[
    {
        "id": 205849,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1969",
        "page_number": 155,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "149\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n\"BETHESDA\" AND THE BERLINER FRAUENVEREIN FÜR CHINA\n\nThe following is an extract from a letter written on 15th August 1968 to the Hon. Editor by Pastor Albrecht Plag of the German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong.\n\nTo my knowledge, the first foundling house to be established and built in Hong Kong was the one founded by the \"Berliner Frauenverein für China\". This body was formed at Berlin in 1850 under the influence and through the efforts of the German Protestant pioneer missionary to China, the Rev. Dr. Karl Gützlaff whose contribution to the early history of Hong Kong is well known. He is buried at the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley.*\n\nThe history of that foundling house, which was named \"Bethesda\", is given (at least up to 1897) in the book Aus der deutschen Mission unter dem weiblichen Geschlechte in China (C. F. Winter'sche Buchdruckerei, Darmstadt, 1889, 3. Aufl. 1897) by Miss Luise Cooper. According to this source, “Bethesda” was designed and built by Mr. C. St. G. Cleverly, the then Surveyor-General for the Hong Kong Government. The dedication ceremony took place on 5th July, 1861. The site was bought for HK$720 by the \"Berliner Frauenverein für China\" (Hong Kong representative at that time: Mr. Ladendorff), probably in 1860 or early 1861. The size of the lot is given as 350 ft. long and 150 ft. wide and the annual crown rent is £23 and 2 sh. per year. It must have been quite a respectable building, situated on a hill overlooking the harbour somewhere in the western part of Hong Kong Island.*\n\nIn 1881, on the same property, just next to \"Bethesda\", the German Lutheran Congregation of the time built their own little church. A few years earlier, they had elected the Rev. E. Klitzke, the then director of \"Bethesda\", as their pastor. However, soon after Rev. Klitzke died (in 1883) that predecessor of our present German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong (constituted in 1965) declined and ceased to exist. Klitzke is also buried at the Colonial Cemetery.\n\n* See Plates 16 and 17, kindly supplied by Pastor Plag.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 205850,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1969",
        "page_number": 156,
        "title": "RAS-1969",
        "content_text": "150 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\n“Bethesda\" was forced to close down due to the unfortunate consequences of the First World War, and as yet, I have not been able to locate the old \"Bethesda\". Where was its exact location? Are early Hong Kong Government records regarding the lease or sale of land still available for the period concerned (1860/61) and maps showing the land distribution and property rights? \n\nBeing concurrently pastor of the present German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong and chairman of the Ebenezer School and Home for the Blind, which branched off from \"Bethesda\" in 1897 specializing in the care of blind girls, I have a double interest in the question of locating the former \"Bethesda\", an institution connected with the history both of Ebenezer and our German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong. \n\nHong Kong, 1968. \n\nALBRECHT PLAG \n\nTHE COMET OF 1532 \n\nRecently, while working on the biography of Feng En (1491 - 1571) I encountered an interesting problem about a comet. But first let me make a few remarks about the man. \n\nHe came from a family settled in Hua-t'ing, southwest of Shanghai, which had originally belonged to the military category. Somehow he managed to get a sound education and achieve the advanced degree, or chin-shih, in 1526, and receive the appointment of censor in Nanking. While serving in that capacity a comet appeared on September 2, 1532, and continued to illuminate the sky for 115 days, disappearing (according to the section on astronomy of the Ming shih 27/11a) on December 26. This was no ordinary phenomenon. The comet later known in Europe as Halley's, had appeared just the year before (August 5 to September 7, 1531) and lasted only 34 days. The young emperor, Chu Hou-ts'ung (born 1507), and his entire court took it seriously. According to the theology of the day, which went back at least to the second century before our era, and probably many hundreds of years earlier, someone in high office must be to blame. Chang Fu-ching \n\n(1475 - 1539), senior grand secretary, probably following a nudge from the throne, resigned. Feng En, along with a number of other officials, did not consider his resignation enough.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207534,
        "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": 302,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "294\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe innkeeper of the German Inn was Christian Frederick William Petersen. He conducted a tavern and boarding house for sailors until his death in 1896, aged 64. The German Tavern was located on the south side of Queen's Road, not far west from the Gough Street steps. His wife was probably Chinese as baptisms of their children were recorded in the Chinese congregation of the London Missionary Society.\n\nThe Hong Kong Blue Books under 'Ecclesiastical Returns' lists as a place of worship for Europeans the chapel of the Berlin Mission House from 1871 through 1919, though services were probably not held during the war years. From this source we can draw up a list of pastors of this German (Lutheran) congregation:\n\nErnest Klitzke. The inscription on his tombstone in the Colonial Cemetery, Happy Valley reads, \"Pastor of the German Congregation in Hong Kong 1867-1881.\"\n\nChristian Wilhelm Louis. Pastor from the death of Klitzke in 1881 to his own death in July, 1883. He was the son-in-law of Rev. J. L. Ladendorff.\n\nF. E. W. Hartmann, 1883-1890\n\nRichard F. F. Gottschalk, 1891-1897\n\nTh. Kriele, 1898-1904\n\nJ. Müller, 1905-1911\n\nFr. von Probst, 1913\n\nThe attendance at the Chapel, as listed in the Blue Book returns, was never large, ranging between 20 and 40.\n\nThe congregation originally met in the chapel within the Berlin Foundling House, but in 1881 they occupied a small chapel built on the same premises. The China Mail, Nov. 24, 1880, reports the laying of the foundation stone:\n\nThe foundation stone of the new Lutheran Chapel in Bonham Road was laid yesterday afternoon by Pastor Klitzke, of the Berlin Ladies' Association. The Pastor read an appropriate address, and after the ceremonies usual upon such an occasion had been performed, the children of the Foundling Hospital sang a hymn in conclusion. The new Chapel, which is built on the top of the ground storey below the level of the road (made use of as a laundry and quarters for the servants connected with the institution), is to be a small edifice, only intended to seat a con-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215987,
        "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": 286,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "220\n\ndynasty, shattering any sense that forceful treaties could ever provide a lasting spiritual peace between the former combatants.\n\nPART SEVEN: After the golden light has shined...\n\nIt is only right to return to the Chinese Christians in Poklo once more and ask what, if anything, ever transpired in their tragic situation. In fact, there is much to say. Sometime in 1867 the house in Poklo and its keys were once more handed over to the London Missionary Society, and the former colporteur, Leung Man-shing, equipped with some lengthy experience as a hospital apprentice, entered the town both as a part-time physician and evangelist. By the beginning of the 1870s, another missionary under the London Mission Society, E. J. Eitel (1838-1908), took up residence in the area and, along with Chinese Christian help and support, soon had five functioning churches in the district. It should also be noted that, back in Hong Kong, the \"son of the martyr of Poklo\" was registered in the late 1860s as one of the baptized members of the Chinese congregation of Union Chapel under the pastoral leadership of Ho Tsun-sheen.97 The Qing dynasty finally fell in 1911, and in the rest of the 20th century there were changes of such devastating power that most of this past Chinese Protestant history in Bóluó has been completely lost and forgotten. In the most recent gazette for the Bóluó district published in 1988 there is information about some late 19th and 20th century activities and five churches maintained by German-speaking Lutherans from the Basel Mission Society in the region, but the editors humbly admit nothing else is known. Personal visits to the area and to pastors of the Three-Self congregation in Huizhōu in 1994 verified that no knowledge of these 19th century events remains even among the clergy now working in the region. Outside of the official congregation in Huìzhōu, only one or two acceptable meeting points currently exist for Christians in the two districts of Bóluó and Huizhōu.\n\n98\n\nClearly, this essay offers much new light on these things from the not-so-distant past, allowing the \"Golden Light\" once more to shine within the thoughts and memories of Chinese Christians and others in that region, also for the sake of Christian missiological",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]