[
    {
        "id": 205640,
        "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": 182,
        "title": "RAS-1968",
        "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n177\n\ndocumented account of the cut-and-thrust rivalry of the two Hong Kong firms. With the publication of Dr. Le Fevour's thesis* and the recent acceptance of the principle of scholarly access to the records of Jardine Matheson at Cambridge University, we may expect further dissection of this remarkable commercial network. However, one may reasonably doubt whether the account of the working of this system of finance and trade with Shanghai and Hong Kong as the nuclei and the Treaty Ports as the other vital constituents, will be written for a long time. Until it is, the economic history of Hong Kong cannot be studied.\n\nButterfield and Swire's history, of course, does illustrate some of the principal developments which brought this system to its peak: the hemispheric swing of the firm's trading interests from America to the East (including Australia, about which this study could have been more informative -- apparently no reference was made to the history of the White Star Line published in 1964); the ultimate giving-up of trading activities to concentrate on agency services. The career of John Samuel Swire, too, in its insistence on business honour and rectitude, virtues of the Liverpool business man of the last century, which may strike the present day historian as unctuous, also illustrates crucial changes in business attitudes when we compare the original Taipans with their successors. The Senior was, I venture to think, not untypical in his scruples.\n\nIt is precisely because this is an illuminating study of the character of the business man in relation to his partners, clients and rivals which makes it an important contribution to the study of business history.\n\nUniversity of Hong Kong.\n\nALAN BIRCH\n\n* Western Enterprise in China, 1842-95, to be published shortly as a Harvard Research Monograph.\n\nBOOKS RECEIVED\n\nThe Council acknowledges with thanks books received from various publishers during the year, and in particular from the Hong Kong University Press and Oxford in Asia. A list for 1967-1968 will appear in the next issue of the Journal.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 209598,
        "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": 255,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "233\n\ndescribed as a \"fairy play\". It was an ambitious effort with 100 performers, 50 children, 50 trained birds and a special corps de ballet of 25 and an orchestra of 25. It was a great success. In keeping with the title the theatre was decorated in blue. As the performance was in aid of the Prince of Wales Fund, massive oil paintings of the King and Queen and Prince of Wales painted by Yee Cheong of Wyndham Street,* were prominently displayed.\n\nA similar production, not quite so lavish, was put on the next year. It was a fairy ballet entitled \"Snow White and the Frog Prince\". It was in aid of the Belgium Relief Fund.\n\nAnother very elaborate production was \"Kismet”, an oriental extravaganza, in 1916. It was in aid of the Star and Garter Fund. All the productions during the war period were in aid of some war related fund. Original music for \"Kismet\" was written by Mr. Norman Peterkin of the Robinson Piano Company.\n\n\"Pinkie and the Fairies\", yet another extravaganza, was staged in 1919. It had over sixty performers. The late Sophie Weill Odell appeared as one of the fairies a proper introduction to a long association with the stage through her impresario husband Harry Odell. The programme for \"Pinkie and the Fairies\" listed all the productions of the A.D.C. since 1870.\n\nNot all Sinclair's plays were along the exotic line. In 1916, there was \"The Angel in the House\" the success of this play depended on subtle satiric portrayal of character. It put a great demand on an amateur group. Even more demanding was the 1925 production of Shaw's \"St. Joan\". It was hailed as the greatest triumph of the A.D.C.'s existence. \"A great play, magnificently acted\" \"Memory fades and achievements diminish; time weaves a dusty web over the past and the glamour of a praise-worthy act wears off. History never dies, nor will this epoch-making performance of the A.D.C. be forgotten when the social history of Hong Kong is compiled\".\n\nSinclair also appreciated the sophisticated humour of Noel Coward. \"I'll Leave It to You\" was staged by him in 1922, It had been Coward's first play produced in London, some two years previous to its Hong Kong appearance.\n\n* Hong Kong Daily Press, 1 Apr. 1884, Advertisement: Yee Cheong, portrait painter, studio corner of Wyndham and Wellington Streets.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p",
        "rank": 0
    }
]