[ { "id": 205638, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n175\n\nequally varied. Priests and missionaries; diplomats, consuls, officials and their wives; businessmen; journalists; soldiers and sailors among the foreigners; emperors, Ching officials and literati, Kuomintang and Communist leaders among the Chinese. Chairman Mao has his place (pp 306-308).\n\nIt is easy to choose items to illustrate the striking nature of much of the contents, and to dwell on how well they illuminate the scene. One might mention inter alia the Rev. Timothy Richard's account of a journey made during the dreadful Shansi famine of 1876 (pp 179-181) and of his encounter with a man in a Shantung village who persisted in repeating the official version that England was a revolted tributary (p 182); the description of the filth of Canton's canals and thoroughfares in 1910 (pp 233-234); a French resident of Peking's comments on the passage through his neighbourhood of a tatterdemalion body of troops from the warlord period (pp 286-287) and the striking eye-witness account of one of the outflanking hill marches of the Red Army against Japanese troops (pp 448-489). The cover given to the thirty year period 1917-49 between pp 261-504 half the volume is justified by the material available to the compiler. The chapter of extracts on Red China 1935-45 (pp 413-456), is particularly good. In the midst of such riches it is pointless to recite choice items from one's own reading that might have gone into the work; though no doubt, like this reviewer, readers will be able to suggest alternatives here and there, such is the tremendous outpouring of works on experiences in China up till 1949.\n\n—\n\nThis reviewer recommends the book to a wide range of readers, specialist and general alike; there is something for all in its 500 pages. Its main contribution is to expose the starkness of China's experience and convey some of the misery occasioned for the common people by both natural and man-made disasters over the period. Thereby the essential background to a better understanding of Mao's China and, indeed, of the desperate self-strengthening movement behind the Cultural Revolution is provided in its true perspective and deeper meaning.\n\nHong Kong, 1968.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206874, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 151, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n145\n\nning among other matters the subjugation of the non-Chinese tribes of the interior.*\n\nAt the age of 71 he was appointed Vice-President of the Board of Civil Affairs in Nanking and later Vice-President of the Censorate. He died in great poverty in 1587 aged 74, his friends defraying the cost of his burial.\n\nIn November 1965 the editor of the Shanghai Wen Wei Pao, Yao Wen-yuan, who was also a left-inclined literary and theatre critic, published an article in which he criticised an historical drama \"The dismissal of Hai Jui\" written by the then Deputy Mayor of Peking, Wu Han. Yao's article was the opening volley in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which created such turmoil in China and purged so many of the senior communist cadres including Wu Han himself. Yao rose quickly and by 1969 was sixth in the leadership of the Chinese People's Republic only to slip to a lower position at the 10th Party Congress in August 1973. Yao, still a member of the Politbureau, is reported to be the son-in-law of Chairman Mao and a close associate of the radical Madame Mao.\n\nWu Han's historical play which cost him so dearly was criticised by Yao as an analogy of Mao's treatment of his \"loyal minister” Peng Te-huai, the Minister of National Defence purged by Mao in 1959. P'eng had been very outspoken in his opposition to two of the things closest to Mao's heart, the Great Leap Forward and the establishment of the People's Communes.\n\nHai Jui is well known to many Chinese as the minister who steadfastly opposed corruption. A legend told to me in Singapore by an elderly Buddhist nun recounted how Hai Jui as a very young junior official had been posted to the Swatow region (Ch'aochow) where a group of tyrannical landowners together with the local magistrate's police runners were terrorizing the people. The legend then told of Hai Jui's fight, first against his local superiors in support of the poor, later against the Prime Minister and finally against the Emperor himself. Hai Jui was forced to commit suicide, she said, to compel the Emperor to take notice of the problems of the masses and for this he was deified by the subsequent Emperor and is now one of the patrons of the Ch'aochow people.\n\nSee, in part, Herbert A. Giles, A Chinese Biographical Dictionary (London and Shanghai, Bernard Quaritch and Kelly and Walsh, 1898) pp. 242-243. Also W. F. Mayers, The Chinese Reader's Manual (Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, and London, Trübner and Co., 1874) pp. 45-46. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208021, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "44\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nfacing the Japanese. Consequently it was part of American policy, especially from 1944 onwards, to re-create a united front against Japan and promote agreement on a form of Constitutional Government for China which would include the Communist Party. To this end Chairman Mao Tse Tung was escorted to Chungking in August 1945 by the US Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley. No real agreement was reached in some 41 days of talks and Chairman Mao returned to Yenan in October. Hurley resigned and in November the United States appointed General George Marshall as special negotiator, a truce was signed on January 10, 1946 and all-party Peoples Consultative Conference began*.\n\nHaving set the scene we may consider what this meant on the ground; specifically in terms of medical supplies to the Liberated Areas. These contained between 80-100 million people and perhaps 350,000 men under arms. Apart from supplies purchased and smuggled in from the Japanese occupied areas or captured, no UNRRA, International Red Cross, or other supplies had been allowed through from Chungking since the beginning of 1941, and the medical services were dependent on traditional medicines and drugs derived from available herbs. The situation was therefore very serious.\n\nThe UNRRA charter required that supplies be distributed to those in need regardless of race, religion, and party and UNRRA therefore applied pressure to the Chinese Government, via CNRRA, to allow supplies to go to the Liberated Areas. This pressure finally succeeded in January 1946 at the time of signing the truce and a permit for a total quantity of about eight tons of medical supplies was granted.\n\nDuring the period from the end of 1941 to 1946, the Friends Ambulance Unit, China Convoy, had been responsible for the transport of most of the civilian medical and relief supplies in the\n\n* For those desiring more detail of this period the following give different approaches:\n\nKenneth S. Chern, \"Politics of American China Policy, 1945: Roots of the Cold War in Asia\". Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 91, No. 4 Winter 1976-7.\n\nJohn S. Service, Lost Chance in China. Random House, 1974. Tang Tsou, America's Failure in China, 1941-50. 2 vols, Chicago, 1964.\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208026, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "A JOURNEY TO YENAN 1946\n\n49\n\nit was mid-winter, the countryside around was bare, brown, and dusty, and many people wore white surgical masks to keep out the fine dust. The hillsides in Yenan and on the way there were all seriously eroded, and there was little sign of the spectacular reclamation work on terracing slopes and damming streams of later years, the result of which can be seen by today's visitors.\n\nOccasions in Yenan\n\nHaving unloaded our cargo, checked the manifests, and visited the hospital, we spent a day servicing the trucks. We were staying at the Guest House, a row of very comfortable caves with a terrace and a courtyard in front. We were in the middle of servicing, with petrol drums and wheels scattered around, ourselves under the trucks greasing and checking, when we were informed that Chairman Mao Tse-tung was coming to see us! The courtyard was rapidly tidied, overalls and dirt removed, and the party went to the ketang to wait. We then discovered that the Chairman had been at the Guest House for some time seeing someone else and had arrived unnoticed while we were under the trucks. We were all introduced and thanked for our assistance and help, to which I replied that this was part of our normal work and not something to earn especial thanks. The impression, which I recorded then, was of great confidence and quiet strength.\n\nTwo or three days later, we were invited to a performance of the well-known opera \"Ta Ming Fu\" (★1⁄2#) part of the \"Liang Shan P'o\" (b) series, which has a very suitable theme. We found ourselves sitting three rows behind the Chairman and other leading Party members, including Marshal Chu Te, all of whom enjoyed themselves as there was a strong cast with some excellent comic character performances. This was, of course, well before the growth of revolutionary opera.\n\nOn one evening, we were entertained by, I think, members of the Lu Hsun Academy of Art (or the Anti-Japanese Revolutionary University). There was a yang ke dance team with a performance extolling improved methods of pest control on crops, some songs, and then dancing for all, mostly folk dances but including some foxtrots and quicksteps played on er hu and pi pa. We were presented with a set of woodcuts by various artists working there, including Zhang Wan, Yan Han, Xia Feng, Gu Yuan, and Weng", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208027, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "50\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nLiu-Chi. The group we met were lively and interesting, many having been expelled from universities under Kuomintang control. Another evening we were invited to see a film at the American Army Observer Section which was established there under Colonel David Barrett in July 1944. There was also an invitation to mid-day meal with Marshal Chu Te. My memory is that there was not much conversation as Yu Chin-lung found him taciturn, my Chinese was inadequate, and the others were tongue-tied in the presence of the famous soldier. On leaving Yenan we were each presented with a warm woollen blanket of local manufacture (I still have mine) and I was given a painting, which I had uncautiously admired, by the Bureau chief of the Medical Service. I was also presented with a made-to-measure Army uniform complete with cap and badge.\n\nMedical Work in the Border Region\n\nThe day after unloading we were taken to see the hospital named after Doctor Norman Bethune. Plate no. 17 shows the operating theatre. One of the famous 'three constantly read articles' of Chairman Mao Tse-tung is a eulogy of Bethune, delivered on December 21st 1939 soon after his death.\n\nAt the Bethune Memorial Hospital we were shown how supply difficulties had been overcome, including steel dental picks forged from railway line. We asked about medical supplies from the USSR since 1941 and were told that there had been some, perhaps five, plane loads (say 15 to 20 tons). The supplies we had brought included a portable X-ray with a petrol-driven generator.\n\nThe problems of civilian and military medical work in the Border Region are fully described by Margaret Stanley in a current series of articles in Eastern Horizon*. She was a member of the Friends Service Unit (the successor organization in China to the Friends Ambulance Unit) Medical Team 19 which went to work in the area in 1947. She revisited Yenan in 1972 and writes not only of her memories of the medical work but also the contrast between then and now.\n\n* Vol. XVI No. 3, March 1977 & No. 4 April 1977 onwards. There is also a good picture of what life in the Shensi countryside was like to be gained from the accounts given in Gunnar Myrdal's book Report from a Chinese Village. Penguin.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208384, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "92\n\nEUGENE COOPER\n\ninstilling old social forms with new revolutionary content, making them serve new purposes.\n\nThe current premises of the union are in an apartment block in Tokwawan in Kowloon. They occupy a flat decorated with Communist slogans and a picture of Chairman Mao Tse-tung flanked by two Chinese flags. The Federation of Trade Unions runs a small school for children of \"patriotic\" workers in the union headquarters, although the children are not generally those of art-carved furniture workers. The union premises are seldom used by the workers before the evening as they are all off working; thus the flat was made available to the Federation for the operation of the school. Curricular and extra-curricular activities are structured around revolutionary and pro-Peking themes with texts and reading materials published in Peking. Shortly before my departure from Hong Kong this school was discontinued and the teacher, a middle school graduate, went to work in a factory.\n\nOther Federation affiliated unions have also used the union's premises for meetings and other activities such as preparing for the celebrations of October 1, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The premises are, however, under the control of the Woodwork Carvers' Union, and it is my impression that any such use of their premises by affiliated Federation unions must be agreed to by them.\n\nThe flat serves as a place where workers without means to afford a private apartment in Hong Kong's over-inflated real estate market, and without family in Hong Kong to take care of them, may sleep at night. However, one must be prepared to put up with the regulations, which include lights out and lock up at 11:00 p.m. One worker friend of mine, forced by circumstances to stay temporarily at the union, had a serious falling out with the union because of these regulations. Nevertheless, during the year that I was acquainted with the union, two or three workers made the union premises their more or less permanent dwelling place. There were no bunk beds in the Woodwork Carvers' Union premises, although I observed them built into the walls of other union halls I visited in Hong Kong. Workers just unrolled their bed-rolls across boards which had been laid across the students' desks.\n\nOnce every week or two these same desks were pulled together to form a long table and the officers and activists in the union", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208389, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION\n\n97\n\nannual membership meeting. I had occasion to be present at such a meeting in May 1973, the proceedings of which deserve description.\n\nThe program began with an address by the Chairman of the union, a Shanghainese who has been the chairman for many years. He addressed the assembly of 7-800 people, workers, their wives and children, standing before a portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, and his speech stressed the accomplishments of the Chinese nation in the recent past. He also touched on the skyrocketing cost of living in Hong Kong at present, a theme dwelt upon again and again during the evening.\n\nNext on the program occurred the swearing in of new officers, who were called out on stage, one by one, turned to face the portrait of Chairman Mao and the Chinese flags and recited \"Serve the People\" in union. There are twelve officers and another seven members of the executive committee. Both the Chairman and Vice Chairman have apparently served more than ten years, and the yearly election, which precedes the annual meeting seems to return the same officers year after year with a few jugglings among the less important officers.\n\nAn address by an official of the Federation of Trade Unions was next on the program. An elderly man, his voice didn't carry and his words were barely intelligible. Background noise from the huge fans, as well as the constant hum of conversation of friends in the audience didn't help much.\n\nThe most important speaker of the evening was the organization secretary, whose speech was clear and concise and who held the audience with his speaking power. He stated that prices, rents and living expenses were so high that an increase in wages was now necessary. Their demand was to be a H.K.$5/day increase in daily wages and a 25% increase in piece wages. Apparently, contacts had been made with the nationalist Camphorwood Trunk Workers Union to inform them of the wage demands so that if they too were going to push for wage increases in 1973, the right hand would know what the left was doing, so to speak.\n\nThe organization secretary's speech was followed in the program rather anticlimactically by the poor vice-chairman, who had a hard time following his colleague's act. There was not very much he could add either in content or eloquence of presentation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209002, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 164, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "132 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nIs this mismanagement? It can be called mismanagement by all who are dissatisfied: by ardent Maoists and by the proponents of greater liberalization. Teng Hsiao-p'ing must feel sometimes like a squeezed beancake. He will be criticized by some no matter what he does. \n\nThe reader must be tired of articles that breathlessly give eye-witness accounts of the truth about China. There is no simple truth about China, which is too large and complicated a country. Articles about it often tell more about the observer than the observed; and about those on whom the observer depended for his information. This problem is not unique to China. England is complicated. The United States is more complicated. Russia and China are still more complicated. About Russia it is hard to learn because of the paranoid secrecy emanating from the Kremlin. About China it is hard to learn because of its long history of ups and downs, ins and outs, and the tendency of most Chinese to assume that \"behind the curtain\" much is going on that differs from what is going on in public view... \n\nDuring my whole trip in China I never heard any Chinese bring up Mao Tse-tung. His portrait was still everywhere—though I have heard that it is rarer in Canton. There was a very long line of people waiting to enter his mausoleum in Peking. But no guide—no one at all, in fact—brought up the name of Chairman Mao. I had an interesting experience in Nanking. The local head of the China Travel Service gave our tour-group a banquet in order to make amends for a mix-up about our arrival in his city. At the end of the banquet he proposed a toast to friendship between China and the United States, to future tourism, and so on. Then one of our tour group responded by proposing a toast to Mao Tse-tung. I was watching our host's face. He was at a loss. Then, after a moment's pause, he joined in the toast. If I had been he, I would have responded with a toast to George Washington. \n\nI had very good luck in visiting monasteries and meeting monks when I went to Sian, Loyang, Nanking, Soochow, Shanghai, and Peking. I have described some of what I learned in the Far Eastern Economic Review for August 15, 1980. Let me say here only that my good luck was because China is a free country today in a way that the Soviet Union is not. While my tour group went off in a bus to see the sights, I hired a taxi and visited a monastery. Only on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209218, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAI QUESTION IN THE 1920'S 107\n\nson-in-law of Ho Tung\n\nT. N. Chau, a barrister\n\nLi Wing-tin\n\nSimon Tse Yan, also known as Tse Ka Po\n\nFung Ping-shan, donor of the Fung Ping Shan Library building\n\nat Hong Kong University\n\nChau Yu-ting, a wealthy import-export merchant\n\nYung Tse-ming, compradore of the Chartered Bank\n\nHo Wing, son of Ho Fook, adopted son of Ho Tung and compradore of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank\n\nWong Ping-shuen, and\n\nIp Lan-chuen\n\nWong Ping-shuen advocated a slow approach, \"The time was not yet ripe for drastic action. Conditions in China had to be radically changed before it would serve any useful purpose to legislate on the question\".\n\nThe Secretary of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Ip Lan-chuen, contended that Hong Kong was too close to China to attempt abolition at this time.\n\nLi Po-kwai, the Chairman, vividly portrayed the dangers to the mui tsai if she were released from servitude at the age of eighteen. She would do \"mad and silly things\" which would lead to her downfall.\n\nChow Shou-son spoke out as \"being dead against the Bill\". If left alone the custom would die out in time as had the practice of foot-binding. After making his speech in Chinese, for some reason he shifted to English to conclude it, saying, “It is the opinion of the Chinese community and the Chinese people generally that the system should not be abolished”.\n\nMr. M. K. Lo interjected a moderating tone into the discussion when he reminded the meeting that it would have been better if the Chamber had expressed opposition to abolition sooner and more clearly, instead of keeping relatively silent until the Government had drafted and introduced a Bill.\n\nMr. Wong Kwong-tin objected to the Ordinance because it did not provide protection to the owners of mui tsai and was therefore grossly unfair. He gave a warning to the British Government they should be very careful in interfering with an old Chinese custom which had become an unwritten law.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209375, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "10\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\naccurately the exact size of some committees and their internal arrangements. For example, data obtained from the interviews with MAC chairmen may be incomplete, as some chairmen are not always clear about the structural details of their own committees. They omit the names of some of the committee subdivisions, or are not clear about the exact number of people participating. Such variations in data are not the result of a lack of knowledge on the part of the chairman; certainly, most chairmen (unless they have recently moved to the block) know their blocks and committees very well. Rather, it is likely a result of the chairmen's counting up only those members who are active in the actual day-to-day working of the committee. This is encouraged by the fact that members join and resign as residents move in or out of the block. For the same reason, subdivisions of the committee may also not be mentioned.\n\nA minority of the committees hold banquets or inauguration ceremonies for new officers and on these occasions, the printed invitation cards that are sent contain the names and positions of all the members of the committee. They are for that reason a valuable source of information. But, as just explained, only a small number of committees hold such ceremonies. The Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office keeps records on the MACs of Lok Fu Estate, but these records are kept only for the officers, not for the details of the committee itself. Therefore, since both invitation cards and District Office records are incomplete, the only recourse is repeated questioning of the chairmen. For this reason the following account of committee structure, while accurate both in general outline and substantive detail, may be subject to minor revision.\n\nCommittee Size\n\nAs would be expected, the greatest variations in committee size and structure are due partly to the size of the building and the number of residents. What is the population of Lok Fu Estate by block? Block #19, with a population of 1,923 people divided among 337 households, is the largest block, while Block #9, with a population of 224 people divided among 48 households, is the smallest. In all, six blocks house below 500 people, seven blocks house between 500 and 1,000, five have populations of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209378, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 35, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "13\n\nofficial information. Floor representatives also participate in their MAC's subcommittees, if there are any, and so do much of the work of organizing and carrying out activities.\n\nOfficeholders\n\nHow many officeholders are there? The basic committee structure consists of three officers: chairman, secretary, and treasurer. Section VII of the 1982 Model Rules (Composition of Committee) explains that, \"The MAC shall consist of at least three key office-bearers namely a Chairman, a Secretary and a Treasurer, and such other office-bearers as may be elected\" (City and New Territories Administration 1982:2). The three officers (and, of course, any additional officers) are required to show their identity cards and register at the District Office along with the committee itself. The registration practice, which is now standardized for all City Districts, involves giving certain personal data for recording in the District Office. The information recorded is: name, address, telephone number, identity card number, sex, date of birth, age, educational background, occupation, nationality, and C.C.C. number.15 All of the officers of all committees must register. However, the District Office does not keep records on any other members of the committee, nor does it record the structure of the committee itself.\n\nIn addition to the three officers mentioned above, most committees add extra officeholding positions to assist in the running of the committee. While government regulations do not state clearly what positions these might be, all the Mutual Aid Committees in Lok Fu Estate have vice-chairmen. Most have only one, but three committees have two vice-chairmen, one has three, and one has four. Committees have vice-chairmen because they recognize the need for someone to assist the chairman, on whom falls much of the responsibility for the affairs of the committee. Sometimes, there is too much for one person to do. Three more committees have either vice-secretaries or vice-treasurers, and two committees have both a vice-secretary and a vice-treasurer. The chairman of one of these committees explained that these extra vice-officers were the secretary and the treasurer of the previous term and were kept on to advise and assist the newly-elected secretary and treasurer. This ensured", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209379, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 36, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "14\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nboth continuity and smooth operation, the desire for both being a common reason for electing vice-officers. One of the committees listed above as having two vice-chairmen, did so because one of these officers was soon to move to another estate and the second would be available to take over the position after he left.\n\nIn June of 1982, a decision was made by the District Offices to add auditors as appointed members of the Mutual Aid Committees. This was done on the advice of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which believed that, although the MACs and their financial transactions were small, it was nevertheless a good idea to prevent any possible mishandling of funds.16 Any person living in the block who is not already an officer can become the auditor, but the MAC can, with the agreement of the residents, ask residents of other blocks to serve as their auditor. At the end of March, 1983, seventeen of the Mutual Aid Committees of Lok Fu Estate had appointed auditors, and one of these had also added a vice-auditor.\n\nThe largest committee in Lok Fu Estate, that of Block #15, has eight officers: one chairman, three vice-chairmen, two secretaries, one treasurer, and one vice-treasurer. The next largest, that of Block #12, operates with six officers: one chairman, two vice-chairmen, one secretary, and two treasurers. Block #19, the third largest, has also elected six officers: one chairman, two vice-chairmen, two secretaries and one treasurer. In size, these committees resemble the large scale MACs in Tze Wan Shan Estate, committees which have as many as eight to ten additional officers (Scott 1980:37). For example, the fifty-five member committee mentioned previously had fourteen officers altogether: one chairman, eight vice-chairmen, one secretary, two vice-secretaries, and one treasurer (Scott 1980:41).\n\nWhat are the duties of these officers? Of course, the chairman is the key officer, as he is the official representative of the MAC, convening the meetings, and acting on behalf of the residents when meeting with officials and representatives from the government. The vice-chairman, according to the 1982 Model Rules, is \"deputising the Chairman as and when necessary\" (City and New Territories Administration 1981:3). However, the vice-chairmen, acting in hand with the chairmen, sometimes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209381, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "16\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nimperative. Actually, the officers of many MACs have recently been serving for terms of longer than one year due to special events or circumstances (such as the recent District Board Elections) which have delayed the block elections. According to the District Office, the MAC chairmen were consulted before the new rule was enacted, to collect their opinions. These consultations were, however, informal ones carried out in the course of the regular visits paid to the committee by the staff of the District Office or collected during telephone conversations. There were no formal meetings called to discuss the proposed change.\n\nWhat opinions do the officeholders have of this change? The chairmen I spoke to were overwhelmingly in favor of the two-year term of office; only two chairmen expressed any reservations. As one explained, \"I think that two years is too long for a term and I want a shorter one. There are some residents of the block who are also well qualified and I want to give these people a chance to carry out the job of an officer.\" The second chairman, while generally agreeing with the change, cautioned, \"The drawback with a longer term is that people may begin to criticize the chairman, for example, for misuse of power.\" A third chairman felt that it made no difference. One and two-year terms were the same to him, for although a two-year term allowed the officers to familiarize themselves with the households, a one-year term was too much for him because few people in his block were willing to help the committee.\n\nOther chairmen had no reservations about the change. Their comments centered on three benefits (basically, the same ones as recognized by the District Office), namely: more time for the chairman to become acquainted with the block and its committee, more time for the officers to do their work, and avoiding too frequent elections. Speaking on the first point, one chairman told me:\n\n\"I think the two-year term of office is a good idea. This is because, in a one-year term, the officers might not get properly on track as they need to take some time to familiarize themselves with the work of the MAC. There is a risk that they might not be re-elected the next year and then the new", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209386, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "21\n\ntime and the crime rate was high. The government suggested setting up a voluntary organization in each block of an estate to patrol for the public's safety. Our block has never practised patrolling before. The chief reason was that the MAC's power was very restricted and its financial resources were very limited. So, it could not afford to run a patrol.\" Another chairman remarked, “After the MAC was set up in 1973, there was a night patrol group made up of residents who volunteered. However, people lost their enthusiasm and it ended.\" Still another chairman, a veteran of many years' service to the MAC, explained:\n\nBut\n\nIn the past, we hired a watchman at $900 a month salary. Three dollars were collected from each room for this. Some people moved out, and so the MAC had to ask for more money from each household to make up the loss. The residents were not willing to give the money. Therefore, our committee doesn't have a watchman now. Probably we will not have one until the residents have a real need for one, and then they will ask the MAC to call him back. But, I suppose that it is better to get a resident from the block to be the watchman because he will know the residents and the situation.\n\nOne\n\nThere are only a few watchman security systems left. A chairman, whose committee has hired a watchman to guard the male and female toilets at night, said that at first, only sixty to seventy percent of the residents were willing to contribute money to pay for the service, but that later (presumably after they had seen how well it worked), ninety percent contributed money. This watchman works from ten in the evening to seven o'clock the next morning. Each household on the lower floors pays $5.00 a month for this service, while the new rooms on the roof each pay $9.00 a month. Another committee employs a guard to patrol the block all night. For this, he is paid $1,000 per month, with each household contributing $3.00 towards this total.\n\nHonorary Members\n\nA final feature characteristic of many Mutual Aid Committees in public housing estates is the position of honorary member.19 Honorary members are those individuals who have aided the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209387, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 44, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "22\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\ncommittee in some fashion or who occupy positions of respect in the community.20 For these accomplishments, they are honored by being given positions in the MAC such as honorary chairman (**), president (#), honorary president (**E), consultant (H), honorary consultant (2JN), and medical consultant (H). Mutual Aid Committees are not restricted in the number of honorary members they may select, nor are they restricted to their own block or committee when choosing them. Honorary members can also be chosen from residents of other blocks, or from organizations and committees outside the estate. The honorary members may in fact not be individuals at all, but companies or businesses that have supported the MAC. For example, three Lok Fu Mutual Aid Committees have local businesses as honorary members (in the positions of consultant or president). In all, six committees in Lok Fu Estate have invited honorary members.21\n\nWhile honorary members need not perform any of the day-to-day duties of the committee, they may be called upon to give advice and special assistance, usually in the form of funds. In return, they are given respect and the committee itself gains in prestige by having notable members. Conferring honorary status on an individual is not all calculation, however; many elderly residents, former officers or members, or long-term residents may be so honored. In Lok Fu Estate, the most common position is that of president, followed by consultant. Six Mutual Aid Committees have invited individuals to serve as president (either honorary or ordinary) and four committees have installed consultants (either honorary or ordinary).22 As the position of president is the most common, the following discussion will be directed to it.\n\nThe president is not elected but is recommended by the MAC members. For instance, Uncle Tse and Mr. Wong, who are the presidents, are very enthusiastic to join the MAC. As they have been living in Lok Fu Estate for many years, they are known by everyone in the block. However, because they are too old to bear the many duties of the MAC, hence they are given the honorary title of president which shares the duties of an MAC chairman. In most instances, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209388, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "23 \n\nhave given financial support to the operation of the MAC.\n\nThis description of a president, given by one chairman, contains many of the features associated with the position. Presidents (and all other honorary positions) are not formally elected, but are recommended by office-holders or committee members, or perhaps the interested party volunteers to take up the appointment. In some blocks, the committee as a whole must agree to the appointment; in others, approval of the officers is sufficient. As already explained, a president can be appointed from people who live inside the block, from those who live outside the block but within the estate, and from those living outside the estate. In Lok Fu, the presidents who are appointed from residents of the block are often elderly residents who have served on the committee or were previous officeholders. There are no written criteria for a president but the most important characteristic is enthusiasm for the work of the MAC: people so honored must have expressed their support for the committee and for a long time. Another commonly recognized qualification is the willingness of the individual to give financial aid; the position of president carries with it the understood obligation to assist the committee with funds (although these need not be large), 23 As many of the MACs find themselves with insufficient funds to carry out projects, the funds provided by the presidents make it possible for some committees to offer activities for the residents. As one chairman admitted, “Our committee has seven or eight presidents. They are mainly to give money to sponsor some activities, for example, the trips to eat vegetarian food. As our MAC does not have enough money, it needs someone to help sponsor these activities.” 24\n\nWhat duties are performed by the presidents? The president, while in some committees similar to the chairman in respect, do not actually vote in meetings or formally influence decisions, although they have the right to give their opinions on issues. As explained, they do not even need to attend committee meetings, although they are expected to attend the inauguration ceremonies for the new officers (if any), and any other public function sponsored by the MAC. They are expected to give opinions and advice on committee affairs and problems of the block, and, in\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209389, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 46, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "24\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\ntheir capacity as president, to work for the committee's benefit outside the block. Other than these, there are no special duties clearly set out as the responsibility of the president. A similar situation exists for the other honorary members, such as the consultant and honorary consultant. \"The ten members of the consultant subcommittee are those who have been members of the MAC for a long time, but who have no special duties. To give them an honored term for committee members to use, they are referred to as consultants, and give general advice.\" In this way, the chairman of one of the most active committees described the position of consultant.\n\nSome committees have a great many honorary members. For example, one committee I visited in Tze Wan Shan Estate in 1977 was extremely active in recruiting honorary members, as it had thirty-six: thirteen honorary presidents, five advisors, seven consultants, and eleven special presidents (Scott 1980:41). A few of the larger committees in Lok Fu Estate have appointed honorary members in numbers large enough to equal or surpass this total. Block #15, for example, has twenty-four consultants (of which seven are businesses), fifteen honorary presidents, five presidents, and two medical advisors, giving a total of forty-six. Thirty-nine honorary members serve on the MAC of Block #16: eight presidents, and thirty-one honorary presidents (one a restaurant). A third committee, that of Block #19, has invited thirty honorary members, including: one management consultant, eighteen honorary consultants (all businesses), four honorary medical consultants (among which is a herbal medicine shop), and seven honorary presidents (of which two are businesses). Three other MACs have twenty-five, nineteen, and eight honorary members.\n\nStructure and Beyond\n\nThe preceding discussion examines the basic structure of the Mutual Aid Committees. Although this structure is the same for all committees, it is clear that each MAC has the freedom to alter and expand on the design. While the study of MAC design is interesting and valuable for its own sake, it becomes especially important when it is realized that a clear idea of both the basic structure of a Mutual Aid Committee and the variations on this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209391, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 48, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "26\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nNOTES\n\nIt might be mentioned that the adult population of Hong Kong was, at the time of Mutual Aid Committee formation, already well acquainted with the idea and work of urban organizations. While the Mutual Aid Committees had (and still retain) their own unique design, their structure (and their functions) were not unfamiliar and they were not viewed as mysterious committees having no resemblances to other, more traditional, Chinese organizations.\n\n* The other five subdivisions are: Kam Kwok Mansion, Luen Hop Building, Mei Tung Estate, Pui Man Tsuen Cottage Area, and Pok Oi Village (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271).\n\n* The exact total, provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, was 21,221 at the end of February, 1983.\n\n• At the end of 1982, the exact figure was 523,927.\n\n* The Mark I blocks include Blocks #1-5, #9, #10, and #12, and the Mark II group is made up of Blocks #13-20 and Blocks #22 and #23. The remaining blocks (#6-8, #11, and #21), already rebuilt, are now referred to as Converted Buildings (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:272).\n\n• This information was provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate.\n\n* At the end of February, 1983, there were 26 Mutual Aid Committees in the Lok Fu Area and 286 Mutual Aid Committees for the entire Wong Tai Sin District.\n\n* The selection of male members is because all but one of the chairmen of the Lok Fu Estate Mutual Aid Committees interviewed were male. In addition, the opinions of female members towards participation were investigated during the research period of 1976-1978.\n\n* Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate is still divided into floors for the purpose of MAC formation. In early 1983, it had five MACs, one for each three floors.\n\n10 In 1982 the old titles of City District Commissioner and City District Officer were changed to District Officer and Assistant District Officer respectively. At the same time the old Home Affairs Department and New Territories Administration were amalgamated into a new department known as the City and New Territories Administration.\n\n11 The official certificates of registration are framed and prominently displayed in the committee's office, or if the committee lacks an office, are kept by an officer, most often the chairman.\n\n19\n\nHowever, given the apathy of many residents and the low attendance at many MAC meetings, one might wonder if any committee has been dissolved by popular action, the second alternative.\n\n10 This is the schedule as described by the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Tung Tau Sub-office. The office of the Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, explained that the conversion has already been completed and that 114 families (the figure as of March, 1983) had already moved in.\n\n\"These figures have been provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, and are accurate as to the end of March, 1983.\n\n16 The C.C.C. number is a code number found on the Hong Kong Identification Card and is written under the Chinese characters of the individual's name.\n\n10 According to the Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office, there are no instances of the mishandling of MAC funds known in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209392, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 49, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "27\n\nLok Fu Estate. I did, however, hear of such misuse during my earlier research in other districts.\n\n17 It might be mentioned here that a number of MAC office-holders, most often the chairmen, are asked to participate on other community organizations, thereby representing the MAC and forming a link between it and the organization. The nature of such links varies from committee to committee, but membership on the Area Committee is common. For example, nearly all the chairmen of Lok Fu Estate MACS participate in the Lok Fu Area Committee. Participation on such outside organizations increases the duties of the office-holders, as they must carry back to the MAC information and announcements for dissemination.\n\nIn a few committees, these items were purchased by the officers (usually the chairman) and donated to the committee. Other committees have applied to the Sir David Trench Fund. This fund, made up of a sports grant from the Council for Recreation and Sports, can be used to pay for sports equipment such as table tennis tables. Applications are invited once a year, usually in September or October. At that time, the District Office sends the temporary community organizer to each MAC, to ask the chairman if any equipment is desired. If so, the forms are completed and forwarded to the City and New Territories Administration by the District Office. The forms are tabulated and the committees are then informed of what they can buy. The committees then buy the approved items and are reimbursed.\n\nThe Mutual Aid Committees are not unusual in their practice of inviting honorary members. Honorary members seem to be a part of many Chinese organizations, both traditional and modern.\n\nThe position of honorary member is not based on sex; both men and women can be asked to be honorary members, although male honorary members are more numerous, reflecting the generally greater participation of men in the Mutual Aid Committees.\n\nDespite the popularity of inviting honorary members, the District Office does not encourage this practice, as it views the officers and the floor representatives as the functioning members. In addition, there is potential for committee conflicts if members cannot agree on who to invite as honorary members, and this should be avoided.\n\nThe terms \"honorary\" or \"ordinary\" refer to the distinctions made by some committees. Actually, there is very little substantive difference between president and honorary president or consultant and honorary consultant. In a few committees, it seems that the titles of honorary president or honorary consultant confer a bit more prestige, but this is by no means certain.\n\nEach registered Mutual Aid Committee may request reimbursement of its essential expenditure up to a total of $2,000 per year, computed quarterly (that is, $500 every three months). This money is provided for the MACs from a special fund from the City and New Territories Administration and may be used to pay the costs of the initial setting up of the MAC office; to purchase supplies such as blackboards and notice boards, first-aid kits, and loud speakers; and to pay the monthly bills (such as rates or the cost of electricity) for the office. Sports equipment cannot be bought with this money. Newly-established committees that are setting up their offices can ask for a one quarter's advance, so that they can use up to $1,000 in the first quarter if necessary. However, if the $2,000 yearly allotment is insufficient for the committee's needs, or if special expenditure is planned, the additional funds must be collected from the residents, or donated by the honorary members.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209685, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 342, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "320\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nThose who had worked in the Party and government organisations, as well as in cultural, educational and scientific research institutions in the late 60s and early 70s will still remember that many of these organisations were either closed down or amalgamated when the country went in for cadre schools in a big way. Quite a large number of people working in organisations that were retained, indeed the greater part of them, were sent down to cadre schools for re-education. Trains were used to transport furniture, luggage and other goods and materials to places all over China where these people now had to make their homes. In the chapter entitled \"Going Down to Cadre Schools: A Chapter on Separation\", one can find vivid descriptions of this. In the process of moving, much damage was done. Take, for instance, the School of Philosophical and Social Studies where Mr. Qian and Mdm. Yang were staying. As the school was to be handed over to some other units, it could not but take to the Yanjing paper mill all the reference material amassed and compiled over the years, only for it to be turned into paper pulp. Books and other reference materials left behind were piled up in the corridors, bitten by rats and worm-eaten. What a pathetic sight, especially to those like us who have spent most of our time studying! How sorrowful we were as we could do nothing about it!\n\nYet it was even more distressing to see time being wasted and talent trampled on. In 1970, sometime around the Spring Festival, I went to a cadre school in Liyu Zhou near Poyang Lake, where I spent 19 days visiting friends and relatives. There I saw many highly-respected teachers from the famous Beijing University doing manual labour in a wasteland where snail fever was widespread. Grey-headed scholars slept in haystacks and ate in the open. After work, they still had to attend study classes. Very often they were wakened in the middle of the night or in a violent storm to undergo military manoeuvres. They had only chaff and wild herbs to eat on New Year's Eve and were told to chant quotations from Chairman Mao. While I considered myself lucky to belong to a cadre school where living and working conditions were much better, I was, nevertheless, greatly saddened to see people of such talent being wasted. I once wrote a couplet in doggerel style for myself and fellow workers:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210659, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "20 December, 1986: Mai Po and Lau Fau Shan Dr. Richard \n\n14 March, 1987: \n\nIrving \n\nShing Mun Arboretum and Tai Po Kau Forest Reserve James Hayes \n\nBesides the local visits, there were two weekend tours to the city of Foshan in Guangdong organized and conducted by Dr. David Faure of our Council. The May 1986 visit was so popular that it was repeated in December. Arrangements were also made during the year for members to participate in a Bhutan tour for early 1987 arranged by Mrs. Peggy Craig, one of our members and a well-known travel specialist. \n\nThe Council noted the high quality of the programmes and wishes to express its deep appreciation to the lecturers, visit and tour leaders. Special thanks go to Elizabeth Sinn, Chairman of the Programme Sub-committee, and her helpers for such a satisfactory outcome. The Council also wishes to thank the Curator, Hong Kong Museum of History, Kowloon Park, for the regular use of its well-equipped lecture hall, and the assistance of his staff there. \n\nThe Council continue to discuss venues for lectures. Mindful of the fact that not everyone finds it easy or, dare I say natural to go to lectures at the Museum of History at Kowloon Park, Tsimshatsui, we try to find venues on Hong Kong Island. Some suitable places have been suggested, but in most cases require more advance booking than we are usually able to contrive. However, we will try to improve on the position. \n\nAdministration \n\nDuring the year, we benefitted from the conscientious, thoughtful and strong support given by our new Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Rukhshana Daroowala who worked closely with the Hon. Secretary, Mrs. Robyn McLean. It was therefore a double blow when, unexpectedly, Mrs. Daroowala had to leave Hong Kong early in 1987 when her banker husband was posted to Canada, and at more or less the same time Robyn McLean left Hong Kong to return to Australia after fourteen years' residence, the last six of \n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210766, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "100\n\nCHAN WING HOI\n\nNOTES\n\nBesides \"three-day jius\", there are more elaborate “five day jiu” celebrations in the New Territories.\n\nThe annual ritual takes place typically in Chiu Chau, Wai Chau and Hoklo settlements to make offerings to uncared-for dead spirits.\n\n1 The oldest dated object in the Tin Hau Temple, which housed the main god of the festival, was about one hundred years old. I shall refer to this again later.\n\n6\n\nThere could have been more than one \"chairman\".\n\nProbably part of the golf club, or otherwise a similar establishment.\n\nTanaka Issei 田仲一成, Chugoku saishi engeki kenkyū 中国祭祀演劇研究 (Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo 1981) p. 891.\n\n7 The Fuk-Wai-Chiu immigrants had their own gods and their operas in the Tin Hau festival. According to Tanaka, eleven or twelve gods other than Tin Hau were sacrificed to (op. cit., pp. 891-3). One of them, the Daai Wong Paak Gung of Naam Bin Chyn, is attributed by Tanaka to the Hoklo residents. Tanaka also points out that the Fuk-Wai-Chiu members of the organizing committee were alone responsible for a special part of the festival, that is, the performance of Wai Chau and Chiu Chau operas.\n\n8 Piu-sik are usually carried on frames at a height far above that of the audience in a parade. Because of the rain during the procession this time they stood in a lorry instead.\n\nAbout half of the gods sacrificed to in the Tin Hau Festival, including the Fuk-Wai-Chiu deity mentioned above, were not found among the spirit tablets in the jiu festival.\n\n10 \"Picking green\". In this case the two lions competed in capturing a bank note hanging near the entrance to the house.\n\nGlossary\n\nChoi Paak Lai 蔡伯勵\n\nchoi-cheng 採靑\n\nDai Wong (Ye) 大王(爺)\n\nba-wong-dei 霸王地\n\nChiu Chau 潮洲\n\nbaai-chaam 拜懺\n\nBaak Mou Seung 白無常\n\nBaak-gung 伯公\n\nBak Dai 北帝\n\nBao'an 寶安\n\nbui 杯\n\nbin-ngaak 匾額\n\nChai Wan 柴灣\n\nChan Wa 陳華\n\nCheung Chau 長洲\n\nDaai Si (Wong) 大士(王)\n\ndaai-gat 大吉\n\ndiu-lau 碉樓\n\nDongguan 東莞\n\nfa-laam 花籃\n\nfa-paai 花牌\n\nFaaigou jeungdaai ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211628, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "18\n\nTHE JADE EMPEROR AND HIS FAMILY\n\n玉皇大帝\n\nYU HUANG TA TI\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nThe Jade Emperor, also known as the Lord of Heaven (T`ien Kung), is the chief deity of the pantheon of the Cheng I sect of Taoism. He is only a secondary deity of the Taoist Lungmen sect. He was worshipped China-wide as the supreme ruler of the Heavens, and even of some of the Underworld. In folk religion, he is worshipped as the protector of all mankind, having replaced Lao Tzu in that role and as head of the Taoist faith, possibly because people were uncomfortable taking their problems to a philosopher. According to a majority of Taoists his earthly mouthpiece was Chang T'ien Shih, The Heavenly Master and his descendants.\n\nAlthough he is well known to both Chinese and to interested foreigners, what is not so well known are the ramifications of his family and the extent to which several of its members have their own cults.\n\nThe development of the supreme deity in China is far from clear. In earlier times the all-seeing, all-powerful, unseen god was Shang Ti who even now is occasionally referred to as the all-highest. Not only is the term Shang Ti used by Protestants for the Supreme Deity, God, but also the late Chairman Mao in his statement that, at the age of 72, “he was soon going to see God“, used this expression.\n\nHoward Smith, a missionary in China for 24 years, describes how the Chou dynasty (ca 1050-256 BC) founded its government on religion and transformed 'Shang Ti', probably originally a term used for the deified spirits of the imperial ancestors under the previous dynasty, the Shang, into a high God, independent and supreme, He added \"The importance of this change cannot be over-emphasised. When this supreme deity finds the rule of an emperor abhorrent, whenever a king fails, by persistent misrule, in his duties to God, then God rejects him and seeks out a suitable substitute.\" The transfer of the mandate of Heaven, based on the belief in a supreme deity, carried with it strong ethical implications, and continued down to the last dynasty, which fell in 1911.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212032, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 447, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "422\n\nMao Zedong translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Roger R. Thompson Report from Xunwu, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1990, pp. 1-1x. 1-278.\n\nThis is Professor Thompson's translation of a social enquiry report compiled within the short space of ten days in a small Chinese county town on the borders of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi in 1930, not in peaceful times but in a period of turmoil as the Communists took over towns and villages in the surrounding countryside. Eleven persons including Chairman Mao as chairman and secretary produced the Report (p. 47).\n\nThe translator has also provided a most helpful introduction (pp. 3-41). This sets the scene and explains why the report was not included in the 1941 edition of Mao's Rural Investigations and had to wait until Chairman Deng Xiaoping sponsored its publication in 1981.\n\nProfessor Thompson calls the Report \"an extraordinary document, far exceeding in scope and depth the other investigations Mao made in Jiangxi and Fujian 1930-34\", which were published in 1941. The high degree of care taken with the text prior to eventual publication involved the editors in spending 51 days in retracing Mao's steps of half a century before. In all, they travelled 5000 li (1600 miles), talked to 35 organisations and 14 families, and conducted discussion sessions, making, all told, 800 textual emendations of information in categories like proper names, place names and the names of goods and products. As Thompson puts it (p. 37), there was an \"intense scholarly effort to prepare the text for publication\". He supports the authenticity of the text and explains how Chairman Deng found the report a useful vehicle to demonstrate his own legitimacy and to underwrite his call for accurate fact-finding to help solve the problems of the present (pp. 31-32).\n\nThe long Chapter 3 dealing with shops and commerce in Xunwu is especially interesting. It is almost as long (67 pp.) as the chapter on Traditional Land Relationships, Chapter 4, indicating the importance Mao attached to the subject. Mao's frankness is engaging. He says in the Report (p. 64) that he lacked \"understanding of what a market town is\". He had recognised the problem, but had never found people who could supply sufficient data. \"Two old gentlemen\" had been introduced by Comrade Gu Bo (the local communist leader). \"Many thanks to these two gentlemen\", he continued, \"for allowing me to become like a young", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212537, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "71\n\nthe Gang of Four gained considerable influence over policy between 1973 and 1975. Though granted extensive power, Deng Xiaoping was by then once again losing the favour of party chairman Mao Zedong who was very annoyed by Deng's systematic measures to reverse the Cultural Revolution. As the major administrator when both Mao and Zhou were seriously ill, Deng's position was also weakened by the slowness in normalizing Sino-American diplomatic relations.\n\nAt the same time, the American enthusiasm for close relationship with China had lost its initial impetus, largely because of the Watergate crisis and the consequent Presidential succession problems. With the inauguration of Gerald R. Ford in 1974, relations deteriorated rapidly and cultural exchanges, which had been mainly relegated to the exchange of sports delegations, decreased to their lowest level. During this time, the only Chinese performing group which might have visited the States to strengthen the delicate link established by the Philadelphia Orchestra, was cancelled due to the Ford Administration's ban on the inclusion in its programme of a Chinese song calling for the unification of Taiwan with the mainland. If the Philadelphia Orchestra's tour was perceived by the Chinese as more of a political event to celebrate a new relationship than merely a professional exchange in the arts, the cancellation of a delegation's tour of America was also interpreted, as an unequivocal signal of the Ford Administration's wish to alienate China.\n\nModernization and cultural openness\n\nHaving passed through these unsteady years, Sino-American cultural exchanges flourished. With the establishment of diplomatic relations on 1 January, 1979, cultural ties expanded in all areas. Student and scholarly exchanges were initiated. The two countries began to share scientific knowledge in energy, physics, and the study of earthquakes, and in other fields as well. Meanwhile, American presentation of artistic programmes in China increased to an unprecedented level.\n\nBehind these developments, there were profound changes in domestic politics as well as the international environment. By the end of 1978, Deng Xiaoping had decisively consolidated his leadership in the Party and begun to push the modernization programme forward according to his own blueprint. At the same time, China finally established diplomatic relations with the United States.\n\nThe first years of Deng Xiaoping's leadership expanded modernization", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214205, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 63, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "26\n\npicture than to the tiny figures on the mountain. Chinese medicine also takes a holistic approach. Again, it has been argued that Westerners see time as stretching out in a straight path in front. Asians, however, see time as a spiral, with things repeating themselves. It has been suggested this may have something to do with belief in reincarnation and the idea that there is 'a time to live and a time to die and a time to be born again.' Again, some of us are said to be logical thinkers, sometimes called 'convergers'; and there are also 'instinctive thinkers', sometimes called 'divergers'.\n\nWith the cortex of the brain composed of two hemispheres, it can be argued (Waters, 1991; 35) that the left lobe handles thought patterns which need to be processed linearly, sequentially, in systematic stages, step by step. The right lobe, conversely, operates in a more general way with simultaneous thought processing. How does all this affect appreciating jokes?\n\nEven though China is a single country about nine-tenths the size of Europe, populated largely by Han Chinese with many different dialects, there are also 56 minority groups with different lifestyles. This means that, although there are some jokes that will raise a chuckle no matter where they are told, some senses of humour, even within China itself, are to some degree regional.\n\nOnce in rural, Eastern Guangdong, at a walled village, the author asked a group of locals where the communal toilet was. As he walked away towards it, he heard the group giggling. In parts of China where Westerners seldom frequent, the white-skinned, red-faced, perspiring foreigner is an oddity and good for a chuckle; just as in some Western countries where Chinese seldom visit, they are intrinsically strange to Westerners. In the instance of the author looking for the lavatory, even though scatology is a form of Chinese peasant humour, he certainly did not expect to find it in the unprintable condition that he did - a country with some of the dirtiest bogs in the world.\n\nEven in \n\nChairman Mao was also fond of good, earthy expressions, although the author has been unable to find confirmation that: 'Making a noise like thunder to drown out the sound of 100 farts,' was actually dreamed up by him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214368, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 226, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "192\n\nfunded for the temple.\n\nA logical progression, though always thought impossible in Mainland China, has been the deification of the late Chairman Mao. In Taiwan we have seen images of Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen on altars, revered as are the scores of historical worthies and heroes, but the thought that one day an image of Mao Tse-tung would grace the altar of a Chinese temple was so far fetched as to be ludicrous. None the less, Reuters printed a picture of a peasant in a rural temple in northern Shansi in early 1996 standing before a life-size image of Mao on the altar. Another sighting, of the small white bust of Mao on a household altar in a village on the banks of a river in the upper reaches of Yünnan province during the summer of 1997, was easily explained. The altar bore no other images and it was through this village and across the village's bridge, during the Long March, that the Chinese Red Army passed leaving behind a strong folk memory.\n\nMao, it must be remembered, was revered as a god in his lifetime, with cadres and Red Guards bowing before his image during the Cultural Revolution, and reporting the day's activities. And it has not been uncommon for taxi drivers in some of the major cities during the late 1980s and early 1990s to carry pictures of Mao suspended from their rear-view mirror as a protective amulet, though this has been more of a gimmick, but the idea of a statue of Mao on the altar in present day China is still astounding.\n\nWhat is less strange, perhaps, is the description of a Mao image being carried at the head of a religious procession in Fukien province, providing \"legality\" for this ritual procession of deities. Posters portraying the main Central political leaders were also borne aloft at the head of the procession.3\n\nNo doubt there have been zealous cadres carrying out the anti-feudal, iconoclastic purges following the party line and, recalling the clue provided in the report on Hupei, it would seem more than likely that the large number of illegal temples and shrines destroyed are in fact the small rural shrines dedicated to the Earth God which farmers have in their fields. By and large, it has been quite obvious that in general people will continue to go to temples to offer prayers and incense, and that temples and the deities will thrive, or possibly simply survive.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]