[ { "id": 204353, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n117\n\nin favour of allowing the body to be removed in a coffin past their particular floor in a two or three-storeyed tenement building. Chinese coffins usually consist lengthwise of four sections of tree trunk and are therefore bulky, irrespective of whether the coffin is cheap or one of the expensive polished varieties. Manoeuvring these coffins up and down narrow tenement staircases, with inevitable banging against walls, might be likened to death tapping at the door: a harbinger of bad luck.\n\nTo meet this problem of removal from upper floors in the urban areas, it used to be the custom up till five or six years ago to construct a bamboo staging outside the building, so that the coffin could be taken out of the window and be brought down the staging to the hearse in the roadway. The custom has now almost entirely disappeared for a number of reasons, largely economic: new buildings have grown too high for stagings to reach most upper storeys; the cost of long bamboo from China has risen enormously as a result of its use for scaffolding in the current building boom; the practice of glassing-in verandahs and balconies has made windows too small for coffins to fit through; traffic congestion in the streets makes the authorities chary of allowing even more obstruction in the form of these stagings on roads and pavements. To take their place as a means of removing the body from the private premises, basket-woven containers or stretchers have come to be used, and they are far less expensive.\n\nIf an undertaker is engaged, he will prepare the body in the deceased's home, encoffin and remove it either direct to the cemetery or to a Government cemetery depot in Hong Kong or Kowloon, where it can be held overnight pending Government conveyance to a public cemetery. A farewell pavilion at each depot provides free facilities for the relatives to hold services of any denomination or to perform other last rites.\n\nIf a funeral parlour is engaged, the body is conveyed in the basket-woven container or stretcher to the parlour for preparation, encoffining and almost invariably a service. In a few cases, embalming is carried out but this is a refinement that seems to hold no particular significance, since burial takes place normally within the forty-eight hours allowed by law for the body to remain on the premises. In parts of China, it apparently used to be the custom to delay burial for periods of up to seven weeks. But the more tropical climate of Hong Kong and the ever-present risk of disease has made it necessary to insist on a forty-eight hours limit in funeral parlours.\n\nWhen encoffined in a funeral parlour, the body is placed in a farewell room where it is customary for the immediate relatives to maintain a vigil (overnight, if necessary) until the time comes for conveyance to a cemetery or crematorium. During the vigil and funeral, the close relatives (i.e. widow and widower, sons and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204358, "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n122\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\ntouch the dead is to run the risk of becoming infected by an aura of ill-luck (sz yan fung) whereby all the misfortunes of the deceased will be transmitted.\n\nAmongst fishermen fear of the dead and of ill-luck is particularly pronounced. At Tai O on the north-western end of Lantau, fisherfolk on their death bed may be taken from their boats to die in a special house maintained for the purpose near the cemetery.\n\nDuring funeral processions in both the urban areas and the New Territories it is the practice to scatter different types of paper, representing money, along the route to the burial ground, particularly at cross-roads where traditionally malevolent spirits tend to congregate. It is hoped that in the confusion caused by the evil spirits grabbing the money the spirit of the deceased will be able to pass unscathed. The remainder of the paper money thrown out at points other than cross-roads is for the use of the spirit of the deceased in making his way back to his home three days after death (saam ch'iu ooi wan). In many homes, a corner in a hall or passage may be reserved for a tablet and memorial, to house the spirit on its return to the home. This return of the spirit may at first sight be difficult to reconcile with the belief that the spirit descends into hell. The answer is that according to Chinese belief each dead person has a number of spirits. The descent of one of these spirits into hell is often assisted at the burial by the scattering and burning of specially printed hell bank notes (meng t'ung chí paî), together with paper effigies of clothes, suit-cases, motor cars, steam ships, aeroplanes, etc., often of most elaborate and detailed construction.\n\nThe impact of crowded living conditions, economy and improved public health have had their gradual effect in changing the pattern of Hong Kong burial custom. Except for paupers, by far the greater proportion of Chinese dead from the urban areas (numbering some 10,000) are now buried in the public cemetery at Wo Hop Shek, near Fan Ling in the New Territories. Coffins may be conveyed by rail from Kowloon daily as a service included within the burial fees that are $5 or $15 according to size of coffin. Only some 20% of the coffins are carried to the cemetery by private hearses at the expense of the relatives. Of the balance brought by rail, not more than half are attended by relatives. It is obviously not possible in a public cemetery to site graves in accordance with individual interpretations of good fung shui. The fact that each coffin is simply allotted the next vacant space in the burial terrace is readily accepted, although it must be admitted that the majority of terraces are well up the hillside with a commanding view of distance and water. Similarly, when the routine six months' notice of intention to exhume remains from the coffin sections is given, it is unusual for relatives", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204406, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "CURRENCY PROBLEMS\n\n29\n\nMemory calls to mind how that, in 1911, when I rode out of the Minshan range, which lies between the provinces of Kansu and Szechwan, I came out onto the great silk road of the Empire at Kwangyuan and travelled along it to Chengtu. On this road one found the most magnificent hotel accommodation then existent in the Empire. Yet in the best hotel I got the best room, together with all the rice I could eat at the evening meal, for forty cash a night—then the equivalent of about 3 cents U.S. currency!\n\nThis problem of the weight of the brass cash was well exemplified during the relief work I was called upon to direct in 1921 in North West China following the catastrophic earthquake that took place in December 1920. The quakes changed the whole face of nature in some fourteen counties and it became a matter of the utmost importance that we restored communications and set free the dammed up streams before break-throughs could cause flood devastation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. To this end I had some fifteen thousand men at work in the 14 districts, engaged in this work of vital importance. They were paid on the basis of labour giving relief. On the largest undertaking at a place called Chin-Chiang-Yi I had four thousand eight hundred labourers. Of this number 10% were overseers or foremen gangers and received five hundred, or over, cash per day. The rank and file received a straight four hundred each. This means that the total weight of the cash required to meet a single day's pay on this one undertaking amounted to just over 12 tons deadweight. Something over 35 tons of cash was needed each day to pay the fifteen thousand men. Those were the days before motor transport in that part of the country and with the roads wiped out by the earthquake and pack-animals of all kinds exceedingly scarce the situation soon became impossible. After much thought I decided to put out my own note issue to meet the emergency. This though was easier conceived than executed. Neither paper supplies nor printing facilities were available. Therefore I had wooden blocks carved representing cash denominations of four hundred and five hundred cash. From these impressions were taken on strips of calico. The pull-offs were then oiled to prevent falsification. These notes were used in paying the workers who were able to use them for the purchase of food and necessities. The Chambers of Com-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204454, "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": 86, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "75\n\nTHE PATTERN OF LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES IN 1898\n\nJ. W. HAYES, M.A.*\n\nIn 1898 Great Britain signed the Peking Convention which gave her the lease of the New Territories for 99 years. The world has made such material progress since that time and urban Hong Kong has itself seen so many changes that it is difficult for us to-day to imagine the rural part of the Colony as it then was, without roads or wheeled transport other than the wheel-barrow, with inhabitants who knew nothing of cars, aeroplanes, or weapons of mass destruction. But having made this effort, we must think back further still if we wish to obtain a proper appreciation of the situation, as James Stewart Lockhart told the Hong Kong Government in 1898. At the end of his report on the New Territory, as he styled it, he said \"Under Chinese rule enterprise has been at a discount, and progress has been at a standstill for centuries. The San On district of to-day must be much the same as it was four or five hundred years ago\".\n\nThe report is a valuable first-hand account of the area as it was in the year of its acquisition and covers the points in which Government would be most interested such as topography, communications, trade and natural products, population, industries and the existing civil government. It also gave its author's recommendations as to how the New Territory should be governed and looked after in future. This article, whilst making use of Lockhart's report, tries to give the background which he, of course, would take for granted. It does not pretend to deal with every part of the backcloth but only touches on those parts which seem worth mentioning for their share in fixing life in its accustomed mould: the village, the people themselves and their history, the clan system, ancestral worship, education, the district government, the background of affairs elsewhere in the province, the prevalence of disturbance and epidemic, popular religion: all factors which made for integration or disruption in a life that could never have been easy.\n\n* Mr. Hayes has been an administrative officer with the Hong Kong Government since 1956.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204481, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "102\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nthere are sometimes several. As a general rule they are small buildings, but the major clans have constructed large high spacious buildings with several courtyards and side rooms. Among the largest in the New Territories are the ancestral temples of branches of the TANG clan at Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen near Yuen Long. These are fine and impressive buildings but are not, unfortunately, kept in good repair. Much of the opposition to the British troops in 1898 was planned in the ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Beside the Ping Shan hall there is a school/library building, now used as a private residence.\n\n53 The reason is always said to be lack of funds though I suspect a lack of leadership is also a prime factor. The clan usually waits until something is seriously wrong, by which time it is often too late; a storm completes the ruination. There seems to be some truth in this as I have found newly built ancestral halls in several villages, e.g. the CHEUNG ancestral hall at Lo Wai, Pui O which was rebuilt in 1960 on a new site, the old one having been in ruins for twenty years.\n\n54 Clan worship at the graves still goes on, but is much more informal than in 1898. Mr. TANG Kiu-fong of Fui Sha Wai, a retired schoolmaster, previously quoted, who was born in 1894, tells me that when he was a boy the ceremony was taken very seriously. Everyone wore the long robe, elders were carried to the graves in sedan chairs, and male members of the clan were drawn up in ranks by generations and worshipped in strict seniority, under the direction of a master of ceremonies.\n\n55 These ancestral obligations often imposed considerable inconvenience and up to several days' travel for the whole family. Mr. CHEUNG Yau of Tai Ping village, North Lamma, (b. 1883) tells me that his grandfather settled on Lamma Island from his native village of Wai Tau in the Lam Tsuen valley in the present Tai Po district. Ever since he can remember, and until old age interfered with visits a few years ago, he has gone back to his ancestral village at least three times a year, as dictated by custom. For the first twenty-five years there was no railway and his family used to go by junk to Kowloon and walk the rest of the way, children included. Others went further afield. Mr. LAM Shue Chun, Chairman of the Peng Chau Rural Committee, told me that his family went regularly to their ancestral village of Nam Leng Wai in Po On, north of the border, and were interrupted in their journeys first by the Japanese and latterly by the Communists. He has been twice since 1942 and an uncle has been visiting fairly regularly up to last year. The family travelled to Kowloon by junk, then used the railway and had a long walk from Sham Chon Market. Sometimes there was no need to go from home as contact had been lost with the ancestral village which was too far away.\n\n56 They were full at any time. There is an interesting count of travel on the Colony's border roads and the Shum Chun ferries taken 11th and 12th December 1905 in Enclosure E to Despatch No. 59 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway already quoted. The first was a market day, when the count of persons, with and without goods, roughly doubled the figures for the second, or ordinary day. On the two main ferries, for instance, the count on December 11 was with goods 1126, without goods 1379 and on the Shum Chun-Sha Tau Kok road 521 and 1302. On the day following the figures were 468 and 1124, and 158 and 550 respectively. At New Year and the two grave festivals the number must have been very much increased.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204534, "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": 15, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "10\n\nLINDSAY RIDE\n\nLet us first go to the top of Monte Fort and view this historic spot where so many foreigners lived their eastern lives and not a few found eternal rest. From the Fort we can see practically the whole of the peninsula and the city of Macao. To the east, beyond the Guia lighthouse, stretches the South China Sea, studded by the Ladrone Islands of which the two nearest - Taipa and Coloane form part of this overseas Province of Portugal. Between these islands and the peninsula lie the Macao Roads and the Outer Harbour. To the west can be seen the narrow neck of land with its barrier gate which bars access to the large delta island of Heung Shan and to the mainland of China. Separating the main portion of this island from the city of Macao, is the Inner Harbour whose two lines of junks, Communist and Macanese, are separated only by the narrow fairway used by the larger sea-going junks, launches and the Hong Kong ferries. Just below us as we view this busy scene, stands, stately and calm, the façade of all that remains of the Jesuit Church of St. Paul, commenced in the sixteenth century, completed in the seventeenth and destroyed by fire in the nineteenth century,\n\nBehind it, almost at the harbour's edge, is a low wooded hill whose trees shelter the Camoens Grotto and on whose lower slopes nestle the Camoens Gardens and the neighbouring cemetery.\n\nIt is but a short walk from the Fort to the cemetery and gardens, access to both of which is gained from a small grassed and treed square the Praça Luis de Camões. On the extreme right as we enter this square, is a high stucco wall pierced by a most unimpressive gateway over which is mounted a small tablet; on which is carved:\n\nPROTESTANT CHURCH\n\nAND\n\nOLD CEMETERY\n\n(EAST INDIA COMPANY 1814)\n\nThis inscription poses a number of questions, a characteristic which, as you will find out later, it shares with many of the inscriptions in the cemetery itself; in fact it is the attempt to solve these problems that supplies much of the fascination and the interest of this cemetery. What was the British East India\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204537, "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": 18, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO\n\nexplore trade possibilities outside the Americas.\n\n13\n\nThe New England states especially took the lead in this expansion of maritime trade, and towns like Salem and Boston soon became busy ship-building and overseas ports. Boston ships sailed east to the Pacific via the Cape of Good Hope, while those from Salem sailed west round the Horn; when, as was inevitable on a globe, east met west in the Far East, they agreed to an east-west boundary line which ran south of Canton and the Philippines; the area of South China was thus in the Salem sphere, and hence most of the early American traders in this area belonged to early Salem, Beverly, and Danvers families.\n\nThe procedure that had to be followed by foreign ships trading with Canton was briefly this. They made their first China landfall amongst the Ladrone Islands; here they took on a pilot from a junk, and he brought them to Macao; anchoring in the roads off Taipa, they made contact with the Chinese officials who were at that time established on the Praya Grande at Macao; on being cleared by them for Canton, the ships were allowed to proceed to Bocca Tigris at the river mouth, where, after a further delay, they were eventually given a Grand Chop, which was the permit to sail up river. The ships anchored at Whampoa, and the almost endless negotiations for discharging their cargoes and reloading with their purchases began. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the foreign floating population of Whampoa ran into thousands, and the sickness, accident, and mortality rates were very high.\n\nUp river, disposal of the dead was one of the easiest of all local business transactions; the Chinese had no such things as enclosed cemeteries, and neither had the foreigners; burials involved no legal or civil procedures; one merely negotiated with a Chinese landowner for a hillside plot and hired a few labourers. On Danes Island, French Island, at Whampoa, Lintin, Capsingmoon, and Cumsingmoon, there lie buried thus hundreds of foreigners whose frail memorials, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared.* In westernized Macao, however, the situation was different. There were enclosed cemeteries there, but they were consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church and therefore were not available to the other Europeans who were\n\n*For a map of the Pearl River estuary see p. 93.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204614, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "82\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nexpansion. Thus a new student-interpreters' mess was built and also a new house for the Counsellor in a pleasant garden. A barrack was also built for the Legation guard on the site of the former Chinese Board of Works, Board of War, and Court of State Ceremonies, an area with historic associations. The barracks were large enough to house 500 men though normally not more than 100 were stationed there at any one time. As a result of this enlargement the British Legation now covered about thirty-five acres, and was the largest foreign Legation in Peking. While this reconstruction was going forward the opportunity was taken to make the Legation more self-contained so that if ever it were again besieged it would be in a better state to resist. With this object in view the Ministry of Works built a thoroughly ugly electricity power-plant and a water tower. A large coal dump was also formed so that now the Legation had its own supply of water, coal and electricity.\n\nGradually memories of the siege became less vivid and life settled down into a routine which was much the same as before the siege. Perhaps the only difference was that by 1908 there were signs of some modernization in Peking itself such as macadam roads, handsome cabs and electric light. Meanwhile visitors to Peking continued to enjoy the hospitality of those living in the British Legation, and no clear change can be seen until 1928 when the Kuomintang was victorious over the Northern warlords and the capital was established at Nanking. As a result the British Ambassador moved south of the Yangtze and resided mainly at the British Consulate in Shanghai while the majority of his staff moved to Nanking, though the student-interpreters continued to study at the Legation in Peking which now became a Consulate. When war broke out between England and Japan in December 1941 some British nationals and American nationals, who were sick or elderly, were interned in the Legation. The Swiss Consul looked after the buildings, aided by Chinese employed by Her Majesty's Ministry of Works. The buildings were reoccupied as a Consulate at the end of the war, but in 1948 the Chinese Communists captured Peking, and at first the government of the Chinese Peoples' Republic refused to recognize the status of the British Consulate there. However, in January", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204729, "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-1964", "page_number": 32, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n23\n\nbetween 40 and 50 vessels now lying in Macao Roads all detained there for want of communication with Canton. He saw Talbot there who told him that the two American men-of-war were daily expected.\n\nJust before he arrived in Canton, Old Tom showed me a letter he had a few moments before received from Alantsae, dated Heang-shan25 (22 of the Chinese moon), day before yesterday. He states that he and the mandarins and soldiers with Johnston and Thom under their charge arrived there last evening and intended to start again for Macao yesterday morning. They probably reached there last night in which case the delivery of the opium to the mandarins may commence tomorrow, and we are in hopes to have our servants, compradore and coolies back by Thursday next. It is just two weeks tonight since the mandarins drove them from the factories.\n\nAchun states that at Macao everything is very quiet as yet but no Chinese, under a severe penalty, is allowed to approach them.\n\nWe are guarded as strictly as ever, no person is permitted to leave the Square in front of the Factories.\n\nThe Commissioner sent a communication today to Captain Elliot in which he proposes a sort of bond to be given by all foreigners for their signature in which they must bind themselves to abstain ever after from the opium trade here, and to agree to suffer death if after six months from this time any one is discovered selling it, and requires also that the crews of vessels bringing it here shall be strangled and the vessel and cargo be confiscated to government. It also expressly demands that all opium which may arrive here within six months be delivered up to the Chinese government.\n\nIt is needless to say that nothing can compel us to sign such a bond as this.\n\nInspite of our uncertain situation it is ridiculous at times to notice in what position we are placed without a servant, cook or coolie; everyone of course has to look out for himself. This morning after nine I went to Elmslie's house. He is secretary to Elliot, and I found him and his brother and Morrison26, Elliot's interpreter, in the kitchen in their sleeping trousers and shirts, cleaning shoes and procuring water to wash and shave.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204742, "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-1964", "page_number": 45, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "34 \n\nW. C. HUNTER \n\nDuring the afternoon letters were received from Macao dated 27th stating that Columbia had arrived in the roads. It is needless to say that this news has created universal joy in our prison, tho' she may not after all be able to afford us any protection. It remains to be seen what effect her presence will have on matters, \n\nWednesday, 1st May 1839 \n\nEverything remains as before. We have no certain intelligence from below but many rumors, amongst them that of opium becoming scarce at Chumpee and doubts if there will be enough for some time to make up 20,283 chests. In the evening we heard that a letter dated yesterday had reached town stating that the Colonel Young and Ternate, two east coast vessels, had got in, which is lucky as it will keep the deliveries going till more arrives. The Manl... is also in from the Gulf of Tonquin rather unexpectedly. She reports having been lying at anchor in a bay for one month surrounded by men-of-war junks without the possibility of a boat getting alongside of her. \n\nThursday, 2 May \n\nThis afternoon we had a report in town of the arrival in Macao Roads of the John Adams which gave us great pleasure. There are now outside three vessels of war. It is also said that Commodore Read has sent on shore at Macao 50 barrels of gunpowder. The Commissioner it appears has ordered the place to surrender a quantity of opium within three days, and if not given up threatens to remove all Chinese servants, cooks, etc., and to cut off all supplies of food from the foreigners. It is well known that there is no opium in the place, and consequently we are at a loss to know what measures the Commissioner will adopt after the three days have expired. In the meantime the Governor of Macao46, who is himself a soldier and said to be a brave man, intends should the Chinese commence hostilities against the place to defend it. He has about 400 troops. The forts are in good order and quite capable if well manned to defend the city against any Chinese force. There are about 350 officers in the place, a daring set of fellows who despise the Chinese, and about 800 or 1,000 male inhabitants capable of bearing arms. Besides these he will have the assistance of all the crews of the vessels in the roads without the men-of-war, about 500 men, and finally there \n\nRemaining part of name illegible. \n\n! \n\nPage 45\n\nPage 46", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204861, "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-1964", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n139\n\nAN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRDS OF HONG KONG. Compiled by Maura Benham. South China Morning Post, 1963. 97 pages. Numerous drawings. HK$5.\n\nMiss Benham's book is a worthy successor to Dr. Herklots' Field Note Book and The Birds of Hong Kong, first published in November 1946. That was a book to which many owe a great debt as it enabled them to start or continue in Hong Kong that most fascinating pursuit which gives increasing pleasure as one's knowledge grows. Before that date, it was extremely difficult to identify Hong Kong birds as the only really good book available was La Touche's Birds of East China, which described in minute detail the plumage of over 700 species but did not indicate which of the species occurred in Hong Kong and did not give a clear idea of what the various species looked like in the field. Dr. Herklots' book gave field descriptions of Hong Kong birds for the first time. It is, however, now out of print and also rather out of date in that it is based on observations ending in 1948, since when not only have a large number of new species been recorded but a tremendous development of roads and buildings has taken place. This has led to considerable changes in the distribution of birds within the colony.\n\nMiss Benham has wisely restricted the number of species described (98 out of a possible total of about 340) and this makes her book of greater value to the reader for whom it is intended — the visitor or newcomer to Hong Kong and the beginner of all ages. It cannot have been easy to decide which species to leave out, and the author has obviously taken into account the fact that visitors or newcomers from Europe will probably have a copy of the now famous Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe, which includes many of the birds, such as the Waders, which occur on passage in Hong Kong. All the birds which a newcomer or beginner is likely to see or hear are, however, included except for the rather surprising omission of the Indian Cuckoo.\n\nThe descriptions of the ninety-eight species are clear and concise field descriptions, and, in giving the length of a bird (from tip of bill to tip of tail), mention is made of the length of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205023, "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-1965", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "122\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n2. With the high rates of interest on loans and/or the continuing need over several years to have money ready to pay the instalments in a money-loan association, it is not surprising that people got into difficulties and there are good instances of this in the papers. One man borrowed thirty-four silver dollars from the Tong at the end of 1886, and three years and two months later owed eighty-eight dollars, representing principal plus interest. Of this sum ten dollars had already been paid off by selling land to offset the debt. The remainder was extinguished by the debtor waiving his turn for payment in a money-loan association in favour of his creditor. Yet this experience was not a case of 'once bitten, twice shy' for either side, for in the month following the settlement of his affairs with the Tong he asked it for, and secured, another loan of sixteen dollars \"due to dire need of money.\" This loan was made on the mortgage of more of his inherited farmland. We do not know the sequel. Another villager who had failed to pay his share or instalment in a money-loan association mortgaged a house in pledge and was to lose if he had not paid the money by the end of that lunar year.\n\n3. The Tong was not the only source of money loans available to the Shek Pik villagers. Shops in the neighbouring market centres of Tai O and Cheung Chau would advance credit, or give loans as would two other local Tongs. They were not organizations belonging to Shek Pik, one being composed of merchants from Tai O and the other a family organization belonging to a clan in another village.\n\n4. These papers came from only one of the clans living at Shek Pik and there is reason to think that similar activities were taking place in other clans and amongst other groups of persons in the village.\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nA CEREMONY TO PROPITIATE THE GODS AT TONG FUK, LANTAU, 1958\n\nIn the course of opening new roads and other works the developers usually run up against feng shui (geomantic influences). This", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205063, "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": 19, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "14\n\nJOHN J. NOLDE\n\nPai Ling sent an emissary to Chang and his lady friend, offering him a post in government and the Dragon Lady a handsome pension if they would retire. Chang, in the meantime, had fallen out with some of his own lieutenants, and after a certain amount of negotiation he agreed to the government's terms. He agreed to disband his fleet and turn over most of his ships and equipment to the Imperial authorities. His men were to return to peaceful occupations. He was rewarded with an official position and actually took part in, perhaps led, several expeditions against those former comrades-in-arms who refused to surrender. The Lady received her pension and was reported living in Canton as late as 1830-1831.\n\nNow, aside from the more romantic aspects of this story, the point is that these raids were a major fact of life along the South China coast during these years. Local histories are full of accounts of the activities of Chang and his fleet, the Hsiang-shan hsien chih, especially, devoting many pages to his exploits.\n\nFurthermore, it seems fairly certain that many of Chang's men did not turn to peaceful pursuits after 1810. Many organized fleets of their own and continued their marauding, though on a reduced scale. While Chang's \"surrender\" may have broken the back of the pirate activity for a time, it would seem that by the 1820's piratical activity was again a major problem. Local histories record many instances of pirates extorting money from villagers along the Canton River. The Canton Register of July, 1829 reported that \"the rivers of the province are infested with pirates who force trading boats to purchase passes of them\". In the early 1830's pirate fleets attacked native craft near Macao Roads. The Chinese Repository of December, 1832 reported on a new class of pirate boat which, manned by crews of sixty to seventy men, kidnapped and carried off wealthy individuals for ransom. In the same issue the journal reported that a pirate fleet of thirty to forty sail \"was prowling off Macao. Its chief was said to be the son of a famous pirate.\"\n\nIn the interior things seemed to be in even more chaotic state, partly due to the activity of the ex-pirates now turned bandit and partly due to an increase in brigandage per se. English-language journals published at Macao in the 1820's and 30's commented repeatedly on \"parties of armed bandits\", \"vagabonds and ban-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205276, "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": 38, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung\n\n31\n\nThe original site of the village is believed to have been somewhere southwest of Sung Wong Toi Hill. According to the report of Mr. Wu Pa-ling (A) who had carried out research in that area, the village situated at the foot of the northern tip of the Er-huang-tien Hill was formerly occupied by some two hundred people, mostly by the surname of Lee and living in about twenty or thirty houses. In 1927 or 1928, they were evacuated by the Government and the whole village, together with a Temple of the Northern God (Pei-ti) at the front of the village, was levelled to permit the construction of modern roads and buildings. Henceforth, there was no trace left by which to locate the original site of the village. The temple was removed to a nearby place by the side of the present Tam-kung Road where there is a street by the name of Pei-ti (Northern God),15\n\nMy own study on the subject has led me to the conclusion that it is highly probable that the royal party did visit that place or stay there in some house or houses which, in accordance with Chinese tradition, were subsequently called by the honorific name of palace (kung or tien). After their departure from Kowloon, people came in later times to settle down at the same place. More houses were built from time to time forming a village called Two Emperors' Palace Village and the hill by its side was also called Two Emperors' Palace Hill, which was really the hill on the northern tip of the eastern pincer of the Kuan-fu Mountain.\n\nThe most difficult problem in this study, however, is to know where exactly the original site of the village was, as every written record has omitted the location and no one who has visited it could tell precisely. After many years of painstaking and unsuccessful research, I finally found the right solution as late as 1962 when I was able to obtain some old maps of Kowloon Peninsula through the kind co-operation and assistance of officers of the Crown Lands and Survey division of the Public Works Department, Hong Kong Government. On one of them prepared in 1903—Sheet 6 in Number 2 Survey District—the exact location of the village is indicated and the name is given below. It is, however, misspelt \"Un Wan Tun\" probably due to linguistic difficulty on the part of the foreign surveyor. It is on the eastern side of the northern part of the Kuan-fu Mountain to which the colloquial name of Two Emperors' Palace Hill is also not given.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205277, "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": 39, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "32 \n\nJEN YU-WEN \n\nComparing this map with two others (Military Survey Map 1902-03, GS3749, and Map of Kowloon, 1960, Sheet 2) and checking it with my personal observation in the old and new roads around that area, I found that the original site of the village was directly west of the southern foot of the former Sacred Hill, about 1,200 ft. distant from it (see map). The northern tip of the Two Emperors' Palace Hill has been levelled leaving a high cliff there.16 As to the precise boundaries, population and number of houses in the former village, there is no way to ascertain this, although the military map of 1902-03 shows only a very small number of houses in comparison with other villages in Kowloon.\n\nVII, THE MA-TAU-WEI TEMPLE \n\nWe should note one more, the last, historical site in this area. It is the Ancient Temple of Shang-ti (Shang-ti Ku-miao1) situated on the western side of the present Lomond Road, behind the St. Theresa Hospital (see map). The original temple was near the former Ma-tau-wei Village directly east of the present site. When the villagers were evacuated by the government and the whole village was levelled to construct new roads and buildings in 1927-28, the temple was destroyed and a new temple was constructed at the present site.17 Later on, the new temple was also demolished but the stone gate was preserved, the name of the temple remaining.\n\nThe idol worshipped there represents the God of the Black (Northern) Heaven (Hsuan-t'ien Shang-ti✯AL) which is identical with the Northern God (Pei-ti). According to Chinese ancient mythology, North has been considered as the centre of water, symbolized by the colour black. Hence, it became the patron deity of the people living along the seacoast, and almost every coastal village had such a temple wherever there were fishermen or seafarers. There are still some temples of the Northern God in Kowloon and elsewhere. Some years ago the Hong Kong Government accepted my suggestion and preserved this stone gate. Moreover, the piece of ground was converted into a small garden. Mr. Jao Tsung-i of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong was asked to prepare the Chinese text which is engraved on a tablet erected by the side of the gate. Work was completed in 1962.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205604, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n141 \n\nbe noted below that one of the halls visited was established in the period 1912-13 (No. 3) and another about 1910 (see under No. 2).\n\nThe expansion of vegetarian halls in the second decade of this century is referred to, though with specific reference to the New Territories, in the Administrative Report for 1920 of the District Officer, North. He wrote:\n\nOne of the most remarkable features of the year has been the rapid growth of \"chai t'ong\"* or “vegetarian halls\". Five years ago these religious or quasi-religious establishments had practically no foothold in this district: now they are everywhere in parts within reasonable reach of the railway and main roads, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fan Ling and Pat Heung, each have several and are asking for more. Their promoters or managers are extremely secretive as to the objects of these enterprises, but it is sufficiently clear that they are designed chiefly to attract the well-to-do of Hongkong, particularly the womenfolk and that the believer is not expected to come empty-handed. Pending a straightforward explanation of the sudden \"boom\" in these \"halls\" permission is being refused for all new establishments as well as for extensions to existing ones.\n\nThere is another entry in his 1921 Report:\n\nThe embargo on “chai t'ong\" continues in force. The revelations in a \"fung shui” case coupled with certain vague statements from the \"T'ongs\" regarding funerals of members seem to indicate that one of the objects of these institutions is to find good \"fung shui's\" for their supporters.\n\nThe same District Officer commented to his superiors:\n\nNominally they are places of retreat where the earnest-minded withdraw from their fellowmen and living on the simplest of food can meditate upon ‘the most Excellent “Way”.' But in practice they come nearer to a Thames-side hotel.\n\nAn unfavourable opinion was also expressed by the District Watch Committee, a statutory body of leading Chinese citizens in Hong Kong to whom the matter was referred for advice. It was also asserted that the then Government of Kwangtung had an equally unfavourable opinion and had in fact expelled them from its territory \"which, if true, would at once account for their phenomenal growth in ours\" he wrote.\n\n* Cantonese romanisation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205750, "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-1969", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "50\n\nR. G. GROVES\n\nHer 12-pounders returned the fire and forced the Chinese gunners to abandon their positions. The British advanced under cover of \"Fame\"'s guns and drove the militia from the surrounding hills. During the withdrawal the Tai Hang militia lost its flag, which was subsequently found by the British.65\n\nFaced with these developments the Governor decided to hoist the flag the next day, 16th April, a day earlier than originally intended. He also ordered reinforcements to Tai Po. By mid-day on 16th April, the force there had been substantially augmented. It now comprised an artillery company and 500 men of the Hong Kong Regiment. H.M.S. \"Brisk\", accompanied by \"Fame\", stood by offshore. The flag was hoisted during the afternoon, salutes being fired by the artillery and by the ships, which were dressed overall. The pleasure of the occasion was diminished by fears that attacks would be made against both Tai Po and Kowloon. Reconnaissance patrols sent out from Tai Po had failed to make contact with the enemy and this seemed to strengthen the possibility of an assault on Kowloon.\n\nThat evening the destroyers returned to Hong Kong and took up stations on either side of Kowloon peninsula. Both ships spent the night searching the hillsides with their lights. Detachments of Hong Kong Volunteers and the 2nd Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, took up positions at the old northern boundary, emplacing Maxim guns to command the main approach roads.\n\nThese precautions were unnecessary. The Chinese were preparing for battle at Tai Po the next day (17th April). A supply of pigs was arranged and letters dispatched from an ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen, giving troop dispositions. The militia of Shap Pat Heung were told: \"We beg that the armed men of your worthy district will take rice in the 4th watch (i.e. about 3-4 am), and proceed to Ha Tsun, to be ready to fight. Do not wait for the signal drum.\"\n\nAnother letter was addressed \"to our clansmen of the Ping Shan district.\" It directed: \"we hereby inform you that 7 o'clock of the morning of the 8th [day, 3rd moon 17th April] has been fixed up as the date for commencement of the battle. The armed men of your worthy district should have their early meal at the 4th watch, and proceed at daybreak direct to Castle Peak ... Do not wait for the signal drum.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205792, "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-1969", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "92\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nknowledge of the language. English for Mongkut was the key to the new knowledge. What he had started with the French bishop he now continued more avidly with the American missionaries. Geography, mathematics and especially astronomy fascinated him and he found no inconsistency between Buddhism and science. He placed no obstacles in the way of the American Presbyterians who, like the Catholic Bishop, were invited to discuss religion and to preach their doctrine.\n\nHere then was an unusual Abbot of a Buddhist monastery in nineteenth century Siam; not that Buddhists are ever inimical to other faiths but Mongkut excelled in liberalism. As a devout and learned monk he had brought fresh inspiration and discipline to his religion. As a monk he had come to know his people and his country better than any of his royal predecessors. And because of his intellectual stamina he had acquired a greater knowledge of Western civilisation than any of his contemporaries.\n\nWhen Mongkut became King Rama IV in 1851 he had been a monk for twenty-seven years. The kingdom which he inherited was a feudal corner of Asia, an absolute monarchy in which the people were forbidden to look upon the face of the King. Slavery was common, polygamy normal. The economy was primitive, the population small, there were no roads and no schools. Except for a few missionaries and merchants there was practically no contact with the Western world, King Mongkut determined to change all this. Nobody urged him, there was no popular discontent, no demand for reform. He was his own most radical liberal.\n\nWithin a year of his accession decrees came from the Palace \"by Royal Command, reverberating like the roar of a lion\" which began the slow process of change. The people were invited to look at the King when he moved among them, not to shut their windows and run away. Citizens could send him petitions on any matter and he would investigate each complaint. He did not abolish slavery but he insisted on good treatment for slaves. Nothing was too detailed for him: he issued edicts on the safe construction of fire-places and ovens and the improvement of window fittings. To prevent disease he ordered that dead animals should not be thrown in the canals. He reformed the currency, replacing lumps of gold and silver with flat coins.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205793, "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-1969", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM\n\n93\n\nThe new King imported printing presses, mainly for the publication of Buddhist writings. He encouraged monks to teach in the monasteries. He continued his own studies, particularly of astronomy and acquired telescopes and other scientific equipment. Some ten years after he became King he took the unprecedented step of employing a foreign woman, the celebrated Anna Leonowens, to act as governess and tutor to his numerous children.\n\nKing Mongkut built roads, canals and bridges. New Wats and new palaces were constructed at his command. He encouraged ship-building and personally supervised the building of the first steam-boat on the Menam, importing an engine from England. He abolished the corvée forced labour required for land or other privileges and replaced it by taxation. There was no limit to his energy or his delight in innovation, but in one respect King Mongkut saw no need for change.\n\nHe kept an enormous harem in his Palace. Having been celibate for twenty-seven years he now set about building the biggest Royal Family of the Chakri Dynasty. In the \"Inside\" of the Palace there was a veritable city of women - reports say three thousand or more. They were mostly servants, 'Amazons' for guards, officials, maids and so on, but Mongkut acquired thirty-two wives and by the time he died, aged sixty-four, he had eighty-two children. Some accounts put the number of wives and concubines much higher. Townshend Harris, the American envoy who concluded a treaty with Siam in 1856 - following the British success in 1855 - commented in his dispatches to Washington: \"After some twenty years spent in the rigid celibacy of the priesthood the King gives up a large portion of his time to voluptuous pleasures....\n\nhe is indulging himself in a manner equally repugnant to decency and the laws of his religion of which he was a stern supporter while in the priesthood.\" It was, of course, a custom and one required especially of the monarch, but it is a little surprising that the reforming zeal of the King did not extend to his prodigious practice of polygamy.\n\nOf all his reforms the most significant was in his relations with the West. As soon as he became King a new attitude was revealed. He indicated willingness to have a return visit from the disappointed Brooke of Sarawak. Could Sir James come, he said, a little later to allow for the prolonged cremation ceremonies", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205831, "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-1969", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "131\n\nTHE MAPPING OF HONG KONG\n\nLARGE-SCALE PLANS\n\nJ. T. COOPER*\n\nRapid and intense development requires accurate and up-to-date large-scale plans. This is equally true of large housing or engineering projects. Where such plans are not available, all detailed planning and design must await their completion. This is particularly true of Hong Kong, where the steep terrain usually requires extensive earthworks before construction of buildings or roads can commence.\n\nAnother factor adding to the necessity for accurate large-scale plans in the Colony is the high value of land, especially in the built-up areas, where a square foot of land can be worth $300 or more.\n\nThe Survey Branch of the Crown Lands & Survey Office (a sub-department of the Public Works Department) is responsible, not only for all land surveying and mapping in the Colony, but for the demarcation of all lot boundaries in the urban areas, and the implementation of town-planning layouts. Hong Kong is one of the few Commonwealth territories where there are no licensed land surveyors in private practice.\n\nWith the intense development which began in the nineteen-fifties, the staff of the Survey Branch became fully occupied with title surveys, the setting-out of lot boundaries, Government sites, roads, etc., and was unable either to produce large-scale plans of all the areas planned for new development or to keep up to date the plans in the older areas where re-development caused many changes.\n\nThe city areas of Victoria, and the northern part of Hong Kong Island, together with most of the Kowloon peninsula (south of Boundary Street) had been mapped at 1/600 scale (50 ft. to one inch) before the war, but the plans had been plotted onto linen-backed paper, and in the climatic conditions of Hong Kong, they had become distorted and inaccurate. None of these plans\n\n* Mr. Cooper is Assistant Superintendent (Survey), Crown Lands and Survey Office, Public Works Department, Hong Kong. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205837, "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-1969", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "# THE MAPPING OF HONG KONG\n\n137\n\nFollowing completion of each block of four sheets at the 1/10,000 scale, one sheet at 1/25,000 scale, covering the same area, will be produced by direct photographic reduction. An extra colour, green, is introduced in the 1/25,000 series. The place-names are printed separately for each series. As a result of the 24 times reduction, the size of each sheet at the 1/25,000 scale is smaller (map face 20″×17″) and 20 sheets will cover the whole Colony. The diagram at Plate 14 shows the relationship between the two series.\n\nOnce again, the ground-control for the photogrammetric plotting was supplied by Survey Branch. Of course, many fewer points were required, since fewer stereoscopic \"models\" were required at the smaller scale than at the large scale. The low-level photography of January 1963 required over 4,000 air photographs to give stereoscopic cover of the Colony, whereas at 12,500 ft., only 346 photographs cover the same area.\n\nAn \"instrument plot\" of each 1/10,000 sheet is sent to Hong Kong for field completion by Survey Branch. On this, the field parties check and complete all detail, and annotate roads, villages, towns, etc. The completed and annotated sheet is then returned to Britain, together with a names overlay and names list, for fair drawing and printing.\n\nAt the end of 1968, some 18 sheets had been published and another 26 had been plotted, field-checked, and were at the fair-drawing stage. The first sheet at the 1/25,000 scale had been drawn, and a coloured proof has been forwarded to Hong Kong for comments. The first 12 sheets of the 1/10,000 series are already on sale at Kelly & Walsh Ltd. and Swindon Book Co., Ltd.\n\nIt is expected that the 1/10,000 series will be completed by early 1971 and the 1/25,000 series by the end of that year. It is hoped to produce future revised editions of the maps in Hong Kong. Revision of the first sheets to be published will be commenced early in 1969.\n\nIt is also planned to produce locally a Chinese-language edition of the new maps, although full details are not yet finalised, and much will depend on the availability of specialised printing equipment.\n\nAn old series of maps which is still quite popular is the 8″ to 1 mile set of the urban areas. These are revised annually and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206002, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "# THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\n77\n\nOffice's records had fallen owing to non-registration of transactions (it being by then more or less necessary for a purchaser to take a chance on the title to land offered to him by a vendor), a strenuous effort was made to regularise the situation and much \"squatting\" without title and consequently, in most cases, non-payment of Crown Rent, came to light.\n\nThe end for old Taipingshan came not in the 1880's but in the 1890's when Bubonic Plague was brought to the Colony from West China. The most virulent reservoir of the bacillus turned out to be Taipingshan. The only solution, not only to the problem of stamping out the plague but also to other forms of social offence given by the district, was to remove the Chinese town physically. This was done by powers given in the Taipingshan Resumption Ordinance of 1894, and the result was wholesale demolition of much property and re-aligning of old and construction of new roads. Taipingshan had to be razed and, fortunately for Hong Kong, never rose again in its former glory.\n\nUniversity of London, 1968.\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS Evans\n\nMr. Evans is Professor of Law in the University of Hong Kong. Two of his earlier contributions to the early history of Hong Kong appeared in the Notes and Queries section of the 1968 Journal.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The area was known as Taipingshan from the early days of the colony and its name is not derived from its function as a refuge for T'ai Ping rebels in later years.\n\n2 See Gordon (Land Officer) to Pottinger, CO129/Vol II, f. 152,\n\n3 See Gordon to Malcolm (Colonial Secretary), CO129/Vol. II, f. 138 dated 6 July 1843.\n\n4 The rents for both the Upper and Lower Bazaar Lots represented the same rate per square foot as that charged by Johnston for Town Lots.\n\n5 But the Chinese were turning to the use of brick rather than wood by the end of 1841; see Canton Press, 19 February 1842.\n\n6 Gordon to Pottinger, 19 December 1843; CO129, Vol. II, p. 445.\n\n7 Davis to Stanley 26 July 1844; CO129, Vol. VI, p. 435.\n\n8 Woosnam (Pottinger's private secretary) to Gordon, 10 January 1844: CO129, Vol. V. p. 69.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206012, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "CHINESE EMIGRATION AND THE DECK PASSENGER TRADE 87\n\nhundreds were to be seen, and the 1937 census showed Bangkok to have 196,000 Chinese females to 336,000 males. This shortage of female compatriots in the early centuries induced many Chinese to intermarry with the local Malays, Siamese, or Indonesians; and until well into the present century there always seemed a reasonable chance that the overseas Chinese would merge into the local communities. The relaxation of anti-emigration laws and the cheap and easy communications provided by the steam-ships, however, enabled more and more Chinese women to emigrate, and this reversed the previous trend towards assimilation. This factor may have been as important as political developments in increasing tension between the newly independent states of South-east Asia and their Chinese populations.\n\nBy the end of the 19th century the combination of enlightened public opinion and official action had mitigated the worst abuses of the continued coolie trade to South America and the West Indies. At the same time economic developments in South-east Asia were greatly increasing the already large demand for Chinese labour in that region. Rubber and tea plantations, tin mines and rice mills, all required labour which the local populations were either unable or unwilling to supply. As a result the centuries-old emigrant trade from south China increased many times over, and it was with this comparatively recent mass emigrant trade that the China coast steamship companies were most concerned. This became one of the most profitable sections of the China coast trade.\n\nThe domestic deck passenger trade had been important from the earliest days of foreign shipping on the China coast. The opium clippers had only carried European passengers, mail, and specie, in addition to opium; but all other foreign ships on the coast looked on deck passengers as a very important source of revenue. In a country so ill-equipped with roads as 19th century China, shipping played an indispensable role in passenger transport. In 1849, for instance, when the Hong Kong, Canton, and Macao Steam Packet Company was formed and commenced a regular service between the three ports, the cost of a deck passage between any two of these ports was one dollar. The speed, regularity, and safety of the foreign steamships soon enabled them to capture the cream of the deck passenger trade from the junks.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206043, "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": 123, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "118\n\nSerial\n\nK. M. A. BARNETT\n\nUse\n\n1. (a) In numbering off items: ONE!\n\n(b) As a preparatory word of command, as in ONE! TWO! THREE! GO!\n\n2. Item by item, seriatim.\n\n3. (a) One day (contrast Ser. 6c).\n\n(b) One foot (measure of length).\n\n(c) Ten cents (measure of money).\n\n4. The meaning in each case is the unit augmented by 10%—\n\n(a) 11 (Chinese) inches.\n\n(b) 11 cents.\n\n(c) 1,100.\n\n(d) 11 (contrast Ser. 6f).\n\n5. Used bound to a congruence-marker to denote the particular singular. Examples (a) (c) (e) (g) with null ictus denote an unemphatic singular, like the English indefinite article or the Greek (unaccented) τίς. Examples (b) (d) (f) (h) have emphatic singularity.\n\n(a) (b) mark the congruence class of thin rigid objects like sticks, bottles, small growing plants (sometimes including bamboo but seldom rice), spears, arrows; and some special ones like songs and flags. There is also transference from the bottle to its contents.\n\n(c) (d) mark the congruence class of thin non-rigid objects like strings, rivers, roads, reptiles, fish, footless and wingless insects; and some special ones like split firewood, dreams, lives, live naked human bodies, towels, handkerchiefs.\n\n(e) (f) mark the congruence class of articles which can be folded away when not in use, like tables, chairs, beds, bed-clothes, documents.\n\n(g) (h) mark the congruence class of articles which generally form one of a pair, like hands, feet, eyes, ears; also animals, birds, flying or walking insects. And some domestic utensils like cups and cooking pots.\n\n6. (a) The common ordinal adjective \"first\"; used also to mean first in quality,\n\n(b) The same as TRAW-DARNG, which has the same superfixes.\n\n(c) (d) The first day of the lunar month (contrast 3a, with different superfix).\n\n(e) The first day of the lunar year.\n\n(f) The 11th day of the month (contrast 4d with different superfix).\n\n(g) Denotes the first of a series of arguments or considerations.\n\n7. This group indicates that the action described was immediately followed by another.\n\n(a) learns off at a single lesson.\n\n(b) wakes at the first sound of the bell.\n\n(c) as soon as I heard this I was afraid.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206121, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "194\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe map was clearly of potential value for any persons travelling in or having business with the District, and Colonial Office documents now in the Public Record Office, London show that it was, in fact, used by British diplomats and administrators during the important negotiations following the Convention of Peking of 6 June 1898, which leased the present New Territories to Great Britain, and before the take-over of the leased area in March-April 1899.\n\nOn 10 February 1899 the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Blake, sent a telegram to Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister at Peking urging him to secure the important market town of Shum Chun, just north of the leased area (an afterthought on the part of local Hong Kong officials) and advising that it could be located on the Missionary map of 1866'. This is clearly a reference to Mgr. Volontieri's map, which includes the date (May 1866) in the descriptive lettering.\n\nAgain, when Governor Blake wired to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Chamberlain, on 10 March 1899 he advised, in an accompanying 'Memorandum regarding the proposed survey of the Territory in Kwang Tung Province leased by Great Britain from China' (being Enclosure 1 to telegram No. 53): 'There is available a fairly correct map of the country, on a scale of an inch to the mile, prepared by the Jesuit missionary (sic). It shows the coast line correctly; the position of all villages, streams, roads, etc., approximately'. This memorandum was drawn up by the Director of Public Works in Hong Kong with the assistance of Colonel Elsdale, R.E.\n\nThese passages make it fairly clear that Mgr. Volontieri's map-making efforts in the early 1860s were of considerable assistance to British officials nearly forty years later.\n\nThe documents quoted above are in CO129/290 in the Public Record Office, London.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nPostscript\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nThe notice that follows came to my attention recently. It appeared in the Hongkong Government Gazette, 26th May 1866 and is an interesting and valuable addition to our knowledge of this subject, being the original announcement of the project to the Hong Kong public.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206292, "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-1971", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG\n\n103\n\nand invest in paddy fields or shares in local firms and shops, or, if more affluent, endow or build schools or family temples or contribute to public improvements such as roads and bridges.\n\nOriginally the Christian Chinese were in the employment of the Missions, and as most of them remained so, they did not receive high wages. But as earnest Christians they did not pass their time in gambling, visiting the sing-song girls, or smoking opium. All of these activities tended to make inroads into the income of many of the other Chinese, particularly those who were in Hong Kong without families. Avoiding the temptations of money-absorbing local high life, the Christians were able to invest their small savings in real estate.\n\nWhen the London Mission Society moved to Hong Kong, the Rev. James Legge brought with him from Malacca a printer named Ho Asun † alias Ho Ye Tong and Ho Tsun Shin alias Ho Fook Tong ✰ alias Ho Yeung M. They both began to invest in Hong Kong real estate, though Ho Fook Tong became much the larger proprietor. Their first investment was soon after their arrival, but as income from rents permitted, they continued to purchase property until their deaths. Ho Asun died in 1869 and Ho Fook Tong died in 1871. At the time of their deaths their property had appreciated greatly in value, so that Ho Fook Tong's estate was $150,000. It was one of the largest estates appearing on the schedules up to that date.\n\nAlthough neither of these two Christian converts appear on the lists, their children assumed a place of leadership in the Chinese community. Of the several sons of Ho Asun, Ho Chung Shan was proprietor of the Wah Tsz Yat Po from 1886 to 1889; but his brother Ho Shan Chee (†) or Ho Alloy (*) had a more prominent career. He began as a teacher of English in the Chinese Government Schools (1855-1857), then he became Chief Interpreter in the Police Court (1857-1866). He incurred the ill-will of the English section of the community when he accepted charge of the Opium Tax Station the Viceroy of the Two Kwangs attempted to establish in Hong Kong. In the 1870s he joined the staff of the Provincial Government at Fukien, where The Daily Press correspondent from Foochow reported that the Governor of Fukien was \"happy in the possession of this peripatetic conglomeration of legal", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206549, "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-1972", "page_number": 97, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n91\n\nvinces of China in search of better fortunes under an administration which offered law and order. Thus, by May 1841 there were already over 7,400 Chinese resident on the island, of whom some 2,000 were boat dwellers. The increase of population was rapid and by October 1841 there were an estimated 9,000 persons in the Colony. This trend continued in subsequent years, so that by 1847 the population stood at nearly 23,900 persons, excluding the troops of the garrison. The Tai Ping rebellion which began in 1850 brought an influx of Chinese into the Colony, with the consequence that the population had increased to over 39,000 by 1853.\n\nThe dramatic increases of population could not be anticipated by the administration and, as there was no planned provision of accommodation for the newcomers, living conditions soon became exceedingly congested. The colonial government, however, was mindful of the need for compliance with certain regulations in the interests of public health and safety. The Summary Offences Ordinance of 1845, for example, made it an offence for the owner or occupier of any house or building to neglect its repair or to permit it to remain in a ruinous or dangerous state. For such a misdemeanour a fine of up to $50 could be imposed. The need to set minimum standards in the construction of houses was also recognised by the Buildings Ordinance of 1856 which required, among other things, that dwellings should be provided with an adequate and safe place for the lighting of fires and the cooking of food. The same ordinance also required the provision of a privy and ash pit and specified a fine not exceeding $50 for the contravention of the regulations.\n\nThe Buildings Ordinance, however, made no provision for the reservation of rear yards, the width of streets, height of buildings and adequate means of lighting and ventilation. Even if these matters had been included in the Ordinance, it is doubtful whether property developers would have given them much heed, for the law was seldom enforced. Houses were thus erected with the object of providing as much living space as possible, as cheaply as possible and at the expense of space normally provided for a toilet, bathroom and storage. Houses were built back-to-back to achieve the greatest economy in the use of land, and little or no thought was given to the provision of adequate roads or drains. It is perhaps understandable that in a community where the pressure of population was rapidly overwhelming the limited housing resources there was little inclination on the part of the administration to ensure compliance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206555, "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-1972", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n97\n\nPokfulam supply is distributed on the intermittent principle, conducted in a manner which subjects it in the highest degree to all the well-known dangers appertaining to that system. The water from the Wong-Na-Chong dam is not actually turned off daily, but the pipes are so small that the supply is virtually intermittent at the western extremity of the district which it supplies.6 Families in houses with no water supply had to hire water carriers to obtain their day's supply from public standpipes. The water at these points was turned on between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., and there was usually a mad scramble during this brief period; those who were left out had to obtain their supplies from distant water holes and streams on the hillsides.\n\nIt is not surprising that under such vile conditions the life expectancy of the Chinese citizens of Hong Kong was relatively short. To illustrate this point, Chadwick produced statistics to show that the mean age at death of adults (persons over 20 years) was 43 years in Hong Kong in 1881 compared to 55 years for the whole of England in 1840. No wonder then that Chadwick was forced to the conclusion that \"…the foregoing facts clearly show that the health of the population is not so good as to make it presumptuous to attempt to reform time-honoured abuses; on the contrary, to my mind, they prove that reform is urgently required.\"\n\nChadwick made a considerable number of bold recommendations which the seriousness of the situation demanded. In particular, he recommended the provision of open spaces at the rear of buildings, the prohibition of cocklofts and earthen floors, the provision of a window in every habitable room, and the limitation of overcrowding so that each adult would have 400 cu. ft. of unobstructed space in undivided rooms and 600 cu. ft. in rooms divided into cabins. Further recommendations included the reconstruction of the drainage system, the improvement of the water supply, the requisition and reconstruction by Government of existing public latrines and the provision of additional facilities, the provision of public bathhouses and a laundry, the construction of new markets, and the improvement of the scavenging system. Other notable recommendations were that before building lots were offered for sale, the roads should be laid out, surfaced, and provided with drains; that Government…\n\n6 Ibid., p. 16.\n\n7 Ibid., p. 22.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206632, "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-1972", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "174\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nA legend in another book, the Shen I Ching (*) says that Chin Ch'ong (†) the son of Pan Ku the Creator of the World, who lived in the mountains of Shantung province, was canonised T'ai Sui for his many good deeds and was made responsible to Heaven for supervising the activities of all spirits (shen‡) and demons (kuei§). Few present-day Chinese with whom I have spoken appear to know of this story.\n\nT'ai sui was first worshipped during the Sung Dynasty in the eleventh century A.D. and was first offered official sacrifices during the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty. Only after The Deification of the Gods popularised the idea was T'ai Sui identified with Yin Ch'iao.\n\nReason for the worship of Yin Ch'iao\n\nYin Ch'iao, or T'ai Sui as he will be referred to from now on, is a stellar deity who in many parts of China is believed to have flood, famine and all good and bad fortune under his jurisdiction. He is worshipped by the general populace to avert calamities, and has to be placated before any enterprise or journey is embarked upon. He was also worshipped by the imperial officials at the beginning of Spring. He is known to control the dates and times of births and deaths, and each one of his sixty images often displayed in rows in temples is dedicated to one specific year in the sixty year cycle of Chinese dating. Chinese place their offerings on the altar before the T'ai Sui bearing the cyclic year date of their birth. Father Doré in his Recherches sur les Superstitions en Chine calls him the \"Patron of the Harvests\".\n\nT'ai Sui is the great Father Time who, presiding over the year, is the arbiter of the destiny of all men. He is very much feared as he destroys those whom he dislikes and those who offend him. He is said to strike when least expected and can injure and destroy the highest and the lowest, at home or on the high roads, but is believed never to injure anyone in the vicinity of his, T'ai Sui's, own person. Therefore it is essential to know where he is at any given moment, and if he is nearby but not immediately present, he is at his most dangerous and precautions against his evil influence must be taken at once. This is done by hanging the appropriate talisman or stellar charm near the front door or facing the entrance. To find where T'ai sui will be during the forthcoming year he is believed to move annually—a device similar to a compass is used by a fêng shui\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206660, "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-1972", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTin Valley is characterized today by the everywhere existent, superbly thriving garden beds.\n\nThe development of intense vegetable farming in the traditional society of China seems to have been linked to the proximity of urban central places with great agglomerations of people. Urban marketing has, so it seems, been a prerequisite for a one-sided specialization on vegetable production. The geographic distribution of horticulture has been limited by one particular cultural barrier. Chinese palate calls for very fresh market goods, and every tendency in the marketed products to perish will considerably decrease the saleable price. Thus transportation to the city markets must be short or rapid. As a consequence, the urban areas were often surrounded by limited zones of intense horticulture.\n\nDuring the latter half of the 19th century, the twin cities of Victoria and Kowloon emerged as a result of foreign intervention and planning. Their growth was related to the attraction the new Colony had on a countryside impoverished under the strain of a fast-increasing population. The appearance of the new urban districts stimulated the interest in the surrounding rural areas, which later were to become New Kowloon and the New Territories, for the cultivation of cash crops. This was within a sector with reasonably good communications to connect with the city markets. According to available information, the start was made on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, where the old villages seem to have taken advantage of the new development quite early. The continuous spread of the network of transportation, initiated after the British territorial expansion to the New Territories in 1898, when new roads were constructed and the Canton-Kowloon railway was laid out through the district, gave rise to new opportunities and the possibility to expand the zone of intense vegetable cultivation beyond the Kowloon Foothills. The Sha Tin valley is located just behind this range of mountains, but, contrary to what one might expect, vegetable farming was not to become important there until recently, in the post-Pacific War period. The obstacle against a switch over to horticulture may be found on the managerial side of production, but this by no means accounts for everything. An important barrier to change may be found in the social values and knowledge of the village population.\n\nIn the Sha Tin valley, paddy fields are still to be seen scattered around in the area. The New Territories are situated in the double-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206885, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "156\n\n6. 1828 June 23\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nPENANG MERCHANT\n\nJ. Mitchinson\n\nPenang to Lintin: C. Galastauro to Magniac & Co.\n\n652 baskets of cutch\n\n11,600 bundles of rattans\n\n“17 bdls and 3 baskets in dispute if found to be deld.”\n\n7. 1828 Sept. 2 CUMBERLAND\n\nA. Steel\n\nSingapore Roads to Canton: Charles Thomas & Co. to Magniac & Co.\n\n665 pieces of ebony about piculs five hundred\n\n8.\n\n1829 Feb. 7 EPHEMINA\n\nN.M. Harper\n\nManilla Bay to Lintin: N.M. Harper to Magniac & Co.\n\n2004 bags rice weighing about 1080 piculs\n\nPaddy in bulk about 1950 piculs\n\n9.\n\n1829 March 10 FALCON\n\nS. Moore\n\nRoads of Singapore to Lintin: Guthrie & Clark to Magniac & Co.\n\nTwo chests Patna opium\n\nFive chests Benares opium\n\n10. 1829 May 14 PENANG MERCHANT\n\nJ. Mitchinson\n\nRiver Hooghly to Lintin: Nanjie Tacoran for Jamseljie Jyiebhoy [?] to Magniac & Co.\n\nTen chests Patna opium\n\n+\n\n+ +\n\nshall not be subject to any demurrage until thirty days after the arrival of the ship at Lintin.”\n\n11. 1830 April 23\n\nCONDE DE RIO PARDO\n\nL. d'Encarnacão\n\nDamão to Macao: [?] to Magniac & Co.\n\n20 cases of Opio de Malva\n\nIn Portuguese\n\n12. 1830 May 24\n\nCASSADOR\n\nJ.A. da Silva\n\nDamão to Lintin: Sr Caramachande Arcachande to Magniac & Co.\n\n5 boxes Aufião de Malva\n\nIn Portuguese\n\n13. 1850 Aug. 13\n\nARIEL\n\nJ. Burt\n\nRiver Hooghly to Cumsingmoon: Moolchund Premjee on acct of Oomedchund Hookumchund of Bombay to Jardine Mathewson & Co.\n\n10 chests Patna opium", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206891, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "162\n\nRattans\n\nRice\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n6 SUWONADA 29, 30, 31, 33, 34\n\n8, 20\n\nRouth (F.R. & D.)\n\n35\n\nTacoran, Nanjie\n\nRussell & Co.\n\n16, 29, 33\n\nTaria, J.M. de\n\nTaylor, P.\n\nSACRAMENTO\n\n22\n\nTea\n\n14, 30\n\nSafflower*\n\n33\n\nThomas (Charles) & Co.\n\nSalmon\n\n38\n\nTongues\n\nSan Francisco\n\n15, 22, 24\n\nTrautmann & Co.\n\n25, 38\n\nTurpentine\n\nSelzer water\n\n34\n\nShanghai\n\nSHERBURNE\n\nSilva, J. A. da\n\nSilver bars\n\nSemechand, Caramichand [?] 4\n\n29, 30, 31, 33, 34\n\nUpton, W.F.\n\nVALETTA\n\n1\n\nVENUS\n\n4, 12\n\nVermicelli\n\n22\n\nSingapore Roads\n\nSmith (W.H.) & Son\n\nSorabjee & Simjee\n\n7, 9\n\nWHEELER, W.E.\n\n23\n\nWhiskey\n\nAnagrada 2, 28\n\n10\n\n5\n\n7\n\n38\n\n31\n\n21\n\n18\n\n24\n\n37\n\n24\n\n15\n\n38\n\n2 White, G.\n\n1\n\nSteel, A.\n\n7\n\nWild (Aaron D.) & Sons\n\n16\n\nStephen, S.\n\n38 Williams, Blanchard & Co.\n\n38\n\nStone, Bombay\n\n37 With, M.C.G.\n\n28\n\n*See notes below.\n\nNOTES\n\nThe following notes relate to the more obscure items in the foregoing index.\n\nAnfião de Malva-Opium from Malwa, an area in W. Central India, which together with Benares and Patna were the main opium growing areas. I am indebted to Mr. J. M. Braga for this identification, which defeated students of Portuguese in Hong Kong.\n\nCumsingmoon-Kap Shui Mun, the straits between the N.E. point of Lantao Island and Tsing I Island.\n\nCutch=The commercial name of the catechu obtained from Acacia catechu, used in tanning (O.E.D.)\n\nNankeens-Either a kind of yellow cotton cloth, originally made in Nanking, or trousers made of this material.\n\nSafflower=Dried petals of Carthamus tinctorius, a thistle-like plant cultivated in the Mediterranean region, India and China for the red dye obtained from the flowers, also used in the making of rouge.\n\nHong Kong June, 1973.\n\nH. A. RYDINGS", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207065, "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-1974", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "130\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHowever, despite the foregoing recital of disturbances over the years, many old persons in the Hong Kong region who were born between 1875 and 1900 have told me that their early years were very peaceful. This serves as a reminder not to telescope time and place too readily; and not to confuse occasional excitements with the regular rhythm of rural life. Nor too readily to deduce from them that there was a deterioration in institutions at the local level, as at the centre, in the later 19th century—a point made by Rhoads Murphey in his study of China's modernization.1\n\nPOSTSCRIPT\n\nThere are two other happenings that must be mentioned in this survey of events. One, the establishment and rise of Hong Kong from 1841 on, and its effect on the surrounding and adjacent territory, I do not intend to treat with here.2 The second, rural depopulation, though it might appear to have some connection with the first, is in fact a separate phenomenon. Linked to over-population, malnutrition and disease, it is important enough to warrant a concluding notice.*\n\nThe problem of depopulation early intruded itself into my village studies through the preoccupation with feng-shui noted in many places, so much of it linked to a reported decline in the numbers of local populations. I have encountered this in many villages on Lantau Island3 and in other parts of the old Southern District, in places as far distant from Lantau as Pak Lap on High Island in the Sai Kung District, and Ho Pui with Muk Min Ha in Tsuen Wan. These have also claimed depopulation in the 19th century and after. In the northern New Territories the well-known Tang clan of Kam Tin records a similar loss of population;4 whilst at Lin Ma Hang, a large village on the present Sino-British frontier,5 a stone tablet dated in 1893 was erected to detail the geomantic\n\n1 Murphey: 27-30.\n\n2 The first is well-documented, the second scarcely at all, though discussed in Potter 1968.\n\n3 See JHKBRAS 3, 1963: 143-144; JHKBRAS 9, 1969: 156-158 and Hayes 1967:22-30.\n\n4 Sung in HKN, VII, Dec. 1936:256.\n\n5 See Gazetteer: 214.\n\nEspecially as, in Hsin-an, it is not to be linked with devastating Taiping campaigns and official retribution, nor with Hakka-Punti wars on the scale that occurred in some parts of the province,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207068, "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-1974", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE HONG KONG REGION\n\n133\n\nHayes, J. W., 'Old Ways of Life in Kowloon: the Cheung Sha Wan Villages\" in Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. VIII, No. 1, January 1970: 154-188.\n\nHo, Ping-ti, Studies on the Population of China, 1368-1953, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1959.\n\nHsieh, Kuo Ching, 'Removal of Coastal Population in Early Tsing Period', The Chinese Social and Political Science Review, XIII, 1929: 559-596.\n\nHummel, Arthur W. (Editor), Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912), Taipei, Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company, 1967. Reprint of the first edition, Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 2 vols., 1943.\n\nKrone, Rev. Mr., A Notice of the Sanon District. C.B.R.A.S. Transactions VI, 1859: 71-105. Reprinted in JHKBRAS 7, 1967: 104-137.\n\nLo, Hsiang-lin, 'The Sung Wang T'ai and the Location of the Travelling Courts by the Sea-shore in the Last Days of the Sung' in Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. III, No. 2, July 1956.\n\n-, (and others), Hong Kong and Its External Communications before 1842. Hong Kong, Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963. An English version, abbreviated, of the Chinese edition of 1959.\n\nMayers, W. F., Dennys, N. B. and King, C., The Treaty Ports of China and Japan. A Complete Guide to the Open Ports of these countries, together with Peking, Yedo, Hong Kong and Macao. London, Trübner & Co., Hong Kong, A. Shortrede & Co., 1867.\n\nMurphey, Rhoads, The Treaty Ports and China's Modernization: what went wrong? Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, No. 7, Ann Arbor, 1970.\n\nMontalto de Jesus, C. A., Historic Macao, International Traits in China Old and New. Macao, 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, 1926.\n\nNeumann, C. F., Translations from the Chinese and Armenian with Notes: 1 History of the Pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, London, John Murray, 1831.\n\nNg, Peter Y. L., The 1819 Edition of the Hsin-an Hsien-chih, A Critical Examination with Translation and Notes. Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (1644-1842). Unpublished M. A. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1961.\n\nNg, Ronald C. Y., 'The San On Map of Mgr. Volontieri. On the Centenary of the Copy in the R.G.S. Collection', London, Geographical Journal, Vol. 135, Part 2, June, 1969: 231-235. Reprinted in JHKBRAS 9, 1969: 141-148.\n\nOrme, G. N., Report on the New Territories for the Years 1899 to 1912. in Sessional Papers 1912.\n\nPerkins, Dwight H., Agricultural Development in China 1368-1968. Chicago, Aldine Publishing Company, 1969.\n\nPotter, Jack M., Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant, Social and Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1968.\n\nSchofield, Walter, Personal Communications, 1958-1968.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207159, "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-1974", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "224\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe area still retains its distinctive character and is a tribute to the vision and public-spirit of its chief promoter, Mr. Ede (1865-1925). A small plaque set into the wall of a park in Essex Crescent perpetuates his memory.\n\nAnother Garden City plan for the area south of Prince Edward Road, west of Waterloo Road and north of Argyle Street was initiated by the Hong Kong Engineering and Construction Company in 1932. Unlike the Kowloon Tong area, which was levelled by cutting and filling, this project was to utilise the natural features of the site. It was claimed that 'for excellence of situation, beauty of outlook, serenity of location and conformity with surrounding amenities, it will be without an equal in the Peninsula'. (South China Morning Post, Jan. 21, 1932, remarks at Sod Turning Ceremony.) Mr. J. P. Braga, Chairman of the Company undertaking the project, gave his name to the road at the centre of the tract, Braga Circuit. The area still retains some of its secluded and serene character and is a favourite of courting couples. It is better known today as Kadoorie Avenue, the general name used to describe the several roads that make up this residential complex.\n\nThe Diocesan Boys' School\n\nAs the name indicates the Diocesan Boys' School is an institution of the Anglican Church in Hong Kong. In 1859 the wife of Bishop Smith, being interested in the education of girls, organised a committee of women and founded the Diocesan Native Female Training Institute. It was established 'to introduce among a somewhat superior class of Native Females the blessings of Christianity and of Religious Training' (The First Annual Report). Education was to be in English. It was hoped the girls would make suitable brides for the male converts from St. Paul's College. However, there were some publicised instances of students from the School being sought after as mistresses of Europeans, their ability to speak English being a particular asset in such an arrangement. Due to this bad publicity local support fell off and the school was in financial difficulties. In 1867 all Chinese girls, except orphans and destitute, were dismissed. In 1868 Bishop Alford somewhat reluctantly agreed to head up a reorganisation. The following year the name was changed to the Diocesan Home and Orphanage. Under a new admission policy the Home was 'to receive and place children of both sexes, sound both in body and mind, of European, Chinese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207169, "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-1974", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "234\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nhouses were built later at the back when they had more descendants. That is the entire village even to this day.\n\nThere are 42 dwelling houses within the village, divided by 5 lanes and ten gates; measuring 162'-3\" in width and 125'9” in depth. The idea of this layout would seem to have been to protect themselves from pirates, when the whole family stayed inside. The Chi Tong is located in the centre with three roofs and two light wells (#). There is a village school 150 feet from the southern corner for primary education of their children, and a Tin Hau Temple within 500 feet to the northeast for worship.\n\nLand Registration took place in 1906 in Tsuen Wan after the Lease of the New Territories. The village was recorded from Lot No. 1528 to 1559 (Lot No. 1546 excluded) in Demarcation District No. 449 in the Block Crown Lease, totalling 0.43 acre of house land and 0.03 acre of waste land, all belonging to the Chan family. It is a pity that 0.135 acre of house land were sold to outsiders since 1937 otherwise the village would still remain solely in the hands of the descendants of the founder.\n\nChan Kin Sheung, the founder of Sam Tung Uk, was awarded a portrait by Chien Lung of Ch'ing Dynasty, worded \"Heung Yam Tai Bun” (means Honourable Guest in Village Parties). To everyone's sorrow and great loss it disappeared during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.\n\nThere have been very many big changes in the area surround-ing the village since re-development of Tsuen Wan. Fung shui trees at the back were felled, village type houses were built around, roads were constructed in front, multi-storeyed buildings were erected with obstruction of the front view. Ngau Kwu Tun, the small hill by the left, was removed to make way for a school building, and the hill at the back was partly cut off for construction of the Rapid Gravity Filter. Even the grave of the village founder was affected as it was in the same line and over-looking the village. The name in fung shui was called \"Lion over-looking the village platform\" (獅子瑩樓台)\n\nIt is to be hoped that the Walled Village can be retained as a historical relic in Tsuen Wan, even if the whole area is to be re-developed. God has blessed it for over two centuries and it is hoped will continue to do so.\n\nText and visits are organized and prepared by Mak Kai Yim, A. H. Mackreth, Brian Liu and Helga Werle.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207240, "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": 8, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "A View in Perspective\n\nThe Staff\n\nConclusion\n\nAcknowledgements\n\n(ii) The footnote reference at p. 295 is now to p. 12\n\n(iii) Take out 'University of California Press' at footnote 5 on p. 132\n\n(iv) The reference to Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke's autobiography at\n\np. 178 should be to the footnote at p. 290.\n\n(v) The following changes/additions should be made to Wellington K. K. Chan's article on 'Merchant Organisations in Late Imperial China':\n\n(a) the references to charitable halls in Shanghai and Canton\n\non p. 33 (second and third paras) are to private ones.\n\n(b) Add to footnote 15: Prior to this, it should be noted that there already were a few semi-active government-run charitable institutions in Canton. See Edward J. M. Rhoads, \"Merchant Associations in Canton 1895-1911,\" in Mark Elvin and G. William Skinner, eds., The Chinese City Between Two Worlds (Stanford, 1974).\n\n(c) Change footnote 38 to the following: See my Merchants, Mandarins and Modern Enterprise in Late Ch’ing China (Harvard University Press, forthcoming). Also Edward Rhoads' \"Merchant Associations in Canton\" cited above. I disagree with Rhoads' interpretation, however, that the chambers of commerce attracted all or most of the gentry-merchants (as opposed to the few or none for the charitable halls), or that they were successful in \"[breaking] down barriers between guilds and [creating] a city-wide merchant organization (p. 107).\" More successful, probably; but as my own study shows, the chambers were still disunited by geographical or trade differences.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207275, "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": 43, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA\n\n35\n\nbuildings and roads destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Collaboration of this sort gave these merchant leaders a greater voice over taxation and other local public affairs.23 The same guild leaders joined charitable organisations because their larger numbers offered them a wider base of support.\n\nAs the merchants assumed a leadership role in providing social services and welfare, they gradually took over responsibilities and privileges which went along with their work. Because permanent charitable organisations could cut across guilds and sometimes Landsmannschaften, they claimed that their leadership was based on community-wide support. And since they were merchants, they should be identified as merchant leaders to whom matters affecting the merchants would be referred. Moreover, these merchants were elites in their own communities, and were regularly referred to as \"titled merchants” (shen-shang). Even as individuals, they had some political influence with the local officials. But unless they had begun as gentry or officials, such influence rested on no legitimate basis. When they organised themselves in institutions which had a communal purpose, they quickly used them to claim legitimate leadership.\n\nThis was what happened by the late nineteenth century. In Hong Kong, the board of directors of the Tung Wah Hospital quickly gained the right to present petitions to the Hong Kong government on all matters related to the Chinese community. Institutionally, the hospital was put under the jurisdiction of the Registrar General, after 1913 styled the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who also served as its patron. By the early 1880's, the board opened up another channel when the Governor-general's Office in Canton began to correspond with it. There is some indication that the directors acted as a kind of information centre and advisory board for the Governor-general on matters involving the overseas Chinese.24 To this day, a seat on the board of directors of either the Tung Wah Hospital or the Po Leung Kuk still represents the government's recognition of each occupier's leadership status.\n\nIn Canton, charitable organisations, too, quickly became a regular channel of communication between the government and the merchants. In early 1886, when news of the San Francisco race riots against Chinese workers reached Canton and Hong Kong, the Chinese government wrote to the directors of the Ai-yü shan-t’ang", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207333, "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": 101, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY\n\n93\n\nclandestine (i.e., unlicensed and unregistered) brothels. For example, John Lee, an Inspector of Brothels in 1877, had joined the Hong Kong Police in 1864 and had been appointed Inspector of Brothels by the government in 1870. As a constable he had spent part of his service on dockyard duty; appointment as an Inspector of Brothels was a step up in the world; he improved both his status and finances. Such persons, too, had chances of obtaining, corruptly, substantial sums of money from Chinese, in this case from brothel keepers and their charges.5\n\nThe increase in demand for, what may be termed, low-level European man-power, was caused by the establishment of new government departments and an expansion in the activities of the old, as ordinance after ordinance was introduced into the colony. This was particularly true of the Surveyor General's Department, renamed the Public Works Department (P.W.D.) in 1891. The carrying out of large public works projects, such as the construction of public buildings, reservoirs and roads, meant that there was an increasing need for supervisors, overseers and inspectors. There were difficulties in finding suitable men. Departments had to take what they could find locally. Some specialists badly needed by the Hong Kong government were, however, recruited in London by the Crown Agents.\n\nMany P.W.D. overseers were former Royal Engineers, who had taken their discharge in Hong Kong, and as soldiers had had experience in the building of fortifications and other military works. They were, in modern army parlance, ‘tradesmen'. But an overseer admitted to a commission of enquiry in 1902 that it was always difficult to obtain responsible assistants:\n\n\"You can get beach-combers (sic) and old sailors, but they are no earthly use if you put them on a job and you have to depend on a Chinese foreman or contractor for a knowledge of the details of the work. They must be figure heads, but it is no use to put them on a Department like this.\"\n\nHe also confirmed that ‘any European here—it doesn't matter who he is or where he is picked up—can be put on a job and is termed an Overseer'. An architect concurred, stating that many overseers were picked from the beachcomber class. It appeared that in an attempt to rehabilitate beachcombers, clergymen and benevolent societies had been sending such persons along to the P.W.D. for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207394, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "154\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nconflict. I came to regret my thoroughness, for there was never time to use the equipment thus accumulated and this must have been splendid booty for the Japanese. There was also a full social life; many British women had enrolled for nursing and other essential duties and had not been evacuated. The Hong Kong Hotel was a gay place indeed, particularly on a Saturday night.\n\nIn October 1938, 35,000 Japanese troops had landed in Bias Bay on the China coast 35 miles from Hong Kong, and had then occupied Canton and had cut all communications between Hong Kong and mainland China. Patrolling Japanese ships thereafter made sailing from the Colony outside a circumscribed area very hazardous. In February 1939 the Japanese occupied the island of Hainan, 300 miles to the south of Hong Kong thus controlling the sea communications with Singapore. Curiously, after my arrival I do not remember taking part in any serious discussions with my friends about the prospects of a successful defence of Hong Kong. There were however plenty of rumours to fill the air. It was generally known that the strategic plan required Hong Kong to resist an attack for 90 days before a relief could arrive, a decision taken by the British Chiefs of Staff in 1937. In February 1940 the home authorities decided that food reserves should be accumulated for 130 days, while in August 1940 the Chiefs of Staff reached a further decision that in case of war with Japan, Hong Kong should be regarded as an outpost to be held as long as possible. After the war I learned from Liddell Hart's History of the Second World War, that in February 1940 the Chiefs of Staff concluded that the troops should be withdrawn from Hong Kong. Nothing was done to give effect to this decision. I have no doubt that the decision taken in February 1940 was the correct one which could with advantage have been taken much earlier. Ever since my arrival in Hong Kong in 1939 I believed that the Colony could not be defended successfully. The frontier, beyond which lay a strong Japanese army, was some 20 miles from Hong Kong harbour, the line to be defended, the so-called Gin Drinkers line was less than 5 miles from the harbour, the Japanese navy controlled the coast, our airport was tiny and the Air Force planes were few in number and no match in performance for their potential opponents. One and a half million Chinese civilians were crowded into Kowloon and Victoria. Roads suitable for wheeled traffic were few and open to close observation at many points. The whole picture left no doubt", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207396, "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": 164, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "156\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nsteeply to one of the passes, Magazine Gap, through which roads passed from one side of the Island to the other. The hospital had wide shady verandahs but no lifts, and all windows had heavy wooden shutters for use during typhoons. A reservoir for fire fighting purposes had been constructed a little above hospital level and was fed by hill streams. Above that again was the Nursing Sisters Mess. About the same level as the hospital were quarters for warrant officers and a barrack block for male staff, a NAAFI block for recreation and a tennis court together with some lesser outbuildings. Below the hospital was the Sergeants Mess and a residential block for married staff, \"H\" block. There was only one approach road winding up to the hospital, Borrett Road, but there was a subsidiary road, Bowen Road, running along a contour line but not strong enough to take heavy traffic. The hospital was one of the landmarks of the Hong Kong scene when viewed from the mainland. Below the hospital the ground fell steeply to the main road linking the city of Victoria and the Island to the east, and to the Naval Command Headquarters in H.M.S. Tamar, the Naval Dockyard and the headquarters of China Command. The hospital was therefore close to legitimate enemy targets and any margin for error in artillery fire and aerial bombing was reduced still further by the precipitous slope on which it stood.\n\nThe hospital however had nowhere else to go, and Colonel Shackleton the commanding officer used his considerable ingenuity to have two operating theatres with their necessary adjuncts and X-Ray rooms constructed in the basement of the administration block. Engines for generating electricity, one capable of supplying the theatres and X-ray room, the other able to serve part of the hospital as well were installed and were of great value during hostilities and during the long period of captivity. When the hospital was severely damaged and the kitchen totally destroyed very early on by aerial bombs and shell fire, Shackleton speedily got an emergency kitchen operating in the sergeants mess and set up a protective wall of concrete blocks, known to us from a much publicised local court case as \"Mimi Lau's”, on the harbour side of the ground floor wards. Shackleton was a forceful character, apparently not aware of fear, who was ready to cut through any red tape which obstructed his aims. He liked his own way and was not an easy man to have under command, but to those relying upon his administration in war he always provided what was needed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207405, "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n165\n\nexpeditions were always anxious occasions, for the roads were patrolled by Japanese troops, communication between our people and them was impossible, Red Cross brassards were of no protective value and stoppages and incidents were common. Fortunately Campbell and his men suffered no more than slappings and some minor indignities but they did a first-rate job in replenishing our stores. Our messing situation was however precarious in these early months.\n\nThe Chinese staff of the hospital, except for a couple or so who had known no other life than Bowen Road for years, had long departed and anything we wanted done had to be done by ourselves.\n\nWe had a hospital full of seriously ill men, most of them severely wounded, and we set to work to complete the surgical treatment of the war casualties. In the underground theatres we operated in the morning and evenings, leaving an hour or two in the afternoons to get a blow of fresh air. We could no longer dry-sterilise our operating towels etc., and so we boiled them. The method was effective though, because our clean surgical wounds remained uninfected and grafts including pedicle grafts were accepted cleanly. Surgical procedures were followed by as smooth progress as we could have wished for. Our coal stocks were soon exhausted but theatre sisters and staff were very successful in their improvisations. The supply of electricity from the mains was cut off for a while but the deficiency was remedied by our generators.\n\nWe were anxious about the surgical situation. We did not know if our staff would be left to care for our own wounded, but a rumour which spread round the hospital one night soon after our surrender that all doctors were to be moved next day proved to be unfounded, though I always thought that such a specific rumour as this had some kind of basis. It was perhaps at this time that a clear decision was taken by the Japanese as to our future. We were anxious particularly about the effects of wound infection upon the health of patients already undernourished, for we knew that this would certainly hasten the development of deficiency diseases. And so our days were filled.\n\nWe were alive to the dangers of undernourishment on a poorly balanced diet especially as the change came about suddenly from the diet to which our troops were accustomed. On 16 April 1942, as surgical specialist, I joined with my specialist physician colleague, Major Gerald Harrison, in drawing attention to the problem in a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207407, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n167\n\nwall would have been breached and a huge volume of water would have swept down hill. The theatres and X-ray department would have been flooded and put out of action as would have been the emergency kitchen in the sergeants' mess, while the approach roads to the hospital would have been further damaged. Fortunately the shell did not explode and after hostilities our sappers successfully removed it to a place where it could do less harm if it exploded. Even so a crack leak was caused in the reservoir wall which caused us much trouble subsequently.\n\nThere was a surprising laxity about the early Japanese arrangements for guarding the hospital, contrasting with their later stringency. I remember climbing to Magazine Gap for exercise and curiosity's sake with a companion after the surrender and then following the road to the Peak for a considerable distance. A few Japanese patrols and sentries did not try to check us provided they were saluted as befitted the representatives of the Imperial Army. Soon however the hospital was wired in, the barrier at first allowing us access to the Barrack and N.A.A.F.I. Blocks as well as to the tennis court, the minor buildings and the ground round the reservoir. The guard post was in Bowen Road immediately below the hospital while the guard barracks were in our former married quarters in \"H\" Block. The Japanese administrators of the hospital lived in the former sisters' mess. The area allowed to us was therefore generous at the beginning, but was drastically reduced later on. Movement outside the wire was prohibited except when on working parties under guard.\n\nThe A.D.M.S., Colonel John Simson, had joined us in the hospital after surrender. He was a short, powerfully built man who had played rugby football for Scotland and had spent a number of years in the Sudan where he was a noted big game shot. In the hospital we were ordered to salute all Japanese officers, N.C.O.'s and sentries. John Simson's salute was a joy to see; with his cap on the back of his head and tilted to one side he would bring a forefinger up to eye level in much the same manner as a countryman at home might have acknowledged the local squire days gone by, except that the gesture was full of what used to be called dumb insolence in our army. The only way in which the salutation could have been more expressive would have been for him to have applied his thumb to his nose at the same time. While in Bowen Road he helped in a number of communal enterprises but sought no part in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207419, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n179\n\ngot from Sgt. Seino. He was not hurt in the least and I saw him directly afterwards fully relaxed and quite at ease. It struck me then that this sort of noisy reaction would be most satisfying to the person administering the punishment and the man who could put on this kind of act was to be envied. Incidentally I think our patient was lucky that Seino was in charge on this particular day and not Saito. In the very earliest days of these parcel deliveries some hasty speech at long range was possible between some people in hospital and our benefactors though this was soon stopped.\n\nThose who brought parcels to the hospital were of course all women. Some had amahs or servants to help them to transport their heavy burdens up the steep roads to the hospital. Even when they had help, we in the hospital understood the physical effort involved in buying, preparing, packing and carrying heavy loads and even after all the intervening years I am glad to have the chance of expressing the gratitude and admiration I still feel for what they did. They also had to exercise the greatest care never to get at cross purposes with our sometimes uneven tempered guards.\n\nAt the receiving end of this supply line I had to withstand some pointed questions. We knew that except for gifts addressed to certain known recipients, for example from wives to husbands and from relatives and friends of inmates all other parcels addressed to people by name were intended for our general use and these latter were taken straight into our hospital store. Sergeant Seino repeatedly required assurances from me that the individuals to whom these particular parcels were addressed were not receiving and using the contents themselves while those less fortunate had to go without. This meant of course that the Japanese were shutting their eyes to a method of getting additional stores into the hospital, and then and now I find this to be strange. I always gave Seino the most explicit guarantees of the facts and showed him how we stored gifts in our steward's store. The only reason for any scepticism on his part might have been that inmates with wives, relatives and close friends outside quite properly retained what they received, though I knew at the time that all who received these personal parcels shared the contents with their friends within the hospital.\n\nI made records of issues of food from our hospital store which came from our Hong Kong friends, but I now find that these records show the combined value of issues from these gifts and from pur-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207507, "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": 275, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n267\n\nnever known a speech to have a more direct and immediate effect and the atmosphere on the troop decks changed vastly for the better.\n\nCASUALTIES AND EVACUATION OF WOUNDED DURING HOSTILITIES\n\nI shall now add a few sections on aspects of the period of captivity that are not conveniently included in the many records, under several heads.\n\nI have already said a little about the very difficult hilly and broken ground over which fighting took place in Hong Kong and about the roads suitable for wheeled transport which were under direct observation in many places by an enemy who not only knew every one of them but also knew the hill tracks as well. Movement by road was usually possible only at night and roads themselves were often cut by Japanese infiltrating troops. The conditions under which our troops had to carry out a continuous withdrawal, pressed closely by a very mobile enemy were extremely arduous. The supporting services, including the medical services likewise found their tasks extremely difficult and a short assessment of casualty evacuation may be of interest. The statistics are taken from Volume 11 of The Official Medical History of Campaigns in the Second World War.\n\nThe strength of our garrison when hostilities began was 10,976 officers and men of the British and Indian armies and when the locally raised units were added the total rose to about 14,500 of whom about eleven thousand were combatants. Many members of locally raised units probably melted into the civil population when the end of hostilities was seen to be approaching. A figure of 11,000 officers and men at risk is therefore assumed. The Official History records that 2,113 men were killed, died of wounds or were missing, and give a total of 1,332 as having been wounded seriously. Earlier in this account I reported that Indian army troops had their own hospital and that in Bowen Road we admitted Indian troops when they were wounded nearby, when they were transferred to us for special investigation and treatment by the Indian hospital and when they were transferred to us from other hospitals which were closing down after our surrender. The casualties for which we were responsible in Bowen Road therefore seem to be the total of 856 non-Indians recorded in the Official History.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207660, "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": 48, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "THE TEOCHIU: ETHNICITY IN URBAN HONG KONG\n\n33\n\nbetween Hong Kong and Thailand was at its height during two periods of several years following the two World Wars. Teochiu import/export firms trading with Thailand established a commercial association in 1946 (Hung, 1961:4). In the 1920s there were at least 21 Teochiu firms involved in trade with Singapore, and in 1930 these firms established a commercial association which by 1951 had 41 member firms (Hung, 1961:2). Teochiu trade between Hong Kong and Vietnam began in the last years of the Ch'ing Dynasty and became substantial in 1914, apparently as a result of World War I. This trading gradually increased until the involvement of the U.S. in the war of liberation at which time the importation of goods into Vietnam from China ceased. This drastically curtailed the importing activities of Teochiu firms in Hong Kong exporting Chinese commodities to Vietnam (Hung, 1961:7).\n\nAfter the opening of Swatow as a treaty port in 1858, Teochiu firms in Hong Kong became active in importing Teochiu products from there and then re-exporting them to Southeast Asia, primarily for Teochiu consumption. In 1946 there were at least 20 firms involved in such trading and by 1948 about 100. Many of these were evidently forced out of business or into other areas of business after 1949, although there were still about 20 firms still involved in Swatow/Southeast Asian trading during the 1950s. These firms were evidently forced to operate with a very low profit margin (Hung, 1961:8).\n\nImmediately prior to World War II there were perhaps 20,000 Teochiu in Hong Kong, many living in Western District. During the 1930s, however, some Teochiu began to move over to the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon, particularly Haiphong, Hankow and Canton Roads (Lee, 1969:55). Many of these people were employed as coolies in the Kowloon Godown, which still today employs predominantly Teochiu laborers. Most, however, were forced to move out of the area after World War II with the commercial and tourist development of Tsim Sha Tsui.\n\nAnother area of Teochiu concentration prior to World War II was in the hills around Kowloon Walled City where Teochiu squatters raised pigs and poultry (Lee, 1969:56). This early concentration was undoubtedly a factor in the later heavy concentration of Teochiu in Kowloon City in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1961, according to the government census, there were 257,319 Teochiu in Hong Kong and by 1971 the figure", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207767, "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": 155, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "140\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS\n\nIt will be seen that many of the routes were mountainous, and the road near Makuchen () on the Kutsing-Luhsien (Fig. 2) run reaches 2,630 metres. The grading in almost all places was good and reflected credit on the engineers who had surveyed and built the routes, mainly with manual labour impressed from the surrounding countryside. There were no sealed or tarmac surfaces and the roads were kept in repair by filling potholes with hand-broken small stones.\n\nThe first permanent transport base was at Kweiyang where the Unit took over and extended the garage maintained there by the IRC outside the city at Shi Sang Shi (4%). (Plate 18) Cover for four trucks, stores, tinsmiths and engine overhaul shops, office and living quarters for drivers, mechanics and their families were provided. The godown was at the old IRC headquarters inside the city, a Confucian temple courtyard (M). Other bases were purpose-built. Kutsing (), opened for operation in June 1942, became Unit Headquarters in August 1942 and had a large godown. Luhsien (⇓) was a small base used for serving trucks on the arduous Kutsing-Luhsien run and forwarding supplies to Chengtu by truck or by boat down river to Chungking. A small group with one or two trucks was based on the West China Union University (#606★*), campus at Chengtu for 1942 and part of 1943 for distribution to many institutions in that area and up to Paoki (**). In early 1944 a permanent garage was acquired and extended on the South Bank at 44 kilometres milestone at Chungking, and this later became a major base.\n\nEach transport base had a garage Manager, with assistants in the large ones, and an Agent who looked after all paperwork, permits and cargo details, with an assorted force of employee mechanics, tinsmiths, carpenters etc. Drivers and mechanics also worked on their trucks when in the base. Details of garage operations and numbers are discussed fully in a later section.\n\nThe time taken for journeys varied widely according to the motive power of the truck (petrol, alcohol, diesel or charcoal gas), the skill of the driver in maintenance (especially with charcoal powered trucks) and the state of the road and the weather. When the diesel powered Fords, described in a later section, were new, convoys of 2-3 trucks would regularly complete the Kutsing-Luhsien (724 kilometres) run in 3-4 days giving, with crew rest days and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207780, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 153\n\n4. Addition of centrifugal fan blowers to give some supercharge to the engine. These were belt driven from the engine front drive pulley. They were obtained as part of an American-designed and manufactured producer gas kit and were about the only components which stood up to the service required. The amount of petrol used for starting was small and a charcoal truck would normally use about 2 gallons for a 500 km. 3-4 day run. It was thus possible to haul 1000 km. tons with a minimum use of imported fuel and maximum use of the local resources.\n\nConclusion\n\nThe physical and quantitative part of the Units' transport work has been outlined in this paper. It is hoped that this record can be made more accurate and detailed by further research. If the transport work had not been done, many would have died who were cured. However, perhaps equally valuable was the training given and example set by the Western members in terms of systematic maintenance and driving care. The image, held by many Chinese at that time, of the Westerner as missionary, doctor, educator, or businessman; one who in general gave directions for others to carry out, was somewhat changed by the sight of young men working with their Chinese colleagues and employees, greasing steering, repairing engines and coaxing recalcitrant trucks over the roads of West China. It was an educative experience for all those involved and showed the value of practice over precept in the establishment of efficient working methods.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 These included a 26 hour, 606 mile drive from Lashio to Rangoon to clear medical supplies from the docks, 7 trucks loaded with medical supplies as part of the last convoy out of Rangoon on March 6, 1942; and a group of members, attached to Dr. Seagrave's Medical Unit, made the trek out of Burma to Assam in the party commanded by General Joseph W. Stillwell. Medical work with Chinese and Indian troops and civilians coming out of Burma into Assam continued there until the end of 1942.\n\n2 It is appropriate to mention briefly the direct medical work of the Unit. This consisted mainly of Mobile Surgical Teams (MST) attached to Chinese Army hospitals and treating military and civilian patients. These teams usually consisted of about eight people: two surgeon/physicians, one anaesthetist and two nurses, a dispenser, a handyman/mechanic and a business manager/quartermaster. The first of these MST was stationed at Walchow in Kwangtung in mid-1942 when forces were concentrated for a projected attack on Hong Kong. Most of the MST worked in Yunnan and the Salween front.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207790, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n163\n\nValley. A tea committee was formed whose findings were favourable, and experimental tea gardens were opened at Jaipur in Upper Assam. By 1859 over 4,000 acres were under cultivation, and the industry was assured of a bright future. Ample British capital was available for expansion, the British public's appetite for tea seemed inexhaustible; but scarcity of labour was a serious handicap. Assam was thinly populated, and the planters were dependent on Bengalis, who took a long time to get acclimatised. The idea of importing Chinese labour by the overland route was suggested, as at this time Chinese labour was considered indispensable to economic development in the tropics, and the Indian government was sympathetic. There were several possible land routes between India and West China, some passing through Burma, and Article 9 of the 1862 Commercial Treaty between Britain and Burma allowed entry into British territory from the Burmese side. The tea planters, however, failed to recruit Chinese workers, and blamed their lack of success upon the difficulties and hardships of the overland routes. This led to pressure on the government to improve the major land routes, and to several expeditions across the debatable borderlands between India, Burma, and China.\n\nFrom the 1860s until near the end of the century, therefore, there was rivalry between British commercial circles in India and those in China, over access to West China. In addition to these two approaches, from India and from the Yangtze, there were others from the south; by the Mekong or Red River from Indo-China, and by the West River from Canton and Hong Kong. Anglo-French colonial rivalry was acute during the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the Far East. The French were keen to find and exploit a trade route to West China; and while Britain was investigating routes from Burma, the Yangtze, and the West River, France was investigating possible routes from the Mekong and Red Rivers.\n\nAs became widely known by the end of the century, and suspected by realists before then, West China and its borderlands comprise some of the most difficult regions of the world in which to build roads or railways, or in which to improve river navigation. There are high mountain ranges divided by deep valleys, densely forested in many places; and all the great rivers—the Yangtze, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Red River, and Salween—are seriously impeded by rapids", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207791, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "164 \n\nA. D. BLUE \n\nand gorges in their upper reaches. Yet British and French explorers light-heartedly planned roads and railways through the region, when earth moving and other civil engineering techniques were primitive by modern standards. \n\nPolitical difficulties were equally formidable. In addition to Anglo-French rivalry, there was an involved relationship between Britain, Burma, China, and the Kachin and Shan hill peoples in the borderlands. A further complication, from 1855 to 1873, was the devastation of Yunnan by the Panthay Rebellion, a Moslem uprising almost as destructive as the more famous Taiping Rebellion. \n\nAlthough the Treaty of Yandabo had established Britain in Lower Burma, Upper Burma continued as an independent state, with an ill-defined tributary relationship with China. However, during the sixty years before Britain annexed Upper Burma in 1886, Britain obtained the province of Pegu (1852), and mounted a succession of expeditions to find a practicable trade route from Burma into Yunnan, contemporary with other expeditions up the Yangtze from Shanghai. \n\nBetween Marco Polo in the late thirteenth century, and the French priest M. Huc in the 1840s, practically no European had travelled in West China. So little was known of it that while their compatriots in China looked on neighbouring Szechwan as the El Dorado of the East, the British in Burma and India had their eyes on the province of Yunnan. The extravagant and over enthusiastic appraisal of Yunnan's potential wealth gave rise to what became known as the \"Yunnan Myth\". \n\nThe first British attempts to reach Yunnan and West China came from Burma in the late eighteenth century. When Captain Sorrel went to Ava in 1792 to deliver a letter to the King of Burma from Lord Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, some Burmese offered to take him overland to China. Sorrel's reference to this aroused great interest in India. Over a century earlier, Dutch East India traders in Ava and Syriam had given glowing accounts of a flourishing trade between Burma and China, conducted through Chinese merchants in Bhamo. In 1795 when Captain Michael Symes was sent on an official mission to Burma, he was instructed to “find a mart in the south west dominions of China by means of the great river of Ava”. Symes' report was enthusiastic. He said the principal export from Ava was cotton, which went up the Irrawaddy in large", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207856, "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": 244, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 229\n\nher grave was on the head her descendants would be very great men: but if on the tail they would be more humble people, perhaps officers of low degree, and, although prosperous, none would succeed to high rank.' The princess chose the tail because she preferred her descendants to stay humble, she herself having suffered so much. See Sung Hok-p’ang, ‘Legends and Stories of the New Territories”, IV. Kam T'in (continued)', The Hong Kong Naturalist, vol. VII, no. 1, April 1936, pp. 34f.)\n\n62. The term fung shui is often used to mean simply a grave, and there is no need to stress the point that burial lies at the heart of geomancy. But in fact fung shui covers all aspects of men's dwellings on earth. Every territorially defined unit of society has its fung shui, from the household up to the state. The residence of the head of the state affects the prosperity of the country. (For this reason great emphasis is often placed on the geomantic excellence of Government House). The fortunes of cities, towns, and villages depend on their physical arrangement and dominating buildings. Political units take their fate from government offices. (The fung shui of the new Fanling District Court has impressed many locals). The fung shui of an ancestral hall determines the fortunes of members of the clan. (For this reason it is hardly ever to be found inside a wai, a walled enclosure; it must have free access to its site). A house shapes the destiny of its master and those for whom he is responsible. Consequently, geomancers are often employed to advise on the siting, orientation, certain architectural features (especially height), and work—and opening-dates of domestic and other buildings. Indeed, there appears to be some specialisation among fung shui sin shaang in the New Territories, some of them putting themselves out to be experts on graves and others on buildings.\n\n63. Burial and the fung shui associated with it differ markedly in city and countryside. Only the rich among the people in the urban area can afford to escape the regimentation of their dead in cemeteries and seek geomantically favourable sites in private plots. (Some in fact acquire the right to bury their dead in land forming the traditional preserves of village communities. They may have to pay dearly for the privilege. Along one of the main roads in the New Territories there stands a pavilion, now many years old, which was put up as part of the compensation to the local people for the geomantic disturbance caused them by the burial in their area of a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207859, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "232\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nroad is being cut; it disturbs the Dragon; the evil to follow must be averted ritually. And so on.\n\n66. It is nothing new for the government to encounter fung shui difficulties. It has faced them from the very beginning when police posts had to be put up and roads made. In 1899 Lockhart received a petition from a group of elders:\n\nand all the inhabitants of the villages in those districts, praying that as the geomantic influence of their neighbourhood will be interfered with, another site may be selected for the construction of a carriage road, whereby the fung shui of the place may not be injuriously affected, and the houses and graves of your petitioners may be protected and the wishes of the people gratified. Your petitioners have dwelt in this land for more than a hundred years, and all their villagers have been law abiding, and have depended upon fung shui for their peace and prosperity....... the proposed route of the carriage road, situated behind the houses of the villages, traverses the geomantic line along the hill at the back of the petitioners' ancestral temple, and if this did not affect the fung shui of the place the construction of the road would not be objected to. But the matter is one of highest importance, involving life and death for if the geomantic influences are once interfered with great indeed will be the calamity which will befall your petitioners, and their houses and ancestral temple will be rendered uninhabitable. (1 May 1899)\n\nLockhart told the petitioners that, while the British Government was always prepared to respect the beliefs and customs of the people, it would not tolerate agitators making an improper use of popular beliefs in order to obstruct public works and welfare. And he went on to warn them that the agitators were working for their own private ends and would be severely dealt with if they persisted. The Governor suggested a different approach, proposing a ‘judicious arrangement' with the geomancers which might be made 'with a small expenditure'. Lockhart demurred. If the geomancers were paid, they would become more troublesome than they are already, as they would discover that the creating of trouble is a paying game.' (Correspondence of 7, 8 and 14 May 1899). Ever since, the Administration has been faced with the dilemma of yielding to fung shui objections (every act of tolerance being a pledge to further acts)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207861, "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": 249, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "234\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\ntance was put up by the Administration to geomantic objections to plans for development. Reporting on the first phase of British rule Orme wrote that fung shui objections had been made to the proposed routes of the railway and roads, 'but it is characteristic of the Chinese folk that their superstitious fears have always yielded ultimately to the needs of a progressive age.' (Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912, p. 47). But as long as the Administration wishes to honour its undertaking to respect local beliefs and customs the formula it has arrived at seems to be the most sensible that could be devised. It appears to strike the right compromise between intransigence and complete passivity.\n\n69. I come now to the price the Administration must pay. If fung shui is detrimentally disturbed not only may compensation be demanded but a ritual remedy may be sought which often takes the form of a tun fu, a series of rites to prevent misfortune. Fung shui, as I have argued, is a kind of 'science', its principles working automatically and without the agency of anthropomorphic supernatural entities. But some fung shui, even undisturbed, give off a malign influence, a Killing Breath (shaat hei) for which the remedy cannot be sought within fung shui itself. Rites become necessary. They call upon supernatural beings (as opposed to forces) and, characteristically, require the services of men who, being 'priests' and not, so to say, scientific technicians, stand in contrast to geomancers. In reality, the contrast is imperfect, for some geomancers do apparently undertake to perform tun fu, but the 'pure' fung shui sin shaang will not meddle with such things, saying that a Deadly Breath will never emanate from a properly constructed fung shui and that the remedy for a disturbed one is the province of religious practitioners from whom he is careful to dissociate himself. Tun fu are typically performed by maam moh lo, although other kinds of ritual specialists may also be involved; there is a spirit-medium in the Tai Po area who has performed these rites. Tun fu (or tan fu, as it is called in some places; there are some linguistic and ethnographic questions I cannot discuss here) invokes a range of deities, general and local, to counteract the malignancy and ensure peace. Among these deities some will decide that the work falls within their province and take appropriate action. Tun fu by one rite imposes a special religious embargo on the action of the evil influences and by another removes the embargo when peace and security seems to have been assured. The Administration and others", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207881, "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": 269, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "254\n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN\n\nwill be overlooked in future studies. The Hoklo-speaking group has never been looked into in any detail and might well make the subject of an interesting investigation—partly because their spoken language appears to have acted as a barrier which administrators have found it difficult to cross. (There is, however, nothing specially exotic about the language; it can be handled by anybody with some background in one of the Min dialects—Amoy, Chiu Chau, etc.) On the other hand, it seems to me that the accent in studies of fishermen should fall heavily on modern developments. Among boat people there seems to be an increasing drift to the land for dwellings; fishermen have joined in the emigration to the United Kingdom; marriages have been noted, perhaps on a growing scale, between Tanka and landsmen; and there are many signs that the separation of boat people from land-based institutions is likely to diminish progressively. (I do not know enough about the boat people who are not fishermen to include them in my remarks). How these processes are taking place and how the modern fishing industry promotes and reacts to the changes are matters on which both the New Territories Administration and the Co-operative Development and Fisheries Department must have collected a great deal of information, and there is a case to be made for someone to prepare an analysis of the available data as a step towards detailed on-the-spot studies.\n\n94. Fishermen are not the only marginal groups in the New Territories. While great areas of the countryside have undergone economic development it is still possible to walk over tracks which suggest the Ch'ing dynasty rather than the twentieth century into villages where only packets of cigarettes, photographs, and the odd transistor wireless set forbid the illusion that one has stepped back into a fully traditional Chinese community. And in the island settlements the sense of the new world kept at a distance is reinforced by the sea. In reality no community in the New Territories is today isolated, but many, because of their poor communications, are remote, and, given that roads are being planned which will bring new possibilities of marketing crops and attract the attention of outsiders to areas now ignored, there is a need to study communities in the process of being brought closer to the mainstream of contemporary New Territories life. If there had been enough talent immediately available for research I should have suggested that such a study be undertaken at once, but it will probably have to be put aside for a while.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208020, "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": 59, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "A JOURNEY TO YENAN, 1946\n\nW. A. REYNOLDS*\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe purpose of this paper is to record some experiences of a truck journey in early 1946 from Chungking, the wartime capital of the Republic of China, to Yenan, the Headquarters of the 18th Group Army, the Chinese Communist Party and capital of the Kansu-Ninghsia-Shensi Border Region, and back. This three-truck convoy carrying medical supplies was the first delivery to take place for a period of about four years, and a very brief review of the political background is perhaps required to set the scene.\n\nFollowing the Sian incident of December 1936, there were moves towards a united anti-Japanese front between the Nationalist Government (Kuomintang) under Marshal Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists (Kungchangtang). This was followed on July 7, 1937, by the Marco Polo Bridge fighting and the start of the Japanese invasion of the heartland of China. In this period, there was a nominal united command of Kuomintang and Kungchangtang with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek as Supreme Commander. The New Fourth Army, based in Anhwei, had been formed from the Communist guerilla groups left behind in Central China, but friction developed between this and the Kuomintang forces, and in January 1941, it was attacked in South Anhwei and partly destroyed. This marked the end of the united front, and the Kuomintang re-introduced the blockade of the Liberated Areas under 18th Group Army control. These Liberated Areas were basically the provinces of Kansu, Ninghsia, Shensi, Suiyuan, Honan, Hupeh, Hopeh, Shantung, Anhwei, Kiangsu, and Jehol. Much of these areas were also under Japanese occupation of the cities, railways, and roads, but the countryside was effectively under the control of the Liberated Areas Regional Councils.\n\nThe reintroduction of the blockade meant that a proportion of the Kuomintang troops were engaged in this exercise rather than\n\n* Paper delivered to a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch on 31st May, 1977. Mr. Reynolds is head of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208052, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\n75\n\nHsin-An.\" How it relates to the dissolution of li-chia divisions is made clear in the following account, quoted in the 1921 edition of the Tung-Kuan Gazetteer:\n\nIn the past, the fang (✈) and tu divisions were known by name. Now, for the most part, these old divisions no longer exist. In the recent past, when military activity necessitated the imposition of corvée (), the village areas themselves were utilized in the apportionment and collection of the duties. For this reason, several small villages grouped together to form a large district; other villages attached themselves to more powerful villages. The various changes are too numerous to record in detail; however, on the basis of experience, the county was divided into nine large areas. Yet, despite this method, inequalities remained, on account of the all-pervasive corruption.18\n\nWhen one considers, in addition, the substantial demographic movements through the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth century,19 and the geographic limitations on the efficiency of local civil administrators, it is not difficult to imagine the total inability of local magistrates to implement viable alternatives to local self-governmental structures. Hence, Krone's comment: \"The mandarins in Sanon district have very little power. The people pay their taxes, but do not allow the mandarins to interfere with their own local government.\"20 Official acquiescence gradually became implicit approval, and the collection of land tax by means of farms granted to local magnates was institutionalized at the local level. By the time southern Hsin-An came within Britain's imperial orbit, taxlordism was well entrenched in the agricultural sector.\n\nThe position of taxlord carried responsibilities as well as benefits. By maintaining the relatively small taxable base, the taxlord was able to increase his own share of the revenue without having to pay over collected surpluses. Yet, under customary agreement, the taxlord was obligated to perform certain services for the privilege of extracting his commission. One of the most important of these was the protection offered against “unreasonable” squeeze. One measure of the Tang's dominant landlord and taxlord status was their apparent ability to avoid payment of squeeze under certain circumstances. Other services included supervision of local paramilitary and police forces, maintenance of roads and bridges, and provision of festivals and operas.22", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208056, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "## TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\ngovernment in his Discussion of the Official System (￥##): \n\n79 \n\n(咸豐: \n\nDuring the troubled years of the Hsien-Feng period (: 1851-1862), the gentry of the various villages formed t'uan-lien (*) for the purpose of self-defence. If a village was weak, then it united with other villages to form one large district. In this way, all of the villages within one geographically distinct area were united under one committee of gentry, referred to as chu. These organizations were responsible for collecting taxes, and were managed by a staff of local administrators.34 \n\nThe similarity between these developments, which transpired in Nan-Hai Hsien (南海縣), and the description of the collapse of li-chia in Tung-Kuan is remarkable. There was an unquestionable link between the presence of taxlordism and chu throughout South China in the nineteenth century. Kuhn (1970) cites evidence from Hunan which demonstrates that the primary function of chu in that province was the collection of the land tax; in some areas, chu effectively coupled the monopolization of land tax collection with the early administration of likin.35 In Hsin-An itself, it is quite clear that the services performed by taxlords were often coordinated by gentry committees; moreover, the services performed by these groups were essentially identical to those performed by the chu of Nan-Hai (these include: dispute-settlement, maintenance of irrigation works, temples, schools, roads, bridges, and the provision of sacrifices.)36 \n\nI propose that chu were essentially bodies of taxlords which regulated the collection and expenditure of revenue from agricultural production within the boundaries of tung or similar areas.37 The collection of revenue was greatly facilitated by 1) the location of chu in the major market town of the tung, and 2) its recognized status as overseer of the affairs of the tung, with the right to petition the magistrate in the name of the inhabitants.38 After collection of the land tax, a certain amount was extracted and set aside as public funds to meet \"fixed costs.\" For extraordinary expenses, such as those incurred by the resistance campaign, the taxlord-gentry would either petition the magistrate to temporarily forego collection of the land tax, or would levy supplementary taxes of their own on the established rent and tax quotas of villages within the tung.39\n\n## TWO ESSAYS ON THE CH'ING ECONOMY OF HSIN-AN\n\ngovernment in his Discussion of the Official System (￥##):\n\n79\n\n(咸豐:\n\nDuring the troubled years of the Hsien-Feng period (: 1851-1862), the gentry of the various villages formed t'uan-lien (*) for the purpose of self-defence. If a village was weak, then it united with other villages to form one large district. In this way, all of the villages within one geographically distinct area were united under one committee of gentry, referred to as chu. These organizations were responsible for collecting taxes, and were managed by a staff of local administrators.34\n\nThe similarity between these developments, which transpired in Nan-Hai Hsien (南海縣), and the description of the collapse of li-chia in Tung-Kuan is remarkable. There was an unquestionable link between the presence of taxlordism and chu throughout South China in the nineteenth century. Kuhn (1970) cites evidence from Hunan which demonstrates that the primary function of chu in that province was the collection of the land tax; in some areas, chu effectively coupled the monopolization of land tax collection with the early administration of likin.35 In Hsin-An itself, it is quite clear that the services performed by taxlords were often coordinated by gentry committees; moreover, the services performed by these groups were essentially identical to those performed by the chu of Nan-Hai (these include: dispute-settlement, maintenance of irrigation works, temples, schools, roads, bridges, and the provision of sacrifices.)36\n\nI propose that chu were essentially bodies of taxlords which regulated the collection and expenditure of revenue from agricultural production within the boundaries of tung or similar areas.37 The collection of revenue was greatly facilitated by 1) the location of chu in the major market town of the tung, and 2) its recognized status as overseer of the affairs of the tung, with the right to petition the magistrate in the name of the inhabitants.38 After collection of the land tax, a certain amount was extracted and set aside as public funds to meet \"fixed costs.\" For extraordinary expenses, such as those incurred by the resistance campaign, the taxlord-gentry would either petition the magistrate to temporarily forego collection of the land tax, or would levy supplementary taxes of their own on the established rent and tax quotas of villages within the tung.39", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208084, "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": 123, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CEREMONIAL LIFE OF 2 MULTI-SURNAME VILLAGES\n\n107\n\nP'ing village of Lung-tsai She and Pasternak's Taiwan village of Tatich was no less striking. Firstly, Lung-tsai She practised residential segregation whereas Tatich was a mixed community. Secondly, there were no marriage ties among the lineages in Lung-tsai She whereas there were considerable intra-village marriages in Tatieh. Lastly, Lung-tsai She members participated in the rituals of ancestral halls outside their village. The same was not true of Tatieh. From these differences, it is possible to conclude that despite their similarities, the Hoi-p'ing village of Lung-tsai She was never as integrated as the Taiwan village of Tatieh studied by Pasternak.\n\nThis study, as well as C. K. Yang's A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition (Cambridge, 1959 pp. 26, 42-3, 81, 93-109), confirms the hypothesis that multi-surname villages in South China could not achieve the same degree of social cohesion as villages in Taiwan. The reason is that there were outside forces drawing members of each lineage away from their fellow villagers. This can be readily seen in the Hoi-p'ing case if we examine the relationship between the Kwaan of Na-loh, the Kwaan of Lung-tsai She and the Kwaan of T’oh-fuk.\n\nThe Kwaan of Na-loh Ts'uen was a segment of the localized lineage of the T'oh-fuk Kwaan, one of the most prominent in Hoi-p'ing in terms of numerical power, corporate property and the number of traditional and modern scholars. It controlled Che-hom which was one of the most important market-towns and ferry centres along the T'aam River. Its gentry members often acted as spokesmen and defence leaders of Hoi-p'ing as a whole. Thus, it was not surprising that the Kwaan of Na-loh could afford to ignore the Oo of the same village.\n\nThe Kwaan of Lung-tsai She was geographically separated from the Kwaan lineage at T'oh-fuk. They attended the T'in-sam Market (...) as their standard market town. However, in the late 1920's when public roads were built, they preferred to do business in Che-hom which they could reach by bus in half an hour. The latter market town was developing into a wholesale centre. This induced the peasants and shopowners from Lung-tsai She to go there since they could usually buy a greater variety of consumer's goods at a lower price and sell their farm produce at a higher price. Moreover, after 1930, when a Heung office (...) was established in Che-hom as the administrative headquarters of the Kwaan", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208107, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHOW – LONG ISLAND\n\nW. J. HINTON, M.A.*\n\nThe island we are to describe is not the Long Island of New York society but another Long Island altogether, in the latitude of Havannah, and in the South China Sea called Dumb-bell Island in Hongkong, it is Cheung Chow to some eight thousand souls, three thousand ashore and five thousand afloat, who live there, or thereabouts on the fishing grounds. The little community is small enough to be understood by sympathetic observer, and interesting enough to merit description in some detail. So in the hope that some better qualified observer will be provoked to come forward and take up the tale, we will attempt a description.\n\nAs to geography: the place lies in that archipelago which stretches across the mouth of the Canton River between Hongkong and the four hundred year old settlement of Macao. The River boats which ply between those towns pass by it disdainfully, or perhaps the police fear that if they touched there the problem of smuggling, already formidable would become altogether unmanageable. For they seem to be inveterate smugglers, these Cheung Chow fishermen like fishermen elsewhere.\n\nCheung Chow is quite close to Hongkong, about one hour's steaming by launch, and on clear days the sails of its anchored junks are visible over the low spit of sand which forms the handle of the \"dumb-bell\" from Cheung Chow and Hongkong is a glorious sight, by day a long line of high ridges above which the clouds tower and at night a dim mass on which the mountain roads prick out white festoons and necklaces of light, still and shining above the winking beacon of Green Island.\n\nAcross that dozen miles of sea a small ferryboat like a slow shuttle carries a slender thread of communication six times in the day. The Police can talk by wireless with their waiting launches in Hongkong, and for the unhurried there are the junks and sampans.\n\nThis article is reprinted from the Hongkong University Journal of Law and Commerce, Vol. II, April 1929, No. 1. It was brought to the Editor's attention by Dr. Peter Wesley-Smith.\n\n* The author served the University of Hong Kong first as Registrar 1912-13, then as Professor of Economics and thrice as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, until his resignation to take up a post in England in 1929 ---- Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208121, "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": 160, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH, NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG\n\nW. SCHOFIELD\n\nMy first introduction to the Southern District took the form of journeys by Water Police launches to various parts of it during the summer of 1919, when I lived for three months in the Water Police station quarters before my first leave. After it I sometimes repeated such voyages for purposes of geological research, on which I embarked with Government encouragement. A professional geological survey of the Colony was being planned in order to help in developing the resources of the Empire after the 1914-18 war, and to most people the Colony's geology was, quite understandably, a sealed book. The coasts and islands of the Southern District afforded many instructive sections, often showing the relations of different rock and mosses in a nearly undecayed state, which except in stream beds could hardly be seen anywhere else in the days before great motor roads cut the hills. This work enabled me to prepare a preliminary report on the Colony's sedimentary rocks and granite batholiths which was presented in 1923 not long before the Canadian geologists began their labours.\n\nIn 1922, while I was working as second assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and deputy registrar of marriages, on the first floor of the Post Office building, Mr. Wynne-Jones, the D. O. South, whose office was just above mine on the second floor, went to hospital with appendicitis, and I was instructed at ten minutes' notice to go upstairs and do his job till he got better. As I had coveted the job for some time, and had told my chief so (then the late E. R. Hallifax), I was delighted.\n\nIn those days one of the D.O.'s duties was to sit in his office as magistrate for the Southern District, excluding New Kowloon and the Lyemun area.† This court usually functioned from 9 to 10 a.m.\n\n* 1888-1968, Cadet Officer, Hong Kong Civil Service 1911-38. This article was written in response to my request to Mr. Schofield and others for memories of their service in the Southern District of the New Territories for which I was then (1958) District Officer - Hon. Editor.\n\n† Place names may be found in the official publication A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Government Printer 1960, since reissued).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208160, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe five graves may be summed up chronologically as follows:\n\n(1) TANG Hon-fat\n\n(2) TANG Kun\n\n(3) TANG Yuk\n\n(4) TANG Fu-hip\n\n(5) TANG Wai-kap\n\nHong Kong, Nov. 1976\n\n183\n\n(Yuk Nui Pai Tong) near Wang Chau.\n\nYuen Long.\n\n(Kam Chung Fook Fo) on a small hill\n\nbehind Pok Oi Hospital.\n\n(Pun Yuet Chiu Tam) Tsuen Wan on\n\nCastle Peak Road.\n\n(Sin Yan Tai Tso) near Wang Chau,\n\nYuen Long.\n\n(Wu Lei Kuo Shui) near Au Tau cross-\n\nroads.\n\nDAVID LIU\n\nACCOUNT OF THE VISIT\n\nOn Saturday, 11th December, 1976 some thirty members of the Society visited the five main graves of the Tang family of Kam Tin and other old established villages in the New Territories (see the programme notes above).\n\nWe first visited grave No. 3 in Tsuen Wan which is located on a small hill that was bought by the family in 1927 to protect the grave in the face of various encroachments. In addition to the grave, there exist two round granite pillars (similar to those at graves 1 and 4 but without their lion-dog tops). These are situated each at a distance of 132 feet and angles of 125 and 217 degrees from the centre of the grave, as measured standing at the main table with the compass pointing north.* Lower down, a little off the main road there is also part of an entrance, built of inscribed rectangular granite pillars, erected in the 4 year which the Tang elders say is, in this case, 1894.\n\nMr. Peplow was Land Bailiff, Southern District at the time the Tangs purchased the land in 1927, and his account,† quoting from a silk scroll given to him by one of the Tangs, is as follows:\n\n† S. H. Peplow Hong Kong About and Around (Hong Kong Commercial Press 1930) pp. 148-149.\n\n* I have since learned from the Tangs that the two pillars stood further to the front of the grave, nearer the former shore line, and that they were moved to their present location when the first Castle Peak motor road was constructed about 1917-1919.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208161, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "184\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\n\"The burial ground is situated near Chai Wan Kok, Tsun Wan. Some time ago, about ten years after the Territory was leased to Great Britain, some natives of Tsun Wan village applied to the H.K. Govt. for a piece of land near the grave to erect some houses, but the proposed area affected the Fung Shui of the said grave. The village Elders of the various branches of the Tang family assembled, and a joint petition was submitted to the District Officer in the names of the descendants. Thanks to this Official the proposed sale was withdrawn. It was afterwards put on record that the site of the grave was to be preserved for ever. Subsequently new roads were constructed by the P.W.D. and the line of one proposed road was across the grave site. The Elders of the Tang family, fearing that this might affect the \"force of the movement of the green dragon,” again assembled and petitioned H.E. the Governor, praying that the line be moved to the foreshore of the site. This was done. In the 6th moon of the 12th year of the Chinese Republic, (1923) a villager of Tsun Wan dug earth on the right side of the ancestral grave, that is, in Chai Wan Kok village, thereby affecting the \"force of the movement of the coming dragon.\" Another petition was sent to the District Officer, who inspected the grave personally. After that earth cutting was prohibited, and the ancestral grave preserved.\"\n\nWe then proceeded to Kam Tin itself where, in front of the Kam Tin Rural Committee Office, we were greeted by an impressive body of lineage elders, treated to a dim sum (*) repast and shown a number of interesting relics handed down through the centuries. These included a painting with imperial calligraphy stated to date from Sung times, and a number of other paintings.*\n\nOur next stop was at Au Tau cross roads to see grave No. 5, that of TANG Wai-kap, the husband of the Sung refugee princess referred to in the Notes.\n\nFrom Au Tau cross roads we went on to the Pok Oi Hospital near Yuen Long and walked into an area of low hills, across a stream, where we inspected grave No. 2. This is located in what is obviously considered to be a very favourable fung shui area because the adjoining ground is thickly covered with graves.\n\nAfter returning to Pok Oi Hospital, we went by bus to Wang Chau behind Yuen Long where we walked through the village and across the fields to the foothills of an adjacent hill area. We went first to grave No. 1 and from there along a winding path to grave No. 4 which is located some 500 yards to the south. Both graves are in excellent positions, and like No. 3 have granite pillars with lion\n\n* These have been reproduced at pp. 112-115 of the Inauguration Publication of the Tang Clansmen Association (Inc. 1965), in Chinese, of which there is a copy in the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208400, "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-1978", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "108\n\nFREDRIKKE S. SCOLLARD\n\nnative Ming dynasty while under barbarian Qing rule, close scrutiny reveals the presence of two men in European dress—a strange phenomena in a Song dynasty setting. According to the curator, this scene refers to an incident involving French aggression in the Fushan area. (Plate 19).\n\nA similar incident involving skirmishes between troops led by British Consul Harry Parkes and residents of Fushan led the Shiwan potters to create pottery urinals and pillows out of the likeness of Harry Parkes. Most of these were destroyed by British order, but in 1942 one was discovered and put on exhibition, attracting much attention.13 (Plate 20).\n\nWhile I was contemplating these earlier evidences of cross-cultural interaction in Shiwan, it seemed of great significance to the town members that I was the first foreigner to be driven around the entire town. This heightened my own sense of exploration. The town itself evidences stark contrast between modern construction and underdevelopment, panoramically revealed from the observation deck on top of the new five-story \"Pottery Capital Restaurant.\" To the northwest are seen a heavy concentration of pre-1949 red brick residential houses, some prominently displaying roofs with \"ears\" which used to indicate the residences of wealthier families. The background is dominated by shorter chimneys of the traditional \"dragon kilns\" (sloping tunnel kilns). To the southeast the contrast is striking, with new concrete residential buildings and factories under scaffolding, and the tall slender chimneys of modern continuous kilns crowding the sky. The people can clearly remember the layer of soot which previously covered the town and made houses difficult to clean, and appreciate the cleanliness of the new kilns. The town has had paved roads since 1958; to the northwest of the town a public park with an artificial lake is being built, and a new \"Pottery Capital Restaurant\" was opened in March of 1978 largely to meet the demands of increased numbers of tourists.\n\nInside the factories the differences in the rate of modernization are just as striking. While the daily utensil factories as a whole operate eight continuous kilns, Daily Utensil Factory No. III operates only four dragon kilns (one dating back to the Ming Dynasty became a protected monument in 1964). The Arts Factory, which hosts all the tourists visiting the town, includes two new and large modern buildings with a partially yellow-tiled roof. The Daily", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208431, "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-1978", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n139\n\nvenue. As with the ancestral halls, described above, the village temple usually owns some farm land which is rented out at a profit. Village markets, held in the temple courtyard, form a source of revenue, since all outsiders must rent stalls. Revenue comes into the temple also from small contributions of the superstitious folk, who visit it to seek some benefit from the presiding deity. Much of the village budget is made up, however, of self-imposed taxes (Hui Ch'ien), and voluntary contributions solicited from the wealthy members, usually for some specific civic betterment. In theory, under the Manchu dynasty, certain sums were supposed to be returned to the village from their general government taxes for the purposes of education, as set down in the Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien (...), but these seldom, if ever, did find their way back.\n\nAn annual festival in honor of the patron of the temple is the chief social event in most villages in China. The responsibility for the management of this normally falls upon the temple council. Theatricals, side shows, and feasting mark these occasions. The religious side of the carnival has largely disappeared; usually, it is merely a grand social period, a time of relaxation and merry-making for young and old. Interrupting the normally dull routine of village life, it is of some psychological importance as a social safety valve.\n\nThe duty of properly policing the village is also the charge of the temple council (when it is not handled by the Ti-pao). Every household is expected to supply a man for a certain number of nights a year, but more usually, a contribution of money is given to pay for the service by regularly employed individuals. Civic duties such as lighting dangerous corners and repairing walls, roads, canals, and boat landings, when these are ever done, are the responsibility of the village temple. The main task in this connection may be the solicitation of funds from door to door.\n\nSuch charitable duties as supplying free medicine, burial, food, and clothing, when not taken care of by the clan, are the concern of the temple council, as is the supplying of educational facilities when these are lacking.\n\nIn short, all financial and administrative matters which concern the village as a whole, rather than any individual group, are handled by the village temple. As Kulp reports for Phenix village, \"Gene-\n\n1 Ibid., p. 65.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208696, "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-1979", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "126\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nevery foreign enemy building, whether public or private property, and those which have escaped confiscation have not escaped the looting by Chinese. Curiously enough, there was an almost total absence of English signs on streets and over buildings and stores, the Japanese having taken all these down, and in many instances, replacing them with Japanese signs. In the lobbies of office buildings all the tenants' names were in Chinese or Japanese, and it was often very difficult to find one's own family doctor, unless one happened to be familiar with his Chinese name. It seemed that everything reminiscent of the hated foreigner had to be effaced. Placarded all around the town, too, were flaming posters depicting the New Order in the Far East, showing smoking chimneys of busy factories, smiling Chinese gathering grain in the fields, and other indications of what Japan expected to do for the downtrodden Chinese. At various conspicuous places were also huge maps showing the conquests in East Asia of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. The streets were fairly clean, though here and there might be seen some piles of rubbish, and I understand that in the beginning, the Japanese kept in office some of the officials of the Sanitary Squad, that is, British officials. Just to show the effect of Japanese progress, now some of the streets in the downtown sector were actually being washed daily!\n\nHowever, along the side streets, one could find more sordid scenes--emaciated and dying beggars lying on the pavement, and others looking pretty thin and hungry. Before we left Hong Kong, most of these beggars had disappeared and I suppose it is not hard to imagine what became of them, for the Japanese are not very often moved to pity. There are many tales of cruelty inflicted on the Chinese, and one significant fact is that the huge Prison at Stanley is practically empty. It is said that often offenders against the laws were thrown off the bund into the sea; others were tied up and left standing in the broiling sun until they died, and some of us have seen the police dogs which the Japanese have trained to hunt down Chinese who cut wood on the mountain sides. A friend of mine was an actual eye-witness of a Chinese woman whose flesh was literally torn by these dogs and who ran screaming down the mountain. These brushwood gatherers are often shot at, too.\n\nThe Japanese have retained both the Indian and the Chinese police and they patrol this city and the roads. The Indian police", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209080, "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-1980", "page_number": 242, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "210\n\nCAROLE MORGAN\n\nterms to define. It has three different meanings:\n\n1) It refers to the centre of a burial site, in other words, to the area enclosed by the two sides of the semi-circle.\n\n2) It is used for xue (which see).\n\n3) It may refer to the slope of the land.\n\nSince long has so many meanings it is usually qualified by another term; thus:\n\n#shanlong which refers to any knoll, hill or mountain on the site. It is itself qualified by the adjectives: huo ★, living; si ♯, dead; zhen, true; and jia, false; all of which refer to the nature of the shanlong.\n\n★ shuilong refers to any depression which occurs on the site. *sha refers to the topography of the land on either side of the long.\n\nSince these basic terms are often confused—the xue of one school being the long of another—the point to remember about them is that they all refer to the physical nature of a site.\n\nThe next series of terms refers to different areas of a site.\n\nA tai is the spot where the yangqi No 4, of the mountains comes into contact with the yinqi, of the plain.\n\ntang refers to the flat ground in front of the central long. Tang is subdivided into antang ★★ which indicates the centre, and mingtang ♬ † which describes the areas to the right and left of the antang.\n\nchao refers to the flat ground in front of the antang.\n\ndiwu is any feature visible from the long such as trees, rocks, walls, houses, roads, etc.\n\nWhen selecting a site water is also vitally important; literally so since the direction of its flow influences the number of sons born into a family. From a purely practical point of view, good drainage is essential to prevent water seeping into a grave and making the ancestors uncomfortable: were that to occur they would cease to promote the family's prosperity.\n\nOf the many water-related terms only four need to be listed here.\n\n** shuilu refers to the direction of the water's flow.\n\n★ zhengqiao wei is the name of the point where water enters a site.\n\nxiaoshui is flowing water.\n\nnashui refers to areas where water may accumulate.\n\n|\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209401, "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-1982", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "36 \n\nJ. H. HAAN \n\nThe assertion of selfgovernment \n\nIn some Western countries, especially Great Britain, the 19th century was the heyday of progress in parliamentary government. In Britain the 1832 Reform Act had substantially increased the number of voters, as well as redistributed them in favour of commerce and industry; the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act provided for the first time a uniform basis upon which local government was to be run, that is, through councils elected by ratepayers. By later acts (1865, 1884, 1918 and 1928) the parliamentary franchise was gradually widened, till the principle of taxation as a basis for voting rights disappeared. \n\nThe foreigners mainly British and Americans \n\n+ \n\n+ \n\n44 \n\n+ \n\n· \n\n- who came \n\nto Shanghai in the very early years were self-conscious of the fact that they ought to govern themselves, without in any way being subjected to a higher authority like their compatriots in Hong Kong. Although the 1845 Land Regulations provided for this self-government through article XII (about the building of roads and other public works: \"The Consul (i.e. the British consul — JH) will be requested by the various renters to urge the propriety of assembling together and publicly consulting about and contributing towards the necessary expenses incurred therein, .\") and through article XX (about taxation: \"the several contributors will request the Consul to appoint three upright merchants to deliberate upon and determine the amounts to be subscribed by them .\"), it was nevertheless thought advisable by some residents to express very clearly that local government rested upon a consensus of the foreign merchants themselves. The motive for these strong words was the fear of interference from Hong Kong with regard to the right to vote. At a Public Meeting of May 29, 1852, a resolution was moved which in its original form read: \"That this meeting consider the legal opinion of the Attorney General of Hong Kong respecting the qualifications of voters at this Meeting unnecessary, as the action of the body of landrenters is not governed by Law but by mutual agreement\", but after some discussion it was passed in the following form: \"That this meeting consider the action of the body of Landrenters with reference to Roads and Jetties is only governed by mutual agreement\",13", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209411, "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-1982", "page_number": 68, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "46\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\nlay in the Land Regulations. In those of 1845 article XX declared that \"the several contributors (of taxes, etc JH) will request the Consul to appoint three upright merchants to deliberate upon and determine the amount to be subscribed by them\". And the 1854 Land Regulations stipulated in article X “meeting of renters of land.. to appoint a committee of three or more persons to levy the said rates and dues ..\". \n\nWith 10 out of the 29 articles of the Land Regulations of 1869 referring to the Municipal Council, this set of Regulations were far more elaborate as to the election and functioning of the Municipal Council than their predecessors. This was mainly caused by the problems several councils had faced in the 1860s as a result of which it was decided to strengthen the powers of the executive. Article XIX laid down the qualifications for a Municipal Council member: \"And no one shall be qualified to be a member of the said Council unless he shall pay an annual assessment, exclusive of licenses, of fifty taels, or shall be a householder paying on an assessed rental of one thousand two hundred taels per annum\". \n\nFrom this it is clear that the qualification for membership of the Council was even more restrictive than that for voting (the threshold for Council membership as suggested by the Commission of 1865-66 was even higher at Taels 1800, but this was changed by the foreign ministers). This was in sharp contrast to the earlier constitutions by which it was theoretically, and even in practice, possible for non-landrenters to sit on the Municipal Council, whereas only landrenters had the vote, thereby indicating that, at that time, the qualification for membership of the Council was more liberal than that for the franchise. In the records of the Settlement's early history (until 1865) two cases have come to light in which a non-landrenter was elected as a member of the Municipal Council, but in both cases there was some opposition from part of the foreign community. \n\nAt the Public Meeting of June 14 1851 three gentlemen were proposed for membership of the executive then still called the Committee of Roads and Jetties, a name it kept until 1854 — William Seton Brown, Clement D. Nye and Edward Langley,37 viz:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209417, "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-1982", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "52\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\ncontest if the term may be used in connection with such tame tussles as the Shanghai Municipal Council elections\"45 and it was alleged that the \"small and select group which dominates the affairs of the Shanghai International Settlement always regards the situation as ideal when there are only nine nominees for the nine posts on the Municipal Council because that obviates the necessity for holding an election. A public election, even when all the nominees are highly respectable as Shanghai standards go, is generally regarded as undesirable for there is always the possibility of unexpected developments because of nationalistic rivalries which exist here in an exaggerated degree”46\n\nMunicipal Bureaucracy and Social Legislation\n\nAs has been made clear a certain ossification took place with regard to the political structure of the Settlement. It is interesting to consider whether this influenced the way the Settlement government coped with the increasing social and infrastructural problems which were inherent in a fast growing town which, moreover, was changing from a commercial into an industrial centre.\n\nThe attitude of the foreign rulers of the Settlement remained essentially one of non interference, though efforts were sometimes made to soften the most obvious hardships. But in general an early and mid nineteenth century individualist liberal ideology prevailed. This meant that the main tasks which were considered legitimate business for the Municipal Council were:\n\nthe upkeep of law and order through the police\n\nthe provision of public works like roads, drainage, parks, etc.\n\nthe taking of essential measures to prevent the outbreak of diseases, plagues, etc., in other words: public health.\n\nClosely related to these tasks was the rise of the several departments of the municipal administration.\n\nThe municipal police originated in the early 1850s and although it cannot be said that it functioned very satisfactorily in the beginning one superintendent was even dismissed in 1860 \"on charges indicating systematic fraud and extortion\"47", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209418, "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-1982", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "53 \n\nlater, conditions improved, though allegations of brutality and corruption were voiced from time to time.18 \n\nThe force consisted of Chinese, Sikhs and, especially in the higher echelons, foreigners. \n\nThe Public Works department equally had its origins in the very beginning of the Settlement when roads and drainage had to be built. At times there were many complaints about the state of the roads; thus one female reader of the North China Herald wondered whether it was \"in reason that we should have to walk all the days of our lives over sharp little cubes of broken brick?\"19 The department, however, faced a difficult task in the construction of roads on the marshy soil of Shanghai and the situation became only worse when traffic increased to such an extent that often a decision had to be made between demolishing whole rows of buildings, with all the attendant hardships for the occupiers, and letting congestion get out of hand. \n\nThe Public Health department was initiated as the Nuisance Department in 1861 because of the dangers to health caused by the throwing away of offal at all possible and impossible places with the result that one reader of the local paper returned from a walk in the Settlement \"sickened and disgusted”.50 \n\nBesides the official department there were numerous private or missionary hospitals receiving municipal financial subsides. \n\nThese tasks were the traditional tasks of a laissez-faire government and in general did not rouse much controversy, apart from complaints that services did not go far enough. It is noticeable that it was only these tasks which were enshrined in the Land Regulations as falling within the realm of municipal administration. \n\nQuite different problems were encountered when it came to coping with the results of industrialisation, especially the regulation of working hours and the abolition of child-labour. \n\nIn the west social legislation had increased in scope over the decades since the middle of the 19th century, but in Shanghai most efforts in this direction were doomed to failure. In the early 1920s several attempts were made to pass a bye-law which \n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209621, "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-1982", "page_number": 278, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "256\n\n. \n\n! examinations in China in 1905, brought about a new situation in which command over the classical learning was no longer the channel to position and wealth. The official report on the New Territories in 1912 contains the following remarks: Roads and railways have indeed been made through the centre of the Northern district and country folks who used to require a full day to reach Hong Kong can now go in and out and do their shopping in the day. More and more of the young men from the country have been tempted into Hong Kong or abroad in quest of higher wages, and many have returned with their savings to their native villages: money has been brought into the country to purchase land required for roads and railways.\n\nThe increase in wealth led to a rise in the cost of living. The same report gave a list of the average prices of staple food in 1900 and 1911, showing that rice had risen from $4 to $8 per picul and pork from $15 to $25. The average increase was almost doubled. The only cost which remained almost stable, at least at Sheung Shui, was the school fees, which were in 1912 from $3 to $6 per annum for each boy. Thus, as the report says, \"In spite of the rise of cost of living, there is practically no family which cannot obtain elementary education for the sons of the family.” Yet, the same also meant a very low income for the village teacher. According to the recollections of a village elder whose father gave up teaching in 1913, the general income of a teacher was from $4 to $6 a month, with small presents in kind on feast days. But the income might vary with the come and go of the students. Thus, the standard of living of a teacher became in fact poorer than it had been in former days. This made the teaching profession much less attractive in the short run, and in the long run led to a lowering of the prestige of the village scholars as well as to a drop in the practical value of learning.\n\nIn Sheung Shui, where the lineage had long been known for its deliberate efforts in promoting education, we have evidence which seems to show that there may have been a decline in village school attendance after the turn of the century. The observation is based partly on the oral testimony of ten informants who were born between 1893 and 1903, reaching their school age", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209724, "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-1982", "page_number": 381, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n359\n\nslight knowledge of China achievable in six months comes through in the rather patchy treatment it gives 7 pages on Canton, 1⁄2 page on Swatow, 5½ lines on Chiu Chow, 14 pages on places in the Pearl River Delta accessible from Canton, and 8½ lines on Shaoguan is its sum total on Kwangtung Province, and most of this 9 pages is thin and derivative. It would not be possible to visit any of these cities and gain much from the experience without taking along a second guidebook.\n\nThe book's main aim is to point out that, since the recent liberalisations, it is possible for the foreigner to travel in China by himself, and stay in the cheaper hotels, and thus see more of the real China. This is, of course, true as far as it goes. But little hint is given in the book of the very real problems that still exist—the absolutely essential need to be fluent in both Mandarin and the local dialect if one is to argue oneself into the cheapest hotels as suggested, the extreme difficulty in the way of long-range telephoning in most places, the bureaucratic problems involved if one gets stuck (e.g., by roads being washed out), the practical difficulties of reaching consular, legal, or financial help in a disaster in other than major cities when on one's own, the psychological difficulties involved in walking round a town surrounded by crowds of gawpers (still a problem in some places), and the lack of even the most basic of facilities (even backpackers are likely to be thrown by the squalor of many cheap Chinese hotels). Some things are treated in a way that seems less than completely frank: most restaurant food in China outside the main cities is of the poorest quality, buses (except the Shenzhen luxury coaches) often excruciatingly uncomfortable, and the fight for tickets less than entertaining.\n\nA more significant failing of this book is its lack of any attempt to explain the real China to the young and impoverished visitor it is aimed at. It is of little use showing such a one how physically to get to the genuinely non-tourist parts of a Chinese city if he is left totally at sea as to what is going on around him when he gets there, but little attempt to explain is made.\n\nAll in all, this book is of some value as giving the occasional practical hint to the would-be backpacker in China. But unless the backpacker has good basic knowledge of China, or is travelling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209775, "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-1983", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "REVD. CARL T. SMITH'S NOTES ON THE SO KON PO VALLEY AND VILLAGE\n\nSo Kon Po can be translated as \"the straw broom plain\", or possibly, \"the straw broom landing place\". The valley is a pocket with hills closing in at its seaward end. The hill to the north is the site of Tai Hang Village and Tiger Balm Garden. To the south-west is Jardine's Lookout, and to the south-east is Caroline Hill. There are two principal roads, both circular, the Eastern Hospital Road and the Caroline Hill Road. The original So Kon Po district extended to the north-west of the valley itself, that is, to the north-east side of the old East Point Hill, now the area of Hysan Avenue and Lee Gardens. In the present area of Jardine's Bazaar, Irving Street and Keswick Street there was probably a Chinese settlement at the time the British occupied Hong Kong. In 1842 the population of this village of So Kon Po was given as eighty. The valley drained into the sea near the present junctions of Yee Woh Street, Causeway Road and Tung Lo Wan Road. Tung Lo Wan was the name of the bay at the seaward end of the valley; the bay has now been reclaimed to form the Patterson Street and Victoria Park area.\n\nThe original cultivators of the valley seem to have been the Wong (#) family. A few people in the village were engaged in ship-building and fishing.\n\nCapt. Belcher, commander of H.M. survey ship \"Sulphur\", landed on Hong Kong island in January 1841. As the most suitable site for a settlement, he suggested a spot \"at nearly the east end of Hong Kong bay, in two small indents; one opening into the valley of Wongneichong and another to the north-east [the So Kon Po valley]. A small promontory [East Point] of about 220 yards in length and 120 in breadth, with a frontage on both sides, has a landing place for boats at the point at all times of the tide. Both of these small bays are dry at low water spring tides, and would be easily gained from the sea\". (Canton Register, 7 Dec. 1841)\n\nCaptain Belcher's suggestion was not followed, but Jardine, Matheson and Company considered the East Point promontory,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209867, "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-1983", "page_number": 126, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "104\n\nBefore moving on to discuss the larger islands to the south-east of Lantau, it is worth just mentioning the small islands off Lantau. There are small islands both to the north and the south of the main island.\n\nThe Islands north of Lantau are six in number.\n\nEast Brother, Reef Island and West Brother; fishermen sometimes live there.\n\nChek Lap Kok (\"Red Sea-perch Point\") is a barren island of low granite hills which lies in front of Tung Chung, sheltering its harbour. Big reefs of quartz run through it. Two formerly prosperous quarries on this island were ruined by the 1925 strike. Now there is only farming and fishing. Kwo Lo Wan is a ruined village on the southern isthmus: it is a common placename.\n\nShau Chau (\"Guard-station Isle\") 18; has three dumb-bell isthmuses, two covered at high water, and a third, on which there is a settlement of early man. There is a deserted temple here.\n\nTongkwu (“Brass Drum\") 19 has the chief early settlement of men in this area. The objects found show very little Chinese influence. Later settlements in Sung and Ming times were at the northern end of the beach. The island is used now for fishing and pasturing cattle, and there is a lighthouse. It is a very good example of a dumb-bell island - a sandy isthmus connecting two hills.\n\nUrmston Roads, as the waters between Tongkwu and the mainland are known, was a frequent anchorage for foreign fleets in the 1839 and 1857 wars, despite a strong tidal flow. It was used by a French squadron in 1857, and one ship left a record of her presence by inscribing a stone at Castle Peak with \"Nemesis 1857\".\n\nWe now pass south of Lantau. All this coast suffers from lack of harbours: only bays facing south-west are any good. There is always some swell; and it can be very violent sometimes.\n\nTaking the small islands to the south of Lantau, we have firstly the Soko Islands. There are eight islands in this group", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210082, "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-1984", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "32\n\nJULIAN PAS\n\ned as a particular method of prayer and if the right belief in God's guidance is maintained, we could have a new and popular way of Christian prayer, adjusted to the need of many Christians.\n\nOne final concern about the validity of I Ching and temple oracles has to be expressed: it is assumed and often clearly stated that the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching summarize and symbolize all human situations and contain advice for all possible conflicts. If that is correct, it also follows that the temple oracles do likewise. In other words, the value of all these oracles depends largely on their completeness with regard to human life. A city map which leaves out important roads or central buildings would not be very useful. So the question arises: do these oracles actually fulfill this condition? So far as I am aware, no one has ever checked and questioned the I Ching in this regard. But in the case of the temple oracles, it seems that in modern times which create new situations and therefore result in new decision making problems, the oracles may need to be complemented. One example will illustrate this: when a devotee questions the oracle about marriage, it refers to customs of traditional China, where matches were made by the families, not by the individuals concerned. This has now changed. Furthermore, the question about marriage, as expressed in the temple oracles, always assumes that a marriage has not yet taken place: the question is whether it will be advisable to proceed; whether it will work out all right. There is an implicit assumption that marriages will last. If a conflict arises 5 or 10 years later, and husband and wife doubt whether they should stay together or not, there is no answer to be found in the oracles. This is a case where the oracles need adjustment in order to keep serving a truly advisory purpose for the benefit of the believers today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210159, "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-1984", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "109\n\nscenery of the same area. He wrote,\n\n\"In general, the south side of Hong Kong Island is far more picturesque and less bleak than the north. The villages we saw, unlike the mat-huts in the harbour, are exceedingly neat in appearance with blue tiled and white walled houses.\"14\n\nNonetheless, there were attractive places on the north and east too. A description taken from the English language Canton Press of January 1842 mentions the view of the whole valley and village of Wong Nei Chung obtained from a gap cut in a hill following the line of one of the new roads, and how the branch road to the east\n\n\"takes one to the village of 'Soo Kon Poo', at present a sequestered, well wooded and very pretty part of the island\"+15\n\na character it has not entirely lost even today!”\n\nThomas Allom's celebrated View of China, for which the text was prepared from various works by Revd. G.N. Wright, also pays tribute to the natural beauties of the island:\n\n\"The maximum length of the isle is about eight miles, its breadth seldom exceeding five; its mountains of trap-rock are conical, precipitous, and sterile in aspect, but the valleys that intervene are sheltered and fertile, and the genial climate that prevails gives luxuriance and productiveness to every spot, which, by its natural position, is susceptible of agricultural improvement.\"\n\nAnd in another place:\n\n\"Few areas so limited include so many scenes of sylvan beauty as the sunny island of Hong Kong. The country immediately behind Queen-town (sic) is peculiarly rich in romantic little glens, or in level tracts, adorned with masses of rock, in the fissures of which the noblest forest-trees have found sufficient soil for their support. These wood-crowned crags rise abruptly from wide-spread rice-grounds that closely encircle them; so", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210172, "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-1984", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "122\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nclaims, besides being initially ignorant of their position, were as sceptical and cautious as can be expected. Ultimately, however, they were quite prepared to find precedents for a solution after confirming the situation, leisurely, and to their own satisfaction.\n\nThe exchange began with a petition dated 8th day of the 4th lunar month of Tao Kuang 21st year (28 May 1841) to the magistrate of Hsin-an district:\n\n\"We inherited from our forefathers the taxable lands in the following places [named severally]. There are official registration records in respect of our ownership of the aforesaid lands which are collectively known as Kwan Tai Lo (#) of Hong Kong Island (). These areas have previously been leased to farmers Pang Shun-yau () and Chow Ah-yau (A) for cultivation. The situation had always been peaceful and quiet until they came to us and complained of forcible occupation of the lands around Kwan Tai Lo area by English barbarians () whose ships were anchored in the neighbouring bay. These barbarians destroyed their crops to make way for roads and built huts on the unploughed fields. Knowing the fierce and violent nature of these barbarians, our tenant-farmers dared not negotiate with them.\n\nWe depend on the rents collected to pay our tax and support our families. Now that we have been robbed of our vital resources, where are we to turn to for our livelihood? Faced with such stringent circumstances, we feel obliged to bring the case to your attention. Should we be exempted from the payment of land tax for the ravaged areas or are we to join forces to expel the barbarians? We should be most grateful if you would give us advice on this urgent matter at your earliest convenience.\"54\n\nOfficial instructions, presumably to a subordinate, were given as follows:\n\n\"With reference to the case of the Tangs, please furnish us with a full account of the individual areas, the amounts of tax payable and the names of the registered owners of the forcibly", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210258, "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-1984", "page_number": 229, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "208\n\nJ.H. HAAN\n\nThese were the following:\n\nI.\n\nII.\n\nA Committee (the Defence Committee) \"to consider any propositions laid before them for the defence, draining, lighting and general improvement of the Settlement\", appointed on January 3, 1862.\n\nA Committee (the Assessment Committee) \"to assess the value of foreign property in concert with the Municipal Council\", appointed September 8, 1862.\n\nIII. A subcommittee of members from the Defence Committee and the Assessment Committee \"to consider the modifications (of the Land Regulations which had been proposed by the foreign consuls — JH) and to report upon them to the community\", appointed September 8, 1862.\n\nIV. A Committee \"to confer with the Treaty Consuls, and recast the Land Regulations in some such form as may meet the support of the foreign and Chinese authorities\", appointed March 31, 1863.\n\nV.\n\nThe \"Hongque Provisional Committee of Roads and Sanitary matters\", appointed May 29, 1863 (Hongque, or Hongkew, was what was briefly called the American Settlement until it was merged with the British Settlement in 1863).\n\nVI. The \"Hongque Provisional Committee of Ways and Means\", appointed May 29, 1863.\n\nVII. The \"Hongque Committee of Assessment\", appointed September 21, 1863.\n\nVIII. A Committee to study the possibilities of a Charter of Incorporation; appointed June 29, 1864.\n\nIX. A Committee \"to consider the method of government best adapted to the requirements of the community and that the interests of all classes be taken into consideration\", appointed...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210268, "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-1984", "page_number": 239, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "218\n\nShanghai in late 1843.\n\nJ.H. HAAN\n\nApart from general missionary duties he was mainly active as a printer and in this capacity he issued numerous tracts in several Oriental languages.\n\nUp to 1854 he was a vocal critic of the Committee of Roads and Jetties (the forerunner of the Municipal Council), especially with respect to the taxes it levied. A number of times he refused to pay them, among other reasons because he thought not enough was done to lay out a proper road to the L.M.S. compound. Trustee of the Shantung Road Cemetery. Portrait.1 Author of many works in English, Chinese and Malay.\n\n146\n\n144\n\n143\n\nMedhurst Road was named after him and his son, W.H. Medhurst Jr., British Consul.\n\nMICHIE, Alexander 1862-1863\n\nBorn 1833, died 1901.147\n\nArrived in Shanghai about 1854 in the employment of Lindsay & Co.;148 partner from January 1, 1861;149 later partner in Chapman, King & Co.;11 was also employed by Jardine, Matheson & Co.151 1886-1891 publisher and editor of the Chinese Times in Tien-tsin.152\n\n150\n\nVice-president of the NCBRAS 1870,153 Member Committee III. 1873.154\n\nAuthor among other works of a biography of Rutherford Alcock.155\n\nMONCREIFF, Thomas 1849-1850\n\nArrival in Shanghai 1846;156 partner in Rathbones, Worthington & Co., from June 1, 1853 Moncreiff, Grove & Co.158\n\nTrustee British Episcopal Church 1856 and subsequent years. Vice-president Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society 1857.159 Member Committee IV.\n\nDied in 1863(?).160\n\nNYE, Clement Drew 1851-1852, 1855-1856, 1865-1866\n\nBorn 1821, died 1867.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210379, "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-1984", "page_number": 350, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "329\n\nstudent who can find a generous sponsor for complementary studies of those rural areas which lie outside Dr. Hayes's purview: the other Peng Chau (in Mirs Bay or Dapeng-wan), Tap Mun, Sha Tau Kok, Tai Po, Yuen Long and their hinterlands. Even within Hong Kong's 400 square miles can be seen the kind of variations which Ouyang Hsiu described (in his preface to the Hsin Wu-tai Shih) as: it is a strength of Chinese society that such healthy variability can exist. Time is short, because when I was last there in 1982, the opening up of roads had already begun to erode village life, as it did in Tsuen Wan, Lantao and New Kowloon,\n\n+\n\n-\n\nDr. Hayes is a true Cadet, in the tradition of Cecil Clementi, Walter Schofield, Stephen Balfour and John Barrow, and his work puts even them in the shade. But oh! oh! that romanization! He says disarmingly in the Foreword \"I confess that romanization has been a problem.\" No shame in that: Chinese — whichever you wish of the 3,000 languages, all known as Chinese — does not lend itself to phonetic writing, and the Cadmean alphabet, while no doubt adequate for the Western Semitic language for which it was devised, was not really suited to Latin and is hopeless for English (though it does not do too badly for Finnish and Welsh) — how much less for Chinese? But of all the inadequate answers to this problem, why choose the obsolete Wade-Giles without its vital apostrophes and tone-numerals, too for what Western academics obstinately call “Mandarin”; and Meyer-Wempe for Cantonese? The latter, with omitted or misprinted diacritical marks, of which I found many (and have sent Dr. Hayes a list) is gibberish. Besides, being based on West River dialects, which differ considerably from the Upper Punyu which, after the eclipse of Sai Kwan wa from 1905 onward, became the standard speech of Canton, Hong Kong and overseas Cantonese (except those from the 5 districts known as Sze Yap), Meyer & Wempe's handy little dictionary has serious shortcomings. What a pity an updated Eitel never appeared!\n\nNothing will ever persuade me that Cantonese, Hakka and Hokkien place names should be written in letters indicating a pronunciation which no local would understand. (I suppose it must be a matter of politics, with which no scholar should soil his hands). Just you try getting a boat to “Shayuyung”! (The place is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210384, "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-1984", "page_number": 355, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "334\n\nwhich were divided into cultivation rights, surface rights, and sub-soil rights. Knapp's article on Taoyuan is followed by Cho-yun Hsu's description of settlement in the Yilan (I-lan) plain where such tenancy practices were not found. Hsu's main argument is that it was \"entrepreneurial leadership that guided pioneering activities and affected subsequent development\" (pp. 85-86) on the Yilan plain in contrast to \"foreign initiatives, military colonization, and patent-derived efforts” common in other areas of Taiwan.\n\nWen-hsiung Hsu's second essay concentrates on discovering the role voluntary organizations played in instigating social disorder during the Qing (Ch'ing) period in Taiwan (1683–1895). The author divides the Han-Chinese settlers of Taiwan into three large groups: Zhangzhou (Chang-Chou) people, Quanzhou (Ch'uan-chou) people, and the Hakka. Uprisings usually only received support from the group to which the leader belonged whereas the other two groups would oppose the uprising out of hatred of the third group rather than out of love for the Qing. Hsu concludes that the voluntary organizations, often based on the above-mentioned groupings, increased the frequency and raised the scale of social disorder prior to the mid-nineteenth century but their proliferation after that date facilitated social integration (p. 105). Why the three groups began to cooperate with each other at that time is not explained which leaves the topic somewhat unfinished.\n\nThe final chapter in Part One is a brief discussion by Chiao-min Hsieh of names given to places in Taiwan by the island's various ruling groups.\n\nPart Two, \"Urbanization and Economic Integration,\" begins with a chapter written by Tao-chang Chiang on the walled cities and towns in Taiwan. The discussion deals both with the form of individual walled towns and their distribution throughout the island. Chiang briefly describes how the walls often limited urban growth and how they affected the street patterns when growth beyond the walls did occur since main roads all began at the gates. The Japanese removed many of the walls and in their place built broad encircling boulevards.\n\nNext Donald R. DeGlopper traces the development and decline of the port of Lugang (Lu-kang) on Taiwan's west coast and the trading \"systems\" or hinterlands", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210385, "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-1984", "page_number": 356, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "335\n\nwhich it served. Some reasons for Lugang's decline include the silting of the port's shallow harbour, integration of its hinterland into the island-wide economy — largely accomplished by the construction of the west coast railroad, and the limitation of the Fujian (Fukien) trade after the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in 1895. Deglopper concludes that the decline of Lugang after the mid-nineteenth century is not an isolated phenomenon but must be understood through the port's relationship to the rest of Taiwan and to Fujian. This is a good descriptive presentation of Lugang.\n\nChapter 9 by Yi-rong Ann Hsu, Clifton W. Pannell, and James O. Wheeler applies statistical methods to analyze the development of Taiwan's transportation network both in terms of network connectivity and connectivity of urban centres from 1600 and 1972. The analysis clearly portrays the development of the road and rail systems after 1893. The concluding comments stress the parallel relationship between transport development and economic growth. Another chapter by Ronald Knapp delves into the particulars of a rarer mode of transportation, the push car railway or daisha as it is known in Japanese. The daisha played a significant role in integrating Taiwan's agriculture into the rest of the Japanese empire by providing transport between farms and railway stations. Knapp discusses the relationship of this mode to the development of railroads and roads, again stressing the Taoyuan plain as a case study.\n\nIn the final chapter, Jack F. Williams discusses the importance of the sugar industry in Taiwan's development from the Dutch period down to 1975 with some predictions about the future. Williams points out the significant transformation in this industry when the Japanese took over the island in 1895. The Nationalist Chinese Taiwan Sugar Corporation is seen as a slightly less exploitative continuation of the Japanese system. Despite the declining role sugar plays in Taiwan's economy, when one considers the company's importance in the lives of the thousands of cane growers and workers and the indirect employment generated in other related industries, the Taiwan Sugar Corporation emerges as the single most important government-owned corporation on the island even today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210591, "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-1985", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "179\n\nnot to assist again in their medicine mixtures, especially if any of the ingredients are alive or have any signs of being.\n\nMiss Amy wrote me that you had had a little daughter. That is three little girls now isn't it? How I would like to see them. Little Chinese children are nice but they can't be hugged nor kissed. In the first place it would be too much of an amazement to them, and in the next some are too dirty.\n\nPlease give my love to Florence when you see her and remember me kindly to your mother. Please pray for my work, it is not easy and the Native Christians need the prayers of all God's children. I do too for I have no power of my own. It is only as He works.\n\nWith much love\n\nEDITH\n\n(4)\n\nTaiho, January 4, 1905\n\nDear Louise:\n\nThe photographs came a little time before Christmas and I do thank you for them. They are little darlings and I just wish I could hug them. I have the two pictures standing on my table and it's a real pleasure to look at them. I can see a bit of you in Janet, but not in Helen. I still have a vision of you as a Syrian woman, do you remember that evening in the Baptist Church? Herbert Cushing thought it was the prettiest picture he had ever seen. You I mean. Have you ever heard anything more of Herbert? I must inquire, for after his wife's death they said he had consumption too.\n\nIt is warmer these few days, we have been having some real cold weather but only one snow so far. Snow is to be dreaded in China for there are no pavements to walk on so the roads get in a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210683, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "17\n\nJOHN JOSEPH FRANCIS, CITIZEN OF HONG KONG, A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nV.H.G. Jarret writing about Francis in the South China Morning Post in the 1930s commented \"It seems strange that so well known a man should not be commemorated in any way”. When one considers the number of streets and roads in Hong Kong named after less prominent Government officials and businessmen the force of that comment will, it is hoped, be appreciated by the end of this essay.\n\nFrancis was born in Dublin in 1839, the eldest son of William Francis Aylward, an Inspector of Irish National Schools, and\n\nMr. Walter Greenwood J.P., M.A. (Cantab.), Barrister of Gray's Inn and the North Eastern Circuit, a Permanent Magistrate in Hong Kong\n\nAUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:\n\nThis essay was hurriedly researched and written in snatched hours and does not claim to be comprehensive, much less to do justice to Francis. I hope it may lead to interest in his life and career and I should be grateful if anyone who finds new information about him would send it to me at 26, Great Bounds Drive, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4OTR. It is based mainly on skimming through newspapers and dipping into the standard histories of Hong Kong. I have also received generous help from many quarters. First I should like to acknowledge my gratitude to the staff of the Hong Kong Public Records Office for their ever friendly and willing help; my thanks go also to the staff of the Supreme Court Registry and University Library, the Secretaries of the Bar Association, the Law Society, the Jockey Club and the Volunteers, Mrs. Lisa Chee, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Po Leung Kuk, Fathers Naylor, Pagani and Pittavino (for searching church records), Mr. Michael Clancy (for information about “Stonyhurst”), Mr. Carl Smith (for information about Francis' marriages) and Mr. Colin West (for arranging the cleaning of Francis' tombstone) in Hong Kong; the Parish Priest of All Saints Church, Borella, Colombo; Father Turner of Stonyhurst College; the staff of the Public Records Office, Genealogical Office and Public Registry in Dublin; Mr. Julian Walton of Dublin and Waterford (for supplying me with material about the Aylward family which he also presented to Dr. Ken Smith of South Africa for use in his biography of Alfred Aylward); the Editor of the Irish Ancestor, the staff of the Public Record Office, Royal Artillery Institution, University and Crown Agents in London; Mrs. Theresa Thom, Librarian of Gray's Inn; Mr. Leo D'Almada Q.C. in Portugal; Dr. Walter Mautsch in Germany; Mr. Nigel Osner in London; Pamela and Eric Russ in Bournemouth; my wife (for her patience whilst I practised my drafts on her); and Mrs. Mary Whitticase for her great kindness in typing my manuscript.\n\nCopyright Walter Greenwood 1986.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210715, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "49\n\n1916, he was responsible for road works in New Kowloon and the New Territories, extending the network of metalled roads in the Territory. By this time he was on a salary of £630 per year with a conveyance of £360 per year (presumably to cover the costs of running a car).\n\nJackman married Dorothy Smith in the Peak Chapel on 26 August 1910. Dorothy Smith had come to Hong Kong around the beginning of the century with her brother, Crowther Smith, who had a legal practice in Queen's Road Central together with F. X. d'Almada e Castro. Also in Hong Kong at the time was Dorothy Smith's uncle, Horace Percy Smith, a well-known accountant and eminent Freemason. Immediately after the wedding, the couple went off for their honeymoon in Macao with a very rowdy send-off at the Macao Ferry Pier. So many firecrackers with red confetti were set off at the pier that one paper reported that the couple were mistaken by passers-by for the Governor of Macao, and many people joined the crowd to see what was going on. After their honeymoon, Jackman and his wife lived in Des Voeux Villas on the Peak. They had no children.\n\nH. T. Jackman was the father of urban planning in Kowloon and New Kowloon. In the early part of the century, development in the territory of Hong Kong had mainly been restricted to the island, while Kowloon had provided bases for the Army as well as major wharfage areas. The construction of the Kowloon Canton Railway greatly increased the development value of Kowloon and the population there started to grow rapidly. The land necessary for the Railway station, shunting yards and workshops was reclaimed from the sea to the east of the Tsim Sha Tsui peninsula (the hongs having taken up much of the available land to build godowns in anticipation of the opening of the railway). Writing in 1908, H. A. Cartwright, felt that “it requires no great prophetic instinct to predict that in time, the whole of Hung Hom Bay will be reclaimed.”\n\nFrom 1919, Jackman was closely involved in Kowloon town planning. Many of the old villages in the area succumbed to development clearance: Kau Lung Tsai and Kowloon Tong villages gave way to town house developments which are still there today.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210719, "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": 70, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "Date\n\nEvents\n\n1916\n\nAdditional duties\n\n9 May to 30 Sept.\n\n1917\n\n1918\n\nAbsences Salary\n\n£630.0.0\n\n£60.0.0\n\n53\n\n(duty)\n\n$360\n\n(conv. allce)\n\n£630.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n\n2 months £630.0.0\n\nand\n\n$1,020\n\n29 days\n\n(rental allowance).\n\n1919\n\nIn charge of maintenance of roads 1 Jan. 1919- 31 Dec. 1919\n\n£630.0.0 $180 (c.a.)\n\n1920\n\n1921\n\nIn charge of maintenance of roads until 15 Mar. 1920 Acted 2nd Asst. DPW from 14 Apr. 1920-31 Dec. 1920\n\nADPW (Kln & NT), 1 Jun.\n\n£850.0.0 £120.0.0 (b.p.) $360 (c.a.) $1,356 (rent)\n\nHalf-pay\n\n£1,000.0.0\n\nleave\n\n$360 (c.a.)\n\nfrom\n\n15 Aug.\n\nActing DPW (adm. con.) Half-pay\n\n1922\n\nfrom 27 Nov.\n\n1923\n\nto 16 Dec.\n\nActed DPW from 15 May to 29 Aug. Exco, LegCo and Vice-President of the Sanitary Board.\n\n£1,030.0.0\n\nleave to\n\n$360 (c.a.)\n\n16 Jan.\n\n£1,060.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n\nHowever, to follow the exact instructions given and to format the text in a more structured and readable way using Markdown (though the final output is requested in HTML, the initial processing can be understood better in Markdown), here is the reformatted text:\n\n# Date | Events\n## 1916 | Additional duties 9 May to 30 Sept.\n## 1917 |\n## 1918 |\n## Absences | Salary\n£630.0.0 | £60.0.0\n53 | (duty)\n$360 | (conv. allce)\n£630.0.0 $360 (c.a.) |\n2 months £630.0.0 and $1,020\n29 days | (rental allowance).\n## 1919 | In charge of maintenance of roads 1 Jan. 1919- 31 Dec. 1919\n£630.0.0 $180 (c.a.) |\n## 1920 |\n## 1921 | In charge of maintenance of roads until 15 Mar. 1920 Acted 2nd Asst. DPW from 14 Apr. 1920-31 Dec. 1920\nADPW (Kln & NT), 1 Jun.\n£850.0.0 £120.0.0 (b.p.) $360 (c.a.) $1,356 (rent)\nHalf-pay | £1,000.0.0 leave $360 (c.a.) from 15 Aug. Acting DPW (adm. con.) Half-pay\n## 1922 | from 27 Nov.\n## 1923 | to 16 Dec. Acted DPW from 15 May to 29 Aug. Exco, LegCo and Vice-President of the Sanitary Board.\n£1,030.0.0 | leave to $360 (c.a.)\n16 Jan. | £1,060.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n\nAnd the HTML output as per the instructions:\n\nDate | Events\n\n1916 | Additional duties 9 May to 30 Sept.\n\n1917 |\n\n1918 |\n\nAbsences | Salary\n\n£630.0.0 | £60.0.0\n\n53 | (duty)\n\n$360 | (conv. allce)\n\n£630.0.0 $360 (c.a.) |\n\n2 months £630.0.0 and $1,020\n\n29 days | (rental allowance).\n\n1919 | In charge of maintenance of roads 1 Jan. 1919- 31 Dec. 1919\n\n£630.0.0 $180 (c.a.) |\n\n1920 |\n\n1921 | In charge of maintenance of roads until 15 Mar. 1920 Acted 2nd Asst. DPW from 14 Apr. 1920-31 Dec. 1920\n\nADPW (Kln & NT), 1 Jun.\n\n£850.0.0 £120.0.0 (b.p.) $360 (c.a.) $1,356 (rent)\n\nHalf-pay | £1,000.0.0 leave $360 (c.a.) from 15 Aug. Acting DPW (adm. con.) Half-pay\n\n1922 | from 27 Nov.\n\n1923 | to 16 Dec. Acted DPW from 15 May to 29 Aug. Exco, LegCo and Vice-President of the Sanitary Board.\n\n£1,030.0.0 | leave to $360 (c.a.)\n\n16 Jan. | £1,060.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n\nUpon closer inspection, it appears the text is best represented as a table. Here is the corrected HTML representation:\n\n \n Date\n Events\n \n \n 1916\n Additional duties 9 May to 30 Sept.\n \n \n 1917\n \n \n \n 1918\n \n \n \n Absences\n Salary\n \n \n £630.0.0\n £60.0.0\n \n \n 53 (duty)\n $360 (conv. allce)\n \n \n £630.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n \n \n \n 2 months £630.0.0 and $1,020\n 29 days (rental allowance).\n \n \n 1919\n In charge of maintenance of roads 1 Jan. 1919- 31 Dec. 1919 £630.0.0 $180 (c.a.)\n \n \n 1920\n \n \n \n 1921\n In charge of maintenance of roads until 15 Mar. 1920 Acted 2nd Asst. DPW from 14 Apr. 1920-31 Dec. 1920\nADPW (Kln & NT), 1 Jun.\n£850.0.0 £120.0.0 (b.p.) $360 (c.a.) $1,356 (rent)\n \n \n Half-pay\n £1,000.0.0 leave $360 (c.a.) from 15 Aug. Acting DPW (adm. con.) Half-pay\n \n \n 1922\n from 27 Nov.\n \n \n 1923\n to 16 Dec. Acted DPW from 15 May to 29 Aug. Exco, LegCo and Vice-President of the Sanitary Board.\n£1,030.0.0 leave to $360 (c.a.)\n16 Jan. £1,060.0.0 $360 (c.a.)\n \n\nHowever, to strictly follow the given output format which requires the use of `` for paragraphs, the initial HTML representation is more appropriate. The table representation, while more structured, does not adhere to the specified output format. Thus, the initial HTML output is maintained.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210728, "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": 79, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "62\n\nD.A. GRIFFITHS AND S.P. LAU\n\nThe site referred to is the area of rising ground to the south of the site occupied by the present Government House and on a site formerly occupied by the Record Office on \"Government Hill\" which had served as a temporary Government House from 1841 to 1842.\n\nOn Oct 7th in 1861 Mr. Th. Donaldson was appointed Curator of the Public Gardens and the gardens were thrown open to the public under certain regulations on August 6th 1864. In October of that year the military band began giving promenade concerts in the gardens at stated intervals. The establishment of the public gardens had obviously done much to instill among the European community a sense of both pride and achievement and this sense of well-being was reflected in the wide-scale level of planting in the colony and confirmed by Eitel (1895) who stated that:\n\n\"The increased attention, given to the cultivation of trees along the public roads and around European dwellings on the hill side, had already done very much to displace the pristine barrenness of the site on which the city was built by patches of shrubbery.\"\n\nIn the copious correspondence between Hongkong and London, the gardens were referred to either as a Botanical Garden (as when the Surveyor General ordered seeds for it from a Mr. Veitch of Chelsea in 1861) or as a Public Garden and was under the auspices of the Surveyor General and a Garden Committee.\n\nIn 1871 Charles Ford was appointed as the first Superintendent of Gardens and in his first letter back to Dr. Hooker of Kew after his arrival, he reported:\n\n\"The Public Gardens are in a very fair order and well stocked with plants as regards quantity, but we require greater variety.\n\n\"Very few of the plants are labelled and I believe, no catalogue of them has been drawn up. We have not any Orchids nor Ferns except those indigenous to the Island. The plants which have been introduced are chief-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210731, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "65\n\nBourne Royal Botanical Gardens. The Casuarinas grow moderately well on this island and are not much damaged by strong winds, which is the most important quality requisite for trees to possess in this part of the world where typhoons are so prevalent and the exposure is so great.\n\nThe problem of typhoon damage to the Botanic Gardens was stressed again by Ford in 1874 when he wrote to Dr. Hooker at Kew:\n\n\"I am afraid we should never be able to make an effective combination and groups of shrubs etc. to form a really attractive garden or landscape scenery on account of the typhoons which break and destroy subjects in such a frightful way as to entirely nullify our efforts in that direction, breaking up the picture, which we try to produce, into fragments only.\"\n\nIn 1876, in his second report to Kew, Mr. Ford outlined how the planting programme had been extended:\n\n\"The cultivation of trees has been extended in a new direction, the rearing and planting of Pinus sinensis on the hills. Before this was done, trees were only planted along the streets and roads for shade; but now we annually plant many thousands on hills above and surrounding the town. This tree is the one which has been found, by experience, to thrive the best of all yet tried on exposed situations; in fact, but few or none of these attempted (and experiments with other species have been made every year) will thrive at all on the higher grounds. Exposure and the hardness of soil prevent trees growing. All the trees experimented with on hills thrive well in made and sheltered ground in the gardens.\"\n\nIn an appendix to the 1876 report, note is made of the introduction of a new species of tree from Australia and the growth characteristics of a common southern Chinese species which was used widely.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210737, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "71\n\n\"But I have learnt to be perfectly indifferent to the opinions in these matters of our officials. I should of course immediately prefer to have their cordiality, but if this cannot be without sacrificing the true interests of the department then I elect to go with the department and stand firmly by its scientific work.\"\n\nIn 1891 the New Building, being the accommodation for the herbarium, library, offices and store-rooms as well as the residence for the Superintendent of Gardens was completed and occupied.\n\nAfter years of effort both by Ford, his assistant and numerous workers, and despite the severe frosts of 1893 which severely affected many trees, the Botanic Gardens were at their best but in 1894 tragedy struck and Ford records this sombre statement on the effect of typhoons twenty years after he first wrote to Hooker at Kew on the identical subject.\n\n\"Immunity from destructive storms for many years past had allowed the general effect of the Gardens to reach a state of great beauty, which however, the last [October] storm wrecked in a cruel manner, and it will be many years, under the most favourable circumstances, before the Gardens can recover the beauty which was so greatly marred.\n\n“Our gardens were terribly wrecked in 1874 and now they are again [20 years later] reduced to a scene of desolation. All our large trees have been either totally destroyed or reduced to little more than stumps or bare poles.\n\n\"Outside the gardens, trees on the hills have come through pretty well, but the shade trees in the streets and roads have been terribly mutilated. Most of the roads and streets were blocked with fallen trees and broken limbs.\"\n\nAfter a long and distinguished career as Government botanist, as well carrying out the role of superintendent of the Botanic Gar-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210768, "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": 119, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "102\n\nTHE MINORITIES OF SOUTHERN CHINA: A GENERAL OVERVIEW\n\nNICHOLAS TAPP\n\nIntroduction\n\nIn the minority areas of Yunnan, as in much of the rest of the country, there are still small boys spreadeagled on the backs of oxen, little girls perched in apple trees munching apples, old women trudging home across the mountains bearing giant piles of firewood on their backs, and men riding slowly to market in dilapidated pony traps. Since Liberation, however, remarkable changes have taken place both in the relationships between different ethnic groups and in their own internal composition. Due to the kindness of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Kunming, Yunnan, which I attended as a Visiting Scholar in 1986, and through the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who invited me to participate in fieldwork in the Liannan Yao Autonomous County in Northwestern Guangdong during June 1986, and together with an earlier field trip in the summer of 1985, I have been able to visit various ethnic minority areas, interview villagers and collect data on different aspects of their social and economic conditions and religious beliefs. In addition to this I have met and held discussions with many specialists and experts on the minorities in the fields of ethnography, linguistics and history. The following is, therefore, a brief record of these investigations, with some attempt to arrive at a general overall perspective on the changing conditions of these areas since 1949.\n\nMost of the minority villages visited lack proper roads and the water-supply is poor, although they have electricity, if only for a few variable hours per day. Housing structure, while exhibiting strong regional and cultural variations, has been particularly influenced by Han village architecture, and demonstrates wide disparities of wealth. Generally outer walls are of adobe. In poorer areas timber and bamboo are still used, and in better-off areas granite or\n\nDr. Nicholas Tapp is Lecturer in Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210785, "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": 136, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "119\n\nTo suppress these frequent insurrections, enormous expenditure was required to maintain the garrisons of the walled cities and to import, when necessary, troop reinforcements. The three major uprisings in 1501, 1541 and 1550, for example, required more than ten thousand troops apiece and hundreds of thousands of taels to restore order (Henry, 1886). This significant drain on treasury coffers caused Hai Jui,1 the great native statesman of Hainan, to present his “Crossroads proposal\" to the Ming Government. He suggested that by building two roads (one extending north-south, the other east-west) to intersect in the centre of the Li strongholds, the whole island could be brought under immediate control and at the same time trade with the interior could be enhanced. Unfortunately, in spite of Hai Jui's reputation as a source of sound advice, the plan was not taken seriously, with the result that the interior of Hainan remained a terra incognita until the early part of this century. As late as 1882, when B.C. Henry, the missionary-botanist, penetrated the interior of Hainan, the only road of note was that between Nan Fung and Ka Lit, a distance of about 100 km. Goods such as hides, rattan and fragrant wood, bartered from the Li in the mountains were transported by ox-cart over this rough track to Ka Lit and thence to Hai Kou by boat along the Nan Du River. Travel along this road without a strong escort was foolhardy as bandits constantly patrolled the road preying on unprotected travellers. It was not until after Liberation in 1952 that a road was built through the mountainous centre of the island (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963).\n\nWhile local rebellion undoubtedly disrupted trade, it was the burden of taxes and piracy which choked commerce in Hainan. The effect of taxes imposed by the powerful Chinese administrators is well illustrated in the salt-industry. Like most coastal towns elsewhere in China, salt extraction from the sea became a thriving industry in Hainan's coastal cities. However, it was not long before salt-makers were compelled to turn over most of their produce in taxes to corrupt local officials who hoarded it and then forbade producers, under threat of heavy penalty, to sell it elsewhere. This monopolistic practice resulted in the collapse of the industry, though doubtless it enriched the few officials who traded their spoils with the Li for the prized incense timbers of the interior (Schafer, 1969).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210795, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "129\n\nproclaimed in October, 1948, it was almost a year later that units of the People's Liberation Army from the Leichow Peninsula joined the 10,000 Communist guerillas already on Hainan in routing the KMT forces and liberating the \"Shore of Pearls\" (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963).\n\nDue to twenty-seven years of civil unrest and Japanese occupation, the island was in a terrible mess: there was no industry to speak of because post-war forays between the KMT and Communist guerillas destroyed many of the enterprises established by the Japanese. Communication and transport networks were in tatters with highways and ports in a state of dilapidation, while the railway link between Ba Suo and the southern port of Yulin was completely destroyed.\n\nThe situation on Hainan improved somewhat after Liberation. Like the mainland, mass land reclamation campaigns were the hallmark of the post-1949 regime in Hainan. Teams of land reclamation specialists dispatched to Hainan developed 120 state farms and 308 communes with the help of the local people and the 100,000 Chinese who returned from overseas to build the “New China”. Over a thirty year period, investment by the Central Government in agriculture and industry totalled 4.33 billion yuan (US$ 2 billion) for which the island has returned an abundance of iron ore, timber, salt, pepper, rubber and coffee (Wu and Zhi, 1981). Some 14,000 km of roads were built to link all but one remote commune (Chin, 1962), and the surviving sections of the Japanese railway grid were converted to standard gauge in the late 1950's (Anon., 1982a).\n\nOf the agricultural activities commenced, rice growing was emphasised in the hope that self-sufficiency in grain production could be quickly attained. By 1958, a total area of 190,000 ha was under paddy (Iskoldsky, 1958) which increased to 157,000 ha of early rice and 225,000 ha of late rice by 1965 (Kirk, 1965). The remainder of Hainan's arable land was used for production of sugar, rubber, coconut, sisal hemp, cotton, palm oil, jute and tropical fruit. Rubber trees occupied the largest area of cultivated land after rice with the estimated tree population of 4 million present in 1965 doubling since 1954 (Kirk, 1965). The new gov-\n\n--- ---", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210797, "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": 148, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "131\n\npeople applied themselves enthusiastically to the task, insufficient capital, the rigid application of ultra-Left policies such as the lop-sided emphasis on developing grain production which did not best utilize Hainan's tropical conditions, and poor technical support are all blamed for the slow progress in Hainan. During the Cultural Revolution in particular, the establishment of new plantations was discontinued, while large areas of mature coconut, rubber and coffee trees were felled to release land for grain production. Forests did not escape indiscriminate clearing: when liberated, there were 863,000 ha of tropical forest on Hainan, but by 1979 only 245,000 ha remained (Smil, 1983). Besides roads, one of the few benefits remaining from the ten turbulent years are the reservoirs and canal networks constructed to provide water for irrigation and generation of electricity.\n\nSome of these problems were caused by inadequate communication between the central government and the grass-roots level, while others are a direct result of ignorance of the biological potential of the tropical environment. The latter was undoubtedly aggravated by debasement of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. Further, following the withdrawal of Soviet experts and technical aid to China in 1960, the fostering by Mao of an isolationist policy from both Eastern and Western blocs meant that technical and economic development had to rely exclusively on Chinese talents and expertise. Given the dearth of experience with tropical agriculture amongst the Hainanese, overseas Chinese who had worked on plantations in Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand, but returned to Hainan in the 1950's and 60's, brought a great number of skills with them and deserve credit for much of the achievement made in planting tropical crops. Returning farmers brought with them seeds of crops never before grown in Hainan, and after some nursery testing, pepper, oil palm, new coconut varieties and traditional medicines were sown commercially, initially on overseas Chinese state farms.\n\nThe \"open door\" policy\n\nWith the ousting of the \"Gang of Four\", a resolution on Hainan's development was passed by the State Council in 1980 which placed primary stress on tropical agriculture and associated", "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": 211062, "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": 123, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "98\n\nNOTES\n\nResearch for this paper was carried out in Hong Kong in the Spring of 1984. We would like to thank John Dolfin, Director of the Universities Service Centre, for the use of that invaluable facility during our research, and John Ashton of Memorial University for some helpful suggestions. Parts of the paper were included in a presentation at a colloquium of the Sociology Department, Hong Kong University, May, 1984.\n\n1 \"Wong Tai Sin\" is the most common transliteration in Hong Kong of the god's name. The pinyin transliteration is Huang Daxian. Here, the common Hong Kong transliterations are used, except for place-names in China such as Guangzhou (Canton), Guangdong (Kwangtung), and Chejiang.\n\n2 The cases to be described are here termed motifs in the sense used by Allen and Montell (1981:38-9), who note that \"the characteristic feature of these migratory narrative elements is their transferability among stories about different events or persons.\"\n\n3 This is the only Wong Tai Sin temple known to most believers in Hong Kong, and the prominence of the god in Hong Kong has occurred entirely as a result of the success, for various historical reasons, of this one temple. There is also a private Wong Tai Sin temple in Kowloon, as well as a small private shrine in Macau, but they have had no influence on the popularity of the god.\n\nbut\n\nSome temples in Guangzhou were indeed destroyed early in this century by Nationalists rather than by the elements (see for instance Rhoads, 1975:255). Perhaps our informant's account of the destruction of the temple was a tradition dating back to these events.\n\n5 The fact that the icon of the god brought to Hong Kong from Guangdong is a picture rather than a statue suggests, as we argue in another paper (Lang and Ragvald, 1988), that the god was worshipped in Guangdong as the patron god of a family herbal medicine business (see Day, 1969, on these \"paper gods\" and their role in family worship).\n\nThe organization which manages the temple, the Sik Sik Yuen, has published the official history of the temple in commemorative brochures, especially: Sik Sik Yuen, 1971; 1981; 1982,\n\n7 Ogura (1980) argues that the drifted deity tradition evolved from an earlier tradition of belief in periodic visits by gods from their abodes beyond the sea. There is no such tradition in the Hong Kong area.\n\n1 The temple's version of the Taoist hermit's life on earth before he became a god is in the form of a short autobiography, supposedly dictated by the god to a Taoist. It appears on a plaque in the temple, and also in brochures published by the Sik Sik Yuen. It has been discovered by Dr. Shiu-hon Wong of Hong Kong University that this account follows closely a capsule biography of the hermit written in the 4th century A.D. as part of the collection \"Biographies of Immortals\", by Ge Hong. This literary version holds that the Taoist hermit Wong, while herding sheep in Chejiang province, discovered a method of achieving immortality. He also manifested his power by turning a hillside of boulders into sheep. These two achievements figure prominently in the temple's \"autobiography\" of the god.\n\nThe story of a saint whose body remains uncorrupted and even sweet-smelling long after burial is a common motif in Christian legends. Loomis (1948:54) cites about two hundred instances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211064, "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": 125, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "100\n\nRhoads, Edward J. M.\n\n1975 China's Republican Revolution: The Case of Kwangtung, 1885-1913. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.\n\nSavidge, Joyce\n\n1977 This is Hong Kong: Temples. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government.\n\nSik Sik Yuen\n\n1971 The Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of Wong Tai Sin New Temple, 7 October. Hong Kong: Sik Sik Yuen.\n\n1981 Inauguration Ceremony, Fung Ming Lau and Nine Dragon Wall, 26 November, Hong Kong: Sik Sik Yuen.\n\n1982 The Opening Ceremony of Temple Library, Confucian Hall, and Yee Mut Hall, 9 September. Hong Kong: Sik Sik Yuen.\n\nTopley, Marjorie, and James Hayes\n\n1966 \"Notes on Temples and Shrines of Tai Ping Shan Street Area\". In Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today, pp. 123-139. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.\n\nWong, Shiu-hon\n\n1979 \"The Cult of Chang San-feng”. Journal of Oriental Studies 17:10-53.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211153, "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": 214, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "189\n\nspeedily attracted a considerable boat population and the profits accruing from the supply of provisions and necessaries at once raised many from poverty and infamy to considerable wealth. The shelter and protection afforded by the presence of the fleet soon made our shores the resort of outlaws, opium smugglers, and indeed of all persons, who having rendered themselves obnoxious to the Chinese laws, had the means of escaping hither.\n\nIt was not to be expected that Hongkong would attract at that time the best elements of the Chinese people. Hongkong was occupied by the British at a time it was at war with China.\n\nThe Chinese, who flocked to Hongkong to take advantage of opportunities to trade, sell produce, construct roads, level sites, erect buildings or find employment in foreign residences and business firms, were regarded as collaborators and traitors by Chinese with a national pride.\n\nThe majority were people who had no established place within the approved Chinese social system. Many were boat people who were traditionally regarded as an inferior class.\n\nOthers were those who could find no employment in their native place. Still others were renegades escaping from Chinese justice.\n\nThere were, of course, also the honest shopkeeper, tradesman and labourer, but the community was dominated by the less respectable class.\n\nThe chief personage in the Chinese community during the years immediately after the British occupation of the island was a man known familiarly as A-king, or more formally as Loo King. He came into possession of a substantial section of the Chinese part of town known as the Lower Bazaar (Sheung Wan).\n\nAlong with other business interests, he operated a gambling establishment, a theatre and brothels. Beside the wharf adjoining his main business premises he had erected a small temple.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211365, "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-1988", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "57\n\nto the building sites, often staggering up the hillsides of the island under the weight of burdens which are far too heavy for their physical strength\". The editor tried to prick the consciences of his fellow countrymen. \"We are all apt, when pointing out the development and growth of Hong Kong to strangers, to indulge in petty platitudes concerning the evidence of British perseverance and skill to be found in the magnificent roads and the imposing houses on the higher levels. But do we ever stop to think that our Peak residences and the roads leading to them have been largely built by the sweated labour of women and children? It is a fact, none the less.\n\nWhat was needed, the editor wrote, was legislation that would deal with the whole problem. He was convinced that even worse conditions existed in some of the factories where children were employed, and he warned that eventually the colony was going to have to face the problem of compulsory, free education for all.\n\nThe editorial put the problem within the context of the \"white man's burden” and Imperial ideas. It reminded readers that only when the problem of child labour and universal education were seriously faced would expatriate residents \"be able to talk with more pride and justification both of Hong Kong's place in the Empire and of the object lesson which it provides China in the civilising influence of British ideals\".\n\nQuestion by Dr. Ozorio in Sanitary Board\n\n——\n\nMay 1920\n\nAt a meeting of the Sanitary Board in May 1920, Dr. F. Ozorio asked if the Government contemplated the creation of the post of Factory Inspector, and, if so, would the post be open to women.\n\nIn reply the Chairman stated that if by Factory Inspector he meant an inspector whose duties were to ensure the sanitary maintenance of factories, all inspectors of the Sanitary Department were already doing so. There was no plan to change them for women, but if vacancies occurred the matter would be kept in mind. If, however, Dr. Ozorio had meant Factory Inspector with duties as set forth in the British Factory Acts, the Chairman had been authorised to state that the question of the industrial employment of children was under the consideration of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211417, "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-1988", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "109\n\nfollowing summer, on 25 July 1896, he wrote that he was working in Chicago because he now had to support not only himself but also a wife. On 23 April 1897, he announced that he had graduated the day before, and he felt it was a great honour. He liked medicine and hoped to pursue post-graduate studies in New York. Instead we find him practising in San Francisco by 24 December 1897, but because he was not doing well, he thought he might leave for Hawaii or Shanghai after the Chinese New Year.\n\nUncle decided to go to Shanghai and on the way there he stopped in Honolulu to visit with the family. He wrote on 15 June 1898 from China that he had been thinking of Father and Ping Lim ever since he left them. He enjoyed Shanghai, which he described as a beautiful and luxurious city where inhabitants were either very rich or very poor. He was paying 25 dollars a month for a pleasant office on the corner of Ningpo and Szechuan Roads, with living quarters in the back for himself, Aunt and their two servants. Although his income of 60 dollars a month was quite adequate, he wished that he had taken up dentistry as it would have brought an income of 1,000 dollars a month, or mining which was then gaining importance in official circles. He advised his two brothers to consider these professions even though job opportunities might be limited, or they would have to serve under someone. In response, Father indicated he would like to take up one of the careers suggested and asked for financial help, but Uncle wrote back on 29 August 1898 that although his practice was improving, he could not save anything; nor could he assist Father at that time, but perhaps he could the following year. After a few slow months, Uncle decided to teach an evening class to meet expenses, and by March 1899, he had six students paying him each two dollars a month. Two months later, he had 18 students in three classes.\n\nIn July 1899, Uncle noted that Father was not going to school but was working as a newspaper reporter and commended him on choosing a good subject to deliver at his graduation exercises. Uncle found the winters in Shanghai very cold and the summers very hot. There were many deaths from the extreme heat and the plague, which was raging in Hong Kong, Canton and Heong Shan. Uncle still wanted to go back to America as he felt there was no place like 'Blessed America'. In December he wrote that he was grieved over the news of the death of their mother (Grandfather's second wife), and that he would wear", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211468, "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-1988", "page_number": 184, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "160\n\nBy the time Helen was learning to crawl, Father had a two-bedroom house built with the help of his cousin, Chan Ngit Chiu, and a few of his carpenter friends. They ended up stealing some of the lumber and leaving part of the house interior unpainted. This was something Father should have foreseen, since Ngit Chiu was an opium addict. It did not bother us much for we were utterly happy to be in a new home of our own. This was a two-bedroom house located on Board Road, which ran off Buckle Lane, an area where many upward mobile Chinese had relocated after the Chinatown fire, such families as the Wei's, Lee Lit's, Yee Mun Wai's, Lam Toy's, Lam Quan's, Yee Yap's, C. K. Ai's, to name a few. The narrow roads were of dirt and gravel and I often nursed a scraped and bleeding knee when I fell while running home on the slight incline.\n\nA right-of-way in front of our house led to the home of a Chung family and to a newly-built home of Chun Sun Kee adjoining our lot. Across the way was a very large L-shaped property owned by David Notley, an Hawaiian-Caucasian politician. There were many people and much activity in his spacious home and we enjoyed the sounds of merry-making and sweet music when he had a luau or a political rally. Across from us on Broad Road there was another large piece of property extending the whole length of the road, with the house facing Buckle Lane. Mr. Dutro, the owner, a gruff and fat Portuguese, would descend upon us growling if he caught us trying to \"steal\" any of his mangoes hanging so temptingly over the fence. I have never seen so many species of mangoes as he had. We were always on the alert for any that would drop onto the road.\n\nNext to the Dutro's on Buckle Lane was a stable occupied by a Mr. Silva, who had a draying business and with whose daughter I had a few casual contacts. I can recall the sight of horses and the smell of hay and manure in his yard. The Ai's lived next to the Silva's until they moved to their beautiful home on Beretania Street in 1915. The Lam Toy's, who had lived across from the Dutro's, sold their home and bought the Ai property in order to better accommodate their large family and visiting relatives.\n\nAs there were very few Christians in the neighbourhood, Father introduced Mother to the Ai's whom he had met at church. Gradually Mother began to meet neighbours who were also converts to the Christian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211612, "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-1989", "page_number": 27, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "2\n\nfor 1959 and 1972 when he was on leave). After the Kwong Chow was demolished, these events were held in the Ying King Restaurant, in Wanchai. Many architects, engineers, surveyors, Public Works Department staff, and contractors attended these functions. Speeches were made, and all present, at a given moment, paid their respects by bowing three times to a portrait of Lu Pan.\n\nBut a builder's life is not all brandy and shark's fin soup. Steep, rugged, rocky Hong Kong is not ideal terrain for many projects. In the early days of the Colony, when roads and reservoirs were built (the first reservoir, at Pok Fu Lam, was completed in 1864), there was little in the way of mechanical equipment. It was not until 1962 that the first crane was used to construct a building, the Hilton Hotel (originally named the American Hotel).\n\nEven today, for structures up to 150 metres high, the ubiquitous bamboo, which typifies an exemplary man's life in that it grows tall, straight, and yet is flexible and versatile, with rings marking important achievements in a person's career — is still used for scaffolding. It bends rather than breaks and is about one-third the price of steel. Bamboo is, or has been, also used for making (among other things) chipboard, woven bed mats, furniture, water pipes, fishing rods, summonses for secret-society meetings, and Chinese medicine. In addition, bamboo shoots provide a tasty dish.\n\n10\n\nAlthough some old building techniques, like bamboo scaffolding, are still in use, many have long since disappeared, along with the ancient structures built using them.” A few of the latter are, however, still left.\" These include \"walled\" villages, such as Kat Hing Wai at Kam Tin, and the 600-year-old, three-storey Tsui Shing Lau at Ping Shan in the New Territories. This was built in a geomantically favourable location to placate the God of Literature and originally had seven floors. But the upper part was damaged in typhoons. This Man Pat (its local name) Pagoda was built to improve the performance of the Tang clan of Ping Shan in the imperial examinations. Academic results indicate the edifice proved effective.\n\nIn the urban area, Victoria Prison, off Arbuthnot Road in Central, which was completed in 1843, is said to be the oldest jail still in use for that purpose in the Commonwealth. Hangings used to take place there (the last in Hong Kong was at Stanley Prison on November 6, 1966),", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211676, "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-1989", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "66\n\nAnother time the alarm went, due to a slight misunderstanding at one of the gates. It was approaching dusk and the sailor sentry, who had no doubt been standing guard at this particular gate at the back of the Concession for some time, was beginning to get bored. The gates, of wood, with a small window through which persons on the far side could be inspected, were open. Outside stood a row of hawker's stands, for the most part purveying cooked foods to the coolies who passed in and out. The stand nearest to the sentry held a large copper pan, of the sort in which rice is cooked, over a small fire. At the moment the pan was empty, and the sentry, being of an enquiring mind, wondered what would happen if he put a rifle cartridge in it. The experiment produced a loud bang and several holes through the bottom of the pan. An infuriated hawker, supported by increasing numbers of excited fellow tradesmen, shouted curses at the sentry and loudly demanded large sums of money in compensation for the damage done. At the sound of the explosion the naval guard in a near-by house turned out. The petty officer in charge was a great barrel of a man, an old tarpaulin of long service in many parts of the world where opportunities for cultivation of that diplomatic tact, in which the Royal Navy is so accomplished, must have been numerous. In less time than it takes to tell he had the situation well in hand, had paid one dollar compensation for the damage done, had closed the gates, and had nipped an incipient riot in the bud. It was considered unwise to allow a \"matelot\" of such an enquiring mind ashore again, and for the remainder of that destroyer's stay at Kiu Kiang he was confined to his ship.\n\nLate on an afternoon early in January, 1927, as the river water swirled past the hulks under the hard light of the wintry sun, a strange tall man walked down the Bund, accompanied by a number of Chinese dressed in civilian clothes. He wore the collarless buttoned-up jacket, the knee-high black leather boots, and the little leather-peaked brown cap, of one of Borodin's officers. His companions were members of the Revolutionary Kuo Min Tang party. They moved along looking at the houses, at the cross-roads, and at the foreshore, talking and gesticulating. Outside the Consulate they paused to read the pink posters and the green posters. They were planning the organisation of riots, the object of which would be to draw fire from the British sailors guarding the gates. The bodies of a few dead Chinese rioters, shot by the blackguard Imperialists, would provide excellent fuel to inflame still further the feelings of an excited populace; and would at the same time give ammunition for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211681, "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-1989", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "71\n\nof the boatswain's whistle the Union Jack was hauled down, while the sailors presented arms and the civilians stood to attention: then we all stooped to collect our chattels, and the party in single file, laden as if returning from an especially successful jumble sale, passed over the Bund under cover of an additional guard detailed from the hulk. A surprised and now silent crowd of Chinese looked on with enquiring eyes at the strange procession, as it moved up the gangway, round the hulk, and on to H.M.S. \"Wyvern\", which had been brought alongside.\n\nWhile this withdrawal took place at Butterfield's hulk, a similar retreat was in progress from the other point of concentration further up the Bund, across Jardine's hulk, to H.M. gunboat \"Scarab”. The small group of American residents in Kiu Kiang had withdrawn to their own ship several days before.\n\nThe two warships cast off and anchored in mid-stream. The evacuees numbered three dozen males of several nationalities and various walks in life. With proverbial hospitality the Navy set about finding berths for them all; I was lucky to be detailed to one of several houseboats which had made fast alongside,\n\nThese motor-houseboats were designed for travel along the creeks and canals that formed an extensive inland water system throughout the Yangtze valley. Business men were thus able to visit in comfort the numerous cities of central China, to discuss affairs with their Chinese agents and dealers, check stocks, arrange remittances of funds through the native banks, and survey the market. The convenience was great in a country entirely devoid of motor roads. The boats were also ideal for week-end shooting trips. In season, the countryside teemed with game: snipe, woodcock, every species of duck and teal, geese and bustard; hare, hog-deer, quail, bamboo-partridge the best eating-bird of the lot and the king of them all the magnificent Chinese pheasant.\n\n―\n\nJ\n\nM.H.B. \"Hsun Si\" was a typical craft of her kind. She was fifty feet long and drew four feet of water. Right forward over the companion-way stood the small wheelhouse, where the \"laodah\"* sat to steer. Down\n\n* \"Laodah\". Name by which chief member of the Chinese crew was called. Translated literally it meant \"old great one” — generally old in skulduggery and great in prevarication. As a class, delightful. They would blandly fleece the unwary on coal, firewood, kerosene, cleaning materials, and market purchases; and more especially on mops, which would wear out at a phenomenal rate. But the real \"clean-up\" would occur during the annual overhaul, which often led to a change, but not for the better, of laodahs.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211741, "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-1989", "page_number": 156, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "N\n\n+\n\nSham Tsun\n\nLUK VEUK\n\nCHEUNG SHAN KWU TSZ\n\nPing Yeung\n\nKeng Shan\n\n[Ping Che\n\nCHEUNG\n\nCHEUNG SHAN KWU TSZ\n\nLeng Tsai\n\nKan Fou\n\nHung Leng\n\nSZE YEUK\n\nROADS\n\nTEMPLE\n\nTai Po\n\nMOUNTAINS\n\nRIVER\n\nVILLAGES\n\nTon Chuk Hang\n\nShan Tong\n\nÊ tại Trung Hu\n\nLeng Pe\n\nJ\n\nLOCATION\n\nSHAP\n\n'Man UK\n\nLại Tưng\n\nES\n\n¿Son Uk Tsai\n\nSon Wal\n\nHawai Tau Legg\n\nYEUK BOUNDARY\n\nTung Shih Hạ\n\nLAND SUPPORTING CHEUNG SHAN KWUTSZ\n\n/Hek You\n\nMETHE O\n\nSpe\n\nTheo meng\n\nL\n\nTai Po\n\nKAT TSAI\n\nAU\n\n131", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211748, "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-1989", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "138\n\nthe \"major lineages\". If, as seems likely, the foundation of the nunnery represented, at least in part, a political move to strengthen the villages near the pass against the \"major lineages\", then it was the first step in what was to become open inter-village warfare two or three generations later.\n\nThe Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz and the Ta Kwu Ling Luk Yeuk\n\nIn the nineteenth century, local politics in the New Territories area were marked by the struggle for local political dominance between the rich and ancient “major lineages\", and the mutual defence inter-village alliances, or Yeuk, which set out to combat the \"major alliances\" by uniting the strength of villages too weak to oppose them on their own. The struggle for dominance was centred on control of the markets, and of the vital roads which linked them.\n\n24\n\nWithin the eastern New Territories the villagers of the area around Sha Tau Kok formed a network of Yeuk alliances which was responsible for the foundation of the market at Sha Tau Kok about 1825, and which controlled all the roads in the area immediately around the market. The villagers formed ten inter-village Yeuk alliances, and this Yeuk network was called the Shap Yeuk (+*, \"Alliance of Ten'') in consequence. The Shap Yeuk owned the market at Sha Tau Kok communally, and their interest in keeping open all the roads which served the market, but especially their vital road to Sham Tsun, is obvious. The Shap Yeuk was united enough, and strong enough, that it was able to ensure that the \"major lineages” had no significant influence within the Sha Tau Kok area, but it was never strong enough to control the whole of the road to Sham Tsun.\n\nTo the south, the area around the ancient market town of Tai Po had been dominated by the Tang lineage of Tai Po Tau since the Ming dynasty. The Tangs not only controlled the market, but also owned the extremely important ferry over the Kwun Yam river in the town, over which all traffic from Kowloon to the north had to pass. This control by a \"major lineage” was very irksome to the other villages of the area, who had been trying to seize control of the area since early in the nineteenth century.\n\nThe foundation of the New Market (Tai Wo Shi, ) at Tai Po, which was to have no Tang involvement, and the building of a new bridge", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211749, "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-1989", "page_number": 164, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "139 \n\n26 \n\n+ \n\nto replace the Tang's ferry (1892-1896), by a new grouping of inter-village Yeuk mutual defence alliances, the Tsat Yeuk (±§, “Alliance of Seven''), must be seen in this context.\" After the foundation of the New Market at Tai Po, the influence of the \"major lineages\" in this area was sharply curtailed. \n\nThus, of the major nodal points of the area, two, Sha Tau Kok and Tai Po, became politically dominated by alliances of minor lineages during the nineteenth century. The importance of the roads through Ta Kwu Ling has been discussed above, and the political significance of the inter-village grouping centred on the Miu Keng pass has been noted. The foundation of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz represents a successful attempt to ensure that external “major lineages\" could not control the road through the mountains. But, for the Ta Kwu Ling villagers, this route, while important, was not as vital as the crossing of the Sham Tsun river and the route to Sham Tsun, \n\nSham Tsun was too big for any “major lineage” ever to dominate it entirely for long; it was usually an “open market” at least in practice. However, the roads to the town could be controlled. The two main routes through Ta Kwu Ling met at Kan Tau Wai. North-west of Kan Tau Wai is an area of marshland, criss-crossed with drainage channels. To the north of that runs the Law Fong river, which drains the entire Ta Kwu Ling area, and cuts through the mountains which ring the area by a gorge about half a mile north-west of Kan Tau Wai. The Law Fong river joins the other main branch of the Sham Tsun river immediately after passing through the gorge. The crossings of the river were by ferries owned by the Cheung clan of Wong Pui Ling. The ownership of the ferries allowed the Cheungs to control all the roads out of Sham Tsun to the east. \n\nIt is probable that the market at Sham Tsun was founded quite late. The 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer (Ch. 3) records a number of markets in the Sham Tsun basin, including Sham Tsun, although only Sham Tsun survived to be recorded in the 1822 Gazetteer. One of the markets which died was at Kim Ho (金河), between the two river crossings. This market must have been owned by the Cheungs. As the Cheung market declined, and the importance of Sham Tsun and its approach roads increased, so the value of the ferries to the Cheungs grew, \n\nPassage over the ferries cost one cash per person, plus one additional cash for any goods carried. It is unlikely that the clan earned", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211750, "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-1989", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "Heung Tung Z 140 Sham\n\nTA KWU LING LUK YEUK\n\nWong Pur Lirg Sai Ling Ho 1500 River Ho Temple 1 km Chau Tin aw Au Ha Lin Tong Wangi\n\nTsung Yuen Lin Ma Hang huk) Ha Hey Yuanit Та Куни Ling *Kan Teu wai Fung 'Tai Po Tin Shan Kai Wet Ha Shan „Kai Wat Shan Ping Cheung Shant Ping Yuen Temple (Ping Che Hills (uncultivated in 1929\n\nBoundaries of Yeuk Villages Temples (The present border runs along the Sham Tsun and Law Fong Rivers\n\nBridges. Passes Roads in 1898\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211751, "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-1989", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "141\n\nless than $400 a year clear from the ferry.\" The power of the Cheungs can be seen from the map. For several miles around their village, no other settlement was ever established. The whole area from the outskirts of Sham Tsun (the village of Heung Tung, ô, Xiangdong) to the Sham Tsun river, and back to the mountains, was Cheung territory. Outsiders entering this territory along the road were required to recognize this.\n\nThis, however, the Ta Kwu Ling villagers refused to do. In the mid-nineteenth century, they initiated a programme to improve the road from Kan Tau Wai to Sham Tsun. Bridges were built across all the marshland ditches, and a causeway was provided across the marsh. They then proceeded to start bridging the main river, across the line of the Cheungs' ferry. This the Cheungs could not accept. They would not only stand to lose $400 a year clan income, but the successful building would demonstrate publicly that their control of their territory was not as absolute as they had always maintained. The result of the Ta Kwu Ling people's insistence on proceeding with the bridge was outright war between them and the Cheungs.28\n\nThe need to respond to very bitter fighting demanded a complete rearrangement of the local structure of inter-village alliances. Previously, as noted above, the strongest and best-organised area was the Ping Yuen Hap Heung, and its wider alliance centred on the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz. This area, however, was furthest away from the likely fighting area near the bridge, which was precisely the area where inter-village alliances had previously been weakest. The villages decided to establish a network of Yeuk, centred on Kan Tau Wai. Any invading force had to negotiate the bridge over the Law Fong river and the causeway over the marshes before it could arrive at the road intersection at Kan Tau Wai and the paths that ran from there along the higher ground to the other villages.\n\nJust north of Kan Tau Wai, a small hillock rises out of the marshes (just opposite the present Ta Kwu Ling Police Station). Here the villagers stationed a watch with an alarm drum to alert the area if the Cheungs attacked. This hill was called Ta Kwu Ling (‡T, “Drum Beat Hill”), and gave its name to the whole area. When the alarm was given, Kan Tau Wai had to send out runners along all the roads and paths out of the village to alert the other villages further away. The individual Yeuk were arranged as long, thin strips along each of these paths so that the villagers would respond, village by village, as the runner reached them, and thus their defenders reach the critical Kan Tau Wai area in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211754, "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-1989", "page_number": 169, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "144\n\nThe Shing Ping She was thus required to maintain the Kim Ho Temple, and at least the Heroes Shrine part of the Ping Yuen Temple, and had to meet the costs of the rituals it conducted there. It also had to maintain the bridges and roads, and to meet the costs of the patrols it sponsored. However, it had no land at the time of the Block Crown Lease (1905). Apart from the temple itself, the Ping Yuen Hap Heung owned no land at that date either. Similarly, none of the individual villages of the area owned any significant amounts of communal land. The Shing Ping She did, however, have enough income to buy a good deal of land within the New Territories later — five and a half acres was bought, together with a house, between 1911 and 1920, at a cost of $1,272.50 for just over three of the five and a half acres. Villagers believe the She also bought land at Wang Kong Ha during this period.\n\n18\n\nThe She seems to have imposed a grain tax on all householders and cow owners within the patrol district. At least in the 1930s, as the elders recall, some of this grain was passed to the nuns at the Kim Ho temple and the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz for their sustenance, but most was sold.\n\nThe villagers claim that the Shing Ping She also bought from the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz all the nunnery's lands within Ping Che and Ping Yeung, at a date somewhen in the 1920s, but without changing the registration of the land in the Land Registry. This is possibly why the She's programme of land purchase in its own name comes to an abrupt end in 1920.\n\nThis claim may well hide a more complex situation. As mentioned above, neither the Shing Ping She nor the Ping Yuen Hap Heung held any communal land in 1905, although they had significant communal commitments: Loi Tung, equally, seems to have had no communal land to provide income for the needs of the Loi Tung Yeuk. At the same time, the nunnery land does not seem to have been used to meet nunnery needs. After the fire, the abbess repaired the roof by seeking donations, not by selling or mortgaging part of the land, and this was clearly the position also at the time of the 1868 rebuilding, since the inscription in the temple records the donors. In the 1930s, the nuns' rice came from donations from the Shing Ping She, not from rent. It seems very likely that the Ping Yuen Hap Heung and Loi Tung people had placed their communal lands under the name and protection of the Buddha. This is not uncommon in the area; such an arrangement made it more difficult for managers to embezzle the land entrusted to them, and protected it from external...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211759, "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-1989", "page_number": 174, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "149\n\nThe villages or lineages which owned the nunneries chose the nuns, and reserved the right to dismiss them if they brought the nunnery into disrepute. It was the practice, when an abbess was appointed, for the leaders of the village group owning the nunnery to issue a public document detailing their choice, and reserving their future rights, to ensure that no dispute over who was the abbess could arise. The document issued in 1931 when Yip Yuet-kwan was appointed abbess at the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz survives, and is printed and translated as an Appendix to this article. It was, as a \"lucky\" document, written on red paper. It was drawn up in Man Uk Pin, and has the Man Uk Pin Chung clan signatures, and the Loi Tung signatures, added in the handwriting of the writer of the deed: it was then clearly taken round the other villages with interests in the nunnery for the other signatures to be added. The deed includes three signatures of Wo Hang villagers. That village had no share in the nunnery: these signatures probably represent a continuing interest in the nunnery by the last surviving students of Lee Pui-yuen.\n\nThis short note does no more than touch on the subject of the place of Buddhism in the nineteenth century New Territories. Much remains quite unclear. Where were the nuns ordained, for instance, and by whom? What was their tradition of worship, and how was it maintained? Did monks visit the nunneries on a regular or intermittent basis or not at all? Did the nuns have any direct secular influence, or was it only the members of the nunnery management committee who exercised the political influence of the nunnery? What was the religious influence of the nuns and their beliefs in the area? Village elders tend to consider that it was confined to those who professed a pious regard for the Buddha, but is this so?\n\nMany questions of this sort need study, but, incomplete as it is, this study of the last remaining pre-modern Buddhist establishment in the mainland New Territories, in this its last year of presiding in quiet over its remote mountain pass before new roads shatter its primeval peace, seemed worth pursuing.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211762, "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-1989", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "152\n\nMun, founded by Pooi To. This is, however, perhaps unlikely. The note of 1089 on the history of Pooi To and his monastery (Hsin An County Gazetteers, loc.cit.) is sufficiently comprehensive that it is unlikely that it would have failed to notice if Pooi To had founded two monasteries in the immediate vicinity of Tuen Mun, but it refers to only one, and clearly identifies Pooi To's Kwangtung area of interest with this one monastery. I am indebted to the students of Ng Yuk Secondary School who presented a study of the Ling To monastery to the Hong Kong Institute for the Promotion of Chinese Culture for the Institute's 1990 Historical and Cultural Investigation Award for much of my information on the Ling To monastery.\n\n4 See Sung Hok-p'ang, \"Legends and Stories of the New Territories: Kam Tin (B)\", in The Hong Kong Naturalist, June 1936, reprinted in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 13, 1973, p. 127-129.\n\nThe nunnery bell is dated Kang Hsi 40 (1701), and this is probably the date of foundation. The bell speaks of a desire to achieve success for the Tang lineage in the imperial examination.\n\n9\n\nSee Plan, and Plates 20 and 21.\n\nSee Location Map.\n\nA two-day survey was conducted on December 11th and 12th, 1904, which showed that 1823 persons used the road on the 11th (a market day at Sham Tsun), and 708 on the 12th (a non-market day). The market day at Sha Tau Kok would have been the 10th. The survey was taken “on the road”, and very probably at the nunnery. These figures suggest a monthly total of up to 43,000 travellers: even if this is substantially discounted (the report suggests that travellers carrying rice after the second rice harvest, and fish, made the road very busy at that time) about 25,000 a month would seem a reasonable figure, or 300,000 a year. The Governor gave a more conservative statement of the yearly total, at 250,000, or about 20,000 a month. Of the 2531 travellers surveyed on the two days, 679, or 27%, (29% on the market day, 22% on the non-market day) were \"carrying goods\". Assuming that these carriers were carrying the standard cookie distance load of 100 lbs, then they were carrying 67,900 lbs, or 30 tons, implying perhaps 400 tons a month, or 4,800 tons a year. The survey for this road gave figures entirely in line with those shown by the surveys conducted at the same time on the other roads along the line of the railway. See file C.O.882, despatch No. 59, from Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton, received February 13th, 1905, Public Record Office, London, (copy in P.R.O. Hong Kong). A second survey, conducted outside the nunnery, on 26th and 29th December, 1910 (both market days at Sham Tsun) showed 319 and 203 people \"carrying goods\" on those days. Assuming that the percentages of people carrying goods (those not carrying goods were not surveyed) was, as in 1904, 29%, then total passengers on those days would have been 1100 and 700, suggesting a monthly total of about 23,000, and a yearly total of just under 300,000. See file C.O.129/376, despatch no. 165 (page 582), from Sir Frederick Lugard to Rt. Hon. Lewis Harcourt, 28th April, 1911, (copy in P.R.O. Hong Kong). A monthly total of between 20,000 and 25,000 people passing the nunnery, therefore, seems very reasonable.\n\n... The inscription is at Vol. 3, p. 679 of David Faure, Bernard H.K. Luk, and Alice N.H. Ng Lun, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, Urban Council of Hong Kong, 1986. The bell was donated to stand for ever before the altar of the Lord Buddha in the nunnery at Cheung Shan by \"the mass of the devout people from all the villages\". 各鄉衆信弟子慶具鳴鐘一口，敬酹長山廟佛生爺爺案前永遠供奉、福有攸歸。The nunnery is mentioned in the Hsin An County Gazetteer of 1819, as the \"Cheung Chun nunnery, at the Loi Tung Pass\", at ch'uan 18, page 149 of the Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211768, "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-1989", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "158\n\nTHALIA AND TERPSICHORE ON THE YANGTZE A SURVEY OF FOREIGN THEATRE AND MUSIC IN SHANGHAI 1850-1865\n\nJ. H. HAAN\n\n\"Thanks for the merry laugh that cheered our hearts\n\nFor loud applause that bade us top our parts. For mirth, that taking all things for the best\n\nMade even a blunder seem a clever jest'.\"*\n\nThus an epilogue to an evening of theatrical entertainment in 1852 that was given for the foreign community of Shanghai, and it sums up nicely the attitude with which generally speaking the efforts of the local amateurs were greeted. What happened on the stage in this outpost of Western civilisation may not have been very exciting or very daring but still it seems interesting enough to go into in more detail than has been done before now.2\n\n1. Some notes on foreign life in Shanghai\n\nUntil the first Anglo-Chinese War of 1839-1842, foreigners were severely limited in China. In fact only one port, Canton, was open for external trade and merchants had to reside part of the year in the so-called foreign factories. After the war several treaties were concluded with Western nations (England, France, United States) in which the right of foreigners to settle themselves in a number of cities on the China Coast was granted.\n\nAmong these cities was Shanghai, and it was not long before a predominantly British community came into being. A Foreign Settlement was delimited, Land Regulations (a kind of constitution) were issued in 1845 and 1854, a Municipal Council of foreign merchants was formed as early as 1846,3 houses in colonial style were built, roads and a race course laid out, a drainage scheme begun and a home-like church erected. To the south of the Settlement the French had their own Concession, while to the north an American settlement gradually developed. Problems abounded, sometimes caused by the obstructions of foreign residents;\n\nOrdinary reference notes are indicated thus: (1); notes in which additional information is supplied thus: (1x).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211788, "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-1989", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "178\n\nbe embellished by a variety of cosmoramic views which will add much to its beauty\" 92\n\nThis process was continued and another new drop scene, “A View of Palermo\" was unveiled on May 6, 1852.93 Thus everything was done to turn the godown into something that resembled a theatre.\n\nB.\n\nOf course it would be more or less a waste if everything had to be demolished because the lease of the building could not be extended. Yet that was possibly the case, for during the season 1852-1853, after many doubts whether any theatricals would be given at all, the Imperial Theatre became the scene; it can only be guessed if this was the same as the Theatre Royal.\n\nC.\n\n94\n\nFor subsequent years we are on somewhat firmer ground.* The seasons 1853-1854, 1856-1857 and 1857-1858 came off in the same building, viz. a godown in the Commercial House or Commercial Hotel compound that was situated at the northwestern corner of Park Lane (Nanking Road), and Church Street (Kiangsi Road) (the names of the roads were, in 1864-1865, changed from the old \"homelike\" ones; Park Lane, Church Street, Mission Road, etc. into ones more in tune with local conditions: Nanking Road, Kiangsi Road, Foochow Road, etc.).† Despite the fact that the theatre was housed in one and the same building throughout this period it bore several different names. It was called the Tae Ming Theatre (i.e. Great and Bright Theatre) 1853-1854; once the name Old Theatre was attached to it (1856), then it was called the Theatre Royal (1857-1858). There was some political irony involved when the Herald announced that on March 8, 1854 the Tae Ming Theatre had opened \"under a concession from and immediate patronage of the Tae-ping-wong\" (the leader of the Taiping movement). Because of the change of regime in the native city the name \"Imperial\" Theatre was mockingly considered a little inappropriate.\n\nOriginally the stage was rather small, but later it was \"extended in the rear and the wings thrown back, giving a larger area for action\".95\n\n* See Map at Appendix III.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211793, "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-1989", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "183\n\nJanuary 27 1874 William Suter's Incompatibility of Temper and Tom Taylor's Masks and Faces or Before and Behind the Curtain opened the season in the New Lyceum Theatre. This one lasted much longer than its predecessor, indeed, until 1929 when it was sold to be resuscitated in the French Concession in 1931.\n\n——\n\nBut to return to pre-1867 conditions, some final notes should be added. Shanghai saw its first tentative steps in lighting its streets with gas in 1865 which was no luxury as the state of the roads was often rather dubious. Lighting in the theatre therefore, both the auditorium and the stage, was by means of either candles or oil lamps, the danger and inadequacies of which require no further comment.\n\n—\n\nRegulation of the climate in the hall was also difficult. Temperatures in Shanghai can be as low as 12°C in January and as high as 40°C in June-August. In order not to deter the audience, heating had to be provided in winter, which was duly advertised: \"Thoroughly warmed with splendid stoves\", whereas in summer which was certainly in the early years an unusual time for entertainment - one could read that \"to obviate the excessive heat of a crowded house, the Company beg to state that they have had two large Punkahs hung and have otherwise improved the ventilation\" (a punkah was a large rectangular fan suspended from the ceiling and moved by servants).\n\nPerformances started generally at 8 o'clock or 8.30 (even 9) (1864-1865) and entry prices were $3 for the best seats and $2 for the other ones (back seats and gallery) (The Mexican dollar, one of the currencies used in Shanghai, fluctuated in value, but may be said to have been worth about 4/6 during these years — so no \"shilling gallery\" here).\n\nIn addition to the godown theatres there were a number of other localities where artistic entertainment occurred in 1865. On February 23 1865 a concert was given at the Astor House Hotel. This hotel had been founded by an American, D.C. Jansen, in 1860 and it was situated in a part of the Settlement known as Hongkew (or American Settlement), north of the Soochow Creek, near the bridge. It was destined to become one of the most famous hotels in Shanghai and it was rebuilt several times. But in 1865 it was still a low construction. Other concerts, on October 17 1864, February 15 and March 1865, were given at the Shanghai Club, a redoubtable pillar of society located at the southern end of the Bund where it was opened in 1864. It was built in a neoclassical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211893, "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-1989", "page_number": 308, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "283\n\nBatavia Roads to carry to and fro from the ship to the shore. These boats are always used by ships in Batavia and are paid four rupees or guilders a day. They are pulled by four Malays except when the wind allows sailing. The head man came on board. They had plenty of rice and fish with them which they ate with their fingers, as all Musselmen do. They are regular Mohammedans,\n\nThe one who stayed on board could speak a little English, and on the next evening I got alongside of him to try what I could make of him. I asked him a few questions but could not understand his answers, so I thought I would give up. At last he said, \"You not know her! You not sabby her? Her name Roleston. Not you sabby Roleston?\" I was very much surprised, as you may imagine, to hear him repeat that name, and how to think of it I could not imagine. What, thought I, can he know about Roleston, and whoever could he be talking about? At last I made out that there is a mercantile house in Batavia of that name, who have a ship of the same name, and this man had served the ship with his boat only a few days before, during the time she was loading. He was a fine intelligent-looking man, for a Malay.\n\nThe captain became more unbearable every day. From morning to night it was nothing but curses, grumbling, bullying, and threatening.\n\nOn Saturday night, June 30th, we stopped off Amsterdam, a small island about 12 miles from Batavia. Here I sat on deck and with the glass looked over the island, which was about a quarter mile off. It looked very pretty by moonlight. There were several native huts on the shore and in the interior, and at night each had a light burning, which looked pretty among the trees.\n\nIt is very pleasant to be sailing among these islands, all covered thick with trees wherever there is room for one to grow. It is truly sailing as the poet says:-\n\nAmid the green islands of glittering seas\n\nWhere fragrant forests perfume the breeze.'\n\nOn Sunday, July 1st, we had several boats come off to the ship from parties in Batavia who were canvassing for trade and patronage. One of them brought a Portuguese, who from being born and brought up in the tropics was as black as a negro. He delivered his card, and was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211896, "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-1989", "page_number": 311, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "286\n\nand pretty. There are abundance of trees of all sorts growing at the sides of the roads. The shops of the Chinese amused me very much as we went along. At last we came to \"Hughan's store\", where there is a great space, with easy chairs, etc. for loungers and loafers. Hughan is a ship chandler, and by keeping this place pretty comfortable he gets the captains of all the English and American ships there, and of course gets the job of supplying their ships with provisions, etc. Before the whole lines of stores and offices there is a path, with a roof to it so that one can walk about for an hour without being in the burning hot sun, which in Java is very injurious, especially to Europeans.\n\nWe took a short drive about the town with the captain, who was looking out for some spars for the ship, and then set off out in the country to Madame Baines' Hotel, which is the only English place where one can get to. It was a three-mile drive, but the beautiful appearance of the place made me think nothing of the distance. The Dutch, to whom the island belongs, are the greater part of the European population; consequently, the town is in every direction intersected by canals as is Holland. These canals serve the purpose of drainage, washing, and to keep the air cool. On each side of them is a very wide road, shaded by large trees from the sun. Thus the streets are very wide and airy. There are, of course, a great many bridges. The European houses are very grand, and nearly all built on the same model.\n\nOur two poor horses at last brought us up to our Hotel, where we arrived about two o'clock. It was half an hour before we could get anyone to attend to us, since it is the custom to sleep in the middle of the day. At last, after walking about over the house, we were met by our hostess, a Scotch lady of colossal dimensions, but withal a pleasant agreeable old party, who at once made us at home, and got us some \"tiffin\", or breakfast. All her servants are Malays, and she can speak the language very fluently. Indeed, when well spoken, Malay is a pretty language.\n\nHer house is an average specimen of all the European houses in Batavia. It has only one story on account of earthquakes, but it is very lofty and airy. There is a large dining hall and entrance hall, while round the house are the verandahs, where people spend a great part of the day, and especially the evenings. Facing the road, the verandah is very wide and lofty. In the garden is a stream, running round a small island, which has some fine clusters of trees, which are so curious that I cannot describe them. Some of the leaves are as large as a good-sized tablecloth. Round", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212171, "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-1990", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "90\n\nbrought in own friends and those displaced, however capable, had to go out to find jobs elsewhere. It made for loyalties on a personal as opposed to a national scale.\n\nThe Customs service, under foreign supervision, was the first to produce a cadre of permanent officials, and other government departments now set out to follow that example. Yet it should be remembered that relationships in China are still almost exclusively on a personal basis. If I have some business to transact, and if I know the right man, it will probably be easy to arrange; but if I do not know the right man, or have not got friends who can give me the proper introductions, then my business will almost certainly languish indefinitely. Personal relations are important anywhere in the world; in China they are more important than anywhere else.\n\nIt was, however, in communications that the greatest advances had been made by the new government. Railways were in course of construction under capable Chinese engineers, trained for the most part in the United States; and a network of roads began to spread in all directions, linking remote and backward country towns with the progressive markets on the coast. The telegraph achieved popularity, and the long-distance telephone. Broadcasting stations were erected at a number of places; over these news and views went out in a common dialect, which was compulsorily taught in the schools, and concurrently the simplification of the written style in the newspapers led to the spread of a language understood throughout the country. So in many directions the new developments worked to break down the old partitions.\n\nA proportion of the national revenue had been spent in improving the amenities of the capital: wide thoroughfares were cut through the old native city: magnificent government offices rose here and there, topping happily the concrete styles of New York with the curved roofs of Cathay: the electricity supply was good: water was laid on. In the residential district elegant houses vied in diversity of design. The roads streamed with traffic, and the very latest in ferries carried trains across the Yangtze.\n\nIn the large treaty ports it was difficult for foreigners and Chinese to mix. Habits were too different. The Chinese like to drink with their meals; the foreigner likes to drink before he eats. The foods they", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212178, "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-1990", "page_number": 120, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "97\n\nmade a very good shewing, which drew the admiration of all neutral observers. The Japanese soon brought reinforcements and extended their front down towards the Yangtze in an attempt to dislodge the Chinese from their grip on the suburb of Chapei; but despite the overwhelming superiority of the Japanese equipment, especially in the air, the Chinese stuck to their ground all through August and September, until well into October, when they began to crack, and were finally dislodged by a successful landing on the flank in Hangchow Bay,\n\nThese operations at first led to a complete breakdown in communications between Nanking and Shanghai. Towards the end of August, however, it was found that cars could cover the 200 miles to Shanghai by turning off the main road at Soochow, and passing through Kashing to the Hangchow road, which entered Shanghai from the south. As I was badly in need of instructions I decided to motor down. On arrival in Shanghai I was astonished at the state in which I found popular foreign opinion. There appeared to be no adequate appreciation of the meaning of these new Japanese encroachments in China, or of the Japanese threat to the \"open door\" system of trading the Far East, the traditional British policy expressed in Lord Palmerston's instructions to Admiral Elliot in 1840, when he said \"You will bear in mind that Her Majesty's Government do not desire to obtain for British subjects any exclusive privileges of trade which should not be equally extended to the subjects of every other power\".\n\nShanghai had for some years been the object of much factious interference and petty vexation on the part of Chinese officials in their campaign to recover their \"lost privileges\". The municipal council of the International Settlement found itself continuously involved in arguments, mostly sterile, over all sorts of questions of local interest, such as roads, police, taxes, jurisdiction, and so on, providing occasions where the Chinese aptitude for obstruction had full play. The consequence was to alienate the sympathies of many of the leading foreigners in the main stronghold of foreign interests in China. (According to Professor Remer, an American economist who made a study of foreign investments in China in 1931, British business investments were distributed as follows:\n\nIn Shanghai £130,000,000\n\nIn Hongkong £36,000,000\n\nIn the rest of China £30,000,000\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212192, "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-1990", "page_number": 134, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "transferred their activities elsewhere: the evil reputation of Bias Bay nearby is well known. But British influence made itself felt in other ways, too. The \"foreign devils\" not only brought security; they built houses, roads and dockyards, so that a very large number of Chinese found Hongkong preferable to their native districts and came there to live. By 1938 the population was over two millions, including twenty-four thousand foreigners. It is true, of the Chinese no less than one million were only transient inhabitants, refugees from the Japanese wrath which was spreading over China. To these wretched thousands, Hongkong, for a time, was a sanctuary: as later in another part of the world, was England to the French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian refugees, who were to escape from German occupied territory.\n\nBehind Victoria, the cramped commercial hub of the island, a funicular Peak Tramway rises steeply to serve the numerous mansions, erected at varying levels, for taipans, who hope vainly to avoid the moist clinging heat of the long Hongkong summer. Some of the mansions look out over Victoria at the twin city of Kowloon on the mainland across the harbour: others, on the reverse slope, look out to sea, to Lantao island, still barren, to Lamma, in the foreground, and to Cheung Chau in the middle distance.\n\nHongkong was crowded. The hotels were full and so when we arrived, some weeks after leaving Nanking, my wife and I took rooms at the small hotel which an enterprising English couple had opened on Cheung Chau island. A special ferry from Victoria did the trip several times a day in about half an hour. There was quite a large fishing village, the rendezvous for many of the junks that frequent these waters. We lived on fish and strolled amongst the stunted pines and the empty bungalows of the summer visitors waiting until we could find more convenient accommodation. It was a pleasant change from the vicissitudes of Nanking.\n\nEventually we were able to get rooms in the Repulse Bay Hotel, famous as a honeymoon resort. It is on the side of Hongkong facing the open sea, near what is perhaps the best known bathing beach. A winding road over the hill through the Wong Nei Chong gap leads to Victoria, and in Deepwater Bay round the point there is a small nine-hole golf course.\n\nI remember one day we took the bus up to the Gap and got out", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212197, "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-1990", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "116\n\ncontrolling the rackets of the Shanghai underworld. With the advent of the Japanese they no longer felt safe there and so had taken refuge in Hongkong. The long-gowned men were their bodyguards. These were the gangster chiefs, well regarded by the Chinese government, who had been responsible for the communist purge ten years previously. You can imagine what sort of a strain the presence of such men placed on the vigilance of the Hongkong police.\n\nThe police, however, did trip up badly once. One day a well-dressed, good-looking Chinese gentleman landed from the Chungking passenger plane. He had no passport or credentials and refused to say who he was. So he was detained. He turned out to be Mr. Tai Li, the formidable head of Chiang Kai Shek's dreaded Gestapo. The detention, although very brief, involved a loss of face, and it took a special visit of the British Ambassador to China to Hongkong to smooth the affair over. It is said Mr. Tai Li has ever since used his influence in a direction unfavourable to Britain.\n\nHongkong carried imperial liabilities. It was less irresponsible than Shanghai: nor was it a place like Shanghai where Japanese bagmen flocked in the wake of their army as instruments of Japanese policy with the dual role on the one hand of beguiling the foreign businessman, and on the other of reaping a rich commercial harvest from the trade restrictions imposed by the army on all business which did not pass through Japanese channels. Hongkong knew it had nothing to expect from Japan. It guessed the defences and the garrison were both inadequate; two weak British battalions, one Indian battalion, four out-of-date aircraft, and a small assortment of guns. Yet small as they were, the armed forces looked to their defences. Workmen set to to build concrete pillboxes to cover the beaches, of which there were a large number; alternative sites were prepared for light anti-aircraft guns, roads were built to link weak points in the system, bomb shelters were tunnelled out of the hillsides, and the British civilians, enrolled as volunteers, went into military training. Others served as watchers of the fixed minefields laid off the island, and small naval vessels were set to patrol the adjacent waters outside the boom which floated ready to stretch across the harbour entrance.\n\nBut the Japanese had their spies everywhere. The excellent barber's shop on the ground floor of that English stronghold, the Hongkong", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212200, "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-1990", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "119\n\nLiuchow where one of Colonel Chennault's schools for training Chinese pilots was at that time established. I arrived just in time to observe the results of a Japanese air-raid on the field, when they succeeded in shooting up two of the latest type of Curtis Hawk fighters, the only two at that time in China, concealed in some trees on the edge of the field. Training under such conditions was not easy and the school soon had to move west again into Yunnan province.\n\nThree hundred kilometres a day is good going on these lightly metalled roads. I reached Kweilin on the evening of the third day after leaving Wuchow, and put up at the government hostel. From time immemorial the idea of travel has filled Chinese with apprehension, induced not only by fear of the ubiquitous bandit, but also by the abomination of the fetid roadside inn. With the advent of the motor car, the need for better hotel accommodation became evident, and the various provincial governments opened official hostelries at key points. While these left much to be desired by western standards, they were a prodigious improvement on the old-style inn.\n\nKwangsi is one of the more progressive provinces, for long controlled by Generals Li Tsung Jen and Pai Chung Hsi, who rank next to the Generalissimo himself. The hostel at Kweilin was better than average. There was a wireless in the lounge, and a small crowd of us sat and listened to the news as it came in. It was the period before Munich. A young German amongst us, flushed with arrogance, gloated over Hitler's successes. My first contact with the aboriginal Nazi spirit left me angry and dismayed.\n\nChinese buildings are flimsy. The rooms are small and dark, and not clean. When you have made allowance for this idiosyncrasy, Kweilin appears a delightful little town. The city wall circumambulates from shrine-crowned hill to hill; the river is full of junks that sail down to Wuchow; the roads are wide and straight, and shop arcades cover the pavements on either side. The little separate hills rise steeply from the plain, in those fantastic shapes seen in Chinese paintings. Their rocky tree-fringed summits staggered drunkenly beneath the sky. The hills are full of natural caves, most convenient for storing war supplies, or to act as shelters in the event of raids. But Kweilin was still far from the war. The Kweilin merchants believed that the Japanese planes would have difficulty in locating their little city snuggling amongst the hills. The excitement was all about the new railway,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212201, "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-1990", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "120\n\nwhich the government was hurriedly building from Hengyang, on the Canton-Hankow line. The embankment was finished, the culverts and bridges were in, and the construction gangs laying the rails were only a few miles off. The rails had been salvaged from sections of line abandoned to the invader in the distant north, and brought to Kwangsi despite great difficulties.\n\nI drove on to Hengyang and on the way observed one of those curious inconsistencies to which you grow accustomed in China. The Ministry of Communications, all the handicaps of the war notwithstanding, continued resolutely with its programme of road building. Where rivers were too wide to justify bridges, ferries were used. The ferry boat, a wide pontoon long enough to carry two lorries, one behind the other, would be poled across the river, or rowed over those stretches where the water might be too deep. As the current often ran fast some skill was needed to bring the ferry safely to the far side, and it took time. You would have thought that on these main roads, on which the movement of war supplies depended, relays of ferries would have been installed at the wider rivers to avoid unnecessary delay. Not only was that not so, but the ferry men, who were controlled by the Provincial Road Bureaux under the Ministry of Communications, refused to work after dark, or at meal hours. The consequence was that again and again a long string of vehicles would be held up waiting to cross, and if the ferry-trip took half an hour, as it usually did, you might have to wait a whole day for your turn. The wooden ferry boats were of local construction and not difficult to build. It would have been easy to increase the number of boats and ferrymen, but these serious bottlenecks in transportation continued to hamper the Chinese war effort. Only too often have Japanese bombers taken advantage of the target presented by a group of vehicles bunched at a ferry.\n\nBetween Kweilin and Hengyang you pass the watershed that separates the Yangtze basin from the West river basin. An ancient narrow canal, five feet wide, recently repaired, connects the two headwaters. There is an old story of a British gunboat having come up from the West river past Kweilin to a point whence those on board could see the mast-tops of a sister ship which had sailed up from the Yangtze. The masts must have been very tall; or perhaps the story is tall, because actually the gap between them could not have been less than thirty miles.\n\nWithout stopping at Hengyang I went straight through the same", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212212, "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-1990", "page_number": 154, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "―\n\n131\n\nEast. Thirty-five million tons of shipping entered the port each year, carrying twenty-five per cent of the trade of China. The vast town was controlled by three independent authorities: the International Settlement, where British and American influence predominated; the French Concession, mostly residential; and the Chinese Municipality. A polyglot population of between four and five million Chinese, and fifty thousand foreigners, thronged the streets. The war had brought about a great shift of population from the Chinese area, where residents were exposed to Japanese oppression, to the comparative safety of the two foreign areas, whose Chinese inhabitants increased from 1½ millions to 4 millions, resulting in a heavy congestion.\n\nIt was a far cry back to those days in 1845, when in the British Concession, before it was amalgamated with the American district to form the International Settlement, the British Consul appointed \"three upright merchants\" to act as a Committee of Roads and Jetties to supervise the inconsiderable municipal needs of a small community living on a mud bank. From those simple beginnings had grown the proficient machine required to cope with the extensive complexities of a unique metropolis.\n\nH.G.W. Woodhead, the talented editor of \"Oriental Affairs\", described the functions of the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, and I cannot do better than quote his words:\n\n\"Owing to its peculiar status as a sort of 'imperium in imperio', the Shanghai Municipality has had to shoulder various responsibilities that in other countries would be assumed wholly or in part by the State. For example, it maintains its own Defence Force, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, and a highly efficient professional Russian unit. It maintains, what, for the average daily number of prisoners, is the largest gaol in the world. It maintains or makes substantial grants in aid to many hospitals. It started subsidizing Foreign education in 1880, and Chinese education in 1900, and now operates, or makes grants in aid, to numerous Foreign and Chinese schools. It has an Industrial Section, which concerns itself with labour problems, and also controls the rickshaw business to the extent of limiting hire charges, and providing for welfare work among the pullers. It maintains a public library and a municipal orchestra and an up-to-date Public Health Department. And it finances these and other important activities such as Policing, the Fire Brigade, Public Works, etc., mainly from", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212216, "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-1990", "page_number": 158, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "135\n\nPolice Station, and were allocated various districts to patrol. We worked in pairs. Sometimes a regular French policeman accompanied us, in addition to several Chinese constables of the French Police Force. We would walk along as the spirit moved us; and on arriving at a cross-roads would take up a position in the middle of the street, cock our pistols, and stop all cars to look inside them. The idea of this was to catch kidnappers, as they usually carried off their gagged victims by car. One day we stopped a large car, only to find the venerable Mr. Yu Ya Ching in it. He was the senior of the five Chinese representatives on the Municipal Council. I do not know who was the more astonished, he or we! On another occasion when we looked into a car we found a complete thuggery of Russian gunmen; there is a large White Russian community in Shanghai, a survival of the Russian revolution, and many of the men were engaged by rich Chinese as bodyguards. They looked ugly, as if they were more used to holding people up themselves than being held up. The next car turned out to contain the puppet Mayor of the Chinese Municipality, who durst not venture abroad without a heavy escort. All passed off with mutual compliments. In my time we fortunately never ran into a real gangster: I have difficulty in hitting a haystack even with a snug little weapon, let alone with so heavy a piece of ancient ironmongery.\n\nUntil about 10 p.m. a heavy traffic would continue in the Avenue Joffre, the main highway on our beat. Sometimes, when we went out on bicycles, a form of sport to which I had been unaccustomed for at least a quarter of a century. I found it rather tricky moving in patrol formation amidst the traffic. If we came across an obstreperous drunk, we would turn tactfully in the opposite direction. It at least gave the Chinese some confidence to see armed foreign patrols out at night, a confidence which, I fear, may have been exaggerated. Sometimes we would stand at the corner of the street, at about the time the cinemas came out, and watch our families go home; and, when the time was up, we might go into that little bar on the ground floor of the Cathay Mansions for a bottle of \"Ewo\" Beer.\n\nAt the police station the French Municipality provided sandwiches, crumbly French rolls split in half, buttered, and holding a slice of ham, which we would munch, while our leader made his report. Then early in the morning we would go home, feeling we had earned our sleep.\n\nThe cinemas of Shanghai are as luxurious as any in the world.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212221, "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-1990", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "140\n\nsometimes visited by H.M. ships, and further inland Snow Valley, high up in the mountains, was a popular resort for the more enterprising of Shanghai week-enders. Now the motor roads round Ningpo had all been destroyed by the Chinese lest the Japanese advance and make use of them. The roadhead was twenty miles away at Kikow, the Generalissimo's native village, where tourists used to leave their cars to make the ascent to Snow Valley.\n\nI had to get back to Shanghai somehow and decided the best way would be to make for Hongkong overland, a distance not far short of a thousand miles. You reached Kikow partly by boat and partly on foot, and I arrived one evening, to find I should have to wait a couple of days for a seat on the crowded bus service. The next morning I was strolling by myself along the village road when the alert sounded. This was such a common event that I took no notice, and almost before I realised what had happened two Japanese light bombers were circling over the village to locate their targets. The police hustled me into a nearby house, from the courtyard of which I watched the planes fly around and make shallow dives each time they placed a bomb, of which they dropped a dozen. Besides myself there were only women in the house, an old lady, a daughter, and a small child with their amah. They told me that only two houses away was the Generalissimo's ancestral home, at which it was probable that the Japanese were aiming. The daughter was very concerned that I should be standing in the courtyard with my sleeves rolled up displaying my wrist watch to the Japanese pilots. She feared it might attract their attention and asked me to take it off. In my halting Chinese I tried to explain to her that the pilots, who were flying about two thousand feet up, there was, of course, no defence of any kind\n\ncould neither see me nor my wrist watch, and each time the aircraft commenced to dive I signalled to the women to crouch down and comforted myself by the realisation that they were going for the other end of the village. The planes flew off after half an hour. When they were satisfied it was all over, the women collected the clothes they had been washing, and made their way, as if quite accustomed to it, across the road, down the steps to the mountain stream to resume their work. Fortunately no buildings caught fire on this occasion, and there was not much damage; the village was burnt out in another raid a week later.\n\n―\n\nNext day I started on my journey. Laboriously, on the overcrowded", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212237, "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-1990", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "156\n\nThe Portuguese are in considerable numbers here, since they can generally stand the climate better than the English: Many of them have come from the neighbouring island of Macao which is Portuguese. They are a swarthy indolent looking set. They have a strong Roman Catholic College, which is not far from ours.\" Their undermining influence is very strong. The students, priests and friars, etc., wander about of an evening in their long black dresses. The Catholics are very active.\n\nThe Americans are mostly men of business. The Germans are mostly Lutheran missionaries, and capital fellows they are. The French and Arabs are comparatively few in number. There is an English jail, generally full of sailors: Two of the men from the \"Prince Alfred\" I suppose were put in there. I am going regularly to visit the prisoners, Mr Irwin having wished me to do so to assist him. Then there is the Chinese jail; a wretched place. Every hour or two as I sit here, I hear a long heavy clanking of chains as a great gang of them go past in the road, carrying heavy burdens. They make them work hard on the roads, and the continual sight of them has a salutary effect on the Chinese mind. Yet crime is very common.\n\n14\n\nI come in the next place to speak of the college, and of my domestic arrangements. In my former letter\" I gave a brief description of it, which I will amplify a little. I have just made a miserable sketch, or rather ground plan of the college, just to show within a little the relative positions of each of the parts. I will now ask you to accompany me through the establishment. We enter the gateway, as you see in the plan, and go through the shrubbery. We notice it is thickly planted with trees, and here and there on the grass is a small bed with flowers. There are some gigantic specimens of cactus and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212306, "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-1990", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "The Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company\n\n735\n\nAnother important associate company of Jardine's until the mid-1980s was 'Wharf, which was a pioneer in the development of Kowloon. The firm was established in 1886 by Paul Chater and Kerfoot Hughes. About the same time Jardine's started a wharf at West Point, but largely because of labour difficulties with Chinese lightermen Kowloon Wharf and Jardine's Wharf amalgamated. In 1887, they acquired the P&O (Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) wharf at West Point although this was later sold,\n\nSir Paul Chater\n\nIt is appropriate here to say something about Anglophile Catchick Paul Chater, born of Armenian parents in 1846, who came to Hong Kong from Calcutta at the age of 18. He started work as a clerk in the Bank of Hindustan, China and Japan, but soon branched out on his own as an exchange and bullion broker. Chater later became a business associate of the Sassoons, who were Jewish merchants. Chater's interests were many and varied. In addition to Hong Kong Land and Kowloon Wharf they included substantial real estate holdings. Hong Kong Bank, Dairy Farm, Star Ferry, Hong Kong Tramways, and Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels. Chater was also a pioneer in the 57 acre Praya reclamation scheme, in Central District, which included Des Voeux and Connaught Roads, and is now one of the most valuable areas of land on earth.\n\nAlthough he was sometimes accused of showing indecent regard for Royalty and all things British, including cricket, others believed, \"Where Chater goes today Jardine's follow tomorrow\". Venturesome in business, few men have contributed so much to Hong Kong as he did, and he worked closely with the British for several decades. One of the busiest roads in Central, as well as Chater Garden and Catchick Street, is named after him. As a self-made man with considerable foresight he was generous, and he became a public benefactor and patron of the arts. Unfortunately, the Chater collection of paintings was lost during World War II. Sir Paul, who served on both the Legislative and Executive Councils, died in 1926 an honoured and respected man.\n\nButterfield and Swire\n\nAnother of the great Hongs, Swire's, is Jardine's competitor, even", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212341, "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-1990", "page_number": 283, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "260\n\nHappily, however, when you, our Provincial Governor, entered Kwangtung, your policy was to develop roads. We the gentry and others read your brilliant proclamation. We took the opportunity to put proposals to So (**), the previous Head of the Sub-District, asking him to forward them to the County Magistrate for consideration. The matter for consideration was to build a bridge at Kim Hau. We did this because it would lead to happiness and security. And yet, unexpectedly, that clan of local bullies, because the bridge construction would damage their economic interests, unreasonably obstructed and interfered with the work, using continuous blackmail.\n\nWe the gentry and others say that this river is public land, and a bridge would be a public bridge. We should pay no attention to those who obstruct it. They know their crafty plans will fail.\n\nThey have responded by absurdly pointing to somewhere downstream, about one li distant, a place called Tsuk Pok Ha (T), as a substitute. We the gentry and others are peace-loving people and wish to bring this affair to an end. We propose that the local military and police officials, with the gentry and the people, bringing an engineer with them, come and inspect the site. They will find that there is no road to be used on either bank at Tsuk Pok Ha, the first problem. The site is low-lying and subject to frequent flooding when the river rises: it is inadvisable to have a bridge there, the second problem. The water there is deep and wide, the work would be massive, the third problem. The two banks there are overgrown with shrubs and thorny plants which would have to be cleared at huge expense to build a road, the fourth problem. Further, to divert the existing road about one li will introduce a large bend into it. By our estimation, taking both banks into consideration, the road would have to be lengthened by three li of useless detour, the fifth problem. Roads must be constructed on direct lines before they are useful to foot passengers everyone says that.\n\nNow the bulk of the people at Upper Wong Pui Ling.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212344, "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-1990", "page_number": 286, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "263\n\nwould be cannot bear being thought about.\n\nThus we have no alternative but to send you a detailed map together with this statement of fact.\n\nWe once again kowtow before Your Excellency, all of us prostrate before your perspicuity and judgement.\n\nWith speed like fire send an official to investigate! Strictly punish your inferior's order and the powerful ruffians, in order to preserve the communications and roads of the mass of the people!\n\nOn the day the bridge is completed, everyone will praise your great deeds!\n\nA petition!\n\nTo the Provincial Governor of Kwangtung, Chan, for his approval and action.\n\n[The success of this bridge is entirely due to Tsok-san and Sheung-yan's efforts. This is inserted here so that people of later generations will remember]\n\nThis petition was successful. The Provincial Governor, in his response, stated his view that this was \"not a matter of Fung Shui, but a matter of the loss of ferry revenue\". Since this was a public place, the Cheungs had no right to object to the ferry being replaced by a bridge, nor had they any right to \"convert their opposition into violence\". He ordered that the bridge go ahead. He also found the accusations against the County Magistrate justified, and the County Magistrate was immediately dismissed from his post. It is not known when the bridge was actually built: the November 1924 aerial photograph shows the crossing still had no bridge there then, but the bridge was certainly in place very shortly afterwards.\n\nIt would seem that, in the 1860 war, the Ta Kwu Ling villagers were successful, but only up to a certain point. The Cheungs were ejected from Ta Kwu Ling, and the Ta Kwu Ling villagers were able to build a bridge over the main branch of the Sham Chun River,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212347, "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-1990", "page_number": 289, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "266\n\nabout a mile below the Sha Wan River, and finally the Ching Shui River which drains the northern part of the valley from Po Kat (Buji) down, and which enters about half-a-mile below the Sheung Yue River. The main river is navigable for small skiffs as far as Kim Hau, but for junks only as far as the confluence of the main river and the Ching Shui River. However, the river at the mouth of the Ching Shui River is not navigable for junks at low tide. Furthermore, the navigable part of the river is not wide enough for a junk to turn around in easily when under sail. The Ching Shui River, at the junction with the main river, splits into two branches, with a low, marshy island between them and the main river.* Junks could come up the main river, enter the Ching Shui River, pass behind the marshy island, and back into the main river via the second branch of the stream, thus turning round without cutting across the channel, using a \"one-way\" system. The landing place used by the cargo junks and ferry boats, therefore, was the channel of the Ching Shui River behind the island. Junks would come up the river with the tide, and would load and unload while at rest on the mud at low tide, and would cast off and go down the river with the next high tide. Three significant roads pass through the valley, crossing at Sham Chun: the Yuen Long to Wai Chow (Huichou), Nam Tau (Nantou) to Sha Tau Kok, and Po Kat to Kowloon roads.\n\nIn the Ming, this valley had a number of markets, of which Sham Chun was only one. There was another at Kim Hau, and others to the west, including one at Lung Tsun Hui (Longjinxu), which was part of the Fuk Tin (Futian) village cluster. By the nineteenth century, however, all these other markets had either become extinct, or else survived only in a very small way as satellites of Sham Chun. Sham Chun had developed until it had become a very large market, with probably 500 and more shops. The market was ringed by large villages of rich clans—the Cheungs at Wong Pui Ling (Huangbeiling) about a mile to the east, the Tsois at Tsoi Uk Wai (Caiwuwei) about half a mile to the south-west, the Wongs at Fuk Tin about a mile to the south-west, the Yuens at Lo Wu (Lohu) about half a mile to the south and the Hos at Sun Kong (Sungang) about half a mile to the north. These rich and ancient clans were almost perennially in dispute, as they jostled for power and position in the district.\n\n* See Map.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212348, "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-1990", "page_number": 290, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "THE FIGHTING IN SHAM CHUN, 1875\n\nLanding Place\n\nEarthwall\n\nVillages\n\nMajor Roads\n\nNAM TAU\n\nFuk Ton\n\n=\n\nChak ka\n\nLung Taun Hụl\n\nJabung\n\nКАМ TAU\n\nFerry\n\nTina Long\n\nShowing Po\n\n****\n\nLurk Ch\n\nWAN\n\nS-UM Kang\n\nPO KAT\n\nOLD MARKET\n\nHeung Tung\n\nChun Bova\n\nNEW MARKET\n\nKOWLOON\n\nLi Pok\n\nFarry\n\nL+ Wo\n\nTAI PO\n\nKOWLOON\n\nWu\n\n2'\n\nWA CHOW\n\nF1\n\nWong Pui *\n\nLing\n\n**NBA**S\n\nSan UM Ling\n\nKim EAU\n\nКОК\n\n:\n\n:\n\n2 Kilomete\n\n267", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212355, "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-1990", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "274\n\nman, and the Tsoi clan four, to the authorities as being responsible for the murder of the man who fell in the ditch. This, however, is only a formality. Everyone knows that the District Mandarin will be only too happy to exchange these men for an eloquent sum of money. It is sad to be forced to see in action how the best of these Chinese officials are blind in the face of corruption of this type.\n\nThe total cost of this village war was more than sixty thousand dollars. This money will have to be found by a stiff payment from every person affected. The parties will be reduced to such extreme poverty that it will be many years before they can recover. It is as well that the bone of contention is removed from the clans.\n\nHowever, as it is said \"There can be no peace, where men do not sing of the love of Christ\". May that love soon be sung throughout this fruitful valley of Sham Chun!\n\nI greet you with the deepest respect and affection,\n\nYours,\n\nG. Reusch\n\n8th July, 1875.\"\n\nThe 1924 aerial photograph of Sham Chun, and the War Department map drawn up from it, show a broad earth-wall in the position suggested by Reusch, and this is shown on the Map. This probably represents the earth-wall of 1875. If so, the \"New Market\" of 1871 was not a success. Although the roads from the south (Kowloon and Yuen Long) ran through the centre of the site, the site was not as well sited as was the \"Old Market\", being further from the nodal point of the road system in the area. It was better located for the river trade, but only so long as the \"New Market\" and the landing place were in the same hands. Once the landing place had been handed over to the She Hok and to the Tung Ping Kuk which ran the She Hok, and which was dominated by the Cheungs, the \"New Market\" lost the advantages it gained from proximity to the river. By 1924, there were only a few buildings within the earth-wall\n\n—\n\na", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212357, "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-1990", "page_number": 299, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "276\n\nthe river more or less helpless unless a steam launch either towed them out, or at least assisted in turning them round. The wharf proposed was to be built very close to the Imperial Maritime Customs station: the Customs supported the proposal since it would make their anti-smuggling work in the area far easier.\n\n―\n\nA lease (for a smaller area of 850 feet not so obviously blocking the channel) was granted by the Hong Kong Government. The Tung Ping Kuk, however, (represented by two Cheungs and a Wong; by this date the Wongs were normally allies of the Cheungs, being united by their mutual antagonism to the Tsois whose land lay between them) complained to the San On Magistrate, who promptly had the Yuen elders imprisoned for the \"fraudulent attempt to divert the toll from the Kuk to themselves\". The District Magistrate also made a strong statement of the rights to take toll being a Government right, founded on Government ownership of the wastes of the river bank. The Kuk sent young men to tear the new wharf down. The affair then petered out - the Magistrate was willing to take a far more active role in 1903-1905 than in 1875 or earlier, and the opening of the railway a couple of years later made all discussions of rights to toll somewhat academic, since trade now began to flow in different directions altogether.\n\nThese documents show three points of interest: the ineffectiveness of the Magistrate in settling affairs of this sort in the mid/late-nineteenth century; the critical importance of control of markets, roads, ferries, bridges and other nodal points of the traffic system in local politics; and the blood-thirsty and implacable nature which inter-village disputes could assume.\n\nThe disputes over the ownership of the landing place at Sham Chun lasted some seventy years, from the 1830s to 1905. Effective action by the District Magistrate seems to have been limited to the period 1903-1905: the actions of the Magistrate in 1875 were ineffective in the extreme, and there seems to have been no action at all in earlier disputes. In 1875, it was only when the dispute had escalated to such a state that the army was forced to intervene that any effective Government action was seen but it came very late. In other inter-village disputes in the area in this period the same ineffective inaction by the District Magistrate can be seen. There seems to have been no action taken by the District Magistrate in the bloody fighting (about 1850-1860) between Wong Pui Ling and Ta...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212365, "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-1990", "page_number": 307, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "284\n\nsituated exactly north of here. When I look out of the shutter I have it exactly in front of me. Its slope to the plain is gradual, which is also the case with the whole of the mountain range. It is strange that all these mountains are so bare of trees. All the mountain ranges which you can see from here are, in the lower parts, only wooded in some places, while the rest of the range is covered with grass. The poor cover causes a shortage of fuel. Because of this, fuel is very expensive.\n\nConcerning the cultivable land which is closed in by the sea and the mountains, this strip is only about half an hour's walk wide and just a bit more than one hour's walk long. The soil is a mixture of clay and sand, with the clay dominant. The soil is cultivated diligently but brings only mediocre returns. That is the reason why the owners of the land only have to pay a modest rate of tax. In some places the soil is sandy far inland from the sea-coast and therefore cannot be cultivated.\n\nThis little strip of land is covered with villages. One can count 12 to 13 though admittedly some consist of only a few houses. Most of them are situated near the foot of the mountain range. They are separated from each other by only short distances. Such a village is built without any plan, and totally irregularly. There is no main street that runs through the village, with houses on both sides of the street, but as roads they use tiny lanes, full of corners here and there. This fact alone must contribute a lot, apart from all other circumstances, to the filth. Similarly, in the larger villages and towns, the streets are very narrow and dirty, and the stench that is found there lets the traveller who walks through them anticipate what it might be like inside the houses. A superficial glance at a Chinese village makes you understand that what is most important to the inhabitants is for them to find a shelter against wind and rain, and that regularity, tidiness and cleanliness are very minor features of the living-quarters. Possibly they do not even feel the need for these things.\n\n―\n\nThis statement is justified by the following description\n\n!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212372, "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-1990", "page_number": 314, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "third component [the yoke-pole: the end of this pole is in fact firmly joined to the sole-beam; it then bends up and is braced in place in the middle by the brace-bar]. This third component runs parallel to the sole-beam, but it goes further to the front. The draft animal is yoked to the front end of this third component. This instrument has to be carried by the farmer to the field while the draft animal runs ahead. The reason for this is partly because of the construction of the plough which cannot be pulled along a road, and partly because in China there are no roads, but only footpaths leading to the fields. Either a cow or a buffalo will be used as the draft animal. The furrows that can be made with this plough are not particularly regular; it is more suitable for tearing up the ground which the harrow has to smooth and even up afterwards. The harrow consists of a row of iron teeth on each side, i.e. one row in front and one behind it, and two iron uprights which are connected with each other by a transverse wooden bar. The harrow is held with both hands on the bar, and is pulled by one of the above-mentioned animals, or sometimes by the farmer in person.\n\nThe most important product that is cultivated is rice. Rice can only be planted when the field is under water, and it will only grow when it is continuously kept in water. The rice-fields are kept in this state partly through heavy rains, and partly through artificial irrigation. This can easily be done because the fields slope down from the mountains to the sea. If water is led down to the upper edge of the fields, then by opening a gap in the narrow, raised field-bund (these narrow, raised field bunds, with footpaths on, form the divisions between the tiny fields), the water can be diverted through and the whole of the rice fields can be covered with water.\n\nIn some years there is no rain at the time when the seeds are sown, and the water channels dry out, and then there is great hardship. Rice immediately then jumps to a high price, so that many people cannot afford the money for their daily rice. During such famine periods, people take refuge in theft, and thieves and robbers increase. Nowhere is safe from them any more. All the signs seemed last spring to\n\nPage 291", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212503, "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-1991", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "37\n\nhistory) Hong Kong, Xinya Yanjiusuo\n\nRawski, Thomas G. 1970. Chinese Dominance of Treaty Port Commerce and its Implications, 1860-1875. In Explorations in Economic History 7/4, 451-73.\n\nRedding, Gordon S. 1991. Weak Organizations and Strong Linkages: Managerial Ideology and Chinese Family Business Networks. In Gary Hamilton (edited), 30-47.\n\nRhoads, Edward J. 1975. China's Republican Revolution: the Case of Kwangtung. Cambridge and Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.\n\n1977. Merchants Associations in Canton, 1895-1911. In William Skinner (edited), 97-117.\n\nRowe, William T. 1984. Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796-1889. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\nSekkó Zaibatsu (The Zhejiang financial clique). Edited by Mantetsu Shanhai Jimusho. Shanhai, Mantetsu Jimusho, 1929.\n\nShanghai duiwai maoyi (Shanghai foreign trade, 1840-1949). Compiled by Shanghai Shehui Kexueyuan Jingji Yanjiusuo and Shanghai-shi Guoji Maoyi Xuehui Xueshu Waiyuanhui. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 1989.\n\nShanghai Sojourners. Edited by Frederic Wakeman and Wen-hsin Yeh. Berkeley, Institute for East Asian Studies, University of California, 1992.\n\nSinn, Elizabeth. 1989. Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital. Hong Kong, Hong Kong Oxford University Press.\n\nSkinner, William G. 1974 (edited). The Chinese City: City Between Two Worlds. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\n1976. Mobility Strategies in Late Imperial China: A Regional-System Analysis. In Regional Analysis, Volume One: Economic Systems, 327-64. Edited by Carol A. Smith. New York, Academic Press.\n\n1977 (edited). The City in Late Imperial China. Stanford, Stanford University Press.\n\nSmith, Carl T. 1983. Compradores of the Hongkong Bank. In Frank H. H. King (edited), 93-111.\n\n1985. Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.\n\n1993. Hong Kong Chinese Wills, 1850-1890. Unpublished paper presented at the International Conference on Folk Documents and Regional Society in South China, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.\n\nSu, Waigong. 1933. Xianggang, Shanghai, Guangzhou shangye mingrenlu (Prominent business characters of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton). Shanghai, Shangye Bianshu Gongsi.\n\nTopley, Marjorie. 1964. Capital, Savings and Credit among Indigenous Rice Farmers and Immigrant Vegetable Farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories. In Capital, Saving and Credit in Peasant Societies: Studies from Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and Middle America, 157-86. Edited by Raymond Firth and B. S. Yamey. London, George Allen & Unwin.\n\n1968. The Role of Savings and Wealth among Hong Kong Chinese. In Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, 167-227. Edited by Ian C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi. New York, Frederick A. Prager.\n\nToyama, Gunji. 1944. Shanhai Dota: Go Kensho (The Shanghai taotai Wu Jianzhang). In Gakkai 1/7, 45-54.\n\n1945. Shanhai no shinsho: Yo Bo (A gentry-merchant in Shanghai: Yang Fang). In Toyoshi Kenkyu 1/4, 17-34.\n\nTsai, Jung-fang. 1975. Comprador Ideologists in Modern China: Ho Kai (Ho Chi, 1859-1914) and Hu Li-Yuan (1847-1916). PhD thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212616, "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-1991", "page_number": 170, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "150\n\nand the 3rd War Zone branch of the Central Military Academy, where the junior officers of the Chinese army are trained.\n\nThe outbreak of war between Britain and Japan had altered the nature of my visit. It was agreed that a British party would be sent to the 3rd War Zone to assist in guerilla warfare, and shortly afterwards I left for a reconnaissance of the forward areas where the school, which was to be the central feature of our assistance, would be established.\n\nThe lower Yangtze delta is the most densely populated and the wealthiest region in China. Within the triangle contained by Shanghai, Nanking, and Hangchow, there are many large cities, such as Soochow, Changhsing, Huchow, Chinkiang and Kashing. In this area there is more railway traffic, more road traffic, more river and canal traffic, more sea-going shipping, and more active industry, than in all the rest of China. For the past four years, since the fall of Nanking, the Japanese had occupied the main lines of communication in the region; the Yangtze, the railways, the large cities; and they had patrolled and used the roads and creeks: in short, on the security of this base rested the whole Japanese position in China. Any threat here, any blow at Japanese dispositions, would be correspondingly the more telling. Well, as it happened, a broad tongue of mountains reached from the southwest into the area, and in these mountains the guerillas had established their quarters.\n\nOur car followed the road along the Tsien Tang river gorges: we slept in little road-side inns and ate in busy fly-blown taverns. When I had last visited these parts there had been no motor roads; I had come by junk, hauled up the rapids by trackers who bent to the ground as they strained to advance foot by foot. A new railway, leading south from Wuhu on the Yangtze, had been completed only a few years previously. In face of the Japanese advance, Chinese engineers had dismantled the line to deny its use to the enemy: but the Japanese advance had stopped at the edge of the plain; the mountain area which reached back to the mass of unoccupied China was still untouched, except for desultory bombing. The steel railway bridges had been cut, their girders sloped at all angles; and the sleepers had been taken for firewood by the farmers, leaving the rails lying along the track.\n\nAll this derelict steel, the stone piers of the bridges, the embankments and cuttings, and the rails themselves, were ideal for use in training. We had here better facilities than we had ever had in Maymyo, though", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212618, "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-1991", "page_number": 172, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "152\n\nperimeter of the Settlement and the Concession, but was later to be used by the Japanese to hem in the foreign areas. At the time that Hawkins passed through, about eight in the morning, the news of the Japanese attack on Britain and America had apparently not yet been handed out by the Japanese High Command to their troops. The sentry took no notice of Hawkins, who, however, a little further on saw the men of a Japanese mechanised unit tumbling out of their billets in a hurry and manning their vehicles.\n\nThe Shanghai neighbourhood, as indeed the whole of the Yangtze delta, is a network of creeks, large and small. Unless you know the country paths well you are liable to find your progress blocked at frequent intervals by creeks, the footbridges over which are few and far between. By nightfall Hawkins, keeping away from the neighbourhood of the several Japanese posts planted round the outskirts of Shanghai, had only covered ten miles; and he had lost one pony. To avoid approaching any of the bridges he had had to swim a number of creeks. It was not until his third day out, moving with great caution, that he found a farmer who could lead him to a Chinese guerilla unit. The news of the events in Shanghai was by this time beginning to filter out to the country people, all of whom shewed him the greatest kindness, gave him food, and found him shelter. Hawkins deserved all the more credit for his initiative and resource because he spoke not a word of Chinese and naturally had considerable difficulty in making himself understood.\n\nThroughout occupied China it is true to say in a general way that by night the country belongs to the Chinese. At night, owing to the guerilla activity, the Japanese, except when in force, retire to the safety of the towns. Only in the daytime, within reasonable distance of their posts outside the large towns and along the lines of communication, can they move with safety. In many places this guerilla control is effective up to the very walls of the large cities; or, in the case of Shanghai, the wire. Once Hawkins reached the guerillas he was comparatively safe. Night by night, watching their opportunities, they moved him further inland, taking him safely across the various railways, roads, or creeks, which were subject to Japanese patrolling, slipping if necessary between the machine-gun posts where the Japanese had established more permanent lines. The chief danger was from the spies and informers, in Japanese pay, who infest the whole area; they live dangerous lives themselves because they get short shrift when caught by the guerillas. It thus took him three weeks to reach the town where we sat eating our New Year", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212619, "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-1991", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "153\n\nEve dinner. We parted the next day as our ways lay in different directions.\n\nAfter completion of the reconnaissance I returned to Shangjao, where General Ku Chu Tung again very kindly accommodated me at his personal headquarters. Michael and I and the Chinese officers attached to us had our own little mess, and General Ku sent his own cook to prepare our meals, a signal courtesy which was much appreciated. Soon after my return I was delighted to hear that the two British Army Liaison Officers, had also escaped from Shanghai, with a third companion. They passed through shortly after on their way to Chungking. On December 7th they had had to go to earth, as the Japanese had raised a hue and cry after them: however, with the assistance of Chinese friends they finally made their way out past the wire. I hope one day the account of their adventures will appear in print,\n\nThe Japanese in Shanghai did not commence to round up Allied civilian foreigners for concentration in camps until the autumn of 1942, and the concentration was not completed until the spring of 1943. The foreigners were permitted to continue in occupation of their houses and to keep servants, though the limited funds released from the banks did not allow of living at the same standards as previously. To economise there was a tendency for households, or messes of bachelors, to amalgamate. Quite a few foreigners lived in houses outside the barbed-wire barrier and for the first few weeks one could pass in and out of the gates on the few roads which led through the barrier by claiming that one lived outside. During this period, Jim, an English missionary who spoke the Shanghai dialect well got out. He was waiting with Mac at Chin Ya when we returned there in March. In the course of time the Japanese brought a system of passes into use, and the issue of special passes to persons wishing to visit friends outside was restricted. Nevertheless, the arrangements were such as to provide plenty of opportunity for those who wished to pass through the barrier. At the worst one could crawl under the wire at night, when the sentries were mostly withdrawn to their main posts. But few young Britons seized the opportunity to escape while they could. In the upshot more Americans got away than British, though American residents only numbered about one third as many as the British, of whom some 5,000 were interned, including of course a considerable proportion of women and children.\n\nA small party of three American journalists escaped at about this time through Hangchow. I did not meet them. The next escape to be reported", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212627, "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-1991", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "161\n\nwhich could talk sceptical generals into agreeing to his suggestions. Not that the generals were not most co-operative: they usually went out of their way to meet us. In fact, we found it was true here, as it is always true of all wars, that the best elements of the nation were up at the front.\n\nIn May, the party of two Americans and one Englishman, already mentioned as having escaped from Shanghai, came through our camp, and I decided to proceed with them, in the lorry by which our two officer reinforcements had arrived, to the headquarters of the British Military Mission in Hunan. There were so many things of which we were in urgent need, and the replies to our signals were so vague, this seemed the best course. We covered the 1500 kilometres to Hengyang in six days. After a night spent with American missionary friends, we were turned out at dawn by an alert, and we were picking our way in the lorry through the crowds making for the countryside, when I saw an officer in British uniform moving with the crowd. I stopped to speak to him and discovered he was a Russian doctor, who had been recruited in China the year before for work with the British Army in Burma. He had been granted leave to proceed to Eastern China to try and get into touch with his wife to get her out of occupied territory. He was making his own way as best he could, had arrived by train that morning, as the alert sounded, and so found himself moving into the country with the crowd. His hope of reaching Eastern China without adequate credentials was vain. I suggested he should jump into our lorry and go back to Headquarters, to return with me to Chin Ya, as I felt sure his best hope of getting into touch with his wife would be through our guerilla connections. That was a great stroke of luck because one of our most pressing needs was a doctor and medical supplies, and Dr. Petro was to remain with us for half a year and do much very useful work. The Mission had no other doctor they could spare for us.\n\nAt Headquarters there was a good deal of confusion as the British troops were on the move, and then received counterorders. I was disappointed in my hope of receiving any further officer reinforcements, and all that could be spared in the explosive line was mostly ammonal. Ammonal is an explosive with a slower rate of detonation, so that it has more of a pushing or lifting effect. It is used for cratering roads and destroying buildings, and though that type of demolition was not likely to be of much use to us, it was better than nothing. It comes packed in 25 lb tins, about the size of 5-gallon kerosene tins. Two tins of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212638, "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-1991", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "172\n\ndisplaced by the Japanese advance on Shangjao. He also engaged some of the workmen from the Co-op. I was concerned not to have all our eggs in one basket, because I feared that should our efforts be too successful the Japanese would come and bomb us or send fifth column plain-clothes men to liquidate us. So we placed his workshop in another village. For raw material Reginald had the pieces of steel rail cut with explosives from our derelict line when practising with the students. From these he made all sorts of things. His chief output was knives, with which we had to equip all our students for cutting fuse, and other work. He also made screw-drivers, pliers, wire-cutters, crow-bars, and earth augers. The latter were heavy instruments with nine-inch cutting surfaces, that we used to cut holes in the earth. You could lay quite a good mine at the bottom of a six-foot deep nine-inch wide earth auger hole.\n\nThe chief instrument for cratering was however the light camouflet set. This was a metal tube of 2\" diameter and 6 feet long, which was sunk into the earth by means of a hammer head that slid up and down inside. When driven in its full length one pulled the tube out and dropped in a small camouflet charge of 4 oz. of explosive; that blew a chamber of about a foot diameter at the bottom of the hole, sufficiently large to take a charge of 50 lbs. Ammonal was the best explosive for this type of cratering. We would pour the grey powder down the hole, gently ramming it with a wooden rammer, until the whole fifty pounds was well packed at the bottom, together with a primer from which a length of detonating fuse led out to the surface. We would then tamp the whole to earth level with mud, also gently rammed down, lash the detonator and safety fuse assembly to the detonating fuse and set the thing off. One could thus produce a crater up to thirty feet in diameter. This type of demolition, useful for mining at the back of bridge abutments and destroying them, took too much time and the instruments were too heavy and conspicuous to appeal much to our students.\n\nOur second course finished in October, by which time we were beginning to run short of explosives and other supplies. Although the Japanese withdrawal from Shangjao had reopened communication with the rest of China, the destruction by the Chinese of all the motor roads to deny their use to the enemy, had prevented any further supplies reaching us. The first to come through were borne by junk and by coolie escorted by Jim, the missionary who had escaped from Shanghai, and who now rejoined us to help in administration. He brought us news of outside events. We learnt that it had been decided to wind up the main", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212640, "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-1991", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "174\n\nteams should decide to be active at the same time. Of course, it was always possible, once China had Allies who would unquestionably win the war, whatever happened, that the negative policy might be overdone: should that happen, I am myself convinced, it would not be in accordance with the inclination of the frontline troops, if we can take those who passed through our school as typical, or of guerilla generals.\n\nThe idea of catching the Japanese by a mine, which might explode when those who had set it were many miles away, appealed immensely to the Chinese mind; but the urge was subject to the necessity of not drawing too heavy a retaliation onto the local population. The Japanese expected the local population to inform them of guerilla movements in the vicinity and inferentially any successful guerilla exploit was due to collaboration with guerillas and punished accordingly. Actually, of course, the population supported the guerillas so long as the guerillas did not make life too difficult by attracting too much Japanese retaliation. The guerillas depended, not only for success, but for mere existence, on the intelligence of Japanese movements provided by the local population. When it came to carrying out an operation; for instance, the capture of a small fort, the Chinese much preferred to capture it by guile. The Japanese garrison, who like all soldiers preferred to be waited on to doing anything themselves, would have a Chinese coolie to carry water from the well, a Chinese cook to prepare their meals, a boy to sweep out the quarters, and they would allow hawkers selling vegetables and such things to come in with their wares. These Chinese might be in the employ of the guerillas to a man. These Chinese, who as a nation are perhaps the best judges of character in the world, would soon learn all the weaknesses of the garrison and could make their plans accordingly; but the plan would have to take account of possible retaliation on the civilians involved, and might entail their entire removal from the district. On the other hand, in retaliating, there was a limit beyond which it did not pay the Japanese to go; in their own peculiar way they realised the advantage of attracting the population to their point of view. It resulted in a sort of balance being struck where the Chinese could judge just how far it was wise to go in carrying out any given policy of sabotage or more direct attack.\n\nI have heard criticism of the trade which was allowed to flow between free and occupied China. At Chin Ya we were on one of the main roads over which this commerce passed. Every day you could see strings of coolies, or rickshaws, going towards the Japanese lines laden with tea,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212644, "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-1991", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "178\n\nIn November we were sent a medical officer, who had a long experience in China, and we also at last received some medical supplies, including a limited quantity of quinine. We were able to treat the sick students and also give some assistance in the neighbouring villages, an assistance which was much appreciated and created a lot of goodwill. A severe epidemic of meningitis broke out soon after; our stock of sulfanilamide was barely adequate to cope with the cases amongst our own students and staff and for lack of the drug we had to watch many around us die.\n\nLate in December the first lorry got through to us with a small supply of much-needed explosive. In the previous summer the roads had been destroyed by removing the wooden bridges, and cutting trenches across the roadway at a number of places. The trenches had now been filled in again with the spoil left on the roadside, but with rain the filling settled so as to leave a six-inch drop where the trench had been; it made for slow and rough driving, and it was very hard on the vehicles. The bridges were not replaced until later, but in winter the water level in the rivers fell and tracks were cut down the river banks so that the lorry could be driven across through the water.\n\nThere was some delay in winding up our affairs and we were still in the midst of it, when I was suddenly informed that a party of Americans had arrived. I wired this information to our people in Chungking and as it was the first they had heard of it they were even more surprised than we. The American party, consisting of men who had not been in China before, were able to pass on to them a lot of information regarding local conditions, for although they had spent five months in Chungking en route, much in the country was strange to them. They were also unused to the food. One of them, Bill, suddenly developed acute appendicitis, and our medical officer had hurriedly to perform an emergency operation with crude instruments to save his life. The operation was successful and the invalid stayed in our mess until he was stronger; his companions shot pheasant for the pot, a luxury to which we were unaccustomed as we had no shotgun. Bill had been a member of the guard on the American Embassy in London during the Blitz and he gave us descriptions of those days which were of great interest to us, as we had none of us been home at the time. It was not till May, 1943, that all our affairs were settled and we then left our new American friends with real regret. Several of them had been through our Commando schools in England, had seen something of England at war, and understood some of the difficulties", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212785, "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-1992", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "79\n\nIf however moving on a broad front the order was:\n\nVan Left Centre Right Rear\n\n[on different roads]\n\nThe bodyguard in a field force and elsewhere, usually the central company of a battalion, or the central battalion of a brigade of five or more battalions, was styled chin-ping, whilst the escort or individual guardsman was a hu-ping#.\n\nEach battalion, ying, of three companies, had five hundred fighting men and one hundred and fifty supporting coolies. The battalions were commanded by a major, tu-ssu#, with two 2nd major adjutants.\n\nEach company, shao\", of three sections, consisted of approximately one hundred fighting men, supported by a further number of unpaid men awaiting appointment as soldiers, and supporting coolies. Companies were commanded by a captain, ch'ien-tsung†§, with two lieutenants, orderlies and personal coolies. Later, Mesny notes that strengths and personnel of Chinese military companies can be very elastic.\n\nEach section, tui, of three 'tents', was commanded by an ensign or warrant officer, with two further junior warrant officers or sergeants.\n\nEach tent, p'eng, contained sixteen men: these consisted of a corporal, shih-changH, in charge, two lance corporals, ten men, yung or ping, and three coolies, fu#.\n\n10\n\nThe Ko-i Rifle Brigade in Kueichou had a Guards Battalion\"[Ch'in-ping Ying#4] of six companies, each company having at least 150 men, which with staff officers brought the total strength of the battalion up to 1000 men. At the time Mesny joined the Force there were also two rifled twelve-pounder field guns and an extra battalion of light infantry, styled Fu Hu-chünH. The 700 men of this extra battalion were all former rebels [surrendered or captured\"] of various ages, from 20 to 40; many of them decorated with scars and wounds. Three months after Mesny joined in 1868 this particular battalion was formed into an independent corps, as it were, with the glorious style of the Ever Victorious Force, Chang-sheng Chün. When the Force was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212862, "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-1992", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "156\n\nThe Abraham Family\n\nEleazer Joseph Abraham\n\nDavid Ezekiel Joshua Abraham\n\nDavid Abraham Reuben m Ruby Moselle (1890-1982)\n\nEzekiel\n\nJoseph\n\nIsaac\n\n1\n\nAziza\n\nof the Jewish community, and served it well. His son, Ezekiel Abraham, recalled how the Jewish community had rallied to succour the refugees from Eastern Europe and Germany in 1938 and 1941 when some 17,000 to 18,000 refugees found their way to Shanghai.\n\n\"The Japanese commander had called in R.D. Abraham, as leader of the Jewish community in Shanghai, to tell him that a shipload of Jewish refugees had arrived. 'We cannot let them land,' said the Japanese. 'Why?' Abraham wanted to know. 'There is no place for them to live, and the refugees have no money to feed themselves,' reasoned the Japanese. 'In that case,' said Abraham, thoughtfully, without a smile, 'you will just have to shoot all of them, because there is no other place on earth for them to go.' Then he paused for a few moments before confiding in the Japanese, 'or, we can open the Sassoon warehouses in Hongkew and let the refugees live there, and put them to work in the factories.'\n\nGhe Ezras\n\n+15\n\nEdward Ezra switched from the opium trade to large-scale real estate construction and management in 1900. He erected - on the land bounded by Nanking, Kiujiang, Szechwan and Kiangse Roads - 1,000,000 taels worth of residences that enjoyed modern amenities. His own home on Joffre Road boasted a ballroom and a music room. The family interests included hotels. The Astor House Hotel, on Broadway and Whangpoo Road, occupied three acres of ground. Edward Ezra, who was a Director of Astor House, was the first person born in Shanghai and educated at the Shanghai Public School to be elected to the Municipal Council. Socially linked to the Sassoons from the beginning by marriage, today", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212864, "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-1992", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "158\n\nchildren took Mme Hardoon's surname-Lo-the Eurasian children the surname Hardoon. Their ostentatious life-style was particularly noted. The Aili Garden, designed to be in the style of the Da Guan Yuan of the Dream of the Red Chamber, embraced a temple and a school. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, it was said that the Hardoons assumed the life style of the court by entertaining imperial concubines and employing eunuchs as retainers.\n\nActual facts known of the Hardoons are somewhat less flamboyant. Silas Hardoon was born in Baghdad. At the age of five, in 1851, his family moved to Bombay where his father worked for the Sassoons. In 1873 he moved to Shanghai to work for Sassoon as a clerk. His parsimonious living, administrative skills, and keen business sense soon enabled him to become a rich man himself. He engaged in opium sales and real estate speculation. Instead of buying expensive land in the British settlement, he bought land for himself and for the Sassoons in the External Roads area. And, when the settlement expanded, land value rose. It was said that he made as much as 500 million taels in one single transaction. Hardoon married a Chinese woman and had little to do with Jewish religious or social life in Shanghai, despite his significant gift to the construction of the Beth Aharon synagogue for the orthodox congregation Sheerith Israel. Before and during the Revolution of 1911, Hardoon and his wife harboured revolutionaries in the Aili Garden. Whether or how much they contributed towards the revolutionary coffers is unknown.\n\nSilas Hardoon died in 1931 and was buried in the Aili Garden. This final act of disregard of religious tenets again angered the Jewish community since the garden was not consecrated ground.\n\nThe Kadoories\n\nThe first woman to drive an automobile in Shanghai was Lady Kadoorie, wife of Sir Elly Kadoorie, an Iraqi Jew who made his fortune in real estate utilities in Shanghai. Kadoorie was a part of the Sassoon establishment until he went on his own. One of their sons, Lawrence,* was to become Lord Kadoorie, the first man from Hong Kong to sit in the House of Lords at Westminster. He has remained active in finance and industry in Hong Kong. Their other son, Horace, is known for his support for education of Jews all over Asia, including Israel. Horace likes to be active in all aspects of founding a school, from curriculum planning to staff hiring, in addition to fund raising. In Shanghai in 1939,\n\n* Since deceased [Editor]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212874, "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-1992", "page_number": 183, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "168\n\ngeneration. However, retained on the new tablet were the names of the elder brothers of the deceased who had been responsible for the initial burial at this site and also, it would seem, much of the wording of the original record. The inscription reads:\n\nThe deceased was the fourth son of Ancestor Kau-yuen. He died early. Afterwards [we] his three elder brothers [only the names of two are given] took up the bones [from a coffin burial] and on an auspicious day in an autumn month in Chien Lung 4th or ping-san year [1736: but in fact the ping-san year is the 1st year of Chien Lung's long reign] buried them above the cross roads at Pak Kung Au on Tai Mo Shan (the geomantic details follow].\n\nDuring his life, the deceased was polite and ceremonious, he managed his family frugally and industriously, and he was straightforward and upright in his dealings with others. We his brothers and descendants flourish [on account of his exemplary conduct and character]. We had hoped that he would have a long life, but his virtue is ever fragrant and he is deserving of his descendant's offerings for ever. For ten thousand years his memory will not be forgotten.\n\nConfucian hyperbole, one might ask? Perhaps it was, though I have not come across too much of the kind in the local grave tablets. Certainly, the memory of this good man must have remained alive in the Chung family for generations after his death and burial in 1738; for it was nearly 150 years after that the repair commemorated by this tablet took place. There was probably another factor at work here, since it was believed that the graves of good people would have a beneficial effect on the fortunes of the family for generations to come. Clearly, it was considered that the good influences from this grave were not yet spent.\n\nAncestral Graves and Lineage Prosperity\n\nOne cannot stress too strongly this particular aspect of ancestral burial, and the great importance attached to ancestral graves by descendants for this reason. One short letter sent to the District Office in 1975 by two village representatives of the same village and lineage (Yeungs of Yeung Uk, Tsuen Wan) states outright the strong connection traced between ancestral graves in good locations and the continuing flourishing of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212881, "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-1992", "page_number": 190, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "175\n\nsomething special must have taken place nearly two hundred years before, to create an obligation that was still felt to be incumbent upon descendants of the other lineage.\n\nRunning Out Of Land for Traditional Burials\n\n14\n\nThe continuing progress of development could create great stress upon descendants of old lineages, especially if it had been their practice to concentrate their burial areas. This occurred with the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, the nearest of the Tsuen Wan Villages to urban Kowloon. Paradoxically, and unlike the other inlying Tsuen Wan settlements, their village had not been removed and resited. However, their fields and associated areas of hill land above and adjacent to the village had all been taken, with the exception of the remaining part of the hilly area, where most of their graves were located. In 1984, the Lands Department posted notices there calling for the removal of these graves. Their anguish was extreme, as shown by the contents of the following letter to the District Officer:\n\nWhen we worshipped at our ancestral graves on the hill at Shek Lei Tau during the recent Ching Ming Festival, we were much surprised to see notices all around, calling for the removal of all graves and burial urns to make way for development.\n\nThis came as a great shock to us, as ancestral worship has been our filial duty since our forefathers settled at Kau Wah Keng more than 300 years ago, during the reign of the K'ang Hsi Emperor [1661-1720]. It has the dual intention of appeasing the [souls of the] dead and ensuring that the living flourish and prosper.\n\nShek Lei Tau has been the burial ground for our ancestors from as early as their arrival at Kau Wah Keng, and in the selection of [auspicious] grave sites geomancers had to be engaged at great cost. Some of the burials are quite recent, having occurred in the past ten years when our then elders, acknowledging the need for land to provide [public] reservoirs, roads, hospitals and children's homes, witnessed with shame the repeated and obligatory removals of remains", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212910, "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-1992", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "204\n\nbombard the enemies with mud balls.\n\nAs children we did not go often into the town except to walk to church. This we did along streets paved with enormous stones laid five at a time along the road and then five across. The roads were elevated above the fields and along the creeks with which the whole delta is riddled. In times of flood these dykes protected the fields. Occasionally they would be breached and then a general alarm would be raised as the whole population rushed to repair the damage before the countryside was flooded.\n\nThe creeks, one of which passed at the foot of our garden, carried the commerce of the villages and, in the fifth month, the dragon boats. For weeks before the actual festival, dragon boats would be paddled along the creeks of the delta and, from time to time, one would pass our garden. These were magnificent vessels bearing only superficial resemblance to those used for racing here. The largest had over a hundred paddlers. In the centre was an enormous drum with two drummers. Gongs were placed at other parts and large ornamental, cylindrical umbrellas, beautifully embroidered with colours and mirrors, added decoration. They had a frightful time negotiating the bend in the creek outside our house, a feat which was only accomplished with tremendous shouting added to the cacophony already supplied by the percussion. As the fifth month approached we were on the lookout for the dragon boats which we could hear long before we could see them. With the first sounds of the drums and gongs we would drop everything and rush down the gap in the bamboo hedge from which we had a grandstand view.\n\nLast Visit to Fatshan\n\nAll these events occurred in the period from about 1928 to 1933. After that we went on leave from which I returned to school in North China. I did however make one last journey to Fatshan in the spring of 1938. Normally our long school holidays were in the winter but, with the Japanese war starting in 1937, we had a short holiday that winter and a long holiday in the following spring. It was great fun to return to the old house and try and pick up a bit of Cantonese again. Canton was under attack by the Japanese who would fly over and bomb the city from time to time. We were close enough to hear the bombs but not to suffer from them. Nevertheless we had a sandbagged air raid shelter in the garden. Out of curiosity I went into this gloomy recess one day only to scurry", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212914, "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-1992", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "208 \n\n'breaking up storm'; a wild blow whose climatic explanation I cannot remember. Then came the first snow and the wooden frames for the verandahs were brought out again.\n\nWhen I was at the school a new building was completed for the Prep School and a new classroom block was built where the boys from the Boys' School and the girls from the Girls' School could take co-educational lessons. Reading Jean Moore's account of her days at Chefoo I learned that boys and girls were not only kept apart in their sleeping accommodation but also for lessons. This had been dropped by the time I went so it was strange to find myself in a school for boys only when I went to England later on. We only mixed for lessons and church (where we sat apart except in the choir which I joined) and for the rest we existed in entirely separate schools.\n\n—\n\nIn this school we were also kept pretty isolated from the local population. We did not learn the Shantung language, though the teachers were entirely bi-lingual. We did not go into town but would come across Chinese on our walks in the hills. Here we would see men pushing incredible loads on massive wheel barrows or carrying loads on bamboo poles. Mules were the beasts of burden as there were no motorable roads outside the town.\n\nWhen the Japanese overran Chefoo they set up a road block right outside the school and we would try to engage the soldiers in chat. The Japanese controlled the town but the hills were infested with guerrillas and we could occasionally hear firing in the night. The Japanese left us alone at that time for they were not at war with Britain. I had left China before Pearl Harbour but once the Japanese were at war with the British and Americans the school was closed down and shipped off to another location as part of a prison camp.\n\nOut of School\n\nIn the Prep School our lives were confined to the school area and, in the summer, the beaches in front. We also went for long hikes in the hills behind the schools but it was the beach that was most fun. On Sundays we walked in crocodile the couple of miles along the waterfront to a church in the town most going to the Union Church but some went to the Church of England. I do not recall any Roman Catholics among us and doubt whether I had heard of them then.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213069, "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-1993", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "118\n\nin Anhsi where he and his supporters fought on as a resistance movement against the occupying Mongol forces. His followers and later, devotees, supported the forces which eventually overthrew the Mongols and drove them out of China, bringing the Ming to power. Ch'ing-shui is now being remembered and, so it is said by some, having been deified by a Ming emperor, was a loyal anti-foreign hero.\n\nAmong the several radically differing stories of Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih's origins, one maintains that he, Ch'en Chao-ying, was born as late as AD 1084 in Honan province, distinguishing himself in battle in the imperial army of the Southern Sung during an expedition into south China. He settled in the area of Ch'ing-shui in Fukien province and, as a determined opponent of the Mongol invaders who had usurped the throne having conquered China, he travelled around Fukien and Chekiang disguised as a Buddhist monk, plotting against the occupying forces. Although he had little success himself, he finally settled in Anhsi where he exhorted the local Chinese to resist Mongol rule and restore a Chinese emperor. After his death he was deified and revered as a patriot, with the first emperor of the Ming bestowing a posthumous title on him, as the Lord Protector of the Country (Hu-kuo Kung). In Taiwan tales are told about his loyalist Chinese activities against the invading Manchus in the mid-17th century, a confusion by those who had heard of his exploits against the invading Mongols, and confused it with the invading Manchus some five hundred or more years later.\n\nThe second major story describes him as a very ugly Tang dynasty monk named Ch'en Ying, or Ch'en P'u-tsu, born in Anhsi in Chuanchou prefecture where he entered a monastery as a child and spent his life travelling about helping the sick and the poor as well as doing valuable social work such as constructing bridges and repairing roads. He died at an early age, underfed and cold. His body did not decay, it simply turned black and a cult grew around his preserved body [there is no evidence that such a preserved body ever existed though the practice of preserving the bodies of certain dead monks, called Fleshy Bodies was not uncommon]. Variations of this story assert that he entered the Ta-yun Monastery to become a monk before moving to the Kao Tai Mountain where he built a hut and spent his time meditating. He later studied for three years with a hermit on Ta Chin Mountain and learnt from him a new meaning of Buddhism. He returned to his home area to care for the sick and needy and once when there was a dreadful drought\n\n6", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213097, "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-1993", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "EASTERN PEACE:\n\nSHA TAU KOK MARKET IN 1925\n\nPH. HASE\n\n147\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe aim of this article is to describe the old Sha Tau Kok Market and its economic life as it was in 1925 before the market moved across the frontier into the New Territories. Before doing so, however, a sketch of the earlier history of the market, and the effects on it of the new frontier are given, with a brief description of the roads and ferries which lay at the heart of the market's prosperity in the early years of this century.\n\nSha Tau Kok before 1898\n\nMirs Bay is a forbidding place.** Its coast is almost uniformly mountainous. There is very little flat land: only patches here and there where one of the mountain streams reaches the sea. The mountains behind the coast are steep and high, reaching 3,000 feet in the Ng Tung Shan (芽嵘山) at the north-west corner of the Bay, immediately behind Sha Tau Kok. Many support patches of forest. Tigers, deer, wild boar, and other wild life were common here until recent times. The description of Hsin An County in the 1688 Gazetteer, 'The County is made up of many high mountains and lofty peaks, which rise up immediately from the shores of the deep sea,'2 is particularly true of the Mirs Bay area.\n\nDespite the forbidding nature of the Bay, however, the area attracted imperial attention from an early period. An imperial salt commission was active here from the tenth, or even the fifth century. The imperial pearl monopoly, too, was active in the bay, probably from the eighth century. During the Ming, however, imperial interest in the area waned. The pearl monopoly ended its local activities in 1374, as a consequence of the exhaustion of the beds, and growing concern in enlightened circles.\n\n* In this article, placenames within Hong Kong are transliterated as in the Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, (Hong Kong Government, 1969); placenames in China are transliterated into Cantonese, using the same transliteration standards as in the Gazetteer, with the characters for the placename, and a pinyin transliteration, on first occurrence.\n\n** See Map 1\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213103, "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-1993", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "153\n\nwas dangerously exposed to storms behind low and flimsy buns. This little temple almost certainly dates from the original reclamation for the saltpans.\n\nThe ferry pier and the Tin Hau Temple were built on the foreshore, about 200 yards from the town proper. Chan Hip-tsun and the other elders of the Shap Yeuk had designed the town proper as an approximately square walled enclosure, with two east-west streets, joined by a north-south street somewhat east of the centre of the town.* The town had four gates, two each to the east and the west. The most important was the Upper East Gate, which faced the fine three-span granite bridge built by the Shap Yeuk over the often violent waters of the Sha Tau Kok River,\n\nThe Shap Yeuk had built the walls and roads of their new market, but the shop units were built by investors from villages of the Shap Yeuk area willing to take them up. These investors then built over their lot, from the road back to the already completed wall.\n\nOnce the Shap Yeuk had succeeded in their political aims of freeing their district from the influence of outsiders, and had founded their market and its temple, they thereafter ran the district and market through the Council of the Shap Yeuk (the Tung Wo Kuk, \"The Council for Peace in the East\"). The day-to-day management of the market was handled by a Headman, appointed by the Tung Wo Kuk. He adjudicated minor disputes, and had at his disposal certain trust funds, and the income from the ferry tender, and from rent of the town weigh-beam. He let tenders to sweep the streets (the street-sweeper was expected to reimburse himself from the sale of the wastes as fertiliser), and supervised the Town Watch, recruited from youngsters of the surrounding villages, whose job was to maintain order, especially at night. The Council of the Shap Yeuk, the Headman, and the Town Watch, are all mentioned by the Basel missionaries in the 1850s, and there can be no doubt that the management structure of the town and district was in place from the first foundation of the town.\n\nThe market founded by the Shap Yeuk was called by them Tung Wo Market, “Eastern Peace Market”, but it was more usually\n\n1\n\n* See Map 2, taken from a map of 1853 prepared by the Basel missionaries.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213112, "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-1993", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "162\n\nof what they were told by their fathers, there had been no prostitutes here before 1898. The prostitutes' clients were mostly soldiers and Customs staff - the prostitutes spoke Cantonese, not the Hakka spoken by all the locals. A gambling house (opened in 1904), and an opium divan came at about the same time as the prostitutes - these served people from Hong Kong as well as the garrison. Most New Territories towns had at most one or two winemakers; Sha Tau Kok in the 1920s had four at least, of which one was solely in the wine trade, unlike most local distillers, who combined this business with a general grocery. Similarly, Sha Tau Kok's three restaurants (including a cold drink and coffee shop), two tobacco dealers, and two cakeshops, is more than is found in most of the local towns at this period. The three or four guesthouses in Sha Tau Kok were also more than usually found - when military officers of rank came to Sha Tau Kok on inspection, they did not share the barracks with their men, but stayed in the private rooms in the guesthouses, so here, too, the presence of the garrison probably led to an economic expansion. Some of these service industries had been in Sha Tau Kok before 1898. There had certainly been a guesthouse here in the 1850s, and a noodle shop in the 1880s. **It is unlikely that there were prostitutes, or a full-time gambling house or opium divan there then, although gambling and opium smoking certainly took place in the town at that date. The early presence of some service industries in the town before 1898 was a consequence of traffic on the Sha Yue Chung Ferry, but it is reasonable to see the establishment of the new frontier as having led to an economic growth in the town in the years following 1898. The smuggling industry also produced considerable profit, especially during the 1930s.\n\nThe new frontier, therefore, caused many problems. To the villagers, the need to pay duty on day-to-day purchases far outweighed any advantages gained from having a larger population to sell things to. For the shopkeepers, the economic advantages were similarly more than offset by the prevailing political chaos and uncertainty. It is not surprising that the main effect of the exclusion of Sha Tau Kok Market from the New Territories in 1898 was to force a re-location of the market over the frontier into the New Territories a generation later,\n\nRoads and Ferries: Sha Tau Kok and its Hinterland\n\nSha Tau Kok stood at a nodal point in the local road system, and it was this factor which brought about the town's prosperity in the century after\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213113, "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-1993", "page_number": 181, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "DEEP BAY\n\nMap 3: Roads and Ferries in the Sha Tau Kok Area\n\nKey\n\nMountains\n\nRoads significant to Sha Tau Kok |\n\nFerries significant to Sha Tau Kok\n\nScale:\n\n0 10 miles", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213114, "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-1993", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "164\n\nits foundation. There important roads used to meet near here. The most important was the main east-west road in the county, which connected the county city, Nam Tau (Nantou, ), with the Deputy Magistrate's city of Tai Pang (Dapeng, ), via the important market of Sham Chun. * Because of the greater desirability and comfort of water-borne traffic, the section of this road along the north shore of Mirs Bay was not much used. Instead, much of the traffic went by a ferry that ran parallel with the shore, from Sha Tau Kok to Sha Yue Chung.\n\nAt Wo Hang Au, a few miles west of Sha Tau Kok, the road was joined by another important east-west route. This was the road from Yuen Long to Sha Tau Kok via Tai Po.\n\nThe third route was the main road from Kowloon to the north-east. This road carried the traffic from Kowloon to Wai Chau. This road crossed Sha Tin Pass to reach the coast of Tolo Harbour at Yuen Chau Tsai. A ferry carried the traffic from Yuen Chau Tsai across Tolo Harbour to Ang Chung (Chung Mei, near Bride's Pool). From Ang Chung, the road climbed steeply past Bride's Pool and Ah Ma Wat, and then down to the shores of Starling Inlet at Kuk Po. Another ferry then took the traffic across Starling Inlet to Sha Tau Kok. There was also a road which ran from Ang Chung through Luk Keng and Nam Chung, to join the Nam Tau and Yuen Long roads at Shek Chung Au, thus avoiding the second ferry. From Sha Tau Kok the Wai Chau road crossed the shoulders of Ng Tung Shan, and so down to Wang Kong (Henggang, ), and thence to Wai Chau. A branch of this road ran from Sha Tau Kok to Po Kat (Buji, ). This Kowloon to Wai Chau road was more important than might be expected - the long ferry sectors made it more comfortable than the land-based alternatives. The Basel missionaries regularly used it when travelling between Hong Kong and Po Kat, for instance. 50\n\nThis system of roads and ferries was in existence from the Ming at the latest. It will be noticed that the roads do not cross at Sha Tau Kok. Sha Tau Kok stands, however, in the centre of the few miles of road where all the roads run together for a short distance. The site of the market, therefore, was a good one commercially.\n\n* See Map 3.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213117, "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-1993", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "167\n\nThere is some evidence of the traffic on the other routes out of Sha Tau Kok to the west in the same period. In 1910 22,000 persons \"carrying goods\" crossed the Shek Chung Au pass each month, carrying about 880 tons of goods, with probably a further 50,000 - 55,000 crossing the pass without carrying goods. This pass was clearly a major nodal point. With about 250 travellers crossing it every day, one every three minutes, including a laden coolie every ten minutes - it must have been a very busy road indeed, with, at peak periods, an almost non-stop flow of travellers. There were good reasons for the Ming and Ch'ing military post to be placed here.\n\nOf these 75,000 travellers, about a third went on to cross the Miu Keng Pass for Sham Chun, as noted above. A further 40% went to, or came from, destinations along the Yuen Long road - probably mostly to the villages nearest to Sha Tau Kok, who marketed there. A further sixth travelled to and from the villages south-west of Sha Tau Kok, in the Nam Chung-Luk Keng area, including some who continued on to Kowloon. The remainder travelled only as far as the villages between the Shek Chung Au and Wo Hang Au passes.\n\nIn 1904 a daily total of 600 travellers crossed the Sha Tin Pass between Sha Tin and Kowloon, of which nearly half were \"carrying goods\" (mostly fresh fish from Sha Tin to Kowloon). Of this total perhaps 75-100 went on to Sha Tau Kok via Ang Chung and Kuk Po, including perhaps 25 carrying goods - this route may have seen a monthly total of as many as 3,000 travellers carrying up to 35 tons of goods.\n\nWhile none of these statistics was as well gathered as would be expected today, they can be used to give an impression of the size of local trade in the early twentieth century. The traffic they suggest (75,000 persons, and nearly 900 tons of goods) as entering Sha Tau Kok from the south and west is very substantial. Probably a half again as many travellers entered Sha Tau Kok from the north and east, from where statistics are not available, and probably as much again in goods carried. In total, Sha Tau Kok was probably visited by up to 120,000 travellers a month (most of these travellers, of course, entered Sha Tau Kok, only to leave it again a few hours later) and handled some 1,850 tons of goods.\n\n55\n\nThese ancient roads and ferries remained the sole arteries of local trade until 1898. The drawing of the new frontier between Hong Kong and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213118, "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-1993", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "168\n\nChina through the centre of the area caused some of the routes to reduce in importance, and made others more important, reflecting the new political realities. From the late 1920s, and especially from the 1930s, the new motor roads and other new routes, which ran on very different lines from the old roads, also caused major changes to traffic flow in the area. After about 1925, the old carrying trade to Sham Chun rapidly declined away to almost nothing, and the market at Sha Tau Kok began to decline in importance as a result. In 1926, a new ferry to Sha Yue Chung, direct from the mainline railway station at Tai Po Kau, was introduced, which immediately took a great deal of the traffic away from the Sha Tau Kok to Sha Yue Chung ferry. After 1949, when the border was effectively closed to local traffic, Sha Tau Kok became far less important as a traffic nodal point. Nonetheless, from the establishment of the market at Sha Tau Kok down to about 1925, the prosperity of the town rose from its location at the junction of the district's land and sea traffic routes.\n\nSha Tau Kok Market in 1925\n\nTopography\n\nThe aim of this section is to outline what the market was like in 1925, about a hundred years after it was first founded, on the eve of the move of the market across the frontier. It is drawn principally from the oral testimony of village elders who can remember the old market. This oral testimony is supplemented, in particular, by the 1924 aerial photograph, which forms the basis of Map 4.\n\nIn 1925, the market consisted essentially of four streets. These were the three streets of the original market - Upper Street (E), Lower, or Main Street (下街, 正大街), and Old Street (老街) - together with Wang Tau Street (王頭街).* In 1853, this last had been an open track leading past the western edge of the market, and running down to the Ferry Pier. By 1925 it had become lined with shops on both sides, all the way to the seafront. At some stage, the three or four shops at the western ends of Upper and Lower Streets had been demolished and rebuilt facing into Wang Tau Street. This gave them a far shorter depth of building lot - only about 45 feet instead of the 65 or more of most shops in 1853. On these shorter lots, two or three storey shop-houses had been built, with a\n\n* See Map 4", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213147, "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-1993", "page_number": 215, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "197\n\nconditions, under which the pickets contented themselves with exacting 'squeeze' from the local trade over the border1. Administrative Reports for the Year 1925, Appendix J, \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1925\", p. J2. In Administrative Reports for the Year 1926, App J, \"Report on the New Territories for 1926\", p. J3, the District Officer notes that the fishermen in Mirs Bay suffered particularly seriously from the boycott, as they were unable to fish except close inshore, because of the \"disturbed conditions”.\n\nThese Communist guerrillas had appeared in various parts of the East River area since at least 1925. They were the direct descendants of the rebels who had operated near Yim Tin in the first decade of the century, and were closely related to the groups who took over the Hoi-Luk Fung area to form the \"Hoi-Luk Fung Soviet\" on three separate occasions between 1925 and 1928. They were the original nucleus of the \"East River Guerrillas\" of the war years and just after.\n\n40 The agreement specified that goods for the guerrillas would be treated as duty-free.\n\n41 Juntonghanguan Bainian Dashup, op cit passim.\n\n42. The son of the executed man had committed a robbery in the market, and left a \"paper\" at the scene of the crime which implicated him. He had fled back to his home near Yim Tin, where the soldiers could not get at him. So they took the father and shot him instead, behind the Man To Temple in the market, in the presence of most of the district's young people. The fact that the son fled to the rebel-held area, and the \"paper\" left at the scene, suggests that the robbery was politically motivated, and the execution, too.\n\n43 Shatoupaode Lishe, op cit.\n\n44 Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, Appendix I, \"Report on the New Territories\", p. 16. The bulk of the Sha Tau Kok marketing district was in the New Territories, and there was a satellite market at Yim Tin, which could service the part of the marketing district in China if the Sha Tau Kok market did cross the frontier.\n\n45 Administrative Reports for the Year 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, Appendices J, pp. J8 (and Table IV), J3, J2, and J17 (and Table IX), respectively.\n\n46 Administrative Reports for the Year 1937, Appendix J, pp. J7-10. \"The typhoon of September the 2nd will long be remembered in the eastern parts of this District, where it caused much damage and suffering. Unfortunately, the height of the gale coincided with a very high tide, so that the swollen waters of Mirs Bay were driven with double force westward up Starling Inlet, whence they had no outlet. The sea rose, about 2-5 am, in places 20 feet and more higher than it had been known to rise for many decades. The resultant damage was astonishing. All round the shores of Starling Inlet roads, bridges, paths, piers, and bunds were breached and broken up, and buildings overthrown.\n\nAll the big bunds on Starling Inlet were [almost wholly overthrown].\n\nCasualties were heavy, about 100 in \"Brush\" Sha Tau Kok.\n\nAt Sha Tau Kok the Officer in Charge of the Police Station displayed initiative in [getting the dead buried, animal corpses burned, and obstructions cleared] and in arranging for a supply of rice and peanut oil from Kowloon, which broke a ring at Sha Tau Kok Market who had greatly raised the prices of these two.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213148, "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-1993", "page_number": 216, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "198\n\ncommodities\n\n+\n\nThe boat-building and repair sheds at Sha Tau Kok had entirely disappeared, with great loss of life. Special encouragement [from a relief fund] was given to the boat-builders at Sha Tau Kok to start all over again. \"The Customs Station at Sha Tau Kok was destroyed in this typhoon - see Jiulonghaiguan Bamen Dashiji, op. cit., sub anno. In the 1945 aerial photograph, it can be seen that far fewer than half of the buildings in the old market were still standing; the site had been, effectively, abandoned even for residential purposes. Since the War, all vestiges of the old market have been removed for development, and nothing whatsoever now survives of it.\n\n-\n\n47 Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, printed by Noronha & Co, Government Printers (Sessional Papers), 1900, \"Report on the First Year of Brush Administration of the New Territory, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor” (No 15 of 1900), p. 257; 1901, \"Report for the New Territory for 1900, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor\" (no 28 of 1901), p. 6; Administrative Reports for the Year 1933, App. J, \"Report on the New Territories for 1933\", p. J3. In 1937, the Coronation was celebrated with electric light displays in Sha Tau Kok. Administrative Reports for the Year 1937, App. J, \"Report on the New Territories for the Year 1937\", p. J11.\n\n49\n\nA party from the Basel Mission stayed in a \"totally comfortless guesthouse\" in the town in 1859, Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859, and a noodle shop \"at the entrance to the market\" is mentioned in 1882 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-16, Nr. 45).\n\n49 Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-2, Nr. 46 (1853), Doct. A1-16, Nr. 45 (1882), Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859. \"I do not like taking a house in a market, for you always find wicked types there - thieves, opium smokers, gamblers - festering together and leading to predictable outcomes.\" In 1859, Sha Tau Kok was the only market where the Basel missionaries had attempted to set up a station. Between 1899 and 1902, the District Officer was very concerned about the huge amount of gambling going on at Yim Liu Ha, with over 300 arrests in 1901, but this dropped away to \"almost nothing\" later, after the gambling house became available in Sha Tau Kok. Paper Land Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, printed by Noronha & Co, Government Printers, (Sessional Papers), 1901, \"Report on the New Territory for 1901, Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor\", App. 6, p. 20; 1902, App. 2, p. 342-344; Orme's Report, op. cit., para. 41, p. 49.\n\n50\n\nThe route is described in 1848 (Der Evangelische Heidenbote, March 1848); 1853 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-2, Nr. 44; see P.H. Hase, \"Sha Tau Kok in 1853\", op. cit.); 1858-1859 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-4, Nr. 11; Jahresberichte der Basler Mission, 1859; and Jahresberichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft, 1859); 1863 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-5, Nr. 5); 1884 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-19, Nr. 35); and 1893 (Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A1-27).\n\n* 1688 Gazetteer, ch. 3 passim; 1819 Gazetteer, ch. 4, Chung Lap Pao edition, 1879, p. 51. The 1688 Gazetteer specifically mentions several of the roads over the shoulders of Ng Tung Shan (b. 1); the road from Sha Tau Kok to Shu Yue Chung (this is probably the implication of the mentioned there) - this is the \"official road\" from which the village of Kwun Lo Ha (Guanlouxia, \"Below the Official Road\") takes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213149, "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-1993", "page_number": 217, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "199\n\nits name - and the road from Sha Tau Kok to Yuen Long. (3) The 1819 Gazetteer adds specific references to the route from Sha Tau Kok to Kowloon (ARG.MM. AM 4) The Sham Chun to Sha Tau Kok road is not specifically mentioned in the Gazetteers, but undoubtedly also existed at this time; the Cheung Sha Kwu Tsz at the summit of the pass on this road was founded in 1789, in part as a place of shelter for travellers on the road. See P.H. Hase, \"Cheung Sha Kwu Tsz, an Ancient Buddhist Nunnery in the New Territories, and its Place in Local Society\", in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29, 1989, pp. 121-157.\n\n52 See 1688 Gazetteer, ch. 7, and 1819 Gazetteer, ch. 11, Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, p. 12.\n\nSee P.H. Hase, \"Sha Tau Kok in 1853\", op. cit. It is possible that the salt fish trade in this part of Mirs Bay was centred on Kat O rather than Sha Tau Kok, although the fresh trade was certainly predominant at Sha Tau Kok. There were \"many salt fish dealers\" on Kat O in 1891 (Basel Mission Archive, doc. Al-25, No. 70).\n\nby\n\n54 These figures are calculated from the surveys of traffic on the roads in the area conducted by the Hong Kong Government in advance of the construction of railways in the area. See File CQ882(PRO London, copy at PRO Hong Kong), despatch no. 59, Sir Matthew Nathan to Mr. Lyttelton, received Feb. 13th, 1905, and File CO129/376(PRO London, copy at PRO Hong Kong), despatch no. 165 (page 582), from Sir Frederick Lugard to Rt. Hon. Lewis Harcourt, 28th April, 1911. The surveys were carried out on Dec. 11 and 12, 1904, and Dec. 26 and 29, 1910. The surveys were somewhat summary, but they suggest total traffic of this approximate amount. The Governor, in 1904, calculated that they suggested an annual total of 250,000 persons travelling on the road, with a quarter of them being coolies carrying loads.\n\nThese statistics are taken from the 1910 surveys noted in n. 34. The figures in the surveys have been analysed and averaged to give the totals given in the text. The surveys consisted of a head-count of people passing a given spot, mostly the summit of the local passes (Shek Chung Au, Wo Hang Au, Miu Keng Au). The surveys were conducted twice, once on a non-market day, and once on a market day. The averages have taken into account the number of market and non-market days in each month. The Governor noted that the numbers of travellers was much higher at peak seasons, such as when the rice crop was being carried to Sham Chun. Taking all the imperfections of the statistics into account, they can still be used to give an impression of the amount of traffic in the area. The figures seem high, but to put them into perspective, they are the equivalent of 1 lorry-load of goods entering the town every hour, and three double-decker buses every hour of a twelve-hour day.\n\n56 Administrative Reports for the Year 1926, App. J, \"Report on the New Territories for 1934\", p. J2.\n\n57\n\nI would like to express my very sincere thanks to those elders, especially those in Wo Hang, who have suffered the long hours of questioning that I have subjected them to on this issue, and especially the late Mr. Lee Yau Shi, and Mr. Lee Chung (Lee San-tuen), both born in 1907, and Mr. Yau Chu, born in 1911. I would also like to thank Mr. M.Y. Lee for his indefatigable help in setting up meetings and translating. Without his help, this article could", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213272, "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-1994", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "74\n\nthere are many forms of geomancy some of which are linked to their Four Elements* namely Air, Fire, Earth and Water, which, in turn, are linked to the four corners of the earth. North American Indians also have their forms of geomancy.\n\nLey Lines in Britain\n\nThere are also aspects of Chinese geomancy that bear comparison with European beliefs. 'Dragon veins' for instance, are similar in some ways, to the invisible 'ley lines' that crisscross Britain (see Oxford English Dictionary, vol. VIII, 2nd Edition). This pre-Christian network, 'woven' across the countryside, crosses bogs and mountains, links salient points such as hilltops, and, in some cases, follows ancient tracks which were once trodden by merchants when transporting commodities like salt and flint. Ley lines embrace, symbolically, rich identifying features like sacred sites, stone circles, menhirs, encampments, watchtowers, earthen mounds, wishing and holy wells associated with saints, moats and ponds, and graveyards (Miller, 1989). Key positions, often at crossroads, were formed at intersections of the 'ley' (or lay) which included sites like Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. From the latter, various astronomical observations can be conducted. Like watching the sun rise at mid-summer from the centre of the stone circle over the heel-stone.\n\nThe first stone churches were often built on pre-Christian sites, where symbolic rites had been performed, such as in the old 'Serpent Temples'. Some believe Saint Mary (the Virgin Mary) Churches are really Christianised versions of the old 'Shining Earth Goddess'. With the importance of life-giving solar energy and its involvement in everyday life, such events as the fire festival were important in ancient Britain.\n\nThis network of ley lines (Saxon 'leye'; an obsolete word for fire) which can be traced across the English landscape, is visible only to those who have 'eyes' to see it. Prehistoric tracks, sometimes pilgrimage routes, often followed ley lines. Roman or medieval roads were frequently not primary arteries but simply followed the ley. The Icknield Way running from the Wash down to the Thames, and on to the Berkshire Downs, is an example of a pre-Roman Track. There is also the famous Saint Michael Ley Line, with the Michael and Mary currents, which serpentines from the tip of Cornwall to the coast of East Anglia (Miller, 1989). Such lines are really 'routes' or 'corridors' rather than straight lines.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213317, "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-1994", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "120\n\nThe First China War was the culmination of many years of irksome restraint. The British, as did other nations, objected strongly to being treated and listed with Burma, Vietnam and Korea as tribute bearers. The immediate cause was the destruction of all the opium in Canton brought in by foreigners and in 1840 the Chinese fleet attacked a British warship, followed by, amongst other incidents, Canton being bombarded by the British, and the war was on. Palmerston was Prime Minister in Britain during this, the First China War, now possibly better known as the first of the two Opium Wars. It began with a desultory naval engagement and little further happened until Major General Sir Hugh Gough arrived from Madras in March of 1841. The British plan was, first, to capture Chusan island off the coast of Chekiang to use as a pawn in the demand for Chinese agreements to British demands. This proved to be a futile gesture and during 1841 and 1842 British forces, with the continued aim of pressuring the Chinese into legitimising foreign trade within China, proceeded to attack several ports one after the other up the China coast, creeping ever further north towards the capital of Peking, causing the Chinese greater apprehension about the future. The campaign eventually ended with the imminent attack on Nanking, the former capital situated on the Yangtze in central China, avoided last minute by the agreement by the Chinese finally to the terms of a treaty signed in August 1842. One of the attacks on the China coast was on the then city of Chapu, which was to be followed up with an attack on Hangchou.\n\nChapu had a tolerable harbour, with a great rise and fall of tide, so much so that the smaller junks were left high and dry at low water. Together with its suburbs the town, perhaps five miles in circuit built in a square and intersected by numerous canals, lay about half a mile from the coast. The Reverend Gutzlaff in his third voyage up the China coast in January 1833 arrived in Chapu and described the surrounding countryside as the Chinese Arcadia with nothing able to exceed its beautiful and picturesque appearance. He further described the canals, neat roads, plantations and conspicuous buildings, adding that the whole country (of China) from the Yellow River south was flat until one came to the high lands which formed the harbour of Chapu city. The sea, he added, was receding from the land and flats had formed along the shore, visible at low water and constituting a barrier to the whole coast. Gutzlaff found nowhere so much openness and kindness, the (residents') intelligent questions respecting Britain were endless with them never seeming to be satiated with (British) company.\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213331, "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-1994", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "135\n\nreminded us that \"at that time few places in the Far East had offered the political stability and religious tolerance of the Colony\". He also told us that the name of Bethanie was chosen after \"Bethany village\" of the Holy Scripture, and the inscription above the main entrance, Domine ecce quem amas infirmatio (Lord, he whom Thou lovest lies sick - John III) is part of the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus became sick\n\nAnd from the start there were sick missionaries in abundance In 1884, for instance, 43 missionaries had stayed at the sanitarium for some time.1 Our visit that day was memorable. It showed us another, broader side of British Hong Kong, and I have never forgotten it.\n\nChatwan and Shaukeiwan, May 1983\n\nThis visit was of a different kind, and focussed on Hong Kong people and on important new public works. As a serving government officer, I used my opportunities to combine old and new on RAS tours, showing our members what was being done in the way of new civil engineering projects of public housing development, for instance, and providing facts and answering questions about them. The Chatwan visit was one which combined these aims admirably\n\nOn a warm May day, we left Queen's Pier in Central District by a licensed passenger boat which took us along the Hong Kong Island waterfront as far as Chatwan On the way - the reason for our going by sea we were able to view the engineering and construction work proceeding along the length of the new \"Hong Kong Island Eastern Corridor\". This modern highway, with its several reclamations, elevated sections of carriage way, slip roads, and grade-separated junctions and interchanges, would link Chaiwan and Eastern Hong Kong Island with the Central Business District. It was intended to ameliorate, if not solve, the long-standing congestion and delays on the existing roadways which had reached saturation point.\n\nAt Chatwan we went by coach to Tai Ping Village, one of the last remaining of the extensive squatter settlements that used to cover practically the whole of the area in the mid-1950s Next to it was a new Urban Council swimming pool complex with its main and six other pools, completed in 1978 We then went to the site earmarked for the new Eastern", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213333, "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-1994", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "137\n\nKowloon Walled City, February 1989 and After\n\nThe Kowloon City tour was again very different. Some background is required. Excluded from the New Territories' lease in 1898, but in de facto British occupation since 1900, the \"Walled City\" had always presented problems for the Hong Kong Government, arising largely from its contentious legal status. No longer \"walled\" - its rectangular wall had been demolished by the Japanese during their wartime military occupation of the Colony - the enclave had soon after become a tightly-packed warren of unauthorized buildings without water supply, roads, or sewerage. In the 1970s - again without proper authorization - most of its four and five-storey structures had been replaced with high-rise buildings of twelve and fifteen storeys, greatly worsening its already unsatisfactory condition. The \"Walled City\" was notorious for drug-trafficking and other illegal or criminal activities. Most European residents of the Colony, and probably many middle-class Hong Kong Chinese too, kept well clear, and few of them had any real idea what it was like.\n\n22\n\nAfter signature of the Sino-British Joint Agreement in 1984, and with the agreement of the Mainland Chinese authorities, the Hong Kong Government had undertaken to remove, compensate, and re-house its population, and to demolish the buildings and replace them with a public park within the same boundaries. Here was a chance to show our members this rather infamous place that few had seen, and at the same time - as on the Chai Wan visit a few years before - let them know what was being done by the Government. By good fortune, one of my friends and former colleagues from the District Office, Tsuen Wan, was the officer in charge of the complicated negotiations with the City's business people and domestic residents, and he was very willing to make arrangements for a Royal Asiatic Society visit.\n\nIn the end, the tour's extreme popularity with our members entailed three separate visits, each attended by well over 100 persons. On each visit, after a general briefing, the government officers who acted as our guides - they included two young police women inspectors - talked to us about their work as they led small groups through the twisting, narrow, and confusing thoroughfares to meet our own RAS tour speakers at a few places en route where points of interest were explained. In my case, I had stationed myself in the courtyard of the former military yamen (government office) whose pre-1898 buildings had survived many fires as well as the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213379, "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-1994", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "188\n\nThese sites and their associated trees, which are usually of a great age and which villagers often claim were planted when the village was founded, are of fundamental importance to the fortunes of a village, more so than the fung shui woods themselves. In some villages, such as Ma Mat Wei, during the last war fung shui woods were felled so that rice could be bought for the impoverished villagers. The important individual fung shui trees, however, were never felled. Villagers will go to great lengths to protect these sites from private development and from government projects. Roads may be diverted to avoid harming such sites. While the importance of certain trees can be determined on fung shui principles, villagers who do not possess any fung shui knowledge may just call any tree they want to protect a \"fung shui tree\".\n\nShrines are in various states of repair or dilapidation according to the devotion and resources of the villagers and shrines may sometimes be completely rebuilt, such as at Tai Om where one of the main shrines was first built seventy years ago, but was rebuilt in the last few years and is surrounded by a small garden. Sometimes shrines may also be relocated, usually because of a road widening scheme, and the relocation of a shrine is a very serious fung shui matter. The relocation shrine at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, is an example.\n\nOccasionally a shrine may be abandoned, presumably due to a loss of efficacy by the residing deity. The Tai Wong shrine in the wood at Ho Sheung Heung is no longer worshipped, while it is the earth god, Fuk Tak Gung, who resides in the comfort of the village temple. There are also three Tze Jik shrines, which are more important than Paak Kung, protecting the village to the north, east and south. These shrines are particularly worshipped by farmers and protect the whole community.\n\nA typical layout of village shrines may be seen at Man Uk Pin, north east of Fanling. The Tai Wong shrine on the northern arm of the fung shui wood protects the whole village. The water spirit Paak Kung, by the dam on the stream which borders the fung shui wood, ensures the safety of the drinking water supply. There are also four other Paak Kung facing each of the four directions, with trees planted to protect them, including two within the fung shui wood, and one in the middle of the village. The villagers of Man Uk Pin take their spiritual protectors very seriously. Several villagers claim to have seen the spirit of Tai Wong himself while they were walking along the path at night. He was seen to be dressed in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213398, "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-1994", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "208\n\nMichie, Alexander, The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era, As Illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, Edinburgh, 1900 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing)\n\nMoges, Marquis de, Recollections of Baron Gros's Embassy to China and Japan in 1857-58, London: R Griffin, 1860\n\nMorrison, G E, An Australian in China, London: Horace Cox, 1895 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press)\n\nMorse, Edward Sylvester, Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes, Boston: Little Brown, 1902\n\nMorse, H B, The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, London: Oxford University Press, 1925 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing)\n\n—, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, 1910 (Taipei reprint: Ch'eng-wen Publishing, 1978)\n\nMossman, Samuel (editor of North China Herald), General Gordon's Private Diary of His Exploits in China Amplified, London: Sampson et al., 1885\n\nMote, Frederick Wade, China in the Age of Columbus, in Art in the Age of Exploration edited by Jay A Levenson, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991, 337-350\n\nMoule, A C, Christians in China Before 1550, London and New York, 1930\n\n+\n\nMoule, Arthur Evans, City, Hill and Plain, Stories of Missionary Work in Mid-China 1861-1916, Guilford: printed privately, 1917\n\nMullins, James of St Columban's Missionary Society, Cheerful China, 1925\n\nMurphey, Rhoads, Shanghai, Key to Modern China, Cambridge (Mass): Harvard University Press, 1953\n\nThe Outsiders: the Western Experience in India and China, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1976\n\nMyrdal, Jan, Report from a Chinese Village, London: Heinemann, 1965\n\nNagel's Encyclopedia-Guide to China, Geneva: Nagel, Third Edition, 1973\n\nNeedham, Joseph, Chinese Astronomy and the Jesuit Mission: An Encounter of Cultures, London: The China Society, 1958\n\n-, Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960+\n\nNeil, Desmond, Elegant Flowers, First Steps in China, London: J Murray, 1956\n\n4", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213501, "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": 97, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "65\n\nactually a few wretched huts or matsheds built on shelves cut out on the acclivity of a ridge. They were filled with Indian sepoys, the Bengal Volunteers. A supplement of a survey of Hong Kong in the Canton Press dated February 1842 gave us information about the Sai Ying Pun Barracks in 1842.\n\n\"A half-moon battery or platform which is to mount some half-dozen heavy guns on carriages is constructing at the extreme west of the town to protect the barracks there and at which are stationed the Bengal Volunteers\" (Sayer, 1937, P. 209).\n\nThe sanitary conditions of the barracks in those days were largely neglected. The water closet system that existed in the barracks was unfortunately unsuited to a tropical climate. Epidemics of fever spread through Hong Kong every summer in those early years of British occupation. In 1842, the Indian troops, stationed in Hong Kong lost nearly half their number. The death rate for the army in Hong Kong for that year was 25%.\n\nIn 1843, the sanitary condition of Hong Kong was most alarming. In the summer of 1843 an extraordinary outbreak of malaria fever occurred which during the six months from May to October carried off by death 24% of the troops and 10% of the European civilians. It was noticed that this virulent fever ravaged chiefly the extreme west and east ends of the British settlement. (It was due to the opening up of the ground by the troops in making roads or new buildings created marshy conditions that helped to breed mosquitoes). At the West Point Barracks in Sai Ying Pun where the left wing of the 55th regiment quartered, sickness was so universal that the regiment lost 100 men between June and the middle of August. On 20 July 1843, the troops stationed there were hastily removed on board ships in the harbour and the Barracks were abandoned and ordered to be razed to the ground. At the recommendation of the Committee of Public Health and Cleanliness, the ground in the neighbourhood was ordered to be levelled and well-drained.\n\nSince Sai Ying Pun had proved to be one of the most unhealthy spots in the Island, the main forces of the army began to move out of the place. The Royal Navy also found the naval base east of Belcher's Bay unhealthy and lay fully exposed to the fury of a typhoon and moved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213503, "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": 99, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "67\n\nridges and valleys, there seemed to have been an attempt to impose a grid-iron plan for the streets. Though there were some divergencies from this. Pokfulam Road was an old footpath of the Island and Water Street which recalled the old water tank and 'watering place' for ships was influenced by the presence of a nullah.\n\nIn my opinion, it is not difficult to explain why the road pattern was planned in that way. Firstly, in those days with those crude surveying instruments and limited manpower, it was the earliest plan to demarcate the streets in that ridge and valley terrain. Even in 1903, the surveying team consisted only of one inspector, 24 surveyors, 32 Indian chairmen and about 45 Chinese coolies.\n\nSecondly, the British laid out the district in an orderly pattern because they hoped to improve the congested living conditions of the Chinese quarters in this way. The early Chinese quarters like those in Tal Ping Shan district had rapidly become a squatter area. In 1855, a Land Commission was even appointed to investigate the overcrowding in Victoria.\n\nThirdly, the British may also have wanted to have some form of centralized control, political and military, in the Chinese quarter. As H. D. Talbot pointed out in his essay 'An Outline of the Urban Development of Hong Kong Island During the Nineteenth Century', those streets could have been planned as approach roads for the military. (Talbot, 1971, P.57)\n\nOwing to the Tai Ping Rebellion, which began in 1850 and created unsettled conditions in China for almost fifteen years, thousands of refugees rushed to Hong Kong. In 1861, 116,335 Chinese were registered in Hong Kong, a six-fold increase over the 1848 figure of 21,514. The entry of Chinese into Hong Kong in such a large number was unforeseen and naturally little housing provision was made for it. Demand for houses and rooms in Hong Kong vastly exceeded the supply. Every available space was at once filled and the overwhelming population overflowed the buildings.\n\nBy 1880, Sai Ying Pun had become seriously overcrowded. Unoccupied houses (including newly built houses) were being taken up rapidly by the inhabitants (Table 1). Tenement floors were usually", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213504, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "68\n\nsubdivided into a number of cubicles and sublet to a number of households or families. In the district, examples of over 25 people clustered into a living space of 600 square feet could be found easily. The great density and the serious overcrowding had become a matter of great concern. In 1890, an exhaustive report on the subject was submitted to the Government. However, no strong action was taken after that. In that report, an enumeration of the people of the district by the method of verbal inquiry, which could only be assumed as fairly accurate, had been made by the Chinese District Watchmen. A table (Table 2) has been drawn up to show the difference between the figures of the Overcrowding Report and that of the Census.\n\nThe question of insanitary conditions in Sai Ying Pun had also excited attention for a long time. The houses in the district were usually built back to back. The rooms were dark, damp, and badly ventilated. Very few houses had been cleaned or whitewashed inside since they were built. Latrines and dustbins seldom existed in those houses. A large proportion of the houses in the district had the old-fashioned drains which were built of bricks. As the old bricks rotted away, the sewers collapsed and blocked the pipes. Furthermore, a number of houses were converted or used as storage for grains and other goods. These contained an enormous number of rats and cockroaches. In 1881, the Government had decided to seek the service of a sanitary engineer, Osbert Chadwick, to advise as to the sanitary conditions of Hong Kong. A year later, he made a special report and proposed a number of sweeping changes, which included the provision of open spaces at the rear of buildings, of a window in every habitable room, and of 600 cu. ft. of unobstructed space for each adult in rooms divided into cabins, and the layout of roads and drains before the building lots were offered for sale. A Sanitary Board was set up in 1883, but it had only limited powers because of the stiff resistance from the Chinese as well as European property owners and the laissez-faire attitude of the government. The Public Health Ordinance of 1887, which, among other things, provided for the reservation of open spaces at the rear of buildings and the fixing of a minimum standard of 300 cu. ft. of internal living space per adult, and a clause in 1889 whereby mezzanine floors could only be constructed if provision were made for a vertical clearance of 5 ft. above and below, were also met with great opposition from the Chinese.\n\nThe insanitary conditions and the inevitable direct human contacts", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213507, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "71\n\ndistrict had to be resurveyed and re-arranged. Old roads should be improved and new ones should be opened. This drastic action on such grand scale would definitely cause a general increase in taxes and a subsequent increase in rents, wages and the cost of living which the Government did not want to happen. We must realise though that the basic problem of the district - the high density of the population coupled with the poor housing conditions, remained unchanged and lingered on in the next century.\n\nTable 1. Number of Unoccupied Houses in Sai Ying Pun\n\n1881 - 1891\n\n \n 1881\n 1882\n 1883\n 1884\n 1885\n 1886\n 1887\n 1888\n 1889\n 1890\n 1891\n \n \n No of unoccupied houses\n 55\n 170\n 110\n 97\n 38\n 32\n 24\n 27\n 25\n 40\n 36", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213605, "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": 201, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "173\n\nwith a strong visible presence along the colony's first line of defence.\n\nA very comprehensive description of the new observation posts was given in an article by Sub-Inspector M.E. Davis* which appeared in the HK Police Magazine in December 1953:\n\n\"The land frontier of the Colony of Hong Kong extends from Mirs Bay in the East, to Deep Bay in the West, following for the most part the tortuous course of the Shum Chun river. The country is intensely varied. The arable plain at Sha Tau Kok soon gives place to rugged mountains and deep gorges, which gradually fall away until the extensive marshy tracts near Mai Po are reached. Along the border for 16 miles of the length runs the frontier fence. It is, without any overstatement, difficult territory. The frontier area forms part of the New Territories Division of the Hong Kong Police Force, and is commanded by Mr. N.B. Fraser, M.B.E., Senior Superintendent of Police. One of the most important of the several methods of border control in effect in this area is the operation of a chain of Observation Posts\n\nThere are seven of these posts in the chain, covering the whole of the land frontier. Each is within sight of one or more of its neighbouring posts. All are accessible from the frontier road, or by means of jeep track from the roads. Most are located on prominent hill features which gives them an excellent field of observation. The elevation of the highest is over 700' above sea level. The frontier is divided into three sections, each with its complement of observation posts, which are controlled by a parent station in each section. From East to West the stations are Sha Tau Kok, Ta Ku Ling and Lok Ma Chau. The first has only one post, Pak Kung Au, under its control. Ta Ku Ling, the central and largest area has four, Kong Shan, Pak Fa Shan, Nga Yiu and Nam Hang. On the Western flank Ma Cho Lung and Pak Hok Chau posts are controlled by Lok Ma Chau\n\nThe posts are all almost identical in construction. Centrally there is a round, two storied, tower, and jutting from its sides are two long, one storied arms. The plan of the whole is roughly in the shape of a chevron. The upper storey of the tower is the Control Room, equipped\n\n* Deceased-Editor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213614, "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": 210, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "183\n\nones, having sprung up through private enterprise. Others, like a large newly completed temple in Tampenis New Town, were a complete surprise.\n\nBack in the early sixties I came across a deity who intrigued me because he did not appear to be worshipped elsewhere, and had an unusual multi-coloured striped face. He was known as the Great Emperor of the Seven Stars [the Northern Dipper], Qixing Dadi.\n\nThe temple was a basha hut with an attap roof in a humble and impoverished village on the road across the north east of the island towards Changi. The villagers were unable to tell me anything about the deity apart from it being a powerful stellar god, feared and carefully propitiated. I returned to the village a number of times and always came away disappointed. Nothing seemed to be known about his background and legend. Then, in the early seventies I again tried to find the temple but this time neither the village nor the temple remained and no one seemed to know where the temple had gone to.\n\nIn 1993 I was once more fortunate to revisit the Republic for a short visit and driving my hire car from the airport lost my way in the welter of new roads and found myself in Tampenis New Town. There ahead of me in the midst of the blocks of flats was a new and comparatively large popular religion temple. I parked and entered wondering just what I might find and was amazed to see a row of some nine separate altars facing me, all with two or three images on them with a large Pestilence Wangye shrine in the centre. I began to make notes and sketch in the detail when, at the first altar at stage right, was my old friend, Qixing Dadi.\n\nIt transpired that each altar was occupied by deities from nine separate temples from the area around the New Town, all of which had been demolished over the years to make way for modern development. The ending, however, for me anyway, is sad. Having re-found the Great Emperor and sought out the temple staff, no one again was able to help with his legend. A visiting devotee offered to help and over the next few months wrote several times explaining the progress or lack of it ending with the report that the old man who might have known more had died a matter of months earlier.\n\nSo here we have a minor cult, almost certainly brought to Singapore\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213629, "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": 225, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "199\n\n# THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR LABOURERS BURIED IN FRANCE\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nThis article complements the piece by Keith Stevens (RAS Journal No. 29), about Chinese Labour Corps members buried in England during or just after the First World War (1914-18).'\n\nBy 1916 there was a shortage of manpower in Britain. Conscription was introduced into the armed services and more men were recruited from various parts of the British Empire. These included Chinese who actually mostly came from Shan Tung (Shandong), but some were recruited from Honan (Hunan) Province. Together with British missionary and sinologue officers, many labourers were shipped from Weihaiwei (now called Weihai). This was British Territory and served as a naval base from 1898 until the Union Flag was lowered in 1930.3\n\nServing under British military discipline, in the region of 100,000 Chinese were shipped to France to dig trenches and construct fortifications for the allies. About 2,000 died from illness, wounds, or injuries sustained during or just after the war. Some were blown up by mines as they cleared battlefields after hostilities had ceased. Others succumbed to the influenza epidemic that swept Europe in 1919. A handful were shot dead in a mutiny near Boulogne. Those that did not return to China lie far from their native soil, in such places as Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension, Albert French National Cemetery, Arques-La-Bataille British Cemetery, Asco Communal Cemetery, and Ayette British Cemetery, in France. The largest and most decorative is the Noyelles-sur-Mer Cemetery, which has a portico built in Chinese style.\n\nOne September morning in 1995, my son, Barry, and I drove from Brussels to Foncquevillers, a village situated in the fertile, undulating French countryside between the Arras-Doullens and the Arras-Amiens roads. There are a total of 645 graves in this military cemetery, which is bounded by a brick wall and a hornbeam hedge. It is planted with catalpa and other trees. Many of the graves here are seldom or never visited by outsiders. In this well-cared-for tranquil spot, there are two graves of Chinese Labour Corps labourers, one of a French civilian.\n\nPage 225\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213679, "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": 32, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "3\n\nThe attempts by the government to improve and modernise teaching in the village schools, therefore, although they began in 1904, only started to make a real impact after about 1920\n\nHowever, even if there was an inchoate openness to new ideas in the area, nonetheless oral testimony from all over the eastern New Territories suggests that the traditional society of the area remained basically untouched until after the opening of the railway and the new roads brought the area into a closer physical relationship with the city.\n\nThe Kowloon-Canton Railway started operation only in October, 1910, and the light railway branch to Sha Tau Kok only in December, 1911.7 The railway was an important factor in the modernisation of the central and north-eastern New Territories, but the effects of the railway were, clearly, only substantial after 1910-11\n\nIn 1914, it was decided to build a surfaced circular motor road around the New Territories This was done in phases, between 1914 and 1921. Since the crucial Tsuen Wan to Castle Peak and Kowloon to Tai Po sections were only ready for motor traffic in 1921, the road system thus only became a significant factor in the modernisation of New Territories life after that date.\n\nIn the islands, there had been an intermittent steam ferry service to Cheung Chau from before 1899, but a regular daily service seems only to have begun in 1910. It is unclear when the regular steam ferry service to Tai O began, but it was probably shortly before 1915. It seems that it was only in 1919 that there was more than a single ferry service a day to Cheung Chau, and only from 1922 that there were more than two Easy contact with the city, and the modernisation and change that implies, began before 1899, but became a marked feature of islands life only after 1910, although the effects were clearly significant by 1921\n\nAll in all, it is clear that New Territories physical communications with more developed communities were poor before 1911, and only became a widespread factor of importance after 1921\n\nThe district officer noted in 1912 the changes that the railway in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213741, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "64\n\nDistrict, however, the total recorded urban population of males is far smaller than the recorded numbers of men in \"urban\" occupations. Clearly, many men traditionally went home to their native villages to sleep who worked by day in the Northern District towns and, probably, many craftsmen worked at home in their native villages, only occasionally going to sell their wares in the towns. This suggestion, of a more intimate and closely integrated urban/rural society in Northern, and a more thoroughly urban society in Southern, is likely to be correct. By day, the Northern towns may well have been twice as large as the figure given in the census, but, even if this is so, the difference between the tiny market-villages in northern District and the genuine towns in Southern remains stark.\n\nThe high number (376 in 1911, 378 in 1921) of masons and allied trades in Northern District, is to be explained, in part, by the construction of the roads, and the other public works projects the Government had begun after taking over the New Territories, but even more by the very large quarry at Lung Kwu Tan, which, as is made clear in the Village Population Table in the 1911 Census, employed 215 stonecutters and others. In Southern District there were 766 males working as masons or in associated trades in 1911 (6.9% of all males with recorded trade), and there were 989 in 1921 (the 1911 and 1921 figures for Southern District both including New Kowloon); in both 1911 and 1921 these people were mostly working in the large quarries at Chek Lap Kok off Lantau, and in the “stone hills” in New Kowloon, as well as in private and public construction projects. Stonecutters clearly tended to live apart from their families at the quarries where they worked. In 1911 in \"Lung Kwu Tan Quarry”, 215 males were recorded, but no females, and in Southern the quarries at Chek Lap Kok and at the \"stone hills” in Kwun Tong stand out. Chek Lap Kok had 55 males recorded, with only 22 females, while Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan, Lei Yue Mun and Cha Kwo Ling - the villages of the \"stone hills\" - had 625 males between them, but only 339 females. The Quarry Bay villages of Hong Kong Island, and the Shek Shan village in Kowloon, are other cases in point.\n\nThe censuses are unrevealing on the other known village industries. Up to 1917 there was a major pottery at Wun Yiu near Tai Po, and incense mills at several places, especially Tsuen Wan: none of the workers in these trades are specifically recorded either in 1911 or in 1921, unless under the “general labourer\" category. However, the lime", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213815, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "a fluvial plain nearly all fresh ploughed up. We were too late to see the paddy, or rice growing. Here and there were a few patches of barley, and now and then a field of hemp in full blossom that scented the air for a long way round. Often our road lay through fields of sugar cane. The canes grow about 7 or 8 feet high, and look very well with their green tops.\n\nThe highway road passing through these fields is a curiosity. It is raised a few feet above the field, and is about a yard wide on an average. On each side runs a ditch about a foot wide. Since these roads are only for foot passengers they answer very well. Remember there are no horses ever dreamt of, and only here and there a poor lean solitary Chinese cow, with a hump on his back on the hills. There are no hedges or fences, and thus it is all open country. The outside narrow ditches are all that separate the fields, and as most of the people are not troubled with shoes, a little mud and dirt is not minded.\n\nWe now and then passed a troupe of pedestrians on their way to the town to sell their produce and buy new supplies. Many of them had brown sugar in square cakes, and many more were loaded with oil, which is obtained from a kind of ground nut, largely grown in China. We often saw immense heaps of these nuts. All these things were carried in China fashion, with a pole, and a basket or bucket balanced on each side.\n\nEvery few miles we rested in a tea house, and in one, we got some preserved dates and plums. The dates were on strips of bamboo, three on each, and each string cost a cash. They and the plums were very good, especially to us who had been walking a great deal. We passed through Po-kuk - where Mr Lechler lived as a Chinaman for 5 years in one house which he showed us. He is a fine noble fellow and no mistake. Would that all our missionaries were like him. We were again on our route; and continually heard the sound of heavy firing at a distance. These towns and villages have continual animosity with each other, and are continually fighting. They can make their own clumsy cannon, and they pound away at each other finely, sometimes for weeks together. The different clans often get up a bit of a brush about something or other.\n\nOur road at length wound up a narrow pass between two hills, and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214053, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "88\n\nThe roads (some sections being only bridle paths) that followed included one from Shau Kei Wan to Sai Wan in 1845 and subsequently onto Stanley, another from Victoria to Aberdeen in 1846, one from Aberdeen to Stanley in 1848 and, at about the same time, another to Pok Fu Lam. These early roads and tracks were shown on the first contoured topographic survey (scale 4 inches to a mile, say 1:16,000, with 100ft contours) of Hong Kong Island which was carried out by Lieutenant Collinson of the Royal Engineers. The map was first published in 1845 and the quality was such that it remained in use, with periodic revisions, for some 50 years.\n\nAs might have been expected, the early roads were poorly constructed and often damaged in the summer rains with the wooden bridges being frequently washed away. Gradually the lesson was learnt and roads were surfaced and bridges constructed with masonry. Even so, as late as 1890, an editorial reported \"The recent rains once again worked up Queen's Road into a quagmire. Some months ago the road was re-metalled on a principle which it was believed would be sufficiently strong to withstand the wear and tear of jinricksha wheels, but it is now as bad as ever......... Until jinrickshas were introduced Queen's Road was always fairly clean, even in the wettest weather.\"\n\n**\n\nWhile the built-up areas were slowly expanding the road system was developing and, by 1908, Hong Kong could boast a network of 153 kilometres of roadways on the Island with cut hillside slopes typically being 75° and filling contained by masonry retaining walls. At this time a writer commented \"vehicular traffic is confined chiefly to handcarts, rickshaws and chairs suspended from poles borne on the shoulders of coolies, there being but a few pair-pony gharries and a Victoria or two used by the Chinese\". Around the turn of the century when Lugard and Harlech Roads were constructed encircling the Peak, local inhabitants were displeased - they thought it \"likened the effect of putting a halter around the neck of the Hill of Great Peace\". Fortunately no adverse consequences became apparent! The diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 was marked by a proposal to build a road around the Island; the scheme was opposed by the military and, after lengthy delays, the section below Mount Davis along the 45m contour (Victoria Road) was commenced.\n\nThe advent of the motor car stimulated upgrading the existing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214054, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "89\n\ncarriage roads and by the end of 1915 Pok Fu Lam, Aberdeen and Deep Water Bay were all accessible by car, to be followed by Repulse Bay in 1917, Shek O in 1923 and finally, in 1924, direct vehicle access to the Peak itself. After this date road construction on the Island was usually limited to road improvement, for instance to Kellett Road in 1928 and in the following year to Barker Road.\n\nThe timing of the development of much of the road network can be readily deduced from the names of streets named after Governors, military leaders and other prominent residents, for example on the Island Pottinger Street, Bonham Strand, and Kennedy, Hennessy, Chater, Sassoon and Stubbs Roads, and in Kowloon - Robinson (later renamed Nathan), Mody, Cameron and Ho Tung Roads, Kadoorie Avenue and Braga Circuit.\n\nIn Kowloon by 1887 a fairly comprehensive road system was in place south of Austin Road. The first 850 metres of the 30m-wide Robinson (Nathan) Road from Middle Road, some 1.1 kilometres of MacDonnell Road (later Canton Road), and Des Voeux Road (later Chatham Road) were all started. Many of the intersecting roads, for example Granville and Kimberley Roads, were already built. To the north of Austin Road the road network was concentrated in the southern Yau Ma Tei district with the 15m-wide 1.6km-long Station Road (later Shanghai Street) reaching Mong Kok Tsui. A small independent road system was already constructed in the Hung Hom area near the docks, for example Bulkeley Street and Gillies Avenue.\n\nBy the turn of the century there were some 35 kilometres of roads in Kowloon which included the first two original direct links into the newly-leased New Territories, that is those to Kowloon City and the Tong Mi area. In particular the road network in the new development at Yau Ma Tei was well under way and the Hung Hom road system had been enlarged and connected to the extension of Des Voeux (Chatham) Road. In order to relieve pressure on Victoria's densely built-up areas with their unhealthy conditions and at the same time to provide an easy access to facilitate opening up of the New Territories, the Harbour Master in 1901 proposed the construction of a cross-harbour bridge between Pottinger Street on the Island and Robinson (Nathan) Road, there being no engineering difficulty or \"any practical obstruction or even inconvenience to shipping\", the deck being 12 metres above high", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214059, "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "94\n\nThe tunnel was driven at a rate of about 18 metres/week through granite - surprisingly the most serious problems encountered appear to have concerned the labour, rather than the tunnelling itself, on account of fung shui difficulties and the prevalence of malaria.\n\nTo finalise the KCR project, an 11.5km-long narrow-gauge (600mm) branch line was constructed in 1911-1912 from Fan Ling to Sha Tau Kok on the border, mainly using track and plant which had been utilized in connection with the building of the Beacon Hill Tunnel, and operated until 1928. The civil engineering work was relatively simple, the deepest cutting and embankments being about 5 metres. For most of the route the railway shared bridges with the adjacent road but beyond Wo Hang some six bridges and numerous culverts needed to be built.\n\nWater Supply\n\nThe original inhabitants and new settlers in 1841 obtained their water supply from hillside streams. To augment these sources the first five wells for the city water supply were sunk in 1851. In 1859, the Government realised that the old haphazard supply system was totally inadequate and, following a prize competition for the best plan, implemented a small reservoir scheme in the Pok Fu Lam valley, the dam being little more than a stream intake, from which water was conveyed in 1863 through a 250mm cast-iron pipe to tanks above the city of Victoria.\n\nFrom that time the history of Hong Kong's waterworks was a continual struggle to catch up with the needs of an ever-increasing population and virtually never succeeded until recent years (when the Territory's water shortfall was imported from China). The original Pok Fu Lam scheme was soon scrapped and a new reservoir, with its 11m-high earth dam and a much greater capacity (300 million litres), was completed further upstream in 1871 when the population had risen to about 125,000. The reconstruction of the supply conduit, by means of a brick culvert along the 150m contour (Pok Fu Lam and Conduit Roads), became operational in 1877.\n\nThe first stage of the Tai Tam scheme, the principal feature being a 40m-high masonry-faced rubble concrete dam, was completed in 1889", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214064, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "99\n\n1941 there were thirteen operational batteries (complete with underground ammunition magazines, living quarters and access roads) on the Island, the earliest emplacements for these being built around 1895, an underground battle headquarters off Queen's Road near the naval dockyard (completed in 1940) and scores of reinforced-concrete structures comprising pill-boxes, observation posts, searchlight positions, anti-aircraft sites, bunkers, shelters, ammunition and stores dumps, tunnels and water tanks. On Stonecutters' Island the Royal Navy built between the World Wars a huge ammunition depot which included eleven large underground magazines; earlier the first land-based explosives' depot was completed here in 1876 from where it was transferred to Green Island in 1906. Of the original six battery emplacements designed and constructed on Stonecutters' Island during the period 1880-1905, only one remained commissioned at the outbreak of hostilities.\n\nThe two battery positions on Devil's Peak in Kowloon overlooking Lai Yue Mun gap were constructed soon after the New Territories' lease was signed in 1898 and a redoubt on top of the hill was completed by the Royal Engineers in 1914. The guns however were removed in 1936 and transferred to the Island. Subsequently the 18km-long Gin Drinkers' defence line was constructed during the mid-1930s across the hills to the north of the Kowloon peninsula and comprised a series of pill-boxes, trenches, bunkers and tunnels, the key feature being the underground Shing Mun Redoubt covering some five hectares on the northern flank of Smugglers' Ridge.\n\nThe decision to construct air raid shelters so that the whole urban population could be protected was not taken until 1940. In the space of about a year some 22 kilometres of 2.5m-size tunnels (of which about 80% still exist) were constructed on the Island and in Kowloon, including one adjacent to the Secretariat in Lower Albert Road which extended to Government House causing structural damage. In view of the urgent need for these tunnels, the project was arranged on a cost-plus basis and gave rise to rampant corruption, one architect involved even committing suicide to avoid giving evidence. The sub-standard pre-cast concrete breeze blocks made by the Director of Air Raid Precaution's girlfriend's firm are still (or at least until recently) known in the trade as Mimi blocks. Unfortunately the report on the Commission of Enquiry was never made public; it was taken into the Stanley internment", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214104, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "141\n\nattempt by the Portuguese naval engineers to deal with the silt from the Pearl River that fouls the harbour. Light industry is located in the areas to the northern end such as Areia Preta by the gate to China. Space is created which later finds use as the greyhound racetrack.\n\nBy 1979, we find the planned expansion changed in nature from that intended in 1927. At the southeastern harbour front, the designer (Jon Prescott) has implemented the plan in a less heavy handed fashion. Wide roads bound an area of tight streets with a few small urban spaces, again reminiscent of the scale of the old city, although with a more rigid geometry. The bounding roads are wide and traffic fast (it is on these streets that the Macau Grand Prix is held annually), effectively making this an island within the city, cut off from the rest of the city and the sea front.\n\nAt the northern end of the peninsula we find a large area of reclamation, large city blocks, wide streets and avenues with centre reserves but no plazas. The dog race track has been moved to Taipa, an island immediately to the south to which a bridge has been built, freeing up the land for lower income housing (Brito 1962). Light industry is also located in this new expansion but the relaxation of border controls to China have made a dramatic impact with much of the industry moving north of the border. This frees up land for more housing for lower income groups. The land to the eastern end has been bounded but used as a fresh water reservoir rather than for building as planned in 1927. This provides some open space located in a somewhat inaccessible corner.\n\nIn 1982 the proposal was made to expand Macau again. Traffic congestion and a polluted and silted waterfront (among other features) were giving the city a bad reputation. Seeing the successes of cities in the region, the Macau government and leading business figures decided that a modern city could be created by reclaiming yet more land and building modern structures (Prescott 1993). A series of public competitions were announced for urban development studies to guide the expansion of land area.\n\nFigure 5: 1979", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214131, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "170\n\nlocated. The Seventh Day Adventist Church, which stands at numbers 6-8 on the tree-lined Sun Yat-sen Road (formerly part of Tung Sui Road), was on the site of a building used during the war years as an officers mess (see Plate III). The clinic, which now stands at No. 28 Shui Dong Kai (Water East Street), is on the site where a 'hospital' and the BAAG headquarters were situated during World War Two. Then, Huizhou stood in a kind of ‘no-man's-land'. It was not part of 'Free China' nor was it really in Japanese occupied territory. But the Japanese did make regular incursions into the city which was an undercover centre for Chinese guerillas and the British Army Aid Group.\n\nMembers of the Allied Forces would occasionally escape from prisoner-of-war camps in Hong Kong and make their way, with the help of Chinese guerillas, to Sai Kung. From there they would sail over to the coast of China and proceed on up to Huizhou to link up with the 'East River Column' of guerillas. After rest and medical attention escapees would make their way to the hinterland and Free China proper. Huizhou was well positioned as an escape route which was provided by a road network, of sorts, and the East River which flows along to the Bocca Tigris in the Pearl River Delta.\n\n5\n\nMen who managed to escape included Colonel Anthony Hewitt (at the time Captain) of the ‘Die-Hards', the Middlesex Regiment, who gave a talk in November 1996, to the RASHKB entitled 'The Defence of Leighton Hill during the 1941 Battle for Hong Kong'. Colonel L.T. Ride also escaped to set up and head the British Army Aid Group. Sir Lindsay, who was Vice Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1949 to 1964, was also a founder member of the RASHKB, in 1960, when it was reestablished. He was President of our Branch from 1969 to 1972.\n\nAlthough members of our RAS Group saw a considerable amount of new building as we drove from Shenzhen to Huizhou on that November day in 1997, one was struck by the number of walled villages and watch towers. This part of China was, obviously, a pretty lawless region at one time, and, to some extent, it still is. One occasionally sees cars plying the roads without number plates and right-hand drive vehicles which have probably been smuggled in, one assumes from Hong Kong.\n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214400, "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": 258, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "224\n\nInstructions to Head Watchmen and Watchmen (hereinafter designated Watchmen)\n\n§1. The Watchmen shall thoroughly familiarise themselves with the terms of the Government Contracts for the General Scavenging of the town, and for the removal of night-soil respectively.\n\n§2. The Watchmen shall see that the night-soil carriers do their work properly;\n\n§3. The Watchmen shall assist to the utmost of their power in procuring that all householders remove the night-soil and urine of their tenements with strict regularity at least once every day, and it shall be the duty of the watchmen to bring to the knowledge of the Inspectors of Nuisances any omissions or irregularities in this respect that may come to their notice.\n\n§4. The Watchmen shall see that the Government Scavenging Contractor is punctual and regular in the attendance of his dust-carts along the streets as prescribed in his contract, and they shall see that every facility is given by the dust-men to the people to empty their dust-boxes into the dust-carts.\n\n§5. The Watchmen shall assist to the utmost of their power in procuring that all householders provide themselves with suitable dust-boxes in accordance with the standard Government pattern;.....\n\n§6. The Watchmen shall see that no house-slops which have been saved by occupants of houses for the use of pig-keepers are removed by the latter later than 7 A.M. in summer, or 7.30 A.M. in winter, and that in no case are such house-slops removed except in buckets provided with closely fitting covers.\n\n§7. The Watchmen shall immediately report to the Inspector of Nuisances the existence of any accumulations of rubbish or noxious matter which they may discover either in private tenements, or in roads, streets, open spaces, alleys, courts, nullahs, drain-mouths, or sewer-traps, and they shall immediately apprehend and give in charge to the nearest policeman any person whom they may detect in the act of de-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214427, "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": 285, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "251\n\nThe Stanley Battery\n\nThe 9.2 inch three gun battery at Stanley Fort was probably one of the most modern of its kind in 1937 in spite of the fact that the guns were second-hand, having come from the batteries at Devil's Peak and Mount Davis. The Mark X 9.2 inch 28 ton Breech Loader was the premier coast defence gun at that time and was used extensively in all major defences. In the UK it was sometimes railway-mounted so that it could be moved about together with its ammunition wagon. Rail-mounted guns, before being fired, had to be secured with heavy iron guys known as chain pickets to stop them toppling over from the force of their recoil. In fixed guns like those at Stanley Fort, the recoil was absorbed by a spring accumulator mounted to the rear of the gun. The Mark X had been developed from the Mark IX in 1899. It had a single motion breech mechanism with an electrical or percussion firing mechanism. Its maximum range was 29,200 yards, which meant that the upper gun at Stanley, which was mounted on a traverser, could reach targets in Kowloon and also the Lema Islands to the south of Hong Kong.\n\nThe weight of the Mark X B.L. including breech assembly was 28 tons, and the weight of the cradle mounting nearly 130 tons. As previously explained, the guns were transported from their old batteries by sea, as the roads would not have supported such heavy axle loads. The transportation of the guns and the construction of their huge concrete bases would have been carried out by civilian contractors, but the actual installation of the guns would have been undertaken by the Royal Artillery using a special portal crane known as a gantry crane. The installed guns would have been disguised with huge camouflage nets draped over them, and protected from the weather when not in use by canvas tarpaulins. The concrete gunhouses built over the two lower guns by the Japanese were probably not bombproof casemates and would only have given the gunners protection from the weather and from strafing by enemy fighters. Judging by old photographs of the gunhouses, the arc of fire must have been severely restricted.\n\nThe Stanley Battery, situated at the south-east corner of the peninsula, was made up of three gun emplacements and a large number of magazines, bunkers, and other battery support buildings spread over a fairly wide area. Most of these structures are still in existence.\n\nPage 285\n\nPage 286", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214510, "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": 368, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "337\n\nis good and allows for reasonably fast travel; the journey took about three hours. I had suggested to the guide beforehand that perhaps a stop along the way for \"refreshment\" would be in order. The bus pulled into an establishment that looked for all the world like a desert caravanserai, or some hostelry from the Wild West. The only commodity of any sort on sale was a type of large black mushroom, and a tea-like drink made from it. Our main interest, however, was with the toilet facilities - until we saw them, that is. A few of us were in enough need to make the considerable effort to go inside. Others decided to cross their legs for another couple of hours. I can only presume that German influence had not spread this far north.\n\nOn the way into the city of Yantai a large street-side sign was spotted saying \"No Whistling within the City Boundary\". Nobody could explain the purpose of this, unless it was a reaction to endless British tourists whistling Colonel Bogey.\n\nThe first point of interest in Yantai was the Fujian Hall. This was not in keeping with the colonial flavour of the trip, but was relevant to us southerners as being an outpost built in the north by the Fujian community that had been very active in business in the early days of Chefoo.\n\nMost of the old British remains are concentrated in a fairly small area - from the promontory of Yantai Hill east along the sea front to the former Chefoo School.\n\nYantai Hill is the place that once housed the British and other foreign consulates. It is very pleasant to walk the narrow roads and paths in this small area. A number of buildings remain, although very few are still used. Some are boarded up, and some remain only in the form of their foundations. It is not clear which was which, even with the benefit of old maps from the last century. However, a clear impression can be had of the peace and tranquility that still reign here, and of the commanding position that the residents must have had. I could almost hear a scratchy wind-up gramophone playing and the chink of ice in glasses of G&T.\n\nTo the west of the hill is the port, and there are still a number of small dock-side buildings that might date from the 19th century, but", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214515, "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": 373, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "342\n\noccupation, from 1889 to 1930. I found the exhibits and many photographs more appealing than some of the captions (memories of the \"years of pain\" etc).\n\nMost of the rest of the interesting parts of the island are to the left of the ferry pier. The first attraction is the Ching naval barracks, beautifully restored and now looking as splendid as it must have done when it was first built. It is reputed to be the best (or only) example of its kind in China. Looking rather familiar in its design - it is built around three consecutive courtyards stretching back from the main entrance - one would be forgiven for thinking it was in fact a large temple, with its colonnades and red painted columns. But the naval barracks it certainly was, even though it was relegated to be the naval canteen during the period of British occupation. The whole complex is now open to the public as a museum; exhibits include a number of guns and a large model of a battle between the Chinese and Japanese navies. This latter is rather a generous gesture, given that the entire western-built Chinese navy was destroyed by the Japanese in 1894/95. Resurgence is evident, however, as plastic construction kits of today's Chinese navy can be purchased throughout the museum.\n\nLeaving the waterfront after the Chinese barracks one finds a dusty road on which stand a number of houses, again in good repair and apparently used. Standing proudly by itself is the Masonic Hall, now emblazoned with a red star in place of the masons' square and compasses. In the museum there was for sale a fat (324 pages!) little book in Chinese all about the British occupation. I bought a copy for RMB 10, not so that I could read it, unfortunately, but because it contained three contemporary maps of the island in English. These showed that the other houses around might have included the Surgeon Commander's Residence, the Coal Contractor's Residence and the Accountant Clerk's Residence. Exact identification proved difficult as some of the roads and paths had moved from their original positions.\n\nMoving towards the west we found what must have been the cemetery, but it was clear that nobody was welcome to enter - the gates were well locked and the walls were high. Peering through the cracks did not reveal any remains of gravestones. Perhaps these had fallen victim to the enthusiasm of the Cultural Revolution, along with the two churches, of which there was no trace either.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214518, "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": 376, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "345\n\nIt immediately became clear, however, that although very similar to the building in the picture taken by Tess Johnston, the present building was somewhat different. On enquiry, we were told that the old building had been demolished and rebuilt as an almost exact replica. This appeared to be true.\n\nBeyond this, along the road, were a line of impressive European-style residences, with delightfully contrasting back streets leading left and right. The far end of this street opened into a cobbled square with six or eight storey apartment buildings, reminding me of the suburbs of Milan. In fact the whole city has a very European feel to it. Compared to many Chinese cities, Dalian is very neat and tidy, and organised. It is proud of being the first (or only?) city in China to rid itself of rats. (I witnessed some public garden workers in a state of great excitement when they thought they saw a rat in the garden they were working in - it turned out to be a squirrel when the four of them flushed the unfortunate beast out of the bushes.) The streets are clean. There are trees everywhere. The roads leading out of the city are marked with white bollards at the roadside. One finds oneself wondering how come this particular part of China can stand out so much as being - well, rather nice. The answer is quickly offered by anybody to whom you ask this question, and that is that it is the Mayor of Dalian who is responsible for the city's progress. He has travelled extensively overseas, and when he comes home he tells his officials that he wants to see in Dalian the sort of facilities that he has seen abroad. And he is getting his way. The man deserves a medal. It would not be surprising for Dalian to be giving Shanghai a good run for its money some time in the new century.\n\nAnother feature of Dalian is that there is very little in the way of graffiti, although our guide spoiled the illusion somewhat by explaining that \"nobody can afford the paint\".\n\nLunch was in an enormous restaurant where our party were the only customers.\n\nThe city tour continued with a visit to the Nanshan suburb, the former Japanese residential area. Here are a number of quiet leafy streets containing very smart houses that would be at home in Surrey or Kent or a London suburb.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214558, "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": 416, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "385\n\nRev. Wright provided the text for Allom's China and wrote a short piece entitled The Fortress of Terror, Dinghai. He claimed that 'during the British descent upon the coast of China, nowhere was the destruction of life and property greater than at Dinghai. Every hill on the coast in the vicinity of Dinghai was crowned with a battery of apparent strength; some of them too elevated to be effective. At the entrance of a defile, watered by a rivulet flowing from the valley of Chae-hu [sic], and on an eminence about two hundred feet above the level of the bay, stood one of those deceptive structures, misnamed \"The Fortress of Terror,\" in which the Chinese so lucklessly reposed entire confidence, when the British fleet cast anchor in the roads beneath. No troops, however armed or disciplined, could have acted with more eminent personal gallantry, than the Tatar garrison of the fort of Terror, yet none ever encountered a more signal overthrow.\n\nWright described Zhoushan as an agreeable scene, with every hill cultivated to its summit, every valley, from the mountain's foot to the river's margin with industry and fertility, producing a large surplus for the enrichment of the labourers. These productions, including rice, cotton, seed potatoes, coarse tea and candles made from the seeds of the tallow tree, were conveyed along canals in barges. The roads of Zhoushan were not constructed for the convenience of visitors, the gratification of travellers, or the mere objects of pleasure.\n\nIn describing the city of Dinghai, Wright noted that it did not stand upon the marshy ground but on the sloping side of the Yongdong Valley. It was surrounded by a brick wall twenty-six feet in height, sixteen in thickness, and six miles in circuit, with four entrance gates corresponding exactly with the four cardinal points. The city was intersected by open sewer canals, the streets were narrow and paved, and intersected by canals along the middle.\n\nBetween 1841 and 1844 the Westmoreland Regiment served with the British force during the campaign to capture and hold the Island of Zhoushan. The assault on and occupation of Zhoushan during the First China War was one of many along the coast of Southern and Eastern China. It culminated in the Treaty of Nanjing [Nanking] in August 1842 under terms by which occupation forces held on to several places until the treaty was fully implemented, Zhoushan being one. There was a school of British opinion at the time which strongly believed that we", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214663, "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-1999", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "42\n\narea faced in consequence a sellers' market, and doubtless the result was a steady increase in the number of fields under vegetables, and in the number of village households rearing pigs and other livestock for the market. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, buyers from Hong Kong could only buy from villages on the mainland sea-coast opposite the City, since there then were no roads to bring in produce from further afield, and no vehicles to carry anything either. However, even though market gardening must have increased in importance throughout the later nineteenth century, it is likely that demand from Kowloon City and the ships calling there was enough to make market gardening a significant feature of local life even before 1841.\n\nThe Nga Tsin Wai villagers say that rice cultivation stopped in the village well before the last War. Most of the elders cannot remember seeing any rice cultivation there in their youth in the 1930s. By then, the area was entirely devoted to producing food for the market. One contact said his mother and grandmother ran a pig-farm in the 1930s with 40 head of pigs - a very large farm for the New Territories at that date. That farm operated out of sheds built on the family fields, but a lot of villagers kept pigs and cattle actually within the walls of the village. The elders say that a lot of houses within the walls were empty in the 1930s. Many of the villagers had moved to the larger and airier homes outside the walls leaving empty premises behind (twelve villagers in 1902 owned houses both within the walls and outside, and a further nine had houses only outside the walls then). These empty houses within the walls were mostly used as pigsties and cattle sheds in this period: indeed, it is doubtful if there had ever been enough resident population at Nga Tsin Wai to fill all the village houses within the walls.\n\nA Sha Tin villager, Hui Wing-hing, F, of Shek Kwu Lung Village, wrote a series of poems about villages in Sha Tin and adjacent areas, mostly in the period 1890-1905, i.e. at approximately the same time as the Block Crown Lease Survey. For each village, he wrote about what caught his eye as important and special in that village. Market gardening was what he found most significant about the Kowloon City villages, and, in particular, the growing of fruit for the market. He has this to say of the League of Seven and Six Villages areas in his poem on the villages of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Tsuen Wan:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214674, "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-1999", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "53\n\n1902 the Nga Tsin Wai market gardeners were in a sellers' market, this was emphatically not so twenty years later. Finally, the sudden stopping of traffic over the passes lost to Nga Tsin Wai the business opportunities the village had previously enjoyed with the passing trade: from being an important cross-roads, Nga Tsin Wai very suddenly found itself a back-water.\n\nAccording to today's village elders, these economic reverses hit Nga Tsin Wai hard, but not disastrously hard. The contacts with the shipping companies and the Whampoa Docks remained, and more of the village youths now found work there. The village also established excellent contacts with the Royal Air Force at Kai Tak, and enjoyed something close to a monopoly in providing servants and general labourers for the small garrison there. Many of today's elders at Nga Tsin Wai worked at R.A.F. Kai Tak as boys in the 1930s. The relations of these village boys with the soldiers and airmen at Kai Tak were generally good. The airmen tended to treat the boys a little roughly, but without real unpleasantness.\n\nOne elder told me how, when he was working there as a boy of twelve, a group of airmen offered him a cigarette: when he said he didn't smoke, they said that that wasn't on - if he didn't smoke with them, he would be \"tied hand and foot and thrown into the sea\". So he took a cigarette, and another, and yet another, until he was, to the delight of the airmen, violently sick. Thereafter, the airmen gave him cigarettes every day, and insisted he joined them for a cigarette and a beer after work - he still today cannot rest unless he has a cigarette before he goes to bed. He says that he eventually became very good friends with these airmen.\n\nEven the market gardens at Nga Tsin Wai still provided income, albeit not as easily as before. The produce now had to be carried on shoulder poles and sold in Yaumatei, which is where the market was - a heavy job for the women who had to do it.\n\nIn the long run, an even greater threat to village life was development. Prince Edward Road and Argyle Street were completed as far as Kowloon City by 1924 (Boundary Street was completed a little later), and the land on either side of these new roads was cleared and sold off for development shortly thereafter. By 1930 Ma Tau Wai, Hau Pui Long, Ma Tau Kok, and Yi Wong Tin villages had disappeared forever, replaced by new suburban housing. Redevelopment of Kowloon", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214679, "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-1999", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "58\n\nsmall patches of vegetable fields. The present Diamond Hill Squatter Area, with the remains of the old Tai Hom Village at its centre, is all that remains of this huge area today.\n\nNga Tsin Wai was buried in this squatter area. Squatter huts were built up against the outer face of the old walls of 1724. The old moat area was not built over, however, because the ground there was too unsafe and damp. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall disappeared into the centre of the new Tung Tau Squatter Area, and the area north of the village was covered with a network of vegetable plots and squatter huts. As before, the villagers were, in most cases, quite unable to get any rent from the squatters, and just lost control of their sole economic asset - their fields.\n\nTo the northwest of the village an even larger squatter area developed around the Wong Tai Sin Temple (founded here in the 1930s), and the villages of Ta Kwu Leng and Shek Kwu Lung. This squatter area was cleared from 1955 for the construction of the Wong Tai Sin Housing Estates: Ta Kwu Ling and Shek Kwu Lung villages were cleared with the squatter huts which surrounded them. No special compensation was paid to the villagers of these villages, who received cash for their fields, and a unit in the new estates. Thus, by the middle 1950s, Nga Tsin Wai was left as the only indigenous village left in the whole area, except for Chuk Yuen, Yuen Ling, and Ngau Chi Wan to the east.\n\nNgau Chi Wan with Pak Uk Tsai was in turn cleared for development in the late 1960s (the villagers here were given a resite just north of the new road), Ngau Chi Wan for the construction of Lung Cheung Road, and Pak Uk Tsai for the site formation for Ping Shek Estate. What was left of Chuk Yuen went in the early 1980s (some of the village had disappeared a decade or so earlier), for the development of Open Space along Po Kong Village Road. Both the Yuen Ling villages went in the early 1990s, with the squatter area which surrounded them, for the site formation for the Chi Lin Nunnery.\n\nAt Nga Tsin Wai itself, the site formation for the original Tung Tau Estate (1960), and its access roads, led to the resumption of all the remaining village fields. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall was cleared with the squatter area around it. A resite was given for the Ancestral Hall, at the western end of the old moat (the resite was less than a quarter the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214791, "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-1999", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "171\n\nSusan Stewart (1984; 1993) therefore exaggerated when she said that “Nostalgia is a sadness without an object', although otherwise she well expressed the facticity of nostalgia: 'By the narrative process of nostalgic reconstruction the present is denied and the past takes on an authenticity of being...which...it can achieve only through narrative'; and \"Nostalgia is the repetition that mourns the inauthenticity of all repetition and denies the repetition's capacity to form identity'. \n\nThe Hmong people with whom I have worked, in Thailand and in Southwest China, express an almost incalculable nostalgia for the past through their death rituals, when the Song of Opening the Way' (Chuab Ke) is sung by a Master of the Way (mo). The soul of the deceased is addressed very gently by the Master, who figuratively takes him by the hand and leads him to collect his placenta from where it was buried beneath the floor of the house at his birth. Then slowly, step by step, the Master leads the dead back through a series of terrifying ordeals which encompass the entirety of historical time itself, back and back until the very point of origin is arrived at, the village of the lineage ancestors (your Mother and Father) from where you will be reborn. Here the soul will at last meet its true Mother and Father - but not those pleasant ones who seem to recognise you. greeting you with open arms and smiles at the door, but those terrifying, tall angry-looking ogres, these are your real Mother and Father...\" \n\n*Saub yom yiaj, at daybreak came one walking from the edge of the sky, dressed up in beautiful finery and wearing a splendid turban. I called you once but you did not hear, I called you twice and three times and still you did not listen. I fear that the one dressed in beautiful finery coming along the path is you, come out to play\n\nSaub us uj, listen carefully to what the Master has to say, I bear the crossbow on my back and take the cock under my arm to guide you on your way, you will come upon three roads, do not take the road to the left, for that is the road for the Yi people, do not take the road to the right, for that is the road for the Han people, but take the road in the middle, the little one with the filthy footprints and hoof marks, for that is the road of your ancestors, that is the road where you should go and play", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214871, "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-1999", "page_number": 286, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "255\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nFENGSHUI AND ROAD WORKS AT TONG FUK VILLAGE, SOUTH LANTAU, IN 1958\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nIn my memoir of government service, Friends and Teachers, Hong Kong and its People 1953-1987 (Hong Kong University Press, 1996), one of the opening chapters was devoted to my duties in connection with the Shek Pik Water Scheme on Lantau Island to the west of Hong Kong in the late 1950s. In it, I recounted the periodic confrontations with the villagers of that then remote place over the drillings and soil excavations needed to establish the viability of the proposed design for the dam, along with the similar difficulties experienced later on, during construction work on the reservoir, its access roads and catch waters. Bringing obstruction and delays, the local people's opposition stemmed from their strongly rooted belief in geomancy (fengshui) and in the adverse effects for man and beast certain in their minds to follow any tampering with the landscape, especially when its orange-red coloured soil was exposed to view.\n\nSimilar problems were also being encountered in adjoining old villages during the extension of the only recently completed South Lantau Road to the reservoir site. Five miles of new motor road were required, and the line passed through several settlements. There were difficulties with the villagers at each of these places, particularly at Tong Fuk Village, to which at one point I and my land staff had to make frequent visits because of the villagers' continual interference with the contractor's workmen on site, regardless of promises made and assurances given.\n\nNeedless to say, the appearance of Tong Fuk village today, with its array of smart \"Spanish Villa\" type houses, restaurants and shops bears no resemblance to its former self. In 1958, every house was old and built in the traditional architectural style, occupied by humans or livestock, or used for storage, and all its inhabitants were engaged in agricultural work, mainly in raising the two annual rice crops on which they depended for a subsistence livelihood.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214872, "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-1999", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "256\n\nGetting to Tong Fuk at that time was a slow business. After taking a scheduled ferry from Hong Kong, and travelling along the new South Lantau Road to the road-end at Cheung Sha, half the distance to Shek Pik, we had still to walk along old country paths and ford large and small streams. One of these stream courses was wide and boulder-strewn, and crossing it in full flood after heavy rain, as well as several smaller ones, was guaranteed to give one a thorough soaking. However, being young and active, and in high spirits, we thought nothing of it. In fact, I positively enjoyed it! Nonetheless, when visits were so time-consuming and there was plenty of work to do in the office and elsewhere in the District, the need to go out so frequently in that short space of time was not appreciated.\n\nOn this occasion, local opposition was centred on one especially sensitive spot, where the villagers insisted that rock and boulders be broken up by hand instead of being removed by blasting with explosives. My reluctant acquiescence made the District Office unpopular with the government engineers from the Roads Office, who thought we were pandering to the villagers. So it might have seemed, but there was otherwise certain to be a conflict with people who were quite numerous, united in their opposition, and always capable of taking the law into their own hands, not omitting sabotage of contractors' equipment and installations. In this respect, I may add, they were no different from the majority of New Territories' villagers of the day.\n\nTo run such a risk was not advisable in circumstances where both the senior police and civil authorities were based in Kowloon, several hours' journey from the site. Violent confrontations would not have been acceptable to my seniors; and in any case, it was part of my personal responsibility as District Officer to avoid that kind of thing. Moreover, further, and more prolonged delays would be certain to ensue. This was unthinkable.\n\nNonetheless, our experiences on this particular occasion were certainly rather trying. The full story, on two and a half closely typed pages, was contained in a minute to the District Commissioner dated 27th May 1958. I do not know whether it has survived in the Public Records Office of Hong Kong, but fortunately I kept the copy on which this account is based.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214873, "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-1999", "page_number": 288, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "257\n\nAs I reported to Mr. (later Sir Ronald) Holmes, the villagers had changed their minds about letting the work proceed \"a further three times\" in the four days that had elapsed since my first visit to the village to deal with the difficulty. Enquiring into the reason for the renewed stoppage of work, I was told by the village representative and elders that the deities in the two local temples had had to be consulted, and that the propitious day for resuming work would be a day or two later.\n\nFrustration and annoyance are writ large in my report on these events:\n\nI replied that I certainly hoped that this would be the case since I was not possessed of second sight sufficient to enable me to know what they had not said to me on my first visit [about the need to consult the deities].\n\nNor could I be expected to understand their frequent changes of mind during the past two weeks when they would say one thing to Mr. Abbas [the land bailiff], quite another to the contractor and the Roads Engineers when they wished to resume work, and yet another to myself; not once but several times all round.\n\nMasters indeed in the art of creating confusion and uncertainty!\n\nOn this visit, it had soon appeared that the villagers had thought up extra reasons for causing us delays. On our way to Tong Fuk, passing by the South Lantau Rural Committee office at Pui O, we had been given letters from the Village Representatives of Tong Fuk and the adjoining village of Shui Hau, making some additional points in the ongoing dialogue with the District Office. These concerned what I described as \"an entirely new series of complaints\" about the crop compensation to be paid in connection with the engineering works, the villagers professing themselves worried about the compensation schedules and about rates of compensation:\n\n... \"All this, mark you,\" [as I told the Commissioner], “though in their large-scale airing of perplexities on the Monday not one word of these matters had been breathed, saving only their concern about [the date of] payment.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214887, "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-1999", "page_number": 302, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "ONE OF HONG KONG'S MANY HILLSIDE TEMPLES:\n\n\"THE TEMPLE OVERLOOKING THE SEA'\n\nDAN WATERS\n\n275\n\nThere are a number of hillside temples, both on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon. But very little appears to have been written about them or about the communities that worship in them and frequent their environs.\n\nThis short paper looks at a small, ramshackle temple complex, including 'The Temple Overlooking the Sea', which used to cling to the hillside. Painted somewhat garishly bright red, green and yellow, it stood downhill, on the western side of where the remains of the old British Pinewood Battery are still situated. The latter, at 307 metres above sea level, was the highest of all Hong Kong's coastal defence batteries. To get to the temple you went up the winding, partly asphalted and partly concreted, Hatton Road, which starts at the western end of Conduit Road, where it joins Po Shan and Kotewall Roads. Hatton Road is steep and leads up to the Gap between Victoria Peak and the still, relatively unspoiled, High West.\n\nAbout half way up Hatton Road, on the way to the Peak, there is a branch off to the right, and, a further 35 metres or so along with a pavilion atop Dragon and Tiger Hill on your right, you turn left on to a concrete-paved jeep track. Proceeding downhill for approximately 300 metres you can still see the hillside scars and sorry remains of the old Temple complex. They are situated along what is sometimes called Cheung Po-tsai's Path, named after Hong Kong's most notorious pirate who was especially active in the first decade of the 19th century. Whether he actually used the path is debatable. It circles the western end of Hong Kong Island above Mid-Levels.\n\nNotices were posted up in the summer of 1999, in the area around the 'Temple Overlooking the Sea', saying that the complex was to be demolished. It was an illegal structure. The old Chinese folk who were very attached to the Temple were naturally upset and, although there were no strong protests, a few of them did attend meetings organised by government departments. Although the Temple folk sometimes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214915, "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-2000", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "CONTENTS\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT ............................................................ XIV\n\nFRIENDS OF THE HKBRAS (UK) REPORT .......................... xxvii\n\nHON. AUDITOR'S REPORT ....................................................... xxx\n\nHON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT ................................................... xlii\n\nARTICLES\n\nSolomon Bard - Tea and Opium ............................................... 1\n\nTeresa Kowalska - Tea, Ivory and Ebony: Tracing Colonial Threads in the Inseparable Life and Literature of Han Suyin ........ 21\n\nBrian C. Fawcett - The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921 ............................................................... 33\n\nKeith Stevens and Jennifer Welch - The Celestial Ministry of Time ............................................................... 113\n\nKeith Stevens - Images on Popular Religion Altars of the Heroes Involved in the Suppression of the An Lushan Rebellion (AD 755-763) ........................................................ 155\n\nDan Waters - The Two Obelisks at Tai Tam ....................... 185\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nKeith Stevens - Patron Deity of Prostitutes: Zhu Bajie ........ 195\n\nBarbara Park - A Walk along Harlech and Lugard Roads ...... 197\n\nDan Waters - Designatory Letters after an RAS Member's Name ............................................................... 205\n\nDan Waters - Photographs from the HKBRAS Photographic Exhibition held in January 2001 at the City University ........ 207", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214983, "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-2000", "page_number": 79, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "35\n\nOn the British side, other nationalities were considered for recruitment for use in Labour Corps, including Egyptians (thought to be reliable), Indians (considered to be lazy and would be affected by the climate), Maltese (whom Kitchener thought bad workers), as well as conscientious objectors, but were deemed for various reasons to be unsuitable. There were Labour Corps serving in France from Egypt, Fiji, India, Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, the British West Indies as well as a Native Labour Corps from South Africa.\n\nFollowing protracted negotiations between Beijing, the British Government and the War Office, the first contingent of 1078 coolies, under six officer candidates, one doctor and one regular Army captain, left Weihai Wei on 18th January 1917, three months after recruitment commenced.\n\nThe (British Army) Labour Corps was formed in April 1917 from various ASC, RE and infantry labour units which had come into existence from the early days of the war to meet the need for unskilled labour in large numbers for handling stores, constructing rear lines of defence, making and repairing roads, etc.\n\nAt the same time a Directorate of Labour was formed at GHQ, BEF, to take over the control, administration and allocation of all labour. Companies belonging to the Chinese or similar Labour Corps were included but not RE technical units.\n\nChinese were recruited both directly and through the Wei-min and other recruiting companies while Chinese-speaking British personnel for officers were contacted directly through the British Legation in Peking. Later, advertisements were placed in newspapers throughout the British Empire seeking Chinese-speaking Europeans to enlist as officers and NCOs in the CLC.\n\nThe Chinese, invariably from the “up-country” farming class, were mainly recruited from the provinces of Shandong and Zhili [Chihli in the former romanisation, and the metropolitan area covering much of present-day Hubei province]. They were considered physically strong and were used to adverse weather conditions. Others also came from the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and even as far as Gansu. This was ascertained from the graves of those visited.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214984, "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-2000", "page_number": 80, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "36\n\nAll those interested in joining were told to report to Weihai Wei where they were housed in the barracks of the previous British-officered colonial regiment of Chinese, as the buildings were still in existence. Weihai Wei, located on a bay on the north coast of the province of Shandong, was formerly the HQ of the Chinese Northern Fleet. The British lease of this was signed on 1 July 1898 on the stipulation that the British could lease it as long as the Russians held Port Arthur, the port on the other side of the Gulf of Zhili. Weihai Wei was the summer station of the British Asiatic Squadron, known as the China Fleet. Later, after Qingdao [Tsingtao] had been taken from Germany, this was used as it had better port facilities, railway and roads.\n\nOn arrival at the recruiting centre, each prospective recruit received a medical. He could be rejected, amongst other reasons, for having trachoma [an eye disease], tuberculosis, venereal disease and bad teeth. Between 30% to 60% were rejected as medically unfit mostly due to eye troubles, which is not surprising in a region known for its summer sandstorms and dust. Lyn Macdonald, in her book Somme mentions that some labourers were recruited from the Chinese prisons. I, personally, would not consider this correct, as the authorities would interview each candidate and, if found to have a criminal record, would be rejected. With the large number applying why would they recruit prisoners, who may cause unnecessary trouble? Daryl Klein mentions that some coolies were recruited from Shandong and comprised men of differing work backgrounds, namely farmers, carpenters, brickmakers and bricklayers, dressers, weavers, brass-smiths, black-smiths, bakers, stonemasons and ex-soldiers. Nowhere does he mention ex-prisoners.\n\nIf the above tests were passed, the men were given serial numbers, which, with their names, were written down in romanised letters and Chinese characters. Difficulties arose if the men did not know their names or surnames. He may say that he lives in a family village and offer the village surname as a suggestion or simply give his nickname, but most knew their mother's surname because of the Chinese custom of exogamy. Problems also arose when trying to ascertain the recruit's address, for similar reasons.\n\nA bracelet, stamped with his number, was securely fixed to his wrist. As this was considered degrading this system was eventually discontinued.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214990, "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-2000", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "42\n\nbalance being formed of an interpreter, a Head Ganger (equivalent to a CSM). Some Class One Gangers [sergeants], 7 Class Two Gangers [corporals] and 16 Class Three Gangers [lance-corporals] in charge of 14 men. These were known as paitou. No military titles were used for the labourers as they were not regarded as being service personnel.\n\nThe labourers were expected to work up to ten hours a day for seven days every week, time off being allowed for Chinese holidays. This was the norm for Chinese workers back in China and therefore not considered untoward. They were employed in ports to unload/load cargoes, repair roads, lay railway lines, build huts and aerodromes. At the end of the War, they were used to level shell holes, search for and unearth unexploded bombs, roll up barbed wire and also to collect the remains of bodies and bury them in graves already dug by CLC labourers. In some areas the labourers were eventually running their own truck repair shop, smith's shop, paint shop and motor-cycle repair shop. Others maintained the artillery and serviced tanks. Some also, as a pastime, constructed items from used war material [bomb cases, bullets, grenades, etc.] as souvenirs for the soldiers, and these items formed and were eventually known as 'Trench Art.' They were also adept at making items from other materials and also modelling and carving from chalk. The Imperial War Museum, London, has on display two lions carved from chalk and also, not on display, a lion modelled from clay by a labourer no. 53279, of the CLC. Unfortunately, there are no further details about this model. (see photograph)\n\nTo provide a picture of how Chinese labourers were employed let us examine the development of their employment on tank repair over the twelve months from August 1917 to August 1918. Members of the CLC first arrived at the Tank Central Workshops on 8th August, 1917. These were located in the Ternoise Valley, on the road between Hesdin and St. Pol. Tank HQ was at Bermincourt, Central Workshops at Erin but the whole establishment later expanded to take over more of the valley and include more villages.\n\nThe 51 Chinese Labour Company, consisting of 4 officers, 12 British NCOs and 200 tradesmen, was followed, on 26th August, by an additional 270 tradesmen.\n\nA large number of the men failed the trade tests and, for those who", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214992, "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-2000", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "44\n\nIt was considered that more rapid progress could be made with the utilisation of the Chinese [British] officers as they had technical knowledge and could speak the language. At a meeting at which the CO of the 78th Labour Group, Lt Col. Cline, together with all the Chinese Company officers, it was decided that 2Lt Carter be attached to the Works Office staff to administer the Chinese Labour with one Chinese Company officer attached to each section to supervise the Chinese labour. They were responsible, amongst other duties, for bringing to the notice of Section Commanders any coolies for trade training. This scheme produced better results in that the Chinese were continually supervised and also that they appreciated someone looking after their interests.\n\nIn March, 1918, a total of 248 Chinese were skilled at varying jobs from fitters, riveters, carpenters and strikers amongst others. Squads were formed for performing particular jobs such as detracking and changing engines.\n\nBetween January and March, under 2Lt Burgess, the Chinese were extensively used for the construction of the new workshop at Teneur. Under Captain Jackson, all cement foundations were laid, together with the Decauville Lines system and sleeper roads. At Teneur the Chinese performed similar tasks as previously, first on the repair of Mark IV tanks and then on the conversion and subsequent repair of male and female Mark V tanks. [see photograph no. G]\n\nAs a result of heavy demands in the Engine Shop during September and October, 1918, the Chinese skilled labour was increased, with a result that 24 big-end bedders were employed. These men considered themselves the highest grade and refused to work on any other job.\n\nThe Camouflage Section responsible for the painting of all tanks and the repair and manufacture of all camouflage material consisted of about 70 Chinese.\n\nAccording to Sir Albert Stern, a Malay donor, Mr Eu Tong-sen, who was a member of the Federal Council of the Malay States, offered a sum of £6,000 towards a tank, the average price at that time being between £4,000 and £5,000, but whether from his personal resources or as a gift of the Federal Council is not clear. A Mark IV male tank", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215017, "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-2000", "page_number": 113, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "69\n\nwere isolated for intensive treatment, and light work. Some worked in the Crecy forest, at Blanches Hetres, cutting timber for trenches and fascines for the roads, etc.; others worked nearer the camp.\n\nOriginally the Hospital compound surrounded by a barbed wire fence, consisted of eight triple marquees, each with 50 beds. Stuckey examined up to 500 coolies each day. In mid-June, Dr. Earnest Peill, also of the LMS China, was appointed Registrar and Surgeon and O.C. Chinese Personnel, the latter post to deal with all the troubles of the Chinese, rosters and employing staff. In December 1917, there were almost 200 Chinese on the Hospital staff.\n\nUnder the C.O., Major Gray [formerly of the Peking Legation], the staff functioned efficiently, necessitating expansion of the Hospital from 300 beds to 1,040 beds within six months, capable of inspecting up to 1500 coolies per day.\n\nFrom bringing water from a pool it now had a well and pump, and shortly electricity would be installed. Stuckey was appointed Treasurer for any money the staff wished to deposit with him for safekeeping, of which he was the President, Cashier, ledger keeper, etc. Such money was utilised to buy bonds earning 5% over six months.\n\nThe Hospital received many visitors including Col. Lister and Maj. Cunningham, the British Army's ophthalmic specialists, General Tang of the Chinese HQ Staff and doctors from surrounding hospitals.\n\nIt appeared that the death rate was high for a unit whose contract specified that they should not work on any kind of military operation. After China declared war on Germany on 14th March 1917, this clause was not so strictly observed. The British military authorities ordered that the Chinese must be buried in their own plot and not near a Hindu or a Christian plot, in a box or coffin. The cemetery at Noyelles-sur-Mer was selected by the Chinese for its fengshui [on a slope facing a small stream]. It was the Orderly Officer's duty to conduct the burial service, seeing that a party of patients attended and that they returned safely to the Hospital. One returning party raided a carrot field and another raided a turnip field, pulled up and cut off and replaced the heads of the turnips.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215020, "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-2000", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "72\n\nThe Mairie is only open part-time and we again gained some useful advice and knowledge.\n\nThe Chateau de Fransu, the billet of Col. Fairfax, GHQ Adviser, CLC, is now a logis, mainly for families. During the Second World War it was the local German HQ. [see photograph]\n\nThe Chateau de Thesy in extensive grounds was the officers quarters and mess for the HQ, CLC. It is now being extensively renovated. It is privately owned. [see photograph]\n\nThe Hotel des Voyages, near the railway station, was the main café of the village and was patronised by British Labour Corps NCOs. It is now the Hotel Restaurant Bernard. [see photograph]\n\nWhen visiting, we stayed at the 16th century Auberge du Chateau de Nolette, about a mile from Noyelles-sur-Mer and within easy walking distance.\n\nOutside the church at Noyelles-sur-Mer there is a memorial to those from the village who were killed. We saw some young children playing around it and I was moved to think that those named on the memorial did not die in vain so that future generations may live in peace and freedom.\n\nOn a later visit, a few weeks later, this time accompanied by Keith Stevens, we managed to visit the grounds of both the Chateau de Fransu and the Chateau de Thesy and spoke with the owner of the former and the caretaker of the latter. We also visited the site where possibly the Chinese hospital, with subordinate and ancillary buildings and detention centre had been established. French residents of a lone newish house almost opposite pointed out where they understood the hospital and detention centre had been.\n\nAn unexpected, and to date unexplained, observation was the pair of small white stone Chinese lions concreted on to plinths at a main cross-roads within Nolette, very close to Noyelles-sur-Mer. The inscriptions, in Chinese and French, explain that they were donated to commemorate the twinning, in 1994, of the small village of Noyelles-sur-Mer with the fishing town of Tungkang [Donggang] some forty", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215026, "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-2000", "page_number": 122, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "78\n\nStaff Officer for the HQ mess. The Head Ganger was from Tsinan [Jinan] in Shantung, under him were I think four Gangers, and the Labourers were all from Northern China, my father said they were all tall men and physically very strong and hardy. While clearing munitions one of them had been very badly injured when he pulled the pin from a grenade out of curiosity, and to the amazement of the British was able to return to work after a few weeks. My father said that for minor ailments the Chinese practised acupuncture on each other using a needle stuck in a cork.\n\nThe unit my father joined moved backwards and forwards with the last German Offensive of the War, he had great trouble finding them initially, and after the Armistice seemed to work mainly in the area around Amiens remaking roads, clearing munitions, collecting corpses, destroying animal corpses, clearing wells, and digging ditches to restore the drainage to arable land. It was a priority that the local French farmers were able to plant their fields as soon as possible as the population who had been behind the German lines were close to starvation. The condition of some of the French children in these areas made a deep impression on my father and on the Chinese who seemed very fond of children and used to give them their rations.\n\nAlthough the Chinese were willing to work waist deep in water, they often refused to work when it was raining much to everyone's exasperation. One who insisted on working while holding an umbrella in one hand had it broken over his back by a Ganger. Punishment was either by fining or flogging. My father asked the Head Ganger which was better, and the Head Ganger assured him that since they were all there to make money flogging was better. The Labourers, said the Head Ganger, would resent a fine but a flogging would be nothing to them. My father said this was borne out by one of the Officers who refused to flog on principle being chased down a road by a crowd of angry Chinese. A flogging would be administered by a Ganger and would be watched by the other Labourers who stood laughing at the victim's stupidity at being caught. The man who was tied to a post, often had wet tea leaves poured over his head. Wherever the Chinese went there was a bonfire with tea brewing.\n\nOne of the Officers with the unit, a Mr. Ferguson, was robbed and murdered while off-duty by European labourers who had been paid off", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215037, "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-2000", "page_number": 133, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "Abbeville Communal Extension, Somme\n\nAlbert French National, Somme Arques-La-Bataille British, Seine-Maritime Ascq Communal, Nord\n\nAuberchicourt British, Nord\n\n*\n\nAyette British, Pas de Calais\n\nAyette Indian and Chinese, Pas de Calais\n\nBagneux British, Gezaincourt, Somme Bailleul Communal Extension, Nord\n\n \n 1\n 71\n \n \n 4\n 3\n \n \n I\n 34\n \n \n 2\n 31\n \n\nBeaulencourt British, Ligny-Thilloy, Pas de Calais 14 Bellicourt British, Aisne\n\nBlargies Communal Extension, Oise Bourlon Wood, Pas de Calais\n\nCaudry British, Nord\n\nCharmes Military, Essegney, Vosges\n\nChocques Military, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 7\n 3\n \n \n 21\n 1\n \n \n 3\n 19\n \n \n 4\n 1\n \n \n 16\n \n\nCroisilles British, Pas de Calais\n\nCross Roads, Nord\n\n \n 2\n 2\n \n\nDaours Communal Extension, Somme\n\nDernancourt Communal Extension, Somme\n\n \n 6\n 3\n \n\nDon Communal, Annoeullin, Nord\n\n \n 2\n \n\nDouai British, Cuincy, Nord\n\n \n 3\n \n\nDoullens Communal Extension No2, Somme\n\n \n 1\n \n\nDuisans British, Etrun, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 2\n \n\nEbblinghem Military, Nord\n\n \n 1\n \n\nEtaples Military, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 1\n 4\n \n\nFoncquevillers Military, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 2\n \n\nHazebrouck Communal, Nord\n\nFosse No 10 Communal Extension, Sains-en-Gohelle, Pas de Calais\n\nGezaincourt Communal Extension, Somme Haute-Avesnes British, Pas de Calais\n\nHuby-St Leu British, Pas de Calais Lapugnoy Military, Pas de Calais Le Fermont Military, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 49\n \n \n 4\n \n \n 12\n \n \n 1\n \n \n 5\n \n \n 2\n \n\nLe Portel Communal, Pas de Calais\n\n \n 1\n \n\nLe Quesnoy Communal Extension, Nord\n\n \n 2\n \n\nLes Baraques Military, Sangatte, Pas de Calais 197\n\n \n 4\n \n\nLes Rues-des-Vignes Communal, Nord\n\n \n 1\n \n\nLille Southern, Nord\n\n \n 2\n 2\n \n\n89", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215143, "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-2000", "page_number": 239, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "197\n\nA WALK ALONG HARLECH AND LUGARD ROADS, THE PEAK, AUGUST, 201\n\nBARBARA PARK\n\nThe Hindustan Gentians, Bottlebrush Ginger and Buttercup Orchids are in flower near Lugard Road as I write. They hide in the shadows, avoiding discovery by all but the eagle-eyed (including the author). What a delight is this road, providing shade, flora, fauna and views to please all but the truly jaded!\n\nThe road was completed in 1924, and the photographs below provided by Mr. Doug Franklin, are much appreciated. Doug lived at No. 34 Lugard Road, during the time his father was Editor of the South China Morning Post, which I believe was in the 1950s.\n\nPhotograph No. 3 shows Doug's house, and readers will be astonished to see the barrenness of the slopes thereabouts, which are now very heavily wooded. It appears from this photograph that Mr. Franklin Senior planted the Livistona Chinensis palms which now majestically grace the property.\n\nThe oldest house on the road is No.27, built in 1911, which previously housed the Swire Mess. This is a grand two-storey dwelling, much restored by the late Mr. Bob Lusher, in which the staircase from the old Hong Kong Club stands proudly. Younger are Nos. 28, 32 and 34, all built around the early 1930s. No. 28 was built by Mr. Lennox Godfrey Bird, senior partner of the architectural practice of Palmer and Turner (still a prominent firm to this day) as his own residence. No. 32 (Dragon Lodge) has had very mixed fortunes over the years, and I am assured by a former resident that the ghosts are very much in residence, and have caused her some distress.\n\nNo. 30, the apartment house known as Hirst Mansions, was built by the General Electric Company of the U.K., post-war, to provide accommodation for its senior staff, the last of whom, Mr. Alastair Murray, left Hong Kong during the 1980s.\n\nNo. 25, built as a colonial mansion, and formerly owned by Dr. H. Wen, has been abandoned, and presumably will be demolished, a sad fate for such a beautiful dwelling. The same fate appears about to befall", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215144, "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-2000", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "198\n\nNo.26, which, during the early 1980s had a marvelous garden presided over by Mrs. Heddenstett, a keen cook who grew every imaginable type of herb.\n\nSedan chairs were, of course, the method of transport, in the 1930s on these roads, and photograph No. 4 shows the handlers taking a rest, with a bare Kowloon in the background. The text reads: \"The chairs are comfortable, the springy movement imparted by the bamboo poles, so long and flexible, is delightful, and the steady, almost automatic stride of the men inspires confidence in their ability to bear us safely to the topmost points and down the steepest slopes.' (Presumably these photographs and remarks were taken from the S.C.M.P. of the day.)\n\nLastly, photograph No. 5 is a faint image of an Englishman showing his pith helmeted son the view of Kowloon, with not a building to be seen, taken in the 1930s.\n\nToday of course, the snakes are still active, and recent sightings (and, in some cases, deaths) include pit vipers and cobras. On the subject of wildlife, the author recently heard the coughing sound of a barking deer, high above the road, but hasn't seen the small red-shelled land crabs for years now.\n\nCivet cats and porcupines are still about late at night, the latter shedding quills on the roadway.\n\nUntil a few years ago, a stone monument to the Middlesex Regiment stood at the junction of Harlech and Lugard Roads, but has been removed. The author does not know of its present whereabouts.\n\nThe Geotechnical Department has had a busy time over the last few years, spraying shotcrete on many of the slopes above Harlech and Lugard Roads, to the distress of many of us, but, despite this, the area still has great charm. Current plans from the Government are to upgrade the area to make it more “tourist-friendly” and the author is liaising with the relevant Government Departments to make sure that this is done in a sensitive way. In the absence of major typhoons for many years, the vegetation on Harlech Road has grown wildly and former beautiful views to the south are now obscured. Permission was granted two years ago to cut \"windows\" into the vegetation, and this has proved very popular with visitors and locals alike.\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215276, "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-2001", "page_number": 53, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "# ARTICLES\n\n## INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL EMPIRE AND THE IMPERIAL ECONOMIC CONFERENCE AT OTTAWA 1932\n\n### NORMAN MINERS\n\nIt is generally agreed that the development of manufacturing industry in the colonial empire was very limited. A recent study of colonial development describes progress before independence as derisory.1 Joseph Chamberlain spoke of the colonies as a great underdeveloped estate that must be developed with imperial assistance for the sake of the local population and also for the benefit of the whole world. Similar sentiments were expressed by Lord Lugard, Lord Milner, Leopold Amery and many others. But development was seen primarily as the expanded production of foodstuffs, raw materials and minerals. Colonial governments encouraged the production of cash crops for export and built the roads, railways and harbours to transport produce to markets overseas, but they were unwilling to spend their limited tax revenues to assist the establishment of local industries.\n\nThe attitude of the British government was that the colonies were essentially agricultural and producers of primary commodities in a complementary partnership with the industrialised nations, chiefly the United Kingdom. The artificial encouragement of manufacturing was contrary to the prevailing ideology of free trade and the belief that the state should not intervene to distort the free play of economic forces. Expatriate trading firms were interested in the profits to be made from exports and imports rather than the processing of primary products or manufacturing for the local market. Indigenous businessmen were few and faced formidable obstacles such as the small size of the local market, unskilled and untrained labour, lack of access to long-term credit from foreign banks and competition from established imports from the metropolis.\n\nIt is said that the industrial development of the colonies was deliberately restrained by the British government, which was unduly deferential to commercial interests who objected to local manufacture displacing exports from Britain. It has also been claimed that colonial governors were reluctant to put forward schemes for industrial development because they believed they should act as trustees for the native peoples and avoid the disruption of traditional society by the social effects of industrialisation.3\n\nThe Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol.30, No.2, May 2002, pp.53-76\n\nPUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215525, "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-2001", "page_number": 302, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "252\n\nhas not only survived, but was actually extended in 1947,87 despite the vigorous developments that Kowloon would have to experience in the 20th century.88 This cemetery was renamed as New Kowloon Cemetery No.1’ in 1925.89\n\nIn 1904, ‘Sham Shui Po Cemetery’ was also appointed ‘at Shum Shui Po in the New Territory, the Eastern boundary thereof being about 270 feet West of the Tai Po Road and the Southern boundary being about 520 feet North of the old boundary of Kowloon and containing 4.75 acres or thereabouts.’90 The cemetery was close to the old Sham Shui Po Village and other settlements in the area. Similar to Po Kong Po Cemetery, the cemetery might have been an extension of an early villagers' burial ground. In some later government notices, the names of ‘Kowloon Tong Cemetery’ and ‘Christian Chinese Cemetery, Kowloon Tong, known as New Kowloon Inland Lot No.16’92 also appeared. Further clarification is needed in regard to the location of these two cemeteries, though in a 1924 map,93 three cemeteries can be found in the present Tai Hang Tung area, which may be related to the two cemeteries. Kowloon Tong Cemetery was closed in 1921, but removal of all graves and urns were not ordered until 1949;95 while the removal of all graves and urns in the Chinese Christian Cemetery, Kowloon Tong, was ordered in 1950.96\n\n93\n\n94\n\nIn January 1907, two cemeteries were authorized, one on the island:\n\nA plot of land at Kai Lung Wan (A) having an area of about 12 acres and the following boundaries:- North: Farm Lots 14 and 15 and the Jubilee” and Pokfulam Roads; South: the present Kai Lung Wan Cemetery; East: the Pokfulam Road; West: Farm Lot 15.100\n\nThe other was described as:\n\nA plot of land at Tseung Loong Tin11 (✯✯), situated at Cha Kwo Ling in the New Territories, having a total area of about 1 acre.\n\n102\n\n•\n\nLater in the year, ‘Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery,104 which was “situated on the East side of the Pokfulam Road at No. 10 Bridge, and containing about 53.50 acres’ was also appointed.\n\n.* 105\n\nIn 1908, Cheung Chau Cemetery which was situated on the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215545, "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-2001", "page_number": 322, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "272\n\nMan Tin Village before Argyle Street was laid out in the 1920s. This Indian cemetery should therefore be different from the Hindu Cemetery.\n\n79 HKGG Notice 300 of 20th May 1927. The location and boundary of this cemetery is shown on the CO1047/455 map of 1920.\n\n80\n\nSite of present Lok Fu / Wang Tau Hom area.\n\n* HKGG Notification 334 of 22nd May 1903. In 1923, the Inland Lot No. 9 section of this cemetery was closed and removal of some graves was ordered for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notice 7 of 5th January and Notice 208 of 4th May 1923. Other removals were ordered in 1927 and 1929, see HKGG Notices 286 of 13th May 1927 and 191 of 19 April 1929. In 1949, removal of all graves in the 'old' section of this cemetery was ordered, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery was later renamed as New Kowloon Cemetery No.4 in 1930, see below.\n\n82\n\nSai Yu Shek Cemetery and Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery had separate burial entries in the Administrative Reports of the 1910s and 1920s.\n\n*The village was located about the present site of the 7-storey resettled factory blocks in San Po Kong District.\n\n84 是但居士(譚榮光)(1952),華甲回憶錄,privately published, p. 4.\n\n85 All the graves in Po Kong Po Cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1914, see HKGG Notices 448 of 13th November 1914,\n\n86 HKGG Notification 234 of 31st March 1904.\n\n87 HKGG Notice 963 of 10 December 1947.\n\n** The cemetery was closed temporarily in 1925 and 1926, see HKGG Notices 402 of 10th July 1925 and Notice 325 of 18th June 1926.\n\n89 HKGG Notice 410 of 10 July 1925.\n\n90 HKGG Notification 581 of 19th August 1904. All graves in this cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1923 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 162 of 13th April and 462 of 26th October 1923.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215546, "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-2001", "page_number": 323, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "273\n\n* For instance, HKGG Notices 423 of 13th August 1920 and 44 of 4 February 1921. The old Kowloon Tong Village was located about the present Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground site.\n\nHKGG Notice 369 of 16 July 1926.\n\n93 See Empson, p. 181.\n\n» HKGG Notice 540 of 23rd December 1921. Removal of some graves in Kowloon Tong Cemetery was ordered in 1924 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 366 of 20th June and 712 of 19th December 1924.\n\n95 HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949.\n\nSI\n\n9 HKGG Notice 1020 of 1 September 1950.\n\n97 Around the present Wah Fu Estate area. The cemetery had also been referred to as MARK'in some government notices, e.g., HKGG Notices 420 of 18th July 1924 and 253 of 29th April 1927 etc.\n\n98 The road was later renamed Victoria Road.\n\n99 The origin of this early Kai Lung Wan Cemetery is not known yet.\n\n100 HKGG Notification 692 of 17th August 1906. Similar to Chai Wan Cemetery, a very large section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was later under the management of the Tung Wah Hospital, the cemetery was called 'Tung Wah Hospital, Kai Lung Wan'. But the detail for this development is not known. In 1939, there were 10,679 interments in the Tung Wah section of the cemetery, see Annual Report of the Chairman Urban Council Hong Kong for the year 1939, p. M(1)17. Also, according to a 1951 stone inscription at the Chiu Chow section of the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, another section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was reserved for the Chiu Chow dead in about 1923.\n\n101 In a 1978 government map (HONG KONG STREETS & PLACES VOLUME 2: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE KOWLOON & THE NEW TERRITORES, p. 83), Tseung Loong Tin (Cheung Lung Tin) is referred to a hillside area between Lam Tin and Yau Tong.\n\n102 Cha Kwo Ling was one of the 'Four Hills' (194) villages in eastern Kowloon.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215547, "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-2001", "page_number": 324, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "274\n\nThe others were Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan and Lei Yue Mun. All four villages were Hakka stone-cutters' settlements, all could at least be dated back to early and mid-19th century.\n\n100 HKGG Notification 3 of 4th January 1907.\n\n104 The cemetery had also been referred to as 'X' in some government notices, e.g., HKGG Notice 420 of 18th July 1924. This should be a huge cemetery as in 1939 alone, there were 3,900 interments, see Annual Report of the Chairman Urban Council Hong Kong for the year 1939, p. M(1)17.\n\n105 HKGG Notification 752 of 15th November 1907. Removal of all the urns in this cemetery was ordered in 1949, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949.\n\n106 HKGG Notification 337 of 15th May 1908.\n\n107 HKGG Notice 102 of 18th March 1921.\n\n108 HKGG Notification 3 of 12 January 1912. The location of this cemetery was near to the present junction of Junction Road and Heng Lam Street.\n\n10 Empson, p. 181.\n\n111 HKGG Notice 91 of 26th January 1940. This boundary of the cemetery can be found in the AIR 2/463 map of c. 1930,\n\n112 HGKK Notification 337 of 15th November 1912.\n\n113 HKGG Notification 88 of 28th March 1913. This cemetery was closed in 1921, see HKGG Notice 540 of 23 December 1921. Removal of some graves in this cemetery was ordered between 1924 and 1926 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 367 of 20 June and 711 of 19th December 1924, Notice 419 of 17 July 1925, and Notice 7 of 8th January 1926. All graves and urns were ordered to be removed in 1948, see HKGG Notice 1072 of 19th November 1948. The location and boundary of this cemetery is shown in a 1920 map, CO1047/455, as kept in the PRO at Kew. Two headstones in memory of two members of the Chinese Labour Corps who were sent to and died in Europe during the First World War are to be found in the Stanley Military Cemetery. It is inscribed on the headstones that they were originally buried at Kau Pui Loong (Lung) Cemetery.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215556, "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-2001", "page_number": 333, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "283\n\nan important strategic port for merchants.\n\nIn the process of competing with Macao as the doorway to China trade, Hong Kong had its moments of hesitation. It had its own internal problems to solve during the three decades after 1841, such as building roads, houses, godowns, and having to provide an attractive and safe environment for trade. Only in 1875, after Hong Kong had developed into a port which was busy receiving Chinese junks from the north as well as Japanese vessels from the East and European steamers from the West was the first lighthouse at Cape D'Aguilar constructed to facilitate the navigation route leading to its harbour.\n\nShips from the West\n\nTo build lighthouses was a need formed by several elements. First, the marine navigation route from Europe to Asia used to go round the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opened for navigation, shortening the distance between Europe and East Asia by 20 to 30 per cent as well as cutting the cost, facilitating more frequent sea traffic.4 Secondly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe increased drastically the supply of consumer goods which, in turn, demanded more and more large steamships with greater speed to carry them. Thirdly, shipping costs depend not only on the size and speed of the vessel or the time needed for the transportation. Part of the cost goes to the insurance against the danger of shipwrecks. The safe route with good navigation aids affected the cost of the goods directly. Because of the above elements, the demand for building lighthouses on the sea route to Hong Kong became more pressing with the increase of trade.\n\nOld lighthouses\n\nBefore the setting up of lighthouses in Hong Kong there were already lighthouses in nearby waters. On the Eastern approaches to the Singapore Straits Horsburgh Lighthouse was established in 1851.5 Off the west coast of Taiwan located on Xi Yu Island of the Pescadores/Penghu Islands, the Fisherman Island Lighthouse (Yureng Tao Lighthouse) was set up as early as 1778.6 In Macao, the Guia lighthouse (Farol da Guia), built in 1865, claims to be the oldest on the China coast. These lighthouses, however, did not provide enough help for\n\n7", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215640, "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-2001", "page_number": 417, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "369\n\nThere was plenty of time apart from these formal occasions to look around Jehol. Macartney is full of admiration for the parks and countryside. He describes the West Park in the following words:\n\nIt is one of the finest forest scenes in the world, wild, woody, mountainous and rocky, abounding with stags and deer of different species, and most of the other beasts of chase not dangerous to man. In many places immense woods, chiefly oaks, pines and chestnuts grow upon perpendicular steeps and force their sturdy roots through every resistance of surface, and of soil, where vegetation would seem almost impossible. These woods often clamber over the loftiest pinnacles of the stony hills, or gathering on the skirts of them, descend with a rapid sweep, and bury themselves in the deepest valleys. There, at proper distances, you find palaces, banqueting houses and monasteries (but without bonzes) adapted to the situation and peculiar circumstances of the place, sometimes with a rivulet on one hand gently stealing through the glade, at others with a cataract rumbling from above, raging with foam, and rebounding with a thousand echoes from below or silently engulfed in a gloomy pool or yawning chasm. The roads by which we approached these romantic scenes are often hewn out of the living rock, and conducted round the hills in a kind of rugged staircase and yet no accident occurred in our progress, not a false step disturbed the regularity of our cavalcade, though the horses are spirited, and all of them unshod.\n\nAlthough Lord Macartney was unable to establish a close rapport with the first Minister who accompanied them, the journal, nevertheless paints a picture of them having an enjoyable and interesting time, in contrast to the usual descriptions of the visit which concentrate on the refusal to perform the kowtow and instead to go down on bended knee, an alternative which, after some discussion, was accepted amicably when it was agreed that it was sufficient to go down on one knee, but not to kiss hands.\n\nFinally the Embassy party left for 'Pekin' on 20th September and arrived on the 26th after an arduous journey, Macartney himself being", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215672, "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-2001", "page_number": 449, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "401\n\nin August 2002.\n\nThe North Koreans quickly crushed South Korean defences at the 38th parallel. The main North Korean attack force next moved down the west side of the peninsula toward Seoul, the South Korean capital, thirty-five miles below the parallel, and entered the city on June 28. Secondary thrusts down the peninsula's centre and down the east coast kept pace with the main drive. The South Koreans withdrew in disorder; those troops driven out of Seoul were forced to abandon most of their equipment because the bridges over the Han River at the south edge of the city were prematurely demolished. The North Koreans halted after capturing Seoul, but only briefly to regroup before crossing the Han.\n\nWhen MacArthur received word to commit ground units, the main North Korean force had already crossed the Han River. By July 3, a westward enemy attack had captured a major airfield at Kimpo and the Yellow Sea port of Inch'ŏn. Troops attacking south repaired a bridge so that tanks could cross the Han and moved into the town of Suwon, twenty-five miles below Seoul, on the 4th.\n\nThe speed of the North Korean drive coupled with the unreadiness of American forces compelled MacArthur to disregard the principle of mass and commit units piecemeal to trade space for time. Where to open a delaying action was clear, for there were few good roads in the profusion of mountains making up the Korean peninsula, and the best of these below Seoul, running on a gentle diagonal through Suwon, Osan, Taejon, and Taegu to the port of Pusan in the southeast, was the obvious main axis of North Korean advance. At MacArthur's order, two rifle companies, an artillery battery, and a few other supporting units of the 24 Division moved into a defensive position astride the main road near Osan, ten miles below Suwon, by dawn on July 5.\n\nComing out of Suwon in a heavy rain, a North Korean division supported by thirty-three tanks reached and, with barely a pause, attacked the Americans around 8:00 a.m. on the 5th. The rain cancelled air support, communications broke down, and the task force was, under any circumstances, too small to prevent North Korean infantry from flowing around both its flanks. By mid-afternoon, the task force was pushed into a disorganised retreat with over 150 casualties and the loss of all equipment save small arms.\n\nThe next three delaying actions, though fought by larger forces, had similar results. In each case, North Korean armour or infantry assaults against the front of the American position were accompanied by an infantry double envelopment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215790, "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-2002", "page_number": 89, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "22\n\n76 Gullick, Malaya, Chap 4 p 43\n\n77 the petition 1857 to House of Commons (cf. Buckley, supra, p 758); Hansard 3rd series, vol cxlix, p 988\n\nHansard, 3rd series, vol cxlix, p 990 - 991;\n\n-\n\nTurnbull, 'Convicts in the Straits Settlements, 1826-67', JMBRAS, xliii, no 1 (1970) p 88\n\nP 98 - McNair, the Superintendent of convicts in Singapore, remarked in his report for 1858/59 how well the convicts worked at brickmaking and roadbuilding, which made them 'still a positive advantage to this colony'\n\n7\n\nBlundell, in his Annual Report for 1858/59, pointed out that Singapore owed all its roads, canals and public works to convict labour\n\n79 Turnbull, Ibid, p 89 - Indian convicts were allowed a freedom that astonished outside visitors (for example, Lord Elgin in 1857 cf. Walrond T, Letters and Journals of James 8th Earl of Elgin, p 189) They often worked on roads and buildings without guards, sometimes they were employed as domestic servants or in government offices, and they could earn and keep wages\n\n80 Turnbull, Ibid, p 90 - those who did abscond were invariably given up by Chinese and Malays to claim the rewards on their heads\n\n81 Turnbull, Ibid, p 91 - In 1833, a European overseer was murdered by a convict; in 1852, there were two clashes between police and convicts in Penang; in 1853, a group of Sikh prisoners attacked their peons in Singapore\n\n82 Hansard, 3rd series, vol cxlix, p 991; for example a Ceylonese convict, Tickery Bandah, who was released in 1864, settled down in Malacca as a shopkeeper, writer and amateur lawyer. He even kept up a correspondence with the King of Siam (cf. Cameron, supra pg 376; Turnbull, supra (on convicts), p 91)\n\n83 Hansard, 3rd series, vol cxlix, p 988\n\n84 Turnbull, supra (on convicts), p 91\n\n85 Their origins are obscure.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215807, "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-2002", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "39\n\npart of the year (May to August). In fact, it rained about two out of every three days during the months of June and July, with June having a better than 40 per cent chance of experiencing three or more consecutive days, and even a 25 per cent chance of having at least an entire week, of rain.\n\nIn a largely undeveloped place like Hong Kong during the war, heavy rains falling on land usually translated into mud. Thus far in the war, both sides had already experienced the difficulty of moving across mud in various theatres. In Hong Kong, only the urban areas had all-weather roads, so its roads and terrain outside of the urban areas were trafficable only during periods of dry weather.10\n\nThen one must remember that 75 per cent of Hong Kong was mountain. By the nature of their sloped sides and rocky terrain, mountains are already difficult to traverse in good weather. In times of bad weather, mountains are even harder to negotiate, especially if they have been stripped of vegetation. This was the case with Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. As the war dragged on, supply shortages of everything became acute. Whereas coal was the preferred fuel for industrial and residential use, the increasing difficulty of importing this item into Hong Kong forced people to switch to firewood. This resulted in the felling of trees throughout the territory, thus depriving the mountains of the foliage that anchored their soil, and increasing the chances of erosion and landslides.\n\nMachinery was the epitome of the Allied arsenal, and embodied from its factories, to its logistical functions, and finally to the fighting machines on the frontline. But machinery was also very susceptible to the weather. In Hong Kong, with its high rainfall and lack of all-weather roads outside of the city, construction activities would be needed to improve its roads for the vehicle-oriented Allies. But construction would be curtailed during periods of heavy rainfall.\n\nWithout a suitable system of roads, the Allies would be unable to take full advantage of their superior mechanised transport in Hong Kong. The necessity of supporting China with a strong LoC inland from Hong Kong would have taxed its inadequate roads past their limit. Estimates for the portion of supplies landed each day that could be transported inland to support the Chinese amounted to no more than 25 per cent,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215808, "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-2002", "page_number": 107, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "40\n\nand this was on a good weather day. An alternative was to utilize the sole railroad in the territory - the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR). However, the KCR was primarily a passenger railway, so rolling stock for transporting freight was in short supply,12\n\nA third option was to transport the supplies by water via the Pearl River and its tributaries, which lead up to Canton and points beyond. This method, if fully operational, would greatly increase the amount of supplies headed inland. It too was dependent on various factors, like Allied control of both banks of the Pearl, the availability of suitable river craft (Canton could still handle large vessels, but as the river branches out and tapers off, smaller vessels would be needed), and the weather.13 Without modifications, the mediocre communications inland from Hong Kong would not do justice to its generous port capacity.\n\nAs for ground operations, the Allies enjoyed a crushing supremacy over the Japanese in the quantity and quality of their armour, but Hong Kong's mountainous terrain would have ensured that armour could see only limited duty there.\n\nOn a bad day, mechanised transport would become bogged down on Hong Kong's muddy roads. The Allies would have felt Hong Kong eerily similar to Italy, a place that was also mountainous and experienced high rainfall. There, the Allies had armour superiority, but it was of limited value, and their advance was slow. Their advances along the coast were a bit faster because it was relatively flat, just like Hong Kong's. However, during bad weather days, a lack of natural ground in many of the coastal areas (due to urbanisation) to absorb rainfall could cause flooding. In addition, there was human-induced flooding. Southern China was still mainly an agrarian region, where farmers would deliberately flood their fields in April of each year to fertilize their crops.14 That added at least a month to the flood season.\n\nInfantry would also find the combination of rainfall and challenging terrain as harsh for them as they would be for their vehicles, if not more. Without substantial support from mechanised forces, infantry would be deprived of a vital factor to combat the Japanese.\n\nAir support, a key ingredient in offensive operations worldwide, and one in which the Allies enjoyed superiority and obviously hated to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215815, "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-2002", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "47\n\nHarbour, and engulfed everything in their way up to a quarter mile (400 meters) inland. At least 200 people were killed (a heavy loss, considering that the area was sparsely populated back then), and the Tai Po Road (one of Hong Kong's few major roads at the time) and KCR were temporarily put out of commission, which isolated the survivors from the rest of Hong Kong for two days.26\n\nIn Victoria Harbour (between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island), 28 of the 101 steam vessels present were stranded, resulting in five deaths. Shore facilities on both sides of the harbour were wrecked, including Kai Tak Airfield. Fortunately for this part of Hong Kong, which was and remains the most congested part of the territory, no tidal wave struck here because the eastern entrance at Lyemun Pass was too narrow for enough water to break through. But Victoria Harbour was still vulnerable to strong winds and rough seas, which were what caused all that damage in its vicinity.27\n\nThe implications that the \"Great Typhoon of September 1937” (typhoons didn't acquire female names until after the war) had on a potential Allied landing in Hong Kong were profound. First, all kinds of operations would be impossible during a typhoon. Everyone would worry about how to take shelter from the storm rather than fight the enemy. Given the expected relative positions of the two sides, the Allies were sure to be more exposed to the elements than the Japanese because they were on the offensive and had to establish LoC inland. Second, Hong Kong was intended to serve as a port of entry for LoC into China. With its extensive waterfront facilities, Victoria Harbour would have served as the primary berthing area for ships, and Tolo Harbour was considered a good secondary anchorage. Depending on the path of any typhoon that hits Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour may be afforded some protection by the mountains that surrounded it on the Kowloon side.28 Tolo Harbour (and neighbouring Plover Cove) was roomy and calm enough for ships - as long as there was no typhoon.29\n\nOnce a typhoon hits Tolo Harbour, as it did in 1937, this area is at a disadvantage. Typhoons usually approach Hong Kong from the east or southeast, and Tolo Channel and Tolo Harbour are in the eastern part of Hong Kong. The winds in a typhoon blow in an anti-clockwise direction, which is an arc-like motion from east to west when one is facing north. In the case of Tolo Channel (which is the outlet to the sea", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215826, "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-2002", "page_number": 125, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "58\n\n1.\n\n1 Edward S. Miller, War Plan Orange: the U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991), p.14.\n\n2 Miller, p.21-22, 24.\n\n3 Miller, p.33-36.\n\n(1) Steven T. Ross (ed.), American War Plans, 1919-1941, vol.2 (New York: Garland Publishers, 1992), p.125-126. (2) Miller, p.4-5, 31-32.\n\n• Ernest J. King & Walter Muir Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, A Naval Record (New York: WW Norton & Co., Inc., 1952), p.432. The JCS was the military committee that directed the war on the American side.\n\n6 Charles F. Romanus & Riley Sunderland, Stilwell's Command Problems, 1956 of U.S. Army in World War II: the China-Burma-India Theater, (pt. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1976), p.10.\n\n7 Christopher M. Bell, \"Our Most Exposed Outpost: Hong Kong and British Far Eastern Strategy, 1921-1941,\" The Journal of Military History, 60 (January 1996), p.65.\n\n• Colonel Lindsay T. Ride, \"Memorandum on the Liberation of Prisoners-of-War, Hong Kong,\" 30 Sep 43, p.11-13; Series 2/33, BAAG (British Army Aid Group) Correspondence Concerning Operations, September 1942-November 1943; Personal Papers of Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride (microform); Canberra, ACT: Australian War Memorial, 2001 (hereinafter known as the Ride Papers).\n\n* Unless otherwise noted, information for this section was collected from Weather Information Branch, HQ, USAAF, R&A Report #71087, \"Climate of Hong Kong (China),\" October 1943; Intelligence Reports (\"Regular Series\"), 1941-1945; Research and Analysis Branch Division; Records of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), RG226; National Archives (NA), Washington, DC.\n\n10 Later, it was reported that an all-weather road ran from Hong Kong to Canton, and the Japanese had improved other roads nearby to the same capacity. See \"G-2 Estimates of the Following Places: Haiphong-Liuchow Peninsula-Hainan Island-Hong Kong-Swatow-Amoy-Foochow-Santuao-Wenchow-Hangchow Bay Region-Laoyao-Chingtao-and the Tip of the Shantung Peninsula to Include Wei Hai Wei,\" 17 Feb 45, p.5; Ch.7-Intelligence, Correspondence, 1945, Folder", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215899, "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-2002", "page_number": 198, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Pottinger Battery: 1 officer + 26 soldiers\n\n3 February 1920 The Chief of Imperial General Staff, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, considered that Hong Kong could resist Japanese attack for 3 months before relief from Singapore arrived.\n\nWashington Treaty\n\n1920/1921\n\n1922\n\nThe Admiralty informed the Committee of Imperial Defence that it was the authority to advise the scale of attack on ports and that for Hong Kong, the \"status quo applies.\"\n\nRollo, 1992, p.98\n\nRollo, 1992, p.101\n\nRollo, 1992, p.102\n\n1924\n\n\"Devil's Peak Sheet No.3,\" Ordnance Survey 1904, corrected and printed at the War Office 1924, shows road access, including \"roads suitable for man-handled guns\" and detailed land uses in the Devil's Peak area, with boundaries of War Department lands delineated. However, the locations of batteries and the Redoubt are not shown.\n\nPRO100(2)\n\n1927\n\nAerial Photograph No. H19 15 taken by HMS Pegasus.\n\nThe Joint Overseas and Home Defence Committee review.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.104\n\n1928\n\nSteel choke caused problems to the 9.2-inch guns at Devil's Peak.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n1929\n\nAugust 1930\n\nFebruary 1931\n\nChinese writer/composer, Tien Han, visited Hong Kong and was impressed by the scenic views of Lei Yue Mun, as stated in his poem \"Good Bye Hong Kong.\"\n\nThe 12th Heavy Battery replaced the 9-inch guns with anti-choke pattern.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\nThe 12 Heavy Battery fired new guns at Gough Battery. \"Gough Battery fired over Hong Kong Island and Repulse Bay.\"\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n1933\n\nAnnual Review of the Defence of Ports.\n\nRollo, 1992, p.105\n\n22 October 1934 The 12 Heavy Battery practised indirect shots at Pottinger Battery.\n\n1934\n\nA letter from the Military Operation Branch of the War Office indicated plans to modernise two 9.2-inch guns at Devil's Peak in 1936/37 with 35-degree mountings.\n\n1936\n\nThe Hong Kong Defence Scheme\n\nRollo, 1992, p.107\n\nRollo, 1992, p.108, 109\n\nRollo, 1992, p.110, 112\n\n131", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216025, "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-2002", "page_number": 324, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "258\n\nShanghai did not possess, and were undoubtedly conducive to health by promoting exercise. In winter the climate is bracing and healthy though fever and dysentery were to be dreaded in summer'.\n\nThere are a number of highlights for foreign visitors beginning, perhaps, with the former foreign concession, though nowadays more than seventy years on, it is difficult to discern. Outside the Chinese old city with its modern main roads, cobbled side streets and a stone pagoda said to be 13th century Yuan dynasty, though its present condition suggests that it has either been well restored or completely remade within the last century, there are the fourth century Jin Shan temple and pagoda; the Grand Canal; the former British Consulate; the home of Pearl Buck, as well as the sites of the storming of the town by a British brigade on 21st July 1842 during the First China War [commonly referred to as the Opium War]. There are also the remains of the lengthy trench dug by the Taiping rebels to protect the city from recapture by Imperial forces as well as the ruins left after the destruction of the city by the Taipings during the 1850s. And for those who have read a little Chinese literature or attended Chinese opera the widely-known tale of the White Snake Lady is also part of the story of the Jin Shan temple.\n\nBefore waxing too lyrically about its glories let us remember that Zhenjiang is the vinegar capital of China, with, if the wind is in the wrong direction, an evocative sour tang forewarning approaching visitors long before they are anywhere near to the city. The majority of Chinese when confronted with the name of the city almost to a man voice the single word 'vinegar' or to the connoisseur 'brown rice vinegar'.\n\nZhenjiang was a treaty port with a foreign concession for sixty-eight years, from the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin in 1860 until 1928, one of the minor footholds foreigners had obtained from China in one of the 'unequal treaties' and the base for numerous foreign interests. There were great hopes for the place and Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, even anticipated that eventually it would eclipse Shanghai as a commercial centre. Despite numerous westerners passing through the place down the years only a few spent full tours of duty there. Many of the temporary visitors were the lesser employees of major western companies such as BAT and Butterfield and Swire, whose regular tours to the many small", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216026, "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-2002", "page_number": 325, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "259\n\ntowns and villages of the region visiting their Chinese agents, taking orders for tobacco and sugar and checking sales and receipts, used Zhenjiang as one of their bases. They were known as 'sugar and tobacco travellers'.\n\nAn extract from the Shanghai Mercury in 1887 described Zhenjiang and its surroundings in the not untypical purple prose of the newspaper hack of the day:\n\nFew ports in China would seem to be better situated for trade than Chinkiang, a few perhaps have been more disappointing. The first glimpse of the port is eminently reassuring, as the fine bund, at the time of the year bosomed [sic] in trees, the conspicuous houses topped by the British Consulate, and the goodly array of hulks connected by handy bridges with the shore make a picture surpassed in our picturesqueness by none. The hum of traffic and the cry of coolies permeates the air; the familiar aspect of the Sikh policeman appears at the corners of the British concession; the concession roads are wide and well kept, and, what is unfortunately unusual in China, the enterprise of the foreign residents has succeeded in acquiring a system of good riding roads penetrating the country in all directions as far as from four to six miles from the central point.\n\nAt the first opening of the port it was assumed that, with the suppression of the Taiping rebellion, its unrivalled position would make it the centre of a large and increasing trade. The Inspector-General nursed it, and proclaimed it the natural rival of Shanghai, British consuls prophesied a direct trade on its own account with Europe, even the native authorities for a time seemed to have come out of their shell and lent it aid and counsel. One Taot'ai', to his honour, be it said, laying aside the prejudices of his class, re-introduced the art of silk cultivation, and the mulberry trees planted by his assistance have originated almost the only industry which remains in the neighbourhood. In spite, however, of all this flourish, Chinkiang remains a comparatively poor port...the British concession is but a small spot, a few hundred yards square, and on it is concentrated the entire trade of the place, native as well as foreign.\n\nAlthough Zhenjiang in reality was but a minor treaty port it was well-known to western expatriates in China during the 19th century as\n\n•", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216049, "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-2002", "page_number": 348, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "282\n\nin 1896 took herself off up the Yangzi and later wrote about her six-month journey, including her stopover in Zhenjiang. She travelled on the steamer Poyang and...'after passing Silver Island [Jiao Shan], a wooded rock on which there is a fine temple, we reached Chinkiang, the first of the treaty ports on the Yangtze, and well situated at the junction of the Grand Canal with the river. On my two visits I thought it an attractive place. It has a fine bund and prosperous-looking foreign houses, with a British Consulate on a hill above; trees abound. The concession roads are broad and well kept. A row of fine hulks connected by bridges with the shore offers great facilities for the landing of goods and passengers. Sikh police are much in evidence, the hum of business greets one's ears, traffic throngs the bund, the Grand Canal is choked with junks, ...and judging from appearances only, one might think Zhenjiang a busier port than Hankow, the great centre for commerce in Central China'. Mrs Bird then goes on to describe the passing trade including...'our German rivals have done a very neat thing' in starting an albumen factory, in which the albumen, dextrously separated from the yolks of ducks' eggs, is made into slabs, which are sent to Germany for use in photography, the production of leather, and the printing of cotton, etc.'. She also commented on 'the beautiful Golden Island [Jin Shan], separated as recently as 1842 by the channel south of the island where there is now an expanse of wooded and cultivated land sprinkled with villages'.\n\nThe hulks were replaced many years ago, and yet again, since 1980, their wooden piers have been rebuilt into a row of some half dozen concrete piers. Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese Maritime Customs for forty-five years, referred several times to the hulks at Chinkiang, usually because the hulk owner, Bean in one instance, was involved in a law case with the local Customs Commissioner.\n\nIsabella Bird learned of a number of charities and organisations for the welfare of the poor from the British Consul, W R Carles, and from Rev. W W Lawton who had made careful investigations for the Christian Literary Association of Zhenjiang. She noted that there were an orphan asylum and a benevolent institute for girls in Zhenjiang as well as a benevolent institute with eighty boys. For adults there was a Bureau for Advancing Funds, of inestimable advantage to the struggling farmer or merchant. There were also two free dispensaries, with nine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216052, "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-2002", "page_number": 351, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "285\n\nrowdies knew that no American official in all the ports of China has the means of checking outrages on the part of American citizens. Accordingly, whenever an English thug gets into a scrape he claims to be American. He then described a case in point 'the Captain of an American boat came to me bringing with him a Chinese who had been badly cut on the arm. He said that the wound had been inflicted by an Englishman, a passenger on his boat and that the Briton was a desperate character. I accordingly applied to Franklin, the Commander of the [British] gunboat lying here for assistance. He very soon had an armed boat alongside the Yankee craft and the swordsman was speedily hauled out and brought before me. I read the Chinaman's complaint to him and he in reply said he wanted to see the American Consul, I told him that as an American had handed him over to me as an Englishman I should deal with him unless he could prove his right to American protection. He defied me so I sent him a prisoner aboard the Banterer gunboat. On the day following I had no less than three witnesses that the scoundrel was an Englishman. At length when he saw his impudence would carry him no further he acknowledged himself to be a Britisher, He was tried accordingly and got six months in Hong Kong jail with hard labour, at the end of which, he is to be conveyed under arrest to England as being too dangerous a character for a quiet country like China'.\n\nIn another letter Adkins explained that 'I am making myself obnoxious and disagreeable to certain of my countrymen who think that Treaties are made that they might have the pleasure of breaking them. I have seized and confiscated three vessels for smuggling and have given a rascal three months hard labour for trading in salt. Really the Chinese have good reason for distrusting us. We sell arms to the Rebels and teach them how to build forts after making treaties of peace and friendship with the reigning power'.\n\nWhen E.H. Parker was Consul in about 1877 roads were just beginning to exist and the Municipal Council had succeeded in providing a respectable walk of three or four miles for exercise. However, a gigantic, old worm-eaten coffin had been left where it lay by the builders planted squarely in the middle of the fine new road, just where it left town. Rumour said it dated from the Mongol dynasty. No one dared touch it, and it was generally supposed that the 'owners were sitting tight and waiting for their chance. The Daotai said that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216054, "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-2002", "page_number": 353, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "287\n\nThe Consulate was on the most commanding elevation, at least fifty feet above the road with a steep mountain behind. About two hundred unruly soldiers gathered round the lower enclosure but seeing the four armed men did not approach. A written message was sent off to General Tao, commanding the permanent camp, half a mile off, stating that the man would not be released until the general came in person, identified the prisoner and punished him. After half an hour General Tao in his chair, with Colonel Peng on his charger, arrived and were informed that there was no intention to claim jurisdiction over or be harsh with the arrested man, but that it had to be clearly understood that if any soldiers or even officers came in to the settlement, they would be forced to obey the municipal bye-laws; and the Consul was the municipal chairman. The General was not too happy about the position he found himself in but was civil. He went with Parker to the prison, spoke with the man through the bars and as a result the man received about twenty slight bastinado-strokes on the spot and all was settled.\n\nThe winter of 1877-8 was unusually bitter, the year of the great Shanxi famine when millions of Chinese perished from sheer want of food. Neighbouring provinces were invaded by endless streams of refugees and more especially so through the area surrounding Zhenjiang - because all roads from the north lead there. The authorities had provided thousands of mat hovels, on and against the city walls where shelter from the bitter wind was obtainable. Skilly was served out gratis twice a day with between fifty thousand to a hundred thousand refugees congregated around Zhenjiang.\n\nAs we have already noted Zhenjiang was far from being the ideal posting and at least one consul there, in 1923, is known to have committed suicide. Consular duties brought hazards which, while not thought of as routine, were certainly sufficient to cause many a consul to look back with horror and amazement at what they had survived. One such consul would recall that in 1913, during the early days of the period of the war lords following the foundation of the Republic, with petty armies looting and causing endless unrest, soldiers of one such war lord, Zhang Xun, approached Zhenjiang bent on plundering the city. The British consul and a lone western merchant went out to face them - then, after very nearly being shot they held them at bay until one of their officers appeared and brought them under control. In another incident during the anti-British movement troubles of 1925 the British", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216176, "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-2002", "page_number": 475, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "By the terms of this Contract dated this \nday of ... 19 77, I, the undersigned coolie recruited by the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Bureau, hereby declare myself to be a willing labourer under the following conditions, which have been explained and made clear to me by the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Bureau, viz.:\n\nNature of Employment.\n\nWork on railways, roads, etc., and in factories, mines, dockyards, fields, forests, etc. Not to be employed in military operations.\n\nRules of Pay, etc.:\n\nDaily Abroad.\n\nLabourer ... 1 Dollar\n\nDanger ... ... 6 cents\n\nBonus (on embarkation). 15-20 dollars (additional to pay).\n\nMonthly in China to family, also.\n\nCompensation to Family in case of Accident.\n\nDeath or total disablement ... 150 dollars\n\nPartial Disablement ... up to 75 dollars\n\nAdditional ... ... 10 dollars\n\nFree passage to and from China under all circumstances.\n\nFree food, clothing, housing, fuel, light and medical attendance.\n\nDuration of Employment.\n\nThree years, with liberty for employer to terminate contract at any time after one year on giving six months' notice, or at any time for misconduct or inefficiency on the part of the labourer. Free passage to be given back to Wai-Hai-Wei or Port North of Wusung.\n\nDeductions.\n\nNo daily pay abroad during sickness, but food given. Monthly pay in China continues up to six weeks' sickness.\n\nAfter six weeks' sickness, no monthly pay in China.\n\nNo daily pay abroad for time lost owing to misconduct.\n\nIn cases of offenses involving loss of pay for 28 days or more, deductions of monthly pay in China will be made.\n\nHours of Work.\n\nObligation to work ten hours daily; but a lower or longer period may be fixed by the Labour Control on a daily average basis of ten hours.\n\nLiability to seven days' work a week; consideration will be given to Chinese Festivals, as to which the Labour Control will decide.\n\nNo. of Cooly 24499\n\nName ... Ar Jenny Jus\n\nAge ... 32\n\nProvince ... Ling\n\nDistrict ...\n\nHome address ...\n\nSeal of the Wai-Hai-Wei Labour Employment Office\n\nWai-Hai-Wei Labourer's thumb print ... San", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216217, "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-2002", "page_number": 516, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "450\n\nwas not possible to erect a replacement plaque in the cathedral. The authorities concerned would not permit it.\n\nAnother interesting case was that of a clock made by Douglas Lapraik in Hong Kong in the mid 19th century. This story has been written up by the enquirer, Dr Peter Hansell, and an account is published in this volume of JHKBRAS,\n\n*\n\nOther enquiries have included a request from a family member about Thomas Child Hayllar who was Attorney General in Hong Kong in the middle of the 19th century. On similar lines, Francis Howell was also enquiring about family members named Eckford who worked in China and Hong Kong during the past two centuries.\n\nOn another occasion we received an enquiry from a HKBRAS overseas member for information about what appear to be bullet marks on the low boundary wall which runs along the east side of lower Stubbs Road. Although they were probably caused by machine gun fire during the attack by the Japanese, in December 1941, we have not been able to glean any detailed information about the actual incident.\n\nAnother enquirer, an academic living in New Zealand, wanted to know whether there were any roads, buildings or any monuments at all in Hong Kong in memory of Nurse Edith Cavell. She was executed by the Germans in Brussels, on 12 October 1915, for assisting Allied prisoners escape. As far as we know there is nothing erected in her memory in Hong Kong.\n\nA gentleman from Britain wanted to learn more about his maternal grandfather who joined the colonial service in 1910, whereupon he was posted to Hong Kong and subsequently to Canton to learn Cantonese. During the run-up leading to the Sun Yat Sen Revolution, probably in May or June of 1911, the group of Hong Kong cadets was accosted by over-zealous Chinese officials. One of the cadets then drew his revolver and shot an official. The British gentleman has said that, according to family lore, his grandfather, Samuel Burnside Boyd McElderry, was able to calm the situation and talk the group out of the encounter. In spite of searches at the Hong Kong Public Records Office (who were extremely helpful) and elsewhere, no information has been gleaned about this incident.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216223, "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-2002", "page_number": 522, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "456\n\nsouth-westerly monsoon in the summer. As the Cantonese saying has it, ‘Even with a 1,000 taels of gold it is not easy to buy a flat facing south.'\n\nOn the steep hillside with its lush vegetation, opposite and well above Realty Gardens, exists even now what is sometimes still called Cheung Po-Tsai's Path. Shown on maps, starting more or less opposite and a little higher up than May Road, although heavily overgrown and not negotiable in parts because of landslips and other obstructions, the footpath goes around and finishes up on the southern slopes of the Peak. Cheung was Hong Kong's most notorious and fearsome pirate who was at the zenith of his powers during the first decade of the 19th century. He was reputed to command as many as 600 junks, 40,000 fighting men - including a few British ex-Royal Navy gunners and \"own\" the prettiest girls. No firm evidence, however, appears to exist that he himself ever walked along that path.\n\nFrom the fung shui aspect Victoria Peak with its spurs, and Seymour Cliffs to our southeast, symbolise strong backing. The \"cosmic breath\" of fung shui rides on the wind and is dispersed and checked by watercourses. Realty Gardens' location brings blessings, which are just, and inevitable rewards deserved by the skilful and the diligent. Watercourses stream down the mountain keeping fortunes flowing into our flat and protecting our well-being. Some fung shui specialists maintain that the spiritual energy on the Peak is the best in the whole of Hong Kong.\n\nAt the far western end of Conduit Road, close to the junction with Kotewall and Po Shan Roads, a steep, narrow road branches off. This is Hatton Road. It leads to the Peak. About half way up it passes the remains of Pinewood Battery, which has been turned into a picnic spot. This artillery emplacement was constructed by the British, starting in 1903. The whole area around Hatton Road is relatively unspoiled and provides a wonderful recreational area for Conduit Road residents to stretch their legs and to appreciate nature. Many of the elderly Chinese who walk up there daily for exercise call it \"Long Life Road.\"\n\nSadly however, while talking of heritage, with the villa at No. 55 (completed in 1919) having been demolished in the summer of 2000, there is only one pre-World War Two building still standing in Conduit", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216224, "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-2002", "page_number": 523, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "457\n\nRoad. That is the supermarket and estate agency at No. 44. Now, many of the buildings flanking Conduit Road top 30 or 40 storeys blocking their neighbour's view. Certainly today barking deer can no longer be heard calling from Victoria Peak. But, proving the location is still peaceful, Realty Gardens does have its own flock of pigeons and it is not infrequently visited by a destructive, gregarious group of sulphur-crested cockatoos.\n\nNevertheless the pattern of nature does change. In the 1970s crested-mynah birds were common in the grounds at Realty Gardens. Nowadays, you seldom see them. Snakes are not uncommon. But much of the wild life on the slopes of the Peak itself is nocturnal and limited. However I did see dead ferret badgers and masked-palm civets, in the 1990s, which had been run over by vehicles. Although rare on the Peak, one can occasionally even see fresh-water crabs and blue-tailed skinks. The latter is Hong Kong's most attractive lizard.\n\nAlthough customs have changed one can still sometimes see and hear street criers in Conduit Road. They vary from the itinerant, tiny, wizened old sharpener of knives and scissors to the trader who buys odds and ends of scrap metal. There is also the old man who sells lengths of bamboo. These are used for hanging out the washing to dry when it is euphemistically called \"flags of all nations.\" In the mid-1950s, I remember there was a peddler with a pet monkey.\n\nCertainly if the present old, worn, steps, which are original, which Han Suyin and her boy friend once trod in the film shot at Realty Gardens, together with the original balustrades and the heavy, battered, gravity retaining walls which still exist today, could talk, they would have wonderful tales to tell.\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS\n\nThe author gratefully acknowledges the assistance given by Mrs. Betty Chiu, long-time resident of Realty Gardens, in the writing of this paper. The author is also grateful to Mr. David Roads, Honorary\n\n'The picture in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, of 41 Conduit Road, is a watercolour on paper titled, Fairview, Conduit Road 1926', by Alfred Lane, reference AH72.1. It was donated to the Museum of Art by Mr. Kwok On.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216303, "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-2003", "page_number": 62, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "11\n\nHon, an 81-year-old woman's experiences in the village, Mr. Fan made comments related to the government's decision on rural development in Sai Kung:\n\nA trip to town for Hon involves phoning for a boat to take her to Wong Shek pier and then a bus to Sai Kung. The alternative, an hour's hilly walk, is beyond the frail old woman now. \"It is very inconvenient that we have no road, no vehicles can come in,\" says Fan Koon-mui, ...\n\n++\n\n\"If the Government had provided us with transport, our fate wouldn't be deserted villages,” Fan says.\n\nSince the 1980s, the Kuk has badgered the Government to provide link roads for the villages, but without success. A chicken-and-egg situation exists - there are not enough people to justify the building of roads but, if they were built, more people could live in the villages.\n\n\"Solitary zone' (by S. Lee, South China Morning Post, May 4, 2002)\n\nThe village is abandoned now, but I suggest that there is a lot of potential in developing the village into a heritage education centre in which there are at least several aspects we should try to cover. In order to achieve a better understanding of the history of Chek Keng for the further concerns both in heritage preservation and environmental development, we suggest some research topics for consideration:\n\n• Migration history and social change in Hong Kong's Hakka settlements\n\n• Traditional village lifeways and folk cultures\n\n• The Catholic church and influences given by the missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere as well as P.L.M.E.) from Milan, and\n\n• Oral history on villagers' lifestyles and cultural traditions, etc.\n\nDiscussion: Development with local people's support\n\nTherefore, we need to think about whether the development of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216328, "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-2003", "page_number": 87, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "36\n\npeople and goods over and along the river. They also helped to load ships in the river and carry goods to the European merchantmen at Whampoa. Their presence was useful to the occupants of the Foreign Factories during periodic conflagrations. For instance, a painting of the Great Fire of 1822 shows residents viewing the fire from these boats, their main refuge in time of such emergencies.28\n\nInterestingly enough, people of this type - perhaps even from the Canton group accustomed to foreigners - were of immense help to the British when they first established themselves in Hong Kong as providers of many essential services.29\n\nOther groups of Tanka constituted the sea fishermen whose craft, large and small, were to be found all over the Delta and the islands outside it; and as we shall see further on in this talk, they provided the 'outside pilots' who assisted foreign merchant vessels to get safely into the Macau Roads.\n\nPersonnel directly connected with the China Trade\n\nWe may now consider seriatim, the various personnel encountered by foreign merchants and ships' officers during their time in China over the trading season of the year.\n\nThe Hoppo30\n\nThe Hoppo was the official at the head of the maritime customs, controlling the revenues accruing from the foreign trade. Representing the ministry of finance in Beijing (hu pu) he was dubbed with this title in error by the foreigners. This lucrative office was often filled by a Manchu. The Guangzhou Custom House is shown in Plate 5.\n\nThere were Hoppo in other maritime provinces of China, but the Canton Hoppo was the most important owing to the foreign trade being confined to Canton. His circuit eventually included five sub-stations and some sixty other collection points, the catchment for the coastal and inter-national trade. International trade was itself divided into Chinese, Asian and European, each taxed at a different rate; the Governor was left with control over internal trade.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216332, "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-2003", "page_number": 91, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "40\n\nmilitary forces of the Crown, afloat and ashore.\n\nTaking these in turn, starting with the pilots who took foreign ships into the Macau Roads and up the river to Whampoa, we can examine their several duties, and - if we can find contemporary descriptions to suit - even their persons and characteristics.\n\nThe outside and inside pilots\n\nDespite the existence of various sailing guides, the masters of ships sailing to Macau normally took on a pilot once arrived among the islands off the coast of China at this point. There were the \"outside\" pilots who took vessels into Macau Roads, and the \"inside\" ones who took merchant vessels on to the Whampoa anchorage.\n\nThe former were stated to be ‘a very simple, well-meaning race of people, who get their living by fishing, when they have finished their pilotage.' After describing their simple dress and shoeless condition, Dr. Downing added, \"They are supposed to know the depth of water in the different channels, with the times of the changes of the tides, but very little trust is reposed in them, and they are not educated and sworn-in for the office.'44\n\nThere was a reason for this, to us, rather odd state of affairs. The \"outside\" pilots were not necessarily the registered ones. As another reliable contemporary source has it, 'The pilots' names were registered at an office near Macao; and all who were licensed paid the sum of six hundred dollars. The person who took out the licence sometimes knew nothing about ships or the river; but in such cases he employed fishermen to do the duty.\"45\n\nWhilst a ship was being conducted into Macau Roads, the pilot-boat would take in letters and despatches for China and would bring back the \"inside\" pilot, \"without whom and his chop [a permit] the vessel cannot proceed up the river.'46\n\nThese \"inside pilots\" were a different class of people, 'properly educated and examined as to their knowledge of the management of European craft, with the depth of water and direction of the currents in the river.' Downing has left us this amusing picture of the \"inside\" pilot who was to take his ship up the river. 'He seemed to consider himself of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216409, "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-2003", "page_number": 168, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "118\n\nIn addition to her usual cruising on the China coast the ship paid one visit to Nagasaki and, early in 1933, another to the Philippine Islands.\n\nOn 11 June 1933 the carrier EAGLE, Captain L.V. Wells, DSO, arrived at Hong Kong to replace her on the station. Accordingly the next day HERMES slipped for Singapore and after a pleasant passage reached Sheerness on Saturday, 22 July 1933.\n\nAlthough while in the East mention has been made above of the activity of pirates, actual direct involvement with any such deed had been about the only experience she missed between 1930 and 1933. She was to fill that gap during her following commission, also on the China Station when under the command of Captain The Hon. George Fraser.\n\nNOTES\n\n[Hon Ed.] HMS HERMES, a small aircraft carrier of some 10,950 tons, was the first purpose-built such warship in the Royal Navy. On 15th January 1918 she was laid down at the Armstrong Whitworth yard and launched on 11 September 1919. The yard was scheduled to close, and no great post-World War I urgency to complete her was perceived, so she was towed to Devonport for completion. There she was commissioned on 6th August 1923. Several of her pre-World War II commissions were spent on the China Station. At the outbreak of World War II she \"worked up\" in the English Channel, carried out one patrol, and then in October 1939 was ordered to Dakar to work with the French Navy on anti-enemy blockade runner and surface raider patrols. With the ship operating twelve Swordfish aircraft, generally speaking these operations took place out across the Atlantic towards the coast of South America. On 8 July, 1940, with the advent of Vichy then at Dakar, the ship launched a daring night-time attack first using her motor boat immediately followed by Swordfish aircraft torpedoes, crippling the new battleship RICHELIEU which was lying in Dakar Roads. Subsequently, when returning to Freetown, she was damaged in collision with the P & O liner CORFU, then an armed merchant cruiser engaged in convoy protection duties. She was repaired at Simonstown, South Africa. Following repairs she saw further service, enjoying some notable successes, in the South Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.\n\nFrom Trincomalee late on 8th April 1942, the approaching Japanese fleet having", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216420, "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-2003", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "129\n\nChemulpo (later Inchon). This would drive north along thawing and impassable roads, across the Yalu River into Manchuria, heading for Liaoyang and Mukden (now known as Shenyang) north of the Liaodong peninsula. Then, with what remained of the Russian fleet bottled up in the harbour at Port Arthur, the second and main force would be landed some thirty miles north of Dalny (Dairen to the Japanese and now known as Dalian) cutting off Port Arthur at the tip of the Liaodong peninsula. The final stage was the landing of a third Japanese army in January 1905 and its assault on Port Arthur. The war began as planned with a Japanese 'Pearl Harbor' bombardment at Port Arthur, taking the Russian fleet by surprise.\n\nAlthough the Japanese met with a number of set-backs their overall plan succeeded. The crowning moments were the Fall of Port Arthur at the beginning of January 1905 and the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, the titanic clash between the Japanese fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, the latter having made its slow progress across the world from Latvia in October 1904 to Tsushima seven months later, and to its fate and destruction. News of the devastating Japanese victory alarmed a number of Chinese officials who, whilst they did not wish Japan to lose, had not wanted her to gain such an overwhelming victory.\n\nFinally, after the eighteen month campaign the land war ended with the destruction of the Russian army before Mukden. The succeeding months were a matter of Japanese mopping-up operations and the capture of Liaoyang and Mukden.\n\nDuring the final stages of the war the Japanese finally took the fighting on to 'sacred' Russian territory when they invaded the large island of Sakhalin. This was of great political importance as it was regarded as Russian territory and, with rioting on the streets of the Russian major cities, the Russians realised that they had lost. Also at that point, Japan now holding most of the cards, but militarily and financially exhausted, sought President Roosevelt's good offices to bring about a peace conference. This took place in September 1905 concluding with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in the United States. The Russians ceded the Guandong peninsula (Chinese territory) and half of the island of Sakhalin to Japan but without having to pay any indemnity. The Russians, so the Japanese believed, had been allowed by the Americans to get away without paying any financial compensation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216433, "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-2003", "page_number": 192, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "142\n\nknown terror throughout Manchuria.' A snippet with an artist impression described how several Japanese intelligence officers had been detected by sharp-eyed Russians who had snatched the false queue (pigtail) from passing \"Chinese coolies.\" They had promptly been shot as guerrillas.\n\nForeign correspondents' bias against the Russians\n\nPopular attitudes held in Britain towards each of the conflicting armies, observed through the illustrated popular histories of the war published in England reflect popular opinion was pro-Japanese: the Russian side of the story comes across as a very sorry one, notwithstanding sundry reports in the Russian favour.\n\nThe Russians, according to one correspondent, were generally disparaged and accused of heartless and mindless acts towards the Chinese even though Russian officials at Mukden had laid great stress on the importance of preserving friendly relations between their troops and the natives of Manchuria. He continued 'strict discipline was maintained, at least theoretically, when Russian soldiers came in contact with the Chinese, and any misdemeanour was severely punished. In all commercial transactions with the native population, such as the purchase of provisions or transport animals, efforts were made to enforce fair dealing. The native apparently viewed the presence of the Russians with indifference, tempered by satisfaction at opportunities of commercial profit that their being there afforded, which modified his innate contempt for all foreigners. Chinese coolies were employed in their thousands by the Russians on the railways, on repairing roads, on fortification works, often at pay very greatly in excess of the current rates.\n\nA correspondent noted that 'Chinese carts were in very great request by the Russian, and could not be hired for less than about £1 a day, with their native drivers, between whom and the Russian soldiers disputes were continual, generally ending in blows, of which the Chinese were the recipients. The Chinese, who had suffered severely from the presence of the Russian forces, were now obliged to endure the passage of the Japanese armies.'\n\nOne particular respect in which the Russians earned the goodwill", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]