[
    {
        "id": 204621,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 102,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\n89\n\nIn the course of a tour of duty in the New Territories I became interested in the island community and, when opportunities offered, made enquiries locally for information which would shed light on its history in the period before 1898, when it was still part of the San On district. I was particularly interested in local source material which would provide a picture of island life and society in the fifty years (1850-98) before the lease of the New Territories to Britain, and this article is based upon information obtained from three commemorative tablets which date from these years, and on other information available locally relating to several district associations of long standing, besides supplementary material from a variety of different sources.\n\nThese tablets consist of slabs of slate-like stone, usually two feet by three feet in size, on which are cut characters a quarter of an inch high set out in two parts: an account of the origin and successful accomplishment of the scheme, followed by the names of all subscribers. Their object was to record the event; and to recognise the efforts of local persons, by recording the names of the donors for posterity. Tablets in this old form were quite common—they are found all over the New Territories—and could record any undertaking, such as the construction of a road or bridge, the repair of a temple, and so on. They were set up, no doubt, with the appropriate commemorative ceremony which is still current practice for such occasions. We have the well-developed Chinese sense of the historical element in everyday life to thank for the existence of such interesting records, which, by their nature, are immune from the ravages of white ants and the damp summer weather. They are not, however, free from the attentions of the man in the street as the present state of these three tablets show: in that the first was hidden by a double bunk, the second is exposed to the elements at a street corner and is often hidden by wood from an adjacent timber yard, and the third was serving as the back of a stove, part of which had to be demolished and the tablet cleared of a heavy deposit of soot.\n\nThe first of the Cheung Chau tablets is in the office building of the Tung Kwun association and records the repair of the Po On study or school in the 5th year of T'ung-chih (1866-7); the second, dated 4th and 32nd years of Kuang-hsü",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt",
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    {
        "id": 204622,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1963",
        "page_number": 103,
        "title": "RAS-1963",
        "content_text": "90\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\n(1878-9 and 1906-7), stands in the street outside the Fong Pin hospital12 telling how it came to be established; and the third, in an old house in Tai Shan Street, commemorates the establishment and repair of a defence office in the 2nd and 10th years of T'ung-chih (1863-4 and 1871-2).\n\nThe three tablets give information about the island population towards the end of the Ch'ing dynasty and, for instance, tell something of the various sections of the community, especially those where local leadership and authority rested; their links with other parts of the San On district and the Kwangtung province; their relations with the district government and other officials, civil and military; and the way in which such local communal needs as a hospital, schools, and a defence corps or local militia were met.\n\nThe nucleus of Cheung Chau society seems always to have been the community of fishermen and shopkeepers, the two being interdependent to a great extent though separated by many basic differences. There has, in addition, always been a farming community, but it has ever taken a third place. A hundred years ago it is likely that the majority of the land dwellers were connected with the island's shops, as proprietors or fokis, and in subsidiary trades and occupations associated with the three main sections of the community. Cheung Chau also served as the market town for over a dozen villages on the central and southwest coast of Lantau, the largest of which was Shek Pik with a population of 363 in 1911, and for the inhabitants of the outer islands. The Fong Pin tablet states that there were two hundred shops in the 1870's, from which it can be deduced that Cheung Chau was a flourishing commercial centre at that time. This is borne out by the house in which the defence association tablet was found, which is long, narrow and surprisingly large, with a small open courtyard in the middle. It has changed very little in the last hundred years, like many other houses in the town which date from this period and before.\n\nIn this urbanized community local power lay with two groups: the members of the WONG Wai Chak Tong*** of Nam Tau and Cheung Chau; and the larger traders and shopkeepers. The two were probably intermingled to some extent, in that some Tong members would be business men, but more investigation",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205283,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 45,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "38 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\ncheung Street (###) and west of the new Shing-tak Street (##). The main entrance to the estate is directly west of the junction of Shing-tak Street and Ma-tau-kok Road. These buildings are constructed on the very site of the Two Emperors' Palace Village (No. 8 in the map). \n\n17 Ibid., p. 108. \n\n18 Ch'en Chung-wei, Erh-Wang pen-mo. \n\n19 See my article, \"The Southern Sung Stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang\" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 5 (1965). \n\n20 There has been a different theory, from the Ming Dynasty down to the present, that Kan-chou (A) is a small island commonly called Nau-chou (4) south of Hua-chou (#1) near Kuang-chou-wan, but I do not agree with this. See Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume, pp. 175-206, 313f., 323-301 for my lengthy discussion and argument with Jao Tsung-i, the present exponent of this theory. See also Jao, op. cit., chuan 5, pp. 51-83 and Lo Hsiang-lin, ★ R★ Hsiang-kang Ch'ien-tai-shih, Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, 1959, pp. 92-94. [This book has been translated into English and its title is Hong Kong and Its External Communications Before 1842]. Professor Lo's conclusion agrees with mine. \n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 206109,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 189,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "184\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nthat the bay presented for boats taking shelter in bad weather, these pirates were gradually displaced by fishing people and shopkeepers, leading in time to a permanent settlement. (See 香港百年史 Centenary History of Hong Kong 南中編譯出 Hi Ep 7 n.d. pp. 74-75).\n\nThe name Ngo-yan-wan appears to have been used officially, too. Government Notification No. 69 of 1857 which appears in The Hongkong Government Gazette for May 9, 1857 describes District No. 2 Show-ke-wan as being \"from Hoong-heung-loo to the village of Ngo-yan-wan, taking in Wong-kok-tsai, Chut-che-mooey, Shui-cheang-wan, Show-ke-wan and Ngo-yan-wan,\" but it is not clear to which part of the present extended Shau Kei Wan Ngo-yan-wan belonged,\n\nThe oldest part of Shau Kei Wan, where original settlement took place, is along the Main Street East which we shall visit today. Many old houses probably dating from the 1850's to 1870's are still in existence. It is likely that the style of building followed that in contemporary Victoria and the Western district, though successive waves of redevelopment have left few traces of them there. They are all shop houses, and a count of the present shops in old premises shows besides groceries and general stores 9 Chinese herb shops, 7 josspaper shops, 7 fishing suppliers, 5 goldsmiths and 5 rice shops, indicating long established lines of trade with a predominantly fishing clientele*.\n\nIn Main Street East is the Tin Hau Temple. The existing building dates from the 1870's, but since the inscription above the entrance states this to be a reconstruction, it is likely that a smaller building stood on the same site for many years before. A stone tablet dated 1876 states that it was badly damaged by the famous typhoon of 1874, necessitating a major repair. In this connection there is an interesting parallel with the Tam Kung Temple below which had also to be rebuilt a short time after its first construction owing to a more than usually destructive typhoon. The temple contains two other major shrines to Kwun Yam (Goddess of Mercy) and Lui Cho (one of the most prominent among the later Taoist patriarchs).\n\nsee\n\n* A prominent local shopkeeper has told me that, pre-war, fishermen would not go outside Main Street East for business or pleasure.\n\nThe shop houses are shown in plates 21-22,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
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    },
    {
        "id": 206118,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 198,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n191 \n\nThe caretaker, Mr. Liu Wai-tong deserves special mention. Born in the caretaker's quarter, he is the third generation of his family to fill this post, as he says his father and grandfather before him held it also. \n\nOld Tai Hang \n\nNot much to look at, but the object is to see the old houses. Tai Hang was one of the old villages of Hong Kong Island. There are about 15-20 houses of the former village still standing, mostly in one row with a few others scattered among new buildings, and all built more or less to the same pattern.* They are situated in New Village Street (*†††) although an old resident tells me that this is a misnomer because they represent the old village known as Tai Hang Lo Wai (★★) which has always stood on this spot. The population of Tai Hang at the 1911 Census was already 1,574 persons. Formerly situated not far from the shore, reclamation began there in the 1880s by which time the area was already known as Causeway Bay - and ended with the development of reclaimed land for Victoria Park in the early post-war period. \n\n▬▬ \n\nThe village was a multi-clan one settled by the Hakka families of Wong (*), Cheung (3), Lee (†), Chu (*) and Ip (#). The first three are said to be the oldest families. A Wong now aged 45 is in the fourth generation which means that these families probably arrived in the area about the time that the British took over Hong Kong in 1841. Old residents say that besides some farming and fishing, the inhabitants kept some of the first dairy farms on the Island, long before the Dairy Farm started in 1886, and also engaged in laundry work. The name of the main street of present day Tai Hang, Wun Sha Street (r), which means 'washing cloth', refers to this early line of business. \n\nOne of the most interesting aspects of Tai Hang is its fantastic sports record. For unknown reasons, the old Tai Hang families produced a great many star soccer players before the war. I have been told that on five occasions at the pre-war Far East games the China Football Team were the winners, and that 90% of the team came from Tai Hang: again, that nine out of the \n\n*See plates 23-24,",
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    },
    {
        "id": 206273,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1971",
        "page_number": 90,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "84 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\ntherefore in the hands of shopkeepers, compradors and pedlars of whom there are many, though their transactions when considered as a whole are but trifling.' \n\n12 \n\nIn his remarks on native trade, Gutzlaff states that an attempt had been made by a Cantonese capitalist to establish himself in Hong Kong. He is referring to Chinam, alias Chan Akuen, who with three other partners operated under the firm name of Tun Wo *. The Colonial Treasurer, R. M. Martin, also refers to him in his report: \"One man of reputed wealth named Chinam, who had been engaged in the opium trade, came to Hong Kong, built a good house, and freighted a ship. He soon returned to Canton, and died there of a fever and cold contracted in Hong Kong. It was understood, however, that had he lived he would have been prohibited from returning to Hong Kong\",13 \n\nIn June, 1843, Chinam bought Marine Lot 54 from Richard Oswald paying $8,000. At the time it had on it a Singapore frame house14 with brick enlargements. On the lot Chinam proceeded to build a large Hong in the Chinese style, but before the building was completed, he died in July, 1844. With his death the firm closed down its operations in Hong Kong and most of the Hong stood unoccupied for a number of years. One of Chinam's partners, Chan Chun-poo, was appointed his administrator, but due to irregularities in his handling of the estate he was imprisoned in 1854, and remained in prison for two years. He petitioned the Government for his release on the grounds of his advanced age. The property of Chinam's firm was sold in 1854 to Ow Yeung Sun, a trader from the San Wui District in Kwang Tung. \n\nAnother Canton firm that established itself in Hong Kong in the early days was Akow and Company. It was not in the same class as Chinam's Tun Wo firm, but its position was above that of the shopkeepers and tradesmen concentrated in the Bazaar areas. The company was granted Inland Lot 22 located at the corner of Queen's Road and Pottinger Street in the European section. The firm consisted of five partners, of whom Cheung Kam Cheong was resident in Hong Kong. He began to speculate in real estate and bought several lots at Government land auctions. His land investments were not successful and \n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207116,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1974",
        "page_number": 187,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n181\n\nIt is an ancient custom in China when a man passes a Government degree examination or is appointed as a Government official, for him to have his new official title carved on a wooden tablet and hung in the Hall of his ancestors. By this means the good news is reported to the ancestors that their descendant has become a man of rank, and at the same time an example is set to future generations to encourage them to do their best to rise to the same honour, as the tablet is left hanging in the hall permanently. There are many of these title-tablets hung in Sz Shing Tong, put there not only by Kam T'in men, but by other descendants of the Tang family who have sent their tablets from places far away, where they have gone to live. The oldest among them is the \"Man Fui” or Kui Yan degree put there by Tang Ting Ching who passed it in the 7th year of Shing Fa, A.D. 1471. The most highly honoured title-tablets are the two from Tang Yung Keng from Tung Kwun district. He passed his Kui Yan degree in the 3rd year of Tung Chi, A.D. 1864 and became \"Hon Lam Yuen Shue Kat Sz\" (H.K.N. VIII, p. 110) in the 10th year of T’ung Chi, A.D. 1871. He held the office of On Ch'aat Sz (Provincial Judge) of Kiangsu province, and in 1900 during the Boxer trouble he was appointed by Lei Hung Cheung, the Prime Minister and then Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, to be the Superintendent of volunteers in Kwangtung.\n\nTang Ts'ing Lok's eldest son, Tang Wan Kuk was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in San On District. During his time there were twenty-eight Sau Ts'oi (B.A.'s) and nine very rich men all members of his family and living in the same street where his house was situated in Shui Mei village. His house was called Kam Ts'un Tong \"ornamental stream hall\"; it has long since been destroyed and a vegetable garden is on the site of where it once existed, but the remains of a large stone gateway can still be seen (plate 20). Tang Wan Kuk owned a large library in this house, and a fine stone fish-tank, made of pink coloured stone, 2 Chinese feet high, 14 wide and 24 long. (Plate 19). Two scholars of the Tang Family have written inscriptions about this tank, speaking very highly of it, but it now lies in a destroyed school building in Shui T’au village, and no-one cares about it. The dates of Tang Wan Kuk's birth and death are not recorded, but we know that his grave, which is in Noh Mai Ham about seven li from Kam T'in was made before the 8th year of Ching",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207551,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 319,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n311\n\nFukienese communities but also on the Yangtze, possibly in at least two areas, and is not only the patron of most entertainers (musicians, boxers, wrestlers, actors etc.) but also has the secondary function as a health and fertility god, possibly performed by the middle brother.\n\nMersham, Kent, 10 February, 1975\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nCHANG YU-TANG AND AN OLD HANGING SCROLL FROM CHEUNG CHAU\n\nThis note relates to an interesting local figure and Kwangtung worthy. It is thought that readers will be interested both in the content and style of writing of such literary pieces.\n\nIt is not known where the following material (First and Second Accounts) was obtained, nor why there should be two similar pieces in the Hong Kong Wai Chau General Association Bulletin. There are no biographies of Yu-tang in the Kwei Shin district gazetteer (last edition seems to be Ch'ien Lung 48, which is, of course, too early) nor in the Kuang Hsü 7 edition of the Wai Chau prefectural gazetteer, the most likely sources for biographical aid. (Information supplied by Mr. Arthur Lai Shue-tim of the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong, who kindly checked them at our request).\n\nFIRST ACCOUNT [translated from the Chinese of p. 109 of the Hong Kong Wai Chau General Association Bulletin, 1964 by Francis Sham Shui-yu].\n\nGen. Cheung Yuk-tong* was appointed as the Kowloon Deputy Garrison Commander at Taipang (A). Under his charge, the inhabitants along the coasts enjoyed security and peace. Later when the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula was ceded to Britain as a colony [in 1860] he contributed immensely to establishing the demarcation line which forms the Boundary Street of today. The relics in connection with him which are partially left behind are what is called the \"Spare-the Waste-Paper Pavilion” (***) as well as his fist-writing (*) of Chinese calligraphy. One can hardly refrain from sighing with admiration whenever we think upon the historical relics.\n\n* Cantonese romanization.",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207553,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 321,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n313 \n\nCheung could say nothing against the decision, but as far as the demarcation line was concerned, it is said that he had secretly petitioned the Imperial Government to be very careful in dealing with its (English) counterpart in fixing the Sino-British boundary. It is also believed that the boundary was finalised upon his personal recommendation.* As a matter of fact, the boundary ranged from the eastern part of the Kowloon Walled City (now the eastern side of Kai Tak Airport) to the western waterfront of Shamshuipo. From the physical point of view, the terrain to the south of the boundary is all flat and to the north all mountainous, so in terms of national defence it is absolutely a strategic advantage to hold the mountainous area. The demarcation then follows the present Boundary Street. It was completely beyond the General's anticipation that in later days the whole region of Kowloon was leased to Britain at the 24th year of Kuang Hsü (***) (1898) and the boundary extended from the Boundary Street to Shum Chun (M). [Actually to the Sham Chun river, south of the town]. \n\nGen Cheung once acted as the Commander-in-chief of naval forces in Kwangtung Province, and it was under his care that the Bocco Tigris forts (1) were repaired. Among the relics in connection with General Cheung's administration which still remain nowadays, there is a plaque inside the Hau Wong Temple (1£ §) at Kowloon City. On the plaque there is an inscription of four large Chinese characters which literally mean \"a good administration under your Highness' Protection”.† As quoted from the accompanying inscription, the general said, “As time elapses it has already been 13 years since I was appointed as the Commander at Kowloon in the 4th year of Hsien Feng reign () (1853).\" He also said: \"It is all due to your Highness' grace and instructions that security and peace prevail in the whole domain for which I feel greatly obliged. Now I have already reached the age of 70 so the time is ripe for me to retire from a long term of service.\" Judging from the two quotations above, we realize how humble and modest he was because he attributed all his achievements and merits to His Highness the Marquis Yeung. Apart from \n\n*This may well be so. His name appears as one of the members of the Joint Land Commission of 1862 for settling land titles in Kowloon: see PRO London, CO129/85, annex to Sir H. Robinson's despatch of 30th April 1862. \n\n† The reference is to the god of this famous temple the Marquis Yeung (#1) a loyal minister of Sung",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207557,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 325,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n317 \n\nin Wai Yeung. In the original residence there was neither a garden nor peach trees inside, and it was only through Ching-san's development and renovation that more and more facilities and amenities were provided, including memorial halls, pavilions, private studies, terraces, walls, ditches, lily ponds, floating pleasure boats, winding paths planted with plums, bamboos, orchids and all sorts of flowers. Being a calligraphy collector, Cheung Ching-san kept a large collection of genuine and valuable works of famous calligraphists like Tung Chi-chiang (董其昌), Chan Pak-sa (陳伯士), Lai Er-chiu (賴爾晉) etc. In addition to these, a large number of portraits of his ancestors, as well as those of scholars and generals of different dynasties, were inscribed on pavilion walls. \n\nPOSTSCRIPT \n\nFortunately, there are more surviving works than these two accounts, from the Hong Kong Wai Chau Association's Bulletin indicate. The lintel of the main door of the Pak Tai temple in Wan Chai, Hong Kong island, is stated to be by his hand. A further search would, I think, be sure to uncover others. There is also the interesting scroll shown in Plate 25. This comes from the Hung Shing temple in Cheung Chau (長洲) and it has been taken out at the lantern festival in the first lunar month and placed in a street shrine in adjoining Tai San Street (大新街) beyond living memory. It bears Cheung Yuk-tong's name and seal and is dated. It appears to have been presented by a man called Sun Ying-suet (孫映雪) to a friend Sai-hung whose surname is unknown, on the occasion of his mother's birthday. \n\nFrancis Sham has also translated this inscription—which is difficult to read and is therefore reproduced below—and has given the following rendering: \n\n壽域南山,日升月恆。今日從天運,兆泰龜鍾, 青童白髮,松齡歲月,書田後輩,九如多祝。碧桃献瑞,北堂萱草,精神龍馬,華堂偏集,美高門第。 \n\n世熊世兄大人雅正 \n\n孫映雪書 \n\nTo Sai Hung Esquire:- \n\nGreat rejoicing befalls from Heaven today on your mother's birthday, as constant and regular as the Sun and the Moon, and as...",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207564,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 332,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n323 \n\nto the government for a lot on which to build a school. In granting the lot for charitable and educational purposes, it was stipulated that \"the school should be built on that portion of the ground furthest away from the front of the native temple which is opposite. The villagers have asked that no houses be erected immediately fronting the temple, but they could not object to a playground. The latter should be fenced around.” (C.S.O. No. 700 of 1885) In 1898, the Roman Catholic Church bought a large piece of land behind the village for a church and a school. The Canossian Sisters, however, already had two lots on Bulkely Street in 1894 where they conducted a school (No. 59 & 60).\n\n(c) The Kwun Yam (††) and Pak Tai (†) temples.\n\nAn old memorial board in the Kwun Yam Temple dated 1873-74 lists eleven individuals or shops who may tentatively be identified as the management committee.* I can only identify one, Li Shing Fat, listed as a rate-payer in 1875 and possibly as Lee A Fat on the 1867 squatter licence list. A Hop Shing shop is listed, and it is possible that the owner was Chan Hop Shing who appears on the 1873 rates list or Chang Hop Shing of the 1867 squatter list. Another possible identification might be the Kwong Lung shop with the Kwong \"Leong\" grocer in the 1884 Rate.\n\nIn 1896 the Temple Committee applied for the grant of a Crown Lease for the lot on which the building stood. It was noted that \"This Temple is a public temple, owned by the committee of Hung Hom. A notice was posted at Hung Hom on the 23rd (March, 1886) saying that anyone who objected to the issue of the proposed lease should report to the Registrar General within ten days. No communication has been made on the subject.... therefore recommend the issue of the lease.\" (C.S.O. No. 704 of 1896). In consequence, a lease was granted to Chung Kam Fuk, Chan Ying Cheung, and Ching Ki, Trustees. Of these, Chan Ying Cheung was a large property owner at Hung Hom who was also a wealthy contractor in Hong Kong. Upon his death, his will left his Hung Hom property to his sons.\n\nThe two named temples date from this early period and have survived: one of them in its original location and another on a new \n\n*The names are listed as follows:\n\n福隆號,兴有容,新順扣,勝扣廠,廣隆號,李富利,陳日新,怡興行,廣勝同,合勝號,李勝發。The board carries the large characters 法雨同沾and is dated 同治甲戌年仲春吉旦",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208108,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1977",
        "page_number": 147,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW -LONG ISLAND \n\n131\n\nJunks are the reason for Cheung Chow which only exists to take over their cargoes of fish, salt, or hides, and to supply them in return with all that junks need, ship chandlery and stores, gear of all sorts, and certain amusements for the fisherman, some of them innocent and some not. It stands between Hongkong with its population of some 600,000 persons clamorous for food, and the fishing fleet which cannot afford to lose time beating about in narrow and often becalmed waters under high hills. At Cheung Chow the wind is almost always blowing, but the deeply indented bay and the sheltering spit between the hills give shelter. The junks can run in, unload their catch, revictual or refit, and stand out to sea in any wind, with no delay. The steam ferry carries their fish to the waiting markets for them.\n\nBut the islanders have a second string to their bow for the presence of the ferry has made it worth while to grow vegetables for the same market, and the little glens of the island are terraced to the limit to provide vegetables to the inhabitants and a surplus for that export.\n\nSubsidiary trades have grown up from the same root, if fish can be called a root; fish must be salted and dried, so there is a great trade in salt, though most of the salt which comes into Cheung Chow is not rubbed into the fish there but is re-exported to China.\n\nWhen we have pictured the little land to ourselves, described its climate, the races and tribes of its inhabitants, we will wander along the busy main street, and so take ship and depart from this little place so like some ancient Greek kingdom set in the wine-dark sea smelling of fish, overrun with pigs. Later we will return to see the Moon-cake festival, and after that let someone more capable take up the tale.\n\nThe Little Land and City\n\nCheung Chow is shaped as the photograph shows.*\n\nIt would seem that one of the very numerous saddle-shaped ridges in which Hongkong abounds has sunk here so that the ridge between the two peaks makes a long double beach, only one hundred yards wide at its narrowest. On the Western Side the bay is large and partly sheltered by other islands, but on the Eastern it is open to the sea, and the N. E. Monsoon pours aslant into that bay, and rages against its headlands. So the town turns its back to the\n\n* Not reprinted.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208110,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 149,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n133\n\nTyphoons bring with them torrents of rain. More falls in the two or three days that follow than in a whole year in drier climates. It is these rains which make possible the dense population of the deltas of South China as well as the disastrous floods.\n\nFrom October to March there is little rain, but the sun is always bright and hot. The wind blows for the most part from the North and East, and the cool air, hot sun, and brilliant sea make an exhilarating setting for the activities of the little state. Even in summer the climate is far superior to Hongkong's, the air fresher and the oppressive canopy of clouds less unbroken. Hence there are summer visitors, missionaries and their families from the interior, and business and professional men from Hongkong, who live apart from the village but in perfect friendliness and to mutual advantage.\n\nThe town itself stretches for a mile along the shore, being only a few streets deep at the ends, but widening out in the middle to a little market square, some three streets wide. The main landing stage opens on to this market place, and here the police and the male and female searchers take their stand to prevent the smuggling of arms or opium which would otherwise most certainly take place. There is another and older pier a hundred yards or so away, at which the salt junks load.\n\nIn the main street almost every building is a shop, workshop, or both, until we reach the end nearest the Pak Tai Temple, which is in the \"West End\" of the town. There we find private houses of the usual narrow type. The backs of half these shops and houses run out on to the beach on a picturesque disarray of piles and retaining walls, interspersed with garbage heaps. There is none of the beautiful and simple cleanliness of the Japanese village. On this beach side or on the beach itself are two slipways for beaching and repairing the junks, a tannery, several boat-building yards, a distillery, coffin maker, and several blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and coppersmiths' shops.\n\nThe beach is a scene of constant activity. At the Eastern end is a floating village of sampans, occupied by families of the Tan Ka tribe, and when one of these sampans becomes too old to float any more, it is hauled above high water mark, and some family or other lives there until it literally drops to pieces. They look rather like huge sea slugs taking to life on shore when the struggle for survival on the water has become too severe for them.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208112,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 151,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW - LONG ISLAND\n\n135\n\nburned or sunbaked. There are many mean huts of wood and wattle, and except in the main street where the Public Works Department of Hong Kong has insisted on drainage and paving, the streets are full of wallows, and the wallows full of pigs. As often as not the sleeping pig is being carefully searched by a fowl or so.\n\nOf the foreign buildings the most conspicuous are the Meeting Hall of the European residents situated in the midst of their rather scattered bungalows, and in the village, the red brick Police Station and the new School. All through Hong Kong the territory the Police Stations occupy the strategic positions, looking like a strange modern variant of the frowning castle which overhangs so many ancient settlements in Europe. And the analogy is not far-fetched, for there are raiding kidnappers and pirates to be repulsed, and Cheung Chow Police Station has itself been besieged, and successfully too, by pirates. The present building is surrounded by barbed wire, and garrisoned by Sikh police, and could stand siege long enough to enable it to summon a swift and powerful police launch by wireless from Hong Kong. The new school was opened only last year, and while the Police Station holds itself aloof on the ridge just outside the village, the school nestles more intimately among the good people, some of whose children pursue learning within those cheerful walls.\n\nThe Europeans are the Highlanders of Cheung Chow. Like the Hebrews in Canaan, they leave the plains to the original inhabitants and occupy patches of the bare hills. The Chinese use these little hills only to pasture a few tiny cattle, to supply fuel, and to afford a last resting place for their dead. Among the grass and the graves the missionaries have built small stone huts in the strangest of styles. Some are reminiscent of little Bethels and Bethesdas which drew their original inspiration from the stone barns where sectaries used to meet. Others are refuges among the great clusters of rocks, to which and between which they cling and clamber like the nests of some strange and gigantic insect. Amongst these there are some half-dozen more comfortable bungalows of permanent residents. All these Europeans live in amity with one another. There are British, Americans, and now and then some Germans. They elect a little committee and officers for their Association to deal with the Colonial Government, and with the Kaifong which governs the village. A tiny fund is expended with admirable results.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208114,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 153,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW - \n\nLONG ISLAND\n\n137\n\nthe top sawyer in the neighbouring sawpit, and we pass towards that smithy beneath a banyan tree. The sinuous roots of the tree clutch the rock and strain like the arms of some vegetable octopus, and there just below the hanging threads of aerial roots is a tilt, and a furnace. The anvil is curious enough. There is one of the orthodox Chinese pattern but the other is a shell from some field-gun, goodness knows where it was found.\n\nNow we are in the main street at its more irregular Eastern end, interrupted here and there by sharp right-angled turns, and small shops begin to line the way. On our right a coffin maker plies his trade, and his workshop has a most attractive \"line\" of coffins on exhibition which seem to tempt that Chinese grandfather getting on in life, and thinking of providing for the future. Europeans unconsciously avert our eyes from the varnished glory of huge specimens that look like four tree trunks grown into one, but grand-father regards it with quiet pleasure. Some more blacksmith's shops, and a flight of irregular steps, and we are on the terrace of the temple of the Heavenly Queen, already referred to. This terrace overlooks the bay, and is put to practical use, not only as a point of vantage, but also to dry fish and sweet potatoes, and some strange ambiguous stuff. We can see a junk hauled up on the slip-way which was screened by the houses-hitherto. For all the clumsy upperworks her lines are clean and smooth below water, and her big lifting rudder and centre board appeal to the yachts-men. Those cannon in the bows are not for ornament only, for these seas swarm with pirate junks.\n\nJust now we will not stop to examine the dusty interior of this temple. Instead we descend into the street once more and continue our westward way. Near this place is a small hospital, a series of clean and pleasant courts and pavilions supported by the Kai Fong. This body is the real ruler of the town, elected by street committees and containing representatives of each of the four tribes. In the street a good-natured crowd drifts along. There is a brown-faced fisherman ashore for a stroll, and to buy cordage or food. He loiters before the chandlers shops, and discusses all topics before coming to the real question of the price of that double block and sheave hanging in the dim place under the ceiling. There are villagers carrying loads of vegetables to the pier, shuffling along with two great loads, one at each end of a bamboo resting on a great callous patch on their shoulders. Women are carrying water",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208116,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1977",
        "page_number": 155,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n-\n\n139\n\nwith a deft sweep of the foot, does one see more than an ankle.\n\nOur friend on the other side is not so particular. He sits in the open space between two counters of his shop, and having rolled his cotton singlet up into his armpits, fans with languid strokes a portly form, naked to a very low waist. Now the road begins to widen. It is almost four strides across at this point, owing no doubt to the zeal of some P.W.D. official, but as the extra width is entirely taken up with stalls extended from the shops, no loss of custom can be said to result.\n\nWe have come through a crowded street, and not seen a scowl or a frown, not been jostled, or hustled. The sweating burdened porters have been given right of way, politely asked for, and as graciously conceded. For in China men respect the burden. There are no cars or even bicycles to upset the stream, but if a European, in the usual hurry to leave a boat or catch a boat walks rapidly through the street, there is sometimes a little awkward eddy in the stream, and people have to step aside into shops while the impatient one passes. Not that the Europeans push or rudely press, for there is perfect good temper, and understanding on both sides; but distinguished foreigners in all countries are apt to be in a hurry, one has to help them on their way.\n\nNow we are in the market place... rows of stalls covered with canvas shades set forth cigarettes and sweets, vegetables, fish and meat. Cooked food is here in plenty, steaming soups and succulent pork: cheap Japanese matches, cottons and tin and hardware: but above all, food. The Chinese like to snatch a snack now and then between the main meals. Many coolies feed entirely on snacks obtained at these stalls, drink a cup of tea, take a cake or a bowl of rice, and put down a few cents before they gird up their loins and pass on to the next task. There is also a restaurant of two storeys here, overlooking the pier, the first storey buttressed by barbers' parlours, resplendent with mirrors and American barbers' chairs made in Canton. This is the Cantonese or Punti ward, here in the centre where drapers' shops, and chandlers, the pawnshop and houses are thickest. The Punti is one of the world's best traders and financiers within his own range, and it is here or hereabouts that the village magnates live and work. Here are the money lenders and fish merchants, the landlords and rulers of the people, the mortgage holders for whom the fishermen mostly work. This is the down town section, and the operations are probably",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208120,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1977",
        "page_number": 159,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n143\n\npainted to the eyes, and clad in gay garments. Behind these a band of native musicians, youths dressed in gaudy clothes, provide the melody and rhythm. The dragon shakes his head and stamps his feet to the rhythm, the bearers grunt and sweat, the musicians fiddle and bang and blow, the spectators spit and chew, laugh and talk, admire and applaud. The last player disappears round a bend in the street and another procession begins to form itself with much good-natured chaff and chatter. Meantime the dragon processions which have already been sent off wander through the distant fields, and the curious rhythm of the dance rises and falls in every corner of the glens.\n\nSo much we have seen for ourselves, but our kind host, who has lived on the island for many years, tells us that on the great day of the feast, all the small processions meet at the special matshed, where are assembled also some of the local gods, as well as visiting deities who have been brought by the folk from other towns and villages. All these gods are then carried in procession to the Pak Tai Temple to make their how to the occupant. Following this they are carried about a mile to the temple of the Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the fisherfolk, through the streets densely packed with fishermen and townsfolk, and thousands of visitors. At this temple the processions stand aside, and the gods in their chairs of state are raced back to the special matshed. The first god to arrive, even if he arrives in several pieces, brings to his devoted supporters the best of luck during the year.\n\nIn the afternoon the cones are overturned and there is a scramble for the cakes, which are then eaten with the happiest consequences for all concerned. It would be interesting to hear more exactly what these benefits are, for the whole feast looks like an ancient fertility cult.\n\nWe are much indebted in this account to notes jotted down by Mr. A. C. Franklin, and kindly put at our disposal. The opportunity to witness the Moon-cake festival was also due to his kindness. If we have not reproduced all the interesting and suggestive comments which those notes contain, it is because we hope that he will find time to throw them into literary form and publish them. Meantime we would welcome corrections, and an elucidation of the meaning of the feast from our students, some of whom might well take time to visit Cheung Chow for that purpose.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208282,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 6,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "185\n\nthey were knocking on every door in the village to force villagers to act as their porters. Mr. Chung had little choice but to obey. For the next week, he and quite a few of his fellow villagers were taken away from the village. He remembered having to march up Fei Ngo Shan, down to Ma Yau Tong, and then to Lei Yu Mun, until he successfully escaped.66\n\nIt was probably on December 11 that Mr. Chau T'in Shang in Sai Kung Market saw the Japanese cavalry pass. The Japanese did not enter the market. There was no disturbance or fighting. The police had been withdrawn before the Japanese arrived, and people just stayed indoors.67\n\nQuite a few villagers from Sai Kung and nearby villages were in the city when the War broke out. Mr. Wan Ts'eung of Tai Po Tsai was living in Kowloon City at the time. He must have learnt of the beginning of the War when he saw Kai Tak Airport bombed. But he recalled that one morning, he was in the street, and was shocked by machine-gun fire behind him. He hid behind some stone pillars, and then saw Fifth Columnists, known as the \"victory fellows\" (shing lei yau) who proclaimed that they were members of the Asia Prosperity Institution (Hing A Kei Kwan). Mr. Cheung Wing of Wo Mei was in Shaukiwan when he heard of the outbreak of war. He immediately went with several people back to the village, and feared all the way that they might be spotted and shot at by the Japanese. He arrived in the village before the Japanese came down from Keng Hing Shek. Mr. Tse Koon K'au of Tan Ka Wan spent the night of December 7 in the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon. This hotel was frequented by New Territories villagers when they went into the city. The next morning, he heard the aeroplanes and the bombs, and went out to ask what the matter was. When he saw that people in Shamshuipo were wounded, he realized that it was not a practice exercise, and started immediately to return to Sai Kung. A Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Po had a petrol station on Waterloo Road, and Mr. Chan drove Mr. Tse and five other people towards Sha Tin. They were stopped at a roadblock and were not allowed to drive into the New Territories. He left the car, with some difficulty bypassed the roadblock, spent some time with a friend in Chap Wai Kon (Sha Tin), and spent the night at Wu Kai Sha. He arrived in Sai Kung the next day, before the Japanese appeared",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208787,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 244,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "4\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nWork of the Association in its early years\n\n217\n\nSoon after the port of Hong Kong was opened [again] in the last year of the reign of Hsien Feng in the Ch'ing dynasty (1860-61), there used to be a Nam Pak Hong Street (later renamed Bonham Strand West). At this favourable location our predecessors set up firms dealing in native products from south and north China. The following firms were among those then established one after another: the Kwong Mau Tai Hong and the Woo Kee Hong of Mr. Chiu Yue-tin, a celebrity of Kwangtung origin, the Hau Fung Hong of Mr. Lo Chor-san, the Hop Hing Hong of Mr. Lau Lo-tak, the Siu Fung Hong of Messrs. Fung Ping-shan and Kwong Tsz-ming, the Kwan Mau Hong (in Wing Lok Street West) of Mr. Li Sau-hin, the Wah On Hong of Mr. Chan Yue-fan, the Yue Wo Loong of Mr. Chan Sik-nin, the Yuen Fat Hong of Messrs. Ko Mun-wah and Chan Chun-chuen, celebrities of Chiu Chau origin, the Yuen Sing Fat Hong, the Kam Yue Fung Hong and the Kam Sing Lee Hong of Mr. Choi Si-kit, the Yue Tak Sing Hong and the Kwong Tak Fat Hong of Mr. Chan Tin-san, the Kin Tye Lung of Messrs. Chan Wun-wing and Chan Tsz-tan, the Ng Yuen Hing Hong of Mr. Ng Lei-hing, a celebrity of Fukien origin, the Chui Tak Loong Hong of Messrs. Wu Ting-sam and Wong Ting-ming, the Hau Tak Hong of Mr. Kwok Yim-sing and his brother(s), the Yi Tai Hong and the Lee Yuen Cheung Hong of a business group of Shantung origin. With the exception of Messrs. Chan Yue-fan, Chan Sik-nin and Kwok Yin-sing, all the aforesaid gentlemen have now deceased.\n\nIn 1868, with the concerted initiative and efforts of the said Messrs. Chiu Yue-tin, Chan Chun-chuen, Fung Ping-shan, Choi Kit-si, Chan Tin-sau and Wu Ting-sam, the Nam Pak Hong Association was founded in Bonham Strand West near its junctions with Wing Lok Street and Queen's Road. Then the objectives of the Association were to promote members' welfare and market prosperity, to assist the police in the maintenance of law and order in the neighbourhood and to formulate plans for the prevention of fires and alleviation of disasters. On the first floor of the Association building was the office, where regulations and business rules of the Association were decided, Directors and Managers of the Association mutually elected, and monthly meetings held. For the first term, the Chairman of the Board of Directors was Mr. Chiu Yue-tin and the Manager was Mr. Lau Lo-tak. The latter mana-",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208791,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 248,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n221 \n\nDr. Sun Yat-san. In front of the portrait, there was a long table, on which were installed a shrine of the deity ‘Cheung Wong Yeh' and a statue of Confucius. Each year in pre-war times there were two sacrifices, one dedicated to the 'Cheung Wong Yeh' deity in Spring and the other to Confucius in Autumn. When the sacrifices took place, the Strand was decorated with lanterns and colourful ribbons, with female singers performing in matshed, riddle-games being staged, or Cantonese operas being performed. However, the celebrations were suspended during the Japanese Occupation. They were resumed after the War and carried on until 1953 when the Association building was demolished for reconstruction. At present, our new, magnificent building standing in this busy city has been completed. When we look back to the past, could we not be moved by the old memories still lingering in our mind? \n\nIn spite of business difficulties and a recession in the market, in which our trade bears the brunt, our predecessors have selflessly devoted much of their time and effort to the reconstruction of our Association building. With the completion of this new building, it is to be hoped that our members will work together for the advancement of the Association's functions, the economic recovery of our trade and the promotion of members' welfare. \n\nTHE COMMERCIAL WORLD* \n\nThe District is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, to develop in the history of the Colony. As far as more than a century ago its status was second to none; its town proper was a thriving entrepot, clustering around a few narrow streets in the famed Nam Pak Hong — a legendary name which had been handed down with pride even to the present day, pinpointing the area now occupied by the Bonham Strands East and West and the nearby Wing Lok Street. The title, literally translated as the \"South and North Traders\", was of great significance as it implies that the long arm of business stretched as far as Peking and Tientsin in North China to the distant countries in Southeast Asia. It was in this tiny plot of land that business tycoons of the last century were fostered, flourished and prospered. The ones in Bonham Strand were experts in Chinese herbs and other precious organic medicine as well as importers and exporters in other popular Chinese commodities, \n\n* Translation of an article in the Association's centenary bulletin, also by courtesy of the Director of Home Affairs.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209598,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 255,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "233\n\ndescribed as a \"fairy play\". It was an ambitious effort with 100 performers, 50 children, 50 trained birds and a special corps de ballet of 25 and an orchestra of 25. It was a great success. In keeping with the title the theatre was decorated in blue. As the performance was in aid of the Prince of Wales Fund, massive oil paintings of the King and Queen and Prince of Wales painted by Yee Cheong of Wyndham Street,* were prominently displayed.\n\nA similar production, not quite so lavish, was put on the next year. It was a fairy ballet entitled \"Snow White and the Frog Prince\". It was in aid of the Belgium Relief Fund.\n\nAnother very elaborate production was \"Kismet”, an oriental extravaganza, in 1916. It was in aid of the Star and Garter Fund. All the productions during the war period were in aid of some war related fund. Original music for \"Kismet\" was written by Mr. Norman Peterkin of the Robinson Piano Company.\n\n\"Pinkie and the Fairies\", yet another extravaganza, was staged in 1919. It had over sixty performers. The late Sophie Weill Odell appeared as one of the fairies a proper introduction to a long association with the stage through her impresario husband Harry Odell. The programme for \"Pinkie and the Fairies\" listed all the productions of the A.D.C. since 1870.\n\nNot all Sinclair's plays were along the exotic line. In 1916, there was \"The Angel in the House\" the success of this play depended on subtle satiric portrayal of character. It put a great demand on an amateur group. Even more demanding was the 1925 production of Shaw's \"St. Joan\". It was hailed as the greatest triumph of the A.D.C.'s existence. \"A great play, magnificently acted\" \"Memory fades and achievements diminish; time weaves a dusty web over the past and the glamour of a praise-worthy act wears off. History never dies, nor will this epoch-making performance of the A.D.C. be forgotten when the social history of Hong Kong is compiled\".\n\nSinclair also appreciated the sophisticated humour of Noel Coward. \"I'll Leave It to You\" was staged by him in 1922, It had been Coward's first play produced in London, some two years previous to its Hong Kong appearance.\n\n* Hong Kong Daily Press, 1 Apr. 1884, Advertisement: Yee Cheong, portrait painter, studio corner of Wyndham and Wellington Streets.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209868,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 127,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "105\n\nwith rocks and reefs in addition; the name may mean \"Dragnet Isles\". The northernmost island is a dumb-bell with quite a good harbour, and a fishing village of huts very different from ordinary Chinese dwellings. This island was another settlement of early man. The southern larger isle has two or three villages on its dumb-bell isthmus. There is a shrimp paste factory here which exports to Europe and America. The names Tai and Sai A Chau mean \"Big and Little Forked Island\". A small island to the west of the group is also a dumb-bell; the isthmus here is covered at high tide.\n\nPatung or Shek Kwu Chau (“Stone Drum Island\") is rocky and barren, but with one small valley where cultivation is possible. It was once proposed to lease the island as a rabbit farm, but the proposers never went on with it.20\n\nits English name\n\nTo the south-east of Lantau are a number of more important islands. Of these the most prosperous is Cheung Chau (“Long Island\"). Cheung Chau is the best example of a dumb-bell island in these waters. The northern end contains a small hamlet and cultivation, the southern end contains the \"Peak\", or European reservation. It started there through missionaries building holiday bungalows on the hills: they began doing so in 1906, attracted by the beaches, the easy marketing and the village ferry to Hong Kong. This was run in the interest of the fish trade, but was taken over some 10 years ago by the Western Ferries Co., a Hong Kong concern,\n\nBetween the fish trade and the market gardens, Cheung Chau breeds more flies per square yard than any other place in the Colony. It has a street cleaning squad, but of course this cannot touch the masses of filth on private property. There is a fire engine, a Government school, a hospital, and a big temple to Pak Tai, god of the Pole Star, the finances of which were inextricably mixed with those of the market, the ferry, and the electric light station. There are plays annually performed in May for the pleasure of Pak Tai, and incidentally for his worshippers, in a huge decorated matshed put up in front of the temple. It draws big crowds, and stimulates business quite a lot. There are other temples too, and little shrines to local spirits. There is also",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209869,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 128,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "106 \n\na boarding house where Europeans can put up at cheap rates on the \"Peak\". \n\nAn interesting feature of the island is that nearly all the land is owned by a family association called the Wong Wai Tsak Tong, which has its headquarters in Namtau21. All the buildings, however, are owned by the people who built them, or their modern representatives, who pay a small ground rent to the Tong for their sites. Most of the European houses are on hills, and so are on Crown land, unclaimed by the Tong in 1905 when the land settlement was made. This system of ground landlordism is found very rarely now elsewhere in Hong Kong. It is a relic of the system of paying land tax in distant Namtau by deputy, as happened before 1898, when the Territories were leased. \n\nTo the north-east of Cheung Chau is Neikwuchau (“Nun Island\"). This island once had three villages on it: but two are deserted; the third (Ngau Tau Tong, Cow's Head Pond) still flourishes.22 Pak Pai took its name from the high white rock in the bay off it; Kwo Lo Wan (\"The Bay Along the Road\") is where the limekiln used to be, Chau Kong (\"Old Man Chau\") 28 is a small island lying off Neikwuchau opposite Kwo Lo Wan. It is practically a desert island. I have never seen anyone on it. \n\nFurther to the north-east, beyond Neikwuchau is Pingchau (\"Flat Island\"). Pingchau is another dumb-bell island, its houses being built on the isthmus, with limekilns thick along the western and southern shores, facing sheltered water. An industry not mentioned so far is gambling, which flourishes vigorously in the large, long shops fronting on the main street. As no Police live on Pingchau, nothing serious can be done to stop it. The island is full of Hakkas and Hoklos, who have little in common save mutual dislike. I once had a very bad riot case to try, in which a man had been killed by someone unknown, and the only thing I could do was to bind everyone over to keep the peace. The chief point is that to my amazement they did so! \n\nLeaving Pingchau and travelling east we first come to a group of small uninhabited islands. The first of these, Kau Yi Tsai (\"Little Armchair\")24 is a little desolate island, chiefly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209879,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 138,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "116\n\nIn selecting these organizations for study, I must emphasize that they are representative of many more from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. These simply happen to have come to my attention in the course of official duties and aroused my interest over the years. Taken as a group, whether situated in street, sub-district or suburban village, and despite being under foreign rule, they demonstrate the same capacity for social organization and self-management as in the much older communities on the mainland New Territories, then still under Chinese rule. They provide further evidence to show that communities of shopkeepers and villagers, of diverse origins and without benefit of kinship ties and long settlement, could manage their own affairs without any necessity for gentry or merchant elite leadership. In short, the instances from Hong Kong Island carry this conclusion one step beyond that reached for areas like Tai O and Cheung Chau, and the individual and linked villages of the Southern district of the New Territories, because, if gentry were lacking in those areas, there was altogether no possibility of their presence in early British Hong Kong, concerning which frequent estimates of the low quality of the population can be found.7\n\nAp Lei Chau and the Hung Shing Festival\n\nAp Lei Chau, the island on the south shore of Aberdeen Harbour, had apparently no more than \"two or three families of Hakka grass-cutters\" when the British occupied Hong Kong in 1841. There was, however, a temple to Hung Shing, the God of the Southern Sea, that had stood on the island for many years; its bell is dated 1773.10 The likelihood is that the temple predated the land population, and that (together with the Tin Hau Temple on the north shore, where Aberdeen town now stands) it originally served the boat population of the Ap Lei Chau-Aberdeen anchorage. By the mid-1860s there were 60 houses there, with a population of perhaps two or three hundred persons.11\n\nBy 1897 the number of residents was 1,123, and by the Colony Census of 1911 it had risen to 1,437.12 This population gained its livelihood from concerns that served the fishing fleet: the local Aberdeen-Ap Lei Chau anchorage had 424 boats and 4,130 persons at the 1866 census.13 There was little farming, as the island has steep",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209897,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 156,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "134\n\nBoard (in manuscript), p. 121 kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong as Hong Kong Record Series 206. Pages 120-141 of the Proceedings relate to a hearing held on 6th June 1893, \"Claim to a Temple at Apleichau\".\n\n10 The same man also said that Ap Lei Chau 'was built about 1850' (ibid, p. 122). However, as stated in my text, the Hung Shing temple on the island appears to date from the 18th century and another local resident (b. 1825) who gave evidence to the Squatter Board (ibid, p. 132) said that it was enlarged in 1847. The temple originally stood on its own little island, later joined by reclamation to Ap Lei Chau. See JHKBRAS 7 (1967) p. 170, footnote.\n\n11 W.F. Mayers, N.B. Dennys and C. King - The Treaty Ports of China and Japan (London, Trubner & Co., 1867) p. 49. 'Boat building and general trade' are listed as the principal concerns. The \"Ap-le-chow\" and \"Shek pai wan\" (Aberdeen) entries in this work are bracketed. The latter had 160 houses and 205 boats and the total recorded population for the two places, together with the boat people, was 1,664. See also information given in the printed proceedings of a court case over ownership of land on Ap Lei Chau given in Sessional Papers August 1886 - September 1887\" (Appendix to Report from the Land Commission of 1886-87) pp. 33-35.\n\n1* See the Hong Kong Government's printed Sessional Papers for 1897 and 1911, pp. 484 and 103 (23) respectively.\n\n1 Sessional Papers 1901, No. 39 of 1901. pp. (6), (18) and (20). Of the 947 vessels, 787 were fishing boats. At that time, there were 2,799 land persons living in and round Aberdeen-Ap Lei Chau.\n\n11 Sessional Papers 1897 and 1911 at pp. quoted at note 12 above. For similar organizations of M. Freedman's article \"Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth-century Singapore\", Comparative Studies in Society and History, III (1960-61), 25-48; and for other coastal market centres in the Hong Kong region, Hayes 1977, chapters 2 and 3 dealing with Cheung Chau and Tai O respectively.\n\n10 See the account given in the printed Ap Lei Chau Hung Shing Festival brochure for year (1983) now in Hong Kong Collection, University of Hong Kong Library,\n\n10 Squatter Board proceedings, p. 138. The word \"Kaifong\" (#) or street association was commonly used in South China to describe (a) all the inhabitants of an area (b) the voluntary organization of leading residents which managed the affairs of that community, e.g. the Kaifeng looked after the interests of all kaifongs. On Ap Lei Chau, the Kaifong and the Fongs' leaders seem to have been one and the same. For Kaifongs in the Hong Kong region see Hayes 1977, pp. 64-69, 81-84, 96-98, 171-172 and 218 note 27. Also, Hayes 1983, pp. 45-46 and 56-59.\n\n18 For divining blocks, see J.J.M. De Groot, The Religious System of China (Ch'ing Wen reprint, Taipei 1976) Vol. VI, pp. 1285-1287.\n\n1o See Hayes 1977, p. 219, note 41, for similar honours paid to leading office bearers reported from Canton (1902).\n\n* The shopkeeper petitioners who came to see the Registrar General in 1893, as recorded in the Squatter Board proceedings, stated that \"The temple is the property of the inhabitants of Ap Lei Chau and the boatpeople who subscribe”.\n\nThe Ap Lei Chau section of this article is based mainly on the oral statements of Messrs. CHENG Kam-kwu ($##) b. 12.10.1887, CHENG Lim () b. 17.12.1891 and LUN Shing-fun () b. ...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209898,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 157,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "135\n\n14.8.1897, all three Ap Lei Chau residents belonging to the old Luk Hing, Sau Hing, and Fuk Hing Tongs respectively. Their evidence enlarges and confirms the information obtained from the record of the Squatter Board's proceedings.\n\n\"Hayes 1977, pp. 99-101. The Tai O information is more explicit on this point, but the Cheung Chau practice was the same.\n\n** See E.G. Pryor, Housing in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1983) pp. 15-17. These new urban districts were very susceptible to contagious disease. It is well to recall Governor Des Voeux's report of 1889 in which, describing the City of Victoria, he wrote: \"Going ashore our visitor would see in the Chinese quarters houses, constructed after a pattern peculiar to China, of almost equally solid materials, but packed so closely together and thronged so densely as to be in this respect probably without parallel in the world.. It is believed that over 100,000 people live within a certain district of the City of Victoria not exceeding 1⁄2 square mile in area. It is known that 1,600 people live in the space of a single acre.\" (Sessional Papers 1889, pp. 303-304).\n\n15\n\n** Victoria had seven officially-approved sub-districts in 1857, as listed and described in the Hong Kong Government Gazette for 9 May 1857, GN No. 69. They included \"No. 1, or SEI-YING-POON — From the small village westward, called Cowee-wan, to the end of Circular Buildings, including all the houses on Bonham Strand, west of No. 1 Police Boat Station. The historical development of this area is given by Revd. Carl T. Smith's note at pp. 211-218 of JHKBRAS 14(1974) in \"Programme Notes for Visits to Older Parts of Hong Kong Island (Urban Areas....)\n\nSee also Chapter 3, Sheung Wan, of Frank Leeming's Street Studies in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1977) pp. 45-66.\n\n24\n\nSheung Fung Lane itself is situated between Second and Third Streets in that section bounded by Centre Street to the East and Western Street to the West.\n\n** An account of pao wui at the Tam Kung festival in Shau Kei Wan from a Secretariat for Chinese Affairs' file of 1958 is typical: \"There were about 15 Kaifong elders in the Tam Kung temple who were enrolling pao wui (K), there were about 18 pao wu's from the sea and about 10 from the land. The wul's who brought their own roast-pigs with them had to pay \"oil money\" and \"worshipping fees\" from $10 to $30 to the elders before entering the temple. It is learned that the worshippers have no objection to pay these fees. In addition the temple keeper also charged $5 or $10 for each roast-pig brought into the temple plus $5 to $10 \"oil money\".\n\n20 A recent account of the proceedings at Sheung Fung Lane is given in the article \"Everyone's festival\" in The Asia Magazine issued weekly by Asia Magazines Ltd., Hong Kong, Vol. 21, Number V7, 4th January 1981, pp. 3-6.\n\n3-6. For a very well illustrated account of a similar old neighbourhood in Singapore, and its community festivals, see \"Singapore's Vanishing Chinatown\" by Joan Ogden in The Asia Magazine 25th July 1976.\n\n* \"No. 3, or TAI-PING-SHAN From the end of Hollywood Road near Circular Buildings, to Gough Street steps, including all the houses on the south side of the Queen's Road between these two points.\" See the plan opposite p. 124 of Marjorie Topley (ed) Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today (Hong Kong, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch 1967). This was drawn in 1882 (ibid, pp. 123-124).",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210002,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1983",
        "page_number": 261,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "239\n\nscattered farms of various families. Towards the end of the Ming, because of the unsettled state of the times, these families decided to come together to form a fortified village with wall and moat. They employed a famous Fung Shui expert, Lai Po-i (*), to set out and purify the enclosure. He was mocked by some youths however, and became so angered that he flung down the bowl of water he was using in the purificatory rites and left. Things went wrong, and eventually the elders sought Lai Po-i out to beseech him to return to complete his work. This he refused to do, but instructed them to build a temple oriented to the north-east on the site where he had thrown down the bowl, and to lay out a road directly in front to a suitable point where the gate would be, and then to set out a village with that road site taken as the centre. This was done, and the village was set out as a square, with the temple in the centre of the back wall, directly facing the gate down the main street, in consequence.\n\nThe temple was dedicated to Hau Wong. The Sha Tin villagers believe that Hau Wong had been a refugee who had settled in Sha Tin somewhen before their ancestors arrived, who had farmed in the area and given advice to anyone who came to ask. After his death the residents continued to ask his spirit for advice, at the site of his hut. An exactly similar tale is told of Che Kung and the founding of his, the only other old temple in Sha Tin.\n\nIt seems clear that these two gods were of essentially local significance, and that they jointly presided over the fortunes of the valley. Before the fortification of Tai Wai it is likely that the temple to Hau Wong stood in the fields, like the Che Kung Temple, and that all the residents of the area worshipped there. After the Tai Wai villagers brought the god into the new temple in the village this area responsibility seems to have remained, although the village came more and more to regard the temple as their own special property. Certainly, Hau Wong, as well as the definitely communal Che Kung, is still invited to all Ta Tsiu celebrations in Sha Tin. Further, at the repair of the temple inside the village in 1864, for which a donation tablet is preserved, donations were received from most Sha Tin villages, and even from wealthy men in Cheung Sha Wan and Kowloon who had",
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    {
        "id": 210934,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 284,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "LANTERN FESTIVAL, CHEUNG CHAU, 10TH FEBRUARY 1971\n\n1\n\n267\n\nI had received invitations from several of the island's fellow countrymen, that is “district”, associations (鄉親會) to join them on Cheung Chau for the Lantern Festival, and went over for the evening. The Rural Committee Chairman, Mr. Chau Li-ping (周立平先生), met me at the pier and took me to the Sei Yap Yick Sin Tong Association (四邑益善堂) dinner in the Ho Tai Sun Restaurant (好泰新酒家). The leading kaifong members were there and I was able to join them on their usual tour of all district association celebrations taking place at the same time on that evening.\n\nThere were twenty tables at the Sei Yap Association dinner, and entertainment was provided by a Sei Yap group from Hong Kong singing modern songs. There was a stage in the street outside the restaurant on which they would perform later, and this was a popular attraction when we passed later in the evening. They changed four years ago from old-style entertainment. The cost of hiring the singers for two nights was $1,400.\n\nWe then went to the Tung Koon Association (東莞同鄉會) dinner in the restaurant beside the playground at Tung Wan (東灣). There were twenty-eight tables and many Tung Koon association leaders from Hong Kong and other parts of the New Territories were seated on the stage. Speeches went on all the time we were there (we only had a drink at this celebration). There was no sign of entertainment inside, and the stage was apparently provided on street.\n\nWe next visited the Shun Tak Association (順德同鄉會) dinner in the Rural Committee Country Club premises. I forgot to ask the number of tables, but it must have been about twenty. An auction for association funds was in progress, with the emphasis on selling decorative lanterns. I did not see any sign of an entertainment group and there was apparently no stage on the streets provided by this body.\n\nWe went from there to the Po On District Association's (寶安縣同鄉會) celebration at a restaurant on the waterfront beside...",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210935,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 285,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "268\n\nChau Li-ping's house, held on one, and possibly, two floors. Again, I did not ask the number of tables, but the place was packed. I saw no sign of entertainment in the restaurant but there was a large stage on the western waterfront. There was a capacity crowd there, and it was very difficult to squeeze through to another performance further on. The loud-speakers were good, and very loud, and the performance was a traditional Cantonese opera in high-quality costume. The show had cost the organizers $1,600 for two days. Further along, the Chung Hing Street (#26) association's stage was much duller by comparison, though traditional. The stage costumes and loud-speaker system were of poorer quality but I understood that this two-day show had cost only a little less, at $1,400.\n\nWe then visited the Chiu Chow Association ($45ƒ€) in its new (1969) premises. The place was packed, and we were on the third and top floor where there is an altar with spaces for memorial tablets. We ate again, and an auction of lanterns and other items was in progress during the forty or more minutes that we spent there. There was apparently no entertainment or stage performance, but the Wai Chiu Association (€), which is allied with this much newer association, was giving a Cantonese opera performance at the recreation ground at the Pak Tai temple. An outside altar had been set up for the Pak Tai god, at which kau pao2 were being handed in and donations registered.\n\nBesides the Chung Hing Street festivities, some of the other street associations were also celebrating the day. The Pak She Street (ii) and San Hing Street (#) Associations' premises were gaily decorated and lit up, and an altar and kau pao were seen in the San Hing Street premises. I did not have time to look closely into the Pak She office.\n\nThe Tai San Street (#) people have no premises and had no stage performances, but they had erected their usual lo tang pang (M) to which the small carrying image (17) of Hung Shing (#) from the nearby temple had been brought. This matshed is of particular interest. Inside is a red and white scroll with couplet dated Hsien Feng Z year (1859-1960) written by Cheung Yuk-tong (3FF) who, as we know from other inscrip-\n\nPage 285\n\nPage 286",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210936,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 286,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "269\n\ntions, was the senior military official at Kowloon City. The scroll has been kept by a member of the Wong Wai Chak Tong (**) of Cheung Chau, who has looked after the shrine for the past twenty years or more. He had it from the previous keeper in return for keeping the scroll and other objects — there is a table inscribed lo tang pang and for erecting the matshed. He gets all the oil and incense money given by worshippers during the three days of the first month in the lunar year that the matshed is in position. It is not put up at any other time. A fuller account, with an illustration of the scroll, is at pp 311-318 of the RAS Journal, Vol 15 (1975).\n\nThe street associations are interesting. The Pak She Association has office premises, from which it provides services and amenities for residents of the street. It takes part in the procession (chut wui i) for the Bun Festival, the major religious activity of the year in which all the leading associations take part. It also has a recognised annual part in the organisation of the festival. As stated above, the Chung Hing group has no premises, but uses the Tin Hau Temple (AGB) in that street for its meetings. It takes an annual part in the chut wui for the Bun Festival, and forms part of the organizing group like the Pak She Association. The Tai San Street people have no premises and take no part in the procession but have this curious connection with the lo tang pang. The Hing Lung Street people have association premises put up about 1960 when I was D.O. on a piece of vacant ground. They are connected with the procession for the Bun Festival but not the organisation of the festival itself.\n\nSome of the associations celebrate the lantern festival on other days during this period, probably because of the difficulties in securing accommodation in the few restaurants large enough to take the numbers of people involved. I was told that the dates do not vary and have been followed for many years.\n\nHong Kong, 1987\n\nNOTES\n\nJames Hayes\n\nThe day of my visit was also the 15th day of the lunar new year (hsin-hai year), the proper date for celebrating the Feast of Lanterns. For information on this festival see Juliet Bredon and Igor Mitrophanow's The Moon Year, A Record of",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211058,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1987",
        "page_number": 119,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "94\n\nassociated with the organization after interviewing the surviving founders in the 1960's, and there is no reason to question its veracity. Where, then, did the old lady's account come from?\n\nFirst, it should be noted that few people who visit the temple are even aware of the name of the private organization which has managed the temple for the past 60 years (Chin, et al., 1977:29). Fewer still will have read the temple's history, written in Chinese in glossy brochures which are provided mainly to the members, government officials, and other dignitaries on ceremonial occasions. Hence, it is not surprising that details of the founding of the temple are not widely known even among devotees of the god. How then do worshippers account for the temple's origins?\n\nIn this particular case, the informant appears to have adopted a miracle story which is not uncommon in the Hong Kong area: the recovery from the sea of a god's statue. The statue of Pak Tai in the temple of Cheung Chau island, near Hong Kong, for instance, was allegedly found by fishermen floating in the sea off Guangdong, and became the object of worship (Savidge, 1977:82), displacing other statues of the god. Another instance has been related by adherents of the Kuan-yin temple near Tai Ping Shan Street on Hong Kong Island, in which the statue of the goddess displayed in the temple was “carved from a block of wood floating in the sea and, according to the local story, giving off mysterious golden rays” (Topley and Hayes, 1966:126). The main icon in the Tin Hau temple at Shek Tong Tsui on Hong Kong Island was also said to have been recovered from the sea (Hayes, 1966:89). This kind of story is superficially similar to the “drifted deities” worshipped by fishermen in the Noto Peninsula area of Japan (Ogura, 1980). Many worshippers in Hong Kong will have heard this kind of story about a god's statue being recovered from the sea. When many years have passed, it is difficult for some people to remember which god's statue was found in the water. One's favourite god may then become the subject of the story.\n\nAnother case we have discovered suggests that the process of transfer can occur quite rapidly. In 1966, in a paper on temples on Hong Kong Island, Topley related the account given her by a Cantonese lady of the life of the Taoist hermit worshipped in",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211441,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1988",
        "page_number": 157,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "133\n\nthe truck, Uncle hired drivers to take the produce to Honolulu. I had many rides on the truck to pick up bananas which Okinawa immigrants grew on what used to be pineapple fields. Uncle prospered and was dubbed *Mayor of Kaneohe*. When it was time for him to retire from farming, he bought a piece of Cobb-Adam's land on Kamehameha Highway, one lot removed from Lilipuna Road. Uncle was extended credit from C. K. Ai, who was a friend of my parents, so that he could buy lumber from City Mill Company to build a simple but spacious home and a large garage for his trucking business.\n\nWhen Uncle was struggling to make ends meet, Father would try to help with small loans. During the First World War, when the price of guano was rising fast, Father bought a ton of the fertilizer and stored it under our School Street home. Uncle would pay the current price for each bag he took, and when the ton was used up, the profit was divided between Father and Uncle. Because the price of animal feed was also rising, Mother would wake Ruth, Helen and me at early dawn, competing with a neighbour, to gather algaroba beans from a back lot for Uncle at one dollar a bag.\n\nThere was little social life in those days. Uncle was a member of a fraternal society in Heeia, namely, the Bow Yee Tong, established in 1903. Mother told me that this was a Triad society, where members were initiated and sworn in as 'blood brothers' by secret rituals, so secret that they were not revealed even to their wives. In later years, after the death of Aunt, Uncle became a devout Buddhist and frequently visited a temple in Honolulu.\n\nUncle registered seven of his ten children with the Board of Health on 15 October 1918. At that time, he gave his name as Cheung Yau and Aunt's as Wong Fung, and his age at 38 and hers 33. Their children are:\n\nAnnie Ah Hoon (21 Apr 1902-1936) married Henry Auyoung\n\nMary Ah Moy Hiki (9 Oct 1904-) married Joseph Liu\n\nHelen Ah Sam (11 Dec 1906-) married Robert Zane\n\nAlice Ah Lin (15 Dec 1909-) married Frank Carpino (died 1982) 1927\n\nReuben Ah Kau (17 Jun 1911-) married Eunice Ching\n\nAaron Ah Mung (13 Oct 1913-8 Oct 1985)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211444,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1988",
        "page_number": 160,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "136\n\nenticing, wholesome meals to nurture Father back to health. Communication with her was interrupted by the Second World War and after 1949, and it was during these intervening years that she died, followed later by the death of Uncle Tin Suk, from injuries he had suffered falling down a well. Ging Heen, the only offspring of Uncle Tin Suk, is also now deceased. The details regarding his wife and children are not known to us.\n\nUncle Pong sent for Aunt Pong and their first child in 1922, and they lived with us temporarily until they bought a home on Lusitana Street. They sold this home in 1932, during the Depression, in order that Aunt Pong and the eight children could manage life easier in Shekki. They left the same time Mother, Dora and I did, on the Empress of Japan. Later, before the Second World War began, Aunt Pong sent the children back to Honolulu, two by two. Left with two of them, she was not able to return until the end of the war. The family settled in the neighbourhood store operated by Uncle Pong at the corner of Kaukini and Fort Streets, on property owned by us. This property was later condemned by the city to enlarge Kawananakoa School. Uncle Pong died from diabetes and Aunt Pong from cancer.\n\nThe Pong children are:\n\nHelen Wai Hing married Long Wa Lui\n\nViolet Wai Lin married Mun Git Chan\n\nElla Wai King married Joseph Loui\n\nErnest Dung Sun married Wai Quon Yee\n\nHerbert Cheong Fat married Dimmie Kam\n\nLily Wai Chiu married Stanley Chang\n\nClaron Ah Hoon married Pacita Tan\n\nRichard Kwock Hung married Kwei Fong Miu\n\nMy Jong grandparents and their children are all gone now. My Mother's health began to deteriorate following a bout of shingles and she passed away on 20 November 1974, after being incapacitated for about a month as a result of a stroke. Although I still feel the loss of those I love, I am comforted by, and hold on to, the many memories that are intertwined with their caring, nurturing, and warmth.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211474,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1988",
        "page_number": 190,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "166\n\nHelen decided to go back to work and obtained a teaching position as substitute in a Chicago elementary school. This did not last long, because a bad automobile accident incapacitated her for some time and left her with some residual disability. Going out to work no longer appealed to her.\n\nEdmund went to Chicago to join Helen after her second marriage. After graduating in dentistry on June 23, 1957, he married Susan Loui on 6 July, 1957. Then he joined the U.S. Army, saw service in Germany and Korea, and retired after twenty years attaining the rank of Colonel. His marriage to Susan Loui was terminated in June, 1981. He is now retired in Colorado with his second wife, Gertrude Kristiansen, whom he married in August, 1981. His three children by Susan are:\n\nKevin Thomas Chi-wing, born 19/6/60 Syrilyn Seu-lin, born 13/7/61 Clayton Edmund Chi-dun #, born 9/12/63\n\nSince there was a difference of seven years between Helen and Dora, the latter found her playmates among the children of Mother's stepsister, Mrs. Pong Fai, who had come to Hawaii with her first-born in 1922 to join her husband. He was in the dry goods business on King Street, opposite the open markets in Chinatown. After a short stay with us, the Pongs moved to their own home on Lusitana Street, not far from us, and there Dora spent much of her free time with our Pong cousins Helen Wai Hing, Violet Wai Lin, Ernest Dung Sun, Herbert Cheong Fat, Ella Wai King, Claron Ah Hoon, Lily Wai Chiu, and Richard Kwock Hung. Dora was very active in contrast to them and she recalls accidentally striking Ernest on the head with a baseball bat, fortunately without serious injury.\n\nBecause I was away at college from 1929 to 1932, I am not clear as to what went on at home during those years. I know that these were very difficult years for Mother and my sisters. Mother was concentrating on getting Ruth back to health and was neglecting to give Dora the attention she needed. Many of the household chores had to be assumed by Dora. She attended Royal School until the family moved to Kaimuki in the hope that Ruth would respond to a drier location. Dora then transferred to Liliuokalani Intermediate School for the 7th, 8th, and 9th\n\n!\n\n¡\n\n!\n\n!",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214057,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1997",
        "page_number": 125,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "92\n\nfrom which tunnels were excavated to locations under the floors\n\nA lady, appalled by the primitive standards of hygiene in 1879, wrote \".....no sort of effective drains or sewers have been provided whatever; sewerage finds its way [into rain-water conduits] is simply deposited along the whole harbour front, thus poisoning what else might be a pleasant situation........the arrangements for the daily (or among the poorer classes only bi-weekly!) removal of nuisances from every house (for subsequent conveyance to the mainland as an article of agricultural commerce) form a very unpleasant page in the sanitary statistics........\". Environmental concern clearly was not created in the late 20th century.\n\nMatters were not improved by Governor Hennessy (1877-82)'s deep conviction that for the local inhabitants their traditional earth system of sanitation was preferable to western flushing toilets. Even at the eve of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, the primitive system of collection and disposal of sewage was common, collection being based on an estimate of six taels (227 grammes) per person per day. In view of the above it is not surprising that a report recommended in 1882, amongst other things, that the city should be completely re-drained and a cholera outbreak in the following year gave timely impetus for new main drains and sewers to be laid. Nevertheless it was not until soon after the first serious outbreak of plague in 1894 that the main drainage system in the principal urban area had been practically completed. Legislation was then passed in 1896 making drainage for houses compulsory. Records indicate that the main storm-water drains around the turn of the century were formed with mass gravity retaining walls and incorporated a half-round dry-weather flow channel; where appropriate these drains were covered with simply-supported concrete or granite slabs.\n\nSubsequently more open nullahs were constructed, often running along the centre-lines of road reserves, for instance in Kowloon along Nam Cheong Street (Sham Shui Po) which was completed in 1912 and Waterloo Road (both of these now having been decked, mainly to effect much needed road improvements). As a result of continuing enhancements to the drainage system, in particular those relating to nullah and stream training works, plague was virtually eliminated by 1924 whilst deaths from malaria, although still numerous at the outbreak of the Pacific war, gradually declined.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214198,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 56,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "19\n\neration to be found in wine. Then there is Journey to the West, which has been translated into English, where the Monkey King goes in search of immortality. We have Chinese opera and puppets (Liu, 1995:43-58). A great deal of mirth is to be found at Hong Kong festivals, whether it be at the Cheung Chau Bun Festival or the festival of the Hakka Boy God, Tam Kung. Then again, close friends of a bridegroom get a great deal of enjoyment from making fun of him on his wedding night.\n\nThere is also considerable humour (funniness) in the countless everyday expressions of 'old one-hundred names' (the man in the street). Such sayings which can be described as 'words that work,' are as common in China as chopsticks. For example, inserting money in a car-parking meter is known as 'feeding the hungry tiger,' and, when one is 'booked,' the 'ticket' placed under the windscreen wiper of one's car by a traffic warden, is called naau yuk kon (4), which is slang meaning a thin slice of Chinese dried, sweet beef. There is also a great deal of humour in the vocabularies of merchants and con men, nicknames and clever allusions to everyday objects and curses (Bolton, 1997:299). To scold someone is also an art which onlookers often treat as entertainment. The art is for the person to stand there and give the other person face and let him or her have their say. Then, after remaining quiet, the other person steps in and lets the other party have it!\n\nThe Chinese language abounds with expressions, many commonly used, which make you smile on the outside and laugh within. There are amusing adages such as:\n\n(a) Melon fields, under the pear tree.\n\n(Cantonese know, when this is said it means: don't bend down in a melon field or adjust your hat under a pear tree, or people may think you are stealing melons or pears. Thus, it implies, do not arouse suspicion.)\n\n(b) When a pretty woman marries an ugly man it is like sticking fresh flowers behind the ears of a donkey.\n\n(c) Local ginger is not hot.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    },
    {
        "id": 214454,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 312,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "279\n\n1970\n\n1971\n\n1973\n\n1974\n\n1977\n\n1978\n\n1986\n\n1989\n\n1994\n\n1995\n\n1997\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers at Gun Club.\n\nDeath of \"Billy\" Regimental Goat on 8 June. Buried behind Church. (The \"gravestone\" was salvaged, prior to excavation work for the new PLA Hospital, & removed to ASD Property Services Branch Antiquities Store at APB Centre in Cheung Sha Wan. No remains of \"Billy\" were found.)\n\n1st Bttn. The Black Watch at Gun Club.\n\n1st Bttn. The Royal Hampshire Regt. at Gun Club,\n\nAlanbrooke Block (British MQs) & Infants' School (Block 27) demolished. New Gurkha MQs, Temple, Clinic & School build started. 10 Int & Sec Coy moved into Colony Club (Block 36) from Argyle Street Camp.\n\nGurkha Transport Regt. & Gurkha Signals moved into Gun Club from Shamshuipo Camp. Victoria Junior School moved over from Victoria Barracks.\n\nNew Classroom built at Gun Club Primary School. Skeleton said to date from Japanese occupation unearthed during excavations.\n\nSevere flooding on May 2 to MT compound causing considerable damage to vehicles, buildings and equipment. Compound again flooded on May 20 during Typhoon Brenda.\n\nColony Club (Block 36), St. Eligius' Church, and the old gun shed (Block 29) demolished to make way for the new military hospital. Banyan trees transplanted to elsewhere in the barracks also to the new Kowloon Walled City Park.\n\nBarracks vacated by the British Army and handed over to Hong Kong Government.\n\nBarracks occupied by People's Liberation Army following handover of Hong Kong to China.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 215210,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 306,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "270\n\nconnection, as my mother was a Yip from Chan Uk Village, also at Nam Tau. There were over ten families of Ng in Kowloon Tsai, but we had no ancestral hall there. There were two parts to the village, an upper and lower part - Sheung and Ha Wai. We lived in the Ha Wai. There was a Tin Hau temple at the village, and we had puppet shows on the goddess' birthday every year when I was young. We also had a Ta Chiu in the village every ten years.\n\n'I was married to a Li of Sheung Sha Po Village when I was 18. My husband was a revenue officer in the Customs service. We had three houses in the village, but they were all demolished for the airfield extension. We were sent first to a vacant tenement house in Cheung On Street [not identified in a modern street guide, but very likely to have been in nearby suburban Kowloon] whose owner had left. We were there for 4-6 months, before moving to Model Village.\n\n'I am Shing Sung, now 55, a Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau and came to Kowloon when I was 18 to join my uncle who owned a wooden house at Tsat Kan Uk [The Seven Houses], a place north of old Kowloon Tsai Village. I later built a wooden hut there for myself. I came to Model Village after the war. I remember that there were private fields in the general area, as well as government land. People named Fung, Hui and Tsang owned fields there before the war.\n\n'I am Madam Law Mui, aged 57, also Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau, and came to Kowloon when I was 20, to marry Shing Sung's elder brother - also to The Seven Houses. We farmed government land there, for which we had a permit and paid fees, both before and after the war. There were many people at Ap Tsai Wu (Duckling Pond), the name of the general area where we lived and farmed. They were scattered here and there, because we were all vegetable farmers and you built your own house beside your own plot of land. Like Shing Sung, we moved to Model Village after the war.\n\n'I am Madam Kwai-fung, aged 64. I am a Hakka, born at Sha Po Tsai, Kowloon, where my family had lived for several generations. My father kept a store in Lower Sha Po, near Blacksmiths' Street in the Kowloon City suburb. When I was 22, I was married to Ng Sam-hong, a Punti, of Old Kak Hang Village, next to Nga Tsin Wai, when we had gone to live in a newly repaired house. We had two houses of our own at the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
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    },
    {
        "id": 215841,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2002",
        "page_number": 140,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "73\n\nin which the inauguration ceremony was being held. Plate 10 hints at the profusion of flags and banners in evidence on these occasions. Floral banners were also in use when farewelling one official and welcoming another in his place. The one shown in Plate 11 was erected at a street entrance on Cheung Chau in 1962, to mark my departure from office, and my successor's arrival to take up the District Officer's post.\n\nItems in use at ceremonial occasions\n\nBy time-honoured practice, various items were in common use in the course of the proceedings:\n\nIndividual rosettes\n\nFirstly, each of the principal guests was provided with an ornate rosette, on which his or her name and (if an official) his or her appointment was noted. This is often done with a Chinese writing brush, in black ink (see Plates 12, 13 and 14).\n\nScissors for ribbon-cutting\n\nAt all opening ceremonies, the officiating guest was invited to cut the ribbon stretched across the stage used (or especially erected) for the event, or across a doorway, as appropriate to the occasion. He or she was accompanied by other principal guests, who also participated in the ribbon-cutting. (Plate 14 shows the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Kam Tin Ta Chiu in 1985). For this purpose, the host body had usually to prepare special scissors, in gold or silver plate, inscribed with the name and date of the event, and in the case of the principal guest, his or her name.\n\nPresentation items\n\nIt was important at all ceremonies to make public acknowledgment of the persons and groups who had helped to finance or otherwise contributed to the particular event or project; not forgetting the boy scouts, girl guides, cubs and brownies or other organized youth groups who so often lined the official route to the site, or held the ground. Their assistance was duly recognized by the presentation of various kinds of commemorative items.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
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    },
    {
        "id": 216096,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2002",
        "page_number": 395,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "329\n\naccount. It was an old colonial style building with paddle fans suspended from ceilings. This structure was replaced by an air-conditioned building in 1959, which was, in turn, replaced by another new Standard Chartered building opened formally in 1990. In the 1950s many buildings were old, roomy, colonial style, low-rise buildings, with colonnades, wide balconies and large windows or French doors in order to allow for \"through draught.\" That was important. Windows usually were fitted with louvres or jalousies.\n\nI was taken to meet the Director of Education whose office was then in the lovely old French Mission Building (now the Court of Final Appeal) at the top of Battery Path. I had to sign the visitor's book at Government House. 'Unless you do this,' I was warned, 'you will not be invited to the garden party on the Queen's birthday.' In spite of what people would often have you believe they were generally proud to receive an invitation from the Governor. Just as today they like to receive an invitation to the reception, in the Convention and Exhibition Centre, on China's National Day. (When a HKBRAS group visited Government House in January 1997, shortly before The Handover, just about every member was keen to sign the book.) There was no doubt, too, that Hong Kong people felt greatly honoured if they were decorated by the Queen just as they feel honoured today if they receive a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region award.\n\nMy Yorkshire colleague, back in early 1955, also introduced me to a reliable comprador. In this sense, I mean a grocer. In fact I still deal with the Asia Company to this day. Compared to the aseptic, soulless supermarkets I have wonderful memories of street-corner comprador shops stocked with goodies, including kam wa hams hanging from ceilings. I am, of course, talking of times when cheung saams were far more common and years before Big Macs and Kentucky Fried Chicken had made their debuts in the Territory. Regarding the latter, one person commented to me, 'We Chinese have a 1,000 ways to cook a chicken. Kentucky will never make it!' But although they failed once they returned to Hong Kong, Kentucky Fried Chicken has been a success story.\n\nWhen I arrived I had to register and obtain an identity card. I was quite embarrassed. On arrival at the North Point office, as I was a European, I was taken by my Chinese colleague straight to the front of",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
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