[ { "id": 207333, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY\n\n93\n\nclandestine (i.e., unlicensed and unregistered) brothels. For example, John Lee, an Inspector of Brothels in 1877, had joined the Hong Kong Police in 1864 and had been appointed Inspector of Brothels by the government in 1870. As a constable he had spent part of his service on dockyard duty; appointment as an Inspector of Brothels was a step up in the world; he improved both his status and finances. Such persons, too, had chances of obtaining, corruptly, substantial sums of money from Chinese, in this case from brothel keepers and their charges.5\n\nThe increase in demand for, what may be termed, low-level European man-power, was caused by the establishment of new government departments and an expansion in the activities of the old, as ordinance after ordinance was introduced into the colony. This was particularly true of the Surveyor General's Department, renamed the Public Works Department (P.W.D.) in 1891. The carrying out of large public works projects, such as the construction of public buildings, reservoirs and roads, meant that there was an increasing need for supervisors, overseers and inspectors. There were difficulties in finding suitable men. Departments had to take what they could find locally. Some specialists badly needed by the Hong Kong government were, however, recruited in London by the Crown Agents.\n\nMany P.W.D. overseers were former Royal Engineers, who had taken their discharge in Hong Kong, and as soldiers had had experience in the building of fortifications and other military works. They were, in modern army parlance, ‘tradesmen'. But an overseer admitted to a commission of enquiry in 1902 that it was always difficult to obtain responsible assistants:\n\n\"You can get beach-combers (sic) and old sailors, but they are no earthly use if you put them on a job and you have to depend on a Chinese foreman or contractor for a knowledge of the details of the work. They must be figure heads, but it is no use to put them on a Department like this.\"\n\nHe also confirmed that ‘any European here—it doesn't matter who he is or where he is picked up—can be put on a job and is termed an Overseer'. An architect concurred, stating that many overseers were picked from the beachcomber class. It appeared that in an attempt to rehabilitate beachcombers, clergymen and benevolent societies had been sending such persons along to the P.W.D. for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207342, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "102\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nRow in Tai Ping Shan was then known as 'Samshu Corner' because many Europeans resorted to it for cheap topping. The commissioners ascertained that much drinking went on in barracks, troops sending Chinese 'boys' out to buy bottles of samshu or whisky for them. Drunkenness was a direct consequence of boredom and idleness.\n\nThe problem of venereal disease was related to that of drinking, for bars and brothels clustered together. From 1867 to 1887, the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, patterned on the English act of 1866, was in force in the colony to protect the health of British servicemen. Briefly, the 1867 ordinance made all prostitutes working in licensed brothels for Europeans only (Chinese brothels for Chinese only were exempted) subject to compulsory medical inspection at the Lock Hospital. European prostitutes, on the other hand, could undergo examination at home. It was claimed that the repeal of the Hong Kong ordinance in 1889, following the repeal of the English act in 1886, led to an upsurge in the rates for venereal disease. In 1895, admissions into hospital for venereal infection in the home army were 173.8 per 1,000; in India, 522.3; in Hong Kong, about the same figure.\n\nIt follows, then, that the chance of a male member of the European lower orders becoming infected with venereal disease was always high during the period under review here, 1842-1900. The police, for example, were so prone to catching this social disease, almost an occupational disease for them, that at one time they were also subject to compulsory medical inspection. The practice was stopped in 1873, but before that date, there was a monthly examination of all foreign members of the force.\n\nMiddle-class Europeans did not escape entirely from all these afflictions from alcoholism, syphilis, boredom, and loneliness. Both classes Taipans and pong-paan — also fell victim at times to a variety of diseases, such as malaria, typhus, cholera, and bubonic plague, as the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley amply testifies. But the well-to-do could at least escape to the Peak from Hong Kong's enervating summer, or recuperate in cooler latitudes, in Japan or northern China; and since many of the prosperous were respectably married and lived a normal family life, cosseted by a houseful of servants, they were protected to some degree by domestic circumstances from the temptations that soldiers, sailors, seamen, and their kind, had to face day and night in the city.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208672, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "102\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n8-Mr. Southare and Mr. Bourne, the former, American Consul General, the latter our Council Secretary, to go to Hong Kong, presumably on repatriation business and while in the city, they met Sister Paul by chance. We understand that we Maryknollers may have a choice of either repatriation or to go to Hong Kong but will not be allowed to proceed to our missions in the interior, at least directly, and this, on condition that we can support ourselves or that someone will vouch for us, and guarantee our support. Thereupon we considered the question: there were many minds on the subject. Some were for direct repatriation, others wanted to stay in Hong Kong; some wanted to stay in Camp. Finally a list was made up, or rather two lists: Fathers Bauer, Quinn, Walsh, Callan, Reardon and Allie, and Brothers Michael, Lawrence, Anselm and William to be repatriated, and Fathers Toomey, Troesch, Meyer, Downs, Keelan, Hessler and the nine new language school students to go to Hong Kong. Later we learned that there will be no choice: that is, if we are not repatriated, we must remain in Camp. Another hurried meeting was held at 9:30 in the evening and further steps taken. At this meeting, a vote was taken and the majority decided on repatriation. Some of the minority were willing to abide by any decision reached by Father Toomey, as Superior, while others wanted to remain in Camp if necessary. Fathers Troesch and Hessler would try to get to Hong Kong as third nationals if possible. Accordingly, a second list was made out and handed in to our Council officials, only to be informed that our first list had already been submitted to the Japanese and that we had to await further developments.\n\nDuring the day, Mr. Bourne succeeded in contacting Bishop Valtorta at our request, and we learn that the Bishop is opposed to the repatriation of all Maryknollers and he is willing to guarantee the support of 14 of us, that is the House staff and the language school men, until Bishop Paschang or Maryknoll can assume the burden. The Maryknoll Sisters still in Camp, in the absence of any further instructions from Sister Paul, contemplate remaining. Incidentally, we later understood that Maryknoll had cabled to the effect that we all should be repatriated, but this message did not reach us until too late.\n\nFirst Communion and Confirmation at 8:30 on the ninth, when some 21 persons, mostly children, received the Sacraments, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210332, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 303, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "282\n\nCHEUNG AH-LUM, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nCHOI CHI-CHEUNG\n\nOn February 2, 1857, Cheung Ah-lum, proprietor of the Esing Bakery, was charged with administering poison in bread with intent to murder on January 15 that year. The charge, defended by Dr. Bridge, who was Acting Colonial Secretary, was found unproven. However, Ah-lum was \"re-arrested as a suspicious character and detained in gaol until July 31, 1857\". He was released \"on condition of his not resorting to the Colony for five years\".\n\nThis Cheung Ah-lum was a member of the Cheung lineage of Heung Shan County (Hsiang Shan) (= now Chungshan). The Clan Record of this lineage was published in 1934, and contains a lengthy biography written by an old colleague, Chen Chao-ch'ang, in 1904, four years after Ah-lum's death. Since this biography gives a very different view of Ah-lum to that more frequently found, it is felt that a translation of this biography might be of interest, and it is, therefore, given below.\n\n“An Account of Ancestor Wu-sheng of the Chang (Cheung) Clan, granted the Honour of a High Official Title”\n\n\"His death name was Pei-lin, his style was Han-hung, and his assumed name was Wu-sheng. He was a native of Ya-kang of Heung Shan. His great-grandfather was Chiao-chin, his grandfather was Huan-pi, and his father was Wei-kang. He had two younger brothers, the first was Yu-hung, and the second was Tsan-hung. He was the eldest of the three sons of his father. From his youth, he was eager to excel. He could read the books his father gave him, and he had an excellent memory. However, because of poverty, he had to give up studying and followed Yung-yin, a man of the same surname whom he called uncle, to do business in Macao at the age of 13. From there, he learnt the ways of doing business with the foreigners. Knowing that Hong Kong was a newly opened port and that there were chances to develop business there, he decided to go to work in Hong Kong when he was 18. He became chief comprador of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210520, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "108\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nintelligent and a willing worker. With about four years' village schooling as a boy in China behind him, he was better educated than most Kau Sai fishermen at the time. Nevertheless, he remained a foki, unmarried and without prospects. This was largely because he had no kinsmen of any kind, all having been lost to him during the Japanese occupation of Kwangtung and Hong Kong. By birth a land child, he had taken to work on fishing boats faute de mieux when he found himself alone in the world at the age of about 16. Now, a dozen or so years later, he was indistinguishably a boat man. His earnings were too small to make it possible for him to marry, unless someone else would put up the bride-price for him (a most unlikely occurrence, though not unknown), and although he could have saved enough to buy at least a sampan of his own, he preferred the freedom from responsibility of a hired man's life on his employer's boat, with all found and a chance to supplement his earnings every now and again.\n\nIn this, he but followed the pattern of all the other unmarried fokis: a married man liked to have his own boat, however small, or a woman alone might also own her sampan; unmarried men seldom, if ever, did so. Only 3 of the 31 fokis employed in Kau Sai in 1953 owned small boats of their own. All were married men over thirty years of age with more than one child. Two of these boats were small sampans, normally acting as houseboats for the man's wife and two or three young children, occasionally journeying to Sai Kung, where the boat population was much larger, or to one of the local Boat Peoples' festivals, when short-haul water transport was in demand to make a small income from ferrying passengers. The third boat, with a somewhat larger complement, including the owner's two adult brothers as well as his wife and children, acted as a hand liner catching smallish quantities of good-quality fish and selling them direct to local consumers or tea-houses in Sai Kung. Both the adult men on this boat were unmarried and had previously worked as fokis on other men's boats. They were prepared to do so again if their present experiment failed. Unfortunately, on my return to Kau Sai in 1959, I found they had moved away, and I have no further record of their story. The other 3 married fokis in Kau Sai in 1953 had their wives living with them on their employers' boats.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211957, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 372, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "347\n\nwho were not allowed to compete for the other places among the 60 ritual representatives.\n\nThe selection of ritual representatives, which I did not witness, took place on the fifth day of the first moon. It lasted twelve hours on this occasion, and I was told that in the past it took even longer. Several hundred men were present. In casting the bui every man in the chu could try his luck. Therefore those chu having more members had better chances of winning the first places. The men from each chu numbered from two to a few dozen. The first five places were filled before the others, and some of the participants avoided them because the first five places entail much work. Many people repeated the divination process several times for better results.\n\nIn the festival memorial one can see that for the Dangs of Kam Tin, there were 60 ritual representatives entries and only 50 ordinary entries, and the number of members in each chu, as represented by an entry, ranged from a few to almost 100. It is obvious that for those who could get more people into their chu it would not be difficult to get a good place among the ritual representatives.\n\nEach of the 60 places was actually shared by all the male members of a chu, who took turns to attend the rites in their cheung-saam. There were different reasons why a person would be eager to compete for a good place in the group of ritual representatives. I know in some detail the case of a young man in Tsi Tong Tsuen. His deceased grandfather had had the position in many of the previous celebrations, and he had been pressed by his mother to compete for a place. To gain the favour of the gods by worship was one of the reasons why she would like him to be a ritual representative. Another important factor is that ritual representatives get better seats in the opera matshed than ordinary participants, and the higher one was in the list of ritual representatives, the better the seats one got. It is usual that a Kam Tin family invited their relatives to the opera. In the case of this young man, the family had invited his mother's brothers, among others, and the guests took up the six seats they received in the distribution. Seats were distributed to each chu, but the seats for ritual representatives were towards the front, while the other seats for the chu were towards the back.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215560, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 337, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "287\n\nwhere the first three lighthouses were built.\n\nTo manage the new lighthouses a 30-year-old man from the county of Surrey, Mr. Archibald Baird, was recruited in England. He received training at Trinity House in London,13 for a fortnight, to gain experience with various Dioptric Lamps and their management.14 He also stayed with Messrs. Chance Brothers, the manufacturer of the apparatus, for another fortnight to acquire further working knowledge.15 He arrived in Hong Kong in 1874 in the capacity of Principal Light Keeper for Cape D'Aguilar. He was also responsible for the supervision of the lights at Cape Collinson and Green Island, although all these lighthouses were not yet in operation.\n\nGreen Island Lighthouse\n\nGreen Island Lighthouse started to operate on 1st July 1875, about three months after Cape D'Aguilar Lighthouse was set up. The illuminating apparatus was fixed dioptic of the fourth Order showing a red light on the bearings from N. 16 E. to S. 18 E. (146 degrees). From N. 16 E. to N. 44 W. (60 degrees) and from S. 18 E. to S. 25 W. (43 degrees) it showed a green light. The focal plane of the light is 95 feet above mean sea level and in clear weather it should be seen at a distance of 14 miles.16\n\nThe small round Green Island lighthouse tower is constructed of granite and is about 12 metres high. Its arched doorway is decorated with granite blocks with a cross-shaped opening above. In comparison to Cape D'Aguilar, Green Island Lighthouse cost much less, about one sixth of the cost for the Cape D'Aguilar lighthouse.17\n\nWhen the Cape D'Aguilar Light became obsolete after the construction of Waglan Island Lighthouse, in 1893, Governor Henry Blake later proposed to move the lantern of Cape D'Aguilar to Green Island.18 In 1905 a higher and larger tower to accommodate the Cape D'Aguilar Light was completed and the new lighthouse on Green Island came into operation the following year. It has a round tower, is 17.6 metres high and is constructed of granite and concrete with a spiral staircase. The steel lantern on top of the tower is painted white.19", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]