[ { "id": 204247, "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": 15, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n12\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nOne by one successive tribes arose Huns, Avars, Turks, Mongols, Manchus-dashed themselves against the frontiers of the Empire, and sometimes recoiling proceeded through Central Asia to Europe, sometimes breaking through the Wall, submerged for a time the whole Empire.\n\nApart from some stone monuments found in Central Asia, few but of great importance, the record of these tribes is to be found in the Chinese Histories, with references in the Greek authors of the Byzantine Empire, whenever the tribes impinged upon the West.\n\nInterest in collecting the Scythian bronzes commenced with Peter the Great. It is natural that the Russians and the scholars of Eastern Europe should be the first to be interested in the history of the Central Asian tribes. To them is largely due the excavations in Southern Europe and Siberia, and also in Mongolia. But in English we have the massive work 'Scythians and Greeks' by E. H. Minns. The Turks also are particularly interested in these studies, which have thrown much light upon the origin of the Turkish peoples.\n\nOne outcome of the struggle of the Chinese Empire with the Huns was the first extension of Chinese power in Central Asia, through the Tarim Basin, the present Sinkiang, to the Pamirs. This chapter in world history includes the fascinating account of the journey of Chang Ch'ien to the West in the second century B.C., the exploits of Pan Ch'ao in the Tarim Basin in the first century A.D., and the despatch of a Chinese envoy, Kan Ying, to the shores of the Persian Gulf,\n\nDuring the first and second centuries the famous silk trade arose between China and Rome, recorded by Ptolemy and the Chinese histories. For a short time the land route between China and the West was open. The road passed through the Tarim Basin, between the northern grasslands and Tibet. It also became the great highway between India and China.\n\nThe Tarim Basin is one of the most remarkable geographical regions in the world, lying as it does between glaciated mountains on three sides, with a waterless desert in the centre. Around the desert, watered by streams from the mountains, are the oasis towns and villages, which form stepping stones as it were for travellers passing from east to west, or from west to east. By this thoroughfare have passed from time immemorial the travellers of Central Asia-merchants, soldiers, monks. And by this thoroughfare the great cultural influences-Indian, Persian, Greek-have passed with Buddhism from Western and Southern Asia to China. By this thoroughfare Chinese colonization spread to the Pamirs. By this route Marco Polo journeyed to China in the thirteenth century.\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204530, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1963", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "The Honorary Treasurer has submitted a statement of accounts which appears eminently satisfactory. It shows an excess of income over expenditure of $1,708.18. I wish, however, to stress the point that the income from the annual membership fees is $4,779.55 from 240 members but the expenses of the Society amount to $6,605.15. The deficit is made good partly by the receipts from the sale of journals but mainly by the income from capital investments derived from the gift of $10,000 made by a generous and anonymous donor in memory of the late Arthur de Carl Sowerby on the re-establishment of the Society. It is the Council's aim to reserve the income from investments, to build up a fund for a library and for the permanent interests of the Society, and to increase the income from annual subscriptions to meet our annual expenses. For the present annual subscription of $20 members receive all the benefit of the lectures during the year and a free copy of the Journal, which together cost the Society nearly 40 per cent over the amount of their subscriptions. In order to enable the Society to work on a steady basis we need an addition of another 100 members. At the end of 1962 we had on our books 33 life members and 247 ordinary members including 8 overseas members. There has been a gratifying and steady increase each year, but each year many resign on their departure from the Colony, while too many go away on leave and forget to pay their subscriptions. The Treasurer and the Secretary are both busy people who have neither the time nor the staff to collect past dues, and it would greatly lessen their burden if members would make their subscriptions payable by Banker's Orders or become life members.\n\nThe present membership of somewhat over 240 members represents a permanent nucleus of those who are interested in our cultural heritage in the Colony; but as H.E. Sir Robert Black, our patron, said two years ago: \"There are many times this number who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world, which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research, or in studying and inquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here.\" Hong Kong provides the greatest opportunity in the world today for a meeting of minds between East and West. East may remain East and West, West, but here, more than anywhere else, if the world is to be one, they must meet.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207893, "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": 281, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "266\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ncommunity. They resisted being sent to the temporary plague hospitals set up under the direction of European doctors. They feared that the bodies of dead relatives and friends would not be treated according to Chinese custom. The mood of the Chinese population became so hostile, almost breaking into open rebellion, that the Government finally permitted the Directors of Tung Wah Hospital to open a plague hospital in a recently built and as yet unoccupied pig and sheep depot in Kennedy Town. The attempt to force western medical treatment upon a Chinese population already aroused by the natural fear of the plague, further alienated the general population from any suggestion that western methods should be introduced into Tung Wah. The President of the Directors in that year was in the unenviable position of being also a member of the Sanitary Board whose duties it was to initiate and enforce measures to control the plague. His position with a foot in two camps provoked an attack upon his business premises while he was chairing a meeting at Tung Wah called to consider the protests of the Chinese community against the measures of the Government. Upon receiving the news of the attack, he hurriedly left the meeting, but his chair was no more outside the gates of the hospital than the hostile crowd which had gathered began stoning the chair bearers and rushed the chair turning it upside down with the unfortunate Chairman inside. He managed to crawl out and rush back within the safety of the Tung Wah gates. An Indian constable blew his whistle and a group of watchmen of the Hospital rushed out and the crowd dispersed. The incident reflects the strong feeling surging in the Chinese community against the measures taken by the Government in the plague crisis.\n\nThe Governor was not only recipient of hostility from the Chinese community but was also strongly criticised in the English press for the slowness with which Government undertook plague measures and for making concessions to the feelings of the Chinese regarding the treatment and care of plague victims. He may have been stung by these criticisms, for after the passing of the plague he took a very strong stand in demands made on Tung Wah to change its former policy of exclusive employment of doctors trained in traditional Chinese medicine.\n\nIn 1895 a Commission was appointed to inquire into whether the Hospital should be closed, or, if continued, what changes should be made. There was no question in official minds that it could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211716, "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-1989", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "106\n\nis expensive and because of its \"burnt\" smell.\n\nSandalwood is obtained from Santalum album, the best of which is found in Sydney, Australia. This species is often referred to as Hsin-shan sandalwood (新山檀香木, US). The core part of the tree trunk, being older, has the stronger scent and thus is most valued and gains the name of Ta hsin-shan (大新山, II). The next rank is called T'ou-tsai (頭材, Bff) and is obtained from the shoot of the tree trunk. The branches and the bark of the tree, being either too young or too rough, are less valued and are termed as Chih-tsai (枝材, literally meaning \"little branches\") and Shêng-p'i (生皮, literally meaning \"tree bark\", ) respectively. An inferior species is called Ju-lai-fên (如來粉, 403) which is a little pungent in smell. Some of the sandalwood, however, comes from Indonesia and is called Di-men (低門, HP) which is not as odoriferous as that from Australia. Sandalwood is also imported from Papua New Guinea and the islands of the South Pacific. It is this type of scent which is most favoured by the public and is used in the production of both joss sticks and incense coils. In 1987, more than 50 factories reported the use of various grades of sandalwood.\n\nBenzoin, in contrast, is obtained from Styrax benzoin from Sumatra, S. hypoglaucus, S. macrothuyrrus from China and S. tonkinensis from Siam. This fragrance has a very strong smell and was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, 60% of the incense wood ground in a single incense wood mill in Shek Kong was benzoin wood (around 200-300 tan per month). Today, less than 30 tan of benzoin wood is ground in a year. Lign-aloe-scented joss sticks, however, are produced with a mixture of wide varieties of Chinese medicinal herbs; examples include Illicium verum, Foeniculum vulgare, Rheum spp., Cinnamomum cassia, Syzygium aromaticum, Nardostachys chinensis, Zanthoxylum simulans, Lysimachia foenumgraecum, Angelica anomala, Kaempferia galanga, Angelica sinensis, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Xanthoxylum and Eleutherococcus gracilistylus. Ch'ien-nan (沉南, £), the common name for this kind of joss stick, was particularly used in Malaysia and Thailand in early days to fumigate the tin mines.\n\nThe last common type of incense powder used is from ordinary sawdust. Though increasingly fewer incense stick factories produce joss sticks with sawdust, at least 20 factories in 1987 had small sections devoted to the production of this kind of low-grade commodity. The end product so manufactured is called Ts'u-hsiang (**粗香**, “crude joss sticks”, H)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211730, "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-1989", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "120\n\n77\n\n*Reports on the New Territories for the Year 1932; B. Southern District”, Hong Kong Administrative Reports 1932, p. J22.\n\n# Nathan, p. 282-283.\n\n\"Imports for the Year 1855\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1855, p. 323,\n\n\"Imports for the Year 1857\". Hong Kong Blue Book 1857, p. 183.\n\n26 Hennessy, J.P., \"Address of Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy, KCMG, on the Census Returns and the Progress of Hong Kong\", Hong Kong Administrative Reports, 1880-1881.\n\nדי\n\nHong Kong Annual Report 1946, p. 42.\n\n+\n\nHong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce +*** \"Business Conditions\", in: Report for the Year 1949 Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce).\n\nE‡‡ƒ), (Hong Kong:\n\n29 Ingrams, H., \"Industry”, in: Hong Kong, (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1952), p. 139.\n\nFieldwork, 1987.\n\n31 Registrar of Trade Unions, Annual Departmental Reports, 1960-1969.\n\n+2\n\nCensus and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Trade Statistics. 1968-1978.\n\nSee Plate 15.\n\nSee Plate 16.\n\n15\n\nSee Plate 17.\n\nSee Plates 18 and 19.\n\n17 Osgood. Cornelius, The Chinese, a Study of a Hong Kong Community, Volume 2. (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1975), p. 769.\n\n18 **Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1911. P. V3.\n\n39 Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1903-1906, p. V4.\n\n40 \"Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1946,\n\np. V3.\n\n\"Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1920-1925, p. VI. See Appendix 1 for a table of Locations of Joss Stick Factories, 1902-1930.\n\n+ Leeming, Frank, Streets Studies in Hong Kong: Localities in a Chinese City. (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 105.\n\n4.1\n\n+\n\nibid, p. 109. See Appendix II for plans of a Number of Factories.\n\nSee Appendix III for a Map showing the 1987 distribution of Joss Stick Factories.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212636, "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-1991", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "170\n\noff in lengths of 1 or 2 feet they made excellent road mines.\n\nThe pipe, filled with H.E., and stopped at each end by a well-waxed wooden plug, would be buried just under the surface across the wheel-track on one side of the road. A small wooden chock under each end of the pipe would hold it in position, and under the chock at one end a pressure switch would be placed, from which instantaneous fuse led through a hole in the wooden cork to the primer inside the pipe. The pipe acted as a lever and, when the wheel of a vehicle went over, put pressure on the switch and set the mine off. Apart from wrecking the wheel, the splinters from such a mine had sufficient velocity to penetrate the under part of a truck and kill the people inside.\n\nAfter a time, when we heard the Japanese had discovered what type of mine we were using and had successfully taken one or two up, we taught our students to add a release switch under the chock at the other end, with fuse leading into the pipe through the other cork, so that when the Japanese located such a mine and started to take it up, it would go off in their faces.\n\nVery early on, we were confronted with the problem of protecting the civilian population. One of the first mines put down on a road in the Triangle blew up three country women. For a long time, the solution of the problem eluded us. It only required 35 lbs pressure to set the mine off, until we discovered we could increase this to 200 lbs by cutting a small metal collar out of a cigarette tin and fitting it round the neck of the plunger on the switch. At 200 lbs, the mine could be trodden on with impunity, but a lorry would set it off. We had trouble too with our instantaneous fuse, which we found hesitated in action, so that sometimes the lorry would be ten yards past the mine before it exploded. In the end, we abandoned instantaneous fuse and substituted detonating fuse, which meant fixing your detonator direct to the switch instead of placing it inside the primer in the pipe.\n\nAnother serious problem was that of waterproofing. Mines and booby-traps must be protected from damp because, although some explosives, such as 808, are not affected by water, if any damp gets into the detonator, the primer, or at either end of the fuse, or in the cap of a switch, the mine will fail. The usual practice is to draw a rubber sheath over the primer and detonator assembly, and if the charge is for use under water, sometimes the whole of it is placed in a waterproof rubber bag. Unfor-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 } ]