[
    {
        "id": 213659,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 12,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "Council Member, together with his wife, back to Hong Kong last December. We hope Immediate Past President David Gilkes will also come back to see us. We sincerely hope, too, that he and Edith, who also attended so many of our functions, will enjoy a long and happy retirement together.\n\nPersonalities are obviously important. They help to make a society. That is why it was especially interesting, in December 1996, when Professor P. S. Erasmus G. Harland lectured about his forebear, Dr. William Aurelius Harland, who took up a position in 1843 at the Seamen's Hospital in Hong Kong. He served in the Colony as a prominent physician until 1858 and translated several Chinese medical works into English. During his time in the Colony he was, of course, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, first time around. That is from 1847 to 1859. During that period the Society proposed that the Botanical Gardens be established. It was a pity our Branch slumbered for a century.\n\nMembership\n\nYour Council decided, in January 1997, that, with manageability being a consideration, the optimum membership was probably about 650. But with so many leaving Hong Kong with the change-over, this figure is largely academic. The President, Dr. J. R. Jones, wrote in his 1960-61 Branch Report.\n\nAs we are a Royal Society, we do not go out into the highways and byways to recruit members.\n\nSince then, conditions have altered. We need to keep membership up to ensure adequate funding. In this regard public relations, including radio, television and press interviews, play a part. As at 22 March 1997 the membership stood at 500 locally, with an additional 85 members overseas. The number of local members could, in fact, be fewer than 500 as, unfortunately, some members do not inform us when they leave the Territory.\n\nWith a spirit of localisation prevailing in Hong Kong, but within the framework of an English-speaking Society, we have, over the past few years tried to encourage more Chinese to become members.\n\nxi",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213661,
        "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-1996",
        "page_number": 14,
        "title": "RAS-1996",
        "content_text": "Any learned society depends on an impressive programme which provides a stamp of learning and authority. Details of our past year's programmes are as follows.\n\n1996\n\n12 April\n\n10 May\n\n14 June\n\n19 July\n\n6 September\n\n4 October\n\n18 October\n\n1 November\n\n15 November\n\n6 December\n\nTitle\n\n\"The Forbidden City: the Great Within,” by May Holdsworth and Caroline Courtauld\n\n\"What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans make Sense of their Worlds,\" by Dr Gordon Matthews\n\n\"Fung Shui in the New Age,\" by David Yung.\n\n\"Chinese Export Ware for the Dutch Market,\" by Dr Christian Jorg\n\n\"An Introduction to Tam Kung: the Hakka Boy Deity,\" by Geoffrey Roper and Dr Anthony Siu Kwok-keung\n\n\"Tsuen Wan: from Hakka Enclave to Post Industrial City,\" by Dr Graham Johnson.\n\n\"Textiles and Traditions of Laos,\" by Mary Connors\n\n\"Hong Kong Heritage Trails,\" by ST Chiu\n\n\"Second Thoughts on a Memoir,\" by Dr James Hayes.\n\n\"Dr Aurelius Harland: Prominent Hong Kong Doctor 1843—1858,\" by Professor Harland.\n\n1997\n\n17 January\n\n\"Food Dynamics: Family, Class and Chineseness in Hong Kong,\" by Cheng Sea-ling.\n\nxiii",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214116,
        "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-1997",
        "page_number": 184,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "153\n\na Chinese novel into English.\n\nOther eminent persons who were Fellows of the RASHKB first time around were Dr James Legge, of the London Missionary Society, sinologist and headmaster, who has been described as,\n\n...perhaps the most important intellectual, among both foreigners and Chinese, in 19th century Hong Kong (Pfister 1993: 180).\n\nOne of his most important works is the eight-volume set of translations of the Chinese Classics.\n\nAnother Fellow of the RAS was Thomas Wade, the celebrated interpreter and envoy to China, who invented the Wade system of romanisation of Chinese. In 1887, as Sir Thomas, he became President of the RAS in London.\n\nIn 1996, Professor P.S. Erasmus G. Harland came from England to deliver a lecture to the Hong Kong Branch about his forebear. RAS Fellow Dr William Aurelius Harland MD, came to Hong Kong in 1843 to fill a post at the Seamen's Hospital. He also translated several Chinese medical works into English and later served as Secretary of the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS. He died in September 1858 and was buried in the Colonial Cemetery (now the Hong Kong Cemetery).\n\nWith the departure of Sir John Bowring and the death of its devoted Secretary, Dr W.A. Harland, the Hong Kong Branch collapsed. This came at an unfortunate time and deprived the RASHKB of prestige it would shortly have gained. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translations of the Chinese classics. Another member, T.W. Kingsmill, in 1865 had to obtain the help of the Shanghai Branch of the RAS to publish his studies on the geology of Hong Kong.\n\nWhat about personalities connected with the RASHKB after its \"reincarnation\"? Although Walter Schofield was one of Hong Kong's first archaeologists, who served as a Government Administrative Officer from 1911 up until 1938, his main achievements were largely accomplished before the Branch was re-established, in 1959. But, from then on, in retirement in England, Schofield did write papers which were published in the Branch's journals. While he served in Hong Kong",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    }
]