[ { "id": 209987, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "224\n\nbest titles there? To this last question the answer is certainly \"No\". Either I did not happen to pick up the best book on a particular subject when I was in search of a quotation or, and this was often the case, the best book turned out not to be very quotable. Some authors' styles do not lend themselves to excerpting, not because they are bad but because they are more cumulative than 'dashing'. I think it was Somerset Maugham who described one of his characters as the kind of man you wouldn't mind being marooned for years with but couldn't stand the prospect of one afternoon with. Quotable authors have to scintillate a little, but it doesn't mean that their whole books are good, and vice versa.\n\nNo, the list is also not a representative sample. Too much has been written on too many China topics to hope for that. So the answer to my first question must presumably be \"Not very good\". It is at best an \"interesting\" and \"fun\" list. Partly to redress it I appended a short list of 'Suggestions for Further Reading' to Ancestral Images Again. I could not presume to attempt a definitive list of the most important books on Chinese culture, and discerning readers will doubtless have spotted already that I have made little effort to cover the large realm of capital-C Culture, but let me add here some other important and useful books which I think ought to be on a general list:\n\nBodde, Derk and Morris, Clarence, Law in Imperial China, Harvard University Press, 1967.\n\nBuchanan, K. The Transformation of the Chinese Earth, London, 1970.\n\nBuck, Pearl S, The Good Earth, London, 1931.\n\nChang, K. C., (ed.), Food in Chinese Culture, New Haven, 1977.\n\nEndacott, G. B. and Birch, Alan, Hong Kong Eclipse, Hong Kong, 1978.\n\nFreedman, Maurice, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung, London, 1966.\n\nHawkes, David, The Story of the Stone, Penguin Books, 1973+ (series still in progress).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210324, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 295, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "274\n\nP.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU\n\naround Lantau Peak. Because of its properties, it has traditionally been collected by local villagers to make \"tea\". Normally, the fresh or dried leaves are boiled in water, and sugar added if necessary. Apart from local consumption, the leaves are dried for sale in the herbalists' shops at Tai O. Over the years, the plant has been established as a local product of Lantau Island. Hawkers doing business in front of the Po Lin Monastery on Ngong Ping Plateau are also \"cashing in\" on the trade by bottling the drink for sale to visitors. Because of the thirst-quenching properties and good \"cooling effect\", the drinks are particularly welcomed by hikers. However, most of the dried leaves for sale there nowadays are in fact imported from Ting Wu and Lo Fu Mountains (#LI, #) in Guangdong Province. The price ranges from $5 to $12 per packet according to weight.\n\nThe popularity of the drink seems to be declining in recent years, particularly among young people who prefer ready-made soft drinks. This change has in fact helped to conserve the declining population of this plant species on Lantau Peak.\n\nNOTES\n\nMy (PHH) thanks to Mr. K.C. Ho, Assistant Curator, the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware for his assistance in preparing this Note, and to Mr. M. Cheung of the Visual Aids Section of the Hong Kong Museum of Art for taking the photographs.\n\nTea trees used for the production of \"Hill Tea\" in Mau Tso Ngam and elsewhere in the New Territories are plants of Camellia sinensis in common with tea bushes used elsewhere in China in the commercial production of tea. See Plate 33. (Note by K.C. Iu).\n\nPlate 34.\n\nPlate 35.\n\n5\n\nPlate 36.\n\n6 Plate 37.\n\n7 Plate 38.\n\n&\n\nThis method of preparing green tea is similar to that used in many other parts of China, and involves three steps, viz (a) pan firing, (b) rolling, and (c) roasting. The main purpose of pan firing is to inactivate the enzymes inside the tea leaves (these enzymes must remain active if fermented, rather than green tea, is being made). Rolling releases the tea juices which are considered to be the essence of the tea. The constituents of the juices will stick to the surface of the tea leaves after the final roasting process. Roasting aims to stabilise the process, by baking the leaves to dryness to facilitate storage (Note by K.C. Ho).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210453, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "41\n\nhad disappeared.\n\nThe improved landing facilities were a great convenience. The new main pier, a good deal higher than the old jetty at the seaward end, sloped gradually up to the level of the village path and both path and pier were smooth surfaced, not slippery even in rain. (With the removal of the pigs they were also much cleaner.) All major landing and embarkation operations were now conducted from this, the new westernmost, pier. The smaller one was in fairly frequent use for more domestic purposes: children coming ashore to play, women dashing in to the shops to buy something wanted at the last minute for supper, and so on. The concrete latrine, built to comply with government regulations when the school was put up in 1958, occupied the site of a similar matting and bamboo structure which used to make an appearance for about a week in the second lunar month during the period of Kau Sai's annual temple festival.\n\nNeither the change in the outline of the water front nor the movement of as many as seventeen boat families into their newly built houses ashore made much difference to the lay-out of the anchorage proper. Allowing for a few departures by death or change of occupation or anchorage, and the arrival of one or two others, the accompanying diagram made originally in 1952 is still a fair record of the stations occupied by boats belonging to people of the same surnames as these in 1970.\n\nThe forty-two junks included in the diagram were seldom all in port together. From time to time, too, they were joined by others - notably by a group of six purse seiners, whose owners all surnamed Ng, often anchored at the neighbouring island of Kiu Tsui to which they had moved en bloc from Kau Sai shortly after the end of the Japanese occupation, and by further small liners claiming Kau Sai residence. Visitors also came from many places, particularly at the time of the festival when the bay was suddenly filled for the better part of a week with three hundred or more junks at once. Few visitors stayed more than a few nights or days at a time, but certain Hoklo fishermen, all surnamed Sou, reappeared year after year at certain seasons. The arrival of strangers in \"our Bay\" was always a source of some\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211868, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 283, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "258\n\nOn Sunday my troubles began in earnest. The weather came on very rough early in the morning, and my first intimation of it was to see the water pouring in at the window, and flooding the bed. So I got out to move the bed, when over it goes to the other side of the room with a bang, which woke me up and no mistake about it. Over goes my washing table, and flooded the room again, so that I had a pond, first on one side of the room, and then every time the ship rolled, on the other. Then the boxes began to slide about, and dash first one side and then the other. Then the easy chair, hat box, umbrella, books, etc. etc. joined them, and in a few minutes over went the pan I had used for vomiting on Saturday. All these kept rolling round the room in fine confusion, and I will leave you to imagine that they in no wise helped the seasickness which fast increased. The scene was pitiable in the extreme. I never spent such a Sunday in all my life. It kept raining very hard. All I could do was to make my bed as dry as possible and stay there all day, in a most pitiable condition. I need not say that I wished myself back to Hythe, or down with the good folks at Chudleigh.*\n\nOn Monday the weather increased in fury, and we had a regular dashing about. I grew more and more seasick. We were now about 20 miles from Teignmouth, and I heartily wished the ship might be driven right in by the wind, that I could have got out, and found refuge at the old house at Chudleigh. But no, off we went close to France, and then back again to Lizard Point. Then back to Cape la Hogue in France, and then on Tuesday noon we were to the west of the Scilly Isles. About then the seasickness abated, but came on again furiously at night.\n\nThis morning I awoke a different being, as light and happy and cheerful as possible, and began to sing, and dress myself, and put my place a little straight after so much vexation and trouble. All day I have mended, and now after enjoying my tea, I feel almost right, although as thin as a red herring, having kept nothing at all on my stomach for several days. It has left me very sore at the sides with so much straining and retching, but I shall soon get over it, and be all jolly. The wind keeps right against us. The water is very rough. The ship rolls about dreadfully. During the storm, which has lasted some days, vast had been the amount of damage done to the ship, but more especially has the crockery ware suffered. It would make a person unaccustomed to such sights laugh to see us at meals. The nuisance is dreadful; but I am now a sailor, and am now grown accustomed to it. The waves are running mountains high, and all I wonder at is that we have not been dashed to pieces a hundred", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211890, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 305, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "280\n\nWe are now going on very slowly indeed, and unless the breeze very much strengthens it will be a while even now before we reach Batavia. The weather is much warmer today and I have spent nearly all the time on deck. No one can imagine, unless placed in my circumstances, how much I long to see land once more, and to tread on \"Terra Firma\".\n\nWednesday, July 3rd\n\nI am now writing under far different circumstances to my last. Here I am in a fine hotel in Batavia, recreating and resting till the vessel is able to proceed to her destination. How I came here I will endeavour to describe as clearly as possible, although I have had to pass through so much that I have forgotten one half of it.\n\nNow to proceed. The day after we spoke with the \"whaler\" I have just mentioned, we spoke to another which came from the same town. She had lately caught a whale, and as she sailed past I saw the greater part of the blubber upon deck, cut up in large pieces. They were boiling some at the time, and the scent was quite alarming, as it blew toward our ship. They wrote their longitude by their chronometers on a large board, and we did the same. We were 90 miles out, and this is the result of the captain's ignorance and negligence in all probability.\n\nThe next few days we had a complete calm so that we were only making a few miles a day. The ship having only half of her sails that were capable of being used, made it slow work indeed. Day after day we went on till at last one afternoon we sighted \"Java Head\". The captain's impatience at the lightness of the wind knew no bounds. He walked about and swore, and stamped, and bullied, but all to no purpose. The next day we got off Prince's Island, and just moved a few miles along the shore.\n\nPleasant indeed it was to be in sight of land once more after such a long stay on the wide ocean, with nothing to vary the tediousness and monotony. If it had been a dreary desert land it would have been a treat to look at it, but how great the pleasure to see with the glass the most fertile and luxuriant island in the world, completely embossed with trees, of the most graceful and imposing appearance. We could see the waves as they washed the shores, and hear their dashing against the sandy beach. The heat was something considerable on account of the calm. Butterflies and small insects came off to the ship from the shore, and were the first", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211898, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 313, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "288\n\nI had a good long yarn with Madame Baines on the verandah. When I told her what I was, she became very religious all at once; but I could see it was only hypocrisy, although she had an oily tongue. The Bishop of Victoria was there in 1856. The people were highly pleased with his visit, and all who I heard speak of him seemed to do so with respect. She was acquainted with a Mr King of the Scottish Free Church, who had returned from Scotland only three months ago; and promised to introduce me to him and drive me there in her carriage.\n\nAt eleven o'clock I went to bed. My room was very fine and airy. All the beds in Java have to be curtained all round to keep out the mosquitoes, which would prevent sleep, and sting finely into the bargain.\n\nThe captain and wife came from the ship to the hotel the next day. They made themselves such fools by wanting to appear grand that everybody laughed at them behind their backs. No sooner had the captain left the table, and the rest began to talk, when Mr Phillips began: “Well of all the disagreeable obstinate men I ever saw, I never saw anybody to beat him. I can see it in his looks although I have never spoken to him nor know who he is\". When I told him it was our captain he wanted to know if he had not guessed right. I told him I must be excused from answering that question. Madam was finely laughed at, and reckoned up in just the terms she deserved. Since our return to the ship these parties have been equally run down by the captain and wife,\n\nA\n\nTwo days I took a walk into the town in the middle of the day. I was afterwards told that no European would ever be able to do it, for it was enough to kill the strongest man on account of the sun's intense power. However it had not the least effect upon me. In fact I felt all the better for it.\n\nOn the first day I started to go into town but took a wrong turning, and went out through one of the Chinese quarters into the country, where I had a few miles' walk. The scenery was very fine indeed. The palm and betel nut trees, and trees of which I have no idea formed a delightful shade. Even the country is intersected by canals. But whether in town or country, you always find the shore of the canal crowded with washermen. The clothes are never washed, but merely beaten. They get a smooth stone, and after soaking the clothes in the water, they keep dashing them on the stone, swinging them for that purpose round their head.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211902, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 317, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "292\n\nhas to keep up about a dozen of these servants, for each one only does one thing.\n\nOn Thursday morning weighed anchor. There was scarcely any breeze, and it was only a short distance we made, before we stopped at night. On Friday we were off again, and got a little breeze. About midnight through sheer ignorance and carelessness the ship dashed onto the Aganeiten rocks, and there was a fine crash. The captain was quite paralysed, and did not know what to do. The ship would have doubtless broken up and never been got off; but all at once the wind changed and blew her clean away from danger. Truly a merciful Providence attends us, or we should long ago have gone to the bottom. The captain evinced his gratitude when his fright was over by cursing and swearing worse than before, and bullying the men. In fact the men are continually on the point of mutiny. All I wonder at is that they have not done so before.\n\nWe reached the strait of Banca at last, after several days without wind. As we entered we passed the mail steamer to Batavia, and a Dutch ship aground. We were three days going through, on account of the wind. At night we stopped off another Dutch ship going to Singapore and Hong Kong. In the morning she was off an hour before us. Our masts are not yet only half up, so that in a few hours she was out of sight. The captain does not intend to finish the masts till he gets to Hong Kong, although that was the excuse for going to Batavia.\n\nThe breeze grew a little fresher toward evening, and at night we were going on about five miles an hour. Early in the morning, I heard the cry \"Breakers ahead\", and in another moment came another crash or two, and the ship was dashing on a coral reef. Two large rocks wedged us in, and there we were, expecting to go to pieces since the sea and wind increased and there was no chance of getting off. We were right in the middle of the Toedjoe Islands, which are considered as very dangerous. The captain did not even try to get her off. About noon however with our usual good fortune in difficulties, the water rose about 10 feet, and by sending out an anchor in the ship's pinnace, we drew the ship gradually out of danger, and got clear again. This was celebrated as before by renewed blasphemy.\n\nJuly 25th\n\nWe have now crossed the line, and are less than a thousand miles", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212178, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "97\n\nmade a very good shewing, which drew the admiration of all neutral observers. The Japanese soon brought reinforcements and extended their front down towards the Yangtze in an attempt to dislodge the Chinese from their grip on the suburb of Chapei; but despite the overwhelming superiority of the Japanese equipment, especially in the air, the Chinese stuck to their ground all through August and September, until well into October, when they began to crack, and were finally dislodged by a successful landing on the flank in Hangchow Bay,\n\nThese operations at first led to a complete breakdown in communications between Nanking and Shanghai. Towards the end of August, however, it was found that cars could cover the 200 miles to Shanghai by turning off the main road at Soochow, and passing through Kashing to the Hangchow road, which entered Shanghai from the south. As I was badly in need of instructions I decided to motor down. On arrival in Shanghai I was astonished at the state in which I found popular foreign opinion. There appeared to be no adequate appreciation of the meaning of these new Japanese encroachments in China, or of the Japanese threat to the \"open door\" system of trading the Far East, the traditional British policy expressed in Lord Palmerston's instructions to Admiral Elliot in 1840, when he said \"You will bear in mind that Her Majesty's Government do not desire to obtain for British subjects any exclusive privileges of trade which should not be equally extended to the subjects of every other power\".\n\nShanghai had for some years been the object of much factious interference and petty vexation on the part of Chinese officials in their campaign to recover their \"lost privileges\". The municipal council of the International Settlement found itself continuously involved in arguments, mostly sterile, over all sorts of questions of local interest, such as roads, police, taxes, jurisdiction, and so on, providing occasions where the Chinese aptitude for obstruction had full play. The consequence was to alienate the sympathies of many of the leading foreigners in the main stronghold of foreign interests in China. (According to Professor Remer, an American economist who made a study of foreign investments in China in 1931, British business investments were distributed as follows:\n\nIn Shanghai £130,000,000\n\nIn Hongkong £36,000,000\n\nIn the rest of China £30,000,000\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 351, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "328\n\nthe Roman Catholic church was turned down on the grounds that he was a Freemason'.\n\nThe formation and numbers of the Corps ebbed and flowed with local and international events. Sometimes in the lull periods the volunteer body was reduced to nothing more than a rifle-cum-social club. The human interest of the early chapters flags accordingly as the minutiae of the Corps, such items as the change from muzzle to breech loading guns, full names and initials of the various officers, numbers of men etc., are recorded. Whilst the Regiment's purists will relish this depth of detail, the non-military reader's interest might wane somewhat.\n\nThe book bursts alive again however with the horrendous events of the 8th to the 25th December 1941. The impression conveyed of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong was of magnificent bravery and a classic military rear guard action in which the Volunteers fought and died alongside the Regular forces. The valour of the Corps is epitomized by the story of Private Sir Edward Des Voeux when, in a particularly ferocious encounter with the enemy, it was suggested he make a dash to safety 'he replied calmly that he was too old to go dashing about and that he would far rather fire in comfort. He died, still fighting' (P. 239)\n\nAlmost a third of the book is devoted to the fall of Hong Kong but do we learn anything new? Most history books trot out the catalogue of reversals based on General Maltby's subjective hindsight of what went wrong and why. This book sadly does not challenge Maltby's prejudiced reflections, which is a shame because Mr. Bruce, more than most, is qualified to question the logic as to how, where and when the battle was fought and lost. It is also regrettable that the publisher presumed that all readers are familiar with Hong Kong. Without a detailed map, the unfolding events, especially in December 1941, are difficult to grasp.\n\nMr. Bruce's book will not stand as a definitive story of the Hong Kong Volunteers. The loss of vital records during World War II prevents such a history. The appeal however is the readable portrayal of one of the territory's more colourful institutions and as such is recommended for anyone keen to have a broader picture", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212616, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "150\n\nand the 3rd War Zone branch of the Central Military Academy, where the junior officers of the Chinese army are trained.\n\nThe outbreak of war between Britain and Japan had altered the nature of my visit. It was agreed that a British party would be sent to the 3rd War Zone to assist in guerilla warfare, and shortly afterwards I left for a reconnaissance of the forward areas where the school, which was to be the central feature of our assistance, would be established.\n\nThe lower Yangtze delta is the most densely populated and the wealthiest region in China. Within the triangle contained by Shanghai, Nanking, and Hangchow, there are many large cities, such as Soochow, Changhsing, Huchow, Chinkiang and Kashing. In this area there is more railway traffic, more road traffic, more river and canal traffic, more sea-going shipping, and more active industry, than in all the rest of China. For the past four years, since the fall of Nanking, the Japanese had occupied the main lines of communication in the region; the Yangtze, the railways, the large cities; and they had patrolled and used the roads and creeks: in short, on the security of this base rested the whole Japanese position in China. Any threat here, any blow at Japanese dispositions, would be correspondingly the more telling. Well, as it happened, a broad tongue of mountains reached from the southwest into the area, and in these mountains the guerillas had established their quarters.\n\nOur car followed the road along the Tsien Tang river gorges: we slept in little road-side inns and ate in busy fly-blown taverns. When I had last visited these parts there had been no motor roads; I had come by junk, hauled up the rapids by trackers who bent to the ground as they strained to advance foot by foot. A new railway, leading south from Wuhu on the Yangtze, had been completed only a few years previously. In face of the Japanese advance, Chinese engineers had dismantled the line to deny its use to the enemy: but the Japanese advance had stopped at the edge of the plain; the mountain area which reached back to the mass of unoccupied China was still untouched, except for desultory bombing. The steel railway bridges had been cut, their girders sloped at all angles; and the sleepers had been taken for firewood by the farmers, leaving the rails lying along the track.\n\nAll this derelict steel, the stone piers of the bridges, the embankments and cuttings, and the rails themselves, were ideal for use in training. We had here better facilities than we had ever had in Maymyo, though", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212907, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "201\n\nbut recognisable environment.\n\nOn the whole we preferred Cheung Chau and it was to Cheung Chau that I was taken after my appendix operation. During my stay in hospital when I had to stay in bed for some time, I had forgotten how to walk or even stand up! I protested that I could not possibly walk up to the bungalow so a sedan chair was sent for. I had not seen one on Cheung Chau before, though they were a common sight in Hong Kong and were used to carry children up Lantau Peak. I was lured out of my invalid bed by the present of some stunning bathing shoes. These were brightly coloured rubber shoes that were meant to protect your feet from stones on the beach. I do not remember ever actually using such shoes but, with the sound of the waves lapping on the beach, they were enough to remind me of the delights of swimming, and messing about in the sand, and playing with model boats, the largest of which had been made specially by the building contractor in Fatshan.\n\n4\n\nSwimming played a central part in our lives on Cheung Chau. I can remember my first unaided swim, which was rewarded by the present of a trumpet much regretted by my parents in subsequent days. The beach was the highlight for our lives. We would walk through the thick pine woods across the island from our bungalows, down through the screw pine to the beach. The smells of the pine trees, of the screw pine, and of the beach and the sea still evoke the thrill of arriving at the beach and dashing into the sea.\n\nSome of the grown-ups were able to swim out to a large rock off the Evening Beach (Kwun Yam Wan) to which the Residents' Association had fixed some iron rungs for climbing out. I was only able to achieve such an exploit when I had come back to work in 1950, but by then the iron rungs had mostly rusted away. The Association also arranged with some fishermen, who fished at night, to anchor their boat in the bay and fix steps and a diving board for us to use by day. This did come in reach, and I can still recall the thrill of climbing up the steps after the swim out. The boat had a delicious smell of fish and sea water and was swarming with the little black creatures with lots of legs. It was a great place to play as well as being an excellent diving platform.\n\nThe Morning Beach (Nam Tam Wan) was much smaller, but it too had a large rock equipped with rungs to climb out on. We did not go often to the Police Beach (Tung Wan), which adjoined the Evening", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213322, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "125\n\ncalling the Chinese \"disloyalists\", the Fukien braves sided with the enemy and set fire to the town. The foreigners then got over the wall and burnt the Manchu quarter, the Assistant Tatar-General and the acting Sub-Prefect losing their lives, and the taotai escaping to Kashing. The Magistrate Wei Feng-chia led a body of militia to oppose the British advance on the town and was killed, and whilst Heng Hsing, the Chinese Force commander at Hangchou was cashiered, the Chinese commander at Chapu, Chang Hsi, escaped death and capture but was later, posthumously, accused of having run away. The official toll of Chinese casualties including civilian casualties was said to exceed 1300. This figure includes more than 400 officers and men from the Green Standard force and 280 Manchu Bannermen.\n\nWhen I-li-pu \"arrived at Chapu, the English demands, so the Chinese version continues, were so extravagant that nothing definite could be arrived at; and, when the Governor requested the Emperor's sanction to the restoration of the score or two of white and black barbarian prisoners, the foreign ships had left Chapu. The prisoners were then sent to Chen-hai, and it was suggested that bygones should be bygones; but the English would not listen any more.\n\nThe idea of an attack on Hangchou itself by the British forces was now abandoned and attention was directed to the important trade centre of Shanghai. The British, having destroyed the Chinese arsenal, guns and all Chinese government stores in Chapu, released all their prisoners of war cash with a small present, and then on the 28th May embarked for the Yangtze and Woosung, the town at the mouth of the river leading to Shanghai. The transports took fifteen days to cover the hundred miles to Woosung which was bombarded and captured by naval forces. The war ended two months later before the walls of Nanking,\n\nThe 18th Royal Irish was disbanded in 1922 and amongst its many battle honours was 'China 1840-42'. The men of the regiment who took part in the campaign were eligible for the medal awarded for the 'China War' though, regrettably, there was no bar for Chapu.\n\nIn March 1994 my daughter and I tried to find the site of the joss house. Enquiries in the town of Chapu itself were received with polite replies that no such place existed and that there were no temples now near Chapu, this despite the fact that standing less than thirty yards from the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214508, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 366, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "335\n\nhand in hand, being photographed left, right and centre. It was, after all, Saturday - a popular day for weddings - but the sight was somewhat surreal. Especially as perhaps none of them realised the more sombre use to which the ground they were walking on had once been put. The presence of so many beautiful brides and their dashing grooms explained another sight that greeted us in the road outside the park, that of dozens of taxis decked out with flowers, Mr and Mrs Mickey Mouse dolls, cabbage patch couples, and all manner of wedding paraphernalia. Our guide explained that wedding motorcades can only use taxis - no private cars are allowed to take part - and only a maximum of four vehicles can be used per wedding, otherwise traffic jams become too problematical.\n\nWhat happened next was the only time that we had a serious difference of opinion with our guide. We were taken to a temple of sorts that had an “antiques and works of art\" shop attached to it - and there we were left for an hour. As our time was so tight none of us were pleased at being given this normal tourist treatment. Did our guide not realise that we were far from being normal tourists? Quiet words were had with him, and to be fair there were no further such occurrences during the remainder of the trip. I have a picture of him at a fort in Port Arthur, sitting with his head in his hands. The caption must be something like: \"Why did I have to end up with this lot?\" To put the record straight, I was so pleased with how he had looked after us that, when we parted at Dalian airport, I gave him my copy of \"Far from Home\"; he was clearly delighted and touched by this.\n\nTo the southwest of the hill, along Fu Shan Road, is what is now the Ocean University of Qingdao. The university is housed in buildings that once constituted the enormous Bismarck Barracks. In full view of the Governor's residence, these barracks once housed upwards of 4,000 military personnel. The buildings have been preserved well. The former military parade ground is now a series of sports fields.\n\nFrom the barracks it was onwards to the sea to Badaguan, formerly a popular residential area for the Germans, and apparently still a popular residential area, but for whom? Party officers? There seemed to be an air of privilege about the area still.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214509, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 367, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "336\n\nI do not know if a couple of bus-loads of \"extras\" were sent on in advance of our arrival at the beach, but we were greeted again by the sight of bridal couples - a beachful of them! I have a photograph that clearly shows more than 30 couples, the brides for the most part in western white gowns and the grooms in black suits. The heavily decorated taxis were present here too, but so was a totally different kind of conveyance, one that is rather hard to describe. Bright red in colour, it appeared to be the sort of car that might have been designed by Walt Disney - long and open with running boards and big frog-eye headlights. Our guide explained that the city had commissioned 20 of these wonderful creations. One of our number (the dashing and debonair Philip Bruce) found out that such cars were available for hire (with driver) during the evenings when not being used for weddings - and so off he went later that night for a very special city tour.\n\nAt the eastern end of the beach is the commanding building that was once the governor's seaside retreat and hunting lodge. Fully open to the public, and containing a souvenir and trinkets shop, it affords a wonderful panorama back across the city and the beach full of brides.\n\nThe day finished with dinner in a nearby restaurant, where our enthusiasm to support the local beer-making industry easily broke the budget of our unfortunate China Qingdao Overseas Tourist Company guide.\n\nDespite the preponderance of good beer in all the places we visited, some of our number preferred to sample the local wine. Chinese wine has been around for some time, during which it has steadily been getting better. A local find worth noting was the excellent Hua Dong, which really took by surprise those who sampled it. Comments were heard such as: \"I have never tasted a good Chinese-made wine before.\" In fact the Hua Dong winery has been made famous by none other than the globe-trotting Michael Palin, who went there in his TV series as well as managing to stay at the German Governor's residence in Qingdao.\n\nChefoo - The Brighton of China\n\nThe road from Qingdao to Chefoo (or Yantai as it is now known)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215554, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 331, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "281\n\nHONG KONG'S LIGHTHOUSES\n\nAND\n\nTHE MEN WHO MANNED THEM\n\nLOUIS HA and DAN WATERS\n\n[Complementary HKBRAS lectures were delivered by Fr. Louis Ha (Part One) and Dr. Dan Waters (Part Two) on 3rd May 2002. The following day, courtesy the Director, Government Marine Department, 93 HKBRAS members and guests visited Waglan Lighthouse. The above two lectures were based on the following text. All photographs accompanying these complementary papers were taken on the visit by long-time RAS member Charles Slater.]\n\nPART ONE\n\nLighthouses on the coast, \"sentinels of the sea\", are without doubt romantic and interesting to the ordinary person. Their loneliness and isolation, the mental picture of waves dashing vainly at their feet while the light shines overhead, far and wide over darkness and angry waters, the drama of shipwreck and rescue, and of successful passage through storm and stress, combine to give them a special appeal to the hearts and minds of all men.'\n\nThis is one of the beautiful descriptions of lighthouses written by the Deputy Commissioner of Customs of China, T. Roger Banister, in 1932.1\n\nPractical aids\n\nIn reality, lighthouses exist for much more practical purposes; as aids to navigation in avoiding shipwrecks or grounding of ships. Traditional navigation aids include Light Vessels, Light Buoys, Beacons and Fog Signals such as bells, gongs, reed horns and explosives. These aids have been developed out of necessity over the ages.\n\nPharos\n\nOne of the oldest lighthouses was the Pharos at Alexandria, in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]