[ { "id": 204959, "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": 67, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "60\n\nJ. MCCOY\n\nWith these reservations I would go ahead to describe KS as differing only slightly from SC and containing no phonological or grammatical elements identifiable as non-Chinese. The KS lexicon is essentially Cantonese with the superstructure of technical terms which are available to, but seldom used by, land dwellers plus a few terms worthy of further research which seem at first glance to be outside these patterns. Some examples of this latter category are /mai6/ 'to disembark' and /khau2/ 'to dwell'.\n\nThe next question would then be whether we can say something more positive about KS forms in terms of a possible point of origin for the ancestors of the present speakers. When I heard the tradition about Tung Kun as a possible source I checked the KS material with Yuan (1960) and with my own somewhat different data on Tung Kun phonology. There are interesting similarities but also a few marked differences. I have only a small amount of data on the rural Pun Yu dialects but what little I have seen suggests that this area would be good to check for an identification. With speculation of this sort we begin to get on fairly thin ice. In the first place, the Boat People at Kau Sai seem to have been there for more than two centuries, long enough for the development of a few distinctive sound changes of their own to cloud the issue. And secondly, we are still terribly short of the really detailed dialect area coverage that would be necessary to tie up KS with a particular point elsewhere in the Cantonese speaking regions. Works such as those by Wang Li (1932; 1949-50a,b), Chao (1947, 1951a,b), and Yuan (1960) have made great inroads into the problem but the regions of minor dialect variation are so unbelievably numerous in Kwangtung Province that there seems little hope for a detailed picture to emerge for many years to come. The recent interest which Peking has taken in such matters, principally in their efforts to foster Mandarin as a standard language, has produced a great deal of material on dialect and subdialect throughout China; Yuan (1960) published as part of this general effort and probably more is yet to come. Still, there is plenty to do and no linguist in the field will feel himself crowded. One of the points of this paper is that even within the limits of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong there exists the same problem in microcosm and much time could well be spent sorting out the local varieties.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206197, "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": 14, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "At a later meeting the committee further decided that our active support should begin by informing you officially of our views on this important subject, but in doing so, I must not give you the impression that it represents the considered opinion of the Society as a whole. That may be forwarded later.\n\nI would however like to take this opportunity of making the point which I personally believe cannot be too strongly stressed at this stage of Hong Kong's development, where one so frequently still hears the question asked: \"Why do we need a public museum?\" Those who still ask that question obviously know nothing of modern museums or modern education. We need an up-to-date museum, not because all other cities in the world worthy of the name have at least one museum and that therefore we must follow suit, but because a museum in these days is something more than a mere repository of things relating to the past; it is as much an active, integral and essential part of any system of public education as a school, a college or a university is.\n\nAny modern museum worthy of the name provides opportunities for study which are complementary to the routine courses provided by institutions of learning at all levels of education - primary, secondary or tertiary - and the real value of these complementary opportunities lies in the fact that they are of a more informal nature, and consequently allow (and indeed encourage) the development of initiative and specialization among pupils.\n\nFor this reason, expenditure on a museum project is not to be regarded as favouring the intelligentsia or a minority group; it is essential for its part in the balanced development of the young minds in the colony of all classes.\n\nThis makes it of all the more importance in Hong Kong where our youth forms over 50% of our population, because the financial provision for these educational facilities is every bit as important as the provision of recreational facilities for our young people which so much more readily captures the imagination of social workers and the readers of the headlines in our press.\n\nYours faithfully,\n\nL. T. RIDE\n\nPresident,\n\nHong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206234, "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": 51, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION\n\n45\n\nHo Kai's judgment was keen indeed. China voluntarily and in an humiliating fashion concluded the Sino-Franco War on the verge of victory. The tragic end of the Foochow fleet, however, was due to the ill-judgment and incapacity of her commander-in-chief, Admiral Ho Ju-chang, which gave the French the chance to destroy the whole fleet in half-an-hour.14\n\nThe situation of the Chinese army, in the eyes of Ho Kai, was no better than that of the navy. He said:\n\nThe Chinese make fine soldiers if properly disciplined and armed, and placed under brave leaders. Let their salaries be paid regularly and adequately according to law, and not cut down and kept in arrears for months together, let their drills be conducted regularly. Does China wish to have an army worthy of the name? Let her then first reform her internal administration in this department. One point I wish to impress especially upon those who have the guidance of affairs is, that the efficiency of an army does not so much depend upon the number of soldiers composing it as on their collective and individual proficiency. I cannot leave the topic without recalling to mind the achievements of the Ever Victorious Army when under the distinguished leadership of that renowned chief, the late lamented General C. G. Gordon,\n\nAs to China's relations with foreign powers, Ho Kai admitted that she had much cause for complaint. China was bound down by treaties to do much that was incompatible with her rights and dignity as an independent sovereign state. She was often sharply pulled up and rebuked for the least semblance of a breach of an article in such treaties, while some foreign nations were not very careful in observing their part of the agreements and extremely tardy in rendering justice to her claims. The Chinese, as a matter of fact, had not always received the respect and consideration which they deserved, and in some places they were even treated as if they were more devils than men. The only way to save China from this injustice and maltreatment was to make immediate reforms. High officials must find the true cause of their country's degradation and then apply the proper remedy. The army and navy were not the key to the problem of China's weakness. The real weakness of China was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206582, "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": 130, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "HL, I \n\nBICH TÌM \n\nSHAM SHUI PO \n\nNEW KOWLOON \n\nWESTERN DISTRICT \n\nVICTORIA \n\nKOWLOON \n\nHÒNG KÊN \n\nABERDEEN \n\nTSE WAN \n\nHONG KONG \n\nWORTHY POINT \n\nHARBOUR \n\nKOWLOON TONE \n\nSHAU KEI WAN \n\nCHAI WAN \n\nSOURCES \n\nEXISTING & PROPOSED GOVERNMENT & GOVERNMENT AIDED HOUSING ESTATES – METROPOLITAN AREA - 31-3-70 \n\nFIG. 8 \n\n1224 \n\nE. G. PRYOR", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207366, "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": 134, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "126\n\nRICHARD J. SMITH\n\nWhen Ward's employment was first reported to the throne in early 1862, the governor of Kiangsu, Hsueh Huan, took special pains to point out that Ward, in addition to being a courageous and seemingly invincible warrior, was also a loyal servant of the throne, who had petitioned to become a Chinese subject and to change to Chinese ways. Although Ward's petition had in fact been submitted almost a year earlier in a successful attempt to avoid prosecution (this was, of course, unmentioned in the memorial), Hsueh argued that it would be \"inconvenient to repress the sincerity\" of his \"wholehearted turning toward [Chinese] civilization\" (hsiang-hua). Hsüeh suggested that Ward should be granted the fourth rank button and peacock feather in order to encourage him to \"admire right behavior and establish merit” (mu-i li-kung). In response, the throne issued an edict conferring the honors, satisfied that the foreigner had indeed \"turned out of admiration toward Chinese customs\" (hsiang-mu Hua-feng). He was, in Peking's eyes, sincere, helpful and obedient, \"surely worthy of admiration and esteem.”67\n\nIn subsequent months, Ward received additional rewards: the third rank button, brevet rank as colonel, and finally \"expectant\" colonel status. By all accounts he was a brave and singularly effective commander. At the same time, however, he was a brash individual, whose independent spirit and flamboyant style offended, and occasionally alarmed, the Chinese. As Ward's prestige and self-confidence grew, criticisms of his behavior began to appear in memorials to the throne. Hsieh Huan, for one, began to complain of his arrogance and unmanageability. Prince Kung, a leading figure in both the Grand Council and the Tsungli Yamen, found Ward to be proud, boastful, and overly independent. The throne, for its part, expressed special concern over Ward's failure to shave his head and change to Chinese clothing. (Particularly damaging was Hsüeh's report that the barbarian commander had failed to conform to Chinese customs because he feared the ridicule of foreigners!) From Peking's vantage point, the acceptance of Chinese culture was the principal means of gauging the foreigner's receptiveness to imperial control. When Ward failed to conform to the dictates of propriety, his actions cast doubt on his sincerity, and perhaps more importantly, on the efficacy of traditional restraints.68\n\nAll Chinese did not view Ward's indiscretions as matters of great concern, however. Hsüeh's successor as governor, Li Hung-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208393, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1978", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "SHIWAN POTTERY EXPLORED\n\nFREDRIKKE SKINSNES SCOLLARD*\n\nIn April of 1977 I had the opportunity to visit the pottery-producing town of Shiwan for the first time with the Oriental Ceramic Society tour. At that time for foreigners, group travel to China from Hong Kong still involved months of waiting for approval, and the individual trip needed for my own research of Shiwan pottery was an impossibility. The day spent in Shiwan however, was sufficient to establish a few acquaintances and to discover that fundamental archaeological research was in progress.\n\nIn May of the same year I gave a talk to the Oriental Ceramic Society titled \"Shiwan Reverberatory\". The reason for the choice of that title was that in ten years' experience studying Shiwan pottery, I have met with a great deal of resistance to the study of these wares. Art historians feel they are a coarse and unimportant local product with little esthetic merit, and even most non-specialists more often than not react with \"I just don't like it.\" In a first lecture on Shiwan pottery, I therefore did not expect to gain immediate converts to this art with a very different and unfamiliar esthetic. Rather, the choice of the title indicated that I felt the subject was worthy of much more attention, and that I hoped, over the next few years, my audience would have repeated opportunity to see and study Shiwan pottery, thereby slowly gaining familiarity with its esthetic.\n\nIndeed, over the last two years, more attention has been paid to these wares. In October of 1977, the Hong Kong Museum of Art in cooperation with the Leal Senado of Macau, staged an exhibition of 139 pieces and published a full colour catalogue. Mr. Lawrence Tam delivered an excellent talk to this Society on the subject, and Mr. Nigel Cameron critiqued the exhibition with his \"Second Thoughts on Shekwan\" in the South China Morning Post.1 At present, the Fung Ping Shan Museum of the University of Hong Kong, in cooperation with Guangzhou museums, is preparing a joint exhibition on Shiwan pottery for the fall of 1979.\n\n* Ms. Scollard holds Masters' degrees in the History of Art (Hawaii) and Chinese Literature (Chicago). She is Associate-in-Research, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210041, "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": 12, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "uty Director of Broadcasting and formerly house master at St. Stephen's College, took us into the grounds and spoke about the school's history.\n\nPublications\n\nMr. H.A. Rydings, formerly our Hon. Librarian, has produced a Volume in our monograph series providing an index to the Sessional Papers of Hong Kong 1882-1941, that is, to papers laid before the Legislative Council. This work will be of much use to students and journalists, and indeed to anyone taking a serious interest in Hong Kong's affairs.\n\nThe 1983 Journal, edited by Dr. Patrick Hase, is in press and is expected shortly. As I know from having been a former editor, production of the Journal is a time-consuming job, and much depends on the time available to the editor. Dr. Hase has had the misfortune to be very heavily engaged outside office hours with his Government duties in the past year, and inevitably this has delayed his work. I am glad to report another publishing venture. In order to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Society's reestablishment in Hong Kong, the Council has arranged for a joint publication with Oxford University Press, under our two imprints, of a volume of essays dealing with the Chinese Protestant Church and its contribution to the growth and development of Hong Kong's society by our Vice President and noted historian, Revd Carl T. Smith. This will be made available to members at a 25% reduction in block orders before and after publication, which is expected in the autumn of this year. I am delighted that Oxford has taken up this proposal and I know that the book will be a worthy and long-lasting sign of this happy association.\n\nPhotographic Survey\n\nMr. Phillip Bruce has taken over the survey from Mr. Diamond. With paid help from students, the negatives from previous photographic work have been catalogued, and Mr. Bruce has extended the survey from the Central and Western Districts to Wanchai where, he tells me, he has taken over 2,500 photographs of interesting buildings. When time allows, a second volume of\n\nxi", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211787, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 202, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "177\n\n'Tis not in mortals to command success\n\n89\n\nAnd that the actors had in general nothing to fear from the public has already been shown and is testified once more by a contemporary: \"The scenery was rude, the action imperfect, but a good-natured audience showed that charity which covers a multitude of sins and seldom failed to enjoy themselves\".\n\nV. The Theatres\n\n90\n\nThe localities in which all performances took place were adorned with high-sounding names like the Theatre Royal, the New Theatre Royal, the Olympic Theatre or the Lyceum Theatre. And though it is evident that in this way it was hoped to conjure up visions of their namesakes in the British capital, realities were quite different. It was only in 1867 that a theatre worthy of the name was opened in Shanghai; it was called the Lyceum Theatre, like its predecessor. But that was, as all the ones that went before, a mere refitted and redecorated warehouse, or, to use the local term, godown. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to trace the vicissitudes of these \"Thespian Temples\".\n\nAs was the case with the theatrical companies that were formed anew every season, the \"pretty little theatres\" too had to be rented each year. This did not mean, however, that the buildings changed all the time; on more than one occasion the same godown was used for several seasons. Yet it is difficult to get a clear picture because the information given in the local paper is often very scanty with respect to addresses; in fact, in only one instance has a road been named, so one has to rely on other sources in order to establish the location of the theatres.\n\nA.\n\nSeasons 1850-1851 and 1851-1852: The Theatre Royal or New Theatre Royal (both names were used). No address can be fixed. For the opening performance of the season 1851-1852, on January 26, 1852, the theatre had been \"tastefully refitted and decorated; a very pretty drop scene of the Port of Leghorn added\". The painters were active this season, for on the evening of March 24 \"a new drop scene of the Bay of Naples adorned the proscenium\". The previous one had been \"transferred to decorate the walls of the theatre\". Furthermore, it was contemplated to \"paint a series of Italian scenery and in due time the whole theatre will...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212014, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 429, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "Metzger's approach is essentially Western in identifying values promoting Western forms of modernity (as in the writings of the Hong Kong historian, Lau Siu-guang p. 289), while overlooking some other important alternatives—a point made by Andrew Nathan (p. 310).\n\nTwo outstanding articles extend further the methodological issues in evaluating modern China, suggesting an important lacuna in reflecting on Schwartz's academic achievements. Germaine Hoston's tour de force, a comparative study of Chinese, Japanese, South American, and African Marxisms, rests not only in the cultural pluralities she has in her grasp but also in her reassessment of the spiritual dimensions of Marxist, and specifically Chinese and Japanese Marxist, theories (pp. 169-220). Asian Marxists uncovered a wealth of sympathy for certain spiritual dimensions, much like Liberation theologians, including the full absorption by Japanese Marxists of elements of kokutai ('national polity', pp. 193-195). A similarly admirable essay by Andrew Nathan untangles the conflict between cultural relativism and ‘evaluative universalism’, that is, forming judgements in cross-cultural studies on the basis of values the investigator believes to be valid (p. 295). The arguments against imposing 'foreign' values on China are dismantled with great precision and insightful thoroughness, covering issues raised over the last thirty years in sinological circles. Although one laments the failure of Nathan to explicitly respond to the tainting of values by ideologically-laden choices—an issue of which he, as a political scientist, is certainly aware—perceptive readers should be able to extrapolate the arguments presented to include this dimension. Both Hoston and Nathan suggest a logical and/or spiritual dimension which is not explicitly located in Schwartz's thought (except in passing by the editors, p. 3).\n\nThe relation of Schwartz's Jewish faith to his Chinese interests as a historian and political scientist is worthy of reflection because this is a somewhat unusual junction of ideas in itself and because it may provide a key to at least one aspect of Schwartz's restlessness with any unquestioned scholarly assumption. Schwartz's critical awareness of the connections between Mao and Confucianism may find some parallel in his confrontative effort in locating a connection between Hannah Arendt's Marxism and her Jewishness (see Dissent 17:2 (March/April 1970), pp. 144-161). Ideological commitments may overshadow traditional inheritances, but they cannot by that means necessarily avoid all influences and misjudgements. Schwartz's sensitivity to the distortion of Judaism evident in Arendt's 'religion of politics' may well reflect a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212752, "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-1992", "page_number": 61, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "46\n\nHis essays on his soldiering days consist of strings of facts and incidents, strong on action but showing little attempt at analysis or motives. He often managed to mingle action scenes with romanticised ones. According to his writings he, at 26, displayed strategic and tactical wisdom which his seniors, experienced Chinese generals greeted with acclaim, or so Mesny would have us believe.\n\nHe lived in exciting times and enjoyed experiences worthy of being recorded for posterity. A case in point is his description of the incidents when twice in a twelve month period he had to call on British gun boats to deliver him from the hands of Chinese captors. The first was the deliverance from the 'Imps' [the Chinese Imperial forces] at the forts below Nanking and the second from the Taiping rebels at Nanking itself. His description of his experiences living with the Taiping rebels, of life in a treaty port and his explanations of, for example, the process of the literary and military degree examinations in China and the organisation of the Tsung-li Yamen [The Chinese Bureau of Foreign Affairs] are fascinating even if some of the material has been copied from other works, and some of the autobiographical episodes seem at times to be exaggerated or 'edited'. An article in The Pilot [July 1946] claimed that Mesny had served under General Gordon during the Taiping rebellion as a lieutenant and, when Gordon returned to England in 1865, Mesny remained on in the Chinese army. This would seem to have been misunderstood folk memory as it is certain that, if such had been the case, Mesny would have described it during his autobiographical essays in the Miscellanies. His love life with Chinese ladies also at times reads like a Mills and Boon novel, but however much we may smile at his amorous memoirs, the military side of his autobiographical essays ring true throughout.\n\nMesny wrote about himself as if he needed the constant repetition to reassure him of his place in society and perhaps history, and was frustrated by the lack of influence he considered his due. In March 1905 Mesny wrote that scarcely a day passed but that he was asked to adjudge of important matters between Chinese and Chinese. He added that he did not always comply though his Chinese rank was sufficient as an excuse to act as a judge. He certainly saw himself as a bridge between Chinese and foreigners, and appeared to have many nodding acquaintances in both societies.\n\nA number of foreign authors describing China as they saw it around the turn of the last century each in turn complimented other writers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214747, "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": 162, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "126\n\nindicated in Table 1, the Japanese outnumbered the Hong Kong garrison by 3.09 (X). However, they could only inflict a casualty rate of 2.11 (Y). The Singapore garrison, by comparison, fared better than its counterpart in Crete.\n\nSome Speculative Thoughts Regarding the Merits of the Defence\n\nConstrained by the statistics available to the author, the above analysis is crude indeed. However, it raises the point that the Hong Kong garrison, however unprepared and poorly equipped, had fought quite well. There are indeed sources that suggest a much higher casualty rate for the Japanese. Why was this the case?\n\nAny answer to this question surely requires a much more rigorous study. A number of speculative points and observations worthy of attention are raised below. Firstly, the geography of Hong Kong rendered defence more effective than that of Singapore. It is a cliché that the Japanese forces were well trained and prepared. Yet, they did suffer great losses. Most such losses were incurred when they made attempts to cross the harbour and in fighting for control of the hills and gaps on Hong Kong Island. In both the Battle of Singapore and the Battle of Hong Kong, the Japanese forces aimed at capturing reservoirs as their tactical targets, as they had anticipated long resistance and the loss of water supply would erode the morale of the defending forces and their ability to continue fighting. Unlike the Island of Singapore, Hong Kong Island is much larger in size, and is highly rugged in relief with several reservoirs in different parts of the upland areas.\n\nSecondly, the size of the garrison was also a factor. Comparing again Hong Kong and Singapore, a smaller garrison operating in a more defensible topography proved to be more battle worthy than a large number of troops congested in a much smaller flat island devoid of air cover and was running out of fresh water.\n\nThirdly, notwithstanding criticism of the design weakness of the Gin Drinkers Line, the Hong Kong garrison fought in an orderly manner according to a pre-conceived plan with defence structures well in place. As soon as the under-powered Shing Mun Redoubt was lost, the garrison evacuated the New Territories and Kowloon to prepare for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215625, "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": 402, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "353\n\nA CONTENTIOUS CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY IN CENTRAL CHINA, 1887\n\nKEITH STEVENS\n\nChristian missionaries, especially Victorian, came in for much criticism and derision, as well as great praise for, amongst other things, their devotion to the Chinese man-in-the-street. During the years of bigoted and the blood and thunder Christianity of the Victorian era it was not uncommon for them to be mocked and lampooned by the expatriate business community, sometimes not without reason.\n\nWilliam Spencer Percival relates a hard-to-believe story in the late 1880s during one of his boating and shooting excursions to the Gorges of the Upper Yangzi. The description of Chinese reaction to such an aggressive missionary is probably reasonably accurate and possibly even moderate for the day; and from today's point of view not without some justification.\n\nHis story is related here in full, without comment. While up the river I met a gentleman who was a missionary. He was an Englishman; but belonged to an American-Scotch mission. This may appear to the uninitiated a little mixed, but it is substantially correct.\n\nAmong the various means adopted by the missionary body for Christianising the heathen, this gentleman chose the most curious and original method I ever heard of. Before he was appointed to the ------ mission he was stationed at one of the fortified towns some miles lower down the river. Here he resided in one of the strongholds of Buddha himself, among a people who were entirely ignorant of the first principles of Christianity. I cannot say he hit upon a very wise plan in his style of religious instruction.\n\nThis place, as I have said, was a fortified town, and a very stringent rule of the city - which was occupied by a detachment of troops - was, that the gates should, every night, be closed at ten o'clock. Our worthy Free-Lance of the Cross was very fond of rambling round the country in the cool of the evening, and on many occasions returned long after the gates had been closed. When he found that no entrance was to be", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215804, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "36\n\nafter Britain lost Hong Kong, the closest Allied power to the territory was its original owner China. Then there was Hong Kong's status as a port. Any mainland port that touched the Pacific attracted the attention of the USN, because it was in its interest that China continued to keep the bulk of the Japanese Army occupied on the continent while the U.S. seized Japan's possessions in the Pacific. Hence, Allied commanders like Admiral Ernest King, the USN's highest-ranking officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), thought that the U.S. had a major responsibility to help keep China in the war,\n\nIn 1943, China was tying down 20 per cent of the Japanese Army. No major fighting had occurred there for a while, but the Allies knew that this relative calm might not last. The fear that Japan would resume her efforts to knock China out of the war was real, and Allied planners wanted to prevent this by keeping the Chinese Army (of the Nationalist government) battle-worthy. To do this, they had to establish and maintain secure lines of communication (LoC) into China. As Japan had already occupied China's ports and the lone road into China from Burma (the Burma Road), the sole means of supplying China was through a risky, costly, and feeble air route over the Himalayas (the Hump).\n\nThe best method of supplying China was to recapture a port on the China Coast and establishing LoC to the interior of China. Initially, the Chinese Army was allotted the bulk of this task - if it could be strengthened by deliveries over the Hump and (if the Allies could retake it) the Burma Road. But by 1943, supplies over the Hump remained minuscule, the Burma Road was not reopened, and the Chinese (Nationalists, Communists, and third-party elements) preferred to fight among themselves rather than against the Japanese. With the Allied drives in the Pacific gathering momentum, the main responsibility for a campaign to recapture a port on the China Coast eventually fell to the U.S.\n\nHong Kong and Shanghai have long been the two best ports on the China Coast, with each possessing excellent harbour facilities. But Hong Kong rated ahead of Shanghai as the initial port to be opened up in China because of the strong Japanese presence around Shanghai. In the Hong Kong-Canton area during 1943, the Japanese still occupied only a beachhead. As long as Hong Kong remained a beachhead, and the Chinese forces ringing it maintained a measure of resolve, Japanese", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216511, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2003", "page_number": 270, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "222\n\nand (from Needham) a “Summary on the Transmission of Mechanical and other techniques from China to the West'. There is an index, and an extensive bibliography. Tucker acknowledges the assistance of experts in many cities along the Silk Road, and also his wife, Antonia Tozer, who accompanied him on several of the journeys that he undertook while writing the book and whose photographs comprise the majority of those included. Other sources of photographs include the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, Tucker's alma mater.\n\nNo book is perfect, and although my background does not qualify me to comment on the content and arguments of this one, I have one major reservation about the way Tucker argues his thesis, and several reservations about the book's presentation.\n\nMy first point relates to Tucker's failure to compare the relative significance of the overland Silk Road with that of the maritime Silk Road. An excellent, though very different and far briefer, companion to Tucker's book is a volume produced in 1996 by the Hong Kong Museum of History, edited by Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong) member Dr. Joseph Ting.2 Contributors to this edited volume make it clear that the cultural exchange between China and countries to the west was just as significant by sea as by land. Admittedly, Tucker notes a contemporary account in around 800 that describes Chinese junks in Baghdad, and several maps indicate the maritime routes, but his single-minded focus on the overland route detracts from a more balanced picture of the relative significance of the two routes. In fact, Patricia Ebrey comments that the trade along the sea routes in the Tang Dynasty was higher in volume than that by land. Tucker's concluding chapter implies that it was European voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century that led to the development of the sea routes between China and the west. His emphasis on Chang'an, which is appropriate as it was a major destination for travellers along the overland Silk Road, might lead readers to overlook the significance of Guangzhou, a city which dominated the maritime Silk Road for centuries, and in which the cultural mix in the Tang dynasty was as great as in Chang'an.\n\nThis leads me to wonder whether the extant art and history of the Chinese influence in the ports used by Chinese vessels on route for India, the Middle East and East Africa have been investigated, and whether this would be a worthy subject for a book. I note a tantalising\n\nPage 270\n\nPage 271", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]