[ { "id": 204357, "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-1961", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n121\n\non the male relatives, can be got round by omitting pregnant wives from the ceremony. There is also a belief that exhumation should not take place during the years on which fall the 51st, 61st, 71st and other such birthdays of the male head of the family.\n\nIn Chinese public cemeteries, the same principle of exhumation is practised. At the end of each year, the particular coffin section where burials have been taking place is closed and left untouched for five years. At the end of that time, an official notice of intention to clear graves is published, giving relatives six months in which to exhume remains privately and re-inter them in the urn section. Any remains not exhumed privately on the expiry of the period of notice are then exhumed by Government and the remains re-interred in an urn section. The cleared coffin section is then eventually used again for coffin burials.\n\nApplying equally to urban and New Territories burials are the two important grave worshipping festivals of Ching Ming (105 days after the winter solstice, i.e. either 5th or 6th of April) and Chung Yeung (9th day of the 9th moon, i.e. in October). The first is the more important. The second was originally not a grave-worshipping festival at all, but an occasion for climbing to the top of a mountain to avoid evil spirits. Since so many graves are situated on hills, the practice of combining the hill climb with an opportunity of worshipping at graves has been developed.\n\nStrict Cantonese belief also requires that, at ch'un she (#1), which falls annually about two weeks before the Ching Ming festival, relatives should pay their respects to persons who have died within the past year. This ceremony usually takes place at home and its participants are restricted to older persons.\n\nAt the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals, it is customary for whole families to make an outing to their relatives' graves. There, offerings of pork, fruit and flowers are presented; incense and candles burnt; prayers offered; crackers let off. Minor repairs to the graves may be carried out and undergrowth cut back. Coffin graves in the New Territories may be marked with lime at the end and all types of graves usually have a piece of red paper and another piece of white paper underneath the red, tucked under a stone beside them. Exhumations will often be carried out at the Ching Ming festival. At the Tung Wah coffin repository, caskets of remains are opened and the bones spread out to air on sheets of paper.\n\nChinese believe that the spirit of a person leaves the body on death. In Hong Kong the general belief is that it descends into hell where the judge decides on the basis of the earthly merits of the deceased whether it may be allowed to return to earth by reincarnation as a child or, if very evil, as an animal. The main fear of the dead consists rather of the belief that to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205272, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung\n\n27\n\nheight. The character toi was in a variant which has been mistaken by many people for tang (). Later, a further seven characters were added, vertically, on the right side, recording that repairs had been carried out in the ting mau year of the Ch'ing Emperor Chia Ch'ing (A.D. 1807). Of course, this means the re-engravement of the three original characters, for there was otherwise nothing to be repaired. The character wang (£) \"king\" should be huang (§) which stands for \"emperor\". It was first intentionally inscribed in that erroneous form in the history of the Sung Dynasty compiled by the Yuan officials where it was recorded that there were two Sung \"Kings\", implying that they were not recognised as Emperors perpetuating the Sung dynastic throne. This was a grave mistake subsequently pointed out by many Chinese scholars. We should use the character huang for \"Emperor\" instead. The naming of the Sung Huang Tai Garden and Sung Huang Tai Road by the Hong Kong Government is therefore correct.\n\nThe precise meaning of the name Sung Wong Toi is not easily ascertained. It has been alleged that the boy Emperor Tuan Tsung used to rest in the cave beneath the great rock and sometimes played hide and seek there with his small brother. The mound has been likened to a toi, a terrace or high building. One historian has asserted that a watch tower was built on the top of the mound to look out for the advent of the enemy, hence its name. This last theory is not credible since the mound itself was already high enough for watching over the sea to the east without the superstructure. In my own research work, a line has been found in the Hsin-an Gazetteer which gives a very useful hint for the interpretation of the name. It reads: \"There were three characters 'Sung Wong Toi', on the great rock which was beside the Toi\".12 In reverse the last part can be read \"the Toi was beside the great rock\". Therefore, neither the great rock nor the hill itself can be identified as the Toi. The logical conclusion cannot be anything but that a separate toi must have been constructed near the foot by the side of the hill and the big characters were later engraved on the great rock merely as an indication of the historic spot commemorating the visit of two Emperors. It might have been a real watch tower, for the rocky hill was not easy to climb for military purposes. But where exactly was the toi or tower is a problem which remains to be solved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205403, "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": 165, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "158 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nTHE CHAN FAMILY OF TSEUNG KWAN O \n\nThe village of Tseung Kwan O (4) is situated in the Hang Hau sub-district of the New Territories. It stands at the head of the bay of the same name, which is the northern inlet of Junk Bay. The village is said to derive its name of \"a general's bay\" from its resemblance to a general's armour in a geomantic sense.\n\nThe village is a small one; two rows of houses of the single room type. It is surrounded by padi fields, which in front stretch down to the sea, and behind climb up the stream valley in many terraces to the Clear Water Bay Road and the village of Tseng Lan Shue (##). Although the village is but a short distance from Kowloon as the crow flies, it was, until recently, difficult to reach and thus remained largely unaffected by urban influences. Now, however, the bay has been made the home of the Colony's ship breaking industry and both shores are being reclaimed for steel rolling mills.\n\nThe village itself is compact and was perhaps originally walled. Because of this, the fact that it is situated at the mouth of the stream, and because it possesses a large area of fields, it is not surprising to find that the village is inhabited by Cantonese (or Punti) in an area where most of the other villages in the highlands are Hakka. It is also not surprising that this village was founded at an earlier date than the Hakka villages in the same district.2\n\nThe village includes a number of surnames, but the main clan is the Chan (陳). Although this clan does not now possess an official genealogy or tsuk po (族譜), having destroyed it during the Japanese occupation, they maintain records of their family for 26 generations, dating back to the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1279), the first recorded ancestor being reputed, as is usual, to be a successful scholar and official. During the Sung, this branch moved from Kiangsi to Nam Tau, the district capital of the present Po On district. In their travels, they followed the route of many of the old Cantonese families of the New Territories area. The village itself was founded by the 16th generation at the beginning of the Ching dynasty (1644-1911), approximately the same date of foundation as the other large Cantonese villages of the Sai Kung district.4\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207041, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "106\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nrepresenting the age of the person who placed the offering in the temple, and also long metal forks offered to priests indicating their age. In the grounds of Vat Vixun is the melon-shaped stupa in memory of a Lao queen, the That Mang Mo and another vihara, unrestored, lies nearby. Vat That Luang is raised on a mound overlooking a sports field and is very sober. The vihara has a two-tiered roof and rises from an ornamental stucco band with medallions on the walls. There is an excellent and large carving of a scene from the Ramayana at the back of the altar, and the temple possesses a number of fine palm-leaf manuscripts which are copied by novices. At each end of the vihara is a chedi; the square one to the south is topped by bronze metal plates and is impressive.\n\nThis is by no means an exhaustive list of the temples of the city; temple building still continues, and Vat Monnorom, which used to consist of nothing except a large torso of an antique Buddha statue, is now being rebuilt around the statue. The energetic may climb to the top of the Phu Si less to visit the shrine, which is without interest, but to admire the magnificent view over the Mekong valley and that of its tributary, the Nam Kam. The Vietnamese temple is in hideous taste but again has fine views over the river. The small modern royal palace may not be visited and the residence of the crown prince is a modest French-style colonial building. A number of side streets are worth strolling down, if only for their tranquility; they are unpaved, the houses are of bamboo matting and atap, the gardens bright with bougainvillias and children look with amazement at westerners.\n\nSome thirty kilometres up the Mekong river are the Pak Ou caves. The scenery becomes ever wilder, the mountains more dramatic and the rapids stronger. Pak Ou consists of a limestone block straddling a bend in the river at the point where the Nam Hu joins it. There are two caves; the first, Tham Tong, contains numerous statues of the Buddha left there by the faithful (and some of which have recently been removed by the unfaithful, which is why it is necessary to report to the police on arrival and to be watched throughout the visit); through the frangipanni trees a path leads upwards to a second cave which goes further into the rock. The entrance to this is of carved wood and it is guarded by a jovial Buddha of Chinese inspiration; remnants of carved and decorated posts are to be found inside, leading one to suppose that there might have been a kind of baldachino.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207323, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES ON CHIUCHOW OPERA\n\n83\n\nto find out the reason for the continual postponement of the marriage. He is characterised as a clown, and the fat wet-nurse appears also as a go-between, a funny character in many Chinese operas. This scene gives ample opportunity to display the vocabulary of comic jokes, movements and mime typical of the Chiuchow opera. He wears gay red costumes, and carries a fan which he handles like a juggler. In this scene the two are describing their long climb by walking in various ways in a circle, pausing to admire the scenery.\n\nThe wet-nurse asks the learned Hsin-tsai for the names and explanations of things seen along the way. \"And this mountain?\"\n\n\"It is called Han Mountain.\"\n\n\"And this river?\"\n\n\"It is called Han River.\"\n\n**\n\n\"And that ancestor temple over there?\" \"It is the Han Memorial Temple.\"\n\n\"Why is everything here called Han?\"\n\n\"Because the great scholar Han Yü was sent from the Capital to Chiuchow and gave his name to all these.\"*\n\n\"Oh, you and your father are like the great Han Yü.\"\n\n\"Oh you really think so? Why?\"\n\n\"Because Han Yü grabbed all the mountains, the river and the ancestor hall, and so on, and now you and your father grab the people's land.\"\n\nThe wet-nurse carries an umbrella and a red pao-fu# or a cloth-roll containing provisions for the journey, slung over the shoulder which is the traditional requisite to indicate travelling. On the Chinese stage luggage is never carried to indicate arrival, departure or travel, but a bamboo-umbrella or a red pao-fu, or both, are used instead.\n\nThe Hsiu-tsai is complaining about the Su family who are constantly postponing his marriage with their daughter, and is wondering what strange reason there may be behind it. They come to a gate erected by the emperor's order to honour a woman who has demonstrated her chastity under hard conditions. The Hsiu-tsai\n\n*For a notice of Han Yü (768-824) see Harbert A. Giles A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, London and Shanghai, 1898, pp. 254-256.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207340, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "100 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nbesides music-halls and lodging-houses, the haunts of vagabonds well known to the police.19 \n\nThe spectacle of Jack Tars, returning from the grog-shops of Tai Ping Shan and Sai Ying Pun, tipsily and rowdily weaving their way along Queen's Road, affronted respectable Britons. A Wesleyan missionary complained in 1894 that the colony was always upset by the arrival of a fresh man-of-war whose crew once ashore would behave like wild animals. \"They drink like fishes,\" he complained, \"ride round the town in rickshaws, making night hideous with their shouts, eat over-ripe fruit from street stalls, are stricken with cholera, and die in a few hours.\" He insisted that for soldiers and sailors (and possibly for most others in the East at the present moment) \"total abstinence is a duty\".20 \n\nThe Wesleyan missionary, a fervent supporter of the temperance movement, misunderstood the reasons for excessive drinking among servicemen in Hong Kong. It was not due to innate depravity or irreligion. Soldiers and sailors drank because of the tedium, the hideous boredom they had to endure as pariahs in Hong Kong. They were totally excluded from polite European society; there were no young white women of their own class to walk out with; there were few entertainments, except lugubrious church or mission functions, provided for them. Off duty the only pleasures available, apart from a climb up the Peak, a jaunt in a sampan, or a visit to the Botanical Gardens, were the drinking dens and brothels of the more welcoming Chinese quarters of the town. \n\nSailors, in particular, led almost completely isolated lives in the Far East. News from home could take months to reach their ships. Often they spent over a year without going ashore on leave. Walter White, a ship's painter, joined H.M.S. Scout at Sheerness in 1859, left England in that year and did not return from service on the China Station until 1864.21 His experience was typical. He spent New Year's Day, 1862, in Hong Kong and put up at the European Hotel, a hostelry overlooking Tai Ping Shan. From the verandah of his hotel, he wrote home, \"you can sit and look down upon the teeming, squalid living, jangling and evil smelling Chinese quarters.\"22 But it was in this teeming quarter that White and his naval companions were obliged to spend their evenings of leave, \n\nMajor Henry Knollys epitomises the life of the British gunner in Hong Kong in the 1880s thus:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207487, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n247\n\nrun by as entirely separate institution. After the Canadians moved from North Point we drew our patients only from Kowloon and I suppose that the prestige of adhering to the Geneva Convention outweighed in Japanese minds the administrative drawbacks of our site in Bowen Road.\n\nAs time went on the need to supply and guard a unit widely separated from the main body of prisoners must have become more onerous. Increasing shortages and difficulty in supplying electricity and water to Bowen Road were probably instrumental in finally bringing about our transfer to Kowloon.\n\n24 MARCH -- 9 SEPTEMBER 1945\n\nWe now moved into the last few months of our captivity. At first, staff and patients were accommodated in Sham Shui Po camp and from there working parties of our staff went out daily to prepare the hospital. It was on that day that I got my only view of the Heep Yunn School and I did not like what I saw, but the same day I learned that we were to have the Central British School for use. This looked and proved to be a suitable building and we began to move our gear there. A little later Saito told me that the staff would be reduced to 40 all ranks though previously he had said that there would be 40 other ranks. On 9 April 6 officers and 34 other ranks moved in to the Central British School. Besides myself there were Major G.F. Harrison, Major J.W. Anderson, Captain A. Coombs, Lieutenant (Q.M.) F.J. Campbell and the Rev. James Squires our padre. There were five Royal Engineers, M.S.M. Sims, Q.M.S. Tyas, and sappers Samways, Carvell and Climo, and there were 29 other ranks R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. headed by Sergeant-majors Muxlow and Bartley. On 10 April 62 patients of whom 58 had been in Bowen Road and four were newly arrived in the hospital. There were at first no non-medical workers though these had been promised. On 12 April a further 62 patients arrived, 31 of these being crippled but in fair general condition and a further 31 being what we then called old men (i.e., unfit for service by reason of age). Two army officers and some American and British merchant navy officers were included, but we had no special accommodation for officers. The Japanese ordered that all patients were to have white beds, another example of window dressing. The hospital provided for 34 beds for patients on the ground floor and 81 on the first floor which also housed the operating theatre, X-ray room and laboratory.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207527, "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": 295, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\nAppendix “C”\n\nRoll of Staff Table 1\n\n \n Rank\n Name\n Unit\n \n \n Major\n Anderson*\n J.W.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Sergeant\n Anderson\n J.H.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Lt. Colonel\n Bowie*\n D.C.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n W.O.I.\n Bartley*\n W.L.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Bulter*\n G.E.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Lieut. (QM)\n Campbell*\n F.J.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Sergeant\n Cunningham\n T.C.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Chandler*\n F.R.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Cawley\n T\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Captain\n Clyne\n T.F.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Q.M.S.\n Coombs**\n A.H.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Cummings*\n R.R.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Climo*\n R.\n R. Engineers\n \n \n Sergeant\n Carvell*\n J.\n R. Engineers\n \n \n Major\n Durran\n J.\n H.K.V.D.C. (Medical)\n \n \n Corporal\n Davies\n A.F.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Dodds*\n J.W.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Sergeant\n Edge\n H.B.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Entwistle*\n H.R.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Major\n Fraser\n J.D.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Captain\n Fraser\n N.L.\n A.D. Corps\n \n \n $Sergeant\n Forknall\n G.W.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Galt\n C.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Major\n Harrison*\n G.F.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Hindley*\n F.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Harper*\n D.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Hugill*\n W.J.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Harrison\n R.C.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Harrison*\n C.E.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Hedley*\n J.H.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Howe*\n S.J.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Jenkins*\n J.G.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Johns\n P.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Private\n Jotcham*\n A.E.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n S/Sergeant\n Keogh\n G.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Lethbridge*\n F.W.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n \n Corporal\n Lyall\n R.\n R.A.M.C.\n \n\n287", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207839, "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-1976", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "212\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nbut more generally to suit his own view of what is desirable. On the other hand, precisely because he is a politician, and not a blank sheet of paper on which the opinions of others are written, he must manoeuvre within the limits of what he assesses village wishes and demands to be. So that there are occasions when, in order to retain his position, he must take a stand which is not the one he might himself have chosen. Fung shui disputes may illustrate this case. A Village Representative may consider that the claim made by his villagers is unwarranted or at least ill-advised, but if he is to maintain himself as a political figure he may need to support the claim and press it hard enough to assure his constituents that he is acting as their leader. Village politics are non-ideological; few questions of principle are involved; and a man who has made up his mind to be and stay a Village Representative may need to move very freely in the positions he takes, more especially if there are rivals for the post.\n\n37. Power comes to the Village Representative from the position he enjoys vis-a-vis the outside world. He confers with other Village Representatives and may be sought out by men who have conceived some economic interest in his village, from the humble immigrant who would like to establish himself there on a plot of land to grow vegetables (and whose chances of success in getting himself accepted may depend very directly on what the Village Representative is prepared to do for him) to the land speculator who may have to rely both on the Village Representative's detailed knowledge of the complex land tenure of the village—some Village Representatives appear to be considerable authorities on Land Office records—and on his good will and good offices in securing what he wants. The Village Representatives of many villages in the economically developed areas of the New Territories are oriented in their interests towards the local country town and beyond. Some of them live in the towns and are involved in urban economic activities; a few have residences in Kowloon. The higher they climb in New Territories politics the closer their relations seem to become with business men from the city, and since the New Territories grow as an area of interest to urban investors and industrialists the local politicians tend to increase their external contacts. I was struck by the evidence that the clan associations in the urban area are trying to draw New Territories leaders into their ranks, using the kinship tie which is implied in the possession of a common surname.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208139, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "162\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nAmong the plant eating insects in grass-land the most obvious, often the largest insects, are grasshoppers: Patanga sp.—a large brown grasshopper (ca 5 cm or more long), and the smaller short-horned Acrida sp.—are both common in this area. On the plants themselves live leaf-hoppers, spittle bugs, scale insects, the caterpillar larvae of many grass moths and butterflies. The butterfly groups, including \"Skippers\" and \"Small Browns\" are particularly common. In summer cicadas are obvious, but not before May. Debris eaters include many ground-inhabiting insects which are not seen unless searched for. Cockroaches, ants, millipedes, and many beetles fall into this category. The predators that live on insects include the numerous spiders, both hunting and web building, and other families such as mantids (M).\n\ne) Also beside the car park are some big granite rocks with crustose lichens on their surface. Look for:\n\nCaloplaca sp. -- bright orange color.\n\nAspicilia sp. -- pale grey with black spots; probably the most abundant species.\n\nBuellia sp. -- dark grey\n\nand the small foliose lichen:\n\nXanthoparmelia congensis -- yellowish green, somewhat \"leafy\" and less part of the rock than the other species\n\nf) Across Tai Mo Shan Road the hillside has been planted with Acacia confusa (a leguminous plant, therefore able to \"fix\" atmospheric nitrogen). The grey patches on the stems of the acacias are the lichen Lecanora varia. Among the grass in this area is the primitive fern Lycopodium cernuum which is used for making floral decorations, fa pai (RM).\n\ng) If you climb to the top of the first ridge of the site at (f), you can look down onto grassland that was burnt in 1976. This is shown as Plate 1 of the Symposium report (Thrower, 1975); at a guess the fire has \"put back\" the process of succession by about 10 years. Notice the small", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208194, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n217 \n\nis formed on top. Then pick out the thin layer with a bamboo stick, upon which it is allowed to dry. The end-product will be the delicious and nourishing bean skim. Being performed entirely by hand in the past, the whole process was not so simple as this brief description suggests.\n\nOver eighty years ago, my great-grandfather with his two sons and their wives fled from famine-stricken Chi Kam hsien in Wai Chau prefecture, Kwangtung, and reached Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan where they started their occupation of bean skim making. At that time, there was no highway linking Tsuen Wan with Kowloon. In order to sell the bean skim and buy more yellow beans, my ancestors had to climb over rugged hills every day.\n\nIn those days, the yellow beans were first exposed under hot sun (or heated in a pot in case of dull weather). The impurities such as sand and stalks were carefully picked out from the beans, then the beans were crushed by manual labour until the husks were separated from the beans. Beans and husks were then poured into a bamboo container which was tossed up and down with both hands so as to cast out the husks. The pure beans were then put into a tank and soaked in water for four hours (six hours in winter). Then the beans were ground into a paste by pushing hard at the stone-grinder. The amount of beans could not be in excess of forty catties if the whole process was to be finished within one day, and one had to rise about 2 a.m. to start grinding. This paste was then wrapped inside a cloth bag and the fluid squeezed out. The refuse was then filtered off, while the pasty fluid was poured into twelve flat-bottomed metal pans and boiled, using grass as fuel. (The smoke as emitted from the fluid and the burning grass is not unlike tear gas, giving one a suffocating feeling.) The surface foam was removed, and the fluid kept at a temperature that kept it near boiling. A thin layer of membrane formed on the surface, which was taken off with a bamboo stick and allowed to dry. This process of heating, layer-forming and taking off was repeated again and again, until the paste in all the twelve pans became membrane i.e. bean skim. This process must have required the longest working-hours of the world, for one had to work at it twenty-one hours on end every day, from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208195, "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": 234, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "218\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nOnce this trade was taken up, not a single family member could sit idly by. If the family consisted of only five members, all five had to be mobilized: first of all, to grind the beans and then boil the paste. After the paste was hot enough, one member had still to keep heating it to produce the layers of bean skim. Another member carried the products prepared the day before to Kowloon where he sold them to the shops and bought more beans. The remaining members, after finishing their breakfast, had to climb the hills to look for dry grass which they fetched home for fuel. This was the hard way by which our ancestors managed to make a hand-to-mouth living and rear us.\n\nNowadays, we have electricity, motor and transport facilities and the manufacturing process has mostly been mechanized. The kind of hard life that our ancestors once led will never be repeated.\n\nADDENDUM\n\nThe brief account that follows is taken from Peng-chun Chang's China at the Crossroads (London, Evans Brothers, 1936) p.145.\n\nAn example of a type of manufacturing common in the villages is the preparation of tofu, or bean curd. A tofu shop may be seen in nearly every village. In this shop is the mill used for crushing the beans. This mill is run by human or animal power. The beans are ground in the mill and then mixed with water. The liquid, called bean milk, is squeezed from the mass and boiled in a boiler which is part of the shop's equipment. This boiled milk is frequently eaten. If, however, certain chemicals are added to the boiled liquid, it solidifies and is known as bean curd, or tofu. The tofu manufacture represents a rough, everyday type of manufacture common in the villages. It exhibits the skill of accumulated experience, for this food has been common in the diet of the Chinese people for centuries.\n\nTofu is high in protein and takes the place of dairy products and meat in the diet of the people. Recent scientific experimentation in China is endeavouring to find a commercially profitable way of reducing the bean milk to a powder to take the place of imported powdered milk.\n\nChang was a native of Tientsin and presumably is referring mainly to North China. For a recent detailed account from Hong Kong based on field work in 1961 and 1963 see Vol. One, Part III, 27, \"The Bean Curd Maker\" of Cornelius Osgood's The Chinese. A Study of a Hong Kong Community (Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona Press, 3 vols, 1975), pp. 393-404. These volumes contain a wealth of information on many traditional economic undertakings.\n\nFOUR CHINESE ‘BANKS' FAIL, PARTNERS BLAME HEAD\n\nThe following is extracted, in part, from a report in The Washington Post Metro for Sunday 26 February, 1978.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208357, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n65\n\nthe first day or days. But before we continue to discuss such social messages as may have been conveyed by way of the grave ritual, I wish to draw some further attention to the distribution in time of grave worship. Consider the following cases:\n\n+\n\nIn Baling, it is recorded, all families cut paper, 'climb the mounds' £*, and repair the graves on the third day of the third moon.23 Grave offerings were considered at Gold Food or Hanshi in Wuling.24 From Zhongxiang #the chronicler reports that on the same date sons and daughters pay respect with cattle meat as ji offerings on the graves of the deceased. Paper streamers were hung up and the graves were worshiped #. Loud lamenting was to be heard.25 In Jiangxia the graves were swept at Cold Food.26 Cold Food is an occasion of one to three days, celebrated 105 days after the winter solstice. This means that it coincides with the opening days of the Qingming solar period. There is good reason to return to this calendar event in the following discussion. In Baling the grave worship had crossed from the solar calendar to the lunar almanac; the third day of the third moon will be a varying solar date in the spring.\n\nSome other data are more interesting--and puzzling. We find, widely dispersed in time, grave worship of a form which strongly resembles the accounts presented above. Consider the following notes: The chronicler of Baling tells us:\n\nthe people during the leisure of the first moon pay respect # to and sweep the graves. It is named 'to pay respect to the year on the grave' Moreover, matters of death resemble the way of life 車死如生之道也.27\n\nThe last phrase may be taken to mean that the paying of respect at or on the graves in the festive season of the first moon followed an order which resembled the conventions of paying respect between living relatives at the lunar New Year.\n\nWe have noted already that grave worship occurred in Yuanjiang on Earth God Day in the second moon,28 before the spring equinox. A further record from Wuchang states that in that ‘county\", in the second moon, on Earth God Day people si je offered fresh things on the graves.29 On the same day the graves in Chongyang were decorated with 'top branches' and were given ji offerings. In the same locality it was customary to make ji offerings on the graves on the sixth day of the sixth moon to the shen † spirit(s?) of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208359, "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": 83, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n67\n\nthan is brought out by an analysis merely stressing the combination as a metaphorical expression.\n\nMountains are of ritual concern at the autumn festival of Chongyang, when people, among other things, climb mountains, or 'ascend heights', as the Chinese chroniclers put it. In my earlier explorations of the structure of the ritual calendar I have suggested40 that this festival has something in common with Qingming. Both occasions are ritual gatherings of people away from built-up areas in natural surroundings. They differ in that Qingming activities are focused on the ancestral tombs, whereas at Chongyang attention is on mountain tops. Now, indeed, we have found that the difference between the two festivals is less clear in that the tombs are called 'mountains'. One conclusion to be drawn from this circumstance provides support for our earlier hypothesis. There is a positive link between the two occasions. In a way, climbing tombs and climbing mountains were seen as rather similar activities. They were similar, but apparently not identical,\n\nIn this light, it is most interesting to read that in Youxian there is a mountain three li outside of the East Gate of the town, called Lingguifen**. The local population climb its top on the third day of the third moon, and again on the ninth day of the ninth moon.4 The third day of the third moon may, as we have seen, be a projection of the Qingming event on to the lunar calendar.\n\nAgain, graves are containers for the physical remains of dead persons, and thus they are linked to the ancestral tablets which, in a sense, are 'containers' for some more spiritual essence of the same dead.42 The cult of the dead in their graves can, on one hand be juxtaposed mountain worship; and, on the other, the ceremonialism focused on the ancestor tablets in homes and special halls. This triangular set of relationships will be of importance in our search for a system of meaning embedded in the Chinese festival calendar.\n\n4. Sweeping the graves\n\nAt this point we must examine what people did on the graves. One prominent feature was that the latter were cleaned and repaired. This meant presumably that they were cleaned of weeds and, if necessary, resurfaced.\n\nresurfaced.43 In my earlier outline of a hypothesis of the Chinese annual calendar as a system of ancestor worship, I suggested that in this sweeping and mending of the graves we encounter a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209782, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "19\n\nlatter paid a rent to the former and had the privilege of mortgaging, selling, or transferring the top-soil rights. Surviving contracts reveal that these parties were referred to by different names, but the terms were like those just described.\n\nThis tenure arrangement made it possible for the rural people to reclaim land, in which case additional land became farmed by the top-soil claimants which never became registered so no taxes were collected. As a result, a tremendous amount of land was never reported for land tax collection, and agriculture became under-taxed. On the other hand, the tax-paying households with sub-soil rights continued to acquire a fixed rent which enabled them to manage other resources. The consequences were that (1) agriculture developed and more people were accommodated on the land, and (2) countless top-soil claimant households were able to climb the socioeconomic stepladder to higher social status and accumulate more property.\n\nTherefore, we can readily see that when the British and Japanese imposed a new land tax, they were able to garner a much higher land tax revenue, and why the sub-soil claimants would resist having their land rents reduced when their land taxes were being increased. Unless the KMT authorities truly understood this aspect of the land tenure system, their efforts to restructure property rights were bound to fail.\n\nThe Japanese in Taiwan stumbled upon the best solution to the problem. They had made use of the Liu Ming-ch'uan survey of the 1870s and initiated new surveys of customary law of their own. In this way they learned about this long-term tenancy system and devised a policy to change it. They first conducted a land survey of the island, using police power to complete that survey, and then they issued bonds to the sub-soil rights' claimants and conferred real ownership rights to the top-soil claimants, but insisting they now pay the land tax, in fact a much higher one. These policies created a new incentive for the new landowners to farm and market a higher surplus to pay the new land tax. But these policies failed to deal with the short-term tenancy conditions which still persisted and would indeed worsen by the second quarter of the twentieth century.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211385, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "77\n\nof the castle a Po To Hai (江湖海) or “arrest bandit station\". No trace is left of either of these buildings, but undoubtedly this is the origin of the English name of Castle Peak.\n\nThe history of the monk Pooi To is a curious one, and the stories of the miracles he did are very numerous. It is not known what his real name was. Pooi To being his Buddhist name. He is supposed to have lived in the K'ei Chau (兒洲) district at first, which is between Shantung (山东) and Chili (直雩) provinces. He was an uncultivated man, without family, wandering from place to place, and asking shelter from house to house. Once when he went to the then capital city of China (Sung dynasty) Kin Hong (交宝) he was described as looking about forty years old. He used a rope instead of a belt, his coat was all torn. He was easily pleased, but quickly angered. Sometimes he talked a lot, at other times he remained silent for whole days, and when it was very cold he would often roll in the snow. He would climb the hills in rough wooden clogs or walk about the town barefoot. He was not a vegetarian like other Buddhist monks, but ate and drank as an ordinary man. His only possessions were a rice basket and a wooden cup. The cup plays an important part in the various stories about him, and is the origin of his name. Once he went to live at a monastery called Yin Yin T'z (蕁限壮) where the abbot Faat Yee To Yan (发自美壮) allowed him to occupy the spare room. After staying there a while he wished to go across the Kwa Po river (過波添) but the ferry man seeing his ragged condition and doubting probably his ability to pay refused to take him. So Pooi To tossed his cup into the water, put his legs in it, and singing merrily he floated across to the northern shore.\n\nAnother story, and one rather to his discredit, tells how he stole a Buddhist idol of gold from a house where he had been entertained. The owner gave chase, but even though he ran and Pooi To appeared to be walking slowly ahead of him, he could not catch him up. Then a man on a horse joined in the chase, but even he fared no better. At last the river, Maang Tsun (獱村) was reached and the owner felt certain of being able to get his idol back, but Pooi To, a little ahead of him, calmly threw his cup in the river, and sitting in it ferried across. From these stories his name of Pooi To “cup across” was derived.\n\nOnce Pooi To went to a small district called Kwong Ling (广凌)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211454, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "146\n\nolder ones tagging behind. Happy was the welcome we gave him when we ran down the street to greet him as he returned from work, relieving him of parcels (usually food) he carried and vying to tell him of the day's happenings. This was before automobiles took over our streets. When in good spirits, he would sing Chinese opera or English songs or hymns, among which were 'Way Down Upon the Swanee River', 'Home, Sweet Home', 'My Old Kentucky Home', and 'In the Sweet, Bye and Bye', his favourite hymn. We learned these songs but did not thoroughly understand or correctly pronounce a number of the words.\n\nYet, in the other aspects, Father was a timid person. He was afraid of thunder and lightning. If a storm arose in the night, he would get up, cook a simple meal and awaken Ruth and me to eat and keep him company. He was not adept at manual work and he was afraid of heights. He usually got me to climb a ladder to do a necessary chore because I was the tom-boy in the family. He often felt the pressure of Mr. Carter's bad temper and would be silent and moody for a while when he returned from work. We the children sensed enough to keep quiet while he worked out his frustrations, although eventually he developed a duodenal ulcer. I will always remember Father as a warm, witty and loving father, whose sense of humour gave us cheers and laughter. However, he could be stern and strict, but not often, when he expected good behaviour.\n\nTwo themes ran through his early childhood in the village: a harsh teacher and inadequate food. He related how he and First Uncle's wife would commiserate with each other when they could afford ‘only one salted bean with each mouthful of rice. I am quite sure that Grandfather and First Uncle had sent adequate support and were not aware of their plight. In those days, it was the practice to send money to families through male relatives who often appropriated part of the money. Because of this deprivation during his childhood, Father was a frugal man, very careful and conservative with his money.\n\nExposed to the Christian influence of the Damons and others, Father became a member of the Fort Street Church in Honolulu, after being baptized in Hilo by the Rev. Yee Kui. A person of integrity and morality, he tried to bring us up to be respectful, honest and industrious. He once gave me a verbal dressing down when I said to him, 'Are you crazy?' Another time he gave me a terrible switching because I had wandered", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212907, "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-1992", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "201\n\nbut recognisable environment.\n\nOn the whole we preferred Cheung Chau and it was to Cheung Chau that I was taken after my appendix operation. During my stay in hospital when I had to stay in bed for some time, I had forgotten how to walk or even stand up! I protested that I could not possibly walk up to the bungalow so a sedan chair was sent for. I had not seen one on Cheung Chau before, though they were a common sight in Hong Kong and were used to carry children up Lantau Peak. I was lured out of my invalid bed by the present of some stunning bathing shoes. These were brightly coloured rubber shoes that were meant to protect your feet from stones on the beach. I do not remember ever actually using such shoes but, with the sound of the waves lapping on the beach, they were enough to remind me of the delights of swimming, and messing about in the sand, and playing with model boats, the largest of which had been made specially by the building contractor in Fatshan.\n\n4\n\nSwimming played a central part in our lives on Cheung Chau. I can remember my first unaided swim, which was rewarded by the present of a trumpet much regretted by my parents in subsequent days. The beach was the highlight for our lives. We would walk through the thick pine woods across the island from our bungalows, down through the screw pine to the beach. The smells of the pine trees, of the screw pine, and of the beach and the sea still evoke the thrill of arriving at the beach and dashing into the sea.\n\nSome of the grown-ups were able to swim out to a large rock off the Evening Beach (Kwun Yam Wan) to which the Residents' Association had fixed some iron rungs for climbing out. I was only able to achieve such an exploit when I had come back to work in 1950, but by then the iron rungs had mostly rusted away. The Association also arranged with some fishermen, who fished at night, to anchor their boat in the bay and fix steps and a diving board for us to use by day. This did come in reach, and I can still recall the thrill of climbing up the steps after the swim out. The boat had a delicious smell of fish and sea water and was swarming with the little black creatures with lots of legs. It was a great place to play as well as being an excellent diving platform.\n\nThe Morning Beach (Nam Tam Wan) was much smaller, but it too had a large rock equipped with rungs to climb out on. We did not go often to the Police Beach (Tung Wan), which adjoined the Evening", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213873, "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-1996", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "199\n\non the Canton-Hong Kong group. As shall be seen in this article, since the opening of China in 1840 to 1927, when China was nominally united by Jiang Jieshi (7), settlers in Hong Kong at least found three good seasons to invest in China - they were the Western Affairs Movement in the 1870s, the late Qing reform in the 1900s, and the post-revolution “rehabilitation” in the 1910s and the early 1920s. Each occasion was accompanied by investment blooms in China - ship-building and mining in the 1870s, railway, steamship land reclamation and port developments in the 1900s, banking (especially for currency redemption) and real estate in the 1910s and 1920s.\n\nThe Western Affairs Movement\n\nSince the forced opening of China in 1840, and the subsequent establishment of trade ports in Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai and Tianjin in 1843, 1844 and 1861 respectively, a commercial axis was gradually extending northward within coastal China. This development gave rise to an urban population which was linked by telegraph, railways, steamship, printing, census, minting, urban planning and western schooling. Before the peasant population in the inner parts of China was appealed to in the political movement of the 1930s, it was this urban population in coastal China that was being appealed to in the national politics of China. Among others things, this coastal population played a significant part in the Western Affairs Movement, as well as the \"late Qing reform\" in 1904.\n\nThanks to the hard work of Rev. Carl Smith, we recognize that in the late nineteenth century a Cantonese group was emerging within this commercial axis along coastal China. They were western-educated Cantonese, including Eurasians, who emerged in Hong Kong and Macau, where western missionary schools found their earliest presence. These Cantonese, without proper education in classical Chinese, were regarded by the Chinese as a group marginal to the Chinese community. Their job market was small - they could not climb up the traditional social ladder in the same way as their Chinese-educated counterparts could through the Imperial Examination, and the number of their potential employers was very few. This explains why their career paths were more or less identical - at one time or another, they were employed by the Maritime Customs, the Hong Kong government, or for the lucky few, they would be employed as compradores in western firms.\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213986, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "21\n\nIt was, in fact, used as one of the main features of the Hong Kong stand at the Exposition at Vancouver, in 1986 (see Plate 1). Bamboo scaffolding was also erected in Edinburgh, Scotland, by two master craftsmen, including Choi Keung of the Construction Industry Training Authority, in 1996, as part of the 'Hong Kong Tomorrow' exhibition (see Plate 2). Although bamboo is used in some other Asian countries as well, nevertheless it does typify Hong Kong.\n\nBamboo, which has a long history for use as scaffolding in southern China, is imported into Hong Kong from the neighbouring province of Guangdong. But most of the bamboo comes from the adjacent, humid province of Guangxi, where it is cultivated. It takes about one year to grow to a useable size but in a very dry year with little rain it will take two years.\n\nMuch is floated down the Pearl River with lengths lashed together to form rafts. From Guangzhou the bamboo goes to Macau from where it is shipped to Hong Kong. There are different kinds. Yellow bamboo is considered better than the grey variety. Lengths, on average, vary from 23 to 33 feet (the trade still tends to work in imperial measure rather than metric) and it is from 2 to as large as 10 inches in diameter. For extra compressive strength, on tall buildings, China fir poles are sometimes used as standards (uprights) every 20 feet or so as well as for main cross-bracing members. These take three to four years to grow to a useable size.\n\nTraining\n\nThe skill of erecting scaffolding has, by tradition, normally been passed on from master craftsman to apprentice. 'Tricks of the trade' are seldom made known to people outside the trade or written down.12 The traditional period for an apprenticeship was three years, although this has since, generally, been reduced to two years because of a shortage of scaffolders. In the old days being an apprentice, Chinese style, meant one was almost a slave to one's master. Even as late as the 1950s, this included being the master's cook, servant, laundryman and general dogsbody. The pay at the time was HK$10.00 a month for the first year, HK$20.00 for the second, and HK$30.00 a month for the final year. In addition to making obeisances and burning joss sticks to the three patron deities, in those days life was hard and for the first year or so the job of a new apprentice was largely fetch and carry. Only later was he allowed to climb and taught how to tie a knot. If he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213991, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "26 \n\nare left in position for a long time however, such as shoring, nylon withstands the weather better than bamboo lashings.\n\nThe author recalls taking a group of building students, in 1957, on to what was then an open building site in Central District, where the Furama Hotel now stands, to see an exhibition of tubular steel and aluminium scaffolding. Some people prophesied at the time that, before many years would pass, western style scaffolding would replace bamboo. Others, wisely, shook their heads. The author recalls as a fairly typical example, in the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, when many buildings along Conduit Road were pulled down and rebuilt. In almost every case, bamboo scaffolding was employed, even for buildings of 40 storeys or more. Little western style scaffolding was to be seen.\n\nReasons for the popularity of bamboo scaffolding are several. 26 Most contractors in Hong Kong do not have builders yards and bamboo, unlike steel or aluminium scaffolding, can be stored on a hillside with little risk of being stolen. Also, after scaffolding has been dismantled, bamboo does not have to be cleaned and oiled like steel scaffolding. It is, in other words, maintenance free and can, on average, be reused three times. Poor ventilation and dampness in storage are major factors to watch for and bamboo should not be left lying in direct contact with the ground.\n\nBamboo scaffolding is also flexible, and light and fast to erect. Although figures quoted naturally vary depending on conditions, a trained scaffolder, with a mate or mates to hoist the bamboo, can erect up to 20 'wells' of single scaffolding, or nine wells of double scaffolding, a day. Since the intersecting uprights and horizontal members resemble the Chinese character for a 'well'(井), scaffolding is usually costed in units of 'wells'. A well is nine 'empty' squares, divided by lengths of bamboo, with an overall size of about 10 feet by 10 feet. At lower levels however, naturally, because it is easier to climb up and hoist the bamboo, work proceeds faster.\n\nAccidents\n\nBearing in mind the high-risk factor, in the old days especially, before becoming a scaffolding apprentice one would find out if one's\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214759, "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-1999", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "138 \n\nThe Diary \n\nSunday 7/12/41. Much talk about war with Japan but no one seems to think anything will happen. We, the RAF in Hong Kong, are a very small crowd; seven officers and sixty men with five aircraft, two Walrus and three Vildebeeste. Group Captain Horry sails for Singapore on the Ullyses leaving Wing Commander Sullivan as our CO. I have the doubtful honour of being IC of our one and only flight and have three other pilots FO Gray, or Dolly, who is also signals officer, FO Baugh, or Whimpey, equipment officer, PO Crossley, or Junior, a New Zealander just arrived from Singapore and with very little flying experience. PO Thomson the Colonel, our adjutant, is a VR who came to Kai Tak with me from Singapore last June. Finally we have an Australian, PO Hennessy, just arrived from Singapore to start a fighter operations room. The joke is that everything is being prepared for the arrival of fighters but they are not expected for a month. With only five obsolete aircraft and one aerodrome our prospects are not rosy and it looks as if we might finish up in the army if war comes to Hong Kong. During the day the news gets worse and all precautions are taken, everyone being confined to camp. I take a Vildebeeste with full bomb load on a test climb during which I try to imagine where would be the best place to drop them and what would be my chances if attacked by fighters. But everything is peaceful and Hong Kong looks quite beautiful far beneath. We park the Walrus on the water and disperse the Beests but what wonderful targets they make. The 2nd Battalion Royal Scots and two battalions of Rajputs and Punjabis are in their positions in the New Territories, the island being defended by two battalions of Canadians raw recruits, and, only just arrived, the Middlesex Battalion man the coast defences. Finally the volunteers, four thousand Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese etc. Our Navy has one destroyer, ten MTB's and a few gunboats. Not a very formidable force especially as we shall be completely cut off from outside help and our food and ammunition supply is only sufficient for a hundred days. Still everyone seems cheerful. I am duty officer and wonder if I shall get any sleep. \n\nMonday 8th. I am disturbed early as the Colonial Secretary rings up to say that war with Japan is imminent. Hell there goes my sleep and I wake the other officers. Over breakfast we are told that we are at war with Japan. We dash down to flights just in time to hear an ominous roar of planes and nine bombers escorted by over thirty fighters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214764, "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-1999", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "143\n\norders us to evacuate our positions and retire to Aberdeen. We are amazed at such an order but apparently the Japs have broken through over Mt Nicholson turning our left flank. We collect our small force and start our retirement. Heavy firing coming from Wanchai Gap where fierce fighting is going on. What a forlorn sight we make groping our way back through the hills in the dark. Finally reach Aberdeen, the Canadians going to Mount Gough and I take my men to the AIS. Atmosphere depressing and everyone falls to sleep through exhaustion. Up early, lucky for me, as a bomb lands on my bed just as I leave the room wrecking everything including my kit. AIS heavily shelled causing many fires and casualties.\n\nWed twenty fourth and Thursday Xmas day. The retirement order was a mistake and back we go to Bennetts with guns and equipment. Just as we reach the top the Japs open up on us with mortars. We have no protection and lie flat. The shells land amongst us. Man next to me hit, also several others. Piece of shrapnel glances off my helmet and am half buried in flying debris. If we stay we shall all be killed so order the men to disperse and dash for cover and miraculously we make it. During the barrage I had noticed that one of our previous posts was still manned by Canadians who obviously had not received the order to withdraw. Cpl Blueman AC, Canadian, volunteers to go with me to try and get them out. We climb on our bellies through the thickest undergrowth but are fired on several times. Finally we get within hailing distance and get them all into a pillbox. We collect all the arms and equipment which we can't carry, pile them into the pillbox, and throw a couple of grenades into the pillbox. As we start back everything goes off at once and we have to duck flying bullets. Eventually we arrive intact at the AIS.\n\nNo one seems to know where the Japs are so back we go to a new position guarding the bridge over Aberdeen reservoir. My party consists of twelve Canadians and ten RAF. Up to midnight all is quiet although every sound indicates Japs to the men. Soon after midnight heavy firing starts just across the bridge. The Japs weird war cry is plainly heard and soon a small party of Canadians retire over the bridge. They report a heavy attack by Japs who crept up on them and broke through. We open up with everything we have across the bridge. The Canadians are badly rattled, even their officer seems to have lost control of his men. The Japs start shelling us and confusion sets in and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214765, "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-1999", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "144 \n\nmen start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and \n\ngo back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. \n\nWhat a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up \n\nwith our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214970, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "22\n\nHan Suyin's patrimonial heritage is very specific, as her father originated from the Hakkas, or \"Guest People,\" a sub-group of ethnical Han Chinese, which initially meant displaced, dispossessed, and hungry peasants, the refugees from misery, migrating in millions from the regions struck by floods, droughts, foreign invasions, civil wars, and rural upheavals, and simply \"seeking a roof.\" The Hakkas themselves claim that they moved five times within recorded history, their first migration dating at about A.D. 311, and the fifth one at the end of the Taiping rising (i.e., in the sixties of the nineteenth century). Their culture was to a very large extent affected by the turbulence of political and social events, by their own relative insecurity in the territories of new settlement, and by the resulting enormous eagerness and ability to survive. For these particular reasons, a somewhat remote analogy can perhaps be drawn between the mobile, industrious, and hard-working Hakkas, dispersed among the settled Han population, and the Jewish enclaves dispersed in medieval Europe and in the contemporary world as well.\n\nIn the thirteenth century - the time of Gengis Khan's invasion and of the resulting third migration - Han Suyin's distant ancestors, named Chou, settled in Meihsien in the province of Kuangtung, a purely Hakka district. The wave of the Manchu-dynasty-inspired fourth migration (1680-1720) took some of them further to Szechuan, the region of Four Streams, a remote Chinese hinterland guarded from the outer world by the cliffs of Tibet, the Snow Mountains, and the Cold Mountains, and the dangerous Yangtse gorges. The recorded family history starts from the first ancestor, who arrived in Szechuan as an itinerant pedlar, most probably carrying across his shoulder a pole, with the baskets swinging at both ends to transport miserable personal property and sale goods.\n\nBy the nineteenth century, Han Suyin's family had managed to climb up the economic and social ladder, to attain the top echelon, i.e., the scholar-official-administrator class. They had become local landed gentry, the cornerstone of the Chinese feudal social setup, and this anachronistic setup might have continued ad infinitum, had it not, under pressure from the colonial superpowers, ultimately collapsed.\n\nHan Suyin's father, Chou Yentung, was born in 1886 in China already invaded by the French and the British, the two colonial", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215470, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "196\n\nto climb up to it.\n\nBeing an official Royal Asiatic Society group, coupled with Brian's immense knowledge, experience and influence, had a number of advantages. One of these was being able to go inside the Kyichu Lhakhang, a 7th century temple, noting the obvious Buddhist nature of the place but also the significant differences from the Chinese temples that most of us were more used to. It seemed to be much calmer, generally less busy.\n\np.m.\n\nThe high valley walls meant that the sun left us at about 4:45 and so photography became a bit of a challenge. But once again the children and older people were very accommodating about being flashed at, or waiting that much longer for correct exposures and shutter speeds to be estimated.\n\nBy the time we hit the shops of Paro High Street it was completely dark. On our way up the valley we had seen the orderly row of shops, about 30 or 40 of them, all looking the same but all looking inviting nonetheless. What was a surprise, however, was that they were virtually all the same - well stocked with the goods they had to offer, but I couldn't help wondering why one would use any one of them as opposed to another. As I still wanted my post cards, I was delighted to find a store that stocked them. I also wanted a small book to write notes in, so I asked the young lady behind the counter, very slowly and clearly: ‘Do you have a writing book?' I was most surprised when she answered in perfect and accent-free English: \"You mean a note book? What about this one here?' I did not want to sound patronising, but I had to ask her if everybody in Paro spoke English as well as she did, to which she replied: 'No, most of them are uneducated.' Well, there you have it.\n\nI was very ready for dinner, after which, on returning to the hotel, I was delighted to find out that some kind soul had already turned on the electric heater in my room.\n\nHa Haa\n\nThe destination for the second day was Haa, the principal town in Bhutan's western Haa Province. The road from Paro would take us", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215475, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "201\n\nus and welcomed us, at the same time giving a brief background history of his library. With very limited resources, he has made good use of his previous 20 years experience with the National Museum to bring order and inspiration to his new project. There are a great many books in the Bhutanese language, mainly on Buddhist issues, and an increasing number of books in English and other foreign languages. We increased this number further by presenting the library with a full set of HKBRAS Journals.\n\nLunch was in the delightfully named Plum's Café, including a slice of their famous apple pie. As shopping never seemed to be far from the thoughts of us Honkies, a visit to Choki Handicrafts and then the National Handicrafts Emporium sated the appetite sufficiently to face the next leg of the journey.\n\nThis was to be an enormous climb up to the Dochu-la pass (10,140 feet), being the gateway to the Wangdiphodrang Valley. The weather had been fine on the trip so far, but coming to the top of the pass the clouds descended, and with them came snow. However, as luck would have it, just as the army of RAS photographers took up their positions the clouds lifted, a rainbow appeared and we were offered enormous vistas of Himalayan peaks stretching off to the west. Thereafter the weather became (and stayed) clear as a bell.\n\nThat bell rings a name\n\nDid I say bell? Was that a yak approaching? No. In one of the handicraft shops in Thimpu, Brian had bought himself a brass bell. We were to hear that bell a lot in the coming days. It was to become his method of signalling to his unruly brood that it was time to board the buses and move on. So effective was it that when a “real” bell sounded in one of the temples, it had the effect of causing a stampede to the transport by all of us - except, of course, Brian.\n\nFrom the heights of the pass it was a very long and bouncy ride down to the hotel in Punakha at 4,300 feet. Thankfully, it was an early dinner and early to bed. Orders had already been issued for a 6:15 a.m. wake-up the following day. Even though the guide told us that we were in a sub-tropical climate zone, I had to break open my Chinese Emporium silk long johns before climbing in to bed. (Any man thinking", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215476, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "202\n\nof acquiring for himself some of these wonderful and effective garments should avoid the very extensive Men's Underwear Department on the ground floor of the Queen's Road Central branch; they can only be found in the Ladies' Underwear Department on the second floor.)\n\nThe fourth day (only the fourth ??) did indeed start early and we managed to leave the hotel on time at 7:00 a.m. Our briefing notes told us that there were 'splendid views' to be had from the hotel. And that may well have been the case - there were even little balconies attached to each room from which one could have enjoyed the panorama, from the comfort of a garden chair. But we arrived after dark and left fifteen minutes before the sun breached the high tops of the valley wall. When daylight once again returned, we appreciated that 'sub-tropical' was not an unfair description. The season seemed to be more advanced here. The paddy fields were green. The early morning mist was hanging low. In a word, it was beautiful. My camera trigger finger was itching, but I would have felt very uncomfortable asking for a photo stop only five minutes into the journey. So I had to sit and admire.\n\nI have never been on a specific photography holiday, but perhaps I should try some day. As it was, I was left reflecting on whether we should simply observe and enjoy, or worry about the best viewpoint from which to preserve the scene for .... Well, for what?\n\nBetter late than never\n\nWhilst still reflecting I found that we had arrived at Wangdiphodrang, a delightful little roadside village where all the buildings seemed to be half the normal size. The sun was coming up, the shops were open, and smiling faces were everywhere. Set back from the main row of buildings was an important-looking office - the Flood Warning Station. Not much of a problem up here, I thought to myself, as we had climbed a good 1,000 feet up the valley from Punakha. But of course, the whole point of a warning station is to warn people, and in the case of flooding the people who would most appreciate being warned would be those 1,000 feet further down the hill where the river is. In fact, there was a bridge down there at the bottom of the climb. This one was built in 1962, to replace its predecessor which had been built, so we were told, 1,277 years earlier but which had been destroyed in a flood. At a guess, I would say the warning station had first been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215478, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "204\n\nlast leg of the day's journey, to Bumthang.\n\nWe were now passing into Central Bhutan. The country gets more remote and primitive the further east one goes. The road by now resembled a quarry, thanks to the ambitious road-widening project that has been under way since late 2000. Until then, road vehicles were required to cross into Indian Assam in order to get to the east of Bhutan. This route became less favoured when some Indian militants shot a Bhutanese bus driver in order to prove a point. (Brian did not mention that in the briefing notes!) To compensate for the road, the trees had become particularly impressive. We were now driving through gigantic pine trees, just like in the Hundred Acre Wood. I could easily imagine Pooh Bear falling out of one, had he been there.\n\nAbout half-an-hour short of Jakar, the capital of Bumthang province, two or three woollen goods shops formed the nucleus of a knitting and weaving industry, so of course we had to stop and boost the local economy. I saw a scarf I particularly liked. The young lady in the shop told me it was 300 ngultrum (about HK$50), I have never really learned the art of bargaining, and so I offered her 250 and a large hopeful smile. She smiled back, but the smile quickly faded. 'Excuse me' she said, 'there's 50 missing.' I was so flustered that I tried to pretend that it was all my fault and I quickly gave her the missing note. I hung around a bit to listen to how the hardened shoppers managed to bring the price down, but I had to bow out in the face of such expertise and experience.\n\nWe reached the hotel at dusk and found it to be rather like a ski lodge - fresh and inviting on the outside and warm and toasty on the inside, with pine-clad walls. Welcoming tea and bickies were laid out in the communal sitting area of the dining room. The bedroom was also toasty, almost a sauna. The source of the heat was a wood-burning stove. This gave off a terrific amount of heat, but burnt through its contents very quickly. When I returned to the bedroom after dinner it was like stepping into a fridge, so quickly had the heat disappeared. As the electricity supply was rather intermittent, each room was provided with a candle. ‘Ah-ha' I thought, ‘salvation.' I lit the candle and held it against a thinnish piece of pine for no less than fifteen shivering minutes, but the blighter wouldn't light. So I had to climb into bed, wondering about such news headlines as: ‘Careless cigarette\n\nPage 205\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215495, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 272, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "221\n\na joke or do a trick. (See the evening's programme, set out in the appendix.) The laughter and applause must have been heard all the way up and down Paro High Street.\n\nA last munch\n\nThe last day dawned, beautiful and sunny as ever, and was celebrated with scrambled eggs on toast aplenty. Checking in at the airport was as depressing as it can be anywhere, except that this time there were 27 people with some very happy and unforgettable memories behind them. For me, my last example of the friendliness and humour of the Bhutanese people was at the shop in the departure lounge. I had not realised I had chocolate withdrawal symptoms until I saw a pile of Kit-Kats on the shelf. I rushed up and asked how much they were. '25 Nu' I was told. When I found that I only had 20 Nu left in local currency and looked suitably crestfallen, the young girl at the counter said: 'Never mind. For 20 you can have a munch.' I was impressed. Was she actually willing to let me have a munch on a Kit-Kat, and presumably put the rest back for the next customer? Actually, no. She laughed when I explained to her my misunderstanding. There was a smaller and slightly cheaper chocolate bar called 'Munch'.\n\nI have known for some time that Paro is one of the most challenging airports for pilots, and so I was pleased to see all that I have learnt about short-field take-offs is applied equally in a BAe 146 as in a Cessna 172. Full length of the runway, two stages of flap, full throttle before releasing the brakes, and then best angle of climb to avoid the mountains. Then course was set for Calcutta - and that was that.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 [Hon. Editor, I have always been a little bit worried about Robert. This article confirms my suspicions!]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215632, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 409, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "360\n\nAlthough nothing to do with oriental planting, I think we all hugely enjoyed the Productive Gardens, from the story of the gardeners' tools of 1914 still found hanging in ruined sheds, to seeing a working Pineapple House (heated to 120F with rotting manure, through honeycomb brickwork walls) and the last original Paxton vinehouse. Every detail was thought through by the 19th century gardeners, from the use of cobble drains taking water to a central cistern, to the “beavertail” glass panes in the greenhouses, which direct the water away from the wooden frames. Gardening was not just art and a spade: it was science and engineering too, and only 100 years later we are scrambling to rescue that knowledge.\n\nAt Pine Lodge we had the pleasure of being guided by co-owner Raymond Clemo. Pine Lodge is unusual in that it is a much more recently created garden. In the mid-1970s, the Clemos were persuaded to open their then much smaller garden for a day, to raise funds for a hospice. More than 2,000 people turned up, and the garden has been expanding and opening to the public ever since. The Clemos are still buying land, and adding to the garden, the most recent addition being a field now planted as an arboretum. Its recent creation has not changed the tradition of oriental connections: 20 years ago Clemo saw an advertisement placed in the RHS magazine by a young man who wanted to go plant collecting in the Himalayas, and sent him a cheque. Pine Lodge now houses many of Chris Chadwell's introductions, and the relationship between Cornwall and the plant hunters continues. Students have now come to work at the gardens, including several from Japan, who have helped Clemo to create a replica of a traditional garden from Kyoto. Seeds were also contributed by colleagues at the Kyoto Botanical Gardens.\n\nOne of the most enjoyable aspects of Pine Lodge is its intimacy: it started small, and its most mature areas are the original densely planted mixed borders of shrubs, bulbs, and perennials, and its ponds and other water features, rather than its woodland gardens of huge rhododendrons, conifers, etc. Although the planting may be more exotic than most, its style is more familiar, and closer to something those of us with small gardens can aim for.\n\nThe Eden Project was a very different experience. Eden clearly has a manifesto, which is to educate, and our guide was a true evangelist.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216113, "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": 412, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "346\n\nevening great buzzards, eagles and other birds of prey. I watched them turning, always in the same place. I carefully observed their movements, noting the places above which they turned, and studied the thermals which they used and which seemed very powerful. I was envious.\n\nA year earlier I was in Upper Silesia, in a German camp at Grunau in the Riesengebirge. Excellent instructors gave me all the tricks of the trade I needed to allow me to climb to 4,900 metres.\n\nEvery day conditions got ever better than the best days in Grunau. But... I had no glider and there was no chance of getting one sent by plane from the United States. Moreover, the Chinese were not letting me fly with the war raging. One fine morning, it was April 20, my Chinese secretary translated for me a newspaper article announcing a forthcoming gliding demonstration by a Chinese pilot trained in Germany.\n\nTwo days later, a group of military pilots arrived in Chungking with two fine new planes of the \"Rhônsperber\" type. They were two high-performance gliders equipped with the best instruments; how had they got to Chungking, after the retreat from Shanghai and then to Hangkow (2,000 km away, with no railway link) will always remain a mystery to me. But there they were, before my eyes!\n\nOn the 24th, a Chinese pilot was towed to 2,000 metres and produced a wonderful demonstration of acrobatics. Unfortunately, for reasons that were unclear, while he was still at about 100 metres, the machine went into a dive and crashed to the ground. Nothing was left of it.\n\nSome hours after the tragic accident, I took a telephone call from the Minister of War, asking if I would be willing to undertake a demonstration in the remaining glider. I accepted immediately without hesitation and fixed a rendezvous for the next day at 8:00 am. On April 25, 1940, I therefore found myself examining in detail the Rhônsperber, which had been placed at my disposal, as well as the Curtiss plane that was to tow me. I installed my altimeter and a special artificial horizon2 which I had brought from Europe in my baggage.\n\nThe glider was ready for take-off at 11:40. I gave instructions to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216114, "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": 413, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "347\n\nmy pilot to tow me over the town and tell him that I will release the plane at an altitude of 300 metres and that I will climb under my own steam to 2,000 metres. Sceptical glances from my Chinese friends, who find it difficult to accept that a European might do something better than a Son of Heaven.\n\nAt 11:45, I take off. At first we follow the river. The town is to our left, set on terrace up the mountainside. There is not a breath of air; all is calm. It was as I expected. Reaching the tip of the peninsula, we turn 90 degree to the left, and this time, still climbing at one metre per second, we begin to fly across the town. As we arrive over the roofs, I sense a number of small thermal currents; my gauges frequently indicate two metres per second. But I am still only at 200 metres, and too far from the airfield, in case I should fail to find serious thermals.\n\nWhen we come over San Shin Sze, the plane begins a slight turn to the left, and I sense that he is going to fly over the river again; my altimeter reads just 300 metres, and I release the glider in a light thermal, when I place myself in tight spirals. The tow had lasted seven minutes. The sky was completely blue, without a cloud, however with a slight violet haze over the ground. No wind. I was obliged to fly solely with the aid of thermal currents. Almost immediately, I find myself in a weak current. After one or two minutes, I am even descending at a speed of about 1.5 metres per second. I am flying at 75 km per hour, at an angle of about 35 degrees. I decide to resume the direction of the river and to approach the airfield but I find that I have travelled further away than I thought. There was no chance of getting back to the island from which I had taken off. I spot a great sandbank and decide to attempt a last chance to fly towards the point of the town, where I had observed and felt some good currents at the start of my tow.\n\n-\n+\n\nAt 60 metres above the roofs at last! - a few strong buffets and my two gauges are suddenly showing two metres of climb. Steep spirals, at an angle of 45 degrees, speed 80 km per hour, and I am climbing this time evenly and without being buffeted. 200 metres, 500 metres, 1,000 metres, I am always turning, always widening my turns. The fight becomes easier and easier and this time I am climbing at three metres a second. I see the magnificent panorama of the town, as if gripped in a vice between two great rivers; I see, quite small, the English, French and American gunboats (the \"Tutuila\", where I used to go\n\n3", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216115, "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": 414, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "348\n\nregularly to eat a good curry),\n\nI see my embassy, tiny, great water reservoirs, the beginning of the magnificent Yangtse gorges, innumerable rice fields looking like contour lines, on a relief map. A splendid landscape in miniature, the kind the Chinese love for their gardens.\n\nI amuse myself by flying back and forth across the town. I go into crazy spirals opposite an American gunboat and climb in seconds, or so it seems, to 2,000 feet. There I decide to stop and wander about. I am worried about the Japanese who no doubt would come and bomb us and could well send a reconnaissance aircraft, which could easily come and shoot me down ... I am flying in Chinese military colours so I would be in the wrong.\n\nTowards 4:00 pm, I feel very tired. I have eaten my lunch, great nervous tension, since I have not flown for more than a year. Moreover, the seat is hard and the parachute is stifling me. I put out the braking flaps in order to descend and I realise that I have to dive at 90 degrees to lose height, so strong are the thermals in mid-river. I amuse myself for five or six minutes in doing turns right above the British Embassy and over the airfield, where I see thousands of Chinese. Finally, I put down at the end of the island in order not to land on the cranes. A perfect landing in 42 degrees of heat after a flight of four hours, 44 minutes.\n\nThe Asian duration and altitude records were broken at the first attempt. It was the first demonstration flight in China. That evening, the capital's newspapers gave the following news, in Chinese and English:\n\n\"New glider record registrated here, - Chungkin, April 25 (Central News). By remaining in the air for 4 hours and 44 minutes, M Louis de San, Belgian glider-flyer and honorary director of the Sino-French-Belgian Swiss Cultural Association, set a new endurance record for Asia to day. Flying a glider of the Aeronautical Affairs Commission, de San took off at 11:25 this morning. He gained an altitude of 5,700 feet.\"\n\nM", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]