[ { "id": 204247, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n12\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nOne by one successive tribes arose Huns, Avars, Turks, Mongols, Manchus-dashed themselves against the frontiers of the Empire, and sometimes recoiling proceeded through Central Asia to Europe, sometimes breaking through the Wall, submerged for a time the whole Empire.\n\nApart from some stone monuments found in Central Asia, few but of great importance, the record of these tribes is to be found in the Chinese Histories, with references in the Greek authors of the Byzantine Empire, whenever the tribes impinged upon the West.\n\nInterest in collecting the Scythian bronzes commenced with Peter the Great. It is natural that the Russians and the scholars of Eastern Europe should be the first to be interested in the history of the Central Asian tribes. To them is largely due the excavations in Southern Europe and Siberia, and also in Mongolia. But in English we have the massive work 'Scythians and Greeks' by E. H. Minns. The Turks also are particularly interested in these studies, which have thrown much light upon the origin of the Turkish peoples.\n\nOne outcome of the struggle of the Chinese Empire with the Huns was the first extension of Chinese power in Central Asia, through the Tarim Basin, the present Sinkiang, to the Pamirs. This chapter in world history includes the fascinating account of the journey of Chang Ch'ien to the West in the second century B.C., the exploits of Pan Ch'ao in the Tarim Basin in the first century A.D., and the despatch of a Chinese envoy, Kan Ying, to the shores of the Persian Gulf,\n\nDuring the first and second centuries the famous silk trade arose between China and Rome, recorded by Ptolemy and the Chinese histories. For a short time the land route between China and the West was open. The road passed through the Tarim Basin, between the northern grasslands and Tibet. It also became the great highway between India and China.\n\nThe Tarim Basin is one of the most remarkable geographical regions in the world, lying as it does between glaciated mountains on three sides, with a waterless desert in the centre. Around the desert, watered by streams from the mountains, are the oasis towns and villages, which form stepping stones as it were for travellers passing from east to west, or from west to east. By this thoroughfare have passed from time immemorial the travellers of Central Asia-merchants, soldiers, monks. And by this thoroughfare the great cultural influences-Indian, Persian, Greek-have passed with Buddhism from Western and Southern Asia to China. By this thoroughfare Chinese colonization spread to the Pamirs. By this route Marco Polo journeyed to China in the thirteenth century.\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204277, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n41\n\nfact professional bodyguards, who protected officials and rich merchants or valuable goods in transport. Such men were known as piao-k'o (鏢客), and their profession was called pao-piao (保鏢).\n\nTo sum up: the Chinese knights errant were at first simply men of strong will and independent character, who tried to see justice done by the use of force. They embodied the spirit of individualism and protested against any attempt at rigid regimentation. Later, popular imagination pictured them as great champions of the common people against the oppression of corrupt officials, and often attributed supernatural powers to them. This partly reflected the wishful thinking of the oppressed people for some miraculous saviour. Still later, by a stroke of irony, the knights errant became guardians of the law and protectors of the rich. However, the basic ideals of knight errantry remained unchanged. No knight errant worthy of the name would have helped a corrupt official or robbed the poor. Compared with Mediaeval European knights, the Chinese ones are more independent and less bound by a code of behaviour. Instead of being courteous to men, gallant to ladies, and devout in religion, they tend to be free and easy. That is perhaps why in Chinese literature knight errantry has not been endowed with such allegorical significance as we find in Western chivalric literature, such as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso or Spenser's Faerie Queene. The nearest equivalent in the West to the Chinese yu-hsia is probably Robin Hood.\n\nThe above is only a bare outline of the development of chivalric literature in Chinese. I hope to deal with the subject in much greater detail in the future.\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204498, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "115\n\nBRITAIN AND CHINA'\n\nReviewed by COLINA LUPTON, M.A.2\n\nChina is and will probably continue for some time to be the most unpredictable element in world affairs. With the passage of time she becomes more, not less so; her motives grow more obscure, her economic development more problematical, her political life—within the echelons of the Communist Party—more a matter for conjecture. On the face which she turns to the world there is little sign of the stresses and strains which she is undergoing; the information which China publishes about herself is remarkable only for the lack of knowledge it conveys. Unhappily—in view of our ignorance China is likely by sheer weight of numbers to be the dominant influence in the world in perhaps twenty years' time, and how this unleashed dragon will deal then with other nations largely depends on the kind of handling she receives now.\n\nHence any book which sheds light on Chinese thought processes, in particular relating present policies to past treatment, is a valuable one. Mr. Luard has gone one better and conjectured the course of the future. His book sets out a sane and lucid account of relations with China since the first British ships reached her shores in 1637, and describes both what he expects to see and what he would like to see happen in the next few years. In what really amounts to a series of essays on the historical background, on the Kuomintang, the Communists and the Korean war, on missionaries and merchants, Hong Kong and Taiwan—he neatly discusses, without a superfluity of chronological detail, the past, the present, and the future. This method necessitates a little overlapping between the chapters, but it is worth this since it saves a lot of narration inessential to the point of the book. For the author is trying to discuss sentiments and policies as much as facts, and this kind of pattern gives him the scope to do so. This is certainly not to say that he has ignored facts; though the historical background is compressed, the account of Britain's dealings with the Mao Tse-tung regime is very fully treated.\n\nBy Evan Luard. Chatto and Windus, 1962. 25/-.\n\n* The writer was formerly a research assistant in the Far East Department of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. She has been living in Hong Kong since the end of 1960, and is Assistant Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204590, "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": 71, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "60\n\nTHE OLD BRITISH LEGATION AT PEKING, 1860-1959\n\nBased on a lecture delivered on 20 August, 1962\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG, M.A.*\n\nOn the afternoon of March 26th, 1861, Frederick Bruce, the first British minister to China to reside in Peking, entered the grounds of the former palace of Duke I-liang, and the history of the old British Legation had begun. The desire of Great Britain to have a minister resident in the capital was of long standing, and had its origins in the eighteenth century. From at least 1760, some English merchants in Canton had been arguing that only when an ambassador from England resided at Peking would their grievances be properly represented to the Emperor of China and their position improve. Eventually, this point of view was strong enough to influence the Government of England. Indeed, one of the prime objects of the embassy of Lord Macartney to the Court of the Emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1793 was to secure for England just such permanent representation at Peking. However, there was not the slightest chance that such a request would be granted. All foreign embassies to China were regarded as tributary missions of a temporary nature, and all foreign countries as inferior. Even the first Anglo-Chinese War of 1839-1842, and the subsequent Treaty of Nanking failed to obtain this object. From the Chinese point of view, relations with the western barbarians were still a local matter to be carried on by the Governor-General at Canton or by the Governor-General at Nanking. The foreign powers, for their part, were still unable to gain direct communication with the Imperial Government at Peking, and therefore were unable to protest effectively when the treaties did not appear to be working properly, or when they wished to revise them. This was the background to the War of 1858-1860, in which English and French forces were used to secure the Treaties of Tientsin, by which the earlier treaties were revised. Article III of the British Treaty of Tientsin stated (in part): \"It is further agreed that Her Majesty's Government may\n\n* Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hong Kong. Author of An Embassy to China, reviewed on page 136 of this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204626, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "94\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nOtherwise, the local leaders do not seem to have requested the magistrate's permission to carry out their various projects or even to have invoked his assistance. In the case of the repair of the Po On study in 1866 they seem to have acted without consulting the yamen. Again, there is no mention of the district magistrate on the tablet commemorating the establishment of the Fong Pin hospital in the years 1872-78, though this act seems to have owed much to an enlightened and energetic military official LAI Chun-pin, who was commander of the Kowloon garrison at the time.19 According to the tablet LAI stated: \"I happened to be stationed in Kowloon in the ting-ch'ou year (1877-8) of the Kuang-hsü reign and was so pleased to hear about this man (CHOI Leung) that I paid a visit to him. I found him to be a merchant with an untiring devotion to philanthropic works, so I compiled a subscription book urging contributions by officials, gentry, scholars and merchants to help make this scheme a success.\n\nThe names of the donors on the commemorative tablet show that LAI had cast his net wide, but he did not secure the district magistrate, even as a subscriber.\n\nWhether the magistrate knew officially of these proceedings is not known, but perhaps the sponsors did not inform him. Had they done so, particularly in respect of schemes for a poor house-cum-hospital and a school, both public amenities for which he had a measure of personal responsibility by virtue of being district magistrate, he would probably have been obliged to show his interest in one form or another.\" Perhaps he chose to ignore them as it was likely that he had lost face by LAI's actions; or he may well not have known what was going on.\n\nA considerable degree of self-help seems therefore to have been both necessary and unavoidable in isolated communities like Cheung Chau. Whilst the district government might take an interest in local schemes, it could not be expected to do much more; partly because of poor or inconvenient communications, but principally because there was very little money available to assist deserving projects.1 Local communities were expected to help themselves, and to set aside the means whereby an institution could be perpetuated and the structure kept in good repair. Cheung Chau was no exception to this general requirement, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204649, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "116\n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nThere was intense rivalry between John Swire's China Navigation Company and Russell's Shanghai Steam Navigation Company in the years before the latter's ships were sold to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. John Swire seems to have adopted and improved on Russell's methods of soliciting business from Chinese merchants, and making his shipping services and godown facilities as attractive to them as possible. This was a policy which the \"Princely Hong\" were much slower in adopting in their shipping services. It is amusing to read F. B. Forbes's exasperated comments on a dinner party which Swire's compradores gave for their Chinese freight brokers, and at which their European clerks were present and assisted in the hostly duties.12 Forbes thought this undignified, but one imagines his real grievance was that he had not thought of this himself.\n\nThe Chefoo Convention between Britain and China was signed in 1876, following the murder of A. R. Margary, a British consular officer, on the border between Burma and China. The connection between the two events may appear remote, but at this time the murder of a foreigner, or any untoward outburst of xenophobia on the part of the Chinese, was often followed by China being compelled to surrender some of her territory or sovereignty to the foreign power concerned. In this instance the Chefoo Convention provided for the opening to foreign trade of several more ports on the coast, and a further 340 miles on the Yangtse, the section between Hankow and Ichang known as the Middle River. Ichang, at the upper end of the Middle River, became a treaty port, and also Wuhu, a port between Nanking and Kiukiang. At the same time, Anking, Hichow, Luhchow, Tatung, and Wusueh, were opened to foreign trade as ports of call. These were ports where passengers and cargo could be loaded and discharged, but where foreigners had no rights of residence. All these ports of call, except Luhchow, were below Hankow; Luhchow being on the Middle River 70 miles above Hankow.\n\nF. B. Forbes was a nephew of P. S. Forbes, a former head of Russell and Company in America. He was a director of the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company from 1863 to 1866, and from 1868 to 1872, and president from 1872 to 1874.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204658, "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE \n\n125 \n\nand enthusiasm of Captain Cornell Plant who occupies the place of honour next to Archibald Little in the history of Upper Yangtse navigation. Little met Plant in London when the Pioneer was nearing completion, and infected Plant (whose previous experience of river work had been command of a paddle steamer on the Euphrates) with his enthusiasm for the Upper Yangtse. Plant took over the Pioneer and commanded her on her early voyages, and the Upper River fascinated him as it had Little. After the Pioneer was taken over by the Royal Navy, Plant built himself a large houseboat and traded successfully between Ichang and Chungking for several years, studying the Upper River in its varying moods and seasons. In 1907 he persuaded a group of Chinese merchants and officials in Chungking to make a further attempt to establish a regular steamer service, and the Szechuen Steam Navigation was formed, 40% of the capital coming from official sources. Their first ship, the Shuting, was built by Thorneycroft at Southampton under Plant's supervision, and he commanded her on her first voyage in 1908, and for the first five years of her successful operations.16 The Szechuen Steam Navigation Company's Shuting was soon followed by the China Navigation Company's Shutung, and both ships maintained a regular service between Ichang and Chungking, except for the three winter months — January to March — of low water. Both the Shutung and the Shuting were about 115 feet long with a draft of 3 feet, and both towed a float alongside for both passengers and cargo. If the current was too strong at any of the gorges or rapids the steamer went ahead on her own, tied up at the head, and then pulled the float up after her. Sometimes the steamer half steamed and half pulled herself up by her windlass. For this reason the Upper River steamers had very powerful windlasses and capstans, but even with this help there were some rapids it was impossible to overcome without further help. Then gangs of coolies called trackers, were employed, and there were villages at certain places whose sole raison d'être was to supply these trackers. The first steamer to go up the whole distance from Ichang to Chungking solely under her own power was the Szechuen Steam Navigation \n\n10 Plant joined the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1913 as River Inspector for the Upper River, which post he held at his death in Hong Kong in 1921. He is buried in Happy Valley alongside his wife. See his Glimpses of the Yangtse Gorges, 2nd edn., (Kelly and Walsh, 1936) which contains some interesting photographs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204716, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "W. C. HUNTER \n\nengaged in the lucrative trade drew out of the country large amounts of silver. Lin Tse-hsu, Governor General of Hupeh and Hunan wholeheartedly threw his support to those who memorialized the throne requesting stringent measures to prevent the use of opium within the country, and to cure addicts. Moreover, Lin took direct action and seized caches of opium, 12,000 ounces and 5,000 pipes. As a result of his success in combating opium addiction and forceful condemnation of the sale of the drug he was called to Peking by Emperor Tao-kuang and appointed Imperial Commissioner to examine the opium traffic at Canton. He arrived at the provincial capital in early March, 1839. For several years prior to 1839 nearly 30,000 chests had been imported annually there.\n\nFateful events immediately took form. Lin warned the western merchants of dire results if the iniquitous trade did not cease. His threat was followed by the demand that within three days they offer a bond that no opium would be imported. A counter proposal was made to turn over to Commissioner Lin about 1000 chests of the drug which he summarily rejected. On March 22, he demanded that Lancelot Dent, one of the principal importers be given to Chinese officials as a hostage until all opium was given up. The western merchants insisted that Dent could be surrendered only on condition that his personal safety was guaranteed. The Chinese merchants doing business with foreigners were frightened by the action of their own government. Some of them were deprived of their buttons of rank and two appeared in public with chains around their necks. Under these circumstances the Hong (the association of Chinese merchants trading with the western merchants at Canton) pressed the foreign community to comply with the ultimatum of Lin and deliver up Dent.\n\nIn the midst of this seething situation, on March 24, Captain Charles Elliot, British naval officer and Chief Superintendent and Plenipotentiary of the China Commission arrived from Macao. He entered the foreign compound with great difficulty inasmuch as the river had been blockaded and the streets leading to the foreign section had been barricaded. The predicament of approximately 300 western people seemed most serious since food and water were in short supply and a large encampment of Chinese troops was close at hand. Canton was cut off from formal communications from Macao which was nearly sixty miles distant", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204717, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n11\n\nin the Pearl River estuary. This estuary formed a great bay on the eastern edge of which was Hong Kong and on the western edge the Portuguese city of Macao. Many of the ships whose cargo were destined for Canton stopped first at Macao and the city was the summer home of a considerable number of foreign merchants trading to Canton. The island of Lintin, consisting of little more than a sharp peak rising in the center of the bay, was the entrepôt of the opium trade. At the mouth of the Pearl River a series of forts known as the Bogue dominated the estuary, at its widest three miles and at its narrowest one mile.* European ships were required to stop at the fortifications and receive permission from the Chinese authorities to proceed up the Pearl River. They then sailed on thirty miles to Whampoa, an island in the river where they anchored and discharged their cargos which were taken by barges and smaller ships thirteen miles to Canton, Neither the depth of the river nor the Chinese government permitted the \"Foreign Devils\" to bring large ships to the provincial capital.\n\nOn March 28, 1839 Elliot agreed to turn over to Commissioner Lin the entire holdings of opium which he stated as 20,283 chests. As each major consignment of opium was delivered restrictions on foreigners were eased in regard to food supplies and employment of Chinese workers. By early May conditions outwardly had returned to normal, the embargo lifted and the river opened to commercial traffic. The first crisis was over but the basic problem had not been settled.\n\nThe journal of William Hunter covered the critical days of siege from March to May 1839. Hunter graphically presented the dangers and concerns of the western community in Canton yet more significantly he showed the necessary patterns of life which develop even in the midst of agonizing uncertainty. In short the routine of peace was exchanged for the routine of confinement. All in all, tension produced by a state of siege, rumor, and the anticipation of an unknown fury ready to be unleashed by Chinese authorities were key ingredients of the spirit of the beleagured foreign community in Canton in 1839. Hunter was not concerned about the morality of opium trade. Apparently he saw no justification whatsoever for the action of the Chinese government.\n\n* For places mentioned here and in the Journal see the map facing p. 27.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204719, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 22, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n13\n\nOn the evening of the 19th affairs looked so squally that Mr. Hunter who had returned to Canton a day or two before ordered all the books and papers packed up and started with them at 2 A.M. the next morning for Macao. At 7 Mr. King started Mr. Spooner and myself off in Mr. Hunter's sail boat with a load of baggage, and books that Mr. H. could not take. We were towed down by Captain Endicott's boat and arrived safer after a passage of 6 hours on board the Naraganset. On our arrival we received a chit from Mr. Hunter stating that a number of transports and men of war were on the way up and advising us to get out of Canton as soon as possible. This I forwarded to Mr. King, but he did not get it as he had already left with the remainder of R and Co's Establishment.3\n\nExplanatory terms\n\nIn China the factory was a multi-purpose building. The lower floor usually was used for office space, storage, and the like, the second floor for dining and lounging, and the third for sleeping. Broad verandahs around the building gave it a spacious and airy quality. In Canton the factories of the various nationalities, American, Danish, French, Dutch, and Swedish faced the river. The British factory was truly magnificent for it contained a huge and lavishly furnished dining hall with terrace, library, chapel and numerous private rooms.\n\nHong was sometimes used interchangeably with factory but specifically it referred to all the buildings of a commercial establishment, i.e., the factory and subsidiary buildings such as living quarters for servants and workers and large storage areas for cargos of ships.\n\nHong merchants had formed an association in the early eighteenth century; in 1839 the Chinese merchants numbered thirteen and they had a monopoly of trade with foreigners. The most powerful and wealthy Hong merchant was Howqua, spelt by Hunter Houqua.\n\nConsoo House was the property of the Hong merchants, and in actuality was a series of buildings in the Chinese style. The main building contained lavish reception rooms and a series of courtyards.\n\n3 James Duncan Phillips, editor, \"The Canton Letters 1839-1841 of William Henry Low,\" The Essex Institute Historical Collections LXXXIV, 1948.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204724, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "18\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nwears a conical hat made of stout rattan capable of turning aside a cutlass, on it in front is written in large characters the name of the Hong, white on black ground, and every man is furnished with sandals made of twisted grass which lace over the instep. A pair of loose trousers, and a loose jacket tied with a sash about the waist complete the dress.\n\nThe coolie from No. I has just run in to say that the mandarins know he is inside the Factory and that he must be off. I locked the front gate and barred it inside and I tell him to shut himself up in his room.\n\nThese 500 men from the Hongs are posted from the creek to the entrance of our Factory in one line beneath the Company's arch and in the passage way. They are stationed on both sides, as each carries a large rattan shield their appearance is uniform and good, and a finer looking set of men I never saw. They are cheerful, and as we are all known by them they are exceedingly civil and do not molest us in the least. They nearly all know me personally and I often get such a crowd of them about me to talk over the news that sometimes I have a difficulty in escaping them.\n\nAt night they march out headed by the oldest member of the body, in parties, one Hong at a time, on patrol. Starting from their station they cross the front of the Factories, go up and down China Street, then return to their tent, when another party immediately goes the same round.\n\nThe Hong merchants constantly remain under the arch of the Company's Factory except when off on the business of the day. They relieve each other regularly at night, sleeping in large chairs, and the linguists have erected a large shed of mats in the middle of the Square where they also remain on watch. This is the land force. On the water are 200 of the Nam Hoe's guard,14 100 of the Kwang Hups, and a few of the Governor's1. They are distributed in boats lying close to each other and drawn up in three lines along the whole front of the Factories. The first and second line, separated from each other by a space of 100 feet, consist of large boats usually employed in carrying tea. Their bows look towards the Factories. The third row consists of Chop boats. They are placed so close side by side as to render any escape utterly impossible, and never were measures taken to prevent escape with such eminent success as those adopted to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204740, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "32\n\nW. C. HUNTER\n\nOur confinement to the Factories and Square and the guard the same as before.\n\nSunday, 21 April\n\nLetters were received today from the Bogue stating that 8,500 chests of opium had been delivered to the Chinese. Servants all off again.\n\nTuesday, 23 April\n\nWe supposed the demand for the bond would not have been persevered in by the Commissioner, but yesterday the 10,000 chests of opium (we hear) having been delivered into his hands, before he permits the communication to be opened by passage boats as was to have been the case on the receipt of the 10,000 chests, he now says, No, it cannot be, it is true I have half the opium but before I fulfil my promise I must have the bond. This is a direct violation of his agreement, the communication is not open, no boats are permitted to go up or down. We are consequently still prisoners and this act of treachery has exasperated the foreigners very much. Half the community at least looked forward to a release at this time and to go to Whampoa and Macao to wait the result of the completion of the delivery but are disappointed. Captain Elliot's orders to Johnston were not to deliver more than the stipulated number of chests till the passage boats were allowed to run, and we hear today that he has stopped delivery.\n\nThe foreigners are so idle that we meet in the Square every afternoon and have all sorts of games; ball, leapfrog etc., much to the amusement of the Chinese. The sailors, of whom there are 38 here, afford us the most fun by their queer games.\n\nFriday, 26 April\n\nUp to yesterday evening we had various rumours from Chumpee where the opium ships are discharging. One report was that the deliveries had been temporarily stopped by Johnston which was confirmed by letters received by the Hong merchants, and the cause of his doing so explained by the passage boats not running. Captain Elliot, however, notwithstanding this breach of promise by the Commissioner wrote three days ago to Johnston to go on with the deliveries as fast as possible without regard to the Commissioner's word being kept or not. The object now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204741, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n33\n\nbeing to get rid of the opium as quick as possible and thereby procure our release. The latest accounts from below are that 12,391 chests have now been delivered to the Chinese. We hear also that Saoqua, one of the Hong merchants at Chumpee, met with a serious accident getting into his own boat from one of the ships. While here old Houqua, one of our best friends, has been confined to his house for a week past with dropsy of which he has a bad attack.\n\nNearly all the Factories have now their compradores, cooks, and coolies and here and there a servant. Our imprisonment is the same as before but the guard at night do not keep up such a continual beating of gongs and blowing of horns as they did. Sunday evening, 28 April, 1839\n\nThis evening while taking tea at Elmslie's, Houqua and Mouqua came in. They each sat down and ate some jelly and bread and took a cup of tea. The former had just had a letter from Pwankuqua dated at Chumpee yesterday, which said that 13,900 odd chests had been delivered. After half an hour's chat on various matters they went over to see Captain Elliot at the hall. Wrote to J. & P. Sturgis at Macao, gave the letter to Delano to be forwarded.\n\nWe heard this morning of the arrival of the Cowasjee Family from Calcutta and Singapore with 500 chests of opium. The Columbia and John Adams sailed from the latter place five days before her. The Columbia we understand for Lintin direct and the John Adams to touch at Bankoff. This news was received with great delight throughout our prison as they may in some measure hasten our release or the catastrophe, whatever it is to be. No passage boats or ship boats allowed to run.\n\nMonday, 29 April 1839\n\nSeveral days since we heard that three lascars had been brought from the coast of Chinchoo at which place they probably deserted from some ship and were lodged at the Consoo House. Today they were released and sent out to the Factories. Nothing can be made of their story except that they belonged to an opium vessel on the coast and had landed and were left behind. This was of course carefully concealed from the Name-Hoe who questioned them at Consoo House. We hear today that Mouqua is better and Saoqua also. He requested permission of the Yum Chae to come up which was refused.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204743, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n35\n\nare the vessels of war who could alone defend the place. But it is doubtful if Mr. Commissioner will allow matters to get to such a length. If they do, the Governor of Macao intends to defend it to the last extremity. He has ordered all the inhabitants between the ages of 15 and 50 to hold themselves in readiness to be called upon to carry arms.\n\nWe hear of three more vessels from the east coast, the Corsair, Amelia, and Anna. There are yet there the Lord Amherst, Henry Clay, and Lady Hayes.\n\nLetters from Chumpee to the 30th have been received. 13,800 chests were delivered and no more vessels were there but the Lady Grant and Mahmoodie were in sight in their way up. It is said they have on board near 200 chests and when they are discharged we shall see if the Commissioner intends to break his word again. Weather rainy; have not had a fine day these ten days past and it is very cold for this season of the year, thermometer at 60° to 63°. Wrote to Captain Gilman and Mr. Sturgis at Macao gave the letter to the Compradore to be forwarded.\n\nSunday, 5 May 1839\n\nSome of us at last to be released but 16 foreigners are to be detained in Canton till the opium business is all settled. Under certain restrictions and surveillance any foreigner except 16 can leave Canton. This is by permission received yesterday from the Commissioner. Ships at Whampoa can be loaded and unloaded and leave Whampoa, but no ship can come in.\n\nIn the morning the Kwang Chow Foo, the Chung Hup and the Kwang Hup with attendants on horseback rode into the Square and to the Point and ordered all the military guard to withdraw from the boats, and the boats to break up the line of circumvallation with which we have been surrounded six weeks this day.\n\nThe Hong coolies also broke up their encampment on the edge of the walk and retired from below the Company's arch leaving however 70 who have stationed themselves in the middle of the Square to guard the 16 foreigners and prevent their escape. The Hong merchants have also retired from beneath the Company's verandah and things begin to look as before. No ships boats can go to or come from Whampoa yet, neither can our pleasure boats be allowed to be put into the water. But licenced passage boats are permitted to go daily as before with passengers.\n\nIn the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204748, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "40 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nat Samarang where he served for 3 years. He died at Delft in 1863. (L.T.R.) \n\n32 Viceroy. The Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi at this time was Teng Ting-chen who held this post from early 1836 until early 1840. See Hummel, op. cit., II, 716. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n33 Hoppo. The Superintendent of Maritime Customs at Canton in 1839 was Yu (?). (J.L.C-B.) \n\n34 The Yum Chae. Cantonese pronunciation for the characters (mandarin Ch'in-ch'ai) meaning \"an Imperial Commissioner”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n35 Innes, James Innes (1787-1841), the \"storm petrel\" of Canton was the 7th Chieftain of the Inneses of Dunkinty, Scotland. He came out to China about 1825 and operated as a Free Trader mostly on his own, but for a time in the firm of Innes, Fletcher & Co. His dealings in opium had not a little to do with precipitating the trouble in 1839. He died in July 1841 and was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery, Macao. (L.T.R.) \n\n36 Chaye Beale. Thomas Chaye Beale was a member of the firm of Magniac & Co. in Canton as early as 1826. He severed his connections with this firm in the early thirties, and operated on his own till 1845 when he set up a house of agency in Shanghai with Lancelot Dent under the name of Dent, Beale & Co. In 1851 he was Portuguese Consul and Vice-Consul for the Netherlands at Shanghai. (L.T.R.) \n\n37 Se-yin. This is probably a reference to the characters Ssu-ying, the officer in command of a ying which corresponded in some ways to a battalion. However, the rank of a ying commander corresponded more to the Western rank of captain or major. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n38 Ta-lao-yeh. The phrase ta-lao-yeh signifies \"revered elder”. (J.L.C-B.) \n\n39 The linguists. Linguists (t'ung shih) were supposed to be able to act as interpreters between the Canton officials and the foreign merchants when instructions needed to be conveyed. The foreigners, for their part, usually enlisted the help of the Hong merchants when they wanted a document translated into Chinese or they needed an interpreter at an important interview. They repeatedly declared that the linguists were useless when it came to linguistic matters. In fact, the linguists appear to have been rather low-grade men of not much education, and able to speak only pidgin English. However, by law a foreign merchant trading at Canton was bound to employ a linguist. Since it was forbidden by the statutes of the Ch'ing dynasty to teach the Chinese language to foreigners, it was reasonable that linguists should be licensed to cope with their language problems. However, in order that the foreigners should not learn much about affairs in the interior, the qualifications needed by a linguist were low and their pidgin vocabulary was restricted to matters of trade. This was part of a deliberate policy which grew up among the officials at Canton, and the linguists merely acted as another cog in the mechanism whereby communication between the foreign merchants and the officials, however minor, was prevented, and the foreigners dealt instead with a number of different unofficial functionaries such as the compradores and linguists. Thus, the foreign merchants were kept at an arm's length and also kept in ignorance. \n\nThe linguists and their servants mentioned in this journal appear to have acted as general clerks and messengers, as much as linguists. The prefix A or Ah (ya) signifies the status of servant. (J.L.C-B.)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204801, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "92\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\n19 The Harbour Master's Report for 1906 in Sessional Papers 1907, p. 130, which presumably gives figures for the whole Colony, states that 1,796 native craft were sunk, and in the majority of cases totally lost. The total loss of life, he said, \"must have been excessively high, amounting to approximately 5,000, though there are no positive records to show the actual number that perished\". The typhoon was not expected, and a few days afterwards a committee was appointed to enquire whether earlier warning could have been given to shipping. A month later its members opined that \"reviewing the evidence as a whole, the committee find that prior to 7.44 a.m. on the 18th September 1906 there was no indication of a typhoon approaching Hong Kong... and warning was given as soon as, in the circumstances, was practically possible.\" The Report of the Typhoon Relief Fund Committee in Sessional Papers 1907, pp. 277-287, gives no information about Peng Chau, though Table 1, p. 283 may include some Peng Chau craft,\n\n20 The system of credit is briefly described on p. 2 of the Report of the Fisheries Department, Hong Kong Government, for 1946-47.\n\n\"The practice of the laans before the war was to obtain control over the fisherman by granting loans to him for the repairing of his boat, buying of new gear, etc. at certain period during the year. In return the fisherman was expected to market all fish caught through the laan who would make appropriate deductions although, in many cases, the laan would ensure that the fisherman never settled the loan and therefore was never free to market his catch through anyone else.\"\n\nPeng Chau appears to have had several concerns of this type, though they combined their activities in this direction with general shopkeeping. They dealt in a variety of goods and sold also to land customers, besides acting as middlemen for the fishermen's catch and providing them with all their requirements. The big dealers connected with the Peng Chau fishing fleet at the time of the repair tablet of 1878 appear to have been seven Hong Kong laans mentioned on the tablet. This shows that the number of Peng Chau boats was sufficiently large for outside merchants to do business with them, either directly or through the local smaller dealers.\n\nOne should not, however, take too narrow a view of the fishermen's position vis-à-vis the laan. The same willingness to allow the fishermen goods on credit, and so run up debts and incur obligations which would ensure that they continued to patronise the same shop or laan, was also extended by shopkeepers to the farmers and townspeople. S. Y. Lan op. cit. gives much detail on laans, some of whom were Tankas.\n\n21 For this information see Hong Kong Annual Report for 1899, pp. 14-15, Colonial Reports, Annual, 1899, No. 314 (London, HMSO, 1901).\n\n22 BCL.\n\n23 BCL.\n\n24 Arthur Waley, The Opium War through Chinese Eyes (London, Allen and Unwin, 1958) p. 101. Orme's Report mentions, p. 44, the diversity of the fishing population thus, \"The Hoklos, who are a kind of sea-gypsy, only form a very small section of the land population, some 1500 in all, but much of the fishing is in their hands. Of the junk population, the large majority are Puntis (I assume he means Punti-speaking), and of the remainder some Hakka and some Hoklo.\"\n\n25 Hong Kong Government Gazette, Government Notification No. 557 of 1901.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204804, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "FENG CHAU\n\n95\n\nfrom his own or adjoining villages worked with him. The Shek Pik people were therefore closely connected with the sea despite the fact that their fields were extensive and well-watered. Elsewhere on Lantau, an old account book of the Hakka CHEUNG Kung Tak Tong at Pui O, which is dated 1897-99 (Kuang Hsu 23rd-24th years), shows that the Tong had a regular income from a fishing sampan.\n\n41 It has been shown that the Peng Chau shopkeepers always contributed to the temple repairs. A more illuminating instance of merchants' concern for the safety of local waters is to be found in the Tin Hau temple at Fan Lau on the south-west tip of Lantau, facing Macau and the mouth of the Delta, a remote area two hours' walk from Tai O Market. Here tablets survive from the Chia Ching and Hsien Feng periods (1796-1820 and 1851-61) and contain the names of many Tai O shops. One imagines that few of the donors would ever visit the temple, but they were obviously intent to ensure Tin Hau's benevolent care.\n\n42 Information received from CHEUNG Kai Chun of Ham Tin, Pui O, Lantau (born 1886). But this was not true everywhere. At Shek Pik several families of Tanka used the anchorage for at least fifty years. There was no remembered animosity during this time and these fishermen were allowed to cut grass and firewood without charge. However, they rarely strayed far from the beach and the two groups did not intermarry or have much to do with each other, except in casual contact at the main festivals and when villagers bought fish from them at the jetty, which was over a mile from the village. The fishermen would not go to the village to sell their catch.\n\n43 Information received from the present leaders of the WONG Wai Chak Tong ✯ of Cheung Chau.\n\n44 This statement is based on close knowledge of the Southern District of the New Territories and of the District land registers.\n\n45 Barbara E. Ward \"A Hong Kong Fishing Village”, Journal of Oriental Studies (University of Hong Kong) volume 1, no. 1 (January 1954) pp. 195-214, especially p. 211. See also note 42.\n\n46 See my Cheung Chau article for the Cheung Chau district associations before the British lease. At Tai O in the same period there appear to have been associations of Tung Kwun and San On origin, each with a club-house.\n\n47 The number is wrongly given as 28 in note 14 to the Cheung Chau article.\n\n48 A tablet in the Pak Tai temple at Cheung Chau dated January, February 1906 (a lucky day of the first month of spring of the thirty-second year of Kuang Hsü) shows that Peng Chau people also contributed to its repair.\n\n49 See the Cheung Chau article for this institution.\n\n50 The Kaifong of the Hong Kong region, and their like, are local institutions with a fairly long history. The Peng Chau Kaifong is quite likely to have an early date in relation to the age of the present settlement.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204837, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\n115\n\nAs it happened, the north end of Lantao remained almost untouched for 150 years. It was leased to Britain in 1898 for 99 years, but little development was undertaken until 1960, when large schemes of reclamation and resettlement were prepared. The slumbering rural character of the island is now beginning to change rapidly.\n\nWhy was Ma Wan chosen for survey? Nearness to Macao? Access to the Pearl River and Canton? Ships occasionally came down the China coast from the east, and took a short cut to Canton through the Kap Sui Mun Channels, but Parish's report seems to suggest that this was regarded as a hazardous piece of sailing. These ships, however, would all have to pass Ma Wan, and so the island was at that time the best-known in Hong Kong waters. Also, the approach in a square-rigged sailing vessel to the then uncharted coast gave a confusing variety of small islands, promontories, and near-islands. The approach from the west was probably better known, and was easier to find. But it is to be regretted that Parish was forced by his orders and the bad weather to waste so much energy on such an unsuitable site.\n\nCONCLUSIONS\n\nWhen the East India Company's trading monopoly to China came to an end in April 1834 the position of English merchants at Canton changed. Lord Napier was sent out as Superintendent of Trade, though the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, tended to regard him as a representative of the King. Napier soon came into conflict with the officials at Canton over what may be called matters of national prestige, and relations between England and China began to deteriorate. More especially relations were embittered over the increasingly large amount of opium being brought to China from India in British-owned ships. It was illegal to import opium into China by Chinese law, and as a result a swarm of Chinese middlemen co-operated with the foreign merchants in smuggling opium along the coast, especially in the province of Kwangtung. However, in 1821 the Kwangtung authorities were much stricter in enforcing the anti-opium smuggling regulations and as a result the foreign merchants could no longer bring it up to Canton, but instead took it to the \"outer anchorages\" where permanent receiving ships were stationed during the trading season (approximately October until April). The main base for opium smuggling was the island of Lintin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204838, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "116\n\nCRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\nwhich lies in the mouth of the Pearl River estuary between Macao and Castle Peak on the opposite headland. However, during the south-west monsoons the anchorages of Kapsuimun門 pq 29, and Hong Kong were used because they provided greater protection. The Kapsuimun anchorage was situated south of Ma Wan island and sheltered to the west by the headland of Lantao and to the east by Tsing I island. Because of the smuggling of opium from depot ships at these outer anchorages the capabilities of the anchorages off Lantao island and between Hong Kong island and Kowloon on the mainland became thoroughly known to British merchants and sea captains. In 1835 a former member of the British East India Company published a book in which he advocated the need for Britain to obtain some island from which trade with China could be carried on because of the uncertain conditions of trade at Canton following the ending of the Company's monopoly30. In a review of this book published in the Chinese Repository the reviewer remarks on the fact that the author pressed the idea of Britain acquiring Macao from Portugal, which he considered ill-advised. He wrote\n\nThe want of a good harbour, and its dangerous position in the season of typhoons and strong north or east gales, unfit it for the possession of a commercial nation, as point d'appui. Lantao is better, and this we should prefer of the places named by our author. It is an island, capable of defence, producing abundant supplies of food, with many good harbours, is not so near the provincial city as to render it dangerous for natives to resort to it, for the purpose of commerce.31\n\nThus in 1835 Lantao was still considered eligible as a possible British settlement. In May 1839 the British Superintendent of Trade, Captain Charles Elliot, and all British subjects, left Canton as a result of the measures taken by the Imperial Commissioner Lin Tse-hsü, and retired to Macao. However, when in mid-August of 1839 the British were forced out of Macao by Chinese pressure it was to the anchorage of Hong Kong that the English ships went. Although Hong Kong was eventually ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Nanking 1842 this had not always been an automatic choice, the possibility of forming a settlement on Formosa, the Bonin Islands, and on Ma Wan and Lantao island had previously been given serious consideration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204853, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n131\n\nartists. It is disturbing indeed to find that two of these previously published elsewhere as \"attributed\" — are promoted here to \"full\" Chinnery status without a word of explanation!\n\n12\n\nHow does one reconcile the title \"The Hong Merchant, Gou Qua\" with the picture showing a man in the costume of a North China scholar?\n\nAnyone familiar with Chinese ship portraits and Chinese port scenes will question the two handsome Chinese Junk oils.13 The clue is the small British and American vessels in the lower corners of the \"War Junk\" — alluring to a prospective nautical purchaser, typical of many ship portraits, but so different in style and subject from other Chinnery marines.\n\nThe time has come to bury forever that misused, euphonic term \"School of Chinnery\". Take port scenes. Mariners and merchants arrived in Canton centuries before Chinnery. Even my two great grandfathers14 had won their battle with the pirates off Macao nearly a generation before Chinnery's arrival. What is more natural than to take home a port scene oil to show one's family. These men were not art experts and Chinese representations were good enough for them. It is possible today to date port scenes definitely prior to Chinnery, proving that Chinnery had no influence on those Chinese artists. It is also possible to date similar port scenes after Chinnery's death that show no style change from the earlier representations. Why not be honest and call them \"China Trade Port Scenes\",15 which they are, instead of \"School of Chinnery\", which they are not? To all other port scenes such as St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope16 “School of Chinnery”, verges on fantasy, particularly so when the text denies the existence of any Chinnery pictures made on his voyage to India.17\n\n12 Plate 42 top.\n\n13 Plate 73.\n\n14 William Sturgis and Daniel C. Bacon. See R. B. Forbes — Personal Reminiscences.\n\n15 It has taken many years to substitute the correct \"China Trade Porcelain\" for \"Oriental Lowestoft\".\n\n16 Plate 55 bottom, Plate 56 top.\n\n17 Page 59.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204973, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "72 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nFor the first few years after the cession of Hong Kong, the British Government and Royal Navy practically ignored piracy on the South China coast; and the American, French, and Portuguese governments were equally indifferent. Any attempts at suppression by the Hong Kong Government were as feeble and ineffective as those of the Canton authorities. British traders in Hong Kong and the treaty ports, however, considered that they were entitled to much greater protection, and after repeated protests and representations to the home and Hong Kong governments, the Hong Kong Government passed its first anti-piracy ordinance in 1847, and the Royal Navy began to take more effective action. As a result, many unsavoury practices were uncovered. It was found that certain British merchants were supplying arms and ammunition to the pirates against whom they were demanding protection; and that Hong Kong officials were licensing ships to provide convoy protection for Chinese traders, which ships were using the cover of the British flag to plunder the cargoes they were paid to protect. This licensed convoy system was open to much abuse, and a source of great trouble to the Navy. The Chinese called these ships \"protecting tigers.\" The Navy itself was not blameless in its anti-piracy operations. The over-generous bounty system, which made pirate hunting a lucrative profession for the first decades after the cession of Hong Kong, often led to innocent Chinese traders and sailors losing their lives and property. Admiralty records ignore most of the errors committed by overzealous naval officers, but the Navy's anti-piracy campaign was one of the many British activities to draw unfavourable criticism from Lord Elgin in his mission to China and Japan in 1858.\n\nThe Royal Navy and the Hong Kong Government faced a difficult and complex situation when they undertook serious anti-piracy operations in the late 1840's. The Navy could attack pirates anywhere on the high seas, and commit them for trial to any British or Chinese court; but Hong Kong could only free its own waters of pirates. Piracy on the coast and rivers came within the jurisdiction of the Chinese Government, and neither the Navy nor Hong Kong could operate there without permission from the Canton authorities. Anglo-Chinese co-operation, therefore, was essential for successful anti-piracy operations, and this was not always available. The Treaty of Tientsin was the first", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204974, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PIRACY ON THE CHINA COAST\n\n73\n\nofficial agreement between the two countries to refer to piracy. and Article 52 gave British warships permission, when in pursuit of pirates, to enter any port on the coast. Provision was also made for co-operation between the Royal Navy and the Chinese for punishment of pirates, restoration of stolen goods, and so on, and later treaties and agreements followed the same pattern. Unfortunately, experience proved that the Chinese had undertaken more than they could carry out; and that the provincial authorities were as often unwilling, as unable, to implement the pledges of the Peking Government.\n\nThe pirates on the coast in the 1840's, 50's, and 60's, included British, American, French, and other foreign renegades, who often worked in league with Chinese merchants in Hong Kong and the treaty ports. The system of ship registry then in force in Hong Kong was even more liable to abuse than the present system, and allowed Chinese shipowners an easy means of claiming the protection of certain foreign flags. This increased the difficulties of the Navy, already hard pressed to distinguish between convoy and pirate, and between pirate, trader, and fisherman.\n\nThe most famous renegade among the pirates in the 1850's was an American sailor called Eli Boggs, for whose capture the Hong Kong Government offered a reward of $1,000. This was won by an even more famous American sailor, more often associated with blackbirding in the Pacific, than with piracy on the China coast. Captain Bully Hayes, however, made his debut on the China coast, and when that part of the world became too hot for him he moved south to Australasian and Pacific waters.\n\nHayes first appeared in the Far East in 1854 at Singapore, as master of the American barque, Canton. He was then twenty-five years old. After selling the Canton, which did not belong to him, he appeared in Hong Kong a few months later as master of another American barque, the Otranto, which was probably under charter to the famous American house of Russell and Company. In Hong Kong's Victoria Hotel, and in the company of the masters of two Jardine opium clippers, Long John Saunders of the Chin Chin and King Tom Donovan of the Spray, Hayes made the acquaintance of some naval officers, and for the rest of his time on the coast he was a great favourite with the Navy. During", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204976, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PIRACY ON THE CHINA COAST\n\n75\n\npirate fleets appeared. The Hong Kong press was very critical of both the Navy and the Hong Kong Government, claiming that the latter was criminally careless in granting convoy and gunpowder licenses, and pointing out that scarcely a pirate junk was captured without having Hong Kong men in its crew and that many pirate junks were fitted out in Hong Kong. They omitted, however, to point out the connection between the opium trade and piracy. Opium was highly prized, and on one occasion in 1851 one hundred and fifty chests were seized from a Jardine opium clipper, and two of their European employees taken prisoner.\n\nThe steamship, more than the Royal Navy, was responsible for the decline in the old-fashioned style of piracy, in which a fleet of junks had an overwhelming advantage over a sailing ship becalmed in coastal waters. Steamships appeared on the coast in increasing numbers in the years between the two China Wars, and by the end of the Second War most of the foreign coasters were steamships. A steam hose was more effective against pirates than joss sticks, and the comparative immunity of foreign steamships from piracy was another powerful inducement for Chinese merchants to patronize them, thus weighting the balance more heavily in their favour.\n\nAn action in which the Peninsular and Oriental river steamer Canton was involved displayed other advantages which steamers brought to anti-piracy operations. The Canton was on her way from Canton to Hong Kong when she met H.M.S. Columbine, a sailing ship, engaged with a fleet of pirate junks. When the Canton arrived on the scene the wind had fallen, and the junks were using their oars and sweeps to get out of range of the Columbine's guns. The Canton took the Columbine in tow, enabling her to sink a number of the junks before they got clear. Two years later another river steamer called Canton, belonging in this case to the Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company, captured a pirate junk in the river.\n\nIn these actions, in which dozens or hundreds of junks were involved, it would probably be more accurate to describe the Chinese as bandits or rebels, than as pirates. Such fleets attacked towns and villages as often as they attacked ships, and like the Japanese pirates of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, plundered", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204985, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "84 \n\nA. D. BLUE\n\nHong Kong, than in the 1920's and 30's. The latter period came within the warlord era when the writ of the central government at Peking or Nanking sat very lightly, if at all, on the southern provinces. In 1925 and 1927, however, the Navy sent expeditions into Bias Bay, to destroy—if possible without damage to innocent lives and property—villages known to harbour pirates and pirate junks. The second expedition was undertaken in exasperation after the pirating of the Jardine steamer S.S. Hop Sang in March 1927.4 The official report issued after the expedition claimed that one hundred and thirty stone and mat shed huts were destroyed in the two villages attacked, and forty junks and sampans destroyed. The raid had been no surprise, and definite evidence was found that the villages had been implicated in recent piracies. These raids only caused a temporary lull in the pirates' activities.\n\nThe Navy had one notable success in the Irene piracy of October 1927, which illustrates the difficulties with which the Navy and the Hong Kong Government had to contend in their anti-piracy campaign. H.M.S. submarine L4 challenged the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company's Irene when entering Bias Bay without lights and in suspicious circumstances. When she refused to stop, and then ignored a warning shot fired across her bow, a live round was fired which still drew no response. The Irene's captain was navigating under the pirates' supervision, and tried to ring down to stop the engines, but was too late.\n\nThe next shot struck the Irene amidships on the waterline, disabling the engines, killing a pirate standing beside the chief engineer, and starting a fire which almost gutted the ship before she sank. L4 went alongside and rescued most of the crew, and 220 of the 248 passengers. Three other warships and the tug Alliance arrived later, but were unable to prevent the Irene from sinking. When L4 arrived at Hong Kong the crew and passengers of Irene were screened by the police, and three men were identified as being pirates. A few days later seven other men were arrested, and all ten eventually hanged, after a sensational attempt to break out of Hong Kong's Victoria Gaol. The China Merchants Steam Navigation Company came under the control of the Chinese Government, and the Irene\n\n4 The only piracy of a Jardine ship in the modern era,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205017, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "116\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nAdditional Note on Article “JOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES AT CANTON IN 1839 BY WILLIAM HUNTER”\n\nReaders of Volume 4 of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society will be grateful to the Editorial Committee for deciding to print the full text of William C. Hunter's manuscript journal preserved in the Boston Athenaeum. It is a happy coincidence that his journal should have been made available in print to scholars of modern Chinese history at the very time when Hunter's manuscript has been drawn on extensively in a recently published account of the causes and events which led to the Opium War. The late Dr. Hsin-pao Chang, in his scholarly book Commissioner Lin and the Opium War (Harvard University Press, 1964), relates in some detail the story of the detention of the foreign merchants in their factories from 24th March until 5th May by orders of Imperial Commissioner Lin Tse-hsü (pp. 151-159). In describing this episode Dr. Chang has used various sources but has taken most of his details from Hunter's manuscript journal.\n\nAfter reading Dr. Chang's book I have discovered answers to a few problems which puzzled me while writing some of the footnotes to Hunter's journal as published in Volume 4 of this journal. May I, therefore, make a few additions and corrections to the text. Firstly, the sketch map of the Canton estuary on page 59 of Commissioner Lin and the Opium War marks most of the places mentioned by Hunter which were not shown on the sketch map on page 27 of Volume 4 of this journal, or left unidentified in the notes to the text. Thus the positions of Lankeet, Chuenpee, Shakok and Chunhow are clearly shown on the map in Dr. Chang's book. Hunter's use of the name Chinn-up under entry for 13th April is still inexplicable but in fact the opium was being unloaded at that date at Sha-chiao ('Sandy Head') which presumably was the Shakok of Western accounts, lying across the estuary from Lankeet. Secondly, some minor corrections. On p. 16, line 1, the word 'songs' should read 'gongs'; on p. 14, lines 9-10, it would be more accurate to say", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205184, "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-1966", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "134\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n11 See, for instance, Rev. R. Lechler's article \"The Hakka Chinese\" in the Chinese Recorder for September-October 1878 in which he writes (p. 355), \"Three thousands (sic) of them came to Hong Kong in 1863, having been taken on board by some foreign vessels, which happened to do business with rice etc., in Tai-foo-san. They were kindly taken care of by the English government and the merchants who collected money, and had mat sheds built for the fugitives until they were able to provide for themselves. I was then intrusted with the funds collected and used to buy rice for daily distribution to these wretched people.\"\n\nIt is recorded that 189 families — it is not stated how many were Hakkas and how many Cantonese — came to settle in Hong Kong in 1867. (See the Registrar General's Report in the Government Gazette 14 March 1868). Kowloon seems to have attracted Hakka newcomers from Hong Kong. In his Education Report for 1865 Mr. F. Stewart noted with reference to the Tang Lung Chau district of Hong Kong that \"nearly all the Hakka families that used to live here have removed to the Kowloon side of the harbour\". (See Hong Kong Government Gazette for 24th March 1866).\n\n12 S. Wells Williams The Middle Kingdom, revised edition, London; W. H. Allen & Co., 1883, Vol. 1, p. 486.\n\n13 See D. Maciver in p.v. of the Introduction to his Hakka Dictionary, Shanghai; American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1905.\n\n14 Report of the Proceedings of the Morrison Education Society March 1863 - March 1864, Hong Kong; London Missionary Society Press, 1864, p. 11. I suspect that the 10,000 is an under-estimate of the number of Hakkas living in the San On District at this time.\n\n15 The names may be translated as \"Vantage Point\" and \"Fields of the Ho and Man families\". Ho Man Tin was removed to make way for the Kowloon-Canton railway in 1906 (see Sessional Papers 1907, p. 687) and Mong Kok was submerged by urban Kowloon in the 1920s (see Chapter 5 of The Development of Hong Kong and Kowloon as Told in Maps by T. R. Tregear and L. Berry, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong Press, 1959).\n\n16 I am indebted to the following persons for information: Mr. NG Kau (b. 1888); Mr. TANG Yuen-li (b. 1897) and Madam SOLI Lin (b. 1888).\n\n17 In 1897 the population of Ho Man Tin was 297 (180 males and 117 females) and of Mong Kok 218 persons (102 males, 116 females). See Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers for 1897, p. 485.\n\n18 Rev. James Johnston, China & Formosa, The Story of the Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England, London; Hazel, Watson and Viney, 1897, p. 266.\n\n19 In this connection it should be noted that until the census returns of 1897 (see Sessional Papers 1897, p. 485), the population of British Kowloon was given as a whole and not split into individual village populations as was always done for the Hong Kong villages.\n\n20 See Orme, p. 44.\n\n21 \"Live stock paid but badly\" in 1867. See the Registrar-General's report in Hong Kong Government Gazette, 14 March 1868.\n\n22 Then, as twenty years ago, the same. See The Hong Kong Annual Report 1947, Hong Kong, Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., March 1948, p. 50.\n\n23 S. Wells Williams, Vol. I, p. 172. Twenty years later one of the illustrations in Sir Henry Blake and Mortimer Menpes' China, London; A and C Black, 1909, pp. 119-120 shows the vegetable boats arriving from the Kowloon side.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205210, "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-1966", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "160\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nat home in China. The Portuguese were doubtless responsible, together with Chinese merchants involved in the South Seas trade2. It became almost immediately popular and spread up and down the coast; it made a substantial contribution not only to the Chinese diet but also to China's economy. When I sailed on a freighter from China to the Mediterranean in September 1925, I was astonished to find that we took on 2,000 tons of peanuts in Tsing-tao, and sold them in Marseilles.\n\nIn closing, it may be added that another early name for the peanut is Ch'ang-shêng kuo*, fruit of eternal life. One enthusiastic commentator, who called himself Yü-so-Wêng‡A (the old man in a grass coat), wrote: \"If the lo-hua-shêng is constantly eaten you will give birth to many sons.\" This may help to explain part of its popularity in the one-time land of filial piety.\n\nColumbia University\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nNOTES\n\n#\n\nIn all fairness it must be pointed out that Professor Hirosato Iwai of the Toyo Bunko holds that there are two earlier references to the peanut: one by Li Kao and another by Chia Ming (1180-1251) which he admits is dubious, and who flourished in the fourteenth century, dying at the age of 106 sui. Professor Ho informs me, however, that he considers neither text reliable.\n\n2 It is worth noting that Lin Hsi-yüan#, a native of T'ung-an, Fukien, who graduated as chin-shih in 1517 and who became one of the largest shipowners and overseas-merchants of his day, wrote in his Wên-chi4, or collected works, on the Portuguese traders who frequented the China coast in the years 1521-51: \"The Fo-lang-chi who came brought their local pepper, sapan-wood, ivory, thyme-oil, aloes, sandal-wood, and all kinds of incense in order to trade with our borderers.\" (C. R. Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, 1953, xxiii.) Alas! that there is no mention of the peanut.\n\nSOME LOAN-WORDS IN CANTONESE\n\nIn Vol. 4 of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1964) there appeared an interesting note on \"Loan-words in the Chinese Language\" by Mr. K. M. A. Barnett. While sharing the author's enthusiasm for this kind of study and supporting his call for a chronology of the introduction into China of all plants whose names are qualified by the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205329, "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-1967", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "84 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nChina coasters came from all parts of the Commonwealth, but with a preponderance of English, Irish, Scots, and Welshmen. There was never any lack of Welshmen, and no coaster was complete without its Jones or Evans, invariably prefixed by 'Dai' or 'Taffy'. Australians and New Zealanders were not uncommon, and there were also a few Anglo-Indians. In my time, however, I can recall only one Canadian and one South African. One pleasant feature of coast life was the friendship and harmony between deck and engine departments, something still too rare on home ships. The small number of Europeans on the average coaster may have contributed to this, seldom more than three mates and four engineers, with the radio officer often a Hong Kong Chinese.\n\nThe riverboats were a special species of 'China coaster', and many of their officers spent their entire careers on the Yangtse. The Lower Riverboats, which ran between Shanghai and Hankow, operated a fortnightly schedule, of which three days were spent in Shanghai and two in Hankow. During the summer months of high water, however, some Lower Riverboats continued to Ichang, which extended their schedule to three weeks. Jardines, the China Navigation Company, and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company each had a daily sailing from Shanghai to Hankow, calling at the intermediate ports, of which the most important were Chinkiang, Nanking, Wuhu, Anking, Kiukiang, and Yochow and Shasi on the Middle River between Hankow and Ichang. The China Navigation Company's Lower Riverboats left the French Bund at three o'clock in the morning, so that they could navigate the tricky Lungshan Crossing at the estuary in daylight, and it was not unknown for junior officers to miss their ship. By catching an early morning train from Shanghai, however, they could rejoin at Nanking in the afternoon, an extreme form of pierhead jump.\n\nIf riverboat men were a special species of 'China coaster', the men who sailed on the Upper Yangtse were a distinct sub-species. The Upper Riverboats ran between Ichang and Chungking, the section of the Yangtse which included the famous and spectacular Yangtse Gorges. The men on these ships had some justification for considering themselves the aristocrats of the China coast. The slightest error in navigation, or the slightest engine mishap, would almost certainly have meant a serious casualty. The Gorge boats", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205332, "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-1967", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "THE CHINA COASTERS\n\n87\n\nChina Navigation Company, the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, and to a lesser extent to ships of some smaller British companies such as the Douglas Steam Navigation Company and the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company. The 'outside' ships belonged to a disparate group of owners, British and Chinese, in both Hong Kong and Shanghai; and officers on the 'regular' ships considered themselves superior to those on the 'outside' ships. The latter were usually old ships which had passed their best days in the service of the regular companies. Some maintained a respectable standard of seaworthiness and seamanship, but many had a bad reputation in this respect. British masters and chief engineers were carried mainly to satisfy the requirements of the classification and insurance societies. Like the ships themselves, many officers on the outside ships had formerly served on the regular ships.\n\nBy the First World War, at least so far as the regular companies were concerned, China coast shipping had become divided into a number of liner services, for each of which a particular type of coaster had been designed. The China Navigation Company was then the largest company, and its principal trades were the Yangtse and Tientsin trades based on Shanghai, the interport trade between Hong Kong and Shanghai which also served the intermediate ports, and the Singapore and Bangkok emigrant trades and the Canton River trade based on Hong Kong. The Indo-China and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Companies were similarly organised, but neither was so vitally concerned with the emigrant trades in the south; and the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company's largest ships operated their long-established service between Calcutta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan.\n\nOne important trade which was seasonal, did not fit into this framework. This was the beancake trade between Manchuria and South China, in which the China Navigation Company was predominant. Newchwang was the main export port, and most of the trade was concentrated in the few months of spring after the Newchwang River was opened to navigation, and the few months of autumn before it was closed by ice. When the China Navigation Company first entered the beancake trade in the 1870's, they employed specially designed coasters, but this practice was gradually discontinued. By the early 1900's, by which time the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205410, "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-1967", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n165 \n\ntimes) as the sole export agent for producers of a special kind of incense which, then as now, was widely used for ritual worship in temples and in the home. Incense is said to have been shipped to Aberdeen by sea from Kowloon Point, to which it had been brought from various parts of the San On and Tung Kwun districts. It was then re-shipped in large trading vessels to Canton, from which it was carried overland to the north to such cities as Soochow. (It is not entirely clear to me why such a round-about route was taken to bring incense to Canton.) The cultivation and trade in this specially-favoured type of incense is said to have received a fatal blow in the early Ching period when the government evacuated the coastal areas to deny the aid and collaboration of their inhabitants to the anti-Manchu ruler of Formosa and his sympathisers.14\n\nSir Show-son CHOW (1861 - 1959). Sir Show-son CHOW who died only a few years ago, at a great age, was one of the most famous members of the Hong Kong community. He was truly a local man as his ancestors had lived in Little Hong Kong for several hundred years. His successful career, though the result of his own merits, was made possible through his father, whose abilities removed him from a farming village to the business centre of Canton and the position of compradore to the Hong Kong and Canton Steamship Company. He was in business in Canton and it was there that his son, the future Sir Show-son, was educated. By reason of this opportunity, and his own undoubted capacity, the son was selected as a free scholar by the Chinese Government as one of the first batch of Chinese youths to be sent to America for a Western education. This was in 1874, when the boy was only 13 years old. He returned to China in 1881 and for the next 16 years held important posts in Korea in the Korean Customs Service and the Chinese consular service in that country. He was President of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company at Tientsin, 1897-1903 and was managing director, Imperial Chinese Railways of North China, Peking-Mukden line, 1903 - 1907. From then until 1910, he was Customs Superintendent of Trade and Counsellor for Foreign Affairs at Newchwang, North China. On his return to Hong Kong after the 1911 Revolution his wide experience, undoubted ability and excellent reputation led to his being appointed to directorships in many firms and public utility concerns. He was appointed a member of the Legislative and Executive Councils and was knighted in 1926. He also", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205719, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n19\n\nan outstanding job in these difficult times in enlightening the Chinese masses and in explaining to them the purpose of the Government measures. For these invaluable services he was later presented with a gold medal and a letter of thanks from the general public of Hong Kong.\n\nWei Yuk was also a far-sighted person, for it was he who first seriously pursued the idea of constructing a railway from Kowloon to Canton and thence to Peking. He spent large sums in furtherance of the scheme which failed, however, owing to the obstacles placed in its way by officials in China.21\n\nWei Yuk served on many Government and public committees. While not being noted for long speeches, he was always clear and precise in expressing his views and advice. He retired from public service in 1917 at the age of 68. For his invaluable services to the Colony, he was awarded the C.M.G. in 1908 and knighted in 1919. He died in 1922.\n\nWhen Sir Kai Ho Kai retired in February 1914, his place in the Legislative Council was filled by Lau Chu-pak, who was born in Hong Kong in 1866. He was a brilliant scholar at the Central School and in 1885 was the first boy to be awarded the Stewart Scholarship.22 After leaving the Central School, he was for a time chief clerk at the Hong Kong Observatory. Later he became a tea merchant and amassed a fortune. He was a generous benefactor of education and helped financially many poor children to complete their schooling. With Ho Fook, he was co-founder, in 1900, of the Chinese Merchants Bureau which was renamed in 1913 the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Before he was appointed to the Legislative Council, he was for many years an active member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board, the Board of Education and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He was Chairman of the Po Leung Kuk in 1903, a founder-director of the Kwong Wah Hospital in 1907 and Chairman of Tung Wah Hospital in 1909/1910. In January 1909 when a powerful committee was nominated, with the Governor Sir Frederick Lugard as Chairman, to raise funds to start the University of Hong Kong, Lau, Dr. Ho Kai and Wei Yuk were all members of the Committee.\n\nLau Chu-pak's concern in education was demonstrated in 1916 when he suggested, in a Legislative Council meeting, that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205720, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "20 \n\nT. C. CHENG \n\nauthorities should look into the teaching of Chinese boys in English so as to increase the efficiency of the teaching of English. As a result, a Committee was appointed in 1917 \"to enquire into the teaching of the English language to Chinese boys in Government schools, and to examine the question whether by a reduction in the number of other subjects more time can be devoted to such teaching\". The Committee reported the same year, but did not recommend any changes in the school curriculum. However, they recommended (a) small classes, better buildings and better-paid teachers which would bring better results, and (b) the appointment of one English teacher to a maximum of 120 pupils. The Committee also advocated medical inspection of pupils in Government schools, as a result of which a system of medical examination was instituted the following year. \n\nIn recognition of Lau's services towards his fellow-men in Hong Kong, the Chinese Government conferred upon him “The Order of the Excellent Crop, Third Class\" in 1916. He died in 1922. \n\nThere is a Chinese belief that “good deeds will be rewarded by bearing good offspring\". This seems only too true in his case, for his eldest son, Lau Tak-po, founded the Hong Kong & Yaumati Ferry Company and his eldest grandson, Lau Chan-kwok, J.P. is now the Managing Director of the Company. \n\nWhen Sir Boshan Wei Yuk retired from the Legislative Council in 1917, he was succeeded by Ho Fook, younger half-brother of the late Sir Robert Hotung. He was another outstanding student of the Central School. In 1878 when the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, attended his first Prize Giving at the Central School, Ho Fook, then in Class 2, received from him a prize in the form of a gold pencil case.23 He served in the Compradore's Department of Jardine, Matheson & Company and in 1900 was a founder of the Chinese Merchants Bureau. He remained in the Legislative Council for only four years and retired in 1921. \n\nHo Fook was a generous benefactor of education. In 1917 he donated HK$50,000 to the University of Hong Kong for the erection and equipment of the School of Physiology. He also endowed prizes in all the faculties of the University. Like the Honourable Lau Chu-pak he produced some very fine offspring.24", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205722, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "22 \n\nT. C. CHENG \n\nIn May 1915, Japan forced the Republic of China, then under the premiership of Yuan Shih-kai, to accept the \"Twenty-one Demands\". Four years later, in 1919, the Chinese delegation failed at the Peace Conference in Paris to prevent the \"transfer\" of Germany's \"rights and privileges\" in the Shantung Province to Japan. As a result of this complete disregard of China's sovereignty by the foreign powers, thousands of students took part in processions demonstrating against foreign militarism and oppression in China on 4 May 1919. In response, students, merchants, and workers throughout China also staged demonstrations and strikes, thereby sparking off in China the \"May 4 Movement\". Chinese national feelings were also stirred by the Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (or K.M.T.), who now pressed for the abolition of extra-territorial rights and unequal treaties and the retrocession of foreign concessions. All these had serious repercussions in Hong Kong, and in 1922 the first of a series of seamen's strikes began. On 30th May 1925, certain Chinese demonstrators were shot and killed by British policemen in the International Settlements in Shanghai. This led to more serious strikes and demonstrations in Shanghai, Canton, and Hong Kong, culminating in an economic boycott which paralysed Hong Kong.\n\nDuring this period, the Chinese unofficials, viz., Chow Shou-son, Ng Hon-tsz (who died in May 1923) and Robert Kotewall (who succeeded Ng Hon-tsz), and other prominent Chinese leaders, including Sir Robert Hotung and the directors of Tung Wah Hospital, stood solidly by the Government. Some of them actually acted as unofficial middlemen in negotiations between Hong Kong and the seamen's representatives in Canton. The services rendered by Chow Shou-son and Robert Kotewall during this crisis were so valuable and outstanding that speedy recognition was accorded to them. In 1926, Chow was created a knight. Kotewall was given the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Hong Kong, and the following year was awarded the C.M.G.\n\nIt may be of interest to quote here the Governor Sir Cecil Clementi's remarks made in early 1926 at a Legislative Council meeting about the big strike of 1925 and the boycott that followed: \"We are determined to give full protection to the people of Hong Kong, and to put down with a firm hand any conspiracy to intimidate or otherwise to cause trouble among labourers and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205723, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n23\n\nmerchants in this Colony. In all necessary measures to that end, I know that I can rely upon the whole-hearted support of this Council\". At the same meeting, the Senior Unofficial member, Sir Henry Pollock, paid the following tribute to Sir Shouson Chow and Robert Kotewall; \"During the last seven months, in particular, we have felt indebted not only to Sir Shouson Chow but also to his Chinese colleague on the Council. We, Sir, behind the scenes, can appreciate perhaps more fully than the general public the work of the Chinese members of this Council during the period I have referred to”. \n\nOn 9th July 1926, Sir Shouson Chow was also appointed the first Chinese member of the Executive Council, following the death of Sir Paul Chater who had served on that Council since 1896.26 Although the appointment was made on personal grounds, it was evident that political considerations also came in, viz., to pacify anti-British sentiment in China and to further encourage the loyalty of local Chinese towards Hong Kong. \n\nSir Shouson Chow served on both Councils until 1930, when he resigned from the Legislative Council. He continued, however, to be a member of the Executive Council until he retired in 1936. He died many years after the war, in 1959, \n\nWhen Lau Chu-pak retired from the Legislative Council in 1922, he was succeeded by Ng Hon-tsz who was born in 1877 and was compradore to Shewan, Tomes, Ltd. He was a director of the Tung Wah Hospital in 1907 and was a founder of the Tsan Yuk Hospital. He was at various times a member of the District Watch Force Committee, the Sanitary Board and the Council of the University of Hong Kong. He served in the Legislative Council for only two years and died in 1923 while in office. After his death, Sir Henry Pollock remarked at the Legislative Council meeting held on 10th May 1923 that Mr. Ng had always been a \"wise, sound and faithful councillor”. \n\nMr. Robert Kotewall, who succeeded Ng Hon-tsz as a member of the Legislative Council in 1923, was born in Hong Kong in 1880. Educated at the Central School as well as the Diocesan Boys' School, he was a noted English as well as Chinese scholar and was a very good speaker. After a distinguished career in the Hong Kong Government until 1916, he turned to business and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205724, "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": 30, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "24 \n\nT. C. CHENG \n\nfounded a company named after himself. He was also General Manager of Chinese Estate, Ltd., and adviser to the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company. He was Honorary Adviser to the Chinese Government as well as the Kwangtung Provincial Government. In 1924, he turned down a Chinese offer to be ambassador to England. He was a member of the Legislative Council for 13 years, from 1923 to 1936, and a member of the Executive Council for 5 years from 1936 to 1941. He was created a knight bachelor in 1938.\n\nThe big strike of 1925 was followed by a boycott of British goods and shipping in China until 10 October 1926, resulting in a serious economic depression in Hong Kong. Mainly through the persuasiveness of Robert Kotewall a special loan of £1,600,000 with an interest rate of 5½%, was arranged from the British Government to assist the merchants of the Colony until normal trading was resumed. Because of this, the Chinese gave him the nickname of \"Silver Tongue\". Sir Robert Kotewall died after the war in 1949,27\n\nIn 1929, the Legislative Council was enlarged through the initiative of the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi, who was a noted Chinese scholar. The number of officials was increased from eight to ten, including the Governor, and the number of unofficials was increased from six to eight. Of the two additional unofficial members, one was to be a Chinese and the other a Portuguese. Thus the number of Chinese unofficials was increased from two to three and the Portuguese community was represented for the first time on the Council by Mr. Jose Pedro Braga.\n\nIn addition to Sir Shouson Chow and Robert Kotewall, Dr. Tso Seen-wan became the third Chinese member of the Legislative Council in 1929. Dr. Tso, born in 1868, studied law in England. In 1896 he started his practice as a solicitor in Hong Kong together with a partner named Hodgson. In 1902, he, Dr. Ho Kai and some other Chinese leaders were responsible for the founding of St. Stephen's Boys College. He served on the Sanitary Board in 1918 and was appointed a J.P. the same year. As early as 1916, he was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Hong Kong, and in 1928 and 1935 was awarded the O.B.E. and C.B.E. respectively. He served on the Legislative Council from 1929 to 1937 when he resigned.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205794, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "94\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nnecessary for the late King? He would be welcome then, that is in 1852. At the same time he took the initiative in improving trading conditions. Monopolies were partly removed and duties on imports and exports reduced. For a moment it seemed that Siam's foreign relations could be improved without formal treaty and the British Government did not press the matter. But in fact there was much to be done, and with a new British Plenipotentiary at Hong Kong it was opportune to resume discussions.\n\nSir John Bowring was a very different diplomat from his three British predecessors, Crawfurd, Burney and Brooke or the American envoys Roberts and Ballestier. He was an intellectual, a radical reformer, a disciple and editor of Jeremy Bentham, a linguist who could prattle in a dozen languages, an ex-Member of Parliament and a writer of hymns, an inveterate talker, a man with limitless energy and a Victorian capacity for pomposity and self-glory. After a career of business, politics, writing and self-appointed diplomacy in the courts of Europe, Bowring, being short of money, accepted public office as Consul at Canton. That was in 1849 when he was fifty-seven. Some five years later he became Governor of Hong Kong, Superintendent of Trade and, most glorious of all, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary responsible for relations with China, Japan, Siam and all countries in the Far East.\n\nBowring's five years' Governorship of the island colony on the coast of China was anything but successful. Some of his senior officials were incompetent and even corrupt, and he was unpopular among the British merchants. Worst of all he precipitated the second Anglo-Chinese war by sending warships to bombard Canton over a quite unworthy incident. But he was completely successful when he sailed to Bangkok in March, 1855, to negotiate a treaty with the Siamese.\n\nMost of the detailed business of the negotiations was done by Bowring's young assistants, his son John C. Bowring, an employee of Jardine, Matheson and Co. in Hong Kong, and Harry Parkes, his secretary, who was later to have a distinguished career as Consul at several ports on the China coast, (Mongkut referred to the young men as \"Mr. Parkes and Your Excellency's upspring\".) But it was Bowring and King Mongkut who created the favourable atmosphere which allowed progress to be rapid and the discussions congenial. It was clear from the start that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205994, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG:\n\nTHE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\nDAFYDD Emrys Evans\n\nIt seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as \"Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live?\n\nApart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205995, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "70\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nStrand. It seems that the Chinese were encouraged to do so by the Government of the day as a matter of simple expediency, for they were required to provide food and the other necessities of life in which Hong Kong was totally deficient (many of them were said to be merchants from Macao). A. R. Johnston, who administered the island during Sir Henry Pottinger's absence in 1841 and 1842, went as far as to make grants in September 1841 to those persons who, against every obstacle (by which was meant the intimidation of the mandarins on the mainland) supplied the fleet when it could not otherwise obtain provision. It seems that Johnston 'granted' 150 lots of a size 40 feet by 20 feet at a rent of $5 per annum,2 and these 'grants' survived attempts to shift the Chinese away on the grounds that the waterfront was far too valuable to allow it to remain outstanding in Chinese hands.3 Leases were executed for most of the original lots during 1845 and after a redistribution to facilitate reconstruction consequent upon the devastating fire of December 1851 (which substantially destroyed the whole of the Lower Bazaar), the area remained much as it was, with new buildings of far greater value replacing the old structures. Whilst a good deal of the waterfront in the Central District remained through the nineteenth century in European or Parsee hands, the Lower Bazaar remained largely in Chinese hands.\n\nThe second area in which Chinese were not only encouraged but allowed to settle lay on the other side of the Queen's Road, almost opposite to the Central Market. This was the Upper Bazaar (sometimes referred to as the 'Middle Bazaar') which was built at the beginning of 1842. Its origins were similar to those of the Lower Bazaar and it consisted of two rows or streets of shops on lots about 36 feet by 14 feet. These were granted to newcomers at a time when applications from Chinese were becoming 'very numerous' and they were charged a rent of $4 per annum.4 The Bazaar was probably finished by March, 1842 and was therefore well-placed both in point of time and geographically to meet the needs of the Europeans and Chinese populations in Hong Kong's first boom period after the signing of the Treaty of Nanking which appeared to remove doubts over the future of the colony and which brought in many adventurers. This Upper Bazaar was, therefore, together with the Lower Bazaar, the first 'Chinatown' in Hong Kong in the sense that it was an area of the town in\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206015, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "90 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nwith this menace. North-bound ships also carried several dead Chinese in their coffins, and spare coffins to accommodate any who might die on their way home. These latter were not buried at sea, but were invariably carried on to China for interment in their ancestral village, \n\nNot every Chinese who emigrated to the 'Nanyang' became a wealthy 'towkay', but most overseas Chinese communities were by Chinese standards prosperous, and all retained their liking for traditional Chinese foods and delicacies. This resulted in a substantial south-bound trade in such things as Swatow cabbages and oranges, live and preserved fish, lychees, Chinese wine, and preserved eggs; all of which paid high freight either to the shipping company or to some member of the crew. \n\nAmoy and Swatow had always been the major ports for emigration to South-east Asia, and they retained this importance until emigration came to an end shortly after the outbreak of the Pacific War; while Hong Kong was always the base for most of the ships engaged in the emigrant trade. The China Navigation Company was the coast company most concerned with the emigrant trades to the south during this century, although the three principal coast companies — China Navigation, Indo-China Steam Navigation, and China Merchants Steam Navigation Companies — were all equally concerned with the deck passenger trades on the coast and on the Yangtse. \n\nL \n\nFor most of the inter-war years the China Navigation Company operated weekly services from Amoy and Swatow to Bangkok and Singapore respectively, with four ships on each service. They had also one ship on a fortnightly service between Amoy and Manila, and four ships on a weekly service between Shanghai and Haiphong, with calls at the intermediate ports of Amoy, Swatow, Hong Kong, and Canton. In this latter trade cargo and deck passengers were equally important. The Bangkok trade had previously been operated by a German company, Nordeutscher Lloyd, which had bought out an earlier British concern, the Scottish Oriental Company, in 1899. Butterfield and Swire had been agents for both companies in south China, and when the German company in turn sold out during the early years of this century, Butterfield and Swire inherited this increasingly valuable", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206241, "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-1971", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36\n\nEditor's note. The extracts that follow from three of the surviving letters of James Calder Stewart are reproduced here with the kind permission of Mrs. Christopher Shorland of Warfield, Berks., through the kind offices of Mrs. David Dunkerley of Hong Kong. Both these ladies are descendants of the Herschel side of the family.\n\nIt has not been possible with the limited research aids available in Hong Kong to ascertain the writer's dates of birth and death or more details of his life. These will have to await my next leave in Britain and will, I hope, form the subject of a later Note.\n\nJames Calder Stewart was the son of Alexander Stewart, D.D., Minister of the Canongate Church, Edinburgh, and his wife, Emilia Calder, daughter of the Revd. Charles Calder of Urquhart. Mrs. Shorland advises that reference to other family letters produces little information about James Stewart. Before going to Canton, where he was apparently in business, he seems to have been in India; a letter written to Sir John Herschel dated L'Epéronnière, 13 October 1837, speaks of his being “still invited to return to India”. According to Mrs. Shorland, an uncle, James Calder, had a business in Calcutta, and it may be presumed that James Stewart found a position with him there. James' brother, Duncan, was also connected with the firm in some capacity. It is likely that Stewart's Canton post was obtained through the Calder connection, or was an extension of the Calder business. Mrs. Shorland states that after his return from China, he was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner of the New Poor Law Bill under Professor Jones 'at not less than £500 per annum'. He married later and had three children.\n\nThe \"Herschel\" mentioned in the letters is Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1791 - 1871), the astronomer, 1st baronet, and only child of Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1832), also famous as an astronomer. Sir John was married to Stewart's sister, Margaret Brodie Stewart (1810-1884). In 1835-36, when the letters were written, and between 1834-1838, Herschel was at the Cape of Good Hope, to which he had gone on a private project to survey the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere.\n\nThe prime interest of the extracts taken from these few letters is the view they give of the life and mind of one of the British merchants resident in Canton and Macau and the restrictions", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206251, "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-1971", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITIES AND THE KAIFONGS IN HONG KONG\n\nALINE K. WONG*\n\nVOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS IN OVERSEAS CHINESE COMMUNITIES\n\nThere are many kinds of voluntary organizations among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, such as chambers of commerce, clan associations, district and dialect associations, trade unions, religious societies, secret societies, political clubs and recreational clubs. However, in terms of contribution to the public life of the Chinese communities, three types of organizations, viz., the chambers of commerce, the district and dialect associations are more important than the rest. District and dialect groups are always closely connected; it is difficult to speak of one apart from the other. And in some cases, the chambers of commerce are in fact federations of local district associations.\n\nWell-known literature on the Chinese voluntary associations in this part of the world includes such works by William Skinner1 and Richard Coughlin on Thailand, Maurice Freedman3 on Singapore, Victor Purcell on Malaya, Ju-k’ang T’ien5 on Sarawak, Donald Willmott on Semarang and Lea Williams on Indonesia. Examining this wealth of literature, one finds that the chambers of commerce, the district and dialect associations serve three main kinds of functions; namely, economic, social and political. While the chambers of commerce are manifestly merchants’\n\n* Mrs. Wong is head of the Department of Sociology at United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. This paper was contributed to a conference on \"The City as a Centre of Change in Asia\" organised by the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong in June, 1969.\n\n1 Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, 1958.\n\n2 Double Identity. The Chinese in Modern Thailand, Hong Kong, 1960.\n\n3 Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, 1957.\n\n4 The Chinese in Malaya, London, 1948; The Chinese in Southeast Asia, London, 1965.\n\n5 The Chinese of Sarawak, London, 1953.\n\n6 Chinese of Semarang, Ithaca, 1960.\n\n7 Overseas Chinese Nationalism, Glencoe, 1960; The Future of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, 1966.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206256, "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-1971", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS\n\n67\n\nthat associations have come to play an important role, as they do in the overseas Chinese communities. It seems that wherever there are Chinese people, there are typical Chinese social institutions, serving what we may call \"traditional\" social functions.\n\nIn Hong Kong, there is a network of social institutions very similar to that which obtains among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. There are chambers of commerce or merchants' associations, district and clan organizations, trade unions, religious and recreational associations, secret societies, etc. They provide roughly the same kinds of services as their counterparts overseas. In this part of the paper, I shall discuss a particular kind of local institution called the Kaifong Associations. Their roles in local community life are very similar to those performed by the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities. By comparing the Kaifongs and these overseas associations, we have a very good illustration of how traditional associations adjust to modern urban conditions, how they are carried along the currents of social change, and how they take part in the promotion of social change itself.\n\nThe word \"kaifong\" means a \"street neighbourhood\", and a Kaifong Association means the voluntary organization of the residents of a certain district. As local residents' associations, the Kaifongs have existed in Hong Kong since the mid 19th century. But strictly speaking, the modern Kaifongs are a post-war creation, adapted to the social situation in Hong Kong in the early 1950s. After the Japanese Occupation, there followed an intense period of reconstruction. The government's attention was claimed in many different directions. Thus it had to rely heavily on voluntary agencies for the organization of welfare. Under the direct encouragement of the Social Welfare Officer, the first modern Kaifong came into being in 1949.12 The number of Kaifongs grew rapidly to over 30 by the mid-1950s, and after a period of stability, jumped to over 50 after the mid-60s. Today, every urban district is served by a Kaifong association, and many of the new resettlement estates also have their own Kaifongs. The Kaifongs are voluntary organizations. The government does not directly supervise their affairs, although it keeps in close contact\n\n12 Hong Kong Annual Departmental Report by the Social Welfare Officer for the Period 1948-54.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206264, "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-1971", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n75\n\nBy the 1860s a clearly defined élite group had established itself, providing leadership for the Chinese community.\n\nThe purpose of this paper is to document the conditions from which an identifiable élite group arose in Hong Kong and to illustrate this emergence by biographies of some of its members.\n\nSOURCES FOR THE STUDY\n\nWhat sources were used to determine the Chinese élite for the period covered by this study? The most important are the names given on memorials, petitions, and subscription lists. The repetition of a name on subsequent lists, the amount of the contributions, and the position of the name on the document serve to suggest the relative status of an individual. Proprietorship of land also suggests potential élite status.\n\n(1) The earliest such document used is a list of land owners dated 19 February, 1848, in which they petition for the remission of what they considered excessive crown rent charges. There are twenty-seven signatures of the principal Chinese landowners. This document is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO129/23.\n\n(2) In September 1852, The China Mail published the subscription list for the Chinese Hospital proposed by Dr. Hirschberg of the London Missionary Society. This also contains twenty-seven names. Of these, ten were compradores, seven shopkeepers, three merchants, three contractors, and one \"gentleman\". Only three names that were on the 1848 list appear on this list: Loo Aqui, gentleman, Tam Achoy, building contractor, and Chow Aqui, merchant.\n\n(3) On 4 November 1856, a memorial concerning a recent piece of legislation was presented to Government. It contained both European and Chinese names. Nineteen Chinese signed. It is in the Colonial Office Records, Series CO131/3.\n\n(4) In 1859 the Government Gazette published a \"List of Chinese Voluntary Contributions to a Fund for purchasing books, etc., for the Government Schools in the Colony\". Most of the contributions were made in the name of business firms, but all of the largest amounts were contributed by individuals. The two largest contributors were both contractors; Tang Luk gave $60,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206265, "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-1971", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "76\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nTam Tso (Achoy) gave $50. Then there are thirteen contributions of $10 each. Of these six are from compradores, and an equal number from merchants. The remaining contributor in this particular group was a government servant, the overseer of the coolie gangs of the Surveyor General's Department.\n\n(5) In April, 1861, The Friend of China published a list entitled, \"A Public Declaration of the Shop Keepers of Hong Kong, stating that when Mr. Caldwell managed the Proprietorship of the Chinese here, the people of Hong Kong were at rest, but he resigned his office. They now present their petition to the Governor asking him to retain Mr. Caldwell\". It has sixteen names of firms as the chief petitioners. Beside seven of them are given the names of the head of the firm. Five of these are found on the 1859 list.\n\n(6) In January, 1868, The Hong Kong Daily Press published forty-two names of individuals and firms who submitted a petition to the House of Commons against the imposition of a Military Contribution upon Hong Kong.\n\n(7) In 1872, The Chinese Chronicle and Directory gives the names of the eleven members of the Kai Fong or \"Joss House Committee, as well as the thirteen members of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee. This was the organizing committee of 1869 which remained in office until the Hospital was formally opened in 1872, when a new committee was elected. The Directory also lists a General Committee for the Hospital. This too had thirteen members.\n\n(8) On 1 April, 1871, a memorial presented to Henry Charles Caldwell upon his departure from the Colony by the Chinese community, which was published in the Chinese section of The China Mail and signed by thirty-two of the most prominent Chinese, serves as a check against the Tung Wah and Kai Fong Directors.\n\n(9) In May, 1872, The China Mail contains the names of thirty Chinese who called upon the Governor on behalf of the Chinese community. This delegation was composed of seven compradores, fourteen merchants, two journalists, one contractor and two government servants.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206266, "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-1971", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n77\n\n(10) Relation of land ownership to élite status can be judged by a list of the twenty highest rate-payers in 1876 and 1881, published in the Government Gazette. The list includes both Europeans and Chinese. In 1876 European ownership outranks Chinese twelve to eight; but in 1881 ownership had shifted so that there were seventeen Chinese among the twenty highest rate-payers. In the 1881 list seven of the top twenty were of compradore families, six were merchants, one contractor, and the widow of Rev. Ho Fuk Tong, ordained minister of the London Missionary Society's Chinese congregation.\n\nThe terminal date for this study is the opening of Tung Wah Hospital in 1872. After this date, the names of the Directors of the Hospital published in the Development of the Tung Wah Hospital 1870-1960 are an excellent criteria for determining élite status. After 1872 there is also an ever increasing number of subscriptions, memorials, committees, delegations, etc., which serve as counter-checks to the Tung Wah Directorships.\n\nFor a study of élite based on such lists, it is necessary to give identity to the names by a biographical sketch. These sketches indicate the manner by which the individual arrived at élite status. To reconstruct the biographies of these early residents of Hong Kong is not easy. Only documentary sources have been used for this reconstruction. No information has been sought from present day descendants of these individuals. I have relied upon such material as newspapers, Land Registry Office records, the Police and Lighting Rates for 1860, 1868 and 1872, the Government Gazettes and Blue Books, the published Calendar of Probates and Administrations, the Colonial Office Records in the Public Records Office, London, and the archives of several Missionary Societies. The Chinese practice of using various aliases complicates identification. In one instance, for example, an individual used at various times and in various relationships ten different aliases. The varying Romanization for Chinese names constitutes another problem for the researcher who uses western sources. The contemporary English, Portuguese, Germans and French each had a different system for Romanizing Chinese characters. For instance on page 101 there is a reference to Tso Aon's brother, Chow Yik Cheong. The Chinese character", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206274, "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-1971", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n85\n\nsome of his property was sold at Sheriff's sale in 1847. Akow and Company sold its Queen's Road property in 1850, though Kam Cheong remained in Hong Kong. In 1852 he contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. His last recorded activity in Hong Kong is the sale of two lots in 1855. At this time Akow and Company was operating a hotel for foreigners in Canton.\n\nAfter the death of Chinam the government still had hopes of attracting substantial merchants. A group of Fukienese inquired regarding conditions for settlement. For several generations a number of these merchants had operated large Hongs in Macao and the Hong Kong Government would have liked to induce them to move to Hong Kong. The Government therefore welcomed application from Fukien merchants for land grants. In the light of the ancient rivalry between Cantonese and Fukienese, it was felt that the allocation of land to this group needed to be handled with care. The Governor explains in his report to England that,\n\nThese people constitute a very peculiar race, being far more commercial, migratory, and maritime in their habits than any other natives of China. Their spoken language is altogether unintelligible to the people of Canton, between whom and themselves a species of irreconcilable feud has existed from time immemorial. Hence they cannot inhabit the same neighbourhood without quarrels, and occasionally bloody conflicts. If land is put up by auction the Fokien (or Chinchew men) would in competition with the Cantonese either be excluded altogether, or mingled with the Cantonese be to the prejudice of general peace and order. It is important to secure the settlement of this class of people (in the present instance men of substance). The Council agreed with me to grant them a special location... placed much to their satisfaction in the neighbourhood of East Point, and they have commenced building on five contiguous lots,\n\n15\n\nThis report was dated July 1845. However, in the Surveyor General's return of registered allotments as of 24 June 1846 he reports that the lots granted to the Chinchew merchants had been thrown up by them. So again the prospect of the settlement", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206275, "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-1971", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "86\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nof substantial Chinese merchants was not realized.\n\nThe Blue Book reports for both 1845 and 1846 noted some signs of a growing stability in the Chinese population. In 1845 it was stated that \"both in numbers and respectability the Chinese are improving, being accompanied in a greater number of instances by their families\", and in 1846, \"the proportion of females increases as a feeling of security induced Chinese settlers to bring over their families\". The settling of families was welcomed because it indicated that the Chinese who did so were willing to consider Hong Kong as a place of permanent residence. Although there had been noted some progress in this area, the report for 1848 indicated that it was not sustained. \"There exists no local attachment, which may be ascribed to the absence of respectable families born on the island, with which the adventurers could contract marriages. The rent of houses and shops is at present low enough to enable any man who has a middling trade to lodge his family, yet very few decent married females reside here. In this respect there has been very little improvement during the past year\". The paucity of Chinese families in Hong Kong is reflected in the annual census of shops and buildings. In 1845 there were as many brothels as families, twenty-five families and twenty-six brothels. Within five years the families had increased to 141, but there were only six more brothels than in 1845. The 1850s saw a substantial influx of Chinese families escaping from the turbulent conditions in Kwang Tung Province created by the Taiping Rebellion.\n\nThis influx changed somewhat the characteristics of Hong Kong's Chinese population. It acquired more stability, responsibility and economic strength. Examination of an emerging élite in this period shows that its members can be divided into five occupational groups: contractors, merchants, compradores, government servants and Christian employees of missionary groups. The biographies of the individuals in each of these groups found on our lists for determining élite status provide the background for élite emergence in the 1850s and 1860s.\n\nTHE CONTRACTORS GROUP\n\nWhen Hong Kong was settled the immediate need of buildings brought many connected with the building trade to Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206277, "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-1971", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "88\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\none of the leading brokers and charterers of emigrant ships. In front of his lots he erected a wharf which he leased to the Hong Kong, Canton and Macao Steamboat Company after its organization in 1865. In 1860, he appeared in the Courts on the charge of piracy. In response to a request of the Mandarin of his home district in Hoi Ping for assistance in suppressing some Hakka bandits, Achoy had chartered the vessel Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy from Kwok Acheong, the P. and O. Company's compradore. Engaging some Europeans in the Colony he took them up to Hoi Ping where they attacked some Hakka villages. Achoy pleaded that he had not realized that this would be against British law and therefore threw himself upon the mercy of the court.19 He again assisted his home district in 1865 by supplying the local militia with western-made armaments. This earned him official recognition and a biographical notice in the Hoi Ping Gazetteer. In later years his constitution was affected by habitual opium smoking and he did not participate actively in public affairs. He died in 1871, leaving a large fortune.20 In 1857, the editor of The Friend of China described him as being \"no doubt the most creditable Chinese in the Colony\".\n\nTang Aluk, another contractor, though not as much of a community leader as Tam Achoy, was a generous benefactor of worthy projects. He was the largest contributor to the Chinese school book fund of 1859, contributing sixty dollars; Tam Achoy contributed fifty dollars and Kwok Acheong, the P. and O. compradore contributed twenty dollars; all other contributions ranged from ten dollars to fifty cents. The fact that Tang Aluk's name was that of \"Number Six\" indicates he was of humble origin. He began as a stone cutter. Most of them were Hakka, and it is probable that Aluk was of this group. In time he built up a successful contracting business. At his death in 1887 he left a large estate, much of which was in landed property. The administration of his estate involved many lawsuits among his heirs. A newspaper commentator observed that the estate was a gold mine for the legal profession as suits and appeals dragged through the courts for several decades after his death.2\n\nTHE MERCHANTS GROUP\n\n21\n\nHong Kong had difficulty in attracting merchants with capital. We have mentioned the abortive efforts of Chinam and several", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206278, "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-1971", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n89\n\nFukienese merchants to settle in Hong Kong. Several other merchants appear on the earliest of the élite lists indicating their presence in the first decade of the Colony's history.\n\nIn 1852 \"Cun-wo A Kwi, merchant\" contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. This is Chow Aki* of the firm Cong-wo, which had been established in the Lower Bazaar in 1842, having a branch at Canton. In 1849 he bought the lease of the Central Market, holding it until 1857. He became a large investor in real estate, but sold out most of his property in 1866 and retired to Macao.\n\nA merchant who survived the pitfalls of commerce in early Hong Kong was Wong Ping1. He is named as a silk merchant on the land-owners' petition of 1848, but he was one of Hong Kong's first industrialists in that he owned a rope walk beyond the western end of the Lower Bazaar. He was one of three trustees to hold Inland Lot 361 in Taipingshan on behalf of the Chinese community. The lot was granted in 1851 and upon it was built a temple \"for the reception of Tablets to the memory of... deceased countrymen\".22 The building was used, however, not only for memorial tablets but also as a depository for those who were about to die, following established Chinese custom. When this use came to the notice of the European community it was shocked. The reaction and public discussion which followed resulted in Government allocating a grant from the revenues of the gambling monopoly to the Chinese community for the erection of a suitable hospital to be known as Tung Wah. Wong Ping was not a member of the Organizing Committee of the Hospital, though he was on the Kai Fong Committee for 1872. He died in 1887. Wong Yue Yee alias Wong Yick Bun, of the Chun Cheong Wing Nam Pak Hong, a Director of the Tung Wah in 1872, may have been a relative as Wong Ping is mentioned in 1881 as a managing partner of the Chun Cheung Hong for some twenty years. He also was associated with the Tsui Shing firm and the Tuck Mee Hong.\n\nIn the 1850s the Taiping Rebellion upset the social and economic structures of China. The changes in China were reflected in changes in Hong Kong. The Taiping threat upon Canton created a refugee group which sought in Hong Kong more stable conditions. Some were wealthy and brought their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206279, "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-1971", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "90\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\ncapital with them. The Rev. Dr. Legge on reflecting upon the Colony's progress during his residence here remarks,\n\nIt has always seemed to me that this was the turning point in the progress of Hong Kong. As Canton was threatened, the families of means hastened to leave it, and many of them flocked to this Colony. Houses were in demand; rents rose; the streets that had been comparatively deserted assumed a crowded appearance; new commercial Chinese firms were founded; the native trade received an impetus which it did not lose till it was arrested by the superfluous vigour of some of Sir Richard MacDonnell's early ordinances.23\n\nA new category of Fukien brokers and merchants began to appear on the annual censuses. In 1848 two Fukien merchants and five Fukien brokers are reported, they too do not appear the following year. But in 1853 there are six Fukien brokers, and within three years the number had increased sixfold. Not all the brokers and merchants were from Fukien. A significant number were Cantonese or Tiuchau. In 1858 a new category, \"Hongs\", or large merchant establishments, was introduced into the annual census of Chinese shops and businesses. Thirty-five were listed in 1858, but sixty-five for 1859.\n\nSome of the capital brought into Hong Kong in the 1850s was invested in real estate, and a group of large land proprietors developed. These investments formed the foundation of the fortunes of several prominent Hong Kong families.\n\nOne of these families is the Li from San Wui District of Kwang Tung Province. They have been among the Chinese élite for well over a century. The family established its interests in Hong Kong in a very modest way in 1854, when two brothers Li Sing 李昇 alias Li Yuk Hang 李玉衡 and Li Leong 李良 bought an Upper Bazaar lot. They soon had built up a money-changing business and were lending out money on mortgages. In 1857 they bought half of the lot where Chinam previously had built his large Chinese Hong. Here they established the Wo Hang firm which operated in many different fields.\n\nIn 1865, along with two Americans, Lee Sing of the Wo Hang firm and Pang Wah Ping entered into partnership", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206280, "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-1971", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n91\n\nas the American Trading Company of Borneo, with the intention of developing the concession the Sultan of Brunei had granted to an American, Charles Lee Moses. The Chinese partners supplied most of the capital. The Company established a settlement, but after a few years of ship-building, experimental planting, and trade the project was abandoned. The company did not have sufficient capital to finance the undertaking properly.24 This drain of capital may have been the primary cause of the bankruptcy of Pang Wah Ping in 1866. He had acquired his original capital from profits of trade in unprepared opium, and during his years of prosperity his name appears on the various documents used as criteria for élite status.\n\nThe Li family, however, was more firmly established and survived the failure of the American Trading Company of Borneo. Its interests were diversified. It had large real estate holdings in Hong Kong which regularly brought in rental income. It was perhaps the largest broker for coolie labor and charterer of ships for these emigrants. In 1868 gambling was legalized in Hong Kong and the monopoly was bought up by the Li family firm. They also had interests in the opium monopoly.\n\nTheir financial investment in Hong Kong appears to have led them to identify their interests with the British at the time of the Second Opium War, and a Chinese source states that they \"gave contributions to foreigners to the extent of over a lakh of ready money and recruited native braves who went to the front at Tientsin. When peace was declared they shared in the War Indemnity as well as in the Imperial effects and curios of the Yuen-ming-yuen (Summer Palaces)\".25 They were accused of supporting France in its efforts to gain control of Annam. The Chinese authorities of their home district tried to derive some benefit from the fortunes of the family, by requesting large contributions for the reclamation of waste land. When the family seemed somewhat hesitant to meet the full demands of the authorities, they sought to provoke generosity by seizing a member of the family who happened to have returned to his home district, imprisoning him, and eventually putting him on trial.\n\nThis account of the troubles the family encountered in its relations with Chinese officialdom illustrates the predicament the wealthy merchants and compradores found themselves in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206282, "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-1971", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\nTiuchau merchant, Ko Mun Wo\n\n93\n\nalias Ko Cho Heung\n\nof the Yuen Fat Hong. He was the founder of the firm which established itself in Hong Kong about 1858 and developed an extensive business in the importation of rice from Siam. It soon became one of the wealthiest Chinese firms. In 1881, Ko Mun Wo was the sixteenth highest rate payer, and when he died the year following, the value of his estate was estimated at $163,000. After his death the business was continued by his four sons.\n\nTang Pak Yeung\n\n16\n\nalias Tang Kam Chi was the youngest member of the first Tung Wah Hospital Committee. He was a merchant in the chartering firm of Kwong Lei Yuen. He had received an English language education. He was not a large property owner, nor does his name appear in other lists of the elite.\n\nTHE COMPRADORES GROUP\n\nThe compradores were an important new class which arose in the nineteenth century in the port cities of China. A recent study by Yen-p'ing Hao entitled The Comprador in Nineteenth Century China, Bridge between East and West (Cambridge, Mass., 1970) shows how influential this group became in providing capital for the introduction of modern forms of communication, industry, mining, banking and journalism in the late Ch'ing Dynasty. The origin of the compradore system is in the Co-Hong organization through which China channelled all trade with foreigners before the opening of the Treaty ports in 1843. The compradores were recruited from the Canton and Macao area. A large majority of the most influential compradore families were from the Heung Shan District near Macao. When the foreign firms came to Hong Kong they brought with them their compradores. As trade increased on the China coast, the compradores were provided with an opportunity to accumulate considerable capital. This they invested in real estate and in Chinese commercial firms.\n\nThe late Ch'ing Dynasty was often in financial difficulties. One method of raising income was through the sale of official degrees. The compradores and merchants of the port cities, who formed a newly-created bourgeois nouveau riche group within", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206284, "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-1971", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n95\n\ntwo European partners of the firm, with the intention of building Chinese houses of a better type to accommodate the wives and families of the growing class of well-to-do compradores. Previously the compradores had not brought their families to Hong Kong but they remained in their home village or in Canton. The editor of The China Mail comments that \"Messrs. Dent and Company have shown both wisdom and kindness in disposing of their land for such purposes.\n\nChiu Wing Tsun (†), one of the purchasers, and his elder brother, Yuk Ting (†), had both been compradores in Dent and Company. Their nephew Chiu Yee Chee () was compradore at Shanghai and became one of the organizers of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company in 1872. Chiu Wing Tsun died at Macao in 1873, leaving property in Hong Kong estimated at $111,000.27 Yeong Lan Ko (☎), the other Chinese purchaser of the Dent property, had succeeded his relative Yeong Atai (*) alias Yeong Chun Kum, to the position of first compradore of Dents at Hong Kong upon the latter's death in 1870. Yeong Lan Ko alias Yeong Sun Yow (), and also known as Asam (), was one of Hong Kong's largest landowners. In 1876 he was the nineteenth largest rate-payer and in 1881 had risen to fifth position. He died in 1884 at Pak Shan, the family village in Heung Shan District.\n\nBefore Dents sold their property, the few substantial Chinese who had family residences in Hong Kong were located at the former Middle Bazaar site. When the inhabitants of the Middle Bazaar had been relocated at Tai Ping Shan, the Government replotted the area and laid off new lots which were meant to be bought principally by Europeans for their residences or business houses.28 Two of the more substantial Chinese bought lots at the sale in 1844: Ying Wing Kee (*) alias Ng Wing Kee (**), a compradore and merchant who died in 1849, and Tong Kam Sing, a contractor who died in 1845. Other Chinese of this class soon bought lots from European owners, that they might establish family houses in a better part of town. These included Wei Akwong, compradore of Bowra and Company and later of the Chartered Mercantile Bank; Ho Sek, compradore of Lyall, Still and Company; Lee Kip Tye, a Fukien broker who began his Hong Kong career as a Government interpreter;", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206285, "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-1971", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "96\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nWong Shing, newspaper editor and manager of the London Mission press; and Cheung Achew, a wealthy carpenter.29 The Rev. Ho Fuk Tong and his family lived at the nearby compound of the London Mission Society. In time this area around Peel, Graham, Gage Streets and Hollywood Road became a centre for Parsee and Indian merchants, as well as European brothels. Some of the old families stayed on, but the opening up of the area bounded by Wyndham, Wellington and Pottinger Streets by the Dents provided a needed location for the houses of the better Chinese. After the Peak was developed in the 1870s and 1880s, the wealthy Chinese moved up to Mid-levels occupying the mansions of the Europeans who moved to the Peak.\n\nOf the individuals who had their family residence in the former Middle Bazaar area were two who were on the organizing committee of Tung Wah Hospital, Wong Shing and Ho Asek alias Ho Fai Yin #alias Ho In Kee. Ho Asek first appears in Hong Kong records in 1849 when he purchased a lot in Tai Ping Shan. At the time he was compradore of the opium firm of Lyall, Still and Company. It failed in 1867 and Ho Asek embarked upon his own business ventures under the firm name of Kin Nam. According to a newspaper account, he was subject to a $2,000 “squeeze” from the mandarins during the second Sino-British War.30 He traded extensively in opium as well as rice, and in 1871 held the gambling monopoly from which within a year he realized a $28,000 profit. In an action brought against him in 1871, he testified that he operated with a capital of $200,000.31 In 1868 two of his employees were brought before the court on a charge of extortion. In the evidence presented it was stated that about September 1866, some influential Chinese started a system of subscription or unofficial taxation to support district watchmen. The city had been divided into two sections, East and West. The West District was superintended by Tam Achoy and Ho Asek, \"a most respectable and honest trader”. A shopkeeper resisted the pressure put upon him to contribute and brought the charge of extortion against two of Asek's employees who had been collecting for the scheme. The court gave judgment in favour of the defendants.32 Ho Asek was still a member of the Kai Fong Committee in 1872. He died in Pang Po (likely Ping Po+), Shun Tak District in 1877. His wife was granted letters of administration on his estate, but she being blind, gave her power", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206291, "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-1971", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "102\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nto Hong Kong, practiced law, was a member of the Legislative Council from 1929 to 1937.\n\nAnother Government employee—although his family was not as distinguished as that of Tso Aon, but who does appear on a number of our elite lists was the Overseer of Coolies in the Surveyor General's Department. Cheong Assow\n\nwas appointed to this office in September, 1844. He also invested in real estate, which upon his death in 1897 was divided among his seven sons. In 1848 the Surveyor General suggested that Assow was underpaid, as he found him an invaluable man in his department:\n\n+\n\nThe headman Assow I cannot speak too highly of, he is intelligent, honest, and careful, and displays great zeal for the Department. He understands English perfectly, and I can trust him to make measurements for me upon lines that are clearly defined, which he performs with great accuracy. His wages are very small for a man of his usefulness, and I should wish much that they were raised as he is one of the most deserving Chinamen I ever met. His education under me (for he has now been in the Department nearly five years) has progressed so satisfactorily that he is of more service than many of the English overseers I have employed, whose wages are never less than $30 per mensem.36\n\nTHE GROUP EMPLOYED BY MISSIONS\n\nAnother group which identified itself with Hong Kong was a small number of Christians who came here from Malacca, Singapore and Macao under the patronage of missionaries. As Christian converts they had renounced the traditional practices connected with the veneration of ancestors and thus had cut themselves off from participation in the ritual observances which bound the Chinese family together. There seemed little chance that they could expect to be welcomed back to their home villages. In a sense they were as marginal to the social structure of China as were those who had had to flee China because of criminal activities. Unlike the tradesmen and small merchants they did not view Hong Kong as an opportunity to make a quick fortune which they could take back to their home village", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206302, "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-1971", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n113\n\ncorporated as a more integral part of government, and its members may be regarded in many ways as the élite of the élite. But these developments are beyond the time limit set for this particular study.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 See the studies by Chung-li Chang, The Income of the Chinese Gentry (Seattle, 1926) and The Chinese Gentry: Studies in their Role in Nineteenth Century Chinese Society (Seattle, 1955) and by Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China (New York, 1964).\n\n2 The South China Morning Post, 12 July 1933, in column \"Old Hong Kong\".\n\n3 Colonial Office Records (hereafter given as C.O.), Series 129-12.\n\n4 The Friend of China, 6 Nov. 1861.\n\n5 George Smith, The Consular Cities of China (London, 1847), p. 82.\n\n6 Yen-p'ing Hao, The Compradore in Nineteenth Century China (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), p. 195. I have not been able to check the sources he cites.\n\n7 These were Loo King A owner of I.L. 99, LL.102, I.L. 103; Lo Lye or Alloy A owner of M.L. 16 C., M.L. 19; Loo Foon owner of M.L. 16 D.; Loo Sing A owner of M.L. 17 C.; Loo Chuen alias Loo Chew alias Young Aqui alias Loo Choo Tung owner of M.L. 16 A., M.L. 28 A., M.L. 35 A. The family lived in Aqui's Lane, or as it is now known Kwai Wa Lane† running from Hillier to Cleverly Street and lying between Queens Road and Jervois Street. Here in 1872 lived Loo Wan Kew, Loo Yum Shing, compradore of D. Sassoon, Sons and Co., and Loo Achew.\n\n8 The China Review, Vol. 1 (1872), p. 333, \"The Districts of Hong Kong and the Name Kwan-Tai-Lo\". This source also confirms the deleterious effect of Aqui's activities in Hong Kong: \"In 1843, when there were but few merchants or shop keepers, one Sz-man-king, unto whom those who were in distress, in debt, or discontented, resorted, opened a place for gambling along Chung Wan to which all among the fishing-boat people, who loved gambling, came.\"\n\n9 Quoted by R. M. Martin in his report, 24 July 1844, in G. B. Endacott, An Eastern Entrepot (London, 1964), p. 97.\n\n10 E. J. Eitel, Europe in China (Hong Kong, 1895), pp. 168-169.\n\n11 Endacott, op. cit., pp. 96-98.\n\n12 Ibid., p. 107.\n\n13 Ibid., p. 96.\n\n14 A Singapore house was a pre-cut timber house ready for assembling imported from Singapore. At the time of the gold-rush in California, a similar type house was shipped from Hong Kong to San Francisco in large numbers. The trade enriched a number of Hong Kong carpenters.\n\n15 C.O. Series 129-12, No. 97, 10 July, 1845.\n\n16 C.O. Series 129-7, 23 July, 1844.\n\n17 C.O. Series 129-3, Treasurer's Report 1847.\n\n18 The Friend of China, 5 Jan., 1856.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206306, "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-1971", "page_number": 123, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "A\n\n# THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n117\n\nquarrymen a lawless and potentially dangerous class of people. But Chinese on Hong Kong Island, like their fellow countrymen in Hsin-an hsien (a county which then comprised the future British Kowloon Peninsula and New Territories) formed a socially well-organised community, knit together by ties of family and kinship and involved, apart from the boat people, in wider forms of social organisation such as the clan and the lineage3. They were constrained by the type of in-built social controls found typically in any rural Chinese community. On the other hand, immigrant Chinese arriving after 1842, who came mostly from Canton and the delta counties, formed a purely urban population, lacking roots and sentiments of belonging: they had necessarily few attachments at first to their new area of residence. Congregated in the mushrooming city of Victoria and soon outnumbering the old, established Chinese population of the island, they were not subject to any in-built system of social control. The new population of urban Chinese from Kwangtung Province, like newly arrived Europeans, were faced with the problem of maintaining public order and protecting their families and properties. The better-off Chinese merchants and traders were soon compelled to employ their own guards and some householders and shopkeepers engaged their own street watchmen, either paid for by the individual householder or collectively by subscription.\n\nBy the 1850s Hong Kong Chinese had developed not only their own associations, such as Kaifong, but even a rudimentary system of self-government, if the evidence is to be believed. A note in the China Review claims, for example, that in 1851 the shopkeepers of Sheung Wan (i.e., the area of the Chinese 'Bazaar', west of the European central district) 'repaired the Man-mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein afterwards decided all cases of any public interest5'. The same writer also claims that in 1857 'the U-lan-shing-ui (a sworn mutual aid association) united Tai-ping-shan, Sai-ying-pun, Sheung-wan and Chung-wan under one public committee, and these four districts were called the Sz-wan or four circuits'. Eitel states (but cites no authority) that around 1851 the Committee of the Man Mo Temple 'now rose into eminence as a sort of unrecognised and unofficial local-government board (principally made up by Nampak-hong or export merchants). This Committee secretly controlled native affairs, acted as commercial arbitrators, arranged for the due", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206307, "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-1971", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "118 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nreception of mandarins passing through the Colony, negotiated the sale of official titles, and formed an unofficial link between the Chinese residents of Hong Kong and the Canton Authorities”. Such evidence is not conclusive, but it seems plausible to assume that by the 1860s Chinese in Hong Kong had acquired some experience in managing their own affairs typical behaviour in other Overseas Chinese settlements and had acted with some secrecy so as not to alarm the colonial authorities. \n\nWhat was, in effect, the first District Watch Committee was formed after a meeting of the Chinese community held on 1 February, 1866. Presumably this was a meeting of the Kaifong leaders, the more prosperous shopkeepers and merchants. According to the Registrar General's Report for 1867, after much discussion, the Community of the Five Districts to the west of the Parade Ground, agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay should be disbursed by themselves and be collected by men especially appointed for the purpose'. It appears they agreed among themselves to send a petition to government asking for permission to organise a force of Chinese watchmen. In this petition they claimed a rumour had reached them that the roughs of Canton intended to celebrate the approach of the Chinese New Year by making a descent upon Hong Kong 'with the object of committing extensive robberies under cover of a conflagration'. Their intention, they wrote, was to protect their families and aid the police. \n\nThe rumour of a possible criminal foray from Canton was treated with some scepticism by government officials, but the suggestion of a district watchmen force, organised and paid for by the Chinese themselves was readily accepted by the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, and became embodied in the Victoria Registration Ordinance, No. 7 of 1866. As Norton Kyshe affirms : 'This may be taken as the origin of the system now known as \"District Watchmen”. \n\nIt seems reasonable to infer that the Chinese notables present at this meeting used the rumour of a foray from Canton to camouflage their real desire — their own Chinese police force. They wanted an amalgamation of the numerous private watchmen and street guards already employed by merchants, shopkeepers, householders and Kaifong. At that date — 1866 — the regular", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206308, "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-1971", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n119\n\npolice were commonly reputed to be corrupt, inefficient, drunken and lazy. The police force, mainly composed of European and Indian policemen with a small contingent of Chinese, was officered by European inspectors and sergeants and controlled at the top by a European Captain Superintendent of Police, often at loggerheads with the Registrar General, the 'Protector of Chinese'. The main duty of the regular police was to protect the central business district of Hong Kong, where most of the great European firms clustered, and the docks and wharves on which the prosperity of commercial Hong Kong depended. Principally, though, the regular police were there to overawe the Chinese lumpenproletariat, composed in European eyes of the sweepings of Kwangtung Province. The Chinese residential and commercial areas on the fringes of the core central district were more arbitrarily policed—and policed of course by aliens, most of whom as ex-Indian sepoys, ex-soldiers or ex-British policemen were unable to speak Cantonese.11 Chinese merchants, therefore, thought there would be advantages in maintaining a force of district watchmen Chinese to a man—selected, vetted, paid for, controlled, and if needs be, dismissed by the Chinese community.\n\nThe establishment of a body of Chinese district watchmen by the Registration Ordinance of 1866 was at first strongly opposed by some officials. In 1866 Sir Richard MacDonnell reported to the Secretary of State that the scheme was 'working admirably'12; but two years later the Chief Justice, Sir John Smale, laid on the table of the Legislative Council a memorandum inveighing against the inefficiency and corruption of the Force and suggesting that, to avoid the constant friction between the Superintendent of Police and the Registrar General, the district watchmen should be embodied in the Police Force under one head13. Soon after the Chief Justice's animadversions were made public in the Legislative Council, MacDonnell was forced to set up a commission to inquire into the working of the regular police as a result of a number of police scandals. In his memorandum setting out the reasons for holding such an inquiry, MacDonnell also asked the members of the commission to 'report as to the expediency of continuing to maintain, with Chinese co-operation and pecuniary aid, an auxiliary force of District Watchmen, and to ascertain whether the latter body has", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206313, "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-1971", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "124\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\ndevolving upon the regular police by law or custom. As early as 1868, the Registrar General reported that the Head District Watchmen from their age and authority are often accepted as arbiters of perplexing disputes'. Clearly, these extra-police duties increased year by year, for in 1935 the Secretary for Chinese Affairs wrote 'it is not generally realised that in addition to their normal ordinary police duties the District Watch carry out a great deal of useful investigation in purely civil cases, wages and family disputes'. Watchmen were also active in counting the number of children at vernacular schools, controlling queues during periods of acute water shortage, gathering information about family budgets, and in the more general task of making known to the Chinese public the policies of the government30. Primarily, of course, the members of the force spent most of their time in apprehending shoplifters, thieves, pickpockets and loiterers in those districts where there were Chinese shops. Their special anti-pickpocket squad, a plain-clothes unit, helped to control an offence once very common in Hong Kong. This was what the subscribers expected them to do31, for the subscribers were nearly all shopkeepers and merchants, members of the propertied and moneyed class in Hong Kong. The District Watchmen, armed and uniformed, must have been a conspicuous sight in the Chinese quarters of the town before the war, well-known as individuals to the citizens in the districts they patrolled. In most cases the watchmen spoke Cantonese like the majority in the urban areas, whereas Chinese regular police were often recruited from Shantung32 and spoke another dialect. The police constables from Shantung, given the complexities of Chinese provincial and dialect differences, were comparative strangers -- tall, muscular men from the North.\n\nThe day to day running of the force was left mainly in the hands of the Head District Watchmen and their aides, the Assistant District Watchmen, and later to the European officer seconded from the police; and all clerical work was done in Chinese in the office of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, which became the headquarters of the force. The Committee met formally once a month, though extraordinary meetings were often held. But when the Committee did meet, it usually had more important matters to discuss than the routine doings of the force. The Committee of Management, since its advice was solicited by the Secretary for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206316, "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-1971", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n127\n\ncame from a few clearly defined areas in Kwangtung Province, because the great majority of the Chinese congregated in the urban areas spoke Cantonese4. Lennox Mills compares this situation in Hong Kong, which made government relatively easy, with pre-war Malaya. This homogeneity, he argues, ‘makes it possible to control them through the District Watch Committee. (On the other hand) the Chinese in Malaya are drawn from various provinces and are divided by provincial hostilities of long standing. The wealthy and educated Chinese in some districts come from a different province from the majority of coolies; and, in addition, the interests of the recent immigrants often differ from those of the Straits Chinese who are permanently settled in Malaya. A committee representing the Chinese of Malaya would necessarily reproduce the various schisms which divide them, and the members would in some cases have no influence over the coolies in their districts'4. In Hong Kong, however, the Chinese were not divided to any great extent by dialect or provincial hostilities, only by differences in wealth and status. The members of the District Watch Committee originated from a small number of hsien (counties) in the Canton delta, from districts and towns close to the Pearl River, the main channel of communication between Canton and Hong Kong before the completion of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1912. A high percentage of the committeemen were born in, or originated from, Tung Kwun (Tung-kuan hsien) and Heung Shan (Hsiang-shan hsien)42; and the merchants from these areas had their own district associations in Hong Kong.\n\nClearly, the members of the District Watch Committee had much in common: they spoke mostly the same dialect, they came from the same district or closely related districts in China and they were, if not merchants, then involved in some type of commercial pursuit—land speculation, owning and managing property, banking and insurance, finance, compradoring43. All in all, they formed a remarkably homogeneous group, united by many ties; and it would seem, rarely divided for long by political differences. Not surprisingly, some of them were inter-related through ties of blood and kinship44. There were few family dynasties in Hong Kong but a small number had children who served later on the Committee45. In the nature of things, members must have disagreed about some of the issues raised at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206318, "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-1971", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee \n\n129 \n\nBut one point needs further elaboration. Fifty-two Chinese were appointed to the Committee between 1891, the year the Committee was put on a proper footing by Lockhart, and 1941, the year of the Japanese invasion and occupation of the Colony. Nearly all, as I have said, were re-appointed to the Committee after their five-year term of office expired, so that the majority continued in office until death or complete decrepitude released them from public service31. A few resigned because of ill-health or because, so one suspects, they suffered severe financial reverses and thus lost standing as successful merchants or businessmen in the community, in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and in their district association. The District Watch Ordinance of 1930, which consolidated earlier legislation, said quite simply that 'the Governor may appoint any person to membership of the District Watch Committee (and) such persons shall hold office for such period as the Governor may direct', thus recognising a situation that had arisen: the permanency of the committeemen. On the other hand, those Chinese who served on the committees of the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk, two very prestigious associations, were in office for one year only and then were replaced at the next election by a new committee: but a Chinese appointed to the District Watch remained in office practically for ever. \n\nThe Committee became, in other words, a permanent advisory board comprising the richest, most influential, most prestigious and politically powerful Chinese in the Colony; and the Committee always contained the Chinese unofficial members of the two Councils. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, who had also been instrumental in the 1890s in reorganising and strengthening the committees of both the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk, may be thought of, then, as the main architect of the system of colonial government which matured in Hong Kong in the period 1891-1941. This system brought the interests of European administrators, European businessmen and prominent Chinese into a closer alignment; it tended to reduce conflict. \n\nA number of other permanent boards and committees were established in the period after 1890 but although these formed a necessary part of the system they were hardly as crucially important as the District Watch Committee. The Po Leung Kuk\n\nPage 130 is missing, directly followed by \n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206326, "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-1971", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "The District Watch Committee\n\n137\n\nto be the richest man in Hong Kong. When Ho Tung retired as chief compradore to Jardine, Matheson's in 1900, Ho Fook succeeded him. Ho Fook's assistant was Ho Kom Tong, another of Ho Tung's brothers. The members of the District Watch Committee were members of a small circle of businessmen, often related through ties of blood or marriage. When the Tai Yau Bank was established in 1914 with a paid-up capital of $6,000,000, the proprietors were named as Lau Chu Pak, Ho Fook, Ho Kom Tong, Lo Chung Shiu and Chan Kai Ming. Lau Chu Pak was compradore to A. S. Watson and Co., chairman of the Po On Commercial Association and chairman of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce; Chan Kai Ming was manager of the Opium Farm; and Lo Chung Shiu, assistant compradore to Jardine, Matheson and Co., was Ho Fook's brother-in-law. All were or became members of the District Watch Committee.\n\n22 T. C. Cheng writes that Wei Yuk 'was very much concerned about law and order among the Chinese masses because in those early days riff-raff and political refugees from South China continued to come into Hong Kong. Thus it was at his suggestion that the District Watch Force was founded in 1888. Mr. Cheng appears to be mistaken about the date and is no doubt referring to the ordinance of that year, no. 13 of 1888 rather than to its proper date of origin. Wright and Cartright, Feldwick, and Professor Woo all state that the Committee was formed on Wei Yuk's suggestion. See: T. C. Cheng, 'Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils of Hong Kong up to 1941', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 9, 1969, pp. 17-18; Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai and other Treaty Ports, London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., 1908, p. 109; W. Feldwick, ed., Present Day Impressions of the Far East and Prominent Chinese at Home and Abroad, London Globe Encyclopedia Co., 1917, p. 576; Professor Woo Sing Lim, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Five Continents Book Company, 1939, p. 4.\n\n23 Unfortunately all the records in the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs were destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation and hence anyone trying to reconstruct the history of the District Watch must work mostly from scraps of information found in government publications, newspapers, books.\n\n24 My guess is that a large number were traditional Chinese merchants from the Five Districts operating on a relatively small scale. The Committee after 1891 represented the views of a more westernised and modernised elite with a knowledge of modern business techniques and modern financial manipulations. Dr. Ho Kai, for example, played the stock exchange with great success and speculated in many fields, particularly land development. He was, properly speaking, a financier although his occupation is often given tout court as lawyer. He had also qualified in medicine at Edinburgh but gave up the practice of medicine soon after his return to Hong Kong in 1882 because of Chinese resistance to western medicine.\n\n25 In 1903, for example, the Committee opposed the re-introduction of the night-pass system but suggested other remedial measures (see Index to Correspondence (General Register) 1894-1904, Hong Kong, Noronha and Co., 1909, p. 100). In 1909 'at the request of the District Watchmen Committee, children who are hawking without a licence are on their first offence sent to the Registrar General who cautions their guardians. This procedure seems to have proved effective in each case' wrote the Registrar General in 1909. It is worth noting that both Registrar General and Committee wanted to end the night-pass system and were opposed by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was unsuccessful. As for hawkers, very few Chinese regarded them as a serious menace although colonial administrators", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206328, "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-1971", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n139\n\n36 In 1917 there were 31 guilds for employers only (in trades such as silk, sandalwood, wicker furniture and copper), 35 skilled craftsmen guilds (sandalwood workers, masons, tinsmiths, etc.) and 5 guilds with mixed membership (employers and workers). There were also 17 district societies, such as the Heung Shan (Hsiang-shan) resident merchants association and the General Commercial Association of the Tung Kun (Tung-kuan) merchants resident in Hong Kong. See the list of exempted and registered societies in the Gazette, 27 April 1917.\n\n37 Wei Yuk was appointed in 1891 and served until his death in 1929. He resigned several times in order to allow a newcomer to join the Committee but was soon re-appointed. Lau Chu-pak was appointed in 1902 and served until his death in 1922. Sir Shouson Chow was appointed in 1917 and was still a member in 1949, the year of the demise of the Committee.\n\n38 During the years 1929 to 1931 and in 1936 the Committee met four times a year at Government House. Lennox Mills states that members had the right to a guard of the District Watch Force on the occasion of weddings and other festivities'. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs tells us in his report for 1936 that through the kindness of His Excellency the Committee was able to meet the members of the Mui Tsai Commission on the occasion of their first visit to the Colony, 'All members attended and there was a valuable discussion with frank interchange of views'. When the Governor, Sir Henry Blake, left the Colony in 1903 on the day of his departure he inspected the District Watchmen. Clearly, everything was done by the government to give prestige and éclat to the Committee and the force.\n\n19 T. C. Cheng, op. cit., p. 18.\n\n40 Of the Chinese land population in the 1901 census 227,615 returned themselves as natives of Kwangtung Province, 179,296 of this number belonging to the Kwong Chau Prefecture, 28,844 came from Tung-kuan hsien, 28,587 from P'an-yü hsien, and 27,221 from Nan-hai hsien. The situation was substantially the same in the censuses of 1911, 1921 and 1931. In 1911, for example, 311,992 out of 350,418 Chinese in Hong Kong, exclusive of the New Territories, spoke Cantonese,\n\n41 Op. cit., pp. 399-400.\n\n42 Heung Shan, present-day Chung Shan, is the arid county on the west side of the Pearl River, stretching down to Macau. It was the Heung Ha, the Cantonese term for the province, district or village from which each person derives his ancestry, of many prominent Chinese, including Ng Choy (Wu Ting-fang), Yung Wing (Yung Hung), Wong Shing (Huang Shêng), and Sun Yat-sen. Many Chinese merchants in Hong Kong came from this county; for example, Wei Yuk, Ma Ying-piu (founder of the Sincere Company), M. Y. San (before 1941 the largest biscuit manufacturer in China), Tsang Foo, Look Poong-shan (founder of the Bank of Canton). Su Chao-cheng, organiser and leader of the Seamen' Strike in 1922, came from this county; in 1928 Su was elected to the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. The anarchist, Liu Ssu-fu, was also born there. In 1938 the Chung Shan Commercial Association had a membership of over 4,000 in Hong Kong.\n\n43 In 1905, for example, at least seven members of the Committee were compradores to important western firms; one was manager of a native bank; another of a prosperous pawnshop; a third ran a large export firm. Ho Kai was primarily a financier rather than an entrepreneur. See on this point the Chinese speculator Marie-Claire Bergère, \"The Role of the Bourgeoisie' in M. C. Wright, ed., China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900-1913, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1968, p. 236.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206330, "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-1971", "page_number": 147, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DISTRICT WATCH COMMITTEE\n\n141\n\nin the Colony. In 1948 they were taken over by the Medical and Health Department.\n\n58 G. W. Skinner, Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Yale University Press, 1958, p. 79.\n\n59 James Michie wrote: \"The means taken to conciliate the Chinese (in Hong Kong) must be deemed on the whole to have been successful. There was first police supervision, then official protection under a succession of qualified officers, then representation in the Colony Legislature and on the Commission of the Peace. The colonial executive has wisely left to the Chinese a large measure of a kind of self-government which is more effective than anything that could find its expression in votes of the Legislature. The administration of purely Chinese affairs by native committees, with a firm ruling hand over their proceedings, seems to fulfil every purpose of government.\" The Englishman in China during the Victorian Era, Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood, 1900, vol. 1, pp. 280-1.\n\n60 The Labour Advisory Board was established in 1937 and consisted of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Secretary and Cashier of His Majesty's Naval Yard, the Assistant Director of Supply and Transport of the China Command, a representative of the Public Works Department, the Manager of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, the manager of the Hong Kong Electric Company, and the manager of the Taikoo Dockyard. The members consisted entirely of representatives of large government departments and employers of labour. The board rarely functioned.\n\n61 The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1896 principally by Ho Kai and Wei Yuk. It was called at first the Chinese Merchants Bureau. In 1913, after a period of decline, a new building costing $40,000 was erected in Connaught Road. After 1913 the Chamber became one of the most influential bodies in Hong Kong, and many members of the District Watch Committee served at one time or another on its executive committee. The Chinese Club was founded in 1899 by Sir Robert Ho Tung and modelled on the European Hong Kong Club. A description of the Club's premises is to be found in Mrs. Archibald Little, The Land of the Blue Gown, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1902, p. 323: \"We were taken by the Committee into an upper room, where European comforts of curtains and cushioned arm-chairs were judiciously intermingled with Cantonese elegances of black carved wood and landscape marble.\" Mrs. Little was a member of the Anti-Footbinding League or Natural Feet Society.\n\n62 See G. William Skinner for a detailed analysis of Chinese associations. See especially ch. 6 of his Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand.\n\n63 For Overseas Chinese associations, see important works by the following: Maurice Freedman, \"Immigrants and Associations: Chinese in Nineteenth Century Singapore,\" Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1960, and Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore, London, H.M.S.O., 1957; G. W. Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1957, and Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Thailand, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1958; William E. Willmott, The Political Structure of the Chinese Community in Cambodia, London, The Athlone Press, 1970; and Edgar Wickberg, The Chinese in Philippine Life 1850-1898, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1965.\n\n64 See Wilfred Blythe, The Impact of Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya, London, Oxford University Press, 1969.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206402, "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-1971", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n193\n\nkeen on the east. I see this island the natural outlet to all Europe, and by the Pacific lines to the United States, for the mineral wealth and various produce of one half the great Empire. I see itself the home of a happy population, three times more numerous than the present, and foreigner and Chinese dwelling together in mutual appreciation. I see in its harbour a forest of smoking tunnels, with hardly a white-winged sailing vessel among them; opium is a phantom of the past. The emigration of the poor goes on from it on principles approved and guarded by the Chinese and other governments, while the enterprise and integrity of its merchants, the kindness, forbearance, and purity of all its inhabitants are spoken of with delight from Peking to Hai-nan, from the farthest west of Sze-ch'uen to the borders of the Eastern sea.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206426, "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-1971", "page_number": 243, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n217\n\nof Dr. Colledge in his Opthalmic Infirmary with his Chinese assistant, which was engraved and published in London 25 November 1834. Harriet Low continues \"The pictures\" (not picture) \"were unfortunately all too late for the Exhibition\". To attempt to substitute the double portrait in the place of two separate portraits seen is unethical.\n\n1\n\nAs art experts the authors are careless. The medium in plate not given is watercolor and the \"Chinese Military\" scene was \"later\" engraved not \"lithographed\". It is also poor geography to say that Lord Macartney's Embassy entered the Yangtse, when it was the Peiho River. In the Introduction, they produce two alibis: “Paintings illustrated in the sequence and not otherwise designated are attributed to him\" [Chinnery], “except for portraits of Hong Merchants which are referred to in general terms” and \"Events are necessarily telescoped without rigid regard for precise chronology\". What a multitude of sins one can try to cover up with statements like these.\n\nIs it really necessary to include Richard Henry Dana's \"Two Years Before the Mast\"? The voyage was along the California coast not to the Far East. Bryant & Sturgis, the owners, were of Boston as stated, but never had an office in Canton. Their China Trade business in Canton was handled by J. P. Sturgis & Co.\n\nThere are illustrated 20 paintings by Lt. J. S. Rundle, R. N. of Opium War scenes, also a pen and ink sketch. The medium is not given. All midshipmen in European Navies in the 19th century were taught to sketch and paint watercolors, so presumably these are in watercolor. The authors surmise that Chinnery met Rundle and \"probably saw some of the action paintings actually illustrated in this work\", but offer no factual proof that any meeting took place. No mention is made of W. A. Knell, the marine artist, whose work, of course, is much better known.\n\nIn fact, the authors give a very warped view of China Coast painting. No mention of Webber nor Huggins, nor Borget. The Daniells not to be confused with the Daniells of later date are mentioned, but the one Daniell illustration shown is Indian, inappropriate to a book on China Coast Paintings. Chinnery had European pupils - five at least but apparently they are unknown to the authors.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206518, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 66, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "60\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nproperty in Victoria, a smaller rate being levied in out-stations. This tax yields annually about $470,000, of which over $350,000 are contributed by the Chinese and the balance by all the other nationalities combined. The petitioners, who are not in some instances British, and who do not in many cases contribute directly to the taxes, claim \"the common right of Englishmen to manage the local affairs and control the expenditure of the Colony.\" They have, however, carefully omitted to point out that the local affairs include Chinese affairs of which, as has been stated, they are generally ignorant and which the Chinese have shown no desire that the British merchants and other residents should manage, and to indicate that to the expenditure of the Colony of which they desire the control they contribute a very small portion. Petitioners do not surely wish to maintain that Britishers have an inherent right to control all expenditure be their contributions to the revenue however small! It would be interesting to know in what period of our constitutional history such a right has been asserted to be allowed.\"4 Lockhart went on to state that there was one male adult Englishman to every 160 adult Chinese and that the British population in Hong Kong was by no means a permanent one: 'the number of persons to quote the petition \"who have passed large portions of their lives in the Colony\" is very small. Their object in coming to the Colony is to acquire wealth and to return to Great Britain as soon as they possibly can. The most telling point made by Lockhart was that it is not surprising that knowledge of Chinese, their customs and their peculiar requirements should be a sealed book to the British resident, whose intercourse with the Chinese is of the most limited nature, being almost exclusively confined to a discussion of markets, goods, and prices carried on a jargon called “pidgin” English.'16\n\nLockhart's main argument, which was endorsed by the Governor in a despatch to the Secretary of State, was that a small group of European businessmen could not be allowed to exercise control over a mainly Chinese population; that this would be both unjust and unacceptable to the Chinese themselves; and that the Hong Kong government had a moral obligation to safeguard the legitimate interests of a predominantly Chinese population. The petition was rejected.\n\nLockhart's rise in the colonial service, as I have stated, was rapid. In 1889 he was gazetted an official member of the Legislative", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206524, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "66\n\nHENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nIn 1889 Lockhart had married Edith Louise Rider Hancock, second daughter of Alfred Hancock,28 a Hong Kong bill and bullion broker, and he and his wife and two children moved in 1902 to their new home, Government House, at Ma-t'ou village, now renamed Port Edward. Ma-t'ou village had been originally the port of the old walled city of Weihaiwei29 and Government House was situated on a slight eminence overlooking Ma-t'ou village and divided from it only by an orchard planted by a Kew expert; there was not a fence anywhere. Port Edward was the centre of administration and contained the Government offices and the buildings occupied, until 1906, by the officers and men of the 1st Chinese Regiment of Infantry.30 But Port Edward was always very much of a 'pocket' capital, with only a handful of resident Europeans, mostly civil servants, and a few hundred Chinese merchants, craftsmen and fishermen.\n\nEqually the European community in Weihaiwei was always sparse, consisting of a few officials, merchants, and missionaries. With two or three exceptions all the Europeans resided on the small island of Liukung, where the native population was to a great extent drawn from the south-eastern provinces of China and from Japan. Liukung was only two-and-a-quarter miles long with a maximum breadth of seven-eighths of a mile but it became the headquarters of the permanent naval establishment and the site for the naval canteen (formerly a picturesque Chinese official yamên), the United Services Club, bungalows for summer visitors, a large hotel, and the offices of a few shipping firms. The several streets of shops were occupied mostly by Cantonese and Japanese.\n\n+\n\nIn 1903 there were only fourteen Europeans involved in the administration of Weihaiwei: the Civil Commissioner, the Secretary to Government, who also acted as magistrate, a financial assistant, three inspectors of police, two medical officers, one civil engineer, one foreman of works, two corporals, and two sappers of the Royal Engineers. The size of the establishment did not increase markedly over time, though an additional magistrate was procured. The Territory was divided by 1910 into two divisions, North and South. The North Division contained only nine of the twenty-six districts and was much smaller in both area and population than the South but it included the island of Liukung, where a small naval dockyard had been constructed, and Port Edward. It was under", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206547, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF\n\nHOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe pattern of residential development in Hong Kong today is the cumulative result of historical forces which began to exert their influence almost from the time when the colony came under British jurisdiction in 1842. It is therefore towards an appreciation of the current housing situation that this study outlines Hong Kong's efforts to provide homes for its people over the past 130 years. In tracing the course of history in this particular field it will be found that the dreadful living conditions which persisted in many districts in the last century, and even in more recent years, have been the combined result of an overwhelming demand for and critical shortage of accommodation; the general poverty of the population; the inadequacy of utility services; the exploitation of families desperate for a roof over their heads; and the difficulty of enforcing (and sometimes the lack of) suitable regulations governing standards of building construction, the provision of household facilities and overcrowding. However, on the basis of recent achievements the future seems much brighter.\n\nFounding of the Colony\n\nThe sea routes between Europe and China, first established by the Arabs in the 7th Century A.D., were reopened in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese who settled in Macau in 1557. Spanish, Dutch, English and French traders soon followed but during the eighteenth century the British merchants captured most of the China trade which comprised mainly exports of tea and silk. The East India Company initially held the monopoly of trade and Canton became the centre of business for the British merchants.\n\n*Dr. E. G. Pryor is Senior Planning Officer in the New Territories Planning Section, Crown Lands & Survey Office, Hong Kong. This monograph has been extracted largely from his Ph.D thesis, \"An Assessment of the Need and Scope for Urban Renewal in Hong Kong.\" The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Government of Hong Kong. Author's copyright.\n\nPlates 8-12 illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206548, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "90\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nBesides their wider trading interests, the British in Canton had established a thriving trade in opium brought from India. The Chinese government regarded this trade with considerable concern, on the grounds that it was harmful to human welfare and also a serious drain on the country's finances. Early attempts by the Chinese government to stop the opium trade failed but in 1839 a Special Imperial Commissioner was appointed who forced the British traders in Canton to relinquish their supplies of the narcotic. The British Superintendent of Trade, Captain Elliot, consequently withdrew the English merchants to Macau and later transferred them onto ships anchored in Hong Kong harbour; subsequent events led to open hostilities between Chinese and British forces.\n\nIt was decided by Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, that a satisfactory settlement of the dispute would require either a commercial treaty with adequate guarantees to protect the interests of British merchants or the cession of one or more off-shore islands from which the traders could operate without restriction. A British expedition was despatched to China in 1840 to back up these demands and in January 1841 negotiations were held in Canton between Captain Elliot and Keshen, a Manchu Commissioner, whereby it was agreed by the Convention of Chuenpi that Hong Kong Island was to be ceded to the British (Figure 1).* A British naval force took possession of the island on 26th January 1841,\n\nThe Chuenpi terms were accepted by neither side. Elliot was replaced by Sir Henry Pottinger and hostilities were renewed. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking on 29th August 1842 by which the island of Hong Kong was ceded in perpetuity to the Crown and four additional ports besides Canton were opened to British traders. The island was formally declared a British Colony on 26th June 1843 and Sir Henry Pottinger was appointed the first Governor. Hong Kong was declared a free port and by the Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue the Chinese were given free access to the island for trading purposes.\n\nThe Housing Problem Takes Root: 1841-1881\n\nAlmost from the day Captain Elliot raised the British flag on the northern shores of Hong Kong Island, a steady stream of artisans and labourers made their way to the Colony from the southern provinces.\n\n*Figures 1-8 will be found at the rear of the text.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206608, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "The Origins of Hong Kong's Central Market and the Tarrant Affair\n\nDafydd Emrys Evans*\n\nThe public market which at present stands in Queen's Road Central in Hong Kong occupies the site of a succession of older buildings of which the earliest was built as a market in 1842. The early history of this market amply demonstrates the too-seldom revealed complexity of Chinese merchants' commercial transactions at the time of the founding of the Colony of Hong Kong.\n\nHong Kong's first public market opened on the site in May, 1842.1 At the first sale of crown land in the new Colony in June, 1841, the westernmost lots were put up to auction first and the first four, designated at the sale numbers 19 to 16, were not sold but reserved for Government purposes. It was on the lot numbered 16 that the market opened, lying as it did conveniently near to the Upper and Lower Bazaars.2 The Market was, apparently, the brain-child of the Colonial Secretary of the time, Colonel George Malcolm who secured the erection of buildings at a cost of some $3,500.3 He appointed a Chinese named Hwei Aqui as Superintendent and established a fixed list of prices to be charged by the individuals to whom the stalls were let by Government.4\n\nWhen Sir John Davis succeeded Sir Henry Pottinger as Governor of the Colony in 1844, he decided that the Market could operate as a useful source of revenue for the Government and sold the market franchise to the highest bidder who was then free to charge what he could to the stallholders. The successful bidder was, in fact, Hwei Aqui and, though he had apparently given satisfaction formerly when simply in the employ of Government, caused grave dissatisfaction once he was operating the market on his own account, with prices rising far faster than they had previously and without the benefit of Government control over the state of the market.\n\nIt is the few years after the market passed into private hands that it makes its contribution to Hong Kong's history, not only on\n\n* Mr. Evans is Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong. See Journal vol. 10, 1970, for his earlier article \"Chinatown in Hong Kong: The Beginnings of Taipingshan\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206618, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "160\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\n23 A writ of fieri facias (abbreviated to fi. fa.) is the means whereby a judgment is executed against the property of a person found liable to another in damages in a civil suit. It enables his property to be sold to meet the sums awarded against him. The writ was frequently employed at this time in suits for arrears of Crown Rent.\n\n24 Memorial 359.\n\n25 When property is mortgaged to secure sums advanced by the mortgagee to the mortgagor, the latter is said to have an 'equity of redemption'. The purpose of this is to make certain that his interest in relation to that of the lender is kept in balance, so that the lender can always be forced to release the security when the reasons for giving it are no longer present, i.e., when the sums advanced are repaid. The equity of redemption is treated as an item of property which the mortgagor is free to dispose of—it is the right to reconveyance when the security is discharged or repayment of the loan.\n\n26 Under the Ordinance No. 3 of 1844, all transactions in and concerning land, as well as judgments, wills and so on which involve land, must be registered in the Land Office. A transaction is quite effective even if the Ordinance is not complied with but subsequent purchasers or persons having dealings with property automatically have notice of any registered transaction which will therefore take precedence even over prior unregistered transactions.\n\n27 Ong Chok may in fact have been Ong Lok. The latter frequently dealt in property and is described in Memorials as a 'compradore'. He had extensive property interests in the Taipingshan district.\n\n28 Memorial 384.\n\n29 Memorial 385.\n\n30 Memorial 418.\n\n31 The Chinese used then and still do use to a certain limited extent a lunar calendar.\n\n32 Friend of China, 23 June 1849.\n\n33 Memorial 541.\n\n34 Lease Register Vol. C, f. 219.\n\n35 Lease Register Vol. F, ff. 38 and 47.\n\n36 It was suggested that Chinese merchants were not averse to bribery because they were accustomed to bribing Chinese Government officials.\n\n37 But it should be noted that there are a good many lots in the Taipingshan area in which there were no recorded dealings for a good many years. It is unlikely that there were no dealings at all. It is more likely that the dealings were simply not recorded.\n\n38 Towards the end of the 1840's and in the early 1850's the number of non-residents investing in property in the colony rose markedly, most of them coming from those districts of Kwantung Province adjoining Hong Kong and Macao. The Taiping rebellion may have caused some part of the flow of capital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206778, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA\n\n49\n\nAlexander and Company of Calcutta. In 1846 she was bought by Jardine, Matheson and Company, and remained in their service until she was lost in the early 1870s.\n\nIn 1835, Jardine, Matheson and Company brought out the small steamer Jardine, intending to run her as a passenger and dispatch boat between Canton, Lintin, and Macao. She arrived at Lintin on 20th September 1835, but was never allowed to run on the river. The Canton Register of 13th November described one of her first excursions, contributed by a passenger.\n\nWe all assembled on board the steamer Jardine, alias 'fast ship Greig' (the name of her captain), and getting under weigh went round the different vessels lying in the anchorage, some of whom cheered the little craft on her experimental trip; she then started to make a tour of the island, which she accomplished in a little better than an hour; on her return she made another circuit round the shipping, and being cheered returned the compliment with a salute. It was indeed a pleasing scene; to see the velocity with which the little vessel (although not at her full power) ploughed the waters of the deep, and the readiness with which she answered her helm; to hear the echo of the music (which was kindly supplied by the commanding officer of the Balcarres, and which continued to play during the trip) reverberating from the adjacent hills, and made more distinct still by the still calm of the evening; to see the setting sun gilding the western horizon with his last, expiring rays; the shipping at anchor; the blue hills which on nearly every side bounded the view; the whole scene being heightened by the presence of the colleens, produced a calm in the mind, foreign to those engaged in the busy world; indeed, here you might have beheld in the reality all that the speculative imagination of the lover of romance could picture to itself.\n\nUnfortunately, Chinese reaction was much less enthusiastic. No reply was received to a letter signed by all the foreign merchants at Canton and sent to the hoppo through Howqua, the senior hong merchant; which requested permission for the Jardine to run on the river as an unarmed passenger boat. Eventually a trial run from Lintin to Canton was attempted, but the Jardine was fired on from the forts on both sides of the Bogue, and a Chinese district official who was approached said that the orders were peremptory that the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206781, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "52 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nand Canton. Jardines were neither owners or agents of the Corsair, but there seems to be no doubt that they sponsored this service. The Corsair had been built in 1827 for the Irish Sea service, but after several years went out to Australia. She arrived in China from Australia early in 1846 consigned to Jardines, and soon afterwards was making two trips per week between Hong Kong and Canton, and also doing occasional towing and salvage work. She continued on the river until July 1849 and then disappears from the scene, probably because of her age, either being dismantled or allowed to fall to pieces.\n\nFrom this time British and American steamers appeared at Hong Kong at short intervals, most for the river service, but some for service between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and intermediate ports. Landmarks from the British point of view were the entry of the P. and O. into both the river and the coast services, and the formation of the Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company. The P. and O. started their mail service from Ceylon to Hong Kong by the Lady Mary Wood in 1845, operating this in connection with their Suez-India service. Early in 1849 they put their iron paddle steamer Canton on the Canton River service, a steamship much superior to any of the others then operating on the river. When the Canton suffered severe damage through running on a sunken rock, she was replaced by the Sir Charles Forbes, which the Company chartered from the Bombay Steam Navigation Company. When the Canton returned after repairs, she was put first on the Hong Kong-Amoy service, and then on the Hong Kong-Shanghai service. The P. and O. originally ran these ships mainly as feeders for their overseas ships, and charged very high freights. In 1854, however, and about the time the Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company was about to be liquidated, the P. and O. increased their river service and made it more attractive to outsiders.\n\nThe Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company was formed in 1847, Alexander Campbell of Dent and Company and Alexander Matheson of Jardine, Matheson and Company being the men mainly responsible. Nearly all the foreign merchants in Hong Kong and Canton took shares in the new company, the first steamship company to be formed in China, although they knew that the P. and O. were on the point of improving their river service. Two sister ships were ordered in England, and the first of these, the Canton arrived in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206782, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA\n\n53\n\nHong Kong on 30th August 1849, just six months after the arrival of the P. and O's Canton. The second ship, the Hong Kong, arrived barely a month later. They went into service soon after their arrival, but not until modifications to the Canton's engines in early 1850, could they be said to be operating a regular service. They then commenced a regular schedule, leaving Hong Kong and Canton every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8.00 a.m., and calling at Macao and Cumsingmoon as inducement offered. Saloon passenger rates were $8.00 between Hong Kong and Canton; $5.00 between Hong Kong and Macao; and $1.00 for Chinese passengers between any two ports. Although the two Cantons and the Hong Kong were a great improvement on earlier steamships, they were still liable to frequent accidents and breakdowns, and still often withdrawn for the more lucrative towing and salvage work.\n\nOn 21st December 1854 the China Mail wrote:\n\nWe are now pretty well supplied with river steamers, having no fewer than seven (Hong Kong and Canton of the Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company; Canton, Sir Charles Forbes and Tartar of P. and O; and Spark and Ann of Russell and Company). The River Bird is on its way out (from America) and other three (Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock) are being assembled in Hong Kong. There is plenty of room for all of them, however, for every day seems to raise river steamer traffic higher in the estimation of the natives, and a very short time will elapse before Chinese merchants become steamboat proprietors.\n\nThe Hong Kong and Canton Steam Packet Company, however, was not proving profitable, and the prospect of still more competition decided the company to wind up its affairs and offer its ships for sale. Shortly after this optimistic forecast by the China Mail, river traffic was almost completely disrupted—first by the continuing Taiping Rebellion and then by the Second China War.\n\nThe fortunes of steamships as a whole, however, were very little affected by these events. Several were chartered by the Royal Navy for service in the war, and others went on coast services to Shanghai and intermediate ports. During these troubled years the foreign factories at Canton were burned, and Canton was blockaded and then captured by the Anglo-French forces on 29th December 1857. After this the tide of war moved north to the Peiho River, and peace was quickly restored to the Canton River. Admiral Seymour gave", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206787, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS AND OTHER NATIONALS IN T’ANG CHINA: \n\nTHEIR STATUS, ACTIVITIES AND \n\nCONTRIBUTIONS \n\nCHIU LING-YEONG* \n\nThe rise of Li Yüan in A.D. 618 marked the beginning of a dynasty which was destined to become a model in later ages. The Chinese were and still are proud to be called T’ang-jen1 because it was this dynasty which extended Chinese territory beyond the Pamirs over the states of the Oxus Valley and even over the upper waters of the Indus in modern Afghanistan. The administrative protectorate of An-hsi (Pacify the West) was set up in the Tarim Basin, paralleling the administrative protectorate of An-nan (Pacify the South), which had been set up earlier in North Vietnam and which eventually gave its name to the whole region of Annam. There were also An-pei (Pacify the North) in Mongolia; and An-tung (Pacify the East) in South Manchuria.2 \n\nT'ang Tai-tsung subjugated the Eastern Turks in A.D. 630 and he himself took the title of \"Heavenly Khan\" of the Turks. After a series of campaigns between A.D. 630 and A.D. 648, the Western Turks also yielded their submission to the T'ang Empire. China by then had embraced nearly the whole of Central Asia: or as Sir Aurel Stein called it, Serindia. These are the glories which have long been inscribed in many Chinese minds. \n\nT'ang China enjoyed nearly three hundred kaleidoscopic years. In these three hundred years, envoys, clerics, students, merchants and others from different parts of Asia poured into the main Chinese cities. The greatest envoy to come to T'ang China was perhaps Pērōz, son of King Yazdgard III and scion of the Sasanids.4 With regard to clerics, Indian Buddhists were in abundance. There were also Persian priests of varying faiths: the Magus for whom the Mazdean temple in Ch'ang-an was rebuilt in A.D. 631; the Nestorian, honoured by the erection of a church in A.D. 628; the \n\n* Dr. Chiu is Senior Lecturer in Chinese History in the University of Hong Kong. His article \"The Debate on National Salvation: Ho Kai versus Tsang Chi-tung\" appeared in Volume 11 (1971) of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206859, "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": 136, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "130\n\nSUNG HOK-P'ANG\n\nSUNG HOK-PANG (宋學鵬) (1880-1962)\n\nA MEMOIR\n\nFifty to sixty years ago, there were in Hong Kong some Chinese scholars who could impart to Westerners knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. Among those who were able to write in both English and Chinese methodical and systematic text-books on the Chinese language, especially on the Cantonese dialect, the name of Sung Hok-pang was prominent. Likewise, fifty to sixty years ago, quite a number of Chinese literary men in Hong Kong depicted the scenery and historic sites there in poetry or prose for pleasure or for commemoration. Among the few who took pains to go and investigate the customs of the people and the historic remains of the New Territories, again Sung Hok-pang was scarcely rivalled in eminence.\n\nFor us who live in Hong Kong and wish to discuss the study and transmission of the Chinese language or the geography and history of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, it is essential that we understand Mr. Sung's contributions in these areas.\n\nMr. Sung's original name was Sung Yick-lam (宋錫林). His other name was Sung Pao-lam (宋寶林) but he was generally known as Sung Hok-pang. He was born in 1880 in Fa Yuen of Kwangtung, but from childhood he was reared in Hong Kong. Since he became well versed in both Chinese and English literature and was very enthusiastic about education, he was highly esteemed. In 1905 he was appointed Headmaster of the Belilios Girls' School. Later, in 1911, he also conducted Cantonese classes in the Government Technical Institute for cadet officers and for foreigners comprising merchants, scholars and officers. In 1913, besides being Headmaster, Mr. Sung was also appointed Inspector of Schools in the New Territories. As a result of his inspection and investigation, the Hong Kong Government followed his suggestions, and subsequently many of the schools in the New Territories received subsidy. Also, a new post of Chinese Inspector was established and Mr. Sung was appointed to this. In 1914 he helped organise the Government Evening School of Education and was head of this institution. In 1916 he was appointed Senior Vernacular Master attached to Queen's College, as well as adviser in matters pertaining to the teaching of Chinese in all government schools. In 1925 Sir Cecil", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206967, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "32 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nnot on his side. He had come to Hong Kong with an express aim - to obtain cash. His design was to persuade Hong Kong merchants to invest heavily in the exploitation of the territory he claimed to rule as soi-disant King of the Sedangs, a title he had assumed in June 1888 with the passive assent of an innocent montagnard people. There were rich men in Hong Kong - speculators, gamblers, risk-takers - and Mayréna hoped to interest them in the mineral wealth and natural products of his new kingdom. Thus he assumed that meeting Sir William and Lady Des Voeux at Government House would vouch for his respectability and provide an entrée into the social enclosure of the rich European merchant class. \n\nMorès, on the other hand, had no such motivation. He was in Hong Kong with William Van Driesche, and an engineer, a M. Thorel, en route for Tonkin. His visit to Hong Kong was an accident. The Calédonien, the ship he boarded at Marseilles, berthed at Saigon and Hong Kong but not at Haiphong, so Morès was forced to travel on to Hong Kong and transfer to another ship for Haiphong, the entry port for Hanoi and the Red River basin. He was in a hurry and bent on business. Hence he stayed in Hong Kong for only a week, leaving on 29 November by the small German steamer, the Clara. It was during this week that the alleged duel between the two adventurers took place; but to explain why they had both wandered into the East and why they clashed, we must first examine their previous careers. \n\nMarie-Charles David de Mayréna16 \n\nThe future King of the Sedangs was born into a bourgeois milieu at Toulon on 31 January, 1842. His father was a commander in the French navy, who died when Mayréna was a child so that he was reared entirely by a complaisant mother. He failed his examinations for the Ecole navale in 1857 but joined the Sixth Dragoons in 1859, transferring to the Spahis de Cochinchine in 1863. He served in Indo-China until 1868, when he resigned and returned to France. His career so far had been unremarkable. \n\nThe next year he married a colonel's daughter; but little is known about the marriage and it seems likely that they soon separated or divorced. Mayréna was a great womaniser. The Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 and he was recalled to the colours and procured the rank of captain. In February 1871 he was awarded the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206990, "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": 61, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG\n\n55\n\nnot serve his full sentence because he was released on grounds of ill-health. But, as Des Voeux notes, the day after his release from Victoria Gaol he was seen avidly betting at the Happy Valley Race Course. He was, clearly a great card and popular with drinking circles in Hong Kong. The Telegraph was an evening newspaper. After Fraser-Smith's death, J. J. Francis became publisher and Chesney Duncan its editor.\n\n28 John Joseph Francis (1839-1901) was educated in Dublin and intended for the Catholic priesthood. But instead of entering the Church he enlisted in the Army, coming out to China in the Royal Artillery during the Second China War. He took his discharge in Hong Kong and commenced the study of law in the office of a Mr. Owens, solicitor. He was admitted to practise as an attorney in 1869 and entered into partnership with another solicitor and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Ambitious, he gained admission to Gray's Inn and was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1877. By 1888 he was the Colony's leading barrister. Francis was extremely touchy and truculent: in 1895 he returned to the Governor a silver inkstand, given to him in recognition of his work during the plague, on the grounds that the gift did not sufficiently acknowledge his services. He died of apoplexy at Yokohama's Grand Hotel in 1901. A fitting end: he was an apoplectic soul. Francis lived at 'Shirley House' in Bonham Road, a commodious residence with extensive grounds.\n\n29 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 366.\n\n30 22 November, 1888. The Hong Kong Hotel, situated in Pedder Street, was originally managed by Parsees; in 1866 it came under European management and soon became a first-class hotel with all the facilities of a good West End hotel.\n\n31 7 January, 1889.\n\n32 Soulié states that Mayréna on his way to Hong Kong marooned Afong on Hainan Island but that the intrepid Chinese took passage on a junk and appeared in Hong Kong to haunt the King of the Sedangs.\n\n33 China Mail, 7 January, 1889.\n\n34 George Murray Bain (1842-1909) was born and educated at Montrose, Scotland. He joined the China Mail as a sub-editor and reporter (some say printer) in 1864. In 1875 he became sole proprietor of the China Mail and in 1879 took over the editorship of the paper himself. With N. B. Dennys he started the China Review in 1872. The China Mail was edited from Wyndham Street, a short distance away from the Hong Kong Telegraph on Pedder's Hill. Bain, unlike Fraser-Smith, appears to have been pious, temperate, and acutely respectable.\n\n35 Hong Kong Telegraph, 27 December, 1888.\n\n36 'Drey' was the name of a Sedang locality.\n\n37 China Mail, 24 January, 1889.\n\n38 Hong Kong Telegraph, 25 January, 1889.\n\n39 7 January, 1889.\n\n40 Sir Hugh Clifford, Heroes of Exile, London, 1906, pp. 69-70. Clifford states that it was the Hong Kong merchants 'who had paid his (Mayréna's) passage and had supplied his Majesty with a little ready money' and that they had been actuated partly by a desire to remunerate one from whom they had derived so much entertainment'. Sir Hugh Clifford (1866-1941), a colonial administrator, who served in Pahang from 1887 to 1899, was, apparently, in Hong Kong in late 1888; it is possible that he had taken local leave but I have been unable to confirm the fact.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207014, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "BRIDGEMAN'S LETTERS FROM CHINA AND HONG KONG\n\n79\n\nThe obvious solution would have been to obtain leave home, but, as Orlando explained to Selina, this was not easily achieved.\n\nMy mother in her last letter says to me \"get leave and join us there (on the continent) this winter.\" She little knows the difficulty of getting leave in India.* It will be given first to the senior subalterns for a couple of years, or perhaps three and when they return then as many more as can be spared, always in rotation. It will be therefore several years before it comes to my regular turn for leave. No dear pussy, the only way that I can get home is by exchanging, and the sooner you can manage it for me, the better.8**\n\nBridgeman's immediate future was to be spent in Hong Kong, where he arrived in November 1842 and was to remain until he left for the voyage home in late 1843. His first letter from Hong Kong recorded a visit to Macao, a place which he seems to have found pleasant and enjoyable. He was very impressed by the \"continental\" character the homes and gardens of the merchants gave to Macao. And, like so many visitors to Macao at that time, he was most impressed with the famous \"living\" bird of paradise kept in an aviary there.\n\nHong Kong, though, he did not find so pleasant or interesting, nor did he find the activities of his fellow officers compatible with his own concepts of recreation:\n\nI am going this afternoon to see the thoughtless part of the garrison play cricket. I call them thoughtless because I conceive it to be perfect madness on the part of any man to play cricket under a vertical sun. For my own part I never join in sports that require such strong exercise, for more reasons than one. In the first place I dislike exerting myself and putting myself into a profuse perspiration when perfectly unnecessary, and in the next place so much exposure to the sun is most likely to bring on fever and ague to a ten times worse degree than I at present have it, and I have no great desire to leave my bones\n\n* Hong Kong and China in military parlance of the period were considered extensions of India. This probably came about because many of the troops sent out to China were on Indian service and/or Indian service conditions.\n\n\"Exchanging\" meant that Bridgeman would trade places with another officer of similar rank in another regiment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207122, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n187 \n\nas the property of three Parsee merchants. Later, it appears, two of the owners sold out and she became the sole property of one Cursetzee Cawasjee. The closing entry says that the “Castle Huntly” was lost on Lincoln's Shoal some four hundred miles south of Hong Kong on 23rd October 1845, while on a voyage from China to Bombay. \n\nLloyd's List confirms that the Master of the ship at the time of her loss was a Captain McIntyre and adds that the Master, Officers, Passengers and part of the crew were saved and landed at Hong Kong. \n\nSome further details obtained from another source indicate that before 1829 the \"Castle Huntly\" sailed with the East India Company, and log books up to that time are still extant. These reveal that in 1829 the Governor of Mauritius was a passenger, and that later in the same year there was a mutiny by the crew. \n\nThe ship is mentioned in a book by Basil Lubbock entitled Opium Clippers, as having sailed regularly in this trade between Calcutta and the Canton River in 1835. It seems probable that when she met her end she was still engaged in carrying opium to China. \n\nThis is the story as well as we have been able to discover it, but it leaves some very interesting questions unanswered. The ship was lost on 23rd October, but the date of Elizabeth Ann's death is given as 21st October. Did she die in Hong Kong waters, and was her body put ashore on Shek Kwu Chau at the start of what was to prove the ship's last voyage? And why choose Shek Kwu Chau, which at that time was Chinese territory? It may have been that the master was anxious to make full use of the northeast monsoon which could well have been blowing at that time of the year. \n\nAgain, whence came the tombstone? It is of granite, but a University geologist has given his opinion that it is not of Hong Kong origin. Was it brought to the island at a later date and placed over the lonely grave? These questions may never receive an answer, but to us of a later generation the odd fact is that Elizabeth Ann's remains are to be found on an island now given over to repairing the damage caused by the trade in which her husband was engaged. \n\nJEAN MOORE", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207144, "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": 215, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n209 \n\nto Dr. Peter Young of the Hong Kong Dispensary, but Dr. Young was prevented from building on it by the Governor's Notification of 10 April 1843, that no further building was to continue until after the signing of a Treaty determining the future of Hong Kong as a British possession. Both of the lots were later resumed by Government and a Police Station was built on the site. \n\nAcross the Queen's Road and on the sea front from “Jorrock's Hall\" was the business establishment of Gillespie operated in Captain Thomas Larkin's godown. Here he sold general provisions and goods suitable for trade with the Pacific Islands. Larkin's Godowns were just west of another extensive range of buildings called the Albany Godowns. They were built to store the goods of Chinese merchants, but they were not a financial success and stood empty or partially used for a number of years. Finally the land reverted to government in 1847. In 1855 both Larkin's Godown and the Albany Godowns were resold by Government and in the 1860's they were used for McGregor's Barracks by the Military, giving the present McGregor Street its name, \n\n(3) VISIT TO OLD WESTERN DISTRICT, SATURDAY, 8 JUNE, 1974 \n\nRoute Instructions \n\nMeet at Chinese Recreation Ground, Possession Point (the British flag was raised here in January 1841). \n\nEnter Possession Street and visit: 1) Offices of the Tung Kwun Trade Assn. (including the roof, from which an excellent view can be obtained); 2) The Foo Lung Restaurant (2nd and 3rd floors only). \n\nThe Tung Kwun District Commercial Association, as the Tung Yee Hop Tong, was founded in 1893. There are several interesting photographs and inscriptions in this office. \n\nFrom there the group will go along Fat Hing Street — a lane with many embroidery stores in it to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West. The Association owns the whole building and its office occupies the 2nd floor. The interior is practically the same with photographs, furniture and inscriptions as provided in 1915 when the Association was founded. The Association dates in fact from much earlier, around 1875, under the name of a Tong or 'Hall' (****).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207146, "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": 217, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n211\n\nNote the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok.\n\nDuring this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment.\n\nFootnote:\n\n1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building.\n\n2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong.\n\n3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office.\n\nAdditional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith\n\n(a) The Development of West Point\n\nThe area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach.\n\nDr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name:\n\nOn January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207153, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "218 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\ncame about at the time of the building of the Ko Shing Theatre in 1870. The theatre gave its name to the old Praya when the sea was reclaimed near the turn of the century. Today a new building is being built on the site of the theatre. Two lanes were left on either side. The western one was called Kom Yu and the eastern Wo Fung. A short lane, Pan Kwai, ran off Wo Fung. It contained five family houses on each side. It no longer exists, as the Ko Shing Telephone Exchange has been built over it. Tsung Sau Lanes East and West were developed between 1877 and 1879, as was also In Ku Lane and Sutherland Street with its godowns. Li Sing Street was opened later.\n\nAs an illustration of the diversity of shops conducted on Queen's Road, the 1885 Rate and Valuation Table lists the following between Queen's Street and Wilmer Street: four each of chandlers, druggists and barbers; three each of tin smiths, merchants and tea dealers; two each of coopers, shoes, scales, lamps, lumber and tobacco; and one each of iron, cotton, silk, joss paper, pickles, rice, pawnshop, mason, carpenter, eating house, marine store, copper smith and gun smith.\n\nCurrently much redevelopment is taking place, but some of the old alleys, particularly In Ku, still retain buildings erected when they were first opened a hundred years ago. Queen's Road still has the same variety of shops and Ko Shing Street is still lined with Nam-pak business hongs.\n\n(b) Chinese Tea Houses\n\n(1) A Chinese friend has supplied the following Note:\n\nCha Kui (**茶居**) is the old, local name for a Chinese Tea House. It is a special type of Chinese restaurant catering exclusively for tea-lovers. Tea drinking or Yum Cha (**飲茶**) has been a long-standing pastime with the people of the Kwangtung Province to which Hong Kong once belonged. It is popular with poor and rich alike. A tea house is sometimes looked upon as a gathering place for meeting people, talking with friends or for taking leisure in a friendly atmosphere. Most tea-house goers used to go to the same tea house everyday and also at almost the same time of the day and it is also customary that they ask for the same kind of tea each time they go. In a sense, a tea house for Cantonese people is much like and comparable to a 'pub' for English people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207237, "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": 5, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nTREASURER's Report\n\nTHE LIBRARY: and the Library Rules\n\nTRANSACTIONS OF THE BRANCH :\n\nI\n\nPage\n\n1\n\n9\n\n13\n\n16\n\nA Hong Kong Spirit-Medium Temple-JOHN T. MYERS\n\nMerchant Organisations in Late Imperial China: Patterns of Change and Development-WELLINGTON K. K. CHAN\n\n28\n\nChina's Economic Planning and Changing Geography—CHIAO-MIN HSIEH\n\n43\n\n∞ NOA\n\n48\n\n61\n\n71\n\n88\n\nARTICLES:\n\nIncident between the Hong Merchants and the Super-cargoes of the British East India Company in Canton, 1811—J. L. Cranmer-BYNG\n\nThe Great Plague of Hong Kong-E. G. PRYOR\n\nNotes on Chiuchow Opera-Helga Werle\n\nCondition of the European Working Class in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong-HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE\n\nThe Employment of Foreign Military Talent: Chinese Tradition and Late Ch'ing Practice-RICHARD J. SMITH\n\n113\n\nThe Pacific Oyster Industry in Hong Kong-BRIAN MORTON AND P. S. WONG\n\nCaptive Surgeon in Hong Kong: the Story of the British Military Hospital, Hong Kong 1942-1945- DONALD C. Bowie\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\n...\n\nThe Pottery Kilns at Wun Yiu, Tai Po-J. W. HAYES\n\nThe Noon Day Gun-CARL T. SMITH\n\nThe German Congregation in Hong Kong until 1914-CARL T. SMITH\n\n139\n\n150\n\n291\n\n292\n\n292\n\n295\n\nBoat People's Ceremonies observed from Island House, Tai Po-D. AKERS JONES\n\n300\n\nThe RAS Photographic Survey in Hong Kong—H. A. RYDINGS\n\n311\n\nChief Marshal T'ien, patron of the stage, of musicians and wrestlers-East and South East China-K. G. STEVENS\n\n303\n\nChang Yu-tang and an old Hanging Scroll from Cheung Chau-FRANCIS S. Y. SHAM AND JAMES Hayes\n\nHung Hom: an Early Industrial Village in Old British Kowloon-Carl T. SMITH AND JAMES HAYES\n\nTyphoon Preparations in 1903\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n318\n\n324\n\n327", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207273, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA\n\n33\n\nbuffeted the Chinese state, the need for social services grew rapidly. In the urban areas, merchants organised themselves in new groups with the specific purpose of offering relief and good works. The new organisation was known as a shan-tang charitable hall or hospital. These charitable halls became popular first in the area around Shanghai, where a large number of them were founded during the 1850's and 1860's. From about 1870, they were imitated in Canton and Hong Kong.\n\nAccording to the nineteenth century scholar-official, Feng Kuei-fen, the concept of charitable halls as permanent establishments of private social welfare dated back to the Shang and Chou dynasties.13 Until the mid-nineteenth century, only Shanghai had a few in existence. One traced its origin to 1374 while another, a centre catering to orphaned children, dated back to 1710.14 In Canton there was no charitable hall until 1870, when the Ai-yü shan-t'ang was established by a group of merchants. Its prospectus specifically stated that it was modelled after P'u-yü of Shanghai.15 At about the same time, merchants in Hong Kong, with the local government support, initiated a hospital, the Tung Wah Hospital, to offer Chinese style medical treatment to the poor. Its services were later expanded into famine relief and it became the major centre receiving contributions from overseas Chinese.\n\nBy 1900, eight more charitable halls were built in Canton to form the \"Nine Great Charitable Halls\" of Canton (Chiu-ta shan-t'ang).16 In Hong Kong, one other major merchant charitable hall was opened in 1882. This was called the Po Leung Kuk (Pao-liang chu) or the \"Society for the Protection of Women and Girls.\"18 Other communities followed the pattern. The format of the two Hong Kong organisations was particularly favoured by the overseas Chinese who retained or changed slightly the names Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk throughout Southeast Asia.20\n\nMerchants as Community Leaders\n\nThe rise of charitable halls in urban settings meant that merchants had assumed a leadership role which in other times had been held only by the scholar-gentry members. Down to 1949, the latter maintained their commanding position in the villages and small towns. But in the large commercial centres like Canton and Soochow, even though there were no lack of upper gentry members, the merchants took over the lead in providing social services. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207275, "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA\n\n35\n\nbuildings and roads destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Collaboration of this sort gave these merchant leaders a greater voice over taxation and other local public affairs.23 The same guild leaders joined charitable organisations because their larger numbers offered them a wider base of support.\n\nAs the merchants assumed a leadership role in providing social services and welfare, they gradually took over responsibilities and privileges which went along with their work. Because permanent charitable organisations could cut across guilds and sometimes Landsmannschaften, they claimed that their leadership was based on community-wide support. And since they were merchants, they should be identified as merchant leaders to whom matters affecting the merchants would be referred. Moreover, these merchants were elites in their own communities, and were regularly referred to as \"titled merchants” (shen-shang). Even as individuals, they had some political influence with the local officials. But unless they had begun as gentry or officials, such influence rested on no legitimate basis. When they organised themselves in institutions which had a communal purpose, they quickly used them to claim legitimate leadership.\n\nThis was what happened by the late nineteenth century. In Hong Kong, the board of directors of the Tung Wah Hospital quickly gained the right to present petitions to the Hong Kong government on all matters related to the Chinese community. Institutionally, the hospital was put under the jurisdiction of the Registrar General, after 1913 styled the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who also served as its patron. By the early 1880's, the board opened up another channel when the Governor-general's Office in Canton began to correspond with it. There is some indication that the directors acted as a kind of information centre and advisory board for the Governor-general on matters involving the overseas Chinese.24 To this day, a seat on the board of directors of either the Tung Wah Hospital or the Po Leung Kuk still represents the government's recognition of each occupier's leadership status.\n\nIn Canton, charitable organisations, too, quickly became a regular channel of communication between the government and the merchants. In early 1886, when news of the San Francisco race riots against Chinese workers reached Canton and Hong Kong, the Chinese government wrote to the directors of the Ai-yü shan-t’ang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207276, "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": 44, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "36 \n\nWELLINGTON K. K. CHAN \n\nand the Tung Wah Hospital asking them to discourage the populace from rash and violent reactions.25 The merchants themselves also looked to them to provide leadership. In the same episode, the large Chinese Landsmannschaft (Chung-hua hui-kuan) in San Francisco sent an account of the riots to these two organisations and asked them to petition the Chinese government on its behalf.26 Contemporary newspapers reported many instances in which merchants and officials referred cases to them for arbitration.27 In 1901, the Hong Kong newspaper, the Hua-tzu jih-pao, summed up the development of the charitable halls in Canton in this way: The charitable halls had begun with the aim of offering private social welfare, but they had since assumed a number of political roles. They were consulted by the officials on various occasions; as when surtaxes were needed, when commercial policies were decided upon, and when social disturbances in the community arose. The government regarded them as an organ where \"titled merchants\" (shen-shang and shen-tung) expressed the opinions of the merchant community. When the government sought their opinion, they deliberated with representatives of the various guilds, assessed their views, and then passed their judgements on to the government.28 \n\nTowards Community-wide Organisations \n\nBesides the charitable halls, there were other types of merchant organisations which sought to embrace community-wide concerns. Mark Elvin's recent study on Shanghai shows the rise of specialised agencies in which gentry and merchants joined efforts in providing municipal services from the mid-nineteenth century on. In 1905, their activities culminated in the formation of the City Council of Shanghai.29 In Newchuang and in Swatow, the guilds in each of these localities got together and formed permanent assemblies. The Newchuang Grand Assembly (ta-hui) was composed of principal Chinese merchants and financiers of the city. It had two areas of responsibilities. First, as a combination of merchant guilds it was concerned with the laying down and the enforcement of trading rules between guilds. Second, it provided unofficial municipal services supplementing what the local government did. They included maintaining the streets, a public water supply and some social welfare.30 In Swatow, the Wen-nien-feng Assembly was concerned with regulating differences between the guilds. It also dominated the Swatow Landsmann guilds in the various cities, so", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207278, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "38 \n\nWELLINGTON K. K. CHAN \n\nCharitable halls in Shanghai did not display the same amount of community leadership even though they should have had a greater community base than the guilds. The reason seems obvious. Charitable halls dominated in communities where the merchants had no problem of collaboration because of differences in dialects or in regional customs. Hence their pre-eminence in places like Canton and Hong Kong. In Shanghai, the cultural gaps between, say, a Cantonese and a Ningpo merchant were often insurmountable. In the final analysis, charitable halls, like the formalised committees of guilds and Landsmannschaften, failed to grow into truly community-wide institutions. \n\nAchievements \n\nMerchant leaders in nineteenth century China were adept at adjusting their organisations to the changing needs of the day. By building up different types of organisations, they hoped to acquire first, broader economic and social interests; second, a large community base; and third, greater political leadership responsibility. As a result, these leaders were singularly successful in the first, especially in providing social welfare and municipal services, but were only partially successful in the second. Thus, in the more homogenous commercial centres such as Canton and Swatow, the charitable halls and the assembly commanded a community base far larger than the traditional guilds, but could not win the allegiance of the entire community. In other places like Shanghai, where the merchant leaders came from several provinces, it was more difficult to set up community-wide organisations. Even the chamber of commerce which followed these organisations and which had explicit aim of involving each entire community was unable to do without sectional interests. \n\nThe Shanghai chamber was dominated by the Ningpo merchants from its inception in 1904 to at least the 1920's.35 The Canton chamber had seven vice-presidents (fu-pan) who were elected by the various guilds from among the chamber directors.36 The most extreme assertion of this form of group separatism was written into the bylaws of the overseas Chinese chamber of commerce in Singapore. There, two concurrent presidents were elected by the two most powerful Hokkien and Teochiu (i.e. Ch'ao-chou) merchant groups, while a specific number of vice-presidents and directors were assigned, in diminishing sizes, to these two and three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207288, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT BETWEEN HONG MERCHANTS AND THE SUPERCARGOES OF THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY IN CANTON, 1811.\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG*\n\nA detailed account of this incident was recorded by the senior officer on the British side, Captain the Hon. Hugh Lindsay,† the Commodore of the East India Company's fleet at that time. It is in the form of a letter to his sister, Lady Anne Barnard, undated, and was printed in The Lives of the Lindsays by Lord Lindsay, 2 vols., London, 1849. A full copy of this letter, retaining the original punctuation, has been supplied by Mr. Tom Lindsay, a long-time member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is worth printing because of the details it supplies which are missing in the brief account of the same episode in Hosea Ballou Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635-1834, Vol. III, Oxford 1926, p. 156.\n\nHistorians of early Anglo-Chinese relations, and of the British East India Company's trade with China, have to rely to a great extent for their material on Morse's five substantial volumes. It is worth examining, at this point, how Morse wrote these volumes which are based on a massive collection of hand-written documents.\n\n* Professor Cranmer-Byng belongs to the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He was the first Hon. Editor of this Journal and has contributed to it from time to time.\n\nHon. Hugh Lindsay was a younger brother of Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and 23rd Earl of Crawford. A note at the bottom of page 400 of Vol. II of Lives of the Lindsays states:\n\nMr. Hugh Lindsay was for many years Member of Parliament for the burghs of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Cupar and St. Andrews, and Marshal of the Admiralty.\n\nIn the text on the same page it is stated that he was also a Director and Chairman of the East India Company. He died in April 1844 in his eightieth year. The biographical note goes on:\n\nHugh Hamilton Lindsay Esq., his only son, and long a resident in China, is the author of the extremely interesting 'Voyage of the Amherst, — along two thousand miles of the coast of China,- published in 8vo. by a speculating bookseller, from his report to the East India Co., which was printed by order of Parliament.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207289, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. co.\n\n49\n\non the E.L.C.'s China trade. These documents he read in the India Office Library in London, in the early 1920s, at a time when there was no such thing as xeroxing or microfilming. Morse, therefore, had to read through this enormous mass of documents in the different original handwritings, and always within the confines of the old India Office Library. Morse used his own judgment on what to quote verbatim from the documents, and how much space, if any, to allot to each episode or problem. Often he simply made a brief summary in his own words. Thus what we read is Morse's version of the gist of the E.I.C. records. But this is a personal view, and whenever possible, it is useful to be able to compare his account of an incident with that of another eye witness. This is the justification for printing Lindsay's account in this article, and comparing it with the half page précis given by Morse.\n\nBefore beginning, however, it is necessary to sketch in the background to this incident. Lindsay states vaguely that \"the Hong merchants had some pecuniary demands which the supercargoes thought it their duty to resist....\" Morse devotes nine pages to the relations between the Hong merchants and the supercargoes in Canton, and to explaining the bankruptcy of two Hong merchants and the measures being taken by the other merchants, and also the senior Chinese officials in Canton, to get the E.I.C.'s representatives to pay their debts. This imbroglio was confused still further by the murder of a Chinese man in January 1810. Suspicion pointed to one or more seamen serving on the E.I.C.'s ships, but no positive proof was forthcoming so no one was arrested. According to Chinese legal principles someone must be arrested and punished in the case of a homicide, even if the guilt of the arrested man was only circumstantial. The magistrate in whose jurisdiction in Canton the E.I.C. supercargoes lived began to exhort them, in December 1810, to produce the culprit(s), and threatened that failure to comply would result in a stoppage of trade. This was a familiar threat which the supercargoes themselves were quite adept at using under the right circumstances since neither they, nor the Chinese officials, really wanted trade to stop; it was mutually lucrative. On the 23rd January, 1811 the Viceroy (Governor-general of Kwangtung-Kwangsi) left his post on transfer, and the Governor of Kwangtung and the Hoppo (Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung) were left in charge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207291, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.I. CO.\n\n51\n\nI might have been able to have furnished you and my country with some lasting memorial of services rendered in that naval field where so much fame has so honourably been acquired; but you are aware that my career in that service was cut short by the entire stop to promotion which took place at the close of the American war in the year 1782; and the sea service of the East India Company, which I then adopted, gave but little scope for anything worth relating; however, on one occasion, in China, I was placed in a situation the account of which you may perhaps think worthy of a place in your collection.\n\nIn 1811 I was commodore of a large and valuable fleet belonging to the East India Company, then lying in the port of Canton.\n\nIn Canton all mercantile business is carried on by Chinese appointed by the Government and styled Hong or security merchants; they are selected from the richest and most respectable persons in Canton, and through them only can the supercargoes, our residents in China, have intercourse with the Hoppo, or Viceroy.1\n\nThese merchants have therefore the power of withholding all representations to the Government which may be against their private interest, or otherwise disagreeable to them by exposing the extortions and impositions they frequently attempt on the English.\n\nOn the occasion I am now going to relate the Hong merchants had some pecuniary demands which the supercargoes thought it their duty to resist.— the consequence of which was that misrepresentations were made by them to the Viceroy, and, when the fleet was ready to sail, the port-clearance was refused.\n\nAfter various ineffectual efforts to obtain our despatch, Mr. Brown, the chief supercargo, sent for me and expressed his anxiety at the unlooked-for detention of the very valuable fleet which was ready for sea. He informed me he had sent several petitions by the security merchants to the Hoppo, but he had reason to believe that\n\n1 Hoppo, or Viceroy. This mistake shows how dangerous it is to read the account of an eye witness of that time without making sure that his/her facts are correct. The Viceroy was the Westerners' name for the Governor-general of two provinces. Working in association with him was the Governor (Fu-yuan) of Kwangtung with his headquarters at Canton. Independent of these two great mandarins stood the Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Kwangtung who was the Emperor's direct financial representative at Canton, and was known to the English merchants as the Hoppo, this being a corruption of the Chinese name of the department of government at the capital under which he served, the hu-pu (Board of Revenue).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207292, "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": 60, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "52\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nthey had never been presented, and that one which he had ordered to be carried to the city-gate had also been stopped by them in its progress. Mr. Brown declared it his positive determination to resist the pecuniary demands made by the Hong Merchants, and stated it to be his firm belief that, could a petition be conveyed to the Hoppo's own hand, the sailing of the fleet would no longer be delayed.\n\nIt now occurred to me that I might find a way of obtaining this desirable object by gaining access to the Viceroy; I therefore suggested to Mr. Brown the propriety of the commanders and officers of the fleet presenting themselves at the great gate of the city, headed by myself as commodore, with a petition in the Chinese language, addressed, by my particular desire, \"To the Viceroy\", in large Chinese characters,--and this I said, I would endeavour to get conveyed by some means into the Viceroy's own hand.\n\nMr. Brown agreed to my proposal, and said he would confide in my prudence to carry it into effect. I then requested I might be accompanied by Sir George Staunton, or some one of the interpreters belonging to the factory, but this Mr. Brown declined,—permitting Mr. Perry, one of the supercargoes to go along with me.\n\nWhen I left Mr. Brown, he believed it was my intention only to go to the city-gate, as was the usual practice, present the petition there, and endeavour, by waiting, to get an answer: but I was well aware, on the present occasion, of how little use this would be, and I determined to get into the city, if possible, to reach the Viceroy's palace and to deliver the petition to him in person; however, as my success was very doubtful, I did not disclose my intentions to any one, but determined to act as circumstances might direct.\n\nThe petition stated, \"That the commodore, the commanders, and officers of the fleet, having finished the business which brought them to China, and having carefully observed all the laws and regulations of the port, were desirous of departing, but were informed by the security merchants that his Excellency the Viceroy had refused the port-clearance without assigning any cause for so doing, —that the petitioners, believing in the justice of the Viceroy, had reason to doubt that the detention arose from some misrepresentations made to him by the merchants for their own private purposes, -they therefore prayed the Viceroy would give them permission to depart\".\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207295, "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": 63, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & B.E.L. CO.\n\n55\n\nretired, and shortly after made their appearance in magnificent uniforms, and drew up in a body opposite to us.\n\nThe palace gate now opened, and a Mandarin slowly advanced towards me; he addressed me in Chinese, to which I could only reply by shaking my head and showing him my petition. He put out his hand to receive it, but I drew back mine, and made a sign I wanted to go into the palace to deliver it. He shook his head, and seemed decidedly averse to such a proceeding.\n\nWe were soon relieved from this embarrassment by the arrival of the two senior security merchants, Mowqua and Howqua, the first a fine old man of upwards of eighty years of age, and it was supposed that to those two we principally owed our detention,- the rest of the Hong came soon after.\n\nMowqua was in great agitation when he arrived, and addressed me in his usual Chinese-English, “Ah! Mister Commodore, what for you come here? you want security merchants have cutty head? Hoppo truly much angry English come his house, he will cutty my poor old head.\"-My reply was, \"Mowqua! it is your own fault; why did you not present the Typan's (chief supercargo's) petition to the Hoppo? had you done so, I should not have come here.\"-\"Good Mister Commodore, me takey petition, and will truly get answer directly.\"--\"No, no, Mowqua! I will give it into the Hoppo's own hand myself”,--on which all the security merchants set up a cry as if I had uttered some treason against the Celestial Empire, What you come here? you wanty see Hoppo? That you no can do-Hoppo send you to prison as soon as he know you come him house—we takey petition before he know you come city-get out fast you can; truly he too much angry he know you here.”\n\nThere now appeared a Mandarin of high rank, to whom the merchants paid great respect; he came up to Captain Craig, Mr. Perry and myself, who were standing with the two senior security merchants in front of our party; he, with civility, enquired what we wanted? and was instantly replied to by Mowqua, but I was determined to be my own interpreter. I therefore held up the petition for him to read the address, and made signs as before that I wanted to go into the palace to present it. This compelled Mowqua to come to an explanation with the Mandarin, who left us, as I supposed, to inform the Hoppo of our being there; he soon returned,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207296, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "56\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nhowever, and held another consultation with the Hong merchants, who again informed me that I could not possibly see the Viceroy, and that I must entrust the petition to their care.\n\nOn this I thought it right to consult with Mr. Perry, Captain Craig, and some other senior commanders, whether they advised my yielding the point and giving up the petition. I however gave it as my own decided opinion that we should still persevere in demanding an audience, and in this I was supported by all but Mr. Perry, who thought we ought not to persist any longer. I however determined to resist, and informed the Hong merchants that nothing but force should compel us to leave the palace without an interview.\n\nI was the more inclined to persevere, from one of the junior merchants having whispered in my ear not to give up my point, and that he, and several other of the Hong, did not approve of what the seniors had been doing.\n\nAfter a long pause, Mowqua said to me, if I was resolved to see the Hoppo I must send away all the commanders and officers except one, and that he and I should then be admitted into the palace. To this I instantly agreed, and it was settled that Mr. Perry, the supercargo, should be the person to remain with me, and that Captain Craig and the rest of the party should retire out of the city, which they accordingly did.\n\nMr. Perry and myself were now left in the court of the Hoppo's palace, surrounded by a great number of Mandarins, Hong merchants, and soldiers; the Mandarin who took the lead then showed us into a large and splendid hall in the palace, where we were accompanied by the Hong merchants, who appeared extremely disconcerted at our success. It was now near twelve o'clock, and from that time until four every effort by promises, persuasion, and threats, was made use of by the Hong to prevail on me to give up the desire of seeing the Hoppo, but without effect; I was perfectly decided and firm, although frequently and most anxiously urged by Mr. Perry to yield the point.\n\nFinding that I was not to be moved, Mowqua at last told me I should soon see the Viceroy,—\"And now, Mister Commodore, when great man come, you must knocky head.\"—\"What is knocky head, Mowqua?” said I.—\"You must down on knees, and putty head on ground\", was the reply.—\"That's not my country fashion, Mowqua—I don't do so to my King, therefore will not do so to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207299, "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": 67, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "INCIDENT: H.K. MERCHANTS & BEI. CO.\n\n59\n\nvolumes on official documents, 1 should prefer to accept his version as more likely. From a wide reading of Morse's Chronicles I have found other instances when a threat from the E.I.C. supercargoes was sufficient to make the Canton officials allow the fleet to sail or trade to reopen; but never the next day. The officials always needed some means of delay and therefore of saving face.\n\nBy way of comparison a similar incident involving Lindsay's only son, Hugh Hamilton Lindsay, in 1831 is worth looking at. Hugh Hamilton Lindsay entered the East India Company's service as a young man and passed through the various ranks until by 1831 he was a supercargo. This story begins in May 1831 when the Governor suddenly and unexpectedly ordered that part of the factory's grounds be destroyed, a linguist put in chains and a Hong merchant sent to gaol. The supercargoes received a copy of an imperial mandate ordering them to comply with a restatement of all the existing restrictions on foreigners. The Select Committee decided to warn the Chinese authorities that if they persisted in enforcing all the regulations these would be resisted, even if it meant withdrawing from trade at Canton. The members of the Committee decided to send Hugh Hamilton Lindsay to Canton (they had recently returned to the E.I.C. premises in Macao for the summer) to hand over the keys of the Company's factory to the Hong merchants for them to deliver to the Governor, with a letter to the effect that they would no longer rent the factory while they were not safe from intrusion and destruction, and if no steps were taken to remedy the situation then trade would be suspended on 1st August 1831. The description of Lindsay's efforts to deliver the letter and the keys is given in Morse, Chronicles, Vol. IV, pp. 282-3. Lindsay didn't manage to persuade the Hong merchants to deliver the letter, but eventually the officer in command of the troops of the district, who customarily received petitions presented at the gates, accepted the letter and the keys of the factory. But he simply handed them to a Hong merchant with the order “None are to be received\". The dispute dragged on till the end of 1831 and occupies as far as page 323 in Vol. IV of Chronicles.\n\nIn the following year Lindsay was given a more congenial commission by the Select Committee. He was sent in the E.I.C. ship Lord Amherst (350 tons), with a cargo of various English cloths, for which he was to find out the probable demand and the prices", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207330, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "90\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nthat of cultural transmission. What was the nature and content of cultural transactions between those low status Chinese and Europeans who met at work, and sometimes socially?* Did working class Europeans play an equivalent role in Hong Kong as beachcombers and castaways in the South Seas??\n\nFinally, the problem of the relationship between low and high status Europeans in Hong Kong demands investigation, for although the two groups formed separate communities, it is clear that Taipans depended upon working class Europeans, such as policemen, for their private security and also skilled European workers for the successful running of their business enterprises in Hong Kong. These and other questions suggest that working class Europeans, although only a minor part of the total European population (if we exclude soldiers, sailors and merchant seamen), cannot be dismissed summarily as of little account in the social and economic development of Hong Kong. A thesis of this essay is that their importance has not been stressed sufficiently by historians and writers on colonial Hong Kong.\n\nTHE EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN HONG KONG\n\nBroadly speaking, working class Europeans in nineteenth century Hong Kong may be divided into five groups—(1) beachcombers; (2) police or those with quasi-police functions: inspectors, supervisors, and overseers in government employ; (3) soldiers, sailors and merchant seamen; (4) mechanics, artisans, and others in low status occupations; and (5) outcastes.† The divisions are not clear cut; there is a certain amount of overlapping; movement from group to group did take place. The divisions reflect a subjective ranking of occupations and statuses by middle class Europeans, such as merchants, in Hong Kong. In Britain at that time, supervisors and inspectors would have been regarded as members of the lower middle class; but in Hong Kong a telescoping of social classes took place because there was no true equivalent of a European proletariat, of manual workers. A European was accepted as either respectably middle class or as not—the acid test was one of commensality. Inevitably, a number of Europeans existed in a limbo\n\n* I have been unable to explore this subject as exhaustively as I would have wished, and suggest that it is a suitable subject for research.\n\n† For a contemporary instance see Halcombe (1896) p. 186.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207338, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "98\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nand debtors from Australia, as well as mercenaries and American deserters. The luckless ones became in time indistinguishable from beachcombers, the poor whites of the Colony.\n\nAt a rough estimate, about a third of the total European population (excluding soldiers, sailors, and seamen) would have been classified as working or lower class by the resident European middle class of merchants and government officials, and were treated as such by those implacably class-conscious Britons. In Hong Kong, the 'two nations'—of rich and poor Europeans—were not driven into social amalgamation by the fear of a common fate as aliens on the shores of far-away Cathay. A government clerk, who lived in Hong Kong in the 1850s, complained that:\n\nthe exclusiveness, jealousy and pride of 'caste' that have been so long and so justly attributed to our English brethren and sisters in our Indian possessions attain more luxuriant growth in China. The little community, far from being a band of brothers, is split up into numerous petty cliques or sets, the members of which never think of associating with those out of their immediate circle... Even here (England) one sees a somewhat similar state of society in many of our small country towns, where everyone knows everybody, and the minutest details of your neighbours' daily lives, manners and conversation, are noted with watchful assiduity. Anyone who has had the happiness to spend some time in one of these rural paradises can form a pretty good notion of the state of matters in an English colony, only that things are much worse.16\n\nIn 1885, an American found the same conditions prevailing, though possibly in a more exaggerated form:\n\nTo an American, it seems extremely silly for wholesale merchants and their clerks to hold themselves, socially, above the retail merchants and their clerks, regardless of the amount of business they do, and their moral and intellectual standing... Distance from Britain, far from loosening ties that bound Britons into a rigid world of class distinctions, tended to tighten them.17 The effects of these divisions will be discussed in a later section.\n\nSOCIAL LIFE OF THE EUROPEAN LOWER CLASS.\n\nUntil the cession of the Kowloon peninsula in 1860, most lower-class Europeans lived in the city of Victoria, especially in the streets", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207350, "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": 118, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "110\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\nautomatic entrée for the husband into Chinese society, and any Chinese woman who married a foreigner in those days was almost certainly herself a deviant within her own family. There were no means, therefore, by which a European could be initiated into, pass into, or achieve full membership of Chinese society. The cultural devices by which Europeans could become full members of American Indian or Pacific islands societies were not present in China. A working-class European was excluded from both polite European and Chinese society; he was forced to live in his own constricted social world, a type of marginal man; and those Europeans who married Chinese women tended to cluster together socially, to form their own minority group.\n\nCONCLUSIONS\n\nIn nineteenth-century Hong Kong the European and Chinese communities formed separate entities, so that two separate systems -- parallel systems of social stratification can be identified. The Chinese population was basically a migrant one; few Chinese were permanent residents of the colony. It would be more illuminating, however, to describe the two communities as status groups: in Max Weber's words, 'in contrast to classes, status groups are normally communities'.38 The European and Chinese communities were distinguished by specific styles of life, a characteristic of all status groups. These were in great contrast, vividly different, a fact which made absorption of members of one group by the other extraordinarily difficult.\n\nIt is a thesis of this paper that working-class Europeans existed on the periphery of both European and Chinese communities, although their presence was essential for the smooth running of the colonial economy and society. They lived, in other words, in a terrain vague between the communities. Sir James Cantlie was perfectly correct in affirming that European residents of crown colonies were mostly middle-class. There was usually an abundance of native labour in tropical and sub-tropical regions, so that no permanent plantation of working-class Europeans was normally attempted. On the other hand, there was always a constant demand for European supervisors of various types; without them Hong Kong merchants and officials could not have carried on with their respective activities.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207533, "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": 301, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n293 \n\nThe former had been purchased in 1859 at a Government Land Sale by an Austrian, Gustav Overbeck (later Baron von Overbeck), a partner in the firm of Dent and Co. In the following year, Lot 607 was granted by Government to the Berlin Women's Society as a site for their foundling hospital. The trustees were Overbeck and the Rev. Johann Ludwig Ladendorff. \n\nNew trustees were named in 1869, and of these, three were German merchants; Berthold Friedrich Johann Schwarzkopf, founder of the firm of Blackhead and Co., Friedrich August Julius Menke, of William Pustau and Co., and Gustav Overbeck. The other trustee was Ladendorff's successor as Superintendent of the Foundling Hospital, Rev. Ernest Klitzke. \n\nIn 1892, Lot 624 was purchased by the Government. The remaining lot was registered in the name of the Director in Hong Kong of the Berlin Ladies Mission for China, incorporated by Ordinance No. 12 of 1889. At the time of the First World War, the property was administered as alien property. Finally, in 1925, it was surrendered to Government. \n\nAs residents of an English colony with a predominant Chinese population, those for whom English or Chinese is not a first language tend to organize groups where they can use their mother tongue. A German Club was organized in Hong Kong in 1859, and by 1867 a recognized German church congregation was meeting regularly. \n\nGerman church services had been held previous to 1867, however. A report of the Berlin Society concerning its activities in 1858 mentions the baptism of a certain Lydia (Wei-mong) “at a German service at Victoria”. The Day Book of the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, of the Basel Missionary Society, notes on May 19, 1861, attendance at a German service on Morrison Hill, where the premises of the Berlin Society were located before they occupied \"Bethesda\" in July, 1861. Another Basel Society missionary, the Rev. Philip Winnes, in 1858 reported, \"I preached to the German sailors, for there are always ships arriving from Hamburg and Bremen. Also this year a poor German established a German Inn for sailors, where always a few people are staying until they can find employment. In this inn, I preached until the sailors had had enough, and that they had quite soon.” (Heidenbote, March, 1858, p. 15).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207582, "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": 350, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n341\n\n16 This mountain is clearly marked in the map (pl. CXIV of Vol. II) of the book review. In addition, according to Chun kuo ku-chin ti-ming ta tzu-tien \"Dictionary of Ancient and Present Place Names in China\", edited by Tsang Li-ho and others (1933, 2nd edition, Shanghai), p. 135, Mt. Tien-chu is at the northwest of Chien-shan in the present western An-hui Province.\n\n17 In Tung Shih-heng's Li-tai chiang-yu hsing-shih i-lan-t'u (1914, Shanghai), Map 3 (Chan-kuo ch'i-hsung-t'u A Map of the Seven Strong States during the Warring States period); again in Watari Yanai's Toyo Tokushi Chizu (1934, 3rd edition, Tokyo), Map 3; also in Albert Herrmann's A Historical Atlas of China (1966, 2nd edition, Chicago), Map 8 (The Contending States), the Huai River area is always marked as part of the territory of the State of Ch'u.\n\n18 This is to be seen in Fujiwara Sosui's Chokuoku shoho rokutai dai-jiten, Dictionary about Six Different scripts of Chinese calligraphy, (1960, Tokyo), pp. 615-616.\n\n19 See Chin Shu, History of the Chin Dynasty (1974, Peking punctuated edition), Chüan 40, (in Book V), p. 1366.\n\n20 Ibid., p. 1359.\n\n21 For the latest findings of scholars of this small circle, see Ho Ch'i-min: \"Chu-lin ch'i-hsien yen-chiu\" \"A study of the Seven Talents of the Bamboo Grove\", 1966, Taiwan.\n\n22 Po-hsüeh hung-tz'u. This examination, initiated in 731, the 19th year of the K'ai-yüan era during Emperor Hsüan-tsung's reign in the Tang Dynasty was during the Ch'ing Dynasty confined to some limited candidates primarily recommended by the Education Department in each province.\n\n23 For sound scholarship on the economic importance of Yang-chou during the Ch'ing Dynasty, see Prof. Ho Ping-ti: \"The Salt Merchants of Yang-chou: A Study of commercial capitalism in Eighteenth century China\", in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (1954, Cambridge), Vol. 17, pp. 130-168.\n\n24 Tsang Li-ho and others, op. cit., p. 923.\n\n25 The edition that the reviewer used is the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition, first wood-blocked in Canton in 1850.\n\n26 The Chinese title reads: \"44415447\".\n焦山看月分得辇字\n\n27 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 1b-p. 2a, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, (1937, Shanghai), hsü-chi (a supplementary collection), chüan 7, pp. 359-360 (In the Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts'ung-shu edition).\n\n28 The Chinese title reads: \"9493A7”.\n同作分得月字“\n\n29 In Chiao-shan chi it is to be found in p. 9a-9b, while in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi it is in hsü-chi, chüan 7, p. 360.\n\n30 In Ma Yueh-kuan's own Sha-ho i-lao hsiao-kao (also the Yüeh-ya-t'ang ts'ung-shu edition), it is to be found in chüan III, p. 17a-17b.\n\n31 The Chinese title reads: \"宿佛日淨慈\". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134.\n倪龍瘢痕\n\n32 The Chinese title reads: “晚起 撖上人導行黃萬峯下 倪龍瘢泉 尋龍”. It is in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 134.\n\n33 The Chinese title of this poem reads: \"...\". It is to be found in Fan-hsieh shan-fang chi, chüan 7, p. 135.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207659, "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": 47, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "32\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\nChina to Thailand where he worked for a Teochiu trading firm. He came to Hong Kong in 1842 to establish his own import/export firm which became active in the extensive trading between Southeast Asia and the sea ports of China. This person, and the man who established a certain company still well known among Teochiu merchants today, (★★★), are treated as the first important Teochiu merchants in Hong Kong. The former was also one of the original founders of the Tung Wah Hospital (★###), one of the most important charitable and prestigious Chinese organizations throughout the history of British Hong Kong. In 1892 this man served as the Chairman of the hospital board, a reflection of the prestige accorded him. It is interesting to note that of his nine sons, two became prominent in Teochiu; one established a textile factory in the family's home town and the other became active in politics in Swatow during the 1911 Revolution and later owned a utility company in Swatow. (Ching Hoi Clansmen's Assn, 1970: 55-57). The success of the enterprises of the two sons is presumably related to the commercial success of the father's firm in Hong Kong. This example illustrates the manner in which commercial networks were established between China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia and also partially explains Teochiu specialization in international trading in certain commodities, such as Chinese medicines and Thai rice. Teochiu firms in one country are likely to consider Teochiu firms in another country as potential business partners (there are exceptions of course) and thus the latter may easily acquire a semi-monopoly over commodities shipped from the former. International Teochiu friendship and kinship networks are undoubtedly an important basis for this intra-ethnic trading. Present-day Teochiu domination of the rice importation, wholesale and retail trade in Hong Kong illustrates the extent to which local commerce has been influenced by the development of Teochiu international networks.\n\nThe following brief discussion suggests the outlines of the development of Teochiu commercial relationships between Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Most of the firms mentioned below were presumably located in Nam Pak Hong. Prior to the establishment of Hong Kong in 1842, trade between Thailand and China was dominated by Teochiu in Thailand. A Teochiu publication states that after 1842 many Thai Teochiu came to Hong Kong expressly to expedite trade between Thailand and China and that Hong Kong Teochiu soon handled most of this trade (Hung, 1961:3). Trading", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207664, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "THE TEOCHIU: ETHNICITY IN URBAN HONG KONG\n\n37\n\nAs mentioned above, the sale of rice in Hong Kong has always been dominated by Teochiu businessmen. Prior to World War II, the importation of rice into Hong Kong was virtually controlled by Teochiu in that the exportation of rice from Thailand, Vietnam and Burma was almost exclusively managed by Teochiu merchants in Southeast Asia (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:91). Part of the imported rice was re-exported to Swatow and other cities in South China and Japan. Teochiu domination lessened following the introduction of a quota system for rice importation after World War II. However, Teochiu firms are still of considerable importance in the importation of rice. In 1955 the number of government-authorized rice importing firms was increased to 48; of these, 19 were owned or operated by Teochiu (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:92) The 12 Teochiu rice wholesale firms, representing one-third of the number of such firms, are responsible for 65% of all wholesale rice transactions. Not surprisingly, 1700 of the 2,000 or so rice retail shops in Hong Kong are run by Teochiu (Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce, 1971:92, 93). One Teochiu association estimates that 70,000 Teochiu, one-ninth of the total Teochiu population, earn their living from the sale of rice (that is, rice shop owners, employees or dependents of the former) (Cultural and Educational Association, 1964:34). This estimate is probably an overstatement but perhaps as many as 10% of all employed males are working in the rice trade. This specialization is clearly a result of and a reflection of the successful functioning of Teochiu international commercial networks.\n\nAnother pattern which is not reflected in the census occupation tables is the preponderance of Teochiu owned and operated shops of all kinds, including hawker stalls, cooked and uncooked food stalls in and around housing estates. No data is available classifying ownership of such small-scale businesses by ethnic group, but my own experiences suggest Teochiu ownership is considerably higher than the relative population sizes of different ethnic groups would suggest, even in areas of relatively low Teochiu residential concentration.\n\nAnother area of alleged Teochiu specialization is narcotic trafficking between Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Europe and the U.S. The production and distribution of heroin originating in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia is said to be largely controlled by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207723, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "96\n\nTIN-YUKE CHAR\n\ncountries in the hope to find suitable people to replenish our population. We have the productive land. Sugar and rice are our main and most profitable crops.\" The letter also mentioned that the Chinese did not bring their women and that it was dangerous to give them franchise because their numbers would be a threat to the Kingdom. The suggestion was to try India where the British had been successful in using their coolies in agricultural development of the colonies. Armstrong, however, later sent a report that the East Indians were not suitable nor desirable as immigrants to Hawaii. Minister Green had also written on January 18, 1881 to William Keswick, Hawaiian Consul General in Hong Kong to expect King Kalakaua's arrival and to assist Armstrong in obtaining a good class of Chinese immigrants to be accompanied by wives and children.\n\nFrom Hawaii the party first started for San Francisco where the Chinese Consul General entertained the Royal party at Hang Fen Lou Restaurant and took the occasion to thank the King for his kind treatment of the Chinese in Hawaii.\n\nSailing for Japan on the Oceanic, the Royal party arrived after twenty-four days at the Bay of Yedo on March 4, 1881 and landed at Yokohama. King Kalakaua wrote back from Tokyo on March 15, 1881, “Our reception has been most cordial and pleasant with the Emperor [Meiji]. He extended the hospitality of being his guest during our stay in the City of Tokio, occupying the same buildings that General Grant did when he was here and other distinguished guests, Prince Henri of Germany and the Duke of Genoa.”\n\nThe subject of possible Japanese emigration to Hawaii received some consideration by the Japanese officials. And on February 8, 1885, the first group of Japanese immigrants (676 men, 159 women, and 108 children) came to Hawaii. Major credit for this successful endeavor was due to \"the personal friendship of the Emperor of Japan for King Kalakaua.\" commented the editor of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.\n\nTo proceed to China, the party sailed on the Tokio Maru. Upon arrival at Shanghai, they were furnished the Pautah by the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company to take the Royal group to Tientsin. They had hopes of being received at Court in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207724, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881\n\n97\n\nPeking. The China Merchants Steam Navigation Company had been doing business with Hawaii. Their two steamers, the Ho-Chung ** and Mei-Foo, ✯✯ were used to transport Chinese laborers to Hawaii in 1879 and 1880.*\n\nIn Tientsin, King Kalakaua was received by Viceroy Li Hung-chang ✶ who asked penetrating questions about Hawaii: \"How many islands are there in your Kingdom? Do you have a Parliament? You have many Chinese in your country. Do you treat them well?\" The secretary and interpreter for the Viceroy was Li Sun (Tsang Lai-sun, a graduate of Hamilton College in New York.)\n\nThe King wrote back on April 6, 1881 to William L. Green, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, that he went to North China to see Li Hung-chang \"for the purposes I had in view: First, of stopping, if possible, further immigration of Chinese to the Islands [who came alone] without carrying their wives, and Secondly:--to secure for our government the same privileges as granted to the United States Government, the right at any time to restrict, return, or remove, the large influx of Chinese to our islands. On these two subjects our mission has been successful.”\n\nThe Royal party returned to Shanghai and embarked on the S. S. Thibet for Hong Kong, arriving on April 12, 1881. Already Hong Kong officials had been informed of the King's coming and were ready to extend a royal welcome. Owing to the considerable commerce between Hong Kong and Hawaii, the King was represented as Consul General by a British merchant of high standing William Keswick of Jardine, Matheson and Co. The twelve-oared barge of Sir John Pope Hennessy, the Colonial Governor, also appeared alongside with an invitation asking the King, in the name of Queen Victoria, to be his guest. The Hawaiian King had to adjust his schedule to accept the Governor's invitation for a royal reception at the Government House. As Armstrong recorded in his book, \"While we were taking coffee, the next morning, the forts, with seven warships, fired the usual salute of twenty-one guns. From the balcony of the Government House, high above the city, we looked down on a dense mass of smoke, rolling away to the mainland, pierced with the flashing of the guns, the Hawaiian flag", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207726, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881\n\n99\n\nkindly put me in communication with the British Minister in Rome so that I can command his good offices. . . . In the matter of decorations. Sir John ranks high among the Colonial Governors of England.\" And a Grand Cross of Kalakaua was later conferred on him.\n\nHong Kong Chinese merchants who traded with the people in Hawaii came to call on the King, and told him that their countrymen in his Kingdom appreciated the opportunities in the islands and were loyal to the Hawaiian government.\n\nAt the last State banquet in Hong Kong, as Armstrong reported, \"the lifeless air and heavy food made the King drowsy. The numerous receptions and late hours had deprived the King of sleep. His eyelids dropped . . . The Governor's wife was seated on the King's right, and I was seated next to her. I feared a nasal explosion if the King's doze should deepen, and devised ways of preventing it. It was a case of emergency. I whispered to the Governor's wife what my fears were, and asked her aid in preventing a loss of royal dignity. The clever wife of the Governor whispered to me, 'Will any special piece of music waken him up?' . . . She quietly called the majordomo, and in a minute the military band in the balcony filled the air with the music of 'Hawai'i Pono'i' (the Hawaiian National Anthem).\" The King woke up and the banquet ended.\n\nPage 100\n\nOn April 21, 1881, the Royal group left Hong Kong on the ship Killarney for Bangkok. Acting Consul General F. Bulkeley Johnson sent his report to W. L. Green, \"His Majesty the King and suite arrived here on the 12th [April] and left on the 21st April for Bangkok on a visit to the King of Siam.\"\n\nAnd the King and his party travelled to Singapore, Penang, Calcutta, Suez, Cairo, Rome, London, Brussels, Vienna, Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. King Kalakaua, in his July 12, 1881 letter from London, wrote of his meeting with Queen Victoria, “She came up to me and took my hand and then sat on a sofa asking me to sit down on a chair facing the sofa near her. She said that I was making a very long tour. I answered very fluently asked particularly where I learnt English as my accent was perfect.\" \n\nHomeward bound, the group crossed the Atlantic on the S. S. Celtic to New York. Then to Philadelphia, Washington, where he called on President Chester A. Arthur, and overland to California", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207727, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "TIN-YUKE CHAR\n\nand by boat to Honolulu, arriving on October 29, 1881, after a tour of nine months and eight days. The harbor of Honolulu was crowded with people welcoming the safe return of the King. The Royal Hawaiian Band played \"Home, Sweet Home.\" Arches entwined with flowers spanned the streets. The Chinese merchants of Honolulu erected a triumphal arch at the intersection of King and Fort Streets. As King Kalakaua mentioned in his July 3rd letter from Rome, \"The trip appears as if a mixed panorama and a dream. We have seen Emperors, Kings, temples, and pagodas until one gets apparently confused which end to commence and where and how it will be finished. So many varieties of the people, the different nationalities, the customs and scenery of the places we have visited that have made our travels so pleasant.\"\n\nAs one historian commented, \"The trip had been a great experience. Kalakaua had stood where Alexander the Great had stood and Julius Caesar, and Napoleon; and the foremost rulers of his own day had welcomed him with cannon salutes and guards of honor. Pomp and circumstance agreed with Kalakaua. He came home, more convinced than ever that a king should rule as well as reign.\"10\n\nAnother result of the King's tour was the legislative approval of his proposal to provide education in foreign countries for selected Hawaiian youths. This progressive policy was inspired by what he observed on his journey. One of the students sent abroad was Kapaa who went to China in 1883. The Reverend Andrew Happer in Canton was asked to be Kapaa's instructor and guardian as evidenced in the March 7, 1883 letter from Walter Gibson, then Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs, to F. Bulkeley-Johnson, Hawaiian Consul General in Hong Kong: \"that Mr. Kapaa's visit to China is made in pursuance of a resolution of the Legislature, providing for the education of Hawaiian youths. His Majesty the King desired that one of these should proceed to China and there study the Chinese language and customs. I, therefore, invoke your good offices on behalf of young Kapaa, who has been selected for this career, and shall be obliged by your placing him where he can learn the dialects (Cantonese and Hakka) chiefly spoken by the Chinese who are here, and the written language, acquiring at the same time familiarity with Chinese manners and ideas. I am, of course, anxious that while pursuing this course of study, Mr. Kapaa should not lose such European culture as he has acquired.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207899, "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": 287, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "272\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTo assist in this side of the Hospital's services it maintained a Coffin Depository. The present one is at Sandy Bay. Perhaps at some future date the Society will arrange a visit to it.\n\nWe have noted that General Rule No. 11 begins with the statement, \"The Hospital is not for the purpose of worshipping gods\". This statement, however did not prevent the Hospital from performing many functions that had religious significance.\n\nThe Social Significance of Tung Wah\n\n \n Societies tend to organize social groups in which membership confers a prestige generally recognized by the community. Qualifications for membership in such groups may vary. In traditional China the system of honorary degrees based on achievement in literary examinations and on subsequent official service created an elite class. In Hong Kong this traditional method of acquiring prestige status was replaced by membership of certain Chinese community organizations — and later official Government bodies and committees. Wealth was an important qualification for election or appointment to these status conferring bodies, but wealth was expected to be accompanied by a concern for the general welfare of the community. In commenting on the Tung Wah Committee, the American Consul in a despatch to the U.S. Secretary of State in 1875 says that \"the Association is largely composed of, and is controlled by, rich and retired Chinese merchants, who are directing themselves to morals, charity and benevolence.”\n \n\nIn the early period of Hong Kong history the Temple Committee was the major organization within the Chinese community conferring prestige. As we have noted, the Tung Wah Hospital Committee eventually replaced the Man Mo Temple Committee. It also took over its prestige conferring function. The emergence of a Chinese elite as represented by the Tung Wah Committee is discussed in my article in JHKBRAS, 11 (1971), pp. 74-115. This social function of Tung Wah is also set forth in the article by H.J. Lethbridge mentioned at the beginning of these notes.\n\nAccording to a statement made by \"a member of the Chinese Community\" in a letter to the editor of the China Mail in 1875, the recognition given to the members of the Committee rested upon popular vote by the Chinese community, and “as Government has no means of knowing who is most influential or most respectable among the Chinese, it begins to regard the ballot as the basis of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207902, "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": 290, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n275 \n\n(Lethbridge, 1971, p. 147). It was only when a \"respectable\" class of rich Chinese merchants and compradores emerged that a group existed which the colonial authorities could properly recognize as speaking for the Chinese community. The Chinese account states that the two patrons of the Temple \"judge the people (there) in public assembly\". In 1851 a proper Temple Committee was elected. It met at the Kung Soh (Public Meeting Hall), attached to the Temple, where all cases of public interest were decided. This judicial function by a self-organized Chinese institution is confirmed by the British Magistrates sending complainants to the Temple authorities for their arbitration of the disputes. For instance, in 1870 a case is mentioned in which the Kai-fong had imposed a fine upon a coolie for breaking a pane of glass.\n\nA year after the opening of Tung Wah Hospital the judicial proceedings formerly held at the Kung Soh of the Temple were moved to the Hall of the Hospital. This is reported in an editorial comment in the Daily Press (Jan. 2, 1873):\n\nThe old Joss House Court the Kung Soh in the Hollywood Road has, we hear, been given up in favour of another building not far off, and it seems that there a vast number of disputes are settled, and that it is an understood rule that matters should be brought to the cognizance of the proper authorities only if they cannot be arranged in this manner. We understand the committee of the Chinese Hospital is the same body of men who head the Kaifong, and that they discuss municipal and semi-political matters in the hall of the Hospital.\n\nInasmuch as the two committees apparently overlapped and as the Hall of the new Hospital was more spacious and imposing than the Kung Soh, the transfer in Chinese eyes would seem appropriate. On a visit of the Governor to the Hall he remarked that it was a much better meeting place than the Council Chambers of the Hong Kong Government. Isabella Bird (Mrs. Bishop) the famous Victorian lady traveller who visited Hong Kong in 1879, describes the building:\n\nThe hall where the directors meet (has) one side open to the garden. It has a superb ebony table in the middle with a handsome chair for the chairman and six carved ebony chairs on each side -- a most stately \"board room\".*\n\n* Photocopy of original manuscript letter in possession of John Murray, publishers, London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207905, "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": 293, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "278\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThis mounting criticism did not escape the notice of the Chinese community. A public meeting was held at their Hall in November, 1875 to discuss allegations against the Hospital occasioned by the Committee's interest and concern regarding a plan by the Dutch Government to recruit labour for Sumatra.\n\nThe Editor of the China Mail had pointed out that there was \"a vast difference between a reasonable recognition of native merchants and permitting them to interfere with and almost override the action of duly qualified officials\". It was charged that the Governors in their relations to the Committee had failed to preserve the proper reserve toward representatives of the Chinese community which had led them \"to regard itself (the Committee) as fully competent to regulate all affairs of Church and State\". In receiving deputations from the Committee and in consulting them directly for advice, the Governor was by-passing the channels previously created for communication between officialdom and the Chinese community, namely the Registrar General or Protector of the Chinese. The result was that there had arisen an imperium in imperio which threatened the whole structure of colonial administration in Hong Kong.\n\nThe meeting of the Chinese to consider these criticisms was attended by some 300. Eight propositions were presented for discussion and decision. The particularly relevant ones were:\n\n(2) Should the Hospital Committee in the future participate in anything which affected the interest of the Chinese Community at large.\n\n(3) Whether the Committee should cooperate with Government in suppression of gambling, kidnapping and transmission of women abroad for immoral purposes.\n\n(4) Had the Committee usurped the authority of local officials.\n\n(5) Was the Hospital a guild detrimental to the interest of the Community.\n\nThe decision was \"yes\" to the first two and \"No\" to the last two. (China Mail, Nov. 13 and 15, 1875).\n\nSuggestions had been made in the press in 1873 in discussing the hiring of detectives by the Hospital Committee to assist in detecting kidnappers that, rather than have a body such as the Tung Wah in charge of such matters, \"it would probably be wiser to give the Chinese a recognized status in regard to local Government, by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207964, "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": 3, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "172\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nSixty-five years after the event, it is now quite difficult to capture the community spirit that was demonstrated in the renovation of the T'in Hau Temple that made it the centre of worship for much of this area. Apparently, the merchants of Sai Kung had just had two years of unexpected good fortune. At the outbreak of World War I, all vessels entering or leaving Hong Kong harbour were required by law to report to the Royal Navy's Examination Service. For reasons that can only be surmised, many junks that had previously gone to Hong Kong harbour approached Sai Kung Market for supplies, and as a result, Saam Shing and T'aai Shing especially made a substantial fortune.33 The two shops led in the renovation of the temple, paying a hundred dollars each.\n\nFollowing Saam Shing and T'aai Shing, Tak Shing donated seventy dollars, and San Shun Cheung, Fong T'ung Shing, Kwong Tak Lung, T'ung Hing, and Ts'ui Mau Fung all thirty dollars each. In addition, T'aai Shing and Saam Shing donated the couplets that were hung outside the doors of the temple. These were written by Chan Pak T'o, the much respected Tung Koon scholar who resided in Kowloon City and who was known to the Chans of Ho Chung. Several years later, Ling Shin Chung, owner of San Shun Cheung, also donated a wooden board to be hung in the centre of the main doorway.3\n\n34\n\nThe principal donors for the renovation of the T'in Hau Temple became the local body that was in charge of the affairs of the Market. The term kaifong was soon used for this organization. At one time, Lei Ling of T'aai Shing was the chairman. Ling Shin Chung was also chairman at another time. The chairman was assisted by a committee, the members of which were known as the chik lei. Whenever a meeting had to be called, the chairman asked the temple keeper of the T'in Hau Temple to distribute to the chik lei bamboo chits on which their names had been written. The meetings were held in the T'in Hau Temple.\n\nOne of the most important institutions of any Chinese rural market was the management body that was set up to keep the common scale. Every year, the kaifong committee auctioned the right to manage the scale. Subject to the payment of a fee to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207965, "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": 4, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "173\n\nthe kaifong, which was fixed by auction, the keeper of the scale could keep the charges paid for the use of the scale by merchants. The fee was used for the management of the temple and the annual celebration of the birthday of T'in Hau, usually held towards the middle of the Fourth Lunar Month. To prepare for this festival, the committee had to arrange for donations from Sai Kung residents to make the necessary purchases and to contract with a troupe for the opera. Besides the birthday of T'in Hau, the kaifong also had to arrange for a puppet show at the Great King Earthgod's shrine, and the offering of a pig at the temple at the beginning of the year, on the day of the T'in Hau Festival, at the Kwan Tai Festival, and at the end of the year.35\n\nThe activities of the kaifong committee became routine. Some time in the 1930's, a younger generation of merchants in Sai Kung formed themselves into the Chamber of Commerce. The leader of this new body was Lei Shiu Yam, of Lan Nei Wan. When World War II broke out, it was this group that was the more active in Sai Kung Market.\n\nDAILY LIFE C. 1920\n\nPopulation\n\nThe census of 1911 counted 9,243 people in Sai Kung District, which at the time also included Shap Sz Heung and villages near Sham Chung and Pak Sha O. The same census reported that there were 2,633 Punti-speaking, 6,599 Hakka-speaking, and 11 Hoklo-speaking villagers in the district. It probably neglected the boat population, the size of which must now remain unknown. As recorded, the Sai Kung population amounted to 13.4 percent of the total population of the New Territories.\n\nVillage, lineage, and voluntary association\n\nThe reported population was distributed through 126 villages. The great majority of these had a smaller population than 100, and many could not have been more than isolated houses. By no means the smallest, Tin Ha Wan had 37 people, Mok Tse Che 51, Tai Nam Wu 33, Ma Lam Wat 43, and Tso Wo Hang 24. Only 21 villages in what is recognized now as Sai Kung", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208046, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n69\n\nwas occasioned by the second, more famous event; the occupation of the leased Kowloon hinterland under provisions of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong, implemented by colonial troops in April, 1899.1\n\nMention must be made of these events, for had they not occurred, little would be known of the actual workings of revenue collection in late Ch'ing Hsin-An. For reasons which will become apparent, local magistrates were loath to describe the realities of tax collection, and usually preferred to maintain a semblance of li-chia (2*) in official accounts. Hence, we must turn to those foreigners whose job it was to decipher the workings of the system, in order to impose a more formal, “rational” approach.\n\nBrown, in the Report for 1887-1891, relates the initial difficulties brought about by local opposition to the establishment of the Kowloon Customs:\n\nAlthough as stated, the Hoppo and the Likin Department withdrew from the stations in 1887, there still remained the agents of certain syndicates who had farmed the collection of Likin and other local charges on some of the principal articles of trade, as kerosene oil, matches, etc. The presence of these men at the station was an inconvenience, a cause of friction, and a waste of time, as merchants were obliged to have their goods examined by, and to pay dues to, two or more independent offices. It was pointed out to the provincial authorities that the method of collecting Duties by means of farms was most wasteful, as no more than half the money taken by the farms from the traders reached the provincial treasury. These representations finally prevailed, and about the middle of 1890, as soon as vested interests could be got rid of, the whole of the farm agencies were removed.\n\nUnfortunately for Brown and the merchants, tax farming was not restricted to the four stations under his control. Evidence suggests, for example, that the primary market mechanism employed by magistrates in late Ch'ing Hsin-An was the farming of brokerage taxes (†) to local tongs (*) which in turn oversaw the operation of periodic markets (3); Freedman (1966) and Groves (1965) supply us with some data on this aspect of tax farming as it applied to Tai Po Kau Hui (★★⇓). Similarly, services along trade routes, as well as the collection of corresponding duties, were farmed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208058, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n81\n\nbuyers and sellers of commodities and to effect a transaction between them.” By the late 1920's, \"its importance to the Hopei provincial finance was only second to that of the land tax.\" It is difficult to weigh the relative importances of the various taxes in Hsin-An, but we do have figures on the revenue collected on trade between local markets in November 1911, which indicate a relatively low volume of local trade (see Imperial Maritime Customs, 1902-1911, Volume II, p.156). Also, refer to Appendix II, which Lockhart credits as a reliable source. The Tangs of Kam Tin and Lung Kwat Tau (A) were apparently farmed the monopolies of collecting market taxes in Un Long Kau Hui (±##4) and Tai Po Kau Hui (£# #). The Tongs who oversaw the markets in turn \"sub-leased\" the brokerages to traders, merchants, and shop-owners.\n\n4 The CSO files held in the Government Archives of Hong Kong constitute one of the richest stores of first-hand knowledge about local political economy and society in Hsin-An during the period 1890-1910. I am very grateful to Mr. Ian Diamond, Government Archivist, and his staff for their assistance in helping with my research.\n\n5 C. M. Chang, op. cit., pp. 826-828.\n\n6 Lien-sheng Yang, \"Buddhist Monasteries and Four Money-Raising Institutions in Chinese History,\" in his Studies in Chinese Institutional History, pp. 198-199n.\n\n7 Yeh-chien Wang draws heavily on the Ts'ai-cheng Shuo-ming-shu for his research on the land tax in China (Land Taxation in Imperial China, 1750-1911). On the basis of the material presented in this paper, Hsin-An conforms to his general thesis of the declining relative importance of the land tax throughout late Ch'ing.\n\n8 Correspondence Respecting the Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony (hereafter Extension Papers), p. 60.\n\n9 For a fuller discussion of li-chia, see Kung-chuan Hsiao's Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 84-143.\n\n10 The annual rotation of these positions (44) constituted the primary mechanism whereby the local magistrate attempted to maintain some measure of centralized power by restricting the excesses of local magnates.\n\n11 Hsiang-kang Teng-ch'u-shui-mau Ts'ung-ch'eng (44¥Æ#*# Z), p. 2: \"All together the cultivated land measured 8 ch'ing 3 mau 6 fen 1 li 9 hau 2 ssu 5 hu (i.e., 803.61925 mau) and was registered under the name of Tang Tin-luk, 6th tu, 7th p'i, 2nd chia. In addition, Tang Chi-cheung and others had purchased from Ho Ch'iu-ping and others plots of land at Wong Nei Chung... having a total area of 1 ch'ing 89 mau registered in Tung-Kuan under the name of Tang Chi-fu of the 2nd tụ, 18th p'i, last chia.\" The formula is often repeated in the land memorials held at the Land Office of the Registrar General in Hong Kong.\n\n12 Kwangchow Fu-chih (1759), ch'uan 4: 43a-b, 46b.\n\n13 Hsin-An Hsien-chih (1819), ch'uan 2.\n\n14 Kwangtung T'u-shuo, Hsin-An Hsien-t'u.\n\n15 Krone, \"A Notice of the Sunon District\", originally published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 6:5, 41-105. This quote, as all the others, is from the reprinted copy in the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society V: p. 119.\n\n16 Tung-Kuan Hsien-chih (1797), 10:10b-11.\n\n17 Lockhart, in the Correspondence Respecting the Affairs in China, writes: \"Small villages and hamlets often place themselves under the protection of large and influential clans to which they refer all complaints and from which they expect assistance in case of attack, robbery, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208086, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CEREMONIAL LIFE OF 2 MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES\n\n109\n\n2 The two villages described in the paper have been based on my data of the Kwaan lineage. Na-loh Ts'uen was part of Lo-yeung Heung and Lung-tsai She was part of Tsung-long Heung. The county gazetteer, K'ai-p'ing Hsien-chih (Hong Kong, 1933) provides extracts of genealogies of the Kwaan and the Oo as well as other prominent lineages of Hoi-p'ing but does not mention Na-loh Ts'uen and Lung-tsai She.\n\nThe table at p. 111 shows the historical origin of the Kwaan lineage of T'oh-fuk. This account is based on personal communications from elderly informants. Again, Na-loh and Lung-tsai She were not mentioned. Much of the data used in this article was obtained from 14 Kwaan in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. Canada 1973-74. They all came from Toh-fuk and Tsung-long areas. Of these six came from the two villages of Na-loh and Lung-tsai She as follows:-\n\n \n Name\n Birth Date\n Age\n Place of Origin\n Year Left Hoi-p'ing\n \n \n Kwaan F\n 1902\n 75\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1915\n \n \n Kwaan H\n 1911\n 66\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1927\n \n \n Kwaan I\n 1932\n 45\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1953\n \n \n Kwaan J\n 1941\n 36\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1951\n \n \n Kwaan K\n 1903\n 74\n Lung-tsai She\n 1920\n \n \n Kwaan L\n 1937\n 40\n Lung-tsai She\n 1949\n \n\nMy Ph.D. thesis (Social Organization in South China 1911-1949: The Case of the Kwaan Lineage of Hoi-ping) deals with the general area.*\n\n3 G. W. Skinner (\"Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China,\" Journal of Asian Studies, XXIV (1964-65), 6-7, 20-31, 41-43) distinguishes between three types of periodic markets in traditional rural China: the standard market town, the intermediate market town and the central market town. The standard market town is a type of rural market which meets the normal trade needs of the peasant household. An intermediate market town serves the needs of the local elites of the standard market towns in the vicinity since it provides decorative items of quality which are inaccessible in the standard market towns. It serves as a centre for interclass dealings between the gentlemanly elite and the merchants of the market town itself. The central market town is normally situated at a strategic site in the transportation network and had important wholesale functions.\n\n4 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society in Fukien and Kwangtung (London, 1966, pp. 18-42) distinguishes between a localized lineage, a dispersed lineage and a higher-order lineage. A “localized” lineage denotes a group of agnates who live together in the same geographical area. The members claim to be descended from a common founder. They usually have ancestral halls to practise ancestral worship together.\n\nA \"dispersed lineage\" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. One group has an ancestral hall to practise ancestor worship. The members of other groups do not have a hall of their own. They would go to the first group to worship because it is believed that they were originally descendants of the first group but had at some point in time moved away from the parent settlement. A \"higher-order lineage\" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. Each group has an ancestral hall of its own but there is also a common hall comprising all the members for the performance of ancestral worship together because it is believed that they were all descended from a common founder.\n\n5 I collected the marriage history of informants up to five generations. Whilst of interest in itself, it did not shed any light on village origins.\n\n* Now accepted for publication by the University of British Columbia Press.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208152, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n175\n\nVisitors\n\n20. Mountains have always been favoured retreats, especially in the South. Herbert Giles wrote in 1911:\n\nMonasteries are built high up on the hills, often on almost inaccessible crags; and there the well-to-do Chinaman is wont to escape from the fierce heat of the southern summer. On one particular mountain near Canton, there are said to be no fewer than one hundred of such monasteries, all of which reserve apartments for guests, and are glad to be able to add to their funds by so doing. (Giles 1911: 9)\n\nIt seems that rich merchants from Hong Kong were among their number and have long been accustomed to take their ease, and perhaps salve their conscience, there. For 19th century examples reported by European travellers see Henry 1886:320, and Bourne (1895) who reported the death at one of these places of 'Lo Hok-pang, late Compradore of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank' (p. 35).\n\n21. The monasteries of Tai Mo Shan long benefitted from a similar connection. It is clear from the large buildings that have been erected before and after the Pacific War 1941-1945—in one case they include a splendid air-conditioned lecture hall—that they draw at least part of their financial support from a number of wealthy patrons; although the post-war urbanization of Tsuen Wan has probably reduced their attraction as places of refuge from the heat and bustle of the world.\n\n22. Over many years, such persons from Hong Kong, having no local connection other than an existing or sought-after grave for members of their family or even for themselves, have traversed the mountain's sides with geomancers and finally settled for good locations. Here a splendid grave has been constructed, and sometimes a pavilion also where the family can rest and eat during the arduous visits in successive grave worshipping seasons. In some cases only an empty grave and a ruined pavilion remain, showing that the descendants, concerned over business failures and reversals of family fortunes, have taken up the remains and placed them elsewhere, despite the heavy initial and subsequent cost necessitated by feeing the geomancer(s) and hiring mountain chairs for the party, and paying local labour to carry the construction materials.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208379, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION\n\n87\n\nImplicit in the actions of the nationalist group was the desire to prove the superiority of its political stripe by winning greater gains for its constituents. Capital may indeed have been receptive to nationalist attempts to upstage the Communist rival.\n\nDespite its divisions, organized labor had signalled the end of what had been an era of relative industrial peace during the 1950's. Not to be caught unawares in the future, the art carved furniture shop and factory proprietors organized the Art Carved Furniture and Camphorwood Chests Merchants Association as the bargaining agent for capital within the year. When the next strike occurred in the industry in 1964, the merchants were prepared to take full advantage of both the traditional as well as political divisions within the ranks of their workers. As the strike of 1964 dragged into its second month, the Merchants' Association succeeded in wooing a group of painters away from the main body of striking workers and concluded an agreement with them which successfully broke the back of the strike. Next, they were able to isolate the Communist Woodwork Carvers' Union by continuing negotiations with the nationalist unions after their workers had returned to work. The Woodwork Carvers' Union never came to formal terms in 1964, claiming in the local press that it had succeeded in exacting more favorable terms for its members from individual employers.\n\nThe center stage of the 1964 dispute was clearly occupied by the Merchants' Association in its manoeuverings and dealings with separate groups of its divided labor force. The merchants were waxing strong as power-driven machinery had by that time been introduced into production, increasing the capital required to operate competitively in the industry, widening the income gulf between worker and boss and increasingly alienating the workers from the tools of their trade. Labor's position was still being undermined by the persistence of a labor force divided along craft occupational lines, although politics had by now been established as the dominant divisive factor.\n\nAnother work stoppage occurred in 1967 when communist workers answered the call for a general strike put forward by the communist Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, the umbrella labor organization charged with implementing the Maoist political line radiating from Peking at the local Hong Kong level. The call for a general strike and the large-scale rioting which precipitated", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208380, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "88\n\nEUGENE COOPER\n\nit were triggered initially by a lockout at a plastic flowers factory in Kowloon and fanned by some arbitrary police action taken against demonstrating workers and students. Anti-colonial demonstrations occurred and anti-British sentiment ran high, fueled by stepped up anti-imperialist propaganda radiating from the mainland then in the midst of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. While most carved wood furniture factory and shop proprietors were unlikely targets for anti-imperialist attack, the Woodwork Carvers' Union seems to have taken advantage of the widespread unrest to extract a wage increase from the Merchants' Association at the time.\n\nOne school of thought (with its locus in the Far Eastern Economic Review) maintains that the Peking government was dissatisfied with its compatriots' handling of the 1967 disturbances and called a halt thereafter to revolutionary activity in the Crown Colony. While these claims are difficult to substantiate with any certainty, it is widely admitted in the Hong Kong pro-communist community that Peking was desirous of a stable situation in post-1967 Hong Kong so that it could actively pursue, from its viewpoint, more pressing diplomatic questions like its entry into the United Nations and the liberation of Taiwan.\n\n\"Hong Kong is a historical problem that will be solved at the appropriate time\" goes the refrain. The Hong Kong \"problem\" does not have the status of a \"principle contradiction\" for the People's Republic. Hong Kong continues to remain valuable to the Communist government in terms of the significant amounts of foreign exchange which China earns by marketing its products in and through the port, and also as a place in which trade and diplomatic contacts are still pursued. While such functions may decline as China continues to open up diplomatically and economically, they are still a factor in Hong Kong's historical viability as a colony.\n\nIn any event, in the post-1967 period, industrial peace in Hong Kong was the common desire of the British colonial government and the communist government in Peking. This led to the assumption on the part of the communist Federation of Trade Unions of some rather odd poses in the local adaptation of Mao Tse-tung thought to the Hong Kong scene.\n\nThis was particularly so in so far as the implementation of Mao's thought has entailed a disciplined adherence to a policy of delayed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208391, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION\n\n99\n\n171). The Woodwork Carvers' Union preserves the form of these presentations, substituting an updated political content more consistent with its pro-communist ideology. Indeed, apart from the infusion of such political themes into the proceedings of the Woodwork Carvers' Union yearly meeting, one would be hard pressed to distinguish it from the guild meetings of early twentieth century Chinese guilds as described by Gamble.\n\nClearly the Woodwork Carvers' Union has seen fit to make use of this traditional niche in the social structure of craft production to promote a somewhat different collection of values.\n\nThe second occasion, which highlights how gracefully the union has stepped into the traditional milieux of craft production, is its observance of the lunar calendar birthday of the founder of the carpentry and woodcarving crafts, Lupan. On this day the industry still closes down and signs are posted on factory doors explaining the reason.\n\nThe Woodwork Carvers' Union, being of communist persuasion, does not go in big for such \"feudal\" customs as temple worship or offerings to Lupan, although a Lupan temple does exist on Hong Kong island, maintained in part from contributions from unions in other construction trades, and in small measure by the Merchants Association in the art carved furniture industry.\n\nThe members of the Woodwork Carvers' Union take the occasion of their founder's birthday to enjoy themselves in more secular fashion. In 1973 the union organized a picnic and hired a boat to Cheung Chau (one of the outlying islands which together with Hong Kong island, Kowloon and the New Territories make up the Crown Colony of Hong Kong) where a day was spent swimming, hiking, playing basketball and engaging in other kinds of secular sport. Many tables of mah jong were in evidence. Wives and kids were in abundance. The boatride back was spent with organized games for the kids; anagrams of Chinese characters to be arranged into pro-communist slogans; answering riddles that implied the names of Chinese leaders, cities, etc.; guessing the number of plums in a bag; with small prizes being awarded to the winners.\n\nThe union makes the traditional observation of the founder's birthday its own, but it does so very much on its own terms, and the celebration is governed in practice, generally speaking, by an ideology consistent with support of the People's Republic of China.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208474, "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": 198, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "182\n\nDAVID H. S. CHAU\n\nin print making for generations since Late Ming. To Hua Wu is a district in the city of Soochow. Fatshan is a town near Canton, also noted for its many temples, beautiful scenery and many other crafts. Prints made from these centers varied in style and printing technique, but only the prints made from Fatshan retain the ancient traditional forms, as Fatshan has been the supply center of folk prints for the Chinese overseas who have emigrated and settled down in South Asian countries for many generations. The folk prints used by Chinese people in Hong Kong were also supplied from Fatshan. There had been several woodblock printers in Hong Kong producing religious folk prints by using blocks supplied from Fatshan until fifteen years ago. Then, for economic reasons, some local printers closed down their business and the remaining ones turned to modern printing techniques by using machines.\n\nIn the nineteenth century modern printing techniques were introduced to China from Western countries, and eventually the use of woodblock for printing started to decline and began to vanish. The remaining woodblock printers only engaged in the printing of religious matter. When the Communists took over the government of China in 1949, almost all these printers closed down their trade. Those still in existence are mainly engaged in reproducing paintings of old masters. One is Wing Po Chai in Peking, another in Shanghai is styled To Wan Huen. There is also one left in Hangchow of Chekiang Province.\n\nThe usages of woodblock printing\n\nWoodblock printing had a wide range of usage in Chinese daily life. Besides printed books, calendars, folk prints and religious matter, woodblocks were used for printing stationery, account sheets, letter heads, calligraphic copy books, trade labels, posters, circular notices, playing cards, etc. The government's official documents, orders, legal contracts, etc. were also printed by using woodblocks. Decorated letter sheets had been in fashion in high society in the old days. High-ranking officials, noted families, wealthy merchants and literary scholars and artists had, for their own exclusive use, beautiful specially illustrated and coloured woodblock printed personal letter sheets for writing letters or poems. Card games were also popular in the feast gatherings of scholars, poets or artists. Monochrome, illustrated, woodblock-printed, paper playing cards", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208551, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "197 \n\nwere killed by the guerrillas. The occasion highlighted the importance of the Chamber of Commerce in Sai Kung Market. Local people could not come out to fetch water, and Mr. Lei Shiu Yam and Mr. Lok Kau Kei of the Chamber of Commerce were given permission to distribute water to the shops and the households.97 \n\n\"Smuggling\" \n\nThe fundamental cause that gave rise to smuggling on a massive scale in Sai Kung in the years of the occupation was the rice shortage in Hong Kong. Before the War, Hong Kong imported much of its rice from South-east Asia. The outbreak of the War disrupted supply from this source, hence a shortage developed. Rice was abundant across the border in China, in Sha Yue Ch'ung on Mirs Bay and in Wai Chau. But trade was forbidden between these guerrilla-held places in China and Japanese occupied Hong Kong. The trade that developed had to be regarded as \"smuggling\".98 \n\nThere were three kinds of people involved, and the first was the \"travelling merchant\" (shui haak). Not all \"travelling merchants\" were engaged in smuggling rice. Mr. Shing of Mang Kung Uk, who was a \"travelling merchant\" with little capital, bought secondhand clothes from the pawnshops in the city, and carried them on foot to Sha Tau Kok. From Sha Tau Kok, he went into China. Then he would buy fish from Yim T'in, in China, which he sold in Lung Kong, also in China. He did not travel by boat because, as he put it, “Only rich people could take the boat.\"99 \n\nMr. Chan T'in Po of Yim Tin Tsai was also a \"travelling merchant\". He bought secondhand clothes in Sai Kung Market. He said this had to be done carefully without the notice of the Japanese. He would carry the old clothes himself to To Kwa Ping, where he would take the boat to Sha Yue Ch'ung. The boat was operated by someone from a nearby village. He would sell his goods at Sha Yue Ch'ung or Kw'ai Ch'ung, and return to Yim Tin Tsai with oil, rice, or sugar. Mr. Lau Lui Faat of Pak Kong Au was also a \"travelling merchant\" on this route. He said he usually boarded the boat at night, and sometimes he came back with cash.100 \n\nHe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208795, "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": 252, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "# NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n225\n\n# Rules of Nam Pak Hong\n\n## Section I\n\nIn trade and business, the outstanding ones are considered the winners. Experience tells that unity is an important factor. We, of Nam Pak Hong, have long been well-known merchants in Hong Kong. Though we are engaged in different businesses, our one aim is to make profit. The organization has a history of nearly one hundred years, and a revision of the constitution and rules is necessary to meet the needs of the situation. The original objectives remain as they were.\n\n1. Nam Pak Hong is a corporation of companies. Apart from their own regulations, all member companies should comply with the Hong's rules.\n\n2. It is proposed that a sum of HK$500 be deposited by each member in the Hong's fund for one year during which the 10% monthly interest of the money will be used to meet the recurrent expenditure of the Hong's office. The deposit will be refunded after a year, and another $20 will be paid by each member instead.\n\n3. Cases of members' arrears and non-payment should be reported as soon as possible to the Hong which will make it known by distributing notices to all members. The company concerned and its shareholders and agents will be suspended from transaction from the date of the notice. All members are forbidden to have any business contacts with the company in question, even if the company has changed its name or its agents have taken a new post in other companies. Transaction will be resumed only after notice is circulated by the Hong to confirm that the outstanding accounts have been cleared.\n\n4. It is most desirable that payment for goods can be made on delivery. And if goods are sold on credit, the seller has every right to recover the credit accounts at any time. In addition to their own regulations and usual practice, members are requested to observe that payment for goods should be made within 14 days from the date of delivery. Failure to pay up the due amount within three weeks will result in the names of the company and agent concerned being publicized as stated in paragraph 3.\n\n5. A member which has received the suspension notice but has not complied with the instructions thereon, constitutes a breach of the Hong's rules. Once such a breach is discovered and proved, the company concerned will be taken as a public enemy by other members. The fund deposited by that company will then be confiscated, half to the witness and half for charity purposes. Should there be no witness involved, all the money will be used for charity purposes. The company has to pay the Hong's Fund again, and guarantee there will be no breach of the Hong's rules in future.\n\n6. Members should be united against any outside threat. In case only an individual member is involved, other members should not take advantage of its troubles, thus leaving the third party in an advantageous position. Otherwise, the Hong will take action against the black sheep at the victim's request.\n\n7. Joint action will be taken against any company which has failed to settle the outstanding accounts with more than two of the Hong's members.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208802, "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": 259, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "232\n\nbut at page 349, read,\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n\"Indeed, the Chinese garrison troops fled their strongholds en masse, before the assault forces reached the shore.\"\n\n\"... the Chinese defenses simply folded up....\"\n\n- and later, page 350,\n\n\"Once they (Chinese) had recovered their astonishment of seeing ships moving against wind and tide, they ranged along the banks, some performing kowtows as the gunboats passed.\"\n\nAnd see also numerous instances in Chapter II.\n\nBut the lapses do not greatly detract from the sound scholarship which this study represents. It is well documented and well articulated; it is written in a most elegant style; and this reader was greatly absorbed in the moving narrative. In more than one place one seems to hear strong echoes of Somerset Maugham relating the piques and barbs and jealousies and smoldering antipathies among colonial officials and merchants in the field. Certainly Napier and Pottinger were not universally loved; and Elgin and Admiral Seymour must have disliked each other intensely.\n\nThe book must be one of the most readable scholarly works on the period, and it makes excellent use of many specialist studies of some narrower issues and individual episodes, such as Peter W. Fay's The Opium War, 1840-42 (University of North Carolina Press, 1975), and Jack Gerson's excellent Horatio Nelson Lay and Sino-British Relations, 1854-60 (Cambridge, 1972), as well as all the now standard works on the nineteenth century opening of China.\n\nUniversity of Hong Kong, May 1980.\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT\n\nTHE IMPACT OF CHINESE SECRET SOCIETIES IN MALAYA--A HISTORICAL STUDY. Wilfred Blythe, pp. XIV, 566, maps, ill, app. Oxford University Press, 1969.\n\nAs befits the complicated, extensive and important nature of the subject, this is a long book (566 pages). It carries an introduction by the Right Hon. Malcolm Macdonald who, rightly in my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208888, "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-1980", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "22 \n\nKEITH G. STEVENS \n\ncolumns, boards, boards bearing auspicious phrases, balustrades, roofs and lattice windows exactly like full-size temples (Illustration 16). Several wooden miniature shrines seen on lower decks of large sea-going junks were heavily ornamented and the carving exquisitely detailed. At the other end of the scale, soap boxes, painted red and upended, serve as the simple shrine of the less affluent household. \n\nActual images of gods in homes are few, and their worship is very limited. Usually, there is just a framed print, and routine offerings consist of a daily incense stick burnt before the print with, in addition, a small offering of tea or rice on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month. The majority of Chinese who have a household shrine display on their main altar the bodhisattva Guan Yin, who is, without a doubt, the most popular deity of Chinese everywhere. Most homes also have a second “altar”, the Kitchen or Stove God, whose title on a red board is hung up, or when written on a red paper is pasted up near the family cooking range. \n\nShop or factory shrines usually stand or hang on walls at shoulder height, constructed of wood and painted vermilion. The majority of shop shrines contain plaques or prints of Guan Di as patron deity of merchants and Tu Di Gong, the Earth God. Those in fire stations and police stations bear prints of Guan Di in his role as the patron deity of loyalty. \n\nOn days marked Chu (除)22 in the Almanac (i), old lady devotees offer prayers in the street before unpainted wooden boxes used as shrines. They are propitiating the demons who cause disasters, and are also attempting to change their luck for the better. They use one of their shoes to strike the \"small men” (1-A) banging small figures of humans cut out of black paper and at the same time calling out in high-pitched voices for the demons to flee. The voice is pitched particularly high when calling back the roaming soul of a sick child (the absence of the soul being the cause of the sickness). \n\nApart from modern concrete decorative structures in places like the Tiger Balm Gardens and on the foreshore of Repulse Bay, there is only one pagoda in Hong Kong or Macau. This is at Ping Shan, in the New Territories, and was built of stone blocks some three hundred years ago. Like other Chinese pagodas, it has little use other than to enshrine some sacred object, in this case, several images", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208910, "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-1980", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "40\n\nJIANN HSIEH\n\nor the reorganization of existing ones.\n\nHowever, contrary to this view, in the Waichow case both kinship and locality as abstract concepts are still effective for organizing new associations or reorganizing existing associations.\n\nC. A Historical Sketch of the Development of Waichow Associations in Hong Kong*\n\n7\n\nThe development of the Waichow associations in Hong Kong did not take place before the Second World War, even though Liao Hsin-chi, a Hakka from Waichow, had joined with others to establish the Tsung Tsin Association in 1920 (CCCHS, 1950: H-16), a headquarters for all the Hakka people. To my knowledge, the first effective Waichow voluntary association in Hong Kong was the Tung Kong Sports Club, established in June 1946. With an increase in the number of its members, a simple sports club could no longer cater for all their demands, so it changed its title to the Waichow Merchants' Mutual Aid Association and its purposes were expanded to include education, and provide assistance for obtaining employment, medical welfare, etc. In March 1948, with still more Waichow Hakka having come to Hong Kong because of the political situation in China, and the Hong Kong Residents of Waichow Ten Districts Countrymen's Association was set up in order to replace the Mutual Aid Association (HTSCT, 1978: 58). In 1956 this Association was registered under a new name as the Waichow Clansmen General Association.\n\nThis core organization of the Waichow Hakka, nominally representing all Waichow people in Hong Kong, has developed considerably in the past twenty years, and has set up branches in Sheung-shui (1956), Tai-po (1956), Yuen-long (1956), Tsuen-wan (1965), Peng-chau (1966), and Lam-ma (1977), as well as a series of subsidiary organizations: Waichow Music Society (1965), Waichow Lion Dancing Club (1967), Waichow Sports Association (1968), Kindergarten in Tsuen-wan (1965) and two Waichow public schools in Yuen-long (1965) and Kwai-chung (1968).\n\nIn addition to their headquarters and their subsidiary organizations, the Waichow Hakka have also set up several district level\n\n* The romanization used for the names of associations is taken from the form in which they have been registered with the Hong Kong government.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208911, "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-1980", "page_number": 73, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "# PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE\n\n41\n\nlocality associations. These are the Tse-kam (Tsu-chin) District Countrymen's Association (1948), Loong-chuen (Lung-chuan) Native Association (1954), Pok-law (Po-lo) District Association (1954), Ho-yuen (Ho-yuan) Clansmen's Association (1963) and the Wai-yeung (Hwei-yang) Merchants Association. However, the Wai-chow Hoklos from the district of Hai-feng and Lu-feng, due to cultural and language differences, cannot fully participate in the Waichow associations, principally composed of Hakkas. This is why the Waichow Hoklos, besides having their own district-level associations (the Luk-fung District Countrymen's Association in 1967 and the Hoi-fung District Countrymen's Association in 1968), have often attempted to establish relationships with the Hoklos from other areas.\n\nIn August 1972, several directors of the Waichow Clansmen General Association were discontented with their chairman's leadership, so they organized the Ten Districts of Waichow Association in order to challenge the Waichow Clansmen Association's authority. This resulted in a public split at the pinnacle of the power pyramid and had certain serious effects on the internal structure of the Waichow Hakkas. The most obvious consequence was that each association claimed to be the rightful representative of the Waichow people in Hong Kong and the two therefore competed to seek support from the secondary level Waichow associations, thus forming different association clusters within the same group. In other words, under and within the common locality name of Waichow, there are actually three association clusters in Hong Kong: The Waichow Hakka, as the majority group, have two clusters centering around the Waichow Clansmen General Association and the Ten District of Waichow Association respectively, and the Waichow Hoklos, as the marginal group, constitute another cluster with the Luk-fung District Countrymen's Association and the Hoi-fung District Countrymen's Association as its nucleus (see Fig. 1).\n\n## III. VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND CULTURAL PERSISTENCE\n\nWith regard to the role of voluntary associations in urban situations, most contemporary anthropologists, as already mentioned-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208920, "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-1980", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "50\n\nJIANN HSIEH\n\n* According to an imperial decree issued in 1645, a man could change his official domicile only if his grandfather had settled in a new place for more than twenty years, and if he could prove that in that place he had an estate and a clan graveyard (Ho, 1966:8).\n\n? According to the informant, who is one of the directors of the Wai-yeung Merchants Association is a locality association in nature, but not a merchants' guild.\n\n* It is especially true that genealogical seniority played a very important role in the leadership of the Chinese traditional clan associations. This emphasis on seniority also prevailed in the leadership structure of other kinds of voluntary associations through pseudo-kinship relationships (Gamble, 1929).\n\n• The division of residence by dialect or original locality survives even in today's Chinese community of Singapore. For example, most of the Hainanese concentrate in Hsiao-p'o, while the Cantonese are dominant in the area of Niu-ch'e-shui.\n\n10 Since all the Waichow schools are subsidized by the Hong Kong Government, it is an obligation for them to use Cantonese as the teaching medium.\n\n11 The estimated size of the Waichow population in Hong Kong according to the association leaders ranges from 700,000 to 1,200,000.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nA. CHINESE\n\nHo, P. T.\n\n1966\n\nChung-kui hui-kuang shih lun (A Historical Survey of Landsmannschaften in China). Taipei: Students' Book Store.\n\nHuang, C. L.\n\n1972\n\nMa-hua li-shih tiao-ch'a yen-chiu ch'u-lun (A Preliminary Study of Chinese History in Malaya). Singapore: Wan-li Press.\n\nLi, S. T.\n\n1957\n\nYuan-lang Sao-kuan-hu Li-shih tsu-p'u (The Genealogy of Lis in So Kwun Wat, Yuen Long). MS.\n\nLi, Y. Y.\n\n1970\n\nLo, H. L.\n\n1933\n\nIh-ko i-chih ti shih-chên (An Immigrant Town). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.\n\nK'ê-chiao yen-chiu tao-lun (An Introduction to Hakka Studies). (1975) Taipei: Ku-t'ing Press.\n\nSee, C. B.\n\n1976\n\nFei-lu-pin hua-jên wen-hua ti chih-hsü (Persistence and Preservation of Chinese Culture in the Philippines). Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, 42:119-206.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208936, "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-1980", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SILK AND SILVER: MACAU, MANILA AND TRADE IN THE CHINA SEAS IN THE\n\nSIXTEENTH CENTURY\n\n(A lecture delivered to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society at the Hong Kong Club. 10 June 1980.)\n\nJOHN VILLIERS*\n\nIn the second half of the 16th century there developed a pattern of trade in the China Seas and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos of which the two chief entrepôts were Portuguese Macau and Spanish Manila. Other centres were also involved, notably Japan in the north, Malacca, Timor and the Moluccas in the south and Mexico on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. All these places played a role in the development of a vast and complex trading network that depended primarily on supplying Macau and Manila with two commodities — silk and silver — which neither produced.\n\nThere was of course a highly developed trading system in the China Seas long before the Europeans arrived, but it so happened that they came on the scene just at a time when Chinese naval and commercial power was waning and Japan was in the midst of a period of feudal anarchy. It was therefore relatively easy for them to penetrate this system, and even at some points and for a limited period to dominate it. By the mid-15th century Chinese seapower had greatly declined and the famous mission of the eunuch-admiral Cheng Ho had no successors. The reasons for this decline are complex and need not detain us here. Suffice it to say that in 1420 the Ming navy consisted of some 3800 vessels. By the end of the century it had almost disappeared. By 1500, death was, at least in theory, the penalty for building a three-masted sea-going junk and in 1551 it was decreed that all communications with foreigners overseas would be treated as espionage.\n\nPrivate trading by the eunuchs and others continued during this period, but in the face of increasing official hostility, and Chinese merchants trading in South East Asian ports had to conduct their\n\n* Mr Villiers is Director of the British Institute in South-east Asia (Singapore),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209203, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "92\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\nThe establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1911 brought with it a group of leaders who held liberal ideas on social issues. A disproportionate number of these were Christians or had been trained in Christian schools. There were numerous connections between these officials in the Canton Southern Government of Dr. Sun and the Christians in Hong Kong.\n\nAnother facet of the events described in this paper is the clumsy manner in which the Colonial Office and the Hong Kong Government dealt with the problem once it was publicised. They had been quite content to tolerate the custom throughout the years, although some administrators were aware of the abuses inherent in the system. When questions were raised in Hong Kong and England about the system they immediately assumed a defensive stand.\n\nThe Colonial Office depended on information supplied to it by the Hong Kong Government. The local administration in turn relied heavily on the opinions of those \"respectable\" Chinese whom it recruited as its advisers. Then as now, these were the wealthy merchants, landowners and professionals. They did not represent the masses of the people. Their role as leaders of the Chinese community, however, was seldom challenged by the silent majority. It was a surprise to them and to the Government when an aggressive opposition suddenly emerged. This opposition was also led by \"respectable\" Chinese, some of whom were wealthy, some of the middle class, but practically all Protestant Christians who were motivated by the moral values of their faith and by enlightened ideas of the age.\n\nTheir activity did not ingratiate them to Government. A daughter of one of the leaders of the Anti Mui Tsai Society told me her father always felt Government continued to hold his position in the Society against him for many years.\n\nThe Mui Tsai System\n\nThe purchase of girls for domestic service was a long-standing Chinese custom. The children who were bought and thus became a part of the household were given the familiar name \"little sister\", mui tsai. However their lot was not always as pleasant as their name. Much depended on the kindness of the master or more especially the mistress. As very young children their duties were to run errands, fetch articles, pick up dropped fans, etc., or they might be placed under other servants to perform household tasks. As they grew older their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209221, "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": 124, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "110\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nThe Chairman seeing that the meeting was getting beyond his control announced that there would be no further discussion and declared the meeting closed. Pandemonium broke out. The meeting began to take on an angry tone. Some, fearing trouble, slipped out. The crowd was standing on its feet shouting for a vote and began to press forward in a threatening manner toward the long table at which the Chairman and his supporters sat.\n\nAt this point Mr. M. K. Lo arose and eventually quieted the crowd sufficiently for his voice to be heard. He asked permission of the Chairman for the use of the hall for a few minutes. He pointed out the irregularity of closing a meeting without taking a vote to ascertain the sense of the meeting on the issue under discussion. He suggested that as the Chairman had closed the meeting, a new Chairman should be elected who could then take a vote. His idea was warmly approved. Backing down, the original Chairman, after some hesitation, then reopened the meeting and asked for a vote. By a show of hands the meeting overwhelmingly expressed its support for the Bill. The organiser skulked away chagrined and shaken.\n\nMeetings of Anti Mui Tsai Society and of Labour Unions\n\nIn a spirit of jubilation the Anti Mui Tsai Society convened a delayed general meeting on January 15, 1923 to follow up the success in thwarting the hopes of the merchants who had called the Kai Fong meeting at Tung Wah. It unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Bill, though it noted that the Ordinance had excluded suggestions for an employment bureau and an industrial home. It expressed surprise that at the recent Chinese Chamber of Commerce meeting three of the representatives of the Protection Society on the joint draft committee for the Bill had spoken in opposition to it. These were Messrs Wong Kwong-tin, Ip Lan-chuen and Wong Ping-suen.\n\nThe meeting of the Anti Mui Tsai Society was followed a few days later by a meeting of three hundred delegates from 154 labour guilds of Hong Kong at the Chinese YMCA. Mr. So Chui-chung, the Chairman of the Chinese Seamen's Union, was elected Chairman. In his remarks to the meeting he reminded his listeners that they had methods to bring their grievances before their employers, but servant girls had no such opportunity. It was therefore, he said \"the duty of Labour to second efforts of people interested in abolition.\"\n\nDr. Yeung Shiu-chuen as a representative of the Anti Mui Tsai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209232, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING\n\n121\n\nHow does it come about that this pleasing mixture of American Youth camp and English public-school sports day should come to represent the emotional high point of the year for these fifteen schools which cater for the Shui-sheung-yan (water-folk), traditionally the lowest of all Hong Kong's social strata. Organised quite separately from the normal Education Department schools, the F.M.O. school cater for less than 0.4 percent of the territory's school population.\n\nSeparate educational systems for religious and ethnic minorities, often assisted by the state, are not uncommon; wholly state-run separate school systems for occupational minorities, apart from members of the armed forces posted overseas, are extremely rare. The nearest parallel that comes to mind is that of the special education projects for European Gypsies, developed to cater for children whose schooling is often prevented by frequent moves and social prejudice, just as that of the Hong Kong people used to be. Indeed, it was experience with Gypsies since running the first caravan summer school in 1967, which led me to what seemed, from the European end, a remarkable parallel with projects started for the boat people of southern China, and Hong Kong.\n\nThe Development of the F.M.O. and its schools\n\nIt can be argued that the Hong Kong Government, despite its ever-reiterated ideological commitment to laissez-faire economics, began to intervene to ensure the future of the fishing industry as early as the building of the Yaumatei typhoon shelter in 1911-15. During the Second World War the Japanese government began the building of regulated fish markets, such as that at Shaukeiwan, guaranteeing a better deal for the fishermen from the buyers. Since we are assured on all sides that all sections of the population suffered grievously under the Japanese occupation, the returning British government could hardly do less for the fishing population than had the Japanese. After 1945 a scheme was introduced under the old Defence Regulations of 1940 to provide \"orderly and efficient Fish Marketing facilities\", developing the industry, and protecting the interests of consumers. That is to say both fishermen and public were to be protected from the entrepreneurial wholesale fish merchants or middlemen. There are now seven publicly owned and regulated wholesale fish markets, and three other collecting depots. Underlying the economic goals, there was also a stated objective of improving \"the socio-economic status of the fishing community.\" Of course, to state this too publicly would be self-defeating, but in\n\n7\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209255, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "# JUAN YÜAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON\n\n## 1817-1826\n\n## WEI PEH T'I\n\nIn November 1817, Juan Yuan (1764-1849) was appointed Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. He had formerly served as Governor of Chekiang and of Kiangsi. The Governor-General at Canton was the highest Chinese authority dealing with foreign trade and relations in China on a day-to-day basis and on specific issues. During his tenure at Canton, for almost a decade, with the Governor of Kwangtung and the Superintendent of Canton Customs, he handled foreigners in accordance with rules set out under the Canton system.\n\nAt the end of 1817, there were several potentially explosive problems involving Sino-British relations and trade. The failure of the Amherst mission the year before had left certain controversies unresolved. The fact that the five ships carrying the mission to Taku had managed to evade Chinese surveillance after being provisioned, and had surveyed the China coast from Taku to Canton, had left the Chia-ch'ing Emperor and the court more sensitive than ever to the issue of British naval presence in Chinese waters. Jurisdiction over foreign nationals in port was also a source of serious disagreement between the Chinese authorities and foreigners in Canton. The importation of opium and exportation of sycee silver, both prohibited by imperial decree, were to become a major area of controversy in time. Diplomacy as an art of managing foreign relations was outside the Chinese experience. As Westerners at Canton were neither tribute bearers nor alien conquerors, Juan Yüan chose to manage his dealings with foreigners as a matter of security and control.\n\nThe Canton system governed all foreign (except Russian and tributary) trade in China, which had been confined to this port since 1760. Essentially, under this system, foreigners carried on their buying and selling through franchised hong merchants. As time went on, these hong merchants performed an increasing number of functions. By the time Juan Yuan came to Canton, they \"not only settled prices, sold goods, guaranteed duties, restrained the foreigners, negotiated with them, controlled smuggling, and leased the factories to them, they also had to manage all the aspects of a banking business, act as interpreting agencies, ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209256, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826\n\n# 1\n\n145\n\nsupport the militia and educational institutions, and make all manners of presents and contributions to the authorities far and near\". Although leadership of the foreign merchants resided in the Select Committee of the British East India Company, each foreign firm licensed to transact business in Canton, as well as each of its ships coming into the port, had to be secured by a hong merchant, who had to guarantee the good conduct of officers and crew of the ship while in port, and to assure the Chinese authorities that the ship was not carrying contraband. Under this system, the security merchant also served the important role as intermediary between Chinese officials and foreigners.\n\n# 2\n\nDespite accusations by the Chia-ch'ing and the Tao-kuang Emperors that Juan Yuan was expending more time and energy on compiling books and founding academies than on affairs of state, a sentiment echoed by the twentieth-century historian John K. Fairbank, both British and Chinese historical records show that Juan Yuan had taken the conduct of foreign affairs at Canton very seriously. He adhered strictly to the protocol established under the Canton system, handling negotiations with foreigners through the hong merchants and the Select Committee, refusing \"to establish direct communications between the local government and [the foreign community]\". Although contemporary foreigners at Canton complained about Juan Yuan's “inflexibility”, they remembered him later with respect. \"His conduct... was both firm and conciliatory, and his memorials were admired by foreigners for their polite and dignified style...\"\n\n+6\n\n# 3\n\nJuan Yuan saw the British as a serious threat to Chinese security, and considered them the most difficult among foreigners at Canton to keep under control. This was consistent with the general attitude of the Ch'ing court that the British were pressuring for further expansion of trade with China beyond Canton, thus challenging traditional Chinese policy. In 1818, however, his proposal for a repressive policy towards the British, outlined in a secret memorial to the Chia-ch'ing Emperor, was not accepted by the Emperor, who exhorted moderation. The Emperor restrained Juan Yuan with this rescript: “Adopt a policy showing both strength and kindness simultaneously. Do not over-react under any circumstances and avoid rash actions.” \"Appointed to Canton in the wake of the Amherst crisis, only four days after his arrival at Canton, Juan Yuan embarked on an inspection tour of the Pearl estuary outside Boca Tigris in the company of the provincial commander-in-chief of the Kwangtung marine force. They visited fortifications and gun batteries along the shores and on the islands, and paid a visit to Macau.7", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209257, "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": 160, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "146\n\nWEI PEH-TI\n\nNavigation channels were so situated that the passage into Canton foreign ships had to take because of their deep drafts was well protected, Juan Yüan thought. \"The western channel of the Pearl estuary from Macau [where the barbarians live] to Canton is too shallow for foreign vessels because they have a deep draft. They, therefore, must use the Lantao Channel into the estuary, then proceed northward between Lintin Island and the Nan-t'ou Peninsula, straight up to the Boca Tigris and into the Pearl River.\"8\n\nJuan Yuan had found the military installations outside the Boca Tigris generally satisfactory. Fortifications inside the Boca Tigris, on the other hand, were found by Juan Yüan to be less than tolerable. Immediately upon his return to Canton, he sent a memorial requesting the Emperor's approval for construction of several forts. Apparently he was so impressed with the forts at Macau, especially Fortaleza da Santiago, built in 1629, that he copied its design for a fort on Tiger Island, situated at the entrance to the Bogue.\"Juan Yuan was proud of this fort, financed by the merchants of the co-hong to the tune of 60,000 taels, both for its strategic location and for its equipment.\"\n\nThe Co-hong (kung-hang) was a guild organized in 1720 by the hong merchants of Kwangtung and Fukien. It adopted a code of thirteen articles to regulate trade at Canton. After 1782, its members controlled the foreign trade at Canton altogether. Business firms engaged in foreign trade, the hong (yang-hang), as well as individual hong merchants (yang-shang), rose and fell during the era when Chinese foreign trade was confined to Canton.\n\nThe unique functions served by the hong merchants gave them certain privileges. These privileges carried with them certain obligations without necessarily exempting them from government prosecutions should they fall afoul of the law. Several hong merchants had been awarded honorary official ranks with all the attendant status symbols. In addition to subscribing to programmes usually expected of members of the gentry, these hong merchants had to assume financial responsibilities for other public projects during this period as well, such as coastal defense. Even more than the officials, they were subject to imperial pleasure and ire. The second merchant by the name of Howqua, also known as Puiqua, Wu Tun-yüan, for instance, enjoyed the honoraria of a third-rank official in happier days, including the status symbol of wearing the sapphire (clear, blue stone) button of the third rank on his hat.1 He had worked closely with Juan Yuan on several controversial cases involving jurisdiction over foreigners from 1820 to 1823. Even then,\n\n12", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209258, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 147\n\nWu, chief of the hong merchants at that time, was blamed for the increase in opium traffic. In 1821, at the suggestion of Juan Yüan, Wu's button was removed by imperial decree in the wake of strengthened anti-opium campaign.\n\nWu Tun-Yuan, as chief of the hong merchants, appears to be leading the others in conniving with foreigners to smuggle opium into China. After all, no hong merchant has yet reported the presence of this contraband item on any of the ships he was securing. Meanwhile, opium import continues to be on the increase. Wu's third rank button should be removed herewith.13\n\nThe hong merchants were constantly in debt to foreign merchants because the latter provided the former with advances to pay duties and taxes as well as ordinary business credit. The Consoo fund, established by a special levy on foreign trade, was supposed to provide credit to the hong merchants, but it had to be supplemented by further advances from the foreign traders at Canton. Moreover, hong merchants were often called upon to make contributions to various government programmes. Juan Yuan as Governor-General, for instance, decided on the amount the merchants were to give to the Chia-ch'ing Emperor on the occasion of the imperial sixtieth birthday.\n\n[Juan Yüan] fixed upon the Sum of 300,000 Taels as an Offering on the part of the Hong merchants to the Emperor upon the attainment of his sixtieth year, which will take place this year, and which Sum is to be levied in cash in two installments in proportion to the respective amount of duties paid to Government by each Hong.14\n\nFollowing Juan Yüan's proposal, the hong merchants duly offered to the Emperor the gift of 300,000 taels, two-thirds of which were accepted.\n\n16\n\nDuring the following year, the hong and salt merchants contributed 300,000 taels and again 500,000 taels more to “military and engineering expenses\". In 1826, to help suppress the Kashgar Rebellion they contributed 600,000 taels. When the hong merchants were unable to meet their obligations to the foreign merchants, they were imprisoned like ordinary debtors. In 1825, Puiqua was jailed when the Parsee merchants made charges against him for non-payment of 300,000 taels.15 Even after death, hong merchants had to honour their debts to the foreign merchants. The Chinese government aided in enforcing such payments,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209259, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "148\n\nWEI PEH T'I\n\nholding the Co-hong responsible in cases of inability to pay on the part of the individual merchants. When Conseequa died bankrupt in 1822 owing 22,528 taels in unpaid duties to the Canton Customs, and 172,207 dollars to foreign merchants, Juan Yüan took action. Conseequa's property in Canton was confiscated and sold for 22,354 taels. Another 174 taels were underwritten by other hong merchants. This amount totalling 22,528 taels, was paid to the Canton customs. Although Conseequa's son was not held responsible for his father's business failures, he was nevertheless blamed for \"letting things deteriorate further after his father's death\". He should have made arrangements to settle his father's debts to the foreign merchants, thus avoiding the ensuing problems. He was, therefore, to forfeit all his property in his native province, Fukien, as well as the title and privileges his father had purchased for him in 1820 through the chian-na system. His debts to the foreign merchants were to be assumed by the other hong merchants who, in turn, were to take over the business of his hong. In making decisions to discipline the hong merchants, Juan Yüan sought to control the foreign traders at Canton.\n\n18\n\nThe working relationship between the hong merchants and the foreign traders at Canton was in general a cordial one. The language used in foreign trade was English. There were interpreters on both sides known as \"linguists\" to the foreigners. The best known foreign linguist was Dr. Robert Morrison. The hong merchants themselves tended to use \"pidgin\", a mixture of Chinese, English, Parsee and Portuguese. The foreigners thought that the hong merchants as a whole were “honorable and reliable in all their dealings, faithful to their contracts, and large [as opposed to narrow] minded\". As exemplified by the existence of the Consoo fund and advances in both directions, foreigners and the hong merchants worked well together under ordinary circumstances. Puiqua was especially known for his generosity. Despite being caught himself in cash shortage situations from time to time, at least once he tore up a 72,000 dollar promissory note signed by an American merchant who, because of the note, had been stranded in Canton. In cases of dispute between the foreign and hong merchants, settlements were usually made by arbitration.\n\nIt was in criminal cases that the hong merchants' position as intermediary between the foreigners and the Chinese government took on special significance. If the issue at hand involved jurisdiction over a foreigner who had caused the death of a Chinese, a crisis situation invari-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209261, "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": 164, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "150\n\nWEI PEH-T'I\n\nSince the case of the Lady Hughes in 1784, foreigners had been decrying the barbarity of Chinese justice. On 24 November that year, a British vessel, the Lady Hughes, carrying cargo for the country merchants (individual merchants permitted by the East India Company to trade between India and points east), fired a salute to Chinese officials on shore at Canton. Unfortunately, the gun was loaded with live ammunition instead of blanks. The gunfire injured three minor Chinese officials, two of whom subsequently died from their wounds. By Chinese reckoning, the gunner of the Lady Hughes, in firing the salute, had committed murder, therefore he was subject to Chinese justice. After the British refused to surrender the gunner, Chinese authorities at Canton seized the supercargo of the British factory, isolated the factory itself, and stopped British trade. As a result, the British yielded and the gunner was surrendered to the Chinese. He met the fate of apprehended Chinese murderers, that of being put to death swiftly by strangulation. This incident brought to the fore foreign resentment against the Canton system and their having to submit to Chinese justice which they could neither understand nor condone. Subsequently, foreigners, the British in particular, were reluctant to hand over their nationals who had committed crimes against the Chinese to Chinese authorities. The Chinese meanwhile insisted on their right to dispense justice within their own land, thus leading to periodic impasses.\n\nJuan Yüan's first criminal case involving foreigners and local residents was a straightforward one, for the offenders were Chinese, and their offense was comparable to those committed by coastal pirates Juan Yuan had known on the Chekiang coast earlier. An American ship, the Wabash, secured by Puiqua, was docked at the anchorage at Taipa Island off the Port of Macau. Apparently, a group of Chinese on shore hurled insults at the seamen on 19 June, 1818, then proceeded to board the vessel, and plundered it. The raiding party left three Americans wounded, one of whom later died. Among the spoils taken were sycee silver and a quantity of opium. The presence of opium, a contraband, complicated the case considerably. It also provided Juan Yuan with the ammunition to deal harshly with the hong merchants.\n\nMacau was within the administrative jurisdiction of the district of Hsiang-shan, in Kwangtung. The Select Committee and a representative of the American merchants in Canton, referred to by Morse as \"the American consul\", brought the American complaint against the Chinese to Juan Yuan through Puiqua. Cognizant fully of the reality and implications of the circumstances, that the Chinese were wrong in boarding and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209262, "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": 165, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 151\n\nplundering a foreign vessel in Chinese waters, resulting in loss of life, but that the plundered goods consisted of a contraband commodity, Juan Yuan offered a reward of 3,000 dollars for the apprehension of the perpetrators of the crime. He refused, on the other hand, to compensate for the plundered property. The sycee silver would also be contraband had it been exported from China, but, as the ship had not yet entered a Chinese port, he could not argue this point. After two weeks of negotiations, the captain of the ship received from the Chinese authorities 824.50 dollars which had been recovered from the culprits, 2,000 dollars from Puiqua, and another 4,000 dollars from Juan Yuan's own funds, in compensation for the specie taken. Nothing was paid for the opium, but no immediate action was taken against the ship's having contraband goods on board in Chinese waters either. Immediately thereafter, Puiqua adroitly arranged for the ship to leave Taipa in order to avoid further complications on the opium issue.\n\nMeanwhile, the Chinese concerned faced the full force of the law. Five men were arrested for looting the Wabash and for murdering the American. They were beheaded or put to death by the slow process of slicing off the limbs before being decapitated. This was the traditional Chinese punishment meted out to captured pirates who had raided ships. For his failure in ensuring that foreign ships desist from bringing in opium, Juan Yuan directed Puiqua to subscribe to certain public service projects to the tune of 160,000 taels. Punkhequa had wanted other hong merchants to contribute 5,000 taels each towards this amount, but Conseequa bargained for 4,000. As a result, Puiqua had to pay the amount himself, while three other hong merchants were directed to contribute to other projects. Thus, Juan Yuan made it clear to the hong merchants how their purses were to suffer should they continue to condone the importation of opium, and, even more so, should they choose to haggle over the amount of the fine decided by the authorities. As a result, the hong merchants announced to the foreign traders that they would no longer \"secure any ship whose commander has not signed a Bond, engaging that he will not smuggle Opium....\" The hong merchants also relayed to the foreigners Juan Yuan's message that Chinese authorities would search the ships for possible cargoes of opium. While various elements of the foreign community debated, the intended search was dropped by Juan Yuan. Perhaps one reason for his decision not to insist upon the search was the presence of an armed British frigate, H.M.S. Orlando, at Chuenpi. He was not to take a strong stand on the opium issue until 1821.26\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209263, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "152\n\nWEI PEH-TH\n\n8\n\nThe killing of a Chinese man and wounding of three boys in P'an-yü by a member of the crew of a British vessel, the London, on 27 November 1820, was the first major crisis handled by Juan Yüan involving jurisdiction over foreigners who had committed crimes against Chinese nationals. On 27 November 182o, in broad daylight, a cutter from the London, a ship belonging to the East India Company, sailed “a considerable distance\" beyond Whampoa into a branch stream of the Pearl River, in search of fresh water. On the cutter was the fifth mate of the London, a man by the name of Pigott, and five other crewmen. They had a musket with them. Upon landing at P'an-yü, the men were taunted by a number of boys throwing stones and shouting \"obscenities\" at the foreigners. To frighten away the boys, Pigott fired two volleys, the first one loaded with peas and the second what he thought was \"blank cartridge” but which turned out to be live ammunition. A Chang Shun-ts'un who was hanging up laundry at the stern of a Chinese rice boat nearby, shouted at the boys to disperse. Pigott's second shot entered Chang's chest on the left side, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, three boys all surnamed Ch'en, were wounded on the nose, foot and toes, respectively. While there was pandemonium ashore, the cutter departed, pursued by two Chinese boats, thus it was ascertained that the cutter had come from the London. Later on, despite Pigott's assertion that he had fired what he believed to be blank cartridge, indicating that at least he had known something of the consequences of his shooting at that time, the British spokesman claimed that they had known nothing about the incident until two days later, when Puiqua brought them the news that a warrant had been issued by the Chinese for the arrest of the murderer at P'an-yü.\n\nNormal Chinese procedures under the circumstances would be to stop the offending ship from discharging and loading cargo, while demanding that the criminal be remanded to Chinese justice. After being informed of the incident, Juan Yuan gave instructions to the hong merchants to notify the supercargo of the East Indian Company in the British factory in Canton to bind the murderer over to Chinese authorities. Although the security merchant in this case was Exchin, because of the seriousness of the case, it was Puiqua who went to the British factory to apprise the Select Committee of the existence of the warrant. The Committee then proclaimed that they had known nothing about the incident until that moment. They suggested that Puiqua bribe the Chinese officials, but the hong merchant did not support the idea. Meanwhile, the Committee's primary consideration was “to avoid trouble and embarrassment to the Company's trade\", but Juan Yüan had already placed an embargo on the London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209264, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGING OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 153\n\nThree days later, on 2 December, when official communications arrived, the British announced that Pigott had \"absconded\" during the early morning hours on the day before.32 Chinese officials were permitted to search the London (in contravention to the Company's stand in the case involving the Wabash two years before) as well as the Duke of York, another Company ship at Whampoa, secured by Chunqua. After Chinese officials left, Barrowcliff, the butcher on board the Duke of York, who had no visible connection with the case or with Pigott, suddenly went berserk and slashed his own throat. It was under these circumstances that the British seized upon the idea of selling to Juan Yüan the story that Barrowcliff had been the murderer at P'an-yü, and that his suicide had taken place because he was fearful of Chinese justice. The hong merchants, enthusiastic towards this suggestion, went together at once to the factory. By this switch, much trouble could be saved for all parties concerned.\n\nThe plan was thus communicated through the hong merchants to Juan Yuan, who, while preferring a live culprit to a dead one, \"privately\" was willing to accept Barrowcliff instead of allowing the incident to develop into a major crisis.3 Dr. Morrison had been sent for from Macau, indicating the seriousness with which foreign merchants were viewing this case. In actuality, from the Chinese point of view, the substitution of a criminal by another person was acceptable under the concept of collective responsibility. This was a case of paying for one life with another. On the other hand, Juan Yüan was not willing to let the hong merchants and foreign traders get away so easily. On 4 December, communications went out to the hong merchants for them to inform the supercargo of the Company that \"he must immediately deliver the foreign murderer, if not, then not only Cameron's ship [the Duke of York], but every English ship shall have her port clearance stopped\". This communication already indicated Juan Yuan's willingness to accept the plan of making use of the dead Barrowcliff as he had changed the name of the offending ship from the London to the Duke of York in his communication.\n\nThereupon, Chinese officials were permitted to board the Duke of York to hold an inquest of the death of Barrowcliff in the presence of the ship's captain, Cameron. Meanwhile, families and friends of the dead and the injured at P'an-yü \"were carefully instructed so that they testified to the truth and nothing but the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth\". That Barrowcliff had indeed taken his own life in a fit of remorse after murdering the Chinese at P'an-yü was accepted by the investigating officials at the inquest. Based on their verdict, legally arrived at from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209265, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "154\n\nWEI PEH-T'I\n\nthe Chinese point of view, Juan Yuan reported Barrowcliff as the guilty party in his memorial to the Emperor dated 12 December 1820. It was at this time that he wrote the secret memorial proposing strong measures to control the British, and receiving in return instructions from the Emperor to hold to a more moderate line.**\n\nPerhaps Juan Yuan only displayed the willingness to make the best of a situation in the Barrowcliff case, the kind of co-operative spirit that led the British to refer to him as a “man of singular moderation and wisdom”35 only because no opium was involved. The next major crisis over jurisdiction took place not quite a year later. By then, the new Emperor had proclaimed a policy to strengthen the law prohibiting importation of opium and exportation of silver. In October 1821, Terranova, an Italian seaman serving on an American ship, the Emily, accidentally killed a Chinese boat woman. He was sacrificed to Chinese justice in order to prevent the Canton government from investigating further into the cargo of opium that was on various foreign ships in port at that time. This is a well-known case in the West and is often cited as an example of the barbarity of Chinese justice. Terranova, who had been turned over to Chinese officials, was strangled to death as punishment for having taken a life.\n\nThe incident arose when on 29 September, a boat woman, Kuo-Liang shih (surnamed Kao née Liang), who spoke \"pidgin\", sculled her sampan to the Emily, peddling fruit. Terranova, leaning against the railing of the ship above her, lowered her five copper cash in a basket. Not satisfied with the number of oranges and bananas he had been given by the woman, he negotiated further. Somehow, the argument became heated, ending with Terranova throwing a pottery jar at the woman, hitting her on the head, cracking her skull, causing her to fall into the water, and resulting in her death. This was a serious matter, for, in addition to murder, there were other violations. Terranova, as a foreigner, was buying goods from a Chinese directly without going through the regular channel of the hong merchants. The security merchant of the Emily was Exchin, but, as in other serious cases over jurisdiction, Puiqua, as head of the hong merchants, was also involved.\n\nJuan Yüan's investigations showed that the act of the jar striking Kuo-Liang shih on the head had been witnessed by another woman, Ch'en-Li shih, who had shouted for help. A worker for the Canton customs, Yeh Hsia, in a boat nearby, attempted a rescue, but failed. The body of the dead woman was not pulled out of the water until her husband arrived at the scene of the accident. The injury on the woman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209266, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT 01 SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826 155\n\nhead was a cut of 1 ts'un and 4 fen in length, and 3 fen deep. The cut had gone all the way to the bone. The captain and the owner of the American ship both inspected the wound of the dead woman,\n\nand pronounced that \"the woman in reality died from head injury and from drowning\".\n\nThe Americans agreed to submit Terranova to an investigation by Chinese officials, provided that the hearings were conducted on the American ship with Americans present. As a compromise, the \"ceremony\" of charging the prisoner was to be conducted on a Chinese war vessel that was to carry the Chinese official to the American ship. On 6 October, Captain Cowpland cleared all firearms from the deck of the Emily, stationed all hands at the forecastle, had Terranova without handcuffs on deck, and waited for the arrival of Chinese authorities. The Chinese officials were led by the magistrate of P'an-yù who was concurrently serving as prefect of Canton. Eight hong merchants were in attendance. The service of Dr. Morrison, who was then attached to the British factory, as a translator, was refused because Juan Yuan did not want to involve a third nation. After a lengthy debate during which Captain Cowpland argued successfully that no American prisoner was ever in irons during a trial, Terranova was \"surrendered\" to the Chinese with Puiqua pledging his safe return for trial on the Emily. Captain Cowpland accompanied Terranova and the hong merchants to the Chinese war vessel and back to the Emily.\n\nTestimonies of witnesses at the trial were somewhat different from the facts Juan Yüan had ascertained earlier. The Americans objected to the magistrate's allowing the presence of two children who were prompting the witness Ch'en-Li shih, and demanded that she speak in English, as her command of the language was superior to that of the translator or even Puiqua himself. When the woman's testimony deviated from what she had said before, an instrument of torture was brought aboard. The instrument was not used, although the woman insisted upon the later version of her testimony. Altogether, there were one thousand Chinese at the trial on board the Emily, and forty Americans. At the end of the session, the Chinese wanted to take Terranova with them. Captain Cowpland said: \"Come and take him,\" but the Chinese wanted the Americans to \"surrender\" the prisoner officially. While the Americans prepared for armed resistance, the magistrate proceeded to put Exchin, the ship's security merchant, and the Chinese linguist, Cowqua, in chains. Together with the overwhelming number of Chinese on board and other considerations such as opium in the hold, Captain Cowpland changed his mind", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209268, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "JUAN YUAN'S MANAGEMENT OF SINO-BRITISH RELATIONS IN CANTON, 1817-1826\n\n157\n\nopium grown in Turkey, the British cultivated poppy in India and brought opium into China. Selling this commodity for cash only, the British hoped to reverse the balance of trade at China's expense. In 1821, to put an end to this smuggling of opium into China and silver in the reverse direction, the Tao-kuang Emperor reiterated the court's anti-opium policy. As a result, Juan Yuan adopted strict measures against opium importation through the port of Canton. This thinking was behind his taking action against the hong merchants later on that year, in the wake of the Terranova case, especially when he removed the button from Puiqua's hat.\n\nIt was in the memorial requesting the removal of Puiqua's button that Juan Yüan's attitude on opium was revealed. He was concerned with the harmful effects of opium addiction. “Opium is grown overseas, but its harmful effects are most keenly felt in interior China. Its most serious damage lies in the moral degradation of the populace”.* The memorial also showed that Juan Yüan had known the sources of opium. He concluded that there were three major groups of foreign traders who carried opium in their cargo from West Asia and India.\n\n41\n\nThree major groups of foreign traders are the sources for our opium. Among these traders there are a number of merchants who come from across the Atlantic Ocean. They pick up cargoes of opium on their way to China. Moreover, the British merchants, in their private capacities, also bring with them this contraband commodity when they come to Macau. The Company, franchised by the British sovereign, does not officially engage in the opium trade itself. The American ship owners and captains constitute the last group of opium smugglers. They, not having any king to restrain them, bring in the commodity themselves in the holds of their ships.*2\n\n42\n\nThese foreign traders worked with the Chinese merchants in Canton and Macau who provided them with the marketing machinery to distribute opium. For this reason, Juan Yuan blamed the Chinese merchants, especially the hong merchants, for the thriving illicit opium trade.\n\nThe hong merchants are so close to the foreign traders that, although their smuggling activities could be kept dark from the officials, it is impossible for the hong merchants not to be aware of them. How can foreign ships bring contraband commodities for thousands of miles without being assured of a market here first? They, therefore, must work hand-in-glove with the hong merchants. The hong merchants appear to consider only their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209269, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "158\n\nWEI PEH-T'I\n\nown profits, completely disregarding the damages done by opium addiction to the people. As Wu Tun-yüan [Puiqua] is the chief of the hong merchants, Your Majesty's consent is requested to have his third-rank button removed, for a couple of years at least any way, and see whether the hong merchants would still continue to connive in opium smuggling.\"\n\n4\n\nIn addition to Puiqua, sixteen opium dealers in Macau were jailed for their part in opium smuggling. One of them, a Yeh Huan-shu, confessed in detail about opium smuggling, including how officials were bribed. Juan Yuan also impounded cargoes and expelled ships that were found to be carrying opium, and burned the opium he had confiscated. “Although [these actions taken by Juan Yuan against the Chinese and foreign merchants] have not put an end to opium smuggling activities, they certainly have managed to stop opium at Lintin.\" Under such vigilance, the quantity of opium exported from India to China was held at a steady level until the next season. While demands increased, prices also rose. Statistics of consumption and value of Indian opium in China, including opium which had “passed the Company's sales in India and the Malwa opium which had come from the Portuguese port of Damaun”,** from the trading season of 1818-19 to 1827-28, show a sizeable increase in the quantity of opium imported into China after 1822-23, indicating that new methods of smuggling had been devised within two years of the strengthening of the anti-opium measures.\n\nAfter 1821 opium smuggling became confined to the islands at the mouth of the Pearl River, with the centre at Lintin Island. Macau and Whampoa were also free of opium boats. British sources cleared Juan Yuan from connivance in opium smuggling. C. Marjoribanks, Esquire, a director of the East India Company, testified before a Parliamentary committee investigating the opium trade that the \"higher officials at Canton were not involved in the smuggling activities\". Officials below the top level, however, were a part of the illegal trade. Official boats patrolling the waters off Canton reported regularly \"to the Canton authorities that they had swept the seas of all smuggling ships, yet, the ships remained there just the same\".\n47 As a result, the quantity of opium brought in during 1820-21 and 1821-22 remained steady, but prices jumped, indicating insufficient supply to meet demand, and there was a consistent increase in opium import from then on. The “value of Indian opium sold in Canton alone, without including other quantities deposited in the other parts of China”, increased from 2,951,000 Spanish dollars in 1817-18 to 11,243,496 dollars in 1827-28.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209271, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "160\n\nWEI PER-TI\n\nfew days later from his wounds. Upon being told of the news, Juan Yuan \"suspended the Company's trade and required the surrender of the man whom he termed the 'Foreign Murderers'\"*\n\n+\n\n63\n\nTo Juan Yuan, the Select Committee's reaction to his demand was in contravention to Chinese regulations. He was told by the Committee to communicate directly with Captain Richardson of the Topaze instead of going through the hong merchants and the Select Committee. Had Juan Yuan done as he was asked, he would have implicitly consented to change the Canton system. This he refused to do. He continued to hold to the principle that the supercargo of the British factory be responsible for the conduct of all British nationals in China. While the hong merchants, British traders at Canton, and Captain Richardson debated various possible courses to take, Juan Yuan suspended all British trade and held steadfast to his principles. On February 3, 1822, a Chinese official was permitted to board the Topaze and was understood to have said that he would make a report to the Governor-General. On 8 February, using as the excuse that as he had not heard from Chinese officials everything must be satisfactory, Captain Richardson took the Topaze to sea.\n\nIt was at this point the crisis really became serious. The British factory left Canton within three days. The language used by both sides in their communications was inflexible and threatening. The Committee insisted upon disclaiming responsibilities for the British navy. Another two weeks passed without any sign of solution. The Committee then explained to Juan that Captain Richardson had returned to Britain to \"report to his sovereign\" and that \"copies of all the papers would be sent to the Court of Directors [of the Company]\". Juan Yuan, noting that since the Topaze had already left Chinese waters, so that it was impossible for the supercargo to surrender the criminals even if he had been willing, and as the entire account was being sent back to both the sovereign and the Company, permitted the resumption of British trade at Canton. This compromise in order to resolve a difficult case reflected Juan Yuan's willingness to make the best of a bad situation.\n\nJuan Yuan did not negotiate with the British except through the intermediary of the hong merchants, and, it was the Company that was to be held responsible for finding the criminals to be remitted to Chinese justice, although no such promise had actually been made.55 And, most important of all, the British navy was removed from the China seas. On the surface at least, the principles of the Canton system were preserved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "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": 209275, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "164\n\nWEI PEH-T'I\n\nGovernor-General of Yunnan and Kweichow. By this time he was over sixty, a venerated official who had served three reigns. He was an author and scholar of distinction. He had a solid reputation abroad as a pragmatic and honest official. His family was large and despite the loss of a young daughter under tragic circumstances in 1823, by his own assessment he was pleased with his Canton years. The grain storage was full. Fortifications and new examination facilities were constructed. Other public buildings and historical sites were restored, and, of course, the famous Hsueh-hai-t'ang Academy was a reality. The seas were free of foreign war vessels, and at least on the surface, and for the time being, foreign traders and hong merchants were under control. It was not until more than a dozen years later that British commercial interests were able to garner support from their government to challenge the Canton system by force.\n\n1\n\nNOTES\n\nJ. K. Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast, (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), p. 55.\n\n2\n\nThe Chia-ch'ing Emperor's accusations were communicated to Juan Yuan through court letters. See, for instance, Kung-chung-tang – CC 019639 (Palace Memorials, hereafter referred to as KCT). Similar charges were levied against Juan Yuan by the Tao-kuang Emperor in KCT – TK 000013. Both emperors were angry at Juan Yüan because they felt that he was not doing enough to suppress secret society activities in the provinces under his jurisdiction. J. K. Fairbank, op. cit. p. 20; on the other hand, cited Juan Yüan as an example of the \"intellectual unpreparedness for Western contact\" on the part of Chinese officials of the early nineteenth century.\n\nMay, 1818. H. B. Morse, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635–1834, (Taipei reprint edition), III, 316.\n\nSelect Committee Reports on the East India Company and Trade with China 1821-321, Parliamentary Papers, (Irish University Press edition), 36:540.\n\n5 Chinese Repository, II: 71–72 (June, 1835).\n\n7\n\nDraft Biography, Palace Museum No. 1266(1)\n\nLei-t'ang an-chu ti-tzu chi, 5:106-11 (Chronological account of Juan Yuan's life by his students) hereafter referred as Ti-tzu chi.\n\n8 Hsin-hui hsien-chih (Local gazetteer of Hsin-hui district) 12:16. This is a rather liberal translation.\n\n10\n\n9\n\nYen-ching shih-chi, (1820) compiled by Juan Yüan, II:7:24-25b.\n\nI am grateful to Father Benjamin Videira Pires of Macau, who took me to visit the fort in December 1979, just as the fort was being converted into a tourist hotel. Father Videira is the author of “As Fortalezas de Cidada, em 1741”, in Comunidade, a newspaper published in Macau.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209285, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "174\n\nNG LUN NGAL-HA\n\ndemonstrated on his occasional visits to his native village while he was a student in Hawaii and in Hong Kong.\n\nAs to the promotion of commerce, Sun's ideas were very much inspired by Ho and Cheng, both of whom were of the comprador merchant class preoccupied with commercial interests. Yet, as an eye-witness of the economic prosperity of Hong Kong, a free port under the Western and British commercial system, Sun's ideas were much more than echoes of the above thinkers. His exposition on this aspect went much deeper than the section on industrial development, which was then not a main feature of the Hong Kong economy, and which he knew about merely from his reading. The three important measures prescribed by Sun for the promotion or free flow of commerce were not original. They were the abolition of internal customs barriers, protection of merchants by government against extortion and the building of railways and ships to ensure facilities for transportation. Yet the examples he cited as being carried out by Western nations, especially Britain, were evidently learnt in Hong Kong. He pointed out that the merchant class in Western countries had long been actively involved in government policies and their overseas commercial expansion had received military support from their governments. In return, it was the financial support of the merchants which enabled Britain to conquer India, territories in Southeast Asia and Africa, and also to annex Australia. Sun wanted to prove that commercialism was the road to the nation's wealth and power and that merchants were a very influential class in the nation. The privileged position and influence of merchants and the mercantile houses were in fact evident in Hong Kong since the first day of its founding. Very often, the Governor and even the home government had to yield to their requests and demands, and all the unofficial seats in the Hong Kong Legislative and the Executive Councils were taken by prominent merchants and members of the General Chamber of Commerce.18 To show that Chinese merchants, if given chance and encouragement, would also be able to help in building up a modern China, Sun pointed out that a great part of the railway network in Southeast Asia was built by overseas Chinese investment. \"If government would give assurance for proper interest and profit, these merchants would certainly be willing to invest in their native country\", Sun remarked.\n\nSince Sun had received a major part of his formal education in Hong Kong, he was able to experience personally the advantage of a Western education, especially the professional training at the medical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209289, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "178\n\nNG LUN NGAIHA \"Li-huan\", (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, 1975). The most detailed account of his life in Hong Kong is given in Gerald Chao, The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai, (Hong Kong, 1981).\n\n17 Most of these works are collected in Hu Feng-nan hsien-sheng ch'uan-chi, printed and reprinted in Hong Kong between 1902 and 1918.\n\n16 Between 1884 and 1945, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce had the privilege of electing a member to sit in the Legislative Council. See G.B. Endacott, Government and People in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1964), pp. 250-253. For political and economic influence of the local merchants, see also W.V. Pennell, History of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, 1861-1961 (Hong Kong, 1961).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209401, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "36 \n\nJ. H. HAAN \n\nThe assertion of selfgovernment \n\nIn some Western countries, especially Great Britain, the 19th century was the heyday of progress in parliamentary government. In Britain the 1832 Reform Act had substantially increased the number of voters, as well as redistributed them in favour of commerce and industry; the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act provided for the first time a uniform basis upon which local government was to be run, that is, through councils elected by ratepayers. By later acts (1865, 1884, 1918 and 1928) the parliamentary franchise was gradually widened, till the principle of taxation as a basis for voting rights disappeared. \n\nThe foreigners mainly British and Americans \n\n+ \n\n+ \n\n44 \n\n+ \n\n· \n\n- who came \n\nto Shanghai in the very early years were self-conscious of the fact that they ought to govern themselves, without in any way being subjected to a higher authority like their compatriots in Hong Kong. Although the 1845 Land Regulations provided for this self-government through article XII (about the building of roads and other public works: \"The Consul (i.e. the British consul — JH) will be requested by the various renters to urge the propriety of assembling together and publicly consulting about and contributing towards the necessary expenses incurred therein, .\") and through article XX (about taxation: \"the several contributors will request the Consul to appoint three upright merchants to deliberate upon and determine the amounts to be subscribed by them .\"), it was nevertheless thought advisable by some residents to express very clearly that local government rested upon a consensus of the foreign merchants themselves. The motive for these strong words was the fear of interference from Hong Kong with regard to the right to vote. At a Public Meeting of May 29, 1852, a resolution was moved which in its original form read: \"That this meeting consider the legal opinion of the Attorney General of Hong Kong respecting the qualifications of voters at this Meeting unnecessary, as the action of the body of landrenters is not governed by Law but by mutual agreement\", but after some discussion it was passed in the following form: \"That this meeting consider the action of the body of Landrenters with reference to Roads and Jetties is only governed by mutual agreement\",13", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209407, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "42\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nThis limited franchise might be called the first characteristic of the voting structure in Shanghai. The second was the existence of proxy voting, that is voting by people present at a Public Meeting acting as agents of and voting for persons not present.\n\nNeither in the 1845 Land Regulations nor in those of 1854 had any provision for proxy voting been made, yet even before 1854 it was widely used, so we might put the question as to when it was introduced.\n\nThe first time the matter was considered at a Public Meeting was on June 14, 1851, when the problem was raised as \"to whether persons holding special powers of Attorney to deal with the land of parties absent could claim a vote on their behalf at a Public Meeting in addition to their own\" 27 It was then argued that \"such a system... had never been adopted at Public Meetings of this nature at Shanghai\" and consul Alcock was not inclined \"to admit the principle on the present occasion”.\n\nHowever, there were apparently some difficulties of a legal nature involved and Alcock thought it wise to consult the Attorney General at Hong Kong, whose advice was negative. Earlier I have drawn attention to the fact that the merchants at Shanghai were very self-conscious as to their self-government and the resolution against the interference from Hong Kong has already been referred to. At the same Public Meeting of May 25, 1852, it was decided, by resolution no. 2, \"That all holders of Land within the British limits may specially appoint an Attorney to act for them in their absence; and further that one person may act as Attorney for several renters, and be entitled to vote for each proprietor he may be duly empowered to represent\".28\n\nAs from that date proxy voting became the established practice at Shanghai and it was incorporated in article XIX of the 1869 Land Regulations.\n\nThere were evident dangers in this mode of voting. The already rather oligarchical procedure at a Public Meeting might be still more monopolized if a great number of votes were collected by some persons who might then be able to corner the meeting. Moreover, less scrupulous voters might be willing to sell their own vote to the highest bidder. It should be stressed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209437, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "72 \n\nELIZABETH SINN \n\nThe following morning, the 4th October, the strike continued. Faced with impasse, several parties busied themselves throughout the day with various means of breaking the strike. First, Marsh attempted to stop the strike by discrediting Chang Chih-tung and other Canton officials, whose proclamations, as we have seen, Marsh was convinced had started all the troubles. The inflammatory nature of Chang's 15th September proclamation had prompted Harry Parkes, the British Minister at Peking, to protest to the Tsungli Yamen, and he succeeded in forcing the Chinese Court to issue an Imperial Decree censuring the Canton authorities for their excesses. When Marsh received news of this Decree on the night of the 3rd October, he felt vindicated. On the following morning, he had notices posted all over town telling of the Imperial Decree hoping to convince the populace that Chang's proclamations were no longer valid. He also issued proclamations calling on the people to resume work.\n\nAt the same time, a meeting was called at the Nam Pak Hong where Li Tak CheungA, Ho Amei, and about twenty other merchants persuaded the boat people and coolies to resume work. There were some reservations at first, but they seemed to have agreed to resume work on condition that attempts would be made to induce the authorities to forgive them and remit the fines. There was also some query as to why some of the people arrested during the riot were still in custody. Obviously the ill feeling and suspicions towards the Government had not yet been dispelled.\n\nFrederick Stewart, the Registrar-General, now Acting Colonial Secretary, had been asked to attend the meeting, but he declined. He felt that, since Stewart Lockhart had already met the boat people, there was no reason for another official to meet them at another meeting. However, as Stewart Lockhart had arranged a meeting that afternoon with Chinese Justices of the Peace, and present and former members of the Tung Wah Hospital Committee at which he would be present, he suggested that Li Tak Cheung and his friends should also attend.85 Both the Nam Pak Hong and the Tung Wah Hospital were Chinese institutions which the Government often consulted on matters affecting the Chinese population.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209439, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "74\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nThe meeting not appearing to have achieved any great breakthrough, the Government and the Chinese merchants went their separate ways to try to resolve the situation. Later that same afternoon, the 4th, Marsh himself met some of the sureties of the boatmen and assured them of police protection if the boatmen returned to work. They told him they feared violence despite this, but Marsh got the impression that this was merely an excuse to avoid returning to work. He came away with a feeling that they were waiting for some secret order on whether to resume work or not. He also sent word around through Stewart Lockhart that if the people would resume work, the Government would consider as an act of grace any appeal which might be made for a remittance of the fines. No appeals, however, came forward.88\n\nThe Chinese merchants, too, continued for the rest of the day exerting themselves in an effort to end the strike. There is no documentary evidence recording specifically what they did, but we shall return later to discuss what had probably been done.\n\nEarly the next morning, placards signed \"All the kaifongs of the Colony\" were posted all along the Praya. They claimed that a meeting of those pursuing various trades in the Colony had been held, and the resolution was that all the cargo boats and coolies should resume work on the morning of the 5th October.30\n\nAt about 10 o'clock on the 5th, cargo boats started coming over from the Chinese side of the harbour. A crowd gathered on shore and, to forestall violence, a picket of soldiers was moved from the Tung Wah Hospital to the Harbour Master's office. The police read a proclamation calling upon the people to disperse and they did so. Though there were a few isolated cases of attempted interference with those resuming work, the general strike may be said to have ended.10\n\nIn fact, there was no serious disturbance after the 3rd. Yet despite this and the resumption of work on the 5th, the Acting Governor remained anxious about the angry and excited feeling among the lower classes of coolies and the large number of triad members he believed to have assembled in Hong Kong. The city was rife with rumours about imminent troubles, and a large", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209441, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "76\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nthe answers necessarily involve conjecture, but it is hoped that, with care, we can get near the truth.\n\nThe first question is, what caused the initial strike against the French? Marsh insisted that it was Chang Chih-tung's proclamation, though it was not published in Hong Kong until 17th September while the strike against the La Galissonière had actually begun on the 11th. In fact Marsh was not far wrong because the proclamation once issued in Canton on the 5th could easily have reached Hong Kong by channels other than formal publication in the local newspapers. Neither, for that matter, did the Canton Authorities have to make known their wishes only by way of proclamations.\n\nHowever, Chang Chih-tung, answering the Tsungli Yamen's queries about his part in the strike and riot in Hong Kong, protested his innocence. He had not published proclamations in Hong Kong as the Hong Kong Government had charged, he claimed, and since going on strike meant loss of income for the workers, he reasoned, no official could have induced them to do so. They had gone on strike voluntarily, out of patriotism.47 He did not however say what he had hoped to achieve by the proclamations he admitted publishing in Canton.\n\nIn another despatch to the Tsungli Yamen after the strike in Hong Kong ended, he wrote that he had secretly telegraphed Chinese merchants in Hong Kong to try to end the strike. The phrase he used in instructing the merchants was \"shih-k'o chi-chih\" 可即止 to stop immediately when the time was appropriate.49 The implication of this phrase is that some disturbance was permissible as long as it did not get out of hand, and a further, more incriminating, implication was that the situation had been started by the Chinese merchants and was in their control so that there was no question they would be able to reverse the situation when and if they so wished.\n\nChang Chih-tung thus contradicted himself. He was clearly not as innocent as he so vehemently claimed to the Tsungli Yamen. He had issued a provocative proclamation, had relied on local leaders to appeal for an anti-French strike, and had relied on the anti-French feelings of the Chinese to rally to his call.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209444, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "79\n\n58\n\nofficials and gentry-merchants (shen-shang) are [agents]. There is no need for [professional] agents.\n\nWe have no means to prove or disprove Chang's somewhat extravagant claim, but we can be certain that there was at least some truth in it.\n\nIn Ho Amei, we have an example of Chang's \"Man in Hong Kong\". Ho is one of the most colourful personalities in 19th Century Hong Kong, and, as such, was one of those whom the Rev. Carl Smith has chosen to write about in several of his works on the Chinese in Hong Kong. Ho Amei had worked in Australia and New Zealand, in mining and emigration; for a while he worked at the Registrar-General's office in Hong Kong. He also worked in the Chinese Customs Service for a time. In 1882, he started the Telegraph Company in Hong Kong which the Chinese Government took over 2 years later. Then and after, he had many business connections with the Chinese Government, in emigration, mining, railways and telegraphy. In 1884, he was secretary of the On Tai Insurance Company, a position which entitled him to sit at the meetings of the predominantly European Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.\n\nThroughout the Sino-French War, he regularly sent telegrams to the Canton authorities reporting on French movements around Hong Kong. As we have seen, at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, he condemned the French for searching junks. At the same meeting, he spoke out for China's right to block the river entrance in Shanghai in case of a French attack, an opinion which found no sympathy in the Chamber. Indeed, he was voted down as \"an interested party\".01\n\nInterested party he certainly was, but what we must not overlook amid the complexity of his material interests was his courage in speaking up for China, knowing full well his lone opinion would not reverse the resolutions reached by the predominantly European members of the Chamber. There was no need for him to please the Canton Government with a declaration of allegiance at a Chamber of Commerce meeting; it demanded loyalty of him in other ways. The public stand he made, and it was well publicised in the papers, was made out of his own convictions on the question of China's sovereign rights. He protested against the French not as a Chinese agent, but as a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209455, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "90\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nthe Canton Government. It responded to Canton's call to strike and then terminated it when it had gone too far because each, in its judgement, was the appropriate thing to do at the time. In my opinion, it did what it believed to be right, and commensurate with the Committee's status as Chinese gentry. And the 1884 episode, we must admit in all fairness, demonstrated its effectiveness.\n\nNo doubt individual members had personal ambitions and motives, and in a sociological sense, these were what made the Tung Wah Hospital tick. What we must not overlook however, are the ideals and nobler feelings men had, and in 1884, in particular, I think these played an important part. It is too easy to be cynical; perhaps it is time to review the past with more sympathy.\n\nThe ease with which the Tung Wah and other Chinese leaders could rally cargo boatmen and coolies to strike stemmed not only from their prestige and influence but also from a common national feeling. Merchants and coolies alike suffered losses from the strike, but nationalism and a sense of moral righteousness against the fines made them accept these losses and join in common action. It is perhaps this ability on the part of the Tung Wah to identify with local Chinese of various classes through an incipient nationalism that made it so formidable in 19th Century Hong Kong. And one may speculate that the later decline of the Tung Wah Hospital as a political force was partially due to the rise of a newer, more complex and more narrow brand of nationalism in the 1920s which emphasized class lines and class struggles and thus made it more difficult for any single organisation to build on the joint allegiance of different social groups.\n\nBut what the average European contemporary saw was not the social, political and psychological vacuum that the Tung Wah Hospital could fill. He saw only dark conspiracies growing out of the ambition of its Committee members to usurp power from the Administration. European newspaper editors and correspondents alike lost no opportunity during the episode to vilify the Chinese leaders. European opinion reflected envy and hostility at every turn, envy for Chinese who rose to power and influence, and hostility against those who dared to demand a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209582, "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": 239, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "CARL T. SMITH\n\nTHE HONG KONG AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB AND ITS PREDECESSORS\n\nTHE PROLOGUE\n\nTo set the mood for an article on Amateur Dramatics in Hong Kong, I quote a prologue to the performance of \"the screaming farce\", 'I've Written to Brown' presented on 21 April 1871 by the Hong Kong Amateurs.\n\nLadies and Gentlemen, the pleasing task\n\nIs mine tonight your kindly smiles to ask,\n\nFor those who now behind the curtain wait,\n\nWith biding, anxious hearts to learn their fate.\n\nSo let your verdict generous be, the while\n\nWe strive a pleasant hour to beguile.\n\nBut who can now a pleasant hour boast,\n\nWith thirteen steamers daily up the coast\n\nSharebrokers pressing one to sell or buy\n\nWith telegrams cach minute from Shanghai\n\nWith stern Welsh witnesses, who'd rather brook\n\nA Judge's ire than kiss a dirty book,\n\nAnd, by their word prepared to stand or fall\n\nSay they'll be if they will swear at all!\n\nWith piece goods market all to pieces gone,\n\nThrough sales of damaged shirtings ex the Don,\n\nAnd, piling agony, beyond endurance\n\nWith Oily Phantom's new Chinese Insurance;†\n\nWhere, of our interests most august protectors,\n\nThey've such a crushing army of Directors!\n\nSince last we met, though some enlivening rays\n\nOf social light have cheered our nights and days,\n\nA quiet Picnic to Victoria Peak\n\nPhotos in High Life, taken once a week\n\n†The American firm of Olyphant and Company organized in 1871 at Hong Kong the Chinese Insurance Company. It was the first insurance company on the China coast to cater especially to Chinese shippers and merchants. Its Board was composed of both Chinese and foreigners.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209585, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "220 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nestablished brothels, a gambling hall, opium divans, a temple, his family house and the Theatre. \n\nAs the location and arrangements of Acqui's Theatre were not very satisfactory, there was a movement to build something more suitable. Immediately after the first performance of the Amateurs, it was announced that plans for a new theatre were under consideration. The China Mail, 8 January 1846, gave its full support: \n\nWe are glad to learn there is at length a fair prospect of a Theatre being erected in Hong Kong. The project was suggested last year, and as it not only met with general approbation from the public, but received the sanction of His Excellency and the support of the civil and military servants of the Government, it is rather inexplicable how it was suffered to drop. We are indebted, we believe, to the same parties who lately favoured the public with an amateur performance in the Lower Bazaar, for taking the matter up again, and they seem now to have begun very properly by first testing the feelings of the middle classes upon the very important point of subscriptions. We are assured that the amount already subscribed for is more than half what will be required to erect a spacious building, adapted alike for the purposes of a Theatre and a Ballroom, or a hall for public meetings. With some proofs of support from the community at large, we trust the Governor's patronage will be continued, and the merchants and official gentlemen will take the matter up in good earnest, and complete what has already been auspiciously begun. When the plans are sufficiently matured we would suggest the propriety of bringing them before the public in a well-defined shape, by circular, or advertisement in the public papers. For this purpose our columns will be at the service of the committee gratuitously. \n\nA meeting to enlist shareholders was held at the house of Leonard Just, a watchmaker, in February 1846. The eventual outcome of the meeting was the erection of the Victoria Theatre on the hill behind the Hong Kong Club. The lot was up Wyndham Street somewhat to the south of Wellington Street.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209654, "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n289\n\nThe conclusion of the matter is shown in F.O.228, v.654, p.146-152. In a letter to Sir Thomas Wade, written from Hong Kong on 28th Aug. 1880, Byron Brenan describes how he went to Canton \"in obedience to your instructions\", and finding the Governor General would not be available for two weeks owing to a death in the family, argued the case with the Superintendent of Customs. This did not go straightforwardly, and involved Brenan in a trip to Hoihow to obtain the receipts required as evidence that the sums had been paid as claimed. Eventually, however, he was able to obtain payment of $787.12 as the amount of tax in excess of what would have been due under the transit pass system, plus interest of $118.06, being 5% for three years, $905.18 in all. The last paper on the matter is a receipt for the refund, signed by Louis Jüdell, who is mentioned in Mr. Herton's letter to Mr. Keswick, in the capacity of his duly authorized attorney. It also appears from the covering letter of Acting Consul Scott that Mr. Ebell had severed his connection with the firm in August 1879.\n\nThe other letter to Mr. Keswick is less interesting, as it does not lead one into such a long paper chase (albeit on microfilm) through Foreign Office records. Nevertheless, it adds to the picture of problems faced by foreign merchants in China at that time. It reads as follows:\n\nHong Kong 12th March 1879\n\nDear Mr. Keswick,\n\nIn compliance with your request that I should give you a statement of the position of the Transit Pass Question at Pakhoi when I was at that port a month ago I beg to submit the following remarks.\n\nI was informed that a proclamation was to be issued on the day I left the 21st Feb. authorizing the issue of passes for cloth, specifying linen and camlets, but the Commissioner stated that the word cloth would be construed liberally as to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209702, "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": 359, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n337\n\naccording to the social groups supporting them, into the following types:\n\n(I) Theatre organized by territorial groups\n\n(IA) The theatre of market based village unions\n\n(IB) The theatre of agriculturally based village unions\n\n(IC) Village community theatre\n\n(II) Theatre conducted by kin groups\n\n(IIA) Theatre jointly organized by clan communities\n\n(IIB) Theatre separately organized by 'branch groups' of clans\n\n(IIC) Theatre organized by family groups'\n\n(III) New theatre developed in the emerging towns\n\n(IIIA) Theatre conducted by merchants (Expansion of 1A)\n\n(IIIB) New theatre conducted by small and medium landowners instead of big landlords (Expansion of IB and IC)\n\n(IIIC) New family theatre conducted by the small and medium landowner classes in town (Expansion of IIC)\n\nLooking at ritual theatre in Hong Kong, the author suggests that the early ritual settlers, whether Hakka, Cantonese or Hoklo, appear to develop theatre of the community type (IC + IIA), while the Cantonese living in the city develop the town type (IIIA + IIIB). As to the theatre developed by the Ch'au-chou people in Hong Kong, this, generally speaking, is similar to the clan type (IIB + IIC).\n\nThe third aspect of the book is a discussion of the problem of the diffusion of ritual theatre. The author condenses the diffusion routes of ritual theatre under (1) diffusion through the clan or bureaucratic network, (2) diffusion through the commercial marketing network, and (3) diffusion through peasants' migration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209926, "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-1983", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "163\n\nnot get the academic attention they deserve. A recognition of their sociological significance will pose a different set of questions in the study of industrial entrepreneurship. A central issue in the field of Japanese industrial growth, for example, has been the supply of modern entrepreneurs from the traditional samurai class. Most researchers, in my view, are preoccupied with determining the extent of samurai participation in industrial leadership (See Hirschmeier 1964; Yamamura 1974). It should not be surprising to find that the samurai's performance as entrepreneurs was lacklustre if their industrial importance lay elsewhere. Their strict code of honour, their willingness to observe regulations, and their devotion to service most probably qualified them to become loyal and competent industrial bureaucrats instead of leaders. Similarly, in the comparative studies of Chinese and Japanese modernization, the differences in their traditional class structure have been noted. Both structures were hierarchical, but the Japanese one was 'feudalistic' in the sense that class boundaries were rigid and impermeable, whereas the Chinese one did not bar individual mobility. From this difference, observers usually deduce implications for capital accumulation. Since the status of merchant in Japan was hereditary, it facilitated the formation of mercantile capital. Chinese merchants, on the other hand, would urge their sons to become officials and convert their wealth into land to gain gentry status, thus commercial capital as well as talent were dissipated (Levy 1955). But the different stratification system might also have far-reaching consequences for the emergence of a stable and dedicated middle managerial stratum in the two societies. My hypothesis is that the pervasive ambition to move up the social ladder in Chinese society tends to deny the Chinese industrial entrepreneurs dependable executives. I cannot fully substantiate this idea here. Let me simply suggest some of the likely consequences of this hypothesized absence of a dedicated managerial stratum in the Hong Kong cotton spinning industry. This deficiency does not necessarily hamper the overall vitality of the industry. Rather, it can create its own kind of dynamism. One spinner, B22, attributed the success of Hong Kong textile industry to the prevalent desire for self-employment:\n\nJapanese and South Korean workers are very obedient. But", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209976, "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-1983", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "213\n\nA commemorative tablet is to be found in the ruined building, and neither of my elderly informants can recall this period: but during this time it is said that the temple continued to be managed by the Chu family of Tai Hom because of their ownership of the land. The 1887 date given in the Kwun Yam temple door inscription presumably gives the date of this rebuilding.\n\nA change took place in the opening years of this century, when my informants were boys. The clan uncle who was then looking after the Kwun Yam temple found work as a foreman at the Tai Tam Tuk water scheme on Hong Kong island, and handed over its charge to a Taoist monk. This man, described as “a very capable person”, decided to build a second temple, and went to the Nam Pak Hong (Nam Pak Hong) or group of merchants trading overseas from Bonham Strand, then the main business centre of Hong Kong’s Chinese community, to raise funds. He was successful in collecting sufficient money, and the new, or Tung Shan, temple was built in 1904.1 Again, no memorial tablet can be found.\n\nWhen the monk died a few years after the construction of the new temple a further change of management occurred. The clan uncle was still working away from home, and he and the other elders of Tai Hom handed control to another man. This person was not from the same village. He lived in Po Kong (#), one of the older and more important Kowloon villages, settled in the Ming Dynasty or earlier. However, he was a Hakka like the Tai Hom villagers, though he lived in a Punti village.\n\nThe reasons for his acceptability to the Chu clan and to the leaders of the wider community that took an interest in the two temples were stated to me by the Chu elders as follows: “The Kwun Yam temple belonged not just to we Chus, but to the thirteen villages of Kowloon, and Mr. Chan [the new permanent manager’s name] was well-off, elderly and respected by local people”. This demonstrates the progress that the temple had made in the affections of Kowloon people and its growing territorial influence.\n\nThe new manager was born in Kwei-shin (歸善) (now Hui-yang (惠陽)) in 1855. He was a building contractor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210012, "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-1983", "page_number": 270, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "248\n\nagents of incense merchants and conveyed by land to Tsim Sha Tau (now Tsim Sha Tsui) whence it was transported by junks to Shek Pai Wan (now Aberdeen) and thence to mainland China, southeast Asia and places as far away as Arabia. Hence Shek Pai Wan was known as \"Incense Harbour\" or \"Heong Kong” the harbour of Incense or \"Heung\" produce, and the whole island eventually came to be known as \"Hong Kong”. \n\nThe cultivation and trade in \"Kuan-heung\" reached the height of its prosperity during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.). However, during the reign of Emperor K'ang Hsi (R) of the Ch'ing Dynasty (1662-1722 A.D.), the Manchus, as a preventive measure against counter attacks from Taiwan, where Cheng Shing-kung (*), a faithful vassal of the Ming Dynasty still held sway, adopted a \"scorched earth strategy\" by destroying everything within 50 Li (Chinese miles) of the coast, including incense trees, before the inhabitants were evacuated inland. Thus the industry suffered a stunning blow, and then, as the coastal areas were subsequently infested by pirates, its doom was finally sealed. \n\nThe \"Incense Tree\" (**, £*) is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a small compact crown. Leaves are oval in shape, about 6 cm long and 3 cm wide, with a pointed tip, and shiny on both surfaces. Flowers are small, scented yellowish-green, borne in clusters on the ends of the branch, and open in May. The fruit is a woody capsule, shaped like a compressed egg about 3 cm long, densely covered with short grey hairs and can be seen dangling from the branch tips when ripe. It is a rather slow-growing, insignificant tree whose presence in the open countryside is often masked by more vigorous plants. \n\nThe statement that it was introduced from North Vietnam must be questioned. Aquilaria sinensis is in fact a species indigenous throughout this region, and it may be found growing wild in many different places and at different altitudes in Hong Kong. The misunderstanding may have been caused by the reference to another incense-producing tree (Aquilaria agallocha) which was commonly grown in the western part of Kwangtung, and in Hainan Island, North Vietnam and Thailand. \n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210170, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "120\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nthere to support the dried fish trade in their native places and also to provision the merchant boats which followed the fishing fleets. Their presence is recorded for Shau Kei Wan before 1841,46 which is in line with their presence on Cheung Chau from the eighteenth century.” At Stanley, village tradition ascribes the foundation of the Pak Tai temple there in 1803 to them. This widespread presence of outsider merchants is clear evidence of a substantial trade not limited merely to the immediate marketing area.\n\n48\n\nI come now to a particular feature of the Hong Kong scene before 1841 that was to be encountered again in Kowloon in 1860 and in the New Territories in 1899. According to a near contemporary account compiled by three knowledgeable British officers in the 1860s:\n\n“Hong Kong so far back as the Ming dynasty was owned by a respectable family of the name of Tang. When Kanghi ordered the Coast to be cleared of its inhabitants [1662] the possession of Hong Kong was abandoned. But when the Emperor revoked his decree [1668], the occupation of it was again resumed and title deeds granted, authenticated records of which remain to this day in the offices of the chief magistrates of Sin Ngan [ ] and Tungkwan [ ]. The land tax for two centuries and upwards had been regularly paid by this family, its members being considered by the government as its true and lawful landlords.”49\n\nThe authors continue that, when ceding the Island to Britain:\n\n“No provision seems to have been made by the Chinese Government for the original proprietors of the soil, who made suit to the British Government humbly praying for remuneration. It was said that some eight or ten thousand dollars were paid for certain fields in Wong-nei-chong and Su-kon-pu not to the members of the Tang family, however, but to the persons occupying the soil and claiming to be its true and rightful owners. Whether they were so or not does not appear.\n\n150\n\nThe Tang family to whose claims to land ownership of Hong Kong Island I shall return presently continued to suffer from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210218, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "168\n\nR.A. BOWLER, D.S.C. YANG AND A.J.E. SMITH\n\nquota was fixed for a duration of five years so that oystermen would have a chance to recover. The Chinese oyster farms are in practice allowed to deal privately and individually with Hong Kong merchants after quota deduction to sell the remainder of the crop. In order to encourage farmers to deal with official organs in selling the remainder, however, they receive a better than normal exchange rate from the Chinese government for oysters exported through the customs. As another incentive to use the official route, farmers are permitted to import tax-free personal household goods and production gear.\n\nThe official tonnages of fresh oyster meat exported (i.e. those which have passed through customs) from China to Hong Kong are shown on Figure 2. The figures provided by the Shenzhen Aquaproduct Company included some oysters in shell. These have been converted to wet-weight in Figure 2, making the assumption that wet-weight is 10% of the total weight including the shell. About double the tonnage is exported unofficially directly via direct sales to Hong Kong merchants into Lau Fau Shan by boat despite the incentives to use the official route. The reasons for the \"unofficial\" trade may stem from the following:\n\n(a) Relatively loose enforcement of import/export control on both sides of the Bay;\n\n(b) Tedious and troublesome customs procedures;\n\n(c) Various surcharges have to be paid e.g. 10% tax to aquaproduct company, 0.2% handling charge to Bank of China, and possibly others;\n\n(d) a two months delay in receiving payment; and\n\n(e) selling direct to Hong Kong merchants provides foreign exchange at the best rates.\n\nThe Chinese administration is clearly aware of the unofficial trade but apparently not prepared to take any vigorous action yet.\n\nOyster spawning and spat collection\n\nThe life-cycle of the commercial oyster can be conveniently divided into three major stages: (i) spawning, spat fall and collection, (ii) growth from first year to three or four year age, and (iii)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210333, "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": 304, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "283\n\n11\n\nMurrow, Stephenson & Co. (AAR1-MIMO). He seized every chance to gain advantage and became rich. He was respected by the Chinese as well as by the foreigners. Later, he established the Heng Ch'ang (97) fuel company (R) by himself. At his suggestion, three steamers, the Russell (M), the Shamrock (A), and the Merry (4), began running between Hong Kong and Macao. Then he opened a Yü-sheng (4) Store (19) and a Yu-cheng (M = Esing) Bakery. The businesses expanded daily. Yu-cheng was a Bakery using western methods to produce the finest quality goods. Its products supplied all the water and land (residents) of Hong Kong.\n\nBecause he had too many workers, he had no time to check minute details. One day, through carelessness, a worker dropped some odd things (*) into the flour. When the westerners bought and ate the bread, they all felt sick and fainted. At that time, because the French and British had attacked Canton in 1856, the Chinese Government was preparing to declare war on the French and the British. Thus, the British suspected that he was commanded by the Chinese Government to poison the British, and prepared to prosecute him. However, because of his truth and honesty, he was soon released.\n\nBecause of this unhappy incident, he went back to Macao and opened a Hang-tai (48) store to sell western goods. He lived as if nothing had happened. Four years after, in 1860, when the French captured the six prefectures of Vietnam, a French lieutenant came to Macao and met him. The lieutenant made a contract with him for building several dozen junks (##). In 1862, when the construction was completed, he went personally to deliver the junks to the French in Vietnam.\n\nBecause of his loyalty and honesty, the French Governor (iti) requested him to do business in Vietnam. Thus, he stayed in Vietnam and travelled around the country. He saw that the country was rather poor, and that the houses were all made of mat and grass. He then bought machines and established four brick-kilns, (Yuan-heng (V), Li-cheng (i), Chien-mei (#), and Kun-mei (1)), and employed workers to make bricks and tiles for building houses.\n\nThe country soon became prosperous and populated, and merchants started to congregate in the country. There were 200 Hainan Chinese who sailed directly to Vietnam at that time. Because they did not know the French law, they were arrested and accused as pirates. Before they were all sent to be shot, he personally exerted himself in their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210336, "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": 307, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "286\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\nThe Cheung lineage was not prosperous until the Tao Kuang (*) period. Ancestor Yao-chih (2) of the 2nd sub-lineage became a successful merchant, and through his generous donation, an Ancestral Hall for the whole lineage was built. The Ancestral Hall of the Ya-kang segment was built in the middle of the Chia Ching period by the effort of ancestor I-pi ( ), brother of Ah-lum's grandfather (see clan record, Tz'u yu pu (3) section, Tz'u T'ang Chi (2) sub-section pp. 1-4). Though the lineage had several National School students (B), no one succeeded in the official examinations until the end of the Ch'ing dynasty when they had three chüren (A). Two of them were Ah-lum's sons. Ah-lum's father was also a National School Student who earned his living by teaching in the villages nearby (see the biography of Ah-lum's father in the Clan record, Chi-ching pu (it) section, Hang Chuang ((HA) sub-section p. 5).\n\nThis man is not otherwise mentioned in the Clan record.\n\nAccording to Ah-lum's statement as given in court, \"he first came to the colony at only 18 years of age. He was first employed by Mr. Bigham, who went to California; after that by Mr. Franklyn; then by Murrow, Stephenson & Co.; then by Mr. De Silver, for whom he made biscuits, as well as did other business see: British Parliamentary Papers, China, no. 24: Hong Kong, P. 183. (= BPP 24:183).\n\nThe Russell was owned by Russell & Co., and the Shamrock by Mr. Xavier, c.f. BPP 24:170 and 173.\n\nSee BPP 24:164–184. The bakery had three machines making bread to supply most of the foreigners in Hong Kong.\n\nSee BPP 24:155-184, and Eitel op.cit. p. 311-313.\n\n10 The Arrow War. The anti-foreigner movement was supported by Yeh Ming-shen (), the Imperial Commissioner for Kwangtung, in Canton. See Wakeman, F. Jr. Strangers at the Gate. 1966, pp. 109ff. Also Eitel op.cit. p. 305.\n\n11 Eitel: op.cit. p. 312-313.\n\n12 According to Chen Kuan-ying (###), Ah-lum was chief of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. (TERA) in Vietnam. He owned a shop Hung Tai Ch'ang() in Saigon, and his son Ti-fu (#) was chief manager (*) of the Cambodia Opium Co. (12). Chen Kuan-ying (E), Nan-yu Jih-chi (12), (Diary of a Journey to the South), reprinted 1967, Taiwan, p. 19ff, 81-89. According to the Clan Record Tsa Chi-pu() section, Pa-yu (if) sub-section, p. 1, Ah-lum had businesses in Saigon, Haiphong, Comuponton, and in Nha Trang in Kwangnam (ÂM NHIỀU).\n\n13 According to the clan record, we know that one of Ah-lum's sons was buried in the free cemetery of Haiphong (), and another was buried in the free cemetery of the Canton City Association in Vung Tau, Vietnam (#).\n\n14 In 1884, when Chen passed through Vietnam, Ah-lum was chief manager (*) of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. in Vietnam. See Chen: p. 19.\n\n15 Chen: ibid.\n\n16 Clan record, Chi-ching pu (###) section, Ch'i-shou (##) sub-section, pp. 1-4; has two essays presented on this occasion by the gentry of Heung Shan, and by the merchants of the Canton City Association in Vung Tau, Saigon (F#城會館).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210787, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "121\n\nBritish Navy stationed at Hong Kong which eradicated free-booting from the China coast. Equipped with the newest steam gun-boats designed for navigation in shallow water, the British commenced a blitz on piracy in 1863, and in a short period rousted the privateers from their haunts in Hainan's shallow river estuaries. To prevent a revival of piracy, the Guangdong provincial government was provided with similar gunboats officered by Englishmen, to patrol the waters surrounding Hainan,\n\nRestoration of trade\n\nThe quashing of piracy led to a rapid restoration of trade between Hainan and the mainland, which in turn, aroused for the first time the interest of foreign merchants in this unknown island which had previously been dismissed as merely a sanctuary for pirates and banditti. This interest resulted in the opening of K'iungchow as a treaty port in 1876 and the development of a thriving trade with Hong Kong. A steamer link with the British colony was established and Hainan produce was ferried on the regular service. Raw sugar, vegetable oils and livestock (cattle, pigs, ducks, chickens and frogs) were the chief exports, while betel nut, copra, rattan, sisal hemp, hides, tallow, medical herbs and incense timber were shipped in small quantities (Henry, 1886; Moninger, 1919). Unfortunately, Hainan did not escape the baneful effects of opium which became the island's principal import (Henry, 1886), its use being justified in warding off the deadly malaria endemic throughout the island (Swinhoe, 1872a).\n\nWith the flurry of business activity, companies formed with foreign and Cantonese capital mushroomed everywhere in Hainan, each striving to secure as large a share as possible of the agricultural and mineral resources of the island. Unfortunately, Hainan did not surrender its untapped wealth easily, and the harshness of the tropical climate sent most enterprises quickly into bankruptcy. Those that did succeed were large, well-financed operations such as the K'iu Hing Kunz Sz, a large plantation near Nada involved in the production of rubber, coffee and tobacco (McClure, 1922). Even this company with over 20,000 rubber trees and 300,000 mature coffee bushes experienced hardship mainly caused by labour shortages, although these may have been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210792, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "126\n\nD.L. MICHALK\n\nby governors and generals striving to grasp independent power, and China was plunged into bloody civil war. Guangdong Province, the birth-place of the republican movement, immediately proclaimed itself independent. Sun Yat-sen, the \"Father of the Republic\", was elected generalissimo, and in 1924 the Kuomintang (the People's Party) was formed. Upon the death of Dr. Sun in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek, backed by his modernized army, emerged as the Kuomintang (KMT) leader, and with assistance from Communist factions began campaigns against the north which culminated in the fall of Shanghai in 1927.\n\nChoosing not to expropriate the capitalist bankers in Shanghai as demanded by the Communists, the KMT and Communists became bitter rivals which re-ignited armed struggle in south China. Fuelled by Communist propaganda, there came a genuine uprising of the peasantry against the KMT for failure to deliver promised tax and land reforms throughout the southern provinces. As part of this general uprising, the first group of “freedom fighters\" appeared on Hainan in 1927 and staged guerilla warfare on the island until Liberation, twenty-three years later (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963).\n\nAlthough armed conflicts between Peking and southern forces had occurred previously on Hainan such as those which led to the capitulation of General Lung's army in 1918 (Moninger, 1919), fighting was confined to the soldiery. However, the Communist tactics brought the conflict to the common citizens by inciting peasants to take up arms against the oppressive gentry and greedy merchants. The effects of lightning raids caused havoc in northern Hainan: numerous villages were abandoned, others sacked and reduced to ash-strewn rubble, and large tracts of farming land were deserted (McClure, 1934b).\n\nIn fact, the revolutionary play, Red Detachment of Women, was loosely based on incidents which occurred in Hainan in 1931. At a bridge about one kilometre south of the present Xinglong Overseas Chinese State Farm, a guerilla band led by Hong Chang-qing assassinated Nan Ba-tian, a cruel landlord. In reprisal, the landlord's forces captured and executed the guerilla leader. However, a slave girl, Wu Qing-hua, took his place as commander and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210891, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "225\n\nshareholders will, in all likelihood, result in a species of competition such as must gradually work a complete revolution in enterprises of the natives.\n\nThe foreign businessman did not have long to wait before this prognostication began to be realised. In 1872, under the patronage of the Chinese Government, the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co was organised at Shanghai. Progressively the Chinese entered areas of business formerly monopolised by foreigners.\n\nIn 1877 the On Tai Insurance Co was organised in Hongkong. At the annual meeting of the Chinese Insurance Co, the chairman took notice of the new competition. The two companies had almost the same constituencies.\n\nThe chairman reported at the meeting that this overlapping threatened to have a serious effect on the company's resources, but as yet was not as disastrous as had first been expected. He remarked: “This is proof that the habit of insuring is being developed amongst the natives of this mighty empire.”\n\nIn 1881 the On Tai Insurance Co applied for and was granted membership in the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce. They were its first Chinese members.\n\nAt the annual meeting at which the firm was elected as a constituent member, Ho A-mei thanked the chamber and then asked if the rules permitted him, as a new member, to propose anything. If so permitted, he wished to bring up a matter that was to the general interests of the commercial life of the whole Colony. The chairman ruled him to be quite in order.\n\nA-mei then proposed: “That a memorial be addressed to His Excellency, the Governor, asking that restrictions recently put upon emigration to Honolulu be done away with.”\n\nNot only had Ho A-mei a long-standing interest in emigration, but the Wo Hang firm of the Li family, whose interests he represented and who were the principal shareholders in the On Tai Insurance Co, had been engaged in the sending of Chinese labour", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211036, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "72\n\n40\n\nHong Kong Government Gazette, 6th May, 1899, p. 701. Mok Man Cheung's book, retailing at $8, was unusually expensive. There clearly was a market for books attempting to bridge the social and linguistic gap between the Chinese and British communities. Also in 1899, for instance, a Lo Sing-lau published his English Self Taught for Chinese at $1 per copy and this went into a second edition in 1904 and a third in 1905, 1904, the year in which Mok Man Cheung produced his English Made Easy, also witnessed the publication of Tang Chi Kun's A Step in English Tongue ($0.80),\n\n41 Letter to the Editor, signed by \"X\", Hong Kong Daily Press, Thursday, 17th January, 1901, p. 2.\n\n42 This assumption is further strengthened by the fact that he made out his will on 28th December, 1917, and that its Probate Number is No. 68 of 1918. I owe this information to Professor Dafydd Evans who also points out the relatively high proportion of \"death bed” wills among the Chinese in Hong Kong at this time. The will itself is serial no. 3135, deposit no. 4, in series 144. It confirms that one of Mok Man Cheung's aliases was Mok Cheuk Lim. An examination of the actual will shows that it was, indeed, a deathbed will and that Mok Man Cheung actually died on 30th December, 1917. The Declaration by Executor before Probate, dated 13th March, 1918, indicates that \"the whole of the personal estate of the said testator amounts in value to the sum of $21,075.53”, certainly no mean sum at the time.\n\n43\n\nThere appear to be no locally-published Chinese language newspapers extant for this period of time. Although the Wah Tsz Yat Po was certainly in operation, unfortunately there is a break in the surviving copies from 18th January, 1917 to 16th February, 1918.\n\n44 The acronym for Queen's College, which was (and is) the current name for the school Mok Man Cheung had attended as \"the Central School\".\n\n45 These are very clear and characteristic indications of his prominence in Hong Kong Chinese society. See, for example, H.J. Lethbridge, Hong Kong: Stability and Change, (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1978), especially pp. 52-102, and Carl T. Smith (1985), especially pp. 139-171. Confirmatory evidence that he was a member of the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk, elected on 20th March, 1909, using his alias, Mok Yeuk Lim, is found in the Hong Kong Government's Administrative Reports for that year, p. C39. If one can assume that another of his aliases was Mok Yuk-chi, confirmatory evidence about his membership of the Committee of the Tung Wah Hospitals can be found in the Administrative Reports for 1913.\n\n46 Even though Mok Man Cheung was certainly successful in a material sense, his name appears neither in Arnold Wright's Twentieth Century Impressions nor in S.L. Woo, The Prominent Chinese in Hong Kong, (Hong Kong, The Five Continents Book Company, 1937) which, though written long after Mok Man Cheung's death, contained reference to several deceased merchants who had been born before 1865. Moreover, he does not appear to have been a member of the District Watch Committee, posited by Lethbridge as the Chinese Executive Council of Hong Kong (Lethbridge 1978, pp. 104-129). On the other hand, Carl Smith's justly-famed index cards reveal that he was involved in many property deals and was, for example, co-proprietor, with Tang Lap Ting and Mok Kun Hiu, of the Wanchai Godown.\n\n47\n\nIn London, a Colonial Office minute in 1907, for example, declared that “I don't think that the fact that Mr. Hee has found an Englishwoman foolish enough to marry a Chinaman is an argument for increasing his salary [as Headmaster of Wanchai District School] (CO129/341, p. 342). In Hong Kong, the official defini-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211065, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "THE BRITISH (PROTESTANT) CEMETERY AT SAN PEDRO, MAKATI, MANILA, PHILIPPINES\n\nDAVID W MAHONEY\n\n101\n\nIn the Eternal Lawn section of the Manila Memorial Park at Paranaque, a Southern suburb of the Philippine capital, Manila, in the shade of a Candelnut tree, wafted by the fragrance of a nearby Frangipani, lie all that is left of the British (Protestant) Cemetery of Manila. (See Plates 17 and 18 at rear of this Volume).\n\nAs the simple granite memorial stone announces \"Here lie the remains of those who were buried in the Protestant Cemetery at San Pedro, Makati between the years 1863-1968”. Well, that's the end of the story, what about the rest?\n\nThe first British contact with the Philippines is said to have been the visit of the “SEAHORSE” to Manila in 1644, but trade could not proceed due to a blockade by the Dutch. The first British people started to come to the islands in the early eighteenth century and established trading links selling textiles (chiefly cotton) and buying silver, pearls, skins, leather, tobacco, sugar and even horses. Trade prospered between the Philippines and Mexico and particularly with China — mostly through English merchants so that the Islands were described as an “Anglo-Chinese Colony flying the Spanish flag\". As many of those involved in trade also had connections with India, it was inevitable that the country which had been ruled by the Spanish since 1565 would come to the attention of the British military. Sure enough in 1762 an expedition under Col. Draper was launched from Madras and captured Manila after a two-week campaign. (Incidentally, Col. Monson, the Second-in-Command is buried in the South Park St. Cemetery in Calcutta.)\n\nAlthough this campaign has been written about extensively, it is still worthy of further investigation. — What happened to the graves of the eight hundred or so who were killed, drowned in the landing during a typhoon or died of disease? No physical evidence\n\nDavid W. Mahoney is a Chartered Surveyor working for Swire Properties Ltd., and has lived in Hong Kong since 1964.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211124, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "160\n\non the peaceful and forbearing policy of late years adopted by Your Majesty's Government towards China authority, have entered upon a course of open hostility to the trade of the Colony by causing trading junks proceeding to Hongkong to be overhauled and seized by Chinese war vessels; ostensibly for the purpose of collection or protecting the Imperial revenue, but really as your petitioners know, to injure the trade of this port and enrich themselves with the plunder so acquired; until emboldened by impunity, they have established a complete blockade of the harbour... so that every Chinese vessel proceeding to Hong-kong is liable to seizure, and many such junks are daily seized and taken to Canton ... to be there sold or confiscated.\n\nThe result was most harmful to Hongkong, for “the terrorism produced by such acts and the injury and oppression consequent thereon have inflicted the greatest detriment to the trade of the Colony and materially checked its progress.\"\n\nIn all the words and arguments issuing out of Hongkong, smuggling was seldom or never mentioned. But the status of Hongkong as a free port and the facilities it provided for contraband trade were the roots of the measures China took to protect its revenues. This both the Chinese and foreign merchants, who profited from the trade, were reluctant to admit publicly.\n\nThe foreign community supported the petition, but few believed it would produce the desired results. It was, however, one way to bring the attention of the Home Government to the situation in Hongkong. It was generally felt that the local Government was not taking a firm enough stand nor pressing its case with sufficient urgency.\n\nThe Chinese in their petition did not refer to the question of a Chinese consul in Hongkong. But a month after it was submitted, a public meeting was held to protest against the \"blockade.” At this meeting, attended almost totally by foreigners, the matter of a Chinese consul in Hongkong was brought up.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211136, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "172\n\nspeaking as a diplomat and not a merchant.\n\nIn the instructions Wade had sent to Robertson, he had strongly urged the establishment of a branch of the Chinese Imperial Customs in Hongkong.\n\nThe Governor of Hongkong, Sir Arthur Kennedy, endorsed this proposal as a possible solution to the problem. In a despatch to London he stated that he was “convinced that the shortest, best and only remedy for disputes and differences which have existed for years, endangering our good relations with the Canton Government is the recognised establishment of a branch of the Chinese foreign inspectorate in Hongkong itself.\"\n\nIt was not until 1886 that provisions were made for establishing a Maritime Customs collecting station at Kowloon and the Hong-kong Government allowed its Commissioner, a British national, to reside in Hongkong.\n\nWAR OF WORDS OVER CHINESE CONSUL CONTINUES\n\nThe manner in which the appointment of a Chinese consul for Hongkong was announced in 1891 provoked a demand from the expatriate merchants that they be allowed a greater voice in determining policies that affected Hongkong.\n\nThey resented that they had not had an opportunity to express their opinion before the decision regarding the appointment had been made.\n\nThe Colonial Office had informed the local government of its intended decision and had received in reply the opinion of concerned government officials in Hongkong, but the mercantile community had not been consulted.\n\nIn November 1890, the Governor was asked if he had any objections to the proposal. This was followed by a telegram in January 1891 informing him that the Chinese had proposed that Mr. Tso Ping-lung, consul at Singapore, be transferred to the new office in Hongkong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211161, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "197\n\nand in his public utterances, and during the course of his much lauded conciliatory and considerate policy towards the Chinese, the Governor has unduly accentuated the political power assumed by this eleemosynary institution.”\n\nThe paper had time and again drawn the attention of the public to the dangers the activities of Tung Wah posed to the legitimate authority of the Government.\n\nOnce again it warned of the \"dangerous mischief calculated to result from the action of a native corporation possessing no guide or check” and urged the “necessity for either prohibiting the directors from acting as extra judges or jurymen, or for recognising certain powers in them limited by clearly defined rules.”\n\nTheir acting as \"a sort of Small Cause Court, Chamber of Commerce, Tribunal of Arbitration, (and) Hongkong Association\" was the natural result of the composition of the directorship of the hospital,\n\nIt was made up of elected representatives from the major commercial guilds. There was usually a member from the pawnbrokers, the compradores, the rice merchants, the nam-pak hongs (trading firms dealing in goods between the northern ports of China and Southeast Asia), the California-Australia importers and exporters, the piece-goods merchants, the cotton yarn merchants and the opium dealers.\n\nThe directors were quite aware of the tenuous position they were in, due to their being charged with the management of a hospital and at the same time undertaking to act as a board of arbitration over disputes that could not be settled within a guild.\n\nThey also could not escape the fact that the Chinese in Hong Kong looked to them as their natural leaders and entrusted them with the general overseeing of the welfare of the community.\n\nAs long as the hospital was used for the management of general community affairs, the directors realised they would be criticised. For this reason they requested a grant of land from the Govern-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211185, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "221\n\nBy the summer of 1845, the work was almost finished.\n\nFor each acre the villagers received a sum which amounted to the profit they would have made from ten years' labour on it. In many cases the cash in hand resulted in idleness and eventual impoverishment. Their traditional occupation and source of income was gone forever.\n\nWhat proved to be a disaster for the village was a boon to the expatriate sportsman.\n\nThe foreign community in China had a tradition of avid interest in racing. When the centre of trade was Canton and Macau was the place to go during the off-trade period, a race course had been set up in the Portuguese settlement, not, however, without strong protest from the Chinese who objected to graves being removed or desecrated when the track was laid out.\n\nFor the first few years after the British moved to Hong Kong, the merchants went annually to the Macau races. Though it was a pleasant excursion, it had many drawbacks and there was increasing pressure for Hong Kong to have its own track.\n\nWhere else but the Wong Nei Chong Valley? Here, alone, there was sufficient level open space.\n\nFrom a notice to be quoted, it appears that the community took advantage of the improvements to the valley to hold a meeting in the autumn of 1845.\n\nThe following announcement which appears in the China Mail in October 1846, suggests conditions were not entirely satisfactory and additional improvements needed to be made: \"Meeting of members of the Hong Kong Club and of Naval and Military Gentlemen at the Hong Kong Club to make arrangements for Races to come off about a month hence at Wong Nei Chung Valley, for which, no doubt, permission will be at once obtained.\n\n\"In order to render the course safer and better than on the previous occasion, it is proposed, besides constructing drains, to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211353, "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": 69, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "45\n\nThe mui-tsai question provoked more reaction and heat in the Chinese community than child labour, since the mui-tsai system affected the domestic life of the owners of the child servants. Most of the households affected were of the wealthier class. Child labour also affected families but these were the poorest in the community. The Chinese Christians organised to abolish the mui-tsai system. Those opposed to any drastic changes were the wealthy merchants and compradores.\n\nThere was no easy solution to either problem, as both were part of a complex social and economic pattern.\n\nAnother stimulant for action on child labour was the regulations laid down by the International Labour Organisation following the end of World War I. Britain was committed to these proposals as it was a signatory to the Peace Treaty which embodied them. Both in Hong Kong and in the British Parliament calls were made for the commitment to be honoured in Hong Kong as a colony of the British Empire.\n\nThe 1896/97 Chamber of Commerce Report on labour conditions in the East\n\nUnder the auspices of a British Chamber of Commerce a mission was sent to China in 1896-97 to investigate conditions in trade and industry.\n\nThe mission rejoiced that in China there had been no legislation controlling workers; this included Hong Kong. The report said,\n\nThere is... no hampering legislation for which there has been such a reckless desire in recent years in the West; curtailing the liberty of the labourer within the narrowest possible limits and unduly harassing the employer.\n\nBy contrast,\n\nIn the East every man, woman and child is allowed, without restriction, to sell his or her labour at the best price obtainable, and to work under any conditions as to hours, systems or place. Employers are at liberty to conduct their own business as seems best to their discretion and judgment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211621, "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": 36, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "1} \n\nAmerican missionary, the Reverend Elijah Bridgman,1 merely noted the formal possession of the island in its journal of occurrences; it gave no precise date nor any details.24 Another reference in the same journal in a historical review of events in China was only marginally fuller.25 The Canton Press, published at this point from Macao, expressed itself slightly puzzled by the lack of information about the event: 'On Tuesday last, the 26th January, the Island of Hongkong, the new settlement ceded by the Chinese to the English, was taken possession of in the name of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. The English colours were hoisted, and saluted from the ships; we have not yet heard any further particulars of the ceremony.' Two weeks later the incident was mentioned again, but no further details were forthcoming.26 The Canton Register made no mention of the possession of Hong Kong except in the context of Elliot's treaty with Ch'i-shan; it seemed unimpressed by the terms and referred to 'the paltry island of Hong Kong'.\n\n› 28\n\nThe two groups with the most immediate interest in the acquisition of Hong Kong for the British were the merchants and missionaries. Unlike the troops, for whom the possession of the island was just one part of a long and arduous expedition in a foreign and unhealthy part of the world, the merchants and missionaries were already operating from the area and found Chinese restrictions on their movements irksome. And unlike the British government and its officials, the traders and propagators of salvation were most cognizant of the advantages that a piece of British territory in South China would afford them. They were not politically or ideologically committed to punishing China for the 'disrespect' it had shown to Britain. It is not known whether any missionaries attended the ceremony on 26 January, but some merchants who were late to have their fortunes inextricably bound up with the colony turned up to witness its official birth. According to a study of the Indian community of Hong Kong, at least four Indian merchants were present in Hong Kong at the flag-hoisting: Cawasjee Pallanjee, the representative of Cursetjee Bomanjee and Co. of Bombay; F. M. Talati; Albert Sassoon;29 and Rustomjee Dhunjee Shaw of P. F. Cama and Co. of Bombay. James Matheson of Jardine Matheson and Co.30 went from Macao to Hong Kong precisely in order to witness the hoisting of the British flag, and afterwards, as he wrote to William Jardine in a postscript to a letter of 30 January, he circumnavigated the island.32 Thus the future character of the colony can be gauged from the type of person with most to gain from its possession by the British.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211712, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "102\n\nWar (see Table 1).\n\nTable 1 Year of Entry of the 60 Joss Stick Factories Interviewed\n\n \n Year of Entry\n Number of Joss Stick Factories\n Number of Mills\n \n \n Before 1920\n 2\n 0\n \n \n 1920s\n 3\n 0\n \n \n 1930s\n 5\n 0\n \n \n 1940s\n 3\n 2\n \n \n 1950s\n 9\n 0\n \n \n 1960s\n 17\n \n \n \n 1970s\n \n \n \n \n 1980s\n 9\n 5\n \n\nSource: Fieldwork, Hong Kong, 1987.\n\nThe reason for their entry into the business was attributed to the expansion of the market. Instability of the political situation and uncertainty about the future in the immediate pre-War period, and again in the 1960s, had driven many people to rest their fate on the Gods. This, of course, led to the consumption of large quantities of joss sticks.\n\nDuring the Second World War, the Hong Kong joss stick industry, just like many other industries, was greatly impaired by the Japanese Occupation. Many factories were closed down during the War as the industry faced a period of exceptionally lean years. Some of the factories relocated to the New Territories where the larger and more open area offered better shelter. The majority of the factory proprietors fled to Mainland China. The years of stagnation continued until the end of the War as, after all, joss sticks were not basic necessities to living. In times of war, few people had the spare time and money to spend on such items.\n\nAfter the period of Japanese Occupation, the joss stick industry was slow to recover. The Hong Kong Annual Report states in 1946, the production of joss sticks was seriously affected by the internal strife in Indo-China which was formerly the principal market for the export trade\".27 The situation was no better in 1949. The Report for the Year 1949 of the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce summarized the business condition of the Joss Stick Merchants' Union,\n\nFrom the beginning of the year, the industry was having a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211770, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "160\n\nminority in the foreign community.' The effects of this discrepancy on the local dramatic scene will be dealt with later.\n\nBy far the greater part of those who came out to China were active as merchants or mercantile assistants; in general, they were in their late twenties or early thirties, and lived together in the hong of their firm. During business hours they traded in silk, tea, opium, and sundries; leisure was sought mainly in sports: racing, fives, bowling, cricket; by some in the Shanghai Library (established 1849), or the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (founded 1857). All, however, seemed to love the amateur theatricals that were put on several times a year.\n\nII. Theatrical Criticism\n\nIn order to appreciate the information that has come down to us about the theatre in early Shanghai, some attention should first of all be paid to the way in which contemporaries wrote about it. (For reviews see the Calendar of Performances).\n\nThe main, in fact the only, source as regards the early history of the foreign settlement in Shanghai is the “North China Herald”, a weekly that was founded in August 1850. A daily edition, the “North China Daily News” was begun in 1864, but the surviving copies date back only as far as July 1866. Other papers were published in the period under discussion, notably the \"Shanghai Recorder\" (1862-1869), but of these too all trace is lacking, with the exception of one volume (1865) of the \"Shanghai Commercial Record”, the overland edition of the \"Shanghai Recorder\". So we have perforce to rely mainly on the \"North China Herald\"; and, to be sure, a worse source can be imagined. In its pages at the least we find the facts about which plays were performed and what kind of musical entertainment was enjoyed. That is, until about the beginning of 1866, for after that date there is a noticeable decrease in theatrical notes. Then one has to resort to the Daily News.\n\nAll articles, which could be as long as a column, were anonymous, or, in a few cases, signed with an initial or a pseudonym. Not that it matters very much, for generally speaking the critic, if we may call him so, went to considerable lengths to avoid any harsh treatment of the amateurs on the stage. Apparently it was not deemed proper to pull the rug from under a handful of well-meaning gentlemen who devoted their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211783, "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": 198, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "173\n\nat Shanghai\" occurred on Friday September 19 1856\" and by a remarkable coincidence it also marked the introduction of a brand new instrument to the China Coast music lover, viz the Saxophone. This, though, was not how it was announced. The artist, Ali Ben Sou Alle, who had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made a career in France and England as a clarinetist, was of Turkish descent and had seen fit to rename the instrument invented by Adolphe Sax in 1840 into something recalling his fatherland: the Turkophone. He had made a tour through Asia and in Hong Kong his success had not been unequivocal.\" In Shanghai, reception was somewhat mixed (cf Calendar: 19.9.1856). Apart from the \"Turkophone” he handled the \"Turkophonini” (which may have been the soprano saxophone), the clarinet, and an instrument \"which we trust our Scottish friends will pardon us for pronouncing something worse than the bagpipe”. \n\nAs details of the activities of other artists that visited Shanghai will be found in the Calendar of Performances it seems hardly necessary here to elaborate on them. But attention should be drawn to the first lady singer\" who engrossed the public there in July 1863: Miss Amelia Bailey. On a second trip some months later, in October and November, she drew \"crowded houses small wonder in a place with so many soldiers and bachelors.\n\nIV. The Actors\n\n>72\n\nJ\n\nFor those that did not belong to the taipan class, that is, those not partners in a firm but lower mercantile assistants, the freedom to engage in whatever activities they wanted in their spare time was limited. Employees out on their first term called griffins were usually not allowed to marry because the firm did not feel like paying for home leave for an entire family. Another restriction put in their way was that commonly there was a clause in their contract which ran: \"All horse and pony racing, or riding in races, and all acting in public theatricals is forbidden without the consent of the resident partner”.73\n\nHere the reasons were partly financial as the employers feared that the youngsters might be carried away with the rehearsals, with disadvantageous consequences for the job they were supposed to do; and partly social, in that the senior merchants were perhaps afraid that the juniors would prove to be more popular on the stage than they themselves. Of those that were permitted and willing to don sock and buskin it is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212232, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "151\n\na mark or two on my hand one morning, but they proved mere pimples arising from the heat.\n\nAs regards the vegetation, I must say that although taken altogether the island is not so well supplied with vegetation as some parts of England, yet what there is, has been so judiciously taken care of, and propagated, that in a few years it will become well wooded, in all the habitable parts. No pains are spared in planting and rearing trees, and nature assists the efforts of man, by a rapid and luxuriant growth. But even now, all parts that are inhabited are surrounded by trees, the quantity and size depending only upon the time since the houses were built. There is the Asiatic pine, found through Central Asia to the Himalehs. The rocks and table lands in Hong Kong are well planted with it, making it look very like the Scotch pine or fir in England. The bamboo looks well, and its luxuriant and rapid growth, together with the graceful appearance of its foliage, has caused its prevalent use. The apple, pommaloc, laichis (Chinese plum), willow, oak, mulberry, appear the chief. There are several fine trees of which I can only get the Chinese name in our shrubbery. Nearly all the vegetable food comes from the mainland. It is tolerably reasonable in price. A fine pine-apple costs about —/4o. Plantains 1\" to 2a a pound. In a few weeks fruit will be plentiful. Potatoes about 2a a pound. Rice ditto. Bread 5o per pound. Ginger grows fine here; and the green ginger preserved is delicious. There is a nice fruit, just out of season, called Wong-pay, and another whose name means “dragon's eyes\" is not pleasant to my palate. Fish is very dear; a little fish for breakfast costs 5 or more.\n\nThe town of Victoria is a long street running nearly parallel with the shore of the bay. Branching off from this street are the many hills, covered with English villas for a good way up. The eastern end of the town is mostly occupied by large merchants' offices, warehouses, etc....... and beyond are many fine English houses. The Chinese streets are very curious to a stranger. The Chinese shops are likewise interesting. Some however are in English style. An English shop is a different thing here to what it is in England, and more resembles a warehouse. There are, however, a few fine milliner's shops, hotels, dispensary, and club room. At the Eastern extremity are the Barracks, the parade ground, and market; and about a mile on, is a beautifully wooded hill, where the Colonial Chaplain, the Rev. J. Irwin, resides. Then passing through a ravine you open upon Happy Valley. A Chinese villa is quite a curiosity. Here and there you see one perched upon some eminence; but it does", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212300, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "219\n\nHONG KONG HONGS WITH LONG HISTORIES\n\nAND BRITISH CONNECTIONS\n\n+++\n\nDAN WATERS*\n\nTrade the beneficent daughter of liberty and industry. The giver of human happiness! The creator of wealth. The supporter of social existence! Blessed commerce, the friend of the slave, the liberator of the oppressed\n\nJohn Holt\n\nmerchant and West African trader 7th January 1906\n\nIntroduction\n\nThis paper traces the histories of some of the present-day commercial, industrial and professional firms, that have British origins or connections, which were established in Hong Kong in the 19th century. Traditional Hong Kong romanisations of Cantonese names have been used. When currency is referred to, unless otherwise stated, it is Hong Kong dollars.\n\nA valuable start in researching the hongs (large business houses), has been made by Dr S.M. Bard (Bard, 1988) who prepared a paper for the Hong Kong Museum of History. Clearly, as Bard stresses, it is important not to forget Chinese merchants. Here too a useful beginning has been made by Professor Wong Siu-lun (Wong, 1988). The aim of the author of this article is, as Bard suggests, to continue the momentum.\n\nNow, one-and-a-half centuries after Hong Kong was established, is a good time to retrace steps, especially as the story of industry\n\n* The author is grateful to his friends, Dr. James Hayes, the Rev. Carl T. Smith and Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, for their encouragement, for recommending research material and for assistance in other ways. Thanks are also extended to the many companies covered in this paper, and to their members of staff who helped the author and without whom this study would not have been possible.\n\nThis paper was first presented at the 12th Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, at Hong Kong University, in June 1991.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212301, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "220\n\nand business in Hong Kong has been neglected. Nonetheless, over the past decade some hongs have commissioned researchers and authors to compile company histories. A number of these are listed in the bibliography.\n\nEarlier Days\n\nHistorically, overseas businessmen have been permitted only limited contact with locals in China. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Westerners were only authorised to reside in Canton during the trading season, from October to May. Emperors confined all foreign trade there, as far from Peking as possible, keeping 'unpleasant things at a distance.' Foreigners were forced to maintain their base in the Portuguese city of Macau (established 1557).\n\nThese restrictions caused great inconvenience to merchants. Captain Charles Elliot wrote, on April 6th 1839:\n\n\"There can be neither safety nor honour for either government until Her Majesty's flag flies on these coasts in a secure position.\"\n\nIt was considered necessary to have a colony with a fine harbour, where Europeans could live, work and trade in peace and security. The Union Jack was raised at Possession Point, on Hong Kong Island, on January 26, 1841.\n\nHong Kong was established specifically to facilitate trade. Not surprisingly, therefore, the authorities depended a great deal upon the support of business houses in the early days of the colony. Some of these early trading houses are still trading here today.\n\nBy the end of 1843 there were 12 large British firms in Hong Kong, ten British merchants trading on a smaller scale, and about six Indian companies. The following year there were said to be about 100 foreign firms doing business, half of which were British and about one-quarter Indian or Parsee. Russells, an American firm, had six partners and eight griffins (assistants). Dent and Company (British) five partners and eight assistants, and D. and M. Rustomjee (Parsee) fifteen partners. Jardine Matheson employed", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212306, "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": 248, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company\n\n735\n\nAnother important associate company of Jardine's until the mid-1980s was 'Wharf, which was a pioneer in the development of Kowloon. The firm was established in 1886 by Paul Chater and Kerfoot Hughes. About the same time Jardine's started a wharf at West Point, but largely because of labour difficulties with Chinese lightermen Kowloon Wharf and Jardine's Wharf amalgamated. In 1887, they acquired the P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) wharf at West Point although this was later sold,\n\nSir Paul Chater\n\nIt is appropriate here to say something about Anglophile Catchick Paul Chater, born of Armenian parents in 1846, who came to Hong Kong from Calcutta at the age of 18. He started work as a clerk in the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan, but soon branched out on his own as an exchange and bullion broker. Chater later became a business associate of the Sassoons, who were Jewish merchants. Chater's interests were many and varied. In addition to Hong Kong Land and Kowloon Wharf they included substantial real estate holdings. Hong Kong Bank, Dairy Farm, Star Ferry, Hong Kong Tramways, and Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels. Chater was also a pioneer in the 57 acre Praya reclamation scheme, in Central District, which included Des Voeux and Connaught Roads, and is now one of the most valuable areas of land on earth.\n\nAlthough he was sometimes accused of showing indecent regard for Royalty and all things British, including cricket, others believed, \"Where Chater goes today Jardine's follow tomorrow\". Venturesome in business, few men have contributed so much to Hong Kong as he did, and he worked closely with the British for several decades. One of the busiest roads in Central, as well as Chater Garden and Catchick Street, is named after him. As a self-made man with considerable foresight he was generous, and he became a public benefactor and patron of the arts. Unfortunately, the Chater collection of paintings was lost during World War II. Sir Paul, who served on both the Legislative and Executive Councils, died in 1926 an honoured and respected man.\n\nButterfield and Swire\n\nAnother of the great Hongs, Swire's, is Jardine's competitor, even", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212313, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "232\n\nCompany, was originally established in Shanghai after John Macgregor and Jack Caldbeck purchased the business of George Smith and Company. Macgregor had come East to seek his fortune after serving in the Royal Navy in the Crimean War. Caldbeck had been the P&O agent in Singapore. Unlike other firms, Caldbeck Macgregor specialised in wines and spirits. From its original base in Shanghai, which started in 1864, it opened branches along the China coast with outposts in Peking and Tientsin doing especially good trade.\n\nIn 1882 an office was established in London, and a branch opened in Hong Kong in 1889. The latter was started partly because of the popularity here of horse racing. Although employees in some firms, such as Dodwell's, had been discouraged from taking part in the sport, the partners of Caldbeck Macgregor were able to investigate the potential of various wines and spirits at race meetings. It soon became the best known firm in the liquor business in the Far East. Caldbeck Macgregor was much more of a family concern than most organisations until this control was lost in the late 1960s.\n\nHutchison's\n\nIn 1877 John Du Flon Hutchison, aged 22, came to Hong Kong to join Robert S. Walker and Company who were merchants in Gough Street. Known as Wo Kee in Chinese (和記), the firm opened for business about 1860. Probably in the 1880s he began trading on his own, as John D. Hutchison, and, in 1893, with one assistant named W.M. Watson, his company operated from Stanley Street. Hutchison died in Shanghai in 1920, although he had sold his firm in 1917 to T.E. Pearce.\n\nJohn Douglas Clague (much later Sir Douglas) had been captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong in 1941, but managed to escape from Sham Shui Po prisoner of war camp in 1942, and, with the help of Chinese partisans, Clague made his way over the hills into China. There he served with the British Army Aid Group.\n\nWith a brilliant war record behind him Colonel Clague became Taipan of Hutchison's in the late 1940s. It expanded rapidly taking over many other companies which had interests in a variety of fields. But the Group over-extended itself and ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s. As a result an Australian businessman who had lived in\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212324, "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "243\n\nand persons of Portuguese descent.\n\nTo a degree banks symbolise power, and the People's Republic gained in prestige when its 17-storey Bank of China slightly overtopped the Hong Kong Bank in 1950. The latter then erected a flagpole, so it is said, which gave it a few extra feet. In 1959, however, the then new Chartered Bank rose about three metres above the old Bank of China. With the new 42-storey standard Chartered Bank, completed in 1990, looking down on the Hong Kong Bank claimed to be the most cost-efficient bank building in the world it seems that, to some degree, history is repeating itself. Nevertheless, this is well short of the 70-floor new Bank of China (also completed in 1990) which, for a few years, was the tallest building in Asia.\n\nHong Kong Bank\n\n▬\n\nUnlike the Chartered Bank which is essentially British, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which is today the largest bank headquartered in Asia outside Japan, has always prided itself on being international. Nevertheless, the original prospectus of the 'Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited' stated the aim was: \"for an institution to be operated on sound Scottish banking principles.\"\n\nMost of its senior staff have, from the outset, thus been British.\n\nThe Hong Kong Bank was founded in 1864, on co-operative lines. Business commenced in 1865 (by which time six banks were already established in Hong Kong), and nearly all the principal firms in the Colony were represented. The purpose of Wayfoong (?) (meaning 'Abundance of Remittances' which first appeared, in Chinese, on bank notes in 1881) was to serve the needs of merchants of the China coast and to finance the growing trade between China, Europe and North America. The traders of old felt their needs would be served better if they had a bank (in Hong Kong it is often spoken of as The Bank) which was owned, managed and operated locally.\n\nAlthough the provisional committee was chaired by the British firm Dent and Company its members were far from being exclusively British. They included Americans, Germans, Scandinavians and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212326, "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": 268, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "245\n\nBank Limited', partly to remove the impression, prevalent at the time, that it was an Indian, and not a British, bank. In the same year, a share exchange took place with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation for the entire share capital of Mercantile.\n\nIn 1967 in Hong Kong, the 'Disturbances' (spill overs of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic) resulted in a flight of capital which reduced deposits in banks fortunately only temporarily. The following year, as a number of members served on both the London Committee of the Hong Kong Bank and Mercantile's counterpart, it was decided to disband the London Committee of 'Mercantile'. Finally, the full amalgamation of the Hong Kong Bank and Mercantile took place in 1982-3.\n\nInsurance\n\nIn the early days of trading in Canton insurance posed something of a problem for the small European community. Members formed a local underwriting syndicate (on the Calcutta pattern) to provide facilities for marine insurance. The Canton Insurance Office was established in 1804 (other records say 1805), and for the first 30 years of its existence it was managed alternately by Jardine's and Dent and Company, changing every three years. A great deal of trust appears to have existed between the Chinese hong merchants and the European traders, and a document shows that Chinqua, a Chinese businessman, promised to make good any loss suffered by a merchant in France, to whom he was shipping tea, without having to prove loss by the return of goods.\n\nThe Union Insurance Society of Canton was established in Canton in 1835, by a number of far-sighted British Merchants under the guidance of Dent and Company. After Dent's went into liquidation, in 1864, Union Insurance became a separate entity. It had already moved its headquarters to Hong Kong in 1842, which is still its home even though it has offices and representatives in many cities in the Far East and agencies throughout the world.\n\nIn 1861, Hong Kong had 73 merchant houses and 18 of these acted as agents for insurance companies. Jardine's has retained its early interest in insurance, and, in 1868, when the Hong Kong Insurance Company was formed, it became the agent. This, a century", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212393, "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": 335, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "312\n\nof degree holders, indicating social rank, there is also a wealth of swept ridges and stylised, 'teapot-handle', gables among the roofs of the common folk.\n\nLike Hong Kong, granite was readily available, and a good, dense, red face brick, some of which is quite narrow, is manufactured locally. The brickwork has an attractive, diaper pattern, with dark kiln marks on the face. Unlike Hong Kong, arches with keystones and pediments are in evidence. Much of the architecture resembles that of Taiwan, and, not unusual in many parts of China, there is a marvellous variety of murals and stone carving, including stylised motifs. Small figurines ride lions or other mythical beasts on roof ridges, which, together with eight-diagram (ba gua) and knife and sword charms ward off evil spirits. Similarly, 'wind lions' have stood on guard at entrances since the days of Koxinga.\n\nAnother scenic spot for architectural gems is the 1.71 square kilometer Gulangyu Island, where at least one member of every family is said to play a musical instrument. This Island has two beautiful white egrets as its emblem and is situated a five-minute ferry ride from Xiamen proper. Part of the beauty is, however, marred by large, ugly, cigarette signs which generate high rents. No vehicular traffic is permitted in this hilly haven. It was a cold day, and RAS Party Members kept themselves warm by exploring. This included climbing to the Lotus Flower Monastery and beyond up the 90-metre high, crowded, precipitous 'Sunlight Rock'. Koxinga chose this as his bastion because it reminded him of Japan.\n\nGulangyu Island is full of architectural 'relics' from the old International Settlement, with patchworks of yellow, terracotta and pink walls blending with oranges and greens. The forlorn, dilapidated building which once served as the British Consulate, is still there. Before World War II, 13 other governments also had consulates on the Island. They, together with tea merchants and financers, could afford to pay for, and insisted on, the best quality building materials.\n\nMuch of the architecture of this 'garden island' is European, but there are examples of eclectic styles with Chinese columns and western capitals, and Chinese friezes and western brickwork. All these contrast with rows of old, Chinese type, shops with colonnades in Xiamen, with upper floors projecting over pavements; or with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212452, "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": 6, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nHON. AUDITORS' REPORT\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT.\n\nARTICLES:\n\nPui Tak Lee Business Networks and Patterns of\n\nCantonese Compradors and Merchants in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong\n\nWei Peh T'i Private Patronage of Scholarship and Learning During the Mid-Qing: Ruan Yuan and the Scholars Around Him\n\nZhang Ru - The Chinese Experience: Sino-American Arts Exchange, 1972-1986\n\nDan Waters Chinese Funerals: A Case Study\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure Guerilla Training, Maymyo 1941\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nSolomon Bard A Brief Account of Early Post-war Hong Kong Archaeological Activity\n\nOctavius William Borrell — A Short History of the Heude Museum, 'Musee Heude,' 1858-1952 its Botanist and Plant Collector\n\nKeith Stevens A Chinese Memorial Hall Dedicated to Wang Te-lu, a Clan Hero..\n\nDan Waters — A Note on Hong Kong's Wildlife\n\nValery M. Garrett To Become an Adult\n\nDan Waters The Re-occupation of Hong Kong, August 1945\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nvii\n\nxiv\n\nxvii\n\n1\n\n40\n\n65\n\n104\n\n135\n\n181\n\n183\n\n192\n\n197\n\n199\n\n201\n\n205", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212467, "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": 21, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "BUSINESS NETWORKS AND PATTERNS OF CANTONESE COMPRADORS AND MERCHANTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY HONG KONG*\n\nPUI TAK LEE\n\nTo trace and account for the role of Cantonese in modern Chinese economic history is an interesting study topic. Actually, under what specific socio-economic and historical conditions did the Cantonese contribute to the formation of Chinese capitalism? Cantonese are outstanding in business not only in mainland China but also amongst overseas Chinese scattered around the world. The Cantonese were the earliest and largest group of Chinese to go to Southeast Asia. Moreover, in the 1850s, after the Taiping Rebellion, Chinese immigrated to Hong Kong or transited through Hong Kong to the west coast of North America and to Australia. This movement reached its peak in the 1880s. Overseas Chinese are always hardworking, hoping to save enough money to ensure them a good quality of life after they return to China. They usually accumulated capital and modern business know-how when they were in foreign countries and then returned to start their own business in China. An obvious example is the Australian Cantonese who started the first modern department store in Hong Kong, which marked a revolution in modern Chinese retailing business practice. Furthermore, the four biggest department stores in Shanghai were also opened by Cantonese, and all of them came from the Heung Shan (Zhongshan) prefecture, which is strategically located near Macau and Canton, the two centres of early European commerce in China. Simultaneously, in the mid-nineteenth century, Cantonese compradors from Zhongshan prefecture, namely Xu Run, Tang Tingshu, and Zheng Guanying, were pioneers in establishing modern Chinese businesses. This article will assess the mechanism of Cantonese immigration in the nineteenth century and also examine emigrant Cantonese business ethics.\n\nEmigration and Chinese Ethnic Groups\n\nEmigration from China gave rise to the concept of native place identity. Historically, Chinese have always distinguished their place of\n\n* The first annual lecture on local history, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society & South China Research Circle, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, 10 December, 1994", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212470, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "themselves they had to turn to migration to urban centres and overseas emigration, and to nonfarm work in the villages.\n\nFollowing the path of the traditional junk trade, overseas emigration was common in southern Fukien (Fujian) and eastern Guangdong in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but it did not spread to the rest of Guangdong until the nineteenth century. In the 1860s, when the European powers were initiating mining and plantation projects in Southeast Asia, and when the American continent was building transcontinental railways, China became a popular source for labour recruitment. There were three major emigrant areas in South China: first, southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong; second, the western part of the Pearl River delta and Siyi, namely Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, and Xinning (later renamed as Taishan); and third, northeastern Hainan Island. People from the first area were the first to emigrate because of the junk trade with Southeast Asia.\n\nThe Nanking (Nanjing) Treaty following the Opium War in 1842, which stipulated the establishment of treaty ports along the coast of China, broke the Canton monopoly. The newly opened ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou and Amoy (Xiamen) competed with Canton for China's foreign trade. With the rich Yangzi River valley as its hinterland, Shanghai soon began to fulfill its extraordinary potential as a port of trade. By 1850 the volume of trade in Shanghai had surpassed that of Canton. Trade routes were diverted to these cities, causing a lot of porters and boatmen to lose their jobs. Canton was no longer a recipient of any substantial foreign investment. It went either to Shanghai or Hong Kong. The development of Hong Kong with a shift of British interest from Macau and Canton also attracted many Cantonese merchants to search for economic opportunities. For instance, Cantonese traders, artisans, and laborers from all neighbouring districts followed the British merchants in flocking to the British colony. Moreover, Hong Kong had become a major centre of Cantonese emigration abroad. The high points of overseas emigration came between 1890 and 1904. Between 1885 and 1900, a total of 1,830,572 Chinese emigrants embarked at the port of Hong Kong.\n\nThe overwhelming majority of the Cantonese emigration came from the Pearl River delta region, particularly from the counties shown in figure 1. The Xinning, Xinhui, Kaiping and Enping were known collectively as Siyi while Panyu, Nanhai and Shunde were Sanyi.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212472, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "6\n\nCantonese Compradors\n\nCanton, the first Chinese city opened for foreign trade, has a long history of interacting with the West. The Co-hong which was set up by the Qing government, had created a system of hong merchants, linguists and compradors in response to the quest for foreign trade. As William Hunter mentions, the position of a comprador in a foreign mercantile house was important. Almost everything around the house, varying from examining silver, internal accounting, employing servants, cooks and coolies, to interpreting and even mediating with Chinese merchants were the responsibility of the comprador. Though the Co-hong system was terminated after the first Opium War, compradors still survived and started a new era of development. It was natural that Cantonese compradors formed a dominant group at the beginning of the Canton system, since most of the Chinese foreign trade was conducted in Canton. However, to account for the rise of Cantonese compradors in modern China, several factors should not be ignored. First, recruitment of new compradors by personal or regional ties, when compradors became private merchants. Before 1843, compradors had been licensed by the government and guaranteed under the officially dictated hong merchant hierarchy. Second, the disappearance of the limited trading system in Canton and opening of Hong Kong and other Chinese coastal cities accelerated the increase in the number of Western mercantile firms. Third, Western merchants, particularly the British, relied upon Chinese compradors in conducting business.\n\nGuarantorship\n\nHow did a person qualify as a comprador? First, proficiency in English was preferred but business connection was considered more important by the Western merchants. Personal trust was usually critical. The Nanjing Treaty privatized Chinese foreign trade. Compradors replaced the hong merchants as agents for foreign firms and as guarantors for Chinese merchants doing business with foreign merchants. After 1842 with the abolition of the Co-hong system, some of the former hong merchants engaged in private tea or silk business, and compradors became private agents for foreign firms rather than government-mandated agents. Former linguists, after leaving the hong merchants, served mostly as clerks of the new maritime customs or as customs brokers. As scholars pointed out, more than a mere recommendation from a former hong merchant or another Cantonese known to the agency house, personal guarantee\n\n1", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212474, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "Cantonese, while only four out of 16 compradors from Russell & Co between the 1830s and 1870s were non-Cantonese. Jardine, Matheson & Co. employed 18 Cantonese from its total 32 Chinese compradors between the 1850s and the 1900s, however only three out of the rest were non-Cantonese and 11 were from uncertain native places. Dent & Co. totally had twenty-one compradors in the period of the 1830s to the 1860s. Non-Cantonese were not recorded but nine were reported as of uncertain native places. Moreover, as Hao pointed out, Cantonese had a supremacy amongst Chinese compradors not only in China but also in Southeast Asia and Japan. They were regarded to have talent in tea trade, whereas Zhejiang compradors were especially skilled in silk trade and banking business. Zhejiang compradors overshadowed their Cantonese counterparts in Shanghai by the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. It is of interest that Western merchants always went to explore business in Asia with their Cantonese compradors, particularly in Yokohama and Nagasaki. Perhaps this might be linked to the local influence of Cantonese merchants in the above places.\n\nThe comprador system was soon imported to Hong Kong when British firms flocked to open their business there. It lasted until the Second World War; longer than at any other Chinese coastal city. During the growth of early colonial society in Hong Kong, by the 1850s the Chinese community was beginning to develop leaders and most of them were successful compradors, merchants, and contractors. Typical of this emerging Chinese middle class were Cantonese compradors like Wei Yuk (Wei Yu), Robert Ho Tung (He Dong), and Law Pak Sheung (Luo Bochang). They formed the core of leadership in the local Chinese community.\n\nWei succeeded his father Wei Kwong who came from Choy Mei village near Macau as the comprador of the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China in Hong Kong in 1879. In 1896, he was appointed an unofficial member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, being the fourth Chinese to this post (the first was Ng Choy [Wu Tingfang]). Wei held a lot of appointments in public and private organizations and represented Chinese interests in the government.\n\nHe Dong acted as Jardine's Hong Kong comprador from 1883 to 1900. He was among the richest of the Chinese compradors in the treaty", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212477, "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "11\n\nthat all men must die and not knowing when I may be called away, I deem it right while still in bodily health and full possession of mental faculties to make my will.\n\nWei A Kwong, the father of Wei Yuk, had a typical story of success. He was a Zhongshan native; he left his hometown and worked in Macau as a teenager. His father was a comprador to two American merchants, Benjamin Chew Wilcocks and Oliver H. Gordon. It was known that Wei was forsaken by his family and had to resort to begging on the streets of Macau. He was later sent to Singapore where he studied under the auspices of the Morrison Education Society in a school of the American Board of Commission for Foreign Missions. This changed his life. He returned to Hong Kong and began his career. He served as comprador in Bowra & Co. and then in the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China until his death. Wei wrote his will in 1866. He prefaced it with a brief account of his life, particularly mentioning that he was the first student of the Morrison Education Society and that he first came to Hong Kong in 1843. He had \"ever since lived under the just and equitable rule of the British Government.\" Though we cannot prove to what extent his exposure to Western culture was related to his Christian education, he succeeded in becoming a leading member of Chinese society in Hong Kong. This contrasts with the will of Sung Chin Tseung, which reads.\n\nSung Chin Tseung, otherwise literary appellation Sung Ching, otherwise Ngok Shan, native of Kat Tai village, of Kong Sheung Division, Heung Shan District. I followed my deceased father, Mr. Shau U, to Hong Kong in 1842 to trade in foreign business as compradore. Further, in 1854, thanks to the kind support of Mr. Ryrie and others of Messrs. Turner and Co., Hongkong, I took over the office of compradore and up to the present thirty odd years.\n\nBoth Wei and Sung were natives of Zhongshan. They came to Hong Kong for business in the early 1840s when Hong Kong was already a British colony. Though they lived in Hong Kong, they maintained connections with their hometown, as Sung's father, Soong Ke, stated in his will written in 1864:\n\nIn the 21st year of Tao Kwong (1841), I came to Hong Kong and employed myself in business all the time with foreigners, always being diligent and making little profit sufficient to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212478, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "12\n\nsupport my wife and family. In 6 year of Hum Foong (1856) being advanced in age, I handed over all my property to my eldest son Cheng Chuen to manage and sign my name Soong Ke in all business transactions, and he has already managed for several years. In consequence of my having to return home to my native place in the present year to build an ancestor's hall out of my own money, and consequently coming and going I took sick and a large carbuncle broke out on my thigh, getting worse day by day, being now about sixty years of age and my constitution is weak.\n\nHong Kong-Shanghai and Shanghai-Canton-Hong Kong Networks\n\nCantonese compradors were predominant in the nineteenth century. They occupied most of the compradorship in foreign mercantile establishments. They were influential in Hong Kong, enjoying a high status in the business community. Cantonese compradors filled the new posts by personal ties, extending their influence from one place to another. For example, Xu Run was introduced by his uncles Xu Yuting and Xu Rongcun who had been working as compradors to Dent & Co. in Shanghai for many years. Xu was first employed as an assistant comprador and later succeeded his family members as compradors: one of his sons to a German firm; one of his cousins as Dent's Kiukiang (Jiujiang) comprador; and another cousin as Shanghai comprador to Carlowitz & Co.\n\nLikewise, Zheng Guanying was also introduced by his relative in Shanghai to serve the compradorship in Butterfield, Swire & Co. Tang Tingshu was introduced by his Zhongshan colleague called Acum (Lin Qin) to James Whittall, the Jardine's Shanghai manager, then he became a comprador to Jardine, Matheson & Co. Tang later guaranteed his elder brother Tang Maozhi as the firm's Tianjin comprador and this brother later succeeded him as chief comprador in Shanghai when Tang Tingshu was relocated to work at the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1873. The post was held by the Tang family for several decades. The last was his grandson Tang Jichang. Those three compradors came from the same Zhongshan prefecture and had an inter-relationship. Zheng was a relative to Tang by marriage and also knew the Xu family for generations.\n\nZheng had guaranteed a Zhongshan townman named Yang Guixuan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212479, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "13\n\nto succeed him as chief comprador to Butterfield & Swire. However, Yang went into bankruptcy after a Shanghai financial crisis and left a debt of a hundred thousand taels to Butterfield & Swire. As the guarantor, Zheng was accused by the company and as a result he was imprisoned in Hong Kong for a few months. Zheng's business activities were not only confined to Shanghai, he had also been active in Canton. He had been in charge of the branch of Kaiping Coal Mines in Canton from 1891 and also of the Canton-Hankow Railway Co. Moreover, the first Chamber of Commerce in Canton was organised by him in 1905.\n\nXu Run, Tang Tingshu and Zheng Guanying, all came from the same place, Zhongshan prefecture, and shared the same experience in compradorial life and took part in the guandu shangban enterprises under the patronage of Li Hongzhang. Needless to say, they had all chosen Shanghai as the place to develop their careers. They could be regarded as leaders of the Cantonese community in Shanghai. Amongst the three persons, Xu Run was the earliest and youngest in arriving in Shanghai, Tang was regarded as the oldest, he arrived in Shanghai in 1858 aged 27, he had probably been educated and started his career earlier in Hong Kong for a long period. However, though Tang started his compradorial life later, it did not hamper his contribution to modern economic development of China. Tang joined the Kaiping Coal Mines from its beginning and remained with it until the end of his life. After Tang had been engaged in guandu shangban enterprises, particularly in the Kaiping Coal Mines, he confined his business activities mainly to Tianjin, while Xu and Zheng were still active in Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong.\n\nAn obvious example was the nationalization project of China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. advocated by Sheng's political rival Yuan Shikai in 1909. Considering Xu was from Yuan's clique and able to use his strong influence in Hong Kong and Macau, Zheng was sent by Sheng to compete with Xu in soliciting the support of Cantonese shareholders in Canton, Hong Kong and Macau in opposition to the nationalization project. Xu and Zheng at that time were backing their own patrons. Xu was pro-Yuan whereas Zheng was pro-Sheng. As a result, Zheng defeated Xu in gaining the support of Cantonese shareholders and successfully kept the company private. It was incorporated as a limited company in 1909.\n\n15\n\nConnection of Cantonese Merchants\n\nMerchants were among the first Cantonese to emigrate to Macau and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212480, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "14\n\nHong Kong. First, they had enough money to pay their own passage and start new businesses. Second, they had the inclination to engage in trade at a time when business was shifting from Canton to other places. The life stories of Cantonese merchants tell the origin of their emigration, how they struggled against the difficult environment and hardship in acquiring wealth. They gave details of their business careers in the wills to encourage their descendants to follow their examples in creating a successful life.\n\nCanton-Hong Kong-Macau Network\n\nO Kee Cheung, a Cantonese merchant who first came from Canton to Macau, accumulated business know-how and went to Madagascar for trade. Later he returned to Macau but took residence at Canton. He mentioned he was poor and suffered a lot of sorrow in the past and reminded his sons there was hardship and extreme difficulties in making a fortune. His business was the Yee Fung Hong in Annam and there was a family trust fund named the O Chin Sin Tong:\n\nI came to Macao at the age of 18 to learn business, and at the age of 20, I began visiting foreign countries for the purpose of trade. During the first few years, I neither gained nor lost much. Afterwards through the help of Mr. Lee Mang, I went to trade in Madacassar and other islands and was a little more successful. Then I returned to Macao, and afterwards lived at Canton, at which time I was successful in all trade transactions, and my family was considered wealthy. But learning in mind the dangers of the winds and seas and the troubles encountered during the adventures of my youth, my former poverty and sorrow still appear to be within my sight. Therefore with tasteless rice and coarse dress, and always striving to renounce worldly vices, I have passed several decades, as if they were but one day. I have thus set you an example, so that you may know the hardships attending upon the making of a fortune, and being afraid that I would not be able to hold fast to the same, I have always striven to be diligent and economical, and even then, I was afraid of losing it.\n\n16\n\nLeung Kau was a Zhongshan native. It had been said he went to California when mining for gold was the chief attraction for most people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212481, "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": 35, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "15\n\nHe returned with his savings. In middle age, he started his own business, a timber shop in Hong Kong.\n\nWhen I was young I lived in the village. When grown up I went to California. I came to Hong Kong in my middle age and established the business of the Kwong Ut Lung timber shop. Fortunately I accumulated some savings and invested them in property, business and shares of which the following...\n\nLi Hing, a Dongguan native, had worked in an opium shop in Hong Kong for more than twenty years. As he said, he was diligent and economical otherwise he could not save money. It was known that his \"little money\" amounted to 5,440 taels, for Li held partnerships in a native bank, two opium shops, a timber shop and a wharf in Hong Kong. In addition he also had eleven shops and a share in the Hong Kong Fire Insurance Co. of $340. As he mentioned in his will:\n\nI (Li Hing), alias Peng Sam, maker of this will, I am a native of the Village called Tong Mei, in the District of Tung Koon, I have been employed, as a Manager, in the Tuk Lung opium shop over twenty years. I have always been contented with my lot, and I have always behaved myself with decorum. I have been diligent and economical, and by self-denial, I have fortunately obtained favour from Heaven above, and saved a little money.\n\nLi was not only employed in the opium shop, but he had also invested for himself, though we do not know from the above whether his investment was started after he left the Tuk Lung firm or when he worked in the firm.\n\nTable 1\n\nNative Origins of Hong Kong Merchants\n\n \n Native places\n 1850-70\n 1871-80\n 1881-90\n 1891-1900\n 1901-06\n Total\n \n \n Xinning\n 7\n 3\n \n 4\n \n 14\n \n \n Xinhui\n 3\n \n 4\n 6\n I\n 14\n \n \n Kaiping\n \n 2\n \n 2\n \n 4\n \n \n Xiangshan\n 2\n \n 2\n 9\n 3\n 17\n \n \n Baoan\n 1\n \n 2\n 2\n \n 6\n \n \n Panyu\n 3\n \n 5\n 9\n 2\n 8\n 5\n 15\n \n \n Nanhai\n among the richest of the Chinese compradors in the treaty", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212482, "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": 36, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "16 \n\nShunde \n\nDongguan \n\nSanshui \n\nGaoyiu \n\n2 \n\n3 \n\nI \n\nI \n\n1 \n\n1 \n\nN \n\n| \n\n10 \n\n2 \n\nOut of delta region \n\nNon-Cantonese \n\n5 \n\n& \n\n13 \n\n2 \n\n1 \n\n- \n\n1 \n\n4 \n\nHang Kong \n\n1 \n\n༣ \n\n2. \n\n3 \n\n1 \n\n8 \n\nUnidentified \n\n18 \n\n30 \n\n72 \n\n132 \n\n17 \n\n422 \n\nTotal \n\n20 \n\n46 \n\n105 \n\n186 \n\n193 \n\n550 \n\nSource: Hong Kong Record Series #144. The Supreme Court of Hong Kong. Probate Jurisdiction - Wills. \n\nFrom the 894 Chinese wills of the period between 1850-1906 deposited in the Hong Kong Public Records Office, 550 were believed to be held by merchants. Merchants were defined here as owning business, joining in partnership and holding properties. As indicated in table 1, there were 128 out of 550 who stated their native origins. Most of them came from the Pearl River Delta region, Xiangshan men being the largest in number, followed by Nanhai, Xinning, Xinhui, Shunde, Dongguan, Panyu and so on. More interesting, though they had been doing business in Hong Kong for a number of years, they did not claim they were Hong Kong people. Instead they identified with their native place. More frequently they were probably absent from Hong Kong and had resided in Canton and Macau. A puzzling question is that a large portion of these 442 persons had not told in their wills where they came from. Can we take it for granted they did not state it because there was no need to specify as they had identified with Hong Kong? Nevertheless, there were eight cases reported where they were definitely identified as Hong Kong persons. Some claimed “Victorians\", some were \"Hong Kong people\" and some identified with the place where they lived such as Kowloon, Shaukiwan, etc. \n\nIt is supposed that during the nineteenth century the majority of the Chinese in Hong Kong did not settle permanently but returned home or moved to other places in China. They retained ties with their home villages in China. As a scholar points out, wealthy Hong Kong Chinese usually held landed property in Hong Kong, but from the wills we know there were also frequent references to fields and houses in the home villages and houses in Canton, Foshan and Macau. The landed properties they held were mostly houses and land, and little were shares", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212483, "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": 37, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "17\n\nthe 550 specified wills, 67 of the testators were at the time absent from Hong Kong, being only 12.2%. Mostly they were in Canton and Macau and nearly all of them were in retirement or were there for medical reasons. 19 Table 2 shows Hong Kong merchants held properties, mainly landed properties, not only in Hong Kong, but also in Canton, Macau and Shanghai as well as other parts of China.\n\nTable 2\n\nProperties Held by Hong Kong Merchants in China, 1850-1906\n\n \n \n 1850-70\n 1871-80\n 1881-90\n 1891-1900\n 1901-1906\n \n \n Canton\n 3(4)\n 9(11)\n 7(8)\n 14(14)\n \n \n \n Macau\n 1\n 1(1)\n \n 5(?)\n \n \n \n Shanghai\n \n 1(1)\n \n \n \n \n \n Rest of China\n 1(2)\n \n \n [(?)\n \n \n \n Total\n 1\n في\n 3\n 9\n 10\n 20\n \n\nnote:( ) number of places where landed properties located Source: HKRS#144\n\nHong Kong-Canton-Shanghai Network\n\nAfter 1842, British commercial interests on the Chinese coast were dually extended from Canton to Hong Kong and Shanghai. The newly opened port in Shanghai was flocked to by Cantonese merchants, compradors and foreign employees with Western merchants.20 Though Shanghai was opened for trade in 1843, the real development of Shanghai began during the 1850s. Cantonese emigrants came to Shanghai with the hope of making a fortune from foreign trade, particularly in the 1850s when the Taiping Rebellion disrupted trade in South China. Cantonese merchants had early established a presence in Shanghai. The Cantonese guild was established as early as 1710. As a scholar said, Cantonese merchants were a more national rather than a regional type. After 1843, they mostly came from Zhongshan prefecture and the Hong Kong Macau area, a region within the Pearl River estuary. Shanghai and Hong Kong were cities of immigrants, the number of outsiders surpassed the natives. Statistics confirm this impression. In 1885 immigrants represented some 85 percent of Shanghai's population.\n\nThe first Shanghai taotai after the Opium War, Wu Jianzhang, was a Zhongshan native who came from the merchant family of Samqua of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212484, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "18\n\nthe old Co-hong system at Canton.\" The appointment of Wu indicates the power of Cantonese merchants which had gradually become the most predominant group. The Kiangnan Arsenal which opened in 1865, with additions of more industrial projects as dockyards and guandu shangban enterprises, attracted numbers of Cantonese working class to Shanghai. For instance, in Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Work, Cantonese workers constituted the dominant group. They were experienced and most of them had worked formerly in foreign dockyards at Hong Kong and Canton.\n\nCantonese in the early development of Shanghai found themselves particularly at an advantage in foreign trade as against other groups of sojourners. First, they were more experienced and better connected. Canton had been opened to foreign trade for centuries, and Cantonese merchants were connected to foreign firms in Canton or Hong Kong, most foreign firms in Shanghai at that time were only branch offices. Second, Cantonese were linguistically better equipped to deal with foreigners. It is probable most, if not all, were able to speak English, at least Pidgin. Third, early compradors of major foreign firms at Shanghai as Jardine, Matheson & Co., Augustine Heard & Co., Dent & Co., and Russell & Co. were all recruited from either Canton or Hong Kong. Fourth, Cantonese were more skilled in western industries such as ship-building and ship-repairing since most of these modern industries started earlier in Canton and Hong Kong,\n\n22\n\nBecause of the turmoil of the late nineteenth century, employers had to recruit workers on the basis of personal ties so as to prevent desertion or betrayal, thus conflicts between local ethnic groups were obvious. Cantonese in Shanghai did not meet with no competition. Sojourners came from other regions near Shanghai. The Ningbo group was regarded as a great rival. Ningbo people, for instance, concentrated in the French concession and in the northern part of the South City (nanshi) along the Huangpu River; Cantonese mainly settled in Hongkou or along Guangdong Road, near the large shipyards where many were employed. Ethnic groups in Shanghai, such as Cantonese versus Ningbo men, competed with each other not only in commercial interests but also in the local government. Ningbo merchants like Yang Fang challenged the Cantonese by connecting his business in the silk trade with Jardine, Matheson & Co. Since Zhejiang was an important silk producing region and Zhejiang merchants strictly controlled the regional marketing system in the Lower Yangzi. Zhejiang compradors rose to break up the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212485, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "19\n\ndominance of Cantonese by the 1860s when a Ningbo native, Chen Xuyuan, replaced the Cantonese as the chief comprador in Russell & Co. By the turn of the century, the Zhejiang compradors had outnumbered their Cantonese counterparts in Shanghai. Wu Jianzhang acted as the Shanghai tantai less than two years and was not succeeded by a Cantonese until 1864 when Ding Richang was called to the office by Li Hongzhang. However Ding had not been wholly pro-Cantonese. In response to the challenge of the Ningbo people, Cantonese such as Xu Run, Tang Tingshu and Zheng Guanying attempted, with success, to secure patronage from Li Hongzhang by taking part in his guandu shangban project. The Ningbo clique, however, competed with every effort to seek equal political support from another bureaucrat Zuo Zongtang in the 1870s.24 Entering into the Republican period, Cantonese gradually realised they were a minor group when compared with Ningbo men. They not only competed with one another but also collaborated together. Famous Cantonese capitalists such as Guo Piao, Huang Huan'dan, and Jian Dongpu were active in the Shanghai business community.\n\nNetwork of Hong Kong and the Pacific Rim\n\nThe story of the Chinese in Hong Kong as settlers can be classified in the following way. First, the Chinese merchants or traders. They knew the region, they traded successfully and they made their homes wherever their trade led them. They remained the dominant group of settlers in nineteenth century and perhaps even into the twentieth century. Second, the labourers or coolies who arrived during the second half of the nineteenth century. Their main significance was that they came in large numbers, although for the main part they came for short periods and many failed, became destitute and were sent home. The more successful ones, however, returned with their savings to help their families back in China. Nevertheless, amongst them were a number who remained, having married locally or having lifted themselves above their labouring status and turned successfully to trade. Again, for most of them it was their ability to establish a trade, and therefore own property, which was the first step towards settling down. Included amongst them were many artisans who were able to use their skills to establish businesses. Amongst them also were partly literate or semi-literate people who used their writing skills either to work for Chinese businesses or to go into business for themselves. Sooner or later, the two main reasons for settling were success in business and the acquisition of a family. Third, the import-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212486, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "20\n\nexport nature of their business required some familiarity with the commodities traded. Fourth, some of the businesses had associate firms (lianhao) in Hong Kong. This suggests a network of business connections which may have existed prior to the merchants' departure from China. The more successful merchants also established their own associate firms in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, San Francisco, and even Yokohama, indicating they had associates who were knowledgeable in Chinese business practice. Table 3 shows Hong Kong merchants were connected with a lot of countries particularly between 1891 and 1900. The close business connections between Hong Kong, Canton, Macau, and Shanghai formed an important business area. The inseparable economic ties between Hong Kong and Canton, with Hong Kong serving as the entrepot - importing goods for Canton merchants to distribute to the mainland and exporting goods that Canton had collected from inland. It is noteworthy that some of the importing and exporting firms in Hong Kong were not only engaged in business with China but also with America and Southeast Asia. For example, the trade in rice, a staple food of the vast Chinese population, was of great importance to the Chinese both at home and abroad. Li Chit, an import and export rice merchant, held a lot of shares of different businesses in different countries. He had opened a rice shop in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, in which he had invested $4,000. He also invested capital in three rice shops, mainly located in Sheung Wan, for a total sum of $2,500 plus 500 taels. He also had a rice and Annam goods dealing company in Vietnam, suggesting the rice\n\nTable 3\nBusinesses Owned by Hong Kong Merchants\n\n1850-70\n1871-80\n1881-90\n1891-1900\n1901-1906\n\nCanton\n2(?)\n4(?)\n6(6)\n6(?)\n\nMacau\n\n2(2)\n4(4)\n2(?)\n\nShanghai\n\n1(1)\n2(2)\n\nRest of China\n1(?)\n1(?)\n++\n2(2)\n\nJapan\n▬\n\n1(?)\n\nSoutheast Asia\n\n4(6)\n3(8)\n\nAustralia\n\nNorth America\n\nEurope\n\nTotal\n1\n1(1)\n3(7)\n358\n1(2)\n\n1(2)\n5\n11\n22\n\n14\n\nnote: () number of businesses; ? uncertain\n\nSource: HKRS#144", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212487, "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": 41, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "21\n\n26\n\nwas imported from Vietnam. A retail rice shop was also opened in Canton with a capital of 500 taels. Moreover, Li was also interested in other investments such as $15,000 in a native bank, $5,000 in three pawnshops in Hong Kong. He also held a lot of shares in Macau and in other Hong Kong businesses. As the overwhelming majority of Chinese emigrants to America and Australia were Cantonese, Chinese participation in the trade between Hong Kong, Australia, and America was nearly monopolized by the Cantonese merchants. Other examples were: Lee Chak, who had an importing and exporting firm in Hong Kong, two in England, three in San Francisco, two in New York and one in Honolulu, spanning business from Hong Kong to America and England; Chan Kin Tong, owned a firm Guang Yangxing and Rongan respectively, and Chan Mui specialized in drapery business in Hong Kong and had seven associate firms outside Hong Kong. One was located in Chen village, Canton; two in Vietnam; three in Haiphong and one in Siam.\n\nBusiness Patterns of Cantonese Compradors and Merchants\n\n28\n\nThe special position of compradors in mediating between the Chinese and foreign businesses provided them with the opportunity to trade on their own and even in private partnership with their employers. Compradors were enabled to acquire capital, which they could use to promote commercial, financial, and industrial enterprises modeled on Western patterns. As scholars have said, compradors were actually not only serving as compradors but also did business on their own behalf at the same time. Their business investments in modern Chinese enterprises could be described as \"activities of Chinese merchants in buying capital shares from foreign aggressive companies\" (huashang fugu huodong),29 implying that their role in the entrepreneurial activities as Chinese merchants was also significant.\n\nInitiatives in Modern Enterprises\n\nAccording to Yen-p'ing Hao's study on Chinese compradors, it was because compradors had acquired considerable wealth, during the years they were engaged in business with foreign merchants that they had realized the importance and profitability of modern enterprises. The compradors were willing to invest in such enterprises long before any other class had a similar intention. Although they also invested in traditional forms of business such as native banking and pawnbroking, however it only constituted a small portion of their total investments.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212489, "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "23\n\nCloth Mill in 1879. They were regarded as merchants willing to take risks in adventurous undertakings, however, some of them lost money from pouring capital in modern enterprises and some even went bankrupt by speculating.\n\nXu Run (1838-1911)\n\nXu was the earliest, before Tang and Zheng, to come to Shanghai for business and trade as a comprador. In 1852, at the age of 15 Xu left his hometown Zhongshan, trade as a comprador. In 1852, at the age of 15 Xu left his hometown Zhongshan, transited through Macau and Hong Kong to Shanghai where he lived with his uncle Xu Yuting who was working at the Dent & Company in Shanghai (the first Western firm to open a branch in Shanghai) as a comprador. Xu entered Dent & Co. through his uncle's connection. Four years later Xu was promoted from a trainee (as Xu himself stated, he first learnt the tea and silk trade when entering the Company) to an assistant comprador and finally in 1861, he succeeded his uncle as the comprador. His diligent performance was greatly admired by the manager of Dent & Co., E. Webb. From Xu's autobiography, we are able to assess the wealth of a Cantonese comprador in Shanghai accumulated during his compradorial years and also as an independent merchant in which his business investment included various modern enterprises. Furthermore, his autobiography also tells of his complicated relations with Sheng Xuanhuai and Yuan Shikai as well as a part of his personal family history.\n\n30\n\nIn 1868, Xu Run left Dent & Co. and started his own business. He opened the Baoyuanxiang Tea House. The name itself manifested a tea trade business. By 1883, Xu had accumulated a personal wealth of 3,409,423.3 taels.\n\nItem\n\nTable 4\n\nAssets Owned by Xu Run in 1883\n\n \n Item\n Amount (taels)\n %\n \n \n Landed property in Shanghai\n 2,236,940.0\n 65.61\n \n \n Miscellaneous stocks\n 426,912.0\n 12.52\n \n \n Capital in pawnshops\n 348,571.3\n 10.22\n \n \n Shares in custody\n 397,000.0\n 11.64\n \n \n Total\n 3,409,423.3\n 99.90\n \n\nSource: Ku Run, Qing Xu Yuzhi Kiansheng Run Zixu Nianpu, pp 67-8", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212491, "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": 45, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "25\n\nItem\n\nTable 5\n\nXu Run's Investment in Modern Enterprises\n\n \n Company\n Amount (T)\n %\n Place\n \n \n China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co\n 480,000\n 33.44\n Shanghai\n \n \n Yun Wo Insurance Co.\n 100,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Chi Wo Insurance Co.\n 50,000\n 10 45\n Shanghai\n \n \n Kaiping Coal Mines\n 150,000\n \n Tianjin\n \n \n Guichi Coal Mines\n 100,000\n \n Anhui\n \n \n Sanshan Silver Mines\n 60,000\n \n Rehe\n \n \n Pingchuan Copper Mines\n 60,000\n \n \n \n \n Jinzhou Mines\n 50,000\n \n \n \n \n Other Mines\n 10,000\n 29 96\n \n \n \n Shanghai Cotton Mill\n 50,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Shang Jinglun Cotton Mill\n 170,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Craseman & Hagen's Filanda (Yantai Saosi Ju)\n 10,200\n \n Yantai\n \n \n Paper Manufactury\n 20,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Chinese Glass Works Co.\n 30,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Shanghai Dairy Farm Co.\n 30,000\n \n Shanghai\n \n \n Hong Kong Liyuan Sugar Refinery\n 30,000\n \n Hong Kong\n \n \n Tianyi Land Reclamation Co\n 5,000\n \n Jinzhou\n \n \n Taggu Cultivation Co.\n 30,000\n 2.44\n Tianjin\n \n \n Zhongshan Tongyi Ranyuan Cultivation Co\n 1,000($)\n \n Guangdong\n \n \n Total\n 1,435,200\n 99.99\n \n \n\n(+$1,000)*\n\n* Mexican dollars have not been added in the total or calculated in the percentage\n\nSource: Xu Run, Qing Xu Yuzhi Xiansheng Run Zixu Nianpu.\n\nbut educated in Hong Kong. He first came to Shanghai as an interpreter in the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1859. It is believed that he was introduced by an officer named Horatio Nelson Lay whom Tang had met in Hong Kong. Tang was recruited as a comprador by the Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1863 but he left in 1872. During the decade of his compradorial career, he invested, planned, organized and assisted in the sale of stocks of a number of enterprises. These enterprises were called modern because they had adopted a new form of ownership, organization and management. Moreover, some of them such as steam navigation and insurance companies were the first to take place in China. Unlike Xu\n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212493, "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": 47, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "27\n\nShanghai, named the Guang Zhao Gongsuo,\n\nNeedless to say, Tang was famous amongst Cantonese merchants. In 1876, when Tang was organizing the telegraph office in Fuzhou, he was invited by Ding Richang to set up a Chinese bank with branches in Tokyo and London. The venture was supported by a group of Cantonese merchants to set up a modern bank with a paid-up capital of three hundred thousand taels to meet the increasing need of a financial institution to accelerate Chinese trade in foreign countries. Tang was also active in business circles in Hong Kong. He joined in partnership with his brother Tang Maozhi in the first sugar refinery in Hong Kong. Tang contributed three thousand taels while William McGregor Smith contributed the largest share of sixteen thousand taels. They planned to export sugar to Jiujiang, but probably due to Tang's transfer to Shanghai, export of refined sugar was changed to connect with Shanghai where they operated successfully until 1864. Afterwards Tang sold his share to his brother Tang Maozhi. The refinery was set up at East Point, Hong Kong, under the name of Smith, Wahee & Co. However, it eventually went bankrupt and was taken over by Jardine, Matheson & Co.\n\nTang left his work at China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1884 to manage the Kaiping Mines in Tianjin in which he had a personal investment of three hundred thousand taels. It has to be mentioned that with the appointment of Tang as the Kaiping's general manager, a large number of Cantonese workers were recruited for Tianjin. By 1891, the number of Cantonese workers had grown to five hundred of which some had returned from California and Australia. Though these Cantonese miners were more skilled and experienced than local workers, they did not get along with the local people and refused to teach their skills to the northerners, as they were called. In 1883 a group of a hundred men from Swatow had to be discharged because of conflicts between them and their headmen.\n\nZhang Guanying (1842-1922)\n\nZheng was born in Zhongshan. It is unclear when he moved from Zhongshan to Macau but it was certain that he had received his traditional education in Canton. After Zheng had failed in the public examination, he decided to become a merchant. In 1858, he was sent to his uncle Zheng Tingjiang in Shanghai, who had been a comprador to Overweg & Co. Zheng soon entered into the Anglo-Chinese School organized by a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212494, "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": 48, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "28\n\nmissionary named John Fryer. Though he studied only in evening class, he learned to speak English as well as his uncle. In 1859, through his personal ties with Xu Run, he was introduced to Dent & Co. to work as an assistant in freighting and warehousing until 1868 when the firm was dissolved. Zheng then turned to a foreign tea company Heshengxiang as a comprador and later became a manager, and eventually the owner. In 1874, Zheng joined the Butterfield & Swire Co. as a comprador to its affiliate China Navigation Co. until 1881. He then turned to assist Sheng Xuanhuai in managing the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. thus terminating his compradorial career.\n\n34\n\nFrom Table 6 we can see Zheng was interested in a lot of modern enterprises. In absence of sources, we are unable to know the exact amount of his investment. A preliminary estimate as shown in the table was about thirty thousand taels. This is near Yenping Hao's assessment of forty thousand taels. Modern enterprises in which Zheng invested varied from commercial and financial to industrial and mining; they were scattered over Shanghai, Tianjin, Canton and other Chinese cities as well as Southeast Asia. As previously discussed, Zheng favoured joint-stock companies. He thought it was a powerful business organization and he considered it reasonable to have opened company accounts as a way to solicit support of shareholders. Zheng was quite conservative in starting a new undertaking. He had objected to Tang Tingshu's plan to establishing the Hongyuan Co. in London in 1881.35 Instead he had shown his genius in solving technical problems occurring in some guandu shangban enterprises such as China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co., Kaiping Coal Mines, Imperial Telegraph Administration, Hanyang Iron Works, Shanghai Cotton Mill and Canton-Hankow Railway Co., for which he had won appreciation from his patrons including Li Hongzhang and Sheng Xuanhuai. He had helped Sheng Xuanhuai in reorganizing the Hanyang Iron Works, Daye Iron Mines with Pingxiang Coal Mines into one limited liability company under the name of Hanyeping. It was incorporated at the Ministry of Commerce in 1908. One year later, he also reorganized the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. into a public company. Moreover, he was a pioneer in introducing the latest methods in organising joint-stock companies, as he had translated the company laws of Hong Kong promulgated in 1865 from English to Chinese.\n\nAs a Cantonese comprador, merchant and so-called comprador-merchant as mentioned before, Xu, Tang and Zheng were all regarded as outstanding in performing entrepreneurial activities, particularly in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212496, "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": 50, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "30\n\nenterprises,\" but also challenged their foreign counterparts by planning, organising, and managing most of the modern Chinese enterprises. As Thomas Rawski has pointed out, Western firms in Chinese treaty-ports such as Shanghai were ineffectual on their own; they had to rely on Chinese compradors to conduct business with their Chinese associates. Cantonese compradors were in such a position that they could dominate the main business in Shanghai during the nineteenth century where they had fully shown their special entrepreneur genius.\"\n\nNotes\n\nAssessment of recent studies of Chinese ethnic groups is mainly quoted from Emily Honig (1992) pp. 6-7\n\n2\n\nAs Yen-p'ing Hao mentioned most of the Cantonese compradors came from the coastal prefectures of Guangdong province as Zhongshan, Nanhai and Panyu See Hao (1970a). p. 13\n\n1\n\nFor sample of letter of recommendation for comprador used in the 1870s, see Appendix\n\n+\n\nHKRS#144-245 Wong Kong (August 1867)\n\n4 Hao has explained why Western firms in Japan employed Chinese instead of Japanese compradors. See Hao (1970a), pp. 51-9\n\n6 The first three British firms opened were Dent & Co. (first established Canton, 1832), and Gibb, Livingston & Co. (1836 in Canton)\n\n7 Wei came from the Zhongshan prefecture, his father was a comprador to two American merchants Benjamin Chew Wilcocks and Oliver H. Gorden. He followed a missionary and moved from Canton to Hong Kong. In 1852 he entered Bowra & Co. as a comprador and five years later when the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, London and China established a branch in Hong Kong he joined the Bank as its first comprador. See Smith (1985), pp. 62-9 and Wei A Kwong's will, HKRS#144-368: Wei A Kwong (October 1866), Wei Yuk's brother Wei Long Shan went to Shanghai to learn business in 1871. He returned to Hong Kong after twelve years and then became comprador to the Eastern Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Co. from 1882 to 1902. He was also assistant comprador at the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank from 1885 to 1895.\n\nIn the absence of sufficient sources, it is difficult to assess Wei's wealth accumulated during his comprador's years.\n\nThe Ho family, beginning with Ho Tung, was called a comprador family. Ho introduced his two brothers Ho Fuk and Ho Kom Tong as assistant compradors to Jardine who later succeeded him; his adopted son Ho Sai Wing was the Hong Kong Bank's comprador through thirty-four years from 1912 to 1964. Ho Sai Wing's brothers: Ho Sai Iu was comprador of the Mercantile Bank of India, Ho Sai Kwong of David Sassoon & Co.; Ho Sai Leung of Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ho Sai Ki of Arnhold & Co. Ho Sai Wa, son of Ho Kom Tong was an assistant comprador in Mercantile Bank. See Group Archives of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Comprador Files. Ho Sai Wing. Ho Fuk (Ho Fook)'s son was said to have assisted him in Jardine's work.\n\n10 This company was said to have close business relations with Shanghai's Ting Tai firm.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212497, "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": 51, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "31\n\nLo was suspected to have cheated an amount of 20,000 taels as bad debt from the Bank See Group Archives of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Comprador Files Law Pak Sheung\n\n|| Ibid. Lo Hok Pang was said to be involved in certain bankruptcy cases See Comprador Files Lo Hok Pang\n\n12\n\nFor an important article that explores the studies on early Chinese in Hong Kong, see Carl T Smith (1993), Hong Kong Chinese Wills 1850-1890\n\n13 See HKRS#144-98. Cheang Hoong (December 1856), 245 Wong Kong (August 1867), 254 Kwong A Hang (January 1872), 268 Ng A Cheong (October 1870), 349 Law Pak Sheung (February 1877), 368 Wei A Kwong (October 1866), 457 Law Sai Nam (December 1881), 470 Lau Cheong (June 1880), 661 Au Yeung Shing (December 1886); 733, Wong Shi Lai (June 1888), 734 Sung Chin Tseung (January 1888), 1161 Tong Mow Chee (December 1894), and 1465 Choa Chec Bec (June 1890)\n\nHKRS#134-144; Soong Ke (December 1864)\n\n15 See Zheng Guanying. Da Guangzhou shangwu zonghu yi bingting zhuamban zhangcheng ershisi tiao (To draft the twenty-four opening ordinances of the General Chamber of Commerce of Canton), in Xia Dongyuan (1988a), pp 593-6\n\n16 HKRS#144-273 O Kee Cheong (October 1872)\n\nHKRS#144-1504: Leung Kiu (April 1887)\n\n18 HKRS#144-394 La Hing (January 1879)\n\n19 See Carl T Smith (1993), p 11, 15-6\n\n20 For Western merchants who came with their Cantonese compradors to Shanghai, see Hao (1970), pp 51-3\n\n21 According to Leung Yuen-sang's study, Wu Jianzhang came to power because of the rise of mercantile power in post-1843 local politics when there was an absence of official-gentry leadership during the British invasion and capture of Shanghai in 1842 The vacuum was filled by Cantonese merchants and compradors They were sought because of their foreign language skill and foreign knowledge During Wu's office, nearly all the jobs in the government were filled by Cantonese See Leung (1990), pp. 53-6, 147-50, Toyama Gunji (1994), Shanghai dotai Go kensho (The Shanghai Taotai Wu Jianzhang), pp 45-54. and Zhang Wenqin (1989), Cong fenguan guanshang dao maiban guantiao, Wu Jianzhang shilun (From Feudal Official Merchant to Compradorial Bureaucrat), pp 31-54\n\n21 Leung Yuen-sang (1982), Regional Rivalry in Mid-Nineteenth Century Shanghai: Cantonese vs Ningpo Men, pp 34-6.\n\n21\n\nThough Li Hongzhang was a central bureaucrat, through the guandu shangban enterprises in Shanghai and Tianjin, he had successfully extended his influence in this region discussed through the \"Shanghai-Tianjin Connection\" See Leung Yuen-sang (1986), The Shanghai-Tientsin Connection: Li Hung-chang's Political Control over Shanghai during the Late Ch'ing Period, pp 315-30\n\n24 Ibid, pp. 45-6\n\n24\n\nWang Gungwu (1990). China and the Chinese Overseas, pp 175-6\n\nHKRS#144-1152 Li Chu (December 1896)\n\n27 HKRS#144-1087. Lee Chak (May 1894)\n\n8 HKRS#144-1093 Chan Kin Tong (April 1896)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212498, "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": 52, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "32\n\n29\n\nThe term 'comprador' in Chinese history is quite argumentative. In late Qing times it referred to a commercial broker, an agent and employee of a foreign firm. With the rise of Chinese nationalism in the Republican period, the meaning was gradually expanded beyond its original sense to include politics in a negative meaning or collaboration with foreigners of serving interest of imperialists. In Chinese Marxist scholarship, comprador has taken on a political meaning. See Jung-fang Tsai (1981), The Predicament of the Comprador Ideologists, pp. 191-7. However, economic historians such as Wang Jingyu, realizing the role of Chinese merchants in the economic development of the nineteenth century, said they included compradors who had large investment in modern enterprises, been active in huashang fugu huodong as well as buying capital in from foreign aggressive enterprises. See Wang (1965), Shijiu shiji waiguo qinhua qiye zhong de huashang fugu yundong (The Activities of Chinese Merchants to Buy Capital-Shares from the Foreign Aggressive Enterprises in China During the Late Nineteenth Century) and (1983b) Shiji xifang ziben zhuyi dui Zhongguo de jingji qinlue (The Economic Invasion of Western Capitalism on China in Nineteenth Century), pp. 483-526.\n\n10 Xu Run, Qing Xu Yuzhi xiansheng Run zixu nianpu, pp. 4-5.\n\n31\n\nAs Xu himself stated, the estimate value of this amount after discount should be 3,219,470 taels. See ibid, p. 68.\n\n17 Other investments, though the amounts are uncertain, can also be ascertained from his autobiography. They are: a pier company at Guangdong, a grocery at Shanghai; also silk cloth shop, tea shop, partnership in Huya'an Insurance Co., Huaxing Insurance Co., Difeng Co., Shanghai Land Investment Co., Ltd., Shanghai Tramway Co., Xunhuan Newspaper in Hong Kong, a water works, and Tongyi cultivation company in Guangdong. See Qing Xu Yuzhi xiansheng Run zixu nianpu, preface.\n\n33\n\nSee Liu Kwang-ching (1962), Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China, 1862-1874, p. 155.\n\n14\n\nSee Hao (1970a), p. 100. As Xia Dongyuan found that in the Zheng's zhushu (will) written in 1914, Zheng regarded 4,088 taels the interest from share-stocks as one of his main sources of income. See Xia (1985b), p. 268.\n\n35 See Zheng Guanying, Zhi Li Zhaomin Fangbo lun zhuang Lundun Hongyuan Gongsi (Letter addressed to Li Zhaomin in discussing the founding of Hongyuan Company in London), in Xia Dongyuan (1988a), pp. 507-3; Wu Chang-chuan (1974), pp. 86-8.\n\n36 As Wang Shui has concluded from various sources, during 1840 to 1894 Chinese compradors had accumulated a total income of about half a billion taels, see Wang (1983), Qingdai maiban shouru de guji jiqi shiyong fangshi (An Assessment of Compradors' Income and Its Spending Ways in Qing Dynasty), pp. 298-307.\n\n37 See Thomas G. Rawski (1970), Chinese Dominance of Treaty Port Commerce and its Implications, 1860-1875, pp. 451-73.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212501, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "35\n\nFaure, David W. 1990. The Rice Trade in Hong Kong Before the Second World War. In Between East and West Aspects of Social and Political Development 216-25. Edited by Elizabeth Sinn. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.\n\nFok, Kai-cheong. 1988. Wanqing qijian Xianggang dui neidi jingji fazhan zhi yingxiang (The influences of Hong Kong on the economic development of mainland during the late Qing period). In Xueshu Yanjiu 1988/2 70-4.\n\n1989. Xianggang huaren zai jindaishi shang dui Zhongguo de gongxian shixi (A preliminary study on the contributions of Hong Kong Chinese to China in modern history). In Huaren Yanjiu | 81-8.\n\n1990a. Lectures on Hong Kong History Hong Kong's Role in Modern Chinese History. Hong Kong: Commercial Press.\n\n1990b. Private Chinese Business Letters and the Study of Hong Kong Industry: A Preliminary Report. In Collected Essays on Various Historical Materials for Hong Kong Studies. Edited by Hong Kong Museum of History. Hong Kong: Urban Council.\n\n1992. Xianggang yu Jindai Zhongguo (Hong Kong and modern China). Hong Kong: Commercial Press.\n\n1993. Nineteenth Century Hong Kong: China's Gateway to the Western World of Business - themes and sources. Unpublished paper presented at the 34th International Congress on Asian and North African Studies. Hong Kong.\n\nGaw, Kenneth. 1988. Superior Servants: the Legendary Cantonese Amahs of the Far East. Singapore and New York: Oxford University Press.\n\nGodley, Michael R. 1981. The Treaty Port Connection: An Essay. In Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 12/1 248-59.\n\nHamashita, Takeshi. 1991. Higashi Ajiashi ni okeru Honkon no ichi (The role of Hong Kong in East Asian history). In Sōbun 320 1-8.\n\nHamilton, Gary Glen. 1991. Edited Business Networks and Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong: University Press.\n\nHao, Yen-p'ing. 1969. Cheng Kuan-ying: The Comprador as Reformer. In Journal of Asian Studies 29/1 15-22.\n\n1970a. The Comprador in Nineteenth-Century China: Bridge Between East and West. Cambridge and Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.\n\n1970b. A New Class in China's Treaty Ports: The Rise of the Comprador-Merchants. In Business History Review 44/4 446-59.\n\n1970c. Maiban shangren wanqing tongshang kouan yi xinxing jieceng (Comprador-merchants: \"new class\" in late Qing treaty ports). In Gugong Wenxian 2/1 35-44.\n\n1977. Zhongguo jindai yanhai shangye de buwenling-sheng (Commercial uncertainties along modern China's Coast). In Shihuo Yuekan 7/8-9 1-11.\n\n1979. Commercial Capitalism along the China Coast during the Late Qing Period. In Proceedings of the Conference on Modern Chinese Economic History 303-27. Edited by Chi-ming Hou and Trong-shian Yu. Taiber: Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica.\n\n1982a. Entrepreneurship and the West in East Asian Economic and Business History. In Business History Review 56/2 149-67.\n\n1982b. The Compradors. In Maggie Keswick (edited) 85-102.\n\n1986. The Commercial Revolution in Nineteenth-Century China: The Rise of Sino-Western Mercantile Capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.\n\nHayes, James. 1979. The Nam Pak Hong Commercial Association of Hong Kong. In Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 19/2 16-26.\n\n1984. Collecting Business Papers of Chinese Enterprises in Hong Kong. In Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies 47-55. Edited by Alan Birch. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.\n\nHe, Wenxiang. 1989. Xianggang Jiezushi (History of Hong Kong's big families). Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212502, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "36\n\nKong, Capital Communications Lid\n\nHo, Ping-ti 1966a. Zhongguo huiguan shilun (On the history of Landsmannschaften in China). Taibei, Shihuo Chubanshe.\n\n1966b. The Geographical Distribution of Hui-kuan (Landsmannschaften) in Central Upper Yangtze Provinces. In Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 5/2 120-52\n\nHonig, Emily. 1992. Creating Chinese Ethnicity Subet People in Shanghai 1850-1980. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.\n\nHunter, William C 1882 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days, 1825-1844, London Kegan Paul, Trench & Co\n\nKing, Frank H. H. 1983. edited. Eastern Banking Essays in the History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation London, Athlone Press\n\nKeswick, Maggie 1982. The Thistle and the Jade: A Celebration of 150 Years of Jardine, Matherson & Company London, Octopus.\n\nLai, Chi-kong. 1992 The Qing State and Merchant Enterprise: the China Merchants' Company, 1872-1902. In Jane K. Leonard (edited) 139-56.\n\nLee, Pui Tak. 1990 Kindai Chugoku ni okeru kōsho Kigyō no rekishi teki tenkai Kanyahyōkōshi wo jirei toshite (The historical Origins of Commercial and Industrial Enterprises in China, the Case of Han-yeh-p'ing Coal & Iron Company Limited, 1896-1991) M Litt. Thesis. University of Tokyo.\n\nLeonard, Jane K 1992. edited; To Achieve Wealth and Security, the Qing Imperial State and the Economy, 1644-1911. Ithaca, East Asia Program, Cornell University\n\nLeung, Yuensang 1982 Regional Rivalry in Mid-nineteenth Century Shanghai. Cantonese vs Ningpo Men. In Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i: 4/8; 29-50.\n\n1986. The Shanghai-Tientsin Connection. Li Hung-chang's Political Control over Shanghai during the Late Ch'ing Period In Chinese Studies 4/1 315-31\n\n1990 The Shanghai Taotai: Linkage Man in a Changing Society, 1843-90 Singapore. National Singapore University Press\n\nLiu, Kwang-ching 1979 Credit Facilities in China's Early Industrialization The Background and Implications of Hsu Jun's Bankruptcy in 1883. In Modern Chinese Economic History 499-509, Edited by Chiming Hou Taibei, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica\n\n1982 A Chinese Entrepreneur In Maggie Keswick (edited) 103-30.\n\n— 1990. Jinshi Shixuang yu Xincheng Qiye (The new thoughts and modern enterprises) Taibei, Lianjing Chuban Shiye Gongsi\n\nMann, Susan Jones 1972. Finance in Ningpo the 'Ch'ien Chuang', 1750-1880 In W E. Willmott (edited) 47-78\n\n1974 The Ningpo Pang and Financial Power at Shanghai In Mark Elvin & G. William Skinner (edited) 73-96\n\n— 1976. Merchant Investment, Commercialization, and Social Change in the Ningpo Area In Reform in Nineteenth-Century China 41-8. Edited by Paul A, Cohen Cambridge and Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.\n\nMcElderry, Andrea Lee 1992 Guarantors and Guarantees in Qing Government-Bussiness Relations In Jane K. Leonard (edited) 119-38\n\n1993 Guarantors in China's Treaty Ports the Evolution of Employee Bonding Unpublished paper presented at the 34th International Congress on Asian and North African Studies, Hong Kong\n\nMei, June 1979 Socioeconomic Origins of Emigration Guangdong to California, 1850-1882 In Explorations in Economic History 7/4 451-73\n\nQing Xu Yuzhi xiansheng ruḥ zixu nianpu (Chronological autobiography of Xu Run) Reprinted in 1981\n\nQuan, Hansheng 1972 Zhongguo Jingjishi luncong (Collected essays on Chinese economic", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212503, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "37\n\nhistory) Hong Kong, Xinya Yanjiusuo\n\nRawski, Thomas G. 1970. Chinese Dominance of Treaty Port Commerce and its Implications, 1860-1875. In Explorations in Economic History 7/4, 451-73.\n\nRedding, Gordon S. 1991. Weak Organizations and Strong Linkages: Managerial Ideology and Chinese Family Business Networks. In Gary Hamilton (edited), 30-47.\n\nRhoads, Edward J. 1975. China's Republican Revolution: the Case of Kwangtung. Cambridge and Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.\n\n1977. Merchants Associations in Canton, 1895-1911. In William Skinner (edited), 97-117.\n\nRowe, William T. 1984. Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796-1889. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\nSekkó Zaibatsu (The Zhejiang financial clique). Edited by Mantetsu Shanhai Jimusho. Shanhai, Mantetsu Jimusho, 1929.\n\nShanghai duiwai maoyi (Shanghai foreign trade, 1840-1949). Compiled by Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Jingji Yanjiusuo and Shanghai-shi Guoji Maoyi Xuehui Xueshu Waiyuanhui. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1989.\n\nShanghai Sojourners. Edited by Frederic Wakeman and Wen-hsin Yeh. Berkeley, Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, 1992.\n\nSinn, Elizabeth. 1989. Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital. Hong Kong, Hong Kong Oxford University Press.\n\nSkinner, William G. 1974 (edited). The Chinese City: City Between Two Worlds. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\n1976. Mobility Strategies in Late Imperial China: A Regional-System Analysis. In Regional Analysis, Volume One: Economic Systems, 327-64. Edited by Carol A. Smith. New York, Academic Press.\n\n1977 (edited). The City in Late Imperial China. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\nSmith, Carl T. 1983. Compradores of the Hongkong Bank. In Frank H. H. King (edited), 93-111.\n\n1985. Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\n1993. Hong Kong Chinese Wills, 1850-1890. Unpublished paper presented at the International Conference on Folk Documents and Regional Society in South China, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.\n\nSu, Waigong. 1933. Xianggang, Shanghai, Guangzhou shangye mingrenlu (Prominent business characters of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton). Shanghai, Shangye Bianshu Gongsi.\n\nTopley, Marjorie. 1964. Capital, Savings and Credit among Indigenous Rice Farmers and Immigrant Vegetable Farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories. In Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies: Studies from Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and Middle America, 157-86. Edited by Raymond Firth and B. S. Yamey. London, George Allen & Unwin.\n\n1968. The Role of Savings and Wealth among Hong Kong Chinese. In Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, 167-227. Edited by Ian C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi. New York, Frederick A. Prager.\n\nToyama, Gunji. 1944. Shanhai Dota: Go Kensho (The Shanghai taotai Wu Jianzhang). In Gakkai 1/7, 45-54.\n\n1945. Shanhai no shinsho: Yo Bo (A gentry-merchant in Shanghai: Yang Fang). In Toyoshi Kenkyu 1/4, 17-34.\n\nTsai, Jung-fang. 1975. Comprador Ideologists in Modern China: Ho Kai (Ho Chi, 1859-1914) and Hu Li-Yuan (1847-1916). PhD thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212504, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "38\n\n1981 The Predicament of the Comprador Ideologists. He Qia and Hu Liyuan In Modern China 7/2- 191-225\n\n1993 Hong Kong in Chinese History A Study of Community and Social Unrest from 1842 to 1913 New York, Columbia University Press\n\nWang, Gungwu 1990 The Culture of Chinese Merchants Working Paper Series No 57 Ontario: Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, University of Toronto-York University Also adopted in Wang (1991) 181-90\n\n1991 China and the Chinese Overseas Singapore, Academic Press\n\nWang, Jingyu 1965 Shijiu shiji waiguo qinhua qiye zhong de huashang fugu yundong (The activities of Chinese merchants to buy capital-shares from the foreign aggressive enterprises in China during the late nineteenth century) In Lishi Yanjiu 1965/4\n\n1983a Tang Tingshu yanjiu (A study of Tang Tingshu) Beijing, Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe\n\n1983b. Shijiu shiji xifang ziben zhuyi dui Zhongguo de jingji qinlue (The economic invasion of western capitalism on China in nineteenth century) Beijing, Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1990 Shilun Jindai Zhongguo de maiban jieji (A preliminary discussion on modern Chinese compradors) In Lishi Yanjiu 1990/3, 89-108\n\nWang, Shui 1983. Qingdai maiban shouru de guji jiqi shiyong fangshi (An assessment of compradors' income and its spending ways in Qing dynasty). In Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Jingji Yanjiusuo Jikan 5 298-324\n\n1984. Maiban de jingji diwei he zhengzhi qingxiang (The economic achievement and political tendency of compradors) In Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Jingji Yanjiusuo Jikan 7 255-93\n\nWilmott, William E 1966 The Chinese in Southeast Asia. In Australian Outlook 20. 252-62\n\n1972 edited Economic Organization in Chinese Society Stanford. Stanford University Press\n\nWong, Bernard 1988 Patronage, Brokerage, Entrepreneurship, and the Chinese Community of New York New York. AMS Press\n\nWong, Siu-lun 1983 Business Ideology of Chinese Industrialists in Hong Kong In Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 23 137-71\n\n1984 The Migration of Shanghainese Entrepreneurs to Hong Kong In From Village to City. Studies in the Traditional Roots of Hong Kong Society 206-27 Edited by David Faure, James Hayes and Alan Birch Hong Kong, Center of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong\n\n1985 The Chinese Family Firm: A Model In British Journal of Sociology 36/1 58-72\n\n1986 Modernization and Chinese Culture in Hong Kong. In China Quarterly. 106. 306-25\n\n1988a Emigrant Entrepreneurs Shanghai Industrialists in Hong Kong Hong Kong, Oxford University Press\n\n1988b The Applicability of Asian Family Values to Other Sociocultural Settings In In Search of an East Asian Development Model. 134-52 Edited by Peter Berger and Michael Hsiao New Brunswick and Oxford, Transaction Publishers\n\n1990 Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Trust In University of Hong Kong Supplement to the Gazette 37/1 25-34\n\n1991 Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Trust In Gary Hamilton (edited) 13-29\n\n1993 Business Networks, Cultural Values and the State in Hong Kong and Singapore Unpublished paper presented at the Workshop on Chinese Business Houses in Southeast Asia since 1870 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London\n\nWoon, Yuen-fong 1984 Social Organization in South China, 1911-1949 the Case of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212505, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "39\n\nthe Kuan Lineage in K'ai-p'ing County. Ann Arbor, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.\n\nWright, Arnold 1908 Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China their history, people commerce, industries, and resources London, Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company. Ltd\n\nWu, Chang-chuan 1974 Cheng Kuan-ying A Case Study of Merchant Participation in the Chinese Self-strengthening Movement (1878-1884) PhD thesis Columbia University\n\nXia, Dongyuan. 1982 Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume I Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1985a Wanqing yangwu yundong yanjiu (A study of self-strengthening movement of late Qing China) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin chubanshe\n\n1985b. Zheng Guanying zhuan (A biography of Zheng Guanying) Revised edition Shanghai, Huadong Shifan Daxue Chubanshe\n\n1988a, Zheng Guanying ji (Collected materials of Zheng Guanying) Volume II Shanghai, Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe\n\n1988b. Sheng Xuanhuai zhuan (A biography of Sheng Xuanhuai) Chengdu, Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe\n\nXu, Dingxin 1991 Shanghai zongshanghui-shi 1902-1929 (A history of Shanghai Chamber of Commerce). Shanghai, Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Chubanshe\n\nYamagami, Kan'ichi 1938 Sekko zaibatsu-ron so no kihonteki kōsatsu (A discussion of Zhejiang financial magnates its basic observation) Tokyo. Nihon Hyōronsha\n\nYu, Qixing 1970 Wu Tingfang yu Xiangkang zhi guanxi (The relations of Wu Tingfang with Hong Kong). In Shou Luo Xianglin Jiaoshou Lunwenji Hong Kong, Wanyou Tushu Gongsi 255-78.\n\nZhang, Wenqin, 1984. Cong fengnan guanshang dao maiban shangren Qingdai Guangdong hangshang Wu Yihe jiazu de pouxi (From feudal official merchant to comprador An analysis of the family of howqua of the Guangdong hong merchants in the Qing). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1984/3 167-97. 1984/4 231-53\n\n1989 Cong fengjian guanshang dao maiban guanliao Wu Jianzhang shilun (From feudal official merchant to compradorial bureaucrat An analysis and discussion on Wu Jianzhang). In Jindaishi Yanjiu 1989/5 31-54\n\nZhejiangji zibenjia de xingqi (The rise of Zhejiang clique of entrepreneurs) Edited by Zhongguo Renmin Zhengzhi Xieshang Huiyi Zhejiang-sheng Weiyuanhui Wenshi Ziliao Yanjiu Weiyuanhui Hangzhou, Zhejiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1986.\n\nZou, Yiren 1980 Jiu Shanghai renkou bianqian de yanjiu (A study of evolution of the population of old Shanghai) Shanghai, Renmin Chubanshe", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212521, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "55\n\nintellectually lethargic. It was also from Liu's diaries we discover that Ruan Yuan's house was burned down on April 2, 1823 with heavy losses, including Ruan's entire library.1\n\n31\n\nThe founding of the Xue hai tang in Canton brought to Ruan Yuan a number of Cantonese scholars. Besides Chen Li, who was cited by Hiromu Momose in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period as perhaps \"the most brilliant among a group of Cantonese scholars who developed eclectic theories mid-way between Sung Neo-Confucianism and the School of Han Learning,\" the others included Lin Botun, Wu Lanxiu, Ma Fuan, and Xu Rong, Tan Rong from Nanhai, who had passed the provincial examination in 1824 and had been appointed to the Xue hai tang by Ruan Yuan but had chosen not to take the metropolitan examination, nevertheless persuaded his friends, the Wu Family hong merchants, to print the large collectanea, Yue ya tang cong shu, consisting of 180 titles.\n\nIt is disappointing that the personalities and idiosyncrasies of these scholars cannot be discerned from reading their writings. Employing the techniques of detective novelists by investigating whatever might be construed as clues that come my way, I have been able to reconstruct the person of Ruan Yuan to a certain extent, but the scholars around him have completely eluded my attempts. They were not easy prey. Neither were they easy to manage. At times their eccentricities hindered progress of Ruan's work.\n\nThe completion of Shi san jing zhu shu fu jiao kan ji was delayed considerably because of personality conflict among the compilers. The idea for such a project had originated with Lu Wen chao (1717-1796), a scholar-official from Hangzhou who had spent a greater part of his time copying various old editions of the Classics by hand, noting the differences and printing the corrected texts. After Lu's death his student, Zang Rong, who was working on Jing ji zuan gu, persuaded Ruan Yuan to undertake the project to print the Jiao kan ji as well. In 1799, after consulting his staff, a much more ambitious project became envisaged, to print the Thirteen Classics together with all the notations throughout the ages.\n\nBeing then Governor of Zhejiang with resources at his command, Ruan Yuan asked Duan Yucai (1735-1815), a Classicist with expertise in etymology and phonetics, to take on the responsibility as editor. Considering the task too arduous for a single man, Duan recommended his friend Gu Guangchi (1776-1835) to share the work. Gu, in turn, brought other scholars.\n\n33\n\nPage 75\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212715, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "9\n\nany newly-opened port for them to be snatched up and at almost any price by Chinese merchants..... until the Chinese purchaser came to close quarters with the English importer, eliminating middlemen at small ports and to transferring operations chiefly to the great emporiums of Hong Kong and Shanghai.'\n\nHankow was the other city in which, on and off, Mesny spent a dozen or so years and where eventually he died, a city on the north bank of the Yangtze, part of the three-city metropolis now known as Wuhan. It was the major commercial port in central China during the second half of the 19th century, containing British, German, Russian, Japanese and French settlements, known as Concessions. Hankow was opened as a treaty port in 1861, a year before Mesny arrived there and became famous abroad as the start of the annual tea-clipper race back to England.\n\nThe province of Kueichou in south-west China, where Mesny also spent a number of years was one of the most backward areas of China. It had been under Chinese rule since the Han at about the time of Christ, but only became a separate province during the Ming, in AD 1413. Waves of Chinese immigration, mainly from neighbouring Szechuan and Hunan provinces, forced the non-Chinese minority tribesmen out of the fertile valleys leading eventually to discontent and finally rebellion. Mesny's story is illuminating in a number of respects. There were always foreigners who took up minor posts with the Chinese bureaucracy, particularly during the modernisation campaigns which took place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Old photographs exist showing foreigners in, for example, a Chinese arsenal beside foreign machinery or weapons, both as advisers and trainers, but few ever wrote of their experiences. The most interesting part of Mesny's life, however, standing out as a unique experience, was the short period of some five to six years when he served with two provincial forces of the Chinese Imperial Army on active service helping suppress a rising of the Miao, a subjugated minority race in a remote part of southern China. [See Appendix C for a summary of the first campaign against the Miao in which Mesny took part]. Probably the most interesting part of these narratives is the reasonably detailed description of Chinese soldiering during this relatively minor campaign. It is full of anecdotal descriptions of campaigning in central south China against a redoubtable foe, the Miao people, though regrettably Mesny fails to go into detail about such interesting subjects as how he was paid, how patronage worked up to him personally, etc. He does, however, cover a number of themes in his Notes on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212931, "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": 240, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "225\n\nparallels Hong Kong's, petitioned the British government to acquire 'an insular possession near the coast of China... beyond the reach of future despotism and oppression,' Matheson, who did not have Hong Kong specifically in mind, thought of British merchants as 'princes of the earth,' and despised the Chinese, ‘a people characterized by marvellous degree of imbecility, avarice, conceit and obstinacy... [in] possession of a vast portion of the most desirable parts of the earth.'\n\nChinese officials were no less culture-bound: Commissioner Lin Zexu, the Emperor's man in Canton, confronted the British just before the 1839-1840 Opium War by burning 2,613,879 pounds of British opium, 'surely the largest drug haul ever collected,' says Welsh. The British had been smuggling opium into China, hoping to balance off the large amounts of money they were spending for tea and other products exported home to Britain. Lin Zexu advised punishing the British traders by withholding exports to them of rhubarb and tea, without which they could not exist. Because 'their legs were too tightly bound to permit them to box or wrestle,' British soldiers, he said, were not suited to fighting on shore. Unfortunately for the Chinese, their confiscation of opium was followed by attacks by British gunboats on their port cities. They were forced to open Shanghai and other coastal cities to the British and cede Hong Kong to them.\n\nNot until Chris Patten was appointed governor in 1992 did Hong Kong become a high British priority. While publicly demanding that the garrison lay down their lives for it, says Welsh, Churchill privately considered the colony not worth defending against the Japanese. During World War II, the Foreign Office regarded Hong Kong as 'something of a thorn in the side' - a view some of its diplomats still hold — and wanted to return it to China; the Americans wanted this too. In 1946, the first postwar governor, Sir Mark Young, drafted a plan for a 'Municipal Council' constituted on a fully representative basis, but this was consistently turned down. Later, the colonial secretary, Oliver Lyttelton, commented, \"The electorate of Britain didn't care a brass farthing about Hong Kong.' Welsh says this remains true, but he also reminds us that, in 1992, Chris Patten was proposing a more democratically elected Legislative Council not for the British voters but for the people of Hong Kong. As Welsh suggests, in 1946 China would have been in no position to object. But Hong Kong has since become more valuable than anyone could have dreamed in 1946.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213107, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "157\n\nThe villagers in the central part of the northern New Territories, accustomed to marketing at Sham Chun, were able to make do after 1899. They had the old satellite market of Shek Wu Hui (Sheung Shui) within British territory; as soon as the new frontier came into effect, Sheung Shui saw its business boom - it quickly replaced Sham Chun as the primary market for this area. At Sha Tau Kok the population within British territory accustomed to shop at Sha Tau Kok had no alternative but to continue to do so. Problems abounded. Village memories of the Customs are uniformly bad.\n\nThe Customs officials caused the goods of the merchants to be seized unless bribes were paid. They demanded a payment of 18 bushels of rice from each merchant. The villagers from the New Territories would come to the market to have their cloth dyed. Even if the amount of cloth was very small, 25 or £10 would be charged as a licence fee - if it was not paid, the goods would be seized and the villagers penalized. As for the merchants, if they sold a pig, or if a seed-pig was bought for rearing in the villages, when they went to the Customs they would have to pay $40 per tan as registration fee for the pig. At festivals, the village ladies would come to the market to buy oil or local sugar in small quantities. They would have to pay 50 or 60, or even 120 or 130 cash (#5 - #13) as fee before they could get an export licence. For cattle, for every cow crossing the frontier - in either direction for farm work, a Certificate had to be issued, at $20 Haikwan.\n\nAnd, if the Certificate was lost, there was heavy punishment, and a replacement had to be taken out, to avoid confiscation of the cow. Further, at the harvest, if the crop was carried across the frontier, you had to pay what was demanded - it is said that a percentage of the crop was taken. The Customs swallowed money whatever purchases were made. These sorts of evil practices caused the villagers to hate the Customs to the very pit of their stomachs.\n\n12\n\nIt is unlikely that the Customs were as corrupt as they are often portrayed by the villagers. The payments complained of were all reasonable, if it was accepted that the transactions were \"imports\" or \"exports\". The villagers could never see that their day-to-day marketing should be so regarded - they were only doing what their ancestors had always done.\n\nThe elders of the Shap Yeuk petitioned the District Magistrate on 19 April 1899, begging that the lease of the New Territories be not proceeded with. Their concern was, essentially, that if it did proceed, then they would be faced with “excessive taxation\", especially Harbour Dues and Marine Fees, given that the waters off Sha Tau Kok would become Hong...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213115, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "The road and terry junction in this area attracted attention from the military authorities from an early date. While the Salt Commission and the Pearl Monopoly were active in Mars Bay, law and order were probably maintained by the special salt and pearl troops. After these were withdrawn, a military post was established at Shek Chung Au, with a watchtower nearby. This was close to the Wu Shek Kok ferry pier, and near to the road junction at Wo Hang Au. Other troops were established at Yim Tin. In various formulations and strengths, this military position remained at Shek Chung Au for several hundred years, until the mid-nineteenth century - eloquent testimony to the continuing importance of this traffic node.\n\nSha Tau Kok's position in the road system of the area gave it two economic advantages. The first was the Sha Yue Chung Ferry. There was only one a day in the early twentieth century, and this can safely be assumed to have been the case earlier as well. Many travellers, therefore, would be obliged to spend the night in Sha Tau Kok, or at least several hours, waiting for the ferry, and, if the weather was bad, these enforced waits could stretch out to several days. There was, as a result, plenty of opportunity for merchants in the town to profit from servicing travellers held up there. As noted already, in the 1920s Sha Tau Kok had more guesthouses, restaurants, and entertainment facilities than most towns in the area, and although most of those facilities were new, servicing the new frontier garrison and Customs staff, some at least were certainly a feature of the town from an earlier period.\n\nThe other great economic advantage was the geographical location of Sha Tau Kok in relation to Sham Chun. Sham Chun was at the head of navigation on the Sham Chun River, and was a busy port for the small junks that came up the river from Deep Bay. Sham Chun was, therefore, well located as far as water-borne traffic from the west went. But Sham Chun had no water route to the east, to Mirs Bay. By sea from Sham Chun to Sha Tau Kok is a good hundred miles: by land, barely seven. There were three important commodities not available in the Deep Bay area which could be had from the Mirs Bay area - rice, some sorts of quality fresh fish, and salt. Sha Tau Kok was, in effect, the port of Sham Chun to the east, where these commodities in particular were landed, and then carried by coolies over the Miu Keng pass to Sham Chun.\n\nMirs Bay was usually - despite occasional famines - a rice surplus area. The Sham Chun and Deep Bay area was a rice shortage area, even", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213135, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "185\n\nhigh standards, and took care to employ good teachers. The school must always have had several teachers - the building is just too big to have been feasible for just one.\n\nIn 1923 there were five teachers. Three were Shap Yeuk area people. One, Chan Kan-cheung, from Luk Keng, was a returned student from USA - he taught English and Physical Education. Another teacher from Luk Keng was Chan Ping-long, a graduate from Canton. He taught \"the new books\". The third teacher from the Shap Yeuk area was Lau Woon-kwong, from Keng Hau (Jinghou) in the Chinese part of the Shap Yeuk area. He taught classical Chinese and Music. The other two teachers were outsiders: Lei Wai-lau was a Sau Tsoi from near Yuen Long, a Punti speaker - he taught classical Chinese. The fifth teacher, Wu Fan-ng, was from Shaoguan in the north of Guangdong. He had lived for many years in Sha Tau Kok, and spoke and taught in Hakka. He, like Chan Ping-long, was a graduate from Canton, and taught \"the new books\".\n\nRight down to the 1930s, the desire to keep their school one of the best and most advanced in the region was a major aim of the elders of the Shap Yeuk. In the 1920s, the standard of the school was as advanced as the Government schools which the Hong Kong Government had started to open in the major centres of the New Territories. By having this group of well-educated and cultured men living in the market, the elders of the Shap Yeuk demonstrated that their town and district comprised a full and viable community - not only having artisans and labourers and merchants, but scholars and gentry as well.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213202, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "to search the Memorials in the Land Office \n\nAbbreviations used in the notes:\n\nCM China Mail\n\nDP Daily Press\n\nFC Friend of China\n\nGG Hong Kong Government Gazette\n\nHKT Hong Kong Telegraph\n\nPRO Public Records Office of Hong Kong\n\nSCMP South China Morning Post\n\nCO129/ Series 129 of the Colonial Office, microfilms at the Public Record Office of Hong Kong.\n\nNumber of German residents in Hong Kong 1871-1931\n\nThe following figures are from the periodic Hong Kong census returns:-\n\n \n Year\n Males\n Females\n Total\n \n \n 1871\n 152\n 18\n 170\n \n \n 1881\n 138\n 50\n 188\n \n \n 1891\n 149\n 59\n 208\n \n \n 1896\n 203\n 89\n 292\n \n \n 1901\n 232\n 105\n 337\n \n \n 1906\n 237\n 122\n 359\n \n \n 1911\n 214\n 128\n 342\n \n \n 1921\n 3\n ...\n 3\n \n \n 1931\n 95\n 61\n 156\n \n\nThere was a steady increase in German residents until 1906. The 1911 figures show an increase of six males but a decrease of seventeen females, a decrease for the total population of seventeen.\n\nThe report of the Provost Marshall in 1914 of Germans placed under parole provides a profile of the German community in Hong Kong at that time. There were eighty-two merchants and their employees and eighteen wives in this category. Shopkeepers, missionaries, ship's offices, doctors, etc. numbered fifty. There were six wives of missionaries and thirteen wives of others in the non-merchant group. Thirteen missionary sisters were connected with charitable institutions and two other unmarried women. Thus the total was 132 men and sixty women. Children were not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213203, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "4\n\nincluded (CO129/414, p. 177).\n\nThe three German females in the 1921 census are mentioned in a report Canon Bannister sent to the Church Missionary Society in 1914. The Berlin Foundling House had 150 children and the two Blind Homes had 120 children. \"The Government has allowed three German ladies to remain in each home and the writer was asked to take general oversight”, (Archives of the Church Missionary Society, University of Birmingham, England, CH1/P/4 No. 149, Bannister, 5 Nov. 1914).\n\nThe German community gradually reestablished itself in Hong Kong, but in 1931 it was less than half of what it had been in 1911.\n\nHong Kong being a British colony, the British were the largest non-Chinese community. Next was the Macanese-Portuguese. The third were the Germans. They were followed by the Americans,\n\nGermans in the Canton trade\n\nGerman-speaking merchants participated in the China trade in the eighteenth century. The trade was confined to Canton. In 1729, the Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor of Austria, chartered the Imperial East India Company to trade in the East using the port of Ostend in the Netherlands as its home base. At that time Netherlands was a part of the Austrian Empire. This company did not use German ships, but chartered British vessels which were principally manned by British crews. This was a stratagem to get around the efforts of the British chartered East India Company to control the European trade with China. Over the years there were usually two or three ships each season from Bremen or Hamburg arriving at Canton.\n\nBritish free traders used the protection of the office of Consul for foreign states to acquire the privilege of permanent residence in China. These free traders were large importers of opium of India, a trade the British East India Company ships did not engage in as it was prescribed by Chinese Imperial Edict and the company wished to maintain a good relation with the Dragon Throne. It feared that if it was too closely identified with the opium trade the Chinese authorities would curtail the company's lucrative and traditional trade in tea.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213208, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "subject when Governor John Pope Hennessy planned to appoint him as His Excellency's personal secretary in charge of affairs relating to the Chinese. The British merchants were opposed to the Governor creating an office where he would have more direct communication with the Chinese. Due to their opposition, Eitel never occupied such a position. In 1895, he published Europe in China, a detailed history of Hong Kong up to that date.\n\nClub Germania\n\nA club for Germans was started in 1859 in Wanchai in an unpretentious building. The German-speaking population at the time would have been very small. There were three German firms and two stores conducted by Germans. Within two years, the community almost doubled. It was small, but still large enough to provide a social centre for the community. In 1865, George Michelmore advertised the opening of a hotel in premises \"which were formerly known as the German Club\". It was below the Headquarters House, now Flagstaff House, off the present Cotton Tree Drive. This may have been the second location of the Club, as an article written in 1909 states that the first building was in \"an outlying section of Wanchai\", a description which does not fit a location on what is now Cotton Tree Drive (DP, 17 May, 1865).\n\nThe club moved in 1865 to a new building erected by Gustav Overbeck at the top of Wyndham Street, just south of D'Aguilar Street. But the German population was increasing, and the Germania Club decided to build a more commodious building. This was on the east side of Wyndham Street off Queen's Road. The new building was opened in 1872. It was a brick building in the Gothic style. The architects were Messrs Wilson and Salway. The cost was $21,000. Thirteen granite steps led to the entrance, and the main hall. On either side of the hall was a billiard room and a reading room. On the same level was a library room and a bar. The Concert Hall was approached by a flight of seven-foot-wide stairs. The Hall accommodated 275 persons; on either side was a drawing room and a dining room. There were accommodations for sixty in the dining room. Four bowling alleys were in the rear of the building (HKT, 27 Nov. 1909). The building served the community well until again it became too small, and another building was erected on Kennedy Road. This building became enemy alien property in 1914 and passed into the hands of St. Joseph's College. The College is still located in the building.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213212, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "13 \n\n+ \n\nDr. Gregory Paul Jordan. The practice became Drs. Anderson and Partners. At the time of the First World War Dr Grove changed his name to Frederick Pierce Grove and served with the British Army. In spite of his former German sounding name he must have been a British citizen. He died in May 1929 in Hong Kong aged fifty-five (Katherine Maddock, Hong Kong Practice, Drs. Anderson and Partners, Hong Kong 1984, Drs. Anderson and Partners, p. 28, 64)\n\nTaverns, Boarding Houses, Cafes and Hotels\n\nGerman merchants and professionals met at the Club Germania for eating, drinking and entertainment. At the other end of the social spectrum the crews of German ships in the harbour frequented the taverns and boarding houses for the same purpose.\n\nSome of the taverns had names which would immediately attract their attention and, hopefully, then patronage, as they found their land-legs on the walk from the wharf to the tavern area on Queen's Road West.\n\nThe German Tavern had the longest history. It is first mentioned in 1858, a year before the German Club was organised. It closed in 1910. Its first proprietor Andrew Rudigan was in charge for a very short time. He died in 1858, aged twenty-six. He was succeeded by Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Petersen, who held the licence for spirits for the tavern intermittently until his death in 1896, aged sixty-four. After his death his widow May was in charge for a brief period. She was his second wife and was Chinese. Three of their children were baptised in the Chinese To Tsai Church. His first wife was an English woman, a native of Bristol. She died in 1878, aged twenty-eight, from the effect of taking cajiput oil (DP 5 Jan 1878). In 1883, Mr. Peterson was charged by the Inspector of Nuisances for keeping two pigs in his kitchen without a licence. The defendant pleaded that he had only kept them there for a few days and had had them slaughtered as soon as he could arrange it (DP 20 Feb. 1883). There may have been pigs in the kitchen, but soon after the tavern opened there had been preaching in the back room. We have already noted the reference of the Rev Philip Winnes to the services held there.\n\nPetersen for some years was associated with another German, Peter Henry Schmidt, a licensed boarding house keeper who was in the business of recruiting crews for merchant vessels. In 1875 the licensing board", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213219, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "20\n\nLane, Crawford Restaurant and for several years in the 1930s it was known as the Exchange Restaurant, but in 1935 the name reverted again to Cafe Wisseman (details of management, location and name are from notices of the Spirit Licensing Board published in the Hong Kong Government Gazette).\n\nAn incident took place at the Cafe in September 1914, just after war was declared, which placed three German nationals under suspicion. They were observed throwing down a copy of the China Mail and stamping on it because it contained a report that the British had compulsorily bought two battleships then being built for the Turkish Government (CO129/413, Information from Provost Marshall regarding Germans on list, 8 Oct. 1914).\n\nFirms\n\nI have tried to reconstruct the history of these firms from the records available in Hong Kong. The average reader may not be interested in the detailed account of change of partnership, location and other minutia, but as most of this material has not been published previously, I presume to do so now in the hope that there may be some who have an interest in the firms may learn more about them. The information and references may provide a starting place for those who might wish to write a fuller history of particular firms.\n\nThough Germany was not a colonial power in Asia, its merchants carried on an active trade there. Throughout the nineteenth century German firms became increasingly competitive with those of other western countries. In the opening decades of the century Canton was the centre for trade, but it declined in importance when the ports at Hong Kong and Shanghai developed.\n\nWhen war was declared between Britain and Germany in August 1914 citizens of enemy countries were placed under parole but in October new laws were enacted enabling the Hong Kong Government to place German nationals who held reserve status in the military to be interned. Representatives of German businesses in Hong Kong sent a letter dated 30 October to the American Consul General there asking him to submit it to the British authorities. The merchants appealed for a reversal of the orders on the grounds that they had contributed through the years to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213221, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "22\n\nIn addition to these names additional names appear on a list of firms in liquidation and the respective liquidators. These additions were:\n\nWendt and Co.\n\nO. Struckmeyer, Siemssen and Co.\n\nHugo G. Fromm\n\nWitzke and Co.\n\nHill, Bergdahl and Co. and personal affairs of Mr. F. Lonia\n\nA. Bune, personal affairs\n\nHamburg Amerika Line Norddeutsche Lloyd Austrian Lloyd\n\nH. Wicking and Co.\n\nPustau and Company\n\nWilliam Charles Engelbrecht von Pustau announced in a Hong Kong newspaper that on 1 January 1846 the business of William Pustau would in the future be carried on under the name of William Pustau and Co, at Hong Kong and Canton. (FC 12 Jan. 1846). In 1848 the company was appointed agent for the Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Co. They advertised the \"Overland Route\" from Trieste to Alexandria. The passengers would then cross by land to the Red Sea where they would connect with the P. and O. route to Ceylon (FC 20 Nov. 1858).\n\nWilliam Pustau was named Consul for Bremen in 1852 (FC 31 Jan. 1852). He later returned to Germany and opened an office of the firm at Hamburg. The firm failed in 1878 (DP 30 Dec. 1878). This failure pushed him into a breakdown and he entered a mental asylum where he died in 1880 aged fifty-nine (CM 18 Feb. 1880). His business failure may have been caused by over-extension into real estate. In 1867 news from London stated that William Pustau of Altona had lately bought 19 Pall Mall and was in the course of erecting \"a magnificent mansion of five storeys on the site\" (CM 4 Jan. 1867). Three years later news from Hamburg stated that he had purchased \"the extensive and beautifully wooded grounds at Münstedten, on the banks of the Elbe, known as Parish's Villa from the family of Mr. Parish, formerly the head of the firm of Parish and Company, China Merchants, Hamburg, for the sum of 2,000,000 marks. \"Mr. Pustau intends to pull down the building and substitute a handsome modern country villa on a better locality in the centre of the park\" (CM 30 July 1870).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213234, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "35\n\nusually known as Bernhard became a partner along with Friedrich Seip in 1888. He had charge of the Canton office (DP 14 Mar. 1888).\n\nGustav Harling became a partner in 1883 (DP 10 Jan. 1883). The firm may have been dissolved by the year 1896, for in that year George Wilhelm Gustav Harling — probably the same as Gustav Harling — was a member of the firm of Harling, Buschmann and Menzell in Hong Kong. In 1900 the name of this firm was changed to the East Asiatic Trading Co.\n\nCarl Bodiker and Co.\n\nCarl Bodiker and Co was among the German firms placed in liquidation in 1914. In a petition of German firms to the Government at that time the date of its establishment is given as 1860. I am unable to trace the company to this date. In 1912 Carl Bodiker, who styled himself as the sole partner of the company and was then resident in Hamburg, appointed Frank Esrom to hold his power of attorney in Hong Kong. The document states that by an indenture dated 28 November 1911 George Wilhelm Gustave Harling transferred to Bodiker all the business of Schuldt and Co.\n\nA compradore's bond and agreement dated 7 August 1908 names the partners of Schuldt and Co. at that time as Adolf Heinrich Ernest Schuldt, 28 Armgaistrasse, Hamburg, George Wilhelm Gustav Harling, same address, and Schelte Swart, Hong Kong. As noted under the history of Schellhass and Co., Mr. Harling was successively with Schellhass and Co., Harling, Buschmann and Menzell Co. and the East Asiatic Trading Co. The 1860 date for the founding of Bodiker and Co. must be the date for the founding of Schellhass and Co.\n\nBy the year 1923 Carl Bodiker and Co was again doing business in Hong Kong as import and export merchants and engineers. The partners in 1929 were Q. May and B. Soltau.\n\nHesse, Ehlers and Co.\n\nJ\n\nChina Export and Import Bank Compagnie\n\nThe China Import and Export Bank Compagnie was one of the firms placed under liquidation in 1914. It had its origins in the firm of Hesse, Ehlers and Co.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213235, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "36\n\nPaul Ehlers opened an office in Macao in September 1858 as a general agent and commission merchant (FC 9 Sept. 1858). This was during the Second Opium War when foreign merchants who had been trading at Canton had to locate in Hong Kong or Macao. After the British forces occupied Canton, some of the merchants moved back; Paul Ehlers moved on 9 December 1858 (FC 9 Dec. 1858). In January 1859, he and Theodore Hesse entered into partnership as Hesse, Ehlers and Co. (GG 8 Jan. 1859). Mr. Ehlers returned to Europe in 1865 and withdrew from the firm. It continued under the name of Hesse and Co. (GG 18 Nov. 1865). Five years after his departure from China, Mr. Ehlers returned and began conducting business under his own name at Hong Kong (GG 14 May 1870). In 1872, Paul Ehlers and Carl Robert Meuser formed a partnership. Meuser had been doing business on his own account since October 1871 (CM 3 Jan., 20 Oct. 1872). The firm went into liquidation in 1874. The business was taken over by a former employee, Justus Peter Lembke of Hamburg (CM, 29 Sept. 1875). He continued doing business in Hong Kong as Justus Lembke and Co. until 1890, when he transferred the business and goodwill to the China Export and Import Bank Compagnie. Mr. Lembke was appointed the manager of the new Hong Kong office of the Hamburg-based firm, and Hermann Witte and Ernest Brubitz were authorised to sign for the firm (HKT 3 Mar. 1890). Since writing this article, I have received from Mr. Alfred Schmitt, of Hoechst China Ltd, a history of the firm entitled Die China Export-Import-und-Bank-Compagnie, undated but recently published. After the First World War, the company was re-established in Hong Kong with its head office in Shanghai and branches also at Canton, Tientsin, Osaka, and Tokyo.\n\nWhen Paul Ehlers returned to Europe in 1865, the business of Hesse, Ehlers and Co. was continued by Theodore Hesse under the name of Hesse and Co., with Herman Peter Hase in charge of the Canton office. Under his full name, Anton Hermann Peter Hase, he was admitted a partner in 1867 (GG 5 Jan. 1867). Six months later, Mr. Hesse withdrew, and it was continued under the same name by Mr. Hase. Hase died at Marseilles in December 1873. He named Hermann Stolterfoht, an assistant in his firm, as the executor of his will (PRO Will File No. 221 of 1874 [4/274]). Leonard Stael became a partner of Hesse and Co. in 1869 and retired in 1879 (GG 3 July 1869, DP 1 Jan. 1880).\n\nHermann Stolterfoht was admitted a partner in Hesse and Co. shortly after the death of the senior partner in 1873. Charles Joseph Hirst joined", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213242, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "43\n\n1863. By the year 1867 he was in partnership with N.G. Peter. Mr. Peter served as Vice-consul for France at Macao, but left when he retired from the firm in 1871 (Macau Boletim 1 July 1871). Mr. Ebell in 1877 transferred his business at Macao to C. Milish and joined the firm of Edward Herton of Swatow under the style Herton, Ebell and Co. At the same time the firm opened an office at Haiphong in Tonquin (DP 16 Jan, 8 Oct. 1877).\n\nKirchner, Boger and Co.\n\nJohn Alhed Kirchner, an assistant in Siemssen and Co., and Hemrich Boger, an assistant in Hesse, Ebelts and Co., entered into a partnership in 1866 to conduct business as merchants and commission agents under the name of Kirchner, Boger and Co. (GG 7 July 1866). They closed down in 1874 – Mr. Boger died about the year 1905 (PRO Hong Kong, Probate file 18/1905/1727 jacket for will of Heinrich Boger, but there is no document in the jacket).\n\nFirms established after 1880\n\nThere was a significant increase of German firms in Hong Kong during the 1860s. Partially this is attributable to the necessity of firms leaving Canton during the Second Opium War and relocating in Hong Kong and to a lesser extent in Macao. When foreigners could return to Canton not all firms which had been operating there chose to do so. Others did but retained their office in Hong Kong.\n\nI have found no records of the establishment of a German firm in Hong Kong in the 1870s. Bornemann and Co. opened an office in Hong Kong in 1888. The founder was Fred Bornemann. In 1914 the partners were Carl Brending and Sohn, Soltau, Germany, H. Schumacher, Shanghai and G. Binder. Gustav Wilhelm Binder began his business career in Hong Kong in 1897 as a clerk in Carlowitz and Co. The firm returned to Hong Kong after the Second World War. In 1929 the principals were Sum Pak-ming, F. Ordepp and H.A. Westphal.\n\nJebsen and Co., according to the list of companies in liquidation after 1914, was established in 1894. At the time of liquidation the partners were J. and H. Jebsen. Jacob Friedrich Christian Jebsen appears on the Hong Kong Jury lists from 1897 to 1901. Christian Witzke and Heinrich...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213243, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "44\n\nPeter Jebsen in 1908 established a business of repairing ships, boilers, machines etc. at Kowloon under the name Witzke and Co. In 1912 they mortgaged their property in Kowloon to Johann Heinrich Jebsen and Jacob Friedrich Christian Jebsen, then residing in Germany (PRO Hong Kong, Surrendered Deeds Series 11 B. No. 171). Both Witzke and Co. and Jebsen and Co. were liquidated in 1914, but Jebsen's returned to Hong Kong in the 1920s.\n\nUlderup and Schluter opened an establishment in Hong Kong in 1906 as general merchants, engineering agents and motor boat builders. The partners were Johannes P. Ulderup and Carl Schluter. When Jebsens returned to Hong Kong after the Second World War, Mr. Ulderup was head of their machinery department.\n\nBerblinger and Co. was founded by A. Berblinger and W. Otto in 1908 and was liquidated in 1914. The firm of Hugo Fromm opened in Hong Kong in 1908. In 1914 its manager was A. Jaharand, George Prien was an assistant in Blackhead and Co. in 1902 but in 1908 he set himself up in business as a dealer in cigars and tobacco. In 1914 his shop was in the Hong Kong Hotel Building. F. Wendt had an office at 6 Ice House Street in 1902. His business became Wendt and Co. in 1908. The partners in 1914 were F.A. Wendt and W. Melchers. The aerated water firm of Hill Bergdahl and Co. was liquidated in 1914.\n\nSeveral firms in existence in 1914 appear to be German but were not on the list of those placed under liquidation. Heuser, Eberius and Co. is listed in the 1914 Hong Kong Directory but both its partners were not in Hong Kong at the time. Mr. Heuser had retired from the firm in 1911, and a year later the remaining partner, Gottfried Fritz Eberius committed suicide (HKT 1 Mar. 1912).\n\nThe firm of Lamke and Rogge was formed in 1890 as shipbrokers by Johannes Lamke and Carl Heinrich Rogge. Mr. Lamke had been an assistant in Blackhead and Co., and then Arnhold, Karberg and Co. In 1885 he had his own shipbroking office until he and Mr. Rogge became partners. Mr. Rogge began his business career in Hong Kong with Melchers and Co. In 1914 Lamke and Rogge are listed as ship, freight and coal brokers. The directory also lists Robitske and Reis (Grossmann and Co.), merchants, 12 Des Voeux Road Central. No partners or staff are named. Christian Friedrich Grossman became a partner of Kirchner, Bögger and Co. in 1867.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213245, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "46\n\nHe was then described “as perhaps the oldest foreign resident of the colony” (Daily Advertiser 23 Apr. 1872). Shortly before his retirement John Henry Smith and Frederich Rapp were admitted as partners in the firm,\n\nJohn Henry (or Johan Heinrich as it is given in one record) Smith remained a partner until his death at Genoa, Italy in June 1890. He was on his way back to Germany after a visit to Hong Kong with his wife (DP 21 June 1890). His will, which had been written in Macao in 1873, states that he was formerly of Cappelen, Germany. In his will he left all business of ship chandler and auctioneer and commission agent at Macao in trust for his wife Lizzie Smith of New York\" (PRO Probate File No. 29 of 1891 [4/8201]). By the time of his death some seventeen years after writing his will he had disposed of his interests in Macao. They were taken over by A. Muller in January 1875 (Macau Boletim 2 January 1875)\n\nChristian Friedrich Rapp (or as he was usually known Fritz Rapp) was admitted a partner in the firm of Blackhead and Co. in 1871 and his interest ceased some six years later (DP 2 Oct. 1877). He then went into business on his own as auctioneer and commission agent with an office on Zetland Street (DP 16 October 1877). Mr. Rapp died in Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1895. His tombstone in the Old Residents' Section of the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley states he was born at Stade on 30 January 1841. In his will he appoints his wife Mei Ho (May) as guardian of his children: Kwai Tsun otherwise Gustave, King Tsun otherwise Hermann, Sham Tsun otherwise Fritz, Shui San married to Mr. Li, Shui Yee and Shui Sun. In a codicil written on 1 December 1894 he states his daughter Shui Sun is now called Johanna Rapp and that one of the executors he had named, Hemrich Hoppius, was ill and likely to die. In his place he appointed Heinrich Gartels (PRO Probate File No. 7 of 1895 [4/1008]).\n\nBlackhead and Co. in 1886 were agents for the Kerscheldt Ice Depot. The ice was manufactured at the Saki Distillery on the Shaukiwan Road (DP 1 April 1886). In the same year they announced plans to build a wharf adjoining their coal godowns, then in course of erection, at what became known as Blackhead's Point in Tsim Sha Tsui (DP 3 April 1886). The account of the firm's Jubilee published in the Daily Press 31 March 1905 stated the company was the largest of the coal merchants in Hong Kong. The coal godowns and wharf later passed into the hands of Butterfield and Swire and were known as Holt's Wharf. The site is now", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213253, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "54 \n\nThere is little doubt they spread rumours and not unnaturally do what they can to incite the Chinese and Indians against us. The proximity of Macao, Canton and Coast ports make it easy for them to get information out of the Colony and home to Germany. Money remittances can be made with very little arrangement from Shanghai and Manila. They go on taking the trade which the present war gives an opportunity of British firms to take hold of. Their presence renders it necessary to take more elaborate precautions in guarding all important places.\n\nPersonally, I should not be sorry to see all fit for service made prisoners of war” (CO129/413, Kelly to May 5 Oct 1914)\n\nHe had not long to wait for an order for internment was issued the last week of October. This action was taken when Germany issued a call-up of their military and naval reserves.\n\nAll Germans in Hong Kong on the reserve list were sent to Stonecutters Island. Soon after they were moved to Hung Hom Bay.\n\nThis move was made before the Hung Hom site was fully ready to receive the internees. The mat huts had dirt floors and were open to the elements. The presence of mosquitoes posed the threat of malaria. The internees were put to work sweeping streets and performing other manual tasks. Word seeped back to Germany that the internees were being treated badly. Through official channels the Germans contacted the Americans, the American Consul in turn contacted the British to ask if the representations made by the Germans were accurate. The Consul was taken to the Camp for an escorted inspection and found conditions satisfactory. One can appreciate the situation of the internees, mostly well-fed, well-cared-for, comfortably-situated merchants before they were caught up in the tides of global politics and swept into the crude conditions of a hastily-built camp for enemy aliens. The contrast between their large well-staffed homes and abundant meals prepared for their individual tastes and the primitive shelters and an institutional British-style mess must have been difficult to adapt to overnight. After two years the internees were moved to Australia.\n\nThose above military service age, wives and children were deported to Shanghai or Manila, the former under international control, the latter under American administration.\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213369, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "176\n\nIn the 2nd year of the reign of Tung Chih (1863), he assisted in commanding the Hung-tan Fleet to defend Chin-kiang. Because of his bravery, he was granted the title of Tsung-bing. In the 5th moon of that year, he was transferred back to Kwangtung.\n\nIn the 4th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1865), he was appointed to be the Deputy Fu-cheong of Lung Mun. Next year, he patrolled in the coastal waters near Tsui Mun, north of Hainan Island, and captured the pirates Mak Cheong-yau, Yeung Wong (楊旺), Fan Chau-bong (范周邦) and Szeto Shing (司徒成). In the 6th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1867), he was transferred to be the Ngai Chau Fu-cheong. In the 7th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1868), while patrolling along the coast of Hainan Island, he captured the pirates Chan Hay-fu, Kat Tang-kiu-yeung and Cheung Hoi-mo at Kwangchow Wan. In the 6th moon of that year, he got the pirate Lok Fuk-shing at An Po near Chao-tam-yeung#. After several years of patrolling and fighting, he brought peace to the coastal area of southern China. Then he was sent to Hainan Island where he took part in a successful campaign against the Lai. After that, he was transferred to be the Fu-cheong of the Tai Pang Brigade A, with his headquarters at the Kowloon Walled City. He stayed at this post for 16 years.\n\n6\n\nIn the 9th year of the reign of Kuang Hsu (1883), he was promoted to be the King Chau Tsung-bing. In 1884, when the conflict between the French in Vietnam and the Ching Government aroused, he was transferred to be the Kit-shek Tsung-bing.\n\nIn the 13th year of the reign of Kuang Hsu (1887), he was King Chau Tsung-bing again, until he died a year later, still in post.\n\nDuring his time in Kowloon, he heard of Choi Leung, a native of Tung Kwun, who was a local merchant on the island of Cheung Chau in the Hong Kong region. He was engaged in establishing a charitable hospital and a tomb. The hospital was only a dying house for the poor Chinese to be brought there and die in peace. It was not a hospital in the modern sense. The tomb was the burial place for unidentified persons whose bones were found along the shore of Cheung Chau Island. General Lai got involved with the scheme. He compiled a subscription book and urged contributions by officials, gentries, scholars and merchants to help.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213506, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "70\n\nof that street is practically shut up. The mortality here was very great. The inhabitants were principally night-soil coolies and almost all died. The occupants of houses in Third Street, adjoining this were also numerously attacked \" (Lowson, 1895, P5)\n\nIn 1895, plague cases were found centred in First Street and several streets not far from the Civil Hospital. In 1902, a group of cases were discovered round Pokfulam Road and Second Street. Infected rats were also found in that area.\n\nAfter the breaking out of the plague, thousands of panic-stricken people began to leave Hong Kong. They left in every sort of conveyance: sampans, boats, junks, and river steamers. People of Sai Ying Pun could also leave by ambulance boats, which came to the China Merchants Wharf at 4 p.m. each day, on which the people were towed to Whampoa or Canton. At 1901, the population of the district was 44,722, a decrease of 848 people when compared with the 1897 figure.\n\nDr Lowson in 1895 and Dr Simpson in 1902 had both made a number of strong recommendations as to the measures which should be enforced to prevent further outbreaks of bubonic plague. According to them, back-to-back houses should be demolished. Basements should not be inhabited. Disinfected or rat-ridden houses should be either closed or walled in or thoroughly sprayed, fumigated, chlorinated, scrubbed, and lime-washed. Latrines and public markets should be maintained by the authorities in a clean condition.\n\nThe last recommendation was particularly important to the district. A latrine in the Sai Ying Pun Market was situated only three yards distant from a large quantity of meat which was often hanging for hours at a time. On the other hand, hot water tanks and bath houses, for the purposes of promoting cleanliness among the Chinese and thus preventing the spread of plague among them, were established in Second and Third Streets in 1903. A Public Health and Building Ordinance was passed in order to better sanitary conditions in Hong Kong. Unlike Tai Ping Shan district, Sai Ying Pun was excluded from schemes of resumption. However, at that time, most of the houses in Sai Ying Pun did need destruction and resumption rather than improvement of the sanitary arrangements. Actually, a few areas in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213551, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "116\n\nof an English-based lingua franca\n\nIn the Gazette of September 9 1685, the following notice appears-\n\n\"That excellent, and by all Physitians approved, China drink, called by the Chinese Toha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Head, a coffee house in Sweetings Rents by the Royal Exchange, London.\"\n\nThe earliest recorded import of Tea by the East India Company is dated 1667. An early writer, in memoirs of 1726, relates-\n\n“I remember well how in 1681, I for the first time in my life drank Thee at the house of an Indian Chaplain, and how I could not understand how sensible men could think it a treat to drink what tasted no better than hay-water.\n\nThis quotation illustrates how, at the end of the seventeenth century, tea-drinking was becoming a social fad which eventually generated huge demands on European - and later American - China traders. Tea was, of course, readily available in India and the Arab world - but this particular fad grew around the Chinese teas - Bohea (Mou yi), Congo (Gung fu), Pekoe (Baak hou), Oolong, Souchong (Siu chung) and Hyson (Yue chin).\n\nThe manner of the tea trade is best understood from the books of William C. Hunter- \"Bits of Old China” (1855) and “Fan Kwae at Canton Before the Treaty Days\" (1882). Foreign traders were only permitted into Canton to trade during the tea season: they were required to retreat to Macau or further during the closed season. No foreign women were permitted into Canton and the lives and work of the traders were strictly regulated by imperial edict. The most comprehensive set of controls was brought in 1760, but this was little more than codification of regulations which had been in force for decades.\n\nThe tea trade, on the Chinese side, was carried out by licensed trading houses - the Hong Merchants. The merchants were incorporated in 1720. Foreign traders were allowed to Canton by specific sponsorship by the Hong merchants, who were personally responsible for their conduct.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213552, "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": 148, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "117\n\nOnce in Canton, the foreign traders were in theory almost totally restricted to the Factories. There they ate, slept and worked. Women were not permitted, but Chinese servants and supporting staff were allowed to work at the factories. Of the 1760 rules, a significant one for our purposes was that the teaching of the Chinese language to foreigners was prohibited on pain of death by decapitation.\n\nWith a large volume of trade to be carried out between people with no common language, one party of whom were only permitted to remain for a few months each year, and the other party of whom faced the death penalty if they taught their own language to foreigners, clearly a certain compromise was required.\n\nI believe that Pidgin English was developed over a fairly short period of time by the young Chinese men who obtained work in the Factories. Hunter describes them.\n\n\"These servants were unequalled; at the same time, they never considered themselves menials, but as makee larm; that is to say, serving in order to become familiar with pigeon English, that in due time they could become pursers or clerks in Chinese hongs or shops trading with people of the Western Ocean. While in service with their foreign masters, they were considered and known by the appellation “se-tsai”, or business youths. They were usually relatives of the compradors who provided them with places and secured them.\"\n\nTo understand the motivation of these young men, you must also understand the position of the Hong merchants themselves, as described by Hunter —\n\n\"The position of Hong merchant was obtained through the payment of large sums of money at Pekin. I have heard of as much as 200,000 taels, say £70,000 sterling. If the licence they acquired was costly, it secured to them uninterrupted and extraordinary pecuniary advantages.\n\nMany of the young makee-larn were the close relatives of the Hong merchants. There were not uneducated villagers, but young men, highly motivated by material gain, who had received at least a good standard education, were literate, and stood a chance to become millionaires if...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213554, "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": 150, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "119\n\nadapted This pamphlet, costing a penny or two, was continually in the hands of servants, coolies and shopkeepers. The author was a Chinaman whose ingenuity should immortalize him. I have often wondered who the man was who first reduced the \"outlandish tongue\" to a current language. Red candles should be burnt on altars erected to his memory, and oblations of tea poured out before his image, placed among the wooden gods which in temples surround the shrine of a deified man of letters.\n\nF\n\nAccepting this widely-reported account of the \"Devil's Talk\" pamphlet to be correct, it is easy to understand how the vocabulary became established; after all, to the classically-trained Chinese mind, what appears in print becomes canon law. For fussy English-speakers to correct something which had been laid down in a Chinese textbook would have been no easy undertaking.\n\nBe quite clear on one point. Throughout the period of the Hong merchants and up to Treaty days, Pidgin English was not merely a means of communication between Europeans and their menials. It was a vital tool in a rapidly growing China trade in the southern Chinese ports. Hunter describes his discussions in Pidgin with the famous Hong merchants—How Qua, Ming Qua, and Pan Kei Qua—among the commercial elite of Canton. Hunter also describes one of the commanders of the Tai-Ping Rebels, Ho A-Luh, as speaking very good Pidgin English.\n\nBy the middle of the nineteenth century, China Coast Pidgin had become a well-established medium of communication. From the 1850s on, the restrictions to foreign trade and traders progressively broke down, so that the conditions which had made Pidgin's development a necessity disappeared. But the opportunities for contacts between European and Chinese people increased, and the conventions of the language were well enough engrained that it survived. The young makee-larns gradually progressed in their mastery of English, while the people with transient contacts—tradesmen and servants—picked up where they had left off. In his book “Rambles in Eastern Asia”, B. L. Ball records:\n\n“I saw a Chinaman who spoke good English, and appeared so polite that I stopped a while, and entered into conversation with him.\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213872, "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-1996", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "198\n\nwere named the \"South-west militarists\".\n\nConcerning how these governments sustained themselves, I have selected four possibilities for discussion. They are taxation and provincial remittances, customs surplus, foreign loans, and internal loans.\n\n1) Concerning provincial remittance and taxation, the government in Beijing enjoyed a limited amount from those provinces it managed to control. The southern government, however, failed to get any taxation from other provinces.\n\n2) About customs surplus, collected by foreign authorities to guarantee payment of the Boxer indemnity, this was returned only to the Beijing government, the only legitimate government recognized by the foreigners. In the South, when Sun Yat-sen threatened to seize the customs in Guangdong, Canton was surrounded by British and American gunboats.\n\n3) Foreign loans were monopolized by a \"Financial Consortium\", formed by major western banks aimed at avoiding mutual competition. As the consortium recognized only the Beijing government, all foreign loans to China were monopolized by Beijing. This picture, however, was upset by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Money was then moved away from the Far East to Europe again. As a consequence, by about 1915, the Chinese governments, in Canton and in Beijing, were increasingly dependent on domestic loans. The Chinese merchants were a major source for these domestic loans.\n\n4) Domestic loans are where the role of Chinese merchants came into play. Generally, three important groups of financiers can be identified. They centred around Tianjin, Shanghai, and Canton-Hong Kong. One common feature of these regions was the foreign presence, which secured a base for final retreat. Understandably, many Chinese companies were registered in the foreign concessions even though they operated outside them.\n\nPolitical Investment in the Hong Kong - Canton Region\n\nAgainst this background, I will focus the second part of my article", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213875, "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-1996", "page_number": 227, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "201\n\n\"official-supervision merchant-management\" (A). The formula went like this: the reform-minded officials provided the political patronage - they bargained with Beijing for charter, franchise, monopoly or tax concessions for the enterprises, and the merchants provided the capital and management. Concerning merchants' ability to raise capital, their credibility came not from the enterprises they set up, but from their own reputations, as well as from the political patronage which they managed to establish. Some of the most famous of these merchants in the western affairs movement were such Hong Kong compradors as the Tang Jingxing (Tang King-sing) brothers.\n\nThis kind of business environment made China unique when compared to Europe. Historically, the political fragmentation of Europe, and the frequent wars it led to, had forced the kings and the princes to be bound by their commercial commitments - one refusal to repay their debts meant that the princes would find tremendous difficulty in raising funds for the next war. In China, on the contrary, the Emperor needed not to (and actually had not) surrendered his right to interfere into the market; the government was not bound by legislation it made. Several incidents which occurred in the fifteenth century help to illustrate these divergences. Firstly, while the Ming Emperor abolished the national debt (in the form of salt certificates) overnight in 1667, the King of England was forced to grant his debtors a charter for the formation of a national bank (the Bank of England). Secondly, while the four Atlantic states (Spain, Portugal, France, England) were competing for overseas expansion and experiencing the “Age of Discovery”, the Chinese Emperor issued an edict to stop all his subjects from going overseas in 1667, just three years after the famous Zhenghe fleets (Tr Admiral) arrived at Malaya. Business endeavours in Europe were first protected by privileges granted by the Kings (in the forms of charter or monopoly) as in the case of the East India Company. This practice was later developed into a kind of rights guaranteed by legislation (company laws). In China, with the prohibition of sea-going, overseas trades were restricted in the forms of tribute, smuggling and piracy. No legislations were developed in China to guarantee and to protect commercial endeavors. An easy alternative for the Chinese merchants, therefore, was to rely on personal networks. On this, China and Europe went their separate ways. While the feudal society in Medieval Europe based on the ties of allegiance to a local land-owning aristocracy for protection, in China, authority was nominally resided in the central", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213876, "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-1996", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "202\n\nstate through the mandarinate and extended downward. Dependence on the favour of aristocratic protection found in Europe was represented in China by dependence on the favour of personified officialdom from the central extending all the way down to the localities. Accordingly, the rivalry within central officialdom would extend downward to their protégés in the local regions. The Cantonese experience can illustrate this point.\n\nAs such \"reform-minded\" officials such as Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong were competing for national influence, their protégés recruited in the provinces were also competing among themselves. After the opening of Shanghai and Tianjin, increasing numbers of men from Ningpo and Zhejiang were appointed compradores of western firms or advisors to the reform-minded officials. Even within the Cantonese group, some were more influential than others.\n\nIn terms of national influence, those Cantonese engaged in economic reforms always gained the upper hand from those engaged in legal reforms. As shall be seen, for those Cantonese engaged in economic reform (from Tang Jingxing to his nephew Tang Shaoyi, and through him to Liang Shiyi), they eventually advanced to positions in Beijing and monopolized the influential Board of Communications, which commanded huge economic resources in steamships, railways, mining and telegraph. This group of Cantonese was known as the Communications Clique. Their interests were vested in a China united under the central control of Beijing. This partly explains why Liang Shiyi and his clique were willing to finance Yuan Shikai's government after 1911, as well as his monarchical movement in 1916.\n\nThose Cantonese advisors such as Wu Tingfang and Ho Kai (He Qi) who were engaged in legal and diplomatic reforms, had not established their power base in Beijing and so eventually they based their influence in south China. After all, they were appointed Legislative Councillors in Hong Kong, the highest political posts that the Hong Kong Chinese could expect. They were sympathetic to the revolutionary activities in south China. As shall be seen, they sided with Guangdong in reform, in revolution, and in independence. Remarkably, both the Communications Clique and the \"legal-reform group\" turned out to be political patrons for competing groups of Cantonese merchants in Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213877, "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-1996", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "203\n\nBy the 1890s, however, these patronage networks developed by the western affairs movement underwent very drastic changes. Many of the “reform-minded\" officials in China had passed away due to old age.\n\nThe most serious blow came in 1895 with China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. This destroyed the credibility of the western affairs movement. With the downfall of Li Hongzhang, the basis of political patronage began to diversify.\n\nAs for Li Hongzhang, after having been disgraced, he was assigned by Beijing to be the Viceroy of such peripheral provinces as Guangdong and Guangxi. It is where the first attempt to make south China independent came into play.\n\nIn 1900, the issue of the Boxer Uprising divided the viceroys into two factions. The viceroys of the northern provinces followed Beijing and declared war on the foreigners. The viceroys of the southern provinces, led by Li Hongzhang, declared themselves neutral.\n\nHo Kai, a former member of Li Hongzhang's think tank, and then the Legislative Councillor of Hong Kong, was the agent in a deal between Sun Yat-sen, the Hong Kong Governor, and Li Hongzhang to establish a proposed independent government in the South. He sought the Governor's assistance to persuade, even with military coercion, Li Hongzhang to declare Guangdong independent. The Governor, anticipating that China was about to be partitioned, was anxious to find ways to protect British interests in Southern China. Without committing himself, Li was said to have reacted favourably. In addition, it is recorded that Li Hongzhang wrote to Sun Yat-sen inviting him to Canton for a \"parley\".\n\nAt this juncture, Beijing offered Li Hongzhang attractive high-level posts in northern China. He was called to Beijing to tidy up the political chaos after the Boxers. The rumour that Li was about to leave for the North evoked great fear among the Chinese in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Telegraph reported that to stop Li from leaving, the merchants threatened to \"lie in front of the wheels of his carriage\".\n\nThe Governor of Hong Kong, through the Consul in Canton, urged Li to reconsider his decision. Politely refusing this advice, Li inquired whether he could be granted an interview when he passed through.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213878, "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-1996", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "204\n\nHong Kong to Beijing. Speculation arose over whether Li would really depart from Canton. The Governor was informed by the Chinese Legislative Councillors that while Li did not dare to disregard the imperial edict, he would welcome an excuse for refusing.\n\nIn the meantime, the Governor of Hong Kong sent an urgent telegram to London asking for permission to detain Li by military force. London called upon the British Consul in Beijing for advice. This Consul, always on good terms with Beijing, advised that Britain should remain neutral. On the day when the Governor met Li, he recorded something very interesting:\n\nThe Viceroy then asked... whom the Powers wanted to see to be Emperor. Who would England like to see Emperor?... I answered that in such an event the Powers would probably ask the advice of the strongest man in China that they could find as to what was best to be done.\n\nEnding his record, the Governor predicted that Li would remain in Shanghai until \"the tide turn[ed]”. His prediction proved to be correct. Through Hong Kong, Li travelled northward, and stayed in Shanghai for three months, before he departed for Beijing probably after the \"tide really turn[ed]\".\n\nThe Late Qing Reforms\n\nTo curb this rising provincialism, the Manchu government put forward a constitutional reform in 1904. Part of its aim was to institutionalize and to centralize the practice of networking. The Manchu government introduced reform to re-define élite status in China - the imperial examination was abolished, a merchant charter was introduced, China's first legislation on chambers of commerce came about, and the first company laws were implemented. Accordingly, all commercial associations were to be reorganized as chambers of commerce. Through the medium of these chambers, merchants and companies were required to register with the Beijing government. These policies intended to organize a national system of chambers of commerce which corresponded to a hierarchy of regional assemblies leading all the way up to the Senate in Beijing. In economic terms, several Commissioners of Business Promotion were appointed by Beijing to supervise the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213879, "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-1996", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "205\n\ndifferent parts of China As the Manchu government was drumming up a \"commercial war\" between Chinese and foreign enterprises, overseas Chinese merchants were targeted by Beijing as a source of wealth for new industries.\n\nIn Hong Kong, the first groups of Hong Kong Chinese to respond to this reform were a group of newly returned migrants of Siyi and Xiangshan origins. They returned from America and Australia, where exclusion policies against Chinese immigrants had been implemented during the 1890s. Once settled in Hong Kong, they found themselves left outside the established leadership hierarchy in the colony (the Legislative Council-Tung Wah circle). They had to vest their interests in other institutions They looked northward and, immediately, they saw hope in China, where the late Qing reforms offered them ample chances for political and economic advancement. The Governor recalled with contempt the composition of the Siyi Chamber.\n\n[It is] composed of Californian and Australian coolies, artisans who though [they] could often talk fair English, could not write their names in any language\n\nThanks to this rhetoric of \"commercial war\", these overseas returned migrants penetrated into south China. They formed themselves into regional chambers of commerce and through which they raised capital for such large-scale investments as railways, public utilities and land reclamation in Guangdong. Among others, these enterprises included a Siyi Steamship Company, a Sunning (of Siyi) Railway Company and two companies, with respectively 500,000 and 580,000 silver taels in capital, for “port-building” against Portuguese Macao and British Hong Kong. With the approval of the Qing government, these two port-building companies initiated two large-scale port and market development schemes in Siyi and Xiangshan which were intended to recover benefits lost to Hong Kong and Macau. The channel that these merchants went through was the following, the chambers of commerce submitted petitions to the Commissioner of Industrial Promotion and thence to the Bureau of Commerce in Beijing\n\nConservative in design, this late Qing reform led to revolutionary consequences. Among these policies of centralization was Beijing's attempt to nationalize economic resources in the provinces. It was the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213880, "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-1996", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "206\n\npolicy of railway nationalization that sparked off very strong provincial\n\nresistance.\n\nNumerous Railway Protection Societies were formed in different provinces, and one by one, they declared the provinces independent from Beijing.\n\nThe 1911 Revolution and its Aftermath\n\nIn Guangdong, the Railway Protection Society was formed in Hong Kong and chaired by Li Yutang, the chairman of the Siyi Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. In a dispatch to the Colonial Office, the Governor noted that since the revolution, the Siyi Chamber had \"principally ruled Canton.” It is recorded that in a meeting in the Siyi Chamber of Commerce of Hong Kong, Wu Hanmin was elected as the new Governor-General for Guangdong. Li Yutang, chairman of the Siyi Chamber, as well as that of the Railway Protection society, was appointed as the Provincial Treasurer of Guangdong. His son, his two brothers and his son-in-law also held posts in the Canton Government. They formed themselves into a bank of Canton, but registered it in Hong Kong. Aside from this, the Siyi men formed themselves into a \"Thirty-Men Subscription Team”. With certificates granted by the Canton Revolutionary Government, they set up a Subscription Bureau in Hong Kong. One member of this group, a Yang Xian recalled years later that:\n\nthe uprising was a success without any single help of a soldier or army... because of the assistance of the Hong Kong merchants... we subscribed, within half a day, an amount of 40,000 and had it transported to Canton immediately. Originally, the Canton government promised to return $2 for any $1 subscribed... but we [with patriotism] adjusted it to $1.50 for $1 only.\n\nTo back up the unsecured currency issued through the Bank of Canton by the Canton Revolutionary Government, the Siyi Chamber established a \"Canton and Hong Kong Financial Company\" to redeem the unsecured currency in August 1912.\n\nThrough the Registrar-General of Companies, the Governor warned the Hong Kong merchants of the \"financial unsoundness of the scheme\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213885, "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-1996", "page_number": 237, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "211\n\norganized everywhere. Once a local army was organized, its commander would petition general headquarters (that is the office of Sun Yat-sen) for recognition and for an official title, and once formal recognition was accorded, they would draw rations from the local government. Thus all such local armies had their respective \"territories\".\n\nOn the relationship with the Cantonese, the memoir has very exciting records.\n\nOur relations with the local people worsened each day. The natives looked down on us. Occasionally some of our trouble-making soldiers tried to stop their games (of gambling). In doing so they were usually mobbed and beaten up by the gamblers...\n\n4\n\nOne day at noon the entire regiment suddenly rose as one man and shouted for armed revenge against the local people. \"Captain, we are going to (the town) and pay them back for those insults!\" About a thousand soldiers marched toward the town, rifles in hand. Fortunately, [the town] and our stations were separated by a small river. When the ferryboat operators heard of the uprising, they moved all the boats away.\n\nPrevented from crossing, the soldiers massed themselves on the bank of the river and shouted toward the town. The noise made by a thousand soldiers was dreadful! Some of the soldiers even began to fire their rifles, which increased the tension. The people of the town were, of course, frightened. Merchants and gentry began to send agents across the river begging our pardon.\n\nIn these situations, the constitutional government was in control of the Guangxi militarists. Recognizing this, Sun retired to Shanghai. Tragically, Canton was, in the following four years, left in the hands of the Guangxi militarists. And these situations provided another arena for political investments for the Hong Kong merchants.\n\nHong Kong Merchants in Favor of a \"Canton for the Cantonese\"\n\nBy 1920, Guangxi's dominance in Guangdong was threatened by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213886, "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-1996", "page_number": 238, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "212\n\nthe return of Chen Jiongming from the neighbouring province of Fujian. Chen was the Governor-General of Guangdong in 1912 and 1913. After the failed \"Second Revolution\" in 1913 against Yuan, he escaped to Malaysia (while Sun to Japan) and developed his own anti-Yuan organization independent of Sun's party in Japan. When the Canton Government was established in 1917, nominally under Sun Yat-sen, he returned to Canton only to find that the guest armies had real control over the province. As a result, he gathered a small troop of soldiers made up of native Cantonese and moved to Fujian in early 1918, where he strengthened its fighting potential. Chen Jiongming's return was financially supported by a group of Chinese bankers, who were affiliated with Liu Zhubo, in Hong Kong. They advanced to Chen Jiongming an amount of $200,000 and promised to pay the Guangxi troops a “give-way fee”, if the armies retreated to their home provinces. The fighting could not wait for bargains, as in late October Chen Jiongming's army had forced its way into Canton. The Guangxi guest armies obtained the \"overdue army expenditure\" through a different means. The guest armies retreated westward to Guangxi, looting all the way home.\n\nThe return of the Cantonese troops under Chen Jiongming was welcomed by the Cantonese. The atmosphere in Canton, as reviewed in the newspapers, was that Chen Jiongming should be the Provincial Governor. Funds for a new government were promised by the merchants.\n\nAt this juncture, on November 25, Sun Yat-sen and his key supporters left Shanghai and triumphantly returned to Canton. He prepared to assume power again. After all, Chen was Sun's subordinate in 1913 and 1917. The situation Sun found on his return to Canton was not to his liking. Sun was made Director and Minister of the Interior in the restored government. Wu Tingfang was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. But Chen Jiongming had been planning for the future in Canton, and his list of titles was impressive. Chen was the Minister of War, Governor of Guangdong, Commander in Chief of the Guangdong Army, and High Inspecting Commissioner of Guangdong and Guangxi. In January of 1921, Sun summoned all available parliamentarians to a meeting in Canton. There was no quorum, but they voted anyway. At the end, the Parliament elected Dr. Sun Provisional President of China. Chen Jiongming was in no hurry to act, nor was he ready to listen to Sun. In an interview with the British Consul, Sun described his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213887, "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-1996", "page_number": 239, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "213\n\nrelationship with Chen - they \"did not see eye to eye... [they] thrashed out their differences round the Council table which... they thumped.\"\n\nTo arrange the finance of the new Government, Sun decided to reorganize the province's currency. The new policy was a total abolition of the existing currency and the introduction of a brand new currency under a new government bank. Originally, the new bank was to have had a reserve of $10,000,000, but it turned out that the Canton government could only put up 30% of the original amount. As a government bank, it had the right to issue new currency, to control the treasury and the salt gabelle in Guangdong. The crucial thing it lacked, as shall be seen, was credit worthiness. The merchant's prediction proved correct. In response, the chambers of Commerce wrote a joint letter to Sun, stating that \"to cancel the existing currency (issued by the Bank of China in Canton) was equivalent to an act of sentencing them to the death penalty.\" Ending the letter, the chambers warned the government that \"if the creditability of the Government was shattered [by this incident], the new notes issued by the Provincial Bank of Guangdong may suffer too.\" The brand new currency issued by the new government bank, amounting to $1,500,000, depreciated sharply once it began circulation.\n\nIt was in March 1921 that Chen Jiongming secretly approached \"the leading Chinese merchants in Hong Kong,\" requesting them to form into an advisory council for the Guangdong Government, which was responsible for giving advice on the \"administration of the province in relation to civil and financial matters.\"\n\n**\n\nCoinciding with Chen's move, it was Liu Zhubo who submitted a confidential report to the Governor of Hong Kong on a scheme to finance a new government in Canton - \"the object of the proposed organization was to finance Chen Ch'iung-ming (Chen Jiongming) and enable him to sever [his] connection with Sun Yat-sen.\" According to Liu Zhubo's proposal, this new Canton government was to be modelled \"after the form of government of Hong Kong\" under the supervision of the Cantonese merchants. In Liu's words:\n\nThe Political ship of Canton - officiated, manned and navigated as it now is - is bound to strike rock... what the Chinese merchants in Hong Kong and Canton should do, and do at once, is to prepare and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213888, "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-1996", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "214\n\nequip another ship for their own salvage purposes\n\nLiu emphasised that all the influential Cantonese merchants agreed with him - \"at the request of 100 odd men in Hong Kong\", a merchant's society was formed “to protect their properties and industries in Canton\". \"For these men cannot afford to sit tight and see their interests seriously impaired by unscrupulous or theory-laden politicians.”\n\nThe Governor was obviously impressed by the scheme. He passed the scheme immediately to the British Consul in Canton, and thence to the British Consul in Beijing. He also informed London that Liu Zhubo was requested by Chen Jiongming to organize an Advisory Committee for the Canton Government. This committee was modelled after the Legislative Council in Hong Kong and would “possess the power of the executive Council\" for the new Canton government.\n\nFor this proposed co-operation, Liu Zhubo planned a three-day trip to Canton in March 1921. On this trip, he submitted a six-page report to the Governor of Hong Kong. During his stay in Canton, Liu recorded that - while Sun Yat-sen and Wu Tangfing gave him little attention, it was General Chen Jiongming who, according to Liu, \"accompanied me whenever I went\". While \"the veteran Doctor Wu discoursed on spiritualism... the redoubtable Doctor Sun gave a dissertation... on what appeared to be a form of communism\", it was General Chen that discussed in secrecy with Liu on the scheme of a proposed new government.\n\nThe meeting ended with the agreement that Liu's son would be appointed member of the Executive Council for the new government \"so things could be done in his name\". Liu Zhubo, as well as the Governor of Hong Kong, however, doubted the leadership qualities of Chen Jiongming who was \"neither by birth nor by temperament fit to be the representative of Kwangtung (Guangdong)\". When the Governor suggested Liang Shiyi, the \"ablest Cantonese of whom I [he] had recognized\", Liu replied that \"he was aiming at far greater things than a provincial Governorship\".\n\nUnsatisfactory as Chen Jiongming's leadership quality was, Liu Zhubo went to great lengths in his report to impress the Governor that all the important merchants in Canton were \"inducing\" him not to drop\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213889, "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-1996", "page_number": 241, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "215\n\nnegotiations with Chen Jiongming as “Canton needs the salvage of a large and united body of influential men\" and they all \"begged me [Lu] to form the Merchants' Association at once”. \"All urging me not to leave things as they were\", emphasised Liu, and they were \"offering to support whole-heartedly the scheme of government that I might propose\"\n\nImmediately after Liu's return to Hong Kong in late March, Liu Zhubo announced an organizational charter for a \"Business Maintenance Committee\". This committee was to raise a loan of $3,000,000 for the new Canton Government. To put up the sum, Liu proposed two methods to recruit adequate subscribers. The committee would either include a membership of 300 merchants with subscription fee of $10,000 or a membership of 30,000 with a subscription fee of $100. This charter was actually published and distributed in Canton and Hong Kong\n\nWith everything in place, Chen Jiongming broke with Sun Yat-sen in June 1922. During the incident, Sun's residence was bombarded. Sun fled to a gunboat and, from Hong Kong, he escaped to Shanghai\n\nChen Jiongming's co-operation with the Hong Kong merchants, however, proved to be a very short one. Sun returned to Canton in January 1923 with the military support of the Yunnanese and the financial support of the Siyi men from Hong Kong\n\nBack in Canton, Sun faced the familiar problem of trying to organize a government without adequate money and with no real command over military forces. To prevent the guest armies from mutiny, Sun had to provide a daily maintenance expense of $20,000 to $30,000 to the armies. Added to this problem was Sun's inability to collect tax in the province. Almost all the existing organizations for tax collection were non-functioning in the face of the guest armies who divided Guangdong into spheres of influence.\n\nImmediately upon his return, Sun called for a meeting with the merchants in Hong Kong. Fifty overseas returned merchants in Hong Kong, led by Li Yutang, met Sun Yat-sen in the Cement Factory of Guangdong. In response to Sun's call for financial support, Li made a public speech.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213891, "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-1996", "page_number": 243, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "217\n\nWeekly Review recorded that:\n\nSun has been importing, to support his ambition to become the President of China, several hundred thousand politicians and mercenaries. To support them, exorbitant taxes had been created, public lands and buildings sold, private property confiscated; and many men and women pressed into involuntary servitude.\n\nThese auctions and speculations gave rise to a land boom in Canton. The record of the British War Office stated that “in the last few months there has been a considerable rise in the prices fetched by land sold by auction in the open market and an outburst of speculation in real estate. Demand exceeds the available supply…” The China Weekly Review also recorded that the \"boom in lands and shares\" was the most outstanding feature of the year of 1923. “Both markets helped to swell government's income, the former with premia and the latter by stamp duties. Money too plentiful, speculation rife. Work seems to have been plentiful.” It was recorded that the tax return for deed registration by the end of October 1924 amounted to $5,310,000. Between 1919 and 1927, a large quantity of land and property in Canton, amounting to $55,197,514, was also purchased by overseas Chinese merchants. These figures suggest that the real estate market in Canton drastically expanded over these few years.\n\nAmidst this boom of real estate, understandably, not every piece of \"public\" or \"government\" land was openly put up for auction. These properties could always be purchased through personal networks. In some cases, one could purchase the land with just 10% of the estimated price for auction. A large number of land investment and mortgage companies were then found in Canton, the majority of them were under the control of the Siyi men. Among other examples, the Canton Sanshui R.R. Wharf on the Bund, together with the control over the ferry services, was sold to a Wu Dongkai (吳東楷), one of Sun's Siyi financiers in Hong Kong and an old member of the \"Thirty men subscription team”.\n\nThe most notorious case was the purchase of the Guangdong Nonglin Shiyan Chang (廣東農林實驗場), literally the Canton Agricultural Experiment Laboratory. The Bank of Canton, under the directorship of Li Yutang, purchased the site and buildings of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213893, "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-1996", "page_number": 245, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "219\n\nthe second was the Zhejiang clique under Jiang Jieshi. With Soviet aid and with Jiang Jieshi, Sun decided to embark on two important programs, the establishment of a central bank, and the setting up of a military academy in Huangpu.\n\nAt this point, things came full circle. The merchants, threatened by what they believed to be a “red invasion” in Guangdong, tried to organize a heavy-armed merchant corps to fight against Sun. This is a story in itself; it will have to await another article.\n\nSuffice it to state here that it was in 1924, through the Compradore of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, that a large quantity of arms for the Merchants' Corps, a sort of militia equipped and hired by merchants for self-defence, were delivered. By late 1923, these troops numbered around 20,000, and their armaments included “4,850 rifles and 1,150,000 rounds of ammunition, 433 automatic pistols fitted with stock, and 2,060,000 rounds, 660 revolvers, large and small, with 164,200 rounds, and 40 machine guns with a huge quantity of ammunition.” These armaments, however, were confiscated by Sun on their arrival. The dispute led to a military confrontation between the Huangpu cadets and the merchant's corps at the West Gate of Canton. Almost all available forces under Sun participated in a military confrontation against the merchant corps. The attack began at 5:30 p.m. on October 14th. The Merchants' Corps had barricaded itself in the densely populated commercial section. Corpsmen fired down upon the invading corps from the strong towers which pawn shops used for storing valuables. But before the fighting really started, many parts in the West Gate were simultaneously on fire. By nightfall, much of the commercial section was in flames. The corps retreated to the roof floor of such Hong Kong-registered companies as the Sincere and Tai Sun Department Stores. Twenty-four hours later, the corpsmen were forced to surrender. They were disarmed, and then leaders fled to Hong Kong. Troops looted freely until the next day, when the government threatened looters with immediate execution. Property losses due to the fires were huge, around 600 to 1,000 buildings were burned and many others looted. With the confiscated arms, the Huangpu cadets moved northward for their national unification.\n\nFollowing this, there were several interesting developments.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213895, "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-1996", "page_number": 247, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "221\n\nThus, a new political language, clustered around the ideas of labour and trade unions soon overshadowed the existing political language, which was introduced in the late Qing and clustered around the ideas of merchants and chambers of commerce. To curb the political power of merchants, the Canton government dissolved all the existing merchant associations in Canton. The directorship of the Canton General Chamber of Commerce was abolished and the Canton government appointed their own supporters to the Chamber. Liao Zhongkai even went to the extreme of making legislation in 1925 to prohibit \"compradore merchants” from taking up government posts.\n\nPolitical regulations were changing fast during these years. Trade unions continued to expand and were politically active in Canton. This eventually led to the 1925 General Strike which in Hong Kong involved a total of 300,000 labourers. It was known as the greatest and largest strike which had ever occurred in China, and retrospectively, the Chinese Communist Party would time and time again herald its success.\n\nAs for the Cantonese merchants and the Communication Clique, they retreated from Canton to Hong Kong after 1924. I have tracked down a very beautiful piece of information from 1941 - on a Julao Hui (九老會), or the Nine Elders Club. The club was formed by the retired leaders of the regional Chambers of Commerce. These retreated Cantonese, despite their previous competition, joined together as a social club to celebrate the abundance of their offspring and their own longevity. These nine gentlemen enjoyed a total age amounting to 676 by 1941. On this occasion, Liang Shiyi sent them a couplet. It read:\n\nThe three of us in person congratulating the nine elders, altogether in one hall we celebrate our thousand years.\n\nAs far as this small circle is concerned, it sounds like a happy ending.\n\nBeyond this circle, all we can see is a Hong Kong society with its members, for a long period of time, showing little interest in the issue of constitutional reform, representative or self-government, as their Indian, African, or Malay counterparts did. Even during those noisy years after the Second World War while the issue of decolonization was very much talked about and the British Empire actually collapsed,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "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": 214198, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "19\n\neration to be found in wine. Then there is Journey to the West, which has been translated into English, where the Monkey King goes in search of immortality. We have Chinese opera and puppets (Liu, 1995:43-58). A great deal of mirth is to be found at Hong Kong festivals, whether it be at the Cheung Chau Bun Festival or the festival of the Hakka Boy God, Tam Kung. Then again, close friends of a bridegroom get a great deal of enjoyment from making fun of him on his wedding night.\n\nThere is also considerable humour (funniness) in the countless everyday expressions of 'old one-hundred names' (the man in the street). Such sayings which can be described as 'words that work,' are as common in China as chopsticks. For example, inserting money in a car-parking meter is known as 'feeding the hungry tiger,' and, when one is 'booked,' the 'ticket' placed under the windscreen wiper of one's car by a traffic warden, is called naau yuk kon (4), which is slang meaning a thin slice of Chinese dried, sweet beef. There is also a great deal of humour in the vocabularies of merchants and con men, nicknames and clever allusions to everyday objects and curses (Bolton, 1997:299). To scold someone is also an art which onlookers often treat as entertainment. The art is for the person to stand there and give the other person face and let him or her have their say. Then, after remaining quiet, the other person steps in and lets the other party have it!\n\nThe Chinese language abounds with expressions, many commonly used, which make you smile on the outside and laugh within. There are amusing adages such as:\n\n(a) Melon fields, under the pear tree.\n\n(Cantonese know, when this is said it means: don't bend down in a melon field or adjust your hat under a pear tree, or people may think you are stealing melons or pears. Thus, it implies, do not arouse suspicion.)\n\n(b) When a pretty woman marries an ugly man it is like sticking fresh flowers behind the ears of a donkey.\n\n(c) Local ginger is not hot.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214376, "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": 234, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "200\n\nunderwent many changes both in scope and organization. However, one thing which remained constant throughout its life was its racial composition. It was always a Chinese force. As such, in the context of the colony's private security heritage, it is an important organization even though its numbers never exceeded 160. Not surprisingly, because of its traditional origins, it was also a gendered 'Force' and no District Watchwomen were ever employed even when, in 1949, women were permitted to join the Hong Kong Police.\n\nEarly Days\n\nThere is little doubt that in the 1860s the growing number of wealthy Chinese merchants residing in Hong Kong required the services of a security force since this was not provided by the Hong Kong Police. Lethbridge claimed that by the mid-1860s there were 'numerous private watchmen and street guards already employed by merchants, shopkeepers, householders and Kaifong. The need for these private security personnel was distressingly obvious. Members of the regular police force, which was composed mostly of European and Indian policemen with a few Chinese, were more concerned with the safety of the European dominated central business district of the city than with the protection of the occupants of the Chinese quarter. Language was another barrier since most of the non-Chinese police were unable to speak Cantonese, a situation which made effective communication with the local population an impossibility. However, even if the Hong Kong Government had possessed the funds, manpower and inclination to provide the Chinese quarter with sufficient policemen, it is debatable whether the Hong Kong Chinese merchants of the 1860s would have welcomed the attention of members of the predominately foreign Hong Kong Police. It is more likely that they would have resented men of an alien culture intruding into their business and private lives even if this resulted in a decrease in crime. The ideal solution to this local security problem was a 'police force' made up of Chinese men whom the merchants knew and could trust.\n\nAt the beginning of 1866 in the weeks before Chinese New Year, Hong Kong's English language newspapers reported rumours of unrest in Canton.3 There was also considerable alarm that an uprising would spread to the colony but this fear proved to be unfounded. Whether these rumours were 'massaged' to suggest a more serious state", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214378, "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": 236, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "202\n\nany real degree of authority in matters affecting their own security,7 the introduction of the new scheme met with considerable opposition from some Europeans. Smith noted that 'there is much diversity of opinion as to the desirability of employing Chinese at all as Police.' The comparatively restrained language used by Smith probably understates the intensity of the opposition. In addition to the 'jealousy,' Smith hinted that the question of the watchmen's remuneration was also a problem. He reported that 'After much discussion the community of the Five Districts to the West of the Parade Ground agreed to elect a certain number of their body to act as Watchmen, whose pay would be disbursed by themselves and collected from house to house by men specially appointed for the purpose.' The monthly pay of each of the five Chief Watchmen was $20 whilst each of the forty Watchmen received $8 per month. Uniform coats were to be provided from a special fund and the accounts could be inspected at the Registrar General's office. Not only was the Registrar General charged with ensuring that the financial side of the scheme was sound, he was also responsible for the Watchmen themselves even though their wages were paid by the Chinese community.\n\nThis was not the way that the Chinese merchants had envisaged running the scheme although it was better than having European or Indian policemen interfering with their everyday business arrangements in order to combat crime. However, because of their internal squabbling and the colonial administration's greater experience in shaping such matters to its advantage, the Chinese merchants had allowed themselves to be outmanoeuvred by Government officialdom. Smith stressed that he did not expect the Watchmen 'to take a very prominent part in apprehending criminals.' That was not the aim. It was expected that the strength of the scheme lay elsewhere and, ‘according to the recognized Chinese Custom, those who pay for their support expect them to keep the vagabonds and bad characters from congregating in their districts,' an example of what, in modern criminological terminology, is referred to as Displacement Theory. The Chinese merchants and householders funding the scheme were not particularly interested in curtailing crime throughout Hong Kong but merely wanted to ensure that it did not occur in their area.\n\nThe tone of Lister's 1868 report was more direct than that of his predecessor. Lister contended that, whilst it was true that a force composed of Chinese would 'never carry out some of the views of the European Community,' this was to be expected because", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214384, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "208\n\nnior Inspector of Nuisances' and the 'Instructions to Head Watchmen and Watchmen' are of importance in this current study and, since the duties of the Watchmen contained in these instructions are so different from those originally envisaged by the creators of the District Watch scheme, their relevant parts are reproduced at the end of this paper.\n\nBefore continuing with a discussion of the District Watchmen's role in sanitary inspections, some explanation of the word 'nuisance' is appropriate. In the context of Victorian Britain, the term 'nuisance' implied something much more than the modern milder meaning of 'pest' or 'irritant.' 'Nuisance' was a general term to describe anything noxious which would offend the senses, whether these were sight, sound, smell or touch. Brenda Yeoh, in her study of colonial Singapore, describes it as 'an elastic term which encompassed many possibilities from filthy premises to undesirable animals.' She further mentions the comprehensive list of nuisances in The Acts and Ordinances of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements from 1st April 1867 to 1st June 1886 compiled by Mr C.G. Garrad which extended over two pages. Given the graver meaning of the term in the nineteenth century, it can be seen that the post of Inspector of Nuisances was much more important than might be regarded today from its title. Inspectors of Nuisances were found throughout the British Empire and also in the Treaty Port of Shanghai.\n\n14\n\nReturning to the removal of the District Watchmen to undertake sanitary duties, what we have here is the appropriation by the Hong Kong Government of the whole of an existing viable private security force to be used by the Government for a completely different function. Moreover, this change would incur the Government in only minimal additional expense since the bulk of the watchmen's wages would still be met by the Chinese merchants. There can be no doubt that the plan was put into operation since, in the Blue Books for 1883-85, a total of six Head District Watchmen and thirty-seven District Watchmen appeared under the heading of Sanitary (a sub-heading under Public Works Department) at an annual cost to the Government of $24 for each Head District Watchman and $12 for each District Watchman. During these three years the Chinese merchants continued to provide these men with an annual wage of $180, in the case of a Head District Watchmen, and $72 per annum for each District Watchman. The following year there appears to have been a change in policy because, in the 1886 Blue", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214385, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "209\n\nBook, no District Watchmen appeared under the Sanitary sub-department.\n\nWhy were the District Watchmen employed in sanitary duties for only three years? It is tempting to suggest that one reason was because the Chinese merchants were not prepared to continue paying for a scheme which should have been funded by the Government and, by 1886, the merchants finally had found sufficient courage to make their point. After all, the entire force of District Watchmen was involved with sanitary work, which left no District Watchmen available for purely security functions. The rules issued by Government were very specific about where loyalty was expected to lie since all the Watchmen ‘must understand that their sanitary duties are of equal importance with their police duties.' In case any Watchman was left in any doubt, there was a final sting in the tail. The rules further warned the Watchmen that “if the Government does not receive from them that hearty co-operation and assistance in the detection of nuisances which it has the right to expect, such of them as may be found neglectful of their duties or otherwise inefficient shall be reported to the Registrar General for dismissal.'\n\nA less likely reason is that the Watchmen themselves did not wish to continue working in what must have been an unpleasant and uncomfortable atmosphere. However, even if this were the case, it is unlikely that these objections would have carried much weight with the Hong Kong Government. Undoubtedly, the Head District Watchmen, who had been in charge of the day-to-day running of their respective 'branches' for many years, would not have taken kindly to being instructed by Inspectors of Nuisances and would have viewed this as a loss of 'face.' For all their elevated title, these 'inspectors' were simply police sergeants in different clothing. Despite Chadwick's contention that the Chinese were ‘a most docile people ... accustomed for countless generations to implicit submission to authority,' the Government officials responsible for the changeover may have anticipated trouble if there was direct contact between the ordinary Watchmen and the Inspectors of Nuisances since the rules stated that 'The Inspectors of Nuisances shall avoid, except in cases of emergency, giving any instructions to the Watchmen direct.' The chain of command was Inspector of Nuisance: Chief District Watchmen: District Watchmen. The answer may even lie in the crime figures for these years. In 1883, minor crimes increased by 41.5% over the previous year's figure and a further 43.4%", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214386, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "210 \n\nincrease in offences of a less serious nature was reported in 1884. Yet another possible reason for the brief presence of the District Watchmen as sanitary workers may be found in Chadwick's own words since he stated that the need for proper checking was most important 'whilst the new conditions are being introduced.' \n\nIn light of the foregoing it is interesting to note that in October 1885 a short Rule appeared in the Government Gazette relating to the transfer of District Watchmen. This was a Rule, made by the Registrar General under Section 14 of Ordinance 7 of 1866, whereby 'The Registrar General shall be empowered to transfer the Watchmen of the various Districts including the Chief Watchmen, from time to time as may seem to him expedient.' It is unclear from the wording of the rule whether this transfer referred merely to the movement of District Watchmen from one location to another or whether it legitimized the transfer of the Watchmen from one kind of duty to another. If the latter, this may have been intended to refer to the transfer of the District Watchmen from security work to sanitary duties. If this was the intention it is peculiar that the timing of the publication of this Rule coincided with the end rather than the beginning of the District Watchmen's involvement in sanitary duties. \n\nPerhaps the reason for their removal from sanitary duties was not recorded and what is most important in the context of this study is that it was a successful, if short lived, attempt to transfer a group of people from the private sector to the public domain and change their working conditions in a major way. We have seen that the District Watch Force was created for a very specific reason, namely to provide proper protection for a particular ethnic group within Hong Kong society which was not being served by the public police. Since official enquiries into the efficiency of the Hong Kong Police Force had confirmed the latter's shortcomings in 1872, there can be little doubt that in the early 1880s a need still existed for the District Watch Force as a security force. Additionally, the Chinese business folks almost certainly still preferred having their own people patrolling their streets rather than members of the Police Force. Perhaps in 1883 the merchants employing the District Watchmen were neither strong enough nor motivated enough to refuse to co-operate in Chadwick's scheme. After all the District Watch Committee was not formed until nearly a decade after Chadwick's report was published and thus the power exerted by this Committee in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214388, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "212\n\nThe following year the Government exercised its authority by withdrawing the $2,000 grant which had been awarded annually to the District Watch Force since 1870. The purpose of this small grant was to augment the contributions from the Chinese merchants for the running of the Force. However, Mr A. M. Thomson, the Acting Registrar General, considered that, because of the large surplus which the Committee had accumulated by 1893, there should be no need to resume the grant until 1905. The background to the distribution of this grant is of interest since it shows once again the interaction between the District Watch Force and the Hong Kong Government. During the years 1870-1873 an annual grant of $1,600 was paid to the 'Native District Watchmen' from a Miscellaneous services vote.18 In 1874 this amount was raised to $2,000 p.a. and remained listed as a miscellaneous expense until 1879. However, an important administrative change occurred the following year when the annual grant payable to the District Watch Force became a Police expense and remained as such until it was withdrawn in 1894.\n\nIncreased Government Influence\n\nIn mid-1897 the control exerted by the Government over the District Watch Force increased still further. Francis May, the Captain Superintendent of Police who had become a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, had recommended that the District Watchmen on duty in Victoria between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. should be placed on Police beats and be 'subjected to the supervision of Police Inspectors and Sergeants on patrol duty.' In his Annual Report for 1897 May took pleasure in informing its readers that this scheme had been introduced in June 1897 'to improve the efficiency of this very useful auxiliary Police Force, and to bring them into closer touch with the Police.'\n\nAs time went by the number of the District Watchmen increased gradually. Before the creation of the District Watch Committee the number had remained static with six Head District Watchmen and thirty-seven or thirty-eight District Watchmen. In 1892 and 1893 this grew to forty-two and fifty-seven District Watchmen respectively and the following year the addition of a further five District Watchmen and a detective bought the total number to sixty-nine men. In 1895 four new posts of Assistant Head District Watchmen were created and by 1903 the Force had grown to eighty-two men including six Head District Watchmen.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214396, "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": 254, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "220\n\n1906 the Government used these men as enumerators and during the 1929 water shortage, it was District Watchmen who undertook the thankless task of maintaining order amongst the queues of people waiting at street fountains.\n\nIn 1938 the District Watchmen were called upon to accompany vaccinators on a door-to-door campaign during the smallpox epidemic of that year and, as the clouds of war gathered, it was the District Watchmen who ensured the security of the refugee camps. When these extra duties are considered, it is easy to explain the decrease in the number of Court cases in 1938 from a high of 2,067 the previous year. In 1939, the last year for which detailed figures are available before the Japanese invasion, the strength of the District Watch Force stood at five Head District Watchmen, six Head Assistant District Watchmen, twenty-six Detectives and 103 uniformed men. The District Watch Force continued to be funded by local Chinese business men augmented by a small annual donation of $1,600 (later $2,000) which Government made to the Fund between the early 1870s and 1893 and from 1903 to 1936. There had been no change in this important financial principle since its inception in 1866.\n\nConclusion\n\nThe District Watch scheme is an important example of how the Hong Kong Government, over a very long period of time, successfully controlled a private security enterprise whilst ensuring that the colonial authorities contributed no more than a token amount towards its upkeep. Given the political climate prevailing in the colony during its formative years, it would have been naive to expect a completely Chinese organization of this nature to operate without some kind of interference from the Government. Security has always been - and continues to be - a topic which can make normally placid people become very nervous. However, from its inception, the District Watch Force's ties with the Registrar General and the Captain Superintendent of Police were more restrictive than had been envisaged by its founding fathers. To some extent the Chinese merchants were their own worst enemies because of their inability to overcome petty internal bickering. However, the merchants who proposed the District Watch scheme may have been thankful that they had been able to persuade the Hong Kong Government to grant them even the limited degree of autonomy which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214397, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "221\n\nthe 1866 Ordinance allowed them. The non-confrontational attitude identified in the pre-1920 Chinese merchant class by Ku Hung-ting,1 coupled with a pragmatic belief that half a bowl of rice is better than none, could also explain why the merchants were prepared to go along with the Government's decision. Whilst they would have preferred to have complete control over their security force and did not relish having their businesses scrutinized more than was already the case, a limited degree of control was preferable to none.\n\nThe 'hijacking' of the whole of the District Watch Force for three years 1883-85 to work on non-security sanitary duties following Osbert Chadwick's Sanitary Report has been discussed at length and this change in direction of the Force need only be mentioned again to emphasize the point that, whilst the Chinese merchants may have been paying for this Watch Force, the latter's duties could be, and were, decided by the colonial authorities. The fact that the Chinese merchants continued to fund this scheme during these years whilst the Government contributed a mere $1 per person per month illustrates the lack of a level playing field in this particular game between the colonial power and the local community. Although it is possible that some Chinese people in Hong Kong may have wanted improvements in their sanitary conditions, it is by no means certain that this number would have been substantial. Even if some Chinese residents placed great store on improved sanitary conditions, it is unlikely that the local merchants would have wanted this to be done at their expense particularly if this sanitary work stopped their security force from performing their duties.\n\nThe years following the creation of the District Watch Force showed how certain ultra-conservative factions within the European community would have preferred the District Watch Force to disappear or, failing that, at least be merged with the regular police. That this did not occur is a testament not only to the Chinese merchants who stood their ground but also to some of the first young Cadet officers who were more open-minded than their less enlightened colleagues. With the introduction of the 1888 ‘Registration of the Chinese Ordinance,' the establishment of the District Watch Committee in 1890-91 and the appointment of the Captain Superintendent of Police as a member of the District Watch Committee in 1894, Government influence became even more effective and continued to grow during the twentieth century. Furthermore, the addition of duties such as the house-to-house checks\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214398, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "222\n\nin 1913 under the Registration of Chinese Ordinance was a further example of Government's imposing its will on what was originally a private commercial concern. It is even possible that the reason for Government's introduction of the annual subsidy of $2,000 to augment the fees collected from the merchants was not entirely altruistic since this provided an additional area of Government control, albeit one which was camouflaged as generosity. What was awarded could also be taken away.\n\nHowever, it should not be thought that the District Watch Committee was a mere rubber stamp and exerted no influence of its own. We need only consider the correspondence between Claud Severn and the Home Government in 1922 to see how seriously, in later years, this Committee was regarded by seasoned Hong Kong administrators.\n\nAnother reason why the District Watch Force is important is because it provided a precedent. Some of the Chinese merchants, notably those who founded the Nam Pak Hong, undoubtedly used the District Watch Force as a blueprint for the establishment of the Nam Pak Hong's own security force in 1868. Cynics may say that civil servants cherish precedents since they provide an escape clause should things go wrong. Thus, it may be argued that the Hong Kong Government would have relished the precedent of official control over the District Watch force since this provided the Government with a ready-made vehicle for controlling the private security men who worked as detectives in the Tung Wah Hospital and the Po Leung Kuk.28 Finally, it must never be forgotten that the Hong Kong Government depended on the Chinese merchants for the prosperity of the colony. It was through their work and their taxes that Hong Kong flourished. The Government could not afford to alienate this group of people and it is possible that the need for their continued goodwill was considered by Governor MacDonnell when he agreed to the creation of the scheme in 1866.29", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214408, "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "232\n\nnext morning the case came before our enlightened Assistant Magistrate, who with the discretion and sense of justice characteristic of him, instead of incarcerating the defendant for ten days on bread and water, recommended settling the matter amicably and hinted at five dollars being a satisfactory recompense to the plaintiff; but whether the defendant followed this advice or not - I have not been informed. (The China Mail, No 558, the 25 Oct. 1855).\n\nHong Kong is not actually a place of trade with China, but merchants and agents trading in Canton, in Shanghai and in other Chinese ports, which are open to Europeans, live here. That is why the local anchorage (harbour) is very busy: during the whole course of my two month stay, there were always up to sixty or more merchant vessels there, one or two changing every day. The grocery and chandlery trade is all in the hands of the Chinese. With the exception of two or three large stores designated strictly for incoming vessels and filled with all that is necessary for the needs and even some whims of the seamen, all the rest belong to Chinese. The richest Chinese merchant is extremely temperate in his way of life: a few bowls of rice make up his main food, he is clothed in calico or linen - unpretentiously; and that is why even when selling things he is satisfied with low returns; he even sells European things cheaper, than the European, who needs greater profits for his table, his attire and his abode.\n\nPiece payment is, perhaps, nowhere in the world as cheap as in China. For this reason all their crafted goods are particularly well finished, even display signs of overwork; but elegance perhaps somehow slips through accidentally, in spite of the will of the worker. And indeed for an object to be sold well, it is essential, that it displays in itself signs of much labour spent on it. Whereas we, on looking at an object, say: “how lovely! how exquisite!\" the best praise for a Chinese is yu gup fu i.e. a lot of time and work has gone into this! And so in all these curio shops you find objects carved out of ivory: spheres revolving one in another, chess pieces, fans etc., also lacquer boxes, decorated with the finest of designs. This is even more noticeable in their picture shops, of which there are up to five in Canton, if not more. With them, painting is reduced to the level of a craft, or better put does not rise to the level of an art. And certainly, the technical side of it almost reaches perfection: the eye can barely follow the brushes, placed between all the fingers of the hand, and the way, one after the other, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214421, "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": 279, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "245\n\ncontinuing battle between Fadeev and the coolie, for the basket. I hired a boat and placed Fadeev in it, but the coolie followed him and resumed the fighting. The Chinese in the surrounding boats started shouting; Fadeev was about to sit down in the boat, like a mandarin, holding the basket in both hands, but the coolie wouldn't leave him alone. The boatman didn't want to take us, waiting for a resolution of the matter. Fadeev moved to go ashore again - but they wouldn't let him. \"With your permission, Your Excellency, I'll settle them,\" he said, taking the basket in one hand, and energetically pushing the Chinese aside with the other, he got ashore. I left, leaving him to sort it out as best he knew, only from afar I could see him beating off the Chinese like a bear amongst a pack of dogs, hitting them on their outstretched arms. Then later I saw him proudly moving away on our ship's boat, with just the purchases, and not the basket, which had belonged to the coolie and was, through our slow-wittedness, the cause of the conflict.\n\nAt one end of Hong Kong's extensive roadstead the trading house of Jardine and Matheson has been established. The four of us went to have a look at this example of the indefatigable energy and insatiable greed and enterprise of the English. Sten-Bil, the commander of the Danish corvette \"Galatea\" believes the English have invested too much labour and money in Hong Kong and the undertaking will not vindicate itself. On the appropriation of this island, merchants from Calcutta and Singapore rushed here and some of them sank all their capital, counting on the proximity of the Chinese mainland and on the sale of opium. But so far this has not been justified. Perhaps misgivings about the commercial imprudence of some Jardine may be warranted but nevertheless the possession of Hong Kong, the cannons, their own harbour - all this at China's doorstep, assures the English of trade with China for ever, and this little island will, it seems, be an everlasting eyesore for the Chinese government.\n\nA palace has been built at the Jardine establishment, and a garden and path laid out nearby; other buildings are being erected. While we were there hoards of Chinese were paving the ground with slabs; a few vessels stood by the shore. It was not yet midday when we walked onto the wharf and then hurriedly disappeared into the scant shade of the young garden. The chirping of the insects, with the approach of midday was so loud, that it could have challenged a large orchestra. We sat wearily on a bench, glancing occasionally at the glass doors of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214496, "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": 354, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "323\n\nTHE DRUNKEN DRAGON DANCE AND THE TAN GONG (TAM KUNG) FESTIVALS: NOTES ON THE RASKB VISIT TO MACAU, MAY 1997\n\nGEOFFREY ROPER\n\nThe eighth day of the fourth lunar month is an important date in the Chinese religious calendar. Principally it is Lord Buddha's birthday, and for that reason is soon to become a Hong Kong public holiday. In Macau, on a more local basis, it is also the date of the Drunken Dragon Dance Festival around the markets of central Macau and the Tan Gong (Tam Kung) Festival celebrations in Coloane Village, Coloane Island. It was with these two Festivals mainly in mind that a twenty-strong party from the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS, led by President Dan Waters, set off for Macau early on Wednesday, the 14th May (the date in the 1997 Western calendar).\n\na.m.,\n\nPreceded by Chinese opera performance the evening before, the initial Drunken Dragon Dance celebrations had already started by 8:30 by the time we arrived at the western end of the former Sao Domingos Market. The dragon heads and tails were being blessed by a Taoist priest outside the adjacent Guan Di (Kwan Tai) Temple and brought to life by the painting of eyes by invited VIPs. A golden flower with a red ribbon was tied around the head of each dancer - representing God's gift of energy for the dancing ahead.\n\nThe scale of the festivities was somewhat smaller than the previous year, with humbler staging for the sponsors from the Macau Fish Merchants Association and restrictions on the free distribution of rice and vegetables to the public at the first market. The reason was disruption caused by building work, but most importantly, the Dance itself remained unchanged.\n\nThe dragons, the dancers, and the dance itself are best seen in the illustrations (which were actually photographed by the author at the 1996 celebrations). Accompanied by a loud drumbeat, the group of about twenty male fish porters circled around and took turns in holding the wooden red and gold dragon heads and red and green tails. As", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214666, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "45\n\nMarket at Kowloon City grew, so, too, did the numbers of villagers able to get work there as shop-keepers, shop-assistants, or general coolies.\n\nIt is, again, a mark of the prosperity and local importance of Nga Tsin Wai that villagers from the village were very important in the foundation (1880) and early history of the Lok Sin Tong. This important charitable organisation was founded with the encouragement of the Sub-Magistrate and local Military Commander, with enthusiastic input from merchants in the Market, and local village leaders. The Ng clan of Nga Tsin Wai donated the land on which the Tong stood at its foundation. Prominent among the Tong's early Directors were Ng Shue-fan, RM, (1848-1906) and his first cousin Ng Shue-tong (44) from Nga Tsin Wai. Ng Shue-tong had been the leader of the villagers in the 1854 fight against the Taiping bandits, and must have been in his 60s when the Lok Sin Tong was founded. Ng Shue-fan was a scholarly man. He acted as the accountant of the Ng clan. He bought himself a degree somewhere in the late nineteenth century.\n\nThe Chans and Lis were also closely involved as early Lok Sin Tong Directors. Chan Tak-hang (1828-1892, also known as Chan Jit-ming) was a Founding Director. He came from the Tseung Kwan O branch of the clan, but was resident in Kowloon Market, where he ran a general store, the Yi Hing Store (H). Since he was living nearby, he was probably regarded by the Nga Tsin Wai community as being \"one of their own people\". He was a prominent leader of the Kowloon City Kaifong. He also owned a shop in Fatshan, and four shops and a house in Hang Hau Market. He had a cargo junk which was busy in the stone trade, carrying cargo from the Kowloon area, especially stone from the \"Four Stone Hills\" in the Kwun Tong area, to Fatshan. He prospered greatly, and bought himself a degree in the late nineteenth century. He was a man of great charity, and built a guest-house and school for his clan at Tseung Kwan O, and a number of bridges and piers at various places, especially the great stone pier at Hang Hau Market, and paved the footpaths from Hang Hau to the summit of the pass to Sai Kung above Tseng Lan Shue (these paths and pier were critical to the prosperity of Hang Hau, much of whose trade consisted in handling fish carried from Sai Kung, and then sent on to Hong Kong by Hang Hau merchants). He amassed a large area of agricultural land near Tseung Kwan O (2.3 acres), and was the trustee of a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214954, "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": 50, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "of any mention of the opium habit by the Jesuit missionaries and other travellers in China prior to the 17th century. It may therefore be concluded, with some degree of certainty, that there was no general use of opium before the introduction of opium smoking. Spanish tobacco introduced into China about 1620, probably from Philippines, gave rise to the habit of smoking, and later in the century tobacco and opium were smoked as a mixture to enhance the effect of both. The Chinese, on the whole, chose to smoke opium without tobacco. Moreover, while the use of opium as a smoke has been confined to China - elsewhere it is applied in other ways - smoking per se was introduced by the westerners.\n\nThe Chinese recognized early the potential harm of opium smoking: an Imperial Edict of 1729 prohibited entirely the use of opium, except as a medicine. When the import of opium had increased dramatically, another Edict was issued in 1799 prohibiting use of the drug, its importation, and its cultivation at home. Thenceforth opium became contraband, but while the East India Company, which by that time had full control of the Indian opium, and the Hong merchants in Guangzhou (Canton) heeded the Imperial ban, almost all the foreign traders did not, and even 'the Emperor's representatives continued to sanction it.' The illegal opium trade grew enormously. After 1830, for maximum profit and safety, chests of opium were delivered in a fleet of fast, well-armed clippers. It should be noted that these “opium clippers\" also carried tea on the return journey: sometimes engaging in \"tea races” to deliver tea quickly before its flavour was impaired. Again, it may be noted that the growth of opium trade with China was linked with another growing addiction, to tea. Detailed discussion of the opium trade is outside the scope of this paper. However, one point must be emphasised: the often forgotten distinction between Britain and British traders, and indeed, other foreign merchants with regards to the opium traffic. The British government's attitude to the opium trade was, characteristically, one of laissez faire; it was neither encouraged nor discouraged, claiming it was essentially a Chinese problem.\n\nChinese-British Relations\n\nIt is perhaps not to be wondered at that the two great nations at the opposite ends of the globe, totally different in their ways and customs, failed to understand each other; indeed, never truly tried, and finally", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215236, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Elizabeth Teather - Deathspace in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Seoul: A Review of Recent Research, 1995-2001 .... \n\nChiu Hang Shi - Unicon Dancing in Pat Heung \n\n329 \n\n341 \n\nKeith Stevens - A Contentious Christian Missionary in Central China, 1887 \n\n353 \n\nKirsty Norman - Friends of the HKBRAS Trip to Cornwall....... 357 \n\nDavid Akers-Jones - Tea and Opium: Some Further Notes on Macartney's Role \n\n367 \n\nJennifer Welch - Coincidence? \n\n... 373 \n\nDan Waters - Another Donation to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society \n\n375 \n\nRichard Garrett - Taipa Fort and a Nineteenth Century Cannon 379 \n\nPeter Halliday - More Thoughts on Han Suyin's A Many Splendoured Thing: A Tribute to Ian Morrison...... \n\n391 \n\nRosemary Lee and A.C. Bromfield - The Life and Times of Captain Samuel Cornel Plant \n\n407 \n\nAnon. - More on the Two Obelisks at Tai Tam \n\n417 \n\nBOOK REVIEWS \n\nDan Waters - Long Night's Journey into Day: Prisoners of War in Hong Kong and Japan, 1941-1945 \n\n419 \n\nJames Hayes - Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away:Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton \n\n423 \n\nPatrick Hase - Hong Kong Metamorphosis \n\n427 \n\nPeter Halliday - Searching for Frederick and Adventures Along the \n\nWay. \n\n430 \n\nX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215279, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "could be nullified only by the use of the crown prerogative of disallowance. The Colonial Office was most reluctant to exercise this power except in extreme circumstances since it might cause the governor public embarrassment. There are only three cases to be found in the files before 1933 where the Colonial Office was consulted about a project and imposed its veto.\n\nThe progress of industrialisation in Hong Kong was completely different from all other British colonies where factories could be established only with the aid of protective tariffs and other government assistance and manufactured goods were sold only in the local market. Hong Kong island was originally occupied because it had the best deep-sea harbour between Shanghai and Indo-China. It served as a base for the British navy and a place where merchants could store their goods and transfer them from ocean-going vessels to smaller ships to trade at ports along the China coast and inland waterways. About 80 per cent of the goods passing through the harbour consisted of re-exports destined for South China from overseas or from North China, or exports from China being transhipped in Hong Kong. Since the principal reason for Hong Kong's existence was to be an entrepôt for trade with China, it has always been a free port with no customs duties on imports or exports. Industries were established early in the colony's history to provide for the needs of the port and to process primary products for local consumption and export to China. Shipbuilding and ship-repairing yards were established soon after Hong Kong island was occupied in 1841, followed by a rope-making factory in 1851, a flour mill in 1859, a sugar refinery in 1870, a distillery in 1871, tobacco and cigarettes in 1880, a cement factory in 1897, and a cotton spinning and weaving company in 1899.\n\nIn 1911 the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce carried out a survey of all European, American, and British Indian firms in the colony engaged in import, export, and manufacturing. The survey listed 38 trading companies which had also set up factories. The 1931 census found that about a quarter of the working population (112,133 out of 470,794) were employed in manufacturing industries. The 1930 Blue Book listed 3,164 factories and workshops under 102 categories ranging from 124 boat builders to 116 tin beaters and 14 weaving factories. Most of these establishments were very small, situated in the back streets and tenements of the urban area. In 1932 only 586 were registered under the new Factories and Workshops Ordinance, which regulated firms that employed at least 20 persons. It is difficult to quantify the size of the manufacturing sector in the absence of detailed statistics of local consumption, but it appears that domestic exports of manufactured goods in 1932 totalled at least HK$36 million (about £2,500,000).1 The main items exported were cement, refined sugar, preserved ginger, lard, knitted singlets and hosiery, and electric torches.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215514, "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": 291, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "241\n\nA REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT OF CEMETERIES IN HONG KONG: 1841-1950\n\nKO TIM-KEUNG\n\nHong Kong had been claimed for the British Crown even before the First Opium War (1839-42) was formally brought to an end. A naval party under Sir Gordon Bremer landed on the island on 26th January 1841. A form of government was organized and a chief magistrate and a harbour-master appointed, and in June the first land sale took place to create the impression of permanency. The port was declared a free port, and merchants, both foreign and Chinese, were encouraged to settle and trade there. However, little significant building followed, the main deterrent being the island's insalubrity and a high death rate from 'Hong Kong Fever.' Hong Kong, quite unexpectedly, became the last resting place of many of these early settlers and troops.\n\nThe Burial Ground in Wan Chai\n\nThe first years in Hong Kong had a distressing aspect for the British, particularly its army, because of disease. The setting up of the first barrack areas along the north coast of the island led to severe epidemics of fever among the troops. 183 of them had died in 1841. Consequently, a burial ground for the dead was urgently needed. A notice was proclaimed in August 1841:\n\nA piece of land to the eastward of Cantonment Hill having been allocated by Government as the ground for the burial of the dead of Europeans and others, Notice is hereby given that persons burying their dead in any other unauthorised place will be treated as trespassers.\n\nJno. F. Mylius, Land Officer, Hong Kong 30th August 1841.\n\nA 19th-century publication also records: \"Deaths now [1841] became frequent occurrences also among the European community; hospitals had to be hastily constructed, and the first cemetery (near the present St. Francis' Chapel, above Queen's Road East) began to fill...\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215519, "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": 296, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "246\n\ncould be traced in regard to this burial ground, though the noted Scottish botanist and traveller Robert Fortune, who visited Hong Kong between 1843 and 1846, recorded:\n\nBefore leaving China [1846], I had occasion to visit this spot of ground (the old barrack area in West Point), the grave of many a brave soldier. A fine road31 leading round the island…passed through the place where they had been buried. Many of their coffins were exposed to vulgar gaze, and the bones of the poor fellows lay scattered about on the public highway no one could find fault with the road having been made there, but if it was necessary to uncover the coffins, common decency required that they should be buried again…38\n\nOther Early Cemeteries\n\nHong Kong's initial progress as an entrepôt was slow, nevertheless, by the 1850s, Hong Kong's position as a trading centre had gradually been consolidated. Before the emergence of a recognizable Chinese merchant class in the later half of the 19th century, foreign merchants, the bulk of whom were British, dominated the local political and economic scene. Nevertheless, some of the most prominent and best remembered foreign traders came neither from Europe nor North America, but from the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. These included the Parsees, the Indians and the Jews.\n\n39\n\n40\n\nA Parsee (or Zoroastrian) cemetery in Happy Valley was granted as early as 1852, and the first grave was erected there in 1858. The Jewish Cemetery, located south-east of Wong Nai Chung Village and near some paddy fields, was first laid out in 1855 when the first of the Jewish merchants from Guangzhou settled in Hong Kong. The lease for land for a cemetery was granted in 1857, the year of the first burial.42 As the community was not large, the number of burials was small. By the end of the 19th century, burials were limited to about sixty. The cemetery was described as 'neglected' in an 1890's tourist guide.44\n\nThe Muslim cemetery in Happy Valley had been deeded to the community in 1870, and a mosque with rooms for burial preparations was added. Prior to this, a Mohammedan cemetery, located at roughly the present site of St. Stephen's Girls College along Park Road, can be found in an 1863 map.46\n\nHowever, no further information on this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215538, "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": 315, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "265\n\nSayer, S.R. (1980). HONG KONG 1841 - 1862: BIRTH, ADOLESCENCE AND COMING OF AGE. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, p. 117.\n\n7 Eitel, E.J. (1895). EUROPE IN CHINA: THE HISTORY OF HONGKONG FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE YEAR 1882. Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh, p. 175.\n\n3 Ticozzi, Sergio (1997). HISTORICAL DOCUMENT OF THE HONG KONG CATHOLIC CHURCH. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives, p. 13.\n\n9 Ibid.\n\n10 Hawkins, R.S. (1968). Far East Outpost, The Royal Engineers Journal Vol. LXXXII, p. 41.\n\n11 Endacott, G.B. (1988). A HISTORY OF HONG KONG. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, p. 67.\n\n12 Oxley, p. 28.\n\n13 For details of some of the military graves, see Bard, Solomon (1997), Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley, The Antiquities and Monuments Office Occasional Paper No.4. Hong Kong: The Antiquities and Monuments Office.\n\n14 Illustrated London News, 8 November 1845.\n\n15 Smith, Carl T. (1985). NOTES FOR A VISIT TO THE GOVERNMENT CEMETERY AT HAPPY VALLEY, The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 25, pp. 17-18. Also see the same author's work, A SENSE OF HISTORY: Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong (1995), Hong Kong: Hong Kong Education Publishing Co, pp. 113-114.\n\n16 Wong Nai Chung Valley was at first intended by British merchants and the Land Officer and Colonial Engineer A.T. Gordon for the principal business centre, but the project was abandoned as the valley was found to be unhealthy. See Eitel, p. 167 and Endacott, p. 45.\n\n17 A list of these graves and monuments can be found in HKGG Notification of 2nd\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215555, "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": 332, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "282\n\nEgypt, which was built in the 3rd century B.C. - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was an eight-sided tower on top of which was a cylinder that extended up to an open cupola where the fire that provided the light burned. On the roof of the cupola was a large statue of Poseidon (the Greek God of the Sea and Earthquakes) facing the sea, northward. It was said ships could detect the light from the tower at night or the smoke from the fire during the day up to 100 miles away. The lighthouse collapsed in the 14th century, probably as the result of an earthquake. The remains of Pharos are now at the bottom of the Mediterranean. Its name, however, has become the root of the word \"lighthouse\" in the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian languages.2\n\nModern navigation aids\n\nBy the 21st century traditional aids to navigation have already gradually taken over. These include satellite navigation systems in order to cope with the needs of high speed and the huge volume of modern sea transportation. Even more recent inventions like the Radio Beacon and the Decca Navigator System are now almost obsolete.\n\nThe Global Positioning System (GPS), provided by satellites, is now the primary position fixing system for marine navigation. A public Differential GPS service is able to enhance the accuracy of GPS signals to within 10 metres up to 50 nautical miles around the coasts off the United Kingdom and Ireland. This system assists the safe passage of all classes of vessels from cargo ships, cruise liners and fishing vessels to small yachts. As a back-up system to the GPS, chains of Loran C on land are also adopted.3\n\nNineteenth century Hong Kong\n\nIn Hong Kong, things were quite different. There was not much sea traffic going to China before the first Opium War (1839-42) because of the Chinese policy of keeping its doors closed to foreign trade. Canton (Guangzhou), in the Pearl River Delta, was the city where limited foreign trade was permitted under stringent conditions. Macao under Portuguese administration served well as a buffer for foreign merchants waiting for the start of the trading season. Only after the Treaties of Nanking, Peking and Tientsin (1842-1860) was China forced to open up more and more ports for trade. Hong Kong's Victoria harbour became", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215556, "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": 333, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "283\n\nan important strategic port for merchants.\n\nIn the process of competing with Macao as the doorway to China trade, Hong Kong had its moments of hesitation. It had its own internal problems to solve during the three decades after 1841, such as building roads, houses, godowns, and having to provide an attractive and safe environment for trade. Only in 1875, after Hong Kong had developed into a port which was busy receiving Chinese junks from the north as well as Japanese vessels from the East and European steamers from the West was the first lighthouse at Cape D'Aguilar constructed to facilitate the navigation route leading to its harbour.\n\nShips from the West\n\nTo build lighthouses was a need formed by several elements. First, the marine navigation route from Europe to Asia used to go round the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened for navigation, shortening the distance between Europe and East Asia by 20 to 30 per cent as well as cutting the cost, facilitating more frequent sea traffic.4 Secondly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe increased drastically the supply of consumer goods which, in turn, demanded more and more large steamships with greater speed to carry them. Thirdly, shipping costs depend not only on the size and speed of the vessel or the time needed for the transportation. Part of the cost goes to the insurance against the danger of shipwrecks. The safe route with good navigation aids affected the cost of the goods directly. Because of the above elements, the demand for building lighthouses on the sea route to Hong Kong became more pressing with the increase of trade.\n\nOld lighthouses\n\nBefore the setting up of lighthouses in Hong Kong there were already lighthouses in nearby waters. On the Eastern approaches to the Singapore Straits Horsburgh Lighthouse was established in 1851.5 Off the west coast of Taiwan located on Xi Yu Island of the Pescadores/Penghu Islands, the Fisherman Island Lighthouse (Yureng Tao Lighthouse) was set up as early as 1778.6 In Macao, the Guia lighthouse (Farol da Guia), built in 1865, claims to be the oldest on the China coast. These lighthouses, however, did not provide enough help for\n\n7", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215741, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "APPENDIX\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY ACTIVITIES FOR 2002/2003\n\nDate 2002 April 12\n\nMay 3\n\nJune 7\n\nJune 7 June 14 August 10\n\nSeptember 20\n\nOctober 4\n\nOctober 18 November 23 November 29 December 6\n\n2003 January 3 January 10\n\nJanuary 24\n\nFebruary 14\n\nFebruary 21 March 28\n\nLectures\n\nDr Patrick H. Hase on Some Smaller Market Towns of the New Territories\n\nDr Dan Waters & Fr Louis Ha on Hong Kong's Lighthouses and the Men who Manned Them\n\nDr Ian Nish on Anglo-Japanese Relations in the Twentieth Century (Joint Lecture)\n\nDr Lindsay Porter on The Pink Dolphins of Hong Kong. Jason Wordie on Streets; Exploring Hong Kong Island\n\nDr Martin Palmer on Da Qin - An Imperial Christian Site of the Tang Dynasty (with a visit to the exhibition on this subject)\n\nTim Ko on The Development of Cemeteries in Hong Kong; 1841-1941\n\nChristopher Munn on People and Government in Early Colonial Hong Kong\n\nDr Janet Lee Scott on Up in Smoke: Offerings for the Ancestors\n\nStella Ma on Cha Duk Chang: The Appreciation of Chinese Opera\n\nWilliam Lindesay on The Great Wall: Research and Impressions\n\nValerie Garrett on Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away: Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton\n\nDr Solomon Bard on Voices from the Past: Hong Kong 1842-1918\n\nDr Christina Miu Bing Cheng on Macau: The Farming of Friendship\n\nDr Lawrence Lai & Dr Daniel Bo on Devil's Peak Ruins: A Glimpse of a British Stronghold\n\nDr Elizabeth Sinn on Ultimate Return: Transhipment of Chinese Migrants' Bones to the Native Village and Hong Kong's Role in the Chinese Diaspora\n\nAnthony Lawrence on Hong Kong: Growing Old\n\nDr Graeme Lang on The Return of the Refugee God: Wong Tai Sin in China\n\nXXXI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215775, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "However, in response to a petition by European merchants in 1835 to the EIC against piracy, some action on the part of the Indian government was taken, through the use of steam warships (for example, the Diana and HMS Wolf). These ships were effective in fighting piracy, and according to LA Mills, 'piracy in the Straits greatly decreased for several years... Conditions never became as serious as they were before 1836.'38\n\nHowever, Turnbull says that these measures only gave temporary relief and that, within a few years, the position deteriorated. Moreover, in the 1850s, a new breed of pirates began to haunt the merchants' commerce. They came from China, and the Chinese imperial government was too weak to suppress them. The main theatre of Chinese operations was the Gulf of Siam, although many vessels were captured near Singapore.40\n\nThe Indian government did not pay much attention to the problem as it was involved in the second Anglo-Burmese war at that time, and as Calcutta had passed no laws to detain suspicious vessels, there were no legal means to curb piracy. In 1857, the Indian legislative council had passed an inadequate law which permitted the right of search, but did not solve the problem of proving intent. No improvement was made to the naval force in the Straits Settlements in the last ten years of Indian rule, which consisted of only three gunboats (a 'lilliputian fleet'41).\n\nEventually the Chinese pirates were gradually eliminated from the Straits waters as a result of a series of treaties and agreements between China and other western powers (such as with Prussia 1861, Denmark 1863, the Netherlands 1863, Spain 1864, Belgium 1865, Italy 1866, and Austria-Hungary 186942), the contents of which included co-operative measures to wipe out piracy. The Hong Kong 'Ordinance for the suppression of piracy' was the first real blow delivered against Chinese piracy.4\n\nThe Indian government played a minimal role with regards to the combat of piracy in the Straits. The problem was brought under control through a list of other factors, including foreign treaties and ordinances, and hence, the merchants' complaints were not without reason, as little credit can be attributed to the Indian administration in this respect.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216325, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "33\n\nresidence of factors or agents, and not because anything was manufactured there. Built and owned by the merchants charged with the conduct of foreign trade, they were let out to the foreign merchant houses, and comprised a series of 13 hongs placed side by side of each other, which formed a terrace fronting the river.15 (Plate 4) Each Hong consisted of a series of buildings placed one behind the other from the river backwards, for a depth of from 550 to 600 feet to the first street running parallel to the river.15\n\nSpread over 21 acres, the factory grounds and buildings were rented from the Chinese merchants charged with the conduct of the foreign trade. They impressed visitors, especially in contrast with their proximity to 'low, dingy Chinese houses on the one hand, and the densely populated river on the other', and as another newcomer put it, 'sparkling like diamonds in a heap of old rubbish'.\" (See Plate).\n\nLike the Old China Trade itself, the Factories are long gone. They did not survive the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Chinese War in 1856 (the so-called \"Arrow War,\" after the vessel which became the casus belli) when they were destroyed by fire on the orders of the Chinese authorities. However, they have been immortalized in the many pictorial representations that have come down to us of the sights and scenes of Old Canton.\n\nThese are known collectively as \"China Trade Pictures\" because they were objects of trade, painted to order for the foreign merchants and ships' crews connected with the trade. The earliest panoramas date from the mid-eighteenth century, and from them we can trace the Factories' architectural history, notably the re-buildings that followed periodic disasters, such as the fires of 1822 and 1842.18\n\n19\n\nA salient fact is that most of these paintings are by Chinese, sometimes associated with a particular school of professional painters and sometimes unidentified. Such works were in the Western style, meant to suit Western tastes. Traditional Chinese style \"views\" were, of course, very different.\n\nHonam\n\nPart of Honam Island, on the south side of the Pearl River, opposite", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216326, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "34\n\nthe City, it had long been associated with the Old China Trade.\n\nIt was one of the places approved for recreational visits by the foreign merchants in the Factories, under long-standing regulations imposed by the Chinese authorities which had otherwise confined them to their own residences save on certain days of the month and to certain places\n\n20\n\nR\n\nThese locations included the famous Honam Temple, the Sea Banner Monastery, which dated from around 1600 and was one of the most celebrated temples of Canton. There was also a suburb named Fa Tei (Flower Ground), where several of the Co-hong merchants had homes and extensive gardens.21\n\nThe people in contact with foreigners\n\nThese comprised a wide range, from Manchu and Chinese high officials and their entourages, to the Canton-domiciled merchants of the Co-hong through whom the foreign merchants had to transact their business, and the many minor functionaries and underlings of civil office who were mostly locals, as well as the boat people, a race apart, who supplied essential transportation services and pilots. Most of the naval and military forces also comprised natives of the province.\n\nI shall first say something in general about the Cantonese, and then the boat people, who, between them, constituted the great majority of the persons with whom the foreigners came into contact, in the course of time spent in Canton and the Delta.\n\nThe Cantonese\n\nThe Cantonese were the principal inhabitants of Canton and indeed the province. They are to be distinguished from the Hakka and other long-established residents. They style themselves \"men of Tang,\" as opposed to \"men of Han\" on account of their having come into the South during that dynasty.22\n\nThis self-identification brings out the differences between the local inhabitants of north and south China, reminding us, also, of the well-known antipathies between the two groups and of the disparaging", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216328, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "36\n\npeople and goods over and along the river. They also helped to load ships in the river and carry goods to the European merchantmen at Whampoa. Their presence was useful to the occupants of the Foreign Factories during periodic conflagrations. For instance, a painting of the Great Fire of 1822 shows residents viewing the fire from these boats, their main refuge in time of such emergencies.28\n\nInterestingly enough, people of this type - perhaps even from the Canton group accustomed to foreigners - were of immense help to the British when they first established themselves in Hong Kong as providers of many essential services.29\n\nOther groups of Tanka constituted the sea fishermen whose craft, large and small, were to be found all over the Delta and the islands outside it; and as we shall see further on in this talk, they provided the 'outside pilots' who assisted foreign merchant vessels to get safely into the Macau Roads.\n\nPersonnel directly connected with the China Trade\n\nWe may now consider seriatim, the various personnel encountered by foreign merchants and ships' officers during their time in China over the trading season of the year.\n\nThe Hoppo30\n\nThe Hoppo was the official at the head of the maritime customs, controlling the revenues accruing from the foreign trade. Representing the ministry of finance in Beijing (hu pu) he was dubbed with this title in error by the foreigners. This lucrative office was often filled by a Manchu. The Guangzhou Custom House is shown in Plate 5.\n\nThere were Hoppo in other maritime provinces of China, but the Canton Hoppo was the most important owing to the foreign trade being confined to Canton. His circuit eventually included five sub-stations and some sixty other collection points, the catchment for the coastal and inter-national trade. International trade was itself divided into Chinese, Asian and European, each taxed at a different rate; the Governor was left with control over internal trade.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216329, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "The Hoppo lived in the City, along with the Viceroy, the Governor of Guangdong, and other high provincial officials. Their relations had for long crystallised into an arrangement that ensured access to private gain from the trade as parts of one administration, in contrast to the competing rivalries of earlier times. This was in part to provide for mutual protection against interference and accusation from Beijing officials.\n\nThe Hoppo's and other officials' treatment of foreign merchants\n\nThe language used by these officials in their communications with the traders and the EIC's Select Committee - as instanced by Dr. Gutzlaff, a most useful contemporary source of information on the times - was invariably haughty and patronising, in keeping with the accepted modes of address towards inferiors of all kinds, and did nothing to ease relationships. Gutzlaff also mentions the 'governmental proclamations, detailing the infamous conduct of barbarians, [which] have been repeatedly posted up at Canton,' imbuing the minds of the people with strong antipathy against such worthless barbarians, and discouraging them from having anything to do with foreigners. \"The writer has often heard the natives rehearse these accusations with self-congratulation at their own superiority.\"\n\nThis sort of thing was an irritant, as were the restrictions on the movement of foreign merchants whilst in residence at the Factories, mentioned above.\n\nFar more vexing were their other complaints against the Canton System, which were listed by Morse as including the heavy taxation/impositions levied on the trade; the monopoly system of the Co-hong; the uncertainty of recovery of debts due from Chinese merchants; the diversion of the Consoo Fund (provided from the trade to cover such debts) to government use and presents to officials; and the prohibition on their making representations to any official save through the Co-hong.\n\nTo all such complaints must be added the descriptions of the general venality of the administration, the Hoppo and other senior officials included, and indeed of the whole Canton System, as described in this paper.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216330, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "38\n\nThe Co-Hong\n\nThe Co-Hong was the group of security merchants, not members of a guild but individually licensed, who had been made responsible to the Hoppo for the foreign trade, in all its particulars, and especially in regard to revenue. In practice, this meant that every ship and its crew had to be \"secured\" by one of the Hong merchants, who remained responsible for it, and them, until it quitted China on its homeward voyage.\n\nAlthough domiciled in Canton for several generations, the Hong merchants were not Cantonese, but were of Fukienese origin. They were committed to the foreign trade because they had emigrated to Canton to participate in it, and it was their livelihood. By 1740, their group was already in control of the trade.34\n\nTheir responsibilities were heavy and wide-ranging. In 1836-37, they were responsible for the trade and good behaviour of 307 foreign residents, 55 foreign firms, and over 200 foreign ships and their crews, with total tonnage in excess of 100,000.35\n\nOn the domestic front, they had policing powers over house and ships' compradors, linguists, the more than one hundred shopkeepers who enjoyed limited right to carry out a retail trade with foreigners, and up-country suppliers. Above all, the merchants had good relations to maintain and their goodwill to purchase.36\n\nTheir notion of social advancement remained conventional or became so - to escape from the merchant class into the scholarly or landed gentry class. Their methods were traditional, namely the purchase of property, ranks, degrees and titles. This is why their portraits invariably show them in official dress, as in Plate 6.37\n\nThe Hong merchants' life was not a bed of roses. Quite apart from being held responsible by the senior officials for everything from sailors' disorderly behaviour to foreigners' debts, they were milked unmercifully for public and private causes. Donations towards a famine, a Yellow River flood, the ransom paid to the British for not attacking Canton in 1841, paying off Chinese debts to foreign traders, were typical of what Morse called the 'supplementary exactions' practised upon them by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216331, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 90, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "39\n\nthe officials.38 This kind of thing, plus business losses, led some to bankruptcy.\n\nYet the foreign traders found them to be honourable men of business. There was, says Morse 'an ease in their mutual relations' which was the best commentary on the condition of affairs. \"They both had a reputation for commercial honour and integrity such as has not been surpassed in any part of the world or at any time in its history: trading operations were entirely on parole, with never a written contract: and there was much help and sympathy from one to the other.39\n\nThe servants in the factories\n\nEarlier regulations stated that Chinese could not be employed as servants to foreigners, but this rule was normally relaxed, albeit with a restriction on numbers. Many Chinese serviced the Factories in diverse occupations, and most must have been local people, some of them long-serving. The personal servant of one head of the EIC's Select Committee had been with him for 16 years, and there were clearly others of the kind.\n\n40\n\nHowever, this was a dangerous employment. It became more so at times when the high mandarins were in dispute with the EIC Select Committee, and rules were invoked and enforced for a time. Servants would have to quit, or sometimes flee, and they and their families were liable to be 'squeezed' by underlings. A striking instance of the kind was the terror inspired by the Hoppo's and Prefect's unannounced visit and high-handed actions at the British Factory in 1831, when 'every Chinese in our Employ fled from our premises in alarm for his safety.'41\n\nThe wide range of civilians employed under the Co-Hong's auspices\n\nAssociated with the Hong merchants were a large number of other civilians, functionaries licensed by the Chinese authorities, who were required to be secured by the merchants in the performance of their duties.42 These included linguists (otherwise known as \"interpreters\") and compradors ('negotiators of purchases', storekeepers and ship-chandlers43) who, in their turn, were assisted in their work by a variety of persons offering services to the crews and other personnel connected with the trade. There were also the pilots licensed by the authorities. Besides these were the employees of the Customs, and the naval and\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216333, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "41\n\ngreat importance, and vastly superior to the old man to whom the boat belonged. He kept himself apart from the rest, maintained perfect silence and gravity, and seemed to find the greatest amusement in examining and re-examining his papers, and combing and plaiting his long black hair, with the assistance of a small fragment of looking-glass.47\n\nThe linguists\n\nEach foreign merchant ship arriving at Macau had to engage a linguist before it could proceed up-river to Whampoa.4\n\nA contemporary account states, \"The linguists were custom-house interpreters, who procured permits for delivering and taking in cargoes, transacted all the custom-house business, and kept account of the duties.'49\n\nDavis writes tartly that they were characterized 'on account of the absence, rather than the presence, of those accomplishments which are usually implied by the term; for these persons cannot write English at all, and speak it scarcely intelligibly.'50\n\nHe adds: 'Like the Hong merchants, the linguists are obliged to pay largely for their licences, and are besides liable to heavy exactions, chiefly from the underlings of office, as the Hong merchants are the prey of the higher officers,' and the merchants had to act as sureties before a licence could be obtained.\n\nThe compradors\n\n'At Macau, or later at Whampoa,' Morse explains, 'a ship's comprador must be employed, who has the sole right to purvey provisions and all other articles for the ship or her crew, at prices which were quite impossible to put any check.'51\n\nWe have a brief and tantalising pen portrait of one such at the Whampoa anchorage: 'Boston Jack, as he is called, a stout, portly Chinaman, who supplies most of the American ships lying here, with whatever they require.'52\n\nJust how successful and prosperous this person became, is revealed in an American visitor's letter of 1848:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216342, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 101, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "50\n\nmore detail, the returns for the Company and 'Country' trade at Appendix I in Greenberg, Michael (1951), British Trade and the Opening of China. Cambridge University Press.\n\ns Cited in Views of the Pearl River Delta, Macau, Canton and Hong Kong (1996). Urban Council, Hong Kong joint exhibition organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum, USA, p.108.\n\n9\n\nBall, B.L., M.D., Rambles in Eastern Asia Including China and Manilla During Several Years' Residence, Boston, 1855, pp.97-8,\n\n10 Davis, John Francis (1845). Sketches of China Partly During an Inland Journey of Four Months, Between Peking, Nanking and Canton. [made with Lord Amherst's Embassy in 1816]. London, as a Supplement to the 1845 edition of The Chinese, p.262.\n\n11 Cited in Views, op.cit., p.109.\n\n12 Parkinson, op.cit., pp.257-8.\n\n13 Gutzlaff, Rev. Charles (1838). China Opened, or A Display of the Topography, History, Customs, Manners, Arts, Manufactures, Commerce, Literature, Religion, Jurisprudence, Etc., of the Chinese Empire. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 2 vols. At Vol. I, p.138.\n\n14 For an evocative recent account of Canton, see Garrett, Valery M. (2002). Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away, Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\n15 For a description, see Davis, The Chinese, vol. II, pp.114-116.\n\n16 Herbert A. Giles (1900). A Glossary of Reference of Subjects Connected with the Far East. Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, Third Edition, p.87. A plan of the Factories, as drawn in 1856, is given in Morse, Hosea Ballou (1910), The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, The Period of Conflict 1834-1860. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, opposite p.70.\n\n17 Ball, Rambles in Eastern Asia, op.cit., p.100. The earlier remark is by Commodore Mathew Perry, USN, when en route to his Mission to Japan, but other than having recorded \"Perry, p.136\" I cannot at present trace my source.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216344, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "52\n\n29 See Morse, International Relations op.cit., pp.651-2, in Captain Elliot's despatch of 21 June 1841 to Governor-General of India at Appendix I. The native population of Hong Kong included many boat people.\n\n30 The definitive work on the Hoppo, the changing nature of the post, and his relations with the high provincial officials and the Co-hong is Cheong, Weng Eang (1997). Hong Merchants of Canton, Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade, 1684-1798. London, Curzon. See Chapter 4, Officials and the Trade, at pp.191-245.\n\n31 Gutzlaff, Rev. Charles, (1834). A Sketch of Chinese History, Ancient and Modern, Comprising a retrospect of the Foreign Intercourse and Trade with China. New York, John P. Haven, 2 Vols. See Vol.II, pp 224-227.\n\n32 Gutzlaff, Charles (1834). Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832, & 1833. London, Thomas Ward, at p.306.\n\n33 Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit., pp.86-7.\n\n34 Cheong, Hong Merchants, op.cit., pp.63-4.\n\n35 Ibid., p.15.\n\n36 Ibid., p.15.\n\n37 Ibid., p.14, and (e.g.) p.126n101.\n\n38 Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit., p.86. Also Cheong, Hong Merchants, op.cit., pp.221-224.\n\n39 Morse, Ibid., pp.85-6.\n\n40 Morse, Hosea Ballou, (1926). The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834. Oxford, Vol.III, pp.270, and Vol.IV, pp.282-3 and 305.\n\n41 Ibid., Vol. IV, p.282.\n\n42\n\n42 See the striking passage in Morse, International Relations, Period of Conflict, op.cit., pp.73-74, which makes his responsibilities (and his perquisites) very clear.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]