[
    {
        "id": 205267,
        "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": 29,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "22\n\nJEN YU-WEN\n\nolder than Hsien and Ping, was also reared by Young, being the younger sister of Shih. Hsien, the 2nd son, by virtue of being the offspring of the Queen, was regarded as the legitimate heir to the throne according to Chinese tradition. After being crowned, the boy emperor named his new reign Tê Yu () beginning with the next year (1275).\n\nIn the first year of Tê Yu (1275), the Mongol army under the premier Pê Yen (16) invaded South China and after many victories marched toward the capital Lin-an in the winter. The imperial court was alarmed and evacuated the Emperor's two brothers and sister under the care of mother Young and their uncles.3 Before departure, the two princes received new titles: I Wang (1) and Kuang Wang (1), respectively. Early in 1276 the royal party left Lin-an in a hurry heading for the south. It was the beginning of an itinerary of constant flight which would last for three full years.\n\nShortly afterwards, Emperor Hsien and the Queen Mother Ch'uan surrendered to the Mongols who subsequently took them to Peking. The Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan gave the dethroned Sung Emperor the new title of Duke of Ying Kuo (). Years later he was forced to become a Buddhist monk, was banished to Mongolia and died in exile there. It was said that his own son, who had been adopted by a Mongolian prince, would eventually become the last emperor of the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty. The Ex-Queen Mother Ch'uan became a Buddhist nun and died of old age.4\n\nWhen the capital Lin-an fell, the royal evacuees arrived at Wuchow (##), Chekiang. They continued their flight toward the south. They had to travel on foot for seven days and the two young princes were carried by their uncles on their backs all the way throughout the rough journey. After reaching Wenchow (), a city near the seashore, they stayed for about three months trying to rally loyal supporters there. A few did come, such as a high official Lu Hsiu-fu (✯✯✯) and generals Chang Shih-chieh (*) and Su Liu-i (***) each bringing soldiers along. An army of considerable size was mustered. The Premier Ch'en I-chung (1), who had deserted the court after the Mongols entered Lin-an, also reported his presence at Wenchow, which was his native city. In view of the grave situation created by the capture of the young emperor, which thus",
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    {
        "id": 205573,
        "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": 115,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "110\n\nSTEPHEN UHALLEY, JR,\n\nno comparisons of historical references or reflections of the kind that are made after national unification which might mirror both the satisfaction of success and the new brand of problems and frustrations that follow. Finally, in terms of impact on the Chinese people as a whole, it must be conceded that Mao Tse-tung, and his references to Chinese history, is of a greater order. This last point is important, I should think, in terms of the over-all significance of such a study. Nevertheless, it is Sun Yat-sen we are assigned to deal with, and as we have already acknowledged, keeping our qualification in mind, this exploration might well be of some use in its own right.\n\nSun Yat-sen is a fascinatingly paradoxical personality. He certainly enjoys an enviable position in history. Despite much politically naive and compromising activity on his part in his day he uniquely commands the continued respect of Chinese of all political persuasions in our day. This is not to underestimate Sun's vital role, for there should be little doubt but that he constituted for a critical period a persevering, idealistic and positive symbol around which a people trying to find nationhood, political unity and liberation from imperialistic bondage might rally. And the symbol continues today for many Chinese to represent something that might yet be, however hopeless the prospects seem. Such was the magnetism and the inspirational optimism generated by this remarkable man. Of course, his sanctification by the Nationalists has had something to do with the general absence of critical Chinese attention. But aside from such officially-imposed restraint there persists, even among normally critical-minded and politically non-involved Chinese scholars, an intriguing propensity to view Sun through mercifully rose-colored glasses, and to give his writings unmistakably charitable readings.\n\nThis instinctively favorable image of Sun extends to his knowledge of Chinese history as well. Yet this is an aspect of Sun's career that requires some working at, for Sun's historical knowledge, and the means by which he attained it are not exactly self-evident. One distinguished contemporary Chinese historian, currently residing in Hong Kong, explains that soon after Sun had returned from Honolulu, he retained a good tutor to coach him in Chinese history and literature. This same informant continues with this anecdotal story. While at the Canton Hospital School, Sun kept a full set of the twenty-four dynastic histories in his room.",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207341,
        "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": 109,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "# EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY\n\n101\n\nAt 5 A.M. he awakes with a soft punkah breeze fanning him. 5.15. Cup of cocoa and a biscuit brought to his bedside by a coolie. 5.30. The barber coolie shaves him, still in bed. 6. Bathing parade. 7.30. Breakfast, of which 1/2 lb. of beef-steak forms an invariable component. 8 to 11. Nothing whatever to do, and plenty to help him to do it—the everlasting coolies perform nearly all the cooking, sweeping, and cleaning up in barracks. 11. A short spell of school and theoretical instruction in gunnery. After dinner, unanimous repose on bamboo matting, as being cooler than a mattress. 5 P.M. One hour's easy gun-drill. 6 to 10. Sally forth to chaff the Chinese folk, try a trifle of 'samshu',* and practically ascertain that this potent rice spirit will prostrate with splitting headache the seasoned old soaker to whom a tumbler of brandy would be but as a glass of water. In fact, during the hot weather, he merely mounts guard, and is available for emergencies; in the cool season, he is of course made to rub up his drill. His idle life is not a happy one, destitute as it is to him of interest and active amusements, and in a very short time he becomes listless, depressed, and pulled down, contrasting painfully with his newly landed, fresh-looking comrades... I have known it asserted that no efforts of a commanding officer can keep European troops permanently stationed at Hong Kong in a state of military efficiency.23\n\nThe problem of drunkenness worried the naval, military, and civilian authorities in Hong Kong throughout the nineteenth century. In 1898, a commission to investigate the problem was set up because, as the preamble to the report states, there was a strong opinion in some quarters that deleterious liquors were being sold in the Colony, which were doing a great deal of mischief to soldiers and sailors.24 The commissioners discovered that although soldiers and sailors often drank samshu, a cheaper brew than Western spirits, the problem was not a simple one of 'deleterious liquors' incapacitating troops and naval ratings but rather that of excessive imbibing of all types of spirits, both Western and Chinese.\n\nIn 1898, there were 23 licensed public houses and bars in Victoria alone; 47 storekeepers were licensed to sell alcohol; and numerous Chinese shopkeepers sold samshu. A part of Upper Lascar\n\n* See Couling Encyclopaedia Sinica, 1967 reprint of the original edition of 1917, p. 497.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210862,
        "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": 213,
        "title": "RAS-1986",
        "content_text": "196\n\nCARL SMITH\n\n\"nese language to watch over the proceedings.\"\n\nThe effective discipline maintained by the associations within the Chinese community and their benevolent activities outweighed the danger of their usurpation of the functions of the officially constituted institutions to maintain law and order, so that, in spite of the apprehension they aroused, they were permitted to continue their activities.\n\nToday the Committee of the Six Companies represent the conservative, wealthy portion of the San Francisco Chinese community. In recent years their recognised control has been challenged by an influx of youth with Hongkong Triad Society background. This challenge to community authority has produced many problems in San Francisco's Chinatown with an upsurge of extortion, gang fights and murder.\n\nEven in A-chick's time the authority of the associations did not go unchallenged by other groups. An incident occurred in 1855 in which A-chick as community leader tried to act as peacemaker. A meeting with this end in mind was convened, but in the course of the meeting, Tong A-chick had to leave unceremoniously by leaping from a second-storey window.\n\nA street fight between two rival secret societies led up to the incident. The Hung Shun Tong Society was the established group, but its power was challenged by the E Shing Society. When the members of one of the rival groups wanted to enter a Chinese place of entertainment which was controlled by the other group, they were refused admission. The reason given in the newspaper account was \"because they spoke a different dialect from the proprietors of the house.\"\n\nThe next night the two groups were out in force with axes, knives, bamboos and bottles. The Hung Shun Tong could rally more fighters and routed the weaker E Shing group.\n\nThe fight occurred just below the quarters of the Canton Merchants Association rooms in Sacramento Street where a meeting had been called to investigate the causes of the previous night's",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063",
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    },
    {
        "id": 210968,
        "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": 30,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "Sadly he died on the day before he was due to collect copies of his book The Long-Sighted People from the printers (it is not due for publication until 15 February next year). 'I had naively assumed that the eponymous, presbyopic people of the title would be Chinese but, though they boast Sino-characteristics, they live in a remote future: “yuman” survivors of — or mutations from a third global catastrophe rendered inevitable by the idiocies of the current edition of the anthropoid race, Homo desipiens (Stupid Man).\n\nThe book is addressed to his granddaughter, for whom the environmental message is doom-laden: “In your lifetime or that of your children, there will be nothing to eat but one another. From which predicament nuclear, chemical or bacterial warfare would come as a happy release. Just as the bacteria in my gut (and yours) without which we cannot digest our food, will all die when we die; but if they should perish first we cannot long outlive them; so humans will not long outlive those other species which form part of our, and one another's food chain, nor the wild forests which we are busily destroying for ephemeral profit.\"\n\nI find it difficult to work up great indignation about ecology and food chains, vaguely accepting a nature red in tooth and claw and natural selection. Nature is more resilient than the doomsters would have us believe.\n\nBut Barnett preferred the apocalyptic view. Perhaps his occasional sourness could be traced to a resentment that his (most happy) marriage to a Chinese had blocked his promotion. Anyway, he nursed an intense hatred of homosexuality and believed that AIDS was a divine (or Nature's) deserved punishment on societies which tolerated, even glamourised, deviants. Despite this, Barnett protests he is an optimist. But he tells his grandchild: \"Some of your descendants (which means mine too) may be among the remnant [of the third catastrophe] but I bet they'll wish they had died with us. I'm that kind of optimist, you see.”\n\nAs an author, Barnett had a lot of fun creating a Clockwork Orange-type lingo for his yumans, revealing a surprising element of anti-establishment thinking for a former Hongkong bureaucrat.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211066,
        "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": 127,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "102\n\nof this has yet been found although contemporary maps indicated at La Loma a \"Burial place of infidels.” Infidels comprised non-Catholics and included European Protestants, Chinese, and Indians. Incidentally, still living in Cainta, only a few miles away are the descendants of the Indian troops of the expedition who decided to stay after deserting or being left behind after their boat capsized, but their distinctive looks are, however, slowly disappearing. Sadly, after being governed by the East India Company for eighteen months, Manila had to be returned to the Spanish by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Speculation still exists amongst Filipino scholars about what the Philippines might have been if the British had remained in control — a British colony in the Far East, rich in natural resources, fifty years before the acquisition of Singapore and Malaya and eighty years before Hong Kong.\n\nTrade continued to prosper after the resumption of Spanish Authority, and, until 1821 the Philippines continued to be run from Mexico. Treaty ports and trading posts were established in several places including Sual in Pangasinan, on Luzon Island, in Iloilo on Panay and on Cebu and Protestant cemeteries were established in each town, where beforehand the burial of Protestants in consecrated ground was prohibited, (as was the importation of Protestant Bibles).\n\nWith the expansion of trade, a burial place for the four hundred to five hundred aliens from Europe and North America living in Manila, was becoming an urgent necessity.\n\nIn 1827 the first British Consul General was appointed and it was his successor, John William Perry Farren (sometimes referred to as Fearon) who in 1860 attempted to establish a Protestant Cemetery for the mostly but not exclusively British residents. Sadly, Farren became one of the cemetery's first residents within weeks of its establishment.\n\nOn May 27th, 1862, the Spanish Government by a \"Superior Decreto\" granted permission to construct the Cemetery, and on March 11th, 1864 a lease was signed between Farren and Don Jose Bonifacio Roxas, the Owner of Hacienda de San Pedro, of a parcel of land of 31,656 \"varas cuadradas\" (22,467.85 sq metres or",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211114,
        "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": 175,
        "title": "RAS-1987",
        "content_text": "150\n\nTo rally support, the Governor invited representatives of the largest merchant firms to sit in on the meeting. Everyone at the meeting was in thorough agreement that a Chinese consul would be a great blow to trade in Hongkong.\n\nThe Hongkong merchants were convinced the Chinese were already pursuing a policy of harassment of legitimate traders. A consul would only expose them to additional pressures.\n\nSir Richard put forth the thesis that China could not expect the same rights as other Treaty Powers. He argued that China was different because all of its treaties with foreign powers had been entered into at the point of a gun.\n\nIn spite of China having to make concessions, Governor Sir Richard claimed it still wished to be a hermit nation. It stubbornly resisted foreign demands for unrestricted trade and access to its markets by foreigners.\n\nThe mercantile interests were ever pushing for the right to reside and trade anywhere in China, but on the condition that they also enjoy extra-territorial privileges. They did not wish to be subject to Chinese law.\n\nThis view arose from a conviction that the institutions and customs of the European nations were superior to those of other parts of the world. Therefore, it was the duty of \"civilised\" nations to protect their citizens from becoming subject to the laws and customs of places that did not share their tradition.\n\nIn support of the argument that China should not enjoy the rights of other Treaty Powers because of its reluctance to enter the community of nations, Sir Richard pointed out that while China had been given the right to send a minister to the Court of St. James in London, it had not done so. It was, therefore, inconsistent of China to wish to place a consul in Hongkong.\n\nIf China was peculiar, so too was Hongkong. Sir Richard asked the Colonial and Foreign Offices to weigh the matter in the light of \"the special and exceptional circumstances of this very peculiar",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt",
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    {
        "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",
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    {
        "id": 211485,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1988",
        "page_number": 201,
        "title": "RAS-1988",
        "content_text": "177\n\nof the most tragic periods of my life. The students were bright and eager to learn. They were tolerant of my inadequate command of Chinese and were helpful in teaching me a more refined use of the language. Among them was Sally Sun, the adopted daughter of Sun Yat-sen. She followed me to Honolulu and lived with us while she attended the University of Hawaii until she left after her freshman year for Pomona College. To this day I am in touch with many of my former students.\n\nI was glad for the opportunity to meet many relatives, some for the second time, and to know them better. I felt welcomed in the homes of First Paternal Uncle and Cousin Toby. The former lived in a traditional compound on the bank of a small river in the Lai Chee Wan district\n\nin Canton, an area where the elite of the old regime resided. He also maintained a home on Kennedy Road, in Wanchai, Hong Kong, a sturdy building of British design. About once a month, on pay day, I would invite Bertha Young, Sarah Mao, and Miriam Simpson, teachers at True Light, to spend a weekend at Uncle's Kennedy Road home. This gave us a chance to savour foreign food, perhaps to see an American film, or to attend a tea-dance at the Hong Kong Hotel.\n\nCousin Toby and his wife Louise lived in the Tung Shan I section of Canton where many westernized Chinese congregated. Staying with them on occasions was a pleasant change. Sometimes I would go with them to the Euro-American Club for a night of dancing.\n\nBecause my salary was only 120 Mex. dollars a month (about 20 U.S. dollars), I could not see as much of China as I would have liked. I was able to visit Father's birthplace and our Chan relatives a second time, and to pay respects to the graves of my grandparents and great grandparents during the Ching Ming Festival. I also paid a short visit to the home of my maternal grandmother in Shekki where we had lived in 1919, and to the new home of Aunt Pong nearby. In the summer of 1934, with Bertha Pang, Tiu Kei and Suk Kei Chan, and Ethel Au, I set out to see Peking by rail from Shanghai. I found Peking a charming old city and was thrilled to visit the Great Wall and the Imperial City and other attractions, so rich in history. People here seemed more refined, more cultivated; even the salesmen were very polite. On the way back, we stopped at several well-known places. We met and were joined at times by Daniel Yee, William Leong, Deborah Kau and Elizabeth Ching.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt",
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    {
        "id": 212707,
        "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": 16,
        "title": "RAS-1992",
        "content_text": "A JERSEY ADVENTURER IN CHINA GUN RUNNER, CUSTOMS OFFICER, AND BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR \n\nAND GENERAL IN THE CHINESE IMPERIAL ARMY \n\n1842-1919* \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\nPART ONE \n\nThis is the story of General William Mesny, Knight Ying of the Order of the Pa-t'u-lu, a man who lived an exciting life from the day he left home on the island of Jersey at the time of the Crimean War to sail the oceans until finally he settled in a turbulent China having served with two of the provincial armies of the Chinese Imperial forces as a mercenary or, in modern parlance, a foreign adviser. He became a general in the Imperial army before he was 30, suggesting that his services were greatly valued by the Chinese though at the price of being viewed by the western community in central China, and Shanghai in particular, as too pro-Chinese and probably very eccentric having ‘gone native'. The remaining 47 years of his life were spent, first travelling around China, after which he tried to make a fortune in Shanghai but, sadly, having failed, eked out his latter years in virtual obscurity. He put a brave face on his troubles during the last 25 or so years with the occasional glimpse of disappointment and despair showing through in his writings. Considering his lack of formal education his publications deserve respect even if he displayed the undoubted large chip on his shoulder due to 'them', both Chinese and westerners, not affording him the respect and esteem he felt his due, in view of what he considered to be his radical ideas for modernising China. We only know details of Mesny's life, especially his time with the Chinese army, from his own writing, and his serialised autobiographical essays in the journals he published in Shanghai, Mesny's Chinese Miscellany. \n\nThese journals contained not only short autobiographical essays but also a wealth of interesting but unconnected snippets about Chinese customs, Chinese military organisations, mineralogy, Chinese food, commercial notes, etc, though concealed within these essays are a number \n\n* This article is somewhat long for the Journal, but in view of the level of scholarship it has been left at more or less its original length & [Editor]",
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    {
        "id": 214157,
        "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": 15,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "together with his wife Edith, re-visited Hong Kong. So did Past President Dr James Hayes who gave an entertaining, illustrated talk to our Branch about his army days, in Hong Kong and Korea, in the early 1950s. We were delighted to see these three old friends once again.\n\nIt is always sad when old friends depart, for whatever reason, and we are sorry to have to report the passing of two of our overseas members in Britain: the Reverend Cyril Clarke and Mr G Harden. We are also sad to record the passing of Lady May Ride who was a strong supporter of our Branch from 1960 right up to her death after she had moved to England. May they all rest in peace. In addition other members resigned and some left, we later discovered, without informing us which complicates the keeping of our records. As a matter of general interest, there appears to be no founding member (who joined in 1960) who is still active in our Branch today.\n\nMembership drive\n\nBecause of reduced membership, strenuous attempts have been made to increase numbers in various ways. For instance a successful photographic exhibition, on the Landmark Building's Overhead Walkway in Central, was mounted at the end of May, 1998 (see Appendix C). The major organisers for this event were Robert Nield and Tim Ko, assisted at planning stage by Philip Bruce and Arthur Hacker. Their efforts were greatly appreciated as was the help of a large number of other members, including Dr Michael Lau who did the Chinese translation.\n\nIn addition to the successful Landmark Exhibition (no pun intended), the RAS message has been spread in various other ways. This has included the President and members giving talks to, or liaising with, approaching 20 associations, such as the Corona Society, Dante Alighieri and the Hong Kong Natural History Society. Reciprocal arrangements with other societies are obviously important and, in some cases, other associations have been very supportive. Councillors have also taken part in radio and television programmes and our Branch is to be allocated space by the British Consulate on the Internet. For all this assistance we are grateful to many different organisations.\n\nWe are also grateful to RAS members Bob and Sally Bunker and\n\nXiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
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    {
        "id": 214207,
        "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": 65,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "28\n\nso different Chinese ethnic sub-groups laugh at each other. In the early 1950s, when many Shanghainese came to Hong Kong from the Mainland, the sally going the rounds among the Cantonese was: First the Shanghainese travelled in a small car. Now they ride in a big car. For the Westerner who is slow on the uptake this means, when they first came to Hong Kong they drove a car. Later, they could not afford it so they travelled by bus.\n\nIn China too, at one stage there was a tendency, as in other societies years ago, to deride cripples and the mentally retarded (Sypher, 1956; 202). In England in the Middle Ages, a hunchback was expected to caper around and amuse others. Jews, the village idiot, and the 'Chinaman' with his pigtail were usually all good, certainly in the 19th century, for a giggle (Pan, 1990; 84). More recently, there was the case of the Duke of Edinburgh meeting some British students studying in China and the Duke saying to them: 'If you stay here too long you'll get \"slitty\" eyes.' Many people seemed to think it was an insensitive remark and in bad taste. A few however felt, no doubt like the Duke himself (and indeed a few Hong Kong Chinese), that it was all intended in good, clean fun.\n\nWe must not forget that a witch was burned alive in Sunderland, England, as late as 1722, which was an occasion of some merriment. Even today many children enjoy 'cruelty' in their humour, such as the slip on the banana skin or the bucket of water tipped on the head. The author recalls how a colleague, a Chinese teacher, was given the nickname of tsoh hau ue (left [sloping] mouth fish) (false halibut) in the 1950s. Although humour can conceal or even help to heal pain, there are people of all nationalities who delight in the misfortune of others, and, even today, a few get pleasure from stoning a hedgehog to death which is stuck in a hedge.\n\nFrequently one hears about oppressive authority in Chinese life and there are sometimes attempts to 'skewer' an incident, by the oppressed, with a good joke. Everyone loves to make the leaders look stupid.\n\nThere is the one about the three Chinese in a prison cell during the Cultural Revolution. The first said: 'I'm here because I supported Deng",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214681,
        "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": 96,
        "title": "RAS-1999",
        "content_text": "60\n\ndisappeared. By the early 1990s, only the area within the walls of Nga Tsin Wai remained, and that run down and poorly maintained. The squatter huts surrounding the village, backing onto the 1724 walls, made the village invisible from outside, especially given the village's low level below the reclamation level chosen by the Japanese for their nullah banks. Many people began to think of it as \"just another squatter area”, being unaware of the depth of history of the proud community the remnants of which are so sadly embedded within. The future for this venerable and historically fascinating village remains unclear, but, whatever the future holds, this does not affect the village's past. This remains the village of the Ng, Li and Chan clans, with more than eight hundred years of history. Within it still stands the ancient Tin Hau Temple, six hundred and fifty years old, with its history of miraculous interventions by the deity. This remains the village of the brave, vigorous, and public-spirited clans who saw off the Taiping bandits, and who assisted with the foundation of the Lok Sin Tong and the Lung Chun School. However poorly maintained and run-down the village is today, this should not blind us to the village's long and prosperous history in the years before development robbed it of its fields, and of its shops and businesses in the nearby Market. Nga Tsin Wai remains, without question, a site of the highest historical interest.\n\nNOTES\n\n3\n\nMuch of the material in this article was gathered together for a Report on the Historical Heritage Significance of Nga Tsin Wai Village prepared for the Land Development Corporation, and is published here with their consent.\n\nThe author would like to express his gratitude to Dr James Hayes for his comments and assistance in general, particularly by giving the author access to his notes on Nga Tsin Wai.\n\nFor the history of salt in the Hong Kong area, see **\nSome of the references to the new districts in the eleventh century speak of three districts only, not including Kwun Fu, but it seems likely that this is due to an error in an early document.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216149,
        "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": 448,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "382\n\ncoastal trading. He offered cheap fares to Chinese workers to encourage them to engage with Hong Kong. In this he was hoist with his own petard as some of the imported bandits crawled up the storm drains and burrowed into his clock and jewellery business premises, removing many valuables. He ultimately left a line of eight coastal steamers to be managed by his nephew and great-nephew.\n\nIn short, Lapraik became a wealthy merchant prince, building a castellated residence for himself and his company; he was a respected civic dignitary and benefactor, but not without his detractors. Memorials to his achievements included the presentation of a civic clock for the clock tower at Pedder Street and Queens Road, but the tower itself was demolished in 1913 and the clock itself has been lost. Much later, his nephews had an elaborate stained-glass window installed in St John's Cathedral and dedicated to his memory; it was regrettably destroyed during the WW2 occupation and few substantial records remain.\n\nAt the relatively youthful age of 48 he retired and returned to England, leaving his nephews to run the shipping business and Mr Falconer, a one-time employee, inherited the clock and jewellery enterprise. That same year he married a lady from the Isle of Wight, having settled a trust for his Chinese concubine before leaving Hong Kong. Sadly, he died a few years later of a malignancy at the age of 51, but with a smile on his face, it is said.\n\nOne of the beneficiaries of his will was a Douglas Dixson, the son of a late colleague who was a newspaper proprietor in Hong Kong and we discover circumstantially that the lady who previously owned my clock had documented connections with that particular family. So, who knows, with such slender conjecture, I may have the master's own clock.\n\nThis is but a thumbnail sketch of the life of an extraordinary man, stitched together from information provided by very many kind people both here in the UK and in Hong Kong. In the interim, I should like to thank in particular Mr Philip Kemp, related to Lapraik through marriage; Dr Dan Waters and Dr Solomon Bard of Hong Kong; and Bernard Hui of the Hong Kong Public Records Office, who made available to me some archival record cards compiled by the Reverend Carl Smith. My searches are not complete and I shall be ever grateful to receive any further anecdotal recollections about Lapraik and particularly about his clocks.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]