[
    {
        "id": 205306,
        "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": 68,
        "title": "RAS-1967",
        "content_text": "EXPANSION AND EXTENSION IN HAKKA SOCIETY\n\n61\n\nhe himself has remitted money back to his family in Plum Grove Village for their support. During his stays in Kowloon he made frequent visits home. The masons in Grass Field Village, who periodically engage in agriculture at home, form another example of oscillation, but with less depth in the movement.\n\nThe Pacific War and the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong meant an abrupt interruption to the process of extension. Those who were in the Colony gathered in the villages, which offered social security during a difficult time. They tried to survive by means of traditional production but, as before, the agricultural output was entirely insufficient. For a period of five days a large contingent of Japanese soldiers ravaged the valley destroying the fields, cutting down the supply of wood, and carrying away whatever chickens, pigs, and cows the peasants had. The meat that was not consumed they left to rot in the fields or along the hill sides. Many men and women suffered torture, others perished through starvation and forced labour. Emigrants and sailors lost contact with their home communities; those who were working in occupied areas or ports often ended up in labour camps.\n\nV\n\nThe experiences of the war situation seem to have reinforced the necessity of access to external sources of income over large tracts in the New Territories. But conditions after the end of the war were not too favourable. Peace had still not come to the China mainland, and there was a steadily increasing influx of refugees into the British Crown Colony. These people competed heavily on the labour market in the urban areas in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Extension now had to go beyond the nearby cities, but emigration abroad at this time was not always so easily arranged. All countries that traditionally had offered scope for Chinese immigration, now imposed strict control on the entry of Chinese, thus drastically limiting the chances for overseas employment. Since 1945 contract labour has been offered mainly in Sabah, Brunei, and Sarawak, where construction and oil industries have a certain demand for workers; and also on Nauru and Ocean Island, tiny islands in the Central Pacific, where the British Phosphate Commissioners since the start of mining have relied mainly on Chinese labour supply.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g",
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    {
        "id": 205530,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1968",
        "page_number": 72,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "67\n\nFURTHER NOTES ON THE SUNG WONG T'OI\n\nW. SCHOFIELD*\n\nThe very interesting paper by Professor Lo Hsiang-lin on the Sung Wong T'oi and the travelling courts of the Sung Dynasty, in Volume III No. 2 of the Journal of Oriental Studies,† and the partial wrecking of the historic site by the Japanese in the war,‡ have prompted the writer to put on record some notes made during the years 1918 and 1937 on the earthworks, inscriptions and relics found by him on and near the site, which may help to supplement Professor Lo's paper. In what follows the hill is described as it was in 1937, as the writer has not seen it since 1938.\n\nIt is a crescent-shaped hill, convex towards the east, where it rises steeply from the beach to a height of nearly 40 metres. It commands a good view of the south slope of the Kowloon hills and the plain beneath, the east half of the harbour, and of Lyemun channel and the west end of the Fat Tau Mun channel beyond, except for a few hundred metres at its north side by Slope Island (see Plate 5). A watch-tower on its summit would provide an observation post well over 40 metres above sea level. The concave side, on which lies the main path to the top, is terraced for cultivation up to 15 or 20 metres.\n\nThe objects investigated on and near the hill can be classed in three categories, earthworks, inscriptions, and pottery and other objects, and will be dealt with in that order.\n\nThe Earthworks (see sketch plan at Plate 3)\n\nThere are signs that the hill was formerly fortified. On its top from the south end above the 20 metre contour as far as the great inscribed rock on the summit, there is a gentle rise from which the ground falls away steeply to the east, and rather less so to the west and south. At the south end of the ridge traces of a bank at the edge appear to form a rough semicircle, presumably as a flank defence, for a clearly defined earth bank about a metre high by three or four wide at the base runs northward from it nearly straight along the centre of the hill crest to a point near the south-\n\n*See biographical note at the end of this article.\n\n† Published by the Hong Kong University Press, May 1958. [See also Mr. Jen Yu-wen's article \"The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung in Kowloon\" in JHKBRAS, Vol. 7, 1967, pp. 21-38. Ed.]\n\nMr. Schofield writes in the present tense, Unfortunately the hill has now disappeared completely, what was left by the Japanese being removed for the airport extension about 1958. Ed.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 206572,
        "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": 120,
        "title": "RAS-1972",
        "content_text": "E. G. PRYOR\n\nfor households with monthly incomes of less than HK$300 per month. In 1970, the monthly family income limit was increased to HK$600. Over the period 1965-1971 some 187,000 persons benefited from government low-cost housing schemes.\n\nFrom the above, it will be seen that government and government-aided housing provided accommodation for 1.5 million persons in 1971 (Figure 7). It is thus evident that the administration is taking seriously its responsibilities towards providing homes for lower-income families. Indeed, Table 1 shows that between 1965 and 1970 government and the other two main housing agencies built more domestic units than private developers, so that by the end of that period the total amount of subsidised accommodation was greater than the total in the private sector (Table 2). The significance of this achievement is brought into sharper perspective when it is considered that the provision of housing by government, the Housing Authority, and the Housing Society on such a vast scale has been accomplished only since 1951.\n\nHowever, whilst in quantitative terms these efforts have been impressive by any measure, there is scope for qualitative improvements. In this context, many of the older resettlement estates are now in need of modernisation, and this is a future task which the government has plans to undertake. There is also an increasing awareness of the need to ensure that large housing estates, especially in the new towns of Tsuen Wan, Castle Peak, and Shatin, need to be designed and built on a comprehensive basis with a view to the creation of a wholesome environment that provides for the many diverse forms of human activity. Unfortunately, this approach could not be followed in the development of many of the earlier estates, which had to be built on an emergency basis. The needs of the rural population for decent housing have also had to be held in abeyance, but this matter is now receiving closer attention.\n\nWhilst the government can be expected to continue to play a significant role in the provision of housing, the achievement of private developers over the immediate past years indicates that a substantial contribution from this sector can be expected in future, given stable economic and political conditions (Table 1). However, some concern must be expressed over the distribution of government and private housing, for whereas the bulk of private residential accommodation is located in the old congested districts of Hong Kong Island North\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207396,
        "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": 164,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "156\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nsteeply to one of the passes, Magazine Gap, through which roads passed from one side of the Island to the other. The hospital had wide shady verandahs but no lifts, and all windows had heavy wooden shutters for use during typhoons. A reservoir for fire fighting purposes had been constructed a little above hospital level and was fed by hill streams. Above that again was the Nursing Sisters Mess. About the same level as the hospital were quarters for warrant officers and a barrack block for male staff, a NAAFI block for recreation and a tennis court together with some lesser outbuildings. Below the hospital was the Sergeants Mess and a residential block for married staff, \"H\" block. There was only one approach road winding up to the hospital, Borrett Road, but there was a subsidiary road, Bowen Road, running along a contour line but not strong enough to take heavy traffic. The hospital was one of the landmarks of the Hong Kong scene when viewed from the mainland. Below the hospital the ground fell steeply to the main road linking the city of Victoria and the Island to the east, and to the Naval Command Headquarters in H.M.S. Tamar, the Naval Dockyard and the headquarters of China Command. The hospital was therefore close to legitimate enemy targets and any margin for error in artillery fire and aerial bombing was reduced still further by the precipitous slope on which it stood.\n\nThe hospital however had nowhere else to go, and Colonel Shackleton the commanding officer used his considerable ingenuity to have two operating theatres with their necessary adjuncts and X-Ray rooms constructed in the basement of the administration block. Engines for generating electricity, one capable of supplying the theatres and X-ray room, the other able to serve part of the hospital as well were installed and were of great value during hostilities and during the long period of captivity. When the hospital was severely damaged and the kitchen totally destroyed very early on by aerial bombs and shell fire, Shackleton speedily got an emergency kitchen operating in the sergeants mess and set up a protective wall of concrete blocks, known to us from a much publicised local court case as \"Mimi Lau's”, on the harbour side of the ground floor wards. Shackleton was a forceful character, apparently not aware of fear, who was ready to cut through any red tape which obstructed his aims. He liked his own way and was not an easy man to have under command, but to those relying upon his administration in war he always provided what was needed.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 207397,
        "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": 165,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n157\n\nIn the Colony trade went on and there was much talk of the value of Hong Kong to Great Britain as a provider of foreign currency through its commerce. The fine young men in civil life in Hong Kong, prevented from travelling to join the forces at home, like many others, found it hard to reconcile the argument in favour of acquiring foreign currency with their knowledge that a large proportion of the goods exported found its way to Japan. They were all keen members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. It may be claimed that our trading policy delayed Japan's entry into the war, but to many it seemed that economic and strategic considerations were at cross purposes.\n\nI came in contact with Indian troops in the Colony mainly in an individual professional capacity when my surgical services were needed, but I imagine they were subject to the same effects of garrison duty as were the British troops. Garrison duty has never in any army provided a satisfactory training for active service, and Hong Kong provided yet another example of the truth of this. Once the arrangements for manning the defences were mastered the Island and the New Territories gave little scope for the most ingenious commander or space in which he could exercise and retain the interest of his troops. This left sports to absorb, by no means completely, the youthful energies of strong young men. Many of these had been received as friends in families in Hong Kong, some had contracted stable relationships with women but many had little to occupy themselves when off duty. I well remember seeing men flushed from their games trying to get into the China Fleet Club on the Victoria waterfront. They were obliged to shoulder their way physically through the crowd of Chinese and Eurasian women seeking them as companions. Not all of these were attractive, but girls of these races are among the most beautifully shaped that, in a wide experience, I have ever met. Co-habitation with a high proportion of these girls led to venereal infection and some men sought satisfaction in their own sex. Alas, this did not safeguard them from infection. Another hazard was malaria. About October 1941 the army manned the defences in an exercise and following this a substantial number of soldiers contracted malaria and needed treatment in hospital. Before many had regained strength after the fever, the army was deployed during the phase which led to open war. I pay high tribute to the spirit and the readiness with which these men met the call. Everyone who was\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    {
        "id": 207536,
        "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": 304,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "296\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nbeen an embarrassment until we had arrived at a workable scheme. We hope that this stage will shortly be reached, when we shall be glad to extend our activities with any help that may be offered.\n\nObject\n\nThe survey as originally conceived was to make a photographic record of Hong Kong as it appears today, and before all of its older buildings disappear beneath the relentless tide of redevelopment. Much has of course already been lost; but it is not too late to catch something of old Hong Kong and to preserve it, if only through the camera's lens. In the course of our activities we have extended our scope to include not merely buildings, but also street scenes and shots of such everyday sights as hawkers' stalls, workshops, fortunetellers' booths, etc., all of which have been photographed many times before, but rarely with full documentation of date or place.\n\nSo far our activities have been concentrated mainly on the Western District of the Island, and extending up into the Mid-Levels behind. This was chosen because of the rapid changes anticipated under the Government's redevelopment programme for the area, though this will of course apply in many other districts. For buildings, the aim has been to take general views from as many angles as possible; though in most cases this means just two views—left front and right front since most of the streets covered are narrow and the backs of buildings either invisible or unpresentable. A few, however, can be photographed from more than one side—see for example Site 6 in the exhibition.* Apart from general views, any interesting architectural or other features have been taken see views of the Ohel Leah Synagogue, site 49, including interior and exterior details.\n\nMethod\n\nFirst, a schedule of sites has to be prepared, usually by two or three persons, who walk along the streets to be surveyed and write down anything and everything which they think to be of interest. The route followed is plotted on a large scale map, on which each of the sites or scenes to be photographed is marked. From the rough notes a schedule is prepared as guidance for the photographers.\n\n* See Schedule 1 below.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208124,
        "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": 163,
        "title": "RAS-1977",
        "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n147 \n\nkept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire.\n\nTalking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station.\n\nWhen I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n",
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    },
    {
        "id": 208784,
        "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": 241,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "214\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe location of the first major incident was the wooded slope of a steep hillside covered with pine trees and shrubs which was held under forestry licence by the Tsing Yi Rural Committee on behalf of the island community. The occasion for it was the entry of a bulldozer in connection with site investigation surveys (by boring rigs) to this area, where engineering works were held up pending negotiations with the villagers for the removal of several villages.\n\nIn the event, an unauthorized entry was made without the knowledge of the supervising engineer or District Office land staff. The bulldozer made tracks some 300 yards long in several zig-zags across the front of the hill, to the imagined and claimed detriment of three old villages whose fung shui area it has long been. The bulldozer's tracks were approximately 8 feet wide and it had effectively knocked over trees, taken up shrubs and exposed red earth, as clearly shown in Plate 4.\n\nThe villagers were prompt in their response; not only to complain to the District Office, but also to take early action to reduce the harm thought to emanate from the uncovered earth scars across the hill face. They sent parties of people to the spot who quickly cut adjoining grass, shrubs and the lower branches of trees to cover up the red earth. This took place over much of the tracks (Plate 4). They also hired a geomancer from Kowloon who set up a shrine beside a major clan grave whose side had been closely skirted by the bulldozer (Plate 5). He also provided charms which were set beside the shrine, to avert any bad influences coming from the uncovered earth nearby (Plate 6). In their turn the villagers sent a man at early morning and dusk to light joss-sticks and candles, change the oil in the little lamps on the shrine, so as to try to ensure that harm was averted by showing devotion to the earth god and to the ancestors. This service was provided in turn by a certain class of men styled fuk chù (±) from each of the villages affected by the excavation. This term means elderly persons who are thought to have received blessings from the gods e.g. by having many sons and health in old age.\n\nThe District Office 'made amends' by paying for the expenses/labour costs of the remedial work, and for the cost of the ceremonial rites styled tun fu (#). The effect of the remedial work thus undertaken was estimated to last for 6 months, after which the process would be repeated.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
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    },
    {
        "id": 212192,
        "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": 134,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "transferred their activities elsewhere: the evil reputation of Bias Bay nearby is well known. But British influence made itself felt in other ways, too. The \"foreign devils\" not only brought security; they built houses, roads and dockyards, so that a very large number of Chinese found Hongkong preferable to their native districts and came there to live. By 1938 the population was over two millions, including twenty-four thousand foreigners. It is true, of the Chinese no less than one million were only transient inhabitants, refugees from the Japanese wrath which was spreading over China. To these wretched thousands, Hongkong, for a time, was a sanctuary: as later in another part of the world, was England to the French, Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian refugees, who were to escape from German occupied territory.\n\nBehind Victoria, the cramped commercial hub of the island, a funicular Peak Tramway rises steeply to serve the numerous mansions, erected at varying levels, for taipans, who hope vainly to avoid the moist clinging heat of the long Hongkong summer. Some of the mansions look out over Victoria at the twin city of Kowloon on the mainland across the harbour: others, on the reverse slope, look out to sea, to Lantao island, still barren, to Lamma, in the foreground, and to Cheung Chau in the middle distance.\n\nHongkong was crowded. The hotels were full and so when we arrived, some weeks after leaving Nanking, my wife and I took rooms at the small hotel which an enterprising English couple had opened on Cheung Chau island. A special ferry from Victoria did the trip several times a day in about half an hour. There was quite a large fishing village, the rendezvous for many of the junks that frequent these waters. We lived on fish and strolled amongst the stunted pines and the empty bungalows of the summer visitors waiting until we could find more convenient accommodation. It was a pleasant change from the vicissitudes of Nanking.\n\nEventually we were able to get rooms in the Repulse Bay Hotel, famous as a honeymoon resort. It is on the side of Hongkong facing the open sea, near what is perhaps the best known bathing beach. A winding road over the hill through the Wong Nei Chong gap leads to Victoria, and in Deepwater Bay round the point there is a small nine-hole golf course.\n\nI remember one day we took the bus up to the Gap and got out",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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    {
        "id": 212365,
        "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": 307,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "284\n\nsituated exactly north of here. When I look out of the shutter I have it exactly in front of me. Its slope to the plain is gradual, which is also the case with the whole of the mountain range. It is strange that all these mountains are so bare of trees. All the mountain ranges which you can see from here are, in the lower parts, only wooded in some places, while the rest of the range is covered with grass. The poor cover causes a shortage of fuel. Because of this, fuel is very expensive.\n\nConcerning the cultivable land which is closed in by the sea and the mountains, this strip is only about half an hour's walk wide and just a bit more than one hour's walk long. The soil is a mixture of clay and sand, with the clay dominant. The soil is cultivated diligently but brings only mediocre returns. That is the reason why the owners of the land only have to pay a modest rate of tax. In some places the soil is sandy far inland from the sea-coast and therefore cannot be cultivated.\n\nThis little strip of land is covered with villages. One can count 12 to 13 though admittedly some consist of only a few houses. Most of them are situated near the foot of the mountain range. They are separated from each other by only short distances. Such a village is built without any plan, and totally irregularly. There is no main street that runs through the village, with houses on both sides of the street, but as roads they use tiny lanes, full of corners here and there. This fact alone must contribute a lot, apart from all other circumstances, to the filth. Similarly, in the larger villages and towns, the streets are very narrow and dirty, and the stench that is found there lets the traveller who walks through them anticipate what it might be like inside the houses. A superficial glance at a Chinese village makes you understand that what is most important to the inhabitants is for them to find a shelter against wind and rain, and that regularity, tidiness and cleanliness are very minor features of the living-quarters. Possibly they do not even feel the need for these things.\n\n―\n\nThis statement is justified by the following description\n\n!",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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    },
    {
        "id": 213329,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 151,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "133\n\ncommemorative book plate. Another of Y F's gifts to me, was a tape recording of his recitation of Chinese prose and poetry from his former school textbook, the Kwu Man in the manner taught in his schooldays at a private academy in Hong Kong. This unique recording is now in the Museum of History, and was used as audio background to a recent exhibition there on the history of education in Hong Kong. \"Y.F\" had joined the Society in its early years, but was later made an Honorary Member in recognition of his interest and personal services to it over a long period. Until increasing debility made it impossible for him to attend, he used to accept our invitations to be a guest at the dinners that followed the Annual General Meetings,\n\nLocal Tours\n\nDuring my long years as an office bearer of the Society in Hong Kong, I have organized many local tours for members and their friends. This was - and when I get the chance, still is – a labour of love. Year in year out, the \"Local Tour Programme\" has exploited the wide variety of topics and locations available for visits. In my time, they were made possible by the contacts generated by my government posts, and by the friendliness of the local people, who never hesitated to make us feel welcome. Always popular and well-attended, they have provided opportunities to view places and things of historical interest and see people in their home surroundings. In addition, some of the tours have enabled visitors to learn something of Hong Kong's modernization and progress over the years, especially in the New Territories where there is still an opportunity to see the new and the old side by side. On my regular visits to Hong Kong since coming to live in Sydney, I have been glad to see that the tradition continues and that the Local Tours Programme goes from strength to strength, with good attendances and the occasional need to repeat the more popular visits. This has reminded me of some \"monster\" visits, like the Hong Kong Island tour of November 1989, when I took four coach-loads to many locations one Saturday, and had to give members time to return to the buses at each location as, with such large numbers, \"whipping in\" was impossible.\n\nTo convey the flavour of such visits, I have included a few notes of tours that took place in the last twenty-two years. They are included here to illustrate the scope and variety of the RAS programme, and may also bring back some happy memories of readers who took part.",
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        "id": 213370,
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        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1994",
        "page_number": 192,
        "title": "RAS-1994",
        "content_text": "177\n\nscheme a success. The hospital and the tomb established in 1878 are still in existence to this day, and a memorial tablet for the deed was mounted on the front wall of a shop near the hospital. It is still in existence, too.\n\nNOTES\n\n  \n    1\n    Ch 2-7, A Brief Record of the Pacification of the Kwang-tung Rebels. A 1865 edition.\n  \n  \n    2\n    Ibid. Ch 8.\n  \n  \n    3\n    Ibid. Ch 9-10.\n  \n  \n    4\n    Thick, Ch 1-12.\n  \n  \n    7\n    Ch 72, Fung Kwan Gazetteer. 45, 46.\n  \n\nBy that time, Lai Chun-hot was the commander of the 'Shung' Naval Battalion stationed in Chikrang. In the 5th Moon of the 2nd year of Tung Chi reign (1863), he found that his Battalion had only a few sloops but too many officers. Thus, he transferred his brother Lai Chun-pin back to Kwang-tung.\n\nDuring his time in Kowloon, he had dedicated a memorial board to the Hau Wang Temple in the Kowloon City in the 6th year of the Kuang Hsu reign (1880). The board is still hanging inside the temple today.\n\nAs per note 6.\n\nThe charitable hospital was called the Fong Bin Hospital.\n\nThe tomb was called Yee Chung Yuen, and was situated on the slope facing the sea at Tai Shek Flat, not far from the Tin Hau Temple of the region.\n\nTo my knowledge, Jar O on Lantau Island had one, formed by charitable subscription, and indeed, there was one at Lai Chi Kok, Sai Ying Pun and at Lai Ping Shan Street on Hong Kong Island. It was known as Kong Fuk Yee Charity Hall but in 1851, also formed by charitable subscription. It was taken over and extended as the Tung Wah Hospital in 1870, after which it became a hospital in the western style.\n\nDetail of the story of the scheme can be seen on the memorial tablet established in the 4th year of the Kuang Hsu reign (1878). It is still in existence.\n\nBecause of recent development on the island, the slope with the charitable tomb was levelled. The tomb has been moved to the cemetery which lies on the north of the island.\n\nThe shop, with the one next to it, were purchased with the charity fund at the time of the establishing of the Fong Bin Hospital. They were rented, and the money so got was used as the expenses of the hospital.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213498,
        "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-1995",
        "page_number": 94,
        "title": "RAS-1995",
        "content_text": "62\n\npicture of the situation was given by L. Yu. He stated:\n\n“At the time they built their fortress with the backs against the hills and the fronts facing the sea. The two fortifications acted as two watchtowers. It made the Ching army difficult to attack or even try to get near to the island. On the slopes above Sai Ying Pun, at the midlevels, there was a fort and it helped to reinforce the defence.\" (Lai, 1948, P.13)\n\nSecondly, it is because Sai Ying Pun was situated at the foothill of the highest peak of the island. The peak (i.e. Victoria Peak 1917 ft. which was called O Tau Shan or Ngan Tau Shan at that period) formed the look-out of the pirates in those days. They wanted to keep an eye on the harbour which was a very important water route in that part of the South China coast. Whenever a vessel appeared, the watchmen would signal the pirates who were stationed at the foothills at Sai Ying Pun. The pirate fleet would then sail off to plunder and loot the vessels.\n\nThirdly, the pirates chose the place because Sai Ying Pun possesses some peculiar physical characteristics. Before the waterfront was reclaimed in the late nineteenth century, Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector of the Island, which controlled the western inlet to the harbour, with a fairly long coastal slope. The slopes were made up of colluvial fan. In other words, the soil in the area was derived from the decomposition of granite or other primitive rock. It was not, however, formed of detritus of rock washed down from above, but solid rock altered in situ. In the area west of Sai Ying Pun, Shek Tong Tsui, the granites outcropped nearly to the sea front. It was possibly the reason why as early as 1771 the Hakka people came to the area and quarried the granite and carried them to Shek Pai Wan. Therefore we can see that Sai Ying Pun was the only area in the northwestern sector that was suitable to set up a fortification. I think this is also the reason why the British commanders chose the same area to set up a barrack in 1841.\n\nSo Sai Ying Pun during the early years of Chiaching period was probably occupied by scores of pirates. They guarded themselves against the attack of the Ching armies and waited patiently for the signals that came from the peak and were always ready to sail off to plunder any trading vessels that happened to sail past the Hong Kong",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213500,
        "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-1995",
        "page_number": 96,
        "title": "RAS-1995",
        "content_text": "64\n\nwhich this path ended was naturally called by this same name. But among the Hakkas, the Island of Hong Kong or rather this northern portion of it, is to the present day called by the same name \"Kwantailou\" (Eitel, 1895, P.134)\n\nAs early as 1841, a shoreline road was planned in the northern part of the Hong Kong Island. It was pegged out by the Chinese labourers and made to connect Sai Ying Pun to East Point, a distance of nearly four miles. It was finished in early 1842 and was named Queen's Road. The road was so cut as to leave generally enough space between it and water and at a safe height above sea-level for the erection of godowns.\n\nThe possession and occupation of the Island in the first instance was largely due to military reasons, especially as the Chinese mainland was so near at hand. There were two Chinese forts on the tip of Kowloon peninsula. Military establishments were therefore quickly set up on the northern coast in order to prevent the Chinese from recapturing Hong Kong.\n\nIn the early days of February 1841, the navy had already laid claim to Navy Bay (Belcher's Creek) lying due east of the bluff then known as Belcher's Point and was already running up store houses on the sloping foreshore.\n\nThe Army had established two camps on the northern shore, one on Cantonment Hill (later known as the Victoria Barracks and the Seven-and-six Penny Hill) and other at Sai Ying Pun, on the long slope which now carries on its shoulders the Hong Kong University and at its foot, the old Reformatory Building (Sayer, 1937, P. 99) and above the present Pokfulam Road. On the site in Third Street where the St. Louis School now stands was a small battery, called the West Point Battery or Elliot's Battery. (A similar battery, East Point Battery or Pottinger's Battery was mounted on the site of Wellington Barracks)\n\nThe barracks at that time were of a more or less makeshift nature. Owing to unstable political situation, it was said that Lord Saltoun, then Commander-in-Chief, would not take upon himself to erect permanent and suitable barracks and officer quarters for the troops. The soldiers were encamped in flimsy structures of bamboo, cane, palm leaves and canvas. The so-called barracks at Sai Ying Pun were",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 213579,
        "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-1995",
        "page_number": 175,
        "title": "RAS-1995",
        "content_text": "145\n\n4000 acres. The creation of Government Forestry reserves would however probably involve considerable expenditure in the acquisition of the trees, and in watching and preserving the reserves. Hitherto funds have not been available to meet this expenditure\" (Dunn, 1907).\n\nIt was a delicate matter for graves to be sited within a village forestry area, even within a family's own portion. Agreements had to be forthcoming from village elders and from other families. Sometimes these areas had a secondary fung shui significance. For example, a fung shui hill on Tsing Yi island, consisted of a steep slope covered with pine trees, which was held under a forestry license by the Rural Committee on behalf of the villagers (Hayes 1983).\n\nTsing Yi seems to have been the exception with regard to the islands as Schofield (1983) comments, “Forestry is confined to the growing of firewood for use and sale. The plantations are generally near villages, but some on the islands belong to owners who live elsewhere. Nearly all Tsing Yi is divided between three forestry lots: yet on Lamma there are no forest lots, though there are trees all right. The biggest forestry lot is at Tung Chung. Very little planting is done except when encouraged by the District Officer: trees are allowed to sow themselves. Grass, growing thick in summer, is cut for fuel everywhere in autumn; it is the chief cooking fuel of the New Territories. Its cutting is women's work.” Coates (1968) observes that the natural regeneration of trees and shrubs was severely limited by this regular grass cutting, as young trees could not be seen in the long grass.\n\nThe problems of village forestry were described by Schofield (1977) from his time as a District Officer in the islands in the 1920s: \"During my periods in office I made an attempt to get the Chinese communities and villages owning forest lots to look after them and to plant trees. Free seed was distributed and planting instructions given, and a forest guard appointed to supervise and watch results. The difficulties of forest conservation in such scattered and isolated areas were certainly formidable: one was that the boat people could land almost anywhere and steal trees; another that the grass-cutters who annually collect fuel in the autumn are quite likely to cut and take young seedlings: to say nothing of true diseases and caterpillar infestation, often very serious. One bad case was at Tai O, where an entire hillside was laid bare at one swoop by its licensee instead of being cut in stages, and I told him",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214058,
        "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-1997",
        "page_number": 126,
        "title": "RAS-1997",
        "content_text": "93\n\nRailways\n\nThe first railway to be built was the Peak tramway, a 1.4km-long 1.5m-gauge steam-driven funicular railway rising 370 metres along steep rugged terrain, which was opened in 1888. A contemporary description stated that “A splendid feat of engineering skill has made the Peak accessible to all.” Nevertheless, during the following year, as a result of exceptionally heavy rainfall, the track was breached by a major landslide, a debris flow originating from a fill slope on the Peak. A few years later, in 1904, a conventional electric tram service was implemented along the northern side of the Island between Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town. Both of these are still running today. Railway track, with locomotives, trucks, and steam-operated cranes, were widely used around the turn of the century for transporting/handling freight in the dockyards and site construction materials.\n\nIn 1905, the Government took over a part of the concession to build a section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR), namely that between Kowloon and the Chinese border. The 34km-long railway, which was completed in 1910, involved construction of five tunnels, 48 bridges (the largest span being 30.53 metres on an irregular skew over-bridge at Hung Hom), 66 culverts, workshops, and stations, drainage channels, and a little roadwork, the creation of a 16ha reclamation in Kowloon (in Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom bays), and many cuttings and end-tipped embankments, including those along the exposed seaward sections between Sha Tin and Tai Po. In all, some 2.6M cubic metres of materials were handled in the earthworks. A contemporary technical discussion indicated that slopes of 1:1 were generally adopted in cuttings on which \"turf grew excellently....... Good results were obtained by plastering bad decomposed rock faces with a mixture of lime, sand, and gritty red earth\". Labour guilds kept the rates of wages relatively high (those for the building trades and for dressed granite even approaching those in England) and regulated the quantity of work to be undertaken by the various classes of workmen.\n\nThe 2.2km-long, 5.2m-wide horseshoe-shaped brick-lined Beacon Hill tunnel, which at the time was longer than any in China itself, was ranked as one of the outstanding engineering achievements of its day. To gain access to the south face, it was necessary to build a temporary 3km-long metre-gauge railway from the nearest jetty at Tai Kok Tsui,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 214564,
        "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": 422,
        "title": "RAS-1998",
        "content_text": "30. Private Wombles D°. D°, \n\n391\n\nWhilst we have no idea what has happened to the Monument dedicated to the Westmoreland Regiment in Zhoushan we were taken by the curator to the site of a Chinese horseshoe-shaped grave bearing the inscription in Chinese carved into a lengthy granite slab in pre-simplified characters [that is pre-1950s], stating that it to be \n\nThe Tomb of Officers and Men of the Army and Navy of Great Britain\n\n大英水陸將士墓\n\nIt had been refurbished as recently as 1993 by the Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army, [PLA Navy], apparently unsolicited and without any ceremony.xi\n\nThe monument was situated on the north facing slope of a low hill overlooking the town of Dinghai. There was little to see. A modern concrete edifice some three feet high holds an original granite block. Above it on the slope, some ten feet away, is another monument which bears neither inscription nor clues to its original purpose. It is rectangular standing some six feet high, two foot six inches wide and about ten inches deep. It has three indented faces, central, left and right on which, presumably, the erstwhile inscribed tablets had been inserted. These two monuments are situated overlooking Dinghai Town but facing away from the sea and at the rear of a radio station with one tall mast and several radio dishes, possibly a PLA [Navy] unit on the Island.\n\n...\n\nIt would be interesting to obtain the current Chinese official version of the provenance of the two monuments.\n\nAs an interesting side note - at the foot of the hill on which the two monuments stand, a Chinese lady, a member of our party from Hong Kong, recognised her family ‘ancestral' home from the descriptions she had heard of its European design with Chinese touches. It is now the residence of the Admiral of the Chinese PLA [Navy] responsible",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215521,
        "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": 298,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "248\n\nThe Chinese Burial Ground having become offensive in consequence of the corpses being so close to the surface it was found necessary to spread a quantity of quick lime over the whole area at a cost of £20.16s this was provided for by Requisition 5 of 1856.\n\nIn was in the same year that an ordinance was passed to regulate Chinese Burials, and to prevent certain Nuisances, within the Colony of Hongkong. This Ordinance 12 of 1856 became the first step taken by the government to regulate Chinese burials by the establishment of special Chinese cemeteries. In addition to regulating the burial grounds, due to the 'nuisances' described above, the ordinance also stated that 'a Grave of less than Five Feet in depth from the ordinary surface of the ground to the uppermost side of the Corpse or Coffin therein deposed, shall for every such Offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding Fifty Dollars, nor less than Five Dollars.'\n\n58.\n\nHowever, it was only fifteen years later in 1871 that the first designated Chinese burial ground was created, which was located in Kowloon. The plot of land was ‘situated about one Quarter of a mile to the North-east of the Village of Yau-ma-Tee.' It became the only lawful place for the Chinese inhabitants of British Kowloon to inter their dead until the establishment of another cemetery in 1885. But no designated Chinese burial ground on the island has so far been traced prior to this announcement. The first Chinese cemetery on the island was selected and appointed in 1882, at Mount Davis ‘measuring on the North thereof 40 feet, on the South thereof 40 feet, on the East thereof 60 feet, and on the West thereof 60 feet.”59\n\nIn 1882, the first two cemeteries for Chinese Christians were authorized. The first one was located ‘on the Eastern slope of the Shaukiwan Hills, on a contour line about 300 feet above the level of the sea, marked by four boundary stones and measuring on the North thereof 200 feet, on the South thereof 200 feet, on the East thereof 400 feet, and on the West thereof 400 feet.\" The second one was on the west side of the island, ‘on the Western slope of the Hills below the Pokfulam Road, marked by five boundary stones, and bounded on the North by Mount Davis on the South by Crown Land, on the East by the Pokfulam Road, and on the West by the Sea (Sandy Bay) high water mark, and containing about 43 acres.\n\n61",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215650,
        "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": 427,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "379\n\nTAIPA FORT AND A NINETEENTH CENTURY\n\nTaipa Fort\n\nCANNON\n\nRICHARD J. GARRETT\n\nThroughout Macau's long history, many forts and batteries were built to protect it from aggressors. The fort on Taipa, an island forming part of Macau, is one of the territory's lesser fortifications although, unlike most of the others, it survives largely intact.\n\nTaipa Fort was built in 1847 after the island's population petitioned the governor, Ferreria do Amaral, to station military forces there to provide better protection from pirates. The islanders' main livelihood was fishing and a large fleet anchored there. The governor agreed to the proposal and Pedro Jose da Silva Lourerio was put in charge of constructing a fort. The islanders themselves funded the cost of the building.\n\nThe fort was built to guard the strait between the islands of Taipa and D. João and to protect the fishing fleet that used the inlet between two islands which formed Taipa. (These two islands and another very small one are now joined by reclamation.) Located on the western shore, the fort is built on the side of a slope, and before reclamation, the front walls were washed by the sea. Figure 1 shows a plan of the fort dating from the early twentieth century.\n\nThe main building of the fort is a single-storey brick-built structure, with the arms of Portugal and the date, 1847, on the side. (Figure 2) Sometime before 1900 the fort was adapted to provide a summer residence for the Governors of Macau. A veranda, supported on six columns that sit directly on the front wall of the fort, was added some time after the governor had adopted the fort as a residence. (Figure 3) This extension shows that by then the fort had no military pretensions.\n\nThe plan in Figure 1 shows the other internal buildings and indicates the location of the principal cannon. Apart from some small conventional buildings around the fort, there is a small circular building,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215651,
        "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": 428,
        "title": "RAS-2001",
        "content_text": "380\n\nthe gunpowder store, on one of the uppermost platforms. (Figure 4) Today it is kept locked, but is no doubt empty. Photographs from about 1900 show there was another building alongside the fort. This has been demolished to make room for the road that now skirts this side of Taipa.\n\nReclamation was instigated to provide for a pier which is now situated besides the Fort. Today the land in front has been filled in and a pleasant garden occupies the area. (Figure 5) On the slope at the side of the fort is a memorial to the victims of an explosion on the frigate D. Maria II in 1850. This is inscribed A MEMORIA DAS VICTIMAS EXPLOSAO DA FRAGATA D. MARIA II EM 1850. ERECTO EM 1880. It is a sad reminder of the dangers to which seafarers were exposed in those days.\n\nSecurity of Taipa Island was eventually taken over by the police and the fort was used as a police station until 2000. It is now a base for the Scout Association of Macau. Its continued official use has meant that there has been no pressure to change the facilities and there are no signs of any major modifications to them.\n\nA Nineteenth Century Cannon\n\nAlthough there are a number of old cannon within the fort, most have been placed there in recent times. However, an original one, dating almost from the time of the fort's construction, is at the front corner nearest to the pier.\n\nThis gun is an interesting example from the middle of the nineteenth century, a period of great change in the design of cannon. Similar guns quickly became obsolete and were replaced, so it is very unusual to find such a piece still in place, complete with the original mounting3. Figures 5 and 6 show the cannon, still pointing out across the straight between Taipa and the island belonging to mainland China.\n\nThe cannon is marked 'C.A. & Co. Boston,' and dated 1855. The maker was Cyrus Alger and Company, a firm founded in the U.S.A. in 1809. Their foundry was on Dorchester Avenue, Boston and they supplied the United States with cannon balls in the war of 1812 and later in the Civil War. They made both cast bronze and cast iron cannon, the basic alternatives for cannon up till the middle of the nineteenth",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g",
        "rank": 0
    }
]