tamsui area during 1895-1945, ten are Buddhist.\n\n(Perhaps the author should have added a fourth period of religious activity: after 1945. The picture has been changing considerably and still is nowadays, especially since the author's research took place about ten years ago. Religious freedom has been restored: but moreover, the influx of a new wave of mainland im-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208721, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION REDISCUSSED\n\n151\n\nmigrants, the arrival of a record number of Christian missionaries and new government regulations concerning religious festivals, all contribute to great changes. One more factor not so strongly felt ten years ago, but very active ever since, is the economic prosperity of the island, which has resulted in a new temple-building boom, perhaps unequaled in the past).\n\nSo far the author has identified the temples as either Taoist, Buddhist or Confucian, but now raises the question as to the usefulness and adequacy of these terms: \"Of what significance are these terms (as well as the term 'temple' itself) to our understanding of the development and character of religion in Taiwan?” (p. 52).\n\nIn Chapter II, \"The Use of Government Gazetteers in Scholarly Research\" (pp. 54-84), the traditional way of dividing the religions of China is rejected as inadequate. This terminology was used in official gazetteers but is not always reliable. Moreover, the gazetteers, although of importance for researchers, are often biased: there are omissions of a large number of smaller temples or so-called unorthodox temples; and the relative importance of various temples is ignored. Therefore the gazetteers have to be used with great apprehension and should be complemented with field-work information.\n\nThe confusion of the temple names—I’d rather use temple 'appellations'—certainly makes it very difficult to classify temples according to the three religions model, if one goes by these appellations only. But the author's conclusion on p. 72 is unwarranted: \"For this reason I do not believe that the three religions classification is a useful tool for uncovering the system of Taiwanese religious beliefs.\" Even if temple appellations are partially interchangeable (e.g. a kung may refer to a Taoist or Buddhist temple) their identity is not only based on their names. Besides—and here I only anticipate a major criticism to be discussed later—the \"system of Taiwanese religious beliefs\" is not only embodied in the temples but goes beyond temples and temple rituals.\n\nThe chapter concludes with a criticism of the classical division of the Chinese religions. Everyone must admit that this model does not work any longer: it is a simplification. The author's attempt to propose a set of new criteria to identify the essential nature of Chinese religion in Taiwan is the necessary consequence of his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208749, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n179\n\n2. The Participants\n\n(a) Confucianism\n\nWhether it ever was a religion or not, is no longer relevant and depends largely on the assumption that Confucianism can be identified with the state cult, the imperial cult of ancient and imperial China. Today it is no longer a religion in that sense although the old system of ethics is still adhered to and has been partially absorbed by the folk-religion.\n\nThere has been, however, an increase in the construction of temples: in the cities of Taichung and Kaohsiung large new temples have been built in the middle seventies. The old temples in Tainan and Changhua have been completely restored (1977-78), and since these enterprises are financed by the municipal governments, this movement of renewed attention for the great sage is sometimes interpreted as a reaction against the recent campaign of denigration of Confucius in China.\n\nActivities in the Confucian temples are, however, still minimal: they are rather memorial halls than centers of worship. Only once a year, on the birthday of the sage (since the republican period fixed on Sept. 28), a great sacrifice takes place in the temple premises. It is a grandiose event, based on ancient rites, but performed by government officials in the early hours of the morning.4\n\nOutside this yearly event, the temples are visited by tourists (especially in Taipei and Tainan), although other cultural activities are organized by the local temple committees: for instance, in Taichung a series of lectures was given on the interpretation of the I Ching.\n\n(b) Buddhism\n\nAlthough Buddhism has infiltrated folk religion in several ways, it is easier to define Buddhism as a distinct religious tradition. The revival of Buddhism, already started in China some decades ago, continues in Taiwan, but it seems to happen along traditional patterns rather than as break-away new religions.5\n\nAccording to a pamphlet about Taiwan published in May 1978 by the Chunghua Information Service, \"Followers of the Buddha are estimated at 8 million. More than 2,500 temples are attended", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208766, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Tung Chung Fort\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTung Chung15 is a valley which lies on the north coast of Lantau Island. It is surrounded by hills on three sides,16 facing the sea on the north. The valley is well-drained by streams, giving fertile farmlands to the people. A century or so ago, there was a walled area, called the Tung Chung Walled City; and a fort which guarded the coast, the Shek She Fort A6.\n\nThe Tung Chung Walled City was erected between the Sheung Ling Pei village #17 and the Ha Ling Pei village 下嶺皮村 T## 18. During the early years of K'ang Hsi period, there was only the Tung Chung Shuen (post)✯✯ under a Tsin Tsung +(or lieutenant) of the Tai Pang Battalion 19. However, the post was quite isolated, and it was far from Tai O where there was the Tai Yue Shan Shuen 大嶼山汎20.\n\nAfter the surrender of Cheung Po-tsai in the 15th year of the Chia Ch'ing reign2, foreign intercourse and influence increased; and fortifications along the coast were strengthened. In the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign (1817), the Tung Chung Walled City and the Shek She Fort were erected 22.\n\nThe Walled City and the Fort remained strongholds on the island until 1898, when the New Territories were leased to the British. Then the Walled City was used as the Police Station and later as the Wah Ying School **** during the Second World War.23 It is now the site of the Tung Chung Rural Committee's office and the Tung Chung Public Primary School.\n\nThe Walled City measures 225 feet by 265 feet. It is backed by the Tai Tung Shan. It has three rubble walls: its front wall is about 15 feet thick. The building stone of the walls came from Chik Lap Kok Island.24\n\nThe Walled City has three gateways: The East Gate was called Chip Sau ✩✩, the West Gate was called Luen Kun, and the Main Gate, Kung Sun. The East and West Gates are now blocked by bricks, and the main gate is used as the entrance to the Rural Committee and the Public School.\n\nInside the Walled City, there is a playground. Behind the playground, there are two old houses, which are the remains of the guardhouses built during the 22nd year of the Chia Ch'ing reign.25 These houses are now used as the office of the Tung Chung Rural Committee.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208774, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "204\n\nJ\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTo the east of the Temple of the Supreme Ruler was the former Sung Wong Toi, a rock from which has been preserved in the Sung Wong Tooi garden. The land for several miles around used to be arable plain and contained rice fields watered by streams. This would have been an agreeable place for the hard-pressed emperor Tuen Chung to stop. Traces may well be left in the neighbourhood of halts made by the Emperor and his ministers in their retreat before the Mongols, and the former Temple of the Supreme Ruler may indeed be one of these traces and thus provide a link in the history of Kowloon.\n\nThe temple itself fell into ruin long ago leaving only the lintel of its main door which was here found intact. In commemoration the Hong Kong Government has made this Rest Garden which, like the nearby Sung Wong Toi Garden, provides in its reminder of past history more than a place of rest.\n\nMr. Kan Yau Man of Sun Wui was the first to recommend to the Hong Kong Government the preservation of the ancient temple lintel and the creation of this Rest Garden.\n\nMr. Yiu Chung Yee, whose name is also spelt Jao Tsung I, of Chiu On prepared the Chinese account of the history of this place. The garden was completed on September 15, 1962 and opened by Doctor R. H. S. Lee MBE.\n\nMORE NOTES ON TSUEN WAN\n\nMembers of the Society visited Tsuen Wan on 1st December, 1978 and visited a number of places connected with various aspects of Chinese religion. The visit took in:\n\n(a) a long-established Buddhist monastery,\n\n(b) a small post-war temple established by newcomers from another part of Kwangtung,\n\n(c) a structure serving as a shrine for one of the lesser known later sects of Chinese religion, the Chun Hung Kau (*2),\n\n(d) another large pre-war religious house founded by a group of persons associated with the three main religions of China,\n\nThe notes which follow are printed, with some additions, for the benefit of members who took part of the tour, and for other interested persons who may not have been able to come that day,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208778, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n(b) Holy Mother Yiu Temple (*****) \n\nThis temple was first established by persons from Pok Law district (###) of Kwangtung who came here immediately after the war in search of work and shelter. It was first established in a squatter area at Ma Sim Pai () but was later moved to its present location in Fu Yung Shan (*) overlooking the town.\n\nHere we have a Kwangtung worthy! The goddess after whom it is named was a famous woman inhabitant of Kwangtung who lived in the Han Dynasty nearly 2,000 years ago. This person received an entry in the Kwangtung provincial gazetteer (1822 edition) which reads as follows:\n\n\"Lady Yiu's temple () is in Mok Tsuen (#) in the east of the Pok Law District.\n\nIn the Ho Ping reign period of the Former Han, 28-24 BC, there lived a chaste and virtuous woman named Yiu who was praised by the local people. After her death they erected a temple to her memory at Pun To Wan (#), and the worship there is in the name of ‘Our Lady Yiu'.” \n\nAnother old account has the following quaint story:\n\n“Lady Yiu Temple. During the Han dynasty, a lady named Yiu of Pok Law county was renowned for her virtues. After her death, a temple was erected to offer sacrifices to her. Chen Yao-tsao† accompanied by Hsu Shen,‡ a Chiu Chow scholar, departed for Pok Law to take up the post of Sub-Prefect of Chiu Chow. On their way, they moored the boat to the bank on a certain night. There they heard several horsemen addressing them in a dignified tone: \"The Prime Minister and the Commissioner for Grain Transport are sojourning here tonight.\" On the next morning, Chen and Hsu visited the place and found there a Lady Yiu Temple. Later, they were in fact promoted to the two posts respectively.\n\n†I have mislaid my reference to this source, but my friend Mr. Anthony Siu Kwok-kin of Hong Kong has traced the story further back to a Sung book (與地紀勝卷九十九廣東南路惠州博罪官吏) which dates the incident to the 2nd year of Hsien Ping in the Sung Dynasty **** (999 A.D.).\n\n†陳堯佐", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208783, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n213\n\nThe Villa was opened in 1936. Regrettably, the hope and promise of the occasion was within little more than a decade dashed by disease, war, and the change of government in mainland China. In the first two years, many of the inmates died, probably from malaria, though the reason given by elderly persons was that the local earth and water were unfavourable. Their death certificates, signed by the Inspector from Tsuen Wan Police Station, are still retained in the Villa. The Japanese occupation of South China and then Hong Kong followed soon after and had a disrupting effect upon member patrons in Kwangtung and their financial condition, and upon the Society and its activities. It also curtailed recruitment of inmates.\n\nThe Villa had not recovered from the effects of the war when the influx of refugees from China in the late 40s further worsened its situation. The Villa was quickly overrun with squatters who now occupy most of the building. Only the main hall, which is kept locked, and some rooms at the rear portion of the Villa, which are lived in by no more than 10 elderly ladies, are free from families who have no connection with the latter or the Society to which they belong. The Villa and its property became the subject of dispute. It was sold some years ago to a development company after Court action, but objections to the sale have come in. A number of elderly persons in Hong Kong who are active in the \"Three Religions\" could still maintain an interest, but from the sidelines.*\n\nTsuen Wan, December, 1978.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nLOCAL REACTIONS TO THE DISTURBANCE OF 'FUNG SHUI' ON TSING YI ISLAND, HONG KONG, SEPTEMBER 1977-MARCH 1978.\n\nI recount below, with photographs, the reactions of a long-settled community of Hakka villagers to the disturbance of fung shui in the course of engineering site investigation works on Tsing Yi island, Hong Kong. Two main events occurred: firstly, interference with a fung shui hill by a bulldozer crew; secondly, the death/illness of villagers at a later stage.\n\n* The villa was resumed and cleared in 1979 for the redevelopment of North Tsuen Wan. It was not possible for it to remain owing to the extensive site formation required in its vicinity.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208790, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "220\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nIn 1949, the Public Works Department asked our Association to sign a purchase agreement. As the clauses contained therein were not satisfactory to us, and because of the high compensation claimed by the ground floor tenants and lack of funds to meet the construction cost, the reconstruction proposal was temporarily shelved.\n\nMr. Tong Ping-tat, Chairman of the Executive Committee of our Association for several terms, requested Government to have the clauses in the said purchase agreement amended, and bargained with the tenants on the question of compensation. It was not until 1952, that our Association signed the deed of purchase with Government.\n\nIn 1953, Mr. Leung Chan-fai took over the Chairmanship of the Association. In June, our Association building was demolished. Simultaneously, he raised over $50,000 from our members, boosting the total amount of funds raised to nearly $130,000. The construction work was undertaken by Wing Lee Construction Company and a new four-storey building was finally completed in early Spring, 1954.\n\nThe past and the future\n\nThe Nam Pak Hong Association was founded over eighty years ago through the strenuous efforts of our capable predecessors. It is to be regretted that not all their names can be traced with the lapse of time. Just after the founding of the Association, only a few firms in Bonham Strand West and Wing Lok Street joined as members. They upheld justice and advocated business ethics but remained conservative. Whenever a meeting was held, there was no ceremony or procedure to follow. Those who looked after the affairs of the Association were called Directors. They took charge of the Association's affairs for a period of one month by turns. Apart from this, a resident Manager was elected to give assistance. On the first day of the Chinese New Year, the Directors would assemble in the premises of the Association to exchange greetings, which started the custom of exchanging greetings collectively at the Chinese New Year, which prevails to-date.\n\nAs related above, the ground floor of the Association building housed a Watchmen's Centre as well as a fire-fighting \"water-vehicle\", while the first floor was used as an assembly hall. In the centre of the hall were hung a pair of scrolls and a picture of Kwan Kung, above which was placed in 1946 a large painted portrait of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208791, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n221 \n\nDr. Sun Yat-san. In front of the portrait, there was a long table, on which were installed a shrine of the deity ‘Cheung Wong Yeh' and a statue of Confucius. Each year in pre-war times there were two sacrifices, one dedicated to the 'Cheung Wong Yeh' deity in Spring and the other to Confucius in Autumn. When the sacrifices took place, the Strand was decorated with lanterns and colourful ribbons, with female singers performing in matshed, riddle-games being staged, or Cantonese operas being performed. However, the celebrations were suspended during the Japanese Occupation. They were resumed after the War and carried on until 1953 when the Association building was demolished for reconstruction. At present, our new, magnificent building standing in this busy city has been completed. When we look back to the past, could we not be moved by the old memories still lingering in our mind? \n\nIn spite of business difficulties and a recession in the market, in which our trade bears the brunt, our predecessors have selflessly devoted much of their time and effort to the reconstruction of our Association building. With the completion of this new building, it is to be hoped that our members will work together for the advancement of the Association's functions, the economic recovery of our trade and the promotion of members' welfare. \n\nTHE COMMERCIAL WORLD* \n\nThe District is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, to develop in the history of the Colony. As far as more than a century ago its status was second to none; its town proper was a thriving entrepot, clustering around a few narrow streets in the famed Nam Pak Hong — a legendary name which had been handed down with pride even to the present day, pinpointing the area now occupied by the Bonham Strands East and West and the nearby Wing Lok Street. The title, literally translated as the \"South and North Traders\", was of great significance as it implies that the long arm of business stretched as far as Peking and Tientsin in North China to the distant countries in Southeast Asia. It was in this tiny plot of land that business tycoons of the last century were fostered, flourished and prospered. The ones in Bonham Strand were experts in Chinese herbs and other precious organic medicine as well as importers and exporters in other popular Chinese commodities, \n\n* Translation of an article in the Association's centenary bulletin, also by courtesy of the Director of Home Affairs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208792, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "222\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nnotably among which were beans, teas, wines, fertilisers etc., while the ones in Wing Lok Street concentrated so much on the sole item of rice that the street was nicknamed \"Rice Street\". These firms acted as a medium for trade between countries in Southeast Asia and Mainland China, operating on a commission basis, and in Chinese they were often referred to as the \"98\" firms implying that a 2% commission was charged both ways. Thus from Singapore came canes and firewood, from Java, sugar and from Siam, rice. In addition, they were also recognised as banking institutes through which overseas Chinese remitted money home before the modern banking system was fully developed.\n\nThe majority of these pioneer merchants were from Chiu-chow, and within their small circle they possessed all the virtues of being sympathetic, honest, trustworthy and generous, eager to help each other in case of need. The stress was on a person's status and it was not at all surprising that business deals were sealed by the lips only and any consequences that followed would be fully honoured by both parties without further ado. Written contracts were unheard of and highly unnecessary. With wealth came the desire for honour, and it was quite common that most of the better-off merchants held official sinecures which were bought from the Chinese Government. This entitled them to don colourful official robes during ceremonies and important festivals. It was a spectacular sight to see these celebrities moving around, impressively attired during the Chinese New Year when European executives from leading shipping and insurance companies called to present their greetings. These were usually carried out amidst highly decorated surroundings, coupled with theatrical performances and lavish receptions which lasted for weeks. Class distinctions were obvious, and only the privileged few had the right of access to particular installations ranging from private clubs to public tea houses. An employee who was caught by his employer sneaking into one of these would be dismissed almost instantly.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208793, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nRules of the Nam Pak Hong (南北行)\n\n223\n\nThese rules were found by me a few years ago, in a picture frame, in a second-hand goods shop in Hollywood Road, Hong Kong. They were written in black ink with a brush, and were probably about 30-40 years old, in my estimate.\n\n例\n\n商以戰勝算 由體結效在南重有商重訂閨行之例其一心一德尚以始以全終則不有不同求利原歸一致細惟公所規模將及百年致核章乃能苏所需前人盛業流傳於後世矣\n\n行北一本之大聯合}: 港銀伍佰元自行立單揭用將守專章外於南北行章程車宜互相遵守·交本行公箱收存月賬按按月繳公所將單行三之命未清者應即報知公所内 滿載榮歸之日將基本金發回另收一次過開辦費銀式拾元後再貼之既經標貼之字得交與經手人自標貼之各號條八未清期内無論其有四 不得與銀期轉買移费易來往之行爲同場轉移之關鍵星期外不找都章習慣交收外茲訂什貨\n\n五 本行内各號群甘居公數我既字銀琥期宜無証人則全數撥入善舉仍須該費現信用與否出貨後儘可隨時追收除各行自守向磅貨後十四天内手人用公啓式通如逾三星期清找不扣現之履行發覺充公一半撥入善舉一半撩基本金而保证此後再不違背公例實紊群現守証人充實如", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208843, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "204\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nhsü 12 (1886). In the Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple, the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 15 (1889), and the altar Kuang-hsü 20 (1894); and in the Hang Hau T'in Hau Temple (besides the 1840 bell), the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 1 (1875), a tablet Kuang-hsü 2 (1876), an altar is of the same year, a wooden board of Kuang-hsü 4 (1878), a shrine of Kuang-hsü 10 (1884), a pair of stone lions of Kuang-hsü 13 (1887), and a pair of incense burners of Kuang-hsü 20 (1894). The bell and the incense burner at the Tin Ha Wan T'in Hau Temple are both undated, but Mr. Ip Ch'un, who lived nearby, told us that the temple was already in disrepair over fifty years ago. Historical inscriptions found in Sai Kung and elsewhere in Hong Kong and the New Territories have been transcribed as a special project and may be found in David Faure, Alice Ng, and Bernard Luk, \"A collection of historical inscriptions in Hong Kong\". The report is available in the Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and will, it is hoped, be published shortly.\n\n7\n\nMr. Hoh Taai of Ko Tong, aged over 60, knew of the whereabouts of a charcoal burner, but never saw it in operation (Int. 10.6.81). Lime kilns were reported in Wong Yi Chau, Wong Keng Tei, Tai Mong Tsai Tso Wo Hang, Tai Wan, Kiu Tsui, Sha Ha, Pak Sha Wan, Che Keng Tuk, Ta Ho Tun, Tai Tan, and Yau Yu Wan (Ints. Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81, Mr. Wong Yung Ts'ing 20.5.81, Mr. Tang Kei Faat 25.6.81, Mr. Lei Yau 28.6.81, Mr. Wong Ping Lin 29.6.81, Madam Liu 20.5.81, Mr. Lau Lui Faat 23.6.81, Mr. Tse Wing 9.6.81, Mr. Tse Shui Kam 24.6.81, Madam Lo Koon Mooi 21.6.81, Mrs. Hoh née Lei 28.6.81, Mr. Chung 23.7.81, and Madam Lam Yau Ch'un 19.8.81.) The Liu family at Kiu Tsui built the ancestral hall that can be seen today on the main road into Sai Kung Market. For an impression of the long history of lime making in Sai Kung, it should be noted that Madam Lo Koon Mooi was 85 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 87 in 1981, and it was their fathers who were engaged in the lime business. Mr. Yau continued working the kilns until his early 40's. Brick kilns were reported in Chek Keng and Pak Tam Chung (Ints. Mr. Chiu Sz 7.5.81 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81). The lime industry, of course, also provided income for fishermen who collected coral for the kilns. See \"Return of the approximate number of fishermen employed in taking coral and shell from the sea adjoining the New Territory\", in Hong Kong Legislative Council, Sessional Papers, 1901, p. 685.\n\n\"The best indication of the growing importance of the trade in pigs is a set of account books that belonged to Mr. Yung Sz Ch'iu of Pak Sha O, a photocopy of which is held by the Oral History Project. See also ints. Mr. Chan Tsz K'eung 28.5.81 and Mr. Hoh King 5.6.81.\n\n• There are many instances of seamen recruited by recruitment firms (haang shuen koon); see, eg. Mr. Chiu Sz (Int. 7.5.81). Remittance from abroad was sent back to the village through import-export houses (kam shan tsong), see Mr. Yau T'aai Hong (Int. 11.8.81).\n\n10 Mr. Cheung T'o's grandfather was a cook on Hong Kong Island, and his father was employed on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Mr. Cheung, of Ho Chung, was c. 70 in 1981 (Int. 15.6.81). Mr. Tsang Yau of Tai Mong Tsai (age unknown, but who married before World War II) worked in a shop started by his father in Shaukiwan on Hong Kong Island (Int. 23.6.81).\n\n11 Ints. Mr. Cheng Chung Ting 21.5.81, Mr. Chan P'aang Hing 29.5.81, Mr. Chan T'aai 22.7.81; Bernard Williams, \"Visit to Ho Chung and Sheung Yeung villages in the Sai Kung area”, in Marjorie Topley, ed. Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories, Hong Kong, 1965, pp. 46-47, and \"The Chan family of Tseung Kwan O\", JHKBRAS 7 (1967), pp. 158-160.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208857, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "to be a particular casualty, and regret that I did not get round to acknowledging his work, which I now have pleasure in doing. By the same token, I wish to thank Ed Wickberg for very kindly proof-reading much of the 1979 Journal during his sabbatical year at the Centre of Asian Studies. After my 1978 experience, I hardly dared to acknowledge his help, but am glad to do so now!\n\nOne regret is that I hardly managed to get a good book review section going during the whole period, and never did get down to producing a local publications section. It shows up the weakness of my \"one man approach\" to the work. This was occasioned partly by the scrappy way in which I got the work done as time and energy left from my labours in Tsuen Wan and elsewhere allowed, and partly by my own liking for doing the whole job.\n\nTaking a broader and more impersonal view of the Journal over this period, and indeed since its inception twenty-one years ago, it has made its own unique contribution to the research and recording of Hong Kong history and society. In this sense, it has surely helped what one might call the Hong Kong balance sheet. Despite the devoted intentions of the Hong Kong Heritage Society and other bodies, it is simply not possible for Hong Kong to keep many of its historic buildings, given the rights attached to private ownership, the exceedingly high value of land, and the formidable cost of running a business enterprise. The recording work done by the Society and others of its kind helps in some measure to offset the losses that occur through the destruction and replacement of old buildings.*\n\nBeside being my final Journal, this is also the last for our Honorary Life Member and printer, Mr. Y. F. Lam (***) of Ye Olde Printerie. It is fitting that he and I finish our joint association with the Journal together. I cannot imagine editing and producing it for all these years without his enthusiastic persistence, patience, and, above all, friendship.\n\nFinally, I have handed over to David Faure, whose knowledge, energy, zeal and efficiency are of a high order. He has proved this by getting out the 1981 issue before I had finished this one! The Society is fortunate to have enlisted his interest and services.\n\nSeptember 1982\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n* Our published work includes Hong Kong, Going and Gone, 1980.\n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208858, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1979\n\n(Covering the period March 27, 1979- March 23, 1980)\n\nI am pleased to report tonight on your Society's activities over the past year and on our ongoing projects. During the period we organized twelve lectures which, because so many members and most of your Council are away from Hong Kong in the high summer season, were arranged mainly for the Spring and Winter months. There were two overseas excursions and one local tour. Let me briefly review the lecture programme first of all:\n\nTalks to the Society\n\nIn April 1979 two lectures were given. The first had Dr. Margaret Ng as our speaker: well-known in Hong Kong for her newspaper column, and also as a social philosopher concerned with different facets of the Chinese world-view. She spoke on \"A Chinese theory of Discontent\". The other speaker in April was Professor Rulan Chao Pian who talked to us once before, in 1975. She is presently visiting professor in Music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and her talk, entitled \"A Musicological trip to China”, was related to a recent visit to China where she had lectured to the National Academy of Musicology at Peking.\n\nIn May Mr. Leonard Rayner lectured on \"Communism in the Association of South East Asian Nations”. Mr. Rayner who moved to Hong Kong from Singapore a few years ago is a journalist and perhaps best known to us for his regular column in the South China Morning Post. In June Professor D. W. Y. Kwok, who has been Director of the Asian Studies Programme at Hawaii for the past six years, spoke on \"The New Culture Movement in China”. Also in June, Dr. John Young of the Extra-Mural Studies Department of Hong Kong University, lectured on \"The Hong Kong-Canton Connection, 1905-1925”, at the same time sharing his experience with us of a research trip to Canton and pointing out the archival research opportunities which exist in that city. In October Rev. Carl Smith talked on \"The Amateur Dramatic Club (founded 1860) and the early history of Dramatic arts in Hong Kong.\n\nSince the new year we have had a relatively full programme. In January there were two lectures: one by the Rev. Father Harold Naylor who spoke on \"Wah Yan College; a case study of an Anglo-Chinese school directed by an Irish Jesuit\". Father Naylor has\n\nX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208869, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\nen\n\n3\n\nThey have however continued in S.E. Asia and Taiwan; and in some of the remoter areas of Malaysia there are altars in temples, preserved and much the same as they were a hundred years ago.\n\nIt is often difficult to obtain a clear answer from devotees themselves whether a particular temple belongs to Daoism, Buddhism or popular religion because, in the main, devotees simply do not understand the question. The majority of Chinese are not concerned with legendary or historical explanations and, if remotely religious, claim to be Buddhist irrespective of which temple they visit or which deity they venerate. In a few temples it is quite obvious that the deities are all of one religion, either Buddhist or Daoist, but the altars in most temples bear a mixture of Buddhist, Daoist and folk religion images side by side on altars.\n\nCommon usage by both Buddhists and Daoists of temple titles and religious terms also tends to mislead. It is therefore unwise to ascribe, automatically, specific terms to Buddhism or Daoism, though a few have a generally accepted and common meaning. The majority of Buddhist temples for example, are called “Si” and Daoist “Guan”, with “Miao” a common term for either. However, Miao is also the common term for folk religion temples and for certain shrines. \"Tang,\" a usual term for Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, is also used for Daoist or clan ancestral halls and for certain Guan Yin temples. \"Dong\", a cave, is a Buddhist title very frequently used for squatter temples, suggesting perhaps that the immigrant founder liked to think of himself as a hermit.*\n\nWhereas Buddhist and Daoist temples and monasteries bear flowery titles, usually obscure religious phrases or names unconnected with the main deities, folk religion temples tend to be dedicated to one or a pair of specific deities, the main god or gods on the main altar, and his, her or their names or titles are cut in stone or painted over the entrance to the temple.9\n\nIn Hong Kong temple building tends to reflect the wealth of a community (unlike in India where it reflects the class of the devotees). There are large establishments where monks and priests live; smaller establishments with a resident or day-time only keeper; and non-residential structures, the smaller of which are usually referred to as shrines.\n\n→\n\n* The characters referred to in this paragraph are ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208872, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "6\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nAn example of the latter is the very recently established open-air shrine on a hillside, half way up, and some 120 steps above, the tarmac road of Black's Link on Hong Kong island. It consists of a small row of three shrines in one long concrete construction. Each is no bigger than 2' by 1'6\", and contains a printed and framed coloured icon, one Buddhist, and two of the folk religion. The title given to the whole is the Temple of the Three Immortals (49) The final character \"Miao\" (temple) normally gives the impression of roofed halls containing images and icons. However, the concept of the three altars of the Temple of the Three Immortals is no different from other temples with large altars, numerous images, high walls and a roof, which with all their other refinements in no way add to the power of the prayer of the devotee. There are, however, not many examples in Hong Kong of permanent outside shrines being referred to as a miao (temple).\n\nMonasteries were usually built away from the main centres of population, on hillsides backing on to slopes and facing downwards, overlooking wooded landscapes or the sea; whilst Daoist folk religion temples are to be found in population centres (especially where the centres existed a hundred or so years ago) and in sheltered coves at a convenient landing point.\n\nFishermen's folk religion temples may seem at times to be in isolated spots, but in practice they are near safe anchorages and just far enough from the next temple to be economically viable for the temple keeper. The pattern of fisherfolk temples, dedicated predominantly to Tian Hou (A) and Hong Sheng (), when plotted on a map, is quite distinctive, particularly in Wanchai and the centre of Victoria. The temples, now quite far inland, were originally built back a little from the original coastline and faced what then was the nearest stretch of water.\n\nUrban popular religion temples, built in traditional style in the early days of the two settlements, are usually simple folk religion establishments dedicated to the popular cults of Guan Di, Tian Hou and Wen Chang, whilst more modern temples built since the 1880's tend to be dedicated to less well-known deities who offer specialised services such as the plague deity, Sui Jingbo.\n\nOver the years a few temples have been closed down or moved elsewhere, from lack of patronage or because of reclamation, urban redevelopment and street widening. In one fell swoop a fisherman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208888, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "22 \n\nKEITH G. STEVENS \n\ncolumns, boards, boards bearing auspicious phrases, balustrades, roofs and lattice windows exactly like full-size temples (Illustration 16). Several wooden miniature shrines seen on lower decks of large sea-going junks were heavily ornamented and the carving exquisitely detailed. At the other end of the scale, soap boxes, painted red and upended, serve as the simple shrine of the less affluent household. \n\nActual images of gods in homes are few, and their worship is very limited. Usually, there is just a framed print, and routine offerings consist of a daily incense stick burnt before the print with, in addition, a small offering of tea or rice on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month. The majority of Chinese who have a household shrine display on their main altar the bodhisattva Guan Yin, who is, without a doubt, the most popular deity of Chinese everywhere. Most homes also have a second “altar”, the Kitchen or Stove God, whose title on a red board is hung up, or when written on a red paper is pasted up near the family cooking range. \n\nShop or factory shrines usually stand or hang on walls at shoulder height, constructed of wood and painted vermilion. The majority of shop shrines contain plaques or prints of Guan Di as patron deity of merchants and Tu Di Gong, the Earth God. Those in fire stations and police stations bear prints of Guan Di in his role as the patron deity of loyalty. \n\nOn days marked Chu (除)22 in the Almanac (i), old lady devotees offer prayers in the street before unpainted wooden boxes used as shrines. They are propitiating the demons who cause disasters, and are also attempting to change their luck for the better. They use one of their shoes to strike the \"small men” (1-A) banging small figures of humans cut out of black paper and at the same time calling out in high-pitched voices for the demons to flee. The voice is pitched particularly high when calling back the roaming soul of a sick child (the absence of the soul being the cause of the sickness). \n\nApart from modern concrete decorative structures in places like the Tiger Balm Gardens and on the foreshore of Repulse Bay, there is only one pagoda in Hong Kong or Macau. This is at Ping Shan, in the New Territories, and was built of stone blocks some three hundred years ago. Like other Chinese pagodas, it has little use other than to enshrine some sacred object, in this case, several images", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208890, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "24\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nperhaps be recognisable. In one monastery near Tuen Mun very large murals depicting individual, fearsome soldiers were copies from sketches made in Peking many years ago but are only known as the \"Fierce Generals\".\n\nThe images of the deities on altars are frequently brightened with a red scarf or a large red rosette which covers the top of the head or hat of the images, with a ribbon hanging down on either side of the image to approximately waist height. Other decorations pinned into the hats of gods on the altars include long pairs of red and silver metal foil triangular rosettes. Cloth vestments are also commonly to be seen, made by elderly lady devotees as an act of piety and draped around the images of major deities.\n\nThere is a remarkable air of unkemptness about traditional temples. Things are stored flagrantly beside or under the altar without any regard for aesthetics. The clutter can range from bedding to broken furniture, plastic bowls to drying clothes, from spare tins of oil for the lamps to piles of old newspapers. Umbrellas hang on the wall, vests and underpants dry on the altar table edge, and everywhere there is a thick layer of dust.\n\nExternal decoration\n\nOutside decoration, usually very simple, consists of murals over the entrance, the flattish gable roof of dull, glazed tiles which on traditional temples more often than not leads up to an ornamented ridge piece. Exterior walls usually are of brick, granite or a combination of both which in some places have been whitewashed or have a cement finish.\n\nMany articles have already described traditional temple roof ridge external decoration, which is mainly of Shekwan pottery, with turquoise and golden yellow the two predominant colours. The decoration may only cover the horizontal ridge, though in quite a number of traditional temples it also covers the curved roof ridges joining the main ridge to the flank walls. The decoration on these ridges usually has a centrepiece consisting of a red ball (pearl) with dragons, fishes, cockerels and mythical creatures, interspersed with three-dimensional scenes from Chinese legend and myth. The roofs of smaller traditional unmanned, single room, coastal temples usually are without decoration, or if any attempt has been made it is stylized and very basic.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208892, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "26 \n\nKEITH G. STEVENS \n\ntyphoon and rebuilt some two centuries later on the site of the present Tian Hou temple in Joss House Bay,27 \n\nThere have been several apparent brief bursts of temple building in Hong Kong since the arrival of the British. One was in the early days of Hong Kong in the 1840's; another spurt during the period of growing prosperity in the 1870/1880's; another during the era of the plague (the 1890's); and another in the 1950's during the massive influx of refugees. Many temples were renovated during the latter days of the Qing dynasty, and by the Hong Kong government's Chinese Temples Committee since the second world war,28 \n\nTemples are expensive buildings and are built mainly in times of economic affluence. Although many temples are receiving less and less attention from keepers and grass grows high in temple yards, others are expanding and have been refurbished at great cost. \n\nOne should not be misled into believing a temple to be old by its condition, as the climate ages buildings very rapidly on the coast of China. The dilapidated state of some dozen or so traditional temples gives the impression of centuries of neglect, whereas most were working temples up to a decade or two ago. Others looking almost new are, in reality, traditional temples which have been rebuilt or refurbished with the assistance of large government subsidies. However, many modern renovations have changed the original character both of the altars and of the temples themselves. \n\nThe Hong Kong Government has been meticulous in providing assistance whenever it has needed to encroach upon temple property. One site in Lo Fu Hang between Castle Peak and Yuen Long where a government department authorised a quarry to be opened and in the process ordered the removal of three ramshackle huts termed \"temples\", one large and two small concrete and tile edifices were built nearby to rehouse the gods. \n\nChaozhou immigrants who settled in Hong Kong during the fifties and sixties quickly discovered that their shanty dwellings on hillsides, considered illegal by the Hong Kong Government, were torn down by officials. They also quickly discovered that British officials, fearing to tread on religious susceptibilities, were more lenient towards religious structures. The Chaozhou immigrants therefore built for themselves small, rough temples of corrugated iron and wood and, as an annex, a small living area, and more often", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208898, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "32\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\ninclude the burning of incense every day. This amongst other things saves the individual having to perform the rite before his ancestral tablets daily.\n\n4 There are no Confucian temples in either Hong Kong or Macau.\n\n5 Although there are obvious and major differences between Daoism, Buddhism and Folk religion, their beliefs and practices are so interwoven and syncretized beyond description, that in practice there is almost a single religious scheme of things. A handful of folk religion temples, mostly in Chaozhou and Min An community resettlement areas, are also centres for spirit medium activity. Chaozhou and Min An people customarily communicate with the major gods through minor gods and spirit mediums, Folk religion is very occasionally referred to as \"Spirit worship” (Shen jiao), albeit more by foreigners than by Chinese.\n\nChaozhou and Min An spirit mediums are usually males who speak with the more junior gods, whilst Cantonese spirit mediums are normally female and speak with the spirits of the dead.\n\n* The natives in both Hong Kong and Macau are Cantonese. Immigrants over the centuries who brought their own cultural heritage with them are the Hakka, Min An, Hoklo, and Chaozhou. The Chaozhou are speakers of the Chaozhou (sometimes called Swatow) whose native area is eastern Guangdong province. In folk religion the Chaozhou have more in common with their immediate neighbours to the north, the Min An and other Fukienese rather than with their Cantonese neighbours.\n\nThe total of 450 temples reflects the number found and visited by the author. The total given by the Hong Kong Government Temples Committee of the Home Affairs Department of over 500 private temples registered in Hong Kong is misleading in that their total includes to the author's knowledge quite a number of small temples which have been destroyed, removed or closed down. The author's number of 450 is also inaccurate as there are bound to be a number of very small temples hidden away in residential blocks of flats which would defy discovery without a visit to every floor of every apartment building.\n\n* County towns were the centres for official, commercial and religious activities. Villages within present day Hong Kong before the arrival of the British came under the jurisdiction of the mandarin at the county town of Hsin An (present day Pao An), north of the Sino-Hong Kong border.\n\n* However, an engraved title can easily be superseded when a more popular deity has been promoted to the main altar, without the title over the entrance being changed.\n\n10 Images on, beside, before and under altars can be categorised into the deities themselves, and their disciples, guardians and attendants. There are also two other categories of figures, seen only on separate altars in some Buddhist temples. These are the likenesses of the founding Abbot and of major donors and their wives.\n\n11 Urban and rural are terms used for the areas where the temples were established, and many a rural temple is now lost in the centre of a vast modern housing estate. Urban temples do not include village temples, they do however include the temples of the market towns such as Taipo and Yuen Long.\n\n12 These \"pensioners\" are normally the most needy and worthy elderly males or females of the community, voted or appointed into the post and supported there by subscription.\n\n13 See Hong Kong 100 Years Ago (Hong Kong City Hall, 1970) on the sixth page of photographs, though under another titling.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208986, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "REDISCOVERING OUR SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\nBARBARA E. WARD*\n\nAn audience composed mainly of Chinese residents of Hong Kong may well ask by what right a non-Chinese such as myself dares to speak on the subject of this symposium? My justifications are very simple: I am human, I am a scholar, I am a social anthropologist, and I passionately love Hong Kong, which is, after all, a place with which people from my country have been closely identified for more than one and a half centuries and which for more than thirty years I have regarded as my second home. There is, moreover, the further point that, as my husband is never tired of reminding me, I am a village woman by origin and rural society is familiar to me.\n\nI have just said that I am a social anthropologist, but some of you may wonder about this as you know me here as a member of the Department of Sociology. There is not really a problem here. In England, which is where I come from, and in many parts of what we here usually call \"the West\", the distinction between social anthropology and sociology is made primarily in terms of methods and approaches and general topics of interest, rather than in terms of who studies what societies. Perhaps you will understand this better when I tell you that although many of the courses I went to when I was a graduate student at the London School of Economics many years ago were indeed about so-called \"primitive\" peoples in parts of Africa and the South West Pacific, yet many others were about the complex civilizations of India and South East Asia, and the most memorable of all were the ones about China that were given by Professor Fei Hsiao-t'ung in 1947. Moreover, the first anthropological fieldwork I ever did was in London, and our subjects were English Londoners.\n\n* A paper read at a symposium held at New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 10th June 1981. The author, who is well known to readers of this Journal, was then Visiting Reader in Anthropology at the Chinese University, on leave of absence from Newnham College, Cambridge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209016, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "146\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTo the north of Chun Fa Lok on the mainland side are Kwai Chung 葵涌 and Chin Wan 淺灣.* Kap Shui Mun 急水門 lies to the south-west. South of the Kap Shui Mun is the Yeung Shun Chau 仰船洲?\n\nJudging from the position shown on the map, Chun Fa Lok's location is probably the same as that of Tsing Yi Island today. And from the present day maps of Hong Kong, we can find the name Chun Fa Lok on the east coast of Tsing Yi Island.\n\nI have twice visited the present Chun Fa Lok on Tsing Yi Island, once with Dr. James Hayes, and found that the huts there belong to one family, surnamed Chung. They came here a few decades ago, after the Second World War. Now, they are the second generation here. I was told that before the present reclamation there was a pier quite close to the village, and the seashore in front.\n\nNothing about Chun Fa Lok itself is recorded in the local histories, but in the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition, it is recorded, 'In the 12th year of the Chia Ch'ing period of the Ming Dynasty, pirates called Hui Chat-kwai and Wan Chung-sin 溫宗卷 invaded Tung Kwun county. Ku Sing 顧晟, a military officer of Tsin-wu † rank, tried to capture them at Chun Fa Yeung ***, but was killed in the fight, Kong Leung-choi ‡, commander of the naval forces of that region, defeated them.\" Can Chun Fa Yeung be the waters near Chun Fa Lok of Tsing Yi Island today? This needs further proof.\n\nThe names of Tsing Yi Mun 青衣門 and Tsing Yi Tam 青衣潭 appear in the local history books written in the later part of the Ch'ing Dynasty, but nothing about Chun Fa Lok is mentioned. Is Chun Fa Lok the old name of Tsing Yi? The local elders have been unable to state the connection, when consulted on this point, though confirming that Chun Fa Lok is an old place name.\n\nHong Kong, April, 1980\n\nANTHONY K. K. SIU\n\n1 Yuet Tai Kei NOTES was written by Kwok Fai in the Wan Li reign (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty. The map of the Kwangtung Coast is shown at the end of Chapter 32.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209022, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "152\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nIn addition to the renewal of these seven pots, a small ceremony was held at one other location. There were prayers and burnt offerings, and a tall bamboo frond with a charm attached was set up, but there was no incense pot at the site. This spot was thus symbolically included in protective rites, but at the same time it was not granted full inclusion, and it is indeed a spot about which Fung Yuen villagers feel some ambivalence. One of the lineages was approached a few years ago by an urban clan association of the same surname, thus claiming descent from a common ancestor long ago, which was seeking a place with good fung seui to erect a clan association hall; Fung Yuen was just such a place. The local lineage is small and poor, and evidently realized some financial gain by making some land available to their urban tuhng sing. The widow of the former village representative, the man who was apparently instrumental in the deal, is the caretaker of the new clan hall, and burns incense there regularly. But I have heard other members of the local group speak disdainfully of the hall. Moreover, it was built directly in front of the ancestral hall of one of the other lineages, and there has been a dispute about the geomantic effects of its orientation on the older hall. Nonetheless, it is a place of religious significance which, theoretically at least, embraces one of the local lineages. For that reason, it seems, it cannot be left out completely when rites of propitiation and protection for the valley and its inhabitants are conducted. So, the clan hall was given half a ceremony - better than none at all, but stopping decidedly short of granting it full inclusion in the valley community.\n\nA final observation I would like to mention in passing relates to the continuing strength of the multilineage alliance in the face of social change and emigration. Though four lineages are resident in the valley, and were brought under the protection of the tun fu ceremonies I observed, men of only two surnames participated (and of course, no women at all; this was \"men's business\"). The other two groups have few adult men currently living in the village, and of those few, some are elderly and too ill to spend the afternoon walking all over the valley, while their sons were working that day as usual in other parts of the colony; many others are living and working in Europe. Nonetheless, the same attention was given to the third hamlet and the third ancestral hall, and to the new house of a family currently in Europe, that the residential and ritual places of the actual participants received. This expression of con-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209036, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\nANCESTRAL IMAGES, MORE ANCESTRAL IMAGES, ANCESTRAL IMAGES AGAIN Dr. Hugh Baker, Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Ltd., pp. viii, 162, viii, 164, viii, 186.\n\nThe first volume in this series was reviewed in the Journal by Dr. Marjorie Topley a few years ago. Since then, two more volumes in this popular series have appeared and I have no doubt that they will be reprinted frequently to meet public demand.\n\nThe three books' main asset is their easy style and readability. This is due to the wide observation of the anthropologist - Dr. Baker's own discipline - a good command of Chinese and Cantonese dialect - Dr. Baker is also a teacher of Chinese language and the added benefit of his wide reading in older books which provide a wider background to his stories. \"I have spent hours trapped inside some of the books\", he writes. In addition, there are excellent photographs from his own collection, most of which are reproduced in colour.\n\nThe result is far and away the best and most enlightening introduction to the history and customs of the New Territories. The books show the reader what to look out for, and give him some idea of background and wider connections.\n\nTo my mind each volume is better than the one before. In the third, in particular, Dr. Baker's familiarity with his subject leads to a great ease that, combined with his excellent sense of humour and sense of timing, provides some really entertaining reading. See pages 36-37, 65, 92, 122 (with photograph), 128, 150 to cite only a few examples. But let no one think that this means \"light\" content. I have found many illuminating things in these volumes, and enjoyed stories and situations from life which gave added point to things I have half understood for years. This arises largely from Dr. Baker's eighteen-month stay in Sheung Shui village in the New Territories in the mid 1960s, and his keen observation of the Hong Kong scene in later visits.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209054, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TAOISM IN ORIENTAL LANGUAGES\n\nWILLIAM Y CHEN*\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nTaoism is a philosophical-religious tradition which has greatly contributed to shaping Chinese cultural and social life for more than two thousand years.\n\nThe philosophy of Taoism (Tao-chia 道家) is based on the advocacy of Huang-Lao (Huang-Ti or Yellow Emperor, and Lao-tzu) on wu wei (non-action), quiescence, and the unity of man with nature. With the later addition of magico-religious arts, of the immortality or longevity cults, Taoist religion (Tao-chiao 道教) gradually took shape.\n\nAccording to the Taoist tradition, Taoist philosophy originated during the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor who is believed to have ascended to heaven about 4,600 years ago, after he had mastered the essence of Taoism and become an immortal. The major breakthrough of Taoist philosophy, however, came with the Tao te ching (Classic of the Way and its Power), attributed to Lao-tzu. It was the beginning of a philosophical spiritual stream that would develop through the centuries into a mighty river.\n\nThe formal organization of the Taoist religion, with hierarchy and rituals, is the work of Chang Tao-ling (2nd century A.D.), who became the first \"Heavenly Master\", or spiritual head of Taoism, whose 64th successor controls the Taoist \"Church\" in present-day Taiwan. Most modern sects of Taoism consider Chang Tao-ling as their founder. He infused into Taoism its formal priesthood, as well as aspects of magical faith-healing and exorcism; moreover, moral conduct and the performance of good works became a characteristic of Taoism ever since Han times.\n\nTaoism gradually created its own pantheon, but a distinction should be made between the gods worshipped by the people (gods of \"latter heaven\") and the supreme deities of \"former heaven\".\n\n*Mr Chen is a member of the library staff at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209056, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "186\n\nWILLIAM Y. CHEN\n\nto Japan long ago as mentioned above. The same also holds true for Korea. Therefore, many Japanese and Koreans have written a great number of works about Taoism which provide and strengthen the valuable resources for the study of Taoism.\n\nSince more and more scholars all over the world are interested in studying Taoism, there is a need to compile a bibliography of Taoism by native authors who often have a better understanding of Taoism than the outsiders. This is the reason why this bibliography is compiled. It is the compiler's hope that this bibliography will be of assistance to all those who are interested to study the rich and variegated aspects of the Taoist tradition.\n\nTHE BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nThis bibliography is in no way a comprehensive one. However, it lists the most important works on Taoism. It is divided into ten categories as follows:\n\n1. General works\n\n2. Bibliographies and indexes\n\n3. Sacred books\n\n4. History of Taoism\n\n5. Taoist doctrines\n\n6. Biography of Taoism\n\n7. Relationship with Confucianism and Buddhism\n\n8. Alchemy and hygiene\n\n9. Immortals\n\n10. Periodicals\n\nThe authors' names and titles are romanized, but followed by the original characters. For example:\n\nChao, Yü-hsiu. San chiao yueh yen. Hong Kong, 1970.\n\n趙聿修,三教約言,香港,圓玄學院,1970.40, 39p.\n\nUnder each heading, all works are arranged alphabetically by author. If the work is edited by an editor(s) or a compiler(s), it is entered by the title.\n\nThis bibliography has been compiled principally for scholars who, like the author, are located in North America, and addresses itself mainly to works that are available in libraries in that area.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209104, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "216\n\nA Republican Book of Receipts in United College Library\n\nThe Hong Kong Collection in United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, acquired this book of receipts several years ago from a local second-hand book-seller. The volume bears no title. As the Chinese characters in the upper margin (tan-chi chan-ts'un pu*) indicate, a collection of receipts are glued onto its pages. The receipts are dated the 9th year of the Republic, that is, 1920.\n\nThe receipts are of two sorts. A substantial number are receipts for payment for telegrams sent from Hong Kong, chiefly to Shanghai and Macau, but occasionally also to Amoy, Chicago, Havana, San Francisco, Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. The more interesting ones are acknowledgements of sums ranging from several hundred to 40,000 Hong Kong dollars paid by Sun Fo (Sun Yat-sen's son). Chu Chih-hsin**, Ku Hsiang-ch'in\n\nand others (on their relationship to Sun Yat-sen in 1920, see below). It will take someone with a better knowledge of the political history of the Republican era than this writer to identify all the recipients of these payments. Quite a few, however, are undoubtedly military commanders or warlords: Li Fu-lin acknowledged receipt of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars; 20,000 was paid to commander Hsü at the military headquarters in Swatow, in addition to 9,700 acknowledged on a sheet bearing the heading, \"Office for Raising Military Funds in Swatow and Mei hsien, Kwangtung\". A receipt for 30,000 dollars was made out to Sun Fo by the Kwangtung Provincial Treasury, and another one for 5,000 made out to him states explicitly that this sum was derived from donations by overseas Chinese. The fleet at Fu-men (\") received two payments, of 600 and 1,000 Hong Kong dollars respectively. Some receipts were also made out for purchases (several field telephones, 1,000 items of clothing; 2,000 water flasks). Most of these purchases were not substantial, the exception being a deposit for 40,000 dollars for an unspecified machine. Documents pasted on the first page consist of enquiries made about rice-mill-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209115, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "4\n\nvolunteer for photographing and indexing. Tony and Ian are happy to continue in the capacity of coaches and consultants so you need not worry about lack of experience or guidance. This is, I believe, a worth-while project and it would be a pity if we had to give it up through lack of support. One of the fruits of the survey has been the production of Hong Kong Going and Gone which presents a selection of photographs taken in the Western sector of Victoria, brought together with commentary text. Copies of this publication by the Society are on view this evening for those who would like to see what the Survey is attempting, and/or to buy a copy. Sales of this work have gone very well and we hope very much we can produce a series, each volume devoted to a different district or topic. This will not be possible, I repeat, unless we get new people to take over the main work. So will those interested please contact Tony Rydings (our librarian) or Ian Diamond during the evening or ring Mrs. Robyn McLean at 5-260031 as soon as possible.\n\nMembership\n\nWe always welcome new members to the Society. Our application forms, of which we have brought along a number tonight for guests of members who want to join, have spaces for the names of proposers and seconders. But nowadays, with the turnover of people in Hong Kong so great, it is not always easy to find members to act in this capacity. Our policy of late, then, has been to invite prospective members to send in their form and subscription and then to introduce themselves to us at one of our lectures. As you have seen from our A.G.M. notice, we have decided to propose an increase in subscriptions. I must say we made this decision reluctantly. We are not a profit-making society but we do have to cover our costs, which have been rising like everything else in Hong Kong. In fact, our membership fee has risen very little and very slowly over the twenty-two years since we have been going. It was last raised in 1975, from $30 to $50; that was seven years ago. Later, our Treasurer, David Gilkes, will explain in more detail our present position in his report.\n\nTotal membership of the Society as at February 28, 1982, was 556, consisting of six honorary members, 112 local life members, 324 local ordinary and 41 overseas ordinary members, and 73 overseas life members. During the period March 1, 1982, to February 28, 1982, there have been twelve resignations, two deaths, nine notices returned presumed resigned, and twenty-five unpaid subscriptions, members presumed resigned. New members during the year numbered forty-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209121, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "FOLK MEDICINE IN BORNEO: DIAGNOSIS AND CURE\n\nSTEPHEN MORRIS*\n\nIntroduction\n\nDespite the rather grandiloquent title of this paper, its aim is less pretentious than it sounds; it is concerned with the ideas held by the Melanau people of Sarawak on illness and what to do about it. How far anything in the Melanau vocabulary corresponds with European notions of medicine, diagnosis or cure is in a sense incidental. The main purpose of the paper is to make clear the Melanau notions.\n\nThe Melanau\n\nThe Melanau are a people who live on the northwest coast of Borneo. They speak a language that is distantly related to Malay, and today there are about 50,000 of them. They live in a rather specialised environment on the banks of slow, meandering rivers that wind through dense and swampy tropical jungles and flow into the South China Sea. The swamp land is often a little below sea level, and when the raised banks are breached by floods (as happens quite often), the terrain becomes very difficult to cope with. It is also unhealthy — fevers, mosquitoes, snakes, crocodiles, bears, and all kinds of creatures are common and are not really on the side of human beings.\n\nThe environment also imposes a number of limits on the economic and social life of the people who inhabit it; this is not the place or the time to discuss those limits, but a little does need to be said about the social system because it is so closely bound up in Melanau thought with their view of the environment and the beings who inhabit it. Correct relations with the environment and all other creatures in it are essential, the Melanau say, if men are to prosper and be healthy.2\n\nA hundred years ago a Melanau village (usually separated from its neighbours by two or three miles along the river) consisted of one or\n\n* Dr. Morris spent many years studying the Melanau people of Sarawak, and has just retired from a Readership in Anthropology at the London School of Economics.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209225, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY AND \n\nKINSHIP TIES AMONG \n\nURBAN CHINESE FAMILIES IN HONG KONG \n\nM. K. LEE \n\nSome years ago Robert Mitchell concluded from his survey in Hong Kong that kin relationships had declined in importance compared to other types of relationships. As he stated it, \"Hong Kong married couples have more social contacts with co-workers than with many of their own kinsmen. They get out together even more often with their neighbours.\" F.M. Wong endorsed this position, and argued that sociability among urban Chinese families in Hong Kong is mainly organized around work associates, friends, and neighbours, and that “contacts with kin are least frequent.\"2 \n\nFew noticed that Mitchell's statistics on this issue were faulty. He did not use the same scale to measure frequencies of contact with relatives, with co-workers, and with neighbours. Moreover, even with Mitchell's scales, 45 percent of the men (and 42 percent of the women) in his sample reported that they \"never\" contacted their neighbours, while only 31 percent of the men (and 41 percent of the women) gave the same reply when asked about contact with co-workers. Indeed, 41 percent of his respondents \"never\" contacted spouses' aunts and uncles, but only 31 percent \"never\" contacted their own aunts, and 22 percent their spouses' siblings. On the basis of other research, Podmore and Chaney argued that \"relations with close kin are strengthened as the traditional support rendered by the clan has diminished in the urban-industrial society of Hong Kong, where welfare support from government institutions is negligible.\" And there are good grounds for this opposing point of view,3 \n\nFollowing from Mitchell's study, in 1977, I conducted a survey of a sample of 420 families in Oi Man Estate to find out how closely they related to their kin, in comparison with co-workers and neighbours.* Oi Man, located in East Kowloon, was completed in 1974, and by the \n\n*The research project on which this paper is based was supported by a grant from the Research Committee, the Hong Kong Polytechnic, where Mr. Lee is a Senior Lecturer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209292, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "BRO. TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\n181\n\nThe entry for the following year is identical, with the three addresses changed to \"34 Bay street.\" For 1875-6 it is simply:\n\nLaisun Chan, Chinese commissioner of education, house 34 Bay street\n\nThe following incomplete newspaper extracts indicate the effect that our brother had on the daily life of Springfield residents just over a hundred years ago.\n\nCHINESE RESIDENTS RECALLED, THE LAI-SUNS AND THEIR CHILDREN.\n\nA Picturesque and Interesting Family Who Lived in Springfield 25 years Ago. They Now Dwell in Shanghai.\n\nMany of the older residents of the city, and not a few who are unwilling to consider themselves old yet, will recall Mr Lai-Sun, the Chairman, who with his wife, and six children made his home in Springfield about 25 years ago. Mr Lai-Sun came to this city as a member of the commission appointed by the Chinese government to take charge of the Chinese youths who were to be educated in this vicinity. The head man of this commission was stationed in Hartford, but Mr Lai-Sun, acting as guardian for several of the young Mongolians, came to this city and homes were found for his wards in this neighbourhood.\n\nThis remarkable and picturesque family (for they continued to wear their Chinese costumes and to live up to many of their racial customs) are recalled just now by the news of an honor which has recently been bestowed upon one of the daughters by the Chinese government. The woman in question (who is now Mrs N.P. Anderson, living in Shanghai) will be remembered as Miss Annie Lai-Sun. She has recently been given an “imperial tablet” as a recognition of her services to the Chinese people in establishing a branch of the Red Cross society for work among the wounded during the recent war between China and Japan. Just what this tablet is we are unable to say, a copy of the Daily China Times containing a description of the memento and its significance having failed to reach this office. Our informant concerning the presentation of the tablet is Revd R.G. Keyes of Water... who roomed with Mr Lai-Sun when the latter was a student in Hamden college in Clinton, N.Y., about 50 years ago. Mr Keyes is now in communication with Mrs Anderson and his mention of the tablet suggests that it was a testimonial which brings a great honor to its recipient.\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209293, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "182\n\nBRO TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\nThe Lai-Sun family came to this city about 1872, and lived at first in a house on the west side of the old Charles Merriam homestead on Howard street. There were six children in the family, two young women, about 18 years old, two boys about 16 and two younger children. The young women were named Annie and Lena. The former, as has been said, is now Mrs N.P. Anderson, her husband being a captain in the navy, and evidently an Englishman. They live on Carter Row, which is one of the fashionable residence streets of Shanghai, and are quite wealthy. Mr. Lai-Sun died a year ago last June, and his widow is now living in Shanghai. The second daughter, Lena, married a Mr Buchanan, who has since died. The youngest daughter, Amy, died several years ago, just two weeks before the date fixed for her wedding, her intended husband being a Scotchman. 'Elijah, the oldest son, is also dead, and Spencer, the second son, is employed as an interpreter in the Swedish consulate (probably in Shanghai).\n\nThe Lai-Suns' participation in the social and religious life of this city was very interesting and not without its amusing features. When they came to Springfield they seemed to be quite wealthy. Mr Lai-Sun was a decidedly intelligent man and was well educated. He spoke our language fluently as did also his daughters and his older sons. The young women had lived in ... [missing section of unknown length] ... rather discountenanced Mr Lai-Sun's liberality.\n\nBut despite their evident sympathy with things and theories American, the Lai-Suns remained Mongolian in many of their habits. They continued to wear their Chinese costumes and queues, and on all public or semi-public occasions the entire family turned out in a body. All of the adults became members of the South church by that time on Bliss street, and attended the services regularly, marching up the aisle in an august procession headed by the pater familias, who was a very imposing personage. As may be supposed, their appearance always caused a little rustle of interest and politely suppressed amusement. Their costumes, though of course oddly fashioned, were of the finest material, the richest silks elaborately and beautifully embroidered. Their faithful adherence to their native costumes was varied in only one particular and this change caused some amusement, particularly among their American women friends. When the cold weather came they protected their bodies by piling on an unknown number of their loose garments, the very looseness making the multiplication necessary. But when the winter blasts began to sweep down in good earnest from the Berkshire hills they suffered considerably from the cold, despite this excess of ward-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209295, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "184\n\nBRO TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\nmarried and English naval captain named Anderson. She was highly honored by the Chinese government for her Red Cross work during the war with Japan. The second daughter, Lena, married a man named Buchanan, and the youngest daughter, Amy, was betrothed to a Scotch-man, but died two weeks before the date set for the wedding.\n\nSince those early days Chinese students here and elsewhere have not been uncommon, and they have usually made a good record. Their presence has not had quite the same significance that that of the first mission students had. In the '70s, the Chinese boys came here without knowing our language and they wore oriental garments, which fellow schoolboys made fun of. Nowadays a Chinese schoolboy speaks pretty good English and his clothes are the last word in American sartorial nicety. He may or may not don the Chinese robes when he goes back home, but there are fewer queues in Chinese officialdom than there were a few years ago.\n\n[A subsequent poem in this extract is dated 6 June 1922, giving the earliest possible date for the second article.]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209318, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\nHong Kong, Then and Now (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 1981)\n\nSeveral years ago the SCMP published on Sundays the 'Then & Now' series. Each article shows an old view of Hong Kong and a recent shot taken from the same viewpoint, if ascertainable. This juxtaposition dramatically shows the gross physical changes which had taken place at certain well-known localities.\n\nHowever, even with supplementary historical notes, which were not noted for their accuracy, this method was rather crude. In my opinion, it did not adequately reveal the detailed changes – vertical and horizontal – which constitute the change in the impact of the street scene upon the passer-by, as for example, along Queen's Road Central.\n\nOf course, change in urban Hong Kong is so rapid and the transitory results so compressed in scale that it is extremely difficult by the photographic medium to illustrate these changes in the street scene.\n\nThere is another dimension, too, to this historical conundrum: the modern face of Hong Kong is perpetually being projected upwards from the sea; in other words, by reclamation. In fact, this is a process of change which began in the 1840's with the building and draining of Causeway Bay, right up to the present time when the New Territories, New Towns are coming into being. (Even with the aid of aerial photographs, it is extremely difficult to locate former well-known spots which have either been submerged by the flow of concrete or have disappeared completely. Try, for instance, finding the old floating fish stalls at Sam Shing, Tuen Mun.)\n\nAnd, of course, it would be extremely instructive if the historical geographer could trace the physical development of different districts of Hong Kong by means of photographs of different periods.\n\nBut Then & Now is not this, although, quite possibly the original compiler of this book, Dee Gibney (not acknowledged as the author of the historical introduction to these pictures) might have hoped it would turn out so.\n\nUnfortunately, this project was incomplete when she left and, with consequent delay, and with continuing change, even the original 'Now' photographs were outdated.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209347, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe Po Tak Temple in Sheung Shui Market - DAVID FAURE, LEE LAI-MUI\n\nThe Attempt to Assassinate the Governor in 1912 - N.J. MINERS\n\nProblems of the China Trade a Century Ago: Two Letters on Transit Passes - H.A. RYDINGS\n\nThe Village Watch in the Hong Kong Region - JAMES HAYES\n\nVillage Rules: Firecrackers in the Settlement of Disputes and in Token of Fines - JAMES HAYES\n\n271\n\n279\n\n285\n\n294\n\n297\n\nCanton Water Pines (Glyptostrobus Pensilis (Lamb)) at Tai Hang Village, New Territories - IU KOW-CHOY, LAY CHIK-CHUEN\n\n302\n\nMore About the Tung Chung Fort - ANTHONY K.K. SIU\n\n305\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n308\n\nMEMBERSHIP LIST\n\n363\n\nvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209355, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "It is with much regret that I record that among the deaths of members this year are some of our oldest friends. One, Mr. Holmes Welch, was a founding member of the Society and Member of Council during our first four years. He came to Hong Kong with the American Consulate General after academic studies in Sinology and publication of a highly original work on Taoism: The Parting of the Way. In Hong Kong his interest in Chinese religion and philosophy, and the organization of religious institutions, continued, and he gave one of the very first lectures to the Society, published in our first Journal, “Buddhist organization in Hong Kong”. Later he left the Consulate but remained in Hong Kong to continue field research into Chinese Buddhism, working with refugee monks. In the late sixties he published several volumes on contemporary Buddhism in China. After returning to the United States he continued his sinological studies and whenever I met him at conferences on religion he always asked after the progress of the Society.\n\nAnother of our recently deceased friends was Mr. John Romer, Curator of Mammals at Hong Kong's Zoological and Botanic Gardens, Hon. Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology, University of Hong Kong, and Senior Pest Control Officer of the Hong Kong Government until he retired. He has contributed on several occasions to the Notes and Queries section of our Journal.\n\nIt was also with great shock that we learnt of the death, in January this year, of Barbara Ward, whose last talk to the Society was given only just over a year ago. Barbara was the first anthropologist to conduct field-work in Hong Kong. Coming out in 1950 she picked as her field a very challenging group about which very little was known from direct contact: the Cantonese Tanka, or sui seung yan “people upon the water” as they preferred to be known, that is, the floating population of fisherfolk. She showed how the traditional Chinese institutions and culture in which they participated were modified by their very way of life: ancestor worship is different when you do not live on the land, the role of father in a family is different too when he is also captain of a boat. Barbara's later studies in Hong Kong, to where she frequently returned, included Cantonese opera and its role in\n\nxii\n\nPage 12\n\n \n\nPage 12 \n\nPage 12 \n\nxii \n\nPage 12 \n\nPage 12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209650, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n285\n\nNOTES\n\nCO129/381 pp. 550-63\n\nand\n\n'Public Record Office, London\n\nCO129/402 pp. 269f.\n\n23\n\nStatistics of violent crime showed a decrease compared with 1910, see Administrative Reports for 1911, J1.\n\n* CO129/381 pp. 343-8 and CO129/388 pp. 219-23. Proceedings of the Legislative Council, 30 Nov. 1911, pp. 243-5.\n\n* CO129/388 pp. 51-9 and CO129/389 pp. 110-5 & 146.\n\nSouth China Morning Post, 8 July, 1912.\n\nSouth China Morning Post, 3, 5, 9 July, 1912.\n\n*\n\nSouth China Morning Post, 19 July, 1912.\n\n* CO129/391 pp. 150-3. The suggestion that Li intended to complain about events in South Africa is not mentioned in any of the press reports. His statement was repeated and interpreted at the second trial and appears to refer unambiguously to May's actions as governor of Fiji. However, May's version of the criminal's motive is given in the official Administrative Report for 1912 p. 31.\n\n10\n\nChina Mail, 18 July 1912. South China Morning Post, 8 July 1912. Hua Tzu Jih Pao, Hong Kong. (I am grateful to Miss Jane Lee Ching Yee for checking the files of this newspaper for me).\n\n11 CO129/402 p. 283. Hong Kong Daily Press, 8 July 1912 p. 3 col. 2.\n\n712f.\n\n**CO129/394 pp. 3-6, 81-7. CO129/43 pp. 272-85. CO131/43 pp.\n\n** CO131/54 p. 298.\n\nPROBLEMS OF THE CHINA TRADE A CENTURY AGO:\n\nTWO LETTERS ON TRANSIT PASSES\n\nA chance reference to the China Maritime Customs Trade reports for 1879 brought to light two original manuscript letters of the same year, addressed to Mr. W. Keswick of Hong Kong, and which may be of sufficient interest to be reproduced here. Both are dated 12th March, and are on the subject of transit passes, a matter with which Mr. Keswick was evidently concerned at that time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209654, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 311, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n289\n\nThe conclusion of the matter is shown in F.O.228, v.654, p.146-152. In a letter to Sir Thomas Wade, written from Hong Kong on 28th Aug. 1880, Byron Brenan describes how he went to Canton \"in obedience to your instructions\", and finding the Governor General would not be available for two weeks owing to a death in the family, argued the case with the Superintendent of Customs. This did not go straightforwardly, and involved Brenan in a trip to Hoihow to obtain the receipts required as evidence that the sums had been paid as claimed. Eventually, however, he was able to obtain payment of $787.12 as the amount of tax in excess of what would have been due under the transit pass system, plus interest of $118.06, being 5% for three years, $905.18 in all. The last paper on the matter is a receipt for the refund, signed by Louis Jüdell, who is mentioned in Mr. Herton's letter to Mr. Keswick, in the capacity of his duly authorized attorney. It also appears from the covering letter of Acting Consul Scott that Mr. Ebell had severed his connection with the firm in August 1879.\n\nThe other letter to Mr. Keswick is less interesting, as it does not lead one into such a long paper chase (albeit on microfilm) through Foreign Office records. Nevertheless, it adds to the picture of problems faced by foreign merchants in China at that time. It reads as follows:\n\nHong Kong 12th March 1879\n\nDear Mr. Keswick,\n\nIn compliance with your request that I should give you a statement of the position of the Transit Pass Question at Pakhoi when I was at that port a month ago I beg to submit the following remarks.\n\nI was informed that a proclamation was to be issued on the day I left the 21st Feb. authorizing the issue of passes for cloth, specifying linen and camlets, but the Commissioner stated that the word cloth would be construed liberally as to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209670, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 327, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n305 \n\nseparate sectors close to Fanling Road; population: 505; both Cantonese and Hakkas.\" \n\nIt is believed that Cha Hang (茶坑) is the original name which was derived from the location of the village, which is situated near the junction of two streams. Because of the differing pronunciations of Cantonese and Hakka, the names Tai Hang (大坑) and Choi Hang (菜坑) appeared later. Probably because of the Chinese tradition of preferring propitious characters in place names, the villagers adopted the modified version of Tai Hang 太亨,泰亨 \"Tai\" meaning peaceful \n\nand \"Hang\" meaning prosperous. In fact, 太亨 is the official name recorded in the 1819 edition of the San On Gazetteer (新安縣志). Recently, this version has been used commonly by the Lands Department and the District Office in official maps and documents. \n\nThe local names of Cha Hang (junction of streams together with Kau Lung Hang (nine dragon stream 九龍坑) and Kiu Tau (bridge head 橋頭) sheds some light on the condition of the plain between Tai Po and Fanling several centuries ago. It suggests that the area was essentially low-lying marsh land crossed by many small streams. In this connection, the ancestors of the Man clan had certainly made, perhaps inadvertently, a correct choice in bringing the water pines with them for planting in their new village, since this occupies a location very similar to the natural habitat of the species in the low lying districts of the Pearl River Delta. \n\nYU KOW-CHOY LAI CHIK-CHUEN \n\n(Senior Forestry Officer and Forestry Officer, Agriculture and Fisheries Department) \n\nMORE ABOUT THE TUNG CHUNG FORT \n\nIt is recorded in Chapter 125 of the Kwong Tung Tung Chi, Tao Kuang edition (廣東通志) that in the 22nd year of the Ch'ia Ching reign (1543), not 1817, eight guard-houses were built at Tung Chung.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209689, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 346, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "324\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nNewspapers in Asia Contemporary Trends and Problems. John A. Lent. Heinemann Asia 1982 pp. xxiii, 594, appendices, bibliography, index.\n\nJohn Lent, the editor of this far-ranging study, is professor of communications at Temple University in Philadelphia. Some of the chapters dealing with various aspects of journalism and newspaper-publishing in 23 Asian countries are supplied by contributors, but Professor Lent himself has written those dealing with the subject of Press freedom and also chapters on Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, Korea, Macao and Vietnam. Of his 21 contributors all are residents of Asia, or American academicians and government personnel who have lived there for a number of years, and some worked for newspapers before entering academic life.\n\nContributors were asked to follow the same guide-lines as to form and content and as a result, despite some differences of approach, the reader can make country-to-country comparisons.\n\nThe result is illuminating and depressing. The conclusion to be drawn from this large-scale survey is that there are very few good newspapers in Asia; and that most governments do not favour press freedom and take steps to control or throttle the newspaper industry. Papers in many countries suffer severely from the rising cost of newsprint. Poor communications make it difficult to distribute copies of city-printed newspapers out to the villages where most Asians live; and the low rate of literacy in a number of Asian countries acts as a heavy restraint on readership.\n\nHowever there are exceptions to this overall gloomy picture. In Japan, for instance, the combined circulation of daily newspapers in 1982 was already well over 63 millions in a population of 120 million. This means more daily papers sold in Japan than in the whole of the rest of Asia. Japan is an almost totally literate country, and widespread information plays a vital role in the running of its highly industrialised society.\n\nNear the other end of the spectrum Indonesia, with about 20 million more people than Japan, has fewer newspapers now than it did fifteen years ago and fewer readers less than two million. More than half of them are in the capital, Jakarta. And there", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209690, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 347, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n325\n\nare many other, smaller countries where no newspaper industry has developed.\n\nProfessor Lent is concerned with press freedom. He deplores its disappearance in countries ruled by totalitarian regimes. He deplores the repressive situation in Singapore, where the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act enables the government to put its own nominees in control of newspapers. Even the more liberal press atmosphere of Hong Kong comes in for some criticism. Journalists are tempted to take bribes because of their often miserably low salaries, he says, and these bad practices remain outside the reach of the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) because they are condoned by the journalists' employers. Lent also complains that there are many doors of government closed to Hong Kong journalists.\n\nSome of the book gives a somewhat out-of-date impression. It is a recent publication but much of the material was gathered years ago and in some cases there has obviously been difficulty in revising it. This detracts from the value of the survey where it deals with countries like Vietnam.\n\nIt could also be objected that the viewpoint of the editor and contributors is too western-oriented when dealing with the press in developing areas. Freedom of the Press is a hall-mark of civilised modern communities, but it can survive only in a country which is highly literate and politically awake; it has no hope in more primitive places or in countries where the government fears criticism. To expect a free press in such areas may be unrealistic. There is a considerable difference, too, between Asia and the West in attitudes towards the profession of journalism. In the West the image of the journalist as news-gatherer, critic and reformer inspires considerable numbers of young men and women to enter the profession. Its human opportunities and fascinations more than compensate for the relatively mediocre financial rewards. This is far less the case in the Far East where in many countries journalism has little appeal for the educated. Inevitably this affects the value and effectiveness of newspapers.\n\nHowever the fact that the Asian press is surveyed here from a western viewpoint in no way detracts from the impressive", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209711, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 368, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "346\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nanything else known to me. This book is a real mine of information for all interested in traditional China. The second value of Things Chinese is the short bibliography attached to each major article: this makes the book an indispensable index to all other early European books on China a feature of great value.\n\nThe Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China are much slighter, although both contain a wealth of comment on Hong Kong and its surrounding countryside at the turn of the century. The most interesting point from these books to me is not the “quaintness\" of the picture given of Hong Kong a century ago, but its pride in itself, in its commercial drive and success, and in its modern and metropolitan facilities. It is obvious that much of modern Hong Kong's self-image is very deep-rooted in the city!\n\nThe only criticism of these volumes (with the exception of The Hong Kong Guide 1893 and Kwang Tung, or Five Years in South China) is their unwieldy and bulky format. The works are all long anyway, but become impossibly thick when printed on heavy paper and bound in boards. Things Chinese in this reprint is a good 3 inches thick - a full half inch thicker than the Concise Oxford Dictionary and awkward and cumbersome to use in consequence. Thinner paper and a less bulky book would surely be more desirable, even if this would result in a somewhat less \"turn-of-the-century\" feel.\n\n-\n\nThese volumes are strongly recommended to all students of traditional China, they are still today of very great practical value, as well as being of unfailing interest. I for one await the next volumes in the series with eager anticipation.\n\nP. H. HASE\n\nPeter Y. L. Ng and Hugh D. R. Baker, New Peace Country: A Chinese Gazetteer of The Hong Kong Region, Hong Kong University Press, 1983\n\nIt has taken a long time to produce a work on the historical background to Hong Kong. Nearly 90 years ago, E. J. Eitel published his Europe in China. This was in fact a detailed history of British Hong Kong which gave scant notice to the\n\n!\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209716, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 373, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n351\n\nstudy of revolts, reforms and revolutions in the South East Asian region is of particular interest and relevance for the outside world. This is because the variety of its component races, religions and political systems, before and after the colonial period, are paralleled by the diversity of situations experienced in revolution, reform and revolt. They are as diverse in kind as the very varied social, cultural, economic, historical context will allow, whether in or outside the colonial period, whether the colonial power was French, British or Dutch, whether a communist party was present or not. They are also, they claim, made the more interesting through the variety of \"models,\" outside assistance and influences available to the leaders of its governments and insurgent movements alike.\n\nThe authors state that, out of the total of twelve articles, five study revolts, three reforms and four revolutions. Five of the nine new states are represented (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam), with the former colonies of French Indo-china making up three quarters. Two articles concern events before 1914, three take place between 1914 and 1945 and four after the Second World War, and three span several of these periods. Neither the early period of colonial penetration nor the contemporary scene have been neglected, though by choice the authors have generally not gone back beyond 1850.\n\nGenerally speaking, the essays illustrate the theme of the Introduction, and they do cover a most diverse and interesting set of events. This is a stimulating collection of essays which will certainly be of value to serious students of South East Asia. Also, they bear out the authors' claim that they have a wider relevance than the region in which they are set.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nChinese Festivals Joan Law and Barbara E. Ward, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 1982, 95pp, including Bibliography, Index. 85 Colour plates\n\nIt is surprising that no-one produced a book like this long ago. Of course, this superb volume is no less welcome for that. The book consists of a short introduction, followed by brief", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209787, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "24\n\nintellectual effort of redefining religious aims and methods and it is doubtful whether monks in Hong Kong have embarked on this soul-searching trip yet.\n\nThis article is about how Hong Kong has provided a unique challenge to the Buddhist sangha and a report of its response to these challenges. Hong Kong is unique in the sense that it is a rare meeting point of Chinese and Western cultures and a highly developed city where technology and science have taken hold. One can imagine that because of this Buddhism would have had to make dramatic changes. However, the case is not so simple. The changes made to Buddhism in Hong Kong should be seen in context. Many of the temples in Hong Kong have long connections with those in China. The changes in the sangha are better seen as a continuation of the adjustments to modern life which have arisen in China generally since the latter half of the nineteenth century. Holmes Welch's observation a little over twenty years ago is still basically valid:\n\nWe may say that Buddhism in Hong Kong fits into the pattern of Chinese Buddhism as a whole over the past hundred years: revitalization of faith and practice among laymen, sparked by a few really able monks, whose talents stand in all the greater contrast to those of most of their brethren.1\n\nOf course, the march of time has forced what twenty years ago were recognized merely as tendencies to become vastly more powerful currents, some of which have reached critical proportions.\n\nThe problems confronting the practical aspect of this research are many. The concept of 'self-perception' is not a frequent item within the monk's vocabulary. None of the monks I interviewed could give a satisfactory answer when the question was put to them directly. My conclusions are deductions based on the above interviews and on magazine articles.\n\n11. General situation faced by Buddhism in Hong Kong\n\nWe need a general description of the sangha in order to provide the context in which specific issues can be discussed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209827, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "64\n\nI am perfectly aware that it is notoriously difficult to ascribe lexical innovations to specific dates or occurrences with any degree of authority or accuracy. But my focus is on Hong Kong English at the present time, the English which is in use among native speakers of English. By 'native speaker', I mean L1 users of English, those who have not had to acquire it as a second language in Hong Kong today. The business of etymology-hunting becomes less tenuous: we have actually witnessed the initial appearance of specific loan words, then the process of their being popularized by the media; for example, mafoo (stable boy), a word which was already current in Shanghai and which gained currency here because of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club's dispute between management and labour in the 1970's and now once more in the news. This time it appears unmarked, unglossed, whereas when it appeared over ten years ago, it was almost inevitably accompanied by an explanation.\n\nThough the borrowing from Chinese to-date has not been very significant, it is evident that, because of the cosmopolitan nature of Hong Kong and the easy movement of people to and from Hong Kong, some of these lexical innovations, such as they are, may find their way outside Hong Kong, gain international currency and eventual sanction by inclusion in reputable dictionaries. Contact between various dialects of Chinese immigrants, in Hawaii, in Chinatowns in New York, San Francisco, Boston, London, and Sydney, etc., has also resulted in mutual lexical borrowing. Some of the immigrants originate from Hong Kong. And since the late 1960's and early 70's, the English-speaking world has had much more direct access to China and to the Chinese language used on the Mainland.\n\nMy co-researcher and I have made an investigation of the subject according to the following headings.\n\nI. An outline history of contact between the two languages, with illustrative examples of the loan words resulting from various types of contacts. The focus is on the lexical consequences of historical events, not the events themselves; for example, we are interested more in the popularizing of the term kowtow than in the political or commercial results of the Amherst embassy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209855, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "92\n\n3.\n\n4.\n\nThese speak a different language from the other three races. They have a history of having migrated ages ago from the Yangtse valley, and economically are pioneers, opening up inferior lands, and doing all quarry work. They occupy the eastern and northern islands, and are often called \"Chinese Scotchmen”. For this reason Scottish regiments here are called “Hakka ping\" (Hakka soldiers). Nearly all regimental servants here, I believe, are Hakkas: formerly the Hakkas were anti-Manchu and often joined Triad Societies. As such, they gave vigorous assistance to the British in 1857-61, and the connection with the Army has been kept up.\n\nHoklos, a Cantonese nickname for the coast peoples of Northeast Kwangtung; it means \"men of Hok1\", meaning Fukien. Most come from the area around Swatow and Swabue. Their language is very widely different from both Cantonese and Hakka: as different as German from English. They are fishermen, grasscutters, limekiln and saltpan workers. Their major settlements are at Tai O, Pingchau, Cheung Chau, Taipo (by the District Officer's island), and probably others. They are migrating here steadily, and many appear in court for offences of all sorts. A major reason behind the migration is probably that the coastal areas from which they come are suffering erosion and losing soil: the collapse of the Hoi Luk Fung Soviet Republic is another factor: finally, piracy is no longer as profitable as it was.\n\nPolitical divisions\n\nThe Ladrones or \"Pirate Islands\" of which Hong Kong and its outlying islands are part were so named by the Portuguese pioneers of sea trade to the East. They are shared unequally between China, Britain and Portugal. In China they are administered by the nearest district magistrates, of Hoifung, Po On, Chungshan, Sanwui, and Toishan districts. Macao has only two or three nearby isles. The British Islands are divided between the District Officer, North, and the District Officer, South, so that the latter is sometimes called \"Lord of the Isles\". I had that job for nearly 3 1/2 years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209865, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "102\n\nThe first valley is that of Shek Pik (\"Rock Wall\"). This lies right under the steep south-west face of Lantau Peak. The main village stands at some distance from a creek with a big sandbar which makes a good harbour for small boats. To the east is a little hamlet, Tung Wan (\"East Bay\"), where a sandbar has silted across the mouth of a stream, making a marsh. A bay a little west of the creek faces the surf, and so has no landing and is in consequence deserted except for cultivation and pasture1a.\n\nShui Hau and Tong Fuk (\"Creek Mouth\" and \"Banked Happiness\"), which form the second group of villages, have poor landing-places. They lie at one end of the long stretch of beach which extends to Pui O (“Cup Haven\")14 which is the name of the third group of villages.\n\nThe chief features of Pui O are its fine woods with their ancient trees: the very long sand-spit enclosing a lagoon where boats can lie: and the double storm beach, the second one to the rear being the older. There is an old brick or pottery kiln built on this beach. Passes go from Pui O to Mui Wo and Shap Long.\n\nBeyond Pui O to the southeast is a rugged granite peninsula; it only has one village of importance, Tai Long (\"Great Waves\"). This village has one very fine sand beach with another to the west, which, because it is much more exposed, has no village15. To the east of Tai Long are the wells from where the Cheung Chau waterboats get their water.\n\nOn the north coast of this granite peninsula are bays and hamlets where sand junks used to dig sand. At its innermost point is Shap Long (\"Ten Ridges\", but this translation is particularly doubtful), a plain with a sandbank in front; the sea is so shallow sand junks cannot approach. A few years ago an epidemic of smallpox made the villagers think something was wrong with their abode, so they left the houses all standing and moved into huts further down the valley, on its northern side.\n\nThe next point of interest on the Lantau coast is the Silver Mine Bay, a beautiful valley with a big sand beach in front, and with four villages, Mui Wo (\"Plum Nook\"), Tai Tei Tong (\"Big Land Pond\"), Luk Tei Tong (\"Deer Land Pond\"), and Pak Ngan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209868, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "105\n\nwith rocks and reefs in addition; the name may mean \"Dragnet Isles\". The northernmost island is a dumb-bell with quite a good harbour, and a fishing village of huts very different from ordinary Chinese dwellings. This island was another settlement of early man. The southern larger isle has two or three villages on its dumb-bell isthmus. There is a shrimp paste factory here which exports to Europe and America. The names Tai and Sai A Chau mean \"Big and Little Forked Island\". A small island to the west of the group is also a dumb-bell; the isthmus here is covered at high tide.\n\nPatung or Shek Kwu Chau (“Stone Drum Island\") is rocky and barren, but with one small valley where cultivation is possible. It was once proposed to lease the island as a rabbit farm, but the proposers never went on with it.20\n\nits English name\n\nTo the south-east of Lantau are a number of more important islands. Of these the most prosperous is Cheung Chau (“Long Island\"). Cheung Chau is the best example of a dumb-bell island in these waters. The northern end contains a small hamlet and cultivation, the southern end contains the \"Peak\", or European reservation. It started there through missionaries building holiday bungalows on the hills: they began doing so in 1906, attracted by the beaches, the easy marketing and the village ferry to Hong Kong. This was run in the interest of the fish trade, but was taken over some 10 years ago by the Western Ferries Co., a Hong Kong concern,\n\nBetween the fish trade and the market gardens, Cheung Chau breeds more flies per square yard than any other place in the Colony. It has a street cleaning squad, but of course this cannot touch the masses of filth on private property. There is a fire engine, a Government school, a hospital, and a big temple to Pak Tai, god of the Pole Star, the finances of which were inextricably mixed with those of the market, the ferry, and the electric light station. There are plays annually performed in May for the pleasure of Pak Tai, and incidentally for his worshippers, in a huge decorated matshed put up in front of the temple. It draws big crowds, and stimulates business quite a lot. There are other temples too, and little shrines to local spirits. There is also", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209871, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "108\n\nand more than half of them still live within two miles of these ancient sites, which speak of hundreds of years of settlement and progress, before the Han emperors conquered the coast with a fleet and army.\n\nLeaving aside the islands close to Hong Kong, which have little of interest, we next pass the Potoi group off Cape d'Aguilar (named after a Major-General who commanded the troops in Hong Kong in its early years). All are of granitic rocks seamed with dykes of dark green stone which decay more rapidly than the granite and so often form valleys, caves and hollows. All but Potoi itself are barren and deserted, except for the light on Waglan (Wang Lan \"Barrier Fence\"). About nine years ago, the Chinese second officer of a ship distinguished himself by steering straight on to the island, where the ship not unnaturally stopped. There was no discoverable reason for this exploit; it was not bad weather, though dark it was about 2 a.m. and the light showed clearly. A similar but more excusable disaster occurred in 1916 on the east end of the Lema's eight miles to the south on Tam Kon Shan (“Carrying Pole Mountain\"), when the Chiyo Maru, which was a big trans-Pacific liner, ran aground. I believe few or no lives were lost.\n\nnets.\n\nPotoi has a small but good harbour, very popular with boat people, and with a handsome temple. There are a few shops, and its economic centre is Stanley. The beach is used for drying. Once in 1930 an ingenious fellow tried to monopolize the beach by applying for a matshed site right in the middle of it. I saw the place, saw through his game, and turned him down. Up in the hills are three tiny hamlets, living on the scanty crops their fields produce, and probably selling to the boat people as well; their names mean \"Long Stone Ridge\", \"Cow Lake\", and \"Mountain Hut\" 27.\n\nTo the north, at the entrance to Junk Bay, known in Chinese as \"General's Haven\" (Tseung Kwan O), is an island called Fat or Fu Tau Chau (“Buddha's or Tiger's Head Island\"). It was the site of one of the \"Blockade of Hong Kong\" customs stations; the station is in ruins, although the island has a few inhabitants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209874, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "In fact it has almost as many people as Lamma, nine times its size and close to Hong Kong. Its average elevation is about 100 feet, and there are three villages.\n\nMany other islands lie outside the British boundary. Of them I can say practically nothing, as I have never visited them, and there are no large-scale maps of them. They remain a rich field for enquiry and research in every direction.\n\nIn conclusion, I can only hope I have not bored you unduly; if I have, I can only say that having known and visited the islands for twenty years, I find them more interesting every year, and if I have interested some of you, I shall feel this afternoon has not been spent in vain.\n\n9th August 1937\n\nI\n\nNOTES\n\nSee J. Dyer-Ball's Things Chinese or Notes Connected with China fifth edition, revised by E.T.C. Werner (1925), re-issued by OUP, Hong Kong, 1983, pp. 297-8.\n\n* Yuen Chau Tsai, (\"Little Round Island\"), where the residence of the District Officer was is now the home of the Secretary for District Administration. The adjacent anchorage was reclaimed a few years ago.\n\n* Naikwuchau is now called Hei Ling Chau (\"Happy Island\"). This followed its early postwar lease to the Leprosy Mission (Hong Kong Auxiliary) which resulted in the change of name, intended to reflect the \"healing\" nature of the work and the improvement in the patients' lives.\n\n* Now the Rural Committee Offices.\n\n* Tai Ho at present uses for its name characters meaning \"Big Oyster\".\n\n* The yamen is usually now called the Tung Chung Fort, or Tung Chung Walled City.\n\n* At Tei Tong Tsai (\"Little Pits\").\n\n* Ngong Ping (“High Plain\").\n\n* Dedicated to Yeung Hau Wong.\n\n* Tsin Yue Wan at present uses for its name characters meaning \"Fried Fish Bay\".\n\n* Now usually called Fan Lau (\"Divided Streams”).\n\n* This fort is known as Kai Yik Kok Fort (“Chicken's Wing Point\"). On it, please see A.M. da Silva Fan Lau and its Fort, an Historical Perspective, in Vol. 8 (1968) of this Journal pages 82-95.\n\n* Tai Long Wan (\"Big Wave Bay\").", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209876, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "SECULAR NON-GENTRY LEADERSHIP OF TEMPLE AND SHRINE ORGANIZATIONS IN URBAN BRITISH HONG KONG\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThere is now, in contrast to ten or twenty years ago, a sufficient body of research on Hong Kong's rural society to make possible some reliable conclusions on the nature of its institutions and their leadership at the local level, especially in the field of religion.* The place of the community temple in the rural setting, and the manner of its secular leadership, has been well-established by a number of studies, and comparisons with adjoining areas of Kwangtung enable one to state with confidence that communally organized non-gentry temple management bodies were normal and of crucial significance throughout traditional Hong Kong (and South-east China) society. This phenomenon mirrored the general capacity for self-management that characterized rural society as a whole, and its manifestation in the religious sector of village life was clearly only a part of a general competence that extended into social, economic and political aspects of the whole spectrum of rural activities.\n\n1\n\nThe urban situation is less well researched, especially in its historical aspects. Hong Kong comprised a number of scattered villages and small fishing ports before the establishment of Victoria and its first urban suburbs in the 1840s, and whilst it is clear that, being without gentry, these were organized in the self-management pattern by peasants or shopkeepers that we have come to expect from studies of similar communities in the New Territories, it is not so certain whether this pattern was continued into the new city which was so quickly established on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island. Did the same pattern of leadership emerge at street and district level, associated with the new shrines and temples established by and for the new population; or did another pattern of temple organization involving overall leadership by merchant elites who were not identified with a particular\n\n* See plates 1-8.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209918, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "155\n\ngovernment in Taiwan. In the textile industry, there were the left-wing Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing Trade Workers General Union and the right-wing Cotton Industry Workers General Union. Together they had unionized just 18 percent of the textile workers in 1971 (England and Rear 1975: 89-90). The numerical weakness and political affiliations of the unions permitted the spinners to dismiss them as a nuisance. A12 did not hide his annoyance:\n\n'Unions are not bad. There should be real unions so that workers' opinions can be expressed. But they should be separated from politics. In Hong Kong, it is difficult. Unions are not fighting for the welfare of their members. Some years ago, several union representatives came to talk to me. They were not making any demands, but just stating principles. They made several suggestions about welfare provisions. I told them these were already instituted in the mill. They said this was not proper and that the suggestions should come from the unions. At present, there are two unions in our mill, and I absolutely refuse to talk to them.'\n\nThe second rationalization was that the workers were uneducated, with the implication that they could not look after their own interests. Thus A19 asserted:\n\n'There are unions in Hong Kong, but workers' educational levels are not high enough. There should be consultations, but the workers cannot come before management, because they do not have sufficient education.'\n\nBy this the spinners seemed to be maintaining that their authority was legitimized by superior knowledge and cultivation, an age-old Chinese assumption traceable to Mencius' dictum that those who worked with their mind ruled others while those who worked with their hands were to be ruled by others.\n\nFrom the actual practice of joint consultation in the mills, it is clear that there is a more fundamental albeit unstated reason for their resistance to the idea of trade unionism. This is that they did not welcome the idea of workers' representatives. This might provide the clue to understand their rejection of organizational conflict in favour of harmony. Richard Solomon has suggested", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209967, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "204\n\nA RELIC OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER\n\nP. BRUCE\n\nIn a small cool church in Macau, separated by a few hundred yards of muddy water from China, rests a unique relic of St Francis Xavier.*\n\nAlmost 20 years ago 100,000 people in 15 days filed past the small piece of bone housed in an ornate silver monstrance when it was taken to America from its usual resting place in Macau. Now the relic is back in a tiny church on Coloane Island. Ten years ago the building was in a run-down condition, having been used as a chapel for soldiers from Mozambique serving in the Portuguese Army. Then Father Mario C. Acquistapace arrived on the scene. A sprightly figure now probably in his seventies, he had the church restored. Today its exterior is washed in pale yellow with windows and woodwork picked out in light blue. He has an outgoing personality that runs to a hug when he finds a visitor is a Christian.\n\nMacau, the first permanent Western settlement on the coast of China, across the silt-laden waters of the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, despite wars, upheavals and revolutions, remains curiously Mediterranean. The Portuguese built their first houses there in 1557, having camped briefly at Liampo and Sanchuang (St John's) Islands.\n\nFrancisco de Xavier, called by Pope Urban VIII the \"apostle of the Indies\", was born into a noble and wealthy family and in 1529 he made the acquaintance of St Ignatius Loyola who was then studying at Paris. Impressed by his teachings, Xavier became one of the original seven men to take the first vows of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, in 1534.\n\nWhen John III, King of Portugal, asked the Pope to send a mission to his Indian possessions, two Jesuits were selected, one of whom was Xavier. He set sail in 1541 and after a voyage of more than a year arrived in Goa, India, where he carried out missionary work. From there he journeyed to Ceylon, or Sri Lanka...\n\n* See plates 12-14.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209985, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 244, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "222\n\nthousand years of continuous cultural development: it includes the present but only in the perspective of the past.\n\nTo explain the persistence and magnetism of Chinese traditional culture is too great a task for this note (and, I fear, for this writer too), but to find examples of its strength is not so difficult. The first Chinese migrants to the countries of mainland and island Southeast Asia arrived there centuries ago. Some assimilated, but many did not, with the result that there have been recognisable Chinese communities in all these countries up to the present. They have been discriminated against, massacred and evicted over the years, but they have tenaciously stuck to their Chineseness. In Britain the Chinese community has a much shorter history, but there is a great flourishing of special classes in Chinese language and writing which testifies to the eagerness of parents to pass on their cultural influences to the next generation. And the overseas Chinese maintain their links with the homeland in much the same way as the people there maintain their ties with the past.\n\nThe Chinese have shared their homes with the ancestors, eaten picnics on their ancestors' graves, lived with continuity of history to an extent that the West cannot match. While it is true that twentieth century international urban values have begun to intrude upon this sense of continuity, it also must be said that contemporary ways of thought and behaviour are still greatly informed by traditional culture. It is through studying these traditions that some kind of baseline for understanding the present can be established.\n\nOddly enough, it has mostly been the nineteenth and twentieth century foreign interest in China which has documented traditional culture best. Before Western-inspired educational reforms brought literacy within the reach of the majority of the population, China's literate few constituted an elite which not only occupied a separate social position but which also only wrote about itself and its elite activities. The Dream of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of the Stone) has been hailed as the great Chinese sociological novel, and indeed it is, but it is the sociology of a large elite family and its household of slaves, servants and relatives; it does not deal with the villager, the peasant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210036, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "Village Shops in the Hong Kong Region — James Hayes 310\n\nHong Kong Hilltop Retreat for Cross and Lotus — Hugh Witt 312\n\nDiocesan Boys School Seventy Years Ago — W.J. Howard 318\n\nBook Reviews 325\n\nvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210043, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 14, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "I shall first address the problem of membership and promotion of the Society and its publications, with their importance for healthy growth and a steady recurrent income. When so many of our members moved to life membership some years ago, albeit showing their strong support for the Society thereby, there was resultant loss of recurrent income. New members are important to keep up annual income. Thus, promotion and publicity of our work and activities to increase membership and boost income are pretty vital.\n\nThe big question has always been, who will do the work? Hong Kong has always been a very busy place. Unless retired, and sometimes not even then, most Councillors have full-time, demanding jobs which leave little time or energy for other pursuits. Whilst we have never found it difficult to recruit council members, there has always been a limit to the amount each of us can do for the Society. Councillors are either librarians, editors, secretaries and the like, but no-one yet has been able to combine several posts or take up additional duties. This has hit us particularly hard with regard to promotion and publicity. We find it very difficult to deal with this kind of situation, which nevertheless results in a fundamental dilemma; for until we do more promotion and publicity, our membership will remain low and our publications will not sell as well as they ought to reach their potential public. We have addressed these problems again recently and are trying to improve the position, short of using the services of public relations firms.\n\nTurning to our future, now is also the time for the Society to look ahead, especially in anticipation of severing the link Hong Kong has with Britain and the establishment of a highly autonomous Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. There are those who conclude that the Royal Asiatic Society has no place in the new situation. Its name alone, they say, however honourable in itself, is sufficient indication that we cannot expect to continue after 1997 when Hong Kong is no longer a colonial appendage of Great Britain and the whole emphasis and outlook of the territory will have changed and, in the words of Chairman Deng Xiao-ping, \"Hong Kong people will govern Hong Kong\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210079, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "29\n\n2. Historical precedents: many of the sets of temple oracles, and certainly the major ones (B-1, B-2), contain somewhere near the edge of the printed slips short sentences which are rather titles than complete sentences. W. Eberhard has done a preliminary examination of these and states that they refer to historical or legendary events from China's past often known to the general public through popular dramas. Although traditionally the majority of the rural people in China were illiterate, they would naturally know the stories referred to in the oracle slips from their own experience of stage performances in the village. Drama, and in modern times puppet theatre, have been effective ways to educate the people in the countryside, especially since these stories usually contain a moral lesson, and extol such national virtues as filial piety, righteousness, integrity, loyalty, patriotism, etc. By attaching a reference to a famous event of the past to the oracle, the ordinary uneducated worshipper would understand the basic meaning of the oracle: what happened long ago to hero so-and-so, also applies today to the problem at hand. Eberhard quotes eleven examples from set B-2 (the Kuan Ti oracles), from which I pick the following one:\n\n“No. 10: Meng Chiao passes the examination at fifty”, thus very late in life. Meng was a friend of the scholar Han Yu (768-835)... The oracle indicates that success will not occur until very late...\"22\n\nThe application from the story to the particular request made by the worshipper seems to be very clear: Whatever was asked for will not be immediately granted but the petitioner will succeed in the end. The worshipper is encouraged not to give up but to remain patient.\n\nIn a table at the end of his article, Eberhard lists for B-1 and B-2 the number of plays or stories that he has been able to identify, i.e., to find the corresponding drama and/or story in literature. Very likely some titles refer to local dramas and are thus not easy to identify. In B-1 (the 100 Kuan Ti oracles) 83 are identified, whereas for 10 oracles the titles are missing (I presume in the set available to him). What is interesting is that the titles of the two sets under study (B-1 and B-2) are not the same, and they are probably", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210080, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "30\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\nalso different in other sets. This point, however, needs further detailed study. One example may serve as a warning to prevent rash conclusions: in set B-11 (or 12), there is reference to a play or story which is at first view similar to the one quoted above (no.10 of the B-2 set):\n\n\"No. 47: Lady Kao Ta becomes famous at fifty.\"23\n\nAlthough the story referred to is different, still the moral drawn from it may be similar. Therefore a detailed analysis of all the story/play types should be undertaken.\n\nFrom all this it is obvious that Chinese history is here used as a rich source for moral examples, or for predictions concerning one's future. Human life in its endless chain of apparently personal events, still can be reduced to a number of prototypes; although the exact details vary ad infinitum, the models resemble each other in their basic orientation. What happened 2,000 years ago to so and so, may happen again to me right now, if my action follows the same pattern, and is inspired by the same intention. Chinese history has been well known to all levels of society through drama performances at the community stage or in the temple precincts, and through story telling or reading. Good and bad examples abound in the rich heritage and are used in divination as promises or warnings in our present situation.\n\nReligious literatures of other traditions offer parallel examples, where past events are used as models for action or even for divining purposes. St. Augustine describes his own experience in his Confessions (Book 8): during his 32nd year he passed through a painful crisis of doubt: The Christian way of life attracted him strongly but his old habits of worldly attachments kept him back. In this intense struggle a special event shook him up: he divined the Scriptures and the answer he received helped him to overcome all further obstacles.\n\nSo was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, \"Take up and read; Take up and read.\" Instantly, my counte-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210190, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 161, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "140\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n77\n\nSee despatch No. 76 Civil from Governor, Hong Kong to Lord Stanley, 28 December 1844 in CO129/7/9807, especially p. 323. Ako Mayers, Dennys and King, op cit, p. 57.\n\nSee J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. and The Rural Communities of Hong Kong op. cit. D. Faure The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1986), J.W. Hayes Secular Non-Gentry Leadership of Temple and Shrine Organisations in Urban British Hong Kong JHKBRAS, Vol. 23, 1983 pp. 113-137, passim.\n\nJ.W. Hayes The Rural Communities of Hong Kong op cit. p. 63.\n\n80 See D. Faure Visit to Stanley, elsewhere in this Journal.\n\nJ.W. Hayes Secular Non-Gentry Leadership op. cit. JHKBRAS, Vol. 23, 1983, pp. 127-132.\n\nSee note 10.\n\n12\n\n81 科大街\n\n陸鴻基,吳倫霩霹 A*.\" ****\" op. cit. p. 821 (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong).\n\n84 J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. pp 61-64, and 64-69, and J.W. Hayes Secular Non-Gentry Leadership op. cit. pp. 113-121.\n\n85\n\n科,陸,吳, 香港碑銘 #‚É‚1⁄2‚“ ***(op. cit.) (Faure, Luk, Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit.) p.76.\n\n*,4,5,\" *** \"(op. cit.) (Faure, Luk, Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit.) p. 102. For the Kaifong hall, see also D. Faure Visit to Stanley elsewhere in this Journal.\n\nH 科,陛,吳, 香港郈銘 (op. cit.) p. 98 (Faure, Luk, Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong).\n\n63\n\n*.,,\" \"(op. cit.) (Faure, Luk, Ng, The Historical Inscriptions 科,陸,吳, 香港碑銘 of Hong Kong), p. 152 (Foundation of Tin Hau Temple 1873 by group lead by General Managers and two grades of Managers 總理, 董理, 個事), p. 166 (Refoundation of Tin Hau temple 1876 by group lead by General Managers and Managers), p. 347 (Foundation of Tam Kung temple 1905 by group lead by General Managers and Managers #), p. 388 (Repair of Tam Kung Temple 1908 by group lead by Managers).\n\n89 The possibility certainly exists. Revd. Carl Smith's researches show that some Hong Kong village men took advantage of the new situation to acquire language skills and advance their fortunes through service as government interpreters and clerks to solicitors, or by acting as compradores for Western business firms. The most famous of them all, Sir Shouson Chau, born in Little Hong Kong in 1861, was sent to America with the \"First Hundred\" Chinese boys (of the Chinese government's educational mission) in the 1870s. He graduated later from Columbia University, served the Ch'ing government as a high official and afterwards returned to Hong Kong where he was a member of both the Executive and Legislative Council. His father was compradore of the Canton Hong Kong Steamship Company with its head office in Canton, and according to family history his grandfather, the village head of Little Hong Kong in 1841, assisted Captain Charles Elliott in posting up one of his first official proclamations on the Island in 1841. (Letter quoted at note 18 above, together with the biography in Chinese and English at pp 4-5 of Prof. Woo Sing-lim's The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, The Five Continents Book Co., 1937)). See also D. Faure Visit to Stanley elsewhere in this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210286, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 257, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "236\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\ntwelve to fifteen priests but according to a committee member, because of economic reasons, they decreased the number of the priests. They started to have a nun join the team since 1981. However, she makes no difference for the common worshippers. There was no special interaction between the common worshippers and the priests. Even in the rituals relating to the Ming-che, no one except the Japanese wife of a \"Newly Dead\" invited the Japanese priest to chant before the Ming-che. In place of priests, the Temple keeper (Chu-tzi), a Chinese man from Shantou (Swatow) was employed by the families of the 'Newly Dead' to chant before each Ming-che. The purpose of this ritual was to inform the 'Newly Dead' that the family will send (burn) a paper-made house (Ming-che) to the underworld and now they are going to send the \"Contract\" of the house, and with the 'Contract' the 'Newly Dead' can get the house after it has been sent.\" The Japanese priests who performed all the official rituals were respected by the common worshippers who kept their distance from them.\n\n24\n\nThe common worshippers came from various parts of Japan. Most of the informants claimed that there were no limitations, anybody could come to worship. There was no data referring to the origins and residential places of the worshippers. However, at least one man, a Hokkienese who is son-in-law of the chairman of the festival, came from Gunma Prefecture; several families came from Yokohama; a group of Hokkienese came from Shikoku (they came to worship a ‘Newly Dead' who helped them immigrate to Japan a few years ago); 2 related families came from Himeji; 3 from Osaka (2 are Hokkienese, the 3rd one immigrated to Japan in 1981, he was a Taoist from Peking); and one Hokkienese came from Kyoto (he was in charge of the Chinese Ghost Festival at Uji, Kyoto). As shown in table 2, the number of participants contributing 1000 yen or more numbered 708,\n\nHowever, if the tablets of the ancestors are taken as substitutes for family participation the number of the families involved should be more than the figure shown. Though the family segments into several economically and residentially separated households, the households always worship under the same ancestor-tablet as a religious family.\" One informant (a 32 yr. old Cantonese) told me that he had 7 siblings, the eldest died during the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210291, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 262, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "241\n\ning here and not give them trouble\". According to the introduction in the Pang (see Appendix), as posted up at the main entrance, \"the festival was held for the purpose of assisting the reincarnation of i) the soldiers who died during the world wars, ii) the ancestors of all surnames, and iii) the ghosts who were not worshipped by anyone. And it was hoped that through the mediation of the priests, the Three Buddhas and all the spirits would give their permission and open the door for them to cross-over and become human beings again. However, the worshippers, being more interested in self-prosperity, were more concerned about their own ancestors who are the only ones who can guarantee their prosperity.\n\nV. Conclusion; History of the Festival in Kobe\n\n34\n\nAccording to an appeal to the Hyogo Government in 1873, the Ningpo merchants were the first to hold a Ghost Festival for the Chinese in Kobe. Mr. Chan (70 years old, Cantonese, born and educated in Kobe, now vice-president of the History Museum of the Kobe Chinese) told me that before the Second World War, the festival was organized by the Cantonese who then out-numbered the Hokkienese. The Cantonese were wealthier and 'had more knowledge'. Mr. Chan continued to tell me that during that time the Hokkienese were relatively poor. They were mostly travelling merchants (f). They therefore had no stable residential place neither were they economically strong enough to be the organizers of the festival. Though there was a bachelor-centre for about 17 Hokkienese laborers in Nagoya about 30 years ago, there was no Hokkienese cluster in Kobe. Today, however all the three Chinese Ghost Festivals in Japan are organised by the Hokkienese\". Mr. Chan's narration agrees with the information given by Li Ta-shen.36 The Hokkienese, now organisers of the Festival, had never been an influential group until the end of the Second World War. However, since then, until 1978, the Hokkienese were said to be the centre of the Kobe festival.37\n\nDue to the anti-Chinese incident in Kobe in 1976, the Chinese started to pursue unification among all the different Chinese territorial groups, and to disregard their origins. In 1978, the Kobe Chinese News (US) was changed to the Kansai Chi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210319, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 290, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "269\n\nMy notebook says “We had tea at all these villages all locally grown\". The list includes Tai Hang Hau, Sheung Sze Wan and Ha Yeung, but I visited others in the group without making special mention of tea. At Ha Yeung I was told that they had 100 trees of what they called shan cha (山茶) (“hill tea”), not wild but planted by themselves. Tai Po Tsai, one of the larger villages of the area, claimed to have 50 trees, but the largest village settlement, Mang Kung Uk, reported \"only a few tea bushes not many.\" However, the little island settlement of Fu Tau Chau in Junk Bay gave me hill tea to drink, from its own trees.\n\nFurther towards Sai Kung Market, I was given hill tea to drink at Nam Wai, and also at Pak Kong Au, though the village reported \"only 8 to 10 trees\". East of Sai Kung, people in the hamlet of Shan Liu said that “tea was formerly grown (i.e. cultivated) but only wild bushes are now harvested”. But it was at Nam A, east of Sha Kok Mei, that I learned most. \"A really nice, almost English village\", I wrote enthusiastically. \"We drank hill tea (excellent) from trees planted twenty years ago in the hills behind the village, but not many. It is best brewed in porcelain, they said. Their supply lasts six months in all, but is harvested four times a year - once in the winter months, once at Easter and twice in the summer. The best is the Easter crop.” Nothing was said, or asked, about preparation but each crop was kept in a drawer for two months. My note ends \"The cows like to eat it!”.\n\nOn Lantau, the villagers of Pa Mei, otherwise known as Shan Ha, said they collected hill tea from Tai Tung Shan Keuk (大東山腳), that is the north western slopes of Sunset Peak. On South Lantau the people of the Pui villages also went up to Tai Tung Shan to collect leaves from wild bushes there in the second to fourth moons. Previously there had been many trees, but hill fires had reduced their number. It was used as leung cha (涼茶) for cooling the system. At Tong Fuk my notes state, \"they gather tea leaves from bushes on the hill and use it a lot. The tea comes from the Fung Wong Shan peak behind the village, and the leaves used are plucked in the second and third moons.” Rather surprisingly, the villagers of Upper and Lower Keung Shan, though located on the mountain slopes of a sheltered valley with good tree cover, had never cultivated tea bushes, or at least not within living memory.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210338, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 309, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "288\n\nJULIAN TENISON WOODS IN HONG KONG\n\nRODERICK O'BRIEN S. J.\n\nA century ago, the government and scientific elite of Hong Kong welcomed an unusual visitor; an Australian Catholic priest and scientist, Julian Edmund Tenison Woods, who passed through Hong Kong as part of an extensive scientific tour of south-east and east Asia. Woods is probably best known outside church circles for his scientific work, and despite limited formal training, he became an active scientist, publishing extensively in natural sciences, especially marine biology, botany, geology and paleontology.\n\nIn 1883, Woods was commissioned by the then Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Frederick Weld, to explore and report on the mineral prospects of some areas of the Malayan peninsula. During this time, he was elected an honorary member of our sister branch, the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, and two of his nearly two hundred publications are to be found in its journal. This expedition widened in scope, as he took advantage of opportunities to travel more widely, especially on the naval hydrographic ship HMS Flying Fish. Woods eventually returned to Australia in July 1886, after nearly three years research.\n\nDuring this time, he seems to have made four stops in Hong Kong:\n\nJanuary 1885: Hong Kong and Canton\n\nIn mid-January 1885, Woods arrived on the P & O steamer Hydastes from Singapore. He stayed first with the Governor, Sir George Bowen and then with Judge Russell.\n\nSir George arranged for him to lecture on The Mines and Minerals of the Malay Peninsula on 3 February 1885. During his introduction, Sir George expressed surprise at finding a priest involved in scientific pursuits, and his rather tactless remarks have been preserved in the full report which he sent the next day to the Earl of Derby at the Colonial Office:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210343, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 314, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "293 \n\nis the gayest of the gay cities. Yet I am told that the officers of the army and navy do not care much about being quartered at Hong Kong. Even gaiety becomes monotonous on an island scarcely nine miles long, so rocky that you cannot ride, and where pirates and squalls keep people from boating or fishing.\n\nThe island formerly constituted a part of the district Sun-on. It is scarcely a mile from Kiu Lung or Kow Loon on the main land, which is also British property. It is mainly granitic, but with a varied geology, so as to make it a most interesting place of study. There are some volcanic dykes in places, and traces of minerals, especially lead and molybdenum, of which fine specimens may be easily obtained. The highest peak is 1,825 feet high, and there are other peaks ranging between that height and 1,000 feet. Hong Kong as far back as the Ming dynasty belonged to the Tang family, whom I suppose everybody knows. It is an island at the mouth of the Canton river, and was a noted resort for pirates, who used to lie in wait for sailing craft in the Ly-ee-mun pass, a very narrow strait between the mainland and the island. In January, 1841, it was ceded to Great Britain. The capital is called Victoria.\n\nWood's description continues with surveys of the vegetation, fauna, and geology. It was part of a long article “Geographical Notes in Malaysia and Asia”, which was published in the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, in 1888, shortly before his death.\n\nWoods: An Appreciation\n\nAs in Sir George Bowen's day, so in our own, there is a tendency to try to set religion and science in opposition. But more than a century ago, we find in Woods a lived conviction that there is no such opposition. His scientific work is certainly a product of his own time, but his Australian research is still cited in official geological publications.\n\nIn the antipodes, interest in Woods is growing. He has been the subject of three biographies, two of which have a full list of his scientific publications. There are many minor works about him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210357, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 328, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "307\n\nWAI CHEUNG ( Mk),\n\nA KIND OF RURAL LEADER\n\nIN THE 19TH CENTURY HONG KONG REGION\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nLeadership in the villages and market towns of the Hong Kong Region has always fascinated me, and I have touched on the subject in The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911, Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hampden, Archon Books 1977) and The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983).\n\nBesides the more common terms encountered in my enquiries as described in the two studies mentioned above, I have come across the less familiar one which forms the subject of this Note. Fortunately, there is both verbal and documentary evidence for its existence.\n\nIn speaking twenty and more years ago with old people born in local villages in the late 70's and early 80's of the last century, the term wai cheung (#1) was used in several places for another category of local leader.\n\nIn Sha Kok Mei village in Sai Kung, for instance, I was told by a leading elder born in 1885 that this was a post pertaining to each of the accepted clans in this large village, of which there were no less than eleven in the late 19th century (the implication is that there were other, newer clans which were not permitted to have a wai cheung). Clansmen were to serve by rotation in the post for one year. The post carried responsibility for the guardianship of the common property of the lineage, and also an obligation to join with the wai cheung of the other clans to hear and settle dispute cases, though the council so formed had no collective name or other description. This council had little to do in this line in his youth, as far as he can remember, as the times were quiet.\n\nIn the Tung Chung villages, according to an old lady born in one of the local settlements in 1879 and married into another of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210361, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 332, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "311\n\nThe shops in the market towns supplied all the items that the village shops were unable to stock. Besides “regular” market towns like Yuen Long and Tai Po with their fixed marketing days to regular schedules, the Hong Kong region included a number of coastal market centres places like Cheung Chau, Peng Chau, Tai O in the Islands and Sai Kung in the eastern New Territories. My enquiries show that there were quite large concerns in such places. They were usually \"mixed goods\" establishments. At Sai Kung (land pop. 512 in 1911) one of the larger shops well-remembered by old local people may serve as an example. Its signboard, which survived until twenty years ago, carried a statement of its principal items of business. It dealt in wine, rice, grass cloth rolls from Suzhou and Hangzhou, preserved fruits, fishing nets and shue-leung (a preservative used for dyeing nets), oil, firewood, salt, bamboo and other \"mountain goods\", for all of which it proclaimed itself sole agent. At the same time, I was told, shops like this would slaughter pigs and make their own Chinese wines.\n\nSuch shops could survive, and even flourish, in a market town and especially in the coastal market centres where there were boat people in the anchorages, from both local and visiting boats, to swell the number of customers coming from the many villages of the marketing area. But such businesses could only exist in these market centres. In a region characterized, in the main, by scattered small villages and hamlets with the market towns not too far away on foot or by boat, village shops of the larger kind were simply non-starters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210368, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 339, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "318\n\nDIOCESAN BOYS SCHOOL SEVENTY YEARS AGO\n\nW.J. HOWARD*I\n\nFor over half a century St John's Cathedral has been untroubled by the attendance of the boys of the Church of England's Diocesan Boys' School. During this long period the silence has been broken only once by the boys, when a memorial service was held at the Cathedral on 11 December 1979 in honour of the late Rev. George Samuel Zimmern, M.A. (Oxon), who was an old boy, a chaplain of the Cathedral, a headmaster of the school, a magistrate, a barrister-at-law and a social worker. George died in Bristol, England, in November 1979, aged 75. During the service the school's string band played \"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring\", one of George's favourite anthems. The entire school came over from Kowloon to attend and the Cathedral was filled to overflowing.\n\nExcept on this one occasion the Cathedral's silence has remained unbroken by the boys. But in my time, as a member of the school's matriculation class of 1919, I can recall vividly St John's Cathedral ringing with the mirthful sounds of myriads of boys Sunday after Sunday. That was before the school was removed from Hong Kong to Kowloon.\n\nThe school at that time was a puritanical one. Discipline was strict. As boarders we had to attend numerous church services. The senior boys had first to attend Communion at St John's at 6.50 a.m. every Sunday morning. This entailed a long walk from the school, which was then situated in Bonham Road at its junction with Eastern Street. This entailed rising before the normal reveille bell sounded at 6 a.m. It was usually the Rev. W.T. Featherstone, M.A. (Oxon), who was headmaster of the school, who officiated at that early morning service. He had a melodious voice which was well suited to the sung Eucharist.\n\nOn returning to school after communion, all the boys including the very young ones had to march to St Peter's Church in\n\n* See plate 48.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210406, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "Treasurer's concurrence. In this connection I wish to report that our former Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Anne Porter, after a year in post has returned to New Zealand for further study. She has been succeeded by Mrs. Rukhshana Daroowala who has quickly got to grips with our problems and is helping us to improve our situation daily.\n\nThe Nixon Scroll and the MacMullen Bills of Lading\n\nThese important items, which have been already in safe deposit since presentation many years ago, have now been presented to the Fung Ping Shan Museum and the University of Hong Kong Libraries respectively, and are now held by these institutions, following a council decision in the matter to place them where they would be useful.\n\nSale of Publications\n\nI have mentioned the need to sell as well as to produce publications. In this regard, I am glad to report that Dr. David Faure has produced a revised list of our publications, copies of which are available to-night. This list is being despatched to overseas members, and to universities and similar institutions with a known interest in Chinese and Far Eastern studies throughout the world, in an endeavour to improve sales, and increase our income.\n\nIncreased Membership\n\nLast year I reported that membership was down. 12 months ago there were 475 members compared with 543 the year before. I am happy to report that, as a result of increased publicity and a membership drive by councillors, the number of members now stands at 530. This comprises 4 Honorary Members, 99 Local Life Members, 297 Local Ordinary Members and 130 Overseas Life and Ordinary Members. The present number of local Ordinary Members is 297 compared with 263 last year and 311 in 1983.\n\nWe have every reason to think that this increase will continue. There is clearly an interest in our programmes, and it is only\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210512, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "BARBARA E. WARD\n\nobviously be impossible for people whose fishing vessels do double duty as family homes to take this extreme view, and women once on board it would be uneconomic not to make use of their labour.\n\nNevertheless a few notions of pollution do apply. During the period under review in Kau Sai, a menstruating woman was not supposed to board a boat (other than her own dwelling) on which there was a shrine, she should not draw water from a well, nor should she take part in shooting nets or lines. There was no prohibition upon her helping to draw the nets in, it being assumed that the part of the fishing operations which was subject to supernatural influence was by that stage over and done with. These taboos were merely the extensions to the fishing people's world of views on pollution shared also by the landspeople, and including such customs as the careful separation of men's from women's clothes during washing and drying, the rule that no female should step over a male, that no male should ever wash or bathe in water previously used by a female, and that no menstruating woman should take any part in religious ritual.\n\nThis set of beliefs helps to explain also why so few boat women can swim, even though this disability leads quite frequently to death by drowning. Once past the age of 10, or a little more or less, the girls in Kau Sai gave up sea bathing, and unless they had become exceptionally good swimmers already they seemed to lose the knack. Most of the explanations I was given were in terms of proper female modesty. Certainly it was true that the girls' withdrawal from water play did take place at much the same time as the general separation of female from male play groups. Moreover all little girls, even when very small, always went swimming with all their clothes on. It does not follow that ideas of pollution played no part in local cultural explanations. On the contrary I was twice told specifically that the \"real\" (boon-loi, lit. original) reason for women not being able to swim was just this fear of uncleanness. On both occasions my informants were women, and they were careful to warn me that one did not talk about these matters in mixed company. One harbour boat woman explained the whole set of attitudes about the proper behaviour between the sexes by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210546, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "134\n\nJOHN KARL EVANS\n\nmuch the same thing, despite the fact that her village was land-rich: in Ch'i-nan, observance of the death-day anniversary “is a sign that the deceased has living descendants who personally remember him.\"58 Long ago, Sir Henry Maine likewise concluded that in classical antiquity the great-grandfather was the most remote ascendant to whom offerings would customarily be tendered.59 It is for the Roman historian a tempting hypothesis, and there is a certain amount of evidence that can be submitted in its support. Ovid speaks in general terms of the sacrifices which the grandson offers to his grandfather (Fasti 5.426), while Aeneas, the hero of the Virgilian epic, who celebrates the death-day anniversary of his father Anchises but not that of his grandfather (Aen. 5.49-103), typifies the more specific materials at our disposal. More to the point, as we shall see, the Romans were not at all optimistic in this regard, and devised plans that at times are ingenious in an effort to secure perpetual offerings. Still, we cannot say with any confidence at what moment they expected these to cease in the absence of such careful planning. There must be a reasonable body of data at hand before a generalization such as Maine's is warranted, and in this instance, that threshold has not yet been reached.\n\nThis example notwithstanding, there are questions that can profitably be explored, and we may begin with a deceptively simple item: what is it that obligates any given individual to sacrifice to another? More precisely, is this obligation defined in terms of kinship, the transmission of property, or a combination of both? In the Chinese context, it is universally agreed that an individual who is descended from the lineage ancestors, who has married and produced sons, and transmitted his property to them, must be accorded an honourable place in the ancestral shrine and receive the sacrificial offerings. Many married couples, however, remain childless, or only have daughters, who are destined to venerate the spirits of their husbands' ascendants. What options are available to these unfortunate persons, if they are to avoid becoming kinless hungry ghosts? In Ch'i-nan, Ahern discovered that an only child has an absolute obligation to attend to his or her ancestors, and especially the parents and grandparents. This duty extends to a daughter who has married, a son who has married uxorilocally, and even to a child adopted", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210572, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "160\n\nWEI PEH TI\n\nhad to share the house with local fauna.\n\nI have lots of company over here in the way of rats and bats and in the summer scorpions and mosquitoes. Last summer Mrs. Malcolm killed ten scorpions over here and caught about half that many rats. The bats are here still,...29\n\nSingle women missionaries in larger communities, especially those teaching in schools, were found by Jane Hunter to be sharing quarters. They tried to furnish their residences to resemble their own homes as much as they could, some even bringing with them piano and other pieces of furniture. In comparison, Edith's quarters at Taiho were basic indeed. There were rugs in the bedrooms, which the local population duly admired, but elsewhere the floors were of cold brick.30 Chinese tiled roofs might be picturesque, but they did not serve well when it rained.\n\nI had to have the roof mended not long ago for every rain saw me placing basins and pails around. And the roof mender nearly landed through twice, much to my consternation.31\n\nEdith began to wear Chinese clothing as soon as she arrived at Yangchow. Describing this novelty, she wrote to Louese:\n\nOur Chinese clothes are very warm. You would laugh if you could see me, so we did at each other when we first put them on. Would you be interested for me to describe what I have on? We wear foreign underclothes, but try to dress as much like the natives on the outside as possible.12\n\nDespite efforts on the part of foreign missionaries to fit into the Chinese community, they remained an enigma to the local populace. The Chinese women could not understand what Edith was doing in their midst and gave their own interpretations.\n\nThey cannot understand single women away from home in a strange place. I am generally accepted as Mr. Malcolm's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210585, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "173\n\ncrows come into the city to roost, as it is warmer than their summer estates.\n\nThey are really Chinese crows for they quarrel a great deal and like to live huddled together. I have seen hundreds sleeping in one tree and they make little villages at nesting time. Several times have I seen as many as eight nests in one tree and it's rarely you see just one. They are great thieves too and carry away a great many eggs. Any one keeping chickens has to watch closely for the eggs for the crow is cute enough to hear the hen cackle and immediately flies down and off with the egg. I have seen a crow sit for a long time watching one of our hens in the nest just waiting his chance, and another time he got it but as he flew it fell and then he sat a long time on the wall debating how it happened. Perhaps he thought of the rhyme \"All the king's horses and all the king's men could never put Humpty-dumpty together again.\"\n\nI still have bats; fear of them is a thing of the past. They live somewhere in the peaks of the roof. I had to have the roof mended not long ago for every rain saw me placing basins and pails around. And the roof mender nearly landed through twice, much to my consternation. I had quite a roof garden of blooming fungi, but he swept it all away. I don't know what it is, whether it's fungus or cactus, but it grows on roofs and walls and has a very pretty white flower, very waxy looking.\n\nMy house is separated from the two-story house by a little garden which I told you before. In the picture I haven't put anything in the garden, but in front of the right-hand window is a grape arbor and vines, in front of the arbor is an old pomegranate tree. The width of the garden is all that belongs to us that way, but our compound is long from the front to the back. If you would be interested in a plan of the compound I can send you a rough one on request.\n\nWe have many unfriendly neighbors in the back lane and Mr. Malcolm is trying to do something for them, so every day just about the time they are eating their food we three stand at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210588, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "176 \n\nWEI PEH T'I \n\nFeb. 17 1904 \n\nChina Inland Mission \n\nTaiho via Wuhu, China \n\nMy dear Louese: \n\nThank you very much for the beautiful calendar. It is most acceptable and I do thank you for the kind thought of me. I have been amusing myself above, trying to picture for you the pig-tails I have to look at very many mornings at Chinese prayers. A good part of the time the two Evangelists are out at work in the surrounding districts, but the other four are there, and most always, my teacher who has a very nice tail indeed. The caps are only worn in the winter and have a red button on the top. Sometimes the barber comes and he is in mourning so he wears a white button and a white cord is braided into his hair and his shoes and white. At the funeral he would wear a white gown and a white kind of labor's cap, or a piece of homespun muslin around his head. \n\nWe had a little girl here visiting us sometime ago because her mother had just died and she looked something like this, and she wears the white trousers and white on her head for some months, but the white shoes a year or more. A few scratches of my pen and you have a little idea but I am no \"artist\". \n\nThis has been a busy day, but nothing like yesterday. It is Chinese New Year and the people began coming before we had finished our breakfast, 7.30, and they kept it up all day. Some come to pay their respects and some say they do too, but it's more to get the tea and sweets which we provide. We began by giving each one cakes, nuts and sweets and tea, but the people came in such crowds and the things disappeared so rapidly we had to dwindle the giving down till it was tea and nothing more. Mrs. Malcolm has been better able to preach to them today, for there have not been so many and consequently more ready to stay awhile. Yesterday at one time we each had a room full and both talked at once. At this time the \n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210600, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "188\n\nANTHONY FARRINGTON\n\nan essential preliminary to any such scheme.\"\n\nA reformulated version in 1670 incorporated this suggestion and added Taiwan. Beginning in 1672 three ships a year were to be sent to Japan, one via Tongking and the others via Taiwan. Tongking would supply silk, musk, skins and tutenague for Japan; Taiwan would supply hides and sugar. On the return voyage the three ships would separate: one to Surat, one to Madras, and the third to Taiwan, Tongking and Bantam, to pick up any commodities suitable for Europe.\n\nUnlike the early years before 1623, the East India Company seems to have begun to appreciate that the whole area of South-East and East Asia, from Malaysia to Japan, formed a region-wide commercial unit, criss-crossed by an inter-dependent trade network powered by the monsoons. What the Company was now attempting to do, as the Dutch had already done, was to insert itself into a Chinese dominated system of exchange.\n\nLooking back from the Company's commercial and political strength a century later it is perhaps tempting to see the Japan scheme as a second-best alternative or a prelude to trade with mainland China. However, more than 25 years ago at least one historian argued that the gradual development of trade with China only took place against a background of failure in Japan and difficulties in Tongking, and that it was not until the decade 1674-1684 that interest really shifted from Japan to China. The possibility of direct access to China had agitated Richard Cocks at Hirado in Japan between 1613-1623. But the Company paid little attention to his dreams and the archives covering the new 'East Asian push' of the 1660s and 1670s give China only passing mention. Morse throws Tongking into his confused narrative as a mere extension of China and states that Tongking was the only accessible source for the bulk supply of Chinese silks. The English factory diary, though, makes it quite clear that the silk trade out of the Red River was not a matter of re-export but handled a local product.\n\nIt seems incredible now that the East India Company never considered that they might not be allowed to re-enter Japan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210699, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "33\n\nnominated E.R. Belilios. The only way in for Francis was by election by the Justices or the General Chamber of Commerce of which he was a member. He suffered a number of handicaps one of which was that he was not a businessman. He was present at a meeting of the Justices in 1884 to elect a member and expressed regret that Justices who were officials had, at the request of the Governor, declined to vote. He said they should either use their vote or, better, have no vote. In 1886 he was a candidate for the Justices seat. He published his interest in the newspapers saying \"I honestly believe I can do the colony good and faithful service and better than any other man. I am nearly one of the oldest residents. I came here in 1859. Since 1862 I have taken a lively and I hope intelligent interest in the affairs of the colony. I have some knowledge of business and its requirements and am deeply interested in the prosperity and progress of Hong Kong as a whole. It is my home, my life's work is here and I rise or fall with its fortunes\". He referred to his practice as a speaker and training as a lawyer and said he was thoroughly independent in all things. He said he was in favour of maintaining absolute freedom of the port and improving the harbour, changing the method of dealing in land and reforming the Legislative Council including increasing the number and powers of unofficials.\n\nAn editorial in the Daily Press said “false modesty is not a failing of our eminent counsellor any more than want of courage. However the Justices may require other guarantees from their candidate. They may also object that Mr. Francis whilst perhaps independent now has not always been equally so and the tone he now takes smacks rather too much of constant and indiscriminating opposition to the Government. There is some reason to doubt whether the best interest of the colony would be best served by a lawyer. Mr. Chater would be a better member\". Francis replied “unofficial members are permanently in opposition but obstruction for the sake of obstruction is a thing I hate and detest. I pride myself on having been in all things and at all times absolutely independent in thought and word. I have spoken and acted in support of what I thought right when it was in my interest in every sense to do otherwise\". The paper responded “Nine years ago Mr. Francis and two other barristers (Ng Choy and Hayllor) arrayed with the Governor against almost every member of the British and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210732, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "66\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nin future planting programmes:\n\nNative Country Remarks\n\nBotanical Name\n\nTristanea conferta Australia\n\nCeltis sinensis Hong Kong\n\nFrom 100 to 150 ft. high... etc. grows very rapidly and well in H.K.\n\nA fine tree which grows well and can be propagated readily from seed which is produced in abundance.\n\nMany trees were planted on the roadsides 2 years ago which have grown very rapidly. Two rows bordering the side of the Peak Road would also have done well if they had been attended to in pruning during this and last year.\n\nDespite the prevalence and destructive power of typhoons Mr. Ford was able to report in 1879:\n\n\"The general appearance of the Gardens has been decidedly in advance of previous years. The collection of Cacti continues to thrive well. On the sides of the walk next to the Fountain Terrace the trees of Grevilea robusta now form a very effective avenue. The trees were planted when they were one year old, in 1876 and they are now about thirty feet high. Near the Fernery in the Old Garden a collection of Orchids indigenous to Hong Kong has been made. Many of the more beautiful and interesting plants of this Colony have been introduced to the Gardens and I am now continuing this work.... The collection of coniferous trees in the New Garden has been partly rearranged... the Palms have quite filled the ground, and excepting very dwarf kinds, no", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210749, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "83\n\nthe right direction. At that time the Shek O men worked as seamen and their farm land was idle. The newcomers did vegetable gardening and fishing, renting farm land from Shek O people. To explain why the locals accepted the newcomers, Mr. Lau said that the local population was only some 300 at that time. The newcomers had built their houses on Crown land, which Mr. Lau said was ba-wong-dei, i.e. land which was claimed by the exertion of physical presence in force.\n\nBesides the predominately Western residents of the “villas”, there were newcomers from the cities too. One woman who started a brief conversation with me when preparing among others the final offerings to the ghosts told me that her husband who worked in an accounting firm moved to Shek O some 20 years ago in his forties because he liked the place. Among the newcomers was also a Tanka family.\n\nShek O has a temple for Tin Hau, who was the main god of the jiu celebration. According to Professor Tanaka Issei, the oldest dated object found in the temple was a bin-ngaak inscription dated the eighteenth year of Gwong-seui (1893).* Immediately to the left of the Tin Hau temple is a Residents' Association which organized an annual celebration in honour of Tin Hau. Third in the row of houses is the Man San Sports Association. I remember that the primary school is also named Man San, and at one of the shops or tea-houses near the bus stop, there was a poster announcing the results of football matches organized by the Man San Sports Association.\n\nAccording to Mr. Wong, the Shek O Residents Association takes care of local public affairs, relaying messages from the Hong Kong Government. It liaises with the South District Office and the Chai Wan district police headquarters. I saw a poster inviting entries for a South District Festival competition, with \"forms available from the Shek O Association” added in handwriting. The officers of the association also organize the annual opera performances in honour of Tin Hau. Mr. Lau saw the association as essentially a development of the village office (heung-gung-so) of pre-War times. The association has almost 2,000 members, although some of the Shek O residents do not join. Mr. Lau could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210750, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "84\n\nCHAN WING HOI\n\nnot give any figures for the ratio between indigenous residents and newcomers among the members, but he stressed that no distinction was made between the two groups (mou-san pei-chi).\n\nIt seems, nonetheless, that the Hoklo, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau residents see themselves as distinctive groups in the settlement. There is probably a separate association for them, for many of the flags put on display in the entrance area were styled \"to the Fuk-Wai-Chiu [a short term for Fuk Kin, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau] fellow townsmen\" or their Association.'\n\nI found out less about Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. In these two settlements, too, the indigenous villagers had been Hakka and Punti people who practised paddy cultivation and fishing. Many of the men of more recent generations worked as seamen and their descendants were able to obtain jobs in the city. As in the case of Shek O, outside interest in their scenic surroundings has been a major factor in the changes in the last few decades.\n\nI talked with Mr. Yau Ho Sam, who moved to Tai Long Wan about 40 years ago. His native place was Zheng Cheng, but before he moved to Tai Long Wan, he had lived at Wong Chuk Hang. There were only some ten families at Tai Long Wan when he arrived. Now there are more than 100. The original inhabitants were mainly Hakka although some were Punti. According to Mr. Wong, Tai Long Wan is still a mainly Hakka village, although there are also some Punti, Chiu Chau and Hoklo people. Tourist facilities can be seen in the village, and there are some Westerners' residences.\n\nFor Hok Tsui most of my information comes from the man who drove the Taoist priests to his village in his van for the daily haang-chiu procession in the festival. In the past the village had 40 indigenous households. Now there are fewer. The villagers were mainly Hakka. His family has been here for ten generations, counting to his grandsons. In the past many worked as seamen. They probably became wealthy in that occupation. There is a watch tower (diu-lau) in the main village (jing-chyn) for protection against bandits, said to be the only watch tower left on Hong Kong Island. I observed that many of the present houses were not in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210751, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "85\n\nusual style of indigenous houses. He confirmed that those were pig farms and small factories - making beancurd, vehicle body, etc. run by outsiders. A few years ago the land of the whole village was sold to a developer for construction of luxury residences, but the developer had not yet taken possession of the land. Few villagers remained; many, in all likelihood, had moved out to live in the city. He also told me the village had a Bak Dai temple, which I did not see. Formerly, they used to select the ritual representatives for their own jiu celebrations at this temple. They later joined Shek O and Tai Long Wan because there were not enough people to take up the work required by a separate celebration.\n\nIII. Participants\n\nAs in the case of the jiu celebrations in the New Territories, participants at the jiu paid a subscription and had their names included in a list put up in a major rite on the main day. They also participated by organizing the festival and by taking part in worship, while a minority took leading roles or represented the celebrating population in the rites. Unlike most jiu festivals in the New Territories, these participants included later settlers as well as indigenous residents.\n\nI noticed that there were about 550 entries in the contribution list posted on one side of the entrance to the main ritual area. Members of the same family were grouped together, as in the New Territories, in the list of participants. There were altogether about 220 families, many of them covering three generations.\n\nIn the case of Shek O, participation and subscription were not required of all residents, indigenous or otherwise. Moreover, the amount of subscription was left to each individual participant. Three men were selected as the yn-sau ritual representatives by casting bui divination blocks at the Tin Hau temple. The chosen three were called the yn-sau and his two \"deputies\". All the other participants, even if they were foreigners, were indiscriminately called seun-si (believers), which title was reserved for indigenous residents at the New Territories celebrations. After the ritual representatives were chosen, Choi Paak Lai, a well-known date-chooser, was consulted for the dates and times for the major", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210757, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "91\n\nlanterns affixed on the posts shone on Shek O and Tai Long Wan people.\n\nThe priests and ritual representatives visited the faan-gon posts and made offerings three times a day in a procession called haang-chiu (audience procession). When I followed one of those processions in Shek O, however, I discovered that not all four of the faan-gon posts were erected at the corners of the settlement. The first faan-gon post in Shek O visited by the haang-chiu procession was between the school playground and the quarters of the cleansing unit of the Urban Services Department. One of the local members of the procession volunteered the information that the post was set up there because three years ago a fatal accident took place at the spot. Two young boys who lived in the quarters of the cleansing unit were playing there when a stone pillar fell down suddenly and killed both of them.\n\nV. The local gods\n\nThe Tin Hau was represented by her wooden image at the centre of the altar. Behind the image was a piece of red paper on which the titles of ten local deities were written. With the exception of the Sea Goddess (shui sin) of the small temple at one edge of Shek O Beach, they were Baak-gung and Daai-wong earth gods of Tai Long Wan, Shek O, and Seung Wai. One of them, styled jang-paang daai-wong (earth god of the stakenets), was a reminder of the former fishing activities of the local residents. Many others had probably existed for the protection of villagers in fishing and farming. The change in land use is evident in the reply given by Mr. Wong, the local leader, when asked where the god's place was. He said, \"Below the number 10 alley of the Westerners' residences of Tai Long Wan,\" linking the god with the change that had taken place in the locality. He gave the same description for the location of another god, the Earth god of the Banyan Tree Place. For the Seung Wai daai-wong, he explained that it was below no. 1 alley, which had become a residential area for Westerners. It used to be the villagers' settlement which was removed to Shek O for the construction of the golf club. There were also three gods whose names were not known to Mr. Wong. He believed that those were from Hok Tsui, the village which joined in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210763, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "97\n\nsaw a young man carrying the paper image of a horse, and another young man chasing him. Both were running in the direction of Tai Long Wan. This was part of the se-su (letter of pardon) rite. I learned subsequently from one of the ritual representatives that the two were expected to pass the same spots as the procession of the previous day did. The priests read the memorial after the horse and chaser returned. The rite was followed immediately by a brief performance of Floating the Water Lanterns, the usual rite preceding the final Offering to Ghosts.\n\nThere were more than a dozen middle-aged women preparing paper offerings for the Offering to Ghosts. They claimed to be indigenous residents. This was confirmed by another person I asked. The villagers present were well aware of what was going to take place: \"This evening the daai-si-wong is going to be paraded to as far as Tai Long Wan, and the priests will chant until midnight.” At Tai Long Wan where I went with the priests and the ritual representatives for the haang-chiu procession in the early afternoon, I overheard one young man telling somebody to send someone to Shek O to prepare the Tai Wong Ye [daai-si-wong] for the procession.\n\nThe procession started at about 6:15 in the evening. The daai-si-wong was carried by young men down the main streets of Shek O and then to Tai Long Wan. I later noticed that Mr. Wong and the other leaders in the festival were in the crowd. Most of the participants were young men. At Shek O a few women came out from their homes to greet the procession. Mr. Lam, the seaman, was among the crowd with his wife, but only as an on-looker. He told me that half the participants of the procession were indigenous villagers and half more recent settlers, and that the man who gave command through a loudspeaker was a Tanka whose parents had moved here almost 20 years ago. (He said descendants of newcomers like him mostly worked in the civil service. \"They are indistinguishable from us the indigenous boys.”) Many children and some married women followed. I heard some of the latter making the remark to themselves \"gan-jy haang, haang hou-wan” (follow the daai-si-wong and have good luck). When the procession started for Tai Long Wan one woman came to relay the warning that women were not to follow the daai-si-wong, or at least not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210804, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "138\n\nD.L. MICHALK\n\nSince the departure of resident specialists from Gaopoling Farm in 1984, pasture development has been continued by Chinese technicians on at least four other farms in Guangdong with the sowing of about 2,500 ha of improved pasture in 1984 and 85 and the production of 25 tonne of pasture seed. This brings the total area of improved rangeland in Guangdong to approximately 4,000 ha. More important than area developed was the fact that different methods have been developed for each farm to suit the environmental conditions and resource constraints. This is evidence that Gaopoling Farm has been truly effective in demonstrating the principles of range improvement and has not simply promoted an Australian-style pasture development recipe.\n\nConclusion\n\nIn this paper, the history and gradual development of Hainan Island have been traced in accordance with the information gathered from western sources and contemporary experience. Regarding the future of this tropical nook, Frederick Mayers wrote in 1872;\n\n\"It remains for coming years to lift the veil of uncertainty, and to decide whether so rich and productive, but neglected an expanse of territory is to continue in its present state or to become a valuable contributor to the world's wealth by means of the admission of western enterprise and commercial relations\".\n\nIt is this author's belief that this statement is still as relevant to the development of the \"Shore of Pearls\" as it was when penned a century ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210837, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "171\n\nWhen a few days past A-sow had been hunting for some paper in the drawer, he came across the bills and decided to make further inquiry. Hence his appearance with two of them at the police station. The others he had sent to the Oriental Bank to find out what they were worth.\n\nThe magistrate asked A-sow some pertinent questions. Why had he put the bills away in the drawer if he thought they were of no value?\n\nWhy now did he think they might be of value? Inasmuch as A-sow could read English readily, he must have noted that they were the property of a firm in Canton. Why, therefore, had he not spoken to Dr. Legge about them so they could have been sent to Canton?\n\nA-sow denied he knew the man who said he found the £300 in 1849, and who now stood charged with robbery. However, a police officer said that previous to the hearing A-sow had acknowledged knowing the prisoner. Upon being faced with this contradictory statement, A-sow said he had heard some of the boys in the school speak of him and his desire to find out the value of what he had found.\n\nA-sow, however, was unable to remember who the boys were, but under further questioning he mentioned the name of A-hone. A-hone was sent for and testified that about a year ago the prisoner had come to him asking about the paper he had found. A-hone had told him it was worth £300. The coolie who, as it was claimed, had originally given the bills to A-sow had absconded, so his account could not be heard.\n\nThe changes in A-sow's evidence put an unfavourable light on his role in the affair.\n\nThe editor of the Friend of China used the incident to inveigh against giving an English language education to Chinese youth. He had a sharp pen and was not in sympathy with the missionary enterprise. In his attack he used language which reflected a warped view of Chinese people.\n\nI\n\n·\n\n---\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210934, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 284, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "LANTERN FESTIVAL, CHEUNG CHAU, 10TH FEBRUARY 1971\n\n1\n\n267\n\nI had received invitations from several of the island's fellow countrymen, that is “district”, associations (鄉親會) to join them on Cheung Chau for the Lantern Festival, and went over for the evening. The Rural Committee Chairman, Mr. Chau Li-ping (周立平先生), met me at the pier and took me to the Sei Yap Yick Sin Tong Association (四邑益善堂) dinner in the Ho Tai Sun Restaurant (好泰新酒家). The leading kaifong members were there and I was able to join them on their usual tour of all district association celebrations taking place at the same time on that evening.\n\nThere were twenty tables at the Sei Yap Association dinner, and entertainment was provided by a Sei Yap group from Hong Kong singing modern songs. There was a stage in the street outside the restaurant on which they would perform later, and this was a popular attraction when we passed later in the evening. They changed four years ago from old-style entertainment. The cost of hiring the singers for two nights was $1,400.\n\nWe then went to the Tung Koon Association (東莞同鄉會) dinner in the restaurant beside the playground at Tung Wan (東灣). There were twenty-eight tables and many Tung Koon association leaders from Hong Kong and other parts of the New Territories were seated on the stage. Speeches went on all the time we were there (we only had a drink at this celebration). There was no sign of entertainment inside, and the stage was apparently provided on street.\n\nWe next visited the Shun Tak Association (順德同鄉會) dinner in the Rural Committee Country Club premises. I forgot to ask the number of tables, but it must have been about twenty. An auction for association funds was in progress, with the emphasis on selling decorative lanterns. I did not see any sign of an entertainment group and there was apparently no stage on the streets provided by this body.\n\nWe went from there to the Po On District Association's (寶安縣同鄉會) celebration at a restaurant on the waterfront beside...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210964, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 26, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "OBITUARY: K. M. A. BARNETT, O.B.E.\n\nThree contributions to the memory of a remarkable man, Fellow of the RAS of Great Britain and Ireland (1949) and a founding member of the Hong Kong Branch: from James Hayes, Derek Davies, Solomon Bard.\n\nThree weeks ago one of the most distinguished retired members of the Civil Service passed away in England. Mr. K. M. A. Barnett's death was noted in the South China Morning Post on 30 October 1987. A factual account of his services was provided, beginning with his posting here as a young Cadet Officer in 1932 and ending 37 years later with his retirement from Hong Kong, but with a further 10 years' service for the United Nations Organisation in Malawi and Bangladesh on duties connected with the census.\n\nIt is difficult to do justice to this exceptional man. Few friends of his own or a later generation could claim to have covered quite the same ground, or in the same way. For this reason, letters of appreciation have to come from several persons, and not from one pen alone. Dr. Bard's letter printed on 20 November is a case in point, (see pp. 8-10 below).\n\nAs a Hong Kong civil servant his greatest achievement was probably the 1961 Census, the first for nearly thirty years. He established the office (the present Census and Statistics Department) and was its guiding genius. The work suited him to a “T”, for he was able to bring to its organisation and subsequent reporting, all the knowledge, experience and intellectual qualities that make it a lasting and major landmark in the history of Hong Kong's post-war development. Each segment of the land and sea population, by origin and occupation, each type of dwelling place (and they were legion in those hard times), education, marriage and much else was covered in the 3 volume report, and he personally wrote the manuals for the field staff and supervisors. He conducted further investigatory work, including the 1966 By-census, before retirement in 1969.\n\nMy own association with Ken Barnett stemmed from our being colleagues in the Administrative Grade of the Civil Service, and from shared interests. He was District Commissioner, New Territories when I was posted to the District Office (South) in 1957, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210966, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "papers that I was preparing for publication or for some academic conference, in the hope that he would respond. He invariably did so. He had a wealth of information to draw upon, and his replies always provided insights and incisive comments. They were also full of humour. The eleven pages of closely-typed notes and comments on my book The Rural Communities of Hong Kong (1983 Oxford University Press, Hong Kong) was a particular joy, but this quality was evident in practically everything he wrote. For instance, he perplexed me one day early in my career by writing in a file, “DO South should kindly explain why the Clearwater Bay villages are full of children none of whom have ever been born” a reference to non-compliance with the registration requirements of the Births and Deaths Ordinance.\n\nI once sent one of his letters to Sir Ronald Holmes. He returned it with a note, \"Thank you so much for letting me see this most interesting and also, like all good writing, highly evocative. It is nice to know that Ken is still going so strong”. This was written in late 1975.\n\nI have two favourite anecdotes. One is his amusing account of a pre-war traffic accident case when he was Police Magistrate, Kowloon. Let him tell it himself. \"I do not have anything polite to say to those who regard ‘Europeans’ and ‘Asians’ as separate species, like the witnesses in a case I heard 32 years ago almost to the day (1937) in which the ten passengers in a New Territories bus were described by one witness as ‘two other people, besides myself and seven coolies’ and by a second witness as ‘seven people and three GWAEZIRLOO’ (i.e. foreigners).” He added later \"I am glad to see this perfectly true story immortalised. Alas, England is getting as bad.\"\n\n... \n\nThe other story was told to me recently by Dr. Graham Johnson, of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. When he began the field work for his doctoral thesis on Tsuen Wan in the late 1960s he wanted information from the Census Office. He telephoned Mr. Barnett who said he was happy to meet him, but would like him to go to a sauna for the purpose. This surprised Graham but along he went, and his first meeting with Ken was in the nude, in the heat and steam. Thereafter, he said, they were able", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210970, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "7\n\nreader's thoughts must carry on.\n\n+\n\n+\n\nThis poem is an example of\n\nthe ferocious difficulty of putting across the idea in another language, while not losing the cameo effect.\n\nSoftly drips the clepsydra\n\nDim the incense glows\n\nKeen keen, a blade of wind\n\nBlows, rests, blows:\n\n春色惱人眠不滿\n\n:南風陣:郭\n\n上眠\n\nM] T\n\nAlong the wall, fantastic\n\nMooncast shadows creep\n\nSpring torments torments me\n\n+ 4\n\nWill not let me sleep.\n\nI forget who it's by; I have mislaid my copy, only I have many of these poems by heart; in [wartime prison] camp there was plenty of time for learning Tang and Sung poems by heart.\n\nI leave it to others to judge the quality of his translations and whether his verse was merely minor; instinctively, I find it comforting when those wielding power spend their spare hours writing poetry. But that is an illogical piece of sentimentality. Mao Zedong was a versifier. And a few weeks ago I interviewed President Ershad of Bangladesh. After telling me how well his country was progressing towards the restoration of full democracy (though admittedly the opposition and the press were, he felt, abusing their new freedoms), he presented me with another volume of his somewhat sentimental verse (REVIEW, 12 Nov.).\n\nAlmost as soon as he got back to Dhaka, the rage against his rule exploded against a man who wrote:\n\nPeace, only peace\n\nthat is all we want.\n\nDEREK DAVIES\n\nReprinted, by permission, from the Far Eastern Economic Review, 3rd Dec., 1987.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210971, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "Some time ago you published an obituary of Mr. K. M. A. Barnett (South China Morning Post, October 30). News of his sudden death must have saddened deeply his many friends and admirers in Hongkong. I should be grateful if you would add the following notes as a personal tribute to this remarkable man.\n\nHis talent in so many fields never ceased to amaze me. This perhaps showed best in his brilliance as a linguist. Apart from his superb knowledge of the Chinese language, including several dialects, he was fluent in at least 20 other languages (I am not sure of the precise number) and even recently he was still adding new ones to his large repertoire. He used to say that after the first introduction to a new language it would take him a mere four to six weeks to gain a working knowledge.\n\nKen Barnett's impact on the study and research in Hongkong history was immense and inspired many to follow his lead. As a scholar of local history, he injected imagination and vision, adding a new and exciting dimension to the subject.\n\nTrue, some of us among his followers did not always share his theories, perhaps because of our own shortcomings. He saw ancient Sung dynasty fortifications in the valleys of the New Territories, where we could see none; he discerned archaic Chinese writing in the patterns of Hongkong's ancient rock carvings, where we could see none. But who can be sure? The rock carvings are still a mystery and perhaps future researchers will prove Ken Barnett right.\n\nFor him the richness and the fascination of Hongkong heritage lay in the New Territories. He was a great walker and knew every square inch of his beloved New Territories. Little escaped his keen eyes. He discovered old disused fields, ancient stone walls and a stone circle on Lamma Island which is still a mystery and is possibly the earliest man-made stone structure in the territory. The list is long.\n\nWe first became friends before the war, as fellow-officers in the Volunteers. He was a gunner-officer, capable and resourceful, as with his other interests.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210989, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "26\n\ngiant dams, expressways, large-scale forestry felling, with 'appropriate technologies' better adjusted to the natural and social environment? How to check the power and influence of foreign technicians indifferent to local problems? How to control the abysmal growth of destitute shanty towns? These basic problems of China have become the problems of Amazonia, South Asia, Black Africa, Melanesia. The interests of some Parisian intellectuals may have shifted elsewhere, but other intellectuals have remained deeply concerned with the relevance, or the irrelevance, of our Western model of development for less affluent countries. In a recent book dealing with the problems of development, Edgard Pisani, a French intellectual who is also a former French High Commissioner in New Caledonia, has compared the energy gains offered by a large-scale modern dam with the energy savings of 5,000 peasant earthenware stoves. His point is this: these 5,000 stoves are very cheaply produced and they save the heat otherwise wasted when the kettle was just put on stones; these stoves compare very favourably in terms of energy gains with the expensive dam built by transnational corporations under the supervision of highly-paid foreign experts. Pisani is a moderate social democrat. He never indulged in radical Maoism. Yet his argument clearly amounts to a posthumous and quite unexpected validation of some basic themes of the Great Leap Forward thirty years ago.\n\nFrom Watteau paintings and the Pompadour festivities to peasant stoves in Black Africa, from the Confucian mirage of the eighteenth century to the Maoist mirage of the twentieth century, from Victor Hugo's maledictions against Anglo-French vandalism in Peking to the Gaullian joint celebration of France de toujours and Chine de toujours, from the Philosophes' appeal to China against the tyranny of the old monarchy to the New Radicals' appeal to China against the tyranny of the Western model of development, the story of Sino-French intellectual relations for the last three centuries has been extraordinarily rich and diversified.\n\nFrom this kaleidoscopic sequence, possibly the most sensitive, the most radical and the most disruptive image is that of Baudelaire:\n\nJust as in the old days we would leave for China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210990, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "27\n\nOur eyes looking out to sea and our hair streaming in the wind\n\nWe shall sail henceforth for the Sea of Darkness Cheerful and lighthearted as a young traveller.\n\nWe were departing for China with our hair streaming in the wind, and here is the Sea of Darkness. The worldwide ecological environment is in mortal danger in soil and sea, forests and atmosphere. The Third World is facing insoluble indebtedness, suburban youth is threatened with mass dereliction, our uncontrolled agricultural surpluses are unable to cope with hundreds of millions of famine-stricken people. Such is the Sea of Darkness before us. Some people, in Baudelaire's own words, may nevertheless be sailing for Darkness of Chaos with the light heart of a young traveller, fascinated by the achievements of computers, space technologies, high-tech communications and the like. I have met such people and they do exist, in China itself as well as in the West. But others are more careful, more demanding, more realistic in the long run, and not only among French intellectuals.\n\nLong ago, the French Catholic radical thinker Pascal was, just like so many of us, fascinated by the unique position of China in world history. He wrote in his sundry notes, his Pensées:\n\nHistorie de Chine quoi éclaircir\n\n- \n\n+ \n\n+ \n\n+ \n\nIl y a de quoi aveugler et de\n\nMais la Chine obscurcit, dites-vous. Et je réponds: la Chine obscurcit mais il y a clarté à trouver. Cherchez-la\n\n20\n\nThere is in China enough to blind us and enough to illuminate us.\n\nBut China makes things obscure, wouldn't you say! And I reply: China makes things obscure, but there is light to be found. Seek it out!\n\nYes, there is light beyond the Sea of Darkness. I thank you.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211033, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "69 \n\nlished in 1884 by ex-pupils and prominent members of the Chinese community as a mark of respect for Dr. Frederick Stewart who had resigned as headmaster in 1881 after nearly twenty years service to the school; and various special prizes especially for proficiency in Chinese.\n\n26 \n\nHe was appointed under Colonial Standing Order 3248 of 1884, as from 1st January, 1885, at a salary of $300 per year.\n\n27 The authority for his appointment was CSO2202. His starting salary was $240 per annum.\n\n24 For details of the memorial system and the part played in its genesis in England by Andrew Bell (1753-1832) and Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), see John Lawson and Harold Silver, A Social History of Education in England (London: Methuen, 1973), pp. 241-246.\n\nIn one of Eitel's reports on the short-lived Normal School in Hong Kong, he refers to the \"Madras-born monitorial scheme of Bell and Lancaster\" being adopted at the Central School by Stewart. In Eitel's opinion, this scheme suffered in comparison with the Normal School because it did not include “the special private tuition and instruction”, presumably, in teaching rationale and methods. (CO129/202, p. 532).\n\nIn his Annual Report for the year 1866, for example, Stewart wrote: \"In my last Report I stated that I entertained the hope of being soon able to overcome many difficulties connected with the school by training Chinese assistants for their work. I then anticipated that I should always be able to retain two of the more advanced boys for a period of at least four years, after which they might, if they chose, find employment elsewhere and be succeeded by the two who stood next to them. The project has all but failed. The demand for the services of the more intelligent of the boys is so great that it is, in the meantime, hopeless to expect them to remain for any length of time. The two in whose case the experiment was tried have both left many months ago, just when they were beginning to be of real value to the school. I shall not, however, abandon the scheme. Out of several, it may be possible to retain some; and, as the knowledge of English becomes more general and situations more difficult to be obtained, the greater will be the probability that these Assistants will remain until, at least, others are qualified to take their place.” (Hong Kong Government Blue Book, 1866, pp. 279-280).\n\n30 The dispute was, in some ways, a continuation of the friction which existed between Frederick Stewart and Eitel after the separation of the duties of Headmaster of the Central School from those of the Inspector of Schools in 1878, first as an expedient measure while Dr. Stewart was on long leave in England and subsequently confirmed on Stewart's return to Hong Kong. Bateson Wright succeeded Stewart as Headmaster of the Central School in 1881. He inherited the bitter relations between the two leading education officers in the Government, but his own, quite positive personality, if anything, exacerbated the situation so much so, that the supervision of the Central School was taken away from the responsibilities of the Inspectorate and a “Dual System\" inaugurated whereby the Central School, renamed successively Victoria College and Queen's College, was administered and reported on by its own Headmaster and eventually examined by an independent Board which did not include the Inspector of Schools. The Dual System was kept in being until the retirement of Bateson Wright in 1909, when the Government's educational system was reunited and renamed the Education Department, headed by a Director of Education in place of the Inspector of Schools.11 Stokes (1962), p. 47.\n\n31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211043, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "79\n\nty] there are those who occasionally meet him in the forest. Not long ago there was somebody who traveled through Luofu and had to stay at night among the rocks. He then saw a man without clothes covered only with long hair. Thinking it must be a saint he approached him, saluted twice and asked about the way [Tao]. The man didn't even bother to look at him. He laughed with a sound that shook the trees and answered by chanting the verses: \"When the clouds arrive the hundred thousand mountains move. When the clouds retire the heaven is of but one colour, I repeatedly burst into long laughters. About the deserted mountain, the autumn moon turns white.” It was Yeren.\n\nThe key fact about Yeren in this account is that unlike Ge Hong and his wife, who ascended to heaven after ingesting the cinnabar, Huang Yeren somehow failed to achieve this, even with the cinnabar pill left behind for him by Ge Hong. In one version of this story which we heard at Mt. Luofu, there had been only half a pill left, and this accounted for his failure to levitate. (Perhaps this version is designed to deflect the implication that even with a whole pill of cinnabar, Yeren was not sincere enough or worthy enough, and hence could not levitate). We also heard a version of the story in which Yeren was late for the ascension because he was drunk (a version indignantly denied by others in a later conversation).\" In any case, Yeren became immortal but was stuck for some centuries on earth. He seems to have spent his time wandering in the hills, and engaging in the kind of behaviour which gained him the reputation of “the wild man.\" There are no biographical details available which might identify Yeren as an actual historical figure, although it is quite plausible to suppose that at least some Taoist hermits in the Mt. Luofu area were recluses, seldom seen, whose odd behaviour could have contributed to the development of a myth similar to that of Yeren, the wild man.\" In any case, this figure eventually was credited with several healings.\n\n16\n\nIn appears that there was a second historical Huang who became a Taoist hermit at Luofu about 500 years after the time of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211076, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "112\n\nA HOKLO WEDDING\n\nVALERY M. GARRETT\n\nDuring one of our many visits to Sha Tau Kok with Roger, my Hoklo-speaking assistant, to seek out traditional Chinese clothing for the Hong Kong Museum of History, we learned that a wedding would take place on Tuesday, 24th May 1988, for one of the families living in the squatter area of Yim Liu Ha. This is a district within Sha Tau Kok populated by approximately 3,000 Hoklo people who were due to be transferred to new blocks of rural housing during the latter part of 1988 onwards.\n\nWe were advised to arrive early, and so at 9:30 am on the appointed day we made our way through the village. It was easy to spot the home of the bridegroom, a hundred yards down one of the narrow streets, for around the doorway was draped a narrow length of red cotton, while in the centre, hanging from the lintel, was a freshly cut leg of pork. This was the home of Mr. Lee Sau Choy (李壽財), aged 29, who lived with his parents, three younger brothers, and two younger sisters. His parents were former boat people who had come ashore and settled in Yim Liu Ha some thirty years ago, although his father had continued to go to sea until fairly recently. Mr. Lee worked in Fanling as a fireman, and it was near there, at Kwan Tei, that his bride lived, Miss Lai Miu Han (黎妙嫻), aged 27 and a locally born Cantonese.\n\nThe marriage had already been registered in Tai Po, and the question of dowry settled. This had been in two parts: the first was a sum of money paid directly to the bride's family of several thousand dollars; the second part consisted of some gifts of gold jewellery given to the bride which, combined with the bride's family's gift of jewellery, would be brought back to the bridegroom's home that morning.\n\nInside the house, on both the left and facing right wall, was hung a blanket known as hei-pei (喜被). Upon each blanket was stitched a cut-out double-happiness character in silver paper, with dragon and phoenix painted on it. Above the character on the blanket on the left-hand wall were stitched two rows of four $500 notes, while", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211207, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "243\n\nMr. Macgregor then suggested that if Mr. Francis's interpretation was correct the original proposer should insert into his resolution the words, “in the Colony.\" This was done.\n\nIn what seemed a turnabout, Mr. Macgregor then moved an amendment that the words \"in the Colony\" be left out so that if \"this or any other meeting wished to vote funds for the Colonial Institute it could do so.” As the institute was Mr. Francis's scheme, he eagerly seconded the amendment. However when it was put to the meeting the amendment was defeated but the resolution was passed.\n\nThe chairman's irresolution seemed to be reflected in his remarks concerning the next proposition regarding the date of the observance of the Jubilee. He stated that though he had presented the resolution at the first meeting which set the date for November 9, he was not in favour of it.\n\nAs explanation he said: “It was given to me, and I proposed it as it was given to me.” Again his remarks were greeted with laughter. He even admitted that though he had made the resolution, he did not vote for it.\n\nAfter some haggling, the date was changed to June 21. The point had now arrived where at the previous meeting the park scheme had been adopted. The chairman asked for anyone who had a suggestion to bring it before the meeting.\n\nAs Dr. Manson's proposal had not been seconded, he would entertain Mr. Crow's suggestion. However, either out of politeness, obstinacy, or belief that he was adhering to proper procedure, Mr. Crow contradicted the chairman and said that Dr. Manson's proposal should have priority.\n\nThe chairman gave in and, since Dr. Manson was not present, asked someone to make the resolution. Again Mr. Crow stepped in and suggested it would be in order for the chairman himself to make the proposal. To this Mr. Ryrie gave the hedged answer that he had advanced such an idea some years ago in reference to the “Austin Arms” but nothing came of it.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211220, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 281, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "256\n\nI had been interested in social history in England and started to look for books about the New Territories, in particular on the Southern District, but soon found there was practically nothing. After a while, I realized that papers had been written but they were usually in journals that were not easy to get hold of in Hong Kong; and there was not very much anyway in English. I suppose that spurred me on to do more than I might have done. I was rather cross about it, I recall, because I gathered that many of the local settlements had been there for many centuries. The Shek Pik village alone was established in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in the 15th century, and possibly before that.\n\nFaced with a challenge, I began to look around for materials that would tell me more about the district and its people. I soon noticed that the temples and some other buildings contained inscribed tablets, sometimes about the repair of the building and sometimes about law cases in the long ago when the District Magistrate, or the local people after asking the Magistrate, had stone tablets put there commemorating legal decisions. I collected copies of these inscriptions and other documentary material, like land deeds, family papers, account books and genealogies (a point to which I will return later in this talk). I interviewed persons in their homes, and they were nervous for reasons not connected with the impositions of research. Once some people were very fidgety, and I couldn't understand why. This was in a fishing village on the shores of Junk Bay. I looked down, and saw that I was sitting on what I hoped was an expended tin of explosives! They liked fishing with dynamite, and they still do. In fact, there was a letter from a lady from Tolo Harbour in the South China Morning Post only the other day asking 'how come they are still dynamiting?' This goes right back to 1904 and probably earlier, when the reports of the Alice Memorial Hospital contained reports about fishermen coming in with missing hands or legs.\n\nI persuaded other District Officers to get their staff to record these tablets, too, and built up a collection of inscriptions with other people's help of about 30 or 40 of them. However, I couldn't do anything with them. My Chinese was not good enough to handle that material. In any case, some of the tablets were defaced and some characters were hard to read or even missing. It required", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211222, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 283, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "258\n\nsome of these things again, because we run into an awful lot of problems because of that sort of attitude.\n\nHow did I get involved in all this? Now and then I think that James framed the \"trap\" and I fell right into it. I was not interested in local history for a long time - I was never interested all the way through college and graduate school. When I got my job in the Chinese University, I lived in Tai Po Market. I remember there was this year when they had the shed for their village opera but I never went once. Although I passed by many times, it never occurred to me to go and see what was happening.\n\n—\n\nI had set my mind on writing about the rural economy of a couple of provinces in China from about 1870 onwards, and thought, \"Well, being here one should look at what happened in the New Territories, and see what you get in the field”. James showed me some of the inscriptions that he had collected, and there were a couple that were about tenancy disputes in the Ch'ing dynasty in the 18th Century. At the time this is only about five years ago these documents were rather rare, although in the last couple of years China has published a lot more of them. To have the actual dispute recorded in full, to have the text of the decision from the Magistrate, and to have all the details there, and to be able to find out from local enquiries who the people were who were involved in all these sort of things, was just too tempting. It was a trap that I suppose any historian would fall into! I was hoping that there would be more of these things in the New Territories, and knew that the only way to get to them was to go around the whole of the New Territories and look at every temple. So something had to be organised. My interest was totally selfish, I just wanted more inscriptions and land deeds and the like!\n\nAnyway, that's how it began. I got a couple of colleagues together and other people who were interested. We were lucky at the time, because Professor Ch'en Ching-ho was running the Institute of Chinese Studies in the Chinese University and was interested in local history. He had done similar work in Singapore. He gave us funds and we managed to employ some students, and that got the project started.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211235, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 296, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "271\n\nWell, over to you again, David.\n\nDavid Faure\n\nWhen I was in England last year I had a look to see what local history societies do, and what sort of material people have in local histories, and I was very impressed. Wherever you go, you find some sort of society with people who are interested in something. Then you have publications that are primarily documentation. You have to walk into a church or the pub, pay your 10p, and you get your little sheet where somebody has written up the history of a village and that sort of thing. You have a whole range of them, you've got scholars interested in broader problems in the field, or trying to fit the local scene into a larger context. You also have the tourist side of things, where people just want to know what that churchyard is all about.\n\nI think we fall far short of that in Hong Kong. I suppose the nearest to a local history society we have in Hong Kong is the Royal Asiatic Society, and our Journals are the only ones I know of that discuss local history as local history. You have a few other places you can publish in. The academic journals abroad are interested in Hong Kong material if you can fit what is said here into a wider theoretical context, so called. Then you also have the publishers that are interested in having a few books on Hong Kong. But we have not got a lot of local materials assembled where people can have a look at them. The conference on Hong Kong History that we had a couple of years ago at the Chinese University was a venue for people interested in the subject, and I suppose we should have more of those. Some sort of publication of source materials would also be useful, and I can't think of a better way of doing it other than by photocopying them and leaving copies in the major libraries.\n\nIt is a new development that the District Boards are now interested in their own history. Quite a few seem to be. They are all compiling these handbooks, describing what happened with the district, and want to include a section on the history of the district. That would be a useful development for our sort of interest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211238, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "274\n\nI suppose I should mention one thing. The Geography and Geology Department of the University of Hong Kong has long had a programme of geographic studies, not just for a higher degree but for BA degrees, and there is quite a lot of good information tucked away there. Also, there is a map library at Hong Kong University which probably contains quite a lot of material on this region and on Guangdong generally.\n\nDF - A long time ago, I remember, someone talked about wanting to make a map of the coast-line of Hong Kong. It always seemed to me that this is one of the essential things you have got to have, but you need a geographer. Was it ever done?\n\nJH I think someone has done it for the urban area. A person called Hudson wrote a PhD thesis about 1971 on reclamation, but no one has done it for the New Territories, where the amount of land which has been reclaimed from the sea in many places is quite considerable, particularly on the western side, in Deep Bay on the Pearl river. Charles Grant, the Professor of Geography at Hong Kong University, has written an article on this subject.\n\nPH But it is the western side which none of us here tonight knows at all well. The whole of the traditional economy of the marsh villages is totally unknown. Nobody really knows how the kei wai and the oyster beds were managed. You can find out how they are managed now, but I don't think we know anything about how the villagers worked them say 70 years ago.\n\nJH It all goes to show that the variety of situations, both social and economic, in relatively such a small area as the New Territories is truly amazing, even in the areas that I know reasonably well, never mind those that I still don't know; which, as you've said, are the majority.\n\nPH When we were working in Shatin, we came across a phenomenon which interested me very greatly, one of the many things about which I would like to do more. This is, those villagers who did not have enough land to live on but had a speciality, a trade, a single knowledge which the other villagers nearby didn't have, and which they could trade for rice. In Shatin there were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211242, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 303, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "278\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTAM KUNG: HIS LEGEND AND WORSHIP\n\nOccasionally, one hears of the deity Tam Kung #2 as having originated in Kowloon. That mistake arises from confusing Kowloon (Chiu-lung 九龍) with Chiu-lung shan in Lin Kuei-shan 歸 county.\n\nTam Kung, named Tao, was a native of Kuei-shan (present Hui-tung) in the Yuan Dynasty. He cultivated his moral conduct at Chiu-lung shan. He was often seen in the mountains with a tiger carrying his things. He cured the sick when they approached him. He died and was revered as a deity. When drought came, people went to him to ask for rain, and often they were satisfied.\n\nIn the 6th year of Hsien-feng (1856), he was granted the title ‘Hsiang-chi 祥濟’ (“Assistance and Aid”) by the emperor.\n\nIn Hui-chou, two temples were erected to offer sacrifice to Tam Kung; one on Chiu-lung shan in Kuei-shan and the other in Hui-chou City. A pavilion was built at the place where he cultivated his moral conduct.\n\nOn my visit to the Chiu-lung shan in 1986, I saw both the temple, the Lung-feng tsu-miao 龍峰祖廟, and the pavilion, the T'an-kung te-tao-t'ing 譚公德道亭. A stone tablet now kept in the Hui-tung county museum, given the title, \"The repair of the T'an-kung Temple of Chiu-lung shan\" dated 4th year of Tao-kuang (1824), records that the original temple was built thousands of years ago, was repaired in the 40th year of Ch'ien-lung (1775), and then rebuilt and enlarged in the 4th year of Tao-Kuang (1824). The pavilion that I saw was rebuilt quite recently.\n\nIn Hong Kong, there are two Tam Kung temples. They were built in the late Ch'ing by people from Hui-chou. The Tam Kung Temple at Wongneichung was built in 1901. It was originally built on the hill slope near the present Hong Kong Sanatorium. A bell", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211300, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Conclusion\n\nLest you might think otherwise, this report is not intended to be that of a mutual admiration society! True, we have succeeded in doing more for our ever-growing number of members, but there is still much to do to make the Society really measure up to the needs of the membership in the context of present-day Hong Kong, and to make more of an impact on the community than we have to date. Ways to do this were spelled out in our Symposium Report, and I shall mention a few of them here.\n\nNow that we are stronger in our organization and backup services, we need to strengthen our links with other local societies. This is the task of the External Links Committee, and they have already begun their work. Greater mutual knowledge and unity will not only increase benefits to members through having more joint functions, it will also protect us and enable us to defend our common interests at need. Such a need was perceived a few months ago, as I have noted above. On a more positive note, the opportunities for supporting the public interest can be better utilized with stronger links with other cultural bodies.\n\nThe need for more Chinese members was also mentioned in the Report. An Ad Hoc Committee has had a preliminary look at this matter. First steps include an updated Brochure which explains the origins, programmes, and aims of the Society in Hong Kong. This has been tabled tonight, and a Chinese version will be available shortly. Media interviews on the Society are being arranged periodically, usually in connection with interesting items in our Programme, and these will include some given in the Chinese language.\n\nHowever, it is thought that the main incentive for English-speaking Chinese to join the Society is through personal contact and outreach by our existing Chinese members. If they are happy with and in the Society, we can be sure of recruiting others. This is very much in the Chinese way. Expatriate members can help by being friendly and outgoing on our local visits. By these means, we will keep our Chinese members and add to their numbers. Already, there are welcome signs that this is happening. It is a better means than running special drives for Chinese members, although this has also been under consideration.\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211352, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\nTHE FIRST CHILD LABOUR LAW IN HONG KONG\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nA Reminiscence\n\nWhen I first came to Hong Kong about twenty-eight years ago, I observed cases of open and of hidden child labour,\n\nIn certain Chinese tea houses, young girls and boys carried the trays of dim-sum by means of a strap passed around their necks. One could see these children, who seemed only ten or eleven years of age; they may have been a little older, with arched backs to counter-balance the weight of the trays which they carried in front of them. Usually, they were wearily dragging themselves past the tables, but at other times chattering merrily among themselves, but too often one could see the strain of their job on their faces and bodies.\n\nThe hidden and less obvious use of children as labourers, I would see in the building I lived in at Tai Po in the New Territories. At that time, it was the tallest building there - a six-storey walk-up. I lived on the top floor. As I climbed the stairs, I passed a flat used as a workshop for sewing sequins on cloth. The room was filled with children, many of whom appeared to be no more than ten or twelve.\n\nChild Labour and the Mui-tsai Question\n\nAgitation about children in domestic service, that is, the mui-tsai system, or, as it was called by some, child slavery, and a movement for regulation of the labour of children outside the home arose about the same time, but each problem had its own history and its own development.\n\nBoth problems were initially brought to the attention of the general community by expatriates. In the case of child labour, a law was passed largely in response to pressure from the European community. As for the mui-tsai, though it was a British Naval officer and his wife who began the agitation, a portion of the Chinese community soon took over the campaign for its abolition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "70 \n\nLEGENDS AND STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES \n\nI \n\nTAI PO 大埔* \n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG \n\nThe original name of Tai Po (大埔) meaning big slope, was Tai Po (大步) meaning big stride. There is a story that many thousands of years ago there was a dense forest where Tai Po now stands. It was infested with wild and dangerous creatures, and the villagers round about were afraid to go in it. If they had to go they warned each other, saying \"Take long strides, otherwise the tigers and snakes will get you!” So that gradually the place became known as Tai Po. Although the story has been handed down from generation to generation, there is some indication of truth in it, in the fact that when the present road was made through the district the roots of huge trees were dug up. What might be a further proof that the district was originally a densely wooded one, is the fact that there is a hill just outside Tai Po Market known as Kam Shaan (錦山) (embroidered mountain) which until quite recently was very thickly covered with trees. It was originally called Kam Shaan (禁山) (forbidden mountain) being held in veneration as Fung Shui by the villagers of Tai Po Tau, (大埔頭) who had protected the trees for many centuries, until they were cut down and houses built on the hill a few years ago. \n\n(5) \n\nFrom the fourth year of Hoi Po (A.D. 971) of Sung dynasty until the twenty-fourth year of Ka Hing (A.D. 1819) of \n\n* Sung Hok-p'ang wrote a number of articles on the history of the New Territories which were published in The Hong Kong Naturalist between May 1935 and November 1938. Owing to the difficulty of finding copies of the originals, these articles have been reissued in the Journal. The articles on the history of Kam Tin were reissued in Vol. 13, pages 111-129 and Vol. 14, pages 160-185. The following short articles complete the reissues. The attention of readers is drawn to the Editor's note at Vol. 13, page 111, and to the Note, Sung Hok-p'ang (宋學鵬) (1880-1962) A Memoir by Lo Hsiang-lin, in Vol. 13, pages 130-132. This article on Tai Po was originally printed in The Hong Kong Naturalist for May 1935. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211403, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "95\n\nculturally,\n\nyears, the younger ones are Western in their way of life socially, and ideologically. They do not speak or write Chinese, and they are not too familiar with Chinese culture or food. Is this progress? Or am I too conservative? Although I admire their ability to adapt and change, I am saddened to see such total rejection of the Oriental culture and the full embrace of things Western, when there are many positive aspects in our Chinese background.*\n\nAnother spurt in my effort was made in 1977, when I wrote on my birthday, \"I am 71 years old to-day — no better time than now to write my autobiography since the idea has been perking in my head for the last few years. I realize that this must be done soon before my memory becomes even more fuzzy. A lot of emotions are evoked at this moment as memories of great joy and happiness and love, mingled with those of sorrow and loss, rush through my mind.\n\n\"A few years ago I read in the newspaper that first generation immigrants cling to their language and culture; the second generation rejects them; but the third generation searches for its roots and tries to recapture its language and culture. It is somewhat for this reason, and obviously to satisfy my ego, that I would like to record some of what I have experienced and learned for those of my family who might one day become interested in our mutual backgrounds. There is a feeling of pride that I am of Chinese ancestry, born in Hawaii, a citizen of the United States, and that I am a fusion of three cultures: the love of humanity of the Chinese; the warmth and generosity of the Hawaiians; the understanding of feelings and the value of human life of the West. Hopefully, I have assimilated the best of each,**\n\nNow, in 1987, I am completing this project on which I have worked over a period of almost fifteen years.\n\nThe origin of Cha In Village*\n\nThe founder of the Chan clan was Chan Joong Goong A†, who\n\n* Extracted from the Chan Genealogy Record.\n\n† Characters are romanized according to the Heong Shan dialect, or the dialect peculiar to one's village, or the spelling adopted by the individual.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211478, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "170\n\nmen, steeped in the Classics, is one of my positive experiences in this school.\n\nAs I remember it, starting school was not a traumatic experience; I went alone to the Fort Street Chinese Church and, without any ado, sat with other children in the kindergarten that was supported by the Free Kindergarten Association. In those days, there were no automobiles and very few hacks, so it was not unusual for me, at my age, to travel alone to a place where I attended church services with Mother every Sunday. One of our friends, Mrs. Chun Nam, even asked me to take her son to this kindergarten without the necessity of registering him beforehand. My teacher was a Japanese woman dressed in her native garb. This year left few impressions on me.\n\nAccepted into Central Grammar School, I found my first-grade teacher, Miss Armstrong, a warm and conscientious person, who had many charts from which she drilled us in the sounds of the vowels and consonants and in the combination of these into words, using a pointer to guide us. Arithmetic was simple addition and subtraction or the reciting of the multiplication table, which could always be found on the back of our notebooks. The majority of the class were white children, and I did not feel comfortable enough to make friends with them. In the next three grades, I began to socialize with them and was included by them in play, as I was an active girl and swift on my feet when competing. As we advanced in years, the different races tended to chum around with their own ethnic groups. Many of the white children came from the army base and were driven to and from school in army vans. When Mrs. Carter retired, the school became less segregated.\n\nMiss Smith was my second-grade teacher, a young lady of rather generous proportions. She was warm and likeable, yet firm. She taught me to sew carefully and neatly a miniature book, the pages of which served as a place for pins and needles, something I treasured for years. Promptness was imperative. One day, when I arrived late for class, I was so afraid of her that I went home, only to be sent back to school by Mother, another disciplinarian, after she scolded me for dallying with my morning chores. Without asking for any explanation, Miss Smith had me hold out a hand, and then whacked my palm with a ruler; I felt exceedingly embarrassed. It did not lessen my fondness for her, and I", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211510, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 28 (1988)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nDavid Faure\n\n203\n\nTHE ARCHIVES OF THE BASEL MISSION\n\nIn June 1988, I visited the Archives of the Basel Mission located in the Mission House at 21 Missionsstrasse, CH 4003 Basel, Switzerland. This archive is rich in material on the Hakka communities in Kwangtung Province. These archives are not as well known as some other mission collections. The earlier records are written in the old German script and present difficulties to those who have not been trained in reading it. Along with missionary matters, the correspondence from China also contains much material of anthropological, sociological and historical interest. In my visit my chief interest was to gather data on the work of the mission in the San On and Tung Kun Districts of Kwangtung, particularly their school and seminary at Li Long. I did not have time to transcribe items of more general interest, but I did copy the following. My translation was checked and corrected by Rev. Dr. Richard Deutsch, a close friend and a former colleague in the Theological Division of the Chinese University, Hong Kong, who is now on the staff of the Mission House.\n\nA Revolutionary Plot at Canton\n\nA-1.29\n\nNo. 51, 28 November 1895, Rev. Mr. Kircher, Hong Kong.\n\n“A few weeks ago, a Christian in the Berlin Mission House at Canton told the missionaries to seek safety as a revolution would break out in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211512, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "205\n\nof the reform party and that he had killed himself, or someone else had put him out of the way. Dr. Sun escaped to Hong Kong. When two mandarins came to Hong Kong to search for him and other conspirators, Dr. Sun with great daring and courage went to these people, after he found out the reason for their visit, and introduced himself to them. It is said he is now in Singapore because he didn't feel quite safe in Hong Kong. The political involvement of Christians in these undertakings causes great sadness to the missionaries, and there could be very serious consequences for Christians in China, especially Cantonese persons. The Government officials are quite angry that Christians were involved in the uprising. In the last couple of years, I have heard several complaints that arrogant, dark, selfish Christians in Canton made trouble for missionaries, causing them sadness. And it seems to me the Lord Himself had to bring this punishment upon them to sober them. I have hesitated somewhat to convey this information, but have done so because what I have written down is correct.\n\nPu Kak:* How a Punti Village came into Hakka possession\n\nA-1.27. No. 62, 21 April 1893, the Rev. Mr Bender, Li Long, San On District, Kwangtung. A story heard from Pastor Lin, whose home is Pu Kak\n\n\"Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty about two hundred and fifty years ago the Hakka male population of Hin Nen and Ka Yin Tshu left their homes to find work and a livelihood at places to the south. They found both at Pu Kak where rich Puntis of the Wan clan rented fields to them. Later, from time to time, others came from the upper country, so that gradually the Hakka tenants at Pu Kak numbered forty-eight. They built for themselves small huts and houses. Those who had wives and children in their home villagers had them come and join them. They had a good income from their agricultural labours and lived at peace with their landlords. Later there were some quarrels when they had to\n\n* Pu Kak a market town near the Kowloon-Canton Railway in San On District, Kwangtung Province, about midway between Li Long and Sham Chun.\n\n+ The Rev. Ling Kai-lin 749/E (1844-1917). In 1865 appointed catechist of the Basel Mission at Nyen Hang Li; 1876 became catechist and house father at Boys' Boarding School, Li Long; 1883 appointed pastor of congregation at Li Long; retired about 1893 to his native village Pu Kak. He was one of the founders of Sung Him Tong village near Fan Ling in the New Territories.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211531, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "224 \n\nor four families in this case) agreed to bring all the ashes from the daily clean-out of the stove to the latrine, and tip them into the dump. After using the latrine, users would take a spadeful of ashes and tip it through the gap. This kept the smell of the latrine from becoming too offensive.\n\nThe aim was to produce a mixture of ash and excrement which was both an excellent fertiliser, and capable of being stored against need. To store this fertiliser, the mixture had to be dry. The latrine therefore was designed so that liquids would drain out of it into a urine pit let into the floor, and lined with heavily plastered bricks. The latrine owner would dip out the urine as necessary, and remove it to a storage jar outside, to mature it for fertiliser.\n\nThe main contents of the latrine would be cleared out once every few weeks, when the latrine was full. A section of the wall round the latrine proper was made of planks slid into a groove. These were removed, and the contents of the latrine scraped out through this gap. The contents were then taken to a drying ground, and spread out to dry in the sun. Every latrine owner had access to a manure drying ground for this purpose: the villagers usually forbade the use of the rice drying grounds for drying manure. When dried, the fertiliser was rock hard. It was then crushed to a powder under a heavy stone roller pulled by an ox; in some villages the crushing was done by the ox pulling a heavy plank, made heavier by having a child stand on it. The dried and powdered fertiliser could be stored almost indefinitely so long as it was not allowed to get damp.\n\nThe third division of the structure was used as a pig-pen. This division could have been used as a second latrine compartment, had the usage of the latrine increased to the point where this was necessary.\n\nThis latrine structure at Wo Hang is entirely typical of the thousands which, even only twenty years ago, were to be found throughout the New Territories. Wo Hang is a Hakka village, but Punti villagers have told me that latrines in their villages were identical. Some latrines were smaller, consisting only of the latrine proper and the ash-dump with a narrow corridor in front on to which the door opened; these latrines were sometimes only about 6 feet square. Others were busier, with two or even three latrine compartments. Probably most were very similar.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211536, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "229\n\n**Small Papers**\", Measuring only three inches square, they were issued at or near the time of the survey, to the persons who claimed each plot of land and would later have to substantiate their claims before the land court by producing acceptable proof of their ownership under Chinese rule.\n\nA group of miscellaneous land papers was given to me thirty years ago by the elder of the Chi(i) clan of Shek Pik, a multi-clan village on Lantau Island, then in the course of removal to make way for the construction of a large reservoir intended to improve the Hong Kong water supply. This unexpected presentation followed the settlement of compensation for all land in the valley.\n\nWhilst I made use of most of these papers to write about the village,2 I had forgotten about the chi tsai which came with them until the other day. Looking again at the Shek Pik papers, I realised that they had something more to tell us about the village at that time than I had squeezed out of the rest.\n\nIn the first place, there were two different kinds of chi tsai. One sort was printed on one side only (See Plate 14). The other, though identical with the other in that respect, was also printed on the reverse (See Plate 15). They were otherwise the same. The most likely reason for their similarity is that the second type represents a second printing, when the opportunity was taken to add headings of information that were being written by hand on the earlier version. Presumably, there were stocks of both kinds available to the government staff working at Shek Pik, as the information being recorded on them relates to the same man and his property in the several demarcation districts allocated to the several parts of the area, and gives every indication of having been collected at the same time.\n\nAll the chi tsai relate to one man, named Chi Yau-kei(!). In all there are 23 of the first kind, and 16 of the second. A list of the information contained on them is given in the Table. It is not known whether the chi tsai are the total number issued to Chi Yau-kei, though a search of the ownership schedules would confirm or reject this possibility. Quite possibly they do not. A note on one of the chi tsai states \"B.18. p.7 & 8. 21 Chi Tsai lost?\" (See Plate 14)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211543, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 260, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "236\n\nnames in Mandarin (Wade-Giles). This book is about South China. The whole \"feel\" of the place and its people is somehow different if it and they masquerade as something else: had Cantonese Romanization been used, the identification of the two villages named at pp. 126-127 need not have been explained, to cite one example. The late K.M.A. Barnett said the same when he reviewed my book, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, in Vol. 24 of this Journal, when I was another victim of the system. Frankly, I should have known better, having even more to buck convention than Dr. Murray!\n\nJames Hayes\n\nJerry Dennerline, Qian Mu and the World of Seven Mansions, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.\n\nWhen Qian Mu (Ch'ien Mu) returned to the Chinese University some years ago on the occasion of the founding of the series of lectures that bears his name, students flocked to hear him even though few could have understood his Jiangsu dialect that passed for Mandarin. I have always looked upon that incident as being highly symbolic of the call of Chinese nationalism, of the attraction that the unity of Chinese culture held for Chinese students, and of their propensity to accept as wisdom what they could not understand.\n\nQian Mu symbolizes Chinese culture, untainted by Westernism or party politics. Qian Mu was my colleagues' teacher. He founded New Asia College that became a part of the Chinese University, in Hong Kong and not Taiwan, driven by nothing except his determination that scholarship should be pursued for its own sake. My colleagues at the Chinese University recall with nostalgia the comradeship they felt as students of New Asia in the 1950s. Despite Hong Kong's colonial status, and despite the 1949 Revolution, in New Asia they studied the Chinese classics as the fundamental philosophy that would remain forever Chinese. You cannot but marvel at the confidence that was inspired by this great man, and you can understand why students would turn to him for intellectual leadership.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211561, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 278, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "254\n\nHowever, changing fortunes or circumstances later led two of the other surname groups to move away altogether. The other remaining surname group continued to reside in the village until 40 years ago when they too moved away, leaving behind an ancestral hall and several plots of land which still remain untouched. More importantly, outside of how insiders and outsiders were defined and accepted, which is the petty substance of membership criteria (and rights of settlement), lies the more relevant issue of how any village or village cluster is understood as a particular kind of moral community. Why does Faure not talk about rights of settlements in the context of a market town or an urban flat? As it is only in the context of the rural Chinese village that the newcomer (as \"non-agnate\") becomes a problem (in terms of rights of settlement). Are we not suggesting in other words that there is something special about the nature of the village as a moral community which transcends the hard and fast rules of settled residence? That something special, I would argue, ultimately lies at the core of that principle of locality which constitutes the village.\n\nTo a villager, his village is not a chuen (C) (= ts'un (M)), which is the literal dictionary translation, but instead his heung-ha (C) (– hsiang-hsia (M)) or his \"country\". That villager might not necessarily be an actual resident of the village; he could be a person living and working in Hong Kong, or even an overseas Chinese born and raised overseas, several generations removed. Everyone has his heung-ha, unless of course he has moved his roots to a new heung-ha (as in the idea of hoi-kei (C), \"to open up one's base\"). I would argue, moreover, that one's definition of one's heung-ha is a highly intangible one variable to change and not necessarily reducible to the hard and fast rights to territory that are indicative of Faure's rights of settlement. To cite a personal example, I was recently instructed by my father to inspect the sites of our ancestral graves to assess the feasibility of re-burying them at a central site. As my father had lived overseas most of his life, the task of providing sacrifices every year on Ching Ming had always been in the hands of a close relative living there. Our 13th generation ancestor moved away from Cha Sai village to settle in the village of Tso Po several kilometers away, which had been inhabited by another Chun segment (fong) from Cha Sai descended from a 4th generation ancestor as well as members of the surname Ou. After having lived in Tso Po for four generations, our 17th generation ancestor moved to the market town of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211588, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "Page 8\n\n# ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, HONG KONG BRANCH PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1989-90\n\n## Summary\n\nThe past year has seen momentous events in China, and in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Those in China naturally concerned us most. The Council met specially to consider and send a letter of concern to the British Government following the Tienanmen Square massacre.\n\nHere in Hong Kong, the Society continued to arrange as many talks and local tours as possible. We know that there is a great demand for places on local tours, and have therefore done our best to arrange events for which there need be no limitation on numbers. These included large-scale visits to places on Hong Kong Island, and to the site of the replacement airport at Tung Chung. On the latter, well over 200 Members, their families and friends were able to participate.\n\nTwo publications have been received from the printer this year. The book, The Turning of the Tide: Religion in China Today, in association with Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, was published at the end of 1989, and Vol. 27 of the Journal is now in print. Our current Hon. Editor, Dr. Patrick Hase, taking over the work already done by Professor David Faure, has promised the 1988 issue over the Summer. A start on the 1989 volume has also been made.\n\nThe Council continues to work through its committees and office bearers. The Activities Committee is the busiest of those established a few years ago, following the 1987 Symposium on the Future of the Society in Hong Kong, but the others are in being and take action as and when appropriate.\n\nMembership continues to grow, and communication becomes increasingly important. Thanks to Anita Wilson, the Newsletter keeps us all in touch with the programmes and provides other information of interest to Members.\n\n## Membership\n\nMrs. Bruce, our Assistant Secretary, tells me that 119 persons have\n\nPage 9", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211600, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "and his contacts with higher academic circles gained through his lengthy tenure of the post of Bursar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am happy to hand over to him. As for myself, I have served for seven years, and felt it was time to move on. As it happens, there are two vacancies on the Council this year, the other being created by David Faure's departure from Hong Kong. This enables movement from the membership onto and within the Council, and onto the Committees, which is surely in the overall interest of the Society. Dr. Dan Waters and Dr. Joseph Ting have agreed to serve as Councillors, and Dr. Elizabeth Sinn has been nominated to the second Vice Presidency.\n\nThere will also be a change of Hon. Librarian. Mr. Peter Yeung of the Special Collections Sub-Library of the University of Hong Kong Main Library is handing over to his colleague Mr. Wan Yiu-chuen. We are most grateful to Mr. Yeung; but I must also thank Peter for his work on the Library Collection since he took up the post in 1985, his last contribution being to update the Additions catalogue. He has always been a good friend and colleague.\n\nI shall continue on the Council as there is a place for Past Presidents resident in Hong Kong.\n\nConcluding Personal Remarks\n\nAs the retiring President I am permitting myself a few observations on the Society in this, my last Report.\n\nWith benefit of hindsight, I now think we were off-track a few years ago, when we held the 1987 Symposium on the Future of the Society, in presuming that in order to survive the transition to the Hong Kong RAS and prosper after 1997, the Society must gradually become more Chinese in its membership, leadership and practice.\n\nAll the signs now point to a smaller reservoir of truly “local” membership and a much larger number of expatriate short-term transients of all nationalities (including overseas Chinese, many of them former Hong Kong citizens). In this changing community, towards which we have already been gradually moving over the last few years, the need will be for an English-speaking Society that is capable, as we have been to date, of explaining Hong Kong and Chinese culture to successive waves of newcomers. Thereby, we can continue to meet a definite need in the\n\nxiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211648, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 63, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "38\n\none of the temple staff thought that Chih (b) bore the personal name Meng-piao (E).\n\nA very few deities, on the face of it Pestilence deities, in practice turn out to be protective Wang Yeh. One such example highlights the probability that local devotees in southern China some considerable time ago, perceiving that their local protective deity bore the title Wang Yeh, assumed that he must be a Pestilence Wang Yeh and treated him as such. This was in a temple in Tungkang, south of Kaohsiung, said in a guide book to have an impressive display of 80 to 90 images of Wang Yeh. It turned out to have but one major Wang Yeh, a protective hero, Wen Hung. Wen Hung, also known as Wen Wang Yeh, a title said to have been awarded him by a T'ang dynasty emperor for his services, lived during the seventh century AD. A dozen or so portable images of him also stood on the altar table before the main altar. A handbook presented by the temple committee not only provided Wen Hung's biography but also contained charts shewing the routes his images had been carried around the parish for five successive years during the annual 'pestilence festivals'. This suggests that two cults have been combined, the cult of the T'ang hero Wen Hung, known as Prince Wen (Wen Wang Yeh) and, almost certainly due to a misunderstanding, the cult of the Pestilence Wang Yeh. Wen Hung's image is taken out during the Pestilence festival during the fifth month but unlike Pestilence Wang Yeh, he also has his own and more important festival celebrated on his birthday during the eleventh lunar month. His original legend, over the years, has had added to it elements of the Pestilence Wang Yeh legend, and to add to the confusion he now has his own Pestilence Wang Yeh boat. Such cases of apparent Pestilence Wang Yeh having a specific and individual personality are not at all common though they have been noted in several other cults in Taiwan.\n\nAlthough there are four temples in Yunlin and one in Taipei county dedicated to ten specific Pestilence Wang Yeh, known always as the Five-Year Excellencies (†) or (EFE), the maximum number of images of Wang Yeh with different surnames seen by the author on any one altar is seven, the Ch'i Fu Ch'ien Sui (LT) in Tainan. In each of the temples dedicated to the Five-Year Excellencies images had been borrowed by devotees for private worship at home. The collective group of the Five-Year Excellencies each has an individual birthday though it was decided in 1662 that they would be feted on one day in a collective feast on the 29th of the tenth lunar month, with one", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211653, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "43\n\nto the Afterworld during the major festival of the Hungry Ghosts.\n\nIn Chinese ethnic communities other than the Fukienese, pestilence deities are rarely known as such, though individual 'deified doctors' (deities prayed to for specific cures and illnesses) are believed to have special abilities to prevent or cure plague and pestilence. They are not referred to or considered as Wang Yeh. A good example of this is the image of Sui Ching-po (#24(1)) brought to Hong Kong in 1894 during a major outbreak of plague.\n\n4\n\nAmongst the large number of Pestilence Wang Yeh temples in Taiwan the most popular is, as already mentioned, at Nan K'un Shen at Peimen, just north of Tainan. This modern temple is located on the site where the Five Wang Yeh are believed to have first arrived in Taiwan from Fukien province some four centuries ago aboard their Spirit Boat. It began, as did most modern temples, as a tiny shrine of mud and stone, and as time passed and the community became wealthier, and of course, when the cult proved efficacious, the building progressed from wattle and daub, to wood and then to brick and tile. The Nan K'un Shen (A) temple contains a blend of cults, of Wang Yeh, of a protective general and the spirits of the unknown dead, the Yu Ying Kung.\n\nLegend has it that several hundred years ago a youth looking after cattle took shelter from the rain under a tree and stayed dry due to the special quality of the tree. The boy died young, seventeen according to some, and was buried under the tree as he had stipulated in his last wishes. From time to time his spirit, which was at first called the Spirit of the Broom (k) appeared to villages who built a small shrine for him referring to him now as Yu Ying Kung (A).\n\nHe was looked upon as the 'prince' of the surrounding area. However, later five Wang Yeh arrived in their Spirit Boat and the spirit of a general was brought over to Tainan; they asked the Yu Ying Kung spirit to permit them to have a temple in which they could live to be built nearby. The Yu Ying Kung refused and said that he had stuck a needle into the ground to mark his possession of the territory. The Wang Yeh countered this by claiming that they had buried a coin in the ground and thus they too had a claim on the territory. It came to blows until Kuan Yin intervened and a compromise was reached with the two temples standing side by side sharing one common wall which separated them. Thus it is that the Plague Gods (The Wang Yeh), the general (an unidentified and unnamed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211665, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "55\n\nare all standard images but, without the temple keeper's clarification it would not have been possible to identify the three as Koxinga in the centre, flanked by two of his generals.\n\nKoxinga was however, an important figure known nationwide, whereas most of the non-pestilence Wang Yeh are petty individuals whose story and influence rarely ranges beyond the boundaries of their native area. The following three examples are from the Tainan area of southern Taiwan.\n\nThe first of the three non-pestilence Wang Yeh is Ch'ih Kan-lin (**), the youngest of three children. His father, Ch'ih Chung-ming brought his family to the small fishing village of Hsiangyang some 350 years ago, at the beginning of the Ch'ing era, from Tainan, the then capital of the island. He had fled from Tainan where he had been an official as he had been falsely accused. His wife was eight months pregnant and when they reached the wretched and poverty-stricken village of Hsiangyang she just could not face going any further. They found a small shack and moved in. The village was in the throes of a very serious drought and the villagers were slowly losing all hope. Their crops were failing and fish ponds, lakes, and rivers had all dried up; the future looked bleak indeed. The father, Chung-ming and his wife joined the villagers in prayers for rain and no sooner had they done so than the mother gave birth to Kan-lin and the rains fell. The rivers and lake filled and the villagers were able to fish again and their crops thrived. The father started a school in the village.\n\nKan-lin was a highly intelligent child and pleased his father with his diligence. When he was twelve he saved the entire village by bringing timely warning of an impending flash flood which destroyed the village but, due to the boy's warning, without loss of life. In the years that followed he did many good deeds which benefited the village as a whole and on several occasions drove off bandits single-handed. He died at the age of 60 and was carried off straight to Heaven from whence he was posted back to the village as the protective deity and has been known as Ch'ih Wang Yeh ever since.\n\nThe second example of a non-pestilence Wang Yeh is Hsu Wang Yeh who lived some five hundred years ago. His mother and father lived in Hsuchou in Kiangsu province where they had put everything they had into a partnership in a silk and textile shop. The father was cheated, badly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211669, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "59\n\ndeities are not pestilence deities. The confusion has been compounded by the Fukienese themselves when over the years they unconsciously accepted all deities bearing the honorific Wang Yeh as protectors from epidemics.\n\nNOTES\n\nThe term Wang Yeh is best translated perhaps as 'The Excellencies'. It was a title given to imperial princes or lords, and interestingly it was also a term used by robbers for their brigand chief. See Plates 9-14 for illustrations to this article.\n\n2 There has long been controversy whether the Pestilence Wang Yeh are shen (Supernatural beings, spirits or deities) or kuei (shades of the human dead and pejoratively used for ghosts, spectres and demons). One god carver in Singapore explained that Pestilence Wang Yeh are \"half-deities\", (pan shen) that is half-shen and half-kuei. However, whilst a number of Pestilence Wang Yeh have ferocious faces, the great majority are portrayed as standard deities with no indication of demonic characteristics. An elderly and authoritative Fukienese god carver in Singapore explained in hushed tones that the Pestilence Wang Yeh are neither gods nor demons, are feared but not revered, and not only protect against plague but also cause it. They are, he repeated, semi-deities from the lower echelons of the bureaucracy of the Afterworld who do not like the human world and therefore cause trouble and bring calamity and misfortune. However, if prayed to they are quite prepared to care for devotees who seek protection. For this reason, more often than not the scale of devotion and offerings to the Pestilence Wang Yeh is greater than that provided to more powerful but orthodox gods.\n\nE\n\nDoolittle J. Social Life of the Chinese 2 Vols: New York: (1865).\n\nA god carver in Singapore suggested that Pestilence Wang Yeh have been given surnames so that no particular surname group is left without a specific deity to worship.\n\nThe only time that all images can be guaranteed to be on their altar in their temple is during the temple's annual festival.\n\nThe altar of Chu Wang Yeh in a temple in Lukang, Taiwan was destroyed by a flood some fifteen years ago. Of the three Wang Yeh images in the temple at that time (Chu, Ting and Nieh) only one image, that of Chu, was recovered. Although a new temple has been built for the three but only containing one image, the one of Chu recovered from the flood, devotees have largely stopped away. They seem to have lost confidence in deities who were unable to protect themselves against disaster.\n\n7\n\n**At Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong in the afternoon of the third day (of the chiao festival of ritual purification held every ten years) a ('paper boat') ritual to chase away the Demon of Pestilence is performed. A Taoist issues orders to a Heavenly Envoy to carry off the boat and puts the Demon of Plague on a boat and leaves it in the outer seas. The Heavenly Envoy, like the King of Ghosts (Yenlo Wang), has a fierce-looking face. It is an image of about one metre high and the boat is a small one of about one and a half metres long. A Taoist lifts the Heavenly Envoy to a stage in the matshed theatre and chants a question-and-answer song which instructs the Heavenly Envoy. Having finished that, the villagers then put the Heavenly Envoy into the boat loaded with offerings. The boat is taken to the sea shore and left on the waters.\" Tanaka Issei: \"The Jiao festival in Hong Kong and the New Territories\", The Turning of the Tide Religion in China Today: Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong); (1989), p. 287.\n\n8 There is a K'ang Yuanshuai, ie Marshal K'ang, on several Taiwanese altars where he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211795, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "185 \n\n* 125 \n\nagain attention was drawn to the presence of the \"beau monde”, the “beau sexe”, “all the beauty and fashion” and “our fair friends whose elegant evening costumes gave quite a brilliant aspect to the scene”. Seeing these representatives of the opposite sex on the front bench could not fail to inspire the performers with the desire to excel**. And who would disagree with that? \n\n- \n\nIt is well known that in Britain theatre audiences had for decades been heavily lacking in decorum; talking, eating, shouting, abusing the players. Things had turned to the better around the middle of the century and it seems that the Shanghai public was good mannered in so far as that can be said of any audience at all, for regular theatregoers will sadly have to admit that instances still abound today in which potentially glorious moments have been spoilt by some uneducated patrons. It may be assumed that the distraction caused by the public's behaviour in the mid 19th century was still worse than it is today. Then e.g. it was quite in order to talk during a concert or recital, albeit with a lower voice than during the interval. Real music lovers must have been driven mad by such chatter and it can hardly be imagined that it was appreciated by the performer. But, after all, such evenings were social occasions as much as artistic ones and the latest gossip had in some way to be exchanged. To be sure, such behaviour is not mentioned in the local paper, but there is little reason to believe that things were much better in Shanghai than in, say, London. \n\nT \n\n> \n\nOnly a couple of times is indecorous conduct reported in the columns of the Herald. Thus, on February 10 1864 \"the audience was riotous in the extreme and displayed the worst possible taste in exciting themselves to increase the confusion on the stage\" 127. The result was that at a subsequent performance the ladies shone by their absence** (see also: Calendar, 10.2.1864, 13.2.1864, 4.3.1864). Possibly this rowdyism was caused by the bad acting, but more likely a section of the large vagrant population which created some headaches for the ordinary residents during those years had a hand in it. Earlier the Herald had thought it wise to invoke the Earl of Chesterfield whose letters to his rascal son attempted to teach him the elements of good taste. And though the book had been published as long ago as 1774, the lessons contained in it were obviously considered still to be valid in 1858 when on February 10 the critic “noticed that several ladies on entering were kept some time in doubt as to where to find accommodation and were at length consigned to the back seats, while a lot of the 'lords of creation'\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211814, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "204\n\nPique delighted to honour, Marvellous is the ingenuity of Jack. Difficulties which would appal the ghost of Richardson* — that prince of theatrical improvisers, he makes nothing of it. Whether it be to prepare a great banquet hall or to erect a theatre, it is all the same to him and comes to his hands as readily as the marlin-spike. Huge guns disappear and hatchways vanish from the sight and are replaced by draperies and benches with all the quickness of enchantment. We sat looking around us at the proscenium, the footlights and the drop scene, representing a view on the late of Como, and fell difficult to remain in the belief that we were on board of one of H.M. 'ships of war' and not seated in a neat little theatre\". Thus far the impression of the surroundings.\n\nAbout the acting qualities the reviewer was equally in high spirits: in the Birthday, Captain Bertram R.N. proved to be “a gouty, choleric old gentleman, a very positive, perverse individual to boot and more than becomingly addicted to the occasional use of strong language\". All these little eccentricities were him forgiven, however, when \"we saw him yield to the impulses of nature and even felt a degree of alarm when he well nigh became smothered in the affectionate embrace of his loving and pretty — but somewhat bulky niece. (...) The songs of Dibdin appear to be no longer the prime favorites afloat they were half a century ago; and although we cannot but regret this, we were glad to find, from the specimens we listened to, that they have been superseded by not unworthy successors.\n\nThe trill of \n\nI've heard of foreign countries.\n\nThat are very fair to see\n\nBut England! dear old England!\n\nIs quite fair enough for me\n\nwas ringing in our ear, when it was joined in by notes of a different kind — the cheering notes, to wit, of the Dustman's Bell. We are quite converts to the doctrine that believes, for the moment, in the mimic scene which is enacting before us. How could we do otherwise at the sight of such a Dustman and such a Sally! It did one's heart good to look upon such a fresh, comely and good-looking face as Miss Sally's, and to hear the praise of it sung with such evident gusto by her honest lover in the lines:\n\nOf all the girls that dress so smart\n\nThere's none like pretty Sally\n\nShe is the darling of my heart\n\nAnd she lives in our Alley.\"\n\nRaising the Wind the reporter found not \"so brilliantly successful but not without its merit\".\n\nSumming up, his **still aching sides\" testified sufficiently to the \"care and trouble which the performers had taken to entertain their numerous audience'' (NCH 13.2.1858)\n\n10.2.1858 (Wedn)\n\nPELHAM HARDWICKE (= C. MATHEWS): \"A Bachelor of Arts\" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Done on Both Sides\" (1847)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by \"Messrs Phu & Mor\"\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\n+\n\n* An allusion to John Richardson (1767?-1837), nicknamed \"the penny showman\"; in his performance of J.S. Knowles' (?) \"Virginius\" the ghost was the great effect (Dict. of Nat. Biogr., Vol. 48, p. 230-231).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211826, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "216\n\nR: Nearly five years after his last recital in Shanghai, Martin SIMONSEN returned to the port, this time as a member of \"Mr. Smythe's troupe\". There was also the novelty of a lady singer, Miss Amelia BAILEY, who \"could not fail to render the entertainment attractive even had her voice been less excellent than it is\". This was the last night of a series for which public interest had not been particularly large; only on July 31st had there been an \"excellent house\" and in a reproaching comment, the Herald trusted that the company would \"meet with more uniform support at Hong Kong, the residents of which are reputed more willing to put up with a little heat for the sake of an evening's amusement\". (NCH 1,8,1863).\n\nOctober 1863\n\nOn October 24, the North China Herald informed its readers that \"the Circus Company announced more than a year ago as upon its way to Shanghai has at length arrived and promises to be a valuable means of dispelling the ennui inseparable from winter in China\".\n\n17.10.-23.10.1863\n\nA series of promenade concerts by Miss Amelia Bailey (singing) and Marquis Chisholm (piano), as well as the Rhenish Band.\n\nTH: N.N. (H)\n\n7.11.-13.11.1863\n\nA continuation of the concerts mentioned above.\n\nR: In spite of the meagre support met in Shanghai, the Smythe troupe ventured to return in October after a visit to Nagasaki. This time the concerts were more rewarding - financially, for in November it was noticed that “Miss BAILEY has continued to draw crowded houses\" and that she has no reason to complain of the reception she has met in Shanghai\". (NCH 17.10, 24.10, 14.11.1863).\n\n10.2.1864 (Wedn)\n\nE.B. LYTTON: \"The Lady of Lyons\" (1838)\n\nT: Romantic comedy (5 acts)\n\nC: C.R. Faylor's travelling company\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\nR: The port was honoured by a visit of Mr. FAYLOR's theatrical company in February and May. This was after it had toured Macao (in December 1863; see BGM 14.12.1863) and Hong Kong. There it was highly successful, but the first performance in the Yangtze city was unfortunately a failure in consequence of the ludicrous incompetence of that portion of the company which had been collected in Shanghai and pressed into service. The audience, moreover, was riotous in the extreme and displayed the worst possible taste in exciting themselves to increase the confusion on the stage\" (see also Survey, p. 22). (N.C.H. 13.2.1864).\n\n13.2.1864 (Sat)\n\nC. DANCE: \"Delicate Ground\" (1849)\n\nT: Comic drama (1 act)\n\nC. SELBY: \"A Lady and a Gentleman in a Peculiarly Perplexing Predicament\" (1841)\n\nT: Burletta (1 act)\n\nC: C.R. Faylor's travelling company\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\nR: It is not quite clear how many nights were given by the FAYLOR company. The Herald of February 27 states that **it still continues its performances\", but, in view of what had happened earlier, \"naturally enough has not been patronised by any of the ladies resident in the Settlement\". In May, it turns up again in the pages of the paper. (NCH 27.2.1864).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211872, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "262\n\nToday I saw some porpoises floundering about in the water, and soon we may expect to see some flying fish. I am now getting into pretty near regular habits, and am thriving uncommonly well. The provisions are the best of everything. As much wine, spirits, etc. as I could drink, if I were one of that description of person. There is no mistake about living well; but of course one cannot expect it to last all the voyage. I have more than recovered what I had lost by the seasickness, and I shall soon, I hope, begin to look stout and hearty. I am on very friendly terms with everybody on board, and manage to hold a corner with the captain once in a way, although of course I cannot feel at home and friendly with people who live in a manner so opposed to all my notions of right and wrong. Three weeks ago I left home. What a long, long, three weeks it has been.\n\nThursday, April 4th\n\nAnother very fine day it has been, and nearly all the time I have been on deck sitting and reading or thinking in my easy chair. The time has passed very rapidly and pleasantly. Some hours have I spent in thinking of home, and all that I have left behind. The more I think of it, the more hard it seems; but I console myself with thinking there is a \"need be\" for it. Often, too, I am looking forward to my arrival, if spared, at Hong Kong. There will be not one there to look up to, since the chaplain has left, and I have not a letter of introduction to anyone there. It is rather a strange predicament to be in, but I must try and make the best of it.\n\nFor nearly a week we have had nothing but foul winds, so that we are not yet come to Madeira, after 25 days sailing. It is very poor work since we ought to have done it in one half of the time. It quite disheartens the captain and everyone else to be knocking about so long, and doing nothing, hardly, after all. The sun is now getting powerful; today it was quite hot, and has regularly browned my face for me.\n\nSince Sunday I was rather unwell, with a bilious attack, I suppose through eating too much, for the sea air gives me a ravenous appetite. I took some homeopathy last night, and today it has put me about right.\n\nI am beginning to learn a good many of the nautical terms, which at first seemed quite like Greek to me. I hope soon to know the names of all the parts of the ship. Our new steward answers very well, and I believe gives everybody satisfaction.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211879, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 294, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "269\n\nnow out of the tropics, and already begin to find it much cooler; every day will now make a difference. As we reach the Cape it will be toward the middle of winter, so that we may expect to find it cold. The sea air continues to agree with me, although I very much miss being able to take exercise that is suitable. And I find it rather injurious to sleep in a cabin where the air is quite close, and the heat like an oven, even with the door and window open. Still I hope to more than make up for it in the cold weather. As it is, I am enjoying very good health, and have a good appetite, so that I ought to be thankful for them.\n\nOur fowls are beginning to get fewer every day. Yet we have I should think nearly half a hundred. Directly there is an egg laid they all begin to peck at it, and in a minute it is gone. So we watch and directly we hear the cackle we run to save the egg from being destroyed.\n\nThe poor third mate is in for it today, and has had nothing but bullying. The officers and men seem to get a day of it in turn. The captain's son, George Edward, gets it all day long. Every few moments he has a good smacking, so that if his heart does not grow tender, there is something else that does. It is disgusting to see a child, that would be quite an A 1 if properly managed, made quite a fool of, and treated worse than a dog. Captain Moate and I often have a laugh to ourselves to see their goings on. He does not forget to ridicule the way the men are managed and how things are carried on. But now I am growing quite hardened to such things and hardly notice them.\n\nWednesday, May 8th\n\nAfter a good deal of knocking and blowing about we are now a little quieter, so I take advantage thereof to add to my journal. \"We are now about a week's sail from the Cape, and probably about half the voyage is over. We had three days of very stormy weather, so that the captain says he does not remember a storm lasting so long before. During the night it was worse by far. Of course sleep was an impossibility, and long before the weather was over I was nearly used up. The ship rolled very much, and all I could do was to roll about in my berth, first to one side and then the other. But now we are all right again and going on tolerably smoothly, which I hope may continue.\n\nThe wind now blows from the south, which is the cold quarter for this part of the world. It is now as cold as it was hot a few days ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211898, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 313, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "288\n\nI had a good long yarn with Madame Baines on the verandah. When I told her what I was, she became very religious all at once; but I could see it was only hypocrisy, although she had an oily tongue. The Bishop of Victoria was there in 1856. The people were highly pleased with his visit, and all who I heard speak of him seemed to do so with respect. She was acquainted with a Mr King of the Scottish Free Church, who had returned from Scotland only three months ago; and promised to introduce me to him and drive me there in her carriage.\n\nAt eleven o'clock I went to bed. My room was very fine and airy. All the beds in Java have to be curtained all round to keep out the mosquitoes, which would prevent sleep, and sting finely into the bargain.\n\nThe captain and wife came from the ship to the hotel the next day. They made themselves such fools by wanting to appear grand that everybody laughed at them behind their backs. No sooner had the captain left the table, and the rest began to talk, when Mr Phillips began: “Well of all the disagreeable obstinate men I ever saw, I never saw anybody to beat him. I can see it in his looks although I have never spoken to him nor know who he is\". When I told him it was our captain he wanted to know if he had not guessed right. I told him I must be excused from answering that question. Madam was finely laughed at, and reckoned up in just the terms she deserved. Since our return to the ship these parties have been equally run down by the captain and wife,\n\nA\n\nTwo days I took a walk into the town in the middle of the day. I was afterwards told that no European would ever be able to do it, for it was enough to kill the strongest man on account of the sun's intense power. However it had not the least effect upon me. In fact I felt all the better for it.\n\nOn the first day I started to go into town but took a wrong turning, and went out through one of the Chinese quarters into the country, where I had a few miles' walk. The scenery was very fine indeed. The palm and betel nut trees, and trees of which I have no idea formed a delightful shade. Even the country is intersected by canals. But whether in town or country, you always find the shore of the canal crowded with washermen. The clothes are never washed, but merely beaten. They get a smooth stone, and after soaking the clothes in the water, they keep dashing them on the stone, swinging them for that purpose round their head.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211900, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 315, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "290\n\nalthough I knew he was fond of spirits and wines. He called me at last and begged me to help him and take care of him. So I treated him as a child, and took away about a quart of gin, and stowed it in my room. I sat up with him all night, and by trying hard I managed to keep him quiet, although he became delirious. The next day I persuaded him to take a drive in the country, and the fresh air soon restored him to his former self. He was very much ashamed, and if I had not been there he would have been robbed upside down. So much for drink. But he won't leave it off, and since, drinks his grog as usual.\n\nI got Madame Baines to drive me up to the Revd Mr King, of the Free Church. No sooner did I see him than I knew we should soon be friends, and sure enough in a few moments we were like brothers. He is a clever fellow, and a thoroughly good man. After a long conversation I agreed to come up to tea on the following day. His wife is a neat little Scotch woman, or rather lady, for I found afterwards that she is from a high Scotch family, although she married [a] comparatively poor man. She has a well cultivated voice, and sings very much like Anna. In fact it seemed almost as if I were hearing her sing. We spent the evening in conversation, and closed with family worship. It was such a treat to find a man whose ideas were at all like my own. Nobody can imagine it unless they had been shut out from society as I had been. I paid them a second evening visit, which was spent in a similar way. A mutual friendship has arisen between us, and he has agreed to carry on a correspondence with me. She has a brother at Hong Kong, about 19 years of age, who is in a good situation in a merchant's office. She wants me to find him out and exercise a little brotherly superintendence over him. Mr King is a good Dutch scholar, and can preach in Dutch and Malay. At present he officiates in the Church of England by permission, till he gets another church built for himself. He went over the orphan house on Ashley Down about a year ago, and we had a good chat about it.\n\nI returned on board ship on the Saturday afternoon with the captain, whom I met in Batavia. But there it was nothing but swearing, etc, as usual. He worried a man, and annoyed him in such a mean way, that he had to iron him, and then he went mad. On Sunday morning he became quite raving, and therefore since I found out we should not go till Wednesday, I made a start, and hoped to get out in the country by eleven o'clock, in time for Divine service. I had a pleasant row ashore alone with the Malays, and steered the boat, which is a thing I never attempted before. When however I got out to Madame Baines, I found she was\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211902, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 317, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "292\n\nhas to keep up about a dozen of these servants, for each one only does one thing.\n\nOn Thursday morning weighed anchor. There was scarcely any breeze, and it was only a short distance we made, before we stopped at night. On Friday we were off again, and got a little breeze. About midnight through sheer ignorance and carelessness the ship dashed onto the Aganeiten rocks, and there was a fine crash. The captain was quite paralysed, and did not know what to do. The ship would have doubtless broken up and never been got off; but all at once the wind changed and blew her clean away from danger. Truly a merciful Providence attends us, or we should long ago have gone to the bottom. The captain evinced his gratitude when his fright was over by cursing and swearing worse than before, and bullying the men. In fact the men are continually on the point of mutiny. All I wonder at is that they have not done so before.\n\nWe reached the strait of Banca at last, after several days without wind. As we entered we passed the mail steamer to Batavia, and a Dutch ship aground. We were three days going through, on account of the wind. At night we stopped off another Dutch ship going to Singapore and Hong Kong. In the morning she was off an hour before us. Our masts are not yet only half up, so that in a few hours she was out of sight. The captain does not intend to finish the masts till he gets to Hong Kong, although that was the excuse for going to Batavia.\n\nThe breeze grew a little fresher toward evening, and at night we were going on about five miles an hour. Early in the morning, I heard the cry \"Breakers ahead\", and in another moment came another crash or two, and the ship was dashing on a coral reef. Two large rocks wedged us in, and there we were, expecting to go to pieces since the sea and wind increased and there was no chance of getting off. We were right in the middle of the Toedjoe Islands, which are considered as very dangerous. The captain did not even try to get her off. About noon however with our usual good fortune in difficulties, the water rose about 10 feet, and by sending out an anchor in the ship's pinnace, we drew the ship gradually out of danger, and got clear again. This was celebrated as before by renewed blasphemy.\n\nJuly 25th\n\nWe have now crossed the line, and are less than a thousand miles", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211913, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 328, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "303\n\nTHE DANGS AS A LINEAGE\n\nAlthough a survey on occupations and land ownership was not part of the brief project on which this report is based, some of my interviews bear on the economic aspects of life in Kam Tin.\n\nWhile the Dangs of Kam Tin are well known as a wealthy lineage that has produced many imperial degree holders, in fact very few of the lineage were landlords/scholars. The vast majority of the Dangs earned their living as farmers, and most of them did not own much farm land. There seems to have been a large gap between the rich and the poor amongst the Dangs. Replying to my questions about ha-fu, or hereditary servants to the Dangs, a Mrs. Dang added her observations on the inequality among the Dangs themselves. The majority, the poor Dangs, were at the beck and call of the minority of the wealthy Dangs. She cited the example of her father-in-law, who worked on rice fields rented from a rich Dang as well as his own. He also took risks to hide the valuables of the rich man during the Japanese war. When asked why he did all this, she explained that obviously this was done in case he needed to borrow rice from the rich man in the future, which he actually did.\n\nThe family of another Mrs. Dang I interviewed had rented farm land from the same rich man, Dang Baak-Kau. She took care to lower her voice when saying this, and added: “Villagers of Tsi Tong Tsuen, Kat Hing Wai, and Tai Hong Wai — actually, all over Kam Tin people had rented his farm land”. Dang Baak-Kau had been a major leader of the Dangs of Kam Tin during his time. He represented the Dangs of Kam Tin in 1925 to petition the Hong Kong government to return the iron gates of one of the main Kam Tin villages taken away in 1899 when the British took over the New Territories. He was also one of the two Dangs named after the formal head of the lineage in a 1941 petition to the New Territories administration against the division and sale of an ancestral trust property. The dominance of the segment descended from him in lineage affairs is evident in the Ching Lok Ancestral Hall ritual manual, to which has been added, after entries giving two or one and a half catties of ritual pork to descendants of the six Dangs responsible for the initial building and rebuilding of the hall, an entry giving two catties of roast pork to his descendants in the Spring and Autumn rites. Before this Dang died some 30 years ago, he was awarded a \"higher medal\" in about 1933 by the British administration, according to a genealogy he commissioned. One can see at the same ancestral hall a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211921, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 336, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "311\n\nrecorded by Sung (1974:181-182), Wan-Guk \"was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in [Xin'an County]\". He died before 1513 (ibid: 182). We have more detail about some of his great-great-grandsons, among them Dang Yun-Fan who made a donation of 1,000 sek of rice to the county government for relief during a bad famine. The details of Dang Yun-fan's descent from Wan-Guk are obscure. Because of this act of generosity Kam Tin was given its present name in 1587, instead of the Sham Tin used earlier (Sung 1973:111-112). The story must be quite close to the truth. Siu (1982:23:24) has checked the Xin'an gazetteer to verify it. He found an entry for a serious drought in 1583, and the County Magistrate named in the anecdote assumed his position in 1586. I have found other supportive data in a local manuscript that records some of the inside inscriptions of the spirit tablets in one of the ancestral halls of Kam Tin. Two ancestors of this period had \"pen-names\" (hou) that probably alluded to the new name of the settlement.\n\nAn elder I interviewed attributed the change of the place name to Kam Tin to his ancestor Pou-Am, another great-great-grandson of Wan-Guk's, and provided the following information. Pou-am's holdings reached Chuk Yuen near San Tin. He had house(s) where the rent collectors could stay when collecting the payment and being entertained by the tenants. Pou-Am's grandson Lok-Sin had comparable holdings.\n\nIt was probably in the second half of the 16th century that an ancestral hall was built in honour of Ching-Lok, Wan-Guk's father. It was in all likelihood the earliest ancestral hall ever built in Kam Tin. We know the approximate date of the ancestral hall because a handbook for its rituals prescribed that extra portions of ritual pork were to be given to the descendants of certain individuals, some for their part in the initial building of the hall and some for their contribution towards subsequent repairs and rebuilding. These involved six people. Among them the two rewarded for the original building and another two rewarded for the first rebuilding were all Wan-Guk's great-grandsons. It was only in a subsequent repair in 1788 that one of the descendants of the other sons of Ching-Lok became involved. The spirit tablets in the hall confirm the dominance of Wan-Guk's segment. The two Dangs honoured for the initial effort, as already mentioned, were Wan-Guk's great-grandsons. The time when the ancestral hall was first built was probably not later than the time of Yun-Fan, the great-great-grandson of Wan-Guk's who made the donation to the county in 1587. It was also in the second half of the 16th Century that Kei-Fong (not a descendant of Ching-Lok)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211928, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 343, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "318\n\nof money, he would go up to Canton. This also surprised people, for they supposed that one spent money in Canton. But Chi-Naam would go to meet officials in Canton, and earned, so the story goes, much money on each trip by handling cases for clients. Another story of the same informant told of Chi-Naam's influence. Once upon a time, soldiers were sent to Kam Tin. These men were very impolite. They urinated in the open. Chi-Naam was angry and told his brothers to beat the soldiers up. The case was brought to a local official, who decided to take away the academic title of Chi-Naam's younger brother, who was held responsible. Chi-Naam asked the official if he had authorisation from his superiors. The official therefore dared not carry out the penalty. An informant related that Chi-Naam was once the head of the Dung Ping Guk, the council for the eastern section of the county established as the unofficial administrative and judicial organization for the eastern part (Dung-Lo) of the county, which decided local cases.\n\n15\n\nDang Ting-sam played important roles in many lawsuits which involved the Dangs of Kam Tin and outsiders. We have documents of some of these lawsuits and oral stories for others. The earliest datable one I know of took place in 1854, when he brought a case to the Dongguan County Magistrate to request action against some Heungs who had kidnapped some of the Dangs who went to worship at the wong-gu's grave in Dongguan. I shall refer to the other cases later.\n\n16\n\nII. THE DANGS VS RIVALS AND TENANT COMMUNITIES\n\nThe Dangs of Kam Tin had conflicts with their neighbours over various matters, especially land ownership, rent, and irrigation rights. These conflicts took the form of lawsuits and fighting. Those who died in fighting with enemies of the community were worshipped as \"heroes”. A jiu festival document of 1895 indicates that up to that time 80 persons were recognized as \"heroes\" to whom special offerings of paper clothing were to be made in the festival.\n\nThis kind of fighting (da-saat) was common in the area. Elders of Kam Tin told me that there had been fighting between Kam Tin and the alliance of Ping Shan and Pat Heung. This had taken place long ago, even before the birth of an elder born in 1900. Through fighting, Kam Tin lost much of its land holdings, because they had to sell land for money to pay as compensation for lives lost. In the past, people entered yeuk alliances for this kind of fighting. Pat Heung was part of the Ping Shan alliance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211931, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 346, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "321\n\nThese accusations were made at the county magistracy. The Kam Tin Dangs got news of the accusation and arranged that all their young men gathered in the various ancestral halls and temples to read, so as to deceive the investigators from the county government. The county magistrate was deceived, and believed that the Kam Tin Dangs were all scholars and would not give any time to the accusation. Therefore he did not pursue the case any further.\n\nSome of the Dangs believe that the fighting between the people of Kam Tin and those of Pat Heung was over agricultural resources such as irrigation water. The Dangs of Kam Tin used only one bei reservoir, the one called Fui Sha bei. The water flowed from Pat Heung, near Lin Fa Tei, and the Pat Heung people could stop the water. One recent (about 100 years ago) example of a dispute over agricultural resources was the Ngau Wong Wui association which had been started to organize the cowherds of Kam Tin, to protect them against their Pat Heung counterparts, and to preserve Kam Tin pasture rights.\n\nOne piece of documentary evidence of the conflict between the Dangs and their Pat Heung tenants has survived. It is a stone inscription dated 1777 found in both the Daai-Wong Temple of Yuen Long Old Market and the Jau and Wong Temple of Kam Tin. It records a rent dispute.\n\nFive Dangs are named as the landlords in this inscription. In general terms, the document calls the landlords \"the Dang surname\", and the land \"the land of the clan\". It is therefore clear that the landlords were all from the same lineage and the property was considered as linked to the lineage as a whole albeit it was probably individually owned. Four of the five names can be found in various documents from Kam Tin. All four appear in a silk embroidery presented to a Dang of Kam Tin to celebrate his birthday in 1771. We have more specific information about two of them: one, Dang Si-Daan, was a descendant of Yam's second son Gwong-Yu, and the other, Dang Chung, is a descendant of one of the other sons of Hung-Yi, most probably Gyun. It is therefore clear that one of the parties to the dispute were many of the Dangs of Kam Tin, including members of different branches and represented in general terms the Dang lineage.\n\nA few names are also given of the tenants. There were about the same number of Dangs and non-Dangs among them. While the landlords were referred to as members of a lineage, the tenants were referred to as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211938, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 353, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "328 \n\nwinter. Once in a year they practised shooting at a police shooting range near Man Kam To. In earlier times the guards had used gwan sticks.\n\nC. The village market\n\nAt present there are a few shops, mostly food stalls, in Kam Tin Shi. Some Dangs also live there. They are descendants of the senior branch, including descendants of Wan-Guk and Wan-Gaan. The place used to be the local market. It was active before the Japanese occupation. It had a sign in the form of an arch, which was removed by the Japanese. Some documentary information about the market has survived in a rent record.29 One of the shops entered into the rental contract in 1851. The rent book included entries for five shops in Kam Tin Shi. Among them one was run by a tailor. It also mentioned the names of three streets. These were Upper Main Street (Sheung Taai Gaai) and Lower Main Street (Ha Taai Gaai) as well as Middle Street (Jung Gaai). The elders remembered that the market had two or three butchers and two or three fishmongers. Besides these there were a few other shops. Two sold jaap-fo (“sundry goods”). Kam Tin Shi is remembered to have mainly catered for the needs of the Kam Tin people. Very few outsiders came.\n\nSome informants added that there was even one pawn shop inside Kat Hing Wai. The owner was a descendant of Wan-Gaan jou. I have no idea when the pawnshop was started. There was also a peanut oil factory which was started more than 100 years ago. It was owned by a Wan-Yu jou person.\n\nIV. SETTLEMENTS AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS\n\n4\n\nAccording to Sung (1973:111) Hon-Faat, the first Dang ancestor to come to the province, built the first house at the bottom of a hill called [Gwai Gok Saan] about three-quarters of a mile away from the present Kam Tin\". His grandson Fu-Hip lived there on retirement and founded a school called Lik Ying Jai (ibid.: 116). The descendants of Fu-Hip's grandson Seui, lived in the Naam Wai and Bak Wai villages around the beginning of Ming dynasty (1368). The division of the Kam Tin settlement into Naam-Bin and Pak-Bin remain today. Yun-leung, father of the gwan-ma and one of the sons of Seui, remained in Kam Tin. The other four descendants of Fu-Hip moved to nearby Ping Shan and places in Dongguan county, among other places. The descendants of many of the sons of the gwan-ma moved away to Lung Yeuk Tau, Tai Po Tau,\n\n30", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211941, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 356, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "331\n\nestablished during the Chenghua (1465-87) period. From information in genealogics about the Dangs who started the villages it can be estimated that Wing Lung Wai was established in the same period and Tai Hong Wai a little later, in the first half of the 16th century.\" All of the five main villages, therefore, had been started between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, and from them the smaller villages of Kam Hing Wai and Ko Po were derived.\n\nB. Merger of settlements in the 17th century\n\nThe foregoing would suggest that the development of the Dang settlements in Kam Tin was a process in which new villages were established as offshoots of the older main villages. But the opposite process, that of newer settlements being merged into older ones, also took place, in the critical period of the 17th century. Such were the cases of Sa Bui Leng (Sha Pui Leng) and Gau Ga Chyun, two Dang settlements which either no longer exist (Gau Ga Chyun), or no longer have any Dang residents (Sa Bui Leng).\n\nAccording to his descendants, who now all live in Tai Hong Wai, Dang Man-wai first established a village at Shun Fung Wai, and then left it and moved to Nam Pin Wai. There is a widely known fung-sheui story which implied that Nam Pin Wai was unfit for a single surname community. Man-Wai discovered the problem: the fung-sheui was no good as far as the behaviour of women was concerned. So he gave up the idea of settling there. He moved from there back to Kam Tin. Man-Wai and his people first lived at Sa Bui Leng after coming back. It was told that a dan is still to be seen at the site of his settlement. After he became jeun-sz he built Tai Hong Wai and moved there. One version has it that Tai Hong Wai was started by his younger brother, not himself. The brother followed the instruction of the bandit chief called Lei Maan-Wing then living in Tai Mo Shan. Man-Wai was an expert on fung-sheui. Before his time the people [of his segment of the lineage?] were very poor. Thanks to his choice of good fung-sheui [something to do with the village wall] they enjoyed prosperity after the final move.\n\nGau Ga Chyun means the village of nine families. An elder remembered seeing seven or eight houses used as store houses when he was small. These belonged to the Gwok-Yin jou segment of Wan-Yu jou people. He said that people lived there until more than 10 generations ago, they found the place unsatisfactory and moved back (sic) to Wing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211942, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 357, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "332\n\nLung Wai.\n\nWe know that Dang Man-Wai's period was 1627-1693. The move of his people to Tai Hong Wai, then, must have taken place in the 17th century. Various information suggests that the merger of Gau Ga Chyun into Wing Lung Wai took place in the same period. The only Dang genealogy (a Ha Tsuen one) that I found to have included Sa Bui Leng among the settlements of Hung-Yi's descendants named Gau Ga Chyun as well. The elder I talked to said that the residents moved to Wing Lung Wai more than ten generations ago, which was Gwok-Yin's time. Sung named Gwok-Yin as one of the two who walled Wing Lung Wai at the time when Man-Wai walled Tai Hong Wai. Probably it was Gwok-Yin himself who moved to Wing Lung Wai.\n\n37\n\n16\n\nIt is interesting that, if my guess is right, then the two mergers both took place during the period of the Coastal Evacuation, in which the Dangs of Kam Tin established their central temple as well as an ancestral hall for the three junior branches. Although the reasons given for the merger were in one case very vague and in the other supernatural (“fung-sheui\"), they would, in effect, have been part of the Dang response to the disorders of the times.\n\nC. The development of Tai Hong Wai\n\n38\n\nAt present, only the descendants of Dang Man-Wai and his brothers (known as Sung-Gok jou, after Dang Man-Wai's father) live in Tai Hong Wai. They all live in the village and its extension. But people from other segments used to live there. From the stone inscription for a bridge built by a filial son Dang Jeun-Yun we know that some descendants of Chung-Yut lived there around the end of the 17th century. It was Dang Jeun-Yun's grandfather Gaai-Yut who, together with Dang Man-Wai, walled Tai Hong Wai. Jeun-Yun named Shui Tau as his home. So probably the family had moved from Tai Hong Wai to Shui Tau in the time of his father.\n\nTai Hong Wai became settled solely by the descendants of Dang Man-Wai and his brothers only from about 100 years ago. The head of the only household that is descended from the senior segment of the descendants of Gyun is remembered to have recalled moving when he was very small from Tai Hong Wai to Tsi Tong Tsuen, where his family now lives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211944, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 359, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "334\n\nBui Leng village was established in very early days, “even earlier than Kam Tin\". But the building of Yau-Leun Tong had destructive effects on its fung-sheui. After the rise of the Dangs the Sa Bui Ling villagers became their ha-fu.\n\nI have talked with a 64-year-old Mr. Chan, who was the oldest person in this village. The villagers were originally of three surnames: Chan, Yeung and Yun. The Yuns have left no descendants. The villagers had established Sa Bui Leng at the same time as the Dangs established their settlement. The Dangs had taken measures to prevent the prosperity of this village. They built three ancestral halls (chi tong-jai), i.e. Yau-Leun Tong, and two others, which used to be at the site of the present playground, and dug a pond which had only been filled up to build the cinema some ten years ago. The combination had bad impacts on the fung-sheui of Sa Bui Leng and the Chans suffered a serious decline. Therefore some of them had moved to Tai Kiu, a small village in Yuen Long.\n\nBefore the war, the Chan family had grown rice on fields rented from a wealthy Dang and one of the jous of the Kam Tin Dangs. Mr. Chan stressed that the family farmed land rented from the Dangs, they did not work for them. There are indications that at least for the last hundred years, the Sa Bui Leng people were accepted as equals by some of the poorer Dangs. The Chan family was a member of the Yi-Chung Wui, a ritual association which drew its members mostly from the poorer Dang villagers of Kim Tin, since at least the time of his great grandfather. I also discovered that Mr. Chan's wife was a daughter of a Tai Hong Wai Dang.\n\nV. WORSHIP\n\nThe supernatural world was very real to the villagers. It is still so to many of the elders. A Mr. Dang who had spent his youth in a trading firm on Hong Kong Island told me that in the old days when the area was less densely populated, one often encountered ghosts. Now that there were more people one rarely saw ghosts. I have heard something similar from a younger Mrs. Dang. The belief in the reality and power of the gods is strong too. It is, above all, manifested in the villagers' behaviour in the jiu festival.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211947, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 362, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "337\n\nThe Jau and Wong Temple also used to house spirit tablets to \"heroes\". The tablets (three in total, without names) were moved to the Yau-Leun Tong from the side altar in the temple about 50 years ago because they were siu-yan (“small people”), and it was unseemly to house them in the same temple as the two great men (daai-yan). As mentioned before, villagers agreed that the “heroes” were those who had died in fighting (da-saat) between Kam Tin and its enemies.\n\nKam Tin has quite a number of other temples. There are the Man-Cheung Temple and Hung-Sing Temple in Shui Tau, and the Tin-Hau Temple in Shui Mei. Many of the other villages, e.g. Kam Hing Wai, Tai Hong Wai, Kat Hing Wai, Tsi Tong Tsuen, and Wing Lung Wai, which do not have “standard” temples, have a san-teng, a house with an altar for a spirit tablet for about ten popular temple gods. The gods of some of the vanished temples, which include a Yeung-Hau Temple and a Bou-Dak Chi in Shui Mei, and the Hung-Fan Taam Temple of Shui Tau, are still worshipped in the jiu festival, as are the gods of two nunneries, in Shui Mei and Tai Hong Wai respectively, which no longer exist.\n\nThese temples and nunneries hold tablets or images of some 20 different gods, if we are to include the Earth God for temples, and Wai-To for Buddhist establishments. The other 18 include the popular temple gods Yeung-Hau, Tin-Hau, Bak-Dai, Man-Cheung, Gwun-Yam, Gwaan-Dai, Hung-Sing, the God of Wealth, Gam-Fa, Taai-Seui, the Dragon King, and the Buddha. The Bou-Dak Chi housed spirit tablets for Jau and Wong. There is not much information about this other temple dedicated to Jau and Wong, but it was worshipped probably only by the villagers of Shui Tau, where it was situated.\n\nFui-Sing, and Fa-Gung Fa-Mou are probably respectively responsible for success in imperial examinations and the health of children. Hoi-Saan Suk-Lou is a title found in some other local temples as well, and represents the earliest settlers of the place. Hong-Wong is a title that I have not seen elsewhere in the New Territories.\n\nThe titles of localized gods found in most of the Kam Tin villages include the God of Earth and Grain, the Water God of wells, and the Earth God for the gates of the walled villages. There are, in some of the villages, a Tree God and Earth Gods for bridges and for the gate to a complex of houses. In addition, there are Ngau-Wong and Pun-Gu,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211949, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 364, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "339\n\nbut moved the Dei-Jong Wong inside the Buddhist hall instead.\"7 After the building of the Buddhist hall two of the nuns were added to the managers of the trust, and since then the Dangs did not have much to do with the nunnery except that the related ritual associations go annually to worship at the charitable grave.\n\nB. Household and village worship\n\nEveryday worship is local and is mainly performed by women. Such is the case of a family of Tsi Tong Tsuen who gave me information on this point. This family seldom worshipped in any temple. For weddings they worshipped at the Mau-Ging Tong ancestral hall, where the head of the family also went when he was small for the annual worship, and to get his shares of the ritual pork. This he no longer does, having stopped a few years ago. In some years he also joins the ancestral grave worship in Tsuen Wan. On Ching Ming and Chung Yeung his family went to worship their own near ancestors. On festivals his family worshipped at Tsi Tong Tsuen's shrines to the Earth God and the God of Earth and Grain and the place for the Well God.\n\nI was able to talk with some of the older women. One Tai Hong Wai woman born in the 1910s told me that ordinarily her family worshipped at home. They went to neither the Jau and Wong Temple nor the Hung-Sing Temple. They had no share in the Hung-Sing Temple. They did go to the Daai-Wong Temple at Yuen Long, early in the first month of the lunar calendar, but it is the business of their men only: the temple belonged to their distant ancestor. Similarly, an elderly Kat Hing Wai lady told me that Pak Wai Tsuen (i.e., Shui Tau and Shui Mei) people worshipped at the Hung Sing Temple. I have witnessed part of a waan-san (“thanksgiving”) ritual in Kat Hing Wai, which took place at the san-teng. I was told that for impromptu religious activities such as divination, some of the Kat Hing Wai women went to a temple at Tai Shue Ha [which is, as far as I know, not otherwise of interest to the Dangs of Kam-Tin] and some went to Ling-Wan Ji. They went to the Jau and Wong temple mainly during the jiu, and the temples at Shui Tau and Shui Mei were for their respective villagers alone.\n\nA san teng was probably considered to be of central importance to its village. When I walked with an elder to his house we passed the san-teng of Tai Hong Wai. He explained to me that it was the wai-jyu, and he compared its status in the village to that of the most senior and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211958, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 373, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "348\n\nD. The Taoist Priests and Their Rites\n\nThe Taoist priests who performed the rites in this festival were hired on a contract basis. More than ten of them were involved, among whom four were in a senior position. The oldest of the four, Mr. Lam Pui, born before 1910, was from the New Territories. Another, Mr. Jeung Hoi, was from a village just across the present Chinese border. Mr. Lam Choi was probably from the New Territories too. Both were born about 1920. These three had been active as ritual experts in the area since when they were young, and had been in leading positions at least in the last few decades. The four had all performed in the 1965 celebration of the Kam Tin jiu festival. The other senior priest, Mr. Chan Gau, was from Sa Jeng in the western area of Bao'an county. He had come to Hong Kong more than ten years ago and since then has worked in the New Territories. Mr. Leung Tung, though not a priest by profession, had been working with this group of priests as a musician, and had trained in an early stage of his career in ceremonial music bands in the Bak Bin villages. Chan Gau, Jeung Hoi and Lam Pui were the partners who undertook to provide the priestly services on this occasion, and the other members of the team were hired to help.\n\nBesides the three-times daily Scripture chanting and small processions to make offerings at different spots, the priests performed about 20 rites in the festival. About ten of them were more elaborate and were considered to be the main ones.\n\nEach of the four senior priests took the leading role in different rites. Mr. Lam Pui, being the oldest and the most knowledgeable, acted as the high priest in most of the main rites, including the Opening Rite, the Purification of the Ritual Area, the Posting of the Placard, the Escort of the Holy Ones, and the Great Offering to Ghosts. Mr. Chan Gau, being younger and good at acrobatic feats, took care of the more martial rituals: the martial arts section of the Purification of the Ritual Area, and Going through the Gates of Life and Death, and headed the team for the Dipper Rite. Mr. Jeung Hoi acted as the main priest in some of the other important rites. Mr. Lam Choi, partly because he was not one of the partners, played secondary roles. The morning, noon-time, and afternoon Scripture chanting and offerings were performed by the more junior members of the team, as were the short concluding rites on the last day.\n\n60\n\nAlthough the rites differ one from another, there were many elements", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211963, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 378, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "353\n\nthousand dollars. He would not give him the loan. He offered instead to purchase some of this fellow villager's seats. The offer was accepted and the family got some seats near the front.\n\nVII. THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE VILLAGERS\n\nA. Tradition and Continuity\n\nThe beliefs in gods and ghosts are still strong among the Dangs. This was most clear in the morning on the main day of the celebration when there was a very strong wind and some of the fa-paais threatened to fall down. There were rumours that some gods had been omitted in the villagers' invitation. “Some gods must have been omitted. Otherwise how can there be such a strong wind?\" An elder was asked to tell the priests to invite the omitted gods to the festival site, as a remedy.\" Something similar had happened 10 years ago. I was told that in the last celebration a few gods were forgotten and not invited, and during the festival suddenly the electricity went out and there was rain and wind. The villagers invited the missing gods and everything was fine again.\n\nSome younger Dangs who were more sceptical had suggested welfare projects instead of the festival for the last two celebrations. For the 1965 occasion they suggested the alternative of building a public school. This was done (the Mung Yeung Public School), but at the insistence of elders the festival had still been celebrated as usual. Something similar happened 10 years ago, and they established a Kam Tin Hospital for Women and Children. This time the younger men did not propose an alternative. They thought maybe there was not going to be another time at all, now that 1997 was so near.\n\nYet the continuity of the tradition depends not only on the willingness of the villagers to contribute the money and time required. It also requires knowledge about the detailed arrangement for the rites, especially where this jiu differs from others in the region.\n\nTalking with the no. I ritual representative, I found that he knew a lot about many of the events.\n\nThere will be two hang-heung [“procession of incense\"] on both the main day of the celebration and the following day. The first one will start at about 11 a.m., after ying-bong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211981, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 396, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "san wui \n\nSap Pat Heung -|- A sau宿 \n\nsau-choi 3 sek Zi \n\nSeui 瑞 \n\nseui-jeun-si :: \n\nSha Tau T \n\nSha Po 沙埔 \n\nSham Chun 深圳 \n\nSheung Che 1: Sheung Tsuen Sheung Shui 1: \n\nShing Moon San Tsuen Shun Fung Wai MAN Si-Daan MILL \n\nsing-bui \n\nSing-Ngok ! \n\nsiu-cheng \n\nSiu-Geui \n\nsiu-yan 小人 \n\nsona 嗩吶 \n\nSong 柒 \n\nSou-Lau Yun VTMN \n\nTin-San toi-wai 枱圍 \n\nTong Fong #† tong \n\nTsi Tong Tsuen Tsiu Keng 蕉徑 Tsuen Wan # Tung Tak 通德 Tung Tau Tsuen Tung Fuk Tong Wa Bou 華寶 \n\nwaang-mei (?) waan-san \n\nWa-Gwong #* wai \n\nwai-jyu \n\nWai-To 韋陀 \n\nWang Toi Shan \n\nWan-Gaan S Wan-Guk \n\nWan-Yu H \n\nwing-bou ping-on *RTE \n\nWing Lung Wai 永隆圍 \n\nWing-Sau 永壽 \n\nWong E \n\nWong Loi-Yam E \n\nwong-gu \n\nWudan Shan 武當山 \n\nsuk-jing wui-bei \n\nSuk-Leun #KA \n\nSung-Gok \n\nTaai-Seui \n\nTaai-Yut Jan-Yan AZHA \n\nwui \n\nTai Shue Ha AMF \n\nTai Hong Wai \n\nTai Hong Tsuen 泰康村 \n\nXin'an \n\nA \n\nYam \n\nTai Kiu 火樾 \n\nTai Mo Shan \n\n1 \n\nTai Po Tau 大埔頭 \n\nyamen 衙門 \n\nyan-hau A \n\nYau-Leun Tong \n\nyau-saan \n\nTim-Kau \n\nYeui銳 \n\nTing-Jing NVI \n\nyeuk # \n\nTing-Sam \n\nTin-Dei-Seui-Yeung \n\nTin-Hau G \n\nTin-Gwun Chi-Fuk X \n\nYeung 楊 \n\nYeung-Hau A \n\nyi * \n\nYi-Chung Wui \n\n371", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212083, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "\"Every Chinese peasant is three thousand years of China in miniature. He may not peruse the books of history, but he has heard the story-teller night after night relate in detail, and with delightful embellishments, stories of the history of China from the time of the early rulers to the present day. He and his wife and children have attended the theatricals where the stories of romance, of adventure, of loyalty, and of virtue have been realistically visualised in the open-air theatre that adorns the square of every self-respecting market town. Their culture thought-patterns are not chosen from present day movie stars but from great men of old. The common people have absorbed, not read, from the master spirits of forty centuries.\"\n\n\"Most Chinese peasants are anything but stupid. Their knowledge of their own folklore and folk history is extensive, although it is far from being historically accurate. Usually the history the country person knows has been learned at the opera, and he is frequently unable to say whether a certain character is a real person who lived at a definite time, or merely the creation of a dramatist. This confusion is the more frequent because so many of the characters of Chinese drama are patterned after actual people of history.\"\n\nI do not wish to suggest for a moment that time has ever stood still. Rather, I am using the impressions gained by Joliffe, Winfield and others to emphasise the immense weight and influence of Chinese traditional education and upbringing upon the people until recent times. With reference to Hong Kong, I would say that their powerful, lingering vestiges here lasted until perhaps two decades ago: until the rapid modernisation and the improvements to the educational and socio-economic structure which began in the 1970s soon shifted the whole basis of society onto a more material level, and together with other changes greatly reduced the influence of the past upon behaviour and outlook.\n\nMy own realisation of the continuing strength of traditional values and practice and their lingering influence upon the people was obtained before these changes had taken hold, and was mainly acquired at first hand in the course of observing and experiencing the responses of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212098, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "17\n\nwith its inculcation of “right thinking\", the complete process has been summed up in a few well-chosen words by Dr. Monlin Chiang, one of the most prominent educationalists of the early Republican period:\n\n“These moral precepts came from the Confucian classics. Moral ideas were driven into the people by every possible means — temples, theatres, houses, toys, proverbs, schools, history and stories until they became habits in daily life, 233\n\nThe effect of both the legacy and the drilling was not lost on competent Western observers. Writing over 150 years ago, in his standard work on China first published in the 1830s, a future governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, then only lately returned to England from many years' membership of the Honourable East India Company's Select Committee at Canton, had this to say: \"The Chinese lower classes are better educated or at least better trained than in most other countries”.\n\nPART THREE: “Right Thinking\" in Action in Tsuen Wan\n\n134\n\n+\n\nTsuen Wan District (like all the rest) provides plenty of evidence for the effectiveness of the indoctrination, as well as occasional examples of emulation and performance. People knew what to think and what to do, and recognized the attainment of the prescribed high standards of conduct and behaviour even if they themselves did not measure up. Men who did so were greatly respected, to the point of veneration.\n\nIt is the general opinion among Tsuen Wan natives, then and now, that such a one was the late Mr. Chan Wing-on, a former Tsuen Wan Rural Committee leader and also Chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk. Mr. Chan, who unfortunately died comparatively young, left a fine reputation behind him. He is commemorated by a tablet in a traditional-style pavilion, named for him, which was erected the year after his death near the entrance to the Chuk Lam Sim Yuen, one of the large religious houses located above the town. The memorial tablet records his life and achievements as a teacher and as a public figure; with an emphasis on his virtuous conduct and character and how it had influenced others for good:\n\n\"Entering the teaching profession, he taught the village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212101, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "20\n\nenough, it was to be remembered and duly acknowledged long after. A contemporary example from the Tsuen Wan villages may be used to exemplify these continuing obligations.\n\nThe endeavours of one of my Tsuen Wan village friends to recognize and continue to honour help given to his family in the distant past is a striking example of the kind. The founding ancestor of his clan had settled in a small village outside Tsuen Wan in 1724; but as sometimes happened in the local settlements the family did not prosper, and for three or four generations just managed to produce enough adult males to survive. A crisis ensued when the only adult male in one of the later generations died when still a young man, leaving behind a pregnant wife. By great good fortune, a family from another of the clans living in the village took pity on her; and after she gave birth to a boy who was reared to adulthood the future of my friend's family was again secured. This happened around 150 years ago. The descendants of this other family died out or went away pre-war never to return. When part of the village burial area was needed for development in the 1970s, my friend approached the District Office for a resiting of one of the old graves of the other clan. He was not applying for cash compensation as he was willing to pay all the expenses, but he did want another site in order to express, in tangible form, his family's continuing gratitude for the kindness done to the young widow so long ago. This was provided.\n\nAnother instance of a similar kind involved the old grave of a husband and wife, dated to 1813, which had to be removed for development at Sam Pak Tsin, Texaco Road, Tsuen Wan about 1975. Elders from another lineage belonging to Hoi Pa Village had responded to our notices posted on site, stating their obligation to arrange for removal and reburial of the remains. They said that the link with the persons buried in the grave was through the female side of their family but was no longer known clearly to even its oldest living members.40\n\nIn another, even older expression of gratitude for past assistance, the Ho clan of Muk Min Ha Old Village (settled in 1712) had built a special hall next to their main ancestral temple to honour a man of another surname who had helped their founding ancestor. One of this man's daughters had married the newcomer, and land had been given which enabled him to make a good start in a new place. The donor's clan still lives in one of the hill villages of the District. When Muk", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212137, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "56\n\nappeal to the authority of scripture, and the high moral tone of their scriptures was a decisive factor in securing imperial permission to preach Christianity in China. It is understandable that, presented by Reuben with a summary of the Christian message, the imperial authorities should have approved, or perhaps even suggested themselves, the term 'teaching of the scriptures' for the strange western religion. In 638 the term ching-chiao, 'teaching of the scriptures', is found in an imperial decree as the official Chinese term for Christianity.\n\nT'ai-tsung's decree of 638 was issued in response to the arrival of Reuben in Ch'ang-an, and gave permission for the Nestorians to establish a monastery in the capital. The decree has been preserved in the Tang hui-yao, an important collection of documents of the T'ang dynasty, and reads as follows:\n\nTruth can be recognised, whatever its name: wisdom can be discerned, whoever its possessor. Every region has its appropriate religion, which by its imperceptible influence benefits the inhabitants. The virtuous Persian monk Reuben (A-lo-pen) has come to our high capital from afar with the 'teaching of the scriptures' (ching-chiao). We have carefully examined this teaching, and find it mysterious, admirable, and tranquil; we have studied its principles, and are satisfied that they lay stress on the essentials of life. Its language is spare and elegant, and its thought is coherent. It is clearly a helpful doctrine: let it be admitted to our empire. Let a monastery be built in our capital by the appropriate board in the I-ning ward, and let twenty-one monks be appointed there.\n\nThe term 'teaching of the scriptures' also occurs in another imperial decree made over a century later, in 745, by the emperor Hsüan-tsung. This decree has also been preserved in the T'ang hui-yao, and reads as follows:\n\n\"The ninth month of the fourth year of the T'ien-pao period. The Persian 'teaching of the scriptures' (ching-chiao) originated in Syria (Ta-ch'in). Long ago this teaching was brought here and has been practised in China. When the monasteries were first built, we called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212164, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "83\n\ntook some of the soil from his tomb and raised a shrine to him in his native village nearby. Almost immediately other villagers discovered that one could obtain good advice through divination at the shrine and his fame spread. Shortly after the Japanese occupied Formosa some of their cavalry passed through the village destroying crops. The angry Chinese villagers were unable to protest but that night as the cavalry troop tethered their horses around the shrine one of the horses neighed once and dropped dead. This was seen as hidden retribution by the spirit of Ts'ai on behalf of the villagers, punishing the Japanese without providing an opportunity to blame the villagers for the mishap.\n\nA very local cult in a village near Tainan is based on the worship of a 'Young Girl' (Hsiao-niang). A two-year-old baby died in about 1908 and was deified after she reappeared as a spirit in 1935. The cult would appear to have been forced upon the family by the appearance of, and pressure from, the deity herself.\n\nMiss Ch'en Jui lived during the Ch'ing dynasty, 'about a hundred years ago', in Yen-shui in southern Taiwan where she died a spinster at the age of 28. All that is known about her according to the temple plaque is that 'her spirit did not disperse and she was deified'. A thatched shrine built over her grave was rebuilt with bricks in 1928 and the only image within is that of Miss Ch'en. Devotees claim that since she was deified she has delivered them from perils and cured their illnesses.\n\nA native of Chia I, a town in central Taiwan, was killed in about 1853. A short record of his life is kept in Chia I itself although the local residents who worship at his shrine know nothing more than his name, Luo An, and that he was a neighbourhood peasant who died \"about a hundred years ago\". None knew why he had been deified. The short record explained that Luo An had been involved in the fighting around Chia I between migrants from Chang-chou and those from Ch'uan-chou, both groups from the mainland. Although he had neither official nor unofficial status he struggled hard to prevent the fighting spreading into the town of Chia I itself. After he had succeeded and peace had been restored he was accused of acting in his own interests and killed. People remembered him as a brave man who had saved their town and a shrine was erected in his honour. His cult grew, with Luo An as a local protective spirit with an annual festival celebrated on the 29th day of the first lunar month. Like many of the very local", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212168, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "87\n\nseven died unnatural or early deaths, though the other six would appear to have died peacefully at a reasonable age in their beds. Three would seem to have appeared in human dreams after they had died, and all are prayed to for boons and blessings, protection or guidance,\n\nOut of the twelve examples six have had privately run temples erected in their honour, whilst images of the other six have been placed on secondary or side altars in local community temples.\n\nIt is worth considering the difference between the deified total nonentity and the deified virtual nonentity. The former would be the unnamed immigrant who died several hundred years ago but who is now regarded as the local protective spirit, whilst the latter is the villager, perhaps even a former headman, whose name, though little else, is remembered. He too is now regarded as a local protective spirit.\n\nAlthough we have been examining such deities mainly in the context of Taiwanese and South East Asian Chinese they appear to have existed China-wide. One such virtual nonentity was deified several hundred or more years ago on an island off the northern coast of Shantung Province, with the rural temple altar bearing the images of both the nonentity, Mr Liu, and his wife. R.F. Johnston describes the temple, formerly on the island of Liu-chia Tao, the Island of Mr Liu, off Wei Hai Wei, the former British possession where he was the last Governor, in his book Lion and Dragon in Northern China.\n\nHe explains that no one appears to know who Mr Liu was nor why his image appears on the altar. Liu Kung and Liu Mu Father Liu and Mother Liu were regularly worshipped, especially by sailors. Johnston notes that the curious thing is that the deification of the old couple has taken place without any apparent justification from legend or myth'.\n\nThe images were moved to a new temple built on the mainland during the occupation after the British acquired the island and began to make preparations for the construction of naval works and forts.\n\nThe images of Mr and Mrs Liu portray them as an elderly couple dressed in luxurious robes, he with a long white beard and the cap of the wealthy land owner.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212194, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "113\n\nthe walla-walla men are\n\nwould be an argument about the fare surely descended from the original Hongkong pirates and, that settled, a slow journey across the harbour, followed by a walk home. Such conditions are discouraging to social intercourse. They tend to break the community up into cliques; into the circle who live on the Peak, the crowd down in Victoria, and the mob over in Kowloon.\n\nHow deep-seated was the snobbery amongst the few could be seen at a later date, when the remnants of the British community were interned by the Japanese. Many of the women still thought themselves too superior to keep company with their sisters in misfortune, and continued to carry their noses in the air, while living under the most dismal conditions, crowded cheek by jowl seven and eight to a small room.\n\nTo avoid overheating during the Hongkong summer called for a special technique. The idea was never to move rapidly in any direction; a slow steady advance got you there. If the advance took you past the stately building erected by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, so much the better. It was air-conditioned. You could look in on your friends, who had the good fortune to rent offices there, and while passing the time of day your body refreshed itself in the cool dry atmosphere.\n\nOwing to the discomfort of movement and the geographic complexities, on leaving office at noon most people did not return home to lunch. They either went to the Club, where the cuisine, it is unreliably claimed, compared with that of the Shanghai Club, or to the Hongkong or Gloucester Hotels. These rival but contiguous establishments were a local institution. What Shepherd's Hotel was in Cairo fifty years ago, the Hongkong Hotel was in the late 1930s; a place where wanderers met. You seldom entered the hotel lobby without running into someone you had not seen for years. It might be an official of Imperial Airways who had just flown in from India, via Rangoon and Bangkok, or an American news reporter leaving by Pan-American clipper for Manila. Both hotels provided excellent fare. Some favoured the one, some the other. At the Gloucester the dining room was eight floors up on the roof, with a view over the harbour; in the Hongkong Hotel it was at ground level with a view of the \"Grips\", the arena where the cosmopolitan crowd foxtrotted to the music of a Filipino orchestra.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212203, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "122\n\nOur office had removed to a new building, a tall building with lifts and American plumbing. But the old office was still there, a little way down the Bund, in the French Concession, built of red bricks in a style which can only be described as Sino-Edwardian, though decked with a hangover of that rococo embellishment, which was not one of the glories of Queen Victoria's reign. It was in that office so many years ago that a dear old Chinese merchant had patiently explained to me how in Hankow the yolks of all the eggs were in the centre of the egg, because Hankow was in the centre of China. Not a little bit up the egg, or a little bit down, but just in the centre. I asked him where the yolk of the egg was up in the north at Tientsin, but he said he did not know as he had never moved far from Hankow; and, I fear, he attributed my ill-concealed scepticism to callow youth. I do not suppose all those young Chinese officers who now walked briskly along the road worried where the yolk of the egg was. For since the fall of Nanking, eight months earlier, Hankow had been the capital of China, and also the headquarters of the army. The Japanese were held up at the Mateng bluff, where the Yangtze narrows some miles below Kiu Kiang, but the pressure was increasing and it was thought that Kiu Kiang might fall soon.\n\nBefore leaving Hongkong I had taken the precaution of providing myself with six bottles of whisky, as I had heard that supplies were running short in Hankow. My information was not quite accurate. I found there was plenty of whisky, but it was a green colour, derived from the solder-flux of the Kerosene tins in which it was despatched from Hongkong. Freight on the railway was reserved for war material, and it was easier to bring up an odd tin of whisky than to find space for a case. The green whisky, it was discovered, could be taken, in the usual small doses, with impunity. Nevertheless my six bottles, containing liquid of a more agreeable shade, were acceptable. They unfortunately did not go far. I heard afterwards that an enterprising chemist found a way of removing the green colour from the imported whisky to the joy of patrons who had qualms regarding the effect of solder-flux on gastric juices.\n\nHankow was a very busy place. Amongst other things the rolling stock, which had been salvaged from the north China railways, was being ferried as quickly as possible over to the south bank. Locomotives of diverse size and vintage were shunted down to Hengyang onto sidings where they were held for spare parts or for...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212235, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "1.54\n\ncan take in vain. So they make up for it in everything that a corrupt heart can imagine. Mr Beach gave me the translation of a few of those expressions, which I might perchance hear from the servants, or even from pupils who have just entered college, and have not forgotten the language of home. But let me hear the least sound of it, and I will send them off about their business pretty quick. But it is surprising the alteration that takes place in Mrs Chinaman when she is under the influence of Christian teaching and religion. The alteration is greater generally in them than in the men.\n\nMy headmaster is a married man; he was married a few months ago in the Cathedral and lives in the rooms under the Bp's Drawing and Dining Rooms! His wife, Mrs Hah-shoe, is quite a decent little body, and often toddles outside, and walks round the grounds at the back. She was trained up in a Christian family, and he was brought up by the Bp, whom he accompanied once to England.\n\nPopular opinion goes a great way with a Chinese. Rather than offend popular opinion, they will make any sacrifice. Only let a man get a bad name among the men, and then let him offend one of the women. The ladies know they may go any length with impunity, so they follow him, and mob him round the place, giving him every species of annoyance, and he dares not molest them for fear of his fellow men of the village and popular opinion. His only remedy in such a case is either to commit suicide, or to get off as far away as he can. Suicide among them is very common.\n\nThere is a custom among them that if one of a family gets a good berth, all his relations come and live upon him. Poor Hah-shoe has all his relations living upon him, which is a great drawback; but popular opinion compels him to submit to it. A child is only looked upon as a servant who is to help support his parents and relations. Few among the lower classes ever think of saving money for old age. Popular opinion also makes them continue the pig-tail, although they say it is a religious affair, by which, when they pass over a narrow slippery plank upon entering the regions of the dead, if their wickedness has been so great as to make them likely to fall off, there is a kind friend who catches them by the pig-tail, and hoists them safe over on the other side.\n\nAnd now having treated of the Chinese, I will go on to describe the remainder of the population. The English are generally rich, proud,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212305, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "224\n\ntwelve o'clock gun firing is due to the liberality of Mr Magniac (a partner) of Messrs. Jardine Matheson and Company, who, when the Home Government ceased to provide this small return for the heavy Military Contribution forwarded annually from this Colony, purchased a gun, etc. and had it fixed up at Messrs. Jardine's, where it is fired daily.\n\nAlthough their gun is still at East Point, not far from where Jardine's started trading in 1841, their head office moved to Central District as long ago as 1864. It has been said there is not one field of commerce in which it does not hold a prominent position and its 'tentacles' extend to interests in many other firms.\n\nHong Kong Land\n\nThe Colony's leading businessmen have usually had considerable interests in land, and it was thus fitting that two of them, Paul Chater (later Sir Paul) and James Johnstone Keswick, should be prime movers in the Hong Kong Land Investment and Agency Company which was incorporated in 1889. The latter, as Taipan of Jardine's, following in the footsteps of his great-uncle William Jardine, was also founding chairman of Hong Kong Land. James was the first of six Keswicks, spanning five generations, to hold the position.\n\nThe company soon began buying sites and erecting office buildings. Between June 1904 and December 1905 it erected Hong Kong's first 'skyscrapers', five major buildings each of five or six storeys, which dwarfed the two and three-storey structures surrounding them.\n\nHong Kong Land acquired Humphrey's Estate and Finance Company, which owns residential property in Mid-Levels, in 1972, and for 14 years 'Land' had a controlling interest in the Dairy Farm, Ice and Cold Storage Company. Today, the latter is once again an independent public company. In its centenary year Hong Kong Land owned some six-million square feet of commercial space of which five-million is in the so-called 'Core Central' area. The firm has been described as \"... perhaps the most valuable property company in the world and certainly in the region ....\" Whether this is true is not known. Certainly, today, some Japanese companies hold considerable interests in real estate on a global scale.\n\nL", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212334, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 276, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "253\n\nOther firms\n\nAs mentioned earlier this article is by no means exhaustive. Other old firms still exist. They include Lammert, Atkinson and Company, which was founded by George Rhinegold Lammert, who opened the firm in Stanley Street. Lammert Bros. (as they are now known), present advertisements claim, have been auctioneers in Hong Kong since 1855, and in 1870 the firm was advertised as a naval and general store, auctioneers and commission agents. Some sales were conducted in the medium of Chinese, which was unusual at the time.\n\nAnother old, still-existing, establishment is George Falconer the Jewellers. The founder of the company had previously worked for Douglas Lapraik and Company, watch repairers. Lapraik came to Hong Kong from Scotland, in 1843, and before starting up on his own account worked for L. Just, watch and chronometer makers, in D'Aguilar Street. Lapraik started the Douglas Steamship Company in 1883. He also built the unconventional Douglas Castle, at Pok Fu Lam, now used as a hostel for university students.\n\nAnother early shop in the Colony was Kelly and Walsh, established in 1885. Kelly, the printer, was Irish, while Walsh, the bookseller and publisher, was Scottish. There were about 20 shareholders. The first shop was in Queen's Road. It then moved to York Building (Chater Road), then to Prince's Building (Chater Road), to Swire House, and finally to its present location in Ice House Street. There were branches in Shanghai, Singapore, Hankow and Japan. Their printing presses were in Shanghai and Singapore, and Kelly and Walsh published about 500 titles all told.\n\nLiquidated firms\n\nMany fortunes were made and lost in early Hong Kong, and some once thriving companies ceased business long ago. Not all taipans went back to Britain on retirement as rich men. Recessions can be traced at intervals throughout the history of the Colony and a number of firms were badly affected.\n\nOne of the most important houses to go out of business was Dent and Company (already briefly mentioned), which was founded by William Dent at the end of the 18th century. By the time the three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212340, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 282, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "In the matter of the forcible stoppage of work, and the repeated closure of a worksite, a joint presentation of further evidence.\n\nWe cordially request Your Benevolence to send an official to investigate and clarify the position to avoid the situation of a public bridge being destroyed.\n\nThere is a river at Kim Hau (1) which lies between Sham Chun, and Sha Tau Kok and Tai Pang () and so on, and which is on a most important road for anyone travelling from east or west. Everyday thousands of people pass there. The Cheung () clan, living over three li away at Wong Pui Ling (Bai) came in violence and took it for their own, establishing a ferry across the river there for their profit. All this happened years ago.\n\nEveryone coming there, at any time of day, must use the ferry. Bridal parties and funerals have to pay particularly heavy sums. Every Winter the river dries up, and the flow of water reduces, and then people have to wade across with obvious difficulty. Sometimes wooden hand-rails are put up beside the crossing, but these are frequently destroyed, and people are reviled and struck there. Every kind of perverse and unprincipled behaviour can be seen, too frequently to record.\n\nThese many years we the gentry and others have donated cash, and rice to sell at low rates. This is because, when they cannot run the ferry profitably they force the coolies to go into the water to cross; several dozen sacks of rice have been lost here as a result, and we the gentry and others cannot bear to see their suffering. We have been thinking of building a bridge for many years.\n\nLast year Cheung Tsan-tai and Lei Chung-chong (*44) both wealthy men, and others, twice gathered material for construction, but it was deliberately entirely destroyed on both occasions. The people really feared we would have to go back to the original position.\n\n---\n\nPage 259", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212352, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 294, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "and from then on for quite two months we naturally heard cannon-fire every day. However, this did not develop as just an artillery duel. Small arms fire, both from eight foot long Chinese jingals, and from guns of European pattern, played the main role in this struggle.\n\nYou should not think of the conduct of this village war in terms of European conflicts. The martial elements of the clans built up their spirits to the levels necessary for fighting with loud cries, insults, and the help of alcohol. They then, when ready, went out against the enemy's position with loaded muskets and spears to over-run it. At the head of a wild crowd of people ran the strongest and most skilled of the young men: behind them, the weaker and more timorous encouraged them on with a tumult of loud cries.\n\nThe fighters pushed ahead fiercely in the hope that they could overthrow and set fire to the positions of their enemies, take control of them, break through in the same way, and thus eventually return each to his own village. To achieve this, everyone ran as fast as they could.\n\nThere was one man of the Cheungs who did not take enough time for his retreat, or else it happened while he was fleeing, and who fell into a ditch - an easy thing to do amidst fields many of which were full of water. He was taken by the enemy. Since he was brave, he took up his spear to continue the fight. His people did not come quickly enough to his aid, and he was captured and taken by the superior forces of his enemies, or, as so frequently happens, he was recaptured. His victorious enemies were heartless enough to take his life. Without more ado, they transfixed him with their spears. They thought this would be a means to make them courageous and ready for battle. However, as far as this extremely shameless act goes, it would appear that, even if, by some means, the conflict had not come to Sham Chun, yet, nonetheless, such outrageous deaths are not rare where full-time soldiers, or robbers, are concerned.\n\n271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212353, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 295, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "272\n\nIn the fighting in Sham Chun, the two allied clans at all stages had the advantage, principally because of their larger cannon. This caused in total about thirty deaths, two-thirds from among the Cheung clan. Through the shelling of the village several women and children died. Furthermore, a man from another village which had nothing to do with the conflict also died. His only contact with the fighting was to have gone to the market to buy something. The actual market itself had originally been considered as neutral ground, since the whole district had to go there, until suddenly the Tsois sent their shots straight into it.\n\nOne day a so-called Fortune Teller in the new market was seized as a spy by the infuriated people, and thoroughly beaten. One of our Christians, who had previously learnt something of surgery from the Missionaries, functioned as a surgeon from the beginning of the fighting, and made good business from the many woundings by his understanding of the use of chloroform.\n\nAfter the fighting had continued for several more weeks, we saw the District Mandarin whose office was only about five hours walk away at last take steps to issue instructions to bring the case to an end. He sent an underling with a detachment of soldiers to Sham Chun to make peace. However, the warring parties refused to listen. He therefore took all his soldiers away with him, and the fighting continued fiercely.\n\nA few weeks later, the cannon-fire stopped. I asked the reason, and was told that the Military Mandarin Tin On-pong had arrived with his soldiers to clean the matter up. This news pleased me. It was this man who, about five years ago, cleared this whole district of robbers and other rabble, so leaving us here free from what the Chinese call \"great enemies of the people\". He was at one time a day-labourer in a village not far from here, and then joined up as a soldier. From then on, his resolution has carried him through every sort of different endeavour, and so, going up step by step, he is now the man before", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212362, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 304, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "281\n\nSee P.H. Hase “The Cheung Shan Kwu Ts'un: an Ancient Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories, and its Place in Local Society”, in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29, 1989, pp. 121-157.\n\nJournal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 104-137, reprinted from Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 6, 1859, pp. 71-105.\n\nDer Evangelische Heidenbote, Jan. 1862.\n\nSee also P.H. Hase \"Ta Kwu Ling, Wong Pui Ling, and the Kim Hau Bridges\" elsewhere in this issue.\n\nKrone, loc. cit. says that missionaries were usually treated as neutral and ignored in fighting.\n\nDer Evangelische Heidenbote, Feb. 1906.\n\nSHA TAU KOK IN 1853\n\nThe Rev. Carl Smith drew my attention some time ago to the wealth of material available in the Basel Mission Archive on Sha Tau Kok in the middle of the nineteenth century. Through the courtesy of the Mission Archive, photostats of a number of documents were received and studied. Among them was a most interesting general description of the District and Market at Sha Tau Kok dating from 1853. Given its general interest, a translation of this document is printed below. Comments in square brackets are editorial clarifications.\n\n\"Tungfo.\n\nTungfo* | Tung Wo, 41, the formal name of Sha Tau Kok Market station is situated in the Province of Quang-tung [Kwangtung], in the District of Sinon [San On #1. The southern border of this District is formed by the China Sea, whereas, to the east and west, the borders are formed by inlets of this sea. The western inlet is the larger, although it is too small to be called a gulf. The English call it the \"Canton River\". The city of Canton is situated on this estuary. Because of the Canton River, traffic between Canton and Hong Kong is very easy, and\n\n* All placenames in this document are given in the original Hakka transcription. Placenames in Hong Kong are also given in square brackets according to the Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories; placenames in China are also given in square brackets in Cantonese transcription and characters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212380, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 322, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "299\n\nreligious practice apart, that is, from the ethnically different Boat People of the South China coast. I also explained that many of the spirit images I had obtained came from Shaoyang county in Hunan province and from the township of Wu Kang in particular. These locations could be pinpointed with accuracy from the slips of paper concealed in the cavities in the backs of the images which also gave dates and other details. The images housed, and in a few cases outwardly represented, as portrait images, the souls of dead individuals. The subject of spirit images, at that time, did not appear to have been described elsewhere and it was left in the air whether this custom was unique to Hunan and the western part of Kiangsi which joins Hunan province, awaiting further evidence.\n\nThis does not seem to have been forthcoming. However, one image with the cavity in its back still sealed, obtained very recently [November 1992] in Yangshuo, just south of Kueilin, from a stall packed with such images (the majority of which had the cavities in their backs open and empty) revealed that the image, said by locals to have been from Kueilin city itself, was also from Wu Kang. It had been carved and dedicated to a Mrs Ch'en in the thirteenth year of Tao Kuang (AD 1834), and whilst this does not answer the question whether the custom of having carved images of soul figures extended beyond Hunan and western Kiangsi, the large number of such images still available on stalls in China does highlight the popularity and extent of the custom within that limited area of China.\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nT'I-SHEN\n\n替身\n\nA SUBSTITUTE FOR A PERSON\n\nSome years ago a number of popular images commonly seen in a god carver's shop in Singapore were described by the carver as 'Half spirit and half demon', pan-shen pan-kuei.' They were all remarkably similar with only minor differentiating features though all had a surname on the back. The majority were female and were easily identifiable by the birds, one under each foot. The males were less easily identifiable though the surname on the reverse was the clue. Once or twice similar images were noted on altars in public temples", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212392, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 334, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "311\n\nspite of his deep love for his motherland.\n\nNaturally, his pictures take pride of place in the 'Overseas Chinese Museum' which has over 6,000 exhibits portraying the Ming and Qing diaspora. The building was completed in 1956, endowed by Tan and other overseas donors. Like most similar establishments in China, information is available in Chinese only. If the People's Republic really wishes to attract overseas visitors, is it too much to ask that literature and captions be printed in English as well?\n\nThe Group also made a visit to Huli Shan Fortress, completed in 1823, which protected the entrance to the fine, deep-sea port in the lead-up to the First Opium War. The island of Quemoy, from which the Nationalist Government relayed propaganda with loudspeakers during the 'cold war', lies only 2.4 kilometres off the Communist China Mainland near this fortress.\n\nThe RAS Party later went to the Nanputuo Temple, under the towering 'Five Old Men Peak', which is an architectural masterpiece and crammed with Buddhist statuary. Renovations were in progress. It was encouraging, too, to see the local People's Patriotic Church had recently been given a facelift by the provincial government.\n\nBut impressions lie in the senses of the beholder. Some RAS Members may especially remember Xiamen for its reasonably priced seafood available, with over 600 varieties of fish compared to Hong Kong, or the edible frogs or fine noodles. There was even champagne available with the buffet breakfast!\n\n―\n\nNevertheless, for the author, the most treasured recollections are of banyans and buildings. Some of the former, with labyrinths of contorting, twisting roots, were probably growing a century-and-a-half ago, before the island became a Treaty port. The town is also a 'museum' of vernacular and colonial architecture.\n\nWhether the vantage point is Bill Job's workshop or the hotel window, a vista of old, mellowed, orange, Chinese 'roll and trough' roof tiles, with some roofs of interlocking tiles, blend in reasonably well with new structures erected often from overseas remittances. Although the more ornate, gently sloping, swallow-tail roofs were traditionally reserved for temples, official buildings, and residences", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212435, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 377, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "Cordial Christmas \n\nand \n\nNew Year's \n\nGreetings \n\nwith \n\nBest Wishes \n\n1927 - · 1928 \n\nઆણંદ \n\nFour of my Chinese Students at St. Paul's College, Hongkong, Photographed 66 Years Ago. \n\nFrom \n\nJohn Fryer \n\n2620 \n\nDurant Avenue \n\nBerkeley California \n\nU. S. A. \n\nPlate 5: Greeting Card sent by John Fryer in 1927. Fryer died in July 1988, just before his 88th Birthday. Original in the John Fryer Papers. The Bancroft Library, University of California. Berkeley. Courtesy. The Bancroft Library.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212457, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "having discussed it many times: there is no easy solution since the number of members are invariably limited due to external restraints, such as transport or the sheer difficulty in taking too many people around one place. One solution is to organise the trip twice or even thrice and you will note we have done this on a number of occasions.\n\nThe Council continues to be wary of running tours outside Hong Kong, after finding that the response to the proposed trip to South Korea early last year was not good, which led to its abandonment. However over the last year we have been to the Pearl River Delta and Xiamen and next July there is a thrust deep into China to be led by Mrs. Rosemary Lee and Mr. Peter Lee for which there have been some encouraging responses. It does seem therefore that this will be the pattern for the future, i.e. short or long trips into China rather than elsewhere.\n\nIt is customary for this report to include a paragraph on Membership, and this cannot be done without the assistance of our very capable Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Sharon Bruce, who is able to inform me from her records that our current numbers are 581 local members (450 from H.K. Island, 76 from Kowloon and 55 from the New Territories) and 114 overseas members, making a total of 695 members.\n\nThis compares with last year's figures of 596 local members (492 from H.K. Island, 65 from Kowloon and 39 from the New Territories) and around 80 overseas members, making a total of 676 members. In this transitory society it is considered that this is a satisfactory situation. May I ask that if you are leaving Hong Kong you will continue to keep in touch: we can keep you informed of our activities and send you the annual journal all for the modest subscription of HK$180. And on the subject of membership it is with great regret to note that we will be losing our patron Lord Wilson, later this year. Lord Wilson has been very supportive of the Society's activities and his presence at our Annual General Meeting dinner two years ago was very much appreciated. I regret to say I do not have a secret line to inform you as yet who our next patron will be but we will keep you informed as soon as we have anything definite.\n\nSuch a large membership does mean of course that they need servicing and that we have a system for keeping in touch: this is done very competently by Mrs. Anita Wilson, who produces a bi-monthly newsletter: this helps enormously to bind our Society together and also when we need assistance we have means to obtain it: this was clearly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212578, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "112\n\n20\n\nA one-inch diameter, ancient bronze-coin, costing $60, with a 1/4-inch square hole in the centre (a pearl or jade object is sometimes used instead), had been placed in the mouth of the corpse. This practice can be traced back to Liangzhu culture in ancient China 3,900 to 4,900 years ago. The purpose of this talisman is to deter evil, to prevent body spirits escaping before purification and to safeguard the corpse against rapid decay.\n\nIt was expected that the dead person's spirit would come to the funeral parlour. There were two bowls of peanut oil with a wick made from dried seaweed in the farewell room, 'to lead her on her way'. A packet of cooked rice and a pair of chopsticks lay on the floor to placate fierce dogs which she would meet three weeks after death on the road to heaven. Possessions she treasured, such as special clothes, a cassette of Chinese songs and her handbag with knickknacks, including magnifying glass, cigarettes, lipstick, compact and a piece of jade, were placed in the coffin. Coffin jade, which has been reclaimed after many years of burial, is valued for 'protective' properties. For practical reasons keys and a notebook, which contained telephone numbers, were not placed in the casket. Nor were spectacles. Cremation would splinter them and they could injure the corpse although there seems to be a contradiction here with the magnifying glass.\n\nAlso at the back of the hall, on the left of the altar, was a stove around which relatives and close friends, including children, folded 'gold' and 'silver ingots' out of tin-foil. These imitation bars, together with pieces of paper resembling bank notes (a tale has it that a little boy once found one and went to the bank to try to cash it), were burned continuously until midnight. Money is needed by the dead, among other purposes, to bribe officials to obtain good positions in the after-world. Five Buddhist nuns with shaved heads and colourful robes chanted prayers. One had a series of initiation, incense stick burn marks on her scalp.22\n\n21\n\nChinese children take part in funerals, and, with the extended family, it is important they 'farewell the dead'. This appears in no way traumatic. With English funerals children tend not to participate. Certainly with the author's generation (pre-World War II) death was a taboo subject for the young.\n\nA Chinese saying has it:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212594, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "128\n\nAlso, many who did not believe in reincarnation did believe in supernatural powers and in retribution. Namely, that one would be punished later for sins committed on earth. In the funeral in this case study, the three daughters and the two granddaughters all believed in reincarnation.\n\nConclusions\n\nIn his long, complicated, Italian poem, I Sepolcri (Graves), Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) looks at death, the after life and how the dead are represented on earth. We see ourselves in the tombs we erect, he maintains. What is the cult of death? It began when civilisation began. When homo sapiens ceased to be animal and 'honoured its urns'. There is conflict between erecting tombs and the law of nature which recycles bodies back into the earth's system, Foscolo continues: \"The stink of the corpse mixes with the smell of incense. In Italy, importance is attached to cypress and cedar trees which stay green with fragrances to record to eternity those who have gone. In England, these are replaced by aged yews and in the Far East sometimes by frangipani.\n\nFunerals, along with food, festivals and weddings tell us much about a nation's culture. Former British Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-98) said: \n\nShow me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws and their loyalties to high ideals. \n\nCertainly the 'cult of death' is complex and fairly clearly defined for the Chinese who, with their ancient civilisation, rich in folklore, have been 'honouring urns' in a similar manner back as long ago as the Chou Dynasty (1122-255 BC), although there are slight regional variations. The Chinese, more than any other people, are obsessed with the dead.48 There is a fear of the dead. There is a continuing relationship between the dead and the living. Rituals demonstrate, resolve and change situations. Money, goods and food are 'dispatched' to the deceased. In return, from ancestors, the living expect luck, wealth, moral order, fertility and health. If punishment is meted out this is accepted. Feng shui plays its part.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212648, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 202, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "183\n\nA SHORT HISTORY OF THE HEUDE MUSEUM\n\n\"MUSEE HEUDE\" 1858-1952\n\nITS BOTANIST AND PLANT COLLECTORS\n\nOCTAVIUS WILLIAM BORRELL*\n\nMr. Liu Zhong Ling, M. C.\n\nDear Friends,\n\nLet me first introduce Mr. Borrell as many of you don't know him, I suppose. He could qualify as a Citizen of the world, an International citizen. Through his origins, he belongs to two great cultures, being British and Greek. Through his primary, secondary and tertiary education and through language studies, he has touched two more cultures, the Italian and German. In 1934, by choice, he selected China to be his adopted country where he spent 18 years of his youth. But it was not to last. Circumstances made him leave China in 1952.\n\nAfter spending five years teaching and studying in Britain, he returned to the Far East. He taught Chinese, Malay and Indian students in Malaysia and Singapore, Chinese and Eurasians in Hong Kong, Chinese, Dayaks and Ibans in Sarawak, Melanesians and Polynesians in New Guinea and finally he retired in Multicultural Australia.\n\nMr. Borrell\n\nThank you Liu for your kind introduction.\n\nNow I am back in Shanghai, old memories of olden times come back to my mind and I have the extraordinary and delightful pleasure of meeting old friends I knew 40 years ago.\n\nIt was in a casual conversation that I mentioned the Musee Heude\n\n* Talk given on 11 October, 1991 to a group of botanists at a seminar in Shanghai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212700, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1992/93\n\nIn the Society's journal Volume I (1960-61) you will find that the then president wrote these words 'It is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.' That was just over thirty-three years ago, at the time of the resuscitation of the Society, as a result of the enthusiasm of a small band of interested members led by our late president, Dr. J.R. Jones. The first meeting took place on 28 December, 1959, when the present constitution was adopted and the inaugural meeting was held on 7 April, 1960 in the Loke Yew Hall of the University of Hong Kong. It was to be presided over by the then governor, Sir Robert Black, had illness not prevented it. The inaugural address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong and was entitled 'The study of Asia: a heritage and a task.'\n\nYou will notice that the word 'resuscitated' is used because the original Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1847 (the parent company was founded in 1823), but primarily due to personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days it collapsed in 1859. We, to-day, having survived for 33 years are clearly more enlightened and harmonious.\n\nSome of you here this evening will be fully aware of these facts; for those who are not you will find them all and much more in that first journal. My reason for drawing your attention to them, besides encouraging you to buy this back journal and all the other journals to improve our finances if nothing else, is to focus your attention on the historical mission of the Society, and to bring out that we have now been in existence for a very long time in the context of the history of Hong Kong. And in to-day's context, where the changes in Hong Kong are so apparent, where there is a charged political atmosphere, and where there is a feeling of uncertainty for the future, a Society such as ours, small as it is, can continue to play an enlightening and a stable role for Hong Kong. We are not of course a political society, nor would we ever wish to be one, but clearly we need to remind ourselves that academic freedom must be seen to be preserved, and not just paid lip service to.\n\nVil", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212701, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "'History can be well written only in a free country,' Voltaire once wrote in a letter to Frederick the Great in the early part of the 18th century. I am sure we all agree with these sentiments and objectives and we will attempt to continue to do what we are best at in order to achieve them.\n\nAnd what do we do from a practical point of view in order to achieve our objectives? There are four basic areas of activity; visits and expeditions to areas of historical interest, public lectures, the publication of the journal and increasing our library collection, and being a gentle pressure group and of assistance in improving Hong Kong's image when and where needed. I shall deal with each in turn and end with some facts and figures.\n\nI think it is safe to say that we have had one of the most active and interesting years in the history of the Society, and for that we need to thank the great efforts put in by the Programme Committee and particularly its chairman, Mr. Peter Leeds. When the organisation of this Society was put under the microscope of a management consultant a few years ago, one of its main recommendations was to form a number of committees each to look after an area of activity. Not all committees recommended really got off the ground in a very effective way but one of them that did was the Programme Committee. And over the last year the results are for all to see. I would like to inform you of those visits and expeditions and they are as follows:\n\nVisit\n\nHelena May / R.A.S. Quiz\n\nVisit to Fung Ping Shan Museum\n\nH.K. Park Aviary\n\nVisit to University Hall,\n\nBethany & Pok Fu Lam\n\nTea Ceremony\n\nFilms\n\n-\n\nHong Kong life\n\nTour to China\n\nArranger\n\nAnita Wilson & Rosemary Lee\n\nMichael Lau\n\nKen Searle (Rosemary Lee)\n\nPeter Leeds / Des Robinson\n\nMichael Lau\n\nElizabeth Sinn\n\nPeter & Rosemary Lee\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212714, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "8\n\nregular references to his deep knowledge of things Chinese and in particular, their formal rituals. As with many foreign writers on China and the Chinese, Mesny frequently implied exclusive access to hidden corners. This was indisputable because, whilst most foreigners who pride themselves on having Chinese friends and have visited them at home, even perhaps having stayed with them, few have the opportunity afforded to Mesny when he served with the Chinese military forces and lived as one with them on the staff. However, in retrospect we can see that Mesny knew little of the private life, thoughts and policies of the native Chinese higher classes, or more importantly, of the ruling Manchus, simply through his lack of access. The great majority of foreigners in China were dependent upon what they could glean from their native interpreters whose depth of understanding was limited by their lack of knowledge, especially about state policies. Such people as Mesny, foreigners who spoke and read Chinese and had Chinese contacts, were one up on the foreigners who heavily depended upon their Chinese employees, but for Mesny to maintain his credibility with possible foreign investors he had to clutch at any crumb from the tables of the great and worthy, hence his repeated name dropping. It is also well nigh impossible to judge simply from his own account of events the extent to which Mesny understood the power politics of senior Chinese Imperial military officers or the nuances of the accusations aimed at a number of the generals. If he did, then his poignant description of the removal and demotion of his own Commander-in-chief from his command in Kueichou is very sympathetic.\n\nShanghai, where Mesny spent many of his later years, was one of the first Treaty Ports, opened in 1842, and by the turn of the century the largest foreign settlement in the East with a western population of many thousands. Mesny spent all but five of his last thirty-three years in the city.\n\nA Briton, Oliver Ready3, writing in 1904 of the time when Mesny first reached China said, 'Forty odd years ago, at the close of the second great war [i.e. 1860, the year in which Mesny reached the China coast], China was a veritable Eldorado for Europeans, where all turned to gold beneath the slightest touch of alien hands. Fortunes were made with startling rapidity, and money came in so freely that the standard of living amongst foreign merchants and their employees reached such preposterous heights of luxuriousness, that even when the inevitable reaction set in, want, and even ruin, supervened where plenty should have been found. Forty years ago the foreign trade was practically monopolised by Englishmen, who only had to place their goods on the market of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212730, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "24\n\nin 1884. He also claimed to have produced several minor booklets, one on Yunnan and another on Tonkin, and one article in the Royal Asian Society North China Branch Journal in 1891 on 'Yunnan: Its Treasures and Trade Routes'. He planned to incorporate the two booklets into what he saw as his magnum opus 'The Greater China' which unfortunately never saw the light of day.\n\nHe wrote a very long letter on the Yellow River and its appearances, published in 1887 in Indian Engineering, describing the different places where he had sailed on or had crossed it.\n\nMesny and Chiang Chao-ling, under noms-de-plume, produced in Shanghai in February 1898 'A New Collection of Tracts for the Times', with Mesny editing and Chiang writing the introduction. It was reviewed in the North China Daily News of 23 July 1898. Mesny and Chiang had planned some ten years earlier to publish a monthly magazine in 1887 which would seem never to have taken off.\n\nMesny wrote a lengthy account of his journey from Canton through Kuangsi in 1879 for the London Daily News, but 'this very influential and highly respectable journal did not consider my poor contribution sufficiently interesting to insert it in its widely read columns.'\n\nIn passing when describing a 'celebrated heroine of romance' a novelette based on facts, Mesny added, \"I wrote it all out in one of my stories 'Chinese Nights' years ago, considerably different from Mayer's [version]...,\" but Mesny leaves us no wiser about 'the stories I wrote.'\n\nIn 1904 he published Mesny's Chinese and English Almanac though no copies appear to be available nowadays.\n\n*\n\nIn 1905 he advertised two forthcoming publications, 'Mesny's Commercial Guide' and 'Mesny's Business Directory', presumably both one-off books.\n\nMesny's Ranks and Honours\n\nAlthough Mesny was awarded several decorations by the Chinese one, the Baturu, a Manchu military award for distinguished services rendered on the field of battle, was the award of which he was most intensely proud and which, he explained, had entitled the recipient to travelling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212751, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "45 \n\nworks recommended by Pioneer [i.e. Mesny] through Governor Chang Chih-tung of Shansi, are now, or soon will be, in full operation in various parts of China, though with no other advantage to the conceiver of those useful nineteen undertakings than that of having done just so much good, gratis, for the benefit of China and her millions of industrious people, to whom we wish long continued peace, happiness and prosperity.\" However, whenever China attempted anything which would lead to modernisation, Mesny leapt into print to congratulate whoever was putting the modernisation in train stressing that it was in line with his suggestions of so many years ago. \n\nIn his early days he displayed extraordinary qualities - audacity, determination, adventurousness and a depth of interest in everything he came across; later, however, when in his declining years he had reverted into a petty entrepreneur, he displayed his achievements on his sleeve and at times waved them above his head just in case they might be overlooked. His rank as a brevet Lieutenant General1 in the Chinese Imperial army with the award of the Pa-r'u-lu and the peacock's feather is stressed right to the end of his life. He is an FRGS and a FR Hist S; and in the very last years of his life he even records in his curriculum vitae as one of his qualifications his membership of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, into which he was elected as late as 1914 when he was 72. This despite having written for the Journal back in 1891 and his son having been elected in 1911. An outstanding question regrettably remains unanswered. Well we might ask why Mesny was promoted brevet Lieutenant General in 1886, so many years after he had completed his active military service in 1874? Balleine may have the answer. He wrote that Mesny volunteered for active service in 1883: whereupon he was sent to Yunnan, and in 1884 to Foochou. In 1885 he was in charge of two arsenals in Canton and the following year was promoted i.e. whilst still working at the arsenals. \n\nMesny explained that officers as junior as Lieutenant Colonel, when in command of troops, were referred to by the honorific title of General. Mesny began his service in 1868 as a company commander rising to brevet Colonel in 1869 and technically in command of troops, though as he himself does not make this point, we can assume that he was never referred to as 'general'. In 1873 he was promoted to Major-General during the latter days of the second Kueichou campaign when, though he again does not say so, he would have been referred to as 'general'. \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212782, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "76\n\nThe Chinese Government, Mayers does not refer to the Lien-chûn Ying. Mesny's ambiguous descriptions are confusing though it would seem that there were four separate bodies, the Banner Forces, the ill-trained Green Standard armies under provincial control, the Disciplined Battalions formed from the Green Standards forces, and the local defence train bands.\n\nThe standing army was divided into two great classes, the Banner Forces, [Ch'i-ping], and the Militia Forces (Chih-ping]. The real Chinese National Army also called Ying-ping generally styled by foreigners as the Green Banner Force [Lu-ch'i Ying'] derived its title from the colour of their triangular standard, green satin with a red satin scalloped border and a golden dragon embroidered in the centre. Each province had a separate army corps under a C-in-C styled Ti-tu Chün-men [one such force was the Kueichou Provincial Force operating alongside the Szechuan Force in which Mesny served]. The forces consisted entirely of Chinese and were, in fact, a part of the local militia. Three centuries ago, wrote Mesny, it was the finest military force in the world: as it was in 1895, he added. The force was beneath criticism.\n\nThe Disciplined Army battalions, the Lien-Chün Ying [troops trained by and after foreign advisers], was a new organisation instituted by Ts'en Yü-ying, formerly Governor of Yunnan, Kueichou, Fukien and subsequently Governor-General of the Yun-kuei provinces. It consisted of detachments from the various Territorial Green Regiments formed into battalions and bearing the same territorial name as the regiment from which they had been detached and of which these detachments actually formed or constituted a fighting or field battalion. The Disciplined Battalions were armed with obsolete rifles but far superior to anything opposed to them in Yunnan or Kueichou. These Disciplined Armies, often referred to as the Anhui and Hunan Armies, were originally privately raised and financed by Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang to combat the Taiping rebel armies and were under the personal command of Han Chinese generals. Later, they employed westerners such as Mesny to assist China's programme of 'self-strengthening', primarily in the sphere of armaments.\n\nAlthough Mesny explained that there was a lack of uniformity in organisation throughout the whole of China he went into some detail, and added that each provincial army corps was considered a regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212875, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "169\n\nfamily in the present generation and after:\n\nOur ancestors first came to live in Tsuen Wan about 235 years ago [1740]. Two brothers came from Chik Sek Market of Shi Kwan Tong sub-district (heung) of Hoi-fung County to Lai Chi Kok in Kowloon. Later, one brother moved to Sha Tsui (Yeung Uk Village), Tsuen Wan. Our founding ancestor was first buried on Tsing Yi Island, but because the authorities wished to develop that part of the island into a dockyard his remains were reburied in a formal grave at Fa Shan, Tsuen Wan. His wife was, and still is, buried at Hau Tei of Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan. It has been found that both these ancestral graves have ever brought good fortune to our clansmen.”\n\nThis letter was sent in response to my enquiry about the settlement of the lineage in Tsuen Wan. I had not realized it would be a catalogue of information on founding ancestors and their graves, ending in the statement that the graves were responsible for the flourishing condition of the lineage today!\n\nAlarm and Indignation at Official Notices\n\nSometimes, there were more direct examples of the kind, originating in the posting of official notices on site. When old graves on Tai Mo Shan were being inspected and registered by our land staff in 1980, notices were posted which were guaranteed to upset their owners. One of the many affected parties, the Tang clan of Wang Toi Shan Village in the Pat Heung, sent in a very strongly worded letter to the Office:\n\nWe refer to your notice posted at the ancestral graves of our Tang clan at Sze Fong Shan, Tai Mo Shan summit, stating that the burials were in violation of public health regulations. Descendants of the clan called an urgent meeting at which it was resolved to make strong objections. The Tang clan are indigenous villagers of Wang Toi Shan in the Pat Heung, and have a history [of settlement there] which is older than the Hong Kong Government. The ancestral graves in question date back to more than a century ago, and were repaired in the 31st year of Kuang-hsu [1905], as shown by the tomb inscriptions. The prosperity of our clan is attributed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212879, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "173\n\nletter from the elders of the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, enclosing an embroidered banner of appreciation which they wished me to note and transmit to one of the land inspectors in the Office. Apparently, over a weekend some Tsang clansmen had discovered that a construction lorry had damaged some burial urns. An agitated call to this particular officer on the Sunday morning brought him quickly to the scene. He was able to contact the company responsible and make satisfactory arrangements for putting matters to rights.\" Such actions by the land staff greatly improved our relationships with villagers, and stood us all in good stead when land resumptions and village removals were necessary on account of development.\n\nPrivate Initiatives\n\nIt should not be thought that villagers only took action when the government was involved, and with it the prospect of compensation. They would sometimes, on their own initiative, resite and re-bury remains in graves whose fung-shui was thought to be affected by the actions of other parties, or by government works that had not actually required a grave to be moved. A letter received from a villager of Muk Min Ha Village in 1971 stated:\n\nMany years ago, the government's need to construct more catchwaters led to construction works taking place near my ancestors' grave. As the work affected the grave's fung-shui, I exhumed the remains myself [and placed them in a burial urn]. They have not been reburied [in a formal grave] since then.\n\nI have now found a spot to my liking (meaning, with good fung-shui] between Yau Kam Tau and Ting Kau for the rebuilding of this ancestral grave, and would be grateful for permission to begin the work.\"\n\nOther Means of Averting Harm\n\nSometimes, instead of moving graves - always an expensive business - villagers took other measures to contain the bad effects of altered fung-shui. I recall visiting an old grave with a village elder of the former Lan Nai Tong Village above Lei Muk Shu in Kwai Chung. The visit was at my request, and made in connection with their claims", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212881, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "175\n\nsomething special must have taken place nearly two hundred years before, to create an obligation that was still felt to be incumbent upon descendants of the other lineage.\n\nRunning Out Of Land for Traditional Burials\n\n14\n\nThe continuing progress of development could create great stress upon descendants of old lineages, especially if it had been their practice to concentrate their burial areas. This occurred with the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, the nearest of the Tsuen Wan Villages to urban Kowloon. Paradoxically, and unlike the other inlying Tsuen Wan settlements, their village had not been removed and resited. However, their fields and associated areas of hill land above and adjacent to the village had all been taken, with the exception of the remaining part of the hilly area, where most of their graves were located. In 1984, the Lands Department posted notices there calling for the removal of these graves. Their anguish was extreme, as shown by the contents of the following letter to the District Officer:\n\nWhen we worshipped at our ancestral graves on the hill at Shek Lei Tau during the recent Ching Ming Festival, we were much surprised to see notices all around, calling for the removal of all graves and burial urns to make way for development.\n\nThis came as a great shock to us, as ancestral worship has been our filial duty since our forefathers settled at Kau Wah Keng more than 300 years ago, during the reign of the K'ang Hsi Emperor [1661-1720]. It has the dual intention of appeasing the [souls of the] dead and ensuring that the living flourish and prosper.\n\nShek Lei Tau has been the burial ground for our ancestors from as early as their arrival at Kau Wah Keng, and in the selection of [auspicious] grave sites geomancers had to be engaged at great cost. Some of the burials are quite recent, having occurred in the past ten years when our then elders, acknowledging the need for land to provide [public] reservoirs, roads, hospitals and children's homes, witnessed with shame the repeated and obligatory removals of remains", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212883, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "porcupines and barking deer flourished there. During holiday times, many persons visited the island for shooting excursions. In 1923, a Mr. Chan came to hunt. He noticed that there were human remains on the hills, lying on the surface. Moved by compassion, he contacted our local headman, Mr. Tang Yuen-kwun. It was then established that these bones were the remains of former villagers of this island. However, it seemed either that no one looked after them, or else the persons concerned were miserably poor. Willingly, Mr. Chan raised the necessary funds and entrusted Mr. Tang Yuen-kwun to construct a charitable grave to re-bury the remains, so that local villagers could worship there. This happened over 50 years ago.\n\nWomen's Graves\n\n177\n\nFemales' graves should not be excluded from this survey. From the evidence available from the Tsuen Wan district, there can be no doubt that some women were greatly honoured. This was particularly the case with the wives of founding ancestors. Many old graves containing the remains of such persons have been buried and reburied over the centuries by their descendants. Single burials of married, and often elderly women are also common, again in formal graves and often repaired many years later. Sometimes these women are not first but tin fong wives, married after the death of a first wife. Also when, as sometimes happened, it was decided to erect a clan grave, the remains exhumed and brought from elsewhere included just as many women's as men's. In recent times, when development required the removal of many old graves, those of women as well as men's or married couples' were reprovisioned by descendants.\n\nIt is difficult to establish why women were so well favoured in this respect. Some women were revered by husbands and family because of their noble character and capabilities at home and in the family, and this is sometimes stated on the inscribed tablet at the grave. Others may have been buried in style because of the general respect shown for age and the high status of a wife and mother who had become head of the family on her husband's death. Some inscriptions would reflect truth, others would be more eulogistic than factual, reflecting the family's desire to gain face from giving the deceased formal burial. Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that the hillsides contain many formal graves where the sole occupant is a female.\n\n18", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212944, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "6 November\n\n20 November\n\n18 December\n\n20 December\n\n1994\n\n18 January\n\n22 January\n\n19 March\n\nSwire Marine Laboratory, Cape D'Aguilar\n\nDiscovering Trim Sha Tsui- Historical Quiz\n\n-\n\nBattle of Hong Kong Walk - Wong Nei Chung to Tai Tam with visit to Sai Wan Commonwealth War Cemetery\n\nExhibition of Sand Mandala - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University\n\nThree Historic Buildings of Central (Helena May, Government House, Christian Science Church)\n\nExhibition of Archeological Discoveries of Ancient Yue Tribes in Southern China - Museum of History\n\nUniversity of Science and Technology and Tin Hau Temple, Joss House Bay\n\nVisits Outside Hong Kong\n\n1994\n\nDecember\n\nGuangzhou\n\nI expect many of you can think of several highlights, but for me the most significant and colourful event was the trip to Guangzhou and our trip on leaky sampans from one side of the Pearl River to the other, to look at Danes Island and the Military Academy at Whampoa; the whole trip was a memorable occasion and we have to thank Dr. Joseph Ting and our friends in Guangzhou for organising it so superbly. But none of these events could take place without some organisation behind them, and for this we have to thank the Programme Committee and particularly Mr. Peter Leeds, the Chairman. Peter used to be, I believe, in Transport; in fact, he gave a lecture to the Society about two years ago on the history of transport in Hong Kong. Clearly, anyone who has organised transport in Hong Kong has some very gifted organisational skills, and the Society has been very fortunate over the last three years to have him at the hub of the wheel, so to speak, of the Programme Committee. It is therefore with great regret that I have to report that due to his anticipated long period of absence from Hong Kong next year, he feels he will not be able to carry on his present role. Fortunately, however, I am pleased to report that Mrs. Rosemary Lee has agreed to take on the role, and I have promised her that she will obtain all the support the Council and I hope other members can give her.\n\nXI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212954, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 22, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "THE CONCERN OF A NATION'S FACE: EVIDENCE IN THE CHINESE PRESS COVERAGE OF SPORTS\n\nKARINA LAM WAI-LING\n\nAbstract\n\nPrevious studies focused on the following topics previously: face, sports, and news reporting, but few linked them together. This thesis attempts to study the concept of face at collective levels through the Chinese press coverage of sports at four important events in four years. In the process, an analytical framework was constructed in which face could be studied by its components. The results showed that such an analytical framework was helpful in systematic and statistical treatment of press contents. The study also confirmed that the concept of face existed at collective levels, and in particular, at national level. Most important of all, the face of China at national level was highly favourable with a lot of face strategies having been detected in the press to the advantage of China and her athletes. In contrast, the face of other countries at national level was not so distinctively favourable. Rather, favourable faces of other countries appeared more often at individual level. It is hoped that in prospective studies, the concept of face, a highly regarded concept among many scholars, could be used to look at political processes and economic bargaining as well as news reporting. This could probably elucidate many of the questions that have been asked of human social behaviour, international propaganda, resolution of conflict among nations and so on. Finally, to expand the fruitfulness of such studies, comparative approaches were preferred if problems of time, resources, and language difference could be solved.\n\nIntroduction\n\nFace Is Not A New Concept\n\nThe concept of face is by no means new. It can be traced as far back as in the later Tang dynasty.1 It has been discussed by some scholars in relation to li, a theme in the Confucian philosophy which is believed to be the backbone of Chinese culture. It appears in Chinese literary works written centuries ago. It has been incorporated into the Chinese language forming several idioms.2 Long lists of phrases using the characters mian and lian, the Chinese equivalents of the word 'face', can be found in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212971, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "18\n\nloss of it (King and Myers, 1977: 9),\n\nBased on the above reasoning and the evidence provided by previous studies, there are grounds to hypothesize, at least, the existence and the working of face at national level. At this level, face can be seen as being bounded by the nation's status, political or economic; her performances in these areas; and her moral conduct in terms of a just nation. The net face of a nation will then be reflected in the reactions of other relevant nations in an international event.\n\nIf a nation concerns herself with her face, she would be concerned with the honour, influence and deference that would likely be at her disposal. To obtain these attributes, she would endeavour to elevate her status, to improve her role performance and to better her virtues as a just and morally bound nation. By doing so, she would be honoured, she could have the power, though not authority, to influence and threaten other nations. With these, she could then hope to be treated with face. To the extent that nations are willing to perpetuate their relationships, this expectation would probably materialize and thereby face is exchanged and the amount of face is re-determined.\n\nSome years ago, South Africa had membership in many international organizations and she was treated equally by other nations. But today her apartheid policy is under severe attack. Her athletes cannot participate in any events sanctioned by many international sports federations. Her \"moral behaviour\" now under a more open set of moral standards becomes vicious and thereby denounced. She, as a nation, and her people, mainly the whites, are not given face. Her status in the family of nations sinks to the lower rungs, regardless of her good performance in economic activities. She is not given face in international events and she is gradually being expelled from any organizations and treaties.*\n\nOn the other hand, when China was not a member in the International Olympic Committee, her people could not participate in events sanctioned by the IOC, even though they could at times participate through invitations or waiving of terms. The records her athletes set might not be taken as official records. Later, beginning from the ping-pong diplomacy in the early 1970s, China showed her might in sports. Alongside with this was her growing strategic importance in Asia, the display of her strength in military ventures along her borders, and the Communist's consolidation* written in 1992 [editor]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213062, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "111\n\nTHREE FUKIENESE (MIN-NAN) CULTS\n\nPao-sheng Ta-ti, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih and San P'ing Tsu-shih\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nNot more than seventy miles distant from Amoy, though in different directions, three separate cult centres remain extremely popular not only with local residents but with Chinese emigrants from the area who now live as far afield as Java, Sumatra, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan. They are the cults of the health protector, Pao-sheng Ta-ti; and of two individual and distinctive Buddhist monks deified centuries ago, Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih and San P'ing Tsu-shih.\n\nPao-sheng Ta-ti\n\nThe first, Pao-sheng Ta-ti, was traditionally a Sung dynasty local herbalist doctor, Wu T'ao or Wu Pen, who remained a bachelor and died in AD 1035. He is remembered not only for the magic spells he performed, such as spraying spirit water from his mouth on corpses or human skeletons bringing them back to life but, as his fame as a successful herbalist spread beyond Fukien, it led several centuries later to him being officially deified by Imperial Decree. It is not surprising therefore that his paramount role as a deity is to heal the sick. Known throughout his district, near Amoy, as the expert doctor who used his skills to cure the man in the street, he is remembered as having given his services free to the poor and by becoming a local deity by popular acclaim very shortly after his death. An image was carved by a local carver not long after his demise, said to be a true likeness but, according to another legend, it was how the carver had seen him in a dream. He is said by some to have been accompanied by a former petty official, only known as the Great Saint who Flew Off to Heaven [Fei-t'ien Ta-sheng], who also helped with his medical services. Pao-sheng Ta-ti is the patron deity of herbalists in Taiwan who claim he wrote a major medical encyclopedia and was a specialist in acupuncture in addition to his other skills.\n\nWu T'ao, born around AD 979, is said to have lived a virtuous life.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213073, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "122\n\nshih. The latter has not been noted in any altars in southern Fukien province, nor in SE Asia, though it is almost certainly a local Fukienese cult. However, in one of the temples in Singapore containing the image of San P'ing Tsu-shih it was claimed that there was a trio of sworn blood brothers, San Tai Tsu-shih, San P'ing Tsu-shih and Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. This group logically ties together the concept of a trio, with Ch'ing-shui being involved as a junior deity and with a black face.\n\nThe confusion arises presumably due to the similarity of the images. San Tai Tsu-shih is also depicted as a standard image of a monk, sitting cross-legged, wearing the five-leaf bodhisattva crown, but with a pink face. He is also depicted holding a fly whisk in his right hand and his left hand in a Buddhist mystical sign. Legend, as related in one of the temples, claims that the three generations, the father, grandfather and son, were fortune tellers of great renown who lived a thousand years ago in Ankur in Fukien, who cured the sick. In several successive years of desperate drought and famine, so the legend continues, they disposed of all their worldly wealth, giving it away to the poor and needy. Revered predominantly by emigrants from the Ankur region the triad is prayed to for a cure for all forms of sickness. They are also revered by local people who bear the same surname, Lin, with people referring to the old grandfather for advice on land purchase and before starting up a new business.\n\nThese three cult deities are revered separately and on their own altars in different temples both in the Amoy region and elsewhere, and are regarded as important cult units. Ostensibly the latter two, the deified Buddhist monks, would seem to be Buddhist deities; however, in practice all three cults are to be seen nowadays only in popular religion temples though never together. As with virtually all popular religion cults, they are not revered in isolation and stand on their own altars in temples beside altars bearing other deities of unconnected cults.\n\nNOTES\n\nOthers claim that it was the Lord of the North Star (Pei-tou Hsing-chun) who introduced this deity to mankind.\n\nThis is one of the instances when he appears to be being confused with Sun Ssu-miao.\n\nChang Sheng-che was identified in a rural temple in Chin-mei, on the mainland across the strait from Amoy island as the 'magician' Fa-chu Kung [qv]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213080, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "The Lowson Diary: \n\nA Record of the Early Phase \n\nof the \n\nHong Kong Bubonic Plague* \n\n1894 \n\nG.H. Choa \n\n129 \n\nOne hundred years ago, a Bubonic Plague Epidemic broke out in Hong Kong. It originated from Yunnan where the disease was first detected probably in 1850. After an epidemic which occurred in 1860, it became endemic and in 1893, it spread across Guangxi to reach Guangdong early in 1894. Cases began to appear in Guangzhou in March and Hong Kong was hit in May.\n\nBriefly, plague is an infection of rats by the plague bacillus which is transmitted to human beings by the bite of fleas infesting the infected rats. Crowded and insanitary conditions in which people and rats co-exist are therefore breeding grounds for the disease. Spreading is by infected rats carried in any kind of transport from one place to another, infecting the local rat population. The most common form, bubonic plague, is so called because of the appearance of swollen glands in the arm-pits or groins of the patients; 'bubo' means swollen glands. The condition was almost invariably fatal, but can now be treated by antibiotics such as streptomycin and tetracycline. It was during this last world-wide epidemic that the two causes of the disease, the plague bacillus and the flea as a vector carrying it, were discovered in Hong Kong and India respectively.\n\nThe Hong Kong Epidemic went on for thirty years, from 1894 to 1923. During the period, 21,867 cases were reported with 20,489 deaths, a mortality rate of 93.7%. The first cases of the disease were discovered among residents in the Tai Ping Shan District in West Point. There, the poorer class Chinese lived in appallingly overcrowded and squalid conditions without proper ventilation, sanitary services, drainage, and water supply. As soon as it was realised that plague had broken out, the place was immediately disinfected, but the disease continued to be prevalent.\n\n* A talk given to the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society on October 5th, 1994.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213166, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "216\n\nThe main ceremony consisted of the kar ye (godfather) and kat neung sitting below large Chinese characters, (meaning 'double happiness'), and a 3-inch diameter, draped red-paper 'streamer'. The 'son' then poured and 'offered up' cups of tea to his adopted parents and kowtowed. By accepting and drinking the tea this signified that the couple had taken the 28-year old man as their 'son'. He would, however, continue to live with his real parents. As with most Chinese ceremonies today, photographers were present to capture important moments on film.\n\nThe procedure of offering cups of tea was repeated by the new godson 'doing the honours' to the wife's eldest sister and her husband, as well as to another unmarried sister. At an adoption ceremony such as this, and on occasions like a parent's birthday and at Lunar New Year, such action displays filial piety. It is interesting that tea is always presented and drunk, not wine. Kowtowing is still sometimes performed in traditional Chinese families although it is not nearly so common in Hong Kong as it was, even 40 years ago.\n\nIn Chinese culture presents are commonly exchanged at this ceremony, of course they included the usual red 'lucky packets' containing money. The godparents also gave their godson a neatly packaged box holding two bowls and two spoons. These signified, 'May you never go hungry'. In China, which has been plagued by famine throughout history, such a wish was appropriate. After all, even as late as the early 1960s, 30 million (the exact figure is debatable) died after the crop failure during the 'Great Leap Forward'.\n\nSeveral members of the two families involved in the Wanchai restaurant adoption ceremony are professional musicians. The godfather composes Chinese opera. On the evening in question his four to tat (*apprentices or pupils) also poured and offered up tea to their 'master'.\n\nThe last 'event' of the evening was the meal, which, of course, included roast suckling pig and shark's fin soup, washed down with brandy. As one would expect, as many of the guests worked in the entertainment business, karaoke accompanied the dinner. There was many a star performance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213173, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "223\n\nthe suburbs, blending, to be sure, with the rambunctious commoners' culture, but far more subdued. Not what Seidensticker loved about old Tokyo, but fascinating none the less. The changes are particularly sharp after the war, after the second destruction in this century of the inner low city in the bombings of March 1945, and the Allied Occupation.\n\nThe books, however, do not pretend to be political histories, although they give mention to politics when they touch on the fabric of the city. Instead they record the changes in the lives of the people. The department store girls, for example, who were encouraged by management to wear Western-style under-garments after eight of them fell from high ropes during their escape from a fire in one store, clad in kimono, they tried to protect their modesty and unclothed nether regions with one hand, but the other hand was not strong enough to bear the burden. This incident, while hardly a formative one in the city, is one of many incidents which Seidensticker has culled from a myriad of sources to portray the rapid changes which typify Tokyo. He gently blends the sum of them into a textured picture, one which will provide readers with a feeling for the city even if they have never seen it. If readers have seen it (and many readers of this publication will have), the picture will make greater sense of a city that can seem to be a confusing mélange of exits from subway stations. And if some readers have been fortunate enough to have lived there, the book will provide a depth of meaning to corners of their former home that are familiar, yet unknown.\n\nThese books are a joy and a boon. Already ten years old (the first volume; the second appeared just five years ago), they will stand the test of time and are a welcome addition to the library of anyone seeking to keep informed about East Asia, its cities, and its culture.\n\nTHOMAS STANLEY", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213190, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "and a platform for members to publish, and in this connection may I draw your attention to Vice-President, Reverend Carl Smith's book recently \"Chinese Christmas\" which can be bought at all leading book stores, and also at the back of this room. In addition one of Hong Kong's oldest members and of this Society, Dr. Dan Waters, has published his own memories entitled unashamedly \"An Old Hand's Reflection\" - again it can be bought at all leading bookstores and at the back of this room.\n\nIn addition we have an excellent quality library with many interesting books and, not only is this steadily augmented by our past roving President, Dr. James Hayes, from Australia, but in this past year we have been given a magnificent collection of books on China and Hong Kong from Mr Archie Graham, who at the age of 91 has emigrated to New Zealand. All these books are now in a special room on the 3rd floor of the City Hall, High Block; and at this point I would like to give a sincere thanks to the Urban Services Department and their library staff in particular. In the past year not only have they moved the Society's library from the rather inaccessible Kowloon Public Library to the City Hall library in Central but they have computerised the collection and altogether made the whole collection far more accessible than it has been in the past. I really do urge you to visit this and see for yourself what is there, and of course members can borrow most of the books. For this improvement in our library facilities I must also thank our Librarian Mr. Y.C. Wan who has been very helpful in making all this possible.\n\nI said earlier that the Society makes its views known to the public: I should also add that public and Government organisations also seek the views of the Society, not only on an individual basis, but also on a collective one. I mentioned last year the assistance we gave to the Antiquities Advisory Board in helping them to grade some of Hong Kong's older buildings. At one time the Society had 20 members involved in this, but as I understand it since many of the eligible buildings have been graded then the members have declined: this project has been led by Dr. Dan Waters and we owe him and his team a vote of thanks for their hard work.\n\nOn a collective front the Society has continued to be very active in monitoring the situation over the Public Records Office. Last year I reported to you that we thought we were making some progress and the position at the moment, whilst not completely satisfactory, is considerably better than we hoped for two years ago. The Public Records Office is\n\nXI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213261, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "63\n\nIn another case a post-graduate Chinese student told the author:\n\n'Before, I thought it was all superstition. But now I realise it makes sense to proceed in harmony with nature. In life, one of the most important things is to maintain harmony. Although Mother is a Catholic she also believes in fung sha.\n\nThe author, years ago, personally knew young Hong Kong Chinese teenagers who did not believe in, or were not convinced about the efficaciousness of fung shui. But now, after becoming middle-aged or elderly, they have become firm followers. 'A woman who did not believe nearly died,' the author was informed. 'After recovering, she became convinced.'\n\nAs Hong Kong has become more developed and affluent, people have had more money to spend on 'luxuries', such as fung shui. Certainly, modern education alone seems not to deal the final blow (Freedman, 1976:235). Yet it is more likely that a New Territories' villager, who lives close to nature and is a member of a tightly knit group, is more likely to believe in fung shui than his urban cousin. Urban society is divorced from close, everyday contact with mother earth and her cycles. For the urban dweller the modes of thought which underly the practise of fung shui have to be consciously cultivated in order to comprehend them. There are, of course, some New Territories' villagers who do not believe in fung shui in spite of the close web of relationships in rural life.\n\nEugene Ho (who one assumes is Chinese although he could be Eurasian) wrote in the South China Morning Post letters to the editor columns, on 25 May 1987- 'I find the whole theory of fung shui wholly devoid of cognitive content.' He went on to say that many of the casual 'laws' of fung shui, (if they are really \"laws\" at all) are no more than half a probability.\n\nNonetheless, when the British took over the New Territories on a 99-year lease in 1898, they promised to respect the then existing (Qing Dynasty) religious rites, ceremonies and social customs. The Hong Kong Government Gazette of October 7, 1899, published (one year after the New Territories were taken over) as a supplement to the Convention of Peking, said that graves in the leased Territory were never to be removed. Some law lecturers at Hong Kong University feel, however, that, because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213266, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "68\n\nback door. In this way prosperous winds are not allowed to blow straight out of the other side. Considerable care was taken, too, in selecting the positions and angles of the two long escalators leading up to the first floor of the Bank. They should not directly 'confront' the entrance.\n\nUnlike most enterprises in urban Hong Kong 'The Bank' still has an open space in front of it and a sea view. The harbour is the bathing place of the dragon. With water signifying money this is important. Water is the most powerful of all the Elements. It is non-resistant. It can wear away rocks. A deluge can sweep all before it.\n\nIn many cases planners go to some lengths, among other measures, to ensure that interior water features assist good joss to circulate throughout a building. The height of the ejection of water of a fountain is often considered important.\n\nThe now liquidated Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce was sadly not so wise. '... the BCC displayed a large water feature which cascaded away from the entrance... this means (in fung shui terms) wealth pours out of the bank. I am surprised anyone should put their money into this bank in the first place,' a fung shui master contended.\n\nThere are countless cases where western managements have paid consideration to fung shui in Hong Kong (Saw, 1990:8) In Exchange Square, for example, a special skylight was installed and the 'water curtains' on either side of the two escalators are spectacular. In the Hyatt Regency Hotel doors and furniture were repositioned.\n\nVirgin Atlantic Airways timed their first flight to the Far East to start on a propitious day. Marks and Spencer buried lucky gold coins in strategic positions under floors in its stores, and Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm, also pays regard to the 'caring philosophy'. Asians, of course, like to see Westerners respecting their culture. In turn, it is good for business (Sunday Times, 1995:16).\n\nThe author has no hard data, but his personal recollections are that clearly far more interest is shown in fung shui by western establishments today than 40 or so years ago. Certainly there is far more interest in it now than there was between the two World Wars. Going back still further,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213295, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "97\n\nconsidered desirable for unsightly power lines and, what many maintain are, harmful cables to be festooned from poles or pylons across the landscape. The complaints by residents of Fei Ngo Shan (Kowloon Peak) in 1995, to the Hong Kong Government and China Light and Power Company, are a case in point.\n\nChina resisted similar developments in the late 19th century, including the building of railroads, because it felt these 'improvements' could spoil favourable fung shui. Lin Yutang humorously writes (Lin, 1936:302): 'Has not fung shui contributed more to aesthetic life than it has hindered our knowledge of geology? Certainly 'progress' in China was delayed as a result of fung shui precautions, but, interestingly, relatively no such delays were experienced in Japan,\n\nFung Shui Overseas\n\nWhen Chinese emigrate it is understandable that some find it unsettling to be surrounded by the foreign customs and values of the logic-led West. Consequently, there is sometimes a natural reaction of nostalgia, a desire for awareness of Chinese culture to be heightened and for some Chinese beliefs like fung shui to be retained. Years ago, the so-called naam yeung (southern ocean) Chinese transported fung shui to places like Malaya, Singapore, and Thailand. Still today, many try to re-create 'a little piece of Hong Kong' (or wherever they came from) in the country in which they have settled. In addition, many try to convince themselves that, if something is Chinese, it must be better.\n\nFung shui as practised in Europe can differ slightly from the 'classical' model of Hong Kong, although the basic principles remain the same. There are only a handful of Chinese fung shui masters currently active in Britain, although the number is increasing. Nevertheless, a Chinese estate agent living in England informed the author that up to 80 per cent of her Chinese clients who buy property there are concerned about fung shui. Eighty per cent, however, is a very approximate figure, and it appears to the author it could be on the high side. Customers are generally concerned with points such as the orientation of the property and how the bed can be positioned. But things like Tung Sing (the Chinese Almanac) mean little to many second-generation British Chinese as they are unable to interpret it properly. One Chinese woman academic, a member of one of the Five Great Clans of Hong Kong's New Territories, who has lived mainly in...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213296, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "98\n\nBritain since she moved there with her parents as a child, had this to say. 'If my mother bought a house in England she would certainly consider fung shui, I would consider it too, but not in such detail.'\n\nUndoubtedly, more interest is shown by Westerners in things Chinese today, compared to, say, a generation or so ago. Treatment like acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines have slowly become accepted by some members of the western medical profession. Likewise, fung shui is gaining Caucasian proponents. It is believed the layout of Amsterdam's waterways, the beauty of Lucerne, and the textbook layout of Paris all conform to good fung shui principles. Patrick Wong, a fung shui consultant practising in Britain, maintains that London attracts favourable water spirits from the Thames (Forsyth, 1994:64). These signify good fortune. The river's direction and flow, and the fact that it meanders and has many tributaries, are all conducive to prosperity (Walters, 1988:23). Kwok Man Ho, one of Europe's foremost fung shui masters, was called upon to advise on the design of some of the more recent projects in London's Docklands.\n\nIn addition to Chinese fung shui masters practising in the West there are also proponents like Derek Walters, a Briton who dons Chinese ceremonial robes and claims to have advised a number of British celebrities. Walters flies regularly to Hong Kong, where he learned his craft, to consult with other experts. 'We have nothing similar to fung shui in the West so it fills a vacuum,' he maintains.\n\nIn this technological age many people are searching for a 'fourth dimension'. They also want something that stirs the will. A number are looking for a simple, direct way of escaping the boredom and narrowness of everydayness. While some find their escape in mediaeval history, art or music, others find it in fortune telling or fung shui.\n\nA group of Chinese, after discussions among themselves in Holland, came to the conclusion that, among the Hong Kong, Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese living in the Netherlands, 70 to 80 per cent believe in fung shui, at least to some degree. For instance, many believe the number of windows in a dwelling should exceed the number of doors. If they do not, the inhabitants will hang up some kind of talisman to counteract possible evil influences. Similarly, gods which are popular in Hong Kong, like To Tei Kung, Kwan Ti and Kwoon Yam (觀音) are common among Chinese in the Netherlands.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213337, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "141\n\nHowever, if most English-speaking members of the Chinese community are still not very interested in joining our Society, it may not be attributable solely to their perceptions of us. When in 1986-87 our minds were focusing on this topic, none of us thought to consider a factor with a direct bearing on the subject. I was reminded of it only the other day when one of my younger Chinese friends sent me a copy of his recent book on Hong Kong history. The covering letter mentioned this other, and as I now see it, very significant fact.\n\n12.\n\nThe crucial driving force for me to attempt the book is that I want it to encourage the younger generation to know something about Hong Kong's past, which is almost totally unknown to them (myself among them not long ago) chiefly due to our education emphasis supplied.\n\n11.\n\nWhy should this have been so? For political reasons and public security considerations, there has been understandable caution in teaching modern Chinese history in the schools. There had been a similar reluctance to teach Hong Kong History, other than through civics teaching which was never an examination subject. \"My friend Tim Ko's endeavour was fully justified. Perhaps partly by intent, Hong Kong's history had been neglected in the schools. It was only in 1990, after a working party had considered the introduction of Local History into the school curriculum at the junior secondary level, that a pilot scheme was begun. In the 1994 public examinations, Hong Kong History was included among the set papers for the first time, but this is still only on an optional basis.\" The universities have also been slow to develop Hong Kong historical studies.\n\n6.\n\nAdministration and Venues for Lectures and Council Meetings.\n\nThese are fairly pedestrian subjects, but ones that will be of interest to our future historian. I propose to say little more here than to mention that lists of Councillors and Office Bearers appear in the yearly Journals, and that our succession of trusty Assistant Secretaries, who labour behind the scenes and provide indispensable support for the smooth running of the Society, usually feature in the annual President's reports, also printed in the Journal. Our administrative problems and current worries over the years get an airing there and in the annual reports of the other principal office-bearers, which, like the Presidents', appear regularly in the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213353, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "158\n\nOn the one hand, government/semi-government institutions began to promote an awareness of local history and conservation of Hong Kong's heritage. We may see this as part of the government's 'community building' effort after the devastating riots of 1967. On the other hand, the demographics of Hong Kong have also changed. In the past, with their high mobility, people residing in Hong Kong had little sense of identity with the place. This led the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, to compare Hong Kong in the 1960s to a railway station; as people came, made money and moved on, it was a place with no roots. By the 1970s, things were no longer so. The generation which has grown up in the Territory after the war were much more rooted in the place and in the 1970s, as they came of age, they grew more curious about the history of their home city. A few actively sought knowledge through study and research; most of the others became willing customers of anything that might tell them more about Hong Kong.\n\nInstitutionally, one focus of growth in the study of local history is the museums, the other, the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO).\n\n## Museums\n\nHong Kong's museums are run by the two municipal councils, the Urban Council and the Regional Council, which, besides being responsible for sanitation services, liquor licences and so on, are also responsible for enriching the quality of life in Hong Kong through promoting and providing recreation, sports and the arts.\n\nTo give local history greater prominence, the Museum of History was separated out from the Urban Council's City Hall Museum and Art Gallery in 1975. At first, it operated only on a small scale, using rented premises in a multi-storeyed commercial building. In 1983, it moved into its own building, and subsequent extensions enlarged its exhibition area to 1520 sq m. A permanent exhibition, called the Story of Hong Kong, outlining 6,000 years of development from the Stone Age to modern times, was installed. It also stages thematic exhibitions from time to time: last year (1995), two out of three exhibitions were about Hong Kong; Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts, and Life Under the Japanese Occupation, 1941-45. The Museum runs two branch museums, the Law Uk Folk Museum, which is restored from a 19th century Hakka house, and the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum, which is centred on an excavated Eastern Han", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213354, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "159\n\nThe Museum of History is also planning a museum of coastal defence of the Hong Kong region, to be built at the site of the former Lei Yue Mun fort,\n\nThe Regional Council runs three historical museums. The first was the Sam Tung Uk Museum, housed in a restored Hakka walled village built in 1786. It was opened in 1987 as a folk museum specializing in the history of Hong Kong's rural areas. The Railway Museum is centred on an old railway station, and the Sheung Yiu Folk Museum is housed in an old fortified Hakka village.\n\nTogether, the museums are the main venues where ordinary citizens, not to mention tourists, can learn about Hong Kong's past.\n\nClearly it is not just exhibits that make a museum. Research is indispensable to provide support for any exhibition. The steady expansion of museums in the last decade had entailed much research input both by the museum staff and by commissioned researchers. The Museum of History, for example, in preparing for the opening of the museum of coastal defence, is busy sourcing for military items such as medals, guns, uniforms and so forth. At the same time, it is also conducting a full-scale two-year oral history project interviewing both civilians and military personnel on the Japanese invasion and the occupation period, to support the effort.\n\nAntiquities and Monuments Office\n\n10\n\nAnother centre of local history research is the Antiquities and Monuments Office. Founded in 1976 initially to conduct archaeological work and conserve historical monuments, its work has become more diversified in the last few years. Through exhibitions, guided tours, publications, local studies and community involvement projects, it has helped to spread the message of heritage conservation. But, as in the case of the museums, its work cannot be done without research, and it is now also commissioning researchers to back up its routine work and special projects.\n\nTogether, through publication, activities and exhibitions, the publicizing of local history by the museums and the AMO is being carried out with increasing efficiency and on a growing scale. All these activities, however, have placed great demands on those working on local history.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213356, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "161\n\nrepackaged for publication by commercial presses. They are made more readable and illustrations are added. Those repackaged as guidebooks to historical monuments and historical sites, adding practical information on how to get there, are particularly popular.\n\nPublishing for the general public was also stimulated by the District Boards, established in 1982, now 19 in number, each vying to promote the district and inculcate a sense of community. Each Board commissions authors to write the district's history, and because of its regional nature, residents in the district are persuaded to donate old photographs and documents and supply information, which have helped to enrich the content of the books. District Board inspired activities, such as exhibitions and the collection of folk songs, have also helped to give a new connotation to the word 'local' and the idea of 'local history'\n\nThe museums, AMO and the District Boards publish bilingually, and this seems to meet the demand of the general reader in Hong Kong.\n\nMainland Chinese Writers\n\nIn the early 1980s, when talks began between China and Great Britain on the return of Hong Kong to China, interest in Hong Kong history emerged from another quarter - Mainland China. Several centres to study Hong Kong and Macao were set up in Beijing and Guangzhou, and later Shanghai. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing leads the study on Hong Kong, and has produced a number of quality academic works In Guangzhou, the leading light in Hong Kong history research was Jin Yingxi, until his death in 1991. A graduate of the King's College (secondary) and the University of Hong Kong, Professor Jin displayed a rare sensitivity toward Hong Kong society throughout his work, and his proficiency in English also enabled him to use English sources more effectively than most other Mainland historians.\n\nMainland academic historians tend to write about Hong Kong's political development and its place in Sino-British diplomacy rather than local history as such. But they have also produced some micro-studies. 15 As a whole, their works have helped to stimulate interest among both Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese readers. \"Hong Kong mania\" which was supposed to have swept the Mainland in the early 1980s also helped to create a market for works on Hong Kong history written both by Mainland and Hong Kong scholars.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213358, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "163\n\nProblems\n\nSo far I have been dwelling mostly on the progress of the study of local history, but that is not to imply that there are no problems.\n\nThe truth is, there is still a lot of local history waiting to be done urgently. There are villages, streets, institutions, trades, interesting and significant personalities that are hardly documented. There are archives to be discovered, records to be catalogued and indexed, folk tales and personal accounts to be recorded. There are myths to be debunked. In face of rapid urbanization and large-scale emigration — and always, old people dying — we are losing materials at an alarming rate.\n\nUnlike most other places, Hong Kong's problem is not money. In fact, there is now ready money offered to fund research. The budget for the new Museum of History is HK$580 million (approx. US$74m) and for the Heritage Museum, HK$772 million (approx. US$98m), so there will be plenty to pay for research. Academics can, moreover, apply for funds from the University Grants Committee which seems to favour projects related to Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Jockey Club has been a consistent donor to projects related to heritage, and other local bodies such as District Boards have funded publications. In addition, there is the Wilson Heritage Trust Fund, named after the former governor Lord Wilson of Tillyorn and set up in 1992 to promote the preservation and conservation of Hong Kong's human heritage. To date, it has funded television programmes, conferences, student projects and a wide range of other activities.\n\nThe problem is not so much money as manpower. Some of the pioneers of local history such as Barbara Ward and Lo Hsiang-lin have passed away. A number of experienced scholars have retired and emigrated, or have left Hong Kong universities to teach elsewhere. In a way, this is not a total loss, for David Faure and Bernard Luk are actually taking Hong Kong studies to Oxford and Toronto where they now teach. But the fact is that they are not here and can no longer supervise the kind of fieldwork they did in the late 1970s and early 1980s.\n\nThe sudden surge in demand for researchers created by the rapid expansion of the Museums and the Antiquities and Monuments Office both highlights and aggravates the problem of manpower shortage. One obvious example is while the AMO has been granted a donation of\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213359, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "164\n\nover HK$4 million to do a Territory-wide survey of historical buildings almost a year ago, work has yet to start partly because they are unable to line up enough qualified people to lead the survey (the Heritage Museum will be flying in scholars to help with its exhibitions - one a Canadian anthropologist who has been doing work in Hong Kong on and off since the 1960s, and the other an English design historian who returned to teach in the UK four years ago).\n\nThere are simply not enough bodies! The same 10 historians or so are burdened with research projects; advising the museums and AMO, advising radio and television programmes, exhibitions, even film; being interviewed by local and international newspapers; adjudicating photo competitions and students' projects; designing teaching materials for secondary schools; besides doing a full-time job of teaching and administration! Although a number of postgraduate students have written on Hong Kong history for their degree, many became secondary school teachers, civil servants, joined the private sectors, even the museum system as administrators, rather than pursue a career in research.\n\nThe problem is, unlike England for example, there is no army of amateur local historians (or local history societies) who study their own parish, church, village, street... as a hobby. In Hong Kong, local history is much more a consumer item than a participatory item. Despite the increased participation in projects by school and university students in the last decade or so, there is little sustained effort after the project is completed, few taking the initiative to continue research as a hobby. Thus, the main burden still falls upon those few scholars, every one of whom is spread desperately thin. There is a yawning gap, and what is missing is what we might call 'middle management' - budding scholars who can take on a project independently, without the supervision of a more senior scholar.\n\nOne worries also that the glamour of the marketplace might lure scholars away from serious scholarship. Why bother with painstaking collection and analysis of materials, criticism of text and interpretation of data when all one has to do is tell a good story to sell books? How does one strike a balance between pursuing serious research, which is almost by definition esoteric and exclusive, and serving the public?\n\nThere is another minor problem: items for research are now becoming much more difficult to come by. One effect of the growing popularity of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213360, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "165\n\nHong Kong history is to make any relevant material collector's items. Old postcards, for instance, which might have been bought for several dollars a few years ago, are now selling for ten, twenty times the price. New collectors are entering the market, and no doubt 1997 has much to do with heating up the collectors' market for 'Things Hong Kong'. The effect is that items which might have gone to the museums and libraries where serious researchers have access, are now in private collectors' hands and so unlikely to be used for research.\n\nMaybe, in this respect too, the local historian is the victim of his own success.\n\n## Conclusion\n\nIt is clear that the study of local history in Hong Kong, built upon earlier foundations, has made great progress since the 1970s. In the meantime, government and semi-government bodies have contributed towards promoting interest and awareness in local history and heritage conservation. To a generation born in Hong Kong and curious about its own history, these developments have been timely. Thus we are witnessing a period of unprecedented activity in promotion and research, and ready funding. In turn, the sudden surge in public demand is creating bottlenecks. There is no quick or easy solution to the problem, and it will take a few years for the universities, and perhaps the museums, to train a sufficient number of researchers to keep up with popular demand. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the need to continue serious research to ensure that quality and depth are not sacrificed for popularity.\n\n## NOTES\n\nThe author is grateful to the Japan Foundation for funding part of the research for this paper, which is a slight modification of one presented at the 14th Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 20-24th May, 1996, entitled “The Study of Local History in Hong Kong: Progress and Problems”.\n\n2\n\nLan Tien-wei dates the beginning of the study of Hong Kong history to the 1910s when the former Hanlin scholar Chen Botao revised the Dongguan Local Gazetteer. In this case, of course, Hong Kong was only a minor part of the study. In the 1920s and 1930s, some archaeologists began excavations in the Hong Kong region, but since prehistoric archaeology is a different branch of knowledge with techniques of its own, it will be excluded from this paper (See Lan Tien-wei, “Hong Kong Studies in the Past Seventy years” (in Chinese), Chu...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213363, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "168\n\n23\n\nNg Lun Ngai-ha, Village Education in Transition, JHKBRAS, vol 22 (1982) pp 252-70. David Faure, Sai Kung. The Making of the District and its Experience during World War II\", Ibid, pp 161-216\n\n26 David Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society. Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1986)\n\n27\n\nThis is most clearly expressed in Faure's latest work, Unity and Diversity Local Cultures and Identities in China, edited by Tao Tao Liu and David Faure, (Hong Kong University Press, 1996)\n\n28\n\nAmong these histories are Nigel Cameron, Power the Story of China Light (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1982), Austin Coates, A Mountain of Light the Story of the Hong Kong Electric Company (London Heinemann, 1977), Robin Hutcheon, Wharf the First Hundred Years (Hong Kong Wharf (Holding, 1986), Katherine Mattock, Hong Kong Practice Dr Anderson and Partners, the First Hundred Years (Hong Kong Dr Anderson and Partners, 1984), and of course Frank HH King's monumental history of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 4 volumes published by the Cambridge University Press\n\n29 It would be useful to examine the policies and thinking behind the establishment and expansion of these bodies but it is beyond the brief of this paper to do so. But the economic power which makes these possible is very obvious\n\n30\n\nFor a brief introduction to its work, see The Heritage of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office, Recreation and Culture Branch, 1992), for an account of how the AMO was founded, see Elizabeth Sinn. Modernization without Tears Attempts at Cultural Conservation in Hong Kong, Seminar paper presented at the Symposium on Cultural Heritage and Modernization, Hong Kong Institution of the Promotion of Chinese Culture and Goethe Institute of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 29 September - 2 October, 1987\n\nWhen Mr Lu Yan (real name, Liang Tao, died, the author went to see his collection of materials which literally jammed his small flat, and was impressed by the rarity of some of the items Obviously an avid and passionate collector, his willingness to sacrifice the physical comfort of home for the love of research, is much to be admired\n\n32 Barbara E Ward, Social and Cultural Heritage in the New Territories, p 123\n\n11\n\nJoan Law and Barbara E Ward Festivals in Hong Kong (Hong Kong South China Morning Post, 1982, republished by Hong Kong Guidebook Company Ltd, 1993)\n\n14\n\nHugh DR Baker, Ancestral Images 3 volumes (Hong Kong South China Morning Post 1979-81) and Hong Kong Images. People and Animals (Hong Kong University Press 1990)\n\n15\n\nThese include Chen Qian, A Record of Things Seen and Heard in Hong Kong (in Chinese) (Hong Kong Zhongyuan, 1987); Liu Zesheng, Hong Kong Past and Present (in Chinese) (Guangzhou, 1988). He Hongching (ed) Hong Kong Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (in Chinese) (Beijing, 1994)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213379, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "188\n\nThese sites and their associated trees, which are usually of a great age and which villagers often claim were planted when the village was founded, are of fundamental importance to the fortunes of a village, more so than the fung shui woods themselves. In some villages, such as Ma Mat Wei, during the last war fung shui woods were felled so that rice could be bought for the impoverished villagers. The important individual fung shui trees, however, were never felled. Villagers will go to great lengths to protect these sites from private development and from government projects. Roads may be diverted to avoid harming such sites. While the importance of certain trees can be determined on fung shui principles, villagers who do not possess any fung shui knowledge may just call any tree they want to protect a \"fung shui tree\".\n\nShrines are in various states of repair or dilapidation according to the devotion and resources of the villagers and shrines may sometimes be completely rebuilt, such as at Tai Om where one of the main shrines was first built seventy years ago, but was rebuilt in the last few years and is surrounded by a small garden. Sometimes shrines may also be relocated, usually because of a road widening scheme, and the relocation of a shrine is a very serious fung shui matter. The relocation shrine at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, is an example.\n\nOccasionally a shrine may be abandoned, presumably due to a loss of efficacy by the residing deity. The Tai Wong shrine in the wood at Ho Sheung Heung is no longer worshipped, while it is the earth god, Fuk Tak Gung, who resides in the comfort of the village temple. There are also three Tze Jik shrines, which are more important than Paak Kung, protecting the village to the north, east and south. These shrines are particularly worshipped by farmers and protect the whole community.\n\nA typical layout of village shrines may be seen at Man Uk Pin, north east of Fanling. The Tai Wong shrine on the northern arm of the fung shui wood protects the whole village. The water spirit Paak Kung, by the dam on the stream which borders the fung shui wood, ensures the safety of the drinking water supply. There are also four other Paak Kung facing each of the four directions, with trees planted to protect them, including two within the fung shui wood, and one in the middle of the village. The villagers of Man Uk Pin take their spiritual protectors very seriously. Several villagers claim to have seen the spirit of Tai Wong himself while they were walking along the path at night. He was seen to be dressed in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213413, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "municipal library. For some reason which I have not been able to fathom South Korea has a Royal Asiatic Society - founded about thirty years ago and very flourishing it is.\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch however after its foundation in 1847 did not survive for very long and due to internal dissensions collapsed in 1859, not to be resuscitated until 1960 at the initiative of one of our past Presidents, Dr. J.R. Jones. It was resuscitated very much on the basis conceived by the founders, i.e. monthly lecture, an annual journal, the occasional symposium and publication. The one thing we do not have is our own building and permanent office, but to a certain extent we have overcome this since our library is very well housed in the Urban Council facilities on the 3rd floor of the High Block at the City Hall. In the past few years, however, the Society has added and expanded on the activities originally conceived by its founders, i.e. we have arranged a considerable outreach programme whereby we visit not only many places of historical interest, within Hong Kong, but travel to nearby places which has helped to put our perhaps rather narrow perspectives into a larger context. We have also arranged exhibitions, and we are now consulted on many aspects about Hong Kong, its history, the preservation of buildings, and other areas in which some expertise by our members is perceived to be important. In the last year for instance our members have been consulted by the Hong Kong Government, the Hong Kong Tourist Association, the British Broadcasting Corporation and an Australian Radio Station. We publish and provide a useful platform for our members to publish. In short we have expanded our activities and enlarged our fields of interest into wider fields than our founders originally conceived.\n\nThese developments are I feel to the Society's advantage. They have kept the membership up to a reasonable level with a good cross-section of nationalities. They have enhanced the Society's public profile, and they have given a strong basis for the Society to move forward confidently through 1997.\n\nThe above is of course a rather potted history of the Society but I think it is important to remind ourselves of the Society's background, because quite clearly we have entered changeable times and they are not likely to go away in the foreseeable future. Your Council has in the last year reviewed the society's activities and its objectives, in the\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213414, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "context of to-day's Hong Kong, and I am grateful to all members who have kindly contributed to that debate, notably Mr. John Wilson and our past President, Dr James Hayes, and I would now like to briefly give you the upshot of that review, and if any member would like to give input into this please do so.\n\nThis review covered such issues as the Society's role in relation to the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and on this score, there is no doubt that the Society can continue to function after 1997 without fear of any legal restrictions other than those at present contained in the Society's Ordinance. In addition under Article 149 of the Basic Law it is clear that there will be nothing to prevent the Hong Kong Branch of the Society having dealings with its parent body in London or with other branches in the region or even with international bodies.\n\nThe Council also discussed two other issues, firstly the Title, and secondly its appeal to all the community in Hong Kong. On the first issue there was general consensus that the Society should continue to be called the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. It may seem unfashionable to retain the word Royal but in view of our history as outlined above I believe it is the right decision. There is also the problem of what to call ourselves if we did not include the word Royal. There is already in Hong Kong a Society called the Asiatic Society originating in London, and another one called the Asia Society formed about six years ago from America. For this Society to drop the name Royal will probably cause even more confusion than there is already.\n\nOn the second issue the Council agreed that whilst it had broadened its appeal over the last ten years, which has brought in many more local orientated members on the Council and in its overall membership it should continue to do more in this direction, without of course deleting one of the original purposes of the Society which is to inform and educate the public about the history life and culture of the local community. Related to this the Council agreed that where appropriate the Society should keep in close touch with other local societies in its various fields.\n\nThe review and the discussions in Council were I felt very valuable in focusing our attention on the current status of the Society. However,\n\n1X", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "Claire came on board in the middle of last year and has quickly rooted out the requirements to make the Society move forward. She has assisted in the movement of the stock of Journals to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for storage and more importantly has had our membership satisfactorily computerised. And it is on Membership that I wish to conclude this report. Some very interesting statistics of the membership have emerged as a result of some sharp analytical research by our Treasurer. At this point of time the Society has 80 Life Members and 396 Annual Members, of which no less than 50 joined in the last four months. These statistics show that there has been a decline in paid-up memberships over the last two or three years. Given the increased transitory nature of those who join the Society this is not perhaps a surprise. The transitory nature of Society members is borne out by the fact that of the current annual paid-up members, only 75 were members five years ago. Further investigation revealed that most members left because they departed from Hong Kong rather than leaving the Society per se and a few needed to be eliminated from the membership because their whereabouts were no longer known or their subscriptions had been unpaid for two or three years. But a Society such as this is only as good as its members and it is heartening to see that there are many new members of all nationalities replacing those who have left.\n\nWe welcome them and hope that they will enjoy and be stimulated by the lectures and activities, and if any of them and old members have ideas on the programme and inputs for the Journal please do not hesitate to let them be known.\n\nMarch 1996\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213459, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "22\n\nhowever, cases of marriage by proxy have come to notice and although the validity of such a marriage has never been decided by the Courts, at least there is a case wherein, it can be argued, there was implied recognition of such a marriage.\" Dyer Ball, writing nearly sixty years ago, describes the custom:-\n\n\"When a man is absent from home and unavoidable circumstances prevent his return to be married, a strange marriage by proxy takes place sometimes in some districts of the Canton province; we are not aware whether it prevails in other parts of the empire or not. But the curious thing about it is that, instead of a man acting as the proxy, a cock does duty for the latter to the marriage ceremonies, though it is not even necessary that he should be sent by the bridegroom. This fowl is sent by the bridegroom, the presence of the fowl at the wedding being sufficient.\"10\n\nOn 1st July 1940 an action was brought before Sir Atholl MacGregor C.J. for the purpose of obtaining letters of administration. The plaintiff claimed that she was the lawful widow of a man whom she married by proxy in China in 1922 and who was presumed to have died in City Island, New York, in 1930 without having consummated the marriage. She gave evidence that at the ceremony carried out in the deceased's village while the deceased was in New York, he was represented by a cock decorated with golden flowers and draped in red. At the time of that marriage ceremony the plaintiff was a widow of a previous marriage to another and had three children.\n\nAs is usual in cases involving Chinese customary law, there was a battle of the experts: one gave evidence that after the cock draped in red had been taken together with the bride to the ancestral hall and had entered the bridal chamber, the marriage was regarded as valid and complete as if the bridegroom and the bride were present and even though there was no subsequent consummation; the other expert gave evidence that according to the Ching Code, the most essential point for a valid marriage was a betrothal, for the validity of which there must be a marriage contract or marriage presents exchanged between the two families. Where there was a valid betrothal there must be some kind of public ceremony in order to complete the marriage. A marriage without a valid betrothal in the first instance and without a formal ceremony to complete it, could not, the second expert stated, have any legal effect. He conceded, however, that there was some local custom allowing representation of the bridegroom by a cock.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213462, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "25\n\nmale heir to inherit land and to worship the ancestors. A nephew or clansman of a younger generation is usually adopted, although the generation and age of the adopted person are unimportant. The adoption may take place within the lifetime of the adoptive parents or after one or both of them have died. The explanation of this latter phenomenon is that adoption is a formal process which not only requires action of the adoptive parents but also the approval of the elders of the family and clan. The latter normally signify their approval by attending a feast to eat ceremonial pork. An adopted person renounces all rights of succession and inheritance in his natural family but, of course, acquires them in the family by which he has been adopted.\n\nMoney loan associations\n\n148\n\n149\n\nSuch associations are common in South China and in Hong Kong. Half a century ago, these associations had been employed by the inhabitants of the New Territories to raise money. The object of such an association is to pool the financial resources of the members with the prospect of gambling, so popular with the Chinese, that at some stage each member will be able to use these pooled resources for his own benefit. These associations are usually formed of groups of wage-earning persons in close daily contact, which engenders mutual trust. The number of members having been arranged, the period of the association is likewise arranged to correspond (e.g., an association of 10 members for a period of 10 months). The period may begin at any time, and regular meetings are held throughout its duration. Before or at the first meeting, the chairman, who is usually the instigator of the scheme, gives each member a booklet containing the names of members and simple rules. One rule invariably is that no member can back out of the scheme, for otherwise the sum won by a successful tenderer would be depleted. Another rule also provides that in the event of a member dying or backing out, the chairman will become liable. Also at this first meeting, the chairman collects a sum fixed by agreement in full from each member, say $50. At the second meeting, all members tender to the chairman in secret on slips of paper the amount of interest which they are prepared to offer on each member's share. The member who tenders the highest interest, say $5 on each $50 share, is awarded all the members' shares for that meeting. The remaining members then pay over their shares of the fixed amount less the interest tendered (e.g., $50 less $5 = $45) to the winner. The chairman also repays to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213464, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "27 \n\nThe Customary Law of the Sea-dwellers, the Tanka and Hoklo 154 \n\nThere has been even less chance of the customary law of the sea-dwellers receiving mention either in law reports or elsewhere for now as was the case fifty years ago they comprise only a little more than a tenth of the total population of the New Territories. 155 These sea-dwellers are, moreover, accustomed to a way of life free from bickering and litigation. The arduous demands made by the fishing activities on all members of the family result in a close-knit unit with the men in the dominant and the women in subordinate status. Even in a big family one person, usually the eldest male, is regarded as the house-holder and he manages the family assets which belong to all the members of that family. For example, the proceeds of each catch are made known to the whole family; part of those proceeds are allocated to daily expenses, purchase of equipment, debts and such like expenditure, part is placed on deposit to meet future contingencies and part is shared out to each family member to meet individual expenses. The latter sharing may be in equal parts or alternatively it may be on the basis of 1/200th or 3/100ths to each member of the family, man, woman or child, according to individual ability in the fishing operation.\n\nProperty \n\nThe sea-dwellers seldom possess land but if they do then by special privilege the eldest son assumes control of any house on land. Their property, of course, mostly consists of their boats and their fishing gear. If a family has among its number grown-up sons, then, providing the family business prospers or the initial capital can be borrowed, as many boats are built by fishermen of small fishing vessels, operating handlines and gill nets, as will enable each grown-up son to operate his own fishing boat independently. In the case of the bigger vessels, that is the mechanized trawlers and the tsam junk trawlers, if the family has crew in excess of its vessel or if excess funds are available then they build another new vessel adding it to the family's fleet. In such a large vessel several of the grown-up sons would live aboard and one of them would be appointed master by the householder. The income from the fishing operation of such vessel would be divided into equal shares and an extra half share allocated to the son acting as master of the vessel\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213477, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "40\n\n146 literally \"to fill up the bedchamber\" tea wife married when one of parties was previously widowed or divorced, to take the place of a \"kit tat\" wife\n\n147 vide infra\n\nWilson's Notes, e.g. Russell J's Report on Chinese (18th July 1883), Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1886-87, pp 187-189 (part of which is reprinted as Appendix 8 to Committee Report, 1953, at p 194), E Alabaster, Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, London, 1899, pp 168-170, Jamieson, op cit, p 13, and Van der Valk, op cit, pp 133-134\n\n1517\n\nvide Dyer Ball, op cit p 632 et seq\n\nReport on the New Territories 1899-1912, Appendix E (Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1912, at p 62)\n\n142\n\nWilson's Notes\n\nViz, CHOW CHAM vs YUET SEEM (1910) 5 HKLR 233, UN YAN SING AND OTHERS vs FONG LUN SAN (1913) 8 HKLR 89, CHAN KA LAM AND OTHERS vs CHEUNG CHUN KONG AND ANOTHER (1915) 10 HKLR 157, CHAN TU SANG vs TAM WAI SANG (1927) 22 HKLR 129 AND FAN NGOI NAM AND OTHERS vs ASIA CAFÉ (1929) 24 HKLR\n\nibid. (This subject is included since, as already noted, resort has occasionally been made in recent years to Chinese customary oaths in judicial proceedings, however, as long ago as 1912, the infallibility of this test was beginning to be doubted as the morality of the villager changed under foreign influence vide Report on the New Territories 1889-1912 para 87, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1912, p 56)\n\nAs already indicated, the main source for this part has been the material collected by Mr W Duncan of the Co-operative Development and Fisheries Department. Burkhardt also describes the \"Boat People\", op cit Vol II p 177, as does Barbara E Ward in her article “A Hong Kong Fishing Village\" JOS Vol I No 1 (January 1954) p 195\n\nY\n\nvide 1961 Census figures supra and also the figures for the 1911 census which were respectively - Land Population 94,246, Floating Population 9,855 (Report on the New Territories 1899-1912, para 6 Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1912, p 43)\n\n15% ibid para 53 at p 53\n\n157 For a description of a Boat People's Wedding see Burkhardt, op cit, vol 1 p 80", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213490, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "54\n\nIn that case, they are victims rather than the promoters. I read in some articles that a high official of the Ch'ing Dynasty painted a landscape picture for the famous actor Tan Hsin-pei (譚鑫培) and addressed him as Hsiao-xiong (小雄) meaning \"Little Brother” another euphemism indicating the recipient as one of his homosexual friends. The result? Tan tore the scroll up as soon as he received it.\n\nThere were no human rights in the early days. Actors and actresses could be penalized for what they delivered, which was actually part of the text of the play. In one case, it was rumoured and has to be clarified that the same actor - Tan Hsin Pei - was entangled in another debacle in which he was greatly humiliated. He was invited among others into the Palace to play the role of Ch'ing Ying (程嬰) in a play called 《趙氏孤兒》 (To Sacrifice One's Own Son to Save the Son of a Loyal Friend.). When Ch'ing Ying went in to consult his wife for the giving up of their only son, his wife, naturally like all mothers, refused. Then he sang his morbid arias “常言婦人心腸狠,最狠莫如婦人心”- \"The most cruel hearts in the world are the hearts of women\".\n\nOne thing he forgot was that he was singing the song in front of the Dowager Queen H. M. Tz'u Hsi. She immediately stopped the play and asked Tan to explain why the hearts of women were the most cruel hearts in the world. Tan replied that he merely followed the text of the play. Of course, she wouldn't listen and gave the poor man forty strokes with the birch to make him know better how and what to sing before the Empress the next time. This shows that there was little human rights in those days.\n\nThe social position of the theatrical people greatly improved after the 1911 Revolution, but still there was a ground swell of general discrimination of society toward the theatrical people as a whole - a custom which takes long to eradicate. Even in modern times, few parents will allow their daughters to marry an actor or their sons to marry an actress. They consider that this may lower their social standing if they do.\n\nThe ice is breaking, though. Not long ago a famous Hong Kong medical practitioner who was happily married to another famous doctor's daughter with children suddenly asked to divorce his wife to marry a famous Peking Opera star. This did not materialize and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213548, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "113\n\nCHINA COAST PIDGIN ENGLISH\n\nANNE AND STEPHEN SELBY\n\nHundreds of millions of years ago, the dinosaurs ruled the earth. They were an efficient, diversified group admirably suited to their environment. Over a long period, they flourished and in their turn, they subtly affected the environment they lived in. During the period the dinosaurs roamed the earth, flowering plants as we know them today evolved.\n\nAgain over a long period, they died out. Their fossils give us clues about their appearance, their environment and their lifestyle. Some of their relatives have evolved into species which survive today.\n\nLooking at China Coast Pidgin English is like studying dinosaurs. Only the barest traces of Pidgin survive. Because the language is one of history's losers, it has, like the dinosaurs, been characterized as clumsy, outmoded and comical.\n\nWe should like to devote this article to looking at the bones, without preconceptions or prejudice and helping to reconstruct the animal for you, together with its environment, its origins and its demise.\n\n\"Pigeon English\", says Hobson Jobson, the Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases published in 1886 by Henry Yule and A. C. Burnell, is \"the vile jargon which forms the means of communication at the Chinese ports between Englishmen who do not speak Chinese, and those Chinese with whom they are in the habit of communicating\n\nMiss Isabella Bird, whose book, \"The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither\" published in 1883 is cited in Hobson Jobson, wrote\n\n\"The Pidgin English is revolting, and the most dignified persons demean themselves by speaking it... How the whole English-speaking community, without the distinction of rank, has come to communicate with the Chinese in this baby-talk is extraordinary.\n\n1\n\nMany sources on Pidgin refer to it as \"baby talk.” Objective accounts", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213577, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "143\n\nTHE USE OF HILL LAND FOR VILLAGE FORESTRY AND FUEL GATHERING IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG.\n\nRICHARD WEBB\n\nWhile recent economic and social changes in the New Territories of Hong Kong have wrought irrevocable changes to the rural villages, until perhaps twenty years ago, villagers appeared to have used the hillsides much as they pleased, even though some of the larger clans claimed payments for hill land. The villagers of Cheung Sha Wan, west Kowloon, for example, paid regular sums in silver to the Tangs of Kam Tin for their forest land. The Liu family of Sheung Shui was leasing forest land to the villagers of Long Keng under a deed of 1867 (Hayes 1983). However, hill and forest land was usually annexed by the nearest village. Each village had its forestry lot, apportioned to families according to natural boundaries. There was a major difference in people's minds between land under pine tree cultivation (Pinus massoniana) and other hill land used for fuel gathering, grass cutting, and grazing. The British administration carried over the common usage of hill areas for pine cultivation into their village forestry licenses, or \"t'sung shaan p'aai\", which allowed villagers to occupy Crown Land for the purpose of growing these trees on which they relied for fuel, poles, and timber. It was the 'pine hills' that mattered more to the village families, even though they possessed no proper title to them, save under British rule, an undifferentiated notional share in the village license through being part of its community. Like houses and fields, hillside plots could be passed from father to son.\n\nDaley (1975) provides an account of forestry activities, although it is not clear if this refers to village forestry, in which 211,015 trees were planted in 1880, rising to 1,157,609 in 1883. The British administration established the Botanical and Forestry Department in 1880, with the objective of planting the badly eroded areas and water catchments. From 1881 to 1891, an average of around 647,223 trees were planted every year, of which 95% was Pinus massoniana, a local pine which can establish on very poor soil. By 1938, 70% of Hong Kong island had been afforested with government plantations, and 200 km2 of the New Territories were occupied by leased forestry lots used as a source of firewood. By this time, the government plantations were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213588, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nLIFE ON THE FRINGES: THE BIOLOGY OF MANGROVES AND THE\n\nRÔLE THEY PLAY IN HONG KONG.\n\nJOHN HODGKISS\n\n155\n\nIntroduction\n\nMangroves are a group of plants belonging to several families which share a common habit and habitat. These plant formations are typical of soft depositing shores in tropical regions, where they live at the fringes of the land, so that at high tide their roots (and aerial parts often) are fully immersed in salt water, whereas at low tide they come into contact with water percolating down the shore, which is almost fresh. Thus, characteristically they grow where there is a freshwater input into the sea.\n\nThe rise and fall of the tide creates an environment of continuing change, which alters daily, monthly and year by year. Perhaps the most important change is the varying salinity, but the tides affect mangroves in other ways as well, altering temperature, nutrient supply and the level of oxygen in the soil and water. All this means that the mangroves form a special community and there is, in fact, no comparable community of large flowering plants which has a similarly intimate relationship with the sea, and few which experience so many short-term and long-term environmental changes.\n\nBotanically, mangroves are most closely related to the plants of the rainforest, and they are considered to have originated in South East Asia about 70 million years ago. Today they are widespread in the tropics (extending from 32°N to 38°S and fringing about 65% of the world's tropical coasts) but they attain their greatest diversity and luxuriance on the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula. There they grow up to 30m high and merge at the back of the shore with the tropical rainforest.\n\nIn Hong Kong, because of the cooler winter temperatures, the mangroves are generally stunted, dwarf trees less than 5m tall, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213613, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "182\n\nTo ensure that I could recover information more easily I drew approximate plans of each temple with the major deities on the altars listed and located. This in itself revealed fascinating aspects of Chinese ethnic groups, with certain deities or altar layouts identifying the ethnicity of the founders of the temple though not necessarily the current ethnicity.\n\nLater, in the early 1970s, I returned to Singapore for another comparatively long stay and during the many revisits to temples to note change and development I found that a great number had already disappeared or were about to disappear as the national programme of suburban redevelopment raced ahead. For example, a fascinating Cantonese temple in the middle of a large cemetery had disappeared, as had the cemetery itself, the whole area now being one of the many new large housing estates. Another temple had been surrounded by high-rise blocks and was hidden from sight in a \"hole\" as the surrounding area had been covered with in-fill to level the area for housing construction.\n\nBy this time a few of the popular religion temples were beginning to clean up their act. Presumably temple committees had more funds at their disposal now that the Republic of Singapore was well on its way to prosperity. New temples replaced old ones, usually a major overhaul of both the structure and the content, often with modern colourful, perhaps to some gaudy, roof tiles. The deities remained the same, apart from many being repainted, though there was a spate of thefts from altars during the late sixties and early seventies which led to new images having to be carved. There were also a number of temples relocated, some like the Temple of the Nine Carp were moved from their former and long-standing site in Muar Road, approximately where the Rochore Centre is today, to the outer suburbs of the Upper Thomson Road. The temple today gives the appearance of having been there for many decades, and the not so old residents, both permanent and transitory, who visit temples may be tempted to interpret the age of an establishment from its condition. Some, a few, still are old temples on their original sites. These are mainly out in the country areas of the north-west of the island.\n\nEach time I return to Singapore I am fascinated to find yet another temple or two, some I must have missed years ago but most are new", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213634, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "205\n\nEXPERIENCES AS A WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR IN HONG KONG\n\nPETER VINE\n\nFifty years ago I caught my first glimpse of Hong Kong through the perspex window of a DC3. I was in transit from Singapore to take up the post of War Crimes Prosecutor in Hong Kong. I was 24 and a Major in the Royal Marines in which I had served for the previous five years.\n\nMy last war-time appointment was as Gunnery Officer aboard a landing craft which mounted a 104 millimetre gun. We had made the journey from Plymouth, England to join up with other units of the Support Squadron assembled in Madras. Lord Mountbatten had planned \"Operation Zipper\" to reconquer Malaya down to the last detail when the announcement came through of Emperor Hirohito's broadcast surrender following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since it was not then clear that the Japanese military would respond to this call, Operation Zipper went ahead as planned, and this brought me to Singapore. My landing-craft never sailed again, and I was appointed to the staff of the Flag Officer Malayan area. I had free time at my disposal and I sent for the text-books and arranged with the English Law Society to have the Solicitors Final papers sent to H.M.S Sultan, Singapore where I sat the exam in March 1946. The announcement that I had satisfied the examiners came through in June, and a report appeared in the \"Straits Times\". I then received a telephone call asking me whether I would be willing to undertake War Crimes prosecution. I agreed readily as it offered me an opportunity to get in some legal work before demobilization, and I was appointed Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General. I cut my teeth as prosecutor on a case which arose out of atrocities in the Andaman Islands, and which ended with a death sentence, and several terms of imprisonment.\n\nLists had been prepared of major criminals in Germany and Japan to be charged (mainly) with plotting aggressive war, and these major trials took place in Nuremberg and Tokyo. At the 1945 Potsdam Conference the procedure for all war crimes trials was worked out in detail. A modified military law would be followed procedurally allowing some flexibility for the introduction of affidavit evidence. For the major", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213680, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "4\n\n+\n\nparticular was expected to make in increasing contact between the city and the eastern New Territories: \"The railway will bring the Territory into closer contact with Hong Kong and western ideas ... Country folk who used to require a full day to reach Hongkong can now go in and out and do their shopping in the day.\" It is, however, clear that the district officer considered that this development had not yet begun in any significant way at the date when he was writing.\n\nIn these circumstances, it is not surprising that the district officer felt that the broader picture in 1912 was of a generally unchanged traditional life: \"A visitor to the Territory of 1899, upon returning in 1912, would find changes to remark in the outward appearance of the country, but he would not find the life or character of its inhabitants greatly altered... The domestic life of the villager does not differ much from that of Chinese in other parts of China, nor has it altered much during the few years of British occupation: if anything, it falls rather behind the general standard of freedom and enlightenment in the Canton Province.. even now the customs and habits of the people are probably little changed from what they were a hundred years ago.” The district officer feared that modernisation, when it came, would cause the inhabitants \"to lose their simple old-fashioned virtues,\" But clearly he felt that this unwelcome development had yet to begin.\n\nIn summary, therefore, the district officer's view was that the New Territories in 1912 were ripe for modernisation, but that this process had only just begun.\"\n\nBy 1921 it is interesting to note that another well-informed European - the Census Officer - could still make very similar remarks: \"The opening of the railway seems, contrary to expectations, to have produced little change\", and the effect of the Government schools “is just becoming apparent\n\n*12\n\nThus, by 1911, the village society of the New Territories, while more prosperous than a decade or two earlier, and aware of, and at least partially receptive to, modern ideas, was still (other than for New Kowloon, the southern strip immediately around Kowloon City and Sham Shui Po) almost entirely traditional. The 1911 Census, therefore, took place in one of the last years in which the old, traditional society survived more or less unchanged. By 1921 that society was beginning", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213788, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "111 tablets were set up on a table before the picture. The one in the middle is dedicated to Taishang Laojun (styled Taishang Hunyuan Jiaozu Daode Tianjun) and the masters of the priest. On the right was one for the ancestors of the groom styled Pengshi Tangshang Shigaozhengzu Kaobi shenwei (“Founding ancestors, and great grandfather and grandfather\"). On the left-hand side was one for the gods of the four domains Heaven, Earth, Water, and Yang. Offerings on the table included plates full of homemade red-colored buns from, I was told, each household of the village.\n\nThe rite started at a quarter to 7 p.m. and continued, with intermissions, until about half past 4 a.m. the next morning. The assistant who dressed as a woman joined the priest in most of the rites, with the exception of the first rite “invitation of gods”, and probably the last one of “seeing off the gods” which seems to have been performed by the priest alone, and the rite of “pacifying the kitchen god\" which was performed by the \"woman\" assistant alone. The assistant held a fan in one hand and a handkerchief in another. The two danced together, forming postures in which the priest kicked at his \"female\" assistant. The rituals made frequent use of the horn, the divination block, and mudra formations. A third assistant played percussion instruments to their accompaniment.\n\nThe series of rituals begin with an invitation of gods. I recorded in my notebook that in the final section of the rite the priest faced the table at the ancestral altar and mentioned langming and gongming in a recitation about the purpose and scope of the ritual. I have already mentioned the rituals connected with the maintenance of an army under the control of ancestors. Another important session is the Jianchao, \"witnessing the Chao”, which is an offering of a raw pig. The pig was placed before the table at the altar, with its head facing inside. The offering included the whole pig, with even blood and hair. On the back of the pig's neck, three cuttings had been made; fixed in the middle one were incense sticks and the two sides candle sticks. The chicken song should have been performed in the series. Some of the villagers present expected to hear it. But the priest and his \"female\" assistant omitted the singing because they had not recovered from their sore throats that had resulted from the Anlong rite they performed at Cheng Lan Shue a few days ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213800, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "123\n\nbis being implication and subsequent death. One version says that as a result of 'pollution' by pregnancy of which his mother was unaware the bamboo horse on which he rode failed, causing a half-day delay in his arrival at court. As a result the Emperor was convinced of accusations that he had rebellious migntions. The other version, in a rather obscute passage, is that some method was devised by his enemies at court to show his magical power to the Emperor. The method worked and the Emperor was convinced by the accusation by his enemies. The Emperor ordered destruction of the fengshui of the lineage. Upon his return home he died suddenly. According to genealogy the Emperor wept upon hearing about bis death and ordered execution of the official responsible for the destruction of the Cheng's fengshui. The story bears striking similarity to stories in Faute op cup 229, about Huo Zhen and his sister Wu.\n\nL\n\n2. Those are Fa Xuan in the 10th generation, Wan Yi Lang, Wan Er Lang, Fa Xing, Xian Yi Lang, Ning Yi Lang to Ning Wu Lang, and a Nian San Lang in the 12th generation, Gao Yi(1) Lang to Gao San(3) Lang, Zheng Si(4) Lang, Qian Wu(5) Lang, and Zheng Shi(10) Lang in the 13th generation, Fa Tang, Tong San(3) Lang, Pin San Lang and Fa Wen in the 14th generation.\n\nAccording to the genealogy his father died soon after arrival in the county and his young age was the reason given for an important event in the history of the family.\n\n**Reproduced in Sin, op cit, plate 4**\n\n\"The same ancestors were traced to by the Chens of Lok Keng.\n\n76 In the same interview he also said: 1312 generations. I did not ask about the apparent discrepancy.\n\nJH\n\nIN\n\nIn a telephone conversation with the Hakka Buddhist funeral ritual expert Mr. Zhang on 5th March 1991, JH learned that Mr. Miao died years ago. His assistant Mr. Zheng Tangsheng moved to Hong Kong, lived in Tai Po, and died before Mr. Miao.\n\nTelephone conversation 5th March 1991\n\nZhang Zupu, Chonghua Juhu Lusuo 1993, reprinted from Zhongyuan Zazhi 1980.\n\n10. The document reproduced in ZEILS indicates that a new name given to a troubled child in the rite does not resemble the ordination names seen in genealogies.\n\n* The author does not explain the meaning of \"faona\", \"old house\". Some of them were probably a kind of ancestral hall as he mentioned that money was collected from different branches for the celebration and where there was a wealthy ancestral trust money can be drawn for that purpose. See also a reference later to Nelson's article about a kind of ancestral hall known as \"shengung\".\n\n*2 Voc, 3, under Ankong\n\n14\n\nUntitled volume by Guangdong Sheng Xiju Yanjiu She, prefaced 1980, pp. 132-138.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213819, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "143\n\nunder weigh, and went down the river like a dart. The wind and tide were in our favour. We took our tea, and the night came on very bitter cold. I wrapped up in my deci skin, which was very serviceable, and I was laughed at by the Chinamen who called me \"The red flower spotted butterfly\". As we tacked out of the river the ship rolled, and I felt rather funny. Towards midnight we were rolling very considerably and I had to get up on the sly and pay that tribute to Neptune which she always exacts from landsmen, who are not used to the sea. About 3 o'clock we came to anchor in the Kap shui moon, and there we were till about nine, when we managed to steer out as the tide turned, and got soon into a fresh breeze which took us off to Green island, then we tacked again and came round into the harbour. I felt glad to get ashore again after so much of knocking about and want of sleep. Fortunately Stringer's dog neither got shot nor eaten, although it was threatened over and over again. I was glad enough to get into a sort of tub and get on shore the best way I could, with Irwin and Lechler, and reached home after 75 hours absence, in safety.\n\nAlthough I did not immediately feel the benefits of the voyage, I did so afterwards and hope to make another similar trip some day or other. My whole expenses were just over 5 dollars, and I saw what would cost any of you “Western barbarians” at least a couple of Hundred Pounds sterling.\n\nThe next night I went to bed early, and slept on till quite late next day, to make up for lost time. The officious man I took with me had put Mr Eitel's large feather pillow and two of his shirts and other items belonging to the others in my box, so that when we got to Hong Kong, I was puzzled to know what had been done. The beauty of the thing was this, that the fellow seemed to think he had done a capital thing for me, and said \"you have gained by me\". Poor Eitel sent word to know if I wanted to be like the magpie that borrowed the feathers of other birds to improve its own plumage - since I had gone off with his feather pillows and shirts. They all tease me finely about it and it will be a joke for a while to come.\n\nI ought to have mentioned sooner how the house was attacked at Li-long by about 50 robbers.* They threw in \"stink-pots\" as they are called, and tried to enter, to rob them, about 2½ months ago. But the Chinese cook gave the alarm, and shot a man who had got up the balcony.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213836, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 188, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "161\n\nthe community from calamity.\" The temple is nothing more than a small room of about 50 sq ft with simple decoration. On the altar an idol representing the deity is enshrined. At the corner of the room, there is a place for the earth god. As observed, incense is occasionally offered at this unfrequented temple.\n\nEven smaller in size is the wooden Ta-wang Palace at Ma Wan Chung. Hung there is a 1989 canopy with the title \"the Pantheon of The Earth God in Southeast and the Empress of Heaven\" (天后地主大王). The temple thus seems to serve as a Ta-wang shrine for individual worshippers at the village, as well as a temple of the Empress of Heaven for the fishing community in the vicinity. Fishermen, or former fishermen, there all regard themselves as members of the Tung Chung community. They settled ashore at their shacks 40-50 years ago. They also have ancestral graves in the area. Now more than 400 people from 48 households are official residents of the Fishermen's Village. Some of them have even managed to acquire and expand homesteads. Intermarriage between them and settlers at other villages has become acceptable. While fishermen in other regions usually worship the Empress of Heaven as their patron goddess, Tung Chung's fishing population are mainly Houwang worshippers. They have donated money to support opera shows during the deity's birthday festival and formed an association called Sheng-li t’ang which has actively taken part in festivities in celebration of the Houwang's feast day.\n\n40\n\nNotwithstanding the establishment of the Ta-wang Palace, as pointed out by a settler at the fishermen's village, only a few of them have become frequent visitors to this temple. The Houwang, as Tung Chung's principal god occupying a higher position in the pantheon hierarchy than other deities, remains the most popular deity in the locale, and the Houwang Temple has all along drawn the biggest crowd of worshippers from the community.\n\nFacing the Tung Chung Bay, the Houwang Temple is located at Sha Tsui Tau (see the map of Tung Chung). There is an adjacent open space in front of the temple, now used mainly for the holding of the annual festival commemorating the deity's feast day. The earliest dated ritual item inside the temple, a bell cast with the date of the 30th year of the Ch'ien Lung reign, suggests that the temple might have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213853, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "178\n\nNOTES\n\nAbbreviation JHKBRAS = Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society\n\nThe present study is part of the research product of the Historical Fieldwork Project on Old Settlements in Tung Chung, Lantau Island, conducted by the History Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, in summer 1991, under the auspices of the Antiquities and Monument Office, Government Secretariat, Hong Kong. In the section on Tung Chung's socio-religious activities, Wai-yee Ho was one of the field interviewers and the major processor of interview transcriptions on the subject. The authors of this article would like to thank Mr Wing-kai To and Dr Cathy Potter for reading and commenting on the draft. Official geographical names are used in this paper although their romanization may deviate from the Wade-Giles system adopted by this journal.\n\nJ.L. Cranner-Byng & A. Shepherd \"A Reconnaissance of Ma Wan and Lantao Islands in 1794,” JHKBRAS, Vol. 4 (1964), p. 115\n\nAdministrative Report (1912), p. 110. VII-Crops\n\n* Stewart H. Lockhart, \"Report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong,\" 1898\n\n* \"Table of Population Figures in the New Territories,\" Hong Kong Gazetteer (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1958)\n\n6 Interviews Cheng P'o (age 77), upper Ling Pei, Jun 15, 1991, Hsieh Ch'i (age 72), San Tau, Jul 7, 1991, Mr Wang (Age 30+), San Tau, Jul 7, 1991. Wang's father was known as the \"king of folk song.\" He used to keep some song books which are now lost.\n\nInterview of Mr & Mrs Lo # (age Mr Lo 69), Shek Mun Kap, Jun 18, 1991. Mrs Lo, who was a child bride, as were her sisters, mentioned that quite a number of child brides came from San Tau, Sha Lo Wan and the western border of Tung Chung. Interviews \"Uncle Cheng\", the Tung Chung Public School, Jun 24, 1991, Chang Yen, Ma Wan Chung, Jul 7, 1991. \"Uncle Cheng\" indicated that the price for a child bride was HK$20 or more fifty years ago, whereas Cheng Yen pointed out that the price was HK$50-60 sixty years ago.\n\nOn the Hakka mores of women labouring as farmers/housewives while their husbands and grown-up sons worked outside or overseas (mostly in southeast Asia), see Wu Tsung-chuo & Wen Chung-ho, Chia-ying-chou chih (reprint of the 1898 edition) (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen ch'u-pan-she, 1968), chuan 8, pp. 53-55. For this tradition, and the custom of child brides, see also Yang Hung-hai, \"Yueh-tung k'e-chia ti min-su t'e-se,\" in KROANKAHė K'e-chia wen-chin, ZRERE, Vol. 1 (1989), pp. 277, 281.\n\n* Interview of Cheng Man-hung W (age 63), Aug 8, 1991\n\n\"John Brim, \"Village Alliance Temples in Hong Kong,\" in Arthur P. Wolf, ed., Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974), p. 95\n\n179", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213899, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 251, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "225\n\nshuppansha, 1987, pp. 21-57)\n\nTo my mind, it follows from the above quotation, that the Liang considered Houtu the land contract witness and hoped that by constructing a shrine in his honour, they could prevail upon him to preserve the plot's integrity.\n\nThe Liang tomb, however, is not the only trace of Houtu's survival in Hong Kong. Other, less elaborate examples of his cult also exist at Aberdeen. Here, two very similar stones, from different graves, show clear traces of a religious dimension. One of these is engraved with the words, “Houtu spirit of the Xu family's site” (Xu shan Houtu zhishen). The other is even more explicit though worded somewhat differently. Its inscription reads, “Houtu longshen”.\n\nIn the absence of a family name and since \"long\" is another geomantic term for site, the text can be taken to mean “Site of Houtu's spirit”. While it is tempting to see in the juxtaposition of “dragon” and Houtu an echo of the Zuozhuan's definition, such an interpretation would stretch the bounds of credibility. What is plain from the stones' inscriptions is that they function as simple shrines.\n\nOn the basis of the evidence outlined above, I am now convinced that all Houtu stones are first and foremost shrines at which family members propitiate the Earth god for the disturbance they have caused him - just as Wang Chong recommended. The proposition that stones are boundary markers is a tribute to the creative power of folk etymology. It should, however, not be allowed to obscure the fact that Houtu stones embody vestiges of an ancient cult which originated more than two thousand years ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213985, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "20 years ago during the pre-historical period when the universe was created out of the 'great chaos'. Yau, a mythological character, is believed to have taught his people how to build crude bridges and construct huts.4 The latter were sometimes erected as 'nest-like' shelters in trees to afford better protection against wild animals. He built such a structure for his own mother. This, so some claim, marked the beginning of framed timber structures which led, naturally, to the erection of scaffolding. Yau Chao Shi's birthday is celebrated on the 19th day of the first Moon,\n\nDuring the Era of the Spring and Autumn Annals, about 500 years before Christ, a master builder, all-round craftsman and inventor, Lu Pan, who today remains the patron god of all workers in the building industry, is said to have brought into use more 'scientific methods' of scaffolding.7 Lu Pan was one of the first mortals to be raised to the level of a deity.\n\nOsmond Tiffany Junior, traveller and author, wrote during Hong Kong's first decade (the 1840s) as a British Colony:\n\n... before a house is commenced a staging of bamboo is erected and covered with matting. As the building rises the bamboo poles are run up story by story, the matting elevated, and the whole house completely protected from the glare of day until the last nail is driven.*\n\nAlthough one sometimes comes across a similar practice in Hong Kong today, when the substructure or a site is protected from the weather, with high-rise buildings such a shelter as Tiffany describes above is not generally practicable. Such a practice is, however, sometimes employed in Britain using steel scaffolding covered with tilts.\n\nToday, seemingly flimsy, 'low-technology' bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong, together with the agility and traditional skills of scaffolders, contrast markedly with the modern technology of multi-storey buildings. This invariably earns admiration in Hong Kong from both tourists and locals alike. Bamboo scaffolders have been aptly likened to spiders weaving their webs. Bamboo scaffolding may be considered as primitive without being old-fashioned, time-saving without being insecure, and economical without being impracticable.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213989, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "24\n\nTools\n\nThe tools used by bamboo scaffolders are simple, few in number and have changed but little over centuries. They comprise a timber bow (frame) saw, about 30 inches long, with a steel blade and a cord, made up of several strands, stretched along the back of the saw. A piece of timber, about four inches long, is inserted in the strands of the cord. This is turned around so the cord is twisted, tightened and thus shortened. As a result, the blade becomes taut. The bowsaw is used to cut bamboo to appropriate lengths. Other tools include a rule, a pair of snips to cut wire used to secure the scaffolding to a building, such as for cantilever scaffolding. Wire is also used, for additional strength to fasten China Fir poles together. A folding knife with a hooked end, to cut through lashings when dismantling scaffolding, is also used by scaffolders. The hook is employed to unravel knots. A length of rope is used to hoist lengths of bamboo up to the upper floors of a building. A narrow-bladed spade is sometimes used when uprights are sunk into soil.\n\nTypes of scaffolding\n\n20\n\nIn addition to ordinary scaffolding forming working platforms for a building, bamboo may also be used for a variety of other purposes. For example, to construct a frame for a 'matshed' in which to perform Chinese opera (see Plate 5). The frame for the stage inside the matshed will also be fashioned out of bamboo. Years ago the matshed would have been 'clad' with palm leaves, canvas or rattan mats. Today, thin steel sheets are normally used with their greater fire-resisting qualities.\n\n21\n\nBamboo may also be used to form raking or flying shoring for strutting up a building which is in danger of collapse. In addition, bamboo may be used for constructing ladders or trestles, to build a spectators' stand at a public function, or to construct a pai lau, a celebratory archway. Sometimes bamboo is used to form a frame on which to mount fireworks or it can be used to fashion a screen to protect property when blasting of rocks is carried out.\n\nA variety of types of scaffolding are used to form working platforms. These include a cantilever ('truss-out' or 'flying' scaffold, fei paan,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214011, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "46\n\nappeared to the Sixth Son who was resting, weary and sick with over-work and revealed to him that Meng Liang had recovered the bones of another and gave the Sixth Son details of where his, the father's, body really lay. Meng Liang set out once more, disguised as a Tatar soldier and after a series of episodes the bones were recovered, but not before several of the Sixth Son's comrades had been killed or committed suicide. These deaths led the Sixth Son's condition to deteriorate and for his spirit to wander whilst he lay in a coma. The emperor's nephew on his way to visit him saw a tiger barring his path and shot and grazed it with the arrow. On reaching the bedside of the Sixth Son, who rallied at that point, the Prince was told that the tiger was the spirit of the Sixth Son roaming the hills and was duly appalled at the idea that he had nearly killed the Sixth Son. Despite all efforts, the Sixth Son's condition grew worse and soon he died, vomiting blood.\n\nIn another episode of the tea-house tales the ruler of the Liao Khitan planned to assassinate the Sung Emperor at a meeting to which the Sung Emperor had been invited at Chin-sha Nan. As the plan had been detected by the Eldest Son of the Yang family he disguised himself as the Sung emperor whilst the Second Son went as the Crown Prince, with the other brothers in attendance. In the event they in turn were recognised and in the ensuing fight the Second and Third Sons were killed and, apart from the Sixth and Seventh Sons, the others were captured.\n\nOne of several cult centres dedicated to the Yangs in northern China developed in a temple on the Buddhist holy mountain of Wu T'ai Shan, in northern Shansi province. There are at least three temples in Taiwan in which Yang Yeh is the main deity. And only in Taiwan are the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth sons collectively portrayed together on several altars with the collective title of the San Wang-tsu. In an old temple near Taichung the seven main images on the main altar represent the Seven Sons although, according to the temple keeper, the group did not include the father. However, the smaller portable images of the Seven on the front of the same altar had alongside them several other images which did include the Father, Yang Yeh, and the Mother, Yü Lao T'ai-chün, and a complete outsider, the mythological deity, Yang Chien [Erh Lang] who bears the same surname. The temple keeper explained that in about 1986 all nine main images, carved on the mainland many years ago and brought over to Taiwan, which at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214015, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "49\n\nIn one temporary temple run by Chaochou immigrants in Hong Kong the Fifth Son was portrayed simply by a stylised painting depicting him as a ferocious warrior, unarmed, standing on one foot. This likeness was on a secondary altar whilst the main deity, also represented by a portrait, was of the first emperor of the Sung, Sung T'ai Tsu. The temple keeper explained that the Fifth of the eight sons of General Yang Ling Kung, who is better known as Yang Yeh, was a bodyguard to the first emperor of the Sung.\n\nA story related in Tainan county claims that a herdsboy who, having picked up a piece of wood which had the outward appearance of a Buddhist priest, was playing with it. A teacher, having seen him with the odd-shaped wood, requested a medium to clarify whether it was an image of a spirit. He was taken aback when the answer was an affirmative and that the spirit was that of a local man who had been borne off to Heaven in the not too distant past. Furthermore, the deceased had been an incarnation of the loyal Sung \"minister\" [sic], Yang Wu Lang, who had now become a Buddha. The piece of wood was placed on the altar in the village temple where it is prayed to as the spirit of the Fifth Son, and known as Yang Wu Sai Yuan-shuai 吳賽元帥.\n\nAn image of a black-bearded general with protruding eyes, five flags on his shoulder rack, and a magic sword raised in his right hand, stands on the main altar of a rural temple in Muar near Malacca. He is only known as Yang Wu Shih is said to be \"the Fifth Son of a famous general who lived a thousand years ago\".\n\nYang Yen-chao, is known as Yang the Sixth, Yang Liu Lang or Liu Shih-yeh. His image on the main altar in the temple near Taichung is one of two individually identified. The temple near Taichung would appear to be the only temple in Taiwan in which the Sixth Son is the main deity and the temple keeper, proud of his deity's uniqueness, explained that Liu Lang was captured by the Tatars and had even married a Mongol bride. His image has not been seen in any temple in South-east Asia though a story told in Penang claimed that a massacre of Fukienese by an army under a 'cruel general, Yang Liu Lang' continued for several days until, on the 8th of the first lunar month, many were able to escape by hiding in sugar cane fields. Ever since, annually on that date, sugar canes with foliage have been placed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214053, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "88\n\nThe roads (some sections being only bridle paths) that followed included one from Shau Kei Wan to Sai Wan in 1845 and subsequently onto Stanley, another from Victoria to Aberdeen in 1846, one from Aberdeen to Stanley in 1848 and, at about the same time, another to Pok Fu Lam. These early roads and tracks were shown on the first contoured topographic survey (scale 4 inches to a mile, say 1:16,000, with 100ft contours) of Hong Kong Island which was carried out by Lieutenant Collinson of the Royal Engineers. The map was first published in 1845 and the quality was such that it remained in use, with periodic revisions, for some 50 years.\n\nAs might have been expected, the early roads were poorly constructed and often damaged in the summer rains with the wooden bridges being frequently washed away. Gradually the lesson was learnt and roads were surfaced and bridges constructed with masonry. Even so, as late as 1890, an editorial reported \"The recent rains once again worked up Queen's Road into a quagmire. Some months ago the road was re-metalled on a principle which it was believed would be sufficiently strong to withstand the wear and tear of jinricksha wheels, but it is now as bad as ever......... Until jinrickshas were introduced Queen's Road was always fairly clean, even in the wettest weather.\"\n\n**\n\nWhile the built-up areas were slowly expanding the road system was developing and, by 1908, Hong Kong could boast a network of 153 kilometres of roadways on the Island with cut hillside slopes typically being 75° and filling contained by masonry retaining walls. At this time a writer commented \"vehicular traffic is confined chiefly to handcarts, rickshaws and chairs suspended from poles borne on the shoulders of coolies, there being but a few pair-pony gharries and a Victoria or two used by the Chinese\". Around the turn of the century when Lugard and Harlech Roads were constructed encircling the Peak, local inhabitants were displeased - they thought it \"likened the effect of putting a halter around the neck of the Hill of Great Peace\". Fortunately no adverse consequences became apparent! The diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 was marked by a proposal to build a road around the Island; the scheme was opposed by the military and, after lengthy delays, the section below Mount Davis along the 45m contour (Victoria Road) was commenced.\n\nThe advent of the motor car stimulated upgrading the existing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214115, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "152\n\nOn the publishing side a bimonthly newsletter as well as a reputable annual journal, which is highly thought of in academic circles, are produced. Other publications like occasional papers consisting of such topics as write-ups of symposia, and books like Hong Kong Going and Gone (1980) and Beyond the Metropolis (1995), have been, and are being published. A number of Branch members have also published on their own account and others have been decorated by Her Majesty the Queen for heritage related work and community service. In Her 1997 Official Birthday Honours' List, four RASHKB members were awarded the MBE and another the Queen's Police Medal.\n\nIn addition to several members serving in their own capacities on Government committees, such as the Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB), a number of RASHKB volunteers have assisted the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) with the grading of buildings. Also, the AMO and the RASHKB banded together to mount a four-month long exhibition, entitled Hong Kong Going and Gone, in 1995-96. The Branch has also helped the AMO by providing speakers as well as leaders of tour groups.\n\nPersonalities\n\nObviously the RAS, like most organisations, depends on people. When the Branch was first formed the then Governor, Sir John Davis (1844-48), frequently took the chair as a scholar of both literary and scientific achievement. He retired from Hong Kong a year after the Branch was established. On leaving the Colony Sir John resumed his China studies, founded a chair at Oxford University and died academically revered at 92 showing, yet again, that those interested in heritage are often a long-lived breed (Spurr 1995: 35).\n\nHe was followed by Governor Sir Samuel Bonham (1848-54) who believed the study of Chinese addled the brain, although he did allocate a room in the Supreme Court solely for the use of the RASHKB. But his successor, Governor Sir John Bowring (1854-59), when he chaired RAS meetings, always insisted on being addressed as Dr Bowring and not as \"Your Excellency\". Bowring was fluent in, or had a working knowledge or a book knowledge of upwards of 14 languages (Chambers 1969: 162). He had also spent five years as British Consul in Canton where he learned Chinese. One of his accomplishments was translating", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214123, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "ARE THE TANKA PEOPLE DESCENDANTS OF MONGOL SOLDIERS?\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\n161\n\nI have not done any research into the origins of the Tanka people of the Pearl River Estuary and have always assumed from something I read many years ago that ethnically they were one of the many original minority groups of southern China.\n\nHowever, I have just come across a paragraph in 'Pulling Strings in China', a book written in the late twenties by W.F. Tyler, suggesting that the Tanka boat people were a mixture of Mongol soldiers and Chinese with whom they had intermarried. Tyler was an interesting character, an Englishman who had been not only a young officer serving with the Chinese Imperial Navy during the Yalu battle in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 but had gone on to be a Commissioner with the Chinese Maritime Customs.\n\nThe relative passage from the paragraph concerned claims that:\n\n*\n\nIn about 1370 the conquering Ming dynasty ordered that the soldiers of the previous Mongol garrisons - descendants of the famous hordes of Ghengis Khan - and their families should be slaughtered. At Canton there had been intermarriage and absorption in a century of Mongol rule, and enmity was dead, so there was reluctance to fulfil this drastic order: consequently it was reported to the capital that they had been driven into the river, and by inference, drowned. They were not drowned; they were allowed to live in boats and in piled shacks below high-water line. And so they lived and bred and grown for five hundred years or more, and it was no one's business to institute a change. These were the Tankas; fine-looking men and pretty girls”.\n\nHas any reader confirmation of Tyler's story?\n\nNOTE\n\nTyler, William Ferdinand Pulling Strings in China Constable London 1929", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214145, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "FROM THE HON. EDITOR\n\nAs regular readers of the Journal will agree, I am not a particularly vocal editor. Neither have I, as yet, published any of my own work in the Journal as I believe that one either writes or edits, but not at the same time. I believe, however, that this millennium edition merits a short message.\n\nCouncil of HKBRAS determined quite some time ago that this volume of the Journal merited something special, hence the dust jacket featuring T'ai Sui, the God of Time. T'ai Sui seemed appropriate to the fundamental purpose of this particular volume. Secondly, you will see that it is appreciably thicker than the average. My instructions from council are generally for a volume of about 200 pages. To celebrate the millennium, however, it seemed warrantable to waive this restriction.\n\nIn this latest volume, I have tried for true variety and have dug deep into my 'box.' I have also put in a generous number of 'Notes and Queries' so as to give exposure to more of those who have taken the trouble to contribute. The prolific and eminently readable Keith Stevens is, as usual, very much in evidence.\n\nAnd now, I will let you get on with reading this new volume and I hope that it gives you much pleasure. I wonder whether council, who asked me to do a special volume for the end of this millennium, is now thinking that it would be a good idea to do one to celebrate the start of the new one?!\n\nii\n\nP.E.H.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214158, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Sidney Cowell who, separately, and of their own volition, circulated details of the RASHKB by mail. As a result, more new members were recruited.\n\nPublications\n\nWith the publishing of RASHKB Journal Volume 37 recently, we have now caught up after, not so long ago, being several volumes in arrears. Work continues on the new index. We are also grateful to Agnes Lee and Joseph Chan, at the City Hall, where our RAS Library is on permanent loan to the Urban Council,\n\nFor an organisation like ours, communications are obviously important, and some members have informed us that they look forward regularly to the arrival of our bi-monthly Newsletter. For the drafting and circulation of this we are largely indebted to Sarah Parnell, our capable Assistant Secretary, who is also making noteworthy efforts to sell more of our Journals and other publications, both in Hong Kong and overseas.\n\nMeanwhile the publication of In the Heart of the Metropolis, about Yau Ma Tei, edited by Dr Patrick Hase, to which several of our Branch members have contributed, has been delayed by the publisher. We are hoping it will be out before too many months. We are grateful to Patrick and to everyone who has helped, and to members of the Cathay Camera Club, and especially to Ian Masterton the photography co-ordinator.\n\nWhile on the subject of publications a number of our members have published books, papers or articles, in their own capacity, during the past year on subjects related to the work of the RAS. We congratulate them all. They include Valery Garrett, Edward Stokes, Jason Wordie, May Holdsworth and Barbara Baker. There could be others.\n\nActivities\n\nDuring the year under review 14 lectures, 6 Hong Kong visits, and two excursions to the China Mainland and one to Macau were conducted. A wide range of topics was covered as may be seen from Appendices A and B of this Report. In it lecturers are named and I take this opportunity to thank them here, together with group leaders of\n\nXV.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214161, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "months of July and August. The work undertaken by the following Council members, both within and outside the Council, is greatly appreciated: Valery Garrett, Julia Chan, Robert Nield, Peter Halliday and Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, Anthony Siu, Choi Chi-cheung and Peter Barker. The last has served ably as our Honorary Secretary. In addition the Reverend Carl Smith, who is 81 not out and still researching aspects of Hong Kong's and Macau's history, together with Geoffrey Roper, are both role models for us all. It is interesting to record that Carl undertook his first local history project, in the United States, as long ago as 1931.\n\nThis year, as in the past, we have invited RASHKB members to nominate other members of good standing to serve on the Council. No one has been nominated. I am thus pleased to inform you that all except two of our present Council members are offering themselves for re-election. However, Dr Choi Chi-cheung, Professor Anthony K K Siu and Mr Geoffrey Roper (the last a co-opted member) have intimated that, because of pressure of work and other reasons, they wish to step down. We are grateful to scholars Drs Choi and Siu for all they have done for our Branch. We are also grateful to Geoffrey Roper, especially with regard to his work with organising activities. It is good to know that all three have agreed to continue to assist our Branch in the future, outside the Council. This we appreciate.\n\nFor most members serving on the Council or sitting on a committee, is something they do after completing a hard day's work. All are volunteers. Such service requires time as well as energy and dedication to achieve results and it can, sometimes, be frustrating for a variety of reasons. Naturally, on the odd occasion, we, the members of your Council, may not get everything exactly right first time around. It has been said on a humorous note, if sometimes one keeps one's head when all about are losing theirs, then it may mean one has not grasped fully the seriousness of the situation!' We like to think, however, that our Branch is efficiently run. We do, nevertheless, welcome suggestions as well as offers of help. Ask not what the RAS can do for you, ask what you can do for the RAS!\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nI have already acknowledged the considerable amount of help\n\nxviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214168, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 26, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "# Appendix D\n\nThe RAS Volunteers\n\nThe main task of the RAS Volunteers is to assist the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) by inspecting, reporting on and, if deemed worthy, grading, old, interesting Western and Chinese style buildings. Such research also often involves visits to the Public Records Office, libraries etc. to obtain further information. The results of inspection and research, by the RAS Volunteers, are finally passed to the Antiquities Advisory Board for formal recommendations for possible grading and preservation.\n\nDuring the 1998/99 year two formal meetings have been held between the Volunteers and the AMO and a visit was paid to view the Reverend Carl Smith's Card Index System.\n\nBuildings inspected and researched during the year included churches and religious buildings, military installations such as old gun emplacements, terraces and an old pawn shop in Johnston Road, Wanchai. A full programme of structures, to which visits have to be paid, lies ahead. New members, especially those with an appropriate expertise to offer, are welcome to join the Volunteers.\n\nThe RAS Volunteers are led by two experienced surveyors who are both long-time residents of Hong Kong: namely Bill Greaves and Council member Bob Horsnell. We are grateful to both of them for the amount of work they put in leading the Volunteers. We are also grateful to the Volunteers themselves.\n\nXXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214182, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "This paper's main aim is to compare Chinese humour with Western humour, although, again to narrow the field, of these two forms emphasis is placed on Cantonese as compared to English humour. There is of course common ground; but many Chinese wisecracks are not considered really funny outside China. This paper looks at an assortment of jokes, including Western and Chinese. Many are 'lowbrow.' It also looks at the everyday humour of ‘old 100 names' (, the common man). To round this study off, conclusions are arrived at. Because it concentrates on Cantonese humour it uses the Cantonese style of Romanisation rather than the more modern Pinyin.\n\n# Introduction\n\nThe British Museum's Egyptology Department has researched the bawdy fun and games that went on in the land of the Pyramids more than 4,500 years ago.3 Many of the gags which are still portrayed in the form of stone carvings centre around ‘adult jokes,' drunkenness, vomiting and sexual exhibitionism. With language and communications intertwined with culture, these antics were very much part of the humour which developed with the environment of the times (Lexikon der Agyptologie; 1997).\n\nCulture, the framework that provides people with their identity, includes not only language and communications but also multifarious parts of everyday life: such as dress and appearance, food and eating habits, and how people perceive and appreciate themselves in relation to the society in which they live. Culture also includes relationships, values and norms, beliefs and attitudes, work habits and practices, and the relationship between work and leisure and so on. Any of these aspects of culture, as well as entertainment and sex, can, of course, be related in some way to humour. All this is very much related to one's cultural background.\n\nIn a completely different culture in Egypt, four-and-a-half millennia ago, what has been described as 'the oldest joke in the world' is recorded on a slip of papyrus (Pharaohs thigh slapper; 1998). Translated it went something like this. How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young, attractive women wearing only nets down the Nile and invite the pharaoh to go and catch a fish. Although the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214207, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "28\n\nso different Chinese ethnic sub-groups laugh at each other. In the early 1950s, when many Shanghainese came to Hong Kong from the Mainland, the sally going the rounds among the Cantonese was: First the Shanghainese travelled in a small car. Now they ride in a big car. For the Westerner who is slow on the uptake this means, when they first came to Hong Kong they drove a car. Later, they could not afford it so they travelled by bus.\n\nIn China too, at one stage there was a tendency, as in other societies years ago, to deride cripples and the mentally retarded (Sypher, 1956; 202). In England in the Middle Ages, a hunchback was expected to caper around and amuse others. Jews, the village idiot, and the 'Chinaman' with his pigtail were usually all good, certainly in the 19th century, for a giggle (Pan, 1990; 84). More recently, there was the case of the Duke of Edinburgh meeting some British students studying in China and the Duke saying to them: 'If you stay here too long you'll get \"slitty\" eyes.' Many people seemed to think it was an insensitive remark and in bad taste. A few however felt, no doubt like the Duke himself (and indeed a few Hong Kong Chinese), that it was all intended in good, clean fun.\n\nWe must not forget that a witch was burned alive in Sunderland, England, as late as 1722, which was an occasion of some merriment. Even today many children enjoy 'cruelty' in their humour, such as the slip on the banana skin or the bucket of water tipped on the head. The author recalls how a colleague, a Chinese teacher, was given the nickname of tsoh hau ue (left [sloping] mouth fish) (false halibut) in the 1950s. Although humour can conceal or even help to heal pain, there are people of all nationalities who delight in the misfortune of others, and, even today, a few get pleasure from stoning a hedgehog to death which is stuck in a hedge.\n\nFrequently one hears about oppressive authority in Chinese life and there are sometimes attempts to 'skewer' an incident, by the oppressed, with a good joke. Everyone loves to make the leaders look stupid.\n\nThere is the one about the three Chinese in a prison cell during the Cultural Revolution. The first said: 'I'm here because I supported Deng", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214231, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "52\n\nSsu and the Pi-yun Ssu. They were first placed there some three hundred years ago, towards the end of the last fully Chinese dynasty, the Ming and before the overthrow of the Ming by the non-Chinese Manchus.\n\nThe Two Temples in the Western Hills\n\nThe old Kuan Yin Hall of the Ta Pei Ssu X, the fourth of the Eight Great Places in the Western Hills of Peking, is sealed off and not available to the general public. It contains a modern image of the major deity, the bodhisattva Kuan Yin with a Thousand Arms and a Thousand Eyes together with old but refurbished images of the Deva with their name in Sinicised Sanskrit but without providing any hint as to their origins and legends. The statues of the Deva were originally made during the Ming, ca. 1500 AD, and consist of clay reinforced with hemp. They are referred to in temple literature as the Group of 28 Great Immortals +. The image of the Thousand Arm and Thousand Eye Kuan Yin was replaced by the Japanese after the Second World War in an attempt to make amends for having taken the original and melted it down for the brass content during the War.\n\nThe Kuan Yin Hall in the Ta Pei Ssu contains in addition to the one bodhisattva, Kuan Yin, twenty-eight images, which can be categorised as follows: twenty-six deities with Sanskrit titles including the five T'ien-wang [Guardians] together with two Chinese folk religion deities. Of the twenty-six, five are deities specifically referred to separately in the Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings? [Deva, Mahoraga, Kinnara, Asura and Gandharva]\n\nIt is lamentable that the Kuan Yin Hall is closed to the public; however, fortunately, there is also a Hall of Bodhisattvas in the second temple, the Pi-yun Ssu #, some five kms. to the north of the Ta Pei Ssu, which is open to the general public and it too contains the Twenty-eight Deva; however, the images here have all been made within the past fifteen years, probably replacements for the original images destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and yet again without any signs to indicate that they are anything other than Chinese deities. The fact that all but three were originally Hindu deities brought to China by Buddhism is not explained in temple literature, though the monks un-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214299, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "NATURALIST, AUTHOR, ARTIST, EXPLORER AND EDITOR\n\nAND AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN PRESIDENT\n\nArthur de Carle Sowerby 1885-1954\n\nPresident of the North China Branch\n\nof\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society 1935 - 1940\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\n121\n\nAlthough the lives of many Western expatriates who lived in China and experienced the excitements and horrors of travel and the exoticism of the old civilisation cry out to be recorded, most expatriates lived mundane, cliché-ridden existences, apart from the occasional excitement caused by the troubles and emergencies of the times, brigandage, rioting, and war. They never, or only very rarely, ventured far from their Treaty Port and certainly not into the dark hinterland of China. Should they have ventured anywhere at all, it would have been to hunt or shoot in the immediate area of the Port or go to a nearby beach or classical tourist site, such as Nanking or Soochow. And of all, only a mere handful of those who did venture far afield have left sufficient records to enable a portrait of their life to be disentangled and recorded. Arthur de C. Sowerby was one such venturer.\n\nBefore the centenary of his and his family's fortunate furlough in 1900 passes, I wanted to pay a debt of pleasure to the author and publisher, Arthur Sowerby, on behalf of all those who gained some insight into a China now long departed.\n\nI have unorthodox reasons for taking a special interest in Arthur Sowerby. Beginning some years ago, a train of circumstances led me to him when I bought several unbound second-hand copies of the China Journal published by him and his wife in Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s. I was then drawn by a series of coincidental incidents to the fascinating and exciting period of his life, his early years. Each of these incidents has had some significance to me, ranging from the city of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214300, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "122\n\nhis birth and childhood, and my favourite stamping ground in China Taiyuan, the capital of Shansi province, to his first wife, the daughter of John Mesny, a junior employee of the Chinese Imperial Customs Service, the life of whose elder brother, William Mesny, was the subject of my earlier research [vide.: my paper in the Journal of the RAS HK Branch: Volume 32, 1992]. Sowerby roamed far and wide throughout northern China before serving for a while in France as an officer with the Chinese Labour Corps [vide: my Note on Chinese Labour Corps Graves in England in the Journal of the RAS HK Branch Volume 29, 1989]. He then visited Fukien province and met Caldwell whose book on the Blue Tigers of that province had intrigued me when I was much younger. Finally, I was drawn to Sowerby's life story because he was not only a dedicated member of the North China Branch of the RAS in Shanghai for whom he wrote prolifically and eventually became its President, an honour he held for some five years, 1935-1940 but also because he produced his fascinating bimonthly journal on both everyday and exotic Chinese subjects. Since his death nearly fifty years ago he has faded into insignificance and is forgotten by all but those who happen to come across his books and journals.\n\nArthur Sowerby was an explorer and author who lived through very exciting times, first as the son of a Christian missionary in the Chinese interior at the time of the decline of the Manchu dynasty, through the Revolution of 1911 and the fall of the Manchu dynasty to the War Lord period during which he roamed some of the more remote areas of northern China. This was followed by the crises and struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists, the incursions and eventual full-scale invasion by the Japanese, his incarceration in an internment camp in Shanghai during the Second World War, ending with learning during his latter years in retirement, first in England and then in the United States, of the Communist victory in 1949 and, just before his death, of the Korean War when China sent its \"Volunteers\" to aid the North Koreans against the South Koreans and their allies which included the Americans and British. During the last thirty-five or so years of his life he suffered great pain wracked as he was by arthritis.\n\nIt was said that he could speak Chinese ‘like a Chinese.' There is no reason to doubt this as he must have learned it at his ayah's knee though he appears never to have made any effort to learn to read and write the language. During his life in China, the next forty or so years,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214301, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "123\n\nwhile trekking and living amongst Chinese his Chinese language skills must have been of immense value and probably were the prime reason why he was invited to join several natural history expeditions through northern China.\n\nArthur's father, the Reverend Arthur Sowerby was a missionary in China for forty years, mostly in Taiyuan though during his latter years he was a tutor to the sons of Republican President Yuan Shih-kai [who attempted to mount the imperial throne in 1916].\n\nSowerby was a man of his time. He would have seen the Chinese first, as a child and a young man, from a missionary point of view, “sad heathen souls needing saving,\" later, with the eyes of a traveller and so-called explorer as \"dullards who needed leadership and western civilisation,” and finally, as a businessman and resident in the Foreign Concession of Shanghai, where the Chinese were regarded as \"the Yellow Peril, natives to be kept at a distance, and frequently ridiculed.\" China and the Chinese were popularly denigrated by the Western community and Chinese in general were distrusted. These strongly rooted beliefs reflected nearly a century of western misunderstanding and reaction to Chinese conduct, and shaped the behaviour of Treaty Port Westerners and Britons in particular. However, Sowerby had a redeeming feature as the editor of and a writer for a journal, one of the aims of which was to educate foreigners living on Chinese soil on, amongst other things, Chinese culture,\n\nThe only connection this article has with the Millennium, however tenuous, was the fortunate escape of the Sowerby family, including the fifteen year-old Arthur, from the largest Boxer massacre of missionaries exactly a century ago in 1900. The great majority of Western missionaries in Shansi, many scores, were murdered - with the provincial Governor, Yü Hsien, taking part in the killing of fifty-one Catholic and Protestant missionaries in his yamen, and with a further fifty or so being killed elsewhere in the province. The Sowerbys were lucky enough to be back in England on long furlough at the time and the Reverend Arthur Sowerby who lost many friends and colleagues had the sad task of writing the obituaries of several of them.\n\nArthur was educated at home in Taiyuan and also at a missionary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214350, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "173\n\nTHE DEIFICATION OF HEROES FOLLOWING THE STRUGGLE BY THE VASSAL STATE OF CHOU TO OVERTHROW THE SHANG DYNASTY\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nThe lives of a great number of Chinese historical figures, heroes, worthies, bandits and revolutionaries, sovereigns and commoners over the centuries have become mythologized and the subjects of teashop story tellers. Their deeds and words have been fictionalised, themes known to the majority of Chinese. Some have found their way into religious life and become deified worthies. Many of these tales, ostensibly biographies of deities, are predominantly fantasy wedded with historico-fictional legends, a number of which comprise two or more volumes, others involve an enormous cast of heroes and worthies as well as scores of supernatural characters. Three major historico-legendary tales in particular have coloured popular religion beliefs. These are The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West and The Deification of the Gods. Other works have also been sources of peasant knowledge about individual deities such as The Romance of the Sui-Tang [Sui-Tang Yanyi].\n\nWe are particularly interested here with The Deification of the Gods. [Fengshen Yanyi: a novel also known to foreigners as The Investiture of the Gods]. 'The Feng-shen Yen-i addressed the moral and philosophical question of the origins of the gods and is an unsophisticated version of history describing the overthrow of the dynastic house of Shang by the vassal Zhou which took place some 3,000 years ago, at a mythological time when the \"human\" gods were created. It has an overlay of Buddhism despite this religion in practice not reaching China until some thousand years after the overthrow of the Shang and the establishment of the Zhou and not incorporated into Chinese religious beliefs until the time of Christ. It is the story of the decline of a dynasty, the Shang, with its depraved, dissolute and brutal ruler, under the spell of a beauty, his concubine, leading at first to his ineffective attempts to subdue his vassal Zhou state, and later to the Zhou mustering its forces and allies to attack the Shang and lay siege to its capital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214358, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "181\n\nmay be unremarkable, in Mao's China not all that long ago folk religion was taboo, and even in today's China that they offer such displays of the old deities without blatant propaganda is surprising.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The Feng-shen Yen-i is usually attributed to Hsü Chung-lin who lived during the first half of the 16th century.\n\n2 The mythological gods of the Creation and pre-history are different from the “human” deities, the latter being canonised since the 11th century BC [and, indeed, up to the present day]\n\n3 Confusion between the new dynasty, the Chou and the last ruler of the Shang, Chou Hsin was so general that it became the convention for a while to romanise the name of the last ruler of the Shang as Tsou rather than Chou.\n\nDuke Fa of the Shang vassal state of Chou, the later King Wu [Wu Wang], the first emperor of the Chou dynasty\n\nFilial piety prohibited a son from bearing a higher title than that borne by his father. Should he acquire the throne it was necessary that the title should first be conferred on his father, dead or alive. We therefore hear of names like Wen Wang [the Emperor Wen] and Chou Kung, awarded to his father and brother respectively, these being the titles\n\n6 A mural portraying Duke Chou is one of the panels, together with others depicting Christ, Confucius, Lao Tzu and Mohammed, around the inside of the dome above the main hall of the cult centre temple of the I-kuan Tao at Nan Hua near Tainan.\n\n7 The only image of Pai Chien noted in today's temples is in Havelock Road in Singapore where he is one of the 24 Heavenly Generals.\n\n* The seven, who not long after this became Immortals, free from the cycle of rebirth and death, were:\n\nLi Ching\n\nThe Three Princes, Chin Cha, Mu Cha and Na Cha\n\nYang Chien\n\nWei Hu", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214363, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "187\n\nTEMPLES ARISE\n\nFROM THE ASHES OF REVOLUTION\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nReturning from each of our tours of temples in Mainland China the question most frequently posed is the extent to which religious freedom exists in China? I find this difficult to answer. I have yet to visit an area where we have observed any form of obvious religious discrimination or evidence of current iconoclasm. At the risk of being accused of being a 'blind' observer in a country with a record of political suppression, I know that constraint of religion by the State exists as I have read numerous articles in the Chinese press about Chinese government calls for crackdowns on illegal temples and superstitious practices, but the extent to which these instructions have been carried out has not been apparent during our tours around the countryside. Indeed, there are few signs of religious suppression in any form. In late 1997 we came across a small rural temple in one of the loess canyons some fifteen or so miles north-east of T'aiyüan in Shansi province and were told by one of the villagers that the local Public Security Police had ordered it be pulled down as it was 'a bad element, a manifestation of superstition'. The small modern shrine, constructed some eight years ago, contained just one deity, a very rough and amateurish, modern baked-mud and concrete image of the local protective spirit, Ts'ai T'ai-yeh. The PSB had passed through the village many times during the two years since they issued the order for the destruction of the image; however, the villagers had simply ignored it and even when crowds of visitors drove in by car during the annual festival on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the PSB again had simply turned a blind eye.\n\nChina's constitution theoretically protects the freedom of religion in China with party members being dissuaded from practising. Whilst permissive religion is unquestionably allowed within certain bounds I suspect 'tolerance' should be substituted for the word freedom. The Bureau of Religious Affairs under the State Council in Peking permits the five major organised religions to worship as they wish, within reason. These are Taoism, Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism [known in China as 'Christian'] and Islam. The Bureau does, however, frown on and frequently clamps down on popular religion, [also known as folk religion and even as Taoism by foreigners who have not perceived the difference] and some of the smaller proselytising western", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214445, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 303, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "270\n\nA new military hospital has now been built facing Jordan Road on the site of the old gun shed and the barrack buildings started a new stage in their history when the PLA moved in after the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nNEWSPAPER CUTTINGS (PRO)\n\n\"Horse Lines on the Kowloon Plains Over 100 Years Ago”, Hong Kong Then & Now series, Sept. 16, 1973.\n\n\"Transformation of Sleepy Chatham Road”, Hong Kong Then & Now series, May 5, 1978.\n\n\"Tsimshatsui's Little Portugal\", Hong Kong Then & Now series, Nov. 26, 1978.\n\n\"Healthy Military Sites\" by Colin Crisswell, The Vanishing City series, South China Morning Post, Jan. 1, 1978.\n\n\"An Army Home for Over a Century\", by Neil Pereira, Hong Kong Then & Now series, July 29, 1979.\n\n\"The Street Where You Live” Chatham Road - the End of an Era\", by Kavita Daswani, Dimensions in Living, Nov. 1986.\n\nBOOKS\n\n\"British & Indian Armies on the China Coast 1795 - 1985\", by Alan Harfield, A & J Partnership, 1990\n\n\"The Guns & Gunners of Hong Kong”, by Denis Rollo, The Gunners Roll of Hong Kong, 1992.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214480, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 338, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "307\n\nReport of the Committee of the Shanghai Cricket Club and a Statement of Accounts for 1940. Articles on cricket include, Days of Yore, China Coast Cricket (1922-23), A Brief History of Cricket in Hong Kong, by Peter Hall, written in the 1990s, and Cricket in Shanghai (2 pages). In 1981, Arnold Graham donated a large collection of cricketing books and magazines to the Hong Kong Cricket Association.\n\nIn fact, when Arnold Graham came to play cricket in Hong Kong in 1933, he was married in Saint John's Cathedral and there is a wedding photograph to prove it.\n\nAnother of Arnold Graham's pastimes appears to have been the Garrison Players and, on different occasions, he played the role of both producer and actor. Various plays, mostly with a British ring about them, were staged. These included HMS Pinafore, Trial by Jury, Merrie England (1926) and The Scarlet Pimpernel.\n\nIn the box sent by Arnold Graham's daughter there were also a number of photographs and snaps of places like Hangchow (1932 and 1933) and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank on the Bund. Also included is what could have been a soccer team where all players are Chinese, except for one European. There are also photocopies of pictures of groups of people taken at the Hankow Races in 1888, the Hankow Club in 1934 and 1935, and a picture of the stewards of the Shanghai Paper Hunt Club, season 1926-27. Many of the pastimes, years ago in Shanghai, were similar to those of Europeans in Hong Kong.\n\nArnold Graham also spent much of his spare time with the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, over a period of 13 years, and there is a paper about the socio-military history of the Corps (14 pages). There are photographs of a military tattoo and another of a group of officers, mainly Europeans (one presumes of the Corps), taken in 1937. There is also a large, dark-blue epaulette, which appears to have been cut from a uniform, embroidered with a gold dragon.\n\nHaving had only one home leave in 13 years he managed to persuade his employer to grant him furlough during the Second World War, whereupon he joined the army in New Zealand. For the latter part", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214497, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 355, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "324\n\nthey danced they conspicuously imbibed large quantities of beer and Chinese spirit wines and were showered with water. Although some of the drink was spat out, the dancers' actions became increasingly drunken, with some entering a short-lived trance-like state. After about thirty minutes the dancing concluded with the eating of lettuce, the presentation of _lassie_ and the lighting of a string of firecrackers. The group then set off by van for other markets and fish trading establishments, with the final dance of the morning outside the \"Red Market\" due to be the most drunken of all.\n\nFor much of our knowledge of the Dance Festival, in particular the history and legend, we are indebted to Mrs. Ana Brito, an anthropologist from the Macau Maritime Museum, who as part of her studies on the Festival had interviewed a number of the dancers the year before. Copies of her notes in English, generously supplied to us by Mrs. Brito, show that the Festival was brought to Macau some decades ago from Sek Kei District in nearby Zhongshan County. According to a version of the legend that gave rise to the Drunken Dragon Dance, a certain village had been plagued by a terrible epidemic. In despair the villagers held a procession in Buddha's honour. As the procession was winding its way through the village a dragon in the guise of an enormous serpent arose out of the river. The serpent was killed, hacked into pieces and thrown back into the river, which turned blood red. The villagers drank the water and were miraculously cured.(1)&(2)\n\nLeaving the Dragon to make its way through the Inner Harbour area we left for Coloane Village, where festivities were centred on the Tam Gong Temple on the waterfront. This was heavily decorated and had all the trappings and atmosphere of a well-attended Chinese festival. There were many worshippers, as well as beggars, and clouds of smoke from joss sticks and fireworks. We played our part with Dr Patrick Hase lighting the RAS HK string of firecrackers. Nearby a large matshed had been erected where stars from the Cantonese opera world were soon due to perform.\n\nTowards noon the Tam Gong Festival procession gathered in the Rua da Cordoaria, off the village square, and then made its way through the village to the Temple. This procession was a less spectacular affair than the Tam Gong processions held in Ah Kung Ngam Village, Shaukiwan, Hong Kong, but was equally attractive within its own", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214502, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 360, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "329 \n\nBITS OF BROKEN CHINA: \n\nTHE RAS VISIT TO NORTH-EAST CHINA IN SEARCH OF COLONIAL REMNANTS 15TH TO 21ST OCTOBER 1999 \n\nROBERT NIELD \n\nThat I led a group of 25 people to the Shantung Peninsula and successfully brought 18 of them back to Hong Kong was, I have to say, a major achievement - and one of which I am very proud. \n\nMy part in this trip dates from an earlier RAS China visit, that to Ningpo, Chusan and Dinghai in 1998. Even as long ago as that, the ever-resourceful Geoffrey Roper had already largely planned a visit that would take in an inspection of the remains of German influence in Tsingtao, and of the British presence in Chefoo and Weihaiwei. During the boat trip back to Ningpo from Dinghai I discussed Geoffrey's plans with him, and innocently suggested that it would rather complete the set if the trip also took in the former Russian and Japanese possessions over the water in Dalian and Port Arthur. And there the matter rested. \n\nMany months later, by which time I had totally forgotten my “helpful\" suggestion that torpedoed Geoffrey's careful planning, it came about that he, unfortunately, could not lead the trip himself - and he asked me if I would volunteer for the job. Never having organised anything like this before, and having no idea of what was involved, in my blissful ignorance I said that I would be happy to oblige. \n\n:: \n\nMy job as a professional accountant (a partner in a very large firm, no less!) involves me sitting at the top of an enormous pyramid of very capable and industrious people, such that more often than not completed pieces of work are presented to me for my review. It came as a major shock, therefore, to find out how much work is involved in putting together what, for the people who accompanied me, was hopefully six pleasant and relaxing days exploring interesting places. \n\nI was sure that everything \"would be alright on the night\" - and sure enough, more or less it was. But only with the significant help of \n\nPage 360\n\nPage 361", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214512, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 370, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "339\n\ncucumber. When we asked why we could not have stayed here as well, we were told that \"it would not be appropriate.\" Draw from that what you will.\n\nInstead we stayed at the adequate Pacific Ocean Hotel. Perhaps a better choice would have been the Yantai Marina Hotel on the eastern end of the sea front. This would have been nearer to the Chefoo School and the other main places of interest to us along the seafront.\n\nWeihaiwei - An Uncertain Possession\n\nThe pace never slackened for a minute. The following morning it was “all aboard” for another anachronistic piece of Britishness. On the way to Weihaiwei, about an hour's ride from Yantai, we received a briefing from Carol Tan on the background to Britain's involvement in this piece of territory that was leased by the British from 1898 to 1930.\n\nOne or two of the party, including myself, had been there before. Indeed, Jessie Stewart had lived there as a child in the 1930s. Gillian Sunderland's family had lived here many years ago, and Rowan Callick's grandfather had been a member of the Weihaiwei Masonic Lodge. But none of us had been to Liu Kung Island, the site of the naval base, and so this part of the journey was to be a bit of a challenge - not least for the \"organiser\".\n\nPort Edward\n\nany\n\nWhat we wanted to see in Weihaiwei fell into two areas: remains of the former Port Edward in the city itself and those on Liu Kung Island. Armed with a vast collection of old photographs from the early days of the British tenancy, thanks to Arthur Hacker, we went off in search of what we could find. The most likely area seemed to be the low hill rising at the north end of the bay around which the present-day city is clustered.\n\nUp above the small naval base, set off from the main road by a small garden, is a small but charming bungalow. Was this the former governor's residence? Some controversy here. The majority view was that the building was not grand enough. Perhaps it was the naval", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214517, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 375, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "344\n\nAlthough our Qingdao guide accompanied us throughout the trip, we were met off the ferry in Dalian by another guide - Ying, an expert on the local attractions, although she quickly learned, as had her Qingdao colleague before her, that she was surrounded by a bit more expertise than she found in the average tour group.\n\nYing and Jack, the driver, very quickly learned that her new brood had another difference. She greeted us at the ferry pier by saying: \"I suppose you would all like to go to lunch now?\" This was met by a resounding answer in the negative. Having been jolted about on the boat we were not immediately interested in food.\n\nDalian city tour\n\nInstead we asked for the bus to go round some of the streets in the old Russian quarter. Specifically, we pointed out the photographs in \"Far from Home\" and said that we would like to see those and see them we did.\n\nThe People's Theatre looks a bit more garish these days, and has been turned into a Blackpool-like amusement hall. However, the majority of what we had come to see was there waiting for us, looking as splendid and impressive as we had hoped. Zhongshan Square (the former Great Square of the original Russian plan) still contains all the solid bank buildings from many years ago. All are now Chinese banks, but clearly recognisable are the buildings from all the old photographs. The square also includes one of Dalian's three former Yamato Hotels, now glorying in the name of the Dalian Guest House. Do not be put off by this name, however it is far from being a bed and breakfast in Bognor. The wrought iron canopy leads you into one of the most impressive marble lobbies of any hotel I have seen. Our experience in Yantai leads me to believe that the term \"guest house\" is reserved for the grandest of available accommodation, reserved for the party's great and good.\n\nFor me one of the most distinctly Russian buildings, and one that features prominently in \"Far from Home\", is located just on the far side of the Victory Bridge (rather a practical name - not sure who's victory over whom), on the road leading north-west from Zhongshan Square.\n\nPage 375\n\nPage 376", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214556, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 414, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "383\n\nMONUMENT\n\nTO THE WESTMORELAND REGIMENT THE 55TH REGIMENT OF FOOT\n\nIN\n\nDINGHAI CITY ON ZHOUSHAN ISLAND\n\nKEITH STEVENS AND JENNIFER WELCH\n\nIn October 1998 the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society organised a visit for members to Ningbo [Ningpo] and Zhoushan Island [Chusan Island] off the East coast of China in the archipelago of the same name. The object of the visit to Dinghai, the county capital of the archipelago, was to try and follow the course of the British military campaign there during the First and Second China Wars, the First being the so-called Opium War of 1840-1842 and the Second, the Arrow War of 1856-1860, and see if any monuments to the British victory and subsequent occupation remained. In particular we were looking for the military cemetery and tombstones.\n\nThe Chinese guide who met us in Ningbo and who was to accompany us to Dinghai was most doubtful about our mission. We did not think she was even aware that the British Army had been on Zhoushan 150 years ago. However by the time our ferry docked at Dinghai, maps relating to the campaign, which had been brought along with us, had been studied in detail, together with an account by the Reverend Wright.\n\nIn Dinghai our first call was at the local museum where we collected the Curator. We were most fortunate in that he was interested in the China Wars, and not only knew the accounts - albeit from the Chinese point of view - but was able to lead us to the sites of action, and to the one remaining monument to the British.\n\nDuring the two China Wars Zhoushan had its moments of glory in history after which both conflicts gradually faded from both British national and Chinese local memories. Between the 5th of July 1840 when the city of Dinghai fell before a British attack for the first time, and the 5th of June 1846 when the British restored Zhoushan to the Chinese, the island was ruled twice by the British with its claim to fame as the first Chinese territory ever to be occupied and controlled", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214597, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH\n\n1999/2000 PRESIDENT'S REPORT PRESENTED AT THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY, ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON FRIDAY 24TH MARCH 2000\n\nNo man can know a country who only knows what is happening in it today. Anon.\n\nAs you know the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch (RASHKB) took the 1997 Handover of the Territory, from Britain back to China, in its stride. That Hong Kong has rejoined its Motherland makes little difference to the way our Branch operates. More recently, we have taken a further leap into what most people have come to accept as the New Millennium. This year is also, incidentally, the 40th anniversary since our Branch was reconstituted. Our Branch was first established in Hong Kong in 1847. Unfortunately, it survived only 12 years. It then slumbered for a century and was reconstituted in 1960. Now, moving on into the 21st century means in effect that the RASHKB has played an active part in the local community during three centuries. That is from early British colonial times to the present day when Hong Kong forms a part of the People's Republic of China. Our Society is pleased to have been able to contribute to our community in a variety of ways as this report amply illustrates.\n\nAlthough we are a Royal Society with our head office in London we are at the same time, with branches in several parts of the world, international in character. Together, we share a rich history. Nevertheless our local Branch ploughs its own furrow entirely and we receive no financial assistance from Headquarters. Our Branch is very much part of the Hong Kong scene doing its best to serve the local community, foster goodwill and provide close working relationships between locals and expatriates.\n\nLet us examine various aspects of our Branch's activities since the 1999 Annual General Meeting one year ago. I should emphasise that the Branch has continued to be strong and virile as you will see from the following pages.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214603, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "first time that an RASHKB representative, in this case your President, has been invited to sit on a government committee of this nature.\n\nThe Branch has also been notified by various bodies who were searching for scholars: for instance the Urban Council which was looking for a Hong Kong Researcher(s) to compile a monograph on the history of the Urban Council. We have also received a number of queries from the media, scholars, students and members of the public. Such queries referred mainly to Hong Kong history, culture or customs. We were generally able to answer such enquiries. Subjects ranged from conditions in prisoner-of-war camps under the Japanese; to the retaking of Hong Kong in 1945 after World War Two; to a doctorate student seeking information about Wei Hai Wei. In another case the business house of Swire was trying to find out where the place, Bak Hin Hok, was. This was found to be, thanks to Dr Joseph Ting, a district in Canton as it was so named a century or so ago. In some cases, with such queries, a number of RAS members and considerable time, research and interviews have been necessary.\n\nThe RASHKB Volunteers\n\nThis working group of well over 20 members on roll has, for much of the year, gone off on expeditions every other week or so, to inspect and report on various buildings or sites. These have included such structures as the old Kai Tak Airport, military installations and Chinese shop-houses. There is no doubt that these inspections, which are another form of community service, are of significant value to the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office to whom reports are submitted. We are grateful to all our Volunteers many of whom put in a considerable amount of time and effort which includes research and writing up reports. A special vote of thanks must go to Bill Greaves and Bob Horsnell, both Chartered Surveyors, historians and long-time residents of Hong Kong, who lead our band of stalwart Volunteers.\n\n'Friends' of the RASHKB\n\nThis group of overseas RASHKB members has completed another successful year in Britain and a report, written by David Gilkes (RASHKB Immediate Past President), the 'Friends' Chairman, has been prepared. Your President was pleased to be able to attend their AGM in\n\nxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214630, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "9\n\nof hardship immediately after it.\n\nOne point of considerable interest in the Chan clan Tsuk Po to the history of Nga Tsin Wai is the reference to a village, or district, in the Kowloon area, called Nga Pin Heung, as the residence of the clan from the middle twelfth to the middle sixteenth centuries, and the explicit reference to Chan Chiu-yin as being the first of the clan to settle in Nga Tsin Wai. The only yamen there has ever been in the broader Kowloon area was at or very near Kowloon City, and Nga Pin Heung, since it lay “in Kowloon” must, therefore, be in the wider Kowloon City area. Nga Tsin Wai (7, \"The Walled Village in Front of the Yamen\") could not have taken this name before the walls were built. Nga Pin Heung (AMA, “The Unwalled Village, or District, Beside the Yamen”) sounds very much like what the name of Nga Tsin Wai would have been before the walls were built. This is especially so since the village is not, in fact, in front of the yamen, but beside it, so “Nga Pin” is a more accurate name for the area than \"Nga Tsin\".\n\nThe Kowloon area has two other place names referring to the yamen, that is, Nga Tsin Long Village (, \"The Fields in front of the Yamen\") immediately south of Kowloon City, and the upper end of Ma Tau Wai Village which was known as Nga Yau Tau (H, “The Right-hand Side of the Yamen“). Both are very close to Nga Tsin Wai. If \"Heung\" in Nga Pin Heung means “District\" rather than \"Village\", then all three places may once have stood within the Nga Pin Heung District. In any case, Nga Pin Heung must have been in the immediate vicinity of the yamen, and must either have consisted of Nga Tsin Wai, or else comprised the whole district, including Nga Tsin Wai. When the Chans settled at Nga Pin Heung in the twelfth century, therefore, they must have settled either at, or very near Nga Tsin Wai.\n\nThe Tai Wai villagers have a date for the building of the walls of their village - 1574. They also have a tradition that their village was set out by Lai Po-yi (fi), a famous Fung Shui master. This man had come to the notice of the Tai Wai villagers, the Tai Wai elders informed me, while he was setting out the walls of Nga Tsin Wai, and they invited him to come to set out Tai Wai as soon as he had finished work at Nga Tsin Wai. Since Tai Wai is almost a perfect copy of Nga Tsin Wai, and since these two walled villages differ in detail from most of the other New Territories walled villages, it is very likely that they\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214636, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "15\n\nLing, and at Ma Tau Wai/Ma Tau Chung. The Tsuk Po also give no dates for the branches of the Ng clan settled at Sha Po and Shek Kwu Lung, although it is likely that these broke away from the Nga Tsin Wai main stock late, in the nineteenth century (there were also branches of the Lei clan of Nga Tsin Wai in these two villages, who probably moved there at about the same time as the Ngs).\n\nOver time, so many of the Chans and Leis moved out of Nga Tsin Wai that that village became almost entirely resided in by the Ngs. As of today there are only one or two households left of the Chans and Leis. Even a hundred years ago, the great majority of the Chans had already moved elsewhere, as will be discussed further below, and in the last few decades most of the Leis have left as well. Nonetheless, the Nga Tsin Wai Ngs remain very much aware that their village is a three-clan village, even if two of the clans have declined to a very low percentage. Groups of Tses () and Yungs (the Chinese character for their surname is not known) bought into Nga Tsin Wai late in the last century, but these incomers are in no way to be compared with the Chans and Leis who are, the village elders of today state, “truly our brothers\". The Tses and Yungs eventually sold out and left the area, anyway. The Nga Tsin Wai villagers invite all their clan brethren from Nga Tsin Long, Siu Lek Yuen, Lamma, Tseung Kwan O, and the other Kowloon villages for the Tin Hau Birthday celebrations each year. Most send representatives, to show that they still recognise their relationship with Nga Tsin Wai. This is even more the case with the decennial Ta Tsiu (the “Great Sacrifices\" which bring a community back into conformity with the wishes of the deities), which Nga Tsin Wai and its nearby villages have held every ten years since 1726\".\n\nTopography of the Village Area\n\nThe village as laid out in 1570, and as rebuilt and rehabilitated in 1724, consisted of a rectangular, almost square, walled enclosure (about 60 yards deep by 67 wide) set in the middle of a wide moat (between 30 and 35 feet wide) which surrounded it on all sides, and which could be accessed only over a single narrow causeway leading to the single gate. This gate consisted of two leaves of stout planks, barrable from behind, and with provision for being reinforced across the front by iron bars or stout wooden bars let into housings cut into the jambs and lockable from within the gatehouse. The walls were of good brick, on stone", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214647, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "26\n\nelders of the League of Seven worship her at a temporary altar set up outside the village, facing her altar through the open village gate.\n\nThe deity is thus not taken from her altar for these annual Birthday celebrations: the elders worship her from outside the village, through the open village gate and the open temple door. Once in every ten years, however, the League of Seven holds a Ta Tsiu ritual. On this occasion, the statue of the deity is repainted and dressed in new robes by the Nga Tsin Wai village matrons, behind closed doors, and the matrons then carry her statue out of the temple to a temporary altar in front of the village gate, where the entire League of Seven conducts the Ta Tsiu rituals. The Ta Tsiu is the most important ritual event of the League of Seven. Indeed, since all but Nga Tsin Wai of the League's member villages have been cleared for development - many of them sixty or seventy years ago - it is the Ta Tsiu which alone keeps the League of Seven in being today, and, indeed, it is only the Ta Tsiu which keeps any memory of their ancient village community alive for the displaced descendants of places like Ma Tau Wai and Ta Kwu Ling.\n\nThe Nga Tsin Wai villagers believe the League of Seven was established in 1726, when the Ta Tsiu was held for the first time (at least since the Coastal Evacuation), and this is very likely, although the alliance may well, at that date, have used another name. The 1726 celebration was held after the 1724 rehabilitation of the village was completed. The 1996 celebration was the 28th to be held. Before the other villages were cleared for development, the villages conducted an elaborate procession through all the villages of the League, carrying in procession not only their own Tin Hau, but other statues of Tin Hau as well, from other temples in the area, before the rituals conducted in front of the gateway at Nga Tsin Wai. A photograph of a religious procession, which is likely to be the League of Seven Ta Tsiu procession for 1906, has been published on several occasions.\n\nAlthough they have no part in the League of Seven, Nga Tsin Wai always invites the Ngs, Chans, and Lis who have moved away from Nga Tsin Wai to return for these annual and decennial rituals, since these displaced descent lines are \"still our brothers\".\n\nInter-village alliances were, first and foremost, defence alliances against bandits. The League of Seven was probably established in 1726, when there was no yamen at Kowloon City, and at best only a very", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214683, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "62\n\nmarket clearly grew in the later nineteenth century, but it was already large and prosperous by 1846.\n\n\"The map is the Coastal Map of Kwangtung of 1553 of Ying Ka (MW l), reproduced in Hal Empson, Mapping Hong Kong: A Historical Atlas, Hong Kong, Government Information Services, 1992, Plate 1-2. Kowloon is not included in the list of Markets in the 1688 San On County Gazetteer (at least, not under an easily recognisable name), but both a \"Kwun Fu Village\" (九龍墟) and a “Kowloon Village\" (九龍村) are, as well as Nga Tsin Wai, Po Kong, and Ma Tau Wai Villages. Despite this, however, it seems likely that a market was in existence at Kowloon City from well before the late seventeenth century. The Kowloon City Market is equally not included in the 1819 County Gazetteer, by which date there can be no shadow of a doubt that the market was very well, and very long, established. The earliest surviving land-deeds for the market date from 1751 and 1755, by when, clearly, the market was well-established: see J. Hayes, The Hong Kong Region: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside, Hamden, Connecticut, 1977, p. 235, n. 14. In 1822, when the Hau Wong Temple near the market was restored, 85 shops from Kowloon City Market donated to the restoration, together with 5 (probably apothecaries), 31 quarries (石場), presumably from the surrounding hills, 4 ferryboats and 29 fishing-boats, as well as 8 shops from other markets. Clearly, the market was, in 1822, a vital and very well established place. See D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit. Vol. 1, pp. 75-78.\n\nWE\n\nThe dates of 1354 and 1724 are included on a tablet giving the history of the village placed by the villagers in the Tin Hau Temple in the village. The details of the three founders' connections with the late Sung court are from statements made by village elders to Dr Hayes, and again to me, at various dates.\n\n14 I have used a copy of one of the Nga Tsin Wai hand-written versions (kindly given to me by Mr Ng Hung-on, 吳雄安), the (privately printed) Nga Tsin Wai Wai Clan Genealogy (寶安縣衙前圍吳氏族譜), and the hand-written version from Siu Lek Yuen, a copy of which may be found in the “Historical Literature of Sha Tin\" series in the library of United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\n15 A copy was kindly given me by Mr Chan Wai-hong (陳偉康). This Tsuk Po was produced some years ago, from genealogical information written on the back of the clan Ancestral Tablets.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214707, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "86\n\nstep (Baker; 1981,15).\n\nThe matshed consisted of a light bamboo frame clad with thin metal sheets, which are more fire resistant than the old rattan mats that were used years ago (see Figure 1). A compartment at one end housed four henchmen and their god, called by the villagers Tai Wong Ye, sometimes translated as 'Great Ancient King' (Myers; 1975,19)(see Plate 3). The same god in urban Hong Kong is usually called Daai Si Wong (Baker; 1979,121). Different names for the same god can cause confusion. The matshed faced southeast (feng shui south), in the direction of the Kwan Yin Ancient Temple. The number of Taoist priests taking part in the ceremony inside the matshed, with some arriving late, fluctuated from five to seven. Even priests get caught in traffic jams. There was a small group of musicians in the matshed playing, between them, a trumpet, gongs, cymbals and a small drum. Percussion instruments took pride of place. The matshed also contained dishes of fruit, to be offered up to the gods, and paper offerings. Joss sticks were burned.\n\nThere was a great deal of incantation, much read from a book taken off the altar, and some kneeling. Rice wine was deliberately spilled on the floor in the process of purification and offering it up to the gods. The gods of east (the Green King), south (the Red King), west (the White King), north (the Black King) and centre (the Yellow Emperor) were beseeched, in rising and falling tones, to come down to protect the district in words that were not easy to link together and to understand. The Chinese animal sign of the year is said to represent a direction. There the planet Jupiter is located (Lo; 1992,162). This has important feng shui implications. One should not disturb the earth in this direction. The Taoist priests who perform such ceremonies are often called, in slang, naam moh lo.$\n\nLooking at Figure 2, in the bottom right-hand corner one can see a metal container in which are situated the five bamboo talismans on which, during the ceremony, are written the respective entreaties to the appropriate gods. Also on the crudely framed timber altar (see Figure 2), draped with a red cloth, are bowls of fruit, three cups of tea, three cups of wine and various items used during the ceremony.\" They include a book of chants, a crown worn by the head priest, musical instruments and sticks for the musicians to strike the percussion", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214718, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "97\n\nin tun fu and other religious ceremonies. 'It is not really worth making a fuss about and upsetting the system', seemed to sum it all up.\n\nBut by comparison, even if western women would probably not accept a 'second-class citizen' situation in a similar way, nevertheless it should be remembered that only men are allowed, still, to become Catholic priests. Women have however been accepted, in a number of cases not so long ago, as clerics into the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church. Again showing leanings towards men, even in the West, the Author recalls his 90-year old English mother saying, in the 1980s, \"It's a pity Mrs Thatcher (the then Prime Minister of Britain) isn't a man. People would respect her more.”\n\nWill tun fu die out?\n\nWith the population of Hong Kong expected to reach somewhere in the region of eight-and-a-half million by the year 2010, this can only mean additional new towns and greater urbanisation in the New Territories. Such growth must bring drastic changes in lifestyles as has happened in the past. Western style bars, karaoke and other hostess services are now not uncommon in the Yuen Long and Kam Tin area, signifying the move towards globalisation (Chu; 1999)(Yu; 1999). In addition, what sociological changes will Route Three Highway, the West Rail Link and a possible new town close by bring to the district (Shum; 1996, 41)?\n\nBut in spite of inevitable changes, Sheung Tsuen, where the main Pat Heung tun fu ceremony that the Author attended was held, is still a pleasant, peaceful village. In spite of paddy fields having long disappeared and derelict cars being dumped together with other eyesores, there is still a country atmosphere. The Koel and other birds call from atop camphor and banyan trees. To an observant person, the number of tun fu ceremonies held in the New Territories still does not appear to be exceedingly small. But with the continuing rapid increase in population and concomitant developments, they are likely to become endangered, although the custom is likely to be around, in smaller numbers, for some time to come.\n\nConclusions\n\nTun fu ceremonies are held because a previously quiet area of the countryside and its feng shui are threatened. Perhaps a hill in which the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214765, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "144 \n\nmen start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and \n\ngo back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. \n\nWhat a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up \n\nwith our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214778, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "158\n\nwere approximately 57 rows and 25 columns with 4 digits in each column. On the first two pages, the sequence of digits could be expressed in terms of the numbers 1-26, with a dot being placed either side of a single digit number. On subsequent pages the numbers 10-35 were used which fitted more conveniently into the columns (see Fig. 1). This was a good first indication that this really was a code and not mathematical tables.\n\nBesalon 24/8 3027 14 10 342 ARTZ 1614739\n\nDR3 102\n\nGREENPRM\n\nTOMERATAZOONIZER 197araren\n\n香港仔店收容所\n\n4831 763)\n\nFig. 1: A sample of the coded diary involving the numbers 10-35. Note the column containing four zeros on the last but one line.\n\nGetting Started. A research career in bifurcation theory and chaos is not the best background for tackling a problem in cryptography. However, a code written over 50 years ago and in a prisoner of war camp could not be too sophisticated and, with a little help from a computer, should not be too difficult to crack even for a novice, or so I reasoned.\n\nFirst stop was the University library and I was soon browsing through some old books on cryptography, learning the basic methods. A substitution cipher seemed an obvious method, in which each number represents a letter and it is simply a question of matching each number with the right letter.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214814, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "195\n\nTHE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE RELIGION: MAINLY TAKEN FROM 19TH CENTURY\n\nWRITINGS,\n\nBUT YET RELEVANT FOR CONTEMPORARY HONG KONG\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nIntroduction\n\nSome years ago, when preparing material for my book Tsuen Wan: Growth of a 'New Town' and its People (Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1993), I spent a lot of time compiling a statement on Chinese religion as it was seen and practised at the local level. This material was drawn from my readings in a variety of sources, coupled with my own observations on the subject in over thirty years' residence in Hong Kong.\n\nThe writings of the leading missionaries to China, mostly Protestant and from the late 19th century, were especially helpful. Their keen interest and first-hand experience enabled them to make statements that are as vivid and illuminating as when they were penned, and notwithstanding vastly changed times, are still useful and often valid today, owing to the lingering influence of old ways of thought and deed among the Hong Kong population. Other writers, including eminent Chinese scholars, provided complementary information for the text and in the notes attached to it.\n\nReading through this material again, and notwithstanding the immense amount of published writings on every aspect of this huge topic, it has yet seemed to me that others may get as much enlightenment (and enjoyment) from reading this compilation as I did from its production, and since it could not be used in the Tsuen Wan book, I offer it here, hoping that it may prove useful to readers of our Journal.\n\nPART ONE\n\nWorship and Teaching in Chinese Religion\n\nAs is well known, the three main religions of China are Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.1 Each derived from the lives", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214822, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "203\n\nis result-oriented, clients either multiply or fall away. The more \"miracles\" a god is perceived to have worked, now or in the past, the more popular he or she becomes with the public. Money flows like water to that temple, enabling major reconstructions that can double its size and more. Where there are no miracles, and results cease to flow from that image or shrine, the disappointed, discontented supplicants turn their attention elsewhere. I have frequently come across this attitude in the local temples, among worshippers and temple keepers alike, and it is apparently one of very long standing.\n\n25\n\nThis capacity to discard as well as acquire gods, is due to the very pragmatic attitude adopted by the people. It has been styled the \"shopping approach\" towards religion and the deities because it is so deeply grounded in expectation and its continuation is so much dependent upon results.26 In line with this approach, frustrated devotees sometimes took their disappointment and dissatisfaction a step further. Especially in crises, gods who failed to protect were not only abandoned but sometimes harshly treated. Whilst this phenomenon had been noted by many Protestant missionaries in 19th century China, the practice was observed long before that time. In 1583, the most famous of all Roman Catholic missionaries to China, Father Matteo Ricci, had written that “when these [idols] do not grant them what they [the people] desire, they beat them hard and make peace again with them later on.”??\n\nMany Gods in the Chinese Pantheon\n\nFrom the foregoing, it will scarcely come as a surprise to learn that the gods were legion. The pantheons of both Buddhism and especially Taoism have shown over many centuries the extreme creativity of the Chinese people in the matter of finding extra deities to worship. Over a century ago, Rev. Hampden Du Bose, \"for Fourteen Years a Missionary at Soochow,\" described the very wide range of gods adopted by different professions and groups in the late 19th century.\n\n28 There has, in addition, always been a strong impulse to seek assistance and protection from any new deity or spirit which appeared to have miraculous powers, and this is far from being dead to-day.29", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214823, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 238, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "204\n\nEarth Gods and Tree Spirits\n\nBesides the gods of Buddhism and Taoism worshipped in the village temples, there were also the gods of each locality. In the villages of the Hong Kong Region, in addition to whatever temples had been erected to the deities, it was usual for there to be several earth gods in each village, and in each of the streets in the local market centres. These animistic spirits were equally sought out by the village people.30 Besides the regular acts of worship performed at the shrines, with their supplications and thanksgivings, it was common practice to place children, especially boys, under the protection of a temple deity, an earth god or a tree spirit during the uncertain years of childhood, in order to secure protection against the many dangers that beset young lives. If a tree died or had to be felled, the protégés were transferred to another protector, with the appropriate ceremonies of disengagement (recognition of and thanksgiving for favours bestowed) and adoption at each place.31 Either Buddhist or Taoist priests were required for such rituals.\n\n31\n\nChinese Women and Religion\n\nFinally, it should be noted that Chinese women are considered to be more religious than their menfolk. As Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison's biographer observed in the last century:\n\n46\n\n'...their nature is much more religious than that of the men...it is they who visit the temples. The incense pots which smoulder before the placid countenance of Buddha are filled and kindled by them; they burn ten sheets of paper to the men's one....The men can do without worship, the women cannot.”32\n\nFrom my observations in Hong Kong and elsewhere, I believe this to be as true of today's worshippers as when it was written one hundred years ago.\n\nNOTES\n\nWilliam Frederick Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1874) called them \"The Three systems of Doctrine (or Religion)\" and stated that they “constitute the recognized systems of religion,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214838, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "220\n\n[Chusan]: \"We have allowed people to take away their property and then follow after it,\" he complained. \"So here we are, having captured a large and wealthy town in a deserted place, and unable to get for our money even a little tea, sugar or common oil of the coarsest quality; and we cannot get a labourer to work for us out of the thousands that were here a month ago. I presume such a thing was never before heard of in the annals of war.\"34\n\nKidnapping and the Maltreatment of Prisoners\n\nOne feature of War as waged by the Chinese was deprecated in the strongest terms. This was what they saw as the despicable and underhand practice of kidnapping and killing unwary soldiers and camp followers. Lieutenant Oughterlony styles it “a system of warfare, if the term may be so applied, so repugnant to the feelings of civilized nations.”35 It was especially so for those whose friends were its objects.\n\nWriting to his sister, Lieutenant Orlando Bridgeman of the 98th Regiment, recounted a near successful attempt near camp in Chusan upon two brother officers who had unthinkingly gone too far into the country. What \"pity\" he felt for the Chinese on account of their heavy losses in battle was now lost, he said, \"since they proved so dreadfully treacherous\" with their kidnapping on Chusan.36 It was the same at Ningpo. As many as 40 men were abducted in the later stages of its occupation, by means of offering them the potent native liquor and women.37\n\nNeither were civilians to be spared. W. C. Milne, the missionary referred to above, was afterwards told that he himself had been the subject of such a plan in the spring of 1842, and in recounting this added that, “If I mistake not, it was (and I may add is now) the only effective plan the Chinese adopted for annoying their foreign aggressors.\"38 Ouchterlony, too, styled it \"an effectual method of annoyance.\"\n\n1139\n\nIndeed, kidnapping had been official policy since the early period of the War, encouraged by a widely distributed placard and a published scale of monetary rewards, beginning with the Plenipotentiary himself, Captain Elliot.40\n\nThe harsh and inhumane treatment, and worse, inflicted by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214843, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 258, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "225\n\nNOTES\n\nNot all the materials for this study are available in Sydney libraries, and I have been obliged to take extracts from secondary sources where it has not been possible to consult the originals.\n\n2 William C. Milne, Life in China (London, Routledge, Warnes & Routledge, New Edition, 1859), p. 1.\n\n3 Davis had been a long-serving member of the Honourable East India Committee's Select Committee at Canton, and was a skilled linguist and translator.\n\n5 Sir John himself provided a light-hearted anecdote in the Introduction to a revised and augmented edition of another of his books, The Poetry of the Chinese, published in 1870. This tells its own story. \"When this Treatise was first printed (now more than forty years ago), with types brought from China, in the quarto Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, the foreign [i.e. Chinese written] character was so little known in England, that Lord Palmerston, with his usual pleasantry, said he took it 'at first sight for a work on Entomology'.\" (Sir John Francis Davis, The Poetry of the Chinese (Paragon Book Reprint Corp. New York, 1969 of the original, London 1870, p.v)\n\nConcerning the Chinese statecraft reformer Wei Yuan, Jane Kate Leonard comments, \"Never for a moment did he conceive of the West as a new and unique center of culture and civilization in any sense comparable with China\": in Wei Yuan and China's Rediscovery of the Maritime World (Harvard University Press, 1984), pp.3-4.\n\n6 George Henry Mason, The Costume of the Chinese (London, William Miller, 1804), preface.\n\n7 \"An Observer\" in Vol II of this publication, p.111.\n\n8 Lieutenant John Ouchterlony, The Chinese War: An Account of All the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking (London, Saunders and Otley, 1844), p.37.\n\n9 Ouchterlony, pp.37-8.\n\n10 Wyndham Baker wrote home: \"I have read every work I can get hold of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214853, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "236\n\nThese symposia were mostly held in the gracious old Hong Kong Club building, completed in 1897, which had a wonderful ambience. I fell in love with its splendid Victorian lavatories which, believe it or not, still actually flushed. In 1954 in England, a septuagenarian surveyor, Harold Palmer, said to me:\n\n'When you get to Hong Kong, Dan, see if some of the buildings designed by my architect grandfather, Clement Palmer, are still standing.'\n\nI reported back after I arrived here that the old Hong Kong Club building was still basking in its glory. Sadly, it was demolished in 1981. There, before World War Two, you had four waiters for a table of four guests. A fifth 'senior' waiter oversaw the four waiters.\n\nAn RAS member who lived in Hong Kong for approaching 30 years wrote a couple of years or so ago from his home in England:\n\n'No, I do not miss the present-day Hong Kong one little bit. But I do miss the Hong Kong of the 1950s and '60s.'\n\nTo what degree does nostalgia creep in? Let us take a wander down memory lane. What was the Colony really like when our Branch was re-constituted in 1960?\n\nOur first Patron was the then Governor, the late Sir Robert Brown Black, and he honoured us by chairing one of our RAS meetings. In his South China Morning Post obituary, on 7 November 1999, the heading read, 'Farewell to “Golden Days” Governor'.\n\nA few months before he left Hong Kong, in 1964, a petition signed by many Chinese was delivered to the Colonial Secretariat to try to get the 'powers-that-were', in Britain at the time, to grant Sir Robert an extension.\n\nA similar request for an extension had also been submitted in the case of his predecessor, Sir Alexander Grantham, Governor from 1947 to 1957, one of Hong Kong's early post-World War Two 'architects'. But certainly, in those days, everything was not rosy. After 1949 we had our 'backs to the wall' and entrepot trade with China had ceased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214858, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 273, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "241\n\nOur speakers today have had considerable personal experience in the real world of Hong Kong, sometimes including in obscure fields. They are not speaking from secondary sources. They are certainly not lacking in enthusiasm. Whether it is the lifestyle of expatriates 40 years ago or the day-to-day lives of Chinese New Territories village residents; various aspects need to be recorded before they vanish without trace.\n\nOne of the jobs of the RAS is to add to the bank of knowledge that already exists. There is, of course, always the danger that oral history can be distorted, often unintentionally. Allowances may have to be made.\n\nThe early days in Hong Kong when our Branch was reconstituted are fascinating to recall. I could go on much longer. But all I am supposed to do is to open this Conference. In fact, I have already carried on for far too long but I just could not resist the opportunity. I am delighted now to declare that this Conference has been well and truly opened!\n\nI now have great pleasure in handing you over to my good friends and fellow council members to give you the benefit of their profound knowledge.\n\nAnd so, on with the conference!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214861, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 276, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "244\n\nA MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT\n\nTo everyone attending this Conference, a very warm welcome. That includes RAS members, staff of the Hong Kong Museum of History as well as members of the general public.\n\nWay back in 1960, when our Branch was reconstituted, with a little stretch of the imagination, one can visualize RAS founding members standing in a group singing the refrain: Forty Years on when afar and asunder parted are those who are singing today ... Well the irony of it all now is that those 40 years are well and truly behind us.\n\nIf one checks the membership list at the back of Volume One (1960-61) of our Journal, although a mere handful of those founding members are still living in Hong Kong, most are decidedly ‘afar and asunder'. Virtually no one who joined our Society 40 years ago, sadly, still plays an active part in it today. Anno Domini has taken its toll.\n\nOn a lighter note Rudyard Kipling wrote:\n\nYour glazing is new and your plumbing's strange But otherwise I perceive no change.\n\nThose immortal words, one feels in one's bones, could almost have been written about the RAS. Certainly much of our educational technology is new and web sites and e-mail are beyond the ken and 'strange' to some of our vintage members. But basically many of our activities, such as visits and lectures, are conducted in much the same way as they were in 1960. Why have there been so few changes?\n\nTo a great extent it is because, although we did receive a handful of caustic comments as a result of the questionnaire we circulated in September 2000, by far the majority of our members are very satisfied with the activities of our Branch. Most want things to remain more or less as they are. There is no doubt demand and scope for a society such as ours to continue to serve the Hong Kong community.\n\nNonetheless we do, naturally, need to keep our ear to the ground. With advancing years, if changes are desirable, then we should make them. Consequently, as a result of the RAS questionnaire, we shall feel", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214865, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 280, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "248\n\nCongratulatory Speech to be delivered by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department Representative at the Conference jointly presented by Leisure and Cultural Services Department and \n\nRAS 9 December 2000 \n\nDr Waters, Dr Sinn, ladies and gentlemen, \n\nI am greatly honoured to speak at this conference jointly presented by the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. I am also most delighted to celebrate with you the 40th anniversary of the Society's reconstitution. \n\nIn the Analects of Confucius, the master said \"At thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts.\" Stepping into the age of forty, the Royal Asiatic Society is no doubt a well-established cultural organization. I would like to express my deepest appreciation of the Society's great contribution in the promotion of the public's interest in and appreciation of Hong Kong's culture and heritage in the past few decades. \n\nWith its roots dating back to some 150 years, the Royal Asiatic Society is the oldest learned society in Hong Kong enjoying a very high academic status. Since its reconstitution in 1960, the Society has witnessed the remarkable growth of Hong Kong. It has also been playing a leading role in promoting the study of Hong Kong's history and culture through the organization of lectures and field trips as well as publications of high academic standard. It provides a very good channel for the people of Hong Kong, the expatriate community in particular, to acquire a better understanding of the arts, history, culture and customs of the territory. Nowadays, cultural tourism is much talked about all over the world. However, it is in fact nothing new, as the Society has been the prime mover of cultural tourism in Hong Kong since decades ago. \n\nAlthough the Leisure and Cultural Services Department is a relatively new government department, the Museum of History, Heritage Museum, and the Antiquities and Monuments Office now put under the Department already have a long and close relationship with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214867, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 282, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "250\n\nForty Years ago\n\n'What should we set out to achieve?' The opening address at the Conference by the President, Dr Dan Waters (photograph courtesy Hong Kong Museum of History).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214876, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "261\n\nA TORN SCRAP OF PAPER: RELATING TO A MONEY LOAN ASSOCIATION, SMALL LOANS, OR WHAT?\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThe torn scrap of paper shown at Plate 1 was found between the leaves of a Chinese book bought some time ago from a second-hand dealer in Hong Kong.\n\nMeasuring only 3\" by 2\", it was probably incomplete, yet someone had kept it as a record.\n\nIt contained seven names and seven amounts, but one of the names had been scored out.\n\nReading from the right, a translation of the characters and amounts, as given in the Cantonese rendering which I believe to be appropriate, runs as follows:\n\nYip Tung 10 cents; Yeung Tai 7 cents; Ah Yee 8 cents; Seng Ho 13 cents; Seng Chan 16 cents; Name crossed out 7 cents.\n\nThe currency being used, singly or in combination, for the accounts was the sin, a one-cent coin, and the ho, a ten-cent coin. The first can be found in Rev. W. Lobscheid's An English and Chinese Dictionary, revised and enlarged Japanese edition, Tokio, J. Fujimoto, 16th year of Meiji [1884], p. 220. The second appears on p. 162 of Ernest John Eitel's A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect (London, Trubner & Co. and Hongkong, Lane, Crawford & Co., 1877) p. 162. Lobscheid's dictionary was originally published in Hong Kong in 1868, but to date, this author has never seen a copy of the original edition.\n\nFor the sake of clarity, the renderings made in translation are given uniformly in cents, instead of variously in the two different units used in the original.\n\nI believe these coins were Hong Kong currency, but the date of their introduction is not known to me. However, it could not have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214898, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 313, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "287\n\nfive, offshore islets but, due to silting up over the years, they became part of the mainland. Mysterious caves within the mountain shelter altars dedicated to Buddha, different gods and genies based upon popular beliefs held by the area's inhabitants. Today, these caves still serve as religious sanctuaries. The mountains are also a valuable source of red, white and blue-green marble. At the foot of the mountains, skilful marble carvers create a great variety of objets d'arts.\n\nOur fifth day was spent in Hoi An. About 15 miles southeast of Danang, this charming old town was once a flourishing port and meeting place of eastern and western cultures in central Dai Viet under the Nguyen lords. Hoi An was originally a seaport in the Champa Kingdom; by the 15th century it had become a coastal Vietnamese town under the Tran Dynasty. In the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese came to explore the coast of Hoi An. They were followed by the first western traders in the area. Then came the Chinese, the Japanese, the Dutch, the British and the French. In the early 1980s, UNESCO and the Polish Government took the initiative and funded a restoration program to classify and safeguard Hoi An's ancient quarters and historic monuments. The old town area borders the Thu Bon River to the South of the town. Le Loi Street was the first street to be built, about four centuries ago. The Japanese quarter with its covered bridge, Japanese style shops and houses followed half a century later, then came the Cantonese quarter a further 50 years later still.\n\nHoi An's ancient past is superbly preserved in its architecture. The old quarter is a fascinating blend of temples, pagodas, community houses, shrines, clan houses, shop houses and homes. One of the most remarkable historical architectural examples is the Japanese covered Bridge. Built by the Japanese community in the 17th century, the bridge's curved shape and undulating green and yellow tiled roof give the impression of moving water. Some pagodas and 20 Chinese clan houses stand in the centre of the ancient town. The clan house has been the meeting place for many generations of the same clan. Here they recall their origins and worship their ancestors. The Chinese migrant community built most of the temples and houses here over a span of 40 years, between 1845 and 1885.\n\nThe most characteristic examples of Hoi An's architecture are the old houses along Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. These elongated houses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214902, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 317, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "293\n\nBOOK REVIEW\n\nGillian Bickley (2201), Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare, with a foreword by Arthur Gomes, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 303 pages.\n\nA97NIGHTMARE\n\nIn 1897, a series of anonymous articles appeared in the China Mail. Together they constituted a story entitled The Back Door. This was a fictional account of a successful invasion of Hong Kong by the combined forces of fin-de-siècle aggressors, France and Russia. The inference is that the author was perturbed that Hong Kong's defences at the time were inadequate and so, in an attempt to galvanise the authorities, wrote this \"wake up call.\" Copies of the story ultimately found their way to Whitehall in London.\n\nGillian Bickley\n\nAs the title of the story infers, the superior invading forces entered Hong Kong by way of the south side of Hong Kong Island. There was the bloody Battle of Deepwater Bay, fought in \"the jungle\" around the Golf Club and on the beach. There was shelling of the Peak from the sea and the sea battle of Sulphur Channel. Matters neared their end when the enemy captured the Kowloon Forts and the dynamite and gunpowder stored on Stonecutters' Island were fired. At the last stand, on Stonecutters', the defenders were ultimately annihilated.\n\nThe Back Door evidently arose from the same anxiety that drove Britain's negotiations with China; concluded in 1898 when China granted the ninety-nine year lease of the New Territories, which Britain had requested as a protective buffer against attack.\n\nGillian Bickley discovered a copy of this story some years ago and it evidently fired her imagination, probably because as we all know, Hong Kong was invaded on 8th December, 1941, by the Japanese - also by superior forces - and ultimately capitulated on Christmas day. The Japanese, however, entered Hong Kong from the north, through the New Territories. Had the Japanese, she wonders, read The Back Door?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214925, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 21, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "that it contains a considerable pool of talent, but we also appreciate that some people like to be invited before they are prepared to step forward.\n\nProjects and other activities\n\nWe do, as readers appreciate, undertake various projects and receive enquiries from around the world about local history and the like, where sometimes the specific answers do not appear as important as the quests to find them. During the year under review we received interesting information from old soldiers in Britain about searchlights used in pre-World War Two Hong Kong. This information was passed on to Comendador Arthur Gomes of the Hong Kong Prisoners of War Association for publication in their Monthly Newsletter.\n\nWe also received an enquiry from Mr. Kenneth Evans, in England, about his ancestors who lived both in China and in Hong Kong. One of these was Thomas Child Hayllar KC, Attorney General, who at one stage was embroiled in a dispute with Governor Pope-Hennessy. This has been well documented. For our efforts, Mr. Evans made a small donation to our Branch. This appears to be the first time the HKBRAS has been 'paid' for undertaking research. We also received an enquiry from a Dr Hansell in Bath, UK, who had bought a 19th century clock which had been made by Douglas Lapraik, in Hong Kong. Information was requested about the latter gentleman who started his working life as a clockmaker and died a shipping magnate. The information requested was duly supplied.\n\nThe RAS/AMO Volunteers\n\nThe working group of 20 plus RAS volunteers has continued to make a meaningful contribution to the conservation of heritage by assisting the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office. Most of the visits have taken place on Saturdays and this year they have included such places as villas in Kowloon Tong and excavations at Tai Fu Tai in San Tin. The more energetic members have then been called upon to undertake follow-up research, to write reports and make recommendations. We are grateful to all our steadfast volunteers and if anyone else would like to join them, especially those with a sound knowledge of local building or local history, they would be welcome. We also need more members who can read Chinese. As always a special\n\nPage XX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214934, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "The above activities need arranging and it is good to report that the well-known discerning committee members, whose addresses, telephone numbers and e-mails are attached, play a vital part in bringing us all together. There have been two changes in the committee since last year. Mrs. Julie Barry has decided that she can no longer continue as treasurer and membership secretary. Julie was very instrumental in helping to set up the Friends three years ago and for this we are very grateful. Mr. Roger Chandler has bravely taken on this mantle. The Friends have not in the past had an official secretary and it is a pleasure that Mr. Paul Boulding has been persuaded to do this. No report, however, can be complete without recording the Friends' sincere thanks to Mrs. Rosemary Lee and Mrs. Anita Wilson for the way they help to arrange activities and prepare the newsletter.\n\nThe future of the Friends looks promising. Financially we are in the black and we number at present around 70 members. We would number more if all paid their annual subscription! In the more immediate future, there is still the possibility of visiting Chinese war graves in Northern France. We also look forward to our own annual general meeting on 26 May at SOAS when we will have the opportunity of having a talk by Mr. Anthony Lawrence, who needs little introduction to all members and friends. In the summer we will be fortunate to have Dr. Patrick Hase to lead us on an expedition to the South Coast area based around Salisbury where there are reported to be considerable number of Chinese agricultural implements in the (Salisbury) museum. If any Hong Kong members are in the U.K. for any of these events do please get in touch with any member of the committee and join us.\n\nI cannot close this report without a note of sincere regret on the standing down of our President Dr. Dan Waters. The society has flourished to greater heights and influence, and from the U.K. we can only admire what he has been able to achieve through his own expertise. We wish him all the best in his \"retirement.\" At the same time we welcome his successor, Dr. Patrick Hase, and are confident that the society will continue to be in good hands.\n\nDAVID GILKES, Chairman\n\n28 February 2001\n\nxxix\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214948, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "procedures and closer monitoring of overdue items. In August 2000, we were informed by City Hall Public Library that there were 26 long overdue books. Some of these outstanding items were borrowed as long ago as 1985. This raised the question of why we were not notified sooner so that prompt action could have been taken. It has been difficult to trace the missing items since some of the borrowers had already left Hong Kong and some could not be found. One member had shipped some borrowed books to England but promised to bring them back on his next trip to Hong Kong. City Hall Public Library has agreed to tighten up their loan system. Council members have also put great effort into contacting delinquent borrowers. To date, there are still 11 books outstanding. We will continue effort to trace them.\n\nThe proposal to set up an exhibition and seminar on the old library of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch with the new Hong Kong Central Library to coincide with its opening was postponed. Ms. Julia Chan (Hon. Librarian), Mr. Michael Mak (Assistant Director, Libraries & Development, Leisure & Cultural Services Department) and Ms. Alima Tuet (Chief Librarian, Hong Kong Central Library & Hong Kong) visited the Shanghai Library in May 2000 and found that books of the old library were still packed in boxes. These books cannot be inspected until the Shanghai building where they are housed is renovated in a year's time.\n\nAs part of the digital initiative, HKU Libraries will be creating a database of scholarly journals published in Hong Kong. When accomplished, the database will be open to public access on the World Wide Web to provide convenient access to resources on Hong Kong and facilitate research on Hong Kong and China studies. RAS was approached in respect of this project. Since there is copyright concern, the Council agreed that all the tables of contents but only selected articles with copyright clearance from their authors would be digitised for the database. The HKBRAS Journal was the first journal to be digitised. The scanning process has been completed and the contents have been posted on the Web. There are still some technicalities to be resolved. This database allows browsing of the table of contents and keyword searching of the articles. Full text of the articles will be displayed clearance has been obtained. Since this database can be accessed worldwide, it will greatly help to publicise the Society and its Journal.\n\nxliii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214960, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "11\n\ncrisis, wrote in his diary: 'A fine day: wrote couplets on fans.'\n\nLin's letter drafted to Queen Victoria was a noble and convincing message. In it he points out that opium is forbidden in England and therefore the English know its harmful effects. 'As long as you do not take it yourselves but continue to make it and tempt the people of China to buy it, you will be showing yourselves careful of your own lives but careless of the lives of other people....such conduct is repugnant to human feeling and at variance with the Way of Heaven.' He further writes: 'Rather than waste your efforts on a hopeless endeavour, would it not be better to devise some other form of trade?' (author's italics); surely a hint that trade relations without opium could perhaps be established. Unfortunately the letter was never sent. One can only speculate what might have happened if the young Queen, barely two years on the throne, had received this letter.\n\nLin reminded the foreign traders that they were allowed to trade as a favour, because China was completely self-sufficient, while the foreigners, especially the British, could not live without tea and rhubarb. The belief was widely held in China that the English would die of constipation if they were deprived of rhubarb.' Lin later modified his statement omitting rhubarb but leaving tea as an absolute necessity' (author's italics). The existing opium stocks in the factories were surrendered and destroyed (in salt and lime; not burned as sometimes stated), and for a while it seemed as if Commissioner Lin might succeed in his task, but the confrontation led to an armed conflict, known as the First Opium War (1839-1842), in which the Chinese with their antiquated methods of warfare and ineffective weapons were defeated on land and at sea. It was ‘A conflict between ignorant weakness and conscious strength. It ended in the Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking), by which terms China opened to foreigners the five ports of Guangzhou (Canton), Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou (Foochow), Ningbo (Ningpo), and Shanghai as Treaty Ports, where they might reside and trade; an indemnity of 21 million dollars was exacted, and the Island of Hong Kong was ceded in perpetuity to Britain. For China the war was a disaster and humiliation, the last vestiges of which were erased only a short time ago when Hong Kong was returned, in 1997, to its homeland. By contrast, Queen Victoria referred to the war in flippant tones. Writing to her uncle, the King of Belgium, in 1841, she states:- 'The Chinese business vexes us much, and Palmerston is deeply mortified at it. All", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215076, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "129\n\nday no one should take a bath or bury the dead. However, on another it might be an auspicious day for a head shave but a bad day for starting the construction of a house. It was referred to by Couling in his Encyclopaedia Sinica as the Calendar of Superstitions. It does not take much imagination to realize that such a calendar has to be accurate as every movement of the stars influences human destiny, from birth to death, through marriage, travel and business and any error in calculating the calendar would make the whole meaningless.\n\nSince remote antiquity Chinese have recorded each individual year by pairs of characters. These are a combination taken from two sets, one of twelve characters and the other of ten, producing a cycle of sixty pairs, with the individual pairs identifying the year of an event or the age of a person. The sixty-year cycles consist of sixty possible combinations of individual characters, one from the ten stems [tiangan] and the other from the twelve branches [dizhi]; beginning with the first of the branches, Jia, and the first of the stems, Zi, together forming a combination for the first year of the sixty, Jia Zi. Each successive year has another pair designating it for the whole sexagenary cycle when the combination begins again. The \"branches\" were originally used to designate successive days; however, since the Han they have been used in combinations for successive years. A second separate system used reign periods to mark events.\n\nAlso within that sixty year repetitive cycle each individual year, with the five sequences of twelve years, was known, not only by the combination of stem and branch but also, for simplicity, by the animal of the year. Thus, the year 2000 is the Gengchen year as well as being the year of the Dragon. 1988 was and 2012 will also be the year of the Dragon but neither will be Gengchen years as this only comes round once every sixty years. For example, the Gengchen year 1940 was sixty years earlier than the Gengchen year 2000 with the next Gengchen year being 2060. Sixty years of age, a full cycle, used to be regarded as a good old age, and any years of life thereafter were regarded as a blessing and a bonus.\n\nShould the average Chinese be asked about a specific happening in the past he would reply that it happened 'several moons [months] ago,' or 'several years ago,' and often when discussing historical happenings the response would be a round figure of a thousand or two", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215077, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "130\n\nthousand or more years ago even if it had taken place either comparatively recently or a millennium ago. Again, various broad-brush replies to such questions might be 'during the Ming, Song or Tang' meaning simply a long, long time ago and again usually without any factual basis for such an assertion.\n\nThis highlights one of the problems which beset Chinese who tried to count the years between two events spaced many decades apart was that they did not have a continuous calendar as we do in the West. This created the problem of calculating intervals between two dated events when each of those dates involved a specific year in the reign of an emperor's reign. To do this one had to know in correct sequence not only each dynasty but also each emperor within each dynasty, and for how long the reigns lasted. Thus it was that the man-in-the-street might perhaps know which dynasty succeeded which but to expect them to know the length of each and to calculate the elapsed time, was more than one could possibly expect. Therefore to them events were regarded as 'a long time ago,' 'before the Ming,' or 'over a thousand years ago' when in practice the elapsed time might be no more than two to three hundred years.\n\nBefore the 1911 and the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the four annual markers considered most important were the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. The twelve months of the year were divided into twenty-four solar periods, each of which corresponded to the day on which the sun enters the first and fifteenth degree of the zodiacal sign. The 24 fifteen-day solar periods [known as jie - 'joints'] are referred to by meteorological terms, such as the Great Rain, Slight Snow, Great Heat and Lesser Heat, and the Excited Insects, the latter being the day best known by foreigners for its fanciful name. This last solar period is from March 5th to March 20th and, so children are told, if on the 5th of March you put your ear to the ground you can hear the insects stirring, even ‘marching,' after their winter hibernation. A number of the tall temple entrance doors in Taiwan bear paintings of the deities ruling each of the 24 solar periods, with each portrayed standing on clouds and with commonly accepted characteristics. These include, for example, the Dragon King for the Great Rain and the Tall White Demon for Qing Ming. These periods were the 24 seasonal energies providing a meteorological cycle of great value for the regulation of certain chronological dates, or periods in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215109, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "162\n\nthe altar and the altar table is a typical temple offertory box into which devotees have thrust cash offerings [Photograph 3],\n\nBoth the sad emperor Tang Ming Huang and his putative doctor, Lei Haijing, are both popular religion cult deities revered particularly in Fujian communities. Images vary from temple to temple, all being standard scholar-official figures with none having any special attribute or feature\n\nSome believe that Lei Haijing, commonly referred to as Marshal Tian Dou, (Tian Dou Yuanshuai), when his image is on an altar, was a doctor who accompanied 'the Emperor in the West' during his flight. After Lei died during the emperor's escape to Sichuan province his spirit remained on, guarding and protecting the emperor who\n\nSaw and recognised the two characters 'Tian Dou' of his protector floating in the air. And once he had arrived in the relative safety of Sichuan the emperor created Lei Haijing - Marshal Tian Dou.\n\nOthers claim that Lei was a musician popularly referred to a thousand or more years ago in Fujian as the 'Marshal'. Lei Haijing is another patron of actors, but predominantly from southern Fukienese communities. There are two Marshals Tian Dou revered on altars within Fukienese communities, with their legends so enmeshed that they virtually become one and the same deity.\n\nIn the most commonly repeated legend Tian Dou was a young prince named Lei Haijing, whose age has varied from ten to his mid-twenties. He lived in Fujian province where he was obsessively keen on practical jokes and opera. As a twenty-year old he lived for pleasure and one day having used his position and rank to force a married woman spend the night with him woke to find that she had painted a crab around his mouth in indelible ink, some say to punish him, others to ensure that his lasciviousness received wide publicity. The prince got away with it the first time by telling his friends that he had painted the crab on his mouth for amateur theatricals; however, when he forced her yet again to spend the night with him she painted another crab on his forehead which this time he was unable to explain away. Another version claims that he slept with a young girl who as a joke painted the crab around his mouth whilst he slept and again, several nights later, as he had been so annoyed at the first joke she drew one on his forehead", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215144, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "198\n\nNo.26, which, during the early 1980s had a marvelous garden presided over by Mrs. Heddenstett, a keen cook who grew every imaginable type of herb.\n\nSedan chairs were, of course, the method of transport, in the 1930s on these roads, and photograph No. 4 shows the handlers taking a rest, with a bare Kowloon in the background. The text reads: \"The chairs are comfortable, the springy movement imparted by the bamboo poles, so long and flexible, is delightful, and the steady, almost automatic stride of the men inspires confidence in their ability to bear us safely to the topmost points and down the steepest slopes.' (Presumably these photographs and remarks were taken from the S.C.M.P. of the day.)\n\nLastly, photograph No. 5 is a faint image of an Englishman showing his pith helmeted son the view of Kowloon, with not a building to be seen, taken in the 1930s.\n\nToday of course, the snakes are still active, and recent sightings (and, in some cases, deaths) include pit vipers and cobras. On the subject of wildlife, the author recently heard the coughing sound of a barking deer, high above the road, but hasn't seen the small red-shelled land crabs for years now.\n\nCivet cats and porcupines are still about late at night, the latter shedding quills on the roadway.\n\nUntil a few years ago, a stone monument to the Middlesex Regiment stood at the junction of Harlech and Lugard Roads, but has been removed. The author does not know of its present whereabouts.\n\nThe Geotechnical Department has had a busy time over the last few years, spraying shotcrete on many of the slopes above Harlech and Lugard Roads, to the distress of many of us, but, despite this, the area still has great charm. Current plans from the Government are to upgrade the area to make it more “tourist-friendly” and the author is liaising with the relevant Government Departments to make sure that this is done in a sensitive way. In the absence of major typhoons for many years, the vegetation on Harlech Road has grown wildly and former beautiful views to the south are now obscured. Permission was granted two years ago to cut \"windows\" into the vegetation, and this has proved very popular with visitors and locals alike.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215165, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 261, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "221\n\nMetratoA LEGGE DAN K\n\n# A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong\n\nAs the first member of staff of a technical institute, I was officially appointed as founding Principal of MHTI in July 1968, more than one year before it opened in borrowed premises. This was the planning period. The initial cost of building the Morrison Hill Technical Institute was around $4.0 million plus $3.0 million for equipment, all donated by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, although there were other, much smaller, donations.\n\nLooking at these and other figures one can see how costs have shot up over the past 30 to 40 years, although technical education has also, agreed, become far more sophisticated. For various reasons the completion of the MHTI building was delayed and, as mentioned at the start of this paper, the Institute did not start classes in its new building until 1970. Earlier on, consideration was given to calling it the 'Wan Chai Technical Institute' but some officials in the Government Education Department Headquarters felt, in those days, this would have given it a 'Suzie Wong' image. Consequently, it was named the Morrison Hill Technical Institute. As you know it was officially opened 30 years ago today, on 12 October 1970, by the then Governor the late Sir David Trench.\n\nI was pleased it was a hot day. After the ceremony Sir John Cowperthwaite, who has gone down in history as a capable Financial Secretary and a law unto himself, came up to me mopping his brow. 'Principal', he said, 'I'll see you get this hall air-conditioned!'. In spite of his promise it was many years and countless memoranda later before it actually was. I am talking of an institute where, in 1970, one of the few air-conditioned rooms was the Principal's office and this was because an overseas advisor had been persuaded to write it into his report. Administrative Officers talked dismally at the time of creating ‘a dangerous precedent with other institutions jumping on the bandwagon'.\n\nLooking around in the vicinity of MHTI: quarry men started blasting away in 1926 at the solid granite hill on which the Morrison Hill Mission Society building originally stood. The Hill was not totally levelled until around 1970", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215168, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 264, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong\n\nsystem. After all, most people have been to school and, therefore, many are instant experts.\n\nClaude Burgess, Colonial Secretary from 1958-1963, said that Hong Kong was a problem of people. Indeed one sometimes wonders how other countries' education systems would have fared if their populations had increased at the rate Hong Kong's has. Post-World War Two education started from a low base line, but by 1981, universal, compulsory, free education had been introduced.\n\nThe proof of the rice dumpling has to be in the eating, just as you judge an education system by the students who graduate. Many of those who studied technical education in Hong Kong have gone right to the top of their chosen fields. A few have graduated from the Polytechnic, or its predecessor the Technical College, and have become members of the Legislative or Executive Councils.\n\nTo achieve what we have, certainly in the old days when funds were restricted, there had to be a force of long-serving, dedicated teachers. Members of staff who gave stability and shape to the technical education scene, in spite of its limitations some of which have been noted in this brief paper.\n\nIf you cannot live with change Hong Kong is not the place to be. Certainly over the past half century the pace of change has been staggering. I cast my mind back to when we teachers were invited in 1956, by past building students, to a Chinese dinner in the woodwork workshop, at the old Technical College in Wood Road. They engaged outside caterers and the food was cooked in the corridor. The cost was around $100.00 per round, Chinese table seating 12 persons. Today, every New Year I am graciously invited by my past students, some of whom have already retired, to a Technical College/Polytechnic/Polytechnic University Ball at the Grand Hyatt. How things have changed! As you can see I still keep in touch with some of my old students, both locally and overseas, some of whom I taught over 40 years ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215174, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 270, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "232\n\nIn 1997 the RAS Volunteers were \"reactivated,\" this time without the help of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. There were, however, a few RAS Volunteers who were surveyors or architects who were also members of the Institute of Architects. When operating, this second time around, all members stayed together as a single, large group. In this way it was easier to maintain enthusiasm. RAS members Bill Greaves and Bob Horsnell, both of whom are very experienced Chartered Surveyors and local historians, have in the main led the Volunteers, although other experienced members have occasionally assisted. One such person is Tim Ko, a local historian with a wealth of knowledge regarding military history. Our grateful thanks are extended to all our leaders.\n\nBuildings inspected, researched and reported upon have been wide and varied. They have included churches and religious buildings, military installations such as old gun emplacements, terraces and odd buildings such as a pawnshop on Johnston Road. A few Volunteers assisted Dr Solomon Bard with the Tai Fu Tai Garden archaeological excavation in the summer of 2001.\n\nYour Branch is grateful to all RAS Volunteers, both past and present, who have contributed in any way towards making the work undertaken by the Volunteers a success. Indeed, believing that one volunteer is worth 10 pressed men, it has been described by one or two Council members as one of the most meaningful ventures our Branch has undertaken. We are also grateful to a few non-RAS members who have helped the Volunteers on occasions together with a few members of the Royal Geographical Society who have provided support.\n\nKey: JHKBRAS = Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society\n\nJHKBRAS, Vol. 31, 1991; and Vol. 32, 1992, both pp. xi.\n\nJHKBRAS, Vol. 33, 1993, p. xiii.\n\nJHKBRAS, Vol. 34, 1994, p. xi: This was not the first time our Branch had assisted the AMO. A joint photographic exhibition was mounted in 1995/96, see JHKBRAS, Vol. 35, 1995, pp. xiii-xiv.\n\nJHKBRAS, Vol. 38, 1998-99, Appendix D, p. xxv.\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215251, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 28, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "The Friends\n\nThe Society has a sister organisation in the United Kingdom, the Friends of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch. It comprises members of the society who have retired from Hong Kong, but who retain their interest in Hong Kong and its history. The Friends meet on a quarterly basis, usually in London, but occasionally elsewhere in the United Kingdom, for lectures on Hong Kong and its history, on each occasion with the lecture preceded by a good Chinese meal. I shall, in a few moments, read the President of the Friends' Report for 2001-2002 to you. The current President of the Friends is Mr. David Gilkes, who was, before his retirement from Hong Kong six years ago, President of this Society. I had hoped that David would be here to read his Report himself, but, unfortunately, his travel dates did not fit - he arrives here in a few days' time, but not early enough to be here tonight.\n\nI must urge all members leaving Hong Kong to return to the United Kingdom to become members of the Friends, and thus to keep alive their interest in Hong Kong studies, and their connection with the Society. Indeed, members who are still resident in Hong Kong, but who return to the United Kingdom each year should also consider membership of the Friends alongside membership of the Society, since there is, for instance, usually a lecture given by the Friends over the Summer, when many members are likely to be in the United Kingdom. Contact details for the Friends are given from time to time in the Newsletter, or can be had from the Assistant Secretary. The Friends currently have 70 members, and usually some 25 or 30 of them attend lectures and social events: members joining the Friends can thus expect to find at their meetings plenty of old friends from Hong Kong! I cannot urge you too strongly to join this excellent organisation!\n\nConclusion\n\nDuring the past year, Council decided to award Honorary Life Membership of the Society to Dr. Dan Waters, our previous President, and to Dr. Solomon Bard, a Founder Member of the Society.\n\nDr. Waters is well known to most of you, and does not need me to say much about him here. All I need to say is that I personally have benefited greatly from his advice and assistance through the year, and\n\nXXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215255, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "A REPORT TO THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY (HONG KONG BRANCH) FROM THE FRIENDS (U.K.)\n\nOnce again it is my privilege to present a report to the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, and what a pleasure it is.\n\nFirst of all, though, the Friends would like to send its greetings and all good wishes to those in Hong Kong. We can only admire at a distance the growth of the Society, and what it is now achieving. This is well brought out in your very informative newsletters and journals, both of which convey a picture of liveliness, historical eagerness and relevant research. The Society was revived in 1959 with 'the object of encouraging an active interest in East Asia, and in particular China, through the medium of lectures and discussions and by publishing an annual journal. These objectives have certainly been achieved, and we are all the beneficiaries.\n\nBy the nature of our distance from East Asia and our far-flung membership, the Friends' achievements in the U.K. are more modest. We are only entering our fourth year of operation and we number approximately 75 members. However, what we may lack in numbers is made up by the enthusiastic response of those who attend the quarterly meetings; members do come from all parts of the U.K., and one member comes from Belgium. This is all very encouraging and augurs well for the future.\n\nSince I last reported, the Friends' programme has continued to be held quarterly, normally at London University SOAS, preceded by lunch at Sheng's Tea House. It started with the A.G.M. in May 2000 followed by a lecture by that well-known Hong Kong personality, Anthony Lawrence. Anthony gave a very lively and personal picture about H.K. today. He informed us of the gradual physical evolutionary changes but at the same time explained that the human side was much the same as it was when he first went to Hong Kong fifty or so years ago. Interspersed with anecdotes of examples, the talk lived up to the highest expectations and the Friends would like to thank him again for taking time out in his busy U.K. annual visit.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215268, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH LIBRARY\n\nREPORT FOR THE YEAR 2001/2002\n\nAs of 1 March 2002, the library collection had increased to 4,380 volumes. A total of 247 volumes were added during the year. Donations of books were received from Mr Anthony Chung, Mr Peter Crush, Mrs May Holdsworth, Mr Bob Horsnell, Dr James Hayes, Mr Lai Tim-cheong, Mr Hugh Phillipson, Dr Dan Waters, Hong Kong Museum of History, and Friends of the Art Museum at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nThe long awaited for Hong Kong Central Library was finally opened on 16 May 2001. The RAS Collection is now housed on the 7/F of the Central Library. The Main Collection of post-1900 materials is shelved in the Special Collections area, and the Rare Book Collection of pre-1900 materials (with selected rare post-1900 materials) is housed in the Rare Book Room. Compact shelving is provided to maximize storage capacity and a comfortable reading area close to the Collection is also available for users to consult the materials.\n\nA guided tour of the RAS Collection was organized by the Hon. Librarian for the Society members on 15 September 2001. A total of 34 members in two sessions attended the tour. All were impressed and appreciative of the modern and well-equipped facilities as well as the spacious and pleasant environment conducive to study, research and recreational reading. It was gratifying to see that the RAS Collection is well taken care of and has adequate room for expansion.\n\nDuring the Library tour, the Hoi Ha (Village) Collection which was moved from the Shatin Central Library to the Hong Kong Central Library was displayed specially for the members. These books were found by our President, Dr Patrick Hase, by accident some years ago. It included books on schools and medicine and covered all aspects of village life in that period. Patrick gave a very interesting talk on the history of the collection at the same time.\n\nWith the move to the new location, Hong Kong Central Library\n\nxlii\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215302, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "27\n\n'Establishment of Spring' starting on the fifth of February, Gregorian reckoning. A wu day would have been a day which showed a stem-branch combination that contained the character wu. The day of interest here would occur some forty to fifty days after the first day of the Li Chun. So this day would have fallen sometime by mid-March, generally in the second moon, but at varying dates there. This day was called She Ri 'She Day'. It seems likely that it was celebrated according\n\nto the date provided by the official calendar-chronicles from Yingshan Magistracy (in De'an Prefecture), Suiyang Magistracy 陽縣 (in Wuchang Prefecture 武昌府) and Wuchang Magistracy 武昌 (also in Wuchang Prefecture) place the festival in the second moon.3\n\nIt is not so easy to say what the She was in late imperial times in this lake land in Central China. In terms of State rituals there was still an imperial sacrifice in the spring on an altar southwest of the palace in the capital, devoted to She Ji *. Sometimes this two-character name is understood as referring to one deity, sometimes as to a combination of two-She being the god ruling the land and Ji the divine controller of grain crops. There was a hierarchy of provincial, prefectural and magistratial She Ji, who were all part of the imperial official state cult. The imperial offering was the exclusive privilege of the Emperor. Before his sacrifice the altar was covered with earth of five colours - a colorific togetherness which expressed the total universe, and thereby the generative and destructive power of the five activities, wu xing 4. A special stone tablet was erected in the middle. After the ceremony this was taken down and buried in the ground until the next occasion for worship.4\n\nIn some areas in the south, present-day villagers tend to see the She as a chthonic registrar of deaths and births, an earth god who is thus associated with both death and human fecundity. More generally it appears as if the She in many areas of China signified a notion of locality. Both the Imperial cult and the present day Cantonese example may serve us as pointers, but what the demotic ideas about the She, and the She Day, actually were in the area surrounding Lake Dongting a few hundred years ago, is something we must try to glean from the\n\n3 古今圖書集成.1888. VI,1166: 風俗考毯4a; 1120:風俗考2b4b.\n\n4 Bredon & Mitrophanow 1972: 63-64.\n\n5 Aijmer & Ho 2000: 37-41 and Yang 1961: 98-99.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215320, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "45\n\nChina, Hainan would appear to have been neglected. Before 1949 Hainan was an area which few foreigners appear to have visited, though for much of the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th foreign consuls, customs officers and traders endured their existence, particularly in the northern port of Haikou (Hoihow), the American Presbyterian Mission, the first body of missionaries, only began its work 'saving' Hainan in 1881. Despite the latter, there would seem to be no missionary writings describing the temples and \"idols\" as did Father Doré in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, Shryock in Anqing and others across northern and central China. The old church in Qingzhou Fu, some three miles inland and to the west of Haikou, by 1890 had been converted into a Temple of Longevity, and another church elsewhere in Hainan, had also become a Chinese temple known as the Temple of the Cross.\n\nIn 1882 Mr Jeremiasen, an independent Danish missionary, made an unmolested circuit of Hainan on foot 'proving the friendliness of the people.' He then crossed the island north to south and east to west. Westerners who travel through \"darkest\" China today and write or talk about being the first foreigners within some remote spot, forget or overlook such Christian missionaries who roamed across all areas of China more than a century and a half ago. Even today there are foreign tourists who regard themselves as among the first to set foot in the more remote areas of Hainan. However, what Jeremiasen and others have overlooked are the individual Portuguese and German missionaries whose graves, dated in the 1680s, have been identified on Hainan. Most foreign visitors today also forget or, more likely, have probably never even heard of the eminent Chinese banished to the island during the early days of the periods of forced settlement of the 13th and 14th centuries.\n\nAn aspect of journeys to Hainan a century or so ago, now also long forgotten, was the basic problem of getting ashore from the steamer from Hong Kong. This was often the worst part of the journey. The steamer from Hong Kong touched bottom some three miles or so out to sea leaving the trip ashore to the main port of Haikou by shallow draft sampan across mud flats under less than a foot of water. This required bargaining with the laoda [captain] of one of the many sampans which offered their services to tranship passengers ashore. The native boatmen in a very round-about trip through the intricate channels, sliding over", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215328, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "53\n\nby the Hainanese and especially those from the Hainanese county of Wanning where he is primarily prayed to by the sick. He is claimed to be extremely efficacious and able to cure or heal any sickness or injury. He usually sends his Black or White Horse Generals to help devotees and only leaves the Heavens himself for very important cases. His image has only been seen in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Borneo, Bangkok and Phnom Penh where his festival is generally celebrated on the 15th of the fifth lunar month. However, he must never be prayed to for prosperity.\n\nTwo entirely different legends describe the origins of this deity, one more popular in Singapore and southern Malaysia, and the other in Thailand and Cambodia. In neither is the Marquis identified by name and he therefore remains unidentified.\n\nHe is also referred to as:\n\nthe Lord of the Seas, Wenzhou Haizhu Houwang\n\nTongzhu Houwang The Marquis Lord of the Aboriginal People\n\nShanqin Houwang The Imperial Marquis of the Mountains\n\nThe first legend claims that a petty king in China was waved by an individual who, in the city of Wenzhou on the coast of Zhejiang province, north of and nearly opposite the island of Taiwan, was awarded the title of Marquis. This happened a long, long time ago. The ruler of Hainan, as a separate state, so the legend continued, had an image of the Marquis brought to the island of Hainan and placed in a specially built temple where he has been worshipped ever since.\n\nThe second story relates that the Marquis was, variously, a Ming governor of Hainan island or a minister of an ancient dynasty against whom, through jealousy, evil ministers plotted. They killed him and threw his body into the sea where it turned into a log and floated away. A fisherman found it, realised that it had spiritual properties and so carved it into a statue which he revered and quickly became wealthy,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215330, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "55\n\nmost places she holds a sceptre in the palm of her right hand resting against her shoulder.\n\nShe is said in some places to be particularly efficacious in helping children do well at school, and also for adults to pass tests, examinations and interviews. She is also prayed to separately by ladies, young and old, with the request that they may never lose their good looks and is offered perfume, talcum powder and handkerchiefs on her birthday, all taken home again by the devotees once the Holy Mother has blessed them. Her festival is celebrated on her birthday though this date varies from area to area, the most popular dates being the 4th or 25th of the second lunar month, the 4th of the fifth lunar month and any two days between the 10th and 16th of the tenth lunar month.\n\nHer full title is Nantian Shuiwei Shengmu ****, The Holy Mother of Shuiwei of the Southern Heaven. She has also been referred to as Nantian Shantian Shuiwei Shengniang 水尾聖娘, Shuiwei Niangniang 水尾娘娘 and Shuiwei Shengniang 水尾聖娘. Colloquially however, she is simply known as Shengmu, the Holy Mother.\n\nThe legend describing the Holy Mother's origins has been related with little variation in all the areas where her shrines have been noted. A fisherman named Pan who lived many, many years ago in Wenchang county in eastern Hainan island kept hauling in a piece of wood whilst fishing and no matter how many times he cast the net he pulled in the same piece of wood. It finally dawned on him that there was more to it than caught the eye and he called out in a loud voice that he would take the wood home with him and have it carved into a holy statue if the next two casts of his net brought him large hauls of fish. Despite landing exceptionally large hauls he forgot his promise and even used the wood to make a door for his pigsty. His son remarked that every time he passed the pigsty he thought he saw a remarkably beautiful woman combing her hair sitting on the bough of a tree. This reminded the fisherman of his promise but being poor he was unable to build a shrine for the deity and, wondering what to do he consulted a spirit medium who revealed where the shrine should be built. The goddess, in the guise of a village woman, appeared before a local builder and ordered bricks and timber to be delivered to the site but after delivery he was unable to find anyone to whom he could present", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215335, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "60\n\nundimmed, and taking command of an army, first in face of a threatened invasion by the dreaded Huns of Central Asia, and again later, in AD 48, to pacify the wild aboriginal tribes of Hunan. However, he died during the campaign in Hunan.\n\nReverend Henry15 referred to Fupo Jiangjun, as a Cantonese deity who had temples scattered along the vicinity of the Pearl and West Rivers where he was worshipped by boatmen and travellers. The reason for his popularity apparently was because it was widely believed that Fupo and his army had crossed the range between Hunan and Guangdong, conquering south China, using double-decker troop carrying boats to ferry his troops from the hinterland of Hunan to Guangzhou. The boats had to be portered across the mountains against all odds.\n\n16 Mesny noted that a number of temples in Guangxi honouring Fupo had kept alive the memory of his martial deeds and exploits. A temple on the West River near the great rapids was striking for its perfect preservation. It was kept in repair, wrote Mesny, by boatmen who regarded the deity in some special manner.\n\nIn Taiwan Ma Yuan is the main deity in some half a dozen temples where he is known as Fushun Jiangjun.\n\nc] The Great Emperor, the Plum Blossom Immortal, Mei Xian Dadi ★✩, is a minor Daoist cult Immortal whose image has only been noted on the altars of three temples, all within the Hainanese communities in Kranji, Singapore. His title however appears on the temple deity list together with other deities in five temples in southern Malaysia. Temple keepers agree that the Plum Blossom Immortal was a famous doctor who, according to a god carver, bore the personal name of Zhang Chuang, lived somewhere in China many centuries ago, and is now particularly revered by pregnant women who he protects from malignant forces. He also helps them by ensuring that the babes themselves are small and therefore do not cause any injury to the mother during birth.\n\nImages of the Plum Blossom Immortal have no unique characteristics and vary considerably from temple to temple. Two depict him seated, and at first glance looking somewhat like Guan Gong,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215341, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "66\n\nthe imperial troops defending Lingnan area. Madame Xian sent Feng Sheng to help them but as the rebel general and Feng Sheng were old friends, Feng Sheng delayed his attack on the rebels, Madame Xian was furious and had Feng Sheng cast into gaol. She then despatched Feng An but found it necessary for herself to don armour and lead the troops against the rebels. Within a couple of months it was all over. The rebels surrendered. The Sui emperor pardoned Feng Sheng and appointed him to be the Governor of Luzhou, and at the same time appointed Feng Huai to be Governor of Guangzhou and at the same time appointed Feng Huai to be Governor of Guangzhou and Feng An as Governor of Gaozhou. He also appointed Feng Bao, Madame Xian's long deceased husband, the posthumous Area Commander-in-Chief of Guangzhou and Marquis of Jiaoguo so that he could appoint Madame Xian as Duchess of Jiaoguo. He also granted her the seal of her title to enable her to administer six prefectures. The empress presented Madame Xian with a tiara, jewellery and robes which Madame Xian placed in a chest in the main hall to display them to the family as a reward for three generations of loyalty and filial piety. She then advised the future generations to continue to do their duty.\n\nIn AD 591 a number of places rebelled against the dynasty due to the corruption and tyranny of the Area Commander-in-chief of Panyou. Madame Xian proposed that she should arbitrate, and listed the crimes of the Area Commander-in-Chief to the emperor and peace was restored.\n\nShe died at the age of 89 and was granted the posthumous title of Huguo Shengmu and given a state funeral. She was buried in Tianbai county, commonly known as Gaoling where a temple was raised in her honour leading to today's cult.\n\nb] A deity who, though not Hainanese, is revered by them in several temples in South-east Asia, is the Lord of the White Horse, Baima Laoshi Gong, possibly better known simply as Laoshi Gong. He has only been noted in three temples, in Singapore and Malaysia, though an image of him did appear on sale in a Kowloon curio shop some years ago. He is the main deity in two of the three temples, both on the west coast of central Malaysia, one north of Klang and the other to the south.\n\nApart from in the two temples in Malaysia, other temple keepers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215342, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "67\n\nhave been unable to explain his origins, history or any other details. In Malaysia we were told that he had been a hero, killed in the Leizhou peninsular immediately to the north of Hainan [or 'in Leizhou city (nowadays Leicheng) in western Guangdong province'], and that he had been a general, the eldest of three brothers, who had long ago earned great merit working for the common good and was deified. In Singapore, where again he is depicted as one image in the centre of a comparatively crowded secondary altar, it was claimed that he had been a general, killed several centuries ago saving a major unidentified town from invaders. His festivals are celebrated on the 17th of both the first and third lunar months.\n\nOne of the two temples in Malaysia contained three images on the main altar, the usual image of Baima Laoshi Gong together with two standard seated images of mandarins. These were identified as the First, Second and Third Laoshi Gong and were understood to have been brought to Malaysia by immigrants from Hainan some forty years ago. The temple keepers and devotees of both these temples were predominantly Chaozhou Chinese. Nowadays devotees of this cult in Singapore, however, are predominantly Hengwa (Xinghua) from Fujian province.\n\nLapshi Gong is prayed to for 'household affairs' in one of the two temples in central Malaysia, whilst in the other, run by a popular medium who spoke with the voice of Laoshi Gong and is claimed to be extremely gifted, the deity is believed to be able to cure most illnesses. The deity was being treated with exceptional reverence during the latest visit by the author, when a ritual was being performed before the altar requesting a cure for a very sickly looking infant held by its anxious mother.\n\nAmong the Hengwa Hokkiens in Singapore he is rarely revered as a separate deity. He is prayed to and offered incense and oil as one of the collection of deities on the altar, though the temple keeper added that a number of gamblers specifically pray to him. The temple keeper also said that he had not been aware that the deity had any such speciality when first he had taken over the temple in the early sixties. The custom of gamblers seeking divine help was fairly recent and had, he presumed, developed after someone had had a win following a petition to the deity.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215364, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "A close-up of two of the three Laoshi Gong and identified as the Second and Third Laoshi Gong said to have been brought to Malaysia by immigrants from Hainan some forty years ago. They have been rehoused on the side altar of one of the new temples in Hougang in Singapore.\n\n89", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215390, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "116\n\nThe present The Tribute and 4 abun to Kai\n\n1\n\nft\n\n...\n\n# G A HAD AN\n\nDATO €\n\nF# 陷阱\n\n# B 7 X 5 trai\n\nA\n\nJ\n\nI I\n\n24\n\nLau\n\n710\n\nMY AM I WM (I\n\n#OMI\n\nDA\n\n作一份值得擁有了雪律\n\nJ\n\nUVM FARL PICKU\n\nf #\n\nقطر\n\nAT MEX\n\nTIMOTA 1P 400AY ARMP (\n\n#BIT MADYAAL IN IF\n\nI AM MAI M\n\n44\n\nA\n\n41\n\n腆情路\n\n香港大學的成疒\n\n#\n\nA004 11\n\n翻糖\n\n香港人做作我(J嵌入\n\nMANKAI B&HL\n\nACH AU KAMKI PLOT AN\n\nTATA\n\nAMM 以長期的商業低潮的\n\n(TWEN)M (LIENTEMINIZ 上有廣闊 AMS DIMILAJAR JANAKA\n\n2\n\nng\n\nMy u plea e far! eller or behalf of the lead ræember OF be thine e com unut¡ [1 «e he nonot r lo dit pre car you u sto\n\nuld\n\nin aldres a o Ibu ceen embr idered on atın and u bub IxR ask ye i sir te do us he h now to graciou l¡ ucept i a mill oken of the high esteem and iffe i mi i hue for you is ur (veren ind ruler will frie id an C0072 ellor\n\nIt was clear that the Tribute was behind schedule as it had been the intention to have it completed on Wednesday 16th March 1910. But the pace of the fine work carried out by the craftsmen in Canton dictated otherwise.\n\nIt was our intention to present you with the address shortly after the laying of the foundation stone of the Hongkong University, but time did not permit us, for we desired to present you with a work of art more worthy of your acceptance, and so we had perforce to wait for this occasion in order to allow time to get the work properly executed.\n\nYour administration was unstinting without being in any way fulsome.\n\nIt is scarcely three years since our arrival in this colony, but during the comparatively short period, you have achieved much by your wise and able administration. You have come through a most trying time and succeeded in placing the colony once more on the high road to prosperity and success.\n\nThe University\n\nIn the presentation address, the founding of The University of Hong Kong is given special prominence.\n\nNo one appreciates more than the Chinese community the immense benefits which you have conferred upon this colony, and they are doubly grateful to you for, though we have had a long commercial depression, you have succeeded by your broadmindedness and by your incomparable energy and enthusiasm in founding the Hongkong University.\n\nThe benefits conferred by such an institution on the colony as a whole, and more especially upon the Chinese, whether resident in this colony or throughout China, are incomparable, and we thank you, sir, most cordially and most gratefully for such a boon. I am sure future generations will cherish your memory and thank you.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215405, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "131\n\nTHE FAÇADE OF ST. PAUL'S, MACAO: A RETABLE-FAÇADE?\n\nIntroduction\n\nCESAR GUILLEN-NUÑEZ\n\nThis paper will look at the façade of the church of Madre de Deus, Macao, popularly known as ruinas de São Paulo (Ruins of St. Paul's), from a perspective different to that familiar to most, including scholars. For I believe the surviving frontispiece should be classified as a fachada retablo, that is, as a retable-façade.\n\nA retable-façade is a kind of structure that has been given this appellation by modern Hispanists because of its similarities to carved Spanish altarpieces. Altarpieces, also known as retables (whence the façade's name), were as popular in Portugal as they were in Spain. Curiously, retable-façades were less frequently used in Portugal and are practically unknown in Portuguese colonies. I hope therefore that it will not seem too fanciful to start this paper by asking the question: is the surviving front of St. Paul's just such a façade? And if so, then how could such a structure have appeared in seventeenth-century Macao, Portugal's most treasured possession in Southeast Asia? (Fig. 1).\n\nBefore continuing, I must point out that part of this paper has been adapted from a thesis on the subject that I completed in 1997 for University College London. The thesis itself evolved from an unpublished youthful article written a number of decades ago, after many years' interest on the extraordinary phenomenon of the retable-façade. Eventually a few of my ideas on the façade of St. Paul appeared in a book on Macao that I wrote almost twenty years ago.\n\nSome art historians may disagree with my identification of the façade of St. Paul's as a retable-façade, mainly because of the lack of primary sources backing up the idea. Perhaps it will not be thought too irrelevant to consider that in recent years the tourist trade in Macao has readily echoed it, as is true of a small number of Portuguese researchers steeped in Lusitanian architectural traditions. Although the latter come from outside the field of the retable-façade their writings at least imply an acceptance of the idea. Unfortunately they only include a discussion...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215406, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "132\n\nof the façade as part of broader surveys on the church of St. Paul's or the architecture of the Jesuits in China and, regretfully, not much new has been added to this particular question.\n\nIn order to make clearer certain developments related to the façade of St. Paul's, a limited number of churches and altarpieces in Spain and in Portuguese India will be discussed. But because of limitations of time, any detailed references to the ground plans, elevations, and dimensions of St. Paul's or any of these structures or buildings will be left out. It is mainly the façades of buildings as they relate to the main topic that are of greater importance here. Besides these analogies, I will further explore some relevant questions on the development of Jesuit buildings in India first expressed in an article written several years ago.\n\nThe Church of St. Paul's, Macao\n\nWhat once was the Jesuit Church of Madre de Deus, or St. Paul's, is today merely a church front, some 70 feet high, with narrow sections of aisle-walls holding it up at either side at the back. This seventeenth-century ruin is the only remnant of a catastrophic 1835 fire, which destroyed the entire complex of educational and residential buildings of which it was part (Fig. 1).\n\nThe impression that it makes today, when it is mainly admired as a relic of a bygone age, is quite different from that which it made to visitors over three and a half centuries ago. At that time, the church stood in full visible splendour on a hill near the city walls, facing the Portuguese city below and the open sea beyond. Ironically, a fire in November of 1600 had destroyed a previous church, which led to the construction of the church of Madre de Deus, the one that in time became the most splendid Christian temple in a transitional Early Baroque style ever to have been built in China. Seventeenth-century visitors marvelled at what was then the new church of a university college, started two years after the November fire and at the time only recently completed with the addition of a brand new façade.\n\nThis added structure was an amazing showcase of artistic and social co-operation. Artists of East and West had created it. The Portuguese rectors had supported it. The wealthy citizens of Macao had financed it.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215486, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 263, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "212\n\nPARTNER. ALWAYS USE PROTECTIVE MEASURE.'\n\nThe next day started with a quick drive-past, with a photo opportunity, of the Punakha Dzong, said to be Bhutan's most holy. The first king was crowned there in 1907. This commanding fortress stands on shingle banks at the confluence of the Mo and Pho rivers. Its situation certainly makes it picturesque, but also vulnerable. A flash flood ten or so years ago caused extensive damage which is still being repaired. The sad thing is that this deluge was probably not an isolated flash flood at all, but the first of many - the result of the effect of global warming on the frozen Tibetan wastes. Anyway, by command of the king no expense is to be spared in the restoration work, as we would see later.\n\nTomorrow was to be the start of a major festival, and we were to return to see it. The festival invokes Bhutan's principal deity and protection for the country in the coming year; it also marks the beginning of spring. But for the moment we had other things to see further up the Mo. People were drifting past in threes and fours in the opposite direction, including some members of the Laya tribe. I guess we could have appeared to them as no less unearthly than Princess Leia herself from Planet Alderaan. Our 'bus had to stop right next to a group of Laya, having to give way to some more fortunate people descending to the dzong in a vehicle. These Laya, a Bhutanese nomadic tribe, comprised mainly very old women and very young children and were, we were told, just coming to the end of a three-day trek to get to the following day's festivities. Quick as a flash, the old crones in the walking party whipped out from beneath their vestments some shining \"jewelled\" necklaces with which to tempt the wealthy tourists. They did not make a sale that day, but I felt it was only a matter of time before their family assets would be disposed of to some tourist or other in this manner. I also guessed that if one of us happened to take a shine to their shoes, they too would have instantly had a price attached. (Some of their shoes, more like embroidered felt boots, were indeed very fine.)\n\nStill no bacon\n\nIt was with mixed feelings that I also saw a large pig, foraging by the roadside - the first I had seen in Bhutan. I happen to like pigs very much, but a very large part of me was wondering (again) if there would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215570, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 347, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "297\n\nCROWN\n\nB.P.36 1844\n\n(Harrison; 1999)\n\nApart from oral history, no written evidence has been uncovered to confirm that these two cannons, now at Queen's College, once fortified Waglan Island (Lee; 1999).\n\nBadly corroded, an old cannon is set on its muzzle and buried into the rocks up to its trunnions, where the old landing stage used to be. This old cannon acted as a bollard for tying up boats. A small boat would transport supplies from the mother ship to shore. From there drums of diesel, bags of coal, firewood and other material were manhandled up the steps to the top of the Island. Coal and firewood were the only fuels for cooking up to the late 1960s. A new, larger landing stage, a little to the north, was constructed in the 1960s. A cable railway was also installed for raising stores and equipment.\n\nBecause it is a restricted area, there were (and still are) few visitors to Waglan although there was a visitors' book. It was considered an auspicious day when the late Sir Robert Black, Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 to 1964, visited the lighthouse in 1963.\n\nCommunications\n\nIn other parts of the world lighthouse keepers, years ago, would use semaphore for signalling. The author has not seen nor heard of this happening in Hong Kong. Also, in the Hong Kong Marine Police (previously called Water Police), up until about 1926 around 50 pigeons were kept on strength. Half a dozen or so were taken out on each police launch to fly messages back to headquarters. There is no record, as far as the author knows, of pigeons being used to fly messages from lighthouses. Signals used to be sent by flashing lamps, however, using Morse code, to passing ships. In the mid-1950s HMS Tamar operated a radar station on Waglan.\n\nWaglan also had two sets of fog horn signalling equipment (there were also two electrical generators), in case one broke down. When the foghorn was operating it sounded every five minutes. Normally the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 409, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "360\n\nAlthough nothing to do with oriental planting, I think we all hugely enjoyed the Productive Gardens, from the story of the gardeners' tools of 1914 still found hanging in ruined sheds, to seeing a working Pineapple House (heated to 120F with rotting manure, through honeycomb brickwork walls) and the last original Paxton vinehouse. Every detail was thought through by the 19th century gardeners, from the use of cobble drains taking water to a central cistern, to the “beavertail” glass panes in the greenhouses, which direct the water away from the wooden frames. Gardening was not just art and a spade: it was science and engineering too, and only 100 years later we are scrambling to rescue that knowledge.\n\nAt Pine Lodge we had the pleasure of being guided by co-owner Raymond Clemo. Pine Lodge is unusual in that it is a much more recently created garden. In the mid-1970s, the Clemos were persuaded to open their then much smaller garden for a day, to raise funds for a hospice. More than 2,000 people turned up, and the garden has been expanding and opening to the public ever since. The Clemos are still buying land, and adding to the garden, the most recent addition being a field now planted as an arboretum. Its recent creation has not changed the tradition of oriental connections: 20 years ago Clemo saw an advertisement placed in the RHS magazine by a young man who wanted to go plant collecting in the Himalayas, and sent him a cheque. Pine Lodge now houses many of Chris Chadwell's introductions, and the relationship between Cornwall and the plant hunters continues. Students have now come to work at the gardens, including several from Japan, who have helped Clemo to create a replica of a traditional garden from Kyoto. Seeds were also contributed by colleagues at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.\n\nOne of the most enjoyable aspects of Pine Lodge is its intimacy: it started small, and its most mature areas are the original densely planted mixed borders of shrubs, bulbs, and perennials, and its ponds and other water features, rather than its woodland gardens of huge rhododendrons, conifers, etc. Although the planting may be more exotic than most, its style is more familiar, and closer to something those of us with small gardens can aim for.\n\nThe Eden Project was a very different experience. Eden clearly has a manifesto, which is to educate, and our guide was a true evangelist.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215671, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 448, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "400\n\nIn researching the original Note, I came to a profound admiration for Ian Morrison. His newspaper reporting was erudite and he demonstrated a perceptive understanding of the issues involved. His two books; Malayan Postscript (1942) and This War Against Japan (1943) were equally perceptive. By all accounts the picture that Han Suyin painted of him in A Many Splendoured Thing; as being a gentle, kind and understanding man, is borne out by the facts. Alastair describes him as ...a cultivated and gentle man and no swashbuckler but (he) had an insatiable curiosity about events in Asia.' Accordingly, I offer this tribute to his memory. R.I.P.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nMorrison, Alastair (1993), The Road to Peking, Canberra: The Highland Press (for private distribution).\n\nPearl, Cyril (1967). Morrison of Peking, Sydney: Angus & Robertson Ltd.\n\nNOTES\n\nhttp://www.fechk.org/archives/achives historyconduit.htm\n\n2 See JHKBRAS Vol. 40: The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and\n\n3\n\nthe Effectiveness of the Defence, Lawrence Lai Wai Chung, pp. 115-136.\n\nSource: Alastair Morrison, personal communication and The Road to Peking, p. 151\n\nAll images, unless otherwise stated, courtesy of The Times of London.\n\nIan and Maria met in Shanghai and were married, in Hong Kong, in 1941. Maria was Steffi's sister (Colin's subsequent wife) Their first home was at the Cathay Building, in Singapore. After the War, they returned to Singapore and lived in Gallop Road. According to Alastair, the marriage was not a happy one (The Road to Peking, p. 151). After her husband's death, Mrs. Morrison and the children (who were seven and five at the time of his death) appear to have stayed on in Singapore, at any rate for a while, and then moved to Australia. According to Alastair Morrison, Maria 'died long ago.' The son, Nicholas (?), lives in the U.K. and visited Alastair in Canberra on his eighty seventh birthday", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215674, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 451, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "403\n\n* Hammond World Atlas. p. 107.\n\nhttp://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/AMH/AMH-25.ht\n\n10 http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/photos/Korea/kor1950/kor1950.htm\n\n\"'STRIX' in The Spectator on August 18, 1950, reported Morrison's death thus: 'Although he was only 37 when he was killed last Saturday, I think Ian Morrison was what is generally understood by a great man, and I am quite sure that he would have been remembered as one had he lived. It was not merely that he was an extremely enterprising and clear-headed correspondent with very mature political judgement. His character had a sort of translucent quality, so that behind his diffident manner and his boyish appearance people of all races recognised in him a man to be liked and trusted. He had an almost feminine blend of sympathy and intuition, yet he was tougher and more single-minded in his purposes than colleagues who looked much more like thrusters. Everybody liked him, at all levels; he was becoming a legend in Eastern Asia, and no single individual did more in the last ten years for what remains of our prestige there. When I heard of his death I remembered that last year, near the borders of Tibet, I had been given a letter to deliver to him, but our arrangements for a rendezvous had failed, and I still had the letter somewhere. I found it in a drawer. It is a dull letter, from a little engineer called Hsu who wrote from the Sining Electrical Works, Tsinghai Province. It begins: \"Dear Mr. Morrison, I often think of you since you went away. I do not forget you at all...\" People have long memories in Asia, and Ian Morrison will not quickly forfeit the place that he won in them. Christopher Buckley was a very good man, too.' [Hon. Ed.'s note: The use of the phrase 'little engineer' does much to explain the reason for the earlier...what remains of our prestige there.'}\n\n12 Reproduced at Annex I\n\n13 http://www.newseum.org/scripts/Journalist/Detail.asp?PhotoID=718\n\n14\n\nThe Road to Peking, p. 156.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215675, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 452, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "404\n\nIan Morrison's Last Dispatch\n\nPOHANG IN HANDS OF\n\nNORTH KOREANS\n\nAnnex\n\nTOWN IN FLAMES\n\nFrom Our Special Correspondent\n\nBIHAR ARMY HEADQUARTERS, August 12 —\n\nA serious situation has developed at Pohang on the east coast. North Korean forces, who for several days past were known to be working their way south through mountainous country inland from the coast, and who yesterday were reported at a point seven miles north-west of Pohang, attacked the town early this morning and are now threatening the airfield five miles to the south-east. Fires are burning in the town and it may become necessary to evacuate the airfield.\n\nFor several weeks past the South Korean forces based on Pohang have been fighting in and around Yongdok, a small town 25 miles north of Pohang. Their supply line has been the road which runs along the coast. The mountains to the west are some of the steepest in Korea, but they have not deterred the North Koreans from making the obvious outflanking movement. The exact strength of the North Korean force is not known. Three days ago it was reported as two regiments. Probably it consists of a nucleus of regular troops and several hundred guerrilla troops who have long been established in these mountains.\n\nThe allied command apparently minimized their threat, because it was only yesterday that reinforcements were hurriedly rushed to this coastal sector. These consisted of South Korean infantry and a small American task force equipped with light tanks. Exactly what happened is still obscure, but the American convoy was ambushed soon after midnight on the main road 15 miles south of Pohang and pinned down until dawn. Air support was called for, which eventually drove off the North Koreans, believed to have been a number of guerrilla troops, and permitted the convoy to continue after considerable delay.\n\nMustangs were still using the airfield up to 5 o'clock this afternoon, and in some cases pilots were firing their guns only two or three minutes after taking off. The North Koreans had moved south of Yongdok, and pilots claimed to have destroyed two tanks, 10 vehicles, and two ammunition cars. Transport aircraft also were still flying into the airfield this evening and bringing out certain unessential staff such as ground engineers.\n\nAccording to these arrivals, North Korean mortar shells were landing in the general area of the airfield, but it was not under small arms fire. American gunners who have been supporting South Korean infantry in this coastal sector were shelling North Korean positions on the ridge about two miles north of the airfield between the airfield and the port. Large numbers of Korean civilians who had evacuated the town had gathered round the airfield, which is situated close to the shore of the bay, and two ships were standing by offshore in case evacuation should become necessary.\n\nLieutenant-General Walker, commander of the Eighth Army, and Major-General Partridge, commander of the Fifth Air Force, flew over the area this morning.\n\n97", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215730, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "sole routine income, does not bring us in enough income to cover our routine expenses.\n\nThese routine expenses, as of today, are the costs of printing and distributing the Journal, the costs of printing and distributing the Newsletter, the salary of our Assistant Secretary, the office expenses of the Society and other minor expenses of a similar character. Our non-routine expenses are mostly, the costs of activities mounted as part of our Visits and Tours programme. We are in consequence obliged to set the charge we make for each such activity at a level which not only covers all the direct costs of the activity, but which also allows us to make a small contribution to our general, routine, income, to reflect the indirect subsidy which the activity would otherwise get from our general income. Thus, no visit or tour could be mounted if the Newsletter did not advertise it, nor could the Newsletter be issued if we did not have an Assistant Secretary to prepare it. We believe that it is reasonable to expect the charge for the activity to meet these indirect expenses. This is not always feasible, however.\n\nI confess that I remain a little concerned about the state of our routine income and expenditure figures. I would feel happier if our routine income could meet our routine expenses. The Council has decided not to seek an increase in the annual subscription rates during 2004-2005, but I feel I must say that I do not believe that this situation can continue indefinitely.\n\nThe second point I would like to make is to point out that we have been urging Members for some years now to switch to Autopay for the renewal of their annual subscriptions. About half the Membership has now switched to Autopay. Those of the Members who have not switched cause the Society a great deal of work, however. We have to do an annual check, Member by Member, to see whether the sum due has been paid or not, whether any Standing Instruction has been re-figured to the current subscription rates or not, and so on, and to send out reminders and so forth. As of today's date, for instance, no less than 161 of our Annual Members not paying by Autopay have still not yet completed payment for this year, whereas all the Autopay Annual Members have, and 18 have still not reconfigured their Standing Instructions to meet the present-day subscription rates, even though these were put in place a good few years ago. Our expenses are, in\n\nXX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215733, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "encouragement of scholarship in the field of Hong Kong Studies. We have long wished to undertake a more charitable role in this field. Action could only be begun, however, after we had achieved formal recognition of our status as a Charity by the Inland Revenue Department, which was completed about a year ago. Since then we have been very active in attempting to conclude a scheme by which our wishes could be met. I had hoped that this work would have been completed by today, so that I could present to Members a complete scheme for agreement, but, unfortunately, for various reasons, we have not quite got to that stage as yet. Jason Wordie has been the main force behind this work, and he will make a special report to Members on the present position shortly.\n\nWhat we want to do is to set up a Foundation, or Capital, Fund, the income from which can be used to fund scholarship in the field of Hong Kong studies.\n\nThe Fund would be detached from the Society's other accounts, and would be set up as an autonomous entity, with clear rules for disbursement and control under the oversight of a separate Management Board which would be formed from Members of Council and others. I hope that this Board can be set up within the next month. I hope to take the Chair of this Board for the initial year of its operation. The Management Board would be responsible for the financial management of the Fund (for which the Board would require professional financial advice), for the consideration of proposals for grants and for making such grants, for ensuring the quality of any work produced as the result of any grant so made, for ensuring that Council is properly kept in the picture as to the activities of the Fund (Council would retain the responsibility for setting policy for the Board), and for producing an Annual Report on the work of the Fund for presentation to the Annual General Meeting of the Society. Each year, the income from the Foundation Fund would be transferred to a Current Account from which disbursements could be made. Once the Fund has been set up, this Annual General Meeting would thereafter receive and approve the annual accounts of the Fund as well as those of the Society's general funds. We are still considering a name for the Fund: one possibility under consideration is to name it The Sir Lindsay and Lady Ride Memorial Fund, in memory of our founding Vice-President, who was later our Second President, as well as Hong Kong University's longest-serving Vice-Chancellor.\n\nxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215740, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "like to thank our friends at the Antiquities and Monuments Office, the Public Records Office, and elsewhere, for their support and assistance.\n\nTo end this report, however, I would like to pay a special tribute to the Rev. Carl Smith, our Honorary Vice President. His contribution to the history of Hong Kong is immense. His articles illuminate nineteenth century Hong Kong in a way no other historian has managed. He has been a guide, mentor, and friend to two generations of local scholars. I am personally greatly honoured by having Carl as my friend and advisor, and I am very happy to have this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness to him on any number of matters. Carl has been a stalwart supporter of the Society since the early 1970s. He is the longest serving Member of Council, having served as a Councillor for over 25 years, under five Presidents, for many years as Vice-President. He asked to retire from Council a couple of years ago, but Council was extremely unwilling to let him go, and created a new post of Honorary Vice-President for him, so that he could continue to serve but without holding down any post. Now, alas, his new responsibilities in Macau make it impossible for him to attend Council on a regular basis, and he has indicated that he feels he must now step down, and I have, very reluctantly, agreed. However, it is open to Council to invite anyone it sees fit to attend Council, and Council has agreed to extend a long-term invitation to Carl to attend Council whenever he is free and available to do so, and we will continue to send him copies of all our papers. I sincerely hope we will thus continue to receive his advice regularly, even if he is not able to attend every meeting. However, Council feels that this is an inadequate expression of our gratitude to Carl for his services both to the cause of scholarship in Hong Kong, and to the Society in particular, and we have decided to make him an Honorary Life Member of the Society, as being the most public statement available to us of our esteem and regards. Thank you, Carl!\n\nPATRICK H. HASE\n\nPRESIDENT\n\nMARCH 2003\n\nXXX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215835, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "HONG KONG'S CHINESE ASSOCIATIONS: THEIR CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS AND THEIR HELPERS\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n67\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe close involvement of the District Offices of the New Territories Administration in the pre-1997 Hong Kong Government in the celebration of festivals and major religious rituals by local communities throughout the lunar year was described in Chapter Seven of my Friends and Teachers, Hong Kong and its People 1953-87, published by Hong Kong University Press in 1996. This particular feature of the Administration's work had seemed worthy of special notice, since its personnel's interaction with their leaders, their many helpers, and less directly with the audiences and participants, had always helped to build up and sustain the \"government and people\" relationship.\n\nSuch occasions provided the connecting links of community life across the decades. Some were regular annual events, like the main festivals of the lunar calendar and the birthdays of the gods in the local temples, often with accompanying opera or puppet shows. Less frequent, but equally regular were the important, quasi-religious Ta Chiu or periodic protective rituals, still held nowadays by large villages or linked groups of villages in the longer settled districts of the New Territories, but held practically everywhere a century ago.\n\nThe officials' participation extended to many other community events, especially those held or organized by Hong Kong's Chinese associations in town and country, individually or jointly. They attended at ceremonies marking a special occasion, such as the completion of a new school building provided by a kaifong association or religious body, or the finalization of a local public works project by a village or rural committee. They might help to inaugurate or close the district summer youth programmes held from the late 1960s onward, or the local community's evening of entertainment for the elderly. Other major events attracting their presence might include associations' dinners connected with fund-raising drives for a special project or a charitable purpose, usually with a singing or even opera performance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215906, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 205, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "139\n\nTHE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\n(HONG KONG BRANCH):\n\nTHE FACES, THE STORIES AND THE MEMORIES\n\nEve Lam\n\nThe hall in the Hong Kong Museum of History, is dark. The room seats about 200, but it's not even half full. Those in attendance are mostly gweilos and gweipos, and with his silver-blond hair and fair skin that looks a bit flushed under the spotlight, the man giving the opening remarks on stage is indeed a gweilo. But this foreigner knows more about the place than most born and bred Hong Kongers.\n\nHis name is Dan Waters; he's president of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) — and he's giving the opening address at the Society's 40th anniversary conference, \"Hong Kong: Forty Years of a Growing City.”\n\n\"If I had been born in the computer age, the chances are I would be reading this address from a portable ‘electric brain,' as a computer is termed in Cantonese,\" Waters said. \"But several of us taking part in this conference were born many years earlier. Indeed some of us have lived in Hong Kong for longer than the 40-year period (1960 to 2000) which we are reviewing here today...\"\n\nThe conference is free for all RAS members. They are a dedicated lot who have come in early on a Saturday morning to listen to these scholars and celebrate the accomplishments of the society to which they proudly belong.\n\nA glance around the hall and everyone is concentrating their attention on Waters, the longest active member of the Society.\n\n\"...An RAS member who lived in Hong Kong for approaching 30 years wrote a couple of years or so ago from his home in England: 'No, I do not miss the present-day Hong Kong one little bit. But I do miss the Hong Kong of the 1950s and '60s.' To what degree does nostalgia creep in? Let us take a wander down memory lane. What was the Colony really like when our Branch was re-constituted in 1960?...\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215911, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "144\n\n\"My car is white so wave at me when you see me, I'll be there in seven minutes,\" said Hase as he gave me directions to wait at the McDonald's in Tai Wo KCR station for our interview. It has taken me almost an hour to get here. I'm in the New Territories.\n\nHe is dressed in a loosely fitting top with colourful embroidery around the edges, and his hair is shorter and seems to have gone a bit lighter than when I last saw him a few months ago. He is friendly and I'm feeling relaxed despite having been a bit nervous in anticipation of our meeting. I fear my questions will not be good enough, or intelligent enough for him.\n\nHase's home is just as I had imagined it: east meets west, and serene. I am served English tea in a Chinese mug and we are using bronze coasters with Chinese characters on them.\n\nWhen I go back to Toronto, my friends often say I sound a bit British, and sometimes they say they don't know what I sound like. But Hase's English accent hasn't been corrupted by his learning Cantonese.\n\n\"Cantonese is difficult because of two things. The first is, it's not written,\" said Hase. \"Now if you're learning Mandarin, you can learn to read it and learn to speak it and the two help each other...The second problem is the tonal structure, which is very complicated, infinitely more complicated than it is in Mandarin and that's very difficult for foreigners...\"\n\n\"So, when I'm speaking Cantonese, my tones are not bad but if I get angry, if I lose my temper, then my tones start to change.\"\n\nHard to believe that Hase arrived in the colony not knowing a word of the language. The government wasn't looking for people who knew the language, just for people who wanted a job.\n\nHase was born in the United Kingdom and got his Ph.D. from Cambridge in an aspect of 7th Century English History. Hase was unable to get a job teaching and opted for a job with the government as an Administrative Officer with his first posting as Administrative Assistant in the Urban Services Department. He arrived in the territory in 1972\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215923, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "156\n\n: \n\nSinn has written extensively on the history of modern China and Hong Kong, in both English and Chinese, and was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Star in the SAR's 2000 Honours' List for her work in the field of heritage. She has edited many books and with Dr. Hase was co-editor of the RAS publication to mark the 35th anniversary of Hong Kong branch, \"Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong.\" She is proud of her introduction to the book.\n\n1\n\n\"It's hard to remember which of my articles I enjoyed writing most. I guess I rather enjoyed writing 'Kowloon Walled City.' [But] '1884 riots' was much too serious, and if I were to be writing it again today, I would take a very different approach—a more relaxed approach. The 'Study of Local History' is very informative, but I don't think it's particularly exciting! In the long run, I think the last one will probably have the greatest impact.\"\n\nSinn joined the Council in 1982, and is currently serving as vice-president and has been for the last 10 years.\n\n\"I was invited to join the Council—I don't remember by whom, but it is most likely to have been James [Hayes]. I joined because I thought the RAS did interesting things. Before I joined the Council, I had attended some of the lectures and seminars and also read the journal. I felt I was learning a lot from it.\n\nAccording to Hase, Sinn was the number one choice for the presidency two years ago, when Waters first wanted to retire, and again this year.\n\n\"I'm still very doubtful as to whether I was the best choice [for president]. Elizabeth Sinn would have been the best choice. We asked Elizabeth to be president, but she said no,” said Hase.\n\n\"My ambition in life is to be a really good historian and write a few great books,\" said Sinn. \"And I wouldn't be able to do that if I tried to do too many things. A good president really needs to invest a lot of time in the job—like Dr. Waters. I respect him so much because he really gives it his all. Since I know I won't be able to spare the time, it's best that I don't take up the presidency.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215925, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "158\n\nmy own embarrassment, these expatriates interviewed in this story know more about the language and culture than the writer, a Hong Kong-born, Canadian-raised Chinese...\n\nThroughout the 40th anniversary conference, Sinn popped on and off stage, before and after speakers did their bits, and said many wonderful things about them. In Reverend Smith's case, she threw her arms around the learned, gentle senior citizen and gave him a kiss on the cheek.\n\nSinn was equally emotional when it came to Dr. Waters. She displayed the same affection, a strong squeeze of his hand and a light peck on the cheek. The lady in the green cheong-sam would certainly make a good first Chinese president.\n\nT'ai Sui, The God of Time...\n\nAs part of its anniversary celebration, the RAS published a special journal that included many new articles about Hong Kong culture and history. It was entitled, \"T'ai Sui, The God of Time,\" and copies of it would be sent to every member, a couple of weeks after the conference.\n\nThe conference itself ended with a special ceremony. Dr. Waters was asked to the stage and Sinn presented the president with a gift. Waters unwrapped the box to find a traditional Chinese birthday present — a 24-carat gold peach set in a clear plastic box and wrapped with a red ribbon.\n\nThe president was noticeably delighted by the thoughtfulness of the vice-president — it was very obviously Sinn's idea — and his RAS colleagues. He thanked Sinn with a big hug and, speaking in a slightly choked voice, thanked the audience. A scan of the room made it evident that the warm feelings that day were mutual.\n\nHolding back tears, Waters, who would step down as president in a few months, clutched the gift and waved it high in the air like a hard-won trophy. The gift was in recognition of his friendship and his service and also his birthday. He turned 80 just over a week ago, thanks to T'ai Sui, the God of time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216024, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 323, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "257\n\nand pleasure-grounds, all of which showed evident signs of great neglect. The suburbs were one dense mass of habitations of two stories in height; the lower portions of which were devoted to the handicraftsmen, who employed themselves in them, or to store rooms, in which merchandise was deposited. There were numerous public buildings, most of them appearing to be of a religious character, either dedicated to Buddha or Confucius.\n\nMainly for safety reasons ships passing up and down the Yangzi tended to use the main channel which ran along the north bank of the Great River opposite Zhenjiang. Down the years spits have formed close to Zhenjiang, mainly off Ganlu Si [Consular Bluff] and Xiang Shan Bluff, whilst the Zhengrenzhou spit steadily advanced downstream from the west blocking off the approaches to the harbour. The flat sandy bottom, so the Admiralty Guide tells us, does not provide good holding ground, especially during autumn gales.\n\nThe channel of the Great River at Zhenjiang is some two miles in breadth and had long been a ferry crossing point over the Yangzi, linking Zhenjiang with the major city of Yangzhou, a short distance upstream of the northern section of the Grand Canal. The long-mooted bridge over the River has still to be built. In the early days of the opening up of China by the West the city was believed to be the furthest point upstream on the Yangzi which seagoing vessels of the heaviest burden could reach with comparative ease. When Hankou, over five hundred miles further upstream, was opened to foreign trade it soon became apparent that trade at Zhenjiang consisted of little more than being an agency for steamers using the port as a stopping point, and for the Customs House for Chinese merchants. So it was that when vessels had access to the fountainhead of trade at Hankou, together with the fact that the harbour at Zhenjiang having silted up, the importance of the port became in great measure superseded. Sadly, the dolphins which not too long ago frolicked in the Great River and were commonly seen off Zhenjiang have been fished into extinction with today's oily pollution preventing any return, though a very occasional porpoise may still be seen.\n\nA Victorian writer described the climate and temperature of Zhenjiang as 'little different from that in Shanghai, whereas the varied scenery and hilly surroundings of Zhenjiang were an advantage which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216049, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 348, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "282\n\nin 1896 took herself off up the Yangzi and later wrote about her six-month journey, including her stopover in Zhenjiang. She travelled on the steamer Poyang and...'after passing Silver Island [Jiao Shan], a wooded rock on which there is a fine temple, we reached Chinkiang, the first of the treaty ports on the Yangtze, and well situated at the junction of the Grand Canal with the river. On my two visits I thought it an attractive place. It has a fine bund and prosperous-looking foreign houses, with a British Consulate on a hill above; trees abound. The concession roads are broad and well kept. A row of fine hulks connected by bridges with the shore offers great facilities for the landing of goods and passengers. Sikh police are much in evidence, the hum of business greets one's ears, traffic throngs the bund, the Grand Canal is choked with junks, ...and judging from appearances only, one might think Zhenjiang a busier port than Hankow, the great centre for commerce in Central China'. Mrs Bird then goes on to describe the passing trade including...'our German rivals have done a very neat thing' in starting an albumen factory, in which the albumen, dextrously separated from the yolks of ducks' eggs, is made into slabs, which are sent to Germany for use in photography, the production of leather, and the printing of cotton, etc.'. She also commented on 'the beautiful Golden Island [Jin Shan], separated as recently as 1842 by the channel south of the island where there is now an expanse of wooded and cultivated land sprinkled with villages'.\n\nThe hulks were replaced many years ago, and yet again, since 1980, their wooden piers have been rebuilt into a row of some half dozen concrete piers. Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese Maritime Customs for forty-five years, referred several times to the hulks at Chinkiang, usually because the hulk owner, Bean in one instance, was involved in a law case with the local Customs Commissioner.\n\nIsabella Bird learned of a number of charities and organisations for the welfare of the poor from the British Consul, W R Carles, and from Rev. W W Lawton who had made careful investigations for the Christian Literary Association of Zhenjiang. She noted that there were an orphan asylum and a benevolent institute for girls in Zhenjiang as well as a benevolent institute with eighty boys. For adults there was a Bureau for Advancing Funds, of inestimable advantage to the struggling farmer or merchant. There were also two free dispensaries, with nine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216061, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 360, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "294\n\nalive and a prisoner of the Taiping in Nanjing Mesny was rescued by the Royal Navy in March 1863 after four to five months not too unpleasant captivity after a threat from the captain of the Royal Navy gunboat HMS Slaney to bombard Nanjing. Aboard the gunboat was Adkins, the British Vice-Consul from Zhenjiang, who informed Mesny that he had been given up for dead a long time ago, and that an account of his slaughter and dismemberment had been published in Shanghai papers. Released from Taiping captivity at Nanjing in April Mesny was taken by the British Vice-Consul to his station at Zhenjiang where he was fêted for a day or so before being advised to take the opportunity of a lifetime' as mate aboard a large American owned lorcha, damaged by fire and being towed to Hankou by the Express, a British river steamer.\n\nAdkins lived his lonely and dangerous life in Zhenjiang where his health deteriorated to the extent that he had to take medical leave. He also made occasional trips to the Taiping capital at Nanjing to demand compensation for the plundering of British vessels by the Taipings, which were far from enjoyable, even on occasions, sickening. In a letter to his father dated 20 March 1863 Adkins wrote that I received information that an Englishman was a prisoner in Nankin. My purpose here is to get the unfortunate fellow out of the clutches of the Rebels. I have just sent a dispatch to the head swell [Rebel] here and am awaiting his reply. I shall probably have to go to the city tomorrow'. From the date of Adkin's letter this almost certainly refers to Adkins'trip up Nanjing to effect Mesny's release from Taiping captivity.\n\nto\n\nBefore Mesny decided to return to Hankou, he later explained, he had seriously considered going back to Nanjing where he would have used his unique triangular yellow Taiping flag which would have ensured his welcome, there to wed the 'fair charmer' [the daughter of one of the Taiping leaders] who had written such a beautiful poem expressing hope that he would return to marry her. Mesny was now offered a number of contracts to sail cargoes through the Taiping lines, all of which he rejected on the advice of the British Vice-Consul, Adkins.\n\nMesny frequently wrote of various pretty women at the roadside during his journeys across China who had attracted him or, more to the point, were attracted by him. His descriptions of 'fair maidens' in towns and villages eyeing him and he ogling them crop up regularly with a\n\nPage 360\n\nPage 361", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216109, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 408, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "342\n\nthey would have provided (had they been left) and for the urban lineage they would have represented. Those wonderful old buildings are no longer with us to provide anchors in times of need.\n\nThey were replaced within a few years by high-rise air-conditioned buildings. Many depend upon artificial lighting and ventilation and have windows which do not open. Today, so many live and work in an artificial atmosphere. This major change led long ago to people discarding shorts and open-necked shirts and wearing two-piece suits and more formal and more uncomfortable clothing. The new lifestyle meant the better off were stepping from their air-conditioned homes, carrying brief cases, into their air-conditioned cars and then being conveyed to their air-conditioned offices.\n\nAt the end of World War Two the Chinese Nationalist Government was waiting in the wings just over the border to take over Hong Kong. But the British beat them to it. If the Americans had had their way, and British rule had been terminated in Hong Kong in 1945 and the place had been returned to China, it is possible to speculate what would have happened. In 1949 Hong Kong, like other big cities in China, would have been taken over by the People's Republic Government. This would have meant that, after 30 or so years of communist rule, Hong Kong would have been as backward economically as the rest of China. There would have been no 'Hong Kong miracle'. After 1978 the Territory would not have been able to form a nucleus for the economic development for the rest of China with its 'Open Door Policy.'\n\nPigeons\n\nUp until 1914 every marine launch of Hong Kong's Water Police (as the Marine Police were known then) took a few pigeons on board. These were used to fly messages back to headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. But in spite of the introduction of radio the pigeons were kept on strength. Members of the force contributed to buy them food. The flock of about 50 birds came to be looked upon much like the Barbary Apes at Gibraltar or the Ravens at the Tower of London. It was said when the pigeons departed from Marine Police Headquarters so would the British from Hong Kong.\n\nThe pigeons disappeared during the Japanese occupation but were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216110, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 409, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "343 said to have returned 'mysteriously' in 1945. They were watched carefully during the 1967 riots. When I went back to Marine Police Headquarters a year or so after the 1997 Handover, from Britain to China, the pigeons were no longer there. \"They are flying around Tsim Sha Tsui,' I was informed.\n\nIn many respects the social history of the Territory, together with its myths and legends, has been as exciting as any novel.\n\nHalf a century ago many of us who lived and worked in colonial Hong Kong gave limited thought to the future and the forces of modernity. Even if we had, it is unlikely that we would have envisaged anything like the degree of change that has actually taken place during which the world map has been redrawn.\n\nIf a person is unable to adjust to change then, certainly, Hong Kong is not the place to be. If it is any consolation the pace of change is even more likely to accelerate in the future. In this paper I have looked at the past 50 years with special emphasis on the 1950s and 60s. What will the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region be like in the middle of the 21st century?\n\nBut that has to be another story.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216148, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 447, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "381\n\nTHE COLOURFUL DOUGLAS LAPRAIK (1818-1869)\n\nPETER HANSELL\n\nA year or more ago I purchased what appeared to be an interesting clock at an auction of the residue of the estate of an elderly spinster lady domiciled in the UK, but without any surviving relatives.\n\nMy instant reaction to the likely function of this clock was that it had been used or owned by a merchant traveller or campaigner and so it turned out to be. Similar in substantive construction to a ship's chronometer, but with a lever escapement, it had been lovingly embellished with a gilt oriental bow and strut at some later date and was contained in a mahogany travelling case, which could be laid flat, carried by a flush brass handle, or hung from a concealed bracket. The silvered dial is cursively engraved Douglas Lapraik, Hong Kong.\n\nHaving no provenance from the previous owner, my researches had to begin. Many residents of Hong Kong will know the legend of Douglas Lapraik, but it is worth paraphrasing here. He left Scotland as 'a young businessman' in 1839 at the age of 21 in order to seek further fortunes in the Far East. He spent some time in Macao before moving to Hong Kong, which had recently become a British Dependency. Before arrival there in 1842 in somewhat straitened circumstances he had become acquainted with a fellow ex-patriot and clockmaker, Leonard Just, to whom he became apprenticed. There were several Justs who were devoted to the clock making industry, but Leonard had been supplying clocks and watches to the Chinese market before he emigrated from Scotland a little earlier. His son Leonard Just Junior was listed as an apprentice along with Lapraik. During this time, Douglas Lapraik must have become acquainted with numerous mariners, their ships and their clocks, which he undoubtedly repaired. After a few years he is recorded as setting up his own clock making business, which, after his final departure from Hong Kong, became \"Falconer Jewellers', a trading name that survives to this day.\n\nPerhaps a more important development was that pari passu with this horological activity he became commercially interested in ships and shipping, the building of docks and warehouses and the establishment of a very successful shipping line chiefly concerned with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216172, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 471, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "405\n\nMORE ON THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE, 1917-1921: A NEW DISCOVERY\n\nDAVID MAHONEY\n\nA recent discovery throws some light on the army of skilled and unskilled men from Shandong and surrounding provinces that comprised the Chinese Labour Corps during and after World War One.\n\nThe medals\n\nSeveral medals were awarded to British troops for service in the First World War: 1914 Star, 1914/15 Star, Territorial War Medal, British War Medal (BWM), and the Allied Victory Medal. All troops in \"war zones\" would have received the latter two, the BWM in silver.\n\nSupporting the fighting troops was a huge army of non-combatants from Africa, the Middle East, Malta, etc., and from China, nationals of whom were formed into the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC). In addition to Indian labourers, recruited from the sub-continent, were Chinese labourers resident in Calcutta, which comprised the 62nd Chinese Indian Labour Company. All these non-combatants in war zones were awarded the BWM in bronze, but not the Victory Medal.\n\nBritish officers and Other Ranks with the CLC received the BWM in silver as well as the Victory Medal.\n\nUnlike all other BWMs, which were impressed around the edge with the recipient's number and name, the bronze medals awarded to members of the CLC were numbered but not named. The appropriate medal roll (WO329/2374-2383) held by the Public Records Office at Kew in West London reveals the identity of the 134,353 Chinese members of the CLC who were awarded the bronze medal. However, as many of the recipients could not be located once they had returned to China, a large number of these medals were undelivered and were returned to the Royal Mint for destruction.\n\nThe discovery\n\nSome years ago, there came to light the pocketbook of Labourer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216198, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 497, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "431\n\nTHE WRESTLING PRINCES\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nDown the years I have visited many, many Chinese temples in my search for images of the deities and their legends. One near the coastal town of Muar in western Malaysia contained a pair of deities well known to me standing on the altar table before and below the main altar. The image consisted of a pair of conjoined deities - the Taibao Sheren, a Fujian local popular religion Daoist cult, involving a pair of youths, princes, so the story goes, who in image form are depicted standing together, legs apart, holding on to each other either with one arm around the other's shoulders or clutching a part of the other's anatomy, such as the knee, as if wrestling. In this instance the Taibao possibly means The Great Guardian, an old dynastic title for one of the most senior of the Chinese imperial advisers rather than the Great Protector which is the literal meaning. Sheren was a quasi-official title for \"independent kinsmen” in other words \"hangers on.”\n\nIndividually the two youths bear the names of Kang and Ruan though they were identified in two temples in southern Malaysia simply, one the Sheren as the Civil Protector, Wenbao and the other, the Taibao as the Military Protector, Wubao. They are worshipped for general good fortune and have only been identified in small Chinese temples within Fujian communities in Singapore, Malaysia, southern Thailand and in two or three temples in Taipei and Kaohsiung counties in Taiwan. In this rural temple near Muar Kesang the main deity on the altar is a seated matron known as Liu Jia Zhenren.\n\nFor Yuan Jian Zhenren, not seen anywhere else and said to be the mother of the two youths. Before and below her image are two sets of the youths, portraying them as wrestlers with leather shin-guards and wrist strengtheners, with one of the pair grasping the other firmly by the leg.\n\nThe two are believed by some to have been Indian princes brought to Fujian more than a thousand years ago and little more, apart from their surnames, would appear to be known at any of the temples in which these images have been seen. However, in one temple in Taiwan they were said to be the sons of a wealthy man. One son had shown great aptitude and had been sent to study in the capital, and was white\n\nJ", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216199, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 498, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "432\n\nskinned, whilst the other had been put to work supervising the father's labourers in the fields and whose skin had been burned black. The elder was said to be depicted at thirteen years of age whilst the second was two years younger. Ruan, the younger prince, is portrayed with a fierce expression whilst the elder has a gentler look despite not having any eyebrows. Both tend to be depicted with white [pink] or black skin, and are barefoot. Both are dressed simply, in trousers and a small apron. They wear golden bracelets on their forearms and their head-dress consists of a gilded crown from which protrude long peacock's feathers. A tiny matshed seaside shrine at Port Dickson, also on the west coast of Malaysia, contains a small composite image of the youths, most certainly wrestling, one grasping the other by his queue and an arm.\n\nIn a temple in Singapore the keeper was adamant that the two youths only spoke Hindi and that many of the devotees in his temple praying before them were Singaporean Indians who regularly consulted the Hokkien [Fujian] spirit medium in the temple. In every day life the medium only spoke Hokkien and therefore had to work through a spirit interpreter. The Indian devotees, he added, could only understand their mother tongue, Tamil, one of the Dravidian languages of southern India and who seemed to be able to converse with the deities through the medium without any trouble 'as the medium in his trance spoke Tamil'.\n\nIn one temple in Fujian recently a local Chinese explained that they were homosexuals presumably a guess inspired by their pose. However, you can imagine our reaction when in a village temple in Kaohsiung county in southern Taiwan we saw what appeared to be the standard image of the pair, swathed as usual in silken robes donated by devotees, being “undressed\" by the leering temple custodian to reveal that the dark skinned youth was holding the white skinned by the forearm and his queue whilst the white skinned youth had one arm around the shoulder of the black skinned one, but was holding the black skinned youth's penis with the other hand. The custodian fell about when he saw how disconcerted we were. The village elders left their card playing on the temple veranda to join in the general laughter which encouraged village children to rush in to see what was happening. They were chased out but not before several had managed to see the image and were unable to get out fast enough to tell the others what they had seen. The custodian explained that someone had ordered the image to be carved this way some years ago, possibly as a joke, and very few devotees", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216204, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 503, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "437\n\nAssociation on 3 December 1999. Behind the church over 100 steps led up to a tall statue of St Francis Xavier. Beside the steps were 14 stone posts bearing Chinese numbering and inscription. The pedestal of the statue bears worn inscriptions in Chinese and Portuguese - ‘Aqui foi sepultado S. Fran.co Xavier da Comp.a de Jesus, Alpo do Oriente. Este Padrao se levantou no anno de 1639.'\n\nThe current caretaker, Mr Lam, took over in 1996 from a Christian caretaker aged 86, who had cared for the church since 1984. We had the pleasure of meeting this delightful old man in the village beside the church. The current caretaker suggested that for further information we could contact the Religious Affairs Dept. of Tai Shan Municipal Government on Tel 075 552 5980.\n\nWe returned to the port for a good seafood lunch. The ferry arrived a little late but took us safely back to Shen Ju in good time for us to hire a taxi to Zhuhai. There we crossed the border to Macau and enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a bottle of good Portuguese wine, and a toast to the memory of St Francis.\n\nA visit assisted by China Travel Service\n\nBy chance, in June 2001, I (Chris Bailey) had read an article in HK Magazine about the Jesuit-run Xavier Retreat House on Cheung Chau - dedicated to the missionary Saint Francis-Xavier. The article quoted the resident priest, Father Kane, as follows: \"Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuits, and came to Asia in 1542. He was a tough guy, a trailblazer and died very near to Hong Kong, on an island about 60 miles west of Macau. His letters describe travelling from Japan and trying to get to Guangzhou, and stopping somewhere nearby to get fresh vegetables and water. There is one historian who theorizes that he stopped at the Old Port in Hong Kong. In any case, he must have passed through Hong Kong waters and seen the islands here. So I stand here (in the Xavier Retreat House) and see what he saw over 400 years ago It's very private, on top of a hill and overlooking the sea. It's a very beautiful sight.”\n\nThis information inspired me to speak to Father Kane who said he knew the island well, had been there several times via Macau and that there was a non-active church dedicated to Francis Xavier, built close", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216246, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "regarding a clandestine relationship that he had many years before with a Chinese lady and which produced three children.\n\nRoderick O'Brien addresses a totally different subject. In April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, after the defeat of Lon Nol's Khmer Republic forces, and entered Phnom Penh. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge remained in power for nearly four years, pursuing policies which resulted in the death of nearly two million people through execution, starvation, and disease. The question of a tribunal to bring those responsible to justice has been on the drawing board for several years but has yet to materialise. Roderick has lived and worked in Cambodia and provides a factual, objective and unemotional account of the tragedy of Cambodia and what may lie ahead.\n\nThe exploits of H.M.S. Hermes on the China Station in the 1930s occupy Jonathan Parkinson. Hermes was the Royal Navy's first purpose-built aircraft carrier and was, by all accounts, a happy ship. She was ultimately sunk by the Japanese off Batticaloa in 1942; a sad end to a distinguished career spanning nearly 20 years.\n\nWhere would our Journal be without the redoubtable Keith Stevens? Keith has produced another splendid article for this volume. It recounts the Russo-Japanese War fought largely on Chinese soil - and with scant regard for the Chinese people who suffered greatly - almost exactly 100 years ago.\n\nThe Notes and Queries section is an important miscellany of this and that. Each little and not so little piece represents an investment in time and effort by the individual concerned. Included is another piece on the Chinese Labour Corps in Europe during World War I (See The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921, Vol. 40, JHKBRAS, pp. 33-111, and various Notes and Queries in Vols. 41 and 42); some interesting photos which I will leave readers to mull over themselves; a further moving piece (which was almost an article) on Samuel Cornell Plant by his nephew Michael Gillam no less (see The Life and Times of Captain Samuel Cornell Plant, Vol. 41, JHKBRAS, pp. 407-416); a note on the Belilios Star (Hong Kong's official life-saving medal); and a piece on what became of the Tyndareus Stone which used to adorn the sitting out area beneath High West (Victoria Peak) before it was plundered - I see no other word for it - by the British Army in 1993.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216287, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "2003 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FRIENDS OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF\n\nTHE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY (UK)\n\nAlthough the number of Friends' activities during the past year cannot compete with those in Hong Kong, it is nevertheless pleasing to report that the quarterly meetings which have taken place have been of a very high standard. They started in May 2003 with a bold and forthright talk by Dr. Francis Wood, entitled 'Marco Polo and Me.' Dr. Wood is curator of Chinese Collections at the British Library and author of 'Did Marco Polo Go To China?' and 'No Dogs, Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port Life in China 1843-1943.' Her talk was very convincing and one was left in no doubt that there are still many unanswered questions about Marco Polo's trips to China.\n\nThe second event took 35 Friends to Bath and Bristol for two days in early October, 2003. Bath has an excellent Museum of East Asian Art, originally set up by Mr. Brian McElney, who lived in Hong Kong for many years in the 1960s and 70s. He became a well-known collector of Chinese artefacts. The museum now houses a wide range of Far Eastern art, including items from South Korea and Japan. Our visit coincided with the very well presented exhibition 'Death and Burial: The Chinese and the Afterlife.' The Friends were particularly impressed by the emphasis on education and the museum's outreach to local schools. The day ended with a very authentic Chinese meal at the Cathay Rendezvous in Bristol.\n\nThe following morning the Friends met at the Empire and Commonwealth Museum, which was opened in Bristol three years ago, with a great deal of local and overseas backing, including the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It was particularly pleasing to see Dr. Dan Waters' name inscribed in the entrance hall. The exhibition portrayed in very enlightened and balanced ways a history of the Commonwealth countries, as seen by many of the local people who lived there. The items on display showed that the build-up of Empire and Commonwealth was a remarkable achievement, but there were clearly some aspects which did not come up to the high ideals many expected - this precipitated a lively topic for discussion during the lunch that followed after the visit and the subsequent river cruise through the old town of Bristol.\n\nxlvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216289, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "# HKBRAS VOLUNTEERS NEWSLETTER\n\n## Change of Leader\n\nBill Greaves has now handed over leadership of the Volunteers to me and this Newsletter is my first attempt to get in touch with you all. Bill has led the Volunteers since we were formed in 1992 to assist the Antiquities & Monuments Office (AMO) to identify, survey, research and record historical buildings with a view to grading. Qualifications are a knowledge or interest in local history, architecture and building conservation and willingness to undertake research in government archives, departments and university libraries.\n\nInitially the Volunteers concentrated on Water Supplies Department buildings and military buildings. As a result of our efforts a number of buildings in these categories were subsequently graded, and we moved on to other buildings such as shophouses and religious buildings. The last major exercise we were involved in was the recording of all remaining military batteries, which took about a year to complete. Bill took the central role in all this co-ordinating research and reports, and arranging field trips. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bill for all his hard work over the past years. Bill will continue to be a member of the Volunteers - you will all be pleased to know.\n\n## Programme for 2004\n\nThe AMO now has a total of over 8,000 heritage buildings on record and more than they can ever hope to handle for grading. In fact the grading system has been suspended for some time. Volunteers also rarely have the spare time to carry out research work and can only volunteer their services for Saturday mornings. The future role of the Volunteers therefore needs to be redefined. To this end I hope to organize a meeting for the Volunteers with the Curator (Historic Buildings), Antiquities & Monuments Office to see how we can assist them, and to work out a programme for the summer. This meeting will probably not be before May as I have to go to the U.K. for a few weeks.\n\n## Future Activities\n\nSome ideas for future activities (one event per month) are as\n\nxlviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216290, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "follows: to only tackle projects on an ad hoc basis when something interesting turns up, suggested by a Volunteer or by someone writing in to AMO as sometimes happens; to revisit restored buildings and heritage trails and input comments and suggestions on feed-back forms to AMO on standard and quality of conservation works, improvements to management, signage, etc.; to hold Saturday morning workshops with AMO staff to discuss various aspects of conservation and heritage, which might include presentations or talks by Volunteers or other interested parties; to catalogue the store of salvaged architectural materials and artefacts held by the Architectural Services Department with a view to transferring the collection to AMO's store at North Point for restoration and re-use in suitable projects. Any other suggestions for future activities are welcome.\n\nFriends of Heritage\n\nThe Friends of Heritage Scheme was launched in 1997 to recruit volunteers to assist in heritage conservation and promotional work. AMO are now recruiting the Fifth Batch of Friends of Heritage and an application form can be picked up from the AMO Reception Desk, 136 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui if you are interested in joining up. Further details of the scheme are given in the application form. RAS secretary Mary Painter also has a supply of these forms; if you call her on 2813 7500 she will post one to you.\n\nKom Tong Hall\n\nAlthough the Volunteers did not have any involvement, our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, did obtain a personal assurance from the Secretary for Home Affairs that the building would not be demolished. The present position is that AMO are drawing up conservation guidelines for the architect for the proposed Sun Yat Sen Museum to follow.\n\nRennies Mill\n\nMany of you may know the old ruin on top of the hill overlooking the site of the old Rennies Mill. There have been various suggestions regarding the original use or purpose of the structure which consists of a ruined tower and small village-type house. These suggestions are\n\nxlix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216291, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "that the tower might have been a lighthouse, silo, Martello tower, fort, folly or a windmill. However, our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, and HKBRAS Council Member and local historian, Mr. Ko Tin-keung, have identified the structure as an old Imperial Maritime Customs Post built probably in the latter half of the 19th century. It was leased by the Hong Kong Milling Company from 1905 to 1925. AMO is looking for a volunteer to carry out further research. Is anyone interested?\n\nEarly Modernist Buildings\n\nThe Executive Secretary (Antiquities & Monuments), Dr. Louis Ng would like us to draw up a list of early modernist style (Bauhaus, International, Art Deco) buildings still remaining. Examples include the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (1941), Wan Chai Market (1937) and the Vice-Chancellor's Residence, HKU (1950). If anyone knows of any such buildings please let me know the address. When I have got a list together I will organize a field trip to assess them.\n\nGovernment Policy on Built Heritage Conservation\n\nGovernment is now reviewing the policy on built heritage conservation and is consulting the public. A Consultation Document (Executive Summary) can be picked up at the AMO Reception Desk, 136 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui. Comments and views should be sent to the Home Affairs Bureau by 18 May 2004.\n\nNew Members\n\nI would like to welcome the following new members of the Volunteers :-\n\nName/Interests\n\nDebbie Levin/Local history and culture\n\nJonathan Luk/Cemetery surveys\n\nThomas Foo/Cemetery surveys\n\nWe look forward to meeting our new friends at our next get-together.\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216298, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "6\n\nincorporating the existing country park in Ma On Shan, marine park, hiking trail, holiday camp, water sports centre and festival market in the town. Moreover, Tai Long Wan - a traditional dwelling with its nearby beautiful beach in the eastern part of Sai Kung - was also included in its developmental guidelines for selected areas pending the preparation of Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs). However, the contested issue in Tai Long Wan is going to be the first case I will introduce.\n\nTai Long Wan is especially well known among hikers and trail-walkers due to it being situated on the way from Long Ke to Pak Tam Au, forming the MacLehose Trail Stage Two. Nonetheless, we realize that the Town Planning Board (TPB) also deferred the Tai Long Wan zoning decision which was included in the SENTDSR for the intensive tourism/recreation and conservation/landscapes planning in Sai Kung area. After the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) rejected plans to build the Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau spur line project and the Lantau North-South Road link between Tai Ho Wan and Mui Wo, it perhaps was not surprising that the main reason for the postponement of the decision was the existence of certain rare plants in the area. And, TPB worried that natural resources in the proposed village zone area, in which indigenous people want to build houses, would be negatively affected in relevant development. A closer investigation of the situation in Tai Long Wan highlights the significant role of the government and implications of its policy and plan in balancing indigenous livelihood and the natural conservation.\n\nTai Long Wan\n\nTai Long Wan is a traditional settlement consisting of five villages and villagers with different surnames living together. It was probably founded more than 200 years ago even though we are not able to tell whether they came before or after the Coastal Evacuation 1662-1669.* Historically speaking, in 1899, there were already 700-800 villages including tsuen (not walled) and wai (walled) in the New Territories, and the two major dialectic groups were Punti who spoke Wai-tau language, and Hakka who spoke Hakka language. Those villages were grouped together in different regional alliances; however, after the official land registration at the beginning of the British colonial regime, the previous Chinese administrative units of heung and yeuk were strongly affected as well as weakened. In South China, the heung,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216302, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "10\n\nPak Lap is a single (Lau) surname Hakka village in which 17 houses built in two rows. In the past, Pak Lap's villagers depended on both farming and fishing; however, beginning in the early 1980s, farmland was taken out of agricultural production and most villagers moved away either working overseas or in the city. In 1993, a total amount of 300,000 square feet farm land belonged to Pak Lap villagers was all sold to a local developer; however, house land was still kept by the villagers. In addition, I was told that a condition of the transaction required by the villagers was that the developer had to rebuild the two rows of village houses (which they called Hakka pai house), even though the developer could have the rights of using them on a long-term basis to rent out for outsiders/visitors.\n\nUntil 1999, Hong Kong's economy was still on the downside, the developer was no more able to fulfil the previous contract made in 1993. With the mutual understanding between Pak Lap villagers and developer, restoration instead of rebuilding was agreed; moreover, the rights of using were passed on to the constructor, Mr. Wong, because of the incomplete payment owed by the developer. Starting from that moment, the Wong family was in charge of managing the 17 houses in Pak Lap; two for their own use and 15 for renting out. When I visited them in early 2002, I found the rebuilding of the Lau Ancestral Hall was complete and some abandoned farmland was cultivated to grow different kinds of vegetables for the meals provided to visitors and customers staying overnight in the Hakka houses.\n\nChek Keng\n\nThe third village that I would like to introduce is Chek Keng. Unlike Tai Long Wan and Pak Lap, most buildings in Chek Keng can still be seen as they used to be, even though some of the houses had collapsed. Chek Keng is a traditional settlement consisting of five different lineage groups living together, and it was probably founded more than 200 years ago. Regarding the history of lineages in this Hakka village, I was told that there were five different lineages with surnames Fan, Chiu, Lee, Wong and Cheng living in the village. I got a chance to contact the village representative, Mr. Fan, who spent most of his time between UK and Hong Kong. The situation of Chek Keng was reported on by an English-language daily regarding lives of elderly New Territories villagers. Based on the only one Chek Keng resident", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216345, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "53 \n\n* Giles, Glossary, op.cit., p.57. \n\n44 Downing, C. Toogood (1838). The Stranger in China, or The Fanqui's Visit to The Celestial Empire in 1836-7. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 2 vols., Vol. I, pp.9-10. A diary kept on a French ship in 1779 tells of an \"outside\" pilot boat from Macau, whose five occupants spoke a kind of corrupt Portuguese. Charles de Constant (1939). Recit de Trois Voyages A la Chine 1779-1793. Passages chosen and annotated by Philippe de Vargas. Published by L'Ami, Revue Mensuelle, Yenching, Peking.. \n\n45 \n\n46 \n\nDavis, The Chinese, op.cit., (1836 edition, London, Charles Knight), Vol.II, p. 447.. \n\nDowning, The Stranger in China, op.cit., Vol.I, p.10. \n\n* Ibid., Vol. I, p.27. \n\n48 \n\nMorse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit., p.74 \n\nDavis, The Chinese, op. cit., (1836 edition, London, Charles Knight), Vol.II, p. 449. \n\n50 Ibid., Vol. II, pp.448-9. \n\n51 Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit., p.74. \n\n32 \n\nChina and the English (1835). New York, p.73. Written for Abbott's Fireside Series. \n\n53 Ball, Rambles in Eastern Asia, op. cit., p.99. \n\n54 Abbott's Fireside Series, op.cit., p.73, \n\n55 \n\nA striking instance is given in Wei Peh T'I (1981). Juan Yuan's Management of Sino-British Relations in Canton 1817-1826, The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, (hereafter JHKBRAS), Vol. 21, pp.153-5. Pidgin English has been described succinctly as being 'a singular admixture of corrupted Portuguese, English, Hindustani, and other foreign words spoken largely in a Chinese syntax': Chang, Commissioner Lin, op.cit., pp.235-6, n47. For a recent detailed statement on Pidgin, see Selby, Anne and Stephen (1995)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216357, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "65\n\nshe continued to be kept i.e. paid ($30 a month) by me till I went home on leave in 1866, we never lived together afterwards and very rarely met. Between 1858 & 1864 she gave birth to three children. In 1866 the connection was dissolved and Ayaou was then presented with $3000 when she surrendered her children to my agent and herself married a Chinaman. The children were sent to England and it was arranged that W. Hutchins my lawyer should take charge of them: I then entrusted him with £6000 for their benefit. They were described as my wards and were named respectively Anna, Herbert and Arthur. At the time W. Hutchins took charge they were lodging with one of the employees of Smith, Elder & Co. Anna died some years ago: [,] Arthur went about the same time to Canada and recently Herbert left England to join him there. I never saw any of the children of Ayaou's since they left China, and, while in China, I believe I only saw Anna twice or three times, Herbert once, and Arthur never. As they were all born while Ayaou was kept by me I decided to provide them respectably, and did so, rather than leave them to their fate in China. Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved but we were not married, and she was not my wife, and her children were illegitimate.\n\nI was married to Hester Jane Bredon in 1866: [,] she is my wife: [.] I was never married to any other: [,] her son Edgar Bruce is my only legitimate son, and is the legitimate heir to the Baronetcy!\n\nI certify the above statement to be true in every respect,\n\nRobert Hart (signature) Peitaiho, 19th August 1905\n\nDeclaration 2., Item 12:\n\n1. In the year 1857 when in China I formed a connection with a Chinese girl named Ayaon.* At that time it was a common practice", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216358, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "66\n\nfor unmarried Englishmen resident in China to keep a Chinese girl and I did as others did. Ayaon lived with me at Ningpo during 1857 and went with me when I was transferred to Canton in February 1858. Later in the same year I left her at Macao and from that time ceased to live with her and saw her but seldom, though I continued to pay her monthly sum of thirty dollars for her support down to the time of our connection being finally terminated as after mentioned. Between 1858 and 1864 she gave birth to three children. In 1866 I went home on leave and on that occasion the connection between Ayaon and myself was finally dissolved. I paid her the sum of three thousand dollars and she married a Chinaman. As all the children were born while Ayaon was being kept by me I decided to provide for them respectably and accordingly I made it part of the arrangement for separation that she should surrender her children to my Agent and she did so. I had the children sent to England to be educated and launched in the world and I settled a sum of six thousand pounds for their benefit which sum has long since been divided and distributed between them. Their names were Anna, Herbert and Arthur. To the best of my recollection and belief I have seen Anna twice or thrice only and Herbert once only. This was in China. I have never seen Arthur. Anna died some seventeen years ago and about the same time Arthur went to Canada, Herbert married and in or about the year 1905 went to Canada to join Arthur.\n\nHart's main purpose for producing the documents\n\nBetween 1904 and 1905, Hart was troubled by two of his children by Ayaou, Herbert and Arthur. The Court and Personal Column of the Morning Post for June 30, 1905, reported (ibid: 1480): \"Mr. Herbert Hart, eldest son of Sir Robert Hart, Bart., of Hong Kong, together with Mrs Hart and their only son left Liverpool by the steamer Bavarian yesterday for Ontario, Canada”. Hart's wife, Lady Hart visited the Morning Post soon after she learnt the news and the next day the newspaper made the following correction (ibid): \"We find that the paragraph in our issue of yesterday announcing the departure of Mr Herbert Hart for Canada does not relate to the only son of Sir Robert Hart, Bart., Inspector General of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Peking.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216359, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "67\n\nShortly after this incident in his letter to his London agent and confidant, James Duncan Campbell (ibid: 1478), Hart responded to the attempts at blackmail by one of his wards, Herbert, who demanded money from him:\n\nMy principle, in a general sense, is to \"face the music\" and pay no \"blackmail\" - but this has to be whittled into fitting form so as to cause as little worry as possible to others. I wish you had dipped deeper into my purse and sent off Herbert with £100 instead of only a \"Five Pound Note\".\n\nIn the same letter, Hart also referred to an incident in 1904 involving the two wards (ibid: 1479):\n\nI dare say we shall hear more of Herbert and Arthur from Canada: already a year ago someone who signed \"E. B. Hart\" wrote me from Canada saying a young man was moving about using my name (possibly Arthur) and asking me to authorise denial!\n\nIn the end of the letter Hart also wrote a post script mentioning that Lady Hart and her daughter, Nollie, planned to visit America, even this caused him disquiet (ibid);\n\nLady H. and Nollie propose visiting America this autumn: I don't want to dissuade them, but it is possible Herbert may find them out and something disagreeable may occur.\n\nIt indicates that Hart was concerned by these recurring troubles. He realised the repercussions of his 'mistake' were far from over. It is in this context that he wrote the first statutory declaration - Declaration 1, dated 19th August 1905, only 8 days after he wrote the letter mentioned above to Campbell. In the declaration, Hart, after detailing his non-marital relationship with Ayaou and the illegitimacy of his three children by her, declares clearly that \"I was married to Hester Jane Bredon in 1866; she is my wife: her son Edgar Bruce is my only legitimate son, and is the legitimate heir to the Baronetcy!\" It is obvious that although Hart was annoyed with Herbert for his attempts at blackmail, Hart's main concern is not money but the inheritance of his title. The fact that Herbert himself made claim in the newspaper - \"eldest son of Sir Robert Hart\" - and also the possibility that Arthur moved about using Hart's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216377, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "85\n\nGraveson, R. H. and Crane. F. R., A Century of Family Law. 1957.\n\nLondon: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd.\n\nKing, Paul. 1980. In the Chinese Customs Service - A personal record of forty-seven years.\n\nNew York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc.\n\nLittle, Lester K. 1975. Introduction in Fairbank, John K, Bruner, Katherine F, Matheson, Elizabeth M. 1975. eds. The I.G. in Peking - Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-1907. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.\n\nMcCusker, John J. 2003. “Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in the United States (or Colonies) from 1665 to 2002.” Economic History Services, 2003, URL: http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/.\n\nSmith, Richard J, Fairbank, John K, Bruner, Katherine F. 1991. eds. Robert Hart and China's Early Modernisation - His Journals, 1863-1866. Cambridge and London: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.\n\nWang, Hongbin. 2000. He De Jue Shi Zhuan - Da Qing Hai Guan Yang Zong Guan. (The Biography of Sir Robert Hart - The Foreign I.G. of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs) Beijing: Culture and Arts Press.\n\nWright, Stanley F. 1950. Hart and The Chinese Customs. Belfast: WM. Mullan & Son (Publishers) Ltd.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Transcribed by Deirdre Wildy, 18 September 2003\n\n2 Transcribed by Lan Li and Deirdre Wildy, 15 August 2003\n\n3 It is supposed that Hart had made Declaration 1 as a legal document, as in his letter to Campbell dated 11 August 1905 he added a post script dated 19 August - the same date that Declaration I was written: \"Yours 7th July received: herewith cover with statement for Murray Hutchins.\" (Fairbank, Bruner and Matherson 1975: 25, 1479) Murray, Hutchins & Co. was Hart's private solicitor, in Declaration I he mentioned: \"The children were sent to England and it was arranged that W. Hutchins my lawyer should take charge of them...\" Transcribed by Deirdre Wildy, 18 September 2003\n\n* In Declaration 1 Hart wrote: \"Anna died some seventeen years ago\". In his letter to Campbell on 8 July 1906, he wrote: \"The enclosed from Mr. Anderson, announcing the death of a former ward, Herbert Hart, has just reached me here through the Legation.\" (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 1513) \"Gertrude Bell in her diary on 5 May 1903 recorded that she went to Sir Robert", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "86\n\nHart's house and photographed him: \"He was extremely friendly, asked us to dinner, kept us talking, assuring us that he was a man busy enough always to have time to give people. Month after month, year after year, for the last 50 years has found him always at work; for 25 years he has had no holiday; he never goes away and has never been even to the Great Wall. 'My wife used to do my sightseeing and my visiting for me' he said. 'She was very useful to me. It's difficult to live alone.' I didn't know what to answer as Lady Hart seems to find it more difficult not to live alone.\"\n\n*\n\n7 The marital relationship between Hart and Lady Hart, as Bruner, Fairbank and Smith argued (1986: 322), is that \"each offered something the other was seeking.\" In his journal entry for 22 August 1867 - their first anniversary - he wrote: \"No one could have a better wife than I have got & so far, we have got on well together.\" Then he added: “At the same time, matrimony does interfere a man's work at times.\" (Volume 9, Transcribed by Deirdre Wildy, 15 September 2003)\n\n$\n\n* Similar statement can also be seen in Declaration 1\n\n\"Census place: Cliffton, Gloucester, England. Source: FHL film 1341597, PRO Ref RG11, Piece 2482, Folio 38, Page 22.\n\n10 See Bruner, Fairbank, and Smith edited “Entering China's Service” (1986: 150): \"Volume 3, as it now exists, begins on 20 March 1858, after a lapse of almost three years. The first pages of this new book, however, were torn out by Hart, who then wrote on the flyleaf '20 March to 6 Dec. 1858' as if that were the normal content of the volume.\" \"It seems evident that Hart did some tidying-up of his journals years later, perhaps in 1902 when Hosea B. Morse asked\n\n11\n\npermission to see them in connection with a proposed biography.\"\n\nIn March 1866 Hart left for home on leave and in late May he fell in love with Miss Hester Jane Bredon. This happened less than a year after Hart's third child was born. Hart was very determined to find a European girl to marry during his visit home. He knew that his proposal to Hester might be refused if he told her the truth, particularly the year when Arthur was born - giving proof to the fact that he continued his sexual relationship with Ayaou until at least late 1864. For Hart the best way to convince Hester to accept the reality of the situation was to let her believe that all these events had taken place a long time ago and she could therefore \"forget the past and welcome the future\". Perhaps it is for this reason that there are contradictions between Hart's statements concerning the year of Arthur's birth in Declaration 1 and 2 and those in his letter to Campbell as well as that which is recorded in 1881 British Census,\n\n12 Hart only felt a bit annoyed when he received two letters from her in 1870 and 1872 and troubled by two of his wards by her between 1904 and 1905.\n\n17\n\n13 See Declaration I.\n\n14 The sum of money equals £28,704, as $5 at that time roughly equals £1. In his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216474, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "183\n\nVISIT TO MACAU MUSEUM OF ART. 26 OCTOBER 2003\n\nA splendid day was enjoyed by the 28 participants on a visit to Macau on Sunday, 26 October 2003. Organised and led by the very knowledgeable and enthusiastic Council Member Jason Wordie, the purpose of the visit was to see the exhibition of George Smirnoff's watercolours, drawings and oil paintings at the Macau Museum of Art and to explore some of the places shown in the paintings. We were most fortunate to be joined for the day by Smirnoff's younger daughter, Nina Bieger, who remembers well the time her family spent in Macao in 1944 and 1945, when she was a child. Her memories, graciousness, and answers to our many questions added greatly to the pleasures of the day, making it a unique occasion. George Smirnoff was born in 1903 in Vladivostok. Educated as an engineer and architect, he worked in Harbin and Tsingtao. In 1939, he escaped to Hong Kong from the turmoil of Japanese-occupied northern China. Then, in 1944, with Hong Kong occupied by the Japanese, he and his family found refuge in Macau, where fortunately for posterity he was commissioned by Dr. Pedro José Lobo to paint a series of Macao scenes. These were the works we saw in this exhibition commemorating the centennial of Smirnoff's birth.\n\nCésar Guillén-Nuñez, who curated the first exhibition of Smirnoff's works in Macau almost twenty years ago, gave a brief introduction on the paintings themselves. When we left the Museum, we were each delighted to be presented with a hardcover copy of the exhibition book as a gift from the Museum, showing all of Smirnoff's works of art on display and giving fascinating historical information on his life.\n\nThe book proved very useful when, after an excellent lunch at the Club Militar, Jason led us on a 3-hour walk through the back streets and parks of Macau to see many of the locations shown in the watercolours. It was amazing that many of the scenes had changed very little in the nearly 60 years that have passed since they were painted. And the time passed very quickly as we listened intently to Jason's explanations and Nina's recollections.\n\nOur heartfelt thanks to both of them for such a memorable day.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216486, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "195\n\n-\n\nCornell Plant died at sea shortly before their ship's arrival at Hong Kong. Alice Plant died a day or so later and they were both buried in Happy Valley Cemetery, Hong Kong. This posed the question what happened to the two young Chinese girls? This is partly answered by an extract from a letter written to Cornell's younger brother Charles by J.L. Smith, the British Consul at Ichang, an old friend of Captain and Mrs Plant:\n\nThe reference to the two girls as \"adopted daughters\" is a mistake. The two girls were waifs bought by Mrs Plant a number of years ago and brought up by her as servants in her own house. They were too young to marry and therefore Mrs Plant was taking them home with her, intending to bring them back at the conclusion of her furlough after which she intended to marry them off and give them a small dowry. They are now being sent back from Hong Kong to Miss Moore of the Church of Scotland (Ladies) Mission here: Miss Moore desires to keep them for four or five years in her excellent girls school so that they can get an education after which she will see that they are decently married off or settled down in some occupation in the same way as Mrs Plant would have done. There is a movement on foot amongst friends of Captain and Mrs Plant to raise a sum of money to meet the expenses that will be entailed in connection with the education, etc. of the girls.\n\nIn the event, some $4,000 was raised by the friends and colleagues of Captain and Mrs Plant to educate the two girls and set them up in life. Although the Royal Library of Scotland has some of the letters sent home by Miss Amelia Moore to the Church of Scotland, no mention has yet been found of the two girls and what happened to them.\n\nThe 30 foot granite monument overlooking the gorges put up in memory of Captain Samuel Cornell Plant show the high esteem in which he was held by his friends, his business associates and the Chinese Customs Service. On his death, tributes were received from the representatives of many countries including France, Japan, and the United States of America. More personal were the feelings expressed in \"Plant the Pilot\" a poem written shortly after his death and the inscription on the silver inkwell presented to him by Captain F Scurr, shortly before his final voyage in 1921 as a small memento of many kindnesses while 'dodging the dragon.' It was all summed up in the words of his good friend of over ten years, the British Consul at Ichang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216502, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 261, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "213\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nFull Circle: A Life with Hong Kong and China\n\nRuth Hayhoe\n\nIntroduction by Mark Bray and Ora Kwo\n\nComparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong\n\nHong Kong, 200\n\nISBN 962 8093 31,2\n\n276pp.\n\nHK$200/US$32\n\nFew westerners in history have become as knowledgeably inculturated into respect for China and Chinese ways as Ruth Hayhoe has, or achieved her high level of trilingual Chinese skills.\n\nCenturies ago, the Jesuits adopted Chinese ways in order to convert China to Roman Catholicism. Some wore Chinese clothes and traveled in state like Confucian scholar-administrators, borne in palanquins preceded by attendants carrying their books. In the end, the Roman hierarchy thought they had gone too far, and the Order was suppressed.\n\nHayhoe wears the occasional mandarin collar, has written or edited several books and numerous articles, which could well be borne in state, and for just over four years, as a senior member of the educational hierarchy, enjoyed an official car in Hong Kong. But her avowed purpose is sometimes the opposite of that which compelled the Jesuits in the past. She wishes to bring Chinese knowledge (pp. 126, 251) -- and 'Asian ways of knowing' (pp. 20, 239) -- to the rest of the world. At other times, she looks for an equal balance; for, ‘an ideal set of relations between China and western countries, characterised by mutuality and ordered around the values of autonomy, equity, solidarity and participation.' (p. 117)\n\nThis Autobiography gives a description of how Hayhoe's inculturation took place and also expresses the illumination she found when writing this account of selected strata of her life. Although she tells us that when she left Canada for her first visit to Hong Kong, in June 1967, 'China meant nearly nothing to me' (p. 64), elsewhere she explains that, as she wrote this book, she came to feel that all her", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]