[ { "id": 211016, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "53\n\nhowever, it is interesting to note that Mok's universe of persons and occupations encompasses such categories, as well as the more pragmatically justified \"Broker\", \"Interpreter\", \"Agent\", \"Magistrate\", \"Justice of the Peace\", \"Compradore\", \"Stone-cutter\", \"Tin-smith\", \"Shroff\", \"Coolie Agent\", et al. It is also interesting to note that the dramatis personae of this section of the book include \"Schoolmaster\", \"Teacher\", \"Horse-boy\", \"Bad man\", \"Fool\", \"Watchman\", \"Porter\", \"Deaf\", \"Convent Sister\", \"Midwife\", various family relations, \"Tenant\", \"Kidnapper\", \"Geomancer\", \"District watchmen\", \"Juggler\", and \"Priest\".\n\nA similar ambivalence, between traditional and modern as well as between East and West, may be detected in other sections of the book. Under \"Stores and Business Shops\", for example, one finds a Bank, Foreign goods shop, Factory, Dispensary, Tobacco store, Hardware dealers, Ship Chandler's store, as well as a Compradore shop, Opium divan, Pawn-broker's shop, and Chinese Bank. Under \"Clothing and Wearing Apparel\", the reader could discover a way to pronounce \"Pyjama\", \"Silk stockings\", \"Breeches\", \"Chemise\", \"Mosquito net\", \"Knickerbockers\", \"Cholera belt\", \"Combination\", \"Pantaloons\", and \"Swallow Tail coat\", while the separate section on \"Chinese Clothes\" introduced him to the pronunciation of such objects as \"Wadded Coat\", \"Mandarin robe\", and \"Queue string\". The section on \"Crockery and Household Articles\" and the separate section on \"Household Articles\" provide an interesting glimpse of some of the personal belongings which Mok Man Cheung assumed would be characteristic of his readership. Such items include \"Wine bottle\", \"Scissors\", \"Tea cup\", \"Tea saucers\", various other pieces of crockery (including a \"Mustard cup\"), \"Nut cracker\", \"Cheese scoop\", \"Pickle fork\", \"Candle stand\", \"Soy stand\", \"Bamboo broom\", \"Feather brush\", \"Red tape\", \"Bay Rum\", \"Hair oil\", \"Powder horn\", \"Bullets\", \"Horse saddle\", \"Dagger\", \"Tooth brush\", \"Tooth pick\", \"Chessmen\", \"Thimble\", \"Gramophone\", \"Telephone\", \"Looking glass\", \"Lamp chimney\", \"Scissors\", and \"Horse whip\". Under \"Court Matters\" and \"Punishments\", the reader could also find traditional modern, Eastern and Western practices intermingled. For example, in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213111, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "161\n\ncontinued without break until 1932, when the street was completely lined with shops on the New Territories side. The border street, however, could not provide sufficient space for all the shops of the market. In 1931, a reclamation project began just west of the town, along the frontier, to allow a second border street to be built. This was completed, and the shops on San Lau Street built, in 1933-1934. This project included a new pier and fish market, and allowed the fish wholesalers in the market to cross over into the New Territories as well. By 1935 only a few shops were left operating in the old market in Chinese territory, mostly those (like the pawnshop, the boatyard, and the opium divan) which could not move because of physical or legal restraints. A terrible typhoon and storm-surge on 2nd September 1937 destroyed most of what was left of the old market: it never recovered.\n\nThe effect on the market of the new frontier was not, however, entirely negative. In 1899 it is unlikely that the town housed more than about 500 people; the 100 Customs staff, 30 or so soldiers, and 25 or so Hong Kong Police who became stationed there represented a significant increase in the town's population. The local market for fuel, vegetables, and daily necessities grew sharply, bringing benefits to both the market shopkeepers and to the villagers. Uniforms required repair, bringing work to tailors and cobblers. Even blacksmiths and carpenters found increased work opportunities. The Customs steam-launch brought new engineering skills to the town, and provided a new market in coal. Shortly after the Customs steam-launch was domiciled in the town, the Sha Yue Chung Ferry took advantage of the presence of these new skills and converted to a steam vessel - one of the earliest regular steam ferries in the New Territories area.\n\nOther modern developments reached Sha Tau Kok early because of the needs of the frontier. Thus, the telegraph line reached the town in 1899, and the telephone in 1900. Electric light was provided to the town in 1933. While the construction of the railway was predominantly due to economic factors, again the needs of the frontier were among the reasons for this early extension of modern facilities to the town. 47\n\nAs in most garrison towns, however, it was the entertainment industry which most benefited from the new frontier. Very soon after the new frontier was established, prostitutes from Hong Kong saw the opportunities, and set up house in the market. From the present-day elders' recollections", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213112, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "162\n\nof what they were told by their fathers, there had been no prostitutes here before 1898. The prostitutes' clients were mostly soldiers and Customs staff - the prostitutes spoke Cantonese, not the Hakka spoken by all the locals. A gambling house (opened in 1904), and an opium divan came at about the same time as the prostitutes - these served people from Hong Kong as well as the garrison. Most New Territories towns had at most one or two winemakers; Sha Tau Kok in the 1920s had four at least, of which one was solely in the wine trade, unlike most local distillers, who combined this business with a general grocery. Similarly, Sha Tau Kok's three restaurants (including a cold drink and coffee shop), two tobacco dealers, and two cakeshops, is more than is found in most of the local towns at this period. The three or four guesthouses in Sha Tau Kok were also more than usually found - when military officers of rank came to Sha Tau Kok on inspection, they did not share the barracks with their men, but stayed in the private rooms in the guesthouses, so here, too, the presence of the garrison probably led to an economic expansion. Some of these service industries had been in Sha Tau Kok before 1898. There had certainly been a guesthouse here in the 1850s, and a noodle shop in the 1880s. **It is unlikely that there were prostitutes, or a full-time gambling house or opium divan there then, although gambling and opium smoking certainly took place in the town at that date. The early presence of some service industries in the town before 1898 was a consequence of traffic on the Sha Yue Chung Ferry, but it is reasonable to see the establishment of the new frontier as having led to an economic growth in the town in the years following 1898. The smuggling industry also produced considerable profit, especially during the 1930s.\n\nThe new frontier, therefore, caused many problems. To the villagers, the need to pay duty on day-to-day purchases far outweighed any advantages gained from having a larger population to sell things to. For the shopkeepers, the economic advantages were similarly more than offset by the prevailing political chaos and uncertainty. It is not surprising that the main effect of the exclusion of Sha Tau Kok Market from the New Territories in 1898 was to force a re-location of the market over the frontier into the New Territories a generation later,\n\nRoads and Ferries: Sha Tau Kok and its Hinterland\n\nSha Tau Kok stood at a nodal point in the local road system, and it was this factor which brought about the town's prosperity in the century after\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213122, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "172\n\nThe guesthouses (), lower down Wang Tau Street from the gambling house, were three-storeyed shop-houses. The ground floor was the residence of the owner; sometimes a small shop was run as well. Above, on the first floor, was a dormitory for villagers and poor travellers staying the night in town. A few large beds stood here - for one or two cents, you could share a bed with whoever else was looking for a place to stay. For the more fastidious and wealthy, small cubicles on the top floor offered privacy and an unshared bed. Military officers visiting the town would stay in these private cubicles. The guesthouses did not serve meals; guests took food at the adjacent noodle restaurant. The 'totally comfortless' guesthouse used by the Basel missionaries in 1859 must have been of this type.\n\nThere was only one full-time opium divan in the market, although opium could be taken in the prostitutes' houses as well. Up until 1917, there had also been several low-class opium divans in sheds in British Sha Tau Kok - these were closed in that year, as part of the agreement to end trade in opium between Hong Kong and China which, it was hoped, would allow the Chinese Government to end all opium imports, and to control the sale of opium in China. The chaos in the border area, however, made it impossible for the trade on the Chinese side of the frontier to be effectively controlled, and the Sha Tau Kok opium divan continued to trade unmolested until 1951. Opium could also be bought for home consumption from the two tobacco shops in the market. These shops were also heavily engaged in smuggling opium into Hong Kong.\n\nNext to the opium divan was the market barber. In 1853 there had only been itinerant barbers in the town. This shop should be seen, to a large degree, as one of the service trades attracted by the opportunities brought about by the new frontier and garrison, like the prostitutes and the gambling house.\n\nBeyond the guesthouses, near the sea, Wang Tau Street was occupied by the fish laans and the Kowloon Customs Station. The Customs Station was rebuilt several times during this period. The Station building in existence in the 1920s was a solidly built, European style, single-storey structure, with a verandah, built of brick and tile. One end was the residence of the Assistant Superintendent. In the middle were the offices, and the barrack quarters for the junior staff were at the further end. The Customs also rented some nearby houses for stores and quarters. After the Station", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213127, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "177\n\na specialist winemaker, and a dogmeat seller. There were several sweet sellers, although details of only one have been remembered. A cattle dealer not only sold and brokered animals, driving them to his clients' homes in the villages on demand, but also slaughtered cattle as needed. Two carpenters and five or six blacksmiths mended the farm implements and made new ones - the carpenters also made furniture and coffins, and sawed planks for various uses. Also working in the timber trade was the boatyard at Sha Lan Ha, as well as building and repairing boats, this establishment made oars and other wooden equipment used on the boats.69 Three tailors and cloth dealers (plus, probably, a number of seamstresses working in their own homes to sew up clothes for them), and a cobbler, made clothes and shoes for the local residents. A pawnshop supplied credit and storage services; this establishment occupied the lower floors of the western gun-tower and the adjacent premises, since the pawn business required secure and strong buildings to store the deposited goods in. On the outskirts of the town were a couple of lime-kilns. Services were provided by a letter-writer, four paper-offerings sellers, a barber, nine doctors and a dentist. Visitors and entertainment seekers were serviced by two tobacco and opium sellers, an opium divan, three restaurants, a gambling house, four or five guesthouses, and ten or twelve prostitutes. Fuel, vegetables, poultry, and certain sorts of handicraft and cooked food were sold by hawkers in the streets. Salt was sold directly from the saltworks.\n\nThis breakdown of trades is not markedly dissimilar to those found elsewhere in the area. Most local markets were dominated by \"general stores\" of various sorts, and most had a surprisingly high number of doctors. Even in 1853, the Basel missionaries noted that, of the 50 shops then in the town, six were \"pharmacies\", and that most of the major shops were then general stores or wholesalers, probably, in the latter case, fishmongers. The Basel missionaries also mention or imply carpenters, pig slaughterers, and at least one guesthouse (1859). They also refer to a noodle-seller (1882). They noted that some of the larger general stores dealt with traders in Hong Kong. All in all it would seem that the mix of trades in Sha Tau Kok in the 1850s was similar to that 50 years later. At both dates the town had a generally similar mix to other small towns in the region, apart from its entertainment specialities, and the salt, rice, and fish carrying trades. Sha Tau Kok is, however, the only small town in the area known to have had prostitutes - apart from Sha Tau Kok, prostitutes were only found in Hong Kong, Kowloon, Sham Chun and Cheung Chau.\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213141, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1993", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "No. Name of Shop\n\n191\n\nAddress\n\nof Shop\n\nName of Owner\n\nVillage of Owner\n\nSource\n\nComments\n\nTobacco\n\n67\n\nGuesthouses\n\n68-71.\n\nWIS\n\nC\n\nC\n\n'3 or 4\" guesthouses See below under \"Others\" Basel missionaries. 1859\n\nOpium Divan\n\n72\n\nWIS\n\nLunie-burners\n\n73-74\n\nYin Lou\n\nC\n\nC\n\nFt.L\n\nOilers\n\n75\n\n=\n\n}\n\nWH\n\nC\n\ngroceries\n\n76\n\n77\n\n仙\n\n78\n\n利\n\n79\n\nSE\n\nB\n\n1 or 2 limekilns\n\nLockhart's Report, 1899\n\nsweets and small\n\n) these may be two of\n\nB\n\n) the guesthouses\n\nB\n\nJ\n\nB\n\n)\n\nHO\n\n...\n\nB\n\n) nothing is now\n\n18\n\nW\n\nB\n\n} remembered about\n\n82\n\n87\n\nK\n\n4\n\nB\n\n> these shops\n\nB\n\n}\n\n#4\n\n¥\n\n}\n\nProstitutes\n\n85-96\n\nRow neat\n\nCity\n\nC\n\nLS\n\nSaltworks\n\n97-115\n\n-\n\nYon In EL\n\nC\n\nHawken\n\nC\n\nWIS\n\nPunti girls from City\n\nOffered opium to clients\n\nHL workers from\n\nSwabue, sold salt retail\n\nDetail of works in Block Crown Lease\n\nFish, meat, vegetables, cooked food (including noodles), handicrafts\n\nfuel. Also at Yim Liu Ha\n\nE\n\nNOTES\n\nSee G A C Herklots, The Hong Kong Countryside, Hong Kong, 1951, pp 86-89 for tigers and leopard on Ng Tung Shan, and the Hsin An County Gazetteer (1819 Gazetteer, ch 3. Chung Lap Pao Edition, 1979, p. 45) for tiger, wild boar, and deer in the area\n\n2 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer, ch 3, 127\n\nA salt commission was established at Nam Tau (Nantou) just outside the present borders of Hong Kong, probably in the Nan Yueh period, in the second century BC This was later divided into 4 commissions, probably during the Nan Han period (tenth century A.D) Of the 4 Nan Han commissions, the Kwun Fu commission certainly covered the Mirs Bay area in the Sung; the headquarters of the commission were moved temporarily from Kowloon City to Tip Fuk (Deep Fuk) on the east coast of the Bay in 1163; and probably did so from the establishment of the commission The borders of Tung Kuan County and its predecessors bent round to include just the coastal strip of Mirs Bay.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 } ]