[ { "id": 206939, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "4\n\nTerritories\", talked to us in December on Chinese ancestor worship, particularly at the clan or lineage level. Dr. Baker, who is a lecturer at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, carried out his first field work in Hong Kong, in Sheung Shui in the New Territories, and later published a book about the social organization of the area.\n\nMr. Ian Diamond, formerly of Fiji, and Hong Kong's first Government Archivist heading the new Public Records Office, talked in January about Hong Kong's records and the organization and purpose of such an institution. His talk will be published in our Journal, as will also that of Mr. Lethbridge.\n\nMr. Diamond's talk was preceded by an Extraordinary Meeting of the Society to consider amendments to numbers 10 and 11 of our rules. A reprint of the rules is necessary and this provided us with an opportunity to bring them up to date. Formerly Council members had been eligible for election for two years (although in practice we have held annual elections), and no arrangements had existed for enabling the Society to continue using the services of past Presidents. The new rules provide for a one-year period of office for members of Council, including office-bearers, and for past Presidents to stay on the Council as ex officio members. Voting was nineteen in favour, none against, and one abstention, and the new rules were therefore passed.\n\nThree additional talks have also taken place within this new year. One was given by Mrs. Helga Berger (Ms Helga Werle) of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, an enthusiastic member of our Society and an expert on Chinese folk arts. She talked on the subject of Chinese puppets: their history, religious functions, uses for entertainment, and how they are made. She brought along specimens of glove and stick puppets as used in Kwangtung and Fukien, and additionally some puppeteers who demonstrated their methods of manipulation. This talk preceded the Hong Kong Arts Festival at which puppet performances were held, and greatly added to our appreciation of these performances. Dr. Michael Colbourne, Reader in Tropical Hygiene and seconded from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to the University of Hong Kong, also talked to the Society. His topic was a research project for the study of health of squatters settled in high-rise flats in Singapore, with which he was connected. He also looked generally at problems", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206947, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE PAPER CHASE—ARCHIVES AND\n\nTHE PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE OF HONG KONG\n\n[“It is to be noted that when any part of this paper appears dull there is a design in it”— The Tatler]\n\nA. I. DIAMOND *\n\nThis evening I propose to tell you something about the development of the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, and about the role which it can or should play in the conservation and use of Hong Kong’s archival resources. But before doing this I think that it may be worthwhile to spend some time talking about archives as such—about what archives are and how modern archive institutions operate.\n\nMany of you may be quite knowledgeable on this subject already, and if you are I apologise for seeming to assume otherwise. But some quite astonishing misconceptions exist about archivists and their profession, as all archivists know, and when we are asked to address a general audience few of us can quell the thought that at least some present may be harbouring what we have come to recognise as the classic delusions about us. And what are these:\n\nWell, the other evening, for example, my hostess at a dinner party said to me “What a wonderful job you must have. Fancy being able to sit all day reading through all those fascinating old papers”. There it is, you see, one of the archivist’s main preoccupations, apparently, is reading through all the documents in his care—and mark you, they’re bound to be old and fascinating. She was just being polite of course, but I realised at once that here was someone with a full quiver of misconceptions about us. I could guess that in a moment she would tell me that I do not really look like her idea of an archivist. She would not have had to explain what she meant by that. I know already. I should be old and leathery looking with a beard and long grey hair and wearing steel-rimmed bi-focals. In fact I should look like a cross between Charles Darwin and Karl Marx in their old age. And what else do I do? Well, when I am not poring over fascinating old documents in my\n\n* Mr. Diamond is Government Archivist, Hong Kong. He is also the Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong Branch, R.A.S. This paper was delivered to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society on Monday, 7th January, 1974,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206949, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "14\n\nA. I. DIAMOND\n\nSo much for the sorry image of the archivist. Now what are the realities. What are archives and what do archivists do? Most people, if asked what archives are, will say that they are old documents of historical interest, or the records of some person or institution which have value for research purposes.\n\nThis is true enough as far as it goes. Many archives, of course, are old and historically interesting, but neither of these attributes is necessary for documents to qualify as archives. For example, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, the original instrument, bearing the seal and sign manual of the Sovereign is undoubtedly an archive, and it is so whether it was passed yesterday or five hundred years ago. Its age has nothing to do with its archival quality. And since, as soon as it receives the Royal assent, copies of it are generally published and distributed in their thousands, one could hardly claim that the original itself was of much interest to the historian. It has value, of course. An authenticated Act of Parliament is the final source of Government's authority for certain of its actions; but it is not this either which makes it an archive.\n\nDocuments acquire archival quality from the manner in which they have been created and kept. The eminent English authority on archives, Sir Hilary Jenkinson, defines them as follows: \"A document which may be said to belong to the class of Archives is one which was drawn up or used in the course of an administrative or executive transaction (whether public or private) of which itself formed a part; and subsequently preserved in their own custody for their own information by the person or persons responsible for that transaction and their legitimate successors”.*\n\nArchives, then, are the totality of the documents produced or received by an office or other agency in the course of its business and which have been retained for action or reference.\n\nIt is sometimes supposed that the term \"archives\" applies specifically, or at any rate more properly, to government records; but this is not the case. The term is equally applicable to the records of banks, insurance houses, churches, clubs and any other forms of association or enterprise. And if it comes to that even families or private individuals may accumulate them. What makes a body of documents archives is not who accumulated it but how it was done.\n\n* Jenkinson, Sir Hilary. \"A Manual of Archive Administration.\" (Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd., London), p. 11.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206955, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "20 \n\nA. 1. DIAMOND \n\nIn modern countries the development of intermediate records repositories has already come to be accepted as one of the normal functions of a government archive service and their management is becoming one of the specialised fields in archives administration. \n\nBefore leaving the subject of archives in general I should like to say something about what archivists do with archives once they are in their care. I am often asked about this, How do we organise them? Do we arrange them by subject or theme or what? How do we retrieve information from them?—and so on. \n\nWell the first thing to point out is that archivists do not arrange archives at all, in the sense of reorganising them to suit some pre-conceived or ideal pattern. On the contrary, one of the archivist's chief concerns is to maintain them precisely in accordance with the scheme of classification which was imposed upon them by the office which created them. When a body of records is passed to an archive office one of the first things an archivist does is to examine it in order to discover how the records were classified and controlled by the office of origin. And having come to understand the system thoroughly the only re-arranging he may do will take the form of returning papers which are out of order to their proper places, and this he will do only after noting carefully, for the information of future users, that these items were found misplaced in such and such locations and have been returned to their correct positions. \n\nWhy this emphasis on original order? Well, you will recall that one of the attributes of archives which lends them their special evidential quality is the fact that they accumulated naturally. A body of archives acquires a kind of organic unity as it accumulates, rather like a growth of coral, and the relationships of papers in it can have significance in themselves and actually add meaning to each individual paper. This can be illustrated by considering an ordinary correspondence file. In its undisturbed entirety it may record the whole or part of some administrative transaction. It chronicles what happened, when and why; who said what to whom and for what reasons. In places it may be wrong in matters of fact or mistaken in the views it records. It may not say all that could have been said, and if it is like some government files it may say a good deal more than need have been said. But for all that it is the record; it is what passed among administrators themselves as an account of that particular piece of business and it served both to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206957, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "22\n\nA. I. DIAMOND\n\nhow information is obtained from them. The original registers, indexes and other finding aids of the office are ready-made instruments of information retrieval.\n\nHowever, the original finding aids will answer only the questions they were designed to answer and frequently questions which the student wishes to ask of the records are quite different from those which the administrator had in mind. It therefore becomes part of the archivist's business to devise supplementary media in the form of guides, inventories, lists, calendars and select indexes to which the student can turn for further guidance.\n\nArchives are highly significant resources and the most important of them are the archives of governments. Official archives constitute government's memory. They contain information on every aspect of its business, and this information increases in value and extent as archives are accumulated and preserved. \"Public records define the relations of government to the governed. They are the immediate proof for all temporary property and financial rights that are derived from or are connected with a citizen's relations to a government, and are the ultimate proof for all permanent civic rights and privileges\".\n\nFor these reasons if for no other, the proper management by a government of its current records and the conservation of its archives should be viewed by it not as a luxury or as a concession to academia, but as an essential object of national concern,\n\nThe last time I was asked to talk about the development of an archive office was in 1965 when I was in charge of the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission. It was comparatively easy because I then had nearly a decade of development to look back on. In this case it is more difficult because the Public Records Office, Hong Kong—hereafter referred to as P.R.O.—has been in existence here for less than eighteen months and we are standing a little too close to events to see what they really amount to in terms of progress.\n\nThe P.R.O. was established in July, 1972, and, as some of you will know, it forms at present a unit of the Colonial Secretariat under the general direction of the Home Affairs and Information Branch.\n\n* Perotin, Yves, \"A Manual of Tropical Archivology\". (Mouton & Co., Paris) p. 20.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208058, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n81\n\nbuyers and sellers of commodities and to effect a transaction between them.” By the late 1920's, \"its importance to the Hopei provincial finance was only second to that of the land tax.\" It is difficult to weigh the relative importances of the various taxes in Hsin-An, but we do have figures on the revenue collected on trade between local markets in November 1911, which indicate a relatively low volume of local trade (see Imperial Maritime Customs, 1902-1911, Volume II, p.156). Also, refer to Appendix II, which Lockhart credits as a reliable source. The Tangs of Kam Tin and Lung Kwat Tau (A) were apparently farmed the monopolies of collecting market taxes in Un Long Kau Hui (±##4) and Tai Po Kau Hui (£# #). The Tongs who oversaw the markets in turn \"sub-leased\" the brokerages to traders, merchants, and shop-owners.\n\n4 The CSO files held in the Government Archives of Hong Kong constitute one of the richest stores of first-hand knowledge about local political economy and society in Hsin-An during the period 1890-1910. I am very grateful to Mr. Ian Diamond, Government Archivist, and his staff for their assistance in helping with my research.\n\n5 C. M. Chang, op. cit., pp. 826-828.\n\n6 Lien-sheng Yang, \"Buddhist Monasteries and Four Money-Raising Institutions in Chinese History,\" in his Studies in Chinese Institutional History, pp. 198-199n.\n\n7 Yeh-chien Wang draws heavily on the Ts'ai-cheng Shuo-ming-shu for his research on the land tax in China (Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750-1911). On the basis of the material presented in this paper, Hsin-An conforms to his general thesis of the declining relative importance of the land tax throughout late Ch'ing.\n\n8 Correspondence Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony (hereafter Extension Papers), p. 60.\n\n9 For a fuller discussion of li-chia, see Kung-chuan Hsiao's Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 84-143.\n\n10 The annual rotation of these positions (44) constituted the primary mechanism whereby the local magistrate attempted to maintain some measure of centralized power by restricting the excesses of local magnates.\n\n11 Hsiang-kang Teng-ch'u-shui-mau Ts'ung-ch'eng (44¥Æ#*# Z), p. 2: \"All together the cultivated land measured 8 ch'ing 3 mau 6 fen 1 li 9 hau 2 ssu 5 hu (i.e., 803.61925 mau) and was registered under the name of Tang Tin-luk, 6th tu, 7th p'i, 2nd chia. In addition, Tang Chi-cheung and others had purchased from Ho Ch'iu-ping and others plots of land at Wong Nei Chung... having a total area of 1 ch'ing 89 mau registered in Tung-Kuan under the name of Tang Chi-fu of the 2nd tụ, 18th p'i, last chia.\" The formula is often repeated in the land memorials held at the Land Office of the Registrar General in Hong Kong.\n\n12 Kwangchow Fu-chih (1759), ch'uan 4: 43a-b, 46b.\n\n13 Hsin-An Hsien-chih (1819), ch'uan 2.\n\n14 Kwangtung T'u-shuo, Hsin-An Hsien-t'u.\n\n15 Krone, \"A Notice of the Sunon District\", originally published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6:5, 41-105. This quote, as all the others, is from the reprinted copy in the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society V: p. 119.\n\n16 Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1797), 10:10b-11.\n\n17 Lockhart, in the Correspondence Respecting the Affairs in China, writes: \"Small villages and hamlets often place themselves under the protection of large and influential clans to which they refer all complaints and from which they expect assistance in case of attack, robbery, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209182, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE OF HONG KONG\n\nA. I. DIAMOND*\n\nEstablishment and Functions\n\nThe Public Records Office was established in July, 1972. Its functions are those common to most modern government archive institutions viz. the conservation of permanently valuable records for official reference and private research and the storage, management and ultimate disposal of intermediate records.†\n\nFor administrative purposes the P.R.O. operates at present as a unit of the Government Secretariat, the Archivist being responsible in the first instance to the Director of Administration and Management Services.\n\nAccommodation\n\nThe head office of the P.R.O. is located at 2 Murray Road, Central District, with a records storage capacity of 14,500 linear feet. In addition, the P.R.O. maintains a sub-office at Leader Industrial Building, 37 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Aberdeen, with accommodation for 12,280 linear feet of records.\n\nThe Aberdeen office is equipped with a specially air-conditioned film repository with capacity for the storage of 64,000 rolls of microfilm and 1.1 million aperture cards.\n\nFacilities\n\nThe head office has reading-room accommodation for up to twelve persons and the sub-office, accommodation for six.\n\nA reference library has been developed for staff and public use, with emphasis on the achievement of a strong collection of Hong Kong\n\n* Mr. Diamond is Archivist, Public Records Office of Hong Kong.\n\n† Records which, though no longer in current use, and having no permanent value, are nevertheless required, for legal or administrative reasons, to be kept for specified periods of time or until the completion of certain actions or events.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209350, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT: 1982-83\n\nTonight I have pleasure in reporting on the Society's activities during the year. I will also comment on some other events of the period which will be of interest to you as members.\n\nLectures, Film Shows, and Tours\n\nDuring the year our lectures as usual covered a wide range of topics relating to our area, and were delivered by specialists based in Hong Kong and visiting from overseas. There were two film shows, and one local and one overseas tour.\n\nOur programme opened in March with a slide presentation of early photographs of Hong Kong with commentary given by Mr. Ian Diamond, Government Archivist, and entitled \"Hong Kong in Victoria's time.\" In April Mrs. Rajeshwari Ghose, a specialist in the history and sociology of religion in India, spoke on the functions of the Hindu temple. We also showed two films made by Mr. Hugh Gibb, the well-known local film maker. The films, both made in collaboration with social anthropologists, were \"Dragons on the Sea\" which depicted the life of the traditional floating population of Hong Kong; and “Dajiu” which showed the Taoist rites of renewal of this name, that take place every ten years in the New Territories village of Ha Tsuen and its dependent group of hamlets. The first film was made with Miss Barbara Ward, and the second with Dr. Hugh Baker. We were pleased to welcome many members of the public to these films which were very well received and gained us some new members.\n\nIn May Dr. Peter Wesley-Smith of Hong Kong University's Law Department spoke on Francis Taylor Pigot, Chief Justice in the early part of this century; Mrs. Peggy Craig, a well-known organizer of highly original tours of India showed films she had taken on two tours in which members participated: the Pushkar Camel safari and \"Meet the Maharajas\"; and Frank Iklé Professor of History at the University of New Mexico spoke on the role of women in Japan.\n\nIn June Mr. Melvin Thatcher of the Genealogical Society of Utah spoke on the Chinese genealogies his society had acquired from public collections, and in July Dr. David Faure of the\n\nVill", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210044, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "I do not deny that change is necessary and this may even involve a change in title, but what is in a name? Surely it is the content of what one does which is important, and whether there is a continued need for work in the English language on the Hong Kong region past and present in all its interesting complexity. We can surely expect there to be an ongoing curiosity in the subject among Hong Kong residents. If a name is the only barrier to progress, we could become the Asiatic Society of Hong Kong, and I am sure the mother society would not sever our association for such a trifle.\n\nPerhaps more to the point, we should be considering now whether to move towards a bilingual presentation in our lectures and publications for it is arguable that, through creating a wider potential interest, our membership, and thus the resources of the Society, would broaden and extend so as to enable us to move away from the narrow base of the first twenty-five years.\n\nIn short, we should be assessing our situation and the options open to us, and be taking steps to move in the right direction like other bodies faced with similar problems. In this way, we can look forward more confidently to celebrating our fiftieth anniversary in 2010, which will also be the 163rd anniversary of the founding of the first branch of our Society in Hong Kong, 1847-1859. I have in mind to organize a special seminar over the next few months in which members can take up these matters more fully.\n\nFinally, I have to report some changes in Council personnel. In August 1984, our Assistant Secretary of six years' standing, Mrs. Debbie Hodgkiss, left Hong Kong, and in February 1985, our Vice-President, Mr. Ian Diamond, M.B.E., Government Archivist since 1971, returned to his native Australia on retirement. Both were sorely missed. The Society presented Mr. Diamond with a book token to commemorate his long association with and work for the Society, and I gave farewell lunches for each of them. Mrs. Hodgkiss' successor is Mrs. Anne Porter and Mr. David Gilkes, our treasurer and long-standing Council member, has taken up the second Vice-President post. Another loss was Dr. Allan Birch, Reader in History at the University of Hong Kong who also\n\nXiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210662, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "Publication Stock\n\nHitherto the Society's stock of publications was kept at the University of Hong Kong and latterly at Bethanie, in a section occupied by the University Press. However, in May 1986 we were asked to remove the stock to make way for a rearrangement of the University's accommodation in the building. The impending crisis was averted by the Law Librarian Mrs. Felicity Shaw's kindness in allowing us to hold stock in the basement pending finding another home. This was achieved in July when the Government Archivist, our council member Dr. Thomas Lau, agreed to hold our stock in the Public Records Office. I am most grateful to Felicity (an RAS member) and Thomas for their timely assistance.\n\nThe Library\n\nAs members will recall, in 1985 the Council decided to place our large and valuable collection of books and periodicals on China and the Far East on permanent loan with the Urban Council Libraries, to be housed in the new Kowloon Central Library at Homantin, Kowloon. Wherever one places the collection it is necessary to advertise its existence, in order to ensure that it will be used. The Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, takes various measures to this end periodically. On our part, we have written to some twenty local tertiary educational institutions whose students would wish to know of our library and its contents, enclosing copies of the library catalogue. This publicity, repeated at intervals, is bound to pay off eventually. In the past year, the Chief Librarian reports 18 enquiries, and that 37 books were consulted.\n\nSir Edward Youde\n\nThe Governors of Hong Kong have always been closely associated with our Society; as Patrons of the Hong Kong Branch re-established in 1959-60, and as Presidents of the first China (Hong Kong) Branch in 1847. Our first President was Sir John Davis, scholar, sinologue and a founder member of the parent society in London in 1823. In this connection I have to remind members of the sad event that occurred last December when we lost our current Patron, Sir Edward Youde, who died suddenly whilst on duty.\n\nPage xii\n\n¡", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213338, "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-1994", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "142\n\nThe Society's archive, which is currently held under Mr. David Gilkes' arrangements in the Main Library of The Chinese University and comprises papers on the formation of the Branch together with most of our Council Minutes over the years, is another source of information for our historian. Venues can be ascertained from these papers.\n\nIf Ian Diamond, Hong Kong's first Government Archivist and our former Hon. Secretary and Vice-President, will forgive me for mentioning it here, the venue that I best remember was the small room in the Public Records Office used for our Council meetings in the early 1980s (when Ian was on overseas leave we went to the \"Bull and Bear\" across the road!). A portrait of Her Majesty the Queen hung, as a scroll painting, on the wall; but as the years went on, the scroll became considerably the worse for wear, browning and curling in at the sides. We used to comment on this quietly periodically, but nothing happened. Finally, at one Council meeting, from the chair, and meaning no disrespect to Her Majesty, I took the bull by the horns and in a loud voice asked Ian when he was going to \"remount the Queen\"; whereupon the meeting became somewhat disorderly.\n\nThe Future: Post 1997\n\nTurning from past to future, at the time of writing, our Society is just as active and energetic as in the past; but with 1997 just around the corner, it is only natural for us to wonder what will happen thereafter. I remain of the view that we have a valuable role to play; but as in other Asian countries - and despite the hoped-for continued participation of a small nucleus of local Chinese who will remain dedicated to the work and ideals of the RAS - it is likely that it will, as hitherto, continue mainly to be set among and directed at Hong Kong's expatriate community. There will be a difference here, too: for as has already been happening in recent years, this will more and more be composed of transients, with far fewer long-term non-Chinese residents than in the long post-war period. There will, correspondingly, be an even greater need for the RAS to provide more \"cultural bridges\" to the local community. Thus, the study of Asia - and of Hong Kong and China with it - will surely continue to be (in Professor Drake's words) the Society's main \"Heritage and Task\".\n\nHowever, the likely change in expatriate membership may cause problems in recruiting some of the leadership and expertise upon which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215237, "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": 14, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Göran Aijmer, is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and is currently associated with the Gothenburg Research Institute of the University. His research focuses on symbolic expression and articulation in fields such as politics, economy and religion. His regional projects have concerned southern China, Southeast Asia and Melanesia. He has worked in many universities, more recently in the Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris, and the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich. His recent monographs are Ritual Dramas in the Duke of York Islands: Cantonese Society in a Time of Change (with Virgil K.Y. Ho) and New Year Celebrations in Central China in Late Imperial Times. Together with Jon Abbink, he has also edited Meanings of Violence (goran.aijmer@newyork.com).\n\nSir David Akers-Jones, K.B.E., C.M.G., J.P., was a founding member of the reconstituted HKBRAS in 1960 and a former Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government. He is a noted sinophile (akersjon@pacific.net.hk).\n\nA.C. Bromfield, is an active member of HKBRAS.\n\nChiu Hang Shi, is an active member of HKBRAS.\n\nRichard Garrett, M.A.(Cantab), C.Eng., F.I.C.E., F.I.Struct.E., F.H.K.I.E., is a director of an international firm of consulting engineers and has lived in Hong Kong since 1973. He has been a collector of antique arms and a member of the Arms and Armour Society of the U.K. for over 30 years. He has published a number of articles on the subject of early firearms.\n\nValery Garrett, B.A., Post Grad. Dip. Des., is a Hon. Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, and the author of six books on traditional Chinese clothing. She is a Council Member of the Royal Asiatic Society (vgarrett@hkucc.hku.hk).\n\nCésar Guillén-Nuñez, M.Phil., is a specialist in colonial Spanish and Portuguese art. He has degrees in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, the University of Pennsylvania and University College, London. He is presently a research fellow at the Macau Ricci Institute (cgnunes@yahoo.com).\n\nFr. Dr. Louis Ha, Ph.D., is the Archivist of the Catholic Diocesan archives and Chairman of the Hong Kong Archives Society. His Ph.D. was entitled The Foundation of the Catholic Mission in HK 1841-1894.\n\nPeter Halliday, M.A., Ph.D., is a former assistant commissioner of the Hong Kong\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216130, "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": 429, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "363\n\nIn 1957, with the generous support of Mr. R.E. Lawry (Honorary Secretary), the British Council in Gloucester Building became the home of the Society where it held its meetings and lectures to members. The Library's collection was accordingly kept in the British Council's Library. But shortage of space soon became a problem which necessitated the splitting of the collection. Mr. H.A. Ryding, the then Hong Kong University Librarian as well as the Society's Honorary Librarian, extended an offer to house some of the rarer volumes and the growing stock of exchange periodicals. This unsatisfactory division of the Library persisted after the closure of the British Council Library in 1975 when all the books were moved to the Public Records Office Library with the kind permission of the Government Archivist, while the periodicals (current and bound volumes) and pamphlets were sent to the Hong Kong University Library.\n\nIn 1977, when the Society joined the newly built Hong Kong Arts Centre as a constituent member, it was able to rent a small room for use of members and place its growing collection in the Kotewall Library within the Centre. The Hong Kong Arts Centre is a privately funded body dedicated to the promotion of culture and performing arts. Its focal position for the arts in Hong Kong together with the great efforts of the Honorary Librarian, Mr. Ryding, resulted in a spectacular increase in the use of the Library. The collection also grew rapidly through enthusiastic contributions from members. Unfortunately, in 1985, prompted by financial considerations, the Arts Centre reorganised and the Society had to move.\n\nWith the help of the Hong Kong Library Association, the Society's Library found a new home in 1985, on permanent loan to the Urban Council's Kowloon Central Library, the newest and largest addition to the Urban Council's Public Library Service at that time. The event was marked with an exhibition, in November 1987, of the Society's collection of books on China and Hong Kong with a supporting series of talks to publicise the valuable collection. A catalogue of the exhibited collection was also compiled and published for the occasion.4\n\nIn 1994, recognising the need for a central location for members to use the books effectively, the Chief Librarian of the Urban Council, Mr. Michael Mak, agreed to members' petition to relocate the books to the Reference Library at the Hong Kong City Hall, when the High\n\n363", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216514, "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-2003", "page_number": 273, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "225\n\nOBITUARY\n\nIan Diamond, M.B.E., F.I.M., M.A., Hon. Fellow, HKBRAS (1924-2004)\n\nOur former Hon. Secretary and Vice-President Ian Diamond, died recently at his home in Adelaide, aged 80. He was also an Hon. Fellow of our Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, an honour he greatly prized.\n\nIan was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, and at the University of Adelaide (M.A.). After working as an archivist in Australia, he went to the then British Colony of Fiji where he served from 1958, establishing and running the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission until he transferred to Hong Kong in 1971 to set up the Public Records Office there.\n\nIan's service to the RAS was noteworthy. He was our Hon. Secretary 1974-78, Councillor 1978-82, and Vice-President 1983-85, when he retired from the service of the Hong Kong Government. He then returned to his native Australia, with his wife Ishbel, another fine contributor to the good of Hong Kong during their stay in the former Colony.\n\nFor much of Ian's time on the RAS Council, it used to meet in his office in the Public Records Office, then located on the first floor of the Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park at Lambeth Walk. This was but a stone's throw from the appropriately named Bull and Bear, which served as our meeting place when Ian was on overseas leave and his office temporarily unavailable to us.\n\nIan was determined to record the remaining old buildings in Hong Kong, before the developers moved in. Together, Tony Rydings (our Hon. Librarian), Rev. Carl Smith, Dr. Solomon Bard, and Ian completed a photographic survey of fast disappearing parts of the old urban area. Ian did the researching, surveying, and note-taking, and Tony was the main photographer, with timely help from the Photographic Group of the South China Athletic Association.\n\nThe recorded areas included the historic Western District of Hong Kong Island and (later) Yaumatei in Kowloon. Out of the over 2,000", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]