[
    {
        "id": 209493,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 150,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "H. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nshe opened a shop in Hong Kong, selling curios and objets-d'art. In 1927 she took a consignment of Chinese antiques, many from her late father's collection, to New York to sell. On October 10, 1927, she met her future husband in that city. Sir Travers Humphreys avers she was not, to English eyes, good-looking; others claimed she was attractive.20 But all agree she was charming and good-natured, much involved in charitable work.\n\nLess is known about Dr. Miao. Wai-sheung's relatives and friends never met him. He was a year younger than his wife. He was born in Chekiang (Chiang Kai-shek's native province) and, at the time of his trial, had a mother and sister living in Shanghai in the Chinese city. He claimed his father was a member of the Chinese Legislative Council (sic) and a Justice of the Peace. Miao studied law in China and later at Loyola University, Chicago. He was described as being extremely tall and slim, fluent in inaccurate English. His wife, a Cantonese, was petite, under five feet tall; so they were a noticeable couple together. They were married according to the rites of the American Episcopal Church. Siu was a devout Christian. Miao was probably a Christian, for Christianity was a sign of modernism in the early 1920s among the westernised, educated elite in Shanghai (later Marxism or Nationalism was to largely supplant all forms of religion and YMCA fraternalism among Chinese students and intellectuals). A newspaper report stated, in any case, that Miao 'professed Christianity before he died' (i.e., was hanged).91\n\nAfter marrying in New York, they honeymooned in Buffalo, then Albany where the bride had a minor operation to facilitate sexual relations (probably dilation of the hymen). About four or five weeks after their wedding, they left for a two-months' vacation in Europe before returning to China. They landed at Glasgow, stayed in Edinburgh a day or two, and on June 17, 1928, stopped at Grange-in-Borrowdale, a Cumberland village, close to Derwentwater. On the next day, January 18, they went for a walk in the morning, returned for lunch, and left for another walk, hand-in-hand, at two o'clock. Miao returned home at about 4 p.m. and said his wife had gone to Keswick, about four miles away, to buy some warmer underwear. She did not return\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209496,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 153,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "131 \n\na Chinese, \n\nwas deeply concerned to do justice to the defendant a foreigner, a stranger in Britain and instructed the jury to disregard the matter since it had not been conclusively proved that the slips of paper were relevant to the murder charge. But the sinister import of the Chinese characters must have impressed itself upon the jurymen and it would be too much to expect that they did not speculate among themselves as to the evidential value of the translated sentences. If, in fact, the words did refer to Mrs. Miao's contemplated destruction (which seems likely), then her husband must have had murder in his heart before he left America, not long after his marriage to Siu Wai-sheung, a rich woman. Again, if this is so, it was a premeditated murder, not one born of impulse or passion, like most domestic murders in Europe and China, yesterday or today.\n\nMiao, Travers Humphreys tells us, was ably defended by Mr. J. C. Jackson K.C., but he had little to go on.35 The circumstantial evidence was overwhelming in its assemblage; the case for the defence speculative and insubstantial. Miao, through his counsel, argued that he and his wife had been followed by a gang of Oriental jewel thieves; and evidence was obtained from a few persons that two Oriental gentlemen, Chinese or Japanese, had been seen in the Derwentwater area at the time of the crime. These shadowy figures were neither identified nor located. The jury was left with the following puzzle: if members of an international gang, specialising in the theft of jewellery, had robbed and killed Mrs. Miao, why did one, or both, then attempt to sexually assault the victim of their greed? That was certainly not professional criminal practice. And, furthermore, forensic scientists had already demonstrated, convincingly, that the assault upon poor Mrs. Miao had been faked. There were, for example, no bruises upon her body. Who, then, would benefit from the murder, if we dismiss the shadowy robbers? Surely only the bereft husband.\n\nThe defence was not able to weaken the structure of circumstantial evidence deployed by the prosecution. The jury was out for an hour and a half and brought in a verdict of guilty. Mr. Justice Humphreys then sentenced Miao to death, on which he cried out 'I am not guilty!' and embarked on a voluble defence of his actions until stopped by the Judge.\n\nHis appeal was heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]