[
    {
        "id": 205424,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1967",
        "page_number": 186,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS \n\n179 \n\nThe reprint, in so attractive an edition, of Derk Bodde's translation of the Annual Customs and Festivals of Peking by Tun Li-ch'en is most welcome. In setting himself the task of compiling information on the day to day life of the capital the Manchu author must have had a premonition of change, and that much that he recorded would be forgotten. The disastrous war with Japan in 1894 had laid bare China's shortcomings, and the efforts of K'ang Yu-wei to reform the structure of the Empire by modernisation had been thwarted by the old Empress Dowager. The country was seething with discontent at foreign encroachment, and the Boxer movement threatened to provoke the \"carving of the melon\" by the European powers and the loss of independence. The decay of the dynasty was accompanied by the disintegration of temples and architectural monuments for want of funds for maintenance, a process much accelerated by the advent of the Republic in 1912. Within a few years only the renting of the famous monasteries in the Western Hills as week-end residences by foreigners saved them from ruin, whilst many centres of pilgrimage mentioned by the author have since completely disappeared. \n\nThough the archaeologist may throw light on a vanished civilisation by the study of inscriptions and works of art, he cannot reveal its day to day life in the way that Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims depict mediaeval English society. Tun's record has a similar value since, though it is just over sixty years, or a 'Cycle of Cathay', since he recorded the highlights of each lunar month, there would be little he would recognise were he to revisit the scene of his life's activities. \n\nIn the original preface to Tun's book, written by his friend and fellow student Jun-fang Shu-t'ien, his wide interest in, and knowledge of, ancient customs is cited in commendation of the work, and the reader will be struck by the thoroughness with which the subject is treated. \n\nBeginning with New Year's eve the author describes the ceremonies for celebrating the coming season, and all the festivities appropriate to the Holiday Moon. The great temples, within and in the vicinity of the capital, are described as the annual festival of their patron saint comes round, and the appropriate dishes for the feast are invariably given. Even the belief that the consumption of candied crab apples is a prophylactic for coal-gas poisoning is recorded.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214183,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 41,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "4\n\njoke may have lost some of its appeal over the centuries it was supposed to have been a real roof-raiser in its day. How does it compare with the humour enjoyed by pre-Shang dynasty (1600 to 1100 BC) Chinese or primitive man in Britain, who used woad as a body dye, about the same period?\n\nCertainly throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, coarse and crude vernacular humour was common. It was included in the banter of the court jester and in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Ribald and bawdy wisecracks and coarse primitive jokes also made up part of the conversation of the Chinese masses. Risqué jokes and four-letter words, which many consider to be very much a class marker, are still common today both in western and Chinese society and among both men and women (Bolton, 1997; 299, 306). The odd 'streaker' is occasionally seen at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens and the orgy is still by no means unknown. The author recalls a European on a minibus in Hong Kong informing the driver to stop at block number nine. But he mispronounced the Cantonese equivalent of ‘nine' with a higher tone so that it sounded like a coarse word for penis. While some passengers laughed outright others sniggered or masked a smile.\n\nSypher says (1956; 208), regarding a code of decency, that some psychologists believe any group of men and women, no matter how refined, will laugh at ‘dirty' jokes. The real question is when and which dirty jokes they laugh at.\n\nIt is interesting to compare reactions to the photograph taken of a Black Watch soldier at the cenotaph, in Hong Kong's Central District, when a gust of wind had blown his kilt up exposing bare buttocks. Most Westerners questioned by the author seemed to think, ‘hard luck old chap,' but most believed it was a cleverly taken photograph and good for a laugh. The average Hong Kong Chinese, however, felt that the poor Highlander's privacy had been trespassed upon and they were sorry for him. However, some also remarked, it provided an answer to the question which puzzles so many: 'What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?'\n\nAlthough the word 'humour' can still be considered 'suspect' in the United States (Muir, 1990; XXXI), it really means the ability to be",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    }
]