[
    {
        "id": 206129,
        "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": 209,
        "title": "RAS-1970",
        "content_text": "202\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nThe second part contains the data on which the theories of the first section were based. Due to financial problems, publication of this section had to be delayed, and it was reduced considerably in size by the co-author, Mr. Guildal. The final result is an extremely painstaking and valuable Checklist of the birds of Hopei Province, including not only the Peitaiho records, but also records from previous literature covering the whole province. The value of this material to ornithologists can be gauged by the fact that no investigation in such detail has been carried out anywhere else on the coast of China. It is regrettable that the avifauna of Hong Kong, the only place where comparable studies could be carried out, is dwindling, and unless stern conservation measures are taken very soon, the obvious possibilities here will have been destroyed for ever. It is a pathetic commentary on the values current in Hong Kong that it should be necessary to say this.\n\nIn one important aspect, the delay in publication of the second part has produced a situation which makes the book difficult to use. Dr. Hemmingsen has based his systematics and nomenclature on Hartert, Die Vögel der paläarktischen Fauna (1903-23), which is now out of date, and was in fact already out of date when the first part was published. To achieve consistency, the same nomenclature has been used in the second part. As the first part has been reprinted in this volume, it is a great pity that the opportunity of updating this aspect was missed. A further legacy of the same era is the emphasis on subspecific identification; while this can be useful for specimen identification, it is very rarely practicable in the field. To do the author justice, however, he is extremely cautious on field identification, and, unlike many ornithologists, he is always ready to admit where he is uncertain of an identification. I would have preferred to see more field notes, and less attempts to describe callnotes and songs, as the latter are always subjective and therefore less useful to later observers.\n\nThe study of bird migration in this part of the world has advanced considerably in the past few years due to the work of a few groups of enthusiasts, backed by the Migratory Animals Pathological Survey. Over six million birds have been ringed under these schemes, and much information has been gathered",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207323,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1975",
        "page_number": 91,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "NOTES ON CHIUCHOW OPERA\n\n83\n\nto find out the reason for the continual postponement of the marriage. He is characterised as a clown, and the fat wet-nurse appears also as a go-between, a funny character in many Chinese operas. This scene gives ample opportunity to display the vocabulary of comic jokes, movements and mime typical of the Chiuchow opera. He wears gay red costumes, and carries a fan which he handles like a juggler. In this scene the two are describing their long climb by walking in various ways in a circle, pausing to admire the scenery.\n\nThe wet-nurse asks the learned Hsin-tsai for the names and explanations of things seen along the way. \"And this mountain?\"\n\n\"It is called Han Mountain.\"\n\n\"And this river?\"\n\n\"It is called Han River.\"\n\n**\n\n\"And that ancestor temple over there?\" \"It is the Han Memorial Temple.\"\n\n\"Why is everything here called Han?\"\n\n\"Because the great scholar Han Yü was sent from the Capital to Chiuchow and gave his name to all these.\"*\n\n\"Oh, you and your father are like the great Han Yü.\"\n\n\"Oh you really think so? Why?\"\n\n\"Because Han Yü grabbed all the mountains, the river and the ancestor hall, and so on, and now you and your father grab the people's land.\"\n\nThe wet-nurse carries an umbrella and a red pao-fu# or a cloth-roll containing provisions for the journey, slung over the shoulder which is the traditional requisite to indicate travelling. On the Chinese stage luggage is never carried to indicate arrival, departure or travel, but a bamboo-umbrella or a red pao-fu, or both, are used instead.\n\nThe Hsiu-tsai is complaining about the Su family who are constantly postponing his marriage with their daughter, and is wondering what strange reason there may be behind it. They come to a gate erected by the emperor's order to honour a woman who has demonstrated her chastity under hard conditions. The Hsiu-tsai\n\n*For a notice of Han Yü (768-824) see Harbert A. Giles A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, London and Shanghai, 1898, pp. 254-256.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
        "rank": 0
    }
]