[ { "id": 204678, "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-1963", "page_number": 159, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "143\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nMOVEMENT OF VILLAGES ON LANTAU ISLAND FOR FUNG SHUI REASONS\n\nDuring the clearance of the village of Shek Pik in 1960 to make way for the new reservoir, it was found that the village had moved a quarter of a mile to lower ground in 1936, a few years before the Japanese War. The move represented an important decision on the part of the inhabitants who were Punti, since the houses in the old village of Shek Pik Wai had been in existence for several hundred years at least and were substantial buildings in the traditional style with stone foundations, door footings and entrance posts of worked granite, mudbrick walls, and with tiled roofs and decorated eave boards. In 1898 there were over 300 houses, though many of these were used for storage and as cow byres, whilst others were deserted and perhaps in ruins.\n\nThe reason for the move was, apparently, a continuing decline of population - 202 persons were moved in 1960, whilst the 1911 census gave a figure of 363, which was probably higher still at an earlier date — culminating, in 1936, in an unusually bad epidemic, type unknown, which reduced the population still further. Following this a decision was taken to evacuate the village on the grounds that the fung shui of the place was no longer good, and had become harmful to the inhabitants. Anything which could be used for the new houses was stripped from the old, and their ruination was completed by Japanese soldiers during the war who set fire to what remained so that it could not harbour guerillas.\n\nFurther enquiries on South Lantau reveal that between the two world wars the two Hakka villages of Lo Wai and San Tsuen immediately to the north of the present 新村 south Lantau Road at Pui O — combined population 165 in 1911, though only Lo Wai is listed—had removed by degrees from old sites on the hillside; whilst a neighbouring village, also Hakka, at the head of the small Shap Long valley had 恰塱 removed to a site on the sea-shore about 1930. The cause of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204825, "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-1964", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\nSecondly that the great extent of our commercial concerns in China requires a place of security as a depot for such of our goods as cannot be sold off or shipped during the short season that is allowed for our shipping to arrive and depart; and that for this purpose we wish to obtain a grant of a small tract of ground or detached Island, but in a more convenient situation than Canton, where our present Warehouses are at a great distance from our ships, and where we are not able to restrain the irregularities which are occasionally committed by the Seamen of the Company's ships, and those of private traders4.\n\n107\n\nIn fact in his Journal under an entry dated 2-7 January, 1794, after discussing the possibility of obtaining Macao, he went on to mention the possibility of a settlement on an island.\n\nOr with as little trouble and with more advantage we might make a settlement in Lantao or Cow-hee, and then Macao would of itself crumble to nothing in a short time. The forts of the Bocca Tigris might be demolished by half a dozen broadsides, the river would be impassable without our permission, and the whole trade of Canton and its correspondencies annihilated in a season. The millions of people who subsist by it would be almost instantly reduced to hunger and insurrection.\n\nTherefore it was natural that Macartney should send Lieutenant Parish to survey the coast of Lantao and the neighbouring islands in search of a harbour and a possible place for a settlement. In his report Parish refers to \"a situation for a settlement, intended to protect the large and valuable ships employed in the China trade\". It was unfortunate that the bad weather during the short time available for the survey prevented Parish from obtaining a more detailed description of the area. However, he did manage to land on an island which he calls Cowhee and his report to Macartney contains information of interest which, together with his sketch map, is worth reproducing3. It reads as follows:\n\nMacao 28th February, 1794.\n\nPursuant to your Excellency's orders, Mr. Alexander and myself embarked on board the Jackall in the Typas, at seven", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205399, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n1626 the Manchus were stopped in their tracks at Ning-yüan by the foreign artillery. But this setback was not to last very long. They saw the usefulness of these weapons and set about casting some themselves. These proved effective in the conquest of the northern frontier (1643-44) and in the years to follow as their armies plunged on down across both the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers to Kwangtung and Kweichow.\n\nColumbia University\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nNOTES\n\n1 In this I have consulted Mr. C. N. Tay of the American Museum of Numismatics, New York City.\n\n2 The inscription on the cannon is given below. This cannon was found lying on open ground in the Tsiu Keng sub-district in the northern part of the New Territories. It was reported by Mr. R. E. dos Remedios, Senior Land Assistant in the District Office, Taipo in August 1966. The cannon was completely exposed and must have been in this condition for a long time. It is not clear how it came to be there.\n\n* This cannon, which was mentioned in passing in the note on the Tung Chung Fort, at p. 148 of Vol. 4 of the Journal (1964), was dredged from the sea in 1956, either from Kowloon Bay in the course of work on the extension to Hong Kong airport or from Fat Tong Mun (otherwise called Joss House Bay) in the approaches to Hong Kong Harbour—sources differ. It is now mounted with a plaque in Chinese and English outside the Central Government Offices (East Wing), Hong Kong. It was heavier than the one recently discovered; 300 catties as compared with 300 catties. The Chinese inscription, which is much the same, is also given below.\n\n4 An insight into the happenings of these troubled times is preserved in the family record of the Tsui (徐) clan formerly of Shek Pik on Lantau island, to which their ancestor had removed in the 16th Century. The family came from Mong Ngau Tun (望牛墩) in Tung Kwun district (東莞) where they had settled in the Sung dynasty from Kiangsi province. There was fighting in Tung Kwun against the Manchus after their success in the North. The record which gives no precise date for this occurrence, though it must have been within a few years of the change of dynasty in 1644 — reads\n\n—\n\nSau Yeung-kap, a civil officer, and Li Shing-tung, a general, instigated an uprising against the new dynasty in Tung Kwun. As the revolt gathered momentum, oxen and horses were killed for food, and rice and corn became as expensive as pearls. For miles, one could see nothing animate; the fields were covered with dead bodies. In some places, human flesh was eaten by the starving people, and piles of human bones filled the ruined houses.\n\nA detachment of the Manchu army was sent to besiege the district city, then occupied by the rebels. In the conflict that ensued, human beings were massacred as though they were ants, and law-abiding people and bad characters alike were destroyed.\n\nFortunately, our clansmen, then living at Mong Ngau Tun, escaped this calamity. However, many of our former neighbours and fellow-natives in Ming Ka Lane lost their lives and [as the record says in another place] all the dispensations of the previous dynasty were regarded as scrap paper.\n\n(I am grateful to Mr. Gilbert Louie for this translation. Ed) Readers will note that Li Shing-tung (Li Ch'eng-tung) is mentioned in Prof. LO Hsiang-lin's Additional Note where he is described as Governor of Kwangtung.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206268, "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-1971", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n79\n\nauthority and its geographical location made it a base for pirates. One of the stories about the origin of the name of the Tai Ping Shan District on Hong Kong Island is that a pirate named Cheung Po-chai used it as his headquarters. He finally went over to the authorities and left the island. In relief the local population named the mountain side on which he had dwelt \"Great Peace Mountain\". Since it was easy to slip away by boat if government officials came to check on inhabitants, the islands on the edge of San On District were popular haunts for outlaws and the criminal element.\n\nAt the time of the establishment of the British claim to the island, The Canton Register under date of 23 February, 1841, predicted that under British jurisdiction the island would become even more popular with these classes: \"Hongkong will be the resort and rendezvous of all the Chinese smugglers. Opium smoking shops and gambling-houses will soon spread; to those haunts will flock all the discontented and bad spirits of the empire.\" Future developments substantiated this forecast.\n\nFACTORS WHICH IMPEDED THE EMERGENCE OF RESPONSIBLE LEADERS IN THE CHINESE COMMUNITY.\n\nSamuel Fearon, the Census and Registration Officer, in his report dated 24 June 1845, describes the origin of the first settlers of Hong Kong.\n\nThe arrival of the British fleet in the harbour speedily attracted a considerable boat population, and the profits accruing from the supply of provisions and necessaries at once raised many from poverty and infamy to considerable wealth. The shelter and protection afforded by the presence of the fleet soon made our shores the resort of outlaws, opium smugglers, and indeed, of all persons who had rendered themselves obnoxious to the Chinese laws, and had the means of escaping hither. In course of time the demands for labour, for the public and other works, drew some thousands to the island, the majority of whom were Hakkas or gypsies; people whose habits, character and language mark them as a distinct race. Careless of the ties of home and of those moral obligations, the observance of which is deemed absolutely necessary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206765, "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": 42, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "36 \n\nA. J. S. LACK \n\nAt the same meeting another unofficial member, Mr. Osborne,* mounted a quite blistering attack upon Government's past failure to provide adequately for the shelter of the boat people in Hong Kong. He referred to the typhoon of 1841 and to the storm of 1874 in which over 2,000 lives were lost within the space of 6 hours and 35 foreign vessels were wrecked or badly damaged. He claimed that the screaming of those in distress on the water could be heard in the mid levels of the town above the noise of the storm. He went on to refer to subsequent and more recent typhoons, one of which (1906) had exacted a toll of 10,000 lives in two hours. He demanded to know what it was that had been done with the lessons of previous years, and came to the reluctant conclusion that very little had been done. He castigated Government's lavish expenditure on various new public buildings, notably the Supreme Court, the Harbour Office, and the intended Post Office Building, as being quite beyond the bounds of what was required, and ended with these remarks,\n\nDuring a rather long residence in the Colony, I have had exceptional opportunities of coming into contact with the boat population. Though, like most humanity, their character is a blend of the good and the bad, there is one quality they possess in marked degree, which has always commanded my deep admiration, and that is their patience and philosophic bearing under circumstances of trial and suffering. In their name, Sir, and apart from the commercial aspect to which I have alluded, in the name of thousands who have already suffered in silence the misery wrought by these destructive storms, I appeal to your Excellency that there shall be no further delay in giving them the shelter which it is our clear and bounden duty to provide.\n\nThese words put the officials on their mettle. At the next meeting of the Council, the Director of Public Works and His Excellency the Governor were at pains to assure members that something was going to be done about the typhoon shelter: in fact, they had purchased a dredger on which to begin work on the foundations of the shelter. This provoked an unexpected row because some members considered that another dredger also for sale in the harbour at that\n\n* Edward Osborne, listed in Who's Who in the Far East as Secretary of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co., b. 1861, with P & O Steam Navigation Co. in London and Hong Kong 1880-1889. Director of Hong Kong Hotel, Dairy Farm, Steam Laundry, etc.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207155, "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-1974", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "220 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nlarge paper bag. This cost 10 cents and the number of dim sum was 18 pieces, usually sufficient for 8-9 persons. The article made picturesque comparisons between the sizes of different foods, then and now, with much larger pieces being supplied in the past. Prices too came in for odious comparison. \"The difference in price in the old days and now is too great: people have said that it may be compared to the difference between the legs of mosquitoes and cows”. \n\nTea house business begins at dawn. Those in Western open between 5-6 a.m, and close about 9 p.m. nowadays. According to the article, the tea houses of 50 and more years ago started business before dawn and closed at 10 a.m., and opened again between 11-12 to 3 without doing business at night time. The interior of tea houses was very colourful. The waiters used slang to report, usually in a loud voice, the consumption of patrons for making up their bills. The customers lolled about and took things at their ease, putting their legs on their own or another stool, often dressed only in a singlet and shorts in the summer months. This sort of thing can still be seen in one of the tea houses that we will visit (the Foo Lung Tea-house, 382-386, Queen's Road, Central) and at lunch time many of the patrons bring their singbirds in cages which they hang around the walls. 50 years ago and more no women were present in the tea houses because at that time it was not the practice for them to appear in public places; and no doubt this added to the informality noted above. \n\nTea houses were also the scene of musical entertainment of a special Cantonese type known generally by the name of nam yam (✯✯) or \"Southern tunes\". Like Cantonese opera, the themes were often concerned with historical stories, handed down from one generation of entertainers to another. Blind musicians and singers often performed these roles. Until this year, this type of entertainment was given in the Tim Nam Tea House in Wing Lok Street, now under demolition. According to the former manager, the majority of the audience were boat people from the cargo boats plying in the harbour. In recent years this traditional type of entertainment has declined in popularity and both singers and audience were confined to a small group of devotees.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208109, "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-1977", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "132 \n\nW. J. HINTON \n\nexposed side and stretches along the sheltered bay, while the wind whistles over the roofs of the house to fill the sails of the junks and sampans in the harbour. \n\nThe ridge is more or less covered with drifts of coarse quartz crystals from the two beaches but the decomposed granite of which it is made bears fresh water and several wells are sunk there. The \"bells\" of the dumbell are much eroded masses of decomposed granite thickly strewn with massive black boulders, and patched with occasional slopes of bare rock on which huge fragments are balanced precariously. Where dykes and bands of more soluble or softer rock have been the hills are deeply trenched, and the narrow glens end in little coves with beaches of coarse quartz sand. Little watercourses make the bottoms of the glens swampy, where they have not been cleared, but in most there are deep pits dug to trap the water, and channels to conserve the flow. There is not enough water to cultivate rice and in the dry season every drop must be saved in the pits, and mingled there with manure to be carried in watering cans and sprayed over the carrots and cabbages in the midst of clouds of flies. \n\nNatural vegetation is sparse on the whole. The sheltered parts of the glens bear thin woods of China pine, good only for fire-wood, and this has been cut for that purpose in most of the valleys. It is now preserved and planted by the Colonial Government. On the higher slopes wild guava and various myrtles and camellias are the most conspicuous shrubs. There is a coarse tufted grass partly covering the harsh soil, and affording fodder and fuel. \n\nIn the glens are bamboos near the pools and watercourses, and flowering trees like the Persian Lilac. Here in spring a breath of sweetness meets the visitors sickened by the noisome fluid for ever being poured on the little terraces. \n\nNear the houses are groves of fruit trees, papayas, oranges or bananas. \n\nThe climate is of the usual South China type. That is to say rather like Florida. A hot summer with a weak Southerly monsoon, on which fierce typhoons come riding at intervals, advancing no faster than a ship can steam, but whirling madly at a velocity of over a hundred miles an hour. Woe to the junks who do not get the news in time of their approach to run for shelter!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208213, "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-1977", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "236\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTHE BIRDS OF TAI MO SHAN*\n\nBare hillsides are not the best places to find a wide diversity of birds, and Tai Mo Shan is no exception, though it does harbour a number of species rare or absent elsewhere in the territory. The Upland Pipit, apparently a montane derivative of the common Richard's Pipit, is resident there, and may be seen with one form of Richard's in summer, and a paler form of the same species in winter. The Crested Bunting breeds there, though it goes down to the valleys for the winter. Francolins are abundant throughout the year.\n\nThe most notable species is David's Hill-Warbler, which has recently been rediscovered after a lapse of fifteen years. This species certainly breeds, but has not been seen in winter. Its close relative, the Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler, is certainly present all the year round. Twenty years ago, the Chinese Babax used to breed on Tai Mo Shan, but in spite of rumours to the contrary, there has been no definite record of this species since.\n\nIn winter there is always the chance of a Kestrel, or even an eagle, but in general the terrain is even more barren than in summer. Only where gullies encourage thicker vegetation will you find a sprinkling of the commoner birds, bulbuls, coucals, Violet Whistling Thrushes, and others; most of the other records from the area are of transients which do not really belong there.\n\n \n Upland Pipit\n Anthus sylvanus\n \n \n Richard's Pipit\n Anthus novaeseelandiae\n \n \n Crested Bunting\n Melophus lathami\n \n \n Francolin\n Francolinus pintadeanus\n \n \n David's Hill-Warbler\n Prinia polychroa\n \n \n Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler\n Prinia flaviventris\n \n \n Chinese Babax\n Babax lanceolatus\n \n \n Kestrel\n Falco tinnunculus\n \n \n Eagle\n aquila sp.\n \n \n Violet Whistling Thrush\n Myiophoneus caeruleus\n \n \n Bulbul\n pycnonotus sp.\n \n \n Coucal\n centropus sp.\n \n\nHong Kong, 1978\n\nMICHAEL WEBSTER\n\n* Mr. Webster gave a talk on this topic to Members who joined the visit to Tai Mo Shan, 3rd April 1976, the other notes for which are given at pp. 157 seq above.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209005, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n135\n\nmajor during the early K'ang Hsi period. He had taken part in the suppression of the disturbances led by Ng Shaam-kwai in the south. He was promoted to Yau Je or colonel and then to Ti Tu or brigadier of the Fukien Province. In the 56th year of the K'ang Hsi reign (1717), he was promoted to be Chuen Fu or Governor of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces.\n\nAt that time, pirates were disturbing the south coast of China, and the people there led a hard life. Yeung Lin lowered their taxes and improved their living. Two years later, in the 58th year of the Kang Hsi reign (1719), he was made Viceroy of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces. He then proposed to erect 126 forts, walled cities and guard-stations, and to strengthen the fortification of the coast by increasing the garrisons to 3991 men. His proposal was authorized, and in the first year of the Yung Cheng reign (1723), he was appointed to be Viceroy of Kwangtung specially responsible for all matters of the Kwangtung Province. He died a year later, (1724).\n\nTo conclude, the Fat Tong Mun Fort must have been built when Yeung Lin was Viceroy of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, within the period between the 59th year of K'ang Hsi and the first year of the Yung Cheng reign (1720-1723). The fort guarded the Fat Tong Mun and had 8 cannon places and 13 guard-houses. A garrison of 25 soldiers under one pa-tsung or sergeant from the Tai Pang Battalion was stationed there. Then in the 15th year of the Chia Ch'ing Reign (1810), the fort was evacuated and finally abandoned.\n\nThe fort became a ruin, long neglected. It is now being excavated under the direction of Dr. Solomon Bard, Executive Secretary, Antiquities and Monuments Section, Urban Services Department, Hong Kong.\n\nHong Kong, January 1981\n\nANTHONY K. K. SIU\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Tung Lung Island was called South Fat Tong or Nam Fat Tong in the past. It lies to the east of Hong Kong Island and guards the eastern entrance to the Victoria Harbour.\n\n2 Chapter 4 of the San On Yuen Chi, Chia Ch'ing edition **縣志卷四**.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209861, "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "98\n\ncave with a low pass behind it across to the other side of the island.\n\nFurther west, Tai Ho (\"Big Ditch\") and some other villages lie in a small plain with a bad harbour.\n\nNear the middle of the north coast is Tung Chung (\"East Creek\") which was once the most important place in Lantau; it has the biggest plains, the most villages, and the best harbour for small boats in the island. The harbour is, however, too shallow for anything bigger than a launch, and is silting up with hill wash and river muds from the Delta.\n\nTung Chung was the administrative centre of the island, and a station of the Taipang coast defence force was built here. This was the only Chinese yamen in the islands, and a library building still exists, showing the place was once, and perhaps still is, a scholastic centre. It was fortified, and the headquarters of a squadron of war junks: the guns of some of its batteries were dug out of the sand by my predecessor in office and mounted on the yamen wall on cement carriages.\n\nThese guns may be connected with a naval action in 1857. H.M.S. Auckland, with the steam tender Eaglet, saw five mandarin junks in the harbour as they sailed north from Tai O to Namtau. They returned and attacked them. The captain of the Auckland goes on:\n\nOwing to the shallowness of the water I had to anchor in three fathoms, the ship grounding as the tide fell, otherwise we should not have been within range.\n\nThe Eaglet, on taking up a position near the junks received the fire of five batteries in addition to that of the junks, and soon expended her ammunition, having received three or four shots in her hull, Mr. Ellis (her commander) coming for ammunition, I sent the Auckland's boats to tow the Eaglet, to destroy the junks, the Auckland attacking the batteries and junks with shell and round shot at the same time.\n\nA smart fire was kept up on both sides for a short time; the boats of both vessels then charged and fired the junks;\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209871, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "108\n\nand more than half of them still live within two miles of these ancient sites, which speak of hundreds of years of settlement and progress, before the Han emperors conquered the coast with a fleet and army.\n\nLeaving aside the islands close to Hong Kong, which have little of interest, we next pass the Potoi group off Cape d'Aguilar (named after a Major-General who commanded the troops in Hong Kong in its early years). All are of granitic rocks seamed with dykes of dark green stone which decay more rapidly than the granite and so often form valleys, caves and hollows. All but Potoi itself are barren and deserted, except for the light on Waglan (Wang Lan \"Barrier Fence\"). About nine years ago, the Chinese second officer of a ship distinguished himself by steering straight on to the island, where the ship not unnaturally stopped. There was no discoverable reason for this exploit; it was not bad weather, though dark it was about 2 a.m. and the light showed clearly. A similar but more excusable disaster occurred in 1916 on the east end of the Lema's eight miles to the south on Tam Kon Shan (“Carrying Pole Mountain\"), when the Chiyo Maru, which was a big trans-Pacific liner, ran aground. I believe few or no lives were lost.\n\nnets.\n\nPotoi has a small but good harbour, very popular with boat people, and with a handsome temple. There are a few shops, and its economic centre is Stanley. The beach is used for drying. Once in 1930 an ingenious fellow tried to monopolize the beach by applying for a matshed site right in the middle of it. I saw the place, saw through his game, and turned him down. Up in the hills are three tiny hamlets, living on the scanty crops their fields produce, and probably selling to the boat people as well; their names mean \"Long Stone Ridge\", \"Cow Lake\", and \"Mountain Hut\" 27.\n\nTo the north, at the entrance to Junk Bay, known in Chinese as \"General's Haven\" (Tseung Kwan O), is an island called Fat or Fu Tau Chau (“Buddha's or Tiger's Head Island\"). It was the site of one of the \"Blockade of Hong Kong\" customs stations; the station is in ruins, although the island has a few inhabitants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210188, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "138\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n37\n\nCO 129/99, Despatch No. 115 of 28 July 1864.\n\n38 Ibid. The report, by Lieutenant Adams, R.N., dated ‘Woodcock’, Hong Kong, 28 June 1864, is at pp. 37-45.\n\n39 Reports on the Past and Present State of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions (hereafter Blue Book) 1845, No. 38 Hong Kong, p. 149.\n\n40 Blue Book for 1847, No. 36 Hong Kong, p. 308.\n\n41\n\ne.g. W.F. Mayers, N.B. Dennys and C. King, The Treaty Ports of China and Japan. (London, Trubner and Co., 1867), p. 108, for two very bad piracies there.\n\n42 Harbour Master's Report for 1887 in Sessional Papers (Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong) September 1887-December 1888, p. 258.\n\n43 Blue Book for 1845, No. 38 Hong Kong, p. 151.\n\n44\n\n**科大蘭,陳鴻基,吳倫霓霞, 合品 香港碑銘彙編 p. 98 (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Urban Council 1986) p. 98-101, 75-78.\n\n45 Public Record Office, London: CO129/12/9757, para 12.\n\n46 E.J. Eitel Europe in China op. cit. p. 132.\n\n47 J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. p.62, (and see also p. 27, n. 11).\n\n48\n\nUnpublished Temple Directory, The Temples Unit, Home Affairs Dept. H.K. Government, 1980, p. 17.\n\n49 Mayers, Dennys and King, op cit, p. 2. Sin Ngan (#) variously romanized herein as San-on, Sun-on and Hsin-an was the county to which Hong Kong Island belonged in 1841. Tungkwan ( ) otherwise Tung-Kwun was the older, larger county from which it was created in 1573. For Hsin-an see Peter Y.L. Ng, prepared for press and with additional material by Hugh D.R. Baker, New Peace County, A Chinese Gazetteer of the Hong Kong Region (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1983).\n\n50 Mayers, Dennys and King, op. cit. p.3\n\n51\n\n52\n\n53\n\nFriend of China, 24 July 1858 (courtesy of Revd. Carl T. Smith),\n\nIbid.\n\nSee J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. pp. 46-53. See also J.W. Hayes, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983) pp 9-10.\n\n54 Petition dated 8th day of 4th lunar month, Tao Kuang, 21st year, i.e. 28th May 1841, to the District Magistrate of Hsin-an. This and other quoted papers belong to the Tang family of Kam Tin, New Territories. I am grateful to the District Officer, Yuen Long and Mr. J.T. Kamm for the translations that appear here. They have been checked against the originals by my friend Dr. Anthony K.K. Siu. Kwan Tai Lo was a village near the foot of the present Leighton Hill.\n\n55 Copy of an undated instruction to a presumably subordinate office following the above.\n\n56 Petition dated 28th day of 5th lunar month, Tao Kuang 23rd year i.e. 25th June 1843.\n\n57 Undated reply to the petitioners, presumably from the District Magistrate, following receipt of the foregoing petition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210442, "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-1985", "page_number": 49, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "30\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nimportant centres by 1970.\n\nThe inshore fishermen were, and are, at once more numerous and more scattered. Certainly many of those who normally venture no more than about four miles from the coast at the furthest, do have their home bases alongside the deep-sea craft in the large, well-known fishing towns, but large numbers of them return to small traditional anchorages in the more than thirty fishing villages which are to be found on the coasts of the mainland and islands. The populations of these smaller fishing centres vary from a few dozens to a few thousands; the majority can be reckoned in hundreds.\n\nI first went to Hong Kong in the summer of 1950, less than a year after the victory of the Chinese People's Government in China. For obvious reasons it was not an appropriate time for a foreigner to undertake participant observation on boats that had constantly to traverse Chinese national waters and visit Chinese ports. Moreover, I am a bad sailor. These two considerations ruled out the deep-sea fishermen and the long distance carriers from the start. There remained two major categories of Boat People who usually stayed within British waters: the inshore fishermen and the people of the harbour.\n\nThe latter were, as I have indicated, an essentially urban population and exceedingly numerous; the former lived characteristically in the small floating settlements that fringed the rural areas. Because the basic field method to be used was participant observation, I chose for intensive study one such community of inshore fishermen. It lay, as it still lies, on one bank of a narrow strait between two small islands in the Port Shelter section of the eastern waters of the Colony. Its name was Kau Sai.\n\n2. KAU SAI: TOPOGRAPHY, LAND USE AND CHANGE\n\nThe inshore waters of Hong Kong are remarkably beautiful. In many ways reminiscent of the Western Isles, though without quite such a mountainous backdrop, the scenery combines the blue of the sea with the green of the hills in a particularly satisfying way. Drowned valleys give the mainland coasts their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210465, "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-1985", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "53\n\nexpected, at least in the days before mechanisation.\n\nSeasonal activities were, of course, closely affected also by the weather. From the local fishermen's point of view, this had three major aspects: wind, rainfall, and the occurrence of tropical storms. Hong Kong, lying just within the Tropic of Cancer, has well-marked seasonal variations in wind direction, temperature, and rainfall. Generally speaking, the winter months are cold and damp, the spring foggy, the summer hot and very humid, and the autumn warm and dry. Both the NW winds of the winter and the SE winds of the summer monsoons could be utilised by fishermen even in days of sail, but the SE monsoon period has one vital peculiarity: it is the typhoon season. Though relatively rarely directly in the path of a typhoon, Hong Kong is affected by the proximity of about ten tropical storms every summer. The exact course of a typhoon being unpredictable, this means that there is a period of several days' uncertainty each time, during which winds of up to 80 m.p.h. may be experienced, with extremely high precipitation. The effects on the water-dwelling population can be imagined.\n\nKau Sai, facing slightly east of south, was totally unsafe in a typhoon. At the first hint of bad weather from the southeast in the summer, the junks would up anchor and make for Sai Kung on the mainland, where the harbour was more sheltered.24\n\nAnnual Rhythms\n\nAs in most other parts of the world, the annual rhythm of life in Kau Sai was marked out by the pattern of annually recurring ritual. Most of the rituals observed by the fishermen were common to non-Christian and non-Westernised Hong Kong Chinese, but there were certain omissions and some differences in content and emphasis. I have already mentioned the substitution of the Spirit of the Prow (suen tau kung) for the landsmen's Spirit of the Earth (tai tze). At New Year, worship was offered to Heaven and the Waters (tin shui) rather than Heaven and Earth (tin tei). There was a complete absence of any lineage ritual. Also, at New Year (or after a birth or death on board, or at any time of bad fortune), many a fisherman on one of his visits to town", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210511, "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-1985", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "99\n\nwas no jural obligation to support him, and he had lived there ever since. After division he was, of course, no more eligible for mastership on his nephews' junks than any other non-family member. There were several other cases of charity towards relatives both men and women. Some received the wages of hired men, some did not.\n\nThe Participation of Women\n\nNo Kau Sai fishing boat had a woman master. From time to time one heard of such a phenomenon elsewhere, but although most passenger sampans in the Boat Peoples' major centres and not a few lighters in the harbour were owned and managed by women it was exceedingly rare to find them in charge of sea-going or fishing vessels.\n\nStrictly patrilineal patterns of inheritance coupled with the out-marriage of daughters, who were thereupon cut off from all further claim upon their natal families, made the emergence of female heirs intrinsically unlikely. On the rare occasions when a daughter did inherit or a widow administer (fishing) boat property the practical demands of a fishing business, both at sea and ashore, made it difficult for any but the most unusually strong-minded woman even to attempt to run it herself, let alone succeed. One day in the 'fifties men's gossip on the sea wall at Kau Sai turned to this subject. One man remarked that he had heard there was a woman master on a fishing boat based somewhere to the westward. Several others had heard of her too, but Chung Fuk Hei said he had met her. He shook his head in mixed admiration and disapproval: \"Ho gan-iu, gogo nuiyan\", he added, \"really formidable”.\n\nThis does not mean, of course, that women play no part in fishing. On the contrary, because it is normal for these Chinese fishing junks to house whole families it follows that nearly all of them have women on board. This is such an unusual state of affairs that it requires a small digression. Much more commonly the literature on fishing communities explains that women are magically dangerous creatures whose mere presence on, or even near, any fishing boat is bound to bring bad luck. It would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211466, "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-1988", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "158\n\nRuth's death in 1932, after several years of illness, was a physical and emotional drain on Mother, but surprisingly, she took this loss with much fortitude. In times of adversity and loneliness, she must have found support, solace and strength in her religious faith, in her loving family and in her close friends.\n\nMother died on 20 November, 1974, following a stroke, at the age of 87. We three daughters had tried to make life easier and happier for her. She had the companionship of Dora and her two sons since 1950 when they returned to Honolulu to live with her. Mother had made several extended visits with Helen in Chicago and with me in Brookline and had travelled with me by car as far north as Bar Harbour and as far south as Philadelphia, and across the United States through the Southwest via Yosemite Park to San Francisco. I earnestly hope that we had given her some real happiness. We are grateful for the sacrifices she had made without expecting anything in return. A simple, unobtrusive and intelligent lady, devoted to husband and children, loyal to family and friends, and strong in her religious beliefs this was my Mother. She had been my support, my counsellor one who gave me life and nourished me with love. I shall miss her always.\n\nMy Sisters and I\n\nWe were a family of five girls\n\n―\n\n▬\n\nRuth, Me Yuk, Helen, Dora and I. The three older ones were about 20 months apart in age and were born in our first home on Prison Road. In those days Chinese women did not have the benefit of either prenatal care or professional attendance at time of delivery; they relied on the help of midwives or experienced relatives. Although Mother had arranged for me to be delivered by a midwife, the latter could not keep her commitment because my arrival was too close to the lunar New Year. It was fortunate that a Hawaiian neighbour was available. She cleaned my eyes, massaged them so that they would become large and round, and sucked my breasts so that they would grow large and full.\n\nI have no recollection of Me Yuk as she was sent to California while still a baby. Ruth and I were each other's playmate most of the time in those early years. I recall having only one doll between us named To Gai and Tong Chen (words without meaning that we had concocted),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211481, "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-1988", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "173\n\nZiegler's part and bad for my self-esteem.\n\nI studied English under Mrs. Roberts in my sophomore year and under Miss Floralyn Cadwell in my junior and senior years. When I entered the University of Hawaii four years later, Miss Cadwell was by that time married to an Irish-English gentleman, Mr. Lalia Conway, and was active in community dramatics. Now on the staff of the university, she had me again, this time concentrating on English composition. She was from an old Santa Barbara family who had journeyed to California by way of the Cape. There was a sweet and dreamlike quality about her. We became life-long friends. I owe much to these two English teachers in learning to appreciate English literature.\n\nGeometry was taught by Mr. Cole, a plain Quaker-like instructor. Somehow I did not seem to understand the relationship between points and lines so that I almost flunked the course. Later when I was pressured to teach that subject at True Light Middle School, I was surprised that the government supervisor considered me a good teacher. Perhaps my experience gave me an understanding of the difficulties confronting a student.\n\nMr. Cole is remembered not for the subject he taught, but as a thin, stern teacher, who seemed to be too friendly with Margaret M. Lam, a neighbour of ours. She sat in the seat in front of his desk where she would talk softly with him and would giggle from time to time, intriguing yet somehow annoying to me. Mrs. Wilson taught me first and second year algebra and Miss Wikander, history. I took a year of typing and have never regretted it. All in all I did quite well and the four years went by much too soon.\n\nBecause Mother was concerned that the Barbour Scholarship which Ruth received might not be renewed, I offered to go to work in case she needed some help in the future. Therefore, I took a business course at the Phillips Commercial School for a year and landed my first job as secretary to Judge William J. Robinson, to whom I was referred by Alice Ho Wong, the daughter of Ho Fan, an old family friend. Judge Robinson practised law in the Union Trust Building on Alakea Street, near King Street, and did a good deal of work for the trust company, which was incorporated by Portuguese business men. In the fall of 1928,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211954, "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": 369, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "344\n\npolice. A cluster of smaller temporary structures were built to house the paper images of the Jade Emperor, the City God, the Daai-Si Wong and Baak Mou-Seung. The Daai-Si Wong, also known as Gwai-Wong (King of Ghosts) is a transformation of the goddess Gwun-Yam, who has a fierce appearance befitting his role in the ritual: to oversee the ghosts when they come for the offerings. The Baak Mou-Seung, literally the White Unpredictable, is one of the two Unpredictables, both members of the Underworld bureaucracy who take peoples' spirits when they are to die. Further away from the main paang was a larger structure for general gods, which was to house most of the gods invited from local temples and shrines.\n\nDecked out with many fa-paai banners from the villagers and outsiders, the main structure had several partitions. At the entrance in front were two huge paper images of two armed gods, who served as the supernatural guardians of the paang. Beside them were two horses with attendants, and a pair of lions. Furthest from the entrance was a stage divided into three sections, all facing the entrance. The middle one is the Taoist altar where the priests performed many of their rites. To the right was the altar for the Dang ancestors Hung-Yi and his two wives. On the left side was the puppet stage, on which plays were performed. On both sides of the central area of the paang were rooms for each of the five gu villages/groups of villages, plus Ying Lung Wai. On the same rows were two rooms for the guards for the festival site, one for guards drawn from the young men of Bak-Bin and the other from those of Naam-Bin. Nearer the front on the right side was a temporary altar for Gwun-Yam.\n\nOn the left side was a large partition dedicated to four separate groups of paper images, many with pottery/ceramic heads. The area was known as the yau-saan, a place to harbour ghosts. Each of these groups was divided into three levels. Two large groups depicted the ten Kings of the Underworld on the topmost level. Under the Kings on the middle level were ten shops, each with signs indicating the business: barber's, brothel, sundry goods shop, pawnshop, second-hand clothing, department stores (two), tailors, porters, and “cool” drinks. On the lower levels were some devils, ghosts under torture in the Underworld, and many shoppers. The subjects of the two other groups were more difficult to identify. One of them was labelled Zizhu Lin, “Purple Bamboo Grove”, the place associated with the Goddess Gwun-Yam. She and her male and female attendants were recognizable among the images on the topmost", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212210, "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-1990", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "― \n\n129 \n\ndamage. The war caught many Chinese towns in a state of transition. The new urge for progress had overcome the financial reluctance of shopowners, in their dark narrow alleys, to allow the authorities of the town to tear down their shop fronts without compensations. For where was the money for compensation to be found \n\nand put back the frontage twenty or thirty feet. It was a double loss. Not only were the shop owners faced with the cost of rebuilding the shop front, but the ground surrendered was irretrievably lost. Often, the depth would be cut down by half, leaving only a fraction, inadequate to the continuation of the business on that site. When that happened, it was just too bad. There was nothing that could be done about it. The process of road widening was in full swing when the war started: it was even continued during the war, and often a bombing raid saved the cost of pulling down a street length of shop fronts. The new Chinese towns will be rebuilt with wider streets, and the houses will be of improved design. The Chinese are learning the advantages of sunlight and fresh air. \n\nKiu Kiang was captured in July: in October the Japanese landed in Bias Bay and marched through, apparently with little opposition, to Canton: there was yet another surge of refugees into Hongkong. Shortly after, Hankow fell, and the capital removed to Chungking. The Japanese continued their advance up the Yangtze until they reached Ichang at the foot of the Gorges; but, some local incursions apart, those were the limits of their advance for the next four years. \n\nThe railway connection was cut. No longer was I pressed by the insistent Chinese officials to load cargo onto lighters to be ferried across the harbour to the Kowloon railway jetty. In the past only too often were the promised railcars not available at the appointed time, and the cargo would have to come all the way back into the godowns on the Hongkong side, at considerable cost in lighterage and coolie hire, unrecovered. The shipment of supplies was now diverted to Indo-China. From Haiphong they were sent by rail to the Kwangsi border for transfer by lorry to Kweilin, which became the distributing centre for Western China. \n\nSubstantial supplies for Eastern China could still pass in, under a foreign flag, through the unoccupied eastern ports, such as Ningpo, Wenchow and Foochow. Japan was not at war with China, and so was unable to declare a blockade; but such trade was mainly confined", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212389, "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-1990", "page_number": 331, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "308\n\nThe Dance is performed on three evenings. The official invited to officiate on the first evening is an officer of the civil authority (Man), whilst the official on the second evening is an officer of the military authority (Mo), represented by the Royal Hong Kong Police. The third evening is regarded as the Village's own celebration.\n\nThe Dragon is 220 feet long and has a team of 120 dancers. It consists of the head, body (32 segments), and tail and is preceded by two dancing Dragon Pearls (Lung Chu) whose purpose is to attract the Dragon forward. It is accompanied by a drum and clashing cymbals, as well as by banners and costumed children carrying lanterns. The dragon itself is composed of grass, the head being on a cane base, and it is liberally stuffed with burning incense sticks; the throwing of firecrackers ended with the 1967 ban on fireworks. The grass is 'pearl' grass, obtained these days from the New Territories. Incense sticks from the Dragon are taken home by the dancers to worship their Tai Hang ancestors who have previously taken part in the Dance. Dragon cakes from the Temple are taken home on the third day for the same purpose. The Dance ceremony starts with the decoration of the Dragon and its stuffing with incense sticks and continues throughout the evening through the streets of Tai Hang. At the end of the three days of celebrations the Dragon is thrown into the waters of the harbour.\n\nChinese Dragons are the essence of the Yang, or male, principle, and the Tai Hang Fire Dragon is no exception. Until recent years female participation was limited to the cutting of grass. Ladies were not allowed to touch the Dragon and they were not admitted during the Dragon's visit to the Lin Fa Kung Temple (sited to the east of Wun Sha Street and dedicated to Kwun Yum). Pregnant women with two daughters and no sons were, however, allowed to pass under the Dragon, with the intention of the birth of a son.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society of Hong Kong is grateful for the assistance given with this visit and in the preparation of these notes by Mr Ho Choi-Chiu, Chairman of the Tai Hang Residents Welfare Association, and by Mr Chan Tak-Fai, of the Association's Dance Organising Committee.\n\nGEOFFREY ROPER", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213107, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "157\n\nThe villagers in the central part of the northern New Territories, accustomed to marketing at Sham Chun, were able to make do after 1899. They had the old satellite market of Shek Wu Hui (Sheung Shui) within British territory; as soon as the new frontier came into effect, Sheung Shui saw its business boom - it quickly replaced Sham Chun as the primary market for this area. At Sha Tau Kok the population within British territory accustomed to shop at Sha Tau Kok had no alternative but to continue to do so. Problems abounded. Village memories of the Customs are uniformly bad.\n\nThe Customs officials caused the goods of the merchants to be seized unless bribes were paid. They demanded a payment of 18 bushels of rice from each merchant. The villagers from the New Territories would come to the market to have their cloth dyed. Even if the amount of cloth was very small, 25 or £10 would be charged as a licence fee - if it was not paid, the goods would be seized and the villagers penalized. As for the merchants, if they sold a pig, or if a seed-pig was bought for rearing in the villages, when they went to the Customs they would have to pay $40 per tan as registration fee for the pig. At festivals, the village ladies would come to the market to buy oil or local sugar in small quantities. They would have to pay 50 or 60, or even 120 or 130 cash (#5 - #13) as fee before they could get an export licence. For cattle, for every cow crossing the frontier - in either direction for farm work, a Certificate had to be issued, at $20 Haikwan.\n\nAnd, if the Certificate was lost, there was heavy punishment, and a replacement had to be taken out, to avoid confiscation of the cow. Further, at the harvest, if the crop was carried across the frontier, you had to pay what was demanded - it is said that a percentage of the crop was taken. The Customs swallowed money whatever purchases were made. These sorts of evil practices caused the villagers to hate the Customs to the very pit of their stomachs.\n\n12\n\nIt is unlikely that the Customs were as corrupt as they are often portrayed by the villagers. The payments complained of were all reasonable, if it was accepted that the transactions were \"imports\" or \"exports\". The villagers could never see that their day-to-day marketing should be so regarded - they were only doing what their ancestors had always done.\n\nThe elders of the Shap Yeuk petitioned the District Magistrate on 19 April 1899, begging that the lease of the New Territories be not proceeded with. Their concern was, essentially, that if it did proceed, then they would be faced with “excessive taxation\", especially Harbour Dues and Marine Fees, given that the waters off Sha Tau Kok would become Hong...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213267, "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-1994", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "69\n\nthe views expressed right at the start of this paper by Dr Ernest J. Eitel, sometimes titled Hong Kong's first historian and for some time a Hong Kong civil servant, were by no means unusual.\n\nToday, far more empathy is shown towards Chinese culture in general by Westerners. For instance, many Caucasian firms believe aquariums enrich the fung shu of an office. It is not just Chinese who can relax, Westerners will tell you, when they lie back and watch fish swimming. It gives everyone a special feeling and lowers their blood pressure by a few degrees.\n\nOf course, certain rules have to be followed. The number of fish kept is often six or nine. Three multiplied by three equals nine (a lucky number); and a homonym of three, in Cantonese, sounds similar to the character meaning 'lively'. Because of colour symbolism, one fish may be black (a Black Molly), another reddish (a goldfish), and the rest any other colour. Because the fish are supposed to act as a shield against bad fung shui, sometimes a fish dies. But better a dead fish than a dead customer.\n\nHigher up the hill above Central District, at the Albany in Albany Road, residents were concerned about the 70-storey, new, People's Republic Bank of China Building 'giving off vibes'. They feared the sharp edges of its structure with their negative forces would menace the abode of some of Hong Kong's rich and famous. In the West, the new Bank of China building would perhaps be described as 'ominous', 'overshadowing' or 'overpowering'. Many Chinese, however, liken the sharp edges of the Bank of China to a knife pointed at, or arrows cast at, Government House and Central Government Offices, namely, the heart of the British Colonial Administration. These 'weapons', together with the flyovers close to Government House, tie the decision-making hands of the British Governor and threaten the prosperity of Hong Kong. The fung shui 'dragon vein', with the dragon's head turned to face its ancestors, serpents down from Victoria Peak, close to the Albany, concealed by a carpet of vegetation. It passes close to the Albany apartments. The dragon thrusts and turns as the topography changes. The earth surges with natural energy. Chinese dragons are more serpent-like and sinuous than those in the West. And, as the vein gathers strength, it proceeds vigorously on to the 'dragon sites'\n\nsuch as the home of the Governor and down to the Hong Kong Bank. It then dips into the harbour, the 'dragon's lair'. Although now the slope up the Peak is largely obscured by high-rise buildings, on some hills and\n\n70", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213286, "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-1994", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "88\n\nIt is not unlike the West where it is not uncommon practice to construct beams with a slight camber and columns with an entasis. This overcomes the illusion of sagging or concavity respectively.\n\nIncidentally, the length of a briefcase manufactured in many Chinese communities is, very approximately, 43 centimetres (around 17 inches). This, it has been suggested (Walters, 1988: 83), is designed to conform to the auspicious 'fung shui foot'. The actual size of a briefcase could, of course, be coincidence. Or perhaps it depends on the size of files and sheets of paper which the bag has to hold? But whatever the reason for the dimension, a liberal helping of luck is always welcomed by businessmen of whatever nationality.\n\nReturning to the case study: the front view looking out from a building is important for enhancing wealth. If one gazes north out of the window of the master bedroom, one can view the harbour which forms the dragon's lair with all its benevolent power. Beyond are the Kowloon Foothills (including Lion Rock and Beacon Hill), Tai Mo Shan, Ma On Shan, and the Pat Shin Range. Well out of sight is the Kun Lun Shan mountain range of South China. The Hong Kong harbour can be compared to the much smaller fung shui ming tong (ponds) that one sees in front of Chinese villages.\n\nThe water in the front balances the fung shui that flows down the hill at the rear. Of course, it also serves a practical purpose. Not only does the village pond contain fish, but also the water is used for washing, irrigation, and, in emergency, for fire fighting. As previously mentioned, water, in Cantonese, symbolises money. It is good fung shui to have water in front of a building or a grave. But looking across at the ocean, you need to be able to see an island or a strip of land. If there is no 'destination', there is no 'purpose'. A sailor needs to know where he is heading. He must not be 'rudderless'. Looking out to sea or gazing at a water feature, however, gives not only Chinese, but also Westerners, a relaxed feeling.\n\nCertainly, the ambience of a home or office means something to everyone, Westerner or Chinese. And, sometimes, on entering a building, a Westerner's subconscious senses may lead him or her to exclaim, 'I like this place: I can relax here!' It is, however, not always easy to provide an explanation why one's sixth sense indicates a feeling of peace or, contrarily,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214079, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "LAI CHI KOK\n\nCHEUNG SHA WAN\n\nSHAM SHUI PO\n\nTAI KOK TSUI\n\nTÖNE CUTTEaS (likely OCR error for \"Tsing Yi\" or another location, but preserved as is)\n\nISLAND\n\nKENNEDY TOWN\n\nYAU MA TEI\n\nKOWLOON\n\nKOWLOON BAY\n\nTO KWA WAN\n\nKWUN TONG\n\nHUNG HOM BAY\n\nCAI YING PUN (likely \"CAI\" is an OCR error for \"BAI\")\n\nTSIM SHA TSUI\n\nVICTORIA HARBOUR\n\nCAUSEWAY BAY\n\nVICTORIA\n\nWAN CHAI\n\nNORTH POINT\n\nMA YAU TONG\n\nQUARRY BAY\n\nSHAU KEI WAN\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nHarbour Reclamations-1841 to 1941, HK Annual Report 1963 (adapted)\n\nLEI YUE MUN\n\n115\n\nHowever, upon closer inspection and following the instructions:\n\nLAI CHI KOK\n\nCHEUNG SHA WAN\n\nSHAM SHUI PO\n\nTAI KOK TSUI\n\nTONE CUTTEAS (still unsure, but \"TÖNECUTTEas\" is likely an OCR error; however, we preserve it as closely as possible)\n\nISLAND\n\nKENNEDY TOWN\n\nYAU MA TEI\n\nKOWLOON\n\nKOWLOON BAY\n\nTO KWA WAN\n\nKWUN TONG\n\nHUNG HOM BAY\n\nBAI YING PUN\n\nTSIM SHA TSUI\n\nVICTORIA HARBOUR\n\nCAUSEWAY BAY\n\nVICTORIA\n\nWAN CHAI\n\nNORTH POINT\n\nMA YAU TONG\n\nQUARRY BAY\n\nSHAU KEI WAN\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nHarbour Reclamations-1841 to 1941, HK Annual Report 1963 (adapted)\n\nLEI YUE MUN\n\n115\n\nCorrected version in HTML as per the instructions:\nLAI CHI KOK\n\nCHEUNG SHA WAN\n\nSHAM SHUI PO\n\nTAI KOK TSUI\n\nTONE CUTTEAS\n\nISLAND\n\nKENNEDY TOWN\n\nYAU MA TEI\n\nKOWLOON\n\nKOWLOON BAY\n\nTO KWA WAN\n\nKWUN TONG\n\nHUNG HOM BAY\n\nBAI YING PUN\n\nTSIM SHA TSUI\n\nVICTORIA HARBOUR\n\nCAUSEWAY BAY\n\nVICTORIA\n\nWAN CHAI\n\nNORTH POINT\n\nMA YAU TONG\n\nQUARRY BAY\n\nSHAU KEI WAN\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nHarbour Reclamations-1841 to 1941, HK Annual Report 1963 (adapted)\n\nLEI YUE MUN\n\n115\n\nLet's correct and simplify it according to the rules:\nLAI CHI KOK\n\nCHEUNG SHA WAN\n\nSHAM SHUI PO\n\nTAI KOK TSUI\n\nTONE CUTTEAS\n\nISLAND\n\nKENNEDY TOWN\n\nYAU MA TEI\n\nKOWLOON\n\nKOWLOON BAY\n\nTO KWA WAN\n\nKWUN TONG\n\nHUNG HOM BAY\n\nBAI YING PUN\n\nTSIM SHA TSUI\n\nVICTORIA HARBOUR\n\nCAUSEWAY BAY\n\nVICTORIA\n\nWAN CHAI\n\nNORTH POINT\n\nMA YAU TONG\n\nQUARRY BAY\n\nSHAU KEI WAN\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nHarbour Reclamations-1841 to 1941, HK Annual Report 1963 (adapted)\n\nLEI YUE MUN\n\n115\n\nThe final version should be in HTML format as requested:\nLAI CHI KOK\n\nCHEUNG SHA WAN\n\nSHAM SHUI PO\n\nTAI KOK TSUI\n\nTONE CUTTEAS\n\nISLAND\n\nKENNEDY TOWN\n\nYAU MA TEI\n\nKOWLOON\n\nKOWLOON BAY\n\nTO KWA WAN\n\nKWUN TONG\n\nHUNG HOM BAY\n\nBAI YING PUN\n\nTSIM SHA TSUI\n\nVICTORIA HARBOUR\n\nCAUSEWAY BAY\n\nVICTORIA\n\nWAN CHAI\n\nNORTH POINT\n\nMA YAU TONG\n\nQUARRY BAY\n\nSHAU KEI WAN\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nHarbour Reclamations-1841 to 1941, HK Annual Report 1963 (adapted)\n\nLEI YUE MUN\n\n115", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214104, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "141\n\nattempt by the Portuguese naval engineers to deal with the silt from the Pearl River that fouls the harbour. Light industry is located in the areas to the northern end such as Areia Preta by the gate to China. Space is created which later finds use as the greyhound racetrack.\n\nBy 1979, we find the planned expansion changed in nature from that intended in 1927. At the southeastern harbour front, the designer (Jon Prescott) has implemented the plan in a less heavy handed fashion. Wide roads bound an area of tight streets with a few small urban spaces, again reminiscent of the scale of the old city, although with a more rigid geometry. The bounding roads are wide and traffic fast (it is on these streets that the Macau Grand Prix is held annually), effectively making this an island within the city, cut off from the rest of the city and the sea front.\n\nAt the northern end of the peninsula we find a large area of reclamation, large city blocks, wide streets and avenues with centre reserves but no plazas. The dog race track has been moved to Taipa, an island immediately to the south to which a bridge has been built, freeing up the land for lower income housing (Brito 1962). Light industry is also located in this new expansion but the relaxation of border controls to China have made a dramatic impact with much of the industry moving north of the border. This frees up land for more housing for lower income groups. The land to the eastern end has been bounded but used as a fresh water reservoir rather than for building as planned in 1927. This provides some open space located in a somewhat inaccessible corner.\n\nIn 1982 the proposal was made to expand Macau again. Traffic congestion and a polluted and silted waterfront (among other features) were giving the city a bad reputation. Seeing the successes of cities in the region, the Macau government and leading business figures decided that a modern city could be created by reclaiming yet more land and building modern structures (Prescott 1993). A series of public competitions were announced for urban development studies to guide the expansion of land area.\n\nFigure 5: 1979", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214406, "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": 264, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "230\n\nHONG KON\n\n(from the notes of a Russian traveller)\n\nOf the many islands, scattered along the shores of the extensive Chinese empire, the English selected for themselves a small island not particularly distinguishable for its fertility, almost bare, of little use to China; but with a good harbour and lying on the route from the Indian to the Pacific Ocean - hence very useful to them - and founded a city here, a depot for trade not only with China but with neighbouring islands. The city, whose proper name of Victoria is hardly known even to its own inhabitants, looks over the strait separating the island from the mainland, and consists of one main street following the course of the shore; it's called Queen's Road, although neither the present, nor any future queens of Great Britain are likely to travel on it; a number of other smaller streets run parallel to this main street or cross it at right angles. The latter rise up the mountain so steeply, that the houses behind stand a whole storey above the ones in front and that is why all of them have a wonderful view of the harbour and the picturesque shores of China. Magnificent too is the view of the city from the harbour. The houses, arranged in the form of an amphitheatre at the foot of the hill, are shaded by groups of trees; the main street is interrupted in the middle by an avenue, from which a garden with convenient, winding paths, runs further up the mountain, so that the mountain itself, previously completely bare is now covered to a certain level by shady bamboo lanes or groves of various trees. People building houses here mainly tried to shield themselves from the burning rays of the tropical sun, which is why the houses all have something in common: each one has, without fail, a covered balcony, and has some semi-dark hall through which the breeze blows; also shutters are an essential accessory of windows. The best building, in my opinion, is where the beautiful is united with the useful, which is - the barracks of the regiment stationed here. The two-storeyed peristyle surrounding it gives it the appearance of a Roman temple and shields it on all sides from the sun's rays. The Governor's House built recently on an elevated site in the middle of a newly cultivated garden, would have been one of Hong Kong's best adornments, were it not obstructed by extensions which completely obscure it. Other magnificent buildings I must include are the hospital, the club and many private homes. The western part was the first to be settled and is now nothing very much: - narrow streets with small houses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214908, "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": 4, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "FROM THE HON. EDITOR\n\nThe publication of the fortieth Volume of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (and my tenth contribution) seems to merit a special mention by your Hon. Editor as, of course, it marks the fortieth anniversary of the rebirth of the Society. You \"saw\" the fortieth anniversary conference (in 2000), now read the book!\n\nAs you know, Council's instructions are for about 200 pages (Don't give 'em too much!) but I've strayed beyond that by about 50 per cent. Perhaps I can be forgiven, given the propitiousness of the occasion.\n\nOnce again, I've striven for variety and, as you will see, the contributors are both old and new. The distinguished Solomon Bard has come out of retirement to pen Tea and Opium, a wholly dispassionate look at a controversial subject. Brian Fawcett's The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921 represents an enormous investment in time and I should imagine he knows France quite well now. The redoubtable Keith Stevens has contributed two articles including the long-awaited (for me) The Celestial Ministry of Time, a veritable Tour de force.\n\nReaders of Volume 38 - 66 our Y2K issue will recall the photograph of Tai Sui, the Goddess of Time, on the dust jacket, and so kindly provided by Jennifer Welch. What was not revealed at the time was that Keith Stevens and Jennifer Welch were writing The Celestial Ministry of Time and has lots of photographs of Tai Sui including the magnificent one of Jai Zi which adorns the dust jacket of this issue. I wanted it for Volume 38 but, understandably, Keith and Jennifer held out on me.\n\nOtherwise, the unflagging Dan Waters has almost single-handedly provided the Notes and Queries section but with most interesting contributions from Barbara Park and our man in Bondi Beach, James Hayes. Barbara has given us a perceptive glimpse of The Peak in \"the good old days.\" James keeps editors on their toes (\"Dear Peter, please find attached the fifteenth amendment to my article.\"). Jack Lao's 1954 photograph of the Harbour will bring back memories for many.\n\nI came into contact with Teresa Kowalska in Poland, and her exquisite...\n\nWhen I was researching the piece on A Many Splendoured Thing,\n\niii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215132, "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": 228, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "185\n\nTHE TWO OBELISKS AT TAI TAM\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nOn being driven around Hong Kong Island for the first time, in January 1955, the two large Obelisks on the southeastern side, one north and one south of Tai Tam Harbour, attracted my attention. Although I asked people about them at the time, as well as in succeeding years, I was able to glean little useful information.\n\nDr Solomon Bard, an historian who lived in Hong Kong for over half a century, wrote that the two Obelisks are each nearly ten metres high and that they may be mistakenly taken for commemorating an historical event (Bard, 1988:69). He continues that the Royal Navy erected them at the turn of the century (around 1900) as navigational aids. They are in line. That is they are on the same longitude, running north-south, and they are exactly one nautical mile apart.\n\nSomewhat contradictory to Bard a Hong Kong Government Marine Department manual quotes that the two Obelisks are nine metres high and three-quarters of a mile (presumably sea miles) apart, in line, bearing 358 degrees, and that they lead into the Bay. When one is standing overlooking the Harbour and gauging the distance across the water with one's eyes, Bard's figure of one nautical mile appears more accurate. In fact, if one scales the distance from a chart in my possession it does turn out to be one nautical mile, from obelisk to obelisk (Tai Tam Bay, Chart; 1894). Such obelisks are often called beacons in nautical language.\n\nThe squat, northern Obelisk stands high up on what is sometimes known as 'Obelisk Hill.' See Plate One (Mok, 1995:16). Its counterpart, the southern Obelisk, at the foot of so-called 'Red Hill,' is lower down with its seaward side painted white so it is more conspicuous. Like a sentinel it stands on the rocks with its base about 40 feet above the sea, depending on the tide, to the westward side of the entrance to Tai Tam Harbour. Made of concrete, both Obelisks are of similar size, appearance, and construction as one can see from Plates One and Two. Up until World War Two there was little scrub on the hillsides and the upper Obelisk could be seen more clearly (see Plate One). They both have bases about seven feet square, and the upper parts are each divided into", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215134, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "187\n\nvirtually cut off the supply to the waterfall other than when they are overflowing, for instance after a heavy storm.\n\nApart from pleasure boats and other small craft, Tai Tam Harbour was used more in the 19th century than it is today. During the period 1806 to 1819, long before Hong Kong was taken over by Britain, James Horsburgh, a hydrographer with the East India Company, surveyed the waters around the Island. He wrote that Tai Tam afforded shelter from almost all winds (Liu Shuyong, 1997:24). It is not of course a harbour as we sometimes know it with wharves and godowns. It is an inlet, which provides a place for ships to shelter. To illustrate again the Harbour's use as a place for protection from the elements mention is made of ‘tactical manoeuvring and target practice,' in February 1878, by the Royal Navy (White Ensign-Red Dragon, 1997; 39). It continues, 'The 20th February being very misty the fleet remained at Tytam Bay.'\n\nPeople naturally ask when exactly were the two Obelisks first erected; who erected them; and what purpose did (or do) they serve? As a start, with the aims of answering such questions, two Chief Inspectors, H J W Chetwynd-Chatwin and Keith Francis, both then serving in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, arranged an informal meeting, in 1994. The meeting took place in a bar at a police officers' mess in Wan Chai. It was followed by a curry lunch. About a dozen people were invited who, it was felt, could contribute. They included the Government Director of Marine and RASHKB member R S Hownam-Meek who spent his career in shipping with Jardine. A couple of weeks or so after the meeting the topic of the Obelisks was raised by Radio Television Hong Kong. Little of real substance emerged from the meeting or the ‘phone-in radio programme. The late Arthur May, then a retired civil servant, did however ‘phone in to say that, as a youth, he went to live at Tai Tam in 1919. He also recalled that when he sailed around the Harbour in the 1920s the two Obelisks were definitely already there.\n\nThe Hydrographic Data Centre, at Taunton in England, maintains that information was received from the Commander-in-Chief, China, that two beacons, each 30 feet high, had been erected. These were first inserted on Admiralty charts by 'Notice to Mariners 755' of 1900 (Atherton, 1996:94). I have a chart showing Tai Tam Harbour, dated 1894, which shows the Obelisks, but Atherton informs me that this is a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215135, "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": 231, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "188\n\ncopy which was corrected in 1900. Earlier versions do not, apparently, show the two Obelisks. It seems then that the two Obelisks were erected in their present forms at the end of the 19th century. I was, however, told by a Chinese Chief Inspector of the Royal Hong Kong Police, at the informal meeting organised by Chatwin, that at one stage in his career the Chief Inspector had served in the Tai Tam district. There he had met an elderly, retired police officer who informed him that, before the two concrete Obelisks were constructed, two timber obelisks stood in about the same places. This is purely oral history and, although it may well be true, I have not been able to trace anything more about them. Joseph Aspdin did not invent artificial Portland cement until 1824, in Britain. It would take time for its use to spread around the world. This meant that if obelisks were erected in the middle of the 19th century, in Hong Kong, they would likely have been made of some material other than cement concrete.\n\nThe two beacons were probably used by shipping, then, as navigational aids when entering the Bay, and sailing on into the Harbour, to avoid hazards or for use in times of bad visibility. In a Government Antiquities and Monuments Office paper a master mariner, Mr A Davidson, is quoted as saying that following the courses of the two Obelisks, 'in line,' results in a course which clears a patch of rocks lying across the entrance to Tai Tam Bay. These rocks, he states, are now lighted (Antiquities and Monuments Office, 1980).\n\nBearing in mind that just about all useful records from the Government Harbour Master's Office and the Public Works Department were lost during the Japanese occupation (1941 to 1945), it has not been possible to trace who erected the two Obelisks although attempts have been made to do so (Lack, 1994). It could have been the Public Works Department. It could have been the Royal Navy itself through its Royal Naval Dockyard. Until the late 1950s this was situated where Admiralty is today, in Central District. If it was the Royal Navy one would have thought there would have been some marking on the Obelisks, such as the Admiralty fouled anchor. One would also perhaps have expected the concrete finish of the Obelisks to have been better although they have stood the test of time.\n\nCould the Obelisks have been used for other purposes? Sometimes two sets, each comprising two beacons, are erected to clock ships in a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215565, "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-2001", "page_number": 342, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "292\n\nI am sorry I cannot tell you much about the life of the keepers. If you have not been able to question Charlie Thirlwell (and people like him) then it is likely their story has gone forever. Sad, but so many stories are already lost.\n\nThe good news however is that, over a period spanning approaching half a century, the author has been able to question, off and on, some of Hong Kong's lighthouse keepers, together with seafarers and Government Marine Department staff. Accounts given by them and the life keepers led are detailed in this paper. Much of the material is based on oral history gleaned in discussions with Government Marine Department staff, both serving and retired, as well as other persons. Both authors have made several visits to Hong Kong's lighthouses and have appeared on television programmes about them (Video; 2001).\n\nEmphasis in this paper has been placed on Waglan Lighthouse because, situated approaching five kilometres from and to the south of Cape D'Aguilar, and nearly 13 kilometres from Lei Yue Mun, Waglan is the most isolated lighthouse in the Territory (Banister; 1932, 50) (Lee, HC). Other lighthouses include those at Cape D'Aguilar and Cape Collinson, both on Hong Kong Island. Others at Green Island and Kap Sing lighthouse are both within harbour limits.\n\nClimatic conditions\n\nThe author recalls visiting Waglan Lighthouse with the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) by boat on a lovely afternoon on Saturday 9th June 1990. Indeed on some days out there in the South China Sea it can be idyllic - a not-to-be-forgotten experience. Terrence Courtney, an Australian who served as Superintendent of Lights in the late 1950s and '60s, used to stay overnight on the island because he found it ‘enchanting.' He slept in an isolated, small, brick building which is still standing.\n\nBut the helipad, constructed in mid-1982, destroyed much of the romance although helicopters do of course provide a vital service - if a keeper fell seriously ill for example. Also, they were useful for getting keepers on and off Waglan in bad weather. Previously, it had sometimes meant their being hauled up or lowered in a basket which served the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]