[ { "id": 204284, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n48\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nand makes a kind of extract of tea. They put that into another mixer, added a good chunk of butter, some soda, and some salt, and go on pounding until they get a well-mixed soup. It is excellent provided that the butter was good to begin with.\n\nQ: Is it true that some monks can move objects by sheer thought?\n\nA: Marco Polo described a contest between various religious personages at the court of the Great Khan at which they were put through their paces to see who would be the best chaplain to the Crown. He chose the Tibetans because their representative could make a cup rise from the table to his mouth. That was quite a long time ago and I haven't seen it done myself, but that's the story.\n\nQ: Is there any truth in the story of an operation to open the \"third eye\"?\n\nA: None whatsoever. The book which describes it is an utter fraud. It was written by somebody who had never been out of England.\n\nQ: Are the roofs of the Kumbum Monastery really gold?\n\nA: Unfortunately I have never been there but I have read accounts of it, and quite obviously it is a little bit too modern. You can have dances put on for a sum of money. But I assure you that the golden roofs in Tibet proper, although they are not pure gold, are well-coated in the stuff.\n\nQ: Is it true that Tibetans place no importance on gold and jewels, despite an abundance of them underground?\n\nA: There are certainly some gold mines in Tibet, but nobody knows whether the resources are very great. It isn't quite true to say that they don't place any importance on gold and precious stones—they like them very much. They use them as the principal offerings in religious places. All the butter-lamps are made of gold in the holy places; the scene in the holy of holies, the cathedral in Lhasa, is quite fabulous. The main image, behind large iron-mesh curtains, is surrounded by huge gold butter lamps, all blazing with butter—a wonderful sight.\n\nAlthough Tibetans used to dig for gold, it became rather an imposition, because the peasant would dig it out and then the landlord would come and say \"This is my gold\", so in general they stopped digging. Tibetans did not use much money of any sort—it was mostly barter.\n\nQ: Is there capital punishment in Tibet?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204764, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "56 \n\nK. M. A. BARNETT \n\nwhere the sea has been receding, it should be possible to find sites for excavation which are further away from the sea than they were when occupied. If one such can be found, it might be possible to uncover the whole settlement (whereas hitherto we have had to be content with the inland fringe of it) and thus to learn more of how these people lived before their way of life was disturbed. The area between the present Castle Peak Bay and Lau Fau Shan,79 particularly the re-entrants (which 1,000 years ago were bays) on the eastern side of Castle Peak and Tai Tau Shan,42 seems to afford the greatest promise. \n\nAssociated with the seashore sites, but also to be found on all the hills, are curious inverted conical pits variously described as kilns and vats. Their use has never been satisfactorily explained. These also should be plotted. I would be surprised if the plotting of all these objects: pits, stone walls, graves, standing stones, shore-side occupied sites and pre-Chinese irrigation channels, did not indicate that the inhabitants whom I have described throughout, in deference to tradition and to Chinese records, as of four kinds did not prove to have been after all one people. The fact that a people who grew cereals and roots on the hills and hunted wild game in the forests did not possess a technique for draining and cultivating mangrove swamps is no proof that they did not know how to catch fish; and the fact that our present boat people grow no crops and have for some centuries specialised in fishing and manufacturing salt does not mean that their earlier ancestors could not have hunted on the hills as well as in the sea, and there grown the cereals they needed to supplement a fish diet, and the roots from which they produced the preservative dye which they still use for their nets and sails. They must have had access to the forest to obtain the wood from which they built their boats, the skins from which they made their sails, and the gut from which, I suppose, they made their bowstrings and other fastenings. They may have done all this by friendly barter (I have suggested elsewhere that a group of place names including Yau Ma Tei,65 Ma Yau Tong90 and Ma Liu Shui could have been places where by convention the people of the shore and the people of the hills met to exchange their necessities), but the possibility that they were all one people", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205359, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "114\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nThe true market-places, called \"Hue\", however, are built separately from the villages. They are generally built in a rectangular square, and two or four strong gates are thrown open during the Hu-ke, to admit visitors. These market-places are visited every third or fifth day by hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, who assemble from the whole neighbourhood, and frequently from great distances, for the purposes of barter or of general trade in the products and manufactures of their respective villages. Those who frequent these markets are usually joined in league for mutual protection against robbers. These places are sometimes quite uninhabited; some are occupied by shops whose owners seldom have their families living with them; a few have permanent sheds erected over the ground where the goods are exposed for sale.\n\nFrom the foregoing, it may be understood how troubled and insecure the normal condition of this district is, and for a very long period has been. Not only are robbers and pirates to be feared, but internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages; and these wars, though often arising from trivial causes, are not mere temporary quarrels, but are often long-continued and sanguinary.\n\nIn consequence of this state of affairs, fortified places called “Wai”, have sprung up throughout the district. These are of different forms, but are generally built in the form of a square; their walls are strong and lofty, sometimes turreted, and are often surrounded by broad and deep moats. Frequently a single strong iron gate is the only means of access to them; when danger is anticipated, the women, children, and treasures of the neighbouring village or villages, are concealed in the Wai, which is garrisoned also by some of the older and younger men, so that the able-bodied are enabled to take the field in defence of their property, having the Wai to retreat to in case of danger. I have met with about forty of these Wai throughout the district, and they are calculated to afford excellent protection against the large bands of robbers, which frequently pass to and fro through the country, pillaging the villages and parties of travellers. These forts were generally erected in those times of disturbance and insurrection, which have usually preceded the change of a dynasty. At the present time many of these are much dilapidated.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206245, "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": 62, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "56\n\nHONG KONG EDITOR\n\nmiles away round yon corner to the South! I ran down there for a day, to recruit, last week, and there, one walks by permission of these Celestial exclusives ashore, viz. on an island, called (I don't exactly know why) - Dane's Island. It is about 3 miles in circumference, and has a triple-peaked hill on it about as high as Arthur's Seat in Edin[burgh] which I mounted; and you can understand the titillating pleasure I derived from discovering a resemblance the most remarkable between the view from this hill and that from Ehrenbreitstein on the Rhine! The absence of a fine City and bridge was all (quite enough, you will say!) and was compensated by a river-reach (in like situation, i.e. immediately below you) occupied for the length of two miles with full 50 gallant Ships of 1500 tons and downwards. The rest of the view the character of the country -- the distribution[?] of the water the mountainous horizon-bore a great resemblance to that on the Rhine\n\n+\n\npersons\n\nSociety here is at the very lowest intellectual ebb-and is thus unencumbered by that pretension and affectation which the half-educated and half-literary disgust you with..... whether they infest the walks of literature, science, art, or anything else. We are so far, therefore, much to be envied. I discover however ominous indications in certain editorial labours of certain here who actually arrange the types for two weekly newspapers imagine if you can, what a Canton Newspaper ought to be! Apart though from what seems, and of course is, mere banter in this - we are as a community perhaps the least enlightened, the least informed, and the most vain, and the most unamiable in our intercourse together, that ever existed of its size. An American missionary who conducts our \"Monthly Repository” excellently well-is a marked but almost solitary exception. The rest of us, unless there be some \"singular few\" who like myself think of all this in secret and are unknown, are to a Man engrossed in business — Oh most dreadfully engrossed — it beats every bondage of lucre I ever beheld; mammon rules not only in the office, but at the dinner-table, and no doubt over the sleepers' dreams; not a moment of life spared to one hearty thought of any other topic that might interest liberal Englishmen\n\nand, more shocking than all, not a moment of the 24 hours (I desire not to speak uncharitably and therefore only deplore what I fear to be generally not untrue) given to the consideration", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207147, "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": 218, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "212\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsurvey. Sir E. Belcher, accordingly, landed on Monday, January 25, 1841, at the foot of Taipingshan, and on the hill, now occupied by the Chinese Recreation ground, Captain Belcher and his officers, considering themselves the bona fide first British possessors, drank Her Majesty's health with three cheers, the spot being thenceforth known as Possession Point. The Point remained an open space and came under the management of the Chinese Recreation Ground Committee created in 1890.\n\nIn 1887 there was a rearrangement of streets to the south of the Recreation Ground. With the change there was a renaming. The western terminus of Hollywood Road was shifted from the present Possession Street to what was known as Gap Street, so that Hollywood Road emptied into Queen's Road on the south side of the Recreation Ground rather than on its east side.\n\nOn the south side of old Gap Street across from the Chinese Recreation Ground the original St. Stephen's Anglican Church opened in 1866. Here also the Baxter Memorial School was built in 1872 in memory of Miss Sophia Harriet Baxter. She had come to Hong Kong in 1860 and until her death five years later established schools for Chinese, Eurasians and orphans. St. Matthew's Anglican Church now occupies a part of the original site granted to the Church in 1864.\n\nThe neighbourhood could have been regarded as a good missionary area for it was dominated by establishments devoted to pleasure. Nearby was a theatre, and the present Possession Street was lined with brothels in the nineteenth century. It was also, however, near a more sobering district.\n\nThe hillside between Possession Point and West Point was used as a Chinese burial ground. The I-tsz Temple, built to house commemorative tablets for Chinese residents who died without a family to remember them, and, temporarily, for those whose families were in their home villages in China, was behind Possession Point on Tai Ping Shan Street. It adjoined the burial ground and thus, in accordance with Chinese practice, was in a convenient location to be used as a depository for those who were about to die. Publicity regarding conditions at the temple started a movement to provide better medical services for the Chinese community. This resulted in the formation of Tung Wah Hospital. It was opened officially in 1872 across the street from the I-tsz Temple, occupying land that was a part of the old burial ground.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207529, "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-1975", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\nAttached to Staff -- Table 2\n\nRfm Archibald\n\nPrivate Rfm Baxter\n\nCambon\n\nPrivate Caruso\n\nRfm Davidson\n\nPrivate Frankiewicz\n\nPrivate Kashton\n\nPrivate Kohut\n\nRfm Woodridge\n\nCorporal Young\n\nRfm Snively\n\nO.S. French\n\nQ.M.S. Hamlen\n\nB.S.M. Lobban\n\nC.S.M. Collings\n\nSergt. Lockie\n\nCorporal Carter\n\nP.O. Waardenborg\n\nCanadian Army\n\nR.N. R.A.S.C. R.A.\n\nH.K.V.D.C.\n\nR. Scots\n\nR. Sigs.\n\nR. Netherlands Navy\n\nAppendix \"D\"\n\nRoll of QAIM.N.S. and Canadian Nursing Sisters, British Military Hospital, Bowen Road (Incomplete)\n\nMiss E. M. B. Dyson\n\nMiss Mirian Beaman\n\nLieut (Miss) Kay Christie - Canadian Service\n\nMiss Gwendelene Colthorpe\n\nMiss Mary Curry\n\nMiss Freda Davis\n\nMiss Molly Gordon\n\nMiss Brenda Morgan (Killed)\n\nMiss Margaret North\n\nMiss Kathleen Thompson\n\nMiss Daphne Van Wart\n\nLieut (Miss) May Waters Canadian Service\n\nMiss Joan Whiteley\n\n289\n\nNotes:--\n\n1. To my great regret I have not got the names of the members of the Hongkong Auxiliary Nursing Service.\n\n2. The two members of the Canadian Service were repatriated to Canada in November 1943.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208998, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1980", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "128\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nand a cooked pig's head with the tail attached to it signifying a good start and a good end to the marriage. Everyone sensing that the ceremony is about to begin crowds into the chi tong to be sure of getting a good view. More firecrackers are set off, and in a good-natured fashion the cymbals player is told to shut up so that the proceedings can begin. The groom and his elder brother, who is there in place of the father who had died, kneel together on the straw mat in front of the altar. This they do three times, holding 3 sticks of incense and standing and bowing as the m/c, a village elder, chants. All done in good fun as they are told to bow lower, last time wasn't low enough! During this time they drink a cup of Chinese wine.\n\nThen the bride arrives, goes to kneel next to the groom and the bowing, drinking wine, and burning incense takes place again. A message is then read out to the bride by the village elder, reminding her to be kind to her mother-in-law, look after the house well, and be good and obedient to her husband, etc. The groom promises nothing! The bride then stands up, and is escorted backwards out of the chi tong by some women, complaining bitterly as she goes that her shoes hurt. The elder brother rejoins the groom at the altar for more bowing and then the ceremony is over, but not before the bride has changed her shoes to signify the start of a new life. She then comes back to the chi tong and offers the village elders and her new parents-in-law a cup of tea, symbolising her new status in their home.\n\nOutside there are more firecrackers being set off, Chinese music playing loudly, and those who tore themselves away from the mah pong to watch the ceremony have now returned to it. During this time the cooks have been busy killing the chickens which were running freely round the village, plucking them, and cooking as many as seven at a time in the big wok. A huge feast (another!) has been prepared, including fish dipped in batter, etc. At last everyone sits down to eat, red packets are distributed to those who have helped or given money to the bride and groom. By 3.30 all is over, and the guests go home, and the new bride and groom settle down to married life before returning the following month to the \"New World” Takeaway in Blackpool.\n\nHong Kong, 1980.\n\nVALERIE Garrett", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212587, "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-1991", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "121\n\nbirthday and would have brought bad luck. Nor did he celebrate his birthday that year. Presents were returned with an explanation.\n\nThe third tsat (three times seven ceremony) fell on the 27th of the month. If a tsat falls on the 7th, 17th or 27th of the Chinese calendar this is propitious. Close relatives also attended the fourth tsat and there was a great deal of banter, such as, 'Hello Mummy, how are you!' in front of the altar in second daughter's home.\n\nThe most important of these weekly rites was the fifth tsat held at the Buddhist Hall where the dead person's ling paai (spirit tablet), complete with small photograph, was placed. The function was advanced by one day and 2.00 to 7.30 pm was selected by the fortune teller as a propitious time. (Buddhist and Taoist priests sometimes supplement incomes by telling fortunes). Conforming with Buddhist doctrine close relatives were not allowed to eat living things before the ceremony. They also bathed in water purified with pomolo leaves. With the old Chinese day divided into 12, two-hour periods, it starts at 11.00 pm. One could thus bathe any time after that. Sexual intercourse was still forbidden (齋戒沐浴).\n\nClose relatives wore the same white clothes and shoes as before, but the hemp surcoats had been burned after the funeral service. The same picture was placed on the altar and many mourners maintained the deceased looked stern when they arrived. Her appearance became cheerful as the service progressed. A cigarette was kept lit on the altar. There was food, such as cookies and oranges. It was an impressive spread so the dead woman could invite ancestors. The altar was surrounded by wreaths and paper offerings sent by friends. Many came to pay respects.\n\nOne ceremony was conducted by six nuns. A monk led the invocations. Some knew the long mantras by heart. At appropriate times the leader threw coins and flowers. Any mourner who caught one was considered lucky. The chanting Buddhist nuns were quite young with shaven heads. They wore green and the leader a red robe. For most of the 5½ hours, various ceremonies, some long, were conducted. Also, continuously, friends and relations painstakingly folded paper ‘gold bars'.\n\nA 'charade' was later acted out by close family members. The deceased person's new spirit shrine (one had previously been cremated)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213155, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "205\n\ncould not have been possible, or would have been substantially more difficult to conduct had I not been Chinese with a social network already established within the Chinese community in Britain. At every stage I traded on my ethnic characteristics, e.g. using my Chinese name on cover letters, and speaking Cantonese in telephone conversations with informants whenever possible. The ethnic familiarity (name, language) was intended to arouse a sense of ethnic identification in the respondents, which in turn would hopefully help to produce a feeling of ethnic obligation to cooperate with my call for assistance in this survey,\n\nIn any research project selecting a representative sample, for example, is always difficult, but in the case of the Chinese it is particularly acute. Many earlier researchers had documented this problem of sampling. Until data from the 1991 Census was made available, there was a total absence of any reliable statistical information on this population. For example, Baxter in 1988 complained of the lack of the most basic information such as the size and distribution of the Chinese community in Britain.\n\nThe frustrating methodological problem of sampling caused by lack of statistical information on the Chinese population in Britain has been a major contributory factor in the emergence of a certain type of research which has been carried out on the Chinese in Britain. One of the characteristics is that they tend to be qualitative in nature. That is, there is a tendency for data to be collected through interviews or through observation and case study techniques, such as those studies conducted by Watson (1977) and Ng (1965). Another feature is that most of the studies usually focus on the Chinese in a particular locale. This may be the result of the fact that the sampling problems described above are compounded by the geographical dispersion of the Chinese over Britain. Not only are the Chinese one of the smallest ethnic groups in Britain, they also have the most dispersed pattern of settlement compared to any other ethnic group in Britain (Owen, 1992). This additional problem for the researcher of locating the Chinese, therefore partly explains why many previous researchers have opted to study the Chinese in areas in which they are most concentrated. However, this does not reflect Chinese settlement in Britain, which due to the nature of the Chinese catering business and its reliance on the indigenous population for custom, distributes itself spatially to reduce competition. The third characteristic of existing studies of the Chinese is that the researchers who conduct the investigations are usually themselves of ethnic Chinese origin. The reason", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213159, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "I may speak the English language because I learnt it early in life. But I have not got the Western value system inside; mine is an Eastern value system. Nevertheless, I use Western concepts, Western words because I understand them. But I also have a different system in my mind.\n\n209\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nBaxter, S.C.C. (1988) A political economy of the ethnic Chinese catering industry. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aston in Birmingham.\n\nBurgess, R.G. (1984) In the field: an introduction to field research. London: Allen & Unwin.\n\nMerton, R.K. (1972) “Insiders and outsiders: a chapter in the sociology of knowledge”, American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 78. pp. 9-47.\n\nNg, K.C. (1965) Some aspects of the social organisation of Chinese engaged in the restaurant business in London. M.A. thesis. University of London.\n\nOwen, D. (1992) Ethnic minorities in Great Britain: settlement patterns. NEMDA 1991 Census statistical paper No. 1. Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick.\n\nPang, Y.N.M. (1993) Catering to employment needs: the occupations of young Chinese adults in Britain. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Warwick.\n\nSteier, F. (1991) Research and reflexivity. London: Sage.\n\nTaylor, M.J. (1987) Chinese pupils in Britain, a review of research into the education of pupils of Chinese origin. Windsor: NFER-Nelson publishing company.\n\nWatson, J.L. (1977) “The Chinese: Hong Kong villagers in the British catering trade” in Watson, J.L. (Ed) Between two cultures: migrants and minorities in Britain. Oxford: Blackwell.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214183, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "4\n\njoke may have lost some of its appeal over the centuries it was supposed to have been a real roof-raiser in its day. How does it compare with the humour enjoyed by pre-Shang dynasty (1600 to 1100 BC) Chinese or primitive man in Britain, who used woad as a body dye, about the same period?\n\nCertainly throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, coarse and crude vernacular humour was common. It was included in the banter of the court jester and in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Ribald and bawdy wisecracks and coarse primitive jokes also made up part of the conversation of the Chinese masses. Risqué jokes and four-letter words, which many consider to be very much a class marker, are still common today both in western and Chinese society and among both men and women (Bolton, 1997; 299, 306). The odd 'streaker' is occasionally seen at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and the orgy is still by no means unknown. The author recalls a European on a minibus in Hong Kong informing the driver to stop at block number nine. But he mispronounced the Cantonese equivalent of ‘nine' with a higher tone so that it sounded like a coarse word for penis. While some passengers laughed outright others sniggered or masked a smile.\n\nSypher says (1956; 208), regarding a code of decency, that some psychologists believe any group of men and women, no matter how refined, will laugh at ‘dirty' jokes. The real question is when and which dirty jokes they laugh at.\n\nIt is interesting to compare reactions to the photograph taken of a Black Watch soldier at the cenotaph, in Hong Kong's Central District, when a gust of wind had blown his kilt up exposing bare buttocks. Most Westerners questioned by the author seemed to think, ‘hard luck old chap,' but most believed it was a cleverly taken photograph and good for a laugh. The average Hong Kong Chinese, however, felt that the poor Highlander's privacy had been trespassed upon and they were sorry for him. However, some also remarked, it provided an answer to the question which puzzles so many: 'What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?'\n\nAlthough the word 'humour' can still be considered 'suspect' in the United States (Muir, 1990; XXXI), it really means the ability to be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214189, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "10\n\ncannot, usually, stand the smell of cheese, be able to understand the complex English? But you can argue, too, how can the British, who cannot enjoy a succulent chicken's foot for breakfast, understand the Chinese? The latter believe you need to 'eat the part to nourish the part' (DE). By eating chicken's feet, for example, you can walk faster.\n\n4\n\nOf course there are people like Lucy Sheen, a Chinese who was brought up in Britain, who played Portia in Julius Caesar at Bristol Old Vic (Rosser, 1990;8). But she still had to overcome racial stereotyping. She recounts how, to use her own words, ... the Dickhead of a critic said, about her acting, 'It doesn't matter if one can speak the language. If one's not White forget it.' Lucy also recalls how she was taken home to meet her new Chinese boyfriend's parents. They were really chuffed that at last their son had met a nice, real Chinese girl. All went well until she opened her mouth!\n\nOf course, even within Britain itself there are traditional regional differences. There are ‘cockneyisms' with rhyming slang; where 'apples and pears' means 'stairs' and 'tit for tat' stands for 'hat.' This contrasts with the humour of those who believe they belong to the 'posh' set, although the latter is not usually racist and a person is readily accepted if they have personality. You also have the realistic, often macabre humour of the Scots and the Irish, the down-to-earth humour of the English North Countryman, and the japes, recounted time and again, in the slow drawl of rural folk.\n\nUnless you have lived in a country for some considerable time many jokes may be obscure to a foreigner, even if he or she is fluent in the language. A knowledge of local affairs is often important. A man who was once asked why he did not weep at a sermon when everyone else was shedding tears replied: 'I don't belong to this parish' (Bergson, 1956;64). Similarly, the author recalls seeing a show in New York when he failed to appreciate many of the jokes. American humour often centres around family conflict (like American soap operas), bar-room buddy banter, practical jokes, bragging and tall stories although the French claim that practical jokes and tall stories are important aspects of their humour as well (Zeldin, 1983:74). In turn the Danish sense of humour, which is often sarcastic, can shock the average Frenchman. Similarly, Dutch humour can be abrasive, cynical and, on occasions, teasing and aggressive.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214202, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "23\n\nYet mime performer, Philip Fok Tat-chiu, who worked for the Hong Kong Government before emigrating to Australia as recently as 1992, although a relative newcomer, seems to have made a success of his life 'Down Under.' The greats in the field of mime include Sid Caesar, the contemporary French master Marcel Marceau and, of course, Charlie Chaplin himself (Lee, 1999).\n\nAnother form of entertainment, Chinese 'cross-talking' (‘double voice' as it is known in Cantonese,) is much like American vaudeville. It needs one serious performer with a deadpan face and one comic to deliver the punchline. Acting out 'sketches,' like those performed by Ho Bo-man and Chou Chi-hung in Guangzhou, using every-day hilarious situations with rapid-fire exchange, amount very much to the art of language and repartee (Cheung, 1996:5). Slang is important. Jokes can be about portable telephones, which no self-respecting person-about-town can manage without, or about climbing up the beam of a torch (flashlight) in the dark. Isn't it slippery and dangerous? What happens when I switch the torch off?! Maybe the banter is stupid, but gags like these can serve a useful purpose. They can help motivate people,' says comedian Harry Wong of Metro Radio. 'Something useful can come out of such jokes.'\n\nAfter the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76) ended the 'Gang of Four' was a popular target for 'quick-fire twosome' acts in China, although many tried (and still try) to steer clear of politics. But unless one possesses an extremely good knowledge of Cantonese there is limited chance of a European understanding a great deal of this rapid-fire talk. In fact at a Chinese banquet, with one European and the remainder Chinese, when the conversation is in rapid-fire Cantonese interlaced with slang, if the gwailo appreciates six out of 10 jokes he or she is not doing at all badly.\n\nOf course there are jokes which people of most nationalities, if they can grasp the language, can laugh at. Like the chap in northern China who always ate at a government canteen.\n\n'All the time cabbage!' he nagged, 'cabbage, cabbage, cabbage! 'Can't you give us a choice?'\n\n'Of course you can have a choice,' came the chef's reply.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215031, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "83\n\nAppendix C [1]\n\nMembers of the Chinese Labour Corps buried or commemorated\n\nother than in Belgium and France (As shown on the lists provided by the CWGC and not mentioned in this article)\n\nAlexandria [Hadra] War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt\n\nQuang Lung-ye [60919]\n\nHong Kong Cemetery\n\nCapt W Greenhill\n\nSai Wan [China] Memorial\n\n17th May 1919\n\n18th February 1920\n\nMedical Officer Alexander Kidd Baxter, RAMC att CLC\n\nCivilian Pascoe Thornton, CLC\n\nTaranto Town Cemetery Extension, Italy\n\n14th March 1918\n\n10th April 1917\n\nSoot Chin [1469] 62nd Company CLC\n\n26th June 1918\n\nKranji War Cemetery, Singapore\n\nCapt T L Bryson, Labour Corps att CLC\n\n16th April 1919\n\nThose buried in the UK, the graves of whom I have not visited, [as shown on the lists provided by the CWGC and also not mentioned in this article]\n\nLlanberis [St Peris] Churchyard, Carnarvonshire\n\nPte William Owen, Royal Welch Fusiliers, tfr to Sgt CLC\n\n11 April 1921", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216094, "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": 393, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "327\n\nin China. They did not complain. In any case Government did not answer letters written to newspapers but people did not generally criticise Government. That was why, when a column called \"Tiger Talk\" was written by an English solicitor in 1962 and published in the Sunday Tiger Standard, it attracted considerable attention.\n\nThe district of West Point, where legalised brothels for Chinese had been situated up to the mid-1930s, was still an important entertainment district in the mid-1950s, with restaurants with 100 or more Chinese tables capable of seating in excess of 1,200. Sing song girls, the Chinese version of the Japanese geisha, could still be found there.\n\nMy Chinese wife, born in 1936, lived in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. After the War Canadian Sergeant Major John Osborn, who was born in Norfolk, the same county where I was born and raised in England, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. It is the most prestigious British award for gallantry on the field of battle. It was the only such award ever made in the colony.\n\nDuring the Japanese occupation my wife recalls seeing arms and legs lying in the streets first thing in the morning. Breakers of the curfew had been mauled by Japanese police dogs. Women did their best to make themselves look old, ugly and undesirable. People wandered the hillsides and seashores as hunters and gatherers looking for anything to eat. Occasionally, human flesh was on sale in butchers' shops, something sometimes denied today. As my wife's family owned a salt-fish shop they were better off than most. They had food and something to barter. My wife and her two sisters survived the occupation although their father never forgave them and his wife for not having a son to \"buy water\" for him at his funeral (Today a symbolic ceremony based on filial piety and the washing of the corpse by the eldest son.).\n\nWhen I arrived in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s conditions had already improved considerably. Although there was rationing still in Britain, you could buy just about anything in Hong Kong - provided you had the money. I stayed together with other government servants in Winner House, a small hotel at North Point, a district sometimes known as Little Shanghai. A number of Fukienese also lived there.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216404, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "113\n\nDuring the afternoon on Wednesday, 30th September the Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius aircraft landed on the River and was made fast astern of HERMES, a short while later being hoisted onto her flight deck.\n\nThe following day two aircraft from HERMES flew off on patrol, as did the Colonel and Mrs Lindbergh in their Sirius.\n\nUnfortunately on Friday, the 2nd, after hoisting out the Colonel's machine at 0945 hours, and when endeavouring to unhook, the machine capsized alongside.14\n\nWith a strong current running in the river it was necessary to apply a certain amount of throttle so that as the aircraft took the water it forged ahead in such a way as to permit the crane hook to be disengaged. The Colonel had misjudged the manoeuvre, quickly the current had taken hold, the aircraft twisted around broadside to the flow, the port wing dipped into the river, the machine capsized, and the two occupants were thrown into the water. Happily the possibility of such a mishap occurring had been foreseen. On this occasion the motor sampan from the Vice Admiral's Flagship, the gunboat BEE,15 was standing by. Instantly the sampan crew rescued the Colonel and his wife. Fortunately the aircraft still was hooked on and under the direction of Commander Baxter salvage operations commenced immediately. The Lockheed was righted and hoisted in at 1035 hours. Damage was found to be minimal. However, being of wooden construction whereas the frames of the aircraft in the ship were of metal, no suitable spare parts could be found onboard.\n\nThe Lindbergh's both made light of their misadventure with the Colonel quick to take the blame for the accident. As Vice Admiral MacLean was to state:\n\n'I was very much impressed by the unassuming manner of Colonel Lindbergh and they certainly both won the liking and esteem of all who came into contact with them here. Mrs. Lindbergh's sole comment on her accident was that all her life she had taken particular pains to drink only distilled water and to wash her teeth in disinfectant and she had obviously undone the good work of a lifetime by swallowing a gallon of Yangtze water.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216406, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "115 \n\n\"This position was chosen to ensure a beam wind for boats sailing to and from the wreck. I did not consider it safe to go any closer, as I felt the chart could not be implicitly trusted, it being an 1886 survey. This was borne out by the lead getting an 8 fathom sounding between two of over 20 fathoms.*19\n\nNot mentioned but in the case of HERMES always a point to be considered carefully, the more so when manoeuvring at slow speed in high winds, was the tremendous sail effect of her considerable island superstructure.\n\nCaptain Mackinnon continued:\n\n'It was too rough even here to use either the motor boat or motor cutters, and so the port sea boat was sent away under stormsails in command of Commander Baxter, the crew consisting of Lieut. Commanders Harrison and Sherwood and six picked ratings. Great difficulty was experienced in getting the boat alongside the wreck owing to the heavy surf and the close proximity of rocks on three sides of the wreck. A large quantity of water found its way into the boat and the pintle of the rudder sheered, but nine of the crew of the wreck were taken off and the boat got away without loss of life, returning to the ship under sail and being hoisted without accident.'\n\nThis rescue operation lasted for two hours, from 0730 to 0930 hours. At 1050 hours a second attempt was made to save more of the shipwrecked men but in the meantime the sea had increased, especially in steepness in the vicinity of the rocks, and so half an hour later the attempt had to be abandoned.\n\nDuring the day nothing more could be done. However, since four large sampans had been observed in the vicinity of the wreck, and as RYUJIN MARU had made a signal saying that she feared pirate assaults, during the night a searchlight illuminated the wreck at intervals in order to deter any such visits.\n\nAt 0800 hours on Thursday, the 5th the Japanese destroyer NASHP\" arrived and anchored close by. It was too rough to send a boat over but by semaphore it was learnt from her that a salvage vessel was on her way from Moji. Further Captain Mackinnon was informed that the\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216407, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "116\n\nJapanese cruiser YAHAGI11 was due to arrive at 2200 hours that evening.\n\nIn the interim the freighter MADRAS MARU2 arrived. She attempted a rescue operation but this was not successful. Indeed the seas were so high that it was not even possible to contemplate sending the nine survivors across to her for repatriation to Japan.\n\nSince all these Japanese flag ships had appeared or were due to appear at the scene of the grounding Captain Mackinnon informed NASHI that he would sail for Hong Kong that afternoon, and take with him the nine men. Later he was to write:\n\n'Many friendly and complimentary flag signals were exchanged with all ships present, including the wreck. At 1700 I proceeded to Hong Kong leaving the Japanese destroyer NASHI in charge of the situation.'\n\nOn Saturday 7 November HERMES returned to her buoy at Hong Kong and a short while later the nine rescued seamen were landed ashore.\n\nIt is pleasant to be able to record that in due course official thanks were rendered by the Japanese minister of foreign affairs, Baron Kijuro Shidehara. His letter was addressed to the British ambassador to Tokyo, H.E. Sir Francis Oswald Lindley who forwarded these thanks to the Foreign Office in London from where, in turn, they were passed to the Secretary to the Admiralty.\n\nA year later, on 6th December 1932 at Hong Kong, the C. in C. came onboard our ship to present Lloyds Silver Medals to the three officers, and Bronze Medals to the six ratings who had taken part in the rescue. Also a bronze shield, mounted on a wooden base, was presented to the ship by the Committee of Lloyds.\n\nIn December 1931 an epidemic of diphtheria struck Hong Kong. Amongst those taken ill was Captain Mackinnon. Commander Baxter temporarily assumed command until the arrival of the ship's new commanding officer, Captain W.B. Mackenzie, on 25th February 1932.\n\nCaptain Mackinnon duly returned home and on 21 January 1933", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]