[ { "id": 209772, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "The Memorial is mentioned in the Report of the Antiquities Advisory Board, 1983 (published by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, Urban Services Department) as \"having been restored with a generous contribution from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and the agreement of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals\" (p. 11 and plate 10 of the Report).\n\nexemplifies two major There is the Buddhist suffering, and the long-\n\n(d) The Tung Wah Eastern Hospital another institution built with private funds which motivating forces in local life. concern to relieve poverty and established Chinese tradition that the rich should participate in good works to assist the community and be seen to be doing so through a proliferation of photographs of donors, memorials, subscription lists and the like. This is evident (I think) to a far greater degree than in the West, where published subscription lists and a memorial stone or two are usually enough to record charitable contributions.\n\n(e) The Sir Ellis Kadoorie Government School-established in another location in the 1890s through the generosity of one of the Kadoorie family. These merchant princes of Hong Kong and Shanghai originated from Baghdad. Their zeal for community projects, and their conviction that wealth generated from the community should be ploughed back into it, came over strongly in the interesting film on the Kadoorie Agricultural Association's work here and in Nepal which we showed to our members at the British Council recently. The school was originally planned to be used mainly by Indian and Pakistani children, but it is now attended by Chinese also.\n\n(f) The Hong Kong Buddhist Association School this is one of a large number of schools operated by the Association, and also by individual Buddhist organisations. The Association was founded in 1932, revived in 1945 it was inactive during the Japanese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210186, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 157, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "136\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\np. 78. There was a custom-made school building on the edge of Wong Nei Chung village which is shown on maps from Collinson's survey onwards.\n\n13 By \"town\", Collinson means village.\n\n14 The Last Year in China by a Field Officer actually employed in that Country (London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 2nd edition 1843) p. 75.\n\n15 Cited from the Canton Press for January 1842 by G.R. Sayer op. cit., p. 121. For information on present day So Kon Po, see the Notes by Revd Carl T. Smith and myself in JHKBRAS, Vol. 23 (1983) p. 7-77.\n\n16 Wright and Allom, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 17 and again at p. 33, \"Bamboo Aqueduct at Hong Kong\".\n\nFor a fuller account see J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911, Land and Leadership in Town and Countryside. (Hamden, Conn., Anchor Books, 1977) pp. 25-32.\n\nE A copy of this letter from Mr. Chow Yat-kwong, JP, dated 30 March 1967, is now in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong,\n\n19 This statement can be found in the manuscript volume Summary Report of the Squatters Commission 1891-1906 in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong, under the date of hearing 6 July 1893. By \"100 years\" is meant \"from before anyone now alive can remember,\" as normally in local village usage.\n\n20\n\n21 Ibid, hearing of 26 January 1891 of claims at Wong Nei Chung.\n\nReport of the Hong Kong Mission, Vol. 23, June 1843, November 6, p. 157, in American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions Archives, Valley Forge, Pa., by courtesy of Revd Carl T. Smith.\n\n22 American Baptist Mission Archives, folder of Revd I.J. Roberts, No. 1 — China, also by courtesy of Revd Smith.\n\n23 Captain A.A.T. Cunynghame, quoted in Sayer, op. cit., p. 104.\n\n24 Stanley and Aberdeen in 1841 would seem to have been very similar in size and composition to the New Territories Market Towns in 1898 and earlier. Thus, Sai Kung had 50 shops and 150 houses in 1898 with a population of 512 (cf. C. Fred Blake Ethnic Groups and Social Change in a Chinese Market Town. (Hawaii, 1981 p. 27-28), Tai Po New Market had 38 shops within eight years of its foundation (J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region, op. cit. p. 36 and n. 78), and Yuen Long Old Market had about 160 buildings of which at least 100 were shops (see unpublished Report 24 (Yuen Long Kau Hui) produced by Antiquities and Monuments Section, Hong Kong Government). 100 shops specifically noted as being from the Yuen Long Old Market donated to the restoration of the Tai Wong Temple there in 1837. At the Yuen Long Old Market many of the families working in the Market lived in the adjacent villages of Nam Pin Wai and Sai Pin Wai. As well as the 100 shops donating in 1837, 7 residents in the Market, 52 in Nam Pin Wai, and 22 in Sai Pin Wai donated, suggesting a total community of about 200 families, about half of which had shops. Tai O must have had more than 100 shops: 119 shops donated to the restoration of the Tin Hau temple there in 1838, 98 to the restoration of the Hung Shing temple there in 1841, and between 105 and 126 to the restoration of the Man Mo temple there in 1852 (in each case counting \"workshops\" and \"ferries\" as shops).\n\n科大衛,陳總集,吳倫電位,合術 香港碑靠藥衚\n\nMOMSKOM * (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong) (Hong Kong Urban Council 1986), pp. 86-90, 90-93, 95-97, 103-107,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211613, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "and a treadmill was in operation for punishment up until the early 1900s. Prisoners were escorted to Court, so it is believed, by a tunnel. Although the author went to Victoria Prison in the 1970s, on Justice of the Peace visits, he is unable to substantiate this.\n\nA few colonial-style buildings, such as the Helena May Institute (completed 1916) on Garden Road, and the old Supreme Court building (foundations laid 1903, completed 1912) in Central District, are still in use. The latter is now the Legislative Council Chambers, and has been described as \"Lutyens classical revival style adapted for the tropics\".\n\nIn spite of forceful protests by the Heritage Society which was wound up, despondently, in 1983 — and the Conservancy Association, the Repulse Bay Hotel, the previous Hong Kong Club building, and the old Kowloon Railway terminus (except for the tower2) have all succumbed to the wrecker's hammer. The average Hong Kong citizen, it seems, has limited interest in conservation. He or she believes that a building has an economic life span, and, after that, it should go. To be fair, the Government, advised by the Antiquities and Monuments Office and the Antiquities Advisory Board, has declared a number of structures, for instance the Stanley Police Station (1859)13 as Monuments under the Antiquities Ordinance. Other Monuments include the steps and gas lamps in Duddell Street, Central District; rock carvings and inscriptions; old villages, for example Sam Tung Uk in Tsuen Wan; and the District Office, North, building at Tai Po in the New Territories.\n\nThe Territory also possesses a variety of other old structures, such as the fort and battery at Tung Chung and the fort at Tung Lung. There are also ancestral halls and study halls, like Shut Hing Shue Shan, at Ping Shan, and Chou Wong Yi Kung Shue Yuen, in Kam Tin.\n\nAmong other declared historical Monuments are Wan Chai Post Office (1915)1* in Queen's Road East, Western Market in Sheung Wan, and the Pathological Institute,1 in Caine Lane. As of 1990, such Monuments totalled 43. One of the most famous of Hong Kong's old buildings was Murray House (circa 1843).1 It was demolished carefully in 1982, and the parts were labelled, numbered and stored. The intention is to re-erect it on another site.\n\nIn 1935, the then new 66-metre high Hong Kong Bank (the third bank on that site) was fully air-conditioned (the first large building in Hong Kong).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212458, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "demonstrated when we appealed for volunteers to help the Antiquities and Monuments Board to grade buildings in Hong Kong which may have some historical interest. Around 20 volunteers have so far come forward and they have already been put to work. We need to thank Dr. Dan Waters for co-ordinating this project and hope that those who carry out this task will find their visits interesting enough to the extent that they may like to lead a Society trip sometime or even publish some brief notes for the Journal.\n\nLast year I reported on our efforts to stimulate interest from corporations, and create a category of corporate membership. The idea was that for the comparatively small sum of $10,000 p.a. it was intended to give certain privileges to corporate sponsors particularly in the area of acknowledgement in our publications. Amongst the reasons for this move, apart from putting the Society on a firmer financial basis, was to bring to those corporations' attention the Society's achievements and interests. I regret to say that we have not made much progress on this, but the matter will be receiving the attention of the Council during next year.\n\nOur Treasurer, Mr. Robert Nield will give you a detailed report shortly on the state of our finances. We are indeed fortunate to have them so professionally managed, to the extent that the Council now has computer graphs of our financial progress since the resuscitation of the Society in 1960. He will inform you, I hope, that our finances are in a reasonable state but the overall situation does need to be watched. You will notice therefore that later on this meeting we will be asking for approval to raise the annual subscriptions from $250 p.a. which was last set in January 1991 to $300 p.a., with corresponding increases in other category of memberships with effect from January 1993: this works out at a 20% rise over the two years which is around the rate of inflation over this period.\n\nYou will notice from the Librarian's report, by Mr. Y.C. Wan that the Library continues to be in a satisfactory state. However I regret to say that the books, although well kept, are still at the rather inaccessible Kowloon Central Library and not in the City Hall Central Library in a special collection room. It was hoped that by this time we would have knowledge of a definite move but in view of the possible re-development of the City Hall area it is not known whether the original plan will take place. It is intended to take this matter up further and I hope to be able to report on this more encouragingly next year.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212946, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 14, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "in these issues has recently been sent on the above lines.\n\nTurning to other activities I would like to place again on record our thanks to all those volunteers who have assisted in grading ancient buildings in Hong Kong for the Antiquities and Monuments Office. This project has been going on for two years and I understand has made significant inroads and according to Mr. Peter Chan, Curator (Historical Buildings), their reports and work are very professional. Our thanks are also due to those members who sit on the Antiquities Advisory Board and particularly to Dr. Dan Waters who co-ordinates all these efforts.\n\nOn the administration side all of us have a good deal to be grateful for; keeping a list of members, and ensuring that they pay their subscriptions are we know thankless tasks but without them a Society such as ours would soon die; Mrs. Sharon Bruce, our Assistant Secretary does a superb job here, and so does Mrs. Anita Wilson on the newsletter, without which nothing would happen; also our Secretary, Mr. David Sheil who somehow manages to produce coherent minutes of our Council meetings from his Lamma Island outpost. I will leave Mr. Robert Nield, our Treasurer to explain our finances to you; you will, I hope find them in good shape, and whilst a Society such as ours should not boast that it has made a profit on the Stock Exchange, the fact is we have.\n\nTwo of the most important academic activities of the Society are the build up of the Library and the publication of the Journal. Last year I reported that the Library, under the capable direction of our Librarian, Mr. Y.C. Wan, would be moving from its location in the rather inaccessible Kowloon Central Library to a special collection room in the re-organised City Hall Central Library. Together with new acquisitions during the last year this is now likely to happen in the foreseeable future. Not only that, it is liable to be input into the Urban Council's data base, and therefore computerised. This is indeed very good news and I hope that when the Library does move it will be utilised more than it is now: it is a very fine collection.\n\nThe publication of the Society's Journal is one of the most arduous tasks; editors of journals are a wonderful breed and our editor, Dr. Patrick Hase is no exception; indeed his patience with late contributions and sub-standard publishers is a model. It is therefore with some relief that I report that the 1990 Journal was finally published earlier this month and there is no doubt that it is fully up to the high academic standards of the ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213631, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 227, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "201\n\n'Will some kind hand in a foreign land place a flower on my son's grave.' \n\nAvril Williams has answered that call countless times. She looks upon the departed, including of course the two Chinese, as members of her extended family. It is important they all have visitors.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 J Keith Stevens, 'British Chinese Labour Corps' Labourers Buried in England', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society vol. 29, 1989 (1991), p 390 and Plates 24 and 25\n\n2 Michael Summerskill, China on the Western Front, Britain's Work Force in the First World War, published by Summerskill (1982), passim\n\n3 The Register at Foncquevillers Military Cemetery\n\n*S M Bard, Report on Survey and Study of old Service Graves at Stanley Military Cemetery, Antiquities and Monuments Office (Hong Kong, c 1990), p.10, and S M Bard, Annex to Board Paper Antiquities Advisory Board/21/91, Study of Military Graves and Monuments Hong Kong Cemetery (Hong Kong, 1991), p 17\n\n4 In large Chinese families children are still sometimes known by numbers eg 'Number Four Sister'\n\n5 British soldiers in World War Two each wore two identity discs on a cord around their necks. On these plastic discs were stamped their army number and their name. If a soldier was killed one disc was buried with the body and the other was sent back to base for record purposes\n\n6. Four proverbs were used. The other two were, 'A noble duty bravely done', and 'Though dead he still liveth'. All four have a hint of a Christian message\n\n7 Tim Sebastian, 'Haunted by the Ghosts of Heroes', South China Morning Post (1 July 1995), Features p.3\n\n8 Ibid\n\nPLATES\n\nPlate I Although an army number is inscribed, this grave of a Chinese labourer in Foncquevillers Cemetery is unnamed. This is not uncommon\n\nPlate II The inscription on this grave shows the name of the labourer and his native place in China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213665, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "And the wise man withers away like a plant\n\nLate of Shanghai and Hong Kong, Arnold Graham frequently wrote to the newspapers in Hong Kong under the pseudonym of 'Ancient Gwailo'. Before he left Hong Kong, in 1994, he made a donation of about 515 books to our library for which we remain grateful.\n\nFinance\n\nAgain our Honorary Treasurer, who looks after our precious dollars and makes sure we charge members sufficient for our services, will present his own report. We are grateful to him, and we depend a great deal on his professionalism and sound advice.\n\nThe Council\n\nMuch of the work done by your Council requires a special expertise, for instance posts like Treasurer, Librarian, and Editor. As mentioned above, we are grateful for the experience these office bearers bring to bear. Likewise, it is important the Council is able to offer a standard of scholarship and some of your Councillors are, or were, employed in academia. Several Councillors, as well as non-Council members, have published. Some offer administrative experience. It must be repeated here that your Council is a working Council. Everyone is expected to pull his or her weight. Some have undertaken additional tasks. For instance, Dr Elizabeth Sinn, with the assistance of Matthew Hockaday, is in the process of sorting and indexing the Society's collection of photographs.\n\nIn addition, because of their individual expertise, several Council members also serve on the Antiquities Advisory Board, in a personal capacity, and some are involved with 'Heritage Year' which is presently running in Hong Kong. Several Society members have acted as volunteers and have assisted the Antiquities and Monuments office. Your Branch has a good relationship with the Antiquities and Monuments office which we value.\n\nxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213949, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 19, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "named deserve a sincere vote of thanks for their efforts which, in some cases, have been considerable. When it is 'within the family', there is, naturally, a tendency for us members sitting on the Council to take one another rather for granted. For example, although our speakers who have given lectures over the past year are invited to this dinner tonight, Council members, even if they have given lectures or led groups and no matter how much they have contributed, are expected to pay for their own dinners.\n\nAs a democratic institution, this year again we invited members of good standing to nominate members to sit on the Council. No applications have been received. I am pleased to announce, however, that all Council members, with the exception of one, are willing to offer themselves for reelection for 1998/99. Owing to other pressing commitments Peter Rull has decided he must step down. During the past year he played a major role in organising the successful trip to Wai Chau, in Guangdong Province, in November. Together with a past Council Member, Phillip Bruce, and others, Peter has also done useful preliminary work on the publication of a special edition of our Journal which will include re-printed military articles and articles about World War II. Peter informs us that he intends to continue with this project and that he is willing to help the Branch in other ways even if he no longer sits on the Council.\n\nAssisting other bodies\n\nOver the past year some of our members, especially Council members, have assisted other bodies in various ways. This has included sitting on the Antiquities Advisory Board and its committees and helping the Antiquities and Monuments Office. It has also included RAS volunteers assisting with the grading of buildings and some Council members helping to organise Heritage Year which ran successfully throughout 1997. Your Branch has also started to develop some reciprocal arrangements with other societies, such as the Hong Kong Anthropological Society and we keep each other's members informed of coming functions.\n\nWith something always taking place and files building up quickly,\n\nxviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214112, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "149\n\nTHE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY AND HERITAGE EDUCATION\n\nDAN WATERS\n\n(This paper was presented at the International Conference, \"Heritage and Education”, held in Hong Kong on 17 and 18 December, 1997. It formed the concluding event of \"Heritage Year\" which was organised by the Antiquities Advisory Board, the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust and the Antiquities and Monuments Office throughout 1997. It has been very slightly altered from the original version.)\n\n\"The Royal Asiatic Society ... ?”\n\n\"What does it do?”\n\nAlthough the Hong Kong Branch has received a fair amount of good publicity, mainly in the press and on the radio, such questions as the above are not unusual.\n\nTo start to answer them let me quote from the Hong Kong Branch's Constitution:\n\nThe objects of the Society are to encourage an active interest in East Asia, and in particular China, through the medium of lectures, meetings, discussions, visits, and by publishing an annual journal, and to do such other things as may be conducive to the attainment of the objects of the Society.\n\nWith a fluctuating membership of approaching 500 in Hong Kong and around 100 overseas, members' broad interests include local history, social anthropology, natural history, and the cultural and religious developments of Hong Kong, the adjacent parts of South China, and the broader south-east Asian region. Members come from a wide variety of national and cultural backgrounds.\n\nVisits to countless places have been conducted all over urban and rural Hong Kong and have included trips to Ta Tsui (“village purification\") festivals, heritage trails, and to view such spectacles as the release of large, hot-air balloons in the Sha Tau Kok district on the\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "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": 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": 214896, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "285\n\nProbably it was worth it with someone fanning you the whole time. We all had a good laugh...........\n\nOn the third day, after breakfast, we took a sampan ride along the serene Perfume River and visited the Minh Mang Tomb, built between 1840 and 1843. The zenith of the Nguyen Dynasty was reached during the reign of Emperor Minh Manh. The tomb consists of about 40 monuments of various dimensions. All lie within a wall, oval in shape and 2,000 metres across. The main entrances to the monumental complex opens to varied scenes offering visitors pleasant sights. Most of the monuments mirror themselves in man-made lakes. The planning of the tombs reflects the strict social organization in Minh Mang times, the centralism and the monarch's Confucian inclinations.\n\nAnother place we visited was the Khai Dinh Tomb. Emperor Khai Dinh (1885-1925) ruled the country for nine years, from 1916 to 1925. His tomb, however, was built within a period of 11 years, from 1920 to 1931. Under Khai Dinh, western culture vigorously infiltrated Vietnam. As a result, in his tomb, several elements of western architecture blend with Vietnamese traditional art, particularly in the use of concrete in place of wood, ardoise slates for roofing, iron gates, lightning rods and electric lamps. Mountains, hills and rivulets around the tomb are exploited to fulfil the geomantic requirements thus offering the tomb a majestic environment. In the Thien Dinh Palace, inside the tomb, its interior decoration features colourful mosaics made up of millions of ceramic chips. The Khai Dinh Tomb has been classified as a work of \"neo-classicism.\"\n\nThe last monument we visited was the Thien Mu Pagoda. It was built by Lord Nguyen Hoang, in 1601, and named \"Pagoda of the Heavenly Lady\". The pagoda area can be divided into two sectors separated by a triple gate. The front sector comprises monuments and memorials such as the seven-story Phuoc Duyen Tower, the Big Bell, weighing two tons, a Stele on the back of a Tortoise, and the Stele \"Bell of the Pagoda of the Heavenly Lady\". The rear sector of the Pagoda is set aside for the practise of Buddhism and monks' activities. Also preserved there are some precious antiquities such as the bronze gong, cast in 1677, and the 1715 timber gilded board with Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu's inscription. With landscape and monuments in perfect harmony, the monuments mirror themselves in the peaceful Perfume River.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215173, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 269, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "231\n\nTHE HKBRAS VOLUNTEERS\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nThe RAS Volunteers really began in the summer of 1991 when a meeting was held over lunch in a restaurant in Wan Chai. This was attended by Professor David Lung, Chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board, Mr Alex Yip, then Executive Secretary of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, and Dr Dan Waters, Council member of the HKBRAS.\n\nLeading on from there, volunteers were invited from among HKBRAS members and from the membership of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. The response was reasonably good and some 20 odd members, from both societies, submitted their names. The first get-together and briefing was held in May 1992, in the old Museum of History in Kowloon Park.\n\nThose present included historians, architects, surveyors, a civil engineer, lawyers, and others, many with a wealth of local experience. In addition, there were a few members who were interested and just wanted to tag along, help where they could, and learn something in the process.\n\nAt that first briefing, the Volunteers were split into four or so groups and the intention was for each group to operate independently. Assignments were provided by the Antiquities and Monuments Office and generally consisted of inspecting, surveying, researching, and writing up reports on various buildings, both Chinese and Western. Preparatory work was carried out for consideration by the Antiquities Advisory Board concerning the grading of buildings and the Volunteers made recommendations. The research frequently necessitated visits to the Public Records Office, libraries, and similar institutions.\n\nAlthough a great deal of useful work was undertaken, progress was not entirely satisfactory. With a group consisting of, say, four persons, there was sometimes difficulty in agreeing dates when all participants could meet. Then, on the agreed date, possibly there were some who did not turn up. Because of such factors, enthusiasm and numbers of Volunteers unfortunately gradually dwindled.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]