[ { "id": 211406, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 122, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "98\n\nMy Paternal Grandparents* \n\nGreat Grandfather Chan Tak Yong \n\nwas born around 1816. He was married twice, and bore one son by his first wife and four sons by his second. He traded in pottery and earthenware, a business which took him to the cities of Macau and Canton where he had the opportunity to deal in silver and gold exchange. As he prospered, he built a home for each of his sons and provided for their common use a library, a store-house for grain and one for wood. He operated a grocery business and a pawn shop, where villagers could borrow money or bank their savings. Apparently such a life of ease provided no incentive for his sons to become independent, and several of them became addicted to opium and died in their early 20s, leaving young widows without male issue and without financial means. The Chinese saying that wealth cannot last more than three generations came true. \n\nThe oldest of Great Grandfather's sons was Jok Jun F, several of whose grandsons emigrated to the United States: George Goon Sun who settled in Los Angeles; Harry Wah Kwok who settled in Santa Anna; and Henry Wah Heen, also known as Bak Wing Ĥ who settled in San Francisco. \n\nMy grandfather was the second son of Tak Yong, but the first son of his second wife. Grandfather was born on 29 June 1845. His 'milk name' was Ngee Lok; his marriage name was Jok Chiu f'FBB; and his name in the business world was Chock Gee #2, the name by which he was generally known. Because Great Grandfather's younger brother, Tak Loo, died at the age of 22 without male issue, Grandfather was 'adopted out' to him. \n\nJok Sau F, the third son, bore three sons by his first wife and three more by his second. I met one of them, Dai Mee, a not very bright-looking fellow, who was given a job at the Bank of East Asia in Canton by First Uncle. \n\nThe fourth son, Jok Sui F, died young without male issue. Therefore Jok Sau 'gave' one of his sons, Ngit Chiu FJE, to this brother. \n\n* See Table 1.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211407, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 123, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Table 1: Genealogy of the Chan Family\n\nChan Tak Youg (Violet's great grandfather)\n\nChan Jok Jun\n\nGeorge, Harry, Henry\n\nChan Jok Chiu (b. 1845) m (1) Au (Violet's grandparents)\n\n(2) Leong\n\nYung Kam in Yim (First Paternal Aunt)\n\nGeorge Goon Hop (adopted) m (1) Auyoung\n\n(2) Liu\n\n \n Gladys Yung Hoy m Lan Kwai\n \n \n Claudia in George Murphy\n David, Michael\n \n \n Calvin m Barbara\n Jennifer, Jason, Jeffrey\n \n \n Kwock Wah m Mona Lew\n Paula, Donna, Marcha, David, Jonathan\n \n \n Lorna (adopted) m\n Lawrence, Paul, Yolanda, Twila-dawn, Keith, Robin\n \n\nChan Ping Wing (First Paternal Uncle) m Ching (Concubine: \"Small Aunt\")\n\nChan Po Ling m (1) Auyoung\n\n(2) Kan (Concubine: Kam)\n\n \n Linda, Judy, Lillian, Robert, Chi Fai, Anthony, m Dorothy (5 daughters)\n \n \n Rosita, m Robert Ting (1 child)\n \n\nChan Ping I (Second Paternal Uncle) m Auyoung\n\nToby in Louise Dung\n\n \n Melody m Johnson Chen, Carol m John Lee, Sonja in Tai Min Wan, Jade m Eddy Lin, Lloyd m Deborah, Lena m Jeffrey Lu\n \n\nHelen m Tong\n\nCharles (children)\n\nGeorgette m Lu Bing Leong (daughter) Moo Yun\n\nTing Cheong (2 sons, 2 daughters)\n\nMoo Sau\n\nChan Ping Yip m Jong (Violet's parents)\n\nRuth\n\nViolet m John Lew m\n\nMe Yuk\n\n \n Helen m (1) Edmund Tin Wai Tong\n \n \n Edmund Yee Sing m (1) Susan Loui\n Kevin\n \n \n (2) Gertrude Kristiansen\n Syrilyn, Clayton\n \n \n (2) Tso-yu Fu\n Lynnette Wen-chu\n \n \n Russell m (1) Lila Kung\n Dora m Tso-chien Shen\n \n \n Eugene m Nancy Chun\n Wendell, Celia\n \n \n (2) Susan Carter\n Russell\n \n \n Gilbert m Christine Liao\n Warren, Tabitha\n \n\ndaughter m Leong Ting Bau (Second Paternal Aunt)\n\nYung Yik m Auyoung (Third Paternal Aunt)\n\nSuk Jun, m So (4 sons, 3 daughters)\n\nSuk Num, (3 daughters, 1 son), Suk Chiu, (2 sons, 2 daughters) Chan Ping Lim (d. 1903) (Fourth Paternal Uncle)\n\nChan Jok Sau\n\nL-6 sons (including Dai Mec, Ngit Chiu and Dai Geng)\n\nChan Jok Sui\n\nNgit Chiu (adopted) d 1924 in Honolulu\n\nChan Jok King\n\nJu Dai, Dai Geng (adopted)\n\n99", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211410, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 126, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "102\n\nand others. Grandfather was the book-keeper and his 'sworn brother', Lum Gam Chin, was the manager. In those days Chinese immigrants were very clannish and used these stores for various purposes. Consequently Wing On Tai was patronized by those from the See Dai Doo District. They spoke a subdialect of Fukienese known as Nam Long. Many of them were rice farmers from Waiahole, Waikane and Punaluu on Oahu and from the Panalei Valley on Kauai. They would charge their purchases during the year and would clear their accounts just before the arrival of the lunar New Year; they would send their grain to be milled and sold; they would remit money to their families in China through the store facilities; they would stop by to socialize; and some would use the living quarters located behind the store as a temporary stop-over place. In those days meals were served to the employees, an amenity extended to visitors. Therefore, Wing On Tai was not only a place of business but also a community centre, as were other stores to their own clansmen.\n\nIt was around 1899 that Wing On Tai started the Iwilei Rice Mill on a large piece of land on Iwilei Road, in the heart of the then Red Light district. Ping Lim wrote to Father in Hilo that Yim Quon, one of the principal shareholders, had selected Chew Lum Chan (probably a distant cousin) to oversee the weighing of the grain. There were also living quarters on the grounds for the employees and I remember being there with Mother to visit Mrs. Lum Gwo, a daughter of a Chan clansman married to the book-keeper who succeeded Grandfather. Even for that short distance we went there in a hack, a horse-drawn buggy. In the early 1920s when Lum Siu Bun was manager, the two businesses were dissolved and the mill property was sold to the Hawaiian Pineapple Company and on this land stands the huge pineapple tank. Because Grandfather had deeded his holdings to Father when he left for China, Mother and we children received several thousand dollars of the liquidation distributions. Mother sent her share to First Paternal Uncle and Second Paternal Uncle, and used the balance to build a duplex on our Fort and Kuakini Streets property where a store was already standing.\n\nGrandfather cared very much for his second wife. When she became ill, reportedly from tuberculosis, he nursed her tenderly. When she died on 4 October 1899, he felt the loss so keenly that he sought solace in opium. His grief was compounded by the death of Ping Lim a few years", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211411, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 127, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "103\n\nlater. He had always been concerned about the future of his sons, sending the two older boys to California to seek their fortune, nurturing the two younger ones with schooling in Mills School and Punahou Preparatory School, and giving them constant counsel, as evidenced by the many letters he sent to Father in Hilo.\n\nGrandfather finally decided to go back to his native land, still depressed over the loss of his youngest child. His sight was already failing because of cataracts. In 1907 or 1908, he departed for his home village, accompanied by Aunt Yim and her family, but he stopped over in Shanghai to visit with Second Paternal Uncle and his family. After about four years, he proceeded to Hong Kong, on his way back to the village. He was met in Hong Kong by his nephew, Gut Kau, and taken to a hotel. One morning as he was reaching for a towel, he collapsed and passed away, no doubt from a heart attack, without seeing his native home again. The date of his death is recorded as 14 May 1911.\n\nGrandfather had always maintained that a nephew was like a son, and coincidentally, it was a nephew who was with him at the end and who took care of his interment. I was told that he was 63 years of age when he left Honolulu and 67 when he died. Although I have no recollection of Grandfather, I do have a mental image of a fine-looking, elderly gentleman in a Chinese cap and gown from a large photograph which graced our parlour wall for many years, and I feel a sense of pride and love for him from whom I am descended.\n\nFirst Paternal Uncle\n\nFirst Paternal Uncle was born on 3 January 1868. His 'milk name' was Ping Wing, his name upon marriage, Hee Kau, and his business name, Shing Min. He was a distinguished-looking man, tall and handsome, with nicely-formed features. He held himself erect and kept a trim figure even in his later years when I came to know him well. My father told me that his two older brothers were considered the two handsomest young men in their village. After studying English in Hong Kong and getting married, he emigrated to the United States in 1886 as a carpenter's apprentice. He eventually became connected with the Bank of Canton in San Francisco and was rumoured to be the idol of women entertainers in that city.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211412, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 128, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "104\n\nFirst Paternal Aunt I joined him in 1897. She was surnamed Ching and was born on 16 August 1869 in the village of Tin Bin. A kindly, passive and not well-educated lady, she was anxious to be liked, but did not have the authoritativeness, shrewdness, and skill necessary to manage a large Chinese household. Because she bore no children, Uncle asked Cousin George Goon Sun Chan to bring a 'bought' girl with him into the United States as his own wife, when in reality she was to be Uncle's concubine. This was in 1903. Her name was Wong Lin Hing, a native of Soochow, and she was born on 7 February 1887. Although she was addressed by the family as Ngee Nai, namely, Second Concubine, I called her Small Paternal Aunt, to give her more status. In San Francisco, these two women, by shelling shrimp in the home, were able to use their earnings for investment that gave them some income of their own. During the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, it was a very difficult experience for Uncle when he had to flee with Aunt on his back because she could not run with bound feet.\n\nIn response to one of Uncle's letters bemoaning the fact that he had no children by either spouse, Father responded, without realizing the full impact, that if they lived near each other, he would let him have one of his children. Uncle immediately wrote that friends passing through Honolulu on their way to California could take the child to him. Fortunately for me, it was my younger sister, Me Yuk, still an infant, who was presented to Uncle. I have never discussed with Mother what her feelings were, but I suspect that she had little say in the matter and had dutifully acceded to a husband's decision and that she carried a great burden of guilt over it. When Me Yuk was about four or five, Small Aunt took her along to visit friends in Sacramento, and on the way back by boat, she developed convulsions and died. She was described as a sweet, appealing, and talented child, a little performer, whom Uncle proudly showed off to his friends. He doted on her and lavished her with fine clothes, some of which were sent to us after her death. It was traumatic for the family. Small Aunt contemplated suicide as she felt that she was to blame for the child's death. Me Yuk's remains were later taken to Hong Kong for reburial, and in 1932, she was buried a third time by Mother to rest next to Father and Ruth in the Pokfulam Christian Cemetery, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211415, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 131, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "107\n\nPo Ling, Uncle's sole heir, was in business in Malaysia for many years, but returned to Hong Kong following a stroke. He has been married twice. His first wife, née Auyoung, died of tuberculosis early in their marriage. His present wife, Su Min Kan, is the mother of three daughters and two sons: Linda, Judy, Lillian, Robert and Chi Fai, all of whom were educated in England. I met Su Min for the first time when she and Po Ling toured the United States in 1978 with Linda and Robert. Po Ling's concubine, Grace Kam Siu Wai, born 28 February 1918, and her two children, Anthony F, born 12 May 1945, and Rosita b, born 20 July 1953, are settled in Australia. Anthony, married to an Australian, Dorothy, has five daughters. Rosita, married to Robert Ting, has one child. Because of the distance between Uncle's family and ours, contacts are infrequent and I am afraid family ties will weaken and be lost in time.\n\nAs for me, fond memories of Uncle and Small Aunt linger still, and I cannot forget his affection and concern for me when he took a launch from Shameen, Canton, to True Light Middle School at Paak Hok Tung, to comfort me upon the untimely and tragic death of my fiancé. To have lived in his truly Chinese home was to experience the joys of an extended family, the sharing of sadness and happiness, the concern for one another's well-being, the responsibilities falling upon and assumed by the head of the family, and the respect towards our elders and for each other — attributes which have drawn our families close for several generations and which have increased my appreciation of the ancient culture of my people.\n\nSecond Paternal Uncle\n\nMuch of the information on Second Paternal Uncle comes from letters he wrote to Father and from the autobiography of his eldest son, Toby, written in Chinese.\n\nUncle, the second son in the family, was born in our ancestral village on 17 August 1870. His 'milk name' was Ping I; his marriage name, On Kiao; his adult name, Chung Chi. The last was the name he was known by outside the family. He was taught in the village by a tutor and most likely had studied some English in Hong Kong before Grandfather sent him at the age of 16 to join First Uncle in San Francisco.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211423, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 139, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "Son Zhi Leong & Daughter How Ming W\n\nSon Zhi Gong EMI\n\n115\n\nDaughter Leong Yuk J R\n\nZhi Leong, not yet married, is a secondary school teacher in Canton, and How Ming is in the performing arts. Little else is known of their education and their careers.\n\nIn summary, Second Paternal Uncle was an ambitious man, unwavering in his goal for advancement. He worked hard to attain a profession which afforded his children more opportunities than he had and with which he served his country and humanity. His love for his parents and siblings was no less, as evidenced from the letters of concern, advice and encouragement he wrote to Father.\n\nFourth Paternal Uncle\n\nA seventh child, a son named Ping Lim Wilff, was born to Grandfather and his second wife on 22 November 1883. He was five years younger than my father. I know little of his early childhood, except that he had left the village with his mother to join Grandfather when he was nine. It was not until December 1895, in a letter from Second Uncle to Father, that we learn he was attending the same school as Father, undoubtedly the Christian School for Oriental Boys in Honolulu. A bright and promising youth, he attracted the attention of a missionary, Miss Woods, who was instrumental in securing a home in Manoa for his convalescence before his death. She was evidently also a friend to Father because she gave my parents a wedding gift of a fine China fruit dish which we still treasure.\n\nWhenever Grandfather was unable to pay the full tuition for his two sons, he would ask for assistance from First Uncle, who would respond dutifully. There is no record of when Ping Lim finished high school. However, two of his letters to Father, then in Hilo, were especially interesting from a sociological and historical point of view. On 26 December 1899, he wrote that as a result of the discovery of plague in Honolulu's Chinatown, traffic among the Chinese had greatly decreased; that Aunt Chan Hoy's son had died suddenly; that the Chinese Church", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211457, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 173, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "149\n\nUpon receiving word of the unexpected death of Second Paternal Aunt, Father decided to take a trip to China to see his remaining brothers and sisters. Passage by boat after the First World War was difficult to secure, but reluctant to change his schedule and to inconvenience the bank, he accepted steerage accommodation and left in April 1919 on the Shinyo Maru. Before the ship arrived in Japan some ten days later, he had seen 19 passengers die from influenza and he had himself fallen ill. He debarked in Japan to seek medical care, but as he had difficulty communicating with the Japanese doctor, he proceeded to Shanghai so that Second Paternal Uncle could take care of him. The weather in Shanghai proved to be too cold, so he decided to go to Hong Kong to stay with First Paternal Uncle. There a doctor Koch diagnosed Father as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. When his fingers began to swell, relatives believed the sulphur content of the water in Hong Kong was not beneficial and arranged to move him to my maternal grandfather's home in Shekki, occupied then by his widow and son. It was then that Father sent for Mother. With the help of C. K. Ai, Mother was able to obtain passage, again steerage, on the S. S. Nanking for herself, Dora, and me. Ruth and Helen were left in the care of the Ais. It must have been difficult for them, especially for Helen, to be separated from Mother under such stressful circumstances.\n\nOn shipboard we were one of three families in a large cabin, sharing one bath. There was much noise and activity in and outside of this cabin, but we kept much to ourselves because Mother was very much worried about Father and left Dora, who cried a good deal, probably from seasickness, to my care. One day Mother suffered such severe gastric pain that she thought she would die and gave me instructions as to what to do. The ship's doctor was able to ease her pain. It was a frightening experience and the trip was a traumatic one for all three of us. Years later, Dr. Samuel Yee found that Mother had had a healed perforated gastric ulcer and I wondered if it had occurred then.\n\nSince we were total strangers in a different world, First Paternal Uncle thoughtfully accompanied us from Hong Kong to join Father in Shekki. We travelled over the ocean and up river to our destination on a crowded junk or \"doo\", to be greeted joyfully by Father. Chinese herbs and good food, however, had not been able to restore Father to good health. So my parents decided to return to Honolulu, hoping that a stay at the Leahi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211458, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "150\n\nHome would be beneficial. It was a harrowing experience when the sedan chair carrying Father did not reach the junk on time, and Mother had me run back to the wharf to wait for him, just in time to help him up the junk as it was edging out. If I had fallen off the narrow plank which served as the passageway between land and boat, no one would have wanted to take my place to appease the water spirits.\n\nWe left Hong Kong on the S.S. Nile, this time first class, in December 1919. The passengers were required to line up on deck on that very cold New Year's Day at Kobe (?) to pass inspection by Japanese officers. As a result, Father became seriously ill and died the next day, 2 January 1920, reportedly of double pneumonia. Mother was extremely grief-stricken and I was too stunned to be of support to her then. A telegraph to Mr. C. K. Ai paved the way for Father's remains to be admitted into Hawaii without difficulty, because Father had been originally admitted under the status 'labourer' which gave him no right of re-entry in those days of strict immigration regulations for the Chinese. Father was laid to rest in the Pauoa Chinese Christian Cemetery that had just been organized in 1919. Because he had often expressed his distaste for an elaborate funeral that included a noisy Hawaii band, Father's services at the church were simple and dignified. In 1932, Mother had his remains cremated and reburied in a beautiful porcelain urn beside the cremated remains of Ruth and Me Yuk in the Pokfulam Chinese Christian Cemetery in Hong Kong, since Father had often expressed a longing for the land of his birth. And he, like his father, never saw his native village again once he had left it.\n\nIn his letter of recommendation dated 14 September 1899, F. W. Damon described Father as 'faithful, industrious, and of good and reliable character'. Father was more than that. His love for his family is revealed in his frequent letters to his father and his brothers. His gift of Me Yuk to First Paternal Uncle and the gift of Ting Cheong to Second Paternal Uncle to Father's memory are manifestations of their closeness and love for each other. Whenever I recall Father reading to us \"The Children's Hour\" by Longfellow, I feel his tremendous love for his children and sense the happiness we gave him. Always striving to increase his knowledge and to better himself and his family, he often quoted his favourite poet, 'Let us be up and doing, with a heart for any fate, still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labour and to wait'. For, from his own past experience,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211475, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "167\n\ngrades, graduating in June, 1932. In August of that year, she and mother accompanied me to China. Because Aunt Pong felt she could manage better in Shekki with the money from the sale of their home, she and the children left Honolulu on the Empress of Japan as we did. Uncle Pong remained in Honolulu. This was during the Depression when the exchange rate was favourable for United States currency.\n\nDora enrolled in the True Light Middle School, where I had accepted a teaching position, but when she found her inadequate knowledge of Chinese quite frustrating, she left after the first semester for Hong Kong, where Mother was living in First Paternal Uncle's Kennedy Road home. There she was tutored in Chinese by a Chinese teacher. In July, 1933, after a short visit to Shanghai and Hangchow, Mother and Dora returned to Honolulu on the President Hoover, to welcome Mother's first grandchild, Edmund Tong.\n\nFor the next three years, Dora studied at McKinley High School and after her graduation in June, 1936, she matriculated at the University of Hawaii, and received a B.A. degree in liberal arts. Then she went to the University of Chicago to do postgraduate social work. At the International House where she resided, she met Tso-chien Shen, a Vice-consul from China, and married him on 19 September, 1941. He was a native of Pi Hu Chen, Li Shui County, Chekiang Province, and a graduate of the University of Peking. An article, \"What Chinese Exclusion Really Means\" by him was published in 1942 by the China Institute in America. Dora soon became pregnant and became so ill that she could not finish her last quarter of study to earn a Master's degree. Their sons, both born in Chicago, are:\n\nEugene Tsu-wang I, born 7/5/42\n\nGilbert Tsu-shang I, born 2/3/46\n\nIn 1946 when Tso-chien was promoted to Second Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Manila, he had to leave his family behind, because his salary was too low. After 1949, Tso-chien started a chicken farm, with Paul Sim as his financial backer. However, in 1950 when he was found to be suffering from cancer, he sent for Dora, but by this time he was already in a terminal stage. Whereupon Dora returned to Mother's home and arranged to have him flown to Honolulu in December 1950", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "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", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 } ]