[ { "id": 204608, "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-1963", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "78\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nguard was reinforced by marines from the warships in the Gulf of Chihli, and arrived in Peking on May 31st. Seventy-five was the number fixed for the French, British, and Russian contingents. On June 10th, an immediate attack on the Legation area was expected, while at the same time reinforcements were awaited from Tientsin. On June 20th, the German Minister, Baron Ketteler, was murdered by Boxers on his way to the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese department dealing with Foreign Affairs. As a result, all the women and children in the various Legations, together with the non-combatant men, gathered inside the British Legation, since this was alone regarded as capable of any serious defence. In here, there were eventually over eight hundred people, including the Ministers of eleven different nations and some Chinese Christian converts. At this time, the Legation was only half its final size, being roughly 700 yards long and 200 yards wide, but containing eight different walls, some of them very thick, which made it good for defending.\n\nMeanwhile, the German Minister's interpreter, Cordes, who had been wounded, was brought into the Legation, and a hospital was hurriedly set up, under the charge of Dr. Poole of the British Legation, with Dr. Welde of the German Legation as his assistant. The nurses consisted of one fully trained and certificated nurse (Miss Lambert of the Church of England Mission), who was made Matron, and a number of partly trained missionary women under her, together with Fuller, a naval sick-berth steward, who had been sent up with the marines. One of the partly-trained missionaries was Jessie Ransome, who kept a diary of the siege, giving the story of the hospital work. As she recorded:\n\nThe first thing to be done was to find a building which could be set apart for a hospital, and this, in the crowded state of the British Legation, was not very easy. It was decided to use the Government offices and reading-room, commonly known as the Chancery, and two rooms were hastily cleared and prepared for use, one as an operating theatre, and the other as a ward. Even then, we had not an idea of the task before us, thinking that a few days would certainly bring Admiral Seymour and his column to our relief; and so it was only by degrees, as our patients increased in number, that we cleared out more rooms and even encroached upon", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205248, "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-1967", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "and in the Colonial Office in London. Mr. Endacott's History of Hong Kong (1958) has already indicated what sort of material is available to form the necessary background to new studies in urban history and sociology.\n\nWe hope, then, that this Journal will receive contributions in this neglected field and that, in particular, it will benefit from the new project in urban studies, now being initiated by Dr. Alan Birch of the History Department at the University of Hong Kong. We hope, too, that some of the material being obtained from the Urban Family Life Study commissioned by the Hong Kong Government and now in progress under the direction of Dr. Robert Mitchell from the University of California, Berkeley, may appear in its pages. As a Hong Kong publication the Journal must play its part in encouraging and making available some of this basic information.\n\nMeantime we have not made much progress with the ethnographic aspects stressed by the Hon. Editor in 1962. Unfortunately, pure ethnography is rather neglected by scholars nowadays and, probably for this reason, less progress has been made in this field, though the curator of the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery, with the help of the New Territories Administration and others, has begun collecting items of interest, with a view to forming a local collection. Members were fortunate recently in hearing a lecture from Mr. Alan L. Kagan on the Cantonese Puppet Theatre in Hong Kong. It is hoped to include this article in the 1968 Journal. Mr. Kagan's assessment has reinforced Mr. Cranmer-Byng's remark five years ago that time is indeed short. Whereas there are only two part-time puppet troupes operating in present-day Hong Kong, there were more full-time operators twenty years ago, when a smaller, poorer, less-sophisticated and less westernised population supported this type of entertainment enthusiastically and business was good, their services being in demand all over the territory. The Editorial Committee welcomes articles of this sort and would be glad to have more of them from interested persons.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206137, "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-1970", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "210\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nby prolonged contact with the urban environment. Excellent material for comparison with the Plover Cove situation exists in the Tai Lam Chung (1956) and Shek Pik (1960) removals. Like the Plover Cove villages, they were agricultural villages which were removed to urban Tsuen Wan to allow the construction of reservoirs. They have been resettled for a number of years, however, and a brief survey of their religious practices would provide the Christian Study Centre with a most interesting supplement to its information on the Plover Cove villages.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nELIZABETH L. JOHNSON\n\nNOTES\n\n1 p. vii of the book under review.\n\n2 More information on this village removal can be found in M. I. Berkowitz, \"Plover Cove to Tai Po Market: A Study in Forced Migration.\" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Volume 8, 1968, pp. 96-108.\n\n3 p. 142.\n\n* V. R. Burkhardt, Chinese Creeds and Customs. 3 vols. Hong Kong: South China Morning Post, 1955, and Wolfram Eberhard, Chinese Festivals. New York: Henry Shuman, 1952.\n\n3 p. 100.\n\n6 Ibid.\n\n7 Ibid.\n\n8 Ibid.\n\n9 See, for example, pp. 14-15, 116-117.\n\nTRADITIONAL CHINESE PLAYS, translated, described and annotated by A.C. Scott, Ssu Lang visits his mother, Ssu Lang T’an Mu, The Butterfly Dream, Hu Tieh Meng, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, Madison, Milwaukee, and London, pp. ix, 165, 13 photos hors-texte.\n\nA. C. Scott, the best Western specialist of Chinese and Japanese theatre, here gives us a translation of two Peking operas. The first, Ssu Lang visits his mother, is a tragedy which takes place in the second half of the tenth century, under the reign of the Sung. The son of a famous general has been taken prisoner by the barbarians, but, because of his fine looks, he is married", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206140, "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-1970", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n213\n\nacademic subject. Indeed, Scott has tried this with American actors: the Butterfly Dream was played at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Theatre Arts of New York. This approach to theatre breaks a new path in research. Generally speaking, academics store culture in books as if they were canning it — but tinned food loses its flavour. Here Scott treats Chinese plays as a living part of culture, made to be played, not to be kept in libraries.\n\nBut if the author, by trying not to cut culture off from life, shows that universities need not necessarily be funeral parlours of art, his publisher is singularly backward. It is very difficult to visualise movements from written descriptions alone. It would have been much better if we could have had photos and drawings of each movement in the margin and colour photos for the costumes; and if, as well as providing the tapes, the publisher could supply a little film. Books continue to be published on the same old pattern. In this instance, a little case with a tape, a film, an album of photos and the text itself would have suited the aims of A. C. Scott far better. A documentary film might have been even better than a book; but from my own experience here in Hong Kong, where I have tried to persuade companies and so-called “cultural” organisations to make a purely explanatory film on Chinese opera, I have learnt that films are the monopoly of a mafia and the scholar is condemned to be book-bound.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nANON\n\nGOLDEN GUIDE TO HONGKONG AND MACAO. P.H.M. Jones, Hong Kong, Far Eastern Economic Review Ltd., 1969, pp. 453, with colour and black and white illustrations and maps. HK$10. (Paperback)\n\nThe preface to this work states that the Far Eastern Economic Review had long planned a companion volume to its Golden Guide to South and East Asia in the form of a detailed guide to Hongkong. This has now materialized in the present Guide ‘which is designed primarily to help tourists and travellers on their way and to sharpen their interest in the modern scene'. The compiler", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206615, "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-1972", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "H.K.'S CENTRAL MARKET AND THE TARRANT AFFAIR\n\n157\n\npay during his suspension to the date at which his post was abolished, but he could do no more. The injustice was acknowledged but, as the Friend of China put it, it was \"but miserable redress in a pecuniary light.\"32\n\nTarrant's connection with the Central Market ceased on 28 December 1849 when he assigned his quarter share of the profits to Chow Aqui, one of Hong Kong's biggest Chinese businessmen at that time.33 Chow had extensive property interests in the Lower Bazaar area, had run Hong Kong's first theatre and had had the opium monopoly for a few years. Curiously enough, allegations had been made a few years previously that he was able to use Government police officers to protect his monopoly and Caine was inevitably linked with the allegation. The lease of the Market came to an end in 1850, the term being expired but Chow was given a renewal for two years from 10 March 1851 at the same rent and the lease was further renewed on two subsequent occasions.35\n\n16\n\nThis account illustrates two quite diverse matters. First, it shows the extent to which Chinese in Hong Kong adapted themselves to the institutional demands of a British colony. Although the whole system of law was alien to them, the transactions memorialised in the Land Office show the extent to which the possibilities of English Law were utilised to their commercial advantage, even though on some occasions it is difficult to follow at this remove the complexity of their dealings. If they did sometimes find themselves on the losing side in the Supreme Court, there were a significant number of Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong itself whose names recur over the years and who were, presumably, successful. Several have been named in this article but there were perhaps about a dozen or so in this category.* They, in addition to the Europeans, learnt to take advantage of the British system.\n\n37\n\nThis account also touches on the problem of the integrity of the colonial Government of the time. While it is true that the Chinese who came to the island may not have expected what the European would have regarded as an incorrupt government, it is also true that the circumstances of the colony in its early days gave opportunities for corruption which some were not slow to use. Though there was little at this time or later that could definitely be proved against\n\n* On this subject see Rev. Carl T. Smith's article \"The Emergence of a Chinese Elite in Hong Kong\" at pp. 74-115 of the 1971 Journal. (Ed).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206805, "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-1973", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "76\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nThe hands are made of wire (Plate VII) which facilitates the fastening of the sticks or arms, but their appearance is ugly.\n\nThe sticks have the length of chopsticks. Made of iron, they form a small ring at one end and have a wooden handle on the other, to prevent the sticks from slipping out of the hands. The third stick is thicker and is hooked into a hole at the puppet's back from below. The puppeteers tell that in Ch'aochow some puppets were considered so precious that they were handled with sticks made of pure gold.\n\nNeither the waist nor the stick is movable.\n\nThe Historical Background in Ch'aochow\n\nAlthough well proportioned and even beautiful, this puppet has many technical disadvantages compared to the Cantonese rod-puppet or the Fukienese string or glove-puppet. The reason for this incongruousness can be found in the dominance of Ch'aochow's ancient leather shadow-puppet tradition, which was definitely well established in the Ming dynasty in that area. One can assume that it existed earlier but any proof is lacking so far.\n\nIn Ch'aochow these shadow-puppets were cut out of cowhide (which is very rough when compared to the donkey-hide used in North China or Szechuan) which was coloured. They have two-jointed arms and legs and are handled with three sticks attached to the hands and the back of the two-dimensional puppet. The author has seen such Min-nan shadow-puppets in Taiwan, and some old Ch'aochowese confirmed that the Ch'aochow ones had exactly these features. By the end of the last century, supposedly under the strong influence of the extraordinary perfection of the string and glove puppets of Ch'uan-chou, Fukien, a new type of puppet evolved, a hybrid with the beauty of a Ch'uan-chou puppet, but handicapped in movement by the technique of a two-dimensional puppet. The name paper-shadow-theatre chih-ying-hsi was also applied to the new puppet. These two kinds of puppets existed side by side for one generation, and according to witnesses the leather shadow-puppets disappeared in the 1920s.\n\nIt is yet possible to receive first-hand accounts of the time when puppets were much used. An educated elderly Ch'aochow gentleman, Mr. Su related that in his childhood, at the beginning of the Republic, there were still 3 different kinds of puppets: shadow, horizontal stick-puppets and a third kind which he describes as...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206810, "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-1973", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\n81\n\ndrama. This is a process which reminds of Java where the drama performed by actors Wayang Orang mimics the much earlier leather-shadow-play Wayang Kulit.\n\nHsiao Nan-ying\n\na famous hua-tan of Ch'aochow opera, who came to Hong Kong a year ago, complains that the Ch'aochow opera here is still using the stiff movements which were influenced by the shadow-puppet movements. She also tells of a typical Ch'aochow opera in which the peculiarities of the shadow-puppet-theatre are used to great effect. A movement can suddenly stop and the moment can be endlessly prolonged. For example: a boy and a girl move independently in a festival-crowd and when they by chance look at each other, they instantly fall in love and remain motionless in the position in which they caught each other's eye. And the Old Man of the Moon appears, takes imaginary strings from their eyes and binds them together. They remain like statues looking at each other until somebody cuts the imaginary strings, the spell is broken and they regain their liveliness. This technique is believed to be derived from the shadow-play.\n\nThe Wang Family\n\nThe most important puppeteer-family in Hong Kong is the family Wang who have been puppeteers for at least three generations. At the end of the Imperial era the grandfather Wang Pao-yuan was active as a puppeteer and opera-actor, and his son who accompanied him became the famous Wang Chiao-tsou, also called Wang Chiao Y. The name Chiao-tsou meaning “itinerant teacher\" was given to him, because he was a well-known itinerant teacher and opera-actor and also a puppeteer. Weary of the Sino-Japanese war he took his family to Hong Kong in 1938, together with a trunk of puppets. He immediately started to teach Ch'aochow opera and founded the Hsin-shun-hsiang puppet-troupe (The title means 'to prosper anew in Hong Kong'). His own family being very large, it was easy for him to give puppet-performances. Having for long performed himself in the leading role of hua-tan (character of a high-class beauty) he was a major force in the upsurge of Ch'aochow opera in Hong Kong in the last thirty years.\n\nWhen Wang Chiao-tsou arrived here he found three established Ch'aochow puppet-groups. Hsin-t'ien-ts'ai gave up its puppets to become an opera troupe in 1962. Lao-yuan-cheng", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206900, "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-1973", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n171\n\nELIZABETH HALSON: PEKING OPERA, A SHORT GUIDE, Hong Kong University Press, London, New York, 1966, HK$20.\n\nI do not think that Elizabeth Halson has a background of sinological studies, but she has the advantage of having spent some time in Peking and she was obviously an avid theatre-goer. Judging from the contents of the book, she must have been there before 1963, as she describes only the traditional style of opera, which was banned in that year and has not been allowed to be performed since, whilst the book itself was published already in 1966. She must have learned Mandarin and spent a lot of time in and around the theatre, collecting material, talking to actors and anybody available who would give answers to her questions on opera. In her book she describes in a comprehensive way what she could grasp in such a short time, which might have been two years. This is naturally far too short a time for a foreigner to penetrate more than the surface of such a complex and abstract art as Peking Opera.\n\nIt seems, too, that she had not many books to rely on, neither Chinese nor European. It is obvious that she did not have the book on Peking Opera by A. C. Scott, The Classical Theatre of China, with which I shall compare it, because she does not use his material as a background, but starts again where he had to start. The difference is that Scott has been in China and Hong Kong for about 8 years, between 1947-1955 and that he has a profound knowledge of the Chinese language, the former society, the realities and the culture in general. Today he is considered an authority on Peking Opera, with many books on this subject to his credit.\n\nScott's book on Peking Opera is the most authoritative work yet to appear in any European language. When I first saw Miss Halson's book, I was not surprised to find the subject treated in the same way as in his book, because as a foreigner you are first led by your eyes, as western ears are mostly very slow to adapt to Chinese language and music.\n\nWhat distinguishes the Peking Opera from other forms is its complicated system of symbols, which are organized in rules for the appearance, movements and voices of the actors and for the sparse stage properties. Opera was the entertainment of the court, and therefore its society is reflected in it, its thinking and behaviour.\n\n* Published by Allen and Unwin, 1957.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206901, "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-1973", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "172\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nThere are emperors, princes, ministers, generals, scholars, officials and the corresponding female parts, their sons and their daughters. They are dressed in gorgeous costumes and they sing and speak in a very literary language, and artistic voice, which even for ordinary Chinese is difficult to understand. As a contrast there are the common people, the servants and soldiers, who are dressed mostly in a simple dark gown and often appear as clowns with a white patch painted into the middle of their face. They speak in the common Peking dialect, sometimes even making rude jokes, in order to amuse the public and give it a chance to relax between listening to the very strenuous singing parts. This can also be found in the traditional western theatre. However, Miss Halson does not mention this technique of contrasting the two groups of society in behaviour, appearance and language, and does not give any background to the social groupings and their relationships, and to the examination system of Imperial China, all of which are absolutely essential for any understanding. Scott, at least, touches on the subject in his introduction.\n\nMiss Halson divides the roles into four major forms: male, female, painted-face roles and comic characters, with their subdivisions of young and old, military or scholar, attributing to them appearance, acting and voices. The book is illustrated with ten plates, very artistic brush-drawings by a Japanese artist called Ishizuka; these show ten different characters which give the reader very good impressions of the appearance of the actors. Scott also has about 10 sketches, beautifully done by himself, but not systematically chosen or arranged.\n\nScott tries to describe a subject in a very detailed way, whereas Miss Halson only touches upon subjects, giving only a few examples. For instance: under the section of costumes Mr. Scott gives all the major forms with all their subdivisions and their Chinese names, often as many as ten. Miss Halson only introduces the major costumes, but she has the advantage of having a detailed technical drawing of each. There is, for example, the costume representing an armour, worn by generals and commanders. It has four flags or pennants sticking out at the back of the neck. The costume is very stiff and heavily embroidered, consisting of a front and back-flap, the latter cut into stripes; there is a tigerhead-design on the front, the arms are tight, as this actor has to perform acrobatics. Scott's description is already more interesting; he says that there is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207015, "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-1974", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "80 \n\nROBIN MCLACHLAN \n\nin this horrid place. I am therefore leading a most regular life. I get up at 6 a.m. and walk for two hours before breakfast. I remain in my room all day during the heat of the sun and walk again in the evening, and go to bed early. I live on fish, fruit and curry and drink but little wine. But I smoke a great deal; in fact it is necessary in India. I cannot get on without it. The whole fleet expect to sail in a few days. They go back to India. This place, which is now a perfect bear garden, will once more be quiet. There is only one spot on the whole island that has a tree on it. It is called Happy Valley, and is certainly a pretty spot. The rest of the island is one barren rock and perfectly devoid of all vegetation, although there are springs innumerable. ... Now I have told you everything about this delightful spot. It is inferior to Sierra Leone from the fact of its being less healthy, less amusing and less near England.\n\n10 \n\nAn important social activity for the infant colony was the rounds of dinner parties held by the senior military and colonial officers. Bridgeman seems to have regarded these events as at least tolerable social functions, but was very critical of the more rowdy partying that went on in the officers' barracks. While writing to his sister, he commented on one such party going on in the next room. This was a farewell party by the Madras Artillery for one of their officers, Captain Balfour. Bridgeman considered it a very noisy party with far too much drinking and feared that it would go on far into the night. \n\nMen of this sort never sit down to a large party without drinking to such an excess that they lose their senses and are put to bed more like beasts than Christians. God forgive me, but I hate them all. Give me women's society! Without it we are beasts.\n\n11 \n\nAnother form of entertainment that attracted Bridgeman's critical comment was the amateur theatre established in Hong Kong in late 1842. The actors were largely drawn from among the soldiers and sailors stationed at Hong Kong. \n\nI regret to say it was a complete failure. The first and only performance was about a week ago. The pieces they chose were stupid and not one of them knew their parts. However, the house was filled; for in a stupid place like this everybody caught willingly at anything in the way of amusement. The house is now being...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207149, "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-1974", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "214\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\ngood size bed rooms, with dressing and bath room to each; two servant's rooms; a front and back verandah, closed with venetians, each 100 feet long and 12 feet wide, flat roof convenient for exercise and affording a fine view of the harbour and its entrances. Commodious outbuildings for servants, store room and offices; a large compound, garden, etc., whole surrounded by a good fence. Situated on the ridge at West Point and now in occupation of Jamieson, How and Co.\n\nThere was not a ready sale. A business depression prevailed and the location was too remote from the European section of Victoria.\n\nBelow the bungalow Jamieson, How and Co. built a large godown on Marine Lot 57 in 1842. Ten years later this property was sold at auction. The premises on the Marine Lot were described as consisting of \"a costly and recently improved residence, granite godown, pier, outhouses, shrubbery\". The West Point Bungalow was described as beautifully situated immediately opposite on the hill. Both properties were bought by Yorick Jones Murrow.\n\nIn 1854 the West Point Bungalow was used as a military barracks. This left it the worse for wear. Because of its dilapidated condition the Rhenish Missionary Society was able to purchase the property at a reasonable price in 1857. They needed a centre in Hong Kong as they had been forced from their stations on the mainland by the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and China. In 1859 the Government repossessed the property as a site for a new Civil Hospital.\n\nThe area north of Queen's Road extending to Ko Shing Street was the original beach. The land between Queen Street on the east and Wilmer Street on the west can be divided into six main sections. The first (Marine Lot 68) is a rectangular lot three houses wide and bounded on the east by Queen Street. The second section (Marine Lots 68A, 69, 69A, and 70) is intersected by Tsung Sau Lanes East and West. The third section (Marine Lot 58) is the former Ko Shing Theatre property with Wo Fung and Kom Yu Streets. The fourth section (Marine Lot 57) is bounded on the west by Sutherland Street and contains In Ku Lane. The fifth section (Marine Lots 71, 71A, 72, 72A) lies east of Sutherland Street and is intersected by Li Sing Street. The sixth piece (Marine Lot 200) is a triangular lot with its narrow point on Queen's Road and its west boundary Wilmer Street.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207152, "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-1974", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n217 \n\nwas redeveloped and in 1868 shops and godowns were built along Queen Street. \n\nNext to Robert's shipyard, Kwok Acheong had a compound in which he erected coal sheds, carpenter shops and a smithy. The latter was operated by Augustine Heard and Company. The present entrance to Tsung Sau Lane East on Queen's Road was the site of the original entry gate into the compound. By 1872 most of the buildings in \"Acheong's Yard\" had been removed, but in 1877 after the property had been sold to the Li family firm of Lai Hing, buildings were started along Tsung Sau Lane East. In the following year work was begun to redevelop Marine Lot 70, where Tsung Sau Lane West was opened in 1879. Previously the lot had been occupied by an engineering establishment. It was occupied successively by James Logan, William Swan, a boiler-maker, and William Dunphy, proprietor of the Novelty Iron Works. \n\nA large shipyard was built in 1856 on Marine Lot 58 where the Pybus godown had been built in 1842. The owners were two Scotsmen, George Harper and David Gow. In 1862 they sold out to James Logan, a plumber by trade, who took on as his partner John Riach, an experienced shipwright from Singapore. They operated as the Hong Kong Engine Works. The works of the new firm were destroyed by fire in 1866 and they sold the property to Li Sing. He redeveloped it by building a complex of shops, merchant hongs, family houses, and a theatre named Ko Shing. \n\nThree years before Harper and Gow built their shipyard, the P. & O. Co. had begun building extensive godowns and coal sheds on property immediately to the west. Some of this land they leased, others they purchased. Thus for a decade or so in the middle of the nineteenth century the entire area was dominated by establishments connected with the shipping industry. \n\nAs the land on which the ship yards, smithies and coal sheds had been built was redeveloped, the area took on its present land use. On Queen's Road there were the shops; on the Praya (now the south side of Ko Shing Street) the business hongs; and in the lanes and alleys between, godowns and businesses auxiliary to the hongs, such as paper, lumber, bags, mats and firewood (from broken down boxes) — all used in packing and shipping. \n\nThe lanes opened at various times, depending on when the lots were redeveloped. Those on Marine Lot 58 were the first. They", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207153, "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-1974", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "218 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\ncame about at the time of the building of the Ko Shing Theatre in 1870. The theatre gave its name to the old Praya when the sea was reclaimed near the turn of the century. Today a new building is being built on the site of the theatre. Two lanes were left on either side. The western one was called Kom Yu and the eastern Wo Fung. A short lane, Pan Kwai, ran off Wo Fung. It contained five family houses on each side. It no longer exists, as the Ko Shing Telephone Exchange has been built over it. Tsung Sau Lanes East and West were developed between 1877 and 1879, as was also In Ku Lane and Sutherland Street with its godowns. Li Sing Street was opened later.\n\nAs an illustration of the diversity of shops conducted on Queen's Road, the 1885 Rate and Valuation Table lists the following between Queen's Street and Wilmer Street: four each of chandlers, druggists and barbers; three each of tin smiths, merchants and tea dealers; two each of coopers, shoes, scales, lamps, lumber and tobacco; and one each of iron, cotton, silk, joss paper, pickles, rice, pawnshop, mason, carpenter, eating house, marine store, copper smith and gun smith.\n\nCurrently much redevelopment is taking place, but some of the old alleys, particularly In Ku, still retain buildings erected when they were first opened a hundred years ago. Queen's Road still has the same variety of shops and Ko Shing Street is still lined with Nam-pak business hongs.\n\n(b) Chinese Tea Houses\n\n(1) A Chinese friend has supplied the following Note:\n\nCha Kui (**茶居**) is the old, local name for a Chinese Tea House. It is a special type of Chinese restaurant catering exclusively for tea-lovers. Tea drinking or Yum Cha (**飲茶**) has been a long-standing pastime with the people of the Kwangtung Province to which Hong Kong once belonged. It is popular with poor and rich alike. A tea house is sometimes looked upon as a gathering place for meeting people, talking with friends or for taking leisure in a friendly atmosphere. Most tea-house goers used to go to the same tea house everyday and also at almost the same time of the day and it is also customary that they ask for the same kind of tea each time they go. In a sense, a tea house for Cantonese people is much like and comparable to a 'pub' for English people.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207163, "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-1974", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "228 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nThe few houses on the southern side of Boundary Street, just completed for the Credit Foncier d'Extreme-Orient, were the only buildings around; further at the junction of this street with Prince Edward Road was 'Mignon', a small bungalow occupied by Miss Santos; the rest was either carved out of Chinese gardens or totally undeveloped. Across what was later on to become La Salle Road was a garden lot of some three acres which Brother Aimar had acquired lately from Mrs. Chan Kwing Min, the wife of the former Waichow war-lord [the present site of La Salle Primary School]; there was a small Chinese house on the grounds, in which the Canadian Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels, newly arrived in the Colony, resided temporarily. There was not a single house standing on the southern side of Prince Edward Road. \n\nThe locality was admirably situated, equally distant from Kowloon City and Kowloon Tong: two abundant reservoirs for a Chinese school population; and Homantin, where a large number of Portuguese families then resided. \n\nThe Hong Kong architectural firm of Messrs. Little, Adams and Wood was engaged to draw up plans. This was the same firm that had designed not long before the nearby Diocesan Boys' School. In their plans for the new College they incorporated features of ecclesiastical architecture that we do not find in the D.B.S. building, such as columned porticos and a domed chapel. The dome is one of the most interesting architectural features to be found in Kowloon. The Great Hall was said to be modelled after the Theatre Royal of Naples, and the mushroom columns in the open area under the Great Hall reminds one of the pillars under the demonstration building of the Medical Faculty in Paris. The buildings were designed to accommodate 700 pupils, 350 of these being Portuguese boys living in Kowloon, and as Brother Aimar remarked at the Foundation Stone Laying, “We thought it only right to provision, as in St. Joseph's, for an equal number of boys of Chinese parentage and for a boarding department.\" (South China Morning Post, Nov. 5, 1930.) \n\nThough the land was bought in 1924, the plans for the building were not approved until 1929. The following year Governor Sir William Peel laid the foundation stone. The building was first occupied for classes in December, 1931, and the following month", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207334, "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-1975", "page_number": 102, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "94 \n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE \n\nemployment; but few stayed with the department. Most took to their gypsy life again, once they had accumulated a few dollars, and left for either Shanghai or Singapore, or simply went to earth in Tai Ping Shan or Wan Chai until disinterred by the police, always on the look out for European destitutes. \n\nThere were always some troops on garrison duty in the colony or manning the various fortifications designed to repel a seaborne invasion. The garrison normally was small and numbered usually less than 1,500 men. But numbers fluctuated markedly at times. In March 1860, for example, over 14,000 troops (10,000 British and 4,000 French) were being drilled in a vast tented camp on two square miles of the Kowloon peninsula, leased from the Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, and awaiting transportation to the theatre of operations in the north. A witness of these events wrote that 'the streets of Victoria were thronged by soldiers and sailors; commissaries and staff officers were to be seen everywhere; all as busy as mortals could be'.7 \n\nIt was a policy of the government and the military to keep troops if possible out of European Victoria—the central commercial district—and to confine their debaucheries to special areas of the colony. Thus five brothels were specially opened at Wan Chai in the 1850s when soldiers at that time were prohibited by their officers from entering the central districts of the city. For soldiers on outpost duties access to Victoria was difficult in any case: \n\nGarrison life at these outposts is usually melancholy; society is impossible, as the fortifications are eight miles by water from the city, and communication over the mountains is arduous. It is not a question of which is the better of the two, but which the worse, to be of the British Garrison Artillery or the Chinese Lighthouse Service.& \n\nThere were usually more sailors than soldiers ashore in Hong Kong, or afloat in the harbour, at certain times of the year. During the three winter months, the British China squadron was stationed in Hong Kong; in summer most naval vessels left Hong Kong for the north and other stations. The large number of sailors, who at times outnumbered the civilian European population, was supplemented by merchant seamen of many nationalities; for by the 1890s Hong Kong had become, after London, Liverpool, and Port Said, the fourth largest port in the world in terms of seagoing tonnage", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207405, "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-1975", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n165\n\nexpeditions were always anxious occasions, for the roads were patrolled by Japanese troops, communication between our people and them was impossible, Red Cross brassards were of no protective value and stoppages and incidents were common. Fortunately Campbell and his men suffered no more than slappings and some minor indignities but they did a first-rate job in replenishing our stores. Our messing situation was however precarious in these early months.\n\nThe Chinese staff of the hospital, except for a couple or so who had known no other life than Bowen Road for years, had long departed and anything we wanted done had to be done by ourselves.\n\nWe had a hospital full of seriously ill men, most of them severely wounded, and we set to work to complete the surgical treatment of the war casualties. In the underground theatres we operated in the morning and evenings, leaving an hour or two in the afternoons to get a blow of fresh air. We could no longer dry-sterilise our operating towels etc., and so we boiled them. The method was effective though, because our clean surgical wounds remained uninfected and grafts including pedicle grafts were accepted cleanly. Surgical procedures were followed by as smooth progress as we could have wished for. Our coal stocks were soon exhausted but theatre sisters and staff were very successful in their improvisations. The supply of electricity from the mains was cut off for a while but the deficiency was remedied by our generators.\n\nWe were anxious about the surgical situation. We did not know if our staff would be left to care for our own wounded, but a rumour which spread round the hospital one night soon after our surrender that all doctors were to be moved next day proved to be unfounded, though I always thought that such a specific rumour as this had some kind of basis. It was perhaps at this time that a clear decision was taken by the Japanese as to our future. We were anxious particularly about the effects of wound infection upon the health of patients already undernourished, for we knew that this would certainly hasten the development of deficiency diseases. And so our days were filled.\n\nWe were alive to the dangers of undernourishment on a poorly balanced diet especially as the change came about suddenly from the diet to which our troops were accustomed. On 16 April 1942, as surgical specialist, I joined with my specialist physician colleague, Major Gerald Harrison, in drawing attention to the problem in a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207487, "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-1975", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n247\n\nrun by as entirely separate institution. After the Canadians moved from North Point we drew our patients only from Kowloon and I suppose that the prestige of adhering to the Geneva Convention outweighed in Japanese minds the administrative drawbacks of our site in Bowen Road.\n\nAs time went on the need to supply and guard a unit widely separated from the main body of prisoners must have become more onerous. Increasing shortages and difficulty in supplying electricity and water to Bowen Road were probably instrumental in finally bringing about our transfer to Kowloon.\n\n24 MARCH -- 9 SEPTEMBER 1945\n\nWe now moved into the last few months of our captivity. At first, staff and patients were accommodated in Sham Shui Po camp and from there working parties of our staff went out daily to prepare the hospital. It was on that day that I got my only view of the Heep Yunn School and I did not like what I saw, but the same day I learned that we were to have the Central British School for use. This looked and proved to be a suitable building and we began to move our gear there. A little later Saito told me that the staff would be reduced to 40 all ranks though previously he had said that there would be 40 other ranks. On 9 April 6 officers and 34 other ranks moved in to the Central British School. Besides myself there were Major G.F. Harrison, Major J.W. Anderson, Captain A. Coombs, Lieutenant (Q.M.) F.J. Campbell and the Rev. James Squires our padre. There were five Royal Engineers, M.S.M. Sims, Q.M.S. Tyas, and sappers Samways, Carvell and Climo, and there were 29 other ranks R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. headed by Sergeant-majors Muxlow and Bartley. On 10 April 62 patients of whom 58 had been in Bowen Road and four were newly arrived in the hospital. There were at first no non-medical workers though these had been promised. On 12 April a further 62 patients arrived, 31 of these being crippled but in fair general condition and a further 31 being what we then called old men (i.e., unfit for service by reason of age). Two army officers and some American and British merchant navy officers were included, but we had no special accommodation for officers. The Japanese ordered that all patients were to have white beds, another example of window dressing. The hospital provided for 34 beds for patients on the ground floor and 81 on the first floor which also housed the operating theatre, X-ray room and laboratory.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207763, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 151, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "136\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nport for the work came from American United China Relief (UCR) funds through the American Friends Service Council (AFSC); there were members from Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand, as well as China itself; and the self-sufficiency required was much greater than that of other FAU groups.\n\nThe original plan, worked out in late 1940 and early 1941, was for a group of forty men, equipped with 20 trucks, a mobile operating theatre and mobile workshop, to undertake two tasks. The first was the transport of medical supplies into China from Burma and the second provision of medical teams to work with civilian and military hospitals. The proposals had the support of the British Fund for the Relief of Distress in China under Dr. H. Gordon Thompson, the Foreign Office, the U.C.R. and the AFSC. The trucks and equipment were purchased in the US and shipped to Rangoon where they were assembled and driven up to China. Dr. R. B. McClure, a Canadian medical missionary born in China, was appointed to lead the Unit.\n\nIt will be remembered that in 1941 Japan occupied all the coast of China, transport up the railway to Kunming from Hanoi had ceased and the only land routes into the western provinces still held by the Government of the Republic of China under Marshal Chiang Kai Shek were the Burma Road and the road from the USSR via Sinkiang. When the Sino-Japanese war widened into the Pacific War on December 8, 1941, about half of the FAU group had arrived in Burma and China, the first trucks were being assembled in Rangoon and the rest of the party and equipment were on the high seas. All arrived safely and the Unit undertook a number of interesting tasks during the Burma fighting of 1942.1\n\nMedical Services and Supplies in China\n\nDespite the diversion of manpower and loss of trucks and fuel in Burma the work of transporting medical supplies in China got underway in 1942. In 1941 there were four organizations concerned with military and civilian medical services:—\n\n1) the Army Medical Administration (AMA)\n\n2) the Chinese Red Cross (CRC)\n\n3) National Health Administration (NHA) Weishengshu (衛 生 署) with its civilian hospitals and clinics.\n\n4) Over 100 mission hospitals, responsible to their own Mission Boards.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208586, "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-1979", "page_number": 43, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "16\n\nCHAN KIT-CHENG\n\nAmerican and British representatives would be invited to participate. After the surrender he would authorize the British to land troops for the reoccupation of Hong Kong.37 In a private letter in reply to Chiang, Truman reiterated that his decision was in no way related to the question of British sovereignty in Hong Kong.68\n\nChiang Kai-shek remained reluctant to concede the main point. However, he realized that he needed American aid in getting his forces to Hong Kong. Consequently, he communicated a further compromise to Truman on 23 August: he had notified the British that, as supreme commander of the China theatre, he agreed to delegate his authority to a British commander to accept the surrender of Japanese forces in Hong Kong.69 Although Truman regarded Chiang's concession as \"quite reasonable\" and hoped that it would settle the matter,70 it was not acceptable to Britain. While he deplored the Sino-British friction, Truman clearly did not contemplate taking further action.71 It was therefore a relief both to Britain and the United States that Chiang eventually accepted Britain's revised offer that Harcourt accept Japan's surrender on behalf of both Britain and Chiang as supreme commander of the China theatre.72\n\nHong Kong was thus reverted to British rule, much as the Americans, both in official and unofficial circles, had clamoured against during the Pacific War. Such clamouring, especially during the first half of the war, no doubt troubled the British and encouraged the Chinese. But, in the main, American wartime policy, if one can at all speak of a conscious and consistent policy, regarding the postwar status of Hong Kong had been characterized by much talk and little action. \"Hopes\", \"wishes\", \"opinions\", \"views\" were abundantly expressed to Britain, but little can be said of direct and persistent American pressure on the subject.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Author's article, \"The Question of Hong Kong during the Pacific War, (1941-45)”, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, II, no. 1 (October 1973), pp. 56-78.\n\n2 C. Thorne, Allies of a Kind (London, 1978), p. 156.\n\n3 Thorne, ibid., pp. 172-3, referring to opinions cited in the New York Times, the Chicago Daily News, and the Christian Science Monitor.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209154, "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-1981", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RELIGIOUS RESPONSE TO MODERNIZATION IN TAIWAN: THE CASE OF I-KUAN TAO†\n\nHUBERT SEIWERT*\n\nIntroduction: Modernization and religious change in Taiwan\n\nSince the middle of the last century China has been a theatre of far-reaching political, economic, social and cultural changes. The most obvious manifestation of these changes has been the revolution of 1911, sealing the end of a monarchy which had endured for more than two thousand years. But the defeat of the Manchu dynasty marked the closing of an epoch not only politically: the revolution of 1911 was also a decisive turning point in the cultural development of China. The traditional culture which so long was the pride of every Chinese scholar underwent an almost complete reevaluation. To the revolutionary intellectuals of the first decades of the twentieth century this traditional culture was the ideological expression of the overthrown feudal system. The construction of a new society should, therefore, not be a mere change of political institutions but had to comprise the formation of a new intellectual culture as well.\n\nThe central target of this cultural-revolutionary movement was Confucianism, which was regarded as the ideological foundation of the old social system. At the same time this movement also had distinct anti-religious tendencies aimed not only at the religious components of Confucianism but at all kinds of religion, traditional Chinese as well as foreign. Religion and superstition were inconsistent with the scientific worldview which had been imported to China from Europe and America.\n\nThe critical attitude of the Chinese intellectuals towards religion was certainly one of the factors which contributed to the decline of traditional Chinese religion in the twentieth century. But there were other reasons, too. On the popular level, the arguments of the intellectuals were probably of no great significance for the religious behaviour of the common people. More important were the changes\n\n*Universität Hannover\n\n† Parts of this article were read at the XIVth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, August 1980 at Winnipeg, Manitoba.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209207, "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-1981", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "96\n\nThere is no slavery carried on.\"\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\nIn commenting on the questions raised in Parliament the editor of the South China Morning Post said there could not be much harm in the traditional Chinese custom when throughout the eighty years of the Colony's history no steps had been taken to abolish it. The children in domestic service had the full protection of the law and there was no evidence that they were frequently ill-treated. What few cases are brought before the courts are sharply dealt with. He did admit that some reform might be needed, \"to guarantee the child's rights and those of its parents\", but any changes should only be introduced gradually and with the co-operation of the leading Chinese, \"whose services have never been withheld in any case having for its aim the uplifting and enlightenment of the people\".3\n\nReaction in Hong Kong -- Mass Meeting at Tai Ping Theatre – July 1921\n\nThe Chinese elite \"establishment\" in Hong Kong was disturbed by the discussion in Britain of one of their long established customs. They and the Hong Kong Government were also annoyed by a letter published in the correspondence column of all four English newspapers written by Mrs. Haselwood, the wife of a Commander in the Naval Dockyard. Her husband was officially warned that unless he stopped his wife from airing the question, he would be superseded and sent home. He refused to submit and was shortly sent home where he retired on half-pay. The Haselwoods, however, continued their campaign in Britain. When the Hong Kong Government was asked to explain Commander Haselwood's early termination of service in Hong Kong, it replied that the activities of his wife were \"causing annoyance to the Chinese community\".\n\nThe leadership of the Chinese community was sufficiently aroused by the statements being made in the English press concerning the practice that it called a mass meeting to be held at the Tai Ping Theatre in July, 1921. The meeting was convened by the two Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council, the Hon. Ho Fook, brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung and one-time compradore of Jardine, Matheson and Co., and the Hon. Mr. Lau Chu-pak, compradore of Messrs. A. S. Watson and Co. Also particularly mentioned were S. W. Tso, a solicitor, Chow Shou-son, a Hong Kong-born former official of the Chinese Government who had extensive business interests in Hong Kong, and Chau Siu-ki, shipping and insurance magnate.\n\nThe theatre was crowded with about three hundred including a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209353, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "demand by other cultural societies like ourselves. St. John's Cathedral Hall was used occasionally but is not very satisfactory for our purposes for acoustic and other reasons. Towards the end of our year we were most fortunate in obtaining permission from the Government Information Services to use their excellent and very comfortable theatre. I express our great appreciation of this facility: long may we continue to enjoy it.\n\nPublications\n\nDuring the year papers from our 1980 symposium at Robert Black College entitled \"The New Territories and its Future\" were published by the Society. Dr. Alan Birch, who organised the symposium, was also the editor. Mr. Rydings, our Hon. Librarian, produced a second edition of the library catalogue and I take this opportunity to thank them both for their efforts on behalf of the Society. Mr. Rydings has tabled his separate library report but I would like also to thank those who have donated books during the year: Dr. James Hayes, who has given us many books in the past as well as those during this year, and also purchased several volumes to add to the library; and Lady Maclehose, who presented a rare 1933 tourist guide to Kashmir and seven old and also very rare maps of India and Kashmir.\n\nIn October, our 1981 Journal, edited by Dr. David Faure (currently on sabbatical leave in Cambridge), was published and distributed to members. Publication of the 1980 Journal was still beset with problems, this time on the printing side and because of changes at our printers, Ye Olde Printerie. This volume, the last to be edited by Dr. James Hayes, is now in the process of being printed, I am happy to say, and should be distributed shortly. I said last year that the 1980 Journal would probably be the last to be printed under the personal supervision of Mr. Y. F. Lam of Ye Olde Printerie, and indeed this is to be the case, and I repeat our thanks to him for his devoted interest over the past twenty years his firm has undertaken our printing.\n\nPhotographic Survey\n\nWork on the photographic survey has been in abeyance for most of this year as Tony Rydings and Ian Diamond, who have \n\nX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209584, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "219\n\nby their spotless virtues\". A claim that must have raised a few eyebrows.\n\nWhile the actresses were available, there seemed some doubt about the actors. Lord Saltoun, Commander of the Forces, noted on the 25 November 1842 that the Theatre was to open on Wednesday, \"But who are to be the actors, I have no idea. I believe some amateurs from the navy”.\n\nOnce opened, the life of the Theatre was short. Mr. Dutronquoy departed from Hong Kong quite suddenly on the 17th of December. It was alleged that he had to close his Hotel and Theatre under orders from the authorities and pay a fine of $500. This was denied by his agent who stated that the reason for the closure was because Mr. Dutronquoy had “received personal violence added to insult and abuse the preceding evening\". One wonders if the \"spotless virtues\" of the actresses may have been the cause of his troubles.\n\nThe next notice of dramatics is in December 1844 when a proposal to form a company of amateurs under the patronage of the Governor was announced. It was expressly stated that the authorities regarded the project as a \"protection against vice”. Little action took place, however, until the winter of 1845-46 when a group had been organized, a venue secured, and five bills put on between December and June at Aqui's Theatre in the Lower Bazaar.\n\nThis theatre had been erected some few months previous to the amateurs' first performance there. It was intended for Chinese entertainment, but, being available, it was used by the Hong Kong Amateurs even though it was in the heart of the Chinese section of the city, an area which was usually avoided by the European population of the day.\n\nLoo Aqui, the owner of the Theatre, was a leader of the Chinese community. It was alleged that he was allied with pirates but during the recent British-Chinese hostilities he had been very useful in securing provisions for the British forces. As a reward for these services he had been permitted to take up a number of lots in the Lower Bazaar, the area which was allotted to Chinese who had aided the British. On his property, Loo Aqui", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209585, "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": 242, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "220 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nestablished brothels, a gambling hall, opium divans, a temple, his family house and the Theatre. \n\nAs the location and arrangements of Acqui's Theatre were not very satisfactory, there was a movement to build something more suitable. Immediately after the first performance of the Amateurs, it was announced that plans for a new theatre were under consideration. The China Mail, 8 January 1846, gave its full support: \n\nWe are glad to learn there is at length a fair prospect of a Theatre being erected in Hong Kong. The project was suggested last year, and as it not only met with general approbation from the public, but received the sanction of His Excellency and the support of the civil and military servants of the Government, it is rather inexplicable how it was suffered to drop. We are indebted, we believe, to the same parties who lately favoured the public with an amateur performance in the Lower Bazaar, for taking the matter up again, and they seem now to have begun very properly by first testing the feelings of the middle classes upon the very important point of subscriptions. We are assured that the amount already subscribed for is more than half what will be required to erect a spacious building, adapted alike for the purposes of a Theatre and a Ballroom, or a hall for public meetings. With some proofs of support from the community at large, we trust the Governor's patronage will be continued, and the merchants and official gentlemen will take the matter up in good earnest, and complete what has already been auspiciously begun. When the plans are sufficiently matured we would suggest the propriety of bringing them before the public in a well-defined shape, by circular, or advertisement in the public papers. For this purpose our columns will be at the service of the committee gratuitously. \n\nA meeting to enlist shareholders was held at the house of Leonard Just, a watchmaker, in February 1846. The eventual outcome of the meeting was the erection of the Victoria Theatre on the hill behind the Hong Kong Club. The lot was up Wyndham Street somewhat to the south of Wellington Street.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209586, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "221\n\nThe ground had been originally purchased from the Government as a speculative venture by one of Hong Kong's early entrepreneurs, George Duddell. His name is perpetuated in Duddell Street.\n\nTHE VICTORIA THEATRE\n\nDuddell sold the southern half of the lot in March 1846 to the Trustees of the Hong Kong Theatrical Company. They were John Cairns, editor of the Hong Kong Register, Robert Strachan, a small-scale merchant, and Edward Farncomb, Hong Kong's first enrolled solicitor. Two years later, after the building was erected, the Trustees had to convey the lot back to Duddell due to financial difficulties.\n\nThe new theatre was described as \"large and well adapted to the climate, it affords good accommodations both for the dispensers of the drama and the audiences\". It was named the Victoria Theatre.\n\nThe first performance in the new building was on 1 November 1848 under the patronage of H.E. Governor Bonham. The announcement stated that \"The Proprietors of the above Theatre, having received assistance from a few young Gentlemen, lovers of the Drama, whose desire is to add to the few amusements of the Colony; the Public are respectfully invited to witness their feeble efforts at an Amateur performance\". The programme consisted of \"the popular farce, 'The Weathercock', to be succeeded by a comic song, the whole concludes with the Farce, 'The Rival Valets'\". Newspaper reviews reported that the Theatre was \"well ventilated and brilliantly lighted in short the arrangements and decorations throughout reflect the highest credit on the manager\".\n\nUnfortunately the Governor was unable to be present due to a recent injury. The reporter remarked that this was \"a circumstance to which doubtless is attributable the absence of a number of fair colonists, who would have otherwise graced the occasion. Nevertheless the house was filled with an audience of highest respectability”.\n\n\"Respectable\" audiences were necessary to make the venture", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209587, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "222\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nacceptable to the better parts of the community. There were those who looked with disfavour on the theatre. The behaviour of the habitues of the pit, as well as vulgarities in some of the productions of the day, brought the stage into disrepute among the strait-laced. Attitudes were beginning to change, however; in part this was due to attendance at the theatre of that most moral Queen, Victoria.\n\nAs for the quality of the inaugural performance at the Victoria Theatre in Hong Kong, a reviewer said of the actors, \"though somewhat behind the great houses, yet they were such as to give hope of good things ere long. It must be borne in mind, that with several of the performers it was their first appearance on any stage\". On the other hand, so few were interested in appearing on the stage, it was a matter for concern as \"the corps dramatique consists of only eight members it does not auger well for the general diffusion of dramatic talent among the 'aspiring youth' of the colony\". At the next performance, the reviewer faced the dilemma of how to criticize amateurs and still not discourage them. He gently suggests that \"we may perhaps be allowed to hint, that a little more time and attention would not be ill-bestowed by the performers in studying the characters they assume as some are considerably over-acted. But our wish is not to be censorious\".\n\nAfter this initial burst, amateur dramatics limped for three seasons and then faced death. In 1852 under a heading \"The expiring drama\" amateurs were invited to attend a meeting at the City Hotel \"to plan for a series of productions for the season in order to prevent the demolition of the Victoria Theatre\". There was a revival of interest and the season opened in January. It was noted that the new group, which called itself the Victoria Amateurs, was received \"with unmingled applause by the fullest and most fashionable audience we ever witnessed in the Theatre or anywhere else in Hong Kong”.\n\nRevived interest in amateur dramatics was necessary if the Theatre was not to be converted to other uses for it was not a paying venture for its proprietor, George Duddell. The Anglican Bishop had offered to lease it from him for conversion into a Sailors Home. Duddell, however, had interests of his own in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209589, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "224\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nWith children performing there was no question of respectability. It was announced some weeks after the first performance that \"several ladies having expressed regret at not witnessing the late performance of the Portuguese children, Mr. Souza, with the consent of the parents, and at the request of the Committee, has consented to repeat the performance at an early date\".\n\nIn 1866 the Portuguese community built a club house at Shelley and Elgin Streets. Attached to it was a small theatre. It was used not only by Portuguese amateurs but, before the opening of the Theatre Royal in the City Hall in 1869, it was the venue for the productions of the Amateur Dramatic Club. The Theatre portion of Club Lusitano was demolished in 1873,\n\nThe Germans built a club house on Wyndham Street in 1872. It contained a small auditorium. German amateur groups used it for plays and operettas. More appreciated by the non-German speaking community were the concerts and the appearance of Liedertafel singing groups.\n\nTHE A.D.C—BORN IN A MATSHED\n\nAn Amateur Theatrical Society was formed in 1860. Its membership was made up of both civilians and military officers.\n\nFor the 1860-61 season they erected a new matshed. It was said that in its internal arrangements there was \"no lack of comfort, indeed elegance has received its share of attention\". It included a continental innovation the prompter's box was placed in the centre in front of the curtain \"according to the French custom”.\n\nThe Committee of the Society came under attack for alleged misuse of funds. At the second performance of the 1861 season it was deemed necessary to make a public statement refuting accusations which had appeared in the local press. The Committee had been charged \"with spending the profits in cold fowl and sherry behind the scenes.\" Two professional ladies of the stage also figured in the accusations. The newspaper account of the public explanation concluded with the sentiment that \"Hong Kong thanks the Amateurs and has fullest confidence in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209590, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "225\n\nmanagement. We hope they may not be out of pocket as the Garrison Company was last year.\n\nAfter the initial ballyhoo about the Committee, described as a \"scolding given in true washer-woman style\", which only amused the town, the season was a great success. A slightly sour note was injected into the 1862-63 season because only four performances were given, while it had been announced when advertising for subscriptions that there would be six. Complaints compounded in 1863-64 when prices were advanced to a sum which was thought to be \"just beyond the limit to which a class were prepared to pay for entertainment\". Consequently, the theatre for the first performance was only half filled.\n\nThe 1865-66 season also began inauspiciously. At a meeting in November to arrange for the coming season, there was such poor attendance that it was feared the Amateurs might have to give up.\n\nWhen the Amateur Dramatic Corps looked back on its history, it gave its founding date as 1860, however, in the announcements of the group in the 1860s it is called the Hong Kong Amateur Theatrical Society.\n\nTHE THEATRE ROYAL\n\nAmateur dramatics took on a new vigour with the organisation or reorganisation of the theatrical group in 1860. Revived interest emphasised the need of a suitable theatre. Until the opening of the Theatre Royal in the City Hall in 1869, various makeshift arrangements had to be made after the Victoria Theatre was closed in the 1850s.\n\nIn 1861, the China Mail looked toward the future:\n\nWe hope the time is not distant when a neat permanent building constructed on the best known principles of acoustics will take the place of the temporary mat sheds, which need so much exertion on the performers' part, and indulgence on that of the audience. The acoustics are bad. Now that the capability of having these entertainments annually is beginning to be procured, it would be well to take measures soon, to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209602, "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": 259, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "237\n\nAnd then a good old China Hand you'll Be.\n\nSuch references brought drama down to the daily life of the theatre goer in Hong Kong.\n\nHOME GROWN PLAYWRIGHTS\n\nThe Hong Kong Daily Press in 1894 published a play by Henry E. Pollick entitled \"Soso: A Drama of the Day\". It does not seem to have been staged in Hong Kong.\n\n\"The Cook: an Idyll of the Peak\" was produced at the Theatre Royal in 1912. It was written by R.M. Crosse, of the Royal Artillery. The plot revolved around a search for a cook when a mess of the 445th Regiment, comfortably stationed at the Peak, had to replace their competent cook who had disappeared a few days before the expected arrival of the Brigadier General.\n\nTwo years later Mr. Crosse wrote another more ambitious piece which he characterized as \"a musical stunt in two acts\" entitled \"The Idol's Eye\". The first act was set in England at a garden party. The second act's setting was the How Kwik monastery in the Province of Kwangtung. One of the principal characters Lai On is the \"boy\" of an official in the Chinese Maritime Customs. He penetrated into the monastery to secure the Idol's jade eye by the pretext of becoming a novice. In case any should have been put off from attending by the problem of the language a Chinese character might use, they were informed that “Lai On speaks both grammatical and ‘Pidgen' English during the piece. Grammatical English is used where Lai On would naturally talk and think in Chinese. 'Pidgen' is reserved for his conversation with foreigners\". The How Kwik monastery scene enabled Mr. Crosse to introduce Chinese religious ceremonies and temple music into the play.\n\nAt the time, the public was being captivated by musicals with an Oriental setting, and Mr. Crosse, who was soon to return to England, hoped to have his work produced there. I do not know if he was successful.\n\n† Pollick may not have been a resident of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209606, "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": 263, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "241\n\n# APPENDIX\n\n## THE HONG KONG AMATEUR DRAMATIC CLUB AND ITS PREDECESSORS Significant Dates and Performances.\n\n(Authors and dates of first publication or production from A. Nicoll, A History of English Drama, \"Handlist of Plays\".)\n\n(Note: only ADC productions are noted here: professional performances, and performances by Garrison groups or other amateur groups not detailed here).\n\n### 1844/45\n\n18 Dec. 1844 proposed to form a dramatic company of amateurs under patronage of H. E. Governor Davis.\n\n### 1845/46\n\n3 Jan. 1846 Tues. last performance given by \"Corps Dramatique\" at Aqui's Theatre in the Lower Bazaar.\n\n27 Jan. 1846 party of Amateur Performers presented \"The Lady and the Devil\" followed by \"Fortune's Frolic\" Aqui's Theatre.\n\n24 Mar. 1846 Amateur Performers Wed. last, \"The Midnight Hour\" and \"The Sleep Walkers\" Theatre.\n\n28 Apr. 1846 Amateur performance Mon. evening at Aqui's.\n\n27 June 1846 - Amateur Performers fifth and last performance at Aqui's Theatre.\n\n8 Jan. 1846 at length a fair prospect of a Theatre being erected in Hong Kong. Idea suggested last year. Half of funds needed already subscribed.\n\n9 Feb. 1846 Meeting of shareholders of proposed Theatre at house of Mr. Just, corner Queen's Road and Pottinger Street.\n\n### 1848/49\n\n1 Nov. 1848 first public performance by amateurs in new theatre (the Victoria) erected by Mr. Duddell. \"The Weathercock” (J. T. Allingham, 1805) followed by a comic song, concluded with farce \"Rival Valets\" (J. Ebsworth, 1805).\n\n1 Dec. 1848 - Amateurs second performance. \"Fortune's Frolic\" farce (J. T. Allingham, 1799) \"Bambastes Furioso\" burlesque tragic operetta (W. B. Rhodes, 1810) \"The Weathered\" farce\n\n### 1852/53\n\n8 Nov. 1852 meeting at City Hall of persons interested in the revival of drama in Hong Kong. To take measures for preserving the Victoria Theatre to the community for purpose it was originally erected. Committee of four to organize Theatrical Company.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209607, "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": 264, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "242\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\n1 Dec. 1852 - first performance of amateurs under new management.\n\n12 Feb. 1853 — Victoria Amateurs.\n\n\"Twice Killed\" farce (John Oxenham, 1837) \"Slasher and Crasher\" farce (J. M. Morton, 1848)\n\n19 Mar. 1853 meeting at Victoria Theatre for purpose of forming a Corps Dramatique to arrange for another performance at an early date.\n\n20 Apr. 1853 \"Animal Magnetism\" farce (Mrs. E. Inchbald, 1758)\n\n\"A Kiss in the Dark\" farce\n\n19 May 1853 last night of season of Victoria Amateurs.\n\n\"Time Tries All\" dramatic drama (J. Courtney, 1848) \"Toothache, or The Prince and the Chimney Sweep\" farce\n\n1853/54 27 Oct. 1853\n\nMeeting at Victoria Theatre of those interested in theatricals to make arrangements for the coming season. (I found no notice of any performance for this season).\n\n1860/61 3 Jan. 1861 \"Still Waters Run Deep\" (T. Taylor, 1855)\n\n1861/62\n\n1862/1863\n\n29 Jan. 1861 new theatre, Hong Kong Amateur Theatre, performance by officers and gentlemen who have organized this establishment:\n\n\"A Bachelor of Arts\" (P. Hardwicke, 1853) \"A Nice Firm\" (T. Taylor, 1853)\n\n25 Feb. 1861 performance of Gentlemen Amateurs Mon. last.\n\n28 Mar. 1861 theatrical season drawing to close. Appreciation to the Committee. Difficult to see how the Amateur Theatrical Company could have managed without aid from the garrison.\n\nDec. 1861 - first performance of season:\n\n\"Cool as a Cucumber\" (M. W. B. Jerrold, 1851) \"The State Secret\" (A. Snodgrass, 1821, or T. E. Wilks, 1836) in same commodious erection as served so well for last year's performances,\n\n23 Jan. 1862 second public performance of Hong Kong Amateur Theatre:\n\n\"Not a Bad Judge\" comic drama (J. R. Planche, 1848) \"The Critics\" facetious tragedy (Sheridan, 1779)\n\n1862 season\n\n\"Cramond Brig\" (W. H. Murray, 1826)\n\nDec. 1862 The theatre a reproduction of last year's design. \"Uncle Zachary\" comic drama (John Oxenford, 1860) \"Fearful Tragedy in Seven Dials\" (Charles Selby, 1857)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209608, "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": 265, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "243\n\n12 Feb. 1863\n\nweek.\n\n30 Apr. 1863\n\nsecond amateur performance of season last\n\namateurs gave fourth performance on Wed.\n\nsubscription: 1863/64\n\n―\n\n17 Dec. 1863\n\n1864/65\n\n―\n\n1865/66\n\n―\n\nfirst performance\n\n\"Follies of a Night\" vaudeville comedy (J. R. Planche, 1842)\n\n\"A Kiss in the Dark\" given also in 1853.\n\n6 Feb. 1864 on 4th third subscription performance and on 6th third public appearance.\n\n31 Mar. 1864- fourth and last performance of season:\n\n\"Tailor of Tamworth\" (also known as \"State Secrets\", T. Wilks, 1836) given also in 1861. \"Alladin, the Wonderful Scamp\" burlesque (T. C. Bryon, 1861)\n\n16 June 1864\n\n___\n\npublic meeting resolved the Amateur Theatrical matshed should be kept up.\n\n13 Oct. 1864\n\nmeeting of those interested in Amateur Theatricals agreed to continue them in next season in usual way.\n\n2 Jan. 1865 a visiting professional group, the Lewis Company, gave first subscription night to the subscribers of the Amateurs\n\n9 Nov. 1865 check given to movement for organizing a new Amateur Theatrical Corp by non-attendance at public meeting. To be hoped they shall not collapse in consequence.\n\n1866/67\n\n3 Jan. 1867\n\nfirst\n\nat new Club Lusitano Theatre performance of season of Amateur Dramatic Society: \"Sent to the Tower\" farce (J. M. Morton, 1850) \"Alladin, or The Wonderful Scamp\" burlesque extravaganza (T. C. Bryon, 1860) also given in 1864.\n\n―\n\n4 Feb. 1867 second subscription night of Hong Kong Amateur Theatricals:\n\n\"The Area Belle\" farce (Brough and Halliday, 1864) \"Shylock, or the Merchant of Venice Preserved\" burlesque (F. Talfourd, 1853)\n\n1866/67\n\n7 Mar. 1867\n\n1867/68\n\nHong Kong Amateur Theatricals third subscription night:\n\n\"Slasher and Crasher\" (J. M. Morton, 1848) given also in 1853.\n\n\"Raising the Wind\" (J. Kennedy, 1803)\n\n23 Mar. 1867\n\nHong Kong Amateur Theatricals fourth subscription performance.\n\n—\n\n28 Sept. 1867 Hong Kong Amateur Theatrical Society propose giving five subscription performances this season.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209701, "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": 358, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "336\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n(No. 92) are equally successful in giving new perspectives on the human life of Hong Kong.\n\nAll in all, this volume is recommended to anyone wishing to own a superbly produced volume of intelligently conceived and masterfully produced photographs of Hong Kong.\n\nP. H. HASE\n\nChukoku Saiki Yengeki Kenkyu (Ritual Theatres in China). By Issei Tanaka, Institute of Oriental Culture, The University of Tokyo, 1981, xvi + 926 pp, Index.\n\nThis impressive book contains the results of the author's researches during the period of ten years since he joined the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, in 1972. Trained as a sinologist, Prof. Tanaka started his study on ritual theatre in China from a historical viewpoint. Later his research focus shifted to field studies, particularly in Hong Kong. Between 1978 to 1981 he visited Hong Kong eight times and stayed here in total for eleven months. Most of the data presented in this volume are his field reports collected during his time in Hong Kong, and these form a mine of fascinating material which will prove to be of great value to many scholars.\n\nIn addition to presenting the field reports, however, the book analyses three aspects of ritual theatre in China. One of these is the origin of ritual theatre. Based on historical data, the author traces the process of transformation of ritual theatre from ancient times to the present. Through these studies, he points out that the original form of ritual theatre was aimed at exorcising or controlling evil forces or at celebrating beneficial forces and seeking their assistance. Theatre of this kind can still be found in Hong Kong. The ritual theatre of Hoklo and Ch'ao-chou people in Hong Kong are mostly performed for exorcising, i.e., these theatrical performances are mainly aimed at freeing orphan souls and wandering spirits. Cantonese ritual theatre, on the other hand, is of the latter type, celebrating the deities' birthdays and beseeching their blessing.\n\nThe second aspect is concerned with the social organization of ritual theatre. The author classifies Chinese local theatre,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209702, "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": 359, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n337\n\naccording to the social groups supporting them, into the following types:\n\n(I) Theatre organized by territorial groups\n\n(IA) The theatre of market based village unions\n\n(IB) The theatre of agriculturally based village unions\n\n(IC) Village community theatre\n\n(II) Theatre conducted by kin groups\n\n(IIA) Theatre jointly organized by clan communities\n\n(IIB) Theatre separately organized by 'branch groups' of clans\n\n(IIC) Theatre organized by family groups'\n\n(III) New theatre developed in the emerging towns\n\n(IIIA) Theatre conducted by merchants (Expansion of 1A)\n\n(IIIB) New theatre conducted by small and medium landowners instead of big landlords (Expansion of IB and IC)\n\n(IIIC) New family theatre conducted by the small and medium landowner classes in town (Expansion of IIC)\n\nLooking at ritual theatre in Hong Kong, the author suggests that the early ritual settlers, whether Hakka, Cantonese or Hoklo, appear to develop theatre of the community type (IC + IIA), while the Cantonese living in the city develop the town type (IIIA + IIIB). As to the theatre developed by the Ch'au-chou people in Hong Kong, this, generally speaking, is similar to the clan type (IIB + IIC).\n\nThe third aspect of the book is a discussion of the problem of the diffusion of ritual theatre. The author condenses the diffusion routes of ritual theatre under (1) diffusion through the clan or bureaucratic network, (2) diffusion through the commercial marketing network, and (3) diffusion through peasants' migration.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209761, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 20, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "In addition to her work on the Kau Sai fishing people, Barbara's writings during the 1950s and 1960s touched on a number of other aspects of Chinese society, including the structure and operations of Chinese small factories in Hong Kong and the organization of Hakka guilds in Borneo. Moreover, Barbara's data on Kau Sai were incorporated into her comparative study of the role of credit and loan facilities in peasant commercial production and also informed her essay on sex roles in southeast Asia—a valuable and perhaps underestimated introductory essay to the book, which she edited, on the impact of the changing public status of women upon the private domestic lives of both sexes in the various countries of southeast Asia. Barbara's writings on \"conscious models\" explored the problems of the manner in which the actual behaviour of the Kau Sai fishing people had been influenced by the traditional pattern of the classical Chinese family, the role of ideological models in promoting \"the uniquely long continuity and wide similarity of the Chinese socio-cultural system\" and, more generally, the relevance of Levi-Strauss' notion of conscious models to the analysis of the relationship between various local sub-cultures within Chinese society and the wider Chinese socio-cultural system. 8\n\nDuring the 1970s, Barbara became increasingly concerned with the social and cultural dimensions of opera in south China. Undoubtedly, Barbara's work on conscious models was an important factor in the development of this interest, for her first essay in this new area dealt with the role of opera as a disseminator of Chinese culture among the local communities of south China, such as that of Kau Sai. Sadly, Barbara died just at the time when her thoroughly-researched and well-written articles on popular Chinese drama were beginning to appear in print. Perhaps our greatest loss as a community of China scholars is that the potential of Barbara's endeavours in this area of Chinese social life can no longer be realised. Perhaps, too, the loss will be felt just as keenly by others whose concerns lie outside the China field. When Barbara chose Chinese opera as her topic for the Jane Ellen Harrison Memorial Lecture, which she gave at Newnham College in 1978, her lively presentation and thoughtful analysis of the symbolism of traditional Chinese theatre won the interest of a large non-specialist audience. It is hoped\n\nxix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209992, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1983", "page_number": 251, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "229\n\np. 60. Day, Peasant Cults, pp. 107-108.\n\np. 60. Burgess, J. S., The Guilds of Peking, New York, 1928, p. 179.\n\np. 69. A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, Hong Kong, 1960, p. 138.\n\np. 69, Maugham, W. Somerset, On a Chinese Screen, London, 1922, p. 138.\n\np. 70. Broomhall, Marshall (ed.), Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, with a Record of the Perils and Sufferings of Some Who Escaped, London, 1901, p. 8.\n\np. 74. Burkhardt, V. R., Chinese Creeds and Customs, Hong Kong, 1953-58, Vol I, p. 106.\n\np. 81. Ball, Things, p. 75.\n\np. 86. Ibid. p. 668.\n\np. 90. Williams, S. Wells, Middle Kingdom, Vol I, p. 340.\n\np. 92. Ibid.\n\np. 93. Doré, Researches, Vol V, p. 533.\n\np. 94. Ibid, p. 535.\n\np. 97. Ball, Things, pp. 499-500.\n\np. 101. Barnett, K. M. A., The Peoples of the New Territories' in Braga, J. M. (ed.) The Hong Kong Business Symposium, Hong Kong, 1957, p. 265.\n\np. 102. Hashimoto, Mantaro J., The Hakka Dialect, London, 1973, pp. 1-2, p. 109. Obraztsov, Sergei, (translated by MacDermott, J. T.) The Chinese Puppet Theatre, London, 1961, pp. 27-28,\n\np. 110. Dolby, William, 'The Origins of Chinese Puppetry'. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1978. Vol XLI. Part 1, pp. 109-110.\n\np. 112. Spencer, Cornelia, Made in China: the Story of China's Expression, London, 1947, p. 122.\n\np. 114. Burkhardt, Creeds and Customs, Vol I, p. 13.\n\np. 114. Clemens, John, Discovering Macau: a Visitor's Guide, Hong Kong, 1972, p. 121.\n\np. 114. Werner, Dictionary, p. 503.\n\np. 117. Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842: the History of Hong Kong Prior to British Arrival, Hong Kong, 1963, p. 83.\n\np. 118. Peplow and Barker, Around and About, pp. 4-5.\n\np. 122. Ride, Lindsay, \"The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong, Vol III, 1963, p. 14.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210042, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "photographs with accompanying text will follow Hong Kong Going and Gone, published in 1980.\n\nSome Problems\n\nA number of problems have beset us during the year. First, the important matter of where we can hold our talks. After the GIS theatre was closed to all outside groups, we used the American Library premises in United Centre for a time. Well provided, and conveniently located for the subway, bus and taxi services, it was a disappointment to learn that the Library's own activities precluded its further use. We then turned to the Museum of History in Kowloon Park, whose excellent facilities partly outweigh the inconvenience for members accustomed to our long-standing practice of using the Hong Kong side of the harbour. We are very grateful to the Curator and his staff for their assistance.\n\nSecond, we had to decide what to do with our Library after the Hong Kong Arts Centre advised constituent members (of which we are, or were, one) that it would be revising the basis of their participation in the organization. Thereby, it was clear that we would have to withdraw, and so lose the library accommodation. Our library, despite its size and content, has been little used over the years, and in the circumstances the Council authorized an enquiry via the Hong Kong Library Association for an appropriate home. In the event, the most suitable expression of interest came from the Urban Council Library Services. The Chief Librarian has now been authorized by the Urban Council to accept our library on long loan, under certain conditions, which include retaining its identity and making it available for reference and research in what will be Hong Kong's largest public library, the new Kowloon Central Library due to open in July 1985.\n\nThird, we have been faced with a falling membership and a diminished return from sale of publications. The phenomena are directly connected, as I shall show below. Fourth, in the longer term we have to consider very carefully the future of the Society in today's changing Hong Kong. I shall deal with both these considerations in the concluding sections of this address.\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210745, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "79\n\nII. The settlements\n\nThe puppet theatre and most of the Taoist rites took place at a site in Shek O village during the festival. The participating villages included Shek O as well as Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. Hok Tsui is more than three miles from Shek O and used to hold its own celebration. A formerly separate settlement, Seung Wai, was midway between Shek O and Tai Long Wan about 2 miles away. Its residents had moved to Shek O in the 1920s or 1930s. Taking Seung Wai into account and assuming that it had joined the festival before the removal, the festival had been celebrated by three neighbouring villages.\n\nHaving one of the most scenic beaches in Hong Kong, Shek O is a popular holiday spot for the urban residents of Hong Kong. Double-deck buses run between Shaukiwan and Shek O at half-hour or shorter intervals from early in the morning to 11:30 p.m. Near where the road divides for Shek O and Tai Long Wan a golf club which caters mainly for Westerners occupies a large area of land. Near the bus stop at Shek O are several shops, food stalls, restaurants and bicycle rental shops catering for the needs of the holiday visitors. Some of the shops have tables where one can sit for a drink. When there are few visitors in the winter season there are local people playing mahjongg or chatting over glasses of beer in some of those shops.\n\nThe casual tourist will notice a dense settlement of cottages and huts, and in the areas with better views, Western-styled \"villas\". Few of the houses are in the style of indigenous village houses found in the New Territories. Near the bus stop is an area of vegetable gardens run by Hoklo residents whose presence in the settlement was conspicuously represented during the jiu celebration by several flags set up near the bus stop. Superficially, everything suggests that Shek O is a rather recent settlement.\n\nBut Shek O has existed as a village for more than 150 years, if, as the villagers claim, the last decennial jiu was the sixteenth.' Originally, the villages were inhabited by Punti and Hakka people. A 73-year-old woman who married in from Hok Tsui told me that her husband's family had been there for four generations. They", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211254, "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": 315, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "290\n\nwhilst the shrine was at Elgin Street, largely because no Hoklo troupes were available in Hong Kong or could visit from the mainland. The position improved when members of troupes reassembled here.\n\nIt is usual in these traditional festivals for an image of the patron god to be installed in a special altar at the theatre matshed or nearby. At Peel Street this is not necessary, because the shrine faces down this sloping street directly onto the opera stage. The god could see all without moving his position. When I asked whether any other images were brought from neighbouring shrines, there was a unanimous and swift denial!\n\nThe group of devotees, at any rate in and up to 1974, were mainly persons from To Tong Market, and all Hoklo speakers. The personnel of the Hoklo opera group hired in the previous few years were all Hoklos from Hoi Luk Fung, but only one of them was a native of To Tong Hui.\n\nI did not ask about management in 1974, though I gathered that they described their managers as ta-lei yan and not as chik-lei, which is more common among the Hong Kong shrine and temple groups.\n\nBesides the annual celebration, there is also religious activity at the shrine on the first and fifteenth days of each month.\n\nIt is curious that, although the Peel Street shrine is dedicated to an earth god, there are no celebrations on either the first or second months of the lunar calendar, when so many of the local shrines in town and country carry out major activities. The Sheung Fung Lane shrine's big day is in the first moon, as with the Tai Ping Shan and Kennedy Town shrines also mentioned in the article (pp. 124-127). The Nam On Fong shrine at Shau Kei Wan (pp. 128-130) originally celebrated in the second lunar month. However, the Sai Wan Ho earth god shrine at the other end of Shau Kei Wan had always celebrated the Yue Lan or \"Hungry Ghost\" festival as its principal event, for as far back as memory and local tradition served (pp. 130-132). There is variety in all things, old and new, mercifully.\n\nPage 315\n\nPage 316", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211472, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "164\n\nfor being arrogant, did not accept Ruth, probably due to her discrimination against Mrs. Chang's programme. However, she accepted me, perhaps because I was considered uncontaminated and because Father was employed in a bank owned by \"white\" people. She made a poor choice because Ruth was by far the better student. Ruth then was accepted by Mrs. Creighton of Kauluwela School where she was placed directly in the third grade with Mrs. Bowman. Ruth stood out scholastically and was the pride of her teachers. She continued to do well in McKinley High School and won first prize and a gold medal upon graduation. Granted a Barbour scholarship at the University of Michigan, after a premedical programme at the University of Hawaii, she completed her academic medical studies and received a medical degree in 1929.\n\nAt Michigan Ruth met and became engaged to Herbert Kai Gee Wong of Hong Kong before he left to finish his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Ruth sprained an ankle on a tour of a theatre during her last year of school and, even after surgery, was not able to walk normally or to accept an internship in a Philadelphia hospital. On her way back to Honolulu to recuperate, she spent a few days with me in Lincoln and some weeks with Dr. George S. Chan, a distant cousin, in Los Angeles. Being a herbalist, he tried unsuccessfully to heal the ankle with Chinese herbs. Once home she came under the care of Dr. Joseph Lam, family friend and schoolmate of Ruth's at Michigan. An injection of some new medication from Germany, administered by Dr. Mils Larsen, resulted in her death from septicemia on 6 June, 1932. Her three years of illness were a great strain on her and on the family. It was a great tragedy that such a brilliant woman was struck down just at the beginning of a promising career.\n\n―\n\nHelen was a very appealing child bright, sweet and smiling. During the Easter, Children's Day and Christmas services at the Kauluwela Mission, she was always asked to sing or perform. She attended Central Grammar School as I did and was a favourite of her teacher, Miss Padgett, and of the principal, Mrs. Sophie Overend, who had replaced Mrs. Carter. From there Helen went to McKinley High School, where, during her senior year, she was elected ROTC Sponsor for Company L. At the University of Hawaii, from which she graduated in three and a half years with a B.A. degree in Education, she was selected runner-up by movie star John Gilbert in a beauty contest among a group of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211488, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "180\n\nsafer for them to spend the night with us, as we were farther away from the seacoast.\n\nWhen I went to work the next day, I found that our office had been converted into a kitchen to feed the many volunteers (reportedly many ladies of the night) who had come to help. Our morgue was filled with bodies of civilian victims. The wounded were treated in several hospitals. The enemy planes had strafed some on land and some at sea in their fishing sampans, most of whom ironically were ethnic Japanese. Rumours were rampant about spies and sabotage, and of Japanese citizens being sent away to relocation camps. On the whole the Japanese wanted to show their loyalty to the United States and many Nisei volunteered to serve in the European theatre, forming the famous 442nd Battalion that fought so bravely in Italy and with such a great loss of lives. Among them was Samuel Sakamoto, husband of my good friend, Edna Sakamoto. A quiet gloom settled over the city and even the skies remained cloudy and depressing for weeks. It was not until after the Battle of Midway that the heavens seemed brighter and our spirits lighter. During the war years we found it so stifling with all windows covered to ensure total darkness that we chose to go to bed early and spend our waking moments listening to the radio. Amos and Andy and Allen's Alley were my favourite programmes. Occasionally I could catch Tokyo Rose's propaganda over the air.\n\nIn 1945 I was granted a leave of absence from work and clearance from the military to leave for the mainland to visit Mrs. Johnson. I left on 16 March 1945 on a small vessel, the S.S. Permanente, which was escorted by an armed submarine chaser. Because of the threat of being torpedoed, everyone was required to wear trousers and to carry an emergency kit. About twenty hours out to sea, an alert sounded. Although most of the passengers kept calm, my roommate became hysterical. She was a Jewish woman taking her infant daughter back to New York, leaving her husband, a defense worker, in Honolulu. It was rumoured that an enemy submarine had been sighted. Fortunately nothing happened. It took us eight days to cover a distance that normally took four and a half days. I left San Francisco for Lincoln, where I stayed with Mrs. Johnson for three months. While there, on 12 April 1945, we heard the sad news of President Roosevelt's death over the radio. I took this opportunity to visit Dora, Tso-chien and Eugene in Chicago before", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211591, "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": 6, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nHON. TREASURER'S REPORT\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT\n\nARTICLES:\n\nDan Waters\n\nLIBRARIES\n\n138 1937. vii\n\nAR\n\nIn the Steps of Lu Pan: Reminiscences of Building in Hong Kong\n\nK.J.P. Lowe\n\nHong Kong, 26 January 1841: Hoisting the Flag Revisited\n\nKeith Stevens\n\nThe Jade Emperor and his Family, Yu Huang Ta Ti\n\nKeith Stevens - Fukienese Wang Yeh (Ong Ya [Hokkien])\n\nP.H. Munro-Faure\n\nThe Kiukiang Incident of 1927\n\nA.D. Blackburn\n\nHong Kong, December 1941 July 1942\n\nChan Ka-yan\n\nJoss Stick Manufacturing: A Study of a Traditional Industry in Hong Kong\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nCheung Shan Kwu Tsz, An Old Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories and its Place in Local Society\n\nJ.H. Haan\n\nThalia and Terpsichore on The Yangtze, Survey of Foreign Theatre and Music in Shanghai 1850-1865\n\nFred Dagenais\n\nJohn Fryer's Early Years in China: I. Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong\n\nChan Wing-hoi\n\nThe Dangs of Kam Tin and Their Jiu Festival\n\nxxi\n\nxxiii\n\n8\n\n18\n\n34\n\n61\n\n77\n\n94\n\n121\n\n158\n\n252\n\n302\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nE. Sinn\n\nNotes on the Robert Hart Papers at the University of Hong Kong Library\n\n376\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nA Song from Sha Tau Kok on the 1911 Revolution\n\n382\n\nP.H. Hase\n\nThe Mutual Defence Alliance (Yeuk) of the New Territories\n\n384\n\nP.H. Hase - More on The Man the Emperor Decapitated\n\n388\n\nIssei Tanaka\n\nThe White Tiger\n\n389\n\nKeith Stevens - British Chinese Labour Corps Labourers Buried in England\n\n390\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nThe History of Hong Kong: From A Village to A City\n\n391\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nHistorical Records\n\nAnthony Siu Kwok-kin\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nTai Yu Shan from Chinese\n\n394\n\nA Tung Lo Wan\n\n399\n\n400\n\nV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211669, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "59\n\ndeities are not pestilence deities. The confusion has been compounded by the Fukienese themselves when over the years they unconsciously accepted all deities bearing the honorific Wang Yeh as protectors from epidemics.\n\nNOTES\n\nThe term Wang Yeh is best translated perhaps as 'The Excellencies'. It was a title given to imperial princes or lords, and interestingly it was also a term used by robbers for their brigand chief. See Plates 9-14 for illustrations to this article.\n\n2 There has long been controversy whether the Pestilence Wang Yeh are shen (Supernatural beings, spirits or deities) or kuei (shades of the human dead and pejoratively used for ghosts, spectres and demons). One god carver in Singapore explained that Pestilence Wang Yeh are \"half-deities\", (pan shen) that is half-shen and half-kuei. However, whilst a number of Pestilence Wang Yeh have ferocious faces, the great majority are portrayed as standard deities with no indication of demonic characteristics. An elderly and authoritative Fukienese god carver in Singapore explained in hushed tones that the Pestilence Wang Yeh are neither gods nor demons, are feared but not revered, and not only protect against plague but also cause it. They are, he repeated, semi-deities from the lower echelons of the bureaucracy of the Afterworld who do not like the human world and therefore cause trouble and bring calamity and misfortune. However, if prayed to they are quite prepared to care for devotees who seek protection. For this reason, more often than not the scale of devotion and offerings to the Pestilence Wang Yeh is greater than that provided to more powerful but orthodox gods.\n\nE\n\nDoolittle J. Social Life of the Chinese 2 Vols: New York: (1865).\n\nA god carver in Singapore suggested that Pestilence Wang Yeh have been given surnames so that no particular surname group is left without a specific deity to worship.\n\nThe only time that all images can be guaranteed to be on their altar in their temple is during the temple's annual festival.\n\nThe altar of Chu Wang Yeh in a temple in Lukang, Taiwan was destroyed by a flood some fifteen years ago. Of the three Wang Yeh images in the temple at that time (Chu, Ting and Nieh) only one image, that of Chu, was recovered. Although a new temple has been built for the three but only containing one image, the one of Chu recovered from the flood, devotees have largely stopped away. They seem to have lost confidence in deities who were unable to protect themselves against disaster.\n\n7\n\n**At Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong in the afternoon of the third day (of the chiao festival of ritual purification held every ten years) a ('paper boat') ritual to chase away the Demon of Pestilence is performed. A Taoist issues orders to a Heavenly Envoy to carry off the boat and puts the Demon of Plague on a boat and leaves it in the outer seas. The Heavenly Envoy, like the King of Ghosts (Yenlo Wang), has a fierce-looking face. It is an image of about one metre high and the boat is a small one of about one and a half metres long. A Taoist lifts the Heavenly Envoy to a stage in the matshed theatre and chants a question-and-answer song which instructs the Heavenly Envoy. Having finished that, the villagers then put the Heavenly Envoy into the boat loaded with offerings. The boat is taken to the sea shore and left on the waters.\" Tanaka Issei: \"The Jiao festival in Hong Kong and the New Territories\", The Turning of the Tide Religion in China Today: Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, and Oxford University Press (Hong Kong); (1989), p. 287.\n\n8 There is a K'ang Yuanshuai, ie Marshal K'ang, on several Taiwanese altars where he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211770, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "160\n\nminority in the foreign community.' The effects of this discrepancy on the local dramatic scene will be dealt with later.\n\nBy far the greater part of those who came out to China were active as merchants or mercantile assistants; in general, they were in their late twenties or early thirties, and lived together in the hong of their firm. During business hours they traded in silk, tea, opium, and sundries; leisure was sought mainly in sports: racing, fives, bowling, cricket; by some in the Shanghai Library (established 1849), or the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (founded 1857). All, however, seemed to love the amateur theatricals that were put on several times a year.\n\nII. Theatrical Criticism\n\nIn order to appreciate the information that has come down to us about the theatre in early Shanghai, some attention should first of all be paid to the way in which contemporaries wrote about it. (For reviews see the Calendar of Performances).\n\nThe main, in fact the only, source as regards the early history of the foreign settlement in Shanghai is the “North China Herald”, a weekly that was founded in August 1850. A daily edition, the “North China Daily News” was begun in 1864, but the surviving copies date back only as far as July 1866. Other papers were published in the period under discussion, notably the \"Shanghai Recorder\" (1862-1869), but of these too all trace is lacking, with the exception of one volume (1865) of the \"Shanghai Commercial Record”, the overland edition of the \"Shanghai Recorder\". So we have perforce to rely mainly on the \"North China Herald\"; and, to be sure, a worse source can be imagined. In its pages at the least we find the facts about which plays were performed and what kind of musical entertainment was enjoyed. That is, until about the beginning of 1866, for after that date there is a noticeable decrease in theatrical notes. Then one has to resort to the Daily News.\n\nAll articles, which could be as long as a column, were anonymous, or, in a few cases, signed with an initial or a pseudonym. Not that it matters very much, for generally speaking the critic, if we may call him so, went to considerable lengths to avoid any harsh treatment of the amateurs on the stage. Apparently it was not deemed proper to pull the rug from under a handful of well-meaning gentlemen who devoted their", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211773, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "163\n\nconcert. Everything was conducted in a quiet gentlemenly manner so that we imagined ourselves in a drawing room more than in a theatre. There was no attempt at grandeur of display (...) which characterises too much the quasi musical taste of the day where the composition of the author is sacrificed frequently to the execution of the performer and the audience is led to think more of the latter than of the former**. \"The \"Shanghai Commercial Record\" reported in a similar laudatory way about the Annual Volunteer Concert on February 15, 1865: “We fancy few home concerts could show anything better; amateur concerts we are sure rarely could\".20\n\nHowever, about professional musicians, and those formed the majority of performers, the critic sometimes made no bones about his disapproval: speaking of a recital given by a Professor Shonbrun on the piano in March 1859, he was \"sorry to say we have no great opinion of his powers; the skill and artistic feeling which would be highly respectable in an Amateur reflect no especial credit on a professional player'\"; at the same time **the Amateurs who assisted Mr. Shonbrun did their share well and merit great praise\". Thus the line was drawn, at least by this particular reviewer.\n\nIII. The Companies\n\nA. Theatrical\n\n**21\n\nWriting about the theatrical companies that performed in Shanghai during the period 1850-1865, a distinction must be made between those that were got up from among the local residents, those that were initiated by the military garrison, and those that were of a professional, travelling nature.\n\nThe Local Companies\n\nOn November 15, 1866, it was proposed at a meeting of the Dramatic Corps of the Infantry and Rangers of the Shanghai Volunteers Corps that “a Dramatic Society be formed\",22 and hardly a month later the Shanghai Amateur Dramatic Corps was established on December 7.23 Its objects were stated to be \"the encouragement and maintenance of an amateur theatre in Shanghai; the maintenance of a theatrical library and the management of funds for theatrical purposes\". There were to be no honorary members but only those who were willing to be active", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211774, "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": 189, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "164\n\non the stage. At last Shanghai could boast a drama society that was footed on a regular basis, could give its fiftieth performance on April 18, 1876 (T.W. Robertson's School), its hundredth on March 22, 1893 (a local version of Lloyd Clarence's A Tale of Tell under the title The Tale of Tell Retold). The 150th performance went off in 1908 with James Matthew Barrie's The Admirable Crichton, and altogether the A.D.C. existed well into the 1930s.25\n\n27\n\n24\n\nIn the years preceding the A.D.C., theatrical seasons, and with it the companies, were organised annually, depending, it seems, on the interest shown by society and the availability of actors and managers. The very first amateur performances took place during the season 1849-1850,26 but no record has been left of them. In the following years more than once reference was made to a \"New Corps\" formed for the season, or that it had been \"but a few weeks since the present company had been embodied\".28 Under these circumstances it was by no means certain that the Shanghai public would be treated each winter to an evening of uncomplicated amusement. In its issue of November 27, 1852, the Herald stated that “if 'common report' be true we fear that the 'Dramatic Corps' (...) will be unable to continue their performance\" due to the \"absence from Shanghai of the 'Head and Front' of the original body, together with the retirement of some of its members\". This brought forward an outcry by a foreign lady (?) who donned herself with the name \"Phoebe Silverveil\": \"No theatricals? Dear Me! Mr. Editor, what are the ladies to do without them? The performances were so good (...) and we all enjoyed them so much!''; and then, quoting liberally the pieces of the past season (see Calendar), she ended: \"I have just put dear baby down for a minute to write these few lines as a gentle hint to the Corps; hoping that if the members are not quite Used Up, they will give us another merry Rendezvous at the Theatre and there is surely not such a Dragon amongst them as to say NO!\"29 As if this appeal were not enough, the editor added as an afterthought that this letter \"can hardly fail to have the effect of rousing the dormant energies of the heroes of the 'sock and buskin' to renewed exertions, to deserve the applause of their fair admirers. We doubt not they will take the hint\". In this way aspiring amateurs were cajoled into the formation of a new company which started its operations in January 1853 with Beckett's The Turned Head and Boucicault's Used Up. Some five years later, in January 1858, the Herald regretted that the Amateur Theatrical performances, so successful last year, have not as yet been reorganised during the present season and we think we speak with the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211775, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "165\n\nunanimous voice of the Community in wishing that the Corps would again favour us with their highly agreeable representations”.30\n\n―\n\nA new venture in local companies was started in 1864 when, after the troubles of the Taiping rebellion, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps which had taken part in the defence of the Settlement apparently had enough superfluous energy to direct their efforts into more peaceful ventures. On March 30, 1864, Kenney's Raising the Wind, Jerrold's Cool as a Cucumber and Coyne's Duck Hunting were the three pieces given.\n\nSeveral more performances followed in 1864 (April 25, May 26) and 1865 (March 21, May 8, December 14). Not to be outdone by their colleagues, the Mounted Rangers, part of the S.V.C. and formed in 1862, decided to put on theatricals too. May 24, 1865 saw their first moves on the stage with Planché's The Knights of the Round Table and Mayhew's The Wandering Minstrel.3\n\n31\n\nLater performances were given on November 11 and 20, 1865, and January 12 and March 28, 1866. It was these two groups that in 1866 resolved on the foundation of the Amateur Dramatic Corps.\n\nAnother local company saw the light in June 1864: The Amateur Burlesque Company Ltd. Whether they were not satisfied with the existing conditions of the theatre in Shanghai or whether the demand for Thespian evenings was so great cannot be ascertained; in any case it was announced that **although the theatrical season has closed, the approach of the hot weather warning us against crowded assemblies, a number of gentlemen have formed themselves into a burlesque company**. But the heat was no deterrent and on June 28, 1864 Lacy's The Silent Woman and H.J. Byron's Ill Treated Il Trovatore came off with considerable success, so much so that \"many of the audience were disposed to believe that they were witnessing a display of professional talent\". The society proved not to be a one-day affair, for it gave a number of other representations in 1864 and 1865.\n\nThe actors in it probably consisted mainly of British and Americans; of another company that was also established in 1864 it may safely be assumed that only compatriots were members, viz. the Portuguese amateur dramatic club. Although the Portuguese population of Shanghai was small (the census of 1865 showed a total of 110, including 14 women and 15 children) this was apparently no hindrance to the staging of plays", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211778, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "168\n\nso called Christy's Minstrels --- a famous group in the United States, yet it may be doubted severely whether it was the same one that visited Shanghai.\n\nEight years later, the first company to come down to Shanghai from Hong Kong, where they had also been playing, was the one led by a Mr. C.R. Faylor. On February 10 1864 Lytton's The Lady of Lyons was on the bill as the opening piece, but the Herald thought it a failure in consequence of \"that portion of the company which had been collected in Shanghai and pressed into service\". How this is to be understood is not quite clear. Did Faylor's company consist of only a few actors, who were to be supplemented by local worthies? But then, who else could they be but amateurs, the darlings of the foreign community? However this may be, on May 9 at an evening in which also the \"Royal Shanghai Ballet d'Action\" [so far for fancy names!] participated, the \"celebrated comedy Nature and Philosophy or Eighteen Years Labour Lost” was given. As members of the company were mentioned Mr. and Mrs. C.R. Faylor, Mr. and Mrs. E. Yeamans and Major Pegus. Amateurs almost always adopted stage names in order to hide their real identity, but with professional actors it may be assumed these names were real.\n\n45\n\nA more substantial contribution to the amusement of the Shanghai public was made by Lewis' Dramatic Company. It was of Australian origin and the \"musical director and manager\" was Charles Edouin. Other members of the group were Tilly Earl, Mrs. Gill, Lizzie Naylor, Jenny Nye, T. Andrews, Henry Birch, J.B. Creswick, W.B. Gill and nearly the whole Edouin (or, rather, Bryer) family: Julia, Rose, John and Willie. Rose (1844-1925) married G.B. Lewis and became later an actress at, among others, the Maidan Theatre in Calcutta. Her brother Willie (1846-1908; his real name was John Edward Bryer) first appeared in public when he was six; after the tour to Australia, India, China and Japan he played in Melbourne, California, New York and London.46 In 1862 the \"Lewis' Equestrian Australian Troupe\" had visited the port with \"six of the best horses ever landed in China**,** but in 1864 the company had turned to drama and from October 6 until their departure in December an eight week season provided an unprecedented shower of farces, burlesques and even some quality pieces like Sheridan's The Rivals and the prison scene from Shakespeare's King John (Act IV, sc. 1), in which the role of prince Arthur was played by an actress, Julia Edouin, who took \"the house by storm\".48 The success of the company was apparently so great that they returned in March of the following\n\n47", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211785, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "175\n\nwas enough to account for that. In addition quite a few women were the wives of missionaries, and in religious circles suspicions about the theatre in general and the role of females in particular often still lingered on. This was indeed so conspicuous that the list of \"contributors\" in the first issue of \"Puck\" (April 1, 1871!) mockingly included: “Our Dramatic Critiques will be undertaken by the Missionary Body who are so frequently absent from the Performances and will therefore be impartial judges of the merits of the Performances\". And then, of course, it may just have been possible that the taipans did not like to see their wives before the footlights with other men.\n\nReading about the early Thespian evenings one may nonetheless be fooled into thinking that women had in fact taken their place on the stage. In the circumstances it was only natural that the \"actresses” should be called \"Miss\" or \"Mrs.\", but what should we think about the glowing term in which one of them, a “Mrs Nesbit” (was this stage name a pun on the rather well-known British actress Louisa Nisbett?) was described on more than one occasion:\n\n“The acting of our charming favourite Mrs. Nesbit, as Mrs. Lullaby [in Henry Danvers' A Conjugal Lesson, on March 26, 1857 – JH] left nothing to be desired. It was perfect of its kind and were it not that she gave a too vivid, and, it may be, truthful portrait of that dread of club-haunting bachelors like ourselves, the matrimonial chamber, we could on the instant have made Mrs. Nesbit the offer of our hand”.* Stronger even, on February 16, 1859:\n\n#\n\n\"But where shall we find words to express our admiration of Mrs. Nesbit, that beautiful Nesbit, who, blessed with an incomparable modiste, displayed so many feminine graces, such latent charms, as effectually to revive the enthusiasm of our younger days and cause us to run round the stage door in the hope of once more beholding so fair a 'genius of the lamps'.\n\n* 34\n\nAnd in an epilogue to the evening of May 26, 1864, the ladies were again put under the spotlight:\n\n\"But stay! The Ladies' praises must be sung. These Belles were surely meant to be well rung. There's Wiggins, Lizzie, Baby, only choose.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211787, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "177\n\n'Tis not in mortals to command success\n\n89\n\nAnd that the actors had in general nothing to fear from the public has already been shown and is testified once more by a contemporary: \"The scenery was rude, the action imperfect, but a good-natured audience showed that charity which covers a multitude of sins and seldom failed to enjoy themselves\".\n\nV. The Theatres\n\n90\n\nThe localities in which all performances took place were adorned with high-sounding names like the Theatre Royal, the New Theatre Royal, the Olympic Theatre or the Lyceum Theatre. And though it is evident that in this way it was hoped to conjure up visions of their namesakes in the British capital, realities were quite different. It was only in 1867 that a theatre worthy of the name was opened in Shanghai; it was called the Lyceum Theatre, like its predecessor. But that was, as all the ones that went before, a mere refitted and redecorated warehouse, or, to use the local term, godown. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to trace the vicissitudes of these \"Thespian Temples\".\n\nAs was the case with the theatrical companies that were formed anew every season, the \"pretty little theatres\" too had to be rented each year. This did not mean, however, that the buildings changed all the time; on more than one occasion the same godown was used for several seasons. Yet it is difficult to get a clear picture because the information given in the local paper is often very scanty with respect to addresses; in fact, in only one instance has a road been named, so one has to rely on other sources in order to establish the location of the theatres.\n\nA.\n\nSeasons 1850-1851 and 1851-1852: The Theatre Royal or New Theatre Royal (both names were used). No address can be fixed. For the opening performance of the season 1851-1852, on January 26, 1852, the theatre had been \"tastefully refitted and decorated; a very pretty drop scene of the Port of Leghorn added\". The painters were active this season, for on the evening of March 24 \"a new drop scene of the Bay of Naples adorned the proscenium\". The previous one had been \"transferred to decorate the walls of the theatre\". Furthermore, it was contemplated to \"paint a series of Italian scenery and in due time the whole theatre will...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211788, "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": 203, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "178\n\nbe embellished by a variety of cosmoramic views which will add much to its beauty\" 92\n\nThis process was continued and another new drop scene, “A View of Palermo\" was unveiled on May 6, 1852.93 Thus everything was done to turn the godown into something that resembled a theatre.\n\nB.\n\nOf course it would be more or less a waste if everything had to be demolished because the lease of the building could not be extended. Yet that was possibly the case, for during the season 1852-1853, after many doubts whether any theatricals would be given at all, the Imperial Theatre became the scene; it can only be guessed if this was the same as the Theatre Royal.\n\nC.\n\n94\n\nFor subsequent years we are on somewhat firmer ground.* The seasons 1853-1854, 1856-1857 and 1857-1858 came off in the same building, viz. a godown in the Commercial House or Commercial Hotel compound that was situated at the northwestern corner of Park Lane (Nanking Road), and Church Street (Kiangsi Road) (the names of the roads were, in 1864-1865, changed from the old \"homelike\" ones; Park Lane, Church Street, Mission Road, etc. into ones more in tune with local conditions: Nanking Road, Kiangsi Road, Foochow Road, etc.).† Despite the fact that the theatre was housed in one and the same building throughout this period it bore several different names. It was called the Tae Ming Theatre (i.e. Great and Bright Theatre) 1853-1854; once the name Old Theatre was attached to it (1856), then it was called the Theatre Royal (1857-1858). There was some political irony involved when the Herald announced that on March 8, 1854 the Tae Ming Theatre had opened \"under a concession from and immediate patronage of the Tae-ping-wong\" (the leader of the Taiping movement). Because of the change of regime in the native city the name \"Imperial\" Theatre was mockingly considered a little inappropriate.\n\nOriginally the stage was rather small, but later it was \"extended in the rear and the wings thrown back, giving a larger area for action\".95\n\n* See Map at Appendix III.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211789, "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": 204, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "179\n\nAs was common, it was occasionally furbished up, not always to the taste of the critic who at one time in 1857 feared the decorations \"threatened to overwhelm me with a fall of flowers and garlands from the roof\". This was not at all what a member of the amateur company wanted to hear and he acidly reacted that \"as your 'witty (?) contributor' complained of being so uncomfortable amongst the roses which surrounded him, it has been proposed and seconded by one of the ladies he admires so much |Mrs. Nesbit, cf. Calendar, 26.3.1857 — JHJ to put in a few thistles for his especial benefit, should he ever honour our private theatricals with his presence”. \n\nThe theatre was also used for a number of recitals, the acoustics reportedly being good.\n\nD.\n\nFor some reason or other (had the Commercial House temporarily closed down? cf note 94) the godown theatre could not be put at the disposal of the amateurs during the 1855-1856 season so they had to look elsewhere. They were saved by the firm of Cramptons, Hanbury & Co who agreed to lease one of their godowns to the A.D.C. It was very probably situated on Church Street (Kiangsi Road) and for the opening night on January 23 1856 a drop scene of the Lake of Geneva had been painted which aroused \"a general murmur of admiration and applause\".\n\nWith the sale by public auction of the Commercial Hotel (cf note 94) in November 1858 the fate of the Theatre Royal was also sealed, and not only of the theatre itself but of the scenery and properties too, for a reporter of the Herald saw a few days after the sale \"the mangled remains of Palaces and Cottages, of Bombastes' Wood [from Bombastes Furioso — JHJ] and Captain Copp's tavern [from Charles II — JHJ] lying in sad ruins in the open air\".\n\nE.\n\nSic transit gloria mundi, but, not deterred, the Thespian society managed to obtain a new building which was proudly called The New Theatre Royal. Once again we are at a loss where to find it, no information whatsoever appearing in the Herald. It was larger than the previous house, which was deemed all right for theatricals but much less so for solo", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211790, "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": 205, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "180\n\nTOT\n\nconcerts. For the performance on the first night, February 16 1859, the artists had prepared a drop scene representing \"a most romantic spot on the banks of the Lago Maggiore\". Italy obviously continued to stimulate the imagination.\n\nF.\n\nBut whatever its qualities a long lifetime was not allotted to this theatre; after the last night in June 1859 it was pulled down, and once more a new shelter for Thalia had to be secured. Where it stood, we have no idea; even a proper name was not given, but on February 15 1860 the opening night of the season took place.\n\nG.\n\nDuring the Taiping ravages of the years 1860-1861, numerous Chinese fled to the Settlement and a huge building speculation developed, everyone trying to get rich by erecting the most flimsy structures for the refugees. Because of this it cannot have been easy for the amateurs to rent a godown to set up a new theatre in 1863. But, as usual, they succeeded in their efforts and another Theatre Royal enriched the streets of Shanghai, though which one it is impossible to say. There is, however, an interesting description of the interior in the Herald of February 14, 1863:\n\n\"The audience part of the house consists of a dress circle and pit, the former enclosed with scarlet decorations, and the latter arranged with rows of good strong forms. The proscenium is plainly ornamented, with two 'guardian angels' on each side, and surrounded by a design having the flags of all nations combined round the British crown with the motto Unitate Fortior' underneath. These we understand were painted by a gallant captain [Hamilton, of one of the military regiments – JH] besides the drop scene, which is exceedingly well done and represents, if we are not mistaken, the Lake of Lucerne embosomed in the mighty Alps. The house was well lit up and the footlights were brilliant”.\n\nH.\n\nThe capacity of the house was given as about two hundred and fifty.\n\nThe following season, 1863-1864, saw, on February 10 1864, the opening", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211792, "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": 207, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "182\n\n500 or 600 p.a.), without any prospect of being able to use it the subsequent season. Apparently it was also the custom to sell all the scenery, etc., at the end of the season and this too could only be done at a heavy loss (for 1865 it had cost Tls. 2,400 and fetched but Tls. 200).109 In order to investigate the feasibility of a permanent, i.e., stone, theatre, a provisional committee was appointed in September 1866.10 The chances of realising the object in view did not seem very rosy though. At a meeting of the committee held on November 10, 1866, it was decided that the \"circulation of a subscription list towards a permanent theatre should be deferred for the present\" and instead guarantors for the construction of a temporary theatre (i.e., one of wood, which was much cheaper) should be sought.11 In this they were successful and on November 16, it was announced at a meeting that Tls. 3,500 had been subscribed. This, however, was not deemed sufficient to cover all the expenses and an amended motion was adopted stating that instead of fitting up a godown, a temporary theatre, on the plans submitted to the meeting, be built and fitted up, provided a sum of Tls. 6,000 be guaranteed within a week\".12 And despite the rather severe limitations under which a number of merchants had to operate due to the collapse of the building boom - an adjourned meeting was informed on November 22 that this sum had indeed been guaranteed.\"\n\nThe new theatre would be built in wood and was designed by a local architect, Mr. William Kidner; originally it would contain 700 seats, but this was considered too much, 500 or 600 being enough. The firm of Dent & Co. showed itself willing to provide a plot of land for the sum of Tls. 250 annually and the cost of the theatre itself was estimated at Tls. 3,900. Some months later, on March 1, 1867, the wooden Lyceum Theatre opened on Yuanmingyuan Road* (later, Museum Road), with Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich and Faust and Marguerite (author not mentioned: F.C. Burnand?, T.W. Robertson?, J. Halford?).\n\nOne may well ask why the foreign residents had not found the courage and the money to erect a really “lasting structure\" for, naturally, wooden buildings were prone to fire and it should come as no surprise that the \"temporary'' theatre proved to be very temporary indeed, for on March 2, 1871, it burned down. Once again a substantial sum of money had been wasted on what turned out to be an ill-advised scheme. Sadder and wiser, it was finally decided in 1872 to construct a brick theatre on an adjacent site on Museum Road, stage entrance on Yuanmingyuan Road. On\n\n*This is the theatre marked \"b\" at Appendix III.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211793, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "183\n\nJanuary 27 1874 William Suter's Incompatibility of Temper and Tom Taylor's Masks and Faces or Before and Behind the Curtain opened the season in the New Lyceum Theatre. This one lasted much longer than its predecessor, indeed, until 1929 when it was sold to be resuscitated in the French Concession in 1931.\n\n——\n\nBut to return to pre-1867 conditions, some final notes should be added. Shanghai saw its first tentative steps in lighting its streets with gas in 1865 which was no luxury as the state of the roads was often rather dubious. Lighting in the theatre therefore, both the auditorium and the stage, was by means of either candles or oil lamps, the danger and inadequacies of which require no further comment.\n\n—\n\nRegulation of the climate in the hall was also difficult. Temperatures in Shanghai can be as low as 12°C in January and as high as 40°C in June-August. In order not to deter the audience, heating had to be provided in winter, which was duly advertised: \"Thoroughly warmed with splendid stoves\", whereas in summer which was certainly in the early years an unusual time for entertainment - one could read that \"to obviate the excessive heat of a crowded house, the Company beg to state that they have had two large Punkahs hung and have otherwise improved the ventilation\" (a punkah was a large rectangular fan suspended from the ceiling and moved by servants).\n\nPerformances started generally at 8 o'clock or 8.30 (even 9) (1864-1865) and entry prices were $3 for the best seats and $2 for the other ones (back seats and gallery) (The Mexican dollar, one of the currencies used in Shanghai, fluctuated in value, but may be said to have been worth about 4/6 during these years — so no \"shilling gallery\" here).\n\nIn addition to the godown theatres there were a number of other localities where artistic entertainment occurred in 1865. On February 23 1865 a concert was given at the Astor House Hotel. This hotel had been founded by an American, D.C. Jansen, in 1860 and it was situated in a part of the Settlement known as Hongkew (or American Settlement), north of the Soochow Creek, near the bridge. It was destined to become one of the most famous hotels in Shanghai and it was rebuilt several times. But in 1865 it was still a low construction. Other concerts, on October 17 1864, February 15 and March 1865, were given at the Shanghai Club, a redoubtable pillar of society located at the southern end of the Bund where it was opened in 1864. It was built in a neoclassical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211801, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "A CALENDAR OF PERFORMANCES \n\n1850 - 1865 \n\n191 \n\nIntroduction \n\nInstead of giving a rather dull summing up of dates and plays, I have added to almost each performance excerpts from the reviews which appeared in the local paper(s), with explanatory note if necessary. The material is not equally abundant on all occasions. Sometimes only a few lines were published, sometimes more than a column: actors were not always mentioned and there are hardly any details about the staging of the plays. With respect to the actors and musicians, cast lists have been given only when real names were available. In the excerpts numerous instances will be found of stage names as adopted by Thespian residents. It is unfortunate that their true identity cannot be ascertained; nevertheless, I had to include them, especially those who made a \"career\" of sorts in the Shanghai theatre. Perhaps one day it will, through e.g., private correspondence in some archives, become possible gradually to lift the veil. It should be reminded that female characters with the amateurs were always played by men. Only in the professional companies is a Miss really a Miss. \n\nAll reports about the wonderful acting qualities of the amateurs should of course be seen in their proper perspective. It has been said in the Survey that we cannot be sure how good or bad the performances were, but it must be assumed (and the 1852 Epilogue hints as much) that things were liable to go wrong and that the acting was rather crude, certainly not as polished and natural as we are used to today. That was often not even the case with professional players in that time, let alone amateur ones. \n\nIn the papers, playwrights were almost never mentioned, so other sources had to be used in order to establish authorship. Invaluable in this regard are: Allardyce Nicoll: A Dictionary of the Drama, of which unfortunately only Volume I (A-G) was published; The Player's Library; and, to a lesser extent, T.A. Brown: A History of the New York Stage. \n\nComposers of musical pieces performed at concerts were similarly not always mentioned. Where possible, I have tried to supply the missing information. \n\nIn Appendix I will be found an author list of plays with full titles and in Appendix II an alphabetical list of plays staged in Shanghai; both with dates of performances. \n\nAs far as feasible, the pieces in the Calendar have been entered in the order they were represented on a particular night. \n\nAbbreviations: \n\nT. Type of play \n\nC.: Company \n\nF.: Features \n\nBGM: Boletim do Governo de Macao \n\nCM: China Mail \n\nNCH: North China Herald \n\nSCR: Shanghai Commercial Record \n\nTh. Theatre \n\nN.: Note \n\nR.: Review \n\nN.N.: Not Named \n\n1849-1850: First theatrical season, but no titles of plays have been recorded.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211803, "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": 218, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "193\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Prologue, music\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: The proscenium had been adorned with \"a very pretty drop scene of the Port of Leghorn\". The report was in general terms only; both pieces were cleverly and effectively sustained”, During the interval “a most effective Irish song was sung and the orchestra under the veteran melodist Sir George Smart gave unqualified satisfaction* (NCH 31.1.1852).\n\n23.2.1852 (Mon)\n\nT. MORTON: “A Roland for an Oliver\" (1819)\n\nT: Farce (2 acts)\n\n\"No!\" by W.H. MURRAY or F. REYNOLDS\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: Second performance of the season\n\nR: Tonight there was a \"numerous attendance of the beau monde, but not so much as on the previous occasion\". A Roland for an Oliver was \"an old established favourite and we need only say that the scenery was admirable, the ladies well dressed, the bride quite lovely and the whole went off amidst enthusiastic cheers and bursts of applause”. The other farce \"No!\" was \"replete with fun and sly sarcasm on unequal matches between lovely young wives and gentlemen rather the worse for wear\". Somewhat contradictorily the critic continued, \"it decidedly exhibited much more spirit than its precursor and was hailed accordingly with more enthusiasm and good will\".\n\nThere was also “a solo on the pianoforte by a young lady, her first appearance, as we believe, on any stage. The rapidity of her fingering, the clearness of her touch and what is so frequently wanting with many performers, her musical emphasis, were striking. We hear that the young lady graduated at the Conservatoire at Paris and her style is characterised by that brilliancy and distinctness so marked in performances at that capital”. No more was heard of this pianist; as to her name and career we are left in the dark. Was she the wife of a local merchant or a touring artist? Or was the \"lady\" in this instance too, a “gentleman\"?? (NCH 28.2.1852).\n\n24.3.1852 (Mon)\n\nG. COLMAN Jr: \"The Review\" (1800)\n\nT: Musical farce (2 acts)\n\nR. AYTON: \"The Rendezvous\" (1818)\n\nT: Operetta (1 act).\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: New Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: Third performance of the season\n\nR: For the occasion a new drop scene, depicting the Bay of Naples, had been painted. Apart from the plays \"a company of excellent jugglers amused the visitors, with a good display of surprising feats of sleight of hand\". Possibly these were Chinese, for in the announcement (NCH 20.3.1852) it was stated that there are several parties endeavouring to obtain Native Conjurers for the next theatrical night\".\n\nOf course the whole “went off with much eclat, the characters were well sustained and admirably dressed, the scenery as usual very good and the music first rate” (NCH 27.3.1852).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211804, "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": 219, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "194\n\n6.5.1852 (Thur)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Attic Story\" (1842)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nR.B. PEAKS: \"The Haunted Inn\" (1828)\n\nT: Farce (2 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music, i.a. selections from Mozart's “Le Nozze di Figaro\" and other operas. Epilogue.\n\nTh: New Theatre Royal (A)\n\nN: Last performance of the season\n\nR: Again there was a new drop scene. \"A View near Palermo, a very pleasing view of an Italian villa with the bay and hills in the background\". The pieces were \"well performed and excited much merriment, especially the mistakes of the Attic Story\" (NCH 8.5.1852).\n\n27.1.1853 (Thur)\n\nD. BOUCICAULT & C. MATHEWS: \"Used Up\" (1846)\n\nT: Comedietta (2 acts)\n\nG.A.A. BECKETT: \"The Turned Head\" (1834)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: After not a little uncertainty about the state of affairs respecting the theatre, finally the management for the new season was laid in the hands of Horatio BUSKIN (a compound pseudonym: Horatio, from Hamlet; Buskin, the boot worn by Greek actors) who succeeded \"Doldrum\".\n\nFor a \"very good attendance graced by many of the beau sexe\" the evening \"came off with great éclat\" (NCH 22, 29.1.1853).\n\n23.3.1853 (Wedn)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Betsey Baker\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nW. BROUGH: \"Apartments\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Prologue; comic songs\n\nTh: Imperial Theatre (B)\n\nR: In the presence of the British Superintendent of Trade and Governor of Hong Kong, Sir George Bonham, Betsey Baker turned out to be \"a most decided and palpable hit, received throughout with shouts of laughter and applause\". Bonham was in Shanghai on his way to Nanking which had been taken by the Taipings on March 19. The Rebellion had a profound effect on the foreign community and although the Taipings enjoyed for some time a lot of sympathy, on this occasion they were satirised in a **most original and witty Prologue**: \"The Manager appeared before the curtain, in a state of intense excitement, informing the audience of mutiny in the corps! Dreadful consequences!! No performance!!! What could be done!? Then arose such a \"Row and Bobbery\" [Bobbery: an Anglo-Indian word meaning 'noise, disturbance' - JH] led by those who were in the secret and poor Horatio BUSKIN could scarcely be heard amidst the crash of broken glass and was almost unable to face the shower of oranges aimed at his devoted head. An amiable conspirator elevating himself on a bench expressed most loudly and eloquently his indignation at this state of affairs; however, after a parley with the Manager, he proposed a compromise, and the curtain was drawn up exposing the corps evidently in a state of 'Rebellion'. Fortunately they would listen to reason and the 'refractory members' agreed to 'go on' for this occasion, and the Manager retired with...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211806, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "196\n\n22.3.1854 (Wedn)\n\nJ.V. BRIDGEMAN: \"I've Eaten My Friend!\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion\" (1849)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"The Two Bonny Castles\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: Tac Ming Theatre (C)\n\nR: Was the new member perhaps \"Mr Mercury WARREN\" who scored such a great success in I've Eaten My Friend! as Hezekiah Jellytop? \"The refined sensibility of the character was portrayed with a power and intensity which mark Mr. Warren as one of the true sons of Thespis. How shall we describe the horror when the internal evidence of a pie revealed a clue to the whereabouts of his departed friend\".\n\nIn the second piece, An Unwarrantable Intrusion \"the part of Ashplant was performed by a gentleman whose via comica and power of communication were unmistakable. He completely embodied the character and infused life and vigour into his conception of it**.\n\nUntil now, even the stage names of the actors had scarcely been mentioned in the reviews, but tonight we learn that in The Two Bonny Castles Messrs Bravo ROUSE, Mercury WARREN, and Horatio BUSKIN excelled as well as the ladies who acted with great spirit and sustained the dignity and elegance of the sex with most admirable effect\" (Bravo ROUSE was a borrowed alias).\n\n+\n\nAmong the musicians was again \"Herr KOENIG\" who \"brilliantly executed\" on, presumably, the violin. (NCH 25.3.1854).\n\n15.5.1854 (Mon)\n\nC.W.S. BROOKS: \"Anything for a Change\" (1848)\n\nT: Comedietta (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Box and Cox\" (1847)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: \"A Grand Ethiopian Entertainment\" with the \"Virginian Minstrels\"\n\nTh: Tac Ming Theatre (C)\n\nN: These performances, the last of the season, had originally been announced for April 5; on that date would also have been played J.T.G. Rodwell's farce A Race for Dinner. The evening was postponed, however, because of the Battle of Muddy Flat on April 4, 1854.\n\nR: Some of the local celebrities definitely could not go wrong, witness the following remark in the Herald: \"As we dropped in for half an hour we cannot speak of the concluding (Box and Cox) but, as our favourite Mr. VERDENT and the clever Mr. WARREN enacted parts in it, we have no doubt it must have told on the audience\". Earlier that night Mr. Bravo ROUSE and Mr. WARREN had starred in Anything for a Change (probably as Swoppington and Honeyball).\n\n19.5.1855 (Sat)\n\nA \"Soirée Musicale Dansante\" by officers of the U.S.S. \"Powhatan\" with an \"Ethiopian Concert by the Minstrels of the Powhatan\" and a burlesque on Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons. H.J. Byron wrote a burlesque with the same title, but according to HED, the first performance took place on February 1, 1858.\n\nR: In the Survey, it was pointed out that the officers of naval vessels sometimes entertained the local foreign residents. The first of these occasions occurred on board the Powhatan, an American warship that took part in the Japan expedition, on the eve of her departure.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211808, "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": 223, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "198\n\nT: Farce (1 act) C: Amateurs\n\nF: Music\n\nTh: D\n\nR: This was the last theatrical entertainment organised by Horatio BUSKIN and he could look back on a successful \"career\" as manager. Only the music had flagged of late (tonight \"a buzz in a box near the proscenium represented the music — we were ten feet away from it and it was therefore lost upon us\" the days of \"Sir George Smart and Messrs Thalberg\" and \"Koenig\" were over).\n\n—\n\nTo make up for these shortcomings \"Mr. CLAY as Honeybun (in the Infanticidal Farce) was, as he always is, first rate\". In Slasher and Crasher the public witnessed the debut of \"Miss Polly DEXTER as Rosa, affording hope of a new evening star of the first magnitude\" (NCH 23.2.1856).\n\n14.8.1856 (Thur)\n\nN.N.: The Nigger Doctor and his Patient Patient or the First Lesson in Surgery\n\nT: Negro farce\n\nC: Travelling American Company (Messrs Baker, Woodward and Montgomery) Th: Old Theatre (C)\n\nN: The whole evening was announced as a \"Grand Ethiopian Musical Soirée\"\n\nR: An advertisement only was published in the NCH of August 9. In it the above mentioned gentlemen (formerly of the New York Serenaders) praised their performances as having been \"the theme of universal admiration during the past four years throughout the East Indies as well as the Australian Colonies\". In addition to the farce, the programme consisted of \"Negro songs, interspersed with willy saying and doings peculiar to the African race in America\".\n\n19.9.1856 (Fri)\n\nConcert by Ali Ben Sou Alle and some local amateurs.\n\nInstruments: Turkophone, \"Turkophonini\", clarinet, piano.\n\nProgramme:\n\nG. ROSSINI: Two overtures. V. BELLINI: Selections from \"La Sonnambula\". F. MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: \"The Fairest Flower\" (song). Some German songs, The \"Shanghai Redowa Walse\", Medley of English, Scottish and Irish airs. Th: N.N. (C)\n\nR: Tonight was the occasion of the first real concert in the Settlement's history. It was given by Mr. ALI BEN SOU ALLE, a Turk who, after a study at the Conservatoire de Paris, had been appointed Directeur de Musique de Marine in Senegal (which had been French since 1871) in 1844. In 1847 he returned to Paris to enter the orchestra of the Opéra Comique, but the following year he went to London where he found employment in the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre at the Haymarket. He learned to play some instruments that had been invented by Adolphe Sax, the Belgian musician (1814-1894) and thereafter he made an extensive tour to Australia, Java, Singapore, Manila and China (CM 16, 10, 1856). In Hong Kong and even Canton he had appeared in August and October 1856 (CM 7.8. 14.8. 21.8. 16.10.1856). In between he gave two recitals in the Yangtze port. In the Survey it has already been stated that the soloist entertained the public with performances on several instruments that had been rechristened Turkophone and Turkophonini: in reality they were the Saxophone and (probably) the soprano saxophone. Well may we ask how these instruments, which were only of recent origin (1840s), were received by an audience completely unused to their sound. The artist interpreted a selection from Bellini's \"La Sonnambula\" on the \"Turkophone\" and the critic wrote that \"the compass of the instrument is very great but we confess to some disappointment as regards its quality of tone, and correctness of tone also, in some few notes, and altogether we think it an imperfect instrument", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211810, "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": 225, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "200\n\nrash decision to marry the first that came\". Another actor who was to become a local Roscius. Mr. Phunago BRUSHWOOD, \"gave the somewhat unusual stage character of a double-faced farmer (Wurzel) all the selfish cunning and irritable tone which it needed\". Other parts were taken by Miss Polly DEXTER, Mr. HEAVISWELL, Mr. Jehoshaphat SNAKES and Mr. PLEADWELL (as the lawyer!).\n\nIn Box and Cox Messrs PROTEUS, BRUSHWOOD and Mrs. CLAY \"kept the audience in a roar\" (NCH 22.2.1857).\n\n3.3.1857 (Tue)\n\nDramatic readings from Charles Dickens by Mr. Benjamin SEARE. Th: C\n\n―\n\nR: In the Herald of February 28 it was announced that \"we are apprized by 'Circular' that an entertainment of a novel character in Shanghai, but one which has greatly attracted the fashionable and literary world elsewhere, will be given by Mr. Scare in the Hall of the Shanghai Theatre on Tuesday Evening next the 3rd prox. The subject - The Early Writings of Charles Dickens is a theme affording scope for great versatility of talent. (...) The Community are much indebted to Mr. Scare for his gratuitous offer of an evening's intellectual amusement to diversify and enliven the monotony of Shanghai life. The Circular notifies that the divertissement will commence at half past 8 & precisely, that no personal invitations will be issued and that a syllabus of the Lecture will be placed in each seat for the use and acceptance of its occupant”. Then, in the issue of March 7, a report was published: \"A large and select circle of residents had met in the New Theatre\". It became a kind of one man show by Mr. Seare, as the \"requirements of versatility and mimic power were most successfully supplied. (...) The lecturer was perfectly at home in each and all of the various characters as they turned up, passed from one to another with an ease that was admirable and portrayed each with a force of comic power which elicited much applause, and, to select the most appropriate compliment we can bestow, did justice to the author. All in all the audience was \"kept in a roar”. Mr. Seare concluded with some general remarks on the necessity of some recreation of this kind in a community so distant from home and so isolated and comprising at the same time so much intelligence and ability\" (NCH 7.3.1857). One wonders how Mr. Seare was able to give these lectures free of charge; had he been a touring artist that would of course have been impossible. But as it turns out he was a mercantile assistant in the employment of Gilman & Co (this according to the Shanghai Almanac for 1858). In May 1865 he gave another performance (see 27.5.1865). No further details are available about the programme, but no doubt the characters from The Pickwick Papers figured largely in it. Who, after all, can resist Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Jingle and Sam Weller? Dickens himself began readings from his own works one year later, in April 1858, in Britain and the United States.\n\n26.3.1857 (Thur)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"A Kiss in the Dark\" (1840)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nM.B.W. JERROLD: \"Cool as a Cucumber\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nH. DANVERS: \"A Conjugal Lesson\" (1856)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: N.N. (CH\n\nR: In a witty mind \"The Man on the Bund\" informed us that \"by way of introduction there was a kiss — and in the dark too! — perhaps the sweetest kiss of all, administered with enviable gusto by Mr. SNAKES as Fathom. Mrs. Pettibone submitted to it with less indignation than the fact of her being so much respected led us to suppose. But then, it was to punish the odiously jealous Mr. Pettibone who would insist on making\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211817, "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": 232, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "207\n\nplays; the wood scene we thought very effective and true to nature\". This is one of the few times that at least some slight attention is paid to the staging of a piece. (NCH 8.5.1858).\n\n28.9.1858 (Tue)\n\nR.B. SHERIDAN: \"The Rivals” (1775)\n\nT: Comedy (prologue, 5 acts, epilogue), and two other, unnamed, light pieces\n\nC: Officers of H.M.S. Retribution\n\nTh: On board ship\n\nR: This must have been a long night for in addition to Sheridan's The Rivals (a full-length five-act comedy in which Mrs. Malaprop was played by \"Mrs. Taylor\") there were two other light pieces of which the titles have not been recorded. Small wonder then that \"our reporter did not wait to see as the hour was late and he had to rise early to see the comet\" — which had first been observed on September 15. (NCH 2.10.1858)\n\n2.10.1858 (Sat) and\n\n6.10.1858 (Wedn)\n\nConcerts by Mr. Martin Simonsen, violin, and some local amateurs.\n\nProgramme:\n\nCharles Auguste DE BERIOT (1802-1870): Seventh air with variations, Martin SIMONSEN: \"Sounds from Home\", Heinrich Wilhelm ERNST (1814-1865): **Andante” (= Elegie?), N. PAGANINI: \"Carnival of Venice\", Some German songs.\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (C)\n\nR: That the scarce recitals by professional musicians did not draw the same public attention as the amateur actors has already been pointed out in the Survey. On October 2 the attendance was not large, but for the sixth \"a considerable improvement\" was observed and it was hoped there would be a full house on the 12th so that the artist would not be left **with cause to regret his visit to this remote place”. The critic, \"'T.\", gave himself an air of the specialist when he wrote that \"though we do not find any attempt at the dignity and breadth of style which are the characteristics of the greatest performers of the age, we are glad to recognise an execution at once brilliant and lively and in some respects really astonishing\"; and he regarded Mr. SIMONSEN as \"a worthy member of that particular school of which De Bériot was one of the brightest ornaments (De Bériot was a famous violinist who had been forced by illness to end his career in 1852). It must be assumed that the writer had heard other musicians in Europe — where else? — with whom he could draw a comparison. These were the days without radio, gramophone or compact disc! He was apparently a lover of more serious music, for he added wrily: \"We presume it is necessary occasionally to introduce pieces of a light and striking character, but for our own part we deprecate the production of such solos as 'Life on the ocean' **. As to those who assisted Mr. SIMONSEN \"T.\" found it **creditable to this small Settlement that it can produce so able and numerous a body of amateurs who evidently study music for its own sake. We venture to ask them to persevere — it is a science which will amply reward its followers, which will repay a thousandfold its earnest students\". (NCH 9.10.1858). In well-to-do circles in Britain a musical education was considered a mark of good breeding and probably a number of residents had acquired their instrumental skill in youth. Others could profit from the piano lessons that were advertised in December 1858: they were given \"at moderate charges\" and persons interested should apply to \"D.D. at Mr. W.H. Moore's, Hongkew\". Why all would-be artists in Shanghai were so mysterious about their true names remains an enigma. The initials D.D. do not suit any of the residents in the *Shanghai Almanac for 1858'. W.H. Moore is listed in it as a pilot.\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211818, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "208\n\n12.10.1858 (Tue)\n\nConcert by Mr. Martin Simonsen\n\nN: No review was published.\n\nMr. Simonsen had also visited Hong Kong; there he had given his last recital on September 20, 1858 (CM 23.9.1858).\n\n16.2.1859 (Wedn)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Whitebait at Greenwich\" (1853)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by the band of H.M.S. Highflyer\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (E)\n\nR: For the first night of the amateur season \"a very numerous audience was collected and the presence of nearly all the beauty and fashion (we allude to the eccentricities [what may these have been? - JH] of masculine as well as to the elegancies of feminine costumes) of Shanghai imparted to the front benches a very brilliant appearance, which was further enlivened by the smiling faces of two or three laughing cherubs whom we detected nestling under the maternal wing\". For the occasion the drop pictured \"a very faithful (our travels in Italy enable us to state) representation of a most romantic spot on the banks of the Lago Maggiore\". Sink or Swim was found to be a \"dull plagiarism upon our old favourite 'Used Up'\" but it passed off with the utmost special due to the talents and exertions of the actors\", among whom \"Mr. PETREL's Mr. Scampley struck us as well conceived, a swindling roué's impertinence dashed by a sense of uneasiness\", Mr. FARREN (again a stage name after a London actor: William Farren, 1786-1861) sustained Lord Yawnley \"admirably\" and Mr. PICKWICK displayed as Adam Stirling all \"the quaint humour of his immortal ancestor\". Miss WALTERS, however, was thought to have been less fit for the part of Mrs. Stirling. She did not upon all occasions evince that grave decorum which usually characterises the British matron\". Morton's Whitebait at Greenwich was, as on January 23, 1856, a hit. This time Mr. PICKWICK took the part of Benjamin Buzzard in a \"quiet and most natural style of acting\". Mr. Phunago BRUSHWOOD - \"an actor of the Keeley-Robinson school, possessing a racy humour of his own\" played John Small and it was \"a gem of low comedy\". Of course there was Mrs. NESBIT, as well as Miss WALTERS whose portrayal of the servant maid came off much better than her Mrs. Stirling: \"we do not wonder at Mr. Buzzard's having been caught by her saucy face and bright complexion\" (NCH 19.2.1859). (Robert Keeley, 1793-1869, and Frederick Robson, 1821-1864, were both well known low comedians in Britain).\n\n22.2.1859 (Tue)\n\nConcert by Prof. Shonbrun, piano, and some local amateurs.\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (E)\n\n+\n\nR: The concert was given in the (New) Theatre Royal of the amateur dramatic corps, but acoustically it was not very satisfactory. No wonder that many of Mr. SHONBRUN's best efforts and most brilliant passages did not fully reach the audience\", an audience which was not very numerous in the first place, which too has its influence on the sound. For the following concert it was foreseen that \"a small scene will be erected and the wings closed in\".\n\nFor the time being the critic refrained from any strictures on the soloist, except that he hoped that \"on the next occasion Mr. Shonbrun will lead us to a higher class of pianoforte music than that put forward on Tuesday last\". It will come as no surprise that there was a eulogy on the amateurs who participated: \"the tenor solos were given with taste and genuine voice and the recall with which he was unanimously favoured was well merited\". (NCH 26.2.1859).\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211819, "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": 234, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "209\n\n1.3.1859 (Mon)\n\nConcert by Prof. Shonbrun, piano, and some local amateurs (i.a. the Germania Singing Club) Programme:\n\nNo piano works were mentioned, with the exception of \"Monastery Bells\".\n\nVocal works: Sir Henry BISHOP: \"The Pilgrim of Love\", Wilhelm SPEYER (1790-1878) a bass aria, G. DONIZETTI: \"The great tenor aria from 'Lucia di Lammermoor\" (presumably \"Tombe degli avi miei – Fra poco a me ricovero\" from act III). Th: (New) Theatre Royal (E)\n\nR Were Shanghailanders music lovers or not? One wonders for again \"we were sorry to find so small an audience assembled on the occasion\", but the wretchedly wet state of the weather had no doubt much to do with this\". As it turned out the efforts of Mr. SHONBRUN were disappointing (at least in the ears of one critic — and how they may differ in opinion everyone knows). In this case the skill and artistic feeling which would be highly respectable in an amateur reflect no especial credit on a professional player and though Mr. SHONBRUN performed several pieces pleasingly we missed that precision, that brilliant crisp fingering and particularly that general careful finish which should characterize the true master of his instrument\". The amateurs were more appreciated and the tenor singer even had to repeat his Lucia aria. For the first time the “Germania Singing Club\" is mentioned, although there must have been earlier performances as the Herald says \"the number of the singers on Tuesday was much smaller than on former occasions\". Obviously it was in a somewhat precarious state for even a conductor was missing and the reviewer was \"constrained to say, without wishing to be too critical on the performers of amateur music, that the Association has not kept up to the standard which it established for itself by former deeds\" (NCH 12.3.1859).\n\n2.6.1859 (Thur)\n\nM. BARNETT: \"The Serious Family\" (1849)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Grimshaw, Bagshaw and Bradshaw (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: (New) Theatre Royal (E)\n\nR: Very late in the season the last amateur night went off. And although the review was by no means scathing, the editor of the Herald thought it wise to add that \"the heat at the theatre was extremely oppressive and this may have much to do with the lukewarm manner in which our critic speaks of the performances\". The Serious Family was described as \"an admirable satire upon that morbid and mistaken feeling of piety which regards a smile as wantonness, condemns gaiety as sin and backsliding”, nevertheless **as a scenic representation it smacks too much of dullness\". The leading parts were put on the stage by Miss Minnie O'NETTE, who acted Lady Sowerly Creamly \"to the life\"; and Mr. TINTINNABULUM upon whom \"the action of the Comedy seemed chiefly to rest. His stage bearing is admirable and his intonation excellent, but we may perhaps be permitted to take exception to his brogue which, however good as an assumption, scarcely denoted one to the manner born\". Mr. PICKWICK exerted \"to the utmost his undoubted talents for light comedy as Charles Torrens; on the other hand darling Mrs. NESBIT \"scarcely found opportunity in the part of Mrs. Torrens for the display of that vivacity which forms her chief merit\". Mr. BRUSHWOOD (00 lacked something in the role of Aminadab Sleck, viz \"that racy appreciation of his part which usually characterizes him and the hat and garb of the puritan did not sit easily upon that comical little figure which has on previous occasions so often convulsed us with merriment\". In contrast Miss WALTERS “looked and acted extremely well, causing us much regret that a drama more adapted to the exigencies of the Corps did not form the chief attraction of the evening. About the second piece, Grimshaw,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211820, "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": 235, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "210\n\nBagshaw and Bradshaw, the critic had to admit that \"what it was all about we were utterly unable to discover\" (NCH 4.6.1859).\n\n15.2.1860 (Wedn)\n\nL.S. BUCKINGHAM: \"Take that Girl Away\" (1855)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nC. SELBY: \"A Fearful Tragedy in the Seven Dials\" (1857)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nTh: N.N. (F)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: The new theatre was only a small one and therefore it was announced in the Herald of February 11 that \"admission will only be given to ticket holders. Tickets will be distributed with the Bills to the various Hongs and any Gentleman who may be accidentally omitted will be supplied on written application to the Manager\". From time to time politics continued to turn up in the playhouse. It was the time of the English and French wars in China; the United States was not taking part in them, only sharing in the spoils, yet the following remark closed the review: \"We beg permission to observe that we should have been glad to have seen the 'Star Spangled Banner' floating over the proscenium along with the colours of France and England. All honour to the Anglo-French Alliance! But our American cousins form, in every respect, so important a section of this community that the absence of their flag on an occasion like Wednesday evening would seem to be a discourtesy of which we feel very sure that the worthy management never was intentionally guilty\". Tonight, and on March 15, the faces of Messrs. PICKWICK, BRUSHWOOD, and TINTINNABULUM as well as that of Mrs. NESBIT were absent from the stage; others like Miss WALTERS and Mr. PETREL had remained. Making their debut were Mr. ADOLPHE, \"gifted with both self-possession and a good voice\"; Mr. WITHAM who, as Cuttle (in Take that Girl Away) \"displayed a steadiness and a clearness of enunciation calculated to make him a valuable actor in 'utility' parts\"; and Mr. NATIVE whom the reviewer thought \"better fitted to shine as a sentimental than as a grotesque lover\". Miss WALTERS was \"dressed to perfection, played as well as ever (can we say more!) and was charmingly feminine\". In A Fearful Tragedy in the Seven Dials, there was the first night of Mr. C. AITCH as Slumpington for whom **a great future success in 'character parts' was predicted. These hopes were not realised, however, for I have not found his name again. For the umpteenth time, the Herald judged the pieces that were represented weak - to put it mildly. (NCH 18.2.1860).\n\n15.3.1860 (Thur)\n\nT. TAYLOR: \"Still Waters Run Deep\" (1856)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Poor Pillicoddy\" (1848)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs\n\nF: Music by the band of H.M.S. Imperieuse\n\nTh: N.N. (F)\n\nN: Second performance of the season\n\nR: This second night took place in a house that was \"crowded in every part\" and proved \"in every respect highly successful\". The \"Man on the Bund\" had no longer a say in the theatrical reports, and the piece about which he had been so dissatisfied (see 23.4.1857), Still Waters Run Deep got a far better critique now: \"in that scene in the second act in which the villain Hawksley is unmasked, the interest was raised to an exciting pitch and sterling dramatic ability displayed by the performers\". No actors were mentioned, but in Poor Pillicoddy, a \"young gentleman made his first appearance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211822, "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": 237, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "212\n\n26.12.1861 (Thur)\n\nConcert by Signor Robbio, violin, and some local amateurs, Programme:\n\n4\n\nL. VAN BEETHOVEN; Trio for strings in E-flat opus 3, V. BELLINI: “Norma”, the aria 'Casta Diva' arranged for violin, C.A. DE BERIOT: Tremolo\", C. GOUNOD: **Meditation upon J.S. Bach's first prelude\", i.e., the famous Ave Maria, C.M. von WEBER: \"Der Freischütz”, cavatine (presumably \"Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle”, act III), arranged for cello and piano. Sir Henry BISHOP: \"Home sweet home\" (from the opera \"Clari, the maid of Milan'), Sr ROBBIO: \"Grande Valse Diabolique“, In addition: some quartet and solo singing by amateurs.\n\nTh: N.N.\n\nR: Today the second concert by the violinist Signor ROBBIO came off \"for a very large audience\". In November he had made his debut in Shanghai but because of a gap of three November issues in the file of the Herald I have been using no details can be given. Once more, however, the paper seems to have been discontented with the selection of the pieces. Not so tonight, with the exception of one composition by Sr Robbio himself, **a work of the Paganini school” of which the critic was evidently not a lover. About the interpretations by the violinist, though, there was but praise; e.g. \"he greatly charmed his audience by the power and feeling with which he executed the beautiful air from Norma, 'Casta Diva'\". So all was enjoyable, the more so as \"for the moribund piano used at the last concert a fine 'Broadwood' was substituted, which displayed to great advantage the admirable playing of the gentleman to whom St Robbio was so much indebted for his accompaniment\". One letter writer went even so far as to exclaim that such delights in Shanghai are indeed 'like angels' visits few and far between' \"' (NCH 28.12.1861).\n\nFebruary and March 1861\n\nPerformances by \"Lewis' Australian Hippodrome” Loc: Commercial House in Hongkew\n\n-\n\n―\n\nוי\n\nN: During the months of February and March \"Lewis' Equestrian Australian Troupe\" gave a large number of performances, of which the first one was announced for February 15 and the last for March 17. The public was entertained with horses and artists, among whom Mr. and Mrs. COUSINS, Mr. BARLOW, Senior RAPHAEL, Jessi GARDONI, **Austin Shanghai**, and “Little Ella\". For all, benefits were held in March. It was not the first time that the troupe had operated on the China Coast. In December 1859 they had visited Hong Kong (CM 15.12.1859, 22.12.1859).\n\n13.2.1863 (Fri)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Our Wife, or the Rose of Amiens\" (1856)\n\nT: Comic drama (1 act)\n\nH\n\nA. MAYHEW & H. SUTHERLAND EDWARDS: The Goose with the Golden Eggs T: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs (Local and British officers)\n\n13.2.1863 (Fri)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Our Wife, or the Rose of Amiens\" (1856)\n\nT: Comic drama (1 act)\n\nA. MAYHEW & H. SUTHERLAND EDWARDS: \"The Goose with the Golden Eggs' T: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs (Local and British officers)\n\nF: Music by the band of the 67th regiment\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (G)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: Casts:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211823, "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": 238, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "213 \n\nOur Wife: \n\nCount de Brissac: Major Taylor \n\nRosine: Mr. W. Hyslop (of Gibb, Livington & Co) Pomaret, father of Rosine: D.A.C.G. Cooksley \n\nMarquis de Ligny: Mr. Stuart \n\nMariette: Lt Maynard of the 31st regiment \n\nThe Goose with the Golden Eggs: \n\nMr. Turby: D.A.C.G. Cooksley \n\nHis wife: D.A.C.G. Hayter \n\nClara, their daughter: Mr. A. Broom (of Jardine, Matheson & Co) \n\nBonsor, clerk: Dr. Sexton of the 5th Bombay N.L.I. (native lancers and infantry) Flickster: Li Yonge, 2nd Beloochi regiment \n\nAfter a lapse of almost three years the amateur theatricals took a new lease of life in a tastefully fitted up godown-theatre (for a description see Survey). It was a subscription-night with about 250 spectators, of whom 30 were female. For the first time some real names of actors were given and it became clear that the cooperation of the military had been sought for the occasion. Because the names are no longer phoney, it is finally useful to present a cast list. Among those mentioned was D.A.C.G. (i.e. Deputy Assistant Commissary General) Cooksley who died in July during one of the campaigns against the Taipings, at Quinsan. Fine playing, if one did not mind the pieces. That, however, had become a standard complaint by now. \"There was nothing striking or witty in either of the plays so that an occasional local pun or remark interpolated by the actors elicited the greatest applause\"; rather sourly the critic continued “this should not be as it interferes with the harmony of the play”. In Our Wife \"the gentle blushing Rosine was capitally got up by Mr. HYSLOP who created quite ‘a sensation' when he made his curtsey to the audience\". In contrast Mr. STUART \"was graceful in his part but lacked energy where it was requisite to give effect to the plot\". That female dress was not always easy to wear for the men was underlined when \"Lt MAYNARD acted the strong-minded cousin Mariette very fairly, despite the difficulties of crinoline”. In The Goose with the Golden Eggs the Mrs. Turby of D.A.C.G. HAYTER was \"the best piece of masculo-feminine performance we have seen\". It had to be admitted though that not all men were equally up to female characters: \"Clara, as represented by Mr. BROOM, although admirably got up in the coiffure, was rather outré in the dress, especially about the sleeves; while the manner and voice resembled more the roughness of the father than the gentleness of the mother\". (NCH 14.2.1863). \n\nL \n\n17.2.1863 (Tue) \n\nRepeat of 13.2.1863. \n\n2.3.1863 \n\nS. LOVER: \"The White Horse of the Peppers\" (1838) \n\nT: Comic drama (2 acts) \n\nR.B. BROUGH: \"Crinoline*\" (1856) \n\nT: Farce (1 act) \n\nC: Amateurs of the British 31st regiment \n\nTH: N.N. \n\nR: Cast: \n\nThe White Horse of the Peppers: \n\nMajor Hans Mansfeldt: W. Parrott Gerald Pepper: A. Keeble Magdalene: H. MacGuire Crinoline: \n\nMrs. Coobiddy: S. Gale Mr. Coobiddy: W. Phillips \n\nAgutha: S. Gule \n\nDillon: J.S. Galbreath \n\nCapt. LeBrown: J.S. Galbreath Miss Tite: P. Conron", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211825, "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": 240, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "215\n\nProgramme:\n\nC.M. Von WEBER: \"Der Freischütz\", overture; by Messrs Essex and Ewing, piano. Sir Henry BISHOP: \"Foresters sound the cheerful horn“ (glee). Heinrich PROCH (1809-1878): \"Within the grove's deep shadow\", a song by Mr. J.P. Tate, W.A. MOZART: String quartet No 7 by Messrs Tate and Howell (violin). Ewing (viola) and Essex (cello). William HORSLEY (1774-1858); \"By Celia's Arbour\" (glee), F. MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: \"Andante, presto and allegro vivace\" (from?) by Messrs Essex and Howell. Ibidem: “Andante and finale\" (from?), by Messrs Essex and Howell, Sir Henry BISHOP: \"Sleep gentle lady\" (glee), William Vincent WALLACE (1813-1865); **The Bellringer\", a song by Mr. Essex, F. von FLOTOW: “Allessandro Stradella\", fantasia, by Messrs Essex and Howell, William HORSLEY: \"See the chariot at hand\", song, L. van BEETHOVEN: \"Egmont\", overture, played on two pianos by Messrs Essex and Ewing.\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (G)\n\nR: This was the first occasion on which the names of the amateur musicians who entertained the public were mentioned. Some can be traced in the **Shanghai Almanac for 1862”. others belonged to the military forces. Thus the names have come to us of the following gentlemen: H. Cope and E.C. Essex (both of Geo. Barnett & Co). D.A.C.G. Ewing. F.R. Gantwell (Silk broker), A.A. Hayes Jr (of Olyphant & Co), Howell, Inglis, J.M. Nixon (of Blain, Tate & Co). J. Priestley Tate (of Blain, Tate & Co; Municipal Council member 1861-1862) and J. Wheatly (of Reiss & Co). In general the Herald was very satisfied: \"It was pleasing to see the gentlemen who volunteered to throw aside for the nonce the cares of business and entertain con amore their less gifted fellow residents with a charming chamber concert. Everything was conducted in a quiet gentlemanly manner so that we imagined ourselves in a drawing room more than a theatre. There was no attempt at grandeur of display or extraordinary performance on special instruments which characterize too much the quasi-musical taste of the day where the composition of the author is sacrificed frequently to the execution of the performer and the audience is led to think more of the latter than the former\". These were rather stringent remarks for someone living in an area where very few opportunities arose to compare musical qualities of instrumentalists. Yet the argument of faithfulness to the author's or composer's intentions crops up from time to time and that was obviously regarded as important by the Herald. Unfortunately the acoustics of the theatre were not of the very best so that \"Mr. TATE's delicate tenor voice (in the song by Proch) could not fill the house sufficiently for all to hear the diminuendo passages of his beautiful voice\". (NCH 18.4.1863). The Lancashire Relief Fund had been established in order to help those in Britain who had become a victim of the stoppage of cotton imports from the Southern states of America (due to the Civil War), with the result that numerous labourers in the mills were laid off.\n\n29.4.1863 (Wedn)\n\nPerformances by the amateurs of the Royal Artillery.\n\nNo titles of plays were recorded.\n\nTh: Theatre Royal (G)\n\nR: In consequence of the \"great success\" a \"Second Fashionable Night” would be given on May 4th (NCH 2.5.1863).\n\n4.5.1863 (Thur)\n\nAs on 29.4.1863.\n\n1.8.1863 (Sat)\n\nThe last of a series of performances by Mr. Smythe's company. Soloists: Miss Amelia Bailey (singing) and Martin Simonsen (violin) Th. N.N. (H)\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211828, "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": 243, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "218\n\n1.4.1864 (Fri)\n\nR.B. BROUGH: \"Crinoline\" (1856)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion\" (1849) T: Farce (1 act)\n\nN.N.: \"The Debut\"\n\nC: Messrs Shannon and Phillips with an amateur company\n\nTh: N.N. (H)\n\nR: Not too enthusiastically the Herald wrote that \"had Messrs PHILLIPS and SHANNON been better supported the performance would probably have proved a more decided success\". Must it be supposed that the amateurs were locals, who were otherwise so much lauded? (NCH 2.4.1864).\n\n4.4.1864 (Mon)\n\nRepeat of 30.3.1864,\n\n18.4.1864 (Mon)\n\nFirst performance by a Portuguese Amateur Dramatic Corps. TH: N.N.\n\nR: This first performance by a local Portuguese company was considered favourably: \"the arrangement of the costumes and acting were all good and amply rewarded a visit even by those who may not understand the Portuguese language\". (NCH 23.4.1864)\n\n25.4.1864 (Mon)\n\nJ. OXENFORD: \"Retained for the Defence\"\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC.S. CHELTNAM: \"A Lucky Escape\" (1861)\n\nT: Comic drama (1 act)\n\nT.J. WILLIAMS: \"On and Off\" (1861)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps\n\nTH: N.N. (H)\n\nN: Second performance of the season\n\nR: This second Volunteer Corps night drew a crowded house and the reporter was pleased to see that \"a majority of the lady residents were among the audience\", the more so as they \"by their presence contributed to inspire the performers with the desire to excel which led to such complete success\". No names were given in the review, but in A Lucky Escape “it would have required very sharp eyes to detect that the actress [who personated Louise] was, in fact, an actor\". Here the truth is finally revealed! In On and Off he/she took the part of Letitia equally well. (NCH 30.4.1864)\n\n9.5.1864 (Mon)\n\nN.N.: \"Nature and Philosophy or Eighteen Years' Labour Lost\"\n\n(The only piece with this title in HED is one that had its first night on 18.4.1876. However, Brown, \"A History of the New York Stage\", Vol. I, p. 235 mentions a performance of this play on June 1 1833).\n\nG. COLMAN Jr: \"Love Laughs at Locksmiths\" (1803)\n\nC: C.R. Faylor's travelling company\n\nF: Comic songs, dance, music\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\nR: Casts:\n\nNature and Philosophy:\n\nBrother Philip: Major Pegus\n\nRenaldo: C.R. Faylor\n\nEliza: Mrs. E. Yeamans\n\nGertrude: Mr. E. Yeamans", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "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...)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211836, "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": 251, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "226\n\nappearance. The music selected afforded great satisfaction to the audience and was really very well performed. The violin solos by a gentleman Amateur of the place were most deservedly encored. Indeed we fancy few home concerts could show anything of the same sort much better. Amateur concerts we are sure rarely could\".\n\n23.2.1865 (Thur)\n\nConcert by Signor Enrico Grossi, assisted by Messrs Desvachez and Terry, and the Rhenish Band.\n\nTh: Astor House Hotel\n\nR: All professional artists performed without any government subsidies so they had every reason to look forward to as large an audience as possible. Signor GROSSI evidently was a freemason for the Commercial Record reported that \"his masonic relations produced for him a full house\" (SCR 8.3.1865). Freemasonry, which had been introduced in Shanghai in 1849, was rather widespread among the (male) foreign residents and the brethren who had turned up rewarded Sr GROSSI's \"efforts to please by frequent bursts of applause\" (NCH 25.2.1865). No details of the programme were given.\n\n14.3.1865 (Tue)\n\nConcert in aid of the Shanghai Volunteer Club fund.\n\nTh: Shanghai Club\n\nR: RCH 18.3.1865\n\n21.3.1865 (Tue)\n\nJ. COURTNEY: \"Time Tries All\" (1848)\n\nT: Drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"To Paris and back for $5\" (1853)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: First performance of the season\n\nR: Not unexpectedly the Herald thought it \"needless to descant here upon the merits and talents of the Company\" (NCH 25.3.1865). The same pieces had been given on May 15, 1860.\n\n23.3.1865 (Thur)\n\nM. BARNETT: \"The Serious Family\" (1849)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nJ.R. PLANCHE: \"The Invisible Prince\" (1846)\n\nT: Extravaganza (1 act)\n\nC: Lewis' Australian Drama Company\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre\n\nR: Lewis' Australian Drama Company had come back to Shanghai in early March (NCH 11.3.1865) for a second season of farce and comedy, but owing to difficulties in reaching an agreement with the Lyceum Theatre about the rent that was to be paid, the first night took place only on March 23 (NCH 18.3.1865). For the members of the Company see Survey; most of them appeared on the first night in The Serious Family. According to the Commercial Record (25.3.1865) \"the acting was very equal throughout and the admirable manner in which the different actors and actresses assisted one another contributed largely to their success\" - which seems to be a rather meaningless comment. The Invisible Prince, too, was put on the stage effectively and the mise en scene was very good.\n\n27.3.1865 (Mon)\n\nW.B. GILL: \"Which is Which?\"\n\nT: Farce\n\nL...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211838, "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": 253, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "228\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Rose Edouin's benefit\n\nR: SCR 22.4.1865; no review.\n\n1.4.1865 (Tue)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"A Dead Shot\" (1827) T: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ. KENNEDY: \"Sweethearts and Wives\" (1823)\n\nT: Comedy (2 acts)\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Mr. T. Andrews' benefit\n\nR: SCR 22.4.1865; no review.\n\n13.4.1865 (Thur)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"The Rough Diamond\" (1847) T: Farce (1 act)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"The Bride of Abydos\" (1858)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nJ. OXENFORD: \"I couldn't Help It\" (1862)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Julia Edouin's benefit\n\nR: SCR 22.4.1865: no review.\n\n15.4.1865 (Sat)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"The Maid and the Magpie\" (1858)\n\nT: Burlesque burletta (1 act)\n\nThe Daughter of the Regiment\n\nNumerous pieces with this title are mentioned in HED; possibly by E. FITZBALL (1843; new version in operatic style (1847)\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Miss Tilly Earl's benefit\n\nR: SCR 22.4.1865; no review.\n\n17.4.1865 (Mon)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"The Babes in the Wood\" (1859)\n\nT: Burlesque (1 act)\n\n\"Aurora Floyd\". For possible authors see 26.11.1864,\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Miss Lizzie Naylor's benefit\n\nR: About \"Aurora Floyd\"\n\nthe Record was very satisfied and it thought that it exhibited the Company to the best advantages. CRESWICK as Hargreaves acted one of the most repulsive characters ever put on the stage with consummate tact. Aurora allowed ROSE EDOUIN to be seen to advantage; and in one or two scenes her acting rose to a high point of dramatic effect. Mr. GILL as Grub was capital and was assisted excellently by Miss NAYLOR who as Mary sustained one of her best characters. This lady acts such pieces with a spirit and ease seldom seen and reminds us strongly of Miss Saunders\" (SCR 5.5.1865). The reference to Miss Saunders may have been to Ann Mathew Saunders, died 1891; or Charlotte Saunders, d. 1899.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "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\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211844, "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": 259, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "234\n\nin 1846 and kept by the London Missionary Society. (NCH 25.11.1865; SCR 24.11.1865).\n\n14.12.1865 (Thur)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"Woodcock's Little Game” (1864)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ.P. PLANCHE: \"Faint Heart never won Fair Lady\" (1839)\n\nT: Comedy (1 act)\n\nC. SELBY: \"The Boots at the Swan\" (1842)\n\nT: Comedy (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps\n\nF: Prologue spoken by Edward Lawrance and Mr. Groom\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: First performance of the season by the S.V.C.\n\nR: Again only stage names were used in the review.\n\nIn Morton's piece, Woodcock's Little Game, Woodcock was played by Mr. DOLEFUL who had \"evidently elaborated the part with great care.\" His only drawback was \"a certain monotony in gesture\". Another central character was Mrs. Colonel Carver, \"inimitably performed by Mrs. St. CHAWLES. The majestic lady's make-up was characteristic and costly and many of her attitudes and tones reminded us of Miss Snowdon [Mary Jane Chippendale, 1837-1888; but she made her debut only in 1863 JH] whose imposing personation of similar female parts has assisted so many Haymarket triumphs\". Exceptionally some slight attention was also paid to the staging when the critic wrote about the second scene that the \"occasional glimpses of the whirling waltzers and partners-seeking promenaders were skilfully managed\". In Faint Heart never won Fair Lady Mr. DOLEFUL again took a leading part, that of Ruy Gomez. However, the Herald was not inclined to accept this gentleman's reading of the character without some exception, as a greater prominence might have been given to the comic element. Lightness, vivacity and élan are indispensable in all characters written, as this one was, for Charles Mathews. However, as he had appeared in a humorous part before, Mr. DOLEFUL was perhaps anxious to show his versatility\". Travesty abounded: \"The most difficult part was essayed by Miss SOFTLY [as Charles, the King of Spain, a role cast for an actress JH]. For a man to play a lady's part is hard, for a lady to play a man's part is not easy, but for a man to play a man's part as a lady would play it is hardest of all. Charles II, the mischievous, frolicsome schoolboy at large, newly awaking to a sense of royal responsibility, has been a favourite part with some of our cleverest and prettiest actresses and Miss SOFTLY held her own when compared with these formidable competitors\"\n\nAbout the Boots at the Swan the reporter confessed that \"we are inclined to think this piece has been acted enough\" (but hardly in Shanghai where it was on the boards for the first time). \"The elaborate mimicry of the inimitable ROBSON made the deaf Boots as popular with the London public as Sam Weller had been before him, but a peculiar talent alone can render Jacob Earwig interesting to an audience ten thousand miles away from the little theatre in Wych Street* (i.e. the Olympic Theatre in London). (Henry Morley wrote about Robson in this part, 1857: \"Mr. Robson, although deaf, is humorously wide awake. He is the Boots who is brisk and alive to all the humour of the street, who would be preternaturally knowing if he could but hear what people say. In word and look and action he is more the gamin than the simpleton. The extravagance of a most laughable farce is heightened by him to the utmost and there is not a long face to be seen while he is busy on the stage\"\n\n***\n\n136)\n\nBut, to continue with the Herald: \"FUNNYDOG, the new low comedian, is a valuable accession to the company. His stable yard dress, wooden attitude and imperturbable face formed a perfect study for Leech and Cruikshank, and the finish with which he played the long, and we confess to us tiresome, drunken scene shows", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211855, "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": 270, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "# BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n245\n\n1. Archives:\n\n\"London Missionary Society\": Incoming Letters, Central China.\n\n2. Newspapers and Periodicals:\n\n**Boletim do Governo de Macao**, Macao, 1855-1865.\n\n\"China Mail\", Hong Kong, 1845-1860.\n\n\"North China Herald\", Shanghai, 1850-1867.\n\n\"Puck, or the Shanghai Charivari\", Shanghai, 1871-1873.\n\n*Shanghai Commercial Record*, Shanghai, 1865.\n\n3. Books and Articles:\n\nAdams, W. Davenport: \"A Dictionary of the Drama. A Guide to the Plays, Playwrights, Players and Playhouses of the United Kingdom and America from the earliest times to the present\", Vol. I (A-G) (no more published). Philadelphia, 1904.\n\nAppleton, William W.: \"Madame Vestris and the London Stage\", New York - London, 1974.\n\nBarr, Pat: \"The Deer Cry Pavillion. A Story of Westerners in Japan 1868-1905\", London, 1968.\n\nBlack, J.R.: \"Young Japan. Yokohama and Yedo. A Narrative of the Settlement and the city from the signing of the treaties in 1858 to the close of the year 1879\", Tokyo-London, 1968 (reprint of 1880-1881 edition).\n\nBoase, Frederic: \"Modern English Biography\", London, 1965 (reprint of the 1891-1921 edition).\n\nBooth, Michael (Ed): \"English Plays of the 19th century\", Volumes I and IV, Oxford, 1969-1973.\n\nBritish Museum General Catalogue of Books.\n\nBrown, T. Allston: \"A History of the New York Stage from the first performance in 1732 to 1901, 3 vols.; New York 1964 (reprint of 1903 ed.).\n\nBuckley, C.B.: \"An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819-1867, Singapore, 1902.\n\nCarse, A.: \"The Life of Jullien\", Cambridge, 1951.\n\nChesterfield, Lord: \"Advice to his son on Men & Manners in which the principles of politeness and the art of acquiring a knowledge of the world are laid down in an easy and familiar manner\", Chiswick, 1826.\n\nConolly, L.W. and J.P. Wearing: \"English Drama and Theatre 1800-1900. A Guide to information sources\", Detroit, 1978.\n\nCordier, Henri: \"Bibliotheca Sinica\", second edition; 5 vols.; Paris 1904ff.\n\nDavis, Jim (Ed.): \"Plays of H.J. Byron\", Cambridge, 1984.\n\n'Dictionary of National Biography\".\n\nDyce, C.M.: \"Personal Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in the Model Settlement. Shanghai 1870-1900\", London, 1906.\n\nEngle, Gary D.: \"This Grotesque Essence. Plays from the American Minstrel Stage\". Baton Rouge, 1978.\n\nFétis, F.J.: \"Biographic Universelle de Musiciens\", Paris, 1864; Supplement by Arthur Pougin, 1880.\n\nFitzgerald, Percy: \"Principles of Comedy and Dramatic Effect\", London, 1870.\n\n\"The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians\", London, 1980.\n\nHaan, J.H.: \"Origin and Development of the Political System in the Shanghai International Settlement\" in: \"Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of Royal Asiatic Society\", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 31-64.\n\nHaan, J.H.: \"The Shanghai Library: A history of the first foreign library in Shanghai\" in: \"Journal of the Hong Kong Library Association\", 1987.\n\nHartnoll, Phyllis: \"The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre\", London, 1972.\n\nHoward, Diana: \"London Theatres and Music Halls, 1850-1950\", London, 1970.\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211856, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "246\n\nKing, F.H.H. and P. Clarke: “A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers 1822-1911”, Cambridge (Mass), 1965.\n\nKosch, Wilhelm: \"Deutsches Theater Lexikon\", Klagenfurt, 1960.\n\nKounin, I.I.: \"The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai\", Shanghai, n.d. (c. 1939).\n\nKunitz, Stanley (Ed.): \"British Authors of the 19th Century\", N.Y., 1936.\n\nLang, H.: “Shanghai considered socially\", Shanghai, 1875.\n\nLanning, G. and S. Couling: \"The History of Shanghai\", Vol. I.; Shanghai, 1921. MacGuire, Paul: \"The Australian Theatre\", Melbourne, 1948.\n\nMacLellan, J.W.: \"The Story of Shanghai from the opening of the port to foreign trade\". Shanghai, 1889.\n\nMakepeace, Walter, Gilbert E. Brooke and R. St. J. Bradwell (Ed): 'One Hundred Years of Singapore\", 2 vols.; London, 1921.\n\nMaybon, Charles B. & J. Fredet: \"Histoire de la Concession Francaise de Changhai'', Paris, 1929.\n\nMaude, Cyril: \"The Haymarket Theatre, Some Records and Reminiscences\" London, 1903. Mullin Donald (Ed.): \"Victorian Actors and Actresses in Review\", Westport, 1983 National Union Catalogue.\n\n1\n\nNicoll, Allardyce: \"A History of English Drama 1660-1900\", 6 vols,; Cambridge 1952ff. Pal, John: \"Shanghai Saga\", London, 1963.\n\nPearsall, Ronald: \"Victorian Popular Music\", Newton Abbot, 1973.\n\n\"The Player's Library. A Catalogue of the Library of the British Drama League”, London, 1950.\n\nPope, W.J. Macqueen: \"Haymarket, Theatre of Perfection\", London, 1948. Reynolds, Ernest: \"Early Victorian Drama (1830-1870), New York, 1965 (reprint of 1936 edition).\n\nRiemann, Hugo: \"Musik Lexikon\", Berlin, 1916 (8th edition).\n\nRowell, George (Ed.): \"Nineteenth Century Plays”, Oxford, 1972.\n\n“Shanghai Alamanac” 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862; Shanghai, 1854ff years.\n\n**Shanghai t'ung yen-chiu tzu-liao (Shanghai Research Materials), Hong Kong 1972 (reprint of 1936 edition).\n\nSmith, C.; \"The Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club and its predecessors\" in: \"Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S.\", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 217-251. Thomson, Peter: \"Plays by Dion Boucicault\", Cambridge, 1984.\n\nToll, Robert C.: 'Blacking Up. The Minstrel Show in 19th century America”, New York, 1974.\n\nTroubridge, St. Vincent: \"The Benefit System in the British Theatre”, London, 1967. Wearing, J.P.: \"American and British Theatrical Biography\", London, 1979. White, Walter: \"China Station 1859-1864\", London, 1972.\n\nWilliams, Harold S.: \"Tales of the Foreign Settlements in Japan\", Tokyo, 1972. Wright, Arnold and H.A. Cartwright: \"Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China\", London, 1908.\n\nAbbreviations:\n\nNOTES\n\nBGM: Boletim do Governo de Macao.\n\nNCH: North China Herald.\n\nSCR: Shanghai Commercial Record.\n\n1\n\nPerformance 6.5.1852. NCH 8.5.1852.\n\nOnly passing attention has been paid to the early theatre in Shanghai: Lanning & Couling. p. 429-430: MacLennan: p. 85-86.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211960, "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": 375, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "350\n\nworld by first fixing them in the arms of a mounted paper horse rider known as gung-chou, who served as a messenger, and then burning the three (horse, rider, and memorial) together. The other form, known as bong, was posted in a rite on the main day of the festival on a wall, and remained there until the conclusion of the ritual.\n\nThe scripture chanting/Repentance session took place before the Three Pure Ones three times a day. The manual used was the common Jade Emperor's Repentance Scripture. The sessions were very short. The one I timed lasted only fifteen minutes. The other daily rite was the procession of offerings, which started at the Taoist altar with worship of the Three Pure Ones, then visited all the five faan posts, all the temporary altars and the Jau and Wong Temple, the guardian gods of the paang, and the yau-saan. The procession included flags and banners, and was preceded by a man holding a \"spirit summoning flag\". At each spot it stopped at, the priests briefly chanted and made offerings.\n\nThe other (and longer) rites involved a lot of chanting and singing, which, in many cases, nobody could hear clearly. The amplified music of the puppet theatre drowned out any other sound. The only exception was a scholar of religion from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who had the high priest carry a wireless microphone for him and who could therefore listen to the priests' words from a headphone radio and compare them with the manual. My descriptions of the Taoist rites, therefore, are often interpretations of what I saw and heard on the basis of past experience and manuals. 63\n\nE. The Participants List in the Taoist Rites\n\nOf the elements of the rites, the villagers probably knew most about the Memorials in their different forms. The women villagers in general knew less about the festival (or they pretended to). When I asked some elderly ladies at the ritual site what da-jiu was all about, they explained that it was heui-lok promised to Jau and Wong, to commemorate them. They suggested that I should ask elderly men instead. It was men who knew more about these things. The knowledge was handed down from one generation to another. But I overheard, during the opening rite, the same group of elderly ladies asking themselves how many priests were reading the Memorial (the one to be burnt). They observed that there was too much noise for them to hear the reading. They explained to me that the names of all the villagers (yan-hau) were being read. The priests\n\nPage 375\n\nPage 376", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211962, "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": 377, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "352\n\nF. Theatre\n\nAfter the seven-day rites period, the main paang was modified for use as the opera theatre. The raised area originally partitioned for the Taoist rites, puppet plays and the ancestral altar was converted into the opera stage. The ancestral tablet of Hung-Yi and the statue of Gwun-Yam were moved into the smaller paang for the general gods. The rest of the main paang became a raised audience seating area divided into left and right halves. The right half was for Bak-Bin and the left for the Naam-Bin. Here Bak-Bin included Ying Lung Wai. There was also a clear partition of each half into two sections. One section was for males and the other for females. Between the seating areas for Naam-Bin and Bak-Bin was a separate area, the front part of which was seating for guests, and the rear part of which was left empty, probably for standing audience.\n\n64\n\nIn the afternoon before the first opera performance, the rite of exorcism, Jai Baak-Fu, was performed by the opera players on the stage. To the accompaniment of percussion patterns played on large cymbals, gongs, and drums, a man in black fought with a yellow \"white tiger”. Although the opera troupe's ritual practice was to perform this ritual only at places where there had never been any theatrical performance before, the Dangs, for the sake of safety, made a special request and paid the troupe an additional fee to have the rite performed.\n\nThe allocation of theatre seats caused some conflicts among the villagers. I had been told that the seating was allocated on the morning of 24th December, and a chu was allocated seats according to its position in the jiu Memorial. A young man from Shui Tau told me that a fight almost broke out on account of the seating arrangements. There was hot disagreement between some youngsters of Wing Lung Wai on one side and those of Kat Hing Wai on the other. There were more than ten of these young villagers from each of the two villages who were quite ready to fight.\n\n65\n\nSome others solved their seating problems in a more peaceful manner. I learned about the case of a Kat Hing Wai family which was not one of the ritual representatives and had therefore been allocated seats very far from the stage. But the eldest son of the head of the family managed to purchase some seats for his parents to express his filial piety. Another Kat Hing Wai villager had asked him (the son) for a loan of a few", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211966, "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": 381, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "356\n\nvice-chairmen are the no. 1 to no. 15 ritual representatives, and the other members of the committee the no. 16-60 ritual representatives.\n\nI saw parts of two of the Committee meetings, one before the festival and another before the Opera performance period. Both took place at the Jau and Wong Temple. There were about 60 men who attended the first meeting. At the end I noticed that a group of younger men (aged about forty) stayed on outside the temple and talked. They told one another that in this new era everything had to be done in accordance with the law. They also said that they should have invited the Governor of Hong Kong himself. But they should have made arrangements earlier. The second meeting was announced by notices on the village notice board as a meeting to discuss who was going to present \"coloured flags\" (formal tokens of thanks) on the main day of the opera performance. It mentioned that the original idea was to have the head of lineage do it, but he complained that he was too old to do so much walking. About 100 men were present. They first went through some ding-hau population records for each village, in all likelihood prepared for the festival. They probably used them for allocating seats in the theatre. Then they talked about the arrangements for Guests Seats on the main day of the performance.\n\nC. Leadership\n\nOne of the senior priests complained that in this festival nobody was able to take the responsibility for decisions, hence the confusion and additional trouble for the priests. I heard two of the ritual representatives making the same comment. I also have some firsthand experience of the state of near anarchy when I asked the chairman, Dang Saak-Luk, to whom the Museum's formal request for permission for video-taping should be addressed. He emphasized that the letter should be to all the members of the committee rather than to himself as Chairman.\n\nThe absence of authority probably had to do with the current situation of local politics rather than \"traditional ways\".\n\nBefore the opening ceremony a Liaison Officer from the District Office came with the Chairman of the Rural Committee to give an \"order\": seats reserved for the principal guest and nine other guests for the secular opening ceremony were to be labelled clearly. The Chairman of the Rural Committee, a man of about fifty, commented that now that he was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211978, "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": 393, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "368\n\nSung, Hok-p'ang et. al. (1984), pp. 1-9.\n\n1973 \"Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in', JHKBRAS xiii, 1973, pp. 28-40.\n\n1974 \"Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in\", JHKBRAS xiv, 1974, pp. 160-185.\n\nTaga, Akigoro Tanaka, Issei\n\n1982 Chugoku Sofu no Kenkyu, vol. 2, Tokyo.\n\n1985 \n\nTsui, Bartholomew\n\nWatson, Rubie S.\n\nWolf, Arthur P. (ed.)\n\nA Chiu 亞潮(?) baai 拜 baai-san\n\nBaak Mou-Seung Ú Baak-Ging\n\nBaishe Zhuan\n\nLineage and Theatre in China. Interdependence of Festival Organization, ritual, and theatre in the lineage society of South China, Tokyo.\n\n1989 Village Festivals in China: Backgrounds of Local Theatres. Tokyo\n\nforthcoming\n\n\"Daojiao Yili ya Jishen Kiju zhijian de Guanxi”,\n\nforthcoming\n\n\"Taoist Ritual Books of the New Territories\".\n\n1985 Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China, Cambridge University Press.\n\n1974 Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford.\n\nGLOSSARY\n\nchiu-gaan chiu-dou * Chiu-Yip #\n\nchu 柱\n\nChuk Yuen 竹園\n\nChung E\n\nChung Yeung 重陽\n\nChung-Saan\n\nU\n\nBak Bin 北便\n\nBak Dai 北帝\n\nbei 陂\n\nbong 榜\n\nBou-Dak Chi #AM\n\nbui\n\ncha-gwo 茶果\n\nChan Gau 陳九\n\nChan 陳\n\nchau-san\n\n+\n\nChenghua 成化\n\ncheun-ding\n\nT\n\ncheun-fu 巡撫 Cheung-Cheun Yun cheung-saam Chi-Naam Ching Ming U Ching-Lok\n\nChung-Yut Я\n\nchyun 村\n\nDaai-Si Wong ✰±\n\nDaai-Wong E\n\ndaai-yan ★A daai-yau daam\n\ndaam-jung da-jai 打仔 da-jiu 打醮 dan 躉 Dang 鄧\n\nDang Chung 鄧璁 Dao 道 da-saat\n\nDei-Jong Wong E", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212115, "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": 57, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "34\n\nsocieties to indigenous agricultural communities. His second book concentrated on descent and territorial groups and ritual theatre. It analyzed the basic structure of worshipping groups, examined their organizational concepts and the structures of rites and customs, and, finally, speculated on how different aspects of rites and operas are reflected unconsciously.\" In his 1985 book Tanaka analyzes different festivals celebrated in the New Territories. He categorized those festivals which focus on the worship of “local deities” as “Gaishin Saishi\" (Worship of external deities). Such festivals are organized according to the territorial connections of different groups. Contrasted to this, he uses the term \"Naishin Saishi\" (worship of internal deities) to describe festivals dedicated to ancestors.\" Tanaka attempts to establish a theatrical and worshipping strata which is closely related to the complexity of a society's structure. The structural complexity of a society can be examined by three indicators: the society's worshipping area, members and economic capabilities. The rural communities are categorized into different levels according to complexity. In the lowest level is the single-lineage village community where conservative Confucianist rites are performed during worshipping. As the structure of community becomes more complicated the role of recreational theatre becomes more important, and the emphasis on traditional rituals declines. Jiao festivals celebrated by village alliances or market town districts are placed by Tanaka in the most complex stratum.\n\n41\n\nAn undeniably significant contribution of Tanaka's work to the study of Jiao festivals is his detailed information. His books provide field records which are invaluable to students of the festival.\n\nFaure, in his study of Chinese rural societies in the New Territories, sees the festival as a means to set up community bonds. Recognizing the complexity of the festival, he concentrated his interest on how the territorial community is represented in the Jiao festival **through the layout of the (festival) ground, through the interaction between the priests and the villagers and through the villagers' own rites\".\n\n42\n\nClose to Faure's study on the Jiao festival is Segawa's work on the Ha Tsuen Jiao festival. He illustrated a “dualism\" in the villager's world. This he refers to interactions between and coexistence of the secular and sacred world, and between the local deities and the higher level gods, the great and little traditions of Chinese culture. Through", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212123, "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": 65, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "42\n\ndisasters. the second is for those who died because of plague. The final reason is to thank the benevolent governors Wang Lai-ren and Zhou You-de of the beginning of the Qing dynasty. In my opinion, all these reasons can be integrated into the first one.\n\n(d) Chan Wing-hoi \"The Tangs of Kam Tin and their Jiu festival\", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29 (1989) 302-375, a rich and detailed account of the lineage, its temples and villages, and the festival which draws them together.\n\nDr. Faure gradually switched his interest to the Pearl River Delta while Prof. Tanaka, as I was told, is now looking at Sichuan province. Talk on publishing a book on Hong Kong Jiao festivals has been going on for years by members of the \"Research Circle of the Regional Society of Southern China''. In 1990, the editorial board of the society set up a schedule to compile a book focusing on the Jiao festival. It is expected that papers on various aspects will be completed by the end of April 1991. (Correspondence from the society dated 28.12.1990)\n\nSchipper, Kristofer M., \"The Written Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies\" in Wolf, Arthur P. (ed.) Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 324,\n\nFor example, according to Chan Wing-hoi, villagers of Shek O celebrated their 16th Jiao in 1986 (Chan, 78). The Dengs in Kam Tin claimed to have celebrated their Jiao since 1684 (Tanaka, 918).\n\nSee for instance Basel Mission Archives, doct. Al-6, No. 51 (1869), and doct. Al-7, No. 51 (1870) and Der Evangelische Heidenbote, July 1867, in which a missionary describes how he was forced to go to the Magistrate to get his support before he could avoid having to pay his share of the Jiao expenses. All these cases are from Hsin An County. The Sha Tin poem will, it is hoped, shortly be published by Dr. P.H. Hase.\n\nThese two series are part of the 15 series of historical documents collected by Dr. D. Faure and others in the New Territories. Copies of the collections are kept in the libraries of CUHK, Hong Kong University, Sha Tin Regional Council Library, and Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University.\n\n31\n\nTanaka Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China] (Tokyo Univ. Press 1985), 608. Jiao festivals celebrated by the powerful communities in Hong Kong like Kam Tin, Ha Tsuen, Lung Yeuk Tau etc., were all performed by the Zhengyi Taoist group, led first by the late Master Lin Pei and now by Master Chan Kau. Another Zhengyi Taoist group is led by Master Chan Wah. However, many Taoist priests work for both groups. There are also other Taoist groups who performed for the Jiao festivals, like a Cantonese group which performed for Ho Chung and a Heklo group for Cheung Chau. In 1983, four out of five Jiao festivals were performed by monastery Taoists. It is not clear whether it was because of tradition or out of economic reasons. A comparison of the two Taoist groups has yet to be made.\n\n14 Choi Chi-cheung **Sho matsuri no jinmei risuto ni mirareru shinzoku ban'i” [Kinship as seen in the name lists of Jiao festival] Bunka Jinnú Gaku 5 (1988): 131, table L. 35 **Shinshi men\" [Section of Believers] in Fanling Wenxian (Historical Literature of Fanling) vol. 8. This brief account records details of the arrangement of the Jiao area, including the contents of couplets, names of deities invited, location and direction of matshed stages, and the sacrifices prepared etc.. See n. 32 for the depositories of Fanling Wenxian.\n\n36 See (1972) Lin Chuan [Lam Tsuen] Xiang Taiping Qingjiao huiyi jilubu in Dapu [Tai Po] Wenzian [Historical Literature of Tai Po] vol. 1. (see n. 32 for depositories)\n\n37 Tanaka Issei's three books, all published by the Tokyo Univ. Press are: Chugoku Saishi Engeki Kenkyu [Ritual Theatres in China] (1981), Chugoku no Sozoku to Engeki [Lineage and Theatre in China) (1985), and Chugoku Kyoson Saishi Kenkyu: Chihogeki", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212124, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "no Kankyo [Village Festival in China: Background of Local Theatres] (1989). The Jiao festivals studied by Tanaka are as follows:\n\n \n Communities\n Year\n \n \n Cheung Chau\n 1979\n1979, 1983\n \n \n Recorded in\n 1981:74-99\n1985:227-302\n \n \n Ha Tsuen\n 1981\n \n \n \n 1985:199-226\n \n \n Hung Hom, Kowloon *1\n 1978-80\n \n \n \n 1981:771-780\n \n \n Kam Tin\n 1985\n \n \n \n 1989:915-996\n \n \n Lam Tsuen\n 1981\n \n \n \n 1985:359-528\n \n \n Leung Shuen Wan, Sai Kung\n 1980\n \n \n \n 1981:99-113\n \n \n Lin Fa Tei *2\n 1967\n \n \n \n 1985:558-572\n \n \n Lung Yeuk Tau\n 1983\n \n \n \n 1985:609-720\n \n \n Sha Tin, Kau Yeuk\n 1985\n \n \n \n 1989:1041-1112\n \n \n Sha Tin, Tai Wai\n 1987\n \n \n \n 1989:977-1040\n \n \n Sha Tin, Tin Sam\n 1986\n \n \n \n 1989:1040\n \n \n Tai Po Tau\n 1985\n \n \n \n 1985:121.131-138\n \n \n Tuen Tsz Wai\n 1986\n \n \n \n 1989:817-913\n \n \n Yuen Long\n 1983\n \n \n \n 1985:139-198\n \n \n 43\n \n\n*1: From the context, this festival, held on the 14th of the seventh moon, can be best seen as a ghost festival organized by the Hoklo dialect group.\n\n*2: Tanaka did not attend this festival. Analysis of the festival was mostly based on the 1967 account collected by H. Baker.\n\nSee map for the location of places.\n\nJH Tanaka, Ritual Theatres, 5.\n\n班 Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 11.\n\n40\n\nfbid., i-ii.\n\n41 Tanaka, Village Festival, i-iij.\n\n42\n\nFaure, David, The Structure of Chinese Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986), 81.\n\n4.3 Segawa, Masahisa, \"Daa Chiu: matsuri ni arawareru Hon Kon no mura no sugao” [Da Jiao: facets of villages in Hong Kong as shown in the festivals] Kikan Minzoku Gaku Ethnography Quarterly 33 (1985): 21-35.\n\n14\n\nSegawa, Masahisa \"Ta-tsiu [Da-Jiao], feuds, and village alliances: the case of Pat Heung\" (unpublished manuscript, 1991).\n\n45 Choi, Chi-cheung, “Chi o urai ekibyo o harau taihei shinsho\" [Jiao festival: to wash: the land and remove illness] Kikan Minzoku Gaku 40 (1987): 90-105.\n\n4\n\n40\n\nChoi, Jiao festival\", 1046.\n\n47 Choi, \"Kinship\", 147-149.\n\n4#\n\nThough Tanaka wrote that only a few communities in the New Territories celebrated the festival during his seven and a half years' observation (Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 608), we are still unclear as to how many communities continue to celebrate it. For instance, the Cheung Long Wai case was not mentioned by any informants. It was known only by an occasional visit to the village. A likely source is the Police since theoretically every festival celebrated in Hong Kong has to receive permission from the police for security measures. The district offices in the New Territories are another source of information. Certainly there were in the past other celebrations which have now ceased for one reason or another (e.g. at Sha Tau Kok, Shuen Wan and Ta Kwu Leng).\n\n49 Segawa, \"Daa Chiu', 35.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212250, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "THE OFFERING TO THE WHITE TIGER\n\nIN CANTONESE OPERA\n\nSAU Y. CHAN*\n\n169\n\nIntroduction\n\nSymbolically, the White Tiger is a mystic figure in Cantonese folk religion. Though it can also bring merits to people, it is often referred to as a fierce devil. Thus the ritual known as zae bak fu (Offering to the White Tiger) should be held from time to time so that the harm caused by the White Tiger could be minimized. It is performed in a variety of Cantonese folk religious practices and a comparatively more elaborate form of the ritual has been preserved in the tradition of Cantonese opera, where it is also called zuk bak fu (capturing the White Tiger), zae toi (offering to the performing stage), po toi (breaking or initiating the performing stage), da mau (beating the cat) and occasionally as tiu coi sen (dance of the Deity of Fortune) and tiu jyn tan (dance of the Jyn Tan deity). As it has often been criticized as a superstitious act in mainland China, troupes there have, according to some informants, ceased to perform this ritual in recent decades. Nowadays this operatic form of White Tiger ritual is mainly preserved by troupes performing in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.\n\nI\n\nThe Exorcistic Function of the Offering\n\nAccording to interviews with many Cantonese operatic employees, whenever a theatre, whether temporary or permanent, is built on a piece of land that has never been used for such a purpose, the performing stage is called a sen toi (new stage) and the White Tiger ritual has to be performed for the protection of members of the troupe and the community which hires the troupe. It is believed that a tiger turns white when it reaches the age of 500. It would then make use of people's mouths to harm other people. Before the ritual is done, if one calls the name of another person, or simply talks, the words will be made use of by the White Tiger and the one who responds will be harmed. In the past, disasters such as the flooding, collapse and\n\n* Music Department, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212258, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "177\n\n(mouth) from the character get di (fortune) should not be completely joined, so that the \"mouth\" is an \"open\" one. In this way, the troupe members are freed from the curse of \"not being able to open the mouths\", which implies that the actors could not sing or speak, that the troupe would become unemployed, and that the members would have to suffer from starvation. In case the stage is a \"new\" one, the hoi bet ritual has to be carried out by the actor who is to play the Deity of Fortune.\n\nFrom these taboos and religious practices, one might easily deduce that Cantonese operatic employees are highly superstitious. However, without understanding the function behind these practices, such a judgement would be nothing more than a subjective evaluation.\n\nIn his Exorcising the Trouble Makers: Magic, Science and Culture (1983), the anthropologist Francis L.K. Hsu has pointed out that religion and superstition are indispensable in every culture, including those praised as “civilized” and others criticised as “primitive”, and that it is not always easy to draw a distinction between science and religion. According to Hsu, a community which believes in science would dress-up their religious beliefs and superstitious practices in the form of science, and similarly, a community which inclines towards religion and superstition would interpret its empirical and scientific experience in the form of religion (Hsu 1983:129).\n\nTraditionally, Cantonese operatic troupes are often hired to perform for festivals, birthdays of both ghosts and deities, and an elaborated Taoist ritual known as da ziu k (rite of purification). In fact, before permanent theatres became an additional context of Cantonese operatic performances in the late 19th century, for most Cantonese operatic troupe members, ritual performance had been their major source of employment. Even in modern Hong Kong, every year over two-thirds of the total productions are staged in a ritual context.\n\nIn the late Qing Dynasty and even up to the early 20th century, ritual performances were held in temporary theatres built with palm leaf mats, bamboo and wood poles. Modern ritual theatres replace mats with tin sheet. When a troupe is hired to perform a series of ritual plays, the temporary theatre becomes not only their performing venue but also their living quarters.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212259, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "178\n\nAs a major form of entertainment business, a troupe has to reinforce a set of management rules, probably through trial and error, accumulation and empirical experiments, to maintain harmony among its members and keep the theatre in good conditions. But having to perform day after day and year after year in temporary structures, which could be situated in an isolated area miles away from local residences, and having to spend so much time travelling from village to village, it is understandable that troupe members might easily incline towards religion and in this way \"dress\" their empirical rules.\n\nFunctionally, the taboo of restricting the activities of the troupe employees in the vicinity of the \"new stage\" will help to ensure the health and safety of the employees as the firecrackers and joss sticks, and the burning of the mock money, form a kind of fumigation process which cleans the air and scares away snakes and other harmful rodents which might infest a plot of uncultivated land. The practice of writing an \"open mouth\" also serves to remind the employees of the importance of singing and speaking well in their performances.\n\nIt has long been the traditional aesthetics of Cantonese opera that a performance is evaluated first in its sing (sound), then in the sik (appearance) and last in its ngae (art and technique). The taboos related to the opening and shutting of mouths also reflect this consciousness of the primary importance of \"oral activities\".\n\nAs fire has been and still is a major threat to the temporary theatres, Cantonese operatic employees worship the deity Wa Gwong (literally \"bright and brilliant\"), who is also the deity of fire, as the profession's major patron deity. Undoubtedly, paying respect to this deity reminds the troupe members of their major threat.\n\nSimilarly, the reasons for placing joss sticks at the edge of the front stage are twofold. Firstly, the action itself arouses the actor's awareness of the danger of falling down. Secondly, the lit joss sticks placed there serve as a marker for the stage edge, so as to facilitate the actor's keeping away from it.\n\nThe practical functions of the taboos and religious practices which have been adopted by Cantonese opera employees might well suggest that such taboos and practices were originally products of repeated empirical trials, which have gradually been accumulated in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212260, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "179\n\nthe profession as a means to solve problems related to the management of the troupe and the theatre. Eventually such management rules were overwhelmed by the profession's religious sentiments and transformed to become an essential part of the employees' religious beliefs.\n\nHsu Francis L.K. 1983\n\nREFERENCES CITED\n\nExorcising the Trouble Makers. Magic, Science and Culture, Westport: Greenwood Press.\n\nChiao, Chien\n\n1986\n\n\"Beating the Petty Person: A Ritual of Hong Kong Chinese\" (in Chinese), in New Asia Academic Bulletin (Volume VI): Special Issue on Anthropological Studies of China, Hong Kong: New Asia College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.\n\nWard, Barbara E. 1979\n\n\"Not Merely Players: Drama, Art and Ritual in Traditional China,\" in Man, March 1979.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212544, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "78\n\nproblems were blamed no longer on the Cultural Revolution activists and the Gang of Four, but also on those presently in power and those in power before the Cultural Revolution.\" With the emergence of **exposure literature**, artists and writers began to experiment with new forms. Wang Meng, for example, writing less on political issues and more on the emotions and relationships of everyday life, experimented with a variety of styles, including stream of consciousness. His short story, The Butterfly, in which he successfully used the technique of stream of consciousness, won him national recognition.\n\nThe If I Were Real episode turned out, however, rather differently. In terms of interaction between political developments and those of art and literature in the post-Mao era, probably no other single instance can provide as much insight as the play If I Were Real does. By comparing it with Wang Meng's experiments and with a later case, the Bitter Love episode, conclusions about how much artists and writers could push politically and artistically can be better tested.\n\nIf I Were Real was initially a play script depicting a young man who deceives officials in Shanghai, by pretending to be the son of a high military officer in Beijing. Because of his supposed good connections, the young man is granted all kinds of privileges, from theatre tickets to having a “friend”, who was actually himself transferred from a farm to Shanghai. When he is finally caught, he protests that he has done nothing wrong. He explains: “If I were really the son of some high party official, then whatever I have done would be considered legal.\" Thus the playscript went beyond criticism of the Gang of Four to criticize the current system.\n\n1920\n\nAs for the form, the experimental side of If I Were Real was shown in its actual staging. Audiences participated in the whole process at the beginning of the play. Pre-planned, the play begins later than the set time. When the audience grows impatient and asks why it has not started, one actress would appear in the name of the theatre manager to tell them that they cannot begin until some important “officials\" arrive. Then the audience would grow even more impatient and protest against the inequality of treatment. Then those \"officials\" would appear, among them is the \"son\", and soon some \"policemen\" follow up to arrest him and explain the story to the audience. Of course, all of the people involved are performers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213483, "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-1995", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "(4) if he treads \"in the air\", this means ascending the staircase. (5) when two men are holding an oar - this indicates the existence of a pontoon bridge for someone to use it to get to a nearby boat or sampan.\n\n(6) two big flags, each bearing the imprint of a wheel, held by a man or woman in each hand, with a noble lady in the middle, indicates that the lady is sitting in a chariot.\n\n(7) punishment or degradation of an official or scholar is indicated by \"taking away his hat\".\n\n(8) if a man wears a heavy balaclava, that means he is on a long distance trip or in severe cold.\n\n(9) there is no eating scene in Peking Opera. Drinking wine is denoted by raising the wine cup, with the right hand, to the lip, and hiding the movement by raising the sleeve of the left arm.\n\n(10) a man without a hat, constantly swinging his hair from side to side or tapping his finger on his forehead, or the constant rubbing of hands means he is in trouble and does not know how to get out of it.\n\n(11) why does an important figure walk from the back of the stage to the centre in a funny gait? This is because the Chinese theatre usually has no curtain, as the Western theatre does, so he has to perform the action in a dignified way.\n\n(12) wiping the eye with the sleeve denotes that the actor or actress is weeping or crying. I don't know why, but possibly handkerchiefs were not used in China in former times.\n\n(13) you will find that, in some of the play, a chair is used to represent the front door of a house or cave house.\n\n(14) a painted cloth screen, with an opening in the middle, represents the city wall and the entrance to the city.\n\n(15) you never see a man sleeping on a bed with a pillow. To portray that he is sleeping, he always sits upright in a chair, with his day clothing on, behind a cloth screen.\n\nThe Painted Face Actors\n\nHow much do you know about these painted Faces? From behind these facades, how much can you make out of it, to foretell the kind of character or personality of the man the actor is trying to represent on the stage? The following few hints maybe of help for you to understand the character of the man in history that the actor is portraying.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213487, "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-1995", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "51\n\nthrough the elaborate story that preceded the battle scene felt that they were cheated or short-changed!\n\nI cannot agree more. The audience would expect that both the story that precedes the battle, and the battle itself would be well proportioned and balanced. No wonder it was an anticlimax.\n\n(4) One way to prolong the fighting scene is to introduce some acrobatic performances onto the set. You must remember that, in earlier days, the theatre-goers were allowed to drink tea and eat melon seeds while watching the drama. What a wonderful idea, to be able to go to an Opera and, at the same time, enjoy life while watching the actors doing acrobatics on the stage!\n\nHow to Read the Result of the Battle.\n\nHaving said so much about the fighting techniques of the Chinese Opera, it would be useful to know how to read the score of a Chinese Opera fighting scene.\n\nFirst, place yourself in one of the front stall seats facing the stage. The Chinese Opera stage usually has two doors at the back end of the stage, one on your left-hand side, and one on your right-hand side. In the old days, there was a plaque on top of the left-hand side door with two distinguished Chinese characters \"\" (Chu Jiang), which literally means “the door through which the general enters\". We simply call this door the “Entrance Door\". Similarly, over the right-hand side door, there is a plaque also with two Chinese characters \"\" (Ru Xiang), meaning \"the door through which the Prime Minister departs\". We shall simply call this door the “Exit Door\".\n\nNow, when both armies are fighting, if suddenly both parties retire to the back of the stage, each through a different door, you will then know that the battle is a draw. On the other hand, if you see one army suddenly withdraw through the Exit door, with the opposing army hot in pursuit, you will know that the army that withdrew through the Exit door first is losing. This will allow the winning side general a few more minutes to display his army's superiority over the enemy and, in most cases, he may over-react and go through the door last!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213491, "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-1995", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "55\n\npoor doctor escaped to Taiwan on some other score.\n\nThen we learned that the famous playwright Woo Tzu-kwong () married the actress Hsin Fung-hsia () and the couple live happily together until now. It is fair to say that the theatrical people in China, including those actors and actresses, are living a stricter moral life than their counterparts of the European and American origin. I hope that, one of these days, the social differences will be swept away so that men and women can live a non-hobbled life as anybody else.\n\nThe Applause and the Booing\n\nApplause by hand clapping is only a recent invention to the theatres in China. In the old days, applause came spontaneously from the audience when the public felt the singing or acting was beautifully done by yelling the word “Hao” (好) in the third tone. Booing was seldom practiced except for the following few reasons:\n\n(a) when the singer missed or could not keep up with the rhythm or beat of the music;\n\n(b) when the hat fell off from the actor's head to the ground; \n\n(c) in a fighting scene, when his spear, or weapon, fell to the ground.\n\nCoincidentally, booing is delivered by yelling the same word “Hao\" (好) in a different tone, the fourth tone, pronounced as ().\n\n\"The Patron Saint” of the Theatre\n\nYou have probably heard that in China, every trade has its quasi-deity who is worshipped with reverence. The position of this quasi-god equals, in status, the “Patron Saint\" in the Western world.\n\nIn the theatrical profession, they worship Emperor Xuan-zong (玄宗) of the Tang Dynasty - his real name is Li Long-ji (). Xuan-zong is his reigning name.\n\nHe was an exceptionally talented man, possessing charm and charisma. In the second year of his reign, he established, within his palace, a school which he called the \"Pear Garden”, to teach young and talented men and women how to sing and to put on a show. Up to this day, people like to refer to theatrical men and women as \"disciples", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213492, "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-1995", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "56\n\nof the Pear Garden\" (T).\n\nThis Chinese version of Don Juan lived an absolute profligate life. In his later years, he lavished much of his love on a country-bred beauty called Yang Yu-huan (E) and neglected his State's affairs, which brought about his downfall. In 755 A.D., one of his trusted lieutenants named An Lu-shan (I), a half-Turk, half-Sogdian, revolted. The poor Emperor had to flee from Ch'ang An (E), his capital, with just a few escorts, including his immediate family and a few soldiers, heading for Szechwan (PTI). When the entourage arrived at a place called Ma Wei Po (5), the escorting soldiers refused to go any further and demanded that the Emperor get rid of the concubine Yang. The Emperor had to give in and act accordingly. At last, a general named Kwo Tzi-yı (97) put down the rebellion and restored peace to the land. The Emperor Xuan-zong lost his throne to his son.\n\nIf you ever go to Xian (1) in the Shaanxi Province, you will find a bathhouse called Hwa Ch'ing Chih (#) in the suburb where Yang Yu Huan used to bathe. The area has been restored and kept in good condition to this day.\n\nTaboos\n\nThere are many, many regulations and taboos in the Chinese theatrical circle, including the Peking Opera group. Some of these taboos help to keep smooth the running of the theatre as an orderly institution; otherwise, chaos would reign. For instance, the actors and actresses are not allowed to sit on the trunks of other performers. Once I had the privilege of visiting the backstage of a Peking Opera theatre. There were rows and rows of heavy trunks on the floor where the stage clothing was stored. Some of the actors or actresses were doing their make-up. Layers and layers of stage clothing were neatly folded and stacked in the trunks. There was order and neatness everywhere. Imagine, in the absence of taboo and regulations, what the situation would be. It could be a madhouse where everyone was fighting to have the right kind of clothing to go on the stage, and when they finished acting, they would just throw things around.\n\nI know one or two other taboos, of which everyone, yes everyone, has to observe, such as you should never utter the word “Geng\" \"E”", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213630, "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-1995", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "200\n\n3\n\nand four belong to German prisoners. The remainder are Allied servicemen's graves. The headstones, including those of the Chinese Labour Corps members, are of the usual Portland Stone with the Commonwealth War Grave standard segmental curve on the top (see Plates 1 and 2). This distinguishes them from graves for civilians which are curved but with a piece notched out at each top corner. Stones for Royal Air Force graves are 'winged', with curved tops sweeping upwards slightly at each side.* Few if any of the Chinese who served in Europe in the First World War, one assumes, were Christians. There are no crosses on their gravestones.\n\nOf the two Chinese graves in this cemetery one is unnamed (see Plate I), although there is an army number. This is not unusual. When Chinese labourers were first recruited, pigtails, which could still be found in China at the time, were cut off. Thumbprints were then taken and numbered wristlets were riveted on. The inscription on the first gravestone reads, in Chinese and English, 'Faithful unto death'. The second headstone (see Plate 2) is in memory of Wong Fuk-hing with the proverb, 'A good reputation endures forever.' Wong came from Shan Tung Province, Yeung Sun county. A Chinese person's native place is important enough to be inscribed on his or her headstone. Traditionally, Chinese like to be buried on their native soil.\n\nNot far from Foncquevillers Military Cemetery is an old farm house which, in 1916, stood near the front line of the First Battle of the Somme, the largest land battle Britain has ever fought. Some 57,470 British soldiers were killed on July 1, 1916, the first day of this action. The cellar at the time, linked by a tunnel to the trenches which crisscrossed the area, served as a battlefield operating theatre. On March 19, 1916, two British soldiers were shot at dawn, close by, for desertion. Although my son and I visited this old house owned by Avril Williams, which now serves as a guest house and English tea rooms, she was unfortunately not at home. Her daughter showed us around.\n\nThe chief reason that Avril Williams came here, from England, was so she might visit and tend the graves of those who fought and died: 'So we might continue to live the way we do.' On the headstone of Private George Palmer's grave, who was killed in 1917, a request from his mother is inscribed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213906, "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": 258, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "232\n\nDuring the many dynastic changes since its foundation its existence has been chequered by a number of misfortunes. Hung Wu, the first emperor of the Ming, rebuilt its shattered walls and refurbished its many rooms. It was fit and proper that the main building should be in Peking, but Hung Wu, unable to forget that Nanking had become the capital of his choice, also built and endowed a sister institution in that city. With the advent of the Manchu dynasty in 1644 this last foundation ceased to exist.\n\nOur story now turns to backstage of a temporary side street Ch'aochou opera theatre in Singapore's Chinatown. The mat shed theatre over a framework of bamboo was a standard construction seen from time to time when a side street would be taken over and the theatre erected for a few days whilst virtually non-stop opera would be performed and relayed by an external tannoy system to ensure that everyone within earshot, and not just the audience sitting on stools and benches before the stage, would not miss a note.\n\nThe old man in charge of backstage, surrounded by crates containing the robes, head-dresses, beards and other accoutrements for the players, had his own special easy chair, a folding canvas camp chair, alongside the portable altar or shrine suspended from a lateral bamboo facing forward. The two images of deities had been removed and placed on a folding table together with standard offerings beneath the shrine.\n\nThe interior of the red portable shrine was concealed by two hanging red curtains, some two foot wide and the same in height, denying any view of the contents. The two deities, virtually identical images of youths swathed in red robes and wearing red embroidered trousers, were articulated to permit the robes to be slipped over the arms before being buttoned up the front.\n\nOn closer examination the three characters embroidered on the front top of the red curtains hanging before the shrine described it as the Han Lin Academy. This title in such an unexpected place is extraordinary. The old man was at first unwilling to explain its significance and then under a little pressure confirmed that he did not know. Nor did any of the cast. Can any reader cast light on the reason for this title being given to a backstage shrine?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214517, "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": 375, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "344\n\nAlthough our Qingdao guide accompanied us throughout the trip, we were met off the ferry in Dalian by another guide - Ying, an expert on the local attractions, although she quickly learned, as had her Qingdao colleague before her, that she was surrounded by a bit more expertise than she found in the average tour group.\n\nYing and Jack, the driver, very quickly learned that her new brood had another difference. She greeted us at the ferry pier by saying: \"I suppose you would all like to go to lunch now?\" This was met by a resounding answer in the negative. Having been jolted about on the boat we were not immediately interested in food.\n\nDalian city tour\n\nInstead we asked for the bus to go round some of the streets in the old Russian quarter. Specifically, we pointed out the photographs in \"Far from Home\" and said that we would like to see those and see them we did.\n\nThe People's Theatre looks a bit more garish these days, and has been turned into a Blackpool-like amusement hall. However, the majority of what we had come to see was there waiting for us, looking as splendid and impressive as we had hoped. Zhongshan Square (the former Great Square of the original Russian plan) still contains all the solid bank buildings from many years ago. All are now Chinese banks, but clearly recognisable are the buildings from all the old photographs. The square also includes one of Dalian's three former Yamato Hotels, now glorying in the name of the Dalian Guest House. Do not be put off by this name, however it is far from being a bed and breakfast in Bognor. The wrought iron canopy leads you into one of the most impressive marble lobbies of any hotel I have seen. Our experience in Yantai leads me to believe that the term \"guest house\" is reserved for the grandest of available accommodation, reserved for the party's great and good.\n\nFor me one of the most distinctly Russian buildings, and one that features prominently in \"Far from Home\", is located just on the far side of the Victory Bridge (rather a practical name - not sure who's victory over whom), on the road leading north-west from Zhongshan Square.\n\nPage 375\n\nPage 376", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214749, "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-1999", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "128\n\nclaim that the defenders faced shortages in ammunition, notably for mortars. However, the movement of the defenders' guns within the defence perimeter throughout the Battle was rather hectic, aided by at least 20 armoured cars and more than 3,000 motor cars and 600 trucks. This indicated that the artillery arm of the garrison was playing a key role in prolonging the duration of the defence. Therefore, the effective firepower of the defenders did not appear to be as weak as frequently represented in publications up to now on the Battle of Hong Kong. The story of the defence of Hong Kong apparently could well have been distorted in favour of the winner.\n\nConclusion: a Plea for Further Research\n\nThe above points are just informed speculation and the Battle of Hong Kong is certainly an under-researched military episode in the Second World War. This being the case, it should be just a matter of interest not only to those directly involved.\n\n...\n\nIn broad historical terms, the significance of the Battle of Hong Kong should not be limited to a matter of war relics or past history. It has implications for the post-war political development of Hong Kong, a living issue that affects the present both physically and socially. We have mentioned the credibility of the defence of Hong Kong as a matter of responsible government and a matter of fact but not as an apology for British colonialism. There are still unknown numbers of unexploded bombs, both Japanese and Allied, yet to be unearthed in highly congested urban sites. There are also quite a number of old people in Hong Kong (and elsewhere in Asia) who still hold Japanese military currency, forced upon them when their convertible currencies were expropriated during the occupation, in the vain hope of obtaining compensation by the Japanese government (Keniti; Kobayasi Hideo and Isida Jimtarou, 1995).\n\nThe military aspects of the fighting itself should be interesting case study materials for the military scientist. Many other questions remain unanswered. The size and role and size of the \"fifth columnists\", the tactics of the Japanese and the useful value of occupied Hong Kong to the Japanese are just a few examples. Though these questions for a minor theatre of war may not catch the attention of those who are only interested in the broad-brush views of Liddell Hart (1970), they should", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215195, "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-2000", "page_number": 291, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "SOME THOUGHTS ON HAN SUYIN'S A MANY SPLENDORED THING\n\n'Love is a Many Splendored Thing'\n\nPETER HALLIDAY\n\n255\n\nAs I have said before, I believe, generally, that editors should edit, rather than write, but I should like to share the following with you all.\n\nA few weeks, or so, after I arrived in Hong Kong in the fall of 1967, I was taken to the movies by what had now become a new friend. The motion picture we saw that Saturday afternoon - I remember the circumstances with undiminished clarity - was Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, starring William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr., 17 April 1918 - 16 November 1981) and Jennifer Jones (born Phyllis Flora Isley, 2 March 1919). For a reason that is not central to this Note, the movie made a very deep impression upon me and I have to confess that, as we filed out of the movie theatre, I wept unashamedly.\n\nIn 1972, or thereabouts, I was contentedly idling away an hour or so, browsing in the old YMCA bookshop in Salisbury Road - to this day still a particular pleasure (browsing, that is) - when I came across a book entitled A Many-Splendoured Thing by Han Suyin (born Elizabeth Kuanghu Chou, 12 September 1917). Memories of the old motion picture came flooding back. Could this be the book behind the film or vice versa, I wondered?\n\nHan Suyin, circa 1950", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215239, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 16, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Imperial Ideals and Chinese Practical Common Sense in Chan Lau Kit-ching and Peter Cunich (eds.), An Impossible Dream: Hong Kong University from Foundation to Re-establishment, 1910-1950 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2002). Governor Frederick D. Lugard and the Hong Kong Chinese featured prominently in this article (ahylin@hkucc.hku.hk).\n\nProfessor Norman Miners, was the former Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong. He is probably best remembered for his seminal work The Government and Politics of Hong Kong, first published in 1975, which ran to five editions.\n\nRobert Nield, F.C.A., F.H.K.S.A., is a certified public accountant and was a former partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Hong Kong). He is a Vice-President and the Treasurer of HKBRAS (hiflyer@netvigator.com)\n\nKirsty Norman is an active member of HKBRAS.\n\nKeith Stevens, B.A., served with the British Army and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office until his retirement in 1991. He is an authority on Chinese temples and deities, and Chinese history, and has written prolifically on these subjects. His articles are noted for the splendour of the illustrations (keith.stevens@chgods.freeserve.co.uk).\n\nDr Elizabeth Kenworthy Teather gained her B.A.(Hons) and Ph.D. in the Department of Geography at University College London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Born in Britain, she spent some years overseas as a teenager (Iraq and Cyprus), emigrated to New Zealand in 1973 and moved to Australia in 1984. She joined the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of New England, NSW, Australia, in 1988. She has a second Honours degree in Theatre Studies completed in 1986, and is also a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (Singing - Performance). From 1995-1997, 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 she was Scholar in Residence, David C Lam Institute for East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University\n\nDan Waters, M.Phil., Ph.D., is a retired assistant director of education of the Hong Kong Government. He has written prolifically on the culture and history of Hong Kong. He is the immediate past-president of HKBRAS (benefit@netvigator.com).\n\nJenny Welch, M.A., now lives with her husband in Hong Kong having spent a number of years in Singapore, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Australia. Her interests include French culture and language, China and the Chinese, porcelain and history.\n\nxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215352, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2001", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "77\n\na] Changhua Laoye Shen\n\nIt\n\nseen in Singapore on a Hainanese wayyang street theatre altar connected in some way with the major China-wide deity Hua Guang Dadi.\n\nb] As with small folk religion temples in all southern Chinese communities there are very minor deities on their altars about whom nothing is known. The following stand on a side altar in a small Hainanese temple on the Tampines Road in Singapore and are largely ignored though they are prayed to by a few devotees, more in passing rather than specifically for protection:\n\nmain deity: The Marquis of the Heaven of the Buddhas, Fo Tian Houwang\n\nSoldier astride a red horse, wearing green and gilt armour, with a pink face, black beard and a sword raised in his right hand.\n\nflanked by: Shata Zunwang Qi Guan\n\nand\n\nSoldier astride a white horse, with green-gilt robes, black beard, brown face and sword raised in his right hand.\n\nYongmeng Yatou Wang San Guan\n\nSoldier astride a black horse, with green-gilt robes over his armour, black bearded and a sword raised in his right hand.\n\nConclusion\n\nThere are some seventy to eighty major Han Chinese folk religion deities to be found in every part of China, and Hainan is no exception. However, in Hainan as in every local community, be it province, county, town or village, and even ethnic group, there are also local deified heroes and worthies not seen beyond their immediate area.\n\nTaken all in all, the range of deities on Hainanese altars is much the same as in all the other southern Chinese Han ethnic group temples. Hainanese communities, however, do have a number of uniquely Hainanese cult deities both on Hainan island as well as within Hainanese communities in south-east Asia. Although their legends are unique to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215775, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "However, in response to a petition by European merchants in 1835 to the EIC against piracy, some action on the part of the Indian government was taken, through the use of steam warships (for example, the Diana and HMS Wolf). These ships were effective in fighting piracy, and according to LA Mills, 'piracy in the Straits greatly decreased for several years... Conditions never became as serious as they were before 1836.'38\n\nHowever, Turnbull says that these measures only gave temporary relief and that, within a few years, the position deteriorated. Moreover, in the 1850s, a new breed of pirates began to haunt the merchants' commerce. They came from China, and the Chinese imperial government was too weak to suppress them. The main theatre of Chinese operations was the Gulf of Siam, although many vessels were captured near Singapore.40\n\nThe Indian government did not pay much attention to the problem as it was involved in the second Anglo-Burmese war at that time, and as Calcutta had passed no laws to detain suspicious vessels, there were no legal means to curb piracy. In 1857, the Indian legislative council had passed an inadequate law which permitted the right of search, but did not solve the problem of proving intent. No improvement was made to the naval force in the Straits Settlements in the last ten years of Indian rule, which consisted of only three gunboats (a 'lilliputian fleet'41).\n\nEventually the Chinese pirates were gradually eliminated from the Straits waters as a result of a series of treaties and agreements between China and other western powers (such as with Prussia 1861, Denmark 1863, the Netherlands 1863, Spain 1864, Belgium 1865, Italy 1866, and Austria-Hungary 186942), the contents of which included co-operative measures to wipe out piracy. The Hong Kong 'Ordinance for the suppression of piracy' was the first real blow delivered against Chinese piracy.4\n\nThe Indian government played a minimal role with regards to the combat of piracy in the Straits. The problem was brought under control through a list of other factors, including foreign treaties and ordinances, and hence, the merchants' complaints were not without reason, as little credit can be attributed to the Indian administration in this respect.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215949, "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": 248, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "182\n\nstatus, since there were 'so many other senior officers working in the area,' and he saw it as ‘axiomatic that all branches of the service will cooperate and pool their information.' The new section was to have 'full authority to control the movements of all Europeans whether military or civil who had escaped.' Having left Hong Kong less than a month earlier, having by his own admission no knowledge of escape and evasion organisations, he was now to command, and to 'have authority to add to his strength such British or Chinese as are available.' The full story of the BAAG is too complex to tell here, but the transition was not seamless. By 16th May 1942, Ride was given the letter he wanted stating 'from the time of escape until they reach Chiyang all escapees of whatever rank and whatever service will come under your command.' This should be made clear to them at first responsibility. xxii This included the men who had spent so long setting up the groundwork, who had met the Ride group and brought them to safety.\n\nAnother even more fundamental change in direction was the change in emphasis from a general resistance function to an organisation primarily for the escape of Prisoners of War, and particularly of Europeans at that. Ride consistently thought in terms of mass escapes from camp, larger scale and more spectacular than the Chan Chak escape. In the summer of 1942, he planned the escape of 500 or more POWs by junk, and as late as September 1943 proposed paying millions to guerrillas to conquer Canton so an airborne assault of paratroopers could descend on Hong Kong to free the POWs.**** The gathering of intelligence and support of other forms of resistance were corollary to this basic function. An analysis of why the escape of POWs became the central focus of British activity in the Hong Kong region when it was not of paramount military strategic value in the overall conduct of war in the theatre is again beyond the scale of this piece. However, it illustrates that the plans British military strategists had developed to challenge Japanese occupation and to continue the struggle by alternative methods had to adapt to new conditions. SOE and SOE related agencies were by no means silenced in China but continued to play a very important role, even around Hong Kong. The chrysalis opened, but what emerged had to shape itself to a new situation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216424, "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-2003", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "133\n\nContraband of ordinary commodities such as flour, clothes, etc., may be transported at the risk of the owners, to the ports of belligerent countries.\n\nIn the event of the necessity arising of landing any cargo passing through a Chinese port, the same will be landed and stored at the expense of the owners.\"\n\nArguments arose over whether foodstuffs being exported from China to Japan for consumption by civilians should be considered as contraband of war as they could be used for military purposes. It was agreed that with formal consular certificates, certifying that the goods were not destined for the theatre of war, and stating clearly that the goods were shipped at the owners' risk; foodstuffs could be exported to Japan.\n\nThe day-to-day involvement of the Chinese population and their reaction to foreign soldiers\n\nTheir land and people suffered hardships, casualties, and financial losses without any thought being given to them by the Westerners or the combatants. It has been quite surprising just how few references to China and the Chinese there were in contemporary Western writings.\n\nChinese physical involvement was marginal. Apart from individuals being employed by both sides as spies, bands of Chinese mounted guerrillas were employed by both belligerents; some under Japanese leadership made Russian lines of communication dangerous and effectively tied down ever larger Russian forces. Yuan Shikai, the Viceroy of Chih-li, turned a blind eye to these and similar activities and made every effort to co-operate with the Japanese. Although the Russians were aware of this policy, there was little they could do about it. They did, however, take it out on any individual or groups of Chinese in territories under their control who appeared in any way acting for or sympathising with the Japanese.\n\nBritish illustrated periodicals tended to portray Chinese as ‘exotic and different, something sinister or inferior.' The same journals included not only sketches from their correspondents capturing the gruesome nature of the war in all its chaos, cruelty, and destruction but also photographic images.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]