[ { "id": 206139, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "212\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nTRADITIONAL CHINESE PLAYS, Volume 2, translated, described, annotated and illustrated by A. C. Scott, Longing for the worldly Pleasures, Ssu Fan, Fifteen Strings of Cash, Shih wu kuan, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee and London, 1969, pp. X, 156.\n\nThe second volume is translated with all the same accompaniments that we find in the first one. But the two plays chosen are not Peking operas. They belong to another kind of opera which was predominant in China from the end of the XVIth century to the end of the XVIIIth. The music was softer than in Peking opera and the main instrument for accompanying the singing was the flute. As in more ancient forms, the sung parts were written on different types of melodies, with verses of unequal lengths. The literary character of these verses made them difficult for a popular audience to understand. And this type of opera, created at K'un-shan, near Suchow, was later overcome by the success of the genre elaborated at the capital and favoured by the court.\n\nBut this K'un-ch'ü, as it is called, remained for years part of the training of a good Peking opera actor. The famous actor Mei Lan-fang tried to revive it around 1915-16 and again later in 1933 with the great actor Yü Chen-fei. After 1949 a new troupe of K'un-ch'ü was formed, which put on Fifteen Strings of Cash in 1956, with the actor Wang Ch'uan-song as the clown, Lou the Rat.\n\nLonging for worldly Pleasures comes from a Buddhist story: a nun, put in a monastery, escapes to find her paramour. Fifteen Strings of Cash is a detective story from storytellers' repertoires: Lou the Rat commits a murder to steal and puts the blame on the stepdaughter of the murdered man. But a good judge, disguised as a fortune-teller, confounds him.\n\nThe interest of these books lies not so much in the translation of four librettos as in all the information about costumes, make-up, and the movements made by the actors at each moment. Consequently, the work is not just one more translation, but, first and foremost, a handbook; and a good one for anyone wanting to put on and adapt Chinese plays for a foreign audience, instead of being interested in Chinese opera as a museum piece or as an...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206687, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n229\n\nThis material gives us a better picture of Chinese theatre in general. The western studies of it are almost entirely based on Peking opera. But the time has now come to show, on the one hand, the originality of each province, and, on the other, within a single province, the graduation from elaborate theatre of the professional troupes, mainly in towns, to simple rural theatre, mostly amateur. In Ho-pei province for example, one has both Peking opera, which reached the highest level of artistic sophistication, and the folk theatre from Ting Hsien district. The translation of this book brings the first important material in a western language on the rural theatre. This is no mean achievement.\n\nThrough this volume we see that the plots were often simple; sometimes only two actors were needed. The music and singing had the charm, but also the monotony, of folk music. There was no libretto, dialogue was transmitted only orally. Performances were mostly limited to festivals and the amateur groups rehearsed during the dead season. It involved no elaborate ballet or acrobatics. It praised the same moral virtues as the great plays we already know: faithfulness, filial piety, integrity; but the language was more vivid. It was not impaired by fear of vulgarity, and puns were one of its main assets. The plays at the end of the volume, like the White Snake, Sung Chiang kills his mistress, Drying the tomb with a fan also exist in Peking opera, and comparison of the two versions would be interesting. But many plays only exist in rural theatre, and through such a book they are brought to light.\n\nAt a time when ethnologists are more interested in displaying the brilliance of their minds through theories, it is refreshing to be given the raw material, and the reader is free to elaborate theories of his own or just to enjoy a good story.\n\n1972.\n\nANON\n\nTHE BIRDS OF KOREA, M. E. J. Gore and Won Pyong-Oh. Seoul, Korea, Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1971. pp. 450, with many coloured plates, U.S.$15.00 (in Korea).\n\nAlthough a number of papers have been published previously, mainly in Japanese or in American journals, this is the first publica-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206793, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 70, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "64\n\nCHIU LING-YEONG\n\nof tusks (ivory), hides, feathers (kingfisher) and hairs (skins) and that of fish, salt, clams and oysters can, on the one hand, meet the needs of the treasury and, on the other hand, satisfy the demands of the Chiang-hui region.27\n\nIt was due to the opening of the Ta-yü Ling Pass which enabled the Persians and Arabs to transport their goods from Canton to other centres without any difficulty. The convenience of transportation also enabled Persians and Arabs to move from one place to another; thus they were no strangers to many of the cities.\n\nIn the capital, life was more colourful than in any other cities. In T'ang times, there were two great markets in Ch'ang-an, the Tung-shih (the Eastern Market) and Hsi-shih (the Western Market). The Hsi-shih was also known as Chin-shih (the Gold Market), and the Tung-shih was also known as Chün-ming-men (the Bright Spring Gate).28 The Hsi-shih was more or less treated as the foreign settlement in the capital. There you could find all kinds of bazaars situated by the side of the main road. Wineshops employed exotically beautified Western girls with blue eyes and golden hair to serve their customers with rare wines in cups of amber or agate. Sweet singing and seductive dancing were also introduced in order to increase their sales.29 These blue-eyed and golden-haired beauties confounded our versatile poets. Li Po, on more than one occasion, dedicated his works to these beauties, like:\n\nThe zither plays \"The Green Paulownias at Dragon Gate',\n\nThe lovely wine, in its pot of jade, is as clear as the sky.\n\nAs I press against the string, and brush across the studs, I'll drink with you, milord;\n\nVermilion will seem to be grass-green when our faces begin to redden.\n\nThe Western houri with features like a flower\n\nShe stands by the wine-warmer, and laughs\n\nWith the breath of spring,\n\nDances in a dress of gauze!\n\n'Will you be going somewhere, Milord, now, before you are drunk.'30\n\nThe presence of these beautiful girls was the principal cause of the intoxication of many of these poets whose work enables us to trace the activities of the foreigners in China. In the T'ang period,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206903, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 180, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "174\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nof a mask, they painted the features of the masks right on the face. The mask cannot change its expression, it lacks the spirit of the eyes and is lifeless, it hinders the speech and even more the singing, as is the case in the stagnant Japanese Noh-play. Mr. Scott does not give any background at all, but names the 15th century as the beginning of painted faces and gives them as the origin of the Japanese Kabuki make-up. He also says that their design is according to the Chinese rules of physiognomy.\n\nThe subject of painted faces is very extensive: a book published in Tai-wan a few years ago contains a thousand varieties of painted faces*.\n\nTurning to other aspects, the Peking Opera stage is empty except for a table and 2 chairs. If a chair is placed on a table, it means a mountain, and can be used to indicate, for example, a general addressing his army. Rain, wind and storms are indicated by black or blue flags of thin silk, which are carried over the stage. Carrying a horsewhip means that this person is riding, a military order is indicated by a small triangular flag, 2 square flags with a wheel-design indicate a carriage and so on.\n\nBoth authors describe in more or less detail the system of the Peking Opera schools. It is surprising how few people know that we have such a school here in Hong Kong. 40 children are trained in this school, some as young as 6 years old. They get up early to train their voices, then comes the teacher for acrobatics, then opera parts are rehearsed. In the afternoon, they study general subjects, and in the evening they go to the Lai Chi Kok amusement park to give their daily performance.\n\nIf you want to take the chance, which is so easily available, to see this intriguing type of opera, you should also spend a few hours with Elizabeth Halson's short guide. This book really does fill the newcomer's need for a comprehensive, well-ordered, introduction enabling him to enjoy and appreciate what he sees in the opera; though not yet what he hears, like Chinese enthusiasts who go to the opera in order to hear it.\n\nHong Kong, 1973.\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\nChang Pe-chin: Chinese Opera and Painted Face, Taiwan, Mei Ya Publications, Inc. 1969.\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207456, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "216\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nhospital. As a result our wards were crowded to a greater extent than ever before.\n\nEarlier all in hospital were required to sign a statement undertaking not to escape. Few of us, patients or staff, felt any compunction about signing such a document under duress and only two officer patients refused their signatures. Early in November, Colonel Tokunaga, no less, came himself and saw both officers. One thereupon signed while the other was removed and kept overnight in a small cupboard-like room in a building in Kowloon. I understood that he was not ill-treated, and it was explained to him that our British General Officer Commanding had ordered officers to sign. He then signed and was returned as a patient to our hospital.\n\nMost of our patients had lost all their kit and many did not possess even a drinking mug at this time. They were using tins which had contained tinned food, but the rims of these tins were jagged and caused much pain especially to patients whose lips and tongue were raw from deficiency diseases. Our engineers set to work and fitted empty tins with handles and smoothed out the rims and acceptable drinking mugs were soon issued to all patients. The engineers also turned out badly needed fly-swatters in large numbers.\n\nIn November we received 198 books from the Red Cross for our library, and in December another 400 library books arrived. Also in December a number of musical instruments, indoor games, packs of cards etc. were received through the Red Cross from the Pope. In November we had a stock of 270 gramophone records and these were listed and we were even able to provide requested programmes of music. From time to time we received a number of copies of the Japan-produced English language Japan Times in one of which an indignant account was given of the torpedoing by an American submarine of the \"Lisbon Maru\" which was carrying British prisoners to Japan. In this disaster when the torpedo struck, many of our men were battened down in the holds and prevented from trying to save themselves. Some were fired upon while swimming. The Japanese indignation should properly have been directed against the guards.\n\nNormally we had two check parades daily, one about eight a.m. and the other about five p.m. and about once a month on average", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208671, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n101\n\ncouple of tiny cookies for breakfast. Our coffee, too, is getting weak, for in order to conserve our supply we are using the grounds again and again. Bamboo Wireless has it that Bishop Paschang is in touch with Maryknoll, and that Bishop Ford is receiving funds from Maryknoll.\n\n3-Sunday. Services are as usual, with Father Norris as preacher. Coffee and a bun this morning from our own kitchen. However, Father Meyer now promises us bread three times a day, that is, at least a bun, out of his five-ounce allotment.\n\n4--Our present A-1 Block representative, Mr. Malone, seems to be in disfavor in the minds of many of that block, and finally today at a meeting in the garage, grievances were aired and as a result we have a new representative in the person of Mr. Steiner, a Protestant minister, formerly in charge of the Foreign Auxiliary in Hong Kong. He promises to be efficient, as he is a very conscientious man. Rain interfered with the outdoor May Devotions and they were held in the tiny Maryknoll Sisters' Chapel with the congregation overflowing into the tiny corridors. The Sisters have typed copies of the more popular hymns, and the people join in the singing.\n\n5- Chess tournament begins with Fathers Vincent Walsh and Norris, from our ranks, participating. Father Bauer not so well these days. Tonight we again have “seconds\" on food. Some of us sent 10-word telegrams today, as allowed by authorities. We wonder if they and our previous post cards will ever reach their destination.\n\n6-Father Toomey resigns as Treasurer of the American communal council.\n\nFather Hessler called to \"The Hill\" in regard to his letter requesting release from the Camp as a third national, Bishop Valtorta vouching for him. No decision reached, however. Corregidor falls and with it many of our hopes! As we gaze out to sea and see Japanese ships enter and leave the harbor, we feel very isolated and farther and farther than ever from America. However, there is a little cheer in the air today as we are informed that all Americans are to be repatriated within a month on a ship from Tokyo to Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa. Some may be permitted to go to Shanghai if they choose. Father Bauer improved.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208689, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 146, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n119\n\nwith a tie game between the Americans and the Police, with a score of 5 to 5. Darkness and the eight o'clock curfew prevented the game from being played out. Some of the British teams are beginning to get quite good and the Americans will have to look to their laurels! Before the Americans left on the Asama Maru, since they were not allowed to take much U.S. currency with them on the boat, Father Troesch very wisely arranged to take their cash and gave them a note to Maryknoll, New York. This gives us some ready cash for our living in Hong Kong, and for our travel expense to the interior if we shall be allowed to leave the Colony.\n\n22----Minstrel show on the Green—quite good. The evenings are beginning to get cool and blankets are brought out,\n\nSunday - uneventful.\n\n24 — Americans, 5; Police, 3. More packages from town, via \"The Hill\". This extra food, which Sister Paul is sending in for us and for the Sisters, is very much appreciated.\n\n25-Usually after signing one's papers for release, one is allowed to leave within four days, but to date we have received no further word, so we sit and wait until the Foreign Office gets good and ready to allow us to walk the streets of Hong Kong as free men again.\n\n26-29 Police, 34; College, 10; a very good crowd and lots of fun. Entertainment in the evening on the Green.\n\nSunday Weather cool. Swimming still popular, though the crowds are thinning out on the beach. From two to five hundred at one time.\n\n31-High wind and quite cool. Against the uncertainty of our departure, language school classes begin again. Our rations continue as hitherto, though our cooks are striving valiantly to dish it up in as appetizing a style as possible with the material to work with. Water spinach is still our standby, and has been dubbed by someone \"rubber plant.\"\n\nSEPTEMBER\n\n1-The wind and the rain continue, playing havoc with the soft-ball schedule. More speculation about British repatriation. The days continue to come and go, and yet we have no word about our departure.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209305, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 208, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "194\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nplace in all of which the bereaved family played the central role with the other villagers looking on. Details differed from district to district, but usually some or all of the following were included: the buying of water for the forthcoming rituals, the opening of the coffin and the washing of the face of the deceased by all in mourning (in Sheung Shui these rites took place immediately after death), the preparation by all the sons and daughters of the deceased of food to be placed in the grave, a procession around the coffin by all mourners, carrying incense, the division of threads by the mourners, either over the coffin or elsewhere, and the offering of wine by all mourners. Eulogies to the deceased might be read by the village elders, and last of all the singing of prayers by a Taoist priest, with all mourners kneeling, preceding the screwing down and sealing of the coffin was practically universal. During these rites mourning would, in most places, be carried by the nearest relatives present for persons within the mourning grades but unable to be present. At many points the women of the deceased's immediate family would sing wailing songs. In many places in the New Territories the natural family of the deceased's wife would play a prominent role in these rites alongside his own family.\n\nWhen the coffin was prepared the young men of the village would lash it on poles and carry it off, preceded by the bereaved family. Since the funeral was of ritual significance to the village as a whole the standing rice in the fields would, if necessary, be trampled down to let the coffin pass. The grave would have been already dug, again by the young men of the village. At the grave other rites would take place; these differed from area to area; in some, Taoist rites took place at the grave, in others, the main rite was the sharing of food among the mourners across the open grave. Usually the first handfuls of soil were thrown in by the sons and daughters of the deceased, but everywhere the filling in of the grave and the proper ordering of the food offerings and ritual decoration of the grave was the responsibility of the young men of the village.\n\nUpon the return to the village Taoist rites would usually, in most areas, take place around the new, temporary, spirit tablet of the deceased, often at the spot where the corpse had been laid out. The room and its environs would be purified and decorated. From now on until, usually, the twenty-first day after the death, that is, during the mourning period, the immediate family would observe some relatively minimal ritual restrictions, and would place offerings to the deceased daily in front of the tablet. In some areas Taoist rites to assist the deceased to reach the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210281, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "231\n\nDuring the whole festival period, the main temple was the most neglected area, whilst the Ming-che area was always crowded with worshippers. Free vegetarian food was offered by the committee in the Association Hall for the whole period. The Association Hall and a room of the office of the Temple were used as temporary kitchens for preparing food and offerings.\n\nWorshippers seldom went to the main temple except for presenting incense sticks. Even though the Tao-ch'ang area was more spacious and was air-conditioned, worshippers seldom stayed long in the Tao-ch'ang area except on the last night, for the \"Great Offering\" ceremony. Worshippers seldom visited the Association Hall either except when they were giving donations or having their daily meals. The Ming-che area was the only place which was always crowded. There were people chatting, exchanging greetings, admiring and criticising every Ming-che (paper-made houses), folding paper-money and playing musical instruments and singing.\n\n5\n\nThe Tao-ch'ang area was seen as the most dangerous and frightening place for the worshippers because it was believed to be full of the hungry ghosts who came for the offerings. The Association Hall and the kitchens belonged to the hosts, the Hokkienese. Worshippers went first to the Tao-ch'ang area to offer foods to the spirits, and then to the Association Hall to accept meals from the hosts. In general, worshippers felt attracted to the Ming-che area because, while it was the area of their ancestors, yet the ancestors there were not frightening. The Ming-che area gave the worshippers the opportunity to be at the same time closer to their ancestors, and to build up relationships with other Chinese who lived far away. Non-Hokkienese worshippers seemed to avoid the Association Hall because of ethnic differences, and this brought them even closer to the Ming-che area. During the whole event, only 'Ancestor Worship' was emphasised by the worshippers.\n\nII. The Festival\n\nAccording to the figure-maker (Tze-shi) Mr. Lin Yau Chie (73 years old, Hokkienese), the preparation for each year's 'Yue Lan' starts from the end of the previous event. In other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211794, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 209, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "184\n\nstyle which distinguished it from the hongs by which it was surrounded. Finally there was a musical evening at the Town Hall of the neighbouring French Concession in early February 1865. The \"Hôtel Municipal” was erected in 1864 and stood at the Rue du Consulat, between the Rue de l'Administration and the Rue du Nord.\n\n117\n\nPlaybills were used to advertise the performances in the Settlement (of Calendar, 23.4.1857). Early this century there still existed such a bill dating from 1853, but I have never seen one. They were printed at one of the printing offices in Shanghai. The main ones were those of the North China Herald (Custom House Road - Hankow Road) and of the London Missionary Society which had a large compound on Temple Road (Shantung Road). The printing press of the latter of course mainly turned out religious publications in Chinese, but though the missionaries may not have been regular patrons of the theatre, one source states that playbills for their performances had been printed at \"the Missionaries' house\"\n\nVI. The Audience\n\n**119\n\n120\n\nThe subject of the audience has already been touched upon several times and it is clear that the public, on the whole, liked what it saw and saw that it liked. This did not mean that all entertainments drew heavy crowds. Usually the dramatic companies had a full house, but the interest in music was decidedly less. Whereas Thalia enjoyed at times so many ardent admirers that some were obliged to stand the whole evening, her colleague often had to content herself with the cream of society. But there was always an excuse, or so it seems, for the small numbers in the concert hall; either it was the \"wretchedly wet state of the weather' or the heat:\n\n122\n\nor maybe parsimony prevented people from going, for when M. & Mme Simonsen (violin and singing) gave a recital in May 1865 they failed to draw a large public, but when the admission price was reduced to $3 a full audience was presented. 12 This brings to mind a story of a much later period when the famous Scottish comedian Sir Harry Lauder had the audacity to raise the by then apparently immutable prices of $3-5 by a dollar and had to face a near empty auditorium.\n\n124\n\n121\n\nBearing in mind the population structure in the Settlement the audience, of course, consisted for the greater part of men. This, however, was all the more reason to note the attendance of the ladies. Time and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211960, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 375, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "350\n\nworld by first fixing them in the arms of a mounted paper horse rider known as gung-chou, who served as a messenger, and then burning the three (horse, rider, and memorial) together. The other form, known as bong, was posted in a rite on the main day of the festival on a wall, and remained there until the conclusion of the ritual.\n\nThe scripture chanting/Repentance session took place before the Three Pure Ones three times a day. The manual used was the common Jade Emperor's Repentance Scripture. The sessions were very short. The one I timed lasted only fifteen minutes. The other daily rite was the procession of offerings, which started at the Taoist altar with worship of the Three Pure Ones, then visited all the five faan posts, all the temporary altars and the Jau and Wong Temple, the guardian gods of the paang, and the yau-saan. The procession included flags and banners, and was preceded by a man holding a \"spirit summoning flag\". At each spot it stopped at, the priests briefly chanted and made offerings.\n\nThe other (and longer) rites involved a lot of chanting and singing, which, in many cases, nobody could hear clearly. The amplified music of the puppet theatre drowned out any other sound. The only exception was a scholar of religion from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who had the high priest carry a wireless microphone for him and who could therefore listen to the priests' words from a headphone radio and compare them with the manual. My descriptions of the Taoist rites, therefore, are often interpretations of what I saw and heard on the basis of past experience and manuals. 63\n\nE. The Participants List in the Taoist Rites\n\nOf the elements of the rites, the villagers probably knew most about the Memorials in their different forms. The women villagers in general knew less about the festival (or they pretended to). When I asked some elderly ladies at the ritual site what da-jiu was all about, they explained that it was heui-lok promised to Jau and Wong, to commemorate them. They suggested that I should ask elderly men instead. It was men who knew more about these things. The knowledge was handed down from one generation to another. But I overheard, during the opening rite, the same group of elderly ladies asking themselves how many priests were reading the Memorial (the one to be burnt). They observed that there was too much noise for them to hear the reading. They explained to me that the names of all the villagers (yan-hau) were being read. The priests\n\nPage 375\n\nPage 376", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212555, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "89\n\nThe phenomenon of the American movie diplomacy in China was unique. While exchanges in other fields were shrinking, movie diplomacy developed free from negative effects due to the deteriorating general relationship. Why was this?\n\nStarting from 7 May 1981, the first American film week was conducted in Beijing and four other cities. The movies were old and comparatively dull: a musical entitled Singing in the Rain, a cartoon Snow White and three feature films, including Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. The list shows that all movies reflecting contemporary American life were ruled out. But they were met by interested audiences and the event claimed to be a success. Obviously, the American officials involved in this event might have liked some contemporary films to be included in the list. Nonetheless, these films suited the Chinese officials' appetite. The whole thing was under China's control and there was no imposition of American suggestions on Chinese leaders.\n\nPutting the inflow of foreign culture under the control of the government is a vital policy in China's cultural relations with other countries. Cultural policy in China, as has been pointed out, is very much under the influence of political developments and culture in turn also has a strong impact on politics. So it is important to have a stable and balanced cultural policy, which requires, in this case, control of the influx of Western culture. During the four years from 1981, the CFEIC, China's only agency handling the importation of foreign movies, carried out a rather consistent policy in purchasing American movies, conforming to the requirement of political considerations, the development of Chinese movie making and practical needs.\n\nWhen importing an American movie, exposing the dark side of the capitalist society took high priority in governing the selection of specific movies. This policy was best explained in a review of Nightmare, a gift of an American company, shown in 1979. In a review entitled \"In the Mill of Nightmares\", indicating that American society is a generator of nightmares, the author tells his readers that what is shown in that movie is a general phenomenon in America. In deciding on accepting movies like Alambrista, First Blood and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, this selection of negative images of America can be seen clearly. In fact, this criterion was, and is still, applied to the choice of movies from all Western countries.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212612, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "146\n\nis made up\n\nfor the job with any material handy. It may be fired electrically or by a spring designed specially for the purpose. There are three main kinds of spring: the pressure-switch, which goes off if you press on it; for instance, if you walk on it, or a train goes over it: the pull-switch, which is generally attached to a trip wire: and the release-switch, which goes off when you take a weight off it. When you set the trap, a cap is fitted to the switch. The cap fires a length of instantaneous fuse - this is a third kind of fuse - and that sets the charge off. Setting traps and dismantling them is a battle of wits. If you use the same kind of trap too often the enemy will tumble to it and learn how to discover and dismantle it: so you have to keep on ringing the changes. If you start with a simple pressure switch trap under a loose floor board, you can improve on it by putting a release-switch trap under a loose floor board, you can improve on it by putting a release-switch, duly connected up, under the charge itself. Then when the enemy comes along, he spots your trap, carefully eases up the floor board, maybe detaches the pressure-switch from the charge and thinks he is safe; but when he stoops to pick up the charge, the release-switch is set off and the trap explodes. That is a very simple illustration. In the course of several years of warfare the refinements in booby-trapping have been developed to the nth degree.\n\nIt will be seen that traps can only be used in places which our side is preparing to vacate. They must be carefully tabulated so that they can be located and taken up should our troops return: also, special precautions have to be taken in a district where there are friendly natives, lest they suffer. In many ways the use of booby-trapping can be a two-edged weapon.\n\nAt the end of November in 1941 I was included amongst several officers detailed to proceed to Chungking. Britain was still neutral in the war between China and Japan, and so we were instructed to wear plain clothes. We set out after lunch one day to motor the hundred miles to Lashio, where we were comfortably accommodated in the American hostel operated by the C.N.A.C. Next day, December 1st, 1941, we boarded the aeroplane and touched down on the island airstrip in the Yangking at dusk.\n\nBefore leaving Burma I acquired two useful items of equipment, the one a felt hat, of the kind used by Australians and Gurkhas, a comfortable head-piece, which kept the sun out and also a certain amount of rain:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213784, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "107\n\nof the two names of the first generation ancestor of the Chens of Tsuen Wan Sam Tong Uk” as Jiu Shi Wu (95) and also Nian Wu Lang, an ordination name. The descendants who had ordination names include his son Fa You and a great grandson Fa Qiang, among others. The last to have an ordination name include a 10th generation ancestor who was to found a Buddhist monastery.\n\nHakka Sorcerers and Rituals Related to Ordained Ancestors\n\nAlthough the practice of ordination ended in probably the middle of the 19th century, related traditions manage to survive in the Hakka \"Daoist\" ritual specialist and a rite they perform for bridegrooms of some Hakka lineages before their wedding.\n\nHakka ritual specialists were of four main varieties, the male and female spirit mediums (stenpo and gongtung), Buddhist funeral specialists (known as wosong or nammo), and sang ritual specialists who claimed to be Daoist but are clearly more closely linked to Lù Shan and Mao Shan traditions. The sang specialists' rituals include the unique feature of an assistant who is a man dressed as a woman. They use the fa-prefixed style ordination names in the ritual documents and recitation and singing. This is true at least in the case of Mr. Miao, the only one living in Hong Kong in 1981. His family were in this profession for four generations, all using Fa-X style ritual names.76 Villagers have mentioned others, among them a Li of Shataukok and a Liao of Kat O, both died before the time of my interviews.77 When asked about langming and duming, a Hakka Buddhist funeral specialist told me that he never heard about them.78\n\nThe practice of the sang specialist is documented in some detail in Zhonghua Jiu Lisu (“Old Chinese Customs”) (ZHJLS) written by a Hakka Christian of Meixian county in the 1930s. It contains information on the rite of Su Yun (“Redemption of [A Child's] Soul”) and Anlong (“Pacification of the Dragon”). The latter I witnessed at the village of Cheng Lan Shue of the New Territories. The ZHJLS shows that the names of these sessions of the ritual its author knew from the Meixian and Xinning counties, indicating that the Anlong was celebrated once every five or six years for each \"old house,\" and the couplets and flag he copied indicate that the celebration there.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214208, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "29\n\nXiaoping.' The second said, 'I'm here because I opposed Deng Xiaoping.' The two turned to the third who piped up, 'I am Deng Xiaoping.' Deng was, of course, incarcerated for a spell during the Cultural Revolution.\n\nGenerations of Chinese have endured hard lives and they frequently surprise Westerners by laughing at things which are construed in the West as horrible and cruel (Bonavia, 1980:59). 'Blood and guts' at the cinema are examples, although a nervous giggle is perhaps a better description than an outright laugh. Use of this 'safety valve' not only rejuvenates the mind and body but also diffuses anger. Humour and laughter help relieve stress and tension and the immune functions which they bring into being can sometimes help one get out of a trying, embarrassing or difficult situation.\n\nYou will sometimes see a Chinese who has been jaywalking, and has had a close shave with a car, or someone who drops his camera, grinning, or even giving a mild laugh. This reaction provides an escape mechanism. A giggle can make the serious seem ‘unserious' and bring about counterproductive results. Vittachi, the Hong Kong comic, has pointed out to the author that it is by no means confined to Chinese. Other Asians, such as Vietnamese, use 'laughter' to express embarrassment. One not infrequently sees bafflement (or even anger) on the face of a Westerner who tells the Hanoi custom officer that his ticket has been stolen, only to see the officer break into a nervous giggle.\n\nIn fact, the practice is not even purely Asian. The author recalls during World War Two when even British conscripts learned to laugh at the 'horrific' in order to adjust to the situation. If you could go into battle singing the song, 'Hurrah for the Next Man to Die!' you were better able to shrug off death and less likely to go 'shell happy.' Humour acts as a kind of release and can be borne out of pain. Sigmund Freud wrote a dull paper entitled, 'Jokes and their relation to the unconscious,' in which he stated that humorous laughter was a kind of catharsis, a release of tension that returns the body and mind to a state of homeostasis or equilibrium after stress (Freud, 1960).\n\nThe fact that humour can be born out of pain gives rise to the saying: 'I have migraine at the moment and everything seems funny in a peculiar (mirthless) sort of way.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214326, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 184, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "148\n\nMore than a year later, on 25 July 1860, French and British forces combined prior to proceeding to Peking to enforce the treaty of Tientsin. On 18 September, a small group of diplomats, civilians and soldiers, led by Mr (later Sir) Harry Parkes, of the British Consular Service in China, left the main body of troops to make certain arrangements with the Chinese Commissioners. They were taken captive on their way back to rejoin the troops. Given the nature of their mission at the time of their capture, great indignation was felt.\n\nMr Harry Parkes was held for ransom. Other prisoners were treated with great cruelty. This again caused great indignation.\n\nBy way of reprisal and on Lord Elgin's deliberated orders, the Imperial summer palace at Peking was razed to the ground. On 24 October 1860, the Treaty of Tientsin was finally ratified and the Convention of Peking was annexed to it as a make-weight.\n\n6\n\nThe arrival of full news on these and related events gave rise in Britain to several months of heavy press coverage on China and the Chinese in early 1861. The London Illustrated News, with its combination of illustrations and narrative, is a useful case study to illustrate both the extent and the variety of this coverage.\n\nThe Illustrated London News\n\n8\n\nOn 5 January 1861, The Illustrated London News was full of news from China. It carried three illustrations \"by our special artist\": two double-spread half-page illustrations of \"Street Scene in Pekin: A Crowd of Celestials Contemplating the Barbarians\" and \"An-tin Mun, the Gate of Pekin in Our Possession\"; and one full-page double-spread illustration, showing \"The Earl of Elgin's Entrance into Pekin on the 24th of October Last to sign the Treaty of Peace Between Great Britain and China\". The Illustrated London News also gave the text of the Convention and a description of the ceremony of the signing of the Convention.\n\n11\n\nThe same issue also contained part of Mr Harry Parkes's detailed and circumstantial narrative of his own imprisonment, and an account by the Daily News correspondent of the fate of the whole number...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214354, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 212, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "177\n\nself and appeared back home, having lost his lucrative post, where he bore the full fury of his wife as she had been enjoying the perks of the wife of a high official. He explained that he had no intention of returning to the palace as the fortunes of the evil Zhou Xin had a further twenty years to run, and went off spending his days fishing.\n\nMany years later the father of the future victorious King Wu heard a fisherman singing and learning that the song foretold the future fall of the Shang and the victory of the Zhou he went in search of the man who had taught the fisherman the song. This turned out to be Jiang who was then encouraged to return to the court of Duke Fa, where after Duke Fa's victory he was made the Prime Minister.\n\nIn the Fengshen Yanyi he was then despatched to the mystic mountains of the West, the Kunlun Shan, where he was to seek from the great deity, Yuanshi Tianjun, the Primordial Heavenly Lord, honours for the loyal ministers, brave warriors, and all the good and bad immortals, male and female, who had died during the struggle. Jiang arrived at the Palace on the Kunlun mountains and was admitted by the White Crane Youth, Bai Hao who escorted him to meet Yuanshi Tianjun. After Jiang knelt and made his plea the Primordial Heavenly Lord promised to send a decree, which would authorise the canonisation of all the warriors, and name each in turn. Jiang returned to report to King Wu, followed a few days later by the White Crane Youth who descended amidst soft music and fragrance to deliver the decree. Jiang then ordered the Terrace to be prepared and soldiers to guard it whilst he purified himself. He entered the Terrace and after unrolling the decree read aloud the order which promised that those to be deified should be free from transmigration, and would be promoted or demoted according to their merits. He ordered that they should be worshipped by the people as protectors of the nation and its people, and they were to regulate the wind, rain and natural forces for the benefit of the people. They were authorised to reward good deeds and punish the wicked. The list of names of those deified was then hung up and the ministers and warriors ordered to approach in a lengthy queue with no one being permitted to leave it. The first to be called was Bai Jian, who was created the God of Pure Blessedness. He was followed one by one until all 365 warriors and worthies had been rewarded. Not all were straightforward. Some had followed the evil King during the struggle and had perpetrated wicked acts but had eventually recanted and had tried to make", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214672, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "51\n\nLife was not, however, all hard work, sickness, and brawls. The farming year was full of slack periods when there was time for entertainment and pleasure. The ritual year gave the villagers a framework for their leisure activities: each major festival was marked with a feast - even the poorest of families would have fat pork and rich eels on feast days. Nga Tsin Wai was, according to the Sha Tin village elders, famous for making \"Cha Kwo\", the traditional sticky village cakes, and these would usually be in evidence at festivals. The New Year, Tin Hau's Birthday, and the Winter Solstice Festival were the main festivals celebrated in Nga Tsin Wai, together with the Spring (Ching Ming) and Autumn (Chun Yeung) Grave Festivals, where fat pork would be distributed by the Ancestral Trusts to those who attended the worship at the graves.\n\nDuring the summer, and particularly at the Dragon Boat Festival, the village had the habit of inviting strolling singers to come and stay in the village for a few days or a week, to sing through their repertoire of \"Dragon Boat Songs\". These were long sung novels, and the villagers would sit outside the village gate in the evening listening to the singer for hours.\n\nThe villagers of Nga Tsin Wai were famous for singing themselves (the Tai Wai villagers in Sha Tin were jealous of the Nga Tsin Wai skills). The villagers sang Shan Ko, “Mountain Songs\". These were sung man to woman, verse by verse, and often included innuendo and suggestive comment: they were often called \"Teasing Songs\" as a result. Nga Tsin Wai villagers would often hold impromptu contests with youngsters from Tai Wai when they met at the pass which separated the lands of the two villages (the villagers say that is why the songs are called \"Mountain Songs\"). The Sha Tin elders also remember that more formal contests were also held - an annual one at Ma Tau Wai drew contestants from all of East Kowloon and Sha Tin: it was held at the Mid Autumn Festival. Contestants would be drawn, man and woman, and they would sing to each other; the one that ran out of things to say being declared the loser. The audience was mostly youngsters, and a few interested elders - they would sit around the contest area on the ground, vocal in their comments. The village elders say these contests could last for a couple of weeks if enough contestants appeared. The last contest was held just after the War. This was a Punti practice. The elders of the Hakka village of Ngau Chi Wan rather...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214765, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 180, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "144 \n\nmen start leaving their posts. A scene I never wish to see again. I am in an awkward position as I have no command over the Canadians. Just as they start moving back the road Major Baillee advances down the road waving a revolver and shouting to his men to get back to their posts. Some obey and some don't. The Major is highly excited and his voice rings out through the night calling his men all the names he can think of. The Japs must have a good idea of our positions. He calls his officers and men all the names under the sun and shouts for volunteers to cross the bridge. The Canadians refuse to budge so I, more of a desire to back the Major than of any thought of heroics, go across with him. We reach the other side safely whereupon he is violently sick and I realize he is drunk. Through overwork he worked himself into a state of complete collapse and should have been relieved of his command earlier. We retire still intact. We can hear the Japs wild animal calls and they appear to have gone another way. Most of the Canadians have disappeared and with the few left we set up a mortar which fires its first shell into a nearby tree, explodes, blowing the operator's right arm off and another man nearly loses a leg. Get the wounded into a dugout where there are some others badly wounded and try to stop their bleeding. We only have bandages and several of them are in danger of bleeding to death. Their moans are terrible and although I keep ringing up for an ambulance, none arrives. What a horrible mess and I try to restore some kind of order. After a good talking to, the men pull themselves together and \n\ngo back to their posts. Thank God the ambulance arrives at last, also Lts Campbell and Park, Campbell threatens to put the Major under arrest and Baillee threatens to put every Canadian under arrest. Comes the dawn and most of the Canadians have disappeared. \n\nWhat a Xmas day, empty stomachs, tired out, and heaven knows what is going on. At ten am a message arrives saying there is a truce until midday. This news is immediately followed by a terrific bombardment of our positions. Not my idea of a truce. More Canadians melt away leaving our line practically undefended. I gather the few remaining men together and proceed to climb Mt Gough hoping to join up \n\nwith our main forces. When we reach the top and strike the main road we run into several hundred Canadians retreating from Wanchai Gap. Wanchai Gap is the most vital sector of all and this means the end. We are told that the island surrendered at three thirty, over an hour ago. The troops have no arms and are completely worn out. A scene I will never forget with ammunition dumps going up everywhere and the \n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215303, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 80, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "28\n\nsparse evidence we have from local chronicles.\n\nIn Gong'an Magistracy (in Jingzhou Prefecture) people hoped for rain on the She day as this was a good omen. In the same vein we find a note from Tongshan Magistracy (in Wuchang Prefecture) to the effect that if it rained on the She Day, it was said: 'She Weng yu rain of the Worthy She'. A rustic proverb had it that 'She Gong Mr. She'--and 'She Mu Lady She'--'do not drink old water'. The metaphor here was that the fresh water of the spring rains was drunk by the earth. It is interesting to note that the proverb insists on a female counterpart to the She.\n\nIn Yingshan Magistracy there were si offerings to the She; these were spoken of as qi gu 'prayer for grain'. Similar offerings, but this time described as jiao libations, occurred here in Yingshan on the third day of the third moon, later on in the spring. On the She Day we encounter offerings taking place in Zhongxiang Magistracy, the capital in Anlu Prefecture, and here we get some more detail concerning the rustic population. The chronicler describes how the celebration engaged wu and xi male and female sorcerers-who appeared with drums and singing, thus welcoming the shen spirits. With 'arms joined' they were stamping on the ground, all this being a ge jie ji 'an offering of rhythmic singing'. Everyone drank She wine and shared She meat. The wine was supposed to cure deafness. Sacrificial meats (sheng) and sweet wine (li) are also mentioned from Wuling Magistracy, the capital of Changde Prefecture. From Jiangling Magistracy, the capital of Jingzhou Prefecture, we get a description of She fan 'She food' -which was a mixture of pork and mutton put inside a pumpkin. The magistracy of Suiyang is said to have been a place where four neighbourhoods combined to ji offer to ben jing She shen 'the local She spirit'. People shared out delicacies\n\n6 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1193: 風俗考 3b.\n\n7 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1120: 風俗考 6ab.\n\n8 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1166: 風俗考 4a.\n\n9 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1166: 風俗考 4ab.\n\n10 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1142: 風俗考 2a.\n\n11 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1259: 風俗考 1b.\n\n12 古今圖書集成, 1888. VI, 1193: 風俗考 2a.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215771, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 70, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "3\n\nbecame British territory. Malacca was administered by the Dutch until the signing of the Anglo-Dutch treaty in 1824, whereby it was ceded to the British among other terms. Two years later, Singapore and Malacca came under the Penang Presidency.\n\nAccording to Turnbull, the Straits Settlements were the East India Company's most incongruous offspring….The Straits Settlements formed a scattered unit, which was difficult to administer efficiently.” In legal terms, it included Western laws at constitutional level, and local legal systems under the control of sultans.\n\nPhysical/geographical problems\n\nPenang Island lay opposite Province Wellesley (a strip of land about 30 miles long and three miles wide) which the EIC acquired from the Sultan of Kedah in 1800. Malacca was about 260 miles to the south of Penang. Singapore Island was a further 120 miles south, at the tip of the Malay Peninsula.\n\nThere were problems of communication between these settlements, being only by means of sea. Until 1861, the Straits government possessed only two antiquated sailing gunboats and one steamer, used mainly to ferry the governor, recorders and senior officials between the three stations. Communications with the EIC's headquarters in Calcutta were also poor, and until 1864, a monthly steamer service between Calcutta and the Straits Settlements remained the only link with the seat of government.\"\n\nAdministration problems\n\nAccording to Turnbull, '[d]ivision of interest between the East India Company and its eastern dependencies was even more formidable than the geographical and physical problems of administration. The sole value of the Straits Settlements to the East India Company was to protect and stimulate the China trade. When [the EIC] lost its monopoly of this trade in 1833 Calcutta was left with an unrewarding and expensive burden. She could not abandon the Straits Settlements but constantly begrudged the drain they made upon India's financial resources and upon the time and attention of senior officials over the next thirty years.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215804, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 103, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "36\n\nafter Britain lost Hong Kong, the closest Allied power to the territory was its original owner China. Then there was Hong Kong's status as a port. Any mainland port that touched the Pacific attracted the attention of the USN, because it was in its interest that China continued to keep the bulk of the Japanese Army occupied on the continent while the U.S. seized Japan's possessions in the Pacific. Hence, Allied commanders like Admiral Ernest King, the USN's highest-ranking officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), thought that the U.S. had a major responsibility to help keep China in the war,\n\nIn 1943, China was tying down 20 per cent of the Japanese Army. No major fighting had occurred there for a while, but the Allies knew that this relative calm might not last. The fear that Japan would resume her efforts to knock China out of the war was real, and Allied planners wanted to prevent this by keeping the Chinese Army (of the Nationalist government) battle-worthy. To do this, they had to establish and maintain secure lines of communication (LoC) into China. As Japan had already occupied China's ports and the lone road into China from Burma (the Burma Road), the sole means of supplying China was through a risky, costly, and feeble air route over the Himalayas (the Hump).\n\nThe best method of supplying China was to recapture a port on the China Coast and establishing LoC to the interior of China. Initially, the Chinese Army was allotted the bulk of this task - if it could be strengthened by deliveries over the Hump and (if the Allies could retake it) the Burma Road. But by 1943, supplies over the Hump remained minuscule, the Burma Road was not reopened, and the Chinese (Nationalists, Communists, and third-party elements) preferred to fight among themselves rather than against the Japanese. With the Allied drives in the Pacific gathering momentum, the main responsibility for a campaign to recapture a port on the China Coast eventually fell to the U.S.\n\nHong Kong and Shanghai have long been the two best ports on the China Coast, with each possessing excellent harbour facilities. But Hong Kong rated ahead of Shanghai as the initial port to be opened up in China because of the strong Japanese presence around Shanghai. In the Hong Kong-Canton area during 1943, the Japanese still occupied only a beachhead. As long as Hong Kong remained a beachhead, and the Chinese forces ringing it maintained a measure of resolve, Japanese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215835, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "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": 134, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "HONG KONG'S CHINESE ASSOCIATIONS: THEIR CEREMONIAL OCCASIONS AND THEIR HELPERS\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n67\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe close involvement of the District Offices of the New Territories Administration in the pre-1997 Hong Kong Government in the celebration of festivals and major religious rituals by local communities throughout the lunar year was described in Chapter Seven of my Friends and Teachers, Hong Kong and its People 1953-87, published by Hong Kong University Press in 1996. This particular feature of the Administration's work had seemed worthy of special notice, since its personnel's interaction with their leaders, their many helpers, and less directly with the audiences and participants, had always helped to build up and sustain the \"government and people\" relationship.\n\nSuch occasions provided the connecting links of community life across the decades. Some were regular annual events, like the main festivals of the lunar calendar and the birthdays of the gods in the local temples, often with accompanying opera or puppet shows. Less frequent, but equally regular were the important, quasi-religious Ta Chiu or periodic protective rituals, still held nowadays by large villages or linked groups of villages in the longer settled districts of the New Territories, but held practically everywhere a century ago.\n\nThe officials' participation extended to many other community events, especially those held or organized by Hong Kong's Chinese associations in town and country, individually or jointly. They attended at ceremonies marking a special occasion, such as the completion of a new school building provided by a kaifong association or religious body, or the finalization of a local public works project by a village or rural committee. They might help to inaugurate or close the district summer youth programmes held from the late 1960s onward, or the local community's evening of entertainment for the elderly. Other major events attracting their presence might include associations' dinners connected with fund-raising drives for a special project or a charitable purpose, usually with a singing or even opera performance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216025, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 324, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "258\n\nShanghai did not possess, and were undoubtedly conducive to health by promoting exercise. In winter the climate is bracing and healthy though fever and dysentery were to be dreaded in summer'.\n\nThere are a number of highlights for foreign visitors beginning, perhaps, with the former foreign concession, though nowadays more than seventy years on, it is difficult to discern. Outside the Chinese old city with its modern main roads, cobbled side streets and a stone pagoda said to be 13th century Yuan dynasty, though its present condition suggests that it has either been well restored or completely remade within the last century, there are the fourth century Jin Shan temple and pagoda; the Grand Canal; the former British Consulate; the home of Pearl Buck, as well as the sites of the storming of the town by a British brigade on 21st July 1842 during the First China War [commonly referred to as the Opium War]. There are also the remains of the lengthy trench dug by the Taiping rebels to protect the city from recapture by Imperial forces as well as the ruins left after the destruction of the city by the Taipings during the 1850s. And for those who have read a little Chinese literature or attended Chinese opera the widely-known tale of the White Snake Lady is also part of the story of the Jin Shan temple.\n\nBefore waxing too lyrically about its glories let us remember that Zhenjiang is the vinegar capital of China, with, if the wind is in the wrong direction, an evocative sour tang forewarning approaching visitors long before they are anywhere near to the city. The majority of Chinese when confronted with the name of the city almost to a man voice the single word 'vinegar' or to the connoisseur 'brown rice vinegar'.\n\nZhenjiang was a treaty port with a foreign concession for sixty-eight years, from the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin in 1860 until 1928, one of the minor footholds foreigners had obtained from China in one of the 'unequal treaties' and the base for numerous foreign interests. There were great hopes for the place and Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, even anticipated that eventually it would eclipse Shanghai as a commercial centre. Despite numerous westerners passing through the place down the years only a few spent full tours of duty there. Many of the temporary visitors were the lesser employees of major western companies such as BAT and Butterfield and Swire, whose regular tours to the many small", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 179, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "129\n\nChemulpo (later Inchon). This would drive north along thawing and impassable roads, across the Yalu River into Manchuria, heading for Liaoyang and Mukden (now known as Shenyang) north of the Liaodong peninsula. Then, with what remained of the Russian fleet bottled up in the harbour at Port Arthur, the second and main force would be landed some thirty miles north of Dalny (Dairen to the Japanese and now known as Dalian) cutting off Port Arthur at the tip of the Liaodong peninsula. The final stage was the landing of a third Japanese army in January 1905 and its assault on Port Arthur. The war began as planned with a Japanese 'Pearl Harbor' bombardment at Port Arthur, taking the Russian fleet by surprise.\n\nAlthough the Japanese met with a number of set-backs their overall plan succeeded. The crowning moments were the Fall of Port Arthur at the beginning of January 1905 and the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905, the titanic clash between the Japanese fleet and the Russian Baltic Fleet, the latter having made its slow progress across the world from Latvia in October 1904 to Tsushima seven months later, and to its fate and destruction. News of the devastating Japanese victory alarmed a number of Chinese officials who, whilst they did not wish Japan to lose, had not wanted her to gain such an overwhelming victory.\n\nFinally, after the eighteen month campaign the land war ended with the destruction of the Russian army before Mukden. The succeeding months were a matter of Japanese mopping-up operations and the capture of Liaoyang and Mukden.\n\nDuring the final stages of the war the Japanese finally took the fighting on to 'sacred' Russian territory when they invaded the large island of Sakhalin. This was of great political importance as it was regarded as Russian territory and, with rioting on the streets of the Russian major cities, the Russians realised that they had lost. Also at that point, Japan now holding most of the cards, but militarily and financially exhausted, sought President Roosevelt's good offices to bring about a peace conference. This took place in September 1905 concluding with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in the United States. The Russians ceded the Guandong peninsula (Chinese territory) and half of the island of Sakhalin to Japan but without having to pay any indemnity. The Russians, so the Japanese believed, had been allowed by the Americans to get away without paying any financial compensation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]