[ { "id": 204328, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n92\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nfather\" was only one of revelation of supernatural powers (神通), and it was because of the imagination and the literary gifts of the author of the Fêng-shên that the story became so impressive and full of emotional appeal. The author continues:\n\nThe Immortal T'ai-I asked No-cha to follow him to the peach-garden and taught him personally how to use his \"fiery-pointed spear\" (火尖槍) which the master now bestowed on him. After that, the Immortal gave him the wind-wheel and fire-wheel which he might tread on while chanting incantations and which served him as a magic vehicle; and also a bag made of panther skin in which were the magic bracelet, the red silk gauze and a brick of gold completed his new armour. No-cha prostrated himself before his master once more, and after thanking him, held the magic spear in hand, safely mounted his wind-and-fire wheels and darted straight to the Ch'ên-t’ang Pass and challenged Li Ching, his father. (Ch.14)\n\n**\n\n** In order to prove again how the author of the Fêng-shên Yen-i adapted and utilized confused and promiscuous materials from previous works, we may list some of the arms used by No-cha with their earlier appearances in other prompt-books or plays as follows:\n\n(a) Fiery-pointed spear. In Act 4 of the anonymous play of the Yüan dynasty, Han Kao-huang Cho-tsu Ch'i Ying-pu (漢高皇祖母齊英布), the spear used by Hsiang Yu (項羽) is a \"fiery-pointed spear\".\n\n(b) Wind-wheel. The wind-wheel is originally the wheel, or circle of wind below the circle of water and metal upon which, according to Buddhist teaching, the Earth rests. It appears in many sutras including the Surangama-sutra (楞嚴經), Ch. 4. In Nan-yu-chi (南遊記) (Ch. 2 and 11) and Pei-yu-chi (北遊記) (Ch. 15) it is one of the arms of the Flowery Light (Hua Kuang or Ling Yao 華光, or San-yen Ling Yao 三眼華光). Ling Yao with a deva-eye).\n\n(c) Fire-wheel. The alatacakra, a wheel of fire produced by rapidly whirling a fire-brand. In chuan 3 of his Lêng-yen Ching Shu-chih (楞嚴經疏治) (? “The Principles of the Surangama-sutra\", in the First Series, Second Collection of the Tripitaka in Chinese, 大藏經, 1912), Lu Hsi-hsing says \"as the whirling of a fire-brand, reality does not exist\". In Nan-yu-chi (Ch. 2 and Ch. 11) and Pei-yu-chi (Ch. 15), the fire-wheel is also a weapon of Flowery Light.\n\n(d) Gold brick, The gold brick is also one of the arms of Flowery Light in Nan-yu-chi (Ch, 2 and Ch. 11) and Pei-yu-chi (Ch. 15). But both the gold brick and the fire-wheel are attributed to Flowery Light also in Yang Ching-hsien's T'ang San-tsang Hsi-t'ien Ch'ü-ching, a play of the Yüan dynasty, Scene 8. In Hsü Fu-tso's (徐復祚) T'ou-so Chi (鬧府記), Scene 19, these two weapons belong to Nata of Eight Arms (八臂那吒).\n\n(e) Magic bracelet. In Ch. 11 of the Nan-yu-chi, one of the weapons of No-cha is a \"purple-gold bracelet with raised flowers\" (紅花紫金圈) and it is the origin of the magic bracelet (ch'ien-k'un ch'üan 乾坤圈 the Bracelet of Vitreous & Resinous Electricity) in the Fêng-shên Yen-i,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204933, "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-1965", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "34\n\n―\n\nSIR JOHN BOWRING\n\non the water, and never have or dream of any shelter other than the roof, and who seldom tread except on the deck or boards of their sampans,\n\nshow to what an extent the land is crowded, and how inadequate it is to maintain the cumberers of the soil. In the city of Canton alone it is estimated that 300,000 persons dwell upon the surface of the river: the boats, sometimes twenty or thirty deep, cover some miles, and have their wants supplied by ambulatory salesmen, who wend their way through every accessible passage. Of this vast population some dwell in decorated river boats used for every purpose of license and festivity — for theatres, for concerts — for feasts, for gambling — for lust, for solitary and social recreations: some craft are employed in conveying goods and passengers, and are in a state of constant activity; others are moored, and their owners are engaged as servants or labourers on shore. Indeed their pursuits are probably nearly as various as those of the land population. The immense variety of boats which are found in Chinese waters has never been adequately described. Some are of enormous size, and are used as magazines for salt or rice; others have all domestic accommodations, and are employed for the transfer of whole families, with all their domestic attendants and accommodations, from one place to another; some, called centipedes, from their being supposed to have 100 rowers, convey with extraordinary rapidity the more valuable cargoes from the inner warehouses to the foreign shipping in the ports. All these, from the huge and cumbrous junks, which remind one of Noah's ark, and which represent the rude and coarse constructions of the remotest ages, to the fragile planks upon which a solitary leper hangs upon the outskirts of society — boats of every form and applied to every purpose, exhibit an incalculable amount of population, which may be called amphibious, if not aquatic.\n\n―T\n\nNot only are land and water crowded with Chinese, but many dwell on artificial islands which float upon the lakes, islands with gardens and houses raised upon the rafters which the occupiers have bound together, and on which they cultivate what is needful for the supply of life's daily wants. They have their poultry and their vegetables for use, their flowers and their scrolls for ornament — their household gods for protection and worship.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205069, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 25, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "20\n\nJOHN 1. NOLDE\n\nof the six Englishmen, no one can deny that they did venture into the country-side in December, 1847, and that their bodies were found in the river several days later. But no one knows exactly what happened. They may have brought the attack on themselves by an ill-considered use of fire-arms, or they may have blundered into some kind of inter-village, or inter-clan, feud. In any case, we don't know that they were murdered simply because they were foreigners.\n\n30\n\nAs to the events of 1849, it may well be that they were organized not so much to keep the foreigner out of the city per se but to prevent serious rioting and looting within the city, which, the authorities well knew, could, and probably would, be turned against themselves. The presence of the barbarian with his goods and gold within the walls would attract every villain and trouble-maker for miles around.\n\nThe problem of the 1840's was the same as that which existed in the previous two decades: the continuing erosion of Imperial authority.\n\nChinese documents, most of them un-official, suggest a pattern of turmoil and tumult even exceeding that of the 1820's and 1830's. Triad outbreaks occurred in 1843 in the districts of Tung-kuan and Hsun-teh. In the latter, in December, \"above a hundred were killed and several hundred wounded\".31 Hsiang-shan district witnessed a serious Triad disturbance in 1844, as did P'an-yu in 1845.32 A high Chinese official, home on leave in Hsiang-shan reported that brigands ran wild in the White Cloud Mountains northeast of Canton and that the authorities were unable, or unwilling, to act.33 In 1846 the yamen of the prefect of Kwang-chou was attacked and looted.1⁄4 So serious had the situation become by that year that the Governor-General called a meeting of his chief advisors to discuss the matter. Apparently little was done, for it is reported that in 1847 a bandit chief in Hsiang-shan had gathered together more than 10,000 men and had established a \"puppet government\".35 One account notes that in 1847 and 1848 members of unlawful societies in hundreds and thousands, \"carrying tents and armed with swords\", were terrorizing the districts north of Canton.36 At the height of the \"entry\" crisis of 1849, Governor Yeh Ming-ch'en reported to Peking that should the foreigner be permitted to enter the city troublemakers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205187, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1966", "page_number": 143, "title": "RAS-1966", "content_text": "OLD BRITISH KOWLOON\n\n137\n\n50 The Hong Kong Blue Books for 1904 onwards list Basel Mission out-stations at Shaukiwan on Hong Kong Island and at To Kwa Wan, Sham Shui Po and Kowloon Tong in Kowloon. It is not certain when the Sham Shui Po station was opened as The China Mission Hand Book p. 279 lists two out-stations from Hong Kong but does not give their names. The earlier Blue Books are not much help.\n\n51 Hung Hom, Tai Kok Tsui and Mong Kok Tsui had their docks and in Sessional Papers 1899, p. 482 Tai Kok Tsui is described as \"an industrial area\".\n\n52 This study was hampered by the fact that no early land records appear to have survived for the group of villages described in this article. The only information I have been able to obtain, besides evidence from maps, relates to squatter licenses. A list for 1896, which appears in Sessional Papers 1897, p. 203, includes Ho Man Tin (37), Tai Shik Kwu (1) and Mong Kok (57).\n\nL\n\n+\n\nAddenda\n\nI ought not to leave this subject without mentioning the bad feeling between Hakkas and Cantonese in British Hong Kong which was the legacy of the disturbed times during the Taiping rebellion. Mayers, Dennys and King, the authors of The Treaty Ports of China and Japan (London and Hong Kong, 1867) state that fights between Hakka and Punti were common in British Hong Kong and that many Hakka labourers had come to Hong Kong with vivid memories of ill-treatment in their native place. It seems that these fights were not confined to immigrant labourers with scores to settle. Eitel records that for several days in August 1862 \"the peninsula of Kowloon presented the novel aspect of an animated battle field, as the Punti inhabitants of the neighbouring villages were engaged in a bloody warfare with the Hakka settlers at Tsim Sha Tsui\". A previous engagement, presumably between the same people, occurred in the same place in August 1859 when hostilities lasted two days though \"little damage was done beyond a few knife wounds\". We are told that \"The Hakkas remained masters of the situation\" (Dennys etc. p. 84). At that time, according to this source, the Puntis \"have an intense antipathy to the Hakkas\" (p. 19). It is interesting that this is reflected in the fact that the Canton Coolie Corps which assisted our army in the Second Chinese War 1857-60 was recruited in Hong Kong entirely from among Hakkas. See W. Stanton The Triad Society, Hong Kong, Kelly & Walsh 1900, p. 26.\n\nFurther to the early descriptions of Yau Ma Ti given in the text I have since come across another in Sessional Papers 1888, p. 103, in which it is stated that \"the boatmen and fishermen who have hitherto constituted the residents of Yau Ma Ti are gradually becoming outnumbered by town people and artizans (sic) from Hong Kong who are attracted to Yau Ma Ti by the lower rents charged them for house accommodation\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1966.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205498, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 40, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION\n\n35\n\nAlthough religious sects are said to have been involved at times in political rebellion, one wonders how efficient they were in military operations. They certainly encouraged excessive bravery. Members of the White Lotus were said to be morbidly unafraid of death, but this would not necessarily make for efficiency, of course.4 Presumably, in selecting leaders for military manoeuvres, less emphasis would have to be placed on religious qualifications—“degrees”—and more on war-like skills. This might sometimes have led to rivalry within the sect; the type of person attracted by sectarian ideology and religious skills would not necessarily be an efficient military leader (unless he were himself a retired military leader), and might have to take a back-seat. A strong ideology, although knitting people together, encouraging bravery and sanctioning militant action, might bring its own problems for military success. The records I have seen show there were sometimes conflicts over ideological interpretations: the “work” to be undertaken by a sect at a particular time. Some local leaders planning rebellion in the name of Heaven were declared unorthodox by others, and the action was not supported by all divisions of the sect.\n\nThe Nien was certainly militarily successful for parts of its career, but little evidence is given that it was in fact a sect: an organization with an ideology and rituals. Although it is said to be an offshoot of the White Lotus, there is no information on religious meetings or ritual materials. It may be that the Nien was in fact a secret society rather than a sect: an organization using religious elements to support an ultimate secular aim rather than one taking up a secular cause to support an aim ultimately religious.49\n\nSecret Societies\n\nSecret societies have a form of organization which might have been more efficient, or less inefficient, for rebellious purposes than the majority of religious sects. The group usually known in English as Triad societies, which have a similar form of organization and ritual, and were strong in Fukien and Kwangtung, had in the nineteenth century, rebellion as their major goal; their motto was “Overthrow Ch'ing, restore Ming”. Religion appears to have always been confined largely to their rituals of initiation, and a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205499, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "36\n\nMARJORIE TOPLEY\n\ncentury ago, used for the purpose of making rebellion into a sacred task.\n\nSecret societies have not had independent and systematic ideologies or any system of religious qualifications for membership, or priestly hierarchy for leading them in their tasks. Their ritual brotherhood among members has often involved exacting obligations but they have had no extensive \"kinship\" system as have many of the sects.\n\nMore is known about the rituals and organization of the Triad societies than the majority of sects in the nineteenth century and I do not propose to deal with such matters in detail here.50 It should be pointed out however that they also organised themselves under lodges in different areas (often symbolised by different colours) and appear also to have had difficulties in maintaining integration of their organization in various parts of the country. The evidence suggests that, on the whole, secret societies cut across the organization of lineages and also drew in mainly the poor and weak members of lineages which were differentiated.51 They did not offer salvation in the next world and do not appear to have looked forward to a millennium in this and they did not offer residence for the unattached, at least in village life in China. They drew in more men than women. Membership not only offered an opportunity to participate in a movement for changing the dynasty but the societies also, when not rebelling, often offered facilities for mutual aid in ordinary life.\n\nOne might imagine that even these groupings would need leaders with some education when organizing rebellion, however, and it may be that their more successful efforts involved some pooling of efforts with sects; sects perhaps providing leaders of education and with \"magical\" powers, and societies, leaders with more practical skills and with a larger contingent of ordinary peasants.52\n\nInter-village Defence against Societies and Sects\n\nIt is said that creating conditions of poverty and disruption in rural life was one of the methods used by militant groups to get members. At any rate a form of inter-village organization to resist sects and societies has been noted in the literature. Hsiao", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205500, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION\n\n37\n\nreports that twenty-four villages near Canton joined together to build a large house for \"general consultations\" because of the increase of crime in the area, especially from the Triad society. The inter-organization of the villages was \"fairly comprehensive in its scope of activities. Again when the Taiping threatened in North Kiangsu in 1859, villages in five districts built walls round themselves and set up defence organizations, many of which operated on an inter-village basis. Eleven villages in Shensi had a common defence system, and while other communities were punished for not deterring the Boxers, they were spared, because they regarded the Boxers as enemies and killed them.\n\nSummary and Discussion\n\nThe relative strength of organizations based on religious ideology or using religious elements at the village level, and their contribution to community stability and integration, appear to have depended on a number of factors and their relation to each other in turn. Important among them were: the degree of social differentiation in the community; differences in kinship affiliations; differences in wealth and education; also the numerical size of the village; its relation to other communities in the area and to those living outside communities; its proximity to town centres; the general economic conditions obtaining in the area at a particular time; and to some extent the virtue and competence of locally-based officials. Such factors also helped determine which type of organization would become the most important for a community.\n\nState cults were probably more successful in their aim with villages possessing gentry members and nearer to centres of government, but would be limited in their intended effect by other interests of persons able to use them. The cults were made use of by the already influential (and usually rich) on the whole in order to realize aims connected with their roles as local leaders and members of kin-groups. They could, however, through helping to realize such personal ambitions, aid in village integration: canonization of ancestors of village leaders, especially those of lineage villages, could bring prestige to a village and give it an additional symbol of solidarity. It could also, however, lead to competition and disharmonies between influential persons when their numbers were large.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205876, "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": 182, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "176\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nthe modification of the position and attitudes of the British Mandarinate. This is a most valuable piece of research; it is to be hoped that Mr. Lethbridge will eventually be able to give us a fuller publication on the events and the effects of this period.\n\nOther contributions which explore the dynamics of Hong Kong society, rather than one of its disparate elements, are those of J. S. Cansdale and E. Kvan; both treat of students at Hong Kong University, a group whose significance as a focal point of East-West contact is out of all proportion to its numbers. One would like to see these enquiries, cultural and psychological, followed up in, for example, a study of Chinese government servants in Hong Kong; those, in other words, for whom the crisis of contact is subtly different. Having grasped the fruits of their education, traumatic though it may have been, they are now at the focus of political and administrative contact between East and West. What conflicts do they experience, and how are these resolved?\n\nConcerning a third paper which attempts to deal with the specific problem of East-West contact, that of the co-editors themselves -- I have considerable misgivings. I feel that they might have taken heed of the fact that few have dared to tread this ground, and thus been more wary of venturing into so intricate a subject as that of \"face\". They contend that Chinese concern for \"face\" is not only a barrier to trivial moments of daily interaction, but to the more vital (in their estimation) process of westernisation; they go so far as to ask how any society so burdened could have functioned in the past. I would emphasise the value of a more positive approach: if the traditional Chinese concept of status relations had been so unwieldy, the society would surely have failed to function at all. It would have been better to investigate, with the fullest reliance on Chinese sources, the role of \"face\" in the total social system of traditional China: was it in fact a barrier to, or a method of communication? The subject of \"face\" is at once sufficiently important to deserve a better informed and more sympathetic treatment than this, and is yet at the same time possibly less important than the authors lead us to suppose.\n\nThere is little need to stress the value of Dr. Marjorie Topley's essay, here reprinted, on Chinese attitudes to wealth. Scholars in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206001, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1970", "page_number": 81, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "76\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS EVANS\n\nof Hong Kong to exercise its powers in the district progressively decreased. But though it is commonly felt that Taipingshan was effectively governed by Triad societies and former T'ai Ping rebels, there is little evidence forthcoming. It is a curious fact, however, that for a period of some 40 years from the late 1840's there were remarkably few dealings in the whole of the land in Taipingshan registered in the Government Land Office. Under the Ordinance No. 3 of 1844, all transactions concerning land were required to be registered and, indeed, on the whole were registered for there were certain real benefits to be obtained. Why then are there no transactions concerning Taipingshan land registered?\n\nThe simplest answer suggests that there were no transactions to be registered but this is easily rejected for owners must have died, transferred their property, mortgaged it or sub-let it. Obviously these things must have been done yet, in the case of 44 lots, there were no registered dealings at all for a very long period, extending in most cases until the 1880's21. In the case of a further 18 lots22, there were no registered dealings over this period after about 1848. Two other significant features eventually came into Indian (mostly Muslim) hands and remained there, forming what must have been a noticeable Indian quarter23. One family, that of a man called Mahomet Arab, who first bought property in the area in the 1840's, retained it for nearly 100 years. The other feature is the movement of European ownership. In the 1840's, a number of Europeans did own lots in Taipingshan (and Europeans who could afford nothing else, such as discharged soldiers, did live there) but they sold up during and around that time24. However, it is also very noticeable that one European, Daniel Richard Caldwell, bought several lots in Taipingshan on several of which licensed brothels stood25. Caldwell's connections, even when in the employ of the Government, with the underworld were notorious and this Taipingshan property was retained by his family (his widow was Chinese) until the 1890's.\n\nBut, apart from the Indian quarter (which probably was left alone) and Caldwell's brothels (which probably paid 'cumshaw' or protection money anyway), Taipingshan became a Chinese town in which it seems little attention was paid to official requirements such as the registration of land transactions and much else. When in the 1880's, after the Land Commission's Report of 1886-1887, it was realised into what a parlous state the Land", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206269, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1971", "page_number": 86, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "80\n\nCARL T. SMITH\n\nto the preservation of the national integrity; uneasy under the restraint of law and unscrupulous of the means by which they live, they abandon without hesitation their hearths and household gods, their birthright and their father's tombs, to wander, unrespected, whither gain may call them. The unsettled state of the Colony, and the vast amount of crime during its infancy afford abundant proof of the demoralizing effects of their presence... (More recently) Hong Kong has been invested by numbers of the Triad Society, the members of which under shelter of a political maxim ‘overturn the Tsing... and restore the Ming' perpetuate the grossest enormities. I have satisfied myself that most of the burglaries have been planned and attempted by members of this dangerous association.3\n\nFearon mentions in his report a person named Aqui as the most influential and wealthy of the native residents. He had rapidly risen from the lowly status of a bum-boatman. William Tarrant, an early historian of Hong Kong who was well acquainted with the early days, writing in 1861 comments that\n\n— there were some curious fish among the earlier native settlers; the leader of them is still living in Victoria, Loo Aqui, alias See Mun King. If all reports be true, Aqui was monarch of all he surveyed on the water about Hong Kong prior to our taking possession — that is to say, he was the Sea King who took toll from all that passed his squadron. This is of course rumour only; and we but mention it to say that the presence of Aqui on the island had much to do in keeping people of better character from settling, or even visiting the place.+\n\nGeorge Smith, the future Bishop of Victoria, visited Hong Kong in 1844 and gives an equally critical description of Aqui's activities.\n\nHe possesses about fifty houses in the bazaar, and lives on the rent, in a style much above the generality of the Chinese settlers, who are commonly composed of the refuse of the neighbouring mainland. During the war, Aqui acted as purveyor of provisions to the British armament and acquired some wealth. After the peace, he was at first afraid to return to the mainland, lest he", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206640, "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": 188, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "182\n\nCo-location of deities\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nIn Fukienese temples in Singapore and Malaya, the T'ai Sui images are often seen with Hsuan Tien Ta Ti (***) or with the Goddess of Mercy (##). In Cantonese and Amoy temples there, the T'ai Sui images are occasionally to be seen with the medical deities Lu Tung Pin (†) or Hua To ($) and in one temple with T'ai Shang Lao Chün (LB).\n\nIn another Fukienese temple in Singapore a triad occupying the centre altar was said by the temple keeper to be three of the Nine Emperors (g). Two were positively identified, one as the second brother of the main deity Chiu Hwang ( ). He is black skinned, bare footed, with one foot on a fire wheel, has protruding eyes, black beard, and his hair is wound into a top knot. His two arms are at his side, otherwise he is very similar to Fa Chu Kung (✯✯2). The second identified image is on the right of the main deity, and he is, without doubt, Wang Tien Kung (1A). The third unidentified image on the left of the main deity could easily be T'ai Sui. He is black faced and bearded, a standing general in armour, holding a bell in his left hand and a sword in his right; he has three eyes, ear tufts of hair, and wears a Taoist crown.\n\nIn one Fukienese temple in Taipei, Yin Ch'iao was seen together with Ch'ü Kung Chen Jen (AA). (Plate 19)\n\nIn North China in Kalgan his second brother Yin Hung ( *) is a special deity said to save people from the \"fifteen bad deaths\". He sits on the opposite side of the central deity, the Jade Emperor (11), from Yin Ch'iao. Both brothers are naked and, surprisingly, have claws, beaks and wings. Grootaers10 says that Yin Ch'iao is never to be seen except as an attendant to the Jade Emperor. It would appear that either the local god maker in Kalgan did not know the identification features of Yin Ch'iao and has confused him with the Thunder God; or that there is a local legend which we do not know about; or thirdly that Grootaers misidentified the two attendants of the Jade Emperor.\n\nC. B. Day bought a hand-painted scroll in Hangchow, depicting five Buddhist figures and six Taoist ones. This pantheon chart included T'ai Sui Ti Chün ( *#*#) together with the San Kuan\n\n10 W. A. Grootaers, Rural Temples around Hsüan Hua (Folklore Studies vol. 10).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206681, "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": 229, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n223\n\nSECRET SOCIETIES IN CHINA: IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES. Jean Chesneaux, Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd., 1971.\n\nSecret groupings which make use of religious conceptions and symbols have frequently attracted the interests of observers, and many have written up their experiences or impressions. In recent years they have also attracted the theoretical and analytical attentions of scholars, not only of students of religion, but also social scientists specialising in politics, economics and even military history. This is because of the common although by no means exclusive association such groupings have with the poorer levels of society, the harsh social or physical conditions in which they often emerge, and the uprisings against the establishment which they organize or in which they participate from time to time.\n\nMany theories about their origins have been suggested by those working within the Marxist framework of analysis, and social rather than cognitive factors are given the main emphasis. But the whole problem of causality, and of what such groupings are really trying to achieve is very complex. We are not yet very far ahead in our understanding of such matters in comparative world terms. For this reason one welcomes any new book on the subject and particularly one dealing with groupings which have operated against such a rich and varied cultural and social background as China. In 1971 Current Anthropology published a bibliographical, comparative, essay on 'crisis cults' as they were termed by the author, but China received scarcely a mention. One reason may be that the material is often scattered and unsystematic, although there are a few notable exceptions dealing with particular groups. Here, in this book the author brings together some of the material in an easily readable form.\n\nA number of sources of information are used including eye-witness accounts, those of former members and of people in close contact with them, 'mandarin' sources, and accounts of such outside observers as missionaries, journalists, consular officials etc. Sections of the book include a detailed discussion of the Triad, one of the better documented secret societies and known of course in Hong Kong through the press and the excellent fact-providing work on the subject by Morgan (1960) published by the Hong Kong Government, and now sadly out of print. A 'few other societies' are also described and discussed, some very briefly indeed, and an attempt...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206684, "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": 232, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "226\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nship or admission. It seldom attracted the intellectual, and although as the author points out, for their members 'their rites, secrets, oaths of initiation . . . made a powerful contribution towards the consolidation of (an autonomous) order', the ultimate goal was the establishment of new political leadership rather than a new political order. Many of these groups, notably the Triad, were also involved in the offensive as well as defensive art of 'boxing' and would appear to be perhaps more suited to militant and military pursuits. These groups had no millennial dreams, their ultimate objective was the overthrow of the Ch'ing in later traditional times, and Sun Yat-sen used them for just this purpose.\n\nAll this is important if we are also to understand differences today between different kinds of secret or semi-secret organizations found in places like Hong Kong. And what the author fails to mention is that the messianic groups may still be studied, and their investigation is relatively more easy than that of the non-messianic groups which are generally illegal. The messianic groups still attract intellectuals, and still retain their long-ranged goals: the millennium. They do not accept the new 'millennium' of present-day China although some leaders are conscious of similarities with their own independent goals. All this again could do with closer investigation. They still take in the aged and poor and in terms of Hong Kong and other overseas societies often perform useful services. For here is a paradox: in dealing with 'contradictions' at certain times and in certain conditions, the messianic organizations have done much to absorb the discontented and provide alternative satisfactions. And a point connected with this: messianic groups were not always concerned with radical change, even in traditional times, and were not always living in a state of emergency. To some extent this latter point also applies to the non-messianic groups too. The Triad for example appears to have provided mutual aid of an economic and social kind to its members, and we still await more precise information on the particular circumstances as well as processes by which the militant banner was raised by both kinds of group. Groups like the Triad however, have at any rate gradually lost their religious motivations and rituals in contemporary society. With the achievement of their grander political aim they have lost their common purpose and deteriorated into protection rackets, albeit still occasionally with mutual aid facilities for members. But they have only immediate ends in view. It is true and important as the author", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206734, "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": 11, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "5\n\nour application for acceptance as a constituent Society was agreed by the Arts Centre, and we will have a nominated member of our Council on its Management Committee on all future occasions it meets to discuss plans for facilities.\n\nThe two tours held during the year were organised by two of your officers. One, to the Chinese University, was arranged by Mr. D. A. Gilkes, Honorary Treasurer. The other, to places of historical interest in the Pokfulum area, was arranged by Mr. James Hayes, Vice-President and Honorary Editor. Both events appear to have been very successful.\n\nIn November we had our 5th symposium which took place as usual at The Hong Kong Club--one of the few moderately priced places appropriate for this kind of event in Hong Kong. The subject was \"Hong Kong: Chinese Tradition and the Development of a Town\" and papers were read by people either actively involved in original research, or in the practical aspects of their subjects. It was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs arranged with the kind help of the City Hall staff, and an exhibition of ritual paraphernalia connected with Triad Societies, provided by the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in conjunction with a paper read by one of its officers. The very useful material emerging at this symposium will be published in our brochure series. The material from our previous symposium on the botany of Hong Kong is in process of publication, and this coming week-end we will have our 6th symposium, on Hong Kong Fauna, organised by Professor B. Lofts of the Department of Zoology, University of Hong Kong.\n\nSince the end of the last calendar year several other events have already taken place and might be mentioned here. The first meeting of this year, at which Mr. James Watt of your Council spoke on recent archeological discoveries in China, was attended by our Patron, Sir Murray Maclehose and Lady Maclehose. A very successful tour to Thailand was organised by Mr. Smithies, who has been our Honorary Secretary for the past financial year. It was preceded by a panel presentation on Thailand in which Mr. Smithies participated, together with Mr. James Watt, and the Royal Thai Consul General. Nineteen members and their guests attended the tour itself, which took place over the Chinese New Year in February. I am pleased to report that the event was a great social success, those taking part organising a party on their return.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206881, "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": 158, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "152\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe making of verses was a gentlemanly pursuit in early Victorian days, encouraged of course by the system of classical education which emphasised translation from Latin and Greek and hence a detailed knowledge of the rules—or mechanics—of prosody. Mercer received such a traditional education: he was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a B.A. degree, and for a time was at the Inner Temple, though he did not take the Bar examination. When he came to Hong Kong as his uncle's private secretary, he sought solace from the chores of day-to-day colonial administration in his poetic exercises and the result was Under the Peak.\n\nThere are five poems in this book—‘a string of sonnets’—which refer specifically to Hong Kong. They are, respectively: The Peak; The Bay; The Triads' Cave; The Water Fall; The Temple on Taplichow; The Pic Nic Cottage at Heong-Kong; and The Chinaman's Grave on the Lonely Hill Side. According to Mercer's note on the poem, The Triads' Cave, ‘a cavern romantically situated, has now disappeared before the utilitarian demand for granite. It was long the chosen resort of the members of the infamous San hop hwai, or Triad Society', where:\n\nThe robber horde oath-bound to mutual aid\n\nWould plan foul murder and unpitying raid\n\nO'er midnight counsel in their secret den?\n\nThe gem among these sonnets is without doubt The Chinaman's Grave, and should be given in extenso:\n\nOh Chow, or Wong! or by whatever name\n\nMen call'd thee, or the Gods may call thee now,\n\nWhy so extravagantly vast thy claim\n\nTo mortuary earth upon the brow\n\nOf yon fair hill? If all men spread as thou\n\nNo room for things created would be found\n\nThroughout the Seric land, but all the ground\n\nWould teem with graves, and well might it be said\n\nThat living ones were push'd from off their stools\n\nBy men all useless, now that they are dead\n\nAnd vanish'd. Did Confucius leave no rules\n\nTo bind a soul's ambition by the tomb?\n\nThen let survivors show themselves no fools,\n\nBut dig thy bones up to make elbow-room", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207665, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "38\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\nTeochiu syndicates based in Thailand and Hong Kong. It is unfortunate, however, that the public media in Hong Kong has perhaps over-emphasized Teochiu involvement and helped create the impression that many Teochiu are involved in drugs and organized crime. Teochiu control of international heroin production and distribution in Asia can be related to two factors:\n\n(1) Teochiu involvement in drug trafficking in China, particularly in Shanghai, prior to 1949 and the gradually established monopoly of the Hong Kong trade by Teochiu syndicates after 1949 (McCoy, 1972:224-229);\n\n(2) the successful functioning of long established Teochiu international commercial networks in Southeast Asia.\n\nMost Teochiu businessmen are of course engaged in legitimate trade within Hong Kong and with Southeast Asia.\n\nWith regard to the so-called triads in Hong Kong, I have been told that Teochiu triads are much more controlled and hierarchically organized within areas in which they operate compared with other ethnic triad organizations; such as the Cantonese 14K triad which tend to be splintered into local level groups with little, if any, control or co-ordination from higher levels. Needless to say, the highly organized nature of Teochiu criminal groups is partially a function of interethnic dynamics and hostility in Hong Kong. The question arises as to the role of Teochiu triads at the \"street level\" in the maintenance of Teochiu solidarity and ethnic boundaries. No definitive answer can be given as my research was not concerned with criminal organizations, but it would seem that Teochiu criminal networks, regardless of the fact that non-elite Teochiu are “victims” of triad extortion, etc., do provide a potential source of assistance in conflicts with members of other ethnic groups (and their triads) and with the police. Ethnic based criminal syndicates in all societies function as alternative authority structures to which some people, perhaps thinking that the \"legitimate\" governmental structure is irresponsive, turn when their immediate resources and contacts are insufficient in coping with a particular problem. The successful functioning of Teochiu criminal organizations is probably partially a result of strong feelings of ethnic identity and solidarity among many Teochiu and is in itself a probable contributing factor in the maintenance of Teochiu solidarity.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207673, "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": 61, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "46\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS\n\na Rural Committee, and over attendant influence with the government and in local affairs.\n\nWith regard to the first factor, there is no such direct, intense competition over economic resources in those resettlement estates with which I am familiar. There is of course ethnic based triad competition over control of territory. Factory jobs, however, are easily obtained by anyone, regardless of ethnic affiliation, although there is a tendency for Teochiu to work in factories where many Teochiu work (this is a result of the fact that such jobs are usually obtained through kinsmen, friends or friends of friends). Employment and business opportunities in the urban areas are largely not restricted to members of particular ethnic groups, and economic competition is generally not operating along ethnic lines. There are exceptions of course; for example, the often violent competition between Teochiu and non-Teochiu coolies in Hong Kong's port areas. There are some areas where commercial networks are largely co-terminous with ethnic networks. Teochiu dominance in rice importation, wholesale and retail trade is well known. Many import/export firms involved in international trade between Hong Kong and Southeast Asia are owned and managed by Teochiu. Within economic institutions there are ethnic blocs; for example, Teochiu stock brokers form a bloc in contrast with Cantonese and Shanghai blocs. In each of these areas, however, there are also competing firms owned by members of other ethnic groups. Ethnic occupational specialization appears to have considerably weakened in the several decades following World War II, primarily due to Hong Kong's rapid industrial growth. Traditional areas of ethnic specialization seem to be of decreasing importance in the overall economic structure of Hong Kong.\n\nWith regard to the second factor, control over formal political positions and organizations within the local area, there also appear to be significant differences between \"rural\" areas and the urban housing estates where I carried out research. These differences are largely due to governmental policy. The government has created formal political organizations, the Rural Committees, and officially recognized positions of village representatives in the New Territories, with direct input into the local governing process. These positions are filled by indigenous local residents and have become one focus of interethnic competition.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207901, "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": 289, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "274\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nTung Wah as a Political-Judicial Institution\n\nThe Tung Wah Hospital Committee is of particular interest in the relation of a Chinese community to a Colonial Government. It performed an important function in providing self-identity to the community during the early years of the Hospital's history.\n\nThis function is related to the development of social control within Chinese society. In general, there are two levels of such control: central, from the top, represented by the Emperor and supported by the gentry and literati, and local control. In the countryside, local control was represented by clan organization and village councils. In mixed communities, such as cities, some market towns, and fishing villages (such as Cheung Chau - see J.W. Hayes, \"Cheung Chau, 1850-1898\", JHKBRAS, 3(1963), pp. 13-23), by Temple Committees and Kai Fongs.\n\nThe local village organization based upon clan could not be operative within urban Hong Kong with a mixed population drawn from various areas and Chinese language groups. Direct central control in the form of Mandarin officialdom was obviously impossible in a place under British control. To fill the vacuum, institutions grew up which were similar to those found in urban and commercial centres in China: commercial and craft guilds, street associations (Kai-fong), and temple committees. The 1872 Hong Kong Directory lists three Chinese organizations, possibly in the order of their importance: the Chinese Hospital Committee (Tung Wah), the Man-Mo Temple Committee (or, as given in the Chinese designation, the Kai-fong), and the U Lan Procession Committee.\n\nA Chinese article published in translation in 1876 (China Review) gives an account of the origin of these institutions. In 1847, only a few years after the establishment of Hong Kong as an urban centre, two wealthy and prominent members of the community, Loo Aking, the alleged leader of the major criminal syndicate in Hong Kong, and Tam Achoy, a respectable businessman who had lived previously in Singapore and acquired his wealth in Hong Kong initially as a contractor, were connected with the Man Mo Temple. Both had been in Hong Kong since shortly after its occupation by the British. Their association in the building of the Man Mo Temple illustrates the thesis set forth by Mr. Lethbridge that during the early years of Hong Kong's history, the presence of strong Triad Society organization served as a buffer against social control by a foreign government which often seemed to the Chinese as \"bizarre, erratic, at times even hostile, aggressive, and cruel\".", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208366, "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": 90, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "74\n\nGÖRAN AIJMER\n\nconnection between the rice growth cycle, the agricultural activities and the grave ancestors, a connection suggested already by the information from Wuchang and Chongyang, quoted above, that grave worship was conducted on She ri.\n\n9. Willow Twigs.\n\nIn Wuling people inserted willow twigs over their doors and also carried willow twigs in their hair. There was a term for this custom: neng pixie 'ability to punish evil'. The same convention was observed in other places in the Dongting area, like Taoyuan,80 Hanzhou,81 Jingshan,82 Chongyang, where it was called 'nun lo'83 'tender willow', and Yingshan.84 It seems as if the twigs were protective and their function was to guard the house, or doorways, and the individuals living behind them. It is hard to say against what willow provided protection. It is interesting, though, to note that willow twigs were used in Jiangling on the full moon day of the first moon when, again, they were inserted above the doors.85\n\n10. Strolling in the Wilderness and Treading on the Green.\n\nSeveral chroniclers report that Qingming was an occasion for strolls and wanderings away from built-up areas. These excursions may well be seen in connection with the visits to the graves, the latter being situated outside the villages. Such ramblings in the countryside are recorded from the prefecture Changde (around Wuling),86 Hanzhou,87 Chongyang,88 and Wuchang.89 From the latter two places it is also reported that men and women 'tread on the green', ta qing, in connection with their strolls in the 'wilderness'. The latter term seems to be a name for strolling and eating al fresco. Earlier I have interpreted this practice as a feature which stresses periphery as contrasted with centre, the latter being emphasized, for instance, at Duanwu. It is interesting to note that the chronicler of Changde says that there were no such customs in that area as ta qing or qui qian 'swinging'. Swinging is reported as part of the Lantern Festival in Zhongxiang,91 Swings are referred to in a Liang dynasty calendar, Jingchu suishi ji,92 in connection with the Cold Food festival. Ta qing was part of the Flower Dawn celebrations in Zhongxiang,93 in this area generally observed on the second full moon of the lunar year. It is probable that a number of notions were expressed in such\n\n90\n\nPage 90\n\nPage 91", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208367, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "QINGMING FESTIVAL IN CENTRAL CHINA \n\n75\n\nlinguistic terms and customary conduct. Ta qing may not only have been an expression of periphery, it may also have been a ritual activity of visiting non-agricultural, non-productive land: 'the people tread on the green on the outlying wastelands'.94 It is a visit to the yin ancestors in their graves and the yin ancestors are, by virtue of the location of their graves, part of nature.\n\n11. Worship to the Family Spirits.\n\nOne piece of information tells us that in Yingshan people made gong & offerings to the jiashen, 'the family spirits'.95 This may be an offering in the ancestor hall but jiashen might also mean something like 'household gods'. The latter interpretation is the more likely. However, if jiashen should mean 'dead forefather' it must then be an offering in the ancestor hall. The term shen indicates this, and furthermore, the grave offerings are described after this entry, so the gong and the jiao to the graves must be different. According to my previous preliminary analysis of the Chinese calendar system as a system of ancestor worship, Qingming should definitely not be a day for worship to the tablets in the hall. Curiously enough, it may be that this gong is linked to the willow twigs. The chronicler says:\n\nthis day people collect willow twigs and make offerings to the family spirits. Some insert [willow] in the hair at the temples.\n\nSo it may be that this note should be interpreted in such a way that the use of willow was a gong offering to the jiashen, probably the protective godlings of the household.\n\n12. A Hypothesis.\n\nWhat bearing have these data on my earlier studies in the calendar system of ritual events in traditional Chinese society? Arguing from materials from the middle Yangzi valley I have maintained that the Qingming festival is a symbolic statement on the sowing of rice, and I have pointed to some similarities between the spring practices and the customs of Chongyang in the autumn. In both cases we deal with ritual gatherings of people away from built-up areas in natural surroundings. The main difference is that at Qingming activities were focussed on the ancestral graves, at Chongyang on mountain tops. I proposed that Qingming had affinity with yin ancestors, graves, earth and underground. Chongyang,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208804, "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": 261, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "234\n\nBOOK REVIEWS\n\nIn providing this detailed and thoughtful account, the writer has done an immense service to the present governments of Malaya and Singapore — indeed of the region — as well as to students of Chinese society old and new. It is of greater value because of his own personal involvement in the business of government and in the fact that, as stated in his preface (p. xiii), he had the enthusiastic support of police officers of all ranks and officers of the Chinese Affairs Department throughout Malaya and Singapore who conducted enquiries, collected information and translated documents. It is doubtful whether this work could be done again — it is mentioned that many of the police documents of the last colonial period have been destroyed and we should be deeply thankful that Blythe was available to undertake it at the time he did.\n\nT\n\nThe book is well produced, on good quality paper with solid binding and clear large type. The 18 illustrations are as notable as the contents.\n\nHong Kong, May, 1980.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\n'Friendly Societies are very good,' said Mr. Van Dyke. “But I am referring to secret and dangerous Societies.\"\n\n'These qualifying names are purely arbitrary,' said Tek Chiu. “All Chinese Societies are professedly good, and they, all of them, are just what members choose to make them. There is no fixed principle according to which you can draw a distinction between those that are exclusively benevolent and friendly, and those that you call secret and dangerous societies.'\n\n'Is the Broken Coffin Society entitled to be called friendly, or is it justly designated secret and dangerous?'\n\n'It is justly designated secret and dangerous. It is the fault of our Triad Society, certainly, that such a dangerous and criminal clique is not exterminated at once. Such bad sets of men are like bad teeth that ought to be pulled out. But because a man has a bad tooth in his head, he should not be prohibited from eating.\"\n\nLamont continues: A Chinaman is a social being—a tool rather than a member of his community. If he were to cease living a social life, he would cease to be a Chinaman. The Chinaman abroad lives a large part of his being in the 'hoey. The hoey unites men more closely even than the sons of one father in a family. So powerful is the bond of this Freemasonry of China, that if two brothers in a family belong to different hoeys their relationship in such a set of circumstances is more distant than is that which subsists between those members of one hoey who are not relatives in the ordinary sense at all.\n\nTek Chiu's view, that Chinese societies are what members choose to make them, can also be found in Leong Gor Yun's Chinatown Inside Out (New York: Barrows Mussey, 1936), especially Chapter Two.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208892, "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": 54, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "26 \n\nKEITH G. STEVENS \n\ntyphoon and rebuilt some two centuries later on the site of the present Tian Hou temple in Joss House Bay,27 \n\nThere have been several apparent brief bursts of temple building in Hong Kong since the arrival of the British. One was in the early days of Hong Kong in the 1840's; another spurt during the period of growing prosperity in the 1870/1880's; another during the era of the plague (the 1890's); and another in the 1950's during the massive influx of refugees. Many temples were renovated during the latter days of the Qing dynasty, and by the Hong Kong government's Chinese Temples Committee since the second world war,28 \n\nTemples are expensive buildings and are built mainly in times of economic affluence. Although many temples are receiving less and less attention from keepers and grass grows high in temple yards, others are expanding and have been refurbished at great cost. \n\nOne should not be misled into believing a temple to be old by its condition, as the climate ages buildings very rapidly on the coast of China. The dilapidated state of some dozen or so traditional temples gives the impression of centuries of neglect, whereas most were working temples up to a decade or two ago. Others looking almost new are, in reality, traditional temples which have been rebuilt or refurbished with the assistance of large government subsidies. However, many modern renovations have changed the original character both of the altars and of the temples themselves. \n\nThe Hong Kong Government has been meticulous in providing assistance whenever it has needed to encroach upon temple property. One site in Lo Fu Hang between Castle Peak and Yuen Long where a government department authorised a quarry to be opened and in the process ordered the removal of three ramshackle huts termed \"temples\", one large and two small concrete and tile edifices were built nearby to rehouse the gods. \n\nChaozhou immigrants who settled in Hong Kong during the fifties and sixties quickly discovered that their shanty dwellings on hillsides, considered illegal by the Hong Kong Government, were torn down by officials. They also quickly discovered that British officials, fearing to tread on religious susceptibilities, were more lenient towards religious structures. The Chaozhou immigrants therefore built for themselves small, rough temples of corrugated iron and wood and, as an annex, a small living area, and more often", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208967, "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": 129, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "SYMBOLISM OF THE NEW LIGHT \n\n97 \n\nthe darkness of the world of Yin, making the night seem as day, and lighting the temple votive lamps with a new, life-bringing fire,\n\nSaso's interpretation clarifies several important aspects of the ritual but is also confusing in some instances. The ritual chanting of the forty-second chapter of the Tao-Te ching appears to be an adaptation that does not truly illustrate the nature of the ritual: it does not merely allude to the \"protogenesis of the myriad creatures\" but is here interpreted as and applied to the proceeding of the original Triad of Taoism: three lamps are lit to symbolize and to honor the successive forthcomings of the Three Primordial Worthies: they are the projections of the creative powers of the universe. The emphasis is not on the creation process but on the origin of the creators. The new light, lit from one flame but used to light three candles in succession, vividly symbolizes the successive births of the three primordial \"breaths\".\n\nTherefore, from a phenomenological viewpoint, there is a kind of discrepancy between the text of the ritual (expressing the forthcoming of the Three Primordial Worthies) and the ritual action itself, which points to the creation of light. This may be an indication of a non-Taoist origin of the ritual act itself.\n\nThe possibility of a non-Taoist but Chinese origin of the fen-teng is suggested by J. J. M. de Groot in his Fêtes Annuellement Célébrées,12 He refers to a custom widely spread among various sun-worshipping civilizations of extinguishing their 'sacred fires' especially before the spring equinox and of relighting them soon after the equinox: this symbolizes the sun's victory over darkness. Examples are given from ancient Rome, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The custom also existed in ancient China, at least in the North. The original custom in China was to renew the fire in all the four seasons, but since the Han times, it was done only once a year in spring. De Groot refers to a text in the Chou Li ♬ which explains this ritual act13: with the help of a mirror, fire is taken directly from the sun to light the sacrificial candles. The date of this spring renewal of fire was the 105th day after the winter solstice: this would correspond with the fourth day of the fifth month. On the other hand, the relighting of the fires took place on the third day of 'cold food' called ch'ing-ming in Amoy: that also coincides with the 4th or 5th of the fourth month. In other", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208976, "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": 138, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "106\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nTherefore we next light a lamp in front of the Primordial Old One (Lao Tzu Heavenly Worthy) to clarify (signify) the proceeding and descent of the Third Ch'i from the Original August One,34\n\nThe parallelism between the Taoist and the Christian Triad or Trinity should be left out of the discussion here; what is significant in this context, however, is how the trinitarian formula in each case is used in the new-light ceremony. Another, minor, detail is the raising of the chanting tone in the two cases: the deacon chants “Lumen Christi” three times in successively higher intonations; the Taoist “deacon” or tu-chiang, repeats three times the phrase chanted by the high-priest, elevating his tone of voice.\n\n(iv) The liturgical procession. After the new light has been struck and carried into the temple, a procession takes place in which Taoist high-priest and all his assistants participate. The Christian version is a little different: the new light, struck outside the sanctuary, is carried into the darkened church during a procession in which all those present participate. Although the details differ, the main ritual event of a light-procession is strikingly similar.\n\n(v) The context of both rituals leaves considerable room for speculation. Although in the case of the Taoist fen-teng, the ritual context has become rather obscure, still, a careful analysis of this context may open up new avenues of interpretation. The context in question are two rituals which in the present chiao celebration, as witnessed in Taiwan, as well as in the older ritual texts derived from China, seem always to follow the fen-teng. These two rituals, already mentioned above (p.95) are: the \"rolling up of the screen\" and the “sounding of bell and chime”.35 It appears that the connection between these two and the fen-teng is rather uncertain and is probably not older than the Sung dynasty. As M. Saso mentions, not all Taoist priests perform the ritual at the same time or in the same ritual context.36 In other words, the phenomenological significance of these two rituals is not obvious and new speculations are possible. If again the Christian Easter rituals are called upon, it is possible to come up with a plausible interpretation of the three ritual acts as a whole: the Christian Easter celebrations contain indeed three similar rituals of which the relationship is clearly understandable. Although the historical links are still left out of the discussion here, the very structure of the Christian ritual may throw light on its Taoist counterpart and help us to understand the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209439, "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": 96, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "74\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nThe meeting not appearing to have achieved any great breakthrough, the Government and the Chinese merchants went their separate ways to try to resolve the situation. Later that same afternoon, the 4th, Marsh himself met some of the sureties of the boatmen and assured them of police protection if the boatmen returned to work. They told him they feared violence despite this, but Marsh got the impression that this was merely an excuse to avoid returning to work. He came away with a feeling that they were waiting for some secret order on whether to resume work or not. He also sent word around through Stewart Lockhart that if the people would resume work, the Government would consider as an act of grace any appeal which might be made for a remittance of the fines. No appeals, however, came forward.88\n\nThe Chinese merchants, too, continued for the rest of the day exerting themselves in an effort to end the strike. There is no documentary evidence recording specifically what they did, but we shall return later to discuss what had probably been done.\n\nEarly the next morning, placards signed \"All the kaifongs of the Colony\" were posted all along the Praya. They claimed that a meeting of those pursuing various trades in the Colony had been held, and the resolution was that all the cargo boats and coolies should resume work on the morning of the 5th October.30\n\nAt about 10 o'clock on the 5th, cargo boats started coming over from the Chinese side of the harbour. A crowd gathered on shore and, to forestall violence, a picket of soldiers was moved from the Tung Wah Hospital to the Harbour Master's office. The police read a proclamation calling upon the people to disperse and they did so. Though there were a few isolated cases of attempted interference with those resuming work, the general strike may be said to have ended.10\n\nIn fact, there was no serious disturbance after the 3rd. Yet despite this and the resumption of work on the 5th, the Acting Governor remained anxious about the angry and excited feeling among the lower classes of coolies and the large number of triad members he believed to have assembled in Hong Kong. The city was rife with rumours about imminent troubles, and a large", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209447, "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": 104, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "82\n\nELIZABETH SINN\n\nwas found.67 Besides firing, the police also charged at the crowd. The paper treats us to the vivid description of a particular “valiant” Sikh policeman. He had been knocked off his pony, but he got back on the saddle, and, “drawing his sword, he charged. He does not seem to have used the weapon on the mob,” the paper reported, but, “round and round he went in an increasing circle, knocking the mob over like nine pins. He must have bowled over a very great number of them, and with the pony trampling over the prostrate men, many must have been a good deal hurt.” Man and beast came in for praise. “The pony behaved splendidly and seemed imbued with the same spirit as its rider, tearing might and main in among the thick of the crowd, over numerous obstacles.”68 But when we remember that the “obstacles” were human beings, the ferocity of the police reaction to the morning’s stone-throwing strikes home.\n\nIt is perhaps as justifiable to say that police action had eventually quelled the disturbance as it is to say that police action had provoked the crowd and exacerbated the situation in the first place. In other words, the over-reaction of the police was likely to have magnified some ugly stone-throwing into a large-scale disturbance.\n\nIf our interpretation of these events is that the riot had broken out spontaneously, what can we make of the “bad characters” and triad members who were reported to be present in Hong Kong in large numbers? Marsh, for one, believed that bad characters had instigated the riots, and he suspected that they were somehow connected with the Canton authorities.\n\nThere is indeed evidence that there were large numbers of triad members in Hong Kong, but they had begun to gather there since 1883, and no disturbance had been instigated by them then. Then, their main purpose had been to stage a major uprising in Waichow, and it seems that in 1884, as again later in 1885, their main concern remained Waichow.70 What records we have of them do not indicate any connection with the Canton authorities.\n\nI think it is reasonable to contend that the particular circumstances emerging from the strike created the conditions for riot, not the presence of bad elements. None of the arrested", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209448, "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": 105, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "83\n\nrioters was identified as a triad member. Many of the stone throwers were mere boys, a fact which further supports the theory that the riot initially broke out spontaneously amid excitement and confusion, (even a desire for some naughty fun) and was finally accelerated by the provocation of the police.\n\nCould we not further suggest that Marsh had blamed \"bad elements\" for starting the riot in order to divert attention from the unjust imposition of fines which had triggered off the strike and subsequently the riot and from his own mishandling of the affair? This could be his motive for exaggerating the threat of the triads out of all proportion.\n\nWork was resumed on the 5th. What ended the strike? The English newspapers offered no explanation. The Acting Governor himself expressed uncertainty, writing, \"It seems to me very doubtful whether work has been resumed in consequence of order having been restored by the authorities or whether it has not been rather in consequence of secret instructions conveyed by those who had been the instigators of the disturbance.\"71 went no further.\n\nHe\n\nIronically enough, it was Chang Chih-tung who seemed sure about what had brought the strike to an end. He claimed that work in Hong Kong was resumed because the Hong Kong Government had remitted the fines through the mediation of the Tung Wah Hospital. But, in fact, Chang was wrong. The Hong Kong Government had not remitted the fines.\n\n72\n\nWe may recall that the fines had been a major bone of contention, and possibly the primary cause for the strike becoming general. The boatmen and coolies had made representations to the Chinese leaders that the remittance of the fines must be a prerequisite for the resumption of work. We\n\nWe may also speculate that in their minds, if the fines could be remitted on the basis that they had been wrongly fined, workers would in future be free to refuse to work for the French.\n\nYet, strangely enough, when the Chinese leaders did meet with Hong Kong officials, no demand for a remission was made. We can only surmise that the tough stand of Frederick Stewart\n\nPage 105\n\nPage 106", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209855, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "92\n\n3.\n\n4.\n\nThese speak a different language from the other three races. They have a history of having migrated ages ago from the Yangtse valley, and economically are pioneers, opening up inferior lands, and doing all quarry work. They occupy the eastern and northern islands, and are often called \"Chinese Scotchmen”. For this reason Scottish regiments here are called “Hakka ping\" (Hakka soldiers). Nearly all regimental servants here, I believe, are Hakkas: formerly the Hakkas were anti-Manchu and often joined Triad Societies. As such, they gave vigorous assistance to the British in 1857-61, and the connection with the Army has been kept up.\n\nHoklos, a Cantonese nickname for the coast peoples of Northeast Kwangtung; it means \"men of Hok1\", meaning Fukien. Most come from the area around Swatow and Swabue. Their language is very widely different from both Cantonese and Hakka: as different as German from English. They are fishermen, grasscutters, limekiln and saltpan workers. Their major settlements are at Tai O, Pingchau, Cheung Chau, Taipo (by the District Officer's island), and probably others. They are migrating here steadily, and many appear in court for offences of all sorts. A major reason behind the migration is probably that the coastal areas from which they come are suffering erosion and losing soil: the collapse of the Hoi Luk Fung Soviet Republic is another factor: finally, piracy is no longer as profitable as it was.\n\nPolitical divisions\n\nThe Ladrones or \"Pirate Islands\" of which Hong Kong and its outlying islands are part were so named by the Portuguese pioneers of sea trade to the East. They are shared unequally between China, Britain and Portugal. In China they are administered by the nearest district magistrates, of Hoifung, Po On, Chungshan, Sanwui, and Toishan districts. Macao has only two or three nearby isles. The British Islands are divided between the District Officer, North, and the District Officer, South, so that the latter is sometimes called \"Lord of the Isles\". I had that job for nearly 3 1/2 years.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210862, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 213, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "196\n\nCARL SMITH\n\n\"nese language to watch over the proceedings.\"\n\nThe effective discipline maintained by the associations within the Chinese community and their benevolent activities outweighed the danger of their usurpation of the functions of the officially constituted institutions to maintain law and order, so that, in spite of the apprehension they aroused, they were permitted to continue their activities.\n\nToday the Committee of the Six Companies represent the conservative, wealthy portion of the San Francisco Chinese community. In recent years their recognised control has been challenged by an influx of youth with Hongkong Triad Society background. This challenge to community authority has produced many problems in San Francisco's Chinatown with an upsurge of extortion, gang fights and murder.\n\nEven in A-chick's time the authority of the associations did not go unchallenged by other groups. An incident occurred in 1855 in which A-chick as community leader tried to act as peacemaker. A meeting with this end in mind was convened, but in the course of the meeting, Tong A-chick had to leave unceremoniously by leaping from a second-storey window.\n\nA street fight between two rival secret societies led up to the incident. The Hung Shun Tong Society was the established group, but its power was challenged by the E Shing Society. When the members of one of the rival groups wanted to enter a Chinese place of entertainment which was controlled by the other group, they were refused admission. The reason given in the newspaper account was \"because they spoke a different dialect from the proprietors of the house.\"\n\nThe next night the two groups were out in force with axes, knives, bamboos and bottles. The Hung Shun Tong could rally more fighters and routed the weaker E Shing group.\n\nThe fight occurred just below the quarters of the Canton Merchants Association rooms in Sacramento Street where a meeting had been called to investigate the causes of the previous night's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210922, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 273, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "256\n\nCARL SMITH\n\nA festival demands she appear in her most precious ornaments and her most attractive gowns. Then there is nothing to do but to confess to her gambling addiction, or, as many did, seek escape from her predicament by suicide through use of “the opium pot or hempen rope.”\n\nThere was, however, a third way out, for according to Dr. Ho Kai \"some tread the path of infamy and dishonour.” adding that \"this may have been done with the connivance of their worst enemies, the gambling agents.\"\n\nAfter paraphrasing the ten suggestions for the suppression of gambling contained in the Chinese petition, he proceeds to remark on the next evil, sly brothels. These were brothels which operated without licence. In those days the Government licensed and inspected houses of prostitution.\n\nWith proper Victorian prudery, he said: \"I feel conscious that this is a subject that requires very delicate handling, and it is on that account and my sense of pain and disgust whenever the subject is approached that I desire to be excused from dwelling upon it at any length.”\n\nDr. Ho Kai advocated severe measures for the suppression of these evils. He proposed as penalties flogging and imprisonment with hard labour. An editorial suggested that Dr. Ho Kai was thus unintentionally advocating class legislation a topic we shall return to in a later article.\n\nWith some irony the editor suggests: “We do not suppose that this Chinese delegate wishes there to be one law in Hongkong for foreigners and another for Chinese; and yet, on the other hand, it seems as if he must have had some such idea, as it is scarcely credible he meant to suggest that foreigners who engaged in gambling should be flogged.\"\n\nThe editor asks Dr. Ho Kai some rhetorical questions: \"Are the gamblers on the Stock Exchange to be flogged and imprisoned with hard labour? Are the whist players in the various clubs and at numerous private houses, and the men who bet a few dollars at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210933, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 283, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "266\n\ning in the New Territories. Unfortunately, the British misunderstood that the soldiers were sent there to assist the uprising.\n\nWith this as an excuse, the British invaded the Walled City on the 8th day of the Fourth Moon (i.e. 19th May) and drove away the Imperial officials and the three hundred soldiers.\n\nThis ended the Ch'ing rule over the Kowloon Walled City.\n\nHong Kong, June 1987\n\nAnthony K. K. SIU\n\nNOTES\n\n2\n\nSee JHKBRAS 20(1980): 139-141.\n\nThey were said to be Hakka stone workers and Triad members.\n\nCheung Yu-tang E, a native of Wai Chau H, was a Fu-cheung #or Brigadier of the Tai Pang Battalion in 1854. He was stationed in the Walled City for thirteen years. Then he retired in the 5th year of Tung Chih (1866) and died four years later in the 9th year of Tung Chih (1870) at the age of 76.\n\nSee Chapter 82 of the Kwangchow Fu Chi, Kuang Hsu edition 廣州府志卷八十二,\n\n5 See the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong, 1898 (signed at Peking, 9th June, 1898): Treaties between China and Foreign States Vol. 1, P. 539-540. Shang-hai, 1917.\n\n6 See Despatches and other Papers relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1899.\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the Lease of Kowloon Customs and her territory on the 9th day of the 4th moon in the 25th year of the Kuang Hsu Reign (1899).\n\nSee the Report of Viceroy Tam Chung-lun and Governor Luk Chuen-lam of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces to the Imperial Court on the British Occupation of the Kowloon City and the French Occupation of Ng Chuen and Shui Kai Prefectures 奧督撫譚鈺麟鹿傳霖泰英人佔據九龍城法人圖佔吳川遂溪兩縣請飭籌 on the 15th day of the 5th moon in the 25th year of Kuang Hsu (1899).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210997, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 59, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "34\n\nAt the head of the pier was the Lung-chin Pavilion which provided shelter for travellers. It was also known as the “Mandarin-Greeting Pavilion” (ying-kuan t’ing), for it was presumably here that officials landing at Kowloon were officially greeted before they proceeded to the Walled City.21\n\nIronically, the first invaders of the Walled City were not British, but Chinese. In 1854, certain anti-Dynastic elements in Hong Kong, taking advantage of the general disturbance caused by the T'ai-p'ing uprising, attacked the Walled City across the harbour and occupied it. According to British officials, they were mainly Hakka stone workers and Triad members. Though the rebels had promised the inhabitants protection if they withdrew their support from the Imperial forces, as soon as they took possession of the City, they ransacked the houses and seized pigs, poultry and dogs for food.\n\nThe Kowloon officials fled to Hong Kong Island. At one point, nine war junks carrying 2,000 Imperial soldiers were ready to confront an equal number of rebel naval forces. The British in fact held the ring by ordering all warships to leave Hong Kong waters and so averted a major naval battle. The Imperial troops finally prevailed.22 However, the hsun-chien's official residence in the Walled City was so damaged by fire that for a while, he was obliged to move to Ch'ih-wei on the Shumchun river.23\n\nChinese officials at Kowloon and British officials in Hong Kong kept in close touch and generally co-operated in maintaining law and order in the vicinity. In 1867 for instance, when conflict broke out between villagers from either side of the border, Governor Macdonnell made a special trip to Kowloon, met the Chinese official on his steamer and agreed to co-operate in keeping peace.24 In 1884, Kowloon officials warned the Hong Kong authorities of a possible rising of the Triad Society.25\n\n24\n\n26\n\nUnder Ordinance 2 of 1850, Chinese fugitives in Hong Kong were handed over to Kowloon officials, but the provision was not reciprocal — China had no obligation to extradite criminals to Hong Kong. Chinese authorities, however, did arrest and convict them. The Namoa case was the most dramatic example. In 1890,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211441, "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": 157, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "133\n\nthe truck, Uncle hired drivers to take the produce to Honolulu. I had many rides on the truck to pick up bananas which Okinawa immigrants grew on what used to be pineapple fields. Uncle prospered and was dubbed *Mayor of Kaneohe*. When it was time for him to retire from farming, he bought a piece of Cobb-Adam's land on Kamehameha Highway, one lot removed from Lilipuna Road. Uncle was extended credit from C. K. Ai, who was a friend of my parents, so that he could buy lumber from City Mill Company to build a simple but spacious home and a large garage for his trucking business.\n\nWhen Uncle was struggling to make ends meet, Father would try to help with small loans. During the First World War, when the price of guano was rising fast, Father bought a ton of the fertilizer and stored it under our School Street home. Uncle would pay the current price for each bag he took, and when the ton was used up, the profit was divided between Father and Uncle. Because the price of animal feed was also rising, Mother would wake Ruth, Helen and me at early dawn, competing with a neighbour, to gather algaroba beans from a back lot for Uncle at one dollar a bag.\n\nThere was little social life in those days. Uncle was a member of a fraternal society in Heeia, namely, the Bow Yee Tong, established in 1903. Mother told me that this was a Triad society, where members were initiated and sworn in as 'blood brothers' by secret rituals, so secret that they were not revealed even to their wives. In later years, after the death of Aunt, Uncle became a devout Buddhist and frequently visited a temple in Honolulu.\n\nUncle registered seven of his ten children with the Board of Health on 15 October 1918. At that time, he gave his name as Cheung Yau and Aunt's as Wong Fung, and his age at 38 and hers 33. Their children are:\n\nAnnie Ah Hoon (21 Apr 1902-1936) married Henry Auyoung\n\nMary Ah Moy Hiki (9 Oct 1904-) married Joseph Liu\n\nHelen Ah Sam (11 Dec 1906-) married Robert Zane\n\nAlice Ah Lin (15 Dec 1909-) married Frank Carpino (died 1982) 1927\n\nReuben Ah Kau (17 Jun 1911-) married Eunice Ching\n\nAaron Ah Mung (13 Oct 1913-8 Oct 1985)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211673, "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": 88, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "63\n\nsinister-looking spherical objects used as buoys, lengths of rope, wooden spars, kegs of nails, bolts of canvas, and paint cans, required by the River Department of the Chinese Maritime Customs to maintain the charting and marking of the neighbouring reaches of the erratic Yangize.\n\nThere was a daring gentleman who, in Victorian days when it was against the rules, introduced a lady to the Club after midnight to play a game of billiards. The original of the letter subsequently sent him by an irate secretary, demanding an explanation of his extraordinary conduct, could be seen in the Club files, as also of the contumacious answer received in reply. It is on record that the offending person was suspended from membership, sine die, for his reprehensible conduct, and that this arbitrary penalty led to an acrimonious state of opinion wherein one half of the residents would no longer speak to the other half.\n\nWhen I myself was first appointed to Kiu Kiang (in 1924) the story was old, and the dissensions of that time had long since disappeared. But even so I found there was a local tradition of competition for precedence between the lady who was the wife of His Britannic Majesty's Consul, and the lady who had married the Commissioner of Customs. The newcomer was eagerly canvassed by the more active supporters of either party and must needs tread warily, if he wished to remain at his ease amongst all sections of the community.\n\nSometime later I foolishly allowed myself to be cajoled into performing the duties of honorary secretary to the Club. The Victorian days were now over, and ladies were admitted to the Club card room, though admittedly on a footing which with some of the older club members smacked more of sufferance than of welcome. A period of unusual affluence in the Club finances happening to intervene, it had been decided to colour-wash the walls, and in my capacity as secretary the choice of colours was left to me. It was that pleasant peaceful time in the heat of summer when the female of the species retires to the coolness of the nearby mountain resort. Only one elegant specimen had stayed behind. I thought it would be a good idea to ask this lady for her advice; after all, colour schemes are outside the scope of the average male. We held a conference, the colours were decided upon, and then I too left for the mountains.\n\nOn first re-entering the Club after my return in the autumn, I was faced by a crowd of indignant women, who demanded to know what", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211890, "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": 305, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "280\n\nWe are now going on very slowly indeed, and unless the breeze very much strengthens it will be a while even now before we reach Batavia. The weather is much warmer today and I have spent nearly all the time on deck. No one can imagine, unless placed in my circumstances, how much I long to see land once more, and to tread on \"Terra Firma\".\n\nWednesday, July 3rd\n\nI am now writing under far different circumstances to my last. Here I am in a fine hotel in Batavia, recreating and resting till the vessel is able to proceed to her destination. How I came here I will endeavour to describe as clearly as possible, although I have had to pass through so much that I have forgotten one half of it.\n\nNow to proceed. The day after we spoke with the \"whaler\" I have just mentioned, we spoke to another which came from the same town. She had lately caught a whale, and as she sailed past I saw the greater part of the blubber upon deck, cut up in large pieces. They were boiling some at the time, and the scent was quite alarming, as it blew toward our ship. They wrote their longitude by their chronometers on a large board, and we did the same. We were 90 miles out, and this is the result of the captain's ignorance and negligence in all probability.\n\nThe next few days we had a complete calm so that we were only making a few miles a day. The ship having only half of her sails that were capable of being used, made it slow work indeed. Day after day we went on till at last one afternoon we sighted \"Java Head\". The captain's impatience at the lightness of the wind knew no bounds. He walked about and swore, and stamped, and bullied, but all to no purpose. The next day we got off Prince's Island, and just moved a few miles along the shore.\n\nPleasant indeed it was to be in sight of land once more after such a long stay on the wide ocean, with nothing to vary the tediousness and monotony. If it had been a dreary desert land it would have been a treat to look at it, but how great the pleasure to see with the glass the most fertile and luxuriant island in the world, completely embossed with trees, of the most graceful and imposing appearance. We could see the waves as they washed the shores, and hear their dashing against the sandy beach. The heat was something considerable on account of the calm. Butterflies and small insects came off to the ship from the shore, and were the first", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212086, "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": 28, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "There and elsewhere, the Rural Committees carried out many executive functions at that time, and in remoter places where government was less in evidence they continued to do so until much later.\n\n3. Self-Management among Tsuen Wan Squatters\n\nUnlike the villagers, the squatter population of Tsuen Wan in the 1950s and 1960s was neither homogenous nor long-settled. It mostly comprised newcomers from many parts of Kwangtung and elsewhere. However, like other groups of Chinese who happened to find themselves living together in a strange place far from home, they too were imbued with the spirit and practice of these long-exercised \"self-help skills\". It was, therefore, in no way surprising to find that able, willing men (and sometimes women) in the squatter areas organized themselves and their fellow residents for greater convenience, providing local services through their own efforts and giving very little trouble to the authorities.\n\n71\n\nThis self-servicing was decentralized. Committees formed in each squatter area in the time-honoured way, because men came forward and were accepted by the rest. There was a real need for their services. Life in such places was (and to a lesser extent still is) often fraught with dangers arising from fire, and from the floods, typhoons, landslips and similar natural disasters to which Hong Kong is periodically subject. However, the leaders were used to taking such precautionary measures as were possible and were ready to meet new crises as and when they occurred. There was an equal need for the exercise of initiative in daily life, since at that period the amenities provided by government departments or the public utilities mostly ended at the settlement fringes or some point in the neighbourhood. The leaders had to make their own arrangements to obtain and distribute water and electricity inside the lanes of the squatter areas, and they sometimes carried out minor public works. They also formed fire-fighting teams and security patrols. Disputes between residents over a wide variety of causes had to be resolved, and sometimes triad elements had to be deterred from taking a hand in “providing” security and services for a consideration. In short, the task of the local leaders was not light, even for capable men. It needed time, effort, and the right contacts in the community and the bureaucracy, including the local police, and cooperation and support from the residents was vital.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212943, "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-1993", "page_number": 11, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "Lectures:\n\n1993\n\n16 April\n\n14 May\n\n11 June\n\n9 July\n\n15 October\n\n30 October\n\n19 November\n\n26 November\n\n9 December\n\n1994\n\n21 January\n\n18 February\n\n11 March\n\n21 March\n\nChinese Opera Di S.Y Chan\n\nGrowing Up in China Mr Denis Bray\n\nNew Territories Poetry and Song Di Patrick Hase\n\nThe Li Family of Hong Kong Mr Frank Ching\n\nChinese Festivals in Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase based on video taken by Mr. Peter Lee\n\nMult-culturalism and Asia Asian Arts Society of Australia Dr. James Hayes\n\nEmigration from Hong Kong Dr. Elizabeth Sinn\n\nLaw as a Foreign Language Professor Derek Roebuck\n\nTriad Societies in Hong Kong Mr. Ip Pau-fuk\n\nWilliam Mesney. Mr Keith Stevens\n\nChinese Clothing An Illustrated Guide Mis Valery Garrett\n\nEternal Serenity Meaning of Architecture of the Chinese Buddhist Monastery Di Puay-peng Ho\n\nAncient Chinese Gold Dr Simon Kwan\n\nCrossing the Taklamakan Desert Mr Charles Blackmore\n\nVisits:\n\n1993\n\n3 April\n\n2 May\n\n22 May\n\n5 June/September\n\n25 June\n\n3 July\n\n30 September\n\nExhibition of paintings by Nancy Woo - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University\n\nJewish Cemetery\n\nMer Yung Tang Collection of Paintings by Chan Dai Chien Chinese University Art Gallery\n\nMarine Police Headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui (two visits)\n\nJapanese Tea Ceremony - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University\n\nPicnic and outing to Yuen Tun Village Civil Aid Services Camp, Tar Lam Chung\n\nWo Hang Village to see making and letting off of paper balloons (Moon Festival)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213072, "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-1993", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "121\n\nhe was a hero who helped pacify the San P'ing area of Changchou who then had settled in the area, and when the T'ang philosopher, Han Yu, was banished to Ch'aochou in AD 819 he and I-chung saw much of each other.\n\nHis legends are so similar to those told about Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih that it is more than likely that they have been confused and adapted by devotees. His image portrays him as a seated Buddhist monk, holding a fan in his right hand, but without any unique identifying characteristics. His festival is generally celebrated on the double sixth. It is also celebrated on two other dates, lesser festivals, the 26th of the sixth, being the anniversary of his enlightenment, and the 26th of the tenth, the anniversary of him being borne off to Heaven.\n\nThree temples in Taiwan are dedicated to him, two in Taman and one in Nantou, though his image also appears on a number of secondary altars elsewhere in Taiwan. In a large temple in central Taman his image is the centre one of a triad flanked by Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih on his right hand, and San Tai Tsu-shih on his left. They are said to have been sworn blood brothers.\n\nHis image has not been seen in Hong Kong or Macau, and has only been noted on one altar in SE Asia, in Singapore where he is said to have been an incarnation of Ti-ts'ang Wang. They claimed that he died in Amoy where he sank into the ground and disappeared. He is portrayed on the Singapore altar as a standing gilded figure wearing a Buddhist mitre, and holding a rattle stick in his right hand and a bowl in his left.\n\nSan Tai Tsu-shih\n\nAnother separate southern Fukienese cult appears to be confused with Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. Three individual images have been noted on two altars, both in Yunlin county in central Taiwan, under the title of The Three Generations of Patron Saints or, as it was explained in one of the temples, that the three images represented one deity, The Third Generation Patron Saint, San Tai Tsu-shih. The main deity of the three is said to be the Second Buddha of the 31st kalpa. Some Taiwanese hagiographies claim that Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih and San Tai Tsu-shih are one and the same deity, though one of the two temple keepers refuted this and explained that Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih is the deputy to San Tai Tsu-shih.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213073, "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-1993", "page_number": 141, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "122\n\nshih. The latter has not been noted in any altars in southern Fukien province, nor in SE Asia, though it is almost certainly a local Fukienese cult. However, in one of the temples in Singapore containing the image of San P'ing Tsu-shih it was claimed that there was a trio of sworn blood brothers, San Tai Tsu-shih, San P'ing Tsu-shih and Ch'ing-shui Tsu-shih. This group logically ties together the concept of a trio, with Ch'ing-shui being involved as a junior deity and with a black face.\n\nThe confusion arises presumably due to the similarity of the images. San Tai Tsu-shih is also depicted as a standard image of a monk, sitting cross-legged, wearing the five-leaf bodhisattva crown, but with a pink face. He is also depicted holding a fly whisk in his right hand and his left hand in a Buddhist mystical sign. Legend, as related in one of the temples, claims that the three generations, the father, grandfather and son, were fortune tellers of great renown who lived a thousand years ago in Ankur in Fukien, who cured the sick. In several successive years of desperate drought and famine, so the legend continues, they disposed of all their worldly wealth, giving it away to the poor and needy. Revered predominantly by emigrants from the Ankur region the triad is prayed to for a cure for all forms of sickness. They are also revered by local people who bear the same surname, Lin, with people referring to the old grandfather for advice on land purchase and before starting up a new business.\n\nThese three cult deities are revered separately and on their own altars in different temples both in the Amoy region and elsewhere, and are regarded as important cult units. Ostensibly the latter two, the deified Buddhist monks, would seem to be Buddhist deities; however, in practice all three cults are to be seen nowadays only in popular religion temples though never together. As with virtually all popular religion cults, they are not revered in isolation and stand on their own altars in temples beside altars bearing other deities of unconnected cults.\n\nNOTES\n\nOthers claim that it was the Lord of the North Star (Pei-tou Hsing-chun) who introduced this deity to mankind.\n\nThis is one of the instances when he appears to be being confused with Sun Ssu-miao.\n\nChang Sheng-che was identified in a rural temple in Chin-mei, on the mainland across the strait from Amoy island as the 'magician' Fa-chu Kung [qv]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213187, "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": 9, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY\n\nHONG KONG BRANCH\n\nPRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1994/95\n\nMay I welcome all of you here this evening, the 35th gathering since the resuscitation of the Society in 1960.\n\nFor me one of life's real pleasures is to be a member of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) and I hope that this feeling of enjoyment is shared by all of you this evening. It is not idle enjoyment, it is of the active voluntary kind, which stimulates the mind, and gives you insight into areas of activity which you would not normally tread into given the very busy lives which most of us lead in Hong Kong. In other words most of us make time to come to the activities of the Society, because we know that when we come to hear a talk or go on an activity we will learn something we did not know before, or are given some insight into Hong Kong's history which is much more fascinating than many of us imagine.\n\nThese words, although they may be obvious to some, are worth saying because it gives me a lead into the very active programme which we have had since I last reported to you this time last year. At that time I said I thought we had had one of the most active years ever, but looking at this last year we seemed to have even surpassed last year. We have had no less than seventeen lectures, fifteen visits to various parts of Hong Kong and two very successful visits: one to North Vietnam, and I am very pleased to see so many Vietnamese veterans here this evening and one to North Taiwan; the former organised by Dr. Patrick Hase and the other by Mr. Keith Stevens. (Some of us did our best to conquer the Perfume Pagoda high in the Vietnamese hills but lack of time and breath in some cases prevented us from reaching the top, and seeing members of the Society sitting and wobbling precariously in a Vietnamese sampan trying to eat a picnic lunch out of a box without falling into the water was something which is not easily forgotten by those who had the privilege of seeing them). For the success of the talks and visits we have to thank the very active Programme Committee, i.e. Mrs. Rosemary Lee, Rev. Carl Smith, Dr. Patrick Hase, Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Mr. Geoffrey Roper, Dr. Dan Waters, Mr. Philip Bruce, Dr. Michael Lau and Dr. Joseph Ting. They have really done a splendid job.\n\nviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214196, "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": 54, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "17\n\nSome Westerners and Hong Kong Chinese will tell you that Chinese humour on the circumscribed Mainland is not subtle. It is too ... and a great deal of it falls flat on the average European. Although 200 Cartoons from China (Xu, 1989) goes down quite well, in the series of four books Selected Jokes from Past Chinese Dynasties only about four per cent of the jokes appeal to the author's sense of humour. An exception is:\n\nA father and son were both fond of the bottle and one night they were both staggering back home. On entering the gate the father said: 'Strange! Why do you have three faces? You look neither like a ghost nor a man. I'll never leave my house to you.' The son replied, 'I don't want such a rickety, revolving house anyway' (1997; vol. 4, joke 86)! To give another example of the more simple humour on the Mainland. The sound 'wok', in Chinese, can mean either a Chinese round-bottom frying pan or 'trouble' or 'problem.' Thus a large trading company with a television 'dish' (wok) on the roof is known in Guangzhou as the ‘Trouble Company.' This more direct form of humour, common in Guangdong, contrasts with the complicated humour which requires a person to use his 'grey matter' more.\n\nFor instance Nury Vittachi, Hong Kong journalist, author and part-time comedian, writes that he believes what he calls 'personality humour' works best with Westerners. In such cases the comic goes into his role and recreates a conversation with his mother-in-law, the taxi driver, or whoever. This does not always work, says Nury, with Asians who prefer more direct, straightforward, 'Man goes into a bar' approach.\n\nBut Hong Kong, as opposed to China, is a relatively small place with western influences. As Harry Wong, the talk-show host and co-median of Metro Broadcasting said: 'In this city-state (Hong Kong) people are short of time. There is a ‘combat' situation and people have a better command of English. Western-style Rotary, Round Table clubs and the like, with their style of humour, are common. Put all this juxtaposition to Chinese humour, including films made in Hong Kong often consisting of vulgar, triad language, and obvious jokes with excessive action, and you have a peculiar mix' (Bolton, 1997; 300). Such exaggeration, found for instance in Chinese films, contrasts with much of the British humour which often relies on understatements. Some", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215332, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "57\n\nnot orthodox spirits shen\n\nbut dark spirits. Yinshen, the ghosts of those who have died a violent death before their due date.\n\nChinese usually describe this group, in English, as the 108 Martyrs. They are never portrayed as images and tend to be regarded more as public worthies, folk hero \"ethnic group\" ancestors rather than deities. The tablet is very similar to the ancestral tablet and simply states that it is the 'Tablet to the One Hundred and Eight Brothers'. It is venerated and although the spirits of the brothers are occasionally asked for advice by devotees they are not usually prayed to for major requests or protection, although in Java in one temple the tablet was prayed to by seafarers before they set out on a long journey. Their festival, simple and not in any way lavish, is generally celebrated on the 15th day of the tenth lunar month, though in Singapore it is held on the 3rd of the eighth lunar month.\n\nThe question is, who were the One Hundred and Eight Brothers? Three separate versions of the story of their demise have each been recounted with great solemnity, conviction and confidence by temple keepers in Java, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and even in a Chinese temple in Bali. In Penang the story centres on a junk-load of Hainanese immigrants heading for South-east Asia which never arrived. One version claims that they were mistaken for pirates and wiped out by the 'French' [sic] navy off Annam or the 'British' off Malaya again having been mistaken for pirates. Another version suggests that they were all drowned during a typhoon off the southern tip of what is now Vietnam, and yet another that they were annihilated by Chinese government forces off the Leizhou peninsular immediately north of Hainan when, again, they were mistaken for pirates.12 The third story is that they were the original immigrants from Fujian province who arrived in Hainan to settle but all died in Hainan from disease or at the hands of the aborigines. A twist to the version heard in Penang claimed that the typhoon which sank the junk in the South China Seas drowned all but one of the one hundred and nine aboard, one small boy being saved after days of drifting on wreckage. He then died in Malaya at a ripe old age.\n\n12\n\nOne hundred and eight is a secret symbolic number used by secret societies, and one of the Triad gangs in British Malaya was known as the 'One Hundred and Eight Society.' with a devotee in Seremban", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216041, "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": 340, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "274\n\nThere also used to be an early Buddhist shrine dedicated to the former abbot of renown, Fa Hai, concealed in a cave on the hillock. In recent times the few foreign tourists visiting Zhenjiang have been perplexed by the description of Jin Shan being an island when it is so obviously part of the mainland. The reason is all too obvious. Alluvial silt left by the Yangzi floods down the past hundred and fifty years has not only completely joined the island to the mainland but also reclaimed part of the River, land now used for agriculture. 19th century western accounts of the town usually tended to begin with a description of the view from the Yangzi of the pagoda of the temple on the island of Jin Shan or, during the storming of the town by British forces in 1842, of troops being disembarked on the mainland across the strip of water at that time still separating Jin Shan from the mainland.\n\nAccording to Doré's description of the Jin Shan temple following his visit during the early days of the twentieth century, \"the visitor was confronted on entering with the Falstaffian figure of the Buddha Maitreya [Mile Fo], the Buddha of the Future, squatting in his turret as guardian of the precincts. Behind him opens out a vast vestibule at the sides of which are four gigantic statues - about fifteen feet in height - of the Four Heavenly Kings, Si Da Jingang, inner guardians of the monks and the monastery. Crossing the inner court, one entered the great Hall. On the altar were two Buddhist triads. Facing North are gigantic statues of Sakyamuni, Yao Shi Fo and Mile Fo, the Buddhas of the Present, Past and Future. Beside Sakyamuni in the centre, stand his two disciples, the old Kasyapa and the young Ananda. Right and left of the altar are the two guardians Li, the Pagoda-bearer and Wei Tuo. Facing South is the Triad San Da Shi: Guan Yin, Wen Shu and Pu Xian. Guan Yin rides over the waves on a sea monster; near by are the rocks of her sacred isle, Pu Tuo and, in between these, sundry immortals and Buddhas were housed. The Golden Boy, Shan Cai and the Naga Maiden, Long Nu are conventionally in attendance on Guan Yin whom the authorities in the temple recognise as formerly having been a god - not a goddess\".\n\nThe second large Hall was the Hall of the Yangzi Spirit, Jiang Shen [Spirit of the River]. Serving as a military barracks at the time of Doré's visit “it retained of its former glories only one ordinary-sized statue of the god, in a lateral niche, viz. a fish about three metres in length carved in wood with a copper plaque providing the honorific", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216425, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "134\n\nPre-war there were a large number of local Chinese in Russian employment in Manchuria. A typical throw-away line in a correspondent's lengthy report was the description of the unexpected naval assault on the Russian Far Eastern Fleet in Port Arthur in February 1904 which precipitated the war. \"The town was in confusion after this sudden and unexpected attack on the town initiating the conflict. Food prices soared as Chinese traders sold up and fled. Throughout the bombardment the Chinese streamed out to the hills wailing with fear. Clerks at one of the banks disappeared with large sums of money. Meanwhile, Chinese who were forbidden to travel by train during the mass exodus had converged on the harbour hoping to find places aboard foreign ships. Sampan men made a small fortune ferrying refugees out to the ships. Social organisation fell apart as Chinese servants and shop keepers fled leaving their employers and customers, the Russians, to fend for themselves.\"\n\nIn August 1904 the Japanese entered the Treaty Port of Newchwang (Niuzhuang, now known as Yingkou), the Russians having pulled out without fighting. The Japanese were surprised the Chinese there did not welcome them as deliverers, regretted the departure of Russian friends, and charged the Japanese two dollars where they only charged the Russians one. During the interval between the departure of the Russians and the arrival of the Japanese, Chinese refugees poured into the settlement in a ceaseless stream, carrying their goods and chattels. This was an all too familiar pattern ahead of the advancing armies.\n\nA correspondent's description of life in Mukden ahead of the approach of the Japanese as winter set in 1904 included his impressions of the daily scene with 'Manchus and Chinese, the men almost indistinguishable from one another, the Manchu women differing in their free stride from the mincing tread of their Chinese sisters. Cossacks and Chinese had soon established quite friendly relations. At every step you can see soldiers bargaining with inflexible Chinese for a bottle of vodka, or a handful of nuts or a pair of socks. Sometimes you see a soldier eating an apple in a fruit-seller's stall. This soldier was supposed to discharge the duties of a policeman, and the apple represents bribery and corruption.'\n\nAlthough there were many reports of Chinese and Manchu peasants taking sides and fighting for one or other of the belligerents for what", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]