[ { "id": 205006, "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-1965", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n105\n\nthe execution of their writing. This is a factor that also affects the quality of the article, and it seems that the editor has little room for making his choice. Possibly for the same reason, the statistical unit is inconsistent; even within the same article one can find both the metric and the English systems. The application of some current terms also shows a lack of unity. For example, \"undeveloped land\" and \"marginal land\" are quite different things in land use, yet in this book they are used interchangeably in certain places. The assumption that eighty per cent of the land of Hong Kong is undeveloped might very possibly mislead the reader. Again, the first line on page 50 runs: \"At the end of 1947 the estimated population of Hong Kong was 1,800,000\", yet the fourteenth line from the bottom of page 55 says: \"In post-war years the population of the Colony rose from less than 600,000 in 1947 to nearly 3,000,000 in 1961\".\n\nPart II is composed of twelve articles dealing with mineral deposits, and of these, seven are related to Hong Kong, with Professor Davis being the author of five and a half of these. I believe that Professor Davis is the unchallengeable authority on things underground in Hong Kong. I am still a new arrival here, unfamiliar even with things on the surface of the ground in Hong Kong. It is therefore inappropriate for me to make any academic comment in this respect.\n\nThe first article in this Part, \"Mining in Hong Kong\", serves as a general introduction to the mining industry in Hong Kong. It is followed by two striking articles: \"Some Economic Aspects of Mining Processing\" and \"Tectonics and Ore Deposits\". Then, tungsten, lead, and iron are treated in turn. The last paper is \"Dissolved-in-water Type of Methane Gas Resources of Japan\" by Dr. Kaneko, the former director of the Geological Survey of Japan. I admit that this article is rich in reference value, yet considering the title of the book, it seems to have overstepped the area under particular treatment by the book.\n\nMaps are the most favored tools employed in modern geography. They can tell what words fail to say. To the author and especially to the editor, however, they are a great burden. There are forty-two maps in this book, mostly simple indicating maps. Some do not seem to have been properly designed, and some are reduced to such a degree as to present a blurred view.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205377, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "132\n\nREV. MR. KRONE\n\nTo the left of the temple of Confucius, is the temple of “Kwan-kung”關公—the God of War; and on the right another one dedicated to \"Man-tai\", the God of Literature. Behind the latter is the hall Ning-lun, in which the public examinations are held. The literati and elders meet here on special occasions. In the vicinity of these edifices is the temple of “Sha-nung”神農—the God of Agriculture; and before it extends a piece of ground, on which the chief magistrate has to plough a few furrows at the beginning of spring, in accordance with an ancient custom. Near the sea-shore is a large space of ground, which serves for drilling the military, and on which the military examinations are also held. On it also a hall is erected for the accommodation of the officers.\n\nNot far from this place is a Buddhist temple, which contains images of the three Buddhas, and of the eighteen Lo-hou, which are Buddhist demi-gods. In front of the three Buddhas is a tablet, before which the devotees worship the reigning dynasty. On this tablet is the inscription \"Ten Thousand years!\" Farther above this is another tablet with the characters \"Protect my black-haired people.\" The chief magistrate is obliged to repair here once a month, and to prostrate himself before these tablets.\n\nOther edifices worthy of notice are, a five-storied pagoda, a temple to the well-deserving mandarins Wong and Lau, and an altar to the Gods of Land and Grain. Outside the town is the execution ground, and here, in 1854, many rebels were decapitated, and there might be seen at times the heads hung up in baskets as a warning to the people.\n\nThe fort and city of Kowloong are sufficiently known, and there is but little to say of them. The low walls and miserable forts have often been visited by foreigners. The environs of Kowloong contain some curious mementoes of history, of which the rest of the district is destitute. Ping-tai, the last of the Southern Emperors of the Sung dynasty, fled with the remnant of his faithful adherents to the province of Canton. Near Kowloong he attempted to build himself a palace, which however he was unable to complete, and the situation is now marked by a temple to \"Pak-tai”北帝—the God of the North. One of his high officers died here, and his tomb is situated on a hill, which is called to this day Sung-wang-tai. These three characters are engraved on\n\n+", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206481, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "Scarth3 \n\nNINETEENTH CENTURY WATER-COLOURS OF CANTON \n\nT \n\n- \n\n23 \n\nan excellent artist by the way (who) told me he once saw 150 people beheaded on the execution ground at Canton”.4 The Bishop of Victoria, the Rev. George Smith has almost the right initials, but neither he nor Scarth were on the Adelaide. None of the artists in the Catalogue of the Chater Collection has the initials G.A.S. \n\nAmong the passengers arriving on the Adelaide, the \"Friend of China\" of December 2nd notes the twenty officers by name, among them Lieutenants Schomberg and Short. \"The Hongkong Shipping List\" of the same date, refers to Major Schomberg, R.A., and Lieut. Short. The artist of the paintings must have been subsequently sent from Hong Kong up the Pearl River to the Bogue before December 16th, to join the troops which had arrived earlier on the Imperador and Imperatrix who had been sent on to the Bogue immediately after their arrival. Indeed the Adelaide, with her troops on board, moved up the river from Hong Kong on December 2nd. The artist presumably was present at the capture of Canton on 29th December, and at any rate was in the city in February 1858. He took part in what he calls the \"Jingal pic-nic\" on the 20th of that month. \n\nThis curious inscription (a jingal being a sort of portable Chinese field-gun hardly conducive to a picnic atmosphere) is explained further, and at some length in Col Fisher's Three Years' Service in China, Col. Fisher relates: \"On the 20th February a pic-nic party went out to see a little of the country and of the people; and as we did not know what sort of reception we should meet with, we made rather a strong muster. There were nine officers and twenty-four men, with a couple of ponies to carry the luncheon. We started before seven o'clock, going out through the north-east gate of the city. \n\n+ \n\n\"After walking for about three hours, we rested in a very pretty spot under some fine trees, and one of the party shot a woodcock, which was hailed as a great event; and we determined to devote some little attention to so good a cause. We did not wish to return by the same road by which we had come out. The valley in which we were, we knew to be divided from the great north plain, by the White Cloud Mountains, a range familiar to our eyes from Canton. We hoped to reach that plain by some pass through the hills, and so return to Canton by way of the North Gate.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206869, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "140 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n“LING CH’IH” AT CANTON, 27th MAY, 1886. \n\nThe following account of a visit to the execution ground at Canton is taken from a type-script copy belonging to two of our Members, through whose courtesy it is reproduced here. \n\nThe visit was made from Hong Kong by a party of 6 as yet un-identified persons, referred to in part and only by the initials of their surnames, \n\nFor \"Ling Ch'ih\" (J) see Giles' Dictionary (1912 edition) under characters No. 7228 and 1986. Under No. 7228 he comments on 'the ignominious or so-called “lingering death\" which properly consists of dismemberment by twenty-four cuts before the coup de grâce, but is practically confined to a few slashes followed quickly by decapitation'. Under No. 1986 he states that 'strictly speaking [it] should consist in mutilation of the limbs before giving the coup de grâce'. Ed. \n\nWe left the \"Vigilant\" at 7 a.m.—there being six of us in the party. We found on landing Ah Cum, the guide, waiting for us with the necessary chairs and coolies which we had previously ordered. After calling at Jardine's Hong for A. and C.* we went on over the Bridge and through the City until we reached the Execution Ground at about 7.45. Very few people had assembled when we arrived, and there was nothing to show that anything unusual was expected to take place. We soon, however, had a considerable crowd round us, and on the guide making enquiries we heard that for certain there would be two executions to-day but at what time was not known—probably some time in the forenoon. As the crowd began to get oppressive we tried to get away from it and eventually found refuge in a \"Tea-house\" where we went upstairs to a large room having in it a number of small tables at which Chinese of different classes, from the coolie upwards, were drinking tea and eating sweets, to whom our advent caused some amusement. We ordered some tea for the good of the house but I don't think many of us drank it. I tried it and found it bitterly nasty. \n\nWe waited wearily at this Tea House trying to pass away the time by pestering the guide with questions that he could not answer \n\nnot identified.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206870, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n141 \n\nabout the execution: he did not seem to like talking about it and at last in order to avoid any more he made some excuse to us and went down stairs and waited there. \n\nAt about 9.30 a.m., C. got tired of waiting and left for Shameen, and about the same time A. and W.† started off on a voyage of discovery intending to come back and report how matters were looking. \n\nSoon after we saw them on the roof of a house which overlooked the Execution Ground. This we thought would be a much better place than the ground itself, to see the affair from, giving us, as it would, a chance of not being obliged to look if we did not feel inclined to do so. We were none of us, I fancy, very sure how we would stand the sight, especially after the guide had told us that he did not intend to go on to the ground with us but only to show us in and then leave us until it was all over. We therefore started off and joined A. and W., and right glad we were afterwards that we had done so. The owner of the house—a rice-pounding shop—received us civilly and sent some stools on to the roof for us to sit on.\n\nThe Execution ground is merely a \"blind\" alley about 10 or 12 yards wide and 70 or 80 yards long, having a dead wall on one side and some \"shanties\" on the other, these being the workshops of pottery makers who use the alley for drying their ware. Yesterday when we were here the ground was covered with clay pots being sun-dried but now, in one spot, these had been cleared away and two rudely constructed crosses 5 or 6 feet high had been erected quite close to each other. One end of this alley is crossed by a street but the passage can be blocked on either side by gates. The rice shop on the roof of which we were stationed was at one corner of this wall, so that we looked down on one gateway and across the alley at the other one. When we got on to the roof we found about 200 people assembled in the ground, this number comprising many children—there were also a few people on the neighbouring house tops. In answer to our rather importunate enquiries we were now told that \"it\" would soon take place, that all was ready, and only waiting for the final orders to be given by the Viceroy.\n\nSoon after 10 o'clock there was some confusion at the nearest gateway and then 3 or 4 Mandarins with about a dozen soldiers arrived. The crowd at the same time tried to rush in, but they were\n\n† not identified.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207157, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "222\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n2. the tunnels and execution ground used by the Japanese military authorities during the Occupation 1941-1945.\n\n3. the small exhibition of photographs to be shown in the staff room. (from the School and from the Anglican Bishop's House in Hong Kong)\n\n4. the very long history of this multi-racial major educational institution of Hong Kong.\n\nLa Salle\n\n1. the excellent all-round vistas formerly enjoyed from the school site before the extensive redevelopment of the past 15 years. They included a view straight down the Lye-mun passage and the main runway at Kai Tak.\n\n2. the high quality of the Chapel and its fittings, particularly the furniture.\n\n3. the excellent record of the Salesian Brothers in local educational work since 1875.\n\nFor Both\n\n1. The buildings were designed as schools, and by the same firm of architects (Messrs Little, Adams and Wood, Hong Kong).\n\n2. the faith and vision of the founders who placed the schools in their present locations in the 1920s at a time when (as Carl Smith's note shows) this part of Kowloon was wholly rural and undeveloped.\n\nDiocesan Boys' School, La Salle College and their Neighbourhood - Carl T. Smith\n\nThe Diocesan Boys' School (D.B.S.) is situated south of Boundary Street and west of Waterloo Road. La Salle College is north of Boundary Street and east of Waterloo Road. Thus, D.B.S. is in Old Kowloon and La Salle College in New Kowloon. Both schools are built on hills. The D.B.S. site was behind the old Mongkok village. The La Salle site adjoined the paddy fields of Kowloon Tsai Village which was situated to the north-east of the present College. Somewhat more distant to the two schools was the Chinese village of Kowloon Tong facing south-west at the foot of the hills upon which the present Yau Yat Tsuen is located. The site of the village is now the Police Recreation Ground on Boundary Street.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207349, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY\n\n109\n\nin the main it is a limited number of English words used more or less according to Chinese idiom, and also mispronounced. The fewest possible number of English words is used.35 The widespread use of this lingua franca prevented Chinese and Europeans from even remotely grasping the subtleties of each other's culture.\n\nThe amount of social contact, outside work and the market place, between Europeans and Chinese must not be exaggerated, for both groups enjoyed a healthy contempt for, and misunderstanding of, the other. W.A.P. Martin, at that time a Presbyterian missionary, relates that when he stepped ashore at Canton in 1850 he was greeted by a hooting mob 'who shouted Fanqui, fanqui! Shato, shato! (\"Foreign devils! cut off their heads.\")'36 L.C. Arlington, of the Chinese Maritime Customs, claims that, even in 1891, when a foreigner passed in his chair from Shameen (the foreign concession quarter in Canton) through the native city the coolies would shout out 'Take him to the execution ground'. No foreigner, he continues, be he white, Indian or Japanese, could escape the contemptuous term ‘foreign devil'. 'It was shouted at you from the tops of houses, from alleyways, and from courtyards.'37\n\nDespite the language barrier, a working class European did not find it too difficult to establish a liaison with a Chinese woman. In the early days, such women were found usually among the Tanka boat population, a pariah group that populated the fringes of the Pearl River delta region. A few of these women achieved the status of 'protected' woman (a kept mistress) and were, sometimes, well provided for by their paramour, such as a ship's captain. In time, a considerable number of police, overseers, tidewaiters and others, entered into alliances, even marriages, with local women, since, of course, there was always a scarcity of marriageable young European women in Hong Kong.* But mixed marriages were condemned by Taipans; the partners were ostracised by polite European society since a mixed marriage clearly stigmatised a European as an outcaste. Such racial attitudes became more rigid toward the end of the century.\n\nAlthough some Europeans lived with or even married Chinese women, it does not follow that such social arrangements provided\n\nSee Carl T. Smith's interesting article on one of these Tanka Women in Chung Chi Bulletin, No. 46, June 1969, 13-17 and 27.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212671, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "206\n\nChina 1890-1938, From the Warlords to World War, A History in Documentary Photographs by Eric Baschef, with an Introduction by Han Suyin (Swan productions AG. Zug/Schweiz, October 1989). The publication details are not on the title page but in the rear of the volume.\n\nHistorical photographs of China have a perennial fascination for those many persons the world over who share an interest and affection for the country and its people. China 1890-1938 is as good a collection as any that have appeared to date. The publishers' dust-cover claim that these are \"striking, often haunting, photographs portraying the full range of the great empire\" is valid enough. Many are familiar, others less so; but much instruction and enjoyment may be had from perusing them all.\n\nNonetheless, the book itself is rather unsatisfactory. The texts of the titling are not always carefully worded or in some cases accurate, and the translations from the original German or French (the map inside the front cover is in French) sometimes show up clumsily. I imagine that many readers will be able to spot inaccurate captions and attributions for themselves. For me, there is a classic at page 92, where the bottom left photograph has nothing to do with the execution of “Boxers” in Peking but is a well-known record of the execution of pirates on the beach at Kowloon City by the Chinese authorities in 1891: though I have seen this variously described elsewhere, too. And on page 192, a wag is surely having us on! Six heads in wooden cages suspended below a sign in English and Chinese bearing the caption \"Speed Limit 15 Miles per Hour\" are described as follows: \"Anarchy reigns. Speeding motorists are beheaded\". I hope not! On P. 205, top, a photograph of a post office is the wrong way around.\n\nThe chapter summaries are far too short, almost as though the layout had determined what space was available for the scanty text throughout the book. Also, the one covering the 62 pages on “Immortal China” (pp. 12-73), a fascinating section, is placed at its end, instead of at the beginning where it would be more useful. In fact, this treatment is continued throughout the book, with the same results.\n\nHan Suyin's five-page Introduction is somewhat one-sided in its approach and treatment, as one might expect. It also provides another, revealing, instance of the way in which this book has been compiled. Whereas she covers the years 1900 to 1937, the book's title deals with the period 1890 to 1938, showing the compiler's failure to marry up\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213893, "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": 245, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "219\n\nthe second was the Zhejiang clique under Jiang Jieshi. With Soviet aid and with Jiang Jieshi, Sun decided to embark on two important programs, the establishment of a central bank, and the setting up of a military academy in Huangpu.\n\nAt this point, things came full circle. The merchants, threatened by what they believed to be a “red invasion” in Guangdong, tried to organize a heavy-armed merchant corps to fight against Sun. This is a story in itself; it will have to await another article.\n\nSuffice it to state here that it was in 1924, through the Compradore of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, that a large quantity of arms for the Merchants' Corps, a sort of militia equipped and hired by merchants for self-defence, were delivered. By late 1923, these troops numbered around 20,000, and their armaments included “4,850 rifles and 1,150,000 rounds of ammunition, 433 automatic pistols fitted with stock, and 2,060,000 rounds, 660 revolvers, large and small, with 164,200 rounds, and 40 machine guns with a huge quantity of ammunition.” These armaments, however, were confiscated by Sun on their arrival. The dispute led to a military confrontation between the Huangpu cadets and the merchant's corps at the West Gate of Canton. Almost all available forces under Sun participated in a military confrontation against the merchant corps. The attack began at 5:30 p.m. on October 14th. The Merchants' Corps had barricaded itself in the densely populated commercial section. Corpsmen fired down upon the invading corps from the strong towers which pawn shops used for storing valuables. But before the fighting really started, many parts in the West Gate were simultaneously on fire. By nightfall, much of the commercial section was in flames. The corps retreated to the roof floor of such Hong Kong-registered companies as the Sincere and Tai Sun Department Stores. Twenty-four hours later, the corpsmen were forced to surrender. They were disarmed, and then leaders fled to Hong Kong. Troops looted freely until the next day, when the government threatened looters with immediate execution. Property losses due to the fires were huge, around 600 to 1,000 buildings were burned and many others looted. With the confiscated arms, the Huangpu cadets moved northward for their national unification.\n\nFollowing this, there were several interesting developments.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213974, "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "8\n\nover on to Hong Kong's streets. It may be remembered that at this time the population was 3.85 millions, and was expected to reach 7 millions by 1986.\n\nThe report opened with an assurance that examination of local government varieties elsewhere had produced no models to which Hong Kong might be expected closely to conform, but expressed an awareness that there was a local ignorance of the principles and practice of local administration, in any form. This they defined as embracing those services and that responsibility which met the needs of individual localities, as opposed to the population as a whole. They also differentiated between the formulation of policy on the one hand, 'national' responsibilities and services best undertaken on a colony-wide basis, and control and execution, where localised interests had special importance, on the other. They particularly emphasised the need for willing delegation by the existing Colonial Secretariat and Departments, and the subsequent treatment of delegates as full partners in joint ideals and purposes. This could not, they all knew, be taken for granted.\n\nAfter a tour d'horizon of centralised and decentralised forms of government around the world, including the CPR's party pyramid, and an examination of Hong Kong's statutory and traditional institutions, the report pointed to the disparities the working party had found in the latter; but also to the irrelevance of many of these to the New Towns which were just beginning to raise their skylines. It also quoted with modified respect some colourful extracts from the records of Mencius, Confucius and Moh Tze on the poetically ideal Chinese view of the relationship between government and people, which had been submitted by a future Chief Secretary who was serving as a DO in the NT; but it recognised that the world had changed since the time of the Classics, that the dominance of the English language presented problems, and that corruption was fertilised by inefficiency and distrust. The report concluded that, if the support of local residents was assured ('it is men, not buildings, which make a city'—persons of goodwill, common-sense and public spirit), a new system must achieve:\n\n(a) the provision of the greatest possible amount of popular participation;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 } ]