[ { "id": 207050, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG REGION\n\n115\n\nVarious local accounts show that many craft came from northeast Kwangtung and elsewhere for the seasonal fishing. The presence of pirate fleets, sometimes in very large numbers, was also a feature of the local scene.\n\nThis activity, and the importance it gave to the local seaways is reflected by the Chinese records. The Kuang-tung K’ao-ku Chi-yao gives what at first appears as a disproportionately large amount of space to the subject of coastal defence.3 The provincial gazetteer devotes many pages to maps of the coast line and the off-shore islands, and it is significant that these are included in the coastal defence section and not in that dealing with administrative boundaries.4 Another long work, the Kuang-tung T'u-shuo, which deals with the administrative geography of the province, gives maps that show the outer islands in the districts on each side of the Pearl River delta. Some of these maps showing outlying areas are blank, for all but a corner of a page, but have still been included. It also lists the garrisons and naval forces responsible for the area.\n\nIn the Hong Kong region, Lantau and the islands are the subject of much of an article by Hsü Tei-shan on Hong Kong and its past, included in the compendium to the exhibition of Kwangtung Culture assembled at the University of Hong Kong in 1940.6 As is to be expected, the fall of the Sung takes up much of his attention,7 but he then considers Lantau itself. Hsü's discussion on one of its Chinese names, Tai Yue Shan, is relevant here because it\n\n1 Orme, para 53; CR 1947, p. 10.\n\n2 Lo-shu Fu, p. 597 has a long note on pirates in the Ladrones c. 1779-1810.\n\n3 KTKKTY 30/1-11. See also chuan 28 on military matters.\n\n4 KTTC, vol. 2, pp. 2394-2433, especially 2406-2410 for the islands between and outside Hong Kong and Macau, the Ladrones. Two chüan, 123-124, (pp. 2359-2442) deal with coastal defence. The district maps for the Delta are in chuan 83, Hsin-an at pp. 1454-5 and Hsiang-shan at 1464-5. The late Ming work Wu-pei Chih lists posts, garrison strengths and ships for the Central, East and West lu of Kwangtung; chüan 215/12-13, 15-16 and 17, 18 being of special relevance to Hsin-an and the adjoining area. The maps for the outlying parts of the Canton Delta are in chüan 210/9-10 and 215/6-7. For this work see Franke, p. 209. Ku Yen-wu's celebrated T'ien-hsia chün-kuo li-ping shu has eight chüan (97-104) on Kwangtung, much of which is devoted to military organisation and defence.\n\n5 See the general map at the beginning, 1-2, and detailed maps under reference chuan 11-12/7-9.\n\n6 KTWW, pp. 425-426,\n\n7 ibid. He gives a clear exposition of the various problems surrounding the identification of the various places at which the last struggles of the Sung occurred.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210405, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "we would have to withdraw and thereby lose our library space. After enquiry through the Hong Kong Library Association, the Council decided to accept an offer from the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Public Libraries, to house our collection in the New Kowloon Central Library on long loan and under certain conditions which included retaining its identity and making it available for public reference.\n\nThe removal proceeded smoothly, and our collection is now on the shelves of the reference section of the Kowloon Central Library. Books are still available for loans to members on production of an updated membership card (now being issued) and, for reference only, to members of the public. A number of Council members attended the opening on 9th September 1985 by Lady Youde. Thanks are due to our Hon. Librarian Mr. Peter Yeung for the considerable work involved in the transfer.\n\nIn the course of making the transfer arrangements and viewing our library in its new home, it became obvious to us how much loving care and effort had been put into its management by our former Hon. Librarian, Mr. Tony Rydings. He deserves our renewed appreciation for this major contribution to the work of our Society.\n\nAdministration\n\nAs stated last year, we have found it necessary to provide more administrative support for the Council. The trend for councillors, and particularly the office bearers, to be increasingly burdened in their own career posts has continued. Following the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong's future and the increased commitments arising therefrom, it has become essential to have an efficient back-up system and the services of a competent executive assistant secretary. Without them, as I said last year, hopes for increased membership, improved sales of publications and general progress were clearly illusory; in fact, would not materialize. I am glad to say that, in the past year, we have made progress in this important area. A word processor and ancillary equipment have been purchased and an increased salary provided for our assistant secretary with our Hon.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211296, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "in Rev. Carl Smith's articles reprinted in the 1986 Journal. His accounts of 19th century Cantonese entrepreneurs like Ho A-mei show that Chinese energy and enterprise was fuelled and sustained by the opportunities opened by colonial Hong Kong, and remind us that what we see and marvel at today has also happened yesterday.\n\nWe have another publication nearing completion. This is the book entitled The Turning of the Tide, Religion in China Today which is a collection of papers by authors with first-hand knowledge of the subject and edited by one of our members, Professor Julian Pas of the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.\n\nLibrary\n\nMembers will have noted the greater expenditure on our library in the year's accounts. We are continuing the RAS tradition of building up a fine reference library of books on China. At a time when such books are in increasingly short supply, as reflected in booksellers' rising prices, the financial value of our collection grows from year to year.\n\nSince 1985, the Library has been kept at the Kowloon Central Library, as part of the reference collection there. The advantage of housing it in a public library is that more people can use it, but the disadvantage from our members' viewpoint is that most of them live on Hong Kong Island. Their use of the RAS Collection is undoubtedly limited thereby, especially as the Kowloon Central Library is not located on or near an MTR station. I have therefore discussed with the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, the possibility of moving it back to the Island when an opportunity occurs. Mrs. Luk tells me that this can be done when the City Hall's Hong Kong Central Library is replaced on the same or another site in the 1990s, and that she is willing to do so at that time. I have written to her subsequently to formalize this request.\n\nAn allied problem is the availability of the collection. Under normal library policies, access to the stacks (the shelves where the books are kept) is very limited. This is the case at Kowloon Central Library, where books other than ours are kept in the same section. On the other hand, the books are ours, and our members should have better access to them, instead of being confined to the catalogue and making a requisition. Mrs.\n\nXi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211598, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "The Library's value to members of our Society, as well as to the general public, lies in the fact that the only other collections of such books in Hong Kong are held by the Universities and are not accessible to the public at large. The RAS Collection is available to Members and, for reference only, to the general public, and since 1985 has been located in the new 12 storey, custom-built Kowloon Central library, opened in that year.\n\nHowever, this location is not convenient for most RAS members, the majority of whom reside on Hong Kong Island. Also, the stacks where our books are held are not directly accessible for free consultation and browsing, because other private collections of books are held in this section of the Library.\n\nIn response to our expressions of concern, the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries has promised that our Collection will return to the Island in the early 1990s, when the present City Hall Library will be expanded or replaced. The books are then expected to be housed in a new reference library where most of them will be kept on open shelves.\n\nIn this joyful expectation, the Council continues to expand the Collection, and has earmarked $10,000 for expenditure in 1990-91.\n\nPublications\n\nAs mentioned in the opening Summary, this year has seen the publication of two items, the 1987 Journal and the book of papers on China and Hong Kong, The Turning of the Tide, Religion in China Today.\n\nI wish to thank the Chinese Temples Committees for a generous grant of half the publication costs from the Chinese General Charities Fund, and Oxford University Press for agreeing to publish in association with the Society and for all help rendered in the final stages of production.\n\nProfessor David Faure had to relinquish the editorship of the Journal when he left Hong Kong to take up a post at the University of Indiana. He had contributed much to the Council and the Society, not only through his impeccable scholarship and hard work, but also through his sterling personal qualities which we all grew to appreciate. Dr. Patrick Hase has taken over the half-completed 1988 Journal which we hope can be published by the Summer, and is putting material together for 1989. We\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216131, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 430, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "364\n\nBlock was expanded and renovated. The Society's collection was housed in a Special Collection room in the City Hall Library.\n\nCollection expansion with a resulting shortage of accommodation is a common problem amongst all libraries. While members appreciated the convenient location and ease of access with the City Hall Library, some members lamented that the room was becoming very crowded, making it very difficult to browse the collection. Although the Chief Librarian, Mr. Mak, acknowledged their concern, not much could be done since the City Hall Library was experiencing similar space problems for its entire collection. The situation was ultimately relieved with the building of the new Hong Kong Central Library at Moreton Terrace in Causeway Bay. This was officially opened on 16 May 2001, and comes with well-equipped modern facilities, and a spacious and pleasant environment. The Society's collection, as part of the Reference collection, was relocated to the new Central Reference Section. The Main Collection of post-1900 materials is shelved in the Special Collections area while pre-1900 materials (with selected rare post-1900 materials) are housed in the new Rare Book Room. Compact shelving is provided to maximize storage capacity with adequate room for expansion. A comfortable reading area is also available for users to consult the materials.\n\nThe Collection\n\nSince the acquisition, through inheritance, of the Medico-Chirurgical Society's collection, the Library continues to expand through donations, purchases and international exchanges. Periodic appeals are made by presidents of the Society for gifts of books. While many members generously send donations to the Library, Dr. James Hayes has to be acknowledged for his relentless contribution to the building up of the Society's substantial and valuable collection. Dr Hayes (HKBRAS President from 1983-1989) has been largely responsible for book purchases, especially during his presidency, augmenting the Library's size to around 3,000. Subsequent to retirement in Australia, he still actively searches for modestly-priced, hard-to-find books in second-hand bookstores, for the Society.\n\nThe Society now possesses an excellent quality Library. The collection consists of books, periodicals, pamphlets, photo albums,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]