[ { "id": 204236, "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-1961", "page_number": 4, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n1\n\nTHE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE\n\nROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nThe Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was originally founded in 1847, but it ceased to exist at the end of 1859. Exactly a century later, on December 28, 1959, it was resuscitated with the approval of the parent society in London - The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society was founded in March 1823 \"for the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts, in relation to Asia\". It received its Charter of Incorporation as a royal society from George IV on August 11, 1824. The Royal Asiatic Society is the oldest and most important Society of its kind in Europe, and its standing as the doyen of Societies promoting the study of Asia has been maintained by the devotion of generations of eminent scholars, explorers and others who have contributed through its Journal, in public addresses and in many other ways, a rich harvest of knowledge, both academic and practical, in the service of Western understanding of the East.\n\nA large part of the Society's work has always been done through its branches and affiliated Societies in the East. Branches were formed at Bombay and at 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, etc. etc.\n\nTHE HONG KONG BRANCH grew out of a Medico-Chirurgical Society founded in 1845. This Society, however, in accord with the contemporary spirit of inquiry and the enthusiasm for better knowledge of Asia in general and China in particular, had contemplated setting up a Philosophical Society; but the movement ended in the establishment of the Asiatic Society with laws drafted by Andrew Shortrede, Editor of the China Mail, framed on the model of those of the Royal Asiatic Society. Sir John F. Davis, the Governor, by reason of his known literary and scientific acquirements rather than his official rank, was asked to be President. He suggested that the Society should seek to be admitted as a Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society with which, as a founder member, he was in close touch and with whose active President, the Earl of Auckland, he had discussions on these lines before he left England.\n\nSo in January 1847 the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded, and all the members of the Medico-Chirurgical Society who wished to join were admitted without ballot or entrance fee on condition of their Society's apparatus and books being handed over to the new body.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204239, "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-1961", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nTHE HONG KONG BRANCH was resuscitated as the outcome of a meeting attended by some thirty interested persons, held at the British Council Centre on December 28, 1959. The meeting adopted a constitution approved by the parent Society in London, and formed an interim Council to hold office until a General Meeting should be held. The following were elected to the Council:- President: Dr. J. R. Jones; Vice-Presidents: the Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau and Dr. L. T. Ride; Hon. Secretary: Mr. J. D. Duncanson; Hon. Treasurer: Mr. T. J. Lindsay; Hon. Editor of the Journal: Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng; other Councillors: Dr. Marjorie Topley and Messrs. James Liu, Holmes Welch, and G. B. Endacott.\n\nThe Inaugural Meeting of the revived Branch was held on April 7, 1960, in the Loke Yew Hall of Hong Kong University. It was to have been presided over by H.E. the Governor, Sir Robert Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., had illness not prevented it. The Inaugural Address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at Hong Kong University, on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task”.\n\nOn January 23, 1961, Sir Robert Black presided over a meeting of the Branch in his capacity as Patron, and thus restored a tradition after a lapse of a hundred years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204240, "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-1961", "page_number": 8, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n5\n\n## PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nIt is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.\n\nThe original Branch which was founded in 1847 in the early days of the Colony and which included some of the most eminent oriental scholars of the time as well as the leaders of the Church, Government, the Armed Services and of the merchant houses, came to an abrupt end in 1859. After the lapse of a century a movement started in the Colony among those who had been members of branches of the Society elsewhere, in Malaya and in Shanghai where the Society had been compelled by force of circumstances to close down in 1950, to revive the Society in Hong Kong. As Sir Richard Winstedt, the Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, wrote:\n\n\"Circumstances had placed the port in a very favourable position for the study of one of the most important cultures of the world\"\n\nand Hong Kong had now the opportunity of filling a void and fulfilling its natural role as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge and culture of Asia and of China in particular.\n\nIt is barely over a year since a meeting was held attended by more than thirty interested members when a resolution was passed for the revival of this Branch. More than twice that number had pledged their support, including persons prominent in academic, professional, commercial and financial circles. The meeting adopted the constitution which had been approved by the parent Society and elected officers and a Council to hold office until this General Meeting. (The names of those elected have already been given in the brief history of the Branch at the beginning of this volume.)\n\nThe success of the founding meeting was crowned when His Excellency Sir Robert Black set the seal of his approbation by consenting to become the patron of the new Branch and when he presided over a meeting of the Society on January 23 of this year. It was the first time that a Governor of the Colony had presided at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch since the days of Sir John Bowring, a hundred years ago. Thus he closed the gap of a century.\n\nWe are, I feel, justified in considering the result of the first year's work as very gratifying and the second year has already started in a way that is highly encouraging. Within a month of the founding meeting we had 72 members. At the end of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204627, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU \n\n95 \n\nthe tablets state that upon its establishment the Po On study was endowed with a shop and a house, both with their title deeds; and the Fong Pin hospital with two shops. \n\nThis abstention from many of the basic duties of local government on the part of the district authorities could lead to abuses when a powerful group of local leaders became unscrupulous through continued exercise of power, and lack of control and supervision from above. On Cheung Chau, as I have said, this group was represented by the WONG Wai Chak Tong, with whom the larger shopkeepers and important individuals were probably prepared to make common cause. The Tong owned all the land; its parent branch at Nam Tau must undoubtedly have included senior graduates and possibly retired officials; and the tablets show that some members of the Cheung Chau branch were junior graduates by examination or purchase.**\n\nThis group must have been able to exert a considerable pressure on the district magistrate and his secretaries regarding Cheung Chau affairs, and during their short three-year tour most magistrates must have felt that the Tong and the Cheung Chau people were capable of looking after themselves on what was, after all, a small and remote island, with a population less than that of many of the larger villages in the district. In short, Cheung Chau interests were well represented if the Tong was honest and well-meaning, but not if its members were corrupt and ill-intentioned. \n\nTurning again to the tablets, that relating to the Po On study is of great interest because of its connection with a prominent feature of Cheung Chau society which has so far only been mentioned in passing: the district association.**\n\n25 \n\nThe district association is a social and charitable organisation organised on the basis of mutual assistance from among natives of the same district when living in another place. In a mixed settlement like Cheung Chau, where Hoklo and Tanka rubbed shoulders with Hakka, Chiu Chau, and Punti from various districts of Kwangtung province, it was a distinct advantage to be part of a community which had troubled to organise itself for welfare purposes, as had several district groups on this small island a hundred years ago. These traditional media of mutual assistance warrant a closer look, especially as their existence is proof of the diversity of persons settling on Cheung Chau, its", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204899, "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-1965", "page_number": 7, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\n1964\n\nThis report covers the activities of the Society during the year 1964, the fifth year since the reconstruction of the Society in Hong Kong. A year ago, H.E. Sir Robert Black, who not only was our Patron but who had followed with great personal interest the growth of the Society, declared, before he left the Colony, that the Society in the four years of its restored existence had fully justified the faith of those who were responsible for bringing it back to life and that it had become established firmly as an important activity in the cultural life of the community in Hong Kong. During 1964 it continued to develop both in numbers and in the range of its interests and activities.\n\nMembership has grown from 160 at the end of the first year, 1960, to 386, including 46 life members at the end of 1964. Although during the year 87 new members, including 5 life members, were enrolled, we lost 64 members, most of whom resigned on leaving the Colony or were deemed to have resigned in default of the payment of their subscription, so that the net gain was only 23. In a changing community like Hong Kong it is inevitable that membership should fluctuate.\n\nEach year, however, has shown an increased membership which is now approaching the 400 mark.\n\nThe ten meetings held during the year show that we have a very keen and zealous membership and audiences have uniformly taxed the capacity of the City Hall lecture room. For the lectures, we have been fortunate in enlisting the services of eminent scholars, experts in their respective subjects, including three distinguished scholars from abroad, all of whom we warmly thank.\n\nThe arrangement of lectures is always subject to the availability of suitable speakers but your Council has endeavoured to cover a wide field within the scope of the objects of the Parent Society and of this Branch, namely, the investigation of subjects connected with and the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia. The lectures given were:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205933, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "and last Monday's lecture by Dr. Hu on Flowering Trees. The most popular activities each year are the annual symposia held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Topley and the occasional excursions, such as the tour of Old Shau Kei Wan organised last year by Mr. J. W. Hayes. These tours, as well as being studies in the history and social life of Hong Kong, are popular and prove of great service in bringing members together, giving them an opportunity of knowing each other and welding them into one Society of common interest and purpose. In accord with the objects of the parent society and the principles enunciated by Sir John Davis, we have tried to direct attention to practical projects and to natural history as well as to literary pursuits. Thus, a week-end symposium was organised in 1968 under Professor Dwyer of the University of Hong Kong on the subject of The Changing Face of Hong Kong, and recently another week-end symposium was organised by Professor Thrower, as mentioned above. A record of these studies is being edited and will in due course be published by the Society and so make a valuable contribution to the natural history of the Colony.\n\nThe Journal of the Society maintains its high academic standard and interest under the Editorship of Mr. J. W. Hayes. The tenth volume is in the press and will be out later this year. Vol. I, which had long been out of print, has now been reprinted and is now available to meet the increasing demand of members and of scholars and readers overseas for a complete set of the Society's publications, which are now becoming very valuable and much sought after by libraries and learned institutions as well as by individual readers all over the world.\n\nOur greatest problem is our library, and our great sorrow is that our resources do not enable us to rent a room to house our books, let alone to pay a librarian. The original society in Hong Kong had been granted by Sir George Bonham a room in the old Supreme Court to hold its meetings and to house its library. When the Society ran into difficulties in 1858, it handed over its valuable library of 400 books on trust to the Morrison Education Society, which also kept its library in the Old Court House, and in 1869 the Morrison Society presented its own library and that of the Royal Asiatic Society to the City Hall Library. I feel, therefore, that the Government is not without obligation to the Society in respect of the housing of its present library. In Shanghai", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206730, "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "1\n\n# PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1972\n\nI am very pleased to report to you this evening on the activities of this thirteenth year of the resuscitated Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is a year that has seen an increase in membership, in activities, and in sale of our publications.\n\nThe timing of this Annual General Meeting is most auspicious, for as many of you probably know, this month the parent Society in Britain is celebrating its 150th anniversary. The Royal Asiatic Society, it might be recalled, was designed partly to bring together in London members of learned societies in the East, which had been formed for study of its various cultures. We, as one of these societies, and indeed directly affiliated to it, enjoy the privileges of using the very rich library facilities of the Royal Asiatic Society when we are in London.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society was founded in March 1823, and it was not long afterwards that our original Hong Kong Branch was also founded. This was in 1847, and meetings were held in a room of the old Supreme Court building where the library was also housed. Unfortunately however, we were not to share the parent Society's long unbroken history. With the departure in 1859 of Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, and the death in that year of the Society's secretary, the organizing body collapsed. Despite the efforts of all those of the time, who recognised the important contributions the Society was making to the cultural life of the Colony, it failed to revive.\n\nIn 1959, a hundred years later however, a group of people who had become concerned about the dearth of cultural activities in Hong Kong at that time, decided that they would try to improve the situation and bring the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society back into life. They were fortunate in having the enthusiasm and support of scholars working in the Colony, and other members of the community who desired to promote both interest in, and research into, the culture and environment of Hong Kong, China, and their near neighbours. This enthusiasm, I am pleased to say, has continued. Many scholars: historians, anthropologists, and other students of society and culture; and natural scientists, have presented some of their original research materials to the Society in talks, symposia, papers and journal articles,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206733, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "or the government, to acquire or build our own premises. Dr. J. R. Jones during his presidency canvassed this subject regularly. Like many cultural societies in this modern world of space shortages and high rents, our hopes of ever obtaining such premises have dwindled and died. It might be worth noting here, that associated with the parent Society's 150th celebration is a special fund appeal to conserve its own library of 85,000 volumes, kept at present for safety at the British Museum in the absence of room for them at its own premises, and an appeal also to re-equip the 200-year-old building now serving as its head office. The parent Society hopes to raise £75,000 through its appeal and I am sure I speak for you all when I wish it well with this venture.\n\nFor ourselves however, your Council has had to consider very seriously what to do about the future. We have been extremely fortunate in having the support of the British Council in Hong Kong right from our 1959 beginnings. The Council has lent us space to hold our meetings, helped us with day-to-day business, housed part of our library—the University of Hong Kong has kindly housed the other part—provided us some of the time with a postal address, and occasionally with the use of a room for our lectures. More and more, lecture rooms in Hong Kong become booked up months ahead. It is now very seldom indeed that we can obtain a booking at the City Hall.\n\nThis threat to the cultural life of Hong Kong has largely prompted a group of concerned individuals to promote the Hong Kong Arts Centre, under the vigorous direction of Mr. Bill Bailey. It seemed to us that the Arts Centre might well meet our needs for a coordinated centre for our activities, and a place to house our full library which is presently restricted in expansion through lack of space. It might also provide space, although this is not yet certain, for our archives, files, and stock of publications. At present, the latter are housed in Watson's Estate, where they were transferred in February 1972 from the University, which itself has great problems of space. I am glad to report that our materials were not affected by the recent fire at the Estate.\n\nThirty-six members attended the Extraordinary Meeting, and Mr. Bailey himself came along to explain the details of the Centre proposals. A majority of twenty-eight members voted in favour of the motion to join, and there were no abstentions. On January 30,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206740, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "# THE LIBRARY OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\n# REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1972-73\n\nA catalogue of the library, printed by the offset method from the existing card catalogue, was issued in August. It was hoped that by making the contents of the collection better known to members, greater use would be made of the books. This has not, however, been noticeably so, and it seems that the main deterrent is accessibility. This problem will only be overcome, as has been frequently stated, when the Branch has its own premises.\n\nCopies of the catalogue were distributed free of charge to members of the Branch resident in Hong Kong, and to a few institutions overseas with which we have exchange arrangements, including the parent body in London and other branches of the Royal Asiatic Society. The small number of copies remaining in stock will be distributed to newly joining members. It is proposed to issue annual supplements, of which the first will appear shortly, until it becomes necessary to produce a complete new catalogue.\n\nBy far the most important accession during the year was a collection of nineteenth-century bills of lading formed by Rear-Admiral M. A. McMullen, C.B., O.B.E., R.N. (Rtd.), obtained as a gift through the offices of Dr. J. R. Jones, Past President of the Branch. The bills are for various consignments to and from China ports, and there is a brief description of the collection on p. 37 of the printed catalogue. Xerox copies of the bills of lading have been made for ready consultation, and a calendar with index will be appended to the first supplement to the catalogue.*\n\nThere were again no purchases for the Library, since the small use made of the collection does not merit such expenditure. However, we are grateful to the numerous donors who have kindly added to our stock, which now totals 325 books (including 17 in Chinese) and 46 pamphlets.\n\n*In view of the interest of the subject, the calendar with index has been included in the Notes and Queries section of this issue of the Journal on p. 175 seq.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207255, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "# LIBRARY RULES\n\n(revised by order of the Council, 9th June 1975)\n\n1. (a) Members of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society are entitled to consult and to borrow books in the library of the Branch, on production of their membership cards and subject to the following rules.\n\n(b) Members of the parent society and of other branches may use the library for reference on production of their membership cards. The Hon Librarian may at his discretion permit them also to borrow books, subject to whatever conditions he deems appropriate.\n\n2. Members wishing to use the Library should apply to the library of the Public Records Office, where all the books are kept.\n\n3. Volumes marked 'for reference only' may not be taken away from the Library. This applies also to pamphlets, bound volumes of periodicals and unbound parts which are kept in the Library of the University of Hong Kong, where members may consult them.\n\n4. (a) Other volumes may be borrowed for a period not exceeding two weeks, loans renewable on request.\n\n(b) Members may borrow not more than two books at a time.\n\n(c) Loans will not be renewed if another member has requested the volume for reference or for borrowing.\n\n5. (a) Recall notices will be sent to any member retaining a borrowed book beyond the permitted period.\n\n(b) Borrowing rights may be temporarily or permanently withdrawn from any member who persistently returns books after the date due, or otherwise infringes these rules, the period to be determined by the Council on the recommendation of the Hon. Librarian.\n\n6. Members shall make good the loss of or damage to any volume which is on loan to them. The cost of replacement or repair shall be assessed by the Hon. Librarian.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207853, "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": 241, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "226\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nman with a parent to rebury and with the resources to back up his ambition will look far and wide in his search for a good site, not necessarily confining himself to the neighbourhood of his village. The poor cannot indulge themselves so; but they are unlikely in any case to reach the stage of looking for reburial sites, and the bones of their dead probably remain for ever in the urns where they were deposited after the first burial. There is no dearth of evidence that urns lie neglected for many years, at the end of their career spilling their contents on the ground. For the humble, geomantic burial plays a small role. Among the proud and the aspiring the hunt for the Dragon, a never-ending search for promotion and security, leads people in a competitive race over the hills, Fung shui in this context represents the right of individuals to outstrip their neighbours. (I have not gone into the details of burial. See B.D. Wilson, 'Chinese Burial Customs in Hong Kong', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. I, 1961, pp. 115-123).\n\n60. Success which flows from fung shui raises a moral problem, for it is not a reward for merit. If the geomancer has done his job correctly Breaths will concentrate automatically, whether the descendants are good men or bad. Geomancy explains why some people succeed and others fail, even when they have the same advantages and appear to have the same chances, but, at least at first sight, it seems to obscure the role in success which may be played by moral worth. The problem is in fact raised in some of the fung shui stories current in the New Territories. They show that in reality the evil cannot expect to prosper by fung shui, however much they appear to benefit in the short run. The universe is a moral entity; principles of right laid up in Heaven are not to be denied by the workings of Earth. I heard one story in two different versions; here is a summary of its main points to illustrate the role of morality in fung shui. A poor duck-breeder one day observed a geomancer at work. The geomancer stuck a bamboo pole in the muddy duck-pond and left it there for the night. During the night it flowered. The duck-breeder stole it and replaced it with another bamboo pole to the surprise next morning of the geomancer who had expected to find it flowering. He tried again but once more was foiled by the wily duck-breeder, and so he was forced to abandon what he thought to have proved a magnificent fung shui. The duck-breeder, having stolen the knowledge of the site, ordered", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208086, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CEREMONIAL LIFE OF 2 MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES\n\n109\n\n2 The two villages described in the paper have been based on my data of the Kwaan lineage. Na-loh Ts'uen was part of Lo-yeung Heung and Lung-tsai She was part of Tsung-long Heung. The county gazetteer, K'ai-p'ing Hsien-chih (Hong Kong, 1933) provides extracts of genealogies of the Kwaan and the Oo as well as other prominent lineages of Hoi-p'ing but does not mention Na-loh Ts'uen and Lung-tsai She.\n\nThe table at p. 111 shows the historical origin of the Kwaan lineage of T'oh-fuk. This account is based on personal communications from elderly informants. Again, Na-loh and Lung-tsai She were not mentioned. Much of the data used in this article was obtained from 14 Kwaan in Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. Canada 1973-74. They all came from Toh-fuk and Tsung-long areas. Of these six came from the two villages of Na-loh and Lung-tsai She as follows:-\n\n \n Name\n Birth Date\n Age\n Place of Origin\n Year Left Hoi-p'ing\n \n \n Kwaan F\n 1902\n 75\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1915\n \n \n Kwaan H\n 1911\n 66\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1927\n \n \n Kwaan I\n 1932\n 45\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1953\n \n \n Kwaan J\n 1941\n 36\n Na-loh Ts'uen\n 1951\n \n \n Kwaan K\n 1903\n 74\n Lung-tsai She\n 1920\n \n \n Kwaan L\n 1937\n 40\n Lung-tsai She\n 1949\n \n\nMy Ph.D. thesis (Social Organization in South China 1911-1949: The Case of the Kwaan Lineage of Hoi-ping) deals with the general area.*\n\n3 G. W. Skinner (\"Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China,\" Journal of Asian Studies, XXIV (1964-65), 6-7, 20-31, 41-43) distinguishes between three types of periodic markets in traditional rural China: the standard market town, the intermediate market town and the central market town. The standard market town is a type of rural market which meets the normal trade needs of the peasant household. An intermediate market town serves the needs of the local elites of the standard market towns in the vicinity since it provides decorative items of quality which are inaccessible in the standard market towns. It serves as a centre for interclass dealings between the gentlemanly elite and the merchants of the market town itself. The central market town is normally situated at a strategic site in the transportation network and had important wholesale functions.\n\n4 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society in Fukien and Kwangtung (London, 1966, pp. 18-42) distinguishes between a localized lineage, a dispersed lineage and a higher-order lineage. A “localized” lineage denotes a group of agnates who live together in the same geographical area. The members claim to be descended from a common founder. They usually have ancestral halls to practise ancestral worship together.\n\nA \"dispersed lineage\" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. One group has an ancestral hall to practise ancestor worship. The members of other groups do not have a hall of their own. They would go to the first group to worship because it is believed that they were originally descendants of the first group but had at some point in time moved away from the parent settlement. A \"higher-order lineage\" denotes two or more groups of agnates with the same surname which are separated geographically. Each group has an ancestral hall of its own but there is also a common hall comprising all the members for the performance of ancestral worship together because it is believed that they were all descended from a common founder.\n\n5 I collected the marriage history of informants up to five generations. Whilst of interest in itself, it did not shed any light on village origins.\n\n* Now accepted for publication by the University of British Columbia Press.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208305, "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": 29, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "Centre the size of the collection, with comparative figures for 31st December 1976, was:\n\n \n \n 1977\n 1976\n \n \n Books\n 464\n 448\n \n \n Pamphlets\n 48\n 48\n \n \n Bound periodicals\n 455 in\n341\n 435 in\n358\n \n \n \n 870\n 837\n \n\nAs some of the gifts and purchases mentioned above were received after 1st January, they are not included in these figures.\n\nA printed catalogue of the Library was distributed to local members in 1972, and a first supplement two years later. A further supplement, to include all additions for the years 1974-1977, is now in preparation, and will be similarly distributed to members in the course of the next few weeks. A card catalogue of the books and pamphlets will also be kept at the Arts Centre.\n\n4th March, 1978\n\nH. A. RYDINGS\nHon. Librarian\n\nLIBRARY RULES\n\n(revised by order of the Council, 16th November 1977)\n\n1. (a) Members of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society are entitled to consult and to borrow books in the library of the Branch, on production of their membership cards and subject to the following rules.\n\n2.\n\n(b) Members of the parent society and of other branches may use the library for reference on production of their membership cards. The Hon. Librarian may at his discretion permit them also to borrow books, subject to whatever conditions he deems appropriate.\n\nMembers wishing to use the Library should apply at the Arts Centre Library, where the R.A.S. Collection is kept. Hours of opening may be ascertained from the Arts Centre.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208564, "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": 21, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "With production of the 1977 Journal our printer and member of the Society, Mr. Lam Yung-fai of Ye Olde Printerie, has completed seventeen years of sterling work for the Society. He has always treated our publications as special jobs and in recognition of his patience, and appreciation of his affection for the Society, we propose to make him an Honorary member of the Society and welcome him tonight at the dinner.\n\nLibrary\n\nAs a result of removal of the library to the Arts Centre, there has been a spectacular increase in its use. This makes our expenditure in time, effort and money pay off, largely due to Mr. Rydings' enthusiasm. The Collection has also grown at a higher rate than in previous years. I would like to underline here Mr. Rydings' thanks to all who have contributed books and back issues of periodicals to our collection this year. We are grateful to Lady Ride for giving us some items from Sir Lindsay Ride's library collection which will serve as a remembrance to us of his services to the Society. In February we had a visit from Mr. Dennis Duncanson who was first Hon. Secretary of your Society after it was resuscitated, and is now administrative Director of the Parent Branch. He attended Dr. Thrower's lecture and handed over a book donated by the Parent Society which has also joined our library collection. It was very pleasant to see Mr. Duncanson again after so many years.\n\nMembership\n\nThe total membership of the Society increased very slightly from 517 at the end of February 1978 to 528 at the end of this February. Owing to deaths, and resignations, mostly through members leaving Hong Kong or presumed to have left Hong Kong since we received no reply to notices about membership dues, we have had the usual drop in membership, with an increase to counter this loss as a result of new recruits. It is appropriate here to express our regret at the death of Mr. Henri Veitch, so long a faithful attender of our lectures. We all miss his questions and comments and are pleased that we were able to have the opportunity of hearing a talk from him in December 1977 about his long residence in China and some of the now well-known historical figures he was acquainted with at that time.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209204, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAI QUESTION IN THE 1930'S 93\n\nposition and their work often depended on the social and economic status of the person who had bought them.\n\nIn the nature of the case, some were sexually exploited by the male members of the family. Some were treated very cruelly by their mistresses. If they were attractive, they were often taken by the head of the family as a concubine.\n\nEveryone acknowledged that, like all social institutions, there were abuses in the system, but the traditional view was that its advantages outweighed its negative side. There were several arguments to support this view.\n\nOnly the poor sold their children. If they could not sell them, many would be killed off as infants. Their lot in a foster home was much better than it would have been in their natural home. They were fed, clothed, and when of proper age, a marriage was arranged for them with a suitable partner. Everyone benefited by the system: the child who escaped death or starvation, the natural parent who was lifted out of poverty, at least for the moment, and the purchaser who acquired a servant.\n\nIn Chinese society, it had long been an unquestioned aspect of the social order. The buying and selling of human beings did not sit well with the English conscience of the latter half of the nineteenth century. However, most colonists felt it was best to leave undisturbed the modus vivendi which had been established in Hong Kong between British law and moral standards and Chinese social practice.\n\nAfter some eighteen years on the bench in Hong Kong, Chief Justice John Smale, not long before his retirement in 1881, openly stated that, in his opinion, the practice of buying and selling children for domestic servitude was a form of slavery, and hence its continued toleration in a British colony was a blot on the honour of England. He received support from anti-slavery groups in England, but his views were not generally welcomed in Hong Kong, either by the Chinese or expatriates. There was some stir over the question for a short time, and then interest in it died away, not to be re-aroused until the question again came to public attention in 1917.\n\n1917 - The Question Raised\n\nMr. C. G. Alabaster, in defending a client charged with kidnapping, raised a legal point regarding the status of children purchased as servants. The report of the case focused the attention of the English", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209212, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "THE CHINESE CHURCH, LABOUR AND ELITES AND THE MUI TSAJ QUESTION IN THE 1920'S 101\n\nmight otherwise starve or live in extreme poverty by providing it with food, shelter and clothing. It benefited the parent of the child by providing him with money so he could sustain the other members of his family. The manifesto claimed, however, that this was not charity, because \"in charity the dispenser must show sacrifice and the character of the recipient must be preserved\". The parent who sells his daughter is devoid of charity, and anyone who buys is helping to destroy one of the most sacred of human bonds. To call the system charity is in the opinion of the manifesto \"hypocritical and absurd”.\n\nThe proponents of abolition were very sceptical that propaganda would convince owners of the girls to improve their situation, \"To promote a society of mui tsai owners for prevention of cruelty without assisting those liable to ill treatment to liberate themselves is like formation of a league of cats in the interest of the mouse\". The Anti's, as we shall see, had no hesitation, however, about using a barrage of propaganda to promote their own cause.\n\nThey were firmly convinced that the only way to prevent ill-treatment of mui tsai was by the abolition of the system, not through a society for their protection. They set forth several proposals to bring this about. All documents of sale should be cancelled. The purchase price previously paid would be regarded as an advance to the parents of the girl and she should continue to work for a period to be determined by a commission appointed by Government.\n\nA temporary industrial home should be established to train the girls in self-support. Into this home could be admitted young children whose former owners may have found them troublesome to keep or difficult to manage. It would also be a home for those self-supporting girls who were temporarily out of work. Gradually former mui tsais would become hired servants or factory workers. To aid them in finding suitable jobs an employment agency should be established.\n\nWhen the documents of sale are cancelled the mui tsai should be informed they are now \"yung mui”, that is servant girls. Until the girls had served out the time determined by the commission they should be under the supervision of inspectors, \"preferably of the gentler sex\".\n\nIn conclusion the manifesto made an appeal to the better nature of its readers,\n\nIt is the duty of a civilized community to raise its fellow citizens out of a state of degradation and oppression. When those who have a claim to our sympathy happen to be helpless", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209357, "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": 14, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "ADDRESS BY DR. JAMES HAYES, AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 17TH FEBRUARY 1983\n\nDr. Topley, ladies and gentlemen,\n\nAccording to p. 4 of Vol. 1 (1961) of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society:\n\n\"THE HONG KONG BRANCH was resuscitated as the outcome of a meeting attended by some thirty interested persons, held at the British Council Centre on December 28, 1959. The meeting adopted a constitution approved by the parent Society in London, and formed an interim Council to hold office until a General Meeting should be held. The following were elected to the Council:- President: Dr. J. R. Jones; Vice-Presidents: the Hon. Sir Tsun-nin Chau and Dr. L. T. Ride; Hon. Secretary: Mr. J. D. Duncanson; Hon. Treasurer: Mr. T. J. Lindsay; Hon. Editor of the Journal: Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng; other Councillors: Dr. Marjorie Topley and Messrs. James Liu, Holmes Welch, and G. B. Endacott.\n\nThe Inaugural Meeting of the revived Branch was held on April 7, 1960, in the Loke Yew Hall of Hong Kong University. It was to have been presided over by H. E. the Governor, Sir Robert Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E., had illness not prevented it. The Inaugural Address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at Hong Kong University, on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task\".\n\nOn January 23, 1961, Sir Robert Black presided over a meeting of the Branch in his capacity as Patron, and thus restored a tradition after a lapse of a hundred years.'\n\n**\n\nAs incoming President, it is my honour on this occasion, twenty-three years later, to make a presentation to Dr. Topley on your behalf, in recognition of her work as President of the Society from 1972 onwards. But first I wish to speak about her own contribution to the formation of our Society and its work over nearly a quarter of a century.\n\nxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210662, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "Publication Stock\n\nHitherto the Society's stock of publications was kept at the University of Hong Kong and latterly at Bethanie, in a section occupied by the University Press. However, in May 1986 we were asked to remove the stock to make way for a rearrangement of the University's accommodation in the building. The impending crisis was averted by the Law Librarian Mrs. Felicity Shaw's kindness in allowing us to hold stock in the basement pending finding another home. This was achieved in July when the Government Archivist, our council member Dr. Thomas Lau, agreed to hold our stock in the Public Records Office. I am most grateful to Felicity (an RAS member) and Thomas for their timely assistance.\n\nThe Library\n\nAs members will recall, in 1985 the Council decided to place our large and valuable collection of books and periodicals on China and the Far East on permanent loan with the Urban Council Libraries, to be housed in the new Kowloon Central Library at Homantin, Kowloon. Wherever one places the collection it is necessary to advertise its existence, in order to ensure that it will be used. The Chief Librarian, Urban Council Libraries, takes various measures to this end periodically. On our part, we have written to some twenty local tertiary educational institutions whose students would wish to know of our library and its contents, enclosing copies of the library catalogue. This publicity, repeated at intervals, is bound to pay off eventually. In the past year, the Chief Librarian reports 18 enquiries, and that 37 books were consulted.\n\nSir Edward Youde\n\nThe Governors of Hong Kong have always been closely associated with our Society; as Patrons of the Hong Kong Branch re-established in 1959-60, and as Presidents of the first China (Hong Kong) Branch in 1847. Our first President was Sir John Davis, scholar, sinologue and a founder member of the parent society in London in 1823. In this connection I have to remind members of the sad event that occurred last December when we lost our current Patron, Sir Edward Youde, who died suddenly whilst on duty.\n\nPage xii\n\n¡", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211299, "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": 15, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "appointed. [His appointment has now been confirmed]\n\nI have advised Members of these facts, because I did not mention the Society's new link with the Antiquities Advisory Board in my last annual Report, as I ought.\n\nFinance\n\nThe Hon. Treasurer has given an account of our present position, and expectations for the coming year. It is clear from our financial position over the past few years that, even with increased subscriptions, we can barely make ends meet. The rising cost of services and publication make this inevitable. We have already used part of our reserves to meet deficits last year. We should now be looking for ways to replace what has been spent in this way, and also to add to our funds, in order to further the aims and objects of the Society in Hong Kong.\n\nSome of you may recall that we celebrated our 25th anniversary by a joint publication with Oxford University Press. We would like to publish more in this way, but need funds to do so. We also considered an annual prize Essay in English on a Hong Kong subject, and would like to take this idea further. It could be at two or three levels, in schools and tertiary institutions, and should be made a valuable prize in order to attract enough competition.\n\nWith these and other needs for more funds in mind, Phillip Bruce of the Council has suggested a new type of institutional membership, in addition to the scholarly institutional one that has existed since the re-establishment of the Branch. The Council has supported this idea, which is being put to the AGM for consideration tonight. There is no doubt that we could put extra funds to good use, and members are asked to consider the suggestion carefully and support it if they can. In this connection, I have just discovered from the latest Journal of our parent Society that it now has a number of “Corporate Subscribers\", as they are styled, \"whose generosity sustains its work, including the publication of the Journal\". They include The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Matheson and Co. Plc and John Swire and Sons Ltd. Enough said, I think!\n\n!\n\nxiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211301, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "We have also considered the bilingual approach to our work. Obviously, this is desirable in regard to tours and visits, and is more easily applied to them than to talks. This would require back-up services, including skilled staff and equipment that, even by occasional hire and through booking suitable premises, would be beyond our financial means. However, the Ad Hoc Committee will continue to review the situation.\n\nAs for the future composition and nature of our Society, it may be that it can do more for Hong Kong after 1997 by staying a predominantly English language institution. This would match Hong Kong's continuing role as a financial and commercial centre for the region, and therefore a place that will continue to attract many expatriates (including many English-speaking Chinese). Our Society can assist them all to a better understanding of the place, and provide means of meeting local people outside their workplace, as it does today.\n\nOur Patron\n\nHer Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales are the Patron and Vice-Patron of the parent body: and since the re-establishment of the Hong Kong Branch in 1959-60, it has been honoured by the patronage of successive Governors of Hong Kong. The present Governor, Sir David Wilson, is an extremely busy man, and we cannot expect to see much of him in the ordinary way. It is therefore with great pleasure that I can announce that he and Lady Wilson have agreed in principle to attend our next Annual Dinner. The date will be fixed later, to fit in with his busy schedule.\n\nFinally, a special word of thanks and appreciation to Anita Wilson who has again made the arrangements for this year's Dinner, and also to Rosemary Lee through whose good offices we are enabled to use this very comfortable Club, with its high catering standards. On this happy and expectant note, I now close this year's report.\n\nHong Kong, 17 March 1989\n\nJames Hayes\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211595, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "AGM for an approach for financial assistance to those leading “Hongs\" which support the parent body in London with its publishing expenses, a letter has now been sent to them to this end. We waited for publication of the new book and the latest Journal before taking action, so that they could see the results of our labours and (hopefully) feel more encouraged to help thereby. There is no doubt that the time has come to seek their assistance, given the difficulty in making ends meet and yet pursuing an energetic and rounded programme of activities in line with our remit.\n\nThe Programme\n\nThe past twelve months saw 9 lectures, 10 visits and one Chinese dinner, besides the usual dinner following the AGM. The visits were the largest number on record. This was due to a greater sharing of the load by members of the Activities Committee, which now includes Members of the Society as well as Councillors. Details are as follows:\n\n \n Dr. Maria Jaschok\n “Concubines and Bond Servants\"\n 18 April\n \n \n Dr. Tom Stanley\n **Emperor Hirohito and the Pacific War'\n 12 May\n \n \n Professor Tong Kin-woon\n “Oracle Bones, the Key to Shang China\"\n 9 June\n \n \n Stephen and Anne Selby\n \"Pukka Pidgin\"\n 14 July\n \n \n Dr. Dea Birkett\n \"Women Travellers in Asia'\n 28 July\n \n \n \n Chinese Dinner in the City Hall Restaurant\n 25 September\n \n \n Dr. Lauren Pfister\n \"Clues to the Life and Academic Achievement of James Legge, 1815-1897”\n 20 October\n \n \n Professor John Hodgkiss\n **The Biology of Mangroves and the Role They Play in Hong Kong\"\n | December\n \n \n Professor Graham Johnson\n \"The Hong Kong Chinese in Canada: an Updating\"\n 5 January\n \n \n Rev. Carl Smith (with Elizabeth Sinn, Susanna Hoe, Maria Jaschok, Patrick Hase and James Hayes)\n \"The Ladies of Lyndhurst Terrace\"\n 23 February\n \n \n Dr. Mimi Chan\n \"Images of Chinese Women in Anglo-American Literature\"\n \n \n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211604, "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": 19, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "TEXT OF ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, DR. JAMES HAYES, \n\nAT THE ANNUAL DINNER 1990 \n\nSir David, Ladies and Gentlemen, \n\nSpeaking on behalf of the Society, it is my great pleasure to say how delighted we are to have our Patron, Sir David Wilson, together with Lady Wilson, with us on this occasion. Despite their overwhelming schedule, they have made time to be with us tonight, and we are the more appreciative: but not only on this account. \n\nSir David is a scholar-diplomat, a former Editor of The China Quarterly, and very well acquainted with the history of China and its tributaries, and their relations with the West. A Fellow of our parent body since 1968, he shares the concerns and aims of this Branch of the RAS, its youngest offspring. Both he and Lady Wilson take a keen interest in our progress, and we are most grateful for their support and encouragement. \n\nThis is also an occasion of another kind for me, since (though not leaving the Council) I am stepping aside after 25 years as an office-bearer of the Society, the last seven of them as President. Seizing on this opportunity to the full, I have made some gratuitous observations on the role and modus operandi of the Society in the coming years in my Annual Report to the AGM, and shall now indulge in a more personal aside. \n\nOver many happy years working for the Society and doing \"recces\" and preparing Programme Notes for visits to places of interest, the one that still means a great deal to me was our visit to Bethanie in 1972 in its centenary year; both for its own sake and for its insights into bygone Hong Kong. \n\nThe Maison de Bethanie, nowadays a storehouse for the University of Hong Kong, was the sanatorium of the Paris Mission, that valiant body which preached the Gospel in China and other countries of the Far East from the 17th century on. \n\nIn his brief note for visitors, Father Caminondo who was in charge at that time wrote for me, “At a time when travelling was not easy and \n\nxviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212069, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "is due not only to a stronger weeding out of those who have not paid their subscriptions, and people leaving Hong Kong, but also to the fact that the Society has not in the last year or so pursued such an aggressive recruitment campaign, although 59 have joined the Society since last April. It is of course difficult to determine how many members a Society such as this should have. The downside is that financially we may not be as healthy as we hoped, but the upside is that there is more room for our popular excursions, and presumably there is less administration, although I am not sure Mrs. Sharon Bruce would agree. At any rate your council is keeping this aspect under surveillance, and I urge you to encourage your friends to become members at the very modest rate of $250 p.a.\n\nThere is, however, one aspect of our membership on which I have to report on which there has been no further progress: I refer to corporate membership. Last year letters sent to many leading companies in Hong Kong produced no positive response. For the benefit of those who are not aware of this may I reiterate that for the comparatively small sum of $10,000 p.a. it was intended to give certain privileges to corporate sponsors particularly in the area of acknowledgement our publications. Amongst the reasons for this move, apart from putting the Society on a firmer financial basis, was to bring to those corporations' attention the Society's achievements and interests and hopefully involve them more in the historical and academic side of Hong Kong. We shall continue to pursue this, and if any of you this evening are in a position to influence your corporations, I hope you will do so. The companies that we did approach have in fact given money to our parent Society in London, so we do feel we are on strong ground.\n\nPublications\n\nThe annual Journal is, as my predecessor said, “our major contribution to knowledge of the Hong Kong region and further afield.\" It is a very important part, if not the most important part, of our activities and it is paramount that we keep up the academic standards. All those who have received the 1988 Journal (the 1989 one will appear later this year) will, I am sure, agree that standards have been maintained and for this we have to thank Dr. Patrick Hase. It is no small feat to produce a Journal in one's spare time. The Journal is well known in many overseas academic institutions and has became an important\n\ni\n\nX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212116, "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": 58, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "35\n\nAn analysis of the rituals performed. Segawa shows that observation of the Jiao festival reveals not only traditional territorial alliances, but also past rival relationships among communities. Looking at the case of Pat Heung as an example, he illustrated that the Jiao closely reflects the past feuds between a village alliance and its neighbouring landlord community, Kam Tin. He argues that, besides its ritual and symbolic meanings, the Jiao can be seen as a \"rite of solidarity”. That is, the community maintains its unity through regular worship of the heroes and feud victims, at the Jiao festival.“\n\n45\n\nBesides traditional alliance-rival relationships, a study of a Jiao festival also reveals a society's internal social conflicts. Group consciousness and inter-group competition, which are obscured by modern city life, can be observed from the Jiao's organizational and symbolic representation. The deliberate exclusion from the \"Hang Fu” [a ritual to purify every household at the end of the Jiao festival] ritual of some households in Lung Yeuk Tau reminds one of the existence of \"Hahu\" or bondservants in the community in the past. In Cheung Chau, the Tanka boat people are denied participation in some rituals. The festival area that is to receive the purification, blessings and protection from the gods does not include the site of traditional Tanka settlement.\"\n\n46\n\nMy paper in Bunka Jinrui Gaku (Cultural Anthropology) no. 5 shows the family structure and kin relationships of different communities through a study of name lists posted at Jiao festivals. Through a comparative analysis of the name lists of three communities, it was shown that the structure of a community is clearly reflected in their name lists. The names of members of a single lineage community are written according to the principle of lineage. In other words, members of a registered unit are linked by a focal ancestor. On the other hand, in a typical name list of a multi-lineage community, be they settled in one or more localities, names are listed in the structure of a family, extended or nuclear, whose members are related to a surviving parent.\"\n\n47\n\nStudies of Jiao festivals provide an excellent source of reference to the understanding of social and political changes. A Jiao festival shows not only the ritual and social lives of the villagers, it reveals also the community's internal and external relationships. As shown in Table 2, at least 28 communities in Hong Kong celebrated Jiao", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212700, "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-1992", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1992/93\n\nIn the Society's journal Volume I (1960-61) you will find that the then president wrote these words 'It is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.' That was just over thirty-three years ago, at the time of the resuscitation of the Society, as a result of the enthusiasm of a small band of interested members led by our late president, Dr. J.R. Jones. The first meeting took place on 28 December, 1959, when the present constitution was adopted and the inaugural meeting was held on 7 April, 1960 in the Loke Yew Hall of the University of Hong Kong. It was to be presided over by the then governor, Sir Robert Black, had illness not prevented it. The inaugural address was delivered by Professor F. S. Drake, Professor of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong and was entitled 'The study of Asia: a heritage and a task.'\n\nYou will notice that the word 'resuscitated' is used because the original Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was founded in 1847 (the parent company was founded in 1823), but primarily due to personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days it collapsed in 1859. We, to-day, having survived for 33 years are clearly more enlightened and harmonious.\n\nSome of you here this evening will be fully aware of these facts; for those who are not you will find them all and much more in that first journal. My reason for drawing your attention to them, besides encouraging you to buy this back journal and all the other journals to improve our finances if nothing else, is to focus your attention on the historical mission of the Society, and to bring out that we have now been in existence for a very long time in the context of the history of Hong Kong. And in to-day's context, where the changes in Hong Kong are so apparent, where there is a charged political atmosphere, and where there is a feeling of uncertainty for the future, a Society such as ours, small as it is, can continue to play an enlightening and a stable role for Hong Kong. We are not of course a political society, nor would we ever wish to be one, but clearly we need to remind ourselves that academic freedom must be seen to be preserved, and not just paid lip service to.\n\nVil", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213325, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "129\n\nTHE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY HONG KONG BRANCH\n\nJAMES HAYES*\n\nBasically, traditional Chinese civilization fascinates outsiders because it is one of humankind's vastest treasuries of cultural achievements and social experience, and to be ignorant of it would greatly diminish our appreciation of the wondrous variety to be found in the historical life of man.\n\nI have begun this paper with this quotation from a fairly recent work on China, because it provides the rationale for our continuing interest in, and fascination with, China and \"Things Chinese\"; and because, though written long after the event, the formation of our parent body in the opening decades of the 19th century was surely prompted by similar feelings.\n\nThe Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1823, receiving its royal charter the following year. It may justly be described as one of the leading cultural bodies of its kind in the world, a reputation it has retained over its long, continuous history with the help of its many branches in the East.\n\nA Brief History of the Hong Kong Branch\n\nAmong these various offshoots, there had been a short-lived but productive \"China\" Branch in Hong Kong between 1847 and 1859. Thereafter, in line with the gradual expansion of British interests in China, the focus had shifted further north. A North China Branch flourished in Shanghai for almost ninety years between 1862 and 1949. Its heyday had been in the 1930s, before Sino-Japanese hostilities began in earnest in 1937, when it had over 8,000 members and owned its modern library and museum premises. Both these earlier Branches of the Society provided a lecture programme and issued Transactions, Journals, and other publications, contributing significantly to the study of China in all its rich complexity.\n\n*The RAS, Hong Kong Branch has just celebrated its 35th anniversary with its publication on Hong Kong villages. It is hoped that a volume on the history of the Branch will be provided on a future occasion. In the meantime, these notes on my time with the Society to date may be of interest to Members and may even encourage someone to undertake the \"History\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213339, "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": 161, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "143\n\nour cultural programmes depend. These had always been available in Hong Kong's colonial era, now practically at an end, because of the settled lives of the many local expatriates working in the major fields of government service, business, education and the professions, and the fact that a good number of them came to admire and value the culture in which they spent their working days. I am assuming that the provision and maintenance of leaders from our local Chinese membership will not be a problem, but this remains to be seen.\n\nOne can only live in hope. The Society is flourishing, and is well regarded. It is well-established in the hearts and minds of its members of all races, here and overseas. Notwithstanding the difficulties attending any major political transition, such as Hong Kong will face in 1997 and the following few years, like the Territory itself there is no valid reason - so far as we know - why we should not be able to continue our good work well into the next century.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. Charles O. Hucker, China to 1850: A Short History (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1978), p. 2.\n\n2. See the history recently published by the RAS, London.\n\n3. They still exist, but a recent enquiry shows that the RAS library now forms part of the provincial collections. See also Harold M. Otness, \"The One Bright Spot in Shanghai: A History of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society”, in JHKBRAS 28 (1988), pp. 185-197.\n\n4. See JHKBRAS 1 (1961), pp. 4-5, with historical background at pp. 1-3.\n\n6. JHKBRAS 1 (1961) pp. 11-17, given on 7 April 1960.\n\nPrepared by H. Anthony Rydings, our former long-serving Hon. Librarian and Vice-President, indexes to the Journals and “Occasional Publications\" up to 1980 have been published by the Branch.\n\nOur founder President had applied to the Government for yearly financial assistance, and this small subsidy remained pegged at the same very low figure ever after. Approaches made to leading European banks and firms in 1989–90 for assistance met with no response, perhaps because they had contributed to a recent appeal from the parent body in London.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213414, "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": 10, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "context of to-day's Hong Kong, and I am grateful to all members who have kindly contributed to that debate, notably Mr. John Wilson and our past President, Dr James Hayes, and I would now like to briefly give you the upshot of that review, and if any member would like to give input into this please do so.\n\nThis review covered such issues as the Society's role in relation to the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law and on this score, there is no doubt that the Society can continue to function after 1997 without fear of any legal restrictions other than those at present contained in the Society's Ordinance. In addition under Article 149 of the Basic Law it is clear that there will be nothing to prevent the Hong Kong Branch of the Society having dealings with its parent body in London or with other branches in the region or even with international bodies.\n\nThe Council also discussed two other issues, firstly the Title, and secondly its appeal to all the community in Hong Kong. On the first issue there was general consensus that the Society should continue to be called the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. It may seem unfashionable to retain the word Royal but in view of our history as outlined above I believe it is the right decision. There is also the problem of what to call ourselves if we did not include the word Royal. There is already in Hong Kong a Society called the Asiatic Society originating in London, and another one called the Asia Society formed about six years ago from America. For this Society to drop the name Royal will probably cause even more confusion than there is already.\n\nOn the second issue the Council agreed that whilst it had broadened its appeal over the last ten years, which has brought in many more local orientated members on the Council and in its overall membership it should continue to do more in this direction, without of course deleting one of the original purposes of the Society which is to inform and educate the public about the history life and culture of the local community. Related to this the Council agreed that where appropriate the Society should keep in close touch with other local societies in its various fields.\n\nThe review and the discussions in Council were I felt very valuable in focusing our attention on the current status of the Society. However,\n\n1X", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214169, "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": 27, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "REPORT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM FRIENDS OF THE HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nIt gives me great pleasure to write about and report on the first year's activities of the 'Friends.'\n\nWhy has such a society been formed you may ask? There is, as many of you know, a very respectable Royal Asiatic Society already in existence in London, which is the parent body of the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong, and some of our members are already members of that august body. However, with the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, and the return to the United Kingdom of many members of the Hong Kong Society, there was a general view that a continuous identification of the Hong Kong Society's aims should in some way be perpetuated in the United Kingdom. A loose federation was not considered to be suitable - a more defined affiliation was felt to be desirable and it was therefore decided to sound out those members who had returned to see to what extent they would be interested in joining a Hong Kong Branch in the United Kingdom. In deciding to do this there was great encouragement from the Royal Asiatic Society in London, and from our Royal Asiatic friends in Hong Kong; the latter were particularly helpful in that they very kindly loaned us £250 (now repaid) for initial start-up expenses.\n\nThe response to the first circular was very encouraging and over 100 RAS members who were in Hong Kong expressed a strong interest in joining and, importantly, a large majority sent in the first year's subscription (£15 single, £25 joint). Such a response enabled the committee to plan the first year's activities and decide where and when to meet.\n\nSince the first committee meeting in the Oxford/Cambridge Club in London in April, 1998 there have been three well attended functions:\n\na) An inaugural lecture given by Mr. Keith Stevens on 11th July, 1998 on the subject \"The Yang Family of Generals of the Sung Dynasty\" at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)\n\nb) A lecture by Mrs. Kirsty Norman on 31st October, 1998 on \"Drugs, Prisons and Paparazzi,” again at SOAS\n\nxxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215240, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "# HONG KONG BRANCH OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\n# Introduction\n\n# REPORT ON THE WORK OF\n\n# THE SOCIETY, 2001-2002\n\nfirst\n\nI am very glad to be able to state, at the beginning of my Annual Report to the Society, that the outcome of the Society's work over the last year has been, taking the year as a whole, broadly satisfactory.\n\nComplacency is something which the Council constantly strives to avoid, but, nonetheless, there is little which I am able to pinpoint as a matter of serious concern as of today. We can, of course, always do better, and I will be outlining in this Report some new initiatives introduced or under consideration by Council by which we hope that we will achieve such improvements. Council is, of course, always open to suggestions for improvement in the way we conduct our affairs, and, at the end of this Report you will have a further opportunity to raise questions and make suggestions for improvements. Similar comments or suggestions can also be made to me, or to any other Councillor, at any time, of course.\n\n## Inter-Branch Relations\n\nCouncil has become concerned about the state of our relations with the parent branch, the Royal Asiatic Society, London, and with the other branches elsewhere in Asia, as well as with other Societies of a similar character and aim. Council has agreed that action should be taken to improve relations, and, as far as possible, to get the Society in a closer and more friendly relationship with them.\n\nA good start to this was achieved in September when, as part of the Society's trip to Korea, the members who went on the trip had the opportunity of spending a most convivial and pleasant evening with the President and Members of Council of the Korea Branch at a truly magnificent Korean meal, arranged by the Korea Branch and paid for by the members of the Society who went on the trip. It is to be hoped that similar events, aimed at improving relations generally, can be\n\nxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215241, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "arranged at suitable opportunities in the future. I would like to thank the President of the Korea Branch, Dr. H. Underwood, for his assistance and amicability on this occasion. I shall, on behalf of the Society, shortly be writing to the parent branch and the other branches with suggestions for improving contacts generally.\n\nMembership\n\nIn perhaps the first place in Council's concerns is the state of our Membership. It is always difficult to say what the most desirable size for a Society such as ours is. If it is too small, then the income from Membership Subscriptions (which represents by far our largest source of income) will be too low to meet the expenses of our activities. If it is too large, then Members will find they cannot easily get onto the tours and other activities organised by the Society. To hit the happy medium is not easy. In practice, we have to see what the practical implications are for the size of the Society at any date, and then to see whether we need to take action to try to get an increase.\n\nThe changing demographic characteristics of the expatriate community in Hong Kong make this question of membership even more critical. Our membership is predominantly from the expatriate resident community in Hong Kong. For at least the last 25 years Council has tried to increase our membership from the local Chinese community, but so far with only moderate success. We have to accept, therefore, that changes to the make-up of the expatriate community will have immediate effects on the Society. When I joined the Society, in the mid-1970s, a substantial part of our Membership was of expatriates who expected to spend the whole of their working life in Hong Kong, or at least expected to live here for a decade or so. In these circumstances, our membership tended to be rather static. Relatively few people joined the Society for just a year or two, and the percentage of our membership which resigned and thus had to be replaced each year was low. Nowadays, however, relatively few expatriates come to Hong Kong for a long time, still less for the whole of their working life. Overwhelmingly, the expatriate community in Hong Kong consists, today, of people who will live here for only a few years, often only two or three. As such, we have to accept that a very high percentage of our membership will resign after only a couple of years. Last year, in fact, and the year before that, about a fifth of the entire ordinary membership\n\nXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215735, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "ving grown up. At present this balance consists of assets worth about 90,000. This compares with the Society's current annual routine expenditure of about $290,000. Council considers that even the most prudent of financial regimes would not require more than twelve months' average routine expenditure being held as a balance in cash. I shall, therefore, shortly be proposing for your consideration that the Society transfer $350,000 of our accumulated reserves into the Foundation Fund as soon as it is formally established, to provide the initial balance for the Fund. I shall also be recommending that a further sum of $50,000 be transferred at the same time from our current cash savings to the Current Account of the Fund, to allow disbursements to take place within the first year or two of the Fund's operations.\n\nI must stress that it is our intention, except for the $50,000 to be earmarked for expenditure within the first one or two years, to spend only the income from this Fund. We do not intend to eat into the capital of the Foundation Fund, but to spend only the income derived from the interest on it. Any money, other than the $50,000 ear-marked for expenditure, so transferred to the Fund by the Society would thus not be \"lost.\" The sum would remain, untouched, as a capital sum. Should some later date the Society decide to cancel the Fund and to withdraw from the sponsoring of scholarship, the sum to be transferred could then be transferred back into the Society's regular accounts, although I must say I hope that this would never happen!\n\nI hope to be able, within the next month or two, to announce to members that the Fund has been formally established, and to put before members the detailed rules which will be used to control the Fund and disbursements from it. Keep an eye open for further news in the Newsletter! When all the details are finalised, it is likely that an Extraordinary General Meeting will be required to get Members' formal agreement to them; keep this in view!\n\nImproved Relationships with other Branches, and Extended Availability of the Journal in Libraries around the World\n\nThe second of the major new work initiatives announced by me last year arose from a desire to improve our filial and fraternal relationships with the Parent Society in London, and with other Branch and Associated Societies in Asia, and to increase the number of places\n\nXXV", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215736, "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": 35, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "around the world where full sets of our Journal are available to scholars.\n\nMembers will have seen, in the Newsletter, a growing amount of information about the activities of a number of these other Societies, information reaching us as a direct result of the improved communications we have been seeking. I am glad to say that we have been able to get into improved communication in particular with three of the Branch Societies in India, that is, those in Madras (the Madras Literary Society), Bombay (the Asiatic Society of Bombay), and Calcutta (the Asiatic Society of Bengal), and with those in Colombo (The Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch), Kuala Lumpur (the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), and Seoul (the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch). All these Societies have agreed to welcome our Members to any of the events they mount, and we in turn have been very happy to offer Members of these Societies temporarily visiting Hong Kong access to our activities on the same terms as our own Members. We have also improved our contacts with the Siam Society, in Bangkok, and, again, we are now offering their Members access to our events on the same terms as our own Members. We have also been in regular communication with the Parent Society in London. We have not been able to contact the Branch Society in Tokyo as yet, and any Member able to help us in this respect should contact me.\n\nAs part of our drive to improve relationships with these other Branch and Associated Societies we have agreed to donate sets of our Journal to the Madras, Bombay, and Bangkok Societies, in return for sets of their Journals, which will be placed in our Library. Exchange arrangements with the Parent Branch in London, and with the Korea, Calcutta, Malaysia, and Ceylon Branches are also in place. We have also recently agreed an exchange arrangement with the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden.\n\nFollowing the agreement of Members at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society on 4 October 2002, that the Society should have a new category of Member, that is Honorary Institutional Member, we have agreed in the subsequent months to make the Shanghai Library; the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives; the Zhong-ying Street Historical Museum, Sha Tau Kok (Shenzhen); the National Library, Bhutan; the British Empire Museum, Bristol, England; and the Instituto Cultural of Macau Honorary Institutional Members of the Society. In\n\nxxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216129, "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": 428, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "362\n\nMay 1859 after the departure of Sir John Bowring, but was revived with the approval of the parent Society in London and reconstituted as the Hong Kong Branch in December 1959 under the active patronage of the Governor, Sir Robert Black. It is currently very active and is in a sound financial position.\n\nThe Library\n\nSimilar to other branches, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society set up a collection of books within its field of interest, relating to Asia and its culture. As a result of the merger with the Medico-Chirurgical Society, it had the benefit of inheriting all the books from this Society.\n\nThe Society in Hong Kong was not as fortunate as its Shanghai counterpart where the Government, in 1868, provided a site for its building at a nominal rent and later granted it in perpetuity to the Society.2 For many years, the Hong Kong Branch did not have any permanent site, and thus its collection moved from place to place.\n\nIn the early days, in 1849, as allowed by the then governor Sir S. G. Bonham, the collection was housed in a room at the Supreme Court building where the Society had its meetings. In 1859, when the Society ran into difficulties, the, by now, valuable collection of 400 books was placed in trust with the Morrison Education Society (formed in Canton in 1835) which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Supreme Court house. In November 1869, when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Colony to open the first City Hall, the Morrison Education Society presented its own library as well as that of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society to the first City Hall Public Library to serve as the reference collection. This laid the corner stone for the future relationship of the Society with the Hong Kong Public Libraries which eventually would become the permanent home for the Society's collection. In fact, following the resuscitation of the Hong Kong Branch in 1959, the President's first annual report stressed the need for ‘a meeting place of our own where we can build our Oriental library which should fill a special need'3 and expressed the hope that some accommodation could be made available in the City Hall. However, this was not realized until after several movements of both the Society and the collection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216265, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "During the last year, Council had the opportunity of meeting with the current President of the parent Society in London. I hope that this can be taken further during the year.\n\nThe Library of the Society\n\nOur Honorary Librarian, Miss Julia Chan, will be reporting separately on the present position with regard to the library. In general, the state of our Library is excellent, and the number of users is rising.\n\nOur website, which has proved to be of the greatest value in advertising the Society, is currently being up-dated and improved. I urge all Members to check the new format out! I would like to repeat what I have said before, and to thank Moody Tang for all her help in maintaining and up-dating the website. This is a heavy job, which Moody does extremely well. Thank you, Moody!\n\nFriends of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong, in the United Kingdom\n\nI have, in each of the last few years, reminded Members of the existence of our sister Society in the United Kingdom. This useful body allows Members moving from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom to continue their interests in the culture and history of the Hong Kong area, as well as providing a social venue where they can continue to meet up with old friends who, like them, have moved from Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. As to what the Friends do, I will shortly read an Annual Report on their activities sent to us by the Chairman of the Friends, Mr David Gilkes.\n\nHonorary Fellows of the Society\n\nDuring the year, Council agreed to change the title of Honorary Member of the Society to Honorary Fellow of the Society, since it was felt that this title more accurately indicated to the general public what the Society intends by the grant of the position. Council grants Honorary status to people it considers have deserved recognition by the Society, either because of their outstanding contribution to the development of the study of Hong Kong, and its history and society, or for their outstanding support and dedication to the work of the Society, or both.\n\nxxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]