[
    {
        "id": 205195,
        "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-1966",
        "page_number": 151,
        "title": "RAS-1966",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n145\n\nSpanish conquerors in 1560. During the early Spanish period, Chinese merchants in Fukien and other areas capitalized on the opportunities of the newly developing Manila Galleon trade between the Philippines and Mexico, as the way was then open for Chinese vessels to carry goods from China to Manila, there to be loaded for markets in Mexico. However, within a few years after the Spanish conquest, relations between the Chinese and Spaniards fell into a pattern of distrust and latent hostility. The term sangley, the Spanish name for Chinese immigrants, came to connote an invidious cultural stereotype. The distrust led to the shaping of harsh Spanish policies towards the Chinese and the establishment of the Parian, a kind of Chinese ghetto, for the Chinese in Manila.\n\nThe author devotes much space in the first part of the book to a lengthy discussion on the subject of the Chinese mestizos, vital to an understanding of the social history of the Philippines. The lineage history of the Filipino national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, is an example of the position of the Chinese mestizos in the social history of the Philippines. Dr. Rizal's paternal ancestor, a Catholic Chinese born in China, married a Chinese mestiza in the Philippines. Their son and grandson both married Chinese mestizas. The grandson was later able to have his family transferred from the mestizo padron (the tax-census register) to that of the indios (native Filipinos). Thus, Rizal's father, and Rizal himself, were considered indio. As a very relevant aside, this writer recommends that the reader consult Filipino historian, Mr. Esteban A. de Ocampo's article, “Chinese Greatest Contribution to the Philippines The Birth of Dr. Jose Rizal,\" in Dr. Shubert S. C. Liao's Chinese Participation in Philippine Culture and Economy (Manila: Bookman Inc., 1964).\n\nProfessor Wickberg continues on to discuss the growth of the Chinese economy in Manila and other areas, foreign trade and other kinds of economic activity in the Philippines, the general cultural and social context, and the position of Chinese during the years 1880 to 1890. He touches on the nature of the Chinese community in the Philippines, the relations of the Philippine Chinese with China, and the position of the Chinese at the end of the nineteenth century.\n\nBefore 1850, the Chinese in the Philippines were a largely",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208943,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1980",
        "page_number": 105,
        "title": "RAS-1980",
        "content_text": "SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE\n\n73\n\nPhilippines was a colony within a colony, being financed and administered not from Madrid but by the government of Nueva España in Mexico. The islands produced little except small quantities of wax, ginger, cinnamon and gold, and the entire Spanish military and administrative establishment had therefore to be subsidised from Mexico. Apart from the missionaries, who were scattered fairly widely over the archipelago and later became the principal landowners in the Philippines, there were no Spanish settlements of any consequence outside Manila and the colony's sole economic—as opposed to spiritual—justification was the existence of Manila, which therefore grew rapidly and soon became the metropolis of the whole archipelago. Its excellent harbour facilities and its proximity to the rich rice-producing hinterland of central Luzon had made it a natural centre for government and commerce in the first place. By 1650 the population of the Spanish walled city of Intramuros and the suburbs where the Chinese and Filipinos lived was about 42,000.\n\nFor about 200 years the Manila galleon sailing between Manila and Acapulco in Mexico was the economic mainstay of the Spanish colony in the Philippines. The galleon trade was based on the exchange of Chinese silks, for which there was an almost limitless demand in Mexico, and Mexican silver, for which, as we have seen, there was an equally insatiable demand in China.\n\nTo the galleon trade the substantial Chinese immigration into the Philippines, which has significantly altered the ethnic composition of the Filipinos, must also be attributed. Already by the 1580s the Sangleys, as the Chinese settlers were called, had been assigned a separate quarter of the city—the Parian or market place—which soon became the commercial centre of Manila. The Chinese rapidly gained a virtual monopoly of retail business in the city and dominated the craft trades. The galleons also brought to the Philippines the clergy needed for the propagation of Christianity in the islands and many new crops and animals from the New World, including maize, cattle, goats and horses.18\n\nThe voyage across the Pacific was made almost annually from the foundation of Manila and in 1593 was regulated at two ships a year from Acapulco to Manila. This pattern was maintained more or less continuously right up till the end of Spanish rule in Mexico. Very large ships were used for the voyage; vessels of up to 1000 tons are recorded from 1614,19\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215429,
        "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": 206,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "155\n\nimpressions and variations of this image circulated at the time in Europe; 26 the Jesuit fathers had actually been instrumental in introducing similar prints to the East. Apart from prints, Charles Boxer, amongst others, has remarked how the Portuguese had carried retablos with them to Japan.27 It therefore seems equally plausible that related altarpieces might have been present in the minds of the artists of the façade.\n\nBesides the mentioned attributes, the unknown programmer of the decoration also incorporated themes from St John's Book of Revelation 12.1 and 12.3 (John 12.2 was by now conveniently glossed over in artistic representations of the theme), as well as from other sources.\n\nSuch a sophisticated and theological knowledge of Marian themes reveals the mind of a programmer ingenious enough to merit a few words. Although the identity of its author is unknown, Carlo Spinola, the architect of Madre de Deus and the artist Giovanni Nicolao, director of the art school in Japan, come immediately to mind. But I think one should also consider Dom Diogo Correa Valente as another possible candidate for authorship, mainly on account of the contents of his library in the College of St. Paul.28\n\nThe Jesuit Diogo Valente was the learned but controversial Bishop of Japan resident at the College of São Paulo from 1619 to 1624, years when the façade was probably being redesigned and its construction begun. In 1624 Dom Diogo had to leave for Goa in a hurry under the shadow of the violent quarrels that agitated Macao because members of his own order had apparently partisanly elected him as Bishop of the city. But he returned again as Bishop in 1630 and so remained until his death three years later. When he was buried in the chancel of the church of Madre de Deus the decoration of the frontispiece must have been in progress. However, this is a question that can only be settled by future research.\n\nSymbolic Meaning\n\nThe interpretation of symbols relating to Mary (and the other images) is a fascinating but complex subject that cannot be discussed in detail here. However, it is worth considering some of those adorning the façade to get a sense of their poetic and mystical quality.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215430,
        "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": 207,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "156\n\nPopular Jesuit devotional manuals of the times prove useful. A good example is a 1617 book of poetry that was quickly disseminated after its author's death. The Officium parvum Immaculata Conceptionis, or Small Office, by the Spanish Jesuit St. Alfonso Rodriguez intersperses a brilliant cluster of Marian symbols amongst its prayers. Besides the Fountain, the Spotless Mirror, the Enclosed Garden and the Cypress, the Small Office also sings the praises of the Palm tree, the New Star of Jacob, the Eastern Door of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Port of Shipwrecks and others. Thus, the closed door underneath the decorative pyramid topped by a globe seen on the farthest right-hand bay of the façade can be equated to Rodriguez's porta orientalis of the Temple of Jerusalem, taken from Ezekiel, which remained ever closed after the Lord Yahweh had passed through it.\n\nOther carved symbols can be deciphered with other contemporary texts. For instance, one of the three left bay reliefs carved on the base of the third storey shows the seven-branched candlestick of the Jewish Tabernacle. Here it is reasonable to infer that this is a literary conceit typical of much of sixteenth century Mannerist literature in Europe. Thus, through allusion Mary's immaculate earthly body has been likened to a tabernacle and related to the Eucharistic mystery. This is because Mary carried the baby Jesus in her womb in the same way that the consecrated host is housed in a tabernacle, a cryptic simile known from Counter-Reformation religious literature.”\n\nSuch an interpretation is further confirmed by the reliefs decorating the section of the base of the third storey below the two adjoining bays, as well as the left volute. They show a stylised vine and a small monstrance amid branches with berries.\n\nThese reliefs correspond to the flowering plants that adorn the mirror on the right. Like the flowered pedestals of the columns, these plants seem to be more decorative than symbolic, depicting specimens of Chinese or Japanese flora in which Far Eastern artists have been encouraged to integrate more traditional painterly images with images of Western origin. As is the case with the gargoyles in the form of Chinese lions, they attest to the significant role played by Chinese and Japanese artists in the design and execution of the decoration of the church.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]