[ { "id": 204277, "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-1961", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n41\n\nfact professional bodyguards, who protected officials and rich merchants or valuable goods in transport. Such men were known as piao-k'o (鏢客), and their profession was called pao-piao (保鏢).\n\nTo sum up: the Chinese knights errant were at first simply men of strong will and independent character, who tried to see justice done by the use of force. They embodied the spirit of individualism and protested against any attempt at rigid regimentation. Later, popular imagination pictured them as great champions of the common people against the oppression of corrupt officials, and often attributed supernatural powers to them. This partly reflected the wishful thinking of the oppressed people for some miraculous saviour. Still later, by a stroke of irony, the knights errant became guardians of the law and protectors of the rich. However, the basic ideals of knight errantry remained unchanged. No knight errant worthy of the name would have helped a corrupt official or robbed the poor. Compared with Mediaeval European knights, the Chinese ones are more independent and less bound by a code of behaviour. Instead of being courteous to men, gallant to ladies, and devout in religion, they tend to be free and easy. That is perhaps why in Chinese literature knight errantry has not been endowed with such allegorical significance as we find in Western chivalric literature, such as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso or Spenser's Faerie Queene. The nearest equivalent in the West to the Chinese yu-hsia is probably Robin Hood.\n\nThe above is only a bare outline of the development of chivalric literature in Chinese. I hope to deal with the subject in much greater detail in the future.\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205288, "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": 50, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY\n\n43\n\nHalf-way up the valley Plum Grove Village (Mui Tsz Lam) climbs the lower slopes of a cone-shaped mountain peak, overlooking a widening stretch of land. No flat land is to be found here and farming takes place on stone terraces built on the slopes. There is plenty of water, running down the hillsides in small brooks. The third and uppermost settlement is another composite one, Grass Field Village (Mau Ping). It comprises three hamlets and some isolated houses. The valley ends in a bowl-shaped area, and the settlement is spread around on three steep sides. Farming is done entirely on stone terraces. Parts of this bowl are densely forested.\n\nRice production is a prominent feature of the valley. The irrigated fields are double-cropped but the yield is and has, within living memory, never been sufficient to cover the local consumption. It seems that even in a good year the basic food supply would last only for about seven months. Small holdings are characteristic of this valley. Bad soil and lack of arable land limit the possibilities of agricultural expansion, together with the frequent and serious damage caused to crops by typhoons. The torrents of rain accompanying the storms sometimes flood the whole area. The water carries away fertilizers and soil. On the other hand, the crops, especially the first, are exposed to periods of drought since, however well-watered the valley is, people find it extremely difficult to make use of the supply. There is a constant want of rain-water as the fields are often too far away from the brooks. The main stream pursues its way in a deep ravine and is hardly of any use at all, whilst its mouth is, as mentioned, filled with salt water during high tide. The hillsides are steep and the run-off of water is rapid.\n\nIn earlier days the rice produced in the village was consumed on the spot. According to the rice merchants in the market towns the quality of the grain from this mountain area is as good as any from the New Territories' plains. When rice mills operating in the Sai Kung and Sha Tin markets after the Pacific War (1941-45) started an exchange system, the villagers were presented with a new alternative. They could transport their high-quality rice crop to the market and there exchange it for inferior broken polished rice, generally imported from Burma or Thailand. This is now usually done, and on a 'picul for picul' system;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205576, "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-1968", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "999 \n\nSUN YAT-SEN AND CHINESE HISTORY \n\n113 \n\ngovernment.\" In fact, he noted that the \"general psychology of the Chinese is that a man possessing marked ability should become king.\" Viewed in the most charitable way possible, such an impression of history for a twentieth-century revolutionary seems strangely incongruous. But incredibly enough, Sun was making such comments at the very moment when Ku Chieh-kang and others were making electrifying discoveries in Chinese historiography, one of the more exciting dimensions of the New Culture Movement of the 1920s. These revolutionary currents seem to have had little effect on Sun.\n\nSun Yat-sen also enjoys the distinction of having contributed a unique historical theory to historiography. One of his most ardent contemporary admirers has affirmed that of \"all theories of history, the social interpretation of history\" of Sun Yat-sen \"seems to be most illustrative of the truth of social evolution, as revealed in the legends of ancient China.\"10 Yet this theory seems to be of rather minimal consequence. Drawing on ideas supplied by the American dentist, Maurice Williams, Sun is primarily at pains to set aside Marx's concept of class struggle. Williams contended that the struggle for subsistence is the law of social progress and the central force of history. From this, Sun reasoned that since the struggle for existence is the same thing as the problem of livelihood, \"therefore the problem of livelihood can be said to be the driving force in social progress.\" With this insightful formula, Sun could now refute Marx, for class warfare was clearly not the cause of social progress. Sun could say that, conversely, since class warfare is the end product of the social disease caused by the inability to subsist, this made Marx a social pathologist, for he had concentrated upon the study of social disease, not the central element in social progress itself. However much such reasoning reveals Sun's basic humanitarian impulse, and certainly much of the rest of his writing on the subject of the People's Livelihood confirms this happy feature of Sun's personality, it presents an historical theory of but limited value.\n\nIn a similar theoretical vein, Sun also spoke briefly of universal political stages of history as traversed by mankind. These stages, the first being that of the great wilderness, the second of theocracy, and the third of autocracy, culminate in the fourth, which history has proved to be the best, democracy.12 This very loose set of generalizations is part of Sun's discussion of democracy itself, so", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206046, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A NEW LOOK AT CANTONESE EXPLETIVES\n\nM-W (OM) Character\n\nBasic Meaning\n\n121\n\nSOAS\n\n準備 ZEORNBREI CHUN-PEI\n\nimmediate intention\n\n將近 ZHEONQGRAN TSEUNG-KÂN\n\nnear future\n\n將來 ZHEONQLROY TSEUNG-LOI\n\nremoter future\n\n再 ZOI TSOI\n\n就 ZOR CHOH \"FA ZRAU TSAO\n\n就嚟 ZRAULRAY TSAO-LAI\n\n住 ZRY CHUÊ\n\nLÀ\n\nrepetition or continuation\n\ncompletion\n\nsubjunctive\n\nimmediate future\n\ncontinuation\n\nPARADIGMS\n\nSerial Analysis\n\nSOAS\n\n1 AEIOU ZROU\n\n2 AEJO U XOOCRIR-ZROU\n\n3 AEJO U XOOCRIR-MRHZROU\n\n4 AEJO U XOOCRIR-MREIZROU\n\n5 AEJO X (WRUU) SHEONQ-ZROU\n\n6 AEJO X (WRUU) SHEONQ-MRHZROU\n\n7 AEKO U WRAAK (ZEAR)-ZROU\n\n8 AEKO U WRAAK (ZEAR)-MRHZROU\n\n9 AEKO U WRAAK (ZEAR)-MREIZROU\n\n10 AEK SU (CREOY) FHEY-ZOO (ZRAU)\n\nApproximate English equivalent\n\nInf: to do. Indic: intends to do, tries to do, do, does, did, will do, be done.\n\nImper: do! let's do! Subj: if one does, etc. apparently do or have done to.\n\napparently are not doing (being done) or about to (be) done.\n\napparently will shortly do (be done) or have not done (had done to), do to each other. refrain from doing to each other.\n\nmay have (been) done, may be doing (having done to), may be about to do (be done).\n\nmay not be doing (being done to) or about to do (be done).\n\nmay be about to do (be done) or may not have (been) done.\n\nunless I do it, unless it be done.\n\n11 AEK SU (CREOY) FHEY-MRHZROU (ZRAU)\n\n12 AEM RV ZROU-LHA\n\n13 AEM S V CEARNG-ZROU\n\nunless I do not do it, unless it be left undone. (N.B. There is an idiomatic elliptical use here: \"It might be best not to do it.\")\n\ndo!\n\nplease do.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206422, "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": 239, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n213 \n\nwe find, when he writes about family law, an attempt to describe the law in terms of formal (rather static) relationships. The dynamic element, how the law responds in practice to the needs and expectations of the people subject to it, is missing. Surprisingly, this element is also missing where one would most expect to find it in his consideration of commercial law as it was developed in the Mixed Court at Shanghai. Much of the book is concerned with Family Law and as such is still of interest though, consisting as it does largely of statement without exposition, it is of diminishing value in the light of modern anthropological techniques. But it is to the chapter on Commercial Law and to the Appendix of Mixed Court cases (at p. 142) that the reader will look forward most eagerly. \n\nThe Mixed Court at Shanghai developed over the years its own distinctive brand of law, not consciously but in consequence of the cultural and commercial interplay which was the hallmark of Shanghai. Though the law administered between Chinese parties may be Chinese, the context within which the disputes arose could not be called wholly Chinese and the Court's decisions themselves display a 'mixed' character. Shortly after the publication of Jamieson's book, A. M. Kotenev's much more considerable work, Shanghai: its Mixed Court and Council, was published1 and from it we may learn considerably more about the operations of that court. But, even so, many of the questions which arise in our minds are left unanswered and we are given, for example, little elucidation on the true legal position of the compradore, on his rights and his liabilities. Perhaps Jamieson was too close to events to be able to consider these wider conceptual (though, at the same time, essentially practical) matters but, nevertheless, he fails to point out the basic principles behind the decisions to which he refers and the reader is left unenlightened. He confines himself to description and, in so doing, wrote a less valuable book than he might otherwise have done. \n\n3 \n\nLooking at this book through the eyes of the nineteen-seventies, it appears disappointing. But, though it does not really live up to the enthusiasm of its re-publishers, at a time when interest in the formal study of Chinese Law is waxing fast, it is most valuable to have available once more a work which is part of the history of the development of Chinese law from its earlier ‘feudal' stage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206565, "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-1972", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n107\n\nhad to be obtained. Under the Public Health (Sanitation) Ordinance of 1935 more stringent conditions were introduced to ensure the provision of adequate latrine facilities but the minimum standard of accommodation for the assessment of overcrowding was brought down to 35 sq. ft. of habitable floor area and 350 cu. ft. of unobstructed internal air space per adult.\n\nWhilst the new building regulations provided a means for the limitation of congestion through the over-intensive use of land, the enforcement of measures to relieve overcrowding within buildings continued to meet with little success and this matter became the subject of an inquiry by another housing commission which was appointed in 1935 to consider what steps should be taken to remedy the situation.21\n\nIt was estimated by the commission that in 1935 there was a shortage of between 25,000 and 35,000 flats. In commenting upon the badly congested living conditions in many districts it was noted in the commission's report that, to a large degree, the existence of such conditions could be accounted for by the fact that before coming to Hong Kong many Chinese were used to living in compact rural communities where sanitary arrangements were very basic and overcrowding merely a way of life.22 This acceptance of minimal standards plus a fatalistic attitude towards life thus produced no strong demand for improvement when families moved to Hong Kong.\n\nAnother relevant factor noted in the commission's report was that the housing problem was attributable in a large measure to the fact that most working-class families could not afford to rent a whole tenement floor, with the consequence that living space was sub-divided and rented out to separate households. Moreover, the law took no account of the needs of different families or sexes for separate accommodation for, as noted, the minimum standard of occupation was set at 35 sq. ft. of floor area and 350 cu. ft. of internal air space per adult person. This arbitrary measure assumed that the available living space could be evenly distributed among all the occupants of a dwelling.\n\nThe recommendations made by the commission added weight to some of the proposals put forward in 1923; namely that in order to\n\n21 Report of the Housing Commission, 1935, Hong Kong, 1938.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207165, "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": 236, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "230\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nGovernment to the representatives of the community for a Chinese school in 1847. (See \"Notes on Chinese Temples\" in the 1973 Journal of Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society). Thus the roots of the College goes back to the first community-organised effort of the Chinese in urban Hong Kong to provide education.\n\n(5) VISIT TO CERAMIC FACTORY AND SAM TUNG UK (NEW TERRITORIES)\n\nOn 16th November 1974, members of the Oriental Ceramics Society and of the Royal Asiatic Society visited the ceramic factory, Cerrarts, at Hung Shui Kiu in the New Territories and the village of Sam Tung Uk at Tsuen Wan.\n\nCerrarts\n\nMr. Lam, the owner, possibly one of the most experienced ceramists in Hong Kong, was a former student of St. John's University, Shanghai studying civil engineering. He was the first ceramist in Hong Kong to produce ceramics for the local and overseas market. He learnt his basic skill more than 30 years ago in China, continued making ceramics as a hobby, becoming more and more involved and eventually turned professional about 12 years ago. His interest has also influenced his son and daughter, who are now lecturers in ceramic and pottery in overseas universities.\n\n44\n\n'Any clay can be made into a fine piece of ceramic, given the correct treatment,” he said as he gently put down a freshly-painted Tang horse. He gets his clay from the hillsides around Hong Kong and adds chemicals to them e.g. refined powder cement. Through the addition of chemicals to the clay, the properties of the clay are changed. The type of chemical added also depends on the form required; e.g. for a Tang horse, dark clay and sand are used.\n\nFirstly, a mould is made. The form is shaped from clay and covered with plaster. When the plaster dries, it is removed from the form. It then gives an excellent imprint of the form and is used as the mould. An opening is produced on the mould and water-diluted clay is poured into it. The mould is then left to stand, with the opening at the lowest position. Any clay not sticking to the side of the mould is then drained through the opening. When the clay is dried, the mould is opened, and the bare body is taken out of the mould. Pieces are then pasted to the body to produce the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207166, "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": 237, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n231\n\nfinal shape of the object. e.g. the legs of the horse are pasted with clay to the body. This is then burnt in a furnace, fired with diesel oil. The time and temperature differs for different pieces of ceramic. The piece is then glazed with various colours, dried and burnt again. After the second burning the piece is ready for the market.\n\nAlthough it is hard to give an exact burning time for the object, this process is usually divided into 2 sections, slow and fast burning. The slow burning method is used on thick pieces of ceramic and has a burning time of about 27 hours. For a thin piece, a burning time of about 14 hours is employed; this is known as fast burning. Many factors are involved and the above figures are only a rough guide. The main factors involved are the humidity of the air, the water content of the clay and the thickness of the piece of ceramic. Making ceramic requires patience as the job should never be rushed. Time must be spent on every individual piece and the combination of burning time and temperature must be close enough to perfection, otherwise the work will crack and a low quality piece is produced. A scientific approach is required to understand the property of the clay and its variation, and an artistic inclination to give it that “special” finish to the ceramic.\n\nMr Lam has a total of 160 different moulds, and new pieces are added as new assignments come in. He copies the basic shape from books, magazines, and museum pieces. He specialises in Tang burial figures—Tun Huang Temple guardians, mythical animals, Kuan-Yin figures, Tang horses, vases, roof tiles and other roof decorations. In the Tang dynasty figures, only 5 colours are used: green, brown, yellow, orange and greenish-yellow (egg and spinach). Collectively these are known as the 5 colours of Tang Ceramics, and are produced from metal oxide e.g. green from copper oxide, yellow from iron oxide.\n\nThe number of craftsmen working in the factory depends on the size of the orders. They were mostly trained by Mr Lam in the past, although quite a few of his \"past pupils” have branched out to start their own business. He doesn't like to train young people because of that reason and feels, too, that it is hard to find young people who are really interested in this art.\n\nThe number of assignments has decreased recently from both Hong Kong and overseas market, due to the increase in cost of production resulting from the increasing cost of raw materials and the setback in the world economy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207843, "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-1976", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "216\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nFor the time being disputes in the New Territories continue to be essentially a matter for mediation by the District Officers, the Rural Committees, and the ‘elders', and if in default of settlement a case drags on, no effective and generally accepted machinery can at the moment be brought into action to force it to a conclusion. (A number of important aspects of the legal situation have necessarily been ignored in this brief discussion. Some civil cases involving large sums of money fall within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The kinds of cases dealt with by the New Territories Magistrate would be an interesting matter to look into. The whole realm of family law—marriage, divorce, maintenance of wives and children, adoption, and inheritance—requires to be treated in detail).\n\n43. I come now to a point made by this discussion of some aspects of the political and legal situation in the New Territories. An approach to the study of leadership could conveniently be made by collecting some basic information on the Village Representatives. This task, it seems to me, might be discharged by the District Officers if they have the time to undertake it. A sample of Village Representatives could be drawn by a simple statistical procedure and the following data collected in respect of each of the men selected: his age; his birthplace; where he lives; where he lived before he became a Village Representative; whether he has ever lived outside the New Territories, and if so where and for how long; the length of time he has been in office; whether he was elected, and if so on what franchise; his occupations, main and subsidiary, past and present; his education (kinds and where acquired); the number of people living in the area he represents; the number of households in this area; the numbers of 'new population' in these last two figures; details (surnames and numbers of members) of the clans in the area represented; the number of men in the most senior surviving generation in his own clan; the age of the oldest man in this generation; the ages of the ten oldest men in the clan; the names of the previous Village Representatives, including the man appointed under the Japanese and any men acknowledged to be 'headmen' before the war; his precise kinship relation to these men; the number of his brothers; his birth order among them; their occupation; the ages of his sons and daughters; the education they are receiving or have received; their occupations, if any. The answers to these questions (some of which must already be known to the District Officers) would provide an indication of the position", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207867, "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-1976", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "240 \n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN \n\nprospect of starting up in business. The hundreds of Chinese restaurants now in Britain (there are well over a thousand) began from a very small nucleus. Men started as workers, saved a little capital, joined with a few friends or relatives, and opened their own establishments, town after town being drawn into the network (so that, as one of my undergraduates in London put it to me last year, there has been created a provincial tradition for chop suey and chips.) In its expanding phase the business could justify a claim to offer opportunities to all; now that its peak has passed it can no longer exert the same attraction. \n\n77. Statements have appeared that the new law in Britain to restrict the entry of people from the Commonwealth has had a decisive effect in restraining migration from Hong Kong. I am under the impression, however, that the causes of the recent sharp decline in the movement to the United Kingdom have been more complicated. If the new law has in fact cut down entry from Hong Kong it is partly, it would seem, because misconceptions have arisen in the minds of restaurant owners about their responsibilities towards the men to whom they have offered jobs; I have been told that they wrongly suppose themselves to be the legal sponsors of the immigrants and have accordingly become reluctant to allow their names to appear on newcomers' documents. (When I began my enquiries in February this year the new legislation did not appear to be having much effect; entry could be obtained for men who wanted to go,) but I am inclined to think that the basic reason for the closing of this chapter in New Territories emigration lies in Britain. The demand for Chinese restaurant food has probably been overmet; there has been unemployment and underemployment in the business. Some of the New Territories emigrants have only part-time jobs; others have been reported to be working only for their keep. Moreover, there is evidence that many have taken up work in different fields: as waiters in ordinary restaurants, as servers in fish-and-chip bars, and as barbers, some of them in these lines working in new ventures financed by New Territories capital and enterprise. \n\n78. The New Territories restaurant business has not been confined to Britain. From there men have branched out into Europe, setting up shop in Holland, Belgium, France and West Germany. But these outliers can never, presumably, compensate for a decline in the United Kingdom demand, for at the very least immigration restric-\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208136, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n159\n\nrocks that are the product of rapid cooling at close to atmospheric pressure.\n\nThe minerals composing the rocks have a high content of silica and are said, therefore, to be acid (as opposed to basic rocks that contain comparatively small amounts of silica). Acid rocks are inherently more viscous in the molten state than are basic rocks, and so volcanoes containing acid material are particularly liable to explosions. The peak of Tai Mo Shan, and the high ridges that fan out from it, are composed of coarse tuff - material that was blown from a volcano in solid particles and then cemented together. By contrast, the lower slopes on the southern and eastern sides are formed from material that was blown from the volcano in a viscous condition; this material is also cemented together but its texture is fine because it solidified at atmospheric pressure. On the northern slopes, running down to the Lam Tsuen valley, the rocks are essentially the same except where they have been altered by intrusions of more coarse-grained materials.\n\nProbably the most important practical aspect is that the rocks, like most others in Hong Kong, are high in silica. Consequently they contain only low concentrations of the important plant nutrients and so yield soils of low fertility.\n\nAccording to Grant (1960) the two main types of soil in Hong Kong have fairly well-defined distributions:\n\n(i) red-yellow podzol: is formed from granitic rocks at all altitudes, and on other rocks above 450 metres;\n\n(ii) krasnozem: is never formed from granite, but is formed from other rock types below about 400-450 metres.\n\nThe best way to study a soil is by means of a pit which reveals a profile of the soil from the surface downward. Road cuttings and the like are convenient for this purpose. On this basis, the two main types of soil may be described briefly as follows:\n\n(i) Red-yellow podzol. The layer of soil proper is usually quite shallow, about 30-45 cm. above the parent rock. Three or four layers are usually visible: a greyish-yellow or greyish-red top layer, then a paler greyish layer, and then a red, yellowish-red or yellow layer above the parent material.\n\n(ii) Krasnozem. The layer of decomposed rock is usually very thick, from 2 to 12 metres. The color is a shade of reddish", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208412, "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-1978", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "C. MARTIN WILBUR\n\ngoes on in his social environment. He feels morally responsible, and realizes that he may be held legally so, for the behavior of the members of his family certainly, and to some extent of all his neighbors.\n\nIII\n\nThe general structure of the Chinese family is pyramidal. This is true both for the largest unit, the clan, and for the smallest group, the individual sex family. At the head of each family unit stands an individual usually called Chia-chang (家長). It is of value to consider the attributes of this Chia-chang because he is the basic unit of village government, the link between the family and the larger group of neighbors. Moreover, he is the prototype of the village elder, who stands somewhat in the same legal and psychological position in the village as does the Chia-chang in his immediate family. The customary, ethical and legal sanctions which reinforce the Chia-chang reinforce also the village elder. There is no more perfect example, in fact, of the generical relationship between the family and all other social institutions in China.\n\nIn the simple sex family the father is usually Chia-chang, or after his death, the mother, if the family is still dependent upon the parental grouping. It was found that in Ching Ho, a village just north of Peiping, of 371 families only ten had women as family heads, and of these nine were widows. In the \"larger family\" which covers several generations living together by common consent under one roof as a single economic unit, the principle is more complicated. Su, quoting Chinese legal sources, gives the following order for succession to the position: grandfather, grandmother, great paternal uncles, their wives, father, mother, paternal uncles, their wives, elder brothers, their wives2. This systematic order is sometimes broken when the individual who would properly become incumbent is judged to be too young or of questionable character or ability. These qualifications of age and character are most important, and carry over into village government as well. Certainly no system of family or village control could be efficient without some modification from the rigid rule set down by law.\n\n1 Ching Ho a Sociological Analysis; p. 43.\n\n2 Su; op. cit., p. 48; from: Ta Ch'ing Lü Li, sec. 88; and Provisional Civil Code, art. 1324.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208415, "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-1978", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\nIV\n\n123\n\nThe most important of these cultural agents responsible for the customary authority both of the Chia-chang and of the village elder is the filial piety-ancestor worship complex. The two are closely interwoven now, and have been for many centuries. Ancestor worship seems to have been the contribution of the earliest Bronze Age peoples,1 and the concept of filial piety to have originated from it. In the new religion developed by the Confucianists, ancestral worship became really secondary to filial piety, though a corollary of it.2 As a moral force it is very strong, having behind it for sanction the dead weight of thousands of years of social approval in literature and legend, in history and in law.3\n\nHsiao (#), imperfectly translated as Filial Piety, is the basic moral and ethical code of the Chinese. It emphasizes primarily the proper relationship between children and parents; but it extends to regulate the behavior between members of the whole family and clan, and even to certain relationships between individuals in the world at large. Proper behavior in all such situations is highly stereotyped and highly formalized: there is a proper way to act towards each of one's relatives with reference to his age, his rank and the degree of consanguinity.\n\nAlthough the behavior between members of a kin group is, theoretically at least, very formalized, there are two other facts which need to be emphasized in this connection. In the first place, this formalism, which is a part of the ethics of filial piety, is not a matter of external etiquette alone. On the contrary, these attitudes are, psychologically speaking, at the very core of an individual's character. They are his most fundamental reflexes, and are the very framework of his social consciousness. Secondly, as a result of this thorough conditioning, the individual has a constant feeling of reverence for age in general. He learns to respect the opinions of those older than himself, and to conform to their judgment and arbitration. In village government the remarkable authority of the\n\n1 Bishop, C. W.; \"Prefatory Note on the Worship of Earth in Ancient China.\" p. 4.\n\n2 Hu, Shih; \"Religion and Philosophy in Chinese History\", p. 33.\n\n3 The concept of filial piety has, for example, literally permeated the criminal code of the nation. See: Alabaster, G.; op. cit., passim, especially section on relationship, p. 143-216.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208447, "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-1978", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n155\n\njudged according to the intrinsic moral value which it has, measured by the supposedly-known natural law. Government measures are therefore obeyed, in so far as they correspond with this popular sense of rightness, not merely because it is positive law.\n\nA partial explanation of the situation may also be found in the philosophy of Taoism, which stresses an indifference to government. Several factors make this hypothesis seem correct. Taoism is strongest in rural districts; in fact, it arose out of the conditions of rural life. Its doctrines, moreover, apply to the life of the village more than do those of Confucianism, which better fit the urban and ruling classes. One of the central doctrines of Taoism is Wu Wei (§) “inaction”, and one of its precepts is that the best government is no government. But such a force is entirely unmeasurable, and the hypothesis can only be advanced for what it is worth.2\n\nTimes occur, it is true, when Hsien government becomes intolerable to the people. In such cases, the first impulse with the Chinese villager is not, as with us, to elect representatives to go as a delegation to make complaint. Rather, the whole village is liable to rise up to a man, armed with what weapons and implements are at hand, and to descend upon the Yamen to demand redress. Demonstrations of this sort are quite embarrassing to the magistrate, for if wind is gotten of them by his superiors, he is liable to be heavily punished. This direct method of self-assertion on the part of the people is therefore often quite effective.\n\nThese two attitudes, on the one hand a positive avoidance, and on the other a profound indifference to the central government, are basic in the relations of the people toward any government greater than their own village polity. And it is these two attitudes, inherited from the Ch'ing dynasty, which will be among the chief obstacles to any form of democratic and representative government which the Republic may attempt to establish.\n\nV\n\nAs a conclusion to this chapter, it seems appropriate to outline the most recent developments in rural government under the Republic, and to indicate something of what the future may bring.\n\n1 Duyvendak, J. J. L.; The Book of Lord Shang, p. 129-130.\n\n2 For this idea, the writer is indebted to Dr. D. W. Lyon, in a conversation on Dec. 12, 1932.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208755, "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-1979", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PRESENT-DAY TAIWAN\n\n185\n\nDue to modern education and a more scientific approach to life, many tenets of the average religious beliefs of the people are now being questioned or even rejected.18 This is perhaps most noticeable among the younger generation, but is certainly not restricted to them. When anthropologists describe the religious beliefs and practices of China, they actually present an idealistic state of affairs: these are the beliefs and practices of the group as a whole or even of a minority amongst the whole community. The degree of participation varies greatly for individual members. An example is my observations made at a temple festival in Feng-yüan. Many of the morning worshippers were older ladies accompanied by a younger woman: obviously mothers-in-law with their sons' wives. It was quite hilarious to notice how the younger women were gradually introduced to the correct procedure of worship and sacrifice; they obviously did not know the rituals. As young adults growing up in a gradually secularized society they most probably rarely visited temples, but once incorporated into their husbands' families, they had the new duty to learn the rituals and continue the family traditions.\n\nReligion therefore is still meaningful for the community as a whole. Although the degree of acceptance of doctrinal beliefs may differ in each individual, the group as a whole maintains the religious rituals: they are a means of group celebration to manifest joy and social coherence and therefore they remain meaningful and even necessary for the mental health of a population ever more pressed by the demands of an industrialized age.\n\n3. Characteristics of religion in Taiwan\n\nIt is hard to define characteristics of an entity that is so wide and encompassing as Chinese religion, but it is worth trying, as long as one keeps in mind that it is a subjective appraisal, open to criticism. Many characteristics of religion in Taiwan are probably generally Chinese and have already been observed and analysed in the past. If that is the case, I shall merely mention it but not go into detail. Some characteristics, however, even if they are pan-Chinese, need further attention since they may be even more striking for modern Taiwan, or since they have not been sufficiently analysed in the overall context of Chinese religion. One such characteristic that I see as basic and most essential with regard to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209284, "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-1981", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG ORIGINS OF DR. SUN YAT-SEN'S ADDRESS TO LI HUNG-CHANG 173\n\neconomic development essential for the strengthening of the nation. The essay was rewritten in Chinese by Hu Li-huan and published in the Hua-tzu jih-pao on May 11, 1887. In this essay, however, Hu emphasized that the well-being of the people was essential to the wealth and power of the nation.\n\nIn addition to knowledge of such writings, Sun's political awareness was further stimulated by his personal observation of the efficiency of the British administration, the law and order which provided basic conditions for economic development and prosperity, the civic freedoms which the citizen enjoyed, and the nature of the open society. These, compared with the corrupt and ineffective administration which he saw at his native village, reinforced Sun's determination to work for change. While he exchanged revolutionary ideas with his close associates, he had also with him the hope of rendering change from above as a possible way of saving China. In his address to Li, the main concern was for the prosperity of the nation and well-being of the people. He did not discuss politics or government administration. This was understandable, as Li was then a high official, and any critical comment on or proposal for change in the existing government would arouse his dissatisfaction which then would defeat the purpose of Sun's presentation.\n\nIn the opening remarks of the letter, Sun claimed that the sources of foreign wealth and power did not altogether lie in solid ships and effective guns. Foreign superiority, as he explained, was built up by the application of science and industrial growth. Four measures were prescribed as essential means of bringing wealth to the nation and well-being to the people. They were full utilization of the nation's talents, better use of land and natural resources, and complete free-flow of goods. These four proposals can be compared with the major areas of reform put forward by Cheng Kuan-ying in the Sheng-shih wei-yen, and they show Cheng's influence on Sun. But in the details of his proposal, it is clear that while some of his ideas were affected by contemporary reformist notions, he was nonetheless influenced by his personal experience and observations in Hong Kong. In emphasizing the full utilization of natural resources, he was echoing the notions that industrial development could only be brought about by the adoption of Western technology. He mentioned in particular chemical products, electricity, hydro-electric power, the telegraph, mining, and textile. His remarks on the ill effects of superstition among the people reflected perhaps his iconoclasm which he twice", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209370, "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-1982", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "5\n\nrelationship of these groups to bureaucratic institutions in terms of the neighborhood associations' autonomy, effectiveness, and satisfaction\" (Jones, Ho, Chau, Lam, and Mok 1978: i). Other studies will no doubt appear in the future, using the Mutual Aid Committees as a base for the investigation of still other problems.\n\nThere are perhaps many reasons for this scholarly popularity, but a major characteristic of Mutual Aid Committees, one that makes it possible for them to serve as a starting point for so many studies is their flexibility. This characteristic has already been alluded to, in the sense of \"the lack of barriers to committee membership and participation\" (Scott 1980:213). However, the flexibility of the committees can also be seen through an examination of their basic structure and function. It is this structure, its variations, and the functions performed that form the subject of this paper. The following discussion (with the exception of certain data gathered during the previous research period of 1976-1978) is based on research conducted at Lok Fu Estate, Kowloon.\n\nThe Research Area Lok Fu Estate\n\nLok Fu Estate is one of six subdivisions making up the Lok Fu Area Committee Area. In its turn, this Area is coterminous with one of the twelve District Board Constituencies established for the Wong Tai Sin District. The Area is bounded by Junction Road, Tung Tau Chuen Road, and Fung Mo Street. By the end of 1982, the total population of Lok Fu Estate was approximately 20,000, out of a total of 31,000 for the entire Area and 524,000 for the entire Wong Tai Sin District (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271). The first blocks of Lok Fu Estate itself were under construction by 1955, at what was then called Lo Fu Ngam (虎崗) (Tiger Hill). However, residents felt that such a name was inauspicious and so it was later changed to Lok Fu (樂富) (Happy and Wealthy). By the end of 1956, the twenty-three blocks of the Lok Fu Resettlement Estate had been completed, twelve blocks of the Mark I type and eleven of the Mark II style (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271-272). At present, many of these blocks have been converted. For example, the individual units in Blocks #6-9 and #11 have been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209398, "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-1982", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "33\n\nThis contrasts with the situation in Hong Kong, for instance, where Chinese were tried by colonial judges principally according to English law, and also with Singapore where a similar situation obtained.\n\nLand Regulations: the Constitution of the International Settlement\n\nEarlier I have made mention of the Land Regulations without clearly explaining what these were. As these Land Regulations formed the Constitution of the Settlement on which nearly the entire structure of government was built it seems proper to give some more details about them,\n\nIn the course of the Settlement's history (1845-1943) three sets of Land Regulations were issued: in 1845, 1854 and 1869. They all dealt in various degrees with the delimitation of the settlement's boundaries, the mode of renting land, the way in which foreign land-renters or ratepayers could elect a Municipal Council, the organisation of the Municipal Council and other administrative details. The way in which these sets of Land Regulations originated differed from each other.\n\nThe 1845 Land Regulations\n\nThe first set was issued by the taotai Kung Mu-chiu, on November 29, 1845. According to the preface these had been drafted by the Chinese and British authorities, meaning Kung and consul Balfour, \"in communication together\". This first Constitution had a distinctly Chinese flavour, as was to be expected. The basic principles of Chinese rulers were: first, paternalism, which held that a great number of detailed rules had to be laid down in writing and that one of the main tasks of administrators was to prevent the cropping up of unrest among the population, second, the so-called Ai-min principle (literally \"love the people\") which said that the feelings of the people should be respected, and third, the principle of mutual responsibility through the pao-chia system. In one form or another all these foundations of the Chinese state were represented in the 23 articles of the Land Regulations (the number of articles alone already indicates the Chinese obsession with detailed rules): e.g. paternalistic attitudes were to be found in articles IV, VI, IX, X, XI and others; the Ai-min rule in articles II, V, VII and IX; and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209464, "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-1982", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND\n\nCHINA'S EMERGING LEGAL SYSTEM\n\nIN PERSPECTIVE\n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT*\n\nOn December 4, 1982, China's National People's Congress (NPC) adopted the fourth and perhaps most favourable constitution since 1949 in terms of paper guarantees for the protection of individual citizens against the arbitrary abuse of Party and state power. When coupled with such laws as the Criminal Code and Criminal Code of Procedure, promulgated in July 1979 and implemented in January 1980, there is some room for optimism that China has embarked on a path toward a stable legal system and the provision of basic guarantees for the rights of its citizens. However, given China's traditional disregard of individual rights and the almost constant state of political turmoil prevailing throughout this century, not to mention the Chinese Communists' generally negative attitude toward jural or formal law in the past, such optimism may well prove to have been undeserved. It might be worthwhile to look briefly at previous efforts on the part of the Chinese Communists to establish some semblance of a stable legal system before trying to reach any conclusions about the future.\n\nThe early judicial experience of the Chinese Communists, which began with the special tribunals set up in Hunan in 1926-27 to try \"bad elements,\" can at best be described by Mao Zedong's own words \"zao de hen\" [extremely crude]. It was not until November 1931 with the founding of the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi that any real attempt was made by the Communists to establish a formal body of law and judicial procedure. During this and the following Yenan period, laws were promulgated and legal institutions established, but this took place within the context of violent revolutionary struggle and the war of resistance against Japan. Moreover, judicial personnel\n\n* Professor Rickett is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209465, "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-1982", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "100 \n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT \n\nat the operations level consisted almost entirely of hastily trained students or political cadres, amateur in approach and guerrilla in methods of work. Thus, while the Chinese Communists may have had some intellectual appreciation of the need for formal laws and institutions, the slightest excuse in the name of survival was sufficient for a reversion to revolutionary expediency.3 Moreover, Mao Zedong himself, with his hatred for bureaucratization and emphasis on the mass line, was never willing to consider law any more than a mere tool of the revolution, to be used or rejected as changes in the political scene dictated.\n\nThe basic guidelines for the new China were set out in a series of Mao's speeches and writings involving his concept of \"New Democracy,\" culminating in his essay \"On the People's Democratic Dictatorship\" released on June 30, 1949 just before the founding of the new People's Republic. In this latter document in particular, Mao does not mince words; good people belonging to the four classes of the New Democracy (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie) would be entitled to democratic rights, people belonging to the enemy classes (landlords and bureaucratic capitalists) would be subjected to repression and dictatorship.\n\nWhen Communist forces took over the country in 1948-49, local areas first came under military control commissions. In the cities these brought together \"conferences of all circles\" which formed people's governments beginning at the local level and then expanding upwards. In the countryside peasant associations formed the basic units which were to conduct land reform and form the bases for local governments. As local people's governments developed, powers were increasingly turned over to them by the military control commissions. However, the military control commissions retained power in all cases affecting security through their public security forces. The military control commissions also continued to maintain military tribunals in some areas for trying counter-revolutionary cases as late as 1954. People's Courts were formed immediately following 1949, largely in accordance with the demands of the situation and types of personnel available. In Shanghai, for example, a new People's Court was constituted by giving some 200 former judicial personnel and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209467, "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-1982", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "102\n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT\n\nJudicial Conference was held for the primary purpose of regulating local courts and local court-affiliated organizations such as neighbourhood mediation and factory-based comrade adjudication committees.\n\nBy the end of 1953, the Chinese Communists announced that the period of reconstruction was coming to an end, the \"New Democratic\" phase of the revolution was complete, and it was time to start the building of socialism. In September 1954, a new constitution was promulgated which established a new government under a National People's Congress (NPC) and provided the basis for a judicial system, which in administering justice, was supposed to be independent, subject only to law. There was a standard list of rights for citizens including freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. Although this did not prevent a repressive campaign against intellectuals and the arrest of the writer Hu Feng in 1955, in general the 1954 Constitution set the stage for what was to be the most constructive period for legal development in China during the first 30 years of the People's Republic. Provision was made for a Ministry of Justice responsible for the general administration of justice and the training of judicial cadres, and for a procuratorate which was to review recommendations from public security offices concerning the arrest of suspected criminals, and which would also prosecute cases before the court. The procuratorate was also charged with ensuring that the activities of government complied with the law, and investigating and prosecuting serious crimes committed by state officials. Malfeasance involving officials was also investigated by a Ministry of Supervision, an organ which was later eliminated. However, the investigation of Party members was the prerogative of Party control commissions.\n\n\"The Organic Law of the People's Courts,\" adopted by the NPC at the same time as the Constitution, spelled out in more detail some of the basic provisions of the Constitution, providing, for example, that in \"adjudicating cases the people's courts shall apply the law equally to all citizens irrespective of their nationality, race, sex, occupation, social origin, religious belief, educational standard, property status, and length of residence.\" It also stated that cases \"shall be heard in public unless otherwise provided for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209468, "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-1982", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "103\n\nby law,\" and \"the accused shall have the right to defense.” This latter provision formed the basis for the establishment of legal advisory offices attached to courts and staffed by people's lawyers, who in addition to performing all sorts of advisory and mediative work, were also empowered to defend both civil and criminal defendants, including counter-revolutionaries, in court.\n\nWhat followed during the next three years until the late spring of 1957 seemed very promising at the time. Work was begun on a series of codes, legal education was greatly expanded, law journals began to appear which by late 1955 were discussing a wide range of topics with increasing frankness. For example, in 1955, the majority of the articles published in the most important of these journals, Zhengfa yanjiu, were of a simple informative or propaganda nature. The remainder were divided between articles on Soviet law, which were important in providing acceptable precedents supporting reform, and articles dealing with practical problems such as how to prepare documents, the meaning of legal terms, investigative procedures, and questions involving the marriage law and inheritance. While none of these articles were particularly controversial in nature, they did indicate a move toward professionalism. By 1956 and through the first half of 1957, however, many articles began dealing with such highly sensitive issues as what constitutes evidence, particularly the place of confessions, the proper attitude of the court toward the defendant (one writer even called for presumption of innocence), the use of analogy, the need for Party and state organizations and functionaries to obey the law, and various problems of procedure.\n\nIn spite of the increasing demand for professionalism in judicial work and liberalization of the legal system, none of these articles faced up to the basic problem of Party control over the courts. This had to await the revitalized \"Hundred Flowers Movement\" in the late spring of 1957. Following Mao's February speech, \"On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People,\" the Party Central Committee urged non-Communists to voice their criticisms of Party work in order to assist the Committee in eradicating the three evils of bureaucratism, subjectivism, and sectarianism. In late May the Chinese Political Science and Law Association organized a series of forums for the stated purpose of giving the judicial circles in Beijing an opportunity", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209469, "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-1982", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "104\n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT\n\nof presenting their opinions to the Party. The opportunity was too much for judicial workers to pass up, and the speeches which followed were often extremely vitriolic. Almost every aspect of existing judicial practice came under attack, particularly the role played by the Party. The editor of the Association's journal, Zhengfa yanjiu, demanded that high Communist cadres “get down out of their sedan chairs\". Some of the more important demands presented, as reported by the New China News Agency on May 29, 1957, included: 1) reform of law schools and the broadening of legal education to include such subjects as international law, which had been neglected under the Communists; 2) relaxation of the dictatorship and stress on the protection of democratic privileges; 3) immediate codification of the laws which were said in many fields to be entirely lacking or so vague they could not be used as a basis for sound legal judgments; 4) elimination of mass movements which usurped the function of the courts; 5) assertion of judicial independence and elimination of Party interference in judicial matters. What was even more surprising was that among the strongest critics were members of the Party, including Jia Qian, chief judge of one of the two criminal divisions of the Supreme Court. In spite of the highly emotional language used in expressing these demands, there was little questioning of the basic leadership role of the Party in society at large. Yet, when the counterattack came in the context of the well-known Anti-Rightist Movement two weeks later, it soon became clear that the Party was going to interpret these demands in that light. Extensive purges followed. Many leading judicial figures were declared “rightists” and relieved of their posts and some were sent to the countryside for reform through labour.\n\nThe attack on the \"rightists\" continued throughout the rest of the year and on into the spring of 1958. The arguments that filled the law journals during these months indicated a complete reversal of the former trend toward an independent judicial system and its attendant professionalism. The anti-rightist arguments of this period are well represented in a January 19, 1958 radio speech of Wu Defeng, Vice-President of the Chinese Political Science and Law Association. Wu presented a series of statements which he claimed represented the views of the \"rightists\" along with his replies:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209475, "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-1982", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "110\n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT\n\nadvisory offices were established in most cities throughout the country. The year 1979 also witnessed the beginnings of a major nationwide campaign to publicize the new laws and explain the rights and obligations of citizens contained therein. An impressive number of legal publications have appeared, including an increasing number of law journals. Numerous delegations of Chinese lawyers have visited abroad, and a number of Chinese students have been sent abroad to study Western law.\n\nThe new system, with some minor changes, harks back to that instituted in 1954. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the general administration of justice and the training of judicial cadres. The court system is composed of the Supreme People's Court, Higher People's Courts, Intermediate People's Courts, and Basic People's Courts. There are also special courts: military, railway transport, water transport, forestry, as well as special branch courts dealing with economic affairs. There is a two-trial (one appeal) system, and trials are open unless they involve state secrets, matters of personal shame such as rape, or juveniles. As in the 1950s, judges, except in minor civil and criminal cases or where otherwise specified by law, are assisted by elected lay assessors, who are members of the trial court and enjoy equal rights with its judges when the judges perform their duties in court. Court presidents are elected by people's congresses at various levels while judges are appointed by the standing committees of these congresses. Courts are no longer accountable to local governments, but only to the people's congress of their constituency. The Supreme Court has been given an expanded role over its 1954 predecessor. While only the Standing Committee of the NPC has the authority to interpret the Constitution and other laws, the Supreme Court can give explanations on questions concerning the specific application of laws and decrees in judicial procedure. It also must rule on all death sentences.12\n\nThe right of defense is spelled out in the Criminal Code of Procedure, which provides that the accused may either defend himself or request the assistance of a relative or guardian, a member of his unit, people's organization, or other citizens approved by the court, or a lawyer. Lawyers function under provisions contained in Articles 28 and 29 of the Criminal Code of Procedure and \"The Provisional Regulations Governing the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209480, "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-1982", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "115\n\nin practice the Party becomes the state. Furthermore, Article 56 states: \"Citizens must support the leadership of the Communist Party of China.\n\nTherefore any criticism of the Party or its role in the society could easily be interpreted as counter-revolutionary whatever the rest of the Constitution or other laws might say.17\n\nThe new Constitution returns to the 1954 model in that, except for the Preamble, the Communist Party is not even mentioned by name, no longer is the PRC a \"socialist state of the dictatorship of the proletariat,\" but a \"socialist state of the people's democratic dictatorship.\" The significance of this statement is that it is at least a theoretical recognition of the rights of other classes besides the proletariat and thus a weakening of the dictatorial power of the Communist Party. Moreover, Article 5 explicitly states that all parties must abide by the Constitution and the law. Another change which may prove to be of some significance is the more moderate tone taken toward class struggle. According to the Preamble: \"The exploiting classes as such have been eliminated in our country. However, class struggle will continue to exist within certain limits for a long time to come. The Chinese people must fight against those forces and elements, both at home and abroad, that are hostile to China's socialist system and try to undermine it.\"18 According to Peng Zhen, who gave the major report on the draft of the new Constitution to the members of the NPC, this means that \"class struggle is no longer the principle contradiction in Chinese society. This basic characteristic requires a substantial change in the focus of work of the state and its guiding principles.”19 One can only hope this means that at least the repression of the Anti-Rightist movement and factional violence of the Cultural Revolution are things of the past.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Under the empire the concept of individual rights was non-existent. From 1908 to 1947, China had some 12 constitutions either proposed or adopted, and even though all but one contained some formal listing of the rights of citizens, in each case these rights were carefully restricted by lists of duties and obligations or by the statement that such rights were to be enjoyed only in accordance with law. See Meredith P. Gilpatrick, \"The Status of Law and Lawmaking Procedure under the Kuomintang, 1925-46,\" The Far Eastern Quarterly, X.1 (Nov. 1950), 50.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209622, "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-1982", "page_number": 279, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "257\n\napproximately between 1900 and 1915. We find that of the four born before 1898, three had attended class for an average of four years, one attended for only one year, and then worked first in the farm for a few years and then in the construction of the railway. Amongst the six born after 1898, however, three never went to school and one claimed that he learnt to read a little when he worked as a shop assistant in a small tea-house at Shamshuipo. Around 1900, at least two teachers are known to have given up teaching, one to work in the Land Office of the New Territories administration and the other to work for his brother-in-law at Taipo. Liao Chung-nan, the siu-tsai who formerly taught a small class at high fees in his own home as mentioned above, eventually had to move to teach at the Wan Shih Tang at a lower fee of about $5 per pupil.\n\nThree government schools providing an elementary English education were set up between 1905-1906, one being situated at Taipo, about six miles from Sheung Shui. Unlike in urban Hong Kong, response to this new educational provision was not great. The school at Ping Shan fared most badly and was closed in 1907 to be replaced by one set up in Cheung Chau. The average attendance throughout 1905-1912 in these three schools was twenty, out of a total of 224 schools in the whole Territories with an average attendance of sixteen each.15 The Report of the District Officer of 1912 states: “Government schools on a small scale have been opened at centres in the New Territories providing an elementary instruction in English, the fee for these is 50 cents per month. There is not, however, a great demand for this instruction of a more modern type in most of the districts, for the people still cling to the old-fashioned learning.”16 We have no record of village people from Sheung Shui attending the Taipo government English schools before 1913.\n\n1913. The social and economic changes resulting from the change of government were still small and the opportunities for new jobs were still limited, and the jobs were mostly confined to manual labour. New demands had not yet appeared to bring marked changes in popular literacy which remained basically rooted in the traditional and relatively confined village society, but it was perhaps beginning to lose its former hold both as a basic education for the masses and, at a more advanced level, as the avenue to position and wealth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210217, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "167\n\ndirectly employed. Figure 3 shows a basic structure of the Chinese oyster exporting network to Hong Kong in terms of the geographical and administrative divisions of the producing areas. Shenzhen City is divided into two major administrative districts, Baoan County and the Special Economic Zone. Two Chinese government bodies, the Baoan Aquaproduct Bureau and the Nantou (Luohu) Aquaproduct Bureau, work in parallel to deal with technical matters such as oyster bed boundaries and production, and a third (the Shenzhen Aquaproduct Import/Export Company) is in charge of the overall import/export trading of oysters.\n\nFigure 3 Structure of PRC Oyster Exporting Network\n\nGeeliseling Provenge\n\nDomaljko Pron\n\nDapper Romany\n\nthe Pian\n\nAN I LIPLINE.........-- ---- --\n\nJIMI JEdugly very spl\n\nkad saved From Campylon\n\nLisommalle day. Ingiger) apni Long antes per Jimmie der rack pekonis |\n\nDada MAJ\n\nTaghan, Yanjung,\n\n4mm alle dis dalyjbm120 a pose tempiame aps laining miraçlı kılarının |\n\nדי עי חוף\n\nShenzhen C\n\n(Maga Lam\n\n• Special Demelle Zuk↑\n\nկոոր\n\nKylling Headgleda\n\nThe\n\nVan\n\nSpellen In\n\nBasso Autospraylu | Majorqu\n\nVIDOL\n\nDompodbell by Shyachçe dgorjebakyti fungert spoken Vompany J\n\nimportante villic\n\nNurlan HAN\n\nI\n\nsenculled by\n\nMyletop Aplanka Qureau\n\nSliche uffic\n\nI do dr.II.\n\nThe PRC\n\npakking Kun\n\n=\n\nEvery year, oyster farmers are required to sell part of their product at a relatively low official price to the Chinese Government to meet a certain quota before they can sell the rest on the open market. The quota was reduced from a few thousand dan (1 dan = 50 kg) to only five hundred dan (350 from Baoan County and 150 from the Special Economic Zone) since 1979, when about 90% of the Deep Bay oysters died from a mass mortality the cause of which could not be identified with any certainty. The reduced", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211130, "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-1987", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "166\n\nIn addition to the embarrassment such persons were to “respectable” Europeans, it was felt the employment by the Chinese of members of their own class also created a wrong impression.\n\nOne of the resolutions passed at the meeting to protest against the blockade stated that the actions of the Chinese were \"most inimical to British prestige in Hongkong and the neighbouring provinces of China, the impression being general, on account of the prominent part taken by Englishmen in the matter, that the system is connived at by the British Government, which is powerless to resist it.\"\n\nAny situation where British honour or prestige was felt to be undermined stirred up basic insecurities. Other statements made at the meeting reflected popularly held attitudes towards the Chinese.\n\nOne of the speakers gave a somewhat simplistic analysis of the manner in which the Government functioned in China. He stated: “China contains two classes, the governors and the governed. The one class squeezes and the other is squeezed and the richer the subject, the more certain he was to be so.”\n\nHe believed that many Chinese were attracted to Hongkong not because of the opportunities it offered for making money, but simply to escape the uncertainties of life in China.\n\nMr. Whittall in his speech at the meeting had introduced the question of a Chinese consul in Hongkong. Another speaker elaborated on the dangers he felt were inherent in the proposal.\n\nHe claimed that a consul would be regarded by the Chinese as the real ruling power in Hongkong, especially “as they do not understand all the details of English law, they would at once submit themselves to his direction.”\n\nA Chinese consul would never be able to fulfil the usual function of a consul in a foreign port, which, according to the speaker, was to act as a mediator in case of disputes between the people of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211599, "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": 14, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "hope to catch up soon, with the aid of the Editorial group which includes Dr. Betty Wei, Dr. Thomas Lau and myself!\n\nFinally, a word of thanks to our printers, Messrs Yee Tin Tong, and especially to their Mr. Henry Law who is the soul of courtesy and cooperation.\n\nEvents in China\n\nI turn now to a world event which it was impossible to ignore, especially in Hong Kong. Like other associations in Hong Kong, the RAS Council felt it had a plain duty to write to the British Government, leading Parliamentarians and other influential figures in public life, expressing concern for Hong Kong's future in the light of the repressive action taken in Beijing in May-June 1989. A copy of this letter was sent to all local and overseas members of the Society, and many of us circulated it more widely among friends or sent copies to persons who they felt ought to know that a letter had been sent.\n\nBoth as President and as an individual, I received a number of responses from Members at home and abroad. These were all supportive of the action taken by the Council. I regret to have to say, however, that there was no response from the Foreign Secretary's Office, to whose head the letter was addressed, not even a printed acknowledgement slip, despite a courteously worded reminder enclosing a copy of the original letter. Surely two copies could not have gone astray?\n\nIn my personal capacity as President, I also sent a private submission to the Basic Law Drafting Committee last autumn, before the period allowed for submissions expired. It gave my own statement on how this Society has been able to operate without let or hindrance, fear or favour, and relying upon the open, willing cooperation of others for almost thirty years, and how essential it was for us, and Societies like us, to be able to continue operating in this way after 1997. A copy of this letter has been tabled at this meeting, and the text will be annexed to this report when it is published in the appropriate number of the Journal,\n\nThe Council\n\nYou will have noted that David Gilkes has been nominated as President for the coming year. No other nominations have been received, and this is a very appropriate appointment in view of his 23 years on the Council\n\nxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211602, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN,\n\nCONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE FOR THE BASIC LAW.\n\n30 October 1989\n\nDear Sir,\n\nI am writing this personal letter in my capacity as President of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch, first begun in 1847 and re-established in 1959, is a wholly independent body, and self-financing. The enclosed Brochure, together with the Chinese version to be printed shortly, will indicate our long history as a cultural society, and our record of work done in Hong Kong over the past thirty years.\n\nI have been a member practically from the outset, and have been an office-bearer since 1966, editing the annual Journal for 14 years, serving as a Vice-President since 1970 and as President from 1983. I have thus been closely involved with the affairs of the Hong Kong Branch for most of its recent history and feel that I can give you an accurate idea of our hopes and aspirations for the future.\n\nPut very simply, we would hope to continue our activities in the interests of Hong Kong long after 1997, and in the same way as we are able to operate at present. Our particular function is to increase the common stock of knowledge and understanding of Hong Kong, and to build a bridge between the Chinese and expatriate parts of the local community, promoting social interaction and friendship among its residents.\n\nLike other bodies of its kind, our Society is registered under the Societies Ordinance. It has an approved constitution, to which any changes require the approval of the licensing authority. Otherwise, within these parameters, our Society operates with complete freedom of action, and its activities are not controlled, directed or restricted by the government in any way.\n\nThis freedom of action is at the root of our continued successful existence. It feeds the imagination and creativity which enable the Council to mount successful programmes that meet with the approval of the\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211603, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "membership. They include talks, lectures and symposia, as well as local tours and visits. The independent co-operation of guest speakers and the willing agreement of persons and institutions visited during tours are equally vital. These, too, stem from the personal freedoms enjoyed in present day Hong Kong.\n\nIt follows that I link the Society's success with the continuance of these freedoms. They are now being addressed by both governments and are expected to be the subject of a Bill of Rights whose contents will be incorporated in the Basic Law. I very much hope that these provisions will be real after 1997 and not just 'paper' freedoms.\n\nPlease bring this letter to the attention of the Drafting Committee.\n\nYours faithfully,\n\nJAMES WILLIAM HAYES President\n\nxvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212071, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "object of encouraging an active interest in East Asia, and in particular China, through the medium of lectures and discussions and by publishing an annual Journal”. These objectives must always be borne in mind and so it was particularly gratifying to see that the Hong Kong Standard thought we were worthy of space in their special 150th anniversary issue on the Foundation of Hong Kong, published late last year: I am grateful to Carl Smith for writing this article and to see that it brought forth many favourable comments. It is interesting to note that in spite of a 112 year gap in our history the influence of the Royal Asiatic Society is very much in evidence.\n\nThis evidence can also be seen in other areas. I would hesitate to call this Society a watchdog for the History of Hong Kong but nevertheless we are concerned about matters which could erode the historical heritage of our local community. For this reason the Council thought it appropriate to write to the Urban Council urging them to think again about the proposed charges for entering museums under their control; this is a new departure for the Urban Council and we will inform you in due course whether our representations make any headway. Again, whilst the Society does not have direct representation on the Antiquities Advisory Board, (a matter of some controversy), there are three members of the Council on the Board and we are therefore in some position to make our views known. We have also at their request written to the Government about the conservation and rescue programme for the area affected by the Airport and Lantau Port Study Areas.\n\nFinally I would like to turn to the future. Whether 1997 was on the horizon or not a Society such as ours needs to ensure that it continues to meet the aspirations of its members, have an active and interesting programme, a Journal which is worthy of the best, and that we are in a position to make our contribution within our objectives to the community at large. The Society was asked to comment by OMELCO on the Bill of Rights and we responded by emphasising the need for real freedoms, as opposed to paper ones and that such conditions in the Bill of Rights should also be included in or be in accord with the Basic Law when it comes into force: in particular, members of Council agreed on the need for freedom of academic research and that there should be no diminution of existing access to government and other records. We shall continue to watch developments, but if we are to succeed in continuing as a viable and active society we will\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212097, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "village and its inhabitants. The dancing teams would perform at the opening of ancestral halls, schools and village offices, or when a wealthy villager built himself a new house. They were part of the ritual performances at the main festivals, at the re-installation of ancestral tablets after reconstruction of a lineage hall, or during the re-dedication of deities following a major repair to a local temple. They carried out other important functions, also. If plague menaced the village, in an old local customary practice, the lion or unicorn dancers were sent with Taoist priests in procession around the neighbourhood to dispel the threat. And if the village was threatened with attack, the strong and brave lion dancers under their respected instructors formed the core of the defence. Furthermore, the dance teams were a principal means for maintaining and extending a village's status and prestige.\n\nAs part of the training, youths and boys would be instructed in how to carry out the dancing steps, and also how to perform some of the basic martial arts. In discussing unicorn dancing with two village friends from Tsuen Wan, it was emphasized that the beasts (meaning in practice their human performers) had to follow kwai kui. For instance, there was a correct way to enter a building, and how to worship at a temple, and how to behave when meeting another unicorn. If the right decorum and etiquette was not observed when this happened, it could lead to a fight. This aspect, that of lai or decorum, was the most important to be taken into account in training and performance.\n\nBoys learned the art of cooperating together, and discipline was imposed, especially self-control. This was needed during the tense excitement generated by the accompanying drumming and gonging during the dance sequences, and particularly on festival days when the element of competition was well to the fore. The dancing was exhausting for mind and body, and relays of boys took turns to dance inside the at times stifling mask and body of the \"animal\". Self-control was an important requirement for the participants. \"We won't put up with uncontrolled temper”, a Kaifong friend said on one festival occasion when a dance team was performing, \"If a lad can't keep it, he gets put out of the dance group\".\" Thus, in these various ways, the village dance team constituted one of the principal means of giving practical effect to Confucian teaching.\n\nTo conclude this account of traditional instruction and entertainment,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212429, "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": 371, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "348\n\nthe police, the courts and the judiciary, and correctional services. Among the topics examined are armed robbery, drug abuse, vice, commercial crime, illegal immigration, and smuggling.\n\nWacks, Raymond, editor, HUMAN RIGHTS IN HONG KONG, Hong Kong, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. xxiii + 542 pp. Index. In this important work fourteen scholars at the University of Hong Kong examine the future of human rights in Hong Kong in the context of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which comes into effect on 1 July 1997, the Bill of Rights, enacted in Hong Kong in June 1991, and international conventions and statutes that guarantee human rights. The editor is Professor of Law and Head of the Department of Law at the University of Hong Kong.\n\nWolf, Margery, THRICE TOLD TALE: FEMINISM, POSTMODERNISM AND ETHNOGRAPHIC RESPONSIBILITY, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. 153 pp. Bibliography. Index. Even for the non-specialists who are not concerned with scholarly arguments over research methods and terminology, the tales Professor Wolf tells are fascinating.\n\nPang Pang, THE DEATH OF HU YAOBANG, translated from the Chinese by Si Ren, paperback. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Center for Chinese Studies, 1989. viii + 74pp. The book was written immediately after the death of Hu Yaobang on 15 April 1989, before the events of June that year. It is an account of Hu's last days in the Beijing Hospital, juxtaposed with revealing interviews with people closest to Hu. Very good easy reading.\n\nPeters, Emrys L., THE BEDOUIN OF CYRENAICA: STUDIES IN PERSONAL AND CORPORATE POWER. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Emrys L. Peters articles, edited by Jack Goody and Emanuel Marx, for the interested reader and anthropological students.\n\nRoberts, Priscilla (editor), SINO-AMERICAN RELATIONS SINCE 1900, Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, 1991. iv + 563 pp. This important volume on Sino-American relations in the 20th century consists of papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Hong Kong in January 1990. There are more than 30 papers presented in Chinese and English. The Chinese papers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212701, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "'History can be well written only in a free country,' Voltaire once wrote in a letter to Frederick the Great in the early part of the 18th century. I am sure we all agree with these sentiments and objectives and we will attempt to continue to do what we are best at in order to achieve them.\n\nAnd what do we do from a practical point of view in order to achieve our objectives? There are four basic areas of activity; visits and expeditions to areas of historical interest, public lectures, the publication of the journal and increasing our library collection, and being a gentle pressure group and of assistance in improving Hong Kong's image when and where needed. I shall deal with each in turn and end with some facts and figures.\n\nI think it is safe to say that we have had one of the most active and interesting years in the history of the Society, and for that we need to thank the great efforts put in by the Programme Committee and particularly its chairman, Mr. Peter Leeds. When the organisation of this Society was put under the microscope of a management consultant a few years ago, one of its main recommendations was to form a number of committees each to look after an area of activity. Not all committees recommended really got off the ground in a very effective way but one of them that did was the Programme Committee. And over the last year the results are for all to see. I would like to inform you of those visits and expeditions and they are as follows:\n\nVisit\n\nHelena May / R.A.S. Quiz\n\nVisit to Fung Ping Shan Museum\n\nH.K. Park Aviary\n\nVisit to University Hall,\n\nBethany & Pok Fu Lam\n\nTea Ceremony\n\nFilms\n\n-\n\nHong Kong life\n\nTour to China\n\nArranger\n\nAnita Wilson & Rosemary Lee\n\nMichael Lau\n\nKen Searle (Rosemary Lee)\n\nPeter Leeds / Des Robinson\n\nMichael Lau\n\nElizabeth Sinn\n\nPeter & Rosemary Lee\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213334, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "138\n\nredevelopment, and spoke to each group in turn on their history and background. The first time around, a small donation had turned away the indignation of an old female resident, who had noisily enquired what we were up to. Also, we were entertained on each occasion by the Kowloon City Kaifong Association in its office inside the City, and given its side of the story.\n\nThe opportunity would not recur. At the time of writing (June 1994), all the buildings within the Walled City boundary (less those of historic interest) have been demolished and their residents compensated and rehoused, and a four-week long archaeological investigation has been completed, uncovering the inscribed granite slab over the old South Gate.25\n\nOther Aspects of the Society\n\nTwo Letters\n\nThe RAS has seldom been politically motivated. On the rare occasions that we have made representations to the authorities, this was done to support some worthy public cause, like the need for a proper Museum of History.26 The only occasion on which the Society has campaigned vigorously on a local issue has been in the past few years, against the government's intended removal of the Public Records of Hong Kong to Tuen Mun New Town, and to press in lieu for a more suitable premises in a convenient location.27\n\nHowever, on two other occasions, in the exceptional circumstances of the time, special representations were made on behalf of the Society, because in both cases Hong Kong's future was seen to be involved. Following the Tiananmen Square incident in mid-1989, which threw Hong Kong into an emotional turmoil the like of which had never been seen, the RAS Council met to discuss the position. It was decided to send a letter to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, urging it to stand firm in its dealings with Beijing, in the interests of Hong Kong and its people. **Sad to say, there was no response; and despite sending a follow-up copy some weeks after, not even so much as an acknowledgment. In the second instance, again in 1989 and just before the period allowed for public comment on the draft Basic Law had elapsed, in my capacity as President of the Society, I sent a personal letter to the Chairman of the Consultative Committee for the Basic Law, Later reproduced in the RAS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213351, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "156\n\nintellectual and historical traditions. Thus they were able to push the study of Hong Kong history to new frontiers.\n\nThe Hong Kong History Project, Chinese University of Hong Kong\n\nResearch was pursued with great energy at the Chinese University, and a history project its members began in 1978 may be said to have marked a turning point in the development of the study of local history.\n\nAimed at saving whatever historical information that might still be found, the Project included Ng Lun Ngai-ha, Kwan Li-hung, David Faure, Bernard Luk, Tam Yu-yim and Barbara Ward, and teams of students. They began by gathering historical inscriptions in temples and ancestral halls, and then went on to interviewing villagers for what they remembered of the villages. Villagers were also asked to come forward with whatever documents they had. Soon, gathering documentary materials and interviewing became complementary. The research teams worked on one district at a time, first concentrating on Sha Tin and Sai Kung, then Lam Tsuen and in 1982, Tsuen Wan, though members would approach other villages in the New Territories whenever the opportunity arose. Their search yielded rich fruits because they cast their nets wide - they sought materials that earlier researchers had not considered relevant. Thus documents such as village regulations, land deeds and accounts, ritual and ceremonial texts, scholars' handbooks, textbooks and almanacs, clan records and so forth were gathered, and these were able to throw new light on important, and yet hitherto neglected, aspects of village life - daily life, farming and subsistence, sickness and death, family life, marketing, intervillage organizations, internal village organization, \n\n22\n\nThe project must have seemed like a massive raid by scholars into the New Territories, and its benefit to other scholars is incalculable. Many of the manuscripts and books were deposited in public libraries. Inscriptions copied were published in three volumes as Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, now standard reference. The wealth in information supplied by these inscriptions is overwhelming, and Maurice Freedman noted that, together with land deeds, genealogies and other records, they formed the basic sources for an understanding of the New Territories. The exercise was all the more timely since, in face of Hong Kong's rapid development, it was possible that many of the inscriptions might have been lost had the project not been undertaken at that time. 24", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213414, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "context of to-day's Hong Kong, and I am grateful to all members who have kindly contributed to that debate, notably Mr. John Wilson and our past President, Dr James Hayes, and I would now like to briefly give you the upshot of that review, and if any member would like to give input into this please do so.\n\nThis review covered such issues as the Society's role in relation to the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and on this score, there is no doubt that the Society can continue to function after 1997 without fear of any legal restrictions other than those at present contained in the Society's Ordinance. In addition under Article 149 of the Basic Law it is clear that there will be nothing to prevent the Hong Kong Branch of the Society having dealings with its parent body in London or with other branches in the region or even with international bodies.\n\nThe Council also discussed two other issues, firstly the Title, and secondly its appeal to all the community in Hong Kong. On the first issue there was general consensus that the Society should continue to be called the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. It may seem unfashionable to retain the word Royal but in view of our history as outlined above I believe it is the right decision. There is also the problem of what to call ourselves if we did not include the word Royal. There is already in Hong Kong a Society called the Asiatic Society originating in London, and another one called the Asia Society formed about six years ago from America. For this Society to drop the name Royal will probably cause even more confusion than there is already.\n\nOn the second issue the Council agreed that whilst it had broadened its appeal over the last ten years, which has brought in many more local orientated members on the Council and in its overall membership it should continue to do more in this direction, without of course deleting one of the original purposes of the Society which is to inform and educate the public about the history life and culture of the local community. Related to this the Council agreed that where appropriate the Society should keep in close touch with other local societies in its various fields.\n\nThe review and the discussions in Council were I felt very valuable in focusing our attention on the current status of the Society. However,\n\n1X", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 161, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "130\n\nThere has been some speculation that the group of words ending in -um (de-lam, ki-lam, etc) represent a specific grammatical form. But in Tong, these words are given as a basic form and in nearly all cases are derived from English words which end in -l or -ll; si-bui-lam (spoil), de-lam (tell), go-lam (call), gi-lam (kill), bui-lam (boil), and se-lam (sell). It is worth noting that all these are verbs. I speculate that these were first introduced into Pidgin in their present participle form (-ing) and that through an East China dialect, the syllable in (lam in Cantonese) was used to represent -ing in English. Let's look at some other well-known Pidgin words with less obvious derivations.\n\nChop\n\nHobson Jobson and other major sources give as the origin the Hindi word, chhap, a word denoting an official stamp or the act of emprinting. Macau patoa: chapa - Documento oficial emanado das autoridades chinesas. Marca, selo, carimbo. (G. N. Batalha). Tong Ting Shue lists the word as a measure (chop) of tea. The character used is chaap, “to insert”.\n\nChop chop\n\nMost sources give as the origin of chop-chop a Chinese word with a similar sound. Hobson Jobson offers a number of dialect pronunciations of the word pronounced in Cantonese gap. None of these is particularly near to the sound chop.\n\nTong writes it as jap-jap, the characters for \"to pick up\". This does not help. We have searched a number of Chinese dialect vocabularies and failed, so far, to find any Chinese word in any dialect denoting “quick, fast” which sounds as if it could have been the origin of chop-chop.\n\nChop-sticks\n\nThe OED and all other major sources are persuaded by the argument that the word is connected to the Pidgin chop-chop, meaning quick. That is, the Chinese eat with sticks, the sticks enable them to eat fast, therefore they should be called \"fast-sticks\". The Macau patoa word is faichi.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214120, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "157\n\nBearing in mind the RASHKB is sometimes seen as supporting the \"establishment”, in October 1989, four months after the Tiananmun incident, Dr James Hayes, then our President, wrote to the Chairman of the Consultative Committee for the Basic Law (Hayes 1989: xvi). As no reply was received a copy was then sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in London. Again, no reply was forthcoming.\n\nIn this letter, put very simply, the President wrote that the RASHKB hoped to be able to continue its activities in the interests of Hong Kong long after 1997. Indeed, members hoped to be able to carry on in the same way as they had been able to operate before 1997. The letter went on to say that the Branch's particular functions are to increase the common stock of knowledge and understanding of Hong Kong and to build a bridge between the Chinese and expatriate sectors of the local community, promoting social interaction and friendship among residents.\n\nLike a number of other societies in Hong Kong, over the years the RAS has in its own way contributed to peace and stability. It has helped to nurture the growing sense of territory identity, for example, that has formed especially since the end of the 1960s. In spite, however, of trying to recruit more Chinese members, especially in recent years, the Branch has had limited success.\n\nI am pleased to say, a few months after the handover of the Territory to China, the Branch is continuing to operate along similar lines as in the past. For the RASHKB, in other words, it is \"business as usual”.\n\nIt is accepted that the world, including Hong Kong, changes in various ways, and our Branch will need to keep its ear to the ground and move with the times. Although we remain basically an English-speaking Society, we did conduct some lectures in Cantonese during the winter of 1995-96. These were held in conjunction with the Exhibition, Hong Kong Going and Gone mounted jointly by our Branch and the Antiquities and Monuments Office.\n\nOur Society, which has a long and honourable history, consists mainly of active members who make up a generally friendly, cosmopolitan body of people with similar interests. In spite of the fact", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214121, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "158\n\nthat you cannot please all the members all the time there is still a role for societies like the Royal Asiatic Society to play in Hong Kong. It is interesting to recall that some of the best research on Hong Kong history has been carried out by amateurs, often by RAS members. We, as members, must continue to ask ourselves the question: How can the local Branch make Hong Kong a better place and how can we members continue to serve the community, including both Chinese and Westerners?\n\nReferences\n\nBard, Solomon. 1995. “Archaeology in Hong Kong: A Review of Achievements”, Archaeology in Southeast Asia, University of Hong Kong: 383-395.\n\nChambers Biographical Dictionary. Revised edition 1969. states: “(Bowring) ... acquired knowledge of 200 languages”.\n\nDudgeon, David and Richard Corlett. 1994. Hills and Streams: an Ecology of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\nEndacott, G. B. 1958. A History of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\nHayes, James William. 1989. “Letter to the Chairman, Consultative Committee for the Basic Law”, Journal RASHKB, 29: xvi and xvii.\n\n1997. \"The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\", Journal RASHKB, 34: 129-145.\n\nPfister, Lauren F. 1993. \"Clues to the Life and Academic Achievements of One of the Most Famous Nineteenth Century European Sinologists-James Legge (AD 1815-1897)\", Journal HKBRAS, 30: 180-218.\n\nRide, Lindsay and May, 1996. An East India Company Cemetery, ed. Bernard Mellor, Hong Kong University Press.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society: Its History and Treasures. 1979. eds. Stuart Simmonds and Simon Digby, The Royal Asiatic Society London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216161, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 460, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "394\n\nfood in village culture. Early last century, the meals in most village families were basic for most of the year: consisting of rice with salt fish or preserved vegetables, with meat once or twice a month. During my initial researches into Hong Kong's rural history, a local leader impressed upon me how people so looked forward to the major festivals of the year, for it was only then, most notably at the lunar new year, that they could have a greater variety of food, and more of it. Major family events, like the marriages of sons and the celebration of old age, were welcomed for the same reason. Anticipation was heightened by the confident expectation that even if they could not afford the expense and had to borrow cash or mortgage land, families would provide the proper feasts on these occasions, or else \"lose face\" in the community.\n\nLike much else in Chinese culture, the dishes prepared at such times were named so as to have auspicious meanings. For instance, at the lunar New Year, oysters, in Cantonese pronunciation named ho si conveyed the sense of good luck, whilst a dish of green vegetables, faat choi, expressed the wish that all those attending the feast would get rich. There were, and are, many such examples - see, pp.46-7 of T. C. Lai's book, At the Chinese Table (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1984), also in the Images of Asia series. Even more focused on this topic is another interesting book, recently reprinted (2001) from the original edition of 1991 by Graham Brash, Singapore: namely Koh-Hwang I-Ling's Symbolism in Chinese Food. This is recommended reading, albeit it relates to Singapore Chinese of Hokkien descent, rather than the Cantonese and Hakka who are the subject of my book.\n\n-\n\nA certain type of food eaten at village feasts had (and still has) a distinct social function. This was the \"basin food\" provided for, and often by, the whole village on celebratory occasions. Consisting of very fat pork, with bits of turnip, dried mushrooms, beancurd and the like, cooked and mixed together, it was meant to indicate the equality and solidarity or brother-hood of participants. It was and is not confined to men but includes women and children. It is communal in every sense of the word, and is intended to be such. Its preparation involved persons from each family in one or other of the many tasks involved, from providing or marketing for the ingredients, the building of an outdoor stove and its covering, the collection of dried grass and firewood to feed the stove for the cooking, fetching water, washing crockery before and after, bringing tables and benches to the site, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]