[
    {
        "id": 206000,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1970",
        "page_number": 80,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\n75\n\nevery piece of ground and every house in the island downwards, morally speaking, were they to do so, they would be little better than robbers.\" But whatever the morals of the removal of the bazaar lot-holders, the Notification of 25 July produced the desired result for, by the beginning of September, there had already been a movement to the west to the area designated. The Hong Kong Register on 3 September 1844 somewhat uncharitably, and ignorantly since they were at this time still the official Government organ, expressed dissatisfaction with the \"Chinese village rising to the westward of Victoria\", but modified their opinion on discovering that many of the houses belonged to the 'squatters' dislodged from the Upper Bazaar who were allowed to find temporary sites until they could rebuild on land allotted to them for the purpose by Government. The area referred to was being built up fast during the month of September and opposite it, on the northern side of Queen's Road, a Government Market was erected, 18\n\nEventually, Davis's expenditure on levelling the site and providing compensation was approved at home.19 But before even the reply had left the Colonial Office, Davis received a petition from the Upper Bazaar lot-holders, praying for monetary compensation in addition to the 'rent holiday' proposed. On consideration of this petition whilst Davis was absent inspecting the new consulates in the northern ports, the Executive Council decided that the rent payable on the new allotments in Taipingshan should commence in January 1849, and not in January 1848 and that the registered holders of \"decent Chinese houses\", 81 in number, should receive $40 dollars each. Two English lot-holders in the area, Oswald and Porter, were allowed compensation on a rather more liberal scale, having refused to move. In communicating this arrangement to the Colonial Office, Davis commented that if the question of the Upper Bazaar Lots had first come up during his tenure of office, he would have allowed the tenants to retain possession, not only because to do otherwise involved a violation of rights, with a consequent heavy expense for Government in compensations, but also because of the obloquy to which Government had been subjected in the Press20\n\nThat is how Taipingshan originated. Its subsequent history is interesting for, between this time and the great Plague epidemic in the 1890's, it seems to the writer that the ability of the Government",
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    {
        "id": 206325,
        "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": 142,
        "title": "RAS-1971",
        "content_text": "136 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\ncensus 13 of the 76 Chinese enumerators were district watchmen; in the 1901 census 5 out of 107 were. In the 1906 census the 120 enumerators were shown round the blocks (census sub-divisions) by district watchmen. They also gave help in the 1911 census, and in the 1921 one the bulk of the force was placed at the disposal of the commissioner of census, who wrote 'each Chinese watchman engaged was in charge of two sections; they helped clear up misunderstandings and kept a check on enumerators'. The Committee was thanked on many occasions by government for its public service; it was praised for the help it rendered to the police during the riots which occurred in 1894 during the great epidemic of plague. The Committee did all it could to help its sister organizations the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. Thus district watchmen were always employed on special duties at the Tung Wah Hospital during outbreaks of plague and the Chinese Public Dispensary Committee used Watchmen to prevent the dumping of bodies in the streets. The Po Leung Kuk's two principal detectives were serving district watchmen at the turn of the century. Co-operation was easy because most members of the District Watch Committee had served or were serving on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk. In 1895 head district watchmen were paid $240 a year, assistant head district watchmen $180 and watchmen from $84 to $96. \n\n18 For examples of police corruption in nineteenth century Hong Kong see numerous references in Norton-Kyshe, op. cit. \n\n19 After a distinguished academic career at Edinburgh University, J. H. Stewart Lockhart became a Hong Kong Cadet in 1878; Registrar General in 1887; Colonial Secretary in 1895. In 1902 he was appointed first Civil Commissioner of Weihaiwei and retired from this post in 1921. Among his numerous publications there are several of sinological value. See particularly: 'Contributions to the Folklore of China', China Review, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 352-353 and vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 37-39; also 'Some Chinese Folk-lore', Folk-lore, vol. 14, 1903, pp. 292-298. Lockhart was local secretary in Hong Kong of the International Folk-lore Society. \n\n20 In 1892 new rules were drawn up under Ordinance No. 13 of 1888, with the advice of the Committee, for the regulation and guidance of the watchmen. 'Copies of these rules have been distributed among the contributors of the District Watchmen's Fund, by whom more interest seems to be evinced in and more assistance asked from the force than formerly': See Report of the Registrar General for 1892. Lockhart also persuaded two Chinese newspapers—the Tsun Wan Yat Po and the Wai San Yat Po—to publish weekly lists of cases brought before the magistrate by the District watchmen for the information of subscribers to the District Watchmen's Fund. Lockhart realised that publicity was good for the Committee: he saw that they got it. The report of the Registrar General/Secretary for Chinese Affairs always contained a section on the District Watch and news about members was given: deaths, resignations, appointments, etc. \n\n21 Wei Yuk (1849-1921) was the son of Wei Kwong, compradore to the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China. He was educated at the Government Central School in Hong Kong and in 1867, at the age of 18, became a pupil at the Leicester Stoneygate School and in 1868 of the Dollar Institution, Scotland. He returned to Hong Kong in 1872 to become assistant compradore in the Chartered Mercantile Bank. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1879. Wei Yuk married the eldest daughter of Wong Shing (Huang Shêng). He was the fourth Chinese to be appointed to the Legislative Council, the other three being Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Wong Shing and Ho Kai. He was knighted in 1919. During his public career he served on all the commissions appointed by government to inquire into matters affecting the Chinese. Ho Fook (1863-1926) was the younger half-brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung, reputed",
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    {
        "id": 206558,
        "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": 106,
        "title": "RAS-1972",
        "content_text": "100\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nSuch improvements, however, were inadequate to overcome 50 years of neglect and insensitivity to the basic requirements for good public health and in 1894 the bubonic plague descended upon Hong Kong with a vengeance.\n\nThe Great Plague of 1894 and Remedial Action\n\nLengthy accounts have been written about the bubonic plague of 1894 including case histories of the agonies suffered by its victims. Suffice it to say that of the 2,679 persons treated in government hospitals, 2,485 died in great misery giving a mortality rate of almost 93%. Of the victims, the vast majority was Chinese. The worst afflicted area was the Western district and particularly the Tai Ping Shan locality.\n\nIn seeking an answer to the outbreak, Dr. J. A. Lowson reported that:\n\nPredisposing causes are, speaking generally, insanitary conditions, and of these filth and overcrowding must be ... two of the most important factors. The district of Tai Ping Shan supplied these factors in a marked degree at the beginning of the outbreak, the majority of houses being in a most filthy condition, as owing to the uncleanly habits of the people, the amount of ... rubbish accumulates in a Chinese house ... to an extent beyond the imagination of most civilised people. When to a mixture of dust, old rags, broken crockery, moist soil etc. is added faecal matter, and the decomposing urine of animals and human beings, a terribly insanitary condition of affairs prevails; and that this is no overdrawn picture of what was to be met with in Tai Ping Shan, many Europeans know to their cost. ...10\n\nDr. Lowson made a number of strong recommendations as to the measures which should be enforced to prevent further outbreaks of bubonic plague. Among other things, he urged that existing regulations should be strictly applied regarding the design and construction of house drains, the closure of insanitary buildings and the provision of adequate lighting and ventilation of premises. He further recommended that the use of basements as domestic accommodation should be prohibited, that all wells situated in densely\n\n10 Lowson J. A., \"The Epidemic of Bubonic Plague in Hong Kong, 1894\", Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong 1895, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, Hong Kong, 1895, p. 182.",
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    {
        "id": 206990,
        "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": 61,
        "title": "RAS-1974",
        "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n55\n\nnot serve his full sentence because he was released on grounds of ill-health. But, as Des Voeux notes, the day after his release from Victoria Gaol he was seen avidly betting at the Happy Valley Race Course. He was, clearly a great card and popular with drinking circles in Hong Kong. The Telegraph was an evening newspaper. After Fraser-Smith's death, J. J. Francis became publisher and Chesney Duncan its editor.\n\n28 John Joseph Francis (1839-1901) was educated in Dublin and intended for the Catholic priesthood. But instead of entering the Church he enlisted in the Army, coming out to China in the Royal Artillery during the Second China War. He took his discharge in Hong Kong and commenced the study of law in the office of a Mr. Owens, solicitor. He was admitted to practise as an attorney in 1869 and entered into partnership with another solicitor and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Ambitious, he gained admission to Gray's Inn and was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1877. By 1888 he was the Colony's leading barrister. Francis was extremely touchy and truculent: in 1895 he returned to the Governor a silver inkstand, given to him in recognition of his work during the plague, on the grounds that the gift did not sufficiently acknowledge his services. He died of apoplexy at Yokohama's Grand Hotel in 1901. A fitting end: he was an apoplectic soul. Francis lived at 'Shirley House' in Bonham Road, a commodious residence with extensive grounds.\n\n29 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 366.\n\n30 22 November, 1888. The Hong Kong Hotel, situated in Pedder Street, was originally managed by Parsees; in 1866 it came under European management and soon became a first-class hotel with all the facilities of a good West End hotel.\n\n31 7 January, 1889.\n\n32 Soulié states that Mayréna on his way to Hong Kong marooned Afong on Hainan Island but that the intrepid Chinese took passage on a junk and appeared in Hong Kong to haunt the King of the Sedangs.\n\n33 China Mail, 7 January, 1889.\n\n34 George Murray Bain (1842-1909) was born and educated at Montrose, Scotland. He joined the China Mail as a sub-editor and reporter (some say printer) in 1864. In 1875 he became sole proprietor of the China Mail and in 1879 took over the editorship of the paper himself. With N. B. Dennys he started the China Review in 1872. The China Mail was edited from Wyndham Street, a short distance away from the Hong Kong Telegraph on Pedder's Hill. Bain, unlike Fraser-Smith, appears to have been pious, temperate, and acutely respectable.\n\n35 Hong Kong Telegraph, 27 December, 1888.\n\n36 'Drey' was the name of a Sedang locality.\n\n37 China Mail, 24 January, 1889.\n\n38 Hong Kong Telegraph, 25 January, 1889.\n\n39 7 January, 1889.\n\n40 Sir Hugh Clifford, Heroes of Exile, London, 1906, pp. 69-70. Clifford states that it was the Hong Kong merchants 'who had paid his (Mayréna's) passage and had supplied his Majesty with a little ready money' and that they had been actuated partly by a desire to remunerate one from whom they had derived so much entertainment'. Sir Hugh Clifford (1866-1941), a colonial administrator, who served in Pahang from 1887 to 1899, was, apparently, in Hong Kong in late 1888; it is possible that he had taken local leave but I have been unable to confirm the fact.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207237,
        "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": 5,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nTREASURER's Report\n\nTHE LIBRARY: and the Library Rules\n\nTRANSACTIONS OF THE BRANCH :\n\nI\n\nPage\n\n1\n\n9\n\n13\n\n16\n\nA Hong Kong Spirit-Medium Temple-JOHN T. MYERS\n\nMerchant Organisations in Late Imperial China: Patterns of Change and Development-WELLINGTON K. K. CHAN\n\n28\n\nChina's Economic Planning and Changing Geography—CHIAO-MIN HSIEH\n\n43\n\n∞ NOA\n\n48\n\n61\n\n71\n\n88\n\nARTICLES:\n\nIncident between the Hong Merchants and the Super-cargoes of the British East India Company in Canton, 1811—J. L. Cranmer-BYNG\n\nThe Great Plague of Hong Kong-E. G. PRYOR\n\nNotes on Chiuchow Opera-Helga Werle\n\nCondition of the European Working Class in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong-HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nThe Employment of Foreign Military Talent: Chinese Tradition and Late Ch'ing Practice-RICHARD J. SMITH\n\n113\n\nThe Pacific Oyster Industry in Hong Kong-BRIAN MORTON AND P. S. WONG\n\nCaptive Surgeon in Hong Kong: the Story of the British Military Hospital, Hong Kong 1942-1945- DONALD C. Bowie\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\n...\n\nThe Pottery Kilns at Wun Yiu, Tai Po-J. W. HAYES\n\nThe Noon Day Gun-CARL T. SMITH\n\nThe German Congregation in Hong Kong until 1914-CARL T. SMITH\n\n139\n\n150\n\n291\n\n292\n\n292\n\n295\n\nBoat People's Ceremonies observed from Island House, Tai Po-D. AKERS JONES\n\n300\n\nThe RAS Photographic Survey in Hong Kong—H. A. RYDINGS\n\n311\n\nChief Marshal T'ien, patron of the stage, of musicians and wrestlers-East and South East China-K. G. STEVENS\n\n303\n\nChang Yu-tang and an old Hanging Scroll from Cheung Chau-FRANCIS S. Y. SHAM AND JAMES Hayes\n\nHung Hom: an Early Industrial Village in Old British Kowloon-Carl T. SMITH AND JAMES HAYES\n\nTyphoon Preparations in 1903\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n318\n\n324\n\n327",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207301,
        "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": 69,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\nE. G. PRYOR*\n\nIntroduction\n\nThroughout its relatively short history as a British colony, Hong Kong has had to withstand many crises of a diverse nature. Typhoons, droughts, floods, economic recessions, war, influxes of refugees and riots have, at one time or another, created emergency situations for both the administration and the people of Hong Kong. However, one crisis now long forgotten, but for the records kept in dusty annals in the Colonial Secretariat library, is the outbreak of bubonic plague which first appeared in the Tai Ping Shan district in the early months of 1894.\n\nBubonic plague swept through Europe during the sixth, fourteenth and seventeenth centuries and was responsible for the deaths of many millions of people. For good reason the disease caused conditions of near panic and hysteria for once contracted the outcome in the great majority of cases was a relatively quick but agonising death. A graphic description of the symptoms of bubonic plague is given by Wilm in his Report of Plague in Hong Kong compiled in 1896. Wilm observed that:\n\n\"At the outset of the disease the tongue usually became swollen, bright red at the tip and edges and was covered with a greyish white fur. Usually, on the second or third day of the disease, the fur became brownish or black, and dried in a crust. The tongue becomes cracked and fissured so that it soon resembles that seen in typhus or in enteric fever about a third week of the disease. The lips soon became dry and often fissured, the mucous membrane of the mouth and the pharynx was usually bright red. The appetite disappeared. There was frequently uncontrollable vomiting and great thirst, with a lower part of the abdomen. The vomit was sometimes watery, sometimes bilious, sometimes like coffee grounds. Diarrhoea was frequent at the outset and again in the later stages of the disease Blood,\n\n+\n\n* Dr. Pryor is currently Assistant Director, Redevelopment & Planning, Housing Department, Hong Kong.",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207303,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 71,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n63\n\nfaced with our epidemic of great magnitude. By July, for example, there had been 2442 deaths. Hospitals were quickly established on board the \"Hygeia\", at Kennedy Town Police Station and at the Kennedy Town glass works. The first two hospitals were run by European staff whilst the third was manned by Chinese personnel of the Tung Wah hospital. Official despatches record that \"it was deemed advisable to give the Chinese doctors a free hand at first. In any case, it is difficult to persuade the Chinese to report cases of sickness and their foolish and violent prejudice against Western medical men is quite sufficient to induce them, as they certainly did in the first fortnight or three weeks of the existence of the plague, not only to secrete their sick but often to desert their plague-stricken friends and relations after death.\"*\n\nA house-to-house inspection was carried out by personnel of the garrison and those houses in which plague had occurred were cleansed and disinfected. This action gave rise to numerous complaints from the Chinese community for it was rumoured that the foreigners had sinister and unspeakable desires on the women and children. Indeed, so inflamed did feelings become that a deputation of Chinese petitioned the Governor, Sir William Robinson, to order the cleansing operations to be stopped. However, Sir William made it clear in no uncertain terms that the government was determined to take strong measures. Subsequently, an anti-government poster campaign was launched and this spread to Canton where further rumours were started to the effect that English doctors were accused of cutting open pregnant women and scooping out the eyes of children to make medicines for the treatment of plague-stricken patients.\n\nThe prompt answer of the governor in Hong Kong was to station the gunboat \"Tweed\" off Tai Ping Shan and to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of persons distributing malicious posters. Additionally, the Chinese Viceroy in Canton was requested to issue proclamations denying the atrocity stories. However, these were not made with any great degree of vigour and feelings in Canton continued to run high to the extent that two women missionary doctors were set upon by a mob.\n\n* \"Further Correspondence Relative to the Outbreak of Bubonic Plague at Hong Kong between Sir William Robinson to the Marquess of Ripon 1894\", p. 2 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1903, Hong Kong.",
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    {
        "id": 207305,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 73,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n65\n\nconsiderable sum of money. However, compliance with this regulation was seldom observed. House to house visits continued to detect afflicted premises but this also proved difficult. Usually, bodies were thrown out at night by the other occupants of infected houses so as to avoid detection and the subsequent disinfection of the premises. In 1900, for example, 412 dead bodies were dumped in the harbour,\n\nWhen the disinfection of houses was undertaken it was the usual practice for the occupants to be issued with new clothes. Their own clothes, bedding, curtains and carpets were sent to a steam disinfecting station. The premises were then thoroughly cleaned by spraying the walls with a solution of perchloride of mercury; alternatively, rooms were fumigated with free chlorine obtained by the addition of diluted sulphuric acid to chlorinated lime. Finally, the floors and furniture were scrubbed with Jeyes fluid and the walls were lime-washed. During these operations the occupants were given temporary accommodation on Chinese marriage boats anchored off Stonecutters Island.\n\nOther measures taken included the burial of the dead in a plague cemetery at Kennedy Town and the regular disinfecting of all public latrines with chlorinated lime.\n\nIn Search of an Answer\n\nThe suddenness of the attack of plague in 1894 and its continued virulence for the next two decades must have caused great dismay among the community in general, particularly as it also seemed impossible for modern science to eradicate the basic cause of the disease.\n\nWhen Sir William Robinson reported to the Marquess of Ripon in 1894 on the course of events he wrote:\n\n\"It is, I think, very probable that the want of sufficient water and the filthy habits of life amongst the 210,000 Chinese who reside here have rendered Hong Kong liable to the invasion and development of the germ of the bubonic plague. Chinese are of the opinion that the plague emanates from the ground and is favoured by a long continuance of dry weather when the earth becomes porous and numerous fissures appear on the surface facilitating the escape of whatever causes the disease.\"*\n\n* Ibid, p. 5.",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207306,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 74,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "66\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nSuch wild speculation may well have created a fatalistic attitude to the inevitability of the plague as a natural phenomenon and consequently limited an awareness of the need to search in other directions. However, the desperate need to find a solution prompted a considerable amount of inquiry and reflection by a number of independent observers and some of these researchers deserve a fuller mention.\n\nDr. Gomes da Silva, the Principal Medical Officer of Macau gave an account of the disease which affected the Portuguese colony in 1895. He records that during a visit to Canton he had observed a strange disease that attacked \"only Chinese ..... and rats\" and that the same disease spread from Hong Kong to Macau in 1895. In drawing attention to the association of the plague with rats Dr. da Silva also described the general sanitary condition of Canton which he concluded was a further causal factor. He records that house refuse was usually thrown into the streets where it accumulated until such time as the torrential summer rains and the overflow of the Pearl River cleared it away. However, between May and September 1894 it did not rain to any great extent with the consequence that large quantities of rubbish accumulated and reached an advanced state of putrefaction. These conditions were paralleled by outbreaks of plague. Conversely, Dr. da Silva observed that when the summer rains were early and abundant the disease seldom occurred.\n\nIt is now not difficult to establish the chain of events that must have occurred, namely that during prolonged dry spells when refuse piled up in the streets colonies of rats thrived on the nourishment so carelessly provided. As the rats multiplied, so did the fleas and from but one source of infection carried by the fleas the disease spread like a forest fire first through the population of rats and then to homo-sapiens.\n\nHowever, amidst the wild speculation of how the disease was communicated to man scientific researches undertaken by Alexandre Yersin in Hong Kong established in June 1894 that the bacillus, pasteurella pestis, was the direct cause of plague. This was subsequently confirmed by two Japanese doctors, Professors Kitasato and Aoyama, who were also pursuing researches in the colony. Conclusive evidence was obtained by injecting animals with a virus preparation. Notwithstanding, the means of transmission of the",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207307,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 75,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n67\n\ndisease to man remained a mystery and the two Japanese researchers could only conclude that the bacillus was drawn from the air by breathing.\n\nFurther investigations soon established a positive relationship between the incidence of plague first among rats and subsequently among man. On this account, Simpson reported in 1902 that “no success is likely to accrue from the adoption of any measure limited to dealing with plague in human beings and which does not take cognizance of the fact that plague in rats and mice also disseminates the infection. It does not serve any very useful purpose to remove the sick and cleanse everything in the infected houses and above the ground if the infection is being carried by plague-stricken rats from house to house or district to district by the subterranean movements of rats, whether this be effected by rat burrows or by sewers and drains. Both rat and human plague possess infective powers and each can spread the disease not only to its own species but also to the other”.*\n\nSimpson could offer no explanation as to the medium of infection although he did make a number of observations as to the conditions which appeared to favour the spread of the disease. In particular, he drew attention to the extremely crowded and insanitary conditions under which the majority of the Chinese population lived, the virtually unrestricted migration of thousands of people from infected areas in China to Hong Kong, and the fact that the colony served as a great emporium with hongs and godowns filled with stores and infested with rats.\n\nSimpson saw the solution to the problem by way of the strict enforcement of various preventive measures. Besides the already well-established procedures for the disinfection of houses, public latrines, and the like, he recommended in 1902 the appointment of medical men in every health district to register cases and find out causes of the disease. He also urged the strict control over the disposal of dead bodies in the street and harbour, and, to this end, suggested the enforcement of collective fines on all households in any street where a dead body was discovered. He further saw the necessity for the bacteriological examination of rats as part of an\n\n* First Memorandum from W. J. Simpson, M.D., to James Stewart Lockhart, Sanitary Board Office, 20th January 1902, p. 1 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76",
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        "id": 207308,
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        "page_number": 76,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "68\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nintelligence service to pin-point danger spots and proposed the distribution of 100,000 hand bills publicising the causes and symptoms of plague, the destruction of rats and the addresses of places where sickness could be reported. Another recommendation was the establishment of a plague department with wide powers for the discovery, prevention and cure of plague including inoculation with a highly potent horse antiserum prepared at the Haffkine Institute in India.\n\nA final recommendation made by Simpson was a general improvement of sanitary conditions and stricter control over the design of tenement blocks which he described as follows:\n\n\"The rooms, as a rule, are far too deep, the object of this depth being to subdivide each room into a number of cubicles for the accommodation of families or lodgers. Though there may be windows at each end of the room, the great depth materially obstructs the light to take an example from the better class of buildings, many of the houses that are being erected are eighty feet deep without lateral windows and contain long, narrow rooms of fifty-five feet in depth, by twelve or thirteen feet in width, lighted in front by a window and also in the rear by another window which looks into a backyard of twelve feet. . . .”*\n\nFrom the recommendations made by Simpson arose the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 which set new standards for the design and occupancy of buildings and which remained in force until 1935.\n\nBy 1904 a considerable amount of deductive evidence had accumulated to link the occurrence of plague to the fleas carried by rats. Dr. J. M. Howie of Changpoo, for example, was of the opinion that the main cause of plague was inoculation through the bite of fleas, lice and mosquitos. Dr. H. Dobson of Yung Kong also noted that the cases he had observed appeared to have been caused by \"the bites of insects (fleas), contamination of open wounds on legs or elsewhere (or) through food containing the germ.\" William Hunter, the Government Bacteriologist of Hong Kong also noted\n\n* Second Memorandum from W. J. Simpson to James Stewart Lockhart Sanitary Board Office, 20th March 1902, p. 15 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907.\n\n+ W. J. Simpson, Report on the Causes and Continuance of Plague in Hong Kong and Suggestions as to Remedial Measures, London, 1903, p. 31.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207309,
        "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": 77,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "THE GREAT PLAGUE OF HONG KONG\n\n69\n\nthat \"Simond...... has given a great deal of attention to this subject (and) came to the conclusion that Indian rat fleas bite man and that rat fleas spread plague from one rat to another and also to the human species.\"* However, Hunter himself was not convinced of this theory and subscribed to the view that cockroaches picked up the bacillus and transferred the disease to food stuffs. Others shared his scepticism.\n\nFinally, studies undertaken in 1905-06 by the Indian Plague Commission in Bombay conclusively established that fleas were the principal agents of transmission. Of the 1500 species of fleas about 100 can transmit plague; the most widely disseminated is Xenopsylla cheopis which is equally at home on rats or homo sapiens. At one feeding on a rat, the blood of which contains 100 million organisms per millilitre, a flea will ingest about 5000 organisms which then multiply in the flea's digestive tract. Later, its proventriculus becomes plugged by gelatinous masses of bacilli and, as a result, the valvular action becomes impaired. Because of this obstruction, blood cannot be sucked into the stomach. The esophagus becomes distended and the elastic recoil of the walls of both pharynx and gullet when the flea stops sucking may drive back into the bite wound highly infective blood. An infected flea may regurgitate as many as 10,000 to 24,000 organisms at one biting. Many species of fleas, however, may become infected without incurring blockages and these may never become pestiferous unless they have fed on severely infected rodents.\n\nOnce a rat has become infected and subsequently dies the fleas carried thereon migrate to another host when the corpse loses its body heat. When the rat population has become decimated the fleas transfer their attention to human beings. This sequence of events thus explains the commonly observed phenomenon that plague in rats precedes plague among the inhabitants of infected premises.\n\nEven though the discovery of how plague was transferred from rats to man enabled more effective preventive measures to be taken to eradicate the disease in Hong Kong, it continued to afflict the colony until as late as 1929 when two cases were recorded. Virulent\n\n*W. Hunter, A Research into Epidemic and Epizootic Plague, Hong Kong, 1904, p. 32.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
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        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208892,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1980",
        "page_number": 54,
        "title": "RAS-1980",
        "content_text": "26 \n\nKEITH G. STEVENS \n\ntyphoon and rebuilt some two centuries later on the site of the present Tian Hou temple in Joss House Bay,27 \n\nThere have been several apparent brief bursts of temple building in Hong Kong since the arrival of the British. One was in the early days of Hong Kong in the 1840's; another spurt during the period of growing prosperity in the 1870/1880's; another during the era of the plague (the 1890's); and another in the 1950's during the massive influx of refugees. Many temples were renovated during the latter days of the Qing dynasty, and by the Hong Kong government's Chinese Temples Committee since the second world war,28 \n\nTemples are expensive buildings and are built mainly in times of economic affluence. Although many temples are receiving less and less attention from keepers and grass grows high in temple yards, others are expanding and have been refurbished at great cost. \n\nOne should not be misled into believing a temple to be old by its condition, as the climate ages buildings very rapidly on the coast of China. The dilapidated state of some dozen or so traditional temples gives the impression of centuries of neglect, whereas most were working temples up to a decade or two ago. Others looking almost new are, in reality, traditional temples which have been rebuilt or refurbished with the assistance of large government subsidies. However, many modern renovations have changed the original character both of the altars and of the temples themselves. \n\nThe Hong Kong Government has been meticulous in providing assistance whenever it has needed to encroach upon temple property. One site in Lo Fu Hang between Castle Peak and Yuen Long where a government department authorised a quarry to be opened and in the process ordered the removal of three ramshackle huts termed \"temples\", one large and two small concrete and tile edifices were built nearby to rehouse the gods. \n\nChaozhou immigrants who settled in Hong Kong during the fifties and sixties quickly discovered that their shanty dwellings on hillsides, considered illegal by the Hong Kong Government, were torn down by officials. They also quickly discovered that British officials, fearing to tread on religious susceptibilities, were more lenient towards religious structures. The Chaozhou immigrants therefore built for themselves small, rough temples of corrugated iron and wood and, as an annex, a small living area, and more often",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209886,
        "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": 145,
        "title": "RAS-1983",
        "content_text": "123\n\nwhenever there is an outbreak of plague or other serious epidemic; but within the fifty years' collective memory of the mid 1960s managers this had only happened once, about 1915. The committee of managers does not run money loan or funeral benefit schemes, nor does it undertake general welfare or community work. It is, and was, it seems, concerned only with ensuring the continued protection of the area through the faithful and regular performance of religious rites and their accompanying entertainment. The god's image was always brought to the place where the puppets were being shown, and to the restaurant where the annual dinner was held at which the leaders were selected.\n\nIt will be seen from this account of their duties that these managers did not have the wider general functions performed by the leaders of the three Fong on Ap Lei Chau. They were kaifongs, but they were not the Kaifong, a role played by the predecessors of the postwar Western Kaifong Association, Ltd., whose premises are located at Possession Point.\n\nThe method of selecting the managers has differed little over the period 1910-1965, although it was apparently more protracted and complicated in pre-war years. This was because there were more interested parties than there have been since the war, when redevelopment of old properties has gradually taken large numbers of former residents away from the area, and so beyond the immediate area of the god's protection.\n\nIn pre-war times there might be up to 100 interested parties who wished to become chik lei, but as stated, only 40-50 were required. The selection was left to the god. It was the practice for all persons wishing to serve on the committee to go to the shrine at an appointed time on the god's birthday. Lots were drawn in front of the altar. The number of tickets matched the number of aspirants. Only, say, 40 of the papers were marked chik lei, the rest being marked with the characters tai kat (1/2) or 'great fortune'. Only those securing the first went forward to the second stage in the selection of managers. This was the filling of the three senior posts of chung (#4), fu (§]) and hip chik lei (£), or principal, deputy and assistant (senior) manager, This event was conducted in a restaurant at the annual dinner held in the first moon. Again, the selection was made in",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210702,
        "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": 53,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "36\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nmember, being re-elected in 1891 and 1894, until his resignation in 1895. It was a substantial commitment, involving fortnightly meetings and reading papers in-between meetings. Considerations of space allow reference only to certain events in 1894 and 1895 for which Francis is best known. Suffice it to say that he appeared to try to dominate the proceedings of the Board but at the same time had an ambivalent attitude to it because he considered that it did not have sufficient powers and independence to make it an effective body. For example, in March 1894 he seconded a proposal that it be reconstructed on a popular basis but also argued that that was premature until its powers had been enlarged. Prior to the election in June 1891 the Daily Press said that he had rendered good service and that his keen and ever-ready criticism, sometimes perhaps degenerating into captiousness, had exercised a wholesome influence both on the Board and its officers. The China Mail in its obituary said that he was not an unqualified success and his performance as a member of the Board might have deprived him of support for a place on the Legislative Council.\n\nIn May 1894 plague struck Hong Kong, and a Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board, comprising three members with Francis as Chairman, was set up to cope with the emergency. It met daily at his chambers at 4 p.m. Its actions were not universally popular. It was in conflict with the Government on occasion, and at one stage was said to be daggers drawn with the Governor. The business community complained that its activities had an adverse effect on commerce, and its relations with the Chinese community were not assisted by wild rumours such as that pregnant women were cut open and children's eyes were gouged out to make medicines for the treatment of the plague. There were recriminations as to whose fault had led to the outbreak and whether the right steps were taken to combat it. Francis bluntly laid the blame on gross mismanagement by the Public Works Department. Whatever the rights and wrongs of particular matters, there were many tributes to his work. The Governor in a dispatch to the Secretary of State, Lord Ripon, in June said that the Permanent Committee acted with extraordinary energy and efficiency and that the Government was indebted to him and others. The acting Attorney General paid tribute to his great assistance, at enormous sacrifice of time, and his wonderful and rapid grasp of any subject and great",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210704,
        "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": 55,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "38\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nThe members elected in 1899 resigned in April 1901 on the ground that the Board could do nothing effective until it received adequate and independent powers, a view that Francis always held. Hong Kong had to wait until 1936 and the creation of the Urban Council for any further advance toward democratic local government.\n\nThe passing of the plague was followed not only by a post-mortem but also by a consideration of who should be rewarded, and how, for services rendered during the plague. The two outstanding candidates were F.H. May, the Captain Superintendent of Police, who served on the Permanent Committee, and Francis. In September 1894 at a public meeting a committee was appointed, with Edward Ackroyd as chairman, to decide on awards to be made on behalf of the community. In December Ackroyd wrote to the Governor \"The Committee consider that to Mr. Francis their best thanks are due for all his exertions and the time he devoted to the wants of the Colony for so many weeks. As Chairman of the Permanent Committee Mr. Francis had a heavy, troublesome and laborious task to perform, and throughout the duration of the epidemic he was unremitting in his devotion to his duties and gave up a great portion of his time, no doubt to the detriment of his extensive practice, to carry on the work he had voluntarily undertaken. Your Excellency is too well acquainted with his services for any need of further mention. Our Committee decided that his actions are deserving of the fullest recognition, that the best thanks of the community, with a good medal, should be tendered to him, and that his valuable services and useful work should be brought, through Your Excellency, to the special notice of the Secretary of State\". Meanwhile the Government was considering what recommendations it should make. It was chiefly concerned with officials but also considered non-officials including Francis. In September the Governor in writing to the Secretary of State expressed the hope that the latter had not failed to notice the untiring and energetic effects on behalf of the public weal of the medical staff and of Francis. However he seems to have been lukewarm to the suggestion, apparently favoured by May, that Francis should have the C.M.G. saying that he had no objection but \"it was easily earned\". He appears to have suggested that silver inkstands be given to the Colonial Surgeon and Francis but to no",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210705,
        "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": 56,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "39\n\none else. The general expectation was that May and Francis would be treated in the same way. However, whereas May was awarded the C.M.G., Francis was merely offered an inkstand. The discrepancy was made all the more apparent by the fact that inkstands were also awarded to a number of junior officials.\n\nOn 22 May 1895 the Governor wrote to Francis \"By the direction of the Marquess of Ripon I have great pleasure in forwarding to you the accompanying handsome inkstand. You will find engraved on it the following inscription: 'Presented by the Hong Kong Government with the approval of Her Majesty's Government to J.J. Francis Esq., Q.C., Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board, in recognition of services rendered during the epidemic of bubonic plague at Hong Kong in 1894'. For those services you have already been thanked by me, and also by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In again expressing my appreciation of the work which you then performed so willingly and so ably it only remains for me now to ask you to accept this inkstand from the Government of Hong Kong as a slight recognition of your disinterested and valuable labours during the epidemic of 1894\". Francis replied in a letter dated 27th May which he made public. After reviewing the work of the Permanent Committee and his part in it he said that the Public Committee felt that a medal or piece of plate, however valuable, was no sufficient acknowledgement for his services and in the circumstances it was impossible for him to accept the inkstand. He was perfectly satisfied with the thanks of the community and the Governor and Secretary of State and would have sufficient memorial of the plague year in the gold medal to be presented by his fellow citizens and in the state of his fee book. He would have been highly gratified if he had been honoured in the same way as May but the gift of an inkstand was so ludicrously inadequate to the services he had rendered that he could only conclude that the Secretary of State was under a false impression as to their nature. It was usual in England, or at least always had been, to award the honours of the campaign to the leader. He had done his work freely and voluntarily and without a thought, at the time, of anything beyond serving the colony but he now had a duty to speak out in justice to the Public Committee.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210707,
        "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": 58,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "41\n\nwith Mr. Francis. The procedure of the Hong Kong Government towards him seems miserably failing in tact. The Government was contemptible but Mr. Francis has diverted to himself a portion of the criticism that would otherwise have been monopolised by the Government. The whole affair makes an ugly page in the annals of the colony\".\n\nThere was reaction also inside the Government. Ackroyd wrote to the Colonial Office saying \"Mr. Francis is not a general favourite in Hong Kong and therefore the feeling in his favour on this occasion is all the more forcible testimony”. A Government memorandum recorded \"It has been decided not to give Francis the C.M.G. and it is impossible to vary that decision in the light of his letters. It will be seen that in his letter of 29 May he asks for the reason why he has not been honoured to the same extent as May. He should be politely told that the Secretary of State must decline to enter into correspondence on the subject”. The Governor recommended that Francis should be noted for a C.M.G. \"if he is quiet between this and then\" (i.e. the next honours list). According to a memorandum in 1902 Francis was so noted but “it was not finally decided that he should be given the C.M.G.”\n\nAfter the death of Francis, Ackroyd wrote to the Daily Press “He was a most useful citizen. As Chairman of the Plague Recognition Committee I recall he had put aside his professional duties and sacrificed his large practice for some months to help the Colony in her hour of trial\" (in fact he did not entirely abandon his practice). “He did a great and good work and I deeply regretted that these deserving services had not met with their reward but I suppose some official jealousy prevented him receiving that mark of Her Majesty's favour which he surely deserved and which he would greatly have appreciated\". The Colonial Secretary, J.H. Stewart Lochkart, brought this letter to the attention of the Governor writing “Ackroyd was knighted and now draws a handsome pension of more than £1,200 a year. So far as the Hong Kong Government is concerned his supposition of official jealousy is entirely unfounded. The services of Francis were brought to the notice of the Colonial Office by Sir William Robinson, and Mr. May when he was on leave at home also informed the Colonial Office of the good work done by Francis. I believe he would have been decorated but he published an injudicious letter after receiving the historical inkpot",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211417,
        "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": 133,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "109\n\nfollowing summer, on 25 July 1896, he wrote that he was working in Chicago because he now had to support not only himself but also a wife. On 23 April 1897, he announced that he had graduated the day before, and he felt it was a great honour. He liked medicine and hoped to pursue post-graduate studies in New York. Instead we find him practising in San Francisco by 24 December 1897, but because he was not doing well, he thought he might leave for Hawaii or Shanghai after the Chinese New Year.\n\nUncle decided to go to Shanghai and on the way there he stopped in Honolulu to visit with the family. He wrote on 15 June 1898 from China that he had been thinking of Father and Ping Lim ever since he left them. He enjoyed Shanghai, which he described as a beautiful and luxurious city where inhabitants were either very rich or very poor. He was paying 25 dollars a month for a pleasant office on the corner of Ningpo and Szechuan Roads, with living quarters in the back for himself, Aunt and their two servants. Although his income of 60 dollars a month was quite adequate, he wished that he had taken up dentistry as it would have brought an income of 1,000 dollars a month, or mining which was then gaining importance in official circles. He advised his two brothers to consider these professions even though job opportunities might be limited, or they would have to serve under someone. In response, Father indicated he would like to take up one of the careers suggested and asked for financial help, but Uncle wrote back on 29 August 1898 that although his practice was improving, he could not save anything; nor could he assist Father at that time, but perhaps he could the following year. After a few slow months, Uncle decided to teach an evening class to meet expenses, and by March 1899, he had six students paying him each two dollars a month. Two months later, he had 18 students in three classes.\n\nIn July 1899, Uncle noted that Father was not going to school but was working as a newspaper reporter and commended him on choosing a good subject to deliver at his graduation exercises. Uncle found the winters in Shanghai very cold and the summers very hot. There were many deaths from the extreme heat and the plague, which was raging in Hong Kong, Canton and Heong Shan. Uncle still wanted to go back to America as he felt there was no place like 'Blessed America'. In December he wrote that he was grieved over the news of the death of their mother (Grandfather's second wife), and that he would wear",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211669,
        "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": 84,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "59\n\ndeities are not pestilence deities. The confusion has been compounded by the Fukienese themselves when over the years they unconsciously accepted all deities bearing the honorific Wang Yeh as protectors from epidemics.\n\nNOTES\n\nThe term Wang Yeh is best translated perhaps as 'The Excellencies'. It was a title given to imperial princes or lords, and interestingly it was also a term used by robbers for their brigand chief. See Plates 9-14 for illustrations to this article.\n\n2 There has long been controversy whether the Pestilence Wang Yeh are shen (Supernatural beings, spirits or deities) or kuei (shades of the human dead and pejoratively used for ghosts, spectres and demons). One god carver in Singapore explained that Pestilence Wang Yeh are \"half-deities\", (pan shen) that is half-shen and half-kuei. However, whilst a number of Pestilence Wang Yeh have ferocious faces, the great majority are portrayed as standard deities with no indication of demonic characteristics. An elderly and authoritative Fukienese god carver in Singapore explained in hushed tones that the Pestilence Wang Yeh are neither gods nor demons, are feared but not revered, and not only protect against plague but also cause it. They are, he repeated, semi-deities from the lower echelons of the bureaucracy of the Afterworld who do not like the human world and therefore cause trouble and bring calamity and misfortune. However, if prayed to they are quite prepared to care for devotees who seek protection. For this reason, more often than not the scale of devotion and offerings to the Pestilence Wang Yeh is greater than that provided to more powerful but orthodox gods.\n\nE\n\nDoolittle J. Social Life of the Chinese 2 Vols: New York: (1865).\n\nA god carver in Singapore suggested that Pestilence Wang Yeh have been given surnames so that no particular surname group is left without a specific deity to worship.\n\nThe only time that all images can be guaranteed to be on their altar in their temple is during the temple's annual festival.\n\nThe altar of Chu Wang Yeh in a temple in Lukang, Taiwan was destroyed by a flood some fifteen years ago. Of the three Wang Yeh images in the temple at that time (Chu, Ting and Nieh) only one image, that of Chu, was recovered. Although a new temple has been built for the three but only containing one image, the one of Chu recovered from the flood, devotees have largely stopped away. They seem to have lost confidence in deities who were unable to protect themselves against disaster.\n\n7\n\n**At Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong in the afternoon of the third day (of the chiao festival of ritual purification held every ten years) a ('paper boat') ritual to chase away the Demon of Pestilence is performed. A Taoist issues orders to a Heavenly Envoy to carry off the boat and puts the Demon of Plague on a boat and leaves it in the outer seas. The Heavenly Envoy, like the King of Ghosts (Yenlo Wang), has a fierce-looking face. It is an image of about one metre high and the boat is a small one of about one and a half metres long. A Taoist lifts the Heavenly Envoy to a stage in the matshed theatre and chants a question-and-answer song which instructs the Heavenly Envoy. Having finished that, the villagers then put the Heavenly Envoy into the boat loaded with offerings. The boat is taken to the sea shore and left on the waters.\" Tanaka Issei: \"The Jiao festival in Hong Kong and the New Territories\", The Turning of the Tide Religion in China Today: Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong); (1989), p. 287.\n\n8 There is a K'ang Yuanshuai, ie Marshal K'ang, on several Taiwanese altars where he",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213094,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1993",
        "page_number": 162,
        "title": "RAS-1993",
        "content_text": "143\n\nnewspapers were to recall that 'he was an exceedingly courteous and popular official and earned the respect of all with whom he was brought into contact' all except Lowson perhaps.\n\nJohn Jonathan Francis was first admitted as an attorney and solicitor in 1870 and called to the Bar in 1877. In 1887, he became the third barrister in Hong Kong to become a Queen's Counsel. He had served as a police magistrate and a puisne judge. For public service, he was once a captain in the Hong Kong Volunteers Corps, standing counsel for the Hong Kong College of Medicine when it was being established, and Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board. There is an amusing and unflattering story about him told by Norton-Kyshe which gives us an insight into his character. He was presented with a silver ink-stand in 1895 in recognition of his services during the Epidemic but he returned it because he considered himself slighted by the treatment he received as compared with Mr. May who had been his colleague on the Committee.' May was awarded the CMG which Francis thought should also be given to him instead of a mere ink-stand.\n\nHowever, two other government officials, the Colonial Surgeon and the Captain Superintendent of Police, whose parts were of great importance, apparently escaped Lowson's wrath. Dr. Phineas Ayres held the office for twenty-four years, from 1872 to 1897, the longest ever in the history of the medical service. After he took up his post, he had been very critical of the sanitary conditions in the native quarters in his annual reports. Despite his warnings, it was almost ten years later than Osbert Chadwick was asked to conduct a survey. In his Report published in 1882, Chadwick made many recommendations to improve the conditions. Although a Sanitary Board was constituted to take action, still not much was done for another ten years until the Plague Epidemic burst upon the scene. Endacott wrote that Ayres criticised the Sanitary Board for its 'long, wordy, windy, desultory rambling discussions, ending in nothing being done' in 1895, the second year of the Epidemic. One can see why Lowson had some respect for him. Again quoting from Endacott, Robinson described Ayres as 'having a rather foolish manner, but he is in perfect possession of his senses', and acknowledged that 'he had warned the Colony continuously of the evil sanitary conditions.'\n\nMr. May won universal acclaim and admiration for the drive and energy he showed in carrying out his duties as head of the police force. Sayers",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213506,
        "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": 102,
        "title": "RAS-1995",
        "content_text": "70\n\nof that street is practically shut up. The mortality here was very great. The inhabitants were principally night-soil coolies and almost all died. The occupants of houses in Third Street, adjoining this were also numerously attacked \" (Lowson, 1895, P5)\n\nIn 1895, plague cases were found centred in First Street and several streets not far from the Civil Hospital. In 1902, a group of cases were discovered round Pokfulam Road and Second Street. Infected rats were also found in that area.\n\nAfter the breaking out of the plague, thousands of panic-stricken people began to leave Hong Kong. They left in every sort of conveyance: sampans, boats, junks, and river steamers. People of Sai Ying Pun could also leave by ambulance boats, which came to the China Merchants Wharf at 4 p.m. each day, on which the people were towed to Whampoa or Canton. At 1901, the population of the district was 44,722, a decrease of 848 people when compared with the 1897 figure.\n\nDr Lowson in 1895 and Dr Simpson in 1902 had both made a number of strong recommendations as to the measures which should be enforced to prevent further outbreaks of bubonic plague. According to them, back-to-back houses should be demolished. Basements should not be inhabited. Disinfected or rat-ridden houses should be either closed or walled in or thoroughly sprayed, fumigated, chlorinated, scrubbed, and lime-washed. Latrines and public markets should be maintained by the authorities in a clean condition.\n\nThe last recommendation was particularly important to the district. A latrine in the Sai Ying Pun Market was situated only three yards distant from a large quantity of meat which was often hanging for hours at a time. On the other hand, hot water tanks and bath houses, for the purposes of promoting cleanliness among the Chinese and thus preventing the spread of plague among them, were established in Second and Third Streets in 1903. A Public Health and Building Ordinance was passed in order to better sanitary conditions in Hong Kong. Unlike Tai Ping Shan district, Sai Ying Pun was excluded from schemes of resumption. However, at that time, most of the houses in Sai Ying Pun did need destruction and resumption rather than improvement of the sanitary arrangements. Actually, a few areas in the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215544,
        "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": 321,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "271\n\nth see HKGG Notification 691 of 17 August 1906. A certain number of graves in the cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1914, see HKGG Notices 449 of 13 November 1914. Another removal of graves was ordered in 1930 for 'the proper laying out of such area in connection with the Aberdeen Waterwork Scheme,' see HKGG Notice 539 of 29th August 1930. Removal of all graves and urns in this cemetery was finally ordered in 1949, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949.\n\n7\n\n69 This cemetery was later referred to as in Chinese, see HKGG Notice 580 of 26th November 1920. In 1948, all graves and urns, other than those in 'Section D,' were ordered to be removed, see HKGG Notice 1071 of 19th November 1948.\n\n70 Information supplied by the Rev. Carl T. Smith. Other references in regard to the erection of this cemetery have not been found yet.\n\n71 Ticozzi, pp. 102-103.\n\n72 Pryor, E.G. (1975). The Great Plague of Hong Kong (1894), The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol.15, p. 64.\n\n73 Apart from this plague cemetery, a 1907 War Office map kept at the PRO at Kew (WO78/5332) also shows a 'Plague burial ground (1894)' at Sandy Bay, at about the site of the present Duke of Kent Children's Hospital. In 1948, the removal of all bodies and remains of bodies in 'Kennedy Town Cemetery' was ordered, it is not certain if this cemetery was the same plague cemetery, see HKGG Notice 700 of 30th July 1948.\n\nst\n\n74 HKGG Notification 473 of 31 August 1901. On the eastern edge of St. Raphael's Catholic Cemetery in Cheung Sha Wan, there is a large charitable grave dating back to 1894, the year of the Great Plague, erected by the Tung Wah Hospital. This grave may be associated with the plague cemetery,\n\n75 HKGG Notice 164 of 26th March 1926.\n\n76 HKGG Notice 555 of 8th October 1926.\n\n77 HKGG Notification 466 of 15th September 1900.\n\n78 Tai Shek Ku was generally referred to an area to the north-east of the old Ho",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]