[
    {
        "id": 205325,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 87,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "80\n\nTHE CHINA COASTERS\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nJames Matheson sent his San Sebastian from Canton to ports in Fukien Province in 1820, to open up new markets for opium, and this is generally considered the pioneer voyage in the China coast trade. Although Matheson was Danish Consul at Canton at this time, and the San Sebastian sailed under Spanish colours, it is correct to describe this voyage as a British venture. The men who sailed the opium clippers, therefore, were the first 'China coasters', and since that time 'China coasters' have considered themselves a breed apart, distinct from the rest of the British Merchant Navy. The tradition of more liberal manning, of better pay, food, and conditions in general, pioneered by the opium clippers has continued to the present day.\n\nMany of the customs and practices of the lordly East Indiamen and of the Indian 'country ships' were inherited by the humbler 'China coasters'. The East Indiaman's captain could, and was expected to, make a fortune from carrying passengers and private cargo, in addition to the company's, and in self defence the latter stipulated a definite scale of perquisites for each member of the crew, from captain down to bosun and carpenter. Generous as this was, it was invariably exceeded. There was a much greater variety of 'pidgin' (=business) on the China coast, although it did not comprise such a high proportion of the China coaster's total earnings. As on the East India Company's ships, dabbling in certain types of 'pidgin' was considered legitimate and carried no moral stigma.\n\nThe most common and profitable pidgin came from deck passengers. It was on the emigrant runs to the Straits and Bangkok that this type of 'pidgin' was most prolific. I was introduced to this on my first ship on the coast, the Antung. The Antung was\n\nThe author served as an Engineer Officer with the China Navigation Company from 1928 until 1938, and was on the Yangtse in 1930 in the Shengking and again in 1934 in the Wuhu. He was captured by pirates in the Newchang river in Manchuria in 1933 and held prisoner for five and a half months. Two of his articles have been published previously in the Journal. \"European Navigation on the Yangtse\" in Vol. 3, 1963, and \"Piracy on the China Coast\" in Vol. 5, 1965.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205326,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 88,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "The China Coasters\n\n81\n\na modern coaster, specially equipped for the emigrant trade, with space for almost two thousand deck passengers. She was employed on the Amoy, Swatow, and Singapore run, and when I joined her in 1928 the Malayan rubber boom was at its height, and the Antung was carrying a full complement of deck passengers south each monthly trip. On going below before leaving Swatow on my first trip, I came across many strange Chinese in the engine room and shaft tunnel, all industriously polishing hand rails and floor plates. Enquiry revealed these to be the Number One Fireman's 'pidgin'. The bosun, compradore, and chief steward each had their quotas hidden or working away in other parts of the ship.\n\nThe Antung had loaded her first few hundred deck passengers at Amoy and was completing her complement by loading another thousand or so at Swatow, where a medical inspection and tally was carried out by a doctor and member of the British Consul's staff at Swatow. On the China coast, the successful prosecution of the art of pidgin lay in knowing just how far to go without exciting undue comment. Had this 'smuggling' of passengers become too blatant, the Consul would have been compelled to take some action, or the authorities in Singapore been placed in an equally awkward position. Then, had the captain 'squeezed' the senior members of his Chinese crew too much for shutting his eyes at the appropriate times, they would have made life very awkward for him, and might well have \"blown the gaff\" themselves at either end of the passage.\n\nPrivate cargo was another source of 'pidgin', and on the Singapore and Bangkok runs this consisted of fish, fruit, vegetables, and other delicacies in great demand among the prosperous Chinese expatriates. Cabbages and mandarin oranges from Swatow made a very profitable deck cargo in the season, on voyages which rarely lasted more than ten days, and ships often left Swatow with their decks piled so high with cabbages and oranges that their lifeboats were completely immobilised. Some attempt was made to control this dangerous practice on British ships, but it continued on Chinese and foreign ships as long as the trade lasted. Large wooden tubs of live fish were also carried on deck, and the water aerated by relays of coolies working paddles, whose payment was a free passage. Much of the 'pidgin' cargo carried on the southern runs was of an edible nature, ministering to the home-sick palates of the overseas Chinese.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205327,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 89,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "82\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nAs I have said, stowaways and private cargo of this kind were considered legitimate 'pidgin'. Many snug villas on the south coast of England and the Clyde coast of Scotland owe their origin to legitimate 'pidgin' and 'squeeze'. Opium, drugs, and arms and ammunition came into a different category, however, and Europeans involved in this kind of 'pidgin' were usually acting under duress. Any unsolved murder, suicide, or disappearance of a European officer invariably gave rise to lurid rumours of entanglement with unscrupulous opium gangs.\n\nI once found a dozen or so small flat tins, like sardine cans, tucked away among some clothes in a rarely used drawer in my cabin. I was new on the coast at the time, and pleasantly thrilled when told that it was opium. I was advised that the best thing to do was to throw it over the side, and the outcome was that the messroom boy disappeared at the next port. My only other experience of opium was its sickly sweet smell, which I used to encounter when going along the 'tween decks at night. There were always a few groups of passengers there indulging in a mild session of opium smoking. Even today, some forty years later, any similar smell takes me back to the dimly lit 'tween decks of the Antung, Kwangtung, or Kiangsu, and revives all my old memories of the China coast.\n\n'China coasters' were run on the compradore system in those days, a maritime analogy to the system common in much of Sino-Western commerce ashore in the ports. Under this system the deck passenger accommodation was hired from the owners by a Chinese compradore, who carried his own staff to look after the deck passengers.\n\nThe compradore was also in charge of the cargo, for which in turn he was paid by the owners, and his staff which looked after the deck passengers when at sea acted as stevedores and tallymen in port. The compradore was responsible for stolen or damaged cargo, and insured himself against this, often through the owners acting in their capacity as insurance brokers. The chief steward and his staff looked after the captain, officers, and saloon passengers; while the bosun and Number One Fireman each catered for his own department. The compradore was a responsible Chinese business man, with influential connections at all the ports at which his ship called, and a great part of the ship's success depended on him. Harmonious relations between the captain and the compradore, therefore, were",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209080,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 242,
        "title": "RAS-1980",
        "content_text": "210\n\nCAROLE MORGAN\n\nterms to define. It has three different meanings:\n\n1) It refers to the centre of a burial site, in other words, to the area enclosed by the two sides of the semi-circle.\n\n2) It is used for xue (which see).\n\n3) It may refer to the slope of the land.\n\nSince long has so many meanings it is usually qualified by another term; thus:\n\n#shanlong which refers to any knoll, hill or mountain on the site. It is itself qualified by the adjectives: huo ★, living; si ♯, dead; zhen, true; and jia, false; all of which refer to the nature of the shanlong.\n\n★ shuilong refers to any depression which occurs on the site. *sha refers to the topography of the land on either side of the long.\n\nSince these basic terms are often confused—the xue of one school being the long of another—the point to remember about them is that they all refer to the physical nature of a site.\n\nThe next series of terms refers to different areas of a site.\n\nA tai is the spot where the yangqi No 4, of the mountains comes into contact with the yinqi, of the plain.\n\ntang refers to the flat ground in front of the central long. Tang is subdivided into antang ★★ which indicates the centre, and mingtang ♬ † which describes the areas to the right and left of the antang.\n\nchao refers to the flat ground in front of the antang.\n\ndiwu is any feature visible from the long such as trees, rocks, walls, houses, roads, etc.\n\nWhen selecting a site water is also vitally important; literally so since the direction of its flow influences the number of sons born into a family. From a purely practical point of view, good drainage is essential to prevent water seeping into a grave and making the ancestors uncomfortable: were that to occur they would cease to promote the family's prosperity.\n\nOf the many water-related terms only four need to be listed here.\n\n** shuilu refers to the direction of the water's flow.\n\n★ zhengqiao wei is the name of the point where water enters a site.\n\nxiaoshui is flowing water.\n\nnashui refers to areas where water may accumulate.\n\n|\n\nI",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207",
        "rank": 0
    }
]