[ { "id": 205710, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 16, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "10\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nWhile he was Legislative Councillor in Hong Kong, Ng Choy was known to oppose the office of the Registrar-General (established 1844), also known as Protector of Chinese and later renamed in 1913 Secretary for Chinese Affairs, on the ground that it was race discrimination to force Chinese and Europeans to deal with the Government through different departments.8 During his term of office, he was a member of a very important Education Commission, appointed by the Governor Sir John Hennessy in August 1880, to study the question of raising the Government Central School into a collegiate institution, giving a higher education in English and Science. What Sir John had in mind was that Hong Kong would render a great service to China by starting a collegiate institution so that young Chinese boys could come to Hong Kong for a higher western education instead of going to distant countries like America and England. However, the Commission as a whole disagreed with the Governor. It dismissed the idea of a Collegiate Institution on the ground of cost, and pointed out that the great need of the majority of the local population was a sound elementary education. Thus it was not the province of the Government to establish, at the cost of the ratepayers, an institution that would be mainly for the advantage of a small number of wealthy members of the community.\n\nNg Choy's achievements as a Legislative Councillor in Hong Kong were by no means great as compared with some of his successors, as he held office for less than three years; but he had the distinction of being the first Chinese to serve on that Council, and since his time both the Colonial Office and the Governors of Hong Kong have agreed on the principle of Chinese membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWhen Sir George Bowen arrived in April 1883 as Governor, he was in favour of having a Chinese member on the Legislative Council but realized that it would not be easy to find a successor to Ng Choy from \"among those qualified as British subjects, a native gentleman combining in his own person the proper social position, independent means and education\". In conjunction with the question of a permanent Chinese member on the Legislative Council, Sir George Bowen also took the opportunity of re-constituting the Council. The main differences between the old and the new Council were that a Chinese member was appointed and that the Chamber of Commerce was invited to elect a member.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205711, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n11\n\nfor nomination by the Governor. The new Council met on 28th February, 1884, and consisted of 6 officials excluding the Governor: the Chief Justice, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Surveyor General, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Registrar General. There were also 5 unofficials: Mr. T. Jackson (elected by the Chamber of Commerce), Mr. F. D. Sassoon (elected by the Justices of the Peace), Messrs. P. Ryrie, F. B. Johnson and Wong Shing, appointed by the Governor.\n\nThus in 1884 Wong Shing became the second Chinese to serve on the Legislative Council as an unofficial member. He too was a Cantonese from Chung Shan District. In 1841 he entered, with two other Chinese boys, Yung Wing and Wong Foon, the Morrison School in Macao which was later transferred to Hong Kong. In January 1847, Dr. Robbins Brown, an American teacher in the Morrison School, had to leave China on account of ill health. He offered to take a few of his old pupils back to America for further education. Yung Wing, Wong Foon and Wong Shing signified their desire to go and, through Dr. Brown and the Morrison Education Society, expenses for two years for the three boys were arranged. They embarked at Whampoa on the ship \"Huntress\" and proceeded via the Cape of Good Hope, the journey taking more than three months. Upon arrival in the U.S.A. the three boys were admitted to the Monson Academy at Monson, Massachusetts.\n\nAs a result of ill health, Wong Shing did not manage to acquire any academic honours during his sojourn in the United States. On his return to China he was offered an appointment in the Foreign Ministry. He served with Viceroy Li Hung-chang and Marquis Tseng Chi-tze and was a member of the Chinese legation staff in Washington. He resigned later from the Chinese diplomatic service and came to Hong Kong as a merchant. He was also associated with the Anglo-Chinese College and with the London Missionary Society for which he directed its printing establishment under Dr. James Legge. When the Tung Wah Hospital was founded in 1870, he was a founder director. He was naturalized in December 1883 and was appointed to the Legislative Council in February 1884. He was described as a man of property, much-travelled, speaking good English and fully qualified to “look at Chinese affairs with English eyes and at English affairs with Chinese eyes\". His career as a Legislative Councillor was an", "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": 205725, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n25\n\nDr. Tso was noted as a very frank, honest and outspoken person. On 26th August 1936 when Mr. (later Sir) M. K. Lo proposed a motion in the Legislative Council that the censorship of the Chinese press should be abrogated, he opposed it by saying that, although he appreciated the principle of the freedom of the press within certain limits, he must ask that local conditions and the interest of the Colony, and in particular of the Chinese community, should be taken into consideration as of first importance. He argued that as there was so much unrest and uncertainty in the political atmosphere in the Far East as a result of Japanese aggression in China, it was very easy and quite natural for the Chinese papers to over-step their bounds by giving expressions to their feelings on matters Chinese. Such expressions, if undesirable and unchecked, might create misunderstandings outside and stir up trouble inside the Colony. He advocated that prevention was better than cure; for, if bad feeling or bad blood were stirred among the masses, especially among the less intelligent sections of the Chinese community, it would be most difficult to restrain or pacify. He felt therefore that Government should continue to censor the Chinese press, although the better controlled English press needed little, if any, censorship. Although Lo's motion was also opposed by other members and was lost, Dr. Tso's frank remarks led to fierce criticisms and even hostility against him by the Chinese press and the Chinese public. This was probably the cause of his resignation in 1937.\n\nIn 1931, when Sir Shouson Chow left the Legislative Council, he was succeeded by Mr. Chau Tsun-nin, now Sir Tsun-nin Chau. Sir Tsun-nin, born in 1893, is the seventh son of the late Chau Siu-ki who was acting Legislative Councillor in the years 1921, 1923 and 1924. Having received his early education at St. Stephen's Boys College, he completed his university studies at Oxford. He was then admitted to Middle Temple and became a barrister. In 1914 he returned to Hong Kong and, after practising as a barrister for a few months, turned to business. He was appointed a J.P. in 1923 and a member of the Sanitary Board in 1929. He was a member of the Legislative Council from 1931 to 1939, and was awarded the C.B.E. in 1938. After the war he was appointed to the Executive Council and was created a knight bachelor in 1956. He retired in 1959.\n\nWhen Robert Kotewall retired from the Legislative Council", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205727, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "CHINESE UNOFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCILS\n\n27\n\nDr. Li and Hong Kong should read this very interesting book.29 Dr. Li died on 24th November 1966.\n\nThe last Chinese to hold a substantive appointment on the Legislative Council before 1941 is Mr. Thomas Tam who received his legal training in England and practised as a barrister in Hong Kong. He was appointed a J.P. in 1933 and was a member of the Legislative Council from 1939 to 1941. After the war he served as a magistrate and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1951. He has been in retirement since 1958.\n\nBesides the above, there were three persons who served at one time or another for short periods on the Legislative Council. They were Chan Kai-ming30 who acted as a Legislative Councillor in 1918, Chau Siu-ki who acted as a Legislative Councillor in 1921, 1923 and 1924 and finally Li Tse-fong32 who acted as a Legislative Councillor in 1939.\n\nA list showing the names of the Chinese Unofficials and the years in which they served in the Legislative/Executive Council is appended after the Notes which begin on the following page.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209454, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "89\n\nThe 1884 events demonstrate how the Tung Wah Hospital made the necessary accommodations, both by its initial encouragement of the strike and by the very pragmatic manner in which it ended it.\n\nThe 1884 events also show how active the Tung Wah Hospital was. One feature of the Hospital was that all past Committee members continued to exert influence on its affairs, and were very actively involved in them. Very often, a man would be associated with the Committee for many years, either as a director, a hip-lit (hsieh-li; sub-director) or a chi-li or chi-shi (chih-li or chih-shih; manager). Li Tak Cheung, Ho Amei and Leung On, the men most active in the 1884 events, had all been directors. Though Ho Kai, who defended several of the rioters, was not himself a member of the Tung Wah Committee, he was nevertheless the son and the brother-in-law of members. The current Chinese representative on the Legislative Council, Wong Shing was one of the founding directors and Ng Choy (known later as Wu T'ing-fang), the first Chinese Legislative Councillor, was one of the founding managers. This concentration of wealth and influence, and most significantly, dynamism and dedication, consolidated the Tung Wah Hospital in its leading position.\n\nLethbridge, in his very perceptive article on the Tung Wah Hospital, has provided many insights into its operations and into the sociological conditions which give rise to such institutions. But sociological theories cannot explain why men did what they did at any given time, nor how these institutions changed the course of history.\n\nThe Tung Wah Hospital was not a lame yes-man to China or Canton. It had its own identity, interests and principles. Merely two years later, in 1886, it resisted the order of Canton authorities to yield funds originally raised for the relief of flood victims for some other purpose. Ironically, on this occasion, the Hong Kong Government again under the acting governorship of Marsh rallied to its support in order to beat off \"the attempt of a Chinese official to exercise jurisdiction over the Directors of a Hong Kong Public Institution.\"\n\nIts role in 1884 was not based upon the need to appease", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209649, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 306, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "284\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsympathy of all right-thinking Chinese who have not been slow to express their profound abhorrence of the action'. This was certainly true of the Chinese elite. A deputation of forty leading Chinese, including Legislative Councillors, the Director of the Tung Wah Hospital and members of the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk and the District Watchmen's Committee, waited on the Governor two days after the crime to testify to the loyalty of the community and their profound horror at the outrage.\n\nThere is little evidence to show how far such sentiments were widely shared by the rest of society. The only surviving Chinese newspaper made no comment and did not even carry a report of the incident.10 The police intercepted a letter from the landlady of the place where Li had been living in which she mentioned casually that her lodger had fired at the Governor 'and most unfortunately missed him'. At least one man saw a good omen in the affair; an Indian shopkeeper when told the news reportedly smiled and said, “Very good joss. That means there will be prosperity for Hong Kong.”\n\nAny deterrent effect of the sentence passed on Li did not last for long. Four months later the Hong Kong government made a further attempt to outlaw the use of coins minted in Canton by persuading the Tramway company to refuse to accept them. Agitators convinced the public that this was an insult to the new Republican government and a boycott of the tramway began in November, accompanied by widespread intimidation and violence directed against those using the trams and Europeans in general. In December the emergency powers under the Peace Preservation Ordinance were once again brought into force by proclamation.12\n\nOn\n\nLi Hon Hing only served six years of his life sentence.13 On 18 June 1918 Sir Henry May informed the Executive Council that he proposed to pardon the prisoner and order his release from prison. No reason is given in the Minutes of the Council for this act of clemency.19\n\nN. J. MINERS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210917, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 268, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "251\n\nShan. Po Shan Road is named after him.\n\nLeung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.\n\nIn January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.\n\nWhen he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not doubt that such a man would be sympathetic to their views about the Chinese and Chinese matters.\n\nHo A-mei was of a different sort altogether. He had served the Kwangtung Government for a number of years in an official capacity.\n\nPage 26.8\n\nPage 26.8\n\nPage 26.8", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210918, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 269, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "252\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nHe had received a mandarin's degree from the Chinese Government. His education was limited to the years in Dr. Legge's school. He was not a scholar, but a promoter and financier. He sometimes expressed himself too bluntly on public occasions and was quick to engage in controversy.\n\nThe hostile attitude of Ho A-mei toward Dr. Ho Kai may not have rested entirely upon his ambition to be a Legislative Councillor. It possibly might go back to the days when they met as boys in the home of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong, Ho Kai as a son of the family, A-mei as the poor relative. Whatever the foundation for A-mei's critical attitude towards the doctor, the Chinese deputation of 1883 provided the opportunity for him to express it.\n\nThe controversy within the Chinese community created by Dr. Ho Kai's remarks not only revealed that the Chinese were torn by parties and factions, jealousies and rivalries, but that Dr. Ho Kai, while eminently suitable from the foreign standpoint, might not be altogether acceptable to the Chinese as their representative and hence frustrate the purpose of having a Chinese on the council.\n\nThis possibility was acknowledged by the English press. In commenting on Dr. Ho Kai's remarks to the Acting Governor, an editor said: “Granted that the learned barrister had been a most successful student, and admitting that he is a person of great attainment and doubtless of some ability, it is only fair to remember that he is a young man who can have but a very imperfect knowledge, whether of his countrymen or of the political and social exigencies of Hongkong.\"\n\nIt concluded furthermore that the views he expressed “are merely the opinions of himself and perhaps a few of his immediate friends and supporters, but do not represent in any way the voice of Chinese public opinion in Hongkong.\"\n\nPerhaps it was unfortunate that Dr. Ho Kai assumed the responsibility of speaking for the Chinese before he had become thoroughly reacquainted after his long absence with the Chinese community in Hongkong. In terms of intimate knowledge of Chi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211083, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 144, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "119\n\nGovernor Hennessy had made him a Justice of the Peace in one of his bids to tie the Chinese more closely to the Government. The editor of the Hong Kong Telegraph described Wei Yuk as “a gentleman of great intelligence besides his wealth and position, exercising vast influence in all local matters appertaining to the Chinese.\" He served on the Legislative Council from 1896 to 1914 and became known after receiving a knighthood as Sir Wei Po-shan. Po Shan Road is named after him.\n\nLeung On, alias Leung Hok-chau, was a man of maturity. He was the highly respected compradore of Gibb, Livingston and Company. For many years he had been prominent in affairs within the Chinese community and had been chairman of the organising committee for the Tung Wah Hospital. His standard of English, however, was a handicap in aspiring to the membership of the Legislative Council.\n\nWong Shing was Wei Yuk's father-in-law. He was a man of high principles, but quiet and reserved. He had been in the first class of the Morrison Education Society School in Hongkong and with three of his classmates had been taken to the United States to further his education by the headmaster of the school. His health, however, did not permit him to finish his studies. He returned to Hongkong and took up employment with the London Missionary Society, in a short time becoming manager of the Society's printing establishment. For a brief period he was with the Chinese Educational Mission in the United States, but now he was looking after his properties in Hongkong and managing other business interests. He had no ambition to be a prominent public figure but when Ng Choy's successor as Councillor was named at the close of 1883, it was Wong Shing.\n\nIn January 1883, however, it appeared that Dr. Ho Kai was the most likely candidate for the seat. He had left Hongkong when still a young boy to receive an education in Scotland and England. He was a brilliant student earning degrees both in law and medicine.\n\nWhen he returned to Hongkong in 1882 he was thoroughly Anglicised, had a beautiful English bride and wore European clothing. He was also a professing Christian. Europeans did not", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211084, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "120 \n\ndoubt that such a man would be sympathetic to their views about the Chinese and Chinese matters.\n\nHo A-mei was of a different sort altogether. He had served the Kwangtung Government for a number of years in an official capacity.\n\nHe had received a mandarin's degree from the Chinese Government. His education was limited to the years in Dr. Legge's school. He was not a scholar, but a promoter and financier. He sometimes expressed himself too bluntly on public occasions and was quick to engage in controversy.\n\nThe hostile attitude of Ho A-mei toward Dr. Ho Kai may not have rested entirely upon his ambition to be a Legislative Councillor. It possibly might go back to the days when they met as boys in the home of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong, Ho Kai as a son of the family, A-mei as the poor relative. Whatever the foundation for A-mei's critical attitude towards the doctor, the Chinese deputation of 1883 provided the opportunity for him to express it.\n\nThe controversy within the Chinese community created by Dr. Ho Kai's remarks not only revealed that the Chinese were torn by parties and factions, jealousies and rivalries, but that Dr. Ho Kai, while eminently suitable from the foreign standpoint, might not be altogether acceptable to the Chinese as their representative and hence frustrate the purpose of having a Chinese on the Council.\n\nThis possibility was acknowledged by the English press. In commenting on Dr. Ho Kai's remarks to the Acting Governor, an editor said: \"Granted that the learned barrister has been a most successful student, and admitting that he is a person of great attainment and doubtless of some ability, it is only fair to remember that he is a young man who can have but a very imperfect knowledge, whether of his country or of the political and social exigencies of Hongkong.\"\n\nIt concluded furthermore that the views he expressed “are merely the opinions of himself and perhaps a few of his immediate friends and supporters, but do not represent in any way the voice", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212945, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "From the programme, I would now like to turn to other topics which have exercised the Council's attention over the last year. As I mentioned earlier the Society has appeared twice before the LegCo Panel on Information Policy and this was due primarily to the stand which the Society has taken in respect of the Government's intention to move the Public Records Office to an unsuitable and inaccessible factory building in Tuen Mun, a step that is likely to happen in June. I do not wish to tabulate all the arguments that have been rehearsed many times within Council and the media on this subject, except to say that if it had not been for the Royal Asiatic Society's strong opposition to the removal of the Public Record to Tuen Mun then it is unlikely that we would now be looking at a more favourable situation than seemed possible this time last year. As it is we have been informed that the move is only temporary, the Government is actively looking for a site in Central, and provided funds are available the Government is prepared to build or convert some suitable buildings for public records; meanwhile the more important and the most used public records will be moved into a special room within the Government Secretariat. The position will need, however a great deal of attention and watching to ensure that those responsible for the preservation of Hong Kong's public records do really understand what is meant by the word preservation. Hong Kong's efforts in this direction leave a lot to be desired and compare very unfavourably with other countries including China. For this more optimistic emerging picture we need to thank several people including our past President, Dr. James Hayes, who continually prods the Government in the underbelly from down under and the Reverend Carl Smith who, at the height of the controversy last June, agreed reluctantly to appear in a T.V. documentary on the subject and was actually filmed, going to Tuen Mun, and seen groping through the polluted air and smog amongst the surroundings of the future Hong Kong Public Records Office. In addition I would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Mr. John Wilson, Dr. Lau Yee-cheung, and Dr. Choi Chi-cheung for their valuable inputs into these issues.\n\nThe second time members of the Council appeared before the LegCo Information Panel was fairly recently and also to do with public records but in the context of a possible Access to Information Bill. This is a difficult subject and I am not sure one that the Society should become too involved. The Society is more concerned with public records and an Archives Ordinance, since without this there is little point for legislation on access to information if there is no guarantee that the information in question will be available. A letter to the legislative councillors involved\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213050, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 118, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "98\n\nwere well pleased with her qualifications. From 1 January, 1911, Dr. Perkins took over the supervision of government midwives. One can only assume that, although the position had been more or less promised to Dr. Sibree by the government's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Gibson was able to gain the reinstatement of the AMMH. This was probably supported by the Legislative Councillor and Chairman of the Alice Hospitals, Dr. Ho Kai. Thus, the AMMH was again the provider, through its Lady Doctor, of the supervision of government midwives. That decision was clearly linked with the designation of the Medical Superintendent and Lady Doctor of the AMMH as members of the Midwives Board in the 'Midwives Ordinance', proclaimed in September, 1910.\n\nThe resistance of the District Committee and Dr. Gibson to the inclusion of extra Chinese subscribers on the maternity hospital's management subcommittee was overcome shortly after, when a proposal to add two subscribers was linked with a proposal to build a Training Institute for Nurses and Midwives. As well, the right of subscribers to nominate students for training was agreed. Finance was subsequently raised in the Chinese community for the project, which was opened in March, 1914.\n\nOutcomes and Implications of This Development Process.\n\nBetween 1903 and 1911, then, the first maternity hospital for Chinese women was built and training for Chinese midwives set up. That it happened at all was due to the convergence of interests of the LMS, the Chinese elite and the Hong Kong Government. The struggle for control in pursuit of sectional interests, Dr. Gibson versus the LMS District Committee, Dr. Gibson and the District Committee versus the Chinese subscribers, and the position of the LMS in relation to medical education, placed difficulties seen to be insuperable in the way of the Lady Doctor and the development of her service, as she was excluded from general medical work.\n\nIt is hard to reconcile the picture of Dr. Sibree as portrayed in the correspondence of her detractors as unable to adapt; lacking initiative; reluctant to state her case to the District Committee directly, rather going behind their backs to the LMS; and publicly denying any problem in her relationship with Dr. Gibson, with the strong figure she later appears. Dr. Sibree married Mr. C.C. Hickling, son of the Rev. C.H. Hickling, pastor\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213260, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "62\n\nWhen the Technical College (now the Hong Kong Polytechnic University) moved to its new campus at Hung Hom in 1957, expatriates as well as Chinese staff were not pleased to find a funeral parlour sited next door. Not all the Europeans, the author recalls, blamed the deaths and illnesses that followed (among family members of the staff) on bad fung shui. The Chinese, of course, sought advice and took appropriate action. Nevertheless, generally, if staff were advised to swing their desks around so many degrees, all things being more or less equal, Europeans tended not to argue. After some months people stopped falling sick and nobody mentioned the funeral home any more. Some Britons argued it had all been psychosomatic. But it had been a reality, and, unless it was coincidence, what everyone had been advised to do by the fung shui master seemed to have worked.\n\nThe truth is, however, that although a few Chinese go out of their way to explain to Westerners that they do not believe in fung shui, in some cases because they think that is what Europeans wish to hear, all sorts of people living in Hong Kong do believe in it. This includes Chinese in all walks of life, including the western educated and the erudite, some Legislative Councillors, rich businessmen and 'old one-hundred names' (the average Chinese).\n\nA private social function held in 1994 included 20 Chinese women ranging in ages from approximately 20 to 45. On being questioned by the author 16 said they believed, two more believed 'more or less', and two did not believe in fung shui.\n\nMany Chinese are not prepared to risk 'not believing'. There are indications, however, that, with the spread of westernisation and 'modern enlightenment', the views of younger Chinese are changing (see Appendix B). But the process is slow and opinions are mixed as the following (the words of a well-educated Chinese girl) illustrates:\n\n'I would not go to the trouble and expense of inviting a fung shui man to my flat. But if I knew I was not supposed to do something I would not do it, just in case. I would listen'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "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": 213883, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 235, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "209\n\nmembers of the Alumni Association. All of them had at one time or another worked as compradores for foreign firms; the two Eurasian families, Ho Tung and Lo Changzhao (E) had almost monopolized the compradoral posts of Jardines and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank up to the 1940s. Liu Zhubo, He and Lo's sons were at one time or another appointed Legislative Councillors of the Colony. When the First World War broke out in Europe, these three partners contributed a huge sum of money to the British Government for the purchase of an aeroplane. The plane, as requested by the donors, was named \"Da You Bank of Hong Kong\".\n\nThe wealth of this western-educated group did not derive from the joint-stock company. They owned their own native bank despite the fact that they were compradores in western firms. It seems likely that this was an attempt to avoid the disclosure of financial accounts as required by the company ordinance. As these Eurasian families monopolized the compradoral posts of many of the foreign firms, including the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, it is highly likely that capital was transferred between their accounts in the compradore offices and those in their private businesses.\n\nAs they had exclusive access to capital, they did not rely on a capital market in the same way as the overseas returning migrants did, though we cannot tell whether this capital market was governed by the invisible hand of the economy or the invisible hand of political intimidation, as the governor suggested.\n\nFollowing the example of the Siyi men, Hong Kong-born, western-educated groups participated in the political arena in China. In 1913, the Governor reported to the Colonial Office that \"several leading Chinese\" in Hong Kong had informed him that they would welcome the reorganization of the administration of the Canton Province under \"tactful and conscientious British supervision.\"\n\nAccording to Liu Zhubo's proposal, a loan of 25,000,000 taels was to be raised in Hong Kong to redeem unsecured currency in Canton. In return, Liu requested of the Beijing Government the privilege of establishing a central bank in Guangdong \"with a monopoly of the Provincial Government business\". To guarantee the smooth functioning of this arrangement, Liu suggested \"inviting the Government of Hong Kong\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213971, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "course, think about The Little Man; it can't think about little men.\" This is not to decry what individual officers could, and usually did, do for personal complainants in specific cases.\n\nSir David Trench had his own ideas; thoughts from on high are less easily smothered than unsolicited disturbances from below. The received wisdom, which equally impressed most of the interlopers, was that since most of the population might want to return home across the border at some time, the electoral roll would be far too fluid to embrace a stable, identifiable and representable society; and that in any event direct elections to Legislative Council (Legco) were unthinkable, because they would be hi-jacked by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) from Taiwan; the fundamental Chinese political battle would then be fought out in the streets and on any hustings of Hong Kong, which the Chinese People's Republic (CPR) would never be willing to stand idly by and watch being conceivably won by Hong Kong Chinese Nationalist sympathisers. However Trench recognised that Legco was not the only possible forum for expression of popular feeling.\n\nTrench had no problems with sharing some of the lifestyle of the taipans and Chinese millionaires who were so noticeable among those traditionally appointed by governors to Exco and Legco, and whose nature he did little to change; despite the familiar jibe that he ranked third, after the taipan of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Chairman of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, all knew that in the last resort he recommended the names of Executive Councillors to the Secretary of State. In his earlier days, however, he had preferred the raffish and disrespectful ambience of the multi-racial Foreign Correspondents' Club to that of the Hong Kong Club, Fanling [the Governor's official residence in the New Territories Hon. Editor] and the Jockey Club; while he enjoyed the actual sports of golf and racing for their own sakes; he never lost touch with his humbler post-war acquaintances in the Chinese community, such as his language teacher. He insisted that the introductory review chapter of one year's colonial annual report should spell out the wide sweep and valued authority of the great number of statutory, non-statutory and ad hoc committees which he believed to be a valid response to critics who would not understand why the people had no democratically elected voice in his councils. Yet his broad sympathies told him that, even so,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214222, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 80, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "43\n\nSources and acknowledgements\n\nA considerable amount of material in this paper has been drawn from the author's own experiences. Much of it he has heard with his own ears rather than just repeating what he has read or what others have told him. This information has been gleaned over a period of four-and-a-half decades living and working with Chinese in Hong Kong and while visiting cities and regions in the People's Republic of China and while visiting overseas Chinese communities.\n\nThe author is grateful to a number of Hong Kong comedians, including Reuben M., Brent Ambacher, Harry Wong and Michael Hui. He is also grateful to a number of Chinese friends, such as Howard Young, Legislative Councillor, Joseph Chow, civil engineer and businessman, who enjoy amusing their friends, both Chinese and Western, by telling jokes. Thanks are also due to Nury Vittachi, journalist, author and part-time comic.\n\nThe author also acknowledges help received from Dr Kristin Stapleton of the University of Kentucky, Carol A R Andrews of the British Museum, Josephine Khu and Dr Sandra Tsang of Hong Kong University, Dr Elizabeth Sinn of the Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University, and Catherine Lau of the Hong Kong Fringe Club.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214228, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 86, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "49\n\nYeung, Chris (1998a, March 22), 'Broadcaster stays open to debate,' Sunday Morning Post.\n\n(1998b, March 27), 'Civil servants fail to see joke,' South China Morning Post.\n\nZeldin, Theodore (1983), The French, Fontana Paperbacks\n\nNOTES\n\nDiscussion with Howard Young, Legislative Councillor Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the People's Republic of China, 1 February 1999.\n\n2 These appear to be mainly Mainland Chinese jokes with some added, in stages, from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Some jokes appear to be 15 or so years behind the times. Many are not really funny. See Internet web page: http://www.sc.cninfo.net/index/new/yml.htm.\n\n3 Carol A. R. Andrews, Assistant Keeper, conducted a 'gallery talk,' April 1997, on Ancient Egyptian Humour.\n\n4 Mr Bean is played by Rowan Atkinson who was said, in 1998, to be Britain's highest paid actor: see South China Morning Post, 15 November 1998.\n\n5 Howard Young, who although himself a Hong Kong Chinese, tells western jokes as he finds Chinese jokes, to use his own words, 'boring;' interviewed by author on 1 February 1999.\n\n6 This is, in other words, the Lun Yu, one of the Chinese Classics which has been the essence of Confucianism for more than 2,500 years.\n\n7 Fok and the author worked together in the Hong Kong Education Department up to 1980.\n\n8 The 'Gang of Four,' which had been centred around Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution, was arrested in October 1976, less than a month after Mao's death. The 'Gang' consisted of Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, Yao Wengyuan, Zhang Chunqiao and the youthful Wang Hongwen.\n\n9 Chinese soldiers too exhausted to march on were taken to the nearest habitation,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214390, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 248, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "214\n\nceeded one hundred and the same year two District Watchmen were deployed to work in the emigration sub-division of the Registrar General's Department. During 1910 and 1911 it was felt necessary to employ 124 District Watchmen of different ranks but in 1912 the number was reduced to one hundred and remained unchanged until 1924.\n\nExpansion into Kowloon\n\nSince its formation in 1866 the District Watch Force had operated only on Hong Kong island. In May 1915 this changed when the new District Watchmen Station at Yaumati was opened and six District Watchmen were 'sent over.' In 1913, following the addition of a Cadet officer to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, the Government decided to expand the duties of the District Watchmen to include work connected with the registration of householders under the Registration of Chinese Ordinance. Perhaps the Government felt some apprehension that those responsible for paying for the Watchmen's services might balk at the addition of these duties because the Financial Secretary, in presenting this matter to the Legislative Council, maintained that this work 'if efficiently carried out should be of great value in checking serious crime in the Colony.' It is also clear from this speech that these extra responsibilities had required the expansion of the Force into Kowloon.19 Despite the fact that Legislative Councillors were only advised about these additional duties in October 1913, it is clear from the Annual Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs that the District Watchmen had begun making house calls in connection with the registration campaign at the beginning of May 1913. Daily reports were made by the Chief District Watchmen to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and the Police were informed immediately about the large number of opium divans and sly brothels which the District Watchmen's investigations uncovered. Thus, once again, the Hong Kong Government appropriated men from this privately funded organization to carry out work which was essentially public in nature.\n\nBetween 1897 and 1918 the District Watchmen continued to patrol on police beats under the supervision of European police. The following year saw an important change in the supervision of the District Watch Force, one that would bring its members into even closer contact with the regular police. At the end of 1919 Police Sergeant Timo-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214581, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 439, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "408\n\nwas said to have been a British Member of Parliament. Alice was a gracious lady. Choa gives her maiden name as Walkden. It is sometimes elsewhere, puzzlingly, quoted as Whitcome. Did she have a step father one wonders? Or was this an unfortunate mistake by some writer and a case of give a slip-up five minutes start and the truth never catches up with it?' This could be the case. Certainly the name on the huge family memorial, in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley, is carved as Alice Walkden.\n\nBefore the couple arrived back in Hong Kong in 1882 the then Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, announced to the Legislative Council that this young Chinese had taken the highest honours at Lincoln's Inn. 'It was something that a gentleman belonging to the Colony should have gained such honours.'\n\nAnyway, back in the British colony in those days the 'superstitious' Chinese generally did not take readily to 'newfangled,' western medicine and Ho Kai switched to law. But a brilliant Chinese with fluent English was rare in those days. He was enticed into business. He also entered public service and, in addition to sitting on a number of other government committees, sat on the Sanitary Board (the forerunner of the Urban Council) and, in 1890, became a Legislative Councillor. He was the third Chinese to sit on this august body. He was also a Justice of the Peace.\n\nHaving lived in the West for a number of years it is not surprising he developed strong views about social reform and the modernisation of China. He became an associate of statesman Dr Sun Yat-sen. This was at a time when China was striving to rid itself of the Qing dynasty and there was danger the country would be assimilated by colonial powers.\n\nIn his latter life Ho Kai spent most of his time serving the community. He helped, together with his colleagues, to mould the Territory in which we now live. Ho Kai was capable and, understandably, there was no need for him to take to heart the Chinese axiom: 'If you do not become a good minister be a good physician.'\n\nHe was 'lionised and eulogised' after his death by all sectors of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216097, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 396, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "330\n\nthe long queue. After a few words from him and a few glares from odd people lined up, formalities were completed. My barging in seemed, more or less, to have been accepted.\n\nIn January 1955, I remember going to a new workshop which was being built for the government Public Works Department at So Kon Po, on Hong Kong Island. There, old women were straightening nails, for reuse, which had been knocked out of timber formwork into which concrete was poured. They were paid $1.50 a day. Tradesmen were paid $5.00.\n\nWhat were my other impressions of the winter of 1954/55? I could not get over how crystal clear the sky was as I stood on Hong Kong Island gazing northward over the Kowloon foothills. Leading on, jumping to 1964, businessman K.A. Watson of the Traffic Advisory Committee, said: 'Hong Kong might one day have a smog problem as bad as Los Angeles unless action is taken to eliminate vehicle exhaust fumes.' No one took much notice.\n\nIn those days if one spoke of 'the Government' one meant the one in Whitehall. But if one wrote 'government,' with no definite article and a small 'g,' then one meant the administration in Hong Kong. Interestingly, during the 1957/58 legislative year, only one question was asked in the Legislative Council among the eight unofficial (non-government) Councillors and they only, between them, made a total of 12 speeches.\n\nHong Kong was a pretty colonial place in those days and there was always a military parade with bands marching along the streets of Kowloon on the morning of 21st April. It was a public holiday and the Queen's Birthday. It was a jingoistic occasion with a few Britons carrying furled umbrellas and wearing bowler hats. In the 1950s the Murray Parade Ground was regularly used, near the Garden Road-Queen's Road corner, opposite the cricket field where Chater Garden is situated today.\n\nWe went into \"whites\" on about 1st May and this, for most of us in government at least, meant shorts with shirts tucked in and knee-length socks. We changed back to heavy clothing on about 1st November. My old boss, typical of the more senior, used to come down on the Peak", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]