[ { "id": 204863, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n141\n\nASIAN PERSPECTIVES. The Bulletin of the Far Eastern Prehistory Association, Edited by Wilhelm G. Solheim II. Volume VI, Nos. 1 & 2, 1962. Hong Kong University Press, 1962. Illustrated. HK$25 per number.\n\nThis issue of Asian Perspectives contains much of value for all students of Far-Eastern Prehistory—for the interested layman no less than for the expert.\n\nThe journal is divided under three main headings: Regional Reports, Topical Report and Notes, and Original Articles.\n\nThe regional reports cover the following areas: Eastern Asia and Oceania, Northeast Asia, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. All the reports have detailed bibliographies, invaluable for further reading and for the comparison and co-relation of work in the various fields of research. Especially interesting are the full note on A. P. Okladnikov's report on important archaeological discoveries in Mongolia in the Northeast Asia report, the notes in the Southeast Asia section which include P. I. Borikovsky's report on recent work in Vietnam and the inclusion, for the first time, of a regional report from Madagascar. The author of the report from Mainland China feels that the volume of work being done there and the problem of obtaining published results, make complete coverage difficult at the moment; but to have such a report at all, with a comprehensive list of references is useful. The Indonesian report is detailed and well-illustrated and covers field work and research in Java, Bali and Flores, Sumba and Timor. Those who have seen some of the Neolithic material discovered in Hong Kong will find the illustrations in this section particularly interesting.\n\nThe topical report is on the linguistic sessions of the 10th Pacific Science Congress held in Honolulu in 1961; again the bibliography is extensive.\n\nThe range of subject of the articles in the third section, Notes and Original Articles, is wide, but in this issue of the journal, predominantly archaeological. They include articles on the problems of archaeology in Madagascar, on the work of French prehistorians in Vietnam, on archaeology in North Borneo, Easter Island and in India. A. P. Khatri writes on A century of Prehistoric Research in India, paying tribute to the \"father\" of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204880, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "158\n\nDANSEY-BROWNING, Lt. Col. G. C. - Government Ophthalmic Centre, Arran St., Mongkok, Kowloon.\n\nDANSEY-BROWNING, Mrs. S. M. - c/o The European Y.M.C.A., Salisbury Rd., Kowloon.\n\nDAVIES, D. G. - Flat 5, 94D, Pokfulum Road, H.K.\n\nDAVIS, Dr. S. G. - Dept. of Geography & Geology, The University, H.K.\n\nDEANS PEGGS, Dr. A. - c/o Education Department, Battery Path, H.K.\n\nDJOU, G. G. - c/o American International Assnce. Co., Ltd., 12-14 Queen's Road, Central, H.K.\n\nDOLBY, A. W. E. - Flat A1, 9th Floor, 2 Oaklands Path, H.K.\n\nDONEGAN, Miss P. L. - American Consulate-General, Hong Kong.\n\nDONOHUE, P. - 31, George St., Mablethorpe, Lincs., England.\n\nDRAKE, Mrs. F. S. - Lincot, Stoke Road, North Curry, Taunton, Somerset, England.\n\nDRAKE, Prof. F. S. - As above.\n\nDRAKEFORD, L. S. - 25 Chatham Road, 11th Floor, Front, Kowloon.\n\nDUNCANSON, J. D.* - c/o The British Embassy, Saigon, Vietnam.\n\nDUNT, P. - P. O. Box 94, H.K.\n\nEDWARDS, O. P. - c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn. H.K.\n\nEITZEN, Mrs. J. - 22 Magazine Gap Road, Hong Kong.\n\nELLISON, K. - c/o Housing Authority, G.P.O. Building, H.K.\n\nELWOOD, O. J. O. - A-4, Royden Court, 129 Repulse Bay Rd., H.K.\n\nENDACOTT, G. B. - Warden, May Hall, The University, H.K.\n\nENGEL, Dr. D. - 542, Alexandra House, Hong Kong.\n\nEVANS, Mrs. P. J. - Ray-O-Vac International Corpn., 604 Chartered Bank Building, H.K.\n\nEVANS, Mrs. P. J. - 33 Tung Tau Wan Road, Stanley, H.K.\n\nEWING, Miss E.* - 13, Rodmarton Street, London, W.1. England.\n\nFABER, Mrs. A. - 10, Cooper Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K.\n\nFABER, S. E. - 1 Repulse Bay Road, H.K.\n\nFAERBER, M. - c/o Paragon Book Gallery, 140 East 59th Street, New York 22, N.Y., U.S.A.\n\n* Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205779, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "TUNG KWU ISLAND\n\n79\n\nor saucer, painted with an open flower in underglaze blue, crudely executed and very badly glazed; and the third, found at 78 cm. in the sandbank, was a bronze button wrapped in a fragment of coarse cloth, hollow and containing a small object which rattles. I interpret this as a fragment from a modern burial: its depth is noteworthy.\n\nA group of late pottery fragments is recorded on my last visit but one to the site. Three of them were at 69, 71 and 76 cm. from the surface, and one, probably a piece of tile, at 61 cm. They were near the north end of the west beach, where rainwash from the hill has increased the depth recordings compared with those on the sand isthmus. Other pieces of tile, with textile impressions on their concave sides, and gray in colour, apparently old-fashioned, lay at 1 m. depth in rainwash 25 m. north of the group described. These tiles evidently mark an occupation level, most likely fishermen's huts of the Yuan or later period; some of the fishermen may even have been using pieces of porcelain left behind by the Sung court after its retreat from the Kowloon district to its final end on the Ngai Mun mouth of the West River. The accumulation of rainwash over this level points to the island's deforestation as having started about the Sung period, when Chinese immigration from the north had increased the population, and with it the demand for timber and firewood, as the log runways on the Lantau hills testify.\n\nPUMICE\n\nAn interesting feature of the site is a layer, roughly 32 cm. thick, and from 75 to 107 cm. from the surface, containing fairly numerous rolled pebbles of pumice, stained yellow by the sand. It is confined to the east shore of the isthmus. This layer evidently points to an eruption that took place in Japan or the Philippines, possibly submarine, and coming from a magma of the acid type rather than the basic, from which the 'froth' was expelled by explosions, and was drifted by wind and currents on to the Tung Kwu beach. Similar beds of ancient pumice are found at eight other sites in the Colony, very likely more, and give a very useful datum line for correlation, like a zone fossil in geology.\n\nThis holds good also in some sites on the Tonkin (North Vietnam) coast visited by Dr. Andersson in 1938; his results were published in the Stockholm journal of the Museum of Far Eastern", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206787, "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": 64, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "PERSIANS, ARABS AND OTHER NATIONALS IN T’ANG CHINA: \n\nTHEIR STATUS, ACTIVITIES AND \n\nCONTRIBUTIONS \n\nCHIU LING-YEONG* \n\nThe rise of Li Yüan in A.D. 618 marked the beginning of a dynasty which was destined to become a model in later ages. The Chinese were and still are proud to be called T’ang-jen1 because it was this dynasty which extended Chinese territory beyond the Pamirs over the states of the Oxus Valley and even over the upper waters of the Indus in modern Afghanistan. The administrative protectorate of An-hsi (Pacify the West) was set up in the Tarim Basin, paralleling the administrative protectorate of An-nan (Pacify the South), which had been set up earlier in North Vietnam and which eventually gave its name to the whole region of Annam. There were also An-pei (Pacify the North) in Mongolia; and An-tung (Pacify the East) in South Manchuria.2 \n\nT'ang Tai-tsung subjugated the Eastern Turks in A.D. 630 and he himself took the title of \"Heavenly Khan\" of the Turks. After a series of campaigns between A.D. 630 and A.D. 648, the Western Turks also yielded their submission to the T'ang Empire. China by then had embraced nearly the whole of Central Asia: or as Sir Aurel Stein called it, Serindia. These are the glories which have long been inscribed in many Chinese minds. \n\nT'ang China enjoyed nearly three hundred kaleidoscopic years. In these three hundred years, envoys, clerics, students, merchants and others from different parts of Asia poured into the main Chinese cities. The greatest envoy to come to T'ang China was perhaps Pērōz, son of King Yazdgard III and scion of the Sasanids.4 With regard to clerics, Indian Buddhists were in abundance. There were also Persian priests of varying faiths: the Magus for whom the Mazdean temple in Ch'ang-an was rebuilt in A.D. 631; the Nestorian, honoured by the erection of a church in A.D. 628; the \n\n* Dr. Chiu is Senior Lecturer in Chinese History in the University of Hong Kong. His article \"The Debate on National Salvation: Ho Kai versus Tsang Chi-tung\" appeared in Volume 11 (1971) of the Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208210, "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-1977", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nNatrix aequifasciata Barbour\n\n233\n\nThe first specimen of this species known from Hong Kong was sent to me by the Police on 8 May 1978 for identification. It is a juvenile, having bitten the boy who caught it in a stream near Shing Mun Reservoir in the New Territories on 7 May 1978.\n\nA second specimen, also immature, was kindly given to me by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger. He had found it inside a tunnel in a catchment channel near Shek Kong Village in the New Territories while collecting at night on 17 June 1978.\n\nAccording to Pope (1935, p.95), Natrix aequifasciata is an inhabitant of mountain brooks and is known from various localities in Kwangsi, Kwangtung, Hainan, and Fukien in China. In a recent publication (Anon., 1977), it is listed also for Yunnan, Kweichow, Kiangsi, and Chekiang provinces in China.\n\nOpisthotropis balteatus (Cope)\n\nOn 25 May 1977 I received a live immature female of this snake from Mr. R. J. Clibborn-Dyer, who had found it early that day on the Ting Kok Road close to Shuen Wan in the New Territories. The place where this specimen was found was beside an abandoned waterlogged paddy-field, through which a stream flowed into the sea.\n\nOpisthotropis balteatus is known to occur in Southern China (including Hainan), Vietnam, and Cambodia. It frequents mountain streams, and Pope (1935, p.168) concludes it to be an inhabitant of low to moderate altitudes.\n\nOpisthotropis kuatunensis Pope\n\nTwo immature specimens of this little-known snake were given to me by Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee, who collected them in the central area of the New Territories mainland. The first was found at about midnight on 16/17 November 1974 in a catchment channel near Shek Kong Village. The second he found on the night of 13/14 July 1978 in a stream at an altitude estimated to be about 823 metres on Tai Mo Shan.\n\nThe type and fifteen paratypes of this species were collected by Pope in Chungan Hsien in north-western Fukien, China. In describing the habits of Opisthotropis kuatunensis, Pope (1935, p.170) remarks that: ‘... it inhabits the highest forest cascades of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208486, "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-1978", "page_number": 210, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "194 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nare in rural areas. The major Sheng Gong cult temple in Taiwan is in Taiwan City, from which place his portable image is taken by sedan chair to other cult temples in the vicinity to renew the efficacy of the images there. Evidence of the presence of his cult has been seen, too, by the writer in Sarawak, Brunei and Indonesia, in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.\n\nSheng Gong is a comparatively little used short form for the local Fujian cult of Guang Ze Zun Wang (廣澤尊王) whose full personal name was Guo Zhong-fu (郭忠福) and who is equally well known as Guo Sheng Wang Gong (郭聖王公); hence the \"Sheng Gong.\" He has some half a dozen other titles but all with a very limited local use, apart from Bao An Zun Wang (保安尊王). This is occasionally included in the title of his temple (*\n\nas compared with the more popular title of the Phoenix Mountain Temple (鳳山寺). He should not be confused with another and entirely different Fujian local cult deity, Hui Ze Zun Wang(惠澤尊王)\n\nThe Saintly Guo's image is not difficult to recognise as it has certain characteristics which, whilst not individually unique, together identify him at a glance. He has a youthful, clean-shaven face; is seated dressed in robes over armour with his right foot raised parallel to the ground, pointing towards his left leg at knee height. His face is a dark red and he has protruding round eyes.\n\nThere are two images of the Saintly Guo in the one temple in North Point, Hong Kong. One is the main, large image swathed in embroidered robes donated by devotees, and the other is a small wooden carving on the main altar before and between Guo and his consort. Neither were easy to photograph, and therefore I have gone through some old photographs, the best of which is to be seen at illustration at the back of this volume.* In this photograph Guo is the main deity on the altar of a temple in Seremban, West Malaysia, flanked by two other images of another Fujian local cult, Fa Zhu Gong (法主公). Guo is prayed to for the usual blessings though in certain temples he is specifically looked upon as a healer of the sick, a protector of children and as a wealth god for businessmen. He is also the patron of those who bear the same surname as himself.\n\n* Plate 22.\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208876, "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-1980", "page_number": 38, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "10\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nInside the library large cases of books cover the walls and some books, used more frequently, are individually wrapped in cloth and lie on tables and altars. The larger monasteries have rooms for the aged, and most have halls where ashes of devotees may be deposited.\n\nIn general, a visit to a Buddhist monastery would take you first past the shrine of the folk religion tutelary deity of the neighbourhood, the Earth God (1✯✯). (Illustration 3) Once through the gates and the entrance hall with its six \"guardians” (Mi Luo Fu, Wei Tuo and the Four Heavenly Kings) the layout follows a fairly standard pattern. The main altar will be straight ahead in the Great Hall which houses the main Buddhas. The main altar may be occupied by a single image, a group of three, or an array of a dozen or so. On and along the secondary altars, altars down the side walls and side halls there are images of other lesser deities. These, in twelve monasteries and temples in Hong Kong and Macau, include the well-known groups of eighteen or five hundred Luohan. Frequently, immediately behind the main altar and back to back with the main deity, stands the most popular and honoured of the Bodhisattvas, Guan Yin, with her two assistants.\n\nMahayana Buddhist temples contain a large number of images of Buddhas and major Bodhisattvas, some of which are considered to be more important than the image of Sakyamuni Buddha himself, unlike the Theravada Buddhist temples of Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Srilanka in which Sakyamuni is the most important.\n\nThere appears to be only one temple in Hong Kong in which Lamaist images are worshipped, although there is one other, above Tsuen Wan, where in a private room, some forty or so Lamaist bronze images are on display.* The temple in which the Lamaist images appear on its altars is a shoddy, fairly modern concrete and corrugated iron construction above a new estate in North Point, where an elderly and now deceased Cantonese gentleman settled after spending some years in Tibet. Most devotees appear to have little idea of the style or origins of imagery, and the rituals and ceremonies performed in the temple by the widow of the founder are identical with those in other temples in Hong Kong.\n\n* Guan Yin temple in Fu Yung Shan,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208934, "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-1980", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "64\n\nLEWIS M. CHERE\n\nIt is because these questions cannot be answered yet, and because they are so significant for a better understanding of the development of Chinese nationalism, and the history of the European presence on the China Coast, that this article has been written. In answering these questions I believe that scholars of Hong Kong's history will be performing a service for all scholars of Chinese History, as well as proving that events in Hong Kong really have been of much more significance than they have previously been given credit for.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 G. B. Endacott, A History of Hong Kong, 2nd ed. (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1973), pp. 208-9.\n\n2 Geoffrey Robley Sayer, Hong Kong, 1862-1919: Years of Discretion ed., with additional notes by D. M. Emrys Evans (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1975).\n\n*\n\n* Endacott, p. 209.\n\n4 James Hayes, \"A Short History of Military Volunteers in Hong Kong,\" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 11 (1971): 151-71.\n\n* James William Norton-Kyshe, The History of the Laws and Courts of Hongkong. 2 vols. (London: T. F. Unwin, 1898), 2:376-67.\n\n+ +\n\nFor the problems which Britain's involvement caused her, see my forthcoming \"Great Britain and the Sino-French War: The Problems of an Involved Neutral, 1883-1885\", Selected Papers, The Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, 1980.\n\n* See the Census of Hong Kong for 3rd April, 1881, published in the Hongkong Government Gazette, 11th June 1881. There were then 91,452 men out of a total Chinese population of 150,690.\n\n• Endacott, p. 209; Parkes to Granville, no. 226 October 15, 1884, Great Britain. Public Records Office. FO 227/2715, pp. 12-15.\n\n• For more complete information on the Sino-French War see: Lloyd E. Eastman, Throne and Mandarins: China's Search for a Policy During the Sino-French Controversy, 1880-1885 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1967); Henry McAleavy, Black Flags in Vietnam: the Story of a Chinese Intervention (New York: Macmillan, 1968), Ella S. Laffey, \"Relations Between Chinese Provincial Officials and the Black Flag Army, 1883-1885,\" (PhD dissertation, Cornell University, 1971); or my own \"The Diplomacy of the Sino-French War (1883-1885): Finding a Way Out of an Unwanted, Undeclared War,\" (PhD dissertation, Washington State University, 1978).\n\n10 A translated copy of the poison proclamation is in FO 227/2714, pp. 35-7; for Chang's defense of it see FO 227/2715, pp. 10-12.\n\n11 North China Herald, October 8, 1884, reprints an account from the Straits Times.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210001, "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": 260, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "247\n\nTHE CULTIVATION OF THE \"INCENSE TREE” (AQUILARIA SINENSIS).\n\nJU KOW-CHOY\n\nThere are several popular theories concerning the origin of the name Hong Kong (#). One is based on the legend of a female pirate named \"Heung Ku\" (Aunty Heung, ). A second relates to a hill on Hong Kong Island Hung Heung Lo Shan (Red Incense Burner Hill). A third refers to the stream near Pokfulam which provided a source of \"Fresh and Fragrant Water\" to passing ships in the old days. Professor Lo Hsiang-lin and Madam Chang Yuet-ngo, however, consider that the name was derived from the Incense Tree or Heung Tree.* A book by Professor Lo and colleagues published in 1959 and entitled Hong Kong and its External Communication before 1842, includes a chapter on \"The Cultivation and Exportation of Incense\", a summary of which follows:-\n\n\"Incense\" is a product of the southern part of Kwangtung Province. There are several varieties, each from different species of trees. The general name of the varieties of incense (solidified wood sap), produced in Tung Kwun and Po On districts, which included Hong Kong and the New Territories in those days, was \"Kuan-heung\" from Incense Tree (Aquilaria Sinensis Gilg). Originally a native of Tonkin (North Vietnam), it was introduced to Kwangtung during the Tang Dynasty (619-907 A.D.). In Hong Kong, the best brand was produced in Lik Yuen (now Shatin) and Sha Lo Wan (the western seaboard of Lantau Island).\n\nThe successful cultivation of the Incense Tree depends on three conditions. Firstly, suitability of soil; secondly, adoption of proper cultivation methods; and thirdly, the mastering of tapping and cutting techniques.\n\n\"Kuan-heung\" was highly valued by the people of the provinces of Kwangtung, Kiangsu, and Chekiang, who used large quantities annually. Locally, the produce was collected by the\n\nSee Plates 18-19.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210012, "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": 270, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "248\n\nagents of incense merchants and conveyed by land to Tsim Sha Tau (now Tsim Sha Tsui) whence it was transported by junks to Shek Pai Wan (now Aberdeen) and thence to mainland China, southeast Asia and places as far away as Arabia. Hence Shek Pai Wan was known as \"Incense Harbour\" or \"Heong Kong” the harbour of Incense or \"Heung\" produce, and the whole island eventually came to be known as \"Hong Kong”. \n\nThe cultivation and trade in \"Kuan-heung\" reached the height of its prosperity during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.). However, during the reign of Emperor K'ang Hsi (R) of the Ch'ing Dynasty (1662-1722 A.D.), the Manchus, as a preventive measure against counter attacks from Taiwan, where Cheng Shing-kung (*), a faithful vassal of the Ming Dynasty still held sway, adopted a \"scorched earth strategy\" by destroying everything within 50 Li (Chinese miles) of the coast, including incense trees, before the inhabitants were evacuated inland. Thus the industry suffered a stunning blow, and then, as the coastal areas were subsequently infested by pirates, its doom was finally sealed. \n\nThe \"Incense Tree\" (**, £*) is a medium-sized evergreen tree with a small compact crown. Leaves are oval in shape, about 6 cm long and 3 cm wide, with a pointed tip, and shiny on both surfaces. Flowers are small, scented yellowish-green, borne in clusters on the ends of the branch, and open in May. The fruit is a woody capsule, shaped like a compressed egg about 3 cm long, densely covered with short grey hairs and can be seen dangling from the branch tips when ripe. It is a rather slow-growing, insignificant tree whose presence in the open countryside is often masked by more vigorous plants. \n\nThe statement that it was introduced from North Vietnam must be questioned. Aquilaria sinensis is in fact a species indigenous throughout this region, and it may be found growing wild in many different places and at different altitudes in Hong Kong. The misunderstanding may have been caused by the reference to another incense-producing tree (Aquilaria agallocha) which was commonly grown in the western part of Kwangtung, and in Hainan Island, North Vietnam and Thailand. \n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210388, "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": 359, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "338\n\nthem extensively. All the standard secondary sources are consulted, and many from Vietnamese scholars' writing about their own past. For primary sources Chinese dynastic histories form a large part of his listing; and he includes five Vietnamese language sources (from Saigon, Taipei, and the Toyo Bunko) which this reviewer is unable to assess.\n\nOne interesting theme which emerges from this valuable work is the arrival and acceptance of Buddhism, and the manner in which it incorporates into Vietnamese society along with Taoism and Confucianism. He demonstrates quite convincingly that Vietnamese Buddhism owes much to early missionaries coming directly from India: “... as late as T'ang times, the primary Buddhist influence was by sea from southeast India rather than overland from north India; Buddhist images from the T'ang period excavated in Kuang-si display resemblance to the Javanese style of Borobadur and are very different from the Gandharan-style images found in northwest China”. (p. 83-84) Even that early Buddhism seemed to align itself with village animism and became popular with farmers who saw in it certain advantages for success in the agricultural cycle which governed their lives.\n\nAnother important theme of the book that tends to demonstrate the strength of Vietnamese against the growing sinicization is \"familism”, a term much used by other scholars (see for example Alexander Woodside's several works, especially his Vietnam and the Chinese Model, Cambridge, 1970). Relationships within the family were always stronger than the relationship of subject to emperor. And to a great extent society was ruled and held together by the \"glue\" of family loyalty while the trappings of the imperial court and mandarinate seemed remote, certainly, always, from the village horizons.\n\nFamilism gave a certain strength and vitality to Vietnamese society which enabled it to cope with the periodic changes in the Chinese overlordship, as for example between the end of the Han and the consolidation of the Sui-T'ang control; and in the post-T'ang period when independence came. In these periods of weakened control by China the \"ineffectiveness of court appointed governors in the face of powerful local families” (p. 132) was obvious.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210781, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "HAINAN ISLAND: \n\nA BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH \n\nD.L. MICHALK* \n\n115 \n\nIntroduction \n\nHainan Island forms the extreme southern limit of the People's Republic of China, save for the Paracel Reefs. Sometimes referred to as the Tail of the Dragon, Hainan lies between longitudes 108°30′ and 111° east and latitudes 18° and 20°31' north. It is separated from the mainland by the 25 km Qiongzhou Straits, and is part of Guangdong, accounting for 15 percent of the Province's area. Located in the South China Sea, Hainan is about 300 km east of Vietnam across the Gulf of Tonkin, some 500 km southwest of Hong Kong, and a similar distance from the provincial capital, Guangzhou. \n\nHainan is oval-shaped with the longest NE to SW axis measuring 309 km and the shorter NW to SE axis, 221 km. With an area of 34,077 km2 (Anon., 1982b), Hainan is about half the size of Tasmania and ranks as the world's twenty-sixth largest island. Although it accounts for less than 1 per cent of China's land area, its tropical climate, rich mineral and petroleum resources and strategic location make it an important, yet undeveloped region of China. \n\nHainan has always been regarded as a backwater by successive Chinese dynasties and a mystery to foreigners. Indeed, had it not been for a handful of inquisitive academics and devoted missionaries who \"found Hainan\" around the turn of the century, our knowledge of the island would have amounted to little more than folklore. Using these western sources, the aim of this paper is to provide a brief insight into the history of Hainan, particularly the role played by foreigners in its development. \n\n* Senior research agronomist, Agricultural Research and Veterinary Centre, New South Wales Department of Agriculture.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211310, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "worlds’ at sea. Each was as specifically demarcated by its own rhythms, customs, and dialects as its counterpart on the shore and so different were the language, social customs, and sailing patterns of the pirates in Chekiang and Fukien from those of Kwangtung that, in the end, it seemed logical to divide the topic and focus my endeavors solely upon piracy within “the Cantonese Water World”. To what was its spectacular growth of piracy owing? Can it be attributed to ecological or environmental factors?\n\nThe growth of piracy in the Cantonese water world\n\nCertainly, the geography of the Sino-Vietnamese border was ideal for piracy. The region’s plethora of wide, navigable rivers ensured that most of its commerce would be conducted by boat while its long broken coast with its myriad of coves and bays, held out plenty of shelter to any would-be pirate.\n\nIn terms of political geography the region was also well-suited to piracy, for the Sino-Vietnamese border was a region to which the arm of the law scarcely reached. The Chinese government’s writ of authority gradually expired in proportion to the distance one moved west along the coast from Canton to Vietnam while that of the Vietnamese expired as one moved east along the coast from Hue and Hanoi, and the authority of both faded quickly as one moved seaward from the shore. Adding to the administrative complexity was the fact that this region, unified in so many ways by patterns of livelihood and local affinity, was split politically by the international boundary that transected it. Early on, wily outlaws had learned how to survive by crossing back and forth between its differing jurisdictions which served mainly to hinder pursuit.\n\nTo an already superb geography, the economies of the water world added another prerequisite for piracy: waterways abounding with traffic on which to prey. Over the sea lanes moved a continuous progression of merchandise and passengers moving hither and thither from port to port. The wealth of the region was legendary. Commerce was its lifeblood, and fortunes could be made by fitting out ships, purchasing cargoes, or servicing those engaged in such pursuits.\n\nYet, for all the legitimate commerce that took place across its waters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212486, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "20\n\nexport nature of their business required some familiarity with the commodities traded. Fourth, some of the businesses had associate firms (lianhao) in Hong Kong. This suggests a network of business connections which may have existed prior to the merchants' departure from China. The more successful merchants also established their own associate firms in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, San Francisco, and even Yokohama, indicating they had associates who were knowledgeable in Chinese business practice. Table 3 shows Hong Kong merchants were connected with a lot of countries particularly between 1891 and 1900. The close business connections between Hong Kong, Canton, Macau, and Shanghai formed an important business area. The inseparable economic ties between Hong Kong and Canton, with Hong Kong serving as the entrepot - importing goods for Canton merchants to distribute to the mainland and exporting goods that Canton had collected from inland. It is noteworthy that some of the importing and exporting firms in Hong Kong were not only engaged in business with China but also with America and Southeast Asia. For example, the trade in rice, a staple food of the vast Chinese population, was of great importance to the Chinese both at home and abroad. Li Chit, an import and export rice merchant, held a lot of shares of different businesses in different countries. He had opened a rice shop in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, in which he had invested $4,000. He also invested capital in three rice shops, mainly located in Sheung Wan, for a total sum of $2,500 plus 500 taels. He also had a rice and Annam goods dealing company in Vietnam, suggesting the rice\n\nTable 3\nBusinesses Owned by Hong Kong Merchants\n\n1850-70\n1871-80\n1881-90\n1891-1900\n1901-1906\n\nCanton\n2(?)\n4(?)\n6(6)\n6(?)\n\nMacau\n\n2(2)\n4(4)\n2(?)\n\nShanghai\n\n1(1)\n2(2)\n\nRest of China\n1(?)\n1(?)\n++\n2(2)\n\nJapan\n▬\n\n1(?)\n\nSoutheast Asia\n\n4(6)\n3(8)\n\nAustralia\n\nNorth America\n\nEurope\n\nTotal\n1\n1(1)\n3(7)\n358\n1(2)\n\n1(2)\n5\n11\n22\n\n14\n\nnote: () number of businesses; ? uncertain\n\nSource: HKRS#144", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213187, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1994/95\n\nMay I welcome all of you here this evening, the 35th gathering since the resuscitation of the Society in 1960.\n\nFor me one of life's real pleasures is to be a member of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) and I hope that this feeling of enjoyment is shared by all of you this evening. It is not idle enjoyment, it is of the active voluntary kind, which stimulates the mind, and gives you insight into areas of activity which you would not normally tread into given the very busy lives which most of us lead in Hong Kong. In other words most of us make time to come to the activities of the Society, because we know that when we come to hear a talk or go on an activity we will learn something we did not know before, or are given some insight into Hong Kong's history which is much more fascinating than many of us imagine.\n\nThese words, although they may be obvious to some, are worth saying because it gives me a lead into the very active programme which we have had since I last reported to you this time last year. At that time I said I thought we had had one of the most active years ever, but looking at this last year we seemed to have even surpassed last year. We have had no less than seventeen lectures, fifteen visits to various parts of Hong Kong and two very successful visits: one to North Vietnam, and I am very pleased to see so many Vietnamese veterans here this evening and one to North Taiwan; the former organised by Dr. Patrick Hase and the other by Mr. Keith Stevens. (Some of us did our best to conquer the Perfume Pagoda high in the Vietnamese hills but lack of time and breath in some cases prevented us from reaching the top, and seeing members of the Society sitting and wobbling precariously in a Vietnamese sampan trying to eat a picnic lunch out of a box without falling into the water was something which is not easily forgotten by those who had the privilege of seeing them). For the success of the talks and visits we have to thank the very active Programme Committee, i.e. Mrs. Rosemary Lee, Rev. Carl Smith, Dr. Patrick Hase, Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Mr. Geoffrey Roper, Dr. Dan Waters, Mr. Philip Bruce, Dr. Michael Lau and Dr. Joseph Ting. They have really done a splendid job.\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213188, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "Visits:\n\nYin Tin Tsa, Sai Kung for annual Roman Catholic Church festival\n\n1994\n\n16 April\n\nPo For Island\n\n1 May\n\n16 July\n\n20 September\n\n21 September\n\n5 November\n\n26 November\n\n3 December\n\n10 December\n\nMa Po Marshes with shump supper (repeated in September)\n\nTai Hang Fire Dragon Dance\n\nMonkey God Festival at Sau Mau Ping\n\nSwire Institute of Marine Science, Cape D'Aguilar Tung Lung Island\n\nHK Zoological and Botanical Gardens\n\nExhibition of Contemporary Chinese Oil Paintings - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University\n\n17 December\n\nShing Mun Redoubt\n\n1995\n\n18 February\n\nSai Ying Pun Guided Walk\n\n4 March\n\nLei Yue Mun Headland\n\nVisits outside Hong Kong:\n\n1994\n\nOctober\n\n1995\n\nNorth Vietnam\n\nMarch\n\nTemples of South Taiwan\n\nOf course we must also thank all those who took time to lecture to us and let me read out a list of those\n\nLectures:\n\n1994\n\n15 April\n\nGreat Monuments of India. Dr. Shobita Punja\n\n13 May\n\n20 May\n\n17 June\n\nTurbans and Traders HK's Indian Communities Ms Barbara-Sue White\n\nTo the Farthest Port of the Rich East Salem's China Trade and the East India Marine Society Mr William Sargent\n\nPregnancy and Childbirth in Hong Kong Ms Diana Martin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213271, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 93, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "73\n\nOne would expect in Japan, a country that has adopted so much of its culture from China, that people believe in fung shui. It was introduced there during the Tang Dynasty, and, in the 'Land of the Rising Sun', it is called in Japanese (using the Cantonese pronunciation) fong wai hok (the 'School of Direction'). But the art is not nearly so common as in Chinese communities, and, while it is sometimes used for designing commercial buildings, harmonious gardens and landscapes in Japan, it is not used for graves. The cities of Nara and Kyoto are said to have good fung shui and this was also supposed to have been a consideration when the Imperial Palace was planned.\n\nFung shui, as practised in Vietnam, is closer to the Chinese doctrine than the Japanese version, and in Vietnam some cities, as in China, are said to have been planned according to geomantic principles and the power of nature.\n\nIn China, both Peking and the Forbidden City were laid out on fung shui principles. The latter was planned as a cross superimposed on a square. The chessboard or grid pattern, and the north-south axis and gates at four quarters were considered important, as were the three encircling walls allowing for circulation. All these provide balance, harmony and protection against both the enemy and evil spirits. In the eyes of the Chinese, when the Forbidden City was planned the world was square, and, consequently, most walled villages are also square. The whole idea of considering balance and form, including a variety of shapes, sizes, together with 'open lungs', is not inconsistent with the ideas of modern planning.\n\nIt has even been postulated that, in the 17th century, once the Jesuit missionaries had gained the confidence of the Emperor in China, they tried to have fung shui stamped out. Yet some Jesuits took fung shui ideas back to Europe, some claim, where the priests used the principles for laying out parks (Pennick; 1979).\n\nKorea has the 'symbol of creation' (yin and yang) on its national flag, and its version of fung shui is similar to the Chinese version (Yau, 1976-passim).\n\nTo mention, briefly, additional examples. In Malaysia, a site that faces a river or a valley is considered good for building a house. In Africa,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213317, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "120\n\nThe First China War was the culmination of many years of irksome restraint. The British, as did other nations, objected strongly to being treated and listed with Burma, Vietnam and Korea as tribute bearers. The immediate cause was the destruction of all the opium in Canton brought in by foreigners and in 1840 the Chinese fleet attacked a British warship, followed by, amongst other incidents, Canton being bombarded by the British, and the war was on. Palmerston was Prime Minister in Britain during this, the First China War, now possibly better known as the first of the two Opium Wars. It began with a desultory naval engagement and little further happened until Major General Sir Hugh Gough arrived from Madras in March of 1841. The British plan was, first, to capture Chusan island off the coast of Chekiang to use as a pawn in the demand for Chinese agreements to British demands. This proved to be a futile gesture and during 1841 and 1842 British forces, with the continued aim of pressuring the Chinese into legitimising foreign trade within China, proceeded to attack several ports one after the other up the China coast, creeping ever further north towards the capital of Peking, causing the Chinese greater apprehension about the future. The campaign eventually ended with the imminent attack on Nanking, the former capital situated on the Yangtze in central China, avoided last minute by the agreement by the Chinese finally to the terms of a treaty signed in August 1842. One of the attacks on the China coast was on the then city of Chapu, which was to be followed up with an attack on Hangchou.\n\nChapu had a tolerable harbour, with a great rise and fall of tide, so much so that the smaller junks were left high and dry at low water. Together with its suburbs the town, perhaps five miles in circuit built in a square and intersected by numerous canals, lay about half a mile from the coast. The Reverend Gutzlaff in his third voyage up the China coast in January 1833 arrived in Chapu and described the surrounding countryside as the Chinese Arcadia with nothing able to exceed its beautiful and picturesque appearance. He further described the canals, neat roads, plantations and conspicuous buildings, adding that the whole country (of China) from the Yellow River south was flat until one came to the high lands which formed the harbour of Chapu city. The sea, he added, was receding from the land and flats had formed along the shore, visible at low water and constituting a barrier to the whole coast. Gutzlaff found nowhere so much openness and kindness, the (residents') intelligent questions respecting Britain were endless with them never seeming to be satiated with (British) company.\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213369, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "176\n\nIn the 2nd year of the reign of Tung Chih (1863), he assisted in commanding the Hung-tan Fleet to defend Chin-kiang. Because of his bravery, he was granted the title of Tsung-bing. In the 5th moon of that year, he was transferred back to Kwangtung.\n\nIn the 4th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1865), he was appointed to be the Deputy Fu-cheong of Lung Mun. Next year, he patrolled in the coastal waters near Tsui Mun, north of Hainan Island, and captured the pirates Mak Cheong-yau, Yeung Wong (楊旺), Fan Chau-bong (范周邦) and Szeto Shing (司徒成). In the 6th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1867), he was transferred to be the Ngai Chau Fu-cheong. In the 7th year of the reign of Tung Chih (1868), while patrolling along the coast of Hainan Island, he captured the pirates Chan Hay-fu, Kat Tang-kiu-yeung and Cheung Hoi-mo at Kwangchow Wan. In the 6th moon of that year, he got the pirate Lok Fuk-shing at An Po near Chao-tam-yeung#. After several years of patrolling and fighting, he brought peace to the coastal area of southern China. Then he was sent to Hainan Island where he took part in a successful campaign against the Lai. After that, he was transferred to be the Fu-cheong of the Tai Pang Brigade A, with his headquarters at the Kowloon Walled City. He stayed at this post for 16 years.\n\n6\n\nIn the 9th year of the reign of Kuang Hsu (1883), he was promoted to be the King Chau Tsung-bing. In 1884, when the conflict between the French in Vietnam and the Ching Government aroused, he was transferred to be the Kit-shek Tsung-bing.\n\nIn the 13th year of the reign of Kuang Hsu (1887), he was King Chau Tsung-bing again, until he died a year later, still in post.\n\nDuring his time in Kowloon, he heard of Choi Leung, a native of Tung Kwun, who was a local merchant on the island of Cheung Chau in the Hong Kong region. He was engaged in establishing a charitable hospital and a tomb. The hospital was only a dying house for the poor Chinese to be brought there and die in peace. It was not a hospital in the modern sense. The tomb was the burial place for unidentified persons whose bones were found along the shore of Cheung Chau Island. General Lai got involved with the scheme. He compiled a subscription book and urged contributions by officials, gentries, scholars and merchants to help.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213582, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "148\n\nalthough the woodcutters have left but few trees there and at Wong-nei-chung, yet formerly it grew abundant there. In the time of the Hon Dynasty, this wood, it is said, was highly valued, and formed an article of tribute\" (HKDP, 1873).\n\nThe incense industry received a severe blow from which it never recovered during the coastal evacuation ordered by the emperor K'ang-hsi from 1662-1669. The Kuang-tung hsin-yu notes that, \"there were very few people left after the evacuation, and less than one tenth of the incense growers were left. Most serious of all, old trees had been cut down, and those which were left were only ten to twenty years old”. Those who survived this evacuation experienced another disaster during the reign of Yung-Cheng (1723-1735) when a magistrate, obsessed with a love of high grade incense, killed a number of incense growers. The remaining growers then cut down the rest of their trees and fled (Chang, 1963). The trade in incense wood, however, continued with supplies of sandalwood from New South Wales imported during the nineteenth century and milled into powder by water-powered mills in the Tsuen Wan area. A detailed account of the history of this trade and the manufacture of incense is given in Chan (1989).\n\nThe statement that Aquilaria sinensis is not native but was introduced from North Vietnam is questioned by Iu (1983), as the species appears to be indigenous to Hong Kong and is commonly found in fung shui woods where it freely regenerates to form a component of the subcanopy layer. Dunn and Tutcher (1912) stated that in 1912, in a one-acre plot of fung shui woodland on lower ground in Hong Kong, 31 out of 125 trees examined were Aquilaria sinensis (then known as A. Grandiflora). A report by Nichols (1978) found that at Uk Tau on the Sai Kung peninsula, a third of the trees in the fung shun wood were incense trees, ten times as many as in neighbouring natural woodland, and that an old man in the village said that heung trees were cultivated there in living memory for the incense trade.\n\nBecause a tree was once grown in plantations, of course, has no bearing as to whether or not it is native. Whether or not the present-day incense trees are remnants of former plantations or whether incense trees were ever cultivated in fung shui woods may never be known, but none of the village representatives questioned during a study carried out by the author into fung shui woods between 1990 and 1995 ever", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213583, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "149\n\nmentioned that incense trees in fung shui woods were ever harvested. Iu (1983) claims that the misunderstanding may have been caused by the reference to another incense producing species Aquilaria agallocha which was commonly grown in north Vietnam.\n\nAnother resource, long since exhausted, were the forest trees used for charcoal burning, once a flourishing local industry all over the New Territories. The memory of this occupation remains in one of the place names at Shing Mun, known as Tan Chong or \"charcoal factory”, in which some houses were already abandoned by the early years of this century (Hayes, 1983). An account of the charcoal industry, which was carried out by outsiders for trade, is given by Shen (1971).\n\nThe village hill areas were the main suppliers of fuel, usually in the form of grass cut in autumn, but also as pine and brushwood gathered to augment a villager's income. Firewood was taken to market as it was one of the three basic staples, including rice and vegetables, that was required by the rapidly growing urban population. Firewood from Shatin was brought on foot to Kowloon (Sessional Papers 1903, p209) which list 66,521 loads of firewood, each of 90lbs. The Kowloon Lok Sin Tong levied a small weighing charge on each load of firewood sold in Kowloon City market, for charitable works. The annual output of one acre (0.4ha) was 11 piculs (640kg), (Hong Kong Annual Report 1938 p59). Gathering firewood was the main occupation of the village women. A typical headload would be in region of 90-100lbs (45kg) and would be collected twice a week, (Hayes, 1983).\n\nFirewood was used in earthenware stoves, known as \"feng-lu\", for cooking family meals and special food at festival times. Grass gathered from the hill side in autumn and the stalks from the first crop of rice were the universal fuel used for heating water and pigswill. Firewood was still being used up until 1964 in the urban encroached village of So Uk in west Kowloon for cooking at Chinese New Year, as it was better for baking (Hayes, 1983).\n\nWhen a bride came to live in her husband's village, the older women would show her those areas from which fuel could be gathered and those areas, usually the fung shui woods, where it could not be gathered. This information was often learned by means of a 12 line poem or song to name those areas where the young wife should not gather fuel.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213713, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "37\n\nand Hong Kong) where males found resident in the New Territories were born.\" Females are recorded in addition as born at Lung Chuen, Lo Ting, Ko Chau, and Lei Chau, but in each case only in ones and twos.\n\nIt will be seen that the world of the New Territories villager was effectively bounded by the coastal strip, and the central, Delta, area of Kwangtung Province. The Islands were in contact with other ports from Chiu Chau to Lim Chau, but not much further. Neither the 1911 nor the 1921 Censuses refers to anyone born in Fukien, and there is only a single reference in 1921 to a man born in Vietnam. The coastal trade must have been essentially kept within the bounds of the province, although oral evidence mentions also traders from the very southernmost part of Fukien.\n\nAt the same time, contact seems to have been close and easy with the Pearl River Delta area within 100 miles of the New Territories, but beyond 100 miles contacts were slight. Only one man is recorded from Ho Yuen, Ying Tak, and Yeung Kong. The three recorded in 1911 from Kwangsi fall into the same pattern, as also the single male recorded from Kiangsi in both Censuses. Above 100 miles from the New Territories, the only place with which the New Territories villagers were in significant contact was the Ka Ying area in the upper Han River valley, where the stonecutters and itinerant weavers came from, although oral evidence suggests that the villagers knew the name of the area, but not much more.\n\nIt will be clear from Table 13 that the New Territories was in particularly close contact with a zone no more than about 50 miles wide, i.e., the districts of Kwai Shin (Wai Chau), San On (Po On), Tung Kun, Nam Hoi and Pun Yue (the Canton City and suburban districts), Heung Shan (Chung Shan), Shun Tak, and San Wui (Kongmoon). The villagers' contacts with Central and North China was almost non-existent.\n\nMany villagers emigrated for part of their life, but almost always without their families, and the contacts of the New Territories villagers with the wider world outside China is, as a consequence, understated in Table 13. The 1911 Census, however, mentions males born in Honolulu, the Philippines, and Malaya, and the 1921 Census adds individuals born in Japan, Italy, and USA. Probably, by 1911, the New Territories villager was more in contact", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214113, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "150\n\neve of the Mid-Autumn Festival. In recent years visits have also been paid to such destinations as Taiwan, Vietnam and various parts of China.\n\nBefore looking in greater detail at what the Hong Kong Branch (RASHKB) does, let us review briefly the history of the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS 1979).\n\nHistory\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in London in 1823, and it received its Charter of Incorporation as a Royal Society the following year. It is the oldest and most important learned society of its kind in Europe, and it is the doyen of societies promoting the study of Asia. Its membership has included generations of eminent scholars and explorers with a deep understanding of the East.\n\nA large part of the Society's work has, however, always been carried out through its branches and affiliated societies. Branches were formed in such places as Bombay and Madras about 1838, and in Ceylon in 1845. The Hong Kong Branch followed in 1847, the North China Branch at Shanghai in 1857, the Japanese in 1875, the Malayan in 1878 and the Korean in 1900 (RAS1979: 15). Such countries as Japan and Korea were never, of course, part of the British Empire, and, in any case, British territory today is reduced to a few small pink dots on the map; such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar. Thus the RAS can now be thought of, very much, as an international organisation rather than as being purely British.\n\nAlthough the Hong Kong Branch was first established in 1847, it ran into difficulties and, consequently, ceased to exist after the end of 1859. It was, nevertheless, resuscitated a century later (Hayes 1997: 129).\n\nAchievements\n\nGoing back to the middle of the last century, although the Branch was comparatively short-lived, it was nonetheless productive. With its emphasis on practical projects one of the most conspicuous notches in its belt must have been the proposal that a piece of land be requested", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214894, "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": 309, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "283\n\nTHE HKBRAS TRIP TO VIETNAM BETWEEN 30 SEPTEMBER AND 6 OCTOBER 2000\n\nCRYSTAL TANG\n\nTo take advantage of the two holidays, the Royal Asiatic Society's all overseas visit took place from September 30 to October 6, 2000 to Central Vietnam. Under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Hase, there were 20 of us in total; we started off our trip in the cosmopolitan south - Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam until 1975, when it collapsed along with the anti-communist resistance struggle, now bears the name of Ho Chi Minh City,\n\nWe stayed overnight at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel facing the beautiful Saigon River. Everyone in the group had a superb view from their rooms. Ho Chi Minh City is definitely a city on the move with its throngs of scooters, cycles, bicycles and cars running endlessly on the streets even at midnight. What an experience to cross the street there - you take your life into your own hands, it's entirely up to the pedestrian to avoid the traffic, not the other way round. According to the vice chairman of the Road Transport Administration of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, \"traffic accidents are a bigger threat in Vietnam than the AIDS virus\". I'm glad I came back to Hong Kong alive.\n\nAfter dinner, I strolled along the streets near our Hotel. In a sense the French presence remains, lingering not only in the minds of the older generation but physically in the legacy of the colonial architecture and the long tree-lined avenues, streets and highways they left behind.\n\nThe next day we arrived in Hue. Hue is one of the few ancient capital cities of the world that maintains today a cultural heritage of national and international importance. On making Hue the capital of Vietnam early in the 19th century, the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) constructed here a complete urban complex in which the Perfume River played a vital role. Fortifications and palaces, where the Court held office and the Royal family lived, are built on the north bank of the river. Here exist three walled enclosures and hundreds of palaces and buildings. UNESCO declared these monuments in Hue World Cultural Heritage sites in 1993.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214897, "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": 312, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "286\n\nOur fourth day started at 8.00 a.m. as we headed off to Danang via Hai Van Pass. The scenic ride took us up the mountains, travelling from north to south through Cloudy Pass (Hai Van). This pass was established under the Minh Mang dynasty and the fortresses here were strategic points during the war for the defence by the French and Vietnamese soldiers. But all these monuments were badly damaged during the American War. En route, we also saw the beautiful Lang Co Beach, a resort area, as well as the \"Reunification Express\" train passing through one of the level crossings. Our coach stopped to enable us to obtain a picture of this historic train, which is still powered by steam! Finally, we arrive at Danang for a quick lunch followed by a tour of the Cham Museum.\n\nDanang, the provincial capital, has grown from a small fishing village into an important port and the country's fourth-largest city with 400,000 inhabitants. It is the port where 3,500 American marines first set foot in South Vietnam, on 8th March 1965. In the 17th and 18th centuries the first Spanish and French landings were also made here. Subsequently, Danang became the scene of battles between the Vietnamese, who fought first the Spanish and later the French. In the course of the 19th century Danang superseded Hoi An as the most important port and commercial centre in the central region of the country.\n\nThe Danang area was the centre of the Cham civilization, from the fourth to the eighth centuries. The Cham museum was set up in 1936 by the Ecole Francaise D'Extreme Orient. Its extensive collection is displayed in four rooms featuring the following four periods according to their origins: My Son, Tra Kieu, Dong Duong and Thap Mam. The different influences, which shaped the culture and history of the Cham people, are revealed through their sculpture and carvings. The Cham Museum provides an insight into the fascinating culture and history of the Cham people. Many statues and bas reliefs attest to the rich culture of the kingdom which once flourished there and one realizes the worship of Buddhism and Hinduism was prevalent at that time.\n\nAfter the Cham Museum off we went to Marble Mountain. Five miles south of Danang towards the coast stand five large hills known as the Marble Mountains or Mountains of the Five Elements (gold, metal, wood, fire and earth). These mountains were once a group of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215332, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "57\n\nnot orthodox spirits shen\n\nbut dark spirits. Yinshen, the ghosts of those who have died a violent death before their due date.\n\nChinese usually describe this group, in English, as the 108 Martyrs. They are never portrayed as images and tend to be regarded more as public worthies, folk hero \"ethnic group\" ancestors rather than deities. The tablet is very similar to the ancestral tablet and simply states that it is the 'Tablet to the One Hundred and Eight Brothers'. It is venerated and although the spirits of the brothers are occasionally asked for advice by devotees they are not usually prayed to for major requests or protection, although in Java in one temple the tablet was prayed to by seafarers before they set out on a long journey. Their festival, simple and not in any way lavish, is generally celebrated on the 15th day of the tenth lunar month, though in Singapore it is held on the 3rd of the eighth lunar month.\n\nThe question is, who were the One Hundred and Eight Brothers? Three separate versions of the story of their demise have each been recounted with great solemnity, conviction and confidence by temple keepers in Java, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and even in a Chinese temple in Bali. In Penang the story centres on a junk-load of Hainanese immigrants heading for South-east Asia which never arrived. One version claims that they were mistaken for pirates and wiped out by the 'French' [sic] navy off Annam or the 'British' off Malaya again having been mistaken for pirates. Another version suggests that they were all drowned during a typhoon off the southern tip of what is now Vietnam, and yet another that they were annihilated by Chinese government forces off the Leizhou peninsular immediately north of Hainan when, again, they were mistaken for pirates.12 The third story is that they were the original immigrants from Fujian province who arrived in Hainan to settle but all died in Hainan from disease or at the hands of the aborigines. A twist to the version heard in Penang claimed that the typhoon which sank the junk in the South China Seas drowned all but one of the one hundred and nine aboard, one small boy being saved after days of drifting on wreckage. He then died in Malaya at a ripe old age.\n\n12\n\nOne hundred and eight is a secret symbolic number used by secret societies, and one of the Triad gangs in British Malaya was known as the 'One Hundred and Eight Society.' with a devotee in Seremban", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]