[ { "id": 204241, "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": 9, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Vol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n6\n\nyear we had 182 of whom 20 were life members and who included several eminent scholars from overseas. But as Sir Robert Black said in his address last month, \"there must be many times 200 people in Hong Kong who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research or in studying and enquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here.\" While we can feel pride in having in our present membership a substantial nucleus not only of scholars but of members generally representative of the cosmopolitan community of the Colony who are keen and enthusiastic, we need more members and hope to appeal to a wider public. As this is a Royal Society, membership is not a matter of form only, and we do not go out into the highways and byways to recruit members, but we feel that the Society can enlarge its activities and membership if the present members will help by bringing within the fold those of their friends and acquaintances who are interested in its activities. There seems to be no reason why in time the membership should not equal that of the Shanghai Branch, which before the war was about 800.\n\nDuring the year the Society has held eight meetings at which addresses have been given, all of them by persons of outstanding eminence in their respective spheres. Most of them were very well attended. Good lecturers are a gift from heaven but so far we have been truly blessed.\n\nWe were particularly fortunate in starting the year with two outstanding meetings. For an opening meeting we had an intensely interesting talk by Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark on \"The Social and Economic Organisation of Tibet\", illustrated by a coloured film taken over a period of seven years during his exploration of Central Asia. The formal inaugural address was given by Professor F. S. Drake of the University of Hong Kong on \"The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task.\" It was a memorable address which gave the stamp of learning and authority on the Society's efforts and the text of which is printed in this volume.\n\nOf no less interest and merit were the addresses following:\n\nby the\n\nProfessor John K. Fairbank on \"Chinese Studies in the United States\",\n\nMr. A. C. Scott on \"The Chinese Theatre\" illustrated by Chinese actors in costumes and makeup,\n\nMr. G. B. Downer of the University of London on \"The Yao People of Laos.\"\n\nIn the summer months we followed the advice of the first President of the original Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205413, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 175, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "168\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nble for financing and managing these arrangements, and its leaders were not allowed to canvas outside their own Fong to obtain funds. The Hung Shing Temple, being the larger and older of the island's two temples, was the hub of these activities.26\n\nIV. ABERDEEN DOCKS\n\nWhilst passing through Aberdeen you should note the old Dry Docks a little to the west of the Post Office. One was built in 1863 but two years later (to quote from the Centenary Brochure of the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co., Ltd.):\n\n\"In 1865, the Company concluded negotiations with Mr. John Lamont for the purchase of his property at Aberdeen, comprising the Lamont Dock then in working order, and the Hope Dock then in course of construction, together with the Workshops, Machines, etc.\n\nThe Hope Dock was opened in June, 1867, by the then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir R. G. MacDonnell, and for a number of years was largely used for docking ships of Her Majesty's Navy and other large vessels.\n\nV. SHEK WAN POTTERY FIGURES AT THE TIN HAU TEMPLE, ABERDEEN.\n\nOn your way from the Ap Lei Chau ferry pier to the Resettlement Department Office in the Shek Pai Wan Estate (for tea), you should note the Tin Hau Temple on the left at the foot of Aberdeen Reservoir Road. This is an old temple which was given its last major repair in 1873. Any members who attended Professor Skinsnes' recent illustrated talk on Shek Wan Pottery should have a look at the roof decoration on the way. It gives the name of the firm who made it and is dated the equivalent of 1873.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205708, "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-1969", "page_number": 14, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "8\n\nT. C. CHENG\n\nIt was as late as February 1880 that an eligible Chinese took his seat as an unofficial member in the Legislative Council. He was Ng Choy, later known throughout China as Dr. Wu Ting-fang. Ng's parents went to Singapore from Chung Shan District,* Kwang-tung Province, and he himself was born in Singapore in 1842. He came to Hong Kong as a boy and was educated at St. Paul's College.2 Having served as an interpreter in the Magistrate's Court in Hong Kong from 1861 to 1874, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, London, to study law and was the first Chinese to qualify as a barrister-at-law in January 1877. He was admitted to practise as a barrister in the Supreme Court in Hong Kong in May the same year.\n\nNg Choy's appointment to the Legislative Council was entirely a result of the efforts of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy (April 1877 - March 1882), an Irishman, and a great champion of the Chinese community which had changed a great deal since the 1850's.3\n\nIn 1880 when Hugh Gibb, a member of the Legislative Council, went on leave, Sir John took the opportunity to appoint Ng Choy to a provisional seat in the Council. When he addressed the Secretary of State on this subject, he quoted a memorial from leading Chinese in which they asked that since the Chinese out-numbered the foreigners by ten to one, they should be allowed a share in the management of public affairs. He then went further and suggested a reorganization of the Legislative Council so as to enable Ng Choy to have a more permanent seat. The Secretary of State was not sympathetic with Sir John's views but agreed to Ng's appointment only on a temporary basis until Gibb's return to Hong Kong, or for three years. One view expressed in the Colonial Office was that should the Governor want to consult the Legislative Council secretly or should relations with China become strained, the presence of a Chinese member on the Council might be awkward.4\n\nIn any case, when Ng Choy took his seat in the Legislative Council for the first time on 19th February 1880, it was a great occasion for rejoicings among the Chinese community and a deputation of leading Chinese members called at Government House to congratulate the Governor and themselves on the appointment.5\n\n* Then known as Heung Shan District.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205720, "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-1969", "page_number": 26, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "20 \n\nT. C. CHENG \n\nauthorities should look into the teaching of Chinese boys in English so as to increase the efficiency of the teaching of English. As a result, a Committee was appointed in 1917 \"to enquire into the teaching of the English language to Chinese boys in Government schools, and to examine the question whether by a reduction in the number of other subjects more time can be devoted to such teaching\". The Committee reported the same year, but did not recommend any changes in the school curriculum. However, they recommended (a) small classes, better buildings and better-paid teachers which would bring better results, and (b) the appointment of one English teacher to a maximum of 120 pupils. The Committee also advocated medical inspection of pupils in Government schools, as a result of which a system of medical examination was instituted the following year. \n\nIn recognition of Lau's services towards his fellow-men in Hong Kong, the Chinese Government conferred upon him “The Order of the Excellent Crop, Third Class\" in 1916. He died in 1922. \n\nThere is a Chinese belief that “good deeds will be rewarded by bearing good offspring\". This seems only too true in his case, for his eldest son, Lau Tak-po, founded the Hong Kong & Yaumati Ferry Company and his eldest grandson, Lau Chan-kwok, J.P. is now the Managing Director of the Company. \n\nWhen Sir Boshan Wei Yuk retired from the Legislative Council in 1917, he was succeeded by Ho Fook, younger half-brother of the late Sir Robert Hotung. He was another outstanding student of the Central School. In 1878 when the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, attended his first Prize Giving at the Central School, Ho Fook, then in Class 2, received from him a prize in the form of a gold pencil case.23 He served in the Compradore's Department of Jardine, Matheson & Company and in 1900 was a founder of the Chinese Merchants Bureau. He remained in the Legislative Council for only four years and retired in 1921. \n\nHo Fook was a generous benefactor of education. In 1917 he donated HK$50,000 to the University of Hong Kong for the erection and equipment of the School of Physiology. He also endowed prizes in all the faculties of the University. Like the Honourable Lau Chu-pak he produced some very fine offspring.24", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205851, "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-1969", "page_number": 157, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n151\n\nSo, on November 18, he despatched a memorial to Peking which laid the blame for mismanagement of the country not only on Chang Fu-ching, but also on several others in responsible positions. The emperor, naturally, was infuriated, and Feng nearly lost his life as a result; but that is another story.\n\nNow back to the comet. Becoming curious about its very long duration, I wrote to Mr. D. J. Schove of St. David's College, Beckenham, Kent, with whom I have previously corresponded on sun spots and similar phenomena, and asked if there had been any report on it by observers in Europe. He replied:\n\n+4\n\nThe comet of 1532 was more important than that of Halley and was visible even in the daytime. It is recorded e.g. in Italy, Switzerland, England, Russia, Japan and Korea.”\n\nAnd one of my American correspondents, Dr. C. Doris Hellman, professor of history at Queens College, New York, adds to this a Spanish record left by Gaspar G. Molera, who published a tract on it in Barcelona in 1533.\n\nNow I am curious as to whether there is any notice of the comet's appearance in the New World. Mr. Schove writes that Aztec chronicles record the comets of 1490 and 1529, but not those of 1531 and 1532. If any reader of this Journal knows of one I hope he will let me know, or publish it in the JRAS, Hong Kong branch.\n\nColumbia University, 1968.\n\nL. CARRINGTON GOODRICH\n\nWHAT INSPIRED SIR JOHN BOWRING'S HYMN?\n\nEver so often one hears that John Bowring's famous hymn\n\n“In the cross of Christ I glory\n\nTow'ring o'er the wrecks of time”\n\nwas inspired after he saw the facade of the Collegiate Church of St. Paul in Macao. But is this true?\n\nThese words were penned in, or shortly before, 1825, the date of the publication of Bowring's own book entitled HYMNS, in\n\n* See for example, M. Hugo-Brunt in his excellent article on St. Paul's Church in the Journal of Oriental Studies, 1-2 (1954-55) p. 344.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206241, "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-1971", "page_number": 58, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "LETTERS FROM CHINA 1835-36\n\nEditor's note. The extracts that follow from three of the surviving letters of James Calder Stewart are reproduced here with the kind permission of Mrs. Christopher Shorland of Warfield, Berks., through the kind offices of Mrs. David Dunkerley of Hong Kong. Both these ladies are descendants of the Herschel side of the family.\n\nIt has not been possible with the limited research aids available in Hong Kong to ascertain the writer's dates of birth and death or more details of his life. These will have to await my next leave in Britain and will, I hope, form the subject of a later Note.\n\nJames Calder Stewart was the son of Alexander Stewart, D.D., Minister of the Canongate Church, Edinburgh, and his wife, Emilia Calder, daughter of the Revd. Charles Calder of Urquhart. Mrs. Shorland advises that reference to other family letters produces little information about James Stewart. Before going to Canton, where he was apparently in business, he seems to have been in India; a letter written to Sir John Herschel dated L'Epéronnière, 13 October 1837, speaks of his being “still invited to return to India”. According to Mrs. Shorland, an uncle, James Calder, had a business in Calcutta, and it may be presumed that James Stewart found a position with him there. James' brother, Duncan, was also connected with the firm in some capacity. It is likely that Stewart's Canton post was obtained through the Calder connection, or was an extension of the Calder business. Mrs. Shorland states that after his return from China, he was appointed Assistant to the Commissioner of the New Poor Law Bill under Professor Jones 'at not less than £500 per annum'. He married later and had three children.\n\nThe \"Herschel\" mentioned in the letters is Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1791 - 1871), the astronomer, 1st baronet, and only child of Sir William Herschel (1738 - 1832), also famous as an astronomer. Sir John was married to Stewart's sister, Margaret Brodie Stewart (1810-1884). In 1835-36, when the letters were written, and between 1834-1838, Herschel was at the Cape of Good Hope, to which he had gone on a private project to survey the heavens of the Southern Hemisphere.\n\nThe prime interest of the extracts taken from these few letters is the view they give of the life and mind of one of the British merchants resident in Canton and Macau and the restrictions", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206459, "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": 7, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1971\n\nI have very much pleasure this evening in presenting to you my Annual Report of our Society for the calendar year of 1971.\n\nMembership:\n\nThe total number of members on our books for the year has remained remarkably static. Our losses in membership during the year numbered 23, and of these 3 were due to deaths while the remaining 20 were due to resignations tendered because of departure from the Colony on transfer or on retirement. This loss was balanced by the 24 new members who joined during the year, giving us a net gain of 1 for the period, and making our total membership on the 31st December last stand at 525.\n\nTwo other changes in membership call for special mention in this Report. One is that two of our Ordinary Members became Life Members during the year, and the other is that in October last, our Patron, Sir David Trench, left the Colony on retirement and our Society now records its grateful thanks to him for his Patronage during the years of his Governorship of the Colony. His successor, Sir Murray MacLehose, arrived here on the 19th November 1971 and immediately assumed the duties of his high office. He has since honoured our Society by becoming its Patron in succession to Sir David, thus perpetuating the close personal association that has always existed between us and our Governors. This association began with the Colony's second Governor, Sir John Francis Davis, when he became our first President in 1847. This traditional association was revived in 1959 when this branch was resuscitated and the then Governor Sir Robert Black became its Patron. We look with pleasure to welcoming personally our new Patron when he attends as he has expressed the hope of soon being able to do, one of our ordinary meetings.\n\nMeetings:\n\nA.G.M. The Annual General Meeting of the Branch was held on the 3rd May 1971.\n\nLectures: The following is the detailed list of lecture meetings held during the year and it is hoped that the various speakers will accept this record as a further token of our gratitude for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206463, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "The Council therefore unanimously decided that we should emulate the example set by our first President in 1847, by affording our moral support to the modern proposals of 1971 concerning a New City Museum. It was therefore further decided that letters should be sent to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary and to the Chairman of the Select Committee of the Urban Council on Museum and Art Galleries, pledging our support to\n\n\"the proposal that the present museum should be re-organized and that the opportunity should then be taken of re-housing it in a new and specially designed building situated on a site chosen for its suitability and adaptability rather than for reasons of expediency.\"\n\nIn these letters, we were careful to point out that this expression of opinion was that of the Council and not necessarily that of the Society as a whole, but I suggest that if you see fit to accept this Report at this meeting, your incoming Council will be justified in assuming that the general line of action taken last year has your approval.\n\nIf any member should wish to have further information about the achievements of the Society concerning the original aims of a century and a quarter ago, they will find a brief statement of these from the pen of Dr. J. R. Jones, the past-President of this Branch of the Society, in his letter published in the South China Morning Post on Friday, 18th December, 1970, under the title \"Sir John Davis, and Hong Kong's First Museum\".\n\nThanks:\n\nIt now remains for me but to put on record my thanks to the members of the Society in general for their generous support of the Society's activities during the year under review, and my hope that you will continue to afford the same measure of support to the Council you are about to elect to look after your affairs throughout the forthcoming year. In one respect, however, I must particularise, and that is to thank the British Council and its staff members who continue so willingly to render us invaluable service and assistance.\n\n27th March, 1972.\n\nL. T. RIDE", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207724, "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": 112, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881\n\n97\n\nPeking. The China Merchants Steam Navigation Company had been doing business with Hawaii. Their two steamers, the Ho-Chung ** and Mei-Foo, ✯✯ were used to transport Chinese laborers to Hawaii in 1879 and 1880.*\n\nIn Tientsin, King Kalakaua was received by Viceroy Li Hung-chang ✶ who asked penetrating questions about Hawaii: \"How many islands are there in your Kingdom? Do you have a Parliament? You have many Chinese in your country. Do you treat them well?\" The secretary and interpreter for the Viceroy was Li Sun (Tsang Lai-sun, a graduate of Hamilton College in New York.)\n\nThe King wrote back on April 6, 1881 to William L. Green, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, that he went to North China to see Li Hung-chang \"for the purposes I had in view: First, of stopping, if possible, further immigration of Chinese to the Islands [who came alone] without carrying their wives, and Secondly:--to secure for our government the same privileges as granted to the United States Government, the right at any time to restrict, return, or remove, the large influx of Chinese to our islands. On these two subjects our mission has been successful.”\n\nThe Royal party returned to Shanghai and embarked on the S. S. Thibet for Hong Kong, arriving on April 12, 1881. Already Hong Kong officials had been informed of the King's coming and were ready to extend a royal welcome. Owing to the considerable commerce between Hong Kong and Hawaii, the King was represented as Consul General by a British merchant of high standing William Keswick of Jardine, Matheson and Co. The twelve-oared barge of Sir John Pope Hennessy, the Colonial Governor, also appeared alongside with an invitation asking the King, in the name of Queen Victoria, to be his guest. The Hawaiian King had to adjust his schedule to accept the Governor's invitation for a royal reception at the Government House. As Armstrong recorded in his book, \"While we were taking coffee, the next morning, the forts, with seven warships, fired the usual salute of twenty-one guns. From the balcony of the Government House, high above the city, we looked down on a dense mass of smoke, rolling away to the mainland, pierced with the flashing of the guns, the Hawaiian flag", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207725, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "98\n\nTIN-YUKE CHAR\n\nat the main mast of every war ship. . . . It was a pretty sight, very noisy and warlike.”* \n\nThe Hong Kong Government Gazette of April 16, 1881, published the announcement with the Chinese and English placed side by side:\n\nGOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION-No. 131.\n\nHis Majesty the King of HAWAII arrived in Hongkong on Tuesday evening, the 12th instant, and was welcome to the Colony by the Governor, in the name of Her Majesty Queen VICTORIA. His Majesty, the King KALAKAUA, was accompanied by His Excellency W. N. ARMSTRONG, Minister of State, and Colonel JUDD, Chamberlain,\n\nBy His Excellency's Command,\n\nFREDERICK STEWART,\n\nActing Colonial Secretary.\n\nColonial Secretary's Office,\n\nHongkong, 16th April, 1881.\n\n號一十三百一第報憲\n\n署輔政使司史\n\n爲篩論事照得現有\n\n浩德護送前來於本月十二日卽禮拜二晚抵港 夏威儀國大君主加拉嘉華隨帶宰臣士當及司儀長參將\n\n香港總督郎敬用\n\n大英后帝城克多壢阿名迎接登岸爲此特示俾衆週知\n\n一千八百八十一年 四月 十六\n\n示\n\nA tiffin (luncheon) party was given by Mr. Chater, a rich merchant.† Men of all nationalities came to meet the King and his party at this magnificent affair. The King asked Armstrong to take his place and propose a toast to the Governor who later asked Armstrong to write out the speech for transmission to the Home Government in London. Armstrong in his letters back to Foreign Minister Green mentioned, \"I must admit having a glorious time with Sir John Pope Hennessy, as he is a man of immense information, great experience, and liberality. . . . Governor Hennessy will\n\n* The Hawaiian flag was designed by Capt. Alexander Adams, Englishman, in 1810, with eight stripes for the islands and the British Union Jack in the upper left corner.\n\n† See Plate 16.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208211, "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-1977", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "234\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nmountains about Kuatun and Sanchiang.... It is secretive, hiding by day in the beds of the streams and apparently prowling by night.\" The only other record of the distribution of this species of which I am aware lists it for both Fukien and Chekiang (Anon., 1977).\n\nDoubtless the specimen found in a catchment channel near Shek Kong had been carried down with water collected from a stream at a higher altitude, most likely from Tai Mo Shan.\n\nREFERENCES\n\nAnonymous (Compiled by the Amphibians and Reptiles Research Department of The Biological Research Institute of Szechwan Province)\n\n1977 Systematic Keys to China's Reptiles. (In Chinese) Press, Peking.\n\nBoulenger, G. A.\n\n1912 A Vertebrate Fauna of the Malay Peninsula. Reptilia and Batrachia. Taylor and Francis, London.\n\nPope, C. H.\n\n1935 The Reptiles of China. Natural History of Central Asia, Vol. 10. The American Museum of Natural History, New York.\n\nSmith, M. A.\n\n1935 Sauria. Reptilia and Amphibia, Vol. 2. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Taylor and Francis, London.\n\nHong Kong, 20 July 1978\n\nJ. D. ROMER\n\nTHE PUBLIC BOTANIC GARDEN OF HONG KONG\n\nSir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong from April 1854 to May 1859, was a Governor with wide interests. In his History of Hong Kong, George Endacott relates (pp. 104-105):\n\nHe cared for cultural things; he set up a museum in one of the rooms of the Supreme Court to the annoyance of the court officials, and he was the leader of the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was also very keen to set up a public Botanic Garden, and lectured to the Royal Asiatic Society in Hong Kong on its value in spreading knowledge of Chinese trees, woods and fibres.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209593, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "228\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nand 1877. The burlesques were particularly popular because local references could be injected into them. For instance in the 1877 performance of Alladin, the following takes place in the Sultan's Palace:\n\nWe ha'n't been asked to Government House; perhaps Sir Arthur's busy packing up his traps.* The time, alas, is drawing very nigh\n\nWhen I shall have to call and say goodbye\n\nAdding, 'Good voyage, and good wind, good water”\n\nBoth to Sir Arthur and his charming daughter.\n\nI'm sure that everybody here who knows him\n\nIs very sorry we're about to lose him,\n\nAnd when he leaves as I can only hope\n\nThat we may job along as pleasantly with Pope†\n\nFree from disasters, typhoons and tornados\n\nOr \"rows\" like those which happened in Barbadoes.=\n\nThe musical finale was composed by a local music teacher, Professor Felix Panizza. The scenery was painted by Mr. Kerr (probably Charles Morland Kerr, accountant at the Oriental Bank) and Mr. Marciano Baptista, Junior, whose father had been a pupil of Chinnery at Macao. In the second act Queen's Road was depicted as a thoroughfare in the capital of China.\n\nENTER THE LADIES\n\nBefore 1879 there were no ladies in the productions of the A.D.C. Female roles were taken by men. This was acceptable for farces and burlesques but not so suitable for realistic love-scenes. A review of a production in 1870 noticed, however, that \"Miss de la Courcy has certainly the happiest way of performing female parts. Her performance showed her knowledge of the woman's character\".\n\n* Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy, Governor of Hong Kong April 1872—March 1877.\n\n† Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hong Kong April 1877—March 1882.\n\nThere had been disturbances during Governor Hennessy's administration at Barbadoes.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210369, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "319\n\nSaiyingpun for the 11 a.m. Matins service. St Peter's at that time was situated at the site where the Western Police Station now stands. The site also contained a Seamen's Home. In days of old many ships berthed at West Point and the sailors attended the services there. I have but to close my eyes now and I can see the words GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON painted in brilliant letters on the wall behind the altar. The school supplied two rows of choir boys. Henry Sykes, the assistant headmaster, often filled the role of organist.\n\nBetween 2.00 and 4.00 p.m. on Sundays, the boys had to learn the Collect of the day and a portion of the Gospel by heart for repetition to the Master on duty. The Gospel was easier to learn than the Collect which, although shorter, was more difficult to master.\n\nThere followed a short rest after which the boys, with the exception of the very young ones, had to proceed to St John's for the 6.30 p.m. Evening Service. On returning to school after Evensong, after the long walk, the boys had to attend a final service held in the School Hall by the Master on duty. They were then permitted to retire to their dormitory at 8.00 p.m. Meals were frugal.\n\nSir Claud Severn, who was then the Colonial Secretary and, for brief periods, the Officer Administering the Government, took a keen interest in the Diocesan Boys' School. He would send the Governor's car, with its Crown, when he was O.A.G., to the school to fetch some of the choir boys to join the Cathedral choir. Sir Claud himself sang with the Cathedral choir. He had a strong bass voice which he employed to perfection in his rendering of Good King Wenceslas and the First Nowell in Christmas services. His singing always thrilled the boys who sang treble. According to one of our school masters Sir Claud nearly married Miss Goggin, our school matron. Unfortunately the romance ended when Miss Goggin died in January 1920. She had a brother who was shipping manager of Dodwell & Co. Ltd., at the time.\n\nThe organist at St John's in my time was Denman Fuller. In those days the Cathedral had a grand pipe organ which to my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210899, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "233\n\nquestion.\n\nThe reply was properly evasive and noncommittal.\n\nIn 1881 when Ma Kei-chung, Li's representative to India, passed through Hongkong, he was most anxious to confer with Governor Hennessy. According to local notices, the Governor played hard to get, though it was rumoured that they had discussed the formation of a syndicate which would buy opium in India, bring it to Hongkong and from there distribute it throughout China.\n\nIt is here that Ho A-mei enters the story. According to Eitel's history of Hongkong, Europe in China, A-mei was to arrange for the $20 million proposed as capital for the new syndicate. Just which capitalists would back the project was not stated. Undoubtedly a number of wealthy Chinese in Hongkong were interested.\n\nNot long after Ma's stopover in Hongkong, Sir John Pope Hennessy, Governor of Hongkong, made a trip of a “private” nature to Peking. A John Pitman went to Peking at about the same time. He was a financial adventurer who became involved in several big schemes backed by Chinese capital. In one of these, the bid for the Wei Sing gambling monopoly at Macau, Ho A-mei had been associated with Pitman. Pitman was an intimate friend of Sir John Hennessy and it is possible that the Governor was presenting a scheme in Peking in which his friend had an interest.\n\nIn January 1882, a report was circulated that Li Hung-chang had done a turnabout and appealed to the Emperor not to establish an opium syndicate.\n\nFast upon this news came the rumour that the Tsung-li Yamen (the Chinese Foreign Affairs Bureau) was so pleased with Ma Kei-chung's negotiations, after his return from India, with Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, that it was going to recommend him for the post of superintendent of the syndicate should it be established in Hongkong. The authenticity of the report was put in doubt by the comment that a British Minister had never previously negotiated with anyone under the rank of a Viceroy, a position", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210901, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "235\n\nthe official governing Hongkong, a matter of extreme difficulty.\"\n\nHo A-mei regarded Sir Richard Macdonnell (1865-1872) as the first Governor to make any attempt to ascertain the views of the Chinese and give them some measure of impartial consideration. Though perhaps the attitudes and policies of the Governors had changed over the years, according to a letter which appeared in 1878 over the name \"Chinese,” there were still giant steps to be taken if any kind of mutual acceptance was to be established.\n\n\"Chinese\" stated bluntly: \"That we Chinese in this Colony are despised individually, collectively, and socially, and that we are ignored as a community (except in a few instances) there cannot be the least doubt. Individually we have imposed on us certain burdens peculiar to our nationality and we receive uncivility and indignity even at the hands of the police, to whom we contribute to pay largely for our protection. In European society we particularly have no status. To correspond socially with Europeans with whom we are daily brought into contact, to be admitted as favoured guests at their dinner table, to have the privilege of counting them as personal friends, are things which no Chinese, however ambitious he may be in other respects, would ever aspire to obtain. As a political body we are unknown. We are unrepresented, and it would be easier to find a fish climbing up a tree, as our adage says, than to see a Chinese Justice of the Peace, or a Chinese member of the Legislative or Executive Council in Hongkong.”\n\nHappily this situation, after exactly 100 years, is greatly altered. Though today things are different in Hongkong, a completely mutual relationship is yet to be achieved between all sections of the community. The colonial status of Hongkong mitigates against equal treatment in all areas.\n\nWith the arrival of John Pope Hennessy as Governor in 1877, the Chinese had an advocate in high places. His so-called \"pro-Chinese policy,\" however, exacerbated the tensions between the foreign and Chinese population of Hongkong.\n\nThe longer he governed, the more he tried to advance the Chinese, the greater became the bitterness and hostility of the European population towards him.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210904, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 255, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "238\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nCHINESE PROTEST AT BEING KEPT OUT OF MEETING\n\nHo A-mei as a public figure participated in a number of important and interesting affairs which illustrate the strained relations between the foreign and Chinese portions of Hongkong's population during the closing decades of the 19th century.\n\nThe first such occasion was a public meeting held in October 1878.\n\nFor the Chinese it was the first such meeting they attended in numbers with the intention of active participation. The Chinese view of events at the meeting was set before the English reading public in a letter Ho A-mei addressed to the editor of the Daily Press. This letter marked his first appearance as a leader among the Chinese in Hongkong. His involvement in public issues affecting the Chinese continued for the next twenty years or until his retirement in 1898.\n\nThe meeting on which the letter comments had various tones and overtones, currents and sub-currents. Its stated purpose was to pass a resolution concerning the low state of security in Hongkong and the frequency of robbery and assault. Behind it was a large part of the European portion of the community who hoped the resolutions passed at the meeting would discredit the administration of the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy.\n\nGovernor Hennessy had introduced humane measures for the treatment of criminals, had abolished flogging and had improved conditions in jail. Many attributed the increase in crime to these reforms.\n\nThe complaints, however, were only a symptom of a deep dislike the foreign community had taken towards its Governor. Sir John had come to Hongkong with a record of favouring the local population in the colonies he had governed and of introducing measures to elevate them to a more equal status with the expatriate colonials, a policy not welcomed by the colonials. These principals, as they were applied in Hongkong, were labelled by the press as \"Hennessy's pro-Chinese policy.\" He believed that the\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210923, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 274, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "races \n\nto be included...?\" \n\n257 \n\nThe learned barrister may have spoken eloquently but accord-ing to his critics not wisely. \n\nGROPING TO CLOSE THE COMMUNICATION GAP \n\nThe Chinese deputation which called on the Acting Governor in 1883 to draw his attention to certain concerns of the Chinese community was attacked from several quarters. \n\nWithin the expatriate group in Hongkong there was a mistrust of the practice of Chinese having the direct ear of the Governor. It was felt that the previous Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, had manipulated such meetings to promote policies which favoured the Chinese to the disadvantage of the interests of the European population. They felt that the old established indirect approach through the Registrar General was the best way for the Govern-ment to relate to the Chinese. The Registrar General was the offi-cer responsible for matters affecting the Chinese. His modern counterpart is the Secretary for Home Affairs. \n\nNot everyone in the foreign population looked with disfavour on the idea of Chinese deputations. The senior partner of Jardine, Matheson and Company, F.B. Johnson, expressed his support. He felt it was his duty, as he said, not merely as a member of the Legislative Council, but as a resident of the Colony to be present and \"to show every possible sympathy he could with the move-ment this deputation had met to advocate.\" \n\nIn commenting on these remarks, the editor of one of the Hong-kong papers was not very kind to Johnson, describing him as \"one of those eccentric and ostentatious gentlemen who will rather commit any absurdity than be debarred from a public indulgence in windy and meaningless platitudes.\" A species not unknown in Hongkong today. \n\nThe Chinese criminal power group was also not happy about the visit, especially as it was to present matters which touched upon their activities. They were prospering under the status quo", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210927, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 278, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "261\n\nnor, Sir Arthur Kennedy.\n\nBoth incidents reflect inner tensions within the Chinese community and the difficulty Europeans had in recognising which leaders of the Chinese had the support of the majority.\n\nThe Europeans favoured those Chinese who were most thoroughly Anglicised. These were such men as Ng Choy, Ho Kai and Wei Yuk, all of whom had been educated in Britain. The Chinese, on the other hand, were inclined to feel that men who had been elevated to a position of leadership by the Chinese community itself were better representatives.\n\nThe Honourable Ng Choy had been able to straddle this difference, keeping a foot on both sides. Ho Kai and Wei Yuk, however, at the time of the controversy, were young and inexperienced and the majority of the leaders of the Chinese community resented their being pushed to the front by the Europeans.\n\nWhen the news of Sir Arthur Kennedy's death reached Hong Kong, a public meeting was hurriedly convened to discuss a suitable memorial to him. The organisers issued an invitation to all sections of the community. They arranged for Dr. Ho Kai to be the spokesman of the Chinese.\n\nIn his remarks at the meeting he promised the support of the Chinese community to the proposal for a statue of Sir Arthur Kennedy. He also asked to make additional comments expressing the desire of the Chinese to have a fitting memorial for Sir Richard Macdonnell, Sir Arthur's predecessor.\n\nThe chairman rightly suggested that the two objects were different and as the present meeting was to consider only the honouring of Kennedy's memory, the matter of a Macdonnell memorial should be left for discussion at some later time by those interested in the project.\n\nDr. Ho Kai had dutifully fulfilled his obligation to the Chinese community when he raised the point; however, he did not mention a further desire of the Chinese to honour Sir John Pope", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211034, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 95, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "70\n\n32\n\nFor further details and comments about the establishment and failure of the 1881-1883 Normal School, see CO129/197, p. 326f. In this file, Colonial Office minutes are critical of Hennessy's extravagance, note that \"the scheme is evidently Dr. Eitel's with Governor Hennessy's fiat\" and other correspondence (e.g., Eitel first report on the Normal School, in Eitel to M.S. Tonnochy, Acting Colonial Secretary, 19th January, 1882, and his second report enclosed in his letter to Tonnochy of 19th January, 1882) shows that Eitel, the Inspector of Schools, felt that there would be very unfortunate repercussions if the school were to be closed and that the headmaster, A.J. May was even prepared to take a salary reduction (from the original proposal of $2,400 a year to $1,600) rather than see the Normal School break up. In later reports (contained in CO129/202 p. 532f.), Eitel compared the Normal School, with its \"special private tuition and instruction\" in pedagogy, to the pupil-teacher scheme at the Central School to the disadvantage of the latter, and May, in his letter to Frederick Stewart of 19th July, 1883, mentioned the virtues of being able to utilize simulation techniques for the preparation of teachers at the Normal School. The actual end of the Normal School, which had been dismissed as unnecessary in the Education Commission Report of September 1882, was precipitated by A.J. May's insistence, in September 1883, that the students agreed to a bond to teach for five years at a salary rate of $25 per month on their completion of the course. The immediate result was that four of the ten students left for the Medical College at Tientsin, three joined commercial firms, and one became a government interpreter, leaving only two of the original intake, as mentioned above, to become teachers.\n\n33\n\nIn Singapore, a central training college for men teachers using English as the medium of instruction was proposed in 1904 and again in 1910, but the scheme was aborted because of the lack of applications. In Kuala Lumpur, an experimental teacher training course began in 1905, proved successful, and was followed by a two-year course in Penang in 1907. See Wong Hoy Kee, Francis, and Gwee Yee Hean, Perspectives: The Development of Education in Malaysia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1972), pp. 12-14.\n\n34\n\nWhat is certain is that his name does not appear in the Blue Book as one of the Pupil Teachers at the Central School at any time between 1880 and 1885. As noted above, Mok Man Cheung won the Class 1 Mathematics prize in January 1884. He was employed as \"Fourth Chinese Assistant\" at the Central School from September 1884. He did not, therefore, have the time to be enrolled in a pupil teacher's course, which customarily lasted for three years, but he might have taken an examination in \"Pupil-Teacher's Theory\" while studying in Class 1.\n\n35\n\nThe dispute over the opening hours at the City Hall Museum had come to a head in 1880 when the Executive Committee of the City Hall Museum, led by its chairman, William Keswick, attempted to restrict the entry of Chinese to the afternoons. They were opposed by the first Chinese member of the Legislative Council, Ng Choy, and by the Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy. See CO129/189 p. 476-614 for correspondence, largely unsympathetic to the Committee's discriminatory proposal and including an extract from the Hong Kong Hansard for 1880 reporting a speech by Ng Choy, and CO129/192 p. 438-446 for correspondence which includes Keswick's opinion that racial distinctions should not be abolished with regard to admission to the Museum of the City Hall. The call for separate schools for the different races had been made on a number of occasions in the past, most notably in 1845, 1856, and 1870-1872, but the most recent resurgence of interest and argument about the issue had been provoked by a speech made by the Anglican Bishop Hoare at the Prize Distribution of the Diocesan Boys' School in January", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211090, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 151, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "126\n\nnese and to provide for the better Security of the Residents of the Colony.” Ordinance 18 of 1888 brought together measures for \"The Regulation of the Chinese.\" It contained the light and pass requirements.\n\nHo A-mei, who was a student of the Anglo-Chinese College, must have experienced the troubled time of 1856 and 1857. Forty years later, as a prominent leader of the Chinese, he chaired a meeting held to request the Government to repeal the measures enacted when he was yet a youth.\n\nSTORM OVER PLAN TO ABOLISH\n\nTHE LIGHT AND PASS LAW\n\nHo A-mei, educated in the 1850s at Dr. Legge's school in Hong-kong, became in later life a leader in the Chinese community. As such, he participated in many public affairs.\n\nIn December 1895, he chaired a protest meeting against the strict enforcement of the light and pass regulations. They required Chinese out at night after a certain hour to carry lanterns and passes. These regulations became Hongkong law in 1857 during a time of crisis. It was the opening period of the second Sino-British conflict which extended from 1856 to 1860.\n\nAt the time the rules were enacted they were regarded as emergency measures to guard against arson and other subversive activities by agents sent to Hongkong by the Chinese authorities at Canton. After the emergency was over, the requirement for Chinese to carry lights and passes was not suspended. It remained as law but was enforced spasmodically.\n\nSince the rules applied to only one section of Hongkong's population, the Chinese, it was labelled by some as “class legislation.” As such, a growing number of Chinese began to resent them, not only for the inconvenience they caused, but on the principle they were discriminatory and humiliating. It was felt that they implied that the Chinese as a group were lawless and treacherous.\n\nThis resentment surfaced when Sir John Pope Hennessy be-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211730, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "120\n\n77\n\n*Reports on the New Territories for the Year 1932; B. Southern District”, Hong Kong Administrative Reports 1932, p. J22.\n\n# Nathan, p. 282-283.\n\n\"Imports for the Year 1855\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1855, p. 323,\n\n\"Imports for the Year 1857\". Hong Kong Blue Book 1857, p. 183.\n\n26 Hennessy, J.P., \"Address of Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy, KCMG, on the Census Returns and the Progress of Hong Kong\", Hong Kong Administrative Reports, 1880-1881.\n\nדי\n\nHong Kong Annual Report 1946, p. 42.\n\n+\n\nHong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce +*** \"Business Conditions\", in: Report for the Year 1949 Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce).\n\nE‡‡ƒ), (Hong Kong:\n\n29 Ingrams, H., \"Industry”, in: Hong Kong, (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1952), p. 139.\n\nFieldwork, 1987.\n\n31 Registrar of Trade Unions, Annual Departmental Reports, 1960-1969.\n\n+2\n\nCensus and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Trade Statistics. 1968-1978.\n\nSee Plate 15.\n\nSee Plate 16.\n\n15\n\nSee Plate 17.\n\nSee Plates 18 and 19.\n\n17 Osgood. Cornelius, The Chinese, a Study of a Hong Kong Community, Volume 2. (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1975), p. 769.\n\n18 **Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1911. P. V3.\n\n39 Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1903-1906, p. V4.\n\n40 \"Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1946,\n\np. V3.\n\n\"Returns of the Manufactures, Mines and Fisheries\", Hong Kong Blue Book 1920-1925, p. VI. See Appendix 1 for a table of Locations of Joss Stick Factories, 1902-1930.\n\n+ Leeming, Frank, Streets Studies in Hong Kong: Localities in a Chinese City. (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 105.\n\n4.1\n\n+\n\nibid, p. 109. See Appendix II for plans of a Number of Factories.\n\nSee Appendix III for a Map showing the 1987 distribution of Joss Stick Factories.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211830, "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": 245, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "220\n\nR: In the advertisement it was stated that tickets could be obtained from Messrs Lane, Crawford & Co, G.A. Bretts' Auction Room and Astor House Hotel. Lane, Crawford was a general store that had been established in Kiangsi Road (ex Church Street) since June 1862. The Astor House Hotel was situated in Hongkew (see also Survey).\n\n17.6.1864 (Fri)\n\nPerformance by Messrs J.R. Black and Marquis Chisholm (piano)\n\nTH: N.N. (H)\n\nN: Benefit for Mr. Chisholm\n\nR: John Reddie BLACK (1827-1880) was born in Scotland, but went to Australia to earn a living as a singer in the goldfields. After arriving in Japan, 1861, he became the editor of some English newspapers and from 1876-1880 he edited several papers in Shanghai. In 1864 he still managed to combine his two vocations. His entertainment was \"composed of songs interspersed with anecdotes and conversation of the most lively description which he varied every evening. He has a splendid voice and sings with great taste and feeling\" (NCH 4.6.1864). His accompanist on the piano was Mr. L.C. PHILIPPS (cf. 1.4.1864), but the latter died of cholera and his place was taken by Mr. Marquis CHISHOLM who was no newcomer to the Shanghai public. On June 17 he played a fantasia on Japanese airs, composed by himself. As a matter of coincidence there was \"an absence of ladies, many of whom are at present rusticating in Japan\", but for the other evenings \"the audience has always comprised the majority of the ladies resident in the Settlement\". Evidently this had come to be considered as most desirable, perhaps to lend an air of respectability to the performance. (NCH 11, 18.6.1864).\n\n22.6.1864 (Wedn)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"Il Treated Il Trovatore\" (1863)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nC: Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\n\nF: Music by the Rhenish Band\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\n+\n\nR: The first night of a new company, the \"*Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\" and, if we may believe the Herald, the Shanghai world \"was completely taken by surprise. So minute an acquaintance with stage proprieties was shown that many of the audience were disposed to believe that they were witnessing a display of professional talent”. (NCH 25.6.1864).\n\n29.6.1864 (Wedn)\n\nH.J. BYRON: \"Ill Treated 11 Trovators\" (1863)\n\nT: Burlesque extravaganza (1 act)\n\nT.H. LACY: \"A Silent Woman\" (1835)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Shanghai Amateur Burlesque Company\n\nF: \"New burlesque music\" by the Rhenish Band\n\nTh: Olympic Theatre (H)\n\nR: This is one of those increasing occasions in which only a short summary was published in the Herald, while the full report had appeared in the North China Daily News, no longer extant for this year. In any case the hope was expressed that more would be seen of the company \"as soon as the cool weather sets in\" (NCH 2.7.1864). According to the advertisement, tickets were obtainable from Lane, Crawford & Co (see 13.6.1864), Hall & Holtz (Ship chandler, general store and bakers; at the corner of Foochow Road (ex Mission Road) and Kiangsi Road (ex Bridge Street); MacKenzie & Co (shipchandlers, general store and general agents on the Yangkingpang in the French Concession); the Astor House Hotel; and Phillips Restaurant (Phillips, Moore & Co, Nanking Road-ex...)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211841, "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": 256, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "231\n\nattitude to such interpolations, 13.2.1863). The qualities of most players have already been touched upon; others were JOHN EDOUIN, “a capital dancer\"; his sister ROSE EDOUIN who, in burlesques, was \"not to be overlooked; there is a style about her which commands and her gesture is sufficiently theatrical to impose upon her audience where a little less or a little more demonstration might have failed.\" Mr. W.B. GILL whose acting was not \"thoroughly under command\", nevertheless had \"his place marked out for him and we hope some day to see him take up a leading position as a low comedian\". On the other hand Mr. ANDREWS was a useful actor who is careful in his parts does not do more than he needs to do\". The Company had had tolerably good houses and their departure was regretted for it was felt that Shanghailanders had seen \"perhaps the best company East of the Cape\". It went on to Foochow, Amoy and other southern ports. (SCR 5.5.1865).\n\n6.5.-12.5.1865\n\nTwo concerts by Mr. and Mme Simonsen (violin and singing resp.)\n\nTH N.N.\n\nR: For the first time since August 1863 Martin SIMONSEN came to the port, with his wife who was a singer, after recitals in Hong Kong. Rather disappointingly the first two concerts “did not draw very large houses\", but \"they were warmly applauded by all who listened to the spirit-stirring sounds of Mr. SIMONSEN's violin and the melting tones of Mme SIMONSEN's voice\", (NCH 13.5.1865).\n\n8.5, 1865 (Mon)\n\nPELHAM HARDWICKE: (= C. MATHEWS) \"A Bachelor of Arts\" (1853) T: Comic drama (2 acts)\n\nJ.M. MORTON: \"The Two Bonny Castles\" (1851)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nC: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: According to both the Herald and the Record the pieces went off successfully (NCH 13.5.1865; SCR 22.5.1865).\n\n17.5.1865 (Wedn)\n\nConcert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: In order to draw more people the admission charge at the Lyceum Theatre had been reduced to $3 with the result that a \"full audience was present” (NCH 20.5.1865). No programmes of these concerts were published.\n\n20.5.1865 (Sat)\n\nConcert by Mr. and Mme Simonsen, with the Band of the 67th Regiment.\n\nProgramme:\n\n\"Kathleen Mavourneen\" (song), **No not I** (song), C.A. de BERIOT: “Air varié”, N. PAGANINI: \"Carnival of Venice\", C.M. von WEBER: \"Aufforderung zum Tanz”, \n\n'Monastery Bells\", \"Valse de concert\" (song).\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: This was the last concert given by the SIMONSENS in Shanghai. According to the Shanghai Commercial Record it was a great success. Mme SIMONSEN sung the song \"Kathleen Mavourneen\" which \"literally “brought down the house\" (this must have been an exaggeration), after which she gave with great effect a very charming little skittish song “No not I'\". Her husband repeated some of the pieces he had performed seven years earlier (October 1858); Paganini's \"Carnival of Venice\" (with which the critic was \"not so much pleased\") and the variations by De Bériot. In addition \"he introduced one or two movements [into the Carnival of Venice? – JH] which we have", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211856, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "246\n\nKing, F.H.H. and P. Clarke: “A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers 1822-1911”, Cambridge (Mass), 1965.\n\nKosch, Wilhelm: \"Deutsches Theater Lexikon\", Klagenfurt, 1960.\n\nKounin, I.I.: \"The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai\", Shanghai, n.d. (c. 1939).\n\nKunitz, Stanley (Ed.): \"British Authors of the 19th Century\", N.Y., 1936.\n\nLang, H.: “Shanghai considered socially\", Shanghai, 1875.\n\nLanning, G. and S. Couling: \"The History of Shanghai\", Vol. I.; Shanghai, 1921. MacGuire, Paul: \"The Australian Theatre\", Melbourne, 1948.\n\nMacLellan, J.W.: \"The Story of Shanghai from the opening of the port to foreign trade\". Shanghai, 1889.\n\nMakepeace, Walter, Gilbert E. Brooke and R. St. J. Bradwell (Ed): 'One Hundred Years of Singapore\", 2 vols.; London, 1921.\n\nMaybon, Charles B. & J. Fredet: \"Histoire de la Concession Francaise de Changhai'', Paris, 1929.\n\nMaude, Cyril: \"The Haymarket Theatre, Some Records and Reminiscences\" London, 1903. Mullin Donald (Ed.): \"Victorian Actors and Actresses in Review\", Westport, 1983 National Union Catalogue.\n\n1\n\nNicoll, Allardyce: \"A History of English Drama 1660-1900\", 6 vols,; Cambridge 1952ff. Pal, John: \"Shanghai Saga\", London, 1963.\n\nPearsall, Ronald: \"Victorian Popular Music\", Newton Abbot, 1973.\n\n\"The Player's Library. A Catalogue of the Library of the British Drama League”, London, 1950.\n\nPope, W.J. Macqueen: \"Haymarket, Theatre of Perfection\", London, 1948. Reynolds, Ernest: \"Early Victorian Drama (1830-1870), New York, 1965 (reprint of 1936 edition).\n\nRiemann, Hugo: \"Musik Lexikon\", Berlin, 1916 (8th edition).\n\nRowell, George (Ed.): \"Nineteenth Century Plays”, Oxford, 1972.\n\n“Shanghai Alamanac” 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862; Shanghai, 1854ff years.\n\n**Shanghai t'ung yen-chiu tzu-liao (Shanghai Research Materials), Hong Kong 1972 (reprint of 1936 edition).\n\nSmith, C.; \"The Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club and its predecessors\" in: \"Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S.\", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 217-251. Thomson, Peter: \"Plays by Dion Boucicault\", Cambridge, 1984.\n\nToll, Robert C.: 'Blacking Up. The Minstrel Show in 19th century America”, New York, 1974.\n\nTroubridge, St. Vincent: \"The Benefit System in the British Theatre”, London, 1967. Wearing, J.P.: \"American and British Theatrical Biography\", London, 1979. White, Walter: \"China Station 1859-1864\", London, 1972.\n\nWilliams, Harold S.: \"Tales of the Foreign Settlements in Japan\", Tokyo, 1972. Wright, Arnold and H.A. Cartwright: \"Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China\", London, 1908.\n\nAbbreviations:\n\nNOTES\n\nBGM: Boletim do Governo de Macao.\n\nNCH: North China Herald.\n\nSCR: Shanghai Commercial Record.\n\n1\n\nPerformance 6.5.1852. NCH 8.5.1852.\n\nOnly passing attention has been paid to the early theatre in Shanghai: Lanning & Couling. p. 429-430: MacLennan: p. 85-86.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212248, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "NOTES\n\n167\n\nFrom manuscripts in the John Fryer Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.\n\nThe title on the holograph was added in pencil at the top of the page and underlined; a pencil was used to cross out the salutation, probably at the time when the title was added prior to typing many years later. In transcribing this material I have followed the holograph document. Minor changes have been made to bring punctuation and use of numbers into conformity with modern usage and to improve readability. Editorial additions are in square brackets. Fryer tended to write run-on paragraphs; a caret indicates where long paragraphs have been broken up. Colons and semicolons are not easily distinguished in the holograph; Fryer was inconsistent in his use of the apostrophe.\n\n1\n\nFryer mentions below that it has been a fortnight since his arrival. This would place the date for this letter around August 13, 1861.\n\n4\n\nA sketch of the general plan of St. Paul's College, drawn in ink and tinted with watercolors by Fryer, accompanies the holograph document. See Plans in text, redrawn from Fryer's sketch plan.\n\n4 Fryer generally wrote \"&\" in his handwritten letters, but converted these to \"etc.\" and \"and\" in his typewritten transcriptions.\n\nFryer became engaged to Anna Roleston of Chudleigh, Devon, before embarking for Hong Kong,\n\nThe Second Anglo-Chinese War, 1858-1860, which led to a stoppage of much of the trade of Hong Kong with China to 1861.\n\n# This is one of the rare examples of Fryer's use of hyperbole; other examples can be detected below.\n\nHI\n\nThe Reverend George Smith, Bishop of Victoria.\n\nRev. William Roberts Beach arrived in Canton in 1853 sponsored by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He joined the Church of England in 1855. In 1857 he became Warden of St. Paul's College and Chaplain to the Bishop of Victoria. His other appointments included a period in Macao as Missionary Chaplain in 1857, and service as Chaplain to the Forces under Sir Hope Grant in 1861. He was appointed Colonial Chaplain and Canon of St. John's Cathedral by the Rev. Alford, who in 1867 became \"Lord Bishop of the see of Victoria, and Warden (for the Church Missionary Society) of St. Paul's College'. (see E. J Bitel, Europe in China, Hong Kong: Kelley and Walsh, 1895. p. 466.) Alford was Principal of Highbury Training College, London, at the time when John Fryer was enlisted for work at St. Paul's College.\n\n|| This was the College in Staunton Street, later renamed St. Saviour's (1863), and then (1875) St. Joseph's.\n\nזן\n\nFryer travelled to Hong Kong on the sailing ship Prince Alfred.\n\nPublished in Volume 29 (1989) of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.\n\n14\n\nSee Plans in Text.\n\n15\n\nSee Plates 2-4.\n\n16. Charles R. Alford; see note 10.\n\nדן\n\n* \"animals\" standard English school master-speech for \"schoolboys\".\n\nश्र\n\nPossibly the British Museum.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212332, "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": 274, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "251\n\nbeing until this century. In the last decade of the 20th century, however, it provides three-quarters of the electricity consumed in Hong Kong. Not long after the Company placed what was reported to be the largest ever single order with British industry, in 1980, six members of the board were made Commanders of the British Empire. There have also been two Knighthoods in the Kadoorie family.\n\nTransport\n\nMotor transport was mainly introduced into Hong Kong in the present century, and, by 1909, the Colony boasted five private cars. Steam power was, however, used at sea before it was employed on land, and by 1876 there were nine steam launches operating in the harbour, and the first regular cross-harbour ferry, employing steam launches, commenced in 1880. In 1898, the Star Ferry was incorporated and took over from Dorabjee Nowrojee the previous ferry owner.\n\nBritish firms were, nonetheless, involved with transport, and a proposal was made by Jardine's, in 1881, for a system of trams on Hong Kong Island. The same year another proposal was made for a tramway to Victoria Gap, and in 1885 the original promoters sold their rights to Phineas Ryrie and Alexander Findlay Smith (Findlay Path on the Peak is named after him) for $2,000. The latter, a merchant who arrived in Hong Kong in the 1860s and who had been an employee of Scotland's Highland Railway, was the driving force. In 1881, it was he who requested approval from Sir John Pope-Hennessy, for this innovative scheme.\n\nAccording to Mrs Maud Grant-Smith, the Governor told her late husband's uncle, Findlay Smith:\n\n\"My dear chap, you are simply throwing your money down the drain. Do you imagine anyone wants to go to the top of the Peak?\"\n\nBecause His Excellency would not help, Smith brought his own engineers from Scotland. As early as the 1840s Doctor William Morrison, the Colonial Surgeon (1847 to 1859), recommended spending the summer on the Peak. He also suggested a sanatorium be built there to alleviate the effects of heat and humidity. This was constructed but by 1868 it had fallen into disrepair, and had been rebuilt as", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214410, "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": 268, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "234\n\nit to the nearest river, washed all the sea salt away with the flowing water and then dried it by the above mentioned method. And so his tea will go to England, and being well roasted, will give a fine brew. And as it is well known that the English are not interested in the aroma of the tea, but in its colour, there is the hope, through this bit of speculation, of acquiring not only fine profits but a fine reputation.\n\nDon't think however that it's only speculation that occupies the minds and constitutes all the activity of the local population. There is a club here with a good library, which orders many journals; on top of this there is a reading room - a small public library, established and maintained by a few private individuals; finally there is a branch of the London Asiatic Society, which has monthly meetings and publishes its reports. I was invited on the 8th November (new style calendar), to a meeting of the Society, where among the outside visitors there was quite a number of ladies. The President of the Society, Sir John Bowring, who had been in Russia, had in the past expressed the view, that the \"Russian Government was so jealous, that there had never been an instance of even one single person being sent to the Peking Mission, who could speak another language, apart from his native Russian, and this was with the specific aim of preempting the possibility of communicating to Europe information acquired in Peking.\" Now one of the members of the Society, Mr. Shortred proposed to rectify this view and pointed to me as someone who had been at the mission and who could supply positive information. I replied, that the Russian Government had never had any such thought in mind, that on the contrary it, itself, even tried to disseminate information, received from Peking; that previously, mainly students from seminaries, where although other languages were taught the predominant language was Latin, had been selected for the mission; but that more recently people were being sent there from theological academies and universities - places of higher learning where everyone acquires a basic knowledge of several European languages. As for the view of Mr. President, it is very possible that soon after their return from Peking the members of the mission that he had seen were in no condition to converse freely in any European languages, simply because they had no practice in ten years, even though each one of them read and probably wrote one of the European languages. Sir John Bowring stated, that since the time he had been in Russia, much had undoubtedly changed there. Incidentally it is worth noting that Sir John Bowring is himself regarded as a great linguist. He", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214581, "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": 439, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "408\n\nwas said to have been a British Member of Parliament. Alice was a gracious lady. Choa gives her maiden name as Walkden. It is sometimes elsewhere, puzzlingly, quoted as Whitcome. Did she have a step father one wonders? Or was this an unfortunate mistake by some writer and a case of give a slip-up five minutes start and the truth never catches up with it?' This could be the case. Certainly the name on the huge family memorial, in the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley, is carved as Alice Walkden.\n\nBefore the couple arrived back in Hong Kong in 1882 the then Governor, Sir John Pope Hennessy, announced to the Legislative Council that this young Chinese had taken the highest honours at Lincoln's Inn. 'It was something that a gentleman belonging to the Colony should have gained such honours.'\n\nAnyway, back in the British colony in those days the 'superstitious' Chinese generally did not take readily to 'newfangled,' western medicine and Ho Kai switched to law. But a brilliant Chinese with fluent English was rare in those days. He was enticed into business. He also entered public service and, in addition to sitting on a number of other government committees, sat on the Sanitary Board (the forerunner of the Urban Council) and, in 1890, became a Legislative Councillor. He was the third Chinese to sit on this august body. He was also a Justice of the Peace.\n\nHaving lived in the West for a number of years it is not surprising he developed strong views about social reform and the modernisation of China. He became an associate of statesman Dr Sun Yat-sen. This was at a time when China was striving to rid itself of the Qing dynasty and there was danger the country would be assimilated by colonial powers.\n\nIn his latter life Ho Kai spent most of his time serving the community. He helped, together with his colleagues, to mould the Territory in which we now live. Ho Kai was capable and, understandably, there was no need for him to take to heart the Chinese axiom: 'If you do not become a good minister be a good physician.'\n\nHe was 'lionised and eulogised' after his death by all sectors of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214904, "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": 319, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "295\n\ndrawn in a manner matching the gravity of the story. Instead, they have a frivolous, cartoon-like quality and contribute nothing at all.\n\nThe contents of the rest of the book include old photographs, and reproductions of old maps and documents. These, for me, are the best parts as they are a rich source of historical material - and also extremely interesting. There is an enormous \"Notes\" section, some of which are very informative. There is, however, quite a lot of extraneous material in the book - and in the \"Notes\" - which can really only be described as \"filler.\"\n\nThe tantalising question for this reviewer is Gillian's objective in compiling this book. Much is made of the contention that The Back Door is Hong Kong's contribution to the genre of \"future war fiction.\" Quite possibly so, but it is a pretty modest contribution and was probably cobbled together in little more than a few days. It pales considerably when compared with, for example, General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War: August 1985 (Sidgwick and Jackson, London and Macmillan, New York, 1978). Gillian's book represents an enormous investment in time - a Bickley trademark - but one really has to wonder whether the time could not have been better spent. For example, an historical account of the development of Hong Kong's defences up to World War Two would make an excellent subject for a book and would permit a serious, academic study of an under-researched subject. Such a study could refer to The Back Door to illustrate the anxieties in Hong Kong at the time. Instead, a pretty mediocre piece of writing has become the raison d'être for Gillian's book. Expressed another way, do we really want to know that 'Inspector Hannah' in The Back Door in fact, Sergeant 1891 Hannah of the Hong Kong Police, plus the hundreds of other titbits in the \"Notes\"?\n\nwas,\n\nHowever, Gillian has put a great deal of effort into this highly unusual book and I hope that it sells millions.\n\nPETER HALLIDAY\n\nSee The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and the Effectiveness of the Defence elsewhere in this issue.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216129, "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": 428, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "362\n\nMay 1859 after the departure of Sir John Bowring, but was revived with the approval of the parent Society in London and reconstituted as the Hong Kong Branch in December 1959 under the active patronage of the Governor, Sir Robert Black. It is currently very active and is in a sound financial position.\n\nThe Library\n\nSimilar to other branches, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society set up a collection of books within its field of interest, relating to Asia and its culture. As a result of the merger with the Medico-Chirurgical Society, it had the benefit of inheriting all the books from this Society.\n\nThe Society in Hong Kong was not as fortunate as its Shanghai counterpart where the Government, in 1868, provided a site for its building at a nominal rent and later granted it in perpetuity to the Society.2 For many years, the Hong Kong Branch did not have any permanent site, and thus its collection moved from place to place.\n\nIn the early days, in 1849, as allowed by the then governor Sir S. G. Bonham, the collection was housed in a room at the Supreme Court building where the Society had its meetings. In 1859, when the Society ran into difficulties, the, by now, valuable collection of 400 books was placed in trust with the Morrison Education Society (formed in Canton in 1835) which, from 1855, had also kept its library in the Supreme Court house. In November 1869, when the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Colony to open the first City Hall, the Morrison Education Society presented its own library as well as that of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society to the first City Hall Public Library to serve as the reference collection. This laid the corner stone for the future relationship of the Society with the Hong Kong Public Libraries which eventually would become the permanent home for the Society's collection. In fact, following the resuscitation of the Hong Kong Branch in 1959, the President's first annual report stressed the need for ‘a meeting place of our own where we can build our Oriental library which should fill a special need'3 and expressed the hope that some accommodation could be made available in the City Hall. However, this was not realized until after several movements of both the Society and the collection.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]