[ { "id": 204775, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE\n\n67\n\nThird Edition 1643 by Man Sz-k'ei, Leung Tung-min, Tang Leung-yuk and others; Preface by Ch'an Hei-yiu.\n\nMan Sz-kei (Tai-wu) of Suichau, Sub-director of Studies in San On, 1640-?1645.\n\nLeung Tung-ming of Tun Tau, prefectural graduate in 1641.\n\nTang Leung-yuk # Perhaps a mistake for Tang Leung-sz of Kam Tin, prefectural graduate in 1610.\n\nCh'an Hei-yiu of Chingteh, Kiangnan, Magistrate of San On, 1640–1645.\n\nFourth Edition 1672 by (?); Preface by Lei Ho-shing.\n\nLei Ho-shing of T'ichling in Liaotung, Magistrate of San On, 1670-1677.\n\nFifth Edition 1688 by (?); Preface by Kan Man-mo.\n\nKan Man-mo of K'aichou in Chihli, Magistrate of San On, 1687—(?).\n\nSixth Edition 1819 by Wong Shung-hei; Prefaces by Yuen Yuen, Lo Yuen-wai, Shue Mau-kwun and the author.\n\nWong Shung-hei of Nanch'eng in Kiangsi, a prefectural sub-graduate of Chihli.\n\nYuen Yuen, an Imperial Censor, Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief of Kwangsi, Kwangtung, Hunan, Kueichou and Yunnan; of -wei in Kiangsu; born about 1760.\n\nLo Yuen-wai, a chin-shih, Intendant of Grain for Kwangtung, of Nam Ye.\n\nShue Mau-kwun (Yue-fong), a chin-shih, Magistrate of San On, 1816—(?).\n\nSixth Edition was reprinted without its maps in the 1930s.\n\n* In which case a copy of this edition might be preserved among the clan archives.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204929, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 37, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "30\n\nSIR JOHN BOWRING\n\npoor in their declining years. Age may also be pleaded in ex-tenuation of crime, and in mitigation of punishment. Imperial decrees sometimes order presents to be given to all indigent old people in the empire. I am not aware of any detailed statistics giving the number of such recipients since a return published in the time of Kanghi (1657). Kienlung (1785) directed that all those claimants whose age exceeded 60, should receive 5 bushels of rice and a piece of linen; those above 80, 10 bushels of rice and two pieces of linen; those above 90, 30 bushels of rice and two pieces of common silk; and those above 100, 50 bushels of rice, and two pieces, one of fine and one of common silk. He ordered all the elders to be enumerated who were at the head of five generations, of whom there were 192, and, \"in gratitude to heaven,\" summoned 3,000 of the oldest men of the empire to receive Imperial presents, which consisted principally of em-broidered purses, and badges bearing the character # shau, meaning Longevity.\n\nThe Kanghi Tables, shewing the numbers who enjoyed the benefit of the Edict are these:\n\n \n PROVINCES\n Above 70 Years\n Above 80 Years\n Above 90 Years\n Above 100 Years\n TOTALS\n \n \n Chihle\n 11,111\n 535\n 11\n 646\n \n \n \n Leaoutung\n 244\n 88\n 5\n \n 337\n \n \n Kansuh\n 41,991\n 9,043\n 250\n \n 51,284\n \n \n Shantung\n 65,225\n 26,067\n 1,330\n 9\n 92,631\n \n \n Honan\n 8,132\n 3,651\n 451\n 5\n 12,239\n \n \n Keangnan\n 34,088\n +\n 1,065\n 3\n 35,156\n \n \n Chekeang\n 21,866\n 982\n \n \n 22,848\n \n \n Shanse\n 13,382\n 11,582\n 317\n \n 25,281\n \n \n Hookwang\n \n 37,354\n 25,544\n 2,850\n 65,752\n \n \n Keangse\n 7,190\n 580\n +\n \n 7,770\n \n \n Kwangtung\n 17,369\n 9,415\n 591\n \n 27,375\n \n \n Kwangse\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Fuhkeen\n 489\n 114\n \n \n \n \n \n Szechuen\n 10,213\n 5,232\n 369\n \n \n \n \n Kweichow\n 176\n 99\n 13\n \n \n \n \n Yunnan\n 749\n 94\n 603\n \n \n \n \n \n 15,814\n 288\n 843\n \n \n \n \n \n +++\n \n \n \n \n \n \n TOTALS\n 184,086\n 169,850\n 9,996\n 21\n 373,935", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207801, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "174 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nproblems involving steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze may be said to have been solved, or at least understood. Only political unrest, civil wars, and the preoccupation of Britain with the First World War prevented further development.\n\nSzechwan suffered severely from the breakdown of the central government after 1915. At times trade was almost at a standstill because of civil war and organised brigandage, and to a lesser extent because of floods and famines. In spite of this, steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze flourished, a tribute to the keen business instincts and adaptability of the Chinese merchants. The first British steamer to appear on the Upper Yangtze since the Pioneer of 1900 was the Asiatic Petroleum Company's Anlan which went into service in 1918, and was followed in the following year by their Anning.* In addition to carrying petroleum products, these ships carried a few European passengers.\n\nThis heralded a period when there was a great increase in steam navigation on the Upper Yangtze, remarkable in that it took place against a background of continuing and increasing civil war, political unrest, and general trade depression.\n\nOther British companies followed the Asiatic Petroleum Company. In 1919 Mackenzie and Company of Shanghai built the famous Loong Mow at Shanghai's Kiangnan Dockyard, 196.5 feet long by thirty-one feet beam, moulded depth of nine feet six inches and gross registered tonnage of 1,112. The twin reciprocating engines and oil-fired water tube boilers were built by Thorneycroft of Southampton, and the luxurious accommodation for both Chinese and foreign passengers led her to be called \"The Queen of the Gorges\". Soon after this the China Navigation and the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company at last built their own ships for the Upper Yangtze, until then having used chartered junks flying their house flags for their Upper River trade. Then the Stars and Stripes appeared with several Dollar Line ships and some small tankers of the Standard Oil Company; and in 1925 by several steamers of the Yangtze Rapids Steamship Company. For a time this latter company operated a through service between Shanghai and Chungking. French, Italian, and Japanese steamers also appeared at this time. By the end of 1925 there were at least thirty-two steamers on\n\n*This company was the Far Eastern branch of the Shell Company.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "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": 211862, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 277, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "252\n\nJOHN FRYER'S EARLY YEARS IN CHINA: I. Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong\n\nFRED DAGENAIS*\n\nJohn Fryer (1839-1928) is perhaps best known as a translator of English language books on science and technology into Chinese. During a period of three decades as head of the translation department at the Kiangnan Arsenal (1867-1896), Fryer worked to translate and publish over 100 works. Fryer's translations were well-received by Chinese intellectuals, often reprinted, and were widely distributed. His translations, along with the translations of others, thus made available the then state-of-the-art Western science and technology to late Ch'ing reformers and intellectuals.\n\nDuring adolescence Fryer was caught up in the religious fervour of the mid-nineteenth century and the enthusiasm for things Chinese. He began his career as a pupil teacher at St. James' School in Bristol and completed his education at Highbury Training College in London. His principal at Highbury, the Reverend (later Bishop) Charles R. Alford, recruited him to serve as headmaster of St. Paul's College in Hong Kong, a school for Chinese boys sponsored by the Church Missionary Society. He worked as headmaster of St. Paul's from 1861 until 1863, when he went to Peking to become a \"professor\" at the T’ung-wen Kuan, or Government sponsored \"Interpreter's College\". While in Peking Fryer continued his association with the Church Missionary Society under the guidance of the Reverend (Later Bishop) James Shaw Burdon. In 1865 he was asked by the Church Missionary Society to become superintendent of the Anglo-Chinese School in Shanghai, where he worked until 1868, when he joined the arsenal at Kiangnan.\n\nFryer sailed for Hong Kong on March 10, 1861. He reached Victoria on July 30th, after a voyage of 142 days, including a brief stop in Batavia, seven days before his 22nd birthday. The voyage was not unlike voyages\n\n* Centre for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley.\n\nEditor's Note. It is hoped to publish a series of accounts of Hong Kong and its environs written by John Fryer in this and the next issues of the Journal. They have been edited by Dr. Dagenais, who is preparing a full edition of Fryer's papers. A portrait of Fryer is at Plate 22. A few minor editorial changes to Fryer's text have been made to remove possible ambiguities and to conform with current usage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212228, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "147\n\nHighbury and in a position to encourage Fryer to enter into missionary service. Alford later became \"Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College in 1867\". What seems certain is that Alford was instrumental in obtaining the appointment for Fryer at St. Paul's College, under the sponsorship of the Church Missionary Society, thus launching his career in China.\n\nIn the letter describing his \"First Impressions\" Fryer appears to have quickly adjusted to the culture shock of Hong Kong and its people. Through the course of the letter Fryer takes the reader, in this case the family and friends to whom he has written, on a walking tour first of the island and then of the College. After a brief description of the island's geology, flora, and fauna, Fryer offers his impressions of both colonizers and colonized. He is pithy at times and harsh at other times, yet perhaps not off the mark. The letter concludes with a walking tour of the building that housed St. Paul's College with comments on the ambience of the building, each of the rooms, the students, the methods of instruction, and the Chinese house staff.\n\nIn the letter we see Fryer coming to terms with the European community and with the Chinese, among whom he was to work and live for the next 35 years. We see a determination which includes both a mastery of the situation and an accommodation to the requirements of the missionary community and the various social hierarchies in which he chose to live and work. This assimilation was to serve Fryer well during his career in Hong Kong (1861-63), in Peking (1863-65) at the T'ung-wen Kuan, and in Shanghai (1865-96) primarily at the arsenal at Kiangnan, where he accomplished his major work as translator of books on Western science and technology.\n\nThe manuscript for \"First Impressions ...\" is to be found in the Fryer Papers in The Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The papers contain both the holograph and a typewritten transcript made by Fryer many years later. Along with the holograph is a single sheet of paper with pen and ink drawings, tinted with watercolor, made of the floor plan of St. Paul's College, with the ground floor and the second floor on opposite sides of the sheet. Unfortunately, the ink and color of the sketches has run through the thin paper making them unsuitable for reproduction. An attempt has been made to reproduce the spirit of the sketches in the illustrations.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "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": 212769, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "63\n\n1881\n\nApril\n\nJune\n\n1882 February March Spring\n\n1882 November 1882/1883\n\n1883 May\n\n1833 Autumn\n\n1883\n\nca 1883/1884\n\nEarly 1884\n\n1884 July\n\nArrived Hami\n\nPassed through Shensi and Kansu to Turkestan he tried to push on through Central Asia to India but was stopped; again, tried to push on to the Russian frontiers via Ili and Tarbagatai but was stopped, visited Hami [HQ Chinese Army]. Residence in Hami where he said he remained until the Treaty of Livadia [2-10-79] was signed and where he learned a number of Turkish words. [Mesny claimed that in 1882 returning from Kashgaria he stayed in Tso Tsung-t’ang's camp. [Tso was recalled from Hami to Peking in late 1880] Departed Hami and retraced his steps leisurely across the Gobi desert to Kansu, on to northern Tibet (visited old fashioned gold diggings) and back to Kan-chou to refit before continuing into Tibet a second time in another direction. He then, travelled through the Kokonor region ending up at Lanchou, February 1881, via Hsi-ning.\n\nDeparted from Northwest China for Peking, via Si-an, Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yuan Fu and Pao-ting Fu.\n\nWhilst in Si-an Mesny visited the Nestorian Cross, later, on his first evening in Taiyuan he lost 640 pages of notes, the journal of his Journey to Hami from Canton\n\nArrived Peking\n\nVisited Tientsin to await the first steamers of the season carrying mails Returned to Tai-yuan in Shansi and Pao-ting Fu, and again visited Si-an.\n\nVisited the famous Shao-lin monastery in the Sung-shan [Mountains] near Ho-nan Fu and invited to settle down for a couple of years with the monks.\n\nDeparted Shansi for Canton; however,\n\nVisited Yunnan province at the invitation of T'ang Chung to assist in the development of natural resources of the province The French authorities in Tongkin insisted that Mesny leave the province Passed through Ch'engtu and Yunnan Fu heading for Canton via Po-se, Nanning Kuangsi [Kuei-hsien, where he spent three to four months whilst the Franco-Chinese war raged in Tongkin), Kueichou and the West River. He travelled much of the way by large house boat. He took careful notes which he offered to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce but failed to receive any encouragement\n\nArrived Canton, then visited Hong Kong, Macau, Swatow, Amoy and Foochou [Viceroy Chang Chih-tung retained Mesny at Canton for one year and ten months (nfd) He lived in an hotel unable to get an appointment from Chang he eventually withdrew. Mesny met Kung Chao-yuan, the Commissary General at Shanghai for Formosa, at the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai\n\nVisited tomb of Su Hsiao-hsiao near Hangchou. (a celebrated courtesan of the 11th century AD)\n\nDeparted Canton via Hong Kong for Foochou and Shanghai [elsewhere he noted that he had been recommended for the post of Foreign Superintendent of the Arsenal at Foochou during his visit there in 1883)\n\nIn Wu-chang and Han-yang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213654, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nPatrick Hase is a Council Member of the HKBRAS, a former Hon. Editor (Journals) and currently Editor of Books. He is a retired Administrative Officer of the Hong Kong Government. He is a noted authority on the New Territories.\n\nChan Wing Hoi is a member of the HKBRAS with a deep interest in Chinese history.\n\nFred Dagenais is a Research Associate with the Center for Chinese Studies, University of California at Berkeley. His primary interests are in the history of the transmission of modern science and technology to China during the century 1850-1950. His on-going project is to identify items associated with the life of John Fryer during the Kiangnan Arsenal years (1867-96) and his subsequent career as Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature at the University of California (1896-1914). He is developing an annotated calendar of Fryer's letters and papers, the bulk of which are located in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley and welcomes any and all information associated with John Fryer's life and work. His interest in Republican China centres around the formation and development of scientific societies, particularly the work of Jeng Hung-chun and the Science Society of China.\n\nYip Hon Ming and Ho Wai Yee are with the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nPeter Ng Tze Ming is with the Department of Religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nStephanie Chung Po Yin is with the Department of History, Hong Kong Baptist University.\n\nCarole Morgan received her doctorate in Chinese studies from the University of Paris (ex Sorbonne). She was a member of the team that catalogued the Dunhuang manuscripts in the Bibliothèque National and is now editing the divinatory material therein. She has written a book on the Chinese almanac and published a number of articles in sinological journals.\n\nKeith Stevens is a retired member of the British Army and subsequently\n\nvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213807, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "131\n\nthan what is provided in these three letters. In later life he rarely wrote about his experience at St. Paul's or his life during his Hong Kong years. Fryer's letters, other than these three, and diaries from this period, if they survive, have not been located. However, in these three polished letters we can see a progression from impressionable college graduate, to responsible and presumably successful superintendent of a CMS sponsored college, to socially accepted compatriot, all the while improving his mastery of the Chinese language. He wrote of studying the Chinese language on the voyage out, and he anticipated mastery of the language during his first weeks in Hong Kong. Here we see Fryer bargaining with a Chinese merchant for the purchase of oranges, an incident as he relates it that is not without humor, conversing with a young boy, discussing religion with a Christian convert, and arguing religious points with a Buddhist priest.\n\nFinally, in this letter Fryer presents himself interacting with men who would reside and work in China for many decades; Lechler was to remain until 1899, Eitel until 1897, Fryer himself until 1896. Fryer left Hong Kong later in 1863 to join W.A.P. Martin as Professor of English at the T'ung-wen Kuan, or Interpreter's College, in Peking. The chain of events leading to Fryer's departure from St. Paul's College and subsequent employment by Martin in Peking is unknown. However, after but two years in Peking at the T'ung-wen Kuan, Fryer is in 1865 again in the employ of the Church Missionary Society as headmaster of the Anglo-Chinese College, a not very prosperous school for Chinese boys in Shanghai, a post he was to hold until 1868, when he began work for the Chinese government as a translator at the arsenal at Kiangnan.\n\nAs in the letters published previously, an attempt has been made to balance the needs of modern usage with the very few peculiarities of the Fryer manuscripts. Fryer was inconsistent in his use of punctuation, particularly in the use of the colon and the apostrophe. Punctuation in this transcription is essentially as Fryer would have it in his manuscript; the reader will forgive an occasional irregular spelling. Fryer's run-on narrative has been separated into smaller paragraphs by the editor, and a caret used to indicate where such separations have been made to improve readability.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213808, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 160, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "1\n\n132\n\nNOTES\n\nCenter for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley\n\nTranscripts of the first and second letters were published in Volume 29 and Volume 30 of the JHKBRAS\n\nThe late Dr. R.G. Irwin, former cataloger at the East Asiatic Library at the University of California, Berkeley, has left a manuscript describing the Library's holdings of Fryer translations, most of which were published at the arsenal at Kiangnan. Dr. Irwin wrote that John Fryer \"constructed the first telephone in China (1877) and imported the first phonograph, together with a Caligraph typewriter (1888)\". The present author has examined the extant Fryer papers in detail and can find no documentation, not even a hint for such claims. However, it is known that Dr. Irwin was in contact with Fryer's son, Charles Edmund Fryer, in the 1950s; it may be that this information was passed on at that time. The present author would like to hear from anyone having information bearing on these claims.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 } ]