[ { "id": 204241, "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": 9, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Vol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n6\n\nyear we had 182 of whom 20 were life members and who included several eminent scholars from overseas. But as Sir Robert Black said in his address last month, \"there must be many times 200 people in Hong Kong who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research or in studying and enquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here.\" While we can feel pride in having in our present membership a substantial nucleus not only of scholars but of members generally representative of the cosmopolitan community of the Colony who are keen and enthusiastic, we need more members and hope to appeal to a wider public. As this is a Royal Society, membership is not a matter of form only, and we do not go out into the highways and byways to recruit members, but we feel that the Society can enlarge its activities and membership if the present members will help by bringing within the fold those of their friends and acquaintances who are interested in its activities. There seems to be no reason why in time the membership should not equal that of the Shanghai Branch, which before the war was about 800.\n\nDuring the year the Society has held eight meetings at which addresses have been given, all of them by persons of outstanding eminence in their respective spheres. Most of them were very well attended. Good lecturers are a gift from heaven but so far we have been truly blessed.\n\nWe were particularly fortunate in starting the year with two outstanding meetings. For an opening meeting we had an intensely interesting talk by Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark on \"The Social and Economic Organisation of Tibet\", illustrated by a coloured film taken over a period of seven years during his exploration of Central Asia. The formal inaugural address was given by Professor F. S. Drake of the University of Hong Kong on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task.\" It was a memorable address which gave the stamp of learning and authority on the Society's efforts and the text of which is printed in this volume.\n\nOf no less interest and merit were the addresses following:\n\nby the\n\nProfessor John K. Fairbank on \"Chinese Studies in the United States\",\n\nMr. A. C. Scott on \"The Chinese Theatre\" illustrated by Chinese actors in costumes and makeup,\n\nMr. G. B. Downer of the University of London on \"The Yao People of Laos.\"\n\nIn the summer months we followed the advice of the first President of the original Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205431, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "186\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\n(2) to instill elementary knowledge of Confucian classics in the mind of the young; and (3) to familiarize children with the most widely used quotations, proverbs and stories from historical and literary writings. This booklet falls into the first of these categories.\n\nAlthough this type of work had undergone a continuous process of revision and development, some of the early texts had been kept in use since their first appearance in Han period. A few examples of Tang times can still be seen in collections of Tunhuang scrolls preserved in China and abroad. The Sung Neo-Confucian scholars first advocated and worked for a more relevant language teaching method for children and quite a number of standard work in this field were compiled during the Sung and Yuan Periods. But it was only in early Ming Dynasty that illustrations of the kind included in this primer were added.\n\nThus this slim volume will be of special value to those interested in the study of Chinese educational techniques, particularly in regard to the study of basic language teaching. At the same time it is of considerable use as a historical reference work since the characters and illustrations are drawn from everyday life, thus providing us with additional information on physical surroundings of the period. Professor Goodrich has also given us in his notes, romanizations and brief explanations of individual characters and compounds, which further increase the usefulness of the work as a small but comprehensive source book of the times.\n\nMA MENG\n\nHong Kong, 1967.\n\nCHINA: THE PEOPLE'S MIDDLE KINGDOM AND THE USA John K. Fairbank; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, and London, Oxford University Press, 1967, pp. xi, 145. HK$27.50,\n\nHow refreshing it is to read a volume of essays on China instead of one of the many tomes which issue from the world's presses on this abstruse country. Professor Fairbank is a famous historian, but his book shows him as what many experts at their own subject cannot manage to be, a populariser in the very best sense of the word. He has been able to distill from his many", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207739, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "CHAN LAI-SUN AND HIS FAMILY:\n\nA 19TH CENTURY CHINA COAST FAMILY\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nProfessor John K. Fairbank of the Harvard-Yenching Institute in an address to the Society during his visit to Hong Kong in 1976, referred to the importance of the study of what he termed \"China Coast Culture\", meaning thereby the type of social groups, values, institutions, etc., that emerged from the commingling of diverse traditions in the port cities of China. He suggested that an understanding of the forces that created this social milieu and an analysis of its structure and operation might provide models for life as it is developing in an age of rapid cultural interchange.*\n\nThis study of one family which was a part of the China Coast culture illustrates some strands in its creation and emergence as a distinct way of life, with its own values and manners. This new life style is seen in such features in the family of Chan Lai-sun as the intermingling of Chinese and foreign home decoration; changed attitudes toward certain Chinese practices, such as the social mingling of sexes, foot binding, dress and the wearing of the queue; the employment in a Chinese setting of language, educational and scientific skills acquired by a Western-style training; and marriage across racial boundaries.\n\nMr. Tin-yuk Char has provided interesting information on the career of Chan Lai-sun. In the light of his suggestion that more information might be forthcoming, I can add a few more facts from material I have collected on the family.\n\nThe careers of Chan Lai-sun and his children are examples of the role marginal Chinese played in the Westernization of China. Chan's mother was probably Malay. His wife Ruth A-tik was born in Indonesia and was not of pure Chinese ancestry. In a list of members of the Presbyterian Mission Church at Ningpo for 1850, she is described as \"Indo-Chinese\". Both as children came under the patronage of foreigners and both received an English language education. Miss Aldersey, the patron of Ruth A-tik, first in Batavia\n\n* This is my interpretation of his remarks and may not be an altogether accurate assessment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207978, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1977\n\n(Covering the period April 1, 1976 — March 31, 1977)\n\nDuring the past year your Council has endeavoured to arrange a full and varied programme of events and we hope that everybody has found something to interest and enjoy. Altogether there have been 14 lectures, three local excursions and two foreign tours, all events being well attended, although not always by the same people. Let me briefly summarise these events.\n\nIn May 1976 Professor John Fairbank, a leading authority on modern Chinese history and Asia's relations with the West, visiting from Harvard, came to talk to us about contemporary China studies. He also asked us about studies of Hong Kong and China being conducted from here at that time, and was pleased to find many of our own members active in this field. In June, Dr. James McGough, an anthropologist, at that time with the University of Hong Kong, talked about his own research on Chinese marriage carried out in Taiwan, and in July Professor Robert Bruce, an old friend and former member of the Council, discussed relations between the United States and East Asia. In August Mr. Brian Peacock, Curator of Hong Kong's Museum of History and also a Council member, talked on Hindu-Buddhist Settlement and Trade in Ancient Kedah, Malaya; and in October members visited the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' museum, under the able guidance of Carl Smith and James Hayes. Carl Smith also provided very comprehensive notes on the Hospital which will be published in a later issue of the Journal. Also in October Dr. Peter Wesley-Smith gave a very thought-provoking talk on the convention for the lease of the New Territories. This stimulated much discussion. In November, in preparation for the Sri Lanka tour, Ms. Minette de Silva gave an introductory talk, illustrated with slides, of the various places tour members would be visiting and things they would be seeing on the tour. Also in November Professor Cheng Te-k'un returned to us again to lecture, this time on Chinese Nature Painting, and in December Dr. Leigh Wright, a member of your Council, gave a lecture in preparation for the other foreign tour, to Borneo, which he led in February.\n\nA visit to the Tang family graves was organised by David Liu and James Hayes in December. The Tang lineage is the oldest and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 } ]