[ { "id": 206022, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "J\n\nA NEW LOOK AT CANTONESE EXPLETIVES\n\n97\n\nand none at all of that cross-thread I mentioned, which all the time we are speaking one phrase is guiding us away from a score of similar phrases which are not what we mean. This constant unconscious avoidance of saying what we don't mean is the pattern we must all set up when we would speak a second, third or fourth language.\n\nI hope what I am about to say will help you in this task. For most of us, when children, were crippled by being brought up to talk only one language; to those whose minds have been thus crippled, like the girls of Manchu China whose feet used to be bound in childhood, the idea of \"thinking in a language\" is as natural as the unnatural tiptoe tottering gait seemed the \"natural\" way for women to walk. The unbinding of bound feet was, I am told, a very painful matter and after a certain age could not safely be done.\n\nSo come, if you dare, and let me unbind your linguistic feet.\n\nEnglish is a language of the Indo-European family: a family the branches of which extend from Sanskrit, Old Persian and their descendants in South-Central Asia, through the Slavonic languages of Eastern Europe, Lithuanian and the Celtic languages (originally of Asia Minor, but now found only on the Atlantic and Baltic shores), Ancient and Modern Greek, the languages of ancient Italy, through Latin to the modern Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Rumanian and Catalan, Old Norse and Icelandic down to modern Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, Gothic and Old High German down to the modern German dialects and Dutch; then again overseas with the Colonizers to North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa and as a second language of convenience in the shape of a special kind of English\n\n- back to India again where it may all have started.\n\nA great deal of work has been done on this family of languages, but it is well for us to remember that it is less than 200 years since the identity of such a family was observed and not much more than a century since Indo-European linguistic studies were firmly established.\n\nBefore that, and to some extent ever since, European scholars were taught to regard Latin and Greek as the only models of linguistic organization: therefore any language had to be studied", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "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": 212758, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 67, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "52\n\nbecoming increasingly financially desperate.\n\nHis fourth volume on better paper, weekly fascicules published on Sunday instead of Saturday as in previous volumes, begins with a photo of himself in Chinese robes with his mandarin's cap beside him in the manner of Chinese officials in the standard photographs of themselves. He apologised for the delay between Volumes III and IV, from 1899 to 1905, some five years, because he had been overwhelmed with misfortune and had lost all his savings at a stroke.' In the final fascicule in June 1905 he advised readers that he was unable to afford to continue the Miscellany but would be publishing Mesny's Commercial Guide from that date. In June 1905 after the completion of Volume IV he expresses gratitude to his subscribers but was, he regretted, unable to undertake the publication of a fifth volume as yet due to insufficient support.\n\nDuring almost the entire six months of the production of the weekly parts of Volume IV Telegrams of the Week reflected the mounting excitement of the Russo-Japanese War and contained hundreds of items detailing the departure, the 'secret' journey and arrival of the Russian Baltic fleet in the Far East ending with its catastrophic defeat by the Japanese navy in the Tsushima Straits at the end of May in 1905. The unfolding picture of the Russian navy's progress, route and activities from their almost inexplicable attack on British fishing vessels in the North Sea [believing them to be Japanese torpedo boats] to the devastating destruction off Japan makes compulsive reading, and though of secondary interest as far as Mesny was concerned, the series continued to highlight the fear entertained by the Chinese of Russia swallowing up further large parts of northern Chinese territory.\n\nTwo questions stand out: did he ever get round to a fifth volume? and what happened to all the unused notes he must have had stored away?\n\nFrom an advert in the second to last issue of the Miscellany Volume IV, it is possible that Mesny, giving up the idea of the Miscellany, perhaps only temporarily, requires a 'Job Printing Plant' suitable for printing a small daily newspaper and a small illustrated magazine (nfd). It may be a coincidence but most likely there is a connexion. An advert in the very next Miscellany, the final issue, offers Mesny's Commercial Guide to be published immediately after the completion of Volume IV of the Miscellany.\n\nFrom Mesny's own hand we learn that he frequently advised senior", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 179, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "129\n\nChemulpo (later Inchon). This would drive north along thawing and impassable roads, across the Yalu River into Manchuria, heading for Liaoyang and Mukden (now known as Shenyang) north of the Liaodong peninsula. Then, with what remained of the Russian fleet bottled up in the harbour at Port Arthur, the second and main force would be landed some thirty miles north of Dalny (Dairen to the Japanese and now known as Dalian) cutting off Port Arthur at the tip of the Liaodong peninsula. The final stage was the landing of a third Japanese army in January 1905 and its assault on Port Arthur. The war began as planned with a Japanese 'Pearl Harbor' bombardment at Port Arthur, taking the Russian fleet by surprise.\n\nAlthough the Japanese met with a number of set-backs their overall plan succeeded. The crowning moments were the Fall of Port Arthur at the beginning of January 1905 and the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, the titanic clash between the Japanese fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, the latter having made its slow progress across the world from Latvia in October 1904 to Tsushima seven months later, and to its fate and destruction. News of the devastating Japanese victory alarmed a number of Chinese officials who, whilst they did not wish Japan to lose, had not wanted her to gain such an overwhelming victory.\n\nFinally, after the eighteen month campaign the land war ended with the destruction of the Russian army before Mukden. The succeeding months were a matter of Japanese mopping-up operations and the capture of Liaoyang and Mukden.\n\nDuring the final stages of the war the Japanese finally took the fighting on to 'sacred' Russian territory when they invaded the large island of Sakhalin. This was of great political importance as it was regarded as Russian territory and, with rioting on the streets of the Russian major cities, the Russians realised that they had lost. Also at that point, Japan now holding most of the cards, but militarily and financially exhausted, sought President Roosevelt's good offices to bring about a peace conference. This took place in September 1905 concluding with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in the United States. The Russians ceded the Guandong peninsula (Chinese territory) and half of the island of Sakhalin to Japan but without having to pay any indemnity. The Russians, so the Japanese believed, had been allowed by the Americans to get away without paying any financial compensation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216441, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 200, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "150 battalions of Hunanese soldiers in the New Town. The Chinese Minister in St. Petersburg was instructed to demand an explanation. They were quietly withdrawn at the end of the war.\n\nIn April 1905 Russian troops marched through Chinese neutral territory, paying no heed to Chinese protests, although as it was reported in the western press at the time it appeared that the Chinese Government was at last making some effort to resist Russian intrigues, possibly realising that the Japanese were more than likely to be the final victors in the war.\n\nAt about the same time Secretary Hay in Washington proposed to the Powers to renew their pledges as to the 'open door' and integrity of China. When Britain, Germany, Italy and the others had all replied moral pressure was imposed in the interest of Chinese neutrality. The Russians responded with an announcement that they had positive proof of Chinese violations of their neutrality and that unless China refrained from further such acts Russia would have to act in her own interests.\n\nDuring May reports were received of Russian plans to march their troops across Mongolia to checkmate a Japanese flanking movement, thus violating China's neutrality. Fears among western diplomats that this was the first step towards annexation of Chinese territory opened up once more the question of the partition of China.\n\nAlso in May 1905 it would appear from various semi-official reports that Chinese mandarins along the coast of south China and in the vicinity of the mouth of the Yangzi were warned to ensure that their military forces were alert during the passage of the Russian Baltic fleet towards the China Sea. The orders required the Chinese military to prevent, wherever possible, Russian infringement of Chinese neutrality.\n\nChinese fears that vanquished Russians might invade Chinese territory to avoid being taken prisoner by the Japanese, led to the rumour that the Viceroy of the metropolitan province of Chih-li, Yuan Shikai, had been proposed as Generalissimo of all Chinese Land and Sea Forces.\n\nChinese temples and monasteries as military accommodation\n\nBoth Russian and Japanese forces used Chinese public buildings", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]