[ { "id": 205636, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n173\n\nestates of which none can be said to have the identity inhering in its predecessor. The so-called joint family has a short life.\n\nRitual primogeniture is inherent in the worship, but rests on a true primogeniture of a much older phase. No one son can step effectively into his father's shoes and exercise authority over the same range of people. Married sons are not seen as a threat to the father's position and the father, also, does not, once in his soul-tablet, support the authority of sons over their juniors. In a nut-shell then, the ancestor is worshipped but cannot be used as a major instrument of domestic discipline.\n\nMiss Ward's paper is very different in subject matter and theoretical interest to that of Dr. Freedman's but again is concerned with matters on which Professor Firth has done considerable work: peasant communities, including fishing communities, and their economies. \"Chinese Fishermen in Hong Kong: their Post-Peasant Economy\" is based particularly on data derived by Miss Ward from the village of Kau Sai which is on the shores of a narrow strait between two small islands in the Port Shelter area of Hong Kong's waters. It was there, in the early 'fifties, that Miss Ward first began her field work on the boat people.\n\nThe essay discusses problems of economic and social change. Miss Ward talks of the rapid technological changes in the fishing industry (whereas in 1952 in Kau Sai all but one boat had been wind-driven, by mid-1963 only one was not mechanized). She argues that this was possible because the economic attitudes of the fishermen and the social structure of fishing communities were already favourable. When the opportunity to adopt useful technical change was offered, it was likely to be seized upon unless blocked by something else. By 1950 the opportunity to mechanize did appear -- engines were available. By then the possible educational block had also been partly removed, and government action in freeing the market, injecting money and providing training courses and encouragement was all that was required to set a revolution in action.\n\nThe essay deals with the effects of mechanization and change on different kinds of fishermen, and changes in social structure consequent on such developments, highlighting as a factor of general importance the movement of boat-people to land-dwellings. This affects particularly the position of women, changing their opportunities to earn an independent income either by working in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209241, "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "130\n\nTA ACTON\n\nearnest students of all ages doing the homework impossible to do in crowded one-room flats) The report suggests that even though land-based jobs had increased awareness of the need for secondary education, drop-out rates of those who started on it remained high because of the physical difficulties in the way of studying. The F.M.O. schools are not, however, mentioned in the report, nor have I seen any F.M.O. comments on these findings.\n\n38\n\nThe report of the survey concludes that the plight of the poor boat-people is an indication of a more general social malaise, the devil-take-the-hindmost atmosphere of Hong Kong. They suggest that the Government should accept responsibility for re-settling the casualties of the mechanisation of the fishing industry from which the rest of the community has benefitted. In the long term, a better understanding of the Shui-sheung-yans' needs was required by the housing authority, who should plan in accordance with forecasts about the manpower needs of the fishing industry. The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries should extend the availability of its loans so that less initial capital is required of the borrower. New fishermen's villages could be built by the Housing Department, and the Labour Department and the Education Department should co-operate to increase the general levels of education and training in industrial skills. In the short term, the report urges immediate improvements in safety, rubbish collection, sanitation, and disinfection. Regular checks on boat safety should be made by the Marine Department. The Urban Council should provide study rooms for children, and the Education Department evening literacy classes and industrial training.\n\n39\n\nThe report spurred a campaign which gained wider sympathy. In January 1979 a coach-load of boat-people were arrested on their way to take a petition to Government House. Children as young as seven years of age were finger-printed and charged with illegal assembly, although magistrates refused to proceed with the case against those under the age of 12. The adults, social workers, students, a Catholic missionary and Shui-sheung-yan, were found guilty, but discharged.\n\nAfter this incident, however, the groundswell of liberal support for the boat-people diversified into a general civil rights attack on the Public Order Ordinance itself. This has left the boat-people to fight their housing struggle by themselves, with the help of a few community workers linked to SoCO, such as Fr. Cunbo Franco, an Italian Roman Catholic priest actually living on a boat in the Yaumatei typhoon shelter.\n\n40", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213986, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "21\n\nIt was, in fact, used as one of the main features of the Hong Kong stand at the Exposition at Vancouver, in 1986 (see Plate 1). Bamboo scaffolding was also erected in Edinburgh, Scotland, by two master craftsmen, including Choi Keung of the Construction Industry Training Authority, in 1996, as part of the 'Hong Kong Tomorrow' exhibition (see Plate 2). Although bamboo is used in some other Asian countries as well, nevertheless it does typify Hong Kong.\n\nBamboo, which has a long history for use as scaffolding in southern China, is imported into Hong Kong from the neighbouring province of Guangdong. But most of the bamboo comes from the adjacent, humid province of Guangxi, where it is cultivated. It takes about one year to grow to a useable size but in a very dry year with little rain it will take two years.\n\nMuch is floated down the Pearl River with lengths lashed together to form rafts. From Guangzhou the bamboo goes to Macau from where it is shipped to Hong Kong. There are different kinds. Yellow bamboo is considered better than the grey variety. Lengths, on average, vary from 23 to 33 feet (the trade still tends to work in imperial measure rather than metric) and it is from 2 to as large as 10 inches in diameter. For extra compressive strength, on tall buildings, China fir poles are sometimes used as standards (uprights) every 20 feet or so as well as for main cross-bracing members. These take three to four years to grow to a useable size.\n\nTraining\n\nThe skill of erecting scaffolding has, by tradition, normally been passed on from master craftsman to apprentice. 'Tricks of the trade' are seldom made known to people outside the trade or written down.12 The traditional period for an apprenticeship was three years, although this has since, generally, been reduced to two years because of a shortage of scaffolders. In the old days being an apprentice, Chinese style, meant one was almost a slave to one's master. Even as late as the 1950s, this included being the master's cook, servant, laundryman and general dogsbody. The pay at the time was HK$10.00 a month for the first year, HK$20.00 for the second, and HK$30.00 a month for the final year. In addition to making obeisances and burning joss sticks to the three patron deities, in those days life was hard and for the first year or so the job of a new apprentice was largely fetch and carry. Only later was he allowed to climb and taught how to tie a knot. If he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213987, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "22\n\ndisobeyed he would be scolded or beaten. At that time an employee was compelled to register with the only union of scaffolding workers in order to get a job.\n\nSome apprentice scaffolders will tell you they enjoy the view from on high, where they are 'king of all they survey', although others maintain that, unless one has a natural head for heights, at first, being a scaffolder takes a lot of getting used to (Plate 3). Many youngsters are put off from taking up the trade by their parents who see it as a dangerous occupation.\n\nA short evening course entitled, \"The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding\" was run by the Morrison Hill Technical Institute in the early 1970s, when the author served there as Principal. This course was taught by the late Mr Ho So, an experienced bamboo scaffolder and the editor of The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding. Unlike the usual practice of learning on the-job, a certificate was issued on the successful completion of this course.\n\nMr Ho left Kao Yao, Guangdong Province, as a boy of 15 and came to Hong Kong to serve a three-year apprenticeship. He gained considerable experience as a master scaffolder before setting up his own business which he ran for upwards of 30 years. Later, he taught not only at the Morrison Hill Technical Institute, but he also became a full-time scaffolding instructor at the Kowloon Bay Construction Industry Training Authority Centre.\n\nWhen the author visited the premises of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Bamboo Scaffolding Merchants Association, in Spring Garden Lane, Wanchai, in August 1997, the late Mr Ho's photograph was prominently displayed. This was placed alongside pictures of other persons who had made significant contributions to the Association and to the scaffolding industry. An altar and pictures of groups of scaffolders were also displayed in the Association's Headquarters. Opposite, on Spring Garden Lane, on the top floor, are dormitories where a number of elderly scaffolders reside. Earth god shrines are in evidence together with bundles of nylon lashings, for tying bamboo scaffold poles together.\n\nAs at 1995, with a highly fragmented trade which relies largely on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213996, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "31\n\nCertainly, for heavy duty scaffolding laid out on a grid pattern, say when constructing a flyover and for other civil engineering work, metal scaffolding has advantages. Metal has already taken over in some cases from timber in areas such as hoardings around building sites and for site offices, when containers are sometimes utilised. Also, on large projects managed by the Government Housing Department, precast concrete units are used together with gondolas. This does away with much scaffolding.\n\nAlthough the change from bamboo scaffolding to metal has been much slower than many people expected over the past 40 years, especially with a limited number of trainee scaffolders entering the trade, the changing to metal can be expected to continue. Nevertheless, one can expect bamboo scaffolding, with its many advantages, to be in use for many years to come.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nThe author is grateful to Mr Albert Tong Yat Chu, Mr Cho Hon Chiu and scaffolding instructor Master Chor Keung, all of the Construction Industry Training Authority, for the information and photographs they supplied. The author is also grateful to Mr Jimmy C. M. Yuen, of the Occupational Safety and Health Council and to Mr S. L. Lam, Senior Architect of the Architectural Services Department, for their assistance.\n\nREFERENCES\n\n \n 1.\n TC Lai, Hasem Role. Philip Mao, Hings Chinese (Hong Kong, 1971), pp 13 and 14\n \n \n 2.\n Shrona Anbe, Fhustle ontd Bamboo, the Life and Times of St. James Stewart Lockhart, Oxford University Press (1989), p. 58\n \n \n 3.\n Alfred Russel Wallace, FRS (1823-1913) British naturalist, widely travelled, had many publications to his credit. See Chambers Biographical dictionary (Revised edition 1961)\n \n \n 4.\n Ho So, The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding, Ho So Kee Construction and Scaffolding Co (Hong Kong, circa 1974), p 3\n \n \n 5.\n Naomi Yin-yin Szeto, 'Bamboo Scaffolding”, of Hearts and Hands Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts, ed Joseph Ting, Urban Council Museum of History (Hong Kong, 1995), P 219\n \n \n 6.\n Ho, loc cit\n \n \n 7.\n Anthony Walker and Stephen M. Rowlinson, The Building of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Construction Association, Hong Kong University Press (1990), p 121-131", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214000, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "Bamboo scaffolding outside the exhibition hall at the 'Hong Kong Tomorrow' exhibition in 1996, at Edinburgh in Scotland. The scaffolding was erected by master scaffolder Choi Keung, instructor at the Construction Industry Training Authority, and another Hong Kong craftsman (photograph courtesy Hong Kong Construction Industry Training Authority).\n\n35", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214001, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "36 + 1 3 Ž Erecting scaffolding. A head for heights is required especially when one is 30 or 40 storeys above the ground (photograph courtesy of the Hong Kong Construction Industry Training Authority).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214002, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "37\n\nThe trade of scaffolder is normally seen as a man's job. The Construction Industry Training Authority Centre, at Kowloon Bay, has, however, trained two women. Note here how this young lady places her leg over and around the scaffolding, so she can hang on, and her hands can be freed for tying and other work (photograph courtesy of Hong Kong Industry Training Authority).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 } ]