[
    {
        "id": 205321,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 83,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "76\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\nthe carrying and other heavy work, \"The men do not even know how to carry water\" and probably do not demand that the women give them lessons at it.' \n\nFrank 1925, p. 210f. Even among the Cantonese-speaking Punti population in Kwangtung, traditional women's participation in the work in the fields occurred; cf. Yang 1959, p. 21f. The notes above, however, are to be read as contrasts to Punti custom.\n\n35 Investments in house building on a large scale seem to be typical for all Chinese peasant communities with a marked inflow of external income. Generalizing from his experiences with three emigrant communities in Fukien and Kwangtung, Chen Ta writes:\n\n\"The most practical way to gratify their vanity is to build a house. Even when he does not contemplate a return in the immediate future, a Chinese emigrant who has made a fortune in the Nan Yang is quite likely to send a sum of money home for the express purpose of buying a new house\"; Chen 1939, p. 109.\n\nFrom another part of China, Francis Hsu notes that\n\n\"in this Yunnan community people became rich not through South-Seas emigration, but through tin mines and trading. As soon as a family becomes wealthy, it begins to build huge but largely unused houses ...\"; Hsu 1945, p. 48.\n\nBoth authors interpret house building as the symbolic aspect of the move from one social position to another by the sojourner in his home community, the big house being closely associated with gentry status. A comment on increasing house building in the New Territories in the beginning of this century is made in the N. T. Report 1899-1912, p. 56.\n\n36 Although these people have spent many years in English-speaking countries, none of them can converse in the English language. Also, this is largely true for the younger generation now residing in Britain. The Chinese emigrant is often sojourning in a Chinese enclave, the structure of which, in many important respects, is very different from that of his home community; it is still basically Chinese and offers social security in a foreign country. I have the impression that the sojourners have a fairly limited direct contact with the people of the country where they stay, especially if this is in Europe or America. Such contacts are also often highly formalized, of the type client-waiter relations in a restaurant. The surrounding social milieu is, I feel, experienced filtered through the culture of the enclave.\n\n37 In 1963 overseas remittances, in the form of postal and money orders cashed at the New Territories post offices, amounted to the value of HK$20,973,152. The corresponding figure for 1964 was HK$24,076,719; Hong Kong 1963, p. 60; Hong Kong 1964, p. 30. Considerable sums will also have been remitted through banks: these figures are not known. One item of information from the New Territories tells that one farmer annually receives about HK$1,500 from his two sons working in England; Topley 1964, p. 176. Ronald Ng (1965, p. 35) estimates the monthly remittances at £30, or HK$5,760 annually.\n\n38 This means that the daily income for a restaurant worker in Britain would amount to nearly HK$23. This may be compared to the daily wage of a worker in the New Territories which is about HK$10. Ng gives a similar figure for restaurant workers in the U.K.; Ng (1965, p. 35).\n\n39 The situation of the members of the overseas community in Britain could be compared to that of a villager of Big Stream Village working in a grocer's shop on the island of Aruba in the Netherlands West Indies. His salary there is 'over' US$100, i.e., at least HK$130, a month. The daily",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207629,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 17,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "and living in a resettled village, on their field observations relating to urban development. In November we had a talk on diplomatic systems in East Asia as part of general philosophies of state by Dr. Frank W. Ikle and in December Dr. Ralph Smith, a visiting historian specialising in Vietnamese society at the School of African and Oriental Studies spoke on the Cao-Daist and Hoa Hao religious sects. Another visitor to Hong Kong—visiting professor in anthropology at The Chinese University—Professor Francis L. K. Hsu, spoke to the Society in January giving his views about Chinese motivations and values and comparing them with Western values and motivations as he sees them. In February we held our symposium: this time on Architecture and the development of Hong Kong. We were fortunate enough to obtain the kind services of Mr. Tao Ho here, a well-known local architect and designer, who gathered a team of experts to talk on problems of community and town planning, building, mass transit and the historical development of ethnic clusters in relation to building. This was very well attended and there was some lively discussion. We look forward to seeing the papers in publication: Mr. Ho is presently editing them for the Society. The last lecture of the period was given by Professor Daffyd Evans of Hong Kong University who spoke on early European residents in Hong Kong. We look forward to seeing some of these talks in print in the Journal.\n\nForeign tours are now an established feature of our annual programme. This period included a tour of Burma guided by Mr. Michael Smithies, a former Secretary of your Society, now resident in Indonesia, who has led past tours so successfully. It was organised this end by Ms. Helga Werle of your Council. This was also a very successful venture and I understand that it has been followed by a reunion of tour members who are anxious to have more of the same.\n\nFor the future: Ms. Werle and Mr. Smithies, and also Dr. Leigh Wright are offering tours abroad—to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Korea, and Borneo—dates will be decided on the basis of majority response to several offered to members in a recent circular. A visit to Tai Mo Shan is also planned for this weekend (April 3), and will include the Shing Mun or Jubilee Reservoir. Talks and notes will be given on history and ethnography of the area, plant and insect life, and birds of upper Tai Mo Shan—by Dr. James Hayes.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212258,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 200,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "177\n\n(mouth) from the character get di (fortune) should not be completely joined, so that the \"mouth\" is an \"open\" one. In this way, the troupe members are freed from the curse of \"not being able to open the mouths\", which implies that the actors could not sing or speak, that the troupe would become unemployed, and that the members would have to suffer from starvation. In case the stage is a \"new\" one, the hoi bet ritual has to be carried out by the actor who is to play the Deity of Fortune.\n\nFrom these taboos and religious practices, one might easily deduce that Cantonese operatic employees are highly superstitious. However, without understanding the function behind these practices, such a judgement would be nothing more than a subjective evaluation.\n\nIn his Exorcising the Trouble Makers: Magic, Science and Culture (1983), the anthropologist Francis L.K. Hsu has pointed out that religion and superstition are indispensable in every culture, including those praised as “civilized” and others criticised as “primitive”, and that it is not always easy to draw a distinction between science and religion. According to Hsu, a community which believes in science would dress-up their religious beliefs and superstitious practices in the form of science, and similarly, a community which inclines towards religion and superstition would interpret its empirical and scientific experience in the form of religion (Hsu 1983:129).\n\nTraditionally, Cantonese operatic troupes are often hired to perform for festivals, birthdays of both ghosts and deities, and an elaborated Taoist ritual known as da ziu k (rite of purification). In fact, before permanent theatres became an additional context of Cantonese operatic performances in the late 19th century, for most Cantonese operatic troupe members, ritual performance had been their major source of employment. Even in modern Hong Kong, every year over two-thirds of the total productions are staged in a ritual context.\n\nIn the late Qing Dynasty and even up to the early 20th century, ritual performances were held in temporary theatres built with palm leaf mats, bamboo and wood poles. Modern ritual theatres replace mats with tin sheet. When a troupe is hired to perform a series of ritual plays, the temporary theatre becomes not only their performing venue but also their living quarters.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212260,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 202,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "179\n\nthe profession as a means to solve problems related to the management of the troupe and the theatre. Eventually such management rules were overwhelmed by the profession's religious sentiments and transformed to become an essential part of the employees' religious beliefs.\n\nHsu Francis L.K. 1983\n\nREFERENCES CITED\n\nExorcising the Trouble Makers. Magic, Science and Culture, Westport: Greenwood Press.\n\nChiao, Chien\n\n1986\n\n\"Beating the Petty Person: A Ritual of Hong Kong Chinese\" (in Chinese), in New Asia Academic Bulletin (Volume VI): Special Issue on Anthropological Studies of China, Hong Kong: New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nWard, Barbara E. 1979\n\n\"Not Merely Players: Drama, Art and Ritual in Traditional China,\" in Man, March 1979.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    }
]