[ { "id": 205642, "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-1968", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "The Library\n\n179\n\nof the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society up to 20th May, 1968, is copied from the catalogue. A list of the other contents of the library, including periodicals, scrolls, tape-recordings, and other materials will be compiled and published in due course. It is also intended to issue annual supplements to the list of books and periodicals.\n\nLIST OF BOOKS\n\n'ABD ALLAH IBN 'ABD AL-KADIR, Munshi.\n\nThe voyage of Abdullah; a translation from the Malay, by A. E. Coope, with notes and appendices. Singapore, Malaya Publ. House, 1949.\n\nABEL, Clarke.\n\nNarrative of a journey in the interior of China, and of a voyage to and from that country, in the years 1816 and 1817; containing an account of the most interesting transactions of Lord Amherst's embassy to the court of Pekin... London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1819.\n\nADAMS, Arthur.\n\nTravels of a naturalist in Japan and Manchuria. London, Hurst and Blackett, 1870.\n\nALEXEIEV, Basil M.\n\nThe Chinese gods of wealth: a lecture delivered at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, on 26th March, 1926. [London] School of Oriental Studies, 1928.\n\nALLEY, Rewi\n\nPeking opera: an introduction through pictures by Eva Siao and text by Rewi Alley. Peking, New World P., 1957.\n\nANDERSON, Æneas.\n\nA narrative of the British embassy to China in the years 1792, 1793 and 1794... London, Debrett, 1795.\n\nARLINGTON, L. C.\n\nChinese women's coiffure. [Shanghai, China Society of Science and Arts, 1929]\n\nReprinted from the China journal, v.11, 1929, pp. 4-10, 69-76 and 119-126. Presentation copy signed by the author.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206138, "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": 218, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n211\n\nto a local princess. Fifteen years later he hears that his mother and several members of his family are guarding the Chinese border very close to where he is. When the play starts, he is longing to see his own people again, and his wife, the princess, makes him admit the reason for his sadness to her and also his identity. She agrees to help him to get out of the barbarian camp on condition that he comes back the next day. The most dramatic moment of the play is the brief encounter between Ssu Lang and his mother and his first Chinese wife. However, he keeps his word and returns.\n\nThe second play is a farce. The philosopher Chuang Tzu tests his wife. He pretends to be dead and reappears under the form of a young handsome scholar. He seduces his wife and even persuades her to break open the coffin in which her husband lies to remove his heart to make a medicine for him. However, when the wife opens the coffin, the philosopher reappears and confounds her. She commits suicide from shame.\n\nBesides the translations, the book also includes a general introduction to Chinese opera, some photographs of scenes from the two plays, detailed explanations of extracts from Ssu Lang visits his mother (the latter have been recorded on tape and are available from the publisher), a glossary of Chinese theatre terms and an index.\n\nBy choosing these two plays, the author has presented nearly all the different kinds of Chinese opera characters (only the painted faces are not represented). Both plays are very well known and often played; for example here in Hong Kong, by the Chun Chau Peking Opera School in Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. Ssu Lang visits his mother was, moreover, played two months ago in the City Hall by a group of amateurs; and famous airs from this opera are as well known to the Chinese as are the famous airs of Verdi to Italians. The background explanation is an excellent summing-up of what must be known in order to enjoy a Chinese opera; and if one wants to know more, one can read the Chinese Classical Theatre by the same author. This earlier book speaks in generalities, but here A. C. Scott gives two precise examples and shows how the principles of Chinese operas work in a given play.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206808, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\n79\n\nthe Pear-Garden Opera School, the Ch'aochow actors and puppe-teers have backstage a tablet or image of Feng-huo-yuan T’ien-yuan-shuai. Feng, the First Heavenly Commander. His biography can be found on page 125 of E.T.C. Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology, and reads as follows: \"Tien Hung-i, his real name, was the second of three brothers, Hsun-liu and Chih-piao who, during the K'ai-yuan Period (AD 713-742) of the T'ang Dynasty became famous court musicians....\n\n\"They were such skilled players that even clouds stopped to listen to them, and the la-mei hua (very fragrant flowers which open only in the coldest part of the winter) blossomed. The Emperor having fallen ill, saw them in a dream playing the mandolin and violin, and was promptly restored to health. As a reward he bestowed on them the title of Marquis.\n\nA ravaging epidemic having broken out, the Grand Master of the Taoists sought the musicians' aid. T'ien Yuan-shuai had a large shen-chou, spirit-boat, built, and called together a million spirits, whom he instructed to beat drums placed on it, whereupon all the demons came out of the city to listen to the music, and were seized and expelled by the musician and the Taoist Grand Master. This is said to be the origin of the dragon-boats to be seen everywhere in China on the fifteenth day of the first moon,\n\nChang Ta-shih having recognised his great ability and power, memorialized the Emperor, who canonized the three brothers as Marquises, and all the members of their family and near relatives were given posthumous titles.\"\n\nThis account indicates clearly the Feng was chosen as a patron: namely for the beauty of his music and its magical power of exorcising the evil spirits. It shows a very basic approach to music and brings to mind the many opera and puppet-performances which are staged by the Ch'aochowese at all festivals and ceremonies that deal with ghosts of which the main one is the Ta-chiu in the 7th lunar month. As a contrast it is interesting to know that the Peking opera actors have chosen T'ang Ming Huang, who already in his life time was a patron of opera as a sophisticated entertainment of the court.\n\nAnother interesting characteristic of Ch'aochow puppets (though not unique to them) is the ceremonies required to cleanse the theatre stage. Besides the veneration of the patron saint the ceremony of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206903, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "174\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nof a mask, they painted the features of the masks right on the face. The mask cannot change its expression, it lacks the spirit of the eyes and is lifeless, it hinders the speech and even more the singing, as is the case in the stagnant Japanese Noh-play. Mr. Scott does not give any background at all, but names the 15th century as the beginning of painted faces and gives them as the origin of the Japanese Kabuki make-up. He also says that their design is according to the Chinese rules of physiognomy.\n\nThe subject of painted faces is very extensive: a book published in Tai-wan a few years ago contains a thousand varieties of painted faces*.\n\nTurning to other aspects, the Peking Opera stage is empty except for a table and 2 chairs. If a chair is placed on a table, it means a mountain, and can be used to indicate, for example, a general addressing his army. Rain, wind and storms are indicated by black or blue flags of thin silk, which are carried over the stage. Carrying a horsewhip means that this person is riding, a military order is indicated by a small triangular flag, 2 square flags with a wheel-design indicate a carriage and so on.\n\nBoth authors describe in more or less detail the system of the Peking Opera schools. It is surprising how few people know that we have such a school here in Hong Kong. 40 children are trained in this school, some as young as 6 years old. They get up early to train their voices, then comes the teacher for acrobatics, then opera parts are rehearsed. In the afternoon, they study general subjects, and in the evening they go to the Lai Chi Kok amusement park to give their daily performance.\n\nIf you want to take the chance, which is so easily available, to see this intriguing type of opera, you should also spend a few hours with Elizabeth Halson's short guide. This book really does fill the newcomer's need for a comprehensive, well-ordered, introduction enabling him to enjoy and appreciate what he sees in the opera; though not yet what he hears, like Chinese enthusiasts who go to the opera in order to hear it.\n\nHong Kong, 1973.\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nChang Pe-chin: Chinese Opera and Painted Face, Taiwan, Mei Ya Publications, Inc. 1969.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207245, "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": 13, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "5 films have been shown many times. This time—in June—we had a new film on the boat people of Hong Kong \"Dragons of the Sea\" made with Miss Barbara Ward, an anthropologist and also an old friend of our Society. We were invited together with many of the boat people and others in Hong Kong who had helped make the film a success. In July one of Mr. Brian Brake's films \"Borobadur, Cosmic Mountain” was reshown. Borobadur is one of the world's greatest Buddhist monuments, situated in central Java. Mr. Brake is well-known for his documentary art films. In September another of his films \"Ramayana” a major epic of the Far East was shown. Ramayana has culturally influenced Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and other parts of the East and has been represented many times in paintings, sculptures, dances and theatrical performances. In December films on Taiwan were shown in connexion with our excursion to Taiwan over the Christmas holidays led by Miss Werle. The Taiwan visit was a great success I understand (I never seem to be able to go on overseas trips myself owing to family commitments during the holiday seasons). Members visited Hualin, Taipei, the National Palace Museum and the Peking Opera School; various temples; and Tainan where a shadow puppet performance was seen. It was with great reluctance that we had to cancel our proposed visit to Borneo over the Easter holidays, owing to insufficient numbers. We realise, of course, that for many people this is not a “free” time and the possible lack of response was due to this fact.\n\nPUBLICATIONS\n\nSeveral of our talks for 1974 will be published in our coming 1974 journal, which will also include, apart from several original articles, two valuable reprints, one on the Tang Family of Kam Tin by the late Sung Hok-pang, and another on place names of Hong Kong and the New Territories by Mr. K. M. A. Barnett. Most of the items have already been passed to the printer and it is hoped the Journal will be ready for distribution by June this year. Also in press now, are the papers relating to the two symposia we held: Hong Kong, Chinese tradition and the Development of a Town; and The Flora of Hong Kong. Professor Lofts' symposium on the Fauna of Hong Kong is also in preparation.\n\nARTS CENTRE\n\nAs old members will recall, the Society is a constituent member of the Hong Kong Arts Centre. For new members our object is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213488, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "52\n\nThe Performance and Life Style of the Opera Actors and Actresses\n\nVolumes can be written on the subject of the life of the actors and actresses of the Opera art. However, to put it in a nutshell, their lot is anything but desirable and happy. Although many successful actors and actresses do later have a higher standard of life in an ordinary Chinese society, I wonder if they would choose such careers again at their own free will. I shall try to give some of the reasons and you can draw your own conclusions.\n\n(1) In most cases, these men and women hail from poverty-stricken families and enroll in a theatrical school at a young age, sometimes from eight to ten years of age. By doing so, they relieve their families of the burden of providing for an extra mouth to feed in the household. They have to undergo a very, very strict monastic life during the seven-year period of training in that school. Each day they have to practice singing and take acrobatic exercises, as the case may be, and suffer bodily punishment if they fall out of line, from blows from a heavy stick which may be very painful. Sometimes, the teacher indulges in smoking from a long wooden pipe with a brass burning receptacle at one end. A sharp knock on the pupil's forehead, from the brass burner of the pipe, can be fatal. Even so, the teacher will not be prosecuted because it is clearly written in the contract of admission that he or she is absolved from blame for any consequences arising from such punishment.\n\n(2) The Peking Opera industry is never a free institution. Singing, walking, and movement of the hand must follow the orthodox rules. The pupils must try to fit into this Procrustean Bed by all means, if they are to succeed. You may ask how can they project themselves as individuals if everybody has to tow the line. Yes, they can. If you are talented enough, you still have enough room to manoeuvre to show your own style and make yourself famous.\n\n(3) When you play the role of a warrior in a fighting scene, to a lesser extent a civilian role, you have to wear those heavy head dresses. To prevent these head wears from falling down in the midst of the acting, the actor first has to tie a piece of moistened, fine black silk tightly around his head before putting the real hat on, again tightly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 } ]