[ { "id": 205580, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "SUN YAT-SEN AND CHINESE HISTORY\n\n117\n\nequal it.\"20 However this might be, Sun also conceded that it had not been implemented. Sun noted too that in the halcyon days of the Chou dynasty, which he saw as the period of maturity or the Golden Age of Chinese civilization, \"the political, economic, and educational systems, literature and the arts, attained in China the same development roughly, as they have today in the modern Western countries.\"21 This period \"of great and unlimited liberty,\" was succeeded by 2,000 years of decline. But because of reforms during the Golden Age, China's despotism was reduced sufficiently so that it was never as severe as it was in the West, or so Sun claimed.22 Whatever pride or identity serving purposes such remarks may have had, they were also among those which made for Sun more practical points as well. Such a view of history served to illustrate Sun's philosophical dictum that knowledge was difficult and action easy. Thus China's historical decline had been caused by too much intellectual reflection in the centuries following the Golden Age. Therefore, it was a revolutionary call to the Chinese people for more practical action, a necessary revolutionary ingredient which was Sun's main purpose and concern.23 Such a view of history was also designed to support the not entirely unreasonable contention that China need not seek to borrow all of its modern political forms from the West, because China had certain distinctive needs for which suitable political forms should be created.24 Whether or not the political forms Sun went on to suggest were suitable or not is something else. The point here is that the nationalistic implications of Sun's use of history were strongly action-orientated, designed to mobilize people behind his revolutionary program. The identity-serving side is there, but it is a blurred image of China's past. While containing elements of the traditional self-image, it represents as many pragmatically-necessitated departures from it, and a number of misunderstandings of it as well.\n\nIn summary then, while it is certainly legitimate to presume the influence of nationalism on Sun Yat-sen's use of history, it is a factor requiring careful qualification. Nationalistic influences there were, but there are also problems of Sun's personal identity and his shifting appreciation of the meaning of nationalism. Beyond this was his tendency to use history as seemed required or desirable for what he considered practical political programming. Finally, and most fundamental of all, was a basic lack of interest in his-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209982, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "219\n\nIt was beautiful out there, amid real pine-woods. Near the bungalow was a small monastery and the monks in their wisdom did not allow any wood-cutting on their property. The bungalow was clean and well kept by the caretaker. Chun was his name so far as I remember, a sinister-looking rogue with a squint, who rarely smiled. Perhaps it was the loneliness which made him morose and surly. He had no wife, at least, not officially, and the pay was so small that he could barely live on it, for it was expected that he would make a good deal of extra money from visitors. He brightened up when I ordered supper and told him I was staying for the night.\n\nThere were two big rooms, plainly but comfortably furnished, and the kitchen and scullery were outside. A number of good books were on the shelves and I found a lot of old visitors' books, some dating back to the early 'eighties. I had no idea the bungalow was so old, and I became so immersed in the books that I forgot everything else, until Chun came in with the supper.\n\nIt was October and getting chilly at night, so I told him to get a fire going in the big round stove, as I wanted to have a long, cosy browse afterwards.\n\nChun was becoming quite amiable, and started a long story in pidgin about a bewitched boar, a big fearsome brute, which no one could kill. I knew how superstitious the Chinese were and took the whole story with a pinch of salt, until he took out one of the visitors' books and showed me an account of a shoot written by a Mr. Currie, an old-timer no longer in the port. Chun must have memorised the place for he knew no written English, and it was clear that Mr. Currie—or \"Cullee\", as he called him—was Chun's great hero, and when Currie roamed the hills after pig that was the Golden Age for Chun. He got more and more excited: \"That time, Master, plenty man come shootee shootee pig. Every week four five piecee man come. My catchee plenty cumsha (tips). My velly solly Mista Cullee have go homeside.\"\n\nAfter he had cleared away the supper things I settled down with the visitors' book. There were some excellent accounts of pig-shoots by Currie and his companions, ranging over several years, and with all the usual ups and downs, failures and successes. It was clear that they were written by a man who loved the sport.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212557, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "91\n\nto reconsider its policy of importing non-action movies.\n\nThe relatively stable policies of the CFEIC do not mean they are rigid and lack flexibility. While leaving the basic policy of making everything politically safe intact, the CFEIC modified its policies to suit the development of the movie industry and the needs of the audiences whose level of appreciation is ever rising. During the 1981 film week, there was hardly any movie which reflected contemporary American life. As the situation changed, some movies reflecting contemporary American life began to be introduced. In the film week held in 1985, the United States could present what it considered the best of its movies: On Golden Pond, Kramer vs Kramer, The Turning Point and A Coal Miner's Daughter.\n\nConsequences\n\nThe previous discussion of Sino-American arts exchanges has provided a picture of how such exchanges were overwhelmingly dominated by political considerations by both governments, though sometimes the goals of the governments and the non-governmental-artist sector merged with each other unconsciously. Nonetheless, these exchanges produced unanticipated consequences. As arts exchanges were part of the broader framework of the Sino-American relationship since 1979, when exchanges were institutionalized, and the number dramatically increased, an analysis of the effect of these exchanges on the general relationship between the two countries is necessary. In this context, the frequent travels of performing groups, arts exhibitions and specialists between the two countries did create a feeling of intimacy in the period of 1979 and 1981.\n\nThrough the exchanges, the American government conveyed its intention to have a closer relationship with China. Compared with economic and technological relations, arts exchanges were only secondary in importance to both governments. They were even less important compared with strategic considerations. However, ties in the cultural sphere were something that Chinese and American leaders had to give a thought to, because they were expressions of a sound relationship which political leaders of both countries wanted to claim. Moreover, Chinese and American political leaders also needed cultural exchanges to maintain such a relationship. These exchanges might, too, be intended as a showcase to the Soviet Union in the triangular game of superpower", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216023, "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": 322, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "256\n\nMountain, a former small island now joined to the mainland by alluvium, referred to by Victorian travellers as a 'pyramidal rock'. This used to stand out in the Yangzi a mile or so upstream from the city of Zhenjiang, hence their use of its name generically for the city. There is a further island, Jiao Shan Scorched Island, an islet some mile or so downstream from the city with its own ancient temple, Dinghui Si concealed within its tree-covered slopes. It too has its own memorials from the era of the Six Dynasties - two or three ancient cypress trees, whose storm-riven and almost barkless trunks were in the 1920s still held together by iron bands. According to Allom, Silver Island [Mountain], the name formerly given by foreigners to Jiao Shan, is to the westward of Zhenjiang, within sight of the Gold Island [Mountain] [see illustration]. Legend has it that Jin Shan, Gold Mountain takes its name from the time during the Tang dynasty when a certain Bei Totuo was digging into the hill and found a pot of gold; this has long been denied by Buddhists who believe that the name of the hill has a Buddhist symbolic meaning. Although the British Concession was originally laid out with intervening ground between it and the old walled city it did not take many years for the new native city to encroach and reach the Concession boundary. This meant that foreigners wishing to leave the Concession had to battle their way through the main street of the new native city, facing filthy and disease-ridden beggars, open drains and past open spaces which were used as public conveniences, constantly patronised by squatting men.\n\nCaptain Cunynghame, serving with the British force sailing up the Yangzi and about to mount an assault on Zhenjiang, arrived off the city on the 18th of July 1842. The force had been proceeding with great care as it was the first opportunity that western warships had had to penetrate as far inland up the Great River. He described his first sighting of Golden Island as 'the most beautiful little fairy isle imaginable, covered with temples, whose gilt-topped pagodas shone brilliantly in the evening sun'. A week or so later, once the city had been stormed and he was able to walk through it and wrote that \"the walled portion of the town was reckoned about four miles in circumference. The suburbs, extending a long distance to the west, probably occupied an equal extent of ground. The former space was chiefly occupied by streets containing shops, with an occasional blank space of wall within which were the houses of the most wealthy inhabitants. A very large portion, however, was occupied by gardens", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216206, "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": 505, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "439\n\nthe walls (St Francis healing the sick etc) and statues around the altar. In the surrounding grounds, a garden seemed to have been abandoned; a large copper statue dominated. We managed to snap a few interior shots. With the light fading rapidly, we walked down to a nearby spring from where St Francis was supposed to have drawn his water supply. The stone upon which he is said to have died can still be seen.\n\nWe were rushed onwards for our remaining sight-seeing: a huge, fat Buddha on the nearby hillside, an ex-PLA storage cave which had been turned into the Nine Dragons Cave, complete with waxwork figures, and Flying Sand beach - a lovely 2-mile stretch where our hotel was situated. A few weeks before our visit, the hotels had all been full for the Golden Week holiday in China, but now everywhere seemed deserted except for a few hopeful souvenir shops. The hotel itself was also empty but we were nevertheless given rooms right next to the disco and so were \"entertained\" (or changed rooms in our case) to the sounds of karaoke till 3am.\n\nWe agreed on an early start the next morning, including a pre-breakfast swim despite a chilly wind, to enable us to include an extra sight on our tour, back on the mainland - a typical village with watch tower. Roger, our guide, was very accommodating on this, though as we sped through the outskirts of Tai Shan we also spotted a Ming dynasty pagoda in the distance which looked worthy of investigation: \"No time” was Roger's response, which, at least, provided us a good reason to return.\n\nAfter lunch in Tai Shan, we walked around the central area and Roger showed us a recently completed pedestrian mall. The old facades of the buildings had all been renovated and painted in pastel tones - our photographs look like a typical Macau street scene. Tucked amongst the mall buildings was another church and we were invited inside by the female pastor, Huang Bi Juan. She gave us a brief history of the \"Three Self Patriotic Protestant Church\" and its present active role serving some 200 local families.\n\nWe took the country road for our return journey and soon spotted a suitable village with watchtower. We wandered into our chosen village with its harvest of golden grain spread out to dry in the sun in front of the houses, and spoke to some elderly residents - one old lady was 105", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]