[
    {
        "id": 206903,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1973",
        "page_number": 180,
        "title": "RAS-1973",
        "content_text": "174\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nof a mask, they painted the features of the masks right on the face. The mask cannot change its expression, it lacks the spirit of the eyes and is lifeless, it hinders the speech and even more the singing, as is the case in the stagnant Japanese Noh-play. Mr. Scott does not give any background at all, but names the 15th century as the beginning of painted faces and gives them as the origin of the Japanese Kabuki make-up. He also says that their design is according to the Chinese rules of physiognomy.\n\nThe subject of painted faces is very extensive: a book published in Tai-wan a few years ago contains a thousand varieties of painted faces*.\n\nTurning to other aspects, the Peking Opera stage is empty except for a table and 2 chairs. If a chair is placed on a table, it means a mountain, and can be used to indicate, for example, a general addressing his army. Rain, wind and storms are indicated by black or blue flags of thin silk, which are carried over the stage. Carrying a horsewhip means that this person is riding, a military order is indicated by a small triangular flag, 2 square flags with a wheel-design indicate a carriage and so on.\n\nBoth authors describe in more or less detail the system of the Peking Opera schools. It is surprising how few people know that we have such a school here in Hong Kong. 40 children are trained in this school, some as young as 6 years old. They get up early to train their voices, then comes the teacher for acrobatics, then opera parts are rehearsed. In the afternoon, they study general subjects, and in the evening they go to the Lai Chi Kok amusement park to give their daily performance.\n\nIf you want to take the chance, which is so easily available, to see this intriguing type of opera, you should also spend a few hours with Elizabeth Halson's short guide. This book really does fill the newcomer's need for a comprehensive, well-ordered, introduction enabling him to enjoy and appreciate what he sees in the opera; though not yet what he hears, like Chinese enthusiasts who go to the opera in order to hear it.\n\nHong Kong, 1973.\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nChang Pe-chin: Chinese Opera and Painted Face, Taiwan, Mei Ya Publications, Inc. 1969.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181",
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    {
        "id": 211482,
        "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-1988",
        "page_number": 198,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "174\n\nafter three years of legal experience, I resumed my education at the local university. In the meantime I had lost close contact with my former classmates, but fortunately met Benjamin Bung Fong Wong, born 13 April, 1902. He was a graduate of the University of Nebraska in electrical engineering and was working for a brokerage firm to help support his parents and younger siblings because of the illness of his father. He was very handsome, modest, thoughtful and kind, and I felt that I was the envy of my friends when we became engaged.\n\nHelen and I entered the university the same year, but we were never in the same class. Besides studying under Mrs. Conway, I took Trigonometry and Calculus under Mr. Webster and would probably have flunked had I not had some help from Sugao Ouchi, who later studied dentistry at the University of Nebraska while I was there. Dr. Wrenshall, my Chemistry teacher, was from a wealthy oil family in Pennsylvania and had the reputation of being attractive to some of the Oriental girls. Although credit for the discovery of Chaulmoogra Oil for the treatment of leprosy was given to his superior, many felt Dr. Wrenshall did the research. Mrs. Hormann was my German instructor. Among her students was the future Tarzan of movie fame, Buster Crabbe. He was also a very good swimmer. A newcomer to the university was Dr. Radir, who advised us in his Zoology class to be sincere and true to our goals. He made such a good impression on me that I could not understand why he committed suicide. These were some of the highlights of my first year of college.\n\nAt the suggestion of Bung Fong, I transferred to the University of Nebraska in 1929 and worked as a student assistant to Ralph E. Johnson, for whom he had previously worked. This arrangement afforded me free room and board, plus two dollars a week during the school year and eight dollars during summer vacation. As the tuition was only twenty-five dollars a semester, I was able to go through college on my small earnings, my savings and whatever I had inherited from Father. Mr. Johnson was an officer of an insurance company, The Woodsmen, and was socially prominent in Lincoln. Mrs. Johnson, of German extraction, was born and raised in Philadelphia and was an accomplished pianist and singer. She had such a strong and interesting personality that people were attracted to her, some admiring and some disliking her. To me, she was a friend rather than an employer. She instilled in me a sense",
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    {
        "id": 211784,
        "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": 199,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "174\n\nunfortunate that practically always only their stage names are known, making it impossible for us to identify any well known local citizens who were maybe also active in the municipal administration or social clubs. Not all pseudonyms were as transparent as Mr. Beverley Newcome, Mr. Circular Roller and Mr. Pickwick, nor so ludicrous as **Mr. Caput as Head Manager, Mr. Work-em-hard as stagemaker and Mr. Llanfair P.G. as the stagesweeper,” but we can never be sure about the real identity of most actors. Still, in a few cases the true names of participants were given (see: Calendar, 13.2.1863, 26.3.1863). With the managers of the companies things stood no better: the names have come to us of a Mr. Doldrum, Horatio Buskin and Peter Proteus, but they are mentioned here merely for curiosity's sake. In some instances the performers were nothing loath to adopt the names of well known contemporaries. Thus the orchestra at a theatrical night was reputedly conducted by the “Veteran Melodist Sir George Smart,” who indeed was a conductor, organist and composer (1776-1867), certainly not in Shanghai but in Britain, where he had conducted, among other performances, the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1826. Another example was the appearance of \"our old friend Mr Bravo Rouse\". Rouse, always nicknamed Bravo Rouse, had been the originator of the Grecian Saloon in 1838, the precursor of the music hall.77\n\n**76\n\nOne feature that should be highlighted is the absence of ladies on the stage until 1876. On April 18 of that year Shanghailanders witnessed their first amateur actress in T.W. Robertson's School.” Before that, however, there may have been attempts to break the male monopoly in the theatre, to judge from a short remark in the local satirical magazine **Puck, or the Shanghai Charivari”** in 1873: “We hear that the actresses of the Dramatic Club bitterly resent the movement that has lately been made by the ladies of Shanghai in the direction of amateur theatricals as they consider their rights infringed. We however think differently; the presence of these fair debutantes if of more frequent occurrence [my emphasis — JH] would tend to inspire the male actors, and while we should certainly have fewer sticks on the stage, we might have more matches”. Not that Shanghai in this respect lagged behind the amateur dramatic societies in other Far Eastern ports: Yokohama introduced women in 1878, Hong Kong in 1879 and Singapore in 1884.82\n\n20\n\nAs far as Shanghai is concerned the reason for the lack of women on the stage is not difficult to find. Their general paucity in the Settlement",
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    {
        "id": 211812,
        "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": 227,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "202\n\nByeplay showed that, although his first appearance here, it is by no means his first attempt at acting\". But another anti-French jibe was added when he wrote: \"Mrs. NESBIT and Miss DEXTER play indifferently and we are rather proud of it — for as they only profess to play English female characters it was no wonder that they did not feel at home\". These acid comments drew forth a letter from \"Another Man on the Bund\" in the Herald of May 2 in which a counterweight was offered: \"Are we to take the opinion of this would-be orator in preference to the unanimous opinion of the rest of the community? What meant those thunders of applause repeated again and again in a manner that has never been heard in Shanghai and the repeated calls at the fall of the curtain; are we to believe that a piece that has had an almost unprecedented run in both England and America and in the former country was played by the express command of Her Majesty at her own palace is worthless or so bad because condemned by 'The Man on the Bund?' (...) My own and the general opinion outside is that The Man on the Bund at the time of writing the above was either labouring under a severe attack of bile or intensely disgusted that the acknowledged best performance ever given here should have been given without the assistance of himself or his darling Peter Proteus\". After, at any rate his disappointment about Still Waters, in A Capital Match Mr. BRUSHWOOD restored \"The Man on the Bund\" to his comfort and equanimity, nay more, utterly overturned our critical gravity and made us laugh like the veriest schoolboy at a favourite pantomime\". Mr. Beverly NEWCOME made his debut and he appeared to be quite at home in the naval character and we admired his style almost as much as the widow did. And the widow; none other than Mrs. NESBIT. It was also the occasion on which the critic showed his disapproval of the new interior of the theatre: \"'On entering the Thespian temple, I observed that there had been a change in the decoration of it - I cannot add improvements. The same taste which had furnished me with a posting bill streaked all over with lightning threatened to overwhelm me with a fall of flowers and garlands from the roof and treat me as if I were a prima donna or the boeuf gras of a Parisian festival\". Yet, thinking about Mrs. Nesbit, he continued ironically: \"What will a man not undergo when a woman is on the tapis! So, in imminent danger of being garlanded, like the Ass of Silenus [attendant of Bacchus usually represented as riding on an ass, drunken and crowned with flowers — JH] in a classic fresco, I took my seat and, unfolding my portentous play bill, began to scan it over at my leisure\". (NCH 25.4.1857).\n\n8.10.1857 (Thur)\n\nM. BARNETT: \"The Serious Family\" (1849)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nB.N. WEBSTER: \"The Golden Farmer\" (1832)\n\nT: Domestic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.S. COYNE: \"Binks the Bagman\" (1843)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: The \"Union Theatrical Company of the U.S.S. San Jacinto\"\n\nTh: On board ship\n\nN: More entertainment had been given by the crew of this ship, but this is the only one which has been recorded.\n\nR: Specially noticed was the prison scene in The Golden Farmer wherein the robber \"takes a tender farewell of his beloved wife and infant daughter Louisa. It brought moisture to the eyes of many\". Could it be of laughter, bearing in mind the ruling travesties? (NCH 10.10.1857). The San Jacinto was a U.S. warsteamer with a crew of 218.\n\n29.12.1857 (Tue)\n\nEntertainment by Mr. George Henri, a conjurer and ventriloquist. Th: Theatre Royal (C)",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211815,
        "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": 230,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "205\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: Alter the usual doubts about the formation of a theatrical company for the season, two plays were given this evening. The theatre had been redecorated and there was a new drop scene, not quite to the liking of the critic though: \"however picturesque and attractive the drop scene may be it ought not to absorb the attention of the onlookers to the exclusion of other objects quite as attractive and much more interesting\". Considering how much stage furniture was normal at that time, this performance must have been very crowded!\n\nOne of the plays, Done on Both Sides, also came in for some sharp remarks, yet this time there was no public outcry in the Herald. But for the remainder the principal character, Henry Jasper (in A Bachelor of Arts) was most successfully personated by Mr. NEWCOME who greatly excelled his efforts on a former occasion and succeeded in placing himself in the foremost ranks of our genteel comedians. Not less finished and effective was the acting of Mr. PICKWICK, in the character of Mr. Thornton. It would, indeed, be difficult to conceive a more quiet and judicious representation of the intelligent, gentleman-like, elderly merchant and man of the world than this performer succeeded in giving. \"Mr. PICKWICK as one of the new members of the corps, we look upon as a decidedly valuable acquisition\". And of course there was that \"first star of the galaxy\" Mrs. NESBIT as Emma Thornton with her \"astonishing powers of portraying the multifarious and often uncomprehensible traits of character which make up that delightful enigma 'woman'\". In Done on Both Sides \"our old favorite Mr. BRUSHWOOD appeared in the character of Pygmalion Phibbs, a veterinary Surgeon\" (NCH 13.2.1858). For behaviour of some members of the public see Survey.\n\n16.3.1858 (Tue)\n\nJ.H. PAYNE: \"Charles the Second\" (1824)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nH. LILLIE: \"As Like as Two Peas\" (1854)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by Messrs Phu & Mor; a selection of overtures and operatic morceaux\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\nN: Second performance of the season.\n\nR: Again one of the pieces, As Like as Two Peas, was not quite up to the standards of the reviewer: \"what was successful in creating laughter was due to the acting, certainly not to the play\". Mrs. NESBIT got some competition tonight for an \"actress of much promise made her debut before the Shanghai audience [Miss WALTERS – JHJ]. The lady-like manner and finished toilette of the new candidate created quite a sensation\". Payne's Charles the Second was far more to the taste of Herald: \"On this occasion the corps took a large step backward — not, we would for an instant wish to infer, in point of ability, but merely in point of time. Hitherto their efforts have been enlisted upon contemporaneous subjects upon the manners and custom of the present day (this was not quite true, see e.g. 21.4.1851 and 26.1.1852). Their characters have been taken from the sunny side of Regent Street or the genteel suburbs of Clapham and exhibited on the stage in the costumes to which the genius of living tailors has brought us, and which we, in our foolish vanity, may consider elegant and becoming, but which, it is mortifying to think, will furnish a subject of lively mirth and ridicule to our great-grandchildren. The comedy selected went back to the time of Charles II and was illustrative of the manners of himself and his court. The scenes were laid in Whitehall and Wapping; and the characters were the courtiers of the merry Monarch and the occupants of a hostelry. The mise-en-scene, considering the means the amateurs have at command, was very well arranged and the two royal and noble revellers, together with the attendant Page and Lady Clara, were dressed with great elegance and effect.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
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    {
        "id": 211816,
        "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": 231,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "206\n\n(...) Our first favourite was Captain Copp. This is a glorious character and was performed faultlessly [by Benjamin BLUSTER-JH]. From the first moment we made his acquaintance until we took a reluctant leave of him, our heart was kept in a continuous glow by his honest face, his blunt, sea-faring manner; his rugged but kindly touches of feeling, harmonically blended together as they were by his ceremonial bursts of good humoured jollity. Every time he broke out with his favourite stave\n\n'In the time of the Dump\n\nWhen Old Admiral Trump'\n\nwe felt a strong inclination to hear more of it and were scarcely pleased with Mary for stopping it so abruptly. (...) Mary's taste in the choice of a lover was unexceptionable - a compliment which cannot be said with truth, of pretty girls generally. The page who was the favoured suitor deserved his good fortune: he played well and sung sweetly. It is some time indeed since we heard on the stage or elsewhere a song given with so much taste and expression (...). No wonder the pretty Mary melted under the influence of the mellow tones of such a music master\". And Mary? She was played of course by Mrs NESBIT who \"as usual placed before us a lively picture of the piquant and coquettish, but withal modest and pretty niece of the host of the 'Grand Admiral'; and she looked so enticing as to make some of those who were present and near us wish that they too were actors provided there was plenty of kissing in the play and such a delightful subject as herself to practice upon”. (NCH 20.3.1858). Again it should be stressed that all female characters were portrayed by men, which, paradoxically, probably allowed the critic to write in such a vein!\n\n5.5.1858 (Wedn)\n\nJ. COURTNEY: \"Time Tries All\" (1848)\n\nT: Drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.S. COYNE: “Urgent Private Affairs\" (1856) T: Farce (1 act)\n\nW.B. RHODES: \"Bombastes Furioso\" (1810) T: Burlesque tragic opera (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by the band of H.M.S. Highflyer\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\nN: Third and final performance of the season\n\nR: For a house that was \"crowded to the doors\" the curtain rose on a new drop scene **of a light and pretty character\". Once more Mrs. NESBIT could be admired, in Time Tries All, as Laura Leeson and \"too much credit could not be extended on her for the manner in which she brought before us the wilful, pettish but withal warm-hearted woman\". As her husband, Mr. Leeson, \"Mr. ROLLER was most successful; he has made for himself a 'spécialité' in this line of characters which it would be difficult to surpass or to replace. Mr. PICKWICK played the role of Matthew Bates and by **his judicious, quiet acting gained considerable and well-merited applause\". Mr. TINTINNABULUM (who also sung a \"pretty Irish ballad\") as the Hon Mr. Yawn \"was capital and exercised the propensity with which his cognomen so plainly gifts him with such arts as to make many of the audience strenuously follow his example\"; whereas Miss Fact and Mr. Tact found fit representatives in Miss WALTERS and Mr. BRUSWOOD. Some of the actors again appeared in the closing piece; Bombastes Furioso when Mr. Beverley NEWCOME impersonated General Bombastes, “a creditable performance, but the role was evidently not so well suited to the powers of that gentleman as other parts in which we have seen him\". King Artaxominous was taken by Mr. PICKWICK, Furbos by Mr. TINTINNABULUM and Destafina by Mrs. NESBIT. Concluding, the reviewer was \"especially pleased with the scenery of this and other",
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    {
        "id": 211830,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 245,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "220\n\nR: In the advertisement it was stated that tickets could be obtained from Messrs Lane, Crawford & Co, G.A. Bretts' Auction Room and Astor House Hotel. Lane, Crawford was a general store that had been established in Kiangsi Road (ex Church Street) since June 1862. The Astor House Hotel was situated in Hongkew (see also Survey).\n\n17.6.1864 (Fri)\n\nPerformance by Messrs J.R. Black and Marquis Chisholm (piano)\n\nTH: N.N. (H)\n\nN: Benefit for Mr. Chisholm\n\nR: John Reddie BLACK (1827-1880) was born in Scotland, but went to Australia to earn a living as a singer in the goldfields. After arriving in Japan, 1861, he became the editor of some English newspapers and from 1876-1880 he edited several papers in Shanghai. In 1864 he still managed to combine his two vocations. His entertainment was \"composed of songs interspersed with anecdotes and conversation of the most lively description which he varied every evening. He has a splendid voice and sings with great taste and feeling\" (NCH 4.6.1864). His accompanist on the piano was Mr. L.C. PHILIPPS (cf. 1.4.1864), but the latter died of cholera and his place was taken by Mr. Marquis CHISHOLM who was no newcomer to the Shanghai public. On June 17 he played a fantasia on Japanese airs, composed by himself. As a matter of coincidence there was \"an absence of ladies, many of whom are at present rusticating in Japan\", but for the other evenings \"the audience has always comprised the majority of the ladies resident in the Settlement\". Evidently this had come to be considered as most desirable, perhaps to lend an air of respectability to the performance. (NCH 11, 18.6.1864).\n\n22.6.1864 (Wedn)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"Il Treated Il Trovatore\" (1863)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nC: Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\n\nF: Music by the Rhenish Band\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\n+\n\nR: The first night of a new company, the \"*Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\" and, if we may believe the Herald, the Shanghai world \"was completely taken by surprise. So minute an acquaintance with stage proprieties was shown that many of the audience were disposed to believe that they were witnessing a display of professional talent”. (NCH 25.6.1864).\n\n29.6.1864 (Wedn)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"Ill Treated 11 Trovators\" (1863)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nT.H. LACY: \"A Silent Woman\" (1835)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\n\nF: \"New burlesque music\" by the Rhenish Band\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\nR: This is one of those increasing occasions in which only a short summary was published in the Herald, while the full report had appeared in the North China Daily News, no longer extant for this year. In any case the hope was expressed that more would be seen of the company \"as soon as the cool weather sets in\" (NCH 2.7.1864). According to the advertisement, tickets were obtainable from Lane, Crawford & Co (see 13.6.1864), Hall & Holtz (Ship chandler, general store and bakers; at the corner of Foochow Road (ex Mission Road) and Kiangsi Road (ex Bridge Street); MacKenzie & Co (shipchandlers, general store and general agents on the Yangkingpang in the French Concession); the Astor House Hotel; and Phillips Restaurant (Phillips, Moore & Co, Nanking Road-ex...)",
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    {
        "id": 211842,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 257,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "232\n\nnot heard before and of which the best that can be said is that they are decidedly original. They seemed an imitation of the noise of braying of donkeys, but still they elicited great applause from the gallery [which was generally not regarded as very complimentary JH] perhaps from a certain feeling of sympathy. An amateur played Weber's \"Aufforderung zum Tanz\" with a \"perfect feeling\". To conclude the evening Mme SIMONSEN sung the \"Valse de concert\" (composer unmentioned) in which \"she displayed her powers more than in any other piece she has sung\" (SCR 22.5.1865).\n\n24.5.1865 (Wedn)\n\nH. MAYHEW: \"The Wandering Minstrel“ (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.P. PLANCHE: \"The Knights of the Round Table” (1854)\n\nT: Drama (5 acts)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Mounted Rangers\n\nF: Music by the Band of the 67th Regiment; prologue read by Capt. Markham\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\n―\n\nR: In lieu of the old time favourites, Messrs Brushwood, Pickwick, Newcome and Mrs. Nesbit had come new faces. Most foreigners had not yet made Shanghai their permanent place of residence, so turnover in the theatre too was rather high. Tonight could be admired Mr. SMALLWEED who, in the Knights of the Round Table, as \"the blameless king shewed a keen appreciation of his part and while he delivered the burlesque passages with much humour, proved by the taste with which he pronounced the prophetic eulogium on the Queen of England that he need not necessarily confine himself to broad burlesque in order to gain well-merited applause\"; Mr. Edmund (also a member of the Amateur Burlesque Company) won golden opinions as Launcelot, whereas Mr. PEEKT as Merlin \"displayed much cleverness in personating feeble old men\". In The Wandering Minstrel \"Mr. R.T. Larff, better known to the theatrical world as Mr. Wynnge (did this mean that he had two stage names? JH) sustained the reputation he has already gained as a low comedian and makes us the less deplore the absence of the well known and inimitable Brushwood” (last recorded performance 10.5.1860). Of course the female roles were taken by men, which led, as it always does, to some ridiculous scenes: \"The company possesses great strength in the important particular of lady performers. The only drawback which, however, is immaterial in burlesque, lies in the great height and muscular development of the fair ones\". Yet Miss Mary MIDDLESEX \"bore away the palm for natural feminine get-up\" and \"nothing could excel the dash which Kate COVENTRY threw into the part of the vivandière\", (NCH 27.5.1865). That not all patrons were equally pleased became evident from the Shanghai Commercial Record (5.6.1865) when it wrote: \"an allusion which was considered too personal led to a corresponding in our columns\" (i.e. the \"Shanghai Recorder\" which to the great regret of all historians treating the history of foreign Shanghai can no longer be found). At the end of the evening a number of toasts were proposed, among others to \"Alabaster, to whose exertions much of the success of the company was due\". This was a reference to Chaloner Alabaster (1831-1890), the British vice-consul who was also active in the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In conclusion the Herald reported that \"the arrangements were excellent and notwithstanding the warmth of the evening and the crowded state of the theatre, the air within the walls did not become oppressively hot. Punkahs were slung over the front seats and during the temporary pauses kept up a current of air\",\n\n27.5.1865 (Sat)\n\nPerformance by Mr. Benjamin Seare. Programme unknown (reading, etc)\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: Both the Herald and the Record agreed that Mr. SEARE \"is possessed of great talent\"",
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