[ { "id": 204271, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n35\n\nTo begin with a few examples in poetry: the poet Ts'ao Chih (A.D. 192-232), son of Ts'ao Ts'ao and younger brother of the first Emperor of Wei, wrote about the knight errant in \"The White Steed\", also known as \"The Knight Errant\":\n\nA white steed decked with a golden halter\nGalloped past towards the north west.\n\n\"Who is the rider?' I enquired from a by-stander.\n'A knight errant from the north' was the reply.\n'He left his native district when he was young,\nAnd spread his fame across the distant desert.\nHe always carries a fine sturdy bow\nWith arrows of bramble wood, long and short.\nPulling the string, he hits the target on the left;\nShooting from the right, he hits it again.\nLooking up, he shoots an ape in flight;\nBending down, he hits the bull's-eye once more.\nHe is more agile than a monkey,\nAnd as fierce as a leopard or dragon.\n\nWhen alarms came from the frontier\nThat barbarian troops had made repeated raids,\nAnd when a call to arms was heard from the north,\nHe mounted his steed and reached the frontier fort.\nHe rode on right into the land of the Huns,\nHolding the Mongol tribes in high disdain.\nHe threw himself before the pointed swords\nWithout giving a thought to his own life.\nHe did not even worry about his parents,\nLet alone his children and his wife.\nHis name entered the register of heroes;\nHis heart had no room for personal feelings.\n\nHe risked his life at a time of national disaster,\nAnd regarded death merely as coming home'.10\n\nThis portrait of a knight errant may be a little idealized, for the poet is, in all probability, using the subject as an excuse to express his own frustrated patriotic wishes and military ambitions, being prevented from fulfilling these by his elder brother. Nevertheless, the poem remains a good illustration of some of the ideals of knight errantry. Notice, in particular, that the knight errant did not allow filial devotion to deter him from his heroic task.\n\n10 Ts'ao Tzu-chien shih-chu (with notes by Huang Chieh, Peking, 1957), pp. 69-70.\n\n2000", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204320, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n84\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nsaw a dazzling light penetrating into his palace making the walls transparent. He dispatched his son, Prince Mo Chieh (E), with a group of mariners to go around in the sea to investigate.”\n\n26\n\nThis Mo Chich, probably a re-incarnation of Bimbisara, who was a king of Magadha () converted by Sakyamuni and who died and was re-incarnated as a son of Vaisravana, has been changed into Ao Ping in the above quotation from the Fêng-shên Yen-i, and has lost his original Buddhist flavour. Comparing this short paragraph from the Tung-yu-chi with the composition and description of the corresponding paragraphs in the Fêng-shên, we can see the artistic superiority of the latter.\n\nThe combat between No-cha and Ao Ping, the third son of the dragon-king, has a tragic end. No-cha put his foot on Ao Ping's neck and struck the latter's forehead with his bracelet, thus killing him. No-cha pulled out the sinews of the little dragon and went back, saying he would make a good belt of it for his father to fasten his cuirass on. The dragon-king, hearing of the death of his son, went to see Li Ching, and put the latter in a very embarrassing position. Li Ching, being ignorant of his son's prodigious feats, denied his guilt. But No-cha came out and apologized for what he had done, and told the dragon-king that his son's sinews were intact. The dragon-king was exasperated and told Li Ching that he would lodge a complaint at the court of the Jade Emperor against father and son. The story continues:\n\nAfter No-cha had calmed his parents he went to the Chin-kuang Cave and told his master, the Taoist Immortal T’ai-I, of his adventure. The master ordered him to unfasten his coat, drew spells on his bosom, and told him what to do the next morning. \"After that,\" the master said, \"you may go back to Ch'en-t'ang Pass. If anything unusual happens, you must tell your parents that I shall be responsible for your misdeeds.” The next morning No-cha reached the Pao-tê Gate (F),27 the gate of heaven. After a while he saw the dragon-king approaching wearing his celestial robes, but because of the magic spells on No-cha's bosom, the dragon-king could not see him. No-cha was so angry that he strode forward from behind and dealt the dragon-king with his bracelet such a heavy blow that immediately he fell to the ground. (Ch.12)\n\n•\n\n26 No. 9, Fu-shuo Jên-hsien Ching (MA), The Tripitaka in Chinese,\n\n27 Ch. 39, Hsi-yo-chi of the \"Four Travels\", the Pao-tê Kuan (OH) is the Gate in heaven where Li Ching dwells.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204326, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n90\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n\"build for me a temple on the Ts'ui-p'ing Hill that I may be worshipped for a certain period and thereafter I can be reincarnated.\" When she awoke, she cried bitterly, and told the request to Li Ching. Li Ching was exasperated, and blamed his son once more for the disaster he had brought on them. No-cha repeated his request in vain on several successive nights and at last he warned the mother, \"You know that my temper is bad. If I lose my control over it, you know who will suffer.\" The mother was scared and sent some servants to go secretly to the Hill and build the temple with an image of No-cha set up in it. The temple of No-cha attracted many pilgrims and the incense burnt to him was ever increasing.\n\nOne day, after inspecting his troops at drill Li Ching, with a troop of soldiers, was passing the place. He saw many pilgrims flocking to the place and asked his aid-de-camp, \"Why is this hill thronged with people?\" \"For the last six months the god of this temple has performed miraculous deeds and answered the prayers of his worshippers. Therefore pilgrims from every quarter come to worship him,\" the officer answered. \"What is the name then of this god?\" Li Ching asked. \"The temple is called the Spiritual Palace of No-cha.\" \"No-cha! What!\" Li Ching was enraged, and ordered, \"Stop! I want to go to the temple myself.\" He dismounted at the entrance to the temple and entered the hall in which a lifelike image of his son was erected with some idols as his retinue. Li Ching pointed to the image and rebuked it, \"While you were living you were a source of trouble to your parents. And now, look, you even deceive the people after your death!\" He wielded his whip and smashed the image to pieces, and kicked away the other images. He ordered his troops to set fire and burn down the temple, and the multitude dispersed.\n\nWhen his father visited the temple No-cha had just entered into meditation in such a way that his spirit disappeared from the throne. On his return he found the temple had been burnt to ashes, and his retinue came to him with tears in their eyes. After he was told what had happened, No-cha grumbled, \"I have returned what I got from you and broken off all our relations. Why should you come here to molest me, burn down my place and leave me with no fixed abode?” No-cha's souls after half-a-year had acquired some nourishment through the food offered to him and was somewhat visible, so he went instantly to Mt. Ch'ien-yüan and appealed to his master. The Immortal T'ai-I said, \"Since you returned the flesh and bones to your parents, Li Ching had no right to interfere with the offerings. But Chiang Tzu-ya is soon to descend from the K'un-lun Mountain to help King Wu and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204406, "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-1962", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CURRENCY PROBLEMS\n\n29\n\nMemory calls to mind how that, in 1911, when I rode out of the Minshan range, which lies between the provinces of Kansu and Szechwan, I came out onto the great silk road of the Empire at Kwangyuan and travelled along it to Chengtu. On this road one found the most magnificent hotel accommodation then existent in the Empire. Yet in the best hotel I got the best room, together with all the rice I could eat at the evening meal, for forty cash a night—then the equivalent of about 3 cents U.S. currency!\n\nThis problem of the weight of the brass cash was well exemplified during the relief work I was called upon to direct in 1921 in North West China following the catastrophic earthquake that took place in December 1920. The quakes changed the whole face of nature in some fourteen counties and it became a matter of the utmost importance that we restored communications and set free the dammed up streams before break-throughs could cause flood devastation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. To this end I had some fifteen thousand men at work in the 14 districts, engaged in this work of vital importance. They were paid on the basis of labour giving relief. On the largest undertaking at a place called Chin-Chiang-Yi I had four thousand eight hundred labourers. Of this number 10% were overseers or foremen gangers and received five hundred, or over, cash per day. The rank and file received a straight four hundred each. This means that the total weight of the cash required to meet a single day's pay on this one undertaking amounted to just over 12 tons deadweight. Something over 35 tons of cash was needed each day to pay the fifteen thousand men. Those were the days before motor transport in that part of the country and with the roads wiped out by the earthquake and pack-animals of all kinds exceedingly scarce the situation soon became impossible. After much thought I decided to put out my own note issue to meet the emergency. This though was easier conceived than executed. Neither paper supplies nor printing facilities were available. Therefore I had wooden blocks carved representing cash denominations of four hundred and five hundred cash. From these impressions were taken on strips of calico. The pull-offs were then oiled to prevent falsification. These notes were used in paying the workers who were able to use them for the purchase of food and necessities. The Chambers of Com-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204408, "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-1962", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CURRENCY PROBLEMS\n\n31\n\nlifted. This issue was forced upon an unwilling community at the dollar-copper exchange rate, i.e., fifteen hundred cash for one silver dollar. A little more than a year later the issue was redeemed at the rate of one million for one silver dollar. Up to the time of my last visit to that district some twenty years ago, the issue was still referred to as the \"sand plate currency\".\n\nBut as with the brass cash so the copper cash content value soon rose above the market rate and the good old suction pump once again went to work directing the flow of China's coinage into the mills of Nippon. Just at this time, one worthy old ship master, commanding a ship on the berth from Tientsin to Hong Kong and calling at way ports, made a reputation for himself. On the occasion under reference he was seen to be experiencing difficulty on clearing Chefoo harbour. His ship was riding well down by the head and considerable trouble was experienced in heaving the anchor. When the harbour authorities came to the assistance of the ship it was found that the anchor chain locker was so full of copper coins that the anchor chain could not be stowed. To the present day, in certain local circles, the old sea-dog is affectionately referred to as the master of the floating copper mine.\n\n++\n\n+\n\n44\n\n44\n\nAs already stated, the baser currencies of brass and copper were related to the value of silver. Silver bullion circulated in the form of slabs, ingots and \"shoes\". The latter ranged from the one tael shoe especially cast for the distribution of the Imperial bounty (similar to the Maundy Thursday distribution of Royal charity) up to the fifty ounce Hunan Yuan Pao. Banks' bullion storage was usually cast in bars. Not only did the fineness of the silver vary from province to province but there was also a variation in the tael so that inter-provincial accounts required cross-rate computations. Thus the traveller on an extended journey had to carry with him a supply of silver which could be changed along the way to replenish his subsidiary currency for daily expenditure. Here again a problem presented itself for such exchanges could only be effected in quantities and weights for which he had transport facilities. For instance a traveller on horseback could only change a very small piece of silver at a time otherwise the deadweight of the cash would be beyond his means of transport. I remember once being on a horseback journey in the company of a Scot. We had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204410, "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-1962", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CURRENCY PROBLEMS\n\n33\n\ntooth-picks, ear-cleaners, silver dollars from many of the provincial mints and even Russian roubles. We melted the whole mass down, refined the metal losing seventy ounces in weight in the process and recast in ingots of a standard whose increased exchange rate more than compensated for the loss of weight. The child of sycee, the silver dollar, gradually superseded its parent in favour. As far as the memory serves me, the Mexican dollar was the first to come into common circulation on the China coast. Thus for many years the dollar currency in China was designated \"Mex\". The Ching dynasty minted their own dollars and maintained a standard around 71 to 74 tael cents to the dollar. But with the coming of the regional and provincial mints all this was changed and standards varied considerably. One of the earliest war-lord dollars was the Yuan Shih-kai's which maintained a high standard of purity. Deterioration led to confusion of exchange rates and one certain provincial dollar eventually found its level on the common market at half the value of other provincial dollars. Gradually the dollar became the common form of silver currency. One great advantage lay in the fact that the \"dud\" dollar was much more readily spotted than adulterated sycee. There may be some, who, like myself, have been amazed at the dexterity of the Chinese bank teller in detecting spurious dollars by the \"dullness\" of their tinkle.\n\n4\n\nIn the year 1929 I was back in Kansu distributing relief in severe famine areas. This was in the days before there was motor transport in the north-west of China and transport facilities had been decimated by the starvation deaths of man and beast. Added to which, difficulty was added to what transportation was possible by the roving bands of brigands roaming the country in search of food. All usual means of remitting money from the coast were suspended and the only way I could get funds was by issuing letters of credit on my brother in Tientsin. One leading war-lord offered me a remittance of fifty thousand taels of silver provided I would take delivery at his home village, located two and a half days' journey from the provincial capital. By a considerable effort I managed to assemble a caravan of some twenty pack animals. One pack mule will carry three thousand ounces of silver deadweight. With a heavily armed guard we took the trail over the mountains. On the second evening we came to the top of a mountain range and here we", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204416, "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-1962", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n39\n\nintention to become a monk under the auspices of a master (not necessarily the same one with whom he might have taken the Refuges). \"Leaving home\" was a simple ceremony. The layman went to a barber, had his head shaved, except for a patch of hair on top, and repaired to his future master's temple, where he burned some incense and kowtowed first to the Buddha image and then to the master. Thereupon the latter shaved off the remaining patch of hair in the presence of witnesses and at this moment the layman became his disciple. There are several kinds of master-disciple relationships, but when a Buddhist monk speaks simply of his \"master\" or shih-fu, he means his tonsure-master, or t'i-tu en-shih #1824p, that is the one who shaved his head.\n\nBy leaving home he became a novice, or sha-mi, which is the Sanscrit word sramanera (not to be confused with a sha-men, that is, the sramana, or advanced monk). Notice that he had not received the novice's ordination (as he would have at this stage in a Theravadin country), but he was already called a novice and lived as one; that is, he wore a monk's robe, ate vegetarian food, and observed all the Ten Vows. These vows are, besides the first five mentioned above, not to attend theatricals or dancing parties, not to wear perfume or adornment, not to sleep on a high or large bed, not to accept gold or silver, and not to take food after noon (this last prohibition was ignored by most monks in China on the grounds that the climate was too cold). The disciple lived with his tonsure master in the latter's small temple for a period of training that, according to the rules, lasted three years, but was often shorter in practice. He learned not only ritual and liturgy, but also what it was like to be a monk. It was a trial period, from which he could withdraw at any time without embarrassment, and some did withdraw. At the end he was taken by his master to a big public monastery, shih-fang ts'ung-lin, for ordination. If he lived in the north, he might go to the Kuang-chi Ssu in Peking. If he lived in the south, he might go to Pao-hua Shan, which is not far from Nanking. These two were very strict and he could be sure that if he were ordained there, it had been done correctly. At Pao-hua Shan four or five hundred novices would come to be ordained every autumn and in the spring another four or five hundred would come. Sometimes as many as a thousand came", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204424, "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-1962", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n47\n\n(in the big monasteries one had to get permission every time he left the premises). Talking was permitted during meals and people could go to bed when they felt like it. Some small temples were centers of institutionalized laziness--and worse.\n\nBut small temples were very necessary, not only to provide a break from the rigor of life in the big monasteries, but also as a link between the clergy and the laity. The big monasteries were often remote in the mountains, whereas in most Chinese cities there was a small temple “just around the corner.\" More important than this, however, was the fact that a monk could not accept tonsure disciples \"in his capacity as officer or resident of a big monastery, but only in his capacity as officer or resident of a small temple. The novice during most of his training prior to ordination could not live in a big monastery, but only in a small temple. Thus small temples were the channel through which all new recruits had to enter the Sangha.\n\n55\n\n**\n\nThe crowning stage of a monk's career was being the old monk lao ho-shang, a term usually applied to an ex-abbot. He lived either in his own small temple or in special quarters of the big monastery that he had headed. He had no obligations, although he probably still carried on with his work of teaching. In fact, this might be the most productive part of his life, when he had the widest following and exerted the greatest influence, particularly on the laymen who came in great numbers to listen to him expound sutras and to take the Refuges with him. It is extraordinary how old some old monks got to be. The most famous case of recent times is Hsü-yün, who died at the age of a hundred and twenty in 1959. Now we have T'an-hsü, who is eighty-eight and still preaches on the Surangama Sutra every Sunday evening at nine o'clock. I recommend that you go to the Buddhist Library, 144 Boundary Street, and listen to him some Sunday, for he is a wonderful person.\n\n77\n\nHere in Hong Kong, I have often wondered why certain monks lived to be so old. They would attribute it, perhaps, to the peace that comes with enlightenment. A more prosaic explanation might be that they have a low cholesterol count. Dr. C. A. Wang, who will return to Hong Kong in 1962, tested a number of monks two years ago and found that, presumably because they ate vegetarian food, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204461, "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-1962", "page_number": 93, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "82 \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\n10 \n\nstanding in loco parentis to the people of his district. An instance of this outlook is a proclamation issued by the Canton Viceroy in April 1899 in which he told the people of the New Territory that the English government had agreed that \"the people are to be treated with exceptional kindness \".10 On the reverse side of the medal the magistrate could also, like his followers in the tribunal, use his authority to evil purposes and be referred to as being as (fierce as) a tiger\" 如虎 or a dog-official\"35 whose extortions and venality were a byword \n\n44 \n\nin the district.1 \n\nC4 \n\n+ \n\n17 \n\nIn his government the Magistrate was usually assisted by an indoor and outdoor staff. The former might consist of personal adherents from his own home district who followed him from post to post, and partly of local personnel of the tribunal or yamen4 such as a legal adviser, secretaries, and land clerks, whose local knowledge it would be difficult to dispense with. All these were entirely dependent upon the magistrate for their livelihood, and upon what they could pick up in the course of their duties. To maintain his position and put food into the mouths of the members of his personal staff and their families the magistrate was given an inadequate salary by government. There were in addition the outdoor staff which comprised a considerable number of police, watchmen, runners and the like, who may have been paid by Government despite what Lockhart says to the contrary, but used their opportunities as they came, \n\nIn the San On district the Magistrate's yamen was at Nam Tau, which lies beyond the northern or further shores of Deep Bay on the far side of the Nam Tau peninsula. This was the district city where the treasury, jail and examination halls were also situated. It also contained a Confucian temple. The seat of government therefore lay outside the borders of the New Territory which, however, was served by several of his subordinate officers. He was assisted by an assistant magistrate10 whose office was at Tai Pang north-east of Mirs Bay and outside the New Territory and two deputy magistrates, one of whom was stationed within the walled city of Kowloon. They had power to make arrests and conduct preliminary enquiries but were bound to refer most cases to Nam Tau for final decision. The Kowloon deputy, like his colleagues, had a lock-up for detaining persons pending trial and there was also one each for the local", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204463, "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-1962", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "84 \n\n+ \n\n+ \n\nJ. W. HAYES \n\nor to a general council, made up of representatives of the different Tung. \n\nEach council of the Tung contains representatives of the villages which make up the Tung. In addition to a council of a Tung there is a general council for the whole of the Tung Lo or Eastern Section, which is practically that portion of the district of San On contained in the map attached to the Convention. This general council is styled the Tung Ping Kuk or Council of Peace for the Eastern Section. It has its council chamber at the market town of Sham Chun, which is regarded as the centre of the Eastern Section. If the decision of the council of the Tung, or of the General Council is not regarded as satisfactory, an appeal lies to the magistrate of the district.24 \n\nVillages must occasionally have made their own rules. There is an interesting survival of these written on a wooden board which hangs in one of the side rooms of the Yeung Hau Wong temple at Tung Chung on Lantau Island, which is dated in the third moon of the nineteenth year of the Kwong Shui reign (1893). The text refers to the passing of the good old days and lays down measures to deal with offenders. For stealing crops, cutting down pine and bamboo trees, for letting pigs or buffaloes graze on other people's fields, there were fines in cash \n\na proportion of which went to the person who caught the culprit. He was to be escorted to the Heung council office, and should he refuse to pay after a hearing there, he was to be taken \n\nbefore the magistrate. It was drawn up by the Tung Chung Hap Heung or all the villages of the Tung Chung \n\n東涌合鄉 valley. \n\nA few words on the elders and gentry may be appropriate here. An elder was an older villager whose character, influence, and senior generation in the clan entitled him to a say in its affairs. He was more to the fore in the remoter villages of the district, which were generally the poorer ones, and could not afford to support literati, as they are sometimes styled, which is what the gentry really were in the Chinese context. These were persons of considerable influence who came generally from the larger, richer villages of the plains, which had one or more village schools where the elements of a classical education could be obtained. In course of time, by dint of hard study at home or in Canton, the cleverer among the local scholars, after successful", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204472, "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-1962", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n93\n\nThe graves were visited without fail at the two major grave festivals of Ching Ming and Chung Yeung, in spring 清明 and autumn respectively, and to them all male descendants came who could walk unaided, or on a friendly arm, or be carried, in order to sweep the graves, offer food and drink, and make the obligatory kowtow1. These ceremonies were carried out near the village on the slopes of the surrounding hills where the clan graves were usually to be found; but sometimes filial piety was tested further since the dictate of a geomancer would place the first ancestor's grave, and others, at some distance from the village. This could mean considerable inconvenience at the grave festivals. This is the case at Pa Mei, a small village in the Tung Chung valley on North Lantau, where the first grave is at Cheung Sha on South Lantau.\n\nAt New Year the burden could be much heavier. Not every village had its own ancestral hall. Sometimes the parent village from which the first ancestor had come was near at hand, or within several days' journey by sea and on foot. In these cases it was often felt unnecessary to build an ancestral hall in the new village. Instead, the able-bodied members of the clan, male and female of every age, sallied forth at New Year and at the time of the grave festivals on a journey to their relatives in their native village. Frequent examples of this can be found in the New Territories and at the time of the major festivals of the year 1898 the hill tracks and little ports and market towns of the Colony must have been full of persons travelling to and from their homes on ancestral duties.\n\n550\n\nThe whole ethos and action of the clan was practically one hundred per cent Confucian in its workings. In 1898 the clan system appears to have operated in the New Territory in the traditional ways and with all the latent powers and vigour at its command. It regulated what happened within and helped to determine what went on outside itself. Its heads, who were educated to the Confucian tenets, were part of the mechanism of local government. The government of the province, prefecture, and district were also Confucian to the core, at any rate in precept if not always in practice, and both government and people knew how they stood in their traditional relationship one to the other. Disturbances, lawlessness, and unrest were mere trivia, annoying but of no real import to the discipline of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204491, "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-1962", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "110\n\nM. W. WELCH\n\nbelow the original level of the surface before artillery practice began). They prove only that there were people who spent some time there. Although I chose the sites as good places to live, I have so far found no strata, no remains of fires, and no other signs of habitation.\n\nI have combed the adjacent, unshelled, non-eroded areas for true surface finds, and, despite many days of search, I have found none at all. Hence I have a theory that the artifacts came to be where I found them as a result of shell penetration and explosion. After being thrown into the air, they fell around the area of the impact. (I have several items that seem to prove the point: one is a small chert adze—chert is an amorphous, massive stone, closely allied to flint—found in two pieces, each on opposite sides of a rock that it must have hit as it fell and then separated. Another is a larger adze, two fragments of which were found about twenty feet apart, and shattered in a way that can only be accounted for by an explosion. There are also two matching potsherds discovered on opposite sides of a ridge of hardened kaolin about three yards apart). The shells used on this firing range, I am told, penetrate about four feet and the objects found could have been located anywhere between the surface and the deepest point of penetration.\n\nI have not, as I have already mentioned, found any strata or deposits anywhere. There are several reasons why this might be the case. The inhabitants of the island may have been nomadic and lived here only during certain seasons, coming by boat to cut wood (there is a theory that Hong Kong was well forested in those days), or to dig kaolin for shipment to centres of pottery manufacturing (the latter I think is the probable raison d'être of my sites). The actual settlements of this area may have been located mostly where we find the present inhabitants, on sites which have been lived on without interruption until modern times. This would explain the absence of strata, and, if it is correct, no strata will be found until it is possible to trench on the site of an existing village. I understand that such a project is planned for the future.\n\nBefore I describe some of the finds, I want to explain the basis on which I have classified them. Father D. J. Finn began his researches on Lamma Island and later on with Father R.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204506, "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-1962", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n123\n\ngroup belonging to the K'ai Yuan period of the Tang Dynasty (713-742), and a few other coins from the Tai P'ing period of the Liao Dynasty (Tartars) which date from 1020-1031. A find of T'ang coins in conjunction with Sung coins shows that the former were in circulation in late Sung times.\n\nUnfortunately, as I hinted at the beginning of this note, there is no doubt that the delay in reporting this find has led to the loss of the greater part of both coins and porcelain. To give a known instance, it was reported from Macau, after a newspaper man there had seen the official press release which appeared in the Hong Kong papers, that over 1,000 coins had been bought recently from Hong Kong by a curio merchant. There is little doubt that these coins also came from Shek Pik, since it was reported that the coins were all of the Sung Dynasty and were covered with earth, which showed that they had been recently excavated. Many other coins must also be in the possession of workmen on the site or in the hands of people to whom they have sold them. An attempt has been made to recover these by means of a letter to the Chief Resident Engineer, but there has been no response so far to the appeal, despite his ready assistance.\n\nThe same is true of the porcelain, of which there appears to have been some quantity. Not surprisingly, the bulldozers smashed the porcelain to pieces and scattered it over a wide area. Some of the broken pieces are in the hands of persons at Shek Pik; others are still buried under the earth moved by the bulldozers, which extends over several acres of hillside; and about a hundred small fragments were recovered by the Team from Shek Pik. Portions of about twenty pieces of porcelain have been recovered to date; very small for the most part but enough to show by colour and shape that they were part of different pots. These fragments are characterised by their fine colour, good shape and the thickness and brilliance of the glaze.\n\nTo which period can the find be attributed? The last reign date recovered so far is of the period 1241-1253, which brings us to within twenty-five years of the fall of the dynasty. In the normal course of events it would, I think, be unlikely for porcelain of this quality to be found on Lantau which, so far as we know, was at this time barely inhabited by a handful of Chinese peasants", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204537, "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-1963", "page_number": 18, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO\n\nexplore trade possibilities outside the Americas.\n\n13\n\nThe New England states especially took the lead in this expansion of maritime trade, and towns like Salem and Boston soon became busy ship-building and overseas ports. Boston ships sailed east to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope, while those from Salem sailed west round the Horn; when, as was inevitable on a globe, east met west in the Far East, they agreed to an east-west boundary line which ran south of Canton and the Philippines; the area of South China was thus in the Salem sphere, and hence most of the early American traders in this area belonged to early Salem, Beverly, and Danvers families.\n\nThe procedure that had to be followed by foreign ships trading with Canton was briefly this. They made their first China landfall amongst the Ladrone Islands; here they took on a pilot from a junk, and he brought them to Macao; anchoring in the roads off Taipa, they made contact with the Chinese officials who were at that time established on the Praya Grande at Macao; on being cleared by them for Canton, the ships were allowed to proceed to Bocca Tigris at the river mouth, where, after a further delay, they were eventually given a Grand Chop, which was the permit to sail up river. The ships anchored at Whampoa, and the almost endless negotiations for discharging their cargoes and reloading with their purchases began. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the foreign floating population of Whampoa ran into thousands, and the sickness, accident, and mortality rates were very high.\n\nUp river, disposal of the dead was one of the easiest of all local business transactions; the Chinese had no such things as enclosed cemeteries, and neither had the foreigners; burials involved no legal or civil procedures; one merely negotiated with a Chinese landowner for a hillside plot and hired a few labourers. On Danes Island, French Island, at Whampoa, Lintin, Capsingmoon, and Cumsingmoon, there lie buried thus hundreds of foreigners whose frail memorials, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared.* In westernized Macao, however, the situation was different. There were enclosed cemeteries there, but they were consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church and therefore were not available to the other Europeans who were\n\n*For a map of the Pearl River estuary see p. 93.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204599, "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-1963", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING\n\n69\n\nhad now come for Dr. Rennie to leave Peking, since he had been appointed Senior Medical Officer of the British Forces. He left in April 1862, and one of the last pen-pictures he gives us in his diary is of a Mrs. Wright, a milliner at Shanghai, whom he met on the road between Peking and Tungchow, riding in a cart with a friend, Mrs. Innocent, the wife of a missionary, these two good ladies being on their way to the Legation to stay with the house-keeper, Mrs. Reynolds, since the three had been old friends in Shanghai.\n\nOnly a few years later the Legation was in disrepair. A. B. Freeman-Mitford, who was a member of the Legation staff from 1865 to 1866, described it as it appeared to him in June 1865.\n\nOur Legation is situated in the southern part of the Tartar city. We occupy a most picturesque palace called the Liang Kung Fu, or Palace of the Duke of Liang, which, like all Chinese buildings of importance, covers an immense space of ground. There are courtyards upon courtyards, huge empty buildings with red pillars, used as covered courts, state approaches guarded by two great marble lions, and a number of houses with only ground floor, each of us inhabiting one to himself. When the Legation first came to live here the whole place was put into repair, and redecorated in the Chinese fashion with fluted roofs of many colours, carved woodwork, kylins of stone and pottery, and all the thousand and one fancies with which the Chinese cover their buildings. Unfortunately the repairs were badly executed, and nothing further has been done to keep matters straight, so the Legation, which ought to be as pretty as possible, is really a disgrace to us. The gardens are a wilderness, the paving of the courts is broken, the walls are tumbling down, and the beautiful place is going to rack and ruin. In this climate of extreme heat and cold a stitch in time saves ninety-nine. Fancy a residence in the heart of a great and populous city where foxes, scorpions, polecats, weasels, magpies, and other creatures that one expects to find in the wild country, abound. That will give you an idea of how space is wasted in Peking.\n\n12 A. B. Freeman-Mitford. The Attaché at Peking (London, 1900), 66-7. The author, who later became the first Baron Redesdale, spent the years 1866-70 as a member of the British Legation in Japan.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204606, "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-1963", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "76\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nagainst the rats. One other drawback. They had to carry their revolvers about with them wherever they went because of local hostility and robbers.\n\nAs regards work, Wilkinson was quite frank. He explained that soon after his arrival a student was provided with a Chinese teacher, and provided himself with a copy of Wade's Yü-yen Tzu-erh Chi4, better known under the title 'A Progressive Course of Colloquial Chinese', which was the only orthodox introduction to the study of Mandarin. The Assistant Chinese Secretary directed his studies. \"Working hours are theoretically from 9 to 12, and 1 to 4, but custom has altered these to 10 to 12, and 2 to 4. The four hours thus left will be divided up much in this way: 10 to 10.30 Tone Exercises/10.30 to 11 Reading with Teacher/11 to 11.30 New work/11.30 to 11.45 Writing/11.45 to 12 Character Slips1/the Afternoon Scheme being much the same.\"*19\n\nOnly those who have studied Chinese will appreciate the toil and brain-teasing implied in this simple-looking course of study. As Wilkinson remarks after explaining the 'drill' for acquiring the correct tone in which to pronounce each character: \"It was dreadful work. The poor teacher would get hoarse, and have to imbibe an enormous quantity of tea\". There was an examination in colloquial Chinese at the end of the first year and another, in which written work was generally supposed to hold more weight, at the end of the second year. Besides studying Wade's course they were encouraged to dip into the daily Peking Gazette in which they sometimes found a good murder case to read. As the final examination drew near the students tried various methods of 'cramming', but as Wilkinson explained it was a hardship to undergo a competitive examination held in the middle of the Peking summer with the temperature standing at over 100° in the shade. However, the dreaded examination when it came, was not very formidable. \"Our paper-work was done in our own rooms, or in the Reception Hall of the Minister's residence. Here, right opposite the entrance, is a life-size portrait of the\n\n1 Slips of thin cardboard which usually have a Chinese character on one side and its pronunciation, tone and meaning on the other side. Still sometimes used by foreigners in the early stages of learning Chinese.\n\n19 \"Where Chineses Drive\", op. cit., 65.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204721, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n15\n\nand not knowing what is to happen. At night the police cleared the Square and posted a strong guard.\n\nMarch 25\n\nForeigners employed in all the Factories cooking their own meals and preparing food for each other, some carrying provisions from one Factory to another, and others taking buckets to the river for water.\n\nSome sailors and lascars who happened to be here when the embargo commenced have been distributed amongst some of the residents to assist in cooking.\n\nWe have clubbed together all in our Hong, and make one mess, cooking by turns. We have Mr. Snow our Consul,1 Mr. Forbes2, Green3, Delano, Kings, Low, Spooner, Gilman, Miranda and Dasilva two Portuguese clerks in our office, natives of Macao, and myself, in all eleven.\n\nSome go and milk the cows who have been removed to the yard in front of the Danish [Factory], another cooks, while others wash the plates, knives, forks and so forth. We find it a great bore, while the moment one goes out of the Factory he is watched till he returns.\n\n26th* Mouqua4 tells us the cows shall be looked after today, he had them supplied with grass, and says a shed shall be erected to keep them from the sun.\n\nAt night the Chinese brought into the square all the boats belonging to English foreigners to prevent any escape.\n\nMarch 26, 1839\n\nThis morning a linguist purser10 from Ahtore's establishment brought in a Chinaman to act as cook and left us six loaves of bread which he had secreted in his sleeves.\n\nThe cows, having been compelled to stand in the Square opposite the Danish Hong with a hot sun pouring upon them, are becoming quite desperate. This morning on going there I found a Chinaman who had prepared for them some food and was on the point of giving it to them when the police came and drove him away.\n\n* Hunter wrote 26th at this point although he started another entry for 26th a few lines later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204723, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n17\n\nand Bengal, except the Turkey which belongs to Baring Brothers and Company, London.\n\nAt night the linguists took me on board their boat stationed in the creek opposite the Factories and gave me supper, after which I was returning home to turn in when two of Houqua's13 coolies on guard at the gate contrived to slip inside the gate a small bag containing two boiled capons, a boiled ham, three loaves of bread and some crackers tied up in leaves. I paid them half a dollar. The articles were brought by order of Houqua.\n\n29th\n\nTwo sheep, four pigs, sixteen hams, ten fowls, sixteen geese, and six bags of rice were brought today for distribution amongst the American residents. The linguists say they are from the Commissioner* and deputy Governor* and a mark of Imperial favor for having consented to deliver up the opium.\n\nOur situation is one of great mystery. Although the Chinese say that having promised to deliver up the opium we have risen in the Commissioner's esteem yet today no foreigner is allowed to pass up China Street which we were allowed to do till this morning, and a strong guard has been posted there of about fifty men with pikes, staves, shields and so on.\n\n30th 10 p.m.\n\nHouqua's head man came in just now in a great fright and told me that our cook and coolie, who have been in our Factory since last evening and who contrived to get in over the roof of the rear Factory, must immediately leave as the Commissioner had just issued another edict threatening with death any native who sold a particle of food to, or who served a foreigner in any way inside his Factory.\n\nI communicated this to the cook and coolie who consent to remain till morning.\n\n31 March, Sunday\n\nThis morning at 9 a linguist from Old Tom's establishment brought us a basket of bread and eggs.\n\nEvery night the force stationed to guard the Factories consists of about 500 men drafted from the different Hongs and armed principally with pikes or lances and long heavy staves.\n\nWord illegible.\n\nEach", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204725, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n19\n\nkeep us prisoners in Canton. From the different boats are displayed the various triangular and square flags of different colors of the officers in command. At night the soldiers keep up an incessant blowing of conch shells and beating of gongs while all on guard cry out continually the watch words “K'an-Ch'o” and “Tseaou-Ch'o” which mean \"look sharp\".\"7 The coolies have another word which they cry out at intervals, \"An-Tsou\" which means \"morning\".18\n\nThus is our guard disposed in front. Behind the Factories from one extremity of them to the other, on both sides [of] the street (which runs along the rear) are stationed infantry with matchlocks and cartouch boxes. The Consoo House is turned into quarters for the officers whose horses are picketed in the area inside the building. Our entire guard of all sorts consists of between one thousand and twelve hundred men.\n\nIf it was not for the mysterious and peculiar circumstances under which we are situated we might laugh at the resources the foreigners are driven to, to obtain fresh food, while some are seen carrying bundles of clothes to the end of China Street where they are taken by the linguist who marks them and sends them to be washed and returns them clean in the same manner. Gilman and Spooner contrived yesterday to get into one of the back streets and bought a side of mutton which they brought home on a bamboo.\n\nLast night all the boats remaining in the boat houses were hauled on shore in the middle of the Square. Many received great injury by the rough way in which they were handled. The Chinese have also unshipped the rudders and unbent the sails from four schooners lying in front of the Factories, the Alpha, Sylph, Breeze, Rover.\n\nAt 12 today Houqua's servant came in with two coolies bringing a roasted leg of mutton and some boiled potatoes wrapped up in paper.\n\nWe hear today that a Chinese who was taken yesterday at Ta-Sha-Tow on his way to Macao with a foreign letter found on his person was tortured to death. We can not learn whose letter it was. A Chinese girl who was also on the boat is in prison.\n\nThis being Sunday nothing has been done between the foreign consuls and the Chinese authorities, but while we were at dinner", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204726, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "20 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nthere was a large Chop posted on the wall of the Company's Factory giving a review of the correspondence between the Commissioner and the foreigners up to this time. \n\nAt 5 p.m. the coolies brought us 6 buckets of water and 4 bundles [of] hay for the cows and promised to bring us some spring water tomorrow. \n\nApril 2, Tuesday \n\nNew China Street, Hog Lane and the alley in front of Cox's house have been built up with bricks for the double purpose of preventing the escape of foreigners and to keep all Chinese out of the Square. None but those on duty are permitted to come in front of the Factories. The guards are erecting more mat sheds by the water side. Supplies of bread, fruit, spring water and other things brought to each Factory. \n\nEverything very dull in the day time. The Factories, deserted by the Chinese who used to live in them, are as desolate as possible, and at night dark and dreary. We have, however, quantities of food supplied us by the Consoo. \n\nHired six of the coolies on guard at our Factory gate to wash out the Hong, and paid them 25 cents each. We have a fellow to look after our cows who comes in and goes out at pleasure, the linguists having furnished him with a pass. All the coolies, police and soldiers stationed around the Factories are each supplied with a pass which they are obliged to show on passing in and out of the gate at the end of Old China Street which is the only entrance into the Square, all the other avenues having been bricked up. The pass is a small piece of wood attached to a red string with the characters Yaou-Pae, meaning \"a pass attached to the waist\" where it is fastened. Beneath these characters are others, private marks. \n\nThe washerman came yesterday and brought our clean clothes and took some away to be washed, having no pass a linguist came in with him and remained till he went away. Everything taken from the Factories, I am told, is first carried to the Consoo House, where, with the carriers, all are examined. A precaution taken to prevent any letter or note being carried out of the Hongs which might be sent to the vessels at Whampoa, at Lintin, or Macao.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204735, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n27\n\ncalled Chang Ta-Laou-Yay3, the first word being his name and the three last an appellation of respect. He was from Pekin. has been here three years on service and has served in various parts of the Empire. He was very tall and thin, thick heavy moustache, red nose and altogether a very forbidding aspect. Vain and ignorant he behaved with a deal of hauteur and stiffness, all of which was entirely thrown away so far as I was concerned. but it looked well probably to his servants who crowded into the room where we were sitting. The other Kiang Tsung-Yay was a northerner also, but quite a different man from his friend. He wore an opaque white button, a rank lower than Chang Ta-Laou-Yay, [was] talkative, cheerful, and of an exceedingly good address, no pretensions, though apparently far better informed than the crystal button man.\n\nThey both came on horseback attended by a large quantity of lantern bearers, and servants, sword bearers, pipe carriers etc. etc. It was their night on guard at the Consoo House behind the Factories but were on a social visit to Hwang Ta-Yay, the Custom-House officer, for a few hours.\n\nWe talked about a great many things relative to China, America, England and so on and parted the best of friends.\n\nSunday, 14 April, 1839\n\nIt is twenty-four days since all communication with Whampoa, Macao and the shipping outside was cut off. Three weeks ago over 400 Chinese compradores, servants, coolies, cooks, porters and others were driven from the foreign Factories, and all our intercourse with the natives no matter in what business has entirely ceased since that time. We are allowed to communicate what we want to the linguists39 who are all viz Old Tom, Young Tom, Ahtore, Alanci and Ahi, stationed on board a large boat opposite the Factories and alongside the small Hoppo House from where foreigners go, passing through the Hoppo House to see and make known to them their wants.\n\nIt is quite laughable to sit there a few hours daily as I do to observe the scenes that pass between the Fan Kwais40 and interpreters. They come to them in all and every business. One wants his clothes sent to wash, another his trousers or coat procured from the tailor, in comes another who blows them up sky high41 because he has not had his daily supply of spring water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204737, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n29\n\na communication from them in which they state that orders had been transmitted for the return of the cooks, coolies, and compradores to our service. Johnston also states that at noon of the 12th he had ordered up to Chumpee the following vessels, Jane, Ariel, Lady Grant, Ruparell, Mithras and Mermaid with their cargoes for immediate delivery. He says that the mandarins did not give any trouble from too close investigation.\n\n10 p.m. Our compradore came in to see us at 9 and has just gone away, there appears to be a difficulty in returning to the Factories. Bonds are required by the officers which involve them in great responsibility, and he says many will not grant them and consequently will not return to the service of foreigners.\n\nMonday, 15 April, 1839\n\nThere are about 30 sailors, English, American, Malay, and Bengalee in Canton who happened to be here when the communication with the shipping was cut off and consequently could not get down to their ships. Four belong to H.B.M. Sloop Larne, who came up with Captain Elliot. They afford the Chinese a good deal of sport by their antics in the Square every afternoon. Yesterday afternoon one of them climbed up to the top of the American flagstaff, a height of about one hundred feet, much to the astonishment of our guard. In fact it was quite a feat; he had no assistance except from the cleats nailed at long intervals to the mast.\n\n16th April\n\nTwo of our coolies have been with us for two or three days, and we have transferred to them the duties of setting table, washing dishes and plates, sweeping, making beds and so forth which we have been, in common with all foreigners, obliged to submit to for more than three weeks past.\n\n16th April, 1839*\n\nYoung Tom's purser A Heang came in today and reported that he had received a letter from his partner dated at the Bogue which communicated the fact of a boat with 100 chests of opium and a Chinese officer in charge having disappeared. No one knew where she had gone, it was supposed that during bad weather that had been experienced she had foundered.\n\n* The journal contains two separate entries for 16th April.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204738, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "30 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nA letter came up this morning from Whampoa which reported that two rafts are thrown across the river, about half way between this and Whampoa, and at some distance from each other. \n\nWe are all quiet here but begin to suffer from our long imprisonment, no excitement, dull and monotonous. Guard of coolies and soldiers kept up as usual, and no one permitted to go beyond the Square. Several coolies were returned to the service of the foreigners today and some cooks. The compradores are all very reluctant to come back. Supplies of food, water, grass for the cows, and so on, brought in daily. \n\nAt the Bogue the Chinese are very particular in receiving the opium; it is carefully kept in all the good chests while the loose is done up in bags sealed with the Commissioner's seal and stored in the forts and temples in the neighborhood. Many men are appointed to guard it. \n\nWednesday, 17 April \n\nNothing of interest has occurred today except that letters were received from Johnston which state that 700 chests of opium had been delivered up to the 15th at noon. Wrote to Mr. Sturgis at Macao and forwarded the letter through A-Hin, linguist. \n\nA game of cricket in the Square by a party of sailors which collected all the guard and foreigners around them. \n\nThe tailor came in and took clothes to be mended. The compradore also came for a few minutes in the afternoon and said he intended to return [the] day after tomorrow and that the cooks and coolies were to come back with him to remain, \n\nWeather hot, damp and muggy, at times hot sun and then again heavy rain with much thunder and lightning. Our meals brought to us as usual from Old Tom, the linguist. \n\nSaturday, 20 April, 1839 \n\nWe were much horrified this morning on going out to learn that a few hours before daylight a scene which liked to have proved serious occurred in the Danish Hong. It appears that a quarrel took place about midnight between Mr. Goldsborough and another Englishman and a Prussian named Knock. At two it got to that height that a scuffle took place, and as they are armed as all foreigners have been since the threat on the part of the Chinese to put us to death, Knock drew his pistol and fired at Goldsborough, fortunately he missed him. Mr. G. immediately", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204739, "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": 42, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n31\n\nposted off to Captain Elliot and told him he considered his life in danger and begged protection. Captain E immediately gave a warrant to Mr. Youle, an officer belonging to the Reliance (at Whampoa), and despatched him with four sailors belonging to the Larne, to bring the two who attacked Mr. Goldsborough before him. On reaching the Factory they were refused admittance and threatened to be fired into if they tried to attempt an entrance. Mr. Youle and his men, who were unarmed, went back with this to Captain E who told them not to arm but to go once more and try persuasion. When Mr. Y reached Knock's Factory it appears he supposed Youle and his men were armed and consequently surrendered. On going into the room they found two pair of loaded pistols, a couple of cutlasses, and a loaded musket lying on the table quite ready to be used. They were seized at once and are now lodged prisoners inside Captain E.'s Factory.\n\nWe have farce and tragedy alternately. This morning Captain E received a Chop from the Commissioner which stated that smuggling was going on outside the Bogue and contained much abusive language. The Kwang Chow Foo, Nam Hoy, and Pwan Yu also came out to the Consoo House with another Chop from the Commissioner insisting upon the bonds which we hoped had been forgotten43. The orders for them were addressed to Elliot, Snow, and Van Basil. They all refused to grant them. Elliot was so enraged at this that before Houqua's face he tore the Commissioner's Chop into a thousand pieces and threw it into the fireplace.\n\nTho' matters begin to look gloomy again we had a bit of fun in the Square. The officers who came out to the Consoo House were attended by several on horseback. These alighted at the Consoo House and their horses were led into the Square. The groom of one, having no idea that it would be accepted, offered it jokingly to an Englishman named Glenn for a ride. Glenn immediately jumped on his back and off he went all full gallop around the Square. The Chinese were frightened half to death and utterly incapable of action. The scene was ludicrous in the extreme, the high saddle, immense basket stirrups and Glenn in a white jacket, cap and stick flying from one end of the Square to the other made us quite a good bit of fun.\n\nToday the compradore, cooks and coolies, Mr. Green's, Mr. King's and my own servant came and remained all day.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204744, "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": 47, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "36\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nmorning their rudders which were unshipped and their sails which were unbent and brought on shore six weeks ago were taken off and replaced.\n\nAt 6 p.m. intelligence was received from the Bogue of 16,702 chests of opium having been delivered.\n\nThe coolies dispersed, as they have behaved since placed to guard us, with good order and cheerfulness. They have conducted themselves remarkably well and proper. Hog Lane and the street in front of Cox's are to remain blocked up with bricks which is a good thing. Old and New China Streets are to be opened.\n\nWe are now to wait and see what takes place on the final delivery of the opium.\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nJournal will be continued and forwarded as vessels sail.\n\nCanton 5 May, 1839\n\nSunday night after 11\n\nI forgot to mention that just before the coolies and guard left the Kwang Hup and Nam Hoy came out and set carpenters to work to break up the ... Snipe49 who was taken prisoner by the Government for smuggling.\n\n* Word illegible.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204794, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "PENG CHAU\n\n85\n\nbetween the Tanka fishermen and the land dwellers. The traditional picture is one of the two communities rigidly separated, with the despised fishermen exploited by the land dwellers whenever they came on land at the sheltered anchorages and excluded from a share in the amenities of village life, including the important one of education. It is supposed that the villagers or townsfolk would not let them take essential items like grass and firewood for themselves but insisted on selling everything to them, even charging for the use of the beaches where they beached their boats on the average once a month, and carried out running repairs.39\n\nHow far is this assessment borne out in Peng Chau in the period under review? In the first place, it has been shown that it was not only the Tanka who owned boats and obtained a living from the sea. Apart from the Hoklo fishermen who maintained an uneasy existence between land and sea and are generally considered to be more sea dwellers than landsmen, a number of land people, Hakka and Cantonese alike, owned and operated boats and sampans. Other land people were accustomed to fish from the rocky coast by line or by means of a stake net. The latter represented fishing for profit and was not just a way of supplementing a livelihood gained by other means since the financial outlay for a stake net was considerable. The fishing community was therefore wider than the group of Tanka who chose to base themselves on the island. Though this is not really surprising when the sea was near at hand and could provide a living for all, it led to a blurring of the sharp lines of differentiation commonly imagined to exist between the traditional boat people and the land dwellers.40 This must have assisted participation in religious activities, including the repair of temples, in which task both sea and land people were equally concerned because they all in some measure lived by the sea, if not all of them actually on it.41 Shopkeepers living on an island had as much reason to pray for the gods' blessings on their cargoes and customers as the fishermen for good catches and the safety of their boats and families. In such a small community, too, business connections were probably on a very personal basis and the boat people customers no less well known by the shopmen than their land neighbours.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204817, "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "TOO \n\nV. R. BURKHARDT \n\nNot content with the normal camouflage to baffle their enemies certain butterflies actually mimic other species which, on account of the feeding habits of their larvae are unpalatable to their predators. It has been stated in entomological works that Danaus plexippus, the Milkweeds Butterfly, enjoys this immunity, but so far no one has offered proof. The Howling Bird, Megalaima virens, or Great Chinese barbet, is found in the Colony and occasionally is kept as a cage bird. It feeds on fruit, but prefers grasshoppers and insects if it can get them. A wasp, or hornet penetrating into its cage is certain to be snapped up, and swallowed after the sting has been knocked out on the perch. A specimen of Danaus genutia, allied to the aforementioned D. plexippus, was dropped in at the top of the Barbet's cage, and eagerly seized. The moment the body was crushed, however, it was dropped on the floor and the bird spent quite a time cleaning its beak to remove the taste.\n\nThe female praying mantis cannot be called nice in her feeding habits, as she includes even her husband on the menu, but she will not eat one of the Danaidae family and, if one falls into her claws she will release it unharmed if touched with a stick.\n\nThis immunity from whetting someone's appetite has been capitalised by one of the Nymphalidae, Hypolimnas misippus, a really remarkable insect. The male is black with a large white patch in the centre of each wing, surrounded by brilliant blue. The female does not resemble it in the least, but has taken for her model Danaus chrysippus whose marking and colouring she has closely adopted. The butterfly has a wide distribution, but is nowhere very common except in South Africa where D. chrysippus is also very abundant. The mimic varies in size as does the model, and adopts the same slow, lazy flight in its company where it is almost indistinguishable from the unpalatable species.\n\nOne of the local Papilios, the common P. polytes has two forms of females. The usual one encountered has the same markings as the male, but a dimorphic form is a very good copy of Papilio aristolochiae whose larva feeds on a poisonous creeper. The model here is shunned by birds its scarlet body giving warning of nastiness. Papilio polytes differs in having a grey body but there are carmine splashes bordering the white on the lower wings, which probably render it some, if not all, immunity from attack.\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204853, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n131\n\nartists. It is disturbing indeed to find that two of these previously published elsewhere as \"attributed\" — are promoted here to \"full\" Chinnery status without a word of explanation!\n\n12\n\nHow does one reconcile the title \"The Hong Merchant, Gou Qua\" with the picture showing a man in the costume of a North China scholar?\n\nAnyone familiar with Chinese ship portraits and Chinese port scenes will question the two handsome Chinese Junk oils.13 The clue is the small British and American vessels in the lower corners of the \"War Junk\" — alluring to a prospective nautical purchaser, typical of many ship portraits, but so different in style and subject from other Chinnery marines.\n\nThe time has come to bury forever that misused, euphonic term \"School of Chinnery\". Take port scenes. Mariners and merchants arrived in Canton centuries before Chinnery. Even my two great grandfathers14 had won their battle with the pirates off Macao nearly a generation before Chinnery's arrival. What is more natural than to take home a port scene oil to show one's family. These men were not art experts and Chinese representations were good enough for them. It is possible today to date port scenes definitely prior to Chinnery, proving that Chinnery had no influence on those Chinese artists. It is also possible to date similar port scenes after Chinnery's death that show no style change from the earlier representations. Why not be honest and call them \"China Trade Port Scenes\",15 which they are, instead of \"School of Chinnery\", which they are not? To all other port scenes such as St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope16 “School of Chinnery”, verges on fantasy, particularly so when the text denies the existence of any Chinnery pictures made on his voyage to India.17\n\n12 Plate 42 top.\n\n13 Plate 73.\n\n14 William Sturgis and Daniel C. Bacon. See R. B. Forbes — Personal Reminiscences.\n\n15 It has taken many years to substitute the correct \"China Trade Porcelain\" for \"Oriental Lowestoft\".\n\n16 Plate 55 bottom, Plate 56 top.\n\n17 Page 59.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204922, "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-1965", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NIAH CAVE, 1947 - 1964\n\n23\n\n9. Jeragun a very high cave up a barely accessible cliff, discovered in 1960 (c.600 square feet). Crammed with primary burials of small-bodied adults and urn burials of infants and some women. Very simple material culture, perhaps of a more primitive group (Punans?) integrated economically with the Great Cave people. The deposit has been entirely removed, owing to danger of guano-extraction and difficulty of control at this point. This material is being studied as a unit in Britain, by Dr. Calvin Wells and others.\n\nMATERIAL FINDS\n\nA new building in Kuching, completed in 1958, now houses the bulk of the materials from Niah and related excavations just described. These include stone tools from fully palaeolithic \"hand-chopper\" and flake tools, through to neolithic polished round axes and then to quadrangular adzes — about 5,000 pieces in all. Bone-tools are richly represented and have been recently classified tentatively into seventeen categories by Lord Medway and the writer. A great quantity of food-bone remains are all kept. Where possible, these are sent abroad to zoological specialists and reported upon separately (see below). Animals now extinct in Borneo include tapir, rhinoceros, giant pangolin, and tiger. Food shells abound. Samples are kept for each trench; all others are counted-off as excavated, against a coded species identification list. Shell tools (including fossil oyster) are less common. Skeletons are treated as above; plus several thousand scattered teeth which are being studied on the spot by Dr. Yim Khai Sun and assistants.\n\nIn the upper levels, earthenware pottery (studied on the scene by Dr. W. S. Solheim) in a wide range of types starts in the neolithic and reaches an apotheosis in massive \"three-colour ware\" urns, several of which have been reconstructed and are on museum display. Some of this pottery was made in the caves; one such site has been excavated. Pottery and bone were also used for beads in the neolithic. Glass replaced bone as a bead material a little later and shell and bone jewellery then became scarce in the sub-surface. Several fragments of fine bronzes, carved ivory, and also iron tools came in the topmost levels or in the special burial caves. A few textile fragments\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205023, "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-1965", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "122\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n2. With the high rates of interest on loans and/or the continuing need over several years to have money ready to pay the instalments in a money-loan association, it is not surprising that people got into difficulties and there are good instances of this in the papers. One man borrowed thirty-four silver dollars from the Tong at the end of 1886, and three years and two months later owed eighty-eight dollars, representing principal plus interest. Of this sum ten dollars had already been paid off by selling land to offset the debt. The remainder was extinguished by the debtor waiving his turn for payment in a money-loan association in favour of his creditor. Yet this experience was not a case of 'once bitten, twice shy' for either side, for in the month following the settlement of his affairs with the Tong he asked it for, and secured, another loan of sixteen dollars \"due to dire need of money.\" This loan was made on the mortgage of more of his inherited farmland. We do not know the sequel. Another villager who had failed to pay his share or instalment in a money-loan association mortgaged a house in pledge and was to lose if he had not paid the money by the end of that lunar year.\n\n3. The Tong was not the only source of money loans available to the Shek Pik villagers. Shops in the neighbouring market centres of Tai O and Cheung Chau would advance credit, or give loans as would two other local Tongs. They were not organizations belonging to Shek Pik, one being composed of merchants from Tai O and the other a family organization belonging to a clan in another village.\n\n4. These papers came from only one of the clans living at Shek Pik and there is reason to think that similar activities were taking place in other clans and amongst other groups of persons in the village.\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nA CEREMONY TO PROPITIATE THE GODS AT TONG FUK, LANTAU, 1958\n\nIn the course of opening new roads and other works the developers usually run up against feng shui (geomantic influences). This", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205099, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "50\n\nHERBERT FRANKE\n\nmonks, missionaries and translators of the holy scriptures came from Iranian Central Asia at a time when there was certainly no universal peace in Asia. But was there really something like a Pax Mongolica, even during a very short time? The Mongol rulers of China who had adopted the Chinese dynastic name of Yüan in 1271, regarded themselves, from Khubilai on, more as rulers of China than of a universal empire of which China was only a part. This is reflected, as we shall see, in the Yuan dynastic history which is usually vague and uninformed as soon as a geographical area outside of China proper is mentioned. Although Khubilai was the Great Khan of all Mongols, his rule was always threatened by dissatisfied pretenders who tried to set up their own kingdoms in the Northern and Western regions, and there are recorded, in Chinese historical sources at least, as many feuds, campaigns and full-scale wars with other Mongol rulers and pretenders as good-will embassies from the other Mongol ulus (dominions); those of Chagatai in Central Asia, the Ilkhans in Persia and the Golden Horde rulers of Southwestern Siberia and South Russia. The situation, at least in the fourteenth century, among the non-Chinese ulus was not much different. The Golden Horde rulers and the Persian Ilkhans were, to say the least, not friendly to each other and war was frequent. In short, it seems as if the Pax Mongolica is no more than one of those brilliant simplifications that can serve as chapter titles for world history books. There remains some doubt whether it was easier to get from, say, Venice or the Black Sea region or Persia to China under the Mongols than some centuries earlier.\n\nHowever that may be, there can be no doubt that there was a certain amount of cultural contact between China and the non-Chinese West under the rule of the Mongol emperors. But the fact remains that there was no Chinese Marco Polo, no Chinese Rubruk or Giovanni da Montecorvino. China, it seems, was not very much interested in learning more about the countries of the West; we have in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries no Chinese pilgrims like I-ching and Hsüan-tsang who had travelled to India in search of the Buddhist religion. There was no appeal and no challenge to learn more about the West. This relative indifference towards the civilization outside one's own geographical habitat and cultural background is to be seen in The Secret History of the Mongols, This fascinating book, the oldest", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205102, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "SINO-WESTERN CONTACTS\n\n53\n\nbeyond China's borders. A Sino-Korean world map going back to the fourteenth century has been discovered where not only Asia but also Europe and Africa are shown, the latter continent even in a triangular shape that is comparatively close to geographical reality. Not less than 100 place names are given for Europe and about 35 for Africa. It must be hoped that the Western parts of this world map will be studied in the near future because this will furnish valuable evidence for the incorporation of Arabic and Persian geographical knowledge into Chinese geography. But it does not seem that this knowledge, restricted as it certainly was to a few geographers, was ever assimilated with the Chinese world conception which continued, in spite of this geographical information, on entirely traditional lines. The idea of China as the Middle Kingdom and center of the world was not really challenged, and not much curiosity on what lay beyond China was aroused among the Chinese intellectuals. What Chinese texts of the Yuan period have to say on countries beyond the sea is usually a poor extract from an earlier work of Sung date (ca. 1225), the Chu-fan chih \"Description of Barbarians\" by Chao Ju-kua. The foreign domination of China by the Mongols did not stimulate interest in foreign countries but rather encouraged a latent tendency of xenophobia.\n\nThere is another passage in a Chinese text which should be mentioned briefly because it concerns the first Europeans who came to China in the Middle Ages. This was some years before the Polos reached China, which was in 1265 or 1266 if we are to believe that they ever were in China at all, a question which is not yet settled. It has been suggested that in Polo's description of China there are some unsupported boasts about his having been governor in Yang-chou and his taking part in the siege of Hsiang-yang as artillery engineer. It is true that the Chinese sources mention foreign engineers who built stone catapults for attacking the city, but their names are Arab and they came from Baghdad. No Po-lo mentioned in the Yuan-shih or other sources can be identified with the Italian Polos; all the Po-lo's of the sources have had a good Altaic name, Bolod (“steel”), because they were of Mongol or Turkish extraction. And there are also a few glaring blanks in Polo's otherwise very detailed account. He never mentions tea, but this may be because he did not like tea or the Mongols in China never offered him any. He never mentions the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205140, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n91\n\nAustrian, the women outnumbering men by about two to one. After he had given them a few months' training at his small temple in Shanghai, he looked about for a monastery that would ordain them. Arrangements were finally made at Ch'i-hsia Shan near Nanking, which agreed to hold a special ordination for their benefit in the autumn of 1933. About 140 Chinese were ordained at the same time. The ceremony lasted over forty days. It was not an \"easy\" ordination, such as those given to foreigners in Taiwan during the 1960's. Aided by an interpreter, Chao-k'ung's disciples went through most of the same training exercises as their fellow ordinees. The retired abbot of Chin Shan, Ch'ing-ch'üan, came to preside. Members of the diplomatic corps attended. \"Tens of thousands\" of lay visitors watched the rites, and many newspapers in Nanking and Shanghai published accounts of it.\n\nDespite this auspicious beginning Chao-k'ung never seemed to be able to shake off misfortune. Two of his disciples committed suicide, one died, others he expelled. Although three of them eventually returned to Europe and worked intermittently as Buddhist missionaries, they did not bring back more Europeans to be ordained, as many Chinese monks had hoped. Nonetheless the latter still speak of Chao-k'ung with affection and pride. For all his checkered career (of which they are largely ignorant) it was he who at the end of a century of Christian privilege had enabled them to turn the tables on the missionaries.\n\nRelations with Chinese Overseas\n\nThe overseas Chinese tended to be more conservative than their cousins at home. They did not face the task of modernizing China. The anti-religious movements that swept the mainland during the 1920's found few echoes in Singapore and Penang. Also, their roots lay not in the official classes, which had a commitment to Confucianism, but among the poor and uneducated. For both reasons they were more religiously inclined. In fact, except for food, clothing, and shelter, they spent more of their income on religion than on anything else.47 This was not only because of their religious inclinations, but also because of their cultural pride, which was all the stronger for residence in an alien environment. As some overseas Chinese families prospered,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205141, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "92\n\nHOLMES WELCH\n\ngeneration by generation, they became lavish patrons of Buddhism, both where they lived and when they returned home. Monks from China therefore made fund-raising tours of the overseas Chinese communities, while monasteries in certain parts of China received much of their income from overseas Chinese pilgrims.\n\nMonks traveled not only to raise funds, but to spread the dharma and to visit the holy places of Buddhism. One of the most inveterate travelers of the past century was Hsü-yün. In 1889 he visited the holy places of Tibet, India, Ceylon, and Burma.48 In 1905 he went to spread the dharma in Burma, Malaya, and Taiwan. In Malaya alone 10,000 persons became his disciples after hearing him preach.49 Here and elsewhere, almost all of his audience was overseas Chinese, since he spoke no foreign language—this was not the beginning of a dialogue with the Theravadins. On a tour in 1907, however, he won a foreign disciple no less a person than the King of Siam! Interested to hear that Hsü-yün had been in trance for nine days, the King came to see him, invited him to the royal palace, took the Refuges with him, and gave him a large tract of land, which Hsü-yün allocated to the use of the Chi-le Ssu in Penang.50\n\nSometimes he did not get so royal a welcome. In 1916 he was on his way back from Rangoon, where he had gone to get a Buddha image (another common motive for trips abroad51). When he reached Singapore, he was taken off the boat on the suspicion of being a revolutionary. Along with five other monks, he was hustled to the police station, cross-questioned, bound, beaten with fists, put out in the hot sun, and not allowed to move. \"If we moved, we were beaten. They gave us nothing to eat or drink and would not allow us to go to the latrine. This went on from six in the morning to eight at night.\" Finally, some of his disciples heard of his plight and got him released on bail. The reason for this treatment was said to have been a desire on the part of the Singapore police to please their \"good friend\" Yüan Shih-k'ai.52\n\nHsü-yün was not the only monk who went on pilgrimages and lecture tours overseas. In 1902-1906 Yüeh-hsia visited Japan, Southeast Asia, India, and Europe (sic).53 Before 1924 Wan-hui had studied in India and Ceylon.54 Overseas travel became commoner as ships and trains made it more convenient, as Chinese abroad became increasingly able to finance it, and as certain...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205146, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BUDDHISM\n\n97\n\n38 I have heard this from many informants. See also Reichelt, The Transformed Abbot, London, 1954, p. 156, and J. B. Pratt The Pilgrimage of Buddhism, New York, 1928, p. 311. A Buddhist monk once explained to me that although it was true that Jesus had risen after three days, no one should think he had done this \"just by becoming a Christian\". He had performed religious exercises (hsiu-hsing) and that was how he had achieved resurrection. There was no attempt on the part of this monk to deny the miracle of resurrection, only to fit it into the Buddhist scheme.\n\n39 Rev. Joseph Edkins, The Religious Condition of China, London, 1859, p. 75. In 1875 Timothy Richard, when he was baptising converts in Shantung, found that there was no building convenient to the river where they could change their clothes before and after. He explained his problem to the monk in charge of the Buddhist temple there who \"readily consented\" to lend some of its rooms for this purpose. See Richard, Forty-five Years in China, New York, 1916, p. 95. In 1879 the largest lama temple in Peking allowed a colporteur of the National Bible Society of Scotland to run a bookstore within the temple, where on several days a week Christian books were sold. See C. F. Gordon Cumming, Wanderings in China, London, 1888, pp. 4-9.\n\n40 Harry A. Franck, Roving Through Southern China, New York, 1925, pp. 575-576.\n\n41 In the early 1890's De Groot reported: \"It has often happened to the author of these lines that when he was taking his meal in one of the monasteries where he was staying, he was visited by monks who were curious to see how he ate and what he ate: but it was enough for them to smell the odour of his roast of pork or his leg of mutton and they would be forced to make a hasty exit from the room: they felt overcome by nausea. Such strict vegetarianism, it goes without saying that when non-vegetarian lay people came to stay sometimes in a monastery they are not allowed to have their food prepared in the monks' kitchen. There are small separate kitchens for them, where their own servants can stew things up for them.\" (Le Code du Mahayana en Chine, Amsterdam, 1893, p. 103). In 1908, when Boerschmann stayed on P'u-to Shan, he grew tired of the vegetarian fare and sent his cook to smuggle in some chickens (Pu-t'o Shan, Berlin, 1911, p. 166). In these and other instances the monks are portrayed as tacitly or even gleefully cooperating in getting meat onto the foreigner's bill of fare. It seems more likely that their cooperation, when it was forthcoming (and often it was refused), was reluctant and indignant. There was a compelling practical reason for this. If Chinese pilgrims saw meat being eaten on the premises of a monastery, many of them would take their patronage elsewhere. This was understood by early Western travellers like A. J. Little (Mount Omi and Beyond, London, 1901, pp. 75, 81, and 83). Little also provides an example of the Westerner's tendency to haggle (pp. 68, 83). The meanest bit of haggling was probably perpetrated by Mrs. C. F. Gordon Cumming. In 1879 she visited the Tien-t'ung Ssu, one of the model monasteries of China. After she and her party had enjoyed an \"excellent dinner,\" they were asked to give the equivalent of English tenpence, Mrs. Cumming offered eight pence. When the offer was accepted, she tipped the waiter tuppence halfpenny, and noted that he \"grinned with delight. Can I give you a better proof that we have reached a spot where foreigners are almost unknown?\" (Wanderings in China, London, 1888, p. 291). Mrs. Cumming was quite mistaken, of course, about foreigners being unknown: probably more had stayed at T'ien-t'ung than at any other monastery.\n\nEven today Westerners with plenty of dollars in their pocket take pride in doing the poor Chinese shopkeeper out of a few cents, partly to show their savoir faire and partly out of fear of being cheated themselves. But the monastery was not a shop, and this sort of behaviour was regarded as most inappropriate there.\n\n42 W. E. Soothill, Timothy Richard of China (London, 1924), pp. 162-163.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205151, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "102\n\nA. L. Y. CHUNG\n\nFurther research inside the Academy\n\nOne of the functions of the Academy was to give a group of high intellectuals a further chance to conduct research in the most favourable literary surroundings of the empire, where they were helped by good libraries, sufficient subsidies and experienced advisers. The establishment of the Shu-ch'ang kuan as a sub-department of the Academy had this object in view.\n\nThe lecturers in charge of the Shu-ch'ang kuan were all men of high rank. In the early years of the dynasty, they came exclusively from chancellors of the Three Inner Courts (Nei-san yüan). From 1670 onwards, the chancellors of the Hanlin Academy and senior officials of the Grand Secretariat joined the teaching staff and from 1722 onwards, presidents and vice-presidents of the Six Boards were sometimes called to serve as lecturers.3\n\nAs time went on, the need for more lecturers was felt, as their number was at no time more than four. Besides, the lecturers, mostly high dignitaries of the Empire, were occupied with their various government functions and were therefore unable to pay full attention to the teaching in the Shu-ch'ang kuan. In 1694 a number of assistant lecturers were appointed from junior members of the Hanlin hierarchy and from among the better students themselves. These assistant lecturers had more free time and were thus in a better position to help the students. They gave tests to the students twice a month.4\n\nThe students of the research institute, titled Probationers, were recruited from among the top scholars of the Civil Service Examination who, in addition, had to pass an Imperial interview before being admitted into the Shu-ch'ang kuan.\n\nOnce becoming probationers, the scholars were treated as a favoured group. They were not given any definite or permanent work to do. This means that they were free to study and observe government procedure and official behaviour at the capital. The government supplied them with books and stationery for their literary pursuits, while providing them with monthly subsidies to enable them to study without financial worry.\n\nIn the early years, all probationers were given lessons on the study of the Manchu language as well as the Chinese Classics.?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205173, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "124\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nquite frequent. Other families are said to have spoken Hoklo at home as well as Hakka which presupposes previous settlement in Hoklo areas and some intermarriage with Hoklo people. Ho Man Tin village also had settlers who were described to me as 'Wai Chow Punti'*, that is Puntis who, living in what had become the predominantly Hakka area of Wai Chow, had been accepted by the Hakkas as their own people (§ CA). In short there was quite an intermixture of dialect groups in these Kowloon villages. This bears out what the missionary James Johnston writes of the Swatow area of Kwangtung in his China and Formosa (1897):18\n\n44\n\nWhilst these three divisions (Punti, Hakka, Hoklo) of the population are distinctly marked, and kept up from generation to generation, there are frequent intermarriages between them and intermixture of the people in their different localities\".\n\nThough settling down in the same villages these Hakka settlers did not all come from the same areas. Some of them came to Kowloon from inland districts of the East River, others from Hoklo-speaking districts further up the coast. Thus Hakkas of different geographical origin settled down together in the Kowloon villages; and not all at the same time, but by degrees. Mong Kok was already an established village by 1862: the available evidence points to an 18th century or early 19th century origin. Ho Man Tin, on the other hand, was not mentioned as a village in the Commissioners' Report in 1862, although family backgrounds indicate that it was probably already a hamlet by then.19\n\nHakkas have always had a reputation for industry, and perseverance.20 These settlers would have needed those qualities to settle in the Kowloon peninsula, where the majority of good agricultural land had already been taken up by the time most of them came to the Hong Kong region and only areas fit for marginal farming were left for them to develop. In consequence, only a few of the families in these two villages owned rice fields and most of them had to be content with vegetable land in the less well-watered upper slopes of the many small valleys which threaded the peninsula. Farming land was scarce. When the father of one of my informants lost his own vegetable land as the result of a confidence trick he had to cease farming and turned", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205179, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "JAMES HAYES \n\ntype based on the Tai Shek Kwu temple, the kaifongs usually deliberated in a temple.\n\nThe Yau Ma Ti Kaifong was closely linked with the Tin Hau Temple. This temple was apparently removed from another site in 1876-7743 and it is almost certain that the Kaifong took the lead in its removal and reconstruction. They also took the opportunity to construct a school building to one side of the temple about the same time. These building projects were considerable undertakings and as such were highly creditable to the Kaifong members. Some years later (1888) the Kaifong presented the temple with a large cast iron bell which bears their name. Finally in 1894, the growing wealth of the Yau Ma Ti community enabled the Kaifong to build a separate community office or kung sor (2) on the other side of the temple building. The commemorative tablet recording this event comments:\n\n\"Yau Ma Ti district has undergone many changes and it can hardly be said that it still remains as it used to be.\n\nConsequently there was a need for larger premises in which to handle the affairs of a growing population. As the organisers put it:\n\n\"Persons who desire that right and wrong can be clearly discerned must help to set up a community office\".\n\nThe tablet concludes:\n\nThe organisers and donors confidently expect to see the new office uphold justice and righteousness\".\n\nThis temple, school and community office still exist today. They stand on Public Square Street, Kowloon, in substantially the same form as when they were erected in the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the leaders of the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong, to whose enterprise and community spirit they are a fitting memorial.\n\nFortunately we have a good example who spans the two localities considered in this article, the one a group of villages and the other a township. This man, WONG Lan-sang (£), 1878-1935, came from one of the villages. His father was a small farmer whose ancestors had come previously to Mong Kok village from the Wai Yeung region of Kwang Tung. The son is a good\n\nPage 130\n\n44\n\n+1\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205212, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "162 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nwith a Mexican name, was also brought to the Old World by the Spaniards. All of these plants crossed the Atlantic in Spanish bottoms and were then carried round the coasts of Africa and Asia to South China by the Portuguese. In the same way the sugar-cane, the banana and the yam were established in Brazil by the Portuguese and the cassava was introduced into West Africa where it has become the source of one of the staple foods of several countries.\n\nThe sweet potato, of course, presents special problems since there is reason to believe that it may have reached Polynesia in early times as an importation from the Americas. Nevertheless, it is not a native of the vast expanse of islands dotting the Pacific and it is much less likely that it came to China by that route than from the West,\n\nThe \"kind of melon\" of which the author speaks is known today in the Macanese dialect of the Hong Kong Portuguese as bobra Guiné (Guinea pumpkin). This word appears in Chinese characters (romanised as mó-pá-lá kin-ní by Mr. Luis Gomes in his Portuguese translation) in the Ao Men Chi Lüeh,? published towards the middle of the eighteenth century. The Chinese gloss has faan-kwa. It is likely then that this plant was introduced into China from West Africa or Guinea, to use the old name, and that the prefix faan cannot link this plant in any way with the Pacific area.\n\nThe rambutan (nephelium lappaceum), related to the lychee, is a Malayan tree and has a Malay name derived from rambut (hair), because of the hairy coat with which it is covered. This coat is of a reddish hue which no doubt explains the first element of its Malayan Cantonese name hung-mo-tán. The other elements are obviously phonetic renderings of the Malay word. This tree and its fruit were probably introduced to China by the Portuguese.\n\nAs a last comment on the element faan, are the faan-kwai not more often Westerners than people from the Pacific?\n\nOn the peanut, which, as Mr. Barnett says, bears no indication of foreign origin in its name, it appears to me that this plant may have been introduced to South-East Asia by the Portuguese. The botanists seem to agree that it is a native of Brazil and the Spanish chroniclers of the Indies describe it as a food-crop in Hispaniola", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205300, "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": 62, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY\n\n55\n\non New Year and the grave festivals. This kin group, spanning over several localized major lineages might be called a 'composite lineage',13 a 'maximal lineage', or more conveniently 'clan'.\n\nMaurice Freedman, in his analytical description of kinship structure and organization in the south-eastern provinces of China, recognizes latent possibilities of wider spans of kin bonds:\n\nPast connections which were traced between lineages through fission might be made the basis for some sort of clan grouping, but there was no regular framework for the expansion of a segmentary system beyond the limits of a local group.14\n\nThe\n\nFreedman's supposition comes true in the actual case. Lau clan could hardly be described in terms of organization or function; but still there is a clear concept of the Lau people as contrasted with other groups bearing the same or other surnames. This Hakka clan is then a loose 'we-group'; rather a concept than an organization. Common ancestor worship is the social ceremonialism expressing this unit, based on sentiment of common descent.15\n\nVisits to the village of origin should have a symbolic aspect, comparable to the visits to the graves at the Ch'ing Ming and Chung Yang festivals in spring and autumn.16 The fact that ceremonial bonds connect localized lineages requires an analytical recognition of the clan. I prefer the term 'clan' to 'maximal lineage'. The Hakka concept of clan tsung-tsu (M) -- is one of an everlasting unit with a fixed foundation antedating what could clearly be remembered, while segmentary lineages tend to depend on historical processes of settlement. The latter emerge on a scale of generations provided by the clan.\n\nThere is good reason to focus particular interest on the process of segmentation. Freedman has traced\n\nthe intimate connection between the endowment of ancestral halls and lineage segmentation: a new segment came into being when property was set aside to finance a hall for it. ...lineage segmentation in this fashion was an aspect also of differentiation, in the sense that any section of a segment which wished to mark a new identity for itself on the basis of its superior status vis-à-vis other sections could turn itself into a sub-segment by establishing a hall,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205314, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY\n\n69\n\nVillage. These two men were strikingly well-dressed and were seen walking the mountain paths in dark blue suits, white shirts, and neckties, protecting themselves from the sun with umbrellas. They did not spend much time in the village, but preferred the teahouse conversation in Sha Tin Market. Their main business at home seemed to be to supervise the rebuilding of their houses then in progress. Their appearance and behaviour evidently was a way to show off their status as noveaux riches and cosmopolites in this remote valley.\n\nIt is somewhat difficult to appreciate the economic situation of the men who are working in Britain. It is also difficult to obtain information as to the amount of money remitted back to the villages.37 Some restaurants are doing well. Others have less good business. I was told that the general salary for a Chinese restaurant worker in Britain was £9-10 a week.38 But certainly there are many variations. One low figure was supplied by a woman whose husband should earn ‘over' £10 a month which implies at least £13. However, one must be cautious in listing such figures; this woman was complaining that her husband only remitted a small amount of money once every three or four months, and clearly, she had little idea as to his real wages. The general idea is that money should be sent home every month.\n\nDisturbances in this rhythm seem mainly to stem from the fact that there is a good deal of gambling among New Territories Chinese residing in Britain. This was often openly admitted by the valley people, with a certain amount of bitterness from the older generation and as a matter-of-fact statement by the younger ones. Otherwise, restaurant workers seem to live a very frugal life in order to save money. The main investments of the savings seem to be in house construction in the home village and in flights home once every three or four years. For this purpose, there are special arrangements, and the cost of one single flight ranges between £75-120.39\n\nVIII\n\nI have earlier pointed out that in the process of extension, agricultural production came increasingly into the hands of the village women. Traditionally, women had been accustomed to working in the fields, and they were well prepared for the take-over resulting from increasing male absenteeism. However, emi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205325, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "80\n\nTHE CHINA COASTERS\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nJames Matheson sent his San Sebastian from Canton to ports in Fukien Province in 1820, to open up new markets for opium, and this is generally considered the pioneer voyage in the China coast trade. Although Matheson was Danish Consul at Canton at this time, and the San Sebastian sailed under Spanish colours, it is correct to describe this voyage as a British venture. The men who sailed the opium clippers, therefore, were the first 'China coasters', and since that time 'China coasters' have considered themselves a breed apart, distinct from the rest of the British Merchant Navy. The tradition of more liberal manning, of better pay, food, and conditions in general, pioneered by the opium clippers has continued to the present day.\n\nMany of the customs and practices of the lordly East Indiamen and of the Indian 'country ships' were inherited by the humbler 'China coasters'. The East Indiaman's captain could, and was expected to, make a fortune from carrying passengers and private cargo, in addition to the company's, and in self defence the latter stipulated a definite scale of perquisites for each member of the crew, from captain down to bosun and carpenter. Generous as this was, it was invariably exceeded. There was a much greater variety of 'pidgin' (=business) on the China coast, although it did not comprise such a high proportion of the China coaster's total earnings. As on the East India Company's ships, dabbling in certain types of 'pidgin' was considered legitimate and carried no moral stigma.\n\nThe most common and profitable pidgin came from deck passengers. It was on the emigrant runs to the Straits and Bangkok that this type of 'pidgin' was most prolific. I was introduced to this on my first ship on the coast, the Antung. The Antung was\n\nThe author served as an Engineer Officer with the China Navigation Company from 1928 until 1938, and was on the Yangtse in 1930 in the Shengking and again in 1934 in the Wuhu. He was captured by pirates in the Newchang river in Manchuria in 1933 and held prisoner for five and a half months. Two of his articles have been published previously in the Journal. \"European Navigation on the Yangtse\" in Vol. 3, 1963, and \"Piracy on the China Coast\" in Vol. 5, 1965.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205344, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "LAND AND LEADERSHIP IN THE H.K. REGION OF KWANGTUNG 99\n\nfinality, that he managed all the important affairs of the group of villages over which he exercised a personal influence; and I have already mentioned the impressive bearing of Kung Fong-chai's nephew. Yet there is a paradox. Despite the drive and ability which removed them from ordinary villagers by many degrees, these three persons were otherwise very close to them. They came from the same farming stock, had many kinsfolk among them, and had been brought up and educated together with them in the same place. They all had village wives who had been chosen for them by their parents in their early manhood in accordance with custom: and though, like most rich men in old China, they may have taken concubines later on they do not seem to have gone outside the island for them. Moreover they lived in ordinary village houses which were scarcely different in size or outward appearance from those of other villagers. Perhaps because of these ties they appear to have made good landlords, whether through fear of family and local opinion or because they were so close to a farming life and stemmed directly from farming stock.\n\nMy fourth point concerns land as a decisive factor in local leadership. Land played a major part in the emergence of these three men. One factor common to all three is that it appears to have been essential to build up an estate in order, through receipt of rents, to obtain the funds needed to become a substantial money-lender*. Once the capital sufficient to embark on this course was acquired it seems to have been comparatively easy to profit by the desires, needs or misfortunes of others. Many mortgages led to eventual ownership by the money lender, who could also purchase land with the proceeds received from his interest loans. Yet these men were not large landowners and their holdings were very small by comparison with the total areas of cultivated land in the various localities. At Shek Pik, for instance, the Kung family owned only eight acres out of a total of 180.17 What was important, then, was not so much the size of the estate as the fact that the average villager's holding was much less. Once possessed of land and capital one was in a position to act as a man of affairs when setting out, or being called upon, to become one.\n\n* Rents were usually paid in kind locally but could thereafter be converted into cash.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205365, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "120\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nabout. By this hospitality to the dead they hope to avert the evils which the spirits of unburied corpses are believed to occasion. There is also a home for aged men, one or two hamlets for lepers, and a cluster of houses for the blind. In the \"Samon-che\" district record, it is laid down that 200 persons shall be admitted and provided for in these several institutions; and the amount of funds to be expended, and the fields and houses from which the charitable revenues are to be derived, are minutely detailed. But it is well known that the poor and destitute derive little or no benefit from these sources, except the shelter against the wind and rain afforded them by the dilapidated tenements which are provided for them, and in which they may, without annoyance or maltreatment, consume the food which they have been able to procure by begging throughout the day.\n\nLepers are not allowed to enter any village; when they arrive in its neighbourhood they have to stand on a hill, or some other conspicuous place, and call to the villagers, who thereupon come out and supply them with rice, tea, or whatever they may desire. But it sometimes happens that the villagers are rather deaf to the cry of the lepers, and then these unfortunates, who are very revengeful and consequently much feared, enter the village, defile the wells and water tanks, and use every means in their power to communicate the disease to their uncharitable countrymen.\n\nThe blind have a separate establishment allotted to them by the people of Sai-heong. During the day they go about begging, and in their refuge they have no one to care for them, except some homeless strangers with whom they share their daily alms. If one of them happens to die, the others go about collecting money for a coffin, and the necessary expenses of the interment. Whilst I was living at Sai-heong, one of these blind beggars came to me to beg my contribution towards the purchase of a coffin for one of his comrades who had died; the coffins being cheap, I gave him 200 cash. The next day another blind man came to me, and told me that his companion had also died, and requested my assistance; I gave him a similar donation, and the rest of them having learnt this, a third one came two days after the last, and even a fourth made his appearance. Being advised by the people of Sai-heong that the only way to put a stop to this deplorable mortality among the poor blind, was to refuse any pecuniary aid for their interment, I ceased giving this alms, and the deaths immediately ceased also.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205394, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "SALT MANUFACTURE IN HONG KONG\n\n149\n\nencouraged seeing the important connection it has with the food supply of the Chinese, one of whose staple articles of food is salt fish.\n\nThe Salt Workers at Tai O after 1899\n\nLin states that the solar process of salt production was only introduced at Tai O when natives of Swabue, Haifong, north-east Kwangtung, were first engaged by the salt companies. Enquiries at Tai O indicate that this was apparently about a decade after the British took over the New Territories, since a retired foreman has told me that he came here when he was 18 years old to join his father. This was about 1910. His father had come to Tai O only two or three years previously from Po Mei Heung (*) about three hours walk from Swabue (). Father and son in turn were foreman at one of the salt-fields, and I am informed that all foremen in the Tai O pans since that time have been from that place. My informant was illiterate and it is very likely his father was too.\n\nThe father had been a salt worker all his life and his father before him. In fact, the whole village of Po Mei was apparently engaged in salt-production and must have been so employed for generations. This explains why one of the Tai O salt manufacturers thought of employing people from that area. They must have gradually displaced local workers using the leaching process of salt production since in 1940, when Lin wrote his article, it appears (from the estimate given in the first paragraph of his) that the major part of the salt-pans were used to produce salt by the solar or Swabue method. These \"outside\" workers usually went back to Swabue, at will or when they became too old to work. Even in 1962, when I collected information for these notes, there were only 8 or 9 retired salt workers living in Tai O.\n\nWomen came from Swabue to work as well as men. In 1962 I spoke to a woman, married to a salt worker, who had been in Tai O for 20-30 years; and to a young man of Swabue parentage, also a salt-worker, who had been born in Tai O, whilst his parents were working there. In 1962 a few families were still working some of the pans for themselves. Each consisted of a man, one or two women and a few children. In two of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205395, "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": 157, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "150\n\nLIN SHU-YEN\n\nfamilies the men and women were in their fifties. In the third, the son, who is about thirty, did most of the work.\n\nThe leaching process, Lin tells us, was carried out mainly by natives of Lantau Island and was the only method inherited from their remote ancestors. In 1962 I was able to speak to an old lady who came in 1898 at the age of 16 to the village of Leung Uk, at the south-west edge of the salt pans, to be married to one of the villagers. She told me that men and women from the locality worked in the fields, some of them from Leung Uk. Not many people worked in the fields at that time, and they were operated by an outsider. The workers were paid on a piece work basis depending on their output, but it was customary for the company to advance money for daily food and deduct the sum from the final wage.\n\nFor how long the local village people, as opposed to outsiders, carried out the work on the salt-pans is not known. The Leung Uk settlement, since it is named after the Leung family, it is reasonable to suppose that they were the first inhabitants of the present settlement, was apparently settled about 1800. This estimate is based on calculations from a genealogy which also states that the first ancestor came to Tai O from a village near Shum Chun Market to the north of the present Sino-British frontier. These people are Hakkas. The other villages in the Tai O basin, adjacent to the market town, are the similar small settlements of Nam Chung, San Tsuen, and Wang Hang, and it is unlikely that they are earlier than Leung Uk. At the 1911 Colony census, the population of these three small villages was recorded at 50, 42, and 90 respectively, whilst the population of Leung Uk was 104 persons. There were other, larger villages a little further afield, and some of their inhabitants may also have worked at the pans.\n\nSince writing the above, I have chanced upon a note in The Hong Kong Naturalist, also in Vol X (1940), by Father R. Maglioni, the noted archaeologist, in which he offers some comments upon Lin's article and an earlier one by Dr. C. M. Heanley on some of the problems connected with local, i.e., Hong Kong archaeology. He writes:\n\n\"About the furnaces described by Dr. Heanley in The Hong Kong Naturalist (Vol. VI, Nos. 3-4), I must confess that I am not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205399, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n1626 the Manchus were stopped in their tracks at Ning-yüan by the foreign artillery. But this setback was not to last very long. They saw the usefulness of these weapons and set about casting some themselves. These proved effective in the conquest of the northern frontier (1643-44) and in the years to follow as their armies plunged on down across both the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers to Kwangtung and Kweichow.\n\nColumbia University\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nNOTES\n\n1 In this I have consulted Mr. C. N. Tay of the American Museum of Numismatics, New York City.\n\n2 The inscription on the cannon is given below. This cannon was found lying on open ground in the Tsiu Keng sub-district in the northern part of the New Territories. It was reported by Mr. R. E. dos Remedios, Senior Land Assistant in the District Office, Taipo in August 1966. The cannon was completely exposed and must have been in this condition for a long time. It is not clear how it came to be there.\n\n* This cannon, which was mentioned in passing in the note on the Tung Chung Fort, at p. 148 of Vol. 4 of the Journal (1964), was dredged from the sea in 1956, either from Kowloon Bay in the course of work on the extension to Hong Kong airport or from Fat Tong Mun (otherwise called Joss House Bay) in the approaches to Hong Kong Harbour—sources differ. It is now mounted with a plaque in Chinese and English outside the Central Government Offices (East Wing), Hong Kong. It was heavier than the one recently discovered; 300 catties as compared with 300 catties. The Chinese inscription, which is much the same, is also given below.\n\n4 An insight into the happenings of these troubled times is preserved in the family record of the Tsui (徐) clan formerly of Shek Pik on Lantau island, to which their ancestor had removed in the 16th Century. The family came from Mong Ngau Tun (望牛墩) in Tung Kwun district (東莞) where they had settled in the Sung dynasty from Kiangsi province. There was fighting in Tung Kwun against the Manchus after their success in the North. The record which gives no precise date for this occurrence, though it must have been within a few years of the change of dynasty in 1644 — reads\n\n—\n\nSau Yeung-kap, a civil officer, and Li Shing-tung, a general, instigated an uprising against the new dynasty in Tung Kwun. As the revolt gathered momentum, oxen and horses were killed for food, and rice and corn became as expensive as pearls. For miles, one could see nothing animate; the fields were covered with dead bodies. In some places, human flesh was eaten by the starving people, and piles of human bones filled the ruined houses.\n\nA detachment of the Manchu army was sent to besiege the district city, then occupied by the rebels. In the conflict that ensued, human beings were massacred as though they were ants, and law-abiding people and bad characters alike were destroyed.\n\nFortunately, our clansmen, then living at Mong Ngau Tun, escaped this calamity. However, many of our former neighbours and fellow-natives in Ming Ka Lane lost their lives and [as the record says in another place] all the dispensations of the previous dynasty were regarded as scrap paper.\n\n(I am grateful to Mr. Gilbert Louie for this translation. Ed) Readers will note that Li Shing-tung (Li Ch'eng-tung) is mentioned in Prof. LO Hsiang-lin's Additional Note where he is described as Governor of Kwangtung.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205407, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "162\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nApart from being an old landmark, the main interest of the present stone is that it bears the characters Kwan Tai Lo (# #). Sayer discusses (pages 90-92) the various meanings which have been attributed to this phrase at one time or another. Among them are suggestions that the name Kwan Tai Lo was the original Chinese name for Hong Kong Island (a small fishing village of this name was listed in the first Hong Kong Government Gazette of 15th May 1841; it was located at East Point near the present Daimaru Department Store); that the name was associated with the famous Admiral Kwan who fought the British in 1841; that the character 'Kwan' was an alliteration for the English word 'Queen'; and finally that the name is descriptive for a road which, like a petticoat girdle, encircles the island. As he says, the name \"has evoked endless speculation\". Another suggestion is that it was the personal name of a girl from the boat people who led the British round the island.\n\nII. LITTLE HONG KONG (**)\n\nThe Setting. With the exercise of a little imagination Little Hong Kong is still, in its outward appearance, the world of the Chinese peasant before 1841. Substitute rice fields for vegetable plots and chicken farms, clear away their associated structures and the modern buildings in the surrounding area, concentrate your attention on the groups of old structures that form the nuclei of the two old villages and you are back in one of the most beautiful valleys on old Hong Kong Island. It was up this valley that Sir George Staunton, the eminent sinologue and Third Commissioner in the Amherst Embassy to Peking in 1816, strolled from the Aberdeen anchorage the following year to visit the village — in so doing to give his name to Staunton Creek now, 150 years later, being reclaimed from the sea.4\n\nThe Southern Side of Hong Kong Island in 1841. When the British came in 1841 the population of Little Hong Kong was around 200 persons (the Census of 1856 gives 229). One of the visiting British officers at that time was impressed with the villages and the scenery. \"In general\", he wrote, \"the south side of Hong Kong Island is far more picturesque and less bleak than the north. The villages we saw, unlike the mat-huts in the harbour, are exceedingly neat in appearance with blue-tiled and white-walled houses\". The village inhabitants, too, were given a good charac-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205467, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "Colony in not losing more than 53 ordinary and two life members in 1967 and to gain 59 ordinary and three life members. It is hoped that, in the year 1969 which will be the tenth year after the revival of the Hong Kong Branch of the Society, we may achieve a membership of 500.\n\nThe Journal of the Society (which has now reached its seventh issue) covering the year 1966 came out in 1967 under the editorship of Mr. Hayes and has maintained its high standard and interest.\n\nFrom the Hon. Treasurer's report it will be seen that on the working of the year there was a small deficit of $738 due mainly to the doubling of our expenditure this year on the Society's publications, the Journal, the Volume on the 1966 Symposium and the reprinting of Sir Lindsay Ride's article on the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao, from the sale of which we expect to replenish our finances. Our efforts to build up a library available for the use of members have this year shown some promise of success. We have now a collection of over 300 volumes of standard works on China and the Far East including, in particular, works on South China and Hong Kong and a valuable collection of exchange journals. Our collection has been enriched with the books purchased with the generous grant of $2,850 from the Asia Foundation and with about 100 books from the library of the late Colonel Burkhardt and Madame du Breuil generously presented by Colonel Burkhardt's daughter. Our thanks are due once again to Mr. F. A. Nixon who has enabled us to receive from the Fung Ping Shan Museum of the University five albums containing photographs of his collection of Nestorian Crosses which are housed in the Museum. The British Council have come to our aid by kindly providing space in their library for the greater part of our books, while some of the rarer books and reference works will still be kept for the time being in the University Library. The accommodation given to our library by the British Council is the best temporary solution of our library problem until some kind benefactor appears to give us a room of our own with sufficient funds to provide for a part-time librarian. Before the original branch of the Society was wound up in 1859 it had a substantial and valuable library which was presented to the Morrison Educational Society and it was fortunate then in having good friends in its first President — Sir John Davis — and the Chief Justice who provided a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205593, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "130 \n\nJ. NACKEN \n\nCongee. As they pass your door you have your choice. Here comes the first, crying Mai 'chü 'hüt 'chuk:* the next, Mai' yü *shang 'chuck,† etc. You may have pigs' blood congee, fish congee, mulberry-root flavoured congee, or barley, or kidney or pork and a variety of other congees. \n\nI may be allowed to here remark that all street cries are also heard on the water. When you see a man paddling his own canoe among the Chinese shipping, you may know that the articles he has for sale are the same as these sold on shore. As these hawkers do not come within the regulation which is in force on shore, I cannot say how many there may be. They simply have a small boat license; their lungs are so good that I hear their cries pretty distinctly in my house up the hill, and they assist their cousins on shore to swell the number of cries considerably. Some of these are of bad character; they will paddle out to the foreign shipping, having concealed bottles of samshoo under their heaps of sugar-cane or pine-apples. They bargain with the sailors and will steal if opportunity offers. \n\nThe second batch of hawkers who have articles of food for sale go out in the hours that precede the two principal Chinese meals at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. There are firstly the sellers of vegetables. In spring they sell celery, coarse greens, water cresses, salad, spinage, and bean sprouts. In summer; pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, egg plant, popaga‡, lotus root§, bamboo sprouts, many kinds of beans, etc. In autumn: caraway plant, pepper, potatoes, taro, various cabbages etc.; and in winter: mustard plants, white greens, colewort, parsley, onions, garlic, scallion, etc. \n\nMai tau' fu' is a cry heard very frequently. This bean curd is often the only \"sung\" on the table. It is made of bean flour, prepared with salt, gypsum, and water, then pressed between two boards, and sold in little square pieces at one cash each. \n\n* ⭑## [The diacritical marks in the text are difficult to read from \n\nthe microfilm, Ed.] \n\n广费魚生粥 \n\n+ *** \n\n$ # This is a very good vegetable, which is not yet found, as far as \n\nI know, on European tables. This root, after being dried and powdered, forms the well-known arrow-root, \n\n|| 費荳腐 \n\n, ie, whatever is on the table besides the rice. \n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205595, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "132 \n\nJ. NACKEN \n\nfollow their pattern sage. They pluck and eat their fruit when still unripe; this may be partly because they are afraid of thieves, and partly because the means of sending their produce to the market are so primitive and slow. \n\nOne of the most interesting aspects of street life presents itself at noon. Tables are set in convenient places shaded by a large umbrella, A bench for guests stands in front, whilst the busy cook stands behind. He cries out his delicacies and the price of them, which varies from 2 to 8 cash a bowl. Those of the Chinese who can afford it sit down to \"shik-án-chau.”* There are beef, mutton, fish, and shrimp-congee, macaroni, vermicelli, sago soup, etc. Those of the hawkers who have not yet earned so much capital as to have such a stall, offer cheaper delicacies on their perambulating tables. You may get several kinds of cooling gelatine or jelly with sugar for 3 cash a bowl, or a glass of lemon-water, or cake with meat or peanuts inside. Cakes vary according to seasons and festivals. \n\nIn the evening all the stalls and hawking tables are illuminated by paper lanterns, which, indeed, make the streets look lively and interesting. Besides the articles mentioned above you may hear cried out: Pickled, salted, or candied fruit, betel nut, almonds' milk, lotus-nut soup and a kind of whey made of milk. In winter the cooling dishes and drinks are exchanged for flour-balls and cakes boiled or cooked with oil. \n\nI think we have now listened long enough to street cries for selling articles of food, and I should not wonder if my friend ex-claimed, \"Dear me, I had no idea that the Chinese had such a variety of chow-chow.\" The fact is, I have not by any means exhausted my list of street cries of this nature. The Cantonese are gourmands and they pride themselves on their art of cooking. They have this saying:- \n\n\"Happy is he who is born in Soochow, who has his meals in Kwong-chow, and who dies in Laou-chow.”† \n\n* : to eat the noon meal; to take lunch. The last two characters have probably given rise to the pidgin-English chow-chow, to eat. \n\n† The Soochowites are envied by our orange-skinned Cantonese friends, being of a fair complexion; Laou-chow is said to have the best wood for coffins.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205608, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n145 \n\nfollowers and would-be subscribers encouraged her then to build a new hall and she was able to purchase a private plot with a small house on it at Ngau Chi Wan, formerly occupied by a Buddhist nun. The house was pulled down and replaced then by the present hall. This hall belongs to the same sect as a group of halls studied by Marjorie Topley in Singapore and the founder of one of these halls, the FEI HA CHING SHE (*), there, was not only well known to the inmates of this hall in Hong Kong, but his photograph was observed by us to hang on its wall in a place of honour. \n\n3. Man Fat Tong (4) \n\nThis hall was established in the first year of the Chinese Republic (1912-13). The founder was a native of Sai Chiu, Kwangtung and was at some time a domestic servant in Hong Kong. She held the same rank as the founders of the above halls and co-operated in financing the hall with three or four other former domestic servants. They began by building the main shrine room, the rest of the main structure being added some years later (about 1923). Gradually she bought more land and enlarged the structure as funds came in from co-religionists and would-be inmates. \n\nOne of the present inmates of the hall, now 67 years old, was brought here by the founder from Canton when she was 20 and she worked two years in Hong Kong as an amah before returning to the hall, where she has been ever since. Another lady, now 58, was brought here when 14 years old and has never been employed outside the hall, \n\nAppearance and Lay-out of the Halls, and Deities Worshipped \n\nThe founders of these halls said there was no particular reason why they had chosen Ngau Chi Wan for their halls apart from the fact that the land was cheap and had good fêng-shui (geomantic properties) and the environment quiet. The surroundings of these halls must undoubtedly have been conducive to the contemplative and religious life in those early years. Although they are now bordered by a busy and noisy market and adjacent to the big housing estate of Choi Hung, the noise does not appear to penetrate into the halls and their small gardens in which they grow some of their vegetables even today. \n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205610, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\nIt is in connexion with worship of “Mother” that the lay-out of the shrine rooms in vegetarian halls of the sect is important. Mother must be placed higher than any other deity and should occupy a room to herself (or occasionally shared with Kuan-yin with whom, as we have said, she is sometimes identified). This means that halls of the sect should whenever possible be built on two storeys, with \"Mother's\" room on the upper storey. This was so in the case of all the halls visited. Usually, one of the popular triads is housed in the main downstairs shrine-room (occasionally one finds an image downstairs of the many-armed Chun-t'i: “Goddess of Dawn\" supposedly of Buddhist origin, but she was not present in the halls visited).\n\nUpstairs besides the room dedicated to “Mother\" there is often a shrine also for the soul-tablets of past members.\n\nMembers of the Society were fortunately permitted to visit all shrine rooms (some halls do not permit outsiders to enter the \"Mother\" room).\n\nRelations between the Halls and the Ngau Chi Wan Village\n\nThere is a certain amount of inter-action between the halls at Ngau Chi Wan and the village of this name which, though on the fringe of urban Kowloon and augmented by neighbouring squatter huts and factions, is still largely inhabited by the descendants of founding Hakka families who came to this spot in the mid-eighteenth century and after. The annual festival of the god of the main village temple (said to be a Ch'iu Ch'au deity whose image was brought up from the sea off Ngau Chi Wan by village fishermen a long time ago) occurs on the 25th of the 2nd lunar month. At this time the inmates of the halls visit the opera performance that is held in a matshed on open ground in front of the KAM HA CHING SHE and worship at the portable shrine that is brought on these occasions from the temple half a mile away. Our visit took place just before this festival and already the bamboo structure on which the matshed for the opera was to be built, was being erected. A large temporary cooking stove had also been constructed for the occasion for serving vegetarian food (which Marjorie Topley gathered in conversation with some of the inmates was contracted for by the village temple association from the vegetarian halls).\n\nAgain, at the Festival of Hungry Ghosts on the 7th of the 7th moon, it is “traditional” practice for about 100 students from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205611, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "148\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nvillage to visit the KAM HA CHING SHE to be given a bowl of rice and other food. This is supposed to \"help make them stronger and more diligent\". (The sects hold masses at which cooked rice is used and which, in Singapore, is certainly handed out to the poor of the area round a vegetarian hall after the service. It may be that the rice handed out in this case is similarly treated to religious rituals and that it is this which gives it its ability to make students \"strong\" and \"diligent\").\n\nIt is also reported that leaders of the Village Affairs Office of Ngau Chi Wan village are invited to dinner on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, no doubt to keep up friendly relations between close neighbours.\n\nThe vegetarian halls certainly went to great effort to entertain members of the Society on our visit. Each hall provided us with plentiful, and extremely tasty, vegetarian snacks, fruit, cold drinks and Chinese tea. We would like to record our gratitude to them for their generosity. We would also like to record our gratitude to those in charge of the halls for permitting this visit and in letting us wander at will, and to the spiritual advisor of the inmates and to other male members of the sect who came along to answer our many questions; also to Mr. Tsang Sum of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, Hong Kong Government for much assistance with the visit.\n\nSOME WORKS OF REFERENCE\n\n1. The most comprehensive work on sects in general in the nineteenth century and of campaigns against them is J. J. M. de Groot's Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China: a Page in the History of Religions (Amsterdam, Johannes Muller, 1903-4) 2 Vols. It has now been reprinted (legally!) by Literature House Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan, 1963. Many of the sects he mentions are members of the Hsien-tien group. For evidence of this, see:\n\n2. Marjorie Topley, \"The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret Religious Sects\", in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 2 1963, pp. 362-392. \"Great Way\" ideology is described in more detail in this article, and also the system of ranks and appointments used by several of the sects. The evidence for linking these sects with the well-known White Lotus organization is also discussed.\n\n3. Further details of several sects of the group are provided in articles appearing in the Chinese Recorder. See for example:\n\nJ. Edkins, \"Religious Sects in North China\", Vol. XVII, 1886. D. H. Porter, \"Secret Sects in Shangtung\", Vol. XVII, 1886. George Miles, \"Vegetarian Sects\", Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, 1902. The relationship among the sects discussed was not however known to these writers at the time.\n\nHong Kong, 1968\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY and JAMES HAYES", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205628, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n165\n\nhe charged two or three cash a chih, with food and a place to sleep as was the custom. That was a lot of money for a man to earn; he could live for a week on one day's labor.\n\nAt page 53 it is mentioned that a few years later, at or about the Boxer time, the Old Weaver no longer came to the Chu home to weave cloth each winter, and that no one took his place, it being then cheaper to buy British or foreign cloth in the market.\n\n1. For descriptions of hemp spinning wheels from Chekiang see pp. 167-169 of Rudolf P. Hommel's China at Work... (New York, The John Day Company, 1937). Photographs of two such wheels are at pp. 170 and 171. I have not yet come across any such relics from the Hong Kong region.\n\n2. The Hakkas of Hing Ning district, mentioned above, appear also to have played a large part in weaving foreign cotton yarn imported via Swatow. Consul F.S.A. Bourne in his section of the Report of the Mission to China of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce 1896-7 (Blackburn, The North-east Lancashire Press Company, 1898) at pp. 153-4 mentions them as using foreign yarn for weaving cotton cloth \"sent down the Canton East River past Hui-chow Fu to Fatshan where it is dyed black and called ch'ung-ch'ang-ch'ing i.e. imitation long black. This cloth, like that of which it is a copy, is very largely exported to Singapore.\"\n\n3. For local, i.e. Hong Kong, place names see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960).\n\nHong Kong, 1968.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nTHE TUNG CHUNG FORT (LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG)\n\nFor earlier references in NOTES AND QUERIES see Vols. 3 (1963) and 4 (1964) of this Journal at pp. 144-145 and 146-152 respectively.\n\nIn late January 1966, I heard of, and spoke with, an old lady aged 90 sui (歲) born on 2nd October 1877. She had spent all her days in the Tung Chung valley, having been born in Wong Ka Wai and married into Sheung Ling Pei village. A series of questions...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n169\n\nOne of the areas in which we have particularly interesting and new information is that of Buddhist \"kinship\": one of the principles for organization used by monks and which copies that of the Chinese kinship system to an astonishing degree. Knowledge of this type of organization throws light in turn on the nature of Buddhist sects. Sects are merely a reflection of the number of disciples; if disciples proliferate then the \"lineage\" tends to divide into new sects; if they dwindle, the sect may disappear. As the author remarks, Westerners accustomed to connexions between sects and doctrines, and Buddhist specialists of Japan where sects have remained exclusive and doctrinal differences preserved, will no doubt find this difficult to accept.\n\nThe question of lay commitment is also pursued and the relation of recruited laymen to the monastic \"kinship\" system. Mr. Welch reveals, in fact, the whole complexity of inter-relationships among monks and laymen in this system and shows that a vast network of connexions existed among Buddhists despite the fact that Buddhism itself had no central leadership. Questions of syncretism are also discussed and the study of Confucian Classics by the monks. The author helps to correct the impression that all monks are illiterate also, by quoting figures from some local surveys conducted by the Communists during the first three years after they came to power.\n\nAs the author says himself: \"we have... a broad gamut of institutions and men, with the good and the bad \"the dragons and the snakes\" side by side. The system had room for both piety and commercialism, scholars and illiterates, vice and discipline - all making up a mixture whose components we know, although we cannot assay the proportions in which they occurred”.\n\nMr. Welch has done much in this work to adjust our perspective on Chinese Buddhist organization. He has already planned a second volume to cover the history of Buddhism. If it is anything like the present work we are in for some refreshing new statements and plenty of surprises.\n\nHong Kong, 1968.\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205711, "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-1969", "page_number": 17, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n11\n\nfor nomination by the Governor. The new Council met on 28th February, 1884, and consisted of 6 officials excluding the Governor: the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Surveyor General, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Registrar General. There were also 5 unofficials: Mr. T. Jackson (elected by the Chamber of Commerce), Mr. F. D. Sassoon (elected by the Justices of the Peace), Messrs. P. Ryrie, F. B. Johnson and Wong Shing, appointed by the Governor.\n\nThus in 1884 Wong Shing became the second Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council as an unofficial member. He too was a Cantonese from Chung Shan District. In 1841 he entered, with two other Chinese boys, Yung Wing and Wong Foon, the Morrison School in Macao which was later transferred to Hong Kong. In January 1847, Dr. Robbins Brown, an American teacher in the Morrison School, had to leave China on account of ill health. He offered to take a few of his old pupils back to America for further education. Yung Wing, Wong Foon and Wong Shing signified their desire to go and, through Dr. Brown and the Morrison Education Society, expenses for two years for the three boys were arranged. They embarked at Whampoa on the ship \"Huntress\" and proceeded via the Cape of Good Hope, the journey taking more than three months. Upon arrival in the U.S.A. the three boys were admitted to the Monson Academy at Monson, Massachusetts.\n\nAs a result of ill health, Wong Shing did not manage to acquire any academic honours during his sojourn in the United States. On his return to China he was offered an appointment in the Foreign Ministry. He served with Viceroy Li Hung-chang and Marquis Tseng Chi-tze and was a member of the Chinese legation staff in Washington. He resigned later from the Chinese diplomatic service and came to Hong Kong as a merchant. He was also associated with the Anglo-Chinese College and with the London Missionary Society for which he directed its printing establishment under Dr. James Legge. When the Tung Wah Hospital was founded in 1870, he was a founder director. He was naturalized in December 1883 and was appointed to the Legislative Council in February 1884. He was described as a man of property, much-travelled, speaking good English and fully qualified to “look at Chinese affairs with English eyes and at English affairs with Chinese eyes\". His career as a Legislative Councillor was an", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205721, "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-1969", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n21\n\nOn Ho Fook's retirement from the Legislative Council in 1921, he was succeeded by Chow Shou-son (later Sir Shouson Chow) who, together with Sir Robert Hotung, were often referred to as the two grand old men of Hong Kong in the 1940's and 1950's.\n\nChow was born in 1862.* In 1874, he was sent, together with 29 other Chinese boys, by the Manchu Government to the United States to pursue higher western studies. This was the third of four batches of young Chinese scholars who, through the efforts of Yung Wing, were sent to America by the Manchu Government in the years 1872 to 1875.25 Young Chow was eventually admitted to Columbia University where he remained until 1881 when the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States was disbanded and all the boys were brought back to China.\n\nWhile in North America the Chinese boys, totalling 120, were under the supervision of some ignorant and stupid Manchu officials who did not understand what the boys were learning and who were not in sympathy with their activities. These officials sent back to China reports saying that instead of concentrating on their academic studies, the boys were taking part in all sorts of barbarian games and athletic activities. Worst of all, some of the boys were going out with American girls and were being converted into Christians. A report ended by a recommendation that they must be returned to China immediately, otherwise they would lose all interest and patriotic feelings towards China. This recommendation was readily accepted and the boys were back in China in 1881. Many of the boys made good use of the knowledge they acquired and turned out later to be leading engineers, railway builders, diplomats and admirals in China.\n\nChow Shou-son was at first assigned to the Chinese Customs but later became, at various times, Manager of the China Merchant Steamship Navigation Company in Tientsin and Managing Director of the Peking-Mukden Railway. He also held appointments in the Foreign Ministry and was at one time a Chinese consul in Korea. After the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1911, he came to Hong Kong to engage in business and later became Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the Bank of East Asia, the China Entertainment and Land Development Company and the China Emporium.\n\nHis family had been settled in one of the Hong Kong villages for nearly two hundred years. See JHKBRAS vol.7(1967), pp.164-166.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205723, "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-1969", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n23\n\nmerchants in this Colony. In all necessary measures to that end, I know that I can rely upon the whole-hearted support of this Council\". At the same meeting, the Senior Unofficial member, Sir Henry Pollock, paid the following tribute to Sir Shouson Chow and Robert Kotewall; \"During the last seven months, in particular, we have felt indebted not only to Sir Shouson Chow but also to his Chinese colleague on the Council. We, Sir, behind the scenes, can appreciate perhaps more fully than the general public the work of the Chinese members of this Council during the period I have referred to”. \n\nOn 9th July 1926, Sir Shouson Chow was also appointed the first Chinese member of the Executive Council, following the death of Sir Paul Chater who had served on that Council since 1896.26 Although the appointment was made on personal grounds, it was evident that political considerations also came in, viz., to pacify anti-British sentiment in China and to further encourage the loyalty of local Chinese towards Hong Kong. \n\nSir Shouson Chow served on both Councils until 1930, when he resigned from the Legislative Council. He continued, however, to be a member of the Executive Council until he retired in 1936. He died many years after the war, in 1959, \n\nWhen Lau Chu-pak retired from the Legislative Council in 1922, he was succeeded by Ng Hon-tsz who was born in 1877 and was compradore to Shewan, Tomes, Ltd. He was a director of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1907 and was a founder of the Tsan Yuk Hospital. He was at various times a member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He served in the Legislative Council for only two years and died in 1923 while in office. After his death, Sir Henry Pollock remarked at the Legislative Council meeting held on 10th May 1923 that Mr. Ng had always been a \"wise, sound and faithful councillor”. \n\nMr. Robert Kotewall, who succeeded Ng Hon-tsz as a member of the Legislative Council in 1923, was born in Hong Kong in 1880. Educated at the Central School as well as the Diocesan Boys' School, he was a noted English as well as Chinese scholar and was a very good speaker. After a distinguished career in the Hong Kong Government until 1916, he turned to business and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205775, "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-1969", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "TUNG KWU ISLAND\n\n75\n\nnon-liquid food such as grain, nuts or fruit, or for holding food of some sort for the use of the dead, who would not be likely to find their food jars dissolving in their graves. The use of the net pattern with what were probably magic signs in each mesh may indicate that such jars were funerary vessels, covered with watching eyes or other patterns to repel demons from seizing and carrying off the food. (See R. Maglioni “Some Aspects of South China Archaeological Finds\" in Proceedings, Third Congress of Far East Pre-historians). The variety of patterns is illustrated in Plate 8.\n\nThe distribution of ornamented sherds in depth and locality presents some interesting points. In my collection, there are 33 such pieces. 16 were picked off the beach at unrecorded spots; the others were found in known stretches of beach, indicated on the sketch-map, or in situ at measured depths in the sand. It was not always easy to decide either the nature or the purpose of the designs inside the meshes, but round raised studs were probably ‘eyes', and most other designs were perhaps 'life-giving' or occasionally 'phallic'. A few were indeterminable: these were raised ridges in meshes of rhombic shape, or so shapeless that no conclusion could be drawn.\n\nFour designs of each type came from known depths, and four were found in the I, J, L, and M sectors. One, as well as four loose pieces with ‘eye' patterns, came from C sector. No real conclusion can be drawn from the recorded depths with so few specimens, except that the patterns seem to have been equally fashionable throughout the occupation of the site. From other sites, however, notably Sha Chau, a mile or two south of Tung Kwu, I got the impression that the raised stud in a single-line, square-net pattern was more popular when the upper layers of the sandbank formation were deposited.\n\nThe lines of the netting on the sherds differ in number from one to four, and the angles of the meshes are either right angles, enclosing squares, or obtuse and acute angles, enclosing rhombs. Of the square-meshed nets, only four are from known depths, none lower than 122 cm., and there are three with one line round the meshes and one with three. The rhombic net impressions are much commoner than the square in the pottery found at measured levels: 16 as against 4. Nets of one and three lines show average depths of 111 cm., those of two lines—much commoner—average 170 cm.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205776, "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-1969", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "76\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nOther stamped designs of various kinds, curves, ovals, paired spirals, chevrons, etc., lie at an average depth of 127 cm. Sherds without patterns numbered 33, distributed at all depths averaging 115 cm. Many are jar rims or come from jars with equatorial ridges, plain above and patterned below, so that statistics would be useless. Some of these were food vessels buried beside the dead, of very fragile material, broken in fragments as they lay buried by the weight of earth and sand piled on them, but still keeping their upright position. Two such, as well as the only perfect jar found, came from the north extremity of the west beach, under the hill, so that earth washed off it adds to the measured depth of the vessels. This averaged 161 cm. for the three vessels, 40 cm. below the 122 cm, which was the chief culture level.\n\nThis area probably served at one time as a cemetery of the early inhabitants. The complete jar was partly filled with decayed granite rainwash, lying against the side of the vessel when I found it at the foot of the low cliff. No stratum level could be assigned to it, but its perfect condition shows it could hardly have dropped from any great height and was most likely washed out of its matrix by rain and fairly gentle wave action. Its form is worth noting. Below the plain, slightly flared lip, pinched into two rough spouts on opposite sides, it expands gradually to the ‘equator'. Above this it is undecorated: below, a neatly impressed network of vertically arranged rhombs covers the rest of the body surface, in each mesh a raised stud which I interpret as a watching eye, or the pupil of an eye. The base is hollowed into a dinge for stabilising the vessel and is also ornamented.* The food vessel in grave IV at Shek Pik, of coarse pottery, also had stamped ornament, and two spouts on the rim.†\n\nThe distribution in depth of soft pottery bearing stamped designs other than net patterns shows a certain slight degree of concentration around the 122 cm. level, with three above and three below it: they number only eight. All but one were found in the sand sectors of the site. The only tentative conclusions that may be drawn are that such designs were less favoured for funerary pottery than the net patterns, and that they were known\n\n*This jar is illustrated at Plate 5.\n\n† See Schofield, op. cit., p. 269, cxxi.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205786, "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-1969", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "86 \n\nR. BRUCE \n\nmonopolies abolished whilst levies on imports were to be limited, and vessels were to pay a tax on their size. But Burney failed to get permission for a British Consul to reside at Bangkok. Nor was he able to free British nationals from Siamese law. \n\nNext came the Americans. A merchant, Mr. Edmund Roberts, was commissioned by the President to secure a treaty at least as good as the British one. This was seven years later, in 1833. Although a President seemed to the Siamese a much less august personage than a King and America was both remote and less important, Roberts secured his treaty. It was almost exactly the same as the Burney agreement. \n\nIn the next two decades, especially in the \"forties, trade became more difficult. In fact the treaties with the British and the Americans gradually eroded away, and the old monopolies were taken back by the Court. Imports and exports were farmed to Chinese merchants by the King. Duties were arbitrary and heavy and trade dwindled. Everywhere else the British had greatly expanded their commerce by mid-century. Singapore was growing rapidly, the China trade had increased still further after the Opium War, the northern coast of Borneo was open to British commerce. It seemed only natural and civilised to the bold merchant princes and sea captains of Victorian England that Siam should, willy-nilly, share in the new prosperity, especially now that the first steamships had reached the Gulf of Siam. \n\nSir James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, was the next British envoy to sail up the Menam to Bangkok. He came in August 1850 on board H.M.S. Sphinx accompanied by a merchant vessel of the Company, the Nemesis, both steamers. Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, cautioned Sir James to be careful in his quest for better trade. \n\n\"In conducting these negotiations\", he directed, “you must be very careful not to get involved in any disputes or hostile proceedings which would render our position in Siam worse than it now is or which might compel Her Majesty's Government to have recourse to forcible measures in order to obtain redress. It is very important that if your efforts should not succeed they should at least leave things as they are and should not expose us to the alternative of submitting to fresh affront or of undertaking expensive operations to punish insult”.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205788, "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-1969", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "88\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nany case, he argued, trade had dwindled and it was in the interests of the Siamese to accept a new treaty which would expand trade.\n\nThe White Rajah never met the King. He sailed away with nothing but indignation. He had not openly threatened the Siamese with force but had hinted as much. The old King and his Ministers were not impressed but they must have harboured fears of reprisals as there were so many precedents. In October that year Brooke, addressing himself to Lord Palmerston, evoked high principles in the fine Victorian manner in support of his call for force:\n\n\"Justice — compassion — interest — dignity — and a consistent course of policy appear to me to call for decisive measures to be taken without delay.\"\n\nAnd in a letter to a friend:\n\n\"The Siamese must be taught a lesson... our policy should be commanding and our power exerted when necessary. My policy in Sarawak has been high-handed against evil-doers and there, and in England and in Siam, there are bad to be punished as well as good to be cared for.\"\n\nMercifully for Siam, Brooke's gun-boat policy was not accepted in London but he did perceive the solution in spite of his call for force. The old King, Rama III, must soon die and there was good prospect that his half-brother Prince Mongkut would succeed him. In that event, Brooke said, the prospect of a new relation with Britain was bright.\n\nThe Sphinx and the Nemesis had scarcely left the Menam in September, 1850 when an American mission arrived. It was led by a certain Joseph Balestier, a not very successful American merchant of Singapore who came with a letter from his President. If the Brooke mission was a failure, Balestier's was even worse. Bowring comments:\n\n\"Mr. Balestier had not been fortunate in his commercial operations as a merchant at Singapore and it may be doubted whether the nomination of a commercial gentleman whose history was well known to the King and nobles at Bangkok was judicious; it was certainly not deemed complimentary to the proud Siamese authorities.\"4", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205791, "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-1969", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n91\n\nthe Throne and Buddhism are, today as much as in the nineteenth century, the foundation of society.\n\nIn the West we might think that life in a Buddhist monastery was poor training for kingship. Not so in Siam. Prince Mongkut came to know his people as no Palace-dwelling King could ever do. His colleagues in the monastery were peasants, artisans, sons of nobles and merchants. He walked the streets of Bangkok with his begging bowl and saw the homes of his people. Like other monks he travelled across the country from one Wat to another. His father, Rama II, only left the Palace once a year for the ceremonial presentation of robes to monks at the end of each rainy season and his brother maintained the same semi-divine remoteness.\n\nMongkut's interests were not limited to Buddhism whilst he was in the Order. His intelligence was singular. He had that rare quality in oriental princes — intellectual curiosity, an eagerness to inquire into things. Not far from Wat Bowaniwate there lived a Roman Catholic priest, no less than the able Frenchman, Bishop Pallegoix, from whom we learn a good deal about the Prince. The Bishop and the Abbot became friends and Mongkut invited Pallegoix to preach Christian sermons to his brother monks in the Wat. The sermons and discussions were impressive. Mongkut admired the Christian morals and achievements which the Bishop explained to his yellow-robed congregation, but the Abbot could make nothing of Christian doctrine. With immodest presumption he commented: \"What you teach people to do is admirable but what you teach them to believe is foolish.\"\n\nBishop Pallegoix learned Pali and a great deal about Buddhism from the royal Abbot and, in exchange, he taught Mongkut some Latin and French. This was the Prince's introduction to the thought of the Western world. He learned about Christianity and the customs of Europeans. He became interested in mathematics and science. Other Christians of a different sort had recently come to Bangkok. These were the American Presbyterian missionaries who brought with them the first printing press, a new kind of Christianity which, to Mongkut's astonishment, included married priests, for they brought their wives and, most precious of all, the English language. Their leader, the Rev. Dr. Beach Bradley, became Mongkut's English tutor. He found in the Abbot a most apt and diligent student who quite quickly acquired a good", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205792, "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-1969", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "92\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nknowledge of the language. English for Mongkut was the key to the new knowledge. What he had started with the French bishop he now continued more avidly with the American missionaries. Geography, mathematics and especially astronomy fascinated him and he found no inconsistency between Buddhism and science. He placed no obstacles in the way of the American Presbyterians who, like the Catholic Bishop, were invited to discuss religion and to preach their doctrine.\n\nHere then was an unusual Abbot of a Buddhist monastery in nineteenth century Siam; not that Buddhists are ever inimical to other faiths but Mongkut excelled in liberalism. As a devout and learned monk he had brought fresh inspiration and discipline to his religion. As a monk he had come to know his people and his country better than any of his royal predecessors. And because of his intellectual stamina he had acquired a greater knowledge of Western civilisation than any of his contemporaries.\n\nWhen Mongkut became King Rama IV in 1851 he had been a monk for twenty-seven years. The kingdom which he inherited was a feudal corner of Asia, an absolute monarchy in which the people were forbidden to look upon the face of the King. Slavery was common, polygamy normal. The economy was primitive, the population small, there were no roads and no schools. Except for a few missionaries and merchants there was practically no contact with the Western world, King Mongkut determined to change all this. Nobody urged him, there was no popular discontent, no demand for reform. He was his own most radical liberal.\n\nWithin a year of his accession decrees came from the Palace \"by Royal Command, reverberating like the roar of a lion\" which began the slow process of change. The people were invited to look at the King when he moved among them, not to shut their windows and run away. Citizens could send him petitions on any matter and he would investigate each complaint. He did not abolish slavery but he insisted on good treatment for slaves. Nothing was too detailed for him: he issued edicts on the safe construction of fire-places and ovens and the improvement of window fittings. To prevent disease he ordered that dead animals should not be thrown in the canals. He reformed the currency, replacing lumps of gold and silver with flat coins.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205977, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "52 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\n12 Malcolm Struan Tonnochy (1840-1882). Educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; died in office while Superintendent of Victoria Gaol. Obituaries of Tonnochy are to be found in the Hong Kong Telegraph, December 14 and 15, 1882, and China Mail, December 15, 1882. The Telegraph tells us \"that yesterday the deceased was in good spirits and played tennis in the afternoon, dined out with a friend, and was in the Club until shortly after midnight\", A Chinese barber found Tonnochy dead in bed when he came to shave him in the morning. He was a bachelor. \n\n13 Walter Meredith Deane (1840-1906). Educated St. Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; Captain Superintendent of the Police, 1866-1891. Deane was severely wounded on duty in 1878 and resigned in 1891 on account of ill-health. \n\n14 Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (1840-1916). Educated at St. Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Hong Kong Civil Service 1862; promoted from Colonial Treasurer, Hong Kong, to Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, 1878. Administered Government 1884-85; appointed Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary, Ceylon, 1886; Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements, 1887; H. M. High Commissioner and Consul-General for Borneo and Sarawak, 1889. \n\n15 Alfred Lister (1843-1890). Educated at University of London. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; prepared detailed index to the Ordinances of Hong Kong in 1870; Colonial Treasurer 1883-90. Died on board ship near Yokohama while on sick leave, Lister held the office of Treasurer as an adjunct appointment only, and with an almost nominal salary, in conjunction with his substantive appointment of Postmaster-General, Lister left a wife and four children in England. See Hong Kong Telegraph, 15 June, 1890. Governor Des Voeux referred to Lister as an \"excellent officer\". \n\n**\n\n16 Sir James Russell (1843-1893). Educated at Queen's University, Belfast. Hong Kong Civil Service 1865; private secretary to Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell 1868; Police Magistrate 1870; Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1888. The Hong Kong Telegraph, 4 September, 1893, in an editorial entitled \"Sir Judas' Russell: His History\" declares \"You could not have been much of an expert in the Chinese language two short years after your appointment to a cadet-ship, yet in 1867, you were Government ‘Interpreter'\". The editorial referred to Russell as \"the Gargantua of Hong Kong social life\" and \"the Jeffries of the Hong Kong Bench\". The writer of the editorial was the atrabilious Robert Fraser-Smith, who founded the Hong Kong Telegraph in 1881. Since Fraser-Smith had been jailed several times for libel, he had reason to dislike the Chief Justice. (See Frank H. H. King and Prescott Clarke A Research Guide to China-Coast Newspapers, 1822-1911, Cambridge, Mass., 1965). Russell, a bachelor like Lister, died at Strathpeffer, Scotland, shortly after resigning from Government. \n\n17 Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845-1929). Educated at Repton School. Hong Kong Civil Service 1867; retired on pension as Police Magistrate in 1898. One son, Peveril, was the first baby born on the Peak and brother of P. G. Wodehouse, the novelist. Wodehouse was the last of the batch of officials originally appointed to the Colony in the capacity of student interpreter. \n\n18 Sir James Haldane Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937). Educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, Watson's Academy, Edinburgh (gold medallist), and Edinburgh University (Greek medallist), Hong Kong Civil Service 1878; attached to the Colonial Office for one year; Registrar General 1887; Colonial Secretary 1895-1902; Special Commissioner to Inspect and Report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1898; representative of Great Britain to delimit the boundaries of the extension of Hong Kong; first civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei, 1902; retired 1921.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205990, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "A HONG KONG BUTTERFLY\n\n65\n\nsides of the creature above the prolegs is yellow-ochre and there is a narrow border of the same colour around the head and the anal segment. The head is black. There are no processes as in the larva of Papilio agamemnon. By 9th July the smallest larva had grown from 9 mm to 15 mm retaining the same coloration. On 10th July it moulted on the surface of the leaf leaving the black skin. The length was constant at 15 mm. The larva was now apple green, darker on the back, with three narrow yellow stripes on the seventh to tenth segments, and a buff line just above the legs from head to tail. The head is celedon green with four circular black spots on the crown, and two more smaller ones at the angle of the jaws.\n\nFor observation the larvae were kept in a large glass container which, if covered, keeps the food plant fresher than the ordinary breeding cage. On opening this one morning the pungent scent emitted by the Papilionidae when disturbed was very noticeable, but no amount of interference would induce the larvae to extrude the osmeterium so that the colour could be ascertained.\n\nThe green stage of the larva only lasted four days, during which the faint yellow horizontal lines above the prolegs gradually faded out, and the apple green colour rather deepened. The full length attained was 26 mm on the eve of pupation. In all instances but one pupation took place on the underside of the leaf, and not the upperside as recorded by Corbet for L. meges. The pupa is attached by a white cremastral pad, and a very fine silk girdle which is almost invisible, holding the abdomen in contact with the leaf. The shape is very similar to the pupae of P. doson or P. sarpedon, being beaked, but the length is only 22 mm. The colour varied with the background, from yellow-green on young growth, to emerald on mature leaves. The exceptional larva spun up on the glass of the container in a vertical position, head up producing a lilac grey chrysalis. From the beak a seam runs diagonally to the base of the thorax, and another finer line marks the centre of the back for 5 mm when it bifurcates making a roughly elliptical figure to the tail. All pupation was during the hours of darkness. Emergence took place exactly seven days after pupation, but this is the hottest time of the year, the mean temperature being around 85°F. All imagines appeared between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m, standard time. Just before emergence the pupal case is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205994, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG:\n\nTHE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\nDAFYDD Emrys Evans\n\nIt seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as \"Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live?\n\nApart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206069, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "144\n\nS. F. BALFOUR\n\nIndonesian pottery, particularly round the rim of the vessel. The other patterns appear to have no counterparts in pottery that we know. Especially the \"double F\" is intriguing. It appears at a glance a type of stylised design derived from an animal motif such as might have come from ancient China, but it is very unsafe ground to suppose that it is so. Lastly, the glaze is of a good pigment and was certainly derived from China. The variety of pottery from the primitive soft type through the \"Indonesian\" type to the half-Chinese \"double F\" pattern shows that while much of it was imported, some was made locally.\n\nMetal implements have been found in the sites in much smaller quantities than the stone and pottery, but moulds for making them have been found in larger quantities. They are made of baked clay in two separate pieces which fitted together and into which the molten metal was poured and took its shape. These moulds were probably made locally. Therefore the people using them were not plentifully supplied with metal and they were obliged to melt and reshape old weapons when they became unserviceable, continuing to use the same pattern without any efforts to improve it. This inference neutralises any attempt to date the inhabitation of the sites by comparing the metal implements with those used in China at certain dates. It is true that the shape of the weapons originally came from China, but there is no certainty that the Chinese influence continued for long; in fact, the opposite seems the most likely.\n\nThe most typically Chinese of the bronze weapons are the ko and the small axe. The ko is the small cutting and piercing implement with a curved blade ending in a sharp point which is written with the character. It is of very ancient origin and continued to be used by Chinese soldiers in the Han dynasty and later. The small axe with a convex blade and a hollow socket for insertion of the handle is also of early Chinese origin. It was once used in a more simplified shape for money, but that the inhabitants of this region used it for killing can be proved by a piece of bone which was found adhering to an axe in one of the sites. Both these types of weapon are most ancient, in addition to them fragments of bronze swords and daggers, some of them embossed with Chinese designs, have been excavated and a small number of bronze utensils.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206113, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "188\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nBut luckily for them and for me, the prophet's prediction proved to be an invention of his own, and nobody was injured but his own reputation.\n\nHong Kong, May 1969.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHEMP\n\nA few years ago, I wrote about itinerant Hakka craftsmen who came regularly to some of the New Territories villages to weave locally grown hemp-flax into cloth for making clothes (see the 1968 Journal, pp. 162-165). In the course of reading and making further enquiries, more information has become available that may interest readers of my earlier note on this now relatively obscure subject.\n\nA few words of background may serve to show that the disappearance of this crop and this craft from Hong Kong in comparatively recent times signals the end of a practice that must have been followed from time immemorial in this region and elsewhere. Hemp constituted the main source of textiles in China until the introduction of cotton from the tenth or eleventh centuries A.D. According to M. Loewe's Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (London, B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1968), the planting of hemp for the coarse raiment in which most of the population was clothed was already one of the farmer's main occupations in the Han time (202 B.C.-A.D. 200) along with another prime necessity, grain for food. Fragments of a short text on husbandry ascribed to Ts'ui Shih (c. 100-170) set out a yearly programme of activities for the farmer and his household and include instructions on the cultivation and use of hemp. Unfortunately, however, despite the use of hemp clothing by the bulk of the Han population, it is of silk fabrics that most is known today. By the late Sung period in the mid-13th century, ordinary people still wore clothes made of hempen cloth since cotton, too, was a luxury, though its use had begun to spread (see Jacques Gernet Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1962, p. 130).\n\nThe description of the planting, preparation, and processing of hemp that follows is taken from pp. 205-208 of Samuel...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206114, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "188\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nBut luckily for them and for me, the prophet's prediction proved to be an invention of his own, and nobody was injured but his own reputation.\n\nHong Kong, May 1969.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHEMP\n\nA few years ago, I wrote about itinerant Hakka craftsmen who came regularly to some of the New Territories villages to weave locally grown hemp-flax into cloth for making clothes (see the 1968 Journal, pp. 162-165). In the course of reading and making further enquiries, more information has become available that may interest readers of my earlier note on this now relatively obscure subject.\n\nA few words of background may serve to show that the disappearance of this crop and this craft from Hong Kong in comparatively recent times signals the end of a practice that must have been followed from time immemorial in this region and elsewhere. Hemp constituted the main source of textiles in China until the introduction of cotton from the tenth or eleventh centuries A.D. According to M. Loewe's Everyday Life in Early Imperial China (London, B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1968), the planting of hemp for the coarse raiment in which most of the population was clothed was already one of the farmer's main occupations in the Han time (202 B.C.-A.D. 200) along with another prime necessity, grain for food. Fragments of a short text on husbandry ascribed to Ts'ui Shih (c. 100-170) set out a yearly programme of activities for the farmer and his household and include instructions on the cultivation and use of hemp. Unfortunately, however, despite the use of hemp clothing by the bulk of the Han population, it is of silk fabrics that most is known today. By the late Sung period in the mid-13th century, ordinary people still wore clothes made of hempen cloth since cotton, too, was a luxury, though its use had begun to spread (see Jacques Gernet Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1962, p. 130).\n\nThe description of the planting, preparation, and processing of hemp that follows is taken from pp. 205-208 of Samuel", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206213, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "24 \n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. \n\nas soon as they were caught.20 A few days later, Captain Dew arrived in Ningpo and apparently impressed with General Huang's reply wrote of his satisfaction, and in his momentary spirit of good feeling toward the Taipings perhaps said too much. For example, he stated that \"Till the late acts, they (the British) had every reason to be satisfied with your (the Taipings) conduct, and you may rest assured that no breach of friendly relations shall emanate from our side.\" And since the Taiping response had been \"so satisfactory\" and tended so much \"to impress on us your wish to maintain friendly relations with the English and French,\" Captain Dew indicated that he would not insist on the demolition of the battery whence came the musket fire, but only that the guns be removed from the position. Incidentally, on the same day in a separate letter to Admiral Hope, Captain Dew noted that a \"very active trade is being carried on with the rebels in rice and fire-arms,\"22 which comment would in itself seem to be additional evidence against the contrary propaganda line which held that the Taipings were anathema to commerce.\n\nOn the very next day, April 28, 1862, there came a surprising turn of events. Captain Dew suddenly reversed himself. He now demanded of the Taipings \"an ample apology,\" insisted that the offending battery \"be immediately pulled down,\" and that all guns facing the foreign settlement be removed. Twenty-four hours were given for compliance, after which he and the French naval commander would request permission from their respective admirals to destroy the battery. Dew threatened that should the Taipings fire but one shot in return it would be considered an act of hostility, leading to measures that would probably follow with the capture of the city of Ningpo.23 \n\nConsidering the startling changed tone and the demands of this letter, it would appear that it was designed to antagonize and provoke the Taipings. One might have expected a defiant reply. Instead, on April 29, Generals Huang and Fan returned a very long letter characterized by an unusual degree of forbearance. It firmly maintained that the demands could not be complied with; otherwise the security of their position would be jeopardized. The letter pointed out all that had been done to keep relations proper and to protect trade. Without rancour it mentioned foreign transgressions against the Taipings. In the event that the foreigners should attack the Taiping positions, the generals made it clear\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206215, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "26\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR.\n\nabout in the preceding three days, beginning with a request apparently from the Ch'ing tao-t'ai of Ningpo for British and French naval support for his impending attack on the city. Consul Harvey noted that this was \"an extraordinary coincidence,\" and one that \"was far too good an opportunity to be thrown aside and lost.\" The attack was to consist primarily of the vessels of a famous pirate of the region by the name of Apak who had gone over to the Manchus. Some effort was made to conceal the joint nature of the attack at the outset, for Captain Dew wrote for the record that he told his Ch'ing collaborators that since the rebels had refused his demands he had no objection to their fleet passing up river, \"but that they were not to open fire till well clear of our men of war.\"28 The fiction of this position was made clear by subsequent events, and by other evidence. The ultimatum of May 8, stated that had the demands been agreed to, the English and French should have felt bound in honour to prevent an attack on the Taipings from the settlement side by approaching Ch'ing forces \"which in countless numbers and heavily armed ships advance to attack you.\" The ultimatum proclaimed neutrality unless fire came from the battery or walls opposite the settlement on the advancing Ch'ing forces \"(thereby endangering the lives of our men and people in the foreign settlement).\"29\n\nIt is of interest to note how this exchange of correspondence was characterized by Consul Harvey and Captain Dew. Harvey said that \"... the whole tenour of their letters was as bad and sarcastic as it was defiant,” and he assured his respondent “that nothing could have been more friendly, reasonable, and patient than the tone of our letters, as well as of all our demands on the Taipings.\"30 Dew was a bit more candid, for as he reported later: \"I now commenced a lengthy correspondence with the Taiping chiefs, which was met on their side by the most subtle reasoning and arguments soon convincing me that but one argument, viz: that of cannon balls would avail with them....\" The two men substantiated their interpretation of events and attitude in the correspondence with two memoranda written by an interpreter. The first, based upon \"information supplied by certain respectable natives,\" claimed that General Fan had been sent from Nanking “to turn the foreigners out of Ningpo.\"32 The second memorandum purported to be extracts of a speech made by General Huang\n\n31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206226, "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION\n\n37\n\non the part of the Power committing it of a desire to discontinue its friendly relations with the Chinese government.\n\n\"In the alienation of Sovereign dominion over that part of her territory comprised in foreign settlements at the treaty ports, as well as in some other respects, China feels that the treaties impose on her a condition of things which, in order to avoid the evil they have led to in other countries, will oblige her to denounce these treaties on the expiry of the present decennial period. China intends the establishment of manufactories, the opening of mines, and the introduction of railways.\n\nThe publication of Tseng's article immediately attracted the attention of those who were interested in Far Eastern affairs. It was soon translated into German and French and was immediately published in leading papers of these two countries. Moreover, this article was simultaneously reprinted in several English newspapers in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tientsin.3 Immediately after the publication of this article in London, a Chinese translation was swiftly made available to the Chinese public. Reactions to this article, however, were not all favourable. The North China Herald in Shanghai, in its editorials on 16 February and 2 March 1887, stressed that Tseng's opinion on the Chinese Navy and Army was of no significance. The writer even quoted the comment of the French Premier, Jules F. C. Ferry, that \"China is a great country, but in spite of her greatness, her existence can just be ignored.\" He further said that China was not only continuing her sleep, but, as a matter of fact, she was on the verge of death. Tseng Chi-tse's article was nothing but boasting.\" Criticism also came from The Spectator in London:\n\nIn fact, what Marquis Tseng announces in his article is not true..... to purchase battleships from Great Britain or Germany can hardly make China become a Naval power. What China needs at the moment is to have a crew of well-trained naval officers to man the battleships. Without them, the battleships can easily be captured or go aground. It is impossible to bring all these naval officers to have confidence to manage such complicated and difficult courses in one or two years' time. As for the army, China has a very good background to increase her military", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206241, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36\n\nEditor's note. The extracts that follow from three of the surviving letters of James Calder Stewart are reproduced here with the kind permission of Mrs. Christopher Shorland of Warfield, Berks., through the kind offices of Mrs. David Dunkerley of Hong Kong. Both these ladies are descendants of the Herschel side of the family.\n\nIt has not been possible with the limited research aids available in Hong Kong to ascertain the writer's dates of birth and death or more details of his life. These will have to await my next leave in Britain and will, I hope, form the subject of a later Note.\n\nJames Calder Stewart was the son of Alexander Stewart, D.D., Minister of the Canongate Church, Edinburgh, and his wife, Emilia Calder, daughter of the Revd. Charles Calder of Urquhart. Mrs. Shorland advises that reference to other family letters produces little information about James Stewart. Before going to Canton, where he was apparently in business, he seems to have been in India; a letter written to Sir John Herschel dated L'Epéronnière, 13 October 1837, speaks of his being “still invited to return to India”. According to Mrs. Shorland, an uncle, James Calder, had a business in Calcutta, and it may be presumed that James Stewart found a position with him there. James' brother, Duncan, was also connected with the firm in some capacity. It is likely that Stewart's Canton post was obtained through the Calder connection, or was an extension of the Calder business. Mrs. Shorland states that after his return from China, he was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner of the New Poor Law Bill under Professor Jones 'at not less than £500 per annum'. He married later and had three children.\n\nThe \"Herschel\" mentioned in the letters is Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1791 - 1871), the astronomer, 1st baronet, and only child of Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1832), also famous as an astronomer. Sir John was married to Stewart's sister, Margaret Brodie Stewart (1810-1884). In 1835-36, when the letters were written, and between 1834-1838, Herschel was at the Cape of Good Hope, to which he had gone on a private project to survey the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere.\n\nThe prime interest of the extracts taken from these few letters is the view they give of the life and mind of one of the British merchants resident in Canton and Macau and the restrictions", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206256, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS\n\n67\n\nthat associations have come to play an important role, as they do in the overseas Chinese communities. It seems that wherever there are Chinese people, there are typical Chinese social institutions, serving what we may call \"traditional\" social functions.\n\nIn Hong Kong, there is a network of social institutions very similar to that which obtains among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. There are chambers of commerce or merchants' associations, district and clan organizations, trade unions, religious and recreational associations, secret societies, etc. They provide roughly the same kinds of services as their counterparts overseas. In this part of the paper, I shall discuss a particular kind of local institution called the Kaifong Associations. Their roles in local community life are very similar to those performed by the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities. By comparing the Kaifongs and these overseas associations, we have a very good illustration of how traditional associations adjust to modern urban conditions, how they are carried along the currents of social change, and how they take part in the promotion of social change itself.\n\nThe word \"kaifong\" means a \"street neighbourhood\", and a Kaifong Association means the voluntary organization of the residents of a certain district. As local residents' associations, the Kaifongs have existed in Hong Kong since the mid 19th century. But strictly speaking, the modern Kaifongs are a post-war creation, adapted to the social situation in Hong Kong in the early 1950s. After the Japanese Occupation, there followed an intense period of reconstruction. The government's attention was claimed in many different directions. Thus it had to rely heavily on voluntary agencies for the organization of welfare. Under the direct encouragement of the Social Welfare Officer, the first modern Kaifong came into being in 1949.12 The number of Kaifongs grew rapidly to over 30 by the mid-1950s, and after a period of stability, jumped to over 50 after the mid-60s. Today, every urban district is served by a Kaifong association, and many of the new resettlement estates also have their own Kaifongs. The Kaifongs are voluntary organizations. The government does not directly supervise their affairs, although it keeps in close contact\n\n12 Hong Kong Annual Departmental Report by the Social Welfare Officer for the Period 1948-54.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206273, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "84 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\ntherefore in the hands of shopkeepers, compradors and pedlars of whom there are many, though their transactions when considered as a whole are but trifling.' \n\n12 \n\nIn his remarks on native trade, Gutzlaff states that an attempt had been made by a Cantonese capitalist to establish himself in Hong Kong. He is referring to Chinam, alias Chan Akuen, who with three other partners operated under the firm name of Tun Wo *. The Colonial Treasurer, R. M. Martin, also refers to him in his report: \"One man of reputed wealth named Chinam, who had been engaged in the opium trade, came to Hong Kong, built a good house, and freighted a ship. He soon returned to Canton, and died there of a fever and cold contracted in Hong Kong. It was understood, however, that had he lived he would have been prohibited from returning to Hong Kong\",13 \n\nIn June, 1843, Chinam bought Marine Lot 54 from Richard Oswald paying $8,000. At the time it had on it a Singapore frame house14 with brick enlargements. On the lot Chinam proceeded to build a large Hong in the Chinese style, but before the building was completed, he died in July, 1844. With his death the firm closed down its operations in Hong Kong and most of the Hong stood unoccupied for a number of years. One of Chinam's partners, Chan Chun-poo, was appointed his administrator, but due to irregularities in his handling of the estate he was imprisoned in 1854, and remained in prison for two years. He petitioned the Government for his release on the grounds of his advanced age. The property of Chinam's firm was sold in 1854 to Ow Yeung Sun, a trader from the San Wui District in Kwang Tung. \n\nAnother Canton firm that established itself in Hong Kong in the early days was Akow and Company. It was not in the same class as Chinam's Tun Wo firm, but its position was above that of the shopkeepers and tradesmen concentrated in the Bazaar areas. The company was granted Inland Lot 22 located at the corner of Queen's Road and Pottinger Street in the European section. The firm consisted of five partners, of whom Cheung Kam Cheong was resident in Hong Kong. He began to speculate in real estate and bought several lots at Government land auctions. His land investments were not successful and \n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206294, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n+\n\n105\n\nHe was not only perhaps a good preacher but a remarkably good man of business. He undoubtedly made a good use of his time, money and opportunities. He was a man who, from comparatively small beginnings, invested small sums of money in lots of land which he held on to, undoubtedly became in course of some years a man of considerable means and property. As a man in this position he took a very sensible view of the character and disposition of the gentleman under whom he was working in his special services as a preacher. He came to the conclusion that Dr. Chalmers, the head of the Mission by whom he was employed, would not like a man engaged in such services to have too great an interest in money. It was not wise for him to pose as a man possessing very much property, and if it were known that he did possess so much, more assistance might be looked for from him on behalf of the mission, than he cared to give.40\n\nBe that as it may, his wealth did enable his sons to acquire a good education and thus qualify themselves for leadership in the Chinese community.\n\nIn 1873 his son Ho Kai (f) went to study in England. He returned with degrees in medicine and law and an English bride. His wife soon died and her bereaved husband endowed Alice Memorial Hospital to her memory. Ho Kai was said to have been the first Chinese in Hong Kong to wear western style clothes. He was a recognized leader of the Chinese. He was a member of the Legislative Council from 1890 to 1914 and was knighted in 1912.41\n\nAnother son of the Rev. Ho Fuk Tong, Ho Wyson alias Ho Shan Po (1) also studied law in England. He did not have the gifts of leadership of his father and brother. An account of him written in 1891 states that although he \"is a thoroughly well read lawyer,... (he) is handicapped in court practice by a bashful modesty and a deficiency in what is known as 'the gift of gab'. He is also handicapped in general business by his phenomenally limited office hours. It is a joke in legal circles that Wyson's hours are from twelve to three, with an interval of one hour for tiffin\".42 He died in 1891.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206297, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "108\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nthe Chinese Classics. Few Chinese in Hong Kong at this period were noted for their literary or scholarly ability. Ho Fuk Tong was a good scholar, but in the area of Christian thought; having mastered Greek and Hebrew, he translated and edited Biblical Commentaries in Chinese. Though acquainted with the Chinese Classics, he was not an outstanding Chinese scholar. Wong T'ao, who like Ho Fuk Tong was closely associated with Rev. James Legge, was generally recognized as a competent Chinese literati. He was a baptized Christian and had come to Hong Kong from Shanghai because of suspected connections with the Tai Ping movement. He was recommended to Legge by the missionaries in Shanghai. Legge, who was involved in translating the Chinese Classics, found Wong T'ao to be an invaluable assistant and paid him the following tribute: \"This scholar, far exceeding in classical (knowledge) more than any of his countrymen whom the author had previously known, came to Hong Kong in the end of 1863, and placed at his disposal all the treasures of a large well-selected library. At the same time entering with spirit into his labours, now explaining, now arguing, as the case might be, he has not only helped but enlivened many days of toil\"45 Wong T'ao continued as editor of the Tsun Wan Yat Po until he left Hong Kong to return to Shanghai in 1884. He was largely responsible for the prestige the paper achieved, fulfilling in some measure the hopes of the prospectus for the paper that it \"would eventually become in China what the London Times is in England\"46. As a mark of his position in the community, his name appears on several memorials and deputations of representatives of the Chinese in Hong Kong in the 1880s.\n\nStill another Christian associated with the introduction of western style journalism in China was Wong Shing alias 黃勝 Wong Pin Po. Like Ho Fuk Tong and Wong T'ao, he was closely associated with Dr. Legge for a number of years.\n\nWong Shing was a native of Heung Shan District near Macao and was in the first class of the Morrison Educational Society School. The school's principal, the Rev. Samuel Robbins Brown, took Wong Shing with three other students for advanced study in the United States in 1846. Wong Shing's health broke down and he had to return to Hong Kong after two years in America.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206385, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "176\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe end of June and the beginning of September, and was then removed from its quarters of which I have spoken on board ship. Many civilians also fell victims to Hongkong fever. The mortality was mainly owing to the want of accommodation for the multitudes who kept pressing into the new colony, and to the miasma set free from the ground which was everywhere being turned up. I remember visiting officers who were living in small huts reared on the hill behind the general's house. It was no wonder that one after another they were seized with fever, and either died, or were invalided home. Then the drains were for the time all open, and an atmosphere of disease, which only the strongest constitutions and prudent living were able to resist, might be said to envelope the inhabitants day and night.\n\nI have intimated my opinion that there was no subsequent year of sickness and mortality so great as that of 1843; and nothing can be more delightful than the change in the colony in this respect. I do not think there is now a healthier residence on this side of Africa. This has been very gradually arrived at, by the increase of good houses, effectual drainage, the better supply of water, and the growth of trees and vegetation in general. There were other unhealthy years, and it came to be said that we might expect one of that character every seven years; but we have ceased to be troubled with the apprehension of such a periodic visitation. As to the healthiness from increased vegetation, I may mention that Dr. William Morrison, the colonial surgeon, who himself died from abscess of the liver, in October, 1883,* told me, some years before that event, that he had advised planting the ground on the south of the street behind the Murray Barracks with bamboos, as being of speedy growth. It was done, and soon the grove which every one of you knows, began to wave, and there was from that time a marked improvement in the health of the soldiers in those barracks.\n\nThe Colony, I have said, is now one of the healthiest residences, if not the very healthiest, in the East. The average of 14 years, reckoning back from the present, gives a rate of mortality for the foreign residents, not including the military, of a very little over 4 per cent; and in 1868, the rate was a trifle under 2 per cent, rather lower than the rate of mortality in Great Britain.\n\n* SIC: Morrison died later than the date given, but I have no reference books available at the time of writing. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206386, "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": 203, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n177\n\nIt ought always to be considerably lower than that, seeing the majority of our population consists of people in the prime of life, and we have hardly any of the deaths of the very old, and not so many of the deaths of children, which are the principal elements in the mortality at home. My belief, however, is that for young people coming out here, who will live regularly, and somewhat abstemiously rather than the contrary, the chances of their living out, and being uninjured by, the years of their sojourn, are quite as good as they would be in London.\n\nReturning from this digression on the health of the Colony, I may observe that before the end of 1843, I moved from the Morrison Hill to a house in D'Aguilar Street, that now forming the offices of Lapraik & Co. It was then a very different house from the present, and hardly half the size, but I had to pay $130 a month for it. Those were good days for parties who had houses to let. In the following year I moved to a house in Hollywood Road, which I had built, and which was subsequently for many years the Printing office of the London Missionary Society.\n\nFrom these two houses I used to walk to the Post Office which I have mentioned, when there was any arrival in the harbour by which I might expect letters. If there were any letters for me I got them; and then the postmaster would say, \"Here are letters also for so and so, and so and so, and so and so, in your neighbourhood. Please oblige me by taking them with you, and sending your coolie on with them.\" We used to get our home-letters then from Bombay by fast sailing clippers.\n\nIt was an era when the \"Lady Mary Wood\" came in with the Mail on the 13th August, 1845. She was the first of the P. & O.'s Mail steamers, and her passengers had been, I think, 55 days on the way from London to Hong Kong. And now have we not the same noble Company's steamers coming in twice a month in much shorter time, and the French steamers, and those of the Pacific Mail Company? Above all, have we not the Electric Telegraph, flashing news almost instantaneously from this to home, from home to this, Ariel-like putting its girdle round the earth? Verily the difference is great between that time and this.\n\nIn the early days there was next to no police guardianship; and the consequences were frequent disorders on the streets during the day, and many burglaries on a great scale during the night.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206391, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "182\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nI have drawn, you probably think, sufficiently long on your attention and patience already, and yet, that we may get a sufficient view of the growth of the Colony, I must ask you to go back with me to the time at which I had arrived when the unhealthiness of 1843 led me away into all these digressions. I will try, however, to be brief in what I have further to say.\n\nSir Henry Pottinger, I observed, was governor of the Colony when I came to it, and I was surprised to find that he was not by any means popular. He was a good man, people said, to conquer China, and a bad man to rule Hong Kong. The impression which I received from my intercourse with him was of a man condensed, reticent, powerful, who would have his own way, and was able to force it. Mr. Davis, afterwards Sir John Davis, arrived and relieved him in May, 1844; and his coming was hailed with eager expectation. He had been in China before in the East India Company's time, was a Chinese scholar, and had written a book on China, which is still the most readable and entertaining work on the country up to the time to which he was able to bring it down. He, it was thought, was just the man for the place. How it came about, I hardly know; but of all our governors he left his office under the greatest cloud of popular dissatisfaction. In his time, however, the Colony made very considerable advances. The arrival of Judge Hulme was almost contemporaneous with that of Sir John Davis, and a Court of Supreme judicature was constituted. Mr. May, whom we all know, arrived in March, 1843, and the police force began to take shape. Not long after, the tax on house property was proposed, and never was there a greater clamour in the place. It was argued that it was unconstitutional, an imperilling of that palladium of English liberty that taxation must go hand in hand with representation; and the revolt of the American Colonies in the last century was alluded to. It was not my lot, however, to be in Hong Kong during the greater part of Sir John Davis's administration. I was laid down with Hong Kong fever in the autumn of 1844, which returned with other complications in the following year, till I was carried on board ship on the 18th November, to make the passage round the Cape, my friends all supposing that Hong Kong had seen the last of me.\n\nTwo days after I had left, Ke-ying, the Chinese statesman, paid a visit to the Colony, and gave a grand entertainment to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206393, "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": 210, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "184 \n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nthe Colony, which his predecessor had not done, and which his successor was still less able to do. During all his time the Colony was in a dead-alive state. What trade had sprung up during its first years had rather decreased under Sir John Davis, and it was not till about 1854 that it received a fresh impulse. I remember walking, in 1849, one afternoon with old Mr. Holliday—so we should call him now with his stalwart sons among us—and having a gloomy conversation with him on the state and prospects of the place. Taking our stand at a point a little beyond what is now St. Paul's College, where we had a good view of the harbour, we counted 28 square-rigged vessels in it, storeships and all, with hardly a steamer among them. \"After all,” said Mr. Holliday, \"there must be some trade, else those vessels would not come to the place.\" By and by came the emigration to California, and afterwards that to Australia, but though these produced some excitement, they did little to the furtherance of trade. In 1850 the T'ae-p'ing rebellion began to be talked of, and, Sir George Bonham going on a visit to England, Dr. Bowring came down from his consulate in Canton to take his place, which finally became his own, when the other vacated his office in 1854, leaving his name in the Bonham Strand.\n\nAbout this time Yeh, whose name ere long became notorious all over the world, and who had for some time been governor of Canton province, was appointed viceroy of the two Kwang. The T'ae-p'ing rebels made themselves masters of Nanking, and the south and seaboard of China began to heave with rebellion. One body made itself master of Fat-shan, and Canton was threatened. Yeh, however, maintained himself there, keeping his executioners busy. The numbers put to death in 1852 and 1853 were very many every month, and they greatly multiplied, as the insurgents were gradually got under. It has always seemed to me that this was the turning point in the progress of Hongkong. As Canton was threatened, the families of means hastened to leave it, and many of them flocked to this Colony. Houses were in demand; rents rose; the streets that had been comparatively deserted assumed a crowded appearance; new commercial Chinese firms were founded; the native trade received an impetus which it had not lost till it was arrested by the superfluous vigour of some of Sir Richard MacDonnell's early ordinances.\n\nPage 210\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206395, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "186\n\nREV. JAMES LEGGE\n\nOn the 2nd July of that year, I was walking out on Caine's Road in the afternoon with a friend, when we saw a steamer coming through Sulphur Channel. At first we thought it must be the mail, but it proved to be the Shannon, with Lord Elgin on board. As she steamed into the harbour, and she and the Admiral saluted each other, and the thunder of their guns reverberated along the sides of the mountain, which were then all fringed with mist, I said to my companion, \"There is the knell of the past of China. It can do nothing against these leviathans.\" And so it was. I need not try to tell you how Lord Elgin's measures were delayed in a manner that contributed much, through his prompt and magnanimous decision, to the preservation of our Indian empire. All this and his subsequent proceedings in China may be seen in brief in the memoir of his Life published during the present year. It is only when he is gone that the public at large have the means of knowing what a good and great man Lord Elgin was,—bold, prudent, far-seeing, conscientious. I hope all my hearers, if they have not already read, will soon take the opportunity to read, that memoir, and especially the chapters relating to his two missions to China.\n\nThe Government at home was equal to the exigencies of the occasion as well as Lord Elgin. Fresh troops were sent out. He went to Calcutta, but was back from it in September. The war at Canton was brought to an end by the capture of the city on the 29th of that month, and Yeh was taken prisoner a few days after. The surprise and disgust of the Chinese in general were great, because he did not seal his loyalty to the dragon throne by at once committing suicide.\n\nIn January, 1858, I made a visit to Canton, and had the satisfaction of walking all over it, and on a Sunday opened the first house, that was set apart in it to that purpose, for the preaching of the gospel. My sermon was followed by one from a relative of the T'ae-ping king, who came subsequently to be well known himself at Nanking as the Shield King. Poor man! He had been connected with the London Mission here for several years, and was the most genial and versatile Chinese I have ever known, and of whom I can never think but with esteem and regret. Had he taken my advice, he would have remained quietly in Hongkong as a preacher, and might have been living with his head on him to the present day.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206398, "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": 215, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n189\n\ngood effects. It would have been more fruitful, however, if it had been better carried out, first by Sir Hercules Robinson, and then by Sir Richard MacDonnell. The materials supplied to them from home, in one relay of students and another, were excellent; but there should have been no diverting them away from their proper business of study, until they had given proof of their proficiency by actual interpretation in the Supreme Court; after which, every other office in the Colony, under that of the Governor himself, should have been open to them according to their aptitudes.\n\nTo Sir Hercules also we are indebted for the beginning of our Water Works; and if they were not constructed at first on a sufficiently large scale, where are we still, after so many years, and so continued an expenditure? With all their deficiency, they are a great boon; and when I have read the lucubrations of grumbling complainers, I have laughed in recollecting the scenes of early years, when, every night in the dry season, hundreds, of a small population comparatively, might be seen streaming on the hills with pitchers and buckets, searching for the precious element.\n\nIn Sir Hercules' time also it was that the present Gaol was built, to take charge of which there came out in November 1863, its model governor, Mr. Douglas. Then came gas to illuminate our streets and houses, and a commencement of the Public Gardens was made. The conception of the Mint always appeared to me admirable, and I thought there would be in it an institution that would greatly contribute to the prosperity and influence of the Colony. It has not turned out so. The refining of sugar is a good thing, but I had much rather that the buildings had continued to be employed for coining money.\n\nIn two only of his undertakings did Sir Hercules fail,--the building the prison on Stonecutters' Island, and his management of the newly-acquired territory on the Kowloon side of the harbour. I have heard that he could not get his way with that through the clashing of his views and those of the naval and military Authorities. However that was, the delay in offering the ground for sale to the public, which was done at last at upset prices absurdly high, allowed the ebbing of the tide of factitious prosperity to set in. Perhaps it was well. The impulse from abroad once removed, there was nothing in the Colony itself to sustain", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206416, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n207\n\nboos was taken to the other end of the village and similarly placed.\n\nLastly, the geomancer declared that work could start in three days' time and said the ceremonies were over.\n\n18 January, 1960.\n\nPostscript. The Village Representative came into our office two days later and I asked him about the cockerel. He said it was quite healthy and could see. I said I didn't believe him and asked to see the victim that afternoon. He had a good laugh and explained that the nail was stuck in the eye socket in such a way as to avoid the eye. I still insisted and arranged to see it that afternoon. When I saw the cockerel I was indeed surprised. It looked quite healthy and appeared to be the same one. On closer examination I found that one eye was blinded. Apparently the geomancer fumbled a bit.\n\n21 January 1960.\n\nDETAILS OF A TUN FU CEREMONY HELD ON 23 MARCH 1960 IN FRONT OF THE TSUI (#) FAMILY ANCESTRAL HALL AT SAI KUNG MARKET TO PROTECT THE CLAN FROM THE EVIL INFLUENCES OF WIDENING HIRAM'S HIGHWAY\n\nThese notes and pictures* are supplementary to the Pak Wai Tun Fu. This ceremony differed in many details from the one held previously, especially in that the cockerel used was not sacrificed. The attached photographs* show the ceremony in proper sequence and the differences between the two ceremonies are pointed out.\n\nCompared with the other Fung Shui Sin Sang† who conducted the ceremony at Pak Wai, this one was rather untidy and did not seem to care where the offerings and gadgets were placed on the altar; but his manner and style were far more impressive and he gave the impression that great and mysterious things were happening.\n\nPhotograph No. 1.\n\nWriting on the bamboo stakes that will protect the village.\n\n* Unfortunately not now available.\n\n† Geomancer,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206425, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "216\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\ncusp of the crescent\" (of the Praya Grande), deserves the derision of every collector.\n\nTheir description of \"the ambroidered (sic) phoenix plastron” conclusively proves the authors know nothing of the eight privileged classes in China. With this lack of knowledge they are in no position to comment on any portrait of a mandarin or hong merchant. To suggest that Gou Qua, a hong merchant, would take to the street as a fortune teller is quite impossible as he would lose face by such an act and never would paint himself in this situation.\n\nThe authors really know very little about Chinnery. They state \"Chinnery's forte was for portraits and these comprise the greater part of his oeuvre\". Pages later they quote him \"I have about 6,000 sketches of Eastern Scenery already - an invaluable collection, I assure you; but you see I am constantly accumulating”. They produce the completely unproven slur that one of the portraits he painted was of “a man of great wealth, an important qualification in the artist's philosophy as he was at his best when a generous fee had been agreed\". They also attempt, again with no proof, to attribute to him “occasional bouts of opium smoking”.\n\nIt is an error to say \"Russell & Co..... in turn came under control of Low Brothers of Salem\". W. H. Low, Senior was a partner 1830-1833. His nephew, A. A. Low, was a clerk 1833-1837, partner 1837-1840. W. H. Low 2nd worked as a clerk but never was a partner. The famous firm of A. A. Low and Bros. of New York, please, not Salem - was founded in 1841 by A. A. Low after he had retired from Russell & Co. It is a solecism to call the firm \"Russells\". It makes a good story only to the authors that \"W. C. Hunter\", later a partner in Russell & Co., “grasped sufficient of the local dialect to act as interpreter\". It is common knowledge that he specifically was sent to Singapore and Malacca to study Chinese.\n\nIt is inaccurate to state that Harriet Low, in her Diary, mentions seeing the double portrait of Dr. & Mrs. Colledge, plate 79, in London at Daniells' on 19 July 1834. She \"saw pictures of Mr. & Mrs. Colledge, not a single picture. Let us read further in the Diary: \"Ayok\" (the Low Chinese servant) \"burst into quite an hysterical laugh when he saw his father's face in Mr. Colledge's picture\". This is an obvious reference to the Chinnery portrait", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206472, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "14\n\nDR. F. I. TSEUNG\n\nHowever, scientific medicine has made such rapid progress that the art of feeling the pulse as a diagnostic method has lost much of its practical value. At the present time, it can only be regarded as an interesting fact in medical history, one of China's contributions to medicine in the past.\n\nIn his handbook Prescriptions for Emergencies, Ko Hung described small-pox in the following words:\n\nRecently there are persons suffering from epidemic sores which attack the head, face and trunk. In a short time they spread all over the body. The sores have the appearance of hot boils containing some white matter. While some of these pustules are drying up, a fresh crop appears. Patients who recover are disfigured with purplish scars which do not fade until after a year. The people say that it was introduced in the reign of Chien Wu (£) when the king was fighting the Huns () at Nan-yang ($). The name 'Hunpox' (✓) was given to it.\n\nBefore the Han dynasty, the Chinese healing art was entirely indigenous. In the Tang dynasty, following close on the heels of the introduction of Buddhism into China, came Indian ideas and therapeutic measures. The Taoists also exercised influence by inventing a system of charms for curing diseases. In this dynasty there were two very outstanding medical men, namely Sun Szu-mo (EL) and Wong Tao (£) who published two important works called Thousand Gold Remedies (Chien Chin Fang ✓✓) and the Medical Secrets of an Official (Wei Tai Pi Yao ✓✓✓✓). These two famous medical works sum up the advances and medical thought of all the previous dynasties.\n\nThus, in the Thousand Gold Remedies, it was pointed out that cholera was caused by eating food which was contaminated and was not due to the evil influences of demons as generally believed by the public at that time. In the same book is mentioned the use of catheterisation for retention of urine. It is significant to note that the Medical Secrets of an Official as well as the Thousand Gold Remedies recommend the use of thyroid gland for the treatment of goitre.\n\nOrganotherapy, formerly much ridiculed by foreigners, but now hailed as a valuable modern discovery, has been known to every Chinese house-wife. The common practice of administering kidney for backache, lungs for consumption and cough, brain for nervous", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206473, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 21, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "CHINESE MEDICINE\n\n15\n\nweakness, etc., may be too far fetched, but the basic idea of endocrinology exists. In recent years a great variety of glandular substance has been used in medicine. Of these the thyroid, pituitary, suprarenals, pancreas, liver and the placenta, have been found to be of therapeutic value. It is remarkable that many of them have been used and incorporated in Chinese pharmacopoeia for ages past.\n\nThe Ming dynasty is the most glorious in the history of the pharmacopoeia of China. The most important contribution is the Pen Tsao Kang Mu (†1), the National Pharmacopoeia of China, compiled by Li Shi-chen. This is one of the most popular works on Chinese medicine, and is considered a great classic. It consists of some 52 comprehensive volumes divided into the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the mineral kingdom and others, with a description of 1,892 kinds of different substances.\n\nIt contains many drugs which are common in both the East and the West. It took Li Shi-chen, the city magistrate, almost thirty years of hard work to complete this commendable piece of good work. This book is extremely rich in remedies, especially those of the vegetable origin, and offers a rich field for scientific research. Considerable attention has been directed to it by foreign writers, notably Du Halde who translated part of it into French in 1735 and Porter Smith in 1871.\n\nIn 1911, Stuart extensively revised Smith's work and published the Chinese Materia Medica, the vegetable kingdom. Works on the mineral kingdom and the avian kingdom were published by Bernard Read in recent years. An attempt was started by the Chinese Government to carry out scientific research on the drugs contained in the Chinese Materia Medica, but the war with Japan aborted the work.\n\nPerhaps, the earliest Chinese drug that has won its way abroad is China root, the so-called Chinese sarsaparilla, once reputed as a remedy for syphilis. Its fame spread as far as to India, Persia and Turkestan in the 16th century, and in Indian literature it was mentioned that syphilis came from Europe but China root could cure it. Eumenol, a liquid extract of tang kuei (†14), was introduced into Europe by the Germans in 1899, and is said to be effective in menstrual disorders.\n\nMacanin, a preparation from a Chinese seaweed, has been put on the market by the Japanese and vigorously advertised as a sub-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206485, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 33, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "NINETEENTH CENTURY WATER-COLOURS OF CANTON\n\n27\n\na loss to them as well as to ourselves, from shells fired by the Navy\". On the other hand, Mr. Loch, Lord Elgin's attaché with the attacking forces, reported back to Lord Elgin on 5th January 1858 that \"by the bombardment being continued till 9 o'clock instead of ceasing at 6 o'clock a.m., as was originally intended, we came under the fire of our own shells from the ships\".12\n\nOnce Canton was taken, the Artillery company formed part of the garrison. The authors of the official history of the Royal Marine Artillery make no reference to the \"Jingal pic-nic\" incident, but do mention a sortie against the Chinese on June 2nd 1858, in which Major Schomberg took part. Col. Fisher also relates this incident, in which the British forces lost several men and suffered from the extreme heat, but again does not give the names of the officers concerned.\n\nFor the rest of the summer after the voyage to the Peiho (not mentioned in The Royal Marine Artillery), Major Schomberg seems to have spent his time amusing himself as best he could in Canton. In September the garrison was enlivened by the visit of \"poor Albert Smith\" as Col. Fisher calls him. Their visitor, who seems to have been permanently suffering from stomach trouble and the heat, was taken on a round of the sights, including the Honan Temple (picture number XXXIII), and on 12th September 1858, notes that he had dinner with \"Captain\" Schomberg.\n\nFisher comments that apart from horse-racing \"cricket was one of the first sports we introduced; and the Tartar parade-ground at the foot of the heights formed really a very good ground\". Major Schomberg was not much of a cricketer, and the \"Hong Kong Register\" for the 9th March 1858, reports that in a match played in Canton between two military teams he scored a duck in both innings.\n\nThe Royal Marine Artillery gives the date of Schomberg's return to England as January 1859, which fits in well with the date on the last of the paintings: curiously, there is no mention of his name on any of the lists of passengers in Hong Kong newspapers for that month, but this may be because he returned on a troop-ship.\n\nIn later life Schomberg went on to be Deputy Adjutant General of the Royal Marines. He was made a general in 1877 and was knighted in 1896. He died at the age of eighty-six in 1907.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206492, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "34\n\n!\n\nLEIGH R. WRIGHT\n\nThe issue of Brooke's status revolved around, firstly, the question of whether or not a subject of the Queen could hold the position as a sovereign prince of a foreign state; and, secondly, whether Brooke was in fact an independent ruler or a vassal of the Sultan of Brunei.\n\nThe issue, however, was not a burning one in the ministries of Whitehall. Despite the fact that Borneo was of concern to Britain as the guardian of the eastern flank of the South China Sea route to the China coast, and was to assume, gradually, more strategic value as first France and later Germany began colonial operations in the area, at mid-century Britain possessed a colony and naval station at Labuan and a (“good strong”) consular treaty with Brunei which gave her a certain measure of control, if she chose to indulge it, in Brunei's relations with foreign states. Most of the Colonial and Foreign Secretaries in London, until the 1870s were not very interested in defining precisely Raja Brooke's status,\n\nFor the most part, Whitehall grudgingly approved of Brooke's “civilizing influence\" in Borneo. Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary in 1846, offered naval support for the suppression of piracy, and during a later term of office gave standing orders to the Eastern squadron to visit Sarawak at regular intervals. But the Foreign Office generally held to the view that \"it is not the policy of Her Majesty's Government that British subjects should possess territory on the mainland of Borneo\".\n\nLord Clarendon, when Foreign Secretary in the mid-1850s, came close to disavowing Brooke's position in Sarawak. In 1853 the Raja took issue with a Foreign Office statement that seemed to assume that Brooke was a vassal of Brunei. Clarendon minuted,\n\nIt seems to me that the various documents tend to prove how cautiously the government abstained from recognizing his (Brooke's) independence although in various ways the anomalous character of his position has been admitted.\n\nBut Clarendon did not leave it at that. When in 1855 Spencer St. John succeeded Brooke as Consul in Brunei he suggested to the Foreign Office that he also be accredited to Sarawak as an independent state. The Raja agreed and insisted that the new consul must receive his exequatur from him. This act would render the desired\n\n6 FO to Admiralty, 24 July 1846, FO 12/4.\n\n7 Clarendon minute upon Brooke to FO, 27 September 1853, FO 12/13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206525, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n67\n\nthe charge of the North Division magistrate, who was also Secretary to Government. The Secretary held a dormant commission to administer the affairs of the Territory in the Commissioner's absence. The South Division contained all the rest of the leased Territory, i.e., seventeen out of the twenty-six districts, and it was presided over by the South Division Magistrate, who also acted as District Officer. This gentleman controlled a diminutive police force of a sergeant and seven men, all Chinese; all his other staff were Chinese. Apart from the District Officer, there was only one other European official resident in the South Division, which contained 231 out of the 315 villages of the Territory.\n\nUntil 1906, however, Lockhart as Commissioner could call upon the services of the Chinese Regiment in any emergency which the police were unable to cope with. This Regiment was raised in early 1899 and owed its origin to a suggestion made by Field-Marshal Sir Garnet Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief, that Chinese troops could be organised at Weihaiwei for use in other places. According to R.F. Johnston: 'They did good service in promptly suppressing an attempted rising in the leased Territory, and on being sent to the front to take part in the operations against the Boxers in 1900, they behaved exceedingly well, both during the attack on Tientsin, and on the march to Peking.' Johnston, it seems, over-praised their contribution for between 1899 and 1901 over 800 deserted and many of them moved straight into Chinese service after having passed through what came to be known as \"the Wei Hai Wei Military School\". As the India Office pointed out, Great Britain was in effect furnishing a \"steady annual supply of trained soldiers\" to China. At its greatest strength the Chinese Regiment numbered 1,300 officers and men but in 1906, the year the Regiment was disbanded, their numbers had fallen to about 600. A few picked men were retained as a permanent police force, and three European non-commissioned officers were provided with appointments on the civil establishment as police inspectors. In 1910, therefore, the entire Territory was policed by only fifty-six Chinese constables and three inspectors. There was no permanent garrison of British troops.\n\nWeihaiwei was officially designated not as a Colony but as a Territory, which meant that Lockhart as Commissioner was head of the local government and subject only to the control of His Majesty exercised through the Secretary of State for the Colonies in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206527, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n69\n\ncentury in close proximity to Hong-Kong, and were acquainted with its methods of administration and system of law and police, many of them, indeed being engaged in trade or working as labourers in that Colony. In the latter case, the Chinese of Wei-Hai-Wei had never had any experience of British administration until the territory was leased in 1898, and were, therefore, quite ignorant of the principles underlying that administration. Again the Chinese of the new territory of Hong Kong did not enjoy a good reputation for orderly behaviour, whereas the natives here have shown themselves law-abiding, docile, and orderly. After due deliberation I came to the conclusion that the most effective and economic plan would be to continue the system of policing the territory through the headmen of the villages and to retain it so long as it continued to work satisfactorily, instead of dotting Police Stations throughout the territory in charge of Inspectors, who would be unable to communicate with the people except through interpreters, a system which almost invariably results in corruption and malpractices. That system, which is suitable to the whole of the territory, except the town of Port Edward and the island of Liu Kung, is based on the fact that the unit of society is the family or village and not the individual as in the west. Headmen are appointed for each village or group of villages and are held responsible for the maintenance of peace and good order in their villages. If any trouble arises, the headman reports the matter and aids in making any arrests that may be necessary.\n\nThe principal source of revenue, as in the New Territories, was at first the land tax. In Weihaiwei this was based on the old land registers handed over by the Chinese magistrates. For many years past, R.F. Johnston wrote, 'every village had paid through the headman or committee of headmen a certain sum of money which by courtesy is called a land-tax. How that amount is assessed among the various families is a matter which the people decide for themselves on the general understanding that no one should be called upon to pay more than his ancestors paid before him unless the family property has been considerably increased.'35 The Territory under Lockhart's administration prospered, for in four years the Imperial Grant-in-Aid was reduced to less than one-third of its amount at the time when he first took office; however, owing to the reduction of the British Fleet in China in 1906 and the less frequent visit of men-of-war to Weihaiwei, the business of Port Edward was\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206631, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n173\n\nborn a lump of formless flesh which so horrified his father, King Chou, that he ordered it to be abandoned outside the city walls. The lump was recognised as an Immortal, the caul split open and the child removed. He was cared for by a hermit and brought up and nursed by one of the eight Immortals, Ho Hsien Ku († plikt). When he came of age, Ho revealed to him his identity and that his mother, as punishment for bearing such a \"monster\", had been thrown from a high window. Yin then determined to destroy the Imperial concubine who was the Royal favourite and by her calumnies had caused both the death of his mother and his ejection from the city. Yin was presented with two magic weapons by the Goddess T'ien Fei (Ait), a gold club and battleaxe. After the big battle between the forces of Shang and Chou, Yin destroyed the Imperial concubine and was rewarded by the Jade Emperor for his bravery and for his filial piety with the titles of T'ai Sui and Marshal Yin (†). Yin Ch'iao means \"Yin (who was deserted in) the suburbs\". His child's name, so Doré records, whilst living with Ho Hsien Ku was Chin No Cha (4). This adds further confusion to the legends surrounding No Cha, another deity and one who appears with great frequency in Chinese legends and fairy tales.\n\nAnother of the legends in The Deification of the Gods tells of Yin Ch'iao first on the side of his father, the wicked King Chou, and then later, switching sides, and fighting with the good King Wu. Yin Ch'iao was decapitated by a general during the battle after being enclosed by the Buddha Jan Teng () between two mountains leaving only his head protruding. He was deified by Chiang Tze Ya (†††), as described in the 99th chapter of The Deification of the Gods during the general elevation of the gods and also given the presidency of the Ministry of Time. In another novel of the same era as the Deification, the Sou Shen Chi (†††2) the Jade Emperor (11) conferred on Yin the title of T'ai Sui, Marshal Yin (★★K) for his services in combating evil.\n\nYet another story describes a jealous rival of Yin Ch'iao's mother who, as a concubine to the King, caused him to order the execution of Yin Ch'iao, his son, for plotting treason. He was saved by the magic of Ch'ih Tsing Tze (T).\n\n2 Record of Research into the Gods (part of the T'ao Tsang).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206674, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "216\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\ndilettante until the Kang-hsi period scholar Ho Cho (*) made known his annotated manuscript copy of the book. Thus the KKYL comes down to the Ching period with the great prestige it acquired during the Ming period, through no merit of its own but through the obscurity of other early work. It may be said that the T'u-hui Pao-chien, composed not long before the KKYL, also suffered the same good fortune. The value of the KKYL for study today lies not in the originality of the material; rather, it deserves study for what it indirectly reveals of early Ming tastes and popular beliefs regarding works of art. More importantly, it serves as a record of the confusion that resulted from the very great cultural and social upheavals which took place in China as a result of the Mongol conquest. The Yuan and early Ming periods saw the \"popularisation\" of a class of knowledge which had hitherto been confined to a very small élite. Ts'ao Chao was a man who stood mid-way between the old élite and the newly literate, and helped to propagate such knowledge. When Ming society settled down to a new pattern, a new class of literate élite grew up in the Chiang-nan area (mainly Chiangsu and Chekiang provinces) with their own canons of taste which have been recorded in books such as Kao Lien's Tsun-shêng Pa-chien but nowhere more elegantly than in Wên Chên-hêng's Ch'ang-wu-chih.\n\nWe now turn to the additions made by subsequent editors incorporated in the Wang Tso edition. These additions occupy several times more space than the original three chapters. Wang Tso, despite the peculiarity of his tastes (which were not so for his age), at least had the honesty to quote his own sources (often not the original sources of the passages). He, like many dilettantes of his time, had a great predilection for calligraphy, especially \"ancient\" calligraphy as transmitted in the form of old rubbings and, in particular, rubbings of the Lan-t'ing Preface supposedly written in 353 by Wang Hsi-chih, the most revered of Chinese calligraphers of all times. Quite one fifth of Wang Tso's book is devoted to calligraphy and rubbings (sixty pages in a translation text of about three hundred pages), and a large portion of this section is devoted to the not always consistent myths and legends which had grown round the holy script through the centuries. Now, Chinese connoisseurship, even without the benefit of western analytical methods, is usually highly sensitive and astute. But when it came to the Lan-t'ing Preface, all the enlightened perception of nearly all scholars throughout", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206683, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n225\n\nrank in a number of groups) and even the White Lotus itself — all listed by the author (I am here using his translations and romanizations) — had a systematically worked-out theology, exegeses existing independently of any other Chinese religion, a mother goddess unknown in any other Chinese pantheon, and they looked for the coming of an incarnate buddha, Maitreya, who is to preside over a millennial age. They had elaborate ranks with elaborate religious qualifications, and indeed in many cases it would appear by examination of such ranks, as well as theology and lines of patriarchal succession that they are offshoots of each other. This is certainly claimed to be the case by leaders of some of these messianic organizations living overseas in contemporary times (Topley 1963). Such groups attracted the frustrated intellectual as well as the poorer member of society who might find a home in one of their residential, commonly vegetarian, halls. They had a dialectical approach to the social and ideological contradictions they saw in their society and culture: in some ways more Confucian than the Confucians who urged self-cultivation as a requirement for good government by the official, they made a necessity of a virtue and demanded this qualification for an administrative position in their own organizational hierarchy. And here is an important point. They offered a social and ideological system which was a complete challenge, not just to existing leadership but the form of society itself. Social organization would be unnecessary when the millennium came, because people would act from intuitive knowledge of the right way to behave. Virtue would be the only qualification for the decision-maker and its own reward. There would be no poverty and no contradictions. Such notions are not of course without parallel in secular China today. Is it really true, as the author suggests that they 'contributed to the survival of outdated ideas and beliefs'? Or might they have not paved the way for certain contemporary Chinese ways of thinking? All this requires much more serious thought, as does also, the particular nature of their militant involvements: what role in military activities and strategy-planning would a leader of this kind of organization have a man whose position appears to depend on religious rather than social achievements; on intellect rather than physical prowess (Topley 1968: 35, 38)?\n\nJ\n\nThere was then another kind of grouping which was different. It used religious concepts and symbols but had no separate theology or exegeses. No religious qualifications were necessary for leader-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206765, "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-1973", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "36 \n\nA. J. S. LACK \n\nAt the same meeting another unofficial member, Mr. Osborne,* mounted a quite blistering attack upon Government's past failure to provide adequately for the shelter of the boat people in Hong Kong. He referred to the typhoon of 1841 and to the storm of 1874 in which over 2,000 lives were lost within the space of 6 hours and 35 foreign vessels were wrecked or badly damaged. He claimed that the screaming of those in distress on the water could be heard in the mid levels of the town above the noise of the storm. He went on to refer to subsequent and more recent typhoons, one of which (1906) had exacted a toll of 10,000 lives in two hours. He demanded to know what it was that had been done with the lessons of previous years, and came to the reluctant conclusion that very little had been done. He castigated Government's lavish expenditure on various new public buildings, notably the Supreme Court, the Harbour Office, and the intended Post Office Building, as being quite beyond the bounds of what was required, and ended with these remarks,\n\nDuring a rather long residence in the Colony, I have had exceptional opportunities of coming into contact with the boat population. Though, like most humanity, their character is a blend of the good and the bad, there is one quality they possess in marked degree, which has always commanded my deep admiration, and that is their patience and philosophic bearing under circumstances of trial and suffering. In their name, Sir, and apart from the commercial aspect to which I have alluded, in the name of thousands who have already suffered in silence the misery wrought by these destructive storms, I appeal to your Excellency that there shall be no further delay in giving them the shelter which it is our clear and bounden duty to provide.\n\nThese words put the officials on their mettle. At the next meeting of the Council, the Director of Public Works and His Excellency the Governor were at pains to assure members that something was going to be done about the typhoon shelter: in fact, they had purchased a dredger on which to begin work on the foundations of the shelter. This provoked an unexpected row because some members considered that another dredger also for sale in the harbour at that\n\n* Edward Osborne, listed in Who's Who in the Far East as Secretary of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co., b. 1861, with P & O Steam Navigation Co. in London and Hong Kong 1880-1889. Director of Hong Kong Hotel, Dairy Farm, Steam Laundry, etc.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206779, "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-1973", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "50\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nJardine should not pass up the river. In the outcome, the passengers for Canton continued their journey in a sailing boat, and the Jardine returned to Lintin.\n\nSome time later the Chinese repeated their demand that the Jardine must leave the country, and as her machinery needed repair, she left for Singapore under sail, and arrived there on 28th February 1836. After several ineffectual attempts to repair the engines and to sell her, the engines were removed and the Jardine was converted permanently to a sailing ship. As such she returned to China on 23rd September 1836, but was recognised at Lintin as the \"smoke ship\" which had been turned away some nine months before. Although now minus the offending engines and paddle wheels, the hoppo decreed that she must leave. Her later history is obscure, but she seems to have continued in Jardine, Matheson and Company's fleet as a schooner. In his British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-1842, Michael Greenberg includes her in a list of the Company's ships on the China coast in 1840.\n\nIt was the operations of the steamships of the Royal Navy and of the East India Company in the First China War, 1840-1842, which proved the value and practicability of steamships in Chinese waters. By the end of the war there were 48 British warships on the coast, including hospital, troop, and supply ships. Fourteen of these were steamships, nine wooden and five iron, the best known being the Nemesis.\n\nThe Nemesis was a pioneer in several respects, and it was her exploits in the First China War which advertised the many advantages of steam over sail in coastal waters. She was the first iron steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, and to operate in Chinese waters for any length of time. Her outward passage to China in 1840 was probably the longest and most perilous voyage undertaken by a steamship up to that time; and some of the problems posed by her iron construction were never fully solved in her time—compass errors and the effects of lightning, for instance. She was flat bottomed and of shallow draft, only drawing six feet when fully loaded. She had two movable sliding keels, one fore and one aft of the engine room, and was divided into seven watertight compartments. With her shallow draft (she could be made to draw as little as five feet when necessary) the Nemesis was especially handy for inshore work on the coast and rivers. She probably demoralised", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206780, "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-1973", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA\n\n51\n\nthe Chinese more than all the rest of the British warships put together,\n\nChinese opposition to steamships was overborne after the First China War, and in the years between then and the Second China War 1857-1858, steam navigation in China was established on a secure foundation. During the first two decades of steam, American ships were as prominent as British on the Canton River and on the coast, and sometimes more technically efficient. This was largely because the Americans made good use of their experience on the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers, and also because their early steamships were designed specially for coastal and river conditions. Many of the early British steamships were merely sailing ships equipped with engines.\n\nThe earliest American steamers were associated with Russell and Company, and Robert Benet Forbes was the man mainly responsible for bringing most of these early steamships to China. The first was the Midas, built at East Boston in 1844, which was the first American steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, as well as being the first to be seen in China. The Midas arrived at Hong Kong on 21st May 1845, and was put on a twice weekly service between Hong Kong and Canton, the first regular steamship service in China. She also engaged in towing and salvage work, which was usually more profitable than carrying passengers or cargo; so that the advertised regular sailings were often more honoured in the breach than in the observance.\n\nThe Midas was followed by the wooden screw bark Edith, also built at East Boston, which arrived at Macao on 2nd September 1845 and Hong Kong a few days later. The Edith was originally intended to run in the opium trade between India and China, but plans were changed and she was loaded with general cargo for Shanghai. Bad weather and engine trouble foiled two attempts to make this passage, and the Edith was eventually sent back to Boston via Rio de Janeiro, reconditioned at Boston and then chartered to the United States War Department.\n\nIn 1846 Forbes sent the small 20 ton screw steamer Firefly on another ship to Hong Kong, and put her in service between Hong Kong and Whampoa until 1849, usually making two trips daily. She was withdrawn in 1849 and sent to California by sailing ship.\n\nIn 1846 Jardines were successful in inaugurating the first British steamship service on the river, with the Corsair between Hong Kong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206785, "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-1973", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "Vessel Nemesis\n\nMaterial Tons 1839 Iron 630 gross\n\nBuilder Laird & Co., Birkenhead, England.\n\nDimensions\n\n184'0\" X 29'0\"\n\nX ?\n\nEngines and Builder Paddle, Forrester & Co., Liverpool.\n\nRemarks: First iron steamship to round the Cape of Good Hope, played prominent part in the First China War.\n\nLady Mary\n\nWood\n\n1842 Wood 297 net\n\nT. Wilson, Liverpool. England.\n\nMidas\n\n?\n\n250 h.p., Paddle, Fawcett & Co., Birmingham.\n\n56\n\nRemarks: Inaugurated first regular mail service to China in 1846. First P. and O. ship to visit China.\n\n1844 Wood 145 gross\n\nS. Hall & Co., Boston, Mass.\n\n?\n\nTwin screw, Hogg & Delameter, New York.\n\nRemarks: First American, and first propeller-driven steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope; operated first steamship service in China.\n\nIron Prince\n\n1845 Iron 180 gross\n\nJ. Hodgson & Co., Liverpool,\n\n119'8\" x 17'4\" X 11'8\"\n\nPaddle, by shipbuilders\n\nSir Charles Forbes\n\n1846 Wood 211 gross\n\nMercantile\n\n130'1\" x 18'5\"\n\nDock, Bombay.\n\nX 10'2\"\n\nCanton\n\nRemarks: Chartered by P.\n\n1848 Iron 349 gross\n\nand O., and their second ship on Canton River,\n\nTod &\n\nMacgregor,\n\nGlasgow.\n\n172'7\" x 21'4”\n\nX 10'7\"\n\n150 h.p., Paddle,\n\nby shipbuilders\n\nRemarks: First P. and O. ship on Canton River.\n\nA. D. BLUE", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206791, "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-1973", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "62\n\nCHIU LING-YEONG\n\nT'ang government to maintain the security and prosperity of these multi-racial cities harmoniously and peacefully.\n\nII\n\nIn T'ang China, apart from the capital Ch'ang-an and the Eastern capital Lo-yang, the most prosperous cities within the Empire were Kuang-chou, Yang-chou, Chiao-chou, and Ch'üan-chou.16 These cities were all centres of Persian and Arabian trade. There were a large number of Persians and Arabs living in these cities. In A.D. 760, when T'ien Shen-kung raided Yang-chou, it was recorded that several thousands of Persians and Arabs were massacred.17 It is not clear whether this was an isolated incident or an act of retaliation because the Persians and Arabs had sacked Canton in A.D. 758.18\n\nIt was also believed that Huang Chao had killed thousands of foreign merchants when he captured Canton in A.D. 878.19 The large number of Persians and Arabs killed in Yang-chou and Canton confirmed that the foreign population in these cities was indeed very large. Activities of Persians and Arabs in these cities were confined to maritime trade because the majority of them were merchants. There were also Islamic disciples who came to China with the intention to preach. In the reign of Wu-te (A.D. 618-626), four Islamic disciples were dispatched to China to spread the Mohammedan faith. Of these four, one was posted in Canton, one in Yang-chou and the other two were stationed in Ch'üan-chou.20 There is evidence that some of these Persians, Arabs and Uighurs were also engaged in the restaurant business in Yang-chou and Ch'ang-an. It was recorded that they made very good hu-ping, yu-chien ping and pi-lo.21 Ssu-ma Kuang mentioned in his Tzu-chih t'ung-chien that when Hsüan-tsung took his 'Imperial Excursion' to Szechuan during An Lu-shan's rebellion, the 'Excursion' set off so suddenly that the Emperor had no chance to bring his chef with him. His brother-in-law, Yang Kuo-chung therefore, had to buy hu-ping for him during their journey to the West China.22\n\nThe Persian and Arabian merchants brought to China precious stones and hsiang-yao; and they always could earn a fortune very easily by these commodities. Financially speaking, maritime trade had become very important in the beginning of the eighth", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206792, "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-1973", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA\n\n63\n\ncentury. The Persians and Arabs, apart from importing foreign goods to China, also became the middlemen of the maritime trade between China and the rest of the world.23 T'ang China realized that certain steps should be taken to govern this trade and the commercial activities of foreigners. The office of the Shih-po-ssu was first established in Canton in A.D. 714. The governor of Kuang-chou concurrently acted as head of this office. The duty of the office was to levy taxes on imported goods. The office also had regulations dealing with exported goods. According to T'ang law, a number of items were prohibited to be exported, like silver, copper, iron and T'ang currency. Naturally some of the governors in Kuang-chou were greedy, dishonest and corrupt. As a result of this, relations between Canton officials and foreigners were not always amiable. The murder of the Kuang-chou governor, Lu Yüan-jui 路元叡 by the K'un-lun was the result of the evil-doings of these corrupt governors in Kuang-chou.24 Tzu-chih t'ung-chien records this incident as follows:\n\n+\n\n+\n\nthe governor of Kuang-chou, Lu Yüan-jui, was killed by the K'un-lun. Yüan-jui was ignorant and weak; his officials were licentious and extortionate. When merchant vessels came, these officials appropriated (the goods for themselves) without stop; foreign merchants, therefore, complained to Yüan-jui. Yüan-jui wanted to punish (the foreign merchants) so he ordered them to be tied up. The group of foreigners were very angry. Then a K'un-lun came straight into the office with a sword hidden in his sleeves and killed Yüan-jui and more than ten other people around him before he escaped. No one dared to get close (to this man). He boarded a ship and entered the sea. The port-officials gave chase, but it was too late.25\n\nLu Yüan-jui's successor, Wang Fang-ching, was described as a reformer who held the post for several years without any exploitation (of the merchants).26\n\nThe opening of the Ta-yü Ling Pass by Chang Ch'iu-ling in A.D. 728 together with a period of comparative honesty and good administration in Kuang-chou, rendered maritime trade again very prosperous. Communications between Kuang-chou, Lo-yang and Ch'ang-an were no longer a problem, for:\n\nThe (merchants of the) various countries from across the sea may now daily transport their merchandise, so that the wealth", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206852, "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-1973", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN\n\nthe Emperor Sung Kwong Tsung (***). After her death her eldest son Lam (†) took a letter that she left behind to Sung Kwong Tsung, who ordered that honours should be paid to the dead princess, the name of Wong Kwu bestowed on her, and a thousand Chinese acres of cultivated land given to Lam, the income from which to be spent on her grave for customary rites and worship. The To Shue Tsaap Shing which was written in the 4th year of Yung Ching (£) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1726, mentions the fields as being still used for this purpose.\n\nThe princess was very famous for her humility. When she first came to Kam T'in she willingly helped to do the servants' work in the house, and showed no pride in her high birth. There are two sentences referring to her in a poem written by the poet Kan Sz Leung (MA) which run:—\n\n1. 金枝玉葉無人偶,\n\n2. 凄絕農家執箕帚。\n\nwhich roughly translated read:\n\n1. Gold branch jade leaves no one dare to make a pair with.\n\n2. Sad utmost farmer family hold dustpan and broom.\n\nWhen the princess became very old a site for her grave was chosen by a famous \"fung shui\" man named Lai Paak Shiu (16 #). He selected a hill called Sz Tsz Shaan (#) in Shek Tseng (#) near Shek Lung, which was supposed to resemble a lion, but he first asked her if she would prefer to be buried on the lion's head or its tail. She asked what difference it would make, and she was told that if her grave was on the head her descendants would be very great men; but if on the tail they would be more humble people, perhaps officers of low degree, and, although prosperous, none would succeed to high rank. The princess at once said, “I do not want my descendants to become great. They could never be as high as an Emperor's daughter, and yet even I was in danger of my life. I wish them to enjoy the red rice and the shiny scale fish (the unhusked rice and herrings, farmers' food). If they have that they should be content.\" So she was buried on the lion's tail, and two more sentences were written about her,\n\n1. 紅米之飯錦鰍魚,\n\n2. 田家風味甘有餘。", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206853, "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-1973", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "124 \n\nSUNG HOK-P’ANG \n\n1. Red raw rice cooked and shining scale fish, \n\n2. Farmers' simple good fare delicious and lasting. \n\nThe grave has two names Sz Tsz Kwan K’au ($*$*£*), Lion playing ball; and Ts'o Mei Shui Chue (44), long grass hanging down pearl. When Lai Paak Shiu was having the grave built he put a brass tablet behind the stone one, with the following words on it. \"Three hundred years hence, an ignorant young man named So (#), who knows nothing about \"fung shui”, will want to alter the way this grave faces. If he is allowed to alter it, not only will the Tang family have trouble, but So himself will have bad luck”. The existence of the tablet was unknown until the prophecy on it came true. Three hundred years later when the Tangs were having a period of bad luck and unsuccess, they decided that something was wrong with the \"fung shui\" of the princess' grave. They consulted a young man named So, and at his instigation started to alter the position of the grave. When the stone tablet was removed, the brass one was revealed and in terror So advised them to leave the grave alone. \n\nIn the 50th year of Hong Hei (R) of Ts'ing dynasty, A.D. 1711, the Tang family were repairing the grave when they discovered several sham tombs underneath the ground. This was the custom in ancient China when burying royalty, as by this means it was hoped to prevent their enemies from desecrating the real tomb. The oldest stone tablet that we can find to-day, was put up in the 19th year of Shing Fa (A) of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1483, which gave the dates of the birth and death of the princess. In this tablet was also found the statement that the grave was first made in the 6th year of Shun Yau (*) of Sung dynasty, A.D. 1246, but there is no record of the first stone tablet nor any of the tablets erected before A.D. 1483. After the general repairing of the grave in A.D. 1712 a new stone was erected, but as the dates on the previous one were not considered to be correct, none were written on the stone. \n\nThe princess' husband Tang Tsz Ming was received with honour by the Emperor and had the title of Shui Yuen Kwan Ma (✯✯ #) bestowed on him. It was the custom in China to give the title Kwan Ma to the husband of a prince's daughter. Tang Tsz Ming's grave was made on a little hill called Fat Au Leng ( ##₪) # ). It can easily be seen to this day almost opposite the Au Tau Police Station on the other side of the road to Sheung Shui. It has recently", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206875, "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-1973", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "146\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nIt is not surprising therefore to encounter an image of Hai Jui on an altar. One such image is in the nunnery on the Pasir Panjang coast road in Singapore in which most of the nuns are of Ch'aochow origin. He is prayed to for strength of purpose and for his ability to obtain support from the Spirit World without demanding a fee or putting the devotee under an obligation.\n\nIn the nunnery, which incidentally contains a mixture of Buddhist and T'aoist folk religion images, is a seated, whey-faced image of Hai Jui, holding a sceptre in his right hand. He is wearing Mandarin robes, a scholar's hat and has a long black beard. He has two anonymous assistants, one on either side of him. The one standing on his left is carrying his official seal wrapped in a red cloth, whilst the one on his right bears his sheathed sword (photograph at Plate XI). The nuns referred to the image as the Duke Hai Jui (##2). He was known to be a good spirit (††).\n\nColonel Burkhardt in his Chinese Creeds and Customs recounts how, during the Ming Dynasty, the Eastern Dragon King who in cooperation with the Northern Dragon King controlled rainfall, was dismissed for dereliction of duty. The Jade Emperor (1) the Supreme Being both of the Spirit and the Human World, appointed Hai Jui in his stead.\n\nSo here we have the story of the incorruptible minister, in a garbled version as known to the Ch'aochow nuns in Singapore; the image in their nunnery, and the modern drama which triggered off the greatest upset in China since the communists came to power; all linked by the shade of Hai Jui who without a doubt made an indelible impression upon, amongst others, the Ch'aochow peoples of eastern Kwangtung Province over the four centuries since his death.\n\nAshford, Kent, 1973.\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\n* V. R. Burkhardt, Chinese Creeds and Customs, published by South China Morning Post Hong Kong, Volume 2 (1955) page 161.\n\nANOTHER VOLONTIERI MAP?\n\nThe following Note with Map are taken from the publication Les Missions Catholiques No. 239 of 20th May 1875, and were brought to my attention by Mr. H. A. Rydings.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206895, "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-1973", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "166\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthe surrounding countryside reposing in the benediction of its large standing Buddha. The museum of Sukhothai also displayed a number of very fine pieces, not least the magnificent walking Buddha, phra lila, a purely Sukhothai invention.\n\nThe sister city of Srisachanalai is further to the north of Sukhothai but of the same period. It is famous for the Sangkaloke variation on Sukhothai celadons, and it is from there that the Chalieng wares came. To get to the site one has to cross the river Yom in a boat below the rapids; the ruins are visited on foot. The entire spread of the area was seen from the top of Wat Khao Phanom Pleung. Wat Chang Lom, with its stucco-on-laterite elephants around giving it its name, dates from the beginning of the Sukhothai period. Wat Chedi Chet Tao has among other chedi the characteristic lotus-bud finial which was also seen in Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai; as in that temple, too, there were also some good stucco remains, here, of a Buddha seated under a protecting naga. Wat Uttayan Yai is another ruined temple, and between it and the high city wall still remaining are the ruins of Wat Nang Phya, the walls of the chapel containing some delicate decorative stucco work. In the ruins of the palace is an interesting covered arched sanctuary,\n\nThe site of Kampengpetch lacks the hills of Sukhothai or Srisachanalai but is surrounded by denser secondary jungle which adds to the attraction of the area. Wat Chao Awat Yai has little of particular note apart from the deep rectangular pool before it from which the blocks of laterite were cut to erect the building. The elephants surrounding the central section of Wat Chang Rob are better preserved than at Srisachanalai and finer in their detail, and there is a stucco decoration of Bo trees and demons on the walls between them. Wat Phra Si Irayabot has in the middle of the jungle a vast laterite platform for a vihara and behind it a most unusual construction with four Buddhas placed round a high core in standing, walking, sleeping and seated positions. The first two are still in good condition but little remains of the last two. All these temples lie outside the old city walls, inside which are to be found the ruins of Wat Prathat and Wat Phra Keo, with their bare outlines of laterite Buddhas and fallen chedi. The new museum at Kampengphet was also visited by special arrangement and contains some exceptional pieces, notably an U-Thong Buddha and some torsos of Hindu deities which seemed to have found more favour in Kampengpetch than in the other cities of Sukhothai.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206897, "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-1973", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "168\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nDEEP BAY MARSHES\n\nThe photograph at Plate XV was taken in March 1973 by Mrs. F. O. P. Hechtel. It shows men and women collecting seaweed from an embanked pond at Deep Bay. They had come over from Chinese Territory by boat, bringing a punt with them on deck. The boat was anchored at the outer edge of the bund, left high and dry at low tide, and the punt was launched in the shallow pond and loaded with seaweed which was taken back for pig food. This is still a common practice, and has been observed by Mr. and Mrs. Hechtel on other occasions.\n\nThis brings in another feature of the marshes. Our printer, and member, Mr. Y. F. Lam of Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., tells me that when he went shooting on the marshes just after the war, his party used regularly to meet a person who came over from Chinese territory using a waak baan (★★) or mud scooter on which he travelled easily over the areas of foreshore and swamp. The man landed at Mai Po, left his mud scooter there, and walked to Yuen Long Market to buy necessaries, after which he would return to Mai Po, load his scooter and set off for home.\n\nThe mud scooter is also used by oyster farmers in Deep Bay and is an old form of local transportation. Two of them, one old and much used, and one made to order, have recently been obtained by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong. Plate XVI is by courtesy of the Curator, and shows the used scooter.\n\nA very similar contrivance is used in the shrimp fisheries at Stolford on the Bristol channel, Somerset, England, C. M. Yonge writes: 'At Stolford where the nets are secured on soft banks of mud a mile from the shore, the fishermen use a type of intertidal sledge or \"mud horse\" which they push in front of them and which serves the double purpose of preventing them from sinking deeply in the mud and of carrying back the catch'. (pp. 321-322 of The Sea Shore, Collins, The Fontana New Naturalist paper back, 1963). There is an illustration of the \"mud horse\" at page 322.\n\nHong Kong. April, 1974.\n\nHON. EDITOR", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206990, "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": 61, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n55\n\nnot serve his full sentence because he was released on grounds of ill-health. But, as Des Voeux notes, the day after his release from Victoria Gaol he was seen avidly betting at the Happy Valley Race Course. He was, clearly a great card and popular with drinking circles in Hong Kong. The Telegraph was an evening newspaper. After Fraser-Smith's death, J. J. Francis became publisher and Chesney Duncan its editor.\n\n28 John Joseph Francis (1839-1901) was educated in Dublin and intended for the Catholic priesthood. But instead of entering the Church he enlisted in the Army, coming out to China in the Royal Artillery during the Second China War. He took his discharge in Hong Kong and commenced the study of law in the office of a Mr. Owens, solicitor. He was admitted to practise as an attorney in 1869 and entered into partnership with another solicitor and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Ambitious, he gained admission to Gray's Inn and was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1877. By 1888 he was the Colony's leading barrister. Francis was extremely touchy and truculent: in 1895 he returned to the Governor a silver inkstand, given to him in recognition of his work during the plague, on the grounds that the gift did not sufficiently acknowledge his services. He died of apoplexy at Yokohama's Grand Hotel in 1901. A fitting end: he was an apoplectic soul. Francis lived at 'Shirley House' in Bonham Road, a commodious residence with extensive grounds.\n\n29 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 366.\n\n30 22 November, 1888. The Hong Kong Hotel, situated in Pedder Street, was originally managed by Parsees; in 1866 it came under European management and soon became a first-class hotel with all the facilities of a good West End hotel.\n\n31 7 January, 1889.\n\n32 Soulié states that Mayréna on his way to Hong Kong marooned Afong on Hainan Island but that the intrepid Chinese took passage on a junk and appeared in Hong Kong to haunt the King of the Sedangs.\n\n33 China Mail, 7 January, 1889.\n\n34 George Murray Bain (1842-1909) was born and educated at Montrose, Scotland. He joined the China Mail as a sub-editor and reporter (some say printer) in 1864. In 1875 he became sole proprietor of the China Mail and in 1879 took over the editorship of the paper himself. With N. B. Dennys he started the China Review in 1872. The China Mail was edited from Wyndham Street, a short distance away from the Hong Kong Telegraph on Pedder's Hill. Bain, unlike Fraser-Smith, appears to have been pious, temperate, and acutely respectable.\n\n35 Hong Kong Telegraph, 27 December, 1888.\n\n36 'Drey' was the name of a Sedang locality.\n\n37 China Mail, 24 January, 1889.\n\n38 Hong Kong Telegraph, 25 January, 1889.\n\n39 7 January, 1889.\n\n40 Sir Hugh Clifford, Heroes of Exile, London, 1906, pp. 69-70. Clifford states that it was the Hong Kong merchants 'who had paid his (Mayréna's) passage and had supplied his Majesty with a little ready money' and that they had been actuated partly by a desire to remunerate one from whom they had derived so much entertainment'. Sir Hugh Clifford (1866-1941), a colonial administrator, who served in Pahang from 1887 to 1899, was, apparently, in Hong Kong in late 1888; it is possible that he had taken local leave but I have been unable to confirm the fact.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207012, "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": 83, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "BRIDGEMAN'S LETTERS FROM CHINA AND HONG KONG\n\n77\n\nfather's footsteps and entered the army by purchasing commissions, the usual practice then. Our Orlando, (the name has been a popular choice with the Bradford Bridgemans since the seventeenth century) purchased a commission as an ensign in the 98th Regiment of Foot on July 2, 1841.3 Within six months, Orlando Bridgeman and his regiment were on their way to the war in China. In March of 1843 he was promoted to lieutenant.\n\nThe letters Bridgeman sent home were addressed to his sister, Selina, who at the time of writing was travelling the European continent in the manner of the fashionable young lady of her day. Only nine of the letters have survived, seven of which were sent from China or Hong Kong; the other two letters, which were also the first two, dealt with the voyage out to China via the Cape of Good Hope. Judging from the contents and dates of the letters it is quite possible that more were sent but have since been destroyed or lost. As one would expect in letters between brother and sister, much of the correspondence deals with family affairs, the condition and whereabouts of mutual friends, Selina's travels on the continent and like matters. After discussing such affairs, Orlando would then go on to recount to his sister details of his life in the not so mysterious and rather boring orient.\n\nSoon after his arrival in China, Bridgeman and his regiment took part in the expedition up the Yangtze to Nanking. His only letter about the war, written sometime in August, records its successful conclusion.\n\nYou can have no conception of the general joy this affords. We are all very seedy. I myself am done up. The 98th are landed and have been for some time, and are encamped near the city of Nankin, more to recruit our health than anything else, as we have been suffering a good deal. Now that it is all over, I do not mind telling you all about it. We have had cholera very badly in the Regt. On our first landing to attack Tsing-kiang-foo* it attacked us and in less than three weeks we lost over one hundred men. Many others are still very ill from the effects of it and the regt. is a mere skeleton from the number of sick in hospital. We were only able to land three hundred and fifty strong. Do not let this frighten you or my mother, as all is nearly over, and the men are fast getting strong.4\n\nChinkiang,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207056, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Manchu dynasty was at its strongest and most prosperous from the middle years of the K'ang Hsi reign on until late in the Ch'ien Lung period. This enabled the country to recover and consolidate after the disasters of the late Ming and the troubled period of transition to the Ch'ing; but it is necessary to remember that throughout these years Hsin-an remained a border region receiving new settlers. In the present New Territories this period saw many newcomers settle in old villages or found new ones. Besides the rehabilitation of old fields, there was apparently much new land to be opened for the taking. When the first ancestor of the So clan of So Uk, Kowloon, arrived in 1739 he called his new home Mau Tin Tsuen or Village of the Rough Grass Fields; and his descendants long used this name before 'So Uk' came into common usage.1 Life for all these persons was hard, and although the empire was in good hands, it seems likely that inhabitants of these coastal areas of the southeast were often subject to attack from marauders. The Ho family of San Tsuen, Pui O, Lantau say that a founding ancestor was killed by pirates; by calculation from the clan record,2 about the year 1710. This obliged villagers to site their settlements with care. In this period of resettlement and consolidation several of the Lantau villages, though getting a living from the sea, were by design located at some distance from it. It is only in more recent times, say the present elders, that they moved to lower sites nearer the shore.3\n\nFrom time to time, pirates became a particular menace, and it was not possible for the authorities to ignore their activities. A period of especial distress began for the people of Hsin-an, Tung-kuan and other coastal counties in the later years of the Ch'ien Lung reign. The genealogy of the Cheung clan of Pui O records:\n\nIn the 53rd and 54th year of Ch’ien Lung, a Tung Kuan man, Tam Ah-che became a sea robber. He robbed and killed, burned houses, in great measure, took away the men as slaves and women also. The local officials and soldiers would not dare to face these robbers.4\n\nThe Cheungs and other villagers later took steps in their own defence. The village council held a meeting and decided to turn\n\n1 Hayes, 1970, p. 158.\n\n2 Ho-shi Ts'u-pu; in manuscript.\n\n3 Removals on feng-shui grounds are excluded from this statement.\n\n4 Chang-shi Ts'u-pu; in manuscript.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207072, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "HONG KONG PLACE NAMES\n\n137\n\nTan Ka175, three kinds of Hakka137 and Hoklo138, Pun Yue Cantonese is widely understood but less widely spoken, particularly among the old men and women whom one consults for place-names. To this difficulty, combined with a simple misprint, is to be attributed the map name of the mountain north of the Lam Tsuen140 Valley. It is Tai To Yan1—Razor Cliff. The Nam Tau dialect pronounces this Tai Tau Yang, which became Tai Tan Yang by misreading the final letter of Tau.\n\nEven with field workers who are fluent in the local languages, it is not easy to keep the record straight. Country people the world over take a delight in mystifying strangers. Add to this the Chinese convention against direct question and answer, and it will be seen that the chances of a surveyor, working against time, getting a correct list of the names of topographical features, or even of the chief villages, are not good. The wonder is not that there are so many mistakes, but that any of the names are right.\n\nFinally, the best maps (such as they are) are not readily available even to many public servants, and the mountaineer and hiker, from whom corrections might come, often has to content himself with an old battered copy of an extinct edition.*\n\nFor all these reasons I welcome Mr. Tregear's gazetteer as I welcomed his map. As far as I can see from a careful check of the draft, all the important names are there, and they are down correctly. Such omissions as there are result from the fact that some features have an English name but no Chinese one—or if they have, nobody can be found who remembers it.\n\nOne thing which has not been included is a translation or explanation of each name. The reason will become clear to anybody who cares to read the second part of this paper, in which I have listed the principal elements of local place-names, for the understanding of some of which we have to extend our inquiries back to the days before the Chinese came to these parts.\n\nBefore the Chinese\n\nIn a talk to the Rotary Club130 of Hong Kong on 8th November, 1955, I said:\n\n'Under our very noses, and separated from our time by not more than 600 years, we have a linguistic problem which no one has\n\n* The position is now greatly improved as a result of new and extensive re-mapping of the Colony. See JHKBRAS 9, 1969: 131-140.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207099, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "164 \n\nSUNG HOK-PANG \n\nOn picking up the coins it was found that one large one, bigger than the rest, had two characters on it (*) Shing Kwong. The villagers accounted for this by believing that the coins must have belonged to a man named Shing Kwong who in some time of trouble had buried them. After many years the spirit of the silver had caused it to fly away to be bestowed on some lucky man who deserved good fortune. Thus the money was collected together and handed over to the house. \n\nWhen the baby, who played such an important part in this story, was a month old, he received his first name which was Tang Naan. Later on, when he was old enough to go to school he was sent by his grandmother to a country school. It is a Chinese custom for a new pupil to ask his teacher to give him a new name \"shue meng” ✯ % (=a name for a pupil-book name) Tang Naam's teacher, who was not a Kam T'in man, and knew nothing about the story of \"Ngan t'au Laam” in Kam T’in, strangely enough gave him the name “Shing Kwong,” exactly the same as the two characters on the largest coin. When evening came and school lessons were finished, the boy went back to his house with his books and much surprised the village elders by showing them his new name written on all his books. \n\nAfter that they were quite convinced that the money was meant for him. When he grew up Tang became a merchant and because of his wealth he was able to subscribe liberally to public funds which resulted in his receiving the honour of being made Chau T'ung (#) assistant officer of Chau, which meant that he was higher than a district officer. His official name of Tang Sz Taan was recorded in the History of Sun On. He built himself a very big house called Naam Teng, the remains of which can still be seen on the south side of Kat Hing Wai. The round outside wall and the stone doorway with the three characters on it (1) Lin Hing Lei, \"Continuous Blessing Place\" are still there. \n\nTwo stories of this merchant have been handed down. One of his children married into a very prosperous family named To living at Ts'eng Chuen Wai, † near Castle Peak, and between Tang and the head of this family who was a farmer, owning several hundred acres, there existed a friendly rivalry. One day they were having a meal together in old Yuen Long market and both of them, heated with wine, contested that he was the richer. To declared", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207102, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n167\n\nmore!\" Seeing that he would persist in his strange philosophy the village elders left him alone.\n\nAnother of his practices was to walk round the market in the evening to where his poorest relations would be hawking fish and pork. When he found any of them had something they couldn't sell he would note down in his pocket-book the price of the thing and ask to have it sent to his house. Quite a lot of food would accumulate in this way so Hei Sui would end up by asking the hawkers themselves to come and dine with him. At the end of the meal he would bring out his note-book and money and insist on paying each hawker for the things he had bought from him. His relations would be much embarrassed and did not like to take his money as besides eating their own produce Hei Sui had given them rice and wine. He would say \"Nothing could be happier than to have so many cousins to dinner every night! If I give a feast I must needs go to the market and buy things, then why should I not buy them from you? If I have guests, why should you not be my guests?\" If his cousins still demurred he would exclaim, \"Alas, I was only able to invite you, and not your families as well. Pray take this money home and buy a feast for them which I ought to have provided myself!\" This sometimes made the more sensitive hawkers very uncomfortable and they would in future avoid Kam T'in and sell their goods in another village.\n\nWhen Hei Sui was fifty-six he died. Two years later a pedlar from Pok Loh (†) district came to Kam T'in one day with a strange story. He said that in his district city a Shing Wong (城隍) (the guardian god of a city wall) temple had been built about two years before and at the opening ceremony of the temple it was found that the characters Tang Lung Man (鄧龍文) had appeared miraculously painted on the bottom corner of the long gown of the idol. Thinking that some mischievous person had put them there, the people tried to rub them off, but the harder they rubbed the clearer the characters showed. Now Tang Lung Man was the \"friendship name\" of Hei Sui, and on asking the date of the opening ceremony his descendants learned that it was on the very day he had died in Kam T'in, so they decided that his spirit must have entered the guardian god of Pok Loh district city. After several years when the time came for his re-burial Hei Sui's heart was found to be quite intact. The people standing round were staring in amazement at this when a strange dog suddenly sprang into the grave and seizing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207104, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n169\n\nSouth and North of this country; later, when the number of descendants became very many, we lived apart in the two waais T'aai Hong and Kat Hing; round both of these waais were built tall walls and deep ditches were dug round them. We think that the idea of doing this by our ancestors, was to protect our houses and guard them against robbers only. When during the 25th year of Kwong Sui of Ts'ing dynasty, on Kei Hoi year, i.e. A.D. 1899, the Government of Ts'ing leased the South part of Sham Chan to the British Government, in that time, the Ts'ing Government did not inform the people of this beforehand, so when the British army arrived, the ignorant people of the country were inflamed by some persons and arose to resist them, the people of our waais being afraid to be disturbed, in order to avoid them they shut the iron gates firmly. The British army suspecting that bad characters were hiding inside, then assaulted and made the gates open. After they went into the Waai, they understood that the people inside were all good men and women, so did not give them any bad treatment, but just had the iron gates taken away. Now, the 26th descendant, Paak Kau, represented the people of these waais to petition the Hong Kong Government, asking the Government to bring the matter before London, and have the iron gates returned, and re-hung as before. All the expenses were paid by the Hong Kong Government. We also thank H.E. the Governor, Sir Edward Stubbs for his presence at the ceremony; from this can be seen the deep kindness and great virtue of the British Government, and shows that our people are pleased and sincerely submitted, therefore we specially carve the above on the tablet, in order to remember and never forget this kindness.\n\nGreat Britain, May, 26th, 1925\n\nChinese Republic 14th year, on Yuet Hoi year the \"yuen\" 4th month, 5th, the lucky day.\n\nwe carved.'\n\nAnother ancient wall in the South district is Naam T'eng (†4) where the silver came to and where Tang Naam had his house. It is to be found to the South of Kat Hing Wai, but no houses are left inside. The North district, Pak Wai, has two villages, Shui T'au (\"The head of the stream\") and Shui Mei ( ) “the end of the stream,\" Tang K'ei Fong ( ) and Tang K'ei Wah ( ) both from T'aai Hong Tsuen were the first persons who lived in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207110, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n175\n\nfound in Wing Lung Wai where his portrait in military officer's uniform is to be seen.\n\nTang Ming Luen, the son of Tang Kuen Hin, was another military officer. He was a very powerful man with exceptional strength in his arms. When he was young and before he studied the military arts, he came across, one day, two water buffaloes fighting in a road. The people standing by were unable to pass and yet could do nothing to separate the animals. Tang Ming Luen, seeing this, seized each buffalo by the horn, wrenched them apart, and stopped the fight. It happened that a newly passed Kui Yan named Tang T'in K'ei, who came from Tung Kwun district, was visiting Kam T'in to worship at the ancestral hall, and, according to old Chinese custom, to report the good news of his degree to his ancestors. He witnessed Tang Ming Luen's feat of strength and greatly admiring him, he encouraged him to study for the army, giving him ten taels of pure silver sycee as a reward. Tang Ming Luen passed his Mo Sau Tsoi in the 25th year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1820, and the Mo Kui Yan in the following year.\n\nThere is another story that Tang Ming Luen dug up some hidden treasure in his orchard, which was near Sui T'au Ts'un. To the North of the garden, there was a large banyan tree and close by it a rock covered with creeping plants. On dark days, it was said that a light used to shine near this rock and at a distance, it appeared like a big white horse. One day, Tang told a labourer to dig a hole for planting a fruit tree in a corner of the garden where a lot of long grass was growing. In doing so, the man dug up a large earthenware jar with a lid on it, which was full of silver sycee. He seized a handful of them and started to carry them home, but at once, his eyes became dim-sighted and he was unable to see his way. Thinking that it must be a punishment for trying to take money that did not belong to him, the man put the coins back in the ground, and his sight recovered at once. When he told Tang of his discovery, Tang had the ground thoroughly dug, and many more jars, each full of silver coins, were found.\n\nTang Kuen Hin was born in the 20th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1755, and he built a school called So Lau Yuen in Shui Tau Tsuen, one of the Kam T'in villages. This building has a curious carving inside, rather like the face of a clock with Roman lettering on it, the origin of it being unknown. Another building called Ch'eung Tsun Yuen was built by one of his descendants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207112, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n177\n\nwhen he had finished, he received a good appointment in a Government post.\n\nThe examinations that it was necessary to pass before a military post could be obtained, were similar to these, the name of each one being the same with the prefix of mo; thus mo sau tsoi, mo kui yan etc.\n\n[6]\n\nIf one walks through Kam T'in Market (#w†), turns to the right, and reaches Shui T'au Village (§‡) a fifteen minutes walk will bring one to an old bridge, which is mentioned in the San On Record book (*) and which is held in much respect by the New Territories people, as an example of filial duty done by a good son of Kam T'in. The bridge is called Pin Mo K'iu (1⁄2✯✯) \"bridge for the convenience of my mother,\" and it was built in the 49th year of Hong Hei (A) A.D. 1710 of Ts'ing dynasty, by Tang Tsun Yuen (2), a nineteenth generation descendant of the \"Five Yuens.\"\n\nTsun Yuen was born in the ninth year of Hong Hei, A.D. 1670 and died in the ninth year of Yung Ching (£), A.D. 1731. The original home of his family was in Shui T'au Village (¿k ši††) but his mother, who was a widow, moved to T'aai Hong Wai (✯✯ ¤) with her two sons. When Tsun Yuen married he rebuilt the old house and returned to Shui Tau but his mother stayed on with her younger son in T'aai Hong Wai as there was not room enough for them to live all together. But every day the mother wanted to go to Tsun Yuen's house to see her young grandsons, and to get there she had to cross the stream. Tsun Yuen used to go to the stream at a certain hour each day and wait there till she came, and wading into the water, he would carry her across on his back. The visit ended, he would escort her to the stream again, and take her across. When the tide rose it was sometimes too deep for him, so he would stay with his mother on the shore and wait with her till the tide fell and he was able to get across. This went on for a long time but he had made up his mind that, although he was poor, he would save up his money to pay for the building of a bridge, and at the end of six years he was able to do so, much to the admiration of the Kam T'in villagers. The elders in later years often used this story when teaching the young people, as an example of a good son.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207113, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "178\n\nSUNG HOK-PANG\n\nThere is a stone tablet near the bridge with an inscription carved on it which can be roughly translated as follows: --\n\n\"My grandfather's official name is Kam(); the name for his friends to call him by is Kui Haam(&). My father's official name is Ch'ung Kwong(★★) and the name for his friends to call him by is Wai Cheuk(). My mother's surname is Wong(#). My mother bore Tsun Yuen (myself) and my younger brother Yin Yuen(£). We two brothers were unlucky, in our youth we were without a father to rely on. My mother lived alone as a widow, and had to practice economy and diligence. She gave us good instructions every day and night. Now when Tsun Yuen (myself) grew up, I married a wife named Ch'an() being ashamed to be a useless son, but fortunately I begot two sons, the eldest named Tung Ping(#) and the younger Shing Tak(). At that time there was peace at last with the bandits and in the 43rd year of Hong Hei(A) in Kap Shan() year I rebuilt my dwelling house at my original home in Shui T'au village. My younger brother and my mother did not come back to the home, but they still lived in T'aai Hong Wai, on the other side of the stream. My mother paid great attention to her baby grandsons, day and night she came to see them, and kept on coming backwards and forwards from her house, each time having to bear the difficulty of crossing the water, and obliged to hum the song of \"The difficulty of crossing the water\" as she passed. Therefore I have exerted myself to build this bridge for the convenience of my mother, and give it the name of Ping Mo(£#), (to convenience my mother). If anyone says that I build it to relieve many people, in the hope of obtaining happiness, I do not dare to have such an idea.\" (See plate 38),\n\n\"Hong Hei(a) 49th year, in Kang Yan(P†) year. Winter month, lucky day, Tang Tsun Yuen erected this stone tablet.\"\n\nThe following is a rough translation of another reference to the mother of T'sun Yuen, written by Tang Wai K'ui(✯✯).\n\n\"My Tso Pei(int) (deceased grandmother), Wong, was the wife of my ancestor, Wai Cheuk(2). When she was twenty-one years of age, her husband died. She cherished her fatherless children, and maintained her purity in poverty. When the children were young she bore great fatigue to nurture them, and when they grew older she taught them in a proper way. She always kept on friendly terms with her neighbours, so that they all admired her highly.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207123, "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": 194, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "In his book on Plant Geography (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1903) A.F.W. Schimper produces a World Plant Map which is based on climatic conditions. It is interesting to see that, in this classification system, Hong Kong lies within the area of \"evergreen broad-leaved forest\" type of vegetation.\n\nThis classical type of forest, however, has virtually disappeared, largely as a result of human activities such as repeated cutting and the use of fire both intentional and accidental. Consequently, there are few areas of forest-type vegetation which could be described as \"probably indigenous\" left in the Colony today.\n\nThese remaining patches of forest consist generally of low scrub growth in ravines and relatively inaccessible places, together with isolated areas of woodland which are often quite dense and which, paradoxically, are located very near to villages and hamlets in the New Territories.\n\nThese are the so-called \"Fung Shui\" woodlands, and they provide a remarkable contrast with the adjacent hillsides which generally carry a sparse vegetation of grasses and shrubs with scattered pine trees of poor form and insignificant size. These \"Fung Shui\" woodlands may, in fact, give a fair impression of the character of the original vegetation of Hong Kong before \"Homo sapiens\" came on the scene.\n\nSuch \"Fung Shui\" woodlands owe their present existence to the protection afforded by the villagers in accordance with ancient traditions relating to the interactions of Wind (Fung) and Water (Shui) on the village environment.\n\nThe location of villages, and indeed of ancestors' graves, was decided upon after due consideration has been given to aspect, exposure, elevation, drainage, air movement, etc. A village which is favourably sited with regard to these considerations is thought likely to confer good fortune on its occupants, and this quality of site and environment has come to be known loosely as the \"Fung Shui\" of the village.\n\nIn China, the factors which collectively make up favourable \"Fung Shui\" were often \"assessed\" by an expert in geomantic art, whose advice was sought in the final choice of site for a village or an important grave.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207128, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n193 \n\nIn areas where the land was poorly-drained, vegetables were grown on raised soil beds 4 to 6 feet wide with ditches of about 2 feet deep on all sides and 1 foot of water was kept in the ditches. The beds were raised for the purpose of drainage. The ditches between served also as a reservoir for regular irrigation. This flood furrow system provides a constant supply of water to the crop, a well-drained soil condition for root growth and a good storage of water for every bed in the field. This saved labour from carrying water to and fro the water sumps to the crops.\n\nA wooden water lifting machine with a chain carrying wooden plates and running on two wheels to force water up a trough by turning one of the wheels was used to lift water from a stream or a pond. Several machines of this type were used for lifting water to a higher level, usually by no more than a few feet. Because of the high cost of labour, these machines were replaced by water pumps introduced in the early Nineteen-fifties.\n\nDependence on locally available organic manures is the characteristic of the traditional farming. Cattle manure was used mainly for growing rice. Droppings of animals were collected and piled up in a yard. For convenience of application, the well-rotted manure was sun-dried and stored for future use. Compost made of household refuse, crop residues, weeds, and other waste vegetative materials, and pond mud were used for manuring fruit trees. Night-soil, pig and poultry manures, bone meal, duck and chicken feather, wood and grass ash, and oil seed cake were used for growing vegetables. Lime was frequently applied to neutralize the predominant acid soil.\n\nIn general, the soils in Hong Kong are poor in plant nutrient. It is of interest to note how the local rice growers, with a limited application of animal manure, can maintain the fertility of their fields to produce continuously from 800 lb. to 1,600 lb. of paddy per acre per crop or from 1,600 lb. to 3,200 lb. reaped from two crops planted in a year. A possible explanation is that the growth of some species of blue-green algae on the wet paddy land can fix atmospheric nitrogen and subsequently release the nutrient to the crop after they are ploughed or tramped into the soil.\n\nRice was chosen and planted over large areas of land because it is the most reliable food crop and gives reasonable yields of grain year after year from the same field without rotation. Two groups", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "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": 207294, "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": 62, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "54\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\ninto the city; I therefore resolved to keep him in view if possible, but the moment we came near him he set off at full speed, and in spite of all the efforts we could make we soon lost sight of him.\n\nWe had now proceeded about half a mile in a long narrow street, the end of which I was much annoyed at finding branched into two others rather wider, one turning short to the left, the other inclining to the right; here I called a halt, as it was evident, if we took the wrong direction, all chance of success was at an end. I therefore called to my aid the petition addressed (as I before mentioned) \"To the Hoppo\", in large characters; and seeing at a shop door a good-humoured-looking fellow staring at the unusual appearance of such a number of strangers in the city, I ran up to him and showed him the back of the petition, which he instantly read, laughed heartily, and pointed out the right road.\n\nWe proceeded on as fast we could go, and, after advancing a short distance, we again got sight of the soldier, whom we discovered, with several others, in the act of shutting two very large folding gates, which appeared to be the entrance to a spacious outer court, in which was visible the front of one of the most magnificent buildings I had ever seen. This was a very critical moment, for I instantly imagined it must be the Hoppo's palace, and, if the gates were once closed against us, all our labour was lost. I therefore loudly called out, \"Hurrah to the gate!\" We in a body sprang forward and luckily reached it at the instant the gates were shut, but before they had time to get them bolted; with one consent we put our shoulders to them, and the gates flew open before us, throwing all those inside to the right and left. Our whole body immediately rushed in, and it was our turn then to assist the soldiers in shutting and bolting the gates to keep out a mob of Chinese who had gathered in the city and followed in our rear.\n\nNow we had time to breathe, look about us, and consider where we were. Nothing could be more splendid than the building which stood in front of us; it was covered with Chinese characters in gold, beautifully ornamented with carved work in the Chinese style, and painted in the most brilliant and gaudy colours.\n\nMr. Perry at once assured me we must have reached the Viceroy's palace, as he discovered that particular banner which was carried before the Hoppo when he visited the Company's factory. The guard, whom we seemed to have caught en deshabille, had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207295, "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": 63, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.L. CO.\n\n55\n\nretired, and shortly after made their appearance in magnificent uniforms, and drew up in a body opposite to us.\n\nThe palace gate now opened, and a Mandarin slowly advanced towards me; he addressed me in Chinese, to which I could only reply by shaking my head and showing him my petition. He put out his hand to receive it, but I drew back mine, and made a sign I wanted to go into the palace to deliver it. He shook his head, and seemed decidedly averse to such a proceeding.\n\nWe were soon relieved from this embarrassment by the arrival of the two senior security merchants, Mowqua and Howqua, the first a fine old man of upwards of eighty years of age, and it was supposed that to those two we principally owed our detention,- the rest of the Hong came soon after.\n\nMowqua was in great agitation when he arrived, and addressed me in his usual Chinese-English, “Ah! Mister Commodore, what for you come here? you want security merchants have cutty head? Hoppo truly much angry English come his house, he will cutty my poor old head.\"-My reply was, \"Mowqua! it is your own fault; why did you not present the Typan's (chief supercargo's) petition to the Hoppo? had you done so, I should not have come here.\"-\"Good Mister Commodore, me takey petition, and will truly get answer directly.\"--\"No, no, Mowqua! I will give it into the Hoppo's own hand myself”,--on which all the security merchants set up a cry as if I had uttered some treason against the Celestial Empire, What you come here? you wanty see Hoppo? That you no can do-Hoppo send you to prison as soon as he know you come him house—we takey petition before he know you come city-get out fast you can; truly he too much angry he know you here.”\n\nThere now appeared a Mandarin of high rank, to whom the merchants paid great respect; he came up to Captain Craig, Mr. Perry and myself, who were standing with the two senior security merchants in front of our party; he, with civility, enquired what we wanted? and was instantly replied to by Mowqua, but I was determined to be my own interpreter. I therefore held up the petition for him to read the address, and made signs as before that I wanted to go into the palace to present it. This compelled Mowqua to come to an explanation with the Mandarin, who left us, as I supposed, to inform the Hoppo of our being there; he soon returned,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207309, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n69\n\nthat \"Simond...... has given a great deal of attention to this subject (and) came to the conclusion that Indian rat fleas bite man and that rat fleas spread plague from one rat to another and also to the human species.\"* However, Hunter himself was not convinced of this theory and subscribed to the view that cockroaches picked up the bacillus and transferred the disease to food stuffs. Others shared his scepticism.\n\nFinally, studies undertaken in 1905-06 by the Indian Plague Commission in Bombay conclusively established that fleas were the principal agents of transmission. Of the 1500 species of fleas about 100 can transmit plague; the most widely disseminated is Xenopsylla cheopis which is equally at home on rats or homo sapiens. At one feeding on a rat, the blood of which contains 100 million organisms per millilitre, a flea will ingest about 5000 organisms which then multiply in the flea's digestive tract. Later, its proventriculus becomes plugged by gelatinous masses of bacilli and, as a result, the valvular action becomes impaired. Because of this obstruction, blood cannot be sucked into the stomach. The esophagus becomes distended and the elastic recoil of the walls of both pharynx and gullet when the flea stops sucking may drive back into the bite wound highly infective blood. An infected flea may regurgitate as many as 10,000 to 24,000 organisms at one biting. Many species of fleas, however, may become infected without incurring blockages and these may never become pestiferous unless they have fed on severely infected rodents.\n\nOnce a rat has become infected and subsequently dies the fleas carried thereon migrate to another host when the corpse loses its body heat. When the rat population has become decimated the fleas transfer their attention to human beings. This sequence of events thus explains the commonly observed phenomenon that plague in rats precedes plague among the inhabitants of infected premises.\n\nEven though the discovery of how plague was transferred from rats to man enabled more effective preventive measures to be taken to eradicate the disease in Hong Kong, it continued to afflict the colony until as late as 1929 when two cases were recorded. Virulent\n\n*W. Hunter, A Research into Epidemic and Epizootic Plague, Hong Kong, 1904, p. 32.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207348, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "108\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nsituations. Thus attitudes toward the lower orders were often ambivalent.\n\nBut a further reason should be advanced: working class Europeans were seen as lowering the prestige of the white man in the East. They were, by definition, poor; they lacked ton and breeding; too often they hobnobbed with—even lived with—Asians; they did not cultivate the unruffled ease and dignity of the Taipan. A journalist asserted: 'there is always an expensive necessity for maintaining foreign prestige. It makes for greater contentment and a good type of resident, and it is good for the Chinese in that it elevates economic standards by example'.33 The key words here are 'foreign prestige'. The European lower orders, it was thought, undermined this sought-after prestige and, by their presence in the East, helped weaken respect for the European merchant in Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports.\n\nRELATIONSHIPS WITH THE CHINESE\n\nH.E. Maude argues that in the South Seas beachcombers and castaways were emissaries of western culture and that 'the European came to be regarded for more practical reasons—as an economic and political asset';34 for example, he brought with him certain skills, such as the maintenance of small-arms and cannon, valued by the South Sea islander. In Hong Kong the situation differed: the beachcomber (there were no castaways) and other low status Europeans had little expertise to offer the Chinese; for the Cantonese, in particular, were skilled craftsmen in wood, metal, stone, ivory, and other materials. Working class Europeans could neither compete nor enter into competition with Chinese workers, artisans, and craftsmen. Hence, for this and other reasons, no true European proletariat ever established itself, apart from a class of mechanics employed in European-owned enterprises.\n\nAn obvious factor that inhibited interchange between Chinese and working class Europeans was the problem of language. Very few Europeans could speak colloquial Cantonese in the nineteenth century. This was true of most police, turnkeys, inspectors, and supervisors. Such communication as took place was through the medium of pidgin English, 'an extraordinary jargon', according to Samuel Couling, 'in use between native servants, shopmen, etc., on the one side, and foreigners who do not speak Chinese on the other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207394, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "154\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nconflict. I came to regret my thoroughness, for there was never time to use the equipment thus accumulated and this must have been splendid booty for the Japanese. There was also a full social life; many British women had enrolled for nursing and other essential duties and had not been evacuated. The Hong Kong Hotel was a gay place indeed, particularly on a Saturday night.\n\nIn October 1938, 35,000 Japanese troops had landed in Bias Bay on the China coast 35 miles from Hong Kong, and had then occupied Canton and had cut all communications between Hong Kong and mainland China. Patrolling Japanese ships thereafter made sailing from the Colony outside a circumscribed area very hazardous. In February 1939 the Japanese occupied the island of Hainan, 300 miles to the south of Hong Kong thus controlling the sea communications with Singapore. Curiously, after my arrival I do not remember taking part in any serious discussions with my friends about the prospects of a successful defence of Hong Kong. There were however plenty of rumours to fill the air. It was generally known that the strategic plan required Hong Kong to resist an attack for 90 days before a relief could arrive, a decision taken by the British Chiefs of Staff in 1937. In February 1940 the home authorities decided that food reserves should be accumulated for 130 days, while in August 1940 the Chiefs of Staff reached a further decision that in case of war with Japan, Hong Kong should be regarded as an outpost to be held as long as possible. After the war I learned from Liddell Hart's History of the Second World War, that in February 1940 the Chiefs of Staff concluded that the troops should be withdrawn from Hong Kong. Nothing was done to give effect to this decision. I have no doubt that the decision taken in February 1940 was the correct one which could with advantage have been taken much earlier. Ever since my arrival in Hong Kong in 1939 I believed that the Colony could not be defended successfully. The frontier, beyond which lay a strong Japanese army, was some 20 miles from Hong Kong harbour, the line to be defended, the so-called Gin Drinkers line was less than 5 miles from the harbour, the Japanese navy controlled the coast, our airport was tiny and the Air Force planes were few in number and no match in performance for their potential opponents. One and a half million Chinese civilians were crowded into Kowloon and Victoria. Roads suitable for wheeled traffic were few and open to close observation at many points. The whole picture left no doubt", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207415, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n175\n\nat the corners of the mouth and scrotal oedema. During August 1942 only 17 cases of deficiency diseases were admitted as such, but the same signs were common among the dysentery and diphtheria admissions. We began an investigation into all the various manifestations and intensive treatment was started. These patients with deficiency diseases were to form a nearly immovable block in our patient population for a long time because improvement came about extremely slowly. An outstanding symptom was burning pain in the feet which sometimes required morphine for its relief. Many sought to ease the pain by plunging their feet into cold water and one patient had to be confined in a place where water was not available in order to avoid maceration of the skin. Some who had had deficiency diseases improved enough to return to P.O.W. camps. Others remained in hospital up to our release in 1945. These last had balancing problems, numbness of limbs and visual defects.\n\nThe hospital had admitted 1225 patients during 1942 and this figure included all patients transferred to us from all the other civil and service hospitals in the Colony. Of the total, 443 were admitted during the five-month period August-December and at 31 December 341 patients remained. Pressure on our accommodation had been severe, and repeated changes in the usage of wards were needed to isolate infectious patients and provide room for all who needed our care. The Canadian P.O.W. camp at North Point closed in October and the troops moved to Kowloon. Perhaps because of the rearrangements required by this move, but almost certainly reinforced by the well-known Japanese fear of infectious disease, we were not allowed to discharge patients whom we considered would suffer by a move to a camp. The pressure on our space and feeding arrangements was therefore intense and this did not begin to ease until April 1943. By the end of 1942, however, the heaviest burden of the infections had become lighter, though the long haul to cope with the deficiencies as the main load had already begun.\n\nThe year 1942 had weighed heavily on the spirits and energies of patients and staff. The departure of the women nurses cast a gloom over the hospital. The future seemed uncertain, the rations were poor, patients flooded in, deaths were frequent, but food gifts to the hospital from friends in Hong Kong and the arrival of a Red Cross parcel per head, to which I shall refer later, together with a natural resilience as the acute epidemics subsided towards the end of the year brought about some lightening of the clouds.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207417, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n177\n\nOur food came from four sources; the Japanese rations, food sent in by our friends in Hong Kong, supplies received from the Red Cross Society and food purchased with funds contributed by officers mainly those in the hospital but also those in the camps from time to time. These contributions were made from pay received from the Japanese by these officers.\n\nJapanese Rations\n\nI have prepared tables (Appendix A) to show the kinds and the amounts of foods issued to us from Japanese sources and used on behalf of patients and staff who were on a full diet. Notes given in the tables give additional information and include details of certain additional Japanese food received and how it was used. The amounts in these cases were very small and while they must be recorded, especially the milk, it was rare for any to appear in the general diet and then only as a treat when supplies allowed. Since this is not a scientific treatise, I intend the tables to present a broad picture of our food situation. The daily quantities of food therefore are shown as averaged over five months in 1942, rather under three months in Bowen Road in 1945, rather over three months in Kowloon in 1945, and over the whole years of 1943 and 1944. These averages should be read in conjunction with specimen daily menus I set out in tables at Appendix B. There were many, many days on which our diet consisted of boiled rice and vegetables.\n\nIn these tables, I make no allowances for losses resulting from poor quality, preparation, and cooking in the case of vegetables and fish. These losses were usually high, and on occasions reached a level of 30% in the case of vegetables, which were sometimes rotten when received. We were not choosy when deciding when food was fit to cook and eat. The fresh vegetables, in addition to the more usual varieties, which practically never included Western-type potatoes, though we had sweet potatoes more often, did however include such unusual varieties as chrysanthemum leaves, Chinese lily root, tara root, and so on. The fish varied greatly; on 10 October 1942, I noted that we had received \"long thin fish, shark flesh, baby sharks, and heaven knows what, most of it a little old\". Sergeant Seino, of whom I shall have more to say later, warned the quartermaster that some fish was perhaps poisonous and advised us to be careful using it. I believe Seino's intention was to be helpful, though...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207418, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "178\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nhe did not explain his meaning. I concluded that the fish had probably been taken from the harbour whose waters were thoroughly polluted. Some of the fish was quite horrid and my diary recorded on 8 August 1942 that I could not touch mine. This was quite an admission for it was rare for me to boggle at any sort of food. Our cooks at first removed the fish heads before cooking but Seino pointed out to us that this was a waste. As a result we began to make what we called fish head soup; this proved to be not to everybody's taste but it did add a new if not always attractive flavour to plain boiled rice and vegetables.\n\nAdditions to the Japanese supplies of Food.\n\n(a) Gifts from Friends in Hong Kong\n\nUnfortunately I have no record to show the date on which these gifts started, but by August 1942 visitors from the City of Victoria were being allowed to bring gifts of food to the hospital on Mondays and Thursdays. The food was usually contained in gunny sacks and included tins which contained food sealed in by the makers e.g., jam, or which were filled by the donors with for example peanut butter. I have never learned the whole story about these supplies and I hope that Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, then Dr. P.S. Selwyn-Clarke, will find it possible to relate this in detail.* A little later I shall have more to say about this remarkable man who was Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong at the outbreak of war.\n\nAs may be imagined the tins and containers became the vehicles for an exchange of notes between the hospital and citizens in Hong Kong. These notes contained personal and family items of news but very useful information came in from our friends to us suggesting methods of combating the deficiency diseases. Small supplies of important drugs were sent in by this route and information was given on methods of cultivating yeast, hop barm and other preparations thought to remedy vitamin deficiencies. Much ingenuity was expended in the hospital in making false bottoms and lids to tins and I can remember only one time when a communication was discovered. The culprit, a Hong Kong man, reacted by his cries and behaviour in a most satisfactory manner to the slapping he\n\n* Sir Selwyn's autobiography, Footprints, the Memoirs of Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, was published by Sino-American Publishing Company, Hong Kong in 1975.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207419, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n179\n\ngot from Sgt. Seino. He was not hurt in the least and I saw him directly afterwards fully relaxed and quite at ease. It struck me then that this sort of noisy reaction would be most satisfying to the person administering the punishment and the man who could put on this kind of act was to be envied. Incidentally I think our patient was lucky that Seino was in charge on this particular day and not Saito. In the very earliest days of these parcel deliveries some hasty speech at long range was possible between some people in hospital and our benefactors though this was soon stopped.\n\nThose who brought parcels to the hospital were of course all women. Some had amahs or servants to help them to transport their heavy burdens up the steep roads to the hospital. Even when they had help, we in the hospital understood the physical effort involved in buying, preparing, packing and carrying heavy loads and even after all the intervening years I am glad to have the chance of expressing the gratitude and admiration I still feel for what they did. They also had to exercise the greatest care never to get at cross purposes with our sometimes uneven tempered guards.\n\nAt the receiving end of this supply line I had to withstand some pointed questions. We knew that except for gifts addressed to certain known recipients, for example from wives to husbands and from relatives and friends of inmates all other parcels addressed to people by name were intended for our general use and these latter were taken straight into our hospital store. Sergeant Seino repeatedly required assurances from me that the individuals to whom these particular parcels were addressed were not receiving and using the contents themselves while those less fortunate had to go without. This meant of course that the Japanese were shutting their eyes to a method of getting additional stores into the hospital, and then and now I find this to be strange. I always gave Seino the most explicit guarantees of the facts and showed him how we stored gifts in our steward's store. The only reason for any scepticism on his part might have been that inmates with wives, relatives and close friends outside quite properly retained what they received, though I knew at the time that all who received these personal parcels shared the contents with their friends within the hospital.\n\nI made records of issues of food from our hospital store which came from our Hong Kong friends, but I now find that these records show the combined value of issues from these gifts and from pur-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207424, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "184\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nin September and December, and two each in October and November. In 1945 we had one intake in January, a tiny intake in February, one in March and two in June. I imagine that most of the tinned foods came from overseas. I learned later that two ship loads of Allied Red Cross stores had reached Hong Kong during the war having been transhipped to Japanese vessels.\n\nEffects of supplements upon the General Diet\n\nIn February 1943 I began to estimate and record the protein, fat and carbohydrate contents of the contributions from the three voluntary sources to the general diet. I started also to calculate the calorie values of our general diet, but the figures I arrived at were undoubtedly high partly due to the fact that I made no allowances for losses in preparation and cooking and partly due to assumptions I was forced to make when calculating the value of unknown varieties of flabby fish or lily roots or chrysanthemum leaves. I have not thought it worth while to burden readers with these calculations but making them occupied many hours of my time.\n\nFeeding the Patients\n\nI referred earlier to the problems of feeding patients suffering from acute infections and how these were tackled. In the case of the deficiency diseases some patients had turned against all food and went downhill in spite of everything that we could do for them. In these fatal cases the walls of the intestine had become as thin as a sheet of paper and were quite incapable of absorbing nourishment. Little that we could do therefore influenced the cases of these patients at all. Those among us who were able to eat a rice diet and who escaped major infections were indeed fortunate.\n\nOur system of feeding patients suffering from deficiency diseases and those in whom the acute stage of infection was passing was quite simple. Anything in the food store was available for them in as great quantities as they could take, the aim being of course to arrest the declining state of nourishment and to reverse this as soon as possible. This policy was undoubtedly the right one and certainly preserved many lives. It had less obviously good results in those with defects of vision and certain other neurological damage.\n\nPatients therefore had first call upon the extra food stuffs received from all sources. Reference to the tables showing food", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207428, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "188\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nvaried greatly at different times. In 1942 and 1943 we had much difficulty in maintaining a growth of yeast, but we produced a kind of hop barm made from cod liver oil and hops which produced with flour, bran and ground rice a bread which in our circumstances was passable. In 1945 bread and what we called rock buns were made from rice, bran and beans steamed in an old refrigerator converted for the purpose and suspended over a fire. To us the result was excellent.\n\nStoring the food\n\nWe maintained a steward's store throughout in which food stocks were held under the care of the steward and an assistant who lived with their charge. I said earlier that the arrival of food stocks was a spectacle never missed by the observant eyes of staff and patients, and by the time the Red Cross bulk stores began to come in I judged it wise to publish lists showing the quantities and varieties of food in all intakes, and this was appreciated.\n\nCooking the food\n\nThis was a heavy and often thankless task. The cooking apparatus was improvised after the main hospital kitchen was destroyed by enemy action in 1941. It was often very hard to get a good fire burning; the early rice boilers were deep and whether because of this or as a result of inexperience, the rice produced was often stodgy and gooey. Shallow boilers were installed later, and the quality of the rice delivered to the consumer improved greatly. The worst times were in 1942 when the hospital was overcrowded, the infections were rampant and the deficiency diseases were appearing, and also in 1943 when a long period of undernutrition could be foreseen. The unfortunate cooks came in for much criticism which of course did not improve matters. In addition to cooking they were called upon to divide the cooked food into containers for messes and wards and this led to further recriminations. I watched this situation with a great deal of care and I believe that we were fortunate to have men in these key positions who did not take advantage of their offices to get extra food for themselves, and who withstood apparently with only slight resentment much ill-informed and envious criticism. My natural faith in these men was all the stronger for the fact that the records of the body weights", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207429, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n189\n\nof men employed on duties connected with the storage, preparation, cooking and distribution of food showed losses of the same order as those displayed by men employed on other work.\n\nDistribution of food\n\nUntil our situation stabilised towards the end of 1944 on a ration strength of about 200 patients and staff, the method of distributing cooked food caused many difficulties. After our nursing sisters left, the nursing orderlies in charge of wards carried on in the traditional manner, drawing the ward entitlement of food from the kitchen and serving the appropriate portion to each patient on a full diet. An even distribution was a skill which some of these young men did not readily acquire, and there were endless complaints of maldistribution in wards. After food prepared for the meal had been issued from the kitchen, none remained there from which to make up shortages.\n\nThe first solution was to appoint in each ward a patient whose standing with his fellows was good, and he was given the duty of drawing and distributing the ward ration. This man was not required necessarily to have senior service rank. For example, one was a Dutch naval petty officer, another was a well-known member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, some were British and some Canadians. These men eventually came to exercise power and to maintain discipline in wards, and they were of great value to medical officers in charge of wards, to the sergeant major, and to me.\n\nEven this measure, however, did not completely restore confidence, and eventually wards and messing units drew their dry rice from the store according to the numbers in their messes into their own containers, in which it was then cooked and served. This measure brought about a further improvement, but it was not until the era of reduced numbers and of stability, for the most part in health and improved rations, that the problem was really overcome.\n\nOfficers on the staff had their own mess throughout. They were nine in number in Bowen Road, reduced however to six when we moved to Kowloon. In Bowen Road, this mess had a tiny electric stove with two rings in a small adjacent annexe, which in peace time had served the orderly medical officer when he was resident on duty. The mess was under the charge of a very efficient sergeant of the Royal Scots, Robert Lockie, who had been wounded and had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207430, "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": 198, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "190\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\na patient of ours. He drew our rations from the store and cooked for us for a time, but I came to consider that the rest of the hospital could feel that the members of our mess were doing better than their fellows. Our rations had of course been weighed and issued by the steward and conformed exactly to the scales in general use. I suppose the mess did benefit in that the cooking was done for a small number and for that reason was less liable to the bad days that others experienced. Because of this advantage, I stopped all separate cooking for the staff officers' mess early on, and thereafter we drew cooked food from the kitchen like other messing units and in due course, also like them we drew our uncooked rice from the store and had it cooked in the main kitchen.\n\nAnother problem that beset us was the distribution of the small quantities of extras like peanut butter, syrup etc., received from our Hong Kong friends usually, or from the Red Cross. One method would have been to issue at once the total amount to which each member of the hospital population was entitled and then leave him to use his stock as he wished. I was drawn to this solution which would make every man responsible for using the extra delicacy as he wished, but in the end, up till 1945, we issued the total entitlement in small quantities daily over a number of days, each issue being enough to flavour the rice dish or a meal. The decision to issue these substances in small quantities was made in the early days when shortages were acute and deficiency diseases were to be seen on all sides. One aim was to avoid the acquisition by individuals of a stock they could not always guard and which would be a temptation for others to steal. The other aim was to make it as difficult as possible to sell any part of a patient's nourishment for cigarettes, which some did. This policy of small issues was not accepted by many without protest, but in the circumstances of the time I believe it was the right one. In Kowloon in 1945 in the easier times then prevailing we issued his total entitlement of such foods to each man in bulk.\n\nWe had a community rightly watchful over its interests, particularly its own nutrition, for there before its eyes existed evidence of the results of an inadequate diet. Occasionally the concern of individuals showed itself in a rancorous manner and from time to time, especially in the early days though remarkably infrequently, anonymous letters were slipped into my office drawing attention to alleged shortcomings on the part of members of the staff for whom", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207431, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n191\n\nof course I was responsible. Only on one occasion was I accused of a misuse of stores myself. In a community the size of ours, in the disturbing atmosphere of the early year or two, I suppose I was lucky not to meet more accusations of my own shortcomings. Anonymous letters diminished and eventually disappeared as the policy of spreading responsibilities took shape and of course as conditions improved.\n\nIn this account I have given much space to the problems of general messing of patients and staff for this was the most important general matter which affected everybody. Ordinary complaints as to quantity and quality of food were openly and freely made and as speedily forgotten by most of our population. There were some, a few only, whose recurring complaints made life miserable at times for all those in the supply line.\n\nArrangements made by our friends in Hong Kong\n\nEven now I do not know the whole story about the food supplies which arrived at the hospital as gifts from our friends in Hong Kong. I repeat here the hope that Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke will find it possible to relate this in detail for it was he who originated the system. A short account of this remarkable man is necessary. He was Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong at the outbreak of war and was deeply committed to the welfare of Hong Kong Chinese citizens of all classes. He had reorganized the medical services in the Colony and had a formidable reputation as an advocate in any cause that he took up. He sought nothing for himself; he liked his own ways of doing things and often enough these did not commend themselves to others. Courage, pertinacity and not a little guile allowed him usually to carry the day. His wife and very young daughter were in Hong Kong with him, and were not evacuated to the Philippines and later to Australia with other service and civilian wives and families in July 1940. His view was that if the families of Chinese and other races for whom the Hong Kong government was responsible were not to be evacuated then his own family would also stay in the Colony. In this decision his wife backed him up fully.\n\nBefore the Far East war, following representations by the Japanese Foreign Office a Japanese doctor named Eguchi came to study on the spot the medical and health arrangements in the Colony. Colonel T. Eguchi next appeared as the Director of Me-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207439, "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n199\n\nthe eyes. He and I agreed that neither of us had ever seen a case of pellagra before.\n\nOn 22 January 1943, Saito came in again and was handed a copy of our pellagra report which he should have had already from Takeyama, our interpreter, the night before. He now said that in Sham Shui Po patients were being given 10 mgm nicotinic acid by injection daily, a figure which contrasted with his advice given less than a week earlier. This did nothing to increase my confidence in him as a physician.\n\nA day later Saito came in again. We had heard that 1200 men had left P.O.W. camps by ship having been equipped with some warm clothing, a Red Cross parcel and 10 yen each and that they were accompanied by two British and one Canadian doctor. I tried but failed to extract any more information on this subject. Saito told me that Sham Shui Po then held 2000 men of whom 1000 were sick and twice he emphasised that he did not want our hospital to be used as a hotel by men who were fit for camp. I found this rather irksome coming so soon after the tragedies of the closing months of 1942. I acknowledged that we did have some patients who were apparently in good condition physically but who showed serious visual defects which were evident if any examination of them were to be carried out. I complained that the only information we received about an incoming draft of patients was the approximate number and the time they were expected to arrive and even this was not always reliable while the notice was always short. Because our space was limited the only way we could accommodate new patients was to discharge about the same number of our existing ones. It thus came about that I was asking medical officers for the names of patients best fitted to return to camp and whose progress was unlikely to be jeopardised by discharge, rather than those in whose fitness we had confidence. I said that I could not overrule a doctor's decision on the medical condition of a patient only to be told that the same applied in the Japanese army. I was a little surprised at this. My protest had no effect and on our side we continued making room for new patients by discharging the fittest among the old patients. In 1943 this policy was the only one possible. Eighteen months later we did have patients admitted from camp, chosen by Saito, who seemed to us to be in better shape than some that we had to discharge.\n\nA Colonel Watanabe of the Japanese medical service visited us", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207441, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n201\n\nin the recreation room and put disinfectant in a bowl outside the Japanese office. The general spoke to nobody. Two months earlier, in March I had been ousted from my office in the front of the building and this pleasant room henceforward became the headquarters office of the Japanese within the hospital. I was surprised that they had not seized this earlier.\n\nOn 23 August 1943 the President of the Japanese Red Cross Society, Prince Shimatsu, inspected the hospital. At all times the appearance of the hospital was good, but at this as at all inspections the Japanese laid great stress on having the recreation room looking specially well. In addition to white cloths on the tables and vases of flowers all the musical instruments and equipment for indoor games had to be laid out on display. As usual the inspecting officer had no parley with patients or staff.\n\nI have records of only three occasions on which British doctors from P.O.W. camps were allowed to visit Bowen Road. Major Ashton Rose, Indian Medical Service, was the doctor accepted by the Japanese as being in administrative medical charge in Sham Shui Po camp. I believe he had considerable influence with them, in so far as any prisoner could have influence. On 5 March 1943 he visited the hospital bringing with him some patients for admission and came again on 23 March with an officer patient for specialist eye examination. On the second occasion he stayed to lunch, a phrase which of course indicates a higher degree of sophistication than in fact we deserved. It was however something for us to be able to entertain a guest at all. We learned from Ashton Rose that the general state of prisoners in Sham Shui Po was improving and that the men were fitter. On 13 May Captain Woodward, an Australian serving with the I.M.S., came over from Kowloon to have medical advice about himself and on this occasion Saito came too.\n\nIt seems curious now to look back upon such things, but up to March 1943 the bomb and shell damage to the hospital inflicted fifteen months earlier had gone substantially unrepaired. The top floors were badly damaged and as I reported earlier the kitchen in the middle section connecting the two blocks of wards was completely destroyed. Rain poured in at these places as well as at other damaged areas and the recreation room below the kitchen was unusable in wet weather. The fact that we did not carry out repairs earlier probably resulted from our preoccupation at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207446, "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": 214, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "206\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nThe Hospital Funds were the main customers, and provided much needed extras for general and for individual consumption. Cigarettes were in great demand and came in various brands. Occasionally what we called Chinese cigarette tobacco was available and when burned this emitted a foul smell making its users extremely unpopular with their neighbours. I had stopped smoking myself many years before the war, so I suffered no deprivation but many men, particularly Canadian soldiers curiously enough, felt the lack of tobacco greatly. Earlier in this account I said that some patients in the early months of my charge were exchanging food issued to them for treatment purposes for cigarettes. We took a strong line on this and the practice soon ended. Another time a soldier received a large number of cigarettes in a parcel from home, though how this got through I do not know. He started to sell some at a level of profit which would have excited envy in most black markets. The business attained the proportions of a scandal in our small community and I confiscated the greater part of his remaining stock and distributed these free to all except officers in the hospital. This met with approval by our population rather than disapproval of the high-handed action, which in fact it was. When funds allowed we bought cigarettes as a general issue for all except officers in the hospital, non-smokers getting a cash allowance instead. In the shop at a later date we set prices to yield small profits though such commonly sought articles as cheap cigarettes were often sold at cost and gradually we built up a fund of some hundreds of yen.\n\nI had the greatest difficulty in getting permission from the Japanese to use this money; they kept a close watch on the store to make sure that unauthorised goods or messages did not come in. Eventually in August 1944 they agreed to refer to their headquarters my request to use our profit. Headquarters then wanted us to buy musical instruments and other goods of this kind. I feel sure that the reason was that these articles could be displayed in our recreation room and provide readily visible evidence to inspecting officers as to Japanese solicitude for patients in the hospital. In the end, though specific permission was never actually given, we began to use this profit to add to our diet. Like many other of our practices this started in a small way and grew to sizeable proportions.\n\nThe range of goods in the shop was astonishingly large early on. In February 1943 when my records of prices start, 58 items were on sale and ranged from corned beef at ¥2.40 per tin to cotton", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207448, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "208\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nIf I had known I would not have named him to the Japanese. They carried out their own searches and interrogations, accompanied by tying up to water pipes or other suitable tethering posts those they wanted to interview. All were well slapped but the thief was never discovered. Two of our orderlies and one R.A.M.C. man were removed to P.O.W. camp though.\n\nOn another note, soon after I took charge an electric bulb was stolen from the perimeter lighting system, no doubt by one of our people who needed one. The elementary error was made of not replacing the filched good bulb with a worn-out one. This was a useful lesson to me personally from which I profited, but on the occasion of which I am writing I was summoned and formally told that while a bulb was a small matter stealing it was an insult to the Imperial Army and I was warned that if I wanted trouble I could be sure of getting it by allowing such offences.\n\nThe best story about trading, a true one, concerned a patient who was negotiating a deal with a sentry. Much experience had shown that some sentries were less governed by strong principles of honesty in business dealings than others, and often enough no confidence whatsoever was shown between the parties concerned. On this occasion the sentry wanted to take the article away for valuing before making an offer, but our patient was not prepared to allow this. Eventually a compromise was reached and the sentry left his loaded rifle with the patient as a surety while he took the article away for valuation. The patient kept the rifle in his bed and in due course the sentry returned and a bargain was struck.\n\nIn the earlier days a number of sentries came to our nursing orderlies suffering from venereal disease being for some reason reluctant to report sick with such a complaint to their own people. They knew the value of the sulpha drugs and they knew that we possessed some of these. At first I was tempted to allow our men to treat them in the hope that we might thereby enjoy some advantages, in the form at least of their forbearance to be unduly zealous in their dealings with us. I soon came to see that we were likely to gain nothing from this practice and set my face firmly against it. Our small stocks of sulpha drugs were so extremely valuable to us that I myself controlled their issue to wards, a special case having to be made to me on each occasion by the doctor in charge. I would not however assert that some of our men did not supply", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207456, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "216\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nhospital. As a result our wards were crowded to a greater extent than ever before.\n\nEarlier all in hospital were required to sign a statement undertaking not to escape. Few of us, patients or staff, felt any compunction about signing such a document under duress and only two officer patients refused their signatures. Early in November, Colonel Tokunaga, no less, came himself and saw both officers. One thereupon signed while the other was removed and kept overnight in a small cupboard-like room in a building in Kowloon. I understood that he was not ill-treated, and it was explained to him that our British General Officer Commanding had ordered officers to sign. He then signed and was returned as a patient to our hospital.\n\nMost of our patients had lost all their kit and many did not possess even a drinking mug at this time. They were using tins which had contained tinned food, but the rims of these tins were jagged and caused much pain especially to patients whose lips and tongue were raw from deficiency diseases. Our engineers set to work and fitted empty tins with handles and smoothed out the rims and acceptable drinking mugs were soon issued to all patients. The engineers also turned out badly needed fly-swatters in large numbers.\n\nIn November we received 198 books from the Red Cross for our library, and in December another 400 library books arrived. Also in December a number of musical instruments, indoor games, packs of cards etc. were received through the Red Cross from the Pope. In November we had a stock of 270 gramophone records and these were listed and we were even able to provide requested programmes of music. From time to time we received a number of copies of the Japan-produced English language Japan Times in one of which an indignant account was given of the torpedoing by an American submarine of the \"Lisbon Maru\" which was carrying British prisoners to Japan. In this disaster when the torpedo struck, many of our men were battened down in the holds and prevented from trying to save themselves. Some were fired upon while swimming. The Japanese indignation should properly have been directed against the guards.\n\nNormally we had two check parades daily, one about eight a.m. and the other about five p.m. and about once a month on average", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207458, "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": 226, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "218\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nattacks on defences which were hardly dented. The areas in which fighting was taking place were still thousands of miles away from us and the newspaper constantly asked the subtle question as to whether the American losses were worth incurring.\n\nIn the hospital 1943 was a drab year for us; the number of patients dropped from 341 on 1 January to 234 on 31 December. Drafts of patients for admission from P.O.W. camps came on ten out of the twelve months and on each occasion patients were discharged. The condition of incoming patients showed a distinct improvement as the year went on though many patients and staff had an additional affliction to endure, that of intestinal worms. Suspicion fell upon a number of food items including vegetables and Chinese brown sugar as the vehicle of infection, but we never established that any one substance was the culprit.\n\nOn three separate occasions I was handed sums of military yen by the Japanese in cash, the donors being the Red Cross Societies. One such gift came from the Canadian Society and was marked for Canadian troops only and was so distributed. Apart from this all other gifts had no limitations placed upon them. On each occasion the available cash was divided and paid equally to all except commissioned officers. Each man thus received 40 yen over the year while Canadians had an extra 30 yen, and in all cases I gained a few yen for my Commanding Officer's Fund from small surpluses. The Central Hospital Fund also benefited from money contributed by officer prisoners in camp in Kowloon which was transmitted to us by the Japanese. The signatures of some patients on the receipt sheets were indecipherable scrawls, because they were quite unable to coordinate their movements.\n\nThirty patients died during the year, and by the end of October 104 of our men were buried in cemeteries in and around the hospital. In April we were given a tin of black paint by the Japanese at our request to allow us to paint the names of the dead on the very well made wooden crosses constructed by us to mark their graves. In December a Japanese interpreter appeared saying that it was his job to see to it that graves were properly prepared and marked and that plans of these existed. I was very proud of the work that our men put in, and the graves of those who had died were properly prepared, identified and maintained. Usually each grave held only one body; occasionally two shared a grave, and on one occasion three men were buried together when they had died", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207464, "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": 232, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "224\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nAir alerts were frequent and raids were common, though no attacks were directed near to us. During alerts we brought our patients down from the upper two floors and the arrangement worked well enough though I was always a little fearful of our excitable guards urging haste to our patients whose gait and balance were disturbed by disease. Blackouts occurred regularly and added greatly to the difficulties of our night duty staff. I used to lie in bed on many nights when the hospital was blacked out but not alerted and listen to the big American planes flying over Hong Kong, probably from airfields in China on bombing raids on Japanese held territories. Emergency checks on our numbers continued to be held at night time about once a month in addition to the regular morning and evening checks. The night checks got us up from bed for up to an hour. In May we could still use our portable X-ray machines but this was of little value because we had no films. About the same time mosquitoes were a pest and we had a number of cases of fever among staff and patients.\n\nDuring 1943 I find recurring references in my diary to shortages of fuel and we had parties out regularly on the hillside behind the hospital felling trees. The cooks had an unenviable task trying to make fires with green wood. Food supplies, too, came at intervals which were not regular, and in June for example the rice intakes were so irregular that we had to juggle a good deal with issues. Stocks of sugar both from the Red Cross and Japanese sources dwindled also and we had to cut issues in order not to run out of supplies. By September 1943 eggs cost 1.30 yen each and rising costs generally compelled us to re-examine the system of issuing extra food for patients in need. We established that first priority should be given to patients with suppurating wounds or who had pulmonary tuberculosis; next came patients with gross loss of weight; then came those with acute fevers and those who could not eat rice and with these were banded some of the patients with visual defects, the result of deficiency diseases. In July we had to reduce the flour ration to 104 grammes a day, though to offset this the daily rice ration was increased to 384 grammes. We experimented with combinations of atta, boiled rice and ground rice to make something we could call bread and we even produced some small buns using a little flour as well. We made and issued a soup made from fish heads but this was unpalatable to most and when we abandoned the experiment we thereafter issued fish complete with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207474, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "234\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nment and my diary specially records that one incoming draft of patients were showing serious losses of balancing power. I recorded also that in October I was pressing for patients for admission to be allowed to bring with them a change of clothing. Earlier in the year in April an officer of the Hong Kong Volunteers was brought over to us as a special admission, having been operated on in Argyle Street ten days earlier as an emergency undertaken to close a perforated peptic ulcer. The excellent result for the patient must have been very gratifying for the surgeons who had to overcome many difficulties. I recall only about four occasions in two and a half years in Bowen Road when special admissions for consultations for individuals were arranged, and of these two were for non-urgent eye conditions.\n\nFrom time to time we were given materials for boot and clothing repairs. The boot materials were good, but I noted that in August the clothing material included 18 old khaki drill trousers and 17 old white pants. I had myself been lucky with my own shoes because soon after our surrender one of my patients offered to fix for me rubber soles cut from the outer cover of a motor tyre. The result was a little clumsy but of course the soles never wore out. On 24 October we had a good intake of Red Cross clothing which I was told by the Japanese was for our staff only while stocks for patients would follow from Kowloon. I arranged distribution to the staff but accepted nothing myself, fortunately for the promised second delivery never arrived. There was much ill feeling among certain patients as a result. Over two years' experience of the readiness of a Japanese to make a confident pronouncement upon a subject about which he knew nothing, and of his own ability and that of his colleagues to state something entirely different a little later, should have made me more wary. The opportunity to make this sort of mistake had not occurred earlier nor did I ever repeat it and the allocation of gift stores in the future was made by public lottery. Leonard Mosley in his biography of Emperor Hirohito of Japan published in 1966 writes of the Japanese language \"the language is made for inferences and circumlocutions which might be taken as agreement or disagreement, one can never be sure\". I cannot give any opinion on this, but if his statement is true and I have no reason to doubt this, the Japanese with whom we came in contact translated their circumlocutions into English,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207477, "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": 245, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n237\n\ndays in selected cases but without improving the condition of their patients.\n\nIn addition to beautifying our cemeteries further by means of tiles removed from walls in the hospital, a wooden Memorial Cross was completed and erected in the front cemetery to those of 27 Company R.A.M.C. who had been killed. The names of the men had been skilfully carved by a patient, Private Medhurst. The ideas for beautifying the cemeteries and for the memorial cross as well as for many of the improvements made in the hospital came from many sources and I was able to give all encouragement to men with ideas and to provide materials when available.\n\nThe year 1944 was a bad one for the supply of our Japanese rations and fuel. In February we had our last baking of bread using flour, and by that time the flour was very stale and weevily. In compensation the ration of rice allowed by the Japanese was raised from 384 grammes first to 570 grammes and later to 600 grammes daily. We were never able to issue rice on these scales because of the short weight sacks to which I have referred before. A typical disappointment came in March when the ration was cut back to 480 grammes, the cut being made retrospective to 1 March. March also brought news through Watanabe who told me that Red Cross bulk supplies would be delivered twice a month and I prepared lists of items we considered desirable, again keeping my suggestions within the bounds of what I guessed to be practicable in Hong Kong. Saito told me on 8 March that supplies I had asked for on 29 February after one of his searches could not be provided. This was an advance for me because so often in the past I never heard what the decision was on any request. In our first receipt of Red Cross supplies in March we received cod liver oil which I allocated to the medical officers for use as they judged proper. We had also received some shark liver oil from visitors and I used this by adding it to any stews we had in proportion of 5 minims for each person in the hospital. At this time we began to issue to all in hospital soy bean powder as such, instead of making what turned out to be rather repulsive milk from it. We continued to make soy milk for certain patients on the assumption that it might be more readily absorbed. Our meals were often late, mainly because of difficulty of getting good fires in the kitchen. Deliveries of rations were often irregular and we were generally uneasy about the system. Our guards seemed to share this anxiety. The quality of rations", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207478, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "238\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nwas specially poor also about this time some of our rice was wet and a stock of bran became hot but we still used every scrap of food. We did have one splendid feast in August 1944 when we received one issue of unplucked pheasants and partridges packed in Manchuria in 1941. Our cooks prepared a stew which made a memorable addition to our rice and vegetables. The game had obviously been in cold store in Hong Kong and electricity cuts must have endangered the refrigeration and so we benefited. In August the Japanese were very active in storing rice and a total of 250 sacks were stacked partly in our hospital building where the Japanese held the keys and partly in the Japanese medical quarters. This was another of the very heavy fatigues which devolved upon staff. It was usually non-nursing staff who did work of this kind, though some of the nurses joined in which clearly meant that they welcomed even heavy labour if it involved a change in their routine.\n\nThe Red Cross local bulk supplies allowed us to make our basic diet of rice and vegetables much more palatable and, just as important, they showed our people that a valiant attempt to meet their needs was being made. Our morale, depressed by the third year of our captivity was lifted.\n\nMr. Zindel visited us in August and again in December 1944. In August after the usual formal and silent round of the wards I was summoned to the Japanese office where I found Tokunaga, Saito, Zindel and an interpreter. Zindel then asked me what food stuffs we needed, making the point no doubt for the benefit of the Japanese that he had asked similar questions of the officer placed in charge by the Japanese of the other ranks camp in Sham Shui Po. I asked for food containing protein and vitamins, saying that these were our main need though we also needed sugar to replenish our falling stock. He told me that fresh meat was not available which came as no surprise to me but most helpfully offered beans, which I welcomed. I followed up this very short talk with a list addressed to Zindel through the Japanese, again limiting our requests to items which we judged might be available. At Mr. Zindel's December inspection no conversation was allowed though the visit was marked by an air raid.\n\nIn August 1943 we had no mains water for 36 hours and had to carry what we needed from the reservoir where the water level was too low for our pumps to be effective. Thereafter we had no trouble for some months though we were reproached for using", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207484, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "244\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nsive demonstration of American air power. I do not know if any Japanese planes took part in the defence. After the raid we picked up a great many jagged fragments of bombs and shells in our grounds though the hospital itself suffered no obvious damage. The history of the war shows that this raid came from Admiral Halsey's Sixth Fleet which had passed to the north of the Philippine Islands and approached the China coast searching for some remaining ships of the Japanese fleet. On this occasion the attackers failed to find the ships which at the time were lying up much further to the south but we got enormous encouragement from the successes we saw. The bombing was very accurate but during one raid on another occasion a fleet of large American bombers came in from the sea aiming from high altitude no doubt at dockyards and Japanese headquarters. Unfortunately their bombs fell short and damaged a large part of Wan Chai. As maybe imagined we had no newspapers for some days after these occasions.\n\nOn 21 January bombs from another raid fell very close to the hospital and we lost a good deal of glass and plaster and picked up many fragments of shells and bombs in the grounds. Our guards never overcame their excitement during air raids and added their own defence contribution by rapid fire from their rifles at the attacking aeroplanes. It would be interesting to learn how much ammunition the Japanese had left at the date of their surrender.\n\nFrom the end of January 140 men from Sham Shui Po camp were accommodated on the top floor of the hospital which was wired off from the rest of the building. They were marched off daily to prepare ground in Happy Valley to grow vegetables there and were accompanied each day by one of our nursing orderlies. The original orders to me were to house the working party in the now vacant barrack block from which the hospital was by now wired off, but when these orders were changed Seino quite courteously apologised for the alteration. We cooked for the newcomers and helped their own 10 maintenance men to draw and hoist water daily to their quarters. The work in Happy Valley was arduous at first and the weather was cold and wet. Later the conditions were easier and the hours of work were less. The ration scale allowed by the Japanese for the working party was on a substantially higher level than that in the hospital in rice, fish, vegetables, beans, oil and sugar. I pressed this precedent and I got our official rice ration raised by 30 grammes to 510 grammes; the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207488, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "248\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nThere was no lift. By now we were caring for 15 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. The medical officer staff was slightly different from what it had been in Bowen Road (See Appendix C) and contained one new member, Captain Coombs. The changes had been made by the Japanese and I was not consulted, though Coombs was a valued and welcome member of the staff.\n\nThe building was arranged in two wings, and looked at from the front the left hand wing was given over to Japanese quarters. In the centre was a large Assembly Hall while our hospital occupied the right hand wing. The Assembly Hall was out of bounds to us except on special occasions. I had hoped to get a member of the Hong Kong Volunteers to come with us from Sham Shui Po as a rice cook, but he did not turn up, and Corporal J. O'Grady took charge. Our practice was now to cook all our food in bulk and not by wards and messes in their own containers as in the past. The kitchens had shallow rice boilers and our rice from now on improved considerably. The electricity generator had been damaged during the move but repairs were started by our engineers. The church was sited in the Central Clock Tower room. Saito gave us a Hongkong News from which on the 14 April we learned of the death of President Roosevelt and we held a memorial service for him on the following day.\n\nA refrigerator was converted to act as a steamer, steam being delivered through the top, and the cooks baked some very good so-called cake and made some experimental bread without flour which turned out to be excellent when judged by our standards. We even began to fry the bread sometimes when we had enough oil. On 19 April four blinded men and two old men arrived, the former with attendants to look after their needs. On 20 April Colonel Tokunaga made an afternoon inspection and we were ordered to remove all beds from verandahs and all staff except the steward and one cook were required to sleep in the barrack room. Visitors arrived to deliver parcels the same day but they had to leave them for collection by us some distance away from our front door. With 134 patients and no beds on verandahs our space was pretty crowded. By now our non-medical staff was building up and we had one shoemaker, two tailors, one barber, two cooks, three rice grinders, four vegetable men and three wood men. We also used two men for pots and pans and two appear in my diary as having duties connected with beds though I cannot now remember", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207491, "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": 259, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n251\n\n1056 packets of cigarettes costing 1.50 yen each and we sold them at a 10 sen profit on each packet. This allowed six packets per head for 176 patients and staff and all were taken up. We lost a clock from the kitchen on 19 May and concluded that trading was still going on. On 22 May we admitted an acutely ill officer from Sham Shui Po and on 24 May a Canadian soldier died and was buried at once. At this time we were very short of both Japanese and Red Cross food stores and though the compradore came on 26 May and took money he was not allowed to bring goods to us or to the other camps.\n\nOn 28 May the Japanese warrant officer in charge of rations gave Mr. Campbell a new scale to be effective from 1 June.\n\n \n \n Staff and Employed\n Patients and Non-employed\n \n \n Rice\n G.510 + 30\n 32 + 32\n \n \n Meat\n G.660 = + 60\n \n \n \n Vegetable\n 540 = + 140\n 360 = + 70\n \n \n Salt\n 10 =\n 8\n \n \n \n No change\n ** + 3\n \n \n Sugar\n 10\n 5\n \n \n Tea\n 8\n 2\n \n \n \n \n 1\n \n \n \n Nil =\n \n \n \n \n \n + 3\n \n \n Oil\n 3\n 3\n \n \n \n 9\n 9\n \n \n \n 31\n I\n \n \n Curry\n 20 + 20\n 15\n \n \n \n \n +15\n \n \n Beans\n Nil\n Nil\n \n \n \n 60\n -\n \n \n \n \n 31\n \n\nI imagine that these figures were target or even show figures for the Japanese, for the issues we could afford to make were always lower in practice.\n\nOn 29 May I was passing the R.E. shop with Saito when he went in and Q.M.S. Tyas told him how badly we needed diesel oil and cement. I remarked that I was being pressed every day for these stores, to which Saito very fairly responded that I was troubling him every day too on the same subject. We were very short of cooking oil and I reported that our present stock allowed only 0.85 litre for the whole hospital daily. Saito also promised to look into the supply of beans which I told him had vanished from our rations. I pressed him about canteen goods and said we were exceedingly short of salt, and of wood for fuel and that we fed our cooking fires only on wood which we had stripped from buildings in Bowen Road.\n\nThe same day Saito produced the old undertaking not to escape which all the staff and patients had signed in Bowen Road on 26", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207492, "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": 260, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "252\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nMay 1942. Each page bore many signatures and Saito now wanted a similar undertaking to be given but with only one signature on each page. The original undertaking as presented to us in Bowen Road read \"I hereby swear that I shall not make any attempt to escape whilst I am a prisoner of the Imperial Japanese Army. Dated this day 17th year of Showa”. In 1942 we had had much debate with the Japanese over the text of this declaration and eventually the staff signed the following version, “I hereby swear that I shall not make any attempt to escape, and understand that I am on parole and may not leave the hospital precincts without permission from the Commandant\". In 1945 Saito insisted upon the first version given above. I had a long argument with him saying that we had signed the alternative version in 1942 since we did not regard ourselves as prisoners, to which Saito retorted that in fact we had been and were being treated differently from other prisoners. All members of the staff signed the new undertaking, but the old date of 26 May 1942 was used in the 1945 form.\n\nOn 31 May the guard sergeant told me at 4 p.m. that a working party of 40 men was coming from Sham Shui Po and were to be accommodated in the church. We put up beds with mattresses and two pillows each, the beds being so closely placed as to touch each other and shortly afterwards 40 Canadians arrived with a sergeant in charge. Next day the working party went off early to Kowloon Hospital to heap earth round air-raid shelters, but they were not pressed too hard there.\n\nOn 1 June the parcels that came from our visitors included 250 eggs which we set aside for patients only. From the working party the hospital got a rumour that Sham Shui Po was sending a concert party the next day, a Saturday, and sure enough on 2 June a band and concert party numbering 41 came from camp by lorry and by march route. My diary records that we had music, both classical and Japanese, as well as dance music and variety acts. Tokunaga was present and the concert was good, but I was not allowed to do any more than provide the performers with sweet tea. On June 2 and subsequently we had no newspapers and Saito told me that none were being received in the camps either. Though our church was being used as a barrack room, services continued to be held and at this time we were again having to use ingenuity to avoid having to serve boiled rice only at meals. For example,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207493, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n253\n\nour entitlement to vegetables for two days was 191.5 kilos while we received only 64.5 kilos.\n\nOn 6 June, which my diary remembered to record as Derby day, I have a note that we had had two small issues of meat one about 26 May and another a few days later. We minced the meat up so as to get it distributed throughout the rice as chow fan and through the vegetable in stews. We were collecting vegetable issues each day by hand from Argyle Street and our own gardens while being successfully cultivated were not producing enough to affect the main hospital diet though sick patients did profit. By now we were doing a good deal of gardening outside the wire.\n\nOn 7 June a note in my diary recorded for the first time that overnight two of our men on night duty had their dinners stolen. The empty containers later reappeared, having been taken by the guard sergeant.\n\nOn 8 June we had a welcome intake of Red Cross stores, the last receipts having come on 9 March. On this occasion we received 200 catties of beans (266 lbs); 100 catties wheat (133 lbs); 35 catties lard (47 lbs); 23 lbs peanut butter; 24 lbs preserved meat; 49 lbs cube sugar; 243 duck eggs and 20 bars of washing soap. This splendid intake allowed us to issue one half egg to each person in hospital.\n\nIt was on 9 June that Saito searched the hospital for three hours and took away for examination, he said, all case sheets for patients, all patients' records, operating books etc. that he could find. He also took documents relating to 27 Company R.A.M.C., together with some possessions taken from individuals. No one ever saw these again and I have recorded elsewhere how I got from Saito written acknowledgement of what he had done.\n\nOn 10 June a second working party of 20 men came from Sham Shui Po to make gardens near our cemetery in Kowloon.\n\nOn 20 June I asked for some less fit men from the first working party to be taken off work and returned to camp and I also gave Saito at his request a list of men fit for discharge. These numbered only six. At this time I have a curious note in my diary that I signified approval to Saito on behalf of the officers concerned for the Japanese to use the interest on our savings for the benefit of all. The Japanese request was conveyed in a letter in their own language which was explained to me orally by Saito through his interpreter. I must have understood the proposal at the time but", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207494, "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": 262, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "254\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nI have no idea now what this meant. The first working party was transferred to another job and though none of the less fit had gone back to camp none of these were being worked.\n\nIt was at this time also that we ran out of rice, having deliberately issued for consumption on the scales approved by the Japanese. As a punishment Mr. Campbell and I were both slapped. We would not have run the risk of an empty rice store in earlier years but by then we were becoming more confident of our position. We did in fact go short for a day but fresh supplies came in within 24 hours. This was a very good intake, about 360 kilos, and I was able to work out a good ration on the basis of 510 grammes for 100 employed and 397 grammes for others, assuming that our stocks had to last until the end of July. We had another very good Red Cross intake on 29 June and at this time we were having 113 grammes rice for breakfast, 145 grammes for dinner and tea as well as 113 grammes for working party suppers. I learned also that much of the working party's work on air raid shelters had been undone by heavy rain. I also have a note that our steward's store was well wired up by us though I do not now remember who the predators were suspected to be.\n\nOn 7 July a Canadian officer died, admitted from Sham Shui Po on the 29 June. There was in this case a strong suspicion that the cause of death was encephalitis of the Japanese B. type. The next day a Hong Kong Volunteer died suddenly from a severe haemorrhage. On the same day the Japanese guard moved out of the Japanese half of the school building and we understood that Saito was going to live there. By 19 July Saito himself took check parades and we were still hoping to receive certain things that we had asked for such as a cross-cut saw and some drugs. On 11 July a Canadian soldier had broken his leg while working on a tunnel to be used by the Japanese as an air raid shelter. Splints were applied in a Japanese hospital and he was sent to us for admission. The working party reported to me that the tunnels they were digging were of amateurish design and were highly dangerous. I gathered that the sides and roofs were very inadequately shored up and there had been a number of falls of earth from roofs and sides. I tackled Saito at once about this, and he later told me that we could be reassured since the Japanese officer in charge said that they only needed more timbers to be used and all would be well. As a statement of the obvious this seemed to me to be pretty good.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207500, "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": 268, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "260\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nfeet to help aircraft expected to drop supplies the next day. The sign had to be yellow, and the Japanese straw sleeping mats called tatami were used to construct the sign. Some huts in the Indian camp were blown down. We got Tokunaga and Saito to turn over St. Teresa's Hospital to us while we helped also by housing a number of people in our Assembly Hall. Our staff of rice grinders had stopped functioning and we had to use R.A.M.C. orderlies to help. We had been hoping that our sisters would have arrived but a party of them had apparently missed a ferry connection. A nearby typhoon accompanied by heavy rain caused the air drop of supplies to be postponed but the weather moderated and our marooned visitors were able to leave. Two women members of a religious order arrived from St. Teresa's Hospital distressed that a Japanese officer had disturbed them the previous night and I took them to the Indian camp where I arranged the move of patients and staff through Indian Army officers to St. Teresa's Hospital and I set about compiling lists of patients from all centres in order to classify those needing treatment and special transportation when relief arrived. We had a number of Canadian officers to lunch and Major Crawford was a welcome visitor later when he came to see the Canadian patients in hospital. He himself seemed in reasonably good shape by the standards of those days.\n\nIn consultation with Colonel Field certain difficulties over medical arrangements in some camps were remedied. The sisters in St. Teresa's Hospital were keeping three rooms for their own use and the Japanese were moving out. The St. Teresa's staff and patients would be fed from the Indian camp and we were now getting news over the radio which suggested that a relief force might arrive about the end of the month. An emergency operation was performed in our hospital on a patient admitted from camp. The disease was the same as that in the case of the patient whom I reported earlier had been received by us in Bowen Road in 1942 after ten days illness, when he died before surgery could be undertaken. Early surgery would have saved this patient and operation was totally successful in the case of the patient we had just admitted. Staff and patients were again being allowed out locally.\n\nBy 26 August I had occupied the office which Saito had used, and in St. Teresa's Hospital the sisters were now content with the arrangements while they also had access to houses at No. 317 Prince Edward Road, Major Evans was in charge here with Captain", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207502, "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": 270, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "262\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nA R.A.F. sergeant got married on 28 August and Miss M. da Roza, a local lady offered her services as a masseuse for our patients.\n\nAt this time I had to deal with complaints arising from long standing antagonisms in P.O.W. camps now openly displayed after long repression. I am glad to say that this phase subsided eventually without overt official action becoming necessary. We also prepared a system of recording the medical condition of Hong Kong Volunteers before they were freed to their homes in the Colony. Doctor Newton, the deputy Chief Medical Officer in the civil medical service, took charge of the Internee Camp nearby and we were allotted a motor car which we shared with the Indian camp.\n\nIt was on 28 August that Saito came in with Hasegawa after 9 p.m. and told me formally that all our medical records had been burned about 15 August along with their own records which the Japanese were burning at that time. As I have reported earlier I got his written acknowledgement that these records had been destroyed and also that none of the plain clothes removed by him from us remained. My diary records that I spoke sternly on this matter, which must have given me some pleasure at the time.\n\nBy now a party was going each day from the hospital to visit relatives and friends in Stanley. The journey was made by ferry and took about two hours. On 29 August some planes came over just after 7 a.m. and some food and cigarettes were dropped later the same day in Sham Shui Po. Included in the drop were some medical boxes and my diary records that the contents of these came as a marvellous revelation to us. We were doing well about this time because the Japanese delivered about eleven thousand packets of cigarettes and jam to us and we heard that British warships and aircraft carriers had been seen off Stanley. On 30 August planes were flying over Hong Kong all morning and a B.B.C. radio report said that the fleet had come. Nomura asked for lists of our patients and I required him to come and get these himself. This action was possibly required of him by our relieving force.\n\nTrue enough a large fleet came into harbour on 30 August, which was 14 days after the Japanese surrender. This delay seemed a long time to us but the arrival of the fleet brought to an end a confused situation in which we were increasingly managing our own affairs. We sent our car for Admiral Harcourt to go to Sham Shui Po and he later went round our hospital with Mr. Gimson who\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207503, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n263\n\nhad taken over the civil administration for the time being. The Admiral cheered us all up by saying that his hospital ship could take 600 patients and he had asked for another hospital ship as well. A Canadian warship, the Prince Rupert, took some Canadians and all our sisters off to supper in the ship. I worked up to 2.30 a.m. preparing lists for the use of our Military Headquarters in Sham Shui Po and also the details of our hospital patients awaiting evacuation.\n\nOn 31 August a naval doctor arrived as a liaison officer and I called on Surgeon-Captain Willoughby the P.M.O. in the hospital ship Oxfordshire. Some tough-looking marines commandeered transport and we transferred 101 patients to the hospital ship at once. At this time my diary records that we had ample food but I was dead tired and the P.M.O. very kindly asked me to stay in the Oxfordshire as he seemed to think I needed a rest. This was most considerate of him but there was still much to be done. Willoughby wanted the Q.A. sisters to sail also in the Oxfordshire with the patients, but Miss Dyson objected strongly and rightly won her point. The rest of the patients embarked in the hospital ship also and we provided case notes for all such patients. A Group-Captain R.A.F. came to the hospital to take it over for R.A.F. use, but our army sisters remained with us to their, and our, delight. A very senior R.A.F. combatant officer took some joy telling me that those of us who had wives at home were in for some nasty shocks for most of these had gone badly astray during the war. He did not say how their husbands had conducted themselves.\n\nThe Indian Hospital seemed to be well under control and Major Evans told me he had 314 patients in hospital, about 85% of whom had manifestations of pellagra, and I was able to help by supplying some drugs.\n\nThe ship's P.M.O. Willoughby advised the Admiral that the Oxfordshire should go direct to the United Kingdom to avoid having to tranship patients in Manila, and the ship thereupon accepted another 90 patients and was replaced by the New Zealand hospital ship, Monganui, of which the P.M.O. was Bennett. On 3 September I crossed the harbour and recovered all my buried records from Bowen Road, and I went from there to Shau Ki Wan where I found no trace of the possessions of any of our men who had been killed at the army medical store near there. They had been buried in craters behind the Salesian. I could not get transport", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207506, "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": 274, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "266\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nwhere they fed us and found our guard. In the Empress of Australia, Major MacIntyre was senior medical officer and he turned out to be a fellow graduate of the University of Glasgow, a coincidence which turned out to be much to my advantage.\n\nApparently at this time I was making returns to some authority or other relating to money transactions while we were prisoners. In the Civil Internment Camp in Stanley, I believe that a few people who could get money sent in lent sums to others for repayment after the war at exorbitant rates of interest. This practice was frowned upon by the British leaders in the camp, and the returns I refer to undoubtedly had to do with transactions of this kind. The hospital had been free of such speculators who operated on this scale.\n\nOn 8 September I received a message from my wife and on 9 September we embarked in the Empress of Australia for a destination that was unknown. Next day we took on board all who were being evacuated from Stanley camp, having anchored just off the peninsula there. On 13 September we disembarked in Manila and were sent to an Australian officers camp where we were medically examined and interrogated on 15 September. While in Manila all messing arrangements were kept going throughout the whole 24 hours for the benefit of those who felt they needed much food.\n\nOn 18 September we reembarked in the Empress but our Q.A. sisters had taken the other route home via Canada. We voyaged home via Singapore, Colombo, Aden, Suez where all the troops were re-equipped with warm clothing, then after a short stop in Port Said we landed in Liverpool on 28 October having been delayed for 24 hours outside the port by storms and high winds. My thoughts went back to a similar 24-hour delay when my wife and I originally landed in Hong Kong some six and one-half years earlier.\n\nWhile we were in Colombo a very interesting event occurred. Our accommodation in the Australia was on wartime standards and some of our men reacted very unfavourably to the crowded conditions. The atmosphere in the troop decks had become fiery at times. While we were anchored in Colombo, Lady Mountbatten came on board looking very smart in her Red Cross uniform. She went below to the troop decks, climbed on a mess table and spoke in simple and direct terms to the men. She drew their attention probably for the first time to the vastly different conditions in which life was being lived in ships and at home after six years at war. Her talk showed her sympathy and her understanding and I have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207511, "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": 279, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n271\n\nI can recall only three occasions on which the Japanese interfered with internal discipline in the hospital and I have given a short account of two of these earlier. On the third occasion our executive sergeant-major Mr. Bartley had crossed the Japanese in some way and for the only time in my three years' experience Sergeant Seino came to me, indicated displeasure with Bartley and asked if I wanted him removed from the hospital staff and sent to P.O.W. camp. Bartley's executive ability was of great value in the hospital and I had no hesitation in saying that I did not want him removed. He stayed with us until our release.\n\nPatients and staff were fairly often slapped by guards for some real or imagined disobedience or slight. These punishments were never serious, but I was always apprehensive that the person slapped might retaliate and so cause real trouble. I took up the cudgels on behalf of our people on every occasion, but I never obtained any real satisfaction and I wondered how much authority our hospital Japanese administrators had over sentries.\n\nWithin the hospital the routine discipline affecting patients and staff was in my hands. Control in wards was in the hands of medical officers in charge, assisted most effectively by the system whereby selected patients were placed in charge of internal ward affairs. These patients were of several nationalities and were not always senior in rank. Their characters and standing with patients seemed to give them more effective authority. I have referred earlier to petty thieving.\n\nOccasionally offenders had to be dealt with formally by me in my office. Usually a reprimand sufficed though occasionally a man would be confined in a small room in an outhouse with a wire stretcher as bed. This method was used rarely and a man's food was never cut in any circumstances, while he was closely observed during the term of his punishment in order to avoid adverse effects. At the end of the war no records of misconduct were handed over to any authority by me and no man was reported to any service authority for misbehaviour of any kind.\n\nMany of the problems I had to cope with arose from the antagonisms which spring up between individuals, particularly if they are called upon to work in conditions of close proximity. There was no relief from the physical presence, the personal habits, the method of working of others in the particular team so that it was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207526, "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": 294, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "286\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\n1944\n\nWeek 7-13 June\n\nBreakfast\n\nTea Rice Atta 5 days\n\nTea Bran Rice 1 day\n\nTea Sugar Rice Bran 1 day\n\nTea Tea Rice Sugar Beans Marmalade 1 day\n\nTea Rice Egg Plant Peanut Butter 1 day\n\nTea Rice Beans Marmalade 1 day\n\nTea Rice Fish Stew Soy Sauce 1 day\n\nDinner\n\nRice Meat Stew Vegetable 1 day\n\nRice Fish Tea 2 days\n\nRice Vegetable Milk 1 day\n\nRice Preserved Meat Vegetable Sugar 1 day\n\nTea Rice Vegetable Peanut Butter 1 day\n\nRice Vegetable Fish Marmalade 1 day\n\nTea Rice Beans Peanut Butter Soy Powder 1 day\n\nTea Rice Vegetable Fish Cake Syrup 1 day\n\nTea Rice Beans 1 day\n\n1945\n\nWeek 7-13 June\n\nBreakfast\n\nTea Rice & Bran Porridge 4 days\n\nTea Bread Half Egg 1 day\n\nTea Bread Beans Rice Bran 2 days\n\nTea Tea Rice Curried Veg. 3 days\n\nTea Rice Vegetable\n\nDinner\n\nTea Rice Vegetable 5 days\n\nTea Rice Preserved Meat Stew 1 day\n\nTea Rice Meat & Vegetable Stew 1 day\n\nSupper (Working Staff only) Tea 4 days\n\nTea Rock Bun 1 day\n\nTea Chow Fan 1 day\n\nTea Rice Curried Veg. Half Egg 1 day\n\nTea Rice Meat & Veg. Stew 1 day\n\n1 day\n\nTea Vegetable Soup 1 day\n\nTea Cake 1 day\n\nNote: The quantities of food can be gauged from the tables in Appendix A.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207566, "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": 334, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n325\n\nWhile we were anchored in the harbor at Hong Kong a red cone was displayed one morning from the observatory, which indicated that there was a typhoon three hundred miles distant. As soon as it was seen, junks, sampans, lighters, and every other kind of craft began to make for the harbors of refuge, of which there are three in this harbor. There was one near where we were anchored, so we had a good chance to see the sights. In three hours the harbor was full of vessels under sail, all heading past us for the little bay. They kept passing us in this way for three or four hours when the wind ceased and then small tugs were employed. They would make four junks fast on each side, six to eight wide, then others attached behind until they had from fifty to sixty in tow like a great floating island. They kept this up until after dark, and at 10 o'clock that night they were still passing. The next morning the harbor was clear of all small craft, only large steamers remaining at their anchorages. As soon as the signal was hoisted the lighters alongside of our ship quit work at once and scurried away. I think there were about twelve there, and in a couple of hours there was not a thing near us. All this time there was only a light breeze. The approach of a typhoon seems to terrify them, and they have good cause, as during one storm over one thousand boats were wrecked and six thousand people lost their lives. All the families live on board, and, with women and children, they average from six to fifty people to a boat.\n\nAlthough the signals were still up the next day no typhoon came, but every one was watching for it. I went ashore to the Typhoon Bay, as it was called, to see how so many boats would look. I found it landlocked on three sides and perfectly sheltered, something over eighty acres in extent. The boats had been put in the bay in perfect order, all in rows and as tight as they could be packed, the end rows made fast to the shore and the others all tied to them. The whole bay was packed so full there was not room for another. It would be impossible to tell how many boats there were but I estimated that there were over two thousand, which, averaging ten people to a boat, would make twenty thousand souls. This seems incredible, but I am sure I am under the mark. Peddlers were busy on shore and on the boats and were doing a lively business, and so they might, when one thinks of a town of twenty thousand people and no store in it. This was only one harbor, and\n\n* From the description, surely sampans rather than 'junks'.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207620, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "168\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nand others from Sai Kung over the mountains past Mau Ping and Wong Chuk Shan to Siu Lek Yuen and the Shatin area. To the north, there were ferries from Kei Ling Ha to Tai Po Market.21 Sai Kung was therefore conveniently located in the centre of local trade routes to Tai Po, Kowloon, Shatin and via Hang Hau, also Shaukiwan. It was an ideal location for a market in the region.\n\nMrs. Kong Lei San Kiu, who married into Lung Mei Village, used to farm, raise pigs, and cut firewood. When a pig had been fattened to a hundred catties, she carried it into Sai Kung with some assistance, and sold it to the butchers. Sometimes she carried firewood into Kowloon, and sometimes into Sai Kung. If she carried it to Sai Kung, she sold it to shops which in turn sold it to the boat people. She would buy oil, salt, and sundries to take back to the village.22 Many other villagers, like Mrs. Kong, also sold pigs and firewood in the markets in order to buy daily necessities.\n\nThe fishermen also came to Sai Kung, but many did not have to come personally for there was a wide collecting network working for the shops. Mr. Chan Kei Shang of Yim Tin Tsai, who used to work in the two teams of fishing boats known as the “ku-tsai” in the village, used to salt his fish and send them by the ferries to Sai Kung. These ferries were operated by Hakka people from Sai Kung Market, and they sold the salt fish for the fishermen. For some time, Mr. Chan Shau of Pak Tam Au worked on a Mr. Kong's boat selling rice, oil, salt, and biscuits to the boat people. Fish-mongers with their own boats also came from Tai Po and Kowloon, and collected fish directly from the fishermen.23\n\nVillagers obtained their supplies on credit. Nam Shan villagers, for instance, shopped regularly at Kwong Tak Lung in Sai Kung Market, and they were given credit for such daily necessities as rice and sugar. They paid for their supplies by selling grass to the shop, which was used as fuel. Piglets were also obtained from the shops on credit, and when fattened, the pigs were re-sold back to the shops. Fishermen also relied on credit for their supplies. Mr. Cheung Ming Shing from Leung Shuen Wan purchased his fishing equipment from Saam T'aai, and his food supply from Saam Shing, both of Sai Kung Market.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207711, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "84\n\nELIZABETH L. JOHNSON\n\nor keening done at weddings and funerals. They did little, if any, embroidery, home weaving of fabrics, or sewing: this work was generally done by specialists. The main reason for this very limited development of textile arts was, in addition to the prevailing poverty of the area, the fact that all younger women were engaged in heavy labour outside the home. While most of the housework and child-care was managed by elderly women, the younger women did most, if not all, of the agricultural work, and in addition often did heavy carrying work for wages. Many of the men were away for extended periods of time, working either in the urban areas of Hong Kong or abroad; some had local businesses, and others did not work at all. As a result, in many families, women had primary responsibility for subsistence agriculture, bearing an extremely heavy burden of work. The following is the daily work schedule 25 years ago of a woman now 55 years old, a schedule which was repeated in basic outline by many other informants.\n\n“I got up at 5:00 and fed the baby\n\nthen I made a fire and boiled water and put rice porridge on to cook\n\nthen at 6:00 I went to carry water, making four trips to the well\n\nthen I went to the fields to water the vegetables\n\nI cut the vegetables and took them to market\n\nI used the money to buy food and returned home\n\nat 8:30 we had breakfast of rice porridge\n\nthen I went to the Texaco oil company to carry kerosene\n\nat 12:30 I came home for lunch\n\nI worked again from 1:00 to 5:00 carrying kerosene\n\nwhen I got home I cleaned the pig pen\n\nthen I went to work again in the fields\n\nin winter I returned home at 7:00, in summer at 8:00\n\nafter dinner I bathed the children\n\nthen I carried several loads of firewood\n\nthen I prepared food for the pigs\n\nI fed the baby and went to sleep at 11:00”\n\nThis woman had eight children. Such a daily schedule left her little time for any other pursuits. According to another woman, now 80 years old:\n\n“When I was eight or ten years old I began to cut grass and carry firewood. I went with a group of girls, never alone. I was married when I was sixteen. After my marriage I had to work.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207723, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "96\n\nTIN-YUKE CHAR\n\ncountries in the hope to find suitable people to replenish our population. We have the productive land. Sugar and rice are our main and most profitable crops.\" The letter also mentioned that the Chinese did not bring their women and that it was dangerous to give them franchise because their numbers would be a threat to the Kingdom. The suggestion was to try India where the British had been successful in using their coolies in agricultural development of the colonies. Armstrong, however, later sent a report that the East Indians were not suitable nor desirable as immigrants to Hawaii. Minister Green had also written on January 18, 1881 to William Keswick, Hawaiian Consul General in Hong Kong to expect King Kalakaua's arrival and to assist Armstrong in obtaining a good class of Chinese immigrants to be accompanied by wives and children.\n\nFrom Hawaii the party first started for San Francisco where the Chinese Consul General entertained the Royal party at Hang Fen Lou Restaurant and took the occasion to thank the King for his kind treatment of the Chinese in Hawaii.\n\nSailing for Japan on the Oceanic, the Royal party arrived after twenty-four days at the Bay of Yedo on March 4, 1881 and landed at Yokohama. King Kalakaua wrote back from Tokyo on March 15, 1881, “Our reception has been most cordial and pleasant with the Emperor [Meiji]. He extended the hospitality of being his guest during our stay in the City of Tokio, occupying the same buildings that General Grant did when he was here and other distinguished guests, Prince Henri of Germany and the Duke of Genoa.”\n\nThe subject of possible Japanese emigration to Hawaii received some consideration by the Japanese officials. And on February 8, 1885, the first group of Japanese immigrants (676 men, 159 women, and 108 children) came to Hawaii. Major credit for this successful endeavor was due to \"the personal friendship of the Emperor of Japan for King Kalakaua.\" commented the editor of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.\n\nTo proceed to China, the party sailed on the Tokio Maru. Upon arrival at Shanghai, they were furnished the Pautah by the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company to take the Royal group to Tientsin. They had hopes of being received at Court in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207726, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881\n\n99\n\nkindly put me in communication with the British Minister in Rome so that I can command his good offices. . . . In the matter of decorations. Sir John ranks high among the Colonial Governors of England.\" And a Grand Cross of Kalakaua was later conferred on him.\n\nHong Kong Chinese merchants who traded with the people in Hawaii came to call on the King, and told him that their countrymen in his Kingdom appreciated the opportunities in the islands and were loyal to the Hawaiian government.\n\nAt the last State banquet in Hong Kong, as Armstrong reported, \"the lifeless air and heavy food made the King drowsy. The numerous receptions and late hours had deprived the King of sleep. His eyelids dropped . . . The Governor's wife was seated on the King's right, and I was seated next to her. I feared a nasal explosion if the King's doze should deepen, and devised ways of preventing it. It was a case of emergency. I whispered to the Governor's wife what my fears were, and asked her aid in preventing a loss of royal dignity. The clever wife of the Governor whispered to me, 'Will any special piece of music waken him up?' . . . She quietly called the majordomo, and in a minute the military band in the balcony filled the air with the music of 'Hawai'i Pono'i' (the Hawaiian National Anthem).\" The King woke up and the banquet ended.\n\nPage 100\n\nOn April 21, 1881, the Royal group left Hong Kong on the ship Killarney for Bangkok. Acting Consul General F. Bulkeley Johnson sent his report to W. L. Green, \"His Majesty the King and suite arrived here on the 12th [April] and left on the 21st April for Bangkok on a visit to the King of Siam.\"\n\nAnd the King and his party travelled to Singapore, Penang, Calcutta, Suez, Cairo, Rome, London, Brussels, Vienna, Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. King Kalakaua, in his July 12, 1881 letter from London, wrote of his meeting with Queen Victoria, “She came up to me and took my hand and then sat on a sofa asking me to sit down on a chair facing the sofa near her. She said that I was making a very long tour. I answered very fluently asked particularly where I learnt English as my accent was perfect.\" \n\nHomeward bound, the group crossed the Atlantic on the S. S. Celtic to New York. Then to Philadelphia, Washington, where he called on President Chester A. Arthur, and overland to California", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207727, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "TIN-YUKE CHAR\n\nand by boat to Honolulu, arriving on October 29, 1881, after a tour of nine months and eight days. The harbor of Honolulu was crowded with people welcoming the safe return of the King. The Royal Hawaiian Band played \"Home, Sweet Home.\" Arches entwined with flowers spanned the streets. The Chinese merchants of Honolulu erected a triumphal arch at the intersection of King and Fort Streets. As King Kalakaua mentioned in his July 3rd letter from Rome, \"The trip appears as if a mixed panorama and a dream. We have seen Emperors, Kings, temples, and pagodas until one gets apparently confused which end to commence and where and how it will be finished. So many varieties of the people, the different nationalities, the customs and scenery of the places we have visited that have made our travels so pleasant.\"\n\nAs one historian commented, \"The trip had been a great experience. Kalakaua had stood where Alexander the Great had stood and Julius Caesar, and Napoleon; and the foremost rulers of his own day had welcomed him with cannon salutes and guards of honor. Pomp and circumstance agreed with Kalakaua. He came home, more convinced than ever that a king should rule as well as reign.\"10\n\nAnother result of the King's tour was the legislative approval of his proposal to provide education in foreign countries for selected Hawaiian youths. This progressive policy was inspired by what he observed on his journey. One of the students sent abroad was Kapaa who went to China in 1883. The Reverend Andrew Happer in Canton was asked to be Kapaa's instructor and guardian as evidenced in the March 7, 1883 letter from Walter Gibson, then Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, to F. Bulkeley-Johnson, Hawaiian Consul General in Hong Kong: \"that Mr. Kapaa's visit to China is made in pursuance of a resolution of the Legislature, providing for the education of Hawaiian youths. His Majesty the King desired that one of these should proceed to China and there study the Chinese language and customs. I, therefore, invoke your good offices on behalf of young Kapaa, who has been selected for this career, and shall be obliged by your placing him where he can learn the dialects (Cantonese and Hakka) chiefly spoken by the Chinese who are here, and the written language, acquiring at the same time familiarity with Chinese manners and ideas. I am, of course, anxious that while pursuing this course of study, Mr. Kapaa should not lose such European culture as he has acquired.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207793, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "166 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nIn 1868 T. T. Cooper, a British merchant in Burma, came to Shanghai and attempted to improve on Blakiston's feat. His venture was partly financed by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. Cooper went up the Yangtze to Chungking, and then overland to Chengtu, the capital of Szechwan. Here he received permission from the Governor General to travel on through Szechwan and Tibet to India; but he met such determined opposition and hostility from the lamas on the Tibetan border, where he was imprisoned for five weeks, that he was forced to turn back. \n\nIn the following year, Sir Rutherford Alcock, British Minister at Peking, sent Robert Swinhoe of the China Consular Service to investigate trade prospects on the Upper Yangtze. Vice-Admiral Keppel, R.N. was making a survey of the river, and Swinhoe's party, which included Alexander Michie and Robert Francis of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and two naval surveyors, travelled to Ichang on H.M.S. Opussum. This was the first time a steamship had reached Ichang, and the Chinese pilot refused to go any further. A junk was hired for the passage through the Gorges to Chungking, and soundings and surveys taken en route. The surveyors, however, gave an unfavourable report on the feasibility of steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze. They particularly commented on the force of the current, lack of suitable anchorages, intricacy of navigation because of the changeable channel, and so on. They also thought descent would be even more difficult than ascent. The chief engineer of Opossum described a sample of coal obtained half way between Ichang and Chungking as resembling good anthracite in appearance, but requiring large furnaces and a long time for combustion. \n\nThis was the most thorough navigational survey of the Upper Yangtze, and many of the factors militating against steam navigation between Ichang and Chungking were investigated and made known. The bed of the river falls 470 feet in the 360 miles between the two places, and this fall of one and a third feet per mile is the cause of the strong currents and rapids in this section of the river. The most difficult stretch is the first half of the Upper River between Ichang and Wanhsien, where the most difficult rapids and gorges are encountered. The Ichang Gorge begins five miles above Ichang, and then come the Ox Liver and Horse's Lung Gorges, and the Hsintan Rapid immediately after the latter. The most spectacular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207831, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "204\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nConnected with the union there was an organisation which operated a kind of agricultural insurance scheme, making good losses by theft of crops and beasts. Again, the Luk Yeuk was composed of both Punti and Hakka.\n\n24. There are other 'numerical' yeuk-complexes: the Four (Sz) Yeuk of Tsuen Wan, the Six (Luk) Yeuk of Sai Kung, and the Nine (Kau) Yeuk of Sha Tin. In these three cases, however, we see the influence on rural organisation of an urban and administrative centre. The walled city of Kowloon was the only official seat in that part of San On to be converted into the New Territories. It held the yamen of a deputy magistrate and certain military officials, no doubt acquiring some of its importance as a centre of government in the second half of the nineteenth century from the proximity of the British Colony.\n\nThe Kau Yeuk of Sha Tin appears to have consisted of forty-eight villages, of which the five largest were Punti and the rest Hakka. The Ch'e Kung Temple (now the property of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs in his part as a corporation sole) belonged to the Kau Yeuk, according to one account, but was taken over by the S.C.A. when a dispute was precipitated by a claim put forward by one village to control it.\n\nOn the Sz Yeuk of Tsuen Wan I have discovered little more than that it existed. Sung Hok-p'ang once told a Chinese scholar, who has since committed the statement to writing, that the area now called Tsuen Wan was in late Ming or early Ch'ing times known as Tsuen Wan Yeuk and that formerly all the villages in the area from Ting Kau to Kowloon City belonged to it.\n\nThe Luk Yeuk of Sai Kung, however, has left clearer traces. I cannot define its composition exactly, but I have been told that Ho Chung, Pak Kong, Sha Kok Mei, Tseung Kwan O and two settlements in Shap Sz Heung were the six yeuk. Once again, both Hakka and Punti were involved.\n\nThe three yeuk-complexes of Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, and Sai Kung were in some fashion tied in with a council, formal or informal, in Kowloon City; and it appears likely that the local deputy magistrate used this organisation to make contact with the villages in his neighbourhood. In 1879 (according to its own records) there came into existence in Kowloon a body known as the Lok Sin Tong; members of the three yeuk-complexes were represented on it. Its primary object seems to have been to promote charity, public works, and education, while in character it would appear to have been an association of local gentry. The Lok Sin Tong still exists; indeed, it has grown", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207846, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963\n\n219\n\nof disbelief is other than what might be called purely contextual. Let me illustrate. Early in my study I found myself, during a visit to a remote coastal village, a fellow guest at lunch with two building contractors engaged in some local works. The conversation between my hosts and me turned to fung shui. One of the contractors spoke fluent English, as I discovered when he addressed me across the table to lament the nuisance caused by geomantic beliefs. I concluded that he had had trouble at some time with geomantic obstructions, and I read into his final remark on the subject an envy for a world where people would not be allowed to raise fung shui against builders; the talk had turned to how the authorities across the border in China had cast out geomancy along with the rest of traditional religion, and the contractor cried: 'Yes, they have cancelled all that bloody nonsense'. (If the others at the table had understood what he had said they would have been very shocked, for they had been giving me an enthusiastic account of fung shui and its benefits). Some weeks later I came across the contractor again, this time in the area where he lives, and, since I was already on good terms with members of the circle within which he moves, I was able to discuss many aspects of Chinese religion with him. I discovered in him a passionate interest in and devotion to fung shui. It is not necessary to conclude that he had been deceiving me on the first occasion. He had perhaps been irritated by the consequences of the fung shui beliefs of others; his own beliefs, bound up with his own interests and those of his close associates, were another matter. Again, I am acquainted with a man in the New Territories whom I may fairly describe as a devotee of geomancy and a constant client of geomancers who, quite sincerely and without any sense of strain, condemns the foolishness of people who raise fung shui objections to government works designed to benefit them. What one believes and how and in what circumstances one chooses to express and implement one's beliefs are two different things.\n\n49. The Administration is often forced to pay for geomancy; it is not alone. People make real economic sacrifices for their fung shui beliefs. Graves and dwellings are moved and altered, often at great expense. How are we to define and account for the nature of this faith? Fung shui is in fact a complex of beliefs concerned with a central theme in Chinese metaphysics: man's place in nature and the universe. But the last few words are a Western way of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207854, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 242, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963\n\n227\n\nhis wife to bury him in the crucial spot when he came to die, which in good time she did, wrapping him in a mat because she was too poor to pay for a coffin. Time passed and her son grew up to become a great scholar. Summoned by the Emperor to Peking he made the long journey north. On the way the boat he was travelling in got into difficulty but was saved by a god in a nearby temple. The people with whom the young scholar was travelling honoured the god for his help, but he refused to do so, going so far in arrogance as to strike the god on the head with his fan. Eventually he reached the capital and after a while returned home in triumph. He then showed himself so overbearing, especially in his behaviour towards his maternal uncle, that his mother rebuked him, reminding him that his father had died a humble death and had been buried in a mat. The scholar agreed to rebury his father in a fitting manner, but when he came to search for the body it was not to be found. While men were fruitlessly hunting for it round the spot indicated by the widow, the god whom the scholar had insulted appeared in the guise of a stranger and advised him to throw lime into the duck-pond, whereupon the body would appear. The scholar took the advice. The body rose at once to the surface but along with it came nine dead fish, only one of which had its eyes open.\n\nNine bright possibilities, that is to say, had been stored away in the fung shui; one of them had been realised in the success of the scholar — and that was now at an end; the others were ruined. (When I recounted this story to a Chinese friend in Singapore he capped it with one in which a passing scholar, on being told of the enormous success of a family which had stolen another family's fung shui and acted cruelly towards its members, sat down by the stolen grave and lamented. If such people could prosper by the principles of Earth, where were the principles of Heaven? He had hardly spoken when lightning smashed the tomb and put an end to the fortunes of the wicked family.)\n\n61. I have already referred to the tomb of Sun Yat-sen's mother in Pak Fa Lam. I was taken to see it by a part-time geomancer. (He looks like an old-fashioned scholar. In his youth he was a graduate student at a famous American university and held some official post in Canton until the arrival of the Japanese. He now teaches in Hong Kong). His analysis of the site was briefly as follows. The high peak at the rear is excellent; it stands for authority and power. The front aspect is also very good; there is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207887, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 275, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "260\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nare discarded, inscriptions neglected. I have already referred to the cast out stone in the Tin Hau Temple in Tai Po Kau Hui. The stock of genealogy books and old land deeds is being fast depleted by loss and decay. The apparatus of ancestral halls is in many cases being allowed to disintegrate. (I came across a village where only the initiative of the Village Representative restored to the ancestral halls the honours boards which villagers had filched to make beds). Now people are at liberty to do what they like about their past and I am not in favour of any artificial antiquarianism; but it is surely a good argument that both the world at large and their own future generations will be grateful to the New Territories people for the preservation of their historical relics. Would it not be possible for the Administration to undertake to register all monuments, to collect unwanted documents, to copy those which their owners are unwilling to part with, and generally to preserve what can stand as a witness to the past of an interesting corner of civilisation? I am told that it is the intention of the new City Hall Museum in Hong Kong to start collecting at some future date objects illustrating the art and material culture of the New Territories, but I fear that if action is long delayed there may be little to survive.\n\n101. I have covered many subjects in this report and made a number of suggestions for research. In many cases I have implied the degree of priority I should give to particular kinds of investigation, but I have not attempted to offer a neat arrangement of subjects on a scale of usefulness, because it is for the Administration and not me to say what is more or less important to its needs. I have tried to indicate the kinds of research that I should sponsor if I were in a position to do so and within the limits of the talent and money at our disposal my colleagues and I hope to be able to pursue some of the investigations I have proposed. If the New Territories Administration is interested in the private research to be undertaken and should itself wish to sponsor investigations then a plan could be drawn up to co-ordinate more closely the needs of the Administration with the interests of the social scientists.\n\nHong Kong, Singapore\n\nMay-July 1963.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207962, "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": 1, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "170\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nnow be described. In general, villagers from Ho Chung all the way east to Ko Tong, and those from the islands in Rocky Harbour, went to Sai Kung Market. Tung Sam Kei, and Hoi Ha villagers went to Tai Po and Tap Mun, but a boat from Pak Tam Chung came regularly to collect firewood, which was sent to Sai Kung. Pak Sha O villagers went to both Tai Po and Sai Kung. Shap Sz Heung, and Sham Chung, were in the Tai Po marketing area rather than in that of Sai Kung. To the south, villagers from Tseng Lan Shue and Pik Uk obtained their supplies from Kowloon. Villagers from the Tseung Kwan O to Seung Sz Wan area went to Hang Hau. Tin Ha Wan had several shops, but its residents, as well as those from Po Toi O and Tai Wan Tau usually went to Shaukiwan. In general, if the transport linkage between Hang Hau and Sai Kung is taken into account, the Sai Kung marketing area went from Seung Sz Wan to Ko Tong, beyond the present administrative boundary of Sai Kung District,29\n\nSo far as can be discovered, except for several from Tam Shui (Wai Chau), the shop-keepers of Hang Hau came from its own marketing area, i.e. from Mang Kung Uk, Pan Long Wan, Tseung Kwan O, and Ha Yeung. There were several general stores, selling food, including grain, meat, oil, salt fish, and salt. There was a goldsmith, a stationer, a tailor, and there were several ferries.3 By 1916, when the Sai Kung T'in Hau Temple was renovated, Sai Kung had for some time been the bigger town. There were at least eight general stores, two butchers, a teahouse, a tailor, a Taoist priest, a herbalist, a draper's, and two shipyards. Many of the owners came from outside the Sai Kung marketing area, from Shuen Wan and Sham Chung, both in the Tai Po marketing area; Sham Chun, Po Kut, and Sha Tseng, all three in Po On county; Wai Chau; and San Wooi.31 Brief information on some of these shops can be found in Table 1.\n\nThe biggest shop in Sai Kung Market was Saam Shing general store, followed closely by T'aai Shing. Saam Shing was the older, but T'aai Shing caught up quickly. Mr. Lei Yiu T'ing, who worked in T'aai Shing just before World War II, remembered that letters for Sai Kung villagers were brought to the shop with goods from Hong Kong. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam remembered that T'aai Shing used to help villagers collect their overseas remittances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208016, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP, HONG KONG 1942-1945\n\n39\n\nThe pursuit and preparation of food occupied a lot of time for most, and many had jobs of a sort, working on committees, in kitchens, workshops, etc. In addition, there were diversions such as education and dramatic or musical activities. With more than 200 children in Camp as well as teachers and administrators from the Government's Education Department, the University and a number of primary, middle and other schools, education flourished. There were primary, as well as secondary classes, which although greatly hampered by lack of books and equipment, managed to provide lessons for the children. Matriculation examinations were held in 1943 and 1944, with another planned for 1945, but liberation came first. After the war ended, five Stanley students were admitted directly into English universities: two into London and three into Oxford. For the adults in Camp, there were extensive \"adult education\" courses, lectures and programmes ranging from the study of foreign languages such as Chinese, Malayan and French, to lectures on photography, yachting, journalism and poultry-keeping.\n\nAt St. Stephen's College was a large hall with a stage. This was used for the school and also put to active use by those internees interested in dramatic pursuits - plays, musicals, recitals, pantomimes, variety shows, etc. Plays such as \"Private Lives\" and \"Midsummer Night's Dream\" were presented. \"Cinderella\" appeared as a pantomime, and a full-length ballet based on the life of Genghis Khan also provided the internees with moments of pleasant diversion. There were two pianos in Camp which saw a great amount of use, and every Christmas a nativity play and a Christmas concert were presented. In addition, a number of exhibitions were held including art, handicrafts and hobbies.\n\nThroughout the years of internment, there was never a lack of rumours, particularly concerning repatriation and the end of the war. In 1945, rumours multiplied like wildfire, especially following the surrender of Germany in May. News of the Potsdam Proclamation of 26th July, calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan and threatening the destruction of the Japanese homeland, reached the internees through a newspaper stolen from some Chinese workers delivering rations to Camp. Anxious days passed and then on Wednesday, 15th August, the Emperor broadcast his acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation. The following day, Mr. Gimson", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208017, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "40\n\nG. C. EMERSON\n\nwas summoned to Japanese Headquarters in Camp and informed of the surrender.\n\nThe first days after the surrender were tremendously exciting ones as friends and relatives arrived from the city and prisoners-of-war came from the two Kowloon P.O.W. camps. On 23rd August, Mr. Gimson moved into the city and began re-establishing the Government. Nearly two weeks passed after the surrender before the British fleet arrived on 30th August. At 5.00 p.m. that afternoon, the Commander of the Fleet, Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt, came to Camp and attended a very moving flag-raising ceremony. It was several weeks before the Camp was finally closed. Many ventured into the city to begin picking up the lost threads of their lives but many, particularly those whose health was poor, remained in Camp waiting to board the ships which took them away from Hong Kong.\n\nFrom this brief account, it may sound as if internment was not a particularly bad experience. Such an impression would be far from the truth. Internment was a dreadful experience. Not only were the physical aspects - lack of food and of clothing, the over-crowding, the insufficient food, etc.- most unpleasant, but the mental aspects were extremely bad also. The humiliation of defeat, the separation from loved ones and the years of waiting for release are impossible to imagine for those of us who have never had such experiences. While the horrors of the German concentration camps fortunately never were experienced in Hong Kong, internment in Stanley Camp was a terrible experience for almost all the internees.\n\nI would like to finish by reading you a few lines from a poem written by Mr. C. J. Norman, later Commissioner of Prisons, Hong Kong, in 1954. The poem is entitled “A Farewell to Stanley”.\n\nA Farewell to Stanley! It's over.\n\nOf Internees there isn't a sign. They've left for Newhaven & Dover\n\nFor Hull & Newcastle-on-Tyne.\n\nNo tales where the rumours once started.\n\nThe kitchen's devoid of its queues.\n\nThe strategists all have departed\n\nWith the lies which they peddled as 'news'.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208108, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW -LONG ISLAND \n\n131\n\nJunks are the reason for Cheung Chow which only exists to take over their cargoes of fish, salt, or hides, and to supply them in return with all that junks need, ship chandlery and stores, gear of all sorts, and certain amusements for the fisherman, some of them innocent and some not. It stands between Hongkong with its population of some 600,000 persons clamorous for food, and the fishing fleet which cannot afford to lose time beating about in narrow and often becalmed waters under high hills. At Cheung Chow the wind is almost always blowing, but the deeply indented bay and the sheltering spit between the hills give shelter. The junks can run in, unload their catch, revictual or refit, and stand out to sea in any wind, with no delay. The steam ferry carries their fish to the waiting markets for them.\n\nBut the islanders have a second string to their bow for the presence of the ferry has made it worth while to grow vegetables for the same market, and the little glens of the island are terraced to the limit to provide vegetables to the inhabitants and a surplus for that export.\n\nSubsidiary trades have grown up from the same root, if fish can be called a root; fish must be salted and dried, so there is a great trade in salt, though most of the salt which comes into Cheung Chow is not rubbed into the fish there but is re-exported to China.\n\nWhen we have pictured the little land to ourselves, described its climate, the races and tribes of its inhabitants, we will wander along the busy main street, and so take ship and depart from this little place so like some ancient Greek kingdom set in the wine-dark sea smelling of fish, overrun with pigs. Later we will return to see the Moon-cake festival, and after that let someone more capable take up the tale.\n\nThe Little Land and City\n\nCheung Chow is shaped as the photograph shows.*\n\nIt would seem that one of the very numerous saddle-shaped ridges in which Hongkong abounds has sunk here so that the ridge between the two peaks makes a long double beach, only one hundred yards wide at its narrowest. On the Western Side the bay is large and partly sheltered by other islands, but on the Eastern it is open to the sea, and the N. E. Monsoon pours aslant into that bay, and rages against its headlands. So the town turns its back to the\n\n* Not reprinted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208116, "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": 155, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n-\n\n139\n\nwith a deft sweep of the foot, does one see more than an ankle.\n\nOur friend on the other side is not so particular. He sits in the open space between two counters of his shop, and having rolled his cotton singlet up into his armpits, fans with languid strokes a portly form, naked to a very low waist. Now the road begins to widen. It is almost four strides across at this point, owing no doubt to the zeal of some P.W.D. official, but as the extra width is entirely taken up with stalls extended from the shops, no loss of custom can be said to result.\n\nWe have come through a crowded street, and not seen a scowl or a frown, not been jostled, or hustled. The sweating burdened porters have been given right of way, politely asked for, and as graciously conceded. For in China men respect the burden. There are no cars or even bicycles to upset the stream, but if a European, in the usual hurry to leave a boat or catch a boat walks rapidly through the street, there is sometimes a little awkward eddy in the stream, and people have to step aside into shops while the impatient one passes. Not that the Europeans push or rudely press, for there is perfect good temper, and understanding on both sides; but distinguished foreigners in all countries are apt to be in a hurry, one has to help them on their way.\n\nNow we are in the market place... rows of stalls covered with canvas shades set forth cigarettes and sweets, vegetables, fish and meat. Cooked food is here in plenty, steaming soups and succulent pork: cheap Japanese matches, cottons and tin and hardware: but above all, food. The Chinese like to snatch a snack now and then between the main meals. Many coolies feed entirely on snacks obtained at these stalls, drink a cup of tea, take a cake or a bowl of rice, and put down a few cents before they gird up their loins and pass on to the next task. There is also a restaurant of two storeys here, overlooking the pier, the first storey buttressed by barbers' parlours, resplendent with mirrors and American barbers' chairs made in Canton. This is the Cantonese or Punti ward, here in the centre where drapers' shops, and chandlers, the pawnshop and houses are thickest. The Punti is one of the world's best traders and financiers within his own range, and it is here or hereabouts that the village magnates live and work. Here are the money lenders and fish merchants, the landlords and rulers of the people, the mortgage holders for whom the fishermen mostly work. This is the down town section, and the operations are probably", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208120, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n143\n\npainted to the eyes, and clad in gay garments. Behind these a band of native musicians, youths dressed in gaudy clothes, provide the melody and rhythm. The dragon shakes his head and stamps his feet to the rhythm, the bearers grunt and sweat, the musicians fiddle and bang and blow, the spectators spit and chew, laugh and talk, admire and applaud. The last player disappears round a bend in the street and another procession begins to form itself with much good-natured chaff and chatter. Meantime the dragon processions which have already been sent off wander through the distant fields, and the curious rhythm of the dance rises and falls in every corner of the glens.\n\nSo much we have seen for ourselves, but our kind host, who has lived on the island for many years, tells us that on the great day of the feast, all the small processions meet at the special matshed, where are assembled also some of the local gods, as well as visiting deities who have been brought by the folk from other towns and villages. All these gods are then carried in procession to the Pak Tai Temple to make their how to the occupant. Following this they are carried about a mile to the temple of the Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the fisherfolk, through the streets densely packed with fishermen and townsfolk, and thousands of visitors. At this temple the processions stand aside, and the gods in their chairs of state are raced back to the special matshed. The first god to arrive, even if he arrives in several pieces, brings to his devoted supporters the best of luck during the year.\n\nIn the afternoon the cones are overturned and there is a scramble for the cakes, which are then eaten with the happiest consequences for all concerned. It would be interesting to hear more exactly what these benefits are, for the whole feast looks like an ancient fertility cult.\n\nWe are much indebted in this account to notes jotted down by Mr. A. C. Franklin, and kindly put at our disposal. The opportunity to witness the Moon-cake festival was also due to his kindness. If we have not reproduced all the interesting and suggestive comments which those notes contain, it is because we hope that he will find time to throw them into literary form and publish them. Meantime we would welcome corrections, and an elucidation of the meaning of the feast from our students, some of whom might well take time to visit Cheung Chow for that purpose.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208122, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n145\n\nand might bring anything from a complicated murder to a petty assault case: the former, with its formalities, always ticklish for an inexperienced lay magistrate. The next job was to interview people sent for by the D.O., deal with any disputes brought up by the parties or the Police, and hear any land cases fixed for that morning. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons the longer cases could be heard: failing these, there were always land deeds and registers to sign, files to deal with, or minutes to write. At the end of the day the ledger, cash books and receipts would come in for checking.\n\nIn my time most of the cases that came to my office were from the nearer islands, New Kowloon, and the Tsun Wan district. Another class of case nearly always taken there was Resumptions, which I always considered the most distasteful and unpleasant task a D.O. can be expected to perform: for though resumptions in 1917 were usually paid for at cent a square foot, and those in 1926 at 34 cents a foot, I never felt that money could in any way make up to a peasant for the loss of most or all of his land. Nearly always they wanted land in exchange, which it was rarely possible to find. I may remark here that when Mr. Ruttonjee started the brewery at Sham Tseng about 1926 he secured the land for it partly by leasing a piece of foreshore from Government and reclaiming, and partly by leasing agricultural land from the villagers who were mostly surnamed Fu (— should be a Chinese character, possibly 祖 or 夫, but as per rule 1, it is preserved as is, assuming it was (4)) for a fixed term at a yearly rent, thus giving them a regular income and a right of re-entry on their land in default of payment, which seemed to me a very fair arrangement, though the raising of foreshore levels made a terrible mess of the fields.\n\nMy first spell at the D.O. South ended in about four weeks; but in March 1923 I left the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs for good, and became 'Lord of the Isles', and not a mere substitute. This gave me the chance to carry out researches without applying for Police launches, so I expect the appointment pleased the Water Police! It was the custom for the D.O. South to hire a big launch from a Chinese firm to take him, his bailiff, and his Chinese demarcator to Cheung Chau and Tai O on alternate Wednesdays if business there demanded his presence, or there were enquiries to make, or local applications for land to consider. For this he got a large travelling allowance, I think $1200 a year, which I believe I nearly used up every year, though I don't remember asking for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208123, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "146\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nsupplementary votes. Some D.O.s seemed to pride themselves on saving as much as possible of this vote, but I always thought it a D.O.'s duty not only to see as much of his district as he could, but to let its inhabitants see him.\n\nOne of the first questions I had to deal with was a request from the Sheung Tong villagers to make a grant from the small public works fund of $400 at my disposal to enable a footbridge to be built over the deep ravine dividing one side of their valley from the other. This was to be of granite beams, quarried in the Shap Pat Heung, and carried up over 1000 feet to Sheung Tong. I was anxious to get the village to contribute to the cost, as my vote for small public works was only $400 a year, and the cost of the three granite beams, and their transport by coolie up the mountain, would have come to about $160; and a good slice of the vote was usually granted to the Cheung Chau Residents' Association for upkeep and extension of paths there. The villagers could raise no money; they could not furnish coolies for transport; and they would not consider laying anything so ill-omened as an even number of stone beams: so to my regret I felt I could do nothing for people who could or would do nothing to help themselves.\n\nIn those days the Cheung Chau ferry was a large one-deck launch and passengers paid 3 cents each for a passage, but for 5 cents the Kaifong committee who ran it, largely in the interests of the fish industry, would give you a bamboo chair on the foredeck to sit on and this ferry was what drew missionaries to settle on the island from about 1907 onwards and build themselves bungalows for summer holidays, so saving the high cost of a Hong Kong apartment. Its timetable rarely suited my official arrangements, as by it I could never spend more than an hour ashore unless I got a night's lodging on the island; so I generally used my hired launch. In the thirties a guest house was opened for visitors in a large bungalow not far up the hill from the police station, and after 1934 I went there two or three times with friends while working on archaeological sites on Cheung Chau and the nearby coast of Lantau. This police station was not built till 1913 or 1914: before then the police had used a large house near the Kaifong pier, about 150 yards south of the later concrete pier, as their station. In 1912 a junk came to the pier by night, the crew and passengers landed, and carried the station by a sudden rush, as they were an armed pirate gang. The sergeant in charge and some police escaped and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208124, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n147 \n\nkept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.\n\nTalking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.\n\nWhen I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208128, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n151 \n\nof 1926 at Taipo, when in a large matshed on the reclamation there the New Territory elders treated Sir C. Clementi and the leading members of the Service to a big banquet and speeches, the leading feature being that except for the sharks' fin soup all the food came from the New Territory and its waters. The points I remember best are: a bowl of air-bladders of Sargassum seaweed, which I found quite palatable; a game of chai mui in which the late A. E. Wood took part; the collapse under me of two bentwood chairs in succession, which helped to relieve the boredom of the European element and perhaps others.\n\nDuring my periods in office I made an attempt to get the Chinese communities and villages owning forest lots to look after them and to plant trees. Free seed was distributed and planting instructions given, and a forest guard appointed to supervise and watch results. The difficulties of forest conservation in such scattered and isolated areas were certainly formidable: one was that the boat people could land almost anywhere and steal trees; another, that the grasscutters who annually collect fuel in autumn are quite likely to cut and take young seedlings: to say nothing of true disease and caterpillar infestation, often very serious. One bad case was at Tai O, where an entire hillside was laid bare at one swoop by its licensee instead of being cut in stages, and I told him to get it replanted. I don't remember the sequel, as I was transferred not long after. The denuded hillside faced west, and lay across the Po Chu Tam creek from Tai O market. Another great difficulty was to find forest guards who would do their job: a former A.D.O. North once minuted 'Where forest guards abound, there do abuses much more abound!'\n\nThe careful investigation of applications to use land was more than once impressed on me by experience. Desire to develop apparently unused land may mislead a D.O. into sanctioning the spoliation of an object of natural beauty, the monopolizing of an area in common use by a village community, or such damage to hill slopes as to cause villages or fields to be flooded with mud and soil wash, or the erection of a gimcrack structure of bad concrete instead of a brick or stone village house in harmony with its surroundings. Proposals for forest development may turn out to be schemes for evicting villagers from areas where they hold forest rights; though proper forest lot maps should make such schemes impossible. An instance of an application designed to monopolize an area already", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208131, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "154\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nbefore I handed him over to the Police: thus I was able to show that on balance Government had in the end not lost a single cent. Both shroffs were arrested and sentenced later. I then spent a good deal of time, especially on voyages to the islands, drawing up rules for the financial guidance of my successors, but Mr. Wynne Jones, who took over from me in late 1926, thought them too cumbrous, and discarded them.\n\nOne of the subjects which used to excite much feeling in the Chinese countryside was the disturbance of graves. In 1930 this occurred at Tai Wan in Lamma, on the big sand bank later excavated by Father Finn, once a leading local centre of Bronze Age culture. The sand diggers had cut away so much sand that coffins buried 2 feet deep in the bank were sticking out, and their contents could be seen. I at once ordered digging to stop till the coffins could be properly disposed of. Enquiries in the village showed that the villagers were not interested; so it was clear no local cemetery had been violated, and the persons buried had most likely been boat people. I believe the sand contractors got the Tung Wa Hospital authorities to remove the coffins: certainly there was no trouble with any local people. The high level and good preservation of these coffins showed that their burial took place long after the Bronze Age.\n\nOne troublesome class of case was the 'fung shui' difficulty caused by digging a new grave on a hill ridge not far above an older one. If the family owning the latter lost a child or two by smallpox or other complaint, they would conclude that their ancestor was displeased with them for letting a deceased stranger ‘ride' his grave, and so hinder the good influences of the site reaching him. Such cases might have to be settled by removal of the later grave, or by some compensation to the aggrieved family.\n\nOne crime that often came before my court in the office was stealing sand for building. Sand collecting was regulated by a system of permits, allowing junk masters to collect sand at selected beaches, each junk having its own collecting beach. Sand shortage was serious from 1924 to 1926, when concrete was coming into fashion for building, and between the demands of builders, and the interests of New Territory cultivators of land behind the sand banks, there was acute conflict, which sometimes grew into a shooting match. One such conflict took place at Sha Lo Wan in Northwest Lantau; this village was very jealous of the fine sandbank protecting its fields, and had licensed gun owners; so the junk", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208199, "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": 238, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "222\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nfrom this town. We had good relations with the other doctors here in Pakhoi, with the result that we had many happy exchanges of experience, opinions and help in medical supplies. In the summer 1938 we had as guests in our hospital a Government health ambulance, one doctor, 5 nurses and 2 chauffeurs who made vaccinations around the country.\n\nIt was good to see the hospital flourishing again after a period in which it had to close down, and to see the growing confidence of the people in the Mission work. Our Sunday Services were again crowded. The tenor of this fruitful work was suddenly changed however when on the 11th of September the small island of Waichow, only 30 miles off Pakhoi, was occupied by the enemy and an air base built there. Pakhoi got an influx of some 7000 refugees, many of them sick, and a number of wounded came to our hospital, the first being a 26 year old woman with several small children, who was shot through the breast and elbow. She completely recovered after some months and can now use her arm as normally. Some of the women were frightened and hid themselves in the most extraordinary ways; we had 2 women in the Maternity who just before the birth of their babies hid 2 days and nights in waterholes and suffered most tragically from eclampsia. We had the satisfaction of seeing one of these children who was orphaned in good hands now.\n\nWe were asked by the local Red Cross to give them public lectures on First Aid and gas-poisoning. These were held in the hospital and attended by a good number of people. Later on we were also asked to give some lectures on First Aid to the staff of the Chinese Maritime Customs in Pakhoi.\n\nContinual air raids, influx of refugees, and a small epidemic of dysentery caused new problems for our hospital and church. We sheltered about 500 people in our compound during the daytime, and at night they went back to their own houses. Most of the refugees had not enough clothing, so we united our efforts with the local relief committee for the benefit of these war victims. A number of civilians, victims of robbers or the robbers themselves, were attended at the hospital. In spite of our relatively small space (we have only some hundred beds) we were able to take care of a great number of very interesting cases. Professor John Cameron, on his visit to our hospital, said: I have not seen in 5 years at our University", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208204, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n227\n\nonly able to do so at high tide. At the same time the plane dropped lower and made narrow circles over the town. The Middle School lies just behind the hospital with the Preparatory School on one side and as the plane flew low over one of the buildings a small machine gun opened fire on it. The plane immediately came back, and having thoroughly inspected the position dropped a bomb which blew up a house near us, the machine gun again opened fire and this time the bomb was not so accurately placed and unfortunately fell in our garden, breaking down the wall and making a deep pit about 12 feet within our hospital premises. The plane after dropping a few more bombs flew away, and we found on inquiry that the gunboat with the 2 motor launches had also retired after setting fire to several junks which however had been deserted by the occupants. After about half an hour the plane again returned and released several bombs over the town one of which hit the middle school, demolishing one of their houses alongside our precincts breaking down more of our wall, shattering most of the glass in the doctor's house and covering the garden with broken bricks, large fragments of bomb shells and dust.\n\nAs far as we know there has been nobody injured. Although we had repeated alarms the plane did not return until 2.30 p.m. when it dropped 4 more large bombs on the Middle School compound, completely demolishing 2 more large buildings.\n\nThe only good result from this episode was the fact that our young new doctor took fright and ran away in spite of his contract.\n\nSeptember 12th, 1939\n\nWe have many air raid alarms during the day and sometimes during the night, but the planes pass over us to other destinations.\n\nMy family arrived in Hongkong August 25th, but has not yet been able to get here. I am glad to have them out from Europe under the present circumstances. They like to have a rest after a long and adventurous journey. They are staying as guests in the Bishop's House.\n\nPlease continue your prayerful support of our work in China and do all you can to help us.\n\nYours sincerely,\n\nEUGEN MILCH.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208283, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "186\n\nin the district.68\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nOn its way to Kowloon, the Japanese army looted Ho Chung. Mr. Tse Ming recalled that the Japanese came in groups, and took away the villagers' food. This continued for about a week. Tseng Lan Shue and Pik Uk, the next stop on the route to Kowloon, probably suffered more than other villages in Sai Kung, for Japanese troops stayed there for more than twenty days. The troops disturbed the women, took most of the crop that had just been harvested, and burnt the doors and furniture in the village houses for firewood. It seems that only scattered units of the Japanese army went into the Hang Hau area. Mr. Leung Chiu Man of Hang Hau saw some fighting between British and Japanese troops but recalled that the Japanese did not greatly disturb the village.69\n\nThe bandits\n\nAfter the Japanese came the bandits. Mr. Chau T'in Shang's impression in Sai Kung Market was that the bandits came many times and took away all the residents' valuables. Mr. Cheng Ip of Pak Kong remembered that it was Tung Chi (winter solstice) when the bandits first came. They were armed with guns, and they forced the villagers to carry their grain to Kei Ling Ha where they departed by boat. Mrs. Ts'ui of Sai Kung Market, whose husband was a fish-monger, remembered that many bandits came, and soon she was required to deliver a fixed quantity of fish every month to them. She fled to Yim Tin Tsai for two weeks, and then went up to P'ing Shan on the Chinese side of the border for three months, before she dared return to farm on her own land at Pak Kong. Mr. Hoh King of Nam Shan had just returned from Kowloon, and learnt that his name was on a list drawn up by the bandits of people they wanted to hold for ransom. He left Sai Kung with the proprietor of Kwong Tak Lung, whom he knew well, for the villages near Sham Chun, and stayed there for a month before he returned to Nam Shan. Even then, he did not stay in the village, but lived for a while up on the hillside.70\n\nBandits were reported throughout Sai Kung District, from Clear Water Bay, Junk Bay, to Long Harbour, in both the poorer villages and the richer ones and the market towns. According", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208284, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "187\n\nto Mr. Chan T'aai of Tseung Kwan O, they demanded protection money from the villagers. Eight to ten people would come in a gang, armed with guns. The village elders had to collect money from every one to pay them. Mr. Lei Yun Shau remembered that about twenty days after the Japanese had passed through, bandits attacked his native village of Man Yee Wan. At the time, he operated a ferry boat between his village and Sai Kung Market, and the bandits spared his house. Just outside Sai Kung, in Wong Chuk Long, Mr. Wan Yau was robbed of over ten piculs of grain the first time the bandits came. Thereafter he hid most of his food reserve on the hillside, and his pigs in a damaged kiln. Even then, the bandits found the pigs. Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Long remembered that the bandits came every several days, demanding food and money. All their grain was taken, and the villagers survived on roots and leaves. Fortunately, in 1942, there was a brushfire over Chinese New Year, and afterwards the hillside was overgrown with wild lilies. The villagers gathered them for food. The lilies were bitter, but some of this bitterness could be leached out by covering them with ash and salt before they were cooked. These lilies were the villagers' principal diet that winter. In spring, when they were ready to farm, the only seeds they could find were the small amounts that some people had managed to hide on the hillside. By mid-1942, they were so starved that they harvested the rice before it ripened, ground the grain to flour and used it for cakes. In April, when the bandits came again, there was literally nothing that they found worth taking away.71\n\nSome bandits were local people, but most had come over from Sha Yue Ch'ung and Wai Chau. Mr. Chan T'aai of Tseung Kwan O believed that the gangs that looted his village had their hideout on Junk Island. Mr. Lei Yun Shau was once captured by the bandits, while he was transporting rice between Sai Kung and Man Yee Wan, and was taken to Leung Shuen Wan.\n\nHe was finally released on the intervention of another bandit, who knew Mr. Lei, and who considered that the local ferries should not be disturbed. Mr. Lei's mother was extremely upset to learn that he had been captured, and might have helped also to arrange his release. Finally, the sum of eight hundred dollars was paid to the bandits.72", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208476, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "184\n\nDAVID H. S. CHAU\n\nthem might have. Prints of images might help to bring luck or protection, and as agencies might represent both personal and impersonal beings; such as ancestors, nature spirits, saints, heroes, gods, or goddess. Because the chief attitudes of the devotees towards these agencies were fear, awe, love or affection, loyalty, reverence, obligation, and aspiration, prints of the images would be the very core of the ceremonial through which the devotee hoped to secure the benefits which he was seeking such as food and drink; protection from natural dangers like thunder, lightning, flood, disease, plague; or victory in wars; long life; riches; prosperity; and counsel in emergencies. Some of the block printed folk prints were in the form of applications to the heavenly authorities conveying all sort of messages or containing prayers for the benefits which the devotees hoped to secure. These talisman-like prints were either burnt together with other paper-made religious offerings or pasted on the walls.\n\nSome Chinese folk prints in the form of character-styled charms were created by Taoist priests for either warding off evils or curing diseases. These Taoist charms were usually written or printed in red colour on yellowish medicated papers by Taoist priests. Taoist priests were both occultists and herbalists. They used their secret formulas like vermilion (b) red orpiment (*) etc. to write or print charms, and these charms could produce some sort of medical effect to lighten diseases when sick persons drank them with water. Taoist priests had long been using these special practices to promote their religion and to make people believe that magic came from their religious power and through the design of the charms they created. Today these charms have become merely a superstition. Those we can find are printed in ordinary ink by the print makers instead of by the priests. Even contemporary priests have little knowledge about the use of formulas. The old formulas are mostly lost through many generations. Yet though charms no longer have the magic power, they still can give psychological comfort to ignorant believers.\n\nSince Late Ming most of the folk prints were printed in colours. The colour used are traditionally believed to have beneficial effects. Each colour has its meaning: red for happiness, joy or prosperity; green for peace and eternity; white also for peace but for mourning as well; gold and yellow for royalty, strength and wealth. They", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208545, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 2, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "191\n\nmerchants. The Japanese would draw up a list of what they wanted, the Chamber of Commerce would deliver the goods, settle the bill with the Japanese, pay the local merchants, and retain a small fee that was used for general management and for compensation to the merchants for goods lost to the Japanese. This was an arrangement designed to reduce disturbance from the Japanese troops in the area. At this time, a pass from the K'ui Ching Shoh was needed for villagers who transported goods from Kowloon into Sai Kung, but the Chamber of Commerce could also order goods from Kowloon, and its documents were also recognized by the Japanese Government as passes. Under this arrangement, Mr. Lok Kau Kei and Mr. Lei Shiu Yam, who together managed the Chamber of Commerce, were saddled with a heavy responsibility. Theirs were difficult positions to be in.81\n\nBoth Mr. Lei and Mr. Lok suffered considerably during the occupation. When the Japanese first settled in Sai Kung, before the Chamber of Commerce became their purchasing agent, Mr. Lei Shiu Yam was taken to the Argyle Street concentration camp in Kowloon and was tortured. Mr. Lok was beaten by the Japanese several times, once because they thought he was entering the kitchen to pick up a knife while talking to them and another time because they interpreted his wife's presence in the cockloft as an attempt to hide. The first time, Mr. Lok went into the kitchen for a drink of water, and the second time his wife was pregnant. These stories indicate that there was considerable tension between the Chamber of Commerce and the Japanese authorities, despite the pass issuing arrangement.82\n\nThe Japanese nonetheless made an attempt to control their own personnel. Mr. Lok was told that any soldier who demanded presents from the shops should be reported. He did once report a gendarme, and the man caused no more trouble.83\n\nDaily life in the occupation\n\nThree topics came up regularly in interviews concerning daily life in the occupation: food shortage, the fear of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the fear that the women might be raped. These concerns left very strong impressions on Sai Kung residents who lived through World War II.84", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208550, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "196\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nWong Keng Tei, his village, where his family continued to live. In 1944, the rules were changed so that only he himself would receive the ration. He then resigned to return to the village. But the village did not produce enough rice even before the War. Life was very hard without the supplement from the city income, and they lived on sweet potatoes and even leaves plucked from trees.94\n\nHowever, in the last few months of the occupation, city people went out even to villages as remote as Tai Long to buy sweet potatoes. This must be an indication that food was even more short in the city than in the villages.95\n\nTo some extent, food shortage was imposed on Hong Kong by external circumstances beyond the control of the Japanese authorities.\n\nThe greatest failure of the Japanese Government in occupation, the single factor that alienated it most from the local population, was brutality, and its apparent inability to restrain its soldiers.\n\nMr. Chau T'in Shang's first exposure to the Japanese Government when its forces returned to Sai Kung after the fall of Hong Kong was when he was taken with a number of other people to a house in the Market, and made to squat on the floor, while the soldiers singled out those who were supposed to be guerrillas. These men were taken to a jail in Kowloon. Some never returned. Those that did told horror stories of torture. Mr. Uen Tak Faat's father was beaten cruelly by Japanese soldiers when they came to Mok Tse Che after one of them was killed by the bandits (or the guerrillas). He was punished not for the killing, for which he was not responsible, but for speaking rudely. He finally died of his wounds. In Wong Mo Ying, on an expedition to find the guerrillas, the Japanese tied two men to a tree and tried literally to burn them alive, killing one and seriously wounding the other. Sai Kung villagers retain very vivid memories of these acts of brutality that they saw or heard about. Nevertheless, it seems to be the general impression that the most brutal were not the Japanese nationals, but the Koreans and Taiwanese working in the Japanese forces.96\n\nVillagers also remembered the tension during the curfew that was imposed on Sai Kung Market when two interpreters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208553, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "199\n\nnew to me when I recorded it at Kat O.\n\nSubsequently, I was surprised to be able to note the following in a study on the minority Li people of Hainan Island:\n\nThe emperor's other daughter was married to someone and she gave birth to a son. One day, when she was working with her husband in the field, her son was nearby as the emperor came riding on a horse. When he saw his nephew, he was surprised, and asked him, \"You know how to read. Can you count the number of paddy shoots your mother has transplanted?\" The nephew said, \"Uncle, can you count how many steps your horse has moved?\" The emperor could not answer, and took away the book that was in his hands. Later, when the child was older (he was about twelve or thirteen years old), he was angry with the emperor for having taken his book away. So he asked his parents to make him a bow and an arrow. The mother thought he wanted them only as a toy. At night, the child asked his mother if the cockerel had crowed. He asked this question several times, and so the mother went outside the door, flapped her arms several times in the way a cockerel might flap its wings, and pretended to crow. Thereupon, the child rose, picked up the bow and arrow, and shot the arrow in the direction of the emperor's residence. The arrow flew away and hit the emperor's bed. After that, the child rode on a horse to see the emperor, to ask him what he could do. The emperor, however, asked the child what he, the child, could do. The child said there were things that he could do. He asked for five bowls of food and five bowls of rice to be put on the table. He hit the table with his hand, and the food and rice jumped into his mouth. He asked the emperor to do the same, but when the emperor hit the table, he could force no more than two grains of rice into his mouth. Insulted, the emperor became angry, and cut off the child's head with his knife. The child picked up the head, put it on his neck, and left. Halfway home, however, his horse died after it had eaten some rice. He had to walk home. When he saw his mother, he asked her, \"Would a chicken head live if it was fixed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208580, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "10\n\nCHAN KIT-CHENG\n\nhad, according to Hopkins, urged Britain on more than one occasion to give up Hong Kong as a gesture of “good will”. To this suggestion Eden, who had originally objected to agreeing to the return of the New Territories on terms after the war in connection with the extraterritoriality negotiations with China but eventually bowed to the majority opinion of the Foreign Office, returned a cold shoulder.41\n\nBritain's attitude regarding Hong Kong steadily stiffened in the course of 1943. She talked less and less about returning the colony on terms. It was partly because pressure from China decreased markedly since the beginning of the year, presumably because she assumed the retrocession of Hong Kong as a matter of course judging from Britain's behaviour in the extraterritoriality negotiations and at the Institute of Pacific Relations' Conference. More significantly, perhaps, Britain became increasingly confident in her relations with the United States and China with the improvement in the European war situation. By the end of the year a final Allied victory in Europe was no longer seriously in doubt.42\n\nIt was under such circumstances that Stanley Hornbeck's visit to London, as a return gesture to Ashley Clarke's visit to Washington the previous year, took place in November 1943. Hornbeck spent much of his time in London on consultation with the Foreign Office and other offices concerned with Far Eastern affairs. At the final conference at which most interested British officials were present, Hornbeck, “entirely on his own responsibility”,43 remarked as follows: \"I felt that we had covered much ground and had explored a good many subjects, [but] there was one additional matter to which we perhaps might need, not at the moment but as the situation unfolded, to give thought. That matter was ... the future of Hong Kong.\" \"The effect was electrifying\", observed Hornbeck. He immediately regretted it: \"I had had no thought of injecting a discordant note. I felt at once that discretion in that context would be the better part of valour.”44\n\nHornbeck's regret came too late. That very evening the British arranged that he would, before his departure for home, call on Churchill the following morning. At the meeting Hornbeck received a long and emphatic lecture from the Prime Minister on Hong Kong: \"What about Hong Kong? I will tell you. [The rest retold in Hornbeck's words] He then described the acquisition by Great\n\n+ + + +", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208602, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "32\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nMaryknollers in the Wuchow Mission, visited Stanley in response to many invitations received from his Maryknoll patients in Kwangsi. (After the Red take-over of Wuchow, he was arrested and jailed together with Bishop Donaghy and Father Kennedy. The two Maryknollers could hear his screams of pain in another cell for many days, and finally they were brought to the doctor's cell to cut down the body, which was hanging from a cross-bar, obviously to be used as \"witnesses\" to the good doctor's \"suicide.\")\n\nFather Joe Reardon and Sister Marie Regis, attempting to get to Hong Kong by way of Swatow, were turned back by the military. They returned to Kaying and took the only other route open, via plane to Shiu Kwan. However, when they reached this city, other difficulties were encountered and they were compelled to journey on to Kweilin in the West where, after a visit of some days, they succeeded in getting a plane for Hong Kong.\n\nFather Bill Whitlow and Brother William, coming by way of the Philippines, stop over-night on their return to Japan.\n\nOCTOBER\n\nFather Arthur Allie, the only representative from Korea to visit us in a long time, arrived by an evacuee ship, the Anhwui, from Japan. He is seeking medical treatment here.\n\nThe \"Double Tenth\" passed with the usual firecracker spree and subsequent rush to medical clinics for treatment of powder burns. Mr. Wei, the manager of R.K.O. pictures in Hong Kong, who very kindly lends films to us, came to visit bringing \"The Great Commandment\" which was enjoyed immensely.\n\nThe first contingent of new missioners arrived on the 15th, aboard the Pan-Am Clipper from Manila. They are Fathers Kruppelmann, Brennan, Winkels and Siebert. The rest of their classmates will follow along later.\n\nFather General arrived via Macao and, at dinner, gave us a talk outlining his journeys and future plans. There was some mystery about his reason for leaving us immediately for the States after coming from Japan, but he promises to be back here by Christmas. We did not know it at the time, but it seems he was bearing a message to our State Department in Washington from those in Japan who were trying to avert a war between Japan and the U.S.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208608, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "38\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nabout six inches in diameter through the concrete roof of the sanctuary, and inside toppling over a huge granite pillar, and finally burying itself in the floor. The next shell apparently went beyond us near the Canossa Hospital, but did not yet reach the gun emplacement. After this, Masses could no longer be said with safety in the Cathedral, and were instead said in the Bishop's house. In the Bishop's house, throughout the day, a great number of people gathered during the air raids and remained all day, bringing with them their meagre food and eating it as best they could. They filled the reception hall, and corridors and finally overflowed into the priests' refectory, where some of them even slept at night, fearing to return to their homes. During the air raids and shelling they continually recited the Rosary and litanies and finally Father Rosello got out his small organ and led them in singing hymns.\n\nDuring these terrible and anxious days, many came back to the Sacraments after years of laxity; confessions were heard almost everywhere, in the streets and in dugouts and pillboxes, where some of the Fathers visited the defenders. At the Cathedral calls came in for confessions to be heard in certain places. For instance, the Portuguese girls in the Telephone exchange who could not leave their posts, asked for this privilege, and the priests were kept busy. The Jesuit Fathers were extremely busy and were in constant demand. Father Rosello visited various outlying convents and institutions, and related how he had repeatedly to wend his way over and around shell holes in the pavements. Despite the danger on the streets many came to the various Masses in the Bishop's house, and many pagans asked for baptism. While we, of course, only observed the happenings at the Cathedral, no doubt the same scenes were being enacted at the various churches, in the city and in Kowloon, and many an heroic act will never be known except by the angels in heaven.\n\nFor the first few nights we all slept in our usual rooms on the upper floors of the Mission House—the building is one of four or five stories—but as the shelling increased in intensity and kept up sporadically at night, we decided to seek safer quarters, and as preparations for this eventuality had already been made in the cellar, we accordingly wended our way down to the depths. Our dugout was none other than the wine cellar into which had been put some benches over which were laid boards and these constituted our box", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208614, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "44\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nand apparently their proposals were rejected, as upon their return firing recommenced, and in earnest. Shells again came whizzing into Hong Kong and onto the Peak. Looking out of our rear windows, we could see these shells strike the bald rocky face of Hong Kong's famous Peak, and amid a cloud of smoke, rocks began hurtling down the sheer sides of the mountain.\n\nThe Bishop's letter of appeal to the Governor evidently bore fruit, for today four of his priests, Fathers Spada, Grampa, Riganti and Ziliolli were released from their internment. And they had their own tales to tell. As they were hustled off on the outbreak of the war, they were taken to Stanley Prison and placed in the southernmost block of cells, with a garden space attached, in which they were allowed to walk. For the first day or so their food rations were very meagre and some were treated rather roughly, but as things began to get organized their treatment improved. At one time a bomb fell quite near their quarters. With them also interned were about thirty Japanese civilians, The Bishop rejoiced at their return, but was much concerned with the others still detained.\n\nWith the return of these priests to the Cathedral, Father Downs began to think of ways and means of getting back to Stanley. He had come to the Cathedral at the request of the Bishop, mainly to take over the procurator's work in the absence of Father Bruzzoni, but with conditions as they were, there was little business to be transacted, and at best, Italian bookkeeping was a terra incognita to him. But how to get to Stanley, in these days of topsy-turvy. Application was made to the Food Distribution Bureau, but they had no immediate solution. Father Toomey was consulted by telephone as to the possibilities from his end, but to no avail. Finally, on the sixteenth, Father Toomey did arrange with a Mr. Brown, a civil contractor working with the British Royal Engineers, who were in fact living in our House at Stanley, to call for him at the Cathedral and take him and his handbag to Stanley. They left after tiffin, and what a ride! It was during an air raid, and our car was the only one in motion. We literally tore through Wanchai and up the torturous Happy Valley Road, with brakes screeching at every turn, and occasionally we had to retrace our steps in order to make a turn properly. Just over the top of Wongneichong Gap we came upon a spot in the road covered with dirt and debris. Just a few moments previous a bomb had landed on the hillside just above", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208615, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n45\n\nthe road, and had showered down this debris. We halted not, but sped on, and finally turned into the lower road at Repulse Bay. Here Mr. Brown had some business to transact with his Chinese foreman and workmen who were engaged in demolishing the bathing beach matsheds, lest they be an obstruction to defending troops, or a hiding place for invading forces. Another dash up the hills and around curves brought us breathless but happy to Stanley, and Father Downs was indeed glad to get back among his confreres.\n\nArrived at Stanley Father Downs found the situation rather tense, though not quite so \"hot\" as at Hong Kong. During his absence he was told that Stanley was fairly quiet, except for occasional planes passing overhead, when they dropped a few bombs on and near the Prison, one also hitting Dr. Hackett's, the Prison Doctor's house, demolishing one wing of it. Of course, \"Big Bertha\"—a 9.2 inch gun at the fort on the promontory to the south of us—kept up an intermittent booming day and night, shelling enemy positions on the mainland. When \"Big Bertha\" spoke, she shook our building and made our windows rattle twice, but we did not mind that.\n\nLong before the outbreak of hostilities British Government and Army officials had visited Maryknoll at Stanley with a view to taking it over in whole or in part if any emergency arose. At one time it was intended to be a hospital, but the Army seemed to have prior rights and they decided to take over a part of our building. Accordingly when Japanese planes began flying overhead and Japanese troops began attacking His Majesty's Crown Colony of Hong Kong, His Majesty's Royal Engineers came out to Stanley and occupied the western end of our building: that is, the servants' quarters downstairs, with the classroom and room adjoining, the recreation room upstairs together with two small private rooms close by. Our Ford V-8 was immobilized, our garage taken over by a number of coolies, and the Engineers prepared for eventualities. They brought out with them quite a supply of food, in the way of huge sacks of rice, soya beans and large tins of army biscuits or hard-tack. The five or six Engineers and Mr. Brown ate at our table with us, and we shared their food, so that we were quite a family.\n\nAs in Hong Kong the delivery to Stanley of daily food, such as meats, vegetables, bread and so forth by the Dairy Farm and Lane", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208618, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "48 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM, DOWNS \n\nports, visas and so on, and on their return the bus which they had boarded took them only as far as Repulse Bay Hotel. From there they began walking to Stanley, and they had not gone far when the command rang out: Halt!. They saw no one in the gathering darkness and continued on, when suddenly a bullet whistled over their heads. Some British Tommies on sentry duty stopped them and demanded their credentials. These having been verified they were allowed to proceed, none the worse for their experience. \n\nDuring these eventful days, Father Toomey did great work in visiting the Prison, on occasional sick calls. He also went to Point d'Aguilar where volunteers were holding an advance position. He was likewise at the Fort on the Hill when it was being bombed by the Japanese planes. While at the Prison he attempted to visit the interned Italian Fathers, but was not allowed. However, he managed to have delivered to them a Mass kit or two with the necessary supplies. \n\nAt the Carmelite Convent just below our hill, Father Hessler said daily Mass for the Sisters and later on remained with them during the actual fighting at Stanley. \n\nAs the days wore on in the second week of the war, things began to get pretty \"hot\" around Stanley. An occasional shell whistled overhead, reports came in that the Japanese landed in Hong Kong and were even now converging on the Tytam reservoir just to the east of us; in fact, they were even said to have captured a red brick house close by. Finally, on the twenty-second of the month, without warning, eight of the Royal Engineers' coolies who were standing just outside our garage on the west of the house, were wounded by machine gun bullets fired from across the valley. Also a little beggar girl who used to come frequently for food received a flesh wound. We brought them all into our house and laid them on the floor and did what we could for them, bandaging up their wounds. Just across this valley the British had built some ammunition dumps and had placed there an anti-aircraft battery or two. These batteries fired at enemy planes in the beginning but eventually we heard them no more and no doubt they were removed elsewhere, for now the Japanese were in possession of this hill. As a measure of safety we moved our kitchen away from this western exposure and also kept away as much as possible from that end of the house. \n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208622, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "52\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nin through the broken windows. Some started immediately to go through the house, while one, apparently a petty officer of some sort, made signs that we were all to come downstairs. Father Meyer tried to explain to the leader, who knew a very little Cantonese, that this was a religious institution and that we belonged to the Catholic Church. This did not seem to make much of an impression and the Japanese insisted we all come down. We accordingly obeyed and were told or rather motioned to sit down on the tile floor in our front hall, we foreigners at the right and the Chinese, our servants, at the left. The Japanese soldiers looked pretty well tired out. Evidently they had been in the night's fighting, and were accustomed to rough fighting. Over their helmets they had a small net, into the meshes of which they had inserted small branches or shrubs, which certainly went far to make them indistinguishable on the mountains. Evidently they had not eaten much in the past few days, for they immediately began carrying out our food supplies, and eating them on the lawn outside.\n\nAs we squatted on the floor the soldiers, laden with the spoils, passed and repassed us. Some carried our personal effects, others cases of goods from our storeroom. A few carried out blankets and bedding evidently for their wounded comrades. But for the smokers, the straw that broke the camel's back was when they began carrying out carton after carton of cigarettes which many of the men had purchased and had in their rooms. As the Japanese soldiers carried out these cigarettes they would toss a pack or two to the Chinese sitting on the floor with us but nary a pack to the padres; this perhaps to show in what seat the foreigners were now sitting. From time to time packs of army hard-tack were also thrown to the hungry Chinese, and our own tins of milk, fruit and bottles of various things were being sampled right before our own eyes. Not one of us had had breakfast, and it was not until about eleven thirty that some kind-hearted soldier began to think of us and give us a can of cherries. This was passed around among the thirty-five of us, and with two or three cherries apiece the contents soon disappeared. Next a bottle of ginger ale came along, but how far it got I couldn't venture to say; however some of us got at least a swallow. Then a can of sausages went the rounds and each, or I hope each, got a bit on the end of a fork. To top off our repast another tin of cherries came along, along with some hard-tack, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208628, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "58\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nand he helped others to loosen theirs, at least to some extent. Some, though, spent the whole night with hands tied, but how they managed I do not know. Later the marks on their hands showed for weeks.\n\nTo cap it all, poor Father Bauer still had dysentery, and Father Madison also developed a similar malady. Well, we used the water jar, which so fortunately had been left in the garage. Thus passed our first night in the garage—the Christmas night of 1941.\n\nAltogether we were thirty-four—a Bishop, a Salesian Seminarian, Brother Bernard, two laymen, Mr. Brown and Michael, and Fathers Benson and Norris, C. P., Szeliga, the Polish Salesian, Toomey, Troesch, Meyer, Downs, Keelan, Quinn, Bauer, Reardon, Callan, Allie, Madison, Gaiero, Siebert, McKeirnan, Walter, Moore, O'Connell, Tackney, Knotek, O'Connor, C. M., Charles Murphy, from Scarboro Bluffs, Canada, and our Brothers Michael, Anselm, Lawrence, Thaddeus and William.\n\nDawn finally came, and we welcomed the new day. Fortunately for us the weather was mild, and despite the fact that all except Father Szeliga slept without their cassocks, and some just in trousers and underwear, we felt no ill effects, except a natural stiffness in our joints and bones from the hard floor. The ominous silence of the preceding night continued, and we began to wonder if in reality the war was over or what was brewing. Later we learned that an armistice had been agreed upon about five o'clock Christmas afternoon, though at Stanley sporadic fighting continued until around seven, when the few men still defending the prison surrendered. On receiving telephonic instructions from Hong Kong the big guns at the Fort also ceased firing and the Fort was soon in Japanese hands.\n\nAs the morning wore on we began to think of food and drink since we had nothing in our stomachs since eleven o'clock the preceding day, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. The sentry peeked in from time to time, and whenever he did so we always managed to turn our faces towards him and slip our hands back into their nooses. About ten o'clock we tried to make signs to the sentry that we were hungry and thirsty but to no avail. Finally, after repeated representations and the offering of a very valuable wrist watch by Father Toomey, the sentry handed in through the crack in the door, his canteen which was about half full of water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208629, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n59\n\nFather Szeliga, who was untied, handed it around and we all took a sip of the precious liquid, but the half-full canteen did not go far among thirty-four parched throats. Later on, a second canteen was handed in, and we had another swallow. We continued to ask and make signs for food, and at length, at four-thirty in the afternoon, we heard a commotion outside. Our door opened a little wider, and a few Japanese soldiers, one apparently a petty officer, brought in and distributed to each a small package of army hardtack and a can of evaporated milk undoubtedly from our own store. We found some sort of implement to open the cans, and we had our first meal of hardtack and milk. Not knowing what the future had in store, we drank only half the milk and kept the remainder for the morrow, just in case!\n\nAn attempt to explain to the officer who came with the food that two of our men had dysentery met with no response. Then we pointed to our bound hands and asked to see a higher-ranking officer. To this, he replied that tonight we would be taken to the headquarters of the gendarmes, and hope sprung up anew in our breasts. However, as the night came on, no officer appeared, and we sought our bed on the floor as on the preceding night, but with a little less inconvenience, as during the day we had managed to clean up a little more of the debris, or at least to push it aside and thus made a little more sleeping space. During the course of the day, a few Japanese soldiers came along and peeked in through the crack in our door, and one of them threw in a couple of pieces of dirt or stones.\n\nAs we lay down to sleep that night, we noticed shadows playing on our wall, and looking out surreptitiously, we saw that the Japanese had kindled some fires nearby, the flames of which partially illuminated our quarters. A second look confirmed our suspicion - they were cremating the bodies of the dead. A little later on, we thought we heard English voices outside, but could not distinguish them clearly. The next morning, we found that some captured British soldiers had been billeted in one of the rooms on the ground floor of the house to which our garage was attached, but not being allowed outside, we, of course, could have no conversation with them.\n\nDawn of the twenty-seventh came, and we had breakfast in bed! Sitting or standing in our crowded quarters, we finished the few", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208631, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n61\n\ntomato catsup, and we soon had a cupful of each of delicious stew, or what have you. We were allowed to go not more than a few feet away from our garage, such desperate criminals we evidently were. But this was far enough to exchange a few words with the British soldiers who had come in two nights before. They gave us a little tea, and said they were pretty well supplied with food. That night, when we were tied up again after our supper, the guards tied our hands not behind our back as heretofore, but in front, and as a consequence we slept a little more comfortably.\n\nThe twenty-eighth. Our bonds were removed, we were again allowed to go outside to cook our meals. There happened to be a few straggling vegetables growing within the ambitus of our permitted area, and these went into our stew. For cups and dishes we used the milk cans which we had the day before, and the hard-tack container was our all-purpose kettle. Fathers Meyer and Walter were our capable cooks, and as we were allowed to get water from a well we did not fare too badly. After cooking our meals we had to return to the interior of the garage, though finally our bonds were entirely removed. About this time we came across a few burlap bags and when we were allowed outside we managed to pull up enough dried grass to stuff these bags for pillows. Providentially the weather continued mild and we did not suffer from cold.\n\nAs we were preparing our noonday meal we heard a truck rumble by, and from it a cheery voice hailed Father Toomey. The truck stopped and even pulled into our driveway, and Major Kerr, a British officer whom Father Toomey knew very well, jumped down. Major Kerr, knowing Japanese, was acting as interpreter for the time being, and was even now with the British prisoners in the room adjoining us. Seeing our plight, he promised to do what he could for us and a little later managed to bring out a few cases of food for us and for the British soldiers. We also asked him to see what he could do about getting us off the cement floor of the garage and, after a conversation with an officer, we were allowed to go upstairs in the house where there was at least a wood floor. Accordingly, we lost no time in moving our very few effects to this new domicile.\n\nWe had not been upstairs for more than a few hours when a Japanese officer called us all to come down. We lined up in front of him, and in broken English he said, \"Japanese. English. Finished\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "62\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nWe did not know quite what he meant, but as he repeated these words, he made a motion towards our house on the hill. We interpreted all this to mean that peace had been concluded and that we were free to return to our house. We pointed to our house and he nodded his head. We leave our feelings to be imagined by the reader as we prepared to return.\n\nPicking up our few belongings, and, of course, the food which Major Kerr had kindly secured for us, and bidding goodbye to the British soldiers, we trudged back to our house. Be it confessed however, that we were not too hilarious as we did not know what awaited us above. Reaching our front lawn, we found Japanese soldiers in the house. They looked at us with unemotional faces and refused to allow us to enter. So we sat on the lawn until almost dusk when they said we might stay in our lower chapel. Entering in we found the place fairly presentable, though the odor in some spots was none too pleasant. We opened the window, did a little cleaning up, and settled down for the night, sleeping on the floor between the altars.\n\nDuring the night the temperature fell considerably, as only it can in South China, and as we had but a couple of blankets, and only a few had retrieved their cassocks, so we shivered. We would fall asleep only to be awakened by the cold. Then a walk over and around other sleeping forms, and another attempt to sleep. We had fixed up toilet facilities as best we could under the circumstances in the corridor and finally the dawn came. Before retiring we had managed to get a cup of our now famous stew by building a temporary fireplace just outside the chapel door, up against the walls of our building.\n\nAs the day dawned, we were up and trying to get warm by walking around, until our culinary staff announced breakfast, which was similar to the previous night's supper. During the morning we were allowed to walk around outside on the lawn, managed to improve our fireplace, picked up some firewood and carried water from our garage tap. As the soldiers were still in the building, we were not supposed to go beyond our lower chapel, but now and then during the day one or two of us would venture through the building. Sometimes we were unmolested, at other times we were warned to keep out, with a grunt. On these occasional forays we contrived to retrieve some of our belongings, such as clothing,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208633, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n63\n\nblankets and other small things. But what a sight met our eyes! The general scene was almost indescribable! Some of the rooms and especially the toilets were filthy. In the corridors, the portable altars still stood with their appurtenances as we left them Christmas morning. Strangely enough, the chalices were for the most part untouched; the vestments and altar cloths were intact but in many instances trailing or lying on the floor. And the floors of the corridors were literally filled with all sorts of things, papers, books, empty tin cans and bottles, broken boxes and what not. The rooms were in a similar state. Bureau and wardrobe drawers were pulled out, their contents scattered on the floor, and papers and books and all our minor possessions which the Japanese did not want were everywhere. One wondered where it all came from. In many cases the beds were missing or at least the mattresses. These we later found arranged in rows on the floors of the larger rooms, where the soldiers had evidently slept. The panels of most of the doors had been broken into and shattered strips lay on the floor.\n\nThe office was also a mess. This had been used for a dining room but, despite this fact, the floor was covered as the rest of the house was, with papers, files and everything imaginable. The safe had been broken open and what money we had, taken. Before the crash came we had placed the Blessed Sacrament in this safe, but very providentially before the Japanese got to it, the Chinese seminarian who had come with the Salesians opened the safe and consumed it.\n\nThe chapel upstairs was wholly unmolested, the Japanese seeming to have great respect for shrines, and later on a Japanese officer bowed as he passed our Chapel door. Report has it that one of the British officers was found hiding behind a statue in the Chapel! Poor fellow!\n\nWe noticed red splotches here and there on the floor and walls, but we surmised that these were for the most part caused by the breaking of innocent catsup bottles, though where the wounded soldiers lay, there were of course real blood stains. At the first opportunity, we tried to find our cassocks and breviaries. Most of these eventually turned up, but cassocks needed a washing before being able to be worn.\n\nObviously our food storeroom was the first object of attack by the famished Japanese, and there wasn't much left when we return-\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208639, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n69\n\ninto a small flat. They, as well as the Dominicans, lost heavily in property and investments, and many wealthy Chinese families are practically penniless. The Sisters held on to the Holy Spirit School, Sister Paul fighting a great battle for it; but of course, they lost their Convent and School at Kowloon. The Canossian Hospital was hit by a bomb and burned to the ground. The Precious Blood Hospital in Kowloon was hit by a shell and destroyed. One of the churches in Kowloon City was confiscated and razed to make room for an extended airfield. All schools have been closed down, and the Italian and French Sisters, with their immense compounds, are suffering.\n\nThe day after Bishop O'Gara and Fathers Norris and Benson went into Hong Kong, the Japanese issued notices to the effect that all enemy nationals should assemble on the Murray Parade ground, bringing with them only handbags and leaving their homes in the custody of caretakers. Not realizing exactly what was in the air, most of the inhabitants of Hong Kong did so, and after they had assembled, were promptly marched off to dingy Chinese hotels where they were interned. The quarters were naturally poor, ill-furnished, and crowded, and the food was meagre. They were allowed no intercourse with the outside world, and were kept in this durance vile for some two weeks, when they were transferred to the Civilian Internment Camp at Stanley.\n\nFrom the seventh to the fourteenth of January, we lived a life of expectancy. We finished cleaning up the premises, tried to carry on language classes, and read a good deal. One day during this time, some Japanese soldiers came up in a truck and borrowed fifteen of our dining-room chairs. They said the officers were having an important meeting nearby and would return the chairs later. We were mistrustful of them, but later the chairs came back, with thanks. One of the soldiers insisted on taking a group picture, and of course, we obliged him. A few days later, some of our tables were again borrowed, but this time, they did not reappear. “So sorry, our tables now!” For a time, there was a threatened water shortage, but the supply came on again.\n\nWith no opportunity to buy food, our supply is gradually dwindling. On the thirteenth, we had no more prunes for breakfast. Just coffee and oatmeal, the hardtack biscuits also being used up. The last of these began to get a bit wormy, but hunger did not notice the worms.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208640, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "70\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nOn the fourteenth, an officer came in with a stern command that we were to pack up and leave for the internment camp. Just where, he did not seem to indicate, but he pointed towards the Prison and St. Stephen's College. After trying to explain to him that as a group we had considerable baggage, he reluctantly promised to have a truck sent over. We accordingly gathered together our meager belongings into a couple of suitcases and bags, rolled up our bedding, and awaited marching orders.\n\nThe next day, word came that we were not to go immediately, that we may be sent to St. Stephen's College, and that we may take with us whatever food we have, but there will be no truck available.\n\nOn the sixteenth, we took up a collection among ourselves and managed to get enough money with which to pay the coolies who were to help in carrying our baggage. The coolies arrived and, as a preliminary, weighed in our effects. Father Meyer took a hand in arranging the baggage and talking price, and I verily believe that if the number of coolies was not limited, he would have moved the whole house as well. For in addition to our personal luggage, there were food supplies, such as some tins of bully beef, tins of milk, oatmeal, a little coffee and tea, sugar, some flour, the remains of the salt pork in a barrel, and kitchen utensils, soup plates, and some dishes, a water filter, host iron, some bottles of Mass wine, a wringer, and a few tools. The question now is whether we shall be allowed to transport all this baggage, and if we have enough money to pay the coolies therefor.\n\nThe next three days were still days of waiting. At night, we unrolled our bedding, and in the morning rolled it up again, just in case. As we have no more money and very little rice left, we are sorrowfully obliged to dismiss all our servants, except two, who expressed a willingness to share our fortunes or misfortunes, Ah Fung, a Hakka, and Ah Chin, a Cantonese. We understand that we may be allowed these two servants at St. Stephen's. We have only a part of a sack of rice left and only a few beans.\n\nIn the meantime, we have sent some things, such as chalices, vestments, bookkeeping books, and various other belongings to the Carmelite Convent, where the Mother Superior has very kindly consented to store them for us, until happier days are here. We also emptied our rooms, and what books and other things we could not take with us were stored in the attic, with the hope that they will be here when, and if, we ever get back to our house.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208644, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "74\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nbetter fireplace and kitchen. Just below us, we notice considerable activity in the Indian barracks, and understand that they are being evacuated in order to give room for more internees, some of the prison warders and their families, as also a great many of the former “Peakites”. Imagine the contrast!\n\nJanuary 24th - Internees continue to arrive. We now have seven altars set up in our various rooms and are gradually getting settled.\n\nJanuary 25th — Sunday, and our first in Camp! We arrange to have public Masses in what was the Prison Warders' Club, and start out with three Masses, Bishop O'Gara taking care of present arrangements. Contingents of the Hong Kong Police arrive and are billeted in one of the buildings of St. Stephen's College,\n\nJanuary 26 A surprise for breakfast in the form of pancakes. Our two boys, Ah Fung and Ah Chin, who managed to slip in with us when we came to Camp, notice that the Camp cooks are throwing away perfectly good fish heads and asked if they may have them, and as a result, we all enjoy a dish of fishhead chowder in our own kitchen.\n\nJanuary 27th - Today we sent our two boys out of Camp to Stanley on a foraging expedition and they failed to return,\n\nJanuary 28th -- Fish and rice for dinner today; and noodles, rice and a little vegetables for supper. From our Camp kitchen we get only two meals(?) a day, consisting of a very little meat, or fish, very little vegetables, and a soup plate of boiled rice, the first meal being about nine or ten, the second at five in the afternoon. Fortunately, through the indefatigable industry of Father Meyer and Father Troesch, we managed to bring with us from our house a quantity of food of various sorts, and we are eking out our regular meals with a little of this. So as long as the stock lasts, we can have a little coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, and perhaps a can or two of bully beef to add to our rice. So far, contrary to promises, we have not been able to buy anything from hawkers, and in any event we have very little money with which to buy anything.\n\nJanuary 29th The American Community holds an election of Camp officers, with the result that Mr. William Hunt is our President, Mr. Bourne of the Standard Oil our Vice-President, Mr. Taylor of the U.S. Treasury Department our Secretary and Father Toomey, Treasurer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208649, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n79\n\n8-Sunday Masses, as usual, with Fathers Keelan, Bauer and Charles Murphy officiating. It rained in the afternoon, but a fair crowd attended Rosary, Litany and private Benediction at St. Stephen's Great Hall; Bishop O'Gara spoke. Seventy Communions in the morning at Masses. An attempt is to be made to start some sort of school tomorrow for the children, but with the lack of desks, chairs and books, not much can be done. The Sisters also plan a catechism class. So far, we have five Maryknoll Sisters in Camp, as also nine Canadian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, but at five this afternoon during a drizzle, some 18 more Maryknoll Sisters, with Sister Paul at their head, arrived by truck, with bag and baggage as only Sisters know how to travel. As the American Blocks were pretty well filled up, temporary quarters were found for them in one of the British blocks. They find two or three rooms at their disposal, and the 18 promptly unroll their blankets and stretch out on the floor, for the night. The Portuguese and Chinese Sisters remain in Kowloon, but not in their own convent, which has long since been taken over by the Japanese military as a hospital. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved temporarily in the Maryknoll Sisters' apartment in the American block. Maryknoll again wins a softball match.\n\n9-Mr. Gullinan, former Hong Kong Police sergeant and a good friend of ours, goes to Tweed Bay Hospital for treatment. He had been in the Queen Mary Hospital for some months previous to the war. The American Community meets at 2.00 p.m. in the Club House Rooms and hear various reports read. The question of bank accounts in the Hong Kong banks came up and it seems the Japanese authorities have offered each one with a bank account the sum of $50.00 for his food. This offer was refused by the Americans. Our newly-built kitchen finally opened.\n\n10-The blackout is over and we again have electric lights in the evening. Today also there is a change in our meal hours. The first repast is 9.30, with a cup of soup at 12.30 and the second meal at 5.00 p.m. It has turned cold and rainy and our meager rations of rice and fixings leave us hungry. A robbery is reported in the Dutch quarters.\n\n11-Another attempt to open a canteen in the American Club, and each person is limited to the purchase of one article. As there wasn't very much, the supply was soon sold out. One could buy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208650, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "80 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\njam, butter, sausage (canned) and canned milk, but the prices were rather expensive. Our Procurator, Father Troesch, managed to borrow some money and bought a few cans of pineapple, sausages and jam. We had the pineapple for supper and the Sisters made us a cake. Father Reardon much improved. As we have no communication with the outside world, or even with Hong Kong for that matter, rumors are rife and often fantastic. Today's prize one is that we are to be free by the 15th! \n\n12—In addition to our two Camp meals, we Maryknollers (while our limited stock of food lasts) have a breakfast of coffee and oatmeal, the latter very often mixed with left-over rice (not that we have more rice than we can eat at our evening meal, but some cannot eat their portion). This morning for breakfast, however, we had a little sausage as an appetizer. Tiffin—boiled rice, a very little meat and one doughnut. Supper, Father Meyer makes some buns. Some cases of grippe appear in Camp. \n\n14—Just as we were preparing to eat our morning meal, word came that everybody had to proceed to the ball field for search and inspection. Leaving the food still on the stove, we left our quarters and assembled in the field. After considerable delay, we were segregated according to nationalities, formed in line and made to walk past Indian or Japanese soldiers, who searched each internee. While waiting, and during the search, it began to drizzle and among that crowd of almost three thousand, there were hardly a dozen umbrellas. In the meantime, our quarters were also searched, and upon our return, we found our typewriters had been confiscated, as being instruments of propaganda. Fortunately, I had loaned my \"cement mixer\" to the Sisters, and a little later, Sister Famula, who speaks Japanese, managed to get it back from the Japanese. Father Troesch somehow or other managed to save his, but Father Meyer's was gone. We returned to our quarters about twelve noon, and had our belated morning meal, which now consisted of three small pancakes. \n\n15—Sunday. In accordance with a new plan, Father Allie preached at the three Masses today. This will be followed by others in turn. Sister St. Dominic finally gets permission to leave Camp in order to go to the Civil Hospital at Hong Kong for treatment. Songfest at 6 p.m. of which Father Quinn takes charge. \n\nFathers Quinn and Madison give a rendition of \"The March of Time.\" Father Reardon returns from Tweed Bay Hospital. A Mr.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208662, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "92\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nto begin at St. Stephen's was called off at the last moment by the authorities.\n\n7-Language classes resumed after the Easter Holidays. Meeting of the American community at 2:00 p.m. The cooks, after airing their grievances, decided to continue. Had they really resigned, I think few tears would have been shed, though it would have been a problem to find volunteers for their places. The Dollar Line officials in Camp were called up for inoculation—does this also mean repatriation for them?\n\n8-Meals improving a little; less rice, with a little more fish, meat, and vegetables, but we are still hungry after each meal. Also one piece (small) of black bread, the first issued in many days. A prevalent question these days is: \"How much have you lost?\" Or, \"how much do you weigh now?\" Still trying to get the Japanese to give us better food.\n\n9-EXTRA! Four Britishers escape from the Camp during the night!! Result: extra Indian guards all around the Camp, with a small guard house perched on every little eminence along the rocky coast of the sea. And the Camp confines are being gradually made smaller. At first, we were permitted to walk down the main road almost to Stanley village, but that was shortened; then the road along the western end of the Camp along the sea, skirting the St. Stephen's College football ground, was declared out of bounds, and we were kept to the top of the hill. Also, possibly as a result of the escape, we receive orders to surrender and hand in all tools, garden as well as small tools. Speaking of garden tools, this reminds me of the fact that the Americans had begun a small vegetable plot, as have some of the British Blocks, over near the Prison, and we have been hoping to add to our meager rations from this plot. But now, we have to hand in all tools! Brother Thaddeus is in charge of some of this garden work.\n\n10-Since we came to Camp, many of the internees have tried to turn their individual talents to some practical use, though tools and materials are very conspicuous by their absence. Nevertheless, it has been surprising what articles have been made, proving the truth of the adage that \"necessity is the mother of invention.\" So today, in the American section of the garage (we seem to have a predilection for garages these days), an exhibition of Stanley-made", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208669, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n99\n\nounces of the eight are retained by the camp kitchen for common use, such as making noodles and the thickening in the soup. Father Meyer takes over our bread baking, making his yeast out of sweet potatoes and rice, but he finds that the flour is not of a very good quality and is full of weevils. Perhaps that is the reason the Japanese are giving us so much, as it won't keep any longer. However, it is flour and will make some kind of bread and biscuits. We immediately detail a squad to pick out and exterminate the weevils.\n\n28—Another duck egg and two of Father Meyer's biscuits for the morning meal, and two buns for supper, along with our rice. The Japanese authorities are now permitting friends of internees living in Hong Kong to send to the Camp small packages of food and clothing, the limit being five tins of food, a few articles of clothing and toilet necessities per person, and only once a week. Today our first package came in addressed to Father Toomey from Doctor Liang, one of our Maryknoll Chinese physicians, and our diet was enriched by five tins of meat. This tinned meat is a great addition to our morning meal, which consists usually of but rice and a little meat gravy. Once in a great while, we get a piece of meat that can be seen with the naked eye.\n\n29—Still talking about food! This morning, we had only rice for our first meal, but Father Troesch came to the rescue with a few tins of sardines for the crowd. The bread, however, helps to fill up the void. It now seems that the amounts of our daily rations vary. Flour and rice apparently remain the same, the rice even being increased to all appearances, but the other foods, such as meat, fish and green vegetables, seem to vary a lot. One day we received only fifty pounds of meat, and on another day, sixty pounds for three hundred and forty or so people. Salt and sugar, too, have been reduced, for some reason, though as a matter of fact, we have seen very little sugar since we came to Camp, and were it not for the supply we brought with us, our sweet tooth would be pretty badly off. Strangely enough, however, we occasionally get an extra piece of bread, in addition to our flour ration, so these days we are beginning to feel a little fuller after a meal. Latest news on repatriation--not later than August 15, and possibly in June. A fuse blew out today, leaving our floor without current. We requested that it be repaired, but as it was some kind of holiday, no aid was forthcoming. Incidentally, Father Knotek has put to good use", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208682, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "112\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nthe other for the use of our Sisters and us, the large Camp kitchen in the garage below being turned over to the British. The British have also been enlarging and perfecting their other kitchens, and they are pretty well fixed now. For hot water, as hitherto, we have a small electric boiler which gives us enough water for drinking, shaving and other purposes.\n\nIn this change of quarters, roommates were chosen by lot, and Fathers Toomey, Hessler, Madison, Siebert, Knotek and Brother Thaddeus drew the end room; Fathers Downs, Gaiero, Walter and McKeirnan take the middle room, and Fathers Meyer, Troesch, Keelan, Tackney, O'Connell and Moore get the large room. Father Meyer turns the cooking job over to Mr. Gingles. Formerly, Mr. Gingles, a retired American Navy man, had a number of restaurants in Hong Kong and a hotel in Kowloon, and while in Camp he did the cooking for the group of Americans in the American Club building. His fame as a cook spread through the Camp and now that he is living with us, he has kindly consented to do the work again. Incidentally, everybody liked Father Meyer's meals.\n\n3-Under the new hotel management, our meal hours undergo somewhat of a change. We Maryknollers (when we have the wherewithal) have coffee, bread and cereal about 8 a.m., then Mr. Gingles gives us tiffin at 12 and dinner follows as usual at 5.\n\nHaving heard a lot of our new chef's abilities, we naturally looked forward to something different, and for our first tiffin, we were not disappointed. While we had only rice and a thick soup, the soup was chicken, and very delicious. It seems there must be some community stores still extant, hence this chicken soup. For supper, he gave us fried rice and a little pork. At the present time, for 41 people, we get from 9 to 11 pounds of meat, bones and fat included, mostly beef, and probably water buffalo at that. Our present issue of green vegetables consists of a few sweet potatoes, some very poor, wormy water spinach and chives, which Mr. Gingles frowns upon and usually throws away as unfit for human consumption.\n\n4-Rain ushered in the Fourth of July and we did not celebrate. Tiffin, again rice and a thick tomato soup (the latter not from the Japanese!) However, we had a very good supper, the Sisters adding a cake, and Father Troesch some cocoa. Mr. Gingles' kit-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208683, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n113\n\nChen is a model of cleanliness and order, and everything is absolutely shipshape. No one is allowed in the galley and he takes great pride in his work. It is easily seen he has had Navy training. His clarion call for meals is: \"Come and get it or I'll throw it on the deck!\" and that brings us all running with our plates and cups.\n\n5—Another rumor that our papers for release have arrived on \"The Hill\".\n\nWe are just getting on to Mr. Gingles' method of feeding us. Our ordinary fare seems to be just rice with a thick gravy or soup, but every few days we get quite a delicious meal. It seems he saves up the best pieces of meat and vegetables for a few days and then gives us a square meal, served in an appetizing manner. Today we had such a meal, with a real slice of meat, a whole sweet potato, some spinach, cooled in the refrigerator, and, of course, rice. For supper just rice and stew but stew with a flavor. It seems he darkens the gravy by the addition of a little burnt sugar.\n\n6-Rice and gravy for both meals, and there are “seconds” for those who wish, Mr. Gingles is certainly generous with what he has. We try a little mint in our tea. Today, Mr. Gingles, Dr. Molthen, Mr. Salmon and Miss Dorrer, all Americans, sign papers for release, so we are going to lose our good cook! We also understand that a number of Britishers are also on the list for release. No more word about our own papers! The British at length begin to use our large community kitchen and marvel at its completeness, considering all Camp conditions.\n\n8-Another good meal, with meat balls, spinach, a few beets and delicious gravy. Another report about our papers being on \"The Hill.\"\n\n9-Mr. Gingles gives us a treat in the way of cinnamon buns. A little extra flour also gives us an extra piece of bread. High wind and plenty of rain. Perhaps there is a typhoon in the offing. We have had some pretty heavy rain storms so far, and as a consequence, the summer has not been too hot.\n\n10-Wind and rain keep us indoors. The American Club Library is open again for Americans so we have some reading matter for these rainy days. Coffee cake for tiffin,\n\n11-The Maryknoll Sisters make us some doughnuts and occasionally they give us a piece of chocolate candy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208684, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "114 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\n12-Sunday. Masses as usual, with Father Meyer preaching a course of sermons on the Mass. Another good tiffin with roast beef, sweet potato, spinach and NO rice for a change. Supper, rice pudding with raisins only. Either we feast or we fast these days. \n\n13—All Americans, except Maryknollers, are to report to “The Hill\" tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. The four Americans who have already signed up are still waiting for final word. \n\n14----The Americans called up were asked why they wanted to go to Hong Kong, and how they could support themselves. Were told that they would hear further from the Foreign Office. Father Murphy baptized an adult catechumen. \n\n15 Sister Henrietta Marie celebrates her feast day by giving us a piece of chocolate cake. We seem to be getting very few vegetables these days. The water spinach is wormy and getting tough and the chives—well, 'nuf said! And we are supposed to pay for all this FOOD after the war is won, for we get a monthly bill therefor. The rice, too, is beginning to get poor, being broken cargo rice and full of worms. (The Chinese would never think of eating this.) The British now have nothing but this poor rice, but we seem to have a limited supply of the good rice yet. The Camp seems very quiet these days and even our own quarters have quieted down considerably. We have much more satisfactory arrangements for Mass now, with two altars in our little chapel. The Blessed Sacrament is also reserved. Heavy rain continues. \n\n16-A wedding this morning at 8:00 in the Maryknoll Chapel, Father Murphy officiating. He also has another baptism in the afternoon. Mr. Dick Munsey, an American ex-seaman, dies in Tweed Bay Hospital, after a very short illness. Rain all day. \n\n17--Mr. Munsey buried at 10:00 a.m. He has a wife and family in Hong Kong. \n\n19-Sunday. Vacation religious classes begin. Catholic Action meeting after Benediction. Father Hessler is now chaplain to the Hospital, succeeding Father Toomey. At last swimming permission is granted. We are now allowed to go to Tweed Bay beach in groups, between 9 and 11 in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. \n\n20-Delay on swimming. Rain continues.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208699, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n129\n\nSpirit School is on the way to the Cathedral; the writer stopped for a little chat with the Sisters and, while having tea with Sister Paul, we were suddenly startled by a series of explosions. We rushed to the window overlooking the harbor and Kowloon, and there, right in front of us along the Kowloon dock area, were a number of columns of smoke rising. Hong Kong had been bombed! American planes? Of course, we could not know, but it was not hard to conjecture. Yes, some eight or twelve American planes based in China had actually bombed Hong Kong. As they came over the city and dropped their deadly missiles, the numerous Japanese planes previously flying around were nowhere to be seen, but evidently the Japanese had wind of an approaching bombing. Later on, we heard varying and conflicting reports of dog-fights over the New Territories and of both Japanese and American planes being shot down, but we had no means of verifying them. In any event, we felt like hurrahing, though we were just a little frightened at renewed bombing. This took place around three o'clock, and after the hubbub had died down, we started for the Cathedral, meeting on the way some of our confreres from Bethany who had just arrived. Japanese soldiers were on the streets, and an occasional truckload, fully accoutred, passed by. The Procession was scheduled for five o'clock, but arriving there we learned that because of the disturbance it had been called off. Then we began to wonder if there would be martial law, and whether we, being enemy nationals and Americans, would be allowed to roam the streets back to our home. However, nothing untoward happened, and we got the bus as usual at the University for Pokfulam. During the actual bombing, the few people I noticed on the streets did not seem to be very much perturbed and walked along nonchalantly. No doubt, they were rejoicing inwardly.\n\nThat night we felt pretty cheery at Bethany, and after discussing the incident and its possible effects, we retired as usual. At about half past one the next morning, we were awakened by another crash of bombs, though fainter. Hong Kong was getting it again in bright moonlight. The raiders dropped their load and immediately sped away. Well, things began to happen, and everybody was on the qui vive. The next day, Japanese planes were in the sky all day, looking for more visitors. On the following Wednesday, the American eagles swooped down again on Hong Kong with a few missiles of good will. At the moment, there were no Japanese planes in the air, and the American fliers raced away.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208703, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "142\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nwhatever food for the Club which could not be bought in the market.\n\nFather Meyer in October notes that the money exchange rate for the U.S. dollar was HK$7.50, although the official rate given by the banks was only HK$4.00. He opined that this difference came about because the U.S. dollar had become a sort of \"super currency\" for South China because the Chinese considered it much safer than their own.\n\nDuring the \"post occupation\" days when everyone in Hong Kong was trying to put the pieces together again, the U.S. Navy was a great help to Father Meyer, particularly Father Hargreaves who often stayed at the Maryknoll House in Stanley. Father Don Hessler, who had volunteered to remain in the Internment Camp with Father Meyer in order to care for the people not repatriated on the Gripsholm, was recalled to the U.S. after Father Tennien's arrival in Hong Kong to take over the Stanley House. Father Don had organized a school for the children of Stanley Village, and continued to work for the warders and prisoners in the jail. He and the Carmelite Sisters also took care of the Japanese internees who had been transferred to the barracks on the tip of the Stanley peninsula. They found 12-15 Catholics among them. General Festing, who was in charge of the Japanese internees, was a Catholic and very helpful to the Sisters and to Father Hessler. There were some 8,000 Japanese internees and Father Meyer had been toying with the idea of asking Maryknoll to send Japanese-speaking Maryknollers to take care of them. He himself would have done this but his time was completely taken up with the organization of the Catholic Club in town, and organizing Catholic Action Groups. The Club opened on October 19—Armistice Day. It served 1,722 meals that day. Catholics made up 20 per cent of those who patronized the Club in order to eat something other than barracks' and ships' rations.\n\nFather Tennien arrived to take over Stanley on November 26th. His first report on the House was: \"Not bad considering most of the homes and institutions in Hong Kong, although the flooring had been pulled up. Open fires for cooking in the rooms had blackened all the walls but did not damage them.\" He held off on major repairs due to the almost impossibility of getting materials, and the inflated cost of labor at the moment. Government was selling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208707, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n137\n\nThere were 450 Catholics in Stanley out of a Camp population of 2,500. Catholic Action had been established in 1942 and the laity now took over much of the work which was previously done by priests and Sisters. Laymen directed the choir; young women taught religion classes in the Camp school. Clubs were organized for boys and girls of different age groups and the young people acted as their Counsellors.\n\nDue to the interest of the Irish Jesuit Fathers, who sent us books, the Camp had a Catholic library of over 100 good Catholic books, besides many pamphlets. To bring the books to as many as possible, branch libraries were established in various parts of the Camp, and Catholic Action members made a special effort to distribute books to families.\n\nFrom the grouping of the buildings, the Camp came naturally to be divided into three main districts, and active Study Clubs for men and women were formed in each district, which were like separate neighborhoods, though distant from one another by only a few hundred yards. A total of thirty-two Study Clubs, Catholic Action Groups, or Children's Clubs were organized in the Camp by Catholic efforts.\n\nIn addition to the strictly Catholic Clubs, we sponsored Clubs for all the boys and girls of each district, regardless of creed. Catholics and non-Catholics cooperated as Counsellors for these Clubs, and some of them were very successful.\n\nEach Christmas and Holy Week, the Catholics presented plays; this was one branch of literature that the library did not have, so we wrote them ourselves. At other times during the year, the Catholic young people presented some very good plays as well.\n\nThe Catholic people organized socials, of which two, during the last Christmas and Easter seasons of the Camp, were agreed by non-Catholics as well to have been the most successful the Camp had seen. For the Christmas social and Christmas tree, the young people produced marvelous toys, especially sewn ones. Mickey Mouse, Teddy Bears, and Donald Duck came to life out of odds and ends of cloth and fur.\n\nFrom the beginning of the Camp, we were able to say Mass daily. What was called the Central Social Hall was made available each morning and on Sundays for the Catholics. All the windows", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208709, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n139\n\njewelry through the Camp guards. So we sold the high-priced items of the parcels, both Red Cross and from town.\n\nI also sold an overcoat for 3,500 yen, a fountain pen for 540; Father Hessler's clock went for 1,200, etc. We were only sorry we had no gold teeth to sell as some people did; almost every wedding and engagement ring in the Camp went the same way. The money raised from the various sources was used to purchase only one thing—powdered egg yolk. Some of it came in over the wire at a very high price, but still a better value than the parcel items. We also gave poor families the money to buy their allowance of egg yolk and other foods in the canteen, and in return, they gave us a share of the egg yolk.\n\nThe value of the military yen had been fixed at one yen to four Hong Kong dollars, or one yen to one U.S. dollar. Early in the Camp, we bought three eggs for a yen, but the printing presses kept working and the yen kept dropping. In 1945 one pound of powdered milk brought 800 yen, but the official rate was still one yen to one U.S. dollar, and the U.S. Red Cross was sending us $25 monthly, for which we got 25 yen. The price of egg yolk soared correspondingly, going up to over 1,000 yen per pound in the Black Market. Raw brown sugar brought 400 yen. One could get a good pair of shoes for a pound of sugar.\n\n\"Father Meyer's Powdered Egg Yolk\" became a joke about the Camp. The Catholic women volunteered to make it into omelets for the sick. They found that a little rice gruel made it hold together quite nicely. Sea water was used to salt it. Even such an omelet made a big difference to those who were receiving plain boiled rice and vegetable stew for most of their meals. For one year, we received no fish or meat in the rations supplied, and during one-half of the year, the Camp had no bread.\n\nWe helped the sick irrespective of creed. Among them were fourteen tuberculosis patients in the \"sanitorium\", a small building originally constructed to house the occasional leper among the inmates of the Hong Kong prison at Stanley. One of these omelets was an event in their day.\n\nDuring the last year, the situation became especially alarming for pregnant mothers. Their blood-count would drop from a normal 4,000,000 to 2,000,000, even 1,800,000. The doctors were helpless;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208840, "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": 2, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "201\n\nI would like to add two more passages to this note, both of which came my way after I wrote the above. The first passage was kindly given me by James Hayes, who was given it by Mr. Ho Kei Fook, of Kei Ling Ha village, born in 1928, and educated (1937-1941) in the neighbouring village of Tseng Tau, previously village representative, and Vice-Chairman of the North Saikung Rural Committee. The second passage I came across in Ch'en T'ieh-erh5, \"Huang Hsiao-yang yu Pai-e t'an\" (Huang Hsiao-yang and the White Goose Pond), in Kuang-tung wen-hsien chi-k'an vol. 15 no. 2 (1985) pp. 60-62.\n\nPassage 1\n\n\"It is said that in the Ming dynasty there was this man Ho Tsoh Shing who obtained a wonder book. The book recorded thirty-six grave sites at the mouth of the dragon. [The family] buried there would achieve great wealth for its descendants and even produce an emperor. Ho Tsoh Shing was already an official at court, holding the post of Minister of the LeftE. But his mother did not have the good fortune to support this achievement. When his wife was pregnant, his mother scolded her saying, 'My son is an official at court many mountains and seas away, so how is it that you are pregnant?' The daughter-in-law said, 'He comes back every night'. What happened was that every night Ho Tsoh Shing rode home on a bamboo-rigged flying horse, and early in the morning he rode the flying horse back to court. The daughter-in-law said, 'If you don't believe me, you can hide by the courtyard tonight and watch him as he comes in'. [This the mother did] and saw that that was what really happened. The horse stopped at the courtyard, and the mother, being curious, rode on it. The horse could not fly, because it was bogged down by the woman's breath. When Ho Tsoh Shing rose the next morning to go to court, the horse was still bogged down by woman's breath. So immediately, he went to cut some bamboo to rig another horse to fly to court. He was late. The emperor was in his court calling the rolls. When he came to Ho Tsoh Shing's name, Ho answered from the outer court [in such a loud voice] that it shook the emperor. The emperor then suspected that Ho Tsoh Shing was scheming to take the throne, and other officials also made many comments. They found out that Ho Tsoh Shing possessed the thirty-six grave sites at the dragon's mouth. When this was known, Ho Tsoh Shing was killed by the emperor, and the fungshui was\n\nto", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208940, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "70 \n\nJOHN VILLIERS \n\n\"pect our virtue\". Through this gate the Chinese passed the food and other supplies needed by the inhabitants, but at other times they sealed the gate with strips of paper, allowing into China only those few Portuguese officials with authorisation and sending to Macau only customs officers. \n\nThe Portuguese in Macau were first given some official recognition by the Chinese government in 1582 when the new Viceroy of Canton and Kwangsi summoned Macau's chief officials to his court. They came with 4,000 cruzados worth of presents—velvets, crystals, mirrors and so on—and were informed that foreigners could continue to inhabit Macau provided they remained subject to the laws of the Empire.10 \n\nBy 1585 the settlement had acquired full city status with its own municipal council (Senado da Câmara). The Senado was dominated by the casados, Portuguese who had retired from the service of the crown, married and settled permanently in Macau. These acted not only as agents for the Chinese traders but traded on their own account in pepper, cloves, sandalwood and other goods from the Indonesian islands and financed voyages to Manila and to Japan in the so-called Great Ship from Amacon. Macau was not under royal control and was not ruled by fidalgos sent out from Portugal or Goa, so that the interests of the Portuguese government were seldom, if ever, allowed to prevail. The Crown had to be content with a share in the profits from the annual voyages that it financed and the revenues from customs, duties and license fees levied on the merchants.11 \n\nThe overall command of the government of Macau was in the hands of the Captain-major of the Japan voyage, who would spend some months in Macau each year en route to Japan from Goa via Malacca—from one end of the Estado da India to the other. As the Portuguese Crown seldom got more than the commissions and port duties paid in Goa and Malacca, the Captain-major was able to amass a large fortune for himself. He was, however, only permitted to operate a single ship during his term of office so he would ensure that it was the largest ship available. This ship he would load at Goa with Gujerati cottons, chintzes and other Indian textiles, woollen and scarlet cloths, wine, glassware, crystal and Flemish clocks. He would sail with the monsoon in April or May to Malacca, where much of his cargo would be traded for Indonesian spices, camphor and sandalwood and hides from Siam. Thence he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208996, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "126\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nwith fa daai across in red/white cotton, pink/white and black/white. The mother of the groom had an artificial red rose and streamers attached to her black sam fu, and the grandmother of the groom, for whom it was an important day also, wore her purple/black sam fu saved for special occasions like this, with a red badge and streamers.\n\nThe second in line of the five houses was that belonging to the groom's parents. That entrance, and that of the chi tong, or ancestral temple which was fourth in line, had red cloth draped around the doorway, and red paper strips with black inscriptions at each side. The third and fifth house had white paper with black inscriptions at the sides. At the right side of the groom's parents' house was hanging a large leg of pork. This was the payment to the match-maker for arranging the wedding.\n\nThe groom had lived in Blackpool, England for many years, aged mid-thirties, and had been running the \"New World Take Away\" Chinese fish and chip shop. He had returned here six months before with the desire to get married. Three months later, a matchmaker had found a suitable mate in the form of a \"country girl\" from Taipo, horoscopes and other credentials were exchanged and the marriage was on. This was to be the second wife to come to this village from Taipo.\n\nAs people finish their meal, a gong and cymbals are struck by some men. Food is cleared away, and mah jong is played to the accompaniment of Chinese music on the cassette player.\n\nIn the old days, the bride would arrive from her village in a red sedan chair, her face covered with a heavily embroidered veil. The groom would tap on the door of the chair with his fan, and the bride would get out. The groom would raise the veil, and view his new bride for the first time. Some traditions change and this groom had gone over to Taipo to collect his future wife in a motor car, leaving his village to the accompaniment of fire crackers being set off.\n\nAt 11.45 the car returns, and draws up on the opposite side of the road. The car is decorated with the customary rosettes, doll at the bonnet, and streamers seen at many weddings here. But because this was a country wedding, a 5' length of sugar cane was strapped to the left-hand side, to indicate that life should be sweet for the happy couple. A procession of people playing the cymbals", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209023, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n153 \n\ntinuing solidarity and sense of community is, I believe, quite noteworthy. The indigenous multilineage alliance feels threatened by the changes imposed on its quiet valley both by the influx of immigrant farmers and by the new government development plans. In the tun fu ceremonies, I would suggest, it fights back symbolically at both foes. The government is committed to keeping, at least symbolically, the promise made by Blake that Chinese \"usages and good customs will not in any way be interfered with.\" Although these villagers are in reality helpless in the face of tumultuous change, they can in the short run pressure the government to give them \"face\" by providing financial support for the ritual reaffirmation of their exclusive symbolic rights in the lands of their ancestors. The presence of the outsiders in Fung Yuen, ritual statement notwithstanding, is very real, as is the power of the state which is likely to claim more than the domains of the Green Dragon and the White Tiger in the very near future. In the meantime, the tun fu ceremonies, like other rituals, provide us a glimpse of the structure of social as well as religious meaning in a sector of Chinese society that carries on old traditions in a changing world.\n\nBerkeley, California, 1982 \n\nJUDITH STRAUCH \n\nLYCHEES OF TSANG SHING COUNTY, KWANGTUNG. \n\nIn May 1979 I was invited to inaugurate a new term of office-bearers of the New Territories Tsang Shing Fellow Countrymen's Association*4, and at dinner enquired into special local products. Among other items, a rare type of lychee was mentioned. The lychee is a kind of sub-species, and is supposed to be red with a green stripe. None of the persons at the table had seen it, and in conversation they presumed that it came into the category of folk myth.\n\n(1921), \n\n2. The latest edition of the country gazetteer chüan 9/3a has this to say about the lychees of Tsang Shing District: \n\nSei Mong Kong in Sa Pui, Tsang Shing County, produces the prime quality of lychee in Kwangtung because the soil there is rich and sandy. Species ranging from \"Kwa Luk\" (##) to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209024, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "154\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nnumerous minor grades excel those of other places in their colour, fragrance and taste. Chu Yi-chuen of Sau Shui remarks, \"There is no fixed standard as to which place in Fukien and Kwangtung produces the best quality of lychee, but in my opinion “Kwa Luk” from Kwangtung tops all.\" The three most outstanding selections of \"Kwa Luk” are \"Siu Fa Shan”, “Luk Law Yi” and \"Kau Kei Wan”.\n\nA species named \"Sheung Shu Wai\", literally \"being carried (wai) by the Minister (Sheung Shu)\", originated from a minister Cham Man-kang who brought back a pip of lychee from Windy Pavilion. Most lychees fall into this category. The most valuable lychee tree whose fruit is priced scores of times more than others is the one growing in the West Garden located outside West Gate of the County Seat. In fact, there were other lychee trees which were as good as, or even better than, that tree. Another species called “Crystal Ball\" of Cha Kong is of the same grade as \"Kwa Luk”, and also on the list of the delicious lychees are \"Sai Kok\" (rhino's horn), \"Kwai Mei” (taste of osmanthus), \"Nor Mai Chee\" (like glutinous rice), \"Sung Ka Heung\" (fragrance of Sung Family), \"Chun Fung Yuk” (jade offered to emperor) and Ho Pau (wallet).\n\n(translation by District Office, Tsuen Wan)\n\n3. By chance, I heard recently of the existence of at least one tree of the special type of “Kwa Luk” mentioned in the opening paragraph from the father of a friend. This gentleman, a Hakka from Ng Wah District, served pre-war in the provincial administration of Kwangtung at Canton. He had a friend Mr. Wong Ping-kwan (*A), who was the district magistrate (*) of Tsang Shing at that time (about 1937-38). This official used to send a parcel of this special lychee to his superiors in Canton. The fruit came from trees in the courtyard and gardens of his office in Tsang Shing. It was not for sale, and although my friend said he had heard of some being available on the market in recent times, he was sure they were not the genuine article.\n\nHong Kong.\n\nDecember, 1979.\n\nJAMES HAYES", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209054, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TAOISM IN ORIENTAL LANGUAGES\n\nWILLIAM Y CHEN*\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nTaoism is a philosophical-religious tradition which has greatly contributed to shaping Chinese cultural and social life for more than two thousand years.\n\nThe philosophy of Taoism (Tao-chia 道家) is based on the advocacy of Huang-Lao (Huang-Ti or Yellow Emperor, and Lao-tzu) on wu wei (non-action), quiescence, and the unity of man with nature. With the later addition of magico-religious arts, of the immortality or longevity cults, Taoist religion (Tao-chiao 道教) gradually took shape.\n\nAccording to the Taoist tradition, Taoist philosophy originated during the reign of the legendary Yellow Emperor who is believed to have ascended to heaven about 4,600 years ago, after he had mastered the essence of Taoism and become an immortal. The major breakthrough of Taoist philosophy, however, came with the Tao te ching (Classic of the Way and its Power), attributed to Lao-tzu. It was the beginning of a philosophical spiritual stream that would develop through the centuries into a mighty river.\n\nThe formal organization of the Taoist religion, with hierarchy and rituals, is the work of Chang Tao-ling (2nd century A.D.), who became the first \"Heavenly Master\", or spiritual head of Taoism, whose 64th successor controls the Taoist \"Church\" in present-day Taiwan. Most modern sects of Taoism consider Chang Tao-ling as their founder. He infused into Taoism its formal priesthood, as well as aspects of magical faith-healing and exorcism; moreover, moral conduct and the performance of good works became a characteristic of Taoism ever since Han times.\n\nTaoism gradually created its own pantheon, but a distinction should be made between the gods worshipped by the people (gods of \"latter heaven\") and the supreme deities of \"former heaven\".\n\n*Mr Chen is a member of the library staff at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209205, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "94\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\ncommunity in Hong Kong on the long established Chinese custom of buying children as domestic servants. This attention led to concern, discussion, agitation, the formation of societies and finally in 1923 an Ordinance in the Hong Kong Legislature to abolish the system.\n\nThe case concerned a man who had met two girls aged ten and thirteen on a street in Wanchai. They had gone out to buy sweets and had become lost. The stranger took them on a tram to the Yaumati ferry. They crossed to Kowloon and then returned. He left them for a few minutes to buy something in Wing On Store on Connaught Road Central. The girls came to the notice of the police and the man was arrested when he returned to where he had left them.\n\nMr. Alabaster claimed the two women who owned the girls did not have lawful care of them because they were bought to serve, and they were sold as slaves and slavery has been abolished (in Britain and its colonies) and it is not lawful”.\n\nOn being examined by the Chief Justice one of the mistresses gave evidence that one of the girls had been sold by her elder brother as she had no parents. The Chief Justice asked, \"Then as put by the learned Counsel for the defence, she is your slave?”\n\nThe witness replied, \"I do not know what you mean by slave. Once the girl is sold to me she is my property. It is the custom among the Chinese to buy servants.\"\n\nMr. Alabaster thanked the Chief Justice that the answer to his question had made it so clear the girl was a slave.\n\nHis Lordship then asked Mr. Alabaster, \"What is a slave?\"\n\nHe replied, \"I contend that a person who is bought by a master and may be sold by a master, who receives no wages, except clothes and food in exchange for work is a slave.\"\n\nMr. Alabaster admitted that sale of a child might be legal in China, but once it was brought to the Colony, it had the right to freedom.\n\nThe Chief Justice referred to the Proclamation of Captain Eliot to the Chinese of Hong Kong in 1841 that stated Britain would respect the religious rites, ceremonies and social customs of the Chinese. The Supreme Court usually took into account the question of Chinese custom. If the point in law raised by Mr. Alabaster were to be sustained by a Full Court it would have most serious consequences.\n\nThe question was not settled by the court but it provoked public", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209223, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "112\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\nsystem must be abolished. On this there can be no compromise.\n\nAt the third reading of the Bill the Hon. Mr. P. H. Holyoak, elected representative of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on the Legislative Council, also deplored the image of Hong Kong created by the discussion of the mui tsai question. He referred to the \"gross misrepresentations of fact made throughout the press at Home\". He described it as \"a malicious campaign that should not remain unchallenged in defence of the fair name of the Colony and the good Government which it represents.\"\n\nThe Hon. Mr. E. V. D. Parr referred to the united action of Christians and the labour unions:\n\nThe support of the Bill came from a most extraordinary combination of bodies. Anyone who knows anything of the inside history of the Colony could say perfectly well that support of the Bill is — I hesitate to describe it — perhaps it is best to describe it as a fake. There can be nothing in common or in sympathy between the labour unions and the YMCA and they join together on this occasion for reasons far different from any consideration for the welfare of the mui tsai.\n\nWhat these reasons were he did not state.\n\nThe Daily Press viewed these remarks in the Legislative Council as attempts to defend the Council and the Hong Kong Government for allowing the system to prevail so many years without taking any action either to ameliorate the practice or to abolish it. The speeches also clearly showed the real position of the Government to the Bill:\n\nIf we had ever entertained any doubts of the Government's real attitude toward the Bill which it has been obliged to father, it would certainly have been dissipated by the wonderful unanimity shown by Unofficial Members in attacking the measure and scoffing at its sponsors. The speakers imputed unworthy motives — including a desire for cheap advertisement, political intrigue and even malice to those who, without any hope of reward, sacrificed time, energy, money and even position, in order to help those who could not help themselves.\"7\n\nThe editor concluded that the views expressed by Chinese Christians and union members, rather than those of the elite establishment,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209293, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "182\n\nBRO TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\nThe Lai-Sun family came to this city about 1872, and lived at first in a house on the west side of the old Charles Merriam homestead on Howard street. There were six children in the family, two young women, about 18 years old, two boys about 16 and two younger children. The young women were named Annie and Lena. The former, as has been said, is now Mrs N.P. Anderson, her husband being a captain in the navy, and evidently an Englishman. They live on Carter Row, which is one of the fashionable residence streets of Shanghai, and are quite wealthy. Mr. Lai-Sun died a year ago last June, and his widow is now living in Shanghai. The second daughter, Lena, married a Mr Buchanan, who has since died. The youngest daughter, Amy, died several years ago, just two weeks before the date fixed for her wedding, her intended husband being a Scotchman. 'Elijah, the oldest son, is also dead, and Spencer, the second son, is employed as an interpreter in the Swedish consulate (probably in Shanghai).\n\nThe Lai-Suns' participation in the social and religious life of this city was very interesting and not without its amusing features. When they came to Springfield they seemed to be quite wealthy. Mr Lai-Sun was a decidedly intelligent man and was well educated. He spoke our language fluently as did also his daughters and his older sons. The young women had lived in ... [missing section of unknown length] ... rather discountenanced Mr Lai-Sun's liberality.\n\nBut despite their evident sympathy with things and theories American, the Lai-Suns remained Mongolian in many of their habits. They continued to wear their Chinese costumes and queues, and on all public or semi-public occasions the entire family turned out in a body. All of the adults became members of the South church by that time on Bliss street, and attended the services regularly, marching up the aisle in an august procession headed by the pater familias, who was a very imposing personage. As may be supposed, their appearance always caused a little rustle of interest and politely suppressed amusement. Their costumes, though of course oddly fashioned, were of the finest material, the richest silks elaborately and beautifully embroidered. Their faithful adherence to their native costumes was varied in only one particular and this change caused some amusement, particularly among their American women friends. When the cold weather came they protected their bodies by piling on an unknown number of their loose garments, the very looseness making the multiplication necessary. But when the winter blasts began to sweep down in good earnest from the Berkshire hills they suffered considerably from the cold, despite this excess of ward-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209295, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "184\n\nBRO TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\nmarried and English naval captain named Anderson. She was highly honored by the Chinese government for her Red Cross work during the war with Japan. The second daughter, Lena, married a man named Buchanan, and the youngest daughter, Amy, was betrothed to a Scotch-man, but died two weeks before the date set for the wedding.\n\nSince those early days Chinese students here and elsewhere have not been uncommon, and they have usually made a good record. Their presence has not had quite the same significance that that of the first mission students had. In the '70s, the Chinese boys came here without knowing our language and they wore oriental garments, which fellow schoolboys made fun of. Nowadays a Chinese schoolboy speaks pretty good English and his clothes are the last word in American sartorial nicety. He may or may not don the Chinese robes when he goes back home, but there are fewer queues in Chinese officialdom than there were a few years ago.\n\n[A subsequent poem in this extract is dated 6 June 1922, giving the earliest possible date for the second article.]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209304, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n193 \n\ncorpse was laid out. Where possible, the death should take place in a room where the ancestral tablets of the deceased's father were; in some areas, if this could not be arranged, the corpse would be carried there later, but not elsewhere. The ritual rules governing these acts were everywhere very detailed, but differed from place to place.\n\n \nThe corpse was then laid out on a mat on the floor in a room prepared in accordance with the customs of that area, facing the door, which was left open; the immediately bereaved relatives were obliged to keep watch night and day beside the deceased, and to welcome well-wishers as they came to pay their respects.\n\n \nIn the morning of the day chosen as propitious for the encoffining — usually the third or fourth after the death — the bereaved family would put on mourning which had been made for them by the village women. In every village, mourning was worn in four or five different grades, depending on the closeness of relationship with the deceased, although the mourning considered proper to each grade differed in detail from area to area. The coffin was then carried through the village by the young men of the village and placed, covered with a blanket or cloth, in a matshed on suitable open land outside, with a table with offerings in front. The bereaved family would continue to keep watch beside the coffin, snatching sleep when and how they could. The villagers would come again to pay respects; anyone who did so would be invited to eat of the funeral food provided by the bereaved family but cooked on communal stoves nearby by the elders of the village. If the death took place outside the village, the coffin could not be brought back into the village: in such cases, the matshed would be built far out in the fields.\n\n \nDuring the evening and night of this or the next day, elaborate and lengthy rituals would be mounted by Taoist priests, with all those in mourning attending. These rituals were designed to secure the safe passage of the deceased through the hells of punishment, and his protection from the attacks of ill-disposed ghosts. During these same evenings, rituals to purify the family and the funeral site and to control any nearby malicious spirits in preparation for the actual burial were conducted. When the Taoist rites were completed, usually at about two in the morning, the bereaved family would prepare to sleep on the ground around the coffin.\n\n \nThe following morning, the bereaved family would wait by the coffin to welcome well-wishers as they appeared again to pay their respects, and when everyone was present, a complex series of rituals took", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209307, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "196\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nritual requirements, and must be recognized as implying nothing beyond indicating the main basic elements of this important social ritual in Punti villages in the New Territories.\n\nPatrick Hase\n\nNOTES ON RICE FARMING IN SHATIN\n\nDate: 16th April 1982\n\nInformants: Mr. Wai Hon-leung J.P., VR Tai Wai, Shatin\n\nMr. Tai Foo, Wong Chuk Yeung, Shatin\n\nFood requirements\n\nBoth informants stated that 1 adult required 8 taels of rice a day (4 taels at each of 2 meals) or 3-4 catties of sweet potatoes, plus vegetables and fish. Thus Japanese rice ration of 6.4 taels, without other foods available, was seriously inadequate, but it would have been adequate if 1 catty of sweet potatoes with some other vegetables and fish had been regularly available per day.\n\nYield\n\nYields were as follows:\n\nBest land in Tai Wai, 4 piculs per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung, 2 piculs per tau per harvest.\n\nGood average land in Tai Wai, 2.5 piculs per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung 1.5 piculs per tau per harvest.\n\nWorst land in Tai Wai, 0.7-1.0 picul per tau per harvest, Wong Chuk Yeung, 1 picul per tau per harvest.\n\nIf the rains came late or there was a typhoon at harvest, the first crop would be lost or reduced to 1/2 or 2/3 total yield, in such years the total annual yield would drop by 1/4 - 1/3. This happened \"perhaps 1 year in 5, or 1 in 10\" (Wai H.L.). Failure of second crop was rarer. Failure of both crops in one year was extremely rare and disastrous.\n\nSweet potato yield\n\nGood land in Tai Wai would yield 10 piculs in the 3rd harvest: the differences between good and bad land were less significant in this\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nto put these fields down to peanuts or other crops, sell them, and buy rice with the cash than to labour to grow rice directly from them.\n\nSeeds and Rice Types\n\n-\n\n3 types of rice were grown dryland rice for fields that could not be flooded, ordinary rice, and rice for land that was permanently under water and could not be drained. Each required slightly different treatment, eg. ordinary rice required to be dried on the wo t'ong for 1 day, permanently flooded land rice required drying for 3 days. The rice in flooded fields would grow 4 feet high.\n\nLand\n\nThe best land was of 2 types: permanently flooded land and land floodable at will. Permanently flooded land with water welling up from the soil, but with water no more than 3 or 4 inches above the mud level was of high quality producing 8 piculs a year, but required great care. Because of the sodden ground, the rice as it came to ripeness would fall over and become ruined on the mud. It was necessary to stretch strings across the field to support the rice. It was also necessary to cut the rice 2 or 3 days before complete ripeness, which would only be reached by the 3 days' drying on the wo t'ong. These fields could grow water chestnuts or other high value crops for the third harvest. Almost as good were the ordinary flooded fields, floodable at will, but drainable at will. Because the ground could be drained before harvest the crop was less likely to collapse, and less likely to rot if it did because the ground beneath was dry. The yield was slightly less than for the permanently flooded \"Baan\" fields, but less troublesome. In Tai Wai the fields along where the Hong Shing Restaurant stands were \"Baan\" fields, the fields where the Winner Industrial Building (Po Ha) and the Temp. Bus Terminus (Tai Leng) stand were top quality floodable-at-will flooded fields.\n\nField names\n\nEvery group of fields had its own local name (to meng ±₺ ),\n\nHarvest\n\nThe first harvest rice was cut about 1 foot above the ground. The stubble was then ploughed in; it rotted quickly in the flooded water for the second harvest and was a valuable fertiliser. The remainder", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209316, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n205\n\nfarmers could ever raise enough cash for those expenses requiring substantial cash payments, e.g. to build or repair extensively a house or buy a new plough. I was told that careful management could make a plough last almost indefinitely: a completely new plough was needed only if the old one shattered into fragments. The wooden parts could be replaced by the farmer cutting and preparing wood himself, the coulter had to be regularly replaced by a coulter bought new but could be fitted on by the farmer. The blacksmith in Tai Po would accept the old coulter in part payment for the new one; he would then melt it down to recast it. Small expenses (e.g. extra rice, sugar, oil, other comestibles) could be met by the sale of firewood etc. Sugar was very cheap: sale of 1 picul of firewood would enable enough sugar and oil to be bought to last a thrifty family several weeks. As for houses, these were repaired as soon as the slightest signs of wear, cracks, leakage or ants appeared, and would thus survive almost for ever, barring typhoon or fire damage. If a home did get so damaged a poor family could only repair it by mortgaging its fields at a high price (say, at the rate of 1 or 5 picul per harvest per tau). If good years supervened in which there were good harvests and opportunities for wage labour such a family could recover and pay off the mortgage, but if bad years came the mortgage might be foreclosed and “that family would starve and might well die\". Substantial wealth in ready cash \"usually came from outside\" from remittances from seamen etc. as in Wai H.L.'s father's and uncle's case, or the Ng family in West Lane etc. One member of Chan family (Name given me by Wai H.L. but I forgot it) in Tai Wai “about 30 or 40 years older than Wai Siu-ling” (i.e. born about 1855-1865) became very rich as a seaman at the turn of the century or thereabouts or a little earlier. He became the \"leader” of an American ship. Villager wanting to go to sea would have to receive his recommendation, and would have to pay to get it. He also smuggled opium to Chinese communities in the U.S.A., making great profits which he used to buy up houses and fields in Tai Wai. He shamed the other villagers \"by wearing only silk when they could afford only hemp, and eating pork and chicken when they could afford only rice and salt fish” He also married the most beautiful girl in Sha Tin, However, he was caught when his last smuggling adventure \"just before he retired\" (1915?) went wrong and was fined very heavily. He could not pay and had to sell all his belongings at an auction. He was considered a \"bad man\" - not because of his smuggling but because he did not help the village. \"Other men who became rich like this would repair the r'ong (ancestral hall) or do other communal acts, but he not only refused but would not even help his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209447, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "82\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nwas found.67 Besides firing, the police also charged at the crowd. The paper treats us to the vivid description of a particular “valiant” Sikh policeman. He had been knocked off his pony, but he got back on the saddle, and, “drawing his sword, he charged. He does not seem to have used the weapon on the mob,” the paper reported, but, “round and round he went in an increasing circle, knocking the mob over like nine pins. He must have bowled over a very great number of them, and with the pony trampling over the prostrate men, many must have been a good deal hurt.” Man and beast came in for praise. “The pony behaved splendidly and seemed imbued with the same spirit as its rider, tearing might and main in among the thick of the crowd, over numerous obstacles.”68 But when we remember that the “obstacles” were human beings, the ferocity of the police reaction to the morning’s stone-throwing strikes home.\n\nIt is perhaps as justifiable to say that police action had eventually quelled the disturbance as it is to say that police action had provoked the crowd and exacerbated the situation in the first place. In other words, the over-reaction of the police was likely to have magnified some ugly stone-throwing into a large-scale disturbance.\n\nIf our interpretation of these events is that the riot had broken out spontaneously, what can we make of the “bad characters” and triad members who were reported to be present in Hong Kong in large numbers? Marsh, for one, believed that bad characters had instigated the riots, and he suspected that they were somehow connected with the Canton authorities.\n\nThere is indeed evidence that there were large numbers of triad members in Hong Kong, but they had begun to gather there since 1883, and no disturbance had been instigated by them then. Then, their main purpose had been to stage a major uprising in Waichow, and it seems that in 1884, as again later in 1885, their main concern remained Waichow.70 What records we have of them do not indicate any connection with the Canton authorities.\n\nI think it is reasonable to contend that the particular circumstances emerging from the strike created the conditions for riot, not the presence of bad elements. None of the arrested", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209465, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "100 \n\nW. ALLYN RICKETT \n\nat the operations level consisted almost entirely of hastily trained students or political cadres, amateur in approach and guerrilla in methods of work. Thus, while the Chinese Communists may have had some intellectual appreciation of the need for formal laws and institutions, the slightest excuse in the name of survival was sufficient for a reversion to revolutionary expediency.3 Moreover, Mao Zedong himself, with his hatred for bureaucratization and emphasis on the mass line, was never willing to consider law any more than a mere tool of the revolution, to be used or rejected as changes in the political scene dictated.\n\nThe basic guidelines for the new China were set out in a series of Mao's speeches and writings involving his concept of \"New Democracy,\" culminating in his essay \"On the People's Democratic Dictatorship\" released on June 30, 1949 just before the founding of the new People's Republic. In this latter document in particular, Mao does not mince words; good people belonging to the four classes of the New Democracy (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie) would be entitled to democratic rights, people belonging to the enemy classes (landlords and bureaucratic capitalists) would be subjected to repression and dictatorship.\n\nWhen Communist forces took over the country in 1948-49, local areas first came under military control commissions. In the cities these brought together \"conferences of all circles\" which formed people's governments beginning at the local level and then expanding upwards. In the countryside peasant associations formed the basic units which were to conduct land reform and form the bases for local governments. As local people's governments developed, powers were increasingly turned over to them by the military control commissions. However, the military control commissions retained power in all cases affecting security through their public security forces. The military control commissions also continued to maintain military tribunals in some areas for trying counter-revolutionary cases as late as 1954. People's Courts were formed immediately following 1949, largely in accordance with the demands of the situation and types of personnel available. In Shanghai, for example, a new People's Court was constituted by giving some 200 former judicial personnel and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209504, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "139\n\n10 The Homicide Act of 1957 extended to the English courts the Scottish doctrine of Diminished Responsibility, S. 2 of the Homicide Act, 1957, reads that the accused can be found guilty not of murder but manslaughter, if he was suffering from such abnormality of the mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing'.\n\n11 Marjoribanks, op cit, 388. The police stated in evidence that Lock was drinking one-and-a-half to two bottles of whisky a day.\n\n12 Op cit, 389.\n\n**There is an excellent discussion of 'running amok' in Isabella Bird, The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (London: John Murray, 1883) 355-357.**\n\n**Sir Ellis Griffith (1896-1934). Called to the Bar, 1925.**\n\n**Sir Frank MacKinnon (1871-1946), afterwards Lord Justice MacKinnon, 1937, MacKinnon had little or no experience of the criminal courts before his appointment to the Bench.**\n\n**Sir Travers Humphreys, A Book of Trials (London: Heinemann, 1953) 162.**\n\n17 F. Tennyson Jesse, Murder and Its Motives (London: Harrap, 1924) 11.\n\n1 In R.D. Laing and A. Esterton, Sanity, Madness and the Family (London: Tavistock, 1964), the authors attempt to discover meaning in madness. They argue that schizophrenia, for example, is not something that comes out of the blue but is a product of family interaction: the sources of schizophrenia are to be found in the family environment, family life.\n\n10 See, for example, the tragic 1938 case of Sidney Paul in E. Spencer Shew, A Second Companion to Murder (London: Cassell, 1961) 168-170. Paul killed his wife because he had lately lost his job. This he had concealed from his wife to save her anxiety, and day after day he had left home as if to go to work as a salesman in the city. At last, in desperation, he killed his wife to save her from destitution.\n\n* This celebrated and unique series was founded in 1905 by Harry Hodge (1872-1947), the Glasgow Publisher.\n\n#1 Homicide and suicide are both forms of aggression: one turned outside, the other inside. Loss of standing or position, related to feelings of shame or injured pride often motivate suicide.\n\n**See William Bolitho, Murder for Profit (London: Jonathan Cape, 1926).**\n\n29 See The Times for September 8, October 23, and December 4, 1919. Also E. Spencer Shew, A Second Companion to Murder. (London: Cassell, 1961) 221.\n\n\"A good account of this development, especially of Man-owned restaurants, is given in James L. Watson, Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London (Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1975).\n\n20\n\nMontagu Williams, Q.C., Round London: Down East and Up West (London: Macmillan, 1893) 76-78. It is possible that Williams mistook a party of Malays or Lascars for Chinese. It is also not likely that a group of Chinese would charge into the street shouting \"Amok!\". Williams' account is retrospective and written many years after the events were witnessed by him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209658, "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": 315, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n293 \n\nThe final happy twist to this story is that the Foreign firm which took over Welsh's contract for Cassia, thus restoring the good name of the foreigners, was almost certainly Herton's. Earlier in Piry's report he wrote: \"Messrs. RUSSELL & CO's steamer Hainan will be remembered here as having proved the means of breaking the ice in Pakhoi. She made her first appearance here on the 28th of September, with a Foreign merchant on board\". As we have seen above, the Hainan came to Pakhoi especially to fetch the consignment of Cassia, and the Foreign merchant on board was equally probably Mr. Herton, perhaps come to take up residence as indicated by Stronach.\n\nWhat use, if any, William Keswick made of the two letters has not been ascertained. It is of interest, however, to note that soon after Russell's Hainan inaugurated the Hong Kong - Pakhoi run, Jardine, Matheson's Conquest began to include Pakhoi on her Hong Kong -- Haiphong route.\n\nH. A. RYDINGS \n\nNOTES \n\nThe large collection of China Maritime Customs publications in the Library of the University of Hong Kong were donated by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1937. William Keswick was at one time Chairman of the Chamber. When the letters were found in the 1879 volume it was unfortunately not noticed between which pages they had been left, but it is probable that it was at the beginning of the report from Pakhoi.\n\n* Contained in Great Britain, Foreign Office, Embassy and consular archives: China: correspondence (F.O.228), now in the Public Record Office, London: microfilm in the University of Hong Kong Library. Correspondence on the Herton claim is in vols. 612, 630 and 654.\n\n4.\n\nTransit passes were instituted under the Treaty of Tientsin, 1858, in Article XXVIII of which it is stated:\n\n\"It shall be at the option of any British subject, desiring to convey produce purchased inland to a port, or to convey imports from a port to an inland market, to clear his goods of all transit duties, by payment of a single charge. The amount of this charge shall be leviable on exports at the first barrier they may have to pass, or, on imports, at the port at which they are landed; and on payment thereof, a certificate shall be issued, which shall exempt the goods from all further inland charges whatsoever.\"\n\n(Hertslet's Treaties, &c., between Great Britain and China, London, 1908, v.1, p. 27-8).\n\nHai-An (M) is the port on the mainland opposite to Kiungchow,\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209764, "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-1983", "page_number": 23, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "FIELD TRIP TO MARYKNOLL HOUSE, STANLEY BY THE HONG KONG ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY DEC. 8, 1984\n\nNotes on the Visit by Fr. M. McKiernan M.M.\n\nI wish to extend a warm welcome to all the members of the Royal Asiatic Society gathered here today. First of all, I should like to mention that I have been a member of this society since 1959, and have enjoyed many happy field trips organized by the society.\n\nNow to get on with the subject of today's field trip, Maryknoll House, Stanley. I should like to tell you something about the house which one sees on this knoll when one comes down the mountain side from Repulse Bay into Stanley. With its red brick walls, green tile roof and a touch of Chinese architecture the house looks a bit mysterious. So, first I should like to tell you the 'why' of the house, then the 'when', and 'how', and finally its present status.\n\nThe house was built for three reasons. First of all, it was to be the headquarters of the Maryknoll Fathers in South China. Perhaps I should mention here that Maryknoll is the popular name of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America. This is an organization of priests and brothers founded under the auspices of the American Bishops to bring the good news of the gospel to those who have not yet had the opportunity to enjoy it. Maryknoll was founded in 1911. The first priests came out to China in 1918 to a district west of Macao called Kong Moon. Several years later another area was taken in Northern Kwangtung Province around the city of Kaying. The language there was Hakka. About 1928 another area in Kwangsi around the city of Wuchow was taken. Then about 1938 another area was taken around the city of Kweilin in Northern Kwangsi. The language there was Mandarin. So there were priests working in three different language areas. The second reason for building the house was to be a language school for the new priests coming out to China. They would spend the first year here studying", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209772, "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-1983", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "The Memorial is mentioned in the Report of the Antiquities Advisory Board, 1983 (published by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, Urban Services Department) as \"having been restored with a generous contribution from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and the agreement of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals\" (p. 11 and plate 10 of the Report).\n\nexemplifies two major There is the Buddhist suffering, and the long-\n\n(d) The Tung Wah Eastern Hospital another institution built with private funds which motivating forces in local life. concern to relieve poverty and established Chinese tradition that the rich should participate in good works to assist the community and be seen to be doing so through a proliferation of photographs of donors, memorials, subscription lists and the like. This is evident (I think) to a far greater degree than in the West, where published subscription lists and a memorial stone or two are usually enough to record charitable contributions.\n\n(e) The Sir Ellis Kadoorie Government School-established in another location in the 1890s through the generosity of one of the Kadoorie family. These merchant princes of Hong Kong and Shanghai originated from Baghdad. Their zeal for community projects, and their conviction that wealth generated from the community should be ploughed back into it, came over strongly in the interesting film on the Kadoorie Agricultural Association's work here and in Nepal which we showed to our members at the British Council recently. The school was originally planned to be used mainly by Indian and Pakistani children, but it is now attended by Chinese also.\n\n(f) The Hong Kong Buddhist Association School this is one of a large number of schools operated by the Association, and also by individual Buddhist organisations. The Association was founded in 1932, revived in 1945 it was inactive during the Japanese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209859, "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-1983", "page_number": 118, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "96\n\nIn the North District the islands are much barer and less cultivated than in the South District. Only two business centres of any importance exist; Tap Mun and Kat O. Both have shipbuilding sheds; the former has or had a launch service with Taipo, and the latter a distillery which gave a good deal of trouble to the Revenue Department. The business centres of these islands are in fact on the mainland; the Crooked Harbour islands look to Shataukok, the Port Shelter isles to Saikung.\n\nA very important element in the economy of the islands is the returned emigrant or seaman: Lamma has a good many of them; Lantau also. Emigrants generally go to America or Borneo, and a few to Singapore. Some returned emigrants are from Australia, they usually buy land, build a house and settle down.\n\nTour of the Islands\n\nTo get a view of each island as a whole, I suggest that a tour be taken as if in an imaginary launch, starting from Kowloon and going west as if to reach Canton through Kapshuimun (\"Rushing Water Channel\") but turning south of Lantau, passing the East Lamma Channel, and round Cape d'Aguilar into Port Shelter, and so up the East coast to Taipo and Crooked Harbour.\n\nStonecutters: or Ngong Shuen Chau (\"High Junk Island”). Most Chinese placenames are descriptive and have meanings. This one needs no elaboration, I think.\n\nTsingyi: (literally \"Green Clothes\": but the real meaning is uncertain). Has a fair harbour, a few shops and several villages in the northern half. The hills on this island are unusually high. There are two or three limekilns. A ferry calls about four times a day. Once a reclamation was started at the head of the harbour but it came to nothing and only two or three walls now mark where it was meant to be. The inhabitants are Hakka.\n\nIn 1856 this island was the scene of a small naval action against a number of pirate junks flying the rebel flag of the Taipings. The captain of H. M. S. Sampson states in his dispatch:\n\nIn proceeding through the mandarin channel (going west) some junks were observed at anchor inside the island, close", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209871, "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-1983", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "108\n\nand more than half of them still live within two miles of these ancient sites, which speak of hundreds of years of settlement and progress, before the Han emperors conquered the coast with a fleet and army.\n\nLeaving aside the islands close to Hong Kong, which have little of interest, we next pass the Potoi group off Cape d'Aguilar (named after a Major-General who commanded the troops in Hong Kong in its early years). All are of granitic rocks seamed with dykes of dark green stone which decay more rapidly than the granite and so often form valleys, caves and hollows. All but Potoi itself are barren and deserted, except for the light on Waglan (Wang Lan \"Barrier Fence\"). About nine years ago, the Chinese second officer of a ship distinguished himself by steering straight on to the island, where the ship not unnaturally stopped. There was no discoverable reason for this exploit; it was not bad weather, though dark it was about 2 a.m. and the light showed clearly. A similar but more excusable disaster occurred in 1916 on the east end of the Lema's eight miles to the south on Tam Kon Shan (“Carrying Pole Mountain\"), when the Chiyo Maru, which was a big trans-Pacific liner, ran aground. I believe few or no lives were lost.\n\nnets.\n\nPotoi has a small but good harbour, very popular with boat people, and with a handsome temple. There are a few shops, and its economic centre is Stanley. The beach is used for drying. Once in 1930 an ingenious fellow tried to monopolize the beach by applying for a matshed site right in the middle of it. I saw the place, saw through his game, and turned him down. Up in the hills are three tiny hamlets, living on the scanty crops their fields produce, and probably selling to the boat people as well; their names mean \"Long Stone Ridge\", \"Cow Lake\", and \"Mountain Hut\" 27.\n\nTo the north, at the entrance to Junk Bay, known in Chinese as \"General's Haven\" (Tseung Kwan O), is an island called Fat or Fu Tau Chau (“Buddha's or Tiger's Head Island\"). It was the site of one of the \"Blockade of Hong Kong\" customs stations; the station is in ruins, although the island has a few inhabitants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209882, "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-1983", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "119\n\nduties each year; but old residents have supplied information on this point. A Heung Shan (Chung Shan) man who was a tai chik lei (Chairman) for the Sau Hing Fong, in the 11th to the 20th years of the Chinese Republic (1922-1931) and knew of past practice, has said that in his time there were within the Fong one tai, aided by three fu chik lei (Vice-chairman) and some 8-10 ordinary chik lei (managers).\n\nTogether, when it came to their Fong's turn to arrange for the temple rituals, these men would make all the arrangements for celebrating all three major religious occasions on the island on behalf of the whole community. The body of chik lei came together because of their interest and willingness to contribute, and to spend their time and effort on the work. The selection of the four senior chik lei was done in the Hung Shing temple, by casting the divining blocks (kau pui) before the altar.\n\nThis was described locally as man Hung Shing or as man pui; that is 'asking Hung Shing god' or 'asking the divining blocks'.18\n\nIn another of these bodies, the Fuk Hing Fong of San On residents, an old member (born in 1897; and interviewed in 1966) confirmed the mutual coming together by the body of chik lei with a view to selecting a leader, but in this Fong they met in the shop of one of its leading members. The leaders were not chosen by using the divining blocks in the temple, but were selected by the leading shopkeepers and manufacturers of the Fong from among themselves, on the basis of their business success, good reputation and interest in the work of securing a continuance of blessings through the faithful performance of religious observances in each lunar year.\n\nWhichever method was adopted—and it may have varied from time to time—the selection of persons as senior chik lei was celebrated by the preparation and presentation of an ornamental tablet described as a (*). This was a red painted wooden board, draped with a red cloth and surmounted by golden flowers or tassels. Black characters on the board gave the name, post and date of the senior chik lei. When the board was ready, it was borne along the street in procession accompanied by Taoist priests or nam mo lo and musicians and fixed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209961, "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-1983", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "198\n\nphotographs and sketches of China campaigns and a tiger's hood head-dress worn by a Boxer in 1900.\n\n—\n\nUp over the Border, in Edinburgh Castle, there is an item of loot from the Second China War: two panels taken from the Temple of Heaven by Ensign C.K.C. Rooke. The note says simplistically that the causes of this war were \"very similar to those that caused the First China War, namely maltreatment of Europeans\".\n\nThe two large panels each bear three smaller panels and they seem to show scenes from court or gentry life. I am sure they would be of interest to scholars who could probably date them easily and perhaps, at the same time, suggest a more appropriate wording for the note.\n\nWhile in Scotland I visited the museum of the Black Watch, in Perth and, although there is little of China interest, they do have the only picture that I have seen of Sir George Murray - the man after whom Murray Barracks was named. He was Colonel of the Black Watch and the portrait is dated 1825. Murray, a former Quartermaster General under Wellington, never visited Hong Kong but his name also lives on in Murray Road and Murray Building. He and General D'Aguilar's father were good friends and when General D'Aguilar started out in the army it helped to have friends in high places. When D'Aguilar was involved in the building of the new barracks at Hong Kong in the mid-1840s he remembered his father's friend and in gratitude for his assistance to his career named his new construction after him.\n\nHamilton, near Glasgow, is the home of the Cameronians. This regiment was heavily involved in the First China War and was later garrisoned at Hong Kong. There is a Chinese vase which came home with the regiment and a very good series of large drawings of a later campaign.\n\nBack over the Border in England, my next stop was Carlisle, the home of the successors to the old 55th, which was, like the Cameronians, very prominent in the early history of Hong Kong and the first campaign in China. There is quite a cache of interesting items in the Border Regiment museum in the impressive and ancient castle.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209975, "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-1983", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "212\n\nTHE KWUN YAM AND\n\nTUNG SHAN TEMPLE\n\nOF EAST KOWLOON 1840-1940\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nThis note details the origins, rise and fall of a temple, over the course of a full century, in what was originally a rural district of East Kowloon. The community connected with the temple originally comprised farming villages and stone cutters' settlements. To this core, urban and suburban elements were more and more added until they eventually came to dominate the area entirely. These changes led to the virtual extinction of the original community and, with it, its temple.\n\nThe Tung Shan Temple is now in ruins; only the walls remain. It became derelict during the Japanese Occupation, and was not repaired after the war. There are, in fact, two temples, standing side by side. The stone inscription above one door states that it is a Kwun Yam (*) or Goddess of Mercy temple, rebuilt in the 13th year of the Kwang Hsü reign (1887). The inscription above the main door of the other states that it is the Tung Shan (*) or Eastern Peak temple, dated the equivalent of 1904. The two are here treated as an entity, as (it is stated) they were always under the same management.\n\nAccording to two elders from the Chu Family (朱) of Tai Hom village (born in 1891 and 1896; interviewed 1967-1968), the Kwun Yam temple is built on land belonging to their clan. The Chu's were Hakka latecomers to rural east-central Kowloon, arriving in the 18th century and taking up higher land under the encircling hills. The spot where the temple was constructed was originally padi land, growing poor quality rice; but after a great grandfather had placed an image of the Goddess of Mercy near the fields they began to yield good crops. At the insistence of this same man, the village elders erected a small temple there in the Tao Kuang reign (1821-1850). My informants had this story in their youth from their clan uncles.\n\nThe next chapter in the history of the Kwun Yam temple opens with its repair in the Kwang Hsü reign (1875-1908). No", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209978, "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-1983", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "215\n\nperson with the highest number of positive responses would become the principal for that year's functions and observances.\n\nAs permanent manager, responsible for the land, structure and property of the temple, Mr. Chan was in a separate category, and his duties were not subject to the throws of the blocks. He kept his position through his continued interest and activity, and his status as a prosperous man who devoted his time and money to temple business.\n\nThe temple was crowded at festival time, but not at other times. All sources of information agree that about thirty tables, seating around 250 persons, were regularly put out each year in the 1930s for the yearly feast in front of the temple, and large crowds flocked there to worship and to attend the puppet shows given at this time and, it was said, much earlier. The villagers often came in the large groups organised for worshipping purposes and known locally as pao wui (✨). An old lady from Po Kong village recalls going there regularly with such a group shortly after her marriage into Po Kong about 1900. In her youth it was mostly men who went to worship from her village. Her father-in-law often went to the temple for thanksgiving (he died in 1914, aged 66), and there were usually at that date twenty to thirty people in the visiting party from that village, very few of them women. Roast pork was divided among the members of the pao wui after the worshipping.\n\nThe temple owed its popularity to the supposed efficacy of the goddess. The old lady mentioned above stressed that the Kwun Yam image there was very kind-hearted, and hence greatly revered locally. The village people attached great importance to the personal connection between their families and the goddess: and, as she put it, ‘many girls of my day became her god-daughters, and my brother-in-law had become her god-son'. In case of sickness or perplexity, the villagers would have resort to the goddess. From what I have heard from old persons in the other villages of the adjoining area, this was the prevailing sentiment in pre-war days, and accounts for the general popularity enjoyed by the temple. The fung shui of the temple was also held to be good, providing additional assurance to worshippers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209982, "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-1983", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "219\n\nIt was beautiful out there, amid real pine-woods. Near the bungalow was a small monastery and the monks in their wisdom did not allow any wood-cutting on their property. The bungalow was clean and well kept by the caretaker. Chun was his name so far as I remember, a sinister-looking rogue with a squint, who rarely smiled. Perhaps it was the loneliness which made him morose and surly. He had no wife, at least, not officially, and the pay was so small that he could barely live on it, for it was expected that he would make a good deal of extra money from visitors. He brightened up when I ordered supper and told him I was staying for the night.\n\nThere were two big rooms, plainly but comfortably furnished, and the kitchen and scullery were outside. A number of good books were on the shelves and I found a lot of old visitors' books, some dating back to the early 'eighties. I had no idea the bungalow was so old, and I became so immersed in the books that I forgot everything else, until Chun came in with the supper.\n\nIt was October and getting chilly at night, so I told him to get a fire going in the big round stove, as I wanted to have a long, cosy browse afterwards.\n\nChun was becoming quite amiable, and started a long story in pidgin about a bewitched boar, a big fearsome brute, which no one could kill. I knew how superstitious the Chinese were and took the whole story with a pinch of salt, until he took out one of the visitors' books and showed me an account of a shoot written by a Mr. Currie, an old-timer no longer in the port. Chun must have memorised the place for he knew no written English, and it was clear that Mr. Currie—or \"Cullee\", as he called him—was Chun's great hero, and when Currie roamed the hills after pig that was the Golden Age for Chun. He got more and more excited: \"That time, Master, plenty man come shootee shootee pig. Every week four five piecee man come. My catchee plenty cumsha (tips). My velly solly Mista Cullee have go homeside.\"\n\nAfter he had cleared away the supper things I settled down with the visitors' book. There were some excellent accounts of pig-shoots by Currie and his companions, ranging over several years, and with all the usual ups and downs, failures and successes. It was clear that they were written by a man who loved the sport.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209983, "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-1983", "page_number": 242, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "220 \n\nand loved the hills, a keen shot and a good one, above all a very good sport who took his failures with a grin and exposed all his mistakes with an engaging candour. There were little gems of descriptive story-telling that made you feel you were with him in all his adventures, and you got to know his favourite spots by his brief and vivid descriptions and little sketches.\n\nI came eventually to several stories about a mystery pig he called the Old Grey Boar, a hermit who was never seen in company with other pigs or who, as he explained it, had been thrown out by the other pigs because he was too bad-tempered. Now this pig could apparently carry without discomfort all the lead the hunters could pump into him, and he had given them the slip on several occasions when they felt sure they had bagged him. Currie always went out with three companions, but he alone wrote up the day. Finally he mentioned that the Chinese beaters firmly believed this was a Joss pig that could not be killed. They were also afraid of him, for after he had been wounded he terrorised the villagers, especially the grass-cutters, and had killed several of them. I did not pay much attention to the story at the time, but I was fascinated by Currie's general descriptions and sat up reading till after midnight, I think I got pig fever that night, a great urge to roam those hills with a few good companions like Currie and, like him, to find new strength up there. Finding good companions was the rub, and the only one I could think of was Hunter. The others had given up the struggle and would not move out of the Club; the hills were too far out and pig-shooting too much like hard work.\n\nThe next day I explored the country around and made myself familiar with the various ranges of hills. To the south was a long range called Chang Shan, on the top of which was a small temple. In between the two main mountains were rolling hills with the main road to Chinkiang twisting through the valley, past a solitary hill like a hog's back, sticking out of the flat country to eastward. This was called Tung Shan, and close to its northern base lay Chakamen, or the beaters' village, as we called it, for most of the beaters lived there.\"\n\nThose readers who wish to read more should turn to page 51 of Rasmussen's fascinating book. My own interest is in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209986, "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-1983", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "223\n\nor the artisan. And even The Water Margin 水滸傳, an omnibus of tales about a large band of outlaws, tells us next to nothing about the life of ordinary men and women. drama, poetry and documentary writings.\n\nSo it was, also, with\n\nEarly travellers, missionaries, traders and diplomats from other cultures were not tied in the same way to one social class in China. They do show in many cases a marked preference for chronicling the deeds and circumstances of the elite, but in their writings they roam over all aspects of Chinese life because they could take no knowledge on the part of their readers for granted. By the time that Chinese scholars and Western sociologists came to be interested in popular culture and the workings of everyday life. China was in the throes of modernisation and encroaching foreign influences, and the old accounts of China as seen through the observant and frequently bigoted eyes of early Western writers came into their own again. Here lay a mass of material on what life was like before the -isms and schisms of the twentieth century began to warp it in strange ways.\n\nnow.\n\nWhat has been happening in recent years has been a dovetailing of the study of old China with the study of China We can very well use scientific analysis to show how contemporary people behave, but we cannot necessarily use it to discover why they hold a particular set of beliefs and prejudices. Here the study of Chinese history and traditional culture can help us to achieve an understanding. On the other hand we have no good information on how the common people of imperial China behaved, but we can track back from what we know of how contemporary people behave to gain a greater understanding of what those earlier times must have been like. One China did not cease in 1911 or 1949 and another different China take its place: there is a meaningful continuity over time. Here lies the justification for the Ancestral Images approach, and I do not find it surprising that at the time of writing this a Chinese translation of the books is about to go to press why shouldn't the Chinese want to explore the cultural links with their past, even if through the dim eyes of a foreign observer?\n\nHow good, then is this list of books I have quoted from? Is it a representative sample of what is available? Are all the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210007, "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-1983", "page_number": 266, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "244\n\nseasons. By this sort of practice most families got some manure, although the latrine owner would be able to manure his fields more heavily than his poorer neighbours.\n\nObviously also, a successful latrine demanded a heavy and regular supply of ash. Usually the latrine enclosure included incinerator grounds where those very few articles such as worm-eaten wood and rotten rope, no longer usable, nor able to be converted to pig food or dog food, were burnt by the latrine owner for the village. This provided one source of ash, as did the ash from the domestic stoves. Latrine owners were always short of ash, as household ash from domestic stoves was a valuable fertiliser in its raw state, and would be used as such by poorer families and not handed over to the latrine owner (it was used in much the same way as prepared powdered manure from the latrine). In some cases, the latrine owner would send his children out to cut down weeds and unprofitable wood to burn on the incinerator ground to increase the supply of ash. Ash was one reason why the mountains were burnt off each spring: while the wish to deny shelter to tigers was certainly present, burning off was always followed by the youngsters of the village going out to the mountains to sweep up the ash-rich dust into baskets for use either as fertiliser in its own right or for adding to the latrine store.\n\nLatrines usable for defecation could not be so simply provided in the fields as could simple urinals. In most cases, villagers would return to the latrine on the outskirts of the village. However, a few simple bamboo and matting sheds were provided in the fields. These were usually provided on stilts over water so that the feces would drop through gaps in the flooring into the water. This was most frequently done by owners of fishponds (the raw feces forming excellent fish food), or by owners of a whole series of fields, who would be certain to benefit from any latrine built over the canal that carried irrigation water to their fields, the movement of the water diluting and so removing the danger of the rawness of the manure.\n\nThe richest of all forms of fertiliser from human wastes, however, came from the fishing boats. These each had latrines from where the wastes dropped into large barrels. In these barrels, urine, feces, fish guts, and other organic wastes were allowed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210157, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "107\n\nsee, had a reputation for civility. The larger farming villages included Little Hong Kong and Wong Nei Chung. The smaller villages and hamlets included Hok Tsui, Chai Wan, To Tei Wan, Tai Tam (at Stanley), Tin Wan (at Aberdeen), Wan Chai, Tai Tam Tuk, Kwan Tai Lo, Wong Ma Kok, So Kon Po, Shek O and Pokfulam, whilst the port villages cum small towns included Chek Chu (Stanley), Shau Kei Wan and Shek Pai Wan (Aberdeen).” Most of these settlements exist today, albeit greatly changed, although a few have gone.\n\nWhat did these places look like in the 1840s when they first came under British rule? Fortunately, in those days before the camera, one of the officers stationed on the island and entrusted with the first contour survey (1843-1845) entered some useful descriptions in his letters home. This was Lieutenant Thomas Bernard Collinson of the Royal Engineers, a gifted young man who died a major-general at the age of 81 in 1902.\" In a letter he wrote:\n\n\"There is really a great deal more to be seen in Hong Kong than its appearance promises. Besides the town of Chuck Chu [Chek Chu] there are 10 villages and at least 400 acres of well cultivated ground. Some of the villages certainly consist of only 7 or 8 houses, but they are distinct villages with ground attached. The largest is Shapwont as it is printed,\" or “Chuckpyewan\" as it is called by the inhabitants, and “Aberdeen\" as it is called by the Governor. Her Majesty's surveying vessel employed by the Board of Ordinance has been anchored for a fortnight exactly at the figure 6 at Careening island [on the Chart of the anchorage] and begins to know something of Aberdeen and if the old Aberdeen is anything like the new, it must be a straggling village scattered round a small bay, with an ill-paved sort of quay in front and about 50 fishing boats lying about a great rock in the middle, a good supply of shops where bamboo hats, mats, sails, ropes and baskets; rice, fruit, vegetables, tobacco, earthenware and fireworks are all sold together; these being the staple commodities of a Chinese country shop and cakes by the bye, with plenty of pork fat in everything and a thousand of the dirtiest men women and children that ever talked altogether in a singsong:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210168, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "118 \n\nJAMES HAYES \n\ninterior; and it is considered a profitable trade, because stone blocks are constantly in demand, and will always fetch a good price in proportion as buildings are in course of erection.\" \n\nThe clearest evidence of this trade in granite blocks comes from the Hoi Sam Temple in Shau Kei Wan. This temple was built in 1845, the year before Gutzlaff's report, and the tablet in the temple stresses that the construction was a community effort extending over some time. The tablet records 232 donors whose names can still be read, of whom no less than 48 were identified as quarries (E) who donated about 28% of the total sum raised. Of the 14 most generous donors to the temple construction project 5 were identified as quarries, with 6 out of the next 14, and 5 out of the next 17. Collinson's survey of 1843-45 shows the coast pock-marked with quarries all the way from Quarry Bay through Quarry Point (both so named by Collinson), to Ah Kung Nam, with each group of quarries with a few houses for the quarry workers and a landing place for boats. Some of the quarries contributing to the Hoi Sam Temple project may have been from the Kowloon side of the bay, where there were numerous quarries in the Kwun Tong area, but most undoubtedly came from the Shau Kei Wan area. 30 quarries donated to the restoration of the Hau Wong temple in Kowloon City in 1822, of which only 4 also donated in 1845, strongly suggesting this.\" There can be no doubt that quarrying was the dominant economic activity of the whole north-east coast of Hong Kong. The importance of long-distance trade in the blocks is, perhaps, shown in the eagerness of the quarry operators to contribute generously to the construction of a temple to the seaman's goddess. \n\nIn the same report, Gutzlaff speaks of the fish trade: \n\n\"The fisheries carried on from Aberdeen and Stanley are in a flourishing condition, and consequently, also the trade in salt fish, which the mass of the people use generally for seasoning their rice. How many smacks belong to these places has never been ascertained; but at New Year, when they make up the accounts with their partners and owners, the harbours are full of them.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210281, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "231\n\nDuring the whole festival period, the main temple was the most neglected area, whilst the Ming-che area was always crowded with worshippers. Free vegetarian food was offered by the committee in the Association Hall for the whole period. The Association Hall and a room of the office of the Temple were used as temporary kitchens for preparing food and offerings.\n\nWorshippers seldom went to the main temple except for presenting incense sticks. Even though the Tao-ch'ang area was more spacious and was air-conditioned, worshippers seldom stayed long in the Tao-ch'ang area except on the last night, for the \"Great Offering\" ceremony. Worshippers seldom visited the Association Hall either except when they were giving donations or having their daily meals. The Ming-che area was the only place which was always crowded. There were people chatting, exchanging greetings, admiring and criticising every Ming-che (paper-made houses), folding paper-money and playing musical instruments and singing.\n\n5\n\nThe Tao-ch'ang area was seen as the most dangerous and frightening place for the worshippers because it was believed to be full of the hungry ghosts who came for the offerings. The Association Hall and the kitchens belonged to the hosts, the Hokkienese. Worshippers went first to the Tao-ch'ang area to offer foods to the spirits, and then to the Association Hall to accept meals from the hosts. In general, worshippers felt attracted to the Ming-che area because, while it was the area of their ancestors, yet the ancestors there were not frightening. The Ming-che area gave the worshippers the opportunity to be at the same time closer to their ancestors, and to build up relationships with other Chinese who lived far away. Non-Hokkienese worshippers seemed to avoid the Association Hall because of ethnic differences, and this brought them even closer to the Ming-che area. During the whole event, only 'Ancestor Worship' was emphasised by the worshippers.\n\nII. The Festival\n\nAccording to the figure-maker (Tze-shi) Mr. Lin Yau Chie (73 years old, Hokkienese), the preparation for each year's 'Yue Lan' starts from the end of the previous event. In other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210287, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 258, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "Table 2. Income of the Festival\n\nTitle\n\n(Yuan Shau) #T\n\nA B\n\nContribution (yen)\n\nTotal (yen)\n\nSpecial\n\n150,000\n\n150,000\n\nPrincipal\n\n1\n\n110,000\n\n110,000\n\nVice\n\n12\n\n100,000\n\n1,200,000\n\nTu\n\n151\n\n16\n\n50,000\n\n800,000\n\n26\n\n30,000\n\n780,000\n\n37\n\n20,000\n\n740,000\n\n92\n\n10,000\n\n920,000\n\n112\n\n5,000\n\n560,000\n\n40\n\n3,000\n\n120,000\n\n1\n\n2,500\n\n2,500\n\n108\n\n2,000\n\n216,000\n\n1,500\n\n1,500\n\n96\n\n1,000\n\n96,000\n\nTotal\n\n165\n\n543\n\n5,696,000\n\n* A: number of names listed in the Yellow-book\n\n* B: number of names listed on a red paper pasted on the wall\n\nA B\n\nF\n\n* note:\n\nInformants said that A was the P'ang (†) and B was Kifu ( Japanese term means donation)\n\n= Jap-\n\n1\n\n# The A class Ming-che was 470,000 yen, B class was 350,000, and C class was 200,000. In addition, each of the Gold, silver, cloth, and coin hills ( · Mil ki - l) was 25,000 yen. In the case of Kyoto, the prices were: a) gold or silver hills (full): 5,000 yen, b) rice (16): 3,000 yen, c) 10 kinds of vegetarian food (FM): 3,000 yen, d) Gold or silver (paper money) ( IN ): 3,000 yen, e) paper-made gold bar ( CW ): 700 yen, f) Japanese type incense sticks (#); 800 yen, g) paper money ( 24 ); 200 yen, small candle (one) (--); 200 yen, h) Chinese incense sticks ( f ); 500 yen.\n\n@ Moreover there were 266 paper tablets presented in the 'Ancestral Hall', each tablet costing 3,500 yen. Thus, the total income from the tablets was 931,000 yen.\n\n=\n\nSecond World War, he and three of his brothers married and live separately but they have only one Cho-sin-pai-lau (i ★m in Cantonese altar of the ancestor) in his mother's house. And in the festival the family presented only one paper tablet. One committee member told me that all Chinese ethnic groups living in Kobe came to the festival but those who came from other Prefectures were mostly Hokkienese. There were three groups of non-Kobe worshippers:\n\ni) They were Hokkienese or they had affinal relationship with the Hokkienese in Kobe. For example the man from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210320, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "270\n\nP.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU\n\nIn the 1970s when District Officer and Town Manager, Tsuen Wan, my contacts with local village people established that there were families in Lo Wai which had tea bushes on the mountain slopes of Tai Mo Shan. The Hui (4) family of Lo Wai village collected tea from wild bushes near the present radar station at the very top of Tai Mo Shan. One old man, born in 1896, used to collect ten catties a week during the season, commenting that the best time for plucking the leaves was in the third lunar month: the leaves become older and coarser thereafter. This type of tea was described as wan mo (雲霧) (\"cloud mist\"). He began doing this when he was about 10 years old, selling to other villagers and not to shops or teahouses. He also collected medicinal herbs on the mountain. Another favourable location for wild tea trees on this mountain, he said, was Nam Tong To (南塘肚) where the Shing Mun villagers collected leaves from wild tea bushes there of the same type. Such trees could not be replanted and grown elsewhere, he stated. Separately, old Shing Mun villagers living in Kam Tin since their removal there in 1928 for construction of the Jubilee Reservoir, themselves confirmed their taking of leaves from trees in this locality. In the foothills west of Tsuen Wan, villagers of Yau Kam Tau also collected leaves from wild tea bushes.12\n\nLantau island possessed a rather special type of red \"tea\", with a brilliant red infusion, known as tsz pooi tin kwai (紫背天葵). Tsz pooi tin kwai was described to me as being “half herb half tea”. It was used as a kind of cooling tea (清熱茶) for “over-heating” from food or drink, sore throats and the like. The leaves came from a plant growing between cracks in rocks and stones in high gulleys where there was much moisture. The people of Tong Fuk village on south Lantau, at the foot of the Fung Wong mountain, used to collect these from upper slopes. It was also collected by the women inmates of the religious houses of Ngong Ping and others living at the Po Lin monastery there. Some of the produce found its way to shops in Tai O market where one of the leading shopkeepers, chairman of the Rural Committee, gave me some at intervals. According to Shiu-ying's Hu's An Enumeration of Chinese Materia Medica (Hong Kong, Chinese University Press, 1980) page 153, it is to be described in English as the Tea Begonia (Begonia fimbristipula) and in Chinese as (紅天葵/紫背天葵).13", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210334, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 305, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "284\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\n14\n\n13\n\ndefence. Thus, the 200 Hainanese were saved. He stayed in Vietnam for more than 40 years. He had a very good relationship with the French. He started many new businesses and expanded the old ones. Chinese and foreigners owed him more than a hundred million, but he just left and didn't ask (them to pay back). Within the 40 years, he helped and encouraged many people from his native place and his lineage, and he protected many Chinese in Vietnam. The French law was strict and the ignorant could be accused easily. However, they were released whenever he spoke out for them. Thus, all the Chinese in Vietnam felt very grateful to him and depended on him in many things. Moreover, he contributed a lot to the petitions presented to exempt the Associations(f) and the free cemeteries() from tax. These actions were all praised and well known.\n\nIn 1879, he was appointed by the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co.() to import rice into China (from Vietnam).1 Many famous diplomats, such as: Chung-hou( ), Kuo Sung-tao(#), Tseng Chi-tse(##), Shao yu-lien( ), Wang Chih-chun( 2), Hsieh Fu-cheng(# ), Lung Tien-yang(U), Huang Tsun-hsien(F) etc., wanted to know him, and relied on him as their host (when they passed through Vietnam).2 However, he was never arrogant, and he always treated them with great hospitality and respect.\n\nOn his 70th birthday, in 1888, his sons and grandsons celebrated it for him in Vietnam. Many officials and merchants came to the banquet. The French Government Offices(2), companies, schools, and mints(*) all raised flags to celebrate, and a holiday was given as if they were having their national celebration. At that time, the French Governor( t) awarded him a First Honoured Star(MSA) with a written citation.\" This excited the whole country, and everyone thought that it was a most honorific reward. However, he took it all casually.\n\nHe was filial and had a fraternal personality. The way he took care of his parents when living and at the time of their death was all according to the traditional ways. He lived with his brothers with fraternal love. He treated his nephews as if they were his sons. He liked to study, and even the old scholars could not equal what he wrote. Thus, his sons were well brought up, and succeeded in the official examinations.\" For himself, he, according to the Ch'ing regulations, donated money and got the title of Hua-ling-tao( = official ...)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210350, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 321, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "300\n\nWONG TAK YAN\n\nbut also abroad as far away as Borneo. Raw materials for the kilns were not in short supply. Business was booming.\n\nUnfortunately, despite the good prospects, after several years, lime began to be imported into Hong Kong from both China and Japan. Because of the cheapness of labour in China and the highly mechanised nature of the industry in Japan, the price of the imported product was very low... furthermore, the Government normally insisted on the use of Japanese lime in its public works. As a result, the business of Hong Kong lime kilns had to face very severe competition, and they were unable to keep going. San Shing Lei Lime Kiln Factory closed in the early 1960s, and this historic industry came to a close.\n\nSince then, investment in Hong Kong has continued to grow. Under the influence of the development of the construction industry, land all along the coast has become valuable, and so, one after another, the lime kilns have closed until the industry has become no more than a feature of history.\n\nNOTES\n\nThis note was written in Chinese by Mr. Wong Tak-yan, Chairman, Tsing Yi Trade Association Ltd and President (1984-85) of the Rotary Club of the New Territories, following a lunch speech to the Club by Dr. J.W. Hayes in which he urged members of the Club with interesting family histories relating to the development of the New Territories to commit their memories to writing. The note was translated by the Editor.\n\n2 Plate 42.\n\n3 Plate 43.\n\n4 Plate 44.\n\n5\n\nPlate 45.\n\nPlate 46.\n\nPlate 47.\n\nOne small lime kiln still remains in business at Lau Fau Shan (editor).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210385, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 356, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "335\n\nwhich it served. Some reasons for Lugang's decline include the silting of the port's shallow harbour, integration of its hinterland into the island-wide economy — largely accomplished by the construction of the west coast railroad, and the limitation of the Fujian (Fukien) trade after the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1895. Deglopper concludes that the decline of Lugang after the mid-nineteenth century is not an isolated phenomenon but must be understood through the port's relationship to the rest of Taiwan and to Fujian. This is a good descriptive presentation of Lugang.\n\nChapter 9 by Yi-rong Ann Hsu, Clifton W. Pannell, and James O. Wheeler applies statistical methods to analyze the development of Taiwan's transportation network both in terms of network connectivity and connectivity of urban centres from 1600 and 1972. The analysis clearly portrays the development of the road and rail systems after 1893. The concluding comments stress the parallel relationship between transport development and economic growth. Another chapter by Ronald Knapp delves into the particulars of a rarer mode of transportation, the push car railway or daisha as it is known in Japanese. The daisha played a significant role in integrating Taiwan's agriculture into the rest of the Japanese empire by providing transport between farms and railway stations. Knapp discusses the relationship of this mode to the development of railroads and roads, again stressing the Taoyuan plain as a case study.\n\nIn the final chapter, Jack F. Williams discusses the importance of the sugar industry in Taiwan's development from the Dutch period down to 1975 with some predictions about the future. Williams points out the significant transformation in this industry when the Japanese took over the island in 1895. The Nationalist Chinese Taiwan Sugar Corporation is seen as a slightly less exploitative continuation of the Japanese system. Despite the declining role sugar plays in Taiwan's economy, when one considers the company's importance in the lives of the thousands of cane growers and workers and the indirect employment generated in other related industries, the Taiwan Sugar Corporation emerges as the single most important government-owned corporation on the island even today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210422, "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-1985", "page_number": 29, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "10\n\nBARTHOLOMEW P.M. TSUI\n\nthe Tao; below them in turn eight Healing Masters. Then came an indeterminate number of Cultivation Masters, the Protector of the Tao, Advanced Disciples and Novices.\" However, this hierarchical structure was probably only an ideal and not rigidly adhered to at any time. The current structure runs as follows. There are two Elders of the Tao at the top. Then comes a Person-in-Charge (#), four Healing Masters, Advanced Disciples and Novices. It is not clear what are the exact functions of each of the ranks beyond that vaguely suggested by their titles.\n\nEntrance into this religion is usually made by the recommendation of a follower and the permission of the Supreme Deity. The sect claims that it can discern the Supreme Deity's will by prayer. Those who are admitted can then be allowed to approach the altar and to begin a programme of learning about the way.\" The altar is the place where one can venerate the Deity, practise quiet-sitting, discuss the truth, seek healing, longevity, direction in life and ask the Deity to deliver dead ancestors.\n\nThere are no hard and fast rules about worship. The sacred shrine is opened on Sundays for reasons of convenience and on four festivals special to the sect. These four festivals, in which all believers are encouraged to participate, have absolutely no relationship with traditional customs or religions. They are the Day of Commemoration of the Establishment of Tan Tse Tao (eighth of the first month), the Day of the Disciples (fourth day of the fourth month), the Day of Revelation (eighteenth day of the eighth month) and the Day of Prayer (tenth day of tenth month).\n\nIn thanksgiving for the Deity's grace, each follower is responsible for spreading the faith, forming extensive relationships with persons of good character, establishing and bringing to perfection the follower's own person and the person of others, delivering all men from various pains and diseases, and obeying the sacred injunctions. The latter consists of the five precepts and the ten good deeds. The five precepts are: 1. Do not do wrong-doing. 2. Do not become an apostate. 3. Do not make monetary gains with healing. 4. Do not believe in astrology and geomancy. 5. Do not worship blood-eating gods. The ten good deeds are: 1. Be diligent", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210453, "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-1985", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "41\n\nhad disappeared.\n\nThe improved landing facilities were a great convenience. The new main pier, a good deal higher than the old jetty at the seaward end, sloped gradually up to the level of the village path and both path and pier were smooth surfaced, not slippery even in rain. (With the removal of the pigs they were also much cleaner.) All major landing and embarkation operations were now conducted from this, the new westernmost, pier. The smaller one was in fairly frequent use for more domestic purposes: children coming ashore to play, women dashing in to the shops to buy something wanted at the last minute for supper, and so on. The concrete latrine, built to comply with government regulations when the school was put up in 1958, occupied the site of a similar matting and bamboo structure which used to make an appearance for about a week in the second lunar month during the period of Kau Sai's annual temple festival.\n\nNeither the change in the outline of the water front nor the movement of as many as seventeen boat families into their newly built houses ashore made much difference to the lay-out of the anchorage proper. Allowing for a few departures by death or change of occupation or anchorage, and the arrival of one or two others, the accompanying diagram made originally in 1952 is still a fair record of the stations occupied by boats belonging to people of the same surnames as these in 1970.\n\nThe forty-two junks included in the diagram were seldom all in port together. From time to time, too, they were joined by others - notably by a group of six purse seiners, whose owners all surnamed Ng, often anchored at the neighbouring island of Kiu Tsui to which they had moved en bloc from Kau Sai shortly after the end of the Japanese occupation, and by further small liners claiming Kau Sai residence. Visitors also came from many places, particularly at the time of the festival when the bay was suddenly filled for the better part of a week with three hundred or more junks at once. Few visitors stayed more than a few nights or days at a time, but certain Hoklo fishermen, all surnamed Sou, reappeared year after year at certain seasons. The arrival of strangers in \"our Bay\" was always a source of some\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210466, "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-1985", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "54\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nwould engage a Taoist priest to come down to his junk and perform a ceremony known as Changing the Gods (woon shan). This, which involved spilling the blood of a domestic fowl, was believed to provide cleansing from pollution and open the way for good fortune.\n\nThe annual ritual cycle began with the New Year and proceeded almost immediately to the public festival for the 'birthday' of the local tutelary deity, Hung Shing Kung, on the 13th day of the 2nd lunar month. These two occasions were the ritual highlights of the year. Quickly in their wake came Ch'ing Ming, fixed by the Chinese solar calendar at a date corresponding with April 6th and falling therefore usually in the third lunar month. This was one of the two special occasions for the commemoration of a family's departed members. The third month saw also the festival to T'in Hau, the so-called Queen of Heaven, protectress of all seamen, celebrated biennially with Chinese opera at the neighbouring village of Lung Shuen Wan and annually in a large number of other places in the Colony.\n\nIn the fourth month there was a festival at the temple of T'am Kung in Shaukiwan to which a few Kau Sai people sometimes went to watch the plays, and on the fifth day of the fifth month the Dragon Boat festival. Kau Sai had once had a Dragon Boat of its own which, I was told, on one memorable occasion even came in first in the 'regatta' held in those days at Aberdeen and attended by H.E. the Governor. But that was back in the 'twenties. Later, Kau Sai people merely looked on at the Dragon Boat races held elsewhere, or sometimes 'fielded' a scratch 'team' for the fun of the thing at Sai Kung. All boat families also made offerings at the temple on the Double Fifth which was also widely used as a kind of dividing mark in the calendar: hired crew, for example, were usually engaged or laid off at New Year and the Dragon Boat festival.\n\nIn the sixth lunar month was held the festival for Koon Yam, 'Goddess of Mercy', observed in all her many temples but attended particularly by Kau Sai residents at the village of Pak Sha Wan, near Sai Kung. (The fact that this village was also the site of that Kau Sai New Village to which the landsmen were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210489, "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-1985", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "77\n\nsuitable small-sized marine diesel engines. The first two of these appeared in Hong Kong late in 1950. In 1951 they were installed in purse-seiners belonging to Chan Lo of Aberdeen and Chung Fuk Hei of Kau Sai.\n\nTheir installation had some drawbacks. They were noisy, smelly engines which made a few people seasick at first, and they took up a great deal of room. In such cramped quarters the loss of storage and floor space entailed by taking over the largest hold amidships for the engine was a serious matter. Even worse, or at least more resented, was the cluttering up caused by the set of life belts that had to be carried now that the junks came under the Regulations for motorised craft. But these were small matters. Engines soon began to pay for themselves many times over and when it became possible to build houses ashore problems of storage space ceased to be a worry. Even from the very beginning, however, the price paid in discomfort (and even money) was seen to be worthwhile in terms of one completely over-riding good - safety.\n\nThis is a point that should be stressed. These South Chinese fishermen live and work on one of the most uncertain and dangerous of the world's seas. Brought up near the coast in England myself, and familiar with the traditional skills in weather forecasting of local fishermen there and their quiet confidence, I was at first surprised at the apparent ignorance of the Kau Sai Boat People and inclined to feel contemptuous of the unabashed apprehension with which they greeted what appeared to me to be even slightly rising winds. What I did not realise was that the weather in these waters is indeed largely unpredictable from local manifestations alone, and that, particularly in the typhoon season, the dangers are very real and can strike with astonishing speed. The objective situation is simply not comparable with that on the North Devon seaboard, and that is sometimes dangerous enough. Moreover, the Appledore boats of my childhood did not house whole families with women and children, most of whom could not swim, and all the family belongings, nor were they even in the 'thirties, when I had known them, dependent completely upon sail. Kau Sai junk masters had every justification for their caution. Mechanisation,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210519, "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-1985", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "107\n\nnot been living at the time in Fuk Shun's house. My informants were the man's sister and her daughter (i.e. the offending Fuk Hap's sister-in-law and niece, sister and niece also to the foki concerned). My notes continue as follows:\n\nI said, later, wouldn't the unfairly treated one walk out? Mrs. FS and DM said No, neither he nor the others knew there was a differentiation when the money was actually given out. Now none dares speak out, but the undercurrent of dissatisfaction is very strong. Reason for not speaking out? Ones who get more fear they may get less: one who gets less fears others may also get less and blame him. Both fear being sworn out (naau, or laau, to scold, revile).\n\nThere were no other sanctions than gossip, and, of course, a refusal to continue the engagement beyond the next New Year or Dragon Boat festival.\n\nOn engagement many hired men asked for advances on their wages. Some obtained as much as two or three hundred dollars or even more in this way, and as a result received relatively little on pay days until the debt was paid off. There was no generally accepted way of doing this, arrangements for subtracting (kau: deduct) so much on each occasion being made individually by each foki with his employer. Fokis were notoriously hard up, but they tended also to be flamboyant spenders when they did have money. At Chinese New Year in particular, when, like almost all other paid workers in Hong Kong, they enjoyed double pay and several days holiday, they spent lavishly on clothes, hair styling, watches and fountain pens, girls, cinemas, theatres and gambling. Leung Shui Hei, one of Chung Fuk Her's fokis whose wages are described above came back from a spending spree in Kowloon on the eve of Chinese New Year 1953 and settled down to 3½ days' hard gambling in the course of which he lost everything he had bought and was left with the clothes he stood up in. He immediately asked for a new advance from his employer.\n\nThe same Leung Shui Hei was an interesting case in many ways. Aged about 28 in 1953 he was strong, good looking,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210587, "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-1985", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "175\n\nmovements and what we are doing here. I wanted to answer your letter the next mail after it came, so I could remind you again of the picture of the children. I should love to have one. If you will be so good as to send me one I shall very much appreciate it. Please send it soon and I would like to beg for one with you in it too.\n\nI would indeed like to see your babies and give them a hug if they would let me. A picture will be the next best thing. Now I must go to our little Saturday night prayer meeting. With love to the others when you see them and love to you and the little ones, I remain\n\n(3)\n\nyours,\n\nEDITH", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210588, "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-1985", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "176 \n\nWEI PEH T'I \n\nFeb. 17 1904 \n\nChina Inland Mission \n\nTaiho via Wuhu, China \n\nMy dear Louese: \n\nThank you very much for the beautiful calendar. It is most acceptable and I do thank you for the kind thought of me. I have been amusing myself above, trying to picture for you the pig-tails I have to look at very many mornings at Chinese prayers. A good part of the time the two Evangelists are out at work in the surrounding districts, but the other four are there, and most always, my teacher who has a very nice tail indeed. The caps are only worn in the winter and have a red button on the top. Sometimes the barber comes and he is in mourning so he wears a white button and a white cord is braided into his hair and his shoes and white. At the funeral he would wear a white gown and a white kind of labor's cap, or a piece of homespun muslin around his head. \n\nWe had a little girl here visiting us sometime ago because her mother had just died and she looked something like this, and she wears the white trousers and white on her head for some months, but the white shoes a year or more. A few scratches of my pen and you have a little idea but I am no \"artist\". \n\nThis has been a busy day, but nothing like yesterday. It is Chinese New Year and the people began coming before we had finished our breakfast, 7.30, and they kept it up all day. Some come to pay their respects and some say they do too, but it's more to get the tea and sweets which we provide. We began by giving each one cakes, nuts and sweets and tea, but the people came in such crowds and the things disappeared so rapidly we had to dwindle the giving down till it was tea and nothing more. Mrs. Malcolm has been better able to preach to them today, for there have not been so many and consequently more ready to stay awhile. Yesterday at one time we each had a room full and both talked at once. At this time the \n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210589, "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-1985", "page_number": 196, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "177\n\npeople all give themselves up to visiting and having a good time and rig themselves out in as gay clothes as they can afford. We too dress in our best to receive them.\n\nI have been quite busy for a long time. Before Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm just came back from their little trip to Honan where they had gone after our Native conference. In their absence Miss Trüdinger and I were left in charge, she as housekeeper and I as “missionary in charge”. And I felt the force of a friend's words \"that being left alone in a station made one feel the need of more workers more than a dozen addresses.\n\nWe had a jolly Christmas, a real happy time. Then I took my second examination in the language, and after that we all changed our abodes as Miss Trüdinger was going West to join her beloved. It was best for me to live in the Malcolm's little two-roomed house and they do have the two-story house, as I am just one and they, though they are one in heart, are still two in body. That took a week, about, for the place is so small we could not all move at once. After that Mrs. Malcolm accompanied Miss Trüdinger to Hankow and was gone over three weeks. This time I had all the responsibility, the women's and children's work as well as the housekeeping. The last month of the Chinese year the women are too busy to come very much and too busy to entertain us in their houses, so I did not go out and had very few to come in, but the regular ones came to the meetings. I had two classes to prepare for on Sunday. I merged my usual one into Mrs. Malcolm's in the morning, and then the Wednesday morning class and from fifteen to twenty children every Tuesday and Friday. So you can see it kept me busy preparing for them. Then at New Year twice we have to supply ourselves with food enough to last two weeks or more, as all the shops are closed and we are not able to buy anything. So the housekeeping gave me a little concern. I was glad to have Mrs. Malcolm back just before New Year. Although I did feel lost when I had handed all the responsibility back to her. I am in my element keeping house, for it's the one thing I feel I can do.\n\nAt New Year our friends, or those we have done anything special for, send us presents in the way of native sweets, and we", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210596, "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-1985", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "184\n\nWEI PEH TI\n\nmonth on the way down by native boat and a month back. When I returned there was so much to do and before long we had Mr. and Mrs. Williams come, and July 5th Mrs. Ferguson had a little son. It all meant work and if I had been well would have been equal to every emergency, but I wasn't and gave up and consulted the doctor. For a few days only the necessary things were attended to, then after the doctor and Mrs. Williams left Mrs. Ferguson became alarmingly ill and I nursed her for two weeks and had the baby to bathe and look after generally, besides the housekeeping, not to speak of my regular work of classes, etc. I have only these last few days given the little one over to the mother but I always help with the morning bath and putting to bed. So you see my time has been fully occupied, besides, at times, not feeling up to much myself. I am feeling the need now of getting away for another rest as it is simply impossible here. Dr. Williams made general the knowledge that I dispensed a few medicines when he was here and doing medical work. So my \"medical practice” has doubled and redoubled till I feel myself in kind of a predicament, as I know absolutely nothing about some of their ailments. And they think I ought to know it all. But I haven't killed any yet and the majority seem to get well!\n\nJust so it is a help in the work and more hear the Gospel and I am satisfied. I am willing to spend and be spent for the people whom I came out to help, but I must confess I begrudge the time and strength spent for fellow missionaries, except when there is no one else to do it and a native cannot be trusted. A single lady worker has a bad time living with a family as she is looked upon as general nurse and companion and seamstress. But I do not mean this as complaining. I don't know why I let it slip out of my pen. I hope you have had a good summer and all is well with you.\n\nWith much love,\n\nEDITH", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210597, "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-1985", "page_number": 204, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "Taiho, April 5, 1906\n\nDear Louese:\n\nYour letter came before Christmas and I have thought to answer it as often but there have been letters that required immediate answers and I do not count as a lady of leisure, so your letter has been put aside till I do not want to do so any longer. Some one else will have to wait. I have had this little bookmark sometime ready to send to you, made by a woman here, hope you will like it although it is such a tiny love token to send.\n\n[Top margin of p 1 of letter: \"On bookmark - the Lord protects us.\"]\n\nPlease, you misunderstood my letter, I did not pay extra postage on your letter, but they charged me with it so I sent the letter back to Wuhu. I was explaining the delay in answering to you. Did you pay extra postage or duty on the shoes? Indeed your letters are worth the extra postage but I have never had to pay any on yours. This postage due system we have now takes a good many of the extra pennies and they are not always fair and square is why I sent your letter back.\n\nYes why do any of us complain? You wish your good husband and dear little family are blessed and I wish such a wonderful Heavenly Father and so many dear good friends to care for me, write to me and pray for me, what more do we want? I would like to see some of the friends sometimes and find the time long, but much of the time I am so interested in my work that I do not have time to be lonely. I am enjoying my work so much lately, as I feel that I am getting into the heart of some of the women. I have been moving in the “upper circles” too and going to the small yamen, The Lady has received me very kindly. She has nothing grand but I have been served with the best they had. Imagine making an afternoon call and having fried eggs on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210634, "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-1985", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "Dear Sir,\n\nI have examined the fragment of ch. 494 of the Ta pan-jo po-lo-mi-to ching (Maha-prajna-paramita sutra) which you forwarded to Mr. Gardner on behalf of Mr. Nixon. It is undoubtedly a genuine document from the Tunhuang monastic library. I was extremely fortunate that Mr. Dzo Ching-ch'uan, who has worked on these manuscripts in Paris, came to London the other day, and was kind enough to give a second opinion. He considers that it is either 8th or 9th century, but certainly no later. The top and bottom have been trimmed, but it is impossible to say whether in modern times or not. Some of our documents were trimmed before the 10th century.\n\nThe Tibetan document we consider to be later, from the type of paper, but we are not able to comment on the text. I have taken the roll personally to the India Office Library, and they will write separately.\n\nThe fundamental work on paper, calligraphic style, dating sequences, etc., has yet to be done. Among the Tunhuang documents scattered throughout the world there are several hundred of the same title as the Chinese fragment. This one is average to good, with a greater variation of characters in the column than is usual.\n\nYours Sincerely,\n\nsgd.\n\n(E.D. Grinstead)\n\nAssistant Keeper\n\nThe scroll is described in our catalogue as follows:\n\n大般若經\n\n大般若波羅蜜多經卷第四百九十四第三分善現品 第三之十三三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯\n\n1\n\n44×24公分 卷軸 敦煌殘卷共 26 行行17字\n\nThe text of the scroll is reproduced in Plate 14.\n\nJames Hayes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210685, "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-1986", "page_number": 36, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "19\n\nHis admission was moved by the Attorney General, Julian Pauncefote, before the Chief Justice, J.J. Smale, who in addressing Francis said \"As you have not been in England I may as well tell you that, though in this court you attain to rights and privileges equal to those enjoyed at home, you will hold yourself bound by all the practices of the court and look upon it as your first duty to aid in the administration of justice, subject to which is your other great duty of protecting your client in every way. From what I have seen of you I have no doubt your career will be a prosperous one”. Smale also observed that a good feeling prevailed among the attorneys of Hong Kong and that they did not seek to take advantage of each other. Gaskell's death no doubt worked both ways for Francis who appears to have practised from the same office. One of his first clients was John D. MacDonald, the executor of Robert Henry Grant, a clerk in the Naval Yard. Francis advertised the fact for so long in the Gazette that I suspect it was a way of advertising that he was in practice. According to the Hong Kong Telegraph Francis soon came to the front as a solicitor and built up a remunerative practice. He brought out from England M.J.D. Stephens to act as his managing clerk. Stephens was admitted to practise in 1874. He also had working for him H.L. Dennys who was admitted in 1874, clerks called Smithers and Guttierrez and an interpreter called Mun Choy. The Chinese name for his firm was Fa Lan Shea Shi Chong Sz. In 1873 Francis decided to give up practice as a solicitor and study to be called to the Bar. He sold his practice to Stephens and in December 1873 had himself taken off the Roll. It was no doubt a courageous thing for him to do, but he had an example in the person of E.H. Pollard who was admitted as a Solicitor in 1850 and as a barrister in 1859 and elected to act as a barrister only in 1865 (in conformity with Ordinance No. 13 of 1862). No doubt also he was able to weigh the likely competition with a fair degree of accuracy; and the hazards to health in Hong Kong ensured that only the fittest survived the pressures of work.\n\nIn January 1874 Francis was admitted as a student of Gray's Inn. His witnesses were Wellington Cowper of the Inner Temple and C.W. Bardswell of Lincoln's Inn. He gave his addresses as 27, Belsize Park Gardens, South Hampstead and 14, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and described himself as late of Victoria in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210699, "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-1986", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "33\n\nnominated E.R. Belilios. The only way in for Francis was by election by the Justices or the General Chamber of Commerce of which he was a member. He suffered a number of handicaps one of which was that he was not a businessman. He was present at a meeting of the Justices in 1884 to elect a member and expressed regret that Justices who were officials had, at the request of the Governor, declined to vote. He said they should either use their vote or, better, have no vote. In 1886 he was a candidate for the Justices seat. He published his interest in the newspapers saying \"I honestly believe I can do the colony good and faithful service and better than any other man. I am nearly one of the oldest residents. I came here in 1859. Since 1862 I have taken a lively and I hope intelligent interest in the affairs of the colony. I have some knowledge of business and its requirements and am deeply interested in the prosperity and progress of Hong Kong as a whole. It is my home, my life's work is here and I rise or fall with its fortunes\". He referred to his practice as a speaker and training as a lawyer and said he was thoroughly independent in all things. He said he was in favour of maintaining absolute freedom of the port and improving the harbour, changing the method of dealing in land and reforming the Legislative Council including increasing the number and powers of unofficials.\n\nAn editorial in the Daily Press said “false modesty is not a failing of our eminent counsellor any more than want of courage. However the Justices may require other guarantees from their candidate. They may also object that Mr. Francis whilst perhaps independent now has not always been equally so and the tone he now takes smacks rather too much of constant and indiscriminating opposition to the Government. There is some reason to doubt whether the best interest of the colony would be best served by a lawyer. Mr. Chater would be a better member\". Francis replied “unofficial members are permanently in opposition but obstruction for the sake of obstruction is a thing I hate and detest. I pride myself on having been in all things and at all times absolutely independent in thought and word. I have spoken and acted in support of what I thought right when it was in my interest in every sense to do otherwise\". The paper responded “Nine years ago Mr. Francis and two other barristers (Ng Choy and Hayllor) arrayed with the Governor against almost every member of the British and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210734, "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-1986", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "68\n\nthereon.\" \n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU \n\nBy this time Ford's time had to be divided between running the Botanic Gardens, establishing the herbarium and collecting specimens for both of these undertakings. Realising his own limitation he asked for the appointment of an assistant and a Mr. Westland arrived in the colony in May 1883. Earlier in February of that year Ford, anticipating the arrival of an assistant and the possible rapid expansion of the herbarium, sent the following letter to Kew:\n\n\"Could you also please send me sample of cartridge paper which you use for herbarium sheets, 16” × 10½”, together with prices and name of supplier? The Crown Agents sometimes disappoint me by sending paper unfit for our use and not according to samples sent with order.\"\n\nFord met with a constant barrage of difficulties from Government officials particularly from the Surveyor-General, Mr. Price and from members of the finance committee. Fortunately the Governor, Sir George F. Bowen, supported Ford and a letter by Ford written on 9/5/83 confirms this:\n\n\"H.E. was very pleased with what he saw and he has been very good to my dept. since he came. He offered to let me have at once another $1,000 for the completion of our New Gardens.\n\n\"(He [Mr. Price] wrote to the Governor before the Governor had been a fortnight in the Colony and asked him to reverse Sir J. Hennessy's policy (which had, as you know, been confirmed by the Sec. of State) in reference to my and his departments. The Governor told him that he did not see any reason to disturb the arrangement which his predecessor had made. Sir George told me he had visited the Gardens and that they did me very great credit.)\"\n\nLater in the same year Ford again met official opposition, this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210753, "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-1986", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "87\n\nI did not record very much about the role of the Hoklo, Wai Chau, Chiu Chau newcomers. They were actually visible mainly through the flags in their honour and the Chiu Chau performers whom they hired to perform on the main day of the celebration. Their participation was more in contributing money to provide performances in their own dialect than in participation in the processions or in preparation of the offerings.\n\nThe number of persons present in the main-day procession and the procession with the Daai Si Wong was impressive. However, they were more sharing the fun and enjoying the novelty than making a collective, disciplined presence as in the case of the same processions in the New Territories jiu festivals, in which the participants wore special clothing and hats, excluded women and were in general more organized at least in appearance.\n\nI did not see many signs of nearby villagers (who did not live in the three participating villages) coming to the jiu to visit or to offer good wishes, as was the former custom. There was a flower basket on display outside the festival office at Shek O. It was presented by the chairman of the rural committee of Cheung Chau. The only fa-paai was from Ma Hang, Laan Lai Wan, Stanley and Tai Tam Tuk, which are nearby. Near noon time on the main day some guests did come. One of them was a police officer, probably the head of the Chai Wan Police Station. Another was the District Officer for South District, who came with some assistants.\n\nMarried-out daughters were expected to come back for the festival too. On the bus back to town on the main day of the celebration, I overheard a middle-aged woman telling someone that if a married-out daughter did not come back for the jiu, she could not come back until ten years later, presumably during the next celebration.\n\nOther than the villagers, participants at the jiu included the professionals, among whom the most important were the priests. The yn-sau, or his companion, explained to me that they had hired a team headed by the priest Chan Wa as they did for the last celebration. I had thought, when he explained this was because Chan was 'familiar', he had in mind familiarity with the local", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210763, "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-1986", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "97\n\nsaw a young man carrying the paper image of a horse, and another young man chasing him. Both were running in the direction of Tai Long Wan. This was part of the se-su (letter of pardon) rite. I learned subsequently from one of the ritual representatives that the two were expected to pass the same spots as the procession of the previous day did. The priests read the memorial after the horse and chaser returned. The rite was followed immediately by a brief performance of Floating the Water Lanterns, the usual rite preceding the final Offering to Ghosts.\n\nThere were more than a dozen middle-aged women preparing paper offerings for the Offering to Ghosts. They claimed to be indigenous residents. This was confirmed by another person I asked. The villagers present were well aware of what was going to take place: \"This evening the daai-si-wong is going to be paraded to as far as Tai Long Wan, and the priests will chant until midnight.” At Tai Long Wan where I went with the priests and the ritual representatives for the haang-chiu procession in the early afternoon, I overheard one young man telling somebody to send someone to Shek O to prepare the Tai Wong Ye [daai-si-wong] for the procession.\n\nThe procession started at about 6:15 in the evening. The daai-si-wong was carried by young men down the main streets of Shek O and then to Tai Long Wan. I later noticed that Mr. Wong and the other leaders in the festival were in the crowd. Most of the participants were young men. At Shek O a few women came out from their homes to greet the procession. Mr. Lam, the seaman, was among the crowd with his wife, but only as an on-looker. He told me that half the participants of the procession were indigenous villagers and half more recent settlers, and that the man who gave command through a loudspeaker was a Tanka whose parents had moved here almost 20 years ago. (He said descendants of newcomers like him mostly worked in the civil service. \"They are indistinguishable from us the indigenous boys.”) Many children and some married women followed. I heard some of the latter making the remark to themselves \"gan-jy haang, haang hou-wan” (follow the daai-si-wong and have good luck). When the procession started for Tai Long Wan one woman came to relay the warning that women were not to follow the daai-si-wong, or at least not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210764, "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-1986", "page_number": 115, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "98\n\nCHAN WING HỘI\n\nto see it face to face. Some of the others replied that there was nothing to fear, as it had been the practice for several hundreds of years for women to take part. Later when the procession was returning to Shek O I noticed a little boy with his ball and a young couple with their children in a pram. The comment was heard: “gou-hing, tai-ye” (Have a nice time and look at interesting things). The women were chatting all the way, and there were many young girls too.\n\nWhen the procession had gone down Tai Long Wan Road, I heard three or four women talk among themselves about Seung Wai, where their homes had been. A young one recalled that they used to have banana trees there, which produced good bananas and some rice-like stuff, which, her grandmother had told her, was good as chicken feed. The place being more spacious, they had been able to raise chicken too. Her grandmother had pointed out to her where the daai-wong-ye's place was — near where the paddy fields were.\n\nAt one point the bus from Shek O approached, and the young man with the loudspeaker called out to the driver by name “Come on, it is all right if you want to switch on the headlights.\" I noticed many cars were hindered from proceeding before the bus, but this did not seem to have bothered the young man at all. The procession made way for the bus to pass, neglecting the other vehicles.\n\nWhen the procession reached the edge of Tai Long Wan village, the daai-si-wong was put down on the ground facing the village. Many individuals, mainly middle-aged and young women, came to make offerings of incense. A table had been set up for the purpose. Some older women and men looked on. Children were led to walk around the legs of the paper image for good luck. Someone said, “Walk around the legs and you will win the Mark Six lottery\".\n\nThe procession was back at the main ritual area at about 8:30. The daai-si-wong was left facing an altar used by the priests, where an extra table had been set up for the concluding rite. Many came to make offerings at all the altars, but they paid more attention now to the daai-si-wong. Many more, not only small children, but", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210817, "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-1986", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "151\n\nHe came of a humble family; his salary was not large and could have earned much more using his English language ability in a business firm or in Government service — but by exercising thrift, he was able soon after his arrival in Hongkong to buy property in the Lower Bazaar (Sheung Wan).\n\nAs the income from his property increased, he continued to invest in real estate. Linking his destiny with the advancing fortunes of Hongkong, he profited by its growth. By the time of his death in 1871, he had a large fortune.\n\nHis wealth enabled him to provide a good education for his sons. The most prominent of them was Sir Ho Kai. He received a university education in Britain, both in law and medicine, and was the benefactor of the Alice Memorial Hospital.\n\nWhen the Hongkong College of Medicine was established in 1887, Dr Ho Kai was one of the lecturers. His sister, Ho Miu-ling, wife of the Honourable Wu Ting-fang, twice Minister of the Chinese Government to the United States, also endowed a hospital. Both institutions are now a part of the Nethersole Hospital group.\n\nIt is fitting that the Ho Fuk Tong College at Tuen Mun, New Territories, perpetuates his name. Dr Ho Chung-chung, recently retired Headmistress of the Hongkong True Light Middle School, though not a direct descendant, was of the same Ho family.\n\nFrom 1843 to the present, members of the family of Ho Fuk-tong have contributed to education in Hongkong.\n\nTHE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN BITTEN BY THE “CHINA BUG”\n\nThe original plan for the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca was for a cosmopolitan student body. East and West would meet to study each other's language and culture.\n\nIn its first few years, there were some half-dozen foreign students. Most of them were adult missionaries learning the Chinese language. There were, however, three teenagers: James Bone, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210847, "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-1986", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "181\n\nIt also mentioned difficulties encountered by Chinese students in schools conducted by foreigners during the Opium War.\n\nA-chick wrote: “Mr. Brown is the best teacher that I know in my life, and his school is too. In this part of the country I think there is no such school as his.\n\n\"Here there is a school for Deaf and Dumb in New York. But if Chinese were so, he would not learn anything, neither how to read nor write, until he died.\n\n\"When school first formed had five boys - after about nine months some went home, because English were at war with China. Afterwards eldest of them whose name was A-ling went home, because he did a very bad thing and committed a great sin against God, as in the law of Moses and the prophets.\n\n\"A-tseuk was taken home by his father. One day, as the English were fighting with the Chinese, his father came to Mr. Brown's school and wanted to take A-tseuk home. On the same day Mr. Brown was not at home. Then he wished to take him back without asking Mr. Brown. But A-tseuk wouldn't go, and his father gave him a flogging and he cried, and after about an hour they went. Next morning, father came and wanted to take his things home, when Mr. Brown saw him he rebuked him and he went home.\n\n\"Now in this school our teacher has appointed a monitor to keep the boys still when the teacher is out, and the school in order, and they ring the bell to call the boys into study their lessons and say them to the teacher.\"\n\nThe letter shows that A-chick had made good progress in English after two years' study.\n\nA year and a half after writing it, he was qualified to serve as an interpreter.\n\nIn 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was signed and the British were granted the right to trade at six treaty ports. This privilege meant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210865, "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-1986", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "199\n\nmight have been a member. Hence her appearance at Tong A-chick's place.\n\nThe husband came in search of his wife. He was told that Tong A-chick had been seen handing some clothes to her in the basement of his house. The pursuing husband got a writ of habeas corpus from the court demanding that Tong A-chick restore his spouse to him. He charged that she was being kept against her will.\n\nA-chick in his testimony said that to his knowledge he never saw, knew, or spoke with the woman in question, and did not know where she was stopping at present. He might have handed the coat spoken of to some person in the basement, but he did not know the wife of A-lai was there at the time. The judge believed A-chick was telling the truth and discharged him.\n\nThe incident had two consequences. Too A-sung brought divorce proceedings against her husband and Tong A-chick sued the proprietors of the Town Talk for libel.\n\nHe claimed $5,000 damages from the publishers, P.P. Hull and company, charging that they had published libellous statements about him in commenting on his appearance in court in the case of the fleeing wife. He contended the newspaper article was intended “to bring him into public scandal, disrepute, infamy and disgrace, and for the further purpose to harass, oppress, impoverish and entirely ruin the plaintiff.”\n\nIn denial, he said he was \"a good, true, honest, just and faithful resident of the State of California and had always been respected, esteemed, and known among his neighbours to be a person of good name, fame and credit, and never been suspected to have been guilty of perjury, nor of abduction and extortion, nor of the sin of trafficking in human flesh, or of any other such crime.”\n\nThe account of the case did not report the judge's decision, but it is probable that A-chick emerged vindicated, as he had in his other appearances at court.\n\nNews of some of his troubles got back to Hongkong. The editor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210881, "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-1986", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "215\n\nsmall party of 12 practical miners to join me.”\n\nA-mei says he expended about £20 on each of his party. The sum included their passage, provisions and outfits. The group, accompanied by A-mei, arrived at Dunedin early in 1866; a few days later they set out for the fields at Taupeka, where, according to A-mei, \"they were received by all classes with quite an enthusiasm.”\n\nHe had also arranged for another group of a dozen or so to follow in a few days. After their arrival, he sent them off to a different area.\n\nHe did not accompany either group but remained in Dunedin, where he waited for reports from the miners so that when he returned to Melbourne he could spread the news of riches to be gained in New Zealand by Chinese labourers. However, no news reached him.\n\nThere did appear a lone Chinese whom he had met in Australia. He was a gold counterfeiter. Finding the law closing in on him in Australia, he intended to ply his craft in a new place. Unfortunately for his plans to fleece the gullible, A-mei recognised him.\n\n\"This nefarious speculator, however, had come to grief, as at my request... he was searched. Apparatus adapted for the manufacture of the spurious precious metal, as also a parcel of already manufactured gold, were found in one of his baskets. He was, of course apprehended, and at my request he was again transported to the place whence he came, under my vigilant escort at my expense. Thus the object of his villainy was cut short without spreading any injury to the country.”\n\nA-mei, of course, had financial as well as patriotic interest in protecting the good name of the Chinese in New Zealand.\n\nReceiving no news from his miners, A-mei finally decided to return to Australia. Here he continued to wait for news. He finally gave up hope. \"I certainly felt sick of the delay, and naturally became low spirited from disappointment.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210882, "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-1986", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "216\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nThen, \"while I was thus allowing my patience to be taxed and tormented for good news,\" an offer was made to become interpreter at Ballarat in the goldfield area of Victoria. He accepted.\n\nNot long after, news came that some of the men he had taken to New Zealand had struck it rich. The report caused a rush of Chinese from Australia to New Zealand.\n\nA-mei, however, had severed his connection with the emigrant shipping business when he became interpreter, so he did not realise the profit that might have been his if he had persisted a little longer.\n\nThe rush, however, was shortlived, although it lasted enough for over 1,000 Chinese to be added to the population of New Zealand within a year.\n\nAn invitation was extended to Ho A-mei to come over and accept a position as interpreter. The offer was declined, because, as A-mei says, “I knew I might be required to travel in the rigid winter of your country, which I was fully aware I could not stand.”\n\nFinding that he had been unable to save much money in Australia, A-mei decided to return to China in 1868.\n\nIn 1870 a new movement of Chinese to New Zealand was under way, this time largely from China. Because of his previous experience, Ho A-mei, who was in Hongkong at the time, was consulted regarding the chartering of vessels to carry the emigrants. He resumed his activity as emigrant agent, sending off three shiploads within a few months. This not only benefited him financially, but he felt his earlier efforts had been vindicated.\n\nHe says: \"Now, I may be proud to remark that the attempt which prompted me to introduce Chinese labour into your colony, and which was at one time considered so futile, has, at last, turned the right side up.\"\n\nIn the letter recounting all this, he signed himself: \"Ho A-mee, Pioneer.\" It was an apt designation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211041, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "77\n\nnative of Tak Kai [Danxi] District. The derivation of my name as Red Pine Fairy was due to my living in seclusion in Red Pine Hill. To differentiate myself from the Red Pine Fairy who was in close company with Chang Liang [Zhang Liang], I wrote this autobiography. (Sese Yuan, 1971;3)\n\nThis autobiography is thought by some current members of the Sese Yuan to have been received from the god by the way of the fuji divination procedure, but actually it seems to have been drawn from the story related in the fourth century work titled Shenxian Zhuan (Biography of immortals). This work contains brief descriptions of the lives of eighty-four Taoist hermits and seekers of immortality. The passage on Huang Chuping is as follows:\n\nHuang Chuping came from Danxi. When he was 15 his family had him tend sheep. A Taoist seeing that he was good-natured and conscientious took him to a stone cave in the Jinhua Mountain. For forty odd years he stayed there without thinking of his family. His elder brother Chuqi searched for him for many years in the mountains but without success. Once in a marketplace he saw a Taoist. Chuqi beckoned him and asked \"My brother Chuping who was sent out to tend sheep has not been seen for more than forty years. I don't know where he is or whether he is dead or alive. Would you please find out by means of divination?” The Taoist said, \"On the Jinhua Mountain there is a young shepherd by the name of Huang Chuping. Doubtless he is your brother.\" When he heard this, Chuqi followed the Taoist in search of his younger brother. He found him. The brothers told each other of what had happened during all these years. Chuqi then asked his brother where the sheep were. \"Not far from here on the eastern side of the mountain,” Chuping answered. Chuqi went over there and looked for them. He didn't see them. He only saw white stones. He went back and said to Chuping, \"There are no sheep on the eastern side of the mountain,” Chuping said, “The sheep are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211077, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "113\n\non the right side were stitched six $1000 notes. On either side of the characters were strips of red paper with gold inscriptions wishing the young couple health and good fortune, from the various family members who had contributed the money.\n\nOutside in the street female relatives and friends of the groom were busily cleaning cooking utensils and preparing for a feast. Other women were practising banging the gong and dancing in step, in readiness for the 'Dragon Boat' dance they would perform. Although the Hoklo people in Yim Liu Ha have been settled on land for more than four decades they still retain many of their customs originally performed on water. Instead of the bridegroom being transported by boat to worship and to fetch his bride, on land he is carried along in a procession called pa lung sung (扛龍船) by pairs of women pretending to row a dragon boat.\n\nThese women are gaily dressed in matching pairs with straw hats decorated with plastic flowers and paper tassels. Round their necks they wear collars embroidered and sequinned with nine Chinese characters symbolizing good fortune: up, down, in, out, double happiness, then the same ones repeated around the other side. At their waists they wear aprons in the same colour as the collar, and each woman carries a yellow painted stick to resemble an oar. Often the family will possess its own set of wedding attire, made by a clever seamstress within the family, but in this case the whole set had been borrowed from another family.\n\nAt 10 am the procession was ready to leave the groom's home. The women formed themselves into four pairs, with one at the front to bang the gong, and another older woman at the back carrying a fan, with her left trouser leg rolled up above the knee, who was said to represent the tail of the dragon. Then, at a given signal, the women set off at a steady pace, moving in a rhythmic rocking motion to suggest the rowing of a boat.\n\nThey were followed by two men who formed the head and back part of the Chilin, while behind them walked the band banging a large gong and clashing cymbals. Then came the bridegroom and his best man, both wearing Western suits of the latest fashion, with the groom in white shirt, maroon cummerbund and matching bow", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211078, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "114\n\nTie. The best man held a black umbrella over the groom, draped with a strip of red cotton: although it was not raining, bad spirits may have been about and it is common Chinese tradition to protect those about to be married from harm befalling them.\n\nThe procession reached the temple of Ma Jo (#), the Hoklo name for Tin Hau. This is the main temple in Yim Liu Ha. The women redoubled their rowing efforts and the Chilin cavorted and stretched as the groom and best man went in. After making obeisance to the god, they came out, bowed and lit incense at the little shrine opposite the temple, all the while to the deafening accompaniment of gongs and cymbals.\n\nFirecrackers were set off and after a further brief visit to the temple, the procession continued on its way to the shrine of the earth god, To Dei Gung (±‡A) at the beginning of the village. Two of the rowers were now carrying small branches of kumquat leaves with which they flailed the air. The Chilin pounced and postured, incense was burned as a sign of respect, and the god offered food from a basket of carefully arranged chickens and other tasty morsels. The bridegroom and best man bowed to the god, more firecrackers were set off, and the procession reformed to return to the house, taking with it the basket of food.\n\nThe proceedings so far had taken about an hour, and all felt entitled to a rest. Then at 11:30 am, the procession resumed as the bridegroom prepared to leave the village to collect his bride from Kwan Tei. This time he was carrying a bouquet of artificial pink roses to give to the bride. The women rowers had increased in number: the drummer at the front now wearing a funny hat, while of the eight in the middle, two pairs were wearing aprons while two pairs were not. These were followed by the woman representing the tail of the dragon, and then by a \"fortunate\" woman whose parents were both living and who had several children. She was carrying a round rattan sieve with pomelo leaves, cypress leaves, and two pieces of ginger root, traditional emblems of marriage, long life, and fertility. After this came the Chilin, the band, and the groom and best man with the umbrella.\n\nThey stopped briefly outside the temple and the earth god to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211132, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 193, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "168\n\n\"We would hope that the almost unanimous voice of the meeting and the tone and manner in which its views would be expressed would have an effect, not only upon the immediate subject of the meeting, but the worldwide China question.”\n\nA few days following the meeting, Mr. David Welsh wrote a letter to the Daily Press supporting Mr. Whittall's unpopular position.\n\nIn introducing his opinions, he took up Mr. Sharp's theme of cries of distress. Mr. Welsh suggested that, “in a war of opinion, a good cry is more than half the battle. This was made painfully evident at the public meeting. The cry of Hongkong blockaded is a good one, and almost every person came to the meeting prepared to vote for resolutions framed in that sense, notwithstanding their extravagance, and that the movers of the resolutions gave not one shred of evidence in favour of what they proposed.\"\n\nThe final resolution of the meeting provided for a wide distribution of its results. They were of course to be sent to the proper Government authorities.\n\nCopies were also to be provided to the Chambers of Commerce in Britain and to all Members of Parliament and other prominent figures.\n\nBritish officials in Canton, Peking and London did not share the strong views of the meeting. Their position was more moderate and no definitive action was taken to break the “blockade.”\n\nSTRIKING A HARD BARGAIN ON TRADE WITH CHINA\n\nOfficials responsible for political relations between Britain and China were less emotional than Hongkong residents about the issues of a Chinese \"blockade\" of the harbour and the appointment of a Chinese consul. As diplomats their perspective was broader.\n\nThey recommended that a report formulated by a commission appointed in Hongkong to study the blockade should not be made", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211176, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "212\n\nrequirements for Chinese.\n\nOf course, we could not have expected him to paint dark colours on his oratorical canvas. It was all light, joy and good feeling.\n\nThe subjects of a most beneficent monarch could rejoice that, \"on all sides progress has been the watchword. Statesmen, philanthropists and men of science have done all they could to increase the prosperity of the nation and promote the welfare of all the classes of Her Majesty's subjects.\"\n\nAnd who had set the example for all the progress of the half century?\n\nAll loyal subjects turned towards their venerable and beloved sovereign, for \"above all these (the statesmen, etc.) towers the central figure to which our thoughts now turn and which commands our admiration, respect, and esteem for the bright example Her Majesty has shown. During the long fifty years she has occupied the throne of this great empire she shed lustre upon it and shown a bright example in all capacities, whether as Queen, wife or mother.\n\nThe speaker then came to the point of all his rhetoric, the seconding of Mr. Chater's resolution regarding a permanent memorial: \"It is a great event we are called on to celebrate and I think in desiring to celebrate it worthily we ought to seek for some object which will add to the enjoyment of all. The memorial should not be designed to promote the happiness of one class of the community only, but we should strive to erect something to commemorate Her Majesty's virtues which will be a boon to one and all (applause).\"\n\nMr. Ackroyd was seconding a proposal for a park in the Wongneichong valley, but already it had come under attack because it was felt by some that it would be of little benefit to the Chinese section of the community.\n\nThe adoption of the park scheme by the meeting resulted in the Chinese holding another meeting to plan for their own memorial,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211219, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 280, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "255\n\non, principally by David Faure (on my left) and his colleagues at the Chinese University, and their students, in researching local history.\n\nI came to Hong Kong in 1956 to work for the Hong Kong Government. After a year at the Hong Kong University's language school, where our RAS member Mr. Francis Sham was my teacher (in the audience), I was sent to the New Territories as a District Officer. It was the custom, then and long before, to send new administrative officers to the New Territories, and the unfortunate villagers and local leaders had to put up with them. The only benefit they might have had out of it was that these youngsters had not had time to get set in their ways as civil servants. In many of them, a spark of interest in local life was kindled by what they saw around them. This was certainly the case with me.\n\nI immediately became fascinated with the communities of the Southern District, which at that time took in Sai Kung and the Clearwater Bay area in the eastern New Territories and the present Islands District on the west and south. It was a wonderful life. I had a Marine Department launch every now and again, and was able to go out and see places, all as part of the job. Many people before me had also enjoyed it. There was only one snag about the work when I was there. The Government had decided to build the Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island, and I had a good deal of extra toil and trouble on that account. In particular, two villages had to be resettled. However, when you move villagers for development, you are in a position to learn quite a bit about them. I made an effort at the time and collected as much information as I could about these villages, but I simply did not know enough about Chinese rural society to know what more I might have got by different questioning. Anyway, the reservoir was my main preoccupation when I was District Officer South, a post I held for five years, with an overseas leave in between.\n\nWhen I went around this fascinating part of the New Territories, I saw the villages, the market towns and the resident boat people, all very much as they must have been at the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty, up to 1911. I am not exaggerating: that's what they seemed like at that time, owing to the lack of development.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211230, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "266\n\nof life that would strike me as exceedingly fascinating and which as far as I could see remained unknown. The list of them can go on for hours if I was to express them: but, for instance, the tales that we heard about how buying and selling property was conducted, about the local weavers, about how irrigation and dams were mended, together with details of how villagers managed their affairs, the treatment of the sick, how houses were built, where you went to buy a boat, where you went to buy a bed, how you bought it, how you paid for it and what you did if all you had was rice and somebody demanded silver, and where you went to convert the one into the other. None of this, as far as I could see, had been recorded.\n\nConsequently, I threw myself in at the deep end, trying to record some of this, although I was grievously ill-prepared for it having no sinological background. It was merely that there was nobody else showing the slightest willingness to do it, except David who was up to his ears collecting inscriptions and books and doing his history projects. However, he had no time, and if I did not do it nobody was going to. I therefore came to the conclusion that it had better be done badly than not at all; for in another 10 years there won't be any chance of anyone doing it, well or ill, because the people will all be dead. And so, being there and being ready, I landed up with two jobs.\n\nThe first major interview that I attended was one done by David with the oldest senior villager in Shatin, the last villager in Shatin who could actually remember visiting the Magistracy in Kowloon City before the British came. He could just remember seeing in his youth the Chinese tax collectors coming to his village, and could recall being taken into the Magistracy by his great uncle who was a clerk there.\n\nAbout six months later this old man died. He was the father of a very senior district leader. My connection with him is very good, and so we were able to convince him that his father would not object to having the entire funeral proceedings taped, photographed and described from beginning to end. David, myself and Barbara Ward did this. About 400 photographs were taken by various people, about 4 hours of taping was done, and about 15", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211238, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "274\n\nI suppose I should mention one thing. The Geography and Geology Department of the University of Hong Kong has long had a programme of geographic studies, not just for a higher degree but for BA degrees, and there is quite a lot of good information tucked away there. Also, there is a map library at Hong Kong University which probably contains quite a lot of material on this region and on Guangdong generally.\n\nDF - A long time ago, I remember, someone talked about wanting to make a map of the coast-line of Hong Kong. It always seemed to me that this is one of the essential things you have got to have, but you need a geographer. Was it ever done?\n\nJH I think someone has done it for the urban area. A person called Hudson wrote a PhD thesis about 1971 on reclamation, but no one has done it for the New Territories, where the amount of land which has been reclaimed from the sea in many places is quite considerable, particularly on the western side, in Deep Bay on the Pearl river. Charles Grant, the Professor of Geography at Hong Kong University, has written an article on this subject.\n\nPH But it is the western side which none of us here tonight knows at all well. The whole of the traditional economy of the marsh villages is totally unknown. Nobody really knows how the kei wai and the oyster beds were managed. You can find out how they are managed now, but I don't think we know anything about how the villagers worked them say 70 years ago.\n\nJH It all goes to show that the variety of situations, both social and economic, in relatively such a small area as the New Territories is truly amazing, even in the areas that I know reasonably well, never mind those that I still don't know; which, as you've said, are the majority.\n\nPH When we were working in Shatin, we came across a phenomenon which interested me very greatly, one of the many things about which I would like to do more. This is, those villagers who did not have enough land to live on but had a speciality, a trade, a single knowledge which the other villagers nearby didn't have, and which they could trade for rice. In Shatin there were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211239, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 300, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "275\n\n―\n\nabout a half-dozen villages that subsisted to a large extent on a single trade. One village had people who knew how to cut wood into planks; only one village in the whole of the Shatin area knew how to cut wood into planks. If you needed planks, you went and got a villager or pair of villagers from that village. They came to your village, cut up the planks and went back with a sack of rice. This sort of economy usually came from mountain villages without land but with a speciality. Masons represent another such trade. We know they existed, but we know very little about them or how such an economy worked.\n\nNext speaker: parts of China?\n\nWhat collecting work has been done on other\n\nJH - I can't speak for the Mainland, but a great deal of collecting work has been, and is being, done on Taiwan. We are fortunate, too, that on Taiwan as in north and central China, Japanese scholars during the Ch'ing period, and then right up to the 1940s, were doing a great deal of work on rural China. They were working in different areas, they didn't necessarily have the opportunities that we are having now, and they weren't seeking answers to the same questions. For instance, the village handbooks which seem to us to play such a major part in the transmission of management knowledge and techniques in our villages don't seem to be known to the Japanese researchers who worked in the north. I say this with some hesitation, but I have asked a good friend of mine who doesn't mind making enquiries if he would look in the main libraries in Tokyo; and so far he hasn't come up with anything, despite the enormous amount of work the Japanese did on China.\n\nPH - One of the most interesting things coming from the work that has been done in Hong Kong is that the traditional village life in the New Territories was radically different from that spelt out in the classic works on Chinese peasant life. The question that remains to be answered is, I suggest, ‘Is the Hong Kong traditional village life that we can see more typical, or are the classic studies more typical?' Or do you, in fact, have a whole range of situations over the whole of China of which none can be really classed as \"typical\", other than in the area from which they come?\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211260, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 321, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "296\n\nIndividual treaty ports in China as well as other parts of Asia, large and small, are receiving attention from scholars. Meanwhile, British Mandarins and Chinese Reformers should be read by all who are interested in modern China or who are interested in the British in Asia. Dr. Atwell has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of how the British administered one small locality and coped with demands of modern forces. Her work can be used as a guide or springboard for comparison of British colonial policy in various East Asian places, such as Brunei and the Straits Settlements, Hankow, Tientsin, and Shanghai, say, with Hong Kong tossed in for good measure.\n\nWEI PEH T'I*\n\nSteven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China, Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement, China Research Monograph 28, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies, 1985.\n\nProsper Giquel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985.\n\nThese two works, one of compilation and assessment based on a doctoral dissertation, the other of translation (with the help of Debbie Weston) and annotation with a lengthy introduction, have a considerable intrinsic interest because they deal with a rather extraordinary man. They have also a degree of relevance, over a century later, for the West's involvement with present-day China's modernizing programme.\n\nThey are to be read in conjunction with other modern works on this period of China's self-strengthening efforts, including those listed in Dr. Leibo's introduction to Transferring Technology.\n\nProsper Giquel, a French naval officer, came to China during the Second China War. After service with the Joint Commission\n\n* Wei Peh T'i is Honorary Lecturer, Department of History, and Research Associate, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Shanghai: Crucible of Modern China (1987).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211263, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 324, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "299\n\ncount given in the book-length study. Personally, being interested in military matters, I would have liked to have had more information on the recruitment, organization and officering of the “Ever Triumphant Army”. If not in this account, where else? It is too shadowy a body for my liking. Nor is there enough about Giquel in the Introduction, and unlike me, many readers may not have the other book to hand for reference. This handicap sometimes applies in reverse, since there are no maps in Transferring Technology, and the useful section in the Diary giving biographical vignettes only appears in that work. Finally, in neither work are we told anything about Giquel's wife and children, and the Giquel family, although the 1864 diary and other papers came from his grand-daughter's home.\n\nNotwithstanding these observations, readers will find much of interest in these fascinating works which relate to a man who clearly had much to offer, did his best, and assuredly deserves to be better known and appreciated, especially in China itself.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nFrank Ching, Ancestors, 900 Years in the Life of a Chinese Family. London, Harrap, 1988, pp. 528.\n\nFrank Ching is a journalist. He has the journalist's eye for the dramatic and unusual. He knows a good story when he sees one, and how to put it across. These gifts have served him well in his first book, an account of his own family over nearly a millennium.\n\nThe book comprises a series of studies of eminent persons of the Ching lineage from whom he is directly descended. In such studies, motivated by the desire to get at one's roots, there is always the danger that we shall get hagiography rather than history, but there are few signs of this. The author has set himself high standards. Starting, as he tells us in the prologue, from scratch in as complex and difficult a field as Chinese historiography, it is remarkable that he has achieved such a tour de force. The book is of great and absorbing human interest, perhaps heightened for readers by the fact that there is a direct connection with a living person. It has been assiduously researched, in person and using the best authorities, and is well organized and beautifully written.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211315, "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-1988", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "7\n\nfive American schooners scurrying for safety under the guns of Macao.\n\nAs the threat escalated, British and Portuguese vied with one another in offering their suppression services to the government. Victory in this contest went to the Portuguese, who were commissioned to send a fleet of six men-of-war to cooperate with the Chinese water forces in blockading the harbour of the pirate headquarters off the northern shore of Lantao Island. The Governor-General travelled from Canton to watch the grand spectacle of the pirate finale, but to the surprise of all, the pirates were able to push aside the fire vessels that were unleashed against them and to sail away unscathed into the night.\n\nThe dismantling of the Confederation\n\nOn the heels of spectacular success came the equally sudden and rapid dismantling of the pirate confederation. We can only speculate, because documentary evidence does not make clear, what finally precipitated this action. It may well have been internal friction between the fleet leaders, because on December 11, 1809, there was a battle between the Red and Black Flag Fleets. Unexpectedly, the Black Flag Fleet came out on top, and its leader, Kuo P'o-tai, realising that he could no longer withstand pressure both from a hostile government and his former ally, used the three hundred captives seized from the Red Flag Fleet during the combat as his collateral of good faith in accepting an offer of amnesty from the Ch'ing government. On January 11, 1810, he and 5,500 of his men surrendered to the Ch'ing.\n\nIt was not long before Chang Pao followed suit. On February 21, his fleet gathered at the mouth of the Pearl River to receive the Governor-General from Canton. The ceremonies went smoothly, but the negotiations did not, and as a result, the pirates withdrew. However, their desire to surrender persisted, and in April, the women stepped to the fore as Cheng I Sao and a group of other pirate women and children made their way on shore to the Governor-General's yamen in Canton. They proved to be tough negotiators, and the surrender was finally accomplished a few days later on April 20, when 17,318 pirates surrendered 226 junks and a number of cannon.\n\nIn the dismantling of the confederation, we can see the weaknesses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211371, "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-1988", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "63\n\n―\n\nThe Commission recommended the following: (1), compulsory registration; (2), prohibition of employment of children under the age of eleven by Chinese reckoning this might mean nine years; (3), weekly hours to be limited to fifty-four with not more than five hours of continuous work and no work between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.; (4), no employment of children in glass factories and no use of boys in boiler-chipping: (5), no dangerous trade to employ children; (6), employers to be obliged to provide dining and rest halls with suitable material for first aid; and (7), the appointment of factory inspectors.\n\nIn an appendix to the report the Rev. R. H. Wells describes some of the findings of his personal investigation of the problem.\n\nHaving heard that children were carrying loads to the Peak, I made a visit to one of their halts. A number of women and children were sitting down, and my attention was first called to a boy who seemed to be very weak if not ill. He was eating but seemed to have little appetite for it, the time was about 9.30 a.m. His mother was sitting beside him, evidently somewhat anxious about him. I asked his age, and she said about nine or ten (Chinese reckoning). On being asked what burden the boy was carrying, she pointed to many loads and said “that one”, adding, \"There are many more, ask them\".\n\nI looked about and saw a small boy, he was eight years of age (English reckoning say about six and half years). He was with his mother and she said that he must work or he would not have food to eat. The mother was a widow and came to Hong Kong to get work, and finding that the boy could also get work, had set him to earn what he could. He had two loads of twenty-two catties (twenty-nine pounds each). Those loads he took one by one, carrying each a short distance and then returning to the other. Further inquiry elicited information to the effect that he had his breakfast at 5 a.m. and began to carry at a place near the central market on the sea front at 6 a.m. and had got so far. His work would be finished at about 5 p.m. He would earn eight cents for a day's work, carrying fifty-eight pounds (forty-four catties) weight of coal to the Peak. It was stated that he could only", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211386, "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-1988", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "78\n\nand entered a village belonging to a family called Lei (*). One of the villagers was holding a big religious ceremony and feast (called Paat Kwaan Tsaai A which is a vegetarian meal given free to all that call) in his house, and into the midst of this Pooi To walked calmly, and put his rice basket down in the centre of the hall, and sat down to meditate. The guests at the feast were much disgusted at his dirty appearance and tried to take the basket away, but found they could not move it. Lei himself tried to lift it, and called his sons to help, still they could not move it. Then Pooi To, taking no notice of them, started eating the rice and food set on the table, and when he had finished his meal, he got up, lifted up the basket and went out. Turning back at the door he said, \"The four Kings of Heaven will send a lot of Happiness to your family, Lei.\" While he spoke a young child was peering into his basket, and he quickly ran and told his father that he had seen four miniature children only a few inches long and beautifully dressed, lying in the basket. Then Lei realized that Pooi To must be a holy man, and he wanted to ask him to stay, but he found Pooi To had gone. For three days he searched for him, and at last found him sitting in a little wood to the west of his house. So Lei took Pooi To back to his home, and he stayed with him for many days. The people living round about soon learnt that he was a holy man, and brought their sick to be cured by him. They would offer him money and presents, which Pooi To with his characteristic inconsistency sometimes accepted and sometimes refused.\n\nLater on a higher officer named Lau Hing Paak (A) heard about Pooi To and invited him to stay in his house. Pooi To arrived carrying, as usual, his rice basket. Lau hospitably sent his servants to meet him and to carry his basket for him, but they found they could not pick it up. More servants came until there were ten of them, yet even they could not move it. Then Lau himself looked in the basket and found in it only one torn coat and one wooden cup.\n\nPooi To stayed with Lau about 30 days, and then returned to Lei. One day, just at daybreak, Pooi To asked his host to make him a new coat, and said that he wanted it by noon. Lei started off at once to make it, but when noon came it was not finished, so Pooi To said, \"I want to go out for a while, but I will return this evening\". Evening came but Pooi To did not come back. Lei noticed a very sweet smell filling the house, and wondering where the fragrance came from, he went out\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211387, "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-1988", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "79\n\nand traced it to a stone cave. There he found Pooi To lying dead. His old torn coat was beneath him, but round his head and feet a lot of water-lilies were growing. Much grieved, Lei left the cave, and the next morning he came back with a coffin. He found the water-lilies all dead, but Pooi To still there, so he buried him and went home sadly. Several days later a traveller from the North visited Lei and mentioned that he had seen Pooi To walking with his rice basket towards a place called P'aang Sheng (b). Lei was astonished and could not believe it, and argument followed, and to prove he was right Lei took the traveller to where Pooi To had been buried. With much effort Lei dug up the coffin, and opened it. All that was inside was a pair of old shoes.\n\nWhen Pooi To arrived at Paang Sheng a very poor scholar named Wong Yan (Milk) entertained him in his house. Wong was ashamed of his poverty and being only able to give his guest corn to eat, but Pooi To said, \"This is the best food in the world\". After staying with him about six months Pooi To said to Wong one day, \"I have need of thirty-six rice baskets. Get them at once for me\". Wong was much distressed and answered, \"I have only got ten and I am so poor I cannot afford to buy more, what can I do?\" Pooi To comforted him, and said, \"There is no need to buy, look about your house\". Wong did what he was told, and in all sorts of corners rice baskets appeared, until he found to his amazement that he had collected thirty-six in his yard. Most of them were dirty and broken, but Pooi To told him to go round and count them again carefully, after which they all appeared quite new. Then Pooi To wrapped each basket up separately and when that was done, he told Wong to open them again. Each basket was full of coins. Wong did not keep all the money himself, but gave generously to others in need.\n\nPooi To stayed with Wong for a year, and then quite suddenly he said one day, \"I must go\". Wong hastened to cook a farewell meal, but, even before it was ready, Pooi To had disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.\n\nAbout a month later Pooi To appeared in a place called Ng Kwan (B) a prefecture in the east of China. Pooi To walked by the sea shore and met an old fisherman, and begged a fish from him. The fisherman refused, but after Pooi To had continued to worry him for some time, he picked up a very stale and putrifying fish, and threw it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211389, "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-1988", "page_number": 105, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "81 + trying to find food and help. At last they came to a grasscutters path which they followed. After walking about ten miles they heard the sound of monastery bells and smelt the fragrance of burning joss sticks. Filled with hope they knelt and prayed to Buddha to bring them to safety. Then they came to a monastery, large and beautifully decorated, and saw ten or more priests outside, but coming nearer they found that they were made of stone. The travellers were amazed, and being afraid began to pray to be forgiven their sins. In the distance they heard a voice shouting to them, and searching in the direction of the voice they came across another priest, but found he also was made of stone. Many times they heard voices calling them, but could find nothing but some stone figures. Then they said to each other, \"Those are all Saints, we are unworthy wicked men, so how can we see them\", and they knelt down and prayed very earnestly for forgiveness. When they had finished praying they looked up and saw a real priest coming towards them, who welcomed them kindly and brought them into the monastery. A meal was set before them, all the dishes were ordinary vegetables such as Buddhist priests eat, but they smelt very fragrant, and tasted delicious, and the travellers had never tasted anything as good before. When the meal was over, they asked the priest how to get to the capital city, who answered, \"From here to the capital is more than 200,000 miles, but do not worry, make up your mind to go and you will reach there quickly\". Then he asked Chuc, \"Do you know Pooi To?\" The minister answered, \"Yes, I know him well\". Then the priest pointed to the north wall and showed him a cloth sack, a tall Abbot's staff, and a priest's alms bowl hanging there. He said, \"Those are Pooi To's things. I beg you to give him back this alms bowl when you see him, and this letter that I will give you. And here is a green bamboo stick, which when you get back to your boat, throw into the water in front of the boat and shut the windows of the boat and sit quietly. You need not trouble to row or sail, for you will arrive at the capital very speedily.\"\n\nThey all said goodbye and a young priest took them to the monastery door and showed them a path to follow which would bring them back to their vessel quickly. Once more on board they did what they had been told, and soon found to their amazement that the boat had left the water and was sailing over the tops of the trees. After three days of this novel means of travel, they reached the Waai river (17) and arrived at a place named Chue Tseuk (k) not far from the capital. Here they\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211391, "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-1988", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "83\n\nafter he died.\n\nThe wife of a worthy man, Ts'ai Haai (M) was ill, and all hope of her recovery was given up. As the doctors appeared no good, Tsai Haai asked the priests to come and pray for her. They could not help. Then one of them said, “Why not ask Pooi To to come?\" When Pooi To arrived, he wandered into the room, looked at the woman and said quietly, \"Easy\". Then he muttered to himself for a while and gradually the woman was cured. Tsai Haai after that insisted on Pooi To staying with him in his house, and treated him with the greatest of respect.\n\nIn the ninth month of the third year of Yuen Ka (元嘉) A.D. 426 of Sung dynasty, Pooi To went off to a lake in the East called Ch’ek Shaan Woo (赤山湖) where he became ill, and died. Tsai Haai took his corpse and buried it in a hill called Fook Chau Shaan (U) \"upside down boat hill\", which is somewhere to the north-east of Nanking.\n\nTwo years later, one day in the third month, Tsai Haai was in his house with his family, when to his surprise the door opened and Pooi To walked in. He talked pleasantly for a short while, when there was a knock at the door and a priest appeared. He beckoned to Pooi To who followed him, but before he left Pooi To told the family that he had to go to Kaau Kwong (交廣) (now Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Annam) and would never come back to them. He then threw his cup into the sea and he and the priest sailed away in it, to the Monastery of Tuen Moon Shaan (Castle Peak), where as has been already said, he became Abbot.\n\nPooi To is reputed also to have lived for a while in another hill nearby called Ling To Shaan (靈渡山) “miracle across the Sea Hill\", and there is still a monastery there bearing the name of Ling To Tsz (靈渡寺).\n\nNothing further is known about Pooi To and there are no stories about him after he came to Castle Peak, but it is supposed that the monastery there was carried on by Buddhist monks for many years after his death. There is nothing recorded to give any indication of how long the monastery continued to exist, but it must have fallen into disuse by the reign of To Kwong (道光) 1821-1850 of Ts`ing (清) dynasty because the Taoists built a monastery then on the site of the old one, and called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211395, "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-1988", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "87\n\nand when he died the following year 1662 his son Cheng King (4) continued his attacks on the south coast. The Ts'ing government eventually sent out their navy to engage Cheng's ships, but it is said that the Ts'ing sailors were prostrated by seasickness and were no match for their enemies.\n\nAbout that time an officer from Cheng's forces named Fong Sing Hoi (959) surrendered to the Ts'ing government, and it was from him that the plan of Ts'in Fuk originally came. Having full knowledge of how people living along the coast by their mere presence, apart from their willing help, aided the rebels, he suggested that villagers should be moved inland so that they should no longer be able, willingly or not, to supply Cheng's forces with food. This idea was approved by the Emperor Shun Chi, but the same year (18th year of Shun Chi, 1661) he died. His son, Hong Hei, however, followed up the plan by ordering a personal investigation of the coast to be made by government officials, with a view to finding out which part was most vulnerable to attack, and at the same time to arrange how the people were to be moved inland. The result of this was a report from the P'ing Naam Wong (#E) 平南王 (\"Prince who tranquilizes the South\") and the Viceroy, strongly advising that the people should not be moved. “All along the coast there are several millions of inhabitants\", the report said. \"If they are shifted they will all lose their livelihood, which will be a great affliction. We make this piteous appeal and request royal favour to allow them to stay.\" But this had no effect.\n\nThe following year in the spring an Imperial decree ordered that everyone living by the coast must move 50 Chinese miles inland. The P’ing Naam Wong with other officials were sent to inspect the coast, and in the 2nd month they arrived in San On district. A boundary on Foo Mun (J21) was set up, ending to the west at Tsun T'au Shaan (111) and to the east at Lin Fa Fung (TEE), the centre station of the boundary being at Ngai Kung Leng (42). At each of these places a flag was erected and more than eighty villages within the boundary were told to move and many lookout posts were built along the hills with soldiers stationed there to watch. Even the rivers had railings built across them to prevent boats going down to the sea. If any one disobeyed these orders they were to be put to death.\n\nA month later soldiers were sent to enforce the new regulations. Although notices had been posted up few people could read them and many villagers were quite ignorant of what they were to do. The arrival of the soldiers caused a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211398, "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-1988", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "90\n\nKwangtung province formerly, I found the people could earn their living. Latterly since the people have been moved inside the boundary, they have gradually died off. Out of every ten of them about eight or nine have been killed by the removal. The best thing that can be done at present, as we cannot allow them to return to their homes, is to allow the boundary limit to be made larger so that the farmers may find a place to farm and the fishermen room for fishing.\" Nothing came of the position, but the Viceroy's interest in their plight was remembered by the people and they were grateful to him.\n\nIn the 5th year of Hong Hei there was a bad drought in Kwangtung and the Emperor gave order that the rice kept in the Government granaries should be given to the people. It was during that year the San On district was abolished, all government appointments there were cancelled, and what was originally San On was added to Tung Kwun (東莞).\n\nDuring this time the Governor Wong Loi Yam (黃律琰) wrote a report to the throne suggesting that six principal causes of growing discontent should be removed. At first no notice was taken of this effort but in the 6th year of Hong Hei, when things were getting worse, the Emperor allowed Governor Wong's suggestions to be carved on stone tablets, and each city gate had one of the tablets displayed there. Beyond that, the Emperor did nothing, but the fact that someone was interesting himself on their behalf helped to soothe the increasing resentment of the people. The Governor Wong was a very good man and he made great improvements in a lot of government affairs. It is said that he dressed as a common man during his leisure and spent much time talking to the simple farming people. In this way he learnt much about his subordinates, which were good and which were bad, and he really benefited his people. But he was unable to get on with the ministers in Peking and in the following year he was dismissed by the Emperor and ordered to return to Peking. When Wong received the message of his dismissal he wrote his valedictory address and in it he mentioned five important steps which should be taken to ease the burden on his people. Two of these were that the numbers of troops should be reduced in Kwangtung, and the boundary be removed, the people being allowed to return to their homes. He then started off for Peking, but a Lei P’aai (里排) (chief of the village elders) named Poon Shai Ts'eung (潘世璋) heard about this, and went to beg the Emperor to allow Wong to retain his post. Wong died, whether...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211424, "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-1988", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "116\n\nhad to postpone its Christmas celebrations by a week, and that several Kauluwela boys were unsuccessful in their attempt to enter high school. After a quarantine of a week, the disease was considered stamped out. Ping Lim and Ting On, both of whom were attending Oahu College, were on a three-week vacation then.\n\nIn a letter dated 20 February 1900, Ping Lim wrote:\n\n\"My dear brother Ping Yip Chan:- On account of the great distance between town and our residing place in Moanalua and the inconvenience of getting your letter at once which came to me on Tuesday afternoon, the 14th of Feb., when the steamer was about to leave, I did not answer you immediately. You are, no doubt, wondering why I am in Moanalua. The cause was that S. M. Damon was afraid that his brother F. W. Damon's residence and the school might burn down in case one of our members should have attached the plague, and also the school's neighbourhood is in a very bad condition. So we moved to a small island owned by S. M. Damon, which is near to the 3 mi. water pumping tank, and borrowed six tents from the Kamehameha School to make our chambers. Four of them used for us, sixty in number, and one for the three teachers, and one for a food storeroom. You may think it is crowded but there the ocean wind is pretty strong. At first we expected to live there one week or two, but after having been there a week the news reached us, stating that several Chinamen working in the Pantheon stables, which are adjacent to our school, have died of plague and so these buildings were soon turned to ashes. Afterwards the whole block in which we live was said to be infected and a rough fence has been built around the block. The people of this spot have been put under quarantine. Had we not made the move we are surely in quarantine.\n\nNow I must turn to another important subject. Well, you have told me that the burning of Chinatown is the most cruel act that was done to our Chinese by the whites. No, the properties destroying itself was not so half bad as to see our ignorant helpless bind-footed Chinese women and babies crying and running forcibly for their lives on the streets, when the unexpected fire came. More than this, some few women who were about to let their babies out to earth were pushed to the drays which took them to quarantine. While during these hours it has been said that some births have occurred. Of course the Chinamen were driven like cattle by the inspectors who carried stakes or some other beating instruments in their hands. After that the men and women, numbering several thousand, were taken to the Kawaiahau Church and grounds. The women lived inside the church while the men outside on the grounds with tents. I am sorry to say that father, brother and in-law's whole family were among these people. During their residing in the church, I went to see father every day, asking if there was anything wanting. Many articles and foods have been taken there by our store partners. But after having been in there for a week they were driven to Kalihi just a little below the Kamehameha School where a great number of new rough rooms have been set up. In Kalihi's I can't see any of our known people to talk with there. All I can do is to send letters to them.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211428, "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-1988", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "120\n\non 23 June 1898, and was thoroughly spoiled by Aunt Yim. When George was nine years old, his mother took him to China, but after a year he returned alone to live with First Paternal Uncle in San Francisco. On his way to California, he stopped over for a night in Honolulu. A year later he went to Los Angeles to join his father, who was working for Dr. G. S. Chan in his herb business. Although inducted into the army during World War I, George never saw active duty. In 1919 when Uncle Yim died, he took his father's remains to China for burial, first stopping over at First Paternal Uncle's home in Hong Kong where his mother was waiting for him. This was during the time my father was there, ill with tuberculosis.\n\nGeorge finally gave in to Aunt Yim's continual pressure and married Sai King Auyoung of Ma Tse Village in 1919. She was a young bride (born in 1904) when I visited them that year. In 1922, after the birth of their daughter, Gladys Yung Hoy, on 8 June 1922, George left his family for Honolulu. His wife then entrusted the care of Gladys to Aunt Yim and went to work. In 1931 when Aunt Yim died, George sent for his daughter. It was not an easy adjustment for a girl of ten, but a good relationship with her stepmother developed and after some schooling, she went into restaurant work where she met her husband, Lam Kwai #, born in 1906, by whom she had a daughter and a son, Claudia Ngit Oi A and a son, Calvin Yuen Tim K.\n\nBefore Gladys joined her father, he had married Josephine Kekai Fung Kyau Liu, who was born on 30 September 1910. From this union came Kwock Wah, born on 7 January 1930. He is a pharmacologist on the staff of Purdue University. They subsequently adopted one of Josephine's nieces, Lorna Siu Lan. Josephine's father was a Chinese from See Yup and her mother was a Chinese-Hawaii-Caucasian woman. From this multi-ethnic background, she learned to speak Chinese fluently as well as to cook authentic Chinese, Hawaiian and Western dishes. These skills enabled her to work as a cook for many years before she had to retire because of a bad knee.\n\nGeorge found employment in the Navy Yard after working as an auto mechanic for several private shops. After his retirement, he made a visit to China to see his ailing first wife before her death in 1968 at the age of 64. He had a great deal of warm feelings for his Chan relatives, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211450, "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-1988", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "142\n\nThe plague continued in the city and the Board of Health was advised by the medical profession to burn all buildings that might harbour plague-carrying rats, a measure Hong Kong had successfully taken to prevent its spread. C. K. Ai gives the following account of what happened in his autobiography. On 20 January 1900, the Board of Health ordered the Fire Department to burn a building on Beretania Street between Nuuanu and Maunakea Streets, with two engines on guard to contain the fire. Unfortunately the wind direction shifted, sending sparks onto two wooden stables belonging to the Kaumakapili Church which was located on Beretania near Maunakea, spreading the fire through Chinatown in spite of help from volunteers to douse the fire. The police drove the residents out of the danger zone, down Kekaulike Street, along Queen Street, to Kakaako where emergency camps were set up. By two o'clock that afternoon, all Chinatown was in flames. Fortunately no lives were lost, but it was a pitiful sight.\n\nFather learned from Grandfather that 300 stores, both wooden and brick, were destroyed. Luckily, the conflagration just missed Wong On Tai, Yuen Chong and Kwong Li Yuan, but they were forced to relocate nevertheless. Father, Aunt Yim and her husband were sent away to a camp in Kalihi, where my Mother and her family were also confined. In his letter dated 20 February 1900, Ping Lim gave graphic description of the insensitive way in which the Chinese were evacuated and of their strong feelings of degradation. Further news to Father came from Yim Goon Siu who voiced his resentment against the 'white bandits' who 'chased' all 'foreigners', Japanese and natives, young and old, male and female, to the camps in Kalihi and Kakaako. When the block in which Mills School was located was quarantined following the death of several Chinese working for the Pantheon Stables nearby, the Rev. Damon had already moved his students to an island owned by Samuel Damon near the 3-mile pumping station in Moanalua. Ping Lim was thus free to visit and take food to the family when they were first interned in Kawaiahao Church in Kakaako, and to send mail to them when they were moved to Kalihi. During this period, according to First Uncle, the 'white bandits' took similar action in San Francisco by sending the Chinese away from Chinatown, and he was not permitted to send to Hawaii medical supplies which Father had ordered for a friend, although the supplies had been purchased from 'white' people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211460, "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-1988", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "152\n\nyears later, Maternal Grandmother had her third child, a son, who died in infancy in China when he and Mother were taken there for a visit.\n\nMother was a very good-looking woman. She had rather large eyes, well-formed features and a fair, pleasant face. Her hair was dark and very fine, a characteristic she had inherited from her father, who, she said, had hair of silk and skin that was fair, smooth and hairless. There was an air of gentility and femininity about her. A modest, humble and friendly person, she made friends easily and always avoided conflict. She formed strong and lasting friendships with many who found in her an understanding and sympathetic confidante. Because she was a fine seamstress, many sought her help in cutting or sewing their Chinese clothes. Mother never lost her sense of pride, even though early years of poverty left their mark on her to save and deprive herself for that \"rainy day\" which never came. She was a pessimist, always anticipating disaster, and consequently was cautious and conservative, often warning us, \"Walk with hand holding onto a wall\".\n\n—\n\nBeneath her soft appearance, however, Mother was a person of strength. She dominated our early lives and we submitted whether we agreed with her or not, due to an ingrained sense of respect for our elders. It was not until I was nearly 30 years old that I began to exert myself and this resulted in a few emotional confrontations. Because it was felt that education would cause daughters to become too independent and also too old to be sought after as wives, Mother was allowed only a few years of schooling. On the other hand, because Hakka (**) parents saw the advantage of a good education, some of Mother's Hakka schoolmates went on to become teachers or prominent citizens. One of them was Mrs. Samuel Young and the other was Mrs. How Fo Chong, wife of a minister and daughter of Lee Toma. From these early associates, Mother learned to speak the Hakka dialect fluently.\n\nBright, alert and curious, Mother had a great thirst for knowledge and never hesitated to ask when she did not know. With added guidance from Father, she could read and write both Chinese and English better than many Hawaiian-born Punti girls of that era. She would tell us stories about the heroic deeds of old, about which she had read in such Chinese classics as The Three Kingdoms and The Dream of the Red Chamber. Even up to a year before her death, she left evidence of having used", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211461, "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-1988", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "153\n\nthe dictionary to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words she had come across in her reading. Whether she was scolding, philosophizing, or teaching, she would usually quote a Chinese saying to reinforce her idea.\n\nAlthough before her marriage Mother knew only how to boil water, she became a very good cook and developed a fine taste for gourmet dishes. Endowed with a good reasoning mind, she managed to figure out how to make household repairs. Widowed at 32 and left alone to cope with the responsibility of raising four young daughters, she proved to be a skilful manager of what Father left us. Except for requiring good behaviour of us, she made no other demands on us. I am sure that she derived much strength from her deep faith in God and in the knowledge that she had fulfilled her promise to Father, before he died, that she would give their children the best of care.\n\nWhen my parents were married in 1903, Father was 25 and nine years older than Mother. Mother had found it very difficult to be dominated by a husband after having been indulged by a fond parent. Still more difficult was the fact that she began married life in the home of Aunt Yim Ali, who took on the role of surrogate mother-in-law and had a sharp tongue. Because Father felt he owed much to his sister, he tended to cater to her and did not think of giving support to Mother. Since Father was earning only 25 dollars a month, there were only two meals a day — breakfast and dinner. Mother spoke of being very hungry, for on the farm where she grew up there had always been plenty of food. At that time adequate nourishment was especially vital for her because she had become pregnant and was still a growing teenager. Whenever possible, Grandfather Jong would bring her a piece of poached chicken leg, salted, and some snacks, which she would hide away for herself. Later, Father found an apartment in a frame duplex located on the corner of Prison Road and a lane running towards the waterfront, and opposite the original site of the prison. He was now able to give Mother two dollars a month with which she was able to have lunch, usually a Chinese flat cookie, called Kiangsu Cake.\n\nBeing chief homemakers, Chinese women rarely went out. Social relationships were usually with neighbours and family members. Our next-door neighbours were the Leong Nam's, with whom we shared a common porch. They had one son, Ah Sui, and three daughters, named", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211465, "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-1988", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "157\n\nconverted to Christianity. Although I did not understand the import of the occasion, I sensed it was a special event the Sunday we were all baptized at the Fort Street Chinese Church to which Father already belonged. We were amused when Helen, then a baby, pushed the minister's hand away when he reached out to baptize her. Thereafter the family attended church regularly, participating in all the religious celebrations in new outfits, especially during Christmas when our excitement ran high. On Sunday afternoons we would worship again at the Kauluwela Mission on Vineyard Street, located midway between Liliha and River Streets. Mrs. Cooper had come from Chicago to carry on this mission work financially supported by Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Richards, in order to reach out to the different races (Chinese, Hawaiians, Portuguese, Puerto-Ricans, and even a few Russians) living in several camps in that area. Mrs. Cooper would often ask Mother to accompany her when visiting Chinese families. In time we became good friends. Whenever Mrs. Cooper visited us, she would have us kneel while she prayed long and fervently, giving me the impression that we were sinners needing forgiveness.\n\nIn 1917 we moved to 178 South School Street in order to accommodate a growing family, at a time when many of our Chinese neighbours were beginning to move to other parts of the city. The more affluent ones bought or built larger and better homes around and beyond Thomas Square. The arrival of the automobile, electricity, and telephone changed our way of life. Within several years tragedy came into our lives when Father died. After an initial severe grief reaction, Mother knew that she had to face reality. She heeded the advice of Bishop Bank to let the Bishop Trust Company administer Father's estate, and as a result, she discovered, to her regret, that she had no say in any decision-making. She was allowed only 60 dollars a month. It was a neighbour, Lam Ôn, who counselled Mother to contest the application of the trust company to continue as guardian of her minor children's share of the estate, and to retain I. M. Stainback as her attorney. Thus she was able to secure the guardianship. By careful management of the assets, she was able to turn over our respective interests to us when each of us reached the age of majority. Although Father did not leave much, there was enough to support Mother through life and for her to leave what remained to her surviving daughters.\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211473, "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-1988", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "165\n\nChinese girls there. Very feminine and attractive, she had no end of male admirers, much to Mother's anxiety.\n\n1\n\nOn February 6, 1932, young and inexperienced, Helen was married to Edmund Tin Wai Tong W, who was some years her senior and much more sophisticated. He had been educated at Lingnan University in Canton and at the University of Pennsylvania, and was working for the Chinese-American Bank, of which his father, Tong Phong, was president. This union was pleasing to both my Mother and to the Tong Phong's. A son, Edmund Yee Sing, was born on 28 September 1933. Following the failure of the bank when it encountered financial difficulties, Helen and Tin Wai were divorced on 18 January 1937. This was a disappointment to the parents on both sides, but the in-laws remained good friends. With the passage of time, Helen and Tin Wai are now on friendly terms.\n\nHelen began her working career as a kindergarten teacher for a year and a substitute teacher at a junior high school for about half a year. For a year in 1937 to 1938, she went to San Francisco to attend a fashion designing school as well as a business school. She returned to Honolulu to work along these lines, first for others, then for herself in a dressmaking business, until the Second World War when she worked for the Office of Civilian Defense in a secretarial capacity. When the war ended, she accepted a civil service position as a statistician with the Territorial Bureau of Sight Conservation and later as a clerk-stenographer with the Territorial Board of Health. Due to the fact that she failed to receive child support, as ordered by the Court, from Edmund's father, Helen was forced to change jobs whenever a better paying one opened to her. Alone she eventually saw Edmund go through college with a degree in dentistry from the University of Illinois.\n\nIn 1946 on a vacation trip to Chicago to visit Dora, Helen met and married Tso-yu Futon on 14 March, 1947. He came from Wen Chou, Yung Chia Hsian, Chekiang Province MT and owned a Chinese art business, which ended when no merchandise could be imported from China. At the time of his death on 14 March, 1971, as a result of an automobile accident, he was a managing editor of a Chinese newspaper. After two more children, Lynnette Wen-chu X, born on 29 July, 1948, and Russell Wen-chau M born on 10 September, 1951,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211481, "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-1988", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "173\n\nZiegler's part and bad for my self-esteem.\n\nI studied English under Mrs. Roberts in my sophomore year and under Miss Floralyn Cadwell in my junior and senior years. When I entered the University of Hawaii four years later, Miss Cadwell was by that time married to an Irish-English gentleman, Mr. Lalia Conway, and was active in community dramatics. Now on the staff of the university, she had me again, this time concentrating on English composition. She was from an old Santa Barbara family who had journeyed to California by way of the Cape. There was a sweet and dreamlike quality about her. We became life-long friends. I owe much to these two English teachers in learning to appreciate English literature.\n\nGeometry was taught by Mr. Cole, a plain Quaker-like instructor. Somehow I did not seem to understand the relationship between points and lines so that I almost flunked the course. Later when I was pressured to teach that subject at True Light Middle School, I was surprised that the government supervisor considered me a good teacher. Perhaps my experience gave me an understanding of the difficulties confronting a student.\n\nMr. Cole is remembered not for the subject he taught, but as a thin, stern teacher, who seemed to be too friendly with Margaret M. Lam, a neighbour of ours. She sat in the seat in front of his desk where she would talk softly with him and would giggle from time to time, intriguing yet somehow annoying to me. Mrs. Wilson taught me first and second year algebra and Miss Wikander, history. I took a year of typing and have never regretted it. All in all I did quite well and the four years went by much too soon.\n\nBecause Mother was concerned that the Barbour Scholarship which Ruth received might not be renewed, I offered to go to work in case she needed some help in the future. Therefore, I took a business course at the Phillips Commercial School for a year and landed my first job as secretary to Judge William J. Robinson, to whom I was referred by Alice Ho Wong, the daughter of Ho Fan, an old family friend. Judge Robinson practised law in the Union Trust Building on Alakea Street, near King Street, and did a good deal of work for the trust company, which was incorporated by Portuguese business men. In the fall of 1928,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211490, "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-1988", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "182\n\na year at Tulane University, came for a visit with his family, as did my mother from home. From New England came Effie Huchmore and Beverly King.\n\nA word about Effie. I had met her while we were both staying at the Franklin Square House near the Boston City Hospital when I was studying at Simmons College and she, at Boston University. We became fast friends. She had me as her guest in her home in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, where she lived with her parents and maternal grandmother, and showed me the beautiful scenic spots of the White Mountains. This visit gave me an insight into the activities and character of a typical New England town and the enjoyment of the simple unpretentious hospitality of an old Yankee family. A rare experience indeed!\n\nBefore I left New York the summer of 1948, I was a bridesmaid to Betty Lee upon her marriage to Paul Gee on June 7, 1948. She was formerly a teacher of religion at True Light and its principal during the Second World War. I had also promised to return to marry John Shue Fong Lew, a widower with two younger daughters in Canton. I had met him casually in Boston in 1947 through a mutual friend, Grace Chin, and had become better acquainted with him when he came to see me in New York, often accompanied by his good friend, Lew Orne. We were both mature and ready to settle down by this time, and fortunately felt drawn to each other. On the way back to Honolulu, I stopped over in Chicago where Mother had taken Edmund to join his mother and where she was waiting for me to accompany her home. As soon as I had fulfilled my commitment, I left Honolulu in October 1950 for Chicago, where John and I were married from Helen's home on 4 November 1950, in a simple ceremony at a local church rectory.\n\nAfter living in an apartment near Harvard Square for a few months, we bought a duplex on 12 Littell Road, Brookline, in order to be near John's business, \"The Ming Restaurant”, at 1022 Beacon Street. By 1952, the business had deteriorated so much that it was not feasible to continue it and we turned it over to S. Y. Lew, one of the partners who wanted it. In the meantime we sent for our daughters, Gar Shuey and Gar Ling, and they arrived in Boston in August 1951 by way of Europe. Both attended Lawrence School and Brookline High School, working as waitresses during the summer in our seasonal restaurant in Bar Harbor,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211502, "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-1988", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "194\n\nbooks\", it was reported.\n\n37\n\nBut publications on China issued during the war years outside China were lacking and efforts were made to fill this gap through donation. Exchange agreements with learned societies were re-established, and the prospects of returning the society to its former prominence were good. The toughest selling job, however, was among the local residents, as usual:\n\nWhile letters received from abroad show the high regard this Society and its institutions are enjoying in other countries, the local public is not taking much notice of it, as proven by the small number of visitors and users of our library. However, similar complaints have been voiced by successive librarians for the past 70 years without achieving the desired effect of a more extensive utilization of this Society's facilities by Local Public.\n\n38\n\nMr. Schwartz kept busy compiling \"A Descriptive Bibliographical Catalogue of the European Books Printed Before 1800 in the Library of the R. A. S.\", followed by one to the next century. Both were published in the Society's Journal.\n\nThe last issue of the Journal came out in 1948, and its only statement concerning the library was:\n\nIt has a library of some 14,000 books of reference which, though latterly hampered by lack of funds, contains many older works not available elsewhere in Shanghai, and which is constantly used by scholars and the public. The library is open daily (except on Sundays and holidays) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.\n\n39\n\nThe demise of the library as a result of the communist victory is beyond the scope of this paper. It ceased to exist as a separate entity, and what became of its collection, by all accounts the finest assemblage of Western language books on China ever formed in that country, is not known to this writer.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211511, "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-1988", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "204\n\nCanton three days later. Rev. Mr. Kollecker informed the German Consul. After investigation no evidence was found to confirm the report.\n\n\"The Christians in Canton were to celebrate the wedding of one of the most respected Christians of Canton. Deacon Wong* of the Barmen Mission in Tung Kun was also there. There appeared the Christian Dr. Sun, recently of the College of Medicine. He was very excited and told the Christians they would not be able to celebrate the wedding that day. The surprised questions of the guests caused him gradually to convey the news that in the evening a revolution was planned and he was one of the leaders. The revolutionaries planned to overwhelm Canton and make it a stronghold. Later they would march to the north and overthrow the ruling dynasty. After that Sun left the wedding party. The guests had not caught their breath before a court servant appeared and asked for Dr. Sun. Some four hundred vagabonds had arrived from Hong Kong who would be the core of the army of the Reform party. On the same boat were weapons and gunpowder packed in boxes. The government received news of it and immediately made enquiries. After a short while they found traces of the revolutionaries. They rounded up those they could get hold of. After a few days the authorities discovered hidden weapons of the Reform party. These were found in a house where a German and an Englishman had lived recently. Nothing could be found out about the German, but the Englishman, known as Mr. Quick, had been involved in a recent revolution in Honolulu and had to leave there for that reason. Both foreigners were able to escape. The enquiry which followed uncovered several Christian members of the American Mission who were implicated in the plot. Sixty involved persons were beheaded, among them were two Christians. The American Consul intervened on behalf of a third Christian because a missionary had pledged himself for his good conduct, but he was quite embarrassed by it, because the suspect escaped and could not be found. Governor Ma, one of the highest officials of Canton, died. It was suggested that he himself had been one\n\n* Deacon Wong must have been Wong Him-ue:1(1847-1907), who after establishing and serving a congregation at Tung Kun City, came to Hong Kong in 1898 and established the Rhenish Mission congregation (Lai Yuen Ui) now located on Bonham Road. He was the son of Wong Yun (1817-1914) a member of Gutzlaff's Chinese Union and later assistant in the Rhenish (Barmen) Mission, Wong Him-ue was the younger brother of the Rev. Wong Yuk-cho (1843-1903), pastor of the To Tsai congregation, Hong Kong. He was well-acquainted with Sun Yat-sen and a supporter of the revolutionary cause.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211512, "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-1988", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "205\n\nof the reform party and that he had killed himself, or someone else had put him out of the way. Dr. Sun escaped to Hong Kong. When two mandarins came to Hong Kong to search for him and other conspirators, Dr. Sun with great daring and courage went to these people, after he found out the reason for their visit, and introduced himself to them. It is said he is now in Singapore because he didn't feel quite safe in Hong Kong. The political involvement of Christians in these undertakings causes great sadness to the missionaries, and there could be very serious consequences for Christians in China, especially Cantonese persons. The Government officials are quite angry that Christians were involved in the uprising. In the last couple of years, I have heard several complaints that arrogant, dark, selfish Christians in Canton made trouble for missionaries, causing them sadness. And it seems to me the Lord Himself had to bring this punishment upon them to sober them. I have hesitated somewhat to convey this information, but have done so because what I have written down is correct.\n\nPu Kak:* How a Punti Village came into Hakka possession\n\nA-1.27. No. 62, 21 April 1893, the Rev. Mr Bender, Li Long, San On District, Kwangtung. A story heard from Pastor Lin, whose home is Pu Kak\n\n\"Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty about two hundred and fifty years ago the Hakka male population of Hin Nen and Ka Yin Tshu left their homes to find work and a livelihood at places to the south. They found both at Pu Kak where rich Puntis of the Wan clan rented fields to them. Later, from time to time, others came from the upper country, so that gradually the Hakka tenants at Pu Kak numbered forty-eight. They built for themselves small huts and houses. Those who had wives and children in their home villagers had them come and join them. They had a good income from their agricultural labours and lived at peace with their landlords. Later there were some quarrels when they had to\n\n* Pu Kak a market town near the Kowloon-Canton Railway in San On District, Kwangtung Province, about midway between Li Long and Sham Chun.\n\n+ The Rev. Ling Kai-lin 749/E (1844-1917). In 1865 appointed catechist of the Basel Mission at Nyen Hang Li; 1876 became catechist and house father at Boys' Boarding School, Li Long; 1883 appointed pastor of congregation at Li Long; retired about 1893 to his native village Pu Kak. He was one of the founders of Sung Him Tong village near Fan Ling in the New Territories.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211526, "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-1988", "page_number": 243, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "219\n\npremier and treasurer of Manitoba in 1885, and while there was quite prominent in the political affairs of the province, being sent to England to negotiate a large loan. On his return from England, he was ordered to Hongkong, to take a position in the diplomatic service. Before leaving this country, he came to Portland with a letter of introduction from Sir William Van Horne of the Canadian Pacific Railroad to Theodore B. Wilcox of the Portland Flouring Mills Co.\n\nRennie at that time knew nothing about the flour business, but he made such a good impression on Mr. Wilcox that he was engaged by the Portland miller to put in the time he could spare from his diplomatic duties, in selling flour. He was successful from the beginning, and in 1895 his business had grown to such proportions that he resigned from the government service and devoted all of his attention to the flour trade. He was a tireless worker, and as he had very liberal contracts with Mr. Wilcox, he was soon enjoying a very large business. On this business he always endeavored to stamp his own personality.\n\nWhile the Wilcox brands were soon famous from Vladivostok to the Malabar coast, and far into the interior of China, it was Rennie alone, of whom the Chinamen knew, and with whom they dealt. This great success and the attendant profits it brought, was probably responsible for Rennie's belief that he could make a grand success out of the milling business.\n\nHis studied effort to keep his own name and personality in the foreground, had given him great prestige in Hongkong and other trade centres across the Pacific, and to him it seemed easy to transfer this prestige from the Americans to a mill of his own.\n\nApparently confusing flour making with flour selling, Mr. Rennie plunged into the business on a big scale. Had he been content to feel his way with a small mill, where the capacity could be increased as the demand for the product developed, he might have made a success, or at least the failure would not have been serious. But Rennie, the greatest flour salesman in all the Orient, had aspirations to be a great miller, and with the money he had saved during his successful career as a salesman, and several hundred thousand dollars subscribed by English capitalists at Hongkong, he built a two thousand barrel mill. The capital", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211527, "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-1988", "page_number": 244, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "220\n\nstock of the company was $1,000,000, and it was all needed before the end of the first year's business.\n\nPrior to the appearance of Rennie as a miller, the chief obstacle to milling with a profit in China was the lack of a market for the offal. Practically all of the profit enjoyed by the Pacific coast millers came from the high prices at which they were able to market millfeed, for which there was no demand in the Orient. Rennie, without much investigation, decided that the offal from his two thousand barrel mill could be fed to pigs at a profit and he established a “piggery” with several hundred animals at the start.\n\nBut millfeed for Chinese hogs was but little more nutritious than poison, and they died by hundreds; the experiment proved a flat failure. This was the beginning of the trouble, and as there was no market for millfeed in the Orient, it became necessary, in order to dispose of it, to ship it to Honolulu. Here it was sold at a very low price in competition with the Oregon mills. As Rennie secured most of his wheat from Portland and Puget Sound, the bran and shorts that finally found a consumer at Honolulu, had to stand a freight rate across the Pacific, and thence half way back again, compared with a short mileage between the Pacific coast ports and Honolulu, paid by the American millfeed.\n\nWhile the pigs were dying, the Chinese were refusing to buy the flour. Mr. Wilcox had spent a large sum of money in working up a trade throughout the Orient for particular \"chops\", as the fantastic brands are known. The Chinese by years of experience had learned to have confidence in these “chops\". So long as Rennie had them for sale, they bought from Rennie, but when Rennie, with his new mill, attempted to sell something \"just as good\", the Chinese buyers politely but firmly refused.\n\nThe Orientals are conservative in the extreme and they steadily refused to take up the new brands put on the market by the Hongkong mill. With slow sales for flour, and no profitable outlet for millfeed, matters were far from bright last winter when a cargo of weevily wheat from India distributed the industrious weevil throughout the mill and warehouses so thoroughly that Americans who have since visited the mill express the opinion that it will be impossible to rid the plant of the pest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211534, "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-1988", "page_number": 251, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "227\n\ncertainly quite old, which proves that these pieces of equipment are durable and have long working lives. That particular one had been in use until after the War.\n\nThe newer of the two hullers was already 35 years old in 1972, and had been made in the village a few years before the War. Its maker was a Hakka man named Tse (i) from Kai Ham (4), one of the villages above Ho Chung in Sai Kung District. He was skilled in their manufacture and had been called in to do the job. This information came from another lady, 71 in 1972, who had come into the village upon her marriage at 25 years of age, about 1926.\n\nMr. Tse first wove the bamboo frame for the huller, and for the base on which the huller sits, and then filled the insides with local earth that was free from sand, stiffened with slivers of bamboo. The earth (PCE) from the hills round Ma Yau Tong was said to be good for this purpose. The earth was then pounded until it became very hard.\n\nThe huller was clearly very heavy, and turning it to separate the husks or hulls from the rice kernels (*) requires a lot of strength. It was usual for two persons, men or women, to operate it, pushing on a wooden handle. The handle was bow-shaped, with a crosspiece at the end against which the operators pushed. (See plate 13). The lower end of the handle fitted into a hole in the beam which turned the huller. This handle was made in the village.\n\nThe (*) was put into the top of the huller, and I was told that both the kernel and the husks came out together from the slightly protruding rim of the grinder onto the ledge below the rim.\n\nThe final piece of information given by the friendly villagers was that the grinder had cost $30: meaning that this was what they had paid Mr. Tse. I don't know how long he had stayed in the village to finish the job, as I forgot to ask this question!\n\nMr. Lawrence Yau, Curator, Regional Services Department, Museums Section has drawn to my attention a description of a rice huller of the same type as the one I saw at Ma Yau Tong in the book Tin Kung Kai Wu (NZM) by Sung Ying-hsing (!) of the Ming dynasty.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211624, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "14\n\n48\n\nto have been a more junior soldier such as a drill or colour havildar who would have been ordered to hoist the flag. At the moment it is not possible therefore to say whether Mohammed Arab hoisted the Union Jack on Hong Kong or not, but what is undeniable is that by his death in 1878 Hong Kong had prospered and grown in importance to such an extent that he and the wider community in the colony considered that whoever had hoisted the flag that day had done something of interest to posterity. If it had been Mohammed Arab, it would have been a foretaste of the multiracial legacies that colonialism would leave to the island.\n\n49\n\n50\n\nThe other candidate for the honour of hoisting the flag is a far more conventional one. In his guide to Hong Kong of 1893, William Legge wrote: 'In January [1841] . . . the British Ensign was hoisted on Possession Point . . . by midshipman Dowell (now Admiral Sir William Dowell KCB)'. William Montagu Dowell was born on 2 August 1825 and was made a lieutenant in the Royal Navy in 1847, rising to be vice-admiral in 1880 and admiral in 1885. In January 1841 he would have been fifteen, so it is possible that he could have been a midshipman at that date and could have been among the group landing on Hong Kong to hoist the flag. More important than whether Dowell raised the flag or not is the fact that the author wished to associate a famous person with the act. William Dowell had been involved in the Second China War of 1857, he was at Shimoneseki in Japan in 1864 and he returned to the Far East as commander-in-chief of the navy in China between January 1884 and September 1885; his naval career had also included spells at the Cape of Good Hope, on the West coast of Africa and on the Egyptian expedition of 1882. By claiming an admiral and a knight as the perpetrator of the deed, the author may have been expressing a desire that Hong Kong's rise in importance should be seen to be mirroring that of Dowell.\n\n51\n\n52\n\nIt is extraordinary that historians have paid so little attention to the acquisition of Hong Kong and that so little effort has been expended in trying to establish the manner in which Hong Kong came to be possessed by the British, and contemporary reactions to that possession. Such omissions might perhaps have been more understandable had Hong Kong at this stage only been thought of as a temporary possession. But by the 1870s it was clear that Hong Kong had become a permanent and financially successful part of the Empire, and certainly by the twentieth century it could have been expected that there would have been considerable interest in constructing a colonial history. That such a history", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211637, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "27\n\nOne of the unique features of the cult of the Jade Emperor is the extent to which members of his immediate family also appear on altars. In Taiwan and South-East Asia in Fukienese community temples, some of the daughters of the Jade Emperor are portrayed in image form on altars both with their father and alone, and prayed to in their own right. The Jade Emperor is said to have sons and four, or according to others, seven daughters. Temple keepers, when asked, without exception denied that the sons and daughters were approached by devotees who hoped for indirect but preferential treatment of their requests from the Jade Emperor.\n\nGraham in Suifu noted two statues in Jade Emperor temples portraying his daughters. (Regrettably Graham did not provide characters, simply giving their titles as Yin Fei U Nu and U Giang U Nu (the U Nu probably being Yuh Nu)).\n\nThough his daughters did not become prostitutes in the ordinary sense of the word, many amusing and ribald stories are told about them. The Jade Emperor's seventh daughter, Chang Ch'i-chieh (A) [Chang the seventh sister] chose to marry a woodcutter who, from the description in the legend, must have been not far off mentally defective. He did not even understand what a wife was. She overcame the woodcutter's mother's natural reluctance to see a beautiful and intelligent young woman throwing away her life to marry her idiot son. Ch'i Chieh was a good wife and all went well. However, unfortunately, she came to the notice of a rich and handsome young man who was determined to have her. She arranged to marry him in exchange for a very large bride-price to be paid to the idiot and, being an immortal, she punished the rich man severely on their wedding night. He promptly changed his mind and released her, whereupon she returned to the idiot who was now rich, and bore him a son. She then returned to Heaven having fulfilled the curse, but at the same time, she had punished the wicked and rewarded the filial, if idiot son.\n\nIn one temple only, small images of the mother and two wives of the Jade Emperor stand alone in a small shrine behind the main altar on which stands the image of the Jade Emperor himself. This temple layout in Silat Avenue in Singapore is very rare as the consort of the Jade Emperor, according to several different god carvers, is never portrayed on the altar. However, Graham, in Suifu in Szechuan in 1928, noted an image of the Jade Emperor's mother on the side altar in his temple, called Yuh Huang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211653, "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": 68, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "43\n\nto the Afterworld during the major festival of the Hungry Ghosts.\n\nIn Chinese ethnic communities other than the Fukienese, pestilence deities are rarely known as such, though individual 'deified doctors' (deities prayed to for specific cures and illnesses) are believed to have special abilities to prevent or cure plague and pestilence. They are not referred to or considered as Wang Yeh. A good example of this is the image of Sui Ching-po (#24(1)) brought to Hong Kong in 1894 during a major outbreak of plague.\n\n4\n\nAmongst the large number of Pestilence Wang Yeh temples in Taiwan the most popular is, as already mentioned, at Nan K'un Shen at Peimen, just north of Tainan. This modern temple is located on the site where the Five Wang Yeh are believed to have first arrived in Taiwan from Fukien province some four centuries ago aboard their Spirit Boat. It began, as did most modern temples, as a tiny shrine of mud and stone, and as time passed and the community became wealthier, and of course, when the cult proved efficacious, the building progressed from wattle and daub, to wood and then to brick and tile. The Nan K'un Shen (A) temple contains a blend of cults, of Wang Yeh, of a protective general and the spirits of the unknown dead, the Yu Ying Kung.\n\nLegend has it that several hundred years ago a youth looking after cattle took shelter from the rain under a tree and stayed dry due to the special quality of the tree. The boy died young, seventeen according to some, and was buried under the tree as he had stipulated in his last wishes. From time to time his spirit, which was at first called the Spirit of the Broom (k) appeared to villages who built a small shrine for him referring to him now as Yu Ying Kung (A).\n\nHe was looked upon as the 'prince' of the surrounding area. However, later five Wang Yeh arrived in their Spirit Boat and the spirit of a general was brought over to Tainan; they asked the Yu Ying Kung spirit to permit them to have a temple in which they could live to be built nearby. The Yu Ying Kung refused and said that he had stuck a needle into the ground to mark his possession of the territory. The Wang Yeh countered this by claiming that they had buried a coin in the ground and thus they too had a claim on the territory. It came to blows until Kuan Yin intervened and a compromise was reached with the two temples standing side by side sharing one common wall which separated them. Thus it is that the Plague Gods (The Wang Yeh), the general (an unidentified and unnamed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211678, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "68\n\nmembers of the Kiu Kiang Defence Force, a small volunteer group recruited from the foreign residents. Some of the men were veterans of the Great War, and the force had originally been armed with rifles and Lewis guns provided by the Navy; however, to avoid all possible accident, these lethal weapons had been withdrawn and replaced with truncheons. Men were despatched to close the Concession gates so as to keep out accessions to the rioters from those directions, and by the exercise of a good-humoured restraint and some sang-froid the rioters were gradually dispersed and shepherded away. By nightfall all was quiet again at the cost of a few broken heads and windows, but the atmosphere remained dangerously charged with emotion.\n\nThe Consul ruled that the women and children must be evacuated that very night in a river steamer, which he had caused to be held up for the purpose. I dashed off to our small flat overlooking the tennis courts at the back of the Concession to warn my wife. We had also our two infants, the one in arms and the other just able to walk; and their dear old amah, of course, had plenty of advice to give. During the early days, while the Revolutionary Army was still attacking the Northern troops who held the city, there was a certain amount of indiscriminate shooting and shots fell amongst the houses in the Concession. One came in through our front door and down the hall. The old amah then used carefully to drape a layer of blankets on the window side of the children's cots \"to keep out the bullets\", as she would ingenuously explain.\n\nOn a large verandah outside the flat where a good view could be obtained of the back gate, the Navy had mounted a Lewis gun and installed an inlying piquet. My wife arranged to cook meals for the sailors, and what with the assistance of an occasional bottle of beer from the Club over the road, they voted that life in Kiu Kiang was not so bad. It was a change from the routine of shipboard and had one unforeseen result; the sailors made so strong an impression on our infants that when he grew up nothing would satisfy the elder boy but that he should join the Navy.\n\nNow the sailors volunteered to assist in the packing, but time was short and there was little room on the steamer for other than the bare essentials. It was more than any Chinese coolie's life was worth to be seen carrying baggage for the foreigners, and so with naval assistance husbands and bachelors helped each other to get the boxes down to the ship.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211683, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "73\n\ntwin Thorneycroft semi-diesel engines drove the craft at six or seven knots, a speed by no means excessive when we remember that during the summer the Yangtze ran five knots. Furthest aft were quarters and a galley for the Chinese crew, the “laodah” and his assistants in crime, the engineer, and two deck-hands.\n\nThree of us were now accommodated in the \"Hsun Si\", and settled down to pass the time of day, assisted by the Consul's gramophone, which we had had the foresight to borrow, and his tantalus, which it had fallen to our lot to escort. We did well enough so long as the weather remained calm, but the houseboat was top-heavy, and when the east wind got up against the flow of the river, raising a short choppy sea, the boat would roll alarmingly and bump heavily against the side of the destroyer. The first lieutenant would come along and throw a jaundiced look over the side at his paint, and order us off. We would have to turn out the engineer to start up the engines, and away we would scurry, slapping into the chop, heading for a bend some miles up the river where we could find a lee under the north bank.\n\nThe Chinese authorities on shore had issued orders that no Chinese subject was to communicate with the foreigners in their ships: but the Navy had left guards in the hulks, to which launches passed back and forth; and it was not long before contacts were again established through this channel. For seventy years Chinese and foreigners had lived next door to each other in peace and friendship, and the ties thus formed could not so easily be broken. They had traded together to mutual advantage, they had feasted and toasted each other, they had helped each other in times of difficulty; on either side were memories of pleasant days and kind deeds.\n\nSo at night sampans would creep out in the dark; little gifts of food would be sent off from the shore, and news would be given of the situation. How much damage had been done? Were the native banks still open? Were our servants being ill-treated? Had the Garrison Commander issued any proclamation?\n\nMeanwhile the Rear-Admiral, commanding the Yangtze British Gunboat Flotilla, had chartered a middle river steamer for the evacuees. The S.S. “Kiang Wo\" had sufficient cabin and dining accommodation to take us all, and anchored in the Yangtze for three months the foreign population of Kiu Kiang lived in what came to be known as the \"Floating", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211688, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "78\n\nextensively damaged; and close range fighting never actually reached us. The Japanese (as we discovered later) never actually located the two field gun batteries though they could tell their approximate position. They also seemed to suspect that something was concealed in the woods running down the valley from the Peak to Pokfulam, so this area was fairly intensively searched. So there was a rain of trench mortar and field gun shells and of air bombs (both high explosive and incendiary) all round us, and sufficient direct hits on the block of flats itself as well as near misses to make things unpleasant.\n\nThe Japanese landed on the Island on December 18th-19th and we had hardly absorbed this unpleasant information when we learnt that they had already crossed the hills and were in Aberdeen and Repulse Bay, thus cutting the island in two. On the morning of Christmas Day the Police sent round an urgent warning that the situation on the Peak was critical and that everyone who could move should go down the hill. Mrs. Witham and her baby got a lift in what must have been the last car to get through but there was no room for my wife and myself, and as we could not walk we had to stay where we were. Our fellow evacuees struggled down to Pokfulam and the servants disappeared so we were left alone in the flat. Our situation was, however, not so bad as it sounds, as there was a Police post in the same block of flats and the Police were very helpful during the following days in getting food and water for us. Hongkong surrendered on Christmas afternoon and the fighting, so far as we saw it, ended with a heavy burst of fire about 5 p.m. from one of our own anti-aircraft guns posted on one of the adjacent islands which was in Japanese hands.\n\nThe troops in our neighbourhood gradually collected, firing off their ammunition, blowing up batteries and dumps and making bonfires of stores. There were so many stores that if we had been mobile my wife and I could have provisioned ourselves comfortably. Even as it was, we got some tins of biscuits, jam and other odds and ends which came in very useful during the next fortnight. The troops were marched off to internment next morning but it was not until late that evening that we saw our first Japanese, when a Gendarmerie post was established in a nearby building. There followed a very disagreeable period. Though the Japanese established Gendarmerie posts here and there they seemed to make no serious effort to patrol the Peak area effectively, and it was in consequence being very thoroughly looted by bands of Chinese. The Japanese themselves were also very troublesome. Though the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211689, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "79\n\nCommandant of the near-by Gendarmerie post promised us protection, he took no steps to implement his promise, and we had a number of invasions from parties of Japanese soldiers, on and off duty, sometimes searching for arms, sometimes frankly looting watches, jewellery and other small valuables. My wife had a polite but firm way of dealing with these intruders, and in the end they got nothing from us but some cigarettes.\n\nOn January 3rd Mr. Gimson (the Colonial Secretary) and Mr. Alabaster (the Attorney-General) came up the hill to find out what had happened to us. They told me that they had spoken to Mr. Yano (who had come back to Hongkong temporarily as Consul-General) and the Gendarmerie people about us and the other Embassy and Consular personnel who were in Hongkong (Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Mr. and Mrs. Rich, Evans, Herrett and Miss Howkins) and we were to be given special consideration. This was comforting but in the event did not mean very much as there was the usual confusion between the different Japanese authorities, none of whom seemed to pay the slightest attention to the others.\n\nThen on January 5th notices were posted up in different places instructing all enemy aliens to report at the Murray Parade Ground between 10 a.m. and noon for internment. The notice said they could take what luggage they could carry in their hands and that they must leave the rest of their property in charge of some responsible person. This notice only came to our knowledge on the Peak at 9 a.m. People didn't know what on earth to do. If they started off immediately, walking down the Peak, they could get to the Murray Parade Ground in time. But there were old people, babies and invalids. Most people thought it would be dangerous to disobey a peremptory order like that, and they struggled down the hill as best they could, taking a suitcase or pushing a pram and abandoning everything else to the looters.\n\nFor my wife and myself there was no problem as we couldn't walk, so we decided to stay and hope for the best, and a good number of others followed our example. As it happened, things turned out all right, as Sir Arthur Macgregor called later in the day to say that he had arranged with the Gendarmerie that the people still on the Peak might remain temporarily but must be ready to move at a minute's notice. However, the Police post had gone, we were in difficulties about food and water (we had eaten the last crust of three-weeks-old bread that morning), and we had had an unpleasant visit from a party of Japanese soldiers at 2 a.m. We were completely alone in the flat, other flats in the building had already been looted, and generally the situation was unpromising. So we asked Sir Atholl to try", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211694, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "84\n\nanti-aircraft fire, but as far as I could see, they were completely unscathed. The bombing seemed to me to be directed entirely against what were, or might be taken to be, military objectives, and this indeed may be said of the artillery fire also. During the 18 days fighting Queen Mary Hospital, 400 yards from Mt. Davis Fort, did not receive a single direct hit. The two hospitals on the Peak (i.e. the Matilda Hospital and the War Memorial Nursing Home) were repeatedly hit by shells, but I think this was due to the fact that the Japanese were searching for two field batteries which were located uncomfortably close to the two hospitals: this, at any rate, was the explanation given by a Japanese officer who came to the War Memorial Nursing Home while I was there after the surrender. One point which struck me very forcibly was the small size of the bombs and shells which the Japanese were using. I saw many direct hits by bombs on buildings on the Peak but in no case did I see any building completely demolished as my house in Chungking was; and the shells, which I am told were mostly from field guns and trench mortars, did not seem to have much penetrating power: they hardly scarred modern reinforced concrete buildings such as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank building and the block of flats where my wife and I were living. I am told that the Japanese were using heavier weapons elsewhere, but my general impression was that the Japanese were mainly using what I think Mr. Hore-Belisha called “Woolworth” material.\n\nAs regards the behaviour of the Japanese in Hongkong I think I must distinguish between two phases, i.e. the actual attack and afterwards. There are many well-authenticated stories of the shooting or bayoneting of British prisoners during the attack, though how general the practice was I have no means of judging. (A Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Flanagan, who is in the \"Narkunda\", told me he had seen a number of corpses of British soldiers still with their hands tied behind their backs). There was also a very nasty affair at Stanley where two doctors, three nurses and a number of Canadian officers and possibly others were massacred. There were also apparently numerous cases of rape including a few European women and girls. The situation however was quickly brought under control and there was nothing at all resembling the licensed disorder which followed the capture of Nanking in 1937. We were indeed told by people who were in Kowloon when the Japanese came in, that the behaviour of the latter towards European women was good though numbers of Chinese and half-caste girls were taken off, obviously for ...\n\n* The staff repatriated via the \"Kamakura Maru\" were transferred to the \"Narkunda\" in Lourenço Marques. (Editor's Note)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211699, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "89\n\nI left the camp at the end of July. Of rice, 7 oz. bread, 7 oz. a meagre portion of beef or pork, some greenstuff, a small quantity of peanut oil, and sometimes a slice of sweet potatoes daily, and about 1 1⁄2 oz. of sugar and a sufficient quantity of salt weekly. Sometimes excessive pork fat was boiled down in the kitchens and distributed as dripping. This diet, it should be noted, includes none of the following: milk, butter, margarine, cocoa, tea, coffee, cheese, fruit, eggs, or jam, and it is entirely inadequate for persons accustomed to a European dietary, as well as far short of the scale believed adopted for internees in the United Kingdom. The Japanese maintained that internees were receiving the equivalent of 2000 calories per head per diem and that this was sufficient for persons not doing hard manual labour. Our own doctors maintained that the minimum allowed by the League of Nations scale was 2400 calories, that we were, during the earlier days, getting only 1400, and that internees were, even at the end of July, getting only 1940. Anyhow, apart from the calories question, the basic rations do not afford suitable nourishment for Europeans, and those persons who were entirely dependent on them were definitely suffering severe hardship. I would add too that the suggestion that internees were not doing hard manual labour was only partly true. All the work of the camp, including road and building repairs and constructions, moving stores, cooking, baking, sawing firewood, grass cutting, etc., was done by the internees themselves, and many of the latter worked hard and for long hours. There is one further class which needs special mention: those people who cannot digest a rice diet. There were many such in the camp, and they were having a hard time. Though a special diet kitchen had been opened to cook for these and other special cases, its resources were very limited, and the diet, though somewhat better cooked, did not vary much from the regular camp food.\n\nThe rice supplied by the Japanese was very variable in quality. Only occasionally did we have first grade. The normal ration consisted of \"cargo rice\", a reddish rice full of grit, beetles, maggots, and other extraneous matter. It cooks badly and has an unpleasant musty flavour. Many representations on the subject were made to the Japanese Authorities, but without effect.\n\nDuring May, the Japanese were so impressed by the physical deterioration of internees that a sum of H.K.$300,000 was allocated for their relief. This came to approximately $105 a head, and it was arranged that a certain sum be allotted for the purchase of extras for the communal", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211754, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "144\n\nThe Shing Ping She was thus required to maintain the Kim Ho Temple, and at least the Heroes Shrine part of the Ping Yuen Temple, and had to meet the costs of the rituals it conducted there. It also had to maintain the bridges and roads, and to meet the costs of the patrols it sponsored. However, it had no land at the time of the Block Crown Lease (1905). Apart from the temple itself, the Ping Yuen Hap Heung owned no land at that date either. Similarly, none of the individual villages of the area owned any significant amounts of communal land. The Shing Ping She did, however, have enough income to buy a good deal of land within the New Territories later — five and a half acres was bought, together with a house, between 1911 and 1920, at a cost of $1,272.50 for just over three of the five and a half acres. Villagers believe the She also bought land at Wang Kong Ha during this period.\n\n18\n\nThe She seems to have imposed a grain tax on all householders and cow owners within the patrol district. At least in the 1930s, as the elders recall, some of this grain was passed to the nuns at the Kim Ho temple and the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz for their sustenance, but most was sold.\n\nThe villagers claim that the Shing Ping She also bought from the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz all the nunnery's lands within Ping Che and Ping Yeung, at a date somewhen in the 1920s, but without changing the registration of the land in the Land Registry. This is possibly why the She's programme of land purchase in its own name comes to an abrupt end in 1920.\n\nThis claim may well hide a more complex situation. As mentioned above, neither the Shing Ping She nor the Ping Yuen Hap Heung held any communal land in 1905, although they had significant communal commitments: Loi Tung, equally, seems to have had no communal land to provide income for the needs of the Loi Tung Yeuk. At the same time, the nunnery land does not seem to have been used to meet nunnery needs. After the fire, the abbess repaired the roof by seeking donations, not by selling or mortgaging part of the land, and this was clearly the position also at the time of the 1868 rebuilding, since the inscription in the temple records the donors. In the 1930s, the nuns' rice came from donations from the Shing Ping She, not from rent. It seems very likely that the Ping Yuen Hap Heung and Loi Tung people had placed their communal lands under the name and protection of the Buddha. This is not uncommon in the area; such an arrangement made it more difficult for managers to embezzle the land entrusted to them, and protected it from external...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211758, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "148\n\nvillages in the neighbourhood. Of the nuns of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz, the abbess from before 1920 to 1931, Wong Tik-yuen, is believed to have come from Fu Tin (Futian), just west of Sham Tsun. Her successor (1931-1944) was Yip Yuet-kwan. It is not known from which village she came, but she, like Wong Tik-yuen, was definitely Punti.\n\nThis strongly suggests that there was a tradition in the New Territories area among the long-settled Punti lineages which made it respectable for girls of those lineages to refuse marriage and instead to enter a nunnery. Those lineages or village groups which owned nunneries were proud of them, and proud of the fact that the nuns came from within the lineage or from the village group or a nearby village. Certainly, the Ling Wan nunnery holds a critically important position within the folktales of the Tangs of Kam Tin.43\n\n—\n\nFor a district to have a nunnery with a few dedicated women living a pure life, eating vegetarian food, and offering shelter and prayer to and for all men, certainly helped protect the district from spiritual disaster, but equally it must have helped reduce social tensions by providing a socially acceptable outlet for girls who did not wish to marry. It is probable that most of these indigenous Buddhist establishments were usually nunneries;14 the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz is called a nunnery ( ) on the 1789 bell, and in the Hsin An County Gazetteer of 1820* and the folktales of the Tangs about the Ling Wan house clearly presuppose that it was always a nunnery (it is specifically called a nunnery on the bell there, of 1755). The evidence for Ling To and Lung Lai before about 1900 is less clear.¶ However, these nunneries were occasionally handed over to devout men to live in, if such men presented themselves to the villages which owned them when the nunnery would otherwise have been vacant. Villagers remember that, before Wong Tik-yuen became abbess, the nunnery was lived in by a man, who was not a monk (he wore his hair “like a Taoist''), and who terrified the children of the villages.** Lei Pui-yuen may have run the nunnery in the same way. The Ching Shan monastery at Tuen Mun must have been founded for men, and this alone may have remained a house of men in the nineteenth century.¶ What is clearer, however, is that there were no Hakka monasteries or nunneries within the New Territories — presumably the Hakka in this area had no nunnery-based tradition of socially acceptable marriage-refusing women. The question of nunneries and marriage-refusing women in this area requires further study.\n\n48\n\n49", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211771, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "161\n\nspare time to the amusement of their fellow residents. Moreover, as has been said before, the community was small, and the critic had after all to live with his actor-neighbours who would no doubt know about his identity.\n\nThus, \"A Stranger\" wrote, about George Colman's Heir at Law (April 21 1851): “Zekiel Homespun was inimitable; we had no idea there was a Gentleman in Shanghae who could take the difficult part so well.) The simplicity, humour and serious earnestness which it displays in some parts were brought out and sustained in a manner that we have scarcely seen equaled, except by some of the leading actors of our Metropolis\". And again: “Constant playgoers as from childhood we have been we have rarely, indeed never, ‘assisted' at a more agreeable evening than that of Wednesday the 16th instant [i.e. February 16 1859]. The performances [of J.M. Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich and Thomas Morton's Sink or Swim] passed off with the utmost eclat due to the talent and exertions of the actors\". Sometimes the author felt it even necessary to apologize for any criticism he uttered: \"We do this, not in the invidious character of critics upon amateur performances or still less as tinctured with the slightest disposition to find fault, but in order that the excellent materials which have been combined in the troupe should be made as much of as possible. Indeed it is the very appreciation of the talents displayed on Thursday [sic; this should be Wednesday January 23 1856– JH] which prompts the expression of these remarks. We are sure that neither the performers nor the audience would thank us for the undiscriminating and therefore worthless praise which usually satirize amateur performances\". But even in this case the critic only had made some comments on the costumes that were used in one of the pieces (cf. Calendar, 23.1.1856). Mild remarks were the severest criticism dished out; about one of the actors on June 2 1859, **we may perhaps be permitted to take an exception to his brogue, which, however good as an assumption, scarcely denoted one to the manner born\"; and about another on the same evening; \"his humour seems better fitted for low than for eccentric comedy\".\n\n10\n\nOnly when it came to the choice of pieces was the paper not always undividedly positive. Writing about John Maddison Morton's Done on Both Sides (February 10 1858) not much enthusiasm was shown: “We have witnessed, we confess, better farces on the same stage and we are inclined to believe that as actors may sometimes not come up to the play, it occasionally happens that plays are not altogether worthy of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211776, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "166\n\nin their own language. On April 18 1864 the first evening took place at which “the arrangement of the costumes and acting were all good and amply repaid a visit, even by those who may not understand the Portuguese language”. Two more performances are recorded of this company (October 15 and December 22 1864).\n\nWith respect to the financial side of the societies' activities not too much can be said with certainty. Expenditure included the rent of a godown to be fitted up as a theatre, scenery, etc. (see below: V. The Theatres). Evidently, entrance fees covered part of these expenses, the members themselves probably paid an annual amount, and furthermore there are some indications that at least a number of performances were for subscribers. Thus, speaking about an amateur evening on February 13 1863, the Herald added that a repeat would take place on the 17th at \"which the public that is non-subscribers will be admitted\". Earlier, in 1859, in a letter to the Editor, a \"Member of the A.D.C.\" complained about the liberties taken by some residents with the subscription circulars: “A wag has amused himself (and himself only) by converting quite a large number of 5 tael subscriptions into 15 and has thereby caused not only great confusion, but some unpleasantness”.36\n\n―\n\n―\n\n3\n\nSuch confusion could easily be tolerated in the all too numerous farces that were put up on the stage, but when it came to realities it was clearly considered to be just as well as to put them down...\n\nGarrison theatricals\n\nFrom time to time the season was enlivened by non-resident amateurs, Naval vessels of several nations that called at the port of Shanghai were sometimes the scene of an unusual crowding of merchants and marines when performances were given on board ship. Thus on October 8 1857 the \"Union Theatrical Company of the U.S.S. San Jacinto\" delighted the public with three farces.37 A year later, September 28 1858, the crew of H.M.S. Retribution entertained a large portion of the foreign community: The quarterdeck was converted into a rotunda tastefully decorated with national and other flags raised nearly to the height of the mizzentop forming a spacious and airy salon. The stage, raised to a convenient height for the audience, was adorned with a well-executed proscenium, the orchestra being in front, all en règles\".38 The piece selected was even of a higher quality than the usual fare, viz. Sheridan's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211782, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "172\n\nstationed in Shanghai during the 1860s were nearly always open air ones. But sometimes a theatrical company co-operated with one of the bands, like the Amateur Burlesque Company on June 29, 1864. Otherwise, performances took place on the Bund, or Embankment, along the river, which was the favourite promenade of the foreigners as well as the most prestigious section of the Settlement. Records have come down to us of concerts by the French 101st regiment in March 1861 (“By permission of Colonel Pouget [who was the commanding officer of the regiment JH] we are authorised to state that the band of the 101st regiment will perform every Sunday and Thursday (weather permitting) before the headquarters of General De Montauban at Messrs Rémi, Schmidt & Co. [this was in the French Concession JH] between the hours of 3 and 4”*. Further concerts by the Rhenish Band and the band of the 67th regiment in June and July 1864 provided entertainment which “the residents evidently appreciated (...) large numbers (...) congregating during the performances”.67\n\nProfessional musicians\n\nFrom time to time professional musical artists visited Shanghai, and, as with the travelling dramatic companies, 1864 and 1865 were a golden age for the public. In the first decades of the twentieth century Shanghai was honoured with recitals by, to name just a few, Feodor Chaliapine, John MacCormack, Fritz Kreisler and Amelita Galli-Curci, but during the fifties and sixties it was only the lesser gods that came to the city. In fact, hardly any one of the artists in this period can be traced in contemporary reference works. This does not mean, of course, that they could not have been capable musicians able to provide enjoyment during an evening. That such was not always the case, though, has already been shown by the criticism drawn by the performance of Prof. Shonbrun, which led the Herald to state that \"in this remote place we have so few opportunities of hearing really good music that we hunger for it and can ill brook disappointment\".68 But then there were Messrs Desvachez and Grossi whose concert in February 1865 had \"called for favourable comment at the hands of our music critic\".69\n\nYet, bearing in mind the conditions of travel in the 19th century, it is amazing enough that European musicians were at all willing to undertake an Asian tour with only very uncertain financial prospects.\n\n\"The first public concert (properly so called) that has ever been given", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211804, "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": 219, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "194\n\n6.5.1852 (Thur)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Attic Story\" (1842)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nR.B. PEAKS: \"The Haunted Inn\" (1828)\n\nT: Farce (2 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music, i.a. selections from Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro\" and other operas. Epilogue.\n\nTh: New Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: Last performance of the season\n\nR: Again there was a new drop scene. \"A View near Palermo, a very pleasing view of an Italian villa with the bay and hills in the background\". The pieces were \"well performed and excited much merriment, especially the mistakes of the Attic Story\" (NCH 8.5.1852).\n\n27.1.1853 (Thur)\n\nD. BOUCICAULT & C. MATHEWS: \"Used Up\" (1846)\n\nT: Comedietta (2 acts)\n\nG.A.A. BECKETT: \"The Turned Head\" (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: After not a little uncertainty about the state of affairs respecting the theatre, finally the management for the new season was laid in the hands of Horatio BUSKIN (a compound pseudonym: Horatio, from Hamlet; Buskin, the boot worn by Greek actors) who succeeded \"Doldrum\".\n\nFor a \"very good attendance graced by many of the beau sexe\" the evening \"came off with great éclat\" (NCH 22, 29.1.1853).\n\n23.3.1853 (Wedn)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Betsey Baker\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nW. BROUGH: \"Apartments\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Prologue; comic songs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nR: In the presence of the British Superintendent of Trade and Governor of Hong Kong, Sir George Bonham, Betsey Baker turned out to be \"a most decided and palpable hit, received throughout with shouts of laughter and applause\". Bonham was in Shanghai on his way to Nanking which had been taken by the Taipings on March 19. The Rebellion had a profound effect on the foreign community and although the Taipings enjoyed for some time a lot of sympathy, on this occasion they were satirised in a **most original and witty Prologue**: \"The Manager appeared before the curtain, in a state of intense excitement, informing the audience of mutiny in the corps! Dreadful consequences!! No performance!!! What could be done!? Then arose such a \"Row and Bobbery\" [Bobbery: an Anglo-Indian word meaning 'noise, disturbance' - JH] led by those who were in the secret and poor Horatio BUSKIN could scarcely be heard amidst the crash of broken glass and was almost unable to face the shower of oranges aimed at his devoted head. An amiable conspirator elevating himself on a bench expressed most loudly and eloquently his indignation at this state of affairs; however, after a parley with the Manager, he proposed a compromise, and the curtain was drawn up exposing the corps evidently in a state of 'Rebellion'. Fortunately they would listen to reason and the 'refractory members' agreed to 'go on' for this occasion, and the Manager retired with...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211841, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "231\n\nattitude to such interpolations, 13.2.1863). The qualities of most players have already been touched upon; others were JOHN EDOUIN, “a capital dancer\"; his sister ROSE EDOUIN who, in burlesques, was \"not to be overlooked; there is a style about her which commands and her gesture is sufficiently theatrical to impose upon her audience where a little less or a little more demonstration might have failed.\" Mr. W.B. GILL whose acting was not \"thoroughly under command\", nevertheless had \"his place marked out for him and we hope some day to see him take up a leading position as a low comedian\". On the other hand Mr. ANDREWS was a useful actor who is careful in his parts does not do more than he needs to do\". The Company had had tolerably good houses and their departure was regretted for it was felt that Shanghailanders had seen \"perhaps the best company East of the Cape\". It went on to Foochow, Amoy and other southern ports. (SCR 5.5.1865).\n\n6.5.-12.5.1865\n\nTwo concerts by Mr. and Mme Simonsen (violin and singing resp.)\n\nTH N.N.\n\nR: For the first time since August 1863 Martin SIMONSEN came to the port, with his wife who was a singer, after recitals in Hong Kong. Rather disappointingly the first two concerts “did not draw very large houses\", but \"they were warmly applauded by all who listened to the spirit-stirring sounds of Mr. SIMONSEN's violin and the melting tones of Mme SIMONSEN's voice\", (NCH 13.5.1865).\n\n8.5, 1865 (Mon)\n\nPELHAM HARDWICKE: (= C. MATHEWS) \"A Bachelor of Arts\" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"The Two Bonny Castles\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: According to both the Herald and the Record the pieces went off successfully (NCH 13.5.1865; SCR 22.5.1865).\n\n17.5.1865 (Wedn)\n\nConcert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: In order to draw more people the admission charge at the Lyceum Theatre had been reduced to $3 with the result that a \"full audience was present” (NCH 20.5.1865). No programmes of these concerts were published.\n\n20.5.1865 (Sat)\n\nConcert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen, with the Band of the 67th Regiment.\n\nProgramme:\n\n\"Kathleen Mavourneen\" (song), **No not I** (song), C.A. de BERIOT: “Air varié”, N. PAGANINI: \"Carnival of Venice\", C.M. von WEBER: \"Aufforderung zum Tanz”, \n\n'Monastery Bells\", \"Valse de concert\" (song).\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: This was the last concert given by the SIMONSENS in Shanghai. According to the Shanghai Commercial Record it was a great success. Mme SIMONSEN sung the song \"Kathleen Mavourneen\" which \"literally “brought down the house\" (this must have been an exaggeration), after which she gave with great effect a very charming little skittish song “No not I'\". Her husband repeated some of the pieces he had performed seven years earlier (October 1858); Paganini's \"Carnival of Venice\" (with which the critic was \"not so much pleased\") and the variations by De Bériot. In addition \"he introduced one or two movements [into the Carnival of Venice? – JH] which we have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211868, "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": 283, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "258\n\nOn Sunday my troubles began in earnest. The weather came on very rough early in the morning, and my first intimation of it was to see the water pouring in at the window, and flooding the bed. So I got out to move the bed, when over it goes to the other side of the room with a bang, which woke me up and no mistake about it. Over goes my washing table, and flooded the room again, so that I had a pond, first on one side of the room, and then every time the ship rolled, on the other. Then the boxes began to slide about, and dash first one side and then the other. Then the easy chair, hat box, umbrella, books, etc. etc. joined them, and in a few minutes over went the pan I had used for vomiting on Saturday. All these kept rolling round the room in fine confusion, and I will leave you to imagine that they in no wise helped the seasickness which fast increased. The scene was pitiable in the extreme. I never spent such a Sunday in all my life. It kept raining very hard. All I could do was to make my bed as dry as possible and stay there all day, in a most pitiable condition. I need not say that I wished myself back to Hythe, or down with the good folks at Chudleigh.*\n\nOn Monday the weather increased in fury, and we had a regular dashing about. I grew more and more seasick. We were now about 20 miles from Teignmouth, and I heartily wished the ship might be driven right in by the wind, that I could have got out, and found refuge at the old house at Chudleigh. But no, off we went close to France, and then back again to Lizard Point. Then back to Cape la Hogue in France, and then on Tuesday noon we were to the west of the Scilly Isles. About then the seasickness abated, but came on again furiously at night.\n\nThis morning I awoke a different being, as light and happy and cheerful as possible, and began to sing, and dress myself, and put my place a little straight after so much vexation and trouble. All day I have mended, and now after enjoying my tea, I feel almost right, although as thin as a red herring, having kept nothing at all on my stomach for several days. It has left me very sore at the sides with so much straining and retching, but I shall soon get over it, and be all jolly. The wind keeps right against us. The water is very rough. The ship rolls about dreadfully. During the storm, which has lasted some days, vast had been the amount of damage done to the ship, but more especially has the crockery ware suffered. It would make a person unaccustomed to such sights laugh to see us at meals. The nuisance is dreadful; but I am now a sailor, and am now grown accustomed to it. The waves are running mountains high, and all I wonder at is that we have not been dashed to pieces a hundred", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211873, "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": 288, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "263\n\nI shall not venture to say much about the cooking, etc. for I am obliged to keep my eyes shut on all occasions where I am near it, for fear I might see something not quite to my fancy in that department. I enjoy the biscuits very much, only I shall soon have to shut my eyes when eating them. Our fresh provisions are beginning to go, so we must soon fall back upon the preserved provisions. We have plenty of good milk to last the voyage, plenty of sardines, salmon, etc. and plenty of bottled fruit, so that we have a fruit pie or pudding every day. In fact we have everything that could be procured on land, and for what I can see, quite as good.\n\nThe captain and I agree very well on all points but religion. Yesterday we had a regular set-to about it, and I was obliged to talk to him rather plainly, only it will not do to say too much to such a man when he is warm. Captain Moult is about such another, or else he would not be a bad companion. He has been well educated, and has a good share of common sense. We are thrown a great deal into each other's society, and so it is to our interest to keep on pretty good terms. Since he has resided at Hong Kong for some time he knows all about the place, and I get a good deal of information out of him, on different subjects.\n\nWe have spent several hours in walking the deck together. It is the only exercise to be got on board ship. I have however invented two or three species of exercise in my cabin, which I find very beneficial. I believe I should be soon laid up if I did not take a fair amount of exercise. Often I have envied the sailors at their work, and should have liked to have a pull at the ropes with them.\n\nSaturday, April 6th\n\nToday has been a cheerful pleasant day. Soon after daylight the chief mate came down with the intelligence that land was in sight on the \"lee bow\". After so many days rambling over the water it was joyful news to me, so I got up, and had the usual wash all over, and went upon deck to take my constitutional, i.e. early walk. It was a lovely morning. The sun already \"well up\" was rather warm, and all round was lovely and delightful. Sure enough there was the land, but it was above thirty miles off, yet on account of its great elevation (in some parts 6000 ft) I judged it to be about four. The clear atmosphere quite deceived me. It proved to be Madeira, and we were on the eastern side. All day I have been on deck enjoying the beautiful soft balmy breezes, which are now quite", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211876, "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": 291, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "266\n\nthe best of it.\n\nThe weather has now grown intensely hot. In the shade the thermometer is now standing at 84°, which is rather inconveniently warm. Since we have a lady on board, we are obliged to keep ourselves quite dressed, and really sometimes at meals it is very oppressive. At night even lying without clothes at all is very warm work. But in the day time on deck it is a trifle cooler when there is any breeze. In fact I have almost lived on deck for above a fortnight. It is pleasant of a night, especially now the moon shines. The stars however are all strangers to me. There is one fine constellation, the southern cross which is very pretty. The north star is just now going out of sight, and after tomorrow I shall not see it again for a while.\n\nI am getting more and more used to sea, although I shall never be very fond of it. It is all very pleasant to sit on deck and read all day, but soon one gets tired of it. It is the same thing every day, and no variety. Not even a sail has appeared for several days. The other day I saw a herd of grampusses, and the other evening a great fellow about 30 feet long, came blowing around the ship for some time. The flying fish are now very numerous, and sometimes a great shoal of them dart out at once from the water, and skim along above the waves. Today I spent some time in watching the stormy petrels as they skim along. Several of them have followed the ship for some days.\n\nI am now making some progress with Chinese, so that I can get on slowly through the gospel of St. Matthew in Chinese. I should do famously if the Chinese servant on board was only a Cantonese. I can of course make him understand in writing, but his pronunciation is as different as French from English. I also shall try to get some German if possible out of Captain Moate, so that I can discourse with the German missionaries.\n\nWe must now call at Anger [Anjer] for a fresh supply of fowls, and perhaps of water. I shall then hope to get hold of some fruit, which of course cannot be procured on board ship. I am very glad we may stop there, because I shall perhaps be able to send you a line just to say I am all right. I expect there will be a wonder at not hearing from me sooner. I fear however it will be impossible, since there appears no chance of falling in with an homeward bound ship. My health continues good, and if this hot weather does not last, I hope to keep all right.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211878, "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": 293, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "268\n\nover the past, or meditating on the future. I am often picturing out the arrival at Hong Kong, and what sort of a place I shall find there; and how many letters I shall find there for me. I hope the Bishop will have sent me some further advice, and an order for the payment of my salary. I shall want to get some of my salary advanced, as it will cost a good deal to set up housekeeping on my own account. I have thought of a hundred things which I shall require to know when I get there.\n\nThe other day I found out that the captain's wife is a Roman Catholic. I had suspected as much for some time previously. He professes to be of no religion at all; so it is no wonder that I cannot associate with such people. I had a bit of a row with him the other day, but he soon drew in his horns and was uncommonly obliging for a few days. It is miserable to live with a man who does nothing but grumble and growl at the men all the day long. I have hardly heard him speak kindly to anybody yet.\n\nWednesday, May 1st\n\nI am very glad we have reached another month. Often am I thinking of May and how pleasant it is in England, now everything begins to look beautiful in the country. But for me there is nothing but the wide waste of waters to look at, and the sky overhead, and the consolation that only half the time of the voyage is yet over. It is truly a very monotonous life, but still it cannot be helped.\n\nI am now very hard at work with Chinese, Latin, Greek, and French and what with these and other subjects I can just manage to keep myself busied. And I find that the more my mind is occupied, the faster goes the time, only it is rather wearing work to the eyes and brain to read so much.\n\nCapt Moate and I are now tolerably friendly, and I do not mind him as a companion when he does not swear nor speak improperly. He has certainly very much improved, and I hope by the time we reach Hong Kong he will have become quite a clever fellow.\n\nWe have been rather put out of our course through the continuance of the SE winds, which have driven us right back almost within sight of South America, and detained us considerably in our course. The wind has just lately veered round a little, but we are still going along very slowly and badly. It is a long way before we get to the Cape. We are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211879, "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": 294, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "269\n\nnow out of the tropics, and already begin to find it much cooler; every day will now make a difference. As we reach the Cape it will be toward the middle of winter, so that we may expect to find it cold. The sea air continues to agree with me, although I very much miss being able to take exercise that is suitable. And I find it rather injurious to sleep in a cabin where the air is quite close, and the heat like an oven, even with the door and window open. Still I hope to more than make up for it in the cold weather. As it is, I am enjoying very good health, and have a good appetite, so that I ought to be thankful for them.\n\nOur fowls are beginning to get fewer every day. Yet we have I should think nearly half a hundred. Directly there is an egg laid they all begin to peck at it, and in a minute it is gone. So we watch and directly we hear the cackle we run to save the egg from being destroyed.\n\nThe poor third mate is in for it today, and has had nothing but bullying. The officers and men seem to get a day of it in turn. The captain's son, George Edward, gets it all day long. Every few moments he has a good smacking, so that if his heart does not grow tender, there is something else that does. It is disgusting to see a child, that would be quite an A 1 if properly managed, made quite a fool of, and treated worse than a dog. Captain Moate and I often have a laugh to ourselves to see their goings on. He does not forget to ridicule the way the men are managed and how things are carried on. But now I am growing quite hardened to such things and hardly notice them.\n\nWednesday, May 8th\n\nAfter a good deal of knocking and blowing about we are now a little quieter, so I take advantage thereof to add to my journal. \"We are now about a week's sail from the Cape, and probably about half the voyage is over. We had three days of very stormy weather, so that the captain says he does not remember a storm lasting so long before. During the night it was worse by far. Of course sleep was an impossibility, and long before the weather was over I was nearly used up. The ship rolled very much, and all I could do was to roll about in my berth, first to one side and then the other. But now we are all right again and going on tolerably smoothly, which I hope may continue.\n\nThe wind now blows from the south, which is the cold quarter for this part of the world. It is now as cold as it was hot a few days ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211880, "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": 295, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "270\n\nAround the ship a number of cape hens and cape pigeons are flying. When it is a trifle calmer I shall try to catch some with a hook and line, and then having fastened my name to them let them loose for some one else to catch.\n\nOur dog Jack has had his hair cut off, which has considerably altered his appearance. We are very good friends, and it is amusement to make him run about. We have quite a menagerie of cats, of which old Jerry, quite an old patriarch, is the father and ruler. At dinner time, no sooner does the bell ring than away they come and take their places as regularly as possible.\n\nDuring the gale we lost the flying jib, which was blown completely to ribbons. I have now learned the names of all the sails, and in fact am gradually growing into the sailor. When the ship is almost on her beam ends I can walk the poop without any difficulty. It is very amusing at meals to see the contrivances for preventing accidents, otherwise we should all get in a pretty state. Even as it is we have to fasten the things to the table, or hold them in our hands, to keep them upright. I must now leave off as it is dark, and shall walk the deck for a half hour to get a good appetite for tea. This shaking about has pulled my fat down considerably, and I must try to get it again.\n\nMonday, May 13th\n\nWe are still a week's sail from the Cape, and creeping along very slowly indeed, in fact we hardly seem to be moving at all, for the wind is so very light. It is enough to make one feel rather gloomy and dull to be tossing about so long. The sea for several days has been very heavy, and has poured over the decks, and into the cabin without mercy. Having suffered so much from former experience I took precaution enough to avoid all disasters, for all in my room is quite tight and safe, and I have not had a drop of water in to trouble me. You may depend upon it, I am getting nearly used to my cabin after nine weeks residence in it. In fact I began in a measure to feel myself at home, such as it is. Yet it is dreary, monotonous work, no change, the same faces over again, and nobody that one can speak a sensible word to. The captain would go into fits if I were to speak to the sailors, for all hands in the cabin seem to regard them as a set of inferior beings.\n\nOur menagerie had an increase of a family of three kittens yesterday,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211881, "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": 296, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "271 \n\nand fine ones they are too. I do not know how many we have now. We talk about getting some monkeys at Anjer when we get there. I wish we were to be there tomorrow. They reckon above 40 days now before we make it. We yesterday crossed the meridian of Greenwich and are now in East Longitude.\n\nI could not help thinking all day yesterday what was going on at home and among my friends and relations since it is the same time with us here as it is in England. I very often visited them all round, and had a peep at what all were doing during the day. We shall soon be ahead of you now, and very soon when you get up in the morning we shall be at noon, taking our luncheon.\n\nSaturday, May 18th\n\nYesterday we were within 200 miles of the Cape, but had to come to a stop and turn back on account of foul winds, so now we are going back again. If we had gone farther the current would have taken us no one knows where out of the way. We have now to go south for about 300 miles before we get round the Cape; and today the sea is as smooth as glass, and it is the calmest day we have had since leaving England. Still we hope for a wind soon, and I believe the men are \"putting the ship round\" to be ready for it. Tomorrow we shall have been out ten weeks, and with fair winds we ought to have been here in seven weeks. It is very disheartening.\n\n1\n\nI have spent a good deal of time lately in study. In fact I am making it like college work, and thus the time goes very nearly as fast. I should like this very nearly as well as college if there were more society, and if I could hear from home once a week.\n\nYesterday I amused myself by fishing for birds. I manufactured a hook out of a bent pin, but that did not answer, so I tried a bent needle, but that being slender and brittle was soon gone. So I bent a large stocking needle and managed to make it do. I caught a cape pigeon by the wing and hauled him up and put him to death. A second one I dropped into the water before I could seize him. In the evening I caught another, but in killing it I made its feathers so dirty that it was useless. The first I skinned and should preserve it if I had the proper chemicals. I can have plenty of alum, but that I fear would not do, so I shall throw it overboard after the other. They are large birds with very thick plumage,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211886, "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": 301, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "276\n\nwas \"scarfed\" together and \"fished\" and \"dowled\", which operation has rendered it nearly as serviceable as a new one. We cannot use more than about a quarter of the sails yet, and it will take a long time to get the new masts up, and new sails made. Yet we are going along quite favourably considering, with a strong favourable wind.\n\nYesterday we were on the look out for St Paul's and Amsterdam, two small islands in the Southern Ocean. Through the chronometer's being out of order on account of the storm, we had made a wrong reckoning, and did not pass between the islands till after ten o'clock at night, when the captain came and told me to look out of my window and see them, as I was gone to bed. It was too dark to see more than the bare form of them. In fact Amsterdam was the only one I could see from my side of the ship. It is simply a rugged rock, about 15 miles long, and quite uninhabited except by sea-birds, of which a great number were soon flying round the ship.\n\nThis morning when I went on deck they were far out of sight. We ought to get to Java in 12 days if we were in good trim, but in our shattered condition we shall perhaps make nearly double the time. There will be a short stay also at Batavia to lay in stock of masts and spars to repair with. As yet we have been wonderfully favoured by the wind, and notwithstanding the storm and the fortnight tossing about in the Channel, we are four days ahead of the last voyage the ship made to Batavia. We shall now soon be going northward into warmer weather.\n\nThe captain was quite knocked up with the storm, and has not yet got over it. He does not take his meals with us yet, and Capt Moate and I are in no hurry for him to do so, for we get on far better by ourselves. In fact I may say we are good friends, and have been so all the voyage. We have never had a misunderstanding between us, and as long as he does not swear or talk improperly I do not much mind him as a companion, especially as he is a far better scholar than I am, and has resided at Hong Kong, so that I know by this time what I must expect when I get there. I have got him to read some good books, and now and then a little serious chat with him, which he submits to just to oblige me. I know all his personal history, and in fact could write an account of his life with tolerable accuracy. He is thoroughly disgusted with Capt Harper, who is quite an uneducated man, and thinks he is a perfect gent. For my own part, I never disliked anyone more than I do him. I can hardly be civil to him at times; for he acts in such a disgusting manner", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211889, "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": 304, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "279\n\nsome hopes of Capt Moate, for it is possible to talk to him, and we have had some very serious conversations together on religious subjects; and he has even read his Bible occasionally; but he still swears dreadfully when he is talking to any of the rest.\n\nMy clothes have lasted out well; especially the shirts, which I have saved by using the \"flannel ones\". I intend to do a small \"dab\" of washing on my own account this week, that I may have less to have done when I get to Hong Kong.\n\nWe ought to sight Christmas Island on Friday, and with a good strong wind I have no doubt but that we shall do so. I intend to write another letter to send you from Batavia, because it is only a quarter ounce I can send for you to get it soon. I often trouble myself to think how disappointed you are not to have heard from me before, but of course it is not my fault. I dare say this yarn will stretch out long enough before I get to China to last you several hours reading it through.\n\nTuesday, June 18th\n\nToday has occurred the only event of the least importance for a very long time. About ten o'clock we spied a sail in sight and at noon the ship came up with us. She was a whaler about half the size of our ship. She lay to for us to come up, and then sent off a boat, supposing from our shattered appearance we were in distress. The whaler was from New Bedford, United States, and her name was The Congress. The boat was soon alongside, pulled by six stout strapping Yankees. The captain, a very gentlemanly fellow in every respect but dress, came aboard, and had a good yarn with our \"skipper\". To hear the fellows talk was quite amusing to me. They have all such a nasal twang that when I heard one speak I went and looked over the side, expecting to see \"old Bobby\" there, for I never heard anything more like his \"cackle\".\n\nThey had been out nearly two and a half years, and had only taken 800 barrels of oil. There are four men continually at the mast heads, on the lookout for whales, and in the distance you may imagine how very small they appeared to be. They will make about a four years cruise of it before they return to their home. What a life it must be, to stay on the water so long, and in such dangerous employment. They had eight harpoons in the boat which came off; and the boat seemed to fly over the water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211892, "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": 307, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "282\n\nand look at them, and made remarks on their condition. No wonder they go almost naked, the heat is enough to make anybody do so. They wear sun hats exactly like a large wash pan turned bottom upwards. A boy was steering who was the most good-looking of the lot.\n\nThe captain bought a monkey, which was quite young and has since afforded us plenty of amusement; also about four crates of yams and some bottles of curry powder. I waited for the next boat and invested half a crown in seven cocoanuts, a quarter hundred oranges and an immense bunch of bananas. The banana is a fruit in shape like a cucumber, only larger when they are well cultivated, and about a hundred grow on one bunch. My bunch was quite as much as I could lift, and being quite green I hung them over the ship's stern where in a day or two they ripened and were quite yellow. Their flavour is delicious, and is something like that of a ripe pear. When fried in butter they are delightful. The captain also bought 300 oranges for the use of the cabin, but madam ate them nearly all herself in less than a week. They were wild ones I believe, but the flavour was very good. Afterwards when other boats came off, we bought plantains, eggs and no end of things.\n\nTwo ships came in behind us, to one of which we afterwards spoke; she was the Wynand from London, and came out above 20 days after us, and turned off up to China, where she will in all probability reach in 100 days, as we should have done had we had a proper sort of man to act as captain. We ought to have gone off behind him, and never to have gone to Batavia, which has hindered us at least a fortnight, if not three weeks; so say all the ship captains at Batavia. We however turned off Point Nicholas and scarcely came under Babic Island when the wind ceased, and for four days we scarcely moved as many miles.\n\nI grew quite disgusted. To amuse myself I got a hook and line and went fishing. But in throwing it out on the next day the hook caught the top of my finger and tore it clean through, taking away the whole of the upper part of the nail. I got it doctored up a bit, and what with cold water and other appliances it was nearly well in a day or two. I caught no fish, through not having any proper bait, although the fish were leaping out of the water by thousands, and the natives in their canoes were pulling them up by hundreds. We saw them also pulling in their nets, and trying by shouting to frighten the fish into their nets.\n\nA boat at last came off at night out of Bantam, to ask for a job in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211895, "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": 310, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "285\n\nJuly 17th\n\nOnce more on board ship and seated at the cabin table, I am endeavouring to recall to mind a few reminiscences of Batavia, which I trust may prove interesting to all who read them. I will begin where I left off, and tell you that the sea being rather rough, we got a good drenching before reaching the shore in the boat. I had on my light suit which I had up to that time worn but little. The sea water has done it but very little injury. In fact it was so hot that long enough before we reached the town it was dry throughout.\n\nIn we pulled, among the crowd of shipping, and at last reached the entrance of the Canash. This is a canal about two miles long, reaching from the town to the sea. It was full of small ships and boats. As we neared the lower town, the sides were covered with green trees and bushes. I really felt quite like a prisoner released after a long confinement, and it was a treat to hear the birds sing once more.\n\nWe passed the Dutch fortifications, and then stopped at the custom house, where our effects were taken note of, and we were allowed to enter the town. They are very strict as to who they let into the town, as we could easily see, for we were well overhauled.\n\nWe went a short way along the road till we came to a Dutch store, where the captain went in and we stayed a short time. We there met the captain of the ship which we passed the day after the storm. He had been in some days, and that rather vexed our captain. He was a smart little Dutchman, and quite the gentleman. I had a few minutes chat with him.\n\nThen we took a carriage and went up into the town. The carriages are like an English Chaise, and only room for two. Of course they are open, and have an open place behind so as to have a cool breeze right through. The horses are all about the size of very small donkeys, and as thin as possible. There are two to every carriage, and they can hardly move along. You cannot hire one for less than three and a half rupees, or 5/10; but you can keep it for six hours for the money. The drivers are Malays, and wear the \"basin\" kind of hat I spoke of before. They have to keep the whip constantly going.\n\nWe drove through the town which in the European parts is very neat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211896, "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "286\n\nand pretty. There are abundance of trees of all sorts growing at the sides of the roads. The shops of the Chinese amused me very much as we went along. At last we came to \"Hughan's store\", where there is a great space, with easy chairs, etc. for loungers and loafers. Hughan is a ship chandler, and by keeping this place pretty comfortable he gets the captains of all the English and American ships there, and of course gets the job of supplying their ships with provisions, etc. Before the whole lines of stores and offices there is a path, with a roof to it so that one can walk about for an hour without being in the burning hot sun, which in Java is very injurious, especially to Europeans.\n\nWe took a short drive about the town with the captain, who was looking out for some spars for the ship, and then set off out in the country to Madame Baines' Hotel, which is the only English place where one can get to. It was a three-mile drive, but the beautiful appearance of the place made me think nothing of the distance. The Dutch, to whom the island belongs, are the greater part of the European population; consequently, the town is in every direction intersected by canals as is Holland. These canals serve the purpose of drainage, washing, and to keep the air cool. On each side of them is a very wide road, shaded by large trees from the sun. Thus the streets are very wide and airy. There are, of course, a great many bridges. The European houses are very grand, and nearly all built on the same model.\n\nOur two poor horses at last brought us up to our Hotel, where we arrived about two o'clock. It was half an hour before we could get anyone to attend to us, since it is the custom to sleep in the middle of the day. At last, after walking about over the house, we were met by our hostess, a Scotch lady of colossal dimensions, but withal a pleasant agreeable old party, who at once made us at home, and got us some \"tiffin\", or breakfast. All her servants are Malays, and she can speak the language very fluently. Indeed, when well spoken, Malay is a pretty language.\n\nHer house is an average specimen of all the European houses in Batavia. It has only one story on account of earthquakes, but it is very lofty and airy. There is a large dining hall and entrance hall, while round the house are the verandahs, where people spend a great part of the day, and especially the evenings. Facing the road, the verandah is very wide and lofty. In the garden is a stream, running round a small island, which has some fine clusters of trees, which are so curious that I cannot describe them. Some of the leaves are as large as a good-sized tablecloth. Round", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211898, "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": 313, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "288\n\nI had a good long yarn with Madame Baines on the verandah. When I told her what I was, she became very religious all at once; but I could see it was only hypocrisy, although she had an oily tongue. The Bishop of Victoria was there in 1856. The people were highly pleased with his visit, and all who I heard speak of him seemed to do so with respect. She was acquainted with a Mr King of the Scottish Free Church, who had returned from Scotland only three months ago; and promised to introduce me to him and drive me there in her carriage.\n\nAt eleven o'clock I went to bed. My room was very fine and airy. All the beds in Java have to be curtained all round to keep out the mosquitoes, which would prevent sleep, and sting finely into the bargain.\n\nThe captain and wife came from the ship to the hotel the next day. They made themselves such fools by wanting to appear grand that everybody laughed at them behind their backs. No sooner had the captain left the table, and the rest began to talk, when Mr Phillips began: “Well of all the disagreeable obstinate men I ever saw, I never saw anybody to beat him. I can see it in his looks although I have never spoken to him nor know who he is\". When I told him it was our captain he wanted to know if he had not guessed right. I told him I must be excused from answering that question. Madam was finely laughed at, and reckoned up in just the terms she deserved. Since our return to the ship these parties have been equally run down by the captain and wife,\n\nA\n\nTwo days I took a walk into the town in the middle of the day. I was afterwards told that no European would ever be able to do it, for it was enough to kill the strongest man on account of the sun's intense power. However it had not the least effect upon me. In fact I felt all the better for it.\n\nOn the first day I started to go into town but took a wrong turning, and went out through one of the Chinese quarters into the country, where I had a few miles' walk. The scenery was very fine indeed. The palm and betel nut trees, and trees of which I have no idea formed a delightful shade. Even the country is intersected by canals. But whether in town or country, you always find the shore of the canal crowded with washermen. The clothes are never washed, but merely beaten. They get a smooth stone, and after soaking the clothes in the water, they keep dashing them on the stone, swinging them for that purpose round their head.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211899, "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": 314, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "289\n\nEvery few yards you see people bathing. Women come down and go out into the middle of the water up to their shoulders, and then dip and scrub the little brown youngsters and teach them to swim. In places the water is quite alive with them, men, women and children altogether. It is quite disgusting to see such scenes of indecency, but people there seem to think nothing of it.\n\nOn the second day of my walk, I went into town and found a French watchmaker, and got him to put me a new glass, in place of the one I broke in the Channel. I had to pay three rupees, (5/-) for it. Nobody there charges less, and they never do any job to a watch under five rupees. I had a good chat with the old fellow, and got him to repair the hands into the bargain. In his shop I found a young German who could speak almost every European language.\n\nDuring the time I was at Batavia the horse races came off. The plain in front of the Hotel was the race course. Although of course I had nothing to do with the races, I amused myself by looking at the people from the verandah. There was a motley throng of people dressed in their gay holiday clothes. The Malays of all descriptions were dressed in pink cotton clothes. The Chinese in white coats, light blue trousers and straw hats. The Armenians in long flowing robes of yellow or blue, the Arabs somewhat similar, with large turbans. The half-caste and Europeans were dressed as is the universal custom in white. Consequently there was a mixture of colours, as well in dress as in countenance. The fruit sellers were very busy, and seemed to be making a deal of money. The Chinese, with their usual carefulness and forethought, each brought a little bundle of fruit with them so that they might not have to pay through the nose for it. Of the races I can say nothing since I saw nothing; only it pleased me to see a tremendous shower come on in the middle day of the three, and put a stop to the day's fun.\n\nOne day I bought some clothes of the men who infest the place, viz. two kobias, a kind of loose white jacket to sleep in, and wear in the morning, and two pairs of perjaumers, or native loose trousers for the same purpose. Of course people here never think of using bed clothes, and these sleeping clothes are as thin as possible. I also bought a light silk coat, and a pair of white jean trousers.\n\nDuring our stay Captain Moate, unknown to me, got two quart bottles of gin, and got dead drunk. I could not have thought it of him,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211902, "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": 317, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "292\n\nhas to keep up about a dozen of these servants, for each one only does one thing.\n\nOn Thursday morning weighed anchor. There was scarcely any breeze, and it was only a short distance we made, before we stopped at night. On Friday we were off again, and got a little breeze. About midnight through sheer ignorance and carelessness the ship dashed onto the Aganeiten rocks, and there was a fine crash. The captain was quite paralysed, and did not know what to do. The ship would have doubtless broken up and never been got off; but all at once the wind changed and blew her clean away from danger. Truly a merciful Providence attends us, or we should long ago have gone to the bottom. The captain evinced his gratitude when his fright was over by cursing and swearing worse than before, and bullying the men. In fact the men are continually on the point of mutiny. All I wonder at is that they have not done so before.\n\nWe reached the strait of Banca at last, after several days without wind. As we entered we passed the mail steamer to Batavia, and a Dutch ship aground. We were three days going through, on account of the wind. At night we stopped off another Dutch ship going to Singapore and Hong Kong. In the morning she was off an hour before us. Our masts are not yet only half up, so that in a few hours she was out of sight. The captain does not intend to finish the masts till he gets to Hong Kong, although that was the excuse for going to Batavia.\n\nThe breeze grew a little fresher toward evening, and at night we were going on about five miles an hour. Early in the morning, I heard the cry \"Breakers ahead\", and in another moment came another crash or two, and the ship was dashing on a coral reef. Two large rocks wedged us in, and there we were, expecting to go to pieces since the sea and wind increased and there was no chance of getting off. We were right in the middle of the Toedjoe Islands, which are considered as very dangerous. The captain did not even try to get her off. About noon however with our usual good fortune in difficulties, the water rose about 10 feet, and by sending out an anchor in the ship's pinnace, we drew the ship gradually out of danger, and got clear again. This was celebrated as before by renewed blasphemy.\n\nJuly 25th\n\nWe have now crossed the line, and are less than a thousand miles", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211903, "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": 318, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "293\n\nfrom our journey's end. The wind for days has sent us along at two or three miles an hour; but we hope it is now freshening for good. We ought here to have the regular SE monsoon, but it seems we do not deserve it. The captain tries to persuade everybody that it is through someone on board; and often he makes out that no ship can sail, with a b---- of a parson on board, as he considers me. All I wonder at is that his swearing has not been more severely punished, and that worse visitations have not befallen us. It is truly wretched to live with such a man, whom you perpetually feel to be your enemy, and whom you know hates you from the very bottom of his heart. Nowhere can I get out of the way of his swearing; and his daily conversation, saying nothing of his swearing, is enough to disgust even the lowest of the low.\n\nThe night before last an amusing incident occurred, which at the time was rather alarming. Of course you know these islands are infested with Malay Pirates, who attack every ship that falls in their way, and murder the crew to get the cargo, after which they sink the ship. About four o'clock I was woke out of sleep by a shout. I heard the captain run on deck and in a tone of despair say: \"Good God, it is a pirate boat alongside; we shall all be murdered.” I instantly got up, and dressed, and after putting my watch out of sight, was ready to sell my life only after trying my best at fighting. I determined that if I was robbed, the fellows should pay dearly for what they got. No one had seen the boat come alongside. The lookout had not seen it through negligence, and the second mate on the quarter deck had not seen it, because it lay the other side of the mainsail. But nobody moved, and there the boat lay, till at last we came to look closely at it, and found that it was an old tree that had been washed away by the sea, and drifted along side of the ship. The shoals of fish following it and leaping out of the water, sounded like the oars of a boat. Poor captain's guilty conscience made him a coward. He did nothing and said nothing through fright. His heart I believe was up in his mouth, and he came down to his cabin, where I heard him vomiting at a fine rate. It just shows what he is, with all his bullying. It was, however, very gratifying to find out our mistake. Yet I cannot reflect that if it had been a true alarm, there could have been but little resistance, since the firearms are kept out of the way and out of order. We have nearly 50 muskets, but not one can be used. Our two signal guns are both dismounted, and lie down on the main deck.\n\nThe heat continues very great, but it does not effect me in the least.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211906, "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": 321, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "296\n\nBut of course all the pathways are roofed over, and the people walk in the shade. Trees are also planted outside the path. The traffic in the streets equals that of London, and the noise far surpasses it.\n\nThe Chinaman directed me how to find the college, so I walked on, and came to a house on fire, which was quite a serious affair. After some few blunders and asking I was directed to the college, and wound round the hill. My feelings were indescribable. A thousand thoughts and feelings rushed in wild confusion through my brain, and this with the heat was rather enough to make one feel funny.\n\nAt last I spied the college and took a walk round it, incognito. Then I went to the hall, and with rather a fearful pull, rang the bell. I waited a few minutes, and a Chinese boy came to the door. Of course I wanted someone to introduce me and show me what was before me. The Chinese servant seemed to know nothing, and I waited and walked about a long time, till at last I found a gentleman, the Surveyor General of the island, who is for the present residing here. He informed me that Mr Beach was still here and would be in soon.\n\nI went into the Bishop's Drawing room and waited two hours, till Mr Beach arrived. He was rejoiced to see me, and we were soon on the best of terms. He gave me the letters that were here, and I need not say with what an appetite I devoured them all. They seemed to stir me up and did me no end of good to know all was going on well. For weeks I had dreamed every night of getting a bundle of letters. I had six. Two from Anna (poor little girl), one from George, one from Father, one from Jabey, and one from the bishop; and a paper from Tidcombe. It was like balm and honey after being shut up in prison so long.\n\nI felt so rejoiced that I wanted to shout, and sing, and laugh, and cry, and caper about, and jump over all the chairs and tables in the room, all in the same moment.\n\nI will just send you the Bishop's letter:\n\nDear Mr Fryer,\n\n\"Although I have scarcely anything to say, I cannot omit sending you a few lines to assure you how much you were in our thought and how regularly your name was mentioned", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211938, "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": 353, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "328 \n\nwinter. Once in a year they practised shooting at a police shooting range near Man Kam To. In earlier times the guards had used gwan sticks.\n\nC. The village market\n\nAt present there are a few shops, mostly food stalls, in Kam Tin Shi. Some Dangs also live there. They are descendants of the senior branch, including descendants of Wan-Guk and Wan-Gaan. The place used to be the local market. It was active before the Japanese occupation. It had a sign in the form of an arch, which was removed by the Japanese. Some documentary information about the market has survived in a rent record.29 One of the shops entered into the rental contract in 1851. The rent book included entries for five shops in Kam Tin Shi. Among them one was run by a tailor. It also mentioned the names of three streets. These were Upper Main Street (Sheung Taai Gaai) and Lower Main Street (Ha Taai Gaai) as well as Middle Street (Jung Gaai). The elders remembered that the market had two or three butchers and two or three fishmongers. Besides these there were a few other shops. Two sold jaap-fo (“sundry goods”). Kam Tin Shi is remembered to have mainly catered for the needs of the Kam Tin people. Very few outsiders came.\n\nSome informants added that there was even one pawn shop inside Kat Hing Wai. The owner was a descendant of Wan-Gaan jou. I have no idea when the pawnshop was started. There was also a peanut oil factory which was started more than 100 years ago. It was owned by a Wan-Yu jou person.\n\nIV. SETTLEMENTS AND LINEAGE SEGMENTS\n\n4\n\nAccording to Sung (1973:111) Hon-Faat, the first Dang ancestor to come to the province, built the first house at the bottom of a hill called [Gwai Gok Saan] about three-quarters of a mile away from the present Kam Tin\". His grandson Fu-Hip lived there on retirement and founded a school called Lik Ying Jai (ibid.: 116). The descendants of Fu-Hip's grandson Seui, lived in the Naam Wai and Bak Wai villages around the beginning of Ming dynasty (1368). The division of the Kam Tin settlement into Naam-Bin and Pak-Bin remain today. Yun-leung, father of the gwan-ma and one of the sons of Seui, remained in Kam Tin. The other four descendants of Fu-Hip moved to nearby Ping Shan and places in Dongguan county, among other places. The descendants of many of the sons of the gwan-ma moved away to Lung Yeuk Tau, Tai Po Tau,\n\n30", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211993, "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": 408, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "383\n\nRecently, a poem on the Revolution composed by a village lady from Sha Tau Kok has come to my attention. It was probably composed in 1911, at about the time that news of the Revolution first came to that area. I was told that the occasion of the composition was the marriage of a girl from Sha Tau Kok Market to a villager of Shan Tsui, a village just outside the market. Her elder brother was a supporter of radical ideas, and was living away from Sha Tau Kok. He returned for his sister's wedding, and when he did, his relatives were shocked to see that he had cut his queue - the first man in the area to do so. His sister composed the poem while she was in the sedan chair being carried to her new home. When she sang it, it was an instant success. It was remembered for some years. My informant, who came from Tong To village near Shan Tsui, learnt it about 1925 (she was born in 1907), and was still able to recite it.\n\nThe poem is of interest, not only because it is an almost unique expression of the views of indigenous New Territories residents to the Revolution, (and even more because it was composed by a village lady - a group whose political views are always particularly difficult to discover), but because it discloses a more enthusiastic view of the Revolution than the general silence of our records would lead one to expect. It should, however, be noted that the then District Officer, New Territories, remarked on the speedy, unanimous and easy acceptance of the Revolution by the New Territories villagers. They had, he felt, \"long been ready to join the party of progress, within a few weeks scarcely a queue was to be seen throughout the Territory\".3\n\nBecause of the poem's general interest, a copy is attached, with a translation. The poem was composed in Hakka, in lines of seven characters divided into a group of four and a group of three, in rhymed couplets.\n\nMy Brother's Queue\n\nMy elder brother is enthusiastic, and my younger brother, too.\n\nThe Revolution has succeeded and my elder brother has cut his queue.\n\nWhen you buy a new copper cooking-pot, it is best to put food in it.\n\nThe Manchus have starved to death, their intestines shriveled to nothing.\n\nWhen you buy a new copper cooking-pot, it is best to get one with handles.\n\nThe Manchus have starved to death, their guts shriveled to nothing.\n\nDo not fear the Manchus will use their sharp knives.\n\nWith just a single bomb-blast the hair of all their heads has gone.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212027, "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": 442, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "417\n\ninterested in modern China or who are interested in the British in Asia. Dr. Atwell has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of how the British administered one small locality and coped with the demands of modern forces. Her work can be used as a guide or spring board for comparison of British colonial policy in other East Asian places, such as Brunei and the Straits Settlements, Hankow, Tientsin and Shanghai, say, with Hong Kong tossed in for good measure.\n\nWEI PEH T'I, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong\n\nSteven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China, Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement, China Research Monograph 28, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies, 1985.\n\nProsper Giquel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985.\n\nThese two works, one of compilation and assessment based on a doctoral dissertation, the other of translation (with the help of Debbie Weston) and annotation with a lengthy introduction, have a considerable intrinsic interest because they deal with a rather extraordinary man. They have also a degree of relevance, over a century later, for the West's involvement with present day China's modernizing programme.\n\nThey are to be read in conjunction with other modern works on this period of China's self-strengthening efforts, including those listed in Dr. Leibo's introduction to Transferring Technology.\n\nProsper Giquel, a French naval officer, came to China during the Second China War. After service with the Joint Commission that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French \"Ever Triumphant Army” to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212098, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "17\n\nwith its inculcation of “right thinking\", the complete process has been summed up in a few well-chosen words by Dr. Monlin Chiang, one of the most prominent educationalists of the early Republican period:\n\n“These moral precepts came from the Confucian classics. Moral ideas were driven into the people by every possible means — temples, theatres, houses, toys, proverbs, schools, history and stories until they became habits in daily life, 233\n\nThe effect of both the legacy and the drilling was not lost on competent Western observers. Writing over 150 years ago, in his standard work on China first published in the 1830s, a future governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, then only lately returned to England from many years' membership of the Honourable East India Company's Select Committee at Canton, had this to say: \"The Chinese lower classes are better educated or at least better trained than in most other countries”.\n\nPART THREE: “Right Thinking\" in Action in Tsuen Wan\n\n134\n\n+\n\nTsuen Wan District (like all the rest) provides plenty of evidence for the effectiveness of the indoctrination, as well as occasional examples of emulation and performance. People knew what to think and what to do, and recognized the attainment of the prescribed high standards of conduct and behaviour even if they themselves did not measure up. Men who did so were greatly respected, to the point of veneration.\n\nIt is the general opinion among Tsuen Wan natives, then and now, that such a one was the late Mr. Chan Wing-on, a former Tsuen Wan Rural Committee leader and also Chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk. Mr. Chan, who unfortunately died comparatively young, left a fine reputation behind him. He is commemorated by a tablet in a traditional-style pavilion, named for him, which was erected the year after his death near the entrance to the Chuk Lam Sim Yuen, one of the large religious houses located above the town. The memorial tablet records his life and achievements as a teacher and as a public figure; with an emphasis on his virtuous conduct and character and how it had influenced others for good:\n\n\"Entering the teaching profession, he taught the village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212105, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "24\n\n30\n\nSir George Thomas Staunton, a member of the 1793-94 Macartney Embassy, whose translation of Ch'ing Law was the first published in Britain, had been at pains to emphasize this: Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws... of the Penal Code of China (London, Cadell and Davies, 1801), p. 185. For its application in practice see the cases translated with commentary in Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967).21 Cited in Corinne K. Hoexter, From Canton to California, The Epic of Chinese Immigration (New York, Four Winds Press, 1976), p. 136.\n\n11 Dr. William Lockhart of the London Missionary Society, writing in 1861, cites the case of the old scholar who so greatly assisted Dr. W.H. Medhurst with his translations and researches. See his The Medical Missionary in China (London, Hurst and Blackett. 2nd edition, 1861), pp. 21-22. \"He was a living concordance of the entire range of Chinese literature. He could find any passage without hesitation, repeat page after page of most of the works, and could easily take up any citation which had been begun in his hearing, and finish it without hesitation. This is not an uncommon thing amongst the educated Chinese, but this man possessed the faculty in a remarkable degree\".\n\n23 Arthur Evans Moule, The Chinese People, A Handbook on China (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1941), p. 262. See also his New China and Old, Personal Recollections and Observations of Thirty Years (London, Seeley and Co., 1891), p. 271.24 Some of the literary material to be found in villages of the Hong Kong region is described in Dr. Patrick Hase's most useful paper. \"Research Materials for Village Studies\", Chapter 4 of Alan Birch, Y.C. Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds.) Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies (Hong Kong. Centre of Asian Studies. University of Hong Kong, 1984), pp. 31-46, especially between pp. 32-37.\n\n25\n\n—\n\nBy great good fortune, some of their libraries have survived and are in safe keeping. One of them came from Hoi Pa Village, Tsuen Wan, and had belonged to the builder of the traditional village house there which is now a listed monument. He lived between 1865 and 1937, and after his return from Jamaica engaged in educational pursuits in a literary club and at the Luen Fong School in Hoi Pa Kwan Mun Hau. When what had survived of his library was presented to the Urban Services Department in 1982, it consisted of some 200 books of various kinds, as well as manuscript essays and poems, including some of the famed \"eight-legged essays\" written in preparation for the imperial examination; all providing valuable documentation for the educational, social and intellectual activities of their period. South China Morning Post, 26 May 1982. See also the Chinese press of that date.\n\n16 What Francis C.M. Wei calls the operation of the principle of retributive justice\" featured prominently in Chinese stories. See his The Spirit of Chinese Culture (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 151. See also Yao Chin-nung, \"The Theme and Structure of the Yuan Drama\", in Tien Hsia Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (November 1935), p. 392.27 The Tsuen Wan experience is echoed in the fine description of what it meant to be a village boy in late 19th century Kwangtung, contained in the memoirs of a successful Hawaiian Chinese, born in a village near Macau in 1865. In them, he describes what one might call the \"extra-curricular\" part of education. This included the telling of traditional stories by the family elders and by itinerant minstrels and story-tellers, and through the plays performed by visiting opera troupes, as well as in literary pastimes: Chung Kun Ai, My Seventy Nine Years in Hawaii (1879-1958) (Hong Kong, Cosmorama Pictorial Publisher, 1960), pp. 6, 26-29.\n\n28 Francis C.M. Wei, The Spirit of Chinese Culture (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947) p. 149.\n\n24\n\nFor the former, see the chapter \"Symbol and Tradition\" between pp. 50-75 of Ronald", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212122, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "41\n\nKong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1983), 156-160 & 163-164, on the Jiao festivals celebrated between 1964 and 1972 in Ma Tau Wai, Nga Tsin Wai, Tung Chung and Tai O.\n\nN Mathias, John R.G., Study of the Jiao: a Taoist Ritual in Kam Tin in the Hong Kong New Territories (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1977-78).\n\n#I Kani, Hiroaki, \"Hồn Kôn Chugokujin no shukyo shiso no ichidan nitsuite\" Shigaku 40, no. 2 & 3 (1967).\n\n22\n\nObuchi, Ninji, “Hon Kon no tokyo girei\" |Daoist ritual in Hong Kong] in Ikeda Sueri Hakase Koki Kinen Toyo Gaku Ronshu (Tokyo, 1980), 753-769.\n\n27 Yoshihara, Katsuo. \"Shukyo\" [Religion] in Kani Hiroaki (ed.) Motto Shiritai Hon Kon (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1984), 184-191.\n\n11\n\nSee note 37.\n\n14\n\nI have been told that Dr. Faure had a manuscript on the Jiao festival sent to a publisher in Hong Kong. However, due to whatever reasons, it has not yet been published. See also Hayes, 164, about Faure's book on Jiao festivals.\n\n36 I was probably the only researcher who participated in the 1980 Kau Lau Wan Jiao festival when I was first introduced by the late Prof. B.E. Ward and Dr. S.H. Wang to the Jiao festival celebrated by the fishing village. In October the same year, Dr. Faure and I attended the Jiao festival at Pak Kong, Sai Kung. In November, the late Dr. Lu Bin-chuan of the Music Department of CUHK, Dr. Lu's student Mr. Chan Wing-Hoi and I attended the Jiao festival in Fanling. Dr. Faure, Prof. Ward and Prof. Tanaka also came. The Jiao festival of Fanling and that of other areas are mentioned here and there in Faure's 1986 book. In December 1980 students of CUHK under the guidance of Dr. Faure, Dr. Wang and Prof. Ward started an ethnographical research on the Jiao festival in Ho Chung, Sai Kung. A detailed report of daily rituals was written by Lee Lai-mui and Cheng Shui Kwan, two CUHK students majoring in History and minoring in Anthropology. The report was sent to interested scholars. Unfortunately it has never been published. Two students of the CUHK at that time should perhaps be mentioned here: Chan Wing-hoi, who specializes in music and computer, was employed by the History Museum of Hong Kong to study the Kam Tin Jiao festival in 1985, a report of which was published in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29 (1989). Chan's master's thesis on folk music in Hong Kong also includes a chapter on the ritual music played by the Taoists at the Jiao festival. Chan also has an ethnography on the 1986 Shek O Jiao festival published in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 26 (1986), 78-101. The master's thesis of Leung Chor-on, now Ph.D. candidate of Cambridge University, submitted to the Anthropology Department of the CUHK gives a good account of the ritual symbols of the festival. Chan, Leung and I held a seminar on Jiao festivals on Dec. 11, 1988 for the \"Research Circle of the Regional Society of Southern China\" focusing on musical, ritual and social aspects of the festival.\n\n27 Locally published works besides those by Faure and my own are:\n\n-\n\n(a) Chamberlain, Jonathan, \"Introduction” in Chamberlain J. and Iam Lambot The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau (Hong Kong: Studio Publication, 1990). This is largely a collection of photos. Chamberlain's introduction is very descriptive but no sources are quoted.\n\n(b) Chan Wing-hoi, “Observations at the Jiu [Jiao] festival of Shek O and Tai Long Wan, 1986\" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 26 (1986), 78-101. Chan recorded meticulously what he was told and observed about the 'settlement', the 'participants', the \"ritual site\", the \"local gods\" and the \"events\".\n\n(c) Xiao, Kuo-jian (Anthony K.K. Siu), Xianggang Xiandai Shehui [Pre-modern society of Hong Kong] (Hong Kong: Chung Wah, 1990), 86-97. Xiao attempts to illustrate three reasons why the communities in Hong Kong celebrate the Jiao. The first reason is to plead for fortune, to pay sacrifices to the gods, to drive away evils and to prevent\n\n4", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212132, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "51\n\nthe fortunes of the Nestorian church in China between 638 and 781, and a brief exposition of the major Christian doctrines. It was composed, according to the main Chinese inscription, by a Nestorian monk who had taken the Chinese name Ching-ching. From the Syriac section of the inscription we learn that his true name was Adam, and that he was the Nestorian metropolitan, or archbishop, of China.\n\nThe Chinese term used throughout the Sian tablet inscription for Christianity is Ta-ch'in Ching-chiao K4, which can be roughly translated as the 'Syrian Brilliant Teaching.' The expression appears prominently in the inscription's title, the 'Tablet of the Spread of the Syrian Brilliant Teaching in China'.\n\nThere has been considerable debate on the significance of the Chinese geographical term “Ta-ch'in'. In fact the term always remained imprecise in its application. At its most restricted, it denoted Syria and the country around Antioch. But it is also found before the Arab conquests applied to the Roman empire generally, or at least to its eastern part. Probably the best way to think of 'Ta-ch'in' is from the viewpoint of a Chinese merchant. He knew that there was a market for his silk at the Mediterranean port of Antioch. Antioch was in Ta-ch'in and to get there a man had to go through Persia. \"Ta-ch'in' was simply the region to the west of Persia, and in most contexts 'Syria' adequately conveys the geographical area in question.\n\nAs used in the Sian tablet inscription, Ta-ch'in retains its basic geographical significance as the country, however vaguely defined, to the west of Persia. Ta-ch'in is explicitly distinguished from Persia in a section of the inscription describing the Nativity:\n\n\"One person of our Trinity, the brilliant and revered Messiah, veiling and hiding his true majesty, came to earth in the likeness of man. Angels proclaimed the good news; a virgin gave birth to a saint in Syria (Ta-ch'in). A bright star told of good fortune; Persians saw its glory and came to offer gifts.\"\n\nBut whereas Ta-ch'in is sometimes used in the Sian tablet inscription in this restricted geographical sense, in other contexts it is used as a synonym for 'Christendom'. The inscription asserted, for example, that Ta-ch'in had Christian laws, fa fei ching p'u hsing JRIO.\n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212159, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "78\n\nicon form on minor altars in Taiwan. These icons are understandable as portraits of Sun the 'Father of the Nation' appear with those of Chiang Kai-shek in offices, schools, barracks etc. where they were bowed to each morning as a sign of respect. Among the less literate and more superstitious it is not difficult to see how this has led to such icons appearing on altars with incense burnt before them.\n\nIn the mid-1960s, the Kuomintang organised a political demonstration in Cambodia on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, the middle of the month during which Hungry Spirits return to the human world for thirty days. During the demonstration public sacrifices to the spirits of the victims of the communists in China were performed. There was also talk of deification of one or two but this came to nothing.\n\nIt has not been unknown for outstanding living persons to have a sanctuary built in their honour. The magistrate of Ch'ing-ho district in Hopei was such a man. He brought about a substantial reduction in taxes and other government levies and thus lightened the financial burden on a hard pressed people. In 1886, two years after he had been transferred to administer another district, the grateful populace of Ch'ing-ho built a shrine in his honour.\n\nIn Singapore in 1970 a new cult was founded near Woodlands on the northern tip of the island when the deity, Wu T'ien Chu, appeared to a Singapore Fukienese man in a dream. The deity explained to the Fukienese that he, Wu T'ien-chu [The Military Master of Heaven], was a mighty deity who had chosen the Fukienese man to become the 'Master Warrior' of his cult. He required a new bungalow to be converted into accommodation for the founder with the lounge becoming the altar hall. He told the Fukienese man that he would protect his devotees, cure their illnesses and bring them good fortune. A statue of the deity was carved in the likeness of the spirit as he appeared in the founder's dream and placed on the altar. The founder, the Fukienese man, explained that with his wide knowledge of all religions he encourages devotees from every nation and creed to worship in his temple. He explained that the world's most powerful deity is the Jade Emperor, with Sakyamuni, The Buddha, as his deputy. Next in seniority is Kuan Yin followed by Wu T'ien-chu who has a great many assistants and warriors under his charge, none of whom is ever portrayed in image form. He continued that the four pillars of the cult are \"the four gods (shen) of other religions, Buddha, Christ, the Pope and Mohammed”.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212185, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 127, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "104\n\nPetroleum Co., and a timber ship of the Import and Export Lumber Co. Together with the large \"Ewo\" hulk we were all anchored a few miles above Nanking in a stretch of the river, designated as a \"Safe Harbour\" of which the Japanese authorities had been duly notified. The American gunboat \"Panay\" was anchored two miles lower down off the creek at the top end of Nanking, whence communication with the few foreigners in the city could still be maintained through a 'phone situated in a godown on the bank.\n\n\"The Flag Captain, Commanding Officer, and Ward Room officers of H.M.S. \"Scarab\" request the pleasure of the company of the British community, now afloat in the \"safe\" anchorage, on board H.M.S. \"Scarab\" at 11.30 tomorrow, Saturday, 11th December, on the occasion of the anniversary of His Majesty's accession.\"\n\nIt was a lively party. As you may imagine there was plenty to talk about, and the bountiful hospitality dispensed by the Navy - I naturally do not refer merely to its liquid aspect - set all in a pleasant frame of mind for a latish lunch when the gathering broke up and the participants returned to their respective ships. I have no doubt that the ensuing sense of somnolence was fairly general when, with a crash, a shell burst on the river bank not 100 yards from the nearest ship. The noise disturbed the lethargy of that Saturday afternoon. Ears pricked to discover whether there was more to come. The doubt whether that first shell was a stray or not was soon settled as two more straddled the nearest ship. Captains leapt to their bridges and called for steam. Clouds of smoke belched from the assembled funnels, marking well the whereabouts of the target. Shells began to fall regularly in the anchorage, but it was not more than fifteen minutes before the merchant flotilla, festooned with attendant small craft, was underway heading upriver. The two gunboats remained to stand-by the hulk, which was full of foreign and Chinese refugees and, having slipped its anchors, endeavoured to tow it in the wake of the other vessels. By good luck there were no direct hits on any of the ships, though some vessels were holed by splinters, and two unfortunate Chinese boatmen were killed and some others wounded.\n\nThe shelling resumed when the ships were under way a mile or two above the \"safe harbour\", the guns then appearing to be of heavier calibre. The shells came over in pairs and were very well", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212200, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "119\n\nLiuchow where one of Colonel Chennault's schools for training Chinese pilots was at that time established. I arrived just in time to observe the results of a Japanese air-raid on the field, when they succeeded in shooting up two of the latest type of Curtis Hawk fighters, the only two at that time in China, concealed in some trees on the edge of the field. Training under such conditions was not easy and the school soon had to move west again into Yunnan province.\n\nThree hundred kilometres a day is good going on these lightly metalled roads. I reached Kweilin on the evening of the third day after leaving Wuchow, and put up at the government hostel. From time immemorial the idea of travel has filled Chinese with apprehension, induced not only by fear of the ubiquitous bandit, but also by the abomination of the fetid roadside inn. With the advent of the motor car, the need for better hotel accommodation became evident, and the various provincial governments opened official hostelries at key points. While these left much to be desired by western standards, they were a prodigious improvement on the old-style inn.\n\nKwangsi is one of the more progressive provinces, for long controlled by Generals Li Tsung Jen and Pai Chung Hsi, who rank next to the Generalissimo himself. The hostel at Kweilin was better than average. There was a wireless in the lounge, and a small crowd of us sat and listened to the news as it came in. It was the period before Munich. A young German amongst us, flushed with arrogance, gloated over Hitler's successes. My first contact with the aboriginal Nazi spirit left me angry and dismayed.\n\nChinese buildings are flimsy. The rooms are small and dark, and not clean. When you have made allowance for this idiosyncrasy, Kweilin appears a delightful little town. The city wall circumambulates from shrine-crowned hill to hill; the river is full of junks that sail down to Wuchow; the roads are wide and straight, and shop arcades cover the pavements on either side. The little separate hills rise steeply from the plain, in those fantastic shapes seen in Chinese paintings. Their rocky tree-fringed summits staggered drunkenly beneath the sky. The hills are full of natural caves, most convenient for storing war supplies, or to act as shelters in the event of raids. But Kweilin was still far from the war. The Kweilin merchants believed that the Japanese planes would have difficulty in locating their little city snuggling amongst the hills. The excitement was all about the new railway,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212204, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "cannibalisation. Until the Japanese advance, in the autumn of 1944, flowed over Hengyang you could see a harlequinade of locomotives there in various states of disintegration. Without these reserves, saved through the foresight of the railway personnel, the Chinese would have found it impossible to maintain the service between Kukong, Hengyang, Kweilin and the west as long as they did.\n\nThere was much activity in the airfields, the civil field over at Wuchang, and the military field near the Race Club behind Hankow. From the latter the Russians were operating light bombers, which would pass over in twos and threes on missions beyond Kiu Kiang; and Russian fighters laid in wait for Japanese raids. As I was riding down the Bund one day in a rickshaw - petrol was scarce and under control - a single Russian bomber flying overhead, for no apparent reason, blew up.\n\nThe foreign married women and children had long since left Hankow. The two faded cabaret dancing-halls prospered even more than usual. Artistes, who spoke Russian with a Harbin accent, so I am told, made lots of hay; but, as will happen when news and women both are short, it was chiefly at the clubs that the men foregathered. It was the fashion to go out to the Race Club of an evening. There on the lawn after sunset you would see the British, the Americans, and the French. Hitler had recently recalled the officers of von Falkenhausen's mission, so that the usual sprinkling of German officers was missing, but occasionally Russian air-force officers came to sit huddled in a group by themselves.\n\nI was able to book a berth on a ship of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company leaving for Kiu Kiang. It is an overnight journey. I do not propose to enlarge on the minor discomforts of travel in China. In the railway carriages, in the ships, and even in the cinemas, the bedbugs and fleas take a long rest during the winter from November to February. It was only June and so I was up on deck soon after dawn to watch the familiar banks go by. As we moved alongside the same old hulk I observed the Kiu Kiang Bund. It had grown shabbier. The process of degeneration, which appears to follow on the withdrawal of the foreigner, was evident. Flaking paint, dirty window panes, broken plaster, left their mark. The Chinese are not good at maintenance, whether it be of houses or machines.\n\nApart from Shanghai, Hankow, and Tientsin, where there were large\n\nIII", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212226, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "145\n\nher over there until she could get a passage across the Atlantic to England.\n\nI had been hoping to be called up myself, and in the meantime saw a good deal of the two able liaison officers left behind by the British Army in Shanghai. One was a Japanese interpreter, and the other spoke Chinese. We were all impressed with the importance of the Chinese guerilla effort, and hoped that the British government would be able to provide technical assistance for their support. I am afraid that the seed then sown fell on stony ground. Regular generals do not comprehend the implications of guerilla warfare, nor do those schooled in concentration appreciate the advantages of dispersal; moreover, generals are not interested in small groups; they prefer the big battalions.\n\nWhen the time came, in May, and I was recalled to join up in Burma, I was glad to leave Shanghai. Many excellent people, detained by their duty, reluctantly remained there; but generally the atmosphere, so thick with complacency, had long jarred on me. As late as September 1941 the deluded residents of Shanghai were willing to oversubscribe fifty times a new share issue, which a British Cotton Mill Company elected at that time to place on the market. Long after the comforting assurance of the period of \"phoney\" war had ended so catastrophically in Europe, its demoralising effect continued at work in the Far East. At last, on December 7th, 1941, the house of cards collapsed; and the final bankruptcy of British leadership in Shanghai shewed itself, when the young men, caught there by that cataclysm, failed even to attempt to escape from a net, whose meshes were not closed until some weeks later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212247, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "166\n\ncomes up to Anna's. In the Cathedral when she sings she can be heard at times quite distinctly from the powerful organ, and an efficient choir. She wants me to join the choir, but I am in no hurry to do so, till I can find out the character of the members. The organist is quite a young man, but a very fair performer.\n\nMy description must now soon be brought to a close. I must however just say a few words as regards my pupils. They seem generally very shy, what I have seen of them. Two in college now will shortly leave. Hah-choong, the elder is a tall genteel looking youth of 18. His father was an Englishman and his mother Chinese. He was left an orphan, but a German missionary has care of him and his brother and when they come of age there is property for them. I take a great interest in the elder he does all he can to oblige me. He will soon get an appointment in an English counting house, but I hope to be able to keep my eye upon him.\n\nWhen I first came I could not get near enough to speak to them, they would all run away. Even now I cannot get them to talk. They stand motionless when I call them up to me. I find them as the Bishop said, a very cold hearted set. They take everything with the coolest indifference. Whether pleased or displeased one never knows. It is rather discouraging, but I shall adopt an even course of conduct with them, which will break down the barrier between us eventually, I hope. Indeed I may say it is fast improving already.\n\nThe parents of some of the children are quite respectable people. The other day a Chinese B.A., or graduate of the First Class, called to get his son admitted. He came with a very low bow, and presented his visiting cards, which I enclose as a curiosity. One gives his family name, the other his surname, and his rank. I will also send you one of my bills which the industrious A-tse brings me every morning. I can now keep accounts in Chinese.\n\nMany of the pupils are still heathens in heart. I trust however that with God's blessing on my labours I may be enabled to do some good among them. It is only by his Spirit's influence that the heathen notions, and strong prejudices can be wholly extirpated from their minds.\n\n我又有美非此牢者。\n\n21", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "232\n\nCompany, was originally established in Shanghai after John Macgregor and Jack Caldbeck purchased the business of George Smith and Company. Macgregor had come East to seek his fortune after serving in the Royal Navy in the Crimean War. Caldbeck had been the P&O agent in Singapore. Unlike other firms, Caldbeck Macgregor specialised in wines and spirits. From its original base in Shanghai, which started in 1864, it opened branches along the China coast with outposts in Peking and Tientsin doing especially good trade.\n\nIn 1882 an office was established in London, and a branch opened in Hong Kong in 1889. The latter was started partly because of the popularity here of horse racing. Although employees in some firms, such as Dodwell's, had been discouraged from taking part in the sport, the partners of Caldbeck Macgregor were able to investigate the potential of various wines and spirits at race meetings. It soon became the best known firm in the liquor business in the Far East. Caldbeck Macgregor was much more of a family concern than most organisations until this control was lost in the late 1960s.\n\nHutchison's\n\nIn 1877 John Du Flon Hutchison, aged 22, came to Hong Kong to join Robert S. Walker and Company who were merchants in Gough Street. Known as Wo Kee in Chinese (和記), the firm opened for business about 1860. Probably in the 1880s he began trading on his own, as John D. Hutchison, and, in 1893, with one assistant named W.M. Watson, his company operated from Stanley Street. Hutchison died in Shanghai in 1920, although he had sold his firm in 1917 to T.E. Pearce.\n\nJohn Douglas Clague (much later Sir Douglas) had been captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong in 1941, but managed to escape from Sham Shui Po prisoner of war camp in 1942, and, with the help of Chinese partisans, Clague made his way over the hills into China. There he served with the British Army Aid Group.\n\nWith a brilliant war record behind him Colonel Clague became Taipan of Hutchison's in the late 1940s. It expanded rapidly taking over many other companies which had interests in a variety of fields. But the Group over-extended itself and ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s. As a result an Australian businessman who had lived in\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212342, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 284, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "and at Lower Wong Pui Ling, support us, and want to see the construction begin. It is only a minority of the Cheung clan at Lower Wong Pui Ling, local bullies like Cheung Yi-choh (GM) and so forth, who ignore the public good and care merely for their private profit. They take as an excuse damage to their Fung Shui, saying that the bridge would obstruct the Fung Shui, and so incite their clan.\n\nAll these matters were put clearly before the Head of the County, the County Magistrate Yau (FB). He, blunted by greed, did not care about public opinion, and issued an order banning and prohibiting the work. It was a case of corrupt influence. He absolutely failed to go to the site to investigate matters, and thus did not make a fair judgement.\n\nWe the gentry and others quietly waited several days, but, since we had no alternative, we proceeded in accordance with public opinion, and restarted construction. The Cheung clan realised that this would destroy their profit, and they came and threatened to destroy the bridge-works by force.\n\nWe the gentry and others consider the order of the County to be stupid and muddled. At the same time, the desire of the people for the bridge is so strong that we feared fighting, with guns, might break out. We therefore invited Lam (4), the Garrison Commander, to issue orders and send soldiers to keep the peace. It would be a false accusation to say that this was using soldiers to overawe the officials.\n\nIf they say that this place is unsuitable, then may we ask why do the Cheung clan have a right to run a ferry here for profit? The actual position is that the two banks are public land, and the river is a public river.\n\nMagistrate Yau, if he had even a little conscience, could settle this matter with just one word. But he feels it essential to protect and help the Cheung clan to suppress\n\n261", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212388, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 330, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "307\n\nrecovering them and their stubborness in this belief undoubtedly saved the lives of 21 British seamen.\n\nH.J.W. CHETWYND-CHATWIN\n\nREPORT ON VISIT TO TAI HANG FIRE DRAGON DANCE, MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL 1992\n\nOn the 11th September, 1992, a party of Society members, family and children visited the Tai Hang Tsuen Fire Dragon Dance at the invitation of the Tai Hang Residents Welfare Association.*\n\nThe Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance started in 1880 when Tai Hang was a small Hakka village of farmers and fishermen on the waterfront of Causeway Bay.\n\nAccording to local legend, on a stormy night that year, just prior to the Mid-Autumn Festival, some villagers killed a serpent at a stone house in Sun Chun Street. They placed the body of the serpent in a bamboo cage, intending to hand it over to the local police station the next morning. However, by then the body had disappeared. A few days later a plague broke out in Tai Hang and over ten persons died.\n\nOne night a village elder in his sleep was told by Buddha (one version says that the message came through Kwun Yum, the Goddess of Mercy) to make a grass dragon and burn firecrackers and incense sticks during the Mid-Autumn Festival. This advice was followed and the sulphur in the firecrackers drove away the disease and the villagers were saved.\n\nIt then became customary to hold a fire dragon dance every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival in order to drive away infectious diseases and to bring good fortune. This custom has been followed every year since 1880, with the exception of the Japanese Occupation and during the 1967 disturbances. The arrangements are in the hands of the Tai Hang Residents Welfare Association, and the event is very much a community function which continues a long-standing village tradition in the heart of modern, urban Hong Kong.\n\n* See Plates 14-15.\n\nPage 330\n\nPage 331", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212467, "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": 21, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "BUSINESS NETWORKS AND PATTERNS OF CANTONESE COMPRADORS AND MERCHANTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY HONG KONG*\n\nPUI TAK LEE\n\nTo trace and account for the role of Cantonese in modern Chinese economic history is an interesting study topic. Actually, under what specific socio-economic and historical conditions did the Cantonese contribute to the formation of Chinese capitalism? Cantonese are outstanding in business not only in mainland China but also amongst overseas Chinese scattered around the world. The Cantonese were the earliest and largest group of Chinese to go to Southeast Asia. Moreover, in the 1850s, after the Taiping Rebellion, Chinese immigrated to Hong Kong or transited through Hong Kong to the west coast of North America and to Australia. This movement reached its peak in the 1880s. Overseas Chinese are always hardworking, hoping to save enough money to ensure them a good quality of life after they return to China. They usually accumulated capital and modern business know-how when they were in foreign countries and then returned to start their own business in China. An obvious example is the Australian Cantonese who started the first modern department store in Hong Kong, which marked a revolution in modern Chinese retailing business practice. Furthermore, the four biggest department stores in Shanghai were also opened by Cantonese, and all of them came from the Heung Shan (Zhongshan) prefecture, which is strategically located near Macau and Canton, the two centres of early European commerce in China. Simultaneously, in the mid-nineteenth century, Cantonese compradors from Zhongshan prefecture, namely Xu Run, Tang Tingshu, and Zheng Guanying, were pioneers in establishing modern Chinese businesses. This article will assess the mechanism of Cantonese immigration in the nineteenth century and also examine emigrant Cantonese business ethics.\n\nEmigration and Chinese Ethnic Groups\n\nEmigration from China gave rise to the concept of native place identity. Historically, Chinese have always distinguished their place of\n\n* The first annual lecture on local history, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society & South China Research Circle, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, 10 December, 1994", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212549, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "83\n\nfuriously, threatening to cancel the exhibition if the 13 paintings were banned. The opening ceremony was postponed one hour to wait for a settlement which finally came with concessions from the Chinese officials. In their speeches at the ceremony, the Americans repeatedly referred to the \"American\" principle of free artistic expression, and Huang Zhen, Commissioner for External Cultural Relation and Wick's Chinese counterpart, expressed strong reservations about the paintings.\n\nTo Wick, the exhibition was a showcase to the Chinese that in the United States, free artistic expression was a universally accepted value and artists in the United States enjoyed greater artistic freedom than in China, whose cultural policy, as it refused to accept abstractionism presented by those 13 paintings, was \"totalitarian\". Wick's hard line on this issue also implied that the United States supported those unorthodox Chinese artists and writers who were being criticized in the campaign against \"bourgeois liberalization\".\n\nWick's management of the abstract painting incident indicated that the United States government would sacrifice good relations with China to the goal of presenting American cultural imagery to the Chinese people. Arts exchanges with China were no longer an instrument to create a warm atmosphere, under which circumstance both parties would co-operate nicely when differences occurred. Putting this position in the anti-Communist background of the Reagan Administration, a theme of explicit cultural warfare seems to have raised its head.\n\nCompared with the American Government, the private sector's support for arts exchanges with China was stimulated by fewer political considerations. Private interests provided support for such projects in various forms, including the funding of organizations specializing in U.S.-China arts exchanges, such as the Center for United States-China Arts Exchange, and the funding of specific exchange projects. In the realm of U.S.-China arts exchanges, financial support is a very important factor. The exchange programmes could not be realized without such support, but such programmes normally cannot show a profit. To discuss the numerous organizations and private exchanges involved is impossible. What can be done in this paper with regard to the private sector's support of cultural exchanges is to examine closely the Center for U.S.-China Arts Exchange and to derive some conclusions from the Center's activities.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212584, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "118\n\nThis obelisk, now in the Government Cemetery, stood then at the junction of Queen's Road East and Leighton Road. It commemorates officers and men of HMS Vestal who, in 1847, were killed, drowned or died in Hong Kong.\n\nCremation\n\nIn this study cremation took place two days after the funeral service because the previous day was inauspicious. Only close family members sat in the hearse accompanying the body to Cape Collinson Crematorium. The ceremony was simple. All relations made three bows, each of the three sisters poured one cup of rice wine which was placed together with food on the altar. The dead person's 'spirit shrine', made of rattan and paper, was burned. The family then crossed back over the Harbour to the Buddhist Hall to pay respects. There a group of lay nuns, who addressed one another as 'brother' (兄弟), chanted mantras.\n\nAlthough until AD 1370 bodies of Buddhist laity were frequently cremated3, the Han Chinese have a long tradition of burial with human remains returning to nature and affecting feng shui. The body should remain in contact with earth, it is traditionally believed. The final resting place should have good soil, luxuriant trees and grass. This belief is still strong in some quarters. To beat an April 1st, 1993, deadline, after which all corpses in Jiangsu Province have been cremated, 40 old people committed mass suicide in March so that they could receive a traditional burial.\n\nBurial has been considered more desirable by Han Chinese than the custom of many Muslim Chinese minority groups with bodies being eaten by vultures.32 The Book of Changes (I Ching) records that in primitive society Han Chinese left their dead in the wilderness, covered with leaves. Later, when they came to believe souls went on to another world, they began to protect bodies by placing them in graves.\n\n34\n\n33\n\nHong Kong, like China, has for several years campaigned in favour of cremation. Feudal superstitions have had to be overcome. In 1958/59, only 1.65 per cent of corpses were cremated. In 1989/90, the figure stood at 70 per cent. Because of chronic land shortage there are few cemeteries in Hong Kong where the body can rest in perpetuity. When buried they are usually exhumed after six years (times have varied from five to 10 years). The bones (designated yang, but flesh is yin)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "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": 212591, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "125\n\nEnd of Mourning\n\nAlthough many consider mourning lasts for five (or previously seven) tsats, namely 35 (or 49) days, a normally accepted figure is 100 days. Until this century laws laid down how long the five grades of relatives should mourn. If these rules were breached punishment was administered by the state. It is unlucky for mourning to end on the exact day.\n\n43\n\nA simple ceremony to mark the end of mourning, after 101 days in this study, was held by relatives in the home of the second daughter where a permanent shrine had been erected to the deceased. This faces the main entrance door but as the flat in question had not been ‘feng shui oriented’ its effects are likely to be negated. There were the customary three bows and burning of joss sticks. Everyone was in good spirits occasionally talking to the dead person's picture as if she was actually there. Of course there was food. This plays a major part in a culture of a country where famines were common. Dishes included chicken properly 'assembled', complete with head and tail (everything must have a beginning and an end), fish, and Chinese sweetmeats such as yam rolls. Oranges were placed on the shrine. On that day a box of home-cooked walnut cake was on the table. It was later found untied and everyone denied undoing it. Those present questioned whether the deceased had opened it.\n\nThere was also roast pork, believed by some to replace, ritualistically, the flesh lost in death. Pork is 'food fit for the gods'. Once placed on the altar before ancestors it takes on a sacred, magical quality which, some believe, can be likened to the host consecrated at the Eucharist. The Roman Catholic Church declares that, by transubstantiation (a custom continued since medieval times), bread and wine become the substance and form of the body and blood of Christ. Protestants believe the bread and wine do not take on physical affinity but convey a spiritual reality. By eating pork that has been offered up and 'ritually shared', ancestors and living descendants, so some Chinese claim, are not only able to fortify their chi ('cosmic breath' providing inner strength) but also capture special 'magical' powers. Even non-lineage members are sometimes offered some pork as a special gift. Babies barely able to masticate have pieces pressed into their tiny mouths. Afterwards, mothers swear they are better behaved and illnesses cured.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212627, "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": 181, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "161\n\nwhich could talk sceptical generals into agreeing to his suggestions. Not that the generals were not most co-operative: they usually went out of their way to meet us. In fact, we found it was true here, as it is always true of all wars, that the best elements of the nation were up at the front.\n\nIn May, the party of two Americans and one Englishman, already mentioned as having escaped from Shanghai, came through our camp, and I decided to proceed with them, in the lorry by which our two officer reinforcements had arrived, to the headquarters of the British Military Mission in Hunan. There were so many things of which we were in urgent need, and the replies to our signals were so vague, this seemed the best course. We covered the 1500 kilometres to Hengyang in six days. After a night spent with American missionary friends, we were turned out at dawn by an alert, and we were picking our way in the lorry through the crowds making for the countryside, when I saw an officer in British uniform moving with the crowd. I stopped to speak to him and discovered he was a Russian doctor, who had been recruited in China the year before for work with the British Army in Burma. He had been granted leave to proceed to Eastern China to try and get into touch with his wife to get her out of occupied territory. He was making his own way as best he could, had arrived by train that morning, as the alert sounded, and so found himself moving into the country with the crowd. His hope of reaching Eastern China without adequate credentials was vain. I suggested he should jump into our lorry and go back to Headquarters, to return with me to Chin Ya, as I felt sure his best hope of getting into touch with his wife would be through our guerilla connections. That was a great stroke of luck because one of our most pressing needs was a doctor and medical supplies, and Dr. Petro was to remain with us for half a year and do much very useful work. The Mission had no other doctor they could spare for us.\n\nAt Headquarters there was a good deal of confusion as the British troops were on the move, and then received counterorders. I was disappointed in my hope of receiving any further officer reinforcements, and all that could be spared in the explosive line was mostly ammonal. Ammonal is an explosive with a slower rate of detonation, so that it has more of a pushing or lifting effect. It is used for cratering roads and destroying buildings, and though that type of demolition was not likely to be of much use to us, it was better than nothing. It comes packed in 25 lb tins, about the size of 5-gallon kerosene tins. Two tins of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212632, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "166\n\nto lend them cooking pots for their rice, or to provide the few vegetables that flavour the rice. They sometimes break into the houses and help themselves to what they need. It is a vicious circle difficult to control. Fortunately we could see a crack of light at the back of the building where we had last stayed and, when the occupants who were hiding inside heard who we were, they let us in; there was nothing too much they could do for our comfort.\n\nThey told us that a large bridge some miles ahead, over a side stream which flowed into the Tsien Tang, was down and that we should be unable to get across. This sounded bad and I ordered a very early start. When we got to the bridge we found that a freshet after the heavy rain had weakened the wooden piers, and when a lorry overloaded with troops had gone over on the previous day, it had fallen through. A whole span had collapsed; soldiers were wading in the water searching for corpses and laying them along the bank. The bridge was high, the banks steep; it was obviously impossible for our lorry to get through. We returned to the village and 'phoned Chin Ya with a request that they would send a relief lorry down to meet us on the far side. We then set about unloading the lorry and ferrying our stores across in a small boat. When we had emptied the lorry the driver was ordered to take it back to Hunan; he was a man who had been lent us for the trip. He just got through before the road was cut.\n\nOn the way through Yingtan and Shangjao we had passed many refugees; on old charcoal lorries, rickshaws, wheelbarrows, and even chairs, but mostly on foot, escaping from the advancing Japanese. We heard afterwards that the driver on the return trip found some refugees who were willing to pay heavily for the privilege of a lift on our lorry; he made a \"squeeze\" of $30,000. That is the sort of thing we were up against.\n\nIn the afternoon a 'phone call came through to say that the relief lorry had reached within twenty kilometres of us, but had found another bridge down and had been unable to come further. By good chance we heard of a large junk, hiding in the Tsien Tang not far off our bridge in the hope of avoiding being commandeered. It was full of refugees who were escaping upriver from the Japanese. When we asked whether they would give us and our stores a passage for the next twenty kilometres they readily agreed; our presence would provide a sort of protection. I was careful not to explain too clearly the dangerous nature of our cargo. The Tsien Tang junks are long, rather narrow flat-bottomed boats, curved", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212637, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "17!\n\nFortunately our supply of waterproofing material was short. For proofing joints however we found local products, such as wood oil, bee's wax, and vegetable oil, made good waterproof compounds if mixed in suitable proportions.\n\nThe Chinese were very anxious that we should design a mine for use in the network of creeks and shallow waterways in the delta. The Chief produced some interesting combinations. I will describe one of these, which we called the Flamingo. It consisted of a bamboo stake about 3½ feet tall and pointed at the lower end. The top was cut to allow a long bamboo cross-piece to swivel at a point about three quarters down its length; the shorter arm of the cross-piece was weighted with a heavy stone so that it would pull up into the air the other much longer arm when released from a wire which held it down level. At the far end of the long arm a pipe mine was lashed, filled with H.E., connected to a pull switch. The idea was to drive in the stake in the soft mud at one side of the creek until the level cross-piece was about one foot under the surface of the water and parallel with the shore. The pull switch was made fast by a stone to the ground below and a string went off at right angles across the creek, also a foot or so below the surface. When a boat came along it pushed against the string, which released the retaining wire at the end of the long arm. The arm, pulled up by the weight at the other end, shot up; the sharp tug on the pull switch set off the pipe mine when it was about three feet in the air in such a way that the splinters burst all over the occupants of the passing boat. The Chinese were reluctant to use this mine as they were afraid it would catch their own boats. As Cyril said, \"They want a mine which will set itself, will distinguish between friendly boats and hostile boats, and will renew itself after going off.\"\n\nTo help in the manufacture of the various devices we designed, and to make tools for us, we operated our own little workshop. I had been lucky to secure the services of a most original character, Reginald. His father was a Chinese ship's carpenter, his mother was Irish, and for the first seventeen years of his life he lived in Limehouse. He then went out to his relations in China, joined the Shanghai Fire Brigade, and moved on from that to work under Rewi Alley in the Co-operatives. He managed a machine shop for the Co-operatives, but felt that because of his half-foreign blood he had not received fair treatment from them; so he left them to join us. He was able to borrow two lathes, a drilling, and a planing machine, from a Co-operative machine shop, which had been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212653, "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "188\n\nwe would spend time in identifying and studying them. Then we usually brought them to the Museum. That is how I got acquainted with the Museum, its Directors and personnel.\n\nThe first persons I came to know were Octave Piel S.J. and P. Bourgeois S.J.. Piel was a distinguished entomologist as well as an archaeologist. He studied Hymenoptera and specialized in the research of Parthenogenesis of a group of ground wasps. His description of new species and experiments were published in a series of Notes entomologiques du Musee Heude and other worldwide scientific journals. His interests in Archaeology and Art were evident by show cases exhibiting Chinese artifacts, antique curios and vases, set out at the entrance of the museum.\n\nP. Bourgeois was not a scientist, as far as I know. He was some kind of general manager of the Museum, while at the same time he taught pre-university students. He was a friendly gentleman introducing students and other people to the Museum activities, collaborating with scientists and university students in their projects; translating, typing manuscripts, compiling lists and indices; in short, doing all the donkey work.\n\n—\n\nWhen Piel went into semi-retirement, a young clergyman replaced him progressively. This was P. Becquaert. I knew Becquaert well. He was very active and seemed to do a good job. His interests: the Staphylinidae family of insects or staphs. My colleague and I would have collected, among other insects, hundreds of staphs, picked up from special baits set up in the garden in order to satisfy Becquaert's insistent demand. Unfortunately, Becquaert had no scientific training; he was no match for the eminent scientists that had preceded him. It was wartime and the authorities were unable to obtain anyone of, say, Piel's calibre. Soon, Becquaert got involved in dubious connections. He not only lost his interest in entomology, but also his priestly state and his faith. He had published a book on staphs. But the introduction was so full of scientific errors, full of incorrect assumptions and spurious statements, that his successor had to withdraw the book from distribution. Before introducing his successor, however, I must mention a few other people.\n\nDr. Jacques Roi S.J. came to Shanghai in 1944. He had spent a few years in North China at the Geo-Biologic Institute of Beijing. In 1941, he published Phytogeograph of Central Asia, a highly scientific paper with graphs, plates, and maps. During his short stay in Shanghai, he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212654, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "189\n\ninvestigated the special field of Chinese Medicinal Plants and published a book \"An Atlas of Chinese Medicinal Plants\". It was wartime and, owing to some unskilled people who helped him, his 125 specimen drawings, the typing and the printing of his French manuscript, were full of errors. I corrected this publication and filled 12 typed pages. Years after, as I corresponded with someone in Malagasy, I discovered that J. Roi was there. I wrote to him and among other things, I asked him about his book. He told me he had published another one on the same subject. I ordered a copy from Paris: Les Plantes Medicinales Chinoises. This was a quite different achievement, a well-documented and well-presented volume containing chemical analysis, explaining the uses of plants and their extracts, with references from Chinese and European Medical Literature.\n\nDuring the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, at the end of 1941, I often met scientists who normally would have been connected with the Shanghai Museum in the International Settlement. One of them was Mr. Arthur de Carle Sowerby. He had offered the Museum a small but interesting collection of plants from Eastern China. This was prepared and published in 1950 by I. V. Kozloff, a Russian botanist who was working at the Museum at that time. But his main publication at the Heude Museum was his book illustrated by the author in Chinese-style drawings. Unfortunately, it was printed on newsprint paper, the only type available at that time. Copies couldn't last long.\n\nKozloff was a white Russian botanist who had acquired a good knowledge of the North China flora. He had many articles to his credit. When he came to Shanghai in the 40s, he couldn't find a job as he spoke only Russian. He contacted me through the school where his son was studying. I found out that he was living in an attic with his family and that they were starving. He was invited to work at the Museum with a decent salary. Later, he migrated to the USA.\n\nI could not fail to mention Charles De Vol, of America's Fern Society who was encouraged by Dr. Roi to publish Courtois' fern collection. When Dr. Belval published Courtois' Flora, he did not include the Pteridophyters. De Vol's book is a classic but suffered the effects of the war, i.e., lack of proper proofreaders, poor printing, and wartime paper. I met De Vol again at the Herbarium of the University of Taipei. He had contributed the volume on Ferns in the Flora of Taiwan.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212667, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "202\n\ndisappear so quickly.\n\nHalsey would have no truck with the second-in-command who was then escorted back to the waiting plane. The Japanese commander eventually appeared whereupon the surrender was signed later in the presence of the British admiral aboard HMS King George V.\n\nAt dawn the following day the whole fleet was placed in ‘line ahead' and we sailed up the Lei Yue Mun Channel, between Hong Kong and Kowloon. As we approached a gun emplacement set high in the rocks was spotted with the Japanese flag flying. The Japanese could be seen quite clearly on the ramparts of the fort. The order relayed to the King George V battleship was 'range broadside!' I never saw a flag come down so fast.\n\nWe anchored in an orderly fashion off the City of Victoria and in no time at all found ourselves surrounded by sampans and all sorts of other small boats. Royal marines armed with machine guns were stationed round the sides of the ship. After all, we just didn't know what to expect.\n\nWhile preparations were being made for the first landing party to go ashore naval officers selected the men. They questioned ratings how they felt about the task. One or two were rather brash in their manner and replies. They were rejected. Asked if I felt afraid I answered that I was a bit scared. 'Good,' said one of the officers, ‘A frightened man is a careful man!'\n\nIn the early afternoon I and nine other men, armed to the teeth, went ashore in a motorised cutter. The landing stage was free of booby traps and obstacles. We came ashore near the Star Ferry. All was very quiet. Even the sometimes boisterous Chinese were not self-evident. The Japanese had destroyed all the dwellings and buildings along the waterfront so they had an uninterrupted view of the sea lane.\n\nI was on shore patrol when we came across a mob of Chinese and, on investigation, we discovered a Japanese soldier had been strangled by a Chinese. I was told the Japanese had molested and raped the man's wife during the occupation. The man was later arrested, charged and, I believe, subsequently let off.\n\nOn another occasion I noticed two bodies in the harbour being swept down the straits. Who they were or what was going on I didn't know.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212722, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "Mesny's Personal Life\n\nPART TWO\n\nConsidering how detailed and verbose Mesny could be in his writings it is surprising how little we know about his personal life during the later years. A certain amount about his well-being and illnesses, his religion and his relationships with the female sex during his first fifteen to twenty years in China can be extracted from his autobiographical snippets but on the whole they add little but colour to the overall picture. He did however reveal relatively more to us about his financial situation but only because it had deteriorated and was obviously causing him great anxiety.\n\nMesny must have lived from hand to mouth for most of his later years. He had always had an eye for the big break and though at times he seemed to make himself a small fortune, though we never hear the details, he soon enough appears to have reverted to scraping by. He loved the adventure of travel and for some years managed to earn sufficient or at least obtain adequate sponsorship to visit all eighteen provinces of China. However, the day came when he could just dream. In 1896, at age of 54, he wrote that being strong and active though getting old, he would like to make an expedition to Lhasa [he called it Lassa]. He bemoaned the fact that he had not the necessary funds - but, he wrote, if he had had sufficient he would liked to have journeyed to Mukden [Shenyang] and Kirin, then via the Amur region, return via Urga [Ulan Bataar] or the K'un-lun and the Seven Lakes including Ch'ing-hai [Kokonor], Tengri Nor to Lhasa and Darjeeling [in India]. He felt capable of accomplishing the feat penetrating right through unknown Thibet [sic] to India and added the hopeful 'Wait and see.' He never made it.\n\nHe was forever trying to persuade Chinese officials to allow him to help them and China with his grandiose ideas. Presumably he was planning and hoping to earn commission from any scheme which took off though he repeated several times in his writings references to such schemes in which he was prepared to act on behalf of China for the good of the Chinese people without benefit to himself. But for one reason or another, and we rarely learn why, these failed to come to anything. In 1878 he had been asked by a French bank to contact a very senior Chinese official, Marquis Tso, to arrange a loan to build railways, etc. in China's Northwest. Mesny would have to pay his own travelling expenses crossing China by land but would receive a handsome commission if", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212728, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 37, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "22\n\nAlthough from several of his comments in his Miscellany Mesny would appear to have remained a God-fearing Christian, at one point, he confessed that he had grown up with a strong inclination to sinfulness and, he continued, in 1865 he had added to his gallantries the vicious habits of gambling and drinking having just lost his 'fair charmer,' a Chinese widow. However, 'having lost my fear of God and drifted from the narrow path that leadeth unto salvation,' fortunately, he wrote, the Revs. Josiah Cox and Griffith John, Dr John Falconer and Wm Grant Gordon never forsook him. They gave him good advice and showed good examples which he followed. His fall from grace appears to have been of short duration and was never again referred to.\n\nHe made the point several times that he was a Christian believer and, for example, he began a lengthy paragraph with the sentences, 'From my earliest departure from home in 1854 unto the present day [1896] the Holy Bible has been my constant companion, and the Lord God Almighty has been my refuge and strong tower, and I have had much reason to praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever. The VIII Psalm, and more especially the 4th and 5th verses of that Psalm, also the 1st and 2nd verses of the IX Psalm, have been very appropriate to my personal experience at various times and at various places.' He continued in this vein for the rest of the paragraph, ending with ‘Of late years I have often had reason to apply the prayer of David to my humble self as it is given in Psalm LXXXVI.’\n\nIn a card sent by him in his last year he referred to himself not only as a friend of China but also a 'Student of Primitive Christianity and Christian Science.'\n\nMesny recounted at some length, as was his wont, the cleansing of the soul of a very wild Liverpudlian who roamed the Yangtze in his lorcha and took great pleasure in killing any Chinese with his great sword in revenge for the great harm they had caused him. The Liverpudlian called on Mesny some time in the early 1860s and finding him kneeling in his daily devotions joined him, and begged Mesny first to say a prayer for him. He then asked to be purified and absolved. Mesny did as he requested and the Liverpudlian 'went away very much changed. He came boldly as a lion and departed timid as a sheep.' Mesny heard later that the Liverpudlian had disappeared from the river [the Yangtze] and was never heard of again.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212751, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "45 \n\nworks recommended by Pioneer [i.e. Mesny] through Governor Chang Chih-tung of Shansi, are now, or soon will be, in full operation in various parts of China, though with no other advantage to the conceiver of those useful nineteen undertakings than that of having done just so much good, gratis, for the benefit of China and her millions of industrious people, to whom we wish long continued peace, happiness and prosperity.\" However, whenever China attempted anything which would lead to modernisation, Mesny leapt into print to congratulate whoever was putting the modernisation in train stressing that it was in line with his suggestions of so many years ago. \n\nIn his early days he displayed extraordinary qualities - audacity, determination, adventurousness and a depth of interest in everything he came across; later, however, when in his declining years he had reverted into a petty entrepreneur, he displayed his achievements on his sleeve and at times waved them above his head just in case they might be overlooked. His rank as a brevet Lieutenant General1 in the Chinese Imperial army with the award of the Pa-r'u-lu and the peacock's feather is stressed right to the end of his life. He is an FRGS and a FR Hist S; and in the very last years of his life he even records in his curriculum vitae as one of his qualifications his membership of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, into which he was elected as late as 1914 when he was 72. This despite having written for the Journal back in 1891 and his son having been elected in 1911. An outstanding question regrettably remains unanswered. Well we might ask why Mesny was promoted brevet Lieutenant General in 1886, so many years after he had completed his active military service in 1874? Balleine may have the answer. He wrote that Mesny volunteered for active service in 1883: whereupon he was sent to Yunnan, and in 1884 to Foochou. In 1885 he was in charge of two arsenals in Canton and the following year was promoted i.e. whilst still working at the arsenals. \n\nMesny explained that officers as junior as Lieutenant Colonel, when in command of troops, were referred to by the honorific title of General. Mesny began his service in 1868 as a company commander rising to brevet Colonel in 1869 and technically in command of troops, though as he himself does not make this point, we can assume that he was never referred to as 'general'. In 1873 he was promoted to Major-General during the latter days of the second Kueichou campaign when, though he again does not say so, he would have been referred to as 'general'. \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212755, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "49\n\nDespite the feeling we have acquired simply from his own writings that he had many acquaintances and few friends, that he was neither a European nor a Chinese and was held at arms length by both, that he was God's gift to the girls, that he offered guidance and good advice with great foresight to the Chinese, and was either ignored or his ideas purloined by others, the obituaries, possibly following a policy of avoiding speaking ill of the dead, described him as ‘a great traveller, a great scholar, a soldier, an author and publisher. A cheery man who most people knew, who at 77 walked briskly to and from his office, beloved by many, although not rich in the world's goods he was always ready to help others, and was of a very cheerful disposition. He endured many shrewd blows of fortune but always came up smiling.'\n\nHe must have been regarded both in Shanghai and in Hankow as an eccentric and colourful old man. Everyone would know of him but to what extent he was accepted socially we shall probably never know unless, that is, someone's private correspondence in which he is mentioned comes to light.\n\nNOTES\n\nMason was a young British official in the Chinese Customs on the Yangtze who organised the shipment of arms to and became involved with Nien rebels. Mesny, who knew nothing of Mason's schemes and plot, found himself officially ostracised after being accused by Li Hung-chang of being a rebel leader.\n\nIt is strange that there appears to be no reference to the typhoon in the available Shanghai papers of the day. Also, in view of his complaints about people's refusal to face up to disaster by taking out insurance, why did he not have the Rink insured? Probably, considering his circumstances, he was unable to afford the premium.\n\nThe Tsar-li Hui has been variously described as a minor religious cult, in Shantung province in particular, or as survivors of the White Lotus Society, an anti-dynastic body since its foundation in the fourteenth century through to its final defeat in Shansi in 1815. A number of members then joined the Nien revolt, and here we have a link perhaps between Li Hung-chang's accusation that Mesny was a leader of a Nien rebels during the Mason case.\n\n$\n\nMesny's Chinese Miscellany: Volume 2 item 1431 page 362\n\nBat'uru: 'A kind of Manchu Distinguished Service Order [DSO]' Johnston RF Lion and Dragon in Northern China. Murray: London 1910\n\nWilliam Mesny always referred to himself as 'Knight Ying of the Pa-t'u-lu' BA\n\nThis decoration was intended to correspond to European Orders [sic].\n\nGarrett, Valery M Mandarin Squares. Oxford University Press. Hong Kong. 1990", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212836, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "130\n\nthe new officer to remove himself and his troops from the village where we were staying immediately. Poor man, he was only obeying his orders and did not know what to do; but he went. After that we were only watched by plain clothes men; but the dismissal of the escort, or prisoner's guard, as it would be called to the natives, showed the natives that we intended to be masters in our house, and helped to break down the fear under which they laboured.\n\nI was sorry to lose the men of the escort: they came from far away Hunan, and were good representatives of the salty peasant stock of a great nation.\n\nExcept on certain main routes used by the Chinese troops the villages in Kokang were not deserted, like many of those we had passed in Yunnan. It is an old story. A British officer, H.P. Davies, who was travelling through these parts in 1895, wrote: 'Our first march only took us back to Na-hsang, the place I had passed through on my way to Tawnio. This village which appeared quite prosperous a month before, we found almost entirely deserted. On enquiry we learned that some Chinese soldiers were expected there soon as escort to the boundary commission. No doubt these worthy villagers had had previous experience of Chinese troops and were determined to hide themselves and their property as much as possible.\n\nTawnio in Burmese, and Malipa in Chinese, is the name of the chief town in south Kokang; Na-hsang is a village across the border on the Chinese side. Here again it is most unfair to blame the Chinese troops. They are expected to move without commissariat and to live off the country; they have no money with which to pay for what they take, so no wonder the people of the villages make themselves scarce.\n\nAt Nancha we came across the makings of a small tragedy. The old headman had two unmarried daughters - his son had been carried off by the Chinese to attend school at Kun-ming, in other words he was a hostage - the elder of whom had bound feet, and the younger not bound. The modern young men would no longer look at any girl with bound feet; that was out of fashion; but until the elder sister was married, the younger, a bright good-looking girl, could not marry. It was a puzzle to which there appeared to be no solution. But the women in these parts are very independent; I heard later that the younger girl had run away from home and married the swain of her choice by just going to live", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212838, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 147, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "The mule track wound along the mountain side. Looking backwards, or forwards, you could sometimes see the green waters of the Salween glistening in the sun far below. At one point, the place was pointed out to me where Chu Ko Liang had built a fort on a knoll commanding both track and river. He was the able counsellor of Liu Pei, who in the time of the Three Kingdoms mounted the throne of Shu (Szechuan) in the second century of our era. Liu Pei stood 7 ft 5 in high; 'He could see behind his back, his ears reached to his shoulders, and his hands to his knees. He possessed the invaluable power of creating a good first impression and was able to keep his countenance under the most trying circumstances.' He sent Chu Ko Liang on an expedition to the south to subdue the border tribes. Chu Ko Liang is said to have penetrated to Burma: 'He made use of the famous device of \"wooden oxen and running horses\" as a means of transport. What the device was nobody now knows.' (From A Chinese Biographical Dictionary by H.A. Giles.) Legend relates that it was Chu Ko Liang who first thought to keep down the numbers of the wild Wa tribesmen by teaching them to bury a human head in each field at the planting of the spring crop; the plan worked all right until the Wa discovered that a Chinese head was equally effective in propitiating the gods, after which they looked beyond the tribal limits for the supply of heads.\n\nSmall side streams ran into the Salween, and each time we crossed one of these the path dropped several thousand feet, almost to Salween level: it would then rise steeply again up the mountain. Down there the hollows were very hot and steamy; the vegetation tropical and thick; higher up it was cool in the shade and many great trees spread their branches over the mountain slopes. We saw few large wild animals: the commonest I believe is the bear. The inhabitants say there are three kinds of bear; the pig bear, the dog bear, and the cow bear. I saw one pig bear in captivity; it had a thick black coat, little pig eyes, and must have weighed about 300 lbs. Tiger, elephant, panther, wild pig, wolves, sambur and barking deer also exist; the lovely Amherst and Stone pheasants, bamboo partridge, jungle fowl, hare, duck, snipe and quail. But we had no time for any of these; later, when our numbers had increased, one of our Gurkha wireless operators used to go out sometimes to shoot for the pot.\n\nNews of our arrival had gone ahead. As we moved along the headmen came out to welcome us; they prepared food for us and were disappointed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212845, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 154, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "139\n\na mess for the British, with a kitchen where Lao Teng ruled: similar buildings for our Chinese, Burmese, Kachin and Chin assistants; and barracks for the K.D.F. We also built a store-room, where one of our Chinese assistants, a most excellent man who had previously worked in the service of one of the few remaining Chinese sawbwas, presided; an armoury, where Stan played about with screwdrivers in his spare moments; and an office, and a wireless station. As our party grew larger we kept on having to increase the accommodation.\n\n―\n\nAt most times of the day there would be a small crowd of visitors from distant villages, sitting on their haunches outside the office, with offerings of eggs and chickens, or wandering through the camp looking at everything. They too were much impressed with our water-works. But the main show-piece was a Browning machine gun, which Stan had mounted on a post in the centre of the camp for A.A. protection; it was one of a number salvaged from an R.A.F. supply plane which had crashed in the mountain nearby. If we wished to impress a visiting headman we would loose off a few tracer rounds from this gun at the hawks, circling far overhead. We never hit a hawk but the demonstrations delighted these good simple people.\n\nThe furniture was mostly of the fixed type, and of bamboo: beds, shelves, hooks; baths, basins, and stools. For our mess room we borrowed a table in the local style from the headman; it was only two feet high, with benches of corresponding height, a much more comfortable height in my opinion than our own high chairs and tables. There is a good deal to be said for the argument that the nearer you sit to the ground the more sociable you feel. A dear old man, an expert in bamboo work, became one of our permanent retainers, and when anything came unstuck he would busy himself going round and doing the repairs. There were no nails.\n\nThe evenings were still chilly; at night we would light a camp fire outside the mess door and sit around and talk, often about the ration of rum which, if we were lucky, might be included next time the aircraft made a sortie. Our talk seemed to be much of food and drink; in the supplies we received from the air naturally weapons for our work took precedence, so that we had to rely much on local provender for our nourishment. With Lao Teng in the background we did not do so badly.\n\nThe Myosa's brother paid me a visit; I shall call him the Puppet,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212848, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "142\n\nfires and flying away again unable to find them. Inevitably there were some accidents and losses.\n\n―\n\n--\n\nRarely half a dozen 'planes would make a sortie the same night; we would then be busy for days collecting the heavy containers they would weigh up to three hundred pounds and carrying them back to camp. We received reinforcements; officers with long experience in the East; British wireless operators; Chin, Kachin, and Burmese assistants. Our money and our mail also came this way; Bren guns, Stens, Italian carbines, clothing, food and occasionally drink. Sometime later we were visited by two American officers attached to the Nth division; they spent the day with us. We discovered they had a partiality for Bourbon whisky, a thing most difficult to find in Calcutta. However, we thought we would plan a little surprise for them; we asked our friends in Calcutta whether they could not find a couple of bottles and include them in the next sortie. The sortie was made in due course, several containers crashed, and when we anxiously looked over the lists of contents, we sadly found that the precious bottles had \"pranged\" as Stan put it in his airforce jargon.\n\nThe problem of cutting a way through the jungle was ever present in Burma. We decided we would equip one man out of every two with a cutting implement for the purpose. There were many opinions about which implement was the best; each officer had his own idea. We left it to our 'furnishers' to supply what they had, and I have never seen such a collection of deadly looking hacking weapons as the variety sent. It included dahs, the light Burmese single-handed sword, with a blade about two feet long and in my opinion not quite heavy enough for the job; kukris, a choice for the expert; the East African panga, which I like best, but then perhaps I am prejudiced it reminded me of my days with the King's African Rifles during the last war; a short two-edged stabbing sword, obviously borrowed straight from the Roman Legion; and some quite unrecognisable kinds, probably designed by enthusiastic cranks.\n\nThe Italian carbines had been captured in Africa and were believed useful for our type of work; they only weighed four pounds, were short and handy but they had a very high muzzle velocity and kicked like an anti-tank rifle, without the rubber padding with which that rifle is fitted. They had fixed sights; on the little thirty yards range, which Stan had built in a fold of the mountain, we found they threw at least a foot off the bull; but they appeared to be fairly accurate at somewhere around", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212856, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "150 \n\nIn theory, records of business and other enterprises founded and controlled by members of the Shanghai Jewish community exist somewhere, awaiting scrutiny by scholars. In reality, however, these materials are not always readily available to the scholars who are looking for them. It is hoped that individuals working on the Jewish community or on Western enterprises in Shanghai will be able to meet up with these records.' When Mr. Bramsen first started his current research, he chanced upon a series of letters written by a Danish au-pair girl in Shanghai during the early years of the 20th century. For six years this young woman wrote at regular intervals to her family in Denmark, describing in great detail each dinner party given in the house, identifying and describing every guest, the clothes they wore, the food and drinks served, and from time to time, the conversation that took place as well. Valuable historical resources indeed!\n\nThere is a unique collection of information in Hong Kong. The Rev Carl Smith, a retired American missionary who has been living in Hong Kong for almost half a century, and author of a book on Chinese Christians in Hong Kong, has gathered a fantastic amount of isolated information on individual foreigners and Chinese Christians who were active along the China coast during the 19th and 20th centuries. He has put the information on literally hundreds of thousands of 3 × 5 index cards, most of which have been categorized and filed. Mr Smith compiled the data from public and journalistic records, including jury lists, will probates, newspaper obituaries, and numerous other sources.\n\nJewish Immigration to Shanghai\n\n4\n\nWith few exceptions, the Jews in Shanghai fell into three groups: the Sephardic Jews, the Ashkenazi Jews, and the German, Central and Eastern European Jews. Throughout the decades they lived and worked in Shanghai, and although they worked together from time to time on certain projects, the three communities remained distinct.\n\nSephardic Jews\n\nThe Sephardic traders in Shanghai came during the 19th century from the Middle East by way of India under the aegis of the Sassoons. Their numbers are not discernible from census statistics, principally because the statistics recorded the nationality rather than the religious affiliation of each resident. The number of early arrivals could not be more than\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212872, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "166\n\ndescendents experimenting with the locations in the light of family events over that time, since anything untoward would be attributed to bad siting of the urn.* If, however, good fortune smiled on the family, it might then be decided to prepare a formal, horseshoe grave on that site, or perhaps on another equally auspicious or even better location. The services of a geomancer were obligatory on such occasions as few families would possess a member with the necessary skills. Thus, by the time a new grave appeared on a hillside, there had been a great amount of prior thought and activity among the responsible persons in the family, as well as considerable expenditure. Sometimes, this included paying those villagers living in the vicinity of the grave, persons with customary rights of grazing, and somebody to cut the grass around the grave occasionally.\n\nSome Typical Grave Inscriptions\n\nThe following inscriptions on two old graves recorded from the Tsuen Wan District, with translations and comments, will indicate the care taken with burials, and the obvious importance attached to the process. The first is from a grave belonging to the Tang family of Kam Tin, New Territories. This inscription, dated 1853, has been chosen from among many others of the kind, because it exemplifies the strong family feeling that motivates descendents in regard to ancestral worship and their duties toward the living and the dead:\n\nAncestor Wing-shing, alias ...-yue, alias Shan-fung, was the second son of Ancestor Kwan-leung. He was born in Chien Lung ping-san year (1736) and died in Chia Ch'ing kap-shut year (1814). By his wife, who was from the Man family, he had one son, Ying-yuen, a kui-yan of 1789.\n\nAncestor Hin-sing, alias Kwing-yue, alias Kang-sham, was the only son of Ancestor Kwan-chak.\n\nThese two gentlemen were grandsons of Ancestor Kwok-yın.\n\n[Hin-sing] was born in Chien Lung mou-san year 1748, and died in Chia Ch'ing san-mei year 1811. By his wife, who came from the Liu family, he had two sons. One, Ying-..., who held fu kung-sang degree had a [second] wife from the Man family, by whom he had two", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212875, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "169\n\nfamily in the present generation and after:\n\nOur ancestors first came to live in Tsuen Wan about 235 years ago [1740]. Two brothers came from Chik Sek Market of Shi Kwan Tong sub-district (heung) of Hoi-fung County to Lai Chi Kok in Kowloon. Later, one brother moved to Sha Tsui (Yeung Uk Village), Tsuen Wan. Our founding ancestor was first buried on Tsing Yi Island, but because the authorities wished to develop that part of the island into a dockyard his remains were reburied in a formal grave at Fa Shan, Tsuen Wan. His wife was, and still is, buried at Hau Tei of Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan. It has been found that both these ancestral graves have ever brought good fortune to our clansmen.”\n\nThis letter was sent in response to my enquiry about the settlement of the lineage in Tsuen Wan. I had not realized it would be a catalogue of information on founding ancestors and their graves, ending in the statement that the graves were responsible for the flourishing condition of the lineage today!\n\nAlarm and Indignation at Official Notices\n\nSometimes, there were more direct examples of the kind, originating in the posting of official notices on site. When old graves on Tai Mo Shan were being inspected and registered by our land staff in 1980, notices were posted which were guaranteed to upset their owners. One of the many affected parties, the Tang clan of Wang Toi Shan Village in the Pat Heung, sent in a very strongly worded letter to the Office:\n\nWe refer to your notice posted at the ancestral graves of our Tang clan at Sze Fong Shan, Tai Mo Shan summit, stating that the burials were in violation of public health regulations. Descendants of the clan called an urgent meeting at which it was resolved to make strong objections. The Tang clan are indigenous villagers of Wang Toi Shan in the Pat Heung, and have a history [of settlement there] which is older than the Hong Kong Government. The ancestral graves in question date back to more than a century ago, and were repaired in the 31st year of Kuang-hsu [1905], as shown by the tomb inscriptions. The prosperity of our clan is attributed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212880, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "174\n\nto indigenous status, though now living in multi-storey apartment blocks following an earlier removal from their village. The grave was in thick bushes and clearly had not been visited at the two grave-worshipping festivals for a very long time. The elder confirmed this, but added that the fung-shui had turned bad.2\n\nWhere adverse influences were detected by experts, stones were placed at the grave, so as to block off the tablet. An instance of blocking-off is given in one of the files. It comes from Northeast Lantau. The grave belonged to a family from Tai Lam Chung on the mainland. A branch had also been settled for a hundred years at Tai Pang Po, Lantau, where this particular grave was located, on account of the good stake-net fishing there. The land officer provided a photograph of the grave. He reported that it was some 60-70 years old, but added, \"The inscription cannot be seen as the tombstone is covered by small rocks, because of poor fung-shui.\" The claimant told him there were four burial urns inside the grave, and gave the names of the persons whose remains were interred there.\" In another case, also seen on Northeast Lantau, the names of the deceased had been deliberately chipped off the tablet.\n\nObligations Outside The Family\n\nWhen it came to securing the removal of old graves, we found that the obligations to take up and rebury could sometimes ramify beyond the clan concerned. I had several cases of this kind when serving in Tsuen Wan. In another instance, the link was not so direct or as clear, but it was just as well-established as an obligation in the minds of those involved. The case involved an old grave, required to be removed for further development at Sam Pak Tsin, Texaco Road, Tsuen Wan. Since it had been repaired in 1813, it assuredly dated from the 18th century. Moreover, the grave tablet referred to the earlier burial of the remains of the husband and wife at other places, one of them at Kwai Chung. A lineage of a different surname, belonging to Hoi Pa Village, had responded to our notices posted on site, and came forward to state its obligation to arrange for removal and reburial of the remains. This was not simply a matter of taking compensation (if we were satisfied with the claim) as the reburial would involve the family in much trouble and expense. Such cases were not encountered frequently. Elders of this lineage (and the village representative who also belonged to it) said that the link with the persons buried in the grave was through the female side of their family but was no longer known clearly to even its oldest living members. Whatever it was,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212909, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 218, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "203\n\nThe household was quite large with an amah to look after us children (who many years later also looked after my own children), a cook, who was the husband of the amah, and one or two others to help with the washing and housework. When the time came, I went to the primary school with all the other children of my age, a single very fair head among a sea of black. I can visualise the classroom in which we had our lessons and the playground outside. The textbooks were very thin and had paper covers, so that it was possible for the history master to roll one up and give us a good clip over the head if we were being particularly stupid. English was not taught in the primary school, only to the senior students in the secondary school, so I was sent to sit among the senior girls to learn my English grammar from my mother, who taught the subject.\n\nWe had school uniforms of a sort still seen in Hong Kong, but the school only supplied the material to ensure that everybody had the same colour. Ours was a beautiful pale blue, only slightly darker than the Cambridge blue. Quantities of the new material would arrive and then be made up into the smartest of outfits.\n\nPaddy Fields and Dragon Boats\n\nWe would walk to school through paddy fields, which for most of the year were flooded for the rice. Small fish abounded in these fields, though I never caught any. The cycle of the rice crops was familiar to everybody. First, a scattering of seeds in a small patch, then, when the seedlings were about six inches above the water, the planting out of the seedlings, and then nothing much till harvest, and there were two harvests a year. Water was supplied to the paddy fields by a complicated irrigation system and involved pumping water up from the creeks. These pumps were an endless chain of paddles, which were pulled up a trough whose lower end was in the creek and which discharged into the fields. Some pumps were small and driven by a man using his arms as extensions of wooden pistons attached to the upper wheel round which the chain of paddles rotated. Others were driven by three or four men treading spokes protruding from the driving wheel. For the winter harvest, the water was drained out, so that the rice could be cut and threshed into large tubs on the spot. Where there had been acres of water, now there were dry fields of stubble and stacks of rice straw drying out. As the fields dried, we would take short cuts across them. We also found that the mud was soft enough to make into the mud equivalent of snowballs. This led to splendid games in which factions would build forts with the straw and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212913, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "207\n\n100 boys in the Boys' School and 100 girls in the Girls' School. The Prep School, as the primary school was called, was in an old building and I can well remember the misery of homesickness. After tea at six o'clock we were sent to bed, which seemed ridiculous. My father stayed a few days before sailing for Hong Kong but I saw very little of him. When he left I felt abandoned. Others even younger suffered the same fate but seemed to survive.\n\nIn fact these schools were run by a most devoted staff of missionaries who took great care of us - body and soul. They were of a fundamentalist persuasion and expected very high moral behaviour from all of us. The standard of teaching was high and the students got good marks in the Oxford School Certificate exams.\n\nThe Four Seasons\n\nSchool life was regulated to fit the climate. The winters were bitter and so cold that one year we came back from holidays to find the sea frozen over. We walked from the docks to school over the sea. The summers were glorious. I suppose they were hot as I remember hearing of temperatures of 100°F or more but it was dry and on the whole not so hot as Hong Kong. The sea was perfect for swimming, which was allowed once it had reached the temperature of 64°F for three successive days. Spring and autumn were intermediate - considerably colder than the summer but not the freezing temperatures of the winter. To cope with these extremes in climate we had three sets of clothing - khaki shirts and shorts for summer, wool jackets and shorts for spring and autumn and thick wool jackets and plus fours for the winter. The school buildings were also designed to cope with these extremes. The spacious verandahs round the playground of the Boys' School kept the hall and common rooms cool in the summer. In the winter, wooden frames with glass were put up in the arches of the verandahs giving an extra layer of insulation while central heating was going full blast.\n\nThere was always some excitement with each change of season. Watching the removal of the glass frames on the verandahs heralded the abandonment of our plus fours. The production of khaki shirts and shorts meant swimming and rowing was not far off. I can remember so clearly gazing out of the bedroom windows across the glassy calm sea in the early mornings wondering if it had reached the magic 64°. In the autumn the halcyon summer days would end abruptly with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212915, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "209\n\n1935 was a memorable year because it was the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The British Consul in Chefoo put on a great fair to which we all went. Here we were given bank notes specially drawn for the occasion, which entitled us to rides and ice cream and so forth. The bank notes were so attractive that I could not bring myself to spend them all and kept some for years.\n\nFrom time to time ships of the Royal Navy called at Chefoo and there would be sure to be some entertainment. Sometimes it was open day on the ship, once they dressed up as pirates and came ashore on our beaches and gave us a party there. We also played football against them. The main port for the Royal Navy was Wei Hai Wei, some sixty miles down the coast. Chefoo was the summer home for the American fleet, who would have come up from the Philippines, and who also took us on boating expeditions to nearby islands.\n\nHolidays at School\n\nAfter two years in the Prep School I was old enough to go to the Boys' School. The transfer took place during the summer holidays which I was, like many others, spending at school. As I said, children came to these schools from all over China. Most were children of missionaries but businessmen also sent their children there. Some came from nearby Tsingtao or Tientsin or Shanghai. These children could go home for the month-long summer holidays and some even went for the two weeks at Easter. A party of us came from Hong Kong and South China and, as it would take us ten days to get to Fatshan, we only made the journey once a year during the two-month long winter holidays. Others came from so far away in Yunnan Province that they never went home. So there were always a good many children in the schools during the holidays. These holidays were made very enjoyable times for us. In the summer it would be swimming and tennis. In the winter some went skating but at all times the staff would think of amusements and games, hobbies and outings which came in great variety.\n\nIn 1937 my father had planned a trip to Peking but the outbreak of hostilities with the Japanese prevented this. Instead my mother came to Chefoo for the summer holidays and we all stayed at the Missionary Home. This was a simple hostel where we had our meals and slept but that was about all. There was an Anglican church nearby and I recall the atmosphere of peace and reverence at my first Evensong there. During", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212920, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "214\n\nBANDITS IN THE SIU LEK YUEN YEUK\n\nP. H. HASE\n\nThe operation and functioning of the New Territories Yeuk (Village Mutual Defence Alliance) is a particularly fascinating subject, since the Yeuk seem to have been the dominant political feature of the eastern New Territories area in the nineteenth century. For this reason, I felt it might be of interest to provide a translation here of a note received from the village headman of Tsap Wai Kon village, Mr Tsim Fo-sang (?) on an incident in the Siu Lek Yuen area, probably from the mid or late nineteenth century, as he remembers being told it by the elders of his village in his youth. The note illustrates a number of interesting points about the Yeuk. The incident is likely to be factual, since the heroes of the incident were Tsap Wai Kon men, and so the incident is likely to have been frequently spoken about there.\n\nAt that time there were bandits in the area. Most of these bandits came from Kiangsi. They came in bands of ten or twenty or more. Some were extremely skilled in martial arts, but, in addition to their strength, they had weapons and weighted chains (?). Wherever they went they caused great sorrow to the residents. They forced the residents to give them food or money, and so forth. Of these bandit incursions, the worst was at Siu Lek Yuen.\n\nThe Siu Lek Yuen Yeuk was formed by uniting together many villages, such as Tsap Wai Kon, Kin Tsui, Ngau Pei Sha, Siu Lek Yuen, Nam Shan, Shek Kwu Lung, Tai Lam Liu, Wong Nai Tau, Fa Sam Hang, Tai Che, Kwun Yam Shan, Mau Tso Ngam, Fu Yung Pit, Lo Shue Tin, and other villages.\n\nSince they had to oppose the vexations and attacks of the bandits, the villagers of the Yeuk agreed to meet once a year in a meeting called the 'Everyone Together' meeting (?). This arrangement was instituted solely because of the bandits. At the meeting everyone brought food piled up on wooden dishes. The dishes from every village were taken to a matshed, where everyone sat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213008, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "55\n\nThe moral behaviour of Chinese delegations was stressed time and again, and often used as a counter-balancing force when defeats had been reported.\n\nEntitling the success to Chinese, people and country, forms another main branch of strategy in face-enhancing situations for China. The raising of the Chinese national flag and playing of her anthem were often included in gold winning events and sometimes in the headlines. More so, an editorial with headline reading \"I'd like to hear the anthem\" appeared on the front page of the 8 August issue in 1984.\n\nOn the other hand, the successful events and athletes were often linked with leaders of the contingent and also of the country. Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang were mentioned as having watched the winning events. Whenever a group of victorious athletes came back, they were often welcomed by leaders of the Party. The government leaders were also depicted as responsible for the victories. It had been the wishes of the leaders to see the women volleyball team winning the Olympic gold medal; it has been the guide of the leaders, the people's hope, the country's honour, the honour of being a Chinese that the women volleyball team won the most prized reward in sports. These victories were presents for the country and the people because gaining first places was always the errand of the athletes for the country. All these appear more often than the depiction of good tactics and good coaching. This was not even included in the men's win in volleyball. Rather, it was attributed to the support by the entire Chinese volleyball institution.\n\nThe status of the country, the four modernizations, the goodwill of the party, the kindness of the people had also been driving forces for the sportsmen. It was reported that because of the strength of the country, sports could be so strong (14 August, 1984). The performance of athletes had also been attributed to the status of China, a big and respectable country (1 August, 1984). In addition, the strength of the country stimulated athletes to work hard (headline on page three, 6 August, 1984). All these had induced pride among overseas Chinese (page three, 4 August, 1984).\n\nBasking in reflected glory is also evident in the press reports. In 1985 and 1986, the organization of the two events was favourably elaborated and concluded with a note of Chinese participation in the Games. In 1986, Chinese participation was put in a context of overwhelming success. More countries got gold medals, more records were broken. Asian sports", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213019, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "66\n\nAs controls, the face situations that were on foreign athletes and countries reflected a different picture. In face-enhancing situations, the victories of their athletes or countries were either basked in as glories for Asia, the world in which China had her part, or detached from the owners of success, or even devalued. Many victories of foreign athletes were not given due space and coverage. Even when they tied with Chinese athletes, they were concealed from the readers by either hook or crook: smaller characters, indirect mentioning, or even total disappearance.\n\nIt may be argued that because they did not concern Chinese readers that they were swallowed up by the press. But why were there so many negative portrayals of foreign victors, why was there so much coverage on the foreign losers, so much space on foreign athletes succumbing under Chinese sportsmen? Why could foreign victors not be lauded for their efforts, for their good national sports infrastructure? Why could foreign losers not be excused for injury, for weather, for crowd noise; justified for hard work, for good morale; accounted in favourable contexts of past victories, good records and so on?\n\nThe reason for all these partial presentations is that the Chinese press had to downplay the favourable images and to blast the unfavourable ones of foreigners so as to boost those of the Chinese. And in doing so, the press could present a picture of China's benevolent national face, with the Chinese victories enhanced and entitled to the delegation, the sports bureau, the people and the country as a whole. And the fundamental motive for such favourable presentations may be originated from political considerations.\n\nFace And Politics\n\nSome scholars have already discussed the relationship between face and politics. Among them, two studies are of relevance for discussion here. First, Lucian Pye's study of political factions in China has been quoted in the foregoing chapters. He came to the conclusion that loss of face would mean total disfunctioning for a person, so a politician or a political faction would never be entirely defeated (Pye, 1980: 188-189). This is to reserve some room for the defeated individuals to live in. Likewise, the defeated athletes were never heavily scolded. In fact, they were often excused, justified and saved from the loss of face. This is perhaps because of the same reason.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213083, "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": 151, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "132\n\nwhen he was tired out or feeling angry and frustrated. However, he made some annotations at a later date, 1933, on some of the entries and these were written in very clear, tidy, and easily legible handwriting. He was then sixty-seven, two years before he died. The diary must have meant a lot to him that he should review it forty years after the events. Maybe it was then that he decided to bequeath it to posterity with the hope that it might see the light of day, one day. Lowson began his diary in January 1894 and stopped writing after July. It was in the three-month period from May to July that he recorded the day-to-day happenings in connection with the Epidemic. He put down some statistical and clinical data in the first few days but, afterwards, he wrote mainly about the development of the situation, the measures taken to handle it, and of even greater interest, his clashes with the authorities. By editing the diary's contents, it is possible to write a coherent account of the early phase of the Epidemic, and this is what I have attempted to do. Lowson had also kept several pages of the Hong Kong Weekly Press dated May, June, and July 1894, on which weekly summaries of the events related to the Epidemic were reported. Besides, I am most grateful to Dr. John Nicholls of the Department of Pathology, Hong Kong University, for giving me a copy of a Report Lowson submitted to the Governor dated May 16th. Incidentally, the handwriting in this Report was as good and clear as the annotations. From these other sources, I have been able to obtain further data and information to elaborate on some of the entries I have chosen to present.\n\nTo us, the diary came to life on May 4th. Lowson wrote that he went to Canton by night boat and mentioned seven names. It would seem that they were going there to play some match, for the next day, the 5th, he wrote 'Murray and Potts licked hollow.' However, in his Report to the Governor, he stated that his main purpose was to see for himself the state of affairs as there had been reports that bubonic plague had broken out there.\n\nMay 6th\n\nWent into town to see plague and saw a large number of cases\n\nMay 7th\n\nBack to Hong Kong. In Club 6 pm. Rumour of plague. Saw Ram who said not so and described what had occurred\n\nRam was E.A. Ram, who was acting sanitary superintendent, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213115, "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": 183, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "The road and terry junction in this area attracted attention from the military authorities from an early date. While the Salt Commission and the Pearl Monopoly were active in Mars Bay, law and order were probably maintained by the special salt and pearl troops. After these were withdrawn, a military post was established at Shek Chung Au, with a watchtower nearby. This was close to the Wu Shek Kok ferry pier, and near to the road junction at Wo Hang Au. Other troops were established at Yim Tin. In various formulations and strengths, this military position remained at Shek Chung Au for several hundred years, until the mid-nineteenth century - eloquent testimony to the continuing importance of this traffic node.\n\nSha Tau Kok's position in the road system of the area gave it two economic advantages. The first was the Sha Yue Chung Ferry. There was only one a day in the early twentieth century, and this can safely be assumed to have been the case earlier as well. Many travellers, therefore, would be obliged to spend the night in Sha Tau Kok, or at least several hours, waiting for the ferry, and, if the weather was bad, these enforced waits could stretch out to several days. There was, as a result, plenty of opportunity for merchants in the town to profit from servicing travellers held up there. As noted already, in the 1920s Sha Tau Kok had more guesthouses, restaurants, and entertainment facilities than most towns in the area, and although most of those facilities were new, servicing the new frontier garrison and Customs staff, some at least were certainly a feature of the town from an earlier period.\n\nThe other great economic advantage was the geographical location of Sha Tau Kok in relation to Sham Chun. Sham Chun was at the head of navigation on the Sham Chun River, and was a busy port for the small junks that came up the river from Deep Bay. Sham Chun was, therefore, well located as far as water-borne traffic from the west went. But Sham Chun had no water route to the east, to Mirs Bay. By sea from Sham Chun to Sha Tau Kok is a good hundred miles: by land, barely seven. There were three important commodities not available in the Deep Bay area which could be had from the Mirs Bay area - rice, some sorts of quality fresh fish, and salt. Sha Tau Kok was, in effect, the port of Sham Chun to the east, where these commodities in particular were landed, and then carried by coolies over the Miu Keng pass to Sham Chun.\n\nMirs Bay was usually - despite occasional famines - a rice surplus area. The Sham Chun and Deep Bay area was a rice shortage area, even", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213117, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "167\n\nThere is some evidence of the traffic on the other routes out of Sha Tau Kok to the west in the same period. In 1910 22,000 persons \"carrying goods\" crossed the Shek Chung Au pass each month, carrying about 880 tons of goods, with probably a further 50,000 - 55,000 crossing the pass without carrying goods. This pass was clearly a major nodal point. With about 250 travellers crossing it every day, one every three minutes, including a laden coolie every ten minutes - it must have been a very busy road indeed, with, at peak periods, an almost non-stop flow of travellers. There were good reasons for the Ming and Ch'ing military post to be placed here.\n\nOf these 75,000 travellers, about a third went on to cross the Miu Keng Pass for Sham Chun, as noted above. A further 40% went to, or came from, destinations along the Yuen Long road - probably mostly to the villages nearest to Sha Tau Kok, who marketed there. A further sixth travelled to and from the villages south-west of Sha Tau Kok, in the Nam Chung-Luk Keng area, including some who continued on to Kowloon. The remainder travelled only as far as the villages between the Shek Chung Au and Wo Hang Au passes.\n\nIn 1904 a daily total of 600 travellers crossed the Sha Tin Pass between Sha Tin and Kowloon, of which nearly half were \"carrying goods\" (mostly fresh fish from Sha Tin to Kowloon). Of this total perhaps 75-100 went on to Sha Tau Kok via Ang Chung and Kuk Po, including perhaps 25 carrying goods - this route may have seen a monthly total of as many as 3,000 travellers carrying up to 35 tons of goods.\n\nWhile none of these statistics was as well gathered as would be expected today, they can be used to give an impression of the size of local trade in the early twentieth century. The traffic they suggest (75,000 persons, and nearly 900 tons of goods) as entering Sha Tau Kok from the south and west is very substantial. Probably a half again as many travellers entered Sha Tau Kok from the north and east, from where statistics are not available, and probably as much again in goods carried. In total, Sha Tau Kok was probably visited by up to 120,000 travellers a month (most of these travellers, of course, entered Sha Tau Kok, only to leave it again a few hours later) and handled some 1,850 tons of goods.\n\n55\n\nThese ancient roads and ferries remained the sole arteries of local trade until 1898. The drawing of the new frontier between Hong Kong and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213133, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "183\n\nTK\n\nin the market would sometimes be carried round by hawkers who brought them from the bigger cities further away. Twice a year, in the Spring and the Autumn, these hawkers would carry around the villages the vegetable seeds needed for the forthcoming half year. The villagers did not know how to produce good vegetable seed for themselves. There were some specialist villages in China which produced large quantities of seed. There the hawkers bought their stock. The hawkers kept the locations of these villages a secret - no villager contact seems to know where their seeds came from.\" Many of these hawkers who carried things around the villages were Hoklo: few local people entered this trade except for the people who hawked salt and fresh fish around the villages near their homes. There were quite a significant number of these itinerant hawkers, who bought in the towns and carried wares around the villages: unfortunately, very little is known about them.\n\nSome local villagers did make a living in the itinerant sweet trade. In Tsat Muk Kiu there was a villager, for instance, who made sweets and hawked them through the Wu Kau Tang and Plover Cove villages. These sweet hawkers often sold their wares, not for cash, but for broken metal which they then sold on to the market town blacksmiths, who were always short of metal.\n\nThe coolie trade was not very formally organised. Those stores wanting coolies to carry goods would let it be known, and would hire whom they pleased from those who showed an interest - most shops in the carrying trade developed a relationship with a particular group of women, however, - or the women from a particular village or section of a village - and always called on that group for coolies. After the 1870s, many of the young adult men of the Sha Tau Kok area began to travel abroad for a few years to make their fortunes. It is likely that, before local society began to be marked by this temporary emigration of young adult males, the local coolies had been young men, but, by 1900, the trade was mostly conducted by women. Thus, the Colonial Secretary hired 11 persons in 1899 to carry his baggage from Wo Hang near Sha Tau Kok to Tai Po - a full day's march of 12 miles - and 7 of the 11 were women. In the 1920s, shops in the market at Sha Tau Kok would sometimes send groups of women as far as Tsuen Wan (more than 15 miles away) to bring back goods for sale not available nearer at hand (pineapples especially) - a very long day's work. Many of the carrying coolies came from the lowland villages - the women of the mountainside villages were probably too.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213157, "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": 225, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "207\n\nI do not profess to having a monopoly of knowledge as an insider over the non-Chinese outsider, but the clear advantage in researching the familiar is that I had the benefit of possessing an understanding of Chinese culture and its nuances which would have taken time for the non-Chinese researcher to become acquainted with. And time is often of the essence in research projects.\n\nHaving covered some of the aspects in which I influenced the research, I would like to now consider the ways in which I have developed a greater self-awareness and understanding of the issue of cultural identity by having done this sociological research.\n\nMy background is like this. I was born in Fanling in the New Territories of Hong Kong, the youngest of six children. At the age of five, accompanied by my mother, one sister and one brother, we flew to England to join the rest of the family there (which included my father and my three other brothers).\n\nDuring my upbringing in England there appeared to be no question of my cultural identity. I considered myself first and last, Chinese. Physically I stood out amongst the Caucasians in the ethnically homogenous small town where I grew up. At home we spoke our Cantonese dialect and ate Chinese food. We were quite isolated geographically, and I rarely came into contact with other Chinese except when we made infrequent trips to London's Chinatown. Because I rarely saw our relatives, the only Chinese people I associated with were my nuclear family,\n\nWith regard to racism and discrimination I think I have been fairly fortunate, for I am not aware of having suffered anything more than verbal abuse in the playground from white students. However, discrimination is so insidious that one is not usually conscious of the fact that one is a target. And it was not until this research that I consciously and deliberately contemplated this issue. In the study, I posed the question about racism and discrimination in the British labour market and, strangely, almost without exception the respondents could recall anecdotal evidence of people they knew who had experienced discrimination, yet claimed that they themselves had not been victims.\n\nI believe as do the majority of the Chinese respondents that the Chinese have a fairly positive image in the eyes of the British. The Chinese are\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213222, "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": 44, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "23\n\nCharles Brodersen, a partner of Pustau and Co., left at the end of 1861. Two new members were admitted to replace him, Julius Menke and G.W. Siewets/van Reeseman (GG 5 Apr 1862) The latter left in 1867 and Theodore Probst was named a partner (GG 12 Jan. 1867) A relative, William Probst, was already a partner, but left at the end of 1869 (GG 8 Jan. 1870) Theodor Probst's interest ceased in 1871 (DP 8 Feb. 1871). New partners were Otto Christian Behn and Johannes F. Cordes. Dr Behn's interest ceased in 1875 and that of Mr. Cordes the next year (DP 20 Apr. 1876, 2 Feb. 1877)\n\nAfter the failure of 1878 a new company was formed. Two of the sons of the founder of the old firm became partners in the new, Wilhelm Carl Engelbrecht von Pustau, Junior, and Theodore Johannes Engelbrecht von Pustau. The firm became Reuter, Brockelmann and Co in 1898. Ernest Carl Ludwig Reuter had been a partner in Pustau and Co. from about the year 1882 and Friedrich Alexander Alfred Buesing Brockelmann was admitted to partnership five years later (DP 4 Jan. 1887) Mr. Reuter died at sea only a few months after the name of the company had been changed (DP 15 Nov. 1889), Mr. Brockelmann died in 1902, aged forty-five (CM 15 Mar. 1902).\n\nIn 1914 the office of Reuter, Brockelmann and Co. was in the Prince's Building. The partners were H. Heyn, of Hamburg, R. Fuhrmann and M. Steger.\n\nCarlowitz and Company\n\nThe first German firm to be permanently established in China was Carlowitz and Co. It was founded by Richard von Carlowitz who opened an office at Minqua's Hong in the Canton foreign factory compound in 1844. Since 1840, he had been coming to China on periodic business trips sailing around the Cape of Good Hope (DP 31 Dec. 1895). He went into partnership with Bernard Harkot in 1846 (CM 13 Mar. 1846). A branch office was opened at No. 2 D'Aguilar Street in Hong Kong in 1866. At the same time Adolphus Erbeke was admitted a partner (GG 7 July 1866). In March 1868 the Hong Kong office was moved to 15 Playa Central opposite the wharf of Douglas Lapraik and Co (DP 31 Mar. 1868).\n\nMr. Carlowitz served as the Prussian Consular Agent in Hong Kong (GG 5 Jan. 1867) By that time he had the title of Baron. He retired from ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213257, "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": 79, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "Fung shur is not composed entirely of superstitions. Much consists of a complex web of well-documented metaphysical beliefs and esoteric knowledge based on first principles and supported by philosophical theory and practices grounded in ancient, indigenous lore. There is a rich technical vocabulary (Morgan, 1980:209).\n\nAlthough sometimes dismissed by sceptics as old-wives tales, psychic power in various forms and occultism are, of course, not uncommon in the West. They include hypnotic suggestion, thought transference, telepathy, premonition, emotional links, out-of-body experiences, life-after-death, and even the charming of warts.\n\nFung shu doctrine embraces magnetism, cosmic waves, radio activity, the mysteries of heaven and earth, the natural sciences, logic, higher mathematics, chemistry, geology, geography, philosophy, astronomy, psychology, ecology, architecture, spatial orientation, and ergonomics. It has been claimed that what geomancy is to geography, astrology is to astronomy (Cumine, 1981:75). Although fung shui depends upon elements such as design, spatial planning, ecology, and common sense, there is also a degree of mysticism. Sometimes geomancy is debased by gnosis, ancient spiritual sciences and beliefs, folk religion, and traditional mythology. The relationship to nature, and observing nature's principles linked to the universe, is important. Some practitioners claim, 'One does not demand reasons from nature.'\n\nOne fung shui master stated, 'A person is not just born, married, loses his or her job, and dies. There are reasons. For example: in early 1992, the Antiquities Advisory Board was preparing for a group photograph. The author wanted to walk in, and stand in the centre behind a row of chairs, but his path was blocked by a group of fellow members. During those intervening seconds, a heavy electric-light globe capable of maiming or killing came crashing down just where the author would have stood. Some Board members reacted by saying good fortune comes in waves. At that time the author's luck was at a high ebb. Then would have been the time to have bought a sweepstake ticket. Luck attracts luck. Other members said that, because the author had donated blood 70 times, escaping death was a reward for good deeds.'\n\nThere are references to fung shui as early as the third century BC, referring to the construction of the ... (a li is about one third of an ...).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213269, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "71\n\nMost Chinese will, however, tell you that a dragon has sinews and veins which can be severed. Blood can be spilled. Thus, when the earth's flesh was pierced, blood, in the form of bright red, ochre-coloured earth, appeared during excavations for the construction of Hong Kong's underground railway in the 1970s. This could mean the time had come for workers to down tools. The evil that might follow had to be averted ritually. Taoist priests would then beat ceremonial gongs and offer prayers to pacify spirits of the earth where the dragon's peace was being destroyed. Exorcism in modern day Hong Kong is by no means uncommon (Raceday rites, 1987). Neither is exorcism uncommon in Christian churches. It is mentioned in the Bible.\n\nOne can compare certain Buddhist, Taoist or folk-religion ceremonies, which purify and bestow blessings, with walking through fields in Europe in springtime while conducting a Christian Rogation Service to ensure a good harvest.\n\nInterestingly, some Chinese came to the conclusion during the last century, that foreigners know far more about fung shui than they are prepared to admit. Otherwise, why would they have picked such a fine site (as it was then) for the Governor's residence? Why would they plant vegetation over the slopes of Victoria Peak in which dwells the resident dragon?\n\nReturning to the cutting edges of the Bank of China: a fung shui master is supposed to adhere to strict ethical standards and not do anything which could be construed as the 'black art'. He should not 'attack' a neighbour. However, in the New Territories, for example, a case where a successful family's fortune has suddenly waned has sometimes been traced to the desecration of an ancestor's grave. As a result, revenge against perpetrators was, in the past, not uncommon.\n\nA buried 'person' needs to 'breathe', and, whether he or she can do this properly or not, affects his or her descendants. Some believed Chiang Kai-Shek's rise to power depended on his mother's fine grave. This, the Communists are said to have dug up.\n\nThe People's Republic's 'Red Guards' went to considerable lengths during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to destroy the 'Four Olds' (old customs, old habits, old culture, old thoughts). These included fung shui.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213296, "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": 118, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "98\n\nBritain since she moved there with her parents as a child, had this to say. 'If my mother bought a house in England she would certainly consider fung shui, I would consider it too, but not in such detail.'\n\nUndoubtedly, more interest is shown by Westerners in things Chinese today, compared to, say, a generation or so ago. Treatment like acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines have slowly become accepted by some members of the western medical profession. Likewise, fung shui is gaining Caucasian proponents. It is believed the layout of Amsterdam's waterways, the beauty of Lucerne, and the textbook layout of Paris all conform to good fung shui principles. Patrick Wong, a fung shui consultant practising in Britain, maintains that London attracts favourable water spirits from the Thames (Forsyth, 1994:64). These signify good fortune. The river's direction and flow, and the fact that it meanders and has many tributaries, are all conducive to prosperity (Walters, 1988:23). Kwok Man Ho, one of Europe's foremost fung shui masters, was called upon to advise on the design of some of the more recent projects in London's Docklands.\n\nIn addition to Chinese fung shui masters practising in the West there are also proponents like Derek Walters, a Briton who dons Chinese ceremonial robes and claims to have advised a number of British celebrities. Walters flies regularly to Hong Kong, where he learned his craft, to consult with other experts. 'We have nothing similar to fung shui in the West so it fills a vacuum,' he maintains.\n\nIn this technological age many people are searching for a 'fourth dimension'. They also want something that stirs the will. A number are looking for a simple, direct way of escaping the boredom and narrowness of everydayness. While some find their escape in mediaeval history, art or music, others find it in fortune telling or fung shui.\n\nA group of Chinese, after discussions among themselves in Holland, came to the conclusion that, among the Hong Kong, Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese living in the Netherlands, 70 to 80 per cent believe in fung shui, at least to some degree. For instance, many believe the number of windows in a dwelling should exceed the number of doors. If they do not, the inhabitants will hang up some kind of talisman to counteract possible evil influences. Similarly, gods which are popular in Hong Kong, like To Tei Kung, Kwan Ti and Kwoon Yam (觀音) are common among Chinese in the Netherlands.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213324, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "127\n\n1\n\n# NOTES\n\nThe Manchus established the Ch'ing dynasty in AD 1644, having overthrown the native Chinese Ming rulers. The Manchus were related to the central Asian group speaking a language akin to Mongol who settled in Manchuria many centuries earlier. They were usually referred to by Europeans as Tatars.\n\n2. Lach garrison town, including Chapu, contained a Tatar walled city separate from the Chinese city.\n\nIn 1840 HMS bug Algerine paid a flying visit to Chapu and was fired upon from some batteries near the town. During the attack on Chapu in 1842, these batteries were quickly put out of action by the Royal Navy.\n\n4. Under command of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker.\n\n*The Westmorland Regiment was granted the China Dragon superscribed “China” for service during the China War of 1840-42.\n\n*The Nemesis was the first iron steamer to round the Cape of Good Hope. She was never commissioned as one of HM's vessels of war, yet was generally commanded by Royal Navy officers. She was of the greatest use throughout the First China War and after the Treaty of Nanking returned to Bombay.\n\nA joss-house is the Victorian name for a Chinese temple or shrine, the house where the joss (god, from the Portuguese \"Deos\") was situated. From contemporary sketches and descriptions, the joss house in question would appear to have been a medium-sized Buddhist establishment, and although there were no references to priests, monks, or nuns, it had residential accommodation in addition to the usual altar halls.\n\nLung Fu was a company commander, Iso-ling (grade 4a), of one of the Eight Manchu Banners.\n\n*Parker, L. II. Chinese Account of the Opium War.\n\nA Tao-tai was an imperial Circuit Intendant, a member of the hierarchy controlling several prefectures.\n\nI-li-pu (1770-1847) was a member of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner and an Imperial Clansman. He was banished for disobedience in 1841 but recalled and appointed acting assistant military lieutenant-governor at Chapu in early 1842, his predecessor having died of wounds during the British attack. Chapu was still occupied by the British, and I-li-pu had to remain in Hangchou, where he received orders to move to Soochou as it was understood that he was respected by the British, and the Court wished him to be on hand to carry out negotiations.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213327, "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": 149, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "131\n\nwas intended to build up a library collection of books on Asia. It has been an abiding personal interest, for I have at all times been instrumental in adding to it. Although modest in size, it contains a good stock of works on Asian subjects in Western languages, with a major emphasis on China. Over the years, our books have been housed in various places: in the British Council; in the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wanchai after its completion in 1972; and for almost a decade from 1985, in the new Kowloon Central Library. They are now back again on Hong Kong Island, in the City Hall Main Library.\n\nPlacing the collection in Kowloon turned out to be a big mistake. In the past, expatriates who lived on Hong Kong Island talked and thought of Kowloon almost as though it was on another planet.* One might have hoped that two harbour tunnels, cross-harbour buses and the Mass Transit Railway would have altered old perceptions and prejudices. However, during the ten years the Library collection was kept in Kowloon, few of our members found the way there, or made much use of the book retrieval service provided for them at the City Hall Library. As it turned out, after computerization of our membership records in the mid-1980s, most of our members did live on Hong Kong Island, and the old views of Kowloon had apparently persisted. Still being added to yearly, the Collection is now housed on the 9th floor of the re-modelled City Hall High Block and is under the care of the Urban Council Library staff there.\n\nHonorary Editor\n\nI was Honorary Editor of the RAS Journal between 1966 and 1980, responsible for producing fourteen annual issues for the years 1967-1980 inclusive, as well as a number of the Society's Symposia Brochures—the published papers of those presented at symposia devoted to special subjects. I much enjoyed editorial work, and benefited from the many friendships it brought with it. One among them was with the late Professor Luther Carrington Goodrich of Columbia University, whom I first came to know in 1967, after asking him for a note on Ming cannon found in Hong Kong and sending on details of newly discovered pieces. He forwarded other contributions to the Journal thereafter; and once, when lagging in my editorial work, he had sent a \"chaser\", urging me to put a bomb under our printer. Of course, I had to reply that the bomb needed to be placed under me, as the guilty party.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213339, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "143\n\nour cultural programmes depend. These had always been available in Hong Kong's colonial era, now practically at an end, because of the settled lives of the many local expatriates working in the major fields of government service, business, education and the professions, and the fact that a good number of them came to admire and value the culture in which they spent their working days. I am assuming that the provision and maintenance of leaders from our local Chinese membership will not be a problem, but this remains to be seen.\n\nOne can only live in hope. The Society is flourishing, and is well regarded. It is well-established in the hearts and minds of its members of all races, here and overseas. Notwithstanding the difficulties attending any major political transition, such as Hong Kong will face in 1997 and the following few years, like the Territory itself there is no valid reason - so far as we know - why we should not be able to continue our good work well into the next century.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. Charles O. Hucker, China to 1850: A Short History (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1978), p. 2.\n\n2. See the history recently published by the RAS, London.\n\n3. They still exist, but a recent enquiry shows that the RAS library now forms part of the provincial collections. See also Harold M. Otness, \"The One Bright Spot in Shanghai: A History of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society”, in JHKBRAS 28 (1988), pp. 185-197.\n\n4. See JHKBRAS 1 (1961), pp. 4-5, with historical background at pp. 1-3.\n\n6. JHKBRAS 1 (1961) pp. 11-17, given on 7 April 1960.\n\nPrepared by H. Anthony Rydings, our former long-serving Hon. Librarian and Vice-President, indexes to the Journals and “Occasional Publications\" up to 1980 have been published by the Branch.\n\nOur founder President had applied to the Government for yearly financial assistance, and this small subsidy remained pegged at the same very low figure ever after. Approaches made to leading European banks and firms in 1989–90 for assistance met with no response, perhaps because they had contributed to a recent appeal from the parent body in London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213393, "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": 215, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "Hatt. Virgie Chittenden, Western China, a Journey to Mount Omei, Boston Ticknor and Co, 1888\n\nHedin, Sven Anders, The Silk Road, English translation, New York Dutton, 1938\n\n— My Life As An Explorer, London Cassell, 1926\n\nHillard, Mrs Barnet(Low), My Mother's Journal Hope 1829-1834, Boston Ginn & Libs. 1900\n\nManila, Macao and Cape of Good\n\nHolden, Reuben Andrus, Yale in China, the Mainland, 1901-1957, New Haven The Yale in China Association, 1964\n\nHolm, Puts, My Nestorian Adventure in China, a Popular Account of the Holm-Nestorian Expedition to Sian-fu and as Result, New York and Chicago. Revell, 1923\n\nHomer, Jay, Dawn Watch in China, Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1941\n\nHopkirk, Peter, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia, London John Murray, 1980 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press)\n\nHosie, A. Three Years in Western China, London Philip, 1897 (Taipei Reprint Cheng-wen Publishing)\n\n—, On the Trail of the Opium Poppy, London, 1934\n\n1\n\nHoy Ching-ming, Foreign Investment and Economic Development in China. 1840-1937 Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1965\n\nHsu, Immanuel C.Y., The Rise of Modern China, New York: Oxford University Press. 1970\n\nHuang, Ray, The Lung-ch'ing and Wan-li Reigns 1567-1620, Cambridge History of China, vol 7, 511-84\n\nHue, Ivan, Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary During The Years 1844 1845 and 1846, a condensed translation by Mrs Percy Simmett, London Longman, 1852\n\n- A Journey Through the Chinese Empire, New York, 1855\n\n1\n\nHughes, Mrs Thomas Francis, Among the Sons of Han Notes of Six Years Residence in Various Parts of China and Formosa, London. Innes & Brothers 1887\n\nHume Lotta Carswell, Drama at the Doctor's Gate the Study of Dr. Edward Hume of Yale-in-China, New Haven Yale Association, 1961\n\nHummel, Arthur W, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ching Period. Washington DC Government Printing Office, 1944 (Taipei Reprint. Cheng-wen Publishing)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "Claire came on board in the middle of last year and has quickly rooted out the requirements to make the Society move forward. She has assisted in the movement of the stock of Journals to The Chinese University of Hong Kong for storage and more importantly has had our membership satisfactorily computerised. And it is on Membership that I wish to conclude this report. Some very interesting statistics of the membership have emerged as a result of some sharp analytical research by our Treasurer. At this point of time the Society has 80 Life Members and 396 Annual Members, of which no less than 50 joined in the last four months. These statistics show that there has been a decline in paid-up memberships over the last two or three years. Given the increased transitory nature of those who join the Society this is not perhaps a surprise. The transitory nature of Society members is borne out by the fact that of the current annual paid-up members, only 75 were members five years ago. Further investigation revealed that most members left because they departed from Hong Kong rather than leaving the Society per se and a few needed to be eliminated from the membership because their whereabouts were no longer known or their subscriptions had been unpaid for two or three years. But a Society such as this is only as good as its members and it is heartening to see that there are many new members of all nationalities replacing those who have left.\n\nWe welcome them and hope that they will enjoy and be stimulated by the lectures and activities, and if any of them and old members have ideas on the programme and inputs for the Journal please do not hesitate to let them be known.\n\nMarch 1996\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213583, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "149\n\nmentioned that incense trees in fung shui woods were ever harvested. Iu (1983) claims that the misunderstanding may have been caused by the reference to another incense producing species Aquilaria agallocha which was commonly grown in north Vietnam.\n\nAnother resource, long since exhausted, were the forest trees used for charcoal burning, once a flourishing local industry all over the New Territories. The memory of this occupation remains in one of the place names at Shing Mun, known as Tan Chong or \"charcoal factory”, in which some houses were already abandoned by the early years of this century (Hayes, 1983). An account of the charcoal industry, which was carried out by outsiders for trade, is given by Shen (1971).\n\nThe village hill areas were the main suppliers of fuel, usually in the form of grass cut in autumn, but also as pine and brushwood gathered to augment a villager's income. Firewood was taken to market as it was one of the three basic staples, including rice and vegetables, that was required by the rapidly growing urban population. Firewood from Shatin was brought on foot to Kowloon (Sessional Papers 1903, p209) which list 66,521 loads of firewood, each of 90lbs. The Kowloon Lok Sin Tong levied a small weighing charge on each load of firewood sold in Kowloon City market, for charitable works. The annual output of one acre (0.4ha) was 11 piculs (640kg), (Hong Kong Annual Report 1938 p59). Gathering firewood was the main occupation of the village women. A typical headload would be in region of 90-100lbs (45kg) and would be collected twice a week, (Hayes, 1983).\n\nFirewood was used in earthenware stoves, known as \"feng-lu\", for cooking family meals and special food at festival times. Grass gathered from the hill side in autumn and the stalks from the first crop of rice were the universal fuel used for heating water and pigswill. Firewood was still being used up until 1964 in the urban encroached village of So Uk in west Kowloon for cooking at Chinese New Year, as it was better for baking (Hayes, 1983).\n\nWhen a bride came to live in her husband's village, the older women would show her those areas from which fuel could be gathered and those areas, usually the fung shui woods, where it could not be gathered. This information was often learned by means of a 12 line poem or song to name those areas where the young wife should not gather fuel.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213630, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "200\n\n3\n\nand four belong to German prisoners. The remainder are Allied servicemen's graves. The headstones, including those of the Chinese Labour Corps members, are of the usual Portland Stone with the Commonwealth War Grave standard segmental curve on the top (see Plates 1 and 2). This distinguishes them from graves for civilians which are curved but with a piece notched out at each top corner. Stones for Royal Air Force graves are 'winged', with curved tops sweeping upwards slightly at each side.* Few if any of the Chinese who served in Europe in the First World War, one assumes, were Christians. There are no crosses on their gravestones.\n\nOf the two Chinese graves in this cemetery one is unnamed (see Plate I), although there is an army number. This is not unusual. When Chinese labourers were first recruited, pigtails, which could still be found in China at the time, were cut off. Thumbprints were then taken and numbered wristlets were riveted on. The inscription on the first gravestone reads, in Chinese and English, 'Faithful unto death'. The second headstone (see Plate 2) is in memory of Wong Fuk-hing with the proverb, 'A good reputation endures forever.' Wong came from Shan Tung Province, Yeung Sun county. A Chinese person's native place is important enough to be inscribed on his or her headstone. Traditionally, Chinese like to be buried on their native soil.\n\nNot far from Foncquevillers Military Cemetery is an old farm house which, in 1916, stood near the front line of the First Battle of the Somme, the largest land battle Britain has ever fought. Some 57,470 British soldiers were killed on July 1, 1916, the first day of this action. The cellar at the time, linked by a tunnel to the trenches which crisscrossed the area, served as a battlefield operating theatre. On March 19, 1916, two British soldiers were shot at dawn, close by, for desertion. Although my son and I visited this old house owned by Avril Williams, which now serves as a guest house and English tea rooms, she was unfortunately not at home. Her daughter showed us around.\n\nThe chief reason that Avril Williams came here, from England, was so she might visit and tend the graves of those who fought and died: 'So we might continue to live the way we do.' On the headstone of Private George Palmer's grave, who was killed in 1917, a request from his mother is inscribed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213660, "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-1996", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "Numbers are in fact creeping up, albeit slowly. Today, about 19 per cent of our membership, judging by names, are ethnic Chinese. With cross-cultural marriages however, this percentage is probably not entirely accurate.\n\nYour Council also feels a continuing effort should be made to recruit more student members, especially promising young scholars.\n\nPublications\n\nProgress has been made with the publishing of journals. Volumes 31 and 32 came off the presses in 1996, volume 33 was published in early 1997 and volume 34 should be out in two or three weeks' time. Our journals have long been held in high regard both by teaching and research institutions around the world and also by a more discerning reading public. We are now trying to improve our marketing techniques so we can sell more copies.\n\nAfter the successful publication of Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong, in early 1996 we have started to press ahead with a companion volume about Yau Ma Tei called, In the Heart of the Metropolis. This is being prepared by our Branch together with the Cathay Camera Club, a number of whose members are also Royal Asiatic Society members. It is important that a society like ours engages in scholarly projects and we are extremely grateful to Dr Patrick Hase who readily accepted the job of editor and chief project organiser. In the latter capacity he has been ably assisted by Brian Pearce, and now that Brian has left Hong Kong, by Charles Slater.\n\nMany members read our Newsletter avidly and naturally with advancing information technology it is nicely produced. A considerable amount of planning and effort go into each issue and it always manages to meet the deadline. For this significant achievement we have to thank Claire Hockaday and Geoffrey Roper.\n\nActivities\n\nIt has been said 'Good lecturers are a gift from heaven' and certainly\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213805, "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-1996", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "JOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: III. ACCOUNT OF THREE DAYS EXCURSION ON THE MAINLAND OF CHINA\n\nFRED DAGENAIS*\n\n129\n\nThis is the third in a series of letters by John Fryer (1838-1928) to appear in this Journal. In the first letter Fryer described the tedious and sometimes difficult voyage from London to Hong Kong in 1861 on a sailing ship via the Cape of Good Hope with a brief stop at Batavia. In the first letter Fryer presented himself as a very young man just out of Highbury Training College coming into contact with the larger world, homesick, critical of the master of the ship and of the passengers, confirmed in his personal faith, bent on self-improvement, and interacting for the first time with missionaries in the colonial world of Batavia and Hong Kong.\n\nThe second letter, written shortly after his arrival, described Hong Kong and its environs and the European and Chinese people encountered; in it he provided us with a detailed tour of the building housing St. Paul's College, where he had been assigned to superintend by the Church Missionary Society, and of its operations. St Paul's College had its origins in a school founded in the mid-1840s by then Colonial Chaplain Rev. Vincent Stanton; the College was given a boost by the arrival in 1850 of the Rev George Smith, Bishop of Victoria (1849-64). In that letter Fryer seemed in awe of his new authority and responsibility and quite proud of the commodious school building and its library; he began to socialize with the Colonial Chaplain and his family, and revealed an appreciation of the wider perspective offered by the interaction with the Chinese population of the island and its culture.\n\nThe first and second letters were clearly identified as letters written for home consumption, for family and friends in Hythe and Chudleigh. The letters were extracted from his diary and designed to describe his adventures in an exotic land. The first letter had a salutation and a signature; the second letter had a salutation, but ended abruptly, the last page or pages with conclusion and signature having perhaps been lost or purposely destroyed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213810, "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-1996", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "134\n\njourney, and paid him 10 cash each for them, and then we came to the boat.\n\nIt was no easy thing to get on board, and as it was my first attempt at a Chinese craft, I was quite disgusted with the affair. After being on deck for a while, I found the two cabins which 5 men were to occupy. Each cabin was about the size of a chest of drawers, and cockroaches and smaller vermin revelled among the dirt. However, there was no help for it. Lechler, who has lived as a Chinaman and previously worn a tail for 10 years, took it all as a matter of course, and seemed quite at his ease. These boats are about 50 feet long, with the stern very high out of the water, and the bow very low. There is one principal mast and sail, which does all the work. In a minute the sail can be hoisted, and in 10 seconds can be lowered. Clumsy as it all is, it is surprising what good sailors Chinamen are. There is no danger if they are left to themselves. They can tack in less than no time. The \"shut kung\" calls out \"chun shun\" and the great sail sweeps round across the deck in a trice. All who are on deck must instantly stoop very low, or they will find themselves lying sprawling on the lee side.\n\nThe arrangements being made we started off in company with 8 other boats belonging to the same firm. Our ship was the chief one, and was named the \"Shoon-lay\" or \"good profit\"; all of them had names meaning gain and profit (all the Chinamen ever think about). We got out of the harbour by the use of the two immense oars or sweeps at the stern, which move the ship along tolerably fast. Then when we were clear of the harbour, we made for \"pirates bay\". The weather was delightful; the sea was very clear; and we went on charmingly with a brisk breeze. Hong Kong at a distance is certainly a fine place. The immense Peak behind the town is a grand spectacle, and the fast increasing colony, with its fine houses on the hillside are beautiful to look at, especially on a clear day, in the sunshine. We had no end of fun among ourselves, and kept a continual fire of jokes at Stringer's dog, which was condemned to be eaten on the voyage. I gave it to a Chinaman and told him to kill it and eat it; much to Stringer's dislike and our amusement.\n\nWe were each armed with a revolver, and each had a stick or something else in case of need; we had, moreover, two double-barrelled guns, with which we now and then let fly at the wild ducks. At three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213811, "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-1996", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "135 o'clock we had our dinner on the deck. Such fun and such make shifts. Our stock of portable soup was very good however, and what with venison pasties and other items we got a very comfortable dinner, much to the amusement of the Chinese passengers, about 20, and the sailors. My servant came in very handy, as he was the only professional cook of the party. Our food was cooked in the Chinese way, in a little earthenware stove, and a camp canteen kettle. The deck all the while was at a very considerable slope, so that it was necessary to mind one's p's and q's, in order to avoid catastrophies. Then when we were done and cleared away, the Celestials came forward and took the deck and began their meal. Each passenger pays 30 cash (not quite three halfpence) for his meal of rice and fish and little nic nacs: and as they only eat two meals a day, you may imagine that there is not much profit to be got out of it. They did walk into the rice and no mistake.\n\nOne little boy I took a fancy to: he was a friend of the owner of the ship and his father a rich man at Sam-tsun the place we were going to. I had a long talk with him, and we read some of the Pilgrim's Progress. He had been to school 6 years, and literally knew nothing after all. The Chinese system of education is the greatest folly imaginable: No Chinaman, in less than ten years is supposed to be able to know the meanings of the characters. Many learn 5 years and only know the sounds.\n\nHowever this little fellow and I got on very well together. He was much amused with Stringer's dog, and asked dozens of questions about it. Then I offered to sell it for a dollar, but the youngster said it was no good only to eat,\" and therefore was too dear. So I joked him that he had not a dollar belonging to him, whereupon he produced a handful of dollars from his purse, and showed me a bundle of paper which he said had 7 dollars inside. He seemed to have perfect confidence in us that we would not try to rob him. It was hard to talk with him, through his dialect. It was like a Londoner and Yorkshireman. “Tea” he called \"Chay-yup\" and we call it \"Chah-eep.\" About four o'clock we entered the “Kup shui moon\" a channel opening into the \"Bogue” or as English people say \"Bocca Tigris\" or \"tiger's mouth.\"\n\nHere we passed the Canton steamer going to Hong Kong. The people stared to see Europeans on board a Chinese craft. Towards evening the breeze dropped off, and at sunset there was quite a calm.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213812, "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-1996", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "136\n\nWe coasted along, and could only move by using the sweeps behind, and the six oars in front. Capt Drummond and I took each an oar, and had a long pull. Just before we entered \"Deep water Bay\" we found the tide had turned and the current was dead against us. So we came to anchor, and the other accompanying ships did the same, all near each other, for fear of pirates. When the anchor is cast the boy who attends to the Religious ceremonies, ascends the poop with a roll of paper which he lights and waves to and fro and then throws overboard. Then the gongs began to ring at a fine rate, to frighten away the evil spirits, and at last the shouts of the men gradually died away in the stillness of the night; and only an occasional shout was heard from the distant shore from the huts of the fishermen, who were boiling their nets in very large coppers.\n\nWe had previously taken tea, and Mr Lechler had addressed the passengers in the hold: and then, it being late we prepared to turn in for the night. We had our evening devotion, and as we knelt on the deck in the moonlight, and listened to the voice of prayer, breaking the stillness of the waters, in the sight and hearing of the heathen around us, I felt a sensation which words cannot describe. Then as we rose and sang \"From all that dwell below the skies,\" there was something so soothing, so comforting in the music, that as the last notes died away in the distance, and all was calm and still, I felt transfixed to the spot. \"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast,\" and never did I feel its power more than on this occasion.\n\nMessrs Irwin and Drummond slept on the deck, while I tried to sleep down below in the small box, with Lechler. But sleep I could not. A tooth began to ache, and gradually increased to such an extent that at 1 o'clock I got up, and went round to the man on the watch and all the Chinamen I could find, to beg a morsel of tobacco to put into it. At last one fellow gave me a piece, which though it did not prevent the pain, yet gave me so much relief that I got nearly an hour's sleep. At 3 o'clock the tide turned and we again got under weigh, after which there was no more sleep for me. The night before, I was up till after two o'clock writing for the Bishop: so that I was quite worn out.\n\nThe wind was against us, what little there was, and so we had to scull and row all the way. At daylight we were entering the river, and after a good wash, and breakfast, we were ready for action. The men", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213813, "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-1996", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "137\n\nwere all tired so for exercise we took an oar to help them. We had several shots at the birds, principally teal. One great bird sat on a bush, and as we rounded a point, we got close to it. Two of them shot at it, and the thing did not move; after a minute or two it got up and flew away, much to the chagrin of the marksmen. We were gradually getting into closer quarters, and at every turn the river grew narrower. We were also getting nearer the abodes of man. At last we swept round and came to a village, where, through the shallowness of the water, we were forced to disembark, since the tide was very low. All round was nothing but immense oyster shells, in immense heaps. Some apparently very old. One would think that from the time of Mathuselah the inhabitants had fed upon nothing else but oysters. We got ashore, and off we started since we had a long walk before us. We met a man with about 1000 ducks, and I levelled a two-barrelled gun at the lot, and asked the fellow how much he would let me have a shot at them for. He was fearfully frightened, and I was obliged to tell him I was only doing so for fun.\n\nWe went through this village, and as we went through the principal street it was like a grand circus procession in England. Five of the Western barbarian foreign devils, fully armed, and followed by about 10 servants, was a sight many had never seen before. They certainly seemed to know how to make good use of their eyes, and I warrant they will never forget us in a hurry.\n\nAt last we got clear of the town and were hurrying along across the country to walk to Sam-chun. On all sides were large covered jars, or what in Kent would be called \"covered crocks,\" glazed on the outside, and standing in rows of from four to ten, at every few hundred yards. These contain the remains of Chinamen, who have been buried, and according to custom, have been exhumed, as soon as the flesh was decomposed. These jars no one ever dares to touch, much more to violate or desecrate. The mischievous urchins anywhere in England would have had a \"Cock shy\" at them, and not a jar would stand many days like that, on the road side, with plenty of nice smooth stones, made apparently on purpose to \"shy\" at them, and no one near to see or know. But Chinese boys never are up to such things. From infancy they are taught to venerate and respect, yes, and to worship the dead, and this superstition prevails over what perhaps would otherwise be as great a propensity in them as in England.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213815, "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-1996", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "a fluvial plain nearly all fresh ploughed up. We were too late to see the paddy, or rice growing. Here and there were a few patches of barley, and now and then a field of hemp in full blossom that scented the air for a long way round. Often our road lay through fields of sugar cane. The canes grow about 7 or 8 feet high, and look very well with their green tops.\n\nThe highway road passing through these fields is a curiosity. It is raised a few feet above the field, and is about a yard wide on an average. On each side runs a ditch about a foot wide. Since these roads are only for foot passengers they answer very well. Remember there are no horses ever dreamt of, and only here and there a poor lean solitary Chinese cow, with a hump on his back on the hills. There are no hedges or fences, and thus it is all open country. The outside narrow ditches are all that separate the fields, and as most of the people are not troubled with shoes, a little mud and dirt is not minded.\n\nWe now and then passed a troupe of pedestrians on their way to the town to sell their produce and buy new supplies. Many of them had brown sugar in square cakes, and many more were loaded with oil, which is obtained from a kind of ground nut, largely grown in China. We often saw immense heaps of these nuts. All these things were carried in China fashion, with a pole, and a basket or bucket balanced on each side.\n\nEvery few miles we rested in a tea house, and in one, we got some preserved dates and plums. The dates were on strips of bamboo, three on each, and each string cost a cash. They and the plums were very good, especially to us who had been walking a great deal. We passed through Po-kuk - where Mr Lechler lived as a Chinaman for 5 years in one house which he showed us. He is a fine noble fellow and no mistake. Would that all our missionaries were like him. We were again on our route; and continually heard the sound of heavy firing at a distance. These towns and villages have continual animosity with each other, and are continually fighting. They can make their own clumsy cannon, and they pound away at each other finely, sometimes for weeks together. The different clans often get up a bit of a brush about something or other.\n\nOur road at length wound up a narrow pass between two hills, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213816, "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-1996", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "140\n\nat the top was another of these tea houses and here we called a halt. I soon got into a chat with an old priest with his clean-shaven head. His temple, or rather hovel, was close there and he got his living by begging. He was stone blind. It was a mendicant Friar, and a wandering Friarð in argument. He freely acknowledged the absurdity of his creed. He is a Buddhist: and offered me on the spot to go with me and learn my creed if I would feed and clothe him. Then I jeered him about his idols, and why he did not get them to help him. The worst of them is, they all acknowledge the absurdity of it, but say it is their custom. Western Foreigners have customs and celestial's have customs, and all creeds are good alike: here the matter ends.\n\nWe again got on our route, and descended the valley. Mr Stringer and myself were so long with the old priest that we were far behind the rest of the party; but we were armed and therefore there was no danger. When we again reached the valley at the bottom, our road lay along a small stream for a few miles. The rest of the party were out of sight, and we went on alone, partly uncertain that we were going right. At last, however, the road suddenly opened into a deep valley on the right, and at last we saw the German Mission House, just under the brow of the hill, and our companions seated very comfortably on the balcony [Ed.: An illustration of the Lilong Station accompanies this article.] So we put our best leg foremost, and at last tired of walking and riding we got in about 5 o'clock. The house is not a very grand affair. But it just has served their purpose. There is only one other house near it for a long way. The situation is beautiful in the extreme, and as healthy as possible. They have a little ground in front, and on the sides of the hills are plantations of tea shrubs, though nothing very bright about them.\n\nThe missionary staff consists of Mr Winnes, who has been in China nearly 20 years, and a fine young German, named Eitel\". I was much struck with him. There is a nobleness and firmness in him which I greatly admire. In fact, there is something almost severe about his look. But the animation with which he speaks, and the natural energy of his character, together with his pleasing and gentlemanly deportment, lead you soon to see he is not an ordinary person. [Ed.: Photographs of Lechler, Winnes and Eitel accompany this article.]\n\nWe took a short walk on the hills, and then came home to dinner, which by the bye I enjoyed with a keen relish. Then we sat a while on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213833, "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-1996", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "158\n\nof Ta-shih-wang E, the keeper of ghosts who maintained order, provided food and clothing to the hungry ghosts, and then took them back to the netherworld.\" Vegetarian fast was required during the chao period of three days and four nights. Puppet shows were also performed for several days to entertain both human and divine participants. Chanters hired from outside were responsible for the liturgy, which included scripture reciting, praying, and the burning of paper offerings. As for local villagers, they mainly came to enjoy the free vegetarian feasts and puppet shows. As pointed out by David Faure, the festival is an occasion for popular entertainment, as much as for worship.\"\n\nAn important ritual of the chiao ceremony was a gala parade called hsing-hsiang † (walking through a neighbourhood of villages) held on the third day. The image of Houwang was carried in the procession led by chanters and followed by male villagers. Firecrackers were set off to clear the road and when passing a village, joss sticks, candles, and paper offerings were burnt to expel all ghosts and leave the local population safe and flourishing with Houwang's blessings. \"As the principal local deity, Houwang obviously played a crucial role during the chiao festival. Deities from other districts, such as the Empress of Heaven from Ma Wan Island or Chak Lap Kok, were not invited to the ceremony.\" Thus, the parade embodied the strong territorial sense of the community, publicly affirming the hsiung as a neighbourhood of specific villages. Villages passed by paraders, including Shek Mun Kap, Mok Ka, Shek Lau Po, Ngau Au, Nim Yuen, San Tau, Ma Wan Chung, Ma Wan, Ling Pei, Wong Ka Wai, Lung Tseng Tau, and Ba Mei, were all considered members of the Tung Chung community. While village representatives took charge of preparations for the chao days, a body called the Chieh-fang-chu-hui (Neighbourhood Association) was assigned responsibility for the preparatory work for Houwang's Birthday Festival. From the mid-1920s, however, the Neighbourhood Association had to also assume responsibility for preparations for the chiao festival, replacing the village representatives. Concomitant with this change, Tung Chung Street, where the number of shops had increased with time, replaced Shek Mun Kap as the local social and economic centre. Various goods, including groceries, medicinal materials, cooked food, coffee and tea, coffins, and even opium, were now sold on Tung Chung Street. \"As the position of Shek Mun Kap and the role of village representatives in the chiao festival declined,\n\n36", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213878, "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-1996", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "204\n\nHong Kong to Beijing. Speculation arose over whether Li would really depart from Canton. The Governor was informed by the Chinese Legislative Councillors that while Li did not dare to disregard the imperial edict, he would welcome an excuse for refusing.\n\nIn the meantime, the Governor of Hong Kong sent an urgent telegram to London asking for permission to detain Li by military force. London called upon the British Consul in Beijing for advice. This Consul, always on good terms with Beijing, advised that Britain should remain neutral. On the day when the Governor met Li, he recorded something very interesting:\n\nThe Viceroy then asked... whom the Powers wanted to see to be Emperor. Who would England like to see Emperor?... I answered that in such an event the Powers would probably ask the advice of the strongest man in China that they could find as to what was best to be done.\n\nEnding his record, the Governor predicted that Li would remain in Shanghai until \"the tide turn[ed]”. His prediction proved to be correct. Through Hong Kong, Li travelled northward, and stayed in Shanghai for three months, before he departed for Beijing probably after the \"tide really turn[ed]\".\n\nThe Late Qing Reforms\n\nTo curb this rising provincialism, the Manchu government put forward a constitutional reform in 1904. Part of its aim was to institutionalize and to centralize the practice of networking. The Manchu government introduced reform to re-define élite status in China - the imperial examination was abolished, a merchant charter was introduced, China's first legislation on chambers of commerce came about, and the first company laws were implemented. Accordingly, all commercial associations were to be reorganized as chambers of commerce. Through the medium of these chambers, merchants and companies were required to register with the Beijing government. These policies intended to organize a national system of chambers of commerce which corresponded to a hierarchy of regional assemblies leading all the way up to the Senate in Beijing. In economic terms, several Commissioners of Business Promotion were appointed by Beijing to supervise the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213952, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 22, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "“.......I can think of no other organisation that could have provided such a rich and varied experience' \n\nElsewhere Anita wrote,\n\n'My life has been greatly enriched by my membership of the RAS...' \n\nIn addition Kristy Norman, who was born in Hong Kong and whose family lived here for three generations, said that the RAS had been an important part of her life.\n\nLord Wilson, our latest distinguished Honorary Member, also wrote\n\n'It is good to see from the Newsletter how active the Hong Kong branch is being. How splendid to think that you can arrange visits to the Bocca Tigris and the backstreets of Peking. How we would have loved to be able to do things like that when I first came to Hong Kong as a student in 1960.'\n\nWith the continuing aim of serving all sectors of the community,\n\nyour RAS Branch has much to be proud of. The Territory has always been a transient place with people coming and going. We are always sorry to see loyal supporters and good friends leave. In the room previously occupied by the late sinologist, the eminent Professor Joseph Needham, at Cambridge, his Chinese wife wrote Chinese characters on the wall. Translated, they mean:\n\n'A person may leave but their influence remains'.\n\nLectures\n\nAppendix\n\n1997\n\n18 April\n\n23 May\n\nMr Stephen Selby, The Archery Tradition in China.\n\nMessrs Ko Tim Keung and Jason Wordie, Hong ...\n\nxxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214117, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "154\n\nSchofield, a competent geologist, a good example of the colonial scholar-administrator, helped to map more than 100 sites with evidence of archaeological finds (Bard 1995: 383).\n\nAnother well-known scholar, a big man in every sense of the word, who served the Hong Kong Government from 1932 to 1969, was K. M. A. Barnett. As a jovial, erudite scholar who managed to master various Chinese dialects, this larger than life personality received a severe beating at the hands of the Japanese for volunteering information to a Red Cross team which came to inspect a prisoner-of-war camp in Hong Kong during World War II. Ken Barnett, who in prison camp had difficulty, according to Dr Solomon Bard another inmate, in finding people with whom he could play \"mental chess\", has fortunately left a few examples of his scholarship in RASHKB journals.\n\nWhen the Branch was re-established, in 1959, Dr J. R. Jones (J. R. as he was known to most of us) became its founding President. As well as being a good all-rounder in the heritage field, he too was a linguist.\n\nDr Jones was followed as President by Sir Lindsay Ride, a Rhodes Scholar and, from 1949 to 1964, Vice Chancellor of Hong Kong University. During World War II he escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in Hong Kong and, from a base in China, served with the British Army Aid Group. One of his best known pieces of research, which he undertook together with his wife Lady May (also a long time member of the RASHKB), was about the East India Cemetery and protestant burials in Macao (Ride 1996).\n\nThe third RASHKB President was Dr Marjorie Topley, an anthropologist. She too was recognised internationally and a number of her papers may be seen in our Branch's journals.\n\nDr James Hayes, who first joined the Branch back in 1961, served all but about six years of his membership period in Hong Kong as an office bearer. He did not step down as President until 1990, when he emigrated to Australia. There are more contributions by Dr Hayes in the Branch's journals than by any other author. He too has an international reputation as a scholar, and, in 1992, an Honorary Doctorate of Letters was bestowed on him by the University of Hong Kong for his work in the field of local history. For him, the Royal", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214191, "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Laurel and Hardy, who first teamed up in 1927 and made over 100 films together which came out 'fresh' every time, are other examples of comedians whose humour travelled well. Hong Kong's own martial arts expert and stunt man, Jackie Chan, sometimes dubbed 'Hong Kong's favourite son,' has become successful, both in the Far East and Hollywood, by combining Chinese kung fu and bits of slapstick.\n\nAnother good example is Mr Bean who, because he doesn't say anything, has no difficulty in getting his humour ‘across the Great Wall' and into countries in Asia. It is interesting that, to most British audiences, Bean is funny, foolish and unenviable in every way. He is the last person they would wish to work with or be associated with (Cairnes, 1998). The Japanese and many Asians, however, see him rather differently. They see Bean as a pathetic, lonely figure who deserves pity and would be fun to have around. Yet even he does not appear funny to everyone.\n\nVisual, universal humour, such as the puppy licking the baby's ice-cream, has a much better chance of crossing frontiers, although the television series, America's funniest home movies, does not always receive the same reaction in countries outside the United States, and indeed not even by all Americans. As a group of Chinese and Britons discussing humour agreed: 'If you've seen one showing of America's funniest home movies you're seen them all.' In fact the reaction to these movies seems to be mixed. An American woman living in Hong Kong told the author that the humour was not subtle enough for her but her two children enjoyed these films. Other Americans, however, said they found them 'funny and relaxing'.\n\nAccording to American Brent Ambacher, who was raised in Hong Kong and works as a part-time comedian, more and more Westerners today expect more sophisticated, 'highbrow' (sometimes termed 'three-dimensional') humour. This more profound variety should, as it were, embrace a ‘moral lesson.' This may depend on the cultural background and the awareness and intentions of the artiste. It may, for example, concentrate on slamming pomposity, condemning underhanded politics or corruption, or some other topical subject. Today's audiences often expect a comedian who is more 'civic minded,' who will deliver his act in a philosophical way and will give them something of substance to evoke deep afterthought. All this as opposed to the shallow", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214200, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "21\n\nBut, while comparing Chinese and western humour, with the latter propagated by television, radio and other forms of the mass media, it has to be borne in mind that the peoples of many countries are changing their way of life. The world is fast becoming a global village.\n\nAmusement in language\n\nIn the mid-1950s, the author recalls, a fashionable colour in Hong Kong was described in Cantonese (a vibrant, vivid language) as ‘duck's excreta green'. This tickled foreigners but was (and still is) good descriptive, serious stuff to our Chinese friends. They never seem to realise, however, that any of their own surnames, such as Mr Wu, Mrs Ma (meaning horse), Mrs Lung (meaning dragon) or Miss Ng (which is difficult for some Europeans to pronounce), may strike the average Westerner as funny. Yet the author has never really understood why his family name, 'Waters' (which hardly ever strikes Europeans as comical) (probably meaning his forebears lived near a river or a lake), is often considered amusing by Chinese. A Chinese physician once wisecracked: 'Dan Waters, please pass some water;' while a Chinese architect quipped, 'Dr Waters has been inspecting waterworks structures all morning.' In other examples just the mention of the name Green, Whalebelly or Goodbody strike many Chinese, understandably perhaps, as comical. We British have become accustomed to such names. However, the countless Chinese firms with names like Lee Kee Motor Boat Service, No-Squeak Wong the cobbler and Au-Choo the medicine shop, do strike the average Westerner as good for a chuckle.\n\nThere is a Chinese saying which, when translated, goes something like this:\n\nWalking we will not change our family name. Sitting we will not change our given name.\n\nIt really implies we are digging our heels in and sticking to our principles. Nevertheless, Sir (now Lord) David Wilson did change his name when he came back to Hong Kong to become Governor in 1987. He had served in Hong Kong before and his Chinese name had previously been romanised as Ngai Tak-ngai (Spurr, 1995;246). The Chinese, however, who read far more into a name than the average European,", "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": 214206, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "27\n\nOf course obscene jokes and a preoccupation with excrement and body functions are common in many societies and have raised smiles, like other familiar jokes, for centuries. For example, instead of saying a Chinese laughed, one can say: 'Saw teeth but did not see eyes.' Because of physiognomy, one is hardly able to use this expression about Europeans.\n\nIn most countries satire survives partly because it tweaks the authorities. In England, there is the Yes, Minister series, which has stood the test of time, just as there is an assortment of tales about party leaders in China where jokes go back decades. Over the last half century many certainly do not conform with Communist Party intentions. For example, with a play on words, the late elder statesman, Deng Xiaoping, was sometimes ‘insulted' by calling him 'Little Bottle,' which the sound of his given names suggests. Certainly it is not the done thing in China to insult the leaders and humour, like most things, is expected to serve the state.\n\nTwo other anti-establishment jokes, which went the rounds not too long after the Communist government took over in China in 1949, run as follows:\n\nA parrot said, 'I'm smart, I listen to people and mimic what they say.'\n\nA government official replied, ‘I'm smarter, I only copy what our leaders say!'\n\nThe second joke runs:\n\nTwo men had a fight and one contestant bit off the other's nose. The case went to court. The man being tried insisted his opponent bit off his own nose. 'But how could he possibly do that?,' enquired the magistrate, 'His nose is situated above his mouth.' 'Simple' came the reply. 'He stood on a chair to get at it!' This joke seems to fall rather flat on most Westerners (and indeed on many Hong Kong Chinese) for whom it is not sufficiently subtle.\n\nAlthough not considered good taste today, as mentioned before, just as there are English jokes about the Welsh, the Irish and the Scots,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214207, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "28\n\nso different Chinese ethnic sub-groups laugh at each other. In the early 1950s, when many Shanghainese came to Hong Kong from the Mainland, the sally going the rounds among the Cantonese was: First the Shanghainese travelled in a small car. Now they ride in a big car. For the Westerner who is slow on the uptake this means, when they first came to Hong Kong they drove a car. Later, they could not afford it so they travelled by bus.\n\nIn China too, at one stage there was a tendency, as in other societies years ago, to deride cripples and the mentally retarded (Sypher, 1956; 202). In England in the Middle Ages, a hunchback was expected to caper around and amuse others. Jews, the village idiot, and the 'Chinaman' with his pigtail were usually all good, certainly in the 19th century, for a giggle (Pan, 1990; 84). More recently, there was the case of the Duke of Edinburgh meeting some British students studying in China and the Duke saying to them: 'If you stay here too long you'll get \"slitty\" eyes.' Many people seemed to think it was an insensitive remark and in bad taste. A few however felt, no doubt like the Duke himself (and indeed a few Hong Kong Chinese), that it was all intended in good, clean fun.\n\nWe must not forget that a witch was burned alive in Sunderland, England, as late as 1722, which was an occasion of some merriment. Even today many children enjoy 'cruelty' in their humour, such as the slip on the banana skin or the bucket of water tipped on the head. The author recalls how a colleague, a Chinese teacher, was given the nickname of tsoh hau ue (left [sloping] mouth fish) (false halibut) in the 1950s. Although humour can conceal or even help to heal pain, there are people of all nationalities who delight in the misfortune of others, and, even today, a few get pleasure from stoning a hedgehog to death which is stuck in a hedge.\n\nFrequently one hears about oppressive authority in Chinese life and there are sometimes attempts to 'skewer' an incident, by the oppressed, with a good joke. Everyone loves to make the leaders look stupid.\n\nThere is the one about the three Chinese in a prison cell during the Cultural Revolution. The first said: 'I'm here because I supported Deng", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214211, "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": 69, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "A Chinese woman with a good command of English, married to an Englishman for many years, said to the author, 'The English like to insult their friends.' She was really saying they sometimes pull each other's legs unmercifully. When the author asked for an example she said, 'When they meet they say \"Hello you cheeky devil.\"' She could have added they have to be really good friends to do that without bad feeling creeping in. The Chinese lady also admitted, however, that her 'old man' and his friends sometimes told jokes that she could not grasp properly.\n\nThe above brought recollections to the author, of British soldiers during World War Two addressing friends. Rather than use the word 'devil,' they would say, 'affectionally,' 'You cheeky bastard.' Although crude, it was by no means uncommon and intended, and taken by many, believe it or not, as good, clean fun.' This is an extreme case among a small section of society, one must admit, but more than one Englishman has run into trouble because a Chinese friend, with a different cultural background, has taken what was intended merely as a mild leg-pull as an insult. Europeans have to be careful that the flippant remark is not taken seriously. A Chinese once said to a European, 'How did you know I was a teacher?' As quick as a flash came the reply: 'You can smell them!' \n\nEnglish humour includes, as related in this paper, wit, sarcasm, understatements and criticism. Self-mockery plays a part too, with Westerners calling themselves gwailo (ghost or devil person, in loose Chinese terminology) and laughing at themselves to get out of awkward situations. As a Hong Kong Cantonese, with a Master's degree in sociology from a university in Britain, said to the author, the Chinese tend not to laugh at themselves because of fear of losing face. If they learnt to laugh at themselves it would make life easier for them, he maintained. In a similar way, the friend continued, if Chinese have complaints or there is something wrong with them they do not relish telling others because it can portray weakness.\n\nThere is the tale of a Chinese who lost face by not being invited to a party. As a result, he recounted: If I had been invited I would not have gone; and even if I had gone I would not have eaten; and even if I had eaten I would not have eaten much; and even if I had eaten a bit more than intended, well never mind!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214328, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "150\n\n\"An Interesting Feeling of Good Will and Confidence between our People and the Chinese”is\n\nThe 12 January 1861 issue of The Illustrated London News also contained three half-page illustrations based on sketches by \"Our Special Artist\": \"Tartar Outpost Near Pekin,\"19 \"The China New Year': The Dragon Feast at Canton,\"20 and \"The China New Year': Woman Preparing Cakes.\" It also carried a full page group of six illustrations (based on photographs) of \"Domestic Life in China.\"22 There are some paragraphs of narrative on most of these topics.\n\n23\n\nIn articles early in their coverage, The Illustrated London News had already shown a degree of willingness to accept what it took to be the Chinese frame of reference, by humorously following the Chinese practice of referring to themselves as \"Celestials\" and everyone else as \"Barbarians,\" as in the caption to the illustration, “A Crowd of Celestials Contemplating the Barbarians,\" mentioned above. The publication now began to indicate a desire to come closer to the Chinese people, making the point that an increased understanding of the Chinese people had been a by-product of the war itself: \"Thanks to the enterprise of 'special artists' and 'our own correspondents',\" present in China because of the hostilities, \"much that was before obscure in Chinese manners and customs has been made plain.\"\n\n124\n\nThe periodical compares Chinese and British habits in such a way as to stimulate bonding, and indicates interesting contrasts with no intention to repulse or ridicule.\n\nA typical comparison is that made between the preparation of Chinese New Year cakes and the making of Christmas pudding: \"The Chinese, who have many points in common with the English, have the same attachment to a kind of round cake as we have to a round plum pudding. A few days before New Year, friends (women, of course) will assemble and help each other in preparing the ingredients to form this article of diet, as they do in England to prepare the plum pudding.\"\n\nThe narrative26 on the six illustrations of family groups shown under the general title, \"Domestic Life in China,\" does give explicit comment", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214408, "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "232\n\nnext morning the case came before our enlightened Assistant Magistrate, who with the discretion and sense of justice characteristic of him, instead of incarcerating the defendant for ten days on bread and water, recommended settling the matter amicably and hinted at five dollars being a satisfactory recompense to the plaintiff; but whether the defendant followed this advice or not - I have not been informed. (The China Mail, No 558, the 25 Oct. 1855).\n\nHong Kong is not actually a place of trade with China, but merchants and agents trading in Canton, in Shanghai and in other Chinese ports, which are open to Europeans, live here. That is why the local anchorage (harbour) is very busy: during the whole course of my two month stay, there were always up to sixty or more merchant vessels there, one or two changing every day. The grocery and chandlery trade is all in the hands of the Chinese. With the exception of two or three large stores designated strictly for incoming vessels and filled with all that is necessary for the needs and even some whims of the seamen, all the rest belong to Chinese. The richest Chinese merchant is extremely temperate in his way of life: a few bowls of rice make up his main food, he is clothed in calico or linen - unpretentiously; and that is why even when selling things he is satisfied with low returns; he even sells European things cheaper, than the European, who needs greater profits for his table, his attire and his abode.\n\nPiece payment is, perhaps, nowhere in the world as cheap as in China. For this reason all their crafted goods are particularly well finished, even display signs of overwork; but elegance perhaps somehow slips through accidentally, in spite of the will of the worker. And indeed for an object to be sold well, it is essential, that it displays in itself signs of much labour spent on it. Whereas we, on looking at an object, say: “how lovely! how exquisite!\" the best praise for a Chinese is yu gup fu i.e. a lot of time and work has gone into this! And so in all these curio shops you find objects carved out of ivory: spheres revolving one in another, chess pieces, fans etc., also lacquer boxes, decorated with the finest of designs. This is even more noticeable in their picture shops, of which there are up to five in Canton, if not more. With them, painting is reduced to the level of a craft, or better put does not rise to the level of an art. And certainly, the technical side of it almost reaches perfection: the eye can barely follow the brushes, placed between all the fingers of the hand, and the way, one after the other, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214422, "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": 280, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "246\n\npalace in the hope that a hospitable host would emerge and offer us sanctuary in the marble halls and refreshment with a glass of lemonade. But the doors were locked, no one appeared. Our doctor tirelessly pursued insects, especially big black velvety butterflies. Returning to the wharf, we saw in the crowd of Chinese, a woman, who holding a naked baby in her arms, was moistening her fingers in her mouth and then mercilessly pinching him on the back along the spine. The child struggled and screamed desperately. Was this punishment or medical treatment?\n\nHowever it is impossible to write: the tossing is terrible; the order is to 'reef the fourth.' There hasn't been a storm like this since the Cape of Good Hope. I'll go and have a look at what's happening...\n\nI.A.Goncharov,\n\nChina Sea.\n\n8th June 1853.\n\n*arshin - a measure of length of about 28 inches\n\n**Fadeev - a sailor assigned as Goncharov's orderly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214462, "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": 320, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "287\n\nWard was buried on his old drill-field near the Temple of Confucius just within the walls of the city of Sungkiang [Songjiang: pinyin], the prefectural capital of the area now dominated by Shanghai, and the city around which much of his military service with the Ever Victorious Army took place. Harry Franck2 visited the site in 1923 and wrote that “the Chinese built a temple of remembrance over his grave, similar to those built by Chinese for their famous men over the centuries, though unlike the majority with their gleaming yellow roof tiles his was a pathetic little gray-walled enclosure, covered with ordinary tiles, in an open space inside the West Gate, littered here and there with graves and unburied coffins. It was not imposing yet it was several times more so than the tomb the adventurer would probably have had in Massachusetts. Though the temple was but a single-room building, it had an altar with the spirit tablet of Ward, and all the other features of a Chinese temple, and now and again Chinese still come to burn incense and bow down before their hero of Taiping days. A conspicuous tablet in red and black tells those who know their Chinese that:\n\nAn illustrious man from beyond the seas, he came 6000 li to accomplish great deeds and acquire immortal fame by shedding his noble blood. Because of him Sungkiang will be a happy land for a thousand autumns”.\n\nFranck tells us that the temple was not badly kept, as things went in China. There were some trees and flowers in season, inside the compound, and the whole place has been recently repaired and repainted. Rice-straw and cabbages were drying on everything but the altar itself, and the woman caretaker had gone to market to \"buy things\" leaving her small son locked inside. The only foreign hint about the place was an unfinished stone recently set up by the \"Frederick Ward Post of the American Legion\" of Shanghai. He added that the most touching feature of the whole memorial was the mound of earth, like a common Chinese grave, behind the temple, but within the enclosure, under which Ward's big mastiff was buried. After his master's death, the story goes, the dog refused to take food and went wandering about looking for him until it died of starvation.\n\nSo, having seen an early photograph of the official temple,3 altar and tablet dedicated to Ward in Sungkiang some dozen or so years previously, I was determined to see for myself whether it still existed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214469, "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": 327, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "295\n\nIf is found in the Annual Report containing an account or statement of objects added to the British Museum in 1899, and other Particulars \"Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 5 March 1900\", at p.77. This publication is of very scarce circulation. The entry reads as follows.\n\nBronze cannon with the arms of Portugal and modern cast bronze plaque from Benin city; given by Sir Ralph Moor, K.C.M.G., H.M. Commissioner and Consul-General, Niger Coast Protectorate.\n\nChristopher Date, through help of colleagues in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities, has also kindly supplied to me a number of photocopies of letters, to and from Sir Ralph Moor, on various matters, found in the departmental archives. To Mr Date and his colleagues again I extend my thanks. One of these letters is a copy sent to Sir Ralph by Charles H. Read on the cannon. I quote the part referring to the cannons, roughly the first half of the letter. It is dated 13 June 1899.\n\nThe two bronze and two iron cannon that you have been good to send have duly arrived, and Major Gallwey has called here about them, though I unfortunately missed him. I do not know whether you saw all the guns before they came: but they really form two pairs, those of bronze being quite the same in size and general character while the iron ones have differences which are of interest as ordnance, but less from my point of view. I consulted my friend Lord Dillon, who is one of our Trustees, and also Keeper of the Tower Armoury, and he thought that the bronze guns and one of the iron ones were made in Benin, while one iron gun was made in Europe and ...ted. (4) The interest of the pieces being thus chiefly from the point of view of ordnance. I asked Major Gallwey if he thought you would mind some of the guns going to the Tower, in place of remaining here, and he authorized me to do this. Thus you will receive from here only an acknowledgment for one gun and the tablet.\n\nBy letter of Sir Ralph Moor to Charles H. Read dated 29 July 1899", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214519, "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": 377, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "346\n\nBy the time dinnertime came, we had finished dinner. Let me explain. Dusk fell at about five o'clock, and the guide said that we were now going for dinner. Of course, there were howls of protest, but we were assured that this was perfectly normal. At least, we demanded, can we have a change from Chinese food. We all enjoy Chinese food and the quality had been consistently on the good side, but we craved a bit of variety. So we were treated to a Korean BBQ buffet, and it was absolutely excellent - masses of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables and gas-fired hotpots to do your own cooking in. A real eye-opener and tummy-filler, but all was finished by about seven o'clock, leaving some of us in desperate need of a cream cake or two back in the hotel.\n\nPort Arthur\n\nOn the 40-odd mile journey to Port Arthur, we were treated by Philip Bruce to an introduction to fortress-building and sacking, just so that we could be prepared. However, I have to say that the visit to Port Arthur, or Lushun as it is now known, was the closest we came to a disappointment. We were all experts on the place from the time Captain Arthur first dropped his anchor there until the early part of this century, but none of us was prepared for the present day Lushun.\n\nTo be fair, the guide had told us that the whole place is still dominated by a naval base - but this time, of course, one operated by the People's Liberation Army. We tried to explain that we were not interested in any of the naval installations or hardware, but the old buildings that remained to be seen, and in particular the railway station. However, we were told that as we were foreigners, we could not even go into the town at all. Only half-jokingly, those of us that could produced our Permanent Hong Kong Identity Cards, demonstrating that we too were citizens of the People's Republic. But this did not impress the guides. It was suggested that it might be a case of us not looking all that Chinese that was the problem. The guide assured us that this was not the case - it was simply a matter of not wanting foreign nationals wandering over highly sensitive military facilities. However, when it was pointed out that four of our number did indeed look very Chinese (despite their Canadian, Malaysian, and other passports), the guides agreed that these four could indeed visit the town.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214520, "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": 378, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "347\n\nAs can be imagined, this news was met with somewhat derisory comments. To give due credit to the long-suffering guides, permission was eventually obtained (thanks to a half-hour conversation on a mobile phone) for our bus to travel through the town and past the railway station, but we could not take any photographs. I somewhat facetiously asked if the four of us who looked the part could take pictures, and the answer was that they could! Well, this was China, after all!\n\nThe first attractions of the day, however, were a couple of hill-top forts. Not only were these open to all and sundry, but they were also very well maintained and signposted. It seems that every hilltop around Port Arthur had a fort or gun emplacement on its summit. The first we visited was the North Fort on East Cockscomb Hill, to the north-east of the town. This features a very extensive fort (dilapidated rather than ruined, but very clean and well looked after) and a small Museum of the Japanese-Russian War. A good view could be had from here over the bay in which Captain Arthur moored and of the rest of the town of Lushun. Most of the hills around have some sort of monument or obelisk on the top, and this one is no exception. Strangely, however, the obelisk here was erected by the Japanese and has a long Japanese inscription, all of which is intact. No surprise, therefore, that there were coachloads of Japanese tourists (from the Imperial Asiatic Society, no doubt).\n\nThe second hill was the famous 203 Hill, so named because it is 203 metres high. This hill is a bit nearer to the town, and so a clearer view could be had of the forbidden territory. Atop this one was a 20-foot high metal obelisk resembling a rifle bullet. The inscriptions here were Chinese, but there was a fair amount of graffiti including some in Russian. Also on view was an anti-aircraft gun (our so-called experts had not even heard of the Russian air attacks in 1894!) and well-preserved assault trenches.\n\nNext came the hard-earned whizz through the town, with the four of the party designated as photographers for the rest of us. The sole object of this foray was the railway station, the actual end of the line that linked this extreme end of the Russian empire to Moscow. More symbolic than beautiful, the station was well worth the trouble it took just to see it. Very small and twee, it is only about the length of two modern-day railway carriages, but the small hall is topped by an onion", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214548, "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": 406, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "375\n\nBACKSTREETS OF BEIJING\n\nNOTES ON THE EASTER, 1998 VISIT TO BEIJING\n\nPENNY ROBBINS\n\nMEREDITH TONG-DRAPER GEOFFREY ROPER\n\nThe idea of a visit to Beijing, the Branch's first, came up during the Easter 1997 visit to Shanghai when Council member Dr Joseph Ting offered to lead a trip to aspects of the capital seldom seen by the tourist. Despite a busy work schedule, Dr Ting came true to his promise and on Good Friday, the 10th April led a party of 26 members and guests, including Branch President Dr Dan Waters, to Beijing.\n\nDriving in from the Airport we found that spring had already arrived with the highway lined with trees sprouting every shade of green that one could imagine, and blossom in white, pink and deep crimson. Everything, that morning, looked fresh and clean, and to those who had not been there for some years, more prosperous. \"Bamboo\", the tour guide supplied by the travel agent, soon let us know that Beijing was now sharing in the nation's wealth.\n\nDr Ting soon had us working hard and we went straight from the Airport to the Foreign Missionaries Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing, off Chegongzhuang Road, rather ironically tucked away in the grounds of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Cadre Training School, where a billboard proclaimed Deng Hsiao-ping's pragmatic message “learn from experience\". At the Cemetery, for which the Ming Emperor Wanli had given land in 1611, we were met by Professor Liu Shuyong a research fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong University Alumni Association in Beijing, who had helped make many of the arrangements for our visit, and Madam Gao Zhiyu, President of the China Association for Matteo Ricci Studies, which had been formed in 1995. Madam Gao gave us a very informative guided tour of the cemetery. [Illustration One].\n\nThere are two main sections, one, which has three graves and another with almost fifty more. The principal grave is that of Matteo", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214601, "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-1999", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "members of the Cathay Camera Club. A special vote of thanks must go to Iain Masterton and Charles Slater, who as both RAS and Cathay members also served, during different periods, as photographic co-ordinator. This book has made a contribution to local literature and will be read and referred to for many years to come. It is available in all good bookstores.\n\nFaced with the task of making sure a large membership keeps in touch, our lively Newsletter comes hot off the press every two months. Although a few of us feed in information its preparation is done almost entirely by our energetic Assistant Secretary, Sarah Parnell.\n\nWe also congratulate our many members who have published books, papers or articles during the past year on their own account. A special mention, however, must be made of Dr Patrick Hase's splendid paper entitled, 'The Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) and its Journal'. This article came out in The Journal of Resources for Hong Kong Studies which was produced by the University of Hong Kong Libraries, volume no.9.\n\nActivities\n\nIt has not infrequently been said that the backbone of our Branch is the activities we provide and many join because, during a brief stay in Hong Kong, they wish to learn something about local history, customs and culture. It has jokingly been said, however, that you cannot do this, and learn to speak the language, on a diet of western food. The answer to this must be that, during the course of the year, members do have the opportunity to share a few meals together.\n\nDuring the past year 12 lectures, eight Hong Kong visits and two excursions to the China Mainland were conducted. This is an impressive number. A wide range of topics was covered as can be seen from Appendices A and B of this report. A large number of speakers are named on these lists and I take this opportunity to thank them all, together with the leaders and organisers of tours and anyone else who assisted us with our activities in any way. We are pleased that many of you have been able to accept our invitations and have joined us for dinner this evening.\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214640, "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-1999", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "19\n\nnineteenth century that Sha Po started to establish itself as a separate village.\n\nAs well as the residences outside the walls, the village had its latrines outside the walls, on the northern side of the moat. There were three or four of these.\n\nTo the southwest of the walled village, and adjacent to the important footpath from the village to the South-East Gate of the Walled City, there were a string of important structures. Two or three large houses stood near the moat (one, owned by Ng Kit-san jointly with Ng Yuk-chan, was about 45 feet wide by 60 deep, with a courtyard and an outhouse as big as fourteen of the houses within the walls). Next to Ng Kit-san and Ng Yuk-chan's house, was the Ng clan Ancestral Hall, another large building (about 50 feet wide by 55 deep, with an outhouse, and a well) fronted by a courtyard: the village school was held in this building\". The school was managed by the Ng Shing Tat Tso Ancestral Trust, which went to great pains to hire a good teacher. They provided him with a spacious house outside the walls since the houses within the walls were too cramped to attract a good teacher. The teacher was probably housed in one of the houses owned by the trust in the Market perhaps the large house with a courtyard behind owned by the trust in Hoklo Tsuen, near the sea. With a house in the Market, the teacher would have been in close contact with the scholars who were to be found around the Sub-Magistracy and the Lok Sin Tong. The school had an excellent reputation, and attracted boys from the Market, as well as the village.\n\nThere was a wide footpath, which surrounded the moat on all sides. Four important footpaths fed into this path around the moat. To the northwest was the footpath which connected the Market at Kowloon City with Tai Wai and the villages of the Sha Tin valley. This path crossed the mountains by the pass below Lion Rock, and came into Sha Tin past the Che Kung Temple. To the northeast was the very important footpath which, having crossed the river, passed by Po Kong to the ferry pier at Yuen Chau Kok in Sha Tin (this was the main path between Kowloon City and Tai Po, Sham Chun, and Wai Chow). A branch of this path went to Siu Lek Yuen in Sha Tin. These paths crossed the mountains into Sha Tin by Sha Tin Pass and Grasscutters' Pass. To the southwest was the path to the South-East Gate of the Walled City", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214645, "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-1999", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "24\n\neighteenth century. The Fungs () came there much later, at the end of the nineteenth century: they had fled from the Tai Ping rebels to Shek Lung Tsai in Sha Tin, and from there moved to Ngau Chi Wan. Very little is known of the Six Villages Alliance, and it is likely that it was more loosely structured than the League of Seven.\n\nIt will be noted that Tai Hom, of the League of Seven, is completely surrounded by land that formed part of the Six Villages Alliance. Tai Hom, which is a single-surname village of the Chu (*) clan, is the only village of the League of Seven with no genealogical connections with Nga Tsin Wai. That it formed part of the League of Seven, rather than the Po Kong Six Villages Alliance is probably due to the circumstances of Tai Hom's foundation. The Founding Ancestor of the Chus, Chu kui-yuen, was a Hakka from Ng Wah District far to the northeast of Hong Kong22. He was a stone-cutter. He came to Hong Kong in 1762, to look for work in the quarries which were at that date starting up in the eastern part of what is today Victoria Harbour. He prospered, and established a quarry at Shek Tong Tsui in 1771. Later, he found Shek Tong Tsui rather remote, and exposed to pirate attack, and moved to Sha Po near Kowloon City. Later still, he bought quarry-land at the tip of Cape d'Aguilar Peninsula, and founded nearby the village of Hok Tsui. He had eight sons. His eldest son died unmarried, and Hok Tsui is today lived in by the descendants of his second, third and fourth sons. The fifth and sixth sons died unmarried or disappeared later. Chu kui-yuen bought more land, at Tai Hom, for his seventh son, Yan-fung, leaving his youngest son, Cheung-fung,\n\n, the land at Sha Po. After Kui-yuen's death, his widow lived at Tai Hom with her seventh son, who acquired a minor official post at Kowloon City, presumably after the re-establishment of the yamen there in 1841. Yan-fung was born in 1781, and died in 1857. Tai Hom was, therefore, a late settlement. It is unlikely to have been founded earlier than 1800. The land at Tai Hom was not fertile, and was steep and rocky (the Chus ran a quarry there, which supplied poor quality stone used for laying foundations in the Kowloon City area). Until 1992 a few remnants of Tai Hom, including the Chu clan Ancestral Hall, remained, buried within the Diamond Hill Squatter Area. It is likely that Po Kong refused to guarantee the good behaviour of these incoming Hakka (some already settled family was always required to guarantee incomers under the Pao-chia rules), while Nga Tsin Wai was willing, and that it was this which brought Tai Hom into the League of\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214649, "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-1999", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "28\n\nof Cheung Yuk-tong (E) arrived (presumably this relieving force came from the garrison at the County City of Nam Tau), and retook the Walled City after a day of very heavy fighting, in which two of the Government soldiers died, and \"over 30\" bandits. Presumably, the successful defence of Nga Tsin Wai took place during this same seven-day period, in September - October 1854.\n\nThere were probably other occasions when bandits were forced away. For instance, the villagers of the Siu Lek Yuen inter-village alliance in Sha Tin have a story of a heroic fight by their combined manpower against a gang of bandits in the 1860s or 1870s. The Siu Lek Yuen villagers, having killed a number of the bandits, forced the rest to flee over the mountains to Nga Tsin Wai, where the Siu Lek Yuen villagers left them to the further attentions of the men of the League of Seven27.\n\nThe Nga Tsin Wai villagers also remember an attempt by the Tang clan (probably of Kam Tin) to impose Tang clan political control on this area. They relate that the elders of the League of Seven met the Tangs, and showed them the bags in which the silver which had been gathered by the League as a defence fund was kept, and the guns and gunpowder at their gate. \"Every tsin of silver, and every grain of gunpowder will be spent to fight you off\", the elders said, and the Tangs eventually left, with their tails between their legs2.\n\nThe last time the Nga Tsin Wai villagers closed and barred their gates against attack was in 1967, during the Riots. When the Riots broke out in San Po Kong, the villagers closed their gate, and put themselves into a position of defence, although their valour was not then put to the test.\n\nNga Tsin Wai's position at the head of the League of Seven put it into a very important position in the traditional politics of the Kowloon area. The Chief Elder of the League of Seven - usually the Chief Elder of Nga Tsin Wai - was one of the two or three most important figures in the district. The Sub-Magistrate would certainly have included him whenever he needed to consult the gentry of the district. As noted further below, Nga Tsin Wai village trusts were the subsoil land-owners of a good deal of the land in the area, especially in the Market, and at Sha Po, thus reinforcing their predominant local political position.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214662, "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-1999", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "41\n\npart of it was being used for market gardening. The villagers in the Ng and Li clans had enough trust land to provide a fallback for poorer clan-brothers, although the Lease shows us the Chan clan already almost gone from the village. The Ng clan are shown as taking an aggressive part in the lending of money on mortgage, and thus increasing the clan land-holdings by foreclosure: the Lis, however, may not have had enough spare cash to do this. The village elders, Ng Kam-tong and Li Lai-ting in particular, stand out. Nga Tsin Wai does not show anything very different from other New Territories villages of this period, albeit it was more prosperous than most, but the Lease does bring the then village community to life.\n\nTraditional Lifestyles\n\nIt is likely that the Nga Tsin Wai area was never a standard rice subsistence area. The proximity of the Market at Kowloon must have encouraged a measure of market gardening here from an early date. If the Lams settled at Po Kong because it was convenient for their trading business, it would seem likely that growing vegetables and cutting fuel for ships was always part of the Po Kong lifestyle. Nga Tsin Wai was doubtless also involved in this sort of business from the beginning.\n\nNonetheless, at the end of the nineteenth century, a good deal of the land of Nga Tsin Wai was still used for growing rice. The land here was extremely fertile: rich, deep soil with few stones, and well watered: eminently suitable for rice growing. The present village elders remember hearing about rice-cultivation in the village from their grandparents, although pig-rearing and vegetable growing for the market was already very important in the late nineteenth century when those grandparents were active.\n\nAccording to the memories of the village elders of today, it is likely that the percentage of the land devoted to vegetables and livestock for the market grew steadily from 1841 onwards, until rice was, by the late nineteenth century, being grown only to meet the subsistence needs of a minority of villagers, who were otherwise living on the cash income from market gardening. Buyers from the new city of Hong Kong came to Kowloon City and Shamshuipo and Tsuen Wan from 1841 on looking for vegetables and meat animals to meet this new, and insatiable, demand. Market gardeners in the Kowloon City", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214673, "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-1999", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "52\n\nlooked down its nose at these contests, since contestants would pass a hat round, and Ngau Chi Wan thought this was \"just like begging\". The Hakka villages certainly sang Mountain Songs themselves (Ngau Chi Wan was quite well known for them), but they did not hold formal contests. Sha Po also competed in these contests, as well as Nga Tsin Wai. Mountain Songs were always composed \"in the head\": it was felt to be rather improper to write them down, as spoiling the spontaneity of the form. Because of this, women were as good at singing these songs as men - probably better (certainly better, according to the villagers). Women who were particularly good at singing Mountain Songs improved their marriageability, as they had demonstrated their intelligence and self-confidence, which were qualities admired by the villagers in this period. Probably some of the Wais and Chois who married into Nga Tsin Wai were drawn to their husband's families' attention by their skill at singing these songs.\n\nRecent History of the Area\n\nThe prosperity of Nga Tsin Wai, which was so marked in 1902, slowly dissipated thereafter. From 1912 onwards the village has suffered one disaster after another, until it faded from the early 1940s into today's seedy and run-down condition.\n\nThe first disaster came in and after 1912, with the opening of the first phase of the new motor road around the New Territories. Both the road and the Railway (opened in 1910) ran along the western side of the Kowloon Peninsula, far away from Kowloon City. Within a year or two the Railway took almost all the traffic from the eastern New Territories away from Kowloon City. Villagers stopped carrying their goods over the mountain passes to Kowloon City, but instead carried them by rail to Yaumatei. The Sha Tin villagers had always traditionally shopped at Kowloon City; now they often went to Yaumatei. The shops in Kowloon City lost half their business: the Market went into a major depression. At the same time, the vegetable buyers for the City found that it was easier and cheaper to buy vegetables by the truckload from Yuen Long than by the sampan-load from Kowloon City. In Yuen Long there were many large farms which could sell in bulk: in the Nga Tsin Wai area the farmers were all small-scale, the buyers from the City had to buy from intermediate wholesalers in the Kowloon City Market, which raised the costs when compared with buying in Yuen Long. If in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214759, "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-1999", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "138 \n\nThe Diary \n\nSunday 7/12/41. Much talk about war with Japan but no one seems to think anything will happen. We, the RAF in Hong Kong, are a very small crowd; seven officers and sixty men with five aircraft, two Walrus and three Vildebeeste. Group Captain Horry sails for Singapore on the Ullyses leaving Wing Commander Sullivan as our CO. I have the doubtful honour of being IC of our one and only flight and have three other pilots FO Gray, or Dolly, who is also signals officer, FO Baugh, or Whimpey, equipment officer, PO Crossley, or Junior, a New Zealander just arrived from Singapore and with very little flying experience. PO Thomson the Colonel, our adjutant, is a VR who came to Kai Tak with me from Singapore last June. Finally we have an Australian, PO Hennessy, just arrived from Singapore to start a fighter operations room. The joke is that everything is being prepared for the arrival of fighters but they are not expected for a month. With only five obsolete aircraft and one aerodrome our prospects are not rosy and it looks as if we might finish up in the army if war comes to Hong Kong. During the day the news gets worse and all precautions are taken, everyone being confined to camp. I take a Vildebeeste with full bomb load on a test climb during which I try to imagine where would be the best place to drop them and what would be my chances if attacked by fighters. But everything is peaceful and Hong Kong looks quite beautiful far beneath. We park the Walrus on the water and disperse the Beests but what wonderful targets they make. The 2nd Battalion Royal Scots and two battalions of Rajputs and Punjabis are in their positions in the New Territories, the island being defended by two battalions of Canadians raw recruits, and, only just arrived, the Middlesex Battalion man the coast defences. Finally the volunteers, four thousand Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese etc. Our Navy has one destroyer, ten MTB's and a few gunboats. Not a very formidable force especially as we shall be completely cut off from outside help and our food and ammunition supply is only sufficient for a hundred days. Still everyone seems cheerful. I am duty officer and wonder if I shall get any sleep. \n\nMonday 8th. I am disturbed early as the Colonial Secretary rings up to say that war with Japan is imminent. Hell there goes my sleep and I wake the other officers. Over breakfast we are told that we are at war with Japan. We dash down to flights just in time to hear an ominous roar of planes and nine bombers escorted by over thirty fighters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214766, "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-1999", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "145\n\nJaps pouring hundreds of shells just over our heads into blocks of houses across the road. Finally the barrage stops and white flags appear from all the houses. The troops have got hold of quantities of beer and are singing to relieve their shattered nerves.\n\nI am too stunned to describe my own feelings but decide to try and escape. The Japs are reputed never to take prisoners. With Junior and three of my men we grab an Austin Seven and decide to make a dash for Aberdeen to try to get a boat. The engine won't start but it's all downhill. By now it's dark and the road is very narrow and tricky. We throw away our arms and get aboard. What a ride, crashing through barbed wire and road blocks in the dark but the old Austin showed her worth and we finally coasted into Aberdeen without seeing any Japs. We go straight to the AIS and get hold of a Chinese boy who says he will try to get us a boat with food and water. Then, to our horror, we discovered that the building had been locked and we could not get out as the Japs were outside. What a disappointment and we had nothing to do except find somewhere to sleep not having had a real one for ten days. My old room was a complete shambles so slept on the floor.\n\nFriday twenty sixth. Woke to a beautiful morning being unnaturally quiet and peaceful so that the last few weeks seemed as a nightmare. We were all under orders for the dockyard. Spent most of the morning smashing up thousands of bottles of beer and spirits for fear the Japs would get drunk and run amok. Got a car and set off for the dockyard passing hundreds of Chinese laden down with loot. On arrival at the dockyard we're told to go to the detention barracks, the men being locked up in the cells and we went to China Command. Had a real wash and shaved off my fortnight's growth of beard. The Colonel was in hospital having received a bullet through the neck, eight of our men were dead, and several missing. We had no kit so I decided to try and get back to the AIS. The only transport I could find was an old dairy farm lorry. Whimpey and Frank came with me. Soon we ran into several thousand Japs marching along the road looking tired and ragged. An officer signalled us to stop made me turn the lorry while troops climbed in the back. He indicated by signs that I was to drive them to HK. The troops seemed baffled by our blue uniforms but were quite friendly. Dropped our load and once more set off for the AIS. Passed hundreds more Japs but after some nasty moments finally reached our destination. Found most of our kit and got safely back.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214767, "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-1999", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "146\n\nJust as I was congratulating myself on a good day's work, a Jap officer came up and ordered me back into the lorry. Whimpey and Frank got off. He directed me by hand signs to drive to Courtlands Hotel which had been taken over by the Japs. The few remaining residents looked pretty scared. More troops piled in and, after a very trying drive through Kennedy Town, we finally reached the St Louis Industrial School where they all got out. We had passed hundreds of troops and the streets were littered with dead Chinese. I was beginning to think my work was done when several officers started arguing and kept pointing at me and looking aggressive. Suddenly one of the officers whipped out his sword and I thought they had decided to bump me off but to my amazement he produced a bottle of beer, nipped the top off with his sword, and handed me the bottle. I was then given a loaf of bread. Apart from one or two soldiers, they had treated me very well. My wings seemed to fascinate them. By now I wanted to call it a day but another officer got in the lorry and off we went back to the hotel. He had some beer with him and handed me the bottles to open. I stopped the van and wedged the tops off on the mudguard. This seemed to amuse him and he tried to do the same on the dashboard with drastic results. Once more the van is loaded up with troops. Another officer takes over who is not so pleasant and I get half an inch of bayonet in my bottom for being too slow. Back to the School where another terrific argument starts. I want to go back with the van but two officers decide to drive me back in a Ford Ten. They don't use any lights and we have several narrow escapes from hitting lamp posts. Suddenly I see we are heading for one of the islands in the middle of the road and shout a warning. Too late and there's a terrific crash and we finish up on our backs. By now I am fed up so, bowing politely, I leave them and walk the two miles to China Command.\n\nSaturday. Five of us sleep in a small office. All our water has to be drawn from a stream nearby. No one knows what is going to become of us and everyone tries to guess at our future destination. Some Jap officers inspect us.\n\nSunday twenty eighth. More troops arrive from Stanley and report that Japs raped and bayonetted nurses in St Stephens hospital, also killed the wounded. Colonel Smith, whose wife was one of those killed, goes nearly mad and tried to get at the nearest Jap. Several atrocity stories come to light and atmosphere becomes very tense. Two destroyers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214839, "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-1999", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "221\n\nChinese officials upon shipwrecked Britons and Indians, and upon captives generally, was strongly condemned throughout the Expeditionary Force. There was universal outrage at the treatment accorded to the survivors of the brig Kite, including the wife of its Master who had been lost in the wreck.\n\n\"Where shall I find language sufficiently strong to execrate the beings that inflicted the following cruelties on wrecked and starving fellow creatures?” asked Commander Bingham in his account.41 The terrible treatment of Captain Stead of the Pestonjee transport, ending in his death, excited similar outrage;42 as did, when they became known, the brutalities and executions visited upon many of the mainly Indian personnel on board another transport, the Nerbudda, cast away on Formosa.43\n\nPoor treatment of Chinese by Other Chinese\n\nHowever, during the course of the War, many British officers came to realize that ill treatment of prisoners by the Chinese authorities was the norm in dealing with their own population. They also came to see that some Chinese treated their fellow-countrymen very badly. Upon taking Chinese towns and cities, they were astonished at the Chinese mobs that came out to loot them, and did so much more effectively than the British troops who had captured them. Similarly, during naval operations along the coast the crews of British warships saw how ruthlessly Chinese pirates treated peaceful traders and harmless villagers.\n\nBritish commanders' readiness to attack the pirate ships always won the heartfelt appreciation of Chinese fishermen and country people. Bingham cites a good example. Some fishermen had pointed out three pirate junks off the mouth of the Pei-Ho. A colleague's subsequent encounter with them, upon his boats' crews being attacked, led the sufferers to express \"the most lively feelings of gratitude for being delivered from the vagabonds who had been for some time plundering them.\"44 Bingham also mentions the effrontery of several pirate craft that had hoped to evade attention by anchoring near his ship but had been informed against by the people they had been plundering.44\n\n45", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "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": 214921, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "His life and work have greatly cheered me.' Another of our long-time members to pass across was Sheila Sersale who served with the Hong Kong Housing Society in the pioneering days when public housing was getting into its stride. She is one of our many members who laid post-World War Two foundations for the Hong Kong we know today. We are also sorry to have to record the passing of long-time RAS member Patricia Loseby who claimed to be Hong Kong's first practising woman solicitor. We will remember them.\n\nMembership drive and public relations\n\nIt is important for an old, established organisation like ours to stand up and be counted. With this aim in mind our membership drive coupled with public relations has, as I said before, continued. In addition to giving talks to various bodies the views of some of our members are not infrequently sought by the media. Certainly those of us who have been involved in this drive have achieved something. It is possible for numbers to continue to increase if we carry on working at it and showing the flag. We now have our own web site, thanks to Moody Tang, on www.royalasiaticsociety.org.hk. But there is no point in expansion for the sake of expansion. First, we have to decide what the optimum size of our Branch should be. Some members already complain that they cannot go on visits because they are frequently oversubscribed. Increasing numbers does of course bring increased administrative problems and we are grateful to Dr Peter Barker who, in conjunction with Mary Painter, has been responsible for upgrading our computer database.\n\nPublications\n\nVolume 38, a special Millennium and 40th Anniversary edition, came out hot off the press in December 2000. It is a splendid, 'bumper' issue with 412 pages and includes a good mix of scholarly articles besides Notes and Queries and book reviews. There are many original photographs, both colour and black and white. One of the strong points of our Society has always been the Journal, which has been published ever since the HKBRAS was reformed. If one needs to obtain obscure information about local history, customs or culture it is surprising how often one can find something pertaining to what you need in one of our journals. There is nothing else in Hong Kong really quite like them.\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214997, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "49\n\n'I am a Christian, Sir.'\n\n'Very good,' replied the officer, 'I hope I am one too.'\n\n'But I am a Presbyterian, Sir, and at the Depot there were others of that religion, and we could have a service together. In my hut now there are no Presbyterians, and all are wicked.'\n\nMutinies did, however, occur, not only amongst service personnel of the Allies, but also amongst the various Labour Corps. Some were court-martialled and punished in various ways, i.e. hard labour, penal service, imprisonment or even death.\n\nIn September 1917 some British soldiers stationed at the base camp at Etaples, south of Boulogne, caused trouble and rebelled. Word of this spread to some unwilling Chinese and Egyptians, working at Boulogne, who then stopped work unloading supplies and went on the rampage. Field Marshal Haig ordered this to be quelled and, as a consequence, 27 unarmed strikers were shot dead, 39 wounded and 25 imprisoned.\n\nOn 10 October 1917, in a serious shooting incident in the Fourth Army area, 5 Chinese labourers were killed and 14 wounded. The inquiry into this incident came to the conclusion that this was due to the CO not appreciating the standard of discipline required to be maintained between his officers and British NCOs as regards the treatment of labourers.\n\nOn 16 December 1917, a mutiny, as a result of bullying by British NCOs, was reported amongst 21 Company CLC at Fontinettes. The armed guard fired on the mutineers, killing 4 and wounding 9. A Canadian soldier was also killed. The next day, a British infantry platoon forced the Chinese to resume work and, after the ringleaders were jailed, normality was restored on 23 December.\n\nOn Christmas Day 1917, labourers of 151 Company CLC conspired to kill their Sergeant Major, a \"half-caste\", as he had been an extortioner and had forced the men to work too hard. Two hundred men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers rounded up some of the mutineers whilst others had fled to near the HQ of 5 Corps at Locre. On Christmas Day, D. H.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215002, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "54\n\nwas also awarded to some members, whether serving with or attached to the CLC.\n\nSome Items of Interest\n\nWhilst carrying out research in the Imperial War Museum in London, I came across an undated letter, written in literary Chinese by Zhong Yangchang on YMCA headed paper, giving the address as ‘On Active Service with the British Expeditionary Force' and addressed to his wife c/o Bureau of Recruitment of Chinese Labour, the British Administration, Weihai Wei. It appears that the letter was also addressed to the Hong Kong University. The writer, a well-educated man, was not necessarily the husband of Zhilan and could quite possibly have been one of the Chinese administration staff. The translation is as follows:\n\nTo my\n\nwife, Zhilan\n\nI had intended to write to you earlier; however, it is only now that I have found a gap in my daily routine to do so. We are still at the same base camp. On the 13th it was Duanyang Festival [the Dragon Boat Festival] and we had the day off. The [Chinese] workers were made-up and put on the Yangke dance (a northern Chinese country peasants' dance) along the street. It was a very good show, but the foreigners seemed somewhat bemused by the event.\n\nSome British Army [officers] came along and they brought with them some other [Chinese labourers], from the Hong clan from the west of Tai [the area around Tai Shan].\n\nI will stop writing now, my spirit will follow the letter to you\n\nMy greetings and best wishes\n\nYour clumsy husband Zhong Yangchong.\n\nThere is a letter, also written in a similar vein on YMCA paper, but this time in English, [with the Wade-Giles left as in the original]. The envelope on display is addressed to Mrs Sung, Normal School,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215007, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "59\n\nChinese, were one of four forms. ‘A Noble Duty Bravely Done', 'Faithful unto Death', 'A Good Reputation endures Forever' and 'Though Dead He still Liveth'. As with all CWGC cemeteries, this one was well maintained.\n\nWe (Friends) then visited the Tincourt British Military Cemetery which has 57 graves of the CLC.\n\nThe base depôt, prison and hospital of the CLC was at Noyelles-sur-Mer and the cemetery there contains the graves of 838 men of the CLC, with a memorial bearing the names of 41 men whose graves are unknown12. The site of this cemetery was selected by the Chinese themselves so that the fengshui was correct. Whilst many of the CLC in this cemetery had home addresses in Shandong and Zhili provinces [about 98%] there were also about 25 from other provinces all north of the Yangzi River; two were from Fengtian in Manchuria [the old name for Mukden and now Shenyang], seven from Henan, seven from Jiangsu, five specifically from Hebei [the modern name for Zhili], one from Anhui, two from Shenjing [the archaic name for Jilin province in the north-east] and one from Gansu. The latter is unusual, it being a province to the north-west of China. One grave is noteworthy being that of an early recruit whose serial number was 53. Wang Yufong came from Rongcheng in Shandong, a mere 35 miles from Weihai Wei, and he died on the 10th June 1918. Many of those buried here had died of flu from the post-war epidemic.\n\nChinese visiting France today appear to be intrigued by signs saying Cimetiere Chinois [Chinese Cemetery] and, having visited them, have been surprised to see compatriots buried there. An entry, from a Chinese visitor from Qingdao, in the Memorial Book at Noyelles-sur-Mer, commented that he was a man from Shandong province himself and had not realized so many of his fellow provincials had died and had been buried in France. The CWGC, in response to our comment that we were surprised that there were no signs in French explaining the background to the fallen Chinese, wrote:\n\nA certain amount of historical information can be gleaned from the introduction to the registers made available at the cemeteries and some of the more significant sites have permanent historical notices. However, it should be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215016, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "68\n\nEmpress of Russia, arriving at Vancouver Island, Canada. During the voyage he discovered two cases of mumps amongst the 2006 Chinese which finally increased to eleven.\n\nDuring their stay in quarantine the Chinese were trained into disciplined coherent bodies. During this time, even though being well treated, food riots nearly broke out. A white cook was sacked for exorbitant charges on bread sold to the coolies, a gold dollar for an 8lb loaf, making a profit of 400%. He also excessively charged for apples and oranges. Two coolies were caught stealing and were publicly caned. On 8th April, his dressers [medical assistants] reported that trouble was brewing over an insult from coolies from Shandong and Tianjin; fighting broke out, being quelled by Stuckey. The leader of the Shandong men was caned publicly, to set an example.\n\nFootwear, issued in China, was proving unsuitable, so British Army boots were issued, which for some became a tradable item.\n\nThey left the quarantine station on 8th April, travelling by train, those with mumps being segregated, to St. Johns and Halifax from where they sailed on the Corsican, in convoy, to Liverpool, where they entrained for Shorncliffe, Kent and then across the channel by ferry to Boulogne and another train journey to the CLC HQ at Noyelle-sur-Mer. The officers returned to the UK to order their kit and uniforms, which cost Stuckey £45 at the Army and Navy Store. He returned to France as Eye Specialist in charge of the Ophthalmic Department of the Chinese General Hospital at Noyelles.\n\nThe Depot at Noyelles was already established as the central examination centre for all Chinese on arrival in France, before their allocation to various Labour Companies.\n\nThe first shipments of Chinese were routed via the Cape, but due to the long journey time and also the shortage of vegetables, leading to scurvy and beriberi, thus making the coolies of little use, the shipment routes were changed via Canada. On arrival in France, the coolies were again medically examined, especially for eye diseases, trachoma and conjunctivitis, usually in the open. Once passed fit they were drafted into various Labour units, consisting of five British officers, 19 British other-ranks and 476 Chinese, and kitted out. Those with eye diseases...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215023, "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": 119, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "75\n\nhad been handed over the Chinese departed and nothing further had been heard from them. A member of the Mayor's office in Noyelles asked whether we knew where Tungkang was as they had searched the map of China to locate it without success. They seemed quite surprised when they were informed that it is a small fishing town south of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The French and Chinese inscriptions on the socles of the two Lions gave the date as 1984 and not 1994.\n\nOur next move was to telephone the Tungkang Town Council Offices only to find that everyone, though very helpful, had no idea what we were talking about. The Mayor of Tungkang of the time, 1984, had long gone and was, they thought, dead. The more we thought about it the more puzzling it became with the only ideas we could come up with being the short semi-official drive in the 1980s by the Taipei government to widen their contacts with the western world and to remind foreigners of Taiwan's existence.\n\nSome months later, the Mayor's Office in Noyelles came up with two documents. One was an undated invoice to the then Maire de Noyelles, M. Claude de Valicourt, covering the shipment of two ‘marble of ramp as they were called, 'Gift of No Commercial Value' being shipped from the port city of Kaohsiung to Noyelles via Le Havre. It was signed Tungkang Town, Town Office. The Bill of Lading, however, was dated 1st June 1985.\n\nThe other was a typed certificate in Chinese signed by both the Tungkang Mayor and the 'Nuo-ye-le' Mayor, with the French translation. Neither signature is legible, though the date clearly is 20th January 1984 [the 73rd year of the Republic and not 1994]. It is headed Dijie Jiemei Zhen Mengshu which literally means 'Wedded Sister Towns Alliance' and is addressed to the Noyelles's Mayor [Nuo-ye-le Shizhang]. The flowery language used, typical of such pronouncements, declared everlasting friendship between the people of Noyelles and people of the Republic of China [Taiwan] and good wishes for future co-operation for mutual understanding. The significant line, however, thanks the people of Noyelles for their respect for the graves of the Chinese labourers in the Chinese cemetery.\n\nThe French version of the Chinese produced 'Pledge,' freely translated, also mentions the Chinese cemetery. The date in 1984 is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215136, "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": 232, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "189\n\nspeed test over a set distance. This is done, for example, for ships built on the Firth of Clyde, in Scotland (Sinclair, 2000). The late James A W Deacon, Superintendent of Lights in the Hong Kong Government Marine Department, told me they tried unsuccessfully to find a place for timing ships over a measured sea mile on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Eventually such a \"course\" was, it is understood, set up at Tseung Kwan O (Junk Bay), in the eastern New Territories. It seems unlikely that the two Obelisks at Tai Tam were ever used for timing ships because of their rather 'tucked away' positions. There is also no evidence of there ever having been a second pair of beacons in the vicinity.\n\nAre there other possible uses for the two Tai Tam Obelisks? I was informed firstly in the late 1970s by a master mariner and senior civil servant in the Government Marine Department, that a Royal Navy Officer, who had served in Hong Kong before World War Two, had told him that the two Obelisks had been used when submarines submerged during tests. This practice came into being (so it was said) because of the loss of HM Submarine Thetis, on 1 June 1939, on its maiden dive with the loss of 99 sailors and civilians. A diver who went down to try to effect a rescue was also lost. Only four occupants managed to escape from the submarine using the Davis Escape Apparatus. The Royal Navy Officer told the senior Marine Department Officer that submarines were sent to Tai Tam Bay, after repairs or refits in the old Royal Naval Dockyard. At Tai Tam they could dive to periscope depth, in line between the two Obelisks. Then, if anything were to go wrong, the submarine could be traced and the crew rescued hopefully relatively quickly. The now retired Marine Department member of staff acknowledges that he never had material in writing to support this statement but he believes the information was given to him in good faith.\n\nWhen this information was put to Guy Clarabutt, who served in Royal Navy submarines in Hong Kong before World War Two, he said he had never heard of such a practice (Sinclair, 2000). Neither could he remember the two Obelisks at Tai Tam (Waters, 2000). I spoke to a young British naval officer stationed at HMS Tamar, on Hong Kong Island, in 1995. He felt that such a practice was highly unlikely. In 1997, however, I raised the same question with Commodore PJ Melson CBE, Chief of Staff and Deputy to Commander British Forces. He, as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215164, "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": 260, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "220\n\nA Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong\n\nSidney was also a good ‘cadger'. Most of the many donations made to technical education in his time were largely due to his determined efforts. He had worked as a radio officer on a ship in earlier life. Every Monday morning he would lead a small retinue of staff around the College on a formal inspection just as a captain does on board ship.\n\nI recall when a newly appointed Hong Kong University member of staff came to see him, about the setting up of a University Extra-Mural Department. Burt told him frankly it was a waste of money. 'The Technical College provides all the evening classes the Colony needs', he insisted.\n\nThe Director of Education wanted Burt to move into the Departmental Headquarters to oversee technical education but he preferred to do this while serving as incumbent Principal at the Technical College. Because of this inherent stubbornness the development of technical education was probably retarded. There was no 'Senior Education Officer (Technical Education)' post in Headquarters until 1967 and no 'Assistant Director (Technical Education)' post until 1972. But Hong Kong owes Sidney Burt a great deal for laying the foundations of technical education.\n\nBut moving on: the Principal and staff of the College had long felt that a second Government institution was needed which, although bolstered by some technician programmes, would concentrate on craft courses. This was why the Morrison Hill Technical Institute came into being in 1969. In fact there was a school of thought which believed that the first technical institute should run craft courses only, but, as things have since developed, it would have been an incorrect move. One of our more advanced pursuits at MHTI, in addition to technician education, was technical teacher training. This was transferred away in 1974 with the establishing of the Technical Teachers College.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215211, "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": 307, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "271\n\ntime the Japanese ordered the demolition of houses for the airfield extension. Each family was allocated only one house at Model Village, no matter how many of the houses in its ownership had been demolished. Our house here is still quite good - it's still standing after twenty years.'\n\nFurther Information\n\nI then had a joint meeting with the five persons named above, at which the following facts were established. The Japanese had allowed for 125 houses to be built at Model Village. There was not one contractor, but many. Dispossessed villagers could work for the contractors and receive a daily payment of rice. Mr. Yip and his daughter had worked for the contractor on their house; so had Madam Li Ng and her son, and sometimes her daughter in lieu; whilst Madam Ng Tai had also helped to build her home. They were glad of the rice, not having enough to eat at the time. These houses were built in pairs, with one party wall. Each measured 15 feet by 12, giving a frontal span of 30 feet; but, obviously, at least one of the 125 had been built as a single dwelling.\n\nMr. Yip and Madam Ng were still living in their houses, but Madam Li's home had been burned down in a fire, like many others over the years. Some had fallen into disrepair. Only about twenty of the houses built in 1943 were in their original state. The two Shing brothers, who came to Model Village postwar, had built their own modest homes in the village. Another man present had bought one of the original Japanese houses.\n\nIt was agreed that the 125 houses were quite insufficient for the number of families that had been dispossessed. This corroborates what the Nga Tsin Wai people told Patrick Hase. Some of the hapless \"overflow\" had moved to the New Territories; Kam Tin was mentioned for one group, but my informants did not know where the rest might have gone.\n\nInformation from Other Persons.\n\nAt various meetings with other residents of the villages of central Kowloon, more information about Model Village and the clearance operation for the airfield extension was provided, shedding further light", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215245, "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": 22, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "The Society is now more than forty years old. Over that period, we have made small operating surpluses in most years. As a result, we now have a substantial balance of Accumulated Funds. This balance stands at present at well over $600,000. Council has come to the conclusion that a cash balance of this size is an embarrassment to a Society like ours. After considerable debate in Council, it was felt that a Fund should be set up from which the Society could make grants to assist research into the study of Hong Kong. It was felt by Council that grants towards the costs of production of monographs or collections of essays on Hong Kong would be useful to the academic community in Hong Kong generally, or else to assist translation of important works from English, including collections of articles from the Journal, into Chinese, or vice versa, or perhaps from Japanese into Chinese or English, or in some other way to assist the field of Hong Kong studies.\n\nCouncil decided that it could allow about half the accumulated balance to be put into the Fund, that is, about $300,000, while still leaving enough of a cash balance to meet all anticipatable demands on it for the Society's needs. Council has also agreed that this capital sum should not be spent, but only the income from the interest on it. Council also came to the conclusion that a grant, to be worthwhile, would normally require to be in the region of $20,000. In other words, the sum the Council felt it could put into the new Fund would allow for only one grant a year, or perhaps two in a good year. This is less than Council would wish. Council therefore felt that it would be desirable to encourage donations into the Fund, hopefully to allow the Fund to reach up to a million dollars, which might allow as many as four or five grants a year to be made.\n\nTo do all this, it was necessary to amend the Constitution to allow the disbursement of grants in this way, and this was achieved in the context of the amendments to the Constitution agreed at the last AGM and the EGM later in the year. It was also necessary, in order to put the Fund into a legal position which might encourage large commercial companies to donate to it, to make the Society a Registered Charitable Institution, and this, too, was achieved during the year.\n\nCouncil is still considering the details of the new Fund and has set up a Working Party to make detailed recommendations. In due course, members will be informed of the details, once they have been agreed.\n\nxix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215410, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "136\n\nIn imitation of a real altarpiece the Dormition of Mary is followed higher up by an image above a rose window representing the Assumpta, or the Assumption of Mary into heaven, a favourite theme of Iberian retables, often combined with the theme of the Dormition. Above her there is a high relief of the Trinity with a Golgotha group at the summit. These images are quite typical of the iconography of contemporary retables and follow the sometimes-convoluted theological arguments of the Christian art of the period.\n\nAs the intricacies of the Late Gothic style gave way to the Italian Renaissance, the artistic potency of retable-façades persisted under different forms, dimensions and styles, and in different places. It spread to Southern Spain after the Reconquista, where it developed its own Renaissance characteristics. Later, mainly in a Mannerist style, it appeared in Portugal. Finally some of the most amazing examples of the genre sprouted in Spanish colonies in Mexico and Peru in a Baroque and Rococo style, sometimes displaying the artistry, or otherwise, of indigenous craftsmen.\n\nAlthough such structures are not usually found in Portuguese colonies, there are nonetheless unusual developments in the decoration of some Jesuit church façades in Portuguese India, which can give insights to later developments in their Macao church. The study of these Indian examples is also useful in another respect. Instead of studying the Macao church in isolation, as is usually done, a comparison with these and a selected number of buildings in India can help us obtain a more coherent chronological and stylistic perspective for the façade of Madre de Deus.\n\nTo trace back some of these developments in Jesuit architecture the city of Goa, today known as Velha Goa, is an obvious starting point because of its importance within the Portuguese empire in Asia. In fact, soon after Afonso de Albuquerque captured it from Yusuf Adil Khan in 1510, it came to be considered by the Portuguese as the capital of the whole Portuguese Empire in the East. It eventually became not only the seat of the vice-royalty, but equally of a huge Bishopric, which encompassed the entire region from the Cape of Good Hope to China. In the seventeenth century it counted some seventy religious establishments, including thirty-one churches.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215466, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "192\n\nOn arrival, I was immediately impressed also by the warmth of the Bhutanese people. Our guide came up to me and shook my hand in welcome. The 27 of us piled into the minibuses, and were presented with a white silk scarf each, a traditional Bhutanese form of welcome. The scarf proved to be a very welcome first line of defence against later chilly winds.\n\nThe road from the airport is reputed to be the longest stretch of straight road in the country. It has no choice, considering that it shares the narrow flat valley with a river and the runway. Half way up the winding road that took us from the valley floor to the hotel, I was rather touched to see the Department of Civil Aviation building - or perhaps \"cottage\" would be a more appropriate description. This delightfully small, two-storey wooden structure, beautifully decorated with traditional patterns, had a commanding view over the entire airstrip. One could imagine Mr Director looking at his pocket watch with pride as KB125 made another greaser of a landing exactly on schedule.\n\nInto the Interior\n\nI have spent many holidays in the Appian Alps in northern Tuscany, and my first impression of Bhutan's scenery was that it is all very similar, but more so. The mountains are bigger, the valleys steeper and wider, the light brighter. Comments also abounded comparing the scenery with Switzerland - mountains, neat and tidy, uniform. It soon struck us that the houses were all from the same design catalogue. Later we found out that this was in fact the case and was due to government decree - there is a standard traditional design that must be followed. And followed it is. At 7,200 feet above sea level, the air at Paro was very fresh, and being a mile and a half nearer the sun, the ultra violet was very much in evidence. (I thanked my wife for reminding me to pack my sunscreen.) Not many of us had been for long at such an altitude and there was much debate about altitude sickness. Would we all fall over or feel nauseous?\n\nThe minibuses quickly delivered us to the Olathang Hotel, about ten minutes from the airport. First impression was that it looked a bit like a monastery, but that was a function of the required building style making everything look somewhat religious. The reception desk had above it a large framed photograph of a good-looking man wearing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215475, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "201\n\nus and welcomed us, at the same time giving a brief background history of his library. With very limited resources, he has made good use of his previous 20 years experience with the National Museum to bring order and inspiration to his new project. There are a great many books in the Bhutanese language, mainly on Buddhist issues, and an increasing number of books in English and other foreign languages. We increased this number further by presenting the library with a full set of HKBRAS Journals.\n\nLunch was in the delightfully named Plum's Café, including a slice of their famous apple pie. As shopping never seemed to be far from the thoughts of us Honkies, a visit to Choki Handicrafts and then the National Handicrafts Emporium sated the appetite sufficiently to face the next leg of the journey.\n\nThis was to be an enormous climb up to the Dochu-la pass (10,140 feet), being the gateway to the Wangdiphodrang Valley. The weather had been fine on the trip so far, but coming to the top of the pass the clouds descended, and with them came snow. However, as luck would have it, just as the army of RAS photographers took up their positions the clouds lifted, a rainbow appeared and we were offered enormous vistas of Himalayan peaks stretching off to the west. Thereafter the weather became (and stayed) clear as a bell.\n\nThat bell rings a name\n\nDid I say bell? Was that a yak approaching? No. In one of the handicraft shops in Thimpu, Brian had bought himself a brass bell. We were to hear that bell a lot in the coming days. It was to become his method of signalling to his unruly brood that it was time to board the buses and move on. So effective was it that when a “real” bell sounded in one of the temples, it had the effect of causing a stampede to the transport by all of us - except, of course, Brian.\n\nFrom the heights of the pass it was a very long and bouncy ride down to the hotel in Punakha at 4,300 feet. Thankfully, it was an early dinner and early to bed. Orders had already been issued for a 6:15 a.m. wake-up the following day. Even though the guide told us that we were in a sub-tropical climate zone, I had to break open my Chinese Emporium silk long johns before climbing in to bed. (Any man thinking", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215477, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "203\n\nthought of some time in 1962. Better late than never.\n\nThe road continued past fresh rushing rivers and terraced fields. These were either brilliant green or bright yellow, the latter being mustard. Prayer flags flapping on every promontory completed the picturesque scene. Not quite so pretty was the state of the road. This had become very muddy with much evidence of landslides. Coming from Hong Kong we felt a bit uneasy not to see every slope covered in concrete and with a number on it. Perhaps we can teach these Bhutanese a thing or two after all.\n\nAt one of our stops some youths were playing the local version of darts. They were using lethal looking missiles almost a foot long which were thrown either at the ground or at a convenient tree or piece of wood. The object seemed to be to get yours as close as possible to the other chap's, and so this necessitated the other chap to stand close to where his had landed. Either they are all very good shots, or they have lightning reactions, or they are very trustful of each other, or perhaps all three - but it looked jolly dangerous to me.\n\nFurther up there was a splendid view of snow-capped Jomolhari, last seen in Paro. We came to our own peak at Pele-la pass (11,200 feet), from where there was a two-hour cruise downhill to Trongsa. About half way from the pass to Trongsa, at Chendebji Chorten, we saw a familiar sight. Right next to this magnificent Nepalese-style stupa, complete with eyes painted at the top, was a long table and 30 garden chairs. Lunch had been prepared. What a privilege to be catered for in what is presumably a sacred site. It felt for all the world like a scene from E.M. Forster when Dr Aziz organised a picnic for Miss Quested at the Malabar Caves. Can you imagine similar treatment for a group of foreigners at, say, Stonehenge? Ha! (or as they say in Bhutan Haa!).\n\nInto The Hundred Acre Wood\n\nThe stunning Trongsa Dzong looked quite close when we first saw it, occupying a commanding position on the opposite side of the valley. However, it was another half-hour before we could find our way round the valley and see it at close quarters. Tea and bickies at Trongsa Norling Hotel were very welcome before setting out on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215493, "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": 270, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "219 \n\nsaying: 'Hey! We booked Bhutan this week. What are you lot doing here?') What we were about to see must have been on the itinerary of every other tour group in the country. I was lucky enough to squeeze up to the front, and stand facing sideways in the general squash but with a reasonably good view of the floor below. After a while, two of the shorter horns (akin to oboes) started up and the general air of expectancy increased tangibly. Then two of the long bass horns started blowing their deep notes; each horn had to be held by two monks. They were blown for about five minutes, and then they were joined by the oboes. By now there was an enormous sense of anticipation, rather like at the beginning of a concert listening to orchestra tuning up but never quite getting there.\n\nThen came the officials, looking resplendent and led by a pair of horn players (the oboe variety). One official had a large and lethal-looking cat-o'-nine-tails, which was this time, thankfully, being used to thrash the floor in front of the other dignitaries. However, judging from the conspiratorial grin he flashed at me when he passed by, he would probably be happy to thrash anything (or anyone - even me).\n\nThe official procession having passed, some of the dignitaries returned with their families - and we realised that we had committed something of a faux pas. When trying to get to the best vantage point at the railing, I had noticed that some brightly coloured mats had been placed on the floor. It did cross my mind that it was a pity to have them trampled under foot by the assembled multitude, and then I thought nothing more of it. Until, that is, that I saw one of the official-looking gentlemen, clearly disappointed, motioning to his wife to the area near my feet. Like the proverbial Germans at the hotel swimming pool, it seems that these good people had reserved their spot at dawn, only to have it snaffled. Ho hum. I do not know what he did, but it was clearly impossible for him to claim his spot. I was squashed sideways onto the rail itself; at my waist was a child's head, and underneath her were two more wriggling youngsters.\n\nMeanwhile, back on the stage, there was some activity. One orange-robed monk led out a team of 15 red-robed brethren and stood with them in a little huddle, talking sotto voce. He was like the coach at the beginning of a rugger match. ('Now, lads. I want a good clean puja.')\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215556, "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": 333, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "283\n\nan important strategic port for merchants.\n\nIn the process of competing with Macao as the doorway to China trade, Hong Kong had its moments of hesitation. It had its own internal problems to solve during the three decades after 1841, such as building roads, houses, godowns, and having to provide an attractive and safe environment for trade. Only in 1875, after Hong Kong had developed into a port which was busy receiving Chinese junks from the north as well as Japanese vessels from the East and European steamers from the West was the first lighthouse at Cape D'Aguilar constructed to facilitate the navigation route leading to its harbour.\n\nShips from the West\n\nTo build lighthouses was a need formed by several elements. First, the marine navigation route from Europe to Asia used to go round the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened for navigation, shortening the distance between Europe and East Asia by 20 to 30 per cent as well as cutting the cost, facilitating more frequent sea traffic.4 Secondly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe increased drastically the supply of consumer goods which, in turn, demanded more and more large steamships with greater speed to carry them. Thirdly, shipping costs depend not only on the size and speed of the vessel or the time needed for the transportation. Part of the cost goes to the insurance against the danger of shipwrecks. The safe route with good navigation aids affected the cost of the goods directly. Because of the above elements, the demand for building lighthouses on the sea route to Hong Kong became more pressing with the increase of trade.\n\nOld lighthouses\n\nBefore the setting up of lighthouses in Hong Kong there were already lighthouses in nearby waters. On the Eastern approaches to the Singapore Straits Horsburgh Lighthouse was established in 1851.5 Off the west coast of Taiwan located on Xi Yu Island of the Pescadores/Penghu Islands, the Fisherman Island Lighthouse (Yureng Tao Lighthouse) was set up as early as 1778.6 In Macao, the Guia lighthouse (Farol da Guia), built in 1865, claims to be the oldest on the China coast. These lighthouses, however, did not provide enough help for\n\n7", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215561, "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": 338, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "288\n\nCape Collinson Lighthouse\n\nThe light at Cape Collinson was established on 1st March 1876, the year following the other two lighthouses. The reason for being later was that its apparatus was mistakenly sent to the Cape of Good Hope. The illuminating apparatus was fixed Dioptric of the Sixth Order. The focal plane of the light was 200 feet above mean sea level, and in clear weather it could be seen for a distance of eight miles. This lighthouse showed a white light on the bearings from N. 22 W. by East to S. 22 E. Ships heading for Victoria Harbour from the North and the Eastward were thus able to avoid Bokhara and Tathong Rocks, also the rocks outlying Sy Wan Bay by keeping the white light in sight. It also showed a red light from S. 22 E. by West to N. 22 W.20\n\nWhen all three lighthouses were first in operation, vessels entering Hong Kong harbour were adequately provided with navigational aids. Gradually, as time passed, lighthouses were required to display their own distinguishing characteristics and to repeat these at shorter intervals for more frequent observation as the speeds of steamships increased. In the beginning of the 20th century an 18-knot ship could travel over a quarter of a mile every minute. The older optics that revolved at the speed of four minutes per revolution were replaced by new ones revolving at 15 or 20 seconds. This was made possible by floating the lantern in a mercury bath causing it to revolve with minimum friction. This new technique was installed in lighthouses built in the 1890s.\n\nNew lighthouses\n\nIn 1892 and 1893, after much discussion and negotiation between Hong Kong and China, lighthouses were built on the two best sites initially chosen to light the approaches to Hong Kong: namely on Gap Rock and Waglan.\n\nAs early as 1867, before the building of the first lighthouse in Hong Kong, Commander Reed, a naval surveyor, was instructed to investigate suitable locations for lighthouses to cover the port approaches. He proposed Waglan Island and Gap Rock, small islands to the south of Hong Kong Island en route to Singapore. However, as neither of the proposed locations was within Hong Kong waters, these recommendations were not pursued.21", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215565, "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": 342, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "292\n\nI am sorry I cannot tell you much about the life of the keepers. If you have not been able to question Charlie Thirlwell (and people like him) then it is likely their story has gone forever. Sad, but so many stories are already lost.\n\nThe good news however is that, over a period spanning approaching half a century, the author has been able to question, off and on, some of Hong Kong's lighthouse keepers, together with seafarers and Government Marine Department staff. Accounts given by them and the life keepers led are detailed in this paper. Much of the material is based on oral history gleaned in discussions with Government Marine Department staff, both serving and retired, as well as other persons. Both authors have made several visits to Hong Kong's lighthouses and have appeared on television programmes about them (Video; 2001).\n\nEmphasis in this paper has been placed on Waglan Lighthouse because, situated approaching five kilometres from and to the south of Cape D'Aguilar, and nearly 13 kilometres from Lei Yue Mun, Waglan is the most isolated lighthouse in the Territory (Banister; 1932, 50) (Lee, HC). Other lighthouses include those at Cape D'Aguilar and Cape Collinson, both on Hong Kong Island. Others at Green Island and Kap Sing lighthouse are both within harbour limits.\n\nClimatic conditions\n\nThe author recalls visiting Waglan Lighthouse with the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) by boat on a lovely afternoon on Saturday 9th June 1990. Indeed on some days out there in the South China Sea it can be idyllic - a not-to-be-forgotten experience. Terrence Courtney, an Australian who served as Superintendent of Lights in the late 1950s and '60s, used to stay overnight on the island because he found it ‘enchanting.' He slept in an isolated, small, brick building which is still standing.\n\nBut the helipad, constructed in mid-1982, destroyed much of the romance although helicopters do of course provide a vital service - if a keeper fell seriously ill for example. Also, they were useful for getting keepers on and off Waglan in bad weather. Previously, it had sometimes meant their being hauled up or lowered in a basket which served the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215571, "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": 348, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "298\n\nmain lamp in the lighthouse could, allowing for the curvature of the earth, be seen for a distance of about 26 nautical miles (one nautical mile equals 1,852 metres). If because of fog, the light's visibility was reduced to less than two nautical miles, the fog horn system would switch on automatically. It could also be switched on by radio.\n\nAfter World War Two there was a hotline radio link to Cape Collinson, on Hong Kong Island, from where calls could be relayed elsewhere. In the years leading up to automation, in 1989, a direct exchange line telephone was provided in the air-conditioned communications tower to enable staff to keep in touch with their homes. No relatives or friends were allowed on the island. There was also an inter-communication system installed at Waglan so that staff could communicate between buildings on the island.\n\nCreature comforts and sustenance\n\nLike life for the man on the top of a tram in Wanchai, living conditions improved considerably over the years for lighthouse staff. In earlier years staff would stock up larders with enough food to last keepers for a full tour of duty. A few days later food would no longer be fresh. In more recent years they had refrigerators. In the first instance these were powered with kerosene. Electricity had to be used sparingly and was available from dusk to dawn when the beacon light was switched on.\n\n37\n\nStaples were different kinds of noodles, meat, vegetables and fish.3 The last was supplemented by delicious fish which they caught themselves, by line or cage. These were commonly nai mang ue and sek gau kong. It was much tastier than the salted fare which they ate in earlier days.\n\nLittle food was wasted. Waglan was a homely place. They kept pets. The half dozen or so cats finished off leftovers. In addition, some staff with green fingers would grow vegetables and bring shrubs and flowers back to the Island after shore leave, to plant and beautify their surroundings. In the days when the lighthouse was manned there was a bed of red-leaf flowers grown in the shape of 'WL,' standing for Waglan. As Superintendent of Lights, Yip Kin-sang, told the author, lighthouse keepers had a strong sense of belonging.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215646, "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": 423, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "375\n\nANOTHER DONATION TO THE\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL\n\nASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nOur Branch possesses a number of archives and artefacts, including photographs. Details of these are given in an article by Dan Waters entitled, Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society: Possessions on Permanent Loan to other Institutions (JHKBRAS, Vol. 37, 1998, p. 177). In addition, 515 books and a number of items were kindly donated to our Branch by the late Arnold Graham. Please see Arnold Graham 1905-1996 by Dan Waters (JHKBRAS, Vol. 38, 1998-99, p.305),\n\nIn order to build up our collection, in February 2001, HKBRAS member Barbara Park suggested I write to Douglas Franklin who lives in Brisbane, Australia. Mr Franklin was very helpful and replied that he had some photographs in good condition and that he would be pleased to donate some to HKBRAS. We are extremely grateful to him for this donation.\n\nThe late Frederick Percy Franklin (father of Douglas Franklin who made the donation) emigrated from Bournemouth, England, to Sydney, Australia, in 1912. He joined the Australian army in 1915 and served in France. He first came to Hong Kong in 1922, when he was appointed Manager of the Hong Kong Telegraph. This was the daily afternoon paper published by the South China Morning Post.\n\nAs the Japanese approached the Colony all able-bodied British subjects were required to register for essential services. Frederick Franklin joined a British Royal Engineers unit. He was wounded on Christmas Day 1941, the day Hong Kong fell. His wife, two daughters and son, Douglas - who was 14 at the time - were evacuated on British Government orders to Sydney in August 1940, together with 3,000 women and children.\n\nWhen Hong Kong fell Frederick Franklin was captured and spent the whole of the war in the Argyle Street Prisoner of War Camp. After the war he returned to the South China Morning Post offices, then in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215666, "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": 443, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "395\n\ncorrespondent for The Times in southeast Asia, having previously supplied articles to the paper on a freelance basis. One of the last to escape the invading Japanese, he reported the retreat along the Malay Peninsula and the last stand and surrender of the British garrison in Singapore on 15 February, 1942.\n\nAfter Singapore, Mr. Morrison went to Java before following the campaigns in the South West Pacific under General MacArthur, and later in Southeast Asia under Admiral Mountbatten.\n\nMr. Morrison was a courageous correspondent who never thought twice about entering a dangerous situation to get a good story. During the Second World War he spent a lot of time reporting from the front and shared the soldiers' life in the jungle. He regularly hitch-hiked on Australian or American army transport planes in order to follow the action and provide authentic accounts of the fighting with the Japanese. He often came close to death. In late November 1942 he was slightly injured during an air raid on the Buna front in Papua, and in December 1943 he was involved in a plane crash which resulted in head wounds and fractured vertebrae. This is how he telegraphed the paper:\n\n'Regret involved in airplane accident enroute obtain eyewitness operational full stop hospitalised injuries seriouser than yestertime hope recover soon Dickson Brown newschronicler kindly consented cover next three days thereafter Curthoys sorry disappoint you good story - Morrison'\n\nHis injuries on that occasion kept him out of action until July 1944, when he returned to cover the South East Area Command. He was not out of trouble for long. On 10 December 1945, while reporting from Batavia (now Jakarta) covering a local campaign he was again wounded and cabled the paper:\n\n'Left hospital today. Thumb, in which fragments of Dutch bullet are lodged, will take at least a fortnight to\n\nIan Morrison and family, circa 1950", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215838, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "In the essentially conservative society of the day, partial to the observance of etiquette and sensitive to social niceties, it was equally necessary for the government departments involved in district administration and community liaison to have the services of similar experts. The former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the old-style District Administration New Territories/New Territories Administration, were the two departments in question. Even more than the associations, they had to do everything in the approved style, and with smooth efficiency.\n\nIn the SCA, there was a Chinese Literary Clerk to advise and assist the senior staff. There was also a Calligraphist, whose duties included writing the apothegms requested by associations to grace the pages of their bulletins and special publications (Plate 1). These posts are listed in the SCA's printed annual departmental reports (e.g. 1966-67, Appendix 21). In the DANT, such assistance was provided by a specially selected senior member of the government's General Clerical Service. A Calligraphist came later, together with an Interpreter/Translator in headquarters (see e.g., the District Commissioner's printed annual departmental report for 1964-65, Table XI). Such help was needed if we and our Offices were to function properly within the old system: meaning, in conformity with the accepted norms of polite (i.e., educated) Chinese society.\n\nOutside the headquarters, a notable contribution was made by the Liaison Officer grade in the two departments. Their senior officers' detailed knowledge of the associations' leaders and general expertise was vital in guiding the expatriate element among their superiors. And although, on one occasion, it was unkindly said of the liaison staff in the former Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, that 'all they were good for was arranging chairs and seating, and ushering guests to their seats,' such remarks overlook the great importance attached to protocol and etiquette in traditional Chinese society and the creation and maintenance of a sense of wellbeing between the guests and their hosts.\n\nIn truth, many persons took notice of performance. Government departments and community associations alike would be criticized for any mistakes or omissions, whilst any \"gaffes\" made during speeches - including the unwary or inadvertent choice of words to whose sounds other, disreputable, meanings could be construed - would be noted at once, and give rise to profane mirth or even ridicule. I can vouch for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215872, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "104\n\nPottinger Battery were relocated to Bokhara Battery, Cape D'Aguilar in 1939 or 1940 (Rollo: 201). The batteries' arc of fire at Devil's Peak in 1938 reached the southwestern tip of Lamma Island and the south of the Po Toi Group of islands, whereas those at Stanley reached beyond the southwestern part of the Lema Islands (Dangan Liedao).\n\nThus, before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on 8th December 1941, there were no guns at either the Gough or Pottinger Battery. However, the sites at Devil's Peak had become part of the Gin Drinker's Line in the 1930s. This Line runs from Gin Drinker's Bay (Kwai Chung) in the west to Port Shelter in the east. The Devil's Peak was a crucial component of the Kowloon segment of the Line. The Japanese had good maps about the location of the defences of Hong Kong. Some remarks on the defence works at Devil's Peak are registered in a map produced in 1939/1940 (Empson 1992). Defensive positions in the military sites on Devil's Peak were taken up by the 5/7 Rajputs of the Hong Kong Garrison on 12 December, after the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt in the western part of the Line three days before.\n\nThe sites at Devil's Peak witnessed heavy defensive fighting by the 5/7 Rajputs and the First Mountain Battery of the Hong Kong and Singapore Artillery. The latter expended 400 rounds with their four 3.7 inch field guns before the evacuation of the defenders to Hong Kong Island on the morning of 13th December. The defenders destroyed all equipment before they crossed the Harbour during the night. Thereafter, the Japanese used the sites to bombard the Island and the defenders' gun returned fire.\n\nAfter the defeat of Japan, the Devil's Peak sites were abandoned by the British, although the batteries on the Island side of Lei Yue Mun Pass were reoccupied and put into active military use until the mid-1980s. Before 1997, there had been little news connected with British military activities at Devil's Peak, save for an air accident in the 1950s. In March 1956, two Royal Navy Sea Hawks struck fog-shrouded Devil's Peak, killing the pilots and an elderly lady (Eather 1996).\n\nA surviving example of the 9.2-inch guns that were deployed on the batteries at Devil's Peak can be seen at the Buyu Battery (Siu 1997: Plate 6 at p.76) that guards Humen (The Bogue). This battery was modernised in 1883 with the assistance of British and German military experts.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215909, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "142\n\nhave to admit I can hardly understand Waters' Cantonese most of the time. His tones are not perfect and for myself I have difficulty understanding second language Cantonese speakers. I'm sure that Waters is more fluent and accurate than I am,\n\n\"It was difficult [to learn Cantonese] as an older person. If you learn it as a child, it's easy...I still know my tones are not good by any means. As a rule, I can get away with what I want to say because of the\n\ncontext.\"\n\n171\n\nWaters reads, but does not write Chinese characters very well. As we talk about learning the characters, Waters jumps up from his recliner and stands with legs apart to mimic the character for the word person (yan), then outstretches his arm for the word big (tai), and adds another mark in the middle for the word sky or heaven (tien). He is fascinated with the way Chinese characters are built.\n\nIn an article on Chinese and Western humour, Waters wrote: \"How can you expect the Chinese who cannot, 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?\"\n\nIt's true that not everyone can appreciate a chicken's foot. I played the role of a typical overseas Chinese or juck sing, for many years.\n\nI had been too squeamish and maybe snobbish, to have anything to do with chicken feet. Only recently have I tasted them, and honestly, really enjoyed the clear white variety, with garlic dip.\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch of the RAS has published 38 volumes of its journal, which focuses on local customs, culture and history. Volume 38, a special Millennium and 40th Anniversary Edition entitled “T'ai Sui, The God of Time,\" came out in December 2000. The 39th is expected out mid-year while the 40th is due by the end of the year.\n\n\"If someone wants information about a temple in Kwun Tong or a temple in Tuen Mun, as a rule, you can find something about it in our journals. They are quite unique in their own way and there's nothing really quite like them,\" said Waters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215920, "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": 219, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "153\n\n\"I would like to do more for students...In our time at school, even in the university, no one really cared about Hong Kong history and at secondary school, we never had a chance to study Hong Kong history, so no one knew about what happened in Hong Kong.\"\n\nKo has also published a battlefield guide and a bilingual publication for the Country Parks Authority. His next book, a resource guide for teachers and students on Kowloon City, should be out in May. Ko has not published in the RAS Journal, and has no plans to.\n\n“Not as many people are writing in Chinese,” said Ko. \"There are a lot of many very good scholars writing very good things like Patrick Hase, James Hayes, but all these, they only write in English.\"\n\nKo is a fifth-generation Hong Konger. He is Hakka and his ancestors were stonecutters. He has traced his family back to the 1850's, before the British came. Ko studied Japanese at the Hong Kong Polytechnic and worked for the HKTA (Hong Kong Tourist Association, now the Tourism Board) for six years before quitting to do more of what he does today record Hong Kong history, including what life was like in the early resettlement blocks.\n\n\"It's quite unimaginable for young people now, the communal toilets, communal bathrooms, no tap water in a small flat,\" said Ko. \"You remember I emphasised during the talk, 24 square feet for each adult, a 100-square foot room would take at least four adults or six, if there are children. You could imagine how the situation could be. All the male members would need to sleep in the public corridor.\n\n\"I always dream of, even till now, I dream of life in the housing blocks. I don't know why, many times a year, even till now, because actually I spent 22 years there...[They] could not be regarded as fond memories because we lived on the top floor and there were a lot of problems then with the ceiling leaking.”\n\nThe 37-year-old has supported himself for the last 10 years through freelance jobs -- acting as co-ordinator and translator for the visiting Japanese media book royalties, and other odd projects.\n\nKo has been a member of the RAS since 1990 and on the Council", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215925, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "158\n\nmy own embarrassment, these expatriates interviewed in this story know more about the language and culture than the writer, a Hong Kong-born, Canadian-raised Chinese...\n\nThroughout the 40th anniversary conference, Sinn popped on and off stage, before and after speakers did their bits, and said many wonderful things about them. In Reverend Smith's case, she threw her arms around the learned, gentle senior citizen and gave him a kiss on the cheek.\n\nSinn was equally emotional when it came to Dr. Waters. She displayed the same affection, a strong squeeze of his hand and a light peck on the cheek. The lady in the green cheong-sam would certainly make a good first Chinese president.\n\nT'ai Sui, The God of Time...\n\nAs part of its anniversary celebration, the RAS published a special journal that included many new articles about Hong Kong culture and history. It was entitled, \"T'ai Sui, The God of Time,\" and copies of it would be sent to every member, a couple of weeks after the conference.\n\nThe conference itself ended with a special ceremony. Dr. Waters was asked to the stage and Sinn presented the president with a gift. Waters unwrapped the box to find a traditional Chinese birthday present — a 24-carat gold peach set in a clear plastic box and wrapped with a red ribbon.\n\nThe president was noticeably delighted by the thoughtfulness of the vice-president — it was very obviously Sinn's idea — and his RAS colleagues. He thanked Sinn with a big hug and, speaking in a slightly choked voice, thanked the audience. A scan of the room made it evident that the warm feelings that day were mutual.\n\nHolding back tears, Waters, who would step down as president in a few months, clutched the gift and waved it high in the air like a hard-won trophy. The gift was in recognition of his friendship and his service and also his birthday. He turned 80 just over a week ago, thanks to T'ai Sui, the God of time.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216052, "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": 351, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "285\n\nrowdies knew that no American official in all the ports of China has the means of checking outrages on the part of American citizens. Accordingly, whenever an English thug gets into a scrape he claims to be American. He then described a case in point 'the Captain of an American boat came to me bringing with him a Chinese who had been badly cut on the arm. He said that the wound had been inflicted by an Englishman, a passenger on his boat and that the Briton was a desperate character. I accordingly applied to Franklin, the Commander of the [British] gunboat lying here for assistance. He very soon had an armed boat alongside the Yankee craft and the swordsman was speedily hauled out and brought before me. I read the Chinaman's complaint to him and he in reply said he wanted to see the American Consul, I told him that as an American had handed him over to me as an Englishman I should deal with him unless he could prove his right to American protection. He defied me so I sent him a prisoner aboard the Banterer gunboat. On the day following I had no less than three witnesses that the scoundrel was an Englishman. At length when he saw his impudence would carry him no further he acknowledged himself to be a Britisher, He was tried accordingly and got six months in Hong Kong jail with hard labour, at the end of which, he is to be conveyed under arrest to England as being too dangerous a character for a quiet country like China'.\n\nIn another letter Adkins explained that 'I am making myself obnoxious and disagreeable to certain of my countrymen who think that Treaties are made that they might have the pleasure of breaking them. I have seized and confiscated three vessels for smuggling and have given a rascal three months hard labour for trading in salt. Really the Chinese have good reason for distrusting us. We sell arms to the Rebels and teach them how to build forts after making treaties of peace and friendship with the reigning power'.\n\nWhen E.H. Parker was Consul in about 1877 roads were just beginning to exist and the Municipal Council had succeeded in providing a respectable walk of three or four miles for exercise. However, a gigantic, old worm-eaten coffin had been left where it lay by the builders planted squarely in the middle of the fine new road, just where it left town. Rumour said it dated from the Mongol dynasty. No one dared touch it, and it was generally supposed that the 'owners were sitting tight and waiting for their chance. The Daotai said that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216054, "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": 353, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "287\n\nThe Consulate was on the most commanding elevation, at least fifty feet above the road with a steep mountain behind. About two hundred unruly soldiers gathered round the lower enclosure but seeing the four armed men did not approach. A written message was sent off to General Tao, commanding the permanent camp, half a mile off, stating that the man would not be released until the general came in person, identified the prisoner and punished him. After half an hour General Tao in his chair, with Colonel Peng on his charger, arrived and were informed that there was no intention to claim jurisdiction over or be harsh with the arrested man, but that it had to be clearly understood that if any soldiers or even officers came in to the settlement, they would be forced to obey the municipal bye-laws; and the Consul was the municipal chairman. The General was not too happy about the position he found himself in but was civil. He went with Parker to the prison, spoke with the man through the bars and as a result the man received about twenty slight bastinado-strokes on the spot and all was settled.\n\nThe winter of 1877-8 was unusually bitter, the year of the great Shanxi famine when millions of Chinese perished from sheer want of food. Neighbouring provinces were invaded by endless streams of refugees and more especially so through the area surrounding Zhenjiang - because all roads from the north lead there. The authorities had provided thousands of mat hovels, on and against the city walls where shelter from the bitter wind was obtainable. Skilly was served out gratis twice a day with between fifty thousand to a hundred thousand refugees congregated around Zhenjiang.\n\nAs we have already noted Zhenjiang was far from being the ideal posting and at least one consul there, in 1923, is known to have committed suicide. Consular duties brought hazards which, while not thought of as routine, were certainly sufficient to cause many a consul to look back with horror and amazement at what they had survived. One such consul would recall that in 1913, during the early days of the period of the war lords following the foundation of the Republic, with petty armies looting and causing endless unrest, soldiers of one such war lord, Zhang Xun, approached Zhenjiang bent on plundering the city. The British consul and a lone western merchant went out to face them - then, after very nearly being shot they held them at bay until one of their officers appeared and brought them under control. In another incident during the anti-British movement troubles of 1925 the British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216109, "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": 408, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "342\n\nthey would have provided (had they been left) and for the urban lineage they would have represented. Those wonderful old buildings are no longer with us to provide anchors in times of need.\n\nThey were replaced within a few years by high-rise air-conditioned buildings. Many depend upon artificial lighting and ventilation and have windows which do not open. Today, so many live and work in an artificial atmosphere. This major change led long ago to people discarding shorts and open-necked shirts and wearing two-piece suits and more formal and more uncomfortable clothing. The new lifestyle meant the better off were stepping from their air-conditioned homes, carrying brief cases, into their air-conditioned cars and then being conveyed to their air-conditioned offices.\n\nAt the end of World War Two the Chinese Nationalist Government was waiting in the wings just over the border to take over Hong Kong. But the British beat them to it. If the Americans had had their way, and British rule had been terminated in Hong Kong in 1945 and the place had been returned to China, it is possible to speculate what would have happened. In 1949 Hong Kong, like other big cities in China, would have been taken over by the People's Republic Government. This would have meant that, after 30 or so years of communist rule, Hong Kong would have been as backward economically as the rest of China. There would have been no 'Hong Kong miracle'. After 1978 the Territory would not have been able to form a nucleus for the economic development for the rest of China with its 'Open Door Policy.'\n\nPigeons\n\nUp until 1914 every marine launch of Hong Kong's Water Police (as the Marine Police were known then) took a few pigeons on board. These were used to fly messages back to headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. But in spite of the introduction of radio the pigeons were kept on strength. Members of the force contributed to buy them food. The flock of about 50 birds came to be looked upon much like the Barbary Apes at Gibraltar or the Ravens at the Tower of London. It was said when the pigeons departed from Marine Police Headquarters so would the British from Hong Kong.\n\nThe pigeons disappeared during the Japanese occupation but were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216204, "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": 503, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "437\n\nAssociation on 3 December 1999. Behind the church over 100 steps led up to a tall statue of St Francis Xavier. Beside the steps were 14 stone posts bearing Chinese numbering and inscription. The pedestal of the statue bears worn inscriptions in Chinese and Portuguese - ‘Aqui foi sepultado S. Fran.co Xavier da Comp.a de Jesus, Alpo do Oriente. Este Padrao se levantou no anno de 1639.'\n\nThe current caretaker, Mr Lam, took over in 1996 from a Christian caretaker aged 86, who had cared for the church since 1984. We had the pleasure of meeting this delightful old man in the village beside the church. The current caretaker suggested that for further information we could contact the Religious Affairs Dept. of Tai Shan Municipal Government on Tel 075 552 5980.\n\nWe returned to the port for a good seafood lunch. The ferry arrived a little late but took us safely back to Shen Ju in good time for us to hire a taxi to Zhuhai. There we crossed the border to Macau and enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a bottle of good Portuguese wine, and a toast to the memory of St Francis.\n\nA visit assisted by China Travel Service\n\nBy chance, in June 2001, I (Chris Bailey) had read an article in HK Magazine about the Jesuit-run Xavier Retreat House on Cheung Chau - dedicated to the missionary Saint Francis-Xavier. The article quoted the resident priest, Father Kane, as follows: \"Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuits, and came to Asia in 1542. He was a tough guy, a trailblazer and died very near to Hong Kong, on an island about 60 miles west of Macau. His letters describe travelling from Japan and trying to get to Guangzhou, and stopping somewhere nearby to get fresh vegetables and water. There is one historian who theorizes that he stopped at the Old Port in Hong Kong. In any case, he must have passed through Hong Kong waters and seen the islands here. So I stand here (in the Xavier Retreat House) and see what he saw over 400 years ago It's very private, on top of a hill and overlooking the sea. It's a very beautiful sight.”\n\nThis information inspired me to speak to Father Kane who said he knew the island well, had been there several times via Macau and that there was a non-active church dedicated to Francis Xavier, built close", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216231, "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": 530, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "464\n\nyou would laugh when I told you the name of the ch'uu.\n\n'Dang me if it isn't a great big white whale\n\ngot into our river; that sure makes a tale !'\n\n&\n\nPeter was happy once we'd been inside\n\nthe Trashigang dzong with its floorboards so wide.\n\nBut as for the rest of the travelling herd,\n\nour Peter was clear - he just gave them the bird.\n\nNo, that's not quite fair; he's Hon. Sec. of the RAS,\n\nand has to make sure that good things come to pass.\n\nIn the matter of birthdays, a party to make,\n\nthere's never a doubt that our Pete takes the cake!\n\nMarlene came a cropper on the road from Pele La;\n\nfell down on the black ice - nearly got hit by a car.\n\nBut she came up smiling - Marlene's never sad for long.\n\nShe was right as rain next morning when we visited a dzong.\n\nAnd finally, Kevin and Sarah and Rocky,\n\nmy time's nearly up - you should count yourselves lucky.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216364, "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": 123, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "72\n\nhe did want to sever the relationship with Ayaou in 1858 when she first became pregnant. In his diary entry for 26 May 1858 he writes \"Ayaou two months\n\n\"Then, on 16 September \"I went to see Ayaou who came back from Macao the night before last... I must cut the connection. He even started managing a new native partner named Ayi. On 22 September he wrote: \"...Went to see Ayi near N.E. gate.\" 23 September: \"Settle for Ayi $100 and $22Ch. ...\" 26 September: \"Again Ayi.” The arrangement, as it is suggested by Bruner, Fairbank and Smith, is \"undoubtedly quite according to custom in the colonial Asia of the 1850s”. (1986: 232)\n\nHowever, Hart's diary entries stop two months and ten days later when Ayaou would have given, or be about to give, birth to their daughter Anna. \"The fact of fatherhood suddenly makes a difference to Robert Hart. There is no other way to account for the record, for he resumes the connection with Ayaou and they have two more children.\" (ibid) Hart might have changed the way in which he maintained the relationship since he left her at Macao - as he states in Declaration 1: \"we never lived together afterwards\" - and in that sense he could say he \"ceased to live with her\". But, it is by no means obvious that he terminated the relationship and only \"saw her but seldom”. His emotional and physical involvement in the relationship is much deeper than that which he describes above, it is significant that in Declaration 1 we find the statement: \"Ayaou was a very good little girl & well-behaved.\" Almost ten years after he finally terminated the relationship and married Hester Jane Bredon, he received photographs of his three wards from England. He wrote to Campbell (Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson 1975: 205);\n\nAnna is very like what her mother was when I first saw her in 1857: only her mother was not pock-marked. I want Anna to stay at school four years more, and I hope she will be a nice, presentable girl by that time. Her mother was one of the most amiable and sensible people imaginable.\"\n\nThe records show that Hart did not only treat Ayaou and his three children by her with kindness and generosity, but also with love. As Bruner, Fairbank and Smith have argued (1986: 154):\n\nIndeed, looking ahead at his twenty years of married life with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216397, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "106\n\nsteaming at 21 knots towards the scene, just a few miles distant. An hour later engines were stopped and in ten minutes she came to in 23 fathoms. Fortunately the weather was good and sea calm. Already in attendance was the heavy cruiser CUMBERLAND, Captain L.F. Potter, who had lowered several of his boats to patrol for possible survivors. Two men had come to the surface prior to the arrival of HERMES. After anchoring, four boats from our ship were sent to augment the patrol over the scene of the disaster. Happily another four men came to the surface though sadly subsequently one died. The five living survivors were taken onboard HERMES to receive medical care and attention.\n\nHalf an hour later, 1530 hours by now, a diving boat was sent across from HERMES and some ten minutes later the first diver commenced his descent towards the position of POSEIDON on the sea bed. The sea temperature was 63 deg. F so bearable for those fortunate enough to be able to use the D.S.E.A. (Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus) within the stricken vessel.\n\nThat evening HERMES burned her searchlights over the position of the wreck and her motor boat commenced sweeping in order to establish the precise position of the sunken boat.\n\nLater in the evening MEDWAY (Captain H.R. Marrack, DSC), the Station submarine depot ship, arrived and anchored nearby. Also she assumed the position as guard ship. As will be imagined over the course of the next few days several more of H.M. Ships arrived and anchored in the vicinity. During the morning of the 13th these included the C. in C., Admiral Sir Howard Kelly, in SUFFOLK.\n\nMeanwhile the position of the wreck had been established exactly and diving parties were being sent down regularly, many of these parties being provided by our ship. Using a kedge anchor supplied by HERMES the tug ST. BREOCK was able to position herself directly over the wreck so assisting direct descent by these divers.\n\nIn the interim the U.S. Navy sent their specialised submarine salvage vessel to the scene, U.S.S. PIGEON ASR-6, which arrived during the late afternoon on the 11th.\n\nSadly it was established rather quickly that the extent of the damage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "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": 216427, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "136 \n\nwhich they searched the holds for contraband and pulled the pigtails of the Chinese crew to see if they came off, and thus discover a Japanese on board in disguise.\n\n5 \n\nThere were few descriptions of the experiences of Chinese townsmen or peasants during the battles between Japanese and Russians, and the passage through their land by the armies of the two contenders. Several short paragraphs in the contemporary illustrated volumes simply mention in passing how in, for example, the old walled town of Port Arthur, the Russian residents started to flee north at an early stage and those who had hung on had finally to be evacuated on crowded trains, leaving behind their property and livelihoods. Also, there were several passing comments that after each battle there were Chinese loitering, waiting to loot.\n\nAs the winter set in Russian troops tore down many Chinese villages to provide material for quarters for their Army, and cut down trees for firewood, commandeered pigs, cattle, chickens and grain. Chinese refugees fled from Mukden ahead of the Japanese to avoid being caught up in the fighting, and nearby the Russians looted Chinese houses for food, clothing and women.\n\nIn contrast - as the Russian reinforcements arrived in Manchuria across the Trans-Siberian Railway so the requirement for accommodation and stores fell upon the Chinese population. \"The Chinese village of Mudzetun, a short distance to the south-east of Mukden, was utilised as a Cossack camp. The Chinese inhabitants had disappeared in a body, and their old quarters had been swept and garnished; the little courtyards had been cleansed of filth in which pigs and children had played together; several Russian baths had been constructed and strict sanitary regulations enforced. Sometimes some miserable-looking Chinese might be seen collecting from the banks of the frozen stream the discarded entrails of the cattle that had been killed for food, accompanied by outcast dogs that had been ousted from the village by its new masters.\"\n\nManchurian native bandits\n\nSparsely populated, and wild and poverty-stricken, Manchuria was a natural breeding ground for bandits, either as individuals or gangs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216477, "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": 236, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "186\n\nalthough for the first few years after their wedding, the family home remained in Suffolk while he went to sea. It was in the village of Hoxne that their eldest son Robert Benjamin was born in 1860 to be followed by Emily Ada in 1864. Young Samuel came along in 1866 after the family had moved to Framlingham and was given the second name Cornell. It would appear from an entry in Harriet Plant's New Ladies' Memorandum Book 1829 in which she recorded important family events, that Cornell was a family name, possibly the maiden name of her mother or Samuel's mother. One entry records a visit to Chedburgh, a village in Suffolk, by a Mr and Mrs TH Cornell. Whatever the origin, Cornell was the name by which he was known throughout his life both inside and outside the family. Cornell's younger brother Charles Henry was born in 1870 and it was not long after that time that the family moved to London and into a house in Tottenham. Perhaps this move away from the country into the big city came about as a result of Samuel Plant's promotion to becoming a ship's master.\n\nIn 1881 he was in command of the Iron Ship Reigate, made of iron but powered by sail, for the trade with India. It so happened that the 1881 Census took place on the very day that Reigate was in Middlesbrough when, in addition to Captain and crew, those on board included Harriet Plant, the Master's wife, with Cornell and Charles, the Master's sons, all shown as passengers. But in truth, none of them were passengers - the 14-year-old Cornell had joined the ship for his first voyage while his mother and brother were there to see him off.\n\nThe start of a life at sea\n\nThe Reigate set sail from Middlesborough in early May, 1881 for the long passage round the Cape of Good Hope to Madras with no stops along the way. This was young Cornell's introduction to a life at sea and being a dutiful son, he spent some time every Sunday writing a few paragraphs of a voyage letter to his mother in strong, well-formed copper plate writing. It is a remarkably well written letter for a fourteen-year-old young man that now forms part of the Plant Archive at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Although the letter is in good condition, the writing on one side of the paper occasionally obscures the writing on the other side but it is still clear enough to make a full transcription. The letter is almost 2,000 words long but the following extracts give some idea of the young man who wrote them and the dramatic events that he experienced.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216482, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "191\n\nalso want someone to translate his words to those government officials and village chiefs with whom he would have to negotiate his way up and down the river. He engaged a local small boat skipper as Nocador (coxswain); a Chaldean by the name of Judges who had served some time on board a line of Turkish steamers plying on the Tigris as bo'sun; and a steward who also doubled as interpreter. A further eleven hands were taken on to complete the crew and Plant was ready to set off on his journey of exploration up the Karun river. It was truly a journey of discovery as he had no maps or books on the river and had to rely on local knowledge provided by the Nocador. After a number of excitements along the narrow winding waterway, they stopped at the small village of Shalaliah that acted as a port to Shushter. Plant covered the last seven miles to Shuster on horseback to report the safe arrival of the Shushan to the Company's agent, one of several young Englishmen in the area serving the interests of the shipping company. As both foreigners and Christians, the company's agents lived a life of some difficulty and danger. Plant felt that his life aboard the Shushan was far more congenial.\n\nThus started the regular passenger and freight service that Plant was to run for some time. His relations with the many local officials with whom he came in contact were conducted with tact and skill - his private thoughts about them and his comments on their ways of life and business, he confined to his personal log book. The difficulties of piloting his craft up and down an uncharted river were considerable and required great resource and powers of improvisation. He found that his triple rudder could not cope with the narrow winding part of the river unless he went at full speed, which proved particularly exciting when navigating a series of blind bends. On another part of the river an unexpected eddy took him into some rocks at speed which sprung a line of rivets and opened up a section of the hull. Fortunately, the Shushan's watertight construction in sections kept it afloat but left him with the problem of making a repair - they were far from any dockyard facility. He provided the answer by lowering a weighted line through each empty rivet hole; fishing for the weight from the bank; attaching a bolt; hauling the bolt up through the rivet hole; and anchoring it with a nut which he tightened up to re-secure the sprung plate. This turned out to be a tedious, time-consuming but entirely successful means of making good a damaged hull that he later introduced to the shipmasters of the Yangtse. There were many more occasions when he was up the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216506, "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": 265, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "217\n\nopportunity to turn knowledge into action? (pp. 138, 131) Will China reaffirm her feeling of acceptance by offering her some new task? Whatever the case, readers of this book, impressed by Ruth Hayhoe's sincerity and passion, will all, surely, wish the writer of this revealing autobiography all things good.\n\nGILLIAN BICKLEY\n\nJonathan Tucker, The Silk Road, Art and History, 2003. Philip Wilson Publishers, 7 Deane House, 27 Greenwood Place, London NW5 1LB. ISBN 0 85667 546 6. 391pp, index, bibliography, maps, 437 plates.\n\nWhy is the term 'the Silk Road' so evocative? Is it because it can be seen as a metaphor for the passage of human history in all its magnificence, cruelty and sheer grit? The patterns of trade that flourished for about fifteen hundred years along the eight thousand kilometre network of routes known today as the Silk Road can be dated back to the time of the Han Emperor Wudi (reigned 141-87 BCE). For strategic reasons, Wudi wanted to set up an alliance against the nomadic Xiongnu tribes with the Yuezhi, who had settled in the area centred on the Hindu Kush. After more than ten years, Zhang Qian, his first emissary to the Yuezhi, brought back news of lands to the far west, but it was hearing of the magnificent 'blood sweating horses' of Ferghana that made Wudi determined to establish links with Central Asia. In 101 BCE a Chinese army reached Ferghana, seized many horses and established suzerainty - much contested, however, for the next few centuries - over territory as far west as the Pamirs. The routes that opened up between China and the West became known as the Silk Road, and they were to become the main land artery along which travelled not only traded goods but also the ideas and technology of east and west.\n\nThose who used the Silk Road were driven by the search for profit, enlightenment, conquest, refuge, by missionary zeal, or by curiosity about exotic lands. Their quests faced the contingencies of physical calamities, for the regions they traversed were, and remain, prone to floods, droughts, storms, extremes of heat and cold, and earthquakes. It is likely that along it, too, from the east, came the Black Death, which brought calamity to medieval Europe.\n\nWhere travellers paused to rest arose tiny places such as forts and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]