[ { "id": 213189, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "2 July\n\n7 July\n\n16 Sept\n\n5 October\n\n7 October\n\n21 October\n\n11 November\n\n9 December\n\n10 December\n\n16 December\n\nRescue Archaeology in Hong Kong Mr S.T Chin (This was combined with a visit to the Antiquities & Monuments Office)\n\nAnthony Lawrence Retrospective (This was combined with a dinner at the China Club)\n\nThe Coming Man 19th Century American Perceptions of the Chinese. Professor Philip Choy and Professor Marion Hom\n\nThe Lowson Diary A Record of the Early Phase of the Bubonic Epidemic in Hong Kong in 1894 Professor G H Choa\n\nTwo lectures on Vietnam. Dr Norman Owen and Dr Patrick Hase\n\nHong Kong's Wild Places - Changes through the Centuries Mr Edward Stokes\n\nDisappearing Trades and Artisans of Old Hong Kong\n\nShanghailanders. Colonial Attitudes and Informal Empire 1843-1943. Dr. R.A. Bickers\n\nBusiness in China An Historical Perspective (Held jointly with the South China Research Circle at the University of Science and Technology)\n\nCompetition and Organisation A Re-examination of Chinese Business Practices Professor Gary Hamilton\n\n1995\n\n20 January\n\n13 February\n\n8 March\n\nA Case Study of a Chinese Funeral Dr. Dan Waters\n\nAjanta Cave Paintings Mr Benoy K Behl\n\nAncient Monuments of Angkor Then Preservation and Future Dr Richard Engelhardt\n\nSome of the lecturers are here this evening as guests of the Society and I hope you will re-introduce yourselves to us, and members will welcome them in our midst. And on the subject of lectures and visits the Council is always very receptive to ideas - not only ideas but offers to lead a visit.\n\nLectures and activities are not however the only areas for which the Society is well known. We again make our views known to the public, we publish an annual journal, and the next one is likely to appear shortly: we celebrate anniversaries, and we will be bringing out a 35th anniversary publication, edited by Dr. Elizabeth Sinn entitled \"Villages\" with many original contributions by local members. We hopefully provide an impetus", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215680, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 457, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "409\n\nbeginning of 1900 she was under construction at the yard of Dennys of Dumbarton. She was a side-wheeler, 180 feet long, 60 feet beam across the paddle boxes, drawing 6 feet and having a deadweight of 150 tons with accommodation for many deck passengers.\n\nHaving made all the arrangements for \"Pioneer\" to be shipped to Shanghai in pieces, Little returned to London. Whilst having lunch at the Oriental Club with some of his backers and advisors, he was introduced to Captain Samuel Cornel Plant. Captain Plant had recently returned to England having served for several years in command of steamers on the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers well known for their navigational difficulties. When Little learned of the captain's previous experience, he did his best to persuade Plant to come to China and take command of \"Pioneer.\" Plant promised to give the matter some thought. For whatever reason, he subsequently agreed to go along with Little.\n\n\"Pioneer\" was shipped to Shanghai and reassembled. Plant and his wife, Alice Sophia, took ship to China, joined \"Pioneer\" and in early June 1900 the attempt on the Three Gorges began. With Plant in command, \"Pioneer\" made the trip from Ichang to Chunking in 73 steaming hours over seven days. She was held up for three days at Hsin T'an Rapids. On arrival at Chunking she was greeted by most of the expatriates living there and it is said that the banks of the river were black with hundreds of junkmen who had crowded to see this latest barbarian wonder.\n\nThe Aftermath\n\nBad luck again struck Little. There were rumblings of trouble along the river that were to culminate in the Boxer Uprising. The British Consulate in Chunking commandeered \"Pioneer\" and used her to evacuate expatriates from the trouble spots. (It is not known whether Little was compensated for the loss of \"Pioneer\" or not. She was eventually handed over to the Royal Navy, renamed H.M.S. \"Kinshi\" and finished life as H.Q. Ship, Senior British Naval Officer on the Yangtze River.)\n\nPlant's Career\n\nPlant, having left the employ of Little, bought himself a houseboat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216363, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "71\n\nHart referred to his conduct as \"a common practice\" at that time and confessed that he just \"fell into the habit myself\" and \"did as others did\", which is, unfortunately, no excuse at all. Bruner, Fairbank and Smith suggest, \"one of the many perquisites of the Westerner's higher living standard in China was his being supplied with Chinese women. Thus, \"Robert Hart's solution to his problem of solitude was nothing unusual and followed established norm\". (1986: 153) Bickers also suggests that \"In the earlier stage of the British presence concubinage with Chinese women was common, and not considered abnormal; indeed, it appears to have been encouraged, as a sort of release\". (1999: 98) Paul King, an Englishman who joined CIMC in 1874, writes in his book In the Chinese Custom Service (1980: 25):\n\nIn those days the only \"social\" intercourse between Chinese and foreigners was conducted by women of the \"Mui-tsai\" class. In justice it must be recalled that the Chinese housekeeper often did a good deal to keep her temporary lord and master straight, especially in matters of drink, or tendency to stray off to less supervised and possibly dangerous-to-health pastures.\n\nPerhaps Hart knew that the most convincing point he could make, to avoid too much embarrassment when he confessed to his relationship with Ayaou, would be the explanation that his conduct was not simply a personal sin or weakness, but a mistake anyone, in the given circumstances at that time, would possibly, or even inevitably, have made. Following this point, Hart confessed:\n\nAyaou lived with me at Ningpo during 1857 and went with me when I was transferred to Canton in February 1858. Later in the same year I left her at Macao and from that time ceased to live with her and saw her but seldom though I continued to pay her monthly sum of thirty dollars for her support down to the time of our connection being finally terminated as after mentioned. (Declaration 2)\n\nIf it was true that Hart \"ceased to live with her and saw her but seldom\" from 1858, it is difficult to understand how Ayaou gave birth to his three children after 1858 and why Hart left the second gap in his diaries between 6 December 1858 and 6 June 1863 - a period during which he must have had an intimate relationship with Ayaou. Indeed,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216366, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "74\n\ndaughter Anna must have entranced him.\" Many years later when he wrote to Campbell, he still revealed his paternal care for the wards. He wanted Anna to attend a good boarding school where not only “she can devote herself to music, French, and German\", but also \"where she will be comfortably lodged and kindly treated.” (Fairbank, Bruner, Matheson 1975: 192-3)\n\n5.\n\nAlthough Hart did not confess, perhaps in his lifetime he had never confessed, fully to his relationship with Ayaou and his three children by her, what he states in Declaration 1 and 2 has given us a clearer idea of his secret domestic life in late 19th China. It indicates that Hart felt affection for Ayaou, though the relationship was initially established for a temporary relief of sexual desire. It also indicates that such a relationship caused considerable hardship to those involved. It should be noted that Hart made his statement concerning his sexual relationship with the Chinese girl Ayaou when the social norms concerning mixed-race relationships between British men and Chinese women had changed fundamentally. When describing his life in the treaty port, Swatow during 1874 to 1878, Paul King states (1980:25);\n\nHappily, all this is changed and gone for ever. The number of marriageable girls of his own race all over China gives no excuse to a white man seeking a helpmeet to risk entangling alliances with native blood; but as a temporary measure in the old dark days—well, perhaps better not to hazard an opinion.\n\nBickers also suggests (1999: 98)\n\nThe twentieth-century treaty ports were still largely bachelor societies, although the proportion of families settled there grew steadily. As elsewhere in the colonial world, British men took native partners when there was a shortage of fellow Britons or other Europeans. The presence of European women—and after 1917 especially the influx of White Russian refugees—made stable sexual relations with Chinese as much as 'unnecessary' as taboo.\n\nThe change of social norms meant that Hart's relationship with Ayaou was no longer simply a personal secret or a private matter, but an issue with regard to social conceptions, norms, and even rules which were followed by British society in China in the early twentieth century. Thus, in the declarations Hart had to make the new version of his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216376, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "84\n\nfrom China. Hart complained that it was difficult to get proper private tutors for their elder daughter, Evey. In his letter to Campbell on 2 July 1875 he said: \"I fancy Evey will be a grandmother by the time you find my rara avis!” (ibid: 198) Hart also wanted to concentrate on his work without disturbance. When he was finally reunited with his wife and children after almost a quarter of a century's separation, he did not feel completely comfortable and even hoped that they would be gone soon \"for I want to be alone to attend to the hundred and one things.\" Thus, during the period 1879-1881 when Lady Hart lived with Hart in Beijing, the couple must have discussed seriously future plans for her to return to settle in London. This is when Hart wrote to Campbell and insisted that his three wards should not be sent back to London to live with the Davidson couple.\n\nFrom this it can be seen that it wasn't just a matter of kindness, generosity, or even love that motivated Hart to make such expensive provisions for his three wards by Ayaou. Hart had always been cautious and gave mature consideration to his arrangements for his wards, not just in 1866 when he prepared to go home and marry a European, but also during the period 1875 to 1879 when he began to make plans for his wife's return to live in London permanently. He was kind to his wards; but he was also rational and determined to prevent both his married life and his career from being troubled by the wards.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nBell, Stanley. 1985. Hart of Lisburn. Lisburn: Lisburn Historical Press.\n\nBell, Gertrude. 1903. The Gertrude Bell Archive.\n\nBickers, Robert. 1999. Britain in China. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.\n\nBruner, Katherine F, Fairbank, John K, Smith, Richard J. 1986. eds. Entering China's Service - Robert Hart's Journals, 1854-1863. Cambridge and London: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.\n\nFairbank, John K, Bruner, Katherine F, Matheson, Elizabeth M. 1975. eds. The I.G. in Peking - Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-1907. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.\n\nFerguson, Niall. 2002. Empire: the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power. London: Allan Lane. Pp 185\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]