[ { "id": 204618, "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-1963", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "86\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\nin the north-east quarter of the city, well away from the new diplomatic quarter.2\n\nAll accommodation for foreign embassies was to be concentrated in one area outside the east wall of the city, and about one and a half miles from a newly constructed gate, just near to the old astronomical instruments which can still be seen on top of the east wall. Eventually, after negotiations, the new British Legation was allotted two large houses and two blocks of flats in this new diplomatic quarter. The last christening was performed in the Legation chapel, the books in the small library were taken off their shelves, the flag at the gate was hauled down, and everything was packed.3 Among the more colourful of the closing scenes in the life of the old British Legation should be mentioned the two Commonwealth cricket matches played in the Autumn of 1958 between the Moonrakers, captained by Mr. Duncan Wilson, the British Chargé d'Affaires, and the Woolgatherers captained by the Indian Ambassador, Mr. G. Parthasaratly. The rules governing this diplomatic cricket were many and local but the chief rule of all was that if anyone hit a ball into the grounds of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security next door his whole side was out.\n\nFinally, in September 1959, the staff moved to their new quarters and thus after nearly one hundred years of continuous occupation the existence of the old British Legation in Peking came to an end. From an historical and sentimental point of view its loss was sad. But from a realistic point of view which\n\n20 This was built on a site which had been granted to Russia as far back as the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689). As a result of fighting between Russian settlers on the frontier between Siberia and Manchuria about a hundred Russian prisoners were brought to Peking in the period 1683-5. They were formed into a company, given a place of residence in the northeast corner of Peking, close to the Lama Temple, and intermarried with Chinese and Manchus. They retained their Greek Orthodox faith and were allowed to have their own priests. See Michel N. Pavlovsky, Chinese-Russian Relations (New York, 1949) 145-164. It was to this place, known as the Pei-kuan (\"Northern Hostel\") that the members of the Russian ecclesiastical mission transferred in 1861.\n\n30 Unfortunately the imposing Royal Coat of Arms which dignified the gateway of the old Legation was too large to fit properly into the new Legation buildings. Mr. Michael Stewart, the Chargé d'Affaires at the time of the move, arranged with Sir Robert Black, the Governor of Hong Kong, that the Coat of Arms should be sent to Government House in Hong Kong. It is now fixed onto the wall at the far end of the long ballroom of Government House, which it dominates by the brilliance of its colours,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204629, "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-1963", "page_number": 110, "title": "RAS-1963", "content_text": "CHEUNG CHAU\n\nnot put back when the house next door, wall, was renovated about ten years ago. of these tablets.\n\n97\n\nwhich shared a party There is now no trace\n\nHowever, two inscriptions still remain from these institutions. One, removed to the Wai Chiu section of the Kwok Man School in 1952, is dated the wu-shen year of Kuang-hsü (1908-9) and is an ornamental granite head-slab with two side pieces, all with carved and painted characters upon them, the gift of wealthy members or else a sign of general prosperity in the Wai Chiu community. The present leaders of the association say that the date refers only to the handsome inscriptions and not to the establishment of their school, which is believed to have been in operation for many years before. This is likely as the office building is an old one and was already registered at the time of the lease of the New Territories as the Wai Chau and Chiu Chau Club, and the association has a reputed existence of over two hundred years.\n\n24\n\nSimilarly a head stone is still in position inside an old building on the Praya belonging to the Sei Yap Yik Sin Tong, which records its repair in the 23rd year of Kuang-hsü (1897-8), the inscription being the work of WONG Wai Sum ✯✯✯, said to be a teacher in the Tong's school. This Tong has an interesting origin, if the tale told by its present managers is reliable, in that it arose from a shipwreck which washed up a body carrying money on one of the Cheung Chau beaches. The ship was supposed to have been carrying emigrants back to China from San Francisco. The body was given decent burial by some Sei Yap persons who hit upon the idea of forming a Tong for the unity and betterment of their fellow countrymen on the island, and with additional subscriptions the initial windfall was used to build or purchase the present building, which was the only property owned by the Tong in 1898. A feature of the building was the establishment of an altar on the ground floor on which were placed the tablets of the original organisers and principal subscribers, but these have now all gone, though a shrine remains.29\n\nThe fourth of these district associations of long-standing is the Po On which has no connection with the old Po On study run by the Tung Kwun association. Its leadership in 1898\n\n!\n\n1+L\n\nF", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1963.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205808, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "108\n\nJOHN MCCOY\n\nproto-Wu. We could safely make a preliminary approximation now from a survey of Chao's materials, but scholars are presently working intensively on proto-Wu and soon we may be able to use their results. What we ultimately have will be an amalgamation of two bodies of data, comparative and textual, with the evidence from one source supplementing the other.\n\nTo illustrate some of the points made above I have chosen six of the Mountain Songs from the Feng Meng-lung collection. These were selected as typical in structure and language yet relatively simple to translate. I have given an English version as close as possible to the Chinese meaning. Any attempt at this stage to capture the rhythm and the double meanings in a single translation would be doomed to failure. The most I strive for here is to give the primary meaning in my translation and the secondary meanings in the subsequent notes. I know that I am missing many of the secondary meanings because they are just not the sort of thing that turns up in dictionaries; however, from time to time a native speaker is good enough to point out to me some of the puns and hidden meanings which I have missed. I hope that my version will be of help in highlighting the linguistic points under discussion and to capture some of the flavor of these poems. In the notes (M) denotes Mandarin and (S) Shanghai dialect.\n\nI.\n\n姐道我郎呀,\n\n爾若半夜來時沒要捉後門敲,\n\n只好捉我場上雞來拔子毛,\n\n假做子黄鼠郎偷雞引得角角哩叫.\n\n好教我穿子單裙出來趕野貓。\n\nThe girl says, 'My sweetheart,\n\nIf you should come at midnight, don't give a rap at the back door.\n\nIt would be better to grab a chicken in our yard and pull out some feathers.\n\nPretend you are a weasel stealing chickens and make them let out a cackle.\n\nThis will be enough to get me running out in my slip to chase away the wild cat.'", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206594, "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": 142, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "136\n\n: \n\nLINDA F. SULLIVAN \n\na few free-standing houses and reinforced the fronts of their caves, again there was no fuel (timber or with the scarcity of livestock, animal manure) with which to heat this type of house. These caves suited the climate. They provided a warm shelter in winter without fuel and a cool house in summer. The people of the region took pride in their cave homes which represented to them a way of life with all its social and economic manifestations.\n\nIn contrast, the predominant form of domestic architecture in the countryside of Hopei province is free-standing houses. This house is the most basic unit or type of house in China. It is a three-bay plan. The house is built on a North-South orientation with the main door facing south. As one enters the front door there is a large living room with an ancestral shrine placed on the back wall. On both sides of the living room there are the bedrooms. The k'ang, or platform beds, are placed on the south side of the rooms so that the windows with southern exposure allow the rays of the sun to warm the sleeping platforms. In regions further north, fires are built beneath the k'angs for added warmth in winter. The outside of the house is part brick and stone with a simple thatched roof. The three-bay house, being the simplest form of Chinese architecture, is the most easily adaptable to many types of geographical and economic conditions and is found with modifications in many regions of China.\n\nThe next house in Hopei combines itself with a small store.9 The entrance to the house has been pushed to the southeast corner so that the more auspicious central southern door is given to the shop door. In this way, perhaps, the local geomancers felt that the man's business would be more prosperous. It also would be giving the customers the more honored position. After entering the southeast gate one is forced to turn by the spirit wall before entering the large but private courtyard of the proprietor. The privacy of his house is further seen by the lack of windows on the outside wall. The main door of the house faces south. As one steps in there is again a living room with an ancestral shrine and a bedroom to the left. The kitchen can be reached only by going outside. In the courtyard there is another bedroom. All the buildings in this group are on a foundation requiring two steps to reach the floor level. At the rear of the house there is a vegetable garden. Thus, within this private domain, the individual can find peace from the outside", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206598, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "140\n\nLINDA F. SULLIVAN\n\nand have traditionally been looked down upon by other groups. In the southern provinces, they have fought bitterly against the native Punti for ownership of land.17\n\nIn their building arts and plan arrangements, the Hakka houses or complexes have varied greatly from the homes of other Chinese. Their houses have a distinct character which in many ways reflects the hardy and fearless spirit of their inhabitants. Generally Hakka complexes are three or four storeys high with from ten to a hundred and twenty rooms. There are both horizontally and vertically rectangular storeyed houses with as many as three halls and two cross sections. It is the circular house, however, which is so markedly different from all other domestic architecture in China. Most of the houses built in this style were constructed during the Ch'ien Lung reign (1736-1796).18\n\nThe first example is a complex of rectangular houses.19 The complex is symmetrical on the right and left. One comes in from a gate on the southwest corner, turning so that upon entering the front courtyard one is heading toward the front door which faces south on the main axis.* After passing the front door there is a small gatehouse behind which there is a five-sided courtyard. After crossing the yard and climbing a few steps, one enters a large hall at the back of which there is a second courtyard. Further on there is a hall from which one has access to the ancestral hall which completes the main axis. Around the inside of the external wall are the kitchens and surrounding the central area are the animal sheds. On both sides of the central area there are stairs which lead to the upper floors. The second floor is for storage and the third and fourth are the living quarters. The windows are only on the top floor for which there may be many reasons. One is that the noise of the ground floor cannot penetrate the living quarters of the various families. Secondly it might be for protection and lookout purposes. It is known that the walls on both the left and right sides are thickened for defense. The appearance of this housing complex is very strong and stable and gives the impression of a fortress.\n\nThe circular type of Hakka house is shown in the next example.20 The plan of the complex is basically the same as the rectangular variety.† As one enters from the front door, one proceeds along a central axis from the gatehouse to the central courtyard which is\n\n* See also Fig. 2.\n\n† See also Fig. 3.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206599, "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": 147, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "TRADITIONAL CHINESE REGIONAL ARCHITECTURE\n\n141\n\nencircled by a passageway. Within the central courtyard there are two narrow, rectangular one-storeyed buildings for the pigs and chickens and the privy. At the far end of the main axis is the ancestral hall. On the outer circle of the building there are the kitchens and cattle pens. There are three storeys to this dwelling. Again, the second floor is for storage and the third is for living. This time the house is facing west which is perhaps because of the surrounding land and was the decision of the local geomancers. In front of the house there is a river encircling the site and the house is protected on one side by a mass of pine trees. Although the front door faces west, the windows on the top floor face only south, thus allowing the auspicious, and cooling, winds to blow in. The outside wall is made of loess mixed with limestone, and with the grey roof, the green pines and the river below, the entire setting is one of warmth and beauty.\n\nThe next house21 is a more complicated version of the last example. The differences are mostly in size and number. There is a central axis beginning at the front door with a southern orientation. In the middle of the gatehouse there is a small courtyard. In the center of the complex is the principal courtyard, around which there are several reception rooms for guests. At the far side of the courtyard is the main hall, behind which there is another courtyard. Finally, one reaches the ancestral hall at the back. Along the outer wall there are numerous kitchens. There also is a secondary east-west axis running horizontally from side gate to side gate. These gates were built for easy access to the mills which frequently are found in Hakka settlements. These mills provide the employment and means of support for such a self-contained, independent group. From an interior view of the house, one can see the extreme height of the outer wall in comparison to the inner circle. The upper floors are used for the living quarters, which are entered through balconies. The windows, again, are only on the upper levels where the people live. The whole complex is built to keep the outside world out and to tie the community together in a living and working environment.\n\nIn the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung there is a distinct type of society. The area is more heterogeneous and is divided by many dialects. \"The villages of the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung are compact. Many of them are communities composed of the\n\n* See also Fig. 4: also Plates 13-14.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206648, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "190\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\npoverty stricken to maintain them all, and was so persuasive that he managed to gain the monopoly of worship and offerings in that area. He is always to be seen poverty stricken and unkempt in his efforts to keep up the pretence before all the other gods.\n\nb. Chang (3) was a local peasant who, in Ying Chüen presented himself before the leader of a large invading force, dressed in rags and burnt black with exposure due to heavy labour in the fields, thus showing the invader just how poverty stricken the area was. The invaders changed their direction of march and laid waste neighbouring counties, saving Ying Ch’üen. Chang was deified Fa Chu Kung by the Emperor of China for his heroism.\n\nC. A very evil king came to Ying Ch’üen and demanded considerable tribute. This was collected from the peasants and was about to be transported away, when Chang (k), a peasant, challenged the enemy king to a duel. Chang using more powerful magic, defeated the king, and gave him three days to be clear of the district. However, some of the king's followers cut the ropes securing the king's boat, stranding him. He had, therefore, to pay a ransom of $130,000 to Chang, which was then shared among the peasants. When Chang died, the peasants requested the Emperor of China to deify him Fa Chu Kung.\n\nd. Whilst still a youth, Fa Chu Kung was living with his brothers and his sister-in-law in the barren hills. His sister-in-law told him to go out to collect wood for the stove. As he walked over the hills, he heard a voice telling him to go deeper into the unknown woods and when he did so, he met a sage who taught him magic. He was away for several years and when he returned his sister-in-law was more irritated by the fact that he had not brought back any firewood rather than by his being missing for so long. She scolded him and sent him out to gather some, telling him to return quickly as the rice had to be ready for the return of her husband. Fa Chu Kung surreptitiously returned and employing his magic, used his legs as firewood and soon had a roaring fire burning, quickly boiling the rice. This he did for every meal and his sister-in-law became very suspicious because she never saw any ash nor any wood lying around. Next meal she peeped around the door and saw Fa", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206842, "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": 119, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 113\n\nof Shui Pin Ts'uen, and enlarged to the size of a temple very soon after. It remains almost unaltered since except for the written characters over the door which were put there by Tang P'ooi Ch'oh (**) in the 27th year of Kwong Sui (***) of Ts'ing ( ) dynasty A.D. 1901.\n\nIt is the custom in China for men to count back the generations to their \"first ancestor.\" Thus a man may speak of himself as being the twentieth or fortieth generation meaning that he belongs to the twentieth or fortieth generation after one particular family ancestor who, by being the most ancient known forbear, or the founder of a particular branch or even the first of a particular name to settle in a certain locality, is given the title of \"first ancestor\". In many families there are more than one \"first ancestor\", the Tang family have several whom they venerate equally.\n\nFirst they have Tang Yue ($) their earliest known ancestor. A native of San Ye (†) now Honan province, (i) he was born in the second year of Hon Ping Tai (+) A.D. 2 and died 52 years later in the 1st year of Wing P'ing (†) of Tung Hon (**) dynasty. He was a very famous and high officer, and a personal friend of the first emperor of Tung Hon, Kwong Mo (†). He was only twenty-four years of age when Kwong Mo became emperor, but he was given the high office of \"Tai Sz To,\" (✯a✯) equivalent to Prime Minister (during Tung Hon dynasty), for having helped him to rid the country of the numerous bandits that infested it. After Kwong Mo died his son Ming Tai (8) gave him the honour of “Taai Foo (AM), the second highest honour it was possible to receive from the Emperor, at that time, and he was created \"Ko Mat Hau\" ( 4 ) which means Marquis of Ko Mat, now Kiaochow (*) in Shan Tung (R) province. After the death of Tang Yue his portrait was placed first among those of twenty-eight generals in one of the Emperor's palaces called Wan Toi (雲臺)\n\nTang Hon Fat, forty-seventh generation after Tang Yue, is also venerated by his descendants. It is believed by some, that he was the first of the Tang family to settle in Kam Tin. He was a government officer holding the post of \"Shing Mo Long” (**) and was a native of Paak Sha Ts'uen ( & ††) of Kat Shui ( #7†) district in the province of Kiangsi ( ¿1). According to one old family history he was visiting Kwangtung (*) and coming by chance", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207042, "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": 113, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The Monuments of Vientiane and Luang Prabang\n\n107\n\nOn the return journey one can stop at the village on the bank opposite to Luang Prabang which contains one of the most interesting temples in the whole of Laos, Vat Chieng Men. Its doorways are among the best examples of the carving modelled with a mixture of mahogany sap and ash which hardens in the air; peacocks, perhaps a reminder of the Mon hamsa, decorate the outer arch of each door which is triple tiered and deeply recessed. The ceiling is coffered and carved, and the altar contains a fine Buddha statue. The surrounding buildings are simple kuti, or monks' dwellings, and the whole temple blends harmoniously into the jungle background of the mountain at the very wall of the temple. Not least of the attractions of this temple is the walk to get there from the river bank; one goes along a path through the village where children play, mothers chatter and sell bananas and dogs look suspicious but wag their tails. As everywhere in Laos, the scene may be unsophisticated but it is not wanting in humanity and charm.\n\nReaders of this note should not think that the tour did nothing else but visit temples. A silk-weaving village was seen, a Meo settlement, and the making of silver; the royal palace dancers performed specially for the group and the final evening included a specially-arranged baci blessing ceremony with a Lao dinner.\n\nThe principal point of the tour was to absorb something of the restful atmosphere of Luang Prabang through its not magnificent but charming temples, its unhurried way of life and its noble simplicity. Vientiane provides a more modern contrast, but remains a quiet provincial town rather than a frenzied capital of the twentieth century. Laos might have the lowest income per capita in the world and its problems may be enormous, but it is not lacking in dignity and the charm of its people is unforgettable.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207168, "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": 239, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n233 \n\nThe fung shui name of the selected spot was known as \"Sleeping Beauty\" (*) Her legs were in the crossed position, and the selected point for the erection of the village was at her thigh. The village was to be pointed 256° at the west, to accept the incoming water from Kap Shui Mun, and would rest on a hill at the back (local name Lion Land *), with the hills of Tsing Yi Island to the left and Fa Shan to the right. The frontage of the village was to face the water channel. It was a glorious view showing the sun setting with the sails of homeward-bound fishing craft, especially in the Spring and Autumn seasons. When the sun is just lowering on the horizon, millions of golden beams reflect from the sea, shining at the village. It is really an excellent site for a village to be established. That is perhaps why Sam Tung Uk and Yeung Uk Village are facing west while the other villages in Tsuen Wan are facing in a south direction. A well was constructed on the right, apart from the north corner of the village, for drinking purposes, just below the Sleeping Beauty's lower part. This well never dries up even in the driest seasons. Even when the supply of water was given once in every 4 days in the 1963 drought, the water was still adequate for use by all the surrounding villagers. How wonderful to find that it is 95% full of water even in the dry season to-day.\n\nTo suit the fung shui requirement, all members of the family started to work jointly, after farming hours, to lower the site. This task lasted for several years, and was very arduous labour. They then began building the super-structures. Solid walls 16 inches thick were formed with a mixture of lime, clay and straw. The entrance to the Chi Tong (ancestral hall) was partly decorated with long hand-hewn granite stone blocks. Roof tops were constructed with wooden beams and clad with Chinese tiles. The entire structures in the village are approx. 17 feet high, of one storey. No height addition or alteration has since been made. Stone steps were laid to the door-way of every house. The structures proved to be strong and stable for nearly 200 years. There were three rows of houses built in the first instance and for this reason it was called Sam Tung Uk (A). After the construction work was completed, they moved in on a lucky day, in the 51st year of Ch'ien Lung (1786). The Chan Sze Pit Tong (), shown in the land record of District Office, Tsuen Wan, was formed by the four brothers at the time of village establishment. Another row of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207286, "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": 54, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "46\n\nCHIAO-MIN HSIEH\n\n1,400 miles long, runs between Lanchow and Urumchi via Hami in Sinkiang.\n\nThe Communist government obviously feels that the political importance of these railroads is greater than their economic value. Since the great bulk of China's population, markets, and production lies east of Lanchow and south of the Great Wall, many railroads are urgently needed in that part of China. One must wonder whether the two railroads built in the desert for the main purpose of connecting China with the Soviet Union were so necessary and their construction so urgent. Moreover, there is at the moment a sand-dune problem confronting the operation of the railroad in these desert areas. This seems to be insoluble by use of present techniques and makes the value of the whole project even more questionable.\n\n3. In southwest China a railroad was built between Nanning and Pinghsiang in 1955, which is connected with Haiphong and Hanoi. The significance of this new rail link between the Red River delta and the South China province of Kwangsi is that it opens a new major sea outlet for south China.\n\nSince China is an amphibious nation, facing the interior continent in the northwest and the Pacific Ocean in the southeast, one of the most significant geopolitical factors in China's history is her changing relations with the continent and the sea. In ancient times China faced the northwest, where the \"Silk Road\" passed through: the Pacific coast was the back door. The Kansu corridor in the northwest was the main entrance, playing an important role in communications between China and central Asia. In the nineteenth century, Western sea powers acted to open China's coastal ports, China began to turn her face toward the Pacific, which then became the front door, through which came new ideas and knowledge, but also new problems and troubles. Shanghai, Canton, and Tientsin replaced the cities in the northwest as the key cities. This reversal in geographic accessibility has transformed China's isolated condition to one of contact with the world.\n\nThe eastern coastal areas soon became the main part of China, where were located most of the large cities, heavy industries, railroads, and inland water routes, and about 70 per cent of the population. Because of its location, the area is vulnerable to attack by foreign sea powers. During World War II the area was easily", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207294, "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": 62, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "54\n\nJ. L. CRANMER-BYNG\n\ninto the city; I therefore resolved to keep him in view if possible, but the moment we came near him he set off at full speed, and in spite of all the efforts we could make we soon lost sight of him.\n\nWe had now proceeded about half a mile in a long narrow street, the end of which I was much annoyed at finding branched into two others rather wider, one turning short to the left, the other inclining to the right; here I called a halt, as it was evident, if we took the wrong direction, all chance of success was at an end. I therefore called to my aid the petition addressed (as I before mentioned) \"To the Hoppo\", in large characters; and seeing at a shop door a good-humoured-looking fellow staring at the unusual appearance of such a number of strangers in the city, I ran up to him and showed him the back of the petition, which he instantly read, laughed heartily, and pointed out the right road.\n\nWe proceeded on as fast we could go, and, after advancing a short distance, we again got sight of the soldier, whom we discovered, with several others, in the act of shutting two very large folding gates, which appeared to be the entrance to a spacious outer court, in which was visible the front of one of the most magnificent buildings I had ever seen. This was a very critical moment, for I instantly imagined it must be the Hoppo's palace, and, if the gates were once closed against us, all our labour was lost. I therefore loudly called out, \"Hurrah to the gate!\" We in a body sprang forward and luckily reached it at the instant the gates were shut, but before they had time to get them bolted; with one consent we put our shoulders to them, and the gates flew open before us, throwing all those inside to the right and left. Our whole body immediately rushed in, and it was our turn then to assist the soldiers in shutting and bolting the gates to keep out a mob of Chinese who had gathered in the city and followed in our rear.\n\nNow we had time to breathe, look about us, and consider where we were. Nothing could be more splendid than the building which stood in front of us; it was covered with Chinese characters in gold, beautifully ornamented with carved work in the Chinese style, and painted in the most brilliant and gaudy colours.\n\nMr. Perry at once assured me we must have reached the Viceroy's palace, as he discovered that particular banner which was carried before the Hoppo when he visited the Company's factory. The guard, whom we seemed to have caught en deshabille, had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207710, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1976", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "\"PATTERNED BANDS\" IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG\n\n83\n\nto the edge and the tassels allowed to fall free at each side, swinging at either side of the wearer's face. In Yuen Long, the band is not worn this way but instead a longer band (145 CM) is used to tie the hat under the wearer's chin.\n\nA patterned band approximately 85 CM long, with relatively small tassels, is often used to hold the rectangular headcloth worn by Hakka women both indoors and outdoors when a hat is not worn. The band is doubled over the top of the headcloth and fastened at the back of the neck below the woman's bun, thus serving as an ornament and to hold the headcloth in place.\n\nIn addition, a band approximately 75 CM long may be used to fasten the small apron (1) across the back. To attach the band, buttons are sewed to the ends of the bands near the tassels, and these are buttoned through loops in the apron. The bib of the apron is commonly fastened around the neck with a silver chain on which old Hong Kong silver five-cent pieces serve as buttons. These aprons are worn by Hakka women both on special occasions and for everyday use.\n\nIn Tsuen Wan, at least, the bands traditionally served other purposes as well. Women said that they had to weave great numbers of them before their marriages, because of the role they played in the ceremonies, and for a week or so beforehand they stopped all other work and stayed indoors to weave. The bride was expected to give them as gifts to all the older women relatives who came to attend the festivities. Patterned bands were also used to tie back the mosquito nets on the marriage bed, and were tied around the foot-washing basin which is an important dowry item and fertility symbol. One was used as the bride's trouser string, and one was even given as a gift to the little boy whose job it was to kick open the sedan chair door upon the bride's arrival. When a son had been born, a very long red patterned band was hung over the lantern which was raised in the ancestral hall at the hoi tang (H) ceremony, symbolizing the birth of a son into the lineage.4\n\nTechnique of Manufacture\n\nThe weaving of patterned bands was the only textile art form produced, in recent years at least, by Tsuen Wan women. Their only other artistic outlet was the singing of \"mountain songs\" (山歌*) while working together in groups, and the spontaneous singing", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208281, "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-1978", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "184\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nnée Yau, of Mang Kung Uk is not untypical. She grew up in Tseng Lan Shue, was betrothed at 4 years old, but continued to live in her father's village. At 7 she helped to look after three cows, driving them up the hill early in the morning, returning at approximately 8.00 am or 9.00 am for breakfast, and going back to the hill to drive them home in the early afternoon. At 10, she began to help her mother to carry firewood into Kowloon, carrying approximately 30 catties on each trip. She married at 19, and worked under the supervision of her mother-in-law. Her husband was a seaman, and received only 8 dollars per month. Her mother-in-law looked after the children, and she cooked, farmed, raised pigs, cut firewood and grass, and carried water. She often had to rise at 4.00 in the morning and work till late at night.64\n\nUp to the eve of World War II, daily life in Sai Kung did not change significantly from the description given in this chapter. This background is needed for an understanding of the impact of the War on Sai Kung's residents.\n\nTHE WAR YEARS\n\nThe coming of the Japanese\n\nIt was 3.00 o'clock in the morning, December 10, 1941. Mr. Chung P'oon was awakened by loud banging on his door. Thinking that these might be bandits, he answered the door with knife in hand. He opened the door to find several guns pointing at him. The Japanese army had arrived at Wong Chuk Shan Village. For him and for the rest of the Sai Kung population, the occupation had begun....\n\nThrough an interpreter, the Japanese told him they wanted to be taken to Kowloon. Mr. Chung did not know it then, but we now know that two days earlier, the Japanese army had overrun Tai Po and Sha Tin, and the day before had taken what was known as the \"Shingmun redoubt\". British forces were withdrawing from the New Territories to Hong Kong Island, and a contingent of Sepoy soldiers were covering the retreat at Devil's Peak. The Japanese soldiers in Wong Chuk Shan had probably strayed into the village by mistake. They had come over from Shap Sz Heung, intending to find their way into Kowloon. Now,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208282, "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-1978", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "185\n\nthey were knocking on every door in the village to force villagers to act as their porters. Mr. Chung had little choice but to obey. For the next week, he and quite a few of his fellow villagers were taken away from the village. He remembered having to march up Fei Ngo Shan, down to Ma Yau Tong, and then to Lei Yu Mun, until he successfully escaped.66\n\nIt was probably on December 11 that Mr. Chau T'in Shang in Sai Kung Market saw the Japanese cavalry pass. The Japanese did not enter the market. There was no disturbance or fighting. The police had been withdrawn before the Japanese arrived, and people just stayed indoors.67\n\nQuite a few villagers from Sai Kung and nearby villages were in the city when the War broke out. Mr. Wan Ts'eung of Tai Po Tsai was living in Kowloon City at the time. He must have learnt of the beginning of the War when he saw Kai Tak Airport bombed. But he recalled that one morning, he was in the street, and was shocked by machine-gun fire behind him. He hid behind some stone pillars, and then saw Fifth Columnists, known as the \"victory fellows\" (shing lei yau) who proclaimed that they were members of the Asia Prosperity Institution (Hing A Kei Kwan). Mr. Cheung Wing of Wo Mei was in Shaukiwan when he heard of the outbreak of war. He immediately went with several people back to the village, and feared all the way that they might be spotted and shot at by the Japanese. He arrived in the village before the Japanese came down from Keng Hing Shek. Mr. Tse Koon K'au of Tan Ka Wan spent the night of December 7 in the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon. This hotel was frequented by New Territories villagers when they went into the city. The next morning, he heard the aeroplanes and the bombs, and went out to ask what the matter was. When he saw that people in Shamshuipo were wounded, he realized that it was not a practice exercise, and started immediately to return to Sai Kung. A Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Po had a petrol station on Waterloo Road, and Mr. Chan drove Mr. Tse and five other people towards Sha Tin. They were stopped at a roadblock and were not allowed to drive into the New Territories. He left the car, with some difficulty bypassed the roadblock, spent some time with a friend in Chap Wai Kon (Sha Tin), and spent the night at Wu Kai Sha. He arrived in Sai Kung the next day, before the Japanese appeared", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208336, "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-1978", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "44 \n\nKEITH STEVENS \n\n1871) offered sacrifices at the City God temple and reported, in writing, that he and the whole family with gratitude had made an image of the Duke Wei which he presented to undergo the rite of consecration, so that it would protect all members of his family and all his domestic animals and poultry. The image is of a seated soldier, dressed in armour and military cap, his right hand is clenched and rests on his right knee. His left hand, the first and fifth fingers only, pointing vertically, is held at waist height in a magical sign. Wei had a gilded face, traces of which can still be seen, five tufts of black beard, the stubble only remaining and gilt armour covered by a red and blue robe again only traces of which are still visible. This image was blackest and greasiest of all and is quite surprisingly handsome now that the film of filth has been removed. Wei could possibly be Yu-ch'ih Ching-te (*), the Door Guardian who according to Mathews' dictionary is well-known as one of the two door guardians on temples and is “depicted with a black face and the fingers of one hand twisted up\". The image, dressed in loose robes over armour and chain mail, has a gilded face but otherwise, has his fingers twisted up. In reality Yu-ch’ih was a general who served the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung in his wars against rebels and died in 659 A.D. \n\nThe fourth image (Plate 5), also from Shan Men district, Wu Kang county in Hunan and dedicated in 1938 is of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin. The image, easily identifiable as such by her five-leafed bodhisattva crown, beads and vase, is seated cross-legged on a lotus, and dressed in gilded robes, The slip of paper in Kuan Yin's back relates that Petitioner and worshipper Mrs. Yin Wu-chi together with her five sons, four daughters-in-law, and one grandchild, on the 21st of the 6th moon of the 27th year of the Chinese Republic (18th July 1938) offered sacrifices to the Earth God at the City God temple in Lao Chai, presented and installed a new image of Kuan Yin. This has been done, the slip said, so that this Buddhist deity can be resorted to in her natural form and can kindly bestow good luck and eternal protection and prosperity on the Yin family and its future generations. In words of glowing praise, the petitioner described the heart, the liver, the lungs, the kidneys, the soul, the gall, the eyes, teeth, the bones, the bowels and the spirit of Kuan Yin, as 'the liver of a green dragon', 'lungs of a white tiger', ‘kidneys \n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208431, "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-1978", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n139\n\nvenue. As with the ancestral halls, described above, the village temple usually owns some farm land which is rented out at a profit. Village markets, held in the temple courtyard, form a source of revenue, since all outsiders must rent stalls. Revenue comes into the temple also from small contributions of the superstitious folk, who visit it to seek some benefit from the presiding deity. Much of the village budget is made up, however, of self-imposed taxes (Hui Ch'ien), and voluntary contributions solicited from the wealthy members, usually for some specific civic betterment. In theory, under the Manchu dynasty, certain sums were supposed to be returned to the village from their general government taxes for the purposes of education, as set down in the Ta Ch'ing Hui Tien (...), but these seldom, if ever, did find their way back.\n\nAn annual festival in honor of the patron of the temple is the chief social event in most villages in China. The responsibility for the management of this normally falls upon the temple council. Theatricals, side shows, and feasting mark these occasions. The religious side of the carnival has largely disappeared; usually, it is merely a grand social period, a time of relaxation and merry-making for young and old. Interrupting the normally dull routine of village life, it is of some psychological importance as a social safety valve.\n\nThe duty of properly policing the village is also the charge of the temple council (when it is not handled by the Ti-pao). Every household is expected to supply a man for a certain number of nights a year, but more usually, a contribution of money is given to pay for the service by regularly employed individuals. Civic duties such as lighting dangerous corners and repairing walls, roads, canals, and boat landings, when these are ever done, are the responsibility of the village temple. The main task in this connection may be the solicitation of funds from door to door.\n\nSuch charitable duties as supplying free medicine, burial, food, and clothing, when not taken care of by the clan, are the concern of the temple council, as is the supplying of educational facilities when these are lacking.\n\nIn short, all financial and administrative matters which concern the village as a whole, rather than any individual group, are handled by the village temple. As Kulp reports for Phenix village, \"Gene-\n\n1 Ibid., p. 65.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208624, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "54\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\ntip of a soldier's nose; then another came along a little later and gave the poor man a cigarette. Such action was noticed often; some of the Japanese being cruel, or at least stern, while others were quite humane. Later on we learned that these wounded British Tommies were thrown out through a window and bayonetted to death. During actual hostilities the Japanese took no prisoners, but once the armistice was signed, prisoners' lives were respected.\n\nSitting on the floor from time to time we heard loud knocking and pounding throughout the upper floors of our house. Later we found out that the Japanese had broken in the panels of many of the doors leading to the rooms. At one time, also, a machine gun was carried into the house, set up on one of the back verandahs for action, as there were apparently some British soldiers still in the vicinity of our house. From time to time a Japanese soldier would pass by and ask “Time?” at which some unsuspecting padre would show his wrist watch and then the soldier would reach out his hand for the watch.\n\nThus the day wore on. Case upon case of our precious foodstuffs were being carried out and we could see a growing pile of discarded bottles and cans on our front lawn. A Japanese could open a can or a bottle and if the taste or smell was not to his liking, he forthwith threw the can away. As mentioned earlier in this narrative, we had barricaded the door leading into the downstairs chapel with mission boxes to avoid being hit by stray bullets, and when the Japanese found that this entrance was more convenient for their looting, they immediately chopped in the door and removed the barricading boxes. This coupled with the fact that the British soldiers were found in our house must certainly have increased their suspicions of our status, and apparently they could not figure us out.\n\nAlong about four or four-thirty one of the soldiers stooped down and raised the hem of Father Murphy's cassock. What he saw, a pair of khaki trousers, evidently removed all suspicions and sealed our fate. For we were all ordered to stand up and take off our cassocks. We were then searched, told to stand in line and tied together in twos, threes and fours, with our hands behind our backs. This accomplished, with one soldier leading and another bringing up the rear we were led out of the front door and down our front road. I do not know what the thoughts of the others were, but I", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208627, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n57\n\nwe saw a number of flower pots, a pile of lumps of clay, a few boards, a couple of ramshackle old beds which had long outlived their usefulness, a couple of large water jars and odds and ends of debris, together with a small portion of the family (or was it the gardener's) wash still hanging on a line. One window gave us a little light, but no air, the only air coming in through the crack between the door and the wall. Into this space, say sixteen by eighteen (a generous estimate) we, some thirty-four prisoners of war, were thrust, the door closed and a guard on duty outside.\n\nTaking further stock of our new quarters in the gathering dusk, for by now the sun had sunk behind our hill, we found we were on a concrete floor, at least that part which was not covered with debris. Kicking some of this aside we began to see if we could find enough space in which at least to lie down for the night, as it was now rapidly getting dark. We were still tied up and were given to understand that if we got loose, we would be shot, so we tried to sit or lie down on the concrete floor, but tied as we were, with our hands behind our backs and two and three and four tied together on one rope, it was almost impossible to maintain any position for more than a few minutes. If one of a group sat down, the rest perforce had to follow suit. For a time we tried sitting back to back in order to get some rest, but even that was too tiring. As remarked above, Father Szeliga and Michael were not tied, and they did yeoman service for us in picking up the debris and piling it in corners and under the two rickety beds. Every once in a while the guard would pass by and peek in through the crack. When he did so everyone was as quiet as a mouse for we were also given to understand that we were to make no noise.\n\nJust before dark our door opened a little and a sentry called for three of us to come out. The ones nearest the door were Fathers Tackney, Knotek and O'Connell. At first we thought our time had come, but when the purpose was revealed, namely, to carry a few sand bags, we breathed easier. Finally we lay or sat down in order to try to get some sleep. Outside by this time there was almost an unnatural stillness, the booming of guns had stopped and we wondered what was happening. However, stretched out on the floor in almost every conceivable pose, we could not get to sleep, and in desperation we sought means to get loose from our bonds, come what may. One had already succeeded in loosening his own hands", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208628, "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": 85, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "58\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nand he helped others to loosen theirs, at least to some extent. Some, though, spent the whole night with hands tied, but how they managed I do not know. Later the marks on their hands showed for weeks.\n\nTo cap it all, poor Father Bauer still had dysentery, and Father Madison also developed a similar malady. Well, we used the water jar, which so fortunately had been left in the garage. Thus passed our first night in the garage—the Christmas night of 1941.\n\nAltogether we were thirty-four—a Bishop, a Salesian Seminarian, Brother Bernard, two laymen, Mr. Brown and Michael, and Fathers Benson and Norris, C. P., Szeliga, the Polish Salesian, Toomey, Troesch, Meyer, Downs, Keelan, Quinn, Bauer, Reardon, Callan, Allie, Madison, Gaiero, Siebert, McKeirnan, Walter, Moore, O'Connell, Tackney, Knotek, O'Connor, C. M., Charles Murphy, from Scarboro Bluffs, Canada, and our Brothers Michael, Anselm, Lawrence, Thaddeus and William.\n\nDawn finally came, and we welcomed the new day. Fortunately for us the weather was mild, and despite the fact that all except Father Szeliga slept without their cassocks, and some just in trousers and underwear, we felt no ill effects, except a natural stiffness in our joints and bones from the hard floor. The ominous silence of the preceding night continued, and we began to wonder if in reality the war was over or what was brewing. Later we learned that an armistice had been agreed upon about five o'clock Christmas afternoon, though at Stanley sporadic fighting continued until around seven, when the few men still defending the prison surrendered. On receiving telephonic instructions from Hong Kong the big guns at the Fort also ceased firing and the Fort was soon in Japanese hands.\n\nAs the morning wore on we began to think of food and drink since we had nothing in our stomachs since eleven o'clock the preceding day, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. The sentry peeked in from time to time, and whenever he did so we always managed to turn our faces towards him and slip our hands back into their nooses. About ten o'clock we tried to make signs to the sentry that we were hungry and thirsty but to no avail. Finally, after repeated representations and the offering of a very valuable wrist watch by Father Toomey, the sentry handed in through the crack in the door, his canteen which was about half full of water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208630, "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": 87, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "60\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nremaining hardtack biscuits and the rest of the milk in the can. In the course of the morning our door was pushed ajar and we were given a pail of water and a few more biscuits. (The water, as we learned afterwards, came from a well nearby, the city water supply having been shut off or the mains broken since some days before Christmas. At our house during that time we had filled all available bottles with the precious liquid and had even drained out the water from the hot water heating system.) With the pail of water was one small cup, and as our hands were still tied, one of the soldiers who brought the water held the cup to our lips and we drank in turn.\n\nDuring the day we continued to clean up the debris in the garage, and succeeded in getting rid of a little more rubbish. We had to work quietly and in the absence of the sentry as we did not wish to excite his suspicions. During the night the rickety wooden bed had fallen apart, and in the morning the old iron bed was taken away we surmised for the purpose of cremating the dead bodies that left us with a little more floor room. As previously mentioned there were a few odd articles of clothing on a line in the garage and these we commandeered as substitutes for pillows.\n\nSo\n\nIn the afternoon of the twenty-seventh our hands were untied by the guards for the space of about an hour, so that we could eat our biscuits and drink our water. This was certainly a relief. We were likewise allowed to go outside for a short period in order to limber up, and were also informed that we could go to a nearby well for more water. Accordingly Father Keelan and I started off in company of a soldier to a house just in the rear of Dr. To's home. As we walked through the little ravine which leads to the beach we could see the vestiges of soldiers' camps, and in the unusual stillness which reigned, Stanley looked very desolate. We drew two pails of water from a rather deep well and brought them back to our brethren. In the meantime, a half dozen of us, under the lead of Father Troesch, were allowed to go up to our house to secure some clothing and blankets. They soon returned bringing with them a few armfuls of odds and ends of clothing, a blanket or two and a few tins of foodstuffs. Someone then brought us a small Chinese firepot; we found a large tin can which had contained the army biscuits and we were allowed to cook a meagre supper just outside our garage door. Hardtack was soaked in a large tin of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208632, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "62\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nWe did not know quite what he meant, but as he repeated these words, he made a motion towards our house on the hill. We interpreted all this to mean that peace had been concluded and that we were free to return to our house. We pointed to our house and he nodded his head. We leave our feelings to be imagined by the reader as we prepared to return.\n\nPicking up our few belongings, and, of course, the food which Major Kerr had kindly secured for us, and bidding goodbye to the British soldiers, we trudged back to our house. Be it confessed however, that we were not too hilarious as we did not know what awaited us above. Reaching our front lawn, we found Japanese soldiers in the house. They looked at us with unemotional faces and refused to allow us to enter. So we sat on the lawn until almost dusk when they said we might stay in our lower chapel. Entering in we found the place fairly presentable, though the odor in some spots was none too pleasant. We opened the window, did a little cleaning up, and settled down for the night, sleeping on the floor between the altars.\n\nDuring the night the temperature fell considerably, as only it can in South China, and as we had but a couple of blankets, and only a few had retrieved their cassocks, so we shivered. We would fall asleep only to be awakened by the cold. Then a walk over and around other sleeping forms, and another attempt to sleep. We had fixed up toilet facilities as best we could under the circumstances in the corridor and finally the dawn came. Before retiring we had managed to get a cup of our now famous stew by building a temporary fireplace just outside the chapel door, up against the walls of our building.\n\nAs the day dawned, we were up and trying to get warm by walking around, until our culinary staff announced breakfast, which was similar to the previous night's supper. During the morning we were allowed to walk around outside on the lawn, managed to improve our fireplace, picked up some firewood and carried water from our garage tap. As the soldiers were still in the building, we were not supposed to go beyond our lower chapel, but now and then during the day one or two of us would venture through the building. Sometimes we were unmolested, at other times we were warned to keep out, with a grunt. On these occasional forays we contrived to retrieve some of our belongings, such as clothing,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208882, "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-1980", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "16\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\noften picked out in green or left in their natural state, though very quickly they are covered with incense soot.\n\nTraditional temples in Hong Kong and Macau have two predominant styles of facade. The first has a verandah, which stretches from side to side across the front and is covered by the roof (Illustration 7). The second style, the more common, consists of a regular oblong plan with the entrance door and the section of the front facade which fronts the main hall, set back about two feet into the whole facade. The facade fronting the two side halls is usually windowless, though occasionally it is decorated with long murals at roof height (Illustration 8).\n\nThe verandah of the first style is occasionally enclosed in a low, open balustrade. Above it the roof is supported by a stone beam from each side wall, reaching to and resting on the vertical columns which flank the entrance. Stone animals occasionally grace the beams, and more often than not the wooden support beams which stretch from the facade to the vertical pillars are heavily carved or support carvings depicting Chinese social life. In some villages, the Deng Family clan temple at Ha Tsun for example, the carvings depict everyday life, such as fishermen wading ashore from their grounded boats. In other temples, under the eaves high above the long verandah, murals of scenes in three dimensions in Shekwan pottery decorate the facade.\n\nThe majority of temples in Macau are single-hall temples (a total of 19 out of 32). The main halls of the two largest traditional temples in Macau, the Lin Feng Miao and the Guan Yin Miao are much the same basic size as those in the large Hong Kong traditional temples. However, the side halls and annexes of the two Macau temples are considerably larger. The large main hall of the Lin Feng Temple in Almirante Lacerda, facing WNW and backing onto the hill Colina de Mong Ha, has a main altar with two secondary altars on either side and, in addition, a second main altar in the front of the court, facing the main entrance. The whole Lin Feng complex has four separate major altars. There are two in the main hall, one at the front and one at the back and one each in the two side halls (with the one to the east having a further altar in a separate room). The temple's two side halls, each with its own main altar, are more than likely looked upon as separate temples as they have their own Earth Gods beside their entrances.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208954, "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-1980", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "84\n\nDAVID LUNG\n\ncockloft reached by a ladder may be added to provide for additional storage or sleeping space. The front and back rooms are gable roofed, while a portion of the courtyard may be covered to provide shelter for cooking. The walls are load-bearing structures, 12-in cavity walls, made out of greyish bricks of Kwangtung size (11″X 5\" x 3\"), manufactured in regions along Sikiang, West River. Some houses have three to five courses of granite stone on the facade running up from the foundation. Clay roof tiles laid in single layers are supported by rafters spaced roughly 8 in apart. The rafters are in turn placed on beams of fir or pine roughly 6 in in diameter supported by end walls. Window openings are rare and do not belong to the original design. Light is let in through doorways opened to the courtyards and the lanes. The front door openings are usually 8 ft tall and 3.4 ft wide closed by a set of timber doors from the inside and another set of shutters about 5 ft from the outside. Decorative reliefs called hua-liang are commonly found above door openings.\n\nThe planning of the village is based on fung-shui principles. Fung-shui, literally meaning wind-water, is a form of divination based on topographical and architectural features, and is commonly translated as geomancy. It is a science (or quasi-science) which deals with the analysis of the formation of the landscape in selecting sites for graves, buildings, villages or even cities. The notion of siting of towns and buildings by means of oracle divination can be attributed to Shang times from the Chou records,\n\nSchools of Geomancy\n\nThere have been two schools of geomancy since Sung times: the Fukien School and the Kiangsi School. The former puts more emphasis on li, the earth pattern, su, number theories based on the trigrams and hexagrams of the I Ching, and hsiu, astrological elements, which consequently depend more on the use of the compass. The Kiangsi School, on the other hand, looks for ch'i, the cosmic breath, and hsiang, the forms of mountains and watercourses, and so, the use of the compass is subordinate. However, the two schools have fused together since the 19th century.\n\nli # su #\n\nI Ching 易經\n\nhsiu 宿 ch'i hsiang\n\nhua-liang #", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209294, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 197, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "BRO. TSUNG LAI SHUN IN MASSACHUSETTS\n\n183\n\nrobe. Their headgear was particularly ill-adapted to our winters, and after a while they were forced to make application to their rulers in China for permission to adopt hats which would give them better protection. In due time the permission came and in consequence, a few days later, the Lai-Sun women appeared on the streets waving masses of Chinese clothes crowned by the very latest creations of the up-to-date American milliner. And the combinations were often startling.\n\n+\n\nThe family were punctilious in the discharge of their social obligations, in this respect, too, living up to their Chinese customs. It seems that the social customs of China demand that the ordinary \"call\" be repaid as soon as possible. The Lai-Suns were very particular about this matter. They usually returned a call on the following day, and commonly the entire family participated in this function. Persons who received these visitations describe them as decidedly novel and interesting. And the appearance at the door of a house of the eight smiling Celestials was a spectacle whose general significance strongly suggested the sallying forth of the famous Peterkin family—\"Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin, Elizabeth Eliza, Solomon John and the two little boys in their India-rubber boots.\"\n\nDuring the latter part of their residence in this city the Lai-Suns lived in a house on Bay street, Mr. Lai-Sun having at that time returned to China. The exact reason for his return was not made public at that time, but the general explanation was that the conservative element in the Chinese government had succeeded in discrediting the policy that had sent the Chinese young men to this country. And so Mr. Lai-Sun went back to China, and in the course of a year or so his family followed him.\n\n[The first page of the following article is missing]\n\nCHINESE STUDENTS FAMOUS AT HOME\n\n(continued From First Page)\n\nsilk rustling, they made an imposing procession. Mr. Lai-Sun had impressive dignity and the family were punctilious in the extreme regarding their social obligations, there never being any neglect of the proper etiquette, if the Lai-Suns were able to ascertain precisely what the occasion demanded.\n\nThe Lai-Suns spoke English fluently and were evidently people of means. The daughters of the family were amiable and attractive and made a remarkable record of marrying out of their race. One, Annie,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209304, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 207, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n193 \n\ncorpse was laid out. Where possible, the death should take place in a room where the ancestral tablets of the deceased's father were; in some areas, if this could not be arranged, the corpse would be carried there later, but not elsewhere. The ritual rules governing these acts were everywhere very detailed, but differed from place to place.\n\n \nThe corpse was then laid out on a mat on the floor in a room prepared in accordance with the customs of that area, facing the door, which was left open; the immediately bereaved relatives were obliged to keep watch night and day beside the deceased, and to welcome well-wishers as they came to pay their respects.\n\n \nIn the morning of the day chosen as propitious for the encoffining — usually the third or fourth after the death — the bereaved family would put on mourning which had been made for them by the village women. In every village, mourning was worn in four or five different grades, depending on the closeness of relationship with the deceased, although the mourning considered proper to each grade differed in detail from area to area. The coffin was then carried through the village by the young men of the village and placed, covered with a blanket or cloth, in a matshed on suitable open land outside, with a table with offerings in front. The bereaved family would continue to keep watch beside the coffin, snatching sleep when and how they could. The villagers would come again to pay respects; anyone who did so would be invited to eat of the funeral food provided by the bereaved family but cooked on communal stoves nearby by the elders of the village. If the death took place outside the village, the coffin could not be brought back into the village: in such cases, the matshed would be built far out in the fields.\n\n \nDuring the evening and night of this or the next day, elaborate and lengthy rituals would be mounted by Taoist priests, with all those in mourning attending. These rituals were designed to secure the safe passage of the deceased through the hells of punishment, and his protection from the attacks of ill-disposed ghosts. During these same evenings, rituals to purify the family and the funeral site and to control any nearby malicious spirits in preparation for the actual burial were conducted. When the Taoist rites were completed, usually at about two in the morning, the bereaved family would prepare to sleep on the ground around the coffin.\n\n \nThe following morning, the bereaved family would wait by the coffin to welcome well-wishers as they appeared again to pay their respects, and when everyone was present, a complex series of rituals took", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209663, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 320, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "298\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsubstantial amount, outside the offended party's door or, in the case of a whole lineage, its ancestral hall, and at the expense of the other. Justice was not only to be done but was to be seen (and heard!) to be done. As one informant has said, \"The act was intended to give back face, and so was done at the home of the wronged party but paid for by the other\". It thereby entailed an acknowledgement of guilt by the offender, and since houses and ancestral halls were set in the midst of each village, and the dispute was of course common knowledge, the shame and vexation of the party having to make such an atonement was complete. I suspect that this made settlements much more difficult where the aggrieved party insisted on his rights to fire-crackers perhaps to such an extent that sensible people would not insist on it, and the mediating elders would do their best to persuade parties to forego the provision, wherever possible.\n\nThis practice first came to my attention in 1957, when I was District Officer South. Two lineages in the villages of Tseng Lan Shue and Ho Chung were in dispute over damage to or interference with a grave belonging to the former, and its village representative (who was also an elder of the lineage in question) was demanding that the Ho Chung people should make due payment and, in addition, pay for ten thousand strings of fire-crackers to be let off at his clan's ancestral hall to show atonement and satisfactorily (for him) conclude the case. He was a difficult and determined person, and I was inexperienced and thought his claim extravagant. As the case was somehow settled or at any rate did not come up to me again, I thought no more about it, not realizing that the demand for firecrackers as part of the settlement was in line with old custom in the area.\n\nSince that time, the old rural society and its economic base have been changed out of all recognition, but my discussions with elders in different parts of the old Southern District, comprising the present Islands, Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan administrative districts, at various times over the past twenty-five years have confirmed the practice in their areas in former days, and its time-honoured place in the settlement of disputes.\n\nFinding this practice to be an interesting, not to say intriguing, part of local custom, but being unable to spend time in gathering", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209767, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "4\n\nalong the mountainside, bullets started whizzing by us. We all dropped flat on the ground, except the two Carmelite Sisters who apparently didn't know what live bullets were. One of the Sisters was standing by me, and I reached up, grabbed her arm and pulled her down. She later was the Mother Superior, and whenever I wanted anything, I was careful to remind her that she owed her life to me. The allied soldiers manning the road block finally, after much shouting back and forth, were convinced that we were not Japanese and let us through.\n\nThe house was in the middle of the last battle for Hong Kong which was fought on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1941. On Christmas Eve occasional bullets were slamming into the North side of the house, so several temporary altars were set up on the south side of the house for Christmas Masses. The masses were staggered, so I put up my hand for a late mass.\n\nThat night another priest moved his mattress from the north side of the house into my room on the south side on the third floor. All night we were awake watching the tracers and explosions and the shouts and cries of the soldiers. We finally went to sleep about four in the morning and slept soundly. We got up about ten o'clock, and were petrified to note that there was not a sound in the house. It was all quiet, in contrast to the usual noise of a house full of people. We looked out the door, and the place was empty with much debris already scattered down the corridor. Then we looked down the stairwell, and we could see the Japanese soldiers in battle array on the ground floor. Needless to say, this was a bit of a shock. We thought the other residents must have got word during the night to evacuate, and they overlooked us.\n\nSo we two got dressed slowly, and started making our way down to the ground floor. On the second floor landing, a Japanese soldier came charging out of one of the rooms with his bayonet. The two of us backed up against the wall with our hands up and the soldier made like he was going to run us through. Not so! Just wanted to scare us, which he did. Then he pushed us down the stairs, and we found the rest of the household sitting on the floor in the front room under guard. In the afternoon, we asked the Japanese if we could get something to eat. They allowed us to take from our storeroom things that were ready", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209768, "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": 27, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "5\n\nto eat, but no cooking. Then later in the afternoon, a wounded British soldier was carried in. He was lying on the floor, and asked for absolution, as he was sure the Japanese were going to kill him. One of the priests bent over to give him absolution. This priest was wearing brown trousers. When the Japanese guard saw the brown trousers, he jumped up screaming furiously 'spies spies, all spies'. With that they proceeded to tie us by threes with our hands behind us. They marched us down the hill to a small ravine behind Carmel Convent. At the end of the ravine was a Japanese soldier with a wireless set. The Japanese then separated us by nationalities, British, Americans, then Swiss, Hungarians, Parthians, Medes and Elamites. Then they took the British around the corner and bayonetted them. I saw one Japanese soldier stick his bayonet into a British soldier who had his hands tied behind his back. The soldier fell over backwards, and the Japanese nonchalantly wiped the blood off the blade of his bayonet. Just at that moment, the Japanese at the wireless set came running up with a piece of paper to the commander who looked at it long and hard. Then they marched the rest of us all to a two-car garage where we were under guard. It seems that the British had surrendered just at that time. We were in the garage two nights and two days. Someone gave a Japanese guard a watch for a canteen of water and that is all we had.\n\nAfter about two days, we were let out, untied, and let go back up to our house. We were allowed to stay in the lower chapel. The Japanese were occupying the rest of the house. Finally they let us have the house back for a couple of weeks and then we were put into the Stanley internment camp. For the rest of the war, the house was the headquarters of the Japanese secret police and because of them, the house was not looted. They closed the chapel and sacristy and not a thing was touched there for four years. At the end of the war, the Carmelite Sisters came up from the foot of the hill and protected the property till our two priests got out of the internment camp.\n\nI would like to make a little diversion here and tell you about the Carmelite convent down at the foot of our hill. In the middle of the final battle, a Japanese officer banged on the door of the convent. The little extern nun opened the door. The officer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209769, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "6\n\nyelled at her 'are you in charge here?' 'O no,' said she, ‘not me'. The officer demanded that she bring out the in-charge. Sister went in and the mother superior came out. When she came up to the officer, he yelled at her: 'aren't you afraid of me?' 'Of course not' she replied 'I know you have come to protect me.' It seems that protecting Sisters was not in the Japanese handbook for battle, and when the Japanese don't know what to do, they stand there and suck in their breath loudly. Well the officer stood there sucking in his breath for a long time, and finally turned to the soldier with him and said. 'In that case, you write out a notice and put it on the front door of the convent that nobody can come in here without my written permission!' Carmel Convent was untouched for the rest of the war! All the other places for miles around were looted from top to bottom.\n\nAfter the war, the house resumed its original purposes, headquarters, language school, and rest house. When the Communists took over China, our priests as well as practically all the other foreign priests stayed here. At the same time, the house became the headquarters for a massive relief effort providing all the primary necessities to the huge deluge of refugees that poured into Hong Kong from China.\n\nThe house has now been made into two sections, one section for public use for retreats, meetings, seminars etc. The other section's for our own headquarters and rest house. The back part of the property towards the mountain has been sold off for a housing project known as Stanley Knoll. But we still have the glorious and spectacular view of the sea to the South.\n\nI thank you for taking the time to come to see the house, and I thank you especially for your kind attention. As the Chinese are wont to say: the first time you come, you are a stranger. The second time you come, you are a friend. I hope we will be friends.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209863, "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": 122, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "100\n\nFurther to the west is Shalowan (\"Sand Snail Bay\") a big village with a fine beach and a fine wood behind it for “fungshui”. The villagers defend their beach against sand diggers with firearms; it guards their paddy fields behind. There is a settlement of early man on the headland near the village; old fields just behind the site are, apparently, for dry crops.\n\nIn a suitable light ancient log slides can be seen, running straight down the steepest hills, on this stretch of coast.\n\nBetween Shalowan and Tai O the only place of note is Sham Wat (\"Deep Dene\"), a narrow valley with two or three tiny hamlets.\n\nJust to the east of Tai O is Po Chu Tam (“Precious Pearl Pool\"). The name may either preserve the memory of a pearl fishery or enshrine a local legend: pearl oysters were once to be found in Hainan only 200 miles away. Po Chu Tam is the back door to Tai O, from it a navigable creek runs down to Tai O town. Po Chu Tam has a big temple with a shed for dragon boats; the head and tail are kept in the temple. On a low headland nearby is a ruined Chinese fort: its work is now done by an Indian guard, put there after a piracy in 1926. Another protection is an old wall with a gate, which stands across the path from Po Chu Tam just outside Tai O. Any active man could out-flank it by going up the hill.\n\nTai O (\"Big Haven\") is the biggest town in Lantau, with over 2,000 people. It was recently building an electric light and power station, run on oil. The town straggles along the shores of its creek, and has a small agricultural plain behind it. About 3 miles up into the hills is a big Buddhist temple, with a number of \"fasting halls\"; these have lately built a bridge and widened the path going up hill. Tai O salt is made in big salt pans, but is of poor quality, and only fit for salting fish. The creek cuts off the hills on which the Police Station stands from the town: it is crossed by a sampan ferry which is leased by auctions held by the elders of the place. In the wider part of the creek is a substantial settlement of boatpeople. They live in huts built on piles driven into the creek bed. These piles are often of stone, but often also of wood or bamboo. The huts are lashed to the piles with wire.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209957, "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": 216, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "194\n\nThe newspaper does not identify the author, or give a Chinese version, stating only that he was \"a poet and scholar who formed part of the suite of the High Imperial Commissioner (Keying) during his late visit to Hong Kong, and was composed on board the steamer on the way back to Canton.\"\n\n**\n\nIn 1981 the journals of Edward H. Cree, Surgeon, RN, were published by Webb and Bower, of Exeter in England. In 1845 Cree was surgeon on the Vixen, a steam paddle sloop. In his entry for Tuesday, November 25, Cree records that the Vixen was taking Keying and his suite back to Canton:\n\n\"A salute was fired from the battery as we started through the Cap-Sing-mun passage. On our way we were also saluted by the Chinese forts and war junks. I almost got into the bad books of Low, the Lord Mayor of Canton,' by a practical joke that Willcox, the 1st Lieutenant, played on me: he came up to me on deck and said: 'Doctor, do you know that the gunroom is full of those confounded flunkeys, and one of them is snoring in your cabin,'\n\nI rushed down and saw, on my bed, a great body and a pair of legs encased in black satin boots on the pillow, the head at the other end snoring most lustily. I unceremoniously laid hold of him, and rolled him on to the floor. At the same time one of the servants rushed in and jabbered something, holding up a mandarin's cap with the peacock's feather: I immediately saw it was the great Lord Mayor I had treated so roughly. I apologised as well as I could. His Lordship, who was now wide awake, sat at the table and said something to his valet, who brought him writing materials, with which he set to work filling a large sheet of paper with neatly written Chinese characters. I thought, now I am in for a report to the Lord High Commissioner, and told Gutzlaff, the interpreter. Chaou, who was in the Purser's cabin next door, laughed immoderately. Soon the paper was handed in, and I got Gutzlaff to interpret it. I was pleased to see it was no report, but an ode Low had been composing on his departure from Hong Kong.\"\n\nI\n\nIt seems reasonable to speculate that this was the ode which the Friend of China published a translation of a few weeks later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210003, "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": 262, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "240\n\ntrading contacts with Tai Wai. At the same time the temple is currently used by the villagers of Tai Wai for purely village rituals such as the hanging of the lanterns for new-born sons, and the only communal worship is conducted by the village elders, and not by the elders of the Heung.\n\nIt was probably this conflict between the communal and the purely village interest in Hau Wong and his temple which led to the decision to build an entirely new, and much larger temple, just outside the village. Such a site would certainly make it easier for non-villagers to worship, and that this was aimed at is shown by the specific mention of Lek Yuen (1), the old name for Sha Tin District, in the doorjamb inscriptions. At the same time all the donors named in the door inscriptions were Tai Wai villagers, the most prominent, Wong Yin-Tsun (2), being a villager who had succeeded in securing an official post in Shantung province.\n\nThe villagers believe that this new temple was only built a few decades before the Block Crown Lease - probably, therefore, the date 1888 on the door is the original foundation date. The foundation was not successful: most villagers wanted the god back in the old temple inside the village, and difficulties which arose were blamed on damage to the Fung Shui of the village as set out by Lai Po-i. After about 30 years, the temple was closed and the god taken back to his old home opposite the village gate: since then his temple, in the village, has been considered basically for Tai Wai villagers only.\n\nNOTE\n\n1 Chinese Monasteries, temples, shrines and altars in Hong Kong and Macau, Keith G. Stevens, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 20, 1980, pp. 1–33.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210004, "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": 263, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "TRADITIONAL NEW TERRITORIES FARMING: MANURING\n\nP. H. HASE\n\n241\n\nJ. Dyer Ball in his \"Things Chinese\" under the heading \"Agriculture\" has an interesting page on the indefatigableness of the Chinese farmer in keeping up the fertility of his fields by constant manuring with all conceivable substances, but particularly with human night-soil and organic waste of all sorts. While it is widely known that traditional subsistence rice farmers in the New Territories did keep up the fertility of their soil by the constant manuring practices described by Dyer Ball, details of exactly how the manuring was done are not so widely known, and this Note details some points discovered from oral questioning of elderly villagers on the subject.2\n\nBy far the most important fertilisers used in the New Territories were human and animal wastes; night-soil and urine. These were prepared in three distinct ways.\n\nEach house had a urine bucket -- a simple wooden bucket with a rope handle which was usually kept in a small walled-off area immediately to one side of the main door of the house.\n\nIn addition, each family would place large pots in convenient corners of its fields as a urinal. Further such pots would be placed wherever public footpaths crossed a family's fields. In some cases, a simple low fence or rough wall would shield these pots, to render them more attractive to the more sensitive and shy wayfarer. Every day the family would take a bucket and empty their pots into it, and carry the bucket back and empty it into large storage jars belonging to the family. These storage jars were placed on the edge of the rice-drying grounds (†).\n\nCattle urine was a particularly valuable addition to the family storage jars. Several villagers have told us that cattle were trained to urinate as soon as they came back to the village at night. Boys of the family would stand by with special buckets on long poles to catch the urine: if the cattle were slow, they would be whistled to in a special way, or be tapped gently with the rim of the bucket on the appropriate spot.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210290, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "240\n\nCHOI CHI CHEUNG\n\nburnt and vegetarian food was offered by many worshippers there.\n\nAt the entrance of the Tao Ch'ang, 4 notices stated: \"The water and land cross-over is at this Tao Ch'ang ()\" separating the Tao Ch'ang area from the other areas. Within the area, there were 39 worshipping objects. There were three distinct areas to the Tao Ch'ang: i) On one side of the entrance, there were the territorial gods of the human world, and, on the other side of the entrance, there was a god who holds the key to the door between earth and hell (two of his runners were with him). ii) In the main hall, there were tablets of different spirits who were supposed to come from the ten courts of the underworld, and tablets of the Taoist Saints. Two Generals were put in the centre of the hall to watch over the spirits. iii) At the back of the area, was the altar (or Hoza in Japanese) where the priests practised their rituals under the images of the 3 Buddhas and the Goddess of Mercy. Compared with the typical Buddhist arrangement for rituals for appeasing the dead, the Tao Ch'ang area of the Kobe Chinese 'Yue Lan' was more inclusive and closer to Chinese folk tradition, though the priests were all Buddhists.\n\n32\n\nThere were 7 types of objects worshipped (Table in the Appendix):\n\ni) Those represented by incense bowls and offerings only.\n\nii) Paper-made figures.\n\niii) Paper-made lanterns.\n\niv) Porcelain statues.\n\nv) Paper-made houses.\n\nvi) Paper-made tablets.\n\nvii) Paintings.\n\nNot all worshippers knew the names and roles of all the objects worshipped. During the festival, worshippers presented incense sticks to all the objects of worship in the festival area. However, besides the Ming-che and the \"Ancestral Hall\", the two runners attracted the most attention from the worshippers. Worshippers bribed them with bundles of paper money. One Cantonese lady of about 75 years old explained that by doing so, it was hoped that the runners \"would take care of our ancestors whose spirits are com-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210391, "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": 362, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "341\n\nstate and party institutions, work-place relations, family and neighbourhood. The danwei is, needless to say, an effective agent of both formal and informal social control. Henderson and Cohen caution, however, against more extreme views which impute to it unlimited scope and power. They show that there is within this generally rigid framework a surprising amount of flexibility. Unit members and clients, for example, can manoeuvre collective decisions and outside opinion to protect individual interests. Lest one should see in the danwei a radical socialist innovation that engenders behavioural response unfamiliar to the Chinese, the authors stress that in actual fact the work unit system expresses and reinforces traditional behavioural patterns. They show that hierarchical relations, paternalism, avoidance of conflict, and the use of third-party intermediaries to resolve conflict, all characteristic of traditional cultural behavioural patterns, continue to characterize almost every unit relationship.\n\nHenderson and Cohen's portrayal of the hospital danwei raises many questions of sociological interest. If, as the authors show, there is so little separation between the private and the public, what can guard against the intrusion of one set of values from one institutional sphere into another? How will this influence the tasks of modernising medicine? What will happen to the professional authority of the physician if there is the parallel authority of party cadres in the hospital administration? How does the community nature of the danwei affect the nature and extent of job satisfaction among its members? How does it affect the family? What can possibly happen to the power structure of a complex organization if the lower participants' involvement is at once ‘moral' (oriented by party ideology), ‘utilitarian' (oriented by economic rewards), and ‘alienative' (when neither entry nor exit is at one's will)? Can 'back-door' endeavours be ended if work relations are so inextricably bound up with party authority, family and neighbour relations? At the micro level, one wonders how, in the middle of complex role structures, the individual may cope with role strain, conflicts of roles, and the difficulty of staging role performances.\n\nThe book's answers to some of these questions are revealing and instructive. For example, the authors show that party membership provides administrators with an extra source of control", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210446, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "34 \n\nBARBARA E. WARD \n\nBy 1970 there was only one set of sails left. The jetties, all the pathways and the large reclamation on the northern bank of the strait were of concrete. All but four of the grey stone and whitewashed houses had gone. Instead there were three wooden ones and thirteen others in bright, fresh, colour-washed concrete. The temple had been redecorated (its beautiful sea-green tiles replaced by asbestos dipped in an analine “emerald” dye), and above it, up a newly constructed concrete stairway, stood a modern, purpose-built school with three well-equipped classrooms, a special bungalow for the teachers and an enclosed basketball pitch levelled out of the hillside. There were no pig-sties, but a fine public latrine, piped running water, electric light and a public incinerator. \n\nSuch were some of the outward and visible signs of processes of change which were just beginning to accelerate when I first visited the village in 1950. Other changes less obvious on the surface were even more significant. Most striking of all was the fact that where twenty years before there had been seventeen families living ashore, all but two of them Hakka-speaking landsmen, there were now twenty-one families (not including the teachers) of which twenty were composed of ex-Boat People, speaking Cantonese. Yet the number of fishing junks was slightly larger than it had been. Kau Sai's population was more exclusively devoted to fishing than before, but many of the fishermen now owned houses ashore. \n\nThe new houses differed from the old ones not only in outward appearance and ownership but also in internal arrangement, furnishing and use. Built to the specifications of their owners they were basically hollow concrete cubes, with glazed, metal framed windows, and internal partitions made of wood. Each had a wooden front door, in the centre of the wall facing the street, leading directly into a kind of sitting room that ran the whole width of the building and covered about one-third of the depth from front to back. The rear portion was normally divided both vertically and horizontally to form two stories with compartments for sleeping and storage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210586, "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": 193, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "174\n\nWEI PEH T'I\n\nback gate, sing a hymn to draw the crowd, then Mr. Malcolm steps out to preach to them. A great many of them won't come here, so we go to them. When they are eating their food you may think a queer time to hold a meeting, but do you know how they eat their food! And it's perhaps the only time to catch the men. The men do not eat with their wives and they do not know such a custom as tablecloth and knives and forks, except as they have heard of the extravagant foreigners. But the man of the house takes his bowl of rice, if he can afford it, or if not his bowl of dough strips and perhaps a bowl of salted garlic or some kind of greens. If it's the first or fifteenth of the month he will have another bowl with some stewed meat and onions etc. These he puts down on the ground and he sits on his front door step holding his bowl of dough strips which he pushes into his mouth with his chopsticks, stopping once in a while to take a little relish from one of the bowls on the ground. Those on the ground are public property if anyone else is eating with him, all dipping into the common bowl. Such is the life of our back lane. The women eat when their masters have finished. And perhaps our meetings disturb some of their calculations, for the men may have their bowl along with them and the housewife may not have another. However, there are people in Taiho who spend more money than we do over their everyday meals, and they do not eat them on their front steps, but they do not live in our back lane.\n\nWe think these back lane people keep very many from coming here, one man trying to frighten some women away from us said \"the Boxers will finish them all off yet!\" And several apparently friendly women invited me to drink tea with them one afternoon when I was passing. I refused as I was in a hurry, and had no sooner passed than I overheard “Foreign devil”. There seems to be an organized opposition against all of us. The city is largely Mohammedan, and they seem almost impossible to work with. \"All things are possible with God” and “to him that believeth.\" So we will continue to hope and pray. We have our little encouragements. I could write you several. The Lord has not forgotten us, nor these people. I have taken up this letter with things of not much account, if it's unprofitable. I am sorry to have taken your time. I will write next time more of my", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211358, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "50\n\nBut Mr. Scholfield stuck to his opinion. \"I would not give a single thought to it. The only thing I would think of was the ten cents I would receive at the end of the day.\"\n\nWhen the resolutions proposed by Mr. Bowley were put to the meeting, only Mr. Scholfield voted against him. He told the meeting that if the suggestions were to be implemented it would mean money **and would depend on the maintenance of the opium revenue**. If that was stopped, what would they do?\" Up to that date Hong Kong had depended upon the income from the opium trade to finance itself, now there was heavy pressure from the Home Government to abolish the traffic in opium.\n\nThe editor of the Daily Press commended the small group of Hong Kong expatriates who were concerned about social problems, though his views were expressed in the colonial attitudes of the day.\n\nFar removed from the centres of civilization and surrounded by people alien to us in manners, customs and ideas, there is a natural tendency to lose that sense of communal responsibility which is steadily developing in the land from which we spring. It is well, therefore, that we have in our midst some whose interests are not limited by sport or commerce to remind us of the thoughts and aspirations of our more progressive fellow countrymen at Home.\n\nProposals of the Sanitary Board 1919\n\nMr. Bowley was a member of the Sanitary Board and used his position to try to get passed some regulations on child labour. He used a back door approach by proposing that the regulations be based on sanitary grounds. As the name of the Board suggests such concerns came within its province.\n\nOn the 19 March 1919 Mr. Bowley had posed the following question, **Does the Medical Officer of Health consider it desirable in the interests of public health of the Colony that the ages, hours and conditions of employment of women and children in factories, workshops and work-places in the Colony should be regulated and controlled?** The Medical", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211386, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "78\n\nand entered a village belonging to a family called Lei (*). One of the villagers was holding a big religious ceremony and feast (called Paat Kwaan Tsaai A which is a vegetarian meal given free to all that call) in his house, and into the midst of this Pooi To walked calmly, and put his rice basket down in the centre of the hall, and sat down to meditate. The guests at the feast were much disgusted at his dirty appearance and tried to take the basket away, but found they could not move it. Lei himself tried to lift it, and called his sons to help, still they could not move it. Then Pooi To, taking no notice of them, started eating the rice and food set on the table, and when he had finished his meal, he got up, lifted up the basket and went out. Turning back at the door he said, \"The four Kings of Heaven will send a lot of Happiness to your family, Lei.\" While he spoke a young child was peering into his basket, and he quickly ran and told his father that he had seen four miniature children only a few inches long and beautifully dressed, lying in the basket. Then Lei realized that Pooi To must be a holy man, and he wanted to ask him to stay, but he found Pooi To had gone. For three days he searched for him, and at last found him sitting in a little wood to the west of his house. So Lei took Pooi To back to his home, and he stayed with him for many days. The people living round about soon learnt that he was a holy man, and brought their sick to be cured by him. They would offer him money and presents, which Pooi To with his characteristic inconsistency sometimes accepted and sometimes refused.\n\nLater on a higher officer named Lau Hing Paak (A) heard about Pooi To and invited him to stay in his house. Pooi To arrived carrying, as usual, his rice basket. Lau hospitably sent his servants to meet him and to carry his basket for him, but they found they could not pick it up. More servants came until there were ten of them, yet even they could not move it. Then Lau himself looked in the basket and found in it only one torn coat and one wooden cup.\n\nPooi To stayed with Lau about 30 days, and then returned to Lei. One day, just at daybreak, Pooi To asked his host to make him a new coat, and said that he wanted it by noon. Lei started off at once to make it, but when noon came it was not finished, so Pooi To said, \"I want to go out for a while, but I will return this evening\". Evening came but Pooi To did not come back. Lei noticed a very sweet smell filling the house, and wondering where the fragrance came from, he went out\n\ni", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "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": 211389, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "81 + trying to find food and help. At last they came to a grasscutters path which they followed. After walking about ten miles they heard the sound of monastery bells and smelt the fragrance of burning joss sticks. Filled with hope they knelt and prayed to Buddha to bring them to safety. Then they came to a monastery, large and beautifully decorated, and saw ten or more priests outside, but coming nearer they found that they were made of stone. The travellers were amazed, and being afraid began to pray to be forgiven their sins. In the distance they heard a voice shouting to them, and searching in the direction of the voice they came across another priest, but found he also was made of stone. Many times they heard voices calling them, but could find nothing but some stone figures. Then they said to each other, \"Those are all Saints, we are unworthy wicked men, so how can we see them\", and they knelt down and prayed very earnestly for forgiveness. When they had finished praying they looked up and saw a real priest coming towards them, who welcomed them kindly and brought them into the monastery. A meal was set before them, all the dishes were ordinary vegetables such as Buddhist priests eat, but they smelt very fragrant, and tasted delicious, and the travellers had never tasted anything as good before. When the meal was over, they asked the priest how to get to the capital city, who answered, \"From here to the capital is more than 200,000 miles, but do not worry, make up your mind to go and you will reach there quickly\". Then he asked Chuc, \"Do you know Pooi To?\" The minister answered, \"Yes, I know him well\". Then the priest pointed to the north wall and showed him a cloth sack, a tall Abbot's staff, and a priest's alms bowl hanging there. He said, \"Those are Pooi To's things. I beg you to give him back this alms bowl when you see him, and this letter that I will give you. And here is a green bamboo stick, which when you get back to your boat, throw into the water in front of the boat and shut the windows of the boat and sit quietly. You need not trouble to row or sail, for you will arrive at the capital very speedily.\"\n\nThey all said goodbye and a young priest took them to the monastery door and showed them a path to follow which would bring them back to their vessel quickly. Once more on board they did what they had been told, and soon found to their amazement that the boat had left the water and was sailing over the tops of the trees. After three days of this novel means of travel, they reached the Waai river (17) and arrived at a place named Chue Tseuk (k) not far from the capital. Here they\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211391, "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": 107, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "83\n\nafter he died.\n\nThe wife of a worthy man, Ts'ai Haai (M) was ill, and all hope of her recovery was given up. As the doctors appeared no good, Tsai Haai asked the priests to come and pray for her. They could not help. Then one of them said, “Why not ask Pooi To to come?\" When Pooi To arrived, he wandered into the room, looked at the woman and said quietly, \"Easy\". Then he muttered to himself for a while and gradually the woman was cured. Tsai Haai after that insisted on Pooi To staying with him in his house, and treated him with the greatest of respect.\n\nIn the ninth month of the third year of Yuen Ka (元嘉) A.D. 426 of Sung dynasty, Pooi To went off to a lake in the East called Ch’ek Shaan Woo (赤山湖) where he became ill, and died. Tsai Haai took his corpse and buried it in a hill called Fook Chau Shaan (U) \"upside down boat hill\", which is somewhere to the north-east of Nanking.\n\nTwo years later, one day in the third month, Tsai Haai was in his house with his family, when to his surprise the door opened and Pooi To walked in. He talked pleasantly for a short while, when there was a knock at the door and a priest appeared. He beckoned to Pooi To who followed him, but before he left Pooi To told the family that he had to go to Kaau Kwong (交廣) (now Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Annam) and would never come back to them. He then threw his cup into the sea and he and the priest sailed away in it, to the Monastery of Tuen Moon Shaan (Castle Peak), where as has been already said, he became Abbot.\n\nPooi To is reputed also to have lived for a while in another hill nearby called Ling To Shaan (靈渡山) “miracle across the Sea Hill\", and there is still a monastery there bearing the name of Ling To Tsz (靈渡寺).\n\nNothing further is known about Pooi To and there are no stories about him after he came to Castle Peak, but it is supposed that the monastery there was carried on by Buddhist monks for many years after his death. There is nothing recorded to give any indication of how long the monastery continued to exist, but it must have fallen into disuse by the reign of To Kwong (道光) 1821-1850 of Ts`ing (清) dynasty because the Taoists built a monastery then on the site of the old one, and called", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211400, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "44\n\n+\n\nheard it they shouted for joy, and started off to their homes at once, full of hope. But when they found their houses half fallen down, some villages entirely hidden by the long grasses, and the paddy fields covered with weeds, they were much dishearted, realizing that they were not any better off when they were inside the boundary. San On district had in the meanwhile been re-established and Lei Hoh Shing (5) the district magistrate gives a pitiful picture of the condition of the land and people. ... I arrived as district magistrate and found many old and young lying in ditches, having died from hunger. The strong young men are gone to other places to earn their livings. When I look down from a height all is dense undergrowth and fallen walls and I cannot hear the voice of a single wild goose in the distance . . . . so I get oxen trained to plough..... and every so often I collect one or two lucky-to-be-alive people and try to encourage them to develop the barren land. We stand about and talk, but when the talking is not half finished each of us cannot help sobbing with grief. . . .\n\n++\n\nThus gradually the land was worked back to its old state, and to perpetuate the memory of the two men who had done so much to help the people, a hall was built in Shek Woo Market (M) by the Sheung Shui (E) villagers and their neighbours. The name of the hall was **Tuk Foo I Kung Ts'z** (A) \"The Viceroy and the Governor, these two Sirs Hall\". Over the front door three characters were written Po Tak Ts'z \"Return thanks for the Bounty Hall\". The hall was used for the village council for many years and every year on the birthdays of Governor Wong and Viceroy Chau a feast is held in the hall by the village elders. Another such hall is in Kam Tin (see H.K.N. VIII, page 207 and plate 20(2))* and has been used as a school for many years. It is situated on Taai Sha Chau (7) amidst beautiful scenery and near it is the Kam Shui (*) “ornamental stream\", with a big lawn like a tennis court in front of it. A large lichee orchard is on the left-hand side of the hill.\n\nSince the 10th year of Kin Lung (#), 1745, each Yuet Chau (ZE) year, which occurs every ten years [sic], the Kam Tin people have a matshed erected for Kin Tsiu ( ), the festival of the Dead. Two water colour paintings of the Governor and Viceroy are displayed\n\n* Vol. 14, of the Journal, plate 41.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211469, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "161\n\nfaith, the Lam Toy's and Lam Quan's, who became our life-long friends. By this time Chinese women were freer to visit with each other, and Mrs. Lam Quan taught Mother how to sew Western style dresses for us children, to bake cakes, to make delicious ice cream (which was a great treat in those days), and to use Western medicine. When Mr. and Mrs. Ai took a trip to China in 1913, their son, Samuel, would often play with me or Helen. One afternoon while he, Mung Yee Yap and I were playing ball, the family dog, tied to a mango tree, bit Samuel repeatedly when he tried to retrieve a stray ball. I stood immobilized and horrified by his screams. He happened to be wearing clothes his friend had loaned him when his head became wet while playing in a stream, and the unfamiliar scent must have provoked the dog. Fortunately his sister Bessie, who happened to come to the front door, rescued him. It was also traumatic to hear Samuel's scream while he was being treated on the back porch by Dr. Francis Wong-Leong.\n\nAmong Mother's non-Christian friends was the first Mrs. Siu Kit who lived in a small lane behind the Dutro's. She had come from China with her oldest child to join Mr. Siu, who ran a butcher shop at the corner of King and Aala Streets. She bore five more children, but the youngest died of whooping cough before he was even a month old. After the death of this infant, Mrs. Siu seemed to have no will to live, and, again, pregnant, became very ill, possibly from influenza. She died in 1919, insisting to the end that Mr. Siu had taken in a concubine in his village. There was no foundation to her accusations, because only after her death did he go to Japan, where he met and married a young girl from the village selected by his family to be his second wife. This second Mrs. Siu also became our life-long friend, who looked upon Mother as a surrogate parent and was always generous and thoughtful. She found the care of five undisciplined stepchildren and seven of her own a difficult responsibility. When the exchange rate was very favourable, Mr. Siu retired to Shekki with his whole family but gradually sent his children, two or three at a time, back to Honolulu. He died during the Japanese occupation of China. Mrs. Siu returned to Honolulu after the Second World War to live with her daughter, Siu Ying Chun, and died in 1985 while on an extended visit in California.\n\nThis was a worry-free and happy period of my life in spite of the fact that occasionally I had a stormy time with Mother, who did not spare", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211530, "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": 247, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "223\n\nthe gable was about 3 feet. The floor was a standard plaster floor. A single door, 3 feet 3 inches wide, and 5 feet 4 inches high, with two leaves, was provided. The door sill was a threshold stone rather wider than the wall, with sockets for the door-pins. The upper door-pins were fixed into wooden blocks attached to the lintel, which was also of wood. The jambs of the door were of burnt brick for greater strength, as were the sills of the windows. Four small windows were provided. Two were about 1 foot square, and were placed just below the eaves in the walls of that part of the structure used as a cattleshed or store; the other two were smaller, about 9 inches wide by 1 foot high, and were placed at about 2 feet 6 inches above the floor in that part of the structure used as the latrine proper. The latrine stood in the middle of a group of buildings of similar construction; it was abutted on one side by a number of pig-pens, and on the other side it was separated by a narrow alley way from a cattleshed, chicken-house, and more pig-pens.3\n\nThe structure was divided internally into three by a wall of mud-brick some 3 feet high. The door opened into the largest of the divisions, which was a simple shed, used either to tether cattle at night or as a store for agricultural equipment too dirty to store inside the house; chicken crates used to carry chickens to market.\n\nThe smaller divisions were the latrine proper, with its attached ash-dump, and a pig-pen. The latrine proper consisted of 5 planks which rested on two beams which in turn were supported on four brick columns. The planks were about 2 feet 3 inches above the floor. The planks did not cover the entire space of the latrine; a gap was left between two of them. The planks could be adjusted to move the gap towards the front or back as needed. Users of the latrine squatted on the planks over the gap, and defecated through the gap onto the floor beneath. For privacy, a wooden screen was placed along the edge of the planks, and the front was closed off with a swing door of planks, the pins of which were socketed into holes cut in the top of one of the brick columns, and in a wooden block attached to a roof-beam. For greater ease, a step was provided of two mud-bricks, and a stout bamboo to give an arm rest was provided across the latrine: it was let into the wall on either side.*\n\nThe ash-dump was next to the latrine proper, and within the same division of the structure. All the families which used the latrine (three", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211678, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "68\n\nmembers of the Kiu Kiang Defence Force, a small volunteer group recruited from the foreign residents. Some of the men were veterans of the Great War, and the force had originally been armed with rifles and Lewis guns provided by the Navy; however, to avoid all possible accident, these lethal weapons had been withdrawn and replaced with truncheons. Men were despatched to close the Concession gates so as to keep out accessions to the rioters from those directions, and by the exercise of a good-humoured restraint and some sang-froid the rioters were gradually dispersed and shepherded away. By nightfall all was quiet again at the cost of a few broken heads and windows, but the atmosphere remained dangerously charged with emotion.\n\nThe Consul ruled that the women and children must be evacuated that very night in a river steamer, which he had caused to be held up for the purpose. I dashed off to our small flat overlooking the tennis courts at the back of the Concession to warn my wife. We had also our two infants, the one in arms and the other just able to walk; and their dear old amah, of course, had plenty of advice to give. During the early days, while the Revolutionary Army was still attacking the Northern troops who held the city, there was a certain amount of indiscriminate shooting and shots fell amongst the houses in the Concession. One came in through our front door and down the hall. The old amah then used carefully to drape a layer of blankets on the window side of the children's cots \"to keep out the bullets\", as she would ingenuously explain.\n\nOn a large verandah outside the flat where a good view could be obtained of the back gate, the Navy had mounted a Lewis gun and installed an inlying piquet. My wife arranged to cook meals for the sailors, and what with the assistance of an occasional bottle of beer from the Club over the road, they voted that life in Kiu Kiang was not so bad. It was a change from the routine of shipboard and had one unforeseen result; the sailors made so strong an impression on our infants that when he grew up nothing would satisfy the elder boy but that he should join the Navy.\n\nNow the sailors volunteered to assist in the packing, but time was short and there was little room on the steamer for other than the bare essentials. It was more than any Chinese coolie's life was worth to be seen carrying baggage for the foreigners, and so with naval assistance husbands and bachelors helped each other to get the boxes down to the ship.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211683, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "73\n\ntwin Thorneycroft semi-diesel engines drove the craft at six or seven knots, a speed by no means excessive when we remember that during the summer the Yangtze ran five knots. Furthest aft were quarters and a galley for the Chinese crew, the “laodah” and his assistants in crime, the engineer, and two deck-hands.\n\nThree of us were now accommodated in the \"Hsun Si\", and settled down to pass the time of day, assisted by the Consul's gramophone, which we had had the foresight to borrow, and his tantalus, which it had fallen to our lot to escort. We did well enough so long as the weather remained calm, but the houseboat was top-heavy, and when the east wind got up against the flow of the river, raising a short choppy sea, the boat would roll alarmingly and bump heavily against the side of the destroyer. The first lieutenant would come along and throw a jaundiced look over the side at his paint, and order us off. We would have to turn out the engineer to start up the engines, and away we would scurry, slapping into the chop, heading for a bend some miles up the river where we could find a lee under the north bank.\n\nThe Chinese authorities on shore had issued orders that no Chinese subject was to communicate with the foreigners in their ships: but the Navy had left guards in the hulks, to which launches passed back and forth; and it was not long before contacts were again established through this channel. For seventy years Chinese and foreigners had lived next door to each other in peace and friendship, and the ties thus formed could not so easily be broken. They had traded together to mutual advantage, they had feasted and toasted each other, they had helped each other in times of difficulty; on either side were memories of pleasant days and kind deeds.\n\nSo at night sampans would creep out in the dark; little gifts of food would be sent off from the shore, and news would be given of the situation. How much damage had been done? Were the native banks still open? Were our servants being ill-treated? Had the Garrison Commander issued any proclamation?\n\nMeanwhile the Rear-Admiral, commanding the Yangtze British Gunboat Flotilla, had chartered a middle river steamer for the evacuees. The S.S. “Kiang Wo\" had sufficient cabin and dining accommodation to take us all, and anchored in the Yangtze for three months the foreign population of Kiu Kiang lived in what came to be known as the \"Floating", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211735, "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": 150, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "125\n\nhillslope at the back and sides.\n\nstone\n\nAs far as can be ascertained, the walls of the nunnery are throughout either of blue brick or of heavily plastered stone rubble, on footings of the standard building technique in the region. The roofs are of tile laid single thickness on beams supported directly by the walls. The only windows are very small (about one foot square) openings with bars and wooden shutters in the front face in the second and fourth sections, and the side wall of the fourth section, and two tiny single-brick openings, in the front wall of the second section, and the side wall of the fourth section.\n\nThe main temple hall is the third section. The main entrance to the nunnery is here, at the top of a shallow flight of steps. The double-leaved door opens into an Entrance Hall bare of all furniture except for the brick spirit-screen wall, with the altar to Wai To (卫道), the Defender of the Way, against its inner face. The Entrance Hall opens out into the Tin Tseng, which is mostly filled with the large brick paper-burner, and the steps up to the upper level. Above the steps is the Main Hall, with the altar against the back wall, and with a large offering table in front. The altar is to Kwun Yam, and has statues of the Lord Buddha (Sakyamuni), and the King of Hell (Ti Ts'ang Wang, 地藏王), as well as of Kwun Yam on it. To either side of the main altar are very small subordinate altars, where the tablets commemorating certain deceased monks are kept. In front of the main cult statues are five small images: two are unidentified, the others are of Milofu, Shan Ts'ai (善财), and Yũ Nũ (玉女). Below the altar is the usual shrine to the spirits of the Five Directions (五方).*\n\nTo the left of the Main Hall as you look at it from the entrance, i.e., at the back of the second section of the building, is the Side Hall, containing an altar to the Earth God (To Tei, 土地). This Side Hall has no Tin Tseng or windows, and is in consequence rather dark, being lit only by the light coming in from the arch which links this Hall with the Main Hall. The nunnery is now in a very run-down state, and it is not clear what furnishings were originally in this Hall: presumably there was an offering table of some sort in front of the altar. This Side Hall contains the inscription commemorating the rebuilding of the nunnery in 1868.\n\n* I am indebted to Mr. Keith G. Stevens for identification of the deities worshipped in the nunnery.\n\nPage 150\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211736, "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": 151, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "126\n\nThis was all the worshipping space that there was in the nunnery: the remaining five-eighths of the building was occupied by living space.\n\nThe whole of the first section, and the front part of the second section, formed the living quarters of the resident nuns. The back part of the first section was cut off with a wooden screen wall to form a bedchamber, or Fong, for the abbess. This chamber had a ceiling, thus forming a cockloft above it. This cockloft was accessible by a ladder from within the abbess's chamber: it is likely that this cockloft was always used, as now, as storage space.\n\nThe bedchambers of the other nuns were in the front part of the second section. Two bedchambers were provided, one at ground level, and the other in the cockloft above it, with a store-room behind, which could possibly have been used as a further chamber if need be. The ground floor chamber, and the cockloft above it, both have tiny shuttered windows - the lower chamber also has a single-brick opening. The store-room chamber is lit only by what light comes through the door from the Tin Tseng. At present, the ground floor chamber has two trestle beds in it, with no beds in the other chambers: this probably merely represents a convenience for the recently deceased single elderly resident nun.\n\nThe area in front of the abbess's chamber was the main reception hall. This was originally furnished with a couple of chairs and side tables for reception of honoured guests, and some of the original furniture seems to survive amid the rubbish which fills much of the area now. This part of the living space is cut off from the front part of the first section by a screen wall with arches. This front part, or lower hall, was where the daily work of the nuns took place, where they ate, and where the equipment they used for growing vegetables was stored. A rice-pounder is let into the floor against the outer wall. A small partitioned-off area here was probably the nuns' latrine. The nuns had their own direct access to the road by a door in this section. The living quarters of the nuns connected with the rest of the nunnery only through the doorway into the Side Hall with the Earth God altar: at night the nuns could bar this door and close themselves off in their own quarters without worrying themselves about anyone in the guest quarters or coming in off the road.\n\nThe guest quarters were in the fourth section. The back part of this section is cut off by a brick wall to form a bedchamber. This has a cockloft", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211738, "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": 153, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "128\n\nThe front part of these three easternmost sections at the Lung Kai nunnery comprised the guest quarters (in the first and third sections), and the main entrance to the nunnery (in the second section). The guest quarters consisted of a twelve foot square room in each of the two sections in question, each with a cockloft above, and each opening off the Tin Tseng.\n\nAt the Lung Kai nunnery the residential accommodation for the nuns, with the kitchen, was in the fourth and fifth sections, but nothing of this survives, except for the doorsill of the door connecting it with the Tin Tseng (including the marks of the settings for the bars), and the sill of the external door connecting the quarters of the nuns directly with the access path to the nunnery. The nunnery opened directly onto this access path, and backed directly onto the hillside; there was no courtyard or enclosure.\n\nThe present layout of the Ling To monastery (this institution was previously a nunnery, but has housed immigrant monks for the last seventy years) suggests that the original plan there was not dissimilar. The present (1970) buildings form a rectangle, of about 85 feet by 65 feet, divided into rooms which seem to represent the shadow of a previous arrangement whereby the buildings were divided into sections by walls running from the front to the back. The present structure suggests that there were, before the 1970 rebuilding, five of these walls, and six sections. The buildings face approximately due north. The easternmost two sections seem likely to have been the original living quarters. The third to fifth sections are now used as worshipping space, and this seems likely to have been the original use as well. The main entrance was previously in the fourth section, (it was moved to the sixth section in 1970) and the space where it used to be has two small square rooms to either side of it, which are likely to be part of the original design; these may have been the original guest-quarters, as in the corresponding position at Lung Kai. The monastery is roofed with two transverse gables, with Tin Tseng between, and this is also likely to be part of the original design: Tin Tseng are currently found in the second, the fourth (this Tin Tseng probably originally covered the whole of sections three to five), and another in the sixth section.\n\nIt will be seen that the Ling To monastery originally had a plan which seems to have been almost identical with Lung Kai, with the addition of a sixth section beyond the triple worshipping halls. It is possible that", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211972, "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": 387, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "362\n\nassociated with lion dance groups. The ritual representatives held incense burners, but the joss sticks in them were not lighted from the beginning to the end of the procession.\n\nMr. Dang Jik-Wai, an elder of Tai Hong Wai, with an outsider who had lived in Kam Tin since shortly after the war and was employed by the rural committee, led the procession. Mr. Dang had a list on a piece of paper of the gods to worship. The procession left the main ritual area where the participants had been waiting since the end of the rite of posting the Memorial.\n\nThey first stopped at the Wa-Bou altar for the God of Earth and Grain at Shui Tau. From there they proceeded to the Tin-Hau Temple at Shui Mei and worshipped at the Temple, and two nearby altars for the God of Earth and Grain. The procession then turned south to Ching-Lok Ancestral Hall at Shui Tau, and worshipped at the Ancestral Hall, and at the Hung-Sing Temple. Next they worshipped at another altar for the God of Earth and Grain of Shui Tau, the Yi-Dai School (i.e. Man-Cheung Temple), and the altar for the God of Earth and Grain for the Mui Jai Yun section of the village.\n\nThey entered Kam Hing Wai and worshipped at the san-teng, the earth god's place at the former village gate, as well as the altar for the God of Earth and Grain.\n\nThe party proceeded to Kam Tin Shi, where they worshipped at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. They intended to enter Yau-Leun Tong to worship too. But it was locked and no one in the procession had the key. So they made the offerings at the door. They then entered Sa Bui Leng and worshipped at the ruin of a former san-teng and the god of the well.\n\nThey continued the procession to Ko Po, where they worshipped the God of the well, the God of the village gate, and an altar for the God of Earth and Grain.\n\nThe procession turned back and continued towards Kat Hing Wai, where they worshipped at its altar for the God of Earth and Grain outside the village wall, and then entered the village and worshipped at the san-teng. The procession then took Kam Sheung Road to the san-teng (?) of Naam-Teng.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212166, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "85\n\nfather who had owned the land on which the temple stood had consulted the deities and found that his daughter had been deified. He had an image of her carved and placed on the altar. This was transferred some time during the mid 1960s to another small shrine within the same temple and again her image stood alone but this time she had under her shrine a cardboard box which contained, according to the temple keeper, an embalmed parrot. The elderly nun claimed that it was Miss Liu's pet. The image and parrot remained until 1983 when the temple was refurbished and the image disappeared for a while. In 1986 it reappeared on the family altar in the rear of the large Buddhist temple next door, dedicated to the Liu family. Her image was now draped in red silken robes and somewhat strangely was labelled Miss Lin. She still held the miniature handbags but the parrot was nowhere to be seen, and the temple staff denied ever having seen or heard of a stuffed parrot. They confirmed that her name was Lin and not Liu but were unable to say why she was now on the Liu family altar in the Buddhist temple. And there she remains, last noted in 1989 still on the Liu family altar.\n\nA cult, that of 'the Prince descended from the Dragon', Lung-shih T'ai-tzu, was established in the mid-1960s in the northern suburbs of Kowloon before being transferred to Lo Wai above Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. It is a piggy-back cult dependent upon the local Cantonese major cult of the Dragon Mother, Lung Mu. The story begins with a boy, Huang Hsin-tsai, born in Shamshuipo, Kowloon, in 1949, the son of refugees from Canton. His parents died soon after they arrived in the Colony leaving him in the hands of the lady who now runs the new cult temple. In 1960 the youth, now 11 and still living with the lady in Shamshuipo, fell ill with swollen legs and abdomen. She nursed him carefully back to health but in 1962 he was thought to have eaten something which did not agree with him and, despite a visit to the Wong Tai Sin Temple, he died. Accused by her neighbours of neglecting the youth she was exonerated by him when he appeared to her in a dream to explain that he was now the stepson of the major deity, Lung Mu, and had the power to cure on her behalf. Once a year thereafter he provided the lady with a large basin of very tiny pills for her to distribute to cure people's ills; he also appeared to her in dreams to help solve difficult problems put to her by devotees. The lady, now the temple keeper, has a number of elderly ladies to help run the corrugated iron and brick temple which she has had built near his grave.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212174, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "93\n\nthe British community to celebrate the event. H.M.S. \"Cornwall\", one of the 10,000 ton County class cruisers came up for the occasion. On Coronation morning, May 12th, a service was held on board. I had not previously seen those \"Chicago pianos\" which were supposed to be so effective an answer to the dive bomber. With their eight evil looking spouts, they looked formidable enough; but five years later they proved insufficient to save this fine ship from Japanese air attack off Ceylon.\n\nIn the evening there was to be a ball at the British Embassy. We went a bit of a splash for the occasion and gave a dinner party before going on to the ball. I remember in addition to some of our Chinese friends there were a couple from the American Embassy, a German officer and his wife, two officers from the British cruiser, the local manager of the Standard Oil Company, an Englishman with a Russian wife, and some visitors from Shanghai. Our cook, unknown to us, had decided he too would go a bit of a splash. For the fish course he produced a samli. In China the samli is considered the best of all fish, an opinion with which I disagree as it is too bony for my lazy nature. The cook's samli was a large fish, I suppose it must have weighed every bit of ten pounds. He served it whole and had excelled himself by inserting in each eye-socket a small electric bulb, connected to a battery concealed somewhere in the fish. To my wife's astonishment, as the chief guest helped herself, one eye gave a most suggestive wink, and the performance was repeated each time a portion was removed; a postmortem revealed that the winking was due to a short in the circuit and not to any humorous intention on the part of the cook.\n\nThe ball given by Sir Hughe and Lady Knatchbull-Hugessen at the Embassy was a brilliant affair. For weeks, of course, all the women had been talking clothes, Gay toilettes set off sparkling eyes; diplomatic, naval and military uniforms shone with gold lace, and the Ambassador's excellent champagne animated the conviviality. We did not know that within a few weeks he would be lying at death's door with a Japanese bullet through his back. In August when motoring from Nanking to Shanghai, the Ambassador's car, over which a large Union Jack was stretched, was attacked by Japanese aircraft and pierced by many machine-gun bullets. The Ambassador was shot through the back near the spine.\n\nIn the old days you could walk along the great wall of Nanking", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212369, "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": 311, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "288\n\nand so I would prefer to say no more on this subject.\n\nIn the village of Tungfo, \"Eastern Peace\" [Tung Wo means Eastern Peace], there are no family houses because this place is a market. All the buildings are used as shops and workshops. Amongst them are six pharmacies. In total there are fifty such shops, large and small, which are all built closely together, and form two east-west streets running parallel to each other. The whole place would look like a square if the second street were as completely built up as is the first.\n\nSuch a shop is narrow and dark. During the day it is aired through the open door, which is as wide and high as the shop itself. In front of the door is a row of round posts which are fixed into the beams of the roof, and, at the bottom, into the stone. During the day, the middle ones are removed in order to make an entrance to the shop. Just behind the row of posts is the door, which consists of movable wooden planks, which fit into a slot. At dusk the posts are put back, the movable planks moved forward into place, and barred from the inside with a cross-bar.\n\nInside the shop the goods are piled up on one or both sides on shelves, just as in European shops. Across the middle stands a long counter [with drawers] used as a cash-box on which the goods are weighed and measured. From the roof of the house some paper lanterns hang down which light up the shop during the night. Most of the shops are groceries and general goods shops. Most do retail business. Only a few of them have significant trade.\n\nThe owners of these shops and stalls do not live in the town, but in neighbouring villages, and only come here for business and trade, or have it conducted by a substitute/manager. All who take part in this market have united into an association, which is called the \"Market Association\". This consists of eleven small associations to which belong 45 smaller and larger villages. The owners\n\nPage 31\n\n \n2", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212538, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "72\n\nfrom an emphasis on merely material modernization to structural changes in the Chinese system, which in turn brought about the realization of the need for cultural modernization. Starting in 1982, stress was laid on building up a socialist spiritual and cultural civilization, alongside the building of a socialist material civilization. This move was intended to a large extent to resist what was perceived as incoming “unhealthy influences”. The term \"unhealthy influences\" has never been precisely defined, but it roughly refers to the Western socio-political values which ran counter to the party leadership and socialist system in China. This new approach did show a shift from the notion of partial modernization to an overall modernization.\n\nChina's open-door policy, inaugurated in 1979, was intended to promote the material modernization program. This policy could be traced back to 1972 when trade relations with industrialized countries were restored. In the following few years, China further expanded her international trade relations gradually. During the period 1978-1980, these trade relations were expanded to other areas of economic relations at an astonishing pace. However, the massive expansion of foreign trade and economic cooperation did not lead to any extension of the open-door policy towards large-scale cultural exchanges, not even to the present. Rather, the political report at the 12th Party Congress only emphasised the importance of \"spiritual civilization”, in the building of \"socialist modernization\", but cultural exchanges were not referred to, as foreign economic relations were, as a positive contributor to the process.\n\nDespite the notion that cultural exchanges were not to carry as much weight as foreign economic relations in the building of socialist modernization, arts exchanges with foreign countries experienced a rapid and large-scale increase in the years between 1979 and 1981. In those years, there was a large presence in China of foreign culture, particularly Western culture, including that of the United States.\n\nAs has been pointed out, high culture was a part of the “spiritual civilization”, as affirmed at the 12th Party Congress, but international arts exchanges were not emphasised. In fact, a culturally open policy had never been wholly adopted as a general policy. This contradiction shows a tentative balance between policy preferences. These were sufficient reasons to promote international arts exchanges and there were considerations to limit them; both may be put forward in the national interest.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212574, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 128, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "108\n\nAlthough one of the above six destinations is the normal fate of a person's heavenly soul, earthly souls reside in graves or ancestral tablets to be worshipped by descendants. Terrestrial souls can even be divided between tablets on altars in family members' homes and in ancestral halls. Views vary on this 'multiple-soul' principle. As do those from theologians, regarding life after death for a Christian.\n\nFor the Chinese, ancestral spirits, gods, devils and ghosts play important roles. Supernatural intervention and magical powers have to be reckoned with. Malevolent, wandering spirits that have no male descendants to worship them must be appeased or they can bring bad luck, sickness and death. Makeshift altars are sometimes set up in streets, joss sticks are burned and offerings made, especially on the 15th day of the Seventh Moon at the Hungry Ghosts Festival (Yu Lan). With the fundamental dualism of Chinese cosmology, devils and their cohorts are yin, ‘inauspicious and gloomy'. Conversely gods, idols and the like are yang and 'lucky and bright'.\n\nIn this study, father died in 1959. When windows rattled, doors opened mysteriously, or troubles befell the family, his spirit, rightly or wrongly, was at one time suspected. This had to be propitiated by visits to the temple. When death strikes, a family tends to become even more superstitious. Scissors and knives are hidden to avoid children cutting themselves and thereby inadvertently hurting the corpse. This is termed lei hei (##) meaning an edged tool or weapon which can injure.\n\nIn this study, a Buddhist prayer in plastic holders was placed in strategic positions around family members' homes, including on the eldest daughter's bedside table. Although a person is a Christian, there is nothing like hedging protection. One granddaughter who had yam ngaan (dark eyes), namely psychic powers, heard a woman ghost wailing at night. When she placed the prayer on her bedside table, it kept quiet. This prayer could be rendered ineffective if taken into a church. Chinese always seem much closer to the spirit world than the average Westerner. For example, some of the older drivers on late-night buses travelling along the Pok Fu Lam Road stop and open the door whether anyone is waiting there or not. This is said to be to allow wandering spirits to get on and go back to the cemetery for the night.\n\nChinese dislike people dying at home as it is considered 'unclean'. If they do, the body is removed as soon as possible, often in a woven,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212586, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "120\n\nperson's house, overnight, for her spirit to return. In death, mother is able to influence things by her spiritual clout. This vigil was preceded by a family visit, at 4.00 pm, to the Buddhist Hall. After crossing the Harbour back to the dead woman's home, formalities were performed. The table was set with her favourite food and cigarettes. She would invite demons to this meal. Western candles and incense sticks were lit in the passage. A pair of scissors, again signifying lei hei (##), meaning 'weapon', and also ‘gain, interest or profit', was placed on the floor near the door to prevent unwanted spirits entering. Yellow papers with symbols on were lit and, while in flames, circles were made with them around all persons present to ward off evil. Copies of the Buddhist prayer, mentioned earlier, had to be removed from the flat. It is powerful and could keep the dead person's spirit away. This was expected to return between 3.00 and 5.00 am with two companions, one with a cow's head and the other with a horse's face. They could cause trouble.\n\nAll mourners dozed off in the early hours although one dreamed of the deceased. Second daughter remarked the following morning, ‘If even it didn't happen, it is better to believe it happened and the mother visited us.\" That was the attitude throughout the mourning period. This family wanted to do the correct thing and gave the impression of believing, totally, in what it was doing.\n\nAn old colleague of the author recounts how an artist relative of his, who specialised in painting bamboo, died. While awaiting the return of his spirit, family members spread a dusting of incense ash on part of the floor. When they awoke the following morning, the old colleague alleges, there were marks in the dust depicting bamboo.\n\nOther Funeral Services\n\nTradition has it that it is possible, with rituals, to help the departed spirit by holding up to seven further services, one every seven days, for 49 days. These assist a soul with its tribulations through the '10 courts of the underworld'. But with present customs, and to reduce expense, usually not all seven are celebrated. The important ones are 21, 35 and 49 days after demise. For Chinese Catholics, masses can be said once a week to replace them.\n\nIn this study, the second tsat (meaning seventh) was celebrated, but the eldest daughter and her husband did not attend. It was close to his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212611, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "145 sentries were mounting guard on it. With this information brought back the number and weight of the charges could be calculated; the charges would then be made up and fastened to wooden forms made to the requisite patterns; the correct lengths of detonating fuse would be cut, the primers, lashings, etc., prepared, and the other details of the raid worked out, such as covering parties, carrying party, pass word, rendezvous and so on. Then at the appointed time, usually of course at night, the raid would be made on the target. If all went well your trained demolition party, consisting of the right number of men for the job, working as a team, each responsible for a part, could lash on all the charges, connect up the primers and detonating fuse, and retire in very quick time, while the leader stayed behind to light the safety fuse as soon as the party was clear. The raiding party would then move as rapidly as possible to safety, dropping a scout or two to watch the result of the explosion from a distance, and to bring back the report of success or otherwise. As such raids might often be made under fire, the importance of accurate work and speed needs no emphasizing. One mistake in wrongly estimating the measurements, calculating the charges, fixing them, and connecting the fuses, results inevitably in failure. It is particularly unfortunate if, in the dark, what with rain, perhaps, and a general state of flurry, one of the men slips and lets a charge drop into the river; because a failure will put the enemy on his guard, and what can be attempted once is seldom successfully attacked a second time.\n\nTo discourage enemy repair gangs, a special team would usually be detailed to lay booby-traps round the job, and other men would prepare booby-traps along the line of retreat to prevent the enemy following up too rapidly All this is ticklish and dangerous work where the mistake of one man may imperil all; so it is important that a strong esprit-de-corps animate the raiding party to ensure that all have confidence in each other. In other words a very high standard of training was called for.\n\nBooby-trapping has its fascination too. The object is to leave a modicum of explosive, encased in metal - that provides the splinters to do the damage in some place, through which the enemy is likely to pass, but concealed in such a way that he can not see it, and set with a spring which he will unwittingly set off. You can put booby-traps anywhere. In the ground they are called mines, and standard containers are supplied for the purpose. But the ordinary booby-trap that you put behind a door, or under a floor board, or in a suit case full of clothes,\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212622, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 176, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "156\n\non the door panels drew attention wherever they passed, the Allies were arriving. Alas, the advance party was the only party we were to receive: the attack on Burma was developing very quickly and all supplies and reinforcements were diverted there. Then the Burma road was cut, and as time advanced we found we had to get along with what we had. It was not as if we had even a first claim on such supplies as had already reached China for the British Military Mission. Our particular activity was not the main interest of the Mission, and we were not on any priority list.\n\nHowever, the future was concealed from us. We started off, full of enthusiasm, for Chin Ya in our four lorries accompanied by the General Commanding the Engineer Troops of the 3rd War Zone, a particular friend of ours, and reached our destination without incident. Mac's arrangements had all been completed and we were able to enter immediately into the quarters prepared for us.\n\nI was a little uneasy about the magazine, a flimsy outbuilding, used as a temple and distant a hundred yards from the village. We removed the idols from the shelf at the back, stacked our explosives there and on wooden racks built for the purpose, so as to keep them off the damp floor; and locking the door posted a sentry over it, hoping for the best. There were several tons of explosive; had they gone up they would have taken the village with them.\n\nA row of houses had been taken over for the students; in a small wood at the back three open thatched sheds had been erected as lecture rooms; and the top floor of the largest house in the village, owned by a widow, was occupied by our Chinese assistants. The widow lived on the bottom floor; she was old-fashioned and had strong objections to our installing windows in the walls of her house to admit light to the rooms. There was a local superstition that windows let the money fly out, thus impoverishing the occupants; all the houses in the district had only little slits, inadequate to relieve the gloom inside. With Michael's assistance we persuaded her to allow us to put in roughly made window-frames, fitted with wooden shutters for use if it rained; we, of course, had no glass.\n\nTwo temples had been reserved for our own quarters: the one, at a little remove from the village, I used as my office and living quarters: the other contained a large hall facing a small yard, open to the sky.\n\nI\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212623, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 177, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "157\n\nbut enclosed in front by a high wall. There was a small room alongside, suitable for a kitchen, so we used the hall as our mess. Another large room next door was divided into three by wooden partitions, which went up about seven feet, leaving the remaining space to the sloping roof open; it was used for sleeping quarters. In front of this too there was a little sunken courtyard, which filled with water from the roof gutters when it rained and became a pool; a drain led to the village pond in front of the building but was slow in carrying off the water. A small squirrel lived in this drain - the Chinese call them tree rats; it became quite tame, and soon got used to dodging the mongrel dogs that attached themselves to us. The quarters were cool in summer, and very cold in winter, fully open as they were to the air.\n\nOur water came from any one of the village wells, all of which obviously filled from surface drainage. During the summer when it rained heavily the water in the wells was flush with the level in the rice fields outside; in a country rife with typhoid and dysentery not a very satisfactory supply. We later decided we would dig our own well in the sunken courtyard in front of the sleeping quarters, with a stone coping to keep out surface water. The suggestion met with opposition from the village elders, who pointed out that the presence of a well in the line of approach to the Gods, left in position at the back of the hall, would interfere with the goodwill of the local spirits. When, however, we suggested we should dig the well to one side of the direct approach, though still in the sunken courtyard, they were quite agreeable. Some expert well makers were hired for us; the well was dug under the frequent inspection of curious villagers; but here too the water level continued to coincide with that in the paddy fields.\n\nPrivacy, in the western sense, is not known in China; our quarters, being something of a novelty, were for long the main attraction for local tourists, male and female, who would enter and inspect, Mac, for instance, in bed with absorbed interest and the greatest bonhomie on both sides. In my temple down the path, I was protected from this camaraderie by the presence of a sentry posted over the office.\n\nWe learnt a great deal about village life in China. Chin Ya was the largest of a number of villages in the valley. The valley was by no means flat; it was broken up by knolls and ridges, and there was, for China, an unusual number of trees. Mr. Hsiao, the headman of our village, also controlled several of the smaller villages around. The appointment was the prerogative of the magistrate in the nearby town, and carried with", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213266, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 88, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "68\n\nback door. In this way prosperous winds are not allowed to blow straight out of the other side. Considerable care was taken, too, in selecting the positions and angles of the two long escalators leading up to the first floor of the Bank. They should not directly 'confront' the entrance.\n\nUnlike most enterprises in urban Hong Kong 'The Bank' still has an open space in front of it and a sea view. The harbour is the bathing place of the dragon. With water signifying money this is important. Water is the most powerful of all the Elements. It is non-resistant. It can wear away rocks. A deluge can sweep all before it.\n\nIn many cases planners go to some lengths, among other measures, to ensure that interior water features assist good joss to circulate throughout a building. The height of the ejection of water of a fountain is often considered important.\n\nThe now liquidated Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce was sadly not so wise. '... the BCC displayed a large water feature which cascaded away from the entrance... this means (in fung shui terms) wealth pours out of the bank. I am surprised anyone should put their money into this bank in the first place,' a fung shui master contended.\n\nThere are countless cases where western managements have paid consideration to fung shui in Hong Kong (Saw, 1990:8) In Exchange Square, for example, a special skylight was installed and the 'water curtains' on either side of the two escalators are spectacular. In the Hyatt Regency Hotel doors and furniture were repositioned.\n\nVirgin Atlantic Airways timed their first flight to the Far East to start on a propitious day. Marks and Spencer buried lucky gold coins in strategic positions under floors in its stores, and Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm, also pays regard to the 'caring philosophy'. Asians, of course, like to see Westerners respecting their culture. In turn, it is good for business (Sunday Times, 1995:16).\n\nThe author has no hard data, but his personal recollections are that clearly far more interest is shown in fung shui by western establishments today than 40 or so years ago. Certainly there is far more interest in it now than there was between the two World Wars. Going back still further,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213270, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 92, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "72\n\nThus, although the doctrine has made a comeback among the citizens of the People's Republic (Superstition rife, 1989: 13), no thought was supposed to have been paid to it when the towering Bank of China was planned. The Chinese-American architect, I. M. Pei, insists, even though the building includes water features, geomancy was not a consideration.\n\nEugene Ho (Ho, 1987), in a letter to the South China Morning Post, wrote:\n\nI find the whole theory of fung shui wholly devoid of cognitive content.\n\n(For instance) that the sharp edges of the Bank of China in Central are allegedly bad luck.\n\n(It has been suggested) a triangle resembles a pyramid, called kam che tap in Cantonese, and this is similar to kam tap -- which means urns where the remains of the dead are kept.\n\nWhy (should) the mere resemblance between a triangle and a pyramid be sufficient implication of and invitation to bad luck?\n\nThere are those who maintain that paying attention to fung shui helps promote business and keeps staff contented. Few Chinese are likely to quibble over an office layout if it has been designed on the advice of a fung shui consultant. It is, one can argue, a branch of ergonomics. Altering the positions of furniture (which fung shui experts sensibly say should have rounded corners) and office paraphernalia can provide a better sense of space and convenience.\n\nCustoms in Other Countries\n\nChinese fung shui is more complex than most geomantic doctrines, yet there are comparable customs in other countries. A Hindu in India does not like building a house on a triangular site. The position of his bed is important. Such beliefs are more on account of spiritual reasons. Similarly, in the Philippines it is not good to construct a staircase or door facing the direction in which the sun will set because it signifies the disappearance of wealth. The front and back doors, as with Chinese belief, should, likewise, not be in a straight line through the building; otherwise, wealth can escape. You should also not face the door when you sleep.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213276, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "78\n\nstar or a god shrine decorated with 'prayer flags' (). All these have the power to protect the occupants.\n\nAlso, just inside the front door of the flat, the electric light, symbolising the sun, is always switched on. Dark rooms oppress. Brightness stimulates chi and transforms yin to yang. A chandelier can distribute chi around a room. Conversely, a room cluttered with objects will obstruct the flow of chi.\n\nThe flat in this case study faces Victoria Peak, which towers over Tai Ping Shan (Hill of Great Peace) District. The flat also faces (approximately) 'compass south'. Fung shui south, namely 'Red-bird Aspect' (a Chinese constellation in the southern sky), is not always true south. An old Chinese proverb states:\n\nEven with 1,000 taels of gold, it is not easy to buy a house facing south.\n\nIt is believed by many that houses, temples, graves, and the Emperor on his throne should all face sunny south (Tatlow, 1993: 9). The south is pure, auspicious, and warm. In short, it is yang. With the south-westerly monsoon (actually, it mostly blows from the south-east, the direction that most typhoons come from) blowing in the summer, and the north-easterly monsoon in the winter, no one quarrels with this assumption. A flat facing south is thus warmer in winter and cooler in summer. This helps promote harmony among family members. Some Chinese believe people living on the south side of a building have better chi than those living on the north side. The latter are said to be less intelligent, less successful, and lack the vitality of their neighbours who live facing 'sunny south'. For a person who was born during the cold of winter, it is even more important for him or her to live in a building facing the warm spirits of the south (Tatlow, 1993: 9).\n\nBut, having said all that, it must be pointed out that in the Sha Tin district, in Hong Kong's New Territories, out of 60 villages or hamlets, only two or three face due south. Facing south is more important in the north, where bitterly cold winds blow, than in the sub-tropics, where other factors, such as the back-up of a mountain or copse, may have to be considered.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213281, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 103, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "83\n\nThere was a severe landslide on Fathers' Day, in June 1972, on the steep slope 200 metres to the west of the flat in this case study. After three days of torrential rains the hillside, with its excessive yang, turned to mud. When the earth is healthy humans thrive. When it is 'sick', humans suffer. The slippage extended from Po Shan Road, down to Conduit Road and below to Kotewall Road. The conclusion of the public enquiry was that extensive site development had caused the disaster. Sixty-seven people lost their lives after a 13-storey block of flats was cut off at its base and swept downhill. Life can be incomprehensible and vicious.\n\nHong Kong is not liable to seismic activity. The last earthquake, in 1918, did little damage. But a report by the late Professor S G Davies of Hong Kong University, shortly after the 1972 Kotewall Road landslip, noted fault lines. One line is said to run from Wanchai Gap over to Aberdeen, to the south of the flat in this case study. It is thus not difficult to appreciate how villagers, mentioned above, feel living at the foot of, or on the slopes of, a mountain. In the flat in this study, when it rains heavily and the slopes above turn to mud, as residents put it, 'one finds oneself gazing up at the mountain with its latent, supernatural power and wondering.' This is basically why, even if there is rhythm in the cultural landscape of nature, gentle slopes are preferred.\n\nUnderstanding the empirical ground rules of fung shui land usage, and the aesthetics of Chinese geomancy as a traditional form of spiritually based planning, can provide lessons for western architects, townplanners and environmentalists even today. Fung shui attempts to ensure that everything is in harmony with its surroundings. Its scope ranges from the planning of an entire town, to the construction of a high-rise building, to the design of an interior in an office or a home.\n\nWith respect to fung shui the owner's study, in the flat in this case study, is probably the best room in the flat. The owner has, however, been advised it would be better, even if he would miss the view, if he moved his desk around so he faced the door, rather than looking out of the window. With his back to the entrance much of the time, he always half-expects someone to come in. There is a loss of 'power'. It is not easy to concentrate. If he moved he would also not have to turn around when visitors come to see him. One's back should never face a window or a door as the force of chi is too great. The operator of a computer, which can stimulate chi, on the other hand, should face a door. If not, he or she may feel nervous and suffer stress.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213287, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "89\n\nunease (even dread) if certain lore is followed concerning the construction or the furnishing of a building. A Chinese geomancer will probably be able to give specific reasons why it is so. It is not difficult to imagine that if someone's home is 'tranquil', and that if he or she feels 'comfortable' there, that this will be 'picked up', sensitively, eventually resulting in a greater degree of self-possession and, consequently, greater accomplishment.\n\nIn Chinese communities talismanic paper emblems above door frames, like the 'Five Happinesses' (signifying long life, wealth, health and peace, love and virtue, and natural death after a full span) are common. Understanding something of metaphysics one realises the power of the negative word. The Chinese characters signifying 'Coming or leaving go in peace', painted on a strip of red paper and pasted by the entrance, although by no means hypnotic or yogic techniques, mean a great deal to many. It psychologically 'hearts are put at ease' by constantly reading such messages (a form of auto-suggestion) then the desired effect is achieved.\n\nSome Chinese symbols can be compared with an old shoe tied to the back of the car of a newly married English couple; or a horseshoe (which must hang the right way up) by the door of a cottage. Inside the parlour you might find the motto, 'Bless this house', displayed. Certainly during World War II a number of British aircraft crew members, on bombing missions over Germany, carried lucky charms, such as rabbits' paws.\n\nFung shui has been likened to the pull of gravity or high voltage electricity. Others describe it as dei mat, the veins through which the pulse of the earth can be sensed. The end result, many believe, is directly proportional to the degree of skill of the fung shui practitioner. With the cosmos in a constant state of flux his task is to analyse bad elements and to advise on cures to help balance or restore the build-up and circulation of chi. Often it is accepted the fung shui specialist cannot prevent something from happening. But if he has mastered his art he can make the effects less severe.\n\nOf course it does not always happen so. 'My fung shui lo (\"fellow\") did not tell me so much red in my flat would upset Ng Wong (the Fifth King God),' a Chinese woman told the author. 'Also, he did not forecast the death of my friend's mother. All he is concerned with now is taking on as...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213289, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 111, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "91\n\nThere are, for example, the Nine Stars and the 24 Mountains. The 24 Celestial Mansions, the 24 Fortnightly Climatic Periods, the 24 Characters, and the Five Elements are also represented. The compass, made from timber and coated with lacquer, not only tells direction, namely east, south, west, north and centre (the 'five' cardinal points), but it also shows the position of the sun at different periods of the year. To use the compass the base is placed parallel with the door, wall or other object to be oriented. The rings are then rotated so that things are lined up.\n\nAs a model of the universe, then, the loh poon helps its fung shui master interpret and predict, from the mystic Chinese characters, the client's future. This is done with the 'Eight Trigrams' forming the paat kwa (the eight-sided divining diagram as detailed in the I Ching) which is displayed on the inner section of the compass (Sung, 1934; and Sung, 1935). With the 'Eight Trigrams' two parallel continuous lines represent the 'Great Male Principle', and two parallel broken lines represent the 'Great Female Principle', and so on.\n\nThe ancient book, the I Ching, is regarded as almost sacred in some quarters and dates back to about 2800 BC, although the oldest extant commentaries were probably written closer to 1300 BC (Markert, 1986). The I Ching deals with prognostication, fortune telling and philosophy, with sets of symbols and different ways of combining these symbols so that they form titular statements. Much is written in poetic language which is difficult for the lay Chinese to understand.\n\nThese Trigrams mentioned above, made up of broken and unbroken lines in various relationships, are loathed by evil spirits in the same way that Holy Water, blessed by a Christian Priest, will fight evil.\n\nIn fact in China's Fujian Province, to the North-east of Hong Kong, large circular, communal dwellings have one ring of houses encircling another ring (Huang, 1994, 11). A whole complex, as large as an Olympic stadium, houses hundreds of families. Such structures are said to be earthquake proof and designed to provide natural temperature control. Each complex is shaped similar to the baat kwa, as outlined above.\n\nAs previously stated Chinese culture is woven around the 'Five Elements' in various ways (Needham, 1956, 243). The Five are employed, in fung shui, after consulting both the lunar and solar calendars (which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213483, "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": 79, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "(4) if he treads \"in the air\", this means ascending the staircase. (5) when two men are holding an oar - this indicates the existence of a pontoon bridge for someone to use it to get to a nearby boat or sampan.\n\n(6) two big flags, each bearing the imprint of a wheel, held by a man or woman in each hand, with a noble lady in the middle, indicates that the lady is sitting in a chariot.\n\n(7) punishment or degradation of an official or scholar is indicated by \"taking away his hat\".\n\n(8) if a man wears a heavy balaclava, that means he is on a long distance trip or in severe cold.\n\n(9) there is no eating scene in Peking Opera. Drinking wine is denoted by raising the wine cup, with the right hand, to the lip, and hiding the movement by raising the sleeve of the left arm.\n\n(10) a man without a hat, constantly swinging his hair from side to side or tapping his finger on his forehead, or the constant rubbing of hands means he is in trouble and does not know how to get out of it.\n\n(11) why does an important figure walk from the back of the stage to the centre in a funny gait? This is because the Chinese theatre usually has no curtain, as the Western theatre does, so he has to perform the action in a dignified way.\n\n(12) wiping the eye with the sleeve denotes that the actor or actress is weeping or crying. I don't know why, but possibly handkerchiefs were not used in China in former times.\n\n(13) you will find that, in some of the play, a chair is used to represent the front door of a house or cave house.\n\n(14) a painted cloth screen, with an opening in the middle, represents the city wall and the entrance to the city.\n\n(15) you never see a man sleeping on a bed with a pillow. To portray that he is sleeping, he always sits upright in a chair, with his day clothing on, behind a cloth screen.\n\nThe Painted Face Actors\n\nHow much do you know about these painted Faces? From behind these facades, how much can you make out of it, to foretell the kind of character or personality of the man the actor is trying to represent on the stage? The following few hints maybe of help for you to understand the character of the man in history that the actor is portraying.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213487, "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": 83, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "51\n\nthrough the elaborate story that preceded the battle scene felt that they were cheated or short-changed!\n\nI cannot agree more. The audience would expect that both the story that precedes the battle, and the battle itself would be well proportioned and balanced. No wonder it was an anticlimax.\n\n(4) One way to prolong the fighting scene is to introduce some acrobatic performances onto the set. You must remember that, in earlier days, the theatre-goers were allowed to drink tea and eat melon seeds while watching the drama. What a wonderful idea, to be able to go to an Opera and, at the same time, enjoy life while watching the actors doing acrobatics on the stage!\n\nHow to Read the Result of the Battle.\n\nHaving said so much about the fighting techniques of the Chinese Opera, it would be useful to know how to read the score of a Chinese Opera fighting scene.\n\nFirst, place yourself in one of the front stall seats facing the stage. The Chinese Opera stage usually has two doors at the back end of the stage, one on your left-hand side, and one on your right-hand side. In the old days, there was a plaque on top of the left-hand side door with two distinguished Chinese characters \"\" (Chu Jiang), which literally means “the door through which the general enters\". We simply call this door the “Entrance Door\". Similarly, over the right-hand side door, there is a plaque also with two Chinese characters \"\" (Ru Xiang), meaning \"the door through which the Prime Minister departs\". We shall simply call this door the “Exit Door\".\n\nNow, when both armies are fighting, if suddenly both parties retire to the back of the stage, each through a different door, you will then know that the battle is a draw. On the other hand, if you see one army suddenly withdraw through the Exit door, with the opposing army hot in pursuit, you will know that the army that withdrew through the Exit door first is losing. This will allow the winning side general a few more minutes to display his army's superiority over the enemy and, in most cases, he may over-react and go through the door last!", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214416, "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": 274, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "240\n\njackets without waistcoats, with barely visible signs of neckties. All the offices are open wide; there, Chinese, under the supervision of Englishmen, pack and unpack bales, put them in piles, carry them to boats which then take them to the ships. Only the intrepid Chinese fill the streets, sitting in groups by the entrances, waiting for work, carrying Europeans in sedan-chairs. One sees their bare shoulders, backs, legs everywhere and their heads protected only by two tight thick rows of pigtail.\n\nWe reached the Chinese quarter, which begins immediately after the European. It consists of a huge row of shops, with living space above, as in Singapore. The shops are small, selling fabrics, crockery, tea, fruit. Artisans too are located here, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths and others. By the doors signs hang from the top down to the floor: they are narrow, a quarter of an arshin* in width, strips of paper with Chinese lettering. The shopmen (shopkeepers?), all decidedly near naked, sit on the counters with their legs folded under them.\n\nWe entered a shop with fruit lying in mounds. Apart from pineapples and small oranges, called mandarins, all the others were unknown to us. The pineapples gave off their pungent aroma, while the shopkeeper reeked of garlic, and then to add to this, right next door, from a shop selling foodstuffs, emanated an almost putrid odour of meat hanging in the sun, fish lying in heaps, animal entrails, and still other items which we were reluctant to examine.\n\nKind K.H., at my request, tried all the fruit and gave me an accurate idea of how they all tasted - \"This one is sweet, with a pleasant sourness while this one is doughy and tasteless; and this one,\" he said about some small red skinned fruit, that looked more like a berry, \"smells of baked onion.\" etc.\n\nBy walking through the Chinese quarter we reached the sea and the floating population, then we went up a little hill and far down an alley - a continuation of the Chinese quarter. The same sort of shops, the same dirtiness. But in this confusion of cries, smells, in the crush, among the little hovels, midst all manner of stuff lying in heaps, the Chinese are somehow livelier, they walk freer: they've established their little China here and they're happy! In the European quarter, the space,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214507, "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": 365, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "334\n\ntherefore to the outside of the building, which is of neo-gothic design. Although built in the 1930s, long after Germany ceased to hold sway over Tsingtao, the cathedral was built largely with German money. However, before it was completed the money supply was drastically reduced by the incoming Nazi government. Hence the inside, had we been able to see it, would have shown such incongruous features as flat ceilings instead of the vaulted and beamed roof that the outside would suggest. Legend has it that during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, two over-zealous Red Guards climbed the towers with the intention of removing the crosses from the top, but they fell to their respective deaths before completing their mission. As the cathedral is in a very narrow street, it is not possible to get a good camera angle unless one walks somewhat away from the front, down to the street to the left, where a lively street-market gives interesting and contrasting foreground possibilities - the whole looking rather medieval. In fact, the street market is worth a visit in its own right, being very extensive and lively. A chopper seller (as used in Chinese cooking and violent crime) was being very vocal at the time we were there.\n\nHills and beaches - the east of the city\n\nWe had organised a picnic lunch from the hotel. Given that time was tight we did not want to spend an hour or so hidden away in a restaurant. Instead, we took our picnic lunch up Qingdaoshan Hill, formerly Bismarck Berg. Access to the hill was somewhat unusual, being through a small museum on Jing Shan Road. The museum was in fact closed, but our guide managed to navigate us through and out of the back door, whence up the hill. A look-out post at the top gives good panoramas of the city and out to sea. The picnic lunch was adequate, but Philip Bruce appeared to be very pleased that he had brought his tin of sardines from the Co-op in Worthing.\n\nFortified and refreshed, our next mission was to find any remains of the German cemetery. Its location was clear enough from the many old maps that we had between us, but the guide was not hopeful of finding anything of interest. And so it turned out, or almost. The cemetery is now Baihua Park, and is remarkable for a reason that cannot be much further removed from cemeteries. On entering the park we noticed a wedding couple, and another - and another. There must have been upwards of 30 or more newly married couples wandering around", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214513, "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": 371, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "340\n\ncommander's residence. Indeed, its present use is a naval canteen. The sleepy staff were somewhat surprised to see an invasion by foreign tourists, but they allowed us to wander all over the house as if it were our own. Later research pinned this house down as being the governor's residence, as opposed to \"Government House\".\n\nFrom this vantage point it is possible to look into the naval base. There is not much of interest, except for one smart but small building towards the northern end of the base that looks as though it could have been the former customs house. It has a four-storey tower with a very tall flagpole and a large verandah overlooking the sea. My previous visit in 1996 afforded me a closer look at this well-preserved building, but only by gaining unauthorised entry to the naval base. The front gates were, naturally, guarded - but a door into one of the external walls had a sign that a canteen was doing business up the stairs. Up I went - and then down I went on the other side, but only very briefly. Much as I liked what I saw, I did not fancy spending a few years there.\n\nBack at the governor's residence, comparing notes and old photographs with a naval officer who had just strolled up the hill for lunch, we established that the actual Government House still exists, but that it is firmly inside a military compound. Nothing daunted, we found the place - inland and a mile or so to the west of where we were. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, no amount of pleading with the guards at the gate could get even a foot inside. But we could get a glimpse of the roof of the building in question - just through the gate and to the right - about 100 yards away, partially hidden by trees. The details that we could see confirmed it as being the former British governor's residence.\n\nDuring lunch, Jessie and a few others wandered off in search of the King's Hotel, the Hongkong Bank building and a few other places from her past. Unfortunately they did not find any.\n\nThe only other point of interest that we saw was an obelisk, in the middle of a traffic island near the seafront, commemorating \"the taking back of Wei Hai from the British after years of pain.\" Lucky, I suppose, that Wei Hai was not subjected to as much pain as Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214638, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "J\n\n17\n\nhouse sites had, by then, been divided into two very tiny separate houses (the original layout probably consisted of 130 houses including the temple). The houses were very tiny - 23' deep by 8.5' wide, totalling no more than 196 square feet. Where the houses had been divided, the small houses were less than 100 square feet each. The houses were too small to have air-wells, and consisted each of only a single room, with a tiny cockloft over a small bedchamber at the back. Few had windows (some had a tiny window at the back, lighting the cockloft, about a foot square, defended with iron bars and closed by shutters), and most were aired and lighted only through the house door. The premises backing onto the outer walls were houses, of the same size as those fronting the lanes.\n\nThe village had no well or open space within the walls. The gatehouse was wider than the lane leading to it inside the walls, and provided space for an earth god shrine, and a ladder giving access to the gun-chamber above the gate. At the other end of the spinal centre lane was the Tin Hau Temple, occupying one house site, and facing the gate directly: the Village Office occupied the house immediately to its north.\n\nThe features of the layout of Nga Tsin Wai which it shares with Tai Wai in Sha Tin are the almost square layout facing the optimum Fung Shui direction and not the cardinal points, the narrow lanes, the tiny houses, the layout of six north-south and three east-west lanes with the first and sixth lanes running back to dead ends against the inner faces of the walls, the existence of premises backing onto the walls which are as big (in most cases) as the houses opening onto the lanes, and the temple occupying a house-site opposite the gate-house. Both villages used the house immediately to the north of the temple as the Village Office. The Tai Wai towers in 1905 did not protrude into the moat, but this may well be a modification introduced when the two villages were rehabilitated after the Coastal Evacuation. Of these features, the narrowness of the lanes and the smallness of the houses are special to the two villages (most walled villages within the New Territories had very many fewer, but very much larger houses, and much wider lanes). In most New Territories walled villages the premises along the two side walls are very much smaller than the houses facing into the lanes, and were designed for use as cattle sheds, pigsties, and latrines: to have houses here is unusual. The dead-ends at the end of the first and sixth lanes are also peculiar to these two villages. Most", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214730, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "This picture shows the altar and the five scrolls at the back inside the matshed. The figures on the extreme left and right scrolls are door gods. The centre three are the Taoist gods usually known as 'Saam Ching' (Stevens; 1997, 68 and 177). The people inside the matshed are musicians (Photograph courtesy of Antiquities and Monuments Office).\n\n109", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214791, "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": 206, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "171\n\nSusan Stewart (1984; 1993) therefore exaggerated when she said that “Nostalgia is a sadness without an object', although otherwise she well expressed the facticity of nostalgia: 'By the narrative process of nostalgic reconstruction the present is denied and the past takes on an authenticity of being...which...it can achieve only through narrative'; and \"Nostalgia is the repetition that mourns the inauthenticity of all repetition and denies the repetition's capacity to form identity'. \n\nThe Hmong people with whom I have worked, in Thailand and in Southwest China, express an almost incalculable nostalgia for the past through their death rituals, when the Song of Opening the Way' (Chuab Ke) is sung by a Master of the Way (mo). The soul of the deceased is addressed very gently by the Master, who figuratively takes him by the hand and leads him to collect his placenta from where it was buried beneath the floor of the house at his birth. Then slowly, step by step, the Master leads the dead back through a series of terrifying ordeals which encompass the entirety of historical time itself, back and back until the very point of origin is arrived at, the village of the lineage ancestors (your Mother and Father) from where you will be reborn. Here the soul will at last meet its true Mother and Father - but not those pleasant ones who seem to recognise you. greeting you with open arms and smiles at the door, but those terrifying, tall angry-looking ogres, these are your real Mother and Father...\" \n\n*Saub yom yiaj, at daybreak came one walking from the edge of the sky, dressed up in beautiful finery and wearing a splendid turban. I called you once but you did not hear, I called you twice and three times and still you did not listen. I fear that the one dressed in beautiful finery coming along the path is you, come out to play\n\nSaub us uj, listen carefully to what the Master has to say, I bear the crossbow on my back and take the cock under my arm to guide you on your way, you will come upon three roads, do not take the road to the left, for that is the road for the Yi people, do not take the road to the right, for that is the road for the Han people, but take the road in the middle, the little one with the filthy footprints and hoof marks, for that is the road of your ancestors, that is the road where you should go and play", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214885, "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": 300, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "2\n\n271\n\nwould still grow back! After the master said this, the fisher-people were very despondent, but they continued to hope for a solution.\n\nOne day, the Fung Shui master saw his old dog, Ah Wong, dozing beside the door of his house, and he had a brain-wave, and at last came up with a clever solution. He quickly told the fisher-people what to do to implement his plan. That evening, after the fisher-people had all washed themselves, they returned home to rest until midnight, and then, in the dark, they sailed across to Tiu Chung Chau, and then, under the master's direction, before they cut the roots, they first of all took a large basin of the blood of a black dog, and sprinkled it over the roots. When the roots were then cut off, a great noise like a howl filled the valley. At the same time, the mountain shook. A huge gale sprang up. Sand fell out of the rocks, and the whole hillside collapsed. The old banyan tree fell, and a vast amount of sand and mud fell into the sea. Not long after, this official Ho lost his position, as a result of this. No-one knows where he fled to.\n\nThis story is widely known. Chu Wai-tak (*), in his book “New Views of Old Hong Kong\" () says, “I have attempted to locate this old grave, and have crossed to Tiu Chung Chau many times, going up to the summit of the crag. On the east side there remains the shape of a grave, although nothing is left of it, and so it seems to me that there is some basis for this story.”\n\nNg Chuen-hi (47) Chairman, Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple Restoration Committee”\n\nD. Faure, \"The Man the Emperor Decapitated”, Vol. 28, pp 198-203; P.H. Hase, \"More on the Man the Emperor Decapitated”, Vol. 29, pp 388-289; Wong Wing-ho, \"Yet More on the Man the Emperor Decapitated\", Vol. 34, pp 179-181.\n\nAny further versions of stories about Ho Chan would be very much welcomed.\n\nPage 300\n\nPage 301", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214902, "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": 317, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "293\n\nBOOK REVIEW\n\nGillian Bickley (2201), Hong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare, with a foreword by Arthur Gomes, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 303 pages.\n\nA97NIGHTMARE\n\nIn 1897, a series of anonymous articles appeared in the China Mail. Together they constituted a story entitled The Back Door. This was a fictional account of a successful invasion of Hong Kong by the combined forces of fin-de-siècle aggressors, France and Russia. The inference is that the author was perturbed that Hong Kong's defences at the time were inadequate and so, in an attempt to galvanise the authorities, wrote this \"wake up call.\" Copies of the story ultimately found their way to Whitehall in London.\n\nGillian Bickley\n\nAs the title of the story infers, the superior invading forces entered Hong Kong by way of the south side of Hong Kong Island. There was the bloody Battle of Deepwater Bay, fought in \"the jungle\" around the Golf Club and on the beach. There was shelling of the Peak from the sea and the sea battle of Sulphur Channel. Matters neared their end when the enemy captured the Kowloon Forts and the dynamite and gunpowder stored on Stonecutters' Island were fired. At the last stand, on Stonecutters', the defenders were ultimately annihilated.\n\nThe Back Door evidently arose from the same anxiety that drove Britain's negotiations with China; concluded in 1898 when China granted the ninety-nine year lease of the New Territories, which Britain had requested as a protective buffer against attack.\n\nGillian Bickley discovered a copy of this story some years ago and it evidently fired her imagination, probably because as we all know, Hong Kong was invaded on 8th December, 1941, by the Japanese - also by superior forces - and ultimately capitulated on Christmas day. The Japanese, however, entered Hong Kong from the north, through the New Territories. Had the Japanese, she wonders, read The Back Door?", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214903, "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": 318, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "294\n\nI don't for one moment think they had. The Japanese invasion of Hong Kong was a \"natural extension\" of their campaign in China in the sense that they had already occupied southern China - across the border from Hong Kong - a considerable time before. Also, although there are innumerable examples to show that invasion from the sea can be a costly business if the beaches are in any way defended, in Hong Kong's case they weren't. A number of gun emplacements had been built on Hong Kong Island before the war but these would not have prevented an invasion at Deepwater Bay. And there certainly weren't any Allied troops around. The Japanese knew all this. I rather suspect that they invaded from the New Territories rather than assault Hong Kong Island at the outset because they believed that if and when they overran Hong Kong Island, the Allied forces would cross to Kowloon and thence to the New Territories and continue to wage guerrilla warfare for months, if not years. The Japanese had every reason to think that conquering the New Territories and Kowloon first would result in the Allied forces retreating to Hong Kong Island - which they did - where they could be \"bottled up\" - which they were.\n\nIn the round, however, this discussion is academic. The hard fact of the matter is that Hong Kong was simply not defendable with the forces available in December 1941. A successful defence would have required a force of enormous size and superbly equipped, supported by comprehensive fortifications. The \"protective buffer\" of the New Territories was never any more than an illusion. These arguments, incidentally, were as valid in 1897 as they were in 1941 and to that extent The Back Door was both disingenuous and unhelpful. September 1897 was evidently what the media refer to as a \"slow news\" month!\n\nHong Kong Invaded! A '97 Nightmare is a 'new, integrated and corrected' edition of The Back Door. Incidentally, although The Back Door was written in 1897, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that Gillian is having a gentle swipe at the momentous event in Hong Kong's history that occurred exactly 100 years later.\n\nThe actual story occupies but 56 pages of Gillian's book, including illustrations by Arthur Hacker. These, incidentally, are a disappointment. They are supposed to be illustrating a serious account of a battle fought to the last, with heroism and heavy loss of life on both sides. One would have thought, therefore, that they would have been", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214904, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 319, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "295\n\ndrawn in a manner matching the gravity of the story. Instead, they have a frivolous, cartoon-like quality and contribute nothing at all.\n\nThe contents of the rest of the book include old photographs, and reproductions of old maps and documents. These, for me, are the best parts as they are a rich source of historical material - and also extremely interesting. There is an enormous \"Notes\" section, some of which are very informative. There is, however, quite a lot of extraneous material in the book - and in the \"Notes\" - which can really only be described as \"filler.\"\n\nThe tantalising question for this reviewer is Gillian's objective in compiling this book. Much is made of the contention that The Back Door is Hong Kong's contribution to the genre of \"future war fiction.\" Quite possibly so, but it is a pretty modest contribution and was probably cobbled together in little more than a few days. It pales considerably when compared with, for example, General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War: August 1985 (Sidgwick and Jackson, London and Macmillan, New York, 1978). Gillian's book represents an enormous investment in time - a Bickley trademark - but one really has to wonder whether the time could not have been better spent. For example, an historical account of the development of Hong Kong's defences up to World War Two would make an excellent subject for a book and would permit a serious, academic study of an under-researched subject. Such a study could refer to The Back Door to illustrate the anxieties in Hong Kong at the time. Instead, a pretty mediocre piece of writing has become the raison d'être for Gillian's book. Expressed another way, do we really want to know that 'Inspector Hannah' in The Back Door in fact, Sergeant 1891 Hannah of the Hong Kong Police, plus the hundreds of other titbits in the \"Notes\"?\n\nwas,\n\nHowever, Gillian has put a great deal of effort into this highly unusual book and I hope that it sells millions.\n\nPETER HALLIDAY\n\nSee The Battle of Hong Kong: A Note on the Literature and the Effectiveness of the Defence elsewhere in this issue.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215492, "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": 269, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "218\n\nthe ground.\n\nUnobserved, I saw through a latticed window at the back of the hall the younger monks coming off duty from their performance next door. They were walking along happily, chatting and joking, just as young people would do anywhere, and pulling snacks from deep within their flowing robes.\n\nReturning my attention indoors, I saw that the wooden floors were also, in their own way, a work of art. Onto the pressed mud floor had been laid three-by-nine-inch joists, over which, cross-wise, had been placed two-inch thick planks. And over this second layer was a third, also two-inch planks, laid at right-angles. This last would eventually become the floor and would have the feel of polished marble when finished.\n\nIn the so-called civilised world, with so many obvious technological and other advantages over an undeveloped country such as Bhutan, would it be possible to use traditional skills, methods and materials to rebuild one of our national treasures if it were destroyed? I very much doubt it. It was most moving to see such skill and attention to detail.\n\nThen a workman's mobile phone rang.\n\nBrother, can you spare me a dance?\n\nIt was time to return to the viewing place as the monks were about to do their traditional dance. I don't know about you, but I don't normally associate monks with dancing. I was intrigued. Crossing the courtyard again, the sense of Something About To Happen was greater than ever. Some of the people wandering about were clearly important officials. They were wearing very smart gos, but the traditional white shawl in these cases had red designs on it, and they had extremely fancy woven footwear to boot. More to the point, they were carrying large shiny swords. All Bhutanese gave them an extremely wide berth. I thought it wise to do the same.\n\nThe viewing balcony was more crowded by now, even some other tourists. (Apart from ourselves, foreigners had been very few and far between during our trip - almost to the extent that some of us were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215816, "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": 115, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "48\n\nfor Tolo Harbour), its entrance faced the northeast, which was like an open door for a typhoon. The 1937 typhoon took advantage of such a tailor-made entrance to surge through it with a tidal wave.3\n\n30\n\nIf a typhoon during peacetime could cause so much damage, then one of similar magnitude during wartime, when the stakes are higher, could really set back the Allied timetable. The Tai Po Road would likely have served as a conduit to funnel supplies north to China, and a disruption to its service (even temporarily) would do much to hurt the supply situation. Moreover, if LoC by land into China were that vulnerable, then LoC by sea to Hong Kong would be even more precarious. Such a supply line would likely come from the southeast and pass through the strait between Luzon and Formosa. This region also happened to be a major alleyway for typhoons, not to mention an area of strong Japanese concentrations if either Luzon or Formosa (or both) continued to be in enemy hands.3\n\n31\n\nDue to their extensive commitment in the Atlantic, Allied merchant shipping and its escorts were more precious commodities in the much larger Pacific. The Japanese had not made it a policy to attack supply vessels thus far in the war, but that did not mean they would not alter this policy as the Allies pushed closer to the home islands. A typhoon, however, would not wait nor discriminate. While ships at harbour enjoy a little bit of protection from a typhoon, ships at sea don't have this benefit. The only option was evasion, and that depended on knowing the whereabouts of the typhoon. As noted earlier, this was an extremely difficult task during World War II.\n\n32\n\nAnother category of shipping in which the Allies weren't as well endowed as they would have liked was landing craft. These vessels were mandatory for Allied operations in the Pacific. But Europe received first priority for landing craft for much of the war, leaving just enough for the Allies to take to the offensive in the Pacific. Hong Kong's ability to serve as a lifeline into China depended entirely on a secure LoC that could be established to it by sea, and this in turn depended on the ability of the Allies to secure Hong Kong from the sea by an amphibious assault. The more landings the Allies carried out, the greater the toll on their landing craft, as the same craft would be used over and over. But landing craft were rather lightly-protected ships, which also made them prone to attrition through enemy action, breakdowns, and the weather.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215907, "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": 206, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "140\n\nSeated in the front row are the other guest speakers for the day: Dr. Patrick Hase, a member of the conference organising committee and RAS Council member, who will talk about Shatin and its development from a village to a city; Reverend Carl Smith, the honorary vice-president, who will talk about his 40 years of research in Hong Kong, and Mr. Tim Ko, an organising committee member and Council member, who has prepared a slide presentation about living in Hong Kong from 1960 to 1980. Also listening attentively is Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, vice-president of the RAS, convenor of the conference and mistress of ceremonies for the day.\n\nI sit near the front to get better video of the proceedings, but it's dark in the hall and other than Dr. Waters, I realise I won't be able to capture any of the audience's faces. I direct my camera in their direction anyway, just in case, or maybe just to let them know they'd be wise not to doze off.\n\nThis was in December 2000, when the one-day conference was presented jointly with the Hong Kong Museum of History. Waters has since stepped down from the presidency he held for four and a half years, during which Hong Kong was handed back to the motherland.\n\nAn old hand's reflection...\n\nI met Waters for the first time a month before the conference at his home on Conduit Road. He greeted me at the door and he was just as I had imagined from our telephone conversations. He is a tall man with a strong presence. He has perfect posture and his movements are quick. Waters holds the 800m and 1500m local running records in the over 70 category. He has a full head of hair although the colour has changed from when he was a young man; the only other hint of his advanced years is that he's a bit hard of hearing.\n\nHe takes me to the study and has had his maid prepare a glass of orange drink for me. I haven't had orange drink from powder something like Tang since early childhood,\n\n-\n\nWhat do I want to know? he asks. What do I want to know? I ask myself. I really want to find out if the Royal Asiatic Society is as snobby as it sounds, maybe. But no, I don't ask that...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216109, "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": 408, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "342\n\nthey would have provided (had they been left) and for the urban lineage they would have represented. Those wonderful old buildings are no longer with us to provide anchors in times of need.\n\nThey were replaced within a few years by high-rise air-conditioned buildings. Many depend upon artificial lighting and ventilation and have windows which do not open. Today, so many live and work in an artificial atmosphere. This major change led long ago to people discarding shorts and open-necked shirts and wearing two-piece suits and more formal and more uncomfortable clothing. The new lifestyle meant the better off were stepping from their air-conditioned homes, carrying brief cases, into their air-conditioned cars and then being conveyed to their air-conditioned offices.\n\nAt the end of World War Two the Chinese Nationalist Government was waiting in the wings just over the border to take over Hong Kong. But the British beat them to it. If the Americans had had their way, and British rule had been terminated in Hong Kong in 1945 and the place had been returned to China, it is possible to speculate what would have happened. In 1949 Hong Kong, like other big cities in China, would have been taken over by the People's Republic Government. This would have meant that, after 30 or so years of communist rule, Hong Kong would have been as backward economically as the rest of China. There would have been no 'Hong Kong miracle'. After 1978 the Territory would not have been able to form a nucleus for the economic development for the rest of China with its 'Open Door Policy.'\n\nPigeons\n\nUp until 1914 every marine launch of Hong Kong's Water Police (as the Marine Police were known then) took a few pigeons on board. These were used to fly messages back to headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. But in spite of the introduction of radio the pigeons were kept on strength. Members of the force contributed to buy them food. The flock of about 50 birds came to be looked upon much like the Barbary Apes at Gibraltar or the Ravens at the Tower of London. It was said when the pigeons departed from Marine Police Headquarters so would the British from Hong Kong.\n\nThe pigeons disappeared during the Japanese occupation but were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216310, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 69, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "18\n\nRestoring the damage done by the three years of Taiping destruction required a massive reconstruction project which lasted for nearly 30 years from 1871 to 1899. In addition to rebuilding the previous structures, several new halls which had not existed before were added during this time, including the Guest House (Ke Tang) and the Dining Hall (Zhai Tang) in 1887; the Goddess of Mercy Hall (Guan Yin Dian), Ancestors Hall (Zu Shi Dian), and the Kshitigarbha Hall (Di Zang Dian) in 1890; and finally the 500 Arhats Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) in 1896.\n\nThe Republican era, 1911-1949\n\nAt the beginning of the Min Guo Republic (1912), all the monks were forced to move out by armed soldiers who moved in and used the temple as a barracks. The soldiers looted the golden statues from the temple, and wooden parts of the temple such as window frames were used by the soldiers to make cooking fires. However, in 1920 the temple and the pagoda were both repaired, and after being closed for a whole decade the temple finally officially reopened in 1922 when all the monks came back. Holmes Welch's otherwise authoritative 1967 study of Buddhism in China mistakenly stated that Longhua Temple was occupied by the Chinese military for the entire Min Guo period. Photos from D. C. Burn's brief 1926 study of the temple show that the Qing Dynasty 500 Arhat Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) was still intact then, although it no longer exists now.\n\nLonghua Temple enjoyed 15 years of peace and tranquility until September 11, 1937 when the temple was badly damaged during the Japanese attack on Shanghai. Nine Japanese airplanes dropped 30 bombs on the Longhua area. Most likely they were targeting the nearby Longhua Airport and the Guomindang's Longhua Garrison military camp next door, but they accidentally caused severe damage to the temple. Before the attack there had been 80 monks living in the temple, but afterward there were only 7 monks remaining.\n\nDuring the first five years of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1942, the internal affairs of the temple were confused and disorganized, with rival masters claiming the post of Abbot, and unqualified persons claiming to be Buddhist monks for the sake of seeking safe haven in the temple. On September 9, 1942 a reorganization committee was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216319, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 78, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "27\n\nalso in this hall that one is most likely to see the resident monks performing ceremonies which include chanting and the use of musical instruments such as cymbals and drums.\n\nA second long barracks-like hall hidden behind the first one is known as the Jade Buddha Hall (Yu Fo Dian), and contains other side chapels which are usually kept closed and only opened on special occasions. One of these is a chapel which contains an unusual Reclining Jade Buddha (Yu Wo Fo) like the one at the Jade Buddha Temple (Yu Fo Si). Above this chapel is a second floor with another image inside a glass case, and windows looking down on the gardens of Longhua Park next door.\n\nThe monks' residence is in a separate set of buildings in a back corner of the complex and is off limits to visitors. Through the windows of the second floor can be seen their private library stacked with books.\n\nApproximately 90 resident monks live here now, with another 30 student monks in apprenticeship. The temple's current abbot is Master Ming Yang. The monks of Longhua supposedly belong to the Chan Zong sect (Zen) of Chinese Buddhism. However, the vast array of gilded effigies here, representing the whole Buddhist pantheon of deities, makes one wonder about the accuracy of this claim or the status of Chan Buddhism in China today. Chan was originally an iconoclastic sect which prohibited use of images of any kind. At least one resident foreign monk was noticed living here in January 2004, made obvious by his large crooked nose, white skin, and wide girth, as well as his lateness for morning prayers.\n\nColor photos of Longhua Temple can be seen in the author's Vol. I of his New Yangzi River series, entitled Shanghai and the Yangzi Delta, published by Times Publishing Ltd. of Singapore in 2004.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216370, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 129, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "78\n\non 15 November 1863. However, as Wright suggested, \"Hart's appointment as full Inspector-General was a foregone conclusion.\" (1950: 258) As early as June 11, 1863 a high-ranking Chinese official, Wen Xiang, gave Hart to understand that he would be the best candidate to replace Lay if he left (Wang, 2000: 63).\n\nHart took the position of I.G. very seriously and he was a man with great ambitions for power and honour. From his diaries, we know that between early summer 1863 and August 1864 he struggled desperately with his natural desire for womanising. This coincides directly with the period during which he prepared himself for and was finally appointed to the post of I.G. His expressions, such as \"They set my blood on fire\", \"desperate struggle\", \"This war of passion and principle is horrible”, and “I am mad upon the pleasure of the couch”, indicate that Hart's battle with his desire to womanise was a constant struggle. He even went so far as to say \"were I always to remain in China, I might do as the Chinese do - for though socially I consider polygamy inexpedient in the west, I do not think it inexpedient in China, nor do I consider it morally wrong in itself.\" (Smith, Fairbank, Bruner 1991:179) Although mention of his romantic chatting and pressing of hands with the girls next door is no longer present in his diaries after August 1864, it does not necessarily mean that he had finally won the battle. He still laments female intimacy and cannot stop dreaming of how happy his life would be if he could have a girl in the room with him:\n\nO Woman, lovely woman! And yet it is sexual desire - it is, I fear, more brute passion, than desire for the society of women. I like to have a girl in the room with me, to fondle when I please: and I like to have something to be affectionate with, for I have got a great stock of love in my nature. (ibid)\n\nHe chides himself constantly: \"If I don't care, passion will be off with me - confound it!\" (ibid: 180) It is obvious that during August 1864 Hart was not emotionally settled although he was determined not to go back to his old womanising ways. In this situation, the possibility that he resumed his sexual relationship with Ayaou, even occasionally, should not be ruled out, especially given the fact that their third child, Arthur, was born sometime after June 5th in 1865. Although Hart forced himself to terminate his intimate relationship with Ayaou when pursuing the position of I.G. during the period 1863 and 1864, he never disliked", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]