[ { "id": 204448, "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE\n\n69\n\nTable II lists the numbers of people in each ethnic group distributed by provinces in south and central China. In brief, the T'ai-related groups lead with some 10 million people at present. They are followed by the Tibeto-Burman related group with some 8.4 million, followed by the Miao-Yao related group with about 3.4 million. The greatest concentration of minorities in any one group is among the Chuang in the Tai group. The Chuang live in a compact body numbering some seven million in Kwangsi. The Miao, however, are the most widely distributed of all ethnic groups, being found in significant numbers in every province of south and central China except Kiangsi, although their chief strength is in Kweichow. Yunnan, by all odds, is the most complex province ethnically. Of the 30 national minorities listed by the Census for 1953, some twenty-four are found in Yunnan. This Census apparently may need considerable revision when the minorities are scrutinized more closely. Thus, it listed only 90,000 so-called T'u-chia, which was proclaimed to be a newly discovered ethnic group hitherto confused with Han Chinese and Miao because of their degrees of acculturation. A personal check by Fang Jen revealed over 300,000, and a still more detailed check in subsequent years disclosed that actually these were 549,000 that should be so classified and, from their original cultural traits, they belonged in the Yi-related group. They occupy an area in northwest Hunan.\n\n44\n\nThe Yi comprise so many sub-groups under different names (there are 40 sub-tribes in Yunnan alone) that confusion is understandable. In northwest Yunnan such sub-groups of the Yi as the Na-khi or Na-hsi and Li-su live in the region between the great bends of the Chin-sha river and the Burma border. In the western part of this region are the Nu, Tu-lung, and Ching-p'o, occupying parts of the Salween and Mekong drainage of north Yunnan. Farther south in the drainages of these rivers are the related La-hu and A-ch'ang. The Pai people, in a solid bloc on the plain of Erh Hai (Lake Erh), have been thought by some writers, including this one, to be a T'ai-related people, but are listed by Bruk as a Yi sub-group. In the west bank region of the Red river of Yunnan are the sub-group known as the Han-yi. The Yi proper are scattered over the three southwestern provinces,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204646, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "114 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nwith Howqua, the great Canton hong merchant, until 1861 and were also associated with Baring Brothers, the London bankers, shows that the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company was far from being a purely American concern. The initiative in its formation and its success, however, was almost entirely due to the determination and ability of the Shanghai heads of Russell and Company, and in particular to Edward Cunningham, the firm's managing partner in Shanghai in the vital years of 1862, 63, and '64.\n\nBecause of American influence in the early days, and the similarity between navigational problems on the Mississippi and on the Yangtse, the luxurious river steamers which plied on the Lower and Middle Yangtse during the heyday of foreign trade were very similar to the Mississippi steamers of Mark Twain's day. They had the same tall, narrow funnel, and the long promenade deck extending almost the whole length of the ship, which Hollywood has made so familiar. At the forward end of this deck was the dining saloon, and at the after end the lounge. Both of these were elegantly, and even ornately furnished, the entrance to the lounge being flanked with potted shrubs leading to a wide stairway down to the lower deck. The best cabins were on the promenade deck. Unfortunately no one with Mark Twain's genius has written a ‘Life on the Yangtse' to match his Life on the Mississippi, an omission now very unlikely to be repaired.\n\nIn his journey up the Yangtse and overland to Burma in 1874, which was to end in his tragic murder, A. R. Margary travelled from Shanghai to Hankow by the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company's Hirado.\" Margary described his cabin as large and airy, and the Hirado as a wonderful structure and not like a ship at all. She had a tall narrow funnel in front of each paddle box, tier upon tier of cabins built on the smallest possible hull, and the general appearance of a gaudy palace of pleasure full of windows and terraces floating upon the water. Margary continued by mandarin boat10 to Yochow, and then across the Tungting Lake and by the Yuan River to the border of Kweichow, and then completed his\n\n10\n\n\"The Hirado was one of the largest steamers on the river at this time, being of 1,294 gross tons. She had been built in America for Dent and Company in 1866, and sold by them to the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company in 1867.\n\n10 A long, narrow junk divided into 5 or 6 compartments.\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204651, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "118\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nthe Yangtse was now open to foreign trade and navigation for almost 1,400 miles from the sea, and access had been gained to the rich and populous province of Szechuen, of which Chungking was the chief port.\n\nThe section of the river between Ichang and Chungking was known as the Upper River, and the first steamer to navigate this section belonged to Archibald Little, whose Y-Ling had been the first steamer to navigate the Middle River. Little was a member of a well-known Shanghai family, and he was the real pioneer of steam navigation on the Upper Yangtse. He had commenced his career as a tea taster for a German firm in Kiukiang in 1859, but soon went into business on his own and was one of the first to appreciate the possibility of trade in Szechuen Province and beyond in Tibet. He settled in Chungking soon after it became a treaty port, and started up several industries connected with wool, bristles, and coal—to mention some of the more prominent, and also engaged in marine insurance, specialising in covering cargoes on the Upper Yangtse.1 The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce had sent two prominent British merchants—Alexander Michie and Robert Francis—up the Yangtse to Chungking as early as 1869, to investigate trade prospects there, but no important developments followed. In 1887 Little made a much more intensive trip from Ichang to Chungking by junk, and formed the opinion that there were great possibilities for trade in Szechuen Province and beyond. The following year he attempted to run a steamer service between Ichang and Chungking with a stern wheeler specially built on the Clyde called the Kuling. Because of a clause in the Chefoo Convention stipulating that foreign steamers could only go to Chungking after Chinese steamers had gone there, the Kuling was not allowed to go beyond Ichang. Little then sold her to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, who employed her on the Hankow-Ichang service.\n\nOne of his brothers was a famous editor of the North China Daily News, and another a well-known doctor in Shanghai.\n\n[Robert Swinhoe, British Consul at Amoy was sent up the Yangtse by Sir Rutherford Alcock, British Minister at Peking, in March 1869 to enquire into the trade of the Upper River. He reached Chungking in May of the same year. His account of this journey was published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society Vol. XL (1870), pp. 268-85. It is accompanied by a folding map of the Upper River from the Tungting Lake to Chungking compiled from the charts made by two survey officers specially sent up the Yangtse for this purpose. Ed.]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204922, "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-1965", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NIAH CAVE, 1947 - 1964\n\n23\n\n9. Jeragun a very high cave up a barely accessible cliff, discovered in 1960 (c.600 square feet). Crammed with primary burials of small-bodied adults and urn burials of infants and some women. Very simple material culture, perhaps of a more primitive group (Punans?) integrated economically with the Great Cave people. The deposit has been entirely removed, owing to danger of guano-extraction and difficulty of control at this point. This material is being studied as a unit in Britain, by Dr. Calvin Wells and others.\n\nMATERIAL FINDS\n\nA new building in Kuching, completed in 1958, now houses the bulk of the materials from Niah and related excavations just described. These include stone tools from fully palaeolithic \"hand-chopper\" and flake tools, through to neolithic polished round axes and then to quadrangular adzes — about 5,000 pieces in all. Bone-tools are richly represented and have been recently classified tentatively into seventeen categories by Lord Medway and the writer. A great quantity of food-bone remains are all kept. Where possible, these are sent abroad to zoological specialists and reported upon separately (see below). Animals now extinct in Borneo include tapir, rhinoceros, giant pangolin, and tiger. Food shells abound. Samples are kept for each trench; all others are counted-off as excavated, against a coded species identification list. Shell tools (including fossil oyster) are less common. Skeletons are treated as above; plus several thousand scattered teeth which are being studied on the spot by Dr. Yim Khai Sun and assistants.\n\nIn the upper levels, earthenware pottery (studied on the scene by Dr. W. S. Solheim) in a wide range of types starts in the neolithic and reaches an apotheosis in massive \"three-colour ware\" urns, several of which have been reconstructed and are on museum display. Some of this pottery was made in the caves; one such site has been excavated. Pottery and bone were also used for beads in the neolithic. Glass replaced bone as a bead material a little later and shell and bone jewellery then became scarce in the sub-surface. Several fragments of fine bronzes, carved ivory, and also iron tools came in the topmost levels or in the special burial caves. A few textile fragments\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204958, "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-1965", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "The Dialects of Hong Kong Boat People\n\nfong 'square',\n\nkong 'harbor'.\n\nfu ‘lake', & u ‘black', fu 'to transfer'.\n\nku ‘ancient',\n\n59\n\n-ui\n\nk sui 'water',\n\nkui 'sentence', hui 'sea', ui 'to love',\n\ncui ‘mouth'.\n\nlui 'long time', lui 'to come',\n\ncui 'crime', fi sui ‘tax',\n\n-ut\n\nut 'life'.\n\n-uk\n\nmuk 'wood', buk 'to cry', fuk 'wealthy', iuk 'meat', luk 'green', fè cuk ‘common',\n\n-un\n\nfun 'broad', thun 'to swallow',\n\nun 'to change',\n\npun 'native',\n\niun 'round', † chun 'inch'.\n\ntung ‘east',\n\niung ‘old man',\n\nchung 'insect',\n\nhung 'to bear',\n\n#chung 'to follow',\n\nhung 'breast',\n\niung ‘to use'.\n\n-ung\n\nsung 'to send',\n\nlung 'to farm',\n\n-o\n\nA ng 'five', m2 'not'.15\n\nIII. Conclusions\n\nAt this point it is possible to make some comment on the original question, 'How does the language of the Kau Sai Boat People compare with Standard Cantonese?' Obviously the two are not the same but equally obviously KS is well within the limits of phonological diversity found within the Cantonese sub-dialects of Kwangtung and Kwangsi Province. Although the criteria are not available for making precise objective statements on the differences between closely related speech groups, in impressionistic terms KS phonology is much closer to SC than are many other subdialects of the Cantonese group. Any naive speaker of SC, that is, one with no experience outside his own subdialect, might recognize KS as a distinct accent but he would probably have no great difficulty in carrying on a conversation. On the other hand, some of the Szeyap forms might frustrate communication altogether. Unfortunately it will take a good deal of cooperation between the linguist and the psychologist before we have the techniques for making quantitative statements about cross-dialect intelligibility; my comment on this score are at best educated guesses.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205468, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "4\n\nroom for the Society and its library in a large room of the Supreme Court.\n\nDuring the year we suffered the loss of our very efficient Hon. Secretary Miss Michaeliones who was transferred to the British Council at Leeds and also of our Hon. Treasurer Mr. Lanchester of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. We have, however, been fortunate in having as Hon. Secretary Mr. T. H. Thomas of the British Council and as Hon. Treasurer Mr. D. A. Gilkes, a Chartered Accountant on the administrative staff of the Chinese University and we are deeply grateful to them for undertaking a task which occupies so much of their time and labour and those of their staff.\n\nI cannot conclude without expressing again our deep appreciation of the support and assistance given to the Society by the British Council and its staff. The Society's early meetings were held in its library; the Council of the Society holds all its meetings in its office; it has provided us with three successive Hon. Secretaries who with their staff, and in particular the indispensable Mrs. O'Hara, have been a tower of strength on which we have relied from the days when the Hong Kong Branch was re-established in 1959.\n\n8 April, 1968\n\nJ. R. JONES\n\nLectures in 1967 comprised: -\n\n16 January\n\nMajor Michael Banks, R.M.\n\nA Wall of Snow: Exploration and Mountaineering in the Himalayas, Arctic Greenland, Alaska and the Yukon.\n\n13 February\n\nMr. Chuang C. Shen\n\n\"Early Chinese Buddhist Paintings in Tunhuang.\"\n\n6 March\n\nProfessor J. R. Levenson\n\n'A Dialectical View of Confucius.\n\n1 April\n\nVisit to Places of Interest on Hong Kong Island.\n\n3 April\n\nAnnual General Meeting.\n\n17 May\n\nMr. Hugh Gibb\n\nThree films on Angkor and one on \"The People of the Great Lake.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205762, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "62\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\n44 Skinner, op. cit., Part 1, p. 27. The markets of the northern district of the New Territory seem to have been dependent primarily upon Sham Chun, rather than upon several intermediate markets. This may be an example of what Skinner terms a marketing system in a \"topographic cul-de-sac\". Ibid., p. 21.\n\n45 Baker, Hugh D. R. \"The Five Great Clans of the New Territories”, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. VI, 1966, p. 31.\n\n46 Freedman, op. cit., pp. 82ff., gives an account of the origins of the Ts'at Yeuk. The character yeuk may be translated as 'covenant', or 'agreement'. The seven covenants' were a confederation of seven groups of villages within the Tai Po marketing area.\n\n47 Papers Extracts, op. cit., p. 192.\n\n48 Hayes, \"The Pattern of Life.\", op. cit., p. 9.\n\n49 Freedman, op. cit., p. 81.\n\n50 Papers Extracts, op. cit., pp. 201ff.\n\n51 Hong Kong 1963, Hong Kong, 1964, pp. 363ff.\n\n52 Papers Extracts, op. cit., pp. 587-8.\n\n53 The following account has been assembled, somewhat in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle, from two sources: Hong Kong. Correspondence (June 20, 1898 to August 20, 1900) Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, Eastern No. 66, Colonial Office, London, 1900; Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899. Despatches and Other Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1900. Specific references will be given only for quotations.\n\n54 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 261. A brief discussion of the activities of the land syndicate mentioned in the preceding paragraph is to be found in Endacott, G.B., A History of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, London and Hong Kong, and Paperback Edition, 1964, p. 265, who says: \"The main problem of the take-over was not military but administrative. A land syndicate of Chinese among whom it was suspected Ho Kai [Dr. Ho Kai, a Chinese unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong] was one, had bought land at a fraction of its value by spreading the rumour that the British would seize all land. Blake threatened to restore this property, but the land problem proved too baffling for him to carry out his threat.\"\n\n55 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 261. Wakeman, op. cit., Chap. V, discusses similar charges made against the British at Canton almost sixty years earlier.\n\n56 One recipient was Liu Wan-kuk, of Sheung Shui. His support for the resistance appears to have been half-hearted throughout. On at least two occasions he protested: \"the villages in our Division have no plans. Moreover, our commissariat and arms being insufficient, how can we offer effective resistance? We request your Division [Yuen Long] to decide on the plan of campaign and we will follow your instruction\". The dominance of the Yuen Long Division—and of the Tang lineages within it—was to become increasingly obvious as the resistance movement developed. Papers Despatches, op. cit., p. 72.\n\n57 Translated in Correspondence, op. cit., pp. 138ff.\n\n58 Baker, op. cit., pp. 35ff.\n\n59 Correspondence, op. cit., p. 147.\n\n60 Ibid., p. 148.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206121, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "194\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe map was clearly of potential value for any persons travelling in or having business with the District, and Colonial Office documents now in the Public Record Office, London show that it was, in fact, used by British diplomats and administrators during the important negotiations following the Convention of Peking of 6 June 1898, which leased the present New Territories to Great Britain, and before the take-over of the leased area in March-April 1899.\n\nOn 10 February 1899 the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Blake, sent a telegram to Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister at Peking urging him to secure the important market town of Shum Chun, just north of the leased area (an afterthought on the part of local Hong Kong officials) and advising that it could be located on the Missionary map of 1866'. This is clearly a reference to Mgr. Volontieri's map, which includes the date (May 1866) in the descriptive lettering.\n\nAgain, when Governor Blake wired to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Chamberlain, on 10 March 1899 he advised, in an accompanying 'Memorandum regarding the proposed survey of the Territory in Kwang Tung Province leased by Great Britain from China' (being Enclosure 1 to telegram No. 53): 'There is available a fairly correct map of the country, on a scale of an inch to the mile, prepared by the Jesuit missionary (sic). It shows the coast line correctly; the position of all villages, streams, roads, etc., approximately'. This memorandum was drawn up by the Director of Public Works in Hong Kong with the assistance of Colonel Elsdale, R.E.\n\nThese passages make it fairly clear that Mgr. Volontieri's map-making efforts in the early 1860s were of considerable assistance to British officials nearly forty years later.\n\nThe documents quoted above are in CO129/290 in the Public Record Office, London.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nPostscript\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThe notice that follows came to my attention recently. It appeared in the Hongkong Government Gazette, 26th May 1866 and is an interesting and valuable addition to our knowledge of this subject, being the original announcement of the project to the Hong Kong public.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206843, "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-1973", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "114 \n\nSUNG HOK-P’ANG \n\nto Kam T'in he was much taken by it, considering the people were more friendly and honest than those of his own country, and it was said that he came to live there in the 6th year of Hoi Po (HT) A.D. 973 of Sung dynasty. During the 8th year of Shing Fa (APC) A.D. 1472 of Ming dynasty when the Kam T'in people revised their family tree, they added a note which cast doubt on the veracity of this, and instead they were inclined to believe that Tang Foo (#) the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat was really the first to come to Kam Tin, and that he transferred the bones of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather to Kwangtung from Kiangsi. Be that as it may, and although there is no actual proof that one or other was the original Tang to settle in Kwangtung, Tang Hon Fat remains a \"first ancestor\" as his is the oldest Tang grave near Kam T'in. It can be found at Ah Kai Shaan (Y), Waang Chau (H) village.\n\nSix generations after Tang Hon Fat there were two brothers, Kwai (3) and Sui (). Kwai had two sons called Yuen Ying (* ) and Yuen Hei (†), both of whom left Kam T’in and founded branches of the family elsewhere. Sui had three sons, Yuen Ching (元祯), Yuen Leung (元亮) and Yuen Woh (元和). The first and last of these also left for other districts but Yuen Leung remained behind, and the Tangs in Kam T’in to-day are his direct descendants. These five cousins were known as the \"Five Yuens\", and after their death their descendants who by then were scattered in various parts of China built an Ancestral Hall, common to all the Yuens, called To Hing T'ong (*). It is at the South gate of the district city of Tung Koon (✯✯), on the Kowloon-Canton railway not far from Sheklung (). In the hall Tang Hon Fat has been given premier place, but the \"Five Yuens\" are venerated in the same way as he and Tang Yue are, as being \"first ancestors”.\n\nAs mentioned before, Tang Foo, the great grandson of Tang Hon Fat is said to have found the sites for the graves of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, himself. They were all acknowledged as being lucky places by the \"fung shui\" men, who were, of course, consulted. That of Tang Hon Fat is called Yuk Nui Paai T'ong (£#*) jade girl reverence; and his son's grave which is on Yuen Long Hill (₪), is called Kam Chung Fau Tei () gold bell cover ground. The grave of Tang Foo's father is called Poon Yuet Chiu T'aam (#AM) half moon shine lake,\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206986, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG \n\n51 \n\nboarded Huck Finn's raft on the Mississippi went by the names of the Duke of Bilgewater (Bridgewater) and the Dauphin. But a title not only helped to disarm potential sceptics but allowed an adventurer to secure credit, often a necessity for the realisation of his schemes. Mayréna, as we have seen, kept himself afloat for some time by the sale of bogus titles, decorations and honours. A title, as it were, gave the claimant a fake persona, a social mask or facade behind which the predator could lurk. In this century, however, a devaluation of titles has taken place coincident with the rise of meritocracy.\n\nPoor communications helped an adventurer of the impostor or swindler type, for if knowledge of his past leaked out too soon, this would undermine any claim to respectability and diminish confidence in his intentions. News flowed more sluggishly in the nineteenth century, though it was a period of great achievements in the development of a network of world-wide communications. In 1853 the P. and O. had established a regular mail service between Hong Kong and Calcutta, thus establishing fortnightly communications with England; in 1863 the French Messageries Maritimes opened a route to the East; telegraph connection with Manila was achieved in 1880, with Canton in 1882. Nevertheless, mail, newspapers, and reading matter of all kinds took time — usually a month — to reach Hong Kong from Europe, even at the end of the century. There was also no Interpol to flash news by telegraph or wireless about international swindlers, pretenders and other social pests. The Hong Kong public had to wait several weeks before Le Courrier d'Haiphong brought news of the accusations Father Guerlach had levelled against Mayréna. It was not until 24 December 1888, six weeks after his arrival in Hong Kong, that the general public acquired some knowledge of Mayréna's chicanery and general untrustworthiness.\n\nIt was not only the pursuit of adventure, of fame or fortune, that drew adventurers to alien shores. Some left their homelands to escape from the cultural constraints and legal bind of their own societies — an escape, as they saw it, into freedom, innocence and, its corollary, libertinage.57 Laurence Hope, the wife of Lieutenant-General M. H. Nicolson of the Bengal Army, in 1902 wrote:\n\nUpon the City Ramparts, lit up by sunset gleam,\n\nThe Blue eyes that conquer, meet the Darker eyes that dream,58", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207812, "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-1976", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & Nakorn Pathom\n\n185\n\nfrom 1823 to 1837, Amarapura once more from 1837 to 1857, and Mandalay from 1857 to 1885. Of Ava, which had also been the capital under another dynasty from 1636-1752, little remains; it is more famous now for the mile-long Ava bridge across the Irrawaddi, though U Bien's wooden bridge across the often dry Taungthaman lake, made from the timbers of the Ava palace, is more charming and evocative. This leads to the Kyauktawgyi pagoda of 1847, the principal interest of which is in the wall paintings similar to those in Siam of the same period. The Patotawgyi pagoda is not without interest, although it is essentially a stupa of later foundation (1820). The sacred hill of Sagaing, across the river, boasts no temples of great beauty, though the ensemble of the view from the top over the many spires and pagodas is delightful. The Kaunghmudaw pagoda, to the north of the town, is however unusual. It was built in 1636 in the shape of a gigantic almost spheroid dome, said to resemble a queen's breast. The shape is in fact Singalese, though one of the traditional attributes of Indic feminine beauty is perfectly rounded breasts. The stupa is also said to contain a tooth of the Buddha, and attracts many pilgrims to perform the pradakshina, the walking round the monument three times in a clockwise direction to obtain merit. The passage of the devotees at night was illuminated by a large number of upright pillars into which were inserted coconut oil lamps.\n\nMinggun, an afternoon's boat trip upriver from Mandalay, is well worth the journey. Clearly, Bodawpaya intended to make it his capital and he had a temporary residence there until he died in 1819. The base of the great unfinished pagoda is a witness to his folie de grandeur; the massive brick structure is on a 450-foot square and rises to 162 feet. It was abandoned even before it was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1838. Seen in the setting sun, the building impresses by its golden glow against the dark green foliage around. It has nearby a massive bell, said to be the largest ringing bell in the world, 12 feet high. To the north is the Hsinbyune pagoda built in 1816. It represents the Hindu-Buddhist cosmography; Mount Meru is symbolised by the central core containing a vaulted chamber for the Buddha, rising above the seven seas, represented by seven circular terraces with wave-like lines on their retaining walls. One has a fine view of the ensemble of Mingin from the Irrawaddi which for its size is a surprisingly empty river.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207998, "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": 37, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "BRUNEI A HISTORICAL RELIC\n\n21\n\nvery small, and rises but some fifteen to twenty miles inland. Where the town is, the river is very broad, forming a large lake. The town is commanded by hills once under cultivation; on an island at the mouth of the entrance are the shattered remains of an old Portuguese fort, which was still standing, though ruinous, when Hunt visited the place in 1809. The town itself has been designated the \"Venice of Borneo\" by old writers, a description to which the Italian Beccari rightly objected,* and is mainly built on piles driven into the mud on a shallow in the middle of the lake, the houses occupying wooden platforms elevated some ten feet above the reach of the tide. Communication between them is effected by canoes, in which the women daily go through the town selling provisions. It is, in a word, similar to the palafitte villages found in prehistoric times in the lakes of Switzerland and Lombardy. A part of the town, including the houses of the Sultan and the wazirs, is situated on the left bank of the river. It is the Brunei of Pigafetta's time, though sadly reduced in size and importance. Then the Sultan's palace was enclosed by a strong brick wall,† with barbicans mounting fifty-six cannon, now it is but a roughly built barn-like shed. Gone are the richly caparisoned elephants, and gone too is all the old pride, pomp, and panoply, including the spoons of gold, which particularly struck the old voyager.§ Brunei has no defences now, but, at the period of which we are writing, there were batteries planted on each side of the inlet commanding the approach, also two forts on the heights, and one battery on a\n\n* \"I admit that Bruni has its points, but what irony to compare for a moment the city of marble palaces with the mass of miserable huts which a single match could easily reduce to ashes.\" The Rajah called the place a \"Venice of hovels.\" Mercator in his Atlas describes it as \"being situated on a salt-water lagoon like Venice,\" hence probably it became known as the Venice of Borneo.\n\n† Kota batu, stone fort. The name still remains. It was built towards the close of the fifteen century by Sherip Ali, the first Arab Sultan, with the aid of the Chinese subjects his wife's mother had brought to Bruni. The city was then nearer the mouth of the river. It was moved to its present position by Sultan Muadin about 200 years ago.\n\n§ The Portuguese Jorge de Menezes, who visited Bruni five years after Pigafetta, notices that the city was surrounded with a wall of brick, and possessed some noble edifices. Other early voyagers describe the sultans and rulers of Malayan States as maintaining great style, and their equipments, such as swords of state, saddles, chairs, eating and drinking utensils as being of pure gold. Allowing for some exaggeration, this would still point to a former condition of prosperity which enabled rulers and nobles to keep up a pageantry which has long since vanished.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208108, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW -LONG ISLAND \n\n131\n\nJunks are the reason for Cheung Chow which only exists to take over their cargoes of fish, salt, or hides, and to supply them in return with all that junks need, ship chandlery and stores, gear of all sorts, and certain amusements for the fisherman, some of them innocent and some not. It stands between Hongkong with its population of some 600,000 persons clamorous for food, and the fishing fleet which cannot afford to lose time beating about in narrow and often becalmed waters under high hills. At Cheung Chow the wind is almost always blowing, but the deeply indented bay and the sheltering spit between the hills give shelter. The junks can run in, unload their catch, revictual or refit, and stand out to sea in any wind, with no delay. The steam ferry carries their fish to the waiting markets for them.\n\nBut the islanders have a second string to their bow for the presence of the ferry has made it worth while to grow vegetables for the same market, and the little glens of the island are terraced to the limit to provide vegetables to the inhabitants and a surplus for that export.\n\nSubsidiary trades have grown up from the same root, if fish can be called a root; fish must be salted and dried, so there is a great trade in salt, though most of the salt which comes into Cheung Chow is not rubbed into the fish there but is re-exported to China.\n\nWhen we have pictured the little land to ourselves, described its climate, the races and tribes of its inhabitants, we will wander along the busy main street, and so take ship and depart from this little place so like some ancient Greek kingdom set in the wine-dark sea smelling of fish, overrun with pigs. Later we will return to see the Moon-cake festival, and after that let someone more capable take up the tale.\n\nThe Little Land and City\n\nCheung Chow is shaped as the photograph shows.*\n\nIt would seem that one of the very numerous saddle-shaped ridges in which Hongkong abounds has sunk here so that the ridge between the two peaks makes a long double beach, only one hundred yards wide at its narrowest. On the Western Side the bay is large and partly sheltered by other islands, but on the Eastern it is open to the sea, and the N. E. Monsoon pours aslant into that bay, and rages against its headlands. So the town turns its back to the\n\n* Not reprinted.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208120, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW LONG ISLAND\n\n143\n\npainted to the eyes, and clad in gay garments. Behind these a band of native musicians, youths dressed in gaudy clothes, provide the melody and rhythm. The dragon shakes his head and stamps his feet to the rhythm, the bearers grunt and sweat, the musicians fiddle and bang and blow, the spectators spit and chew, laugh and talk, admire and applaud. The last player disappears round a bend in the street and another procession begins to form itself with much good-natured chaff and chatter. Meantime the dragon processions which have already been sent off wander through the distant fields, and the curious rhythm of the dance rises and falls in every corner of the glens.\n\nSo much we have seen for ourselves, but our kind host, who has lived on the island for many years, tells us that on the great day of the feast, all the small processions meet at the special matshed, where are assembled also some of the local gods, as well as visiting deities who have been brought by the folk from other towns and villages. All these gods are then carried in procession to the Pak Tai Temple to make their how to the occupant. Following this they are carried about a mile to the temple of the Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the fisherfolk, through the streets densely packed with fishermen and townsfolk, and thousands of visitors. At this temple the processions stand aside, and the gods in their chairs of state are raced back to the special matshed. The first god to arrive, even if he arrives in several pieces, brings to his devoted supporters the best of luck during the year.\n\nIn the afternoon the cones are overturned and there is a scramble for the cakes, which are then eaten with the happiest consequences for all concerned. It would be interesting to hear more exactly what these benefits are, for the whole feast looks like an ancient fertility cult.\n\nWe are much indebted in this account to notes jotted down by Mr. A. C. Franklin, and kindly put at our disposal. The opportunity to witness the Moon-cake festival was also due to his kindness. If we have not reproduced all the interesting and suggestive comments which those notes contain, it is because we hope that he will find time to throw them into literary form and publish them. Meantime we would welcome corrections, and an elucidation of the meaning of the feast from our students, some of whom might well take time to visit Cheung Chow for that purpose.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208127, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "150 \n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nmorning visiting Nei Kwu Chau to discuss the problem of their fifteen children. They had been taught by a private teacher in the ancestral temple: but he had left, and the Education Department were asked to find someone to replace him. They had replied that the children would have to go to Cheung Chau, thus raising in an acute form the problem common in villages all over England to-day. Few if any teachers would volunteer to teach fifteen children in so poor an island as Nei Kwu Chau in those days. The problem of providing one was then found insoluble, and as the only means of transport to Cheung Chau was by junk or sampan, I fear the rate of literacy on Nei Kwu Chau must have declined badly.\n\nAnother event which affected life in Cheung Chau in 1925-6 was the change of Governor in November 1925, during the great Communist-inspired but mainly Nationalist strike which started in June that year. Sir C. Clementi increased the D. O. South's public works vote from the absurdly small figure of $400 to $1000 or more. This made it possible to repave some of the chief streets of the village with granite blocks set in concrete, which cost about $800. He also paid a State visit to the island in the summer of 1926. Flags and decorations were put up, and practically all the proceedings were in Chinese, including a lengthy prepared speech by H.E., written out in characters by (I believe) Mr. Sung Hok Pang. He walked through the main streets, keeping up conversation with the Kaifongs, and showing that despite a long absence in British Guiana and elsewhere his Chinese scholarship had undergone no observable decline. The chief impression of the day that remained with me was the heat!\n\nWhile I was District Officer South I attended two other functions of importance, both in the Northern district. In 1925 the Government had had the imagination and sympathy to restore to the Tang clan the village gates of Kam Tin, removed in 1899 because of the clan's opposition to the original leasing of the New Territory and taken, as I heard, to Sir Henry Blake's estate in Ireland. The ceremony of reopening the restored gates took place in May, just before the big Strike began: its central point was to be the opening of the gates to admit H.E. Sir R. Stubbs. As he rose up from his seat the local band struck up, and this so startled a small pig rooting in the moat that he fled for shelter over the causeway to his sty in the village, just getting ahead of H.E. and bursting through the gates! The reward for the Government's attitude was seen in the autumn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208353, "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-1978", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA\n\n61\n\nI have chosen to work on data from central China, southern Hubei and northern Hunan, the marshy and hilly areas around the Dongting Lake water system in the middle Yangzi valley. I have chosen so primarily because I have a personal academic interest in that region, and again because it seems to be a kind of heartland of 'rice China'. This study draws on data from local gazetteers, fang zhi, and from the compilations of fang zhi materials contained in the great 18th century ‘encyclopaedia’ Gujin tushu jicheng.\n\n2. Some Frameworks\n\nQingming is the name for one of the twenty-four periods of the Chinese solar calendar, each being fifteen days long. Approximately, it starts on the 5th of April and lasts until about the 20th of the same month. The name means 'Clear Brightness'; this term may correspond to prevalent climatic conditions for this time of the year in some parts of the vast country, but it does not translate well the meteorological facts of the season in the stretch of country surrounding the big Dongting Lake in the central Yangzi valley, which were more on the dull side. According to one chronicle, the period was noted for 'much strong wind and heavy showers'.\n\nThe agricultural activities in this rice producing part of China followed the landmarks set by the twenty-four solar period calendar. Thus the Qingming period marked the beginning of the sowing of rice, and it seems as if this was a widespread traditional pattern in the Dongting basin. Generally rice was sown toward the end of April in special small plots, in the literature often known as seed beds or 'nurseries'. Although this practice may have been normal, there was certainly a great deal of variation, even within this limited region of China. Some chroniclers give us dates in the second moon; She ri and Hua zhao are mentioned in places like Wuling, Gongan, and Chongyang, a period of the lunar calendar which corresponds roughly to March, as the time for the beginning of sowing. The Spring Equinox, or rather the solar period of Chunfen, is also mentioned in a record from Hanyang. It seems reasonable to say that, given a variation of a few weeks in accordance with local circumstances, rice was sown in late March and throughout April. As a period of ritual", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208400, "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-1978", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "108\n\nFREDRIKKE S. SCOLLARD\n\nnative Ming dynasty while under barbarian Qing rule, close scrutiny reveals the presence of two men in European dress—a strange phenomena in a Song dynasty setting. According to the curator, this scene refers to an incident involving French aggression in the Fushan area. (Plate 19).\n\nA similar incident involving skirmishes between troops led by British Consul Harry Parkes and residents of Fushan led the Shiwan potters to create pottery urinals and pillows out of the likeness of Harry Parkes. Most of these were destroyed by British order, but in 1942 one was discovered and put on exhibition, attracting much attention.13 (Plate 20).\n\nWhile I was contemplating these earlier evidences of cross-cultural interaction in Shiwan, it seemed of great significance to the town members that I was the first foreigner to be driven around the entire town. This heightened my own sense of exploration. The town itself evidences stark contrast between modern construction and underdevelopment, panoramically revealed from the observation deck on top of the new five-story \"Pottery Capital Restaurant.\" To the northwest are seen a heavy concentration of pre-1949 red brick residential houses, some prominently displaying roofs with \"ears\" which used to indicate the residences of wealthier families. The background is dominated by shorter chimneys of the traditional \"dragon kilns\" (sloping tunnel kilns). To the southeast the contrast is striking, with new concrete residential buildings and factories under scaffolding, and the tall slender chimneys of modern continuous kilns crowding the sky. The people can clearly remember the layer of soot which previously covered the town and made houses difficult to clean, and appreciate the cleanliness of the new kilns. The town has had paved roads since 1958; to the northwest of the town a public park with an artificial lake is being built, and a new \"Pottery Capital Restaurant\" was opened in March of 1978 largely to meet the demands of increased numbers of tourists.\n\nInside the factories the differences in the rate of modernization are just as striking. While the daily utensil factories as a whole operate eight continuous kilns, Daily Utensil Factory No. III operates only four dragon kilns (one dating back to the Ming Dynasty became a protected monument in 1964). The Arts Factory, which hosts all the tourists visiting the town, includes two new and large modern buildings with a partially yellow-tiled roof. The Daily", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208668, "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-1979", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "98\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nNow that we are getting a decent ration of flour we shall have to figure out ways and means to bake our own bread, for now the little we used to get from Hong Kong has ceased. The American council accordingly called a meeting in our community garage and discussed the question. In our community kitchen there was, of course, no oven made for baking purposes, so the best we can do is to use the few electric stoves scattered throughout the apartments. A few of these are set up in the kitchen and the baking begun. The Maryknoll Sisters and we each have an electric oven, and they start forthwith in turning out luscious loaves of bread. Father Meyer, too, in our block, starts experimenting with yeast and bread baking formulae, and soon has a tasty loaf set before us. Father Meyer's fame is extending throughout the Camp, and many are now coming to us for instructions on how to bake bread. Recently, Father Troesch managed to buy a few dried apples at the Canteen and, lo and behold, he shortly presented us with an apple pie! And a very creditable piece of the great American dessert!\n\n25—News received of the death on December 7th of Father Toomey's mother, R.I.P. Father Madison presides at an \"Information, Please\" at the Club Hall. After the recent escapes from the Camp, the construction of a barbed wire fence all around was begun and today it was completed. We lose a little more of our freedom, and are now quite interned. Electric lights are also being put up along our borders. We understand that this is in accordance with international law governing internment camps. A new masonry gateway is also being built across the main road leading into Camp, with a guard post outside.\n\n26 Sunday, Father Charles Murphy preached at all the Masses today. There were no afternoon services because of a heavy rain storm, our first real storm of the season. A Bridge and Games tournament opens. One duck egg in our rations this morning, and this evening we get our first \"seconds\" under the new arrangement, which, with a saucer of cornstarch from Father Troesch's larder, left us quite sated.\n\n27—The Dutch internees are told that they may be repatriated either to Holland or other Dutch possessions. A few Belgians and Norwegians also included. After some discussions, we Maryknollers get from our community kitchen our rations of flour, but three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208683, "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-1979", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n113\n\nChen is a model of cleanliness and order, and everything is absolutely shipshape. No one is allowed in the galley and he takes great pride in his work. It is easily seen he has had Navy training. His clarion call for meals is: \"Come and get it or I'll throw it on the deck!\" and that brings us all running with our plates and cups.\n\n5—Another rumor that our papers for release have arrived on \"The Hill\".\n\nWe are just getting on to Mr. Gingles' method of feeding us. Our ordinary fare seems to be just rice with a thick gravy or soup, but every few days we get quite a delicious meal. It seems he saves up the best pieces of meat and vegetables for a few days and then gives us a square meal, served in an appetizing manner. Today we had such a meal, with a real slice of meat, a whole sweet potato, some spinach, cooled in the refrigerator, and, of course, rice. For supper just rice and stew but stew with a flavor. It seems he darkens the gravy by the addition of a little burnt sugar.\n\n6-Rice and gravy for both meals, and there are “seconds” for those who wish, Mr. Gingles is certainly generous with what he has. We try a little mint in our tea. Today, Mr. Gingles, Dr. Molthen, Mr. Salmon and Miss Dorrer, all Americans, sign papers for release, so we are going to lose our good cook! We also understand that a number of Britishers are also on the list for release. No more word about our own papers! The British at length begin to use our large community kitchen and marvel at its completeness, considering all Camp conditions.\n\n8-Another good meal, with meat balls, spinach, a few beets and delicious gravy. Another report about our papers being on \"The Hill.\"\n\n9-Mr. Gingles gives us a treat in the way of cinnamon buns. A little extra flour also gives us an extra piece of bread. High wind and plenty of rain. Perhaps there is a typhoon in the offing. We have had some pretty heavy rain storms so far, and as a consequence, the summer has not been too hot.\n\n10-Wind and rain keep us indoors. The American Club Library is open again for Americans so we have some reading matter for these rainy days. Coffee cake for tiffin,\n\n11-The Maryknoll Sisters make us some doughnuts and occasionally they give us a piece of chocolate candy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209274, "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": 177, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YÜAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 163\n\ncommercial vessels.\n\nStill, the legacy of the Chia-ch'ing Emperor in offering kindness to foreigners was continued even at this time. In the midst of the Topaze crisis, there was the famous fire of Canton. On 1 November, the fire began in a cake shop outside the city wall, when the baker was careless with the pieces of brushwood he was using as fuel for melting sugar. \"The streets were narrow and the houses crowded together\", wrote Juan Yuan to the Emperor. \"Fanned by strong north winds, despite concerted efforts by soldiers and civilians, the fire could not be contained.\" It burned through the night and all of the next day, destroying \"more than 2,423 shops and extended to the foreign factories.\"64 A number of warehouses belonging to the hong merchants were destroyed. Puiqua and Mowqua especially suffered great losses. Sailors from the foreign ships managed to salvage some of the cargo in storage at the factories, but the factory buildings were burned. In the stampede of refugees from the fire and the looters, twenty-two people died. Puiqua petitioned to Juan Yüan on behalf of the hong merchants and foreign traders for remission of taxes owed. 140,243 taels of taxes due to the Canton Customs by the foreign traders were completely remitted. The hong merchants were excused from half of their taxes of 524,156 taels. They did not have to pay anything in 1823. In 1824, however, the other half of the taxes owed had to be paid, with each hong merchant's burden in proportion to the damages he had sustained. Chinese local shopkeepers who considered themselves well-to-do refused compensation from the government, but small shopkeepers as well as the Tanka boat people accepted money from welfare funds released by the province. The foreigners considered these measures fair play indeed.\n\n65\n\nWith the removal of British naval vessels from Chinese waters, threats to the Canton system were relaxed. Opium smuggling remained a major problem, but by 1823 the network of smugglers was well established, trans-shipping the contraband from foreign ships onto small local crafts outside the Bogue, so it was no longer a source of conflict between the foreign traders and Chinese authorities at Canton. Illegal payment in silver to the suppliers meant its exportation, which was forbidden by imperial decree. By the time Juan Yüan left Canton in the summer of 1826, the shortage of silver was already becoming evident. His successor became a part of the opium smuggling network as each patrol boat was paid a bribe of 36,000 taels a month to overlook the illicit trade.97\n\n64\n\nIn the summer of 1826 Juan Yüan was transferred to the post of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209681, "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": 338, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "316\n\n \nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n \nAt the same time, however, it is possible to push this thesis too far, and to postulate a society formed of distinct island communities formed essentially on a cultural basis and only temporarily, and warily, in amity with other ethnic groups. Blake, it seems to me, does begin to move towards this position in some places. There are differences, for instance, between Hakka and Punti, but they are less significant, in most circumstances, than the factors which link them together as \"the indigenous\" and set them apart from \"the outsiders\". On the other hand, there are factors linking land Hoklo and sea Hoklo, but they are, on the whole, less significant than the deep social and economic divides set between land and sea people. In a book such as this it is surely strange that there is no discussion of the concept of indigenousness, and no study on the effects of time on the concept of social separateness.\n\n \nof social separateness. Is a Chaochiu immigrant of just one or two years residence not socially distinct from one with 30 years residence? Certainly in some other New Territories areas the long resident outsider is regarded by the indigenous and by himself as representing a natural ally to the indigenous, even, on some matters, as against his own more recently arrived ethnic brothers. Other factors, such as the relative social status of land owners (indigenous and long resident outsiders) as against tenants (newcomer outsiders) and landless men (boat people and Hoklo labourers), and the differing relationships of each group to the Government, also need fuller discussion to flesh out and clarify the basic thesis. Ethnic groups and their interactions are of great importance in the social structure of the area, but they are not the sole or even, perhaps, the most important factor; historical, social, economic and other factors cannot be forgotten.\n\n \nOn matters of detail there are also some points which seem a little uncertain. To call the Tanka \"Cantonese Boat People\" rather than \"Cantonese Speaking Boat People\" is in itself to assume a good deal: to go on to assume that many (most, if near the sea) Cantonese villages in the New Territories descend from Tanka who had settled on land is to assume far more than is justified without far more discussion than is given. And to assume without discussion that all groups whose history in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210283, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "Date \n\nAug 31 \n\nTime \n\nAnnounced Programme \n\n22:00 \n\nSept. 1 \n\n7:00 \n\nmorning lesson and \n\nKaiko\" WANA \n\nTable 1. Time Table \n\npre-offering 前传施戰鬼 \n\nObserved Programme \n\nInviting the gods \n\nnight ritual \n\npre-offering \n\nmorning ritual 1 \n\nmorning ritual 2 \n\nTime \n\n15:00 \n\n20:00-20:45 \n\n22:00-22:40 \n\n7:00- 7:20 \n\n10:00-10:30 \n\n15:00 \n\nafternoon Kaiko \n\n15:00-15:50 \n\nand Reporting NAJLA \n\nritual and prayer for \n\nreincarnation \n\n15:50-16:10 \n\nReporting \n\n18:00 \n\nnight lesson and \n\n20:00-20:45 \n\nnight ritual \n\nrepentance 晚課拜懺 \n\n20:00-22:00 \n\nmovie \n\n22:00 \n\nthe great offering 大拖能鬼 \n\n10:10-11:00 \n\nthe great offering \n\nSept. 2 \n\n7:00 \n\nmorning lesson and \n\n7:00-7:20 \n\nmorning ritual \n\n[ \n\nkaiko朝課间间 \n\n10:00-10:25 \n\nmorning ritual 2 \n\n15:00 \n\nafternoon kaiko, FEMA \n\n15:00-16:15 \n\nLantern floating \n\nReporting and lÆSLA \n\n16:20-16:40 \n\nReporting \n\nLantern floating \n\n18:00 \n\nnight lesson and \n\n20:00-20.45 \n\nnight ordinance and \n\nrepentance 晚課拜懺 \n\nrepentance \n\n22:00 \n\nthe great offering R \n\n20:00-22:00 \n\n22:10-23:00 \n\nmovie \n\nthe great offering \n\nSept. 3 \n\n7:00 \n\nmorning lesson and \n\n7:00- 7:20 \n\nmorning ritual 1 \n\nkaiko悯課川河 \n\n10:00-10:20 \n\nmorning ritual 2 \n\n15:00 \n\nafternoon kaiko and Reporting \n\n14:30-15:00 \n\nFOR \n\nFRASILA \n\n15:00-15:15 \n\nafternoon reincarnation \n\nReporting \n\n18:00 \n\nnight lesson and \n\n20:00-21:00 \n\nnight repentance \n\nrepentance # \n\n20:00-21:45 \n\n22:00 \n\nthe great offering AAMUE \n\n22:00-23:55 \n\nSept. 4 \n\n0:00- 0:40 \n\n7:00 \n\nLate Kaiko \n\nH \n\n10:50-11:05 \n\n11:10-11:15 \n\nmovie \n\nthe great offering \n\nBurning \n\nThank the Temple Gods \n\nThank Heaven \n\n11:20-11:25 \n\n15:00 \n\n* = in Japanese, means reincarnation through praying \n\nOffering to the late \n\nand handicapped ghosts. Feast. \n\n+ \n\nIL. \n\nthe prayer book for the offerings is 瑜伽燄口科怆 reincarnation it is A LAKE \n\n233 \n\nfor the ritual and \n\nAccording to the priests, the morning and night rituals are their normal daily rituals in the temple ( Wat ), only the 'Offering', the 'Reporting', the 'Lantern Floating', and the three rituals on the last day were performed specially for the Festival. During the night rituals, after reciting charms and presenting in- \n\ncense sticks to the altar of Heaven-and-Earth (T’ien Di T'an AM), all the priests, except one who kept on striking a drum 天地壇 \n\nin the Tao Ch'ang area, walked through the whole festival area. At the same time, the main priest bowed to every object of worship.\" \n\nAfter returning to the Tao Ch'ang area and purifying a small dish", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210448, "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-1985", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "36 \n\nBARBARA E. WARD \n\nthan cubicles, were furnished with wooden beds, mosquito nets and chests for clothes and so on, while the \"cockloft” (gok tzae) upstairs was used for storage and might contain another sleeping cubicle (often used especially for the unmarried daughters of the house). The wooden partition facing the entrance in the front room downstairs was usually decorated with family photographs and carried also a small shelf with ritual paraphernalia and red paper hangings. In 1970 every house contained at least one radio (normally pouring forth a steady stream of Cantonese opera at full pitch) and an electric fan, all had electric light, most had an electric rice cooker or two, and two had refrigerators. \n\nIn 1950 no house had glazed windows, and most of the unceiled pitched tile roofs dripped muddy patches on the earthen floors on rainy days. The old houses covered a somewhat larger area than the present ones, and were taller. They were divided internally in a somewhat similar way, but were far less comfortably furnished. They were used differently, too. Women, children, and sometimes pigs, were the normal inhabitants. Pigs scavenged the paths by day, and were shut up in the pig-sties at night. Children went to school a little, played a little, helped their mothers. Women cared for pigs and babies, and cultivated sweet potatoes and occasionally ground-nuts on small patches of hillside, chopping and boiling the leaves for pig fodder. They also cut wood and grass for sale as fuel to the Boat People. They cooked, with wood and sometimes charcoal, in great flattish iron bowls set into stone-built stoves on the right-hand side of their front doors. They bought their rice and most other dry goods from one of the village shops, begged or took fish from the drying grounds, and ate (rather shamefacedly) their own sweet-potato leaves and tubers. The little money they made from the sale of fuel was augmented from the wages of their menfolk and the sale of pigs, which was also usually conducted by men. But husbands and sons came home only intermittently from their wage employment in Kowloon, stayed for a few days and then returned. The only permanent male residents on land were the senile and the very young, the shopkeepers and the old man who looked after the temple, where the school teacher also lodged during term time.14 \n\n13", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210738, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "72\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\ndens, Ford retired in 1903 but before doing so his final important contribution to the conservation of Hong Kong's flora is contained in a letter of August 31st 1899 to Sir William Thistleton-Dyer at Kew and in the same letter he records the collection of two hitherto unnamed species of oak:\n\n\"The N.T. was formally taken over as April 17th. About a month afterwards I made occasions for visiting some parts of it and finding that the natives were cutting down trees to a great extent, because as they told me, they were afraid that when the new administration was in operation they feared they would not be allowed to do so. I represented to the Govt. the importance of my gaining an intimate knowledge of the whole country with a view to the expansion of my dept.'s work when it could be set in operation to good effect. This was at once approved by Sir Henry Blake, who, I may mention, takes the greatest interest in our work, and gives his strong support to me in every way, both officially and socially.\n\n\"When I was staying for a few days in the N.T. with our Colonial Secretary while he was on special duty as Commissioner, I gathered two species of Quercus, specimens in front of which I send herewith. I think they are new, if, I should esteem it a favour if you could cause them to be named after Sir Henry and Lady Blake respectively, this kindness would, I feel sure, please them and would help or commensurate the taking over of the N.T. Lady Blake has been most industrious in painting HK & Chinese plants, and amongst them she has painted the oak with the longest acorn. Lady Blake's Christian name is Edith, Quercus edithae might be suitable for the oak.”\n\nA note added to the letter after it had been received at Kew states:- \"Both new, Quercus blakei & Q. edithae will be published in Ic. Plant.”\n\nAfter his retirement in 1903 Mr. Ford was succeeded by his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211006, "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-1987", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "14\n\nIbid., part 106.\n\n15\n\nIbid., part 105.\n\n43\n\n16 Lockhart, p. 77; Hayes, p. 164.\n\n17\n\n13\n\nFor the Kowloon Street and its kaifong, see ibid., pp. 171-173.\n\n18 See ibid., pp. 168-171; also Chiu-lung Luo-shan-t’ang pai-nien shih-shih HACKETT (One hundred years of the Lok Sin Tong) (Hong Kong, the lang, [1980]).\n\n19 Peter Wesley-Smith, Unequal Treaty 1898-1997 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1980) pp. 19-20; Stanley F. Wright, Hong Kong and the Chinese Customs. China. The Maritime Customs. VI Inspector Series: no. 7 (Shanghai: Statistical Department of the Inspector-General of the Customs 1930), pp. 9-10. “Native” customs offices were handed over to the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs after the signing of the Hong Kong Opium Agreement in 1886.\n\n20 See Faure et. al., vol. 1, p. 166, p. 251.\n\n21 Siu, Chiu-lung ch'eng, p. 37.\n\n#1\n\n23\n\n24\n\n25\n\nBowring to Grey, August 21, 1854, despatch 61: CO129/47. Krone, p. 116.\n\nMacdonnell to Buckingham, August 27, 1867, despatch #358: CO129/124.\n\nJarrett, Vincent H.G. \"Old Hong Kong”, vol. 2, p. 613. This is a series of articles on the history of Hong Kong taken from the South China Morning Post from June 17, 1933 to April 13, 1935, and re-arranged alphabetically by subject. A Xerox copy of copies typed from the original articles is deposited in four volumes at the University of Hong Kong Library.\n\n26\n\nBowring to Grey, August 21, 1854, despatch 61.\n\n27 W.J. Norton-Kyshe, The History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong, 2 volumes (Hong Kong: Vetch & Lee, 1971; 1st published 1898) vol. 2, 423–429. Another case occurred in 1896 when a Chinese policeman was shot in Hong Kong. His murderer was arrested in Canton and brought to Kowloon City where he was beheaded. (John Luff, “The Hong Kong Police\", China Mail, February 24, 1960).\n\nMacdonnell to Kimberley, April 3, 1872, despatch #976: CO129/157.\n\n29 See Faure et. al., vol. 1, pp. 103, 114, 133.\n\n30 The tablet is dated the first year of the Tung-chih reign, i.e. 1862. It is still in very good condition.\n\n31 Newspaper cutting dated May 27, 1886, enclosed in Marsh to Granville, May 31, 1886, despatch #183: CO129/226.\n\n32\n\n3\n\nHua-tzu jih-pao #711, January 17 and 18, 1896.\n\nDaily Press, January 20, 1896.\n\n34 Wesley-Smith, Unequal Treaty, p. 17; The open nature of the gambling was also decried by the Hsun-huan jih-pao, December 17, 1885.\n\n35 Norton-Kyshe, vol. 2, p. 423.\n\n36\n\nIn fact gambling houses were re-opened as soon as Chinese officials departed from Kowloon, Blake to Chamberlain, August 18, 1899, in Great Britain, Colonial Office. Confidential Prints Eastern (Series 882) (hereafter CO882)/5, no. 66, p. 340.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211469, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "161\n\nfaith, the Lam Toy's and Lam Quan's, who became our life-long friends. By this time Chinese women were freer to visit with each other, and Mrs. Lam Quan taught Mother how to sew Western style dresses for us children, to bake cakes, to make delicious ice cream (which was a great treat in those days), and to use Western medicine. When Mr. and Mrs. Ai took a trip to China in 1913, their son, Samuel, would often play with me or Helen. One afternoon while he, Mung Yee Yap and I were playing ball, the family dog, tied to a mango tree, bit Samuel repeatedly when he tried to retrieve a stray ball. I stood immobilized and horrified by his screams. He happened to be wearing clothes his friend had loaned him when his head became wet while playing in a stream, and the unfamiliar scent must have provoked the dog. Fortunately his sister Bessie, who happened to come to the front door, rescued him. It was also traumatic to hear Samuel's scream while he was being treated on the back porch by Dr. Francis Wong-Leong.\n\nAmong Mother's non-Christian friends was the first Mrs. Siu Kit who lived in a small lane behind the Dutro's. She had come from China with her oldest child to join Mr. Siu, who ran a butcher shop at the corner of King and Aala Streets. She bore five more children, but the youngest died of whooping cough before he was even a month old. After the death of this infant, Mrs. Siu seemed to have no will to live, and, again, pregnant, became very ill, possibly from influenza. She died in 1919, insisting to the end that Mr. Siu had taken in a concubine in his village. There was no foundation to her accusations, because only after her death did he go to Japan, where he met and married a young girl from the village selected by his family to be his second wife. This second Mrs. Siu also became our life-long friend, who looked upon Mother as a surrogate parent and was always generous and thoughtful. She found the care of five undisciplined stepchildren and seven of her own a difficult responsibility. When the exchange rate was very favourable, Mr. Siu retired to Shekki with his whole family but gradually sent his children, two or three at a time, back to Honolulu. He died during the Japanese occupation of China. Mrs. Siu returned to Honolulu after the Second World War to live with her daughter, Siu Ying Chun, and died in 1985 while on an extended visit in California.\n\nThis was a worry-free and happy period of my life in spite of the fact that occasionally I had a stormy time with Mother, who did not spare", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211807, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 222, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "197\n\nfrom Shanghai on the 20th. Despite that, the \"soirée\" was \"kept up to a late hour with great spirit\". The programme consisted of tunes by Dabney, de Costa and Tripp: one of them was called \"Japanese make yourselves ready\" (NCH 26.5.1855).\n\n23.1.1856 (Wedn)\n\nE. MAYHEW: \"Make your Wills” (1836)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nW. BROUGH: \"No 1 Round the Corner\" (1854)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Whitebait at Greenwich\" (1853)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: D\n\nN: Once more politics crept into the theatre since, due to the Anglo-French campaigns in the Crimean War, \"the proscenium was very tastefully emblazoned with the arms and ciphers of the Allies”. The drop scene now represented the \"Lake of Geneva with the far famed Castle of Chillon” (far famed because of Lord Byron's poem \"The Prisoner of Chillon\"). For a change the Herald allowed itself some criticism of the amateurs, but about the costumes only: \"We are perfectly aware of the great difficulties which beset the wardrobe department of the Theatre here, but still we think that two or three alterations might be made with advantage. It must be remembered that the assumption of a part on the stage requires the submergence of the individual into his assumed character. Proteus must not be more unlike his last shape than the actor must be unlike his mere self and the difficulty of effecting this is enormously increased by an appearance in every-day costume. In melodramatic pieces some decided change is absolutely necessary because success depends on the power of exciting the sympathies of the audience for the various situations of the actors and it is quite impossible that the desponding accents of one young gentleman or the grasping villainy of another (both of whom we know to be very good fellows and far from desponding or hypocritical characters) in the garb of 1856 can excite these sympathies. In Farce it is less important because the effect depends upon a successful appeal to our sense of the ludicrous and this may be done by situations which are quite within the range of every-day life. (...) It also struck us that a little more attention to the chronology of dress would be attended with increased effect; there were two or three anachronisms: for instance the mob cap of Mrs. Foreright (a most admirable 'make-up' by the way) hardly accorded with the modern elegance of Clara; or the venerable beard of the implacable Mr. Ireton with the modern costume of his disinherited son. It is astonishing how greatly unity in these matters adds to the effect of such performances and in spite of the difficulties of such performances and in spite of the difficulties of securing dresses we think a consultation between the Manager and the performers might produce a harmony which would be attended with the best effect”. The music too was thought to be \"ineffective\", but for the remainder it was, as usual, amusing, with Whitebait at Greenwich as the hit of the evening. The character of Buzzard — by no means a graceful one — was played with great effect and we heartily congratulate Mr. SLOWCOME upon the power he displayed\". In Make your Wills the reviewer could not \"forbear mentioning the excellent impersonation of Joseph Bragg by Mr CLAY\" (NCH 26.1.1856).\n\n21.2.1856 (Thur)\n\n—\n\nJ.S. COYNE: \"The Infanticidal Farce\" (1846)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nMrs. C.G.F. GORE: \"A Good Night's Rest\" (1839)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Slasher and Crasher\" (1848)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211871, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 286, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "261\n\n^And now as regards my room, I have taken pains to put it a little in order, and have now got everything nearly to rights. Around the room hang my clothes. I have hung my lamp, which with its ground glass globe gives a nice light during the evening when I am alone. I have eight photographs round the room, hung up in fine order. I have placed 'Anna' in the central position, and the rest in order round it. I very much regret not having more. Not one of our family is there. But I must have them on paper, sent out in a letter, one or two at a time, and in that way I shall hope to get them all in time. I very much wish I had mother, father and all our family. If it had not been for the hurry and confusion of getting off so soon, I should have got them taken. I had explained it in my own mind, but forgot it in the hurry.\n\nThe plum cake, biscuits, jams, etc. have already proved very useful, and what are left will prove more so during the voyage, especially since we stop nowhere till we get to Hong Kong. Captain Moult has lived at Hong Kong, and gives me a very pretty idea of what the place is. Yet it does not frighten me at all, for I have made up my mind to take it all as it comes. I must stop for the present as it grows dark. We are now past the Bay of Biscay, and hope soon to have mild and more agreeable weather.\n\nThursday, March 28th\n\nSince my last entry nothing of importance has occurred. We are now off Portugal, and are going along beautifully before a fair wind. Nearly all day I have been on deck, either walking to and fro, which is the only exercise I can get, or sitting in the warm sunshine. Every day we get into a warmer temperature, so that soon the deck will form the chief resort during the day. It is very comfortable indeed. Tomorrow if all is well up goes the easy chair, and there I shall sit and study, or watch the ship's course over the blue waves. She sails along very rapidly, and the pleasure of seeing her dash through the water is great, when I bear in mind that every mile she goes over makes one the less.\n\nYet it is a rather long time to have to look forward to before seeing land again. We are not to stop before reaching Hong Kong, and so there is no chance of sending you any news before I reach the end of my journey, unless we are becalmed near some homeward bound ship. I am very sorry for this, because I know you will be rather in a way at not hearing from me. Still, however, it cannot be helped.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212174, "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-1990", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "93\n\nthe British community to celebrate the event. H.M.S. \"Cornwall\", one of the 10,000 ton County class cruisers came up for the occasion. On Coronation morning, May 12th, a service was held on board. I had not previously seen those \"Chicago pianos\" which were supposed to be so effective an answer to the dive bomber. With their eight evil looking spouts, they looked formidable enough; but five years later they proved insufficient to save this fine ship from Japanese air attack off Ceylon.\n\nIn the evening there was to be a ball at the British Embassy. We went a bit of a splash for the occasion and gave a dinner party before going on to the ball. I remember in addition to some of our Chinese friends there were a couple from the American Embassy, a German officer and his wife, two officers from the British cruiser, the local manager of the Standard Oil Company, an Englishman with a Russian wife, and some visitors from Shanghai. Our cook, unknown to us, had decided he too would go a bit of a splash. For the fish course he produced a samli. In China the samli is considered the best of all fish, an opinion with which I disagree as it is too bony for my lazy nature. The cook's samli was a large fish, I suppose it must have weighed every bit of ten pounds. He served it whole and had excelled himself by inserting in each eye-socket a small electric bulb, connected to a battery concealed somewhere in the fish. To my wife's astonishment, as the chief guest helped herself, one eye gave a most suggestive wink, and the performance was repeated each time a portion was removed; a postmortem revealed that the winking was due to a short in the circuit and not to any humorous intention on the part of the cook.\n\nThe ball given by Sir Hughe and Lady Knatchbull-Hugessen at the Embassy was a brilliant affair. For weeks, of course, all the women had been talking clothes, Gay toilettes set off sparkling eyes; diplomatic, naval and military uniforms shone with gold lace, and the Ambassador's excellent champagne animated the conviviality. We did not know that within a few weeks he would be lying at death's door with a Japanese bullet through his back. In August when motoring from Nanking to Shanghai, the Ambassador's car, over which a large Union Jack was stretched, was attacked by Japanese aircraft and pierced by many machine-gun bullets. The Ambassador was shot through the back near the spine.\n\nIn the old days you could walk along the great wall of Nanking", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212202, "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-1990", "page_number": 144, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "121\n\nday to Changsha. The capital of Hunan, the province with a long history of anti-foreign fanaticism, is situated on the Siang river, which flows down to the Yangtze above Hankow. In summer the middle-river steamers come up as far as Changsha, but in winter the level over the sand flats where the river passes through the Tung Ting lake, near its mouth, is so shallow that even the specially designed river gunboats cannot pass. One British gunboat generally wintered at Changsha.\n\nThere was no concession, and in the course of time the foreign community had congregated on a long sand bar, which made an island in the river, opposite the city. The few bungalows were grouped round the Club. It was a simple life with tennis and walks for relaxation. Normally Changsha connected with the outer world by ship through Shanghai, but now for over a year that channel had been closed by the war and the number of the foreign community, usually not more than a couple of dozen, was reduced. It did, however, include two British tank officers, loaned to the Chinese army, whom I had last seen in Nanking. They now depended for their supplies on the new railway to Hongkong. I left my car here and went on to Hankow by train.\n\nIt was nearly twenty years since I had last been in Hankow, years crowded with change, not only material but also intellectual. Hither junks from the far north-west of China, in Shensi Province, came down the Han river. From here they could sail a leg up the Yangtze, and proceed along the Siang river, until their mast-tops showed a view towards Kweilin. To the west, through the famous gorges, the small steamers fought the current to Chungking 700 miles distant; and 600 miles downriver, past Kiu Kiang, Wuhu, and Nanking, lay Shanghai and the sea. The railway in normal times ran north-east to Peking and south to Canton and Hongkong. On the opposite bank, a kilometre away, the provincial capital, Wuchang, showed; larger than Hankow and, across the Han, where that river made an angle with the Yangtze, the industrial town of Hanyang belched its smoke. Of the Concessions along the water front, only the French retained its status. The British Concession had been returned at the time of the Chen-O'Malley negotiations ten years previously; the German and Russian Concessions had reverted to China after the Great War, and the Japanese Concession had been evacuated soon after the Lukouchiao (Marco Polo Bridge) incident.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212206, "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-1990", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "125\n\nThe journey takes the whole day. It was almost dark when I got off and walked across the long new road bridge, erected over the great Kan river which forms the main artery down the centre of Kiangsi province, as the Siang river does in Hunan. And as in Hunan the Siang river passes through the Tung Ting lake, one of the natural overflow reservoirs into which the surplus waters of the Yangtze pour during the summer freshets, so in Kiangsi the Kan river passes through the Poyang lake before reaching the Yangtze some miles below Kiu Kiang. Nanchang stands where the Kan river enters the lake. Like Kweilin it is not a treaty port. Apart from missionaries no foreigners were allowed to live here, but they could transact business and pay visits. In the old days owing to the discomfort of the railway we generally preferred to come by houseboat through the lake; but now the motor car had begun to replace all that, though the process was hindered by the scarcity of petrol caused by the war.\n\nThe population of Nanchang could not be far short of a million. The narrow streets were giving way to wide new thoroughfares on which the city bus services operated. Though many in China could afford motor cars, away from the treaty ports their use was not common, because only too often, unless the owner could arrange through his friends for protection, the car would be commandeered for military business claimed to be urgent. It is this fear of commandeering that has restricted the distribution of the private car and the private wireless set in China.\n\nThe very shops were changing their nature. The old shops, in their narrow alleys, would show a front open to the cust, of which there was plenty, and receive such meagre light as the proximity of the houses on either side of the strect admitted. The back of the shop would be dark. Perhaps, a small kerosene lamp stood on a desk to light up the accountant's daybook. Across the front and down part of one side, along the passage to the back, an open counter awaited the display of such goods as the customer might require. These would be drawn from the shelves at the back by one of the numerous assistants, mostly relations of the owner, who would be standing behind, leaning their elbows on the counter, and killing much time by making comment on the people passing in the street. The intending purchaser would examine the article exposed for his inspection and point out its numerous defects, imagined or real, while the assistant would take the opposite view and extol its merits. There", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212630, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "164\n\nafter the Tokyo raid and were now being taken to Chungking. That evening we reached Yingtan - in the event we were several days ahead of the Japanese - to be astonished on arrival at the hostel by the sight of a beautiful American girl, nicely turned out, waiting on the doorstep to greet us with a large chocolate cake. She was a newspaper reporter who had escaped from Shanghai and spent several months with the guerillas: she was now on her way to the rear, had heard that some American pilots were due to pass through, and had arranged with the Irish Roman Catholic Father, who was attached to the Mission there and who happened to have some very rare supplies, to make a cake. We explained that the Americans had already passed by on another road, and she then offered us the cake. She was worried lest we should \"steal her story\"! What she thought we would do with it I do not quite know, but we certainly enjoyed the pleasure of her company and the taste of her cake. I never discovered her name, she left along the road by which we had come.\n\nNext day it started to rain; a great advantage as the clouds kept the Japanese aircraft away. On arrival at Shangjao we found that our friends were all absent at their battle stations; we drove straight on to a village to which we learnt our own particular commander, the Army Group Commander, had withdrawn his headquarters. Owing to fifth column activities Chinese generals in the field are always careful to conceal their whereabouts, and it was long after dark before we located him. He welcomed us; I sat in his room as the reports of the fighting came in over the 'phone and a staff officer by candle light marked the enemy's movements with flags on a large map. There had been severe fighting at a key place, called Showchang, where the Chinese troops had successfully resisted for three days but the Japanese were now reported to be using tear gas. The general had had little sleep for several days and was obviously tired; we withdrew as soon as we could after receiving his instructions. We were still 200 kilometres from our camp; the road ran parallel to the front and about twenty kilometres from it. We had heard reports that the road ahead had already been cut, a likely possibility, as the front was by no means continuous, and the Japanese practice was to infiltrate bodies of plain-clothes men well ahead of their troops to seize tactical points and cut communications. However, I was relieved to hear from the general that according to latest reports the road was still open.\n\nThe morrow was our longest day. The road followed along the hillside above a mountain river, and we had not got far when we found the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212633, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "167\n\nup at either end and convenient to handle in the rapids. At the back the junkman's family has a small compartment where they live, cook their meals and bring up their children. We stowed the explosives as far away from the kitchen fire as possible, and asked the passengers not to smoke. There was a porterage of about two miles to get our stores on to the junk; rather hard work, but as soon as everything was on they started off. Our additional cargo weighted the junk down; the tracking coolies found it a heavy load to pull, and we only covered about half the distance before nightfall.\n\nLate at night Leo turned up. He had walked down the road from the village where the relief lorry was held up. Our junk reached the lorry next day round midday; we loaded up our much handled stores, and got back to Chin Ya the same night. The journey from Hunan had taken eight days.\n\nAlthough the two month period of our first school course was not quite complete, the student teams had been called back to their units to meet the Japanese attack. Not all the teams were to prove useful, as they were often drawn from regular units, who were unable to operate behind the enemy lines - that sort of work came more easily to guerillas - or who were situated in areas to the west of Wuhu or towards the Poyang lake where the war was stagnant and where there were no railways or other communications, or industries, to offer targets.\n\nWe had decided on two forward supply dumps, the first, Dump A, towards the Taihu lake; the other, Dump B, towards Hangchow. We despatched a major proportion of our stores to these dumps immediately, and placed one of our officers in charge of each. These forward officers had important functions, as not only was it their business to issue supplies to replace those used by the teams - the great demand on our limited supplies made careful checking of consumption and results important to ensure that supplies were reserved for the most successful teams - but we relied on them to report to us on the work of the teams in the field, to analyze success and failure, so that lessons learnt could be embodied in future courses at the school. Moreover, it lay with them to explain to forward Chinese generals how our teams should be used: so many people, even generals, have such exaggerated ideas of what explosives can do.\n\nSome weeks later we were encouraged by receipt of reports of our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212821, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "115\n\ncontrol. Lung Yun still maintained his own troops, well equipped and better paid and fed than those of Chungking, out of the revenues he had collected from the supplies which had flowed over the Indo-China railway and the Burma road. The control of the only communications into China had made the Governor of Yunnan a very rich man.\n\nMy experiences during the subsequent year were to be discouraging. In the past my championship of the Chinese cause had been unpopular with my own people; it had involved me not only in disapproval but also in financial loss. As the situation in Western China unfolded itself to me I began to wonder whether, after all, there was not a lot to be said for the view of the die-hards. Since my return to England I have made a point of studying the aspects to which I have drawn attention in these writings. I examined the history of Sun Yat Sen's Three Principles and the record of Kuo Min Tang teaching. I have set out the facts as they came to my notice, and will leave it to the reader to judge for himself how far the extraordinary incidents in which I was now to find myself involved sprang from independent impulses present in a backward province, or more directly from the nationalist teaching of Sun Yat Sen.\n\nAs the 'plane flies in from India, over the mountains of Yunnan, and begins to circle to come down to Kun-ming, the ribbon of the Burma road shows up below where it passes a cluster of villas nestling, some fifteen miles short of the town, at the foot of the hills on the edge of the lake. The 'plane crosses the tip of the forty-mile long lake to land on the large airfield at the far side of the city, 6,150 feet above sea level.\n\nAccommodation in the city was hard to find; for some weeks I stayed out at the lakeside. Owing to its height, Kun-ming enjoys an excellent climate all the years round, cool in summer, mild in winter. The great mountain ranges to the west absorb the moisture of the monsoon, leaving an adequate but moderate rainfall: apart from a period in the autumn the sun shines daily. The two Chinese characters Yun and Nan mean 'South of the Clouds,' an appropriate reference to the climate of Szechuan to the North East, where for six months in the year, at Chungking, they never see the sun.\n\nThe foreign community, in addition to the small number of French who were concerned with the operation of the railway line to the Indo-China border, included the Consuls of the leading countries, and an increasing number of American military personnel, attached to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213553, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1995", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "118\n\nonly they could communicate with and work for the foreign traders,\n\nA familiar story is emerging.\n\nIn the first of his series of articles in the China Mail of 1958 entitled \"Pidgin Languages\", Robert Wallace Thompson theorized: “In 'simplifying', most speakers tend to use the language one employs when speaking to a small child. Hence the superficial similarity of Pidgin speech and baby talk.\" I do not believe in this theory.\n\nThe point is, the young makee-larn had to learn quickly. Any note-taking was confined by necessity to Chinese characters. The sounds had to fit the writing system available as best they could, and there was simply no time for the extreme complexities of English morphology, much of which was rooted in phonetic differences that Chinese people could in any case not hear, or only reproduce with great difficulty.\n\nAs it was, the foreign traders were almost universally impressed by the calibre and honesty of their Chinese domestic and Factory staff. For a business season which lasted a few months a year, no-one was about to quibble over ropey English. The most that was required was to keep the vocabulary of daily life to a moderate base of general and domestic terms, not to make great demands on the use of complicated grammar, and accept whatever Chinesifications became current. How did consistent Chinese forms of English become current? Both Leland and Hunter have quoted the same answer, and it must be presumed to be broadly correct:\n\n—\n\n\"In the Canton Bookshops near the Factories was sold a small pamphlet called \"Devil's Talk\". On the cover was a drawing of a foreigner in the dress of the middle of the last century - three-cornered hat, coat with wide skirts, breeches and long stockings, shoes with buckles, lace sleeves, and in his hand a cane. I have now one of these pamphlets before me. It commences thus, \"yun\" and under is its \"barbarian\" definition, expressed in another Chinese word whose sound is \"man\". After many examples of this kind come words of two syllables-thus: \"kum-yat\", with their foreign meaning expressed by two other Chinese characters pronounced \"to-teay\" today-and so on to sentences, for which the construction of the language is peculiarly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214316, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "138 \n\nLegends surrounding the birth, life and death of Xu Sun are numerous, complicated and tangled stories. Just before his birth his mother is said to have dreamed that a golden phoenix dropped a pearl from its beak into her hand. A popular story claims that he was born either in Henan province or at Nanchang in Jiangxi, ca AD 240 where he lived out his life as a saintly doctor. Xu Sun passed the imperial examinations, became a prefect of a district and distinguished himself by his benevolence. According to some versions, his popularity was due to his power and ability to heal diseases using secret preparations. Others claim that he was an official who, having served in Sichuan province, died in about AD 293 or AD 374 when still only in his fifties. In another version, a typical mythological finale to a virtuous and extraordinary life, he died at the great age of 134 and was borne off to Heaven 'together with his wives, children, dogs, chickens and beasts'. \n\nMembers of the Daoist Jingming sect claim that he was the founder of the cult with its centre at the temple dedicated to him in Nanchang city. This no longer exists; however, a temple dedicated to him in the small town of Xi Shan [Western Hill] some twenty miles south-west of Nanchang, is the present cult centre. A large notice before his altar in the temple informs devotees that he lived during the Eastern Jin [317-420 AD] and during a twenty year struggle managed to solve the problem of annual flooding in the province and that he should be revered mainly for his success in water conservancy in northern Jiangxi, particularly around the Boyang Lake. The notice also claims that he lived for 136 years. \n\nHis cult centre in Xi Shan is now a bustling temple complex with two main halls and some four lesser halls set in large grounds. The two large main halls, side by side, are dedicated one to Xu and the other to the Jade Emperor. The inside walls of the hall dedicated to Xu are lined with some twenty or so anonymous minor perfected lords whilst the Jade Emperor's hall is lined by sixteen guardian generals, again unnamed. The Jade Emperor is flanked by four major Daoist deities, the philosopher Lao Zi; the founder of the Heavenly Master sect Zhang Daoling; the doctor of the Eight Immortals Lü Dongbin and the Northern Emperor, Zhen Wu. The main altar in Xu's hall bears two images of Xu, one tall gilded statue of Xu standing, and a smaller, portable image of him sitting swathed in red robes. Neither has any unique characteristic and he is depicted with a black beard, pink face and holding a tablet in both hands before his chest. He is attended by two youthful attendants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215192, "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-2000", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "PHOTOGRAPH OF HONG KONG HARBOUR AND WATERFRONT TAKEN IN 1954\n\nJACK LAO MOU CHI\n\n251\n\nThe photograph is actually five photographs joined together, approximately 30 inches by 6 inches.\n\nStarting at the Central District Vehicular Ferry to Jordan Road, it can be seen that, moving to the right, Connaught Road at the time formed the Praya or Waterfront. Near the right-hand end of the photograph both Blake Pier and Star Ferry Pier can be seen. The Star Ferry moved to its present piers, on reclaimed land, in late 1957 when a number of people complained about the extra distance to walk!\n\nBehind the two piers can be seen the Queen's Building (where the Mandarin Hotel stands today), the old Hong Kong Club building and Mercury House (Cable and Wireless). Behind is the Royal Naval Dockyard, which was where Admiralty is situated today. Beyond, of course, is Wan Chai, where Gloucester Road at that time formed the Waterfront, and still further on is North Point.\n\nOn the other side of the Harbour the skyline is formed by the Kowloon Foothills and one can pick out such landmarks as Kowloon Peak (Fei Ngo Shan), Lion Rock and Beacon Hill. Passes along the Foothills, from west to east include Kowloon Pass, Sha Tin Pass, Grasscutters' Pass, Customs Pass and Tate's Pass. Further to the north are Heather Pass and Buffalo Pass.\n\nRight over to the west of the photograph is Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest mountain.\n\nIn those days there was a clear view of the Harbour from Government House and Governors were said to use the number of ships in the Harbour as a barometer of the economy. In this photograph there does not appear to be a great deal of activity.\n\n(Question from Dan Waters, who borrowed the photograph and copied it: 'During the 1956 Riots I served as a Special Constable based at the Waterfront Police Station. I was under the impression that this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215300, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "25\n\nEARTH GOD WINE AND THE MEETING OF THE FLUTTERING BUTTERFLIES LOCAL CUSTOMS OF EARLY SPRING IN LATE IMPERIAL CENTRAL CHINA\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\nAs spring was approaching in the lake lands of Southern Hubei and Northern Hunan, people became increasingly involved in the new agricultural season. Once snow and frosts were part of the past, the new season for rice began. In the first place the irrigated seedbeds were prepared to receive the sowing of the grain, and later to see the sprouting of the first thick green carpet of the young shoots. Irrigation systems had to be looked over and repaired in anticipation of the period when the large paddy fields were to be set under water.\n\nAfter the celebration of the Lantern Festival as the finale of the New Year season, on the fifteenth of the first moon of the lunar year, there was a bit of a ritual slack season. The advantage of this for people was that there was then a period of uninterrupted time necessary for the urgent agricultural spring tasks. What followed after New Year was a string of smaller seasonal events, somewhat more modest than the big cardinal festivals. Even so these celebrations were certainly of some importance - at least they provided a few short but joyful breaks in days otherwise filled with heavy loads of work. In this essay I shall examine two relatively minor festive events which were celebrated in the early spring, in the second lunary of the year or around that time.\n\nWe must remember that Chinese reckoning of time in Imperial days was structured by two main and different annual calendars. One was based on the phases of the moon and comprised twelve lunaries. The other took account of the annual behaviour of the sun and contained twenty-four solar phases. The lunar dates varied in terms of the sun calendar, but it was the latter which gave the pragmatic landmarks in terms of seasonal weather and rural tasks for the countryman, whereas various celebrations of agricultural achievements and social events were held in accordance with the moon year. The lunar New Year could fall any time from the twenty-first of January to the nineteenth of February, Gregorian reckoning, and thus varied a great deal from year to year in\n\nI have dealt with these elsewhere: Aijmer 1964; 1968; 1979; 1991; 2002.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215301, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "26\n\nits relationship to the relatively stable solar year, which could deviate from the true astronomical cycle only by three days. This discrepancy between the two cycles brought the advantage that what people carried out practically, in accordance with the reckoning of the sun's passage through a zodiac, could be celebrated after the practical event, and then the moon calendar offered the opportunity. Feasting did not interfere with work. But this was not always so. Some important festivals were tied to the position of the sun. The existence of two calendars also offered the possibility of double celebrations - each feast emphasizing one of two different aspects of some phenomenon. By such a separation in time, equal weight and dignity could be given to notions that did not easily tally inside one singular ritual frame.\n\nIn solar terms, the period of 'Establishment of Spring' set in on (approximately) the fifth of February. There was a great festival at that time, which was really part of the long New Year duration, but also connoted with expectations for the coming agricultural year.2 The spring season in central China lasted through the periods of 'Rain Water,' 'Arousal from Hibernation,' 'Vernal Equinox,' 'Clear and Bright,' 'Grain Rains' and up to ‘Establishment of Summer' on the fifth of May. In terms of the varying lunar calendar, spring would correspond roughly with the period from the middle of the first moon up to the beginning of the fourth lunary.\n\nWhat were the festive concerns of people in the Lake Dongting area in the early part of the long Chinese spring? One prominent feature was a continuing divination about coming crops and the weather upon which these were dependent. Already New Year was a great period for forecasting and these predictions were continued in the course of the spring. We can find some glimpses of such activities in our sources. But there were also some more prominent days which saw a lot of ritual activities.\n\nOne day in early spring was of special importance. According to the official almanac it fell on the fifth wu day that followed Li Chun. is the fifth of a set of twelve 'Earthly Branches' that in combination with twelve 'Celestial Stems' formed a system for calculating time and days. Li Chun is the mentioned solar period\n\n2\n\nAijmer 2002: Ch. XV.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216042, "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": 341, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "275\n\ntitles of the god”. \n\nThe third hall contained Guan Yin, as the 'patron of offspring', with statues of the Buddhist trio Dicang Wang etc., about her. A special little shrine to the left contained the 'thousand-handed' Guan Yin. \n\nDoré added that a visit to a smoky grotto, reeking with the acrid odour of 'joss-sticks' rounds off the tour of the cult buildings. Here there were two ugly statuettes, Guan Yin and Yanguang Pusa, the Bodhisattva of Eyesight: strings of cash hung as ex-votos for the former. In the depths of the grotto, sticks of incense were burning night and day before the statue of one, Pei Toutuo, a Hunanese [so said the monks] who discovered gold in what was then called Fuyu Shan E. He was said to have built the temple with the proceeds of his mining and the temple name was then changed to Jin Shan, Gold Mountain. \n\nA square artificial lake enclosed by a stone balustrade is referred to as the First Spring under Heaven after the waters were declared to be the sweetest for brewing tea. Not surprisingly a tea house offering tea brewed with water from the spring is served to today's visitors. \n\nMy wife, eldest daughter and I visited the Jin Shan Temple during a cold spell one March in the mid-1990s and found to our disappointment that the images were all modern, replacing those destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. However, along the leading edge of the main altar we recognized some twenty or so small images of the Sinicised Vedic deities similar to those I wrote about in Vol. 38 of JHKBRAS. The fact that the great Qing emperor Qian Long had a particular love for the monastery at Jin Shan, referred to earlier, may explain why these Vedic images are also present on the altar in the Jin Shan Si, possibly copied from the images in the temples in Beijing's Western Hills, again connected with the early Qing. \n\nAnother highly visible pagoda, known as the Sengjia Ta, stands on top of the Dingshi Shan, just under a mile south from Zhenjiang's former southern gate. It was built on this site during the Ming having been moved from its former location during temple reconstruction.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216044, "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": 343, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "277\n\npleaded with him and explained that she was a good person and truly loved her husband. She added that she was due to bear his child in the not too distant future. The Abbot, who is the villain of the tale, would have none of it and White Snake at her wits end called on her allies, the fish and crustaceans of the Great River to her aid. The violent and prolonged rainstorm flooded the entire area around Jin Shan island in an attempt to free her husband and as the waters rose White Snake again pleaded with the Abbot offering to call off the dangerous river waters. He refused to listen, used his own cloak to quell the waters and even tried to catch her in his magical urn to incarcerate her but to no avail as she was protected by Wen Chang, the God of Literature, as her future son was destined to achieve the status of Zhuang Yuan, the First Scholar in the whole country. The Abbot immediately knew that he was no longer able to catch or destroy White Snake but would be able to do so once she had borne the child.\n\nThe Abbot gave Xu his magical urn and explained that once the son had been born he was to capture her in it and she would then be incarcerated forever. Xu returned home and after tearful explanations from both husband and wife they were reconciled, though once the child was born Xu threw the urn at his wife. Having been captured by the magic urn she turned back into her original form. Almost immediately the Abbot materialised and took the urn with its prisoner and placed it under the Thunder Peak Pagoda on the shores of Hangzhou's lake. Xu bitterly repented betraying his wife and sought obscurity as a solitary Buddhist monk far away.\n\nThe son grew into a handsome and talented youth and only when he had become the long forecast First Scholar, a Zhuang Yuan, was he told the sad tale of his ill-fated father and mother. At an auspicious time on an auspicious day he prepared an elaborate sacrificial ceremony in memory of his mother and there, before the Thunder Peak Pagoda he knelt in prayer. His mother, freed for a very short period as a gesture by the local guardian deity, appeared dressed in white. She approached her son and full of tears explained her love for his father and the sad ending, and especially the dreadful punishment she was suffering for having caused the deaths of so many innocent people in and around Zhenjiang by ordering the land to be flooded. She was escorted back to the Pagoda to continue her agony - for all eternity.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216112, "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": 411, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "345\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nFROM THE BELGIAN JOURNAL AVIATION, VOLUME 2, NUMBER 14, MARCH 1946\n\n©TRANSLATION BY PAUL BOLDING\n\nGliding: How Louis de San beat the Asian duration and altitude records in Chungking, China, in 1940\n\nIn 1939, Louis de San set off for China to serve as a diplomat. A keen glider pilot, he was eager to taste the eastern thermal currents. When he set off in a Chinese glider, towed by a military plane, it was to be for a flight of more than four hours and set an Asian record. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he managed to flee Hong Kong as the bombs fell, and to reach South Africa. There he joined the RAF and passed his examinations as an aeroplane pilot. Lieutenant de San then went to Congo, where he was based until the end of hostilities and undertook various missions and operations in Oxford and SV4 planes. This is his account of how he set the record in China:\n\nIt was 1940. For a year I had been in Chungking, wartime capital of the Chinese government. There was bombing day and night, crushing heat of more than 40 degrees, tension, loneliness... There were few distractions: one was being a spectator in the virtually hopeless struggle of the Chinese people, at war for two years. I travelled the country and spent hours watching the clouds, birds, weather conditions; I rapidly concluded that the good thermals had to be as numerous as fish in the Yangtse.\n\nI knew every corner of the area around Chungking. The town was a kind of peninsula, surrounded by two mighty rivers, the Yangtse and the Kialing. Thousands of dark roofs, large areas flattened by Japanese bombing, the immediate contrast of great expanses of water, and over it all leaden skies, more oppressive than the strongest sun in Coquilhatville1 or Lake Leopold II in Congo.\n\nWhere great gliding birds untiringly traced their spirals higher, there had to be powerful thermal currents. Above the town, above the white sandbanks emerging from the river, one saw from morning to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216231, "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": 530, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "464\n\nyou would laugh when I told you the name of the ch'uu.\n\n'Dang me if it isn't a great big white whale\n\ngot into our river; that sure makes a tale !'\n\n&\n\nPeter was happy once we'd been inside\n\nthe Trashigang dzong with its floorboards so wide.\n\nBut as for the rest of the travelling herd,\n\nour Peter was clear - he just gave them the bird.\n\nNo, that's not quite fair; he's Hon. Sec. of the RAS,\n\nand has to make sure that good things come to pass.\n\nIn the matter of birthdays, a party to make,\n\nthere's never a doubt that our Pete takes the cake!\n\nMarlene came a cropper on the road from Pele La;\n\nfell down on the black ice - nearly got hit by a car.\n\nBut she came up smiling - Marlene's never sad for long.\n\nShe was right as rain next morning when we visited a dzong.\n\nAnd finally, Kevin and Sarah and Rocky,\n\nmy time's nearly up - you should count yourselves lucky.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]