[ { "id": 204234, "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-1961", "page_number": 2, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir Robert Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., Governor of Hong Kong.\n\nThe Council, 1960–61:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nThe Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau, C.B.E., LL.D., J.P. L. T. Ride, C.B.E., E.D., M.A., D.M., LL.D., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\n1960: J. D. Duncanson, M.A. 1961: R. E. Lawry, M.A., F.R.G.S.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nT. J. Lindsay, M.A.\n\nHon. Editor:\n\n1960: J. L. Cranmer-Byng, M.C., M.A.* 1961: James J. Y. Liu, M.A.*\n\nCouncillors:\n\n1960-61: Marjorie Topley, Ph.D.*\n\nHolmes H. Welch, M.A.\n\n1960: G. B. Endacott, M.A., 1961: The Hon. A. G. Clarke, B.Litt., B.A.\n\n* Member of Editorial Committee.\n\nC.M.G., B.A.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204239, "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-1961", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nTHE HONG KONG BRANCH was resuscitated as the outcome of a meeting attended by some thirty interested persons, held at the British Council Centre on December 28, 1959. The meeting adopted a constitution approved by the parent Society in London, and formed an interim Council to hold office until a General Meeting should be held. The following were elected to the Council:- President: Dr. J. R. Jones; Vice-Presidents: the Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau and Dr. L. T. Ride; Hon. Secretary: Mr. J. D. Duncanson; Hon. Treasurer: Mr. T. J. Lindsay; Hon. Editor of the Journal: Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng; other Councillors: Dr. Marjorie Topley and Messrs. James Liu, Holmes Welch, and G. B. Endacott.\n\nThe Inaugural Meeting of the revived Branch was held on April 7, 1960, in the Loke Yew Hall of Hong Kong University. It was to have been presided over by H.E. the Governor, Sir Robert Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., had illness not prevented it. The Inaugural Address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at Hong Kong University, on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task”.\n\nOn January 23, 1961, Sir Robert Black presided over a meeting of the Branch in his capacity as Patron, and thus restored a tradition after a lapse of a hundred years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204240, "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-1961", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n5\n\n## PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nIt is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.\n\nThe original Branch which was founded in 1847 in the early days of the Colony and which included some of the most eminent oriental scholars of the time as well as the leaders of the Church, Government, the Armed Services and of the merchant houses, came to an abrupt end in 1859. After the lapse of a century a movement started in the Colony among those who had been members of branches of the Society elsewhere, in Malaya and in Shanghai where the Society had been compelled by force of circumstances to close down in 1950, to revive the Society in Hong Kong. As Sir Richard Winstedt, the Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, wrote:\n\n\"Circumstances had placed the port in a very favourable position for the study of one of the most important cultures of the world\"\n\nand Hong Kong had now the opportunity of filling a void and fulfilling its natural role as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge and culture of Asia and of China in particular.\n\nIt is barely over a year since a meeting was held attended by more than thirty interested members when a resolution was passed for the revival of this Branch. More than twice that number had pledged their support, including persons prominent in academic, professional, commercial and financial circles. The meeting adopted the constitution which had been approved by the parent Society and elected officers and a Council to hold office until this General Meeting. (The names of those elected have already been given in the brief history of the Branch at the beginning of this volume.)\n\nThe success of the founding meeting was crowned when His Excellency Sir Robert Black set the seal of his approbation by consenting to become the patron of the new Branch and when he presided over a meeting of the Society on January 23 of this year. It was the first time that a Governor of the Colony had presided at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch since the days of Sir John Bowring, a hundred years ago. Thus he closed the gap of a century.\n\nWe are, I feel, justified in considering the result of the first year's work as very gratifying and the second year has already started in a way that is highly encouraging. Within a month of the founding meeting we had 72 members. At the end of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204273, "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-1961", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n37\n\nand well versed in history and literature. So Hsieh made her his private secretary. At that time, the military governors were practically independent war-lords paying only nominal homage to the crown. A rival governor, T'ien Ch'eng-ssu, was increasing his armed forces and planning to annex Lu-chou. Seeing that Hsüeh was worried about this, Hung Hsien offered to go to the rival governor's city one night to investigate. Brushing aside Hsüeh's misgivings, she pushed her hair back to form a bun, put on a short embroidered jacket and black silk shoes, carried a dagger, and wrote a magic spell on her forehead. In a moment she was gone. Hsüeh waited for her alone, and after a dozen cups of wine, it was already daybreak. Suddenly he heard something falling lightly like a leaf on the ground outside. It was Hung Hsien coming back. She had travelled several hundred miles and gone to the rival governor's headquarters, and, without disturbing the armed guards or waking up the governor, had taken from his bed-side a gold case containing his horoscope. Next morning, Hsieh sent the gold case back to his rival, with a letter saying, “Last night a visitor came and brought this from your bed-side. I dare not keep it and am returning it herewith.\" On receiving this, the rival governor, T'ien, was petrified. He sent Hsüeh rich gifts and a humble letter of apology, saying that he had no aggressive intentions and that he was going to cut down his forces. All was peace and quiet. Two months later, Hung Hsien asked permission to leave. Hsüeh was naturally reluctant to let her go, whereupon she said, \"In my previous incarnation I was a man and a physician, who, by mistake, caused the death of a pregnant woman conceiving twins. As a punishment, I was re-born as a girl and became a serving maid. Now that I have repaid your kindness, I must go.\" Hsieh realized it was no use trying to keep her, so he held a great farewell banquet in her honour. After a tearful goodbye, she disappeared and was never seen again.11\n\nThe above story is written in elegant classical prose. At the same time, chivalric tales also existed in the popular colloquial literature of T'ang times. Among the manuscripts discovered at Tun-huang at the end of the last century are many tales known as pien-wen (#), which may be translated as \"popularized texts\".15 These are for the most part Buddhist legends re-told in a semi-colloquial style, often in a mixture of prose and verse. However, some of them are not of a religious character. Among these is\n\n14 T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi ***, chüan 195. For a full translation of the story, see E. D. Edwards, Chinese prose literature of the T'ang period, vol. II (London, 1938), pp. 123-7.\n\n15 For further information, see Arthur Waley, Ballads and stories from Tun-huang (London, 1960).\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204371, "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-1962", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "The Hong Kong Branch\n\nof the\n\nRoyal Asiatic Society\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir Robert Black, G.C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., Governor of Hong Kong.\n\nThe Council, 1961-62:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nThe Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau, C.B.E., M.A., LL.D., J.P. Sir Lindsay Ride, C.B.E., E.D., M.A., D.M., LL.D., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\nR. E. Lawry, M.A., F.R.G.S.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nT. J. Lindsay, M.A.\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nJ. L. Cranmer-Byng, M.C., M.A.*\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nJ. R. Le Mare, B.A.*\n\nCouncillors:\n\nMarjorie Topley, Ph.D.*\n\nN. du Breuil*\n\nHolmes H. Welch, M.A.*\n\nMa Meng, B.A.*\n\nThe Hon. W. C. G. Knowles, M.A., J.P.\n\n* Member of Editorial Committee.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204522, "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-1963", "page_number": 3, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nOF THE\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir Robert Black, G.C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., Governor of Hong Kong.\n\nTHE COUNCIL, 1962-63:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nThe Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau, C.B.E., M.A., LL.D., J.P. Sir Lindsay Ride, C.B.E., E.D., M.A., D.M., LL.D., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary:\n\nR. E. Lawry, M.A., F.R.G.S.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nT. J. Lindsay, M.A.\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nJ. L. Cranmer-Byng, M.C., M.A.*\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nH. D. Talbot, B.Sc.\n\nCouncillors:\n\nMarjorie Topley, PH.D.*\n\nHolmes H. Welch, M.A.*\n\nN. du Breuil *\n\nThe Hon. W. C. G. Knowles, M.A., J.P.\n\nMa Meng, B.A.*\n\n* Member of Editorial Committee", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204531, "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-1963", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "The keen and active interest in the Society shown by our patron, Sir Robert Black, and members of his family is very gratifying and is warmly appreciated. Despite the exacting calls on their time they have been attending our meetings, and this is a noble example to other busy people in the Colony. We appreciate also the zeal of many other prominent personages including the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Hogan, and the Hon. W. C. Knowles who is a member of the Council and whose business house has provided us with both an Honorary Treasurer, Mr. T. J. Lindsay, and an Honorary Librarian, Mr. John Le Mare. I should like also to refer to the interest in the Society taken by members of H.M. Forces and particularly to the interest taken by Col. Halliday and Col. Mackenzie, both of whom have now left the Colony, but it is greatly hoped that this interest will be sustained by their successors. In this connection it may be interesting to mention the first office-bearers of the Society in 1847:\n\nPresident: Sir John Francis Davis (Governor); Vice-Presidents: Major-General D'Aguilar, Major H. P. Burn, John Stewart, Dr. Kinnis; Council: Lt.-Col. Brereton, Peter Young (Colonial Surgeon), W. T. Mercer (Colonial Treasurer), J. C. Bowring (Son of Sir John Bowring); Secretary: A. Shortrede; Corresponding Secretary: Capt. Clark Kennedy; Chinese and Foreign Secretary: Thomas Wade;* Treasurer: F. Bevan; Curator: C. T. Watkins.\n\nIn conclusion I wish to thank all the officers and members of the Society for their loyal and wholehearted support. I am probably in a better position than anyone to appreciate and also to pay tribute to my colleagues on the present Council, in whom you have a hard working and active body, and each of whom pulls his or her full weight in the furtherance of the objects of the Society.\n\n* Afterwards Sir Thomas Wade, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., British Minister at Peking from 1871 until 1883, and later first Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204618, "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-1963", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "86\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nin the north-east quarter of the city, well away from the new diplomatic quarter.2\n\nAll accommodation for foreign embassies was to be concentrated in one area outside the east wall of the city, and about one and a half miles from a newly constructed gate, just near to the old astronomical instruments which can still be seen on top of the east wall. Eventually, after negotiations, the new British Legation was allotted two large houses and two blocks of flats in this new diplomatic quarter. The last christening was performed in the Legation chapel, the books in the small library were taken off their shelves, the flag at the gate was hauled down, and everything was packed.3 Among the more colourful of the closing scenes in the life of the old British Legation should be mentioned the two Commonwealth cricket matches played in the Autumn of 1958 between the Moonrakers, captained by Mr. Duncan Wilson, the British Chargé d'Affaires, and the Woolgatherers captained by the Indian Ambassador, Mr. G. Parthasaratly. The rules governing this diplomatic cricket were many and local but the chief rule of all was that if anyone hit a ball into the grounds of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security next door his whole side was out.\n\nFinally, in September 1959, the staff moved to their new quarters and thus after nearly one hundred years of continuous occupation the existence of the old British Legation in Peking came to an end. From an historical and sentimental point of view its loss was sad. But from a realistic point of view which\n\n20 This was built on a site which had been granted to Russia as far back as the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689). As a result of fighting between Russian settlers on the frontier between Siberia and Manchuria about a hundred Russian prisoners were brought to Peking in the period 1683-5. They were formed into a company, given a place of residence in the northeast corner of Peking, close to the Lama Temple, and intermarried with Chinese and Manchus. They retained their Greek Orthodox faith and were allowed to have their own priests. See Michel N. Pavlovsky, Chinese-Russian Relations (New York, 1949) 145-164. It was to this place, known as the Pei-kuan (\"Northern Hostel\") that the members of the Russian ecclesiastical mission transferred in 1861.\n\n30 Unfortunately the imposing Royal Coat of Arms which dignified the gateway of the old Legation was too large to fit properly into the new Legation buildings. Mr. Michael Stewart, the Chargé d'Affaires at the time of the move, arranged with Sir Robert Black, the Governor of Hong Kong, that the Coat of Arms should be sent to Government House in Hong Kong. It is now fixed onto the wall at the far end of the long ballroom of Government House, which it dominates by the brilliance of its colours,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204703, "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-1964", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nOF THE\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nPatron:\n\nH.E. Sir Robert Black, G.C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A.,\n\nGovernor of Hong Kong.\n\nTHE COUNCIL, 1963-64:\n\nPresident:\n\nJ. R. Jones, C.B.E., M.C., M.A., LL.D., J.P.\n\nVice-Presidents:\n\nThe Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau, C.B.E., M.A., LL.D., J.P. Sir Lindsay Ride, C.B.E., E.D., M.A., D.M., LL.D., J.P.\n\nHon. Secretary: R. E. Lawry, M.A.\n\nHon. Treasurer:\n\nT. J. Lindsay, M.A.\n\nHon. Editor:\n\nH. D. Talbot, B.Sc.\n\nHon. Librarian:\n\nH. D. Talbot, B.Sc.\n\nCouncillors:\n\nMarjorie Topley, Ph.D.*\n\nW. Mallory-Browne\n\nN. du Breuil*\n\nMa Meng, B.A.*\n\nThe Hon. W. C. G. Knowles, M.A., J.P.\n\n* Member of Editorial Committee", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204724, "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-1964", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "18\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nwears a conical hat made of stout rattan capable of turning aside a cutlass, on it in front is written in large characters the name of the Hong, white on black ground, and every man is furnished with sandals made of twisted grass which lace over the instep. A pair of loose trousers, and a loose jacket tied with a sash about the waist complete the dress.\n\nThe coolie from No. I has just run in to say that the mandarins know he is inside the Factory and that he must be off. I locked the front gate and barred it inside and I tell him to shut himself up in his room.\n\nThese 500 men from the Hongs are posted from the creek to the entrance of our Factory in one line beneath the Company's arch and in the passage way. They are stationed on both sides, as each carries a large rattan shield their appearance is uniform and good, and a finer looking set of men I never saw. They are cheerful, and as we are all known by them they are exceedingly civil and do not molest us in the least. They nearly all know me personally and I often get such a crowd of them about me to talk over the news that sometimes I have a difficulty in escaping them.\n\nAt night they march out headed by the oldest member of the body, in parties, one Hong at a time, on patrol. Starting from their station they cross the front of the Factories, go up and down China Street, then return to their tent, when another party immediately goes the same round.\n\nThe Hong merchants constantly remain under the arch of the Company's Factory except when off on the business of the day. They relieve each other regularly at night, sleeping in large chairs, and the linguists have erected a large shed of mats in the middle of the Square where they also remain on watch. This is the land force. On the water are 200 of the Nam Hoe's guard,14 100 of the Kwang Hups, and a few of the Governor's1. They are distributed in boats lying close to each other and drawn up in three lines along the whole front of the Factories. The first and second line, separated from each other by a space of 100 feet, consist of large boats usually employed in carrying tea. Their bows look towards the Factories. The third row consists of Chop boats. They are placed so close side by side as to render any escape utterly impossible, and never were measures taken to prevent escape with such eminent success as those adopted to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205932, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "The Society was, however, very fortunate from the start in the support given by the British Council and its representative Mr. R. E. Lawry who later became the Hon. Secretary and also Vice-President of the Society and to whom the Society owes a great debt of gratitude. It was in the rooms of the British Council that the Society held its meetings until the City Hall became available. It is in the Council's rooms that the Council still holds its meetings and that a great part of the Society's books are kept ready for members to consult or take out. Each of Mr. Lawry's successors, including Mr. Bridges to-day, has become a member of the Council, and it has been the British Council that has provided the successive Hon. Secretaries—Mr. Lawry, Miss O. Michaeliones, Mr. T. H. Thomas and now Mr. J. L. H. Webster, C.M.G. The Society has no home of its own, and ever since its revival the British Council has been the base of its operations; and now after ten years of such continued support it is difficult to express in adequate terms our gratitude to the British Council and its Representatives in Hong Kong.\n\nThe Society was also fortunate in the full support given by its Patron, Sir Robert Black, who in spite of his arduous and manifold duties as Governor of Hong Kong rarely missed a meeting of the Society together with Lady Black and his family and staff and often took part in the Society's activities. Sir Robert is now an Honorary Member and still takes a keen interest in the affairs of the Society. Two other keen supporters and regular attendants were Sir Michael Hogan, the Chief Justice, one of our founder members, and also the late W. G. C. Knowles who was also a founder and life member both of whose support was much appreciated and both of whom are greatly missed at our meetings.\n\nDuring the year the Society met twelve times at which addresses of a high standard and of great variety and interest were given. And in the last two months not less than seven meetings were held including the lecture by Commander Warrington-Strong on porcelain, that of Professor Frank Chippindale on the Chinese Influence on Chippendale's Designs, that of Capt. Roger Pineau on Commodore Perry's Japan Expedition, the tour of Tsun Wan Temples under Mr. Graham Johnson, the Week-End Symposium on the Vegetation of Hong Kong conducted by Professor Thrower", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206459, "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1971\n\nI have very much pleasure this evening in presenting to you my Annual Report of our Society for the calendar year of 1971.\n\nMembership:\n\nThe total number of members on our books for the year has remained remarkably static. Our losses in membership during the year numbered 23, and of these 3 were due to deaths while the remaining 20 were due to resignations tendered because of departure from the Colony on transfer or on retirement. This loss was balanced by the 24 new members who joined during the year, giving us a net gain of 1 for the period, and making our total membership on the 31st December last stand at 525.\n\nTwo other changes in membership call for special mention in this Report. One is that two of our Ordinary Members became Life Members during the year, and the other is that in October last, our Patron, Sir David Trench, left the Colony on retirement and our Society now records its grateful thanks to him for his Patronage during the years of his Governorship of the Colony. His successor, Sir Murray MacLehose, arrived here on the 19th November 1971 and immediately assumed the duties of his high office. He has since honoured our Society by becoming its Patron in succession to Sir David, thus perpetuating the close personal association that has always existed between us and our Governors. This association began with the Colony's second Governor, Sir John Francis Davis, when he became our first President in 1847. This traditional association was revived in 1959 when this branch was resuscitated and the then Governor Sir Robert Black became its Patron. We look with pleasure to welcoming personally our new Patron when he attends as he has expressed the hope of soon being able to do, one of our ordinary meetings.\n\nMeetings:\n\nA.G.M. The Annual General Meeting of the Branch was held on the 3rd May 1971.\n\nLectures: The following is the detailed list of lecture meetings held during the year and it is hoped that the various speakers will accept this record as a further token of our gratitude for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206988, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n53\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Sir William Des Voeux, My Colonial Service, 2 vols., London 1903. Sir Frederick Lugard, Governor of Hong Kong 1907-1912, also found that 'entertaining was an essential part of governing. Hong Kong Government House was used as a high-class hotel, restaurant and sports club by many of the hundreds of passengers who left their ships to write their names in the Governor's book...socially more exacting were the many distinguished foreigners and Eastern potentates-Chinese and Japanese princes, Indian Rajahs, the Governor of the neighbouring Portuguese Macao, foreign admirals who had to be visited in their warships and later entertained in turn at Government House; ambassadors en route to or from Tokyo or Peking, and many lesser functionaries.' See Margery Perham, Lugard, vol. 2, London, 1960, p. 289.\n\n2 My Colonial Service, vol. 2, p. 234. Sir William Des Voeux (1834-1909) was Governor of Hong Kong from 1887 to 1891, in which year he retired from the colonial service.\n\n3 14 November, 1888.\n\n4 15 November, 1888.\n\n5 16 November, 1888.\n\n6 22 November, 1888.\n\n7 William Van Driesche was the third generation of his family to serve the Morèses. The children used to call him Mr. Willie.\n\n8 There are several photographs of Morès in Donald Dresden, The Marquis de Morès: Emperor of the Bad Lands, Norman, Oklahoma, 1970, and in Charles Droulers, Le Marquis de Morès 1858-1896, Paris, 1932. Morès was six-feet tall, lithe, ramrod-straight, muscular, with a needle-pointed waxed black moustache. He looked every inch a d'Artagnan.\n\n9 Richard Manca, Duke of Vallombrosa, born 1834, married the daughter of the Duke Des Cars, conqueror of Algeria. He had three children, of whom Morès was the eldest.\n\n10 Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 234.\n\n11 Ibid., p. 235.\n\n12 Ibid., p. 235.\n\n13 The Hong Kong Daily Press, 24 November, 1888. The Governor was accompanied on his trip by his wife, young daughter, and James Russell, the Chief Justice. The Colonial Secretary, Frederick Stewart, administered the government in Des Voeux's absence.\n\n14 The China Mail (1845-1911) was edited by George Murray Bain from 1879 until 1908(?).\n\n15 It is not surprising that Des Voeux took a great interest in his betters since promotion in the colonial service in the nineteenth century depended to a large degree on knowing people in high places.\n\n16 No full-scale study of Mayréna has been published as yet; the best book is probably Jean Marquet, Un Aventurier du XIXe siècle: Marie Jer, roi des Sedangs, 1888-1890. Hanoi, 1927; but Maurice Soulié, Marie Jer, roi des Sédangs, 1888-1890, Paris 1927, is amusing though really une vie romancée. The most penetrating essay on Mayréna is that by Marcel Ner, 'Marie Ier, roi des Sedangs: essai sur la psychologie de l'aventure”, Extrême-Asie, Revue Indochinoise (Hanoi), no. 21, March 1928, pp. 397-407 and no. 22, April 1928, pp. 491-498. There are many references to Mayréna", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207297, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. CO.\n\n57\n\nyour Hoppo, but I will make him a bow while you knocky head.” With this, after some communication between the Mandarins and the security merchants, they appeared satisfied.\n\nI now found they were in earnest as to my seeing the Hoppo, and there was much bustle in the palace; they were, however, determined I should not imagine that I had forced an interview, as I was given to understand that the Viceroy was going to pay his colleague, the Fyane, a visit, and that I should see him as he went out.\n\nAt this time there were in the great hall thirty or forty Mandarins of various ranks, all the security merchants, Mr. Perry, and myself, with many other persons belonging to the palace,—in all I should suppose, about a hundred and fifty in number.\n\nThe doors were shortly thrown open, and we observed a procession issuing from another large house, and crossing a court to the hall we were in; the guard passed on, and presently there appeared the Hoppo, borne in a most magnificent state chair by sixteen men richly dressed; the chair was very splendid, and the Hoppo one of the finest and noblest-looking Chinese I had ever seen, with a remarkably fine black beard. The moment he entered the hall, every person, except Mr. Perry and myself, threw themselves down as if they had been shot through the head, touched the ground with their forehead, and were up again in a moment, even my old friend Mowqua, though so advanced in years, was down and up again as nimbly as a boy; on my remarking this to him after the interview was over, his reply was, \"Mister Commodore, I very much long time do that custom.\"\n\nAs the Hoppo approached to Mr. Perry and me, we made him a low bow. I then advanced, with my petition in my hand, to his chair, when he desired his bearers to stop, and, having called Mowqua, he required by him of me what I wanted? I said I had a petition which I was desirous of having the honour to deliver into his own hand. He asked if it was written in Chinese? I replied it was. He then put out his hand and took it from me, saying he was going to visit the Fyane, and that I should have an immediate\n\n* The Fyane. Lindsay made another mistake here. The Viceroy was not involved in this particular incident. When Lindsay mentions the Viceroy he is muddling him up with the Hoppo. In this particular incident the Hoppo received the memorial and then took it to the Governor (Fyane= Fu-yuan Governor).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208055, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "J \n\n78 \n\nJ. T. KAMM \n\nIt is interesting to note that each of the five great clans (§ Tang (鄧), Hau (侯), Pang (彭), Liu (廖), and Man (文) — are represented on the schedule.30 Of these, the Tangs clearly have the greatest share. Another point, which is less obvious from the scanty data presented above, is that the taxlords only chose land within the boundaries of the tung itself, even though plots existed in Un Long Tung considerably closer, and hence easier to manage, than the plots chosen. This seemingly minor point leads us into an examination of the political and economic foundations of the tung. \n\nThe standard \"primary source\" on the nature of tung is Lockhart's description of “Local Government in the Villages\" contained in his report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong.31 On the basis of this report, which heavily stresses the judicial functions performed by the chu (Cantonese: Kuk) which oversee the tung, Acting Governor Black recommended the appointment of “a commissioner or a Resident, possessing knowledge of the Chinese” who \"should govern somewhat in the present Chinese system, i.e., the village elders to rule the villages, which grouped according to topographical limits, form a tung having a council composed of representatives from the village elders.\"32 \n\nConsiderable confusion exists over the precise nature of tung and chu. Lockhart clearly overestimated the political-judicial power of the Tung Ping Kuk (東平局), a mistake which would have proven costly had not the British possessed superior firepower in the Pat Heung Valley. Having won the support of this chu, Lockhart believed that the gentry of the various “divisions” would follow suit. He was to discover later that the gentry of Un Long Tung had convened another chu, the Tai Ping Kung Kuk (太平公局) which financed, and to some extent coordinated, the local revolt; in so doing, they effectively dismantled the Tung Ping Kuk by summoning Tung-Kuan clansmen to occupy Sham Chun.33 \n\nIn most of the counties of the Kwangchow Prefecture, chu formed the basis of local self-government throughout the troubled nineteenth century. One of the best descriptions of these organizations is to be found in Kang Yu-wei (康有為)'s chapter on self-government.... \"taxlord claims,\" but, since the inhabitants could not produce title to the land, the Tangs were recognized as \"chief landlords.\" CSO8551 in 1903. One taxlord was recognized in Sha Tau Kok (Li Tung-chung) and one on Lantao (Wong Kwok-shi). Little is known concerning these cases, except that the latter status was granted out of compassion.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208124, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n147 \n\nkept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.\n\nTalking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.\n\nWhen I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209357, "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": 14, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "ADDRESS BY DR. JAMES HAYES, AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 17TH FEBRUARY 1983\n\nDr. Topley, ladies and gentlemen,\n\nAccording to p. 4 of Vol. 1 (1961) of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society:\n\n\"THE HONG KONG BRANCH was resuscitated as the outcome of a meeting attended by some thirty interested persons, held at the British Council Centre on December 28, 1959. The meeting adopted a constitution approved by the parent Society in London, and formed an interim Council to hold office until a General Meeting should be held. The following were elected to the Council:- President: Dr. J. R. Jones; Vice-Presidents: the Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau and Dr. L. T. Ride; Hon. Secretary: Mr. J. D. Duncanson; Hon. Treasurer: Mr. T. J. Lindsay; Hon. Editor of the Journal: Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng; other Councillors: Dr. Marjorie Topley and Messrs. James Liu, Holmes Welch, and G. B. Endacott.\n\nThe Inaugural Meeting of the revived Branch was held on April 7, 1960, in the Loke Yew Hall of Hong Kong University. It was to have been presided over by H. E. the Governor, Sir Robert Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., had illness not prevented it. The Inaugural Address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at Hong Kong University, on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task\".\n\nOn January 23, 1961, Sir Robert Black presided over a meeting of the Branch in his capacity as Patron, and thus restored a tradition after a lapse of a hundred years.'\n\n**\n\nAs incoming President, it is my honour on this occasion, twenty-three years later, to make a presentation to Dr. Topley on your behalf, in recognition of her work as President of the Society from 1972 onwards. But first I wish to speak about her own contribution to the formation of our Society and its work over nearly a quarter of a century.\n\nxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211314, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "6\n\nher the confederation grew until, at its height in 1809, it comprised between 50,000 and 70,000 individuals and the 1,200 junks referred to in the introduction.\n\nThe Confederation in action\n\nBy mid-1808 the military success of the confederation was such that the Ch'ing government's policy of sea war had been soundly defeated. The deaths of the Brigade-General of the Bocca Tigris, Lin Kuo-liang, and the Lieutenant-Colonel, Lin Fa, coupled with their losses of material resulted in the reduction of the provincial fleet by half and an even greater penetration of the Pearl River Delta by the pirates.\n\nLin Kuo-liang's replacement, Hsu T'ing-kuei, was defeated in July 1809. Although he managed to destroy most of the White Flag Fleet in the process, he himself was killed and he lost ten of the thirty-five mi-t'ing or rice carriers in his war fleet. The situation was now desperate as pirates were able to destroy government war junks faster than the dockyards could build them, and most of the provincial fleet's auxiliary salt and fishing vessels were out of commission as well.\n\nPirates were now able to bring their penetration of the Pearl River to new heights as Black Flag Fleet leader, Kuo P'o-tai, set out at once on a six-week foray into the inner passage that resulted in the deaths of 10,000 individuals. On August 11, 1809, he burned the customs house at Tzu-ni, ten miles from Canton and sent messengers to the Governor-General warning that if ransom was not forthcoming, the city would be attacked.\n\nAt the same time, the Red Flag Fleet leader, Chang Pao, worked the **outer passage** or main channel of the Pearl River and destroyed two forts near its mouth. At the Second Bar, he sent a fleet of Chinese war junks running, destroyed towns and villages all the way to Pan-yu and Nan-hai counties, and defeated the government's newly-constructed vessels at Sha-wan.\n\nForeigners, too, were alarmed at the strength and audacity of the pirates, who, on September 5, 1809, simultaneously detained the vessels of the Siamese tribute mission in the mouth of the Pearl River and sent\n\nPage 30\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211315, "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "7\n\nfive American schooners scurrying for safety under the guns of Macao.\n\nAs the threat escalated, British and Portuguese vied with one another in offering their suppression services to the government. Victory in this contest went to the Portuguese, who were commissioned to send a fleet of six men-of-war to cooperate with the Chinese water forces in blockading the harbour of the pirate headquarters off the northern shore of Lantao Island. The Governor-General travelled from Canton to watch the grand spectacle of the pirate finale, but to the surprise of all, the pirates were able to push aside the fire vessels that were unleashed against them and to sail away unscathed into the night.\n\nThe dismantling of the Confederation\n\nOn the heels of spectacular success came the equally sudden and rapid dismantling of the pirate confederation. We can only speculate, because documentary evidence does not make clear, what finally precipitated this action. It may well have been internal friction between the fleet leaders, because on December 11, 1809, there was a battle between the Red and Black Flag Fleets. Unexpectedly, the Black Flag Fleet came out on top, and its leader, Kuo P'o-tai, realising that he could no longer withstand pressure both from a hostile government and his former ally, used the three hundred captives seized from the Red Flag Fleet during the combat as his collateral of good faith in accepting an offer of amnesty from the Ch'ing government. On January 11, 1810, he and 5,500 of his men surrendered to the Ch'ing.\n\nIt was not long before Chang Pao followed suit. On February 21, his fleet gathered at the mouth of the Pearl River to receive the Governor-General from Canton. The ceremonies went smoothly, but the negotiations did not, and as a result, the pirates withdrew. However, their desire to surrender persisted, and in April, the women stepped to the fore as Cheng I Sao and a group of other pirate women and children made their way on shore to the Governor-General's yamen in Canton. They proved to be tough negotiators, and the surrender was finally accomplished a few days later on April 20, when 17,318 pirates surrendered 226 junks and a number of cannon.\n\nIn the dismantling of the confederation, we can see the weaknesses", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211349, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "41\n\nsaw one or more zhouyu at one time.) Ouyang Xiu had not chosen to provide a description of the animal. He was supposed to have made the remark: “Zhouyu? What is a zhouyu? I haven't the slightest idea\". \n\nMing dynasty accounts of the chouyu were much more specific,\n\nDuring the second year of the Yunglo reign (1404 A.D.), Zhu Su, an imperial uncle who had been in exile in Yunnan, today's panda country, brought into Beijing two rare animals, which he called shouyu. Unfortunately, there was no physical description of these animals.\n\nIn 1413, a zhouyu was seen in Shandong. Again, there was no description of the animal.\n\nIn 1429, however, the military governor in the region of Jiangsu and Anhui sent into Beijing two zhouyu by a \"special courier\". The Xuande Emperor was so excited that he called together all civil and military officials then at court, as well as all tributary envoys in the capital, to witness such a wondrous sight”.\n\nOne eye-witness reported that these animals were \"white and gentle\". Another official present, the Minister of Finance, who, more likely than not, had never seen a wild animal before, but knew what they had looked like from his readings, proclaimed that the zhouyu had \"a leopard's head and a tiger's body\". He continued, \"They were white, with black limbs. Such gentleness! Their appearance at this time must be harbingers of a bountiful harvest!\"\n\nConclusionS no winners\n\nWhile one must give credit to these research scholars of the 1930s for their diligence and ingenuity in lining up classical scholarship and historical sources in their corner, it is difficult for an objective observer today to accept their conclusions without demanding more convincing evidence. The pixiu was a legendary animal. Neither version of the mo seems completely fault-free. The zhouyu, if any of these animals has to be accepted as the giant panda, would be the least grudging choice. Still, powerful arguments can be mounted against such a selection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212571, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "105\n\nThe eldest sister said to the youngest. We must be good to each other, we may not be sisters in our next lives.\n\nClose relatives, especially females, are expected to display grief. The three daughters and two granddaughters wept in unison, for about five minutes, interrupted by cries of love and affection for the dead mother.\n\nWhen the author lived in Hoi Ping Road in the 1950s a Chinese woman in a nearby flat, on her husband's death, engaged in continual spells of pitiful crying, interrupted by high-pitched, stereotype wailing, over several days. Public demonstrations of anguish, partly as 'notifications of death', are common for widows, especially for the less well-to-do. Men also can be lauded for overt displays of grief. This serves as an incentive for the deceased's spirit to exercise benevolence on descendants. However, it is important not to cry on coffins as the character for 'tears' puns with 'tiresome'.\n\nMute dejection does not usually satisfy. After the funeral of Sir Edward Youde (Governor of Hong Kong at the time) in 1986, a group of well-educated Chinese expressed surprise and tacit 'disapproval' that no outward expressions of grief were displayed by relatives.\n\nCultures obviously vary. As a child in England in the 1920s, the author recalls his mother sewing a diamond-shaped piece of black cloth to the upper-arm of his father's jacket when an uncle passed away. In Hong Kong, until the 1950s and 1960s, it was common for women to wear white, blue, or green wool rosettes in their hair to signify a death. The colour depended on the relationship of the person to the deceased and the rosette had to be pinned on at the correct hour. If it fell off in the street, the wearer was not supposed to pick it up. Children are sometimes scolded for putting white objects in their hair while playing.\n\nCustoms have changed rapidly in Hong Kong following World War II. They have also changed rapidly in China since 1949. Today, in large cities in China, people no longer employ traditional Chinese funerary rites, although they are still followed in rural areas. In the New Territories of Hong Kong, traditional Chinese funerals still take place, while urban Hong Kong, with its congestion and rapidly improving living conditions, has evolved its own style of funeral. Although all Chinese funerals follow the same basic format and are the same for emperors as for commoners, Cantonese have a number of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212700, "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-1992", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1992/93\n\nIn the Society's journal Volume I (1960-61) you will find that the then president wrote these words 'It is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.' That was just over thirty-three years ago, at the time of the resuscitation of the Society, as a result of the enthusiasm of a small band of interested members led by our late president, Dr. J.R. Jones. The first meeting took place on 28 December, 1959, when the present constitution was adopted and the inaugural meeting was held on 7 April, 1960 in the Loke Yew Hall of the University of Hong Kong. It was to be presided over by the then governor, Sir Robert Black, had illness not prevented it. The inaugural address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong and was entitled 'The study of Asia: a heritage and a task.'\n\nYou will notice that the word 'resuscitated' is used because the original Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1847 (the parent company was founded in 1823), but primarily due to personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days it collapsed in 1859. We, to-day, having survived for 33 years are clearly more enlightened and harmonious.\n\nSome of you here this evening will be fully aware of these facts; for those who are not you will find them all and much more in that first journal. My reason for drawing your attention to them, besides encouraging you to buy this back journal and all the other journals to improve our finances if nothing else, is to focus your attention on the historical mission of the Society, and to bring out that we have now been in existence for a very long time in the context of the history of Hong Kong. And in to-day's context, where the changes in Hong Kong are so apparent, where there is a charged political atmosphere, and where there is a feeling of uncertainty for the future, a Society such as ours, small as it is, can continue to play an enlightening and a stable role for Hong Kong. We are not of course a political society, nor would we ever wish to be one, but clearly we need to remind ourselves that academic freedom must be seen to be preserved, and not just paid lip service to.\n\nVil", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213091, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "140\n\nnot see the graves. About the use of lime as a disinfectant it appeared that this was being understood by the public, for Lowson added in an annotation to the July 16th entry that 'the lime which had been supplied to Laichikok and graveyard was brought over to Hong Kong and sold at high price to the Chinese in the streets. Or, was he talking about corruption and a black market?\n\nThe relationship between Lowson and Cantlie would seem to be strained at this stage. Cantlie made himself look ridiculous by writing to the Sanitary Board that the insanitary conditions in Victoria Town had nothing to do with the Epidemic. He was openly challenged by Major James in a letter to the Hong Kong Weekly Press. They made up afterwards. After they died together on July 21st, Lowson wrote: 'At this time he had ceased to be simply causing trouble and angry because he had not been taken more notice of but he began to see our side was right.'\n\nJuly 17th\n\nA meeting of the Permanent Committee Lockhart, myself and others A warm discussion arose and I had to tell Lockhart and Francis that they were both damned cowards as they were afraid to go near the plague cases They wanted many things done which were simply impossible When I called them damned cowards old Ayres backed me up and there was some scene May did not say much but silently agreed with us\n\nLowson knew that by calling Lockhart and Francis cowards to their face he could not expect to get any recognition for his work. He put down on this entry in bold letters: CMG strip. Also, 'that settled the question of future honours as neither would forgive me and they were bitter enemies for years.' In those days he could indeed expect the CMG, as the Order of the British Empire which later becomes the normal award for civil servants was not instituted until the reign of George V. However, he received some other rewards as we shall soon see.\n\nJuly 19th\n\nGovernor really played the bloody ox Feeling very bitter and strained at this time as Governor and Lockhart felt everybody was thinking them nonentities and fools and they had a very bad time It was entirely their own blame\n\nI think we have had enough of the bickering. Lowson ended the diary", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213095, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "144\n\ndescribed him as 'ubiquitous and indefatigable, burying, demolishing, disinfecting, burning and evacuating during the Epidemic.' He eventually succeeded Lockhart as Colonial Secretary in 1902 and as Sir Henry May, became Governor of Hong Kong in 1912, the first local cadet officer to have risen to the highest rank.\n\nFor details about Lowson's subsequent career and life, I am indebted to Mrs. Ashburner for giving me some biographical notes. He came back to Hong Kong to continue his work in the Epidemic after his holiday in Japan. In 1896, he married Miss Isabel Lammert at the St. John's Cathedral. His bride was the second daughter of G.R. Lammert, the auctioneer, whose firm Lammert & Co. was the first of its kind in the Territory, with rooms in Duddell Street for many years. He went on leave in 1897 but soon after went to India at the request of the Secretary of State to advise the government in their efforts to stamp out plague. However, he did not stay long. To quote from an obituary notice, 'he quarrelled with the authorities in a very downright fashion after a few months and took himself to England. This sounds like Hong Kong all over again!' He was back in Hong Kong after this episode. In 1901, he became ill with tuberculosis. On sick leave in Australia, he was asked to advise the Government of South Australia about plague. Eventually, in 1902, he was invalided out of the service at the age of 36 only. He was awarded a gold medal, but not the CMG which was what he would have liked. Back in Scotland, after a period of convalescence, he was active in public affairs in his home town, Forfar. He was elected to the Town Council in 1905 and served continuously for thirty years, during which he was Provost from 1925 to 1931. During the First World War, he served as a Medical Officer of Health for troops quartered in the area. He died in 1935, aged 69.\n\nFrom a number of obituary notices which Mrs. Ashburner kindly sent me, I have gathered some descriptions of Lowson. 'He had a most forceful personality.' 'Pale faced, bright-eyed and black-haired, he stood about five feet ten and had hardly any flesh on his bones.' That was his appearance. About his work on the Forfar Town Council, 'Into the duties of his office he entered with characteristic energy. It was not long before he had shaken his seniors out of their self-complacency.' Also, 'He criticised at every opportunity the Council's methods of doing business and he attempted and did indeed bring about many much-needed reforms.' Another passage: 'He was looked upon not unreasonably as something of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213267, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "69\n\nthe views expressed right at the start of this paper by Dr Ernest J. Eitel, sometimes titled Hong Kong's first historian and for some time a Hong Kong civil servant, were by no means unusual.\n\nToday, far more empathy is shown towards Chinese culture in general by Westerners. For instance, many Caucasian firms believe aquariums enrich the fung shu of an office. It is not just Chinese who can relax, Westerners will tell you, when they lie back and watch fish swimming. It gives everyone a special feeling and lowers their blood pressure by a few degrees.\n\nOf course, certain rules have to be followed. The number of fish kept is often six or nine. Three multiplied by three equals nine (a lucky number); and a homonym of three, in Cantonese, sounds similar to the character meaning 'lively'. Because of colour symbolism, one fish may be black (a Black Molly), another reddish (a goldfish), and the rest any other colour. Because the fish are supposed to act as a shield against bad fung shui, sometimes a fish dies. But better a dead fish than a dead customer.\n\nHigher up the hill above Central District, at the Albany in Albany Road, residents were concerned about the 70-storey, new, People's Republic Bank of China Building 'giving off vibes'. They feared the sharp edges of its structure with their negative forces would menace the abode of some of Hong Kong's rich and famous. In the West, the new Bank of China building would perhaps be described as 'ominous', 'overshadowing' or 'overpowering'. Many Chinese, however, liken the sharp edges of the Bank of China to a knife pointed at, or arrows cast at, Government House and Central Government Offices, namely, the heart of the British Colonial Administration. These 'weapons', together with the flyovers close to Government House, tie the decision-making hands of the British Governor and threaten the prosperity of Hong Kong. The fung shui 'dragon vein', with the dragon's head turned to face its ancestors, serpents down from Victoria Peak, close to the Albany, concealed by a carpet of vegetation. It passes close to the Albany apartments. The dragon thrusts and turns as the topography changes. The earth surges with natural energy. Chinese dragons are more serpent-like and sinuous than those in the West. And, as the vein gathers strength, it proceeds vigorously on to the 'dragon sites'\n\nsuch as the home of the Governor and down to the Hong Kong Bank. It then dips into the harbour, the 'dragon's lair'. Although now the slope up the Peak is largely obscured by high-rise buildings, on some hills and\n\n70", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213269, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "71\n\nMost Chinese will, however, tell you that a dragon has sinews and veins which can be severed. Blood can be spilled. Thus, when the earth's flesh was pierced, blood, in the form of bright red, ochre-coloured earth, appeared during excavations for the construction of Hong Kong's underground railway in the 1970s. This could mean the time had come for workers to down tools. The evil that might follow had to be averted ritually. Taoist priests would then beat ceremonial gongs and offer prayers to pacify spirits of the earth where the dragon's peace was being destroyed. Exorcism in modern day Hong Kong is by no means uncommon (Raceday rites, 1987). Neither is exorcism uncommon in Christian churches. It is mentioned in the Bible.\n\nOne can compare certain Buddhist, Taoist or folk-religion ceremonies, which purify and bestow blessings, with walking through fields in Europe in springtime while conducting a Christian Rogation Service to ensure a good harvest.\n\nInterestingly, some Chinese came to the conclusion during the last century, that foreigners know far more about fung shui than they are prepared to admit. Otherwise, why would they have picked such a fine site (as it was then) for the Governor's residence? Why would they plant vegetation over the slopes of Victoria Peak in which dwells the resident dragon?\n\nReturning to the cutting edges of the Bank of China: a fung shui master is supposed to adhere to strict ethical standards and not do anything which could be construed as the 'black art'. He should not 'attack' a neighbour. However, in the New Territories, for example, a case where a successful family's fortune has suddenly waned has sometimes been traced to the desecration of an ancestor's grave. As a result, revenge against perpetrators was, in the past, not uncommon.\n\nA buried 'person' needs to 'breathe', and, whether he or she can do this properly or not, affects his or her descendants. Some believed Chiang Kai-Shek's rise to power depended on his mother's fine grave. This, the Communists are said to have dug up.\n\nThe People's Republic's 'Red Guards' went to considerable lengths during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) to destroy the 'Four Olds' (old customs, old habits, old culture, old thoughts). These included fung shui.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213322, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "125\n\ncalling the Chinese \"disloyalists\", the Fukien braves sided with the enemy and set fire to the town. The foreigners then got over the wall and burnt the Manchu quarter, the Assistant Tatar-General and the acting Sub-Prefect losing their lives, and the taotai escaping to Kashing. The Magistrate Wei Feng-chia led a body of militia to oppose the British advance on the town and was killed, and whilst Heng Hsing, the Chinese Force commander at Hangchou was cashiered, the Chinese commander at Chapu, Chang Hsi, escaped death and capture but was later, posthumously, accused of having run away. The official toll of Chinese casualties including civilian casualties was said to exceed 1300. This figure includes more than 400 officers and men from the Green Standard force and 280 Manchu Bannermen.\n\nWhen I-li-pu \"arrived at Chapu, the English demands, so the Chinese version continues, were so extravagant that nothing definite could be arrived at; and, when the Governor requested the Emperor's sanction to the restoration of the score or two of white and black barbarian prisoners, the foreign ships had left Chapu. The prisoners were then sent to Chen-hai, and it was suggested that bygones should be bygones; but the English would not listen any more.\n\nThe idea of an attack on Hangchou itself by the British forces was now abandoned and attention was directed to the important trade centre of Shanghai. The British, having destroyed the Chinese arsenal, guns and all Chinese government stores in Chapu, released all their prisoners of war cash with a small present, and then on the 28th May embarked for the Yangtze and Woosung, the town at the mouth of the river leading to Shanghai. The transports took fifteen days to cover the hundred miles to Woosung which was bombarded and captured by naval forces. The war ended two months later before the walls of Nanking,\n\nThe 18th Royal Irish was disbanded in 1922 and amongst its many battle honours was 'China 1840-42'. The men of the regiment who took part in the campaign were eligible for the medal awarded for the 'China War' though, regrettably, there was no bar for Chapu.\n\nIn March 1994 my daughter and I tried to find the site of the joss house. Enquiries in the town of Chapu itself were received with polite replies that no such place existed and that there were no temples now near Chapu, this despite the fact that standing less than thirty yards from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214142, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "182\n\nBlack, Governor of Hong Kong and Patron of the Branch when it was re-established in 1960,\n\nIn his letter dated 28 February, 1964, to Dr J.R. Jones, Sir Robert\n\nwrote:\n\n...I feel very honoured to have been admitted to be the first Honorary Member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Society and I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation for the courtesy of yourself and the Members of the Council in so admitting me\n\nSigned: Sir Robert Black\n\nOther Patrons of the Branch who were later made Honorary Members include past governors Sir Murray (later Lord) Maclehose and Sir Edward Youde.\n\nA great deal of the work in reconstituting the Branch, in 1960, was carried out by Dr Marjorie Topley and Professor Granmer-Byng. In addition to Marjorie Topley who has been mentioned above, Granmer-Byng was also made an Honorary Member. Mr R.E. Lawry, another founder member of the Branch, was also made an Honorary Member.\n\nMost of the above Councillors undertook research and published and some of their work may be read in past editions of the Branch's Journals. In the case of some, such as James Hayes and Marjorie Topley, they published internationally.\n\nOther persons who have in the past been made Honorary Members include Lady Pamela Youde and Mr Lam Yung-fai, an active Member of the Society and printer of the Branch's Journals for many years. Mrs Margaret O'Hara, who at one time worked for the British Council was responsible for a great deal of the RAS's administrative work in earlier years. She too was made an Honorary Member and she still takes part in Branch functions.\n\nIn addition to all the above Honorary Members the Reverend Carl Smith was made an Honorary Vice President, under rule 9 of the Constitution, at the 1997 Annual General Meeting. Carl Smith was elected to the Council in 1975 and still sits on the Council. He was first made a Vice President in 1976. He is respected internationally as a scholar specialising in Hong Kong history.\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214509, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 367, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "336\n\nI do not know if a couple of bus-loads of \"extras\" were sent on in advance of our arrival at the beach, but we were greeted again by the sight of bridal couples - a beachful of them! I have a photograph that clearly shows more than 30 couples, the brides for the most part in western white gowns and the grooms in black suits. The heavily decorated taxis were present here too, but so was a totally different kind of conveyance, one that is rather hard to describe. Bright red in colour, it appeared to be the sort of car that might have been designed by Walt Disney - long and open with running boards and big frog-eye headlights. Our guide explained that the city had commissioned 20 of these wonderful creations. One of our number (the dashing and debonair Philip Bruce) found out that such cars were available for hire (with driver) during the evenings when not being used for weddings - and so off he went later that night for a very special city tour.\n\nAt the eastern end of the beach is the commanding building that was once the governor's seaside retreat and hunting lodge. Fully open to the public, and containing a souvenir and trinkets shop, it affords a wonderful panorama back across the city and the beach full of brides.\n\nThe day finished with dinner in a nearby restaurant, where our enthusiasm to support the local beer-making industry easily broke the budget of our unfortunate China Qingdao Overseas Tourist Company guide.\n\nDespite the preponderance of good beer in all the places we visited, some of our number preferred to sample the local wine. Chinese wine has been around for some time, during which it has steadily been getting better. A local find worth noting was the excellent Hua Dong, which really took by surprise those who sampled it. Comments were heard such as: \"I have never tasted a good Chinese-made wine before.\" In fact the Hua Dong winery has been made famous by none other than the globe-trotting Michael Palin, who went there in his TV series as well as managing to stay at the German Governor's residence in Qingdao.\n\nChefoo - The Brighton of China\n\nThe road from Qingdao to Chefoo (or Yantai as it is now known)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214599, "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-1999", "page_number": 14, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "himself a Hongkonger at heart and one of us. He helps the Branch in many ways albeit at a distance.\n\nWe are sorry to have to report the death of Sir Robert Black, at the age of 93. Sir Robert was Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 to 1964. While serving in the Colony he was Patron of the RASHKB and, on one occasion, he even chaired a Branch meeting. This was the first time a governor had chaired such a meeting since the days of Sir John Bowring in the middle of the 19th century. Sir Robert was also our first Honorary Member, a position he held until his death.\n\nWe also regret having to record the passing of member Jeanne Bromfield, in May 1999 in England. She, together with husband Tony and family, lived and worked in Hong Kong, as a teacher, from the 1950s until relatively recently. She attended RAS functions regularly.\n\nWe are also sorry to have to record the passing of RAS member Dr Alan Birch who taught at the University of Hong Kong for many years. He made a major contribution to local history and many students passed through his hands. His monuments are around for all to see.\n\nMembership drive and public relations\n\nRealising that if our Society wishes to attract new members it is not desirable to hide our light under a bushel, some emphasis has been placed on public relations. This has included appearances by members on television and radio, on both English and Chinese programmes, and reports in the press. A number of our members have also been engaged by other societies to lecture to their memberships. In such cases they usually take the opportunity to mention the RAS. We must also thank RAS Member Sydney Cowell who sent out details of the RAS to a number of his colleagues and friends. As a result, new RAS members were recruited.\n\nWe are grateful to Council member Julia Chan who arranged for a RASHKB exhibition to be held in the foyer of the Main Library of Hong Kong University. This attracted considerable attention among staff, students and visitors. Plans are being laid for similar exhibitions to be held at other venues in the Territory.\n\nxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214853, "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-1999", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "236\n\nThese symposia were mostly held in the gracious old Hong Kong Club building, completed in 1897, which had a wonderful ambience. I fell in love with its splendid Victorian lavatories which, believe it or not, still actually flushed. In 1954 in England, a septuagenarian surveyor, Harold Palmer, said to me:\n\n'When you get to Hong Kong, Dan, see if some of the buildings designed by my architect grandfather, Clement Palmer, are still standing.'\n\nI reported back after I arrived here that the old Hong Kong Club building was still basking in its glory. Sadly, it was demolished in 1981. There, before World War Two, you had four waiters for a table of four guests. A fifth 'senior' waiter oversaw the four waiters.\n\nAn RAS member who lived in Hong Kong for approaching 30 years wrote a couple of years or so ago from his home in England:\n\n'No, I do not miss the present-day Hong Kong one little bit. But I do miss the Hong Kong of the 1950s and '60s.'\n\nTo what degree does nostalgia creep in? Let us take a wander down memory lane. What was the Colony really like when our Branch was re-constituted in 1960?\n\nOur first Patron was the then Governor, the late Sir Robert Brown Black, and he honoured us by chairing one of our RAS meetings. In his South China Morning Post obituary, on 7 November 1999, the heading read, 'Farewell to “Golden Days” Governor'.\n\nA few months before he left Hong Kong, in 1964, a petition signed by many Chinese was delivered to the Colonial Secretariat to try to get the 'powers-that-were', in Britain at the time, to grant Sir Robert an extension.\n\nA similar request for an extension had also been submitted in the case of his predecessor, Sir Alexander Grantham, Governor from 1947 to 1957, one of Hong Kong's early post-World War Two 'architects'. But certainly, in those days, everything was not rosy. After 1949 we had our 'backs to the wall' and entrepot trade with China had ceased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215328, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "53\n\nby the Hainanese and especially those from the Hainanese county of Wanning where he is primarily prayed to by the sick. He is claimed to be extremely efficacious and able to cure or heal any sickness or injury. He usually sends his Black or White Horse Generals to help devotees and only leaves the Heavens himself for very important cases. His image has only been seen in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Borneo, Bangkok and Phnom Penh where his festival is generally celebrated on the 15th of the fifth lunar month. However, he must never be prayed to for prosperity.\n\nTwo entirely different legends describe the origins of this deity, one more popular in Singapore and southern Malaysia, and the other in Thailand and Cambodia. In neither is the Marquis identified by name and he therefore remains unidentified.\n\nHe is also referred to as:\n\nthe Lord of the Seas, Wenzhou Haizhu Houwang\n\nTongzhu Houwang The Marquis Lord of the Aboriginal People\n\nShanqin Houwang The Imperial Marquis of the Mountains\n\nThe first legend claims that a petty king in China was waved by an individual who, in the city of Wenzhou on the coast of Zhejiang province, north of and nearly opposite the island of Taiwan, was awarded the title of Marquis. This happened a long, long time ago. The ruler of Hainan, as a separate state, so the legend continued, had an image of the Marquis brought to the island of Hainan and placed in a specially built temple where he has been worshipped ever since.\n\nThe second story relates that the Marquis was, variously, a Ming governor of Hainan island or a minister of an ancient dynasty against whom, through jealousy, evil ministers plotted. They killed him and threw his body into the sea where it turned into a log and floated away. A fisherman found it, realised that it had spiritual properties and so carved it into a statue which he revered and quickly became wealthy,\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215570, "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": 347, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "297\n\nCROWN\n\nB.P.36 1844\n\n(Harrison; 1999)\n\nApart from oral history, no written evidence has been uncovered to confirm that these two cannons, now at Queen's College, once fortified Waglan Island (Lee; 1999).\n\nBadly corroded, an old cannon is set on its muzzle and buried into the rocks up to its trunnions, where the old landing stage used to be. This old cannon acted as a bollard for tying up boats. A small boat would transport supplies from the mother ship to shore. From there drums of diesel, bags of coal, firewood and other material were manhandled up the steps to the top of the Island. Coal and firewood were the only fuels for cooking up to the late 1960s. A new, larger landing stage, a little to the north, was constructed in the 1960s. A cable railway was also installed for raising stores and equipment.\n\nBecause it is a restricted area, there were (and still are) few visitors to Waglan although there was a visitors' book. It was considered an auspicious day when the late Sir Robert Black, Governor of Hong Kong from 1958 to 1964, visited the lighthouse in 1963.\n\nCommunications\n\nIn other parts of the world lighthouse keepers, years ago, would use semaphore for signalling. The author has not seen nor heard of this happening in Hong Kong. Also, in the Hong Kong Marine Police (previously called Water Police), up until about 1926 around 50 pigeons were kept on strength. Half a dozen or so were taken out on each police launch to fly messages back to headquarters. There is no record, as far as the author knows, of pigeons being used to fly messages from lighthouses. Signals used to be sent by flashing lamps, however, using Morse code, to passing ships. In the mid-1950s HMS Tamar operated a radar station on Waglan.\n\nWaglan also had two sets of fog horn signalling equipment (there were also two electrical generators), in case one broke down. When the foghorn was operating it sounded every five minutes. Normally the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215915, "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": 214, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "148\n\nwith Sir John Davis, the Governor of Hong Kong, as its president and remained active for 12 years, but ceased to exist in 1859. The Hong Kong branch was re-established under the active patronage of another governor, Sir Robert Black, in 1959.\n\nSince the handover, the society no longer has a patron. When the present Chief Executive of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa was asked to serve in that role, he politely declined.\n\nAn American in Hong Kong...\n\nThe conference participants are back from the lunch break and the 82-year-old Reverend Carl Smith is helped to the stage by Elizabeth Sinn. Smith's talk is titled \"Forty Years of Research on Hong Kong.\" The lights are dimmed and heads begin to nod off again...\n\n\"You get out at exit A and on your right you'll see this big set of steps leading up to the skies...don't take them,\" said Smith as he was giving directions to his home in Mei Foo Sun Chuen. As soon as he said that it reminded me of an episode of the popular TV series M*A*S*H when the doctors had to dispose of a bomb. It went something like, “cut the red wire\"...the doctor cuts it... \"after cutting the blue wire\"...explosion!!!\n\nThe reverend's instructions are spot on and I arrive without any trouble. The block is 19 and he's on the 11th Floor, flat D, but his flat is labelled 19D...go figure. Smith greets me and has to unlock the gate with a key. Not very safe, I think, for a man of his age. What if there's a fire? How is he going to get out?\n\nThe apartment is smaller than I had expected and it is filled wall to wall with file cabinets and card files all of Smith's research work over the last 40 years. The cards were put on microfilm and housed in the Public Records Office as the Carl Smith collection. Smith has recently agreed to leave the cards themselves to the Library of Congress in the United States.\n\n\"The Asian division of the Library of Congress, right before the handover, came to Hong Kong with the purpose of getting documents", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216129, "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": 428, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "362\n\nMay 1859 after the departure of Sir John Bowring, but was revived with the approval of the parent Society in London and reconstituted as the Hong Kong Branch in December 1959 under the active patronage of the Governor, Sir Robert Black. It is currently very active and is in a sound financial position.\n\nThe Library\n\nSimilar to other branches, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society set up a collection of books within its field of interest, relating to Asia and its culture. As a result of the merger with the Medico-Chirurgical Society, it had the benefit of inheriting all the books from this Society.\n\nThe Society in Hong Kong was not as fortunate as its Shanghai counterpart where the Government, in 1868, provided a site for its building at a nominal rent and later granted it in perpetuity to the Society.2 For many years, the Hong Kong Branch did not have any permanent site, and thus its collection moved from place to place.\n\nIn the early days, in 1849, as allowed by the then governor Sir S. G. Bonham, the collection was housed in a room at the Supreme Court building where the Society had its meetings. In 1859, when the Society ran into difficulties, the, by now, valuable collection of 400 books was placed in trust with the Morrison Education Society (formed in Canton in 1835) which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Supreme Court house. In November 1869, when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Colony to open the first City Hall, the Morrison Education Society presented its own library as well as that of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society to the first City Hall Public Library to serve as the reference collection. This laid the corner stone for the future relationship of the Society with the Hong Kong Public Libraries which eventually would become the permanent home for the Society's collection. In fact, following the resuscitation of the Hong Kong Branch in 1959, the President's first annual report stressed the need for ‘a meeting place of our own where we can build our Oriental library which should fill a special need'3 and expressed the hope that some accommodation could be made available in the City Hall. However, this was not realized until after several movements of both the Society and the collection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]