[
    {
        "id": 204240,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 8,
        "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\n5\n\n## PRESIDENT'S REPORT\n\nIt is with great pleasure that I submit a report of the activities of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for the first year of its existence after its revival in December 1959.\n\nThe original Branch which was founded in 1847 in the early days of the Colony and which included some of the most eminent oriental scholars of the time as well as the leaders of the Church, Government, the Armed Services and of the merchant houses, came to an abrupt end in 1859. After the lapse of a century a movement started in the Colony among those who had been members of branches of the Society elsewhere, in Malaya and in Shanghai where the Society had been compelled by force of circumstances to close down in 1950, to revive the Society in Hong Kong. As Sir Richard Winstedt, the Director of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, wrote:\n\n\"Circumstances had placed the port in a very favourable position for the study of one of the most important cultures of the world\"\n\nand Hong Kong had now the opportunity of filling a void and fulfilling its natural role as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge and culture of Asia and of China in particular.\n\nIt is barely over a year since a meeting was held attended by more than thirty interested members when a resolution was passed for the revival of this Branch. More than twice that number had pledged their support, including persons prominent in academic, professional, commercial and financial circles. The meeting adopted the constitution which had been approved by the parent Society and elected officers and a Council to hold office until this General Meeting. (The names of those elected have already been given in the brief history of the Branch at the beginning of this volume.)\n\nThe success of the founding meeting was crowned when His Excellency Sir Robert Black set the seal of his approbation by consenting to become the patron of the new Branch and when he presided over a meeting of the Society on January 23 of this year. It was the first time that a Governor of the Colony had presided at a meeting of the Hong Kong Branch since the days of Sir John Bowring, a hundred years ago. Thus he closed the gap of a century.\n\nWe are, I feel, justified in considering the result of the first year's work as very gratifying and the second year has already started in a way that is highly encouraging. Within a month of the founding meeting we had 72 members. At the end of the",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 204243,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 11,
        "title": "RAS-1961",
        "content_text": "Vol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n8\n\nand contributions from the community, it built a commodious home for itself with a spacious lecture room and provided accommodation for its very valuable library and museum. In Hong Kong we hope that some facilities may be afforded in the new City Hall for societies like ours but if our plans are to mature we need a meeting place of our own where we can build up an Oriental library which should fill a special need which cannot be supplied by the University, whose library is not readily accessible to the public, or by the new City Hall, whose library will probably be of a wider popular interest.\n\nAs the basis of our projected library we propose to print a sufficient number of our periodical journals to enable us to exchange periodicals with kindred societies in other parts of the world. We also propose in our journal to review books on Oriental affairs which may bring us a useful nucleus of publications. Until we have enough money to buy books it would be greatly appreciated if members who have any books of interest and connected with the objects of the Society would kindly remember that any gifts of books and journals would be most welcome.\n\nThe Branch is greatly indebted to benefactors who have been generous with donations. In Sir Richard Winstedt's message on its formation he expressed the hope that both European and Chinese firms with their accustomed generosity would help to foster the growth of a Branch of high promise. This hope was realised in the donations received of 500 dollars each from Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., and The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and 250 dollars from Mr. Ellis Hayim. Then in April last year there came a munificent gift from an anonymous donor who is not now resident in the Colony. This was the gift of 10,000 dollars in memory of Arthur de Carl Sowerby, a great authority on the natural history of China, who was the founder and curator of the museum of the Society in Shanghai. These contributions have enabled us to put aside a capital fund which will help us in our aims for the future while yielding a useful interest in the meantime. It is greatly hoped that other merchant houses and individuals in the Colony may, without any direct appeal, emulate the example of these benefactors and help us to build up a Branch of the Society in Hong Kong worthy of the heritage which Professor Drake in his inaugural address coupled with the corresponding task which such heritage implied.\n\nDuring the year there was little change amongst the officers and members of the Council. Mr. Endacott resigned owing to pressure of work and the vacancy was filled in accordance with the rules by the co-option of The Hon. A. G. Clarke. Mr.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 205661,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 203,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "198\n\nWILLIAMS, C. A. S.\n\nTHE LIBRARY\n\nOutlines of Chinese symbolism: an alphabetical compendium of antique legends and beliefs... Peiping, Customs College Press, 1931.\n\nLimited ed. of 250 signed copies.\n\nWINSTEDT, Richard.\n\nThe Malays: a cultural history. Singapore, Kelly & Walsh, 1947.\n\nWOODHEAD, H. G. W.\n\nThe truth about the Chinese Republic. London, Hurst and Blackett, 1925.\n\nWOOLF, Bella Sidney, afterwards Mrs. Lock, afterwards Lady Southorn.\n\nChips of China. Hong Kong, Kelly & Walsh, 1930.\n\nWRIGHT, Arthur F.\n\nBuddhism in Chinese history. Stanford, Calif., Stanford U.P., 1959. (Stanford studies in the civilizations of eastern Asia)\n\nWRIGHT, Leigh R.\n\nHistorical notes on the North Borneo dispute. Ann Arbor, Mich., Association for Asian Studies, 1966.\n\n484.\n\nReprinted from Journal of Asian studies, v. 25, 1966, pp. 471-\n\nWRIGHT, Leigh R.\n\nSarawak's relations with Britain, 1858 to 1870. Kuching, Government Printing Office, 1964.\n\nReprinted from Sarawak Museum, Journal, v. 40, 1964, pp. 628-648.\n\nWRIGHT, Stanley F.\n\nHart and the Chinese customs. Publ. for the Queen's University, Belfast. Belfast, Mullan, 1950.\n\nWU, Chiêng-ên (E)\n\nMonkey; tr. from the Chinese by Arthur Waley. London, Allen & Unwin, 1942 reprinted 1945.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209358,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "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": 15,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "Dr. Topley has been our President for the past ten years, and was a Vice-President for six years before that. She has also been a Council Member since the establishment of the Branch in 1960. More than that, she was one of the persons instrumental in establishing the Society in that year.\n\nThe contribution made by a number of persons during the preparations for re-establishing a Hong Kong Branch has not unnaturally been overshadowed by the leading role in our affairs played by our first distinguished President, the late Dr. J. R. Jones. It is now fitting to draw attention to the efforts also made by Dr. Topley and Mr. Cranmer-Byng at that time. Happily, some of the papers relating to that period are still available, and those who are interested may look at the copies in the attached folder. We propose, also, that they be included in a future issue of the Journal so that the facts are on permanent record.\n\nThe papers show that from early 1958 on, Marjorie Topley and Jack Cranmer-Byng were trying to arouse interest in founding a Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. They approached Dr. Jones, who was then Legal Adviser to the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation and had been a Council member of the North China Branch of the Society, to enlist his help in getting public support and in drawing up a constitution for the new branch. He expressed his personal interest and a willingness to canvas support among the business firms of the Colony. These preparations continued into 1959. In July of that year, at a meeting in his flat, Dr. Jones indicated that there had been promises of financial help from at least two of the leading business organisations but in his view at least $10,000 should be secured before the new Society should begin to function.\n\nProgress was reported to Sir Richard Winstadt, President of the Royal Asiatic Society of London. He had written a little earlier to Dr. Topley in May 1959 expressing his support saying that he had also heard from Dr. Jones, and that the work of forming a new branch was seemingly being done in cooperation. The pattern of activity is clear from the papers. The original effort was made mainly by Marjorie and Jack, but enlisting the interest of the major business firms and obtaining the necessary financial support was the work of Dr. Jones who, by virtue of his\n\nXV\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]