[
    {
        "id": 209914,
        "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": 173,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "151\n\n\"country\" or whatever. But we know that's impossible. I think the only [realistic] attitude is that as long as I am in this place, I contribute as much as possible.\n\nThey managed to neutralize controversial subjects such as the Cold War and colonialism by discussing them on an instrumental level. They presented themselves as above politics. As B26 asserted:\n\n'Politics have little influence on the textile industry. Mainland China produces cotton, but there is no export. Taiwan is our competitor, and it has nothing to sell us. We buy cotton from the United States as well as from the U.S.S.R.'\n\nColonialism was similarly evaluated in economic terms. On the bright side of the colonial system, A24 said,\n\n'In the early stage, actually we enjoyed Commonwealth Preferences. We did derive benefits by exporting to the United Kingdom and so on. There was free duty on cotton yarn. Only after Britain joined the EEC (European Economic Community) was the situation changed. Being a colony, we did have some benefits.'\n\nOn the dark side, A30 reflected:\n\n'Not so good [being a colony], because in textile negotiations Hong Kong cannot participate as an independent country. Furthermore, Britain is on the other side. (He laughed).'\n\nTherefore the cotton spinners' political vision was mundane, devoid of larger designs. It was as if they were content to build castles around an oasis, weather permitting. When storm should come, they would move on to look for yet another spring. It never occurred to them that they could perhaps harness the desert. They had not out-grown Marie-Claire Bergere's description of the outlook of the early Chinese businessmen (1968: 246);\n\n'The bourgeoisie, combining an atavistic distrust of politics with a philanthropic utopianism, seemed to think that it could change its own way of life without making any change in the lives of the rest of the Chinese people, and furthermore that one province could be modernized without entailing the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213208,
        "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-1994",
        "page_number": 30,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "subject when Governor John Pope Hennessy planned to appoint him as His Excellency's personal secretary in charge of affairs relating to the Chinese. The British merchants were opposed to the Governor creating an office where he would have more direct communication with the Chinese. Due to their opposition, Eitel never occupied such a position. In 1895, he published Europe in China, a detailed history of Hong Kong up to that date.\n\nClub Germania\n\nA club for Germans was started in 1859 in Wanchai in an unpretentious building. The German-speaking population at the time would have been very small. There were three German firms and two stores conducted by Germans. Within two years, the community almost doubled. It was small, but still large enough to provide a social centre for the community. In 1865, George Michelmore advertised the opening of a hotel in premises \"which were formerly known as the German Club\". It was below the Headquarters House, now Flagstaff House, off the present Cotton Tree Drive. This may have been the second location of the Club, as an article written in 1909 states that the first building was in \"an outlying section of Wanchai\", a description which does not fit a location on what is now Cotton Tree Drive (DP, 17 May, 1865).\n\nThe club moved in 1865 to a new building erected by Gustav Overbeck at the top of Wyndham Street, just south of D'Aguilar Street. But the German population was increasing, and the Germania Club decided to build a more commodious building. This was on the east side of Wyndham Street off Queen's Road. The new building was opened in 1872. It was a brick building in the Gothic style. The architects were Messrs Wilson and Salway. The cost was $21,000. Thirteen granite steps led to the entrance, and the main hall. On either side of the hall was a billiard room and a reading room. On the same level was a library room and a bar. The Concert Hall was approached by a flight of seven-foot-wide stairs. The Hall accommodated 275 persons; on either side was a drawing room and a dining room. There were accommodations for sixty in the dining room. Four bowling alleys were in the rear of the building (HKT, 27 Nov. 1909). The building served the community well until again it became too small, and another building was erected on Kennedy Road. This building became enemy alien property in 1914 and passed into the hands of St. Joseph's College. The College is still located in the building.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]