[ { "id": 205173, "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-1966", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "124\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nquite frequent. Other families are said to have spoken Hoklo at home as well as Hakka which presupposes previous settlement in Hoklo areas and some intermarriage with Hoklo people. Ho Man Tin village also had settlers who were described to me as 'Wai Chow Punti'*, that is Puntis who, living in what had become the predominantly Hakka area of Wai Chow, had been accepted by the Hakkas as their own people (§ CA). In short there was quite an intermixture of dialect groups in these Kowloon villages. This bears out what the missionary James Johnston writes of the Swatow area of Kwangtung in his China and Formosa (1897):18\n\n44\n\nWhilst these three divisions (Punti, Hakka, Hoklo) of the population are distinctly marked, and kept up from generation to generation, there are frequent intermarriages between them and intermixture of the people in their different localities\".\n\nThough settling down in the same villages these Hakka settlers did not all come from the same areas. Some of them came to Kowloon from inland districts of the East River, others from Hoklo-speaking districts further up the coast. Thus Hakkas of different geographical origin settled down together in the Kowloon villages; and not all at the same time, but by degrees. Mong Kok was already an established village by 1862: the available evidence points to an 18th century or early 19th century origin. Ho Man Tin, on the other hand, was not mentioned as a village in the Commissioners' Report in 1862, although family backgrounds indicate that it was probably already a hamlet by then.19\n\nHakkas have always had a reputation for industry, and perseverance.20 These settlers would have needed those qualities to settle in the Kowloon peninsula, where the majority of good agricultural land had already been taken up by the time most of them came to the Hong Kong region and only areas fit for marginal farming were left for them to develop. In consequence, only a few of the families in these two villages owned rice fields and most of them had to be content with vegetable land in the less well-watered upper slopes of the many small valleys which threaded the peninsula. Farming land was scarce. When the father of one of my informants lost his own vegetable land as the result of a confidence trick he had to cease farming and turned", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205197, "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-1966", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n147\n\nThomas Braddell, James Guthrie, A. L. Johnston, W. H. Read and 'Mr. Whampoa' (Hoo Ah Kay) are traced. The setting is that of a British colonial society in its heyday; the viewpoint is rather parochial.\n\nThe author was himself a prominent resident of Singapore for nearly fifty years. He arrived there in 1864, having been told by W. H. Read that it was ‘a fine healthy place for a young man'. He dryly noted that at the time of writing (1902) the English idea that Singapore was somewhere in the centre of India was becoming less generally held.\n\nThe author writes over-modestly that his book 'will interest those only who have some association with Singapore'. It should in fact interest many today for its detailed picture of the years of growth of a great South-east Asian city-state. To take one year — 1848 — at random; we read of Chinese gang robberies, the P. & O. mail, restrictions on firecrackers at Chinese New Year, the price of gambier, the inability of the Government of India to understand the special conditions and needs of the Straits Settlements, the sending of Chinese convicts from Hong Kong to Singapore, the trade depression, interference by the Malay ruler of Johore with the movement of guttapercha to Singapore, the failure of the Balestier sugar plantation, Captain Keppel and the new harbour, the arrival of Mr. James Brooke on his way to Labuan, and Singapore as a naval station. The author remarks, in passing, that the year 1848 had also been a very exciting time all over Europe'.\n\nThe Anecdotal History was well worth re-publishing for its lively if limited treatment of an era in Singapore's history. There is an excellent index, particularly important in a work of this kind. University of Hong Kong.\n\nB. HARRISON\n\nVIA PORTS: FROM HONG KONG TO HONG KONG, Alexander Grantham. Hong Kong University Press, 1965. pp. HK$30.\n\nThe author, Alexander William George Herder Grantham, is better known to the people of Hong Kong as Sir Alexander, Governor from 1947 to 1957. His book traces his own official career from 1922 when he arrived from England as a Government Cadet, to 1957 when he retired as the Governor.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206002, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "# THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN\n\n77\n\nOffice's records had fallen owing to non-registration of transactions (it being by then more or less necessary for a purchaser to take a chance on the title to land offered to him by a vendor), a strenuous effort was made to regularise the situation and much \"squatting\" without title and consequently, in most cases, non-payment of Crown Rent, came to light.\n\nThe end for old Taipingshan came not in the 1880's but in the 1890's when Bubonic Plague was brought to the Colony from West China. The most virulent reservoir of the bacillus turned out to be Taipingshan. The only solution, not only to the problem of stamping out the plague but also to other forms of social offence given by the district, was to remove the Chinese town physically. This was done by powers given in the Taipingshan Resumption Ordinance of 1894, and the result was wholesale demolition of much property and re-aligning of old and construction of new roads. Taipingshan had to be razed and, fortunately for Hong Kong, never rose again in its former glory.\n\nUniversity of London, 1968.\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS Evans\n\nMr. Evans is Professor of Law in the University of Hong Kong. Two of his earlier contributions to the early history of Hong Kong appeared in the Notes and Queries section of the 1968 Journal.\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The area was known as Taipingshan from the early days of the colony and its name is not derived from its function as a refuge for T'ai Ping rebels in later years.\n\n2 See Gordon (Land Officer) to Pottinger, CO129/Vol II, f. 152,\n\n3 See Gordon to Malcolm (Colonial Secretary), CO129/Vol. II, f. 138 dated 6 July 1843.\n\n4 The rents for both the Upper and Lower Bazaar Lots represented the same rate per square foot as that charged by Johnston for Town Lots.\n\n5 But the Chinese were turning to the use of brick rather than wood by the end of 1841; see Canton Press, 19 February 1842.\n\n6 Gordon to Pottinger, 19 December 1843; CO129, Vol. II, p. 445.\n\n7 Davis to Stanley 26 July 1844; CO129, Vol. VI, p. 435.\n\n8 Woosnam (Pottinger's private secretary) to Gordon, 10 January 1844: CO129, Vol. V. p. 69.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206369, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "170\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nsupplied as Commandant.56 This trend intensified in the period after 1893. Indeed, in general terms, the 1893 Ordinance marks the transition from a private army to a public body subject to full military discipline and supervision and official financial scrutiny. This did not mean that public funds were to be spent lavishly on the Volunteer Corps. In the 1930s the Year Books speak rather wistfully of the fact that the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps was not treated so generously by its Government as were the Volunteers of the Colonial Governments of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States, and did not have 'a fairy godmother' such as the Shanghai Volunteer Corps possessed in their Municipal Council57 (though in fairness it should be stated that their economies were more prosperous than Hong Kong's at this time). For instance, the need for a new Headquarters was pressing at this period and negotiations with Government were slow but had by February 1936 reached the stage when, as R. S. M. Parkinson observed sardonically at the Sergeants' Mess Annual Dinner 'they could confidently expect the building up within the next decade'.58 Like other departments of the public service, the Volunteers had to present their case for funds and take their turn in the queue.\n\nThis account is no more than an introduction to the subject, which is large and important enough to deserve a full-length study similar to those of regular regiments of the British Army by professional military historians such as C. T. Atkinson, S. H. F. Johnston, and Marcus Cunliffe. However, even a short article demonstrates that Hong Kong Volunteers have a long and interesting history which in its military, community and social aspects is so much interwoven with the development of the Colony at large.\n\nFinally, Volunteering is required to generate its own momentum. In the pages of the pre-war Year Books, the post-war Volunteer Magazine and the letters and reminiscences of former Volunteers, there is abundant evidence of the spirit which has\n\n56 Endacott, p. 209.\n\n57 Y.B., 1935-36, p. 7 and 1938, p. 8.\n\n58 Y.B., 1938, p. 35.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206527, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART\n\n69\n\ncentury in close proximity to Hong-Kong, and were acquainted with its methods of administration and system of law and police, many of them, indeed being engaged in trade or working as labourers in that Colony. In the latter case, the Chinese of Wei-Hai-Wei had never had any experience of British administration until the territory was leased in 1898, and were, therefore, quite ignorant of the principles underlying that administration. Again the Chinese of the new territory of Hong Kong did not enjoy a good reputation for orderly behaviour, whereas the natives here have shown themselves law-abiding, docile, and orderly. After due deliberation I came to the conclusion that the most effective and economic plan would be to continue the system of policing the territory through the headmen of the villages and to retain it so long as it continued to work satisfactorily, instead of dotting Police Stations throughout the territory in charge of Inspectors, who would be unable to communicate with the people except through interpreters, a system which almost invariably results in corruption and malpractices. That system, which is suitable to the whole of the territory, except the town of Port Edward and the island of Liu Kung, is based on the fact that the unit of society is the family or village and not the individual as in the west. Headmen are appointed for each village or group of villages and are held responsible for the maintenance of peace and good order in their villages. If any trouble arises, the headman reports the matter and aids in making any arrests that may be necessary.\n\nThe principal source of revenue, as in the New Territories, was at first the land tax. In Weihaiwei this was based on the old land registers handed over by the Chinese magistrates. For many years past, R.F. Johnston wrote, 'every village had paid through the headman or committee of headmen a certain sum of money which by courtesy is called a land-tax. How that amount is assessed among the various families is a matter which the people decide for themselves on the general understanding that no one should be called upon to pay more than his ancestors paid before him unless the family property has been considerably increased.'35 The Territory under Lockhart's administration prospered, for in four years the Imperial Grant-in-Aid was reduced to less than one-third of its amount at the time when he first took office; however, owing to the reduction of the British Fleet in China in 1906 and the less frequent visit of men-of-war to Weihaiwei, the business of Port Edward was\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210560, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "148\n\nJOHN KARL EVANS\n\nSociety (London, 1952), 175.\n\n34 Fustel de Coulanges (1874), 26-27; Cumont (1922), 3; and Toynbee (1971), 35.\n\n35 J. Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese, 2 (New York, 1865), 401–402.\n\n36 Ahern (1973), 146, 217-244, and 247.\n\n37 Feuchtwang (1974), 107, points out that in the Taiwanese village that he calls Mountainstreet, an odd number of incense sticks are burnt for gods and ghosts, and an even number for the ancestral spirits. Still, deification has been possible; Wang Sung-Hsing, \"Taiwanese Architecture and the Supernatural”, in Rel. & Rit., 190-191, cites the striking example of a Japanese police officer named Seijiro Morikawa, who was formally deified after death in recognition of the services which he had performed for the villagers in his district.\n\n38 For these and additional details, see Ahern (1973), 221-228; and R.L. Janelli and D.Y. Janelli, Ancestor Worship and Korean Society (Stanford, 1982), 178. In the village of Taitou, which Yang (1945) investigated, the coffin of the deceased was usually kept at home for one to three months, although in some wealthy households this transitional period might be prolonged for as much as a year (p. 87). Here, with the exception of mock paper money, which was offered periodically, the many paper articles were transferred to the spirit world at the end of the funeral procession itself (p. 89).\n\n39 Thus Hsiao-tung Fei, Peasant Life in China: a Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley (London, 1939) 30; Hsu (1967), 76; Jordan (1972), 32-33; Ahern (1973), 149; and Wolf (1974), 177.\n\n40 Hsu expresses the same view in his Clan, Caste and Club (Princeton, 1963), 45-46, but here extends it from West Town to \"every part of China.\n\n41 Wolf (1974), 160; cf. inter alia, R.F. Johnston, Lion and Dragon in Northern China (New York, 1910), 286-287; Fei, Peasant Life, 78; M. Freedman, \"Ancestor Worship: Two Facets of the Chinese Case\", in M. Freedman (ed.), Social Organization, Essays Presented to Raymond Firth (Chicago, 1967), 92-93; and Jordan (1972), 97.\n\n42 Wolf (1974), 164-167.\n\n43 Ahern (1973), 199-201.\n\n44 R.L. and D.Y. Janelli, Ancestor Worship and Korean Society, 192, and 195, argue that a wife is much more likely openly to attribute malevolent behavior to the spirit of one of her parents-in-law than her husband, who will be exceedingly reluctant to condemn the mother or father who nurtured him. They go on logically to suggest that \"the lower the rate of uxorilocal marriage, the sharper the difference between men's and women's reluctance to acknowledge ancestral hostility.\" This may account in part for the profound disagreement between the findings of Hsu and Ahern, for as we shall see below, the rate of uxorilocal marriage in the northern Taipei basin, where Ch'i-nan is situated, has approached 15 per cent, while it was closer to 40 per cent in West Town during the period of Hsu's residence.\n\n45 Cf. Jordan (1972), 32-34; Ahern (1973), 248; and especially Feuchtwang (1974), 117. This was no less true of the p'o in the Han period; see Loewe, Chinese Ideas of Life and Death, 26-27.\n\n46 Hsu (1967), 75-76, and 103.\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213953, "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": 23, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "20 June \n\n18 July \n\nKong's Battlefields and Wartime Sites. \n\nDr Elizabeth Johnson, Women's Place; Women's Roles-Question of a Female Identity in a Tsuen Wan Village. \n\nM. Philippe Le Corre, The Hong Kong Handover: An Historical Perspective. \n\n19 September Dr Judith Hollows, Hong Kong, Korean and Japanese Management: What is Different and Why? \n\n31 October \n\nDr Betty Wei Peh-T'i, Foreigners in China: A Bibliography. \n\n28 November Ms Tess Johnston, Northern and Southern Treaty \n\nPort architecture in China. \n\nDr Patrick Hase, Fung Shui in Action. \n\n5 December \n\n1998 \n\n16 January \n\n6 February \n\n20 March \n\nMr Ko Tim Keung, An Illustrated Talk on Pre-World War II Kowloon. \n\nMr Kevin Bishop, China's Imperial Way. \n\nDrs Gillian and Verner Bickley, Nineteenth Century Government-led Education in Hong Kong. \n\nConcert \n\n21 June 1997, Chinese International Music Performance, Hong Kong YWCA Chinese Orchestra, organiser Dr Michael Lau. \n\nExcursions outside Hong Kong \n\n28-31 March 1997 \n\nVisit to Shanghai, Drs Michael Lau and Joseph Ting. \n\nxxii \n\nT", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214125, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "164\n\nMichael Lau, was to see this problem had been solved, with the difficulty now being how to restrict the visit to a small number of galleries rather than to try and see too much in the limited time available. Accordingly, we visited the most renowned galleries only, those housing Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Ceramics. We were well rewarded by the quality and range of exhibits on display. Our enjoyment and understanding was greatly enhanced by explanations provided by the two senior staff members provided for us as gallery guides by Museum Director Ma Chengyuan.\n\nThe next day, Saturday, we drove out north-west of Shanghai to the Jiading County Museum, in particular to see the exhibition on the former Jiading Imperial Examination Hall. RAS Council Member Joseph Ting, who also was our guide that day, had arranged this visit. (Prior to the visit, before leaving Hong Kong, Dr Betty Wei3 had given members a talk on the Hall and the imperial examination system, so important in China prior to 1905).\n\nAgain we were given VIP treatment, with Director Zheng of the Jiading Cultural Bureau and Director Yang Chun of the Museum, addressing us upon arrival and providing us with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, Ms Liu Chuyong. Members were impressed by the graphic quality of the exhibits, especially those on examination cheating methods.\n\nThe highlight of our Sunday programme was a tour of Old Shanghai, with our guide being Ms. Tess Johnston, author and raconteur extraordinaire, whose assistance had been obtained for us by Council Member Valery Garrett. After a bus tour of treaty port architecture, Tess led us on foot through the city's oldest area, Huangpu. There, one block west of the Friendship Store and two blocks south of the Wusong River (Suzhou Creek), on Huqiu (Museum) Road, near the junction with Dong Road, we found to our delight the old premises of the North China Branch. The building is now used as a bank and share-trading hall, but little has changed in its appearance and structure with RAS still to be seen on the pediment (see Illustration 1, a group photograph outside the building, and Illustration 2, plans of premises after the 1932-34 re-building; provided for us by Ms Johnston).\n\nOn the Monday morning our exploration of both the past and present", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214126, "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": 194, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "165\n\ncontinued when we visited the magnificent new premises of the Shanghai Library at 1555 Huaihai Zhong Road where Director Ma Yuanling and Deputy Director Wu Jianzhong welcomed us and personally took us on a guided tour. They informed us that the books from the North China Branch Library were presently packed up awaiting transfer from the Shanghai Municipal Library, with display in the new premises set for late 1997. (The surprisingly high figure of 20,000 volumes was quoted). We were assured that the books were being well looked after and would be kept together as a library. Viewers would normally need a library card but special arrangements for HK RAS members could be arranged. (For the success of this visit we owe a lot to the advance work of members Jeremy and Jacqueline Hodkinson).\n\nFinally on the Monday afternoon we visited the Shanghai History Museum at 1286 Hong Qiao Road where Director Pan Junxiang was the host. It was clear that the Museum was modelled on the lines of the Hong Kong Museum of History.\n\nThat evening the party flew back to Hong Kong, most impressed by Shanghai's cultural renaissance and very grateful for the warmth of welcome given us by our hosts in Shanghai. For my part, I was equally grateful to the members of the RAS HK Activities Committee for helping the Branch exceed our original aims and expectations for the visit.\n\nNOTES\n\nCouling, Samuel, Hon Secretary & Treasurer of the N China Branch of the RAS, Encyclopaedia Sinica, Kelly & Walsh Ltd, 1917 and reprinted in 1983 by Oxford University Press, HK (OUPHK), pp 96 and 400\n\nOtness, Harold M, \"The One Bright Spot in Shanghai\", a History of the Library of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, JHKBRAS Vol 28, 1988 pp185-197\n\nWei, Peh-T'i Betty, Shanghai Crucible of Modern China, OUPHK, 1987, and Old Shanghai, OUPHK, 1993\n\nJohnston, Tess, (with photographer Deke Erh), A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai, Old China Hand Press, HK, 1993", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214511, "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": 369, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "338\n\nthere does not seem to be much more of interest in that direction. On the seafront at the foot of the hill to the east is the former Chefoo Club building. Now a restaurant, but with apparently some residential facilities, the main structure has been well preserved. I think I have seen a similar building at the bottom of Quay Hill in Lymington in Hampshire - at least, this one would be very much at home there.\n\nFurther along the seafront to the west, and just inland from the front, is the site of the main former British residential and business area. A number of solid Brighton-like houses still stand along the front, where waves crashing over the sea wall complete the British picture. Inland for a block or two are many buildings that would have housed businesses as well as the houses of the less well-to-do. These buildings are very suggestive of the bustle that once took place in this small outpost. One was dated 1930, according to a carved stone plaque on its wall.\n\nIn Chefoo as well as Tsingtao (and later in Dalian) it was a great help to have Tess Johnston and Deke Erh's wonderful book \"Far from Home”, and to try to spot as many as possible of those buildings that feature in its beautiful photographs.\n\nTowards the eastern end of the long beach is a group of buildings that once housed the famous Chefoo School, a boarding school for English boys from all over North China. Next to this, rather incongruously, is a small military establishment that houses a 1950s-looking bomber and a motor torpedo boat in its front yard. Nearby, a number of other well-preserved and very English buildings could have housed the more wealthy and influential residents and their families and servants.\n\nDinner that night was in the splendid and luxurious Government Guest House, a modern complex standing in its own spacious grounds at the far eastern end of the city. The service here was the best we experienced on the whole trip - as one might expect of people trained to look after visiting dignitaries from the capital. The food, also, was what one would expect from such an establishment - and not to my somewhat unadventurous taste at all. We were treated to such delights as braised crunchy silk worms, boiled fish stomachs and wobbly sea", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214518, "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": 376, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "345\n\nIt immediately became clear, however, that although very similar to the building in the picture taken by Tess Johnston, the present building was somewhat different. On enquiry, we were told that the old building had been demolished and rebuilt as an almost exact replica. This appeared to be true.\n\nBeyond this, along the road, were a line of impressive European-style residences, with delightfully contrasting back streets leading left and right. The far end of this street opened into a cobbled square with six or eight storey apartment buildings, reminding me of the suburbs of Milan. In fact the whole city has a very European feel to it. Compared to many Chinese cities, Dalian is very neat and tidy, and organised. It is proud of being the first (or only?) city in China to rid itself of rats. (I witnessed some public garden workers in a state of great excitement when they thought they saw a rat in the garden they were working in - it turned out to be a squirrel when the four of them flushed the unfortunate beast out of the bushes.) The streets are clean. There are trees everywhere. The roads leading out of the city are marked with white bollards at the roadside. One finds oneself wondering how come this particular part of China can stand out so much as being - well, rather nice. The answer is quickly offered by anybody to whom you ask this question, and that is that it is the Mayor of Dalian who is responsible for the city's progress. He has travelled extensively overseas, and when he comes home he tells his officials that he wants to see in Dalian the sort of facilities that he has seen abroad. And he is getting his way. The man deserves a medal. It would not be surprising for Dalian to be giving Shanghai a good run for its money some time in the new century.\n\nAnother feature of Dalian is that there is very little in the way of graffiti, although our guide spoiled the illusion somewhat by explaining that \"nobody can afford the paint\".\n\nLunch was in an enormous restaurant where our party were the only customers.\n\nThe city tour continued with a visit to the Nanshan suburb, the former Japanese residential area. Here are a number of quiet leafy streets containing very smart houses that would be at home in Surrey or Kent or a London suburb.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214524, "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": 382, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "351\n\nThe China Consuls, PD Coates, pub. Oxford University press, USA, 1988\n\nThistle and Bamboo, Shiona Airlie, pub. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1989\n\nGerman Architecture in China, Torsten Warner, pub. Ernst & Son, Berlin, 1994\n\nFar from Home, Tess Johnston, pub. Old China Hand Press, Hong Kong, 1996\n\nThe Journal of the RAS HK Branch - Volume 32, pub. HKBRAS, Hong Kong, 1996\n\nPrecious Cargo, Susan Leiper, pub. National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1997\n\nNo Dogs and Not Many Chinese, Frances Wood, pub. John Murray, London, 1998\n\nUnequal Treaty, Peter Wesley-Smith, pub. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1998 (revised edition)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215269, "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": 46, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "has imposed tighter measures on loan procedures. Loans are closely monitored and we are pleased to report that there is presently no overdue item in the RAS Collection, except for the five old outstanding items that could not be traced any more.\n\nAs previously agreed, the Curator of the Central Library has kindly helped to review the RAS Collection and restore deteriorated books. About 600 books have been fumigated or repaired. The Curator will continue to detect books in poor condition and repair where necessary. The Central Library has also processed about half of the Arnold Graham Collection which was donated by the late Mr Arnold Graham in 1995. These bibliographical records will soon be loaded into the OPAC, available for access online.\n\nA set of five books by Tess Johnston, at the suggestion of our Secretary, Mrs Mary Painter, after the interesting talk by Tess were purchased. The titles included:\n\n* Far from home: western architecture in China's northern treaty ports.\n\n* God & country: western religious architecture in old China.\n\n* A last look: western architecture in old Shanghai.\n\n* The last colonies: western architecture in China's southern treaty ports.\n\n* Frenchtown Shanghai: western architecture in Shanghai's old French concession.\n\nThese books provide illustration of unique western architecture in different periods in China and were ordered directly from Shanghai. They are of great interest and are an important photographic record of a style of architecture which is fast disappearing in China today.\n\nConcerning usage of the RAS Collection, since the library move in May 2001, the numbers of reference enquiries have increased by 31% although the number of books loaned out have dropped by 50%. As reported by the Hong Kong Central Library, usage of the RAS Collection...\n\nxliii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215273, "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": 50, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "Hsiao, YÀ, 1894- \n\nMao Tse-tung and I were beggars; illustrated by the author, Siao-yu; with a foreword by Lin Yutang; preface by Raymond F. Piper, and historical commentary and notes by Robert C. North. [Syracuse, N. Y.]: Syracuse University Press, c1959.\n\nJohann Strauss\n\nThunder & lightning. [Xianggang]: Xianggang Lin shi shi zheng ju, c1999.\n\nJohnston, Tess\n\nFar from home: western architecture in China's northern treaty ports. Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, c1996.\n\nJohnston, Tess.\n\nFrenchtown Shanghai: western architecture in Shanghai's old French concession. Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, c2000.\n\nJohnston, Tess\n\nGod & country: western religious architecture in old China. Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, c1996.\n\nJohnston, Tess.\n\nThe last colonies: western architecture in China's southern treaty ports. Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, c1997.\n\nJohnston, Tess\n\nA last look: western architecture in old Shanghai. Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, c1993.\n\nLai, Tim-cheong\n\nDreamscapes: the art of T. C. Lai, Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, c[1999].\n\nLai, Tim-cheong\n\nHong Kong rhapsody: the art of T.C. Lai, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Book Centre, c[1997].\n\nLiddell, T. Hodgson\n\nChina: bits marvel and mystery. London: Allen, c1909.\n\nxlvii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]