[ { "id": 204243, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Vol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n8\n\nand contributions from the community, it built a commodious home for itself with a spacious lecture room and provided accommodation for its very valuable library and museum. In Hong Kong we hope that some facilities may be afforded in the new City Hall for societies like ours but if our plans are to mature we need a meeting place of our own where we can build up an Oriental library which should fill a special need which cannot be supplied by the University, whose library is not readily accessible to the public, or by the new City Hall, whose library will probably be of a wider popular interest.\n\nAs the basis of our projected library we propose to print a sufficient number of our periodical journals to enable us to exchange periodicals with kindred societies in other parts of the world. We also propose in our journal to review books on Oriental affairs which may bring us a useful nucleus of publications. Until we have enough money to buy books it would be greatly appreciated if members who have any books of interest and connected with the objects of the Society would kindly remember that any gifts of books and journals would be most welcome.\n\nThe Branch is greatly indebted to benefactors who have been generous with donations. In Sir Richard Winstedt's message on its formation he expressed the hope that both European and Chinese firms with their accustomed generosity would help to foster the growth of a Branch of high promise. This hope was realised in the donations received of 500 dollars each from Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., and The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and 250 dollars from Mr. Ellis Hayim. Then in April last year there came a munificent gift from an anonymous donor who is not now resident in the Colony. This was the gift of 10,000 dollars in memory of Arthur de Carl Sowerby, a great authority on the natural history of China, who was the founder and curator of the museum of the Society in Shanghai. These contributions have enabled us to put aside a capital fund which will help us in our aims for the future while yielding a useful interest in the meantime. It is greatly hoped that other merchant houses and individuals in the Colony may, without any direct appeal, emulate the example of these benefactors and help us to build up a Branch of the Society in Hong Kong worthy of the heritage which Professor Drake in his inaugural address coupled with the corresponding task which such heritage implied.\n\nDuring the year there was little change amongst the officers and members of the Council. Mr. Endacott resigned owing to pressure of work and the vacancy was filled in accordance with the rules by the co-option of The Hon. A. G. Clarke. Mr.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204717, "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-1964", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n11\n\nin the Pearl River estuary. This estuary formed a great bay on the eastern edge of which was Hong Kong and on the western edge the Portuguese city of Macao. Many of the ships whose cargo were destined for Canton stopped first at Macao and the city was the summer home of a considerable number of foreign merchants trading to Canton. The island of Lintin, consisting of little more than a sharp peak rising in the center of the bay, was the entrepôt of the opium trade. At the mouth of the Pearl River a series of forts known as the Bogue dominated the estuary, at its widest three miles and at its narrowest one mile.* European ships were required to stop at the fortifications and receive permission from the Chinese authorities to proceed up the Pearl River. They then sailed on thirty miles to Whampoa, an island in the river where they anchored and discharged their cargos which were taken by barges and smaller ships thirteen miles to Canton, Neither the depth of the river nor the Chinese government permitted the \"Foreign Devils\" to bring large ships to the provincial capital.\n\nOn March 28, 1839 Elliot agreed to turn over to Commissioner Lin the entire holdings of opium which he stated as 20,283 chests. As each major consignment of opium was delivered restrictions on foreigners were eased in regard to food supplies and employment of Chinese workers. By early May conditions outwardly had returned to normal, the embargo lifted and the river opened to commercial traffic. The first crisis was over but the basic problem had not been settled.\n\nThe journal of William Hunter covered the critical days of siege from March to May 1839. Hunter graphically presented the dangers and concerns of the western community in Canton yet more significantly he showed the necessary patterns of life which develop even in the midst of agonizing uncertainty. In short the routine of peace was exchanged for the routine of confinement. All in all, tension produced by a state of siege, rumor, and the anticipation of an unknown fury ready to be unleashed by Chinese authorities were key ingredients of the spirit of the beleagured foreign community in Canton in 1839. Hunter was not concerned about the morality of opium trade. Apparently he saw no justification whatsoever for the action of the Chinese government.\n\n* For places mentioned here and in the Journal see the map facing p. 27.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205196, "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-1966", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "146\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nunorganized group of individuals living mostly in the Manila area.\n\nBut, fifty years later the Philippine Chinese were an organized community with members in every part of the Philippines. The author concludes that the period 1850-1898 may be regarded as not only a critical era in terms of the survival and future of the Philippine Chinese, but as a necessary period of preparation for both closer bonds with China and the organization of the sophisticated Chinese Chambers of Commerce that were to follow.\n\nOf special interest is the discussion of Philippine foreign trade, especially regarding trade between Hong Kong and the Philippines during the nineteenth century. Due to the dearth of statistics and materials available concerning this trade with Hong Kong, the author was unable to measure its extent during the period covered by his book. This is an interesting subject in which students and scholars might conduct further research.\n\nReading Professor Wickberg's long-awaited book was a great pleasure. I would second Professor William Skinner's appraisal that the book does break new ground and that in \"terms of solid historical scholarship, it is superior to anything in the literature on the overseas Chinese of any country.”\n\nFoo TAK-SUN\n\nAN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF OLD TIMES IN SINGAPORE, 1819-1867. Charles Burton Buckley. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1965. Two volumes in one; pp. xi + 790 + xxii; 19 illustrations. M$25.\n\nThis photographic reprint of Buckley's two volumes in one makes available once again an interesting and unusual sourcebook for the history of Singapore, first published in 1902 but long out of print. Essentially a scrapbook based upon newspaper articles, private papers and personal reminiscences, it contains a mine of miscellaneous information on Singapore affairs and personalities between 1819 and 1867. Outstanding events and issues of each year are recorded and discussed, ranging from the administration of Raffles, the growth of trade and shipping and the rise of business houses, to Chinese riots, piracy, man-eating tigers and amateur theatricals. The careers and activities of prominent European and Asian personalities — such as John Crawfurd,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205337, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "92\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\ndistrict city it was not under the district magistrate's direct rule but was under the charge of one of his deputies. This officer's yamen was in the walled city of Kowloon and he was responsible for many other villages besides those on Lantau Island. There was no civil officer actually resident on the island before 1898 though one imagines that runners would visit it from time to time to chase in taxes and, perhaps less frequently, to make an arrest. The military authorities were more in evidence. A captain commanded a detachment in the fort at Tung Chung, a large valley in the north-central part of the island, and a junior officer was in charge of another body of troops in the market town, Their presence was perhaps due more to European activities in the local seaways, and to pirates, than to any disturbances likely to take place on the island, especially in the latter half of the nineteenth century when there is no remembrance of internal disturbances.4\n\nThe people of Lantau were left mainly to their own devices by the government, military and civil alike. From evidence collected locally it appears that as elsewhere in China the clan and village elders kept the peace in the villages, and the Kaifong (#) or Street Association did the same in the market town and paid for watchmen to bar and walk round the principal streets at night. Anything more serious than minor disturbance and petty crime, e.g. piracies or armed robberies, was reported to the military, though by that time it was usually too late for anything effective to be done. Disputes were settled locally as far as possible. Besides these, the elders handled a variety of duties which, irrespective of the size of the community, were sometimes arduous and complex since much depended on handling individuals so as to produce a fruitful result. They organised small public works of benefit to their communities, such as the digging of a well or the construction of an irrigation dam or a small pier: they managed the local temples and arranged the details and financing of all festivals: they were responsible for finding suitable premises for village schools and engaging teachers; and so on. These persons came forward by a combination of such factors as age, experience, ability, ambition, leisure, wealth, lack of anyone else willing to do the job and so on. However, it is also true to say that they had also to be acceptable in their communities, since without local support and goodwill they could hardly operate.5", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205524, "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-1968", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES ON HONG KONG LIBRARIES\n\n61\n\ncurrent, such as the Friend of China and North China Herald. The connections of the Hong Kong trading community with Australia, India and Southeast Asia, as well as with Great Britain, are represented, though there is an absence of American publications.\n\nOn May 8th of this same year, 1867, the China Mail carried an editorial on “Our Libraries\", which makes it clear that some of the other European communities in Hong Kong were equally well provided with library facilities. The German and Portuguese clubs are mentioned as having active libraries. The article goes on to remark upon the little use which is made of the Morrison Library, not because of restrictions imposed by those in charge of it, but on account of its out-of-the-way situation\n\nthe same criticism which had been made of the Victoria Library in 1852, and was later made of the University of Hong Kong Library in 1961. On the Victoria Library, after praising the exertions of a few in prolonging its existence, the China Mail continues that it is \"by no means so well supported as it deserves to be.\" The reason, it is suggested, is that the club-libraries had to a great extent filled the place it occupied fifteen or more years before, and as the funds available for book purchases decreased with the declining membership year by year the Victoria Library had become “but an inferior copy of its more thriving brother at the English club.\" The China Mail continues by suggesting that it would be profitable for both institutions if the Morrison and Victoria Libraries were brought under one roof, and whilst preserving their separate identities allowing subscribers of the latter to use the former (and presumably vice versa). As will be seen later, this suggestion by the China Mail met with a more favourable response than the earlier proposal, to convert the Victoria Library into a book club. The editorial concludes with the suggestion that the combined institutes might invite the deposit of free copies of \"books, papers and pamphlets upon China, Japan, the Eastern archipelago or any portion of the world tenanted by the Chinese race\", in return for which a catalogue raisonné of these publications would be issued every three or six months, and distributed free to subscribers as a kind of advertisement. \"If the same principle were extended to general literature, it would be found that a very large number of European publishers and the consignees of books in China would gladly send 'review copies'. The question of expense would be solved by adopting this plan entirely in place of purchasing new works, the sum now paid", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205715, "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": 21, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n15\n\nincluding a big reclamation project.14 The name of the company contained the names of the partners, \"Kai\" from Ho Kai and \"Tak\" from Au Tak. Hence the name of our airport may be taken as a name in commemoration of both Ho Kai and Au Tak.\n\nAlthough very westernized himself, Dr. Ho Kai always entertained a very sympathetic understanding of the Chinese masses. In May 1887 when the Government introduced the Public Health Bill, Dr. Ho Kai, to the surprise of his European friends, opposed it strongly as a member of the Sanitary Board. He accused the Bill of making the \"mistake of treating Chinese as if they were Europeans\" and argued that to improve standards indiscriminately would mean cutting down the available building space, and forcing rentals to go up,15 thereby causing great hardship to the poorer Chinese. Because of his opposition the Bill had to be amended substantially. This is only one example of why Ho Kai was so much respected by the Chinese community as its leader and forthright spokesman.\n\nIn addition to his interest in Hong Kong affairs, Ho Kai, like many educated Chinese of his time, was very much concerned with the modernization and reformation movements that were going on in China. On 8th February 1887, the China Mail carried a reprint of an article by Marquis Tseng Chi-tze, Chinese Minister to Great Britain and Russia, entitled \"China, the Sleep and the Awakening\". On 16th February 1887, Ho Kai published, under the pen-name \"Sinensis\", a long article in the China Mail refuting many points raised by Marquis Tseng. In subsequent years he wrote quite a number of articles, voicing his ideas on political and economic reforms in China, and refuting the views of such Chinese personages as Viceroy Chang Chi-tung and Kang Yu-wei, the reformer who aroused the ire of the formidable Empress Dowager. In 1897 he was offered a post in China by his brother-in-law, Wu Ting-fang.16 However, he went to Shanghai to have a look at things for himself and he decided to return to Hong Kong.\n\nIn 1895, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen, one of his students in the Hong Kong College of Medicine and founder of the Chinese Republic, started the Hsing Chung Hui, a revolutionary organization, in Hong Kong, he had the assistance and support of Dr. Ho Kai. Indeed Dr. Ho took an active part in planning some of the early abortive attempts in Canton to overthrow the Manchu Government.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205997, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "72\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nseparate location, namely Taipingshan, for the main part of the Chinese town. This town was apparently to become separate in a way not altogether intended by its creators.\n\nThe question of the Upper Bazaar came to a head towards the end of 1843 when A. T. Gordon, the land officer, decided to meet the demands for building land (and, thereby, augment Government revenue from Crown Rents) by putting up to auction an area which extended from Wyndham Street to Gough Street, thus including the whole of the Upper Bazaar.\n\nGordon informed Pottinger of the land which had been marked out for sale on 22 January 1844 and told him that he intended to remove altogether \"that part of the town known as the Upper Bazaar\" and had marked it out into 27 lots, \"suitable for shops and dwellings either for Europeans or respectable Chinese\". This accorded with the views which Pottinger was persuaded to hold that, as Governor Davis later put it, “it would be very advisable for the interests of the community that the Chinese should be removed, so as to prevent as much as possible their being mixed up with the Europeans.\" Pottinger replied to Gordon that the inhabitants of the Upper Bazaar would be given six months, from 15 January 1844, to remove their houses, the only question remaining being one of compensation.\n\nThough this correspondence was not, of course, public it would have become obvious what was to happen when the Land Sale was held on 22 January, 1844, as many persons bid for lots which then formed part of the Upper Bazaar and on which buildings were standing. The European residents made no comment on the proceedings until it appeared to them that they could use the plight of the bazaar lot-holders as part of the fight against Government on account of the treatment of their own land claims. The Chinese lot-holders themselves were apparently kept in ignorance and claim to have learnt only after the event that their lots had been sold over their heads.\n\nThus, some time after the lots had actually been sold, Pottinger appointed a committee consisting of Major Caine, Chief Magistrate, Gutzlaff, Chinese Secretary to Government, and Gordon, the Land Officer, to consider where the bazaar lots should be relocated and on what terms the lot-holders should be dealt with.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206257, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "68\n\nALINE K. WONG\n\nwith their leaders. Among the Kaifongs themselves, a Joint Kaifong Research Council and, since 1968 a second federation, the Council of Hong Kong and Kowloon Kaifong Associations serve as co-ordinating bodies. Today, there are 54 Kaifongs, claiming a total membership of over 850,000 people.\n\nThe Kaifong associations of Hong Kong are traditional Chinese organizations, whose roles are very similar to the overseas Chinese institutions. The welfare functions of the Kaifongs are comparable to the welfare functions of the district and dialect associations. They form some sort of social security system in places where the government does not always provide such a service for the Hong Kong residents. Thus they give out relief, render medical services, open Chinese language schools and offer death and burial benefits. They encourage mutual-aid and friendliness. Like the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities, the Kaifongs are community-wide associations. However, the membership of the Kaifongs is neither based on ethnic grouping, nor on dialect grouping. Rather, Kaifong membership is based on the place of residence.\n\nThough the Chinese population is not a numerical minority in Hong Kong, the Chinese here are a minority in the social and political sense. They do not have direct representation in the Legislative and Executive Councils. Elected representatives only sit on the Urban Council, the municipal body which takes charge of civic amenities, public health and environmental sanitation. Socially and economically most Chinese stand at a number of disadvantages when compared to the European élite. Although there is no system of indirect rule in urban Hong Kong, the Kaifongs act as one of the principal intermediaries between the authorities and the people. The Kaifong leaders, being community \"notables\", are very appropriate intermediaries between the Government and the general public. They also act as arbiters of disputes. By tradition, the Chinese are adverse to approaching Government officials directly or going to law for the settlement of disputes. They prefer mediation by a third party. The Kaifongs thus resemble the district and dialect associations in overseas Chinese communities as far as their political functions are concerned.\n\nBig benefactors and leaders of community organizations are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206258, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS\n\n69\n\nalmost invariably status-seekers, as contrasted with the ordinary, passive members whose chief aim in joining the associations is in many cases to obtain assistance in time of need. In Hong Kong, the avenues to political power are closed to the ordinary citizen, since there is no democratic government. Thus, participation in traditional social institutions has come to be the most effective means of gaining social status. When an individual has achieved sufficient prestige as a benefactor in his association, most likely he would be invited to become an office-holder in its management committees. And the more offices a person holds, through multiple holding of offices in different associations, the more likely he is to be recognized as a community leader. In fact, the number of offices held by an individual is often the index of his importance in community life. The Kaifongs are one of the many social institutions in which the traditional status-seeker desires office and prominence. They enjoy a prestige comparable to the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities.\n\nUnlike the chambers of commerce, or the district and dialect associations in overseas Chinese communities, the Kaifongs in Hong Kong do not embrace any particular economic interests, although the Kaifong members come from a wide range of commercial activities and may reap business benefits from their increasing social contacts within the associations.\n\nUnlike the community leaders among the overseas Chinese, the Kaifong leaders are in no sense \"marginal\" to the Chinese society or the European society in Hong Kong. On the contrary, the Kaifong leaders are almost completely traditional Chinese people, both in their family background, their education, their outlook and even in their personal business alliances. Unlike their overseas counterparts, few Kaifong leaders speak the official English language or are conversant with Western culture. Their leadership status is purely within the Chinese community per se, and their influence with the Hong Kong government must be traced back to the official policy of recognition and encouragement of the Kaifong movement.\n\nTo sum up, the significance of the Kaifong associations to local community life lies in their threefold functioning as welfare, political, and status agencies. However, the emphasis in Kaifong functions has been shifting in the past twenty years in response to\n\nPage 70\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206264, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n75\n\nBy the 1860s a clearly defined élite group had established itself, providing leadership for the Chinese community.\n\nThe purpose of this paper is to document the conditions from which an identifiable élite group arose in Hong Kong and to illustrate this emergence by biographies of some of its members.\n\nSOURCES FOR THE STUDY\n\nWhat sources were used to determine the Chinese élite for the period covered by this study? The most important are the names given on memorials, petitions, and subscription lists. The repetition of a name on subsequent lists, the amount of the contributions, and the position of the name on the document serve to suggest the relative status of an individual. Proprietorship of land also suggests potential élite status.\n\n(1) The earliest such document used is a list of land owners dated 19 February, 1848, in which they petition for the remission of what they considered excessive crown rent charges. There are twenty-seven signatures of the principal Chinese landowners. This document is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO129/23.\n\n(2) In September 1852, The China Mail published the subscription list for the Chinese Hospital proposed by Dr. Hirschberg of the London Missionary Society. This also contains twenty-seven names. Of these, ten were compradores, seven shopkeepers, three merchants, three contractors, and one \"gentleman\". Only three names that were on the 1848 list appear on this list: Loo Aqui, gentleman, Tam Achoy, building contractor, and Chow Aqui, merchant.\n\n(3) On 4 November 1856, a memorial concerning a recent piece of legislation was presented to Government. It contained both European and Chinese names. Nineteen Chinese signed. It is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO131/3.\n\n(4) In 1859 the Government Gazette published a \"List of Chinese Voluntary Contributions to a Fund for purchasing books, etc., for the Government Schools in the Colony\". Most of the contributions were made in the name of business firms, but all of the largest amounts were contributed by individuals. The two largest contributors were both contractors; Tang Luk gave $60,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206278, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n89\n\nFukienese merchants to settle in Hong Kong. Several other merchants appear on the earliest of the élite lists indicating their presence in the first decade of the Colony's history.\n\nIn 1852 \"Cun-wo A Kwi, merchant\" contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. This is Chow Aki* of the firm Cong-wo, which had been established in the Lower Bazaar in 1842, having a branch at Canton. In 1849 he bought the lease of the Central Market, holding it until 1857. He became a large investor in real estate, but sold out most of his property in 1866 and retired to Macao.\n\nA merchant who survived the pitfalls of commerce in early Hong Kong was Wong Ping1. He is named as a silk merchant on the land-owners' petition of 1848, but he was one of Hong Kong's first industrialists in that he owned a rope walk beyond the western end of the Lower Bazaar. He was one of three trustees to hold Inland Lot 361 in Taipingshan on behalf of the Chinese community. The lot was granted in 1851 and upon it was built a temple \"for the reception of Tablets to the memory of... deceased countrymen\".22 The building was used, however, not only for memorial tablets but also as a depository for those who were about to die, following established Chinese custom. When this use came to the notice of the European community it was shocked. The reaction and public discussion which followed resulted in Government allocating a grant from the revenues of the gambling monopoly to the Chinese community for the erection of a suitable hospital to be known as Tung Wah. Wong Ping was not a member of the Organizing Committee of the Hospital, though he was on the Kai Fong Committee for 1872. He died in 1887. Wong Yue Yee alias Wong Yick Bun, of the Chun Cheong Wing Nam Pak Hong, a Director of the Tung Wah in 1872, may have been a relative as Wong Ping is mentioned in 1881 as a managing partner of the Chun Cheung Hong for some twenty years. He also was associated with the Tsui Shing firm and the Tuck Mee Hong.\n\nIn the 1850s the Taiping Rebellion upset the social and economic structures of China. The changes in China were reflected in changes in Hong Kong. The Taiping threat upon Canton created a refugee group which sought in Hong Kong more stable conditions. Some were wealthy and brought their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206306, "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": 123, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A\n\n# THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n117\n\nquarrymen a lawless and potentially dangerous class of people. But Chinese on Hong Kong Island, like their fellow countrymen in Hsin-an hsien (a county which then comprised the future British Kowloon Peninsula and New Territories) formed a socially well-organised community, knit together by ties of family and kinship and involved, apart from the boat people, in wider forms of social organisation such as the clan and the lineage3. They were constrained by the type of in-built social controls found typically in any rural Chinese community. On the other hand, immigrant Chinese arriving after 1842, who came mostly from Canton and the delta counties, formed a purely urban population, lacking roots and sentiments of belonging: they had necessarily few attachments at first to their new area of residence. Congregated in the mushrooming city of Victoria and soon outnumbering the old, established Chinese population of the island, they were not subject to any in-built system of social control. The new population of urban Chinese from Kwangtung Province, like newly arrived Europeans, were faced with the problem of maintaining public order and protecting their families and properties. The better-off Chinese merchants and traders were soon compelled to employ their own guards and some householders and shopkeepers engaged their own street watchmen, either paid for by the individual householder or collectively by subscription.\n\nBy the 1850s Hong Kong Chinese had developed not only their own associations, such as Kaifong, but even a rudimentary system of self-government, if the evidence is to be believed. A note in the China Review claims, for example, that in 1851 the shopkeepers of Sheung Wan (i.e., the area of the Chinese 'Bazaar', west of the European central district) 'repaired the Man-mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein afterwards decided all cases of any public interest5'. The same writer also claims that in 1857 'the U-lan-shing-ui (a sworn mutual aid association) united Tai-ping-shan, Sai-ying-pun, Sheung-wan and Chung-wan under one public committee, and these four districts were called the Sz-wan or four circuits'. Eitel states (but cites no authority) that around 1851 the Committee of the Man Mo Temple 'now rose into eminence as a sort of unrecognised and unofficial local-government board (principally made up by Nampak-hong or export merchants). This Committee secretly controlled native affairs, acted as commercial arbitrators, arranged for the due", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206308, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n119\n\npolice were commonly reputed to be corrupt, inefficient, drunken and lazy. The police force, mainly composed of European and Indian policemen with a small contingent of Chinese, was officered by European inspectors and sergeants and controlled at the top by a European Captain Superintendent of Police, often at loggerheads with the Registrar General, the 'Protector of Chinese'. The main duty of the regular police was to protect the central business district of Hong Kong, where most of the great European firms clustered, and the docks and wharves on which the prosperity of commercial Hong Kong depended. Principally, though, the regular police were there to overawe the Chinese lumpenproletariat, composed in European eyes of the sweepings of Kwangtung Province. The Chinese residential and commercial areas on the fringes of the core central district were more arbitrarily policed—and policed of course by aliens, most of whom as ex-Indian sepoys, ex-soldiers or ex-British policemen were unable to speak Cantonese.11 Chinese merchants, therefore, thought there would be advantages in maintaining a force of district watchmen Chinese to a man—selected, vetted, paid for, controlled, and if needs be, dismissed by the Chinese community.\n\nThe establishment of a body of Chinese district watchmen by the Registration Ordinance of 1866 was at first strongly opposed by some officials. In 1866 Sir Richard MacDonnell reported to the Secretary of State that the scheme was 'working admirably'12; but two years later the Chief Justice, Sir John Smale, laid on the table of the Legislative Council a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the Force and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen should be embodied in the Police Force under one head13. Soon after the Chief Justice's animadversions were made public in the Legislative Council, MacDonnell was forced to set up a commission to inquire into the working of the regular police as a result of a number of police scandals. In his memorandum setting out the reasons for holding such an inquiry, MacDonnell also asked the members of the commission to 'report as to the expediency of continuing to maintain, with Chinese co-operation and pecuniary aid, an auxiliary force of District Watchmen, and to ascertain whether the latter body has", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206309, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "120 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nrendered any useful service to the Colony, also whether, as at present controlled, there is any real danger to be apprehended from allowing such a force to be maintained'14 \n\nThe commission concluded that district watchmen performed a useful service for the Chinese community. The system was thus left unchanged and the statutory control of the Registrar General was not tampered with. The Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, No. 13 of 1888, reaffirmed the principle that 'every such watchman shall be under the control of the Registrar General'. Thus the link forged in 1866 between the Registrar General and the District Watch Force was maintained intact until the radical change in the nature of the force brought about by the District Watch Force Ordinance of 1949, which ended the life of the Chinese Committee of Management and the system of voluntary subscriptions. \n\nOsbert Chadwick in his 1882 report on the sanitary conditions of Hong Kong recommended that the duty of enforcing cleanliness should be added to the duties of the district watchmen and that, if necessary, their numbers and pay be increased. Chadwick also informs us that 'the idea was suggested to me by the Chinese'15. Chadwick, the son of the great Edwin Chadwick, recognised the importance of maintaining a body of police auxiliaries, for such watchmen could be detailed to work on tasks not normally undertaken by regular police and used where the presence of European police would engender hostility or lack of co-operation. The Chinese notables also recorded their satisfaction with their own force and in a petition asking for the registration of Chinese partners in Chinese business firms claimed they could weed bad elements out of the force because only Chinese could understand the workings of the Chinese community16. Soon the district watchmen were performing a variety of tasks17—acting as census enumerators, providing guides for census officials, tracing runaway girls for the Po Leung Kuk, intercepting young girls brought into the Colony for purposes of prostitution, engaging in detective work for Chinese welfare societies, and generally just keeping the peace in the Chinese quarters. The Head District Watchman became a figure of some importance and his salary placed him far above the run-of-the-mill Chinese artisan or labourer. Inevitably, there were reports of district watchmen receiving 'tea money' but there is no reason to suppose they were any more...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206315, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "126\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nof the District Watch Committee stemmed not only from this subjective ranking of committees and from the great 'face' given by government to the Committee: the Committee acquired its influence principally because its members were appointed in the first instance to serve for five years and in nearly every case this period was renewed. Some members served for over twenty years37. Thus the committeemen of the District Watch were able to build up particular relationships for a very long period of time with important government officials and members of the community, Chinese and European. As a consequence, they began to be seen as elder statesmen as ‘elders' if you like above the fray, beyond criticism. They exemplified civic virtue, public spirit and successful climbing. They stood out sharply from the mass; they were listened to with respect; they became known to many people by name; they were seen at public functions and on public occasions. In sociological language, they were both instrumental and ritualistic leaders. The colonial government honoured them in numerous ways, by, for example, printing their names in the Hong Kong Civil Service List; and their standing was emphasised by the tradition that developed of the full Committee meeting twice a year, though often more than that38, at Government House, with the Governor himself presiding in the chair. Nomination to the Committee meant, it is clear to see, a complete validation of a person's status and public respectability.\n\nFrom 1880, when the first Chinese was nominated to the Legislative Council, to 1941, sixteen substantive appointments were made to the two Councils: nearly every such person had been active on the Committee. As T. C. Cheng confirms: for many years it was more or less a tradition for prominent Chinese who wished to render public service to the Colony, to begin their public career with the Committee, and then, in the case of those who had a knowledge of English, to proceed to the Sanitary Board (which was replaced by the Urban Council in 1935) and thence to the Legislative Council. Nomination to the Committee thus made possible translation to even more prestigious positions and, in a few cases, to the acquisition of a Knighthood.\n\nThe Committee was able to develop into the chief consultative body because, among other factors, the population of Hong Kong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206317, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "128\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nmonthly meetings, but it is clear that consensus was usually arrived at and the Registrar General/Secretary for Chinese Affairs given sound advice on important local matters for it was politically unwise for the Committee to be deadlocked or sharply split for long. If that had occurred too frequently, the utility of the Committee as the chief consultative body would have declined46,\n\nIt would be wrong, however, to think of the Committee as being, in modern parlance, a purely 'Establishment' body. Certainly its members had very close links with European businessmen in the Colony. At the beginning of this century over half its members were compradores to European firms and banks. On the other hand it is clear the Committee did succeed in expressing what we can only call a Chinese point of view”. There are a number of reasons for this. Most committeemen had contacts of one sort or another with the commercial world of Canton and some were involved in the politics of Kwangtung Province and one in particular, Ho Kai, with Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary movement47. Many owned property and land in Kwangtung and were interested in the economic development of that area48. And nearly all sent their male children back to China for education49. Thus the members of the District Watch Committee were involved in two sets of interests: those of Hong Kong and those of Kwangtung.\n\nYet when they spoke up about an issue they represented principally the interests of the compradore bourgeoisie, suggesting a narrower but perhaps more complex set of interests than would be conveyed by the use of the word 'Chinese'. Even the highly westernised Ho Kai, a Chinese who had studied Western medicine at Edinburgh University, dispensed with the queue and wore London suits, who married an Englishwoman and wrote better English than Chinese50 was still able to represent the generalised opinions of the Chinese community and, more importantly, the point of view of a segment of Hong Kong's Chinese community, that of the Chinese businessman and speculator. The advice given by the Committee to government must be seen then as a distillation of all these complex sets of interests.\n\nThere were, as I have already emphasised, several reasons why the Committee became so important as a key advisory body.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206318, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee \n\n129 \n\nBut one point needs further elaboration. Fifty-two Chinese were appointed to the Committee between 1891, the year the Committee was put on a proper footing by Lockhart, and 1941, the year of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Colony. Nearly all, as I have said, were re-appointed to the Committee after their five-year term of office expired, so that the majority continued in office until death or complete decrepitude released them from public service31. A few resigned because of ill-health or because, so one suspects, they suffered severe financial reverses and thus lost standing as successful merchants or businessmen in the community, in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and in their district association. The District Watch Ordinance of 1930, which consolidated earlier legislation, said quite simply that 'the Governor may appoint any person to membership of the District Watch Committee (and) such persons shall hold office for such period as the Governor may direct', thus recognising a situation that had arisen: the permanency of the committeemen. On the other hand, those Chinese who served on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk, two very prestigious associations, were in office for one year only and then were replaced at the next election by a new committee: but a Chinese appointed to the District Watch remained in office practically for ever. \n\nThe Committee became, in other words, a permanent advisory board comprising the richest, most influential, most prestigious and politically powerful Chinese in the Colony; and the Committee always contained the Chinese unofficial members of the two Councils. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, who had also been instrumental in the 1890s in reorganising and strengthening the committees of both the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk, may be thought of, then, as the main architect of the system of colonial government which matured in Hong Kong in the period 1891-1941. This system brought the interests of European administrators, European businessmen and prominent Chinese into a closer alignment; it tended to reduce conflict. \n\nA number of other permanent boards and committees were established in the period after 1890 but although these formed a necessary part of the system they were hardly as crucially important as the District Watch Committee. The Po Leung Kuk\n\nPage 130 is missing, directly followed by \n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206320, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee \n\n131 \n\ntoo sharply between them all. High government officials, such as the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the Colonial Secretary, were likely to meet this cluster of Chinese constantly, if not at formal meetings, then socially, ceremonially, ritually. It follows that before the war Hong Kong had an oligarchical political structure in that a small number of entrenched and established Chinese shared political control over a largely immigrant and migratory population together with a small number of officials and taipans.\n\nThe pre-war European community in Hong Kong had no official committees of its own, although Europeans tended to predominate on certain committees such as the Labour Advisory Board and the Licensing Board60. Thus Europeans lacked the equivalent of the eleven officially recognised all-Chinese committees, the names of which were enshrined annually in the Civil Service List. The government felt no need either to sponsor or promote a system of counter-balancing European committees because of course the administration was controlled at the top by European colonial civil servants and only a few thousand Europeans were resident in Hong Kong.\n\nBut it is of some significance that in the face of growing Chinese working-class intransigence in the 1920s, illustrated by the spate of strikes, beginning with the mechanics' strike of 1920 (the first major industrial strike in Hong Kong) and culminating with the great strike and boycott of 1925-26, Europeans set up their own 'district' associations. The Kowloon Residents' Association was formed in 1922 and the Peak dwellers, the leading European residents, formed theirs a little later in the same year like the European residents on Cheung Chau, a favourite summer station with missionaries; and in 1925 the Mid Levels residents also formed an association. None, understandably, was given statutory or official recognition by government. Such associations were unnecessary for the District Watch Committee was hyper-active during these turbulent years and as keen to protect the European minority and thus help sustain the economy as were Europeans themselves. The Committee worked hard to bring the general strike and boycott to an end by mediation with strike leaders and holding talks with interested parties in Hong Kong and Canton, the strikers' base; and the District Watchmen were active in preventing intimidation of shopkeepers, fokis, artisans", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206330, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n141\n\nin the Colony. In 1948 they were taken over by the Medical and Health Department.\n\n58 G. W. Skinner, Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Yale University Press, 1958, p. 79.\n\n59 James Michie wrote: \"The means taken to conciliate the Chinese (in Hong Kong) must be deemed on the whole to have been successful. There was first police supervision, then official protection under a succession of qualified officers, then representation in the Colony Legislature and on the Commission of the Peace. The colonial executive has wisely left to the Chinese a large measure of a kind of self-government which is more effective than anything that could find its expression in votes of the Legislature. The administration of purely Chinese affairs by native committees, with a firm ruling hand over their proceedings, seems to fulfil every purpose of government.\" The Englishman in China during the Victorian Era, Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood, 1900, vol. 1, pp. 280-1.\n\n60 The Labour Advisory Board was established in 1937 and consisted of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Secretary and Cashier of His Majesty's Naval Yard, the Assistant Director of Supply and Transport of the China Command, a representative of the Public Works Department, the Manager of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, the manager of the Hong Kong Electric Company, and the manager of the Taikoo Dockyard. The members consisted entirely of representatives of large government departments and employers of labour. The board rarely functioned.\n\n61 The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1896 principally by Ho Kai and Wei Yuk. It was called at first the Chinese Merchants Bureau. In 1913, after a period of decline, a new building costing $40,000 was erected in Connaught Road. After 1913 the Chamber became one of the most influential bodies in Hong Kong, and many members of the District Watch Committee served at one time or another on its executive committee. The Chinese Club was founded in 1899 by Sir Robert Ho Tung and modelled on the European Hong Kong Club. A description of the Club's premises is to be found in Mrs. Archibald Little, The Land of the Blue Gown, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1902, p. 323: \"We were taken by the Committee into an upper room, where European comforts of curtains and cushioned arm-chairs were judiciously intermingled with Cantonese elegances of black carved wood and landscape marble.\" Mrs. Little was a member of the Anti-Footbinding League or Natural Feet Society.\n\n62 See G. William Skinner for a detailed analysis of Chinese associations. See especially ch. 6 of his Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand.\n\n63 For Overseas Chinese associations, see important works by the following: Maurice Freedman, \"Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth Century Singapore,\" Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1960, and Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, H.M.S.O., 1957; G. W. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1957, and Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1958; William E. Willmott, The Political Structure of the Chinese Community in Cambodia, London, The Athlone Press, 1970; and Edgar Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life 1850-1898, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1965.\n\n64 See Wilfred Blythe, The Impact of Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya, London, Oxford University Press, 1969.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206356, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.\n\n157\n\nstatue now in Victoria Park at Causeway Bay which, up to 1941, stood in Statue Square, beside the Hong Kong Club in the centre of the city.\n\nContinuing with our survey, the period from 1893 up to the outbreak of war with Germany in 1914 was one of great activity for the Hong Kong Volunteers. It was one in which a great many important persons in the local community joined the Corps and when, reading between the lines, it was not only the 'done thing' to join the Volunteers but might be remarked upon if one did not. Pressure came from the Governor himself. When the Volunteer Reserve Ordinance of 1910 was in passage, Sir Frederick Lugard ended his statement by saying \"I think that every young Englishman in this Colony ought to join the Volunteers, and every Englishman who is no longer young ought to join the force which I hope will at once be enrolled when this bill has been read a third time.\"14\n\nThe Volunteer Corps' annual inspection reports for the period are available in Hong Kong. They were printed for tabling at Legislative Council, itself an indication of an important activity. They make interesting reading and show the vitality of the Corps and its impact on Hong Kong European polite society and on the Establishment.15 As stated, the Governors of the time took a keen interest in the Corps and it was Sir Mathew Nathan himself (Governor 1902-07 and formerly an officer of the Royal Engineers) who is credited with inspiring the formation in 1906 of the Mounted Troop—known irreverently as \"Mathew's Mounted Mugs\"16—and the institution of the Volunteer Reserve Association which was eventually embodied by Ordinance in 1910. Another, more temporary, inspiration in 1899 had been the calling out of the Volunteers to assist the Regulars in repelling an expected attack on Kowloon by New Territories' villagers in arms against the British take-over, and their part in the occupation of the Kowloon Walled City later in the same year.17\n\nMuch of this resurgence in the popularity of the military—a phenomenon which is usually held to be un-British—\n\n14 Han., 1910, p. 91.\n\n15 See S.P., 1894-1908.\n\n16 Vol, 1954, p. 50.\n\nwas\n\n17 See S.P., 1900, pp. 637-638, Y.B., 1940, p. 23, and Vol, 1954, p. 43.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206360, "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": 177, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "HISTORY OF MILITARY VOLUNTEERS IN H.K.\n\n161\n\nmandant's annual report in the 1937 Year Book that there had been numbers of Chinese members serving in different units in the Corps before 1937.27 Some stimulus was required, and No. 4 Company's contribution to the 1938 Year Book tells us what it was. \"Encouraged by the records of the Chinese units in the Shanghai and Malay Volunteers, Headquarters considered that the inclusion of a Chinese unit in the Hong Kong Defence Force was fully justified.\"28\n\nThis was a real innovation, even if it was partly brought about by the preparation for war and the search for more men. All through the 19th century and early 20th century, though it far outnumbered the European community, the Chinese element in the Colony, was considered to be the shifting sector of the population with the European element as the hard core. The fact that Chinese were willing to serve and were coming forward in numbers on a voluntary basis is a significant development, not only in the history of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps but of the Colony itself. These men were not coolies and street traders, but belonged to the settled middle-class that had developed in Hong Kong Chinese society over the years since 1841.\n\nWar came to Hong Kong in December 1941. Including auxiliary units, the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force had a mobilised strength of 2,200 at the Japanese Invasion.29 It played a memorable, and costly, part in the defence of the Colony and its members suffered along with their Regular comrades and civilian internees during three and a half years of imprisonment that included, for some, transfer to Japan to work in essential industry, like coalmines. The story of these years has been told elsewhere,30 but the fighting and the period as prisoners of war cost the H.K.V.D.F. the lives of 172 officers and men killed in action or died of wounds, 39 missing, believed killed, and 78 died as P.O.W. The Force was awarded 1 C.B.E., 1 D.S.O., 4 M.B.E.s, 3 M.C.s, 1 D.C.M., 6 M.M.s, 3 B.E.M.s and 18\n\n27 Y.B., 1937, p. 6.\n\n28 Y.B., 1938, p. 47. There is, however, a reference to 'all races' volunteering in 1914-18 for the forces and to serve with the Volunteers in Endacott, p. 284.\n\n29 Vol, 1954, p. 112.\n\n30 See note 6 above.\n\n31 Vol, 1954, p. 111.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206517, "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-1972", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n59\n\nent Chinese he was largely instrumental in reorganizing the District Watchmen Force (a body of watchmen paid for by voluntary subscriptions from the Chinese community) and he obtained the appointment of twelve leading Chinese gentlemen as a supervising committee; he remodelled the Po Leung Kuk (a voluntary association concerned with the welfare of girls and young women); and he helped in the reformation of the Tung Wah Hospital and strengthened its committee of management.11 He was active, then, in setting up a number of official Chinese committees, linked to government through their special relationship with the Registrar General's Department, of which he was head. The Registrar General in all cases was ex officio chairman of the committees.\n\nLockhart's views on the importance of the Chinese element in the population are to be found in a trenchant report he submitted in 1894 to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, 'on the subject of a petition addressed to the House of Commons praying for an amendment of the Constitution of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.' This petition from Hong Kong taxpayers to the House of Commons owed its origin principally to the imposition upon the taxpayers in 1891 of an additional military contribution of £20,000 a year, a decision that irritated and excited particularly the European business community. In 1894 T.H. Whitehead,13 Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and leader of the business faction, was granted six months' leave of absence from the Council and he took with him to England a petition signed by 363 members of the community — (in Lockhart's words) ‘284 British, 10 Anglo-Chinese, 3 American, 4 Portuguese, and 47 British Indians.' The petitioners sought the election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council; freedom of debate for the Official members with power to vote as they desired; complete control in the Council over local expenditure; the management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions of an Imperial character.\n\nWith great dialectical skill Lockhart took the petition to bits and exposed the vacuity of its arguments. In his memorandum to the Governor he averred: 'Most of the taxes fall almost entirely on the Chinese. The only tax to which the British and other residents as a whole are subject in the same manner as the Chinese is the tax of 13 per cent levied on the rateable value of house", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206524, "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-1972", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "66\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nIn 1889 Lockhart had married Edith Louise Rider Hancock, second daughter of Alfred Hancock,28 a Hong Kong bill and bullion broker, and he and his wife and two children moved in 1902 to their new home, Government House, at Ma-t'ou village, now renamed Port Edward. Ma-t'ou village had been originally the port of the old walled city of Weihaiwei29 and Government House was situated on a slight eminence overlooking Ma-t'ou village and divided from it only by an orchard planted by a Kew expert; there was not a fence anywhere. Port Edward was the centre of administration and contained the Government offices and the buildings occupied, until 1906, by the officers and men of the 1st Chinese Regiment of Infantry.30 But Port Edward was always very much of a 'pocket' capital, with only a handful of resident Europeans, mostly civil servants, and a few hundred Chinese merchants, craftsmen and fishermen.\n\nEqually the European community in Weihaiwei was always sparse, consisting of a few officials, merchants, and missionaries. With two or three exceptions all the Europeans resided on the small island of Liukung, where the native population was to a great extent drawn from the south-eastern provinces of China and from Japan. Liukung was only two-and-a-quarter miles long with a maximum breadth of seven-eighths of a mile but it became the headquarters of the permanent naval establishment and the site for the naval canteen (formerly a picturesque Chinese official yamên), the United Services Club, bungalows for summer visitors, a large hotel, and the offices of a few shipping firms. The several streets of shops were occupied mostly by Cantonese and Japanese.\n\n+\n\nIn 1903 there were only fourteen Europeans involved in the administration of Weihaiwei: the Civil Commissioner, the Secretary to Government, who also acted as magistrate, a financial assistant, three inspectors of police, two medical officers, one civil engineer, one foreman of works, two corporals, and two sappers of the Royal Engineers. The size of the establishment did not increase markedly over time, though an additional magistrate was procured. The Territory was divided by 1910 into two divisions, North and South. The North Division contained only nine of the twenty-six districts and was much smaller in both area and population than the South but it included the island of Liukung, where a small naval dockyard had been constructed, and Port Edward. It was under", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206526, "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-1972", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "68\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nLondon. His official rank corresponded with that of a Lieutenant-Governor, so that he received a salute of only fifteen guns compared with the seventeen of first-class Crown-Colony Governors, such as that of Hong Kong. But, as R.F. Johnston pointed out: 'his actual powers, though exercised in a more limited sphere, are greater than those of most Crown-Colony Governors, for he is not controlled by a (Legislative) Council.'33 Lockhart's official duties, which of course kept him extremely busy, were nevertheless limited in nature, and the tempo of life in the Territory did not change dramatically during his tenure of office, for after the lease was signed, little was done with the Territory. At first, it was thought that the port could be transformed into a fortified naval base like Hong Kong, but to do so would have been extremely costly and would have involved the construction of a long breakwater and extensive dredging work in the harbour. In fact, the port was never utilised as a strategic naval base; it became merely a naval rest centre and a place where the British China Squadron lay at anchor when it paid its annual summer visit to North China. A few visitors also arrived from time to time and stayed at its European-style hotel, and an English school34 attracted boys from China, Japan, and Hong Kong.\n\nLockhart was administering a mainly agricultural region, equivalent in area to a small-sized Chinese district magistracy (hsien). The leased Territory, with its population composed principally of fairly well-to-do peasant farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and artisans, was in composition like that of the New Territories which he had left. Lockhart did not feel called upon to alter drastically the life of this old, settled community, nor indeed was it the intention of the Colonial Office that he should. The Order-in-Council under which British rule in Weihaiwei was inaugurated stated: 'In civil cases between natives, the Court should be guided by Chinese or other native law and custom, so far as any such law or custom is not repugnant to justice and morality.'\n\nLockhart attempted, then, to preserve as much of the fabric of Chinese society as was possible. In his report for 1902, he wrote: \"With the policing of the territory at Hong Kong as a guide, it might have been thought that this question (the maintenance of peace and good order) was one easy of solution; but it required no long residence here to reveal that the conditions existing in the new territory of Hong Kong and those of Wei-Hai-Wei are widely different. In the former case, the natives had lived for about half a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206745, "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-1973", "page_number": 22, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "16\n\nH. A. RYDINGS\n\n6th August 1845. DILL, Francis “A brief account of the nature, causes, symptoms, treatment and morbid appearance of the fevers incident to Europeans in the Island of Hong Kong\" p. 29-41.\n\n7th Oct. 1845. BARTON, George K. “On diseases of the liver as observed amongst Europeans resident in India and China, with remarks upon their comparative infrequency in the latter country\" p. 45-56.\n\n3rd March 1846. BARTON, George K. \"On some cases of varolous and vaccine inoculation in conjunction\" p. 63-66. These papers were each followed by discussions, which are briefly recorded. There are also records of other meetings which consisted mainly of case studies.\n\nIt will be noted that there is a concentration upon Europeans as patients, presumably because hospital facilities (other than the mission ones) were provided principally for the European community, and also because the Chinese would prefer to consult their own doctors. However, there are mentions of Chinese patients on p. 61 and in the second of Dr. Barton's papers. It is appropriate that dysentery should have been the subject of the first paper, delivered by Dr. Little, since this has already been mentioned as the most prevalent disease. The interest in India has also been alluded to, and can easily be understood when one looks at the catalogue of books available in the Society's library (Transactions, p. 78-9): out of 24 periodicals no less than 7 originated in India. Some or all of these had probably been received on an exchange basis. The East India Company apparently first established medical facilities in China, primarily for the benefit of its own personnel, with the appointment of Thomas Arnot as resident surgeon at the factory in Canton in 1758 (13). It was therefore natural for the first medical men in Hong Kong to look to their colleagues in India for advice and exchange of publications.\n\nApart from the clinical studies listed above, another matter of interest is an investigation into the nature of mineral waters from Foochow. On p. 57-8 of the Transactions is transcribed a letter from Rutherford Alcock, H.B.M. Consul at Foo-chow-foo, dated September 13th 1845, to the Secretary of the Society, in which he promises to send samples of two different kinds of hot spring waters, the first odourless, tasteless and about 120°, which Alcock likens to those of Wildbad in the Black Forest; the other sulphurous,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206864, "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-1973", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n135 \n\n(1847, or 26th year of To Kwang), Sz-man-king and one Tam-tsoi, built the Man Mo Miu, and here they \"judged the people\" in public assembly. In 30th year of To Kwang (1851) the shop keepers of Sheung Wan or Upper Bay ... repaired the Man Mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein decided all cases of any public interest. \n\nBiographical notices of the two community leaders who built the temple are given in an article \"The Emergence of a Chinese Elite in Hong Kong” in this Journal, vol. 11 (1971), pp. 80-82, 87-88. \n\nPrevious to the opening of the Man Mo Temple the Shing Wong Temple may have been used as a Chinese \"Town Hall\", for as we have noted only one such building is listed in 1845 and 1846, but two are listed in 1847, the date given for the erection of the Man Mo Temple. The two temples were quite close to each other. The Shing Wong Temple was on the western edge of the European part of Victoria and the Man Mo Temple on the eastern edge of the Chinese settlement. A steep and rocky hillside divided the two sections. \n\nConfirmation of the 1847 date given in the quoted Chinese account is supported both by the date, Tao Kuang 27th year, inscribed on the bell at the Man Mo Temple and the date of the Crown Lease for Inland Lot 338 upon which the Temple is built, which is 24 June, 1847. A letter dated 29 May 1847, from the Colonial Secretary authorized its issuance with the stipulation that the premises be used as a school. After the building was finished, however, it was used as a temple. In consequence, the Government in March 1848, began charging Crown Rent for the lot. It was then decided that the temple should be rebuilt on a larger scale reflecting the increasing affluence of the Chinese community. An account of the opening of the new building is reported in The Friend of China, 24 May, 1851: \n\nThe Chinese Community are now enjoying themselves in a way we have never seen before in this Colony, on the occasion of the opening of a spacious Heathen Temple in the Hollywood Road, a few hundred yards from the London Missionary Society's College and Chapel. The Temple is dedicated to a body of the civil and military Gods, and has cost nearly a thousand pounds sterling in erection,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206899, "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-1973", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "170\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nto have visited twenty Asian countries; and while critics of later generations found some of his facts mixed with folk-lore and fable, his descriptions of community existence, family relationships, flora and fauna provided—and still provide exciting reading based on observations which the editor regards as both acute and just.\n\nThese expeditions (in part commercial in part diplomatic) comprising fleets of the largest vessels then afloat, are chiefly significant, however, as unprecedented feats of naval organisation and navigation. In this, 'the Elizabethan age' of Chinese expansion, the Chinese excelled as fighters, traders, diplomats and navigators. Appendix 3 provides informative notes on Chinese ships and seamanship. The European of the time might have had more accurate charts, and such instruments as the quadrant, but the Chinese had long used the lead-and-line, the cross-staff and the compass, and they even made rough calculations of longitude ‘by noting the number of watches which elapsed during the run at a speed estimated from the time taken by the ship to pass a floating object'. But Cheng Ho's last voyage (1431-3) marked the end of the heroic age of maritime expansion. The Ming court lost interest in sea power and its imperial implications, and with this curious and sudden withdrawal from the dawning international order, the doors closed on a unique period of Chinese history.\n\nMr. Mills has not been daunted by the complicated question of texts, and he compares and evaluates the various versions. His own translation is based on the definitive text established by the distinguished Chinese scholar Feng Ch'eng-chun, first published in Shanghai in 1935. Appendices contain a gazetteer of southern Asian place-names known to the Chinese in 1433, as well as an expert and fascinating commentary on 'the Mao K'un Map' which indicates the presumed courses of Cheng Ho's various itineraries. Here, an attempt has been made to identify all the names and legends, five hundred and seventy-seven in number.\n\nFormerly Puisne Judge of the Straits Settlements, the editor belongs to that select band of British administrators and proconsuls who were not simply colonial servants, but who in addition might be explorers or archaeologists or scholars of distinction. Only a scholar of great learning and infinite patience could have made this outstanding contribution to history.\n\nJanuary, 1974.\n\nGERALD S. GRAHAM", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207303, "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": 71, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n63\n\nfaced with our epidemic of great magnitude. By July, for example, there had been 2442 deaths. Hospitals were quickly established on board the \"Hygeia\", at Kennedy Town Police Station and at the Kennedy Town glass works. The first two hospitals were run by European staff whilst the third was manned by Chinese personnel of the Tung Wah hospital. Official despatches record that \"it was deemed advisable to give the Chinese doctors a free hand at first. In any case, it is difficult to persuade the Chinese to report cases of sickness and their foolish and violent prejudice against Western medical men is quite sufficient to induce them, as they certainly did in the first fortnight or three weeks of the existence of the plague, not only to secrete their sick but often to desert their plague-stricken friends and relations after death.\"*\n\nA house-to-house inspection was carried out by personnel of the garrison and those houses in which plague had occurred were cleansed and disinfected. This action gave rise to numerous complaints from the Chinese community for it was rumoured that the foreigners had sinister and unspeakable desires on the women and children. Indeed, so inflamed did feelings become that a deputation of Chinese petitioned the Governor, Sir William Robinson, to order the cleansing operations to be stopped. However, Sir William made it clear in no uncertain terms that the government was determined to take strong measures. Subsequently, an anti-government poster campaign was launched and this spread to Canton where further rumours were started to the effect that English doctors were accused of cutting open pregnant women and scooping out the eyes of children to make medicines for the treatment of plague-stricken patients.\n\nThe prompt answer of the governor in Hong Kong was to station the gunboat \"Tweed\" off Tai Ping Shan and to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of persons distributing malicious posters. Additionally, the Chinese Viceroy in Canton was requested to issue proclamations denying the atrocity stories. However, these were not made with any great degree of vigour and feelings in Canton continued to run high to the extent that two women missionary doctors were set upon by a mob.\n\n* \"Further Correspondence Relative to the Outbreak of Bubonic Plague at Hong Kong between Sir William Robinson to the Marquess of Ripon 1894\", p. 2 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1903, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207304, "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": 72, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "64 \n\nE. G. PRYOR \n\nThe Chinese community in Hong Kong became panic-stricken and there was a mass exodus of workers back to China. In the China Sugar Factory, for example, some 300 workers downed tools and walked their way back to Swatow about 180 miles away. The economic life of the colony suffered considerably as a consequence. So much so that Sir William Robinson recorded that \"without exaggeration, I may assert that, so far as trade and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the importance of an unexampled calamity.\"* \n\nConditions in the hospitals became exceedingly crowded. The Kennedy Town Glass Works Hospital was intended to accommodate 100 patients but at one point contained 200 afflicted persons. Admissions to hospital at the peak of the outbreak averaged 80 a day whilst dead bodies piled up in the streets at the rate of over 100 a day. A new pig depot had to be hastily converted into a hospital to take 140 patients and the running of all hospitals was assumed by European doctors as it was soon found that Chinese traditional medicine was of no avail. \n\nDuring the frantic efforts to rid the colony of the plague about 7000 persons were dispossessed of their homes, 350 houses were condemned and sealed off and several boatloads of patients were sent to Canton. \n\nWith the advent of cooler weather the plague abated and there was hope that the visitation of 1894 would not be repeated. Indeed, there was no outbreak in the following year but in 1896 the oriental version of the black death stalked the streets of Hong Kong and carried off 1078 unfortunates, the majority being Chinese in the congested district of Tai Ping Shan. The plague thence became an almost annual occurrence usually making its appearance in February or March reaching a peak by July and then virtually disappearing during the autumn and winter. Over the period 1894-1901 some 8600 persons succumbed to the disease and this represented a mortality rate of about 95 per cent. \n\nRelentless efforts were made to root out the assumed cause of the problem which was generally thought to be insanitary living conditions. Regulations were passed requiring notification to the nearest police station of any cases of plague and in default of this obligation there was a penalty of $25, which at that time was a \n\n* Ibid, p. 5.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207328, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CONDITION OF THE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS\n\nIN NINETEENTH CENTURY HONG KONG\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE*\n\n'The prejudices of a whole class cannot be laid aside like an old coat: least of all, those of the stable, narrow, selfish English bourgeoisie.'\n\nFrederick Engels.\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nIn the nineteenth century the geographical setting and minute area of Hong Kong, a colony which did not expand substantially until the inclusion of the New Territories in 1898, meant that the territory could support only a small European population. From an examination of census materials it is certain that the resident European community rarely exceeded three thousand souls in all, usually rather less. Europeans in Hong Kong did not form a class of settlers or colonists of the type found in Canada or New Zealand; and, needless to say, no plantocracy—an elite of foreigners exploiting a native labour force—ever evolved; nor, on the other hand, did a class of poor whites—agriculturalists, fishermen or labourers—emerge. The European population was composed principally of middle-class sojourners, not one of whom thought of bringing up his children to regard Hong Kong as a permanent home. Sir James Cantlie declared in 1898 that 'the residents in Crown colonies are recruited, with but few exceptions, from the middle classes'.\n\nAlthough the majority of Europeans may be categorised as middle or lower-middle class in terms of their social origins or because of the occupations they engaged in, a minority could be properly identified as working or lower class either by reasons of birth, education, occupation, residence, or style of life. This paper is concerned with Sir James's 'few exceptions'. It is intended to\n\n* Mr. Lethbridge, Reader in Sociology at the University of Hong Kong and also a Councillor of the Hong Kong Branch, RAS, is well-known for his contributions to the study of Hong Kong's social history and institutions, some of which have appeared in previous issues of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207338, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "98\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nand debtors from Australia, as well as mercenaries and American deserters. The luckless ones became in time indistinguishable from beachcombers, the poor whites of the Colony.\n\nAt a rough estimate, about a third of the total European population (excluding soldiers, sailors, and seamen) would have been classified as working or lower class by the resident European middle class of merchants and government officials, and were treated as such by those implacably class-conscious Britons. In Hong Kong, the 'two nations'—of rich and poor Europeans—were not driven into social amalgamation by the fear of a common fate as aliens on the shores of far-away Cathay. A government clerk, who lived in Hong Kong in the 1850s, complained that:\n\nthe exclusiveness, jealousy and pride of 'caste' that have been so long and so justly attributed to our English brethren and sisters in our Indian possessions attain more luxuriant growth in China. The little community, far from being a band of brothers, is split up into numerous petty cliques or sets, the members of which never think of associating with those out of their immediate circle... Even here (England) one sees a somewhat similar state of society in many of our small country towns, where everyone knows everybody, and the minutest details of your neighbours' daily lives, manners and conversation, are noted with watchful assiduity. Anyone who has had the happiness to spend some time in one of these rural paradises can form a pretty good notion of the state of matters in an English colony, only that things are much worse.16\n\nIn 1885, an American found the same conditions prevailing, though possibly in a more exaggerated form:\n\nTo an American, it seems extremely silly for wholesale merchants and their clerks to hold themselves, socially, above the retail merchants and their clerks, regardless of the amount of business they do, and their moral and intellectual standing... Distance from Britain, far from loosening ties that bound Britons into a rigid world of class distinctions, tended to tighten them.17 The effects of these divisions will be discussed in a later section.\n\nSOCIAL LIFE OF THE EUROPEAN LOWER CLASS.\n\nUntil the cession of the Kowloon peninsula in 1860, most lower-class Europeans lived in the city of Victoria, especially in the streets", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207344, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "104\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nrecommend that the remedy for Hong Kong destitution be left in the main to private charity and to private effort, but that the Government should do everything in its power to organize by law private charity which may then be supplemented by State aid.25\n\nThe government's main contribution was the burial of defunct paupers and the shipping home of destitute British seamen. As Dr. Eitel concluded in 1880, all that the law offered European destitutes was 'fine or imprisonment, with or without hard labour'.26\n\nThe Europeans who worked as overseers in the dockyards, factories and other industrial enterprises, the ships' captains, mates and engineers, all led more circumspect lives in their Kowloon terraced homes than the soldiers, sailors, and merchant seamen. They looked down on the destitute, improvident, or wandering portion of the European community with all the fierce contempt of the British lower middle classes. Their values were those of the skilled mechanics and clerks of Greenwich, Woolwich, Portsmouth, and Plymouth. Their wives entertained other wives and their families to high tea, the table set with fish-paste sandwiches, jellies, custards and cakes; they attended religious services regularly, though usually at a nonconformist chapel, and if Scots, at the Presbyterian Union Church. Their children went to the Kowloon British School (for foreign children only).27 They looked forward to retirement, a pension, and return to the homeland, having bettered themselves in the colonies. They formed the elite of the European lower classes in Hong Kong; but they were excluded, nonetheless, from the grander world of Taipan, administrator, and professional man.\n\nThe question why lower class Europeans came to, or remained in, Hong Kong is not difficult to answer. Some, such as beachcombers, were at the end of the line, at the end of their tether; they were trapped there (temporarily at least) by poverty, circumstance, and character. Soldiers, sailors and merchant seamen were transients or temporary sojourners; and the decision to come to Hong Kong was made not by them but by their superiors. Inspectors, supervisors and overseers stayed in Hong Kong primarily because most experienced a degree of upward mobility. They formed an intermediary class—an amorphous middling class—between the Chinese masses and the Taipans and officials. In Hong Kong, they were no longer at the bottom of the pecking order. Some, of course,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207629, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "and living in a resettled village, on their field observations relating to urban development. In November we had a talk on diplomatic systems in East Asia as part of general philosophies of state by Dr. Frank W. Ikle and in December Dr. Ralph Smith, a visiting historian specialising in Vietnamese society at the School of African and Oriental Studies spoke on the Cao-Daist and Hoa Hao religious sects. Another visitor to Hong Kong—visiting professor in anthropology at The Chinese University—Professor Francis L. K. Hsu, spoke to the Society in January giving his views about Chinese motivations and values and comparing them with Western values and motivations as he sees them. In February we held our symposium: this time on Architecture and the development of Hong Kong. We were fortunate enough to obtain the kind services of Mr. Tao Ho here, a well-known local architect and designer, who gathered a team of experts to talk on problems of community and town planning, building, mass transit and the historical development of ethnic clusters in relation to building. This was very well attended and there was some lively discussion. We look forward to seeing the papers in publication: Mr. Ho is presently editing them for the Society. The last lecture of the period was given by Professor Daffyd Evans of Hong Kong University who spoke on early European residents in Hong Kong. We look forward to seeing some of these talks in print in the Journal.\n\nForeign tours are now an established feature of our annual programme. This period included a tour of Burma guided by Mr. Michael Smithies, a former Secretary of your Society, now resident in Indonesia, who has led past tours so successfully. It was organised this end by Ms. Helga Werle of your Council. This was also a very successful venture and I understand that it has been followed by a reunion of tour members who are anxious to have more of the same.\n\nFor the future: Ms. Werle and Mr. Smithies, and also Dr. Leigh Wright are offering tours abroad—to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Korea, and Borneo—dates will be decided on the basis of majority response to several offered to members in a recent circular. A visit to Tai Mo Shan is also planned for this weekend (April 3), and will include the Shing Mun or Jubilee Reservoir. Talks and notes will be given on history and ethnography of the area, plant and insect life, and birds of upper Tai Mo Shan—by Dr. James Hayes.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "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": 207903, "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": 291, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "276\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nIncidentally, the furniture was once owned by the wealthy Canton Co-Hong family of Poon, whose fortunes had fallen on bad times. The Chinese government had seized their property for debt and sold it at public auction.\n\nThe transfer of the proceedings of the Chinese community from the Kung Soh to the Hospital Hall confirmed the suspicion of portions of the foreign community that the Committee of the Hospital was arrogating to itself too much power and was functioning as an unofficial government for the Chinese community. Even before the Hospital building was ready for occupancy, one of the newspapers reporting on a scheme to recruit Chinese labour for the southern states of the United States, stated that the Board of the Hospital \"appear to have constituted themselves the governing body in the colony in all Chinese matters. This we predicted in reference to the Hospital almost from the time it was founded; and on this point there will be much to say at some future date\". (Daily Advertiser, 7 Oct. 1871). And indeed there was much more said in the Hong Kong English language press in the ensuing years about these quasi-government functions of the Hospital Committee.\n\nWith the rising tide of criticism against the alleged usurpation of government authority by the Committee of the Hospital, the views and practices of the Magistrates changed regarding the propriety of recognizing any judicial power exercised by the leaders of the Chinese community. In a case heard at Magistrate's Court in 1875, a witness said that when the prisoner beat him, he threatened the prisoner that he would go to Tung Wah Hospital and complain about being duped and beaten. To this the Magistrate asked the witness, \n\nwhy he should go to Tung Wah Hospital to complain, explaining to him that this was a British Colony, and the Tung Wah had no powers. This was a British Colony and the police station was the place to complain to. If he had been badly injured he would understand his going to the Tung Wah for cure, but to go there for the redress of a wrong was preposterous. (Daily Press, Oct. 22, 1875).\n\nIt might seem preposterous to a European Magistrate for Chinese to first turn to their own countrymen for justice but to the Chinese it apparently was a most natural procedure.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208118, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n141\n\nslowly in the widening bay, pushing a dark ripple before her. A sampan with three powdered and giggling girls drifts by, and as it passes, one sings in high quavering falsetto the first verse of a love song; then the second is sung by her companions. A young man sitting in his boat in the deep shadow of a junk's high stern answers the call, singing the third verse of the song, and the two boats glide together, and disappear towards the shore. \"Another silly fish caught and ready to be landed!\" But here is our little yacht with the cabin lit up and the wrinkled mahogany face of our boat boy gravely smiling a welcome. We tumble aboard and form our own animated group about the rice bowl while he withdraws to the bow, and sits there silent, still, waiting for the night wind and the tide.\n\nThe Mooncake Festival\n\nThe historian of Long Island has not yet appeared. He must be a Chinese, for no European can be sure of understanding the real meaning of the institutions and customs of a Chinese community. But until that historian appears, and perhaps to induce him to come forth and correct the presumptuous foreigner, here is an eye witness's account of a spring feast at Cheung Chow written from memory and the notes of a careful observer, Mr. A. C. Franklin.* It must be understood that the latter is not to blame for any inaccuracies in the following account.\n\n+\n\nOn a day in May, looking from Hongkong towards the Island, through a good pair of glasses we see a new building towering above the houses and temples, and we decide to visit the island and investigate. The ferry starts from the immediate and unsavoury neighbourhood of a loading shoot for the town garbage. The ferries are crowded and frequent to-day, gaily flagged and decorated. Everyone on board is in holiday mood, laughing, eating, talking, and behaving rather like a good-tempered Bank Holiday crowd at home. There seem to be parties of visitors, teams of some kind, and there is an image in a chair on the lower deck. It is not being treated with any particular awe and reverence, indeed it seems more like a mascot than a holy thing.\n\nOnce out of the harbour we encounter nothing of special interest until we turn into Cheung Chow Bay. Here is a cheerful sight. The whole fleet is in and the bay is full. The heavy brown mat\n\nMr. Franklin followed the author as Registrar, University of Hong Kong, 1913-18. — Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208128, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n151 \n\nof 1926 at Taipo, when in a large matshed on the reclamation there the New Territory elders treated Sir C. Clementi and the leading members of the Service to a big banquet and speeches, the leading feature being that except for the sharks' fin soup all the food came from the New Territory and its waters. The points I remember best are: a bowl of air-bladders of Sargassum seaweed, which I found quite palatable; a game of chai mui in which the late A. E. Wood took part; the collapse under me of two bentwood chairs in succession, which helped to relieve the boredom of the European element and perhaps others.\n\nDuring my periods in office I made an attempt to get the Chinese communities and villages owning forest lots to look after them and to plant trees. Free seed was distributed and planting instructions given, and a forest guard appointed to supervise and watch results. The difficulties of forest conservation in such scattered and isolated areas were certainly formidable: one was that the boat people could land almost anywhere and steal trees; another, that the grasscutters who annually collect fuel in autumn are quite likely to cut and take young seedlings: to say nothing of true disease and caterpillar infestation, often very serious. One bad case was at Tai O, where an entire hillside was laid bare at one swoop by its licensee instead of being cut in stages, and I told him to get it replanted. I don't remember the sequel, as I was transferred not long after. The denuded hillside faced west, and lay across the Po Chu Tam creek from Tai O market. Another great difficulty was to find forest guards who would do their job: a former A.D.O. North once minuted 'Where forest guards abound, there do abuses much more abound!'\n\nThe careful investigation of applications to use land was more than once impressed on me by experience. Desire to develop apparently unused land may mislead a D.O. into sanctioning the spoliation of an object of natural beauty, the monopolizing of an area in common use by a village community, or such damage to hill slopes as to cause villages or fields to be flooded with mud and soil wash, or the erection of a gimcrack structure of bad concrete instead of a brick or stone village house in harmony with its surroundings. Proposals for forest development may turn out to be schemes for evicting villagers from areas where they hold forest rights; though proper forest lot maps should make such schemes impossible. An instance of an application designed to monopolize an area already", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208924, "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": 86, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG RIOTS OF OCTOBER 1884: EVIDENCE FOR CHINESE NATIONALISM?\n\nLEWIS M. CHERE*\n\nEven though its importance for China's relations with the Western Powers, and for the development of the European empires in general, is very great the Sino-French War has not attracted much scholarly attention. In the field of the development of Chinese Nationalism alone a great deal of potential evidence remains to be examined from the incidents which arose out of the conflict. Nowhere is that more the case than in the history of Hong Kong in the period of the 1880's. The reactions of the Chinese community in Hong Kong, where the legendary influence of malevolent mandarins could only be indirectly applied—if at all—could provide very good examples of the emergence of genuine Chinese anti-imperialist nationalism as opposed to the earlier xenophobic opposition to foreigners in general. Yet that evidence remains unstudied and almost completely unknown. Even those scholars who have concerned themselves with the history of Hong Kong—a lamentably small group—have not found the question of any great interest; possibly because they were concerned with other, very limited, aspects of Hong Kong's development.\n\nThere is a distressing lack of source material available outside Hong Kong for scholars interested in trying to integrate developments in the Crown Colony into the overall picture of developments on the China Coast. This is especially true for the period of the Sino-French War. The most readily available general history of Hong Kong, that of G. B. Endacott,1 devotes barely two pages to the riots of 1884, and does not give any indication of the sources used. Perhaps the scope of the problem can be better appreciated if the sentiments of G. M. Sayer in the foreword to his father's book are repeated: \"The work is not of great historical importance; indeed little of significance occurred during the period to excite the interest of anyone outside Hong Kong.\" If those who have concerned themselves with the writing of the history of Hong Kong\n\n* Dr. Chere is Assistant Professor of History, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208925, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "HONG KONG RIOTS OF OCTOBER 1884\n\n55\n\nhave not considered that history to be of any great significance to anyone outside the Colony it is hardly surprising that it has not received the attention which it really deserves.\n\nThe lack of appreciation for Hong Kong's importance is especially evident when we look at the events of the Sino-French War. The Hong Kong Volunteers were expanded and rearmed in the years before and after the War. No doubt the 1884 riots3 assisted the process but James Hayes' \"Short History\" does not give the period of the war more than a passing notice indicating that the Sino-French War occurred and had some side effect on Hong Kong.* In his Laws and Courts of Hongkong James Norton-Kyshe did briefly discuss the riots, but he paid surprisingly little attention to the Peace Preservation Ordinance which was inspired by them.\n\nSince the secondary material for this period in Hong Kong's history is so limited, any study of the period of the 1880s has to lean heavily on the equally scarce primary materials available outside the Colony. In this area the records of the Public Records Office in London are most helpful, but they can provide only the official version of the events. They seldom contain information on the motives of the participants, and are severely limited by the nature of government reports.\n\nThough newspapers are frequently very poor sources of primary information, in this case the firsthand reports of the English language Hong Kong Daily Press are probably the most valuable source of information about the events which occurred there in the fall of 1884. Unfortunately the English press in Hong Kong, because of the prejudices of the reading public for which it was produced, is not a very good source of information about the Chinese community in the Colony. Many of the reports in the English press were colored by the prevailing attitudes of the European community toward the Chinese. However, this prejudice makes it just that much more important when the papers depart from those attitudes because that departure should indicate that something had occurred to alter the opinions of the reporters. As we will see, that is precisely the case with the editors of both the Shanghai-based North China Herald and the Hong Kong Daily Press in 1884.\n\nWhat is really needed, and what is simply not available outside Hong Kong, is primary material which would enable us to ascertain what really were the motives of the Chinese participants in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208926, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "56\n\nLEWIS M. CHERE\n\nevents of 1884. In this category would be Chinese language newspapers, the records of the court proceedings against the native newspapers and rioters, and whatever private records, diaries or papers which might have survived from that time. Because these materials are not available outside Hong Kong it is the purpose of this article to raise the question of what did happen in the Colony in 1884 in the hopes that those scholars who do have access to the winds of materials necessary to answer the question will be made aware of the importance of having those answers. Because a study of the question cannot help but advance understanding of Chinese history in the 1880's—not to mention the illumination it could provide for the history of Hong Kong itself—I have attempted to provide an outline here of what the question entails, and what little is known about it.\n\nHong Kong occupied a position in the events of the Sino-French War which was unique even for the ports of the China Coast. Unlike Treaty Ports such as Canton or Shanghai, Hong Kong was not even technically Chinese territory. Though Shanghai may have been effectively controlled by the representatives of the foreign community sitting on the city council, the city was still Chinese territory and the problems it experienced during the Sino-French War were largely due to that fact. Hong Kong was formally a possession of a neutral power. As such, most of its problems arising from the war were those which resulted from differing French, Chinese and British positions on the obligations of a neutral in an undeclared war. However, Hong Kong's overwhelming majority of Chinese residents, most of them adult male workers whose families were still living in their home villages in the Southern Provinces of China, presented a problem even more complex than those arising from the city's neutrality.\n\nThe reactions of those Chinese residents to the Sino-French conflict could be vital to an understanding of the development of nationalism in China. In Hong Kong the legendary influence of anti-foreign mandarins, which was so frequently blamed for anti-foreign feeling among the Chinese populations in the Treaty Ports, could only be indirectly applied—if at all. Even then many of the European accounts of what happened in the Colony in 1884 attempted to find outside influences, meaning the mandarins, to hold responsible for Hong Kong's troubles.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209232, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING\n\n121\n\nHow does it come about that this pleasing mixture of American Youth camp and English public-school sports day should come to represent the emotional high point of the year for these fifteen schools which cater for the Shui-sheung-yan (water-folk), traditionally the lowest of all Hong Kong's social strata. Organised quite separately from the normal Education Department schools, the F.M.O. school cater for less than 0.4 percent of the territory's school population.\n\nSeparate educational systems for religious and ethnic minorities, often assisted by the state, are not uncommon; wholly state-run separate school systems for occupational minorities, apart from members of the armed forces posted overseas, are extremely rare. The nearest parallel that comes to mind is that of the special education projects for European Gypsies, developed to cater for children whose schooling is often prevented by frequent moves and social prejudice, just as that of the Hong Kong people used to be. Indeed, it was experience with Gypsies since running the first caravan summer school in 1967, which led me to what seemed, from the European end, a remarkable parallel with projects started for the boat people of southern China, and Hong Kong.\n\nThe Development of the F.M.O. and its schools\n\nIt can be argued that the Hong Kong Government, despite its ever-reiterated ideological commitment to laissez-faire economics, began to intervene to ensure the future of the fishing industry as early as the building of the Yaumatei typhoon shelter in 1911-15. During the Second World War the Japanese government began the building of regulated fish markets, such as that at Shaukeiwan, guaranteeing a better deal for the fishermen from the buyers. Since we are assured on all sides that all sections of the population suffered grievously under the Japanese occupation, the returning British government could hardly do less for the fishing population than had the Japanese. After 1945 a scheme was introduced under the old Defence Regulations of 1940 to provide \"orderly and efficient Fish Marketing facilities\", developing the industry, and protecting the interests of consumers. That is to say both fishermen and public were to be protected from the entrepreneurial wholesale fish merchants or middlemen. There are now seven publicly owned and regulated wholesale fish markets, and three other collecting depots. Underlying the economic goals, there was also a stated objective of improving \"the socio-economic status of the fishing community.\" Of course, to state this too publicly would be self-defeating, but in\n\n7\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209484, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "119\n\nit should be remembered, travellers to England needed no passport or travel document, so that Lock had no problems about residence or work. Liverpool, as a great port, had a long-established Chinese colony — a small 'China-town' as it would now be termed — so one infers the young Lock did not feel too cut off from his homeland.\n\nBecause of his maritime experience, he became the European representative of the Chinese Seamen's Mutual Benefit Society, formed in 1914 among Chinese seamen on ocean-going vessels.* This society was registered in Hong Kong under the name of the 'Seamen's Philanthropic Society'. It was more than a mutual-aid society; it had political aims. Lock was also a member of the T'ung-meng-hui (Sworn League), the secret revolutionary party organised by Sun Yat-sen and others in 1905, which later became the Kuo-min-tang. Sun used seamen as couriers in his revolutionary activities and, it is claimed, Lock worked for Sun as a secret service agent in England. Lock also founded the Chinese Republic Progress Club (a significant designation) in Liverpool in 1918 and became the leading figure in the Liverpool Chinese community. At his trial it became known he had convened a secret court to punish a Chinese for beating his English wife (but we do not know what punishment, if any, was meted out to the callous husband). Lock was thus highly respected in both the English and Chinese communities and was a spokesman for his compatriots. He became that well-known figure: a Chinese community leader. He was also a British subject: a naturalised Englishman.\n\nEdward Marjoribanks affirms that ‘... he was not the sinister \"King of Chinatown\" of detective romance; a kindly, gentle person, he distributed much in charity and hospitality, giving Christmas treats to the poor children of Birkenhead and Liverpool, and renting a shoot where he entertained his English friends'.5 All his affairs prospered until 1923 when he launched out on a large commercial undertaking and lost most of his investment. As a consequence, he was forced to file his own petition in bankruptcy, although he continued to live with his wife and children in some style. Friends said that after these events he became moody and his behaviour erratic, flying into sudden rages and weeping uncontrollably. He also began to drink heavily,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209584, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "219\n\nby their spotless virtues\". A claim that must have raised a few eyebrows.\n\nWhile the actresses were available, there seemed some doubt about the actors. Lord Saltoun, Commander of the Forces, noted on the 25 November 1842 that the Theatre was to open on Wednesday, \"But who are to be the actors, I have no idea. I believe some amateurs from the navy”.\n\nOnce opened, the life of the Theatre was short. Mr. Dutronquoy departed from Hong Kong quite suddenly on the 17th of December. It was alleged that he had to close his Hotel and Theatre under orders from the authorities and pay a fine of $500. This was denied by his agent who stated that the reason for the closure was because Mr. Dutronquoy had “received personal violence added to insult and abuse the preceding evening\". One wonders if the \"spotless virtues\" of the actresses may have been the cause of his troubles.\n\nThe next notice of dramatics is in December 1844 when a proposal to form a company of amateurs under the patronage of the Governor was announced. It was expressly stated that the authorities regarded the project as a \"protection against vice”. Little action took place, however, until the winter of 1845-46 when a group had been organized, a venue secured, and five bills put on between December and June at Aqui's Theatre in the Lower Bazaar.\n\nThis theatre had been erected some few months previous to the amateurs' first performance there. It was intended for Chinese entertainment, but, being available, it was used by the Hong Kong Amateurs even though it was in the heart of the Chinese section of the city, an area which was usually avoided by the European population of the day.\n\nLoo Aqui, the owner of the Theatre, was a leader of the Chinese community. It was alleged that he was allied with pirates but during the recent British-Chinese hostilities he had been very useful in securing provisions for the British forces. As a reward for these services he had been permitted to take up a number of lots in the Lower Bazaar, the area which was allotted to Chinese who had aided the British. On his property, Loo Aqui", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209914, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "151\n\n\"country\" or whatever. But we know that's impossible. I think the only [realistic] attitude is that as long as I am in this place, I contribute as much as possible.\n\nThey managed to neutralize controversial subjects such as the Cold War and colonialism by discussing them on an instrumental level. They presented themselves as above politics. As B26 asserted:\n\n'Politics have little influence on the textile industry. Mainland China produces cotton, but there is no export. Taiwan is our competitor, and it has nothing to sell us. We buy cotton from the United States as well as from the U.S.S.R.'\n\nColonialism was similarly evaluated in economic terms. On the bright side of the colonial system, A24 said,\n\n'In the early stage, actually we enjoyed Commonwealth Preferences. We did derive benefits by exporting to the United Kingdom and so on. There was free duty on cotton yarn. Only after Britain joined the EEC (European Economic Community) was the situation changed. Being a colony, we did have some benefits.'\n\nOn the dark side, A30 reflected:\n\n'Not so good [being a colony], because in textile negotiations Hong Kong cannot participate as an independent country. Furthermore, Britain is on the other side. (He laughed).'\n\nTherefore the cotton spinners' political vision was mundane, devoid of larger designs. It was as if they were content to build castles around an oasis, weather permitting. When storm should come, they would move on to look for yet another spring. It never occurred to them that they could perhaps harness the desert. They had not out-grown Marie-Claire Bergere's description of the outlook of the early Chinese businessmen (1968: 246);\n\n'The bourgeoisie, combining an atavistic distrust of politics with a philanthropic utopianism, seemed to think that it could change its own way of life without making any change in the lives of the rest of the Chinese people, and furthermore that one province could be modernized without entailing the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210193, "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-1984", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "143\n\n# STATE REGULATION OF PROSTITUTION IN HONG KONG, 1857 TO 1941\n\nR.J. MINERS\n\nFrom its earliest days the male population of Hong Kong greatly outnumbered the females. Chinese men came to find work leaving their families in Kwangtung and the European community was also predominantly male because of the presence of the army garrison, the ships of the Royal Navy and the crews of merchant ships unloading their goods in the harbour. In 1872, when the first proper census was carried out, there were 3,264 European men compared to 669 European women, a ratio of practically 5:1, and the Chinese men outnumbered women by 78,484 to 22,837, a ratio of 7:2.1 This imbalance continued to exist, though to a diminishing extent, for the next 70 years: in 1931 Chinese men outnumbered women 4:3, but the European ratio was still only 7:2.2 Naturally, in order to satisfy the needs of this predominantly male community, prostitutes quickly moved in to ply their trade, numerous brothels were established and by the 1850s Hong Kong was already notorious for the prevalence of venereal disease.\n\nIn 1857, at the urgent request of the naval officer in command of the China station the Hong Kong government instituted a system for the registration and inspection of brothels, the compulsory medical examination of their inmates, the punishment of prostitutes who communicated venereal disease to their clients and their detention in the Lock Hospital until cured.3 This measure was approved by the Secretary of State primarily because it appeared that a system of licensed brothels and government inspection might provide a means of protecting the inmates from ill-treatment and virtual enslavement to their brothel-keepers.4 Ten years later the Hong Kong government was instructed by the Secretary of State to replace the ordinance of 1857 with a new one modelled on the Contagious Diseases Act which had just been passed by the British parliament. This had set up a system of controlled brothels and compulsory medical examination of prostitutes in twelve garrison towns in England. The new 1867 ordinance, though more comprehensive, made few changes in the system already in force, except that the police were given much", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210194, "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-1984", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "R.J. MINERS \n\nwider powers to investigate and break into any house suspected of being a brothel without a warrant and to arrest any inmate or any suspected prostitute on the streets.\n\nThe legal system of control in operation from 1857 to 1889 placed the licensing of brothels under the control of the Registrar General. Brothels were confined to certain designated localities with separate districts for those catering for European and those catering for Chinese clients, and penalties were imposed for keeping a brothel outside these areas or an unlicensed brothel within them. Brothel-keepers had to supply the Registrar General with up-to-date lists of their prostitutes and these lists also had to be on display in every brothel. Brothels were subject to inspection by the police and medical authorities at any time. All new prostitutes were brought by their brothel-keepers before the Registrar General who questioned them to ensure that they were entering the profession of their own free will and had not been kidnapped or otherwise forced into servitude. All prostitutes were required to attend for a weekly inspection at the Lock Hospital and were then issued with a certificate of good health which could be shown to their clients, and those found to be diseased were detained at the hospital until cured. This was the system as imposed by law; the practice was rather different.\n\nChinese prostitutes catering for Chinese clients had always objected vigorously to being examined internally by a European doctor and would prefer to suffer any punishment rather than submit to such an indignity.' So compulsory medical inspections were imposed only on the inmates of brothels catering for the European population, principally servicemen and seamen. The Registrar General had the legal power to compel other prostitutes to be medically examined, but if they became diseased they normally made their own arrangements with Chinese doctors or herbalists or were sent back to Canton by the brothel-keepers.\n\nRegulations made by the Governor segregated the licensed brothels catering for Europeans to the east end of the city and those for Chinese to the west end, and brothel-keepers were required to ensure that their houses were not visited by clients from the other community. This regulation, together with the police campaigns to close down unlicensed houses (the so-called 'sly brothels') made it less likely that servicemen would come into contact with prostitutes who had not been medically examined and certified to be \n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210195, "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-1984", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "145\n\nfree of disease. Thus the control system achieved its main objective, which was not the protection of women from exploitation, but, as it was commonly expressed in Hong Kong, 'the provision of clean Chinese women for the use of the British soldiers and the sailors of the Royal Navy'.\n\nIn Britain during the 1870s and 1880s the system set up by the Contagious Diseases Act came under attack by various moral reformers who considered that the licensing of brothels by the state implied official condonation of immoral behaviour. They also objected to the discrimination by which the women were compelled to submit to a demeaning medical examination. As a result of a long campaign the system was brought to an end and the Contagious Diseases Act was repealed by Parliament in 1886. In itself this had no effect on the colonial ordinances, but colonial governments were then instructed by the Secretary of State to follow the British example. The Governor of Hong Kong protested vigorously to London, claiming that the repeal of the local Contagious Diseases Ordinance would be unanimously opposed by the Executive and Legislative Councils, by the naval and military authorities and by all classes in the community, since it was the only means of controlling the spread of venereal disease, of preventing the proliferation of brothels in respectable areas of the city and of protecting young girls from being forced into brothel slavery. But the Secretary of State was adamant that the law imposing the compulsory inspection of women must be repealed, though he was prepared to allow the registration of brothels to continue solely for the purpose of providing a means to check against the possible enslavement of their inmates. The Hong Kong government continued to prevaricate, forwarding petitions to London from the keepers of 42 brothels reserved for Europeans and from 23 European prostitutes begging that weekly examinations and the issuing of health certificates might be allowed to continue. These pleas had no effect and the Secretary of State sent Hong Kong a copy of an ordinance which had already been passed in the Straits Settlements with instructions to introduce a similar bill as soon as possible. He also ordered that the issuing of certificates should cease forthwith. Finally in 1889, two years after the original directive from London, a bill entitled the Women and Girls' Protection Ordinance was introduced into the Legis-\n\n10", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210196, "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-1984", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "146\n\nR.J. MINERS\n\nLegislative Council. Instead of following the model ordinance sent from London, this bill repealed the Contagious Diseases Ordinance of 1867, but then immediately re-enacted most of its provisions for the licensing and inspection of brothels, omitting only the clauses providing for the compulsory inspections to which the Secretary of State had specifically taken exception. Other features of the existing Hong Kong system were retained in the regulations issued by the Governor in Council after the bill had been passed, and these regulations were not forwarded with the ordinance when it was sent to the Colonial Office for confirmation. The deliberate flouting of a directive from London could not be permitted, and in 1890 the 1889 ordinance was itself repealed and a new ordinance enacted on the lines laid down by the Secretary of State. Both the 1889 and 1890 ordinances were only carried through the Legislative Council by the votes of the official members acting on the instructions of the Governor against the unanimous opposition of the unofficial members.\n\n14\n\nIn spite of the dissension which it aroused, it seems that the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance made little practical difference to the operation of the Hong Kong system of control. The inmates of the houses reserved for European clients continued to report at the Lock Hospital for their weekly examination as regularly as before, even though certificates of good health were no longer issued. They had all been individually informed by the Colonial Surgeon and the Registrar General that attendance was no longer legally obligatory, but they turned up just the same. The prostitutes in the brothels catering for Chinese had never submitted to these examinations, so the repeal of the ordinance made no difference to them. The distinction between the two types of brothels was still maintained in the regulations issued under the 1890 ordinance, and penalties could still be imposed on any brothel keeper who allowed his house to be patronized by members of the wrong community, since the Hong Kong government had been successful in persuading the Secretary of State that this continued segregation was necessary if breaches of the peace were to be avoided. So servicemen continued to enjoy some measure of protection against the danger that they might come into contact with a prostitute who had not been medically examined.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210205, "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-1984", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "155\n\nof the policy of suppression which had been adopted in Singapore. He strongly opposed the sending of an investigatory commission from London, which the Colonial Office had been pressing upon him. Peel's views were supported by the Permanent Under-Secretary and officials in London, who advised against any immediate action. A League of Nations commission to enquire into the international traffic in women and children was about to visit the Far East and this gave a good reason for delay, since any sudden change of policy would appear to be either designed to impress the commission or else to be an admission of guilt. Lord Passfield accepted this advice.\n\nFor the next six months the question was allowed to rest. Then in June 1931 Peel again wrote to the Colonial Office, enclosing a long memorandum on the legal position of brothels in Hong Kong written by the Chief Justice, Sir Joseph Kemp. This legal exposition concluded by warning that, though the suppression of all registered brothels might possibly lead to less illicit intercourse, it would probably arouse great resentment if the Chinese brothels patronized by the Chinese were to be suppressed. He continued: ‘I fear the danger of shaking the loyalty of the Chinese community as a whole and their confidence that the government will respect Chinese customs generally. The risk may have to be run, but I think it is a real one. It must be remembered that the Chinese do not view prostitution as we do. They look upon it with a more lenient eye, though excess is reprobated just as excess in other forms of self-indulgence is reprobated. Prostitutes are not social outcasts to the same extent as in 'Western' countries. A prostitute often becomes a highly respectable concubine . . . I realise that this is a very difficult defence to make, especially as the English public do not always realise the delicacy required in ruling an alien civilisation.' Peel offered up a small sacrifice to appease the Secretary of State: he suggested that the seven brothels containing European prostitutes should be closed down. This was not a sign that Peel had been converted to the moralists' point of view; European prostitutes were customarily deported from Hong Kong from time to time, since their presence was considered demeaning to European prestige in the East. This decision to close the brothels employing European, Australian and American women was endorsed by the Executive Council in July 1931.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210433, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "21\n\n1415 as a place for private burial. The Board appointed a committee to investigate (Weekly Press, 20 February 1909). It reported back to the Board in April with the opinion that it was not advisable for land to be disposed of for isolated detached cemeteries. By way of concession it recommended that, “If, however, any Chinese of affluent circumstances wishes to have space reserved as a private graveyard, remission might be given for an area to be so reserved, and railed off, whether in an existing Chinese cemetery or on land adjoining such a cemetery at a rate of $2 per square foot, same as grave spaces in Class D of Chinese Cemeteries.” (Weekly Press, 3 April 1909).\n\nBut this arrangement did not fully satisfy those who wanted better accommodations for their dead. A satisfactory solution was finally arrived at in 1913 when land was set apart at Aberdeen (Aberdeen Inland Lot No. 78) for a permanent cemetery for Chinese permanently resident in the Colony. The cemetery was under the control of a Board of Management made up of recognised leaders of the Chinese community. Those who had resided in the Colony for eight years, and had subscribed $100 (later increased to $500) were entitled to graves; however, no more than four grave spaces were to be allotted for one coffin. Part of the problem of a satisfactory cemetery arrangement for wealthy Chinese was their wish to have a traditional horseshoe-shaped grave, a form which could use a great deal of space. The more area a grave included, the more important the person, and the greater the public statement of the wealth and position of the family.\n\nIn February 1909 the Sanitary Board considered an application from the son of a deceased Chief Interpreter of the Supreme Court for permission to exhume the body of his father that he might be reburied in a larger site in the same cemetery along with two sons, and two of his wives, who were to be exhumed from the cemetery for Chinese at Mount Caroline.\n\nThis request added fuel to the fire which was burning over the presence of Japanese Buddhist graves among those of Christians. One of the European members of the Board protested “against allowing our cemetery to be used for re-interment of bodies from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210434, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "22 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nChinese Cemeteries\". The senior Chinese representative on the Board, Mr. Lau Chu-pak, was quick to detect any signs of racial discrimination. He asked if bodies from cemeteries other than Chinese could be re-buried in the cemetery. \n\nThe Board sent a letter to the Colonial Secretary in April requesting that Government should allot a piece of ground for burial of Buddhists. This could be done immediately, so it was proposed by the Governor in Council that a new ordinance be drafted to set aside the major part of the Colonial Cemetery for the burial of Christians only. In transmitting this decision to the Sanitary Board, the Colonial Secretary reminded the Board that the proclamation to the Chinese in 1841 by Captain Elliott had guaranteed the free practice of religion to all nations and creeds, and as the Buddhists — meaning the Japanese — had no place other than the Colonial Cemetery to bury their dead, he suggested that the Board suspend, for the time being, the enforcement of the bye-law regarding joss sticks and crackers. \n\nThe two Chinese representatives of the Board expressed their dissatisfaction with recent proposals by some members of the Board which they considered would make the cemetery exclusively European and Christian. Mr. Lau Chu-pak reminded the meeting that the cemetery was open to every resident of the Colony, irrespective of nationality and religion, though, he admitted it was probably originally intended for persons of the Protestant faith as there had been special cemeteries provided for Chinese, Muslims and Roman Catholics — he did not mention the Jews and Parsees, which had their own cemeteries also. He looked back in history, saying that, “In the early days, when there was a Colonial Chaplain, what was more natural than that he should describe the cemetery at which he officiated as the Colonial Cemetery, meaning thereby the cemetery of the Colonial Church”, and he also acknowledged that the official Government Gazette had been referring to it as the Protestant Cemetery. In spite of the use of those names, Mr. Lau contended that the cemetery was a public one, as it was public property and maintained at public cost. He acknowledged that the general Chinese community did not use the cemetery. The Chinese who did, he said, were largely British born, British naturalized,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210695, "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-1986", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "29\n\nGovernor, Francis said \"Is that defamation? I thought it was a recommendation usually in Hong Kong”). Whilst Francis argued with the Europeans, Ng Choy mobilised the Chinese who first packed the City Hall so that the Europeans could not get in, and when the Europeans adjourned to the cricket field requested an interpreter so that they could follow the proceedings. Their request being ignored Ng Choy led them away. Francis, like Hennessy, seems to have had a genuine interest in the welfare of others and particularly of the Chinese and any section of the community that was at a disadvantage.\n\nOne of the things that Hennessy did in 1878 was to revive the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps. There had been volunteers in 1854 and the Corps was founded in 1862 but was disbanded in 1866. It is not surprising that Francis, with his army background, should join. He was an active member until 1887 and maintained an interest until his death. In 1878 he was sworn in as an artillery member (there was also a rifle section) and in July he was elected a captain and received his commission. Another captain and three lieutenants were also elected. There was some criticism in the press of the elections it being suggested that Hennessy had influenced the results, and it was said that two of the appointments were positively distasteful. Francis took part in parades and exercises and rifle competitions, and in 1880 was gazetted an additional A.D.C. to the Governor. In June 1880 there was a meeting of the volunteers with the Governor to discuss the future of the Corps and Francis expressed interest in raising a company of Portuguese who formed a sizeable section of the European community.\n\nBy 1882 the Corps was nearly defunct again and a public meeting was held to consider starting a new one. A committee of five, including Francis, was appointed to draw up rules and regulations. A constitution was approved and in January 1883 the new Corps, some fifty strong, paraded and made \"a creditable show\". In March there was an election of officers. Francis was defeated for Major but again elected a captain. In April when the drill season was wound up the Daily Press reported “the main burden of the drilling work has fallen upon Captain Francis and he has shewn qualifications for drilling men and getting them into an efficient condition such as are seldom seen in a volunteer officer\". In replying to a toast to the Officers Francis said that perhaps an apology was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210728, "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-1986", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "62\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nThe site referred to is the area of rising ground to the south of the site occupied by the present Government House and on a site formerly occupied by the Record Office on \"Government Hill\" which had served as a temporary Government House from 1841 to 1842.\n\nOn Oct 7th in 1861 Mr. Th. Donaldson was appointed Curator of the Public Gardens and the gardens were thrown open to the public under certain regulations on August 6th 1864. In October of that year the military band began giving promenade concerts in the gardens at stated intervals. The establishment of the public gardens had obviously done much to instill among the European community a sense of both pride and achievement and this sense of well-being was reflected in the wide-scale level of planting in the colony and confirmed by Eitel (1895) who stated that:\n\n\"The increased attention, given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hill side, had already done very much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built by patches of shrubbery.\"\n\nIn the copious correspondence between Hongkong and London, the gardens were referred to either as a Botanical Garden (as when the Surveyor General ordered seeds for it from a Mr. Veitch of Chelsea in 1861) or as a Public Garden and was under the auspices of the Surveyor General and a Garden Committee.\n\nIn 1871 Charles Ford was appointed as the first Superintendent of Gardens and in his first letter back to Dr. Hooker of Kew after his arrival, he reported:\n\n\"The Public Gardens are in a very fair order and well stocked with plants as regards quantity, but we require greater variety.\n\n\"Very few of the plants are labelled and I believe, no catalogue of them has been drawn up. We have not any Orchids nor Ferns except those indigenous to the Island. The plants which have been introduced are chief-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210886, "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-1986", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "220 \n\nCARL SMITH \n\nFollowing the religious rites, Ho A-mei gave a short talk on the development of mines in Kwangtung. \n\nThe European contribution to the programme was an impromptu rendering of \"For he's a jolly good fellow.\" A sentiment not necessarily shared by the European community in Hongkong at all times, as we shall see. \n\nHOW A-MEI PIONEERED A MODERN CANTON \n\nIn addition to promoting modern mining in Kwangtung, Ho A-mei was also connected with other projects to introduce Western technological improvements into the province. \n\nIn 1882 he was a principal in the formation of the Wa Hop Telegraph Company floated as a public company to build a line between Kowloon and Canton. Most of the shareholders were wealthy Canton and Hongkong Chinese merchants. Kwangtung officials aided the company in overcoming opposition aroused by fears that the wires and poles would disturb the fung shui of the neighbourhoods through which they passed. \n\nAfter the line was built to Shamshuipo, just on the other side of the British-Chinese boundary, the company was refused permission to extend the line to Hongkong Island. \n\nThere were various reasons for the refusal. One was the connection the project had with the Danish-Russian backed Great Northern Telegraph Company. Its engineers had been employed to supervise the construction and certain rights had been granted to the foreign company in the use of the line. \n\nPreviously the Great Northern had tried to get monopolistic rights over all telegraph lines in China. This effort had been vigorously opposed by Britain which feared the expansion of Russia's power and influence. \n\nIn this light a Hongkong editor thought, \"the refusal to permit the line to land on British soil is an act of self-defence and the promoters of the Canton-Kowloon line ought, we think, to have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210901, "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-1986", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "235\n\nthe official governing Hongkong, a matter of extreme difficulty.\"\n\nHo A-mei regarded Sir Richard Macdonnell (1865-1872) as the first Governor to make any attempt to ascertain the views of the Chinese and give them some measure of impartial consideration. Though perhaps the attitudes and policies of the Governors had changed over the years, according to a letter which appeared in 1878 over the name \"Chinese,” there were still giant steps to be taken if any kind of mutual acceptance was to be established.\n\n\"Chinese\" stated bluntly: \"That we Chinese in this Colony are despised individually, collectively, and socially, and that we are ignored as a community (except in a few instances) there cannot be the least doubt. Individually we have imposed on us certain burdens peculiar to our nationality and we receive uncivility and indignity even at the hands of the police, to whom we contribute to pay largely for our protection. In European society we particularly have no status. To correspond socially with Europeans with whom we are daily brought into contact, to be admitted as favoured guests at their dinner table, to have the privilege of counting them as personal friends, are things which no Chinese, however ambitious he may be in other respects, would ever aspire to obtain. As a political body we are unknown. We are unrepresented, and it would be easier to find a fish climbing up a tree, as our adage says, than to see a Chinese Justice of the Peace, or a Chinese member of the Legislative or Executive Council in Hongkong.”\n\nHappily this situation, after exactly 100 years, is greatly altered. Though today things are different in Hongkong, a completely mutual relationship is yet to be achieved between all sections of the community. The colonial status of Hongkong mitigates against equal treatment in all areas.\n\nWith the arrival of John Pope Hennessy as Governor in 1877, the Chinese had an advocate in high places. His so-called \"pro-Chinese policy,\" however, exacerbated the tensions between the foreign and Chinese population of Hongkong.\n\nThe longer he governed, the more he tried to advance the Chinese, the greater became the bitterness and hostility of the European population towards him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210903, "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-1986", "page_number": 254, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "237\n\nChinaman living in his Colony who has become quite an Anglo-Chinese, it should be said to him, 'No', because you are a Chinaman, no matter how well you know English, you must take service under the Chinese Government... It was your misfortune to be born a Chinese.”\n\nThese sentiments were not welcomed by the majority of the foreign community. \"Truth,\" in replying to the letter written by “Chinese,” reminded the community that the Government was being paid by British taxpayers \"to represent British Imperial interest, not as your correspondent truly remarks, as a Chinese representative or to look at affairs from a Chinese point of view.”\n\nFrom the distance of years and changed attitudes, the Governor's remarks seem eminently fair and appropriate. But before they could be regarded as such the Chinese had to play a careful game, and the European community generally resisted any accommodation.\n\nThe European, though at the top of the heap, felt insecure and frightened. He was always suspecting some nefarious conspiracy was at work to topple him.\n\n“Truth” reflects this when he remarks on “the lengths to which a Chinaman will go, the stratagems to which he will resort, to cause injury to his opponents and the sleuth-hound like pertinacity with which he watches his every business and concern in order that he may cause him loss of name or money.”\n\nThere was always the fear the Chinese resident in Hongkong would be “got at\" by someone who would prod or intimidate him to challenge the position the foreigner had carved out for himself in China.\n\nWith this brief review of some of the tensions between the Chinese and foreign population in Hongkong, we can better understand the events of the public meeting of October 1878, and the activity of Ho A-mei as a public figure.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210904, "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-1986", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "238\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nCHINESE PROTEST AT BEING KEPT OUT OF MEETING\n\nHo A-mei as a public figure participated in a number of important and interesting affairs which illustrate the strained relations between the foreign and Chinese portions of Hongkong's population during the closing decades of the 19th century.\n\nThe first such occasion was a public meeting held in October 1878.\n\nFor the Chinese it was the first such meeting they attended in numbers with the intention of active participation. The Chinese view of events at the meeting was set before the English reading public in a letter Ho A-mei addressed to the editor of the Daily Press. This letter marked his first appearance as a leader among the Chinese in Hongkong. His involvement in public issues affecting the Chinese continued for the next twenty years or until his retirement in 1898.\n\nThe meeting on which the letter comments had various tones and overtones, currents and sub-currents. Its stated purpose was to pass a resolution concerning the low state of security in Hongkong and the frequency of robbery and assault. Behind it was a large part of the European portion of the community who hoped the resolutions passed at the meeting would discredit the administration of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy.\n\nGovernor Hennessy had introduced humane measures for the treatment of criminals, had abolished flogging and had improved conditions in jail. Many attributed the increase in crime to these reforms.\n\nThe complaints, however, were only a symptom of a deep dislike the foreign community had taken towards its Governor. Sir John had come to Hongkong with a record of favouring the local population in the colonies he had governed and of introducing measures to elevate them to a more equal status with the expatriate colonials, a policy not welcomed by the colonials. These principals, as they were applied in Hongkong, were labelled by the press as \"Hennessy's pro-Chinese policy.\" He believed that the\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210912, "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-1986", "page_number": 263, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "246\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nThis was especially evident in editorial comments on the deputation appearing in the China Mail and the Hongkong Telegraph. The 1883 deputation called to mind the clash of Chinese and European interests at the 1878 meeting which we discussed in previous articles. Now, as then, Ho A-mei was quick to speak out to present the case for the Chinese.\n\nIn future articles we shall discuss more fully the issues provoked by the 1883 deputation, but first an examination of the editorial views of the two newspapers will link 1878 with 1883. In addition they illustrate a type of colourful journalism now not considered respectable.\n\nThe day after the Chinese met the Acting Governor the editor of the China Mail praised the deputation. He described it as \"one of the most significant demonstrations of the kind made by the native community for many years past. It was unique in more ways than one - in its initiation, in its aims, and in its character.”\n\nHe then proceeded to view it in the light of previous dealings of Chinese with the Government, using expressions which reflected the patronising and hostile attitudes towards Chinese among expatriates in Hongkong in those days. He noted: \"We have of late years been accustomed to one of two things in native demonstrations - either feeble protests against interference with so-called Chinese usages, linked to blatant blustering against European residents: or fulsome adulation of the Executive got up at the bidding of the head of the Government and meaning nothing.\n\n\"Petition-signing and deputation-making during the last administration, not only were reduced to a mockery, but they became a scandal and a disgrace.”\n\nBy contrast, the editorial described the deputation to Marsh as being purely voluntary with no one manipulating it in the background.\n\nThe editor referred to remarks made at the banquet given for Governor Hennessy by the Chinese at the time of his departure. On that occasion the question of getting the views of Chinese on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210913, "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-1986", "page_number": 264, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "247\n\npublic matters was raised. The editor described the suggestions made then as nonsense.\n\nHe did admit \"that the opinion of respectable and intelligent Chinese should be solicited by the Government in a manner similar to that in which European views are obtained” but then qualified this concession by stating that \"to suggest that the Chinese residents as a body, irrespective of education or intelligence, should be called upon to take an active part in legislative work, was nothing more than one of those misleading tricks which entered so largely into the ingenious underground working of the late administrator.\"\n\nHaving denigrated the Chinese, the editor next praised them: “It is a most satisfactory and gratifying sign of the times, and one which speaks volumes for the good sense and shrewdness of the native community, that the members of the deputation have so accurately realised their rights, and have not been led away by the pernicious course of ‘blarney' to which they have been subjected for the last few years.\"\n\nThe positive aspects of the deputation as far as the editor of the China Mail was concerned were, first, the confidence of the Chinese community in the new head of Government, Mr. Marsh, and, second, their evident unwillingness to go along with \"the attempts made by the late Governor to pander to their so-called rights.”\n\nThe Europeans had seen any rights claimed by the Chinese as threats to their own position. The editor remarked that “one of the principal complaints made by European residents against the late Governor was that he sought to adapt the laws to the convenience of the native, while he overlooked that of the European residents.\"\n\nThe editor of the Hongkong Telegraph took a different view of the delegation. He pointed out that the group was made up of the same men as those of previous years. There was nothing especially innovative about it. Though the editorial did not say so, the only new element was the presence of Dr. Ho Kai, its spokesman, who had not many months previously returned to Hongkong from Europe, but more of this later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210917, "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-1986", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "251\n\nShan. Po Shan Road is named after him.\n\nLeung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.\n\nIn January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.\n\nWhen he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not doubt that such a man would be sympathetic to their views about the Chinese and Chinese matters.\n\nHo A-mei was of a different sort altogether. He had served the Kwangtung Government for a number of years in an official capacity.\n\nPage 26.8\n\nPage 26.8\n\nPage 26.8", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210923, "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-1986", "page_number": 274, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "races \n\nto be included...?\" \n\n257 \n\nThe learned barrister may have spoken eloquently but accord-ing to his critics not wisely. \n\nGROPING TO CLOSE THE COMMUNICATION GAP \n\nThe Chinese deputation which called on the Acting Governor in 1883 to draw his attention to certain concerns of the Chinese community was attacked from several quarters. \n\nWithin the expatriate group in Hongkong there was a mistrust of the practice of Chinese having the direct ear of the Governor. It was felt that the previous Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, had manipulated such meetings to promote policies which favoured the Chinese to the disadvantage of the interests of the European population. They felt that the old established indirect approach through the Registrar General was the best way for the Govern-ment to relate to the Chinese. The Registrar General was the offi-cer responsible for matters affecting the Chinese. His modern counterpart is the Secretary for Home Affairs. \n\nNot everyone in the foreign population looked with disfavour on the idea of Chinese deputations. The senior partner of Jardine, Matheson and Company, F.B. Johnson, expressed his support. He felt it was his duty, as he said, not merely as a member of the Legislative Council, but as a resident of the Colony to be present and \"to show every possible sympathy he could with the move-ment this deputation had met to advocate.\" \n\nIn commenting on these remarks, the editor of one of the Hong-kong papers was not very kind to Johnson, describing him as \"one of those eccentric and ostentatious gentlemen who will rather commit any absurdity than be debarred from a public indulgence in windy and meaningless platitudes.\" A species not unknown in Hongkong today. \n\nThe Chinese criminal power group was also not happy about the visit, especially as it was to present matters which touched upon their activities. They were prospering under the status quo", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211031, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "NOTES\n\n67\n\n1\n\nThe South China Morning Post, 20th August, 1904, p. 3.\n\nSee, for example, Mark Bray, Peter B. Clarke, and David Stephens, Education and Society (London: Edward Arnold, 1986); Mark Bray, with Kevin Lillis (eds.), Community Financing of Education: Issues and Policy Implications in Less Developed Countries (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1988); Ingemar Fagerlind and Lawrence J. Saba, Education and National Development: Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983); Prosser Gifford and Wm. Roger Louis (eds.), France and Britain in Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971); George Psacharopoulos and Maureen Woodhall, Education for Development: An Analysis of Investment Choices (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); R. Murray Thomas (ed.), Politics and Education: Cases from Eleven Nations (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983).\n\nMartin Carnoy, Education as Cultural Imperialism (New York: McKay, 1974), Philip G. Altbach and Gail P. Kelly (eds.), Education and the Colonial Experience, (2nd Revised Edition New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1984).\n\nStephen J. Ball, 'Imperialism, Social Control and the Colonial Curriculum in Africa', in Ivor F. Goodson and Stephen J. Ball (eds.), Defining the Curriculum: Histories and Ethnographies (London: The Falmer Press, 1984).\n\nProsser Gifford and Timothy Weiskel, “African Education in a Colonial Context: French and British Styles,” in Prosser Gifford and Wm. Roger Louis, France and Britain in Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971).\n\nClive Whitehead, “British Colonial Education Policy: A Synonym for Cultural Imperialism?\", in J. A. Mangan (ed.), Imperialism, Socialization and Education (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988).\n\nIt is not implied that all the works cited above suffer from this defect.\n\n10\n\nThe term \"compradore\" is an Anglicized version of the Portuguese comprador, which literally meant \"provider\" or \"provisioner\". The historical significance of the compradore class has been summarized by Carl Smith in the following terms: \"The compradores were influential in proposing, capitalizing, and managing the modernization and industrialization of China in the latter half of the century. They had received their business training and acquired their capital by functioning as 'middlemen' between the European merchant and the Chinese employees and business contacts of the foreign firm. It was a strategic position which called for a foot in two worlds. A background of ability in the language and an understanding of European thought and manners usually ensured a rapid rise as a compradore.' Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 63. It may be worth noting that several, but by no means all, of the early compradores in Hong Kong were \"middlemen\" also in the sense that they were of Eurasian birth.\n\n15\n\nSee, for example, Particulars of the Offices of three Assistant Mistresses, Education Department, now vacant in the Colony of Hong Kong, August 1913, in Colonial", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211083, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "119\n\nGovernor Hennessy had made him a Justice of the Peace in one of his bids to tie the Chinese more closely to the Government. The editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph described Wei Yuk as “a gentleman of great intelligence besides his wealth and position, exercising vast influence in all local matters appertaining to the Chinese.\" He served on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1914 and became known after receiving a knighthood as Sir Wei Po-shan. Po Shan Road is named after him.\n\nLeung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the Society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.\n\nIn January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.\n\nWhen he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211093, "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": 154, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "129\n\nand the perfect security they enjoy.”\n\nIn his opinion, Hongkong led the Empire in its fair treatment of a subject people. \"There is probably no possession in the whole world,\" he affirmed, “where so great an amount of freedom, compatible with safety and good government is enjoyed by a protected race.\n\n19\n\nThe editor also contended that \"the night pass system received the support of the well-disposed among the Chinese as well as the approval of the foreign community generally; and those enactments which may be said to owe their origin to the presence of the most ignorant mass of the native population there being no such class to legislate for among the foreigners cannot be regarded as 'class legislation' in any objectionable sense.\n\n—\n\nA European who signed himself “Sinensis” took exception to the opinion of the editor. In his view, it was indeed class legislation and, therefore, objectionable. He had been discussing the matter with a number of important Chinese and they shared his opinions.\n\nHe touched a sore spot in the relation between foreigners and Chinese when he wrote: \"I notice several letters have appeared in the Mail animadverting the conduct of our new Governor for being disposed to initiate a more liberal policy toward the Chinese, I am not surprised at this. It is the natural fear of a 'superior race' who do not wish to see the natives placed on a level with them.\"\n\nHe encouraged Governor Hennessy to remain true to his liberal convictions. “I trust, however, His Excellency will not be swayed by such remarks, but carry out his policy according to his best judgments.\"\n\nThe position of \"Sinensis\" was supported by a long letter on \"Flogging and Class Legislation\" by \"A Chinaman.\" The detailed knowledge of the laws of Hongkong and their implications indicate that the writer must have been the English-trained barrister Ng Choy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211099, "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": 160, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "135\n\nIn the past, he claimed, the Chinese community was too divided to act in opposition to a measure it felt was objectionable. But now the Chinese were more vocal, more public-spirited and more conscious of their rights. It was time to take a stand, for “if we tolerate this ordinance and say nothing about it, other ordinances may be passed aiming at the Chinese, and if we keep quiet the Home Government will not know our grievances.”\n\nHo Tung took up the previous speaker's charge against the police: “If the police and the detectives would do their duty, we should have no robberies in Hongkong.” Perhaps he was somewhat too optimistic in this view.\n\nHe remarked about certain ways in which the Chinese were treated as an inferior group in the community. Chinese theatres had to close at 11 pm. At the City Hall, patronised by foreigners, functions could continue to 1 am.\n\nThere was also the matter of provisions for recreation. Ho Tung charged that “the Government gave all sorts of recreation for the European community. What have they done for the Chinese? They gave them a recreation ground in Taipingshan (at Possession Point). What kind of a place is that for recreation while latrines and urinals are there?”\n\nDiscrimination had an economic as well as social aspect: “We are the principal ratepayers in Hongkong; we pay more taxes than the Europeans, and derive the least advantage.\n\nBut not all the fault for the situation was Government's. Ho Tung reminded his audience that “if we have suffered any hardship before, it is we who are to blame for being silent. We should always bring our complaints to the notice of the Government in order to have them remedied.”\n\nHe concluded by stating that he did not wish those present to get the idea that the weight of wealth or position as represented by Ho A-mei and himself — should influence their decision on this public issue.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211108, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "144\n\nHo A-mei, of course, was no novice at the game of political pressure. He had been acting in public affairs for nearly thirty years. Ho Tung, a younger man, had not yet so much experience in the public arena. But as the years passed, he would outshine Ho A-mei as a public figure. Neither, however, was given the honour to represent his community on the Legislative Council.\n\nIn spite of all the Governor's threats, a compromise was reached. The regulations were not repealed, but the Governor issued a statement in answer to the Chinese petition.\n\nHe stated that in view of the advice given by the Registrar General and by other leading European residents, thus implying that Chinese opinion was of little value in the matter, \"I have out of consideration for the comfort and convenience of the orderly Chinese community issued the following instructions to the Police.\" His instructions said the regulations were not to be enforced except in case of persons abroad after midnight whom the police might have reason to suspect criminal intent.\n\nThe China Mail, true to form, deplored this compromise and was sure that the Chinese would view it as vacillation and weakness.\n\nThe Telegraph was for strength but also for freedom of speech. It stated that if anyone stirred up or incited \"the ignorant masses\" to resistance or disobedience, it would be the first to call for the deportation or punishment of the guilty party.\n\n\"We advocate strong and decisive measures whenever the need arises, but there must also be in all British colonies the right of freedom of speech.\"\n\nIt called for an immediate repeal of the objectionable regulations: \"We repeat that the Light and Pass Ordinance is an insult to the intelligence and honesty of any community and is a slur on the Chinese that ought to be wiped out of the Colony's records.\"\n\nThe suggestion, however, was not acted on and the law remained.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211114, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "150\n\nTo rally support, the Governor invited representatives of the largest merchant firms to sit in on the meeting. Everyone at the meeting was in thorough agreement that a Chinese consul would be a great blow to trade in Hongkong.\n\nThe Hongkong merchants were convinced the Chinese were already pursuing a policy of harassment of legitimate traders. A consul would only expose them to additional pressures.\n\nSir Richard put forth the thesis that China could not expect the same rights as other Treaty Powers. He argued that China was different because all of its treaties with foreign powers had been entered into at the point of a gun.\n\nIn spite of China having to make concessions, Governor Sir Richard claimed it still wished to be a hermit nation. It stubbornly resisted foreign demands for unrestricted trade and access to its markets by foreigners.\n\nThe mercantile interests were ever pushing for the right to reside and trade anywhere in China, but on the condition that they also enjoy extra-territorial privileges. They did not wish to be subject to Chinese law.\n\nThis view arose from a conviction that the institutions and customs of the European nations were superior to those of other parts of the world. Therefore, it was the duty of \"civilised\" nations to protect their citizens from becoming subject to the laws and customs of places that did not share their tradition.\n\nIn support of the argument that China should not enjoy the rights of other Treaty Powers because of its reluctance to enter the community of nations, Sir Richard pointed out that while China had been given the right to send a minister to the Court of St. James in London, it had not done so. It was, therefore, inconsistent of China to wish to place a consul in Hongkong.\n\nIf China was peculiar, so too was Hongkong. Sir Richard asked the Colonial and Foreign Offices to weigh the matter in the light of \"the special and exceptional circumstances of this very peculiar", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211121, "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": 182, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "157\n\nthat the cruisers might become involved in some incident which would impinge on British sovereignty,\n\nA consul in Hongkong could supervise the collection of duties less expensively and more efficiently, but their request was consistently opposed by the Hongkong Government and foreign merchants.\n\nWHEN A BLOCKADE HITS OPIUM SMUGGLING\n\nIn 1874 a petition signed by eighteen Chinese merchants and the resolutions of a public meeting held by the European community in Hongkong were sent to England.\n\nBoth protested against what was termed \"the blockade of Hongkong.\" They pleaded with Her Majesty's Government to take decisive action to stop what they believed to be the deliberate harassment of Hongkong by China.\n\nThe Chinese petition, drawn up with the assistance of Messrs. Caldwell and Brereton, solicitors, was originally handled in a hush-hush manner. It received no publicity and copies were not given to the press, though it was sent to a few influential residents.\n\nWhen, about a month after the petition had been submitted, the editor of the China Mail saw a copy, he immediately drew the public's attention to it.\n\nHe questioned the secrecy which had surrounded it.\n\nIn that day suspicion was the usual reaction to activities within the Chinese community. The editor laid it down thus: \"Either the Chinese are working with us or they are not. If they are, they must learn that the surest way of bringing their complaints to the notice of the executive is to make them as public as possible.”\n\nThe reason for avoiding publicity may simply have been to prevent the Chinese authorities from learning of it.\n\nIt was later stated that when they did hear, two mandarins were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211143, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "179\n\nIn an article in a Shanghai paper, the author contended that China was not a civilised nation in the European sense of the term. He explained the difference: \"She has a high civilisation of her own, but she has methods of governing her people which are barbarous to us, and which would give a Chinese Consul in Hong-kong a power over his fellow countrymen which is repugnant to our ideas.\"\n\nOn the other hand, the author was not satisfied with his own country's policy. He charged it with absolutism. He objected, as did Hongkong, to the arbitrary way the Foreign Office imposed its will on Hongkong without prior consultation.\n\nIt was his view that, “absolutism is getting shabby and worn out, at any rate in English-speaking communities, and any minister with a spark of appreciation of modern sentiment, not to mention common courtesy, would have communicated his intentions beforehand to those principally affected and allowed them to state their objections, even if he subsequently overruled them.”\n\nThe Hongkong protesters did state their objections in resolutions which were to be discussed and approved at a public meeting. The resolutions embodied the arguments that had been advanced over the years.\n\nA Chinese consul would make it more difficult to govern the Chinese. One resolution stated that, “the appointment will have a bad effect on the resident Chinese population, weakening their sense of the power and authority of the English Government, setting up in their midst a rival authority to which they will be encouraged to appeal to on all possible occasions.\n\nThe consul would become a rallying point for anti-foreign feeling. The foreign community in China was uneasy and one resolution read thus: \"That in the face of the recent recrudescence of strong anti-foreign feeling... throughout the Empire, it is most unfortunate that a centre should be set up around which any feeling of that sort existing among the heterogeneous mass of Chinese collected in the Colony must necessarily gather.”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211148, "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": 209, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "184\n\nhas never been a Chinese consul resident in Hongkong. The appointment, announced by Britain in July 1891, was cancelled before it could become effective.\n\nHo A-mei, however, continued his efforts to have an office in Hongkong that could watch over Chinese trading interests. In 1895, he took the leading role in the opening of a Chinese Chamber of Commerce.\n\nWHEN TELEGRAPH CAME TO THE SUPPORT OF A-MEI\n\nBy the time the translation of Ho A-mei's letter urging his countrymen not to attend the meeting called to protest against the appointment of a Chinese consul in Hongkong was published in the English press, word had been received that the appointment had been cancelled. The meeting was never held.\n\nThough Ho A-mei's endorsement of a consul did not receive the support of most of the European community, it did receive a favourable notice in the Hongkong Telegraph.\n\nThis paper was often found on the opposite side of any question under discussion in the press. It was the voice of minority opinion within the expatriate community. It was also generally sympathetic to Chinese viewpoints.\n\nWhen news of the appointment first broke in Hongkong, it humorously commented on the reaction of the daily press. It said that its competitor had earned for itself the name of \"granny.\"\n\nIn fact, to the Telegraph it seemed “the old lady was 'took bad' over the innovation of the establishment of a Chinese Consulate in the Colony”.\n\nIt called for a less emotional reaction and a sober consideration of the question. It maintained there was no reason for such alarm. Hongkong should have more confidence in itself.\n\nIt claimed that Hongkong had the ability and the means to control its Chinese population: \"No matter how his nationals may", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211158, "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": 219, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "194\n\nResponsibility for the general welfare of the Chinese in Hong Kong was assumed by the hospital directors past and present.\n\nTheir espousal of Chinese causes led them into conflict with certain European interests. It was felt they wielded too much influence over the Chinese. Their connections with Chinese authorities also caused alarm.\n\nMany aspects of life and business of the Chinese in Hong Kong were connected with China, hence, there were many occasions when it was necessary to correspond and negotiate with Chinese officials.\n\nThere was sharp criticism in the English language press against the committee for taking upon itself matters which were considered to be the proper concern of the Hong Kong Government.\n\nBecause of this, a public meeting was held at the hospital in 1875 to discuss whether it was “advisable to have a Kung Soh or Town Hall built so as to separate the functions of the committee from that of the general community in order to avoid further criticism.\" There was no consensus of opinion on the matter.\n\nTwo years earlier, the Registrar General, who was responsible for relations between the Government and the Chinese, had asked the Tung Wah Hospital Committee to select two men from each district of the city to serve as headmen of the district watchmen.\n\nThe Committee had demurred stating it would like to see a separation of their duties as the committee of the hospital and as leaders of the kaifong. The Governor agreed that a separation was desirable.\n\nOne of the difficulties was that if the functions of the two groups were to be separated, as most felt should be done, the kaifong needed a proper meeting place.\n\nAt the time of the discussion concerning the desirability of separating hospital matters from general community affairs in 1875, the Chinese submitted a petition to the Government asking", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211186, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "222\n\nerect bridges at the crossing of the brook, for these purposes the surplus funds of the meeting will probably suffice.”\n\nFrom the beginning Hongkong races were a paying proposition.\n\nSome forty years later at the time of the Queen's Jubilee there seemed an excellent chance that again marked improvements would take place in the Valley, enhancing the setting for the annual race meeting.\n\nFailure to take into account the interests of the whole community, particularly the Chinese, however, defeated the effort.\n\nWHY THE CHINESE OPPOSED VICTORIA PARK\n\nWhen Mr. Chater rose at a public meeting in March 1887, to propose that as a permanent memorial of the Queen's Golden Jubilee a park be formed at Happy Valley, he spoke confidently of its advantages. Nonetheless, he may have had some qualms about its popularity as it had already provoked strong opposition since he first mentioned it at a Legislative Council meeting in February.\n\nIn affirming his confidence in the proposal, he said: “I feel sure if this park be carried out and completed it will be a source of great pleasure to the European community of Hongkong; it will be a very agreeable drive and a pleasant lounge in the afternoon.”\n\nUnfortunately those of the community who owned horses or carriages for a drive or had the leisure to \"lounge\" in the afternoon were a small proportion of the total population. These were activities seldom indulged in by the Chinese.\n\nMr. Chater admitted they might not view the project in the same way as Europeans. But in justification he said: “I am equally sure the Chinese community will also approve of and appreciate it in the course of time.”\n\nFollowing Mr. Chater's remarks on his resolution and the seconding speech by the acting Attorney General, Dr. Ho Kai rose to speak. His views may be regarded as those of the Chinese community.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211195, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "231\n\nif the jubilee was to have the support of the whole community.\n\nFrom the practical standpoint, as a journalist pointed out, their financial backing was necessary if a sufficient sum was to be raised for a memorial “that should be worthy of the Colony and that would do honour to the illustrious Sovereign whose long glorious reign it was to commemorate.”\n\nThe Chinese were ready to be included in the community planning. They did not wish to ignore the jubilee. They were, however, dissatisfied with the project selected by a general meeting at City Hall on March 2, 1887. They therefore decided to hold their own meeting at Tung Wah Hospital on March 28.\n\nThe meeting was attended by all the Chinese leaders in the community, including Dr. Ho Kai, who had been the Chinese spokesman at the City Hall meeting. The Honourable Wong Shing, the Chinese representative on the Legislative Council at that time (there was only one representative), presided over the meeting. Mr. Ho A-mei, however, was the moving force behind it.\n\nAt\n\nOpening the meeting, the chairman reviewed the situation. The Europeans had decided upon the formation of a Victoria Park. He noted, however, that \"this proposal was objected to by a portion of the European population and by most of the Chinese.”\n\nHe suggested that a proposal which had found favour with a larger number of Chinese was that of a school for Chinese females. It was likely this would have been his choice, and his remarks were an indirect introduction of the idea. He did not mention the plan that was about to be presented for consideration.\n\nHe ended his remarks with the rather weak comment that, if \"the majority of the meeting was in favour of the Victoria Park scheme, he should be very pleased to support it.\" A strange statement in view of his mentioning only moments before that most of the Chinese were against it.\n\nThough a man of high principle and greatly respected by his fellow countrymen, Wong Shing was of a somewhat retiring", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211202, "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": 263, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "238 \n\nIf the correspondent opposing the park scheme was not able to look very clearly into the future, a writer who adopted the pen-name \"Atalanta\" was a better seer. True, he had to wait until 1904 for his vision to become reality. He advocated the building of a tramway from east to west as a jubilee scheme. It would benefit every resident \"male or female, child or adult, Chinese or Portuguese, Indian or European.\"\n\nA tram would provide easy access to the proposed park. Without a convenient way of getting there, he too thought it would be useless. He was more interested, however, in the beneficial effect a tram would have both for health and recreation in general.\n\nTo the west were the cool airs of Pokfulam, “and those citizens who are not able to live at the Peak can be transported on hot summer evenings to the other side of the island, there to be refreshed by the western breezes and the health-giving and invigorating perfume of the fir trees.”\n\nTo the east was the beach at Shaukiwan, \"where the little ones might get health and amusement by ‘paddling' while their parents may enjoy bathing or boating.\"\n\nEasy access by tram to a good beach would be welcomed, so the writer claimed, by “hundreds and thousands of our humble English and Portuguese fellow residents who, by their narrow means, are denied the luxury of a country villa at the Gap or Kellett's Ridge.\"\n\nNot all Portuguese were deprived of a summer villa, but few had them at the Peak. In the current issue of the Boletim do Instituto Luis de Camoes published in Macau, an article entitled \"The Portuguese in Hongkong and China” by the late Jose Pedro Braga describes some of the villas built by members of the Portuguese community at Pokfulam and Kowloon.\n\nThe advocate for the tram took a different view of Chinese attitudes towards sport than the writer of the other letter. He said they and the Portuguese did not play cricket and tennis simply for want of space.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211334, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "26\n\nThe kidnappers were daring in their raids. By early 1859 Chinese from all walks of life were increasingly being carried off by Chinese gangs working for foreign coolie agents. The Chinese community was so alarmed that it simultaneously petitioned the allied authorities to stop the kidnappings as well as taking matters into its own hands. In April local merchants petitioned the British to take action. That same month local Chinese, having captured several kidnappers, murdered them.\" Consul Alcock described the situation:\n\nThe acts of violence and fraud connected with the coolie trade at this port... have already reached such a pitch of atrocity that a general feeling of alarm spread through the population accompanied by a degree of excitement and popular indignation which rendered it no longer possible or safe for any authority interested in the peace of the place to remain inactive.5\"\n\n5\n\nAlcock's last sentence provides the principal clue to the allied commissioners' dilemma. Somewhere around 60,000 to 70,000 people had been carried off in recent years, but until recently that had principally been a Chinese concern. But since January of the previous year, Canton had been under allied administration and now any agitation caused by the kidnappers would necessarily impact negatively on the European ability to continue the occupation. In short, it was now their problem. And if simple insecurity was not enough to get them to move against the kidnappers, class concerns added an additional incentive, for it was understood that the randomly selected victims were often from the Chinese upper classes, which the British found more “civilized” than many other groups.\n\n60\n\nIf it was imperative that the illegal kidnapping stop, nevertheless, it was true as well that, with the ever-increasing demand for labour in the New World, the Europeans were committed to finding a more acceptable means of recruiting Chinese contract labour. The next months would thus see a two-part effort; on the one hand to suppress the kidnapping while on the other hand to regularize coolie emigration in a fashion that was acceptable to the local Chinese yet which did not compromise the outflow of Chinese labourers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211352, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\nTHE FIRST CHILD LABOUR LAW IN HONG KONG\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nA Reminiscence\n\nWhen I first came to Hong Kong about twenty-eight years ago, I observed cases of open and of hidden child labour,\n\nIn certain Chinese tea houses, young girls and boys carried the trays of dim-sum by means of a strap passed around their necks. One could see these children, who seemed only ten or eleven years of age; they may have been a little older, with arched backs to counter-balance the weight of the trays which they carried in front of them. Usually, they were wearily dragging themselves past the tables, but at other times chattering merrily among themselves, but too often one could see the strain of their job on their faces and bodies.\n\nThe hidden and less obvious use of children as labourers, I would see in the building I lived in at Tai Po in the New Territories. At that time, it was the tallest building there - a six-storey walk-up. I lived on the top floor. As I climbed the stairs, I passed a flat used as a workshop for sewing sequins on cloth. The room was filled with children, many of whom appeared to be no more than ten or twelve.\n\nChild Labour and the Mui-tsai Question\n\nAgitation about children in domestic service, that is, the mui-tsai system, or, as it was called by some, child slavery, and a movement for regulation of the labour of children outside the home arose about the same time, but each problem had its own history and its own development.\n\nBoth problems were initially brought to the attention of the general community by expatriates. In the case of child labour, a law was passed largely in response to pressure from the European community. As for the mui-tsai, though it was a British Naval officer and his wife who began the agitation, a portion of the Chinese community soon took over the campaign for its abolition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212228, "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-1990", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "147\n\nHighbury and in a position to encourage Fryer to enter into missionary service. Alford later became \"Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College in 1867\". What seems certain is that Alford was instrumental in obtaining the appointment for Fryer at St. Paul's College, under the sponsorship of the Church Missionary Society, thus launching his career in China.\n\nIn the letter describing his \"First Impressions\" Fryer appears to have quickly adjusted to the culture shock of Hong Kong and its people. Through the course of the letter Fryer takes the reader, in this case the family and friends to whom he has written, on a walking tour first of the island and then of the College. After a brief description of the island's geology, flora, and fauna, Fryer offers his impressions of both colonizers and colonized. He is pithy at times and harsh at other times, yet perhaps not off the mark. The letter concludes with a walking tour of the building that housed St. Paul's College with comments on the ambience of the building, each of the rooms, the students, the methods of instruction, and the Chinese house staff.\n\nIn the letter we see Fryer coming to terms with the European community and with the Chinese, among whom he was to work and live for the next 35 years. We see a determination which includes both a mastery of the situation and an accommodation to the requirements of the missionary community and the various social hierarchies in which he chose to live and work. This assimilation was to serve Fryer well during his career in Hong Kong (1861-63), in Peking (1863-65) at the T'ung-wen Kuan, and in Shanghai (1865-96) primarily at the arsenal at Kiangnan, where he accomplished his major work as translator of books on Western science and technology.\n\nThe manuscript for \"First Impressions ...\" is to be found in the Fryer Papers in The Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The papers contain both the holograph and a typewritten transcript made by Fryer many years later. Along with the holograph is a single sheet of paper with pen and ink drawings, tinted with watercolor, made of the floor plan of St. Paul's College, with the ground floor and the second floor on opposite sides of the sheet. Unfortunately, the ink and color of the sketches has run through the thin paper making them unsuitable for reproduction. An attempt has been made to reproduce the spirit of the sketches in the illustrations.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212278, "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-1990", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "197\n\nbecause, after Legge himself had remarried back in England in 1858, Rengan arranged for his relatives to stay with the Legge family until he called for them from Tianjing. The final demise of the rebellion included the capture and execution of Rengan by the Qing armies. In spite of the personal training given and closeness felt by Legge, the power of blood relations carried more influence than the power of Christian care. This made the need to understand the Chinese heart and mind all the more concrete to Legge.\n\nA more direct influence was the inability of Legge and his teaching staff to produce through the Anglo-Chinese College and its Seminary a continual supply of Chinese pastors and teachers. The government licensed the school with the understanding that some of those who graduated would be sent on to government placements as translators. Since the pay from the government was far more than any pastor could receive while working with a very small community at best, most students were drawn into government and business.\n\nThere is no doubt that there were also strong theological reasons behind the change. Legge's missionary service was directed toward the Chinese population. In order to know them and to be accepted by them, he felt he had to display a knowledge which they would honour: a knowledge of the Confucian Classics. Convinced that the earliest Chinese did know the true God named Shangdi, as found in The Book of Documents (HK) and the oldest portions of The Book of Odes, Legge was all the more concerned to discover how Chinese themselves responded to these religious dimensions of Confucianism. This attitude informed Legge's educational philosophy.\n\nThus, Legge supported the provision of general education for selected Chinese students, rather than requiring them to follow any rigidly missionary curriculum. He closed his own parochial school in 1858. He was the head of the education committee for the Hong Kong government which developed the new public educational system in Hong Kong. This is remarkable, since general education was not standard even in many European countries at that date. Legge arranged to have Frederick Stewart, a fellow Scotsman, come to act as headmaster of Queen's College, the new school designed to provide a higher-level general education for Chinese boys.\n\nEarly in his career as the London Missionary Society representative", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212285, "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-1990", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "204\n\ncolonial setting. Legge exemplified this role as a social prophet in both Chinese and English contexts in a number of ways.\n\nIn regard to the policies of the Missionary Society itself, Legge stood alone at times in his advocacy of treating Chinese colleagues as equals both in standing and in monetary compensation. Some missionaries felt this might cause too much pride among the first generation of Christians; Legge argued that a person who achieved the rank and fulfilled the duties deserved the pay, whether Chinese or Westerner,\n\nWhen given the opportunity to address the Hong Kong community at the end of his missionary career, Dr. Legge did not hesitate to speak publicly against the opium trade and gambling. This ability to distance himself on selective issues from governmental positions was in fact another aspect of his academic success. Unlike other European scholars who were bound to the directives of their religious and political superiors, Legge's Non-Conformist intellectual and spiritual disciplines were prompted by personal vision. When tensions arose between the government and the missionaries, they voiced their petitions as loyal citizens even if they opposed the government's attitudes and decisions.\n\nEven Legge's entrance into the community of Oxford University was coloured by his Non-Conformist commitments. The British Parliament having only five years earlier overturned a long-standing tradition that entering professors and students must publicly swear to belief in the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Creed, Oxford academics were still somewhat wary about introducing a Non-Conformist into their community. Legge's character had to be upheld by supporters external to the university before he was admitted. Soon afterward Legge was acting as the Vice President of the Non-Conformist Union, remaining a major leader until the Union was handed over to A. M. Fairbairn of Mansfield College. Even though Legge was busy in the first years of his Oxford professorship in building up the number of students in his classes and completing the translations of the Sacred Books of China for F. Max Müller, he unabashedly communicated his personal concern and Christian witness to Oxford colleagues who were not Christians.\n\nVI. Legge's Commonsense Philosophy\n\nBasically a form of Neo-Aristotelean philosophy, the so-called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212320, "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-1990", "page_number": 262, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "239\n\nBoswell (1815 to 1860), a graduate of Edinburgh University, who set up in private practice (previously owned by Doctor Anderson) in Macau in 1845. He was a physician and his wife, Elizabeth (née Stedman), joined him the following year. Watson was also an amateur artist and a friendship with the famous George Chinnery lasted from 1845 to Chinnery's death in 1852.\n\nWatson wrote to his sister in Scotland, in 1848, about Macau:\n\n“Counting ourselves, there are just four families and one or two Americans and French. There are Portuguese of course, but I do not class them as foreigners as it is a Portuguese settlement.”\n\nLife out East for Watson meant 14 years of hard work, ill health, and a constant struggle to make enough money for him and his family to go home. Nevertheless, in Macau he was surrounded by a happy family; he lived (as he phrased it) in a “sweet abode the prettiest spot on earth with a spacious open terrace and a wonderful view.”\n\nWatson sold his practice to a Doctor B. Kane (it took time to dispose of it as Macau was on the decline), and he moved to Hong Kong in 1856 where he became part owner of the Hong Kong Dispensary. His rent for a house on Queen's Road then was $1,200 a year. Watson was also involved with the Victoria Dispensary but this closed in 1857 because of lack of business. It appears there were too many British doctors competing for custom. Watson was said to operate the most successful practice in the Colony.\n\nIn 1857, he was closely involved when patriots of China attempted to poison Europeans by putting arsenic in the bread at the Ah Lum Bakery. He managed to rush home to warn his family before they had eaten breakfast. Fortunately, because the amount of arsenic was excessive, it induced vomiting and nobody died. To the intense annoyance of the European community Ah Lum was acquitted for lack of evidence.\n\nWatson sent his family back to Britain in 1857, and he himself returned to Scotland by the overland route (by ship to Port Suez,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212322, "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-1990", "page_number": 264, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "241\n\nengaged in business in Canton, Macau and Hong Kong well before the middle of the nineteenth century. Crawford, who joined T.A. Lane in partnership, was a humble stores clerk.\n\nAfter the attempt to poison the expatriate population by putting arsenic in the bread, in 1857, Lane and Crawford established a bakery in the 1860s. They also conducted auctions. Later the two men built a wharf, started a towing service with a 35 horsepower launch, and initiated the port's first fresh-water supply. In the early 1880s these water-boats were placed at the service of the Government when there was a serious drought. This branch of the business was later merged with the Union Waterboat Company which continued to operate until after World War II. Lane Crawford's bakery and coal yard went on trading until the early 1960s.\n\nThe company opened its six-storey Des Voeux Road department store, opposite Alexandra House and designed by architects Leigh and Orange, in 1905. (This was demolished and a new building erected in 1926). Departments included ship's chandlery, grocery, outfitting, hardware, furnishing, upholstery, tailoring, millinery and musical instruments. Anything was said to be available from a pin to an anchor. Business prospered and branches were later opened in Shanghai, Yokohama and Kobe. Eventually, these were taken over by independent managements.\n\nIn the last decade of the twentieth century Lane Crawfords in Hong Kong caters for the affluent local community, and the emphasis is still on quality products. The staff are mainly Chinese. This contrasts with a Lane Crawford staff group photograph taken in 1904, of European shop assistants and floor walkers, on a beach. The 33 members mostly wore long, one-piece swimming costumes, and several sported walrus moustaches. They were said to have been accommodated in splendid quarters. (Another European firm of drapers and outfitters that operated in Hong Kong until the 1960s was Whiteaway Laidlaw).\n\nToday, Lane Crawford is a part of the Wheelock Marden Hong Kong Realty, Marco Polo Group. It is a comparatively recent acquisition of Y.K. Pao's Wharf Company although it has a longer history than the parent company and other associates.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212326, "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-1990", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "245\n\nBank Limited', partly to remove the impression, prevalent at the time, that it was an Indian, and not a British, bank. In the same year, a share exchange took place with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for the entire share capital of Mercantile.\n\nIn 1967 in Hong Kong, the 'Disturbances' (spill overs of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic) resulted in a flight of capital which reduced deposits in banks fortunately only temporarily. The following year, as a number of members served on both the London Committee of the Hong Kong Bank and Mercantile's counterpart, it was decided to disband the London Committee of 'Mercantile'. Finally, the full amalgamation of the Hong Kong Bank and Mercantile took place in 1982-3.\n\nInsurance\n\nIn the early days of trading in Canton insurance posed something of a problem for the small European community. Members formed a local underwriting syndicate (on the Calcutta pattern) to provide facilities for marine insurance. The Canton Insurance Office was established in 1804 (other records say 1805), and for the first 30 years of its existence it was managed alternately by Jardine's and Dent and Company, changing every three years. A great deal of trust appears to have existed between the Chinese hong merchants and the European traders, and a document shows that Chinqua, a Chinese businessman, promised to make good any loss suffered by a merchant in France, to whom he was shipping tea, without having to prove loss by the return of goods.\n\nThe Union Insurance Society of Canton was established in Canton in 1835, by a number of far-sighted British Merchants under the guidance of Dent and Company. After Dent's went into liquidation, in 1864, Union Insurance became a separate entity. It had already moved its headquarters to Hong Kong in 1842, which is still its home even though it has offices and representatives in many cities in the Far East and agencies throughout the world.\n\nIn 1861, Hong Kong had 73 merchant houses and 18 of these acted as agents for insurance companies. Jardine's has retained its early interest in insurance, and, in 1868, when the Hong Kong Insurance Company was formed, it became the agent. This, a century", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212753, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "47\n\n18\n\non the depth and interest of their writings. Some, like Archibald Colquhoun1 went into great detail describing the wealth of minerals, the scope for modernisation in communications and the economy, all subjects which Mesny too, at the same period if not earlier, had written about at length. Others like Mrs Scidmore2 list 'intrepid travellers to Szechuan3 and the far west,' with names like Richtofen, Pumpelly, Von Kreitner, Hosie, Baber, Blaikiston, Little, Gill, Hart, Parker, and Pratt, Mrs Little and Mrs Bishop, and Dr Morrison, but not one of these authors referred to Mesny whose travels and experiences outweigh most if not all of them. Was it because he was considered to have gone native or been more Chinese than ‘one of us\"? We shall never know but each time yet another book was published it must have been galling for Mesny to find only very rarely he had earned a mention. After his trip with Gill to Tibet and India in 1877 he was scarcely referred to in books on China; this together with his constant and repeated reference to his contacts with and closeness to Chinese friends and acquaintances, mostly in high places, suggests that he was ostracised or perhaps no more than ignored by the western social community in Chinese ports and in Shanghai in particular.\n\nDuring his later years when fortune seemed to elude him, when there was no caste lower than the impoverished European or American, a number of themes and points of view in Mesny's writings place him fairly firmly into a class and category of his time. A plague of self-importance swept late-Victorian Britain and spread through its colonies and dependencies. Mesny suffered a massive dose and never, as far as his Miscellany record, appears to have had his balloon pricked. He must have been seen by foreigners in Shanghai and, in particular by his fellow 'Old China Hands', during the latter years of the nineteenth century and the first decade of this as a vulgar, low-born upstart, too fond of his own ideas, a self-centred braggart and an opinionated man, but let it be stressed that he would not be alone in this category in Shanghai or for that matter in all the other major western communities in the Orient. His own notes reflect the disdain with which he was regarded by people like Sir Thomas Wade and Sir Robert Hart. His name dropping in many of his writings, mostly in his personal relationships with Chinese viceroys, provincial governors and commanders in chief, suggests that he probably also dropped names to the same extent in everyday conversation. However, he knew the importance of patronage, especially in China, as one can see from his obituary of Tso, and his description of the momentary meeting with a Manchu hereditary prince.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212856, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "150 \n\nIn theory, records of business and other enterprises founded and controlled by members of the Shanghai Jewish community exist somewhere, awaiting scrutiny by scholars. In reality, however, these materials are not always readily available to the scholars who are looking for them. It is hoped that individuals working on the Jewish community or on Western enterprises in Shanghai will be able to meet up with these records.' When Mr. Bramsen first started his current research, he chanced upon a series of letters written by a Danish au-pair girl in Shanghai during the early years of the 20th century. For six years this young woman wrote at regular intervals to her family in Denmark, describing in great detail each dinner party given in the house, identifying and describing every guest, the clothes they wore, the food and drinks served, and from time to time, the conversation that took place as well. Valuable historical resources indeed!\n\nThere is a unique collection of information in Hong Kong. The Rev Carl Smith, a retired American missionary who has been living in Hong Kong for almost half a century, and author of a book on Chinese Christians in Hong Kong, has gathered a fantastic amount of isolated information on individual foreigners and Chinese Christians who were active along the China coast during the 19th and 20th centuries. He has put the information on literally hundreds of thousands of 3 × 5 index cards, most of which have been categorized and filed. Mr Smith compiled the data from public and journalistic records, including jury lists, will probates, newspaper obituaries, and numerous other sources.\n\nJewish Immigration to Shanghai\n\n4\n\nWith few exceptions, the Jews in Shanghai fell into three groups: the Sephardic Jews, the Ashkenazi Jews, and the German, Central and Eastern European Jews. Throughout the decades they lived and worked in Shanghai, and although they worked together from time to time on certain projects, the three communities remained distinct.\n\nSephardic Jews\n\nThe Sephardic traders in Shanghai came during the 19th century from the Middle East by way of India under the aegis of the Sassoons. Their numbers are not discernible from census statistics, principally because the statistics recorded the nationality rather than the religious affiliation of each resident. The number of early arrivals could not be more than\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212858, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 167, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "152\n\nGerman, Central and Eastern European Jews\n\nThe third wave of Jewish immigration into Shanghai, and incidentally the largest, was in the years following 1938, as a result of Nazi persecutions in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. Since Shanghai was the only port that accepted people without visas, Jews who were not permitted to enter other countries came to Shanghai.\n\nThey travelled by water, on Italian liners via Africa. Since canal tolls had to be paid in pounds sterling, ship captains tended to take the long way by going around Africa, making the journey to Shanghai more than six weeks. Other refugees took the Siberian Railroad to Manchuria, then went from there to Japan. The Japanese consul at Vilna, apparently for humanitarian reasons, issued transit visas for those who possessed another, usually for some Latin American country. Or, for those who did not have any visa at all, the destination was to be Shanghai. As a result, a large number of Jews congregated at Kobe or Yokohama, waiting to travel to Shanghai by ship. Among this group were the faculty and student body of the Yeshiva from Poland. So, until the school moved to New York after 1945, the rabbis were trained in Shanghai.\n\nWhen the Sino-Japanese conflict merged into the global war following Pearl Harbour in December 1941, resulting in Japanese occupation of the International Settlement, the Jews in Shanghai were treated according to their nationalities. The large refugee community, either with 'non-enemy alien' status or stateless, manned the factories and operated cottage industries in their homes. In 1943, when special privileges enjoyed by foreigners in China came to an end as the unequal treaties of the 19th century were formally abrogated, the Jewish population in Shanghai was estimated to number 25,000.\n\nAs the war ended in 1945 the Jewish refugees left to settle in the United States, Canada, Australia or, after its establishment, Israel. Long-term Jewish residents left as well after 1949. By 1956, only 543 Jews remained in China, 231 of them in Shanghai, 402 of these Jews were classified as Soviet citizens by the Chinese government, and were therefore unable to obtain the necessary papers in order to emigrate without cooperation between the Chinese authorities and the Soviet consulate. R.D. Abraham, leader of the Jewish community at that time, learned through a BBC broadcast that David Marshall, the noted Jewish lawyer from Singapore, was being invited to visit China. He quickly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213036, "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-1993", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "84\n\nthe accuracy of the registration.7\n\nIt is consistent with a climate of insufficient funds and a well-established colonial principle of subsidy to voluntary agencies to provide services that fee payment was resisted by government. Mr. May, the Acting Governor, proposed instead that the money should be spent on a maternity charity, viz. the Training School of Chinese Midwives at the newly completed AMMH, which subsequently enrolled the two trainees from the Civil Hospital.\n\nSetting Up: the LMS and the Chinese subscribers.\n\nDr. Ho Kai is largely credited with the initiative in promoting Western medicine for the Chinese people in Hong Kong, building on the LMS' interest in missionary medicine and funding the Alice Memorial Hospital and the College of Medicine for Chinese. From its inception, the Alice Hospital, by now comprising the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Nethersole Hospital, had been dependent on the wealth and goodwill of the Chinese elite, amongst whom Dr. Ho Kai was a leader. After just six years of operation, the 1893 Annual Report of the Finance Committee noted that subscriptions from the European community were down by $1,000, although the expenses of a growing hospital were higher. At the same time, subscriptions from the Chinese had increased from $1,708 to $3,131 between 1891 and 1892. Indeed, the Report suggested that the example of the Tung Wah should be followed, and representatives of the Chinese guilds be invited to join the hospital finance committee, to increase Chinese participation.\n\nThis proposition was not implemented, and in 1908, Dr. Gibson opposed any increase in Chinese membership of the AMMH's Management Committee, because of likely friction and consequent reduction in trust which Chinese people had in the LMS organisation. At the same time he noted that the subscribers gave little to the Alice compared with their donations to Chinese institutions, such as the Tung Wah and District Dispensaries.9 Chinese finance was crucial for the expansion of the hospital; indeed, for the establishment of the maternity hospital proposed in 1901, support from the rich Chinese was essential.\n\nWhen the Chinese benefactors moved, mobilisation was rapid. To correspondence from Dr. Ho Kai to Dr. Gibson on 3 March, 1902,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213053, "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-1993", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "101\n\nthat he had been reinstated as a lecturer, but in 1916 he resigned that position, since the Chair of Surgery had been established, and could only be held with clinical rights at the Government Civil Hospital. Why Dr. Gibson was treated as Mr. Pearce said 'shabbily', is not known, although in Dr. Mitchell's eyes, there had been no necessary connection between the LMS and medical education, and he had warned against any expectation of a linkage.\" The effect, however, was to remove the students from the institution of the Alice, and with it, the main rationale justifying the exclusion of the lady doctor from general medical work. By this time, maternity work had grown and lack of work was no longer an issue. 94\n\nThe AMMH was most important in the establishment of Hong Kong's maternity service for several reasons: first, the resources set up were both hospital-based and domiciliary, and therefore set the parameters for subsequent development, which included hospitals, maternity clinics, and government midwives attending home births. Secondly, under the umbrella of the LMS, the place of Western medical practice amongst the Chinese people was strengthened, demand increasing in the post-World War I decades. Thirdly, female doctors acquired a primary role in service provision and thereby a career pathway for Chinese women as doctors and midwives was opened. That pathway was to extend to general nursing, although even until the 1930s at the Alice Hospital, male dressers, supervised by female European nurses, were needed to work in male wards. Fourthly, a service which was accessible to all classes of Chinese women was set in place. That is, poor women were looked after on the basis of need, whereas the wives of the wealthy Chinese subscribers were entitled to care in terms of the Lady Doctor's contract. The outcome was a service that was, as much by default from the power play between Dr. Gibson and Dr. Sibree as by intention, culturally appropriate to the Chinese community. That is, status differentials were recognised, and at the same time, the level of qualification seen as adequate for a public health-oriented service was selected, analogous to the level of training for the Chinese doctors.\n\nThe lack of continuity in the service left a gap which, with greater recognition of need, was filled by secular agencies, as the Chinese Public Dispensaries Committee set up a maternity home in Wanchai in 1919, run by Dr. Alice (Sibree) Hickling, followed by the Tsan Yuk Hospital in 1922. The Tung Wah and Kwong Wah Hospitals improved their maternity service, and domiciliary care was the province of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213178, "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-1993", "page_number": 246, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "228 \n\nAnd what a worthwhile effort it is! Shoza gave a detailed account and clear analysis of the nature of the Chinese and the significant roles they played in Southeast Asia, their reasons for migration, and, even more importantly, their progress from being indigent coolies to the wealthiest element of the community, controlling all aspects of agriculture, mining trade and finance, from production to distribution.\n\nIt may be superfluous to state here that at the time of Shoza's writing, the mid-1930s, the world was still in the throes of a wide-spread economic depression. With the exception of what we know as Thailand today, Southeast Asia had comprised European colonies, thus any study of local economies had to take into consideration the colonial powers. As a rule, colonial powers adopted oppressive measures against the Chinese in their colonies. Readers need to keep in mind also that place names were also different from what they are today as they peruse the work,\n\nStill, the significance of the Chinese to local economies cannot be over-emphasised. By the 1930s, a poor Chinese in Southeast Asia was rare, Shoza avers. The growth of the Chinese economic power was due to a constant process of individual adaptations to changing market opportunities concluded Shoza, putting aside traditional reasons given for Chinese successes as the cultural trait of hard-work and parsimonious living.\n\nIt would be irresponsible for a reviewer not to point out that the author was a Japanese research scholar and that his intended readership was Japanese, therefore the book was written from a standpoint of Chinese intent on economic aggression in Southeast Asia. Shoza's statistics may be dated, observations he made are valid still more three score years later. 'The economy of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, controlling the economic life of the natives, is a grand spectacle within the East Asian economy' (Chapter 9),\n\n++\n\nPolitically, the ethnic Chinese population in Southeast Asia today no longer need to worry about local citizenship as they did in the 1930s, but their relationship with the native population, like that between the Southeast Asian countries and the People's Republic of China is still of concern at the end of the 1990s.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213203, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "4\n\nincluded (CO129/414, p. 177).\n\nThe three German females in the 1921 census are mentioned in a report Canon Bannister sent to the Church Missionary Society in 1914. The Berlin Foundling House had 150 children and the two Blind Homes had 120 children. \"The Government has allowed three German ladies to remain in each home and the writer was asked to take general oversight”, (Archives of the Church Missionary Society, University of Birmingham, England, CH1/P/4 No. 149, Bannister, 5 Nov. 1914).\n\nThe German community gradually reestablished itself in Hong Kong, but in 1931 it was less than half of what it had been in 1911.\n\nHong Kong being a British colony, the British were the largest non-Chinese community. Next was the Macanese-Portuguese. The third were the Germans. They were followed by the Americans,\n\nGermans in the Canton trade\n\nGerman-speaking merchants participated in the China trade in the eighteenth century. The trade was confined to Canton. In 1729, the Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor of Austria, chartered the Imperial East India Company to trade in the East using the port of Ostend in the Netherlands as its home base. At that time Netherlands was a part of the Austrian Empire. This company did not use German ships, but chartered British vessels which were principally manned by British crews. This was a stratagem to get around the efforts of the British chartered East India Company to control the European trade with China. Over the years there were usually two or three ships each season from Bremen or Hamburg arriving at Canton.\n\nBritish free traders used the protection of the office of Consul for foreign states to acquire the privilege of permanent residence in China. These free traders were large importers of opium of India, a trade the British East India Company ships did not engage in as it was prescribed by Chinese Imperial Edict and the company wished to maintain a good relation with the Dragon Throne. It feared that if it was too closely identified with the opium trade the Chinese authorities would curtail the company's lucrative and traditional trade in tea.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213762, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "85\n\nX\n\n\"J\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1913, pages N13-17, 1914, pages N12-N13, 1915, pages O18-O19, 1916, pages 15-06-1917 page 07-1918, page 09, 1919, page O10, 1920, pages O15, O21, O29-O30, 1927, pages O17-4, O16, O22-O23, O33-O34. Scholarships were offered from these aided village schools to the Government schools in the New Territories, and from the Government schools in the New Territories to those in the City, although very few were taken up in the first few years.\n\nSee RJ Phillips, Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). A History, (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990), and Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, page R6, 1911, page R1. In 1911, the Sha Tau Kok light railway was opened only as far as Shek Chung Au. The extension of the light railway to Sha Tau Kok came in 1912.\n\nAdministrative Reports for the Year 1910, pages P34-35, 1911, pages P40-41, 1912, page P51, 1913, pages 186-88, 1914, page P85-86, 1915, pages Q94-96, 1916, pages Q77-78, 1917, pages Q88-90, 1918, pages Q81-85, 1919, pages Q53-55, 1920, pages Q64-65, and 1927, pages Q77-78. A programme to build 6 to 8 feet wide footpaths/bridle paths had been begun in the New Territories in 1899. The footpath from Kowloon to Tai Po was completed in 1902, and that from Castle Peak Bay to Au Tau in 1911. The section from Au Tau to Fanling was completed (except for the bridge at Au Tau) by the end of 1914. No path was built between Castle Peak Bay and Sham Shui Po, or between Tai Po and Fanling in this period.\n\nThis footpath construction programme does not seem to have affected traditional village life significantly, although the District Officer felt the new footpaths had made the work of patrolling and administering the New Territories easier. However, the only specific use the District Office noted for the new footpaths, other than by Government officials, was by cattle drivers sending animals to the City for slaughter. The footpaths were \"justified by administrative and military needs” (the Orme Report, pages 30, 32-33, 36). The New Territories circular road was an upgrading of these earlier footpaths, where they existed, but included new construction where the earlier footpaths were lacking.\n\nPapers Land Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co., Government Printers, Hong Kong, No. 9, \"Extracts From Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor. Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong,\" p. 187, remarks that, in 1899, the steamers from Hong Kong to Macao called intermittently at Cheung Chau. The Orme Report, op. cit., mentions that steam ferries from Cheung Chau used to carry the fish catch to Hong Kong early in the morning (para 65). See also Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, page J12, 1915, page J9, 1916, page J12, 1919, page J12, 1922, page J12.\n\n1 Including the choice of Cheung Chau as a place to spend weekends and the summer by numbers of European families, mostly missionaries from Canton. This began in a very small way in 1912, but only became a major feature from 1918. In 1919, a “European reservation” was formed, and a small year-round resident European community with an Assembly Hall and a 10-hole golf-course had become established by 1921. Administrative Reports for the Year 1912, page J13, 1914, page J11, 1915, page J10, 1917, page J11, 1918, page J11, 1920, page J12, 1921, page J13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213923, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 275, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "253\n\nBOOK REVIEW\n\nNICOLE CONSTABLE (1994), Christian Souls and Chinese Spirits: a Hakka Community in Hong Kong, Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press.\n\nThis book studies the complex identities of the Hakka Christians in Shung Him Tong of the New Territories of Hong Kong. It discusses how the Hakka identity is constructed through the eyes of their fellow Hakkas, by Hakka historians, European missionaries as well as local institutions like the church and family. According to Constable, the Hakkas were always regarded as poor and stingy in Chinese popular belief. They never enjoyed equal status with other ethnic Chinese. However, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, through the writings of Hakka historians and European missionaries, the Hakkas reconstructed their ethnic identity and claimed to be \"orthodox Chinese\" (Chapter 2). In the process of identity reconstruction, they transformed negative Hakka characteristics into positive ones, and then belief in Christianity reassured them that they were on the right track. In order to be good Christians, the Hakkas in Shung Him Tong secularised and rationalised Chinese customs and religious practices (Chapters 5 and 6). For instance, feng shui (geomancy) is re-interpreted as \"common sense or as a purely aesthetic consideration\" (p.126). The dual Chinese and Christian identity of the Hakka Christians was not at all stable. It had to be negotiated from time to time because of continuing social and cultural changes.\n\nConstable argues that to understand the Shung Him Tong Hakka Christian's ethnic identity, one has to adopt three anthropological approaches. The first is to identify the cultural markers of the Hakkas, for instance their architecture, language, skin colour, etc., and to know how these characteristics were adapted to new social and cultural environments. The second is to understand how their social and economic boundaries are drawn to define social groupings, but also how church and other cultural symbols are used to redefine ethnic identity. And the third is to see how the shared history and ancestry consolidate the ethnic identity. These three approaches to the study of ethnicity complement one another. Constable skilfully incorporated interviews and observations with the Basel Mission Archives to illustrate the ethnic identities constructed by the early founders of the Christian community and how the identity varied in different times and places. Through her discussions,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213924, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 276, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "254\n\nof death rituals, rites of passage, gender role, festivals and customs, ancestor worship and feng shui, Constable illustrates that the Shung Him Tong Hakkas' attempt to reconcile Hakka-Chinese and Hakka-Christian identities is an ongoing process. This ongoing process is also demonstrated in the continuous transforming images of Hakka characters. The older generation emphasises Chineseness despite being Christians; the younger generation tends to allow Christianity a far more obvious role in their lives (Chapter 6).\n\nChapter 2 is devoted to a discussion on Hakka migration and the Taiping Rebellion, both events thought to have been important in the construction of Hakka identity. According to the book, the former provides the Hakkas with a historical mechanism to identify themselves as \"Orthodox Chinese,\" and the latter provided, other than lineage, an \"organisational structure that helped bring together those who became influential in inventing and articulating Hakka identity” (p. 38). If these two historical events were so crucial to the construction of early Hakka identity, one would expect to know more about how they were told and utilised by the Shung Him Tong Hakka Christians to reconstruct their own Hakka identity, not through records by historians of European missionaries. Without this, it is difficult to relate the construction of early Hakka identity and the reconstruction of the Hakka-Christian identity in Shung Him Tong.\n\nShung Him Tong is located near Lung Yeuk Tau, a village compound dominated by the powerful Tang lineage. It is also situated close to two other influential localised lineages in the New Territories of Hong Kong: the Pangs of Fanling and the Lius of Sheung Shui. Though the political influence of the early founders of Shung Him Tong is mentioned, Constable does not explain how the marginal situation of the village contributed to the survival of the community, which is Christian and Hakka (as against Chinese and indigenous Punti villages like Lung Yeuk Tau, Fanling, and Sheung Shui). It is also unclear how, unlike the Lius of Sheung Shui, who had to change their ethnic identity from Hakka to Punti, this marginal nature of the community is manipulated by the Shung Him Tong Hakkas to reconstruct their own unique Hakka-Christian identity.\n\nThere are also some minor imprecisions. One of which is Qing Ming, which does not fall in “Spring during the third month of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214121, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 189, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "158\n\nthat you cannot please all the members all the time there is still a role for societies like the Royal Asiatic Society to play in Hong Kong. It is interesting to recall that some of the best research on Hong Kong history has been carried out by amateurs, often by RAS members. We, as members, must continue to ask ourselves the question: How can the local Branch make Hong Kong a better place and how can we members continue to serve the community, including both Chinese and Westerners?\n\nReferences\n\nBard, Solomon. 1995. “Archaeology in Hong Kong: A Review of Achievements”, Archaeology in Southeast Asia, University of Hong Kong: 383-395.\n\nChambers Biographical Dictionary. Revised edition 1969. states: “(Bowring) ... acquired knowledge of 200 languages”.\n\nDudgeon, David and Richard Corlett. 1994. Hills and Streams: an Ecology of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\nEndacott, G. B. 1958. A History of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\nHayes, James William. 1989. “Letter to the Chairman, Consultative Committee for the Basic Law”, Journal RASHKB, 29: xvi and xvii.\n\n1997. \"The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\", Journal RASHKB, 34: 129-145.\n\nPfister, Lauren F. 1993. \"Clues to the Life and Academic Achievements of One of the Most Famous Nineteenth Century European Sinologists-James Legge (AD 1815-1897)\", Journal HKBRAS, 30: 180-218.\n\nRide, Lindsay and May, 1996. An East India Company Cemetery, ed. Bernard Mellor, Hong Kong University Press.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society: Its History and Treasures. 1979. eds. Stuart Simmonds and Simon Digby, The Royal Asiatic Society London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214378, "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-1998", "page_number": 236, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "202\n\nany real degree of authority in matters affecting their own security,7 the introduction of the new scheme met with considerable opposition from some Europeans. Smith noted that 'there is much diversity of opinion as to the desirability of employing Chinese at all as Police.' The comparatively restrained language used by Smith probably understates the intensity of the opposition. In addition to the 'jealousy,' Smith hinted that the question of the watchmen's remuneration was also a problem. He reported that 'After much discussion the community of the Five Districts to the West of the Parade Ground agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay would be disbursed by themselves and collected from house to house by men specially appointed for the purpose.' The monthly pay of each of the five Chief Watchmen was $20 whilst each of the forty Watchmen received $8 per month. Uniform coats were to be provided from a special fund and the accounts could be inspected at the Registrar General's office. Not only was the Registrar General charged with ensuring that the financial side of the scheme was sound, he was also responsible for the Watchmen themselves even though their wages were paid by the Chinese community.\n\nThis was not the way that the Chinese merchants had envisaged running the scheme although it was better than having European or Indian policemen interfering with their everyday business arrangements in order to combat crime. However, because of their internal squabbling and the colonial administration's greater experience in shaping such matters to its advantage, the Chinese merchants had allowed themselves to be outmanoeuvred by Government officialdom. Smith stressed that he did not expect the Watchmen 'to take a very prominent part in apprehending criminals.' That was not the aim. It was expected that the strength of the scheme lay elsewhere and, ‘according to the recognized Chinese Custom, those who pay for their support expect them to keep the vagabonds and bad characters from congregating in their districts,' an example of what, in modern criminological terminology, is referred to as Displacement Theory. The Chinese merchants and householders funding the scheme were not particularly interested in curtailing crime throughout Hong Kong but merely wanted to ensure that it did not occur in their area.\n\nThe tone of Lister's 1868 report was more direct than that of his predecessor. Lister contended that, whilst it was true that a force composed of Chinese would 'never carry out some of the views of the European Community,' this was to be expected because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214379, "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-1998", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "203\n\n'it is not paid by the European community. The chief object of the Chinese in paying these Watchmen is to drive away thieves, the cardinal evil of a Shop-keeping population.' The success of the Watchmen was 'not only in arresting actual offenders, but also in keeping away those who live by pilfering.'\n\nDue to an administrative oversight 'no records were kept of the doings of the Watchmen until 27th August 1867. Thereafter data was collected and in the following six months the Watchmen were involved in the prosecution of fifty-three cases some of which were serious. By the end of 1868 another ninety-eight cases had been prosecuted due to the actions of the Watchmen and these resulted in the conviction of 117 defendants. Although the number of cases dropped to forty-one in 1869, data collected for the following two years showed that there were eighty-one and seventy-nine cases in 1870 and 1871 respectively. These returns compare favourably with similar data from the following century. As an example, in 1914 there were 109 convictions when the strength of District Watchmen had risen to one hundred.\n\nThe difference of opinion which had existed in Government circles in 1866 when the Watchmen scheme was introduced continued as the Watchmen went about their business. Cecil Smith was unstinting in his praise but, since he had been responsible for introducing the scheme, he could hardly be regarded as an impartial witness. Others, however, like the Police Magistrate Mr J. Russell and the Coroner Mr F. Stewart commended the Watchmen for their actions. At the other end of the spectrum were political heavyweights such as the perennial Mr Charles May and Chief Justice Smale. May had served as Captain Superintendent of Police between 1845 and 1862 before being appointed Police Magistrate and his low opinion of Chinese constables, whom he considered to be 'utterly untrustworthy,' was well known. His opinion of the Watchmen was similar and, according to Smith in December 1871, May showed 'an antipathy to the Corps which has had a very unfortunate effect.' This unfortunate effect manifested itself in a decline in the Watchmen's activity and energy with a corresponding decrease in the number of arrests. Smith maintained that the Chief Justice, who should have known better because of his legal background, objected not so much to the individual watchmen who appeared before him in Court, as to the whole system which apparently he did not know was established by law.\"9", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214397, "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-1998", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "221\n\nthe 1866 Ordinance allowed them. The non-confrontational attitude identified in the pre-1920 Chinese merchant class by Ku Hung-ting,1 coupled with a pragmatic belief that half a bowl of rice is better than none, could also explain why the merchants were prepared to go along with the Government's decision. Whilst they would have preferred to have complete control over their security force and did not relish having their businesses scrutinized more than was already the case, a limited degree of control was preferable to none.\n\nThe 'hijacking' of the whole of the District Watch Force for three years 1883-85 to work on non-security sanitary duties following Osbert Chadwick's Sanitary Report has been discussed at length and this change in direction of the Force need only be mentioned again to emphasize the point that, whilst the Chinese merchants may have been paying for this Watch Force, the latter's duties could be, and were, decided by the colonial authorities. The fact that the Chinese merchants continued to fund this scheme during these years whilst the Government contributed a mere $1 per person per month illustrates the lack of a level playing field in this particular game between the colonial power and the local community. Although it is possible that some Chinese people in Hong Kong may have wanted improvements in their sanitary conditions, it is by no means certain that this number would have been substantial. Even if some Chinese residents placed great store on improved sanitary conditions, it is unlikely that the local merchants would have wanted this to be done at their expense particularly if this sanitary work stopped their security force from performing their duties.\n\nThe years following the creation of the District Watch Force showed how certain ultra-conservative factions within the European community would have preferred the District Watch Force to disappear or, failing that, at least be merged with the regular police. That this did not occur is a testament not only to the Chinese merchants who stood their ground but also to some of the first young Cadet officers who were more open-minded than their less enlightened colleagues. With the introduction of the 1888 ‘Registration of the Chinese Ordinance,' the establishment of the District Watch Committee in 1890-91 and the appointment of the Captain Superintendent of Police as a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, Government influence became even more effective and continued to grow during the twentieth century. Furthermore, the addition of duties such as the house-to-house checks\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214789, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "169\n\neconomy and the experience of emigration and global diaspora have surely been crucial (cf. Wang Gungwu 1994).\n\n\"The post-colonial is about the diasporic consciousness\", complains Friedman (1999), defining it as a 'discourse of hybridity' concerned with a 'conscious critique of the colonial in all its forms, from the economic to the cultural'.\" And it is in this context that I should like to raise the question of nostalgia and its power to overcome barriers of time and space. Jon Mitchell, a former colleague of mine in Edinburgh, has described how a displaced urban Maltese community made use of nostalgia as a 'strategic resource' to reconstruct through imaginary means a vanished community and a sense of community which had been inevitably destroyed (Mitchell 1998), and similar work has taken place for the Algerian-Jewish community in France.1 More detailed work by Paerregord (1997) on migrants returning to their native village in the Peruvian Andes contrasts nostalgic images with other kinds of image which are held by different groups of migrants and which affect life back in the village in different ways.\n\nNostalgia implies the displacement from an origin, and in an age of the flexible accumulation of capital (Harvey 1989) and globalised flows of people, commodities and signs (Lash and Urry 1994) in which local contexts have become increasingly problematised as imaginary constructs, the emotion of nostalgia provides perhaps the most important and appropriate vehicle for the sentimental articulation of links between the global and the local, the present and the past. As the direct corollary to the idealism of utopianism, the idealism of nostalgia adopts a temporal structure, expressing a dissatisfaction, an unease or disenchantment with the present, together with a yearning for an imagined, or recollected, what-went-before.\n\nLowenthal (1985) reminds us that nostalgia (like melancholy and consumption) was for a long time thought of as a particular disease. In the seventeenth century nostalgia was common among travellers far from their native homes, who pined and sighed for their remembered pasts, in a kind of anomie which has probably always had a particular association with travelling, and with the Voyage which was to become institutionalised through the European Grand Tour pioneered by the Romantics. Nosos (return to native land) with algia (suffering). Hong Kong has often enough been characterised as a forward-looking\n\n16\n\n17", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214889, "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": 304, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "277\n\nGoddess of Mercy, with her vase containing the dew of compassion and her enigmatic smile. Kwan Yin helps souls in distress. The inside of the Temple was blackish from the smoke of countless burning candles and joss sticks. This added to the atmosphere. There were other minor gods. In frenetic Hong Kong visiting the Temple and taking part in the pastimes described helped people stay sane.\n\nOne 70 year old Chinese, afflicted with diabetes, began to find it more and more of an effort to struggle up Hatton Road which he dubbed, (Long Life Road). Nonetheless he was determined, come what may, not to give up his daily, what he believed to be, health-giving ascent.\n\nMany of us knew that the Temple complex was no architectural masterpiece and was not fit to be graded by the Government Antiquities and Monuments Office let alone be designated as a monument. It had grown like ‘topsy' and, in parts, could even be described as 'grotty'. Yet it played an important part in the daily routine of many local, regular early morning walkers. Some Hong Kong European residents, when visitors came from overseas, the Temple was one of the places to which they would take them. There they could absorb local colour.\n\nHow long had the Temple been there? When I asked the temple folk I usually received evasive answers, such as, in Cantonese, 'Several tens-of-years.' Others said it was 30 years old. I know the latter was not true because I visited the Temple in the mid-1960s and it gave the impression, even then, of having been established for some long time. It is likely that this Temple complex developed, as did several others, from a small shrine. I have no proof of this.\n\nAlthough no Chinese members of the Temple community that I spoke to were in favour of a 'sanitised' country park the Government demolition team moved in at the end of November 1999. Work went on for several weeks. In addition to pulling down the Temple, craftsmen constructed a pavilion and a few useful shelters as well as a long, part stone, part crazy-paving concrete path up over the foothills. These are well constructed. The pack of 'wild dogs' consisting partly of escapes and partly releases, although some puppies had been born in the wild were rounded up by a Government dog-catching team. There was, however, trepidation among members of the unit. Some believed that, with reincarnation, the souls of some Japanese soldiers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215321, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "46\n\nmuddy plats, eventually reached the first \"gun-house,\" as the crumbling fort was known to the Chinese. Finally, the passengers reached the Custom House and on to whatever accommodation they had reserved or could find in this very primitive European backwater.\n\nChinese immigrants from Hainan, along with those from Fujian, Guangxi, and Guangdong, flocked down to the foreign colonies of south-east Asia. Though integrated into the greater Han Chinese population of Singapore and Penang, as well as within towns and cities in North Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, even today Hainanese have remained in one or two linguistic pockets, such as is to be found in the area of Rengam and Kluang in southern Malaysia.\n\nOnly a few of all the Chinese temples visited in South-east Asia have been categorically identified as exclusively founded by Hainanese immigrants. Others, predominantly Hokkien, have a Hainanese altar stuck away in one corner, erected by the few local Hainanese, though two temples stood out, both in southern Malaysia, in which the images of the deities were predominantly uniquely Hainanese, though the temple custodians, the devotees, and the other images were all Hokkien. The picture gained from Hainanese staff and devotees in temples containing uniquely Hainanese images revealed the following minimum of temples being predominantly, if not entirely, Hainanese - six in Singapore, two in Penang, one in Kuala Lumpur, one in Seremban, and two in or near Kluang in southern Malaysia; on Sumatra, one in Medan and two in Palembang; on Java, one in Jakarta, one in Cirebon, and one in Semarang. There are several in Ha Tien in southern Cambodia and others scattered across southern Thailand. The strangest of all was the lone, small Hainanese temple on Bali.\n\nHainanese temple altars bear the usual accoutrements and have the same layout as altars in other Chinese communities, though, to generalise, with less clutter, particularly on altars in Hainanese Huiguan [community club houses]. Major China-wide deities, such as Guan Yin, Guan Gong, Hua Guang, City Gods, Earth Gods, and the Wealth Gods, are the same as in every Chinese community. There are also a number of predominantly Cantonese, Chaozhou, and even Minnan deities in many of the Hainanese temples both in Hainan and in South-east Asia, adopted from other immigrant ethnic groups, including Jinhua Niangniang, Caibo Xingjun, Fazhu Gong, Qi Tian Da Sheng, Longwei.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215514, "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": 291, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "241\n\nA REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT OF CEMETERIES IN HONG KONG: 1841-1950\n\nKO TIM-KEUNG\n\nHong Kong had been claimed for the British Crown even before the First Opium War (1839-42) was formally brought to an end. A naval party under Sir Gordon Bremer landed on the island on 26th January 1841. A form of government was organized and a chief magistrate and a harbour-master appointed, and in June the first land sale took place to create the impression of permanency. The port was declared a free port, and merchants, both foreign and Chinese, were encouraged to settle and trade there. However, little significant building followed, the main deterrent being the island's insalubrity and a high death rate from 'Hong Kong Fever.' Hong Kong, quite unexpectedly, became the last resting place of many of these early settlers and troops.\n\nThe Burial Ground in Wan Chai\n\nThe first years in Hong Kong had a distressing aspect for the British, particularly its army, because of disease. The setting up of the first barrack areas along the north coast of the island led to severe epidemics of fever among the troops. 183 of them had died in 1841. Consequently, a burial ground for the dead was urgently needed. A notice was proclaimed in August 1841:\n\nA piece of land to the eastward of Cantonment Hill having been allocated by Government as the ground for the burial of the dead of Europeans and others, Notice is hereby given that persons burying their dead in any other unauthorised place will be treated as trespassers.\n\nJno. F. Mylius, Land Officer, Hong Kong 30th August 1841.\n\nA 19th-century publication also records: \"Deaths now [1841] became frequent occurrences also among the European community; hospitals had to be hastily constructed, and the first cemetery (near the present St. Francis' Chapel, above Queen's Road East) began to fill...\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215529, "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": 306, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "256\n\nIn 1930, Ho Man Tin saw another addition to its list of cemeteries for 'a Roman Catholic Cemetery, to be known as 'Kowloon Inland Lot No. 2148,' the piece of land containing about 14 acres, situated at Ho Mun Tin in Kowloon,' was authorized.'\n\nIn 1930, the 'Kowloon Cemeteries' in Ho Man Tin, authorized in 1921, were split into three separate ones and were renamed, together with Sai Yu Shek Cemetery:\n\n135\n\n(A) To be known as Kowloon Cemetery No.1, the piece of land containing about 11 acres situated at Ho Man Tin (KAM) in Kowloon in the Colony of Hong Kong and to be used as a European Protestant cemetery.\n\n136\n\n(B) To be known as Kowloon Cemetery No.2, a piece of land containing about 112.30 acres situated at Ho Mun Tin in Kowloon in the Colony of Hong Kong and to be used as a Chinese cemetery.\n\n137\n\n(C) To be known as Kowloon Cemetery No.3, the piece of land containing about 5.5 acres situated at Ho Man Tin in Kowloon in the Colony of Hong Kong and to be used as a Mohammedan cemetery.\n\n138\n\n(D) To be known as New Kowloon Cemetery No.4, the piece of land containing about 17 acres situated at Sai Yu Shek in the New Territories in the Colony of Hong Kong and to be used as a Chinese cemetery.\n\n139\n\n'New Kowloon Cemetery No.5' was authorized in 1931, which was 'to be used as an urn cemetery for the Tung Wah Hospital only. The piece of land containing about 1 1/2 acres situated at Diamond Hill in New Kowloon.'\n\n140\n\nIn the same year, a Christian cemetery was approved near Fan Ling, the first and still the only Christian cemetery authorized in that part of the New Territories. The cemetery symbolically rooted the community to the place and was a great source of pride and security among the converts there. The cemetery was described as:\n\n141\n\nA Cemetery for Chinese Christians of an area, containing about 26,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215576, "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": 353, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "303\n\ngenerals and an admiral, he must have had a very patriotic, British father.\n\nAs a British subject, Charlie Stilwell was interned in Stanley prison camp during the Second World War. A great story-teller he liked to recount how a police superintendent escaped. In reprisal, the entire police contingent at Stanley was incarcerated in Stanley Prison proper. Some had brought musical instruments from the police band into camp. As they were marched away to prison, Thirlwell recounted, the musicians struck up the well known, stirring march, Colonel Bogey, and everyone in camp joined in singing: 'And the same to you!' As a result, the Japanese felt they were losing control of the situation and fired their revolvers into the air (Sinclair; 1997, 32).\n\nAfter the war, besides working as a lighthouse keeper, Thirlwell led an active life when on shore leave. This included community service. Thirlwell had close connections with the Chaiwan fisher folk and boat people and his wife, in fact, was one of them.\n\n'He was a nice, cheerful man,' Dr James Hayes recalled, ‘and yes, he sang very well...' (Hayes; 1999).\n\nHe not infrequently sang stylised, Cantonese opera, with correct tones. He even sang lusty, boat-people songs which were beyond the capabilities of most native Cantonese. This surprised many who did not know his background. Charlie's appearance was much like a European. In reality, he was a Hong Kong born and bred Eurasian and he started learning Cantonese at his mother's breast. Perhaps surprisingly, he spoke English with a bit of a North Country English accent.\n\nHKBRAS member Louis Thomas agreed with Hayes: 'Yes, he was a jolly man, humorous, and one of those people who seemed to know everyone. He was well thought of. He enjoyed a glass of beer.'\n\nThomas said that at one stage his Round Table in Wanchai linked up with a boat people association at Chaiwan to provide assistance. Thirlwell was one of their leading members. He did a great deal of much needed community service.\n\nDeservedly, for his work as a loyal lighthouse keeper (and later in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215577, "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": 354, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "304\n\ncharge of the government gunpowder depot), coupled with community service, Thirlwell was awarded an MBE in 1971 by Her Majesty the Queen. Towards the end of his government service he was awarded a merit trip to England. But, Louis Thomas recalled, after about five days he requested permission to return to Hong Kong. We are talking of a Hong Kong before the MTR and the like and Thirlwell was having difficulty in adjusting. Britain was quite different then to Hong Kong and especially to being stationed out at Waglan.\n\nBut although lighthouse keepers during most of British colonial times by tradition were mainly Hong Kong Eurasians, in November 1956 three Chinese joined the lighthouse service as keepers at Waglan. In the run up to automation and as localisation took effect, by the 1980s all such posts were filled by Chinese. How does Lai Tak-wah, who still serves in the Marine Department, who had been at sea as a radio operator before joining the civil service, look back on his ten years spent at Waglan?\n\n146\n\n'It was all right for someone who enjoyed a peaceful existence. But separated from one's family out at Waglan, life was boring,' Lai told the author.\n\n'A week at a stretch was too long.'\n\nHow would he have felt pre-World War Two, when keepers did a one-month tour of duty in one stretch, one wonders? But he said that for three to four years of his time spent on Waglan he studied for his City and Guilds of London Institute telecommunications examinations.47\n\nThese sentiments, regarding boredom, were echoed by Lai Kwok-keung, another Chinese employed at Waglan. On being interviewed by a reporter when the island's lighthouse was changing over to automation, he said, as he lowered the Union Jack for the last time: 'I'm not sad to leave' (Hong Kong Standard; 1989).\n\nSuperintendent of Aids to Navigation Tam Cheong-wai (now retired), a Chinese (previously this post, as mentioned before, was held by a European and later by a Eurasian), who spent one week's induction training at Waglan when he first joined the Marine Department, agreed. 'It was boring,' he said. Not everyone shared his views. There are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215770, "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": 69, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Turnbull, an established historian, equivocally suggests that the transfer was based on an inaccurate and unbalanced feedback of the community's feelings:\n\nNo dissenting voice was raised in London and Calcutta, and the colonial office naturally had the impression that the demand for transfer was based on general dissatisfaction with rule from India, with the entire merchant body clamouring for change. In fact, it had required years of agitation on the part of Read, Woods and a small minority of enthusiasts in Singapore to arouse interest in the transfer, and apart from the brief period of panic in 1857 in when the petition was framed, the majority even of European merchants in Singapore were not actively in favour of the change, while the Asian merchants showed almost no interest in the movement.2\n\nIn spite of these conflicting points, I hold that the transfer was needed as the problems raised in the Straits merchants' petition were material and bona fide enough to necessitate the transfer of the administration from Calcutta to London. However, my essay attempts a revisionist's approach to the transfer controversy, questioning its necessity and examining its legal significance through an orchestration of the pot-pourri of relevant issues, in the hope that this methodology may help to provide a clearer awareness and legal understanding into this much taken for granted transfer, thus according it the new angle of attention it deserves.\n\nBackground history of the Straits Settlements3\n\nSingapore, Malacca and Penang were combined to form the Straits Settlements in 1826. The Straits Settlements became the fourth presidency of India, and remained an Indian dependency until 1867. The EIC obtained possession of Penang in 1786, as a base to protect the company's expanding China trade and a centre for the collection of Straits produce from the Malay peninsula and the eastern archipelago for shipment to China. When Singapore was founded in 1819, it was placed under the administration of Bencoolen (in Sumatra) where Raffles was lieutenant-governor. When he resigned and returned to England in 1823, Singapore was placed under the control of the Supreme Government of India. Singapore was ceded to the EIC in 1824 and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215772, "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": 71, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "In Calcutta's eyes, the main duties of the governor of the Straits Settlements were to 'balance his budget and to insulate the settlements from complications in the hinterland.' This policy, as Turnbull puts it, was doomed to fail;15 instead it provided the background causes for the agitation of the European merchant community for the transfer of the Straits Settlements from the India Office to the Colonial Office in London.\n\nFor example, as the settlements prospered, the European merchants demanded more expensive and sophisticated administration, an efficient judicial system, defence, and security for their property and trade.1 However, due to Raffles' free trade policy, which was extended to all three settlements, and the failure of land and agriculture, there was insufficient revenue to fund these demands.\n\nThe activities of ambitious pioneers, mainly Chinese migrant workers, who were 'lured by the wealth of the interior [of the Malay states],' made it impossible for the Straits government to cut the settlements off from the affairs of the Malay states. Calcutta maintained its policy of non-intervention to the end, but in practice, every would-be final settlement the government of India authorized merely provided the basis for further involvement.18\n\nThe petition of 1857, wherein the grievances of the Straits merchants were cited\n\nIn 1857, the Straits merchants sent a petition to the House of Commons,19 explaining their grievances with regard to the administration of the Straits Settlements under the EIC, and requesting a transfer of control (by means of an Act of Parliament) from the EIC to the Colonial Office. However, some of the issues raised to the House of Commons appear to be questionable (that is, not all the issues were as serious as they were made out to be). This calls for an examination of the validity of these hazy 'problems,'20 in order to assess the necessity of the transfer.\n\nIn the process, I will also highlight the way in which constitutional and legal changes were introduced in the Straits Settlements. Legal changes emerged in response to the demands of the Straits society; that is, such changes were governed by a variety of factors. Hence, I will", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215797, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "29\n\nSeton, Sir Malcolm, 1926, The India Office, G P Putnam's Sons, London and New York\n\nStrang, Lord, 1961, Britain In World Affairs, Faber and Deutsch, London\n\nSwettenham, F, 1948, British Malaya - An Account of the Origins and Progress of British Influence in Malaya, Allen and Unwin\n\nTan, Ding Eng, 1986, A Portrait of Malaysia and Singapore, Oxford University Press\n\nTarling, N, 1962, Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in the Malay World, 1760-1824, Cambridge\n\nThio, Eunice, 1969, British Policy In the Malay Peninsula 1880-1910, Vol 1, University of Malaya Press\n\nThio, Eunice, 1960, 'The Singapore Chinese Protectorate: Events and Conditions Leading to its Establishment, 1823-77', Journal of the South Seas Society, xvi, 40-80\n\nTregonning, K G, (1964) 1972, A History of Modern Malaysia and Singapore, Eastern Universities Press Sdn Bhd, Singapore\n\nTripathi, Amales, 1956, Trade and Finance in the Bengal Presidency 1793-1833, Calcutta\n\nTurnbull, C M, 1960, 'Bibliography of Writings in English on British Malaya, 1786-1867', JMBRAS, xxxiii, no 3 327-424\n\nTurnbull, C M, 1958, 'Communal Disturbances in the Straits Settlements in 1857', JMBRAS, xxxi, no 1, 96-146\n\nTurnbull, C M, 1970, 'Convicts in the Straits Settlements, 1826-67', JMBRAS, xliii, no 1\n\nTurnbull, C M, 1969, 'The European Mercantile Community in Singapore, 1819-67', Journal of Southeast Asian History, x, no 1, 12-35\n\nTurnbull, C M, 1957, 'Governor Blundell and Sir Benson Maxwell; a Conflict of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]