[ { "id": 206074, "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": 154, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n149\n\nalso wear headdresses and tails to resemble dogs and they have a legend about their descent from a dog. This legend, as reproduced in the later Han history, is as follows. An emperor who wished to subjugate a certain chieftain offered his youngest daughter in marriage to anyone who would bring him his head. After this proclamation one of his pet dogs brought a man's head and laid it in front of the throne. It proved to be the head of the enemy. The princess then insisted that she should be married to the dog and the Emperor was forced to comply. The princess was taken by the dog to a stone fortress in a mountain in Hunan. There she changed her mode of living, discarded her Chinese clothes and wore a strange head-dress. She bore six children. They made bark clothes which they dyed with various grass juices. They cut them with a tail behind. They lived in the mountains. Their descendants multiplied and are known as the Man I\n\nMan and I are Chinese terms for barbarians. Man, as we have seen, is applied locally to the Hoklo, but it can represent a barbarian of South China in general. It generally represents Tibetan or western barbarians. When Chao T'o, one of the chiefs of the Canton estuary, made himself independent in the Han dynasty, he called himself \"King of the Man and I\". Since the Yao have the same dog myth as the Man I, there is a likelihood that this people were partly composed of Yao and partly of Indonesian stock.\n\nIt is only possible to take such broad distinctions as the Chinese historians allow. There were in ancient South China two types. One the \"dragon myth\" peoples, primarily in Fukien, using boats with eyes painted on the bows, and designated by many names Min Man Tan and so on with the radical for serpent or dragon. The other a mountain people with a \"dog myth\" stretched from the confines of Tibet to South China and included the Yao. The former may be of Indonesian and the latter of Tibetan stock.\n\nOne problem must still be mentioned. The presence of a very early Negrito population in South China is suspected. Negrito dwarfs are still found in Cochin China, the Malay States, the Philippine Islands, and Formosa and in the history of the Liang dynasty occurs the following text:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206098, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n173\n\nthe Chinese took place. Where was the island which the Portuguese called Ilha da Veniaga or \"island of trade\" and which was the centre of the foreign trading community? It has been very plausibly argued that it was at Ling Ting the Solitary Island in the estuary, but there is no local tradition or Chinese text confirming it. My own impression of the events is that the Portuguese built their fort in the neighbourhood of Castle Peak Bay and with their superior ships and artillery tried to dominate the foreign trade by controlling the entrance to the Canton estuary and by compelling the ships which put in at any of the natural harbours between Fat T'ong Mun, or at any rate K'ap Shui Mun and T'un Mun, to recognize their suzerainty.\n\nAnother text says: \"T'un Mun had long been the collecting place of foreign trading ships. In the reign of Ching Tê the Feringhis of the west under pretext of sending tribute infested our shores. Their actions were beastly and poisonous. They kidnapped children and ate them etc.\n\nThese two texts are from inscriptions on a temple to a famous civil officer named Wang Hung who organised the attack on the Portuguese fleet and fortress. He was remembered with such gratitude by the local people he protected that he has received minor canonisation and is worshipped in our region. After describing the outrages of the Portuguese the inscription goes on: “All this came to the ears of Wang Hung who was enraged. He raised an army which he commanded personally, risking his life and exerting himself to the utmost. His efforts in conceiving the winning strategy in recruiting local craft and in teaching them to fight were crowned with success. He saw that the foreign boats were big and relied solely on their sails to move about. At that time the south wind was strong and he ordered the wrecks of some foreign ships to be filled with firewood and combustive oil and sent them on fire towards the Portuguese who were burnt or drowned. The people then attacked with a loud shout and gained the victory, totally exterminating their enemies.\" The Topography places the site of this final onslaught at Kau King Shan just above Castle Peak Bay.\n\nThe Portuguese present at this battle were in some eight or ten ships and included Jorge Alvares, the discoverer of T'un Mun,\n\n29 J. M. Braga in Tien Hsia of May 1939,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206359, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "160\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nBy 1940 this force had been considerably expanded to include four batteries of artillery and one anti-aircraft battery, seven machine gun or rifle companies, a mobile column consisting of two platoons of armoured cars and three of medium machine guns, a fortress signal company, corps signals and engineers, an Army Service Corps company and others. All these men were recruited as volunteers, although no doubt some of them felt that the pressure exerted upon them by events and by their fellow-men made it easier to fall in with the rest than stay away. At any rate, the Commandant was able to say in 1940 that \"the Corps is now as strong as it is ever likely to be\".21 The G.O.C., Lieutenant-General E. F. Norton clearly thought they were good in quality as well as in numbers, because in a message dated 30th October, 1940 he said that the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps was \"in an eminently satisfactory state of efficiency\".22\n\nThis was no doubt true despite rapid expansion, but only because, as the Year Books show, its leaders had long been aware of the growing danger from Japan in the east and Germany in the west. In his message for the Year Book of 1936 the then G.O.C. had made a particular point of urging on the drive for volunteers,23 and in the 1937 issue the Editorial emphasized that, however willing, young men were useless in an emergency without previous training.24 Of the drive for efficiency there can also be no doubt. The Commandant's annual report ended with the statement that the headquarters staff of the Corps \"had one object and interest..... to make the unit as efficient as possible to take its place beside the regular Army in the defence of the Colony.”25\n\nThe expansion of these last few pre-war years contains one feature of great significance: the inclusion of Hong Kong Chinese in the Corps in separate units. No. 4 (Chinese) Company was formed in October, 1937 \"with two platoons each of 30 machine gunners\"26 and No. 7 Company some time later. The Corps had been slow in this respect; although it is clear from the Com-\n\n21 Y.B., 1940, p. 7.\n\n22 Y.B., 1940, p. 4.\n\n23 Y.B., 1936, p. 6.\n\n24 Y.B., 1937, p. 3.\n\n25 Y.B., 1937, p. 7.\n\n26 Y.B., 1938, p. 47.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206596, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "138\n\nLINDA F. SULLIVAN\n\nAnother house in Kiangsu13 is almost a square and is of unusual appearance, perhaps because of its shape and especially the height of its southern wall. Unlike the last house which is built of earth walls and has a thatched roof, this house is made of brick. With the added strength of brick walls, the outer appearance becomes very much like a fortress. As one approaches, there is a shadow wall outside the main door which faces south. The southern end of the house is a very high wall which rises above the other walls of the house and shields the courtyard from the extremely hot and intense rays of the summer sun. After passing through the front door one enters the small courtyard which leads to a living space with two kitchens on either side which could be shared by two families. The two kitchens might also indicate that several generations live in the one house, in which case each generation would eat at different times and prepare their own food. The bedrooms are also located on either side of the living room. At the far side of the living room there is a small door which leads to the backyard where there is a vegetable garden. From a photograph, the house is nestled in the arms of a small hill, adding strength and fortune to the family.\n\nThe Ku family house in Shanghai14 is a free-standing three-sided courtyard house. The main part of the house has five bays. From the courtyard one enters a hall which combines as the living room and ancestral hall. On both sides of the hall there are clusters of three bedrooms which are entered through intermediary rooms. Perhaps these rooms are private spaces for each family or generation of a family to eat or gather for talk. From these private rooms one has access to the kitchens. The house is made of wood and is reinforced by bamboo poles. The main hall is high with an added upturned ridge at the apex of the roof. It appears that the kitchens also have this same type of roof while the corner buildings have a very plain and simple roof. The outer appearance is very light and simple and is a common sight in the southeastern parts of Kiangsu.\n\nMoving south from Kiangsu to Chekiang one leaves the Yangtze valley of waterways and rice paddies and goes into the mountainous, rugged land of the Chekiang mountains. Here the amount of arable land is scarce, and thus when the Chinese peasant builds his home he wants to use as little space as possible. Despite this constraint, there remains a strong desire to maintain a degree of privacy and to bring the world of nature within the walls of his home.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206598, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "140\n\nLINDA F. SULLIVAN\n\nand have traditionally been looked down upon by other groups. In the southern provinces, they have fought bitterly against the native Punti for ownership of land.17\n\nIn their building arts and plan arrangements, the Hakka houses or complexes have varied greatly from the homes of other Chinese. Their houses have a distinct character which in many ways reflects the hardy and fearless spirit of their inhabitants. Generally Hakka complexes are three or four storeys high with from ten to a hundred and twenty rooms. There are both horizontally and vertically rectangular storeyed houses with as many as three halls and two cross sections. It is the circular house, however, which is so markedly different from all other domestic architecture in China. Most of the houses built in this style were constructed during the Ch'ien Lung reign (1736-1796).18\n\nThe first example is a complex of rectangular houses.19 The complex is symmetrical on the right and left. One comes in from a gate on the southwest corner, turning so that upon entering the front courtyard one is heading toward the front door which faces south on the main axis.* After passing the front door there is a small gatehouse behind which there is a five-sided courtyard. After crossing the yard and climbing a few steps, one enters a large hall at the back of which there is a second courtyard. Further on there is a hall from which one has access to the ancestral hall which completes the main axis. Around the inside of the external wall are the kitchens and surrounding the central area are the animal sheds. On both sides of the central area there are stairs which lead to the upper floors. The second floor is for storage and the third and fourth are the living quarters. The windows are only on the top floor for which there may be many reasons. One is that the noise of the ground floor cannot penetrate the living quarters of the various families. Secondly it might be for protection and lookout purposes. It is known that the walls on both the left and right sides are thickened for defense. The appearance of this housing complex is very strong and stable and gives the impression of a fortress.\n\nThe circular type of Hakka house is shown in the next example.20 The plan of the complex is basically the same as the rectangular variety.† As one enters from the front door, one proceeds along a central axis from the gatehouse to the central courtyard which is\n\n* See also Fig. 2.\n\n† See also Fig. 3.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207057, "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": 128, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "122\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nthe settlement into a fortress to guard against marauders. This involved construction of a walled enclosure, built of stone, and the replacing of the existing wooden gateway by a stone structure on the advice of the writer of the clan record, then an old man. As the positioning of the wall and its main gate was of great importance, for geomantic reasons as well as military considerations, a message was sent to Shing Mun* to invite a man named Cheung Lam-to, presumably a noted geomancer and perhaps a distant relative, to advise on the siting and on auspicious days for carrying out the work. The record ends:\n\nWork began on the 13th day of the 8th moon of the 8th year of Chia Ch'ing, and the gate was fixed on the 16th day. All the village men and women co-operated in the work which took a month to complete.\n\nOther areas of the Delta suffered in these years. In 1789, the 54th year of the Ch'ien Lung reign, an official of Hsiang-shan, the district in which Macau is situated, led an expedition in person against a considerable pirate known as the \"wave-leveller\".1\n\nThe scourge continued in the Delta and riverine areas of Kwangtung for over twenty years, and reached its worst proportions in the years 1807-1810. An interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with a pirate fleet in 1809 was given by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman, who was captured by them. This fleet spent a long time on and near Lantau which probably suffered from their levies and depredations. One of these pirates, Cheung Po-tsai, is remembered today in the Hong Kong region, where local stories link many places with his activities.3 With the help of the Macau authorities whose squadron fought a sea battle off Lantau in January 1810, Cheung was blockaded in the shallow waters of the bay of Hsiang-shan and was induced to capitulate with over 270 junks, 16000 men, 5000 women, 7000 swords and jingals and 1200 guns.4\n\n1 Waley, 1956, p. 176.\n\n2 Neumann, pp. 97-125.\n\n3 Lo, 1963, pp. 106-118. See also the Ch'ao-lien of Hsin-hui gazetteer pp. 281-284 and Centenary History of Hong Kong, pp. 12-14. Cheung's memory lingers strongly in the region, though most attributions are unsubstantiated and many stories are probably apocryphal.\n\n4 Montalto de Jesus, pp. 231-248: he calls him Ĉam Pao Sai or Chang Pao.\n\n*In the Tsuen Wan sub-district of the New Territories. See Gazetteer, pp. 147-148.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207109, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "174 \n\nSUNG HOK-PANG \n\nused to help his grandfather in the fields, working like the farm labourers and he was much beloved in Kam Tin. In the 15th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1810 the coast of San On was repeatedly attacked by a large fleet of pirate ships, and the district magistrate asked for sanction from the throne to move the fortress then existing at Fat T'ong Moon near Lyemun to Kau Lung (Kowloon) city. This was granted, but money to do the work was scarce. The magistrate went to Tang in his difficulty: Tang said, \"The hill round Kau Lung are full of large stones. Why not explain to the local masons that they should work on such an important matter for their country, for low wages.\" The magistrate, knowing that Tang had a great gift of persuasion with the country people, begged him to undertake the task. Tang was successful, the stone masons agreed to do what he suggested and when the fort was finished Tang wrote four big characters Chan Hoi Kam Tong. Chan to guard, Hoi the sea, Kam the city was built by strong metal, T'ong hot water; i.e. the water in the city moat is like boiling water that no enemy would dare to cross. These characters were carved on a large stone tablet which was built in the wall of the fort; unfortunately it is no longer to be seen. The public dispensary outside the Kowloon city wall now occupies the original site.\n\nAnother useful public work that Tang Yin Yuen was responsible for, was the rebuilding of Man Kong Shue Yuen, the high grade school for San On district. This building was originally inside the West gate of the capital city of San On, and owing to the low-lying ground it was most unhealthy for the teachers and students. A desirable site was inside the South gate but objections were raised by a native of the town who declared the land to be his own property. Tang went to law on his own responsibility, and when the district magistrate declared himself unable to give judgment he took the case to a higher court. He won and the new building was completed in the 11th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1806. A new name was given to the school, Fung Kong Shue Yuen, and Tang carved yat ch'an pat yim, \"not soiled by a particle of dust” over the top of the main door. Before he died Tang wrote in his will that he hoped one day one of his descendants would teach in the school and help to train good citizens. This wish was granted in 1904 when his great grandson Tang Wai Man went to teach in the school where he stayed seven years.\n\nTang Ying Yuen helped to compile the \"History of San On,\" and his house is still to be \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207993, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "16\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT\n\nporcelain cup full, the size of an egg, of a distilled liquor made from rice. We ate also rice and sweetmeats, using spoons of gold shaped like our own. In the place where we passed the two nights, there were always burning two torches of white wax, placed on tall chandeliers of silver, and two oil lamps of four wicks each, while two men watched to look after them. Next morning we came on the same elephants to the sea-side, where, forthwith, there were ready for us two praus, in which we were re-conducted to the ships. The city is entirely built in the salt water, the king's house and those of some chieftains excepted. It contains 25,000 fires or families. The houses are all of wood, and stand on strong piles to keep them high from the ground. When the flood tides make, the women, in boats go through the city selling necessaries. In front of the king's palace there is a rampart constructed of large bricks, with barbacans in the manner of a fortress, on which are mounted fifty-six brass, and six iron cannon. During the two days we passed in the city many of them were discharged. That king is a Moro and his name Raja Siripada. He was forty years old and corpulent. No one serves him except women who are the daughters of chiefs. He never goes outside of his palace, unless when he goes hunting, and no one is allowed to talk with him except through the speaking-tube. He has scribes, called Xiricoles who wrote down his deeds on very thin tree bark.\n\nThus Pigafetta's description of Brunei.\n\nII\n\nThe nature of the traditional kingdom in the Malay world differs markedly from the western conception of state. In very general terms it consisted of a ruler and his followers whose kampong or court was at a relatively strategic location such as on a narrow strait, (e.g. Malacca), at the mouth of a large river, or at the confluence of two streams where his forces could collect tolls on water traffic and his city could act as a trading center or entrepot. From his court the sultan's power radiated outward along the coasts, up rivers and along waterways as far as both his revenue collectors could operate, and his ecclesiastical title as sultan was respected. His kingdom or “empire” had no bounds as such. He \"owned\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209124, "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": 27, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "FOLK MEDICINE IN BORNEO DIAGNOSIS AND CURE\n\n13\n\nEffectively a man is concerned only with this world and its inhabitants, and under the adat the relations between men and other beings are subject to careful regulation. Every being has its own proper place, its home, if you like; and any other creature who trespasses on his territory commits an offence against the proper order of things, the adat; and trouble follows. The proper place of a man, as I said earlier, is his village, which, when it was a longhouse fortress, was a purely human and manufactured artefact. But in order to live at all a man has to go out of it and cultivate rice and sago. These areas of cultivation are, as it were, partly domesticated and are a semi-human domain. But men share that cultivated territory with other beings - animals, and plants and spirits - and a man is in greater danger there than he is in his village of trespassing on the rights of other creatures, thus bringing about trouble - especially accidents and sickness to himself.\n\nBeyond the semi-human, cultivated zone is the high forest into which men must go to hunt, to fish, and to gather fruit, resins, and other things necessary to life. But a man goes into the forest at his own risk. He shares its use with other beings who probably have greater rights to be there than he has, and he must exercise great caution while he is in it. He often comes back suffering from accidents and illness. To be safe in a tropical swamp jungle needs knowledge, vigilance, and immense luck.\n\nBefore one can understand the trouble which comes from breaking the adat and what that means to a Melanau, we need to know a little about the way in which he thinks a human being is put together. All humans, the Melanau say, are made up of four separate elements: (i) the body; (ii) the soul, which is thought to be a vaporous replica of the body, and which eventually goes to the land of the dead; (iii) the emotions; and (iv) a principle of life that distinguishes animate from inanimate things. For a man to be alive and healthy these four elements must be joined and undisturbed. But the body, in particular, is subject to accidents and illness; and a proper balance of its elements depends partly on a proper balance of hot and cold. The body can easily be disturbed by excessive eating, by exposure to rain and storms, and by an imbalance of hot and cold things. After childbirth, for instance, a woman is particularly subject to cold; and for forty-four days after the birth she must lie by a fire kept alight day and night and eat and drink hot and spicy food. Most illness, however, is attributed to a breach of the adat or an attack by a spirit or even witchcraft. At the onset of an attack by a spirit, or when something else upsets the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209603, "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": 260, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "238 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nThe Regiment Amateur Dramatic Society put on in 1876 at the Garrison Theatre two short pieces, \"Maud's Peril\" and \"John Brown John's Holiday\". Both were written by an anonymous local resident. \n\nCapt. Bunbury wrote a burlesque entitled \"Butter Cup Bower\" for presentation at an open air fete to raise funds for the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1886. It was repeated several months later as the dramatic portion of “A Musical and Dramatic Entertainment\" to raise funds for an annual treat to the children of non-commissioned officers and men of the Garrison. \n\nGARRISON AMATEUR GROUPS \n\nWe have noted that the first amateur dramatics were encouraged as diversion and entertainment for the military. Through the years various army and navy amateur groups have been organized in Hong Kong. \n\nThey performed under different names. These often included the name of the ship, regiment or unit of the performers. In the 1860s a group called the Garrison Amateur Theatrical Society was active. It was composed of officers. In 1897 there is notice of The Garrison Dramatic Society. The Military Mummers flourished from 1889 to 1892. In the 90s other groups called themselves \"The Sons of Neptune\" and \"The Beetles\". \n\nDuring the 90s it was popular to put on productions called \"Grand Assault at Arms\" accompanied by \"Military Spectacular Exhibitions\". An 1893 production of this type concluded with \"a grand representation of an attack on the Fortress of Ali Musjid\", and at another in 1898 by a naval group from H.M.S. Powerful, the finale was three \"real life Tableaux\": Ready for Action, Battle Scene, and the Death of Nelson. At this particular performance Prince Henry and Princess Irene of the Prussian royal house were present. A patter song was introduced expressing these hopeful sentiments: \n\nOne word before I end my song \n\nTo welcome in far Hongkong \n\nThe grandson of our Gracious Queen† \n\nPrince Henry's mother was Victoria, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, and wife of Frederick III, of Germany.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209765, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "language. The third reason for the house was that a place was needed for the priests living up country in China to take their summer vacation.\n\nNow to the 'when' of the house. Early in the thirties, our founder Bishop James A. Walsh was here, and he wanted to build a house for the just mentioned reasons. He contacted a Chinese real estate man, Mr. Lee Ue Ch'eung. Incidentally he was the brother of that famous shoe maker Mr. Lee Ue Kei who was known locally as Leaky Lee the shoemaker. Well, Mr. Lee told our founder to meet him at the Hong Kong side of the Star ferry one morning, and they then drove out in his horse and buggy through Aberdeen to Repulse Bay. From there they followed the old military track that swung around the mountain and dropped down into Stanley. As Mr. Lee and our founder came around the mountain, Mr. Lee pointed out this hillock and said that was the place he thought might be suitable for the center. Our founder took one look, and said 'I'll take it. It's exactly what I want'. At that time there was nothing in Stanley except the Fortress, the Prison, St. Stephen's College and of course the small fishing village.\n\nConstruction started in 1933, and was finished in 1935. When planning was going on, the depression reached its height and the building was reduced in size two times. There was a big discussion about whether to put in expensive hard wood or cheap soft wood. The hard wood boys won out, and the white ants have ever since been breaking off their teeth on this wood. Had the soft wood been put in, it would have had to be changed practically every year. The house was built before air conditioning, and so is very cool in summer, and very cold in winter.\n\nThe house is built like a big \"U\". In this wing, the ground floor is now used for conferences, and the chapel is upstairs. In the opposite wing, the ground floor has staff quarters and maintenance shops. The upstairs has our parlor, television room, and a small library. On the ground floor of the South wing are the offices, the dining rooms, and the kitchen. The next two floors contain bedrooms.\n\nAt that time, there were these wide open spaces in Stanley and quite a bit of wild life. There were barking deer and monkeys.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210039, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "done across the territory. Inscribed tablets have been copied from old temples and other public buildings, together with documents and family papers, and interesting old persons have been interviewed. The nature of this work, and its results so far, were reviewed.\n\nOn 30 May, the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong invited members of our Society to attend a lecture meeting at which Professor Michael Sullivan, Christensen Professor of Oriental Art at Stanford University spoke on \"The Present State of Chinese Painting”. On 19 June, Dr. Rosemary Quested, Reader in History at the University of Hong Kong and an authority on Sino-Russian relations, spoke on the subject \"Whither Sino-Soviet Relations: some reflections in the light of history and current events.” On 28th June, Ms. Patricia Cuenot gave a slide presentation entitled \"The Magic of Pushkar\", which dealt with the Camel Fair held during October and November each year in Pushkar, Rajasthan.\n\nOn 24 October, one of our members, Mr. Phillip Bruce, a Principal Information Officer of Government Information Services, gave a fascinating illustrated talk, entitled \"The Forgotten Fortress\". Based on his own research, it dealt with the coastal defences of Hong Kong from the 1840s up to the 1939-45 war. Following this, on 13 November, Professor Grant K. Goodman of the University of Kansas, who is Japan Foundation Visiting Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong and a specialist on the history and politics of Japan, gave an interesting lecture entitled \"Vanguard of Empire? — Japanese prostitutes in South East Asia\".\n\nOn Friday, 7 December, Mr. Francis S.Y. Sham, a veteran translator and language teacher and a member of our Society, gave an interesting talk on \"Fortune Sticks from Hong Kong's Temples\". Mr. Sham has published two volumes on fortune sticks from Kwun Yum and Wong Tai Sin Temples and is currently working on Lui Tso oracles from the Ching Chung Kwan monastery in Castle Peak.\n\nOn 29 January, 1985, I spoke on the subject \"Hong Kong before Lord Palmerston: a “Go” at the Barren Rock Myth”. The talk\n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210175, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "125\n\nowned by local people were demolished for the construction of a fortress; also that investigation should be made as to whether there were other land taxes, apart from those of Tang Chi-cheung, which had not been paid.\n\n+61\n\nThis decision was passed to the British Plenipotentiary, Sir John Davis, in a communication from \"Hwang, Treasurer of Kwang-tung\" towards the end of this same 24th year of Tao Kuang, to the effect that\n\n\"as the said Tang's fields are situated within the jurisdiction of Hong Kong the Chinese high officials consider it not proper to exact the [land] tax from Tang, because Hong Kong is made a possession of your Honourable Country.\n\nThe Tang clan's tenants on perpetual leases were thus freed of their payments to the sub-soil owner, and held land on payment of Crown Rent to the Hong Kong government thereafter. I have given the story only as it is contained in the Tang family records; but as expressed on the tenants' side and handled by the Hong Kong authorities, it is elaborated in official British papers contained in the Public Records Office, London.63\n\n64\n\nThe Tangs' claims to be the sub-soil owners cannot have been exclusive; or else there had, by one means or another, been inroads into their rights over the years. Very few Chinese land papers indeed seem to have survived from Hong Kong island from before 1841, but among them is a red deed issued in 1797 to a resident of one of the Chai Wan villages.** The nature of a red deed is such that it is either an initial direct grant of the sub-soil or the official recognition of a transfer from the person previously registered as the taxpayer of the land in question. Also, and as mentioned above, the Wong family of Nam Tau and Cheung Chau leased out 13 fishing stations on the south side of Hong Kong to local people: a right which would usually have gone with ownership of the sub-soil or would have been appropriated by its owner.\n\n65\n\nI turn now to the boat people of Hong Kong, for it is certain that the local population before 1841 comprised boat families as well as villagers. The Tanka or boat people of South China have long", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210657, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT 1986-87\n\nLadies and Gentlemen,\n\nLet me say at the outset that this has been a good year. Our programme of activities has been maintained at a satisfactory level and, in general, has attracted larger audiences and attendances than in recent years. We have also made steady progress in regard to back-up organization. The publication of the two Journals for 1984 and 1985 is expected soon, with other projects in hand. The remaining unsatisfactory area is that of financing where the current level of expenses, particularly on publications, is such that an increase in the annual membership charge is not only advisable but also necessary. I shall now review the year's changes and activities.\n\nProgramme\n\nLast year's programme included the usual variety of lectures, visits and tours. The ten lectures were varied, covering a wide range of historical and cultural subjects, as follows:\n\nPhillip Bruce\n\n\"The Forgotten Fortress\"\n\n4 April, 1986:\n\n30 April, 1986:\n\nProf. Ed Wright\n\n\"Korean Furniture Elegance and Tradition\"\n\n22 May, 1986:\n\nDr. Raj Ghose\n\n12 June, 1986:\n\n3 September, 1986:\n\n\"The Hindu Temple as a religious, social and political institution.\"\n\nDr Richard Irving\n\n\"The Rise and Fall of Shrimp Farming in Deep Bay and its Impact on the Deep Bay Landscape.\"\n\nDr. Janice Stockard\n\n\"An Unorthodox Marriage Practice in the Canton Delta Region.\"\n\nvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211459, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "151\n\nhe believed what he frequently said, 'To be poor is hell'. He never gave up hope for the better and, in his usual cheerful manner, would advise us, 'Cheer up, the worse is yet to come'. He had such thrifty habits that he would not buy anything, including real property, unless he had the cash to pay for it. He never realized his ambition to be an independent businessman, in spite of his plan to operate an importing business, in preparation for which he had bought a piece of land on Fort and Kualini Streets and had built a small store on it. When he died at the age of 41, he left a modest estate consisting of a home, an income property, stocks and cash. This enabled Mother, courageous and unselfish, to raise and educate their children without the necessity of us having to forgo schooling in order to support the family.\n\nA caring husband, a warm and loving father, son and brother, a helpful neighbour, an honest and upright citizen, a religious man, always striving to better himself and others - this was Father, taken away at the prime of life, with no opportunity to see his children grow up to maturity, or to accomplish what he had hoped for, or to enjoy any leisure that he so well deserved.\n\nI feel his deep love whenever I think of him and recall these verses so often read to us from The Children's Hour.\n\nI have you fast in my fortress,\n\nAnd will not let you depart,\n\nBut put you down into the dungeon\n\nIn the round tower of my heart.\n\nAnd there will I keep you forever,\n\nYes, forever and a day,\n\nTill the walls shall crumble to ruin,\n\nAnd moulder in dust away!\n\nMy Mother\n\nMaternal Grandfather, Jong Sun Lup, came to Hawaii under contract as a plantation worker in 1878 and Maternal Grandmother, Chang Shee, joined him a few years later, probably in 1885, bringing with her their first-born, Jong Tin Yau. Mother was born on 23 April 1887. Three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211926, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 341, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "316\n\nG. Gwok-Yin jou\n\nA segment of the Ching Lok Tong worth mentioning is the Gwok-Yin jou, which has a small ancestral hall in Wing Lung Wai. It has ancestral tablets for Lam-Mau (one of the great grandsons of Fong in the 20th generation), two of his sons, neither of whom had had any descendants, and Gwok-Yin his third son (with a title of mou-leuk-ke-wai), and Lam-Mau's grandsons Chiu-Yip, Chiu-Yung, Gwan-Leung (also with a title of mou-leuk-ke-wai) and Gwan-Haak. Dang Ying-Yun, a grandson of Gwan-Leung, is represented by a horizontal inscribed board to congratulate his mou-geui-yan degree award in 1789. In all likelihood, the titles of Gwok-Yin and Gwan-Leung were conferred in consideration of the imperial degree of this descendant of theirs.\n\n13\n\nSung (1974:173-174) provides some information about Dang Ying-Yun. He wrote the calligraphy for many inscriptions, including those for the repair of the Jau and Wong Temple in 1824 and the rebuilding of the Ling-Wan Monastery in 1821. His involvement in public affairs was not limited to calligraphy. Sung recorded the oral tradition that he was instrumental in the construction of a fortress in the present Kowloon City and a county school in its capital town.\n\nH. Ji-Ga Tong\n\n14\n\nAccording to his descendants and other informants, Ji-Ga Tong prospered after the marriage of Dang Kyun-Hin (1755-1822), its founder. He was a member of the Fourth Branch, the descendants of Gyun, and was originally poor. He had worked when he was young for a Gwok-Yin jou person known as Haan sau-choi who had a peanut oil factory. His wife was a servant girl of the sau-choi's. The family prospered afterwards. The good fortune was partly attributed to the wife. The family was very large and wealthy. According to oral tradition recorded by Sung (1974:175-176), Dang Kyun-Hin \"had four sons and twenty-four grandsons and the number of his family and servants together are said to have totalled two hundred.” He built a hall called Sou-Lau Yun, better known to local villages as Ji-Ga Tong, which term is also used for the lineage segment consisting of his descendants. Chung-Shaan, one of his sons, built a hall called Cheung-Cheun Yun which had two side rooms, one for a school and one for martial arts. When he died, a banquet was held in Ji-Ga Tong for seven days. The guests included some people from Yuen Long and Pat Heung. The youngest of Kyun-Hin's sons, Yu-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212363, "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": 305, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "282\n\nevery week two or three ships travel via Macao to Canton and back again. The small eastern inlet is called Mirs Bay. The western coast of this bay is very broken and rugged. About half way along, a stretch of water shaped like an arm leads off to the west, with fingers which seem to stretch out in different directions (Tolo Harbour). The mainland to the north of Mirs Bay acts like a dam, so that the water cannot penetrate further in that direction; it is forced to turn west where it peters out into sandbanks. This inlet to the west [Sha Tau Kok Hoi] is only used, in practice, by Chinese passenger ferries, cargo ships, and fishing boats.\n\nBetween these two inlets, the Canton River and Mirs Bay, lies the Sinon District, which stretches for a distance equal to about 12-13 hours' walk towards the north from the sea. The width of this District differs from place to place because of the irregular coasts of Mirs Bay to the east and the Canton River to the west. At its widest, the District is 14-15 hours' walk wide, whereas at its narrowest it is only 2-3 hours' walk wide. The inhabitants of the region are mostly Hakkas, but you can also find Puntis, who form a majority especially in the north-western part of the District. Two of the towns are seats of Mandarins, that is, Kaulung [Kowloon] and Namtao [Namtau]. Kaulung is a fortress, situated on the mainland, just opposite Hong Kong. It is occupied by a Mandarin of a lower rank. The Mandarin who is in charge of the whole of Sinon District resides in Namtao, a place on the east coast of the Canton River.\n\nTungfo station is situated in the north-eastern part of Sinon District, on the northern coast of the previously mentioned arm of Mirs Bay, where the waters are turned west and come to an end. The geographical position is, according to mathematical calculations, about 131°54' east longitude, and 22°33′ north latitude. It is 9-10 hours' walk from Hong Kong, and lies in a northerly direction from there. The station can be reached from Hong Kong by two routes only. One route is by water, the second mostly by land. If you choose to travel to Tungfo by the water route, you have to travel first by the China Sea, and then, for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212392, "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": 334, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "311\n\nspite of his deep love for his motherland.\n\nNaturally, his pictures take pride of place in the 'Overseas Chinese Museum' which has over 6,000 exhibits portraying the Ming and Qing diaspora. The building was completed in 1956, endowed by Tan and other overseas donors. Like most similar establishments in China, information is available in Chinese only. If the People's Republic really wishes to attract overseas visitors, is it too much to ask that literature and captions be printed in English as well?\n\nThe Group also made a visit to Huli Shan Fortress, completed in 1823, which protected the entrance to the fine, deep-sea port in the lead-up to the First Opium War. The island of Quemoy, from which the Nationalist Government relayed propaganda with loudspeakers during the 'cold war', lies only 2.4 kilometres off the Communist China Mainland near this fortress.\n\nThe RAS Party later went to the Nanputuo Temple, under the towering 'Five Old Men Peak', which is an architectural masterpiece and crammed with Buddhist statuary. Renovations were in progress. It was encouraging, too, to see the local People's Patriotic Church had recently been given a facelift by the provincial government.\n\nBut impressions lie in the senses of the beholder. Some RAS Members may especially remember Xiamen for its reasonably priced seafood available, with over 600 varieties of fish compared to Hong Kong, or the edible frogs or fine noodles. There was even champagne available with the buffet breakfast!\n\n―\n\nNevertheless, for the author, the most treasured recollections are of banyans and buildings. Some of the former, with labyrinths of contorting, twisting roots, were probably growing a century-and-a-half ago, before the island became a Treaty port. The town is also a 'museum' of vernacular and colonial architecture.\n\nWhether the vantage point is Bill Job's workshop or the hotel window, a vista of old, mellowed, orange, Chinese 'roll and trough' roof tiles, with some roofs of interlocking tiles, blend in reasonably well with new structures erected often from overseas remittances. Although the more ornate, gently sloping, swallow-tail roofs were traditionally reserved for temples, official buildings, and residences", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213498, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "62\n\npicture of the situation was given by L. Yu. He stated:\n\n“At the time they built their fortress with the backs against the hills and the fronts facing the sea. The two fortifications acted as two watchtowers. It made the Ching army difficult to attack or even try to get near to the island. On the slopes above Sai Ying Pun, at the midlevels, there was a fort and it helped to reinforce the defence.\" (Lai, 1948, P.13)\n\nSecondly, it is because Sai Ying Pun was situated at the foothill of the highest peak of the island. The peak (i.e. Victoria Peak 1917 ft. which was called O Tau Shan or Ngan Tau Shan at that period) formed the look-out of the pirates in those days. They wanted to keep an eye on the harbour which was a very important water route in that part of the South China coast. Whenever a vessel appeared, the watchmen would signal the pirates who were stationed at the foothills at Sai Ying Pun. The pirate fleet would then sail off to plunder and loot the vessels.\n\nThirdly, the pirates chose the place because Sai Ying Pun possesses some peculiar physical characteristics. Before the waterfront was reclaimed in the late nineteenth century, Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector of the Island, which controlled the western inlet to the harbour, with a fairly long coastal slope. The slopes were made up of colluvial fan. In other words, the soil in the area was derived from the decomposition of granite or other primitive rock. It was not, however, formed of detritus of rock washed down from above, but solid rock altered in situ. In the area west of Sai Ying Pun, Shek Tong Tsui, the granites outcropped nearly to the sea front. It was possibly the reason why as early as 1771 the Hakka people came to the area and quarried the granite and carried them to Shek Pai Wan. Therefore we can see that Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector that was suitable to set up a fortification. I think this is also the reason why the British commanders chose the same area to set up a barrack in 1841.\n\nSo Sai Ying Pun during the early years of Chiaching period was probably occupied by scores of pirates. They guarded themselves against the attack of the Ching armies and waited patiently for the signals that came from the peak and were always ready to sail off to plunder any trading vessels that happened to sail past the Hong Kong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214100, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "137\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nA BRIEF HISTORY OF RECLAMATION IN MACAU\n\nTHOMAS KVAN AND JUSTYNA KARAKIEWICZ\n\nIntroduction\n\nMacau today is a city of 500,000 people living on 22 sq. km. consisting of three main areas: the peninsula of Macau (with approximately 50% of the population) and the islands of Taipa and Coloane. Most of the population lives on the peninsula itself. Over 7 million visitors visit the enclave each year. Primary industries are tourism (driven in large part by the casinos), light manufacturing and some trans-shipment of goods from China. In common with Hong Kong, the territory has experienced considerable physical change due to reclamation. This paper traces the history of reclamation and considers some of the implications for the urban form of Macau over the past four centuries.\n\nThe Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries\n\nMacau saw development until the Portuguese occupied the peninsula in the mid-sixteenth century. When they arrived, it was a peninsula of approximately 3 sq. km. connected to the China mainland by a very narrow neck of sand that could be flooded at high tides. There were a few temples (already a few centuries old) and farm houses already constructed but the population was sparse. Within ten years, the population had grown to “over 5000, not including Chinese or slaves” (Pires 1987). By 1583, a Municipal Senate was formed and in 1586 Macau was designated a City. Places of worship began to be erected almost immediately upon settlement, with significant churches appearing from 1590 onwards. A protective wall was built in 1606 around the Jesuit settlement with a second fortress in 1629 and several more by 1638 (Duncan 1987).\n\nThe enclave had evolved rapidly, therefore, from a poorly defined settlement on Chinese agricultural patterns to one based on an Occidental urban architecture of churches, fortifications and civic buildings. The former probably consisting of isolated buildings, most", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214425, "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": 283, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "between 1935 and 1937 consisting of three 9.2 inch?\n\n249\n\nAs part of a colony-wide reorganisation and modernisation programme of the armament, a new battery was constructed at Stanley with three 9.2 inch calibre Mark X guns mounted on Mark VII mountings. One of these guns came from the battery at Devil's Peak and the other two came from Mount Davis, as both of these batteries were being modernised. The gun shifts were difficult and complex operations as the guns were very heavy, the barrel and breech assembly weighing 28 tons. Everything was done by hand and the pieces, and all their mountings, were transported to Stanley by sea. The two lower guns (No. 2 & No.3) were situated on concrete emplacements now occupied by parabolic antennae dishes in the Cable and Wireless Ltd. Satellite Earth Station complex. These two guns could only fire out to sea and were later encased in concrete gunhouses or casemates by the Japanese who seemed to have kept them in service during the Occupation. The gun houses were demolished and the guns were cut up for scrap in 1952.\n\nThe No. 1 9.2 inch gun mounted on top of \"Gun Hill\" was equipped with all-round traverse, that is, it was able to engage any target, for it was mounted on a circular platform which was rotated mechanically. It was this gun which bombarded the Japanese almost continually from the 14th to 24th December, 1941, firing at the rate of three rounds per half hour at targets as far away as Kowloon City. The shells weighed more than a hundredweight each. The gun was able to fire at this great range due to its mountings which gave a thirty-five degree angle of elevation.\n\nAfter the completion of the new Stanley Battery, two 6 inch naval guns were installed on the Bluff forming a second emergency battery known as Bluff Head Battery. These smaller guns had an effective range of 9,500 yards and also seem to have been equipped with all-round traversers as they could engage land and sea targets. These two batteries were reinforced in December 1941 by two 3.7 inch howitzers in a position in Stanley Village with an observation post in the Officers Mess, and an anti-aircraft battery at Tai Tam Tau. The Japanese reported that \"long-range fortress artillery bombardments were extremely effective.\" Targets were engaged with clock code observation by the Infantry and also where possible by direct observation. In addition, many targets such as road junctions and bridges had been registered and carefully tabulated in the months leading up to the Japanese attack so that direct observation was not really necessary to know that the shells were on target. Japanese artillery set up at the captured", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214426, "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": 284, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "250\n\nGun Club Hill Barracks in Kowloon was silenced in this way by British guns on Hong Kong island.\n\nThe Fortress System\n\nBy the 1930s the operation of batteries had become immensely sophisticated and complicated, difficult for a layman to understand. The old 19th century arrangement of individual battery range and position finders was improved by a new arrangement known as the Fortress Range Finding System. Under this system the range of vision and of precision was greatly extended by a series of what were known as Fortress Observation Posts to cover targets within range of the guns. These transmitted bearings and ranges gained from observation to a central Fortress Plotting Room where the target, such as an enemy vessel, was tracked on a chart known as a Fortress Plotter. The co-ordinates of the target were then calculated or computed on a mechanical device known as a predictor which made allowance for the time in flight of the shell and the movement of the vessel assuming it had not realised it had been observed and taken evasive action by changing course. The co-ordinates were then telephoned or telegraphed to the individual batteries which then possessed all the information necessary to engage the enemy, even though the target might be so far away as to be invisible to the Battery Commander. The data could also be relayed directly to the guns where it was displayed on electrically operated dials.\n\nIn Hong Kong as part of reorganisation and modernisation of the Hong Kong defences a Fortress Range Finding system was developed consisting of three Fortress Plotting Rooms at Stanley Fort, Mount Davis and Tytam Gap, also ten Fortress Observation Posts all connected to two Fire Commander's Posts which in turn, were connected to the Commander Fixed Defences who had his Coast Artillery Headquarters in the underground Operational Headquarters in Victoria Barracks known as Fortress HQ, nicknamed the \"Battle Box\". The Fortress Plotting Room at Stanley Fort is located in an underground bunker below an old Signal Station, Block 3, opposite the Officers' Mess. Remains of a plotting table and predictor still can be found inside.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214430, "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": 288, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "254\n\nbetween the two main batteries, but being mobile the battery could have been at any position within the fort at the time of the surrender. This battery would have had its own mobile searchlights.\n\nA wartime machine gun post is shown on some old maps beside the footpath leading down to the present pumphouse behind the new married quarters on the west side of the peninsula. Nothing is shown on the Ordinance Survey map and it is believed that this post would have been an improvised sandbagged strongpoint. Its purpose would have been to prevent the enemy coming up the path from the sea. It also may have had its own searchlight set up in a sandbagged emplacement.\n\n**\n\n*\n\nThe story of the fierce fighting in the Stanley area and the last stand at Stanley Fort, which in the latter stages of the battle had no water supply and no communications link with the Fortress Headquarters in Victoria Barracks, has been told in Oliver Lindsay's book “The Lasting Honour\", Tim Carew's \"The Fall of Hong Kong\", and the Volunteers' Little Red Book. It was in this final action on Christmas Day 1941, that severe damage was done to the Stanley Fort Batteries by intensive shell and mortar-fire bombardment from the Japanese counter-batteries combined with continuous air-raid attacks by Japanese dive-bombers throughout the day until the capitulation was made on written orders from Fortress HQ shortly after midnight.\n\nFrom 1942 to 1945 Stanley was used as a civilian internment camp by the Japanese. In July, 1943 the batteries at Stanley Fort, then of course in Japanese hands, were again subjected to air-raid attacks this time from American dive-bombers. Fourteen internees were unfortunately killed in one of these bombing raids by a stray bomb. These air-raids continued intermittently until the end of the War. The war damage sustained by the bunkers, magazines, observation posts, and pillboxes which made up the batteries can still be seen today.\n\nAfter the Liberation, Stanley Fort was again occupied by the British Army. The garrison was reinforced in 1949 and remained strong throughout the 1950s despite deployments to fight insurgency in Ma-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214437, "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": 295, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Entrance to Fortress Plotting Room, Stanley Fort\n\n261", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214438, "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": 296, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "262\n\nRemains of the old Wartime Predictor, Fortress Plotting Room, Stanley Fort", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214440, "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": 298, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "265\n\nTHE STORY OF GUN CLUB HILL BARRACKS\n\nR.G. HORSNELL\n\nAnyone who walks or drives along Austin Road, Kowloon, past the Kowloon Bowling Club towards Chatham Road, cannot fail to notice the imposing entrance to Gun Club Hill Barracks.\n\nThe old cannon on its granite base at one side of the iron gates guarded by a sentry, and the massive granite retaining wall resembling the wall of an unassailable fortress, make a fitting entrance to the barracks. Yet it did not always look like this. The granite retaining wall was built when the cutting for Austin Road was made, and the main entrance to the barracks originally was from Chatham Road. In the old photograph one can see what the entrance looked like at the turn of the century. Colonnaded buildings stand on the site of the present WOS and Sergeants' Mess, a building in the centre stands on the site of the present Record Office and Training Centre, and a building on the right is where the present Officers' Mess now stands. This building is still there although somewhat remodelled with a front entrance wing added in 1935.\n\nIt is not known for certain when the barracks were established, but in early 1860, before Kowloon was ceded to Britain after the China Wars, several areas had already been mapped out as possible sites for military barracks. A memorandum from the Secretary of War, dated 1860, stated \"The necessity for increased accommodation for the garrison has long been apparent to the military authorities, and the acquisition of a healthy site like that of Kowloon, points at once in the direction in which accommodation must be found.\" One of the sites which was mapped out was Whitfield Barracks, named after Maj. Gen. H.W. Whitfield, Maj. Gen. China, Hong Kong and Straits Settlements (1869-1874) to the west of Nathan Road in Tsimshatsui. Another site was Gun Club Hill, probably one of the nine hills which gave Kowloon its name. The site then encompassed the Kowloon Cricket Club ground, but the present 25 acre site is bounded by Chatham Road, Austin Road, Jordan Path, Jordan Road and Gascoigne Road, this last road named after another CBF - Maj. Gen. Sir W.J. Gascoigne KCMG, Maj. Gen. China and Hong Kong (1898-1903).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214519, "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": 377, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "346\n\nBy the time dinnertime came, we had finished dinner. Let me explain. Dusk fell at about five o'clock, and the guide said that we were now going for dinner. Of course, there were howls of protest, but we were assured that this was perfectly normal. At least, we demanded, can we have a change from Chinese food. We all enjoy Chinese food and the quality had been consistently on the good side, but we craved a bit of variety. So we were treated to a Korean BBQ buffet, and it was absolutely excellent - masses of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables and gas-fired hotpots to do your own cooking in. A real eye-opener and tummy-filler, but all was finished by about seven o'clock, leaving some of us in desperate need of a cream cake or two back in the hotel.\n\nPort Arthur\n\nOn the 40-odd mile journey to Port Arthur, we were treated by Philip Bruce to an introduction to fortress-building and sacking, just so that we could be prepared. However, I have to say that the visit to Port Arthur, or Lushun as it is now known, was the closest we came to a disappointment. We were all experts on the place from the time Captain Arthur first dropped his anchor there until the early part of this century, but none of us was prepared for the present day Lushun.\n\nTo be fair, the guide had told us that the whole place is still dominated by a naval base - but this time, of course, one operated by the People's Liberation Army. We tried to explain that we were not interested in any of the naval installations or hardware, but the old buildings that remained to be seen, and in particular the railway station. However, we were told that as we were foreigners, we could not even go into the town at all. Only half-jokingly, those of us that could produced our Permanent Hong Kong Identity Cards, demonstrating that we too were citizens of the People's Republic. But this did not impress the guides. It was suggested that it might be a case of us not looking all that Chinese that was the problem. The guide assured us that this was not the case - it was simply a matter of not wanting foreign nationals wandering over highly sensitive military facilities. However, when it was pointed out that four of our number did indeed look very Chinese (despite their Canadian, Malaysian, and other passports), the guides agreed that these four could indeed visit the town.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214558, "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": 416, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "385\n\nRev. Wright provided the text for Allom's China and wrote a short piece entitled The Fortress of Terror, Dinghai. He claimed that 'during the British descent upon the coast of China, nowhere was the destruction of life and property greater than at Dinghai. Every hill on the coast in the vicinity of Dinghai was crowned with a battery of apparent strength; some of them too elevated to be effective. At the entrance of a defile, watered by a rivulet flowing from the valley of Chae-hu [sic], and on an eminence about two hundred feet above the level of the bay, stood one of those deceptive structures, misnamed \"The Fortress of Terror,\" in which the Chinese so lucklessly reposed entire confidence, when the British fleet cast anchor in the roads beneath. No troops, however armed or disciplined, could have acted with more eminent personal gallantry, than the Tatar garrison of the fort of Terror, yet none ever encountered a more signal overthrow.\n\nWright described Zhoushan as an agreeable scene, with every hill cultivated to its summit, every valley, from the mountain's foot to the river's margin with industry and fertility, producing a large surplus for the enrichment of the labourers. These productions, including rice, cotton, seed potatoes, coarse tea and candles made from the seeds of the tallow tree, were conveyed along canals in barges. The roads of Zhoushan were not constructed for the convenience of visitors, the gratification of travellers, or the mere objects of pleasure.\n\nIn describing the city of Dinghai, Wright noted that it did not stand upon the marshy ground but on the sloping side of the Yongdong Valley. It was surrounded by a brick wall twenty-six feet in height, sixteen in thickness, and six miles in circuit, with four entrance gates corresponding exactly with the four cardinal points. The city was intersected by open sewer canals, the streets were narrow and paved, and intersected by canals along the middle.\n\nBetween 1841 and 1844 the Westmoreland Regiment served with the British force during the campaign to capture and hold the Island of Zhoushan. The assault on and occupation of Zhoushan during the First China War was one of many along the coast of Southern and Eastern China. It culminated in the Treaty of Nanjing [Nanking] in August 1842 under terms by which occupation forces held on to several places until the treaty was fully implemented, Zhoushan being one. There was a school of British opinion at the time which strongly believed that we", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215290, "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": 67, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "15\n\nmanufactured in foreign countries to factories situated in the empire for the completion of the manufacturing process in order to become eligible for imperial preference. So in 1933 new regulations were issued which required most manufactured goods to show 50 per cent empire content of materials and labour in order to qualify for preference. A circular despatch was sent to all colonies requiring them to do the same and a model ordinance to effect this was enclosed. The 15 torch factories in Hong Kong used foreign brass to make the torch casing since it was cheaper than brass exported from Britain. The British Customs and Excise Department ruled that since brass constituted at least 40 per cent of the value of the finished product, unless British brass was used, torches should be classed as foreign and so be ineligible for admission to Britain free of duty. In 1935 the British Customs imposed a specific duty of 14 pence per pound on flashlight torches. This roughly doubled the cost of Hong Kong torches making it difficult for them to compete in the British market. Protests were made, but the British Customs refused to trust the costings supplied by Hong Kong showing a 50 per cent empire content and suggested that the factories should use empire brass exclusively for certain months of the year; if this was satisfactorily authenticated by an accountant's certificate Customs were prepared to allow Hong Kong torches to enter free of duty. Such arrangements were too complicated and expensive for most of the Chinese workshops involved, so they decided to do without imperial preference. Exports to Britain constituted less than 6 per cent of their total production.\n\n58\n\nThese and other moves to limit Hong Kong's manufacturing exports provoked the governor to make a strong plea in unusually forthright terms to the Colonial Office for favourable treatment on the ground of Britain's imperial interests.\n\nWe are a tiny place and have no sufficient home market to support industrialization on any large scale. Between us and China there is a customs barrier and I do not see (with the rising tide of Chinese nationalism) any chance of their lowering the barrier for Hong Kong products. So if there is to be future for industrialization in Hong Kong its market must be a cheap and distant one, a protected market within our colonial empire. From an imperial point of view the question boils down to this. Is Hong Kong to be left just as a fortress port with a dwindling entrepot business or is it to be allowed to make up for what it loses on the entrepot swings by its takings on the industrial roundabout? Hong Kong has (except in the case of rubber) no near or cheap source of empire raw material, and so the empire content of its products will generally not greatly exceed the percentage which the cost of manufacture bears to the cost of material. If this is not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215291, "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": 68, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "16\n\nsufficient to qualify for preference in colonial 'native' markets then it is a very bad outlook for us as I cannot see how the growing population of Victoria and Kowloon are going to find employment without industrial development,\n\nI therefore consider it as politically important as it is, from our point of view, economically advantageous to give the Hong Kong Chinese a commercial attachment to the empire. Our military and naval defences are designed against external aggression, but if relations with China ever became antagonistic there would be an enemy totalling over one million within the fortress gates, unless their bread is liberally spread with Empire butter.\n\nThe governor's plea for Hong Kong's manufacturing industry was warmly supported by all the Colonial Office officials who wrote minutes on this despatch. It was quickly passed up to the colonial secretary, W. Ormsby-Gore, who endorsed it as 'an admirable letter' and gave instructions for copies to be sent to the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade.\" Officials made frequent use of Caldecott's argument of imperial interests when attempting to repulse proposals from the Board of Trade and other departments to place further restrictions on Hong Kong's manufactures in the years that followed.\n\nBritish textile manufacturers continued to protest that they were suffering from unfair competition in the British and colonial markets and demanded that Hong Kong exports should be excluded by tariffs or quantitative restrictions. In order to fend off these pressures the Colonial Office suggested to the governor of Hong Kong that all cotton and artificial silk piece goods exported to Britain and the colonies should be accompanied by a certificate that they had been made from cloth which had been spun, woven and finished within the empire. This proposal posed difficulties for Hong Kong. There were no spinning mills in the colony and more than half the cotton yarn used in the production of piece goods and hosiery was imported from Japan and Shanghai. In order to continue to enjoy the benefits of imperial preference, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce secured the manufacturers' agreement to switch their purchases of yarn from China and Japan to cotton mills in India which were within the empire. But the manufacturers of goods made from artificial silk protested strongly that the only alternative to yarn from Japan was British yarn which was double the price ($1.70 a pound compared to 85c). This would destroy their competitiveness with Japanese products in British Malaya, the African colonies and the West Indies and drive them to bankruptcy. The Colonial Office put its case to the Board of Trade which refused to compromise, asserting that if Hong Kong was to continue to enjoy the advantages of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215484, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "210\n\nSomewhat of a surprise\n\nA group of 15-year-old girls took a very giggly interest in us and were keen to talk to us using their excellent English. They must have been accustomed to the usual banal questions from tourists: Were you born here? Where do you go to school? Do you study English at school? But there was one answer that we were not prepared for. Question: 'Do you find English easy?' Answer: 'Oh, somewhat.' Somewhat?? Forsooth!\n\nSome of the paths between the houses were cobbled, the trees had been recently pollarded, and the stream was rushing along, reminding us that we had to do likewise. A couple of hours had us back at the hotel, wondering if there would be electricity or would they have to turn on the generator again, with its engine sounding like that of a Spitfire. I don't know about the others, but I managed to get my wood-burning stove going. I had found the secret! I asked a member of the hotel staff to come and do it for me. This she did in a trice with the aid of some candle wood. This is the natural wood of the candlewood pine, or blue pine, and once lit it flares into life with happy ferocity.\n\nOne of the highlights of Day 7, a Saturday and the day we started heading back to Paro, was to be a visit to the remote and beautiful Phubjikha Valley, one of the few sites in Bhutan where the rare black-necked cranes winter over from their summer home on the high Tibetan plateau. We had not been en route for more than five minutes before there was a loud cry from the back of the 'bus. 'Cranes!!!' The engineers amongst us became excited for a moment, but the cranes turned out to be the black-necked variety and they were pecking at the ground not far from the road, stocking up for the long flight home. It is remarkable that these creatures make a long flight every year and always come back to the same spot in Bhutan. But Brian and Felicity do that as well, so it can't be that remarkable.\n\nOur route took us back over the 11,835 feet Yutong-la pass and down to Trongsa, where the Trongsa Dzong was awaiting our inspection, from the inside this time. Originally built in 1543, but repaired and added to many times since, this fortress occupies an extremely commanding position, perhaps as well if one's job is to collect taxes and generally subdue the neighbouring population. And it still exercises", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215486, "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": 263, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "212\n\nPARTNER. ALWAYS USE PROTECTIVE MEASURE.'\n\nThe next day started with a quick drive-past, with a photo opportunity, of the Punakha Dzong, said to be Bhutan's most holy. The first king was crowned there in 1907. This commanding fortress stands on shingle banks at the confluence of the Mo and Pho rivers. Its situation certainly makes it picturesque, but also vulnerable. A flash flood ten or so years ago caused extensive damage which is still being repaired. The sad thing is that this deluge was probably not an isolated flash flood at all, but the first of many - the result of the effect of global warming on the frozen Tibetan wastes. Anyway, by command of the king no expense is to be spared in the restoration work, as we would see later.\n\nTomorrow was to be the start of a major festival, and we were to return to see it. The festival invokes Bhutan's principal deity and protection for the country in the coming year; it also marks the beginning of spring. But for the moment we had other things to see further up the Mo. People were drifting past in threes and fours in the opposite direction, including some members of the Laya tribe. I guess we could have appeared to them as no less unearthly than Princess Leia herself from Planet Alderaan. Our 'bus had to stop right next to a group of Laya, having to give way to some more fortunate people descending to the dzong in a vehicle. These Laya, a Bhutanese nomadic tribe, comprised mainly very old women and very young children and were, we were told, just coming to the end of a three-day trek to get to the following day's festivities. Quick as a flash, the old crones in the walking party whipped out from beneath their vestments some shining \"jewelled\" necklaces with which to tempt the wealthy tourists. They did not make a sale that day, but I felt it was only a matter of time before their family assets would be disposed of to some tourist or other in this manner. I also guessed that if one of us happened to take a shine to their shoes, they too would have instantly had a price attached. (Some of their shoes, more like embroidered felt boots, were indeed very fine.)\n\nStill no bacon\n\nIt was with mixed feelings that I also saw a large pig, foraging by the roadside - the first I had seen in Bhutan. I happen to like pigs very much, but a very large part of me was wondering (again) if there would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215488, "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": 265, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "214\n\nAs I have pointed out already, the male sexual organ is depicted quite a lot on Bhutanese buildings as a symbol of fertility, or at least as an invocation of longed-for fertility. It so happens that things come to a head, as it were, in this Lhakhang at Chime. Not content with mere pictures, this holy place has replicas that can be picked up and, well, fondled. Personally, I thought they were enormous - but I was told by one of my grinning fellow travellers that they were actually pretty life-like. Young ladies come to the temple to pray for babies if they are having trouble otherwise. There is one particular statue that was donated to the temple by a local official. The statue is unmistakably male and gives the impression of being very pleased to see visitors. The story is that this official had led such a life of sin and debauchery that before he died, he made a donation of this fine upstanding figurine by way of atonement. More likely, in my opinion, is that he merely donated one of his ribald collection of standing ornaments as a way of ensuring it went to a suitable home.\n\nThrough these villages flows a stream, and a particularly fast-flowing one too. We had seen water power being harnessed to drive prayer wheels before, but the speed of this stream meant that they must have had the fastest turning prayer wheel in the kingdom. So fast was it revolving that it was not possible to make out the blur of words that whizzed round. I hope they get a bit more sorted out before they get to heaven, otherwise all that effort may be wasted.\n\nAn every-day story of country folk\n\nLast stop of the day was to admire Wangdi Dzong, which we had seen briefly on our way east. Yet another large, imposing, impressive fortress in a commanding position above the river, this reminded us again of the purpose of a dzong. They were built as defensive fortresses, a centre of government and power, a place of worship and Buddhist learning, and a general focal point for the surrounding area. This one qualified on all fronts, complete with 32 boys in residence studying Buddhism and other monkly pursuits. Not quite so in keeping with this peaceful sounding activity were the ten or so very smartly attired young men who were practicing archery inside the main entrance. The targets had been set up with the standard 150-yard separation, but this time the archers were using not the local bamboo bow, but carbon fibre composite bows, complete with telescopic sights. The results were twofold: firstly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215931, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "164 \n\nlaconically states that, even on what was actually his honeymoon visit, Boxer had not lost his 'powers of observation.' \n\nIn accordance with the policy of withdrawing resources to Singapore, supposedly an impregnable fortress, the FECB was downscaled and most of its men and resources moved. Boxer was promoted to Major, with a small staff, which included his close friend and best man, Alf Bennett. Ironically, this gave him greater flexibility to use his own initiative. \n\n4 \n\nUnable to make much headway with London, Boxer flew to Chongqing to see the British Ambassador, Sir Alexander Clarke-Kerr. Boxer then made contacts with key figures in the Chinese military. He was received by none other than General Dai Li, head of the formidable Juntong or Bureau of Statistics and Military Intelligence. After the Generalissimo himself, to whom his loyalty was almost feudal, General Dai was perhaps the most powerful man in China. An extremely shrewd strategic thinker, he was in many ways the power behind the throne. His organisation, fiercely secretive and ruthless, has been described as a sort of Chinese Gestapo, prepared to use any means, including murder, to achieve its aims. Dai was fanatically devoted to Chiang Kai Shek, and shaped the Juntong to be a dreaded political as well as military machine, spying on all perceived enemies of the state, Communists and fellow Guomindang as well as Japanese. The Juntong organisation was highly effective, operating through cells united by family and social bonds, whose members were expected to subsume all private needs to the pursuance of state aims, however lethal. It has been demonstrated that General Dai and his followers modelled themselves on folk heroes from Chinese history who operated through secret societies and who believed that extreme action such as assassination, was justified in the interests of the common good. Dai was known to be anti-western, for he believed that western countries with their imperialist policies were the cause of China's humiliation, and were exploiting its weakness for their own aims. Many assumed that Dai's anti-British stance was on the personal embarrassment of having been mysteriously arrested in Hong Kong, thus conveniently sidestepping questions raised by decades of opium and gunboats. Dai also believed that any western country operating in China should function under Chinese control, an idea anathema to westerners used to extraterritoriality and getting their own terms. Boxer, however, found Dai co-operative and willing to ...\n\nbased", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]