[ { "id": 204260, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 28, "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\n25\n\nMunia is a fairly common resident, especially in the New Territories, but it is hard to say how successful it is at nesting, for it tends to build several nests before eventually raising a brood. The Chestnut Munia, a handsome black and chestnut bird, is often found in quite large flocks in Mai Po marshes in autumn and some may be seen all the year round there, but it has never yet nested as far as we know,\n\nThe above is a very brief summary of birds that are likely to be seen in Hong Kong during the year. If readers would like to know more about them, they might first of all join the Hong Kong Bird-Watching Society. By doing so, they can get into contact with its fifty or so members, and will be able to join them on frequent expeditions to various parts of the Colony. They will also receive a copy of the Society's Annual Report and will be able to borrow books from its increasingly important and comprehensive bird library. Unfortunately the local bird-books, such as they are, are out-of-print and the ones covering neighbouring countries are expensive, especially if one considers how few of Hong Kong's birds each one covers. But three books in particular may be recommended in that between them they have pictures and notes on about 275 of our birds, besides unillustrated notes on a few more.\n\nThese are:\n\nR. T. Peterson, G. Mountfort and A. D. Hollom. Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin, 1954\n\nK. Kobayashi. Birds of Japan. Osaka, Hoikushi, 1956\n\nB. E. Smythies. Birds of Burma. London, Oliver and Boyd, 1940\n\nAll these and many more are available from the Society's library. A new 'Check-list of the Birds of Hong Kong' is due for publication later in 1960 and will contain notes on the status and distribution in the Colony of every species so far recorded here.\n\nDuring the last three years or so, members of the Bird-Watching Society have noted several problems of bird-life in Hong Kong, which, though not particularly difficult, are puzzling because of conflicting or incomplete evidence. I should like to end this article with a few examples, so that bird-watchers who feel so inclined can go out armed with an objective.\n\n(a) Does the Peregrine nest in Hong Kong? It may be seen occasionally all the year round. If so, where? Lion Rock, Sharp Peak or perhaps Tai Tan Yang are possibilities.\n\n(b) What are the curious little rails or crakes which are flushed every autumn by snipe-shooters in the marshes? One is not allowed to shoot them and they are only seen briefly in flight,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204717, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "JOURNAL OF OCCURRANCES AT CANTON\n\n11\n\nin the Pearl River estuary. This estuary formed a great bay on the eastern edge of which was Hong Kong and on the western edge the Portuguese city of Macao. Many of the ships whose cargo were destined for Canton stopped first at Macao and the city was the summer home of a considerable number of foreign merchants trading to Canton. The island of Lintin, consisting of little more than a sharp peak rising in the center of the bay, was the entrepôt of the opium trade. At the mouth of the Pearl River a series of forts known as the Bogue dominated the estuary, at its widest three miles and at its narrowest one mile.* European ships were required to stop at the fortifications and receive permission from the Chinese authorities to proceed up the Pearl River. They then sailed on thirty miles to Whampoa, an island in the river where they anchored and discharged their cargos which were taken by barges and smaller ships thirteen miles to Canton, Neither the depth of the river nor the Chinese government permitted the \"Foreign Devils\" to bring large ships to the provincial capital.\n\nOn March 28, 1839 Elliot agreed to turn over to Commissioner Lin the entire holdings of opium which he stated as 20,283 chests. As each major consignment of opium was delivered restrictions on foreigners were eased in regard to food supplies and employment of Chinese workers. By early May conditions outwardly had returned to normal, the embargo lifted and the river opened to commercial traffic. The first crisis was over but the basic problem had not been settled.\n\nThe journal of William Hunter covered the critical days of siege from March to May 1839. Hunter graphically presented the dangers and concerns of the western community in Canton yet more significantly he showed the necessary patterns of life which develop even in the midst of agonizing uncertainty. In short the routine of peace was exchanged for the routine of confinement. All in all, tension produced by a state of siege, rumor, and the anticipation of an unknown fury ready to be unleashed by Chinese authorities were key ingredients of the spirit of the beleagured foreign community in Canton in 1839. Hunter was not concerned about the morality of opium trade. Apparently he saw no justification whatsoever for the action of the Chinese government.\n\n* For places mentioned here and in the Journal see the map facing p. 27.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207867, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "240 \n\nMAURICE FREEDMAN \n\nprospect of starting up in business. The hundreds of Chinese restaurants now in Britain (there are well over a thousand) began from a very small nucleus. Men started as workers, saved a little capital, joined with a few friends or relatives, and opened their own establishments, town after town being drawn into the network (so that, as one of my undergraduates in London put it to me last year, there has been created a provincial tradition for chop suey and chips.) In its expanding phase the business could justify a claim to offer opportunities to all; now that its peak has passed it can no longer exert the same attraction. \n\n77. Statements have appeared that the new law in Britain to restrict the entry of people from the Commonwealth has had a decisive effect in restraining migration from Hong Kong. I am under the impression, however, that the causes of the recent sharp decline in the movement to the United Kingdom have been more complicated. If the new law has in fact cut down entry from Hong Kong it is partly, it would seem, because misconceptions have arisen in the minds of restaurant owners about their responsibilities towards the men to whom they have offered jobs; I have been told that they wrongly suppose themselves to be the legal sponsors of the immigrants and have accordingly become reluctant to allow their names to appear on newcomers' documents. (When I began my enquiries in February this year the new legislation did not appear to be having much effect; entry could be obtained for men who wanted to go,) but I am inclined to think that the basic reason for the closing of this chapter in New Territories emigration lies in Britain. The demand for Chinese restaurant food has probably been overmet; there has been unemployment and underemployment in the business. Some of the New Territories emigrants have only part-time jobs; others have been reported to be working only for their keep. Moreover, there is evidence that many have taken up work in different fields: as waiters in ordinary restaurants, as servers in fish-and-chip bars, and as barbers, some of them in these lines working in new ventures financed by New Territories capital and enterprise. \n\n78. The New Territories restaurant business has not been confined to Britain. From there men have branched out into Europe, setting up shop in Holland, Belgium, France and West Germany. But these outliers can never, presumably, compensate for a decline in the United Kingdom demand, for at the very least immigration restric-\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211357, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "49\n\nany age may be employed any length of time at any kind of work, however fatiguing or unhealthy\".' The only provisions relating to conditions of labour were in the Offensive Trades regulations under the jurisdiction of the Sanitary Board, but they only referred to cleanliness and sanitation in places of work. The only provision affecting employment was the prohibition of children under the age of ten from being employed in rag-picking or cleaning hair or feathers. There was no regulation of hours of labour. Some women and children worked twelve hours a day, Sundays included. Such an eighty-four hour week was in sharp contrast to agitation in Britain for a forty hour working week.\n\nMr. Bowley felt the time had arrived for Hong Kong to face these problems, though he admitted local opinion and conditions were not ready for the application of all the laws prevailing in Britain in this area. But as a first step he advocated that factories be licensed by the Sanitary Department and there be some regulations regarding hours and conditions of work, with women inspectors appointed to see the regulations were observed. The total prohibition of child labour was closely connected with the provision of schools if compulsory education was to be instituted. In England education had been compulsory for fifty years and free for eighteen years.\n\nBefore 1914 the Education Department in Hong Kong had no control over any school except Government schools and Grant schools. In that year registration of schools was made compulsory and certain elementary regulations were laid down regarding sanitation and the enforcement of discipline.\n\nA discussion of Mr. Bowley's proposals followed. On the subject of carrying loads to the Peak, a member stated that this was \"a disgusting sight.\" Mr. Schoffield saw it differently. He maintained that \"carrying loads up the Peak is about the healthiest exercise to which a child could be put in Hong Kong\".\n\nA member asked him, “If you were a little child would you like to carry heavy loads instead of going to school and enjoying yourselves as other children do? Would you like to see your mother carrying loads up the Peak?\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212327, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 269, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "246\n\nlater, made up part of the Lombard Insurance Company.\n\nHong Kong Hotel Company\n\nThe Company started in 1866, and the Hong Kong Hotel opened in 1867 on the site of the defunct Dent and Company's offices on the then waterfront at Queen's Road Central. In 1893, in addition to the 'Hong Kong', other leading hotels included 'Windsor' and 'Victoria', in Central, and 'Mount Austin' and 'Peak' hotels, both on the Peak.\n\nThe Professions\n\nAs well as traders, a few British professionals set up practices in Hong Kong in the last century. Victor Hobart Deacon, for example, arrived in the Colony in 1880 to join a firm of lawyers that was already 30 years old. In the 1840s, the nearest lawyer was said to be in Calcutta.\n\nAt about the same time there were a number of people who described themselves as architects, but they were probably only draughtsmen. One such man was named Langer, who arrived in 1842 to supervise the erection of buildings for Jardine's. He was stricken with fever after only working for two months. The civilian architects produced nothing of the calibre of the military architects who designed such structures as Murray House and Headquarters House.\n\nWilson and Salway, architects and engineers, were established in 1872; and Leigh and Orange, although not the first, was among the early practices to be set up. This latter firm dates back to 1874, under the name of Sharp and Danby who were engineers, and in 1894 it became Leigh and Orange. The founding fathers were ex-Public Works Department employees. The Ohel Leah synagogue in Robinson Road, completed in 1902, is one of their buildings, as were the old Queen's Building and the old Prince's Building, both completed in Central in 1904.\n\nOther structures, since demolished, were the entire premises of the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, at Hung Hom, and the wharves and premises of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Wharf", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212589, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 143, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "the Buddhist hall. After this was finished close mourners changed into everyday, brightly coloured clothes. A meal was held in a restaurant. There were seven courses. About 50 people attended. Meat was served.\n\nThe immediate family members then went home and took a second bath with pomelo and wampee (variant spelling wampi) leaves to purify the water. Lucky packages were opened. Besides money they contained pieces of hibiscus, foo paak (†), a homonym also meaning wealth or riches. Another packet contained, in addition to money, a needle and thread, and a lady's hairpin, described as kat lei ( ). This is interpreted as pierce or sharp, also as lucky or profit. Anything that could bring bad luck, such as black objects, had been burned. Things that were brought home, for good luck, included white mourning shoes and white attire. These were known as tsoi paak (ĦĦ ), for ‘good luck'. The large photograph used at services was later hung in the dead woman's home. Some maintain it should be packed away or it can bring bad luck.\n\nAshes\n\nThe day after the fifth tsat the immediate relatives went to the funeral parlour to collect the ashes. Everyone expressed pleasure that these were 'fairly white'. They are often blackish. There was a short ceremony. Joss sticks and ‘gold bars' were burned, together with a rosette made up with yellow papers with blessings printed on them.\n\nAt Ching Chung Koon (Temple) permission to enter was requested from the two door (earth) gods. Everyone bowed three times. An orange was placed on each shrine. The niche selected two weeks earlier to hold the ashes of the dead woman, together with another alongside for her husband, was not too high so it was accessible. His remains were moved from another niche. The cost for each, in 1988, was $10,800, increased from $600 in 1966. (Business is thriving and extensions are continually being built to the columbarium.) The mother's niche number is '17' which can be interpreted, 'certainly you will get it.' The father's niche is '18', read as 'definitely will prosper'.\n\nThe mourners bowed three times to 'spirit neighbours' of father and mother and burned single incense sticks in all vases in that room. An effort was made not to offend and not sit on ledges in front of other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213267, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "69\n\nthe views expressed right at the start of this paper by Dr Ernest J. Eitel, sometimes titled Hong Kong's first historian and for some time a Hong Kong civil servant, were by no means unusual.\n\nToday, far more empathy is shown towards Chinese culture in general by Westerners. For instance, many Caucasian firms believe aquariums enrich the fung shu of an office. It is not just Chinese who can relax, Westerners will tell you, when they lie back and watch fish swimming. It gives everyone a special feeling and lowers their blood pressure by a few degrees.\n\nOf course, certain rules have to be followed. The number of fish kept is often six or nine. Three multiplied by three equals nine (a lucky number); and a homonym of three, in Cantonese, sounds similar to the character meaning 'lively'. Because of colour symbolism, one fish may be black (a Black Molly), another reddish (a goldfish), and the rest any other colour. Because the fish are supposed to act as a shield against bad fung shui, sometimes a fish dies. But better a dead fish than a dead customer.\n\nHigher up the hill above Central District, at the Albany in Albany Road, residents were concerned about the 70-storey, new, People's Republic Bank of China Building 'giving off vibes'. They feared the sharp edges of its structure with their negative forces would menace the abode of some of Hong Kong's rich and famous. In the West, the new Bank of China building would perhaps be described as 'ominous', 'overshadowing' or 'overpowering'. Many Chinese, however, liken the sharp edges of the Bank of China to a knife pointed at, or arrows cast at, Government House and Central Government Offices, namely, the heart of the British Colonial Administration. These 'weapons', together with the flyovers close to Government House, tie the decision-making hands of the British Governor and threaten the prosperity of Hong Kong. The fung shui 'dragon vein', with the dragon's head turned to face its ancestors, serpents down from Victoria Peak, close to the Albany, concealed by a carpet of vegetation. It passes close to the Albany apartments. The dragon thrusts and turns as the topography changes. The earth surges with natural energy. Chinese dragons are more serpent-like and sinuous than those in the West. And, as the vein gathers strength, it proceeds vigorously on to the 'dragon sites'\n\nsuch as the home of the Governor and down to the Hong Kong Bank. It then dips into the harbour, the 'dragon's lair'. Although now the slope up the Peak is largely obscured by high-rise buildings, on some hills and\n\n70", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215469, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 246, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "in Paro. This is housed in the circular Ta Dzong, a former watchtower built in 1649 by the first governor of the Paro valley to safeguard the main dzong from inroads by Tibetans. The museum is well stocked with a great deal of Buddhist artefacts, including a number of *miraculous footprints*; a whole floor dedicated to postage stamps, for which Bhutan is famous in the world of philately; copper teapots and spittoons, the latter being for the use of betel-chewing monks during religious ceremonies; and costumes and coins. Having been frustrated at the hotel, I still wanted to buy some post cards. I saw some, together with other articles for sale, in a glass cabinet that was being guarded by three members of the museum staff. However, I was told that I could not buy any as nobody had the key to the cabinet. It transpired that this was only to be used by the official responsible for collecting the cash, and she had been taken ill and gone to distant Thimpu for treatment. The poor thing could have derived some comfort from the knowledge that her three minions were guarding her stock-in-trade against all comers - especially those that wanted to buy things.\n\nPerfect posers\n\nFrom the museum there were spectacular views up and down the Paro valley from its floor at 7,000 feet to the surrounding mountains, some of which, snow-capped, reached 17,000 feet. And it was up the valley we went to look at the ruined Drukgyel Dzong. Originally built in 1647 but destroyed by fire in 1951, this was one of the many fortresses designed to counter the frequent Tibetan invasions. Our visit included a wander round the village, where we found for the first of countless times to come how willing the people are to be photographed. It almost seemed as though they automatically adopted perfect poses and groupings, even very small children, because they knew that better photographs would be the result. I regretted later, when my films were developed in Hong Kong, that they could not also advise on apertures and exposures. Maybe this will come.\n\nWith a glance up to the sharp and snowy peak of Jhomolhari, Bhutan's second-highest peak at over 24,000 feet, we set off again down the valley for afternoon tea and bickies at the Eye of the Tiger Lodge. Sipping our refreshments we could gaze over the valley at the famous Taktsang Monastery (the Tiger's Nest), perched 3,000 feet above the road up a cliff face, and be thankful that we did not quite have the time", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215597, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 374, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "324\n\nJapanese were able to demand the formal opening of Chongqing to steamers, and a clause to this effect was embodied in the Treaty of Shiminoseki. By this treaty, under the favoured nation clause, the Chongqing and the Upper Yangzi became open to the world and Little immediately applied to the then British Minister, Sir Claude Macdonald [of the later Boxer Siege fame], who encouraged Little to proceed and promised energetic support. Little ordered a twin-screw steamer to be built in Shanghai, fifty-five feet long and ten feet beam. It steamed at nine knots, and though he would have preferred a larger and more powerful vessel he had to cut his coat according to his cloth. This was the Leechuen.\n\nHe left Yichang on 15th February 1898 for the 500-mile voyage through the Gorges, ascending some 500 feet during the journey to Chongqing. The story, told by Archibald Little in his Through the Yangtse Gorges,2 describes the most frightening moment when at dusk in the Scissors Gorge, making about six knots they bumped over a sharp rock that cut through the inch planking, broke two hardwood frames and sent water spouting up over the saloon floor. Fortunately they soon spotted a steep patch of sand on to which they ran the boat. Then, overnight, they stuffed cotton, white lead and tallow into the cracks; nailed blankets down with planks all over and by dawn had stopped the leak sufficiently to be able to get under way again. The rock had only newly fallen from the cliff above and had been unknown to the pilot. They reached Chongqing eleven days up from Yichang and the only photograph I have seen of the Leechuen during her epic journey is a very fuzzy snap of high cliffs with the Leechuen amidstream, a not so large speck, her billowing smoke being almost twice her size.3\n\nTwo British gunboats, H.M.S. Woodcock and H.M.S. Woodlark, made the same journey fifteen months later in May 1899, and then, in June, the first merchant steamer, Pioneer, followed them up to Chongqing.\n\nWe now turn to William Mesny. In 1878 and 1879 he travelled across south-west and central China calling on the most powerful and influential officials and gentry, advising them to adopt modern means for developing the riches of the country and bettering their conditions.* Mesny was a Jerseyman who spent most of his life, from first setting foot in China in 1861 until his death in Hankou in 1919 endeavouring to make his fortune. He was never backward in relating how he had the ears of many of the most influential Chinese of the day and although", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]