[ { "id": 204338, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nORASHKB and author\n\n102\n\n: \n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nBesides the nine large monasteries and ten large nunneries in the Colony there are several other categories of institutions that are, in fact, far more numerous. In the urban areas, for example, there are small business establishments that go under the name of monasteries or nunneries, but are actually funeral specialists. They are summoned by the families of the deceased to perform the necessary rites at the coffin for one to seven days. They burn incense, offer sacrifices of food, read sutras, employ esoteric mantras and mudras, and (theoretically) concentrate their minds on the joint tasks of saving the soul from hell and saving the household from the soul (who may have become an unquiet ghost). Except for Christians and Muslims, most traditionally minded Chinese in Hong Kong consider that such funeral services are appropriate in the case of the death of one of their relatives, though many people, of course, die without the benefit of any funeral service at all, either because their families cannot afford it or do not care—or because they have no families. The funeral specialists wear monastic robes when \"on duty\", but they are not, in fact, ordained and they lead a secular life. Persons who have money or are strongly Buddhist usually prefer to have funeral services performed by monks from one of the Colony's monasteries, but this is more expensive: a donation of HK$30 a day for each monk is considered suitable. The funeral specialists only ask for a third as much. Usually theirs is a family business, handed down from father to son, in which perhaps half a dozen people participate—mostly members of the family. There are perhaps 15 to 20 such institutions in Hong Kong and Kowloon.\n\nAnother type of institution found in urban areas is the study centre, where services are held and instruction is offered to laymen by one or more ordained monks. Examples would be the To Ts'z Fat She30 in Kennedy Town and the Buddhist Lecture Hall of Abbot To Lun in Happy Valley (where greater emphasis is placed on contact with foreigners). Perhaps the best known is the Ching Kok Lotus AssociationEH, founded in 1950 by the Reverend Kok Kwong. It holds Pure Land services every Saturday, attended by about a hundred people, and occasional dharma meetings to receive instruction by eminent Buddhist teachers from Hong Kong and abroad. Kok Kwong, who is also one of the directors of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association (see below), has recently established a Buddhist monthly, Buddhism in Hong Kong, the first issue of which was dated June 1, 1960. It contains both doctrinal articles and items of local Buddhist news and history.\n\nMembers of the Sangha also operate two libraries. One is the Hong Kong Buddhist Library, Boundary Street, Kowloon, established in 1957. It has a collection of over 10,000 volumes", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204343, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n107\n\nV. WELFARE ACTIVITIES OF THE SANGHA\n\nGenerally speaking, the monasteries of the Colony do little in the way of public service, except in so far as a few of them provide food and, in some cases, accommodations for visitors (the most famous in this regard being the Po Lin Tsz near Lantao Peak). An increasingly active role in welfare work, however, is being played by the nunneries of Hong Kong.\n\nFirst mention should probably be given to the 30 nuns and 50 lay devotees of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen A, a Pure Land nunnery established by Lady Clara Ho Tung in 1935. Housed in a handsome set of buildings, it operates: (1) the Colony's only Buddhist \"seminary\" for nuns, which provides an eight-year course in Mahayana Buddhism; (2) a primary day school; (3) a primary night school; (4) the Po Kok Vocational Middle School; and (5) a branch primary school in Ping Shan F, New Territories. The total enrollment (all girls) at these various schools is 1,256,* ranging from 503 for the primary day school to 26 for the seminary. All the schools except the seminary receive a government subsidy, which according to the regulations of the Education Department means that they must charge the standard tuition fees of HK$50 a year at primary level and HK$320 at secondary level. Only 10 per cent of the enrollment in the case of a primary school, and 30 per cent in the case of a secondary school, may be free of tuition. The subsidy covers all operating expenses not covered by tuition, that is, about 80 per cent of gross expenditures for urban schools, and over 90 per cent for rural schools (where tuition is only HK$10 a year). The Education Department does not object to having the tuition partly or wholly donated by the school or its supporters. Thus, in effect, the tuition requirement is only for the purpose of computing the amount of the subsidy.\n\nIn the case of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, pupils all come from poor families and pay HK$20 a year at primary level and HK$40 a year at secondary (which means that most of their tuition is donated). About one-third of the operating expenses comes from gifts and the nunnery's general income on the real estate that forms its principal endowment. About two-thirds comes from a government subsidy.\n\nThe study of Buddhist sutras forms part of the curriculum for all pupils (other main subjects being Chinese, English, history, and mathematics, plus vocational training in the middle school). Pupils attend Buddhist services in rotation at least once a week; and before each year's graduation they all are given a lecture by a prominent dharma master. After graduation a small number\n\n* Here and below all school enrollment figures are as of June 30, 1960.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204353, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n117\n\nin favour of allowing the body to be removed in a coffin past their particular floor in a two or three-storeyed tenement building. Chinese coffins usually consist lengthwise of four sections of tree trunk and are therefore bulky, irrespective of whether the coffin is cheap or one of the expensive polished varieties. Manoeuvring these coffins up and down narrow tenement staircases, with inevitable banging against walls, might be likened to death tapping at the door: a harbinger of bad luck.\n\nTo meet this problem of removal from upper floors in the urban areas, it used to be the custom up till five or six years ago to construct a bamboo staging outside the building, so that the coffin could be taken out of the window and be brought down the staging to the hearse in the roadway. The custom has now almost entirely disappeared for a number of reasons, largely economic: new buildings have grown too high for stagings to reach most upper storeys; the cost of long bamboo from China has risen enormously as a result of its use for scaffolding in the current building boom; the practice of glassing-in verandahs and balconies has made windows too small for coffins to fit through; traffic congestion in the streets makes the authorities chary of allowing even more obstruction in the form of these stagings on roads and pavements. To take their place as a means of removing the body from the private premises, basket-woven containers or stretchers have come to be used, and they are far less expensive.\n\nIf an undertaker is engaged, he will prepare the body in the deceased's home, encoffin and remove it either direct to the cemetery or to a Government cemetery depot in Hong Kong or Kowloon, where it can be held overnight pending Government conveyance to a public cemetery. A farewell pavilion at each depot provides free facilities for the relatives to hold services of any denomination or to perform other last rites.\n\nIf a funeral parlour is engaged, the body is conveyed in the basket-woven container or stretcher to the parlour for preparation, encoffining and almost invariably a service. In a few cases, embalming is carried out but this is a refinement that seems to hold no particular significance, since burial takes place normally within the forty-eight hours allowed by law for the body to remain on the premises. In parts of China, it apparently used to be the custom to delay burial for periods of up to seven weeks. But the more tropical climate of Hong Kong and the ever-present risk of disease has made it necessary to insist on a forty-eight hours limit in funeral parlours.\n\nWhen encoffined in a funeral parlour, the body is placed in a farewell room where it is customary for the immediate relatives to maintain a vigil (overnight, if necessary) until the time comes for conveyance to a cemetery or crematorium. During the vigil and funeral, the close relatives (i.e. widow and widower, sons and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204368, "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": 136, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n132\n\nTANG Shiu Kin\n\nTHOMAS, L. F. - THOMPSON, R. W. TOPLEY, Dr. Marjorie TREGEAR, Miss M. TRISTRAM, Mrs. J. TRISTRAM, M. P. W.\n\n+\n\n+\n\n+\n\n+\n\n-\n\nTSEUNG, Dr. F. I. -\n\n+\n\n-\n\nT\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nThe Kowloon Motor Bus Co., Ltd., 505 Pedder Building, H.K.\n\n56 Conduit Road, Flat 103, H.K.\n\nDept. of Modern Languages, H.K.U.\n\n6 Peak Mansions, H.K.\n\nH.K.U.\n\nP.O. Box 845, H.K.\n\nRating & Valuation Dept., Man Yee Building, 9th fl., Des Voeux Road C., H.K. China Building, 4th f., H.K.\n\nTURNER, The Hon. M. W. H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K.\n\nVETCH, H.\n\nVETCH, Mrs. H.\n\nVIO, Dr. E. G. -\n\nWALDEN, J. C, C, -\n\nWALTON, A. St. G.\n\nWARD, Miss J.-\n\n+\n\n+\n\nWARD-MORRIS, Mrs. B.\n\nWATSON, K. A.\n\nWEI, Dr. Tat.\n\nWEISS, K.- WELCH, H. H. WONG, Dr. Man WONG Pao Hsie\n\nWONG Po Shang\n\nWOO, Dr. Arthur W.. WOO, Dr. Pak Foo WRIGHT, D. A. L. WILSON, B. D. -\n\nYAO Pe Chun\n\nYAO Hsin Nung\n\n+\n\n-\n\nHong Kong University Press, H.K.\n\nHong Kong University Press, H.K.\n\n315 H.K. & Shanghai Bank Building, H.K.\n\nEstablishment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, H.K.\n\nEstablishment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, H.K.\n\n35 Chater Hall, Conduit Road, H.K,\n\n18 Hillgate Place, London, W.8.\n\nLammert Bros., Pedder Building, H.K.\n\nH.K. Anti-Tuberculosis Assn., Queen's Rd. E., H.K.\n\nP.O. Box 718, H.K.\n\nShatin, N.T.\n\nRoom 108, China Building, H.K.\n\nButterfield & Swire, H.K.\n\nB-5 Wah Kiu Mansion, 1st fl., 80 Taipo Rd., Kln.\n\nWoo Clinic, Edinburgh House, 1st fl., H.K. 204 China Building, H.K.\n\nHong Kong Club, H.K.\n\nUrban Services Dept., Secretariat Building, West Wing, H.K.\n\n18, Monmouth Terrace, 3rd f., Kennedy Road, H.K.\n\n1 Dorset Crescent, Kowloon Tong, Kln. Mental Hospital, High Street, H.K,\n\nYAP, Dr. Pon Meng YUEN, Miss I.\n\n-\n\n4 Radio Hong Kong.\n\nZIGAL, Mrs. I. -\n\n-\n\n12 Bowen Road, H.K.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204517, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "134\n\nWEISS, Karel -\n\nWELCH, H. H.\n\nWILSON, B. D. -\n\nWONG, Dr. Man\n\nWONG, Pao-hsie -\n\n-\n\nWONG, Prof. Po-shang\n\nWOO, Dr. Arthur W. -\n\nWOO, Dr. Pak-foo\n\nWRIGHT, D. A. L.\n\nYAO, Pe-chun\n\nYAP, Dr. Pow-meng\n\nYEUNG, Walter\n\nYU, Ping-kuen\n\nZIGAL, Mrs. Irene -\n\nP. O. Box 718, Hong Kong.\n\nThe Pink House, B-9, Shatin Heights, New Territories.\n\nUrban Services Dept., Secretariat Bldg., H.K.\n\nRoom 108, China Building, Hong Kong.\n\nMessrs. Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K.\n\nB-5 Wah Kiu Mansion, 1/F, 80 Tai Po Road, Kowloon.\n\nWoo Clinic, Edinburgh House, 1/F., H.K.\n\n204 China Building, Hong Kong.\n\nHong Kong Club, Hong Kong.\n\nI. L. 7635 Cooper Road, Block 2, East 2/F,, Jardine's Lookout, Causeway Bay, H.K.\n\nMental Hospital, Hong Kong.\n\nSecretariat for Chinese Affairs, Fire Brigade Bldg., Hong Kong.\n\nDept. of Chinese, H.K.U.\n\n12, Bowen Road, Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205024, "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": 132, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n123\n\nhappened recently at Tong Fuk on Lantau Island, a multi-clan Cantonese village with a population of 198 at the Hong Kong Census of 1911. Its present population is about the same number. In 1958 the scheme to build a new reservoir at Shek Pik was confirmed and work went ahead on the dam and associated works. Behind Tong Fuk there were to be catchwaters for which an access road had to be constructed to the west of the village. This led to difficulties with the villagers, because in feng shui ideology the place was held to be the seat of the White Tiger. They therefore requested a ceremony known locally as a tun fu (符) — to propitiate the gods and spirits who would, as they thought, be aroused by digging earth and blasting stones in this particular place.\n\nPrecedents were cited by the village elders. They said they had carried out such a ceremony thirty-five years before, following several unexpected deaths in the village. The inhabitants had worshipped at the Hung Shing (廟) temple on the beach nearby, praying for the removal of the malignant influence. It transpired that a villager had cut stone from this particular spot to build a house. The elders then invited a Taoist priest — a Hakka — to come from one of the neighbouring villages to carry out the propitiatory observances usually made under such circumstances. They also said that a similar ceremony had also been conducted twenty years before in the adjoining Cantonese village of Shui Hau, this time by a priest engaged from the urban area. Deaths had also occurred there and had been traced to one of the villagers having constructed a cowshed in front of his house on ground with feng shui properties.\n\nReturning to the 1958 case, the elders proposed to call in the services of the nephew of the priest who had supervised the ceremony thirty-five years before. He was a man of forty years of age who had followed in his uncle's footsteps. Such persons are known locally as feng shui hsien sheng (風水先生).\n\nThis ceremony was supposed to cause considerable inconvenience for the villagers, in theory if not in practice. One week of vegetable diet was obligatory for all and there was also a three-day prohibition on entering and leaving the village: that is, if the ceremony was to realize its full value. This meant that no cows could be grazed or grass or firewood cut on the hills; nor, presumably, could men go out to work in the fields.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205248, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "and in the Colonial Office in London. Mr. Endacott's History of Hong Kong (1958) has already indicated what sort of material is available to form the necessary background to new studies in urban history and sociology.\n\nWe hope, then, that this Journal will receive contributions in this neglected field and that, in particular, it will benefit from the new project in urban studies, now being initiated by Dr. Alan Birch of the History Department at the University of Hong Kong. We hope, too, that some of the material being obtained from the Urban Family Life Study commissioned by the Hong Kong Government and now in progress under the direction of Dr. Robert Mitchell from the University of California, Berkeley, may appear in its pages. As a Hong Kong publication the Journal must play its part in encouraging and making available some of this basic information.\n\nMeantime we have not made much progress with the ethnographic aspects stressed by the Hon. Editor in 1962. Unfortunately, pure ethnography is rather neglected by scholars nowadays and, probably for this reason, less progress has been made in this field, though the curator of the City Hall Museum and Art Gallery, with the help of the New Territories Administration and others, has begun collecting items of interest, with a view to forming a local collection. Members were fortunate recently in hearing a lecture from Mr. Alan L. Kagan on the Cantonese Puppet Theatre in Hong Kong. It is hoped to include this article in the 1968 Journal. Mr. Kagan's assessment has reinforced Mr. Cranmer-Byng's remark five years ago that time is indeed short. Whereas there are only two part-time puppet troupes operating in present-day Hong Kong, there were more full-time operators twenty years ago, when a smaller, poorer, less-sophisticated and less westernised population supported this type of entertainment enthusiastically and business was good, their services being in demand all over the territory. The Editorial Committee welcomes articles of this sort and would be glad to have more of them from interested persons.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205679, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "216 \n\nTARR, A. D. - \n\nTHOMAS, L. F. \n\nTHOMAS, Dr. O. L. \n\n- \n\nTHOMAS, T. H. \n\nTHORN, Mrs. R. \n\n+ \n\nTHROWER, Prof. L. B. - TILL, The Very Rev. B.* \n\n+ \n\nTISDALL, B. \n\nTOLMAN, Norman H. \n\nTOOGOOD, C. W. - \n\nTOPLEY, Dr. Marjorie TORRIBLE, G. R.* \n\nTOWNER, J. A. \n\nTRISTRAM, M. P. W. \n\nTSEUNG, Dr. F. I. TURNER, Sir Michael* \n\nTYLER, Mrs. M. R. \n\n+ \n\n- \n\n- \n\nP \n\n- \n\nFlat 202, Balmacara, 17 Old Peak Road, H.K. \n\nc/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, H.K. \n\nFlat 5, \"Cliffside\", King's Park Rise, Kowloon, \n\nc/o The British Council, Gloucester Building, H.K. \n\n14D, Headland Road, Hong Kong. \n\n6-B, Alberose, 134 Pokfulum Road, H.K. c/o Morley College, 61 Westminster Bridge Road, London S.E.1., England, \n\n1 Garden Terrace, G/F, H.K. \n\nCultural Office, U.S. Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. \n\nc/o Oxford University Press, 5th floor, News Building, 633 King's Road, H.K. 19, Peak Mansions, The Peak, H.K. \n\nc/o The Hong Kong Club, H.K. \n\n57 Buxey Lodge, 37 Conduit Road, H.K. \n\nRating & Valuation Dept., Murray House, Garden Road, H.K. \n\nChina Building, 4th floor, H.K. \n\n\"Whispers\", Riversdale, Bourne End, Bucks, England. \n\n402 Tregunter Mansions, Old Peak Road, H.K. \n\nUHALLEY, Dr. Stephen, Jr. Department of Oriental Studies, University \n\nVETCH, H. \n\nVETCH, Mrs. H. \n\n+ \n\nVIO, Dr. E. G. VISICK, Mrs. M. WALDEN, J. C. C. \n\n+ \n\nWARD, Miss J. E. A.* \n\nWARRINGTON-STRONG, Cmdr. F. \n\nWATSON, Hon. K. A. WATERS, D. D. WEBB-JOHNSON, S. A. WEI, Dr. Tat \n\nof Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, U.S.A. Hong Kong Univ. Press, The University, H.K. \n\nAs above, \n\n315, H.K. & Shanghai Bank Building, H.K. Dept. of English, The University, H.K. c/o Urban Services Dept., Central Govt. Offices, (West Wing), H.K. \n\nc/o National Provincial Bank Ltd., Bideford, N. Devon, England. \n\nc/o Registry of Persons Office, Causeway Bay Magistracy, H.K. \n\nc/o Lammert Bros., Pedder Building, H.K. Technical College, Hung Hom, Kowloon. 46 King's Park Flats, Kowloon, \n\n3. Fontana Gardens, 5th Floor, Causeway Hill, H.K. \n\n*Life Member \n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206116, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "190\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nin the sun, then assorted, and the whitest selected for fine cloth. A partial bleaching is effected on the fibres before they undergo further division, sometimes by boiling, and at others by pounding on a plank with a mallet. When the cloth is finished it undergoes a process of glazing, which is done by a rude machine most effectually. A sort of bed or tray is laid down firmly in the ground, the inside curved or scalloped, and made very smooth. Upon this the cloth is carefully spread; a small cylinder is laid above, and upon that a stone with a smooth face, having the ends turned upwards. A man mounts this stone, and places one foot on each end, giving it a see-saw motion working the cylinder backwards and forwards with great power, and imparting a fine glaze to the cloth, equal to hot-pressing in European factories.\n\nIt is not known to what part of China this description refers. For details of the plant species and practice in West China and Chekiang see A. Hosie, Three years in West China (London, George Philip and son, 2nd Edn., 1897) pp. 73-74.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nCOACH TOUR OF EASTERN HONG KONG ISLAND\n\n18TH OCTOBER, 1969\n\nColonial Cemetery, Happy Valley\n\nThis is the oldest of the several old cemeteries at Happy Valley. It was opened on 1st February, 1844, covers 23.75 acres and contains 11,680 graves.* There are many old graves and monuments dating from the mid-19th century, some of them scarcely legible. Military and naval graves and monuments, some of them very large, are much in evidence. They record the deaths of officers and men while stationed in Hong Kong or in Far Eastern waters, and on active service during the China Wars of 1856-1860. Unfortunately, there is no register of prominent burials for easy reference, so we shall just have to look around.\n\n* Information provided by the Urban Services Department.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206117, "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": 197, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "190\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nin the sun, then assorted, and the whitest selected for fine cloth. A partial bleaching is effected on the fibres before they undergo further division, sometimes by boiling, and at others by pounding on a plank with a mallet. When the cloth is finished it undergoes a process of glazing, which is done by a rude machine most effectually. A sort of bed or tray is laid down firmly in the ground, the inside curved or scalloped, and made very smooth. Upon this the cloth is carefully spread; a small cylinder is laid above, and upon that a stone with a smooth face, having the ends turned upwards. A man mounts this stone, and places one foot on each end, giving it a see-saw motion working the cylinder backwards and forwards with great power, and imparting a fine glaze to the cloth, equal to hot-pressing in European factories.\n\nIt is not known to what part of China this description refers. For details of the plant species and practice in West China and Chekiang see A. Hosie, Three years in West China (London, George Philip and son, 2nd Edn., 1897) pp. 73-74.\n\nHong Kong, 1970.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nCOACH TOUR OF EASTERN HONG KONG ISLAND\n\n18TH OCTOBER, 1969\n\nColonial Cemetery, Happy Valley\n\nThis is the oldest of the several old cemeteries at Happy Valley. It was opened on 1st February, 1844, covers 23.75 acres and contains 11,680 graves.* There are many old graves and monuments dating from the mid-19th century, some of them scarcely legible. Military and naval graves and monuments, some of them very large, are much in evidence. They record the deaths of officers and men while stationed in Hong Kong or in Far Eastern waters, and on active service during the China Wars of 1856-1860. Unfortunately, there is no register of prominent burials for easy reference, so we shall just have to look around.\n\n* Information provided by the Urban Services Department.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206119, "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": 199, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "192\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\neleven players representing China at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 were Tai Hang men, including the team captain.\n\nNear Tai Hang is the Lin Fa Kung (E), a temple of unusual shape which is unique in Hong Kong and the New Territories. This temple, formerly like Tai Hang situated on the seashore, is over one hundred years old in its present form.\n\nThe construction date over the entrance is the mid winter months of the second year of the Tung Chi reign i.e. 11 December 1863-8 January 1864.\n\nOld Main Street, Shau Kei Wan (*****)\n\nFor this section of the visit a shortened version of the extended programme notes now at pp. 183-188 was provided. It is not repeated here.\n\nChai Wan Military Cemetery\n\nOpened in 1947, this cemetery, which is managed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, contains 1,558 graves, mainly those of officers and men killed during the Defence of Hong Kong against the Japanese in 1941.* Set high on a once remote hillside in rural surroundings, it now overlooks a heavily populated resettlement estate and industrial area. Nearby is the New Military Cemetery and the Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Cape Collinson, with its 8,027 graves set in 20.5 acres of hillside administered by a Board of Management: also the new Crematorium.\n\nStanley Fort\n\nThis peninsula was set aside for military use in the 1930s and the barracks date from then. The parade ground was formerly the site of the village of Wong Ma Kok (⇓⇓) from which the peninsula takes its Chinese name. The inhabitants were removed to Stanley Village where a row of red-brick houses (still standing) was built for them by the Hong Kong Government. This village was the scene of the spectacular murder of two British officers in 1849 (see John Luff's book The Hong Kong Story (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, 1959) chapter 8).\n\n* Information provided by the Urban Services Department,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206253, "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": 70, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "64\n\nALINE K. WONG\n\nThe demands of economic and social survival have driven the Chinese together into tightly-knit communities. To the economic interests of the associations are added the ties of clanship. It is common to find several major clan groups dominating a single district or dialect association. At the same time, the tradition of mutual aid that prevails among the Southern Chinese ethnic groups is carried abroad in the overseas Chinese communities, although many of the rural forms of mutual help and cooperation can no longer apply to the new and largely urban conditions. This has been necessary because in most places, the Chinese people are given no special help from the local government and are not provided with welfare services particularly suited to immigrants, such as accommodation, job information and recreational facilities.\n\nThe political function of the voluntary associations has also evolved from the peculiar political situation in which the Chinese people find themselves. In most of the societies in Southeast Asia to which the Chinese have migrated, particularly the countries which were under colonial rule, the governments have traditionally treated the Chinese people as more or less self-contained, integrated and separate communities. In many places, the Chinese have lived under a formalized system of \"indirect rule\", in which Chinese leaders were appointed officially by the authorities as \"kapitans\" or leaders and spokesmen for Chinese interests. These \"kapitans\" were also responsible for communicating official policies to the Chinese. These communal leaders were simultaneously the heads of the predominant voluntary associations. They were often people of considerable wealth and recognized social standing in both the Chinese and host societies. They were very close to the official élite, being usually fluent in the official language and conversant with the culture of the ruling class. In their position, they could effectively act as intermediaries between the authorities and the Chinese.\n\nThe Chinese overseas communities have established themselves as tightly-knit ethnic communities. Their members share a common cultural tradition, similar ethnic origins, mutual clanship bonds, and speak the same dialects. Their associational networks have further bound them together through the numerous services they provide. All organizations provide mutual assistance among the Chinese and in so doing weld the diverse social,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206256, "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": 73, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS\n\n67\n\nthat associations have come to play an important role, as they do in the overseas Chinese communities. It seems that wherever there are Chinese people, there are typical Chinese social institutions, serving what we may call \"traditional\" social functions.\n\nIn Hong Kong, there is a network of social institutions very similar to that which obtains among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. There are chambers of commerce or merchants' associations, district and clan organizations, trade unions, religious and recreational associations, secret societies, etc. They provide roughly the same kinds of services as their counterparts overseas. In this part of the paper, I shall discuss a particular kind of local institution called the Kaifong Associations. Their roles in local community life are very similar to those performed by the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities. By comparing the Kaifongs and these overseas associations, we have a very good illustration of how traditional associations adjust to modern urban conditions, how they are carried along the currents of social change, and how they take part in the promotion of social change itself.\n\nThe word \"kaifong\" means a \"street neighbourhood\", and a Kaifong Association means the voluntary organization of the residents of a certain district. As local residents' associations, the Kaifongs have existed in Hong Kong since the mid 19th century. But strictly speaking, the modern Kaifongs are a post-war creation, adapted to the social situation in Hong Kong in the early 1950s. After the Japanese Occupation, there followed an intense period of reconstruction. The government's attention was claimed in many different directions. Thus it had to rely heavily on voluntary agencies for the organization of welfare. Under the direct encouragement of the Social Welfare Officer, the first modern Kaifong came into being in 1949.12 The number of Kaifongs grew rapidly to over 30 by the mid-1950s, and after a period of stability, jumped to over 50 after the mid-60s. Today, every urban district is served by a Kaifong association, and many of the new resettlement estates also have their own Kaifongs. The Kaifongs are voluntary organizations. The government does not directly supervise their affairs, although it keeps in close contact\n\n12 Hong Kong Annual Departmental Report by the Social Welfare Officer for the Period 1948-54.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206257, "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": 74, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "68\n\nALINE K. WONG\n\nwith their leaders. Among the Kaifongs themselves, a Joint Kaifong Research Council and, since 1968 a second federation, the Council of Hong Kong and Kowloon Kaifong Associations serve as co-ordinating bodies. Today, there are 54 Kaifongs, claiming a total membership of over 850,000 people.\n\nThe Kaifong associations of Hong Kong are traditional Chinese organizations, whose roles are very similar to the overseas Chinese institutions. The welfare functions of the Kaifongs are comparable to the welfare functions of the district and dialect associations. They form some sort of social security system in places where the government does not always provide such a service for the Hong Kong residents. Thus they give out relief, render medical services, open Chinese language schools and offer death and burial benefits. They encourage mutual-aid and friendliness. Like the district and dialect associations in the overseas Chinese communities, the Kaifongs are community-wide associations. However, the membership of the Kaifongs is neither based on ethnic grouping, nor on dialect grouping. Rather, Kaifong membership is based on the place of residence.\n\nThough the Chinese population is not a numerical minority in Hong Kong, the Chinese here are a minority in the social and political sense. They do not have direct representation in the Legislative and Executive Councils. Elected representatives only sit on the Urban Council, the municipal body which takes charge of civic amenities, public health and environmental sanitation. Socially and economically most Chinese stand at a number of disadvantages when compared to the European élite. Although there is no system of indirect rule in urban Hong Kong, the Kaifongs act as one of the principal intermediaries between the authorities and the people. The Kaifong leaders, being community \"notables\", are very appropriate intermediaries between the Government and the general public. They also act as arbiters of disputes. By tradition, the Chinese are adverse to approaching Government officials directly or going to law for the settlement of disputes. They prefer mediation by a third party. The Kaifongs thus resemble the district and dialect associations in overseas Chinese communities as far as their political functions are concerned.\n\nBig benefactors and leaders of community organizations are", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206259, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "70\n\nALINE K. WONG\n\nthe changing urban conditions in Hong Kong and in response to altered Government policies. Much of the earlier efforts of the Kaifongs were directed toward charity and relief and toward general cultural-recreational activities. In recent years, many Kaifongs have changed their attention in two directions: firstly, from passive welfare work to active community development; secondly, from information transmission to more active promotion of government policies. The trends in the development of different types of Kaifong activities since 1949 show that while the traditional welfare work of the Kaifongs (including the giving of regular and emergency relief, medical services, free education, free burial and funeral services) has remained static or even has begun to decline, the organization of women and youth in both recreational and educational activities, and the organization of community campaigns, etc. have developed rapidly since the early 1960s. Furthermore, the rapidly increasing volume of Kaifong petitions to the Government in the past seven years or so also points to the growing significance of the Kaifongs' political function.\n\nIn general, these changes in Kaifong functions can be attributed to two related causes: a) the financial difficulties of the Kaifongs, and b) the influence of Government policy. As community organisations the Kaifongs do not obtain any financial support from the government. In the early days, most of the Kaifongs derived their income from membership subscriptions and from private donations from their leaders and others. These form the two main sources for their income. Emergency operations such as relief after floods and fires were mostly financed by special fund-raising drives. While membership subscriptions are a constant source of income, private donations are not a dependable source. And as Kaifong membership grows, and as the demands for welfare services rise with the increase in urban population, the task of running the associations becomes more and more complicated. Structurally speaking, the Kaifongs become more complex and functionally more diverse. But as the Kaifongs have always operated on small or medium-sized budgets, the large part of which are devoted to meeting regular running and depreciation costs, what is left is only enough for small operations of various sorts. On the other hand, the Kaifong leaders are only amateurs in organizational management, besides", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206261, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "72\n\nALINE K. WONG\n\n1967 Riots, the Kaifongs have increasingly made recommendations to the Government either as individual bodies or through the Research Council and the new Federation. They have increasingly helped to form public opinion with regard to policy issues. However, the new role of the Kaifongs must be attributed partly to the changed policy of the Government in paying more heed to public expression on policy issues since the early 1960s. The Kaifongs have taken advantage of the new situation to present their views on various economic and social measures. Recently, the Government has solicited their opinions in particular, since the Kaifongs came to play a very important role in rallying popular support for the Government during the Communist-inspired 1967 riots,\n\nTo conclude, the work of the Kaifongs is not only dictated by their own financial needs, but is also influenced to a significant degree by the welfare and social policies of the Government. The case of the Kaifongs serves as an illustration of the need of traditional institutions to adapt to the demands of rapidly changing urban conditions. Although the Chinese community in Hong Kong is not a close ethnic community like the Chinese communities overseas, yet the Chinese culture predominates over the social life of the local population. And even though the Kaifongs are by no means the main prop to the traditional culture, yet they represent the cultural forces still working for a great majority of the people. But similar to the Chinese institutions overseas, they are not immune from the processes of social change in such a dynamic society as Hong Kong. However, they are not well equipped to cope with them. Change is not easy, given the traditional structure of the Kaifongs, their traditional leadership and traditional policy outlook, they can no longer meet the modern demands for professional and specialized social services. In spite of the fact that they are making efforts along the direction of community development, lacking the professionally-qualified staff, they are unlikely to make great successes. Thus, as the Government is taking over more and more responsibility for social welfare, the Kaifongs' traditional welfare functions are decreasing in importance. However, so long as the political makeup of the Colony stays relatively unchanged, the status-conferring function of the Kaifong associations is likely to remain, since wealth is likely to continue being converted into status rather than power.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206547, "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": 95, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF\n\nHOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nIntroduction\n\nThe pattern of residential development in Hong Kong today is the cumulative result of historical forces which began to exert their influence almost from the time when the colony came under British jurisdiction in 1842. It is therefore towards an appreciation of the current housing situation that this study outlines Hong Kong's efforts to provide homes for its people over the past 130 years. In tracing the course of history in this particular field it will be found that the dreadful living conditions which persisted in many districts in the last century, and even in more recent years, have been the combined result of an overwhelming demand for and critical shortage of accommodation; the general poverty of the population; the inadequacy of utility services; the exploitation of families desperate for a roof over their heads; and the difficulty of enforcing (and sometimes the lack of) suitable regulations governing standards of building construction, the provision of household facilities and overcrowding. However, on the basis of recent achievements the future seems much brighter.\n\nFounding of the Colony\n\nThe sea routes between Europe and China, first established by the Arabs in the 7th Century A.D., were reopened in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese who settled in Macau in 1557. Spanish, Dutch, English and French traders soon followed but during the eighteenth century the British merchants captured most of the China trade which comprised mainly exports of tea and silk. The East India Company initially held the monopoly of trade and Canton became the centre of business for the British merchants.\n\n*Dr. E. G. Pryor is Senior Planning Officer in the New Territories Planning Section, Crown Lands & Survey Office, Hong Kong. This monograph has been extracted largely from his Ph.D thesis, \"An Assessment of the Need and Scope for Urban Renewal in Hong Kong.\" The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Government of Hong Kong. Author's copyright.\n\nPlates 8-12 illustrate this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206550, "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": 98, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "92\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nwith the law particularly, also, as the government lacked sufficient staff of adequate competence.\n\nThis situation became a source of some concern to Dr. Murray, the Colonial Surgeon, who in 1859 reported that:\n\nHong Kong presents no feature either in climate or position which should make it peculiarly unhealthy. Because of its situation, its natural advantages and its weather, Hong Kong should be the best drained, the best watered, and in every way, the best regulated of towns from a sanitary point of view.... Ordinance No. 8 of 1856 makes it unlawful to construct or reconstruct a house without a sufficient water closet and ashpit to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General. Houses recently built have been allowed to be erected without the slightest regard to any one of these particulars. The fact is there is legal machinery enough to enforce any and every reasonable requirement and to ensure the sanitary condition of the Colony but there exists an unaccountable objection to putting that machinery into action.\n\nIn 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula up to Boundary Street came under British sovereignty under the Convention of Peking (Figure 1) and this provided more room for urban growth which the prospering trade of the port had stimulated. Yet more Chinese came from the Mainland to seek employment in Hong Kong and, after a few years, to return to their families. Despite the continual outflow of people, the newcomers arrived in such numbers that by 1865 the population had increased to some 125,500 persons of whom 63% were adult males, which reflected the \"frontier\" character of the Colony. Demand for accommodation became more acute and, in the continued absence of the adequate enforcement of building regulations and the general lack of satisfactory water supplies and other public utility services, the general sanitary condition of the Colony became the cause of some concern particularly to Dr. Murray who, during his term of office from 1858 to 1872, repeatedly drew attention to the exceedingly unhealthy state of Hong Kong.\n\nMcCoy took over as Colonial Surgeon in 1872 but died soon after, and his place was filled by Dr. Phineas Ayres in November 1873. Ayres was outspoken over the state of the Colony's public\n\n1 Quoted in Wellington A. R., Public Health in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1930, p. 13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206552, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1972", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "94\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nThe Governor was favourably inclined to the petition but at the same time wished to \"save face\" for his Surveyor General. He thus expressed the view that he \"... would be glad to learn that the memorialists could see their way to conforming to the essentially Chinese style of dwelling . . . and which, while economising space to the utmost, admits of a certain amount of light and ventilation through the small square spaces left at the back, called smoke holes.\"4\n\nIt is worth taking some note of the contents of the petitioners' statement, particularly in respect of the \"deep rooted\" living habits of the Chinese and the limited capacity of the tenants to pay rent as both these issues emerge in subsequent chapters of Hong Kong's history.\n\nBy 1876 the population of Hong Kong had increased to over 139,000 of whom 93.5% were Chinese. Steady growth occurred over the next five years so that by the time of the 1881 census 160,400 persons were resident in the Colony, representing an increase of 15.3%. It is relevant to note at this juncture that over the period under review (1841-1881) development was heavily concentrated along the western part of the northern coast of Hong Kong Island and that, in view of the steep terrain, a series of reclamations had to be formed to provide room for new urban growth (Figure 2). The expense and difficulty of creating building sites consequently placed a high premium on land and this, in turn, provided developers with a good reason to justify the fullest exploitation of their properties.\n\nThe Chadwick Report\n\nAfter some 40 years of growth and general neglect over both the enforcement of building and health regulations and the provision of sanitary services, the condition of the city by 1881 was extremely bad. The British Government therefore sought the services of a sanitary engineer, Osbert Chadwick, who presented a report in 1882 giving his assessment of the situation in Hong Kong. Chadwick's report provides some most interesting information which is worth considering in depth in view of events in subsequent years.\n\n4 Ibid., p. 372.\n\n5\n\n5 Chadwick O., Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1882.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206566, "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": 114, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "108\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nreduce overcrowding it was essential to provide more and better designed houses, to decentralise the population into new self-contained communities and to reduce building density. The commission also recommended the setting up of a permanent town planning and housing committee and the provision of more public parks. It made the further suggestions that the provision of adequate housing for the poorer classes should not be left to private enterprise without assistance and that consideration should be given to the financing of slum clearance and subsidised housing by means of a special tax, loan or issue of housing shares.\n\nThe tide of events again overwhelmed any intentions the government had for implementing the findings of the commission for in 1937 the Japanese declared war against China and this brought 750,000 refugees into the Colony. However, a Town Planning Ordinance was passed in 1939 to provide for the layout of new urban areas and the replanning of districts already developed although nothing was immediately achieved under this Ordinance as the Colony was engulfed in December 1940 by the Japanese conquest of South-East Asia.\n\nThe Past Meets the Present: 1945-1971\n\nThere was considerable damage to property during the war and a survey carried out in 1946 showed that almost 8,700 domestic units had been destroyed and some 10,300 damaged.23 The number of persons displaced as a result totalled 161,000 of whom 154,000 were Chinese.\n\nAlthough the population of the Colony had been reduced to 600,000 persons by 1945 as a result of Japanese deportations and voluntary movements back to China, large numbers of displaced people came back with the return of peace so that by 1947 there were some 1.8 million persons in Hong Kong. It is not hard to imagine the circumstances under which most families had to live in view of the depleted stock of housing and the limited availability of public services during the immediate post-war years.\n\nThe housing problem became even worse as a consequence of the establishment of the People's Republic in China during 1948-49 which motivated yet more refugees to seek shelter in the Colony.\n\n23 Building Reconstruction Advisory Committee, Final Report, Hong Kong, 1946, Appendix 2, p. 13.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206569, "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": 117, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n111\n\nother parts of the Colony, excluding marine districts, there were a further 48,000 households (200,000 persons) that were also without proper accommodation (Figure 4). Thus, for the Colony as a whole satisfactory accommodation was lacking for 533,000 households containing 2.2 million persons.\n\nIn the realisation that stimulus had to be given to the greater participation by private enterprise in the field of housing, the Buildings Ordinance of 1935 was radically changed in 1956 to permit a very much higher intensity of land use. This resulted in a moderate surge of development which reached a peak in 1959 when some 12,000 private domestic units were built (Figure 5); saturation of market demand thereafter caused a decline in building activity until 1961.\n\nThe high intensity of development brought about by the relaxation of building volume controls, together with high residential occupancy rates, imposed severe strains on the urban transportation system, created considerable problems in the reprovisioning of utility services and also added to the congestion of areas which were already deficient in open spaces and community facilities. It was consequently found necessary to scale down the permitted intensity of development, and in 1962 new regulations were introduced for this purpose. These regulations became effective in 1966 and provide for a sliding scale for plot ratios and site coverage depending on the height and type of building.\n\nDuring the \"period of grace\" between 1962 and 1966 there was an unprecedented wave of private residential development, most of which was concentrated in the old inner suburbs where the already impoverished urban environment became over-saturated with the resultant intensification of the multifarious forms of human activity. Thus, within the space of only 10 years the urban form of Hong Kong underwent a transformation, as a result of which multi-storey buildings of up to 20 storeys and more became the dominant characteristic of the city which before 1956 was typified by four and five storey buildings. The effect of the 1962-1966 building boom was that the housing market became over-saturated, so that by 1966 there were 18,000 vacant domestic units in the private sector. The over-supply of residential accommodation and a bank crisis in 1965 caused a retraction of investment in private housing which lasted until 1970.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206573, "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": 121, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n115\n\nand Kowloon, government housing is found predominantly in the outer districts of Hong Kong Island South, New Kowloon and Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung (Figure 8 and Table 3).\n\nThe concentration of private housing in the inner districts has been due to a number of factors including the better prospects for the letting or selling of accommodation in localities which are already provided with various services and community facilities. In addition, the established interests of property owners have favoured redevelopment rather than investment in newly developing peripheral areas where large capital outlay is required for both the acquisition of land, and the construction of buildings. Family ties within the main urban areas and reluctance to change jobs have also probably reinforced the inertia of households to decentralise. By comparison, government housing estates have necessitated the development of large areas which, generally, have been available only in the outer districts.\n\nThere is thus a tendency for the peripheral development areas to become \"one class\" towns comprised mainly of lower income groups. Sociological studies indicate that this can result in a lack of community leaders and thus inhibit the formation of a cohesive neighbourhood structure.26 Nevertheless, this problem is not insurmountable as various administrative and fiscal measures could be applied to encourage the decentralisation of private housing and, conversely, to discourage excessive investment in the central districts.\n\nLooking Ahead\n\nThere is no doubt that over the past 130 years Hong Kong has faced many difficult problems in its endeavour to provide housing for its people. Often, these problems have been compounded by other difficulties, such as typhoons, droughts and floods, which have placed severe strains on the resources of private developers and, lately, of the administration. Many of the factors which have contributed to Hong Kong's housing difficulties are still much in evidence but, with the increasing participation of government and\n\n26 Mitchell R. E., Levels of Emotional Strain in S.E. Asian Cities—A Study of Individual Responses to the Stresses of Urbanisation and Industrialisation, Volume II A Project of the Urban Family Life Survey, Hong Kong, 1969, p. 434.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207143, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 214, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "208 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nwas bought by the Church and a large number of houses were built for the poor. In 1849, the Roman Catholics acquired land next to the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley and ceased burying in the old cemetery, though headstones remained scattered about for a long time. \n\nAnother Roman Catholic institution was located south of Queen's Road on the waterfront between what is the present Anton Street and Li Chit Street. Here the French Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1848, built an orphanage called the Asile des Sainte Enfance. \n\nIn 1845, two Americans, Charles Emery and George Frazer, moved their ship-building yard from Kowloon Point to a lot east of the French Orphanage. The yard passed through a succession of owners. In 1880 George Fenwick came into possession. He gave his name to the present Fenwick Street. In 1871 the Hong Kong Pier and Godown Company was launched to develop extensive wharfing and storage facilities. It occupied the land between the Orphanage and the shipyard. The present Gresson Street intersects the original property. The venture was not a success and the Company went into liquidation in 1873. In 1876 several Europeans financed by Chinese capital built the Oriental Sugar Refinery on property now defined by Swatow and Amoy Streets. It also soon failed and passed into receivership. Eventually, it was taken over by Jardine, Matheson and Company and was merged with their China Sugar Refining plant at East Point. \n\nThe first Protestant Chapel in the area was built in 1863 on Wan Chai Road by the London Missionary Society. A school was also opened, supported by Chinese subscriptions. The present Ying-Wa Girls School had its origins in the Wanchai Girls' Boarding School of the London Missionary Society opened in 1888. The Wanchai Chinese Methodist Church on the triangle of Hennessy Road, Fenwick Street, and Queen's Road East was occupied in 1936. \n\nThe Urban Services Office, where we are having tea, and the Wanchai Post Office next to it, are located on a lot which was sold to the first American resident of Hong Kong, Charles V. Gillespie. Here, in the spring of 1842, he built a substantial brick house of six rooms surrounded by a verandah at a cost of about $2,800. It was called “Jorrock's Hall” (sic) and was located on Inland Lot 14. The adjoining Lot No. 15 was also owned by Gillespie. He sold it", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207273, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 41, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA\n\n33\n\nbuffeted the Chinese state, the need for social services grew rapidly. In the urban areas, merchants organised themselves in new groups with the specific purpose of offering relief and good works. The new organisation was known as a shan-tang charitable hall or hospital. These charitable halls became popular first in the area around Shanghai, where a large number of them were founded during the 1850's and 1860's. From about 1870, they were imitated in Canton and Hong Kong.\n\nAccording to the nineteenth century scholar-official, Feng Kuei-fen, the concept of charitable halls as permanent establishments of private social welfare dated back to the Shang and Chou dynasties.13 Until the mid-nineteenth century, only Shanghai had a few in existence. One traced its origin to 1374 while another, a centre catering to orphaned children, dated back to 1710.14 In Canton there was no charitable hall until 1870, when the Ai-yü shan-t'ang was established by a group of merchants. Its prospectus specifically stated that it was modelled after P'u-yü of Shanghai.15 At about the same time, merchants in Hong Kong, with the local government support, initiated a hospital, the Tung Wah Hospital, to offer Chinese style medical treatment to the poor. Its services were later expanded into famine relief and it became the major centre receiving contributions from overseas Chinese.\n\nBy 1900, eight more charitable halls were built in Canton to form the \"Nine Great Charitable Halls\" of Canton (Chiu-ta shan-t'ang).16 In Hong Kong, one other major merchant charitable hall was opened in 1882. This was called the Po Leung Kuk (Pao-liang chu) or the \"Society for the Protection of Women and Girls.\"18 Other communities followed the pattern. The format of the two Hong Kong organisations was particularly favoured by the overseas Chinese who retained or changed slightly the names Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk throughout Southeast Asia.20\n\nMerchants as Community Leaders\n\nThe rise of charitable halls in urban settings meant that merchants had assumed a leadership role which in other times had been held only by the scholar-gentry members. Down to 1949, the latter maintained their commanding position in the villages and small towns. But in the large commercial centres like Canton and Soochow, even though there were no lack of upper gentry members, the merchants took over the lead in providing social services. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207565, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 333, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "324\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nsite to which it was removed in 1929. The first, and larger, of these was the Kwun Yam Temple already noted, with its associated public buildings. The bell and the earliest presentation boards (*) are dated 1873-74. The main entrance of the temple was rebuilt in 1889-90, and the undated Kung Sor (公所) or public office built onto one side of the central structure may also be attributed to this time. A separate clinic or public dispensary building was added in 1910, according to a memorial tablet of that year, which bears the names of very many subscribers.\n\nThe second of the Hung Hom temples is almost as old as the first. According to a plaque recently placed inside the building by the Chinese Temples Committee, this Pak Tai temple dates from the 2nd year of Kuang Hsü (1876-77) when it was built at the eastern end of Ching Chau Street, Hung Hom, but as stated above, was later removed for development. The oldest dated items in the present building are a bell dated 1893 presented by a Wo Hing Tong (*) and a set of incense burners dated 1901-02 presented by 'the whole community of Hung Hom Dockyard Village (紅磡澳通圍).\n\nThis temple development, and the basis it provided for local community effort, is reminiscent of the similar developments in Yau Ma Tei reported in this Journal some time ago.† The Kaifong (街坊) or neighbourhood organisation centering as in Yau Ma Tei on a local temple is credited with these community services; references to a Kaifong school and a volunteer fire brigade are also available. This self-help and enterprise of the local community, was, however, not a new phenomenon but one created to a pattern long familiar in Chinese urban communities. Hong Kong, 1976.\n\nCARL T. SMITH\nJAMES HAYES\n\nHONG KONG: TYPHOON PREPARATIONS IN 1903\n\nReaders will recall Mr. A. J. S. Lack's article 'Yaumatei Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong, 1903-1915' in the 1973 Journal. The following description is of interest in this connection. It is taken from the Memoirs of Robert Dollar, pp. 55-56 published privately in America in 1927, and describes a visit to Hong Kong in 1903. Ed.\n\nCommonly styled in Cantonese,\n+ JHKBRAS, 6, 1966: pp. 129-131.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207629, "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": 17, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "and living in a resettled village, on their field observations relating to urban development. In November we had a talk on diplomatic systems in East Asia as part of general philosophies of state by Dr. Frank W. Ikle and in December Dr. Ralph Smith, a visiting historian specialising in Vietnamese society at the School of African and Oriental Studies spoke on the Cao-Daist and Hoa Hao religious sects. Another visitor to Hong Kong—visiting professor in anthropology at The Chinese University—Professor Francis L. K. Hsu, spoke to the Society in January giving his views about Chinese motivations and values and comparing them with Western values and motivations as he sees them. In February we held our symposium: this time on Architecture and the development of Hong Kong. We were fortunate enough to obtain the kind services of Mr. Tao Ho here, a well-known local architect and designer, who gathered a team of experts to talk on problems of community and town planning, building, mass transit and the historical development of ethnic clusters in relation to building. This was very well attended and there was some lively discussion. We look forward to seeing the papers in publication: Mr. Ho is presently editing them for the Society. The last lecture of the period was given by Professor Daffyd Evans of Hong Kong University who spoke on early European residents in Hong Kong. We look forward to seeing some of these talks in print in the Journal.\n\nForeign tours are now an established feature of our annual programme. This period included a tour of Burma guided by Mr. Michael Smithies, a former Secretary of your Society, now resident in Indonesia, who has led past tours so successfully. It was organised this end by Ms. Helga Werle of your Council. This was also a very successful venture and I understand that it has been followed by a reunion of tour members who are anxious to have more of the same.\n\nFor the future: Ms. Werle and Mr. Smithies, and also Dr. Leigh Wright are offering tours abroad—to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Korea, and Borneo—dates will be decided on the basis of majority response to several offered to members in a recent circular. A visit to Tai Mo Shan is also planned for this weekend (April 3), and will include the Shing Mun or Jubilee Reservoir. Talks and notes will be given on history and ethnography of the area, plant and insect life, and birds of upper Tai Mo Shan—by Dr. James Hayes.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207674, "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": 62, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Teochiu ethnicity in urban Hong Kong\n\n47\n\nThere are no comparable local level organizations in the urban areas,* though the government has encouraged the development of local-level urban neighborhood associations (Kaifongs), which are presumed to reflect local opinion and to be effective in influencing government decisions affecting the local area. The Kaifongs in resettlement estates with which I am familiar currently fulfill neither of these functions and are hardly considered organizations worthy of much effort to control. Teochiu have primarily been \"isolationist\" in devoting attention and effort to developing their own associations into what are clearly the most active and representative organizations in the local area. The local Kaifongs have thus not become an important focus of interethnic competition. Kaifong associations in other areas of Hong Kong are at times more active in local affairs. They appear to be particularly active when organizing local protest against new governmental policy which would adversely affect local residents. Hong Kong's newspapers periodically carry stories telling of the efforts of particular Kaifongs to mobilize support of local residents against new policy.\n\nThe primary functions of Kaifongs have been to provide social welfare services, serve as a communication channel to government, and to provide prestigious positions for ambitious local leaders (Kan, 1970:95). Kan describes the general image of Kaifongs in the following manner:\n\nthe more 'generalistic' orientation of the Kaifongs is more amenable to the government than is the 'particularistic' orientation of the clan, district, and dialect associations. For this reason, the majority of the population as well as the government itself have believed that the Kaifongs may become the most effective intermediaries between government and people. (Kan, 1970:94).\n\n*The City District Office scheme, initiated in 1968, is intended to bridge the communication gulf between the masses of people in urban areas and government. City District Officers are charged with assessing the overall impact of government policy, and with maintaining contact with all local organizations. In effect, the purpose of the scheme is to \"provide the public with a local manifestation of the Government... (The City District Officer Scheme, 1969: title page).\n\nFor brief discussions of divergent government policy in the New Territories and urban area, see Report by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, The City District Officer Scheme, 1969; Wong, 1975; and Miners, 1975.\n\nSee Annual Departmental Reports of the District Commissioner, New Territories, for brief descriptions of the Rural Committees.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208563, "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": 20, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "the future we hope it may be possible to organise a small group to visit cultural sites in Thailand (e.g. Chiangmai, Pimai, Sukhothai and Ban Chiang). December might be particularly convenient in view of the projected Hong Kong-Chiangmai direct service by Thai International from April 1. Another small group may be able to visit South Korea at Easter 1980, in cooperation with the Korean Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Plans for these visits have to be made many months in advance and many members have found it necessary in the past to withdraw after initial arrangements have been made. Some sixteen members, for example, withdrew from the proposed Darjeeling-Sikkim visit after payment of deposits which were fully refunded. But this entailed a substantial amount of rearrangement of aircraft, hotels, ground transport, and so forth. Although recent and forthcoming excursions are arranged on a 'break even' basis for the Society, they are at considerably less cost to participants than for individual travel; and it may be necessary to consider levying some non-refundable service charge in future to protect the Society's financial interests. I would like to thank Dr. Shaw for all the time and effort he has put into these excursion arrangements and I am sure those who have participated would wish me to do so. Janie Thomas of Urbis Planning Design has also offered to include interested members of our Society in a trip she is planning for later this year to Shanghai and Peking. All except our very recently joined members have been circulated with information about her proposals.\n\nPublications\n\nWork continues for our proposed publication of photographs with text of old Hong Kong buildings. Many of the buildings photographed — by members of your Council and friends — have since been demolished. Mr. Tony Rydings has played a very active role in this project together with Mr. Ian Diamond. We are now, so to speak, on the home stretch in this publication project with approximately three-quarters of the text assembled and the photographs in place. We would like also to thank Dr. Solomon Bard, Executive Secretary, Antiquities and Monuments Section, Urban Services Department, for much material assistance with the project.\n\nThe 1977 Journal is now being distributed to all members, and Dr. Hayes has already submitted a draft list of contents for the 1978 issue which promises to have a great deal of interesting and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208754, "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": 211, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "184\n\nJULIAN F. PAS\n\nusually built by the people of the local community by means of public subscription. Consequently, they are ruled by a locally selected committee headed by a chairman. Although on special occasions Taoist priests or Buddhist monks and nuns are invited to perform the appropriate rituals, still, these priests are outsiders and have no authority in running the temple affairs. They are paid for their services and once the rituals are over, they return home or to their own temple.16\n\nA large number of (smaller) temples in the cities and in the countryside have their own mediums, used by the locally worshipped gods. Their function in the local community varies, but is often very significant for the well-being of the whole group or of individual families.\n\nEach temple has its own yearly celebration (paipai) and occasionally a grandiose sequence of rituals: the chiao (rite of cosmic renewal). The latter takes place more often nowadays: some temples have it every 5 years. Many (usually smaller) temples organize yearly pilgrimages (chin-hsiang) to their mother-temple. Large temples, on the other hand, specialize in receiving these groups and have built accommodation facilities for their numerous pilgrims.\n\nBesides these special temple rituals, people may go and visit the temple at will. Some days there are numerous visitors (1st and 15th day of the month); at other times, the noise of falling divination blocks is only rarely heard in the shrine. The worship performed by individuals is standardized and appears as a purely ritualistic performance. Not often one sees people kneeling down and concentrated in mental prayer.\n\nTemple visits very often include consultations of the temple oracles or a person-to-person interview with a divination specialist having a small desk on the temple premises.\n\nAlthough the rise of an industrial society has greatly influenced all aspects of life in Taiwan, religious life in the countryside and in many urban centers still involves the whole local population. However, in many city temples, temple activities continue to flourish, but the people involved in worship are not necessarily living in the neighbourhood. The devotees of a Buddhist temple may be spread out in an even wider area: they visit the temples of their choice rather than the one that happens to be their own community temple.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208862, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "The Photographic Survey\n\nIn addition to the Journal, we are pleased to announce that a publication entitled Hong Kong, Going and Gone will appear during this year. It consists of a selection of 85 photographs from our photographic survey project, with accompanying text pointing out some of the architectural and historical features of the items depicted. Order forms will be sent to members nearer publication date. The photographic survey has continued during the year with the cooperation of the Antiquities and Monuments Section of the Urban Services Department, and especially Dr. Solomon Bard. Work on the Western part of Hong Kong Island's urban area has been completed; over 200 buildings and other sites have been photographed, and in addition various important locations elsewhere in Hong Kong have been covered. The total number of prints on file is in excess of 2,000. A good deal of clerical work in making these photographs fully accessible remains to be done and the organizers of the survey, Tony Rydings, Ian Diamond, Carl Smith, and Dr. Bard, are always glad to hear of volunteers with time to spare for this task.\n\nThe Library\n\nMr. Tony Rydings, Hon. Librarian, has tabled a separate report but I would like to comment on certain points. One is the steady but selective increase of our stock of books and periodicals and their protection by suitable binding or re-binding. Our library now forms a very important collection in Hong Kong of works for research into all sorts of matters concerning local history and other specialist studies. Many of our books are difficult to find in other local collections — certainly those available outside the Universities. I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Arts Centre where the main part of the collection is located to see what we have, or better still, the purchase of our library catalogue and supplements. The other point is that quite a few items in our collection come from donations by members and friends of the Society. This year I would like to add my thanks in particular to Miss Pauline Young, and Dr. James Hayes, and to the British Council, with which we have been associated in one way or another for some several years. Their contributions are gratefully accepted.\n\nxiv", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208871, "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": 33, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS\n\nfortune slips and interpret the fortune slips.\n\n5\n\nth\n\nCompetition between Buddhists and Daoists for the support of devotees led to grander and bigger temples. Small village shrines and temples, not in the same league, did not need to compete. Competition for devotees also led to the present circumstances in which rural shrines and temples are comparatively small and unkempt whereas their urban equivalents, though not much larger, have had to be made more attractive, usually by offering unique deities and services in order to wean devotees to their particular altars.\n\nIn Hong Kong and Macau there are a number of temples patronised primarily by people of a particular class, sub-ethnic group or occupational calling. Devotees tend to patronise their local temple irrespective of who the deities are, though they may be attracted to a more distant temple by a particular deity famous for his specialised power and efficacy. The latter might be a god whose cult is long standing and whose characteristics are unique and pertinent to the devotee's requirements. He might however be a new star, rising suddenly amid great publicity, only to wane again but not necessarily to disappear completely.\n\nLocation of temples\n\nPrior to the anti-superstition campaign in China in 1928, traditional temples were scattered across China in their tens of thousands. Not quite so abundant in Hong Kong, they are to be found squeezed in among high-rise buildings in the city and among houses in villages, and may be free-standing or joined to other structures. But apart from monasteries, rarely does one appear beyond the village bounds and when it does it is usually derelict or almost so. Buddhist, Daoist and popular religion temples do not usually materialize as full-blown two-court buildings with numerous images, large and small. Their development has been a natural progression from the small shrine on a hillside, probably beneath the overhang of or attached to a living rock, at the base of a large old tree, or in many cases inshore from a sandy beach of a bay with an easy landing for boat people. If the shrine is well attended, the protective construction around the small shrine will grow as years pass, until eventually it reaches the maximum size that devotees can afford to build and maintain.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208872, "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": 34, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "6\n\nKEITH G. STEVENS\n\nAn example of the latter is the very recently established open-air shrine on a hillside, half way up, and some 120 steps above, the tarmac road of Black's Link on Hong Kong island. It consists of a small row of three shrines in one long concrete construction. Each is no bigger than 2' by 1'6\", and contains a printed and framed coloured icon, one Buddhist, and two of the folk religion. The title given to the whole is the Temple of the Three Immortals (49) The final character \"Miao\" (temple) normally gives the impression of roofed halls containing images and icons. However, the concept of the three altars of the Temple of the Three Immortals is no different from other temples with large altars, numerous images, high walls and a roof, which with all their other refinements in no way add to the power of the prayer of the devotee. There are, however, not many examples in Hong Kong of permanent outside shrines being referred to as a miao (temple).\n\nMonasteries were usually built away from the main centres of population, on hillsides backing on to slopes and facing downwards, overlooking wooded landscapes or the sea; whilst Daoist folk religion temples are to be found in population centres (especially where the centres existed a hundred or so years ago) and in sheltered coves at a convenient landing point.\n\nFishermen's folk religion temples may seem at times to be in isolated spots, but in practice they are near safe anchorages and just far enough from the next temple to be economically viable for the temple keeper. The pattern of fisherfolk temples, dedicated predominantly to Tian Hou (A) and Hong Sheng (), when plotted on a map, is quite distinctive, particularly in Wanchai and the centre of Victoria. The temples, now quite far inland, were originally built back a little from the original coastline and faced what then was the nearest stretch of water.\n\nUrban popular religion temples, built in traditional style in the early days of the two settlements, are usually simple folk religion establishments dedicated to the popular cults of Guan Di, Tian Hou and Wen Chang, whilst more modern temples built since the 1880's tend to be dedicated to less well-known deities who offer specialised services such as the plague deity, Sui Jingbo.\n\nOver the years a few temples have been closed down or moved elsewhere, from lack of patronage or because of reclamation, urban redevelopment and street widening. In one fell swoop a fisherman's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208913, "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": 75, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE\n\n43\n\ncreate its own institutions for social control, worship, recreation and the management of external relations.\n\nFreedman (1960: 35; 1961:479) held a similar viewpoint, but adopted an active evolutionary perspective. Using the Chinese communities in Sarawak and Singapore as two poles of a continuum, he argued that when the scale and complexity of the society increase, the associations which, in small-scale and relatively undeveloped settlements express social, economic, and political links in an undifferentiated form, lend to diverge into networks of associations which are comparatively specialized in their functions and the kinds of solidarity they express. Kerri even hypothesized that, with increasing modernization, industrialization, and urbanization, and the concomitant large-scale rural-urban migrations, kinship and territorial ties are no longer effective means for the organization of new social groups or the reorganization of existing ones (Kerri, 1976:23).\n\nConsidering the data obtained in this survey, I find that some of the ideas discussed in these researches are disputable and not applicable to the present study. My arguments may be summarized as follows:\n\n1. In contrast to the associations created by West Africans as \"civilizing\" enterprises inculcating Western standards of dress and manners (Little, 1965:85), the Waichow Hakka associations, which perform social, political, economic, cultural, and recreational services to assist their members in adapting to modern urban situations, were established and have endured to date by observing traditional organizing principles. In other words, rather than constituting a \"civilizing\" agency for modernization, they are a mechanism for perpetuating and preserving Hakka tradition and culture.\n\n2. In any society, the possibility of migration taking place by whole villages or clans is slight. Moreover, when the migrants arrive in an urban situation, rapid socio-cultural change further weakens the remaining precarious kinship ties and locality ties of the immigrants. This is why Kerri (1976:23) says that kinship and locality are no longer effective means for organizing associations in modern society. However, Kerri seems unaware of the existence of significant differences between the abstract concept and the true relationships of kinship and locality. For instance, a Chinese may\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209005, "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": 167, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n135\n\nmajor during the early K'ang Hsi period. He had taken part in the suppression of the disturbances led by Ng Shaam-kwai in the south. He was promoted to Yau Je or colonel and then to Ti Tu or brigadier of the Fukien Province. In the 56th year of the K'ang Hsi reign (1717), he was promoted to be Chuen Fu or Governor of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces.\n\nAt that time, pirates were disturbing the south coast of China, and the people there led a hard life. Yeung Lin lowered their taxes and improved their living. Two years later, in the 58th year of the Kang Hsi reign (1719), he was made Viceroy of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces. He then proposed to erect 126 forts, walled cities and guard-stations, and to strengthen the fortification of the coast by increasing the garrisons to 3991 men. His proposal was authorized, and in the first year of the Yung Cheng reign (1723), he was appointed to be Viceroy of Kwangtung specially responsible for all matters of the Kwangtung Province. He died a year later, (1724).\n\nTo conclude, the Fat Tong Mun Fort must have been built when Yeung Lin was Viceroy of the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces, within the period between the 59th year of K'ang Hsi and the first year of the Yung Cheng reign (1720-1723). The fort guarded the Fat Tong Mun and had 8 cannon places and 13 guard-houses. A garrison of 25 soldiers under one pa-tsung or sergeant from the Tai Pang Battalion was stationed there. Then in the 15th year of the Chia Ch'ing Reign (1810), the fort was evacuated and finally abandoned.\n\nThe fort became a ruin, long neglected. It is now being excavated under the direction of Dr. Solomon Bard, Executive Secretary, Antiquities and Monuments Section, Urban Services Department, Hong Kong.\n\nHong Kong, January 1981\n\nANTHONY K. K. SIU\n\nNOTES\n\n1 Tung Lung Island was called South Fat Tong or Nam Fat Tong in the past. It lies to the east of Hong Kong Island and guards the eastern entrance to the Victoria Harbour.\n\n2 Chapter 4 of the San On Yuen Chi, Chia Ch'ing edition **縣志卷四**.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209228, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY AND KINSHIP TIES AMONG URBAN CHINESE FAMILIES IN HK 117\n\nAt first sight, these responses appear to be inconsistent with their responses to the earlier questions. Over half had reported that \"close relatives\" and \"kin\" were people most frequently invited home or that they went out with, and they seldom invited home or went out with \"neighbours\". It seems, therefore, that moving did give them the opportunity to distance themselves from some relatives, but that they obviously maintained contact with others. This would explain why it is possible, as a family moves, for ties with \"close relatives\" and \"kin\" to decline and yet they could remain central in the family's social contacts.\n\nContacts with neighbours increased, but neighbours were seldom invited home or gone out with. To explain this, one needs only to understand that neighbouring is a continuous process of diffused, unstructured, and irregular interaction that spans over many areas of social life. It takes place less because of purposeful arrangements than because of situational contingencies. One does not have to make a special effort to talk to a neighbour, for avoiding him may well be more difficult.\n\nAngela Kan's study of neighbours in Hong Kong's public housing estates confirms this observation. She shows that neighbours very frequently greet one another in a friendly way, chat casually together, or observe interactions among their children, but far less frequently visit one another's home and least frequently of all go out for entertainment together.\n\nI think the consequence of residential mobility is that family life is \"privatized\", to use a word defined by Goldthorpe et al. as \"a process that is manifested in a pattern of social life that is centred on, and indeed largely restricted to, the home and conjugal family.\" Privatization is manifested in respondents' leisure activities (Table 4). Weekday leisure was almost always home-centred, with approximately half the respondents and their spouses watching television and listening to music. But even for weekends, one-third of the respondents and their spouses chose to stay at home. Few reported that they spent much time visiting, and only 7 percent of the household heads and 4 percent of their spouses reported that they were members of any voluntary associations.\n\nAlso, when asked where they went for daily necessities, medical services, tea, the large majority of respondents named places within the estate (Table 5). After all, Oi Man is among the most modernized housing estates in Hong Kong. Flats are relatively bigger from 357 sq.ft. to 591 sq.ft. as compared with 86 sq.ft. to 393 sq. ft. for all pre-1973 estates. Each flat is equipped with piped gas and communal television.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209246, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1981", "page_number": 149, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING\n\n135\n\ndiseases. This preaching, and a number of healing miracles, enabled a church to be started among the Cantonese-speaking Shui-sheung-yan in Sha Tau Kok, a small port that straddles the China-Hong Kong border. After 1949, when the original church was closed by the Chinese authorities, a new church was established on the then uninhabited island of Ap Chau; and around it a new village drawing on Cantonese-speaking fisherfolk from all over the north-east of the New Territories of Hong Kong was established, which has steadily improved its prosperity to the present day. The villagers live in rows of new cottages, built with overseas assistance. In the middle, there is a square with chairs and tables shaded by trees, a meeting room, and a separate church building with a high roof, plain whitewashed walls, and hard benches, like the older type of country Nonconformist chapel in Britain. Here the villagers, led by the village elder who is also the pastor, meet for prayer and Bible study at 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day, except on Saturday, when they hold their main services of the week. Then many young people who have had to take jobs in the urban area come back for the day, even though there are now congregations in other parts of the territory. On Sundays, people go down to Hong Kong to do their shopping.\n\nThe decline of the numbers involved in fishing, despite the start of sea fish-farming, has also led to substantial emigration. This phenomenon has also occurred in other fishing villages, such as Kau Sai.* In fact, while no more than 500 Ap Chau islanders remain in Hong Kong, there are some 800 now in Britain, mostly restaurant owners or workers. Philip Chan, son of the village elder of Ap Chau, now attending an inter-denominational Bible college in Edinburgh, put it: 'In Edinburgh, you can see Ap Chau in miniature.'**\n\nThe observation of John Wesley, that the sobriety and hard work consequent upon religious revival bring prosperity within a generation, is now borne out in the well-appointed church that has been converted from an old, stone-built scout headquarters. This prosperity does not seem, however, to have lessened fervour, as the church, which in Hong Kong has for some years not been to any extent a proselytising one, is now making plans to evangelise among other Chinese restaurant workers in Britain. Its meetings in Britain are always in the afternoon, convenient for waiters, as its Hong Kong service hours are for fishermen.\n\nNevertheless, in Britain as in Hong Kong, at present, apart from a few Malaysians, its membership is largely Shui-sheung-yan, and it crosses the divide between poor and rich. Although based on a religious mobilisation, it has, therefore, an ethnic character of a kind. It is the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209367, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "2\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nstaff amounting to around a dozen in all. The SCA [Secretary for Chinese Affairs: this title was later changed to Secretary for Home Affairs] is put in overall responsibility for the working of the Scheme. The CDOs are specifically enjoined to a) assess the overall impact of government policies, to explain these policies as well as the difficulties and the achievements of the Government to ordinary people, b) to initiate proposals for the new policies or new procedure when the need for these becomes apparent from the feeling of the public, and c) to become aware of problems and conflicts and trends of public thinking before attitudes have been struck. In short, the new CDO Scheme is a response of Government to the public's by-now-hackneyed outcry for 'closing the gap between the Government and the people' (Wong 1972:223).\n\nAn official source from 1975 gave a similar description:\n\nThis [Home Affairs] department runs the City District Office Scheme, which was introduced in 1968 to improve communication between the government and people. There are 10 City District Offices and 12 sub-offices in the most crowded urban areas of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Throughout the urban areas, these offices provide a point of contact with the government where even the humblest citizen can go for help in the knowledge that he will be courteously treated, patiently heard and helpfully advised (Government Information Services 1975:211).\n\nThe Mutual Aid Committees, it was felt, would help the District Offices achieve this aim of improved communication, as they would offer their members opportunities to participate in local affairs, and to express their opinions to the Government.\n\nA second reason for establishing Mutual Aid Committees was to aid the authorities in the promotion of various social campaigns. As described in 1980:\n\nIn 1973 the Hong Kong government decided to take action against two major city problems: a rising crime rate and an accelerating deterioration of the living and working conditions in a number of residential and business units. The plan of action included the launching of two campaigns, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209368, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign and the Fight Violent Crime campaign. Existing community organizations were called upon to give their services (Scott 1980: 18).\n\nThe Mutual Aid Committees, designed as they were with a residence-based structure, would also be useful organizations to mobilize for the promotion of these campaigns, and some district officials suggested that this possibility was in mind when the committees were established.\n\nA third, equally important, reason for establishing the Mutual Aid Committees was the desire of the government and concerned private citizens to improve the neighbourliness of high-rise buildings and multi-storey blocks. More specifically, government officials were becoming more concerned about cooperation and safety.\n\nWhen crime reared its head in these surroundings, the instinctive reaction was to retreat behind locked doors and ignore whatever might be happening outside. Prospects for neighbourly co-operation made little headway under these circumstances, and the concept of getting together with one's fellow tenants, to organize collective action for the common good, remained remote and unreal (Government Information Services 1974:9).\n\nThe formation of the MACs was hailed as a step forward in improving residents' concern for each other and in improving living conditions.\n\nThe tradition of mutual aid originally grew up in a rural setting. Today this tradition is being harnessed to tackle urban social problems found in the management of multi-storey buildings under divided ownership. The mutual aid committee is a simple form of organization which can be set up with a minimum of formality, enabling owners and tenants to work together to improve conditions in their buildings. Although the basic aim of the movement is building management, it is already clear that the mutual aid committee has the potential to meet other needs; in particular the need to replace the social links that disappeared with the decline of traditional forms of village life. A sense of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209369, "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": 26, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "4\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nneighbourliness is already developing in some multi-storey blocks where mutual aid committees have been set up, and people are now getting to know their neighbours in a way which seemed impossible before (Government Information Services 1974:9).\n\nThat the Mutual Aid Committees were believed to be succeeding in these endeavours, and for that reason were being promoted by the Hong Kong government, is suggested by evaluations made of the Scheme early in its history. Apparently, public opinion towards the committees was so favourable during the first years that an early decision was made to continue the formation of the MACs.1 In 1974, it was stated that \"Mutual Aid Committees should be regarded as a permanent requirement in helping to ensure a stable society and that the legal requirement for registration, i.e. exemption from registration as societies under the Societies Ordinance provided they were approved by the Director of Home Affairs (or the Secretary for the New Territories, outside the urban area), would be continued\" (Director of Home Affairs 1974:5). Such official support was to continue. During interviews conducted in 1976 and again in 1978, liaison officers of the City District Offices of the Wong Tai Sin and Mong Kok Districts were still expressing their satisfaction with committee operation. Further confirmation of committee success, in terms of organization, can be seen in the increased number of committees formed. At the end of their first year, 1973, a total of 1,214 MACs were formed (Government Information Services 1974:9), but by the end of 1981, this figure had risen to 3,573 (Government Information Services 1982:248). At present (to the end of February, 1983) the figure has risen to 3,752.\n\nIf the Mutual Aid Committees have been considered as valuable organizations by the City District Offices, they have been equally valued by others. Since their inception, the Mutual Aid Committees have proved themselves useful settings in which to investigate such diverse topics as the adjustments of the elderly (Ikels 1983), the delivery of community health services (Grandpierre 1978), and the dimensions of women's participation in urban organizations (Scott 1980). Other scholars have chosen to study the Mutual Aid Committees because they are neighbourhood associations, and thus can be used to explore the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209772, "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": 31, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "The Memorial is mentioned in the Report of the Antiquities Advisory Board, 1983 (published by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, Urban Services Department) as \"having been restored with a generous contribution from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and the agreement of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals\" (p. 11 and plate 10 of the Report).\n\nexemplifies two major There is the Buddhist suffering, and the long-\n\n(d) The Tung Wah Eastern Hospital another institution built with private funds which motivating forces in local life. concern to relieve poverty and established Chinese tradition that the rich should participate in good works to assist the community and be seen to be doing so through a proliferation of photographs of donors, memorials, subscription lists and the like. This is evident (I think) to a far greater degree than in the West, where published subscription lists and a memorial stone or two are usually enough to record charitable contributions.\n\n(e) The Sir Ellis Kadoorie Government School-established in another location in the 1890s through the generosity of one of the Kadoorie family. These merchant princes of Hong Kong and Shanghai originated from Baghdad. Their zeal for community projects, and their conviction that wealth generated from the community should be ploughed back into it, came over strongly in the interesting film on the Kadoorie Agricultural Association's work here and in Nepal which we showed to our members at the British Council recently. The school was originally planned to be used mainly by Indian and Pakistani children, but it is now attended by Chinese also.\n\n(f) The Hong Kong Buddhist Association School this is one of a large number of schools operated by the Association, and also by individual Buddhist organisations. The Association was founded in 1932, revived in 1945 it was inactive during the Japanese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209804, "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": 63, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "NOTES ON\n\nSOME CHINESE CUSTOMS IN THE NEW TERRITORIES\n\nB. D. WILSON*\n\nCONTENTS\n\n1. Introduction\n\n2. Succession\n\n3. Adoption\n\n4. Ching sheung and sheung tin land\n\n5. Land held by clans\n\n6. Family disputes\n\n7. Marriage by proxy\n\n8. Sam p'o tsai\n\n9. Customary agricultural leases\n\n10. Graves\n\n11. Housing-building\n\n12. Some fung shui problems\n\n13. Oaths\n\n14. Money loan associations\n\n15. Names\n\nIntroduction\n\nI compiled these notes partly in 1949-51 whilst District Officer, Tai Po, and partly in 1953-55 whilst District Officer, Yuen Long. The object of the notes was to provide basic information for myself and other District Officers so as to achieve some uniformity in our approach and in the handling of common problems that arose in our day-to-day work. The notes represent what I found customary in Tai Po and Yuen Long. I made no\n\n* Mr. Brian Wilson was an Administrative Officer of the Hong Kong Government 1948-1983. He retired as Director of Urban Services in 1983. Mr. Wilson was District Officer, Tai Po 1949-1951, and District Officer, Yuen Long 1953-1955. He was awarded the CBE in 1977. Mr. Wilson was a Founder Member of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209823, "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": 82, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "60\n\n(f) Finally, in entering business or commerce, a man will frequently assume yet another name, “pit tsz” (筆子), for purposes of business only.\n\n(g) Apart from the milk name, proper name and school name, a girl will at marriage assume her husband's clan name in front of her own, e.g. HO Fung Ling (何鳳玲), on marrying TANG Man Lin (鄧文連), becomes TANG HO Fung Ling (鄧何鳳玲).\n\n(h) The reluctance of married women to reveal their full maiden name often leads them to leave off their final name and instead to add the suffix \"shi” (氏).\n\nNOTES\n\n1 The notes were later amended and in this amended form were put on a file (Ref1/477/54) which is now in the Public Records Office. The notes as given here represent the original form, with footnotes, introduction and minor amendments by the author (Hon. Ed.).\n\n* Wills, of whatever sort, were, whatever the legal position, very rare among New Territories villagers. I remember only one, of a wealthy Cantonese landowner.\n\n* I met such a case in Tai Po where the wife, fortunately, did not contest the husband's claim that she was not a virgin.\n\n* I must have come across up to half a dozen cases of sam p'o tsai, including two or three disputes where the girl refused to marry her intended groom. The groom's family did not attempt to force marriage, but were concerned about a formal separation. The groom's family had of course for some time received the free use of the girl's services as a household worker, and so could not validly demand compensation from the girl's natural parents. A sam p'o tsai is quite different to a mui tsai who was to all intents and purposes a slave girl. (Mui tsai were banned in Hong Kong before World War II.)\n\n* Up till the 1950's, huet chong graves were normally left untouched for 5 years, this being the period needed for bodies to decompose completely. But, from the 1950's onwards, bodies took longer to decompose, and 7 years is now the standard time. I know this, because from 1958-60 I was in the Urban Services Department in charge of disposal of the dead. I was also in the Urban Services Department from 1968-71, when again I was connected with this aspect. In those days, the coffin section at Wo Hop Shek cemetery used to be cleared every 5 years, but there were so many unfit graves that this period was extended to 7 years. The need for the longer period arose apparently from the wider use of antibiotics and other drugs which seem to have the effect of preserving bodies and which were then coming into much greater use.\n\nSee in general on Burial Customs the author's Chinese Burial Customs in Hong Kong, journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 1, 1960, pp 115-124.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209875, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "112\n\nHaven\".\n\nPui O at present often uses for its name characters meaning \"Shell Harbour\".\n\n1* Yi Long Wan (\"Second Wave Bay\").\n\n1 These villages used to stand just south of Discovery Bay but have since given way to the major housing project of that name.\n\n\" Tai Pak Island is now called Tai Lei (\"Great Profit\").\n\n19 Shau Chau is now called Sha Chau (\"Sand Isle\").\n\n\"Tongkwu is now called Lung Kwu Chau (\"Dragon Drum Island”). \"The Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts (SARDA) has had a treatment centre here since about 1960.\n\n31\n\n* Capital of San On District.\n\n** No villages now survive on Hei Ling Chau, which, after the closure of the leprosarium, is now occupied solely by the Correctional Services Department. The remaining villagers were resited to various places on Lantau in 1952-53.\n\n** Chau Kong is now called Sunshine Island (Chau Kung To), after an agricultural rehabilitation programme for refugee families launched there in the 1950s by Mr. Gus Borgeest (of Hong Kong) and others.\n\n\"Kau Yi Tsai is now called Siu Kau Yi Chau, with the same meaning.\n\n**A prewar periodical magazine containing many items of great interest, including Father D.J. Finn's contributions on local archaeology, 1933-36. These were reprinted, edited by Rev. T.F. Ryan S.J., by Ricci Hall, University of Hong Kong, 1958, entitled Archaeological Finds on Lamma Island (M) near Hong Kong.\n\n** Waglan at present uses for its name characters meaning \"Barrier to the Waves\".\n\n#T\n\nRespectively Cheung Shek Pai, Ngan Wu, and Shan Liu.\n\n\" Also known in English as Junk Island. At present the island is known in Chinese only as Fat Tau Chau (\"Buddha's Head Island\").\n\nNam Tong Island is now known as Tung Lung Chau (\"Eastern Dragon Island”).\n\n* This is the Tin Hau Temple (Tai Miu) on Joss House Bay.\n\nAfter partial excavation, it is now listed as an ancient monument under the care of the Urban Services Department.\n\n** Respectively Pak A, Leung Shuen Wan, and Pak Lap.\n\n** These inlets were drowned in the mid 1970s to form the High Island Reservoir.\n\n*Tolo Harbour.\n\nYuen Chau Tsai, see note 2 above.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210013, "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": 271, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "Aquilaria Sinensis is by no means rare in Hong Kong. In Dunn and Tutcher's Flora of Kwangtung and Hong Kong which was published in 1912, it was stated that in a one-acre plot of fung shui woodland in the lower ground of Hong Kong, 31 out of 125 trees enumerated were Aquilaria sinensis (then known as Aquilaria grandiflora). Even today it would not be difficult to find this tree in various parts of Hong Kong. They usually occur in natural woodland on lower hill slopes and in fung shui woods behind villages. There are good specimens in Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, Ng Tung Chai in Lam Tsuen, and Pak Tam Chung, Sai Kung.\n\nThe publication of Professor Lo's book generated some local interest in the Incense Tree. In the 1960's and 1970's, both the Urban Services and Agriculture & Fisheries Departments planted a number of these trees in public gardens and on hill slopes. Seed supply is in abundance and there is no difficulty in raising young trees in the nursery. However, when planted out in open sites, the survival rate is disappointingly low. Moreover, the tree is quite slow-growing and is rather susceptible to wind damage. A seedling of half a metre high planted in Kowloon Tsai Park in 1974 reached a height of only 3.2 metre in 10 years. Even when planted in mixture with other tree species in plantation conditions the species fared little better. On this basis, A. sinensis is unlikely ever to rival the more robust and fast growing species which now commonly occur in our parks and countryside.\n\nNotwithstanding its growth habits, the local historical significance of the Incense Tree has been well recognised. As a matter of interest, the cultivation of the Incense Tree has been used as the main theme in the information displays in the Aberdeen Country Park Visitor Centre. Visitors to the centre, in addition to learning of the interesting historical events concerning this tree, can take the opportunity to have a close look at several live specimens growing by the side of the entrance.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210042, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "photographs with accompanying text will follow Hong Kong Going and Gone, published in 1980.\n\nSome Problems\n\nA number of problems have beset us during the year. First, the important matter of where we can hold our talks. After the GIS theatre was closed to all outside groups, we used the American Library premises in United Centre for a time. Well provided, and conveniently located for the subway, bus and taxi services, it was a disappointment to learn that the Library's own activities precluded its further use. We then turned to the Museum of History in Kowloon Park, whose excellent facilities partly outweigh the inconvenience for members accustomed to our long-standing practice of using the Hong Kong side of the harbour. We are very grateful to the Curator and his staff for their assistance.\n\nSecond, we had to decide what to do with our Library after the Hong Kong Arts Centre advised constituent members (of which we are, or were, one) that it would be revising the basis of their participation in the organization. Thereby, it was clear that we would have to withdraw, and so lose the library accommodation. Our library, despite its size and content, has been little used over the years, and in the circumstances the Council authorized an enquiry via the Hong Kong Library Association for an appropriate home. In the event, the most suitable expression of interest came from the Urban Council Library Services. The Chief Librarian has now been authorized by the Urban Council to accept our library on long loan, under certain conditions, which include retaining its identity and making it available for reference and research in what will be Hong Kong's largest public library, the new Kowloon Central Library due to open in July 1985.\n\nThird, we have been faced with a falling membership and a diminished return from sale of publications. The phenomena are directly connected, as I shall show below. Fourth, in the longer term we have to consider very carefully the future of the Society in today's changing Hong Kong. I shall deal with both these considerations in the concluding sections of this address.\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210405, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 12, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "we would have to withdraw and thereby lose our library space. After enquiry through the Hong Kong Library Association, the Council decided to accept an offer from the Chief Librarian, Urban Council Public Libraries, to house our collection in the New Kowloon Central Library on long loan and under certain conditions which included retaining its identity and making it available for public reference.\n\nThe removal proceeded smoothly, and our collection is now on the shelves of the reference section of the Kowloon Central Library. Books are still available for loans to members on production of an updated membership card (now being issued) and, for reference only, to members of the public. A number of Council members attended the opening on 9th September 1985 by Lady Youde. Thanks are due to our Hon. Librarian Mr. Peter Yeung for the considerable work involved in the transfer.\n\nIn the course of making the transfer arrangements and viewing our library in its new home, it became obvious to us how much loving care and effort had been put into its management by our former Hon. Librarian, Mr. Tony Rydings. He deserves our renewed appreciation for this major contribution to the work of our Society.\n\nAdministration\n\nAs stated last year, we have found it necessary to provide more administrative support for the Council. The trend for councillors, and particularly the office bearers, to be increasingly burdened in their own career posts has continued. Following the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong's future and the increased commitments arising therefrom, it has become essential to have an efficient back-up system and the services of a competent executive assistant secretary. Without them, as I said last year, hopes for increased membership, improved sales of publications and general progress were clearly illusory; in fact, would not materialize. I am glad to say that, in the past year, we have made progress in this important area. A word processor and ancillary equipment have been purchased and an increased salary provided for our assistant secretary with our Hon.\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1985", "page_number": 15, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "During the year, in two exchanges of letters with the Chairman of the Urban Council, I expressed our Council's concern about the unexpected halt to the proposed joint Museum of Science and History at Tsimshatsui East which was to have been built with the aid of a large Jockey Club donation. I also stated the Council's hope for a more modest permanent museum in lieu with, in the meantime, the preparation of a standing exhibition on Hong Kong history, something which has been lacking in the present museum in Kowloon Park since 1980 although present in its earlier premises at Star House. Appreciative replies were received together with the assurance that a modest extension to the existing premises has been approved pending the construction of the permanent Museum of History, and that the museum staff are preparing an outline thematic scheme for a permanent Hong Kong exhibition.\n\nConclusion\n\nI am thankful that, after two quite difficult years the Society's affairs now seem to be set again on an upward path. I feel confident that, commensurate with the reduced time now available to working council members an improved administrative base and the services of a capable and interested assistant secretary, will enable the Council to operate to the best advantage of the Society. We shall ensure that our promotion and publicity are sustained and that as has ever been the case - our programmes and supporting publication programme remain of interest and of good quality.\n\nHowever, it has not been possible to hold the seminar on our future organization which I mentioned in my last year's address. It has not only been the matter of finding time to organize this presentation and to secure qualified speakers. It seemed to me to be necessary, in the first instance, to place our affairs on a firmer footing, so that the confidence which this creates can be reflected in our deliberations on this important subject. I now hope that we can address this subject during the coming year.\n\nFinally, I wish to thank members of Council for their support and their interest throughout the year. In these difficult times I\n\nxiv\n\nPage 15\n\nPage 16", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210668, "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": 19, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "2\n\nHELEN F. SIU\n\nof those interviewed felt that recent immigrants had slowed the planned delivery of government housing services and caused rent increases; 70 percent felt that recent immigrants competed with them for jobs and lowered wages; 70 percent agreed with the impression that the immigrants were the usual offenders in petty crimes, and 50 percent felt that they were responsible for violent crimes in recent years.\n\nCautioning against blaming the victim, scholars have tried to see if the weight of explanation for such negative public sentiments may be put upon the immigrants themselves.\" A scholar of social work in Hong Kong, Zhou Yongxin, asserts that among the earlier immigrants, 70 percent had some skills in various trades, many had industrial capital, and only 3.8 percent were of rural origin. However, 85 percent of the recent immigrants are between the ages of 15 and 30, predominantly male. Seventy-nine percent are of rural origin. A lack of data on the bulk of illegal immigrants makes it difficult to have a fair evaluation, but the legally settled ones do not give the impression that they are unattached elements floundering in an alien environment. Their sojourn is supported, however reluctantly, by networks of family and friends at the receiving end. Similar to the wave of youths who illegally migrated to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution, many have come on their own because they are frustrated with the political vicissitudes and the lack of social mobility in China; some are attracted by the modern materialist glamour suddenly exposed to them through the Hong Kong media. However, given their rural origin, recent immigrants may have less capital and fewer skills than the entrepreneurs from Shanghai or the craftsmen from Guangzhou who had migrated in the 1950s to cope with livelihood in urban Hong Kong. Therefore, compared to previous waves of immigrants, their \"preparedness\" for life in Hong Kong is mixed. The question remains: do they deserve the accusations that the sudden influx of these rural immigrants drastically disturb Hong Kong's social stability and heightens the tensions in an already over-crowded society?\n\nTo evaluate these public sentiments, I think it is important to look more closely at the host community itself. It takes two sides to create problems of adjustment. In fact, the immigrants' predica-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210670, "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": 21, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "HELEN F. SIU\n\nsocial networks, they allied with top government officials to support the status quo. They had benefited the most from Hong Kong in the last few decades. Their conservatism was backed by owners of small-scale enterprises who desperately tried to keep their hard-gained independence. Another 37 percent of the working population were topped by a professional elite of lawyers, engineers, educators, administrative civil servants, and business executives. They were supported by a cast of technical staff with post-secondary education. Both strata belonged to the post-war generation, received and accepted the Western-style value system as provided by the colonial environment. Li argued that they had also benefited from the general prosperity of Hong Kong. The last 52 percent of the working population consisted of a labouring stratum with varying skills. The skilled workers gained more from the demands of an increasingly technical-intensive industrial sector, while the unskilled not only faced the prospect of becoming redundant, but also faced competition from the influx of Chinese immigrants in the late 1970s.10\n\nTherefore, between the first wave of immigrants in the late 1940s and the last wave in the late 1970s, a generation of local residents grew up in Hong Kong to become its social mainstream, though polarized. The elites had Western education and a cosmopolitan outlook. They were tuned to urban living and worked comfortably within a modern economic infrastructure, the construction of which the Hong Kong government (despite its hands-off attitude) had taken a major part in.11 By the late 1970s, they had assumed important positions in the media, educational institutions, business, and the civil service. They also took for granted the role of the government as \"provider\" of many public services, however inadequate the services had been.12 Their outlook and life-styles shaped and were shaped by an emerging but unique Hong Kong culture they identified with and to an extent were defensive of. They were farther removed from the uprooted cultural values of their parents, and were most nervous over their futures at the time of political redefinition.\n\nIn sum, Hong Kong culture and society in the 1980s have been characteristically \"Chinese\" but not quite so, owing to adaptations to unique historical circumstances. This is the reality recent", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210704, "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": 55, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "38\n\nWALTER GREENWOOD\n\nThe members elected in 1899 resigned in April 1901 on the ground that the Board could do nothing effective until it received adequate and independent powers, a view that Francis always held. Hong Kong had to wait until 1936 and the creation of the Urban Council for any further advance toward democratic local government.\n\nThe passing of the plague was followed not only by a post-mortem but also by a consideration of who should be rewarded, and how, for services rendered during the plague. The two outstanding candidates were F.H. May, the Captain Superintendent of Police, who served on the Permanent Committee, and Francis. In September 1894 at a public meeting a committee was appointed, with Edward Ackroyd as chairman, to decide on awards to be made on behalf of the community. In December Ackroyd wrote to the Governor \"The Committee consider that to Mr. Francis their best thanks are due for all his exertions and the time he devoted to the wants of the Colony for so many weeks. As Chairman of the Permanent Committee Mr. Francis had a heavy, troublesome and laborious task to perform, and throughout the duration of the epidemic he was unremitting in his devotion to his duties and gave up a great portion of his time, no doubt to the detriment of his extensive practice, to carry on the work he had voluntarily undertaken. Your Excellency is too well acquainted with his services for any need of further mention. Our Committee decided that his actions are deserving of the fullest recognition, that the best thanks of the community, with a good medal, should be tendered to him, and that his valuable services and useful work should be brought, through Your Excellency, to the special notice of the Secretary of State\". Meanwhile the Government was considering what recommendations it should make. It was chiefly concerned with officials but also considered non-officials including Francis. In September the Governor in writing to the Secretary of State expressed the hope that the latter had not failed to notice the untiring and energetic effects on behalf of the public weal of the medical staff and of Francis. However he seems to have been lukewarm to the suggestion, apparently favoured by May, that Francis should have the C.M.G. saying that he had no objection but \"it was easily earned\". He appears to have suggested that silver inkstands be given to the Colonial Surgeon and Francis but to no", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210741, "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": 92, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "75\n\nernment House. It then occupied temporary accommodation on several occasions until it was eventually accommodated, in 1954, near the Department of Biology in the Northcote Science Building of Hong Kong University.\n\nTo satisfy the increasing requests for advice and technical assistance, the Gardens Department began, in 1949, to issue a series of monthly articles on everyday local gardening matters and provided them free on application. They were also published in a local magazine to obtain a wider distribution. The local and introduced plants in the Botanic Gardens were identified and re-labelled and the first post-war flower show was held in June 1954.\n\nFollowing another major restructuring of Government offices, the departments of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Gardens were amalgamated into one Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in October 1950. Later in 1953 the Gardens Division, including the Botanic Gardens and the Herbarium, was transferred to the Urban Council and Urban Services Department which was also responsible for a wide range of services in the urban area.\n\nThe herbarium staff was comparatively active, making field collecting and preparing the Check List of Hong Kong Plants. It was first issued in 1962 as a cyclostyled edition, enumerating all of the identified species and varieties of vascular plants growing in Hong Kong, both native and introduced. The check list was revised in 1965 and 1966.\n\nIn 1965 Mr. J.D. Whitehead was appointed Principal Amenities Officer on the retirement of Mr. R.E. Dean and the post of Superintendent of Gardens was abolished. The programme of providing recreation areas had been expanding rapidly to meet the demand of an increasing population and increasing standard of living. The Botanic Gardens were maintained though serious botanic work was carried out mainly by the herbarium staff. The herbarium collection was moved back to Government premises, on the 8th floor of Causeway Bay Magistracy Building, in 1967. The booklet, Hong Kong Trees, illustrated with coloured photographs, was published in 1969, which became the first of a series of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210743, "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": 94, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "77\n\nLibrary and Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England\n\n2. C.O. No. 129 series for the years 1844 to 1865\n\nPublic Records Office, London and Hong Kong.\n\n3. Annual Reports:\n\na) Gardens Department, Hong Kong Government, for the years 1872 to 1879\n\nb) Botanical and Forestry Department, Hong Kong Government, for the years 1880 to 1939\n\nc) Gardens Department, Hong Kong Government, for the Financial Years 1946-47 to 1949-50\n\nd) Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Department, for the Financial Years 1950-51 to 1953-54\n\ne) Urban Services Department and Urban Council, Hong Kong, for the Financial Years 1953-54 onwards.\n\n4. Eitel, E.J. 1895, Europe in China: The History of Hong Kong from the Beginning to the Year 1882, Kelly & Walsh Ltd. Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210757, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "91\n\nlanterns affixed on the posts shone on Shek O and Tai Long Wan people.\n\nThe priests and ritual representatives visited the faan-gon posts and made offerings three times a day in a procession called haang-chiu (audience procession). When I followed one of those processions in Shek O, however, I discovered that not all four of the faan-gon posts were erected at the corners of the settlement. The first faan-gon post in Shek O visited by the haang-chiu procession was between the school playground and the quarters of the cleansing unit of the Urban Services Department. One of the local members of the procession volunteered the information that the post was set up there because three years ago a fatal accident took place at the spot. Two young boys who lived in the quarters of the cleansing unit were playing there when a stone pillar fell down suddenly and killed both of them.\n\nV. The local gods\n\nThe Tin Hau was represented by her wooden image at the centre of the altar. Behind the image was a piece of red paper on which the titles of ten local deities were written. With the exception of the Sea Goddess (shui sin) of the small temple at one edge of Shek O Beach, they were Baak-gung and Daai-wong earth gods of Tai Long Wan, Shek O, and Seung Wai. One of them, styled jang-paang daai-wong (earth god of the stakenets), was a reminder of the former fishing activities of the local residents. Many others had probably existed for the protection of villagers in fishing and farming. The change in land use is evident in the reply given by Mr. Wong, the local leader, when asked where the god's place was. He said, \"Below the number 10 alley of the Westerners' residences of Tai Long Wan,\" linking the god with the change that had taken place in the locality. He gave the same description for the location of another god, the Earth god of the Banyan Tree Place. For the Seung Wai daai-wong, he explained that it was below no. 1 alley, which had become a residential area for Westerners. It used to be the villagers' settlement which was removed to Shek O for the construction of the golf club. There were also three gods whose names were not known to Mr. Wong. He believed that those were from Hok Tsui, the village which joined in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211249, "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": 310, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "285\n\nthe stream, waterfalls and gardens returned.\n\nIt had been an impressive show, enlivened by the little comedy of the amiable man and the two girls.\n\nJAMES HAYES\n\nNOTES ON TEMPLES AND SHRINES,\n\nHONG KONG ISLAND\n\nThe 1983 Journal contains my article about urban shrines and temples, written largely from the organizational and managerial aspects. See \"Secular Non-Gentry Leadership of Temple and Shrine Organizations in Urban British Hong Kong”, in JHKRBAS 23 (1983), pp. 113-136.\n\nThe present Note refers to one of the shrines examined in the article, the Earth God shrine at Sheung Fung Lane, Sai Ying Pun at pp. 121-124 therein: and to another in the urban area of Hong Kong Island which was not included. This second shrine is the Pak Kung altar at Peel Street in the Central District, just below the junction of Peel and Staunton Streets.\n\nSheung Fung Lane\n\nOn 9th February 1974, when serving in the Urban Services Department as Assistant Director of Urban Services (Hong Kong Island) I attended the opening of the celebrations marking the god's birthday which falls in the first lunar month.\n\nThere was a pailau (M) or ornamental arch at the junction of Queen's Road West with Centre Street. The stage for the customary puppet opera performances, together with its adjacent temporary altar, both made of bamboo, were assembled in a nearby public playground. The whole frontage of the combined stage and shrine constituted another pailau.\n\nRibbons were stretched across the whole frontage, with another", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212105, "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": 47, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "24\n\n30\n\nSir George Thomas Staunton, a member of the 1793-94 Macartney Embassy, whose translation of Ch'ing Law was the first published in Britain, had been at pains to emphasize this: Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws... of the Penal Code of China (London, Cadell and Davies, 1801), p. 185. For its application in practice see the cases translated with commentary in Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967).21 Cited in Corinne K. Hoexter, From Canton to California, The Epic of Chinese Immigration (New York, Four Winds Press, 1976), p. 136.\n\n11 Dr. William Lockhart of the London Missionary Society, writing in 1861, cites the case of the old scholar who so greatly assisted Dr. W.H. Medhurst with his translations and researches. See his The Medical Missionary in China (London, Hurst and Blackett. 2nd edition, 1861), pp. 21-22. \"He was a living concordance of the entire range of Chinese literature. He could find any passage without hesitation, repeat page after page of most of the works, and could easily take up any citation which had been begun in his hearing, and finish it without hesitation. This is not an uncommon thing amongst the educated Chinese, but this man possessed the faculty in a remarkable degree\".\n\n23 Arthur Evans Moule, The Chinese People, A Handbook on China (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1941), p. 262. See also his New China and Old, Personal Recollections and Observations of Thirty Years (London, Seeley and Co., 1891), p. 271.24 Some of the literary material to be found in villages of the Hong Kong region is described in Dr. Patrick Hase's most useful paper. \"Research Materials for Village Studies\", Chapter 4 of Alan Birch, Y.C. Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds.) Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies (Hong Kong. Centre of Asian Studies. University of Hong Kong, 1984), pp. 31-46, especially between pp. 32-37.\n\n25\n\n—\n\nBy great good fortune, some of their libraries have survived and are in safe keeping. One of them came from Hoi Pa Village, Tsuen Wan, and had belonged to the builder of the traditional village house there which is now a listed monument. He lived between 1865 and 1937, and after his return from Jamaica engaged in educational pursuits in a literary club and at the Luen Fong School in Hoi Pa Kwan Mun Hau. When what had survived of his library was presented to the Urban Services Department in 1982, it consisted of some 200 books of various kinds, as well as manuscript essays and poems, including some of the famed \"eight-legged essays\" written in preparation for the imperial examination; all providing valuable documentation for the educational, social and intellectual activities of their period. South China Morning Post, 26 May 1982. See also the Chinese press of that date.\n\n16 What Francis C.M. Wei calls the operation of the principle of retributive justice\" featured prominently in Chinese stories. See his The Spirit of Chinese Culture (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 151. See also Yao Chin-nung, \"The Theme and Structure of the Yuan Drama\", in Tien Hsia Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (November 1935), p. 392.27 The Tsuen Wan experience is echoed in the fine description of what it meant to be a village boy in late 19th century Kwangtung, contained in the memoirs of a successful Hawaiian Chinese, born in a village near Macau in 1865. In them, he describes what one might call the \"extra-curricular\" part of education. This included the telling of traditional stories by the family elders and by itinerant minstrels and story-tellers, and through the plays performed by visiting opera troupes, as well as in literary pastimes: Chung Kun Ai, My Seventy Nine Years in Hawaii (1879-1958) (Hong Kong, Cosmorama Pictorial Publisher, 1960), pp. 6, 26-29.\n\n28 Francis C.M. Wei, The Spirit of Chinese Culture (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947) p. 149.\n\n24\n\nFor the former, see the chapter \"Symbol and Tradition\" between pp. 50-75 of Ronald", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212570, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "104\n\nCHINESE FUNERALS: A CASE STUDY\n\nDAN WATERS\n\nThe boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,\n\nAnd all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave\n\nAwaits alike the inevitable hour;\n\nThe paths of glory lead but to the grave.\n\nThomas Gray, Elegy Written in Country Churchyard.\n\nIntroduction\n\nThis paper examines an actual, fairly typical, present-day Chinese death in urban Hong Kong and the funeral services and mourning that follow. Comparisons are made with past customs in Hong Kong, with traditional Hong Kong New Territories funerals and European funerals. Because this paper is largely about Hong Kong, Cantonese terms and Romanisations are mainly used rather than pinyin. Currency quoted is in Hong Kong dollars.\n\nThe author is grateful to Mr Gerald C.S. Siu, manager of the Hong Kong Funeral Home, Doctor James Hayes, the Reverend Carl T. Smith, Mrs Judy Kant Young and other persons and organisations named in this paper. Help varied from recommending source material to providing information.\n\nThe Case Study\n\nOne November night in 1988, a couple received a call saying the wife's mother had been taken to hospital. Shortly after midnight the couple, together with the wife's two younger sisters and two granddaughters, gathered around the corpse.\n\nTraditionally, Chinese hope for a peaceful death in old age with family mustered around the deathbed. In this case the end came suddenly. As Chuang Tzu, sometimes named as the first important Taoist writer, phrased it:\n\nWe are born as from a quiet sleep,\n\nWe die to a calm awakening.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212599, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 153, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "133\n\n21\n\nHugh Baker, 'Hell Bank Notes', Ancestral Images, A Hong Kong Album (1979), pp 105-108\n\n✰\n\n21\n\nHugh Baker, 'Nuns', More Ancestral Images, op. cit (1980), pp 13-16\n\nTin Sau Ho Coffin Shop, Hollywood Road, visited by author 20th July 1992\n\nThe Art of Death 1500 to 1800, exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum early 1992\n\n24\n\n09 Hugh Baker, 'Marsh', Ancestral Images Again, A Third Hong Kong Album (1981), pp 109-112; Frena Bloomfield, 'The Chinese Almanac', The Occult World of Hong Kong (1980), pp. 100-2, and 'The Chinese Almanac', The Peninsula Group Magazine 13 (Hong Kong, April 1978), pp 66-71.\n\n26 Hugh Baker, 'Mourning', Hong Kong Images. People and Animals (1990), pp. 121-3\n\n21 T.C. Lai, op. cit. pp 152-3\n\n28 Ingrams, loc. cit\n\n29 Carl T. Smith, 'The Emergence of a Chinese Elite', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol 11 (1971), pp 74-115 (p 98).\n\n30 S.M. Bard, Study of Military Graves and Monuments Hong Kong Cemetery (1991), pp. 16 (B), 26 and 27\n\n32\n\n33\n\nJ. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese (first published 1903), p 166\n\nDiscussion between author and David Shu Tat-koon, feng shui master, 7 August 1992\n\nHugh Baker, 'Burial', Ancestral Images, op. cit. (1979), pp 17-20\n\n34 Hong Kong Government Urban Services Department / Urban Council Annual Reports\n\n3 Hugh Baker, 'Exhumation', Ancestral Images, op. cit (1979), pp 110-104\n\nJJ Hugh Baker, 'Exhumation', Ancestral Images, op. cit (1979), pp 110-104\n\n37\n\nFrena Bloomfield, 'Fung Shui: Chinese Earth Magic', The Occult World of Hong Kong (1980), pp. 103-114; and Ernest J. Eitel, Feng Shui (Singapore, 1984).\n\n38 Discussion between author and David Shu Tat-koon concerning his own theories, 7 August 1992\n\n39\n\nIn other cases the author has been told of dead people's spirits returning home three, seven, ten or other periods after death\n\n40 All dead persons except infants and wandering strangers are entitled to a spirit tablet\n\n41\n\nVisit by Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, to Sang Woo Loong Art Advertising Model Work Company, 28 Western Street, 10 December 1988, second visit by author to same establishment 20 July 1992.\n\n42\n\n43\n\nHugh Baker, 'Earth God', Ancestral Images, op. cit. (1979), pp 1-4\n\nHugh Baker, 'Mourning', Ancestral Images Again, op. cit (1981), pp 101-104. Laurence G. Thompson, op. cit. pp 54 and 55.\n\n44 Leung Chor-on, 'Blessings Are Not For All', The Hong Kong Anthropologist, no 5 (April 1992), pp. 26-28 (p. 27)\n\n45 Rubie S. Watson, 'Remembering the Dead: Graves and Politics in Southeastern China', eds James L. Watson and Evelyn S. Rawski, Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China, op. cit., pp. 203-227", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213190, "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "and a platform for members to publish, and in this connection may I draw your attention to Vice-President, Reverend Carl Smith's book recently \"Chinese Christmas\" which can be bought at all leading book stores, and also at the back of this room. In addition one of Hong Kong's oldest members and of this Society, Dr. Dan Waters, has published his own memories entitled unashamedly \"An Old Hand's Reflection\" - again it can be bought at all leading bookstores and at the back of this room.\n\nIn addition we have an excellent quality library with many interesting books and, not only is this steadily augmented by our past roving President, Dr. James Hayes, from Australia, but in this past year we have been given a magnificent collection of books on China and Hong Kong from Mr Archie Graham, who at the age of 91 has emigrated to New Zealand. All these books are now in a special room on the 3rd floor of the City Hall, High Block; and at this point I would like to give a sincere thanks to the Urban Services Department and their library staff in particular. In the past year not only have they moved the Society's library from the rather inaccessible Kowloon Public Library to the City Hall library in Central but they have computerised the collection and altogether made the whole collection far more accessible than it has been in the past. I really do urge you to visit this and see for yourself what is there, and of course members can borrow most of the books. For this improvement in our library facilities I must also thank our Librarian Mr. Y.C. Wan who has been very helpful in making all this possible.\n\nI said earlier that the Society makes its views known to the public: I should also add that public and Government organisations also seek the views of the Society, not only on an individual basis, but also on a collective one. I mentioned last year the assistance we gave to the Antiquities Advisory Board in helping them to grade some of Hong Kong's older buildings. At one time the Society had 20 members involved in this, but as I understand it since many of the eligible buildings have been graded then the members have declined: this project has been led by Dr. Dan Waters and we owe him and his team a vote of thanks for their hard work.\n\nOn a collective front the Society has continued to be very active in monitoring the situation over the Public Records Office. Last year I reported to you that we thought we were making some progress and the position at the moment, whilst not completely satisfactory, is considerably better than we hoped for two years ago. The Public Records Office is\n\nXI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213353, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "158\n\nOn the one hand, government/semi-government institutions began to promote an awareness of local history and conservation of Hong Kong's heritage. We may see this as part of the government's 'community building' effort after the devastating riots of 1967. On the other hand, the demographics of Hong Kong have also changed. In the past, with their high mobility, people residing in Hong Kong had little sense of identity with the place. This led the Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, to compare Hong Kong in the 1960s to a railway station; as people came, made money and moved on, it was a place with no roots. By the 1970s, things were no longer so. The generation which has grown up in the Territory after the war were much more rooted in the place and in the 1970s, as they came of age, they grew more curious about the history of their home city. A few actively sought knowledge through study and research; most of the others became willing customers of anything that might tell them more about Hong Kong.\n\nInstitutionally, one focus of growth in the study of local history is the museums, the other, the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO).\n\n## Museums\n\nHong Kong's museums are run by the two municipal councils, the Urban Council and the Regional Council, which, besides being responsible for sanitation services, liquor licences and so on, are also responsible for enriching the quality of life in Hong Kong through promoting and providing recreation, sports and the arts.\n\nTo give local history greater prominence, the Museum of History was separated out from the Urban Council's City Hall Museum and Art Gallery in 1975. At first, it operated only on a small scale, using rented premises in a multi-storeyed commercial building. In 1983, it moved into its own building, and subsequent extensions enlarged its exhibition area to 1520 sq m. A permanent exhibition, called the Story of Hong Kong, outlining 6,000 years of development from the Stone Age to modern times, was installed. It also stages thematic exhibitions from time to time: last year (1995), two out of three exhibitions were about Hong Kong; Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts, and Life Under the Japanese Occupation, 1941-45. The Museum runs two branch museums, the Law Uk Folk Museum, which is restored from a 19th century Hakka house, and the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum, which is centred on an excavated Eastern Han", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213970, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 39, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "4\n\naloof on his return. The present writer can vouch for his active approval of an African-inspired experiment whereby departmental administrative officers in the urban areas would collect and transmit upwards a monthly 'intelligence digest' of local opinion, morale and responses to government action or inaction, and of attitudes to prominent local figures and to Chinese or foreign affairs: this was meant to supplement what was collected in their own specialist manners by the HK Police Special Branch (SB), the New Territories Administration (NTA), the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)'s Political Adviser (PA) and the Security Liaison Officer (SLO). Some of what was collected may have been too near the knuckle, some was rather too easily discounted as mere \"gossip,\" important though that might be as a reflection of influential belief at the grass roots, and some may have hurt the dignity of those who had the existing duty of intelligence-gathering. The governor was persuaded to drop the experiment as proving trivial.\n\nBut Trench also showed interest in another interloping proposal that, in the absence of any generalist government institutions to supplement the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (SCA)'s advisory staff (who liaised with the various kai fong (Neighbourhood) Welfare Associations, Clansmens' Associations and Residents' Associations, which were often self-perpetuating), District Officers (DOs) should be appointed in the urban areas; these should have certain executive functions, fewer than those of their colleagues in the New Territories so as not to encroach on the licensing prerogatives of the Urban Council, but sufficient to ensure that all should know of their existence and, above all, of where their offices were. Primarily they should oversee and co-ordinate the activities of the various professional and technical departments in their bailiwicks, but also, like paternalistic mandarins, inquire into, report upon and seek answers to the needs and concerns of the inhabitants. This suggestion was effectively smothered by a DCS who was unable to understand what such DOs might achieve in a city that existing institutions did not already adequately do: the concept of such junior, peripheral, government officers being responsive to people, as opposed to being mere executive agents responsible for essential infrastructural public services, was alien. Apart from the SCA's and District Commissioner New Territories (DCNT)'s contacts with often self-appointed élites, there was little by way of direct exchange with the man in the street: the same DCS once said, \"Government must, of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213973, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 42, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "7\n\n(f) their relationship with the departments of Government and with each other; and,\n\n(g) the degree of control which ought to be exercised by the central Government, having regard to the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions\n\nThe wording reflects close secretariat scrutiny of what some thought to be, if not dangerous, then courageous thinking; there should be care not to conflict with established institutions, there should be no derogation from the existing constitution, and the word 'selection' reassured those who feared politically partisan votes. Public criticism of this was immediately heard, upon reading the related press release, from some of the members of the Urban Council who were jealous for their own prerogatives. The Urban Council, little changed from the Sanitary Board created in Queen Victoria's reign, was mainly responsible for environmental public health, recreation & amenities, and provision of cultural services in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon & New Kowloon; it had 12 members appointed by the Governor, and 12 elected on a single limited but anomalously colony-wide franchise (embracing ratepayers and members of 23 qualifying categories of sane, non-bankrupt adults of 21 or over with three years' residence), with a small number of senior official members. It provided excellent services through the Urban Services Department (USD), but its freedom of speech on matters outside its purview gave it a mixed reputation in some powerful circles.\n\nThe membership of the working party consisted of administrative officers from the middle ranks, considered \"promising\" but not yet authoritative. They were a contract officer with much local government experience in eastern Nigeria and Uganda, an officer with happy experience in the USD and of the Urban Council; the most senior Chinese officer, who had served with the British Army Aid Group against the Japanese and now worked in the SCA; and two other expatriates with various past postings including the NTA. Like Dickinson, all continued to perform their current duties, and remained surprised that with his determination they covered so much ground of consultation and discussion and (under pressure from leave entitlements) reported as relatively promptly as they did; that was on 23 November 1966, by which time the Cultural Revolution was spilling", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213975, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 44, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "9 \n\n(b) the maximum decentralisation of functions by the Central \nGovernment; \n\n(c) simplicity in concept and operation; \n\n(d) the possession of built-in controls; \n\n(e) the allocation of priority of consideration to the densely-populated urban areas, including Tsuen Wan; \n\n(f) compromises, appropriate to particular localities, governing community of interest, development or expected development, economic and industrial characteristics, financial resources measured in relation to financial needs, physical features, population, past administration, size and shape of existing administrative areas, and the wishes of the inhabitants. \n\nAn interesting discussion was recorded of theoretical local government criteria, between the 'Grass Roots School,' which brought government close to the people through attending to day-to-day social cohesion but, while providing local debating societies, resulted in units too small for executive responsibility; and the 'Functional School,' which by relating boundaries to the area of optimal performance of technical services (as in the Colony itself) led to authorities too extensive to be local; and the ‘Finance School,' which by requiring viable internal financial strength reflected the views of the Finance Branch of the Colonial Secretariat but also questioned the validity of the whole concept. This did not daunt the working party's draftsman. \n\nNo immediate application to the NT was expected (where the ark was peculiarly susceptible to rocking), and the special position of the Heung Yee Kuk and the Rural Committees as important consultative bodies in the sensitive circumstances of the self-consciously unBritish leased territories was acknowledged; but although that door should be left open, Tsuen Wan, already a swelling wen, must be made an exception now. The recommended procedure was to appoint an officer with overall responsibility for each developing NT area; to establish an advisory committee to him of local residents; and ultimately to transform this committee into a local authority.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213977, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 46, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "11\n\ngovernment would not surrender responsibility for, say, Immigration or Inland Revenue; but that other duties were either less clear-cut or simply so expensive as only to be borne by Government - this did not mean that they were not of great interest and concern to local residents. The report proposed that local authorities must be consulted, and enabled to make their views known, on the adequacy of Government’s arrangements or proposals for police and fire-service 'cover', medical, housing and educational facilities (which must silently stretch to financing policy), town-planning and development plans, and public transport. 'Mandatory' executive functions which should be devolved to all local authorities would include:\n\nPublic Health\n\nControl and provision of cleansing & sanitary services; latrines, bath & wash houses, laundries, labourers' lines, swimming pools, offensive trades & markets, hawking, ventilation, overcrowding, advertisements, slaughter houses, cemeteries & mortuaries.\n\nLicensing & control of restaurants, tea-houses & cooked food stalls.\n\nNotification of infectious diseases and public vaccination.\n\nOther Licensing Liquor, barber shops, bars, billiard saloons, bowling alleys, cinemas, dance halls, mahjong shops, money-lenders, pawnbrokers, skating rinks & table tennis saloons.\n\nHousing\n\nManagement of Government low-cost housing estates.\n\nOther\n\nWeights & Measures & naming of streets.\n\nAt first sight this miscellany hardly seemed of major public interest, apart from housing management and sanitation, and certainly no more likely to inspire civic consciousness than did the Urban Council which already had these powers in Victoria and Kowloon (its unofficial membership doubled as the Housing Authority.) However the supplementary list of 'permissive' functions which councils could undertake within laid-down standards promised much more delegation of visible powers from central social service Departments. Under Public", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213978, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 47, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "12\n\nHealth were listed provision & operation of maternity homes, ante- & post-natal clinics and health visiting. Under Education came provision & operation of primary & secondary schools, adult education & evening institutes. Under Welfare were recreational facilities, youth clubs, community centres, sports facilities, public swimming pools, homes for the aged, infants' crêches, refuges for street sleepers, distribution of relief, entertainment (band concerts, Chinese drama & opera), pleasure grounds, playgrounds and bathing beaches. The Miscellaneous category added declaration of one-way streets, parking zones, closing of streets as playgrounds (after consultation with Police), traffic warden services, provision & management of car parks, amenity provision (eg public fountains & tree planting), museums & art galleries, and undertaking of functions (such as collection of water rates & various fees) as agents of the central government.\n\nThis list went much farther in involvement of representative bodies in the affairs which closely and legitimately concerned the ordinary man and woman in the street, as well as extending what was already delegated to the Urban Council into most of the colony's growth areas. Apart from suggesting that the list might be added to in the light of experience, the bold proposition was made that in future no central department should be permitted to establish new local machinery without proving that the activity could not be carried out by a Local Authority. The report stated that it was not envisaged that the new councils should be independent Education Authorities; but it was clearly hoped that in the fullness of time the Education Department would regard local authority schools as a main component of the grant-aided system, and indeed relinquish its own primary schools to the councils. Finally, as a carrot for those in the NT who might be willing to contemplate change, it was pointed out that rural district councils should take over agricultural extension schemes, forestry lots, fish-ponds, local public works (footpaths, bridges, piers etc), local ferries, village layouts & housing schemes, and local water supplies & irrigation.\n\nThis would all have to be paid for. Local authorities should have financial responsibility, including revenue-raising powers. Local accountability to tax-payers and freedom from stifling dependency on central grants (with their inevitable consequential frictions) were essential to success. New structures would increase the administrative costs of the colony overall, and it might well be that some areas would", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213979, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 48, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "13 \n\nreject the offer of a local council which they would democratically control but have to support from their pockets. Rating might have to be extended to the NT: a simplified form had once existed for this, but had been repealed before implementation because of the various oppositions to treating the leased territories as an integral part of Hong Kong — it could be tried again. Division of the rating spoils between Government and local authorities would raise arguments, especially if, as at present appeared, rating revenue exceeded the initial likely expenditure by the new councils. The pros and cons of varied grant-in-aid codes were discussed, including equalisation grants to benefit poorer authorities, general purpose grants, and special grants to stimulate particular activities. The broad suggestion was that since revenues must be assured, easy to levy and collect, flexible and readily understood, rating should be introduced where not already levied (modified in rural areas) and be both fixed and collected by the local authorities; the accruing revenue should be shared between Central Government and Councils, the government share being the first charge; licensing fees, services income, agency fees, investment interest and perhaps gifts & bequests would be additional, and Central Government loans should facilitate capital developments.\n\nThe report sketched possible committee structures, emphasising the desirability of co-option of appropriate experts from outside and the need for proceedings to be conducted in the Chinese language. Initially staff would be seconded from the civil service, with prior consultation on selection for 'key' posts, high calibre would be demanded, and the potential for urban DOs with co-ordinating rôles was glanced at. The psychological and organisational implications for the NTA as the only existing link between Government and the landowners and people of the leased territories, and for the USD which provided services for the Urban Council and in the NT and was the obvious holding unit for staff seconded to new councils, would admittedly be considerable. “Guides, philosophers & friends” would always be desirable, however, and NTA & USD would survive in some form. The effect on the SCA was passed over: its head was ex officio a member of the Governor's Councils, and the constitution was implicitly not to be touched. However the anomaly of one small department claiming to be the sole link with the mass of the people would doubtless, as in other colonies, become transparent.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213981, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 50, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "The effective block was however contained in the Dickinson Report itself which, although signed unanimously, contained two Notes of Reservation by four of the six signatories. An undogmatic report in which only the chairman and one other seemed wholeheartedly to believe was easily left on one side.\n\nThe officer who admired the Urban Council subscribed to the spirit of the report but was unhappy with the possible division of the colony into as many as nine council areas within a single command span, without an intervening tier, in that tier he saw a future for a widened Urban Council, in the oversight of the fledglings. He preferred a gentle step by step evolution, taking into account Hong Kong's present lack of talent and expertise in administration, the need not to offend traditional institutions and loyalties, Chinese unfamiliarity with elections, and public suspicion of all uncharted changes. He did not co-ordinate his note with the other semi-dissenters.\n\nThe Chinese officer and the two with a general Hong Kong administrative background thought that the report provided a sound basis for citizen participation; but because of its reliance on the ballot box they doubted widespread public acceptance and goodwill, and whether it would attract the best candidates instead of unscrupulous or corrupt power-seekers. If the Urban Council could not attract heavy registration or electoral turn-outs, nor substantial numerical following among ordinary citizens (a picture which most of those who had never served with the USD recognised), how much less would the new authorities? They pointed to a recent UK National Association of Local Government Officers (NALGO, in modern times absorbed into the public services trades union UNISON) submission recommending abolition of small local authorities and restriction of British local government to regional councils with policy powers only, thus giving wider executive powers to their officials, the union's members. This was bolstered by the Note of Reservation's confidence in a Chinese pattern of strong bureaucratic control disciplined by strict moral principles. They too therefore sought a step by step approach, through a preliminary more determined tapping and usage of the known valuable reserves of respected, able and public-spirited true community leaders who were, they said, at present rarely found among the government's nominated or appointed councils. They wished to see greater decentralisation of government departments (already implemented in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213982, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 51, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "the Social Welfare Department), co-ordinated by regional generalist officers comparable with NT DOs, leading to advisory Regional Councils which might eventually become the main report's Local Authorities. They pointed up more outspokenly than the emollient main report the shortcomings of an out-of-touch government administering a non-English-speaking population that was only too open to misunderstandings and misconceptions (such as that taxes levied were drained off to the UK Treasury.) Interim steps should concentrate strongly on building up public confidence in the unaccustomed principles and practice of popular elected representation (the ‘political education' mentioned above.) The provisional system of regional advisory councils, coupled with departmental decentralisation and administrative co-ordination, should then lead to full local authorities in about six years. Meanwhile Tsuen Wan was indeed a unique opportunity for immediate action (the new towns to come of Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Tai Po et al had yet to be envisaged.) These three semi-dissenters did not co-ordinate their Note with the other.\n\nDickinson has been described by one of his working party as “the least understood and worst treated member of the Cadet Service\" (the original title of Hong Kong's Administrative Branch of the HMOCS, which survived in common parlance long after the absorption into the Colonial Service of the pre-war Eastern Cadetships.) He chose to retire early for personal reasons. It is ironic that in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution overspill, when special duties officers in the defence branch of the secretariat, the SCA and the Information Services Department became so active in devising new ways to win hearts and minds, to keep in touch with the people and to encourage the use of Chinese language, so much of what had been adumbrated in the Working Party Report re-appeared; but because the new ideas now came from well-established senior sources, they became respectable and it was to be long before they offered electoral participation in executive decisions. The SCA became the Secretariat for Home Affairs; City District Officers were created in ten urban districts, and found much to do that had not been done before; City District Committees were established in 1972; a Tsuen Wan District Advisory Board was at last set up in 1977, followed by others; in 1980 a new pattern for district administration was at last suggested, with direct elections to District Boards. But in all these and still later developments that affect present history, there was no official backward recognition that the ground", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213996, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "31\n\nCertainly, for heavy duty scaffolding laid out on a grid pattern, say when constructing a flyover and for other civil engineering work, metal scaffolding has advantages. Metal has already taken over in some cases from timber in areas such as hoardings around building sites and for site offices, when containers are sometimes utilised. Also, on large projects managed by the Government Housing Department, precast concrete units are used together with gondolas. This does away with much scaffolding.\n\nAlthough the change from bamboo scaffolding to metal has been much slower than many people expected over the past 40 years, especially with a limited number of trainee scaffolders entering the trade, the changing to metal can be expected to continue. Nevertheless, one can expect bamboo scaffolding, with its many advantages, to be in use for many years to come.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nThe author is grateful to Mr Albert Tong Yat Chu, Mr Cho Hon Chiu and scaffolding instructor Master Chor Keung, all of the Construction Industry Training Authority, for the information and photographs they supplied. The author is also grateful to Mr Jimmy C. M. Yuen, of the Occupational Safety and Health Council and to Mr S. L. Lam, Senior Architect of the Architectural Services Department, for their assistance.\n\nREFERENCES\n\n \n 1.\n TC Lai, Hasem Role. Philip Mao, Hings Chinese (Hong Kong, 1971), pp 13 and 14\n \n \n 2.\n Shrona Anbe, Fhustle ontd Bamboo, the Life and Times of St. James Stewart Lockhart, Oxford University Press (1989), p. 58\n \n \n 3.\n Alfred Russel Wallace, FRS (1823-1913) British naturalist, widely travelled, had many publications to his credit. See Chambers Biographical dictionary (Revised edition 1961)\n \n \n 4.\n Ho So, The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding, Ho So Kee Construction and Scaffolding Co (Hong Kong, circa 1974), p 3\n \n \n 5.\n Naomi Yin-yin Szeto, 'Bamboo Scaffolding”, of Hearts and Hands Hong Kong's Traditional Trades and Crafts, ed Joseph Ting, Urban Council Museum of History (Hong Kong, 1995), P 219\n \n \n 6.\n Ho, loc cit\n \n \n 7.\n Anthony Walker and Stephen M. Rowlinson, The Building of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Construction Association, Hong Kong University Press (1990), p 121-131", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214166, "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": 24, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Appendix C\n\nRASHKB Projects Undertaken during the 1998/9 Year\n\n(a) Photographic Exhibition: From 25 to 27 May, 1998, the RASHKB held a photographic exhibition on the overhead walkway leading from the Landmark building to Swire House. The RASHKB photographs of Western and Sheung Wan aroused considerable interest among the public. The main purpose of the exhibition was to boost RAS membership. Although many RAS members helped mount and man the exhibition, most of the planning and the bulk of the work was undertaken by Robert Nield and Tim Ko. Members Philip Bruce and Arthur Hacker also helped plan the recruitment drive, with the latter designing a new RAS brochure assisted by Dr Michael Lau for the Chinese translation. We are grateful to all who assisted in any way.\n\n(b) Tracing Graves: From July to September our Branch was involved with tracing seven graves for the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia. The requests to trace these graves came from descendants of the deceased living in Britain. Four of the graves were traced in Happy Valley and Carl Smith was able to trace, from his card index system, that the fifth person had died in Ningbo. The bulk of the research in Hong Kong was undertaken by Dr Dan Waters with help from the Government Urban Services Department.\n\n(c) Samuel Cornell Plant (1866-1921): Commencing in September as an ongoing project, two of our overseas members, Captain A.C. Bromfield and Mrs Rosemary Lee, have been assisting the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia research the life of Captain Plant. He was an inspector in the Chinese Maritime Customs on the dangerous upper section of the Yangtze River and he and his wife are buried in Happy Valley. The RASHKB has been involved at the Hong Kong end where research has been undertaken by Dr Dan Waters.\n\n(d) The National Library of China: From 17-24 January, 1999, RASHKB member Dr Kazimiera Gasztine worked in the National Library in Beijing, in an honorary capacity, assisting staff translate passages into English, and writing synopses of the contents of old and rare works. It is understood there is in the region of 4,000 such books in the Beijing library in languages about which the staff at the National Museum...\n\nxxiii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214381, "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": 239, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "205\n\nfind the funds which would be required for the installation of a modern sanitation system.\n\nFinance was not the only problem. Chinese opinion was rarely more resolute than in matters concerning personal hygiene. Chinese people and Europeans simply did not see sanitary matters in the same light and both groups thought that their views were correct. In her examination of colonial Singapore, Brenda Yeoh showed how the Chinese regarded matters of sanitation and disease very differently from Europeans and that these alternative views were not restricted to the uneducated and 'plebeian classes.' Thus, 'Whilst Western sanitary science advocated the removal of filth, the disinfection and ventilation of houses, and the isolation of the sick as essential preventive measures in stemming the tide of a disease, Chinese medical theory did not necessarily imbue these measures with similar significance.' According to traditional Chinese thinking, good health was the product of balance within the body whereas ill health occurred where disharmony existed. If, as Yeoh contends, these Chinese attitudes had survived for centuries, there is little reason to doubt that the average Chinese person living in Hong Kong in the 1880s thought any differently from his or her counterpart in Singapore.\n\nFrena Bloomfield deals with the background to this very basic Hong Kong plumbing problem in her book The Urban Council 1883-1983, which describes the development of the Urban Services Department which grew out of the Sanitary Department. The birth of the Sanitary Department arose from the recommendations of Osbert Chadwick, a renowned British engineer with experience in sanitary matters, who was brought to Hong Kong at considerable expense to assess the sanitary conditions of the colony and propose improvements. Chadwick was not the first professional to comment on the adverse state of the colony's drains. In 1870 the Colonial Surgeon, Dr J. Murray, had noted 'It is not creditable to this colony that after their unhealthy condition has been pointed out, both by myself and by the Sanitary Commission, they [the drains] should remain as they are, a source of disease and death.'\n\nChadwick visited Chinese dwellings and talked to members of the Chinese community during his examinations. The result of his study was a comprehensive document completed in November 1882 which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214570, "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": 428, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "397\n\nas, post 1945.\n\nOne would expect, bearing in mind that many of Hong Kong's records were destroyed during the Japanese occupation (1941-1945), that these last two would be the easiest of the seven to trace. The help of the staff of the Urban Services Department was again sought. They searched the registers of the Jewish and Muslim Cemeteries, and further searches were again made in the Hong Kong Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery. But still we were unable to locate the two missing graves. A search was also made by Mr Derek Cheng, cemetery attendant at the Stanley Cemetery, but without success.\n\nIn addition a search was made in the Government Public Records Office, at Kwun Tong, for the birth certificates of Knox and Moss. Again we were unsuccessful. A discussion was also held with an Immigration Department Officer in the Government Births and Deaths Registry. He informed me that unless more information could be obtained, including places of death (for example a hospital), it was extremely unlikely that the death certificates of the two could be traced. Search fees of HK$140.00 for the first and HK$680.00 for a second more general search would be charged for each person. This information has been passed back through BACSA to the relatives.\n\nThe seven dead persons were all British and it is therefore unlikely that they would have been buried in the delightful little Chiu Yuen (meaning bright and faraway) Eurasian Cemetery, on Hong Kong Island, or in one of the many Chinese cemeteries. Although cremation was rare until more recently (in 1958/59 only 1.65 per cent of corpses in Hong Kong were cremated1), it is just possible these two dead persons' bodies were disposed of in this way. Their ashes could have been scattered (very few are in Hong Kong) or placed in an urn, in a niche, in a columbarium. It is even more unlikely that the bones of these persons, being Europeans, would be placed in an ossuary. Again, it is unlikely that either of the two would have been buried on the China Mainland (although Moss, having died 'post 1945, could have been) after the People's Republic Government came to power in 1949.\n\nIt should be mentioned that all four graves that we found were located in pleasant surroundings close to, or under trees. Again the two", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214571, "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": 429, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "398\n\ncemeteries, although a little overgrown in places, are generally well tended.\n\nI am grateful for the assistance given to me by the staff of the Urban Services Department, the Public Records Office and the Immigration Department, and by the Reverend Carl Smith in locating, and trying to locate these graves.\n\nAmong the work the RASHKB undertakes, including publishing journals and books, and organising lectures, and local and overseas visits, our Branch also undertakes a number of projects of varying types. Tracing or trying to trace the above seven graves is just one example. By working together with BACSA the RASHKB was also able to provide a community service.\n\nNOTES\n\nDan Waters, 'Chinese Funerals: A Case Study', Journal of HKBRAS, V31, 1991 (1996), P.118.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214604, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 19, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "May, 1999, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, after which he gave a talk entitled: 'Hong Kong: From Memory Lane to Post 1997 Handover'\n\nRASHKB Library and finance\n\nBoth our Honorary Librarian, Julia Chan, and our Honorary Treasurer, Robert Nield, have prepared their own 1999/2000 reports which they will present at this Annual General Meeting. I thank them for their assistance and for the special expertise that they bring to our Council. Our RASHKB Library is on permanent loan to the City Hall Urban Council Library and we thank the City Hall and its staff for all their assistance during the past year.\n\nAccommodation\n\nWe also owe a debt of gratitude to PricewaterhouseCooper, who have helped us in various ways. With their offices situated in the heart of Central District, for example, they have provided us with very convenient accommodation for our Council and committee meetings. Similarly, we are grateful to the Public Records Office, at Kwun Tong, for providing us with storage space for our publications and for other assistance rendered by them during the past year. We are also indebted to the Government Leisure and Cultural Services Department for permitting us to use the City Hall accommodation for lectures which are run as joint RASHKB/Leisure and Cultural Services functions.\n\nThe Council\n\nAlthough a number of decisions have to be taken outside Council (because of the time factor) by individual office bearers or a few together, the majority of the important decisions are taken in Council. This meets every six weeks or so with a longer break over the summer. During the past year the Council has consisted of Doctors Elizabeth Sinn and Michael Lau, both Vice Presidents, Robert Nield, Peter Halliday, Julia Chan, Valery Garrett, Bob Horsnell, Tim Ko, and May Holdsworth. Doctors Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, Peter Barker, and Janet Lee Scott have also been members of Council while the Reverend Carl Smith, Honorary Vice President, and Sarah Parnell have been co-opted on to the Council.\n\nxviii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214917, "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-2000", "page_number": 13, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nSolomon Bard, O.B.E., E.D., is a long-time, well-known resident of Hong Kong and amongst his many other accomplishments is a musician, archaeologist and historian. His published works include the following: In Search of the Past: A Guide to the Antiquities of Hong Kong (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1988); Traders of Hong Kong: Some Foreign Merchant Houses, 1841-1899 (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1993); and Garrison Memorials in Hong Kong: Some Graves and Monuments at Happy Valley (Antiquities and Monuments Office, Hong Kong, Occasional Paper No. 4, 1997).\n\nBrian C. Fawcett, was born in the Far East where his father served with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also joined the bank and served from 1961 to 1978, being based in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1978. During that time he was also a volunteer with the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, now the Government Flying Services. He is a life member of HKBRAS.\n\nPeter Halliday, M.A., Ph.D., is an Assistant Commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and is in charge of the Information Systems Wing. He has been the Hon. Editor of the HKBRAS Journal since 1993 (peterhalliday@police.gov.hk).\n\nJames Hayes, Ph.D., D.Litt. (Hon.), is a Past-president of HKBRAS. He is a noted scholar and Hong Kong historian, and has written several books, the most recent being Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People, 1953-87. He has contributed prolifically to the Journal (mouseh1@bigpond.com).\n\nTeresa Kowalska, Ph.D., is a professor of physical chemistry at the Silesian University, Katowice, Poland. She has a distinguished academic record in her chosen field and publishes widely. Her interest in and admiration of, the writer Han Suyin is an extracurricular pursuit (kowalska@uranos.cto.us.edu.pl).\n\nJack Lao Mou Chi, is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Labour of the Hong Kong Government and a member of HKBRAS.\n\nBarbara Park, is a landscape designer and a long-time member of HKBRAS.\n\nxii", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215683, "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": 460, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "412\n\nHe was 55 years old. His wife died on 28th February, 1921 in the Hong Kong Civil Hospital. Both are buried in Section 12 of the Hong Kong Cemetery. (photograph)\n\nOn reading the report of their funeral in the Hong Kong press, another mystery emerges - that of their two adopted daughters.\n\nIn our research we found mention of them only once, in the detailed report of the funeral in the South China Morning Post of 3rd March, 1921. Theirs was a large funeral conducted by the Bishop of North China and attended by representatives from the large shipping companies as well as the Navy. We read.... 'The chief mourners were the two Chinese adopted daughters of the deceased...,' whom, it goes on to say, were to be looked after by Butterfield and Swire 'pending ascertainment of the provision made for them by their deceased guardians.' Nowhere else have we found mention of these children.\n\nWhat happened to them?\n\nIn publishing this short article we hope to hear from readers who may be able to contribute to the completion of the Plant story.\n\nAcknowledgements\n\nOur interest in the Plant family was aroused on reading Simon Winchester's book The River at the Centre of the World. Thanks go to Dr. D. D. Waters, Past President of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Mrs. May Holdsworth, Ms. Charlotte Bleasdale of Swires, Mrs. Merilyn Hywel-Jones from BACSA, the Pyatt family who researched and photographed the Plant grave in Happy Valley Cemetery in Hong Kong, and to Major Arthur Kirby of the Framlingham and District Local History and Preservation Society. Po Leung Kuk in Hong Kong and the Office of Cemeteries and Cremations, Urban Services Department, Hong Kong, also searched their records. All took a sustained interest in this project and gave willingly of their time to help with research.\n\n1 [Hon. Ed. - Does anyone know what became of it?]", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215698, "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": 475, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "428\n\ncould be slipped past the powers-that-be. Slaughterhouse butchers, villagers in New Territories villages, hawkers in urban street-markets, taxi-drivers, factory-hands forced to commute on wildly inadequate bus-services, all were helped by schemes introduced by Denis. When I first joined the Hong Kong Administrative Service in 1972, I heard a good deal about the problems these \"Bray-waves\" caused to the bureaucrats who were teaching us the ropes, and who wanted nothing so much as a comfortable life, bolstered by rule-books which never needed to be questioned, but, having looked at what Denis did, and how he did it, I have no doubt at all that what he did was politically essential, well thought out, practicable, and necessary. Letters \"B,\" the Small House Policy, the Hawker Control Force, the Mutual Aid Committees, and so much more, were the right solutions to real problems, and genuinely did alleviate real unfairness. All too often, after Denis moved on, his successors would hamstring his reforms by refusing to implement them in the spirit in which they were introduced, unfortunately, but I do not believe anyone reading in an unbiased way Denis' account of the introduction of Letters \"B\" (p. 76), or the Small House Policy (p. 163-166) could fail to see the need for the new policy, nor the skill and intelligence with which Denis undertook the work.\n\nReading this book, I was amazed to see just how many of the policies I attempted to implement had been introduced by Denis. In the Urban Services Department, the Home Affairs Department, and as District Officer in the New Territories, almost all the policies that governed my life had been introduced by him.\n\nThe later part of the book, on the years when Denis was \"near the top,\" and at the top, will prove of interest to political historians in later years, giving glimpses of an insider's view of the negotiations on the future of Hong Kong. I personally found this part of the book duller and of less interest. Loyalty to the system makes the descriptions thin and the reticence is widespread. Nonetheless, this part of the book is without doubt of considerable historical value.\n\nAt the end of the book is a short “Epilogue” in which Denis gives his views on the political development of Hong Kong after his retirement. His utter rejection of the Patten position is made very clear, and his espousal of a slow-but-steady development towards universal suffrage for the Legislative Council and for the election of the Chief", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215726, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "CONTRIBUTORS\n\nAndrew Abraham, is a noted Singaporean academic.\n\nPaul Bolding, works as a financial journalist at the news and information organisation Reuters in London. He has been with Reuters since 1974. He lived in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997 and has travelled widely in Asia. Mr Bolding has previously worked in Europe and the Middle East including Brussels, Berlin and Nicosia. He is a co-author of the Insight Guide to Turkey (pbolding@onetel.net.uk)\n\nJulia Chan, is the Hon Librarian of HKBRAS and a member of Council (jlychan@hkucc.hku.hk).\n\nChohong Choi, obtained a B.A. in History from Queens College of the City University of New York, and an M.Phil. in History from the University of Hong Kong. He is currently a research assistant in the Department of Real Estate & Construction at HKU.\n\nThe late Arnold Graham, was an old China hand. He was well known for his steady stream of Letters to the Editor in Hong Kong under the pseudonym Ancient Gweilo (a play on his initials). He donated a large number of books to the Library of HKBRAS in 1994. He ultimately relocated to New Zealand where he passed away in 1996.\n\nPeter Halliday, was formerly an assistant commissioner with the Hong Kong Police Force and its chief information officer for over six years. He now heads his own information technology consulting and training company, Elite IT Services Ltd. He is the Hon Editor of HKBRAS and a member of Council (Peter.Halliday@e-liteitservices.com).\n\nPeter Hansell, is an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain.\n\nPaul Harrison, started his conservation career as a volunteer at Leicester Museum, U.K., in his school holidays. He has a B.Sc. in Archaeological Conservation and a M.Sc. in Archaeometallurgy from the Institute of Archaeology, now part of University College London. He has also worked for the Scottish Urban Archaeological Trust, the British School at Athens in Crete, studying an ancient Minoan City - Palaikastro - and Bradford University's Department of Archaeological Sciences. He was formally with the Central Conservation Division (Metals), Museum of History, Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He now heads his own conservation company, Phoenix Conservation Ltd., (paulehar@netvigator.com).\n\nxvi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215842, "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": 141, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "74\n\nThe coloured and inscribed cloth banners presented in recognition of services rendered were the least expensive of presentation items. They were needed in considerable quantities at some major events, and could be seen stacked in piles on the table at which the principal guests sat. This was just as well, since they had all to be presented by one or other of their number. They were made up by firms specializing in the production of flags and banners of all shapes and sizes. They usually bore four Chinese characters, aphorisms betokening diligent or whole-hearted service to the people, and the like, together with the name of the individual or body for whom it was intended. (Plate 15) As often as not the aphorisms came from the Chinese (Confucian) classics and have become proverbs in everyday usage.\n\nChrome or silver-plated items like dishes or figurines obtained from specialist firms were presented to deserving helpers or supporting organizations. Again, these were inscribed as appropriate to the occasion - especially the dishes, which often carried the four-character phrases - and named the event and date, together with the name of the individual or organization concerned (Plate 16)\n\nMore substantial items were prepared for the presiding officials, who might be presented with scrolls, couplets or paintings. As often as not, the scrolls and paintings would already have been framed. It mattered not that the official or guest whom the association wished to honour was Chinese or foreign. The same token of appreciation was applied to all, facilitated by the practice of equipping foreigners with Chinese names. In China up to 1949, missionary doctors and educators were frequent recipients of such tokens of gratitude for services rendered, and there must still be many examples of the kind to be found in their homes across the globe and on the antique market. So, too, it was in Hong Kong. Like many other officials, I was the recipient of such traditional literary tokens when serving in the district administration in town and country.\n\nSometimes a Committee would have invited an artist friend of their acquaintance to attend the occasion, and would prevail upon him to paint something for the principal guests. Our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, and I still have the pictures of tigers painted for us by Mr. Ng Shan at a gathering of the Ap Lei Chau Kaifong Association around 1974, when we were serving together in the Urban Services Department.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215846, "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": 145, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "78\n\nthe theatrical matsheds and much else, were borne by association leaders and their members, and by donations from, and levies on, the local communities. The services of the schoolmasters and local scholars were normally rendered without charge, since they were probably pleased to be asked, and their work kept their names and reputation before the public.\n\nLion or unicorn dances\n\nIn Hong Kong, lion and unicorn dancers were, and still are, an important adjunct to ceremonial occasions. They are much in evidence at festival times, and in the opening ceremonies for any important event. No resited villagers would occupy their new settlement without the obligatory lion or unicorn dance to help guarantee a safe and prosperous environment, and no self-respecting new bank branch or restaurant would open for business without these harbingers of their future business success. Newly renovated historic buildings were also re-opened in style, with lion dancers well to the fore (Plate 19)\n\nBefore development overtook Hong Kong's former rural area, practically all the six or seven hundred old villages of the New Territories had their lion or unicorn dance teams. In Cantonese-speaking villages, it was always a lion; and in the Hakka villages, a unicorn. However, observation and enquiry indicate that their purpose and motivation are much the same. These dance troupes are also to be found in urban areas, past as well as present.\n\n3\n\nBesides the lion and unicorn troupes, there was a third, much less common and only to be seen among immigrant communities of persons from the Hoklo areas of Northeastern Guangdong. This was the pei yau troupe. Described to me as 'younger brother to the dragon,' the pei yau was rather a joyous, amiable creature. Plate 20 shows a typical example, photographed in a New Territories village in recent years.\n\n* The dance teams were at the heart of traditional village life. Besides what might be styled their internal duties at family celebrations by fellow villagers or at the opening of temples, ancestral halls, schools and village offices, they were turned out to meet and send off important visitors. If plague menaced, the lion or unicorn dancers accompanied Taoist priests in procession round the neighbourhood in order to dispel it. And should any village be under attack, the troupes under their respected instructors would form the first-line defence. They were, besides, a principal means for maintaining and extending a village's status and prestige.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215911, "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": 210, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "144\n\n\"My car is white so wave at me when you see me, I'll be there in seven minutes,\" said Hase as he gave me directions to wait at the McDonald's in Tai Wo KCR station for our interview. It has taken me almost an hour to get here. I'm in the New Territories.\n\nHe is dressed in a loosely fitting top with colourful embroidery around the edges, and his hair is shorter and seems to have gone a bit lighter than when I last saw him a few months ago. He is friendly and I'm feeling relaxed despite having been a bit nervous in anticipation of our meeting. I fear my questions will not be good enough, or intelligent enough for him.\n\nHase's home is just as I had imagined it: east meets west, and serene. I am served English tea in a Chinese mug and we are using bronze coasters with Chinese characters on them.\n\nWhen I go back to Toronto, my friends often say I sound a bit British, and sometimes they say they don't know what I sound like. But Hase's English accent hasn't been corrupted by his learning Cantonese.\n\n\"Cantonese is difficult because of two things. The first is, it's not written,\" said Hase. \"Now if you're learning Mandarin, you can learn to read it and learn to speak it and the two help each other...The second problem is the tonal structure, which is very complicated, infinitely more complicated than it is in Mandarin and that's very difficult for foreigners...\"\n\n\"So, when I'm speaking Cantonese, my tones are not bad but if I get angry, if I lose my temper, then my tones start to change.\"\n\nHard to believe that Hase arrived in the colony not knowing a word of the language. The government wasn't looking for people who knew the language, just for people who wanted a job.\n\nHase was born in the United Kingdom and got his Ph.D. from Cambridge in an aspect of 7th Century English History. Hase was unable to get a job teaching and opted for a job with the government as an Administrative Officer with his first posting as Administrative Assistant in the Urban Services Department. He arrived in the territory in 1972\n\nPage 210\n\nPage 211", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215913, "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": 212, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "146\n\n\"I'm really the end, the last generation of people who can reach through because the elders are still there, but they are getting very rare now. They are getting fewer.\"\n\nDealing with the elders is difficult in many ways. There are areas that cannot be addressed, such as women's issues, and often the older generation will fall into their own native dialects, such as Wai Do, Yuen Long Wah or Hakka.\n\nHase started telling me a joke about the differences in the dialects and how a sentence in Cantonese can be made to sound completely different, and not very pleasant, in another dialect. I didn't get it, but I enjoyed listening to the historian tell it.\n\nHase worked for many years in Shatin as district officer, which made getting interviews with the elders a lot easier. When Hase retired from the civil service, he was deputy director of the Urban Services Department. He is currently running his own consultancy firm and most recently testified in the capacity of Fung Shui specialist in the Spur Line case,\n\nthe controversy over the building of a railway through Long Valley, a bird haven that supports more than 200 species.\n\nHase took over the RAS presidency in March and has agreed to serve for three to four years.\n\n\"We are a middle-aged gweilo society, but I'd like to see us a little bit less,\" said Hase. \"We're always going to be a middle-aged gweilo society but I'd like to have a lot, a much higher percentage of young Chinese members even if it was always to remain a minority. But how to do this? We've been thinking for 20 years and not been able to come up with any solution.\"\n\nMembership as of March 12, 2001 stood at 477, which includes 391 local and 86 overseas members. A hundred new members had been recruited between the end of January 2000 to March 13, 2001.\n\nInstead of trying to recruit from the public, the society hopes to get new members with the potential to best serve the society. These include graduate students in anthropology, archaeology, history and sociology.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215934, "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": 233, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "167\n\nsocieties in the Japanese Army, though in his memoirs he downplayed this role. When Mrs Bush, a Japanese, was later forced to work as a Kempeitai interpreter, she talked to a prisoner who was in American Naval Intelligence about their mutual friend Charles Boxer. Bill Kendall, of whom more below, was told by Boxer that the Japanese were on the move: when he saw the zeros flying overhead, and knew that the attack had finally started.\n\nBeyond military intelligence\n\nFW Kendall was a Canadian from Vancouver who had lived in Hong Kong since childhood, and spoke not only fluent Cantonese but other dialects as well. He had had a mining business in China, but after the Japanese occupied east Guangdong and Chekiang his business was cut off. He then moved back to Hong Kong and worked for the Government organising refugee relief, building and running the main large camp at Kam Tin. Early in 1940 Kendall was approached by Col LA Newnham, in his capacity in charge of Military Intelligence, and asked to set up a small unit of civilians and volunteers. Being non-military personnel, they could undertake training in the use of sabotage and \"ungentlemanly warfare,\" which the official armed services could not legitimately carry out. The unit was given the cover name Z Force. Allocating £1,500 for this 'unit for independent action behind enemy lines' had to be done outside normal accounting channels, GOC Hong Kong told the War Office in September 1941, because of the need for absolute secrecy in a small place like Hong Kong.\n\nThe Special Operations Executive, under the Ministry for Economic Warfare, had been established in Europe for some years to assist resistance. They trained agents for the specific purpose of operating behind enemy lines using espionage, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare. Specialist SOE units created miniature code machines, wireless facilities and concealed weapons, known by the cheerful name of 'toys.' Where strategically useful, SOE created facilities for specialised sabotage. The whole point of SOE was to facilitate war in situations such as in occupied countries where traditional warfare was impractical. Its methods were ideally suited to the situation in China, where the front was so large and diverse that Japanese supply lines were stretched to vulnerability. The populace was strongly motivated for resistance, and the Japanese, whose control was weak beyond urban areas, were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216098, "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": 397, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "331\n\nTram with an open-neck shirt and an off-white, wet-wash Saigon-linen suit. He had a necktie in his pocket to put on for meetings. He carried a Hong Kong (rattan) basket: no briefcase for him. One thing you did not do, in those days, was to mention the expiry of the lease and the hand back of the Territory to China in 1997, I did once, at a reception, and regretted it. You could hear a pin drop. It really was a 'borrowed place on borrowed time.'\n\nWhen I arrived conscription was still in force and every able-bodied British subject had to serve. If you were young, in your twenties, you usually joined the Regiment (the Volunteers). People like me, in my thirties, served in the Special Constabulary (in 1959 it became the Auxiliary Police). Those over 40 were drafted into Essential Services, such as air-raid warden duties. New recruits such as me, in the police European contingent, did three months basic training and 10 days at camp every year. At the latter the European contingent was grouped with the Portuguese and Eurasian contingent. There was a separate camp for Chinese. This was said to be largely for language reasons. Of course we all turned out during the five days of the 1956 riots. These were sparked when a junior civil servant pulled down a Nationalist flag, on the \"Double Tenth\" (10 October), from a Shek Kip Mei resettlement block in north Kowloon. The riots were very much Communists against Nationalists. Later, triads stepped in and took advantage of the situation.\n\nRoutinely, we Special Constables went on street patrol a couple of nights a month and raided opium dens and brothels. One of the interesting places we enjoyed going to was Circular Path, to the south of Queen's Road Central. With urban renewal this path has now disappeared. It contained, among other accommodation, a number of back-street workshops where reputedly stolen jade items and the like were \"re-worked.\"\n\n**\n\nI remember being on police patrol in Central, in April 1956, when we received news that the twice knighted, grand old man, Sir Robert Ho Tung, had passed away. He was 93, although for much of his life he did not enjoy good health. A Eurasian, he had \"gone the Chinese way.\" With his fabulous wealth he lived the life of a Chinese gentleman. It is sometimes said, 'All rivers which run into the China Sea turn salty.' In other words, all ethnic groups living in China get assimilated sooner or later.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]