[
    {
        "id": 205176,
        "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": 132,
        "title": "RAS-1966",
        "content_text": "OLD BRITISH KOWLOON\n\n127\n\nbelow; another was the owner of a herbal medicine shop in Yau Ma Ti, and the other two came from Ho Man Tin. One of these was the village elder, and the other was a woman who was a keen Taoist and the wife of the richest man in the village.\n\nThe temple was the focal point of village life at this time and contributed much to relieve the boredom of hard work and ordinary routine for the cultivators, stone-cutters, shop-hands and their wives who were among its devotees. The highlight of the year was the celebrations at the time of the birthday of Kwun Yam, the patron goddess of the temple. This falls on the 19th day of the third lunar month. At this time the managers arranged for a variety of ceremonies and entertainments to take place. First, there was the annual chanting of religious books, called locally ta chiu (T). This was performed by Taoist priests known as nam mo lo (亮樣羅)12 and during this time it was customary for the villagers to follow a vegetarian diet. Having done their religious duty the elders made arrangements for entertaining both gods and men. They employed a troupe of actors to perform Cantonese opera for the traditional period of four days and five nights. My informants tell me that these shows took place every year when they were small, and indeed right up to 1926.\n\nRev. E. J. Hardy, who served as a military chaplain in Hong Kong for three and a half years at the turn of the century writes, with special reference to the villages of the Hong Kong region:33\n\n\"The great event of village life is the occasional visit of strolling players. In a very short time a temporary mat-shed theatre is put up on some barren spot on the outskirts of the village: around it cook-shops, tea-shops, gambling booths and the like, all made of bamboo, palm-leaves, and matting are erected. The place is like a fair. At mat-shed theatres the audience in the pit stand; above there are seats for subscribers and local magnates\".\n\nAnother feature of the celebrations on Kwun Yam's birthday was the firing of lucky rockets. It was usual to fire three rockets, and the assembled men and youths scrambled for the fragments of the rockets, which were believed to bring luck to the successful keepers. The first rocket was the most prized. This local entertainment could take place at various festivals. It is described for",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207352,
        "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": 120,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "112\n\n10 Ibid., p. 31.\n\nH. J. LETHBRIDGE\n\n11 Fifty Years of Progress: The Jubilee of Hongkong as a British Crown Colony, Hong Kong, Daily Press Office, 1891, p. 43.\n\n12 J. S. Thomson, op. cit., p. 8.\n\n13 Ibid., p. 54.\n\n14 Allister Macmillan, ed., Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 340.\n\n15 Information about Bridget Montague is to be found in contemporary Hong Kong newspapers and the Report on the Contagious Diseases Ordinance (see note 5).\n\n16 Alfred Weatherhead, Life in Hong Kong: 1856-1859. Typescript in the Library of the University of Hong Kong.\n\n17 W. A. Hornaday, Two Years in the Jungle, London, 1885, p. 185.\n\n18 Capt. Gordon Casserly, The Land of the Boxers, London, 1903, p. 193.\n\n19 John Thomson, F.R.G.S., The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China, London, 1875, pp. 192-3.\n\n20 J. A. Turner, Kwang Tung or Five Years in South China, London (1894), pp. 108-9.\n\n21 See China Station 1859-1864: The Reminiscences of Walter White, London, National Maritime Museum, Maritime Monographs and Reports, No. 3, 1972.\n\n22 Ibid., p. 27.\n\n23 Major Henry Knollys, English Life in China, London, 1885, pp. 56-7.\n\n24 'Report of the Commission on Alcoholic Liquors', Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1898, p. 1.\n\n25 E. J. Eitel, \"Treatment of Paupers in Hong Kong', Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1880, p. 470.\n\n26 Ibid., p. 469.\n\n27 The Kowloon British School was opened in 1902; before that some girls were educated at convent schools in Macau.\n\n28 Marjorie Topley, 'The Role of Savings and Wealth among Hong Kong Chinese', in L. C. Jarvie, ed., Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, London, 1969, p. 193.\n\n29 J. Thomson, op. cit., pp. 203 and 208.\n\n30 L. N. Wheeler, The Foreigner in China, Chicago, 1881, p. 242.\n\n31 Rev. E. J. Hardy, John Chinaman at Home, London, n.d., p. 29.\n\n32 Leon Radzinowicz, Ideology and Crime, London, 1966, p. 38.\n\n33 Allister Macmillan, op. cit., p. 339.\n\n34 Op. cit., p. 151.\n\n35 Samuel Couling, The Encyclopaedia Sinica, Shanghai, 1917, p. 437.\n\n36 W. A. P. Martin, A Cycle of Cathay, New York, 1900, p. 24.\n\n37 L. C. Arlington, Through the Dragon's Eyes, London, 1931, p. 151.\n\n38 H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, New York, 1958, p. 186.\n\n39 Arnold Wright and H. A. Cartwright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Other Treaty Ports of China, London, 1908, p. 341.\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
        "rank": 0
    }
]