[ { "id": 205061, "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-1966", "page_number": 17, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "JOHN J. NOLDE\n\nlarger prefecture of Kwangchou, whose administrative center was at Canton. Kwangchou itself was one of the fifteen prefectures which made up the province of Kwangtung, the latter being linked with the neighboring province of Kwanghsi to form the Viceroyalty of Liang-Kwang. Kwangchou prefecture was about 25,000 square miles in size and was occupied by a population of about five to ten million people.\n\nNow, when this area appears in the standard histories of nineteenth century China it is usually as the stage-setting for the activity of the foreigner and the conflict between the Western barbarians and Chinese officialdom. There are long accounts of the nature and organization of the Canton trade. H.B. Morse wrote six volumes on the East India Company. The diplomatic historian is concerned with the Amherst mission of 1816 and the Napier mission of 1834. There are detailed accounts of the effect of the dissolution of the Company on the Canton trade. And, of course, there are numerous descriptions of the Opium War and its causes and consequences.4\n\nIt would seem, somehow, that the history, if not the day to day living, of the people of the Hong Kong-Macao-Canton axis (if not all China) was inseparably linked with the foreigner, his exploits, the Canton system, and the opium traffic,\n\nBut what was really \"going on\"? What was life really like?\n\nThe most striking fact about the area during those times was not the foreigner and his trade but the deplorable state of civil administration. It was in chaos. Official authority did not extend much beyond Canton. Banditry and brigandage were the order of the day inland. Secret societies harassed government officials and private individuals at will,\n\nPiracy, especially, was a problem.\n\nIn the early years of the century a large pirate fleet under the leadership of one Cheng I had been organized. While his theatre of operations extended from Swatow to the Philippines, and perhaps as far as Borneo, most of his activity was centered in these waters. Commanding a fleet of hundreds of junks and thousands of men, Cheng I virtually terrorized the coast.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206270, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n81\n\nshould be seized as a traitor by the Mandarins. In the end he settled at Hong Kong, where he is said to encourage disreputable characters by the loan of money, and in various ways to reap the proceeds of profligacy and crime.5\n\nLoo Aqui also appears in the records as Lo Aking 盧亞 or Sze Mun King [Lo] (King, the Gentleman). At the time of the Sino-British war he seems to have played both sides of the game. The Chinese government lured him back to Canton by offering him an official degree of the sixth rank. He accepted but did not stay long with the Chinese, as he was soon back in Hong Kong enjoying the rewards of his services as provisioner for the British forces. He seems to have had supporters in Hong Kong Government circles for he secured the grant of a large and valuable section of land behind the Marine Lots of the Lower Bazaar. This was the area between Queen's Road and Jervois Street extending from near its junction westward to Cleverly Street. He and his family also acquired a number of Marine Lots by grant or purchase. Of the twenty-seven signers of the petition of land owners in 1848, about one-fifth of them were members of the Loo clan. Soon after the settlement of Hong Kong Loo Aqui was operating a gambling establishment and brothels. In 1845 he built a theatre. For a time he held the opium monopoly, and when the residents of the Middle Bazaar were removed to the Tai Ping Shan area in 1844, he petitioned the Government for the privilege of operating a market for the inhabitants, agreeing to build a substantial market house at a cost of $2,500 and to pay a monthly rental to Government of $200 for a period of five years. Loo Aqui and Tam Achoy were recognized as the leaders of the Chinese community, for according to a Chinese account entitled \"Information as to the period of the formations of Districts in Hongkong and the alteration of the Character Wan—a bay to Wan—a circuit”, in 1847 they built the Man-Mo Temple on Hollywood Road and here \"they judged the people in public assembly\" until 1851 when the shopkeepers of the Lower Bazaar \"repaired to Man-Mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein decided all cases of any public interest\".\n\nAside from Aqui's income from various business ventures, he had a steady income from his properties. In 1850 he was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208119, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "142 \n\nW. J. HINTON \n\nsails have been lowered and stowed, white awnings cover the decks, there is a gilded bamboo \"whip\" at the foremast of each junk and the bay is alive with small boats. Once past the police searchers, the crowd disperses into the town to buy food at the stalls which line the thoroughfares. Evidently this is fair day. All the shops are doing a roaring trade, and the streets are full of visitors from Hongkong, and even from Canton, and places a hundred miles away.\n\nPresently we notice that the crowd is drifting in one direction; going with it, we find ourselves off the main street. Passing the gates we enter a field covered with booths and resounding with the clash of cymbals and the shrill note of the pipe. Here is all the fun of the fair.\n\nA matshed has been erected, part theatre and part temple. At the far end a theatrical performance is now being given. The clang of cymbals marks the warlike gyrations of the actors, but now and then gives way to the shrill tones of the two-stringed violin in moments of pathos. And all the time the priests on either side of the open end of the theatre chant their services at two altars. A Chinese who is near me either cannot or will not tell me what gods are served at these altars. To me they seem to present an aspect of amicable rivalry.\n\nOn either side of the entrance, but without, stand two large conical frameworks of bamboo, stuck all over with small white rice cakes, and looking each like an ear of Indian corn. These are about twenty feet high. There are small replicas on portable platforms.\n\nWe leave the grounds and walk to the Pak Tai Temple where a procession is forming. It is one of several, for each village street provides a procession, and there is great emulation between the teams. The procession starts. At its head is a Dragon, at least it is a dragon for all practical ceremonial purposes though to the carnal eye it seems a large mask completely covering the head of a boy. He prances and sidles along, mopping and mowing most realistically, the formidable but apparently benevolent monster rolling his head and his eyes, and shaking his sinuous body; for which purpose a second lad under a red streamer of thin cloth goes through all the motions that can reasonably be expected of a Dragon's hind legs.\n\nThe beast is followed by bearers, carrying a platform covered with a canopy, and on the platform two small girls, powdered and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209611, "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": 268, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "246\n\n1884/85\n\n1885/86\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n16 Dec. 1884 \"Still Waters Run Deep\" comedy (T. Taylor, 1855) given in 1862, 1878.\n\n17 Dec. 1885 \"Chiselling\" farce (J. J. Dilley and J. Albery, 1870) \"Nine Points of the Law\" (T. Taylor, 1859) in 1878.\n\n18 Feb. 1886 — \"The Overland Route\" (T. Taylor, 1860) second performance of season.\n\n1886/87\n\n9 Mar. 1886 \"Weak Woman\" (H. J. Byron, 1875) benefit with Canton Amateurs for burned Canton Theatre.\n\n7 Apr. 1886 — \"Heads or Tails\" (J. Palgrave Simpson, 1854) \"Chiselling\" farce (Dilley and Albery, 1870) given in 1885,\n\n18 Nov. 1886\n\n\"A Widow's Hunt, or Everybody's Friend\" comedy (J. Sterling Coyne, 1859)\n\n30 Dec. 1886 — \"Cups and Saucers\" musical sketch (G. Grossmith 1878) \"Our Wife\" comedietta (J. M. Morton, 1850)\n\n13 Apr. 1887 — \"A Comical Countess\" (Wm. Brough, 1854) \"Our Soldiers\" comedy (H. J. Byron, 1873)\n\n1887/88 8 Nov. 1887 \"Withered Leaves\" comedietta (J. W. Broughton, 1875) \"The First Night\" comedy (J. M. Maddox, 1853) \"The Rivals\" (Sheridan, 1775)\n\n17 Jan. 1888\n\n1888/89\n\n1889/90\n\n1890/91 apparently no production this season.\n\n26 Dec. 1889 last performance Mar. 1890 - 1 Christmas Pantomime: \"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves\"\n\nGrand\n\n26 Dec. 1890 --- \"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves\" pantomime 30 Mar. 1891\n\n- \"The Two Roses\" (J. Albery, 1870)\n\n1891/92\n\n24 July 1891\n\n1864) \"David Garrick\" comedy (T. Robertson,\n\n26 Dec. 1891, 23 Jan., 20 Feb. 1892- Christmas Pantomime: \"Beauty and the Beast\"\n\n27 Feb., 1 Mar, 1892\n\n21, 30 Apr. 1892\n\n+ \"Betsy\" (F. C. Burnand, 1879) \"Turned Up\" (or \"Too Much Married\") comedy, (M. Melford, 1886)\n\nPage 268", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211768, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "158\n\nTHALIA AND TERPSICHORE ON THE YANGTZE A SURVEY OF FOREIGN THEATRE AND MUSIC IN SHANGHAI 1850-1865\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\n\"Thanks for the merry laugh that cheered our hearts\n\nFor loud applause that bade us top our parts. For mirth, that taking all things for the best\n\nMade even a blunder seem a clever jest'.\"*\n\nThus an epilogue to an evening of theatrical entertainment in 1852 that was given for the foreign community of Shanghai, and it sums up nicely the attitude with which generally speaking the efforts of the local amateurs were greeted. What happened on the stage in this outpost of Western civilisation may not have been very exciting or very daring but still it seems interesting enough to go into in more detail than has been done before now.2\n\n1. Some notes on foreign life in Shanghai\n\nUntil the first Anglo-Chinese War of 1839-1842, foreigners were severely limited in China. In fact only one port, Canton, was open for external trade and merchants had to reside part of the year in the so-called foreign factories. After the war several treaties were concluded with Western nations (England, France, United States) in which the right of foreigners to settle themselves in a number of cities on the China Coast was granted.\n\nAmong these cities was Shanghai, and it was not long before a predominantly British community came into being. A Foreign Settlement was delimited, Land Regulations (a kind of constitution) were issued in 1845 and 1854, a Municipal Council of foreign merchants was formed as early as 1846,3 houses in colonial style were built, roads and a race course laid out, a drainage scheme begun and a home-like church erected. To the south of the Settlement the French had their own Concession, while to the north an American settlement gradually developed. Problems abounded, sometimes caused by the obstructions of foreign residents;\n\nOrdinary reference notes are indicated thus: (1); notes in which additional information is supplied thus: (1x).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211808, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "198\n\nT: Farce (1 act) C: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: D\n\nR: This was the last theatrical entertainment organised by Horatio BUSKIN and he could look back on a successful \"career\" as manager. Only the music had flagged of late (tonight \"a buzz in a box near the proscenium represented the music — we were ten feet away from it and it was therefore lost upon us\" the days of \"Sir George Smart and Messrs Thalberg\" and \"Koenig\" were over).\n\n—\n\nTo make up for these shortcomings \"Mr. CLAY as Honeybun (in the Infanticidal Farce) was, as he always is, first rate\". In Slasher and Crasher the public witnessed the debut of \"Miss Polly DEXTER as Rosa, affording hope of a new evening star of the first magnitude\" (NCH 23.2.1856).\n\n14.8.1856 (Thur)\n\nN.N.: The Nigger Doctor and his Patient Patient or the First Lesson in Surgery\n\nT: Negro farce\n\nC: Travelling American Company (Messrs Baker, Woodward and Montgomery) Th: Old Theatre (C)\n\nN: The whole evening was announced as a \"Grand Ethiopian Musical Soirée\"\n\nR: An advertisement only was published in the NCH of August 9. In it the above mentioned gentlemen (formerly of the New York Serenaders) praised their performances as having been \"the theme of universal admiration during the past four years throughout the East Indies as well as the Australian Colonies\". In addition to the farce, the programme consisted of \"Negro songs, interspersed with willy saying and doings peculiar to the African race in America\".\n\n19.9.1856 (Fri)\n\nConcert by Ali Ben Sou Alle and some local amateurs.\n\nInstruments: Turkophone, \"Turkophonini\", clarinet, piano.\n\nProgramme:\n\nG. ROSSINI: Two overtures. V. BELLINI: Selections from \"La Sonnambula\". F. MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: \"The Fairest Flower\" (song). Some German songs, The \"Shanghai Redowa Walse\", Medley of English, Scottish and Irish airs. Th: N.N. (C)\n\nR: Tonight was the occasion of the first real concert in the Settlement's history. It was given by Mr. ALI BEN SOU ALLE, a Turk who, after a study at the Conservatoire de Paris, had been appointed Directeur de Musique de Marine in Senegal (which had been French since 1871) in 1844. In 1847 he returned to Paris to enter the orchestra of the Opéra Comique, but the following year he went to London where he found employment in the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre at the Haymarket. He learned to play some instruments that had been invented by Adolphe Sax, the Belgian musician (1814-1894) and thereafter he made an extensive tour to Australia, Java, Singapore, Manila and China (CM 16, 10, 1856). In Hong Kong and even Canton he had appeared in August and October 1856 (CM 7.8. 14.8. 21.8. 16.10.1856). In between he gave two recitals in the Yangtze port. In the Survey it has already been stated that the soloist entertained the public with performances on several instruments that had been rechristened Turkophone and Turkophonini: in reality they were the Saxophone and (probably) the soprano saxophone. Well may we ask how these instruments, which were only of recent origin (1840s), were received by an audience completely unused to their sound. The artist interpreted a selection from Bellini's \"La Sonnambula\" on the \"Turkophone\" and the critic wrote that \"the compass of the instrument is very great but we confess to some disappointment as regards its quality of tone, and correctness of tone also, in some few notes, and altogether we think it an imperfect instrument", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215949, "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": 248, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "182\n\nstatus, since there were 'so many other senior officers working in the area,' and he saw it as ‘axiomatic that all branches of the service will cooperate and pool their information.' The new section was to have 'full authority to control the movements of all Europeans whether military or civil who had escaped.' Having left Hong Kong less than a month earlier, having by his own admission no knowledge of escape and evasion organisations, he was now to command, and to 'have authority to add to his strength such British or Chinese as are available.' The full story of the BAAG is too complex to tell here, but the transition was not seamless. By 16th May 1942, Ride was given the letter he wanted stating 'from the time of escape until they reach Chiyang all escapees of whatever rank and whatever service will come under your command.' This should be made clear to them at first responsibility. xxii This included the men who had spent so long setting up the groundwork, who had met the Ride group and brought them to safety.\n\nAnother even more fundamental change in direction was the change in emphasis from a general resistance function to an organisation primarily for the escape of Prisoners of War, and particularly of Europeans at that. Ride consistently thought in terms of mass escapes from camp, larger scale and more spectacular than the Chan Chak escape. In the summer of 1942, he planned the escape of 500 or more POWs by junk, and as late as September 1943 proposed paying millions to guerrillas to conquer Canton so an airborne assault of paratroopers could descend on Hong Kong to free the POWs.**** The gathering of intelligence and support of other forms of resistance were corollary to this basic function. An analysis of why the escape of POWs became the central focus of British activity in the Hong Kong region when it was not of paramount military strategic value in the overall conduct of war in the theatre is again beyond the scale of this piece. However, it illustrates that the plans British military strategists had developed to challenge Japanese occupation and to continue the struggle by alternative methods had to adapt to new conditions. SOE and SOE related agencies were by no means silenced in China but continued to play a very important role, even around Hong Kong. The chrysalis opened, but what emerged had to shape itself to a new situation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]