[
    {
        "id": 209886,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 145,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "123\n\nwhenever there is an outbreak of plague or other serious epidemic; but within the fifty years' collective memory of the mid 1960s managers this had only happened once, about 1915. The committee of managers does not run money loan or funeral benefit schemes, nor does it undertake general welfare or community work. It is, and was, it seems, concerned only with ensuring the continued protection of the area through the faithful and regular performance of religious rites and their accompanying entertainment. The god's image was always brought to the place where the puppets were being shown, and to the restaurant where the annual dinner was held at which the leaders were selected.\n\nIt will be seen from this account of their duties that these managers did not have the wider general functions performed by the leaders of the three Fong on Ap Lei Chau. They were kaifongs, but they were not the Kaifong, a role played by the predecessors of the postwar Western Kaifong Association, Ltd., whose premises are located at Possession Point.\n\nThe method of selecting the managers has differed little over the period 1910-1965, although it was apparently more protracted and complicated in pre-war years. This was because there were more interested parties than there have been since the war, when redevelopment of old properties has gradually taken large numbers of former residents away from the area, and so beyond the immediate area of the god's protection.\n\nIn pre-war times there might be up to 100 interested parties who wished to become chik lei, but as stated, only 40-50 were required. The selection was left to the god. It was the practice for all persons wishing to serve on the committee to go to the shrine at an appointed time on the god's birthday. Lots were drawn in front of the altar. The number of tickets matched the number of aspirants. Only, say, 40 of the papers were marked chik lei, the rest being marked with the characters tai kat (1/2) or 'great fortune'. Only those securing the first went forward to the second stage in the selection of managers. This was the filling of the three senior posts of chung (#4), fu (§]) and hip chik lei (£), or principal, deputy and assistant (senior) manager, This event was conducted in a restaurant at the annual dinner held in the first moon. Again, the selection was made in",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209897,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 156,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "134\n\nBoard (in manuscript), p. 121 kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong as Hong Kong Record Series 206. Pages 120-141 of the Proceedings relate to a hearing held on 6th June 1893, \"Claim to a Temple at Apleichau\".\n\n10 The same man also said that Ap Lei Chau 'was built about 1850' (ibid, p. 122). However, as stated in my text, the Hung Shing temple on the island appears to date from the 18th century and another local resident (b. 1825) who gave evidence to the Squatter Board (ibid, p. 132) said that it was enlarged in 1847. The temple originally stood on its own little island, later joined by reclamation to Ap Lei Chau. See JHKBRAS 7 (1967) p. 170, footnote.\n\n11 W.F. Mayers, N.B. Dennys and C. King - The Treaty Ports of China and Japan (London, Trubner & Co., 1867) p. 49. 'Boat building and general trade' are listed as the principal concerns. The \"Ap-le-chow\" and \"Shek pai wan\" (Aberdeen) entries in this work are bracketed. The latter had 160 houses and 205 boats and the total recorded population for the two places, together with the boat people, was 1,664. See also information given in the printed proceedings of a court case over ownership of land on Ap Lei Chau given in Sessional Papers August 1886 - September 1887\" (Appendix to Report from the Land Commission of 1886-87) pp. 33-35.\n\n1* See the Hong Kong Government's printed Sessional Papers for 1897 and 1911, pp. 484 and 103 (23) respectively.\n\n1 Sessional Papers 1901, No. 39 of 1901. pp. (6), (18) and (20). Of the 947 vessels, 787 were fishing boats. At that time, there were 2,799 land persons living in and round Aberdeen-Ap Lei Chau.\n\n11 Sessional Papers 1897 and 1911 at pp. quoted at note 12 above. For similar organizations of M. Freedman's article \"Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth-century Singapore\", Comparative Studies in Society and History, III (1960-61), 25-48; and for other coastal market centres in the Hong Kong region, Hayes 1977, chapters 2 and 3 dealing with Cheung Chau and Tai O respectively.\n\n10 See the account given in the printed Ap Lei Chau Hung Shing Festival brochure for year (1983) now in Hong Kong Collection, University of Hong Kong Library,\n\n10 Squatter Board proceedings, p. 138. The word \"Kaifong\" (#) or street association was commonly used in South China to describe (a) all the inhabitants of an area (b) the voluntary organization of leading residents which managed the affairs of that community, e.g. the Kaifeng looked after the interests of all kaifongs. On Ap Lei Chau, the Kaifong and the Fongs' leaders seem to have been one and the same. For Kaifongs in the Hong Kong region see Hayes 1977, pp. 64-69, 81-84, 96-98, 171-172 and 218 note 27. Also, Hayes 1983, pp. 45-46 and 56-59.\n\n18 For divining blocks, see J.J.M. De Groot, The Religious System of China (Ch'ing Wen reprint, Taipei 1976) Vol. VI, pp. 1285-1287.\n\n1o See Hayes 1977, p. 219, note 41, for similar honours paid to leading office bearers reported from Canton (1902).\n\n* The shopkeeper petitioners who came to see the Registrar General in 1893, as recorded in the Squatter Board proceedings, stated that \"The temple is the property of the inhabitants of Ap Lei Chau and the boatpeople who subscribe”.\n\nThe Ap Lei Chau section of this article is based mainly on the oral statements of Messrs. CHENG Kam-kwu ($##) b. 12.10.1887, CHENG Lim () b. 17.12.1891 and LUN Shing-fun () b. ...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215842,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 141,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "74\n\nThe coloured and inscribed cloth banners presented in recognition of services rendered were the least expensive of presentation items. They were needed in considerable quantities at some major events, and could be seen stacked in piles on the table at which the principal guests sat. This was just as well, since they had all to be presented by one or other of their number. They were made up by firms specializing in the production of flags and banners of all shapes and sizes. They usually bore four Chinese characters, aphorisms betokening diligent or whole-hearted service to the people, and the like, together with the name of the individual or body for whom it was intended. (Plate 15) As often as not the aphorisms came from the Chinese (Confucian) classics and have become proverbs in everyday usage.\n\nChrome or silver-plated items like dishes or figurines obtained from specialist firms were presented to deserving helpers or supporting organizations. Again, these were inscribed as appropriate to the occasion - especially the dishes, which often carried the four-character phrases - and named the event and date, together with the name of the individual or organization concerned (Plate 16)\n\nMore substantial items were prepared for the presiding officials, who might be presented with scrolls, couplets or paintings. As often as not, the scrolls and paintings would already have been framed. It mattered not that the official or guest whom the association wished to honour was Chinese or foreign. The same token of appreciation was applied to all, facilitated by the practice of equipping foreigners with Chinese names. In China up to 1949, missionary doctors and educators were frequent recipients of such tokens of gratitude for services rendered, and there must still be many examples of the kind to be found in their homes across the globe and on the antique market. So, too, it was in Hong Kong. Like many other officials, I was the recipient of such traditional literary tokens when serving in the district administration in town and country.\n\nSometimes a Committee would have invited an artist friend of their acquaintance to attend the occasion, and would prevail upon him to paint something for the principal guests. Our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, and I still have the pictures of tigers painted for us by Mr. Ng Shan at a gathering of the Ap Lei Chau Kaifong Association around 1974, when we were serving together in the Urban Services Department.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]