[ { "id": 204478, "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-1962", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\n99\n\nthree districts in the vicinity of Canton the phrase shui shui, tso shui, tsou shui (£££) literally \"sleeping in-come, sitting in-come, walking in-come\" which may be thus explained: the incumbent of the first may go to sleep, whilst his emoluments come rolling in; in the second he may sit still, and his emoluments come rolling in; and in the third he must trot around, but his emoluments come rolling in\".\n\n12 Lockhart calls these officers assistant and deputy magistrates, Papers 1899 p. 191 and so does Consul Allen in his Trade Report for Pakhoi 1896, FO No. 1983, but there appear in fact, to have been no such titles. There were one or two yuen shing (B) in each district styled to ye (*) who were officers of the sixth and seventh rank and were graduates of kam sang (1) degree. These were appointed from Peking and were transferable every three years like the magistrate himself. They were stationed at places in the district and their powers were very limited.\n\n20 He does not mention officers other than those at the two Lantau forts, but there was another fort on Lantau at Fan Lau, still standing, which may or may not have been occupied at this time, and there were posts on Lamma and Cheung Chau officered by shun tei kun (MILF) (information from Mr. CHEUNG Yau (4) of Tai Ping, Lamma Island, and from a list of donors inscribed on a tablet in the Tin Hau temple on Cheung Chau). There must also have been shun tei kun in the mainland part of the district. More information is sought about their stations and their duties. As far as I know, they were military officers of low rank who controlled ten or twenty men in an out-station,\n\n21 Papers 1899 p. 192.\n\n22 A map showing these divisions, dated July 1899 on the reverse, is to be found in the Registrar-General's Department, in the Supreme Court. It is probably the Map VI referred to on page 192 of the Papers 1899, which was not printed with them. The Councils of the Tung may not have existed in the remoter and more sparsely populated areas. On Lamma for instance the village elders appear to have administered summary justice individually and not in unison. Mr. CHEUNG Yau already quoted, and other gentlemen of similar age, state there was no Council on the island. The map does not assist in this instance, being vague in some details. There were four tung in any district: north, south, east and west.\n\n23 Dyer Ball, The Chinese at Home (London, Religious Tract Society, 1912) p. 189 says \"The life of an official in China, if he occupies a high position and rules over a populous district of country, is arduous in the extreme. He knows no hours. His work is never done. He is up before dawn, and official receptions take place in the small or early hours of the morning. The health of many a man is injured by the incessant toil and unremitting anxiety\". He calls him \"often hard worked, harassed with many cares, and loaded with responsibilities\". His is experienced and impartial testimony.\n\n24 Papers 1899 p. 192.\n\n25 Sir Robert Douglas, Society in China (London, Ward Lock & Co., 1901) pp. 120-1 has hard things to say of them. \"The mental activity of these men, not having... any power to operate in a beneficent way,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204832, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 135, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "CRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD\n\nthe mainland. In this latter passage, up which the Jackall had to sail so slowly, there are vicious back-eddies along both shores and there is often no appreciable period of slack water at the turn of the tide. After heavy rains in the Pearl River, the ebb tide from west to east along this channel is particularly strong27. The coasts in general shelve steeply, with few good landing places and often with cliffs plunging straight down to the sea. The only large coastal plain which Parish saw during this survey was at Tung Chung, on the west coast of Lantao behind Chek Lap Kok island (Shatlapko on Parish's chart see note 9) but weather and timetable combined to prevent him from getting a close look at it. There is a general absence of good anchorages, except in the shallow waters between Chek Lap Kok and the coast of Lantao, and there is an 8-foot tidal range. The steep hillsides produce fluky gusts of wind in all but the calmest weather. It is surprising that Parish made such detailed observations in the face of these navigational hazards.\n\nParish's comments on Ma Wan itself are also a fair summary of its geographical limitations. The island is geologically complex, with an interesting variety of soils. The underlying rocks, however, are not sufficiently porous to hold large supplies of ground water, and the size of the island (less than a square mile) is too small to form an effective catchment. Any trading post established on Ma Wan would have been severely restricted in size by this problem. The two small settlements on the island have probably not grown appreciably since Parish's visit28. Perhaps it was fortunate that impressions of Ma Wan were coloured by his attempt to land at the most difficult and dangerous point on the coast.\n\nThe general elevation of Ma Wan is much lower than the hills of North Lantao or of the mainland opposite, and the island is so badly overlooked as to be indefensible. Parish was quite right in rejecting it as a potential site for a large trading settlement, and it is a pity that his orders did not permit him to stay longer on the coast of North Lantao. It is invidious to speculate on the course of history, but if the weather had been better his initial impression of the suitability of the west coast of North Lantao for settlement would no doubt have been confirmed. Possibly the first British trading post would have grown up on Lantao instead of on Hong Kong Island, and the city of Victoria would have looked out over the Pearl River estuary.\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205258, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "HONG KONG MAMMALS\n\n13\n\nCarnivores\n\nvisited Hong Kong but they have not been seen now for many years. The last one was shot at Stanley during the war and its skin, now somewhat decayed, is still present in the temple at Stanley. The Shing Mun tiger of May 1965 has the characteristics of a well-planned hoax. All the prints were of the same pad and in all probability they were made by a tiger's paw on the end of a stick. That people should claim to have seen the tiger is not surprising; a large ferocious dog in thick undergrowth can be just as frightening as a tiger, especially when there is a tiger scare, and these people probably genuinely believe that they saw one.\n\nLeopards also visited the Colony until fairly recently. Both tigers and leopards are good swimmers and can travel from island to island. The last sighting of a leopard was in 1957 and shortly afterwards one was shot 8 miles inland from Sha Tau Kok. It was probably the same leopard and its skull and tail were brought back to the Colony and donated to the University of Hong Kong.\n\nToday only the smaller carnivores are present in Hong Kong: the tiger-cat or Chinese leopard cat, civets and ferret-badger.\n\nThere are only a few tiger-cats surviving (Plate 2). There are probably none on Hong Kong Island. In the wild they live mostly on rats but also catch birds and chickens. In captivity they do not fare well due to their extreme nervousness which is often mistaken for fierceness. They become so frightened that they spit and growl until they are exhausted and may die of shock. Also they are susceptible to cat 'flu and other diseases in captivity. They are however very splendid animals, being one of the most graceful and beautifully marked of all the wild cats.\n\nAnother carnivore, and one which plays an important role in reducing the rat population, is the South China Red fox. Several pairs are still living in the New Territories. The female is a light sandy colour, whereas the male is more brightly coloured with a reddish head and tail and grizzled grey flanks and legs. At a distance they resemble small wolves. (Plate 3 shows three young foxes).\n\nIt is rumoured that European foxes were introduced just before the war for hunting, but the latter was not successful. The steep Hong Kong countryside was advantageous to the fox.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205260, "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": 22, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "HONG KONG MAMMALS\n\n15\n\nThere are three local civets. The largest is the five-banded or large Indian civet Viverra zibetha, now very rare. The second is the seven-banded or small Indian civet Viverricula indica which is fairly common, like the third, the masked palm civet Paguma larvata.\n\nAll civets are protected by law but unfortunately the law is not enforced. They are all solitary, nocturnal, silent and agile hunters. They hunt rats and insect pests. They also eat wild fruit and berries. The masked palm civet, unlike the other two, spends much of its time in trees. It has no spots or stripes on its body except for a white blaze on its face. Unlike many small carnivores it prefers rats and insects to birds, and does not raid domestic chickens. The five- and seven-banded civets have hooped tails with five and seven hoops respectively. In both, the rest of the body is striped and spotted.\n\nThe seven-banded civet is the most carnivorous of the three. It is also the most sought after for eating, as the flesh is better than that of the other two.\n\nFive- and seven-banded civets are bred in India for their \"civet\", a secretion of the anal glands which can be collected at intervals with a special spoon. \"Civet\" has clinging properties and is used widely in the perfume industry. If annoyed the civet cat ejects this anal fluid, in the same way as its close relative the skunk. The masked palm civet also produces an anal secretion but its smell is extremely unpleasant.\n\nArtiodactyla\n\nThere are two resident members of the order Artiodactyla in Hong Kong, discounting domestic cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. The first is the wild boar and the second the muntjak or barking deer which were both once plentiful. Wild boar are now reduced to one or two families and possibly even these have now disappeared. The deer are reduced to small pockets in the New Territories and those on Hong Kong Island. They are all subject to illegal shooting and trapping. At $500 each on the black market even those on Hong Kong Island are not safe, particularly as the maximum fine for poaching (which has never yet been enforced), is $500. A $2,000 fine would be more realistic. Wire snares, bamboo spike traps and nets are used successfully wherever these deer are to be found. To arrest the poachers takes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205412, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n167 \n\nlittle farming, as the island has steep and rocky sides and there are only a few places where agriculture may be carried on. \n\nAs in other little towns of this sort whose existence was founded upon the business opportunities created by the presence of a fishing fleet, the population was mixed, consisting of Punti and Hakka people from a number of districts of the Kwangtung province.23 For the most part, it was recruited from among young men from the country districts bearing introductions to fellow clansmen and relatives already working or settled on Ap Lei Chau, or else following them back to Ap Lei Chau when they came on short visits to their native place. For most of its history, men outnumbered women residents. As late as 1911, the relative numbers of males and females, including children, were 1,041 to 396. In 1897, it had been 783 to 340.24 This was because many wives stayed behind in the village and were never taken to Ap Lei Chau. In this respect, Ap Lei Chau was like any other settlement of overseas Chinese living away from their native place and under alien rule. \n\nFollowing a pattern long established elsewhere, the local people established their own \"district associations\" (鄉會) on the island in the 19th century.25 There were three of these organisations, each under a fong or 'ward' name. Membership of the Fongs was automatically extended to all comers, whether temporary or permanent residents, and irrespective of status. The odd-job coolie and the established merchant were equal members, though having adequate means and more leisure, the latter would, of course, play the more important part in the Fong's affairs: it would, in any case, be expected of him. Only women and children were excluded from membership. \n\nAt a time when the Victorian colonial administration of the Colony saw its main function in the rural areas as keeping the peace, the leaders of the three Fongs, in effect, of the Ap Lei Chau community made themselves generally responsible for local affairs. However, the need to perform special duties was apparently intermittent and spasmodic, and their most regular function was to make adequate arrangements for celebrating the birthdays of the principal gods of the two local temples, Hung Shing, the God of the Southern Sea, and Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, and the occasion of the Yue Lan Festival (盂蘭節) in the 7th moon. Each Fong took its turn to be entirely responsi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205545, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "82\n\nFAN LAU AND ITS FORT: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE\n\nARMANDO M. DA SILVA*\n\nSite and Situation\n\nFan Lau is located at the extreme southwestern tip of Tai Yu Shan or Lantau Island. It is almost equal in distance from Hong-kong and Macau and it is situated about twenty-five miles due east of the latter. Fan Lau can be reached by sampan or fishing boat either from the market towns of Cheung Chau or Tai O, or by walking along the water catchment from Shek Pik reservoir to a point above and beyond Kau Ling Chung, and then by descending a steep stony path towards the settlement. Another route is to strike out from Tai O, taking the coastal footpath through Yi O, and thence to Fan Lau. There is no motor road to Fan Lau.\n\nThe area of Fan Lau includes a headland known as Kai Yik Kok (†) meaning \"chicken wing point\" where an old fort is located (see map 1).† The high point of the Kai Yik Kok promontory rises to about 380 feet above sea level. In the north of this headland lies the cultivated waist of Fan Lau where a small settlement is located. Looming above the settlement is Kai Yik Shan1 from which two streams supply irrigation water to the padi fields. Two fine beaches, Tung Wan and Sai Wan, flank the waist of the peninsula. Tung Wan, though exposed to prevailing easterly winds and a long fetch from the village, can accommodate deep-draught junks.\n\nThe actual territory associated with the village extends beyond the physical boundaries of the settlement. Fan Lau villagers, for example, cultivate fields located in Tsin Yue Wan (see map 1) and records show that, at least in 1904, padi fields in Kau Ling Chung (since abandoned) were also cultivated.\n\nSituated at the entrance of the Chu Kong or Pearl River estuary, Fan Lau enjoyed a strategic location in the past. This position was reflected in the construction of numerous forts and guard stations\n\n* Mr. da Silva has a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and is at present with the Department of Geography, University of Hawaii.\n\n† Maps 1-4 are located at pp. 92-95.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205628, "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": 170, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n165\n\nhe charged two or three cash a chih, with food and a place to sleep as was the custom. That was a lot of money for a man to earn; he could live for a week on one day's labor.\n\nAt page 53 it is mentioned that a few years later, at or about the Boxer time, the Old Weaver no longer came to the Chu home to weave cloth each winter, and that no one took his place, it being then cheaper to buy British or foreign cloth in the market.\n\n1. For descriptions of hemp spinning wheels from Chekiang see pp. 167-169 of Rudolf P. Hommel's China at Work... (New York, The John Day Company, 1937). Photographs of two such wheels are at pp. 170 and 171. I have not yet come across any such relics from the Hong Kong region.\n\n2. The Hakkas of Hing Ning district, mentioned above, appear also to have played a large part in weaving foreign cotton yarn imported via Swatow. Consul F.S.A. Bourne in his section of the Report of the Mission to China of the Blackburn Chamber of Commerce 1896-7 (Blackburn, The North-east Lancashire Press Company, 1898) at pp. 153-4 mentions them as using foreign yarn for weaving cotton cloth \"sent down the Canton East River past Hui-chow Fu to Fatshan where it is dyed black and called ch'ung-ch'ang-ch'ing i.e. imitation long black. This cloth, like that of which it is a copy, is very largely exported to Singapore.\"\n\n3. For local, i.e. Hong Kong, place names see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1960).\n\nHong Kong, 1968.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nTHE TUNG CHUNG FORT (LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG)\n\nFor earlier references in NOTES AND QUERIES see Vols. 3 (1963) and 4 (1964) of this Journal at pp. 144-145 and 146-152 respectively.\n\nIn late January 1966, I heard of, and spoke with, an old lady aged 90 sui (歲) born on 2nd October 1877. She had spent all her days in the Tung Chung valley, having been born in Wong Ka Wai and married into Sheung Ling Pei village. A series of questions...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205831, "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": 137, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "131\n\nTHE MAPPING OF HONG KONG\n\nLARGE-SCALE PLANS\n\nJ. T. COOPER*\n\nRapid and intense development requires accurate and up-to-date large-scale plans. This is equally true of large housing or engineering projects. Where such plans are not available, all detailed planning and design must await their completion. This is particularly true of Hong Kong, where the steep terrain usually requires extensive earthworks before construction of buildings or roads can commence.\n\nAnother factor adding to the necessity for accurate large-scale plans in the Colony is the high value of land, especially in the built-up areas, where a square foot of land can be worth $300 or more.\n\nThe Survey Branch of the Crown Lands & Survey Office (a sub-department of the Public Works Department) is responsible, not only for all land surveying and mapping in the Colony, but for the demarcation of all lot boundaries in the urban areas, and the implementation of town-planning layouts. Hong Kong is one of the few Commonwealth territories where there are no licensed land surveyors in private practice.\n\nWith the intense development which began in the nineteen-fifties, the staff of the Survey Branch became fully occupied with title surveys, the setting-out of lot boundaries, Government sites, roads, etc., and was unable either to produce large-scale plans of all the areas planned for new development or to keep up to date the plans in the older areas where re-development caused many changes.\n\nThe city areas of Victoria, and the northern part of Hong Kong Island, together with most of the Kowloon peninsula (south of Boundary Street) had been mapped at 1/600 scale (50 ft. to one inch) before the war, but the plans had been plotted onto linen-backed paper, and in the climatic conditions of Hong Kong, they had become distorted and inaccurate. None of these plans\n\n* Mr. Cooper is Assistant Superintendent (Survey), Crown Lands and Survey Office, Public Works Department, Hong Kong. Ed.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206057, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "132\n\nHENRY D. TALBOT\n\nLo cheou-Lo Chau (Beaufort Island)\n\n=\n\nMers Bay Mirs Bay\n\nMew Is.-Mo Chau\n\nNako chau-Papai (Nei Kwu Chau or Hei Ling Chau)\n\nNine-pin-Ninepin Group\n\nPo-ke-long Point=Lei Yue Mun Point\n\nPsang-chau-Kau Yi Chau\n\nRagged Island Steep Island\n\nRat Island or Ling Ting-Ling Ting\n\nR. Povado or Iron River-Hebe Haven\n\nSin-can-hien-Hsin-an Hsien (San On Yuen) or, rather, the district city of Hsin-an\n\nSingan Islands-Siu Chau and Tai Shan\n\nShu-lap-ko Is.-Chek Lap Kok Island\n\nSui-pak Siu Kau Yi\n\nSoko Cheou Is. the Soko Islands\n\nSong-kco Sung Kong\n\nTa baco=Chung Chau\n\nTat-hong Moon-Tathong Channel\n\n=\n\nTay Pak Peng Chau\n\nTay-pak-hoe Green Island (or perhaps the sea between Hong Kong and Lantao Islands)\n\nTsa-cheou Is. =Sha Chau\n\nTsan-Cheou-Kau Pei Chau (off Cape D'Aguilar) Tysa=Small island 1⁄2 mile south of East Brother\n\nWang Laang-Waglan Island\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Cf. The British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books (London, 1961) Vol. 100, Col. 222.\n\nThe British Museum Catalogue of Printed Maps. Charts and Plans (London, 1967) Vol. 7, Col. 359,\n\nMorse, H. B. The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635-1834 (Oxford, 1926-29) Lists of Ships.\n\n2 Cf. Bonacker, W. Kartenmacher Aller Lander und Zeiten (Stuttgart, Hiersemann, 1966) p. 200,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206060, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH\n\n135\n\nthe\n\nThere are, of course, other books on the same subject topography of Kwangtung province for instance or that of Tung Kun district which once included San On district.2 Many of them contain identical phrases and documents and do not add much to the material contained in the San On topography, which is sufficient basis for a history of this region during the last 500 years. Some earlier material is contained in family records and one or two phrases in books; but it is scant, and the date where there is no printed record occurs very early for a place within the Chinese Empire.\n\nAnd yet the region we are describing cannot be properly understood without some consideration of its prehistory. A place on the seaboard generally has a complicated agglomeration of races in its population, and not only does our region illustrate this, but it also has a complex kind of seaboard. To its west is a wide river estuary which brings down mud from all over Kwangtung province and deposits it along the coast. There is a good deal of flat plain which has been partly created by the deposit and partly by rice growers and reclamation, especially round the coast of Deep Bay. Around these plains are steep hills, the most westerly being the T'un Mun3 range on the mainland and the island of Tai Yü Shan or Lantao. There are many rocky islands with high peaks to the south, the biggest of which are Tsing I, Lamma, and Hong Kong and narrow straits through which the tide sweeps in an east-west direction, the most important being known as K'ap Shui Mun, Lai Yü Mun, and Fat T'ong Mun.5 The sea is roughest towards the south and east, and the country around this part and as far as Mirs Bay is very rugged and not easily accessible. There are many isthmuses and shallows, the most important being Mirs Bay itself, the Taipo Sea and the Sha Tau Kok isthmus, above which is the highest mountain of all Ng T'ung. The reader is invited to identify these names on the accompanying map* if he does not know them already.\n\nThis region has a country population consisting of four distinct communities known in Chinese as the Tanka, the Hoklo, the Punti and the Hakka.\n\n2 廣州縣誌 and 東莞縣誌\n\n3 屯門\n\n4 大嶼山 or 大溪山\n\n5 汲水門 鯉魚門 佛堂門\n\n* Plate 16.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206552, "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": 100, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "94\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nThe Governor was favourably inclined to the petition but at the same time wished to \"save face\" for his Surveyor General. He thus expressed the view that he \"... would be glad to learn that the memorialists could see their way to conforming to the essentially Chinese style of dwelling . . . and which, while economising space to the utmost, admits of a certain amount of light and ventilation through the small square spaces left at the back, called smoke holes.\"4\n\nIt is worth taking some note of the contents of the petitioners' statement, particularly in respect of the \"deep rooted\" living habits of the Chinese and the limited capacity of the tenants to pay rent as both these issues emerge in subsequent chapters of Hong Kong's history.\n\nBy 1876 the population of Hong Kong had increased to over 139,000 of whom 93.5% were Chinese. Steady growth occurred over the next five years so that by the time of the 1881 census 160,400 persons were resident in the Colony, representing an increase of 15.3%. It is relevant to note at this juncture that over the period under review (1841-1881) development was heavily concentrated along the western part of the northern coast of Hong Kong Island and that, in view of the steep terrain, a series of reclamations had to be formed to provide room for new urban growth (Figure 2). The expense and difficulty of creating building sites consequently placed a high premium on land and this, in turn, provided developers with a good reason to justify the fullest exploitation of their properties.\n\nThe Chadwick Report\n\nAfter some 40 years of growth and general neglect over both the enforcement of building and health regulations and the provision of sanitary services, the condition of the city by 1881 was extremely bad. The British Government therefore sought the services of a sanitary engineer, Osbert Chadwick, who presented a report in 1882 giving his assessment of the situation in Hong Kong. Chadwick's report provides some most interesting information which is worth considering in depth in view of events in subsequent years.\n\n4 Ibid., p. 372.\n\n5\n\n5 Chadwick O., Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1882.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206864, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n135 \n\n(1847, or 26th year of To Kwang), Sz-man-king and one Tam-tsoi, built the Man Mo Miu, and here they \"judged the people\" in public assembly. In 30th year of To Kwang (1851) the shop keepers of Sheung Wan or Upper Bay ... repaired the Man Mo Temple, elected a Committee, and therein decided all cases of any public interest. \n\nBiographical notices of the two community leaders who built the temple are given in an article \"The Emergence of a Chinese Elite in Hong Kong” in this Journal, vol. 11 (1971), pp. 80-82, 87-88. \n\nPrevious to the opening of the Man Mo Temple the Shing Wong Temple may have been used as a Chinese \"Town Hall\", for as we have noted only one such building is listed in 1845 and 1846, but two are listed in 1847, the date given for the erection of the Man Mo Temple. The two temples were quite close to each other. The Shing Wong Temple was on the western edge of the European part of Victoria and the Man Mo Temple on the eastern edge of the Chinese settlement. A steep and rocky hillside divided the two sections. \n\nConfirmation of the 1847 date given in the quoted Chinese account is supported both by the date, Tao Kuang 27th year, inscribed on the bell at the Man Mo Temple and the date of the Crown Lease for Inland Lot 338 upon which the Temple is built, which is 24 June, 1847. A letter dated 29 May 1847, from the Colonial Secretary authorized its issuance with the stipulation that the premises be used as a school. After the building was finished, however, it was used as a temple. In consequence, the Government in March 1848, began charging Crown Rent for the lot. It was then decided that the temple should be rebuilt on a larger scale reflecting the increasing affluence of the Chinese community. An account of the opening of the new building is reported in The Friend of China, 24 May, 1851: \n\nThe Chinese Community are now enjoying themselves in a way we have never seen before in this Colony, on the occasion of the opening of a spacious Heathen Temple in the Hollywood Road, a few hundred yards from the London Missionary Society's College and Chapel. The Temple is dedicated to a body of the civil and military Gods, and has cost nearly a thousand pounds sterling in erection,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207003, "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-1974", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE CRAFT OF GOD CARVING IN SINGAPORE\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS*\n\nIn my research into Chinese iconography I made a considerable nuisance of myself in three particular two-storey shophouses in the middle of Singapore's Hokkien (Fukienese) area (see plate 1), by questioning the god carvers' every action during the process of carving and repairing images of Chinese gods.\n\nIn Singapore three families are in partial competition, yet from their full order books business would appear to be thriving. Two of the families are Hokkien originating from near Foochow and Amoy respectively and the third is Teochew (Ch'ao chou) from Swatow, all being second or third generation Singaporeans who have never visited their homeland. Into these shophouses are crowded the unmarried longterm employees in addition to the families themselves, notably the apprentices who sleep on campbeds in the shop and eat en famille. One master carver bewailed the shortage of apprentices who in this age of affluence were unwilling to undertake a long and poorly paid apprenticeship.\n\nI have always referred to these craftsmen as god carvers and their shops as godshops. My article \"Three Deities\" in this Journal in 1972 provoked the editorial comment that the term was colourful and as such would be left unedited. My terminology is a far cry from the jargon of the anthropologist and it is my intention to describe, in my own terms, the production of gods in one of these godshops.\n\nThese godshops are ten foot square or ten by twenty foot work-spaces on the ground floor of the shophouses. Here new gods are carved and painted and the old repaired, not only for the island of Singapore but also for places as far north as Thailand and Cambodia, as far east as Borneo and Brunei and as far south as Java. This group of godcarvers is unique in being the only Fukienese and Ch'ao chou specialist carvers still plying their trade save for a few\n\n* Major Stevens' other contributions on the interesting subject of Chinese gods in South-east Asia and Taiwan appeared in Vols. 12-13 of this Journal.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207399, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n159\n\nthe Military Hospital in Bowen Road, which I scarcely left until we moved to Kowloon in March 1945.\n\n8-25 DECEMBER, 1941\n\nDuring hostilities eleven hospitals on the Island received casualties. These were:\n\nMilitary Hospital, Bowen Road.\n\nSt. Albert's Convent\n\nSt. Stephen's College, Stanley.\n\nStanley Prison Hospital\n\nHongkong Hotel.\n\nMatilda Hospital,\n\nThe Peak.\n\nIndian Military Hospital, Tung Wah East.\n\nRoyal Naval Hospital.\n\nQueen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam.\n\nUniversity Hospital, University Buildings.\n\nWar Memorial Hospital, The Peak.\n\nThe Indian Hospital was responsible mainly for Indian casualties, but like all other hospitals, service and civil alike, admitted any casualties which occurred nearby. The hospital in Bowen Road acted as a Casualty Clearing Station during hostilities, a role which though foreseen was forced upon us very early by shell fire and aerial bomb hits which caused casualties among the staff, destroyed the kitchen and damaged the structure to such an extent that it became unsafe to use the two top floors as wards. After surgical treatment patients, when fit to move, were transferred to other hospitals thought to be a little safer, and to emergency accommodation opened elsewhere such as the Hong Kong Hotel where they were nursed on mattresses laid on the ballroom floor. The main approach road to Bowen Road, Borrett Road, was soon damaged by shell fire and for a time ambulance cars could not reach the hospital at all. Casualties then had to be carried on stretchers by our staff over long stretches of slippery, wet, and steep slopes of mud.\n\nThe basement operating theatres and X-ray room in the hospital proved to be a great success, and early and effective surgery was carried out successfully. The occupation of Kowloon by the Japanese, complete by 18 December, cut off our sources of supply of anaesthetic gases, mains water, and electricity. We then used our generators to supply light and power and drew water from our reservoir. One of our wards had been made gas-proof but neither", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207408, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "168\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthe administration of the hospital. Though his wife and family had been safely evacuated in 1940 he had continued to live in his house, and sometime after our surrender I well recall him telling me that he had never in his life felt more care-free, for having lost practically all his possessions he had little left to worry about.\n\nLieutenant Colonel Cedric Shackleton was a powerfully built man, not very tall but with strong facial features. He was polite enough to the Japanese but to me he always seemed to carry a “be damned to you\" expression. Much of this was simply natural to him as I recognised from having known him for years, but though I do not recall any incidents, I think the Japanese, sensitive as they were, may have felt that they had met a formidable character.\n\nSome dogs had been brought by V.A.D's and others when they mobilised for duty from their homes, and it was gradually borne in upon their owners that feeding and other problems made it undesirable to keep the animals and with one exception they were put down. The exception was a splendid Dobermann being cared for by our Corporal Thompson for a friend of his in Victoria. Thompson was on the quartermaster's staff and had a way of doing things with impunity for which less skilful men would have been soundly punished by the Japanese. We profited in our rations from this talent and eventually he got the dog back to its home in Victoria though I believe that few dogs survived long in civil life.\n\nOne of our own men returned to us gravely wounded very early in January 1942. Corporal Norman Leath had been working in the Army Medical Stores at Shau Ki Wan near the Japanese landing points on the Island. When the store was overrun the staff who remained were lined up on the steep hillside by their captors and used for sword practice. In most cases the men were killed outright. In the present case the blow aimed to cut off the victim's head was directed at the back of the neck. The force of it toppled him down hill off the track on which he was standing. Some time later he discovered to his surprise that he was still alive and could move, and after a time he crawled away unseen and reaching a road, was picked up in a car which took him to the Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam. There he was succoured and shortly afterwards was transferred to Bowen Road. His wound was both wide and deep and his spinal cord had escaped by a miracle. Major Anderson did a splendid job of surgical repair and in due course the victim returned to take charge of the hospital office until our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208620, "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": 77, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "50\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nthey were friends or foes. There were a great many Canadian soldiers at Stanley; they arrived in Hong Kong just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and we felt sorry for them as they seemed to have had very little training or direction. Of what was happening in Hong Kong during these latter days we knew nothing, but one thing was certain: the Japanese were on the Island and were converging on Stanley.\n\nThe twenty-fourth dawned bright and early and we began another and most anxious day. As the upper chapel was now in the line of fire, we moved the portable altars out into the first and second floor corridors away from exposed windows, and thus prepared for the Birth of the King of Peace. Apart from this there was nary a bit of decoration or sign of the approaching Feast, which always means so much to us. On the Eve of Christmas, after our usual repast of rice, soya beans and vegetables, we tried to recreate in our candlelit refectory, but soon our recreation was rudely interrupted by the sharp rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire which seemed rather close. Outside the night was black, but it was not long before Stanley was lit up with a constant stream of tracer bullets criss-crossing each other. The Japanese were coming down the hills from the north and west and the British, comprising Regulars, Canadians, Volunteers and prison guards began defending the Stanley peninsula and the approaches to the Prison and the Fort. There was not much possibility of sleep under these conditions, but we went to our rooms and kept under cover as much as possible. Those whose rooms were on the north side of the building hastily picked up their mattresses and doubled up with their confreres on the south side, putting their mattresses on the floor, in the least exposed corner of the room while a few hardier ones tried to sleep in their beds. Needless to say there was not much sleep that night, for the battle raged incessantly throughout the night and the rat-a-tat of the machine guns and the desultory boom of the trench mortars kept up without respite. Those who ventured to look out from the south verandah on what was ordinarily a peaceful scene, now beheld nothing but the flash of mobile field guns as they belched forth their deadly missiles, the criss-crossing of tracer bullets which made one think of the aerial fireworks on a Fourth of July, only on a more grandiose scale, and over all the inky blackness. During the course of the engagement one could readily pick out a machine gun", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209879, "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-1983", "page_number": 138, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "116\n\nIn selecting these organizations for study, I must emphasize that they are representative of many more from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. These simply happen to have come to my attention in the course of official duties and aroused my interest over the years. Taken as a group, whether situated in street, sub-district or suburban village, and despite being under foreign rule, they demonstrate the same capacity for social organization and self-management as in the much older communities on the mainland New Territories, then still under Chinese rule. They provide further evidence to show that communities of shopkeepers and villagers, of diverse origins and without benefit of kinship ties and long settlement, could manage their own affairs without any necessity for gentry or merchant elite leadership. In short, the instances from Hong Kong Island carry this conclusion one step beyond that reached for areas like Tai O and Cheung Chau, and the individual and linked villages of the Southern district of the New Territories, because, if gentry were lacking in those areas, there was altogether no possibility of their presence in early British Hong Kong, concerning which frequent estimates of the low quality of the population can be found.7\n\nAp Lei Chau and the Hung Shing Festival\n\nAp Lei Chau, the island on the south shore of Aberdeen Harbour, had apparently no more than \"two or three families of Hakka grass-cutters\" when the British occupied Hong Kong in 1841. There was, however, a temple to Hung Shing, the God of the Southern Sea, that had stood on the island for many years; its bell is dated 1773.10 The likelihood is that the temple predated the land population, and that (together with the Tin Hau Temple on the north shore, where Aberdeen town now stands) it originally served the boat population of the Ap Lei Chau-Aberdeen anchorage. By the mid-1860s there were 60 houses there, with a population of perhaps two or three hundred persons.11\n\nBy 1897 the number of residents was 1,123, and by the Colony Census of 1911 it had risen to 1,437.12 This population gained its livelihood from concerns that served the fishing fleet: the local Aberdeen-Ap Lei Chau anchorage had 424 boats and 4,130 persons at the 1866 census.13 There was little farming, as the island has steep", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210158, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "108\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n“How they live I don't know for I seldom see any boats going in or out; but they all manage to look fat somehow.”\n\nCollinson goes on to describe Little Hong Kong. The village still stands at the head of the Wong Chuk Hang valley immediately west of the southern concourse of the Wong Nei Chung to Aberdeen Tunnel, although its few remaining old village houses are buried inside an area of squatter huts and squatter industries. He continued in the same letter,\n\n“The valley between Shuckpyewan and Hong Kong bay (called Hong Kong in the map) is the proper Hong Kong of the Island and is the largest and best cultivated and prettiest in the island. It is almost a dead flat and according to the people's account has 100 acres of these little fields in it, with the village on an artificial level at the head and a thick wood of evergreens around and behind it and steep rocky hills rising above the wood. Though as dirty as every Chinese place I have been in, it contains a piece of civilisation I did not expect in Hong Kong -- a village schoolmaster; who in his black cotton coat and white stockings is ridiculously like both in manner and appearance (if his tail was cut off) the same character in England. He has only nine scholars, but they are certainly the cleanest 9 of the 200 in the village and he teaches them arithmetic, by giving them so many characters to copy and learn by heart. The school room would have shocked Charley and from the number of drawings on the walls I should say ‘Boys will be boys.’ Even in China.”12\n\nCollinson concludes by commenting on the village itself and the wood clearly the fengshui wood behind it.\n\n“You will have some idea of the way they build villages in this part of China from this one, 70 houses of which are all packed on a space 100 yards by 70. The evergreens behind the town are most luxuriant and reminded me of the oak woods in Wicklow, and the tall bamboo would make a graceful ornament to any garden.’\n\n13\n\nAnother military officer was impressed with the villages and the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210342, "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": 313, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "292\n\nRODERICK O'BRIEN S.J.\n\nsteamed amongst many barren-looking granite islands, about the fifth day from Singapore. At last one island with a very high peak upon it, loomed out from the clouds at no great distance, soon near enough to discern the forests of masts and crowds of steam-funnels, junks, sampans, and small steam launches which told unmistakably of a large seaport. As we neared it in the dull light of that cold foggy day, it looked as picturesque as any place I have ever seen. It may be defined as thick rows of masts; then handsome terraces of houses rising tier above tier upon such a steep incline that they looked as if each higher range were founded on the chimney-pots of the other. About half-way up the houses ceased, and then diagonal and zig-zag roadways, with scattered villas rapidly ascended into the clouds. A piercing cold Siberian wind was blowing keenly upon the animated scene of great rafts of steamers loading and unloading, a goodly fleet of men-of-war, and, as we neared the wharf, excited, surging, shouting crowds at the waterside. Hong Kong has often been described, but its wonderful population must be seen to be understood. Enormous crowds of boat-women, junk sailors, and coolies, which make a living stream on the quay, have no parallel in Europe or Asia.\n\nCertainly Hong Kong is not a Chinese town, but a town for Chinese, but yet not of European architecture, nor like the Straits Settlements. Its crowded by-streets and lanes, the absence of horse-carriages, the presence of chairs and jinrickshas make it very peculiar. There are plenty of soldiers in red coats and plenty of sailors in naval uniform, and all sorts of picturesque Chinese costumes, a few Hindoos and Malays, besides Parsees of portly presence and European dress surmounted with a hat like a stove-pipe.\n\nI am not going to describe any more of Hong Kong. I believe it is the most hospitable town in the East, almost surpassing the Straits Settlements and Shanghai. The merchant princes live in real splendour, extravagant if you will, but really comfortable. In winter sporting, hunting and other such amusements are out of the question; but for cricket, lawn-tennis, foot-ball and such like, and for balls, parties, private theatricals, & c., it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210444, "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-1985", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "32\n\nBARBARA E. WARD\n\nThere was also an illicit still for making rice spirits, owned by the last mentioned. Beyond the village on the narrowest part of the strait were three stone sheds known as “fish huts”, and used by three separate fisher families for storing nets, fish baskets and other items of gear. Across the other side of the strait, on the second island, were a couple of concrete pits, used as tanks for dyeing sails and nets, and a wooden steaming vat. These were the property of the \"headman\".\n\nMost of Hong Kong's shoreline is steep and rocky. Kau Sai island is no exception. The village is built on one of the few stretches that offer a small ledge above high water mark. It is about thirty yards in width in most places. In front of the temple, south-eastwards from there, and at another point about half-a-mile beyond the northern end of the village, land has been reclaimed from the sea. The fishermen state that this process was started by their forebears. In 1950 the reclamations consisted of accumulations of large boulders carefully arranged to afford as flat a surface as possible. In front of the temple the reclaimed area formed a large semi-circular platform about fifty yards in diameter, raised about six or seven feet above the natural beach and contained by a sea wall, like a ha-ha. Both wall and platform had been sealed with concrete some time before the Japanese occupation. On the southern edge of the platform, near but just beyond the temple, lay the village well. The water, being somewhat brackish, was used mainly for washing. Sweet water was fetched by boat from a never-failing stream about a mile away to the north.\n\nFrom the temple southwards a little beyond the end of the village the reclamation had been filled in with beaten earth to make a broad path. Beyond that, flanking both sides of the strait, there were simply two wide stretches of carefully gathered boulders. These parts of the reclamation were still being added to. The same was true of the essentially similar boulder reclamation north of the village.\n\nThe existence of flat or flattish areas near the water's edge was a necessity for the fishermen who used them for net and fish drying, sail making, rope twisting and so on. Nets being at that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211388, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 104, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "80\n\nto him roughly, Pooi To took the fish, and held it up admiringly. Then he tossed it back into the sea, and the fish swam away. Pooi To went on to another fisherman, who had a net. He again begged to be given a fish, but he was told go away. So Pooi To picked up two small stones and threw them into the net, and instantly two buffaloes appeared in the net, fighting with each other. Soon the net was torn to pieces, and the buffaloes slipped out of the net and disappeared, and when the astonished fisherman turned round to Pooi To, he had disappeared too.\n\nAfter this Pooi To went to the capital city, and stayed in the house of a rich man named Ch'an (陳), a native of Naam Chau (南州). Later 南州 stories reached Ch'an that there was another Pooi To in the city. Ch'an and his four sons could not believe it, but as the people who had told them persisted, Ch'an resolved to find out for himself. Leaving Pooi To in the house, he went with his sons into the town, and found, to his surprise, another monk exactly like Pooi To sitting there. Then Ch'an prepared a box of honey-ginger, which he gave to the new Pooi To, together with a knife to cut the ginger and a handkerchief dipped in fragrant water. The monk put the box on his lap, and started to eat the ginger, but however much he ate, the same amount remained in the box. So Ch'an decided that this man must indeed be Pooi To, and telling his two younger sons to remain with him, he went home again with the others. When they opened the door of their house they found Pooi To sitting there and on his lap was a box of honey ginger, a knife and a handkerchief dipped in fragrant water. He held out the knife to Ch'an saying, “This is not sharp enough to cut the ginger. Sharpen it,” While Ch'an was doing this, the two younger sons returned home, and reported that they had followed the monk in the city to the monastery of Ling Tsau (靈藏). Then Pooi To asked to be given two pieces of yellow paper, and he wrote some characters on the back of each. No one could understand the characters or even knew what language they were, and when Ch'an asked him what he was writing Pooi To gave no reply. He folded the papers together, and shortly afterwards disappeared.\n\nAbout that time a certain official or minister named Chue Ling K'ei (朱陵祺) was on his way down from Korea to China in a small vessel. He met a typhoon and the boat was tossed about the sea for nine days and then driven on to the shore of an island. The island consisted of a steep mountain, and here Chue and his companions wandered about", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211896, "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "286\n\nand pretty. There are abundance of trees of all sorts growing at the sides of the roads. The shops of the Chinese amused me very much as we went along. At last we came to \"Hughan's store\", where there is a great space, with easy chairs, etc. for loungers and loafers. Hughan is a ship chandler, and by keeping this place pretty comfortable he gets the captains of all the English and American ships there, and of course gets the job of supplying their ships with provisions, etc. Before the whole lines of stores and offices there is a path, with a roof to it so that one can walk about for an hour without being in the burning hot sun, which in Java is very injurious, especially to Europeans.\n\nWe took a short drive about the town with the captain, who was looking out for some spars for the ship, and then set off out in the country to Madame Baines' Hotel, which is the only English place where one can get to. It was a three-mile drive, but the beautiful appearance of the place made me think nothing of the distance. The Dutch, to whom the island belongs, are the greater part of the European population; consequently, the town is in every direction intersected by canals as is Holland. These canals serve the purpose of drainage, washing, and to keep the air cool. On each side of them is a very wide road, shaded by large trees from the sun. Thus the streets are very wide and airy. There are, of course, a great many bridges. The European houses are very grand, and nearly all built on the same model.\n\nOur two poor horses at last brought us up to our Hotel, where we arrived about two o'clock. It was half an hour before we could get anyone to attend to us, since it is the custom to sleep in the middle of the day. At last, after walking about over the house, we were met by our hostess, a Scotch lady of colossal dimensions, but withal a pleasant agreeable old party, who at once made us at home, and got us some \"tiffin\", or breakfast. All her servants are Malays, and she can speak the language very fluently. Indeed, when well spoken, Malay is a pretty language.\n\nHer house is an average specimen of all the European houses in Batavia. It has only one story on account of earthquakes, but it is very lofty and airy. There is a large dining hall and entrance hall, while round the house are the verandahs, where people spend a great part of the day, and especially the evenings. Facing the road, the verandah is very wide and lofty. In the garden is a stream, running round a small island, which has some fine clusters of trees, which are so curious that I cannot describe them. Some of the leaves are as large as a good-sized tablecloth. Round", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212173, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "92\n\nto present a neatly typewritten note in English, carefully preserved in a cellophane envelope, stating that the area was prohibited.\n\nThe pheasant shooting season continued until the Chinese New Year holiday, which falls late in January or early in February. It was generally possible to get two or three days off for this holiday, and at this date in 1937 two of us found ourselves some ten miles up the Yangtze above Nanking in the neighbourhood of the Three Hills. We had come in the houseboat, now so seldom used owing to the opening of the countryside to the greater convenience of the motor car. Only where the river bank was steep-to could we bring the boat sufficiently inshore to throw a plank across and step off; and so having disembarked we had to walk awhile until we reached a small creek, which we crossed in a borrowed sampan, before arriving at the extensive reed beds for which we were heading.\n\nAt this late season great stretches of the reeds had already been cut by the country people for use as fuel, leaving small clumps and narrow strips standing here and there. Inland, the fields, turned over by the shallow Chinese plough, showed long rows of soft green where the shoots of winter wheat sprouted. The country was ideal for pheasant. Unfortunately it was drizzling and blowing hard. Sandy, the smooth-haired black Labrador was at the top of his form, but nonplussed by the poor shooting. In such weather the birds would as a rule sit tight until the last moment, when they would get up suddenly at your feet; for some reason today they were wild and rising almost out of range. As we approached each patch of reeds, inside which pheasant might be sheltering from rain and squall, we would carefully move to the lee end and beat our way back upwind. My wife worked with us, and two of the boatmen, who also served to carry the bag. The pheasants were reluctant to fly, and would run unseen out of the reeds through the more open stretches of stubble to start up cackling indignantly at unexpected moments. The expenditure of cartridges was considerable, but so far as I remember, the bag only held six brace. Late in the afternoon, soaked, we boarded the houseboat. Luckily the run down with the tide was much quicker than the outward trip, and there was something in the icebox to keep the damp out. Little did we realise that was to be the last shoot for many a season!\n\nThat year was Coronation year: great preparations were made by", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "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": 213741, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 93, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "64\n\nDistrict, however, the total recorded urban population of males is far smaller than the recorded numbers of men in \"urban\" occupations. Clearly, many men traditionally went home to their native villages to sleep who worked by day in the Northern District towns and, probably, many craftsmen worked at home in their native villages, only occasionally going to sell their wares in the towns. This suggestion, of a more intimate and closely integrated urban/rural society in Northern, and a more thoroughly urban society in Southern, is likely to be correct. By day, the Northern towns may well have been twice as large as the figure given in the census, but, even if this is so, the difference between the tiny market-villages in northern District and the genuine towns in Southern remains stark.\n\nThe high number (376 in 1911, 378 in 1921) of masons and allied trades in Northern District, is to be explained, in part, by the construction of the roads, and the other public works projects the Government had begun after taking over the New Territories, but even more by the very large quarry at Lung Kwu Tan, which, as is made clear in the Village Population Table in the 1911 Census, employed 215 stonecutters and others. In Southern District there were 766 males working as masons or in associated trades in 1911 (6.9% of all males with recorded trade), and there were 989 in 1921 (the 1911 and 1921 figures for Southern District both including New Kowloon); in both 1911 and 1921 these people were mostly working in the large quarries at Chek Lap Kok off Lantau, and in the “stone hills” in New Kowloon, as well as in private and public construction projects. Stonecutters clearly tended to live apart from their families at the quarries where they worked. In 1911 in \"Lung Kwu Tan Quarry”, 215 males were recorded, but no females, and in Southern the quarries at Chek Lap Kok and at the \"stone hills” in Kwun Tong stand out. Chek Lap Kok had 55 males recorded, with only 22 females, while Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan, Lei Yue Mun and Cha Kwo Ling - the villages of the \"stone hills\" - had 625 males between them, but only 339 females. The Quarry Bay villages of Hong Kong Island, and the Shek Shan village in Kowloon, are other cases in point.\n\nThe censuses are unrevealing on the other known village industries. Up to 1917 there was a major pottery at Wun Yiu near Tai Po, and incense mills at several places, especially Tsuen Wan: none of the workers in these trades are specifically recorded either in 1911 or in 1921, unless under the “general labourer\" category. However, the lime", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213819, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1996", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "143\n\nunder weigh, and went down the river like a dart. The wind and tide were in our favour. We took our tea, and the night came on very bitter cold. I wrapped up in my deci skin, which was very serviceable, and I was laughed at by the Chinamen who called me \"The red flower spotted butterfly\". As we tacked out of the river the ship rolled, and I felt rather funny. Towards midnight we were rolling very considerably and I had to get up on the sly and pay that tribute to Neptune which she always exacts from landsmen, who are not used to the sea. About 3 o'clock we came to anchor in the Kap shui moon, and there we were till about nine, when we managed to steer out as the tide turned, and got soon into a fresh breeze which took us off to Green island, then we tacked again and came round into the harbour. I felt glad to get ashore again after so much of knocking about and want of sleep. Fortunately Stringer's dog neither got shot nor eaten, although it was threatened over and over again. I was glad enough to get into a sort of tub and get on shore the best way I could, with Irwin and Lechler, and reached home after 75 hours absence, in safety.\n\nAlthough I did not immediately feel the benefits of the voyage, I did so afterwards and hope to make another similar trip some day or other. My whole expenses were just over 5 dollars, and I saw what would cost any of you “Western barbarians” at least a couple of Hundred Pounds sterling.\n\nThe next night I went to bed early, and slept on till quite late next day, to make up for lost time. The officious man I took with me had put Mr Eitel's large feather pillow and two of his shirts and other items belonging to the others in my box, so that when we got to Hong Kong, I was puzzled to know what had been done. The beauty of the thing was this, that the fellow seemed to think he had done a capital thing for me, and said \"you have gained by me\". Poor Eitel sent word to know if I wanted to be like the magpie that borrowed the feathers of other birds to improve its own plumage - since I had gone off with his feather pillows and shirts. They all tease me finely about it and it will be a joke for a while to come.\n\nI ought to have mentioned sooner how the house was attacked at Li-long by about 50 robbers.* They threw in \"stink-pots\" as they are called, and tried to enter, to rob them, about 2½ months ago. But the Chinese cook gave the alarm, and shot a man who had got up the balcony.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "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": 214063, "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": 131, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "98\n\nprovince.\n\nIn 1941, construction of a 457m-long tarmac-surfaced runway at Kai Tak for military use on an approximate south-east/north-west orientation, which had already necessitated the dismantling of the RAF hangar, was due to start on 8th December 1941, the precise day on which the Japanese invaded the New Territories and attacked Kai Tak airport.\n\nMilitary/Defence Works\n\nPrior to the British administration, there were several forts in the New Territories going back to the early years (17th century) of the Ch'ing Dynasty, the oldest existing fort (1717) probably being that on Tung Lung Chau overlooking the narrow Fat Tong Mun passage in the eastern approaches to the harbour, and the largest still remaining at Tung Chung (60m by 80m) on the northern coast of Lantau, which was completed in 1832. Little remains of the old 4m-high walled Kowloon City, a garrison fort (120m by 230m) with its sturdy granite parapet wall complete with embrasures and watchtowers, which was finished in 1847 soon after the British established themselves on Hong Kong Island.\n\nSubsequently, the British military have been involved in a considerable amount of civil engineering. The Royal Engineers were first involved in 1841 in the early construction of Queen's Road in Victoria. Perhaps their most impressive roadworks over the years, constructed before the Pacific war, have been Jat's Incline, which provides access to the upper levels of the steep hills overlooking Kowloon. Nevertheless, the main military engineering effort was expended on providing defences and back-up facilities (for example, naval dockyards, aviation needs, storage depots, barracks, and hospitals), principally against possible seaborne attack by Russia last century and later against the increasingly land/sea invasion threat by Japan in the 1930s. Novel defence measures included excavation of a cavern at Lei Yue Mun towards the end of the nineteenth century to house the sophisticated Brennan torpedo, which, after launching down a ramp, was controlled from the shore with a wire attached to the rudder.\n\nRegarding defence facilities, at the outbreak of the Pacific war in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214193, "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": 51, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "cially as it involved the only 'foreign devil' present, thoroughly enjoyed it even though the joke has been repeated countless times throughout the ages. Many jokes, both in the East and the West, are of course repeated over and over again over a period of years. Although possibly rather feeble by today's standards, the author remembers a riddle being repeated to him when he was a child in England. The question was: 'When is a door not a door?' The answer was, 'When it's a jar (ajar)!' This was told countless times and seemed to have been passed down from generation to generation as many jokes in many countries are.\n\nIn the case of a Chinese example of an oft repeated joke there is the saying, Ah Yee Leng Tong (-). This really means \"gone to the Second Wife's to drink lovely soup.' Up to October 1971, Chinese men in Hong Kong could legally take concubines. The principal wife, generally, knew her position and was pretty secure, but the concubine, so it was said, needed to prepare tasty soup (and other things) to please her husband to make sure her position also was secure. There is a restaurant named Ah Yee Leng Tong in Causeway Bay, on Hong Kong Island, and whenever the name is mentioned it always raises a smile.\n\nHaving said that, however, Chinese tend not to laugh out loud so much as Westerners, but, in Hong Kong, said Reuben M, an American part-time comedian who has lived in the Territory for a number of years, even Westerners are inclined to be more subdued than people living in the West. Nevertheless, it was pointed out by the same comedian that, if Chinese don't like a show and they are bored, they can be a noisy, distracting audience.\n\nLaughter can certainly help break down barriers, including pricking bubbles of solemnity at meetings, and there are few occasions when some degree of hilarity does not serve a useful purpose. Certainly humour is an important key to the happiness and well-being of us all, irrespective of race, just as anger and depression have the opposite effect. Norman Cousins was stricken with a seemingly incurable disease. He decided to keep himself occupied with a diet of humour and, as he lay on his sick-bed, he watched old silent movies of Laurel and Hardy and read anything that would make him laugh (Cousins, 1979; 39). He recounts he made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect that gave him at least two hours of pain-free sleep. Gradually he began to recover. A good bout of laugh-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214759, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "138 \n\nThe Diary \n\nSunday 7/12/41. Much talk about war with Japan but no one seems to think anything will happen. We, the RAF in Hong Kong, are a very small crowd; seven officers and sixty men with five aircraft, two Walrus and three Vildebeeste. Group Captain Horry sails for Singapore on the Ullyses leaving Wing Commander Sullivan as our CO. I have the doubtful honour of being IC of our one and only flight and have three other pilots FO Gray, or Dolly, who is also signals officer, FO Baugh, or Whimpey, equipment officer, PO Crossley, or Junior, a New Zealander just arrived from Singapore and with very little flying experience. PO Thomson the Colonel, our adjutant, is a VR who came to Kai Tak with me from Singapore last June. Finally we have an Australian, PO Hennessy, just arrived from Singapore to start a fighter operations room. The joke is that everything is being prepared for the arrival of fighters but they are not expected for a month. With only five obsolete aircraft and one aerodrome our prospects are not rosy and it looks as if we might finish up in the army if war comes to Hong Kong. During the day the news gets worse and all precautions are taken, everyone being confined to camp. I take a Vildebeeste with full bomb load on a test climb during which I try to imagine where would be the best place to drop them and what would be my chances if attacked by fighters. But everything is peaceful and Hong Kong looks quite beautiful far beneath. We park the Walrus on the water and disperse the Beests but what wonderful targets they make. The 2nd Battalion Royal Scots and two battalions of Rajputs and Punjabis are in their positions in the New Territories, the island being defended by two battalions of Canadians raw recruits, and, only just arrived, the Middlesex Battalion man the coast defences. Finally the volunteers, four thousand Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese etc. Our Navy has one destroyer, ten MTB's and a few gunboats. Not a very formidable force especially as we shall be completely cut off from outside help and our food and ammunition supply is only sufficient for a hundred days. Still everyone seems cheerful. I am duty officer and wonder if I shall get any sleep. \n\nMonday 8th. I am disturbed early as the Colonial Secretary rings up to say that war with Japan is imminent. Hell there goes my sleep and I wake the other officers. Over breakfast we are told that we are at war with Japan. We dash down to flights just in time to hear an ominous roar of planes and nine bombers escorted by over thirty fighters", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214887, "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": 302, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "ONE OF HONG KONG'S MANY HILLSIDE TEMPLES:\n\n\"THE TEMPLE OVERLOOKING THE SEA'\n\nDAN WATERS\n\n275\n\nThere are a number of hillside temples, both on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon. But very little appears to have been written about them or about the communities that worship in them and frequent their environs.\n\nThis short paper looks at a small, ramshackle temple complex, including 'The Temple Overlooking the Sea', which used to cling to the hillside. Painted somewhat garishly bright red, green and yellow, it stood downhill, on the western side of where the remains of the old British Pinewood Battery are still situated. The latter, at 307 metres above sea level, was the highest of all Hong Kong's coastal defence batteries. To get to the temple you went up the winding, partly asphalted and partly concreted, Hatton Road, which starts at the western end of Conduit Road, where it joins Po Shan and Kotewall Roads. Hatton Road is steep and leads up to the Gap between Victoria Peak and the still, relatively unspoiled, High West.\n\nAbout half way up Hatton Road, on the way to the Peak, there is a branch off to the right, and, a further 35 metres or so along with a pavilion atop Dragon and Tiger Hill on your right, you turn left on to a concrete-paved jeep track. Proceeding downhill for approximately 300 metres you can still see the hillside scars and sorry remains of the old Temple complex. They are situated along what is sometimes called Cheung Po-tsai's Path, named after Hong Kong's most notorious pirate who was especially active in the first decade of the 19th century. Whether he actually used the path is debatable. It circles the western end of Hong Kong Island above Mid-Levels.\n\nNotices were posted up in the summer of 1999, in the area around the 'Temple Overlooking the Sea', saying that the complex was to be demolished. It was an illegal structure. The old Chinese folk who were very attached to the Temple were naturally upset and, although there were no strong protests, a few of them did attend meetings organised by government departments. Although the Temple folk sometimes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215572, "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": 349, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "299\n\nBeing cooped up on a steep, precipitous, hummock of rock, which consisted of a small, high island and a second island forming, as it were, a long straggling tail meant there were limitations to physical activity. There is a sea-water channel varying from seven to nine metres wide separating the two islands. In a total area of approximately 11.75 hectares, there were obvious limitations to taking exercise.\n\nAlthough the overall length of the \"main\" island is only about 0.8 of a kilometre, like being on board ship there are certain things that an enthusiast can do. Some lighthouse keepers did not bother to exercise. Lai Tak-wah, however, told the author that he used to try to get in 30 minutes every day. Some of this would include climbing up and down the 224 steps which led from the new pier at sea level to the buildings at the top of the Island.38 Some keepers liked to swim. Others practiced Chinese martial arts.\n\nWildlife\n\nApart from higher up towards the crest, little vegetation grows on the main island. Except for a small sisal tree and a chilli tree which stood there in 1990, the author recalls there were no real trees although there are a few bushes. On the smaller \"tail\" island there is even less - just the odd patch of sparse grass.\n\nThe top part of the main Island is partly covered with vegetation, including a few plants and flowers, such as Chinese Hibiscus.39 For those interested in wildlife, when the Royal Asiatic Society members paid their visit in 1990, there was a colony of red-rumped swallows nesting in the cliffs on the leeward side of the main Island. However, on subsequent visits the author did not spot these birds, although there are usually a few swifts and the odd black-eared kite circling in the sky. But no matter whether a person is interested in wildlife or not, Waglan, with the waves breaking together with the foam, is a beautiful spot,\n\nNear the end of the low, straggling island, surrounding a cavern that goes right through the island, you can see two very large rocks. Using a little imagination, these, some proclaim, seem to be leaning over \"kissing.\"40 Yes, there is even romance at Waglan!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216114, "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": 413, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "347\n\nmy pilot to tow me over the town and tell him that I will release the plane at an altitude of 300 metres and that I will climb under my own steam to 2,000 metres. Sceptical glances from my Chinese friends, who find it difficult to accept that a European might do something better than a Son of Heaven.\n\nAt 11:45, I take off. At first we follow the river. The town is to our left, set on terrace up the mountainside. There is not a breath of air; all is calm. It was as I expected. Reaching the tip of the peninsula, we turn 90 degree to the left, and this time, still climbing at one metre per second, we begin to fly across the town. As we arrive over the roofs, I sense a number of small thermal currents; my gauges frequently indicate two metres per second. But I am still only at 200 metres, and too far from the airfield, in case I should fail to find serious thermals.\n\nWhen we come over San Shin Sze, the plane begins a slight turn to the left, and I sense that he is going to fly over the river again; my altimeter reads just 300 metres, and I release the glider in a light thermal, when I place myself in tight spirals. The tow had lasted seven minutes. The sky was completely blue, without a cloud, however with a slight violet haze over the ground. No wind. I was obliged to fly solely with the aid of thermal currents. Almost immediately, I find myself in a weak current. After one or two minutes, I am even descending at a speed of about 1.5 metres per second. I am flying at 75 km per hour, at an angle of about 35 degrees. I decide to resume the direction of the river and to approach the airfield but I find that I have travelled further away than I thought. There was no chance of getting back to the island from which I had taken off. I spot a great sandbank and decide to attempt a last chance to fly towards the point of the town, where I had observed and felt some good currents at the start of my tow.\n\n-\n+\n\nAt 60 metres above the roofs at last! - a few strong buffets and my two gauges are suddenly showing two metres of climb. Steep spirals, at an angle of 45 degrees, speed 80 km per hour, and I am climbing this time evenly and without being buffeted. 200 metres, 500 metres, 1,000 metres, I am always turning, always widening my turns. The fight becomes easier and easier and this time I am climbing at three metres a second. I see the magnificent panorama of the town, as if gripped in a vice between two great rivers; I see, quite small, the English, French and American gunboats (the \"Tutuila\", where I used to go\n\n3", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216167, "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": 466, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "400\n\nequivalent to the 9.2 inch guns at Mount Davis and Stanley Fort Batteries. The gun embrasure was bricked up as part of the 1974 conversion works and steel dead shoring erected to provide extra support for the overhanging cantilevered canopy. A new door opening was also formed in 1974 in the rear wall. The original door opening is still there and leads to a small rear compartment with three recesses in the wall noted on the P.W.D. drawing as 'voids' which would have been the expense magazines. The original rear entrance staircase to the gun emplacement was filled in with compacted earth and slabbed over with concrete.\n\nThe 1968 Hong Kong Government 1:1,000 scale Survey Sheet (Sheet Number 16-NW-2D) shows several small rectangular structures near the gun emplacement, but there is no indication what they were originally. One was probably a searchlight emplacement and another one near the cliff edge may have been a forward observation post. Another rectangle marked 'R' for ruin on the inland side of the hill may have been the main magazine as it appears to have what looks like a separate blast wall constructed along one side of it. Still yet another structure further down the hillside may have been a barrack block for the gun crew. All this is of course conjecture and independent verification and further research are needed.\n\nA report on the gun emplacement was prepared in 1999 by the writer and submitted to the Antiquities and Monuments Office for record purposes. It is however unlikely that the structure will be graded as a historical building or receive cultural heritage status. Due to its remoteness Tathong Point is not easily accessible and with its dangerous steep and rocky cliffs it is not recommended to encourage the general public to visit the site. Permission from the Marine Department would be necessary anyway.\n\nTo illustrate the hazards involved in visiting Tathong Point, an incident recorded in the Public Works Department file should be mentioned. The file contains a memorandum (Memo) from the Director of Marine to the Director of Public Works reporting that at 11:00 hours in September 1966 (exact date not given) the launch “Ming Kee” carrying 12 'light-house workers' capsized off the Tathong Point Light House. All were saved by a sampan which was fishing in the vicinity. Enquiries revealed that the workers were employed by the Fook Lee", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]