[ { "id": 204476, "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-1962", "page_number": 108, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES \n\n97\n\nJ, FUNG Yiu Tsan, residing at No. 69 in this village, have a farm hut and a piece of waste threshing ground at Lot Nos. 94 and 95, which I hereby sell to a junior clansman FUNG Tak Yau, because I am old, have no son to support me and cannot make a living or obtain the money I need by borrowing. The price agreed upon is twenty-four silver dollars. This has been paid in full, after weighing, to me personally; the money is to be taken home for me to spend; hereafter the above-named payer will assume ownership of the farm hut and waste threshing ground, including the walls, tiles, ordure pit and boundary stones. From now on no arbitrary claims may be made, for this sale is voluntary and payment has been made in full and as agreed. This agreement is irrevocable. Should this property be found to have been acquired under suspicious circumstances, the vendor alone will be held responsible; the above payer is not liable. This written agreement is hereby prepared as proof and for retention by FUNG Tak Yau.\n\nAnother, drawn up during the difficult days of the Japanese occupation in 1942 reads,\n\nThis deed of sale on land is drawn up by the vendor CHAN Wan Shing. Because he has not money for purchasing provisions, he first offered to sell to his kinsfolk the nine plots of land, total area three dau chung, located at Nam Pei Tau in Shek Pik Village, bequeathed to him by his grandfather, but none of them are interested. Then, through the medium of a middleman, KWOK Lai Pai of Tai O was approached and he undertook to buy them at a current price of $165.00. Again, through the middleman, CHAN Wan Shing has received a sum of $165 for himself, and with effect from the date of this deed, the lots will become the permanent property of KWOK Lai Pai. For fear that verbal agreement may not constitute evidence, this deed is executed as a certificate to confirm the transaction.\n\nDuring a land court held during the Shek Pik settlement just as a case was being settled in the present possessor's favour in default of proof of the plaintiff's contention that the original document was a mortgage and not a sale (and therefore redeemable, according to custom, despite subsequent transactions) the defendant pulled out a new sheaf of papers for inspection. Among them was a white deed which proved to be the original mortgage of 1918. He thereby defeated his own case. It turned out that he had never bothered to read the papers handed over to him with the white deed of sale drawn up during the Japanese Occupation. Similarly, a sixty year old mortgage elsewhere on Lantau which was discovered in the land registers when succession was being determined, was honoured by the mortgagees, though grudgingly, the real point at issue being the amount of compensation and not the return of the land, as no figure was stated in the original entry.\n\n12 This is recognised in the provisions of the New Territories Ordinance Cap. 97 where the registration of a so manager in the Land Office is obligatory. A change of manager can only be secured after the vacancy has been filled at a properly advertised clan meeting and notices of election, posted by the District Office, have expired without objection, Prospective sales of two land have to be reported to the Assistant Land Officer (the D.O.) and advertised by him, again without objection, before a sale is allowed. Trustees, too, are not permitted to sell land belonging to minors unless the Land Officer has given his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204682, "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": 163, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n147\n\ncome right out in favour of a Portuguese source. It is indeed very likely that this is a spelling etymology which might never have arisen if the modern Portuguese orthography lingua (with u = English w) had been used in Johnson's day. It is fairly certain that the o in the earlier spelling, lingoa, had the value of English w in eighteenth century Portuguese.\n\nOn the other hand, it may be that we should still look to a Portuguese etymology for lingo, but not an etymology drawn from the written standard language of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries but rather to the oversea Portuguese creole (and pidgin) dialects as recorded over the centuries. I have consulted the studies on the Indo-Portuguese dialects by Dalgado available in Hong Kong, including his valuable Glossário Luso-Asiático and find lingo as the form given for tongue, language, in the parts of India and Ceylon where varieties of Portuguese were and still are spoken. Elsewhere I find the form linga reported from the Cape Verde Islands.\n\nIn most cases this lingo should probably be pronounced lingu, more or less as in educated metropolitan Portuguese where the final may be voiced, unvoiced or even silent. The form used in Macao in the nineteenth century has been recorded as lingu and the pronunciation of this word by some of the older Portuguese people in Hong Kong at the present time could be so represented. Parallel development may be seen in the Cochinese, Javan, Malaccan, Cape Verdean and Macanese forms agoļagu vis à vis standard written água, and lego and tabu for légua and tábua respectively registered in several Luso-Asiatic dialects.\n\nThe earliest reference to lingo recorded in the OED is for 1660 in New Haven Col. Rec. (1858) II, 337: \"To wch the plant [= plaintiff] answered that he was not acquainted with the Dutch lingo.\" Various dictionaries note later references in Congreve and Sheridan: “Well, well, I shall understand your lingo one of these days, cousin; in the mean time I must answer in plain English.\" (Congreve, Way of the World, A. IV, sc. I); \"I have thoughts to learn something of your lingo before I cross the seas.\" (Congreve); \"He is a gentleman of words; he understands your foreign lingo.\" (Sheridan, St. Patrick's Day, I).\n\nWIRI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205370, "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-1967", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT\n\n125\n\nand so drowned in all manner of wickedness, as to have lost their human nature. If I proceeded further into the interior, he told me, I should find the people more friendly, and more willing to listen to my errand.\n\nThe mandarins in the Sanon district have very little power. The people pay the taxes, but do not allow the mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law-suits, differences, and offences are very seldom brought before the mandarins. The mandarin from whom I learnt the preceding facts had not, as far as I know, during a period of several years, more than one case brought before him for decision; in this instance he was both plaintiff and judge, — the criminal being a youth who was caught stealing fruit in his garden. Anxious to give the people an impression of his severity, he had the prisoner scourged, and continued the punishment till he was obliged to desist for fear that the prisoner might die. This excessive severity was caused by his vexation at not being able to get a groan, or a cry, or a prayer for pardon, from the culprit, as a proof of his power. This solitary act of justice of the mandarin was much laughed at by the people.\n\nThe disputes between villages and clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected; but it often happens, when a league of several powerful villages or clans are in arms against their enemies, they are not so particular, and will attack and plunder any man who falls in their way, except he belongs to a clan whose strength they fear. If, for instance, the clan Tang is at war with the clan Man, any person of a different surname may safely pass through the theatre of war.\n\nMissionaries also are considered neutrals; even if they dwell in the country of one of the belligerents, they may safely pass through the villages of the hostile clan, provided only they take care that the coolies with them are also neutrals.\n\nThe following is an example of these feuds: There are two villages respectively named Sha-tsing, and Pak-tau-king which carried on a war for five years; with each of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206866, "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n137\n\nMail 17 May 1893. A representative of the Chan clan, which built the temple and claimed title to it as clan property, entered suit against the local Worship Committee of Ap Lei Chau which had tried to get possession of the management of the temple. The action had begun as a civil case when a dispossessed keeper of the temple tried to remove some effects, which he claimed as his own property but the Temple Committee claimed as temple property. Now the court was called upon to decide who was to be the legitimate managing committee for the temple.\n\nThe evidence set forth by the Chan clan claimed that about the year 1780, Chan U-ting, living in Little Hong Kong, having prospered, placed an image of the god Hung Shing on a small island between Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau and erected over it a small covering. He had five sons whose descendants formed the five branches (fong) of the Chan family. Through the years the family moved away from Little Hong Kong. The majority took up residence on Lamma Island; however, they retained possession of the temple and hired a caretaker. Some member of the Chan clan was entrusted with the oversight of the temple affairs and regularly received the fees collected by the temple keeper from the people who went there to worship. In 1888 there was a major renovation and enlargement of the temple. The costs were met by a public subscription obtained from Victoria, Canton, Macao, Yaumati and the vicinity, and not simply from the people of Ap Lei Chau who were now seeking to dispossess the Chan clan of their rights in the temple. The elder of the clan in 1893 was Chan Lui-hing, and the action against the Worship Committee was brought in his name on behalf of the clan. From time to time the clan hired a man to reside at the temple. From 1883 to 1893 the keeper was Chan A-kwai. He had succeeded his father in the position.\n\nRecently the worshippers had begun to complain that the charges made by the keeper were too high, so Chan Lui-hing, the temple's manager, asked him to leave and put in his place Chan Sik. The same day that the new keeper arrived to assume his duties he was driven away by the local Worship Committee. The plaintiff, Chan Lui-hing, alleged that the real reason for the complaints regarding high fees was his objection to the temple being used by certain actors for their theatrical performances. Hence, he had come into conflict with the Committee who were making the arrangements.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207842, "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": 230, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "far as I can see, it is not fear that keeps people away from the court so much as unfamiliarity with technically administered justice and reluctance to become involved with professional lawyers.\n\n41. Through the courtesy and co-operation of the Registrar of the Supreme Court, the Registrar at the Kowloon District Court, and the District Judge, I was able to collect some information on recourse to the Fanling District Court (which covers most of the New Territories) since its establishment. From 27 Sept. 1961 to 19 April 1963, 1,741 cases were heard (436 in 1961, 1,179 in 1962, and 126 in 1963). The cases can be seen to fall mainly into four classes: 'goods', 'loans', 'possession', and 'dishonoured cheques'. In round figures the 'goods' cases amount to 280, 'loans' cases to 1,170, 'possession' cases to 70, and cases of 'dishonoured cheques' to 60. The 'loans' cases, which account so heavily for the business of the court, owe their great number to the activity of the Director of Agriculture and Forestry in claiming his due. It is the 'possession' cases which bring us into the traditional field of New Territories disputes: land. But in fact these cases seem to be largely about tenancies held by immigrants, the terms on which land is to be let for vegetable-growing and poultry-keeping (particularly with respect to the termination of leases) not yet having become standardised to the point where there is a generally recognised custom. The only other classes of cases where numbers rise to any significant degree are 'rent' (18 cases), 'wages' (29), 'wages in lieu of notice' (24), and 'tax' (16). So that, on the whole, the business of the court appears to be largely bound up with the relations between government and individuals and between long-settled residents and outsiders with whom they have become commercially engaged. Matters touching 'Chinese law and custom' have hardly yet reached the court. The extent to which lawyers were involved in the cases is worth noting. In 151 cases solicitors acted for plaintiffs; but only 3 defendants were so represented. (There are no solicitors outside the urban area and no sign yet that rural practices may develop).\n\n42. The second question raised at the beginning of paragraph 40 has already been answered in part: so far what has been regarded as falling within the province of 'Chinese law and custom' has barely been in question in the court; but the court is so constituted that if such cases do arise District Officers and other experts can be asked to sit with the judge, and it will be interesting to see whether cases of this kind do arise in the future in any considerable number.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210689, "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": 40, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "23\n\nobserved that he was not often late.\n\nIt would not be appropriate to the scale of this essay to give an account of his practice, cases or clients. For anyone who is interested the details are to be found in the local newspapers. I propose only to mention a few selected matters. His first reported case was in April 1877 when he appeared for a man charged with possessing and uttering counterfeit coins and made a successful submission of no case to go to the jury. In the following July he called E.J. Eitel, referred to above, to give evidence of local custom in a case relating to the false imprisonment of a woman. His first notable case was in January 1878 when he defended one of two ship's engineers charged with manslaughter following the explosion of a boiler on a ship in Victoria Harbour which caused the deaths of over seventy people. Later in 1878 he defended F.S. Huffham, the Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, on charges of fraud and misappropriation of fees. His clients included banks, shipping companies, and many other businesses, the Opium Farmer, the Emperor of China and other Chinese authorities and a host of individuals including the Baroness DoCercal and a member of the Korean Royal Family. He appeared in cases in which the Hong Kong Club and the Jockey Club were parties and many of the libel cases which were a feature of life in Hong Kong. His practice took him not only into the courts of Hong Kong but also before the Legislative Council and to Macao, Canton and Shanghai. In a case of his in 1884 two of the jurors gave evidence, which must be unusual. Also in that year he was in a case concerning a contract to supply Chinese emigrants to Jamaica. In 1886 he appeared for forty-two Chinese Police Constables charged with corruption. In 1893 he was involved in the first case in Hong Kong relating to Ancient Lights. In 1897 he acted for the Jewish Community which sued in respect of land alleged to be held in trust for it. Following the acquittal of Fraser Smith referred to above he joined others in offering to pay the plaintiff's costs, an uncommon gesture for a lawyer (the verdict of the jury was not guilty but the verdict of the colony was guilty). His persistence as an advocate lasted to the end. In June 1901 the trial Judge in his summing up referred to \"his very able speech for the defence which occupied two hours and in which every point in the evidence was thoroughly gone into\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210865, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "199\n\nmight have been a member. Hence her appearance at Tong A-chick's place.\n\nThe husband came in search of his wife. He was told that Tong A-chick had been seen handing some clothes to her in the basement of his house. The pursuing husband got a writ of habeas corpus from the court demanding that Tong A-chick restore his spouse to him. He charged that she was being kept against her will.\n\nA-chick in his testimony said that to his knowledge he never saw, knew, or spoke with the woman in question, and did not know where she was stopping at present. He might have handed the coat spoken of to some person in the basement, but he did not know the wife of A-lai was there at the time. The judge believed A-chick was telling the truth and discharged him.\n\nThe incident had two consequences. Too A-sung brought divorce proceedings against her husband and Tong A-chick sued the proprietors of the Town Talk for libel.\n\nHe claimed $5,000 damages from the publishers, P.P. Hull and company, charging that they had published libellous statements about him in commenting on his appearance in court in the case of the fleeing wife. He contended the newspaper article was intended “to bring him into public scandal, disrepute, infamy and disgrace, and for the further purpose to harass, oppress, impoverish and entirely ruin the plaintiff.”\n\nIn denial, he said he was \"a good, true, honest, just and faithful resident of the State of California and had always been respected, esteemed, and known among his neighbours to be a person of good name, fame and credit, and never been suspected to have been guilty of perjury, nor of abduction and extortion, nor of the sin of trafficking in human flesh, or of any other such crime.”\n\nThe account of the case did not report the judge's decision, but it is probable that A-chick emerged vindicated, as he had in his other appearances at court.\n\nNews of some of his troubles got back to Hongkong. The editor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211017, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "54\n\nIn addition to the vocabulary one might expect in these sections (like “Plaintiff”, “Judge”, “Barrister at law”, “Fine”, “Reprimand”, etc.), one discovers “Sly brothel”, “Registered prostitute”, “Utter false money”, “Branded”, “Put in the cangue”, “Squeezing the ankles”, “Strangled (to death)”, and “Slap the mouth”.\n\nIn many of the sections of this part of the book, Mok Man Cheung is able to demonstrate considerable expertise in the special or technical vocabulary of different crafts, trades, businesses, and professions. \"Silks and Cloths\" (p. 110f.), \"Timbers” (p. 130f.), “Bamboo and Rattan Wares” (p. 134f.), “Iron Wear” [sic] (p. 135f.), \"Vessels and Boats”, “Building Contractor's Terms” (p. 149f.), “Wood Work” (p. 154f.), and the special \"Tallyman's Vocabulary\" are all examples of a practical acquaintance with the fields or conscientious research. There are, however, other sections of the book where, with a similar sense of confidence and authority, Mok Man Cheung actually betrays his lack of familiarity either with the content or with the precise idiom used. In the second section of “Short Sentences”, for example, Mok Man Cheung ranges from such idiomatic expressions as “He got tight” and \"all squared up\" to near misses like \"The real with the false got mixed up” and “He is pulling your legs”. Even the accuracy of local information is wanting in some places, though this, again, could be the fault of slipshod copy editing or careless proof reading. Under “Roads, Streets and Public Offices in Hongkong”, for example, a reader would have been puzzled to find, right next to Bowen Road and Kennedy Road, a certain \"Mac Donald Road”, presumably in error for MacDonnell Road.\n\n17\n\nThe tone of the model letters which Mok Man Cheung offers his readers is invariably formal and respectful, even if the matter is one of reminding a client to pay his bills. The nearest Mok Man Cheung gets to expressing irritation is in the brief note at the top of p. 427:\n\nDear Sir,\n\nI have been to your office and have wasted nearly half an hour to see you, so pardon me for not staying any longer.\n\nYours faithfully,\n\nA. King.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213459, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "22\n\nhowever, cases of marriage by proxy have come to notice and although the validity of such a marriage has never been decided by the Courts, at least there is a case wherein, it can be argued, there was implied recognition of such a marriage.\" Dyer Ball, writing nearly sixty years ago, describes the custom:-\n\n\"When a man is absent from home and unavoidable circumstances prevent his return to be married, a strange marriage by proxy takes place sometimes in some districts of the Canton province; we are not aware whether it prevails in other parts of the empire or not. But the curious thing about it is that, instead of a man acting as the proxy, a cock does duty for the latter to the marriage ceremonies, though it is not even necessary that he should be sent by the bridegroom. This fowl is sent by the bridegroom, the presence of the fowl at the wedding being sufficient.\"10\n\nOn 1st July 1940 an action was brought before Sir Atholl MacGregor C.J. for the purpose of obtaining letters of administration. The plaintiff claimed that she was the lawful widow of a man whom she married by proxy in China in 1922 and who was presumed to have died in City Island, New York, in 1930 without having consummated the marriage. She gave evidence that at the ceremony carried out in the deceased's village while the deceased was in New York, he was represented by a cock decorated with golden flowers and draped in red. At the time of that marriage ceremony the plaintiff was a widow of a previous marriage to another and had three children.\n\nAs is usual in cases involving Chinese customary law, there was a battle of the experts: one gave evidence that after the cock draped in red had been taken together with the bride to the ancestral hall and had entered the bridal chamber, the marriage was regarded as valid and complete as if the bridegroom and the bride were present and even though there was no subsequent consummation; the other expert gave evidence that according to the Ching Code, the most essential point for a valid marriage was a betrothal, for the validity of which there must be a marriage contract or marriage presents exchanged between the two families. Where there was a valid betrothal there must be some kind of public ceremony in order to complete the marriage. A marriage without a valid betrothal in the first instance and without a formal ceremony to complete it, could not, the second expert stated, have any legal effect. He conceded, however, that there was some local custom allowing representation of the bridegroom by a cock.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213460, "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": 56, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "23\n\ndecorated cock but in order to make this valid three conditions must be fulfilled.\n\na valid betrothal;\n\nan intention of the bridegroom to attend the marriage ceremony; and the eventual arrival of the bridegroom for consummation.\n\nThe witness explained that in certain parts of China because of lack of communication a bridegroom was sometimes delayed and as a matter of expediency a cock was sometimes allowed to represent him.\n\nA settlement was negotiated by the third day of the hearing and the learned Chief Justice held that he was entitled under the circumstances to grant letters of administration jointly to the plaintiffs and the defendant but by consent the grant was made to the first and third plaintiffs, that is to the widow and one of her sons, and they were to pay about a quarter of the value of the estate to the defendant, who had filed a caveat as next of kin, against his abandoning all claims to the estate.\n\nCases of such marriages by proxy are rare and those which have come to the attention of the authorities in Hong Kong were celebrated in the neighbouring Chinese territory.\n\nIn 1954 Mr D. R. Holmes, the present District Commissioner of the New Territories, took statements from two villagers from the Po On District of China in regard to this customary form of marriage. One witness first distinguished the custom of a representative of the bridegroom's family taking a cock with a red thread tied on its leg to the bride's home in order to fix the date of the wedding. This custom takes place a few weeks before every wedding whether by proxy or otherwise. On the evening of a proxy wedding day there was a distinct and separate cock representing the husband carried by an attendant, which went together with the bride into the household shrine to worship the ancestors of the bridegroom's family. This cock too had a red thread on its leg. The act of worship was an essential part of the marriage custom. Only a “kit fat” wife could be taken in this way.\n\nThere is no form of customary marriage by proxy where the bridegroom is present but the bride absent.\n\nThe custom of “sam p’o tsai” or prospective daughter-in-law exists in the New Territories. Since it is practiced particularly by Hakka.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214408, "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": 266, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "232\n\nnext morning the case came before our enlightened Assistant Magistrate, who with the discretion and sense of justice characteristic of him, instead of incarcerating the defendant for ten days on bread and water, recommended settling the matter amicably and hinted at five dollars being a satisfactory recompense to the plaintiff; but whether the defendant followed this advice or not - I have not been informed. (The China Mail, No 558, the 25 Oct. 1855).\n\nHong Kong is not actually a place of trade with China, but merchants and agents trading in Canton, in Shanghai and in other Chinese ports, which are open to Europeans, live here. That is why the local anchorage (harbour) is very busy: during the whole course of my two month stay, there were always up to sixty or more merchant vessels there, one or two changing every day. The grocery and chandlery trade is all in the hands of the Chinese. With the exception of two or three large stores designated strictly for incoming vessels and filled with all that is necessary for the needs and even some whims of the seamen, all the rest belong to Chinese. The richest Chinese merchant is extremely temperate in his way of life: a few bowls of rice make up his main food, he is clothed in calico or linen - unpretentiously; and that is why even when selling things he is satisfied with low returns; he even sells European things cheaper, than the European, who needs greater profits for his table, his attire and his abode.\n\nPiece payment is, perhaps, nowhere in the world as cheap as in China. For this reason all their crafted goods are particularly well finished, even display signs of overwork; but elegance perhaps somehow slips through accidentally, in spite of the will of the worker. And indeed for an object to be sold well, it is essential, that it displays in itself signs of much labour spent on it. Whereas we, on looking at an object, say: “how lovely! how exquisite!\" the best praise for a Chinese is yu gup fu i.e. a lot of time and work has gone into this! And so in all these curio shops you find objects carved out of ivory: spheres revolving one in another, chess pieces, fans etc., also lacquer boxes, decorated with the finest of designs. This is even more noticeable in their picture shops, of which there are up to five in Canton, if not more. With them, painting is reduced to the level of a craft, or better put does not rise to the level of an art. And certainly, the technical side of it almost reaches perfection: the eye can barely follow the brushes, placed between all the fingers of the hand, and the way, one after the other, they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 } ]