[
    {
        "id": 208803,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 260,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n233\n\nview, states \"this volume will occupy an essential place . . . . in any library claiming to cover the affairs of the Far East in general and those of south-east Asia in particular\". He adds that it is “much more than a tale of crime. It touches unceasingly, and sometimes commandingly, the everyday life's economic activities and official governments of the Chinese population, incidentally throwing sharp lights and shades on the character, social organization, and politics of the Chinese A vivid piece of research not....\n\ndead history + 抒 + + a scrap of\n\nI am not an expert on secret societies, nor have much to offer by way of useful comment on the modern period of the book, but I am most impressed with the account given of Chinese associations in the early period of Chinese immigration and the reaction of the British Colonial authorities to the problems encountered in their train. They were dealing with an enigma and found it difficult to separate the clearly often respectable side of Chinese associations from the secret society or criminal aspect. Where they could be separated (which was not always the case) each type of society had yet come together for mutual self-help. Even the most criminal retained this feature which was so important and continuing a part of the movement. For me, interested in the association side of Chinese life at home and abroad — where, it is necessary to remind oneself, it had initially to operate against a background of all-male life in one or more alien cultures and a different climate — this confusion, the variety across the spectrum and the wealth of material provided in the book are more fascinating than the criminal involvement of certain societies and their leaders at different times.*\n\n* This confusion was noted by others in touch with Chinese in Colonial Society at the time. In this connection, the following extract from a work by an English Presbyterian missionary in Singapore (Archibald Lamont writing under the pseudonym \"John Coming Chinaman\" in Bright Celestials, The Chinaman of Home and Abroad (London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1894)) may be of interest. At pp. 183-184 he relates a conversation by his hero, a Chinese emigrant who is discussing a secret society with his employer, a Dutch planter in the East Indies.\n\n'But although our Society has its dangerous and unworthy subsections and cliques, comprising men who use Society privileges for selfish and criminal ends,' said Tek Chiu, ‘our real aims are the highest and the best. And although there are bad men in our membership, the loyalty that we owe to the Society becomes all the greater. We who are free from crime act as a conscience to the blackguards, who, however bad they may be, will on account of the oath that binds them, do us no wrong. And on the other hand, we may do them much good in dissuading them from evil courses.'",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 210905,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 256,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "239\n\nChinese should have a more consultative role in government, class legislation should be abolished and Chinese leadership should be encouraged.\n\nThe Chinese feared the public meeting would be manipulated to openly condemn Sir John and thus impede the implementation of his policy. The anti-Hennessy group feared the Chinese would vote en bloc to frustrate their intended objective for the meeting.\n\nIn this atmosphere of mutual distrust it was inevitable the meeting would encounter difficulties unless handled in a fair and diplomatic manner. This did not happen, and the meeting deepened the mistrust between the two sides.\n\nThe affair aroused a great amount of newspaper comment. Ho A-mei presented the Chinese version in an attempt to balance that given by the colonialists. As an early presentation of the Chinese side of an issue appearing in the English language press it is worth quoting in full. It was published in the October 16, 1878 issue of the Daily Press.\n\nHo A-mei wrote: \"I would like to say a few words on the treatment I and the large number of Chinese received who were present at the public meeting on October 7.\n\n\"I wish also to point out that the Chinese who were there were not, as some people have said, ‘shop coolies’ and the like, but that nearly all of them belonged to the better classes and those who have large stakes in the welfare of the colony.\n\n\"On Europeans finding the City Hall nearly filled with Chinese, some of them called out ‘d...d Chinaman, turn them out’. I then heard some say, ‘Let us have the meeting elsewhere to prevent the Chinese coming’. After being formally opened, it moved to open air. There was a general struggle to get to the cricket ground and when we (Chinese) arrived there, we found a ring already formed of foreigners.\n\n\"Some of us attempted to get into the ring, but were roughly handled and pushed back. The promoters of the meeting were",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
        "rank": 0
    }
]