[ { "id": 205271, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "26\n\nJEN YU-WEN\n\nout and the local people made facsimiles of the originals and preserved them from generation to generation in order to commemorate the glory of their ancestors. Moreover, in the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th month) every year since then, they have placed the parasols on the racing boats, called huang-chou1 (Imperial boats). Before the boat race started, the gentry and elders of the villages used to kneel and kow-tow to the royal gifts to pay respect to the Sung Emperor. Sung Hsueh-p'eng says that the custom was perpetuated for many years.10 Less than a month after the landing of the royal party, the Dragon Boat Festival was observed. It can be imagined what a delightful day the boy Emperor Tuan Tsung (Shih) and his small brother Wei Wang (Ping) had in watching the races, along with the Queen Mother and many dignitaries, generals, and ministers, and, of course, the local people who were particularly happy to have such distinguished guests participating in their annual festival.\n\nIV. SUNG WONG TOI (Sung Huang Tai-Man)\n\nThe most important site which furnishes the key to our study of the Kuan-fu Travelling Palace of Southern Sung is a small mound near the seashore, north of Ma-tau-kok. It can be definitely located and is recorded in the Hsin-an Gazetteer, other literature, and maps. Besides, there were three Chinese characters engraved on one of the great rocks there, which many of us have seen with our own eyes.\n\nThe small mound was called Sacred Hill1 (see map). This name was probably given to it by the Hong Kong Government when it took over the territory in 1858, as no Chinese literature recorded such a name, and even Hong Kong people of the older generation, including Sung Hsueh-p'eng, did not know of it. On the top of the mound were two large rocks, one on the northern side, the other on the southern. The characters Sung Wong Toi1 were engraved on the western face of the northern rock in the Yuan Dynasty, long after the royal party departed from Kowloon and after the Mongols conquered the Southern Sung.\n\nThe characters were horizontally inscribed, being uniformly 20 inches in width and respectively 26, 22½, and 27 inches in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205828, "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-1969", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "128\n\nARMANDO DA SILVA\n\naccessibility, seasonal demand, and tonic quality. The Chinese names are in colloquial Cantonese:\n\nArtemisia vulgaris (ng yuet ngai AX) is a traditionally sacred medicinal plant. Sprigs of artemisia are hung on doorways on the festival day of tuen yeung (), that day associated with glutinous rice dumplings and dragon-boat races; hence the colloquial name \"fifth moon artemisia\". A powder is made from this and is used in moxa (ngai yung *). For medicinal use the sprigs are ground and sprinkled into warm rice wine to make a fragrant tonic drink, which allegedly relieves upset stomach.\n\nAmaranthus spinosus (lak yuen tsoi ). The roots and leaves of this plant are boiled in water and the infusion used in the treatment of piles. A soup is made by boiling the leaves and the shoots and the decoction is drunk as a yuet hei reliever. It is also considered a diuretic drink. Although this plant is not cultivated, it is often sold as a vegetable in vegetable stalls.\n\nHylocereus undatus (pa wong fa re£) is a seashore plant of the cactus family. The silk tassels from the flowers are dried and used to make a cough medicine. The tassels may also be boiled as a vegetable and cooked with pieces of pork to make soup. See Plate 10.\n\nVitex trifolia (pak fei muk yee ¶). This is another beach plant whose leaves and vines are boiled to make a poultice for bruises. The leaves are ground and drunk with warm rice wine. This is a favourite medicinal plant among the Tanka boat-people.\n\nBreynia fruticosa (hak min shun i) is a hillside plant whose leaves are boiled in water to make an infusion for the cleansing of sores. To complete the treatment a poultice of its leaves is applied to the sores.\n\nMelastoma sanguineum (long kau lei #Ƒ) is a styptic simple. Its leaves are both ground and drunk with warm rice wine, and are also used as a styptic poultice.\n\nPolygonum chinenses (fo tan mo ★★). The leaves are fried with honey and eaten as a treatment for dysentery. The leaves can also be made into a poultice to relieve rheumatic pain and for treating foot sores and arm boils,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206062, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n137\n\nsettled in the hills and along the coasts of our region. They themselves acknowledge that they are the latest comers into the region, and that they have migrated from exclusively Hakka-speaking country between Kwangtung, Fukien and Kiangsi provinces. The Hakka of those parts declare that they migrated from North China and this tradition is confirmed in every way by scholars, often Hakka themselves, who have collated separate family histories. From these studies it is possible to know that the Hakka did not migrate south of Kiangsi before the 10th century A.D. and we can infer from this that their appearance in this region was several centuries later.\n\n7\n\nFrom the evidence of their names we can begin to distinguish two kinds of inhabitants--one pure Chinese and one of non-Chinese origin. But on the other hand there is much negative evidence that could be brought forward. In the first place in customs and religion the Tanka and Hoklo seem to follow Chinese tradition; they have the same reverence for ancestors, the same surnames, they marry and bury the dead with the same ceremonies. They have an identical calendar of feast days, and their dialects, Cantonese and Fukienese, have nothing either in place-names, or vocational expressions or any other vocabulary which might contain archaisms to suggest that they ever used another language.\n\nIn the second place there is absolutely no apparent evidence that the Tanka and Hoklo are of the same extraction. They do not look alike physically and they do not intermarry nor mix freely in spite of being in close contact with one another. Indeed, the Tanka are much more akin to the Cantonese in outward appearance, and but for a difference of pronunciation it would be almost impossible to distinguish between them.\n\nIn the third place, the Hakka and Punti differ in their religious customs on one important point. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by the Punti, Tanka and Hoklo on the 5th day of the 5th moon every year. The Hakka do not keep this feast. The importance of the Dragon Boat Festival as a clue to origins of culture will be described in a later section of this article.\n\nHowever there is one broad distinction which can be made. In their differences in occupation and dwellings the population divides\n\n7 For instance, Lo Hsiang Ling (#); K'o Chia Yen Chiu (3 RMX).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206071, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 151, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "146\n\nS. F. BALFOUR\n\npeoples. They too are an ancient population living on the seaboard without any trace of their earlier habitat. But as we have seen in the first chapter they have been so overwhelmed by the force of Chinese culture that not a trace remains of their original customs. However it is proposed to show that some aspects of their life might suggest a connection with the \"Indonesians\", however far fetched the theory may be,\n\nThe Tanka boats must be of recent design, and they were probably evolved as a result of contact with foreign peoples, even as late as the Portuguese. The eyes painted on the prows of Hoklo boats may also point to earlier contacts, although it is possible that this custom evolved quite independently. What seems more likely to be the survival of an earlier boat is the “dragon boat” or huge canoe used by the Tanka, Punti and Hoklo in their yearly festival.\n\nThis festival occurs on the 5th of the 5th month when the 'dragon' constellation is highest in the sky and celebrates the death of a poet Chü Yûan who drowned himself in a river in Hunan because his King would not take his advice. But it is difficult to understand the connection between the poet and the rather war-like parade of boats accompanied by the beating of a drum and throwing of rice into the waters. In fact, the festival appears more likely to be an annual sacrifice to a fishing god, or in places where rice culture depends upon irrigation caused by floods, to an agricultural god. Its distribution (in connection with the Chü Yuan legend) is confined to South China and to Szechuan. In Fukien, besides the poet a famous general is sometimes commemorated. Remembering the tendency of all religions to adapt new gods to old customs, we may be justified in discounting Chü Yuan from the festival's origin,\n\nThe regatta is formed by a number of very long canoes paddled to the rhythm of a drum beaten in the middle of the boat by some forty to eighty half naked men. It is unlike any other Chinese feast and the canoe and style of paddling are more reminiscent of Polynesian methods than of Chinese. Similar regattas exist all over the Indonesian regions; in Pnom-penh, for instance, it is almost identical (see accompanying illustrations),* and the first mention of the feast in Chinese literature occurs in books written\n\n* Plates 17-18.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206086, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH \n\n161 \n\nV. THE TANG16 FAMILY \n\nThe task of opening the larger valleys to cultivation was not undertaken on a scale until the Sung dynasty (960 to 1278). Until that time there may have been cultivation by the garrisons, by Chinese peasants or by the Yao tribes which are believed to have lived in the region, but there is no record of any land tenure until the eleventh century when a new peasant immigration occurred which marks a revolution in the history of this region.\n\nThe immigration was by Chinese of a northern type who brought with them a particularly strong tradition which has lasted until this day. The first to arrive were a family surnamed Tang who are at the present time the largest landowners and it is they whom we must consider the founders of the Punti population.\n\nThe Tang genealogy shows that they are descended from a general of the later Han dynasty whose home was in Honan. His descendants came south into Hunan in the sixth century A.D. and at the beginning of the 10th century they appear in Kiangsi. Their migration into Kwangtung is therefore along much the same route as the later Hakka population took.\n\nHence it becomes clear why the Punti and Hakka populations, in spite of differences in language and a wide gap in time between their arrivals in the region, have such identical customs, architecture and outward appearance. They are both of the same Northern Chinese stock and belong to successive waves of migration which followed the same route. The Punti who arrived earlier, when the differences between their own dialect and Cantonese were less marked, took over or modified for their own use the Cantonese dialect. Their long sojourn in the south with probable inter-marriage may have altered their features to some extent, and either on the route of migration or in the region itself, they adopted the dragon boat festival. These are the only differences between them and the later Hakka population.\n\nThe migration of the Tang family was probably due to the pressure that was being exerted throughout the course of the Sung dynasty by the Tartar invaders. Whilst it was continuing and \n\n16: 鄧", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206110, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n185 \n\nNot far from the main Tin Hau Temple, on rocks formerly in the sea but now built around and beyond by boat squatters' huts, is another smaller temple to the same goddess. This is known locally as the Hoi Shum Temple, or 'Temple in the Midst of the Sea'. It has interestingly decorated pillars and altar slabs, and a half-obliterated inscription shows that it was constructed in 1845, four years after the British occupation of Hong Kong Island. However, the tablet states that, like the Tam Kung Temple, (see below) there was an open air altar to Tin Hau for some time before local people subscribed for the temple building. Nowadays this temple seems neglected and little used, perhaps because it may have been patronised mostly by smaller sampan fishermen who have now been forced into land employment by economic factors. \n\nFurther along the street, is Ah Kung Ngam-Grandfather's (or Ancestor's) Rocky Hill. This used to be a lonely place by the shore. In the 1901 census it had a population of 213 of whom 159 were males-probably mostly quarrymen and land-based fishermen. Here is situated the large temple to Tam Kung. This was built in 1905. At first sight this late date is rather curious, because old residents of Ah Kung Ngam state that Shau Kei Wan people venerate this god above Tin Hau and his festival is the event of the year for local residents, land and sea alike, celebrated both in Shau Kei Wan proper and round the corner in Ah Kung Ngam.* However, this is partly explained by the tablet commemorating the construction of the temple. This states that for an unstated number of years there had been an image of Tam Kung (brought over from Kowloon) but no structure. This temple contains major shrines to two other gods, Wong Tai Sin and Lung Mo, the Dragon Mother. There are models of a sailing junk and a dragon boat inside the building, the former apparently dating back to 1905, and the latter to 1961. \n\nAt the far end of Ah Kung Ngam, having passed timber and boat yards on the sea front and squatter and ordinary factories of all kinds on the other side of the road we come eventually to \n\n* This is equally so at the present day. A night visit to the area at this year's festival showed opera performances on land and sea and many dinner parties in progress, whilst the amount of debris at the temple after the day's worshipping had to be seen to be believed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206404, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n195 \n\nin frames hung on the walls. A portrait of Sir Robert Ho Tung's mother and a photograph of his wife appear in the older of these two memorial halls. \n\nThe Tam Kung Temple at Happy Valley \n\nThis temple, which seems to have been removed here about 1900, was formerly located at Wong Nei Chung Village and was the local village temple. The village of Wong Nei Chung was one of the main villages of Hong Kong Island and its existence pre-dated the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841. It was eventually removed in the 1920s to make way for the present development of Wong Nei Chung and Blue Pool Road. The present race course was formerly the paddy fields belonging to this village. \n\nThis temple is in fact dedicated to two gods, Pak Tai, (11) the god of the north and Tam Kung, (342) a Kwangtung worthy. Other gods worshipped in the temple include the Goddess of Mercy (left of the main altar) and Lung Mo, the Dragon Mother (right of the altar). Up some steps and behind the main building is another altar in which there is an image of Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven. To the right of this altar are some memorial tablets which have been put there by relatives of dead persons for regular worshipping rites to be carried out in return for a small initial sum. You will note that one of these contains bone ashes in a small porcelain jar. \n\nTin Hau Temple, Causeway Bay \n\nThis is by far the oldest of the three temples we shall visit today. The structure, apart from some later repairs, dates mainly from a last major reconstruction in 1868, and the bell is dated 1747. There are various items of temple furniture inside and outside the temple bearing dates in the Tao Kwong (1821-51) and Tung Chi (1862-74) periods, including a very good pair of large stone lions dated 1845. Inside the temple the major items of interest are the carved granite altars which date from the 1860s and are worthy of close inspection. \n\nThe temple is dedicated to Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven and has long been famous for attracting large numbers of boat people on this goddess' festival in the fourth moon. Unlike most", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207096, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n161\n\nAnother ancestral hall, built by the Tang family was less fortunate. The story goes that in the 1st year of Ka Hing (✯✯) A.D. 1796 of Ts'ing dynasty, the sons of Tang Yue Cheung (**) decided to build an ancestral hall worthy to house the tablet of their illustrious ancestress, the princess. So they built a house of “kak muk” (**) in T’aai Họng (✯✯✯) village, and in shape the house was like a king's palace. At that time the district magistrate of Sun On was a man nicknamed “Hungry Bug\" on account of his habit of collecting \"squeeze\" wherever he could. When he heard of the new building being erected in Kam T'in, and how magnificent it was, he scented a chance to make money. So he sent a message to the Tangs to say he would like to inspect their new acquisition.\n\nThe Tangs were much dismayed; being familiar with the character of their district officer they knew quite well the object of his visit, they did not want to pull down the house yet its very existence was an indication of their wealth and prosperity. In the village of Lung Kwat T'au (#) where the villagers are Tangs too, being descendants of the first son of the princess, there was a portrait of the princess and the Tangs of Kam T'in borrowed it and hung it up in the entrance of the hall. When the district officer saw it he was filled with awe, and hastily made obeisance to it. He was so impressed that he dared not demand money from the descendants of so distinguished a lady, and after making a show of being pleased he stayed one night, and then took his departure.\n\nEventually the picture had to be returned to its rightful owners, and the Kam T’in men fearing further trouble, pulled the hall down, but the foundation stones, overgrown with weeds and grass can still be seen.\n\nThe legends of Kam T'in are curiously mixed up with tales of buried treasure. One story tells how at the end of the Ming dynasty the Tangs wished to build an ancestral hall for the tablet of their eleventh ancestor, Tang Kwong Yue ( ). Tang Ping Yee (*) (a grandson of Tang Kwong Yue) and eight of Tang Ping Yee's cousins chose what was, according to one \"Fung shui\" man, a very lucky day to put up the central beam of the house, but a few days later they found that the beam was putting forth shoots. The people considered this to be a bad omen, so they consulted a more reliable fortune-teller, who declared that the day had been a lucky day, but for building boats, not houses! The people at once pulled down the beam, the time happened to be the season of the dragon boat festival, and the villages decided to make the discarded", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207100, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n165\n\nthat he owned so much sugar that it would be possible for him to place jars of sugar touching each other all the way from his village to Kam T'in. Tang answered \"Fix the price of each jar of sugar and I will undertake to put the required amount in each jar from one village to the other!\" All the onlookers applauded and called on the two men to make good their boasts. Tang went home and consulted with his mother how to raise the necessary money but she begged him not to do it, because, she said, thieves would certainly hear of it and it would be impossible to guard the jars. So Tang decided that the best way out of the difficulty was to arrange another dinner together and apologize to T'o.\n\nThe other story tells how a notorious robber named Faan Ha On (L) tried for three years to break into Tang's house with the idea of robbing him, but without success. Tang, who like many rich men was particularly nervous of thieves, had his house very well guarded and barred. One day when Tang was in Kam T'in Market he walked straight into Faan by mistake, and with such force that his head was quite bruised. The thief was abject in his apologies and Tang, not knowing who he was, asked his name. When he heard that this was the famous robber, Tang was afraid, fearing to be kidnapped, but Faan assured him that he intended no harm. “For three years I have tried to rob your house,\" he confessed, \"but I have found it too well guarded and even your roof is impenetrable. If you do not believe me go and look for all the stones that I threw away from the dried persimmons I ate, as I lay hidden waiting and watching for an opportunity to enter your door! But there is always a chance still of a careless servant leaving your door open and to make your house even more secure you should build a series of goose-houses round it. Geese are better than dogs, when a stranger comes they will always give the alarm.\" So Tang went home, much impressed, and did what the robber had suggested, even to sending a servant to collect the persimmon stones which are said to have weighed 50 catties. But when later on he tried to find Faan Ha On to show his gratitude to him he was told that he had been killed by a cat, the reason being, the people said, that he had, in a previous existence been a rat!\n\nThe most unaccountable story of all is that of the \"Ngan To Laan (i) silver coins run away from their old home” which is reputed to have happened in the 32nd year of Kwong Sui (1906) of Ts'ing dynasty. On the dragon boat festival day of that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207550, "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": 318, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "310\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nof the assistance given to Chang T'ien Shih (*) the First Master of Orthodox Taoist folk-religion, by the Three Jesters when they played their music, attracted and led the evil spirits (as the Pied Piper led the rats) to the spirit boat on which they were shanghaied, whereupon the epidemic immediately ended.\n\nNow we know from many sources, in addition to our own observations, that the rite for expelling pestilence performed by the Fukienese of Taiwan and South East Asia consists of a ceremony at which the spirits of the Wang Yeh encourage the demons of pestilence to board a paper boat which is set fire to and pushed out midstream. These Fukienese pestilence gods, the Wang Yeh (*), an heterodox cult of folk religion, although they are worshipped as one on altars, can be classified into two types. The first is the large group of musicians or scholars, varying from 36 to 360, who in legend died at the whim of an Emperor and were deified; the second group are individual spirit generals bearing family surnames, said to be either blood brothers or close friends. These appear individually or in groups of up to six on altars. Wang Yeh from both groups have identical roles, the prevention of epidemics. Most Chinese with whom I have discussed these Wang Yeh, although they subconsciously realized it existed, had not considered this separation into two groups. They had unconsciously accepted the multitude of blood brothers with their individual surnames as individual musicians or scholars from the large group. Du Bose6, incidentally, heard another legend which described one single Fukienese deity, the Wang Yeh, as a scholar who sacrificed himself and saved the village from a demon-infested public well.\n\nThe Wang Yeh festival of expelling the pestilence demons usually takes place during the fourth month, when sickness is (or was) rife. In South East Asia and in Taiwan individual images of Wang Yeh (seated, unarmed and bearded generals) are taken down to the water's edge during the launching ceremony, and occasionally a wooden image is actually launched aboard a more substantial miniature boat, and wherever it lands a temple is supposed to be built to house the deity, thereby spreading the cult.\n\nChief Marshal T'ien is not the localized cult deity Miss Werle believed him to be. He has appeared not only in Ch'aochow and\n\n6 H. C. du Bose: The Dragon, Image & Demon. Partridge & Co., London, 1886.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208364, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "GÖRAN AIJMER\n\nfor wine are used, jiu H, and it's 'sweet wine'. It is hard to tell from the data whether different kinds of wine were used on different occasions. More generally, we may remember that wine is manufactured from rice; in fact, it is rice transmuted into liquid form.\n\n7. Food\n\nFood was sacrificed and eaten on the graves after they had been swept. Again, the lack of detailed data makes it difficult to interpret the presenting of food as a ritual act. Some notes could be observed here. In Yiyang people ate 'stalks and grass', which, being unusual food, probably signified 'non-rice' or 'non-food'.65 We are told that in Anxiang officials prepared 'cattle'. The term may have a more narrow sense of 'beef'. Meat seems to have been paired with rice wine in many sacrifices throughout the area: on the Lantern Festival (in the first moon) in Jiangling, on Earth God Day in Wuling and Zhongxiang,7 on the Dragon Boat Festival (in the fifth moon) in the Yozhou prefecture (around Baling), and Yunmeng #,68 on Zhongyuan (in the seventh moon) in Wuling,69 and on Churia, New Year Eve, in Jiangling, Hanzhou, Jingshan, Chongyang, and Yingshan.70\n\nAgain, in the temple dedicated to General Goan in Mienyang, mentioned above, the offerings on the 13th day of the fifth moon consisted of 'cattle' meat and sweet wine. A chronicler mentions that in Tauyuan, at mourning, there was an 'excess' of slaughtering.71\n\nIf we assume that the wide category of sheng-cattle-indicates that cows, oxen and buffalos, and such bovine animals were of primary interest as slaughtering animals on Qingming (although pigs may have been included in the category), it may be interesting to associate that circumstance not only with the excessive slaughtering which was part of the mourning practices in Tauyuan, but also with the display of a clay oxen at the Lichum 'Establishment of Spring' festival around the 5th of February in the solar calendar.72 In Chongyang the 5th day of the fifth moon was called niu ri ✈ a Ox Day. Then the buffalos or cows were fed, and it was not allowed to whip the beasts or swear at them on this day.73 These practices seem all to have a close link with agriculture.74\n\nThe fact that cattle was modelled in clay seems to indicate that the nature of cattle was earthly. The breaking of the clay oxen may,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208372, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "80\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\n8 D. H. Perkins, Agricultural Development in China 1368-1968. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1969, p. 47.\n\n9 Göran Aijmer, 'A Structural Approach to Chinese Ancestor Worship'. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde 124, pp. 91-98, 1968, and The Dragon Boat Festival on the Hupeh-Hunan Plain, Central China. A Study in the Ceremonialism of the Transplantation of Rice. Statens Etnografiska Museum, Monograph Series, No. 9. Stockholm, 1964.\n\n10 Several terms are used: *, **, *, ; it is hard to tell whether they signify different types of graves.\n\n11 GJTSJC VI:1259, ##† 1b.\n\n12 TRAŁ. Records of Changde Prefecture. Auth. A, 1813. Juan 13:4a. Wuling is the capital of this prefecture.\n\n13 ****, juan 3:8a, quoting older edition.\n\n14 # Records of Yuanjiang County. 1807-1819. Juan 18:2b.\n\nJuan 18:2b.\n\n益陽縣\n\n154, juan 2:9b,\n\n16 CM, juan 11:2b.\n\n17 ***. Records of Anxiang County. Eds. ## et al., 1748, no pagination.\n\n風俗考\n\n18 GJTSJC VI:1130, £## 1b.\n\n19 GJTSJC VI:1142, ## 3a.\n\n20 GJTSJC VI:1120, #2b.\n\n21 GJTSJC VI:1120, ‡ 4b.\n\n風俗考 BB\n\n22 GJTSJC VI:1116, + 4b.\n\n23 GJTSJC VI:1223, 2a.\n\n24 A#. Records of Wuling County, Auths, $ et al., 1862-63. Juan 7:4b.\n\n25 GJTSJC VI:1142 ### 2a.\n\n26 GJTSJC VI:1120 * 2a.\n\n27 eums, juan 11:12b, quoting 'old record' — presumably an earlier edition of the gazetteer.\n\n28 Sometimes there is also an autumnal she ri, but the present case certainly refers to a spring offering.\n\n29 GJTSJC VI:1120 $ 2b.\n\n風俗考\n\n30 GJTSJC VI:1120 ## 4b.\n\n31 GJTSJC VI:1166 ## 4b.\n\n32 GJTSJC VI:1120\n\n33 GJTSJC VI:1259\n\n34 GJTSJC VI:1223 #‡ 6b.\n\n# 2ab.\n\n# 1b, 2a.\n\n風俗考\n\n35 GJTSJC VI:1142 ## 1b.\n\n36 For a general survey of the architectural features of Chinese tombs, see Magdalene von Dewall, 'Grab und Totenbrauch in China.' Tribus, no. 25, November 1976, pp. 31-81.\n\n37 Harry A. Franck: Roving through Southern China. New York & London: The Century Co., 1925, p. 64.\n\n38 On Tongshan, see GJTSJC VI:1120, A#‡ 6b, and on Wuling, GJTSJC VI:1255, 1, 7ab.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208373, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n81\n\n39 See Maurice Freedman: Geomancy. Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland for 1968. London\n\n1.15.\n\n40 Aijmer, A Structural Approach...p. 95,\n\n41 GJTSJC VI:1223 *** 126.\n\n42 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology No. 33. London: Athlone Press, 1966.\n\n1* For instance, Lewis Hodous provides an account in his Folkways in China, London: Arthur Probstain, 1929, p. 92. Hodous draws mainly on his long Fujian experience.\n\n44 Aijmer, A Structural Approach\n\np.96.\n\n45 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 77f.\n\n46 GJTSJC VI:1193, &$ 26.\n\n47 GJTSJC II:51, 6a. A Similar arrangement occurred in Youxian, GJTSJC II:51, 19b.\n\n48 Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, pp. 78f.\n\n49 There were probably several kinds of paper money in use. The yellow kind referred to above was in all likelihood the 'gold variety. As our sources do not carry information in detail on this subject we must leave such further implications aside.\n\n50 I have notes from Gongan (GJTSJC VI:1193, * 36), Hanzhou (VI:1130, 風俗长 Ib), Zhongxiang (VI:1142: #6# 1b, 2b), Jingshan (VI:1142, & 3a) Chongyang (VI:1120 † 4a, 5a), and Tongshan (VI:1120, Afb† 6a).\n\n51 I have found notes from Baling (GJTSJC VI: 1223, K## 2b, ennt juan 11:6a), Wuchang (GJTSJC VI:1120, ✩ 26), Chongyang (VI:1120, £#* 46), Tongshan (VI:1120, ### 6b) and Yingshan (VI:1166, BB‡ 4b).\n\n52 Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society. pp. 140f.\n\n53 Other names for this festival used in the region are Yulan dahui, 王蘭大會 Yulan penhui 盂蘭盆會,and Duwang dahui 度亡大會\n\nAll are Buddhist terms.\n\n54 I have, at present, no information from the Dongting area on the handling of paper money at funerals, for instance.\n\n55 GJTSJC VI:1223, # 2b.\n\n56 GJTSJC VI:1193, £&$ 26.\n\n57 GJTSJC VI:1142, R&* 3a.\n\n58 GJTSJC VI:1193, # 2a.\n\n59 GJTSJC VI:1259, 6 2a.\n\n60 GJTSJC VI:1130, &‡ 2a.\n\n61 GJTSJC VI:1120, K✩‡ 4b.\n\n62 GJTSJC VI:1166, ### 46.\n\n63 GJTSJC VI:1142, ‡ 4a.\n\n64 GJTSJC VI:1142, &* 2ab.\n\n65 mm, juan 2:96.\n\n66 GJTSJC VI:1193, R 2a.\n\n67 GJTSJC VI:1259, ✩ lb; 1142, * 2a.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208374, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "82\n\n68 GJTSJC II:51, 19b.\n\nGÖRAN AUMER\n\n69 GJTSJC VI:1259, RG 2a.\n\n70 GJTSJC VI:1193, 風俗考 26; 1130, 風俗考 2a; 1142, 風俗考 38; 1120, 風俗考 5a; 1166, 風俗考 5a.\n\n71 GJTSJC VI: 1259, + 2ab. For two interesting discussions on foodstuffs as part of offering rituals, and in terms of cooked and raw food, see Emily M. Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973, pp. 167-170, and Arthur P. Wolf: Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, pp. 131-182 in Arthur P. Wolf (ed.), Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1974.\n\n72 Chroniclers report this custom from Hanzhou (GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b), Jingshan (VI:1142, 3a), Zhongxiang (VI:1142, 6b), Chongyang (VI:1120, 4a), and Yingshan (VI:1166, 3b, 4a).\n\n73 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4a.\n\n74 A local tradition from Daye (GJTSJC VI: ... 17a) tells of a persecuted jiao dragon that turned itself into an ox island in a river; this was henceforth called Bull Island. A similar transmutation is mentioned in a legend referring to the Yuan River; see E. T. C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh Ltd. 1932, p. 116f.\n\n75 In Tongshan, there was an idea of a pair of Earth Gods, She Gong and She Mu. I have no other evidence for ideas of a female counterpart in the Dongting area; GJTSJC VI:1120, 6b.\n\n76 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. This may be compared to the use of a mixture of rice and red beans, sometimes contained in a pot, on other ritual occasions; see Aijmer, The Dragon Boat Festival, p. 76.\n\n77 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b.\n\n78 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a.\n\n79 GJTSJC VI:1259, 1b.\n\n80 #Ma juan 3: 8a. 風俗考\n\n81 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b.\n\n82 GJTSJC VI:1142, 4b.\n\n83 GJTSJC VI:1120, 3a.\n\n## 4b.\n\n84 GJTSJC VI:1166, 4b. 風俗考\n\n85 GJTSJC VI:1193, 2a. 荆楚歲時記 Seasons in Jing and Chu. Auth. Tsung Lin\n\n86, juan 13:4a.\n\n87 GJTSJC VI:1130, 1b. 風俗考\n\n88 GJTSJC VI:1120, 4b.\n\n89 GJTSJC VI:1120, 2b.\n\n90 Aijmer, A Structural Approach... p. 95.\n\n91 GJTSJC VI:1142, 1b, 2b.\n\n92 荊楚歲時記 7b. 風俗考 16, 2b. M16\n\n93 GJTSJC VI:1142, 2a.\n\n94 loc. cit.\n\n95 GJTSJC VI:1166, 5b. Records of the ... Ed: MELAR‡ n.d.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208881, "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-1980", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\n15\n\nIn single-room and larger temples the major altar, which faces the entrance, may be either one large space reaching from side wall to side wall or it can be divided into three, five or more individual altars with, on occasions, a separate altar or two constructed down the side walls. (Plate 6).\n\nIn quite a number of traditional temples the main hall is divided longitudinally by partition walls from floor to ceiling. These stretch a short distance into the main hall from the rear wall of the temple, one on either side of the main altar. The two side altars are therefore outside the partitions, and in practice these partition walls serve to isolate the side altars.\n\nIn many traditional temples several major deities, and even a few minor deities, have a side hall dedicated entirely to themselves and their attendants. These include the God of Loyalty and Literature Guan Di; the fertility goddess Jin Hua Niang Niang; the bodhisattva Guan Yin and the wealth god Cai Bo Xing Jun. It is not necessarily a down-grading of the importance of the deity but a late recognition and addition to the temples' complement. A great many side hall altars contain a group of unconnected and unidentifiable minor images around the major and identifiable deity's image, all placed there over the years by zealous devotees.\n\nA side hall in one temple contained the lone image of the Earth God on the only altar, although the characters above the altar read Jin Hua Niang Niang. Presumably over the years the images of this fertility Goddess and her attendants had been removed and replaced by the image of the Earth God without the title above the altar being changed.\n\nThe temple incinerator, and the temple keeper's kiosk or counter from which he sells charm papers and incense, are usually in one or other of the side halls or courts between side halls.\n\nSide halls also contain large ritual items such as the temple bell, drum and the removable head and tail from the village dragon boat, and in one of the side halls of most Boat People's temples replicas of early junks (some 8' to 10' in length) also gather dust in the gloom. These model junks are used only on festival days when offerings are placed on the decks. The devotees thank Tian Hou for good catches over the previous year and request similar benefits for the coming year.\n\nThe roofs of traditional temples consist of interlocking tiles resting on lathes supported by strong cross beams. The latter are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209239, "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-1981", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "128 \n\nTA. ACTON \n\nare organised into four regional federations, whose four elected chairmen become important people indeed, and sit on the Hong Kong Government's Fish Marketing Advisory Board. The co-operatives and the regional committees have their meetings in a friendly, informal way in the Liaison Officer's office, whose job description includes a duty to \"convince troublesome committees or members to observe the ordinance and by-laws.” — fortunately, rarely necessary. \n\n30 \n\nIn addition, the Liaison Officers encourage mechanisation, training classes (also held in their offices), sensible insurance, the \"Keep Hong Kong Clean\" campaign, and have the duty \"to assist the fishermen in the organisation of festival opera performances, dragon boat races, and other recreation activities.\" 31 \n\n32 \n\nOne major effect, however, of the development, assisted by F.M.O. loans to credit societies and individuals, of a more capital-intensive, mechanised fishing industry, is a sharp decline in the number of persons actually required to man it or make a living at fishing, especially over the past 10 years. In 1971 there were around 50,000 working fishermen in Hong Kong. *2 By 1979 that number had fallen to around 35,700,13 Those with sufficient initial capital to catch the boat of modernization have done so, and now, though working on water, actually live in houses ashore, whether in Aberdeen or new villages on remote islands. It is those who were too poor to mechanise who still live on their old, leaky boats, going ashore to work in factories, sweatshops or street markets. The Shui-sheung-yan community of the early '50s has become polarised into rich and poor, between well-to-do active fishermen, living on land, and poor ex-fishermen, living on boats until they can secure resettlement. \n\nThe F.M.O. schools system, by making available alternative careers to the children of fishermen, has facilitated, and lessened the pain of this reduction of manpower. \n\nIn all other fields, however, the commitment of the F.M.O. is to active fishermen rather than ex-fishermen. Little connection is made between their work and that of the poorest Shui-sheung-yan. Indeed, Government spokesmen, talking of the poor boat-dwellers often refer to them as \"squatters\", implying that they are not true \"Shui-sheung-yan\" at all, but land-people who have moved into leaky boats typhoon shelters like Yaumatei simply to find somewhere to live or perhaps even to jump the queue for public housing. (This view was not, however, borne out by a survey carried out by students for a community \n\n¦ \n\n¦", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210466, "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-1985", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "54\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nwould engage a Taoist priest to come down to his junk and perform a ceremony known as Changing the Gods (woon shan). This, which involved spilling the blood of a domestic fowl, was believed to provide cleansing from pollution and open the way for good fortune.\n\nThe annual ritual cycle began with the New Year and proceeded almost immediately to the public festival for the 'birthday' of the local tutelary deity, Hung Shing Kung, on the 13th day of the 2nd lunar month. These two occasions were the ritual highlights of the year. Quickly in their wake came Ch'ing Ming, fixed by the Chinese solar calendar at a date corresponding with April 6th and falling therefore usually in the third lunar month. This was one of the two special occasions for the commemoration of a family's departed members. The third month saw also the festival to T'in Hau, the so-called Queen of Heaven, protectress of all seamen, celebrated biennially with Chinese opera at the neighbouring village of Lung Shuen Wan and annually in a large number of other places in the Colony.\n\nIn the fourth month there was a festival at the temple of T'am Kung in Shaukiwan to which a few Kau Sai people sometimes went to watch the plays, and on the fifth day of the fifth month the Dragon Boat festival. Kau Sai had once had a Dragon Boat of its own which, I was told, on one memorable occasion even came in first in the 'regatta' held in those days at Aberdeen and attended by H.E. the Governor. But that was back in the 'twenties. Later, Kau Sai people merely looked on at the Dragon Boat races held elsewhere, or sometimes 'fielded' a scratch 'team' for the fun of the thing at Sai Kung. All boat families also made offerings at the temple on the Double Fifth which was also widely used as a kind of dividing mark in the calendar: hired crew, for example, were usually engaged or laid off at New Year and the Dragon Boat festival.\n\nIn the sixth lunar month was held the festival for Koon Yam, 'Goddess of Mercy', observed in all her many temples but attended particularly by Kau Sai residents at the village of Pak Sha Wan, near Sai Kung. (The fact that this village was also the site of that Kau Sai New Village to which the landsmen were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210517, "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-1985", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "105 \n\nhands on board. The total number was 31, of whom 5 were women. The returns I have for 1970 list no paid employees at all.\n\nAs might be expected, most hired hands were young, 25 of the 31 being under 30 years of age, and only 3 over 40. Interestingly enough 2 of these 3 were females, both of them women with sons also employed on the same boats. The other 3 women were wives of hired men.\n\nOnly 13 fokis were genealogically related to their employers, 8 being affines, 4 agnates and 1 a matrilateral kinsman. About half-a-dozen were described to me as sons of well-known neighbours. For the rest I have no information. Recruitment, which took place at Chinese New Year and around the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th lunar month) was normally through the local \"grapevine\", or, much less commonly, by written advertisement posted at one or other of the shops in Shaukiwan or Sai Kung which specialised in this kind of thing. Applicants answered the advertisements by approaching the shopkeepers who, already known to the prospective employers, then acted as “introducers\" (gaay siew yan, introduce man recommended). At New Year 1952 Chung Fuk Hei recruited two new fokis in this way, one of his previous employees having left to join a more congenial boat family in Kau Sai, the other (a poor relation) having been sacked for laziness (and gluttony: Fuk Hei was continually grumbling about the number of bowls of rice his employees managed to put away in a day).\n\nHired men received full board and lodging on the boats on which they worked, and a money wage which in most cases worked out at about 4% of the value of the catch. Women received board and lodging, too, and a sum of about $H.K.15 a month. On some boats the 4% share was paid at irregular intervals as money came in and convenience dictated; on others, more regularly. Usually payments were handed over about once a week or twice a month. The share was always calculated on the gross total takings before the deduction of any other expenses. It was several times explained to me that it would not be fair (mm gung doe, lit: not right reach, or mm gung ping, lit: not right level) for fokis to have to share in the expenses. Thus while", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210519, "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-1985", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "107\n\nnot been living at the time in Fuk Shun's house. My informants were the man's sister and her daughter (i.e. the offending Fuk Hap's sister-in-law and niece, sister and niece also to the foki concerned). My notes continue as follows:\n\nI said, later, wouldn't the unfairly treated one walk out? Mrs. FS and DM said No, neither he nor the others knew there was a differentiation when the money was actually given out. Now none dares speak out, but the undercurrent of dissatisfaction is very strong. Reason for not speaking out? Ones who get more fear they may get less: one who gets less fears others may also get less and blame him. Both fear being sworn out (naau, or laau, to scold, revile).\n\nThere were no other sanctions than gossip, and, of course, a refusal to continue the engagement beyond the next New Year or Dragon Boat festival.\n\nOn engagement many hired men asked for advances on their wages. Some obtained as much as two or three hundred dollars or even more in this way, and as a result received relatively little on pay days until the debt was paid off. There was no generally accepted way of doing this, arrangements for subtracting (kau: deduct) so much on each occasion being made individually by each foki with his employer. Fokis were notoriously hard up, but they tended also to be flamboyant spenders when they did have money. At Chinese New Year in particular, when, like almost all other paid workers in Hong Kong, they enjoyed double pay and several days holiday, they spent lavishly on clothes, hair styling, watches and fountain pens, girls, cinemas, theatres and gambling. Leung Shui Hei, one of Chung Fuk Her's fokis whose wages are described above came back from a spending spree in Kowloon on the eve of Chinese New Year 1953 and settled down to 3½ days' hard gambling in the course of which he lost everything he had bought and was left with the clothes he stood up in. He immediately asked for a new advance from his employer.\n\nThe same Leung Shui Hei was an interesting case in many ways. Aged about 28 in 1953 he was strong, good looking,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210522, "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-1985", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "110\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nfamilies to find employment elsewhere, put their own wives and children on sampans and hire themselves out as employees to their erstwhile peers. It is a pity that my records do not allow me to distinguish clearly between these two major categories of foki: those whose natal families had merely, as it were, loaned them out, and those who had had to turn to paid employment or starve. Among the former must be included youths like Chung Fuk Woh's son who deliberately ran away from home but nevertheless remained (albeit somewhat grudgingly) a recognised member of his natal family; among the latter, men like Leung Shui Hei alone in the world (whether accidentally or deliberately), and no longer linked into any kind of ongoing group of kinsmen. The elderly bachelor Ma Fung Shan, described below, was in a kind of intermediate position: originally a younger son put out to work on someone else's boat, he was by 1953 the sole surviving member of his father's family of procreation, split off by formal division more than twenty years before from the extended family group which his father's father's sons had at one time formed together. Ma Fung Shan had many local kinsmen, but no family to belong to. Unique in Kau Sai, there were many like him elsewhere.\n\nAs long as their natal families remained undivided and they themselves remained recognised members, fokis were expected not only to support themselves but also to send or take back remittances. A number of the younger fokis in Kau Sai did just that, returning home from time to time (particularly at Chinese New Year or the Dragon Boat Festival, but also on other holidays and sometimes during slack periods in the fishing seasons) with contributions to their natal families' funds, on which, of course, they still also had a claim. Such a young man was relatively well-off, in that even if he did not usually look forward to re-entering his natal family crew as a working member (and even this was not impossible when, as occasionally happened, business expanded or re-expanded and a larger crew was needed after all) he was still a member and could hope to be provided both with a bride and a share in the family's property when it was divided.\n\nIt is true that only 6 of the 26 male fokis in Kau Sai in 1953", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211015, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "T \n\n52 \n\ntent with the motive of maximizing the market, ranging, as it does from the local Chinese literati to domestic servants of European residents, and even to \"country youths\", presumably from the recently acquired \"New Territories\". \n\nThe principal contents of English Made Easy comprise Mok Man Cheung's “unique system” for enabling non-English speakers to pronounce the English alphabet, numbers, words, phrases, and sentences, plus an anthology of \"model letters\". Fascinating insights into the quality of the social life of upwardly mobile Chinese at the turn of the century are provided by the selection of materials for these sections of the book. \n\nSeveral of the categories of objects and phenomena, invented by Mok Man Cheung to organize his work, offer evidence about the ambivalence of this sort of person at this time in the face of influences from both East and West. In his list of words referring to \"Objects of Nature\", for example, the earliest words on the list (“Sky”, “Earth”, “Sun”, “Moon”, “Wind”, “Clouds”, “Rain”, etc.) may have been chosen for their compatibility with such traditional Chinese concepts as \"Feng Shui”1 and with other widespread beliefs. \"Spirits”, “Gods”, “Ghost”, and “Devil” are all included. The later entries seem to concentrate more on practical and modern realities, such as “reclamation ground”, “rough sea”, “typhoon”, “drizzle” [sic], “low-tide”, “flood”, and, to conclude happily, \"calm-sea\". In his suggested vocabulary for \"Time and Seasons\", he includes \"Intercalary moon”, “Full moon Festival”, \"Dragon Boat Festival\" and \"Winter Solstice\" as well as “Christmas day\", the days of the week and months of the year by Western reckoning, and a battery of non-culture-specific temporal terms. Mok Man Cheung's list of \"Persons and their Occupations\" begins, perhaps because it was politic to do so in 1905, with \"Emperor\", \"Empress\", \"Crown Prince\", and proceeds to deal with “Mandarin” and “General”, leading on to such occupations as “Maidservant” and “Captain”, before referring to \"Governor\", \"Policemen\" (juxtaposed with “Thief”) and \"Student\". It would not be uncharacteristic of Chinese style if the precise order in which these “Persons and Occupations” are presented is meant to be significant. Even if this is not the case,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213471, "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-1995", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "34\n\n19 Balfour, op cit p 449\n\nReport, DCNT., 1959-60, para 45\n\nReport, DCNT, 1954-55, para 9\n\n\"stranger people\", the word used by the Hakkas to describe themselves (Reports, DCNT, 1959-60 para 46 and Balfour, op cit p 332)\n\n5 Balfour, op cit p 333\n\n54 ibid, and Barbara E. Ward's article \"A Hakka Kengsi in Borneo\" Journal of Oriental Studies, Hong Kong Univ Press, Vol 1, No 2, (July 1954) p. 359\n\nReport, DCNT. 1954-55, para 8\n\nReports, DCNT, 1959-60, para 46\n\nBalfour, op cit. p 464\n\n54 Balfour, op cit pp 460-463\n\nBalfour, op cit p 464\n\nibid\n\n62\n\nReports, DCNT, 1959-60, para 46\n\n6.1\n\nReports, DCNT, 1954-55, para 9\n\nReport, DCNT. 1954-55, para 8\n\nibid\n\n50\n\nReport, DCNT, 1955-56, para 8\n\nBalfour, op cit, p 446 (The notable exception is that the Hakka do not celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival)\n\nReport, DCNT 1954-55, para 8\n\nBalfour, op cit, p. 464", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214672, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "51\n\nLife was not, however, all hard work, sickness, and brawls. The farming year was full of slack periods when there was time for entertainment and pleasure. The ritual year gave the villagers a framework for their leisure activities: each major festival was marked with a feast - even the poorest of families would have fat pork and rich eels on feast days. Nga Tsin Wai was, according to the Sha Tin village elders, famous for making \"Cha Kwo\", the traditional sticky village cakes, and these would usually be in evidence at festivals. The New Year, Tin Hau's Birthday, and the Winter Solstice Festival were the main festivals celebrated in Nga Tsin Wai, together with the Spring (Ching Ming) and Autumn (Chun Yeung) Grave Festivals, where fat pork would be distributed by the Ancestral Trusts to those who attended the worship at the graves.\n\nDuring the summer, and particularly at the Dragon Boat Festival, the village had the habit of inviting strolling singers to come and stay in the village for a few days or a week, to sing through their repertoire of \"Dragon Boat Songs\". These were long sung novels, and the villagers would sit outside the village gate in the evening listening to the singer for hours.\n\nThe villagers of Nga Tsin Wai were famous for singing themselves (the Tai Wai villagers in Sha Tin were jealous of the Nga Tsin Wai skills). The villagers sang Shan Ko, “Mountain Songs\". These were sung man to woman, verse by verse, and often included innuendo and suggestive comment: they were often called \"Teasing Songs\" as a result. Nga Tsin Wai villagers would often hold impromptu contests with youngsters from Tai Wai when they met at the pass which separated the lands of the two villages (the villagers say that is why the songs are called \"Mountain Songs\"). The Sha Tin elders also remember that more formal contests were also held - an annual one at Ma Tau Wai drew contestants from all of East Kowloon and Sha Tin: it was held at the Mid Autumn Festival. Contestants would be drawn, man and woman, and they would sing to each other; the one that ran out of things to say being declared the loser. The audience was mostly youngsters, and a few interested elders - they would sit around the contest area on the ground, vocal in their comments. The village elders say these contests could last for a couple of weeks if enough contestants appeared. The last contest was held just after the War. This was a Punti practice. The elders of the Hakka village of Ngau Chi Wan rather...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214856, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "239\n\nTwo important things happened in October 1971: firstly, men were no longer allowed to take concubines and, secondly, every person had to have at least one full day off work a week. Up until then people in small Chinese firms frequently laboured seven days a week with a few days off at Lunar New Year and odd days off at major Chinese festivals - like Dragon Boat and Mid Autumn Festival.\n\nPeople\n\nEnough about statistics: what about RAS members who made things happen?\n\nI will always remember Dr J R Jones CBE, MC, MA, LL.D, JP, who served as our President from the time our Branch was reconstituted until 1970. I first met J R in early 1955 at a Dante Alighieri (the Italian Society) meeting. Then I learned he had a penchant for things antiquarian as well as languages — although he spoke little Chinese. There are a few short pieces written by him in early RAS Journals.\n\nI remember him in a pinstripe, blue suit and, although fairly tall, he could be described as dapper, polished and a ladies' man. He was gentlemanly, personable and, as such, made a splendid RAS ‘front man.' Much of the work behind the scenes, such as setting up the reconstituted Branch in 1960, was in fact done by Dr Marjorie Topley and Jack Cranmer-Byng, Honorary Editor. Marjorie Topley became our President in 1972.\n\nDr Jones had led an interesting life including serving King, Country and Empire in two world wars, as well as helping to organise the Ukrainian Army soon after the end of World War One. He also went on archaeological expeditions to Italy and Africa. As a lawyer he practised at the High Court in London and later in Shanghai. In Hong Kong he was legal advisor to The Bank, as he always referred to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.\n\nIn fact he advised 'the Bank' to buy a number of paintings by George Chinnery (1774 to 1852). The latter is often said to have been the most accomplished western artist to have worked in the East in the 19th century. These paintings, which the Bank purchased, were a splendid investment. In addition, JR sat on a number of government", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215002, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "54\n\nwas also awarded to some members, whether serving with or attached to the CLC.\n\nSome Items of Interest\n\nWhilst carrying out research in the Imperial War Museum in London, I came across an undated letter, written in literary Chinese by Zhong Yangchang on YMCA headed paper, giving the address as ‘On Active Service with the British Expeditionary Force' and addressed to his wife c/o Bureau of Recruitment of Chinese Labour, the British Administration, Weihai Wei. It appears that the letter was also addressed to the Hong Kong University. The writer, a well-educated man, was not necessarily the husband of Zhilan and could quite possibly have been one of the Chinese administration staff. The translation is as follows:\n\nTo my\n\nwife, Zhilan\n\nI had intended to write to you earlier; however, it is only now that I have found a gap in my daily routine to do so. We are still at the same base camp. On the 13th it was Duanyang Festival [the Dragon Boat Festival] and we had the day off. The [Chinese] workers were made-up and put on the Yangke dance (a northern Chinese country peasants' dance) along the street. It was a very good show, but the foreigners seemed somewhat bemused by the event.\n\nSome British Army [officers] came along and they brought with them some other [Chinese labourers], from the Hong clan from the west of Tai [the area around Tai Shan].\n\nI will stop writing now, my spirit will follow the letter to you\n\nMy greetings and best wishes\n\nYour clumsy husband Zhong Yangchong.\n\nThere is a letter, also written in a similar vein on YMCA paper, but this time in English, [with the Wade-Giles left as in the original]. The envelope on display is addressed to Mrs Sung, Normal School,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215075, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "128\n\nChinese lives have long been regulated by two separate calendars, the lunar and the solar. To agrarian peasants the accuracy of the combined calendars is of vital importance having long had a religious as well as a practical function. Chinese geomancers use their skills of prediction melding the religious and practical so that time and what in the west would be regarded as astrology are intermingled. Lunar calendars cannot predict the seasons any more than the solar calendar can predict the full and new moons.\n\nAll Chinese religious festivals follow the lunar calendar which changes from year to year, complicated by whether a particular lunar month has twenty-nine or thirty days. Festivals play a major rôle in people's lives breaking up the monotony of life. There were, and still are, three major annual festivals: San Jie, known colloquially as guo jie literally as 'passing the joint', consisting of guo nian, the festival of seeing the old year out and the new year in; guo duanwu, the Dragon Boat Festival on the Double Fifth; and guo zhongqiu, the Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The great majority of festivals in China have been and still are determined by the waxing and waning of the moon.\n\nUntil 1911 an annual Imperial Lunar or ‘Dynastic' Calendar, known as the Yellow Calendar, the determination of which was a royal prerogative, was precisely calculated following meticulous observations by Chinese astronomers in order that imperial ritual sacrifices could be carried out and confirmation obtained for political action. This legitimised the emperor's power to rule and his claim to the Mandate of Heaven. The one stationary star of the Heavens was the Pole Star around which all other stars seem to circulate. The Pole Star was recognised as the linchpin of the heavens. Chinese emperors were cosmic figures, the equivalent on Earth of the Pole Star, with their every move regulated in conjunction with astrology. The calendar divided the year into twelve months; the new moon fell predictably on the first of each lunar month and the full moon on the fifteenth. A similar popular Calendar, known as the Farmers' Almanac, costing coppers, was and still is widely circulated amongst the masses. This enabled, and still enables, the population, mainly the peasants and petty merchants, to be informed when specific actions or functions can be performed as well as taboos warning them against carrying out daily activities which would be counter to the feng shui, such as on a certain", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215307, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "32\n\nDragon Boat Festival when in various ways the dead helped to secure the successful transplantation of rice.28\n\nIn that essay on the cult of the ancestors in spring time I also addressed briefly the fact that in late Imperial days we find these grave visits dispersed in time, occurring on several dates in the progression of the spring, even if the day and the period of Qing Ming seem to have dominated. Taking account of the fact that Qing Ming and worship at the graves were phenomena not mentioned in our earliest source from the sixth century, I proposed that perhaps grave worship was introduced into this area as part of an ongoing sinicization process in the course of a somewhat later phase in history. If this was so, there may have been some local options as to when the graves should be visited.\n\nThe She Day was a day of agricultural renewal with offerings on the altar of the She. Like the dead, the She was a chthonic phenomenon. Both god and ancestors were active forces beneficial to the sowing of rice. How the dead actually related to the She—directly or indirectly—is not known for this area. The spread over time of vernal worship at the graves may best be seen as a set of local variations on a theme, the standard Qing Ming practice. These alternatives in terms of points in time do not seem to have posed a problem for the robust iconic architecture of the annual ritual cycle as a whole.\n\nThe She Day seems to have been one of merriment, parties al fresco, and social games and competitions. In Baling, the capital of Yuezhou Prefecture, there were competitions and people congregated to feast and drink.29 In Zhongxiang it was the custom to drink ‘earth god wine’ and eat ‘earth god meat.’30 This custom seems to indicate some commensality in which the sacrificial gifts—wine and meat—were shared between the donors and the divinity. No doubt such feasting was combined with the processions and the shamanistic performances mentioned earlier.\n\nReviewing our findings, we observe that the She Day was a day for celebrating the earth and praying for good results in agriculture. It\n\n28 古今圖書集成. 1888.VI, 1223:風俗考2a.\n\n29 古今圖書集成.1888.VI,1142:風俗考2a.\n\n30 古今圖書集成.1888.VI,1120:風俗考6ab.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215316, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "41\n\nboth. The She Day sought abundance in terms of rice from chthonic generative forces, while Flower Dawn solicited wealth in terms of human proliferation from the celestial yang forces of the season. Early spring was a ritual season of releasing life by way of offerings, engagements for marriage and games of contest which, taken together, brought new life to both local communities and domestic groups. Together the two festivals sought a general enjoyment of double blessings.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nAUMER, GORAN. 1964. The Dragon Boat Festival in the Hunan and Hupeh Plains: A Study in the Ceremonialism of the Transplantation of Rice. Stockholm: Statens etnografiska museum.\n\nAUMER, Goran. 1968. A Structural Approach to Chinese Ancestor Worship. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land-, en volkenkunde 124: 91-98.\n\nAUMER, GORAN. 1979. Ancestors in the Spring: The Qingming Festival in Central China. Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 19: 59-82\n\nAumer, Goran. 1991. Chongyang and the Ceremonial Calendar in Central China. In H.R. Baker and S. Feuchtwang (eds.), An Old State in New Settings: Studies in the Social Anthropology of China in Memory of Maurice Freedman. Oxford: JASO.\n\nAumer, Goran. 2002 (In print). New Year Celebrations in Central China in Late Imperial Times. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.\n\nAUMER, GORAN and VIRGIL K.Y. Ho. 1999. Cantonese Society in a Time of Change. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.\n\nBODDE, DERK. 1975. Festivals in Classical China: New Year and other Annual Observations during the Han Dynasty 206 B.C.-A.D. 220. Princeton: Princeton University Press and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nBREDON, JULIET & IGOR MITROPHANOW, 1972 (1927). The Moon Year: A Record of Chinese Customs and Festivals. Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company.\n\nCHAVANNES, EDOUARD, 1969 (1910). Le dieu du sol dans la Chine antique. Appendice à Le T'ai Chan: Essai de monographie d'un culte chinois. Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers.\n\nCh'u T'ung-tsu, 1972, Han Social Structure. Edited by Jack L. Dull. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216099, "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": 398, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "332\n\nSir Robert had a wonderful funeral procession with 16 bands. In those days popular tunes at Chinese funerals were; Abide with me, Polly Wolly Doodle all the Day, and Yes, we have no Bananas! They were good, rousing tunes and most Chinese did not understand the words anyway. Bamboo ramps were a common sight in the 1950s to bring coffins and corpses down to street level. Ramps disappeared with traffic congestion and with the introduction of high-rise buildings, about 1960. Major Chinese festivals occur in the calendar when there are marked changes of seasons. People are then likely to feel \"under the weather.\" When the body is at a low ebb a sick person is more likely to die. In 1956, it was said that Sir Robert had “passed over\" Ching Ming and should be able to carry on at least to Dragon Boat Festival. However, it was not to be.\n\nIn March 1955 I had managed to obtain a government quarter at 56 Conduit Road. At the time it resembled a quiet country lane, gay with flowers, where you could occasionally hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. A few people were still carried up to Mid-Levels by sedan chairs which, until the end of the fifties, were parked at the bottom of Wyndham Street.\n\nI engaged a Chinese amah to whom I paid $130 a month. She spoke Pidgin English and talked of \"going topside” when she meant going upstairs. Indeed some of us old Hong Kong hands still use pidgin expressions. I, for example, still talk of a makee-learn, for someone learning a job, and I say small chow when I mean canapés which are provided at receptions. A Chinese colleague complained that, at $130, I was overpaying my amah. He gave his $70 a month. He also said that his amah had no time off. If she had anything important to do she would request a few hours off work. Several people had gold teeth in those days and the saying was that one should have enough gold in one's mouth to pay for one's funeral. The present-day, gold-coloured building, at Admiralty, is nicknamed the \"Amah's Tooth.\"\n\nWhen I first lived in Conduit Road there were a number of quite palatial mansions standing in their own grounds, often with tennis courts, in the Mid-levels. One example was the house on the site, at No.41, on which I live today. The old building was demolished in the mid-1960s. From 1951 to '61 it was occupied by the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). The film, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, based on Han", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216162, "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": 461, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "395\n\nso on. I owe this information to our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, who has also referred me to an article on the subject by Professor James L. Watson, \"Eating from the Common Pot: Feasting with Equals in Chinese Society\", published in Anthropos, Vol. 82, 1987, pp. 389-401.\n\nIn the course of enquiries (1970s) into foods made at festival time, I came across some interesting facts about the preparation process. This was often laborious. The \"cakes\" made at the lunar New Year are a case in point. The materials comprised pounded glutinous rice and cane sugar. According to men from two of the former Tsuen Wan villages, sixteen hours were needed to cook the mixture in a very large, deep wok (the Chinese frying pan) in effect for a whole day, from dawn till dusk or later. Cooking in an old-fashioned village stove, fuelled by dried grass or firewood, was essential; since the taste would be different were charcoal or gas to be used. Some of the Sham Tseng elders (also Tsuen Wan District) said that each \"cake\" might require between 30 to 50 catties of glutinous rice, resulting in very large \"cakes\". In one household of my acquaintance (originally from Shek Pik on Lantau Island, resited to Tsuen Wan in 1960), it had been usual for them to make four large \"cakes\" every lunar New Year. These were distributed as goodwill gifts to shops in the market towns of Tai O and Cheung Chau, and the boat people's families in the Shek Pik anchorage - indicative of this household's economic and social ties. People also gave and received portions of such cakes during the customary visiting to mark the arrival of the New Year.\n\nThe Sham Tseng men had also mentioned a rather curious requirement involved in the preparation of the dumplings made for the fifth day of the fifth lunar month festival, commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival. The dumplings had to be made with a preparation of wood ash, placed between bamboo leaves, and filtered with water. This watery ash, known as kan shui [the character I was given for 'kan' is that for 'root', but though this sits oddly with the context, I have not been able to find anything more suitable in a dictionary search] had to come from \"new\" wood, though not necessarily of any particular kind. It was no use trying to filter ash from anything that came to hand, like old boards or drift-wood.\n\nTurning to other topics, I had earmarked but subsequently overlooked two interesting items in the course of shaping the chapters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]