[
    {
        "id": 206055,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 135,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "130\n\nHENRY D. TALBOT\n\nThe lines of soundings indicate the tracks of ships and we are entitled to assume that, although they were probably not hydrographic survey ships, they are likely to have been annotating their charts to improve the depiction of the coast-line at the same time as plotting the position of the soundings.\n\nMost of the names given are romanized versions of Chinese names, presumably written down by a European sailor from the words spoken by a Chinese person on board. This would explain the b/m confusion in the case of “Botae Island\" (both are bilabials) and the n/l confusion in the case of \"Lammon\" (both are alveolar).5\n\nThe misnaming of \"Peng Chau\" as \"Tay Pak\" and \"Siu Kau Yi\" as \"Sui-pak\" can also be explained if the islands were seen from the east; on having them pointed out to him the Chinese person mistook the places indicated and gave the names of the villages on the coast of Lantao directly behind them.\n\nThe most extraordinary feature of the map is the fact that Hong Kong Island is shown as split in two parts with a waterway apparently running from the present Aldrich Bay (Shau Kei Wan) to Tai Tam Bay. A glance at the topographical and geological maps of the island shows that it is quite impossible that such a waterway could have existed at this time. The only feasible explanation is that at the time the ship was passing north of the island the visibility was so bad that the hills were not visible and that there appeared to be a strait at this place.\n\nThe name \"Fan-Chin-Cheou” is surprising as it does not appear in other sources as a name of Hong Kong Island. The last syllable \"Cheou\" presumably represents the well-known word \"chau\" meaning \"island\", as in \"Cheung Chau\" and \"Peng Chau”. No obvious meaning for the first two syllables is apparent, although it is tempting to suppose that \"Fan\" might mean \"Foreigner\". \"He-Ong-Kong\" is probably a mistaken transcription of \"Heong-Kong\", the equivalent of the modern name.\n\nA close examination of the shape of Lantao on the chart shows that this, too, is very badly distorted, especially on the eastern side. The bays such as Silvermine Bay are completely lacking, while the peninsula north of Chang Cheou Is. (Cheung Chau) is shown as a separate island.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136",
        "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
    }
]