[ { "id": 210817, "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": 168, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "151\n\nHe came of a humble family; his salary was not large and could have earned much more using his English language ability in a business firm or in Government service — but by exercising thrift, he was able soon after his arrival in Hongkong to buy property in the Lower Bazaar (Sheung Wan).\n\nAs the income from his property increased, he continued to invest in real estate. Linking his destiny with the advancing fortunes of Hongkong, he profited by its growth. By the time of his death in 1871, he had a large fortune.\n\nHis wealth enabled him to provide a good education for his sons. The most prominent of them was Sir Ho Kai. He received a university education in Britain, both in law and medicine, and was the benefactor of the Alice Memorial Hospital.\n\nWhen the Hongkong College of Medicine was established in 1887, Dr Ho Kai was one of the lecturers. His sister, Ho Miu-ling, wife of the Honourable Wu Ting-fang, twice Minister of the Chinese Government to the United States, also endowed a hospital. Both institutions are now a part of the Nethersole Hospital group.\n\nIt is fitting that the Ho Fuk Tong College at Tuen Mun, New Territories, perpetuates his name. Dr Ho Chung-chung, recently retired Headmistress of the Hongkong True Light Middle School, though not a direct descendant, was of the same Ho family.\n\nFrom 1843 to the present, members of the family of Ho Fuk-tong have contributed to education in Hongkong.\n\nTHE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN BITTEN BY THE “CHINA BUG”\n\nThe original plan for the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca was for a cosmopolitan student body. East and West would meet to study each other's language and culture.\n\nIn its first few years, there were some half-dozen foreign students. Most of them were adult missionaries learning the Chinese language. There were, however, three teenagers: James Bone, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211414, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "106\n\nthat she did not follow through.\n\nDuring World War II the Japanese took over Uncle's Hong Kong home and the family had to retreat to the cellar, which fortunately was huge, roomy and above ground. Since communication between Hawaii and Hong Kong was impossible, we did not learn of the details of the deaths of both Uncle and Aunt. Uncle did have a history of bladder stones and Aunt, diabetes. Later, the Communists appropriated his home in Canton, and Po Ling subsequently sold the country estate and the Kennedy Road home. Po Ling, trained in law at the Soochow University and at University of Illinois, went into banking and finance like his father. He lived for many years in Malaysia, but, after suffering a stroke, he went back to Hong Kong where he started a finance company of his own.\n\nBecause I felt deprived of a father early in life, Uncle seemed to fill that void in 1932 and 1935 when I was living in China. He opened his home to Mother, Dora and me, allowing us to live in the Hong Kong residence while his family lived in Canton. After Mother and Dora left for Honolulu, I could always have the key to the house and take the train from Canton to Hong Kong with several colleagues to spend a few days there. Small Aunt was an efficient manager of the household, a task given to her when First Aunt proved inadequate. She not only saw to it that Uncle and her son had every comfort but she was always thoughtful of me too. For example, she would often send a maid to True Light Middle School where I was teaching with specially prepared soup, or have some ready for me on my visits. She and Mother became quite close to each other and took a trip to Shanghai and Soochow, accompanied by Dora. They did not have an opportunity to see each other again after Mother returned to Hawaii in 1933, but they kept in touch by mail. My husband John and I saw Small Aunt for the last time on our visit to Hong Kong in 1972. In January 1976 she had a chance to fulfill her wish to see the United States once again, particularly San Francisco. Accompanied by her granddaughter, Rosita, she visited with Dora in Honolulu and with other relatives and friends in California. When Po Ling sold the Kennedy Road home, Small Aunt went to Australia to live with her grandson, Anthony, but after about a year she returned to Hong Kong to be with Po Ling, over whose health she was greatly concerned. In 1980, at the age of 92, she died in her sleep.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211415, "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": 131, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "107\n\nPo Ling, Uncle's sole heir, was in business in Malaysia for many years, but returned to Hong Kong following a stroke. He has been married twice. His first wife, née Auyoung, died of tuberculosis early in their marriage. His present wife, Su Min Kan, is the mother of three daughters and two sons: Linda, Judy, Lillian, Robert and Chi Fai, all of whom were educated in England. I met Su Min for the first time when she and Po Ling toured the United States in 1978 with Linda and Robert. Po Ling's concubine, Grace Kam Siu Wai, born 28 February 1918, and her two children, Anthony F, born 12 May 1945, and Rosita b, born 20 July 1953, are settled in Australia. Anthony, married to an Australian, Dorothy, has five daughters. Rosita, married to Robert Ting, has one child. Because of the distance between Uncle's family and ours, contacts are infrequent and I am afraid family ties will weaken and be lost in time.\n\nAs for me, fond memories of Uncle and Small Aunt linger still, and I cannot forget his affection and concern for me when he took a launch from Shameen, Canton, to True Light Middle School at Paak Hok Tung, to comfort me upon the untimely and tragic death of my fiancé. To have lived in his truly Chinese home was to experience the joys of an extended family, the sharing of sadness and happiness, the concern for one another's well-being, the responsibilities falling upon and assumed by the head of the family, and the respect towards our elders and for each other — attributes which have drawn our families close for several generations and which have increased my appreciation of the ancient culture of my people.\n\nSecond Paternal Uncle\n\nMuch of the information on Second Paternal Uncle comes from letters he wrote to Father and from the autobiography of his eldest son, Toby, written in Chinese.\n\nUncle, the second son in the family, was born in our ancestral village on 17 August 1870. His 'milk name' was Ping I; his marriage name, On Kiao; his adult name, Chung Chi. The last was the name he was known by outside the family. He was taught in the village by a tutor and most likely had studied some English in Hong Kong before Grandfather sent him at the age of 16 to join First Uncle in San Francisco.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211475, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "167\n\ngrades, graduating in June, 1932. In August of that year, she and mother accompanied me to China. Because Aunt Pong felt she could manage better in Shekki with the money from the sale of their home, she and the children left Honolulu on the Empress of Japan as we did. Uncle Pong remained in Honolulu. This was during the Depression when the exchange rate was favourable for United States currency.\n\nDora enrolled in the True Light Middle School, where I had accepted a teaching position, but when she found her inadequate knowledge of Chinese quite frustrating, she left after the first semester for Hong Kong, where Mother was living in First Paternal Uncle's Kennedy Road home. There she was tutored in Chinese by a Chinese teacher. In July, 1933, after a short visit to Shanghai and Hangchow, Mother and Dora returned to Honolulu on the President Hoover, to welcome Mother's first grandchild, Edmund Tong.\n\nFor the next three years, Dora studied at McKinley High School and after her graduation in June, 1936, she matriculated at the University of Hawaii, and received a B.A. degree in liberal arts. Then she went to the University of Chicago to do postgraduate social work. At the International House where she resided, she met Tso-chien Shen, a Vice-consul from China, and married him on 19 September, 1941. He was a native of Pi Hu Chen, Li Shui County, Chekiang Province, and a graduate of the University of Peking. An article, \"What Chinese Exclusion Really Means\" by him was published in 1942 by the China Institute in America. Dora soon became pregnant and became so ill that she could not finish her last quarter of study to earn a Master's degree. Their sons, both born in Chicago, are:\n\nEugene Tsu-wang I, born 7/5/42\n\nGilbert Tsu-shang I, born 2/3/46\n\nIn 1946 when Tso-chien was promoted to Second Secretary of the Chinese Legation in Manila, he had to leave his family behind, because his salary was too low. After 1949, Tso-chien started a chicken farm, with Paul Sim as his financial backer. However, in 1950 when he was found to be suffering from cancer, he sent for Dora, but by this time he was already in a terminal stage. Whereupon Dora returned to Mother's home and arranged to have him flown to Honolulu in December 1950", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211481, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "173\n\nZiegler's part and bad for my self-esteem.\n\nI studied English under Mrs. Roberts in my sophomore year and under Miss Floralyn Cadwell in my junior and senior years. When I entered the University of Hawaii four years later, Miss Cadwell was by that time married to an Irish-English gentleman, Mr. Lalia Conway, and was active in community dramatics. Now on the staff of the university, she had me again, this time concentrating on English composition. She was from an old Santa Barbara family who had journeyed to California by way of the Cape. There was a sweet and dreamlike quality about her. We became life-long friends. I owe much to these two English teachers in learning to appreciate English literature.\n\nGeometry was taught by Mr. Cole, a plain Quaker-like instructor. Somehow I did not seem to understand the relationship between points and lines so that I almost flunked the course. Later when I was pressured to teach that subject at True Light Middle School, I was surprised that the government supervisor considered me a good teacher. Perhaps my experience gave me an understanding of the difficulties confronting a student.\n\nMr. Cole is remembered not for the subject he taught, but as a thin, stern teacher, who seemed to be too friendly with Margaret M. Lam, a neighbour of ours. She sat in the seat in front of his desk where she would talk softly with him and would giggle from time to time, intriguing yet somehow annoying to me. Mrs. Wilson taught me first and second year algebra and Miss Wikander, history. I took a year of typing and have never regretted it. All in all I did quite well and the four years went by much too soon.\n\nBecause Mother was concerned that the Barbour Scholarship which Ruth received might not be renewed, I offered to go to work in case she needed some help in the future. Therefore, I took a business course at the Phillips Commercial School for a year and landed my first job as secretary to Judge William J. Robinson, to whom I was referred by Alice Ho Wong, the daughter of Ho Fan, an old family friend. Judge Robinson practised law in the Union Trust Building on Alakea Street, near King Street, and did a good deal of work for the trust company, which was incorporated by Portuguese business men. In the fall of 1928,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211484, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "176\n\nMemories of teachers in other departments remain with me. Dr. Douglas Scott, whom I had for English, extended himself to get me oriented in my first few weeks at the university and several years later, gave Bung Fong a free ride to the West Coast. I enjoyed Dr. Lawrence Fossler, a tall and large-framed German, for his great sense of humour and his ability to make German classes interesting. Pharmacology under Dr. Lyman was my most relaxing course because he had an easy manner in teaching. Although Physics is generally difficult for some, I surprised myself by doing well in it. My Waterloo was Organic Chemistry, which I eventually passed by the skin of my teeth. Because I had little social life, except on rare occasions when friends of Mrs. Johnson included me at their gatherings, my contacts in school fulfilled most of my need for companionship.\n\nThe depression which began in 1929 was still on in 1932, and jobs were hard to find. I accepted a position to teach senior biology under a three-year contract with the True Light Middle School at Paak Hok Tung in Canton. This was a prestigious high school supported by the Presbyterian Mission. Its principal, the Rev. Stephen G. Mark, had known me when he was pastor of the Beretania Chinese Church in Honolulu, where I had done some volunteer work and where I had taught English at night to Chinese male immigrants. On my way to China I stopped over in Honolulu for about two months as the guest of the Tong Phongs, who had welcomed Mother and Dora into their home following Ruth's death. Helen and her husband were also living in her in-laws' home at that time.\n\nMother, Dora and I obtained third-class special passage on the Empress of Japan, sharing a room with Pyun Kyau Zane Minn and her mother. There were many Chinese young men and women on board, some returning to their native land and some going to China for the first time to study at Lingnan University or Yenching University. Among the Hawaiian passengers were Hung Wo Ching, Irma Tam, Deborah and Joseph Kau, Bunny and Ethel Au, Sing Chang, Kim Tet Lee, Emma Tenn, and Ellen Lo. A favourable exchange rate, a sense of identity with their roots and a desire to contribute to the progress of China motivated many American-born Chinese to go to China.\n\nMy three years in China were interesting and enlightening, but one...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 } ]