[ { "id": 214456, "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": 314, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "281\n\nFIRST WORLD WAR LABOUR CORPS CEMETERIES IN FLANDERS\n\nBRIAN C. FAWCETT\n\nThis note follows on from that written by Dan Waters.\n\nThere are several cemeteries in Flanders in which members of the Chinese Labour Corps are buried, some containing as few as two or three graves; one of the largish is that of the Indian and Chinese British Cemetery at Ayette, which was a scene of fighting in 1918.\n\nWhilst on a battlefield tour in July, 1998, my wife and I were fortunate to make a very short visit to Ayette Cemetery. This is reached down an unmade dirt-track off the D919 about 16 kilometres south of Arras. It contains the graves of ten soldiers of the Indian Army, forty-two men of the Indian Labour Corps, one German prisoner, twenty-seven men of the British Chinese Labour Corps and six men of the French Chinese Labour Corps.\n\nInstead of the Cross of Sacrifice, there is a pagoda-shaped shelter at the back. A double flight of steps leads to the gravestones, those of the Chinese being on the left and those of the Indians on the right.\n\nUnfortunately during our fleeting visit I was unable to view all the gravestones but noted that, whereas the British Chinese Labour Corps gravestones were engraved with Chinese and English characters, giving the man's number and date of death, with a suitable inscription, those for the French Chinese Labour Corps had a small plate inserted therein giving the man's name, date of death and \"Mort pour La France.” The shape of the gravestones is also different, those for the French being more rounded at the top. I was unable to read the Chinese characters but for anyone interested details of each grave are recorded in the memorial registers which can be found in the cemeteries, or may be obtained, for a fee, from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.2\n\nAs with all Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries it was in immaculate condition, the grass being cut and the flowers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214908, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2000", "page_number": 4, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "FROM THE HON. EDITOR\n\nThe publication of the fortieth Volume of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (and my tenth contribution) seems to merit a special mention by your Hon. Editor as, of course, it marks the fortieth anniversary of the rebirth of the Society. You \"saw\" the fortieth anniversary conference (in 2000), now read the book!\n\nAs you know, Council's instructions are for about 200 pages (Don't give 'em too much!) but I've strayed beyond that by about 50 per cent. Perhaps I can be forgiven, given the propitiousness of the occasion.\n\nOnce again, I've striven for variety and, as you will see, the contributors are both old and new. The distinguished Solomon Bard has come out of retirement to pen Tea and Opium, a wholly dispassionate look at a controversial subject. Brian Fawcett's The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921 represents an enormous investment in time and I should imagine he knows France quite well now. The redoubtable Keith Stevens has contributed two articles including the long-awaited (for me) The Celestial Ministry of Time, a veritable Tour de force.\n\nReaders of Volume 38 - 66 our Y2K issue will recall the photograph of Tai Sui, the Goddess of Time, on the dust jacket, and so kindly provided by Jennifer Welch. What was not revealed at the time was that Keith Stevens and Jennifer Welch were writing The Celestial Ministry of Time and has lots of photographs of Tai Sui including the magnificent one of Jai Zi which adorns the dust jacket of this issue. I wanted it for Volume 38 but, understandably, Keith and Jennifer held out on me.\n\nOtherwise, the unflagging Dan Waters has almost single-handedly provided the Notes and Queries section but with most interesting contributions from Barbara Park and our man in Bondi Beach, James Hayes. Barbara has given us a perceptive glimpse of The Peak in \"the good old days.\" James keeps editors on their toes (\"Dear Peter, please find attached the fifteenth amendment to my article.\"). Jack Lao's 1954 photograph of the Harbour will bring back memories for many.\n\nI came into contact with Teresa Kowalska in Poland, and her exquisite...\n\nWhen I was researching the piece on A Many Splendoured Thing,\n\niii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214915, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT ............................................................ XIV\n\nFRIENDS OF THE HKBRAS (UK) REPORT .......................... xxvii\n\nHON. AUDITOR'S REPORT ....................................................... xxx\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT ................................................... xlii\n\nARTICLES\n\nSolomon Bard - Tea and Opium ............................................... 1\n\nTeresa Kowalska - Tea, Ivory and Ebony: Tracing Colonial Threads in the Inseparable Life and Literature of Han Suyin ........ 21\n\nBrian C. Fawcett - The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921 ............................................................... 33\n\nKeith Stevens and Jennifer Welch - The Celestial Ministry of Time ............................................................... 113\n\nKeith Stevens - Images on Popular Religion Altars of the Heroes Involved in the Suppression of the An Lushan Rebellion (AD 755-763) ........................................................ 155\n\nDan Waters - The Two Obelisks at Tai Tam ....................... 185\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nKeith Stevens - Patron Deity of Prostitutes: Zhu Bajie ........ 195\n\nBarbara Park - A Walk along Harlech and Lugard Roads ...... 197\n\nDan Waters - Designatory Letters after an RAS Member's Name ............................................................... 205\n\nDan Waters - Photographs from the HKBRAS Photographic Exhibition held in January 2001 at the City University ........ 207", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214917, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nSolomon Bard, O.B.E., E.D., is a long-time, well-known resident of Hong Kong and amongst his many other accomplishments is a musician, archaeologist and historian. His published works include the following: In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1988); Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchant Houses, 1841-1899 (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1993); and Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley (Antiquities and Monuments Office, Hong Kong, Occasional Paper No. 4, 1997).\n\nBrian C. Fawcett, was born in the Far East where his father served with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also joined the bank and served from 1961 to 1978, being based in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1978. During that time he was also a volunteer with the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, now the Government Flying Services. He is a life member of HKBRAS.\n\nPeter Halliday, M.A., Ph.D., is an Assistant Commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and is in charge of the Information Systems Wing. He has been the Hon. Editor of the HKBRAS Journal since 1993 (peterhalliday@police.gov.hk).\n\nJames Hayes, Ph.D., D.Litt. (Hon.), is a Past-president of HKBRAS. He is a noted scholar and Hong Kong historian, and has written several books, the most recent being Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People, 1953-87. He has contributed prolifically to the Journal (mouseh1@bigpond.com).\n\nTeresa Kowalska, Ph.D., is a professor of physical chemistry at the Silesian University, Katowice, Poland. She has a distinguished academic record in her chosen field and publishes widely. Her interest in and admiration of, the writer Han Suyin is an extracurricular pursuit (kowalska@uranos.cto.us.edu.pl).\n\nJack Lao Mou Chi, is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Labour of the Hong Kong Government and a member of HKBRAS.\n\nBarbara Park, is a landscape designer and a long-time member of HKBRAS.\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214981, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "33\n\nTHE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE\n\n1917-1921\n\nBRIAN C FAWCETT\n\n\"What were the Chinese doing in France during the First World War?\"\n\nThe above is a frequent question, not only posed by people in the UK but also, as we found, by amazed French people in their own country.\n\nTo answer this, and also as a possibility for a visit by a larger group of Friends of the RAS [Hong Kong Branch] in the UK, a small group under the guidance of Keith Stevens, accompanied by Jenny Welch, Paul Bolding, John Tamplin, David Mahoney, my French wife, Claudine and myself, decided to investigate. Claudine and I have also made separate visits, but more of our findings later.\n\nIntroduction\n\nBriefly the reasons as to why the Chinese were in France may be stated as follows:\n\nAs China was not a belligerent nation, her nationals were not allowed by their government to participate in the fighting. The recruiting for labourers was launched by the War Committee in London, in 1916, to form a Labour Corps of labourers from China to serve in France and to be known as the Chinese Labour Corps [CLC]. This was because, as the war progressed, Great Britain and her allies required more manpower for their Forces, so releasing those men who were assisting at the docks unloading necessary supplies and war material. The Allies regarded such recruitment of labour in market and business terms rather than as politically significant Chinese participation in the war. The Chinese did declare war against Germany and Austria-Hungary on 14th August 1917, for reasons of domestic policy and also to ingratiate themselves with the Powers and win resources from them which would support a military campaign to reunify the country under Beijing's rule.\n\nThe scheme to supply men was originated in June 1915 by Liang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215090, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "119| 庚申太歲毛梓大將軍\n\n1979 2039\n\nGengshen 1980 2040\n\nMaozi\n\n[20] ***TENIN\n\nXinyou 1981 2041\n\nShizheng\n\n[35] 壬戌太歲洪充大將軍\n\nRenxu 1982 2042\n\nHongchong\n\n[36] 癸亥太歲虞程大將軍\n\nGuihai 1983 2043\n\nYucheng\n\n143\n\nNote: Taisui is in no way connected with:\n\nTaisui Zhenren 太歲真人:\n\nPostscript\n\nWu Yue Dadi\n\nBrian Fawcett in his article on the Chinese Labour Corps in France [This issue-Ed.] refers to a modern postcard produced in Ypres for the tourist market. This portrays a Chinese labourer of the British World War 1 Chinese Labour Corps posing in the studio of a small town professional photographer. The caption within the picture, written in chalk on a small black-board in semi-literate Chinese characters, identifies him as No. 18693 Song Xiufeng and gives the date as Guomin Dingsi, that is 1917 in the Republican era. As the Republic had only just been founded six years earlier, the standard dating should have been Year Six of the Republic. However, the writer has embodied both the new era, the Republic, with the old Sexagenary characters which would, if he had thought about it, caused complications at the end of the sixty years cycle as the Republic was intended to last much longer than that!\n\n2\n\nTaisui was listed in 17th century Qing dynasty regulations to receive official worship as a second-rank deity.\n\nTaisui literally means The Great Year, the Jupiter Year, the twelve-year sidereal period which the planet takes to travel around the Sun.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215256, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "We were particularly fortunate in our next event, which took place in August 2001 in Salisbury, to visit the Cathedral and the Salisbury museum where we also heard a lecture by Patrick Hase on 'Traditional South China Agriculture.' To find this latter combination, i.e. Patrick in Salisbury in August and South China agricultural instruments in the Salisbury museum, may appear somewhat far-fetched; however, by the end of the fascinating and extremely well researched lecture and a visit to the museum to actually see the agricultural instruments, which formed part of the Pitts River ethnographic collection, there was no doubt that all members had experienced a day well worth it. Our sincere thanks go to Patrick for giving us his time and for educating us on a subject about which most of us knew absolutely nothing.\n\nThe Friends have for some time been trying to arrange a tour to Northern France to view the World War I battlefields, and in particular the Chinese Connection, when around 100,000 Chinese labourers were brought over from the Far East to support the war effort behind the lines. A number of them died in the process and are buried in the cemeteries. For various reasons the trip has not taken place except by the inveterate few, but we were fortunate in having the next best thing, i.e. a talk by Brian Fawcett, which took place on Saturday, 1st December 2001. Brian has been researching the Chinese Labour Corps for some time and the Friends were particularly fortunate to hear the results of his research and to see a short video/film of First World War relevant events. The fruits of his labour have recently been published in the 40th volume of the Journal of the Society, and Radio 4 in the U.K. will shortly be giving a half-hour programme on the subject.\n\nAnd our programme did not end there. Recently, on 16th February 2002, forty-five members and guests sat down to celebrate the incoming Year of the Horse at the Joy King Lau Chinese restaurant. Not only did we welcome Dr. Patrick Hase and his wife Aileen, who were fortunately in the U.K. again, but we also had Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Bailey (Bill), who was the first Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Centre in the 1970's and 1980's, and was very supportive of the Society when it was a Constituent Member of the Arts Centre.\n\nNow, however, we are preparing ourselves for our next far-flung visit at the end of April to take place in Cornwall, when about twenty-five members will visit the Gardens (Caerhays, Trewithen, Pine Lodge,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216178, "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": 477, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "411\n\nYET MORE ON THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE, 1917-1921\n\nDAVID MAHONEY\n\nKeith Stevens writes that Brian Fawcett in his article on \"THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE\" quoted a figure of 30,000 Chinese who returned to and remained in France, from China, after World War I. He added that the figure appears excessive. In fact, the total of all the Chinese labourers recruited by the French for the French Chinese Labour Corps during World War I did not exceed 50,000.\n\nThe French began their recruitment of Chinese in 1916, some six months before the British did. The scheme was initiated following preliminary discussions on the practicalities of recruiting Chinese labourers to be shipped to France to work in munitions factories to release Frenchmen to serve in the trenches, with the initial idea being to recruit Chinese from the area around the French treaty port of Guangzhouwan in Guangdong in southern China. This, however, was rejected and Jiangsu province - a northern province where the Chinese were hardier and used to northern climes - was selected, particularly in view of the wide French missionary influence in that province. A French Army major was despatched from French Indo-China (now Vietnam) to Shanghai where he was based in the French Concession ostensibly as a French civil servant, to avoid embarrassing the Chinese, to report on the practicality of the proposal. His report was favourable and accepted, and recruitment of Chinese volunteer labourers was started in Jiangsu province, in the vicinity of Shanghai in July 1916.\n\nThe labourers were transported by sea from Shanghai to Marseilles, where the main French CLC was situated, and Le Havre, and trained and worked in munitions factories across France such as Bergerac in the Dordogne, or in private concerns such as the Schneider factory at Le Creusot. Such employment was not possible in Britain due to the objections raised by British trade unions. French Chinese labourers were often billeted in French homes, and an unknown but comparatively large number married French women, some of whom accompanied their husbands back to China. The few labourers who died in France were buried at French civil cemeteries. Their records were maintained at the Headquarters in Lyons.\n\n'JHKBRAS: Vol. 40, 2000, pp. 33-111.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]