[ { "id": 211416, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "108\n\nWhen he landed in the United States, he had only three dollars on his person to begin seeking his own livelihood.\n\nIn those days, employment for Chinese immigrants was limited to working in restaurants, laundries, or importing businesses. Moreover, they had to work long and hard. When they had accumulated enough from their meagre earnings, they would return to their respective villages, get married (unless they were married already), raise a family, and enjoy their retirement. So it was that Uncle went to work for Sing Fat Chinese Emporium, an importing business. In a short time, he realized the importance of a good education, so used every opportunity to study English, even while at work. One day, while he was on the roof of the Emporium to dry some leather goods, he impressed an American neighbour, who, espying him poring over an English book, offered to tutor him.\n\nUncle was very resourceful. For instance, he would collect discarded Chinese newspapers and sell them at bazaars to Americans who would buy them out of curiosity or out of desire to help a struggling student. He would sell paper 'matches', rolled to the size and length of a drinking straw and used to light Chinese water pipes. At one of the World Fairs, he made money by telling fortunes. There is no information on the schools he attended, but we know that in the autumn of 1894, he was accepted by the Omaha Medical College at Omaha, Nebraska, and graduated on 22 April 1897, with a degree in General Medicine.\n\nThe earliest letter we have from Uncle to Father was dated 26 October 1894 from Omaha. In the letter, he noted that he had not seen Father since leaving home some ten years before and bemoaned the fact that poverty deprived him of the joy of seeing his family every day. He regretted that his ship did not pass Honolulu. (According to Toby, Uncle returned to China to get married in compliance with Grandfather's request, and no doubt was referring to this trip on his way back from the United States.) Uncle mentioned that he had seen Goon Sun MA, a second cousin, in Stockton the previous summer. It took him three weeks to get from San Francisco to Omaha to enter medical school. There, he had his dinner in a restaurant but cooked his own breakfast and supper each day. A year later, on 20 December 1895, he wrote that he was homesick seeing all the other students going home for Christmas.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211455, "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": 171, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "147\n\naway from a Sunday evening service to watch some people playing dominos, even though I was too young to realize that they were gambling. This was the only time Father had ever whipped any of us, an indication of his extreme anger at me. He really did not approve of the corporal punishment that Mother administered on Ruth and me, and when Helen came along, he asked Mother not to spank Helen so much. He was never tempted to do anything against his sense of right and wrong. When a relative tried to involve him in opium, he would have none of it, even when his relative thought Father would succumb to the temptation once the drug was sent to him without his consent. When the 'goods' arrived at the pier and Father got the bill of lading, he refused to accept it so that it was returned to San Francisco.\n\nFather was always trying to advance himself and his family, educationally, not only with books but also with experience. I can still picture him before a kerosene lamp at the family table reading, practising calligraphy, or teaching Ruth before she was old enough to attend school. Ruth was quiet, studious and bright, and learned quickly. I was active, impulsive and spirited, somewhat of a clown at times, but not so bright as Ruth. On one occasion when I was no more than four, he tried to teach me addition in Chinese by memorizing 'one tangerine and two tangerines make three tangerines'. I consistently got it wrong, and in frustration Father rapped me on the head with his knuckle, at which I ended up in tears so that Mother had to come to the rescue.\n\nHe bought books and dictionaries for himself and children's books for us. I used to be fascinated with a book about birds where the bluejay acted as the policeman among them. I used to pour over repeatedly the illustrations in our huge Bible and in other books, letting my fantasies take over. He bought a large bookcase for these books, which included textbooks he and Ping Lim had used and the Chinese classics he had studied in China. I grew to love them and often used them as references. Mother, who had a tendency to throw away anything that reminded her of her deceased loved ones, unfortunately gave away most of these books while I was in Nebraska. It was lucky for me that she kept these Chinese books that included the classics which I had proudly used when I attended Chinese language school and which Father would explain to me if there was something I could not absorb at school. When Ruth graduated from the 8th grade, Father shed tears of joy. How much greater his joy would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211483, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "175\n\nof worth. I believe she found me to be a loyal companion when Mr. Johnson died and she was left alone with me in a big house. Midwesterners are solid, down-to-earth people who are sincere and faithful friends, and I value among them Reuben and Viola Hasskart, May Chamberlain, Augusta and Emma Baegl, Eula Lumpp, Virginia DeTar O'Toole, Ernie Graves, and the Frank DuTeils, most of whom have passed away.\n\nBeing a zoology major, I spent most of my time in Bassey Hall where the zoology and botany departments were housed. The staff consisted of a group of kindly men who took an interest in our learning and progress. Dr. Robert H. Wolcott was head of the Zoology Department; Dr. Harold W. Manter taught parasitology; Dr. D. D. Whitney taught genetics, using rotifers in his research; Dr. H. H. Waite taught bacteriology but passed away unexpectedly during the year; and Dr. Irving H. Blake, under whose supervision I did my research and thesis, taught anatomy. Dr. George E. Hudson and Mr. Webster were my laboratory instructors in Zoology and Anatomy, while Mr. Dean and Mr. Lawrence F. Lindgren gave me guidance in the bacteriology laboratory. Many of my classmates were either pre-medical or pre-dental students full of life and pranks. I always shied away from the room where they worked on cadavers for fear an arm or a leg would come flying through the doorway. Since the department was not large, I got to know other staff members, such as Dr. Otis Wade and Dr. T. J. Fitzpatrick, a botanist and librarian for the two departments, who would often offer me a ride home.\n\nAfter receiving a B.Sc. degree in 1931, I decided to work for an M.Sc. in histology. I owe much to the university for granting me a monthly stipend of ten dollars and free tuition, in return for correcting the laboratory work of freshmen zoology students. There was a good deal of fellowship among the few of us who shared the graduates room for our projects — Erickson, Dilworth, Kucera and Smith. My thesis, \"The Histology of the Alimentary Tract of the Deepwater Gurnard Peristedion longispatha (Goode and Bean)\", was published in the University of Nebraska Studies, Volume 41, No. 1, August 1941, and also in the Journal of Morphology. I was active in Phi Sigma, an organization interested in research, and to my surprise, I was elected into Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi upon my graduation in 1932.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211486, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "178\n\nWe climbed half-way up Mount Tai, sweltered in Nanking, found Hangchow entrancing, and considered Shanghai too foreign and bustling to be interesting. The great discrepancy between the rich and the poor was evident everywhere. The extreme poverty and degradation of life with no prospect of change for the poor influenced my decision to become a social worker when I left China.\n\nIn 1931 Bung Fong returned to the University of Nebraska for graduate work in electrical engineering, but left in 1933 to join me in Canton hoping to find employment there. On a brief visit to Hong Kong he became infected with a \"boil\" on his chin, and a dentist friend, not realizing it was a carbuncle that gave Bung Fong a toothache, extracted the teeth. This was a disastrous procedure for it spread the infection into the soft tissues, leading to septicemia and his death on 23 November 1933. Antibiotics had not been discovered then, and surgery and medication were not effective. It was a long and agonizing night as I stood vigil by his hospital bed and watched him slowly losing hold of life. The Rev. Chong Jook Ling, who had served in Honolulu, was a great help and support to me in making funeral arrangements and in conducting a service at the Hop Yat Church for Bung Fong before burial in the Christian cemetery in Pokfulam. Some years later, in the 1960s, his brother, Robert Wong, re-interred his remains in Honolulu. Again, like Ruth, a young person with a promising future had died. It left me depressed for several years until I felt he would have wanted me to have a happy life. In reaction, I pursued life with complete abandon the next few years.\n\nIn my last year at True Light, I served reluctantly under the new principal, who expressed a condescending attitude toward us American-born Chinese. Inasmuch as Mother was very much worried about my safety when Japan began to rattle her sword, I returned to Honolulu upon fulfilment of my contract. To have a new outlook on life, Mother had built a two-bedroom cottage in Puunui on a lot that I had found for her when I was working for Judge Robinson. This has been our home ever since and it holds many fond memories, especially of Mother who enjoyed this humble abode to the end. I arrived home very much out of touch with what had been going on in the United States. The social programmes, such as the WPA, FERA, CCC, etc. were just alphabets to me at first. It was still difficult to find employment,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212299, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "218 \n\nin the Bodleian Archives at Oxford.\n\n71 I have found no direct support for this claim, though according to Ralph Covell the influence of William Paley's natural theology on nineteenth century Protestant missionary apologetics was immense. See Ralph Covell, Confucius, The Buddha, and Christ: A History of the Gospel In Chinese (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986), pp. 98-102. A helpful text on the background of William Paley and his rationalistic theology is D. L. LeMahieu's The Mind of William Paley: A Philosopher, and His Age (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976).\n\n72 This is a claim made in her essay entitled \"James Legge\" (pp. 10-11), presented to the Sino-Scottish Society at the University of Edinburgh on February 4, 1951.\n\n73 See James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol 1, p. 89. This is significantly changed from the original 1861 edition.\n\n74 Ibid.\n\nPage 367\n\n75 Ibid., pp. 100-101.\n\n76 Ibid., pp. 49-51, 94-97.\n\n77 The Book of Rites and The Rites of Zhou, cited in The Chinese Classics. Vol 1, op. cit., pp. 110-111.\n\n78 I am thinking here of Liang Qichao, who in 1902 and 1903 wrote some famous articles urging Chinese intellectuals to discard the inadequate value system of traditional Confucian life. See my article which includes this attack, “Liang Qi-Chao and the Problematic of Social Change: Analyzing a Philosophical Tension in Twentieth Century Chinese Philosophy\". Synthesis Philosophica (Yugoslavia) 4:1 (1989), pp. 189-212.\n\n79 Legge wrote a series of three articles on Qu Yuan entitled \"The Li Sao Poem and its Author,\" all of which appeared in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain And Ireland. See n. 5. Another interpretation of these texts is offered in \"The 'Failures' Of James Legge's Fruitful Life For China\", op. cit., pp. 258-260.\n\nFor a recent translation of Qu Yuan's \"Heavenly Questions\" see David Hawkes, The Songs of the South (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd, 1985). Legge did begin translating other poems of Qu Yuan, but never had them published.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 } ]